Linux experience on XDA ? - MDA, XDA, 1010 General

Hi there,
I noticed that its a bit tricky to configure the PPC. Somehow I think the System-Programmer (MS) thinks its nice to hide settings from user.
I like complex property tabs. MS-InternetExplorer hides everything. PocketOutlook is nearly not configureable.... Or I'm blind....
Has anyone a Linux installed on his O2-XDA? What would you say about it?
regards
McNugget

Yes PLEASE, gimme Linux on my Qtec1010
I'm serious, I would really appreciate if somebody was able to have my Qtec synchronise with Linux.
And secondly wouldn't it be easier if this whole PPC was open source, so that bugs would be solved quickly?
Has anyone tried to put Qtopia (from the Zaurus) on the Qtec? It seems that it supports the ARM-processor.
Regards & the obvious best seasons wishes to you & your beloved ...
Rik
Quote of the day:
"Linux is like a Wigwam: no windows, no gates ... apache inside."

last i heard then they opensource linux for xda were at such an early state
that there were no phone support or even gui just a console
but there are more then one of these products
maybe some of them have gotten longer

There is a lot of progress going on the Linux front. The biggest challenge is understanding the RIL ( radio Interface layer) on the HTC based devices(Most XDAs and MDAs) and writting a kernel to it.
There will be many new contenders this years as NTT DOCOMO has declared it wants Linux based phones in the Japanese market. So they will come out pretty soon.
Look at the following links:
http://gpe.handhelds.org/projects/?PHPSESSID=08727f78426b030303d6b74a11fde7a2
I have seen and made a call on a device using this OS, but could not get the code!
http://www.mizi.com/en/prod/embed/embedded_smart.htm
and for the more adventurous:
http://www.mizi.com/en/developer/s3c2410x/index_html

very informative links and nice readings
thank you very much ...
what you think might be the threat coming from Open Source solutions to the mobile market (especially phones) - do you have some reports/papers/studies on that ??
I mean, Japan and Asia has always been a niche market where many product and electronics gadgets existed but at the same time they had problems with adaptation elsewhere
regards,
monika

I have been on a client for the past month working on a special project and they did not allow me to browse outside the network( squnk works!)
I have seen and played with the linux devices from HTC and other companies, but was told they have a contractual obligation not to release the code or info on the RIL so as not to dillute the PPC and WM markets( I wonder by whom :roll:...)
Still I am trying to get one of the devices, Reverse Engineer the code and post it here... But it will be tricky, but worth it!

Does somebody know a complete image based on GNU Linux kernel and for example Qtopia for an HTC device?

Keying in a telephone number in command mode would be so l33t. :lol:

Related

XDA running linux

I saw this a while ago, and tonight I ran into this:
http://pigeond.net/photos/xda-linux/
I run Debian GNU/Linux on my desktop at home, and I'm not a big fan of the SynCE project since I'm a GNOME user and a vast majority of the SynCE tools are built for KDE. So, I would love nothing more than to be able to run Linux on my XDA.
Has any progress been made with this? It looks like someone got linux running on the XDA, but even if we got X working, what kind of task would it be to develop a phone app? What kind of support is needed before this can happen?
Does anyone know anything about the progress? =]
It seems, that this project is located on sourceforge
Here is the Link ...
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xanadux/
perhaps start the job with him.
I am also willing to help, but not familar with linux at all.
status of linux
Hi,
As you may have seen from other posts too, the Linux porting effort has been severely stalled more than once. Currently pigeon posted some progress here on the board which is about similar to what the xanadux project was in. Unfortunately no one currently has time to work further on this. I think pigeon probably will be making the most progress, and possibly we will integrate it all into one place some day. Seeing the current number of contributors and amount of time available I wouldn't hold my breath though ...

Android Porting To Hermes?

i've been following this thread for a while now:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=396782
but i've seen no solution suggested for our hermes.
from the limited (very limited) experience i've had with linux, i played a little wuth this wiki page:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Hermes_Linux
did anyone make a connection between the two? can we port the android to hermes in any way or is this right reserved to kaiser owners alone?
Android port to Hermes
While this post is very old, and it hasn't gotten much reaction, I am equally curious. My talents do not run in the programming vein, so I am not very helpful in development , but I wonder if there are developers out there who are interested (I am sure they are capable) in such a port.
I really like the Hermes (even with its limitations - it works for me) and would love to see Android running on it. Microsoft, RIM and Apple need the competition to keep things working for the consumer (us), and an open source system like Android could do wonders for the Hermes.
If someone is thinking of working on this, and if there's anything a non-developer can contribute, then I would be glad to help in any way I can. You can reach me at glen_thor(at)sympatico(dot)ca.

