Related
Has the Viewsonic Gtablet development become a standstill?
Thoughts?
Opinions?
No.... I believe not.
Now everyone's holding their breath for HC.
Here somewhere is a post about latest development (sorry can't find it now).
HC is already booting on G-tab. Hopefully devs will get everything they need to get it going.
Keep my fingers crossed!!!!
You have a cyanogen tag in your sig and yet you ask that? They are releasing nightlies at least once a week. As far as Honeycomb goes it may be booting but its completely worthless to use.
I think I'll keep my thoughts and opinions to myself as anything negative about the wonderous GTab is not tolerated here
thebadfrog said:
You have a cyanogen tag in your sig and yet you ask that? They are releasing nightlies at least once a week. As far as Honeycomb goes it may be booting but its completely worthless to use.
I think I'll keep my thoughts and opinions to myself as anything negative about the wonderous GTab is not tolerated here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LMFAO, you can always talk about the "horrible viewing angle" everybody CAN agree on!
Kenfly, there is actual progress reported that I believe involves a dump of an ASUS Honeycomb box that has been ported to the Adam and there is a picture of it on a G-tab. I just read about actual WPA2 support too.
Here is the thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1065220
The good news is, Roebeet has taken an interest too, so there are some VERY clever guys working on this!
Yes there is but it is completely unuseable at this point.
I was told the viewing angles are not horrible and to expressing my opinion of that as well
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1064775
Follow that thread. Oozura is doing a great job keeping everyone up to date with cm nightlies and releases with bugs and bug fixes. They are making huge progress on major issues right now. It means at some point Gojimi will update VeganGinger as well.
If you follow that thread keep mashing that thanks button for him so people know there is interest and he keeps posting
I see it slowing down as more turn towards the newer tablets on the market. Updates wont be as frequent...
If you have it setup good now then you'll be ok. Its not like the internet, video or audio will stop working because of this.
kenfly said:
Has the Viewsonic Gtablet development become a standstill?
Thoughts?
Opinions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No?
Looks like tons of action to me - pershoot and others have delivered stable overclocked/undervolted kernels in the past week, and the CM7 team has cranked out two stable and about 10 nightly revs in the past week, going from "yes, it sorta works" to functional camera and some hardware acceleration for video playback.
What projects are you working on?
there are more forums to search than the ones here (hint)
There's a lot going on, in early (VERY EARLY) stages.
While some might believe that the Gtab is worthless, I would argue that the hardware itself is not at all. The company that put their name on it, and their "support" might very well be as worthless as a batteries to the Amish.
There are experiments going on utilizing The Notion Ink Adam, and porting it's software to the G-tab. There's a rumor that they are getting an official GB update, and if portable to the G-tab, then we could essentially have an "official" GB Rom (including drivers from Nvidea), without VS needing to get their hands dirty. There are a few comparable (in hardware) tablets out there that are getting the support from their manufacturers that we would like to get from VS. If we can't get VS to update, then the next best thing is to borrow updates from other systems.
If it all works out, it will definitely not be a quick release. Lots of testing would be needed, since the code being worked on is not "made" for the G-tablet.
The reason that it seems like development has halted, or at best, slowed down, is because nothing new is coming from the allmighty VS. Nothing can be developed from the nothing that they are constantly providing. The only development that can be done is using existing Roms, and tweaking them. The bottom line, though, is that unless VS comes out with a GB Rom WITH hardware drivers, the current batch of custom Roms, Vegan-Tab, VeganGinger, CM7, TNT, etc. are dead in the water, and will never have hardware acceleration, since they are all based off of old code, that doesn't include it.
So, simple answer, there are developments that are ongoing, there are tweaks and fixes, possibly additions to some of the existing roms, but there will never be any development on new VS rom, until VS actually releases a new VS rom.
Only one person is building off VS firmware. Everyone else is using Google source and from the commits that Nvidia is making to git. VeganGinger and CM7 are under constant development and CM gets closer everyday to finalizing hardware acceleration. Vegan-Tab is froyo and based off vega firmware and has hardware acceleration as does TNTlite.
