http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/releases/1.0/core/images/meego-n900-open-armv7l/
My idea is to use the current effort to run Ubuntu/Debian on the phone as a method to get MeeGo running on the phone as well (Maemo should be similar). What we'd need to achieve is to get an .img of MeeGo/Maemo as we do Debian/Ubuntu. Driver issues (If present) should be rectifiable by porting over some of the Debian/Ubuntu ARM drivers.
I personally think it won't be too hard.
You compile it with the right GCC, fix any possible errors, then add an android kernel (hoping the API doesn't change, which is a longshot and probably the biggest obstacle). After that is set up we move everything to their appropriate partition, fix the path, and it really aught to work then.
i have no idea how to and how hard, but i think if people can port Android to iPhone , so this wont be something impossile
I would absolutely LOVE for this to come true. I've been frustrated with my gma500 netbook, since I can't run Meego, or even Moblin. This seems like it would be fun to run on the n1.
Should we start a bounty, I would be willing to put money up for this, dual booting two open source systems would be great.
Same here! $5 from me for the person who gets it to boot!
Finally! I've waited for someone to take up this work!
Not that I could be of any help, but I appreciate your efforts and hope for your success!
Good look!
Will be working on this. I don't think I want to flash it instead of Android and as a chroot it'll be more compatible (among ARM7 at least for now..) with other phones. Been barely successful with my old ATT Tilt w/1MB of RAM I gotta see what a Nexus can do =D
dictionary said:
I would absolutely LOVE for this to come true. I've been frustrated with my gma500 netbook, since I can't run Meego, or even Moblin. This seems like it would be fun to run on the n1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know that the recently released Intel EMGD drivers work on Maemo? Since they are a binary blob even worse than the PSB drivers, they won't work on (k)ubuntu, only on Maemo and Fedora 11.
i'm hazy on how we got fb support on kaiser/vogue but they're msm7k boards as well. i could be wrong but i believe team douche already has it built in. i did a lot of trial and error today to get a chrooted x-server to override android's display. i'm not sure how to get the hardware support because i fail at it and thought it would be easier to hybridize maemo over android at least for testing.
i'm all about getting this to work but irc is tedious so if anyone is actively working on it, i'm down for the cause.
I plan on, when I get time, starting my attempts. It would be much easier if I could see the basic layout of the system, but I'm so inexperienced that I don't know where to start. I have a basic idea what to do with the source once I get it, but most of my assumptions rely in part on what I can find out.
it's basically ARM Ubuntu w/a ton of customized UI but a basic Debian based distro nonetheless which is why I <3 it so much.
Well, I guess it won't be too bad then, I personally was hoping for something that was update.zip capable, and a few simlinks might just do the trick.
The key questions I can think of so far are: how are the files are laid out, how does the window server interact with the kernel, what modules will be essential, how does the phone interface with the radio, minutiae like that.
The main road block I see is that we have still not yet been able to run anything outside of virtualization. I'm not sure how the boot process works outside of running an Android build, but a pure solution would be needed for best results.
yes we can:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=631389
who wanna help me
I'm in. I found out something interesting yesterday, the Adreno 200 2D framebuffer is a standard kernel interface. So, if 3d acceleration isn't a priority, we shouldn't even have to port the windowserver. Heck, I'm pretty sure we won't have to port anything.
I guess I'm going to look at the source for debootstrap and see what hints I can gleam from it though.
what do you need from debootstrap- it just pulls down the system image but we have meego's already.
here's what we have so far to play with, where to start?
custom dual/tri boot recovery image we'll need to avoid fastbooting the kernel:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=5521417&postcount=5
i'd like to mix this into amon's or clockwork mod source with a text file on the SD card to configure kernel parameters
how to boot debian/ubuntu which we'd swap for meego's system:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=631389
should handle enough to fully boot this thing
including his premade zImage you can mess with if you suck at compiling:
http://irregular-expression.com/tmp/zImage
meego's system as linked in the OP:
http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/releases/1.0/core/images/meego-n900-open-armv7l/
no gsm, no audio, crappy fb based x11 w/o drivers.
What system image are you using and how are you unpacking it? I'm not too worried about drivers, as with GSM I'm pretty sure that the API is either already set up as we need it or configurable. People on debian were getting texts to send at one point if memory serve
meego-n900-open-armv7l-1.0.0.20100525.1-sda.raw.bz2
should be the one. i believe it's an ext3 partition but haven't looked at it yet as i was looking into the debian thing. i mean gsm support for our boards which should be okay if we branch off of cyanogenmod's or similar. and if i'm right then "okay" means "complete support."
let me be more specific:
http://wiki.meego.com/ARM
and if you look at the MSM link it references a repost of the debian guide as well..
adapt these instructions for working with the image on your desktop:
http://wiki.meego.com/ARM/N900/Install/MMC
and as further motivation, remember when the N900 got x86 WINE via a statically compiled ARM QEMU binary within a x86 chroot? with an x-server we don't have the ****ty VNC fail we've currently had. we could truly run x86 chrooted software (or anything in a chroot like hot-swappable desktop distros) and connect to the host (maemo's) display. and the possibilities with xephyr nested x-servers.
