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?
Hey,
I've recently dived head first into android app development. I was messing around with the LatinIME that is available on the the AOSP source code tree.
I've managed to get it working fine on my 4.0.3 device, but i'm having serious problems trying to get it to work on devices with lower API Levels.
It's got lots of deprecated packages inside it, so i believe there must be some easy way of getting it to run without FC's on older devices, but i just can't figure it out!
Other people have already done this, as it's available on the market, and i'd appreciate any guidance anyone can offer.
Is it just a case of rewriting the 4.0 only functions?
Thanks,
Jack.
Hello people,
after some conversation with early ICS-on the transformer developer paulburton, I have a git repository of a mostly working linux 3.1 mainline kernel with some patches from paulburton to make it actually work.
Icluded are (as of now) :
improved atmel mXT1386 touchscreen driver
tegra_v4l2 camera driver
ov5640 soc camera driver
prox_lds6202 proximity sensor driver
fm34-500 voice processor driver
asusec keyboard driver (for dock)
al3000a ambient light driver
The purpose of this is not to port things back from some linux 3.X kernel to our 2.X kernel, but to have a fully working 3.X source tree some day, from which we could port to further linux versions in the future. This can also be helpful if we want to port android 5.X in the future.
The github is at https://github.com/skirata/linux/tree/android-tegra-tf101-3.1 .
(It's my github, if someone wants to become a collaborator, please let me know, I'll add you to the collab list.
WE NEED EVERY DEVELOPER WE CAN GET.
I will spend some time on this, but I think I can hardly finish this project on my own.
Totally support this, looks promising!
Thanks for the initiative.
Are you and guever working on this together? I can test and maybe help make aokp or megatron versions.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2
Of course I'm willing to work, you know I've helped all I could.
My kernel has much of the code updated to 3.1, so may be we can use much of it.
This can be done in two ways, by modifying the code in paul whatever it takes, or modify mine. I have nothing clear which will be easier, because over time I have made several test on my code and unfortunately, when the kernel does not boot can not be debugged, so you have to turn back.
Until wednesday I will not be able to devote almost no time, so I think the first thing would be to check the operation of the kernel of paul (if not already done) with a current rom.
It is possible that the graphics drivers (most are binary system level) may not work with that kernel.
Well, it is what I think, that first we must see is what should be changed in the kernel to function properly (or whether to change the rom).
Teamwork is how it's meant to be done.!
I will setup a working kernel konfig in the next days to push this a little forward.
at Guevor :
I'm adding you in as a collaborator so we can work together on this.
Let's improve paulburton's drivers and add new ones based on latest nvidia images.
The advantage of upstream-porting rather than downstream-porting is we can port future kernel versions more easily with own written drivers.
Also, android 5.X porting will be a lot easier, as I think it won't support 2.6.X kernels at that time. And even if it would, we can have a massive performance boost if using 3.1 mainline kernel with improvements all over the world.
Glad to count you in, guevor.
I owe you so much already.
EDIT : Just in case, be sure to use the 3.1 branch of the linux repository, as the master branch is forked from torvalds (linux 3.4.X) and will get some love when we get the 3.1 kernel to work as good as we are satisfied.
Well, the main problem I see, thinking about future versions (5.x) is that we do not have the source code for video drivers, only a small part that exists in the kernel. This added to the fact that nvidia does not provide (at least I do not know) the binary drivers for android (as they made for linux), I think that may be, we do not see tegra2 drivers for 5.x. That does not mean we can not do something, but will be less optimal and more complicated.
Hopefully I'm wrong and nvidia make things easy , but I think no manufacturer will use tegra2 for new products, and do not think they will update current products to that version ....
guevor said:
Well, the main problem I see, thinking about future versions (5.x) is that we do not have the source code for video drivers, only a small part that exists in the kernel. This added to the fact that nvidia does not provide (at least I do not know) the binary drivers for android (as they made for linux), I think that may be, we do not see tegra2 drivers for 5.x. That does not mean we can not do something, but will be less optimal and more complicated.
Hopefully I'm wrong and nvidia make things easy , but I think no manufacturer will use tegra2 for new products, and do not think they will update current products to that version ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried contacting Nvidia about this?
For the record, I am not a Linux user, even with what Im going to say, keep that in mind... My history is firmly routed in WinBlows land!
This has me all sorts of excited, I remember saying it back in paul's thread before it fell off the face of the earth (read, first few pages of the forum).
As stated at the top, while NOT a Linux user, I was trying to build CM9 for one of my tablets, to do so, I had setup a Linux box (tried a few distro's), and kept having issues, so a friend of mine walked me through updating to a 3.4.x kernel (3.4.0.-5 iirc), and things definitely FELT smoother vs the 3.0 (on the distro I was using before he berated me for it and moved me to a different one) and then 3.2 kernel in use (ill note hardware issues where also at play with the actual issues, but the smooth feeling after updating was definitely something I noticed).
I have no benchmarks or performance statistics to back that up, but as I said in paul's thread, and have now experienced in a "full" Linux environment, the future with Kernel v3.1 and up has me VERY excited as to what can be done with the OG Transformer! (vs mass backports to 2.x)
On that note, Subscribed thread, and time to get an RMA for my Tablet... the top basil part is starting to come off the unit
I haven't coded a lot with linux and android source, but I do have experience with coding and especially with reading through source code and finding syntax and other errors i.e. proofreading
So if you want me on the team I'm game!
