IMO Android is an e-waste generating operating system. When the device vendor gets bored or decides it no longer wants to support/sell the Android device in your possession you are in possession of a brick. Once updates stop from the OEM you are in a software bit rot, where vulnerabilities become real threats. You are also unable to run more recent software. I have a tablet that runs Android 4.x that I don't use because it is certainly vulnerable to the Krack(?) exploit. I have cell phones that work fine, but I can't continue to use them because the vendor doesn't update the OS.
You might try looking at LineageOS, which is the follow on to CyanogenMod. You are unlikely to find support for your unit there. You might try Android AOSP. Trouble is, AOSP is vanilla Android w/o Google apps. It also won't have all the device support for your device. So you'll have to roll up your sleeves and reverse engineer your set-top box. You are, IMO, in possession of e-waste. This is why I'm hoping Pine Phone and Pine Tab succeed, and do better. On Thu, Jul 8, 2021 at 11:45 AM Russell Senior <russ...@personaltelco.net> wrote: > Android tends to be custom built for the device. There are many, many > ARM-based devices and SoCs that are wired differently inside. > > You might look to see if there is postmarketos support for your > device, where many of the details might already have been worked out > and resolved. > > On Thu, Jul 8, 2021 at 10:33 AM VY <vyau5...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Hello all: > > > > Hopefully "Android" question is allowed for this list. > > I apologize if this is off-topic. > > > > I have an ARM based set-top box that was running an older version of > > Android when I purchased it from an OEM. I like to "flash" it with a > > slightly newer Android version. > > It is in otherwise very good shape. Want to know if that's possible? > > I cannot even seem to find out how to download Android as an OS image? > > The box has USB ports. I am hoping I can do a USB boot on it. > > > > Separately, Is there Linux on ARM? If Android OS download is not > > available, I like to try and install Linux on it. Ubuntu has a version > for > > ARM server only. Not sure if there are desktop linux distro that has > ARM > > build? > > > > thanks > > > > -v >