Well, great news on that front too, they use X.org by the looks of it. There's a 3d acceleration driver under development for it. I'm going to try first with a SD card install, as weaving around the wacky partition format is annoying. It'll be a few hours until I'm using an x86 system though to compile the kernel. By the looks of it, the kernel has to be custom in order to use an initramfs partition.
Related
Greetings all,
This is my first post here. I hope to make it a memorable one.
Really; I've been programming on the UNIX system for more than 20 years.
Having picked up and activated a brand new HTC-EVO android-2.2 (froyo) 4
days ago. I discover "big brother's watching" (google). This is completely unacceptable. Looking for the definitive answer brings me to XDA. So, I spent the past 2 days reading threads here. But can't shake the notion that all of this "rooting" seems overly complicated. I mean if android runs atop Linux, WTF is all this MS-DOS BS? Granted, I'm new to the EVO, but in UNIX, it seems that a simple:
Code:
# su
password
# mkdir /evoandroid
# mount /dev/android-device /evoandroid
dd if=<your-ROM-name-here> of=/evoandroid
would suffice.
This above is only slightly different for Linux - but I think you get the picture.
Sure. I know the SDK && NDK are written for MS-DOS & Co.
But what's that got to do with writing a "rooted" ROM to the EVO?
Because Windows users use the EVO too?
Sorry, but what am I missing here? Would love to start writing a self-made ROM to my new EVO. In fact I've already nearly finished a compilation that features an almost indistinguishable OS X. But hate to move any farther forward w/o clearing this "nit" I have with writing to the EVO.
Thank you for all your time and consideration.
--Chris
I don't understand your question. Can you clarify, and I'm sure someone will be glad to help if possible.
You can download Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of the SDK & NDK, so I'm not sure why you think they are Windows specific. (Many, if not most, ROM devs use Ubuntu since compiling AOSP & kernel source works well on it.)
If there is some part of the rooting process for the EVO that requires Windows, then that might be better directed to the EVO specific forums. I have helped to root one EVO myself, and it was done from a Mac. Things may have changed though.
Hello gnarlyc, and thank you for your reply.
gnarlyc said:
I don't understand your question. Can you clarify, and I'm sure someone will be glad to help if possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK fair enough. I'll try to be more concise.
Currently, it is my understanding, that to "get root" on the EVO. One must download the SDK && NDK. Then use the tools provided there-in to "get root".
Yes, I am aware that you also need some of the wonderful utilities provided by the "dev's" here at XDA.
But I wonder why it wouldn't be simpler to mount(8) ( http ://internethell.net/man/?query=mount ) the EVO (rom & sdcard), and simply write the custom ROM "raw" right to the EVO's live rom.
eg; on a *NIX boxen
Code:
# su
password
# mkdir /evoandroid
# mount /dev/evo-device /evoandroid
# dd if=./custom-rom.img of=/evoandroid
see: http ://internethell.net/man/?query=dd
Done. That was easy, wasn't it.
gnarlyc said:
You can download Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of the SDK & NDK, so I'm not sure why you think they are Windows specific. (Many, if not most, ROM devs use Ubuntu since compiling AOSP & kernel source works well on it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was aware of the source being *NIX. But when I went to HTC, they presented me with only the Windows version. Perhaps, they felt I was on Windows, based on some browser "sniffing" thing. Dunno. I don't have Windows on anything. But occasionally on one of my BSD servers, I'll mount it in a Virtualbox VM.
Thanks for your info here. I'll go back and get the Mac version. I don't suppose it supports Apple Macs?
gnarlyc said:
If there is some part of the rooting process for the EVO that requires Windows,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See above.
gnarlyc said:
then that might be better directed to the EVO specific forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't find the HTC-EVO phone as a separate forum - like the other EVO's.
gnarlyc said:
I have helped to root one EVO myself, and it was done from a Mac. Things may have changed though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't feel I'd have any trouble "rooting" it. I just felt that all of the "tut's" I've found here were un-necessarily complicated - overly complex. So I'm wondering why my example above wouldn't work.
Thank you again gnarlyc, for your thoughtful response.
--Chris
CTH-EVO said:
Hello gnarlyc, and thank you for your reply.
OK fair enough. I'll try to be more concise.
Currently, it is my understanding, that to "get root" on the EVO. One must download the SDK && NDK. Then use the tools provided there-in to "get root".
Yes, I am aware that you also need some of the wonderful utilities provided by the "dev's" here at XDA.
But I wonder why it wouldn't be simpler to mount(8) ( http ://internethell.net/man/?query=mount ) the EVO (rom & sdcard), and simply write the custom ROM "raw" right to the EVO's live rom.
eg; on a *NIX boxen
Code:
# su
password
# mkdir /evoandroid
# mount /dev/evo-device /evoandroid
# dd if=./custom-rom.img of=/evoandroid
see: http ://internethell.net/man/?query=dd
Done. That was easy, wasn't it.
I was aware of the source being *NIX. But when I went to HTC, they presented me with only the Windows version. Perhaps, they felt I was on Windows, based on some browser "sniffing" thing. Dunno. I don't have Windows on anything. But occasionally on one of my BSD servers, I'll mount it in a Virtualbox VM.
Thanks for your info here. I'll go back and get the Mac version. I don't suppose it supports Apple Macs?
