Question about Eclair and Camera - G1 Android Development

I may be naive and/or incompetent here, so forgive me.
I have been a linux user for many a years now, and device drivers are easily ported from one version/distro to the next. Now, with that in mind, I am failing to see why we cant port the camera drivers from Cupcake to Eclair...has the Android core changed so much between the 2 versions that makes it so difficult? Or are the drivers and such in Android not as 'modular' as they are in a standard linux distro, and that is what is causing the problems?
Again, I am probably being naive here, but was just wondering.
-
Jason

Related

[Request] Android for PS3...

Considering marcan is creating a bootloader for linux in PS3... won't you consider it at least? It would be perfect because the ps3 has not much memory, yet android 2.1 works really well on my g1... with less than the ps3
I hope my post won't bother anyone, if the mods consider that needs to be deleted, please delete it. Thanks!
It would have to be a PPC version of Android (its kernel). Since it's open source it would be possible, yes. Don't know about any compilers though (except for the leaked, illegal SDK).
The PS3's processor is radically different from the processor in your phone, so porting android to it would be nigh impossible and, quite frankly, totally not worth it. RAM isn't the issue, it's the rest of the system that would cause problems.
Also, this is the G1 area, not general android development, so your post is a bit out of place for the kind of feedback you want.
Not to mention that otherOS has been removed from the ps3 ages ago, and with the psjailbreak patched up it'd be difficult for people to try it out too

[Q] Android noob, Generic device, A few questions?

First let me introduce myself. The name is Darcy and I have been casually using linux and other *nix OS for about a decade. I am in school working on a programing degree ATM, and am a pretty quick study. Anyways, I without much research bought my wife a generic 7" tablet running android 1.6. I know what processor it has and Im hoping that leads me to a place to start. Ok so the device is a "Kasser Net'sGo" we didnt realize that its just a china pad with another companys name on it when we ordered it. So most of the apps dont run correctly, and in general the device sucks(on a software level the HW is fine although generic).
Anyways it apears that i can get into recovery mode to flash if i had no other choices. But since there are no official roms im hoping to find a build thats based on the same CPU or similar hardware to find a starting point. Its running the Marvell Aspen 800mhz chip and standard ddr2. Sadly thats all we have been able to find out about this device.
I have compiled custom builds for linux before, and i have now purchased a Gtab so i have a less garbage device to test some things on(i have allready flashed 2 different roms and fooled with a bunch of the settings). But we would realy like to do something with this other tablet. So if anyone can point me in the direction of some info on how to do android builds or a repository of chipset drivers and such that might help me that would be greatly appreciated.

