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Hi!
Since last week, I've been working on an usable kernel for the HTC Vox. I guess you've already looked at this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=368014&page=5
More or less, I have a working kernel. I've tested some images against the modified kernel, and both Gpe and Opie get to the welcome screen (without getting stucked). Nothing is really usable, as they're not even compiled for this specific platform (cannot get to compile opie for arm by myself... yet), but as a base, it's not bad at all.
As I've seen on my previous post, there's people interested on this (3300 views make me believe that), what I would want to know is, are there more developers interested on building a linux port for the Vox? Testers will be needed also, but later, when we get to something useful for testing
If you're interested, reply!
Cannot help u develop anything here, but would be a willing tester for it... thoroughly
I'd love to help, but I'm in the middle of moving to a new place and won't have internet most of the time next 2 weeks.
Do you have a Wiki or other place for collaberating? SourceForge perhaps?
I do have a wiki, but upload is no faster than around 80kB/s
In case you haven't seen it, you have a new build of the kernel on the other post, along with links and a little manual to start a graphic environment on the vox.
@barth666, @StefanHamminga
I've been thinking about it, and... I don't know what to do I mean, I think Sourceforge is the best place to dump it all, and it gives us a wiki too. On the other side, here is the xanadux wiki, and maybe it would be a good idea to let sourceforge host the files, and leave the wiki in here with other HTC phones... what do you think?
Oh! For GPIO dumping, the only thing I've seen working is the linwizard project's Haret_Omap.exe (in case you want to try to guess where the damned keys are )
PS: Anyone has an HTC Tornado? I'd love to know if the tornado kernel makes the leds and vibrator flash, I can't find where they are!
biktor_gj said:
PS: Anyone has an HTC Tornado? I'd love to know if the tornado kernel makes the leds and vibrator flash, I can't find where they are!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a tornado (and vox and wings), so tell me what to test
I know from the ml_iPod wiki (I am the admin) that SourceForge is really slow and the Php and Sql versions are old, in case you want to set up something like MediaWiki! You might want to try http://code.google.com/ , it has a built in Wiki and you can host files!
Just a suggestion
Keep up the good work
EDIT: I could even set one up, if you want, but I am not into coding at all!
Hi! Sorry for the delay, but I'm having lots of work this week and I've been unable to keep on with this...
@Walram: On the following days I'll try to build a kernel for you, wich should put all the lights on and makes the phone vibrate until you take the battery out Obviously just for testing, it shouldn't break anything, but I need to know if the originally-made-for-the-tornado vibrator and led drivers actually work on the tornado... Thanks!
@Frauhottelmann
Didn't know that google gave that service too! will look at it this weekend and post back when I have something done with this.. thanks for the feedback!
walram said:
I have a tornado (and vox and wings), so tell me what to test
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
Ok, here's what I want you to try. If you haven't downloaded it yet, download the Linux Test Image:
http://rapidshare.com/files/93938763/test.zip.html
Then, download the kernel for the tornado:
http://rapidshare.com/files/96145010/kernel_tornado_driver.tar.gz.html
Dump the contents of the first file to the memory card, and then overwrite the file "zImage", with the one from the second link. Run haret, and hit "Run".
It should, at least, boot. If it doesn't, tell me where it gets frozen (could be that you only se some dots on the screen, whatever appears, just tell me )
If it boots, don't stop looking at the leds (charge/bluetooth leds mainly), they should, at least, flash -theorically they should stay on all the time-. It also should vibrate, at least for a quarter of second
I just need to know what it actually does!
Thanks!
So what about a dev-page? Then you don't need to upload it to Rapidshare and you can see the progress better!
Hi frauhottelmann,
I'm going to tell you the truth. I think it would be better if it's you who admins a site for this project than if I do, for various reasons:
1. I started all this thing, but I'm no owner of anything, by now I just hacked four things to make this phone boot a kernel, but no more.
2. I've seen your work at the ml_ipod sourceforge page, and think it's usable, clean, and nice, and I think that's exactly what we would need (even if it's a little slow just as you stated in your previous post). I could make the graphics for the web (I'm quite decent at photoshop), but I have never built a wiki, or a project anywhere else, and I don't know a sh** about it, so that would be another big thing to learn, and for now, I gotta learn more about the linux kernel, and that itself it's huge.
3. I don't think I can handle work, classes, building patches, kernels and bootstrap images and administrate a site, it feels like too much for me
Conclussion? I think it's better to let people do what does better, and I'm quite sure you'll do it better than I, so if you want, it's all yours
PS: In any case, we will need a name for the project, any suggestions?
What I have heard from the ml_iPod developers is that upload to SF is not a nice process either. I still think Google code is better, although it's not as customizable as SF.net. But we could also set up a page on Googlepages (pages.google.com) and then point to the Google code site with the Wiki and downloads!
