ARChon Runtime on Raspberry Pi 1/2

[techj2020]

Hey, I have an experiment that I would like to try out, and would appreciate if others with a RPI could help me test this out as well. On github there is a project called ARChon runtime (link: https://github.com/vladikoff/chromeos-a ... /archon.md) which essentially allows you to use the Google Chrome browser to run .apk files, or Andriod apps. It was originally developed for Chromebooks and it works especially well and I recommend the program to anyone with a Mac, PC, or Linux computer. Originally being developed for Chromebooks, it has an ARM processor version that could potentially work on a RPI. I have attempted to get it to run with a Raspberry Pi B+ with Chromium Browser and have found it incompatible because the ARChon runtime requires Chrome 32 or higher. I am currently working on building a higher version of chrome on my RPI, and am curious if the ARChon runtime could be an effective solution to running andriod apps on the raspberry pi. Anyone wanting to attempt to run ARChon runtime on the raspberry pi and running an .apk please post your results below. Most of the instructions that you need are available on the github page. Use wget to obtain the ARM zip file from the page, unzip it and load it as an extension in chromium. YOU DO NOT NEED NODEJS TO CREATE AN EXTENSION COMPATIBLE WITH THE RUNTIME . I recommend the following tool for creating compatible .apk (http://forum.xda-developers.com/android ... s-t2885958). If you do not have an andriod device use a tool located in the Chrome Web Store called Twerk (weird name I know). If you have no idea what I'm talking about, look at the following article (http://www.techverse.net/run-android-ap ... nvironment). Once again, please post your results with running this on the RPI below. Thanks guys and good luck .

[ktb]

I tried this on a 64-bit Linux box over a year ago. At the time that I tried it, there weren't any apps that interested me which actually worked well. I think I got the Amazon Appstore to sort of work (which wasn't useful) and maybe a couple other small apps. As I understood it, many of the better apps have dependencies on system APKs/JARs/Frameworks which will not be present in the ARChon environment and they will either not work at all or the features will be crippled.

I use a version of chromium-browser from Ubuntu Precise armhf (https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/precise/ar ... 4.1~pkg917) on my Pi2 running Raspbian.

If you have a specific app which you have heard good things about (working on ARChon) and you'd like to know if it works, I'll give it a shot provided I don't have to pay for the app.

[techj2020]

Cool, thanks for the reply. Forgot to mention there is a list of pre-compiled extensions here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... li=1#gid=0

[ktb]

Cool, thanks for the reply. Forgot to mention there is a list of pre-compiled extensions here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... li=1#gid=0

Thanks for the link. I haven't looked at the list in a while. I'm afraid not many of those apps interest me, but I'll give one or two a try.

Code: Select all

Failed to load extension from: /home/ktb/Downloads/com.uberspot.a2048.android
WebGL is not supported.

[techj2020]

I was afraid of that. Thanks for trying. If anyone has a solution to this please provide.