WeTek Dual Boot Explained

What is an Operating System?

An Operating System or OS is a software that runs the electronic device – everything from installing and removing Apps, connecting to WIFI or even shutting down and starting up your device is done by your phone or computer’s OS.

Windows, iOS and Android are different kinds of Operating Systems – each with its own advantages, quirks and annoyances (as we all well know :D). On some devices, you can install one or more OSs to take advantage of features a particular OS has to offer.

On the WeTek, you can have two Operating Systems installed at the same time (although only one can be used at any given time). This is called Dual Booting.

Why Dual Boot?

While Android has improved a lot over the years as a mobile phone and media player Operating System, it still has its disadvantages. Specifically, Android has a tendency of using a lot of your device’s resources like Storage or RAM. This gets worse the longer you use it – you feel your device starting to work slower and slower to the point where you reset the device just to make it usable again.

Resource Comparison Between Android and LibreELEC

LibreELEC, on the other hand, is an OS tailored specifically for running just one thing: KODI. KODI is pretty much everything you need for watching your favourite movies and TV shows. LibreELEC does away with everything not essential to this task, giving you a fast and responsive experience with your WeTek.

Of course, Android does have the advantage of having all your favourite apps ready for download. Thankfully, you can easily switch between Android and LibreELEC. (For further reading, click here to know more about the advantages of using LibreELEC)

How does Dual Booting Work?

Dual Boot is like a duplex townhouse – two households, one building. What happens in one house does not affect the other, and vice versa. Switching between ‘houses’ is as easy as going through the right door. In our case, you just tell your WeTek player whether you’d want to use the Operating System stored inside the player or in the installed MicroSD card.

If you want to learn how to make your LibreELEC MicroSD card, click here.

Now this might cause some confusion at first: normally you’d have all your settings set in your Android-half of the ‘house’ – this includes WIFI passwords, account details and such. Once you boot into LibreELEC for the first time, you might be surprised that everything’s gone! Not to worry though: once you have configured your details, they will be saved just as they were when using Android.

Is it working? Are we there yet?

Wetek Hub Splash Screen Showing Dual Boot Enabled

Once you have created your LibreELEC MicroSD card, plug it into your device (make sure you have powered it down first) and start it up. Once the screen prompts you to press the POWER key to boot from SDCARD, do so and lines of text should appear. After a few seconds, you should see your KODI start screen.

And you’re set!

If you want to go back to Android, just power down your device and wait for the same “Press POWER” prompt to boot using your WeTek’s internal NAND memory.

Booted Up and Ready to Go!

There you have it – dual booting made easy. Aside from the initial configuration needed on a new OS, you should be able to use your WeTek, whether in Android or LibreELEC, as you normally would. If you have any questions regarding dual booting, setting up your WeTek or just would like to say hi, just leave a message in our FB Page or a comment here. Thank you for reading 😀

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