I can offer my technical know-how (SPL, GPIOs, etc.)
Since I have little time you should ask me precise questions for which I can try to find the answers.
Sorry for the delay...
frauhottelmann said:
What I have heard from the ml_iPod developers is that upload to SF is not a nice process either. I still think Google code is better, although it's not as customizable as SF.net. But we could also set up a page on Googlepages (pages.google.com) and then point to the Google code site with the Wiki and downloads!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So we can start using google code, and stick with it if it goes well. We can always change the hosting if something goes wrong! About the wiki, the easiest thing is start with google code too, and simply link the xda wiki to it...
i can't code, but i can keep you company maybe
i am here if help is nedeed
But what name do we want to use?
Linux for Vox?
LinVox !
how does that sound ?
just kidding
waiting to get linux running on my vox....
But what name do we want to use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hooked on Vonix!
vonix sounds ok
can also try "Mobile TUX"
wow
this is an incredible news ! linux on the Vox !
I'd love to flash mine with a movibuntu distro =)
How do you guys feel about splitting the project up in several subprojects?
Like:
Kernel and driver work: TI OMAP HTC Vox board patch and perhaps drivers
Base system: minimal rootfs and toolkit to utilize all Vox functionality
Usability: GUI and (for instance) Android support
This would also enable us to share the base system & usability work with other 'linux on smartphone' and embedded projects.
I do have a suggestion for the base system:
www.emdebian.org
Very up to date build toolchain for arm (GCC 4.x toolchains) and you can have apt support on the base rom. This would allow access to a huge amount of packages that can be used with relatively little effort. Others I've checked out are the new mobile ubuntu (system requirements way to high), MontaVista (severe lack of proper documentation to get up to speed quickly), uClinux (uses ulibc instead of the faster full fledged one, in my opinion we'd better trade some storage for more speed) and some others I can't remember now...
PS. I've got internet at my new place and I've recovered my bricked wizard from the 'spare electronics bin', so finally I can spend some more time on this
[size=+3]
NEW VERSION
Ainol Novo 8 Adv 2.3.4 Rooted UK Rom Version 2.0 Click Me!!
Ainol Novo 8 Adv 2.3.4 Rooted UK Rom Version 2.0 Click Me!!
Ainol Novo 8 Adv 2.3.4 Rooted UK Rom Version 2.0 Click Me!![/size]
The Ainol Novo 8 is a great little tablet but has been hampered by some early quality issues and about 4 or 5 firmware revisions that have all been good at something but not everything.
Recently a 2.3.4 beta Rom appeared on the Chinese speaking boards and was a major improvement over the 2.2 releases however as always they were in Chinese as a first language and contained stuff that was no use to us English speaking types. So I decided it was time to apply a bit of magic and make my own Rom. Links at the bottom of the post. This is a direct result of my playing about with the beta firmware then bringing it all together.
Link to my blog post Nebular Nerd @ Blogspot
From the readme.txt
-----------------------------------------------------
Ainol Novo 8 Advanced 2.3.4 PreRooted English Rom
Hacked together by Nebular Nerd (Nov 6th 2011)
(If it's not broke, make it better)
aka thedaybeforetommorow (MP4Nations forums)
aka Oberth (XDA-Developer forums)
WWW: http://nebularnerd.blogspot.com
-----------------------------------------------------
About This Firmware:
--------------------
After much frustration having to de-Chinese every firmware for this amazing little tablet I set about making an English one to save time and to learn a bit more about Android, while doing so I also added in the main Google apps that everyone wants but always has trouble getting to behave. Using the current 2.3.4 beta as a base I removed, replaced and added various things to give us a decent firmware that will make you proud to show off your tablet with the unfortunate brand name. (Hands up all those who have had a schoolboy snicker when telling someone who makes it)
While I take credit for the putting everything together in one easy to use package the real credit should goto all those people I sourced the component parts from. Enjoy the firmware
Changelog:
----------
8/11/2011:
Tidied and formatted readme.txt.
6/11/2011:
Minor update to correct bug in build.prop preventing Chianfire and Tegra games from working.
5/11/2011:
1st Release.
Sources:
--------
http://tinyurl.com/63pnbl6 The base for my rom was this prerooted one. (Translated)
http://tinyurl.com/64xhw3y I used the Browser and Google Music from this one. (Translated)
http://tinyurl.com/29c6jlx The rom I currently use on my HD2 which I lifted most of the Google stuff from.
http://tinyurl.com/6y57c4s The tweaks used for the Market.
Other various sources for stuff about some of the other little tweaks.
Installation:
-------------
Flashing this is a breeze, simply copy the contents of the zip to your SD Card, insert into your Novo 8 and boot into Recovery with Power & Vol+.
Once booted perform the 3 wipes and then install the update and reboot. That's it, no need to install the AC3/DTS license or add Google apps.