Depending on Notion Ink, the king of stretching the truth, for something is knuts
And yes there are some half ass non useful ports of Honeycomb posted on other sites. Nothing works. Its a honeycomb gui hacked into an old kernel
TJEvans said:
While some might believe that the Gtab is worthless, I would argue that the hardware itself is not at all. The company that put their name on it, and their "support" might very well be as worthless as a batteries to the Amish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great analogy. =)
TJEvans said:
There are experiments going on utilizing The Notion Ink Adam, and porting it's software to the G-tab. There's a rumor that they are getting an official GB update, and if portable to the G-tab, then we could essentially have an "official" GB Rom (including drivers from Nvidea), without VS needing to get their hands dirty. There are a few comparable (in hardware) tablets out there that are getting the support from their manufacturers that we would like to get from VS. If we can't get VS to update, then the next best thing is to borrow updates from other systems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The NI software release, if they do in fact follow through with something for once, will be utilizing the exact same GB-compatible drivers that we already have. We already have "official" GB ROMs with the same level of HW accel that anything from NI would come out with. We already have those drivers from nVidia. =)
But you're right in implying that VS won't have to get their hands dirty. =)
TJEvans said:
Nothing can be developed from the nothing that they are constantly providing. The only development that can be done is using existing Roms, and tweaking them. The bottom line, though, is that unless VS comes out with a GB Rom WITH hardware drivers, the current batch of custom Roms, Vegan-Tab, VeganGinger, CM7, TNT, etc. are dead in the water, and will never have hardware acceleration, since they are all based off of old code, that doesn't include it.
So, simple answer, there are developments that are ongoing, there are tweaks and fixes, possibly additions to some of the existing roms, but there will never be any development on new VS rom, until VS actually releases a new VS rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually.... you're incorrect here. New development is being done completely independent of VS. It's called CyanogenMod-based and AOSP-based ROMs and they are completely different than those based on VS or NI-based ROMs which anything based on those are in fact MODs and tweaks. CM and AOSP ROMs are based on newer code and do include the foundation for hw acceleration.
So to summarize - development is not dead if you're not based on a locked bootloader and stock ROM from VS. If you're based on Google and nVidia then there is definitely development going on. It's all in what your base is.
We already have "official" GB ROMs with the same level of HW accel that anything from NI would come out with. We already have those drivers from nVidia.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll have to excuse my ignorance on this issue, as all I've used so far is Vegan-Tab. I love it, it's stable, and I've not seen any inherent problems with it, so I figure, why change?
But, I thought that CM7 and VeganGinger had issues with video playback and 3d video acceleration, since Nvidea is "no longer going to support the Harmony Tegra 2 chipset." I don't know much about CM7, but from reading their website, and observing some of the experimental posts, it doesn't seem that they've been able to truly replicate the drivers that, I believe, Nvidea owes us. Nvidea said that they will provide support and updates if manufacturers requested it. As far as I know, Viewsonic only had one update since they made that statement, and it didn't include anything new from NVidea.
I had assumed that since this rumored NI GB update was official from the manufacturer, that they wouldn't have done it without getting official drivers from Nvidea.
I'm sorry, is there something I'm missing? I thought that it was a big deal that NVidea hasn't provided driver updates for true hardware acceleration, and that it can't be achieved without informaiton from them, and that they've decided ot no longer support...
it's a confusing world in the land of G-Tab.
TJEvans said:
You'll have to excuse my ignorance on this issue, as all I've used so far is Vegan-Tab. I love it, it's stable, and I've not seen any inherent problems with it, so I figure, why change?
But, I thought that CM7 and VeganGinger had issues with video playback and 3d video acceleration, since Nvidea is "no longer going to support the Harmony Tegra 2 chipset." I don't know much about CM7, but from reading their website, and observing some of the experimental posts, it doesn't seem that they've been able to truly replicate the drivers that, I believe, Nvidea owes us. Nvidea said that they will provide support and updates if manufacturers requested it. As far as I know, Viewsonic only had one update since they made that statement, and it didn't include anything new from NVidea.
I had assumed that since this rumored NI GB update was official from the manufacturer, that they wouldn't have done it without getting official drivers from Nvidea.
