ICS drivers for our SoC (MSM8660) - AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket SGH-I727

I don't know if our phone uses the on-chip modems (I think it does not), but I would think this would give a big leg up to development, especially for the video drivers.
https://www.codeaurora.org/xwiki/bin/QAEP/
Is anyone actively working on ICS for our phones? I know we're in something of a "wait for drivers" holding pattern, but might this be enough to merit getting started on an AOSP build?

I'm working on something, will take a look.

No, the phone uses the msm8060 chip which does not have integrated modem. The modems it uses is the MDM9220 chip

tony604 said:
No, the phone uses the msm8060 chip which does not have integrated modem. The modems it uses is the MDM9220 chip
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Does not matter.
CPU/GPU wise, it's exactly identical to the MSM8660, just without a built in modem.
Strip out the modem parts, and it'll work fine.
Just got to find ICS modem drivers now.... or hack the **** out of ICS ones... haha.

Yeah that's right. Simply answering a question. I don't think much will happen until official ics is released for our device. Or at least until ics is released for any msm8x60 device. Q1 is what everyone is saying.. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Related

Gtablet gingerbread nvidia drivers available now..

http :// android.modaco.com/content/lg-optimus-2x-2x-modaco-com/338920/6-may-v20c-gingerbread-rom-leak-for-the-t-mobile-g2x/ is the new tmobile beta release for the G2x which has the drivers for ginger in it. Just wanted to give it to the devs so they can make use of it.
Awesome!!!! Go gojimi
Awesome. Very good news.
It looks to me like that leak is a rom for a phone. Does anyone know if it is based on the harmony tegra 2 chip like the gtab? If so, then this may be really great news.....
I'll hold off my excitement until someone who knows better can chime in and confirm.
G2x has the harmony chipset its a Tmobile phone suppose to be getting ginger from a OTA update in a few months. Essentially the same drivers we use are compatible with this phone so that means there is our ginger drivers.
I remember they have source codes for the driver already, just need to integrate, if I am not wrong.
Unless they just got it because nvidia still hasnt released them to the public. Thats what the fuss was about for the past month.
dynamicj said:
Unless they just got it because nvidia still hasnt released them to the public. Thats what the fuss was about for the past month.
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cannot remember the exact news source,
fyr
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13510312&postcount=1085
I stand corrected from what I seen I never knew they recieved the acceleration drivers for it.
haymant said:
cannot remember the exact news source,
fyr
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13510312&postcount=1085
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Click to collapse
I think CM7 only has hacked drivers ( reverse engineered), not the originals from Nvidia.
So this phone IS harmony based...... OK....I am a wee bit excited.
JUST A WEE!!
This is what I love about this community, XDA is about information.
Information is the drug of today's society and no one brings it faster than the collective.
I was thinking maybe on the way of hacked up drivers because my quadrant score is retarded low on cmod7.0.3
Kinda curious why none of the devs commented on this yet. wonder if were high hoping for nothing....
Thread title isn't really accurate. We have a rom from the gx2 that should contain the drivers we need. So far I don't think we have the drivers yet, not until someone with the skills has the chance to tear them out of that rom dump and get them working.
That didn't I can't wait, it's the only thing keeping me from running cm7

[Q] Port ICS from Samsung Galaxy S II I9100

is there a way to port this build Here to our phone?
Sure if you want a paper weight
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App
lol ^
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium
No each rom is specialized to a specific phone unless otherwise stated. The best ics rom I have used to so far which looks almost identical to that rom is [ROM] Sky Ice Cream Sandwich (2.3.5 <<WHAT DOES THIS SAY?) Multiple Flavors 1/24/12
Many kudos to seanscreams. Good documentation, quick, and average battery life, by my testing.
Cheers
If the T-Mobile version gets it, then we may see it sooner than the official release. the OG GSGII has very different hardware.
Converter
There is a way to put S2 roms on skyrockets but I'm not very familiar with it and I've never tried it out etc.
i can't remember where it is but its in the Dev section i believe and its a converter so u install the rom then convert it from recovery menu and stuff
idk don't hold my word to it because i haven't tried it yet
but just an idea
Won't work, different hardware, different hardware identifiers, different...differences.
It's all speculation at this point.
Besides, there's already a build out there floating around, but key features aren't working.
BootyWurk said:
There is a way to put S2 roms on skyrockets but I'm not very familiar with it and I've never tried it out etc.
i can't remember where it is but its in the Dev section i believe and its a converter so u install the rom then convert it from recovery menu and stuff
idk don't hold my word to it because i haven't tried it yet
but just an idea
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Click to collapse
Let me get this right...
You don't know where you got this info from, don't remember where this mythical tool is, and you haven't tried yet, but you are confident it is doable?
Let us all know when you remember where we can get this imaginary tool. I am not holding my breath meanwhile.
enigma00 said:
Let me get this right...
You don't know where you got this info from, don't remember where this mythical tool is, and you haven't tried yet, but you are confident it is doable?
Let us all know when you remember where we can get this imaginary tool. I am not holding my breath meanwhile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure he's thinking of the method of getting T-Mobile Hercules roms over to our Skyrocket... That's not too big of a deal, because again, the hardware is the same, just different modems need to be used.
But like stated before, this won't happen. May be the same OS, but without the same hardware, it's useless to us. We're not going to get ICS until they release it/it leaks for either the Skyrocket or Hercules.