If you spot the error about the factory_*blahblahblah*.aml file missing when booting into recovery mode just ignore it. I dumped the automated stuff as it bricked my unit the first time round when flashing the stock beta and I had to do a recovery with the original firmware release. All the automated bit really does is perform the 3 wipes and perform the install so why risk it when it takes only a few seconds to do.
When first booting the homescreen will go black/blank for about a minute. Don't panic this is quite normal it's just everything unpacking and setting up. Set up your wifi, add your Google account and off you go.
Features:
---------
- AC3/DTS Hardware Decoder works.
- Fast and Smooth 160dpi rom with build.prop tweaks to improve battery life and speed things up.
- 3G Modem support is present and has been confirmed working with these dongles . . .
Huawei E160 3G USB Dongle (ompudsman @ MP4Nations)
Huawei E1750 3G USB Dongle with Virgin UK sim. (GFZ @ XDA)
- Full English Rom set to UK region, no hidden Chinese menus to pop out at you. All Chinese only apps removed or replaced with english versions.
- Latest Market 3.3.11 with heavily modified build.prop to show as many apps as possible. This does actually show and install a far wider range of apps than before.
- Uses the free version of LauncherPro because it does seem the best for this Tablet, the Chinese firmwares seemed to have hard coded Chinese in the LauncherProPlus.apk The market will allow you to purchase the Plus Unlocker if you want those features.
- Preloaded with Google Browser, Gmail, Maps, Streetview, YouTube, Google Music, Latitude, Google Search, Calendar and Car Home.
- Google accounts will sync Contacts, Mail and Calendars correctly.
- YouTube plays HQ videos just fine without stutter or lag. (Assuming you have a good wifi signal)
- The stock video player plays most MPG, MP4, MKV files with AAC, MP3, AC3 audio. Plays 1080p quite happily as well if the storage device can keep up.
If you need wider format support but still with hardware decoding where possible get MX Video Player and the ARMv7 Codecs from the market.
- Most of the Games and Apps I have tried while testing work fine. Get Chainfire3D and buy the Pro key to enjoy some of the nice Tegra Games. Check my blog for compatibility of Tegra games.
- Wifi seems better under the new firmware.
Bugs: (Most of these have been documented as an issue with the base firmware)
-----
- Tablet likes to wake itself up now and then for no real reason. (Possible data connections causing it to wake)
- Sometimes the Power button does not work so you can't turn off the screen or power off. Install Quick Reboot off the market or hit the reset button.
- If the Screen is off and the Power button is not behaving another key will turn it on.
- Sometimes the Power Off dialog appears for no reason. Oddly not when in full screen games so far as I've noticed.
- Your Novo may disappear off the Market site for a while or completely. Mine went and then came back about a day later,
this is down to the modified build.prop. You can still download apps directly through the Market app on the Novo regardless.
- Some of the best apps are still not available in the market, Dolphin Browser HD, Facebook and Friendcaster to name a few. This is down to Google Market and not much seems to beat this last hurdle.
- Possible others (Let me know by posting on my blog or threads)
Disclaimer:
-----------
As with any custom firmware there is a risk of things going wrong so if it bricks your unit try a recovery image from Ainol and start again, if you are of a nervous disposition or the type of person who sues for a hobby please do not attempt to install this. The rom works fine on my unit and others have tried without issue, however mileage does seem to vary with this tablet.
----------------------------------------------------------------
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(screenshot app not included)
Links to the firmware (if you want to mirror please let me know so I can add links here)
Novo 8 2.3.4a Firmware UK Edition (nebularnerd.co.uk, fixed March 2021)
Thank you!
Hi Oberth,
Thank you so very much for the hard work and effort to put something together for this fantastic tablet! We have been hoping to see some english rom's being put together for some time but the fact that this is Android 2.3.4 with all the tweaks and best bits of previous rom's is excellent!!
Will be flashing your rom shortly and report back...
update: flashed and so far so good!
- Huawei E1750 3G dongle tested with Virgin UK Sim and all working.
Also will be uploading you rom to our website which may be found in the download section of the Ainol Novo 8 webpage.
(unable to post a link yet as need more posts)
Kind Regards
gadgetfreakz.co.uk
Thanks for the feedback
I actually bought my tablet from you guys through your ebay shop under the user id thedaybeforetomorrow was most pleased by the service.
Thanks for the offer to mirror and I hope the rom performs as it should, as not everyone can/will download from rapidshare I would like to add the links for your Novo 8 page to my first post here, my mp4nation thread and my blog.
Over at MP4 I have had some feedback regarding the market, while fully functional some have complained of the speed (mainly to do with the markets new design rather than tablet performance) so I am considering for the next release maybe offering both the older 2.xx style market and new 3.x market as separate firmware downloads so people can choose. Both the latest version I have used and the older one seem to see the same amount of apps visible so it's mainly a personal preference.