I'm sorry, is there something I'm missing? I thought that it was a big deal that NVidea hasn't provided driver updates for true hardware acceleration, and that it can't be achieved without informaiton from them, and that they've decided ot no longer support...
it's a confusing world in the land of G-Tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The rumored NI GB update is just that - rumor just like all the other NI rumors. We'll see what happens.
As to nVidia - the 3991 update that was later pulled from VS contained updated GB-compatible libs that were from the Gingerbread Ventana system image from nVidia. Those libs were (and still are) in CM7 and AOSP and VEGAn-TAB. Hacks and mods have been inserted to make CM7 work with them and hw accel is functioning much better after pershoot's kernel overclocking.
thank you for the clarification
I'm curious about something. Are there any roms for the photon that's built from the ground up by the dev and not based on anyone else's work? I've noticed that most of the roms for the photon are in some way based off another devs work on another phone just with minor tweaks here and there. Joker seems to be the only dev I've noticed that has done most of his own work.
Sent from my MB855 using XDA
Looks like you missed the point
This all here is the Android community and everyone uses others work, when making roms.
Even Joker uses others work. ;-)
Do not say anything about something,if you know nothing. ;-)
Except for pure AOSP builds, ALL ROM's are based off of either CM or stock (ports fall under one of these two groups as well). Pure AOSP builds are very rare as the dev has to write a lot of the drivers, framework and such from scratch. This applies to all android devices.
Pure AOSP builds on devices without full sourcecode from the component manufacturers are considered so time consuming that most devs never even both. A perfect example is the Tegra2 development board. Even those that have purchased the dev board do not have access to all the sourcecode as there's a lot of proprietary code that does not fall under opensource. Short of somebody risking some serious legal issues by releasing proprietary code the code is never released. At last check, nobody has all the source code for the Tegra platform.
Another example is during a conversation with agraben at the android bbq the subject of sourcecode came up. Both he and I were a little pissed the handset manufacturers are using wrappers (closed source) to get things like cameras and the like to work. In some cases the released drivers (open source) are pretty much useless as most of the functions are handled by the wrapper. Think of it as soft-drivers (proprietary) vs hard-drivers (opensource).
There is also a lot that goes on behind the scenes. It's not uncommon for devs to share fixes and such with each other. Lets say I find a way to make the mopho print money (I wish this was true). Unless I'm a complete d*ck, I'd send other devs a PM/email and give the code to any devs that want it. The most I may ask for is a mention in the credits.
Lokifish Marz said:
Except for pure AOSP builds, ALL ROM's are based off of either CM or stock (ports fall under one of these two groups as well). Pure AOSP builds are very rare as the dev has to write a lot of the drivers, framework and such from scratch. This applies to all android devices.
Pure AOSP builds on devices without full sourcecode from the component manufacturers are considered so time consuming that most devs never even both. A perfect example is the Tegra2 development board. Even those that have purchased the dev board do not have access to all the sourcecode as there's a lot of proprietary code that does not fall under opensource. Short of somebody risking some serious legal issues by releasing proprietary code the code is never released. At last check, nobody has all the source code for the Tegra platform.
Another example is during a conversation with agraben at the android bbq the subject of sourcecode came up. Both he and I were a little pissed the handset manufacturers are using wrappers (closed source) to get things like cameras and the like to work. In some cases the released drivers (open source) are pretty much useless as most of the functions are handled by the wrapper. Think of it as soft-drivers (proprietary) vs hard-drivers (opensource).
There is also a lot that goes on behind the scenes. It's not uncommon for devs to share fixes and such with each other. Lets say I find a way to make the mopho print money (I wish this was true). Unless I'm a complete d*ck, I'd send other devs a PM/email and give the code to any devs that want it. The most I may ask for is a mention in the credits.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The manufacturers are looking to create a competitive advantage between themselves and their "competition" (re: HTC vs. Motorola) so they proprietarize and hope to win. Where they lack foresight is that those "competitors" are the least of their problems; external forces drive the competitive market and these include Apple, RIM and Nokia. Open sourcing more of their code would leave them with many benefits and a handful of weaknesses, but the benefits would far outweigh the losses. They may not want the community to see their sloppy code or quality untested code. When everyone's watching, the audience able to poke holes in your quality is magnitudes larger than your QA folks. I've had my fair share of holes poked, but that's the joy - live and learn.