Orkeren said:
I haven't coded a lot with linux and android source, but I do have experience with coding and especially with reading through source code and finding syntax and other errors i.e. proofreading
So if you want me on the team I'm game!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every help is welcome !
Please tell me your github name and I will add you as a collaborator
If my help is welcome i am willing to test your builds on my TF101G B90 with dock. So let me know if you have to do something.
ajohn117 said:
If my help is welcome i am willing to test your builds on my TF101G B90 with dock. So let me know if you have to do something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do for sure, but it could take some time until we can push out the first build for testing.
rayman33 said:
Hello people,
after some conversation with early ICS-on the transformer developer paulburton, I have a git repository of a mostly working linux 3.1 mainline own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With my git every things works but usb hotplug,cam,hdmi-audio. ( usb works fine when insert add boot ) , also i will stop dev for it as i'm selling my tab :crying: but would be nice if this got finished.
also major thanks to paul
Do you started the project?
I tried some things yesterday, but it did not boot. I will have a look into spark rom and try some other things, I think I have some ideas.
Btw, kernel compiles fine, zImage is there, perhaps some early device drivers have to be updated. I will look into the ramdisk I created and fix some things ...
Just to let you people know. Progress is being made.
First progress
I managed to make it boot on revolver 4.1.1 rom. I modified the video drivers to be compatible with the actual binary drivers.
The touch screen is not working, but I really have not looked at it, maybe even compile options I chose are not the most adequate, but just wanted to get it to boot with video graphics working.
We better get each other updated via pm in the future ..
What touchscreen driver did you define in the kernel config ?
The new mxt1386 or the old one from the 2.6.39.4 kernel?
Maybe we need to rewrite the mxt1386 drivers.
rayman33 said:
We better get each other updated via pm in the future ..
What touchscreen driver did you define in the kernel config ?
The new mxt1386 or the old one from the 2.6.39.4 kernel?
Maybe we need to rewrite the mxt1386 drivers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I tested whether simply boot and graphics drivers failed as expected, and I've tried to change it and make it working. I think that is the basics (make it boot) to further adjust problems.
About the drivers, yes, I used mxt1386 but not detected coordinates, just click. I used a USB mouse to verify that the graphics drivers work.
I updated the repository with my changes.
Did you get a log cat already ?
It may reveal if the mxt1386 driver fails to load.
rayman33 said:
Every help is welcome !
Please tell me your github name and I will add you as a collaborator
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
easy as pie!
Code:
orkeren
Hi Guys,
I am still a very new Android lover (8 months to be exact) and have already rooted my Sensation and looking at other avenues of getting things more exciting.
My first question is this: I recently downloaded the MIUI ROM, namely this version: JBMIUIv4.1 #2.8.17. Here on XDA there is a download for an updated version namely JBMIUIv4.1 #2.8.22, however I cannot access mediafire for some reason and really would love this new ROM. Is there an alternate download link available for this updated version available please?
[HR/]
Ok, now this is something that has been been asked many times BUTas a Windows Mobile developer, it creates an issue because my goal is to get into Android development. However, I do not want to develop the Android Apps (pretty much the same thing I do already but on Windows). What I want to do is to take a ROM, customise it from the bottom up for any specific device for example - HTC Sensation, compile it and deploy this.
Now I have already dabbled a little with the kitchen related stuff and never really got that working. What I am in search of is an accurate, step by step guide for developing, building and deploying various ROM's for the masses BUT on the Windows platform.
I already have Eclipse, cygwin, CRCStudio and and and but cannot get what I am looking for; and I have been searching for some time now and nothing really pops out and says ok, here we go use this to customise you ROM from scratch and by this I mean, the ROM, adding things like Beats Audio, Changing the look and feel of Android itself (like the Sense and MIUI), how to kitchen it properly and all of this as a start for HTC, Samsung, etc.
I want to add some value and have some really cool ideas and opportunities, especially here in South Africa where I am from the only way this will happen is if I get YOUR help.
Can anyone work with me on this or direct me so that I can get things started, PLEASE!!!!
Hello all!
Firstly, I would like to thank many people for their inputs on this site. I have been viewing it for quite some time, so I finally created an account. I cant wait to get in the community!
Now, as for the reason for this post. I am trying to get my ALFA USB WiFi AWUS036NHA to work with my Tab 2 7.0. After doing some research I am with the understanding that I must write the drivers into the kernel. I have a decent understanding of how the kernel works with the hardware and software of the device (the theory of it, rather), but I do not know how to actually edit the kernel. I have done some software developing on Linux, Windows, iOS, and the PSP-1000 communities, but I did nothing with their kernels.
My question is, is there a pre-built kernel with the RALINK drivers? If so, I would love a link to that, but I am also interested in learning how to modify the kernel, for I am mainly a Linux/Android fanatic.
Any input would be appreciated,
Thanks!
Edit : Just for informational purposes, my tablet is on Cyanogenmod 4.2.2. The only thing on it are a BlackUbuntu image, and a Backtrack 5 image, which I boot through terminal.
Edit : I am currently setting up the Eclipse IDE on my Ubuntu system. I should be ready to go by morning. I have been reading references and studying source code for the better part of the day.
Azraelpwnz