htc hero sprint running windows mobile??

it is possible? my htc hero can runn windows mobile??
smokeeboy said:
it is possible? my htc hero can runn windows mobile??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you can not.
Why would you?
"There's so many ways for me to say this to you - Never, Not in a million years, absolutely not, no way hose, no chance Lance, net, negatorie, mm, nah, aa, and of course my own personal favorite of all time - man falling of of a cliff, Nooooooooouuuuu...!"
AdrianK said:
"There's so many ways for me to say this to you - Never, Not in a million years, absolutely not, no way hose, no chance Lance, net, negatorie, mm, nah, aa, and of course my own personal favorite of all time - man falling of of a cliff, Nooooooooouuuuu...!"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in french: NON lol
Jose...........
It's Jose.
*Slaps forehead*
That's what you get for copying quotes off facebook pages, peeps.
wow y would u even want to run windows mobile... I had a tmobile wing once - - - dont get me started on that phone lol.
lol im sry but even if i knew how i wouldnt tell ya cause its stupid idea.
why would you want windows mobile on your phone, well for decent media play back i.e films that you don't need to convert before you put on the phone, I've got both a android and windows phone, and personally I find the experience better on android, but converting films is a drag.
I don't see why you want to downgrade your phone
knowledge is power
I don't think this is such a bad idea actually it's kind of good for us having someone asking this...IS NOT ABOUT DOWNGRADING your beloved hero it's about the challenge it would be to do it and the KNOWLEDGE we would get by doing so...
Currently a lot of our great developers at XDA are focused on bringing android to our WM phones and they have done a great job so far using only reverse engineering methods, patience and a certainly huge amount of cups of coffee...so how about seeing things from a different angle? just imagine the possibilities if we can make WM work in an originally Android designed phone ,i bet you if someone dares to do it,not only the android porting project will benefit from this but several other open source mobile platforms that are already here[Maemo] and others to come [MeeGo], They all have one purpose bringing the end user a better and richer mobile experience which is the same reason i believe this forum was created for so...
Why not giving it a try?
up
up up up
sorry
android is a open source OS
windows mobile is not
so you can change android kernel to run on other device
windows mobile nope
I love android for this
I hate windows mobile for this
with a boot loader : you cant
and i know you don't want windows mobile on your brilliant android phone
hahaha
One time I saw a thread in the Rhodium forums where they were trying to find evidence of an Android user trying to port Windows Mobile to their phone. I didn't think it would ever happen...
Hmmm a challenge
Sounds like a great challenge, something to really upset the a few people who wander around bragging about they're "completed" operating systems (yeah right, 15 years as an IT Consultant and I've yet to hear Microsoft claim to complete anything).
Android is a PITA and not as flexible as I was told it would be - nowhere near as flexible as linux was meant to be - I wonder if its possible to go the rest of the way and compile a linux for our android phones that runs natively. Then we can really put windows phones to shame.
doofah said:
I wonder if its possible to go the rest of the way and compile a linux for our android phones that runs natively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, of course it's possible, seeing how it's already been done. I don't know about your phone, but my CDMA Hero is most definitely running Linux natively.
So it's already running on a Linux kernel with a reasonable command line environment. It might be useful to compile a more complete set of GNU utilities for it.
Android is, in basic terms, just the GUI that's running on top of Linux. There are plenty of other GUIs designed for small devices with limited resources. Porting one of them over to run on top of the existing Linux environment shouldn't be too terribly tough.
The real trick, I would guess, would be getting all the hardware bits to work. Writing apps that can access the phone radio, gps, audio, etc.... All of those things are currently accessed through APIs that Android provides. If you remove Android, and those APIs, then there's a great deal of work to be done to make those things functional again.
So if you just want a handheld Linux box, that's easy. If you want all of the hardware features to work, and to still be able to use it as a phone, just with Android stripped out, then you've got a LOT of work ahead.
they have already ported android to win mobile it is possible to reverse see as win mobile does not have alot of anti piracy safeguards
wnathanball said:
they have already ported android to win mobile it is possible to reverse see as win mobile does not have alot of anti piracy safeguards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
???
Maybe if you wrote complete sentences with proper punctuation, this might parse.
well am with original poster on this I for one would love and prefer to see Winmo on my hero.... I find android such a dam pain.... I have both winmo(on my kaiser) and android... But only use droid for a toy and playing games. where as I much prefer my winmo for Work and navigation... At least with Winmo theres no reliance on flippin data, Which isa pain in the butt with droid..
So come on you tech Geeks show us what you are made of...Port Winmo to hero... let us have the choice...
WM On Hero.......
say what you will about Android Vs WM but I believe WM is just perfect for me. If hero could support WM then please someone anyone help me get it on mine. I loved the convenience of WM. On my Blackstone Sync was not a problem. I get all my emails and my contacts in the same place. With Android I have to sync via G-Mail. For being open source this is a huge price for me to pay. Now I have to change my email address and redirect all my clients to G-mail so I get all my mail.