OP, the entire Android platform is based off a combination of coders' work, from the home dev up to Linus Torvalds.
I'm thankful for what those who dev on here do, because it can be a grueling and unappreciated process; but when it works >= expectations, hallelujah!
I'm sure I'm not the first developer to ask this question, so at the risk of possible embarrassment I pose this question to the development community as a way for myself and others to learn:
When we build AOSP projects we often do based on the repos from that project. But in Samsung's OSRC releases you often get 2 packages: kernel source and a "platform" package. In there is what Samsung "says" is needed to build AOSP for that given device. For example, I often see bluetooth and audio source in there.
So here's the question....
Given the issues we're seeing in i9505 variants for Bluetooth and headphone call audio, why do we not try using this source for testing purposes? Sure, it may not be the newest but if it works where we are currently having issues; couldn't the differences be merged and hopefully resolve the issue?
Obviously Samsung's solution of just "dropping" the source on top of stuff already being used doesn't make sense. But I can't believe I'm the first to ask and there has to be a reason why. Hopefully some maintainers can shed some light and by doing so, help newer devs (like me) understand the background behind it.
Thanks!
garwynn said:
I'm sure I'm not the first developer to ask this question, so at the risk of possible embarrassment I pose this question to the development community as a way for myself and others to learn:
When we build AOSP projects we often do based on the repos from that project. But in Samsung's OSRC releases you often get 2 packages: kernel source and a "platform" package. In there is what Samsung "says" is needed to build AOSP for that given device. For example, I often see bluetooth and audio source in there.
So here's the question....
Given the issues we're seeing in i9505 variants for Bluetooth and headphone call audio, why do we not try using this source for testing purposes? Sure, it may not be the newest but if it works where we are currently having issues; couldn't the differences be merged and hopefully resolve the issue?
Obviously Samsung's solution of just "dropping" the source on top of stuff already being used doesn't make sense. But I can't believe I'm the first to ask and there has to be a reason why. Hopefully some maintainers can shed some light and by doing so, help newer devs (like me) understand the background behind it.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The stuff in platform isn't what is needed for AOSP - it is (with rare exceptions) only GPL-licensed stuff Samsung is legally obligated to release.
Occasionally little bits and pieces of it are useful (like a single GS2 or GS3 release that included libsecril-client source code), but usually not.
For example, the BT stack in all GS1 platform releases was useless for AOSP, because it was Broadcom's hacked-up version that had dependencies on a proprietary binary (I forget its name - they got around GPL by making it a separate program that communicated using sockets with the rest of the BT stack.)
All of the BT/headphone problems with Snapdragon-based GS4s are, as I understand it, issues with libcsd-client (same library that was troublesome for Note2 and CM until someone ran libcsd-client through Hex-Rays Decompile to see what Samsung mangled...)
It seems like OEMs have a bad habit of hacking up libcsd-client in undocumented ways - LOTS of Qcom devices have had miscellaneous weirdness stemming from libcsd-client lately.
You're a power user. Can the honor 5X keep up? Rate this thread to express how "healthy" the development scene is for the honor 5X. A higher rating indicates available root methods, kernels, and custom ROMs.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Hoping for more love to be given to this KIWI devices
How can there be any development for Android 6.0 without the gorram Sources and Binaries. Honor is still holding out, saying they need to beta-test their proprietary ****e. Somehow I kind of doubt that we'll see official Marshmallow/EMUI4.0 before the friggin' year is up.
jadephyre said:
How can there be any development for Android 6.0 without the gorram Sources and Binaries. Honor is still holding out, saying they need to beta-test their proprietary ****e. Somehow I kind of doubt that we'll see official Marshmallow/EMUI4.0 before the friggin' year is up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a beta tester and I would guess another month or so. Software is pretty close. So patience, they aren't holding out. They have actually been very forthcoming and helpful to folks here at XDA.