Windows Phone 7 Rom on Android Tablet

Tried to search for this but couldnt find anything is it possible to get a mango ROM working on an android tablet?
There are loads of 7" Android tablets out there for under £60 not the biggest fan of android but would like a cheap tablet for quick browsing of web and showing photos to friends etc.
Would be cool if could get a mango ROM flashed onto one of those 7" tabs
That's a good question. I'd also be interested if it were possible to drop Mango onto a tablet that started out life as an Android. It'd have to be a 7" screen, and it'd have to have a capacitive screen
jasongw said:
That's a good question. I'd also be interested if it were possible to drop Mango onto a tablet that started out life as an Android. It'd have to be a 7" screen, and it'd have to have a capacitive screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why does it have to be 7"? Resolution?
mcorrie1121 said:
Why does it have to be 7"? Resolution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think we're pretty much locked to 800x480 resolution, which I suspect would look horrible on a 10" tablet
Yea but im sure if it possible to port people will figure out a way around that like a regist edit or something. Actully maybe on a bigger screen more tiles would be visible instead of only 8 tiles or 6 it would be like 12 or 14
That is an interesting question. I was wondering the same thing, which is how I found this thread...
First of all, it would have to be a tablet with a WP7-compatible CPU. Unlike most x86 chips used in PCs, different ARM chips may have incompatible kernel-mode interfaces, so the core of every OS must be built for that chip. Linux (and therefore Android) can be built to run on pretty much any ARM chip. In theory, the same is true of Windows CE (the kernel that WP7 is built on), but without kernel sources (and no, the CE6 and CE7 sources available from MS aren't quite the same) we can't build custom kernels like that.
Second, and much harder, would be finding the drivers for the hardware. Every single WP7 device comes with a bunch of OEM code, the "firmware", that interfaces the kernel to the hardware. This is different from device to device (thus why, if you do something like flash a Samsung Omnia 7 ROM to a Samsung Focus, or even a Focus r3 ROM to a Focus r4, the phone won't work correctly afterward). Android has something similar, but again it has two benefits: the kernel is open-source, and there are Linux drivers for almost every piece of computing hardware (although not always very good ones). For WP7, porting to a new device is very hard because of this. The HD2 worked because
A) it originally ran a CE-based OS (an older one, but still CE based)
B) it's very similar in hardware to the HD7 (not enough to run HD7 ROMs, but enough to pull some drivers from HD7 ROMs)
C) an early firmware for the WP7 kernel was developed for it and leaked.
None of those things are going to be true for the typical random Android tablet.
GoodDayToDie said:
First of all, it would have to be a tablet with a WP7-compatible CPU. Unlike most x86 chips used in PCs, different ARM chips may have incompatible kernel-mode interfaces, so the core of every OS must be built for that chip. Linux (and therefore Android) can be built to run on pretty much any ARM chip. In theory, the same is true of Windows CE (the kernel that WP7 is built on), but without kernel sources (and no, the CE6 and CE7 sources available from MS aren't quite the same) we can't build custom kernels like that.
Second, and much harder, would be finding the drivers for the hardware. Every single WP7 device comes with a bunch of OEM code, the "firmware", that interfaces the kernel to the hardware. This is different from device to device (thus why, if you do something like flash a Samsung Omnia 7 ROM to a Samsung Focus, or even a Focus r3 ROM to a Focus r4, the phone won't work correctly afterward). Android has something similar, but again it has two benefits: the kernel is open-source, and there are Linux drivers for almost every piece of computing hardware (although not always very good ones). For WP7, porting to a new device is very hard because of this. The HD2 worked because
A) it originally ran a CE-based OS (an older one, but still CE based)
B) it's very similar in hardware to the HD7 (not enough to run HD7 ROMs, but enough to pull some drivers from HD7 ROMs)
C) an early firmware for the WP7 kernel was developed for it and leaked.
None of those things are going to be true for the typical random Android tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, long story short, probably not gonna happen. Gotcha. At least I know some of the work that is takes, for I am sure that it will take much more work.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda app-developers app
yea your not gonna get arm wp7 on an android tablet , however there are many simulations of wp7 in android tablets , so if you want wp7 on an android yes thats the way to do it , but why?

[DEV HACK IDEA] Porting over Android to the new Chromebook..??