Just seen your test with the 3G Dongle, going to update here there and everywhere
Oberth said:
I actually bought my tablet from you guys through your ebay shop under the user id thedaybeforetomorrow was most pleased by the service.
Thanks for the offer to mirror and I hope the rom performs as it should, as not everyone can/will download from rapidshare I would like to add the links for your Novo 8 page to my first post here, my mp4nation thread and my blog.
Over at MP4 I have had some feedback regarding the market, while fully functional some have complained of the speed (mainly to do with the markets new design rather than tablet performance) so I am considering for the next release maybe offering both the older 2.xx style market and new 3.x market as separate firmware downloads so people can choose. Both the latest version I have used and the older one seem to see the same amount of apps visible so it's mainly a personal preference.
Just seen your test with the 3G Dongle, going to update here there and everywhere
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow, small world!
thank you for your custom and delighted to hear you are pleased with the service
will be testing further over the next few days, for some reason we did notice that the initial firmware form Ainol played 1080p files flawlessly then slowly playback became worse over following updates although other features/fixes had been implemented.
all mentioned above seem to be as you stated regarding the initial power up and blank screen. can't say we experienced the power button problem yet, works as it should.
the new market is indeed sluggish as with other tablets, a quick search for skype didn't show the main application as most likely with some others that you have mentioned. apart from the sluggish launch, the new market design is not so bad, personally prefer it now being used to it.
Ainol did advise an official firmware was due soon, maybe a mix of that and the firmware's you have worked with will give us an even greater improvement.
loving the honeycomb boot animation!
keep up the great work, will have the firmware link etc added shortly.
The playback issues in the later firmwares linked to the AC3/DTS license not being installed or disabled entirely so playback did get worse.
Can I ask you to re-download the firmware in the first post. I tidied up the readme.txt for readability. nothing else is changed.
Oberth said:
The playback issues in the later firmwares linked to the AC3/DTS license not being installed or disabled entirely so playback did get worse.
Can I ask you to re-download the firmware in the first post. I tidied up the readme.txt for readability. nothing else is changed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sure no problem at all, we have uploaded the firmware to our novo 8 pages download section and provided link to the firmware and to this page at xda.
will download new file and replace the one we have on our server.
thanks again
Thanks for that I have added your page to the links section where ever this is posted and edited my blog to mention where I bought it from.
Can I ask if you could change the name from Oberth to Nebular Nerd on your page, just matches up with the blog then. My user name from here was from years back and I wish you could change it. Part of why I edited the readme was to aka the names
Oberth said:
Thanks for that I have added your page to the links section where ever this is posted and edited my blog to mention where I bought it from.
Can I ask if you could change the name from Oberth to Nebular Nerd on your page, just matches up with the blog then. My user name from here was from years back and I wish you could change it. Part of why I edited the readme was to aka the names
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will do
may be in touch soon regarding some ideas we have that may be of interest.
thanks again
Man, this is great!
Thank´s a lot!
Now I´m happy with my tablet.
Hello from Spain
First of all, congratulations on your work with the tablet Ainola.
I wanted to ask if you know when it will be available in Spanish.
Thanks for everything.
kinterinho said:
Hello from Spain
First of all, congratulations on your work with the tablet Ainola.
I wanted to ask if you know when it will be available in Spanish.
Thanks for everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just checked and Spanish language is not included, maybe something for the next release
Languages included are: English (Australia / Canada / New Zealand / Singapore / UK / United States) & Chinese.
Thanks, I'll try to see how it goes anyway.
But if you can include it in the next version, would be welcome here in Spain.
kinterinho said:
Thanks, I'll try to see how it goes anyway.
But if you can include it in the next version, would be welcome here in Spain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be down to Oberth aka Nebula Nerd but don't believe it would be that hard to do, i'm sure he will let us know
Additional Languages
Hi kinterinho,
I shall have a look into adding additional languages into the firmware and see what that requires. This beta was released with only Chinese and English language files built in but I may be able to borrow some from another rom.
The only thing that might present a problem is if LauncherPro refuses to change all it's options to Spanish in the same way the default Chinese one would not become fully English when you changed the language. I shall have to experiment and see
Cheers for the update, having a few issues.
Iplayer app now apears to suck goats since using this ??
any ideas ?
rezza.dh said:
Cheers for the update, having a few issues.
Iplayer app now apears to suck goats since using this ??
any ideas ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I think you will find the BBC iPlayer app has always had issues.
Playback should be fine via the browser, this firmware plays iPlayer via stock browser although previous firmware required dolphin browser hd.
Oberth said:
Hi kinterinho,
I shall have a look into adding additional languages into the firmware and see what that requires. This beta was released with only Chinese and English language files built in but I may be able to borrow some from another rom.
The only thing that might present a problem is if LauncherPro refuses to change all it's options to Spanish in the same way the default Chinese one would not become fully English when you changed the language. I shall have to experiment and see
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate you try it. In Spain would do well to include also the Spanish language.
