grub-android-prober

grub-android-prober is a tool designed to automatically detect Android-x86 and ARM64 Android based distributions (like Bliss OS, Phoenix OS, PrimeOS, LineageOS, and AOSP) on your system and generate the appropriate GRUB configuration entries. It supports various file systems and installation methods, including EDK II ARM64 systems using AAROPA (Ananda-Aropa) first-stage init or vendor-as-root feature, providing a seamless way to boot Android alongside your Linux distribution.

Features

• Automated Detection: Scans partitions for Android installations.
• Support for Multiple Distros: Works with Bliss OS, Phoenix OS, PrimeOS, LineageOS, and standard Android-x86/ARM64.
• AAROPA-exclusive features: Designed to support EDK II ARM64 Android & Linux dual boot systems using AAROPA first-stage init (bootable/aaropa) or vendor-as-root feature.
• Cache Support: Speeds up boot configuration generation by caching results.
• Customizable: Configurable search paths, excluded directories, and kernel parameters.
• Systemd Integration: Optional timer for periodic cache updates.

Install

Arch Linux

yay -S grub-android-prober
# or
paru -S grub-android-prober
# or
pamac install grub-android-prober
# or any aur helper you got

Alternatively, you can use the following method for distros that don't have official package

Quick install

Make sure you have superuser permission (sudo su or doas su) and /usr/local/bin is in your $PATH

wget -O /etc/grub.d/30_android-prober https://github.com/shadichy/grub-android-x86/raw/master/src/30_android-prober
wget -O /usr/local/bin/grub-android-prober https://github.com/shadichy/grub-android-x86/raw/master/src/grub-android-prober
chmod +x /etc/grub.d/30_android-prober /usr/local/bin/grub-android-prober

Or with curl

curl -Lo /etc/grub.d/30_android-prober https://github.com/shadichy/grub-android-x86/raw/master/src/30_android-prober
curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/grub-android-prober https://github.com/shadichy/grub-android-x86/raw/master/src/grub-android-prober
chmod +x /etc/grub.d/30_android-prober /usr/local/bin/grub-android-prober

Configuration

These are configurations of grub-android-prober . Those can be set in either /etc/defaults/grub or /etc/grub-android.conf

Default values are in file grub-android-prober

GRUB_ANDROID_SUPPORTED_FS

Specify which filesystems contains Android or the ones this program will try to search for Android on

Note: by default, Android initramfs don't support btrfs and some other filesystems, but BlissOS does support btrfs

GRUB_ANDROID_SUPPORTED_FS="ext2 ext3 ext4 vfat exfat ntfs"

GRUB_ANDROID_EXCLUDE_SEARCH

Specify which paths will be excluded during search

Note: path must start with a slash, and be separated by "," (comma) ending slashes are not needed

GRUB_ANDROID_EXCLUDE_SEARCH="/bin,/boot/efi,/dev,/lib,/lib64,/proc,/run,/sbin,/sys,/tmp"

GRUB_ANDROID_INCLUDE_SEARCH

Specify which files/folders will be search for/detecting

GRUB_ANDROID_SEARCH="system system.img system.sfs system_a.img"

GRUB_ANDROID_SEARCH_DEPTH

Specify max recursive directory search limit

GRUB_ANDROID_SEARCH_DEPTH=5

GRUB_ANDROID_CACHE

Enable caching

GRUB_ANDROID_CACHE="enabled"

GRUB_ANDROID_CACHE_DIR

Set cache directory

GRUB_ANDROID_CACHE_DIR="/var/cache/grub/android"

GRUB_ANDROID_CACHE_EXPIRE_DAYS

Set cache expiration (in days)

GRUB_ANDROID_CACHE_EXPIRE_DAYS="60"

Build

First clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/shadichy/grub-android-x86
cd ./grub-android-x86

Arch Linux

cd distro/arch
bash gen_pkgbuild.sh
makepkg -si

Debian

bash distro/debian/setup.sh
cp -r distro/debian .
dpkg-buildpackage

Fedora

bash distro/rpm/setup.sh
mkdir -p ~/{SOURCES,SPECS,RPMS,SRPMS}
find src -type f -exec cp -t ~/SOURCES {} +
cp distro/rpm/grub-android-prober.spec ~/SPECS
rpmbuild -ba ~/SPECS/grub-android-prober.spec

Alpine

cd distro/alpine
bash setup.sh
abuild -Ff