hello comunity,
thank you for taken me into your community.
my question might is weird but i was always wondering why android ROMS are always just made for specific devices.
As known from the Personal Computers you just get an installation media like DVD or USB Drive packed with the OS and all the driver the computer might have. the installation routine just figures out the the device needs and installs acordingly.
why this is not possible for the ARM-devices to install android OS like this? or is there already projects who invented? i think almost everybody (especially those who owns a not anymore supported device by the manufacturer) would appreciate if he/she could upgrade by using an autonomous installer.
I am not a hardware architecture nerd thats why i would appreciate and kindly ask for an easy to understand explanation
Related
I'm a professional programmer, and I'm baffled. It seems that there is a whole "smartphone scene" and it's intimidating. I'm a Java expert and am comfortable with the Android SDK in Eclipse. However I'm completely baffled by the prospect of getting tethering to work on my Nexus One.
One thing that baffles me, for example, is the concept of a "ROM". Is there a ROM on the N1? I thought that ROMs haven't been used for 10 years. I was under the impression that the N1 is basically a little PC running Linux, which means that it should only have a bare minimum of a BIOS and everything else would be on "disk", or flash.
Another thing that baffles me is the concept of "rooting" the N1. It's running Android, which is an open-source mobile operating system. And, as far as I know, I have the permission to change all bits of the phone. Heck, that's part of the appeal! To say that you have to "root" your N1 is like saying that you have to "root" your Ubuntu box - it just doesn't make sense.
Complicating matters is the release of Froyo. I simply don't know enough to judge whether the actions required to upgrade the N1 to Froyo are compatible with the actions required to install a tethering app.
And that's the thing: I'm not just interested in installing tethering. I want to understand what I'm doing and why. I'd like to understand the options choose intelligently between them. There are so many resources online which are trying so hard to be helpful, but which don't really answer these simple questions.
I really appreciate your help.
-Ablation
search the correct forum for your phones model here on xda. some roms provide tethering preinstalled
check this thread for more info
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=668090
while that targeted at g1, its the same concept. again search xda for the n1 section
Thanks for the link. However, I think I need a more conceptual introduction to the scene. The essential question is: what are the bits? On a PC you have:
1. BIOS
2. Disk
3. Peripheral firmware.
The disk is further broken down:
1. Bootloader
2. Operating system
3. Drivers
4. Applications
When you say ROM I assume you mean some combination of BIOS and Peripheral Firmware?
i just want to know that why android operating system does not work directly in mobile devices
why there is need of development in it to use in all diffrent phones?
why it cant work directly like windows in pc does
and other question all others like bada os, symbien and apple os they all need they also need development or we can use them directly
if sumone didnt understand my question i will explain more
for further explanation>
windows we can install directly in any pc of any company or assembled
but android need development and designed for a seprate product of a specific brand
why?
no1 is intrestd in answring these questions ?
You are just kidding here right?
/Pun intended.
For example
[1] ....
[n] Windows has the complete set of drivers
[n+1] The manufacturer delivers the driver
Fundamentally, you're misunderstanding the situation. Windows does not run on any computer you can throw together. It runs on any computer that you can throw together that matches the evolving, de facto standard that started as the IBM PC.
It won't run on a SPARC Station or a 68k Mac or an IBM 360 or a Wii or a PS3 or, well, a HTC Vision.
Similarly, Android will run on any PC, er phone, er tablet, er, well computer that is basically the same as an existing Android device. The vast majority of the custom development that is, strictly-speaking, necessary for a new device amounts to device drivers. Now, most manufacturers do a lot on top of that to distinguish their product. That's where Sense and MotoBlur and such-like come into play.
A further complication is that storage space and memory are at a heavy premium on these devices. So, it is infeasible to include the incredible variety of drivers and other hardware support that makes a typical Windows or Linux install need several GBs.
Back in the day, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and there were only a handful of PC makers in the world, similar customization was needed. My first PC came with a manufacturer-custom version of DOS 2.1 and Windows 1.1. Is wasn't until at least DOS 3.x (maybe 4.x, that was a long time ago) that a vanilla MS copy had a chance of working. Even then, most peripherals *needed* a custom driver to be used at all. My first mouse is an example. Only way to use it was the Genius Mouse drivers that came with it.
thanks for ur answers guys
Hi. I would love to see Native linux on my Sensation, but nobody did it yet, and I'm maybe high level user, but hardly developer. First I was thinking about porting HD2 Ubuntu, but then I realized... There is one very expensive device on the internet. Device with Android phone specs. but Native linux on it. Pandora Handheld Device. If someone could help me with porting pandora system (Or just do it yourway) it would be great, not only for me, but for the whole community. The big advantage is that, Pandora system is the most (I think) developed ARM Linux in the world. It means we just need to get it work, and the rest is already done.