I read on the post to see if there are any changes.
iPlayer is indeed pretty poor.
Yep confirming GFZ's post, it will play with the stock browser set to mobile but quality is pretty poor. I remember it running better on one the original stock roms. It could be one of a few things.
- Bug in the firmware with flash, although Youtube works through the various browsers ok. You can't use the Youtube app for comparison as it's not flash driven.
- Could be a VM Heap issue with it taking up to much space (need to play with that and see)
- Could be the higher dpi on top of the higher res causing the poorly coded app lots of effort in the upscale, dropping to the original 192dpi might cure it at the expense of fuzzy text and icons, again I need to test, not sure if dpi switchers play nice with this rom so you could at least hop between them for different tasks.
- I might try embedding it in the rom as well, The Youtube app hated being added to the tablet post flashing and performance was poor but ran just fine after being flashed in.
The problem with iPlayer for Android was that it was released only after a lot of complaints from the community at large about them only supporting the iThings. BBC were not really wanting to make it but cobbled something together just to shut people up.
Quick edit: Hit the settings button and drop the quality to low in iPlayer seems to play the same as in Browser. Not ideal I know, looking at it more closely it seems to be a buffering issue as you get a few smooth seconds and then it all grinds to a halt.
Multilanguage support
Hi kinterinho
I have been looking into and reading up on how Android handles multiple languages and it looks like it not something easy to do as it's not a case of adding files but adding stuff into the files and given the differences between roms especially 2.2 and 2.3 ones I imagine a cut'n'paste job wont do it.
However I have the beginnings of an idea, it needs some work combined with a recent opportunity that has come my way so I can't promise anything but watch this space.
Thanks you!
Hi,
I already read about the option to remap some keys by editing the keyboard layout file. Is it also possible to switch between keyboard layouts as you type (using a hotkey) - e.g. I need to be able to quickly change between Cyrilic and Latin keyboards.
Thanks.
I think you're talking about hardware keyboard.... But keyboard apps like swiftkey allow for 3 allow for 3 languages simultaneously.
Sent from my ICS Splashed MT4GS using xda premium
Oops haha double post
Hi indeed, I was talking about the hardware keyboard, if it is not possible to use both cyrillic & latin keys and quickly switch between them, this would decrease the benefit of the keyboard for me and I might decide to go with a non qwerty phone in the end.
Thanks for you insight though.
nickexel said:
Hi indeed, I was talking about the hardware keyboard, if it is not possible to use both cyrillic & latin keys and quickly switch between them, this would decrease the benefit of the keyboard for me and I might decide to go with a non qwerty phone in the end.
Thanks for you insight though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In this dev thread: Hardware Key Mapping | Flashable zips & Requests
...user Paitor has come up with and explained how to implement swedish language support for the hardware keyboard.
Given what Paitor has figured out how to do, it is absolutely within our ability to sit down and make exactly what you are asking.
All it takes is someone willing to sit down and invest the time into actually making it happen.
I would volunteer, but I have a lot on my plate already and realistically it's just not feasable for me to do this and keep up with my other projects on this device.
I will however be willing to take a finished keymapping and turn it into a flashable zip file and update the first posting of the key mapping thread with the result.
(and I always credit the author both in the installer package and thread post)
We still have to write in hardware keyboard language support for other languages, and I invite anyone else who wants to use alternative languages to read that thread and see about putting some time into helping us make that available for everyone. What you want to do is not exactly a small project, but pushing what we know to the next level is the reason for XDA's existence.
So, short answer is yes, what you are asking for is completely possible - you can make a key map file that has all of the keys in the languages you would want.
This is XDA, where you can get exactly what you need right down to the last little detail - if you want to put the time into making it happen. We'll be glad to help out where we can along the way.
--------
Edit:
If I were to tackle this project - this would be my approach:
Some apps, like Drocap2 or soundhound, pop up in the list when you have the Genius key remapped to 'search' and long press it. If there is nothing else that utilizes this shortcut function it will default to the only app that does ( in the case of a stock installation or on my ROM, voice search ).
So what I would do is write in each hardware keyboard layout that I wanted, then design an app that utilizes that Genius shortcut function to run - and the sole purpose of the app would be to switch between hardware keyboard layouts.
To me, that seems like the most elegant and refined approach to your problem without making one monstrously cumbersome key-mapping.
You could just press the Genius button to access the app wherever you happened to be, and then have it just show a menu as an overlay to swap between whatever keymappings you wrote in.
--------
My time is being invested in my ROM - then once that's set to my satisfaction, on to kernel work on overclock/undervolt leading into GPU work in conjunction with TV-out, and then on to bluetooth work for controller support on a Sense device.
These are big projects and very time consuming undertakings, so as you can see a project like this keylayout issue is a long time coming before I can get to it - but i'm happy to help where I can for anyone who wants to dive in and do.