See above.
Couldn't find the HTC-EVO phone as a separate forum - like the other EVO's.
I don't feel I'd have any trouble "rooting" it. I just felt that all of the "tut's" I've found here were un-necessarily complicated - overly complex. So I'm wondering why my example above wouldn't work.
Thank you again gnarlyc, for your thoughtful response.
--Chris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I think I get you now. I don't think this will work though. The running image is on an internal partition. Maybe you can mount that? I don't think so though. It doesn't seem to me that mounting the sdcard will get you anywhere. So many 'impossible' things have already been done with Android, so I wouldn't count you out completely.
http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack,_Edit,_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images
Kernel source for HTC phones - http://developer.htc.com/
Android Open Source Project source - http://source.android.com/source/download.html
Android SDK - http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
Android NDK - http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/index.html
I recommend this script for grabbing AOSP source on Debian/Ubuntu - http://blog.coralic.nl/2010/01/28/build-eclair-aka-android-2-1-for-hero-from-source/
You can change 'eclair' to 'froyo' for Android 2.2 source. It's good to look at this even if you don't use a Debian based distro, although it's mostly the same stuff that's on Google's site.
EVO forum - http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=653
I don't think there's more than one EVO, but maybe I'm wrong. The internal name is 'Supersonic', btw. You might see that in places.
Won't this root method work? - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=787304
Some other light reading -
http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack,_Edit,_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images
http://forum.androidcentral.com/hacking/6037-general-rom-faq.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=633246
http://blog.coralic.nl/2010/01/28/build-eclair-aka-android-2-1-for-hero-from-source/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=622916
http://forum.androidcentral.com/htc...how-build-your-own-kernel-package-source.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6738713&postcount=1
http://www.kandroid.org/android_pdk/index.html
http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AcdxIJRSH9ypZGZzc2pxNDlfMjdnazk4OHNxZA&hl=en
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=641223
http://adrianvintu.com/blogengine/post/Colored-Logcat-Script-for-Windows.aspx
http://www.androidenea.com/2009/08/init-process-and-initrc.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=623976
http://lukasz.szmit.eu/2009/12/making-your-own-rooted-android-rom.html
http://androidguts.com/index.php/Main_Page
http://groups.google.com/group/android-kernel
http://groups.google.com/group/android-building
http://groups.google.com/group/android-porting
http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers
http://groups.google.com/group/android-ndk
http://groups.google.com/group/android-platform
Greetings gnarlyc.
Let me first preface this by saying how grateful I am for all the time and effort you put into your last reply - WOW.
I don't want to sound argumentative. But just for the record, when I plug my EVO into one of my BSD servers, it immediately sees both the running system, and the sdcard. While I haven't yet attempted to mount the live system. I will endeavor to do so when I can determine what state I need to have the phone in to safely mount it. I'll report back to you with my results.
I have a strong suspicion I'll be posting a "one step to root and ROM" here within a week. That should help a lot of folks out.
I primarily develop in, and on the BSD family of operating systems. But given the Linux ABI support on BSD, I've made my development workstation dual-boot BSD/Fedora 13. But given the workstation is an AMD X4 six-core 4Ghz
board. I've decided to cobble up a copy of OS X (Apple CPU) to install on it as well - see; triple-boot. I'm just about to install it in the next couple of days. But thought I'd take a break on that development, and play with my new toy.
I should also have a copy of OS X for the EVO before long. Think anyone would be interested?
Well, I may not be new to development, but this EVO is new territory for me. So I'd do well to take advantage of the wealth of information you've thoughtfully provided me.
Best wishes to you gnarlyc, and thanks again.
--Chris
CTH-EVO said:
Greetings gnarlyc.
Let me first preface this by saying how grateful I am for all the time and effort you put into your last reply - WOW.
I don't want to sound argumentative. But just for the record, when I plug my EVO into one of my BSD servers, it immediately sees both the running system, and the sdcard. While I haven't yet attempted to mount the live system. I will endeavor to do so when I can determine what state I need to have the phone in to safely mount it. I'll report back to you with my results.
I have a strong suspicion I'll be posting a "one step to root and ROM" here within a week. That should help a lot of folks out.
I primarily develop in, and on the BSD family of operating systems. But given the Linux ABI support on BSD, I've made my development workstation dual-boot BSD/Fedora 13. But given the workstation is an AMD X4 six-core 4Ghz
board. I've decided to cobble up a copy of OS X (Apple CPU) to install on it as well - see; triple-boot. I'm just about to install it in the next couple of days. But thought I'd take a break on that development, and play with my new toy.
I should also have a copy of OS X for the EVO before long. Think anyone would be interested?
Well, I may not be new to development, but this EVO is new territory for me. So I'd do well to take advantage of the wealth of information you've thoughtfully provided me.
Best wishes to you gnarlyc, and thanks again.
--Chris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. I'm wrong at least once per day, but that's ok as long as I realize it and learn from it. I hope you are able to work it out.
I've seen 'rooting' of the Eris go from installing a leaked ROM to doing some crazy timing with pulling out the sdcard (or something like that) to a 1-click app that's on the market. Some really determined, knowledgeable, and intelligent people have put a lot of time into making these things easier and better. Welcome to the community!