Custom rom development : General Discussions, Problems, Questions

Good news guys!
Jerpelea announced the eminent release of Cyanogen RC2 for the X10.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7370940&postcount=91
So to keep the dev only thread clean, please post your questions, problems or comments here.
Update 2010-07-28:
jerpelea said:
with actual state of spl it boots then crashes
you can play a lil with the new kernel included into package
build 0005
http://hotfile.com/dl/57983756/408a452/0005.rar.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great news and great work by the devs!
I think that this release will be internal i.e. devs only. We never got RC1 so why should we expect RC2?
you got that wrong guys
Froyo is ready in RC2 for X10 this is not equal to : "the bootloader is finally hacked"
So stay calm please
Regards
Bin4ry
Man i got excited for a minute there. Looks like back to waiting.
Sent from my X10i using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk
Damn it!
Still good news that it'll be ready for when it does get hacked.
no more wet dreams.
ill stick it once it gets useful fr all...
its nice to see progress at least, I thought they hit a brick wall a couple days ago as they stopped posting in the dev thread. It may be a while till we see a bootloader hack thats friendly for us but its hard to determine since we're not devs. As I understand it, the actual ROM is partly ready but it'll have a number of bugs etc still and only devs who can actually load it on through manual code will be able to test it out I think. It may be that its actually just a virtual rom to be loaded onto the SDK under the same conditions as the x10 to be tested by the developers. I THINK. As I said I'm not a developer so take my words with a huge grain of salt because I might be completely wrong.
PLS Can we get a little more detailed information.
instigator008 said:
I think that this release will be internal i.e. devs only. We never got RC1 so why should we expect RC2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PLS Can we get a little more detailed information.
If the RC2 will be ready tomorrow then it means that RC1 was launched on the device?
irkkso said:
PLS Can we get a little more detailed information.
If the RC2 will be ready tomorrow then it means that RC1 was launched on the device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what is the meaning of rc1 and rc2
RC = Release Candidate
irkkso said:
PLS Can we get a little more detailed information.
If the RC2 will be ready tomorrow then it means that RC1 was launched on the device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No no no... you got it all wrong.
RC2 is the latest release of CyanogenMod and work has been carried out on this to "Port" it over to the x10. There wasnt any point in working on RC1 if CM RC2 was out.
rc = release candidate
a software enters rc usually after testing phase(alpha-beta-etc...)....
j4mm3r said:
Good news guys!
Jerpelea announced the eminent release of Cyanogen RC2 for the X10.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7370940&postcount=91
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So Jerpelea made a edit on the post... which is something pretty much expected as the bootloader is not cracked. So my guess is that this is going to use the spl loader module to boot into the CM kernel which has been ported for X10? Just a guess...
Can somebody explain to people like me who are new on android what does the cyanogen mod, is it just a firmware ?
What is called "kernel" in android and is it "modable" and if yes, why would it be ?
The answers...
Vilam said:
Can somebody explain to people like me who are new on android what does the cyanogen mod, is it just a firmware ?
What is called "kernel" in android and is it "modable" and if yes, why would it be ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Vilam, those are interesting questions, let me see if I can address those to your satisfaction.
The term "firmware" being distinct from "software", in my view is rapidly loosing its ability to be distinguishable from the latter. Essentially it refers to those parts of the executable code on a computing machine which remains unmodifiable or rather "burned in" to the circuitry. With the advent of modern flash memory storage, which is rather malleable compared to the earlier variants which existed, it is rather easy to change and update the machine code which is stored therein.
