Being true to their promise, switchroot has released their highly anticipated method of bringing Android to your Nintendo Switch console. This marks the first public release of LineageOS 15.1, and is based on a build of Android that runs on the Nvidia Shield TV. By flashing the installation image to your micro SD card, you can use Android 8.1 Oreo on the Switch, in both handheld and docked mode. Some of the features include audio support, allowing the Joy-Cons to connect through bluetooth, offering CPU and GPU performance profiles, and more.

As this is a beta release, you should be aware that there are a few bugs. Some notable issues are that sleep mode battery life is lacking, certain apps have problems with being controlled with the Joy-Cons, the screenshot function is disabled, wifi can be spotty, and a few other quirks.

If you're interested in playing around with this release, you can follow the instructions below to get started, with the download links being available in the source.

LineageOS 15.1 for Nintendo Switch by switchroot. This is the first publicly available Android ROM for the Nintendo Switch. Based on the Nvidia Shield TV builds it brings a smooth and powerful Android experience to your Switch in both handheld and docked mode.

1. Pick the image that corresponds to the size of your SD card. You can use an image that is smaller than your card. You’ll end up with the remaining space unused on your card.
2. Write the image to your SD card with e.g. balenaEtcher Do not extract the image, Etcher can handle the compressed image just fine! WARNING: This will overwrite any contents on your card! The progress bar/percentage might go haywire in Etcher, but you can ignore that. The flashing will still work and Etcher will let you know when it’s done. It can take up to an hour depending on your SD card’s speed. Also make sure not to format any of the partitions when Windows prompts you to after flashing.
3. Download GApps for Android 8.1. from OpenGApps, use ARM64. Put the file on the first partition of your new SD card
4. If desired download the "Shield-ifier" zip and place it also on the SD card. This will make your Switch identify as Nvidia Shield TV and install the Nvidia app.
5. Load hekate and boot to TWRP by holding VOL+ when you select the Android config.
6. Flash GApps zip, optionally flash other zips
7. Reboot to hekate and boot into Android
8. Complete the inital setup. For the Nvidia app to work make sure to update it from Play Store!

Source

 

[Cyan]

Thank you. BTW which is my Android Partition? If I have 117GB of Unallocated space I'd like to resize it to a mix of FAT32 and Android but the only other partition is a 1MB partion and I'm pretty sure the OS is bigger than 1MB.

I checked the SD image, it looks like this:
GPT table with 2 partitions:
Part 1: 2GB fat32
Part 2: 16GB
rest is unallocated


using GPT, it might not work with other Switch homebrew and partition (switch, MMC, L4T, etc.), so for now you need a dedicated SD card.
unless, there's a way to trick android to still check GPT even if the fallback partition is not of type EE, and search for the first EE partition. but it's not the convention!
something like that could be made possible though : <MBR fat32><GPT androids and ext4><mmc>

edit:
Technical data of 16GB SD Card image (actually a 14GB image), don't mess with it.

Spoiler

The MBR contains 2 partitions (type EE):
00202100EE3570050008000000004000 (start 0x00000800) type EE, start sector 2048 size 0x00400000 (2GB) fallback partition for device who don't know GPT.
00000200EE20200001000000FF070000 (start 0x00000001) type EE, GUID (gpt), size 0x000007FF (2047 sectors)

First partition on MBR (GPT fallback) at sector 0x800, sector 2048
it's actually a FAT32 partition, of 0x00400000 sectors, aka 2GB

second partition on MBR is a GPT GUID table at sector 1:
contains 7 partitions:
edit: I fixed the sector's size, I forgot sectors are inclusive, all my values missed 1 sector (512bytes). it's "from 800 to 4007FF" meaning "end - start + 1 ".

start 0x0000000000000800 = sect 2048 - end 0x00000000004007FF = sect 4196351 : size = 0x400000 = 4194304 sectors : 2 147 483 648 bytes : 2GB : 2048MiB : FAT32. Partition Name : hos_data
start 0x0000000000400800= sect 4196352 - end 0x000000000061EFFE sect 006418430 : size 0x21E7FF = 2222079 sectors : 1 137 704 448 bytes : 1GB : 1084.9MiB : Partition Name : vendor
start 0x000000000061F000 = sect 6418432 - end 0x0000000000A737FE sect 10958846 : size 0x4547FF = 4540415 sectors : 2 324 692 480 bytes : 2GB : 2216.9MiB : Partition Name : system
start 0x0000000000A73800 = sect 10958848 - end 0x0000000000A967FF = sect 11102207 : size 0x23000 = 143360 sectors : 73 400 320 bytes : 73MB : 70MiB : Partition Name : boot
start 0x0000000000A96800 - end 0x0000000000AB97FF : size 0x23000 = 143360 sectors : 73 400 320 bytes : 73MB : 70MiB : Partition Name : Partition Name : recovery
start 0x0000000000AB9800 - end 0x0000000000AC87FF : size 0xF000 = 61440 sectors : 31 457 280 bytes : 31MB : 30MiB : Partition Name : dtb
start 0x0000000000AC8800 - end 0x0000000001BFFFDE : size 0x11377DF sect 18053087 = 9 243 180 544 bytes : 9GB : 8814.9MiB : Partition Name : userdata
Last LBA : 0x0000000001BFFFDE sect 29360094 : 15.032.368.128 = 15GB (to fit a 16GB SD Card)

it's allocating 15GB of partitions, so all the remaining size (up to the image size you chose) are unallocated and waste space.

