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Raspberry basics: Project 31a

Project name: Raspberry PI 3 model B board - How to install Android 8.1 on your Raspberry Pi?

Tags: Raspberry, Raspberry PI 3 model B board, How to install Android on your Raspberry Pi, Android and Raspberry Pi, Google Play Store, Android 8.1, LineageOS 15.1

Attachments: None

In this project, you needed these parts (Dear visitors. You can support our project buy clicking on the links of parts and buying them or donate us to keep this website alive. Thank you):

1.Raspberry PI 3 model B or B+ 1 pc

2. Micro SD card with NOOBS and SD card adapter 1 pc

3. Micro USB power supply (2.1 A, max 2.5 A) 1 pc

4. USB keyboard 1 pc

5. USB mouse 1 pc

6. TV or PC monitor 1 pc

7. HDMI cable 1 pc

General

We will learn how to install Android 8.1 on Raspberry Pi.

Android in its early days ran great on low spec phones and tablets. Raspberry Pi 3 devices today are much more powerful than these Android devices. So, you may be thinking of trying out Android on your Raspberry Pi 3 devices. 

We can install Android 8.1 on Raspberry Pi 3 with assistance of LineageOS 15.1 in this project.

What is the Lineage OS?

A free and open-source operating system for various devices, based on the Android mobile platform.

How I can use Android?

• Smart TV. You can use Android on your TV to watch movies with streaming providers or even local files.
• Cheap tablet. You can add a screen on your Raspberry Pi and make a custom tablet for a low budget. We would recommend you to take a Personal license for Emteria, to avoid reboots and pop-ups.
• Frame. You can use it to display photos, presentations or anything else continuously. We suggest a touch-sensitive display for that.

Android Apps on Google Play Store

• Movie streaming providers. You can use the search or goto Home -> Categories -> Entertainment and you’ll see  all movie providers are available in the Play Store. You can install YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Video, Twitch or any other big media services from here.
• Movie players. If you want to watch your own movies files - use VLC.
• Music streaming providers. In the music & audio category you’ll find Spotify or Amazon Music.
• Music players. You can also use an app like AIMP to enjoy local music files.
• Photo frame. For a photo slideshow you can use Pixgram or Dayframe. You can also use Microsoft Powerpoint to display a text, graphs and photos for professional slideshows.
• General apps. You can also install general apps as they are not available by default - Google Chrome, Google Maps and so on.

How to transfer files to the Android device?

There are two methods to do this:

1. You can format an empty USB stick in FAT32, put files on it and use it on your Android device. Either directly from the USB storage (you’ll have a message in the notification panel) or by copying files to the SD card (you have a copy/paste option in the file explorer).
2. You can put files on a website and download them later or use apps like Dropbox to share files on your Raspberry Pi.

Understanding the Raspberry PI 3 model B

The Raspberry Pi 3 is the third-generation Raspberry Pi. It replaced the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B in February 2016.

Specification:

• Quad Core 1.2GHz Broadcom BCM2837 64bit CPU
• 1GB RAM
• BCM43438 wireless LAN and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) on board
• 40-pin extended GPIO
• 4 USB 2 ports
• 4 Pole stereo output and composite video port
• Full size HDMI
• CSI camera port for connecting a Raspberry Pi camera
• DSI display port for connecting a Raspberry Pi touchscreen display
• Micro SD port for loading your operating system and storing data
• Upgraded switched Micro USB power source up to 2.5A

Signals and connections of the Raspberry PI 3 model B

Step by Step instruction

Attention: Please use a card of at least speed class 10 or higher (UHS), since the read/write speed of the sdcard will heavily influence the system speed. Best results are achieved by using cards of type A1. 

We assume that you have Windows 7 installed on your PC and empty micro SD card with SD card adapter.