A copy of OS X for the EVO? Do you mean running on the EVO? If so, then I'm sure people would be interested from a purely geeky perspective. There are several phones out there with the option to install Ubuntu and/or Debian on them. They don't seem to be of practical use yet. Can you cross-compile Darwin for arm CPUs? Maybe I'm confused here... My knowledge of such things only runs so deep.
(Side note - I keep those links in a text file just for such occasions. I don't see why everyone should have to spend their time searching for the sites that I already know about.)
gnarlyc said:
No problem. I'm wrong at least once per day, but that's ok as long as I realize it and learn from it. I hope you are able to work it out.
I've seen 'rooting' of the Eris go from installing a leaked ROM to doing some crazy timing with pulling out the sdcard (or something like that) to a 1-click app that's on the market. Some really determined, knowledgeable, and intelligent people have put a lot of time into making these things easier and better. Welcome to the community!
A copy of OS X for the EVO? Do you mean running on the EVO? If so, then I'm sure people would be interested from a purely geeky perspective.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and no. The "apps" and android are made with Java - something Oracle is currently sueing Google for as I speak (Google clams "clean-room" in-house Java, Oracle claims otherwise). So for all practical purposes, there is no reason that those same "apps" found on the phones, and in the "market" can't be made to run on OS X. In fact, it opens the doors to additional "apps" that otherwise wouldn't be possible - iTunes, for example.
gnarlyc said:
There are several phones out there with the option to install Ubuntu and/or Debian on them. They don't seem to be of practical use yet. Can you cross-compile Darwin for arm CPUs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you asked. BSD (which is what "hosts" NeXT/Darwin) has no problems with ARM, and I'm confident that I can manipulate Darwin to work on Snapdragon.
gnarlyc said:
Maybe I'm confused here... My knowledge of such things only runs so deep.
(Side note - I keep those links in a text file just for such occasions. I don't see why everyone should have to spend their time searching for the sites that I already know about.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm really glad you do - it really helped me a lot not having to weed all these "jewls" out. Thank you very much for sharing them with me, I appreciate it!
Best wishes to you gnarlyc, and have a wonderful day.
--Chris
Are they doing something similar to what you are talking about?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=788554
gnarlyc said:
Are they doing something similar to what you are talking about?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=788554
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link gnarlyc.
I thought about something similar to this when I first thought about "rooting" the phone; making a system folder on the sdcard, then "soft linking" it to /system.
Problem being, the performance hit using the sdcard for system related tasks made this option undesirable.
Thanks again for sharing the link, gnarlyc.
OH, one thing though, my phone is not linked to google. I have no google account(s). I activated this phone in "developer mode". Meaning that there is no personal info to worry about "attached" to this phone. Making it an ideal candidate for creating a bone-stock ROM for recovery/hacking purposes. I don't suppose you can direct me to "cloning" this phone. So that I might share this w/others as a ROM suitable for un-bricking their phone, could you?
HTC-EVO (supersonic) s/w# 3.26.651.6, baseband# 2.15.00.07.28, PRI version 1.71_003, andriod 2.2
Thanks again.
--Chris
Can I ask, what do you mean by "big brother (Google) is watching"?
CTH-EVO said:
Thanks for the link gnarlyc.
I thought about something similar to this when I first thought about "rooting" the phone; making a system folder on the sdcard, then "soft linking" it to /system.
Problem being, the performance hit using the sdcard for system related tasks made this option undesirable.
Thanks again for sharing the link, gnarlyc.
OH, one thing though, my phone is not linked to google. I have no google account(s). I activated this phone in "developer mode". Meaning that there is no personal info to worry about "attached" to this phone. Making it an ideal candidate for creating a bone-stock ROM for recovery/hacking purposes. I don't suppose you can direct me to "cloning" this phone. So that I might share this w/others as a ROM suitable for un-bricking their phone, could you?
HTC-EVO (supersonic) s/w# 3.26.651.6, baseband# 2.15.00.07.28, PRI version 1.71_003, andriod 2.2
Thanks again.
--Chris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a custom recovery partition like Amon_Ra's, you can do a NAND backup to the sdcard. It's basically a snapshot of the currently flashed ROM. That should work just fine. NAND's can be manipulated in dsixda's kitchen (although I haven't tried it, the option is there and dsixda has things together pretty well) and I THINK you should be able to copy one from one EVO to another and do a restore.
A side note... Generally when people create the ROMs that are out there, they do not include the directories under /data that might have personal info, so you can actually create a bone-stock ROM like you want without using a phone in such a state as yours. I've flashed a lot of different ROMs, and I'm pretty sure that none of them had identifying information about the dev unless they purposely did something like put their name in the build.prop or the wallpaper. Generally, if they include a /data, it's just for /data/app, although there are exceptions like when they want to change a database or something else that might be under /data.
As far as I know, your phone won't be linked to Google until you sign in with the Google account. I've gone several days on a fresh ROM without setting that up. Eventually, I find I want to install something from the Market, so I go ahead and sign in...
MaybachMan said:
Can I ask, what do you mean by "big brother (Google) is watching"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Greetings MaybachMan.
Yes. Of course you may.