 

[OldGnashburg]

I will just make supposition here (until I analyze the image data myself) :
if you picked the 16GB image, your SD looks like this :

<16GB hidden, unallocated partition><1MB raw/other partition><2GB FAT32><unallocated>
the OS is the size based on the download you chose, it's not listed on the card as it's not a known partition for your computer. it's the unnalocated part before FAT32.

or it could be that way :
<fat32><unallocated ... contains both android and real unallocated sectors>

I was basing it off what MiniTool told me I have I flashed a 64GB to my 128GB microSD, but what Minitool shows me is 1MB - Other, 2GB FAT32, and 117.GB Unallocated, which confuses me if I do have a hidden 64GB partition I'm curious as to 117 + 2 + 64 = 128 (I know my microSD won't actually be 128GB but the math still doesn't make sense). Nevertheless I have it booting, if I have issues with storage later then I'll have more questions.

 

[Cyan]

"1MB other" might actually be the GPT table. it's taking 2048 sectors
Minitool is not compatible with GPT and think it's "other" ?

the 64GB android partitions are part of your 117GB unallocated size.
your 117GB contains both 64GB of actual data, and rest of unused data.

 

[NoNAND]

does it works with emunand?

Not sure whether you can dual boot this or not but I'd suggest you to use another SD card for this one.

 

[VampireOniX]

Does anyone feeling like experimenting?

I'm wondering if theres a way to "dual boot" this Android build and L4T Linux from the same card. Not sure if either build looks for a specific partition number tho. Thoughts?

 

[Cyan]

L4T being linux should be compatible with GPT so you can try, put FAT32 first, then a GPT table with all androids partition, then a ext4 partition.
flash this android image first, then use a GPT compatible manager to add a new partition at the end and make it ext4, or write the linux partition of the l4t full image to the end of androids partitions.
but you'll have to edit L4T file to boot the proper partition. Maybe placing ext4 the second one before Android is better so you don't need to edit l4t boot file.

you might not be able to use the card for Stock or MMC as it requires MBR. or maybe hekate can boot MMC with a GPT fat32, as it can read it for android, then only stock will not be possible without using non conventional MBR fallback table.

 

[slaphappygamer]

silly question it doesnt overwrite real Horizon OS. im paranoid

It doesn’t write anything over the switch nand, so real horizon is will still exist. The MicroSD card you use seems to be its own “nand”.

 

[GGG987POL]

GTA III works flawlessy and Clash Of Clans seems to perform fine also. GTA LCS & VCS on PPSSPP work very good as well, better than on Horizon imo

 

[mustafag32g]

how do you install apk from other places then google play store....

web browser cant downloader apk

 

[Smoker1]

how do you install apk from other places then google play store....

web browser cant downloader apk

Any File Manager can Install the APKs. Was able to do that last Night when I was experimenting and looking into finding ways to Transfer Items. Problem is Transferring large Files. Small Files, depending on the Size are mostly easy to move. Large Files........going to take imagination. Was told Docking the System and Copying over via USB should work.

 

[mustafag32g]

Any File Manager can Install the APKs. Was able to do that last Night when I was experimenting and looking into finding ways to Transfer Items. Problem is Transferring large Files. Small Files, depending on the Size are mostly easy to move. Large Files........going to take imagination. Was told Docking the System and Copying over via USB should work.

what file manager what is it called and do you connect your switch to pc or is it wireless installation

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also is there a way to connect switchroot to pc via usb ?

 

[Smoker1]

what file manager what is it called and do you connect your switch to pc or is it wireless installation

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also is there a way to connect switchroot to pc via usb ?

Connecting to PC - NOPE
---- Keeps coming up as PI USB to Serial, huh? Dont understand that BS.

File Manager - EZ File Explorer.

 

[mustafag32g]

got it working, thank you man

 

[Josshy0125]

any way to use this without erasing the sd? Ive only got one and i dont want to lose my data, or be unable to run things like lakka, etc. Thamnnks!

 

[Smoker1]

any way to use this without erasing the sd? Ive only got one and i dont want to lose my data, or be unable to run things like lakka, etc. Thamnnks!

No, need a separate MicroSD. It will Format the Card, only alliw a certain amount that you can see, but the rest is a special Format or whatever that you can not Access, which is messed up.

 

[Josshy0125]

No, need a separate MicroSD. It will Format the Card, only alliw a certain amount that you can see, but the rest is a special Format or whatever that you can not Access, which is messed up.

Yeeeeaaaaah, I don't want it that badly... I wish there were a way to create a partition for use with this. I'd probably only use it for portal, DS, etc. Without that option, this is a no-go.

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I wonder if this is root capable? Would like to see xda ps4 remote play running , ps4 gaming on switch! Edit!! Someone download a app called onecast app on play store or apk you can stream xbox one games to android has to be on the same network

Only way this would get me to erase lakka on my switch. Has anyone tested this?

 

[Smoker1]

Yeeeeaaaaah, I don't want it that badly... I wish there were a way to create a partition for use with this. I'd probably only use it for portal, DS, etc. Without that option, this is a no-go.

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Only way this would get me to erase lakka on my switch. Has anyone tested this?

Yeah, wish I knew about this prior. Will focus on the Switch Portion and wait until this get improved upon.

You can get it Rooted with Magisk. But not sure about it, because when I tried to copy over a Cheat File for the Android Mupen64Plus FZ, it would not Copy over.

 

[Smoker1]

OK, experimenting with the Dock......

USB Mouse works.
USB Drive Formatted FAT 32 will not come up. Anyone get this working????????

 

[LightyKD]

Quick question. Has anyone tried the Android TV launcher with this version of Android?

 

[Megaleg]

Joy cons aren't working at all, anyone else having problems.
Cheers