GSII ICS port = Easy Charge ICS?

So, before y'all flame me, I don't know exactly how the ROM i'm about to discuss was created, but bear with me.
I use Infinity ROM for my Charge, which is a GSII port. Everything is up and working on it, 100%. The GSII has received official ICS from Samsung. Shouldn't we be able to port the GSII ICS to our Charges fairly easily?
This seems like a fairly easy way to get 4.0 for our phones, especially since Verizon has said we won't be getting it officially.
The ROM isn't the problem. The RIL (radio interface layer, I believe is what the acronym stands for) is the problem. The RIL is going to be unique to our phone, so there's no ROM port in existance that will really help. There are a few devs working on it now, and imnuts has said that his sources point to internal Charge ICS builds. If any of those leak, they would be helpful.
And the pre-existing RIL won't work with ICS?
mtmerrick said:
And the pre-existing RIL won't work with ICS?
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I'm not into the code of it all, but jt has a working ICS build on the Charge with a partially working RIL (no data, wonky wifi, and a few other issues). I'm sure if it were as simple as taking the current RIL and transplanting it into the ICS build, we'd have a full-fledged ICS ROM out already.
InfinityROM is not a port of the GSII ROM, it is just a theme port, all of the underlying code is still the same as the EP4 OTA (more or less), just that it looks different. What we may be able to do with the SGSII ICS ROM is use the stuff related to the camera, since the primary camera on it is the same as the Charge. Otherwise, this doesn't really give us much we don't already have.
imnuts said:
InfinityROM is not a port of the GSII ROM, it is just a theme port, all of the underlying code is still the same as the EP4 OTA (more or less), just that it looks different. What we may be able to do with the SGSII ICS ROM is use the stuff related to the camera, since the primary camera on it is the same as the Charge. Otherwise, this doesn't really give us much we don't already have.
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Click to collapse
Good news for the camera issue ...one step closer

What does it mean not to have driver support for ice cream sandwich?