What I mean by that, is that is that Google monitors your activity. To what extent,
all depends on what applications you use, and to what extent you have a relation
with Google - Gmail, Google search, or any other Google application/account you
have with Google. Myself, on the other hand, I activated my EVO in "developer" mode.
I have no Gmail account, or any other relationship/account with Google.
Google needs your data. Google is a "data miner" that's what Google does.
I don't have a problem with their chosen line of business. I simply choose not to be
part of the data they "mine" - to the extent I am able.
Meaning in the context of my OP; I want to remove most (if not all) of the Google apps
on my EVO - including the Market app.
I hope I have cleared things up for you, MaybachMan.
Thanks for your reply.
--Chris
gnarlyc said:
If you have a custom recovery partition like Amon_Ra's, you can do a NAND backup to the sdcard. It's basically a snapshot of the currently flashed ROM. That should work just fine. NAND's can be manipulated in dsixda's kitchen (although I haven't tried it, the option is there and dsixda has things together pretty well) and I THINK you should be able to copy one from one EVO to another and do a restore.
A side note... Generally when people create the ROMs that are out there, they do not include the directories under /data that might have personal info, so you can actually create a bone-stock ROM like you want without using a phone in such a state as yours. I've flashed a lot of different ROMs, and I'm pretty sure that none of them had identifying information about the dev unless they purposely did something like put their name in the build.prop or the wallpaper. Generally, if they include a /data, it's just for /data/app, although there are exceptions like when they want to change a database or something else that might be under /data.
As far as I know, your phone won't be linked to Google until you sign in with the Google account. I've gone several days on a fresh ROM without setting that up. Eventually, I find I want to install something from the Market, so I go ahead and sign in...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you gnarlyc! You're a "pillar of wisdom" where these phones are concerned.
I really appreciate your sharing it with me.
Best wishes, and thanks again gnarlyc.
--Chris
CTH-EVO said:
Thank you gnarlyc! You're a "pillar of wisdom" where these phones are concerned.
I really appreciate your sharing it with me.
Best wishes, and thanks again gnarlyc.
--Chris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, thank you. At least one of the voices tells me that's why I'm here. I'm still learning, and I find it easier to pass on what I learn if I learned it recently. Since I just got this phone in March, nearly everything I know about it is pretty fresh!
In addition the "big brother" post. The book 1984 I believe is where it comes from. The author is George Orwell and usually this book refers to things in society today as an Orwellian society. It's a really great book anyone who has spare time should really check it out if they like conspiracies, apocalyptic scenarios etc.
@CTH-EVO - I understand having a little linux background myself why you feel the way you do that you could just dd a raw image to the phone but there are a few issues with that, that I would like to clarify with you.
It's not entirely impossible. We have seen that around here many times.
However....
1. To clarify, Android is NOT general linux in the form you think of it. It's definitely HAS a beautiful open source twin sister (AOSP) but HTC's version of sense is locked down, restricted, and tight. But there are other reasons why..
2. The boot process... By default you can't mount the system directory to be writable, only readable which wouldn't make a hill a beans difference if you try to use dd. It would just produce error:unwritable.
To iterate further into this subject though, there is also the boot process and the partitions that go with that. Let me go ahead and get the boot process out of the way first:
**Generic Boot Process**
1.SelfCheck
2.Radio
3.S-on/S-off (developer mode only)
4.Recovery (if installed)
5.Rom
By default when the system boots it is directed specifically from the radio (unless s-on is installed) to the system partition, which by default the system partition locks any root needed functions out (including writablility from external sources).
One other thing of note, the phone more than welcomes ANY linux o.s. to see the internal phone storage, just that you can't write to it unless you have root.
However I also would like to inform you that there are universal root programs getting easier and easier these days to use so you don't have to download all this and that, and most phones now you don't even have to have a computer to root it.
Here's what is involved in the rooting process:
1. Exploit code to inject code for root access (done from shell of phone)
2. root files (permissions program, etc)
3. recovery flash. (flashed to it's own 'sub' partition)
Actually come to think of it you used to have to boot into recovery to root (well.. not really a recovery but the stock wiping/reset program) And you could possibly get dd to flash the system from there, but the real issue here is just not bricking the device.
The device itself is of course just one memory bank partitioned into different places. If you use dd to flash a raw image to the rom, it would wipe out EVERYTHING would it not? And not JUST the regular rom partitions? This would be sweet if you can set up an entire phone's system including bootstrap, radio, and recovery (effectively unbricking probably 3/4 the bricked phones out there right now) but if it's unsuccessful, or unfinished then would it not brick it entirely?
Hope this helps you out!
Hello wonderful comminuty,
The long and the veiny of it is, I want to upgrade the (full) ubuntu I have running and I can't. I realize that this would most likely break things like aiw, and the top notification bar. I don't care about the top bar, but would want to keep aiw for obvious reasons. I've gotten much better at working with linux over the last few months, but I'm still quite nib, so please don't hate on me for dreaming if this is impossible. I've looked all over the place and haven't seen anyone talking about it, so maybe it's just too much. Here's my questions anyway:
1) Would upgrading ubuntu make anything better, or even be worth the effort it will take?
2) Is there any possible way to upgrade the ubuntu version used on the dock? (Automatic update obviously doesn't work. I've read a lot about manually upgrading with CD's and such and can't find a place to stick a CD in my phone. Also, couldn't seem to find a way to mount an image like a disk, or a way that worked rather.)