Figured i'd throw out what my approach would be to give someone an idea on where to start - and while certainly not the only solution, is something to consider.
I think I have very good news for you!
There's a keyboard called "AnySoftKeyboard" (search for it in the Market and click Dev Website if you want more info) which supports hard kbd mapping (and switching bet layouts by pressing Alt + Space), they have a Russian language pack (Cyrillic & Phonetic), and it is all free.
I have never used it, but remembered coming accross it a while back and decided to check it out for you.
Hope it works
Hey guys, thanks for your replies!
I will definitely check this application - i am not sure it supports all hardware keyboards in general (or just the g1/droid as written in the description), but I will give it a try if I get this phone
And yes, I will gladly help in creating a layout for a Bulgarian keyboard. Unfortunately I cannot create an application for switching between the layouts myself, as I am not a developer.
thanks again.
AnySoft does work
Got my phone and installed AnySoftKeyboard. It does allow for switching bet layouts on the MT4Gs, but does seem a bit quirky so far... (that's with Hebrew & English, you might want to experiment yourself)
Hi guys,
I've written a completely new Android binder driver (for IPC), which is targeted to solve some fundamental issues in the existing driver. One main improvement is to make concurrent IPC calls possible. Some background info can be found in my earlier post on Android kernel group:
http: slash slash groups.google.com/group/android-kernel/browse_thread/thread/c57874670e4decb1
(oops external urls are not allowed for new users
There weren't many people interested due to low volume of the group. Now that I have completed the first version, which is back compatible with the existing driver, and fixed a few bugs. I've tested on the ICS emulator and my phone U8150 Froyo. It seems to be running quite well, but I want to see how it runs on other Android devices while I'm getting my new phone. Test results, bug/issue reports, and of course community comments will be very welcomed, which are important for me to determine how the code should further move on.
Although not proven, I'm expecting not only those dual core phones, but single core ones will get an overall smoother response in various parts of the system.
Okay if this still somehow interests you, you can find my project on github
https: slash slash github.com/rong1129/android-binder-ipc
and just dive into the release directory, use the latest version (0.4 so far) to patch your kernel source tree, then upload the new kernel image to your device and see whether it works for you.
Note this is still an early release and has very limited tests so far. Please make sure you understand the risk before you hack your phone and always back up everything before you started. As other disclaims go, I'm not responsible for any damage may be caused by or related to using or in the process of using the driver
Lastly, happy hacking!
Cheers,
Rong
*subscribing to this thread*
Hi Rong,
thank you so much
our phones, tablets, etc.
can't have too much smoothness
I hope that I'll find some time within the next weeks to also give this a test on the Xoom and see whether it works (with ICS; Team Eos kernel)
there at least seem to be issues with ICS on the SGS (galaxys s1)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=23937103&postcount=2502
I found this thread . Is this driver the same on all android devices and roms? Or do you have to mod it for every single device/rom?
ABANDONED
Hi! Does anyone here use Linux desktop distributions in chroot environment on Android device?
I am developing wayland protocol server for Android devices. If anyone is interested in checking my project, latest version of apk is always available here:
ftp://ftp.drivehq.com/mogryph/sparkle/
Currently I am only focused on running Xwayland as client. Also apk supports audio output.
Simplest instruction:
1. Android 6 or newer required, busybox required, root required
2. Prepare linux distribution in directory, image or on partition. Make sure you have Xwayland installed in it. Make sure you specify which DE to run (or at least xterm) in ~/.xinitrc
3. Install and start sparkle.apk
4. Press "edit user.sh", uncomment (remove #) line starting with start_generic_container. Change rest of this line to match your device:
first arg - image or partition where distribution is installed. If distribution is installed in directory and mouting is not needed, leave this arg unchanged.
second arg - mount point or directory with distribution. If you use mounting (first arg), this arg can be left unchanged.
third arg - name of the user which will be used to start Xwayland and DE. Its better to specify non-root. Also this is the user who must have .xinitrc in his home dir (see step 2).
5. Save user.sh and click "Start".
6. Any problems and crashes will be reflected in the log.
If you want audio output:
1. Compile and install driver from pcm_sparkle.tar.gz in your distribtion
2. cp 1.asoundrc ~/.asoundrc
If you have blinking problem, change upload_mode from 1 to 2 in settings. If you have bad performance, setting no_damage to true may help, but in most cases no_damage=false is better. Fastest upload mode is 0 (if it works).
If you don't trust me and don't want to give sparkle root permissions (I perfectly understand this) you don't have to. Also you can do without busybox.