I can run all my games just fine. How does not having driver support for ice cream sandwich affect my g2x? Is it affecting my framerate in games at all and I'm not noticing.
The lack of drivers means done things don't work (like video recording) and others don't work right (strange graphical glitches in ICS)
I posted this in another thread, it kinda applies here too...
the problem most of the time comes from how the rom interacts with the hardware.
when an app needs to do something, it calls a function (for example turn on wifi) the rom gets this call and passes it to the kernel. the kernel then passes this call to the hardware which powers on the wifi.
APP>ROM>KERNEL>HARDWARE
a problem can occur at any point in that chain. the app can call a function that does not exist in that version of android, or the rom can call part of the kernel which is not there, or the kernel can try to do something that cant be done hardware wise.
oversimplifying it, porting a version of android is basically matching the function calls from the rom, to that of a kernel that works for this phone.
Now, alot of the problems we have been having with ICS on our phones is because of Hardware Acceleration. we have no offical kernel that supports it. without that we have no way for the calls from the rom to get to the hardware.
the INCREDIBLE devs at Cyanogen figured this out, they wrote those functions themselves. the part that makes this incredible is the fact that they did not know what to call, or where to send it. they had to guess at EVERYTHING! unfornately this also causes problems, while they may have gotten the functions 90% correct, 10% is still wrong. and that is what is most likely causing problems for us. (a stupid example i saw once is that they made a new brightness driver, but it was off by 1 number, so most of the brightness settings would work, but if you tried to set it to 0, it would really set it to -1 and all hell would break loose)
The reason it works so well for windows, is because when a hardware manufacturer makes a piece of hardware (wifi card) they also provide drivers that are pre-made for that version of windows, that way windows can call on standard functions, and that driver will answer those calls! unlike computers, phones very rarely switch hardware, so the hardware manufacturers only give the information of how to make drivers to the phone manufacturers
i hope you get what im trying to say.... i tend to ramble
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2
i get what youre saying but why cant we take them from gingerbread?
swordsx48 said:
i get what youre saying but why cant we take them from gingerbread?
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That's what the devs did ie (legacy drivers = GB drivers) but ICS is so different from GB that drivers had to be rewritten that why some phones aren't getting ICS because some Manufacturers don't want to waste time writing them and then they want us to buy new phones. My 2¢
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
[email protected] said:
That's what the devs did ie (legacy drivers = GB drivers) but ICS is so different from GB that drivers had to be rewritten that why some phones aren't getting ICS because some Manufacturers don't want to waste time writing them and then they want us to buy new phones. My 2¢
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
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Click to collapse
@ [email protected] Well said.
If you really want to take the time you can find drivers anywhere as well as the source codes for ICS (CM9.) Or you can find a rom that has the drivers already included. For example, CM9, HFS,EB, etc. The list goes on.
One other thing I've noticed about not having hardware acceleration in ICS is you can tell which apps are trying to call on it. Or at least I think.
For instance, the camera works fine from the stock camera app. But the new Facebook app installs a 'Camera' shortcut that is supposed to make sharing directly to facebook easier. Problem is, when I use that....it starts, flickers, and then crashes out.
Now, on Gingerbread, /with/ hardware acceleration.....it works just fine. So it's definitely going to be something we /need/ for ICS.
My 2 cents anyhow.
ke4peo said:
Now, on Gingerbread, /with/ hardware acceleration.....it works just fine. So it's definitely going to be something we /need/ for ICS.
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Click to collapse
I didn't know that gingerbread has Hardware Acceleration!!??!
NO GB 2.3 (as far as I know) has any HA, the facebook thing could just be the fact that facebook is a crappy app in general lol. I do know it isn't caused by lack of "true" Hardware Acceleration.
Apps such as games have their own set of acceleration. Video cam illusion has its own. System apps like camera, browser, video recording use the systems ha instead of their own. Some non system apps require it. also mainly apps specific to ics require it as well.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
mt3g said:
I didn't know that gingerbread has Hardware Acceleration!!??!
NO GB 2.3 (as far as I know) has any HA, the facebook thing could just be the fact that facebook is a crappy app in general lol. I do know it isn't caused by lack of "true" Hardware Acceleration.
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Click to collapse
I meant that GB has the drivers and takes advantage of the Tegra hardware in the phone. ICS doesn't.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
IMO if was a master coder ( I mean like the Steven Hawkings of coding) I would take the GB drivers and strip them down to binary and then figure out how they talk to the hardware on the lowest level. Then I would take the ICS drivers for the Gnex and do the same thing so I can see how the drivers work in a perfect situation. Then I would take the ICS drivers for a Tegra 2 tablet and do it again and basically modify the GB drivers or modify the ICS tablet drivers, combine the two or write my own drivers and I know I would be finished before LG releases ics
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
ke4peo said:
I meant that GB has the drivers and takes advantage of the Tegra hardware in the phone. ICS doesn't.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Gingerbread does not take advantage of the Nvidia Dual Core. This is why we are wanting Drivers released for ICS so it can.