Thanks in advance for anyone who can help, even with the differences in versions of ubuntu and what upgrading would change.
I haven't tried it myself but i've run over the links a few times. If you're on 4.1.52/26 then heres the link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1000316
If thats too complicated, here's the EASY guide to it with a video showing it off: http://androlinux.com/android-ubuntu-development/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-android/
Thanks for the reply and the information, but not quite what I was looking for. I've already used Sogarth's webtop2sd and have full ubuntu running. I guess I should have been clearer. What I meant was that after gaining full access to ubuntu, and fixing apt-get, and installing a bunch of programs, I sit here thinking, hmmm what's next. So since this version of ubuntu is like 9.04 or something, we're using old repos and outdated software. I want to turn it into like ubuntu 10.04+
Anyone can help with that?
You'll need a lot of time/energy, but...
should be possible to do it. I was thinking of doing this myself, but am not sure I can make the time (18+ hr work days ) Motorola recently open sourced the web top code. Take a look at http://sourceforge.net/projects/motorola-webtop.motorola/files/WT-1.2.0-X/WT-1.2.0-110+WT-1.2.0-135/
The instructions are already outdated at the site - the rootstock command in the readme no longer builds rootfs since the jaunty repository is no longer available. I tried to build the natty rootfs but that has a couple of problems (which can be resolved - I ran out of time this weekend )
I will keep at it as time permits (might take ages, since time is tight right now). Let me know if you want to take the plunge and successfully build this (or if you need help).
Cheers
It is not easy to do because Moto has a bunch of hacked up stuff in /osh
You could try the approach here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1093790
What this does is bring up the standard webtop, but then runs applications in a chrooted environment with a standard dist. I am not ceratain how "clean" it is because you have a bit of both environments running.
The ideal solution is to port the Moto changes (those that one cares about) into the newer distro, but that is more work.
EDIT: missed acerbix's post. I agree
Thanks for the information guys.
I did stray from the path today, and thought "hey, why not just run the debian chroot stuff INSIDE my full ubuntu, and then I'd basically have a window with an upgradeable distro..." Well, needless to say, I did get it to work, the only problem being that I couldn't run a GUI since my display was in use already by the first instance of xserver. I'm sure there's a way around that as well, and I'll surely keep looking into it.
That's not what I REALLY wanted though anyway... I'm going to look through those source code files and see if I can figure this all out. Since we can move the whole webtop environment to the sdcard now (thanks Sogarth), my idea of a perfect end result would be a completely independant distro with just aiw functional. That top bar is pretty useless and wastes my screen space...
Any help is always appreciated, I'll let you guys know if I come up with something.
I'm sure this is a stupid noob question, but:
Can I build from source on a Chromebook without running Ubuntu in a box? If so, can anyone point me in the direction of a resource for that? I'm only asking because the wifi only Chromebooks are pretty cheap - cheaper than I am likely to find a macbook.
austontatious said:
I'm sure this is a stupid noob question, but:
Can I build from source on a Chromebook without running Ubuntu in a box? If so, can anyone point me in the direction of a resource for that? I'm only asking because the wifi only Chromebooks are pretty cheap - cheaper than I am likely to find a macbook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are very unlikely to find your answer here. What exactly are you wanting to do? Install a different OS on it?
Sounds like he wants to build Android from source code which is usually done it a Linux system. I'm not sure the answer, but it seems like you should be able to. Unless Chrome is not as powerful since it is browser based system.
I don't know if this is correct but....
I would assume that you can't because chromebooks are not powerful at all. There's almost nothing that eye popping about the specs of chromebooks. On top of that, there isn't much you can do with a chromebook because it is a browser-based operating system. If you really want to build from source just buy a cheap DIY computer from Newegg or something and install Linux on it.
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
You can't do what you want right out of the box on a chromebook. But you can open em up and flip a switch which will allow you to load linux or ubuntu on them. Only caveat is that the one I have is an alpha tester model they gave to us (the company I work for had a deal with google) so jot sure if that I the case wih the newest ones.
3VO Sent
austontatious said:
I'm sure this is a stupid noob question, but:
Can I build from source on a Chromebook without running Ubuntu in a box? If so, can anyone point me in the direction of a resource for that? I'm only asking because the wifi only Chromebooks are pretty cheap - cheaper than I am likely to find a macbook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as you're able to get to a unix/linux based terminal/shell, you *should* be able to compile the Android OS.
Now there are a few caveats to the process, I recall hearing a 64 bit instead of a 32 bit system was required for gingerbread and above, plus there might be some other operating system dependencies. There might also be a RAM requirement.
Also, it can take an hour or two on many modern computer builds. This might take a very long time on a laptop or stripped down laptop such as a chromebook.
I've only compiled inside Ubuntu as that is the recommended OS by Google in their directions. I've compiled using Ubuntu as main booting OS and with Ubuntu being booted inside a VM on a Windows Host.
Best place to start is with Google's official directions for compiling AOSP: http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html
I found this link by searching google.com using the terms: android complie source code
The requirements and notes Google's mentions in their directions:
"Note: The source download is approximately 6GB in size. You will need 25GB free to complete a single build, and up to 80GB (or more) for a full set of builds."