I hope someone with knowledge about kernels would step up and create a custom kernel so that we can overclock and optimize.
Developement is below average. To compare, my HTC HD2 had excellent custom roms available, my Samsung Galaxy Note I had a fair ammount of roms available with most functionality working properly. The Honor 5X currently has no rom with all the basic hardware working (mainly the fingerprint reader). Whatever the reason is, I can say that currently you should not buy this device if you want a custom rom as your daily driver.
Check the custom roms section if you want to see the recent developements. Check out the CyanogenMod roms, since all the others are based upon that AFAIK. If there is still stuff listed as not working (hardware) then wait a little longer or go for another device if you want to have custom roms.
Do not agree with KoeWaffle at all, with exception of fingerprint. Good choice of main custom roms, does not matter if cm based, that can be used as daily drivers... way better than stock!
Sent from my KIW-L21 using Tapatalk
nrpetonr said:
Do not agree with KoeWaffle at all, with exception of fingerprint. Good choice of main custom roms, does not matter if cm based, that can be used as daily drivers... way better than stock!
Sent from my KIW-L21 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All current custom roms are CM based. There is pretty much 1 custom rom with many variations available. The device has been out for less than half a year, so it is really not a surprise nor an attack to this community.
This phone offers a slick design and a fingerpint sensor as major selling points. One of it is not working. How does it offer more than a similar phone from another brand then? Despite what others may think of it, I personally really like the fingerprint sensor and do not want to sacrifice it for a more vanilla experience (plenty of other phones offering that from the get go at a lower price). People should just be mindful of it. If they want a different software experience with the samd phone it is just not ready yet...
KoeWaffle said:
All current custom roms are CM based. There is pretty much 1 custom rom with many variations available. The device has been out for less than half a year, so it is really not a surprise nor an attack to this community.
This phone offers a slick design and a fingerpint sensor as major selling points. One of it is not working. How does it offer more than a similar phone from another brand then? Despite what others may think of it, I personally really like the fingerprint sensor and do not want to sacrifice it for a more vanilla experience (plenty of other phones offering that from the get go at a lower price). People should just be mindful of it. If they want a different software experience with the samd phone it is just not ready yet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I for one wouldn't say development is "below average". What would you consider average, for starters? The 5X was, as you said, released quite recently, and we already have bootloader unlocking, TWRP, and root access available as additional options here in the forums, not to mention a (small, ok, but still) number of different custom ROMs including CyanogenMod. To me, there's really not many other "important" things beyond this, except for custom tweaks for every model (the Honor has some as well).
Really, the only "big thing" we'd be missing here on regards to modding would be an easy Xposed install - I say easy because many users have already got it, but afaik it's not a simple flashable .zip but system file editing as well. Not a big deal for a truly tech-savvy person like those who roam the XDA forums, though.
I'm not arguing the selling points; it's true, the fingerprint sensor was a major differentiator considering this phone's market range and price, and many phones have followed the (its?) example. But then again, it's just one feature, and it's already been mentioned multiple times that its implementation is close in time.
I wouldn't advise people to get another phone just because of a lack of fingerprint support on custom ROMs or a kind-of difficult Xposed installation. That is, unless they want to get another phone for like, a month, before coming back and buying the 5X - lol!
Of course, not an attack, just my humble opinion.
ElBerretin said:
I for one wouldn't say development is "below average". 1 What would you consider average, for starters? The 5X was, as you said, released quite recently, and we already have bootloader unlocking, TWRP, and root access available as additional options here in the forums, not to mention a (small, ok, but still) number of different custom ROMs including CyanogenMod. To me, there's really not many other "important" things beyond this, except for custom tweaks for every model (the Honor has some as well).
2 I'm not arguing the selling points; it's true, the fingerprint sensor was a major differentiator considering this phone's market range and price, and many phones have followed the (its?) example. But then again, it's just one feature, and it's already been mentioned multiple times that its implementation is close in time.
3 I wouldn't advise people to get another phone just because of a lack of fingerprint support on custom ROMs or a kind-of difficult Xposed installation. That is, unless they want to get another phone for like, a month, before coming back and buying the 5X - lol!
