Personnaly I don't like android too closed not very stable... For a mobile phone why not, but for a tablet I prefer use a real free linux.
With the archos tablet gen 8 you can install a SDE firmware, It's only for this reason I've buy this tablet :
Archos SDE firmware opens your Internet Tablet to new operating systems like Linux Ångström or special/optimized firmwares like UrukDroid developped by the Archos community of users.
SDE Installation :
Download SDE Firmware : http://www.archos.com/support/support_tech/_ppp.html?country=us&lang=en&p=gen8
The SDE firmware MUST be installed using the recovery menu.
The recovery is triggered by powering on the device while pressing the 'volume down' button
In order to install the new firmware, the "Update firmware" option needs to be selected by navigating up and down the items with the 'volume up' and 'volume down' buttons and then executing the selection with a short press on the power button. Once in this mode, the device can be connected to a PC and will act as a mass storage device where the .aos firmware file can be uploaded. Once this step is done, press on the power button again to launch the installation process.
Now you have Linux Ångström and android. You will keep all your applications that will don't touch android system. My girlfriend and my children can continue to play to rio and don't already cry because I've installed an other pinguin :D
Customization :
Now we can play this linux. I've tested Linux Ångström but it's not really usuable for me.
For this reason I've search for install frugalware arm on my tablet and it's not very complicated with Elentir's script make-qemu-fwarm-image.sh (5,65 kb)
(I've added -f to pacman-g2 because we have a conflict about kernel and linux-firmware.)
That will create a rootfs and you can test it with qemu.
Boot your android archos and enable mass storage USB, you will find rootfs.img it's Linux Ångström . Copy this rootfs.img on your desktop and copy some files from Ångström to frugalware arm.
$ mkdir -p fw-arm
# mount initrd-arm.img fw-arm/ -o loop
$ mkdir -p sde
# mount rootfs.img sde/ -o loop
# cp -R sde/boot/* fw-arm/boot/
# cp -R sde/lib/modules/* fw-arm/lib/modules/*
# umount sde
# umount fw-arm
Replace the rootfs.img by initrd-arm.img in your tablet DON'T FORGOT to backup rootfs.img Linux Ångström.
That work but we don't have lot of packages for arm. Frugalware is not ready for use it with a tablet, I've switch to debian the time to port gnome, wicd...
You can find a rootfs for debian here http://www.gen8linux.com/ubuntu/releases/rootfs_beta2.rar
http://www.archos-generation.com/wiki/doku.php
If you would test rootfs with qemu just copy the kernel from initrd-arm.img, and after you can start qemu arm :
$ qemu-system-arm -M versatilepb -m 256 -kernel vmlinuz-xxxx-fwx -hda initrd-arm.img -append "root=/dev/sda ro quiet"
Some screenshots : http://www.archos-generation.com/gallery/#nav?galerie=1
(It's not my tablet but it's the same interface)
Next step :
Port some packages to arm with a bash script :p
See howto patch archos bootloader for use our kernel.
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