"The Android build is routinely tested in house on recent versions of Ubuntu LTS (10.04), but most distributions should have the required build tools available. Reports of successes or failures on other distributions are welcome.
Note: It is also possible to build Android in a virtual machine. If you are running Linux in a virtual machine, you will need at least 16GB of RAM/swap and 30GB or more of disk space in order to build the Android tree"
Hope that helps! Good luck!
Thanks for the help! So it looks like I could *maybe* do the build on a chromebook, but regardless I wouldn't want to. Correct?
austontatious said:
Thanks for the help! So it looks like I could *maybe* do the build on a chromebook, but regardless I wouldn't want to. Correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming you were able to get everything setup on the Chromebook, at bare minimum it would take a few hours, if not much much longer to complete the compile based on Chromebook hardware and Google expectations as outlined in my previous post.
An alternative, would be to ssh into a build box from the chromebook and compile using this method. This would probably be an approach I would be willing to take. Just throwing out another idea as there are a few reasonable alternatives.
In my experience, compiling AOSP is one of the more hardware intensive tasks I perform on my desktop .. if not the most intensive.
Hope that helps!
Is it now possible to install Ubuntu on the Nook Tablet? - not as a stand-alone Operating System, but as a process running from the Android environment, as has been done for the Nook Color .. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=10306407#post10306407
This site .. http://androlinux.com/android-ubuntu-development/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-android/ .. states 'First of all, you should have your Android device “rooted” because you need root access to run Ubuntu off your Android. Second, your Android OS must support loop devices.' - are these conditions met now with the Nook Tablet?
The emphasis of the above articles is on using Ubuntu as an alternative desktop system to Android.
I see a second reason, though, for doing this - running a Ubuntu server on the tablet gives you access to all the server packages that are available with Ubuntu - eg. Apache2/PHP, MySql, Postgres - maybe not useful if you are connected to a network, but potentially useful if you have a field tablet (ie. with no connectivity) that you want to develop database applications for.
Edit: ignore me......
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
You're asking whether you can follow a tutorial you yourself posted? Why don't you try, and let us know?
There may be kernel modules you need missing, but other than that there isn't a reason the same thing done on the NC wouldn't work on the NT. All you need is a rooted NT (the NT has been rooted for a while)—the NT's locked bootloader is irrelevant for a chroot.
tamasrepus said:
You're asking whether you can follow a tutorial you yourself posted? Why don't you try, and let us know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mmm .. I would if I had a Nook Tablet, but I'm still working out whether to get a Nook Color or Nook Tablet - hence my interest in the question I'm asking. Of course, if I can do what I want with the NT, then that will be better than the NC because the NT is better hardware.
But, thanks for the other info.
And yes, I am hoping that someone with a Nook Tablet might be able to help answer this question.
Tybion said:
Mmm .. I would if I had a Nook Tablet, but I'm still working out whether to get a Nook Color or Nook Tablet - hence my interest in the question I'm asking. Of course, if I can do what I want with the NT, then that will be better than the NC because the NT is better hardware.
But, thanks for the other info.
And yes, I am hoping that someone with a Nook Tablet might be able to help answer this question.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ubuntu on the nook color is not very far along. I just added a nook tablet to my nook color household. I have a motorola phone with webtop and there are a ton of hacks to get it to work that have prevented updating ubuntu.
If you want a tablet that runs ubuntu, look into an x86 tablet.
Sent from my BNTV250 using xda premium
We are running linux kernel, so as long as chroot is there (it is) then we can run (almost) any linux distro. This stuff is (relatively) easy and there interwebs are instructions on it dating back to the g1 days that still work.
Gentoo works for sure, i'm sure ubuntu does as would debian no doubt. i'm pretty sure there is an arm port of arch linux out there too. The main thing is to get the ARM version of your distribution of choice, and then look into running it under "chroot"
I'd probably go with debian over ubuntu. Seems simpler/easier for this kind of thing.
i've got a gentoo chroot running just fine on my NT. Don't do that btw. Deciding to emerge glibc just before bedtime--over adb. Now all you really wanna do is go to bed and read a couple chapters while you fall asleep but you can't because you thought it would be a good idea to compile glibc...on your tablet...tied to your pc...not that i would know
ylixir said:
We are running linux kernel, so as long as chroot is there (it is) then we can run (almost) any linux distro. This stuff is (relatively) easy and there interwebs are instructions on it dating back to the g1 days that still work.
Gentoo works for sure, i'm sure ubuntu does as would debian no doubt. i'm pretty sure there is an arm port of arch linux out there too. The main thing is to get the ARM version of your distribution of choice, and then look into running it under "chroot"
I'd probably go with debian over ubuntu. Seems simpler/easier for this kind of thing.
i've got a gentoo chroot running just fine on my NT. Don't do that btw. Deciding to emerge glibc just before bedtime--over adb. Now all you really wanna do is go to bed and read a couple chapters while you fall asleep but you can't because you thought it would be a good idea to compile glibc...on your tablet...tied to your pc...not that i would know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We may need a tranquilizer dart for you. I think we also need to ban you from all nook tablets.
