The first release candidate is now available for download

Jun 19, 2018 20:25 GMT  ·  By

The Android-x86 project announced on Monday the release and general availability of the first release candidate of the upcoming Android-x86 8.1 update based on Android 8.1 Oreo.

While commercial projects like AndEX, which are derived from the Android-x86 project, already allowed users to install Google's latest Android 8.1 Oreo mobile operating system on their personal computers for a little as US $9, Android-x86 just received its first public release candidate build based on Android 8.1 Oreo.

Featuring support for both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures, this first release candidate of Android-x86 8.1 ships with the latest Mesa 18.1.2 graphics stack to enable support for OpenGL ES 3.x hardware-acceleration on Intel, AMD Radeon, and Nvidia GPUs, as well as VMWare and QEMU virtual machines.

Introduces software rendering for unsupported GPUs, hardware-accelerated codecs

Another exciting feature of the upcoming Android-x86 8.1 release is that it can be installed and used on unsupported GPUs thanks to the implementation of software rendering through OpenGL ES 2.0 via SwiftShader. Furthermore, it promises support for hardware-accelerated codecs for the Intel HD and Intel G45 graphics cards family.

Other than that, Android-x86 8.1 will introduce Secure Boot support on UEFI machines, along with support for installing the operating system on UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions. A text-based installer will be available as well, and there's also the ability to automatically mount external USB flash drives and SD cards.

Last but not least, Android-x86 8.1 will offer full support for multi-touch, audio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sensors, camera and Ethernet (DHCP only) devices, theming support for the GRUB-EFI bootloader, support for ARM apps via the native bridge mechanism, and support for running portrait apps on a landscape device without rotating the screen.

An alternative launcher called Taskbar has been implemented as well in Android-x86 8.1, which places a start menu and the recent apps tray on top of your screen. The Taskbar supports freeform window mode. Android-x86 8.1 also enables ForceDefaultOrientation function on devices that have unknown sensors. You can download Android-x86 8.1 RC1 right now through our web portal.