Here you go with some links:
Porting
Booting
Files
Sorry for my English and I please you to help me. Will be waiting.
(Sorry if it should be in General)
LEGOracer69 said:
Hi. I would love to see Native linux on my Sensation, but nobody did it yet, and I'm maybe high level user, but hardly developer. First I was thinking about porting HD2 Ubuntu, but then I realized... There is one very expensive device on the internet. Device with Android phone specs. but Native linux on it. Pandora Handheld Device. If someone could help me with porting pandora system (Or just do it yourway) it would be great, not only for me, but for the whole community. The big advantage is that, Pandora system is the most (I think) developed ARM Linux in the world. It means we just need to get it work, and the rest is already done.
Here you go with some links:
Porting
Booting
Files
Sorry for my English and I please you to help me. Will be waiting.
(Sorry if it should be in General)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm On it.
Are there any changes?
May be a dumd question, but I'm asking anyway. Why is Android so hardware specific?. or better yet, why can't you install any android system on any phone?
example: you can install windows or linux on any system, you don't have to have a certain set of chips. Is it a propitiatory type thing with these phone makers. is the whole android system so small, that the coding can't be added to make it installable on any phone.
I'm not a coder, or prgrammer, I do understand it enough to read what it is doing, but cannot write anything. Can someone shed some light on this
Thanks in advance
You've got this completely bass ackwards. Android is decidedly not hardware specific. Phones, tablets, computers, car stereos, home heating/AC, watches, TVs, etc. Android is open source, which means anybody can develop it to work on just about any platform they wish. I mean, you can get refrigerators and microwaves that run Android for Pete's sake.
If you're complaining that you can't get Android on an iPhone or a Nokia Lumia, then you're barking up the wrong tree.
To add some more "devices" to the list above on which android can be installed - cars! I'm working in that industry now
And the answer above is right - if your device is totally closed for others, then you will not be able to install anything on it, maybe, without really breaking into it. Android can be put mostly on any hardware - if the hardware manufacturer wants it. The short description is - Android is implemented on top of HALs (Hardware Abstraction Layer) which are then implemented by manufacturers specific to their devices and then Android works "out of the box".
Hi there, not sure if I'm on the right forum, but this seemed like the safest place to ask.
I have this project in my head that I would like to try, but I have no idea if it is even possible.
I'm currently doing a bachelors in computer science and as a way to learn, I would like to take on a big project.
As will soon become clear, I am a linux noob and know nothing about android development, but that's what I'm trying to change here.
Some time ago I bought a Chinese ereader (rebranded BOOX C67ML - using a rockchip rk3026 SoC, don't know how important that is -) and it's decent but it also kind of sucks. It runs android which overkill for a device like this if you ask me. When I look at the kindle or kobo ereaders, they have their proprietary os that is also Linux based, but much more streamlined without unnecessary features. This device doesn't even have wifi, so what am I going to do with full android on an e-ink screen? It only drains my battery more than it has to.
My question is, how feasible is it to create my own 'OS' for this device that is also Linux based and lightweight? I know that android devices can run gnu/linux in a sort of vm on top, but is it also possible to install this directly on the device? Wipe android and install a custom linux distro as you would a custom ROM.
Is this possible? Where do I begin? Any information on how the linux kernel underneath android functions and differs from a standard linux kernel would be great. I'm not asking for an easy solution served on a platter, I just want to know if it is possible and why or why not? Where do I go to learn about how to do this, point me in the right direction?
In searching around I came across postmarketOS, from what I understand they are trying to do something similar, only completely open source. No proprietary drivers for anything. For this project that is not a goal for me. If I can reuse parts of the android rom that it is running right now, I have no problem with that. Updating and keeping it up to date are not really a priority, I just need this to run a single application that works. Could also be that I completely don't understand what they are trying to do and I'm way off, but if so, please tell me what I don't understand and where I go to learn.
TLDR: Lightweight 'desktop' linux instead of android on an ereader, is it possible? Where do I start? Point me in the right direction please.
PS: If there is a better solution for this problem entirely, please do explain.
For anyone interested or with a similar idea, I'll just post what extra information I find here.
I stumbled upon Halium and Libhybris today. From what I understand, libhybris provides a compatibility layer between the android kernel and posix compatible applications. Halium uses libhybris and tries to create a common base that can be used to develop a non-android os for an android device. Please correct me if I'm wrong.