Also, you should help me get backtrack 5 running on the device so I can see if our wifi chip supports injection.
ylixir said:
i've got a gentoo chroot running just fine on my NT. Don't do that btw. Deciding to emerge glibc just before bedtime--over adb. Now all you really wanna do is go to bed and read a couple chapters while you fall asleep but you can't because you thought it would be a good idea to compile glibc...on your tablet...tied to your pc...not that i would know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gentoo is a very good Base for Crossdeveloping. You can employ a Crossdev toolchain for ARM or you can use your ARM Plattform to build native and use distcc to accelerate the Process.
I had Gentoo already on Plattforms like mips (Octane), Alpha and PPC
ylixir said:
We are running linux kernel, so as long as chroot is there (it is) then we can run (almost) any linux distro. This stuff is (relatively) easy and there interwebs are instructions on it dating back to the g1 days that still work.
Gentoo works for sure, i'm sure ubuntu does as would debian no doubt. i'm pretty sure there is an arm port of arch linux out there too. The main thing is to get the ARM version of your distribution of choice, and then look into running it under "chroot"
I'd probably go with debian over ubuntu. Seems simpler/easier for this kind of thing.
i've got a gentoo chroot running just fine on my NT. Don't do that btw. Deciding to emerge glibc just before bedtime--over adb. Now all you really wanna do is go to bed and read a couple chapters while you fall asleep but you can't because you thought it would be a good idea to compile glibc...on your tablet...tied to your pc...not that i would know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a Linux installer in Market. Good luck on getting it to work. The drivers required to get a functional desktop running on ARM hardware is pretty limited and mostly closed.
If it was as easy as you say all the Motorola webtop phones would be upgraded to Oneric. As it stands my Atrix will only run Jaunty, because that's what came on it.
If you know some secret please contribute to the webtop forums like the Attic, Bionic and Photon. They have been trying for months.
Sent from my BNTV250 using xda premium
dragon_76 said:
There is a Linux installer in Market. Good luck on getting it to work. The drivers required to get a functional desktop running on ARM hardware is pretty limited and mostly closed.
If it was as easy as you say all the Motorola webtop phones would be upgraded to Oneric. As it stands my Atrix will only run Jaunty, because that's what came on it.
If you know some secret please contribute to the webtop forums like the Attic, Bionic and Photon. They have been trying for months.
Sent from my BNTV250 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Drivers are a nonissue. Im sure youve noticed the nook comes with support for it's storage and filesystems and networking out of the box. If the nook didnt come with working linux drivers we wouldnt have a working nook.
The difference between gnu/linux amd android is just the userland. So put a working userland of your favorite linux distro in /data/local, mount the dev proc and sys filesystems, chroot. Boom gnu/linux. All drivers provided and working.
It's not a secret. As a matter of a fact it's how most linux installers on the pc work and as was mentioned earlier how many people develop for embedded platforms like android to begin with.
FYI, there is a developer thread for Ubuntu App on the NT ..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1394329
Tybion said:
Is it now possible to install Ubuntu on the Nook Tablet? - not as a stand-alone Operating System, but as a process running from the Android environment, as has been done for the Nook Color .. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=10306407#post10306407
This site .. http://androlinux.com/android-ubuntu-development/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-android/ .. states 'First of all, you should have your Android device “rooted” because you need root access to run Ubuntu off your Android. Second, your Android OS must support loop devices.' - are these conditions met now with the Nook Tablet?
The emphasis of the above articles is on using Ubuntu as an alternative desktop system to Android.
I see a second reason, though, for doing this - running a Ubuntu server on the tablet gives you access to all the server packages that are available with Ubuntu - eg. Apache2/PHP, MySql, Postgres - maybe not useful if you are connected to a network, but potentially useful if you have a field tablet (ie. with no connectivity) that you want to develop database applications for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1354002&page=12
Loglud answered the Ubuntu question post#113 YouTube video
So, I recently got an X131e Thinkpad. And the operating system is... functional, but lacking. I definitely want to run Android apps and all that good stuff, but there's no official support. So I figured I'd turn to open source. For Android phones and tablets, the community does a good job of providing updated OS's after the manufacturers have stopped making new firmware. So, what are my options?
I'd kind of like to stick with a ChromeOS-type system. I'm not sure what the compatibility is, though. Can I get a good system that will support Android apps? FydeOS maybe? Would that do it? I've been trying to find out the compatibility, but Google just leads me down a hundred different rabbit holes. I want to be sure any OS will be worth installing, and will work for what I want, before I take the big step of installing it. I'd hate to go to a lot of trouble only to end up with a crippled computer.
Failing an open-source type of ChromeOS, what do I do? Gallium? Crouton thing where I have two parallel OS's? I want to stick to a Chrome OS and have support for Android apps, just because I'm familiar with Android, and not a fan of endless command lines. But if Linux is the only alternative (aside from some type of Windows or MacOS), I guess I'll have to be open to that. Maybe the thing where I have two operating systems running at once (yes, yes, Linux isn't really an operating system, yadda yadda.) So what are my options?
And I've never done this with a Chromebook before. Never. What do I do? Gonna need the foolproof newb tutorial.
Thanks for any help.
Maybe thy this, I worked for me, just make sure that your computer supports UEFI.