[GUIDE] Triple Boot Linux Windows and Remix OS (with full root) - Remix OS for PC

Last year I wrote a guide on how to triple boot Ubuntu Windows and Android-x86, which since then remains my daily set-up. Now that Android-x86 is partnering with Remix OS I thought I'd give it a try (even if it was closed-sourced).
There are other tutorials on installing Remix OS, but the reason I'm writing this one, is because the others are not detailed and depend on scripts. Lots of things can go wrong with scripts if they're not updated, so this is purely manual and detailed, which offers a very simple successful rooting method.
I have a 12" touch notebook Asus X200 with 4GB of RAM and 500GB of disk space.
Currently triple booting Arch Linux, Windows 10, and Remix OS 2.0.102.
Quick summary:
Create an ext3/ext4 partition for Remix OS.
Download the iso and extract its content to that partition.
Root Remix OS easily
Configure grub to detect Remix OS.
Pre-Requirements:
A Linux distribution already installed.
Grub already installed.
First of all, boot your PC into your Linux distro.
A. Creating a partition for you Android
We need to prepare a 10GB ext3/ext4 partition for Android. You can do so by resizing an existing partition, using gparted.
Now depending on which partition you want to resize (Ubuntu or Windows), you can use gparted from a Live Ubuntu CD, or directly from Ubuntu. I highly recommend resizing an NTFS partition (Windows).
Here is a tutorial on how to use it.
Install gparted (in case you don't have it)
Code:
sudo apt-get install gparted
Once installed run gparted (requires root permission).
Select the partition you want to resize
Right-click and select Resize/Move.
Shrink it so you can get a new partition of 10GB
An unallocated partition will be created.
Right-click on it and select New.
Select ext3, label it Android and press Add.
Notice that I labeled the partition "Android", for easier identification.
Make sure that you took the right steps before you apply the changes.
Here is how my Android Partition looks like (sda8)
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Write down the path for your android partition, in my case /dev/sda8 (You will need it later)
To test it. Go to nautilus (file explorer), and mount the partition and see if you can access it.
B. Downloading and extracting the ISO
If you don't need full root (read/write) you can skip this section, all you need to do is to copy the 4 files extracted from the andorid-x86 iso (initrd.img ramdisk.img kernel system.sfs) to your android partition. Create an empty folder called data in your android partition too. And then jump to section C.
The difference here in this section is that we extract the contents of system.sfs and then copy them to the android partition with the other 3 files (initrd.img ramdisk.img kernel), and create an empty data folder. This way, we will have full root access.
(system.sfs is a squashfs which is a compressed read-only file system, which explains why we can't have full root)
Head down to the folks at Jide and download the latest version.
In my case it's Remix OS Beta 2.0.102 64 bit.
Hit the terminal.
You can use the following bash commands to easily extract and copy the files.
Extract the contents of the iso
Code:
7z x Remix_OS_for_PC_64_B2016030106.zip -oremix && \
cd remix
Extract the contents of the system.img
Code:
mkdir temp && \
mount -o loop system.img temp
Now let's copy initrd.img ramdisk.img kernel files to the Android partition. Create 2 folders on the Android partition called data and system, extract system.sfs (and eventually system.img) and copy its contents to the system folder we just created.
Code:
cp initrd.img ramdisk.img kernel [COLOR="Lime"]/path/to/the/android/partition[/COLOR] &&\
mkdir [COLOR="Lime"]/path/to/the/android/partition[/COLOR]/system && \
mkdir [COLOR="Lime"]/path/to/the/android/partition[/COLOR]/data && \
cp -avr temp/* [COLOR="Lime"]/path/to/the/android/partition[/COLOR]/system &&\
umount temp &&\
cd .. && \
rm -rf remix &&\
exit
You should have something like that
C. Rooting
Now it's extremely easy to root it using the latest stable SuperSU, as you only need to place the su binary in your android system.
Download the latest SuperSU
Extract it
Open a terminal and depending on your architecture (I'll assume you got the 64 bit version) copy the file su to /system/bin inside your android partition and change the file permission to 6755
Code:
sudo cp x64/su [COLOR="Lime"] /path/to/the/android/partition[/COLOR]/system/bin
sudo chmod 6755 [COLOR="Lime"] /path/to/the/android/partition[/COLOR]/system/bin/su
Copy the application Superuser.apk to your system apps under SuperSU folder, and change its permission to 644.
Code:
sudo mkdir [COLOR="Lime"]/path/to/the/android/partition[/COLOR]/system/app/SuperSU
sudo cp common/Superuser.apk [COLOR="Lime"] /path/to/the/android/partition[/COLOR]/system/SuperSu/SuperSU.apk
sudo chmod 644 [COLOR="Lime"]/path/to/the/android/partition[/COLOR]/system/SuperSU/SuperSU.apk
And that's it. You're done. You have root.
D. Configuring Grub
Now after copying all the necessary files to the Andorid partition, all we need to do is modify grub to boot from that partition.
Code:
sudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom
menuentry "Remix OS" {
set root='(hd0,8)'
linux /kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.hardware=remix_x86_64 acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode SRC=/
initrd /initrd.img}
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can actually experiment with the boot parameters to see what fits your machine more, all you have to do is when you restart and have the Grub boot menu select Remix OS and press 'e' so that you can modify the kernel boot parameter. Usually for debugging you can add DEBUG=1 for example.
You should change (hd0,8) entry based on your android partition location, the one that we wrote before.
(hdX,Y) for /dev/sdXY with a corresponding to 0, b to 1, c to 2 etc ..
In my case, my android partition is /dev/sda8 correspond to (hd0,8)
a -> X=0
8 -> Y=8
So '(hd0,8)'
Update Grub configuration by:
Code:
sudo update-grub
E. Finally
Reboot your laptop, and select Remix OS from Grub menu (it should be the last entry).
... And enjoy Android!
(Don't forget to update the SuperSU root binaries)