Strip it down and Make it Work

Hey, I'm a noob, let's get that out of the way first.
Alright, so I'd like to know, why is it so hard to get special ROMs working on certain devices?
For example, I have an Evo 3D (HTC Evo V 4G, whatever), so why is it so hard to get, say, stock ICS running on it?
Inthe end, isn't the hardware all the same, other than say processors and screen size? To get a stock ICS ROM working, couldn't you just pull it off of a similar phone with an S3 processor and a 4.3 inch screen?
Or is it not that simple? Are different codes baked into the hardware that make it impossible to just modify the pixel density, size of the screen and have the ROM work with the processors?
I understand the cameras are different, hence cameras not working on early builds of CM9... but considering many phones run the same processors, couldn't they just all work?
Please explain... thanks, thebeastglasser.
thebeastglasser said:
Hey, I'm a noob, let's get that out of the way first.
Alright, so I'd like to know, why is it so hard to get special ROMs working on certain devices?
For example, I have an Evo 3D (HTC Evo V 4G, whatever), so why is it so hard to get, say, stock ICS running on it?
Inthe end, isn't the hardware all the same, other than say processors and screen size? To get a stock ICS ROM working, couldn't you just pull it off of a similar phone with an S3 processor and a 4.3 inch screen?
Or is it not that simple? Are different codes baked into the hardware that make it impossible to just modify the pixel density, size of the screen and have the ROM work with the processors?
I understand the cameras are different, hence cameras not working on early builds of CM9... but considering many phones run the same processors, couldn't they just all work?
Please explain... thanks, thebeastglasser.
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Click to collapse
Is not that easy! I'm an EVO user/rom porter and I hear this alot where users such as yourself think is an easy process BUT is not. Same processor, same screen size maybe the same BUT at times the kernel is not there. Either the kernel for the device doesn't support ROM A or ROM B and therefore it can't be ported to whatever device or the libs keep it from running half way decent.....i.e WiFi doesn't work, sound is **** up or whatever the case maybe...just not functional to say the least.
Take for example Sense 4.0 on the One V....it was ported to the EVO4g and the ROM barely works! Both the One V and the EVO4g have similar hardware but one runs Sense 4.0 like a dream and the other one struggles with simple things like WiFi and Sound.
Now I'm sure someone else with a bit more knowledge on this can get into the specifics and the why's and what's of WHY this can't happen BUT that's it in a nut shell.....the kernel and 9/10 times libs
See ya around dude!
Hey first off, thanks! Second...
Another question then. If they all have relatively similar hardware, why isn't it that a universal kernel for similar phones can't be created?
Or better explained, what about the phone, makes it so that the kernel doesn't work? Or why couldn't you just take the kernel from device A and shove it on device B?
Sorry if I'm overloading you with questions, but hey I'm curious. Ya know?
EDIT: Or if they're practically both the same phones, why is it that you can't just take the ROM AND the kernel from phone A and put it onto phone B?
thebeastglasser said:
Hey first off, thanks! Second...
Another question then. If they all have relatively similar hardware, why isn't it that a universal kernel for similar phones can't be created?
Or better explained, what about the phone, makes it so that the kernel doesn't work? Or why couldn't you just take the kernel from device A and shove it on device B?
Sorry if I'm overloading you with questions, but hey I'm curious. Ya know?
EDIT: Or if they're practically both the same phones, why is it that you can't just take the ROM AND the kernel from phone A and put it onto phone B?
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Click to collapse
It's the manufacturer of the device who would need to release the kernel sources for the certain firmware version which they won't do continuously. In other words, device A may get ICS, hence the kernel sources may be released, but device B may be stuck with gingerbread and may not have a kernel which supports ICS. Back-porting can be done, but in many cases it is very difficult and in the end there still could be a lot of bugs.
You can't just take a kernel and "shove" it in another device. If you did this, it's quite likely nothing would work. The device would not even boot. Remember, the kernel is the center of android (Linux), so everything needs to be "linked" and correspond with each other exactly for it to work (I'm trying to make it as simple as possible ).
If they are the same devices, that would not be necessary. They would use the same roms/kernels. If they are just very similar (e.g. the a100 and a500) you may have some luck with the roms, but not the kernel. Some a500 roms can be flashed onto an a100 and work flawlessly BUT the device's original kernel must be restored for the device to boot.
Theonew said:
It's the manufacturer of the device who would need to release the kernel sources for the certain firmware version which they won't do continuously. In other words, device A may get ICS, hence the kernel sources may be released, but device B may be stuck with gingerbread and may not have a kernel which supports ICS. Back-porting can be done, but in many cases it is very difficult and in the end there still could be a lot of bugs.
You can't just take a kernel and "shove" it in another device. If you did this, it's quite likely nothing would work. The device would not even boot. Remember, the kernel is the center of android (Linux), so everything needs to be "linked" and correspond with each other exactly for it to work (I'm trying to make it as simple as possible ).
If they are the same devices, that would not be necessary. They would use the same roms/kernels. If they are just very similar (e.g. the a100 and a500) you may have some luck with the roms, but not the kernel. Some a500 roms can be flashed onto an a100 and work flawlessly BUT the device's original kernel must be restored for the device to boot.
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Click to collapse
I have the strangest feeling I just tried to jump into the shallow end of the swimming pool, and yet instead was shot out of a cannon into the middle of the sea without a scuba diver's suit... If only I could understand this more!
thebeastglasser said:
