[plagiarist]

Android devices are enraging. ARM in general, why is there never a boot loader?

I have a little Android handheld game device that will allow me to dual boot a Linux from SD quite easily... but why can't I overwrite the existing install? I thought Android was more open and hackable than that.

[bpye]

Well there is a bootloader - on Qualcomm its even UEFI, but you don't have access to it.

https://worthdoingbadly.com/qcomxbl/

[plagiarist]

That's somehow worse. Good for them that they made it convenient to launch their software on the device I paid for.

[opan]

I've got an Anbernic RG353M, came with a dual boot as you've described. I completely wiped it and only have ROCKNIX on there, a minimal distro based on LibreELEC, I believe. I actually maintained an Android + ROCKNIX dualboot at first, but it breaks the sleep function for some reason, and the ROCKNIX docs for this device say to remove Android, so eventually I did. I didn't actually use the Android side but had kept it around just in case before.

Not all these devices have the same level of support, so do your research on your model before trying to overwrite the install.

[plagiarist]

I went with a Retroid after seeing articles about people booting ROCKNIX on it. And one can, from SD. But I did not do enough research to see there was no documentation on writing Linux to the internal storage.

I'm so tired of doing research. I'd just like it to be a functioning BIOS. I at least learned my lesson and have stayed clear of other Android devices.