Android on X86 USB pendrive in persistent mode, here’s how

In this guide we will see how to install Android X86 on a normal USB pendrive in persistent mode through Linux or Microsoft Windows.

Android X86
X86 is an Android version of the popular mobile operating system from Google that you can install on your pc or use to live like a normal Linux distribution. The development of the project has led to significant improvements concerning not only the media but also in the hardware optimizations in the user experience of Android in normal pc.
E ‘possible to use Android X86 as a normal distribution “live”, but will be removed once rebooted all our settings, installed applications etc.. Fortunately, you can use Android X86 on a normal USB pendrive in persistent mode, restart will meet all our settings, applications, accounts, etc. as if it were installed on a standard personal computer, here’s how.

In order to use Android on X86 USB pendrive in persistent mode we will have to first download the ISO image of the mobile operating system from Google this page.
Once you have downloaded the ISO of Android X86 salviamola in pendrive using UNetbootin cross-platform software available for both Linux and Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac.

For Ubuntu and UNetbootin can install directly from the official repositories just type in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install unetbootin 
 

Once installed / downloaded UNetbootin just start from the “disk image“ choose the ISO to Android X86, we denote the pendrive on which to save it and click on OK.
 
 

Once you’ve created the USB stick with Android X86 we have to create a file in ext2 data.img in which to save the data of the operating system such as settings, applications, etc. in such a way as to create the persistent mode.

For Linux is very simple, just use the dd and mkfs commands by typing in a terminal:

dd if=/dev/zero of=data.img bs=1M count=1 seek=1024 
 

in this case we will create a file img 1GB (1024MB) for example, if we want to 2GB just enter seek = 2048 instead of seek = 1024 etc..

Now we have to “format“ the image file data.img in ext2 by typing:

mkfs.ext2 -j data.img
 

 
There will be asked to confirm formatting, once we have validated our data.img ready to be saved in the pendrive.

Just then move / copy the file data.img in pendrive and here’s our persistent mode in Android X86.

For users who are using Microsoft Windows, you can create a file in ext2 data.img thanks to TopoResize tool that can be downloaded from this page.
TopoResize allows us to create a data.img file size you prefer to format in ext2, once created just copy it in pendrive and here is the persistent mode.

The boot Android X86 will remain the same (indicating the start of the live mode), but we will not have to reboot but no wizard already started our session.