Our company recently started allowing Android devices in our environment and I'm trying to create a good system for our support staff to be able to assist people over the phone with setup and troubleshooting. While I would ultimately like to have emulators for the devices in our environment that the support team can use, I would be happy to create screenshots through the device setup.
I've downloaded the Android SDKs/emulator and I've installed some device specific AVDs/skins, however I can only seem to emulate the vanilla Android experience. It's my understanding that simple things like e-mail configuration can vary if the device is running Motoblur or Sense. Is it possible to build AVDs that match the stock roms for devices like the Droid X and the MyTouch 4G. If not, is it possible to get good screenshots from devices running 2.1 - 2.3 that aren't rooted?
Thank you in advance for the assistance.
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Ok, I know much of what I'm about to ask has generally been answered or discussed in other posts, but I could really use some more direct/specific answers to my own questions.
My first question is about hardware drivers. To my understanding, a great many, if not most, of the more common wifi drivers are incorporated into the latest linux kernels. If this is the case, will more or less any Android system run on a device so long as the appropriate kernel is provided?
To be a little more clear on that, I'm actually trying to learn Android development (both for apps and building roms) on a cheap Chinese tablet that I picked up. Naturally it already has a version of Android 2.2 pre-installed. However, I have not been able to extract the contents of the boot.img or the system.img, I keep getting an error, whereas I can unpack the SDK img's no problem. So I was hoping that I can get away without compiling a custom kernel, use the already existing one, and go ahead with tweaking the system.img from either the AOSP or SDK sources. Getting the source code from the manufacturer may be impossible since I can't even seem to find out who the manufacturer is or get their contact info.
I'm actually looking to port CM7 to my wife's LG Shine Plus eventually, but I don't want to pull a Tim Allen on her phone so I want to get some experience and feel for working with Android's internals on my tablet.
So my next question is still about drivers, but what I want to know is how are things like the LCD, touchscreen input, audio output, wifi and the cell radio handled on a typical Android device? Is it mostly handled by the hardware itself with the Android framework or kernel just passing universal APIs or do the drivers for each individual piece of hardware need to be compiled into the kernel? As in the gkisystem for radios, is this handled by the kernel or the framework? Which kinda brings me back to my first question, if it is built into the kernel itself, can I not use, for example, the already existing kernel on the LG Shine Plus (it's running 2.1) to port CM7?
Any and ALL help is honestly and truly appreciated. I've been looking for detailed answers for these questions EVERYWHERE.
** just bumping this post so that it can get seen**
any help or advice at all?
Hello everyone,
I am not new to the android scene, and am quite familliar with linux development in java and c. I found myself in the pleasant position of having a second Atrix 4g that I had previously unlocked and played with a bit and decided it was time to have a look at some of the android issues that have managed to sufficiently annoy me.
To this end I have pulled down the aosp of ICS as well as CM9 for comparison. I see that there are issues with the tegra2 binaries for ICS and was going to have a go at building a 2.6.39 kernel for ICS.
Can any of you point me to some info on integrating a new kernel into the android build? As I understand it, the currently available binary drivers are build against 2.6.36 for GB.
Is it only the opengl drivers that are an issue? Are there opensource drivers for the bt/wifi/cell? The cameras/touch sensors/gyros etc?
I have done some research and looked over Googles build info, but it only covers the reference gear. I have not yet found a good guide on integrating 3rd party drivers for other hardware..
Thanks for all your assistance. Once I learn the build system I'm sure I will be able to make some useful contributions.
Also, I may be able to offer some hosting assistance for some projects.
Hello,
First off, apologies if I have posted this in the incorrect forum.
The company I work for is looking to update one of it's product lines and has been toying with the idea of using Android as a development platform. Up until now the philosophy has always been to develop simple, bespoke embedded software that provides only the functionality that is needed at the time. The device itself will be a medical device, and as such will have no telephony requirements (and associated things like contacts, calander and the large majority of the pre-installed Android apps).
I have read, and understand it is possible to re-compile Android from source and remove all of these non-required functionality. My question is really if that is worth doing? i.e. stripping out all un-needed applications that get build into a stock ROM. Or would it be a more efficient to use some form of OTS embedded Linux platform?
Something in Android 4.0 that does seem to be useful is the support for Bluetooth HDP.
Kind Regards,
Simon
Well there are other devices that aren't phones that use Android. Take the motoactv for example. It's a fitness watch that runs a stripped version of Android, but it's still Android and applications can still be programmed and installed to it.
Hello World ! I have identified a need for a smaller tablet and have begun the process to request information about how to have the hardware designed and manufactured. But as we all know, hardware is only half of the equation - the other half is the software. So I have a question for you:
What would the ideal software configuration for an Android-based LTE-enabled TABLET (with SIM card), suitable for ROM developers ?
I have (a little) previous experience (as an end-user) with replacing the manufacturer/carrier ROM for my HTC Desire with the CyanogenMod ROM. That, coupled with my years of experience as a developer (pre-Internet) allow me to at least be aware that there are layers of software from bootup, to device drivers, to OS, etc.
I would like this community to help define (or point me at some documentation) what those specific layers are, which package(s) should be used at each level, up to the point of being able to get into the Google Play Store.
I am not interested in which apps should be discussed - that's the end-user's problem.
Thanks,
Steven.
Dream software config for Android Tablet ROM developers ?
Hey all, hoping to get some visibility & feedback here ...
Steven.
StevenCShearer said:
Hello World ! I have identified a need for a smaller tablet and have begun the process to request information about how to have the hardware designed and manufactured. But as we all know, hardware is only half of the equation - the other half is the software. So I have a question for you:
What would the ideal software configuration for an Android-based LTE-enabled TABLET (with SIM card), suitable for ROM developers ?
I have (a little) previous experience (as an end-user) with replacing the manufacturer/carrier ROM for my HTC Desire with the CyanogenMod ROM. That, coupled with my years of experience as a developer (pre-Internet) allow me to at least be aware that there are layers of software from bootup, to device drivers, to OS, etc.
I would like this community to help define (or point me at some documentation) what those specific layers are, which package(s) should be used at each level, up to the point of being able to get into the Google Play Store.
I am not interested in which apps should be discussed - that's the end-user's problem.
Thanks,
Steven.
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Hello Devs,
I am working on idea where i want to make my android device as input device to other devices(PC,PS,IOS phones,android devices).
I am able to achieve this using bluetooth client and sever application running on 2 devices.
But after lot of research i found that android device can be used as bluetooth HID input device i have got rooted device with me but i am unable to use HID profile to implement this.
I have seen some projects but they are developed with different version of android which are not compatible with greater that 4.2.
Can anybody help me with this ,any kind of system level modification can be accepted as i have rooted device.