I checked out the specs of the newly-announced $249 chromebook, and I realized what an awesome android device it would make, if only android was successfully ported to it....
I know at the same price point we can get a n7 32gig, but the larger 11.6" LED HD tempts me, though the res at 1366 x 768 is not that great. also, all the hands-on reviews have heaped a lot of praise on the high-quality keyboard-touchpad on the device, which is even more tempting and would make up for the lack of touch input on the device...
Its config is pretty identical to a flagship android phone/tablet with two cortex-A15 cores on the Exynos 5250, 2gig RAM and 16GB onboard storage with an expandable mem slot, 2 full usb ports and a full HDMI out, with the usual WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0.
I'm a noob when it comes to creating ports and ROMS, but I guess it would not be such a difficult task for the awesome dev community out here to manage that feat. Maybe we need to wait for an actual android device with the exynos chip inside to release, whose android ROM we could use as a base to port to the chromebook...
windows 8 RT would be more awesome, but seeing that its a licensed OS, porting it might amount to piracy/illegal hacking, so its not something that I would discuss/encourage here....
Chromebooks boot with UEFI (Basically a modern BIOS), so the Android source code would have to be heavilly modified to be bootstraped from UEFI. Not to mention drivers and custom kernels (which isnt much of a pain if the hardware has documentation, all eyes on you Samsung.)
And I dont think we will ever see Windows on a chromebook unless someone creates an emulator for ChromeOS... Which I dont think is possible, but dont quote me on that.
i know it would take a ton of modding to find a workaround for it, but enabling the developer mode on the chromebook allows booting of an unsigned linux installation off the external memory (eg. gentoo ubuntu) on the x86 chromebooks currently available (Cr-48 etc..)
trying something similar for booting android off an image on the mem card might be a possible way...
UPDATE : https://plus.google.com/109993695638569781190/posts/b2fazijJppZ a google employee has already begun work on porting ubuntu..!!
drivers would be difficult, esp for the SoC as there is no device currently on the market with it. but maybe after Samsung releases a couple of phones/phablets running the A15's, porting of the drivers could be attempted...
I was wondering the same thing and figured I would come here to see if anything was planned. I just ordered the new one and was curious if there would be much interest in modding this thing. Guess in due time!
rumors say the upcoming google nexus 10 tablet is running identical hardware (exynos 5 dual omap15 / 2gig ram) which is gonna run android 4.2
once its out, MAYBE porting the ROM to the chromebook may become a teeny bit easier...
the_crazy_devil said:
rumors say the upcoming google nexus 10 tablet is running identical hardware (exynos 5 dual omap15 / 2gig ram) which is gonna run android 4.2
once its out, MAYBE porting the ROM to the chromebook may become a teeny bit easier...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I'm not wrong Nexus 10 will have exactly the same processor than the new Samsung Chromebook. If someon manage port android to this new latop I won't hesitate to buy it.
there is a developer board with same hardware and as far as I know it has android source codes, you can check the website http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Wasnt this done a while back with the CR-48 thanks to Hexxeh?
http://hexxeh.net/?p=328117655
Just got to find a way to port it over to the new Chromebook, then port Android.
Since Android was ported to the HP Touchpad I'm pretty confident that it can be ported to this device... I mean the touchpad was the last thing I thought Android would run on and it runs like it was made for it... COME ON DEVS!
Following this thread with anticipation.
Well seeing as this device uses the same SoC as the nexus 10 i would be hopeful someone will manage to port android. I for one would be keen to have this option!
Touch Chromebook?
If this article on Android Community turns out to be accurate and Google release a touch chromebook any time soon, I would throw some money at a kickstarter to get android on it. Would be cheaper than an N10 - and probably quicker than waiting for a keyboard dock...!
Can't link because I'm new... androidcommunity.com/google-reportedly-plotting-12-85-inch-touch-chromebook-20121126/
Very hopeful!
^ here's a +1 form me
started..
OK...I was able to get into the uboot portion of chromeos and managed to load uvboot ( unverified boot )which will allow the booting of non chrome os kernel's. however it seems its looking for something else. I already got Ubuntu loaded on it so maybe I'll try to get it booting off the SD first so I don't brick my cb.....keep you guys posted.
rawtek said:
OK...I was able to get into the uboot portion of chromeos and managed to load uvboot ( unverified boot )which will allow the booting of non chrome os kernel's. however it seems its looking for something else. I already got Ubuntu loaded on it so maybe I'll try to get it booting off the SD first so I don't brick my cb.....keep you guys posted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great work! i'm still waiting for my chromebook the stock's very erratic, and i cant find anyone willing to ship it to my country...will try to help as soon as i lay my hands on one!!
Ok ... DD'd the system.img from the stock N10 factory image and created a new BOOT partition. Booting the Chrome OS kernel worked ( which should be fine due to the fact that the CB and N10 have the EXACT same ARM SOC ) it seems the boot partition need to be re-written to work with the UEFI. im going to keep digging until I find something ( or someone lends some expertise dealing with UEFI and BOOT ).Happy New years !!
Kernel boots..just has a hard time mounting the ROOTFS...any want to shed some light on this.
Thanks
Super stoked for this!! Have been thinking this would be good to have Android on from the minute I got it!! Looking forward to this!!

Millions of phones and tablets are obsolete because of sofware. Is there a way around?