Of course, not an attack, just my humble opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 - Maybe a poor choice of words, what I am implying is the availability of complete and sound roms is below my average experience (that being the HTC Leo / HD2, DesireHD and N7000). In due time we might see complete custom roms, but that time is not now and I do not think we can say yet whether it will happen for sure (the developers are not paid to do this).
2 - It has been close for months now, they're waiting on Huawai to release the sources. Some say the sources have already been released but I haven't checked them out myself. For now it is not available and thus I say the available roms are incomplete.
3 - I would, if they want to buy a phone now and have a custom rom as a daily driver (/w all functionality) then it just isn't ready yet. Most people want a custom rom to get rid of the EMUI completely. And no, once you buy that other phone you probably stick with it. So if you want a more vanilla Android experience and don't care about the fingerprint sensor, pick the cheaper phone.
KoeWaffle said:
1 - Maybe a poor choice of words, what I am implying is the availability of complete and sound roms is below my average experience (that being the HTC Leo / HD2, DesireHD and N7000). In due time we might see complete custom roms, but that time is not now and I do not think we can say yet whether it will happen for sure (the developers are not paid to do this).
2 - It has been close for months now, they're waiting on Huawai to release the sources. Some say the sources have already been released but I haven't checked them out myself. For now it is not available and thus I say the available roms are incomplete.
3 - I would, if they want to buy a phone now and have a custom rom as a daily driver (/w all functionality) then it just isn't ready yet. Most people want a custom rom to get rid of the EMUI completely. And no, once you buy that other phone you probably stick with it. So if you want a more vanilla Android experience and don't care about the fingerprint sensor, pick the cheaper phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1-Now that's something I can agree with
2-The sources were released iirc, but as you said developers are not paid for this so it's a game of wait and see
3-I would suggest people give EMUI a try for a while after buying the phone. It's not like I love it, but come on; the specs aren't anything out of this world, I know that, so if you so desperately want a custom ROM that you can't wait for a day- just get another phone, don't even consider the Honor 5X, or any phone that comes with a skin for that matter. Besides, the wait makes it more worthwile imo, how can you know how much better a ROM is than EMUI if you haven't actually run EMUI to begin with? Again, just my opinion...
update
not happy with honor..... and dont even know if update comes or not think like jst making fool.......
using honor 5x and 6p from last 4 months have got any update even security patch in honor while in 6p it comes every month...... wer saying that we will get update of android 6.0 in last may but its naw june and no responce.................
disappointed
Matter of opinion, I respect yours and fully agree with huawei ****ty update policy. At least they open bl and share some sources,which are, at least on qualcomm based huaweis, usable to some extent. I have different opinion on development strength, I see no problem with using crpalmers base (cm) for other ROMs as it working well w/o bugs mentioned by u. The last real things that are to be fixed are fingerprint (on the way,fixed by surdu petru ) and HDR mode on camera.
Sent from my KIW-L21 using Tapatalk
Lol, where r good old times when LEO development started and bricks and following recoveries of thosr were daily practice
Yes, huawei update policy is...
Sent from my KIW-L21 using Tapatalk
i was kinda afraid of development due to the fact that it is an honor device,bt now am happy that it has official cm13 and other cm based roms.
Very premium feeling phone for the price range, good features. Don't care that much for EMUI though, it's a bit iPhone-y and limited.
CM12 and CM13 ROMS are well represented here, and hope to see some Nougat/CM14 love here soon
Good support considering its huawei
A lot of ROMs hère so one for every taste.
If you are flasholic, you can get drunk with your honor5x : )
Sent from my KIW-L21 using XDA-Developers mobile app
im a flashaholic!!
I made more than 10 ROMs. I hope that's good for everybody.