But in this case, you need to understand and do a lot of things. Check sparkle's user.sh to get idea about what needs to be done. Basically:
1. You need to make /data/data/com.sion.sparkle/files accessible from inside chroot container. You can use bind bound.
2. Make sure you have tmpfs mounted over /tmp in container.
3. You may need to change selinux context on /tmp to match sparkle's context or disable SELinux.
4. You need to create new directory in /tmp, symlink sparkle's wayland socket from /data/data/com.sion.sparkle/files/wayland-0 to this dir. And export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR to point to this dir. Dir must be (ch)owned by user who will be running Xwayland and DE.
5. After all this, you can try to start Xwayland and your DE.
new version
New version
rgho.st/8Fbz64Rxj
Added x86 and x86_64 support. Actually it is rewritten almost from scratch but x86 support is the only thing others can notice...
Hello! This project is interesting. I tried you app and it works on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X(chromium and glmark from chrooted environment works very well)! Can you publish source code on Github, because it really interesting project?
Also I'm interested, please post it on github!
Did you put this up on github or move this thread? Looks very interesting.
1
Argh, sorry, I decided to abandon this project. You are free to delete thread. Also no copyleft-licensed components were used so I don't have to bother releasing sources.
Hentacler said:
Argh, sorry, I decided to abandon this project. You are free to delete thread. Also no copyleft-licensed components were used so I don't have to bother releasing sources.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check your PM please!
1
Hello again.
For last two weeks I was rewriting it from scratch (yes. again... yes, third time).
Probably need another week to make it stable.
Currently I am not sure it runs on any device except my own 5-year old phone (LineageOS 14).
I will maintain last version here:
ftp://ftp.drivehq.com/mogryph/sparkle/
There is no English documentation, but you can see script "user.sh" to get idea about how to start xwayland. In most cases it should be enough to edit few lines in that script to make it work on another device. If you execute this script on your device with "install" argument, it is supposed to place itself into sparkle's directory and sparkle is supposed to run it ("start" function) automatically. Sparkle doesn't request root unless script does.
Here is video of sparkle working:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOSFYxCF7Q8
But it seems that KDE + video recording was too much for my old phone
Still, if you going to see video, don't close it until 2:00 where I turned of composition which caused lags.
Also on device everything looks much smoother than on video, even after 2:00.
When I watch fullscreen (1280x720) video on my device, sparkle + xwayland together add just 5% of CPU load (20% load of single core).
Thats it I guess... I tried to to discuss sparkle on 4pda.ru (russian forums), but got very bad reception. "xsdl is perfect, dont reinvent the wheel" they say. So I started to hate humanity and I decided to make sparkle personal project. Also this is last time I am solving reCAPTCHA to leave post on XDA.
Still alive
We are still alive. I've changed first post to reflect actual state. Now sparkle supports audio, auto-mouting containers and is lot more stable.
Yet there are still many things I want to improve in sparkle's core before adding new functions.
Also there are few demo videos on ftp.
Amazing!
Working great on my redmi 6 pro. Stock miui 9.9.3 rom. With linuxdeploy and sparkle from your ftp. No lag on visual and sound. My Linux distribution is alpinelinux arm64 arch.
Since first time I see your posting on 4pda. I'm interested in it. And finally it's on xda.
Thanks dev.
---------- Post added at 02:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:44 AM ----------
For anyone interested in the topic. Please follow the instructions in documentation from ftp. And Translate it to eng from rus.
This sounds amazing! Just curious, is it related to https://github.com/twaik/sparkle ?
I now have it working very well on my Samsung Tab S3 using Xwayland and a tiling window manager. Firefox runs amazingly well!
Is it meant to be used only with Xwayland or will it also work with native Wayland applications?
BTW, I think if you open sourced this project and promoted it a bit, it could become quite popular. It's basically the first way to run X11 GUI applications on Android devices at full speed. If you set up a donation link, you could also get compensated for your time and effort. I'll personally contribute $20 if it's open sourced, and I'm sure others will chip in as well.
robsmith11 said:
This sounds amazing! Just curious, is it related to https://github.com/twaik/sparkle ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for feedback. Nice to hear that someone managed to start this thing
Twaik's repository is clone of my very very old version of sparkle. I made that version years ago when I was just starting to learn linux and C++. Sparkle was rewritten from scratch two or three times since that version. And (I believe) current version is much better.
Regarding making it open source... Few months ago I had to find real job. Can't spend much time on personal projects any more. But I have my own strange programming style and my own vision of what sparkle should be. Not sure I want others to paint on my picture. It's probably all because of Twaik! I hate how he used old open source version of sparkle. He did terrible things to it, outraging all my beliefs Sorry!
P.S.: Yesterday I've uploaded another apk to my ftp. The file is called "sparkle-testing.apk". This version is much newer and has many fixes. But I've also changed to many things since tested version including some fundamental changes. No guarantee it will run at all on other devices. Interest is mega low and I get no test reports at all.
Hi Hentacler, I've just found your project - it looks really promising. Unfortunately, the only link currently working on this thread is to github. Is this project still live?