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Remix os stuck at logo
I have an acer aspire laptop in which i used to dual boot ubuntu and windows 10. When I tried to triple boot it with remix os, it just didn't work. I configured the grub and all tried almost every grub entry i could find suitable for remixos.Whatever I do , It gets always stuck at the android logo ( boot animation ). But when i dual boot remix os and windows ( grub installed from remix os image (grub ver 1.1) it works flawlessly. Can you help me out with configuring grub2. ?, or can i add ubuntu to grub1.1. ???

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Abdusamadm said:
I have an acer aspire laptop in which i used to dual boot ubuntu and windows 10. When I tried to triple boot it with remix os, it just didn't work. I configured the grub and all tried almost every grub entry i could find suitable for remixos.Whatever I do , It gets always stuck at the android logo ( boot animation ). But when i dual boot remix os and windows ( grub installed from remix os image (grub ver 1.1) it works flawlessly. Can you help me out with configuring grub2. ?, or can i add ubuntu to grub1.1. ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you still have the problem, try to post your HDD partition log, your kernel parameters and I'll take a look.
One thing also to note, if you're using the x86 version, you should specify that in your kernel parameters:
Code:
androidboot.hardware=remix_x86

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hi, sorry for my question and my english, im not advanced user, i created etx3 100go primary partition named Android, but when i try to creat new folder or follow the instruction i have message say i dont have permission to do that, how i can continue the installation of remix os please?
i have SonyVaio SVS13A17GBB and Windows 10 and ubuntu 16 updated LTS installed.
Thank you a lot for this guide and i hope you can help me to install the 3rd os and able to use it.

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I've followed all the instructions as described here but my Remix OS will not boot. At startup I get a message saying /dev/ram0 not found. Any ideas?

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pixbuf said:
I've followed all the instructions as described here but my Remix OS will not boot. At startup I get a message saying /dev/ram0 not found. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a 1 Year old thread.
if you are using ubuntu (16.10 works) search for linux install thread which has a deb.

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I'm having an issue with this as I already installed remix using the exe tool on my main OS(windows). I used to get the windows grub which offered windows and remixOS(both on same partition somehow). Since installing Ubuntu 16.04, I now get the grub for Ubuntu which only offers Windows boot manager(straight to windows 10) or Ubuntu. How can I add remix OS to the Ubuntu grub if it is actually located on the main Windows partition in UEFI-GPT format? I'm hoping for something along the lines of "set root='(hd0,1)\C:\RemixOS\*'"

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stingwraith said:
I'm having an issue with this as I already installed remix using the exe tool on my main OS(windows). I used to get the windows grub which offered windows and remixOS(both on same partition somehow). Since installing Ubuntu 16.04, I now get the grub for Ubuntu which only offers Windows boot manager(straight to windows 10) or Ubuntu. How can I add remix OS to the Ubuntu grub if it is actually located on the main Windows partition in UEFI-GPT format? I'm hoping for something along the lines of "set root='(hd0,1)\C:\RemixOS\*'"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try first seeing if grub would detect remixOS installation.
Boot into Ubuntu, install os-prober and then update grub.
Code:
sudo apt-get install os-prober
sudo update-grub
If this doesn't work, basically you screwed up the hierarchy in your /boot/efi partition. It would be complicated (but harder to fix it). Let me know first how it would go.