Install POSROG V3U8 (PhoenixOS) alongside Solus

Systemd Solus Configuration

· 3 min read

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Republic of Gamers - The Choice of Champions

POSROG, or PhoenixOS for the Republic of Gamers, is an Android operating system with x86 architecture that has been modified from AOSP. It is a lightweight emulator that focuses on device support, performance, and boosting for gaming applications.

On my low-end AMD e2-9000, I’ve chosen to dualboot POSROG and Solus. This is a relatively simple procedure, however, it is distinct because Solus employs the systemd bootloader, whereas posrog installations uses grub.

Here, I reflect on the steps taken to complete this setup.

Creating The POSROG Partition

  • Boot into Solus and create an EXT4 partition using Gparted.

    Label: ANDROID.
    Size: 40GB.

Nb: Copy the UUID of the partition and save it. (To be used later).

  • Mount ANDROID and create directory structure: /posrog/data/

  • Download Official POSROG V3U8 (choose Kernel and architecture chosen to match host machine). Extract the downloaded file.

  • Locate the ISO and extract it.

  • Copy the following files into posrog directory of ANDROID partition.

    • posrog,
    • ramdisk.img,
    • system.img,

Nb: Leave data directory empty. It will be used to create the android data files by POSROG during installation.

Adding Systemd Bootloader Entry for POSROG

And now comes the fun part…

Since Solus unmounts the boot partition after booting, it will have to be mounted to edit the systemd configuration files.

Launch a new terminal window and perform the following sequence of operations:

  • Mount the EFI System partition which contains the bootloader to /boot.

    sudo mount /dev/sdX# /boot

    Where sdX# is the EFI System Partition (ESP).

  • Change directory to /boot/EFI/ and create subdirectory posrog. Copy initrd.img and the kernel files from the iso to this folder.

  1. Change directory to /boot/entries/ and add a new file posrog.current.conf to create configuration file for posrog.

  2. Open the file in nano as su and add the following lines:

title POSROG V3U8 - Android x86
linux /EFI/posrog/kernelxx
initrd/EFI/posrog/initrd.img
options root=PARTUUID=THE_UUID_WE_COPIED_BEFORE rw quiet androidboot.selinux=permissive buildvariant=userdebug acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode SRC=posrog/
search set=root file /posrog/system.img

Nb: kernelxx is the kernel file to load. POSROG comes with multiple kernels. Try all to see which gives best performance.

  • Save and exit nano. Navigate back to root directory.
  • Unmount the ESP using 
    sudo umount -R /boot

Displaying the Solus boot menu by default on boot

The following command will set the timeout of the boot loader so that it appears by default.

sudo clr-boot-manager set-timeout 5 && sudo clr-boot-manager update

Installing POSROG

Alas… showtime.

Restart pc and select POSROG option from systemd menu. Wait for it to boot and follow the prompt to configure POSROG. When android boots, select Install. (Complete installation without WiFi).