In other words, you might still refer to firmware to be part of the "software" which runs on a computing device which is not modifiable at run-time. In terms of a smart phone (which are rapidly becoming general purpose computing devices anyways), the firmware forms the basis of the software execution environment which affords the so called "apps" to run and provide either ever so innovative and useful functions.
Coming around to the point about Cyanogen mod... its a combination of firmware and software (if you still want to make that distinction that is). It in conjunction with helper pieces of code like the bootloader et. all. can completely replace the components that your phone was originally shipped with. Since these are Android phones that we are talking about, Cyanogen is derived from the same code base that Google officially uses for their various releases of Android. It is important to note that Android is a mobile application and phone platform rather than something which can easily be classified as "firmware" or "software"
Next question of yours about the "kernel". Not knowing what your level of familiarity of Linux or its derivatives is... let just say that Android is essentially like a distribution (or distro) of Linux designed specifically to run on mobile devices. As is the case with other Linux distros, they are formed around a core known as the "kernel". The "kernel" forms the core of the operating system which provides a homogeneous execution environment for the execution of various applications, which are in-turn pieces of software which are designed to provide the functionality which can be useful to the end-user. So all the so-called "apps" require the kernel to provide some services which are abstracted out enough so that the application programmer does not need to care about the really really low level stuff that actually has to go down if you actually want your device to do something. Hence the application programmer concentrates on the "high level" stuff, which is the functions that are actually going to be useful to the end-user!!
Like all modern computing platform, Android is a layered architecture and the "kernel" forms one of the most inner most parts of it (hence the name "kernel").
The linux kernel running Android for the X10 is already modifiable. People have been successful in compiling software modules called "kernel modules" which can be added to a running kernel and add functionality to it (this of course requires super user privileges or "root" access on the phone).
With the future pointing towards the capability of running mods like Cyanogen and the likes, the possibilities of modding and hacking are endless. Cyanogen, like the original releases of Android from Google are completely open source, so one can tweak almost all aspects of the phone functions. The possibilities are only limited by ones own imagination.
PS: I think I had too much beer and it makes me practice my English composition skills... hic!
Thank you very much for this clear explaination !
Please let me explain in newbie wordings. This is for ppl who can't understand what's going on at all.
1. A firmware likes an OS, if not exactly is. Windows, Linux, DOS, OS X are all OS. In android phone, there is merely one OS, which is Android.
2. Android is Linux.
3. Linux has a kernel, which is the main program. Without this, your machine can't run. On top of kernel, there is other software (movie player/web browser). Kernel + other software = distro (distribution).
4. Windows has different distro like Home, Professional, Ultimate... Linux has also different distro, so does android. One of them is CyanogenMod. The other could be Xperia X10 original.
5. Android is open source, so everyone can mod it. But that does also means someone can remove functions from it, one of them is Sony Ericsson, which locks your Xperia X10 for professional use.
6. While it is easy for us to upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7. It is difficult to install OS X from Windows XP. This is the same case for Android, it is easy to upgrade our Xperia X10, but it is not that easy to install CyanogenMod. There are honorable person working on this issue.
7. Why CyanogenMod? Because it is faster or it does not lock function like original Sony distro.
8. Just like installing OS X on regular PC, installing CyanogenMod may brick your machine. Much worse, Sony will definitely don't get your X10 repaired. So think if you need that extra function.