1. Downloading the LineageOS 15.1 (Android 8.1.0)

1. Insert Micro SD card to SD card adapter.
2. Insert SD card adapter to your SD card reader in your PC or connect external SD card reader to PC/laptop USB port.
3. Go to konstakang.com website and download the LineageOS 15.1 (Android 8.1.0).
4. Click on the links marked below:
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. The file lineage-15.1-20180706-UNOFFICIAL-KonstaKANG-rpi3.zip will be downloaded and saved in Downloads folder.
9. You will need to unzip (you can use the free program 7Zip) file lineage-15.1-20180706-UNOFFICIAL-KonstaKANG-rpi3.img to Download folder.
10. 

2. Installing the LineageOS 15.1 (Android 8.1.0)

1. Go to etcher.io website and install the Etcher on your PC. Choose the file for your OS.
2. 
3. When the installation is completed, open Etcher and click on Select image. Choose the image you’ve previously downloaded - lineage-15.1-20180706-UNOFFICIAL-KonstaKANG-rpi3.img in Download folder. Select the SD card and click on Flash! button. Please note that SD card must be formatted (FAT32 format) before doing this step. Wait a few minutes while Etcher flashes the image on the micro SD card.
4. 
5. 

3. Booting the first time

1. Make sure that Raspberry PI 3 switched off.
2. Take the Micro SD card out and insert the Micro SD card with Lineage OS image to your Raspberry Pi 3 board.
3. Connect Raspberry PI 3 board HDMI port and to your TV or Monitor HDMI port with HDMI cable.
4. Connect an Ethernet cable to LAN' port of Raspberry Pi 3 board.
5. Make sure that your monitor or TV is turned on, and that you have selected the right input (e.g. HDMI 1,  etc).
6. Plug in your USB mouse and USB keyboard to Raspberry PI 3 USB ports.
7. Connect Micro USB power supply to Raspberry PI 3 board micro USB input.
8. Lineage OS should boot and you should see the following loading window.
9. 
10. After a while you should see the following window. As you’re running Lineage OS for the first time, you have to configure it. Click on NEXT.
11. 
12. Select your language and click on NEXT.
13. 
14. Select your time zone, date and time and click on NEXT.
15. 
16. Set the wireless connection if you don’t have ethernet available - turn the WiFi On and choose your network in the list, enter the password. Click on NEXT.
17. 
    
18. 
19. Select how you want the Location service of Android to work and click on NEXT.
20. 
21. Select the Lineage OS related features that you want to enable and click on NEXT.
22. 
23. You can set up a PIN to protect your phone from other people. To do that, click on SET UP as marked in the screenshot below. If you don’t want to set up a PIN now, just click on SKIP.
24. 
25. Click on START.
26. 
27. The home screen of Lineage OS should start.
28. 
29. 

4. Installing Android apps

1. Go to Google.com. Find required Android apps and download their APK files to your PC/laptop. You can use this website.
2. Take an empty USB stick and insert it to your PC/laptop USB port, then format it (FAT32). 
3. Make the folder on USB stick and move all APK files to this folder.
4. Insert USB stick with APK files to your Raspberry Pi 3 B USB port.
5. Click on the top of the Lineage OS screen.
6. 
   
7. Double click on USB drive. You will see the list of files and folders on USB stick.
8. Go to your folder (we had Android) and select the APK file which you want to install.
9. 
   
10. Double click on this file (we used the crystal tv android app). Click on Continue.
11. 
    
12. Click on Install.
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14. 
    
15. Click on Done when installation completed. You see your Android app on the list now. You can use it now. Just click on it. For example, we have started the Lajm HD TV now.
16. 
17. 
18. 

Summary

We have learnt how to install Android 8.1 on Raspberry Pi.

The Android 8.1 on Raspberry Pi is a great way to get everything you want on it, as most of the top web services are available in the Google Play Store (Netflix, YouTube, Microsoft Office and much more).

We have showed you how to install Lineage OS 15.1 in this article. The procedures for Lineage OS 14.1 is similar. We suggest to use Lineage OS 14.1 as it performs better on Raspberry Pi 3 than Lineage OS 15.1. 

Libraries in use

• None

Script

• None