Why is there such alot more development and forum activity on for example the Xiaomi Redmi phones than on this one? The p9000 got excellent hardware for a great price but the community is really small somehow and the software is still buggy? How come? Do you think its still worth to wait for more activity and responses from developers for this phone or is it a "dead cow" already and better to swap to another brand to get support from developers on for example CM or RR?
furchtlos76 said:
Why is there such alot more development and forum activity on for example the Xiaomi Redmi phones than on this one? The p9000 got excellent hardware for a great price but the community is really small somehow and the software is still buggy? How come? Do you think its still worth to wait for more activity and responses from developers for this phone or is it a "dead cow" already and better to swap to another brand to get support from developers on for example CM or RR?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Development for this device is far from dead, we have a stable device tree for building custom ROM's, CM and RR ROM's already released, a fully source built TWRP and work on custom kernels is just beginning. That's a lot more development already than an awful lot of devices see in their entire lifetime.
I would rather say it has just begun. Development for this MTK chip is not a matter of course and the outcome so far is pretty exciting. This opens the way for other devs who work on other devices with the same chipset. It's just that many devs simply prefer Snapdragon which leads to higher dev count on those devices, faster bug fixing etc. I am pretty excited what the future brings not only for our P9000 but MTK devices in general as far as flashing and development goes.
Development is dead? What gave you that impression? For starter this phone already has a working twrp recovery. That is more then some Chinese phones get in their whole lifetime. Kernels is the area of development next and elephone has been kind to release the source code for the phone. Again more then most developers even bother with.
well, it got twrp,root and xposed working. More than some name brand phones that stop official updates after a year.
But i admit it is easier to update my old nexus 4 with cm downloader. Just click the update notification and latest cm gets installed.
It is also getting nougat in November hopefully
mangoman said:
well, it got twrp,root and xposed working. More than some name brand phones that stop official updates after a year.
But i admit it is easier to update my old nexus 4 with cm downloader. Just click the update notification and latest cm gets installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because Nexus 4 is an officially supported device by CM.
It's very difficult for MTK devices in general to get official CM support because we have to patch some things in the framework to make camera, RIL (mobile data) etc working.
The official stance is that these things should be done in device tree as no proprietary code is allowed in CM framework.
Initially when our patches were submitted to CM Gerrit they were rejected because of this, Leskal is working on minimising the patch work needed and getting more of the generic MTK code accepted on Gerrit.
Not helped by the fact that MTK themselves aren't helpful or willing to support developers as it doesn't suit their replace and force upgrade business model. Technically how they operate and their refusal to release official development tools or code is a violation of the open sources nature of Android. But google has yet to do anything serious about it. As far as I know, any code we have is from reverse engineering and leaks.
Android-UK said:
Not helped by the fact that MTK themselves aren't helpful or willing to support developers as it doesn't suit their replace and force upgrade business model. Technically how they operate and their refusal to release official development tools or code is a violation of the open sources nature of Android. But google has yet to do anything serious about it. As far as I know, any code we have is from reverse engineering and leaks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true, I've met up with MTK engineers at DevCon and they do actually encourage development, they just seem to lately be wanting to protect their HAL's and drivers which as pointed out on the XDA portal article about this is sort of ridiculous. But then again it's proprietary code and not under the GPL so whilst we can say it's stupid we can't really contest it, it's their choice.
The code we have is completely official and not gotten from reverse engineering.
Jonny said:
Not true, I've met up with MTK engineers at DevCon and they do actually encourage development, they just seem to lately be wanting to protect their HAL's and drivers which as pointed out on the XDA portal article about this is sort of ridiculous. But then again it's proprietary code and not under the GPL so whilst we can say it's stupid we can't really contest ot, it's their choice.
The code we have is completely official and not gotten from reverse engineering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have seen many a leak before. But OK they support developing but at the same time they don't help provide any decent tools for troubleshooting or development.
Android-UK said:
I have seen many a leak before. But OK they support developing but at the same time they don't help provide any decent tools for troubleshooting or development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do they need to? There's already great tools around for that, I know Qualcomm certainly used to provide a package for debugging the lower system levels but it wasn't widely available as the lower levels of the device booting process are not needed to be modified outside of OEM labs and manufacturing.
The lowest level we need is kernel debugging and the kernel already provides that via last_kmsg and desmsg etc, all other tools are already available as part of ADB, logcat etc. There are also a plethora of other tools readily available.
I would call it pretty dead now Well, if not dead then dying.
Let's hope for a Christmas special