Hi everyone.
Every year millions of phones and tablets are produced. Because hardware makers don't worry about updating them, those devices are often dumped. However, lots of them are very capable machines.
As I've read these forums for years, I've seen a lot of work from a lot of people trying to bring those forgotten devices to life again by making unofficial ROMs with tons of customization, new features, and great efforts like LineageOS and PostmarketOS. However, those lack the resources to bring an updated OS for the majority of those binned and obsolete phones.
If I'm not wrong, the biggest issue about replacing the original OS on those devices are the bootloaders and drivers/blobs for the large amount of different hardware configurations. There are multiple workarounds, shims, ports that solve those problems for one or other device.
It might be quite naive, but i'd like to ask a question I've been thinking about lately. AFAIK, if I have the blobs/drivers for a camera, wifi, bluetooth, GPS or other "peripheral" for a devices' original ROM running Android 4.4, I can make it work on AOSP 4.4. I know this might be crazy, but:
As long as I have the blobs for a certain chipset and display/touch, why can't we use a VM running a nano version of AOSP that matches the devices' original ROM that bridges the device IO to the main ROM?
As an example, imagine wifi. I could network bridge AOSP 9 to a VM running AOSP 4, which would then have the drivers so network would work. The same for bluetooth or camera or GPS, maybe? Is this absolutely unfeasible?
Thank you for your time!
wasserprojekt said:
Hi everyone.
Every year millions of phones and tablets are produced. Because hardware makers don't worry about updating them, those devices are often dumped. However, lots of them are very capable machines.
As I've read these forums for years, I've seen a lot of work from a lot of people trying to bring those forgotten devices to life again by making unofficial ROMs with tons of customization, new features, and great efforts like LineageOS and PostmarketOS. However, those lack the resources to bring an updated OS for the majority of those binned and obsolete phones.
If I'm not wrong, the biggest issue about replacing the original OS on those devices are the bootloaders and drivers/blobs for the large amount of different hardware configurations. There are multiple workarounds, shims, ports that solve those problems for one or other device.
It might be quite naive, but i'd like to ask a question I've been thinking about lately. AFAIK, if I have the blobs/drivers for a camera, wifi, bluetooth, GPS or other "peripheral" for a devices' original ROM running Android 4.4, I can make it work on AOSP 4.4. I know this might be crazy, but:
As long as I have the blobs for a certain chipset and display/touch, why can't we use a VM running a nano version of AOSP that matches the devices' original ROM that bridges the device IO to the main ROM?
As an example, imagine wifi. I could network bridge AOSP 9 to a VM running AOSP 4, which would then have the drivers so network would work. The same for bluetooth or camera or GPS, maybe? Is this absolutely unfeasible?
Thank you for your time!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's sort of what project treble is.
Project Treble
The Android 8.0 release includes Project Treble, a major re-architect of the Android OS framework designed to make it easier, faster, and less costly for manufacturers to update devices to a new version of Android. Treble is for all new devices launching with Android 8.0 and beyond.
forum.xda-developers.com
I was reading about it and it seems like treble is not very seccessful. I imagine Google isn't very interested on this, as they want phones to be sold every year. Anyway, I was asking about this specific method of making phones and tablets compatible with today's OS or, who knows, even linux.
wasserprojekt said:
I was reading about it and it seems like treble is not very seccessful. I imagine Google isn't very interested on this, as they want phones to be sold every year. Anyway, I was asking about this specific method of making phones and tablets compatible with today's OS or, who knows, even linux.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and the only way it might work is trebel. Because treble handles lot of the problems involved with booting newer androids on older systems.
You can run linux on older Androids or even Windows XP.
How to install a Linux desktop on your Android device
Get even more from your Android device by running a desktop OS! Lots of options including Debian (no root), Ubuntu, and Kali Linux.
www.androidauthority.com
Running Windows XP on Android
No rooting or custom modifications needed, we’re going to do this with stock Android and a few free (but high-quality) apps.
centerorbit.medium.com
Also, it's not that the OS gets deprecated, it's that the applications like Google Play services which become heavier as years go by.
Degoogled-Android on my Android ICS phone worked fine till it's screen got busted. With Google Play services, it was impossible to install any app since its paltry 400MB storage was extended/
Thanks for your answers!
Running other OSes via VNC is just meant to use the devices as mere thin clients, and that was not the objective.
The Project Treble will never be as widespread as it should be, because Google is obviously not interested in making phones last longer (they want more devices to be sold). Of course I was not talking about devices 10 years old, more about 5yrs. They have specs good enough to run contemporary Android and most of non-entertainment apps.
The obstacles to being able to do this are artificial. The problem is there are no drivers and project Treble does not address this in any meaningful way. Manufacturers aren't interested in this too because they want to sell more chips. So the only way it came to my mind it could work was by running a very light VM with an older Android for which the components' drivers were available. Of course main components would still have to be compatible with newer Android, such as the SOC. But things such as wi-fi, camera... could be bridged from a VM, I believe.
Not sure, but I'd guess the low-level interface would have to be outside the VM.
That is, to be able to run the VM you'd have to have some drivers already in place. I'm also not sure everything can be virtualized. For example, desktop VMs couldn't so easily passthru PCIe or USB to VMs, at least in the past.
There's some EU push to make fixing and servicing some non-phone devices easier, and to mandate labeling phones (and other devices) with repairability scores. Maybe eventually they could mandate, under certain conditions, the logical separation of hardware and software?
Well, after a long time, for those who where curious about this thread: the project Halium is exactly what was in my mind. If I'm not wrong, it basically consists in a minimal Android rom running on a Virtual Machine which then interfaces with any Linux distro, effectively giving the phone the ability to run a (more or less) updated version of Linux kernel and, therefore, many Linux distros. https://docs.halium.org/en/latest/project/Scope.html
hkjo said:
Not sure, but I'd guess the low-level interface would have to be outside the VM.
That is, to be able to run the VM you'd have to have some drivers already in place. I'm also not sure everything can be virtualized. For example, desktop VMs couldn't so easily passthru PCIe or USB to VMs, at least in the past.
There's some EU push to make fixing and servicing some non-phone devices easier, and to mandate labeling phones (and other devices) with repairability scores. Maybe eventually they could mandate, under certain conditions, the logical separation of hardware and software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, and I believe Halium just works on phones which are minimally supported by Linux kernel drivers (like basic SoCs). But all those other hardware parts, like GPS, Wi-Fi, Camera... can be brought to life this way, I think.
Thanks for your insight!

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