I have a samsung galaxy note 10+, and am using it as a laptop replacement. In addition to the android apps using Samsung Dex (Samsung's desktop solution), I have several linux distributions installed inside a chroot using userLand - so far, its working great. I'd be keen to give you project a try if it's still live, and am happy to help out with testing from my device.
Re open source - while I like your project, I'm not super interested in investing time into something that's not open sourced - I appreciate your concerns about wanting to maintain the direction, but having transparent development is pretty important to me. Is Twaik's fork of your project a better place to go?
Cheers.
tillum said:
Hi Hentacler, I've just found your project - it looks really promising. Unfortunately, the only link currently working on this thread is to github. Is this project still live?
I have a samsung galaxy note 10+, and am using it as a laptop replacement. In addition to the android apps using Samsung Dex (Samsung's desktop solution), I have several linux distributions installed inside a chroot using userLand - so far, its working great. I'd be keen to give you project a try if it's still live, and am happy to help out with testing from my device.
Re open source - while I like your project, I'm not super interested in investing time into something that's not open sourced - I appreciate your concerns about wanting to maintain the direction, but having transparent development is pretty important to me. Is Twaik's fork of your project a better place to go?
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ftp://ftp.drivehq.com/mogryph/sparkle/
Link to FTP should work and there you can get two versions:
sparkle.apk - old version, but confirmed to work by 3-4 people.
sparkle-testing.apk - latest version, but only briefly tested by me.
I don't ask anyone to invest anything... Sparkle doesn't request root access or any other dangerous permissions (unless you enable automatic container mounting and starting) so it's safe to try for anyone who wants.
Btw, somewhere between these two versions I've replaced BASH container initialization script with LUA version. That was probably a bad idea. LUA script is harder to start directly as root and hacks I used may not work (currently may even cause application freeze if root access is denied). Going to revert to BASH probably. But this only touches people who want sparkle to mount container and launch everything automatically on single button press.
p.s.: Why I need to solve captcha every time I post something?
Thanks for the new release! I've updated and everything seems to be working without any changes on my Samsung Tab S3 with chroot and Arch Arm Linux.
Your changes also solved the flickering for me! The old version would flicker the screen whenever my keyboard's trackpoint activated, but it's not flickering at all any more. Performance seems to be about the same.
I think this could be quite popular, but not many people know about it. Perhaps a post on Hacker News or Reddit would raise awareness.
I understand your position on open source and maintaining control. One idea if you haven't already considered it is releasing the code with a restrictive license that forbids any forks. But either way, I'm enjoying being to properly use X11 on my tablet.
BTW, have you tried any native Wayland compositors? I don't really understand the Wayland ecosystem that well. I gave Sway a brief try, but it didn't seem to work. I've only been using XWayland.
@Hentacler Thanks for your reply! Very keen to get this working, but having a few issues. I'm unsure how to configure the user.lua file - I'm using your latest apk.
I have a non-rooted device, and am running archlinux under termux. Works fine with xsdl. I have installed xorg-server-wayland for X11. I'd appreciate any advice you have.
@robsmith11 Are you able to share how you got this working on Arch? Thanks!!!!
tillum said:
@Hentacler Thanks for your reply! Very keen to get this working, but having a few issues. I'm unsure how to configure the user.lua file - I'm using your latest apk.
I have a non-rooted device, and am running archlinux under termux. Works fine with xsdl. I have installed xorg-server-wayland for X11. I'd appreciate any advice you have.
@robsmith11 Are you able to share how you got this working on Arch? Thanks!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure it is possible to use sparkle without root...
Sparkle makes it's directory accessible for everyone (chmod 777). Before Android 8 or 9 this was enough and xwayland from termux was able to connect to sparkle. Here is how people used to start it:
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/data/data/com.sion.sparkle/files
Xwayland
But newer versions of Android brought more restrictions and termux can no longer connect to sparkle. These new restrictions are implemented using SELinux if you know what it is. Applications now have different security contexts.
But that is not all. Newest versions of android brought even more terrible meaningless restrictions effectively "killing" applications like termux and many others.
In short, from now one applications are not allowed to execute code (binary) that comes from "untrusted" sources. Termux used to download a lot of such code from it's own repositories. And now it can't. We can't even unpack binaries from assets.
So I can only help with rooted devices.
P.S. Please forgive me, but I am leaving this website. Making people solve recaptcha every time they want to post something is unacceptable level of contempt.
My mail: [email protected]
Thanks for that, will have a play. I could always just root my device. Weird about recaptcha, not having this issue. Currently through termux I have access to the whole sdcard, and am able to download packages (and distros) in it - will have a play and see what else is possible.
@tillum
I basically just followed the instructions on the first post for using Sparkle without busybox. I didn't need to modify the Lua scripts.
I'm guessing SELinux may be a problem without root. I'll try setting it up without root when I have a chance later.