I have the strangest feeling I just tried to jump into the shallow end of the swimming pool, and yet instead was shot out of a cannon into the middle of the sea without a scuba diver's suit... If only I could understand this more!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think about it this way. The Android OS could be run on a number of different devices that run slightly different hardware such as cameras, touchscreens, processors, etc...but the OS has to be able to communicate properly to that hardware using device drivers. Just like Windows from a 30000 foot view. It can run on a Dell or Acer computer, but must have the proper drivers.
If the manufacturer's of those devices do not write ICS drivers or preferably furnish their source code, then it is incredibly difficult if not impossible for someone without the internal company documentation to write such a driver.
mf2112 said:
Think about it this way. The Android OS could be run on a number of different devices that run slightly different hardware such as cameras, touchscreens, processors, etc...but the OS has to be able to communicate properly to that hardware using device drivers. Just like Windows from a 30000 foot view. It can run on a Dell or Acer computer, but must have the proper drivers.
If the manufacturer's of those devices do not write ICS drivers or preferably furnish their source code, then it is incredibly difficult if not impossible for someone without the internal company documentation to write such a driver.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ohhh... so say you decided to put your own little phone together according to your own prerequisites, it'd be simple for you to do something on it, but not so much for someone who only has the hardware to look at... correct?
Another question, why is it so easy to port things onto Nexus Devices? Are they just more compatible with all drivers? As I've heard from one of my friends that he has a fully working Sense 4 ROM on his Nexus S... and yet it's tough to find one for my Evo V.
EDIT: I'm out of "thanks" I'll give you one as soon as I get some more...
thebeastglasser said:
Ohhh... so say you decided to put your own little phone together according to your own prerequisites, it'd be simple for you to do something on it, but not so much for someone who only has the hardware to look at... correct?
Another question, why is it so easy to port things onto Nexus Devices? Are they just more compatible with all drivers? As I've heard from one of my friends that he has a fully working Sense 4 ROM on his Nexus S... and yet it's tough to find one for my Evo V.
EDIT: I'm out of "thanks" I'll give you one as soon as I get some more...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm, I am not as familiar with the Nexus devices, but I suspect that Google has released the hardware spec details and the source code for the drivers for Nexus phones, so the source code can be modified and included for the ports. HTC unfortunately has not been as open with some of their phones.
If you were to put a phone together, you would need to use hardware in it that you had access to the specs and source code for. This is not a great analogy, but I think it will serve. The camera app tells the OS, "take a picture", then the OS tells the driver, "make the camera take a picture", and the camera device driver controls the hardware parts like the shutter, the focus, and zoom to cause the picture to be taken and handed back to the OS to be saved and then the OS notifies the app, "here is your picture, awaiting next command".
If you do not have access to the camera driver source code and camera hardware specs to create a driver, or an actual driver from the camera manufacturer, then you are missing the crucial third part and you cannot make the camera take a picture even if you get an OS loaded and an app installed there.
Check out The Tricorder Project for an excellent example. Create your own Star Trek "tricorder" with various sensors and a touchscreen that runs on Linux for around $200 and some work putting it together.
thebeastglasser said:
Ohhh... so say you decided to put your own little phone together according to your own prerequisites, it'd be simple for you to do something on it, but not so much for someone who only has the hardware to look at... correct?
Another question, why is it so easy to port things onto Nexus Devices? Are they just more compatible with all drivers? As I've heard from one of my friends that he has a fully working Sense 4 ROM on his Nexus S... and yet it's tough to find one for my Evo V.
EDIT: I'm out of "thanks" I'll give you one as soon as I get some more...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its easy to develop for nexus devices since Google always releases their sources and those devices are easily unlockable (the bootloader). This is one reason why they are usually referred to as development/developer devices.
So in other words, the software communicates with the hardware, but without the proper code embedded in the hardware, it's not possible for the software to communicate with it? And without source code given from the developer of the hardware, you're making software that hypothetically should work, but because of the different device hardware it may or may not work...?
And that's also big because some guy on the portal recently found out that all of the eight mega pixel cameras on HTC devices are the same, so it should now be easy to use working cameras on ported and newly created ROMs...
Am I getting anywhere with this?
thebeastglasser said:
So in other words, the software communicates with the hardware, but without the proper code embedded in the hardware, it's not possible for the software to communicate with it? And without source code given from the developer of the hardware, you're making software that hypothetically should work, but because of the different device hardware it may or may not work...?
And that's also big because some guy on the portal recently found out that all of the eight mega pixel cameras on HTC devices are the same, so it should now be easy to use working cameras on ported and newly created ROMs...
Am I getting anywhere with this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you got it a bit better now. The software needs to have the same codes embedded in the hardware to correspond with it. The source code is not from the hardware but of the software (kernel source).
Yes if the ROM was ported to other HTC devices with the same/similar camera (some libs will still need to be changed though).
Theonew said:
Yes, you got it a bit better now. The software needs to have the same codes embedded in the hardware to correspond with it. The source code is not from the hardware but of the software (kernel source).
Yes if the ROM was ported to other HTC devices with the same/similar camera (some libs will still need to be changed though).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright that makes a bit more sense. Thanks for your help guys!

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