Decompiling baseband firmware?

One thing that bothers me about my Android phone is the opaque, closed-source baseband firmware ("radio" as it's often called here). Since the baseband is interposed between the OS and most hardware functions, its firmware presents a major unknown in the total security of the device.
It's unlikely that the source code for any of this baseband firmware is going to be released, and the open source OsmocomBB baseband is a long way off from supporting Android or the dominant Qualcomm chips. But I would settle for decompiling an existing baseband firmware image, so that I can start to understand some things about it's behavior, and perhaps compile modified versions.
Does anyone know where to begin with this? Many thanks.
I wish somebody participated in this with you. I need it also /
funkydaemon said:
One thing that bothers me about my Android phone is the opaque, closed-source baseband firmware ("radio" as it's often called here). Since the baseband is interposed between the OS and most hardware functions, its firmware presents a major unknown in the total security of the device.
It's unlikely that the source code for any of this baseband firmware is going to be released, and the open source OsmocomBB baseband is a long way off from supporting Android or the dominant Qualcomm chips. But I would settle for decompiling an existing baseband firmware image, so that I can start to understand some things about it's behavior, and perhaps compile modified versions.
Does anyone know where to begin with this? Many thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good idea. Although most probably it'll all be native C code compiled into binary form, not amenable to decompiling.
So you'd probably need a very good debugger and a system call tracing facility in strace.
I guess hell might also break loose because SIM encryption(?), voice encoders(?), network locking(?) and god knows how many of those proprietary tidbits may be sitting in there.
SIM encryption broken leading to duplication of SIMs and leading to smartcard encryption and open source tools to reprogram your credit cards with more money.
That's not hell. That's hell in a hand basket with us enjoying the ride
Keep us posted. It's guys like you who think outside the radio that gave us the TV
For Qualcomm based devices you need to decompile Hexagon code.
For other Intel XMM6260 etc based devices suffice IDA (ARM).
In both cases the raw binary blobs may be encrypted, but extractable from running machine.
I'm working on it, in a fashion, and am writing up a document compiling everything that has been done on cellphone radio hacking. I've not found much on baseband firmware; there's a lot of info out there but it's been tough to find amongst all the other hacking that has similar keywords. Currently most quality info around this subject involve an extra (and depending on desired features; expensive) bit of hardware and two open source software packages with their decencies. As the hardware is currently outside my budget ($300 for the best bang for buck) I'll be working on getting the software to recognize the hardware built in my Android devices. Provided that all goes well I should be able to read and write on the frequencies that the in-built hardware supports and hopefully, as I always get an identical device when getting one, read and write with my backup android device. Be warned if you decide to follow me down this path; there are laws restricting what non-licensed persons/companys can do on certain RF frequencies and this depends on where you live, I'm no expert only a person capable of reading lots of dry informative documents, provided I do achieve direct contact between devices this hack could (and likely will) fry one of my antennas so be warned you'll likely do the same :banghead: so do this on an old device that you don't care about before ever trying on something you use daily. With the warning out of the way lets get down to the quick version.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Currently all the developing I've found educational has involved the before mentioned "expensive hardware" known as software defined radio, shortened to SDR, go a head and pop open a new tab and Google search either. You'll eventually find that cellphone manufacturers have likely already put these into many devices. You'll also hopefully find the two kickstarters, HackRF ~$300 and bladeRF ~$400, these are likely what I'll be saving up for; HackRF for sure as the next release will likely be able to send and receive at the same time instead of switching quickly between modes. If you dig deep enough you'll find a blog post from a hacker that plugged an Android into a much more expensive SDR and was able to place calls and send/receive text; the blog poster stated something to the effect that this was not a useful hack but I believe that it's a great proof of concept and totally worth another look. However, this hacker has also almost been sewed for some of the demonstrations with this kind of technology involving the capture and description of calls and texts so tread carefully.
The software I mentioned before boil down to GNU Radio and Open BTS; there's dependencies for each but all seem to be installable on Linux running on top of Android. Furthermore I see that someone (I'll edit your name in in a sec Edit: idcrisis ) previous mentioned wanting c or c++ support, GNU Radio uses these languages perhaps I can ask for some help when I get a little further in porting this to run without Linux in the middle so much? I think if we use the GPS to set the time then the signal shouldn't drift to much.
I'm using an app called Debian Kit to give me a flavor of Linux called Squeeze for testing the software. If you choose to try what I'm doing then make use of the readme that the developer wrote or the guide I wrote for general Linux on Android installation and interaction fund in my sig to get started. If you want access to the document I'm compiling then you'll want to PM me at this moment as the chances of hardware frying is high and I'll share a link to Google docs; I'll be releasing a full guide when I've figured out how to avoid damage.
Eventually I hope to port many of the functions in GNU Radio into an app that makes use of internal hardware. Currently I've found a few that make use of hardware plugged into Android through USB "on the go" or "host mode" just search "RTL SDR" in the app store and you'll see'em, but, currently nothing making use of internal hardware. If any are interested in joining forces and helping figure out how to do all this I'd be glad to offer any support I can.
Other things related to cellular antenna hacking other than the above mentioned software and hardware that I'm compiling into the same document. Well this is where we get into the parts I'm hitting the wall on. It looks like I'll have to get into Kernel modification as this is one of the things used to communicate between software and hardware. There's also the flashable files known as radios and I'll be digging further in how these files are modified.
Basically this is a very tough question to answer and has taken many months of reading, searching, and more reading to get this close bit if we all work together I know that we'll be able to modify how the antennas in our devices work.
Edit 01142014- Found a guide on reverse engineering embedded device firmware, the guide is on a router but as the chips in our phones are embedded perhaps the steps are similar
http://www.devttys0.com/2011/05/reverse-engineering-firmware-linksys-wag120n/
Sent from either my SPH-D700 or myTouch3gs or M470BSA
Guide for running Linux on Android that I'm writing:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2240397
^^ NO! The embedded chips in the Linksys routers are MIPS based and not ARM like all our Androids. Very different, although technique is the same.
But thanks, for taking time to check up on all this.
Any updates ?
Hey Guys,
I'm looking into this, I've successfully extracted files from the OnePlus One's baseband, its running RtOS called REX, QC calls it AMSS.
Have a look at the thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/discussion-hlos-reverse-engineering-t3292829
Waiting for the OsmocomBB update it projects
QCOM modem leaked sources.
Type in google/bing: "AU_LINUX_ANDROID_JB_MR1_RB1.04.02.02.050.116_msm8974_JB_MR1_RB1_CL3904528_release_AU"

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