Related
Now that we have the kernel source patch, I thought it would be good to summarise what's in it.
I've made a start here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tqj3aStfFS2K5PO83we84TQ&authkey=CI6h0aMD#gid=0
Because we don't have a full changelog, and it's a big patch, I thought it would be helpful to summarise what was changed in each file which brief comments. If you can help fill in the gaps for the modified files please post below.
Note that the patch appears to include a lot of cruft (multiple redundant backup copies of some files) I'd like to verify which files are redundant and produce a filtered, simplified patch. If you can confirm that the marked files are redundant that would be helpful.
I note that there are a few points where there is debug code and fixme comments in the patch. These may point to areas where things were never quite worked out (eg power management?). I don't have enough experience to look into this more deeply but just thought I'd mention it here.
Finally, the mmc driver has been brought in from outside the nv-tegra tree. It would be useful to generate a diff against the mainline tree to understand what (if anything) has changed there.
Happy Christmas!
I'm not very android dev savvy either...but they may have left the old drivers in there because old ROMs refer to them and they wanted to preserve the ability to go back to previous ROMs? -- that is...if the ROMs reference the kernel for drivers...not quite sure how that whole thing works...just a thought.
I've built a kernel from these sources, but unfortunately the bootloader throws a "magic value mismatch" error rather than booting the kernel. Has anybody else had any better luck?
EDIT: my bad, I replaced the boot.img with the raw zImage. I now have it booting my kernel, but it dies like this when starting Android:
I/SurfaceFlinger( 1072): SurfaceFlinger is starting
I/SurfaceFlinger( 1072): SurfaceFlinger's main thread ready to run. Initializing graphics H/W...
D/Zygote ( 1070): Process 1072 terminated by signal (11)
I/Zygote ( 1070): Exit zygote because system server (1072) has terminated
Any lines starting with - are deleted code.
NMCBR600 said:
Any lines starting with - are deleted code.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, in the patch itself, lines starting with + are added, and starting with - are deleted.
In the spreadsheet linked above, lines starting with + are files added, -files deleted, and !modified.
Actually the patch deletes no files, but /arch/microblaze/boot/dts/system.dts is overwritten with a new one. Anyone know exactly what that file does?
I started this because when I was reading the patch it seemed like a lot of new files were added and I wanted to work out where they came from, but it now looks like a lot of the added files are just backup copies the Malata dev has left in the tree (not a bad programming practice during development, but makes the patch a bit confusing to read).
Seems like the new files that are added (that aren't backups) are:
+ touch screen drivers in arch/arm/mach-tegra/odm_kit/platform/touch/{ak4183,at168}
+ driver for buttons in drivers/input/keyboard/so340010_kbd.c
+ drivers for gps control (power on/off), light sensor and accellerometer in drivers/input/misc/{gps_control.c,isl29023_ls.*,lis35de_accel.*}
+ drivers for batteries in drivers/power/smba10xx_battery and drivers/power/yoku_0563113
+ drivers for headphone and dock switches in drivers/switch/{switch_dock.c,switch_h2w.c} (header file in include/linux/switch_dock.h)
Also, mmc driver (presumably from mainline linux) is imported drivers/mmc
+ drivers for gps control (power on/off), light sensor and accellerometer in drivers/input/misc/{gps_control.c,isl29023_ls.*,lis35de_accel.*}
Sounds promising ..
Can someone explain to me perhaps if I'm missing something here- but what I am to understand from this post is that we finally got the source for the gtablet kernel? Would this incline to mean that we could compile the touchscreen and etc drivers onto a standard linux kernel and pop ubuntu or other such on the gtablet?
Or is 'patch' referring to just some small subset of the code missing the majority required to compile a gtablet kernel?
Any chance we might then be able to hack a fix into the accelerometer code to align the axis correctly?
rswindle said:
Can someone explain to me perhaps if I'm missing something here- but what I am to understand from this post is that we finally got the source for the gtablet kernel? Would this incline to mean that we could compile the touchscreen and etc drivers onto a standard linux kernel and pop ubuntu or other such on the gtablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One would have to recompile Ubuntu (or whatever distro) for ARM. Also, a finger friendly GUI would have to be added allowing the Capacitive screen to do its thing. Its very possible now with the kernel but no, you cannot use the iso downloaded from ubuntu.com.
rswindle said:
Can someone explain to me perhaps if I'm missing something here- but what I am to understand from this post is that we finally got the source for the gtablet kernel? Would this incline to mean that we could compile the touchscreen and etc drivers onto a standard linux kernel and pop ubuntu or other such on the gtablet?
Or is 'patch' referring to just some small subset of the code missing the majority required to compile a gtablet kernel?
Any chance we might then be able to hack a fix into the accelerometer code to align the axis correctly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The drivers for the touchscreen, battery, and the accelerometer are all there in the kernel patch or the Nvidia tegra2 repo that it's patched again, yes. It's up on Viewsonic's website, in the support section.
Yes, you can merge them into an Ubuntu kernel if you want to. I'm sure somebody will do that in the next few weeks/months, it just hasn't happened yet since we just got the code dropped a few days ago.
There's some threads in NVidia's tegra2 dev forums on getting Ubuntu to work with a tegra 2 kernel. I posted the link earlier today if you're curious, look through my posts.
Great, so then the next question is, has anyone yet gotten a bootable compiled kernel from these yet?
Would be cool to get a stock android system compiled against a standard kernel for gtab.
Now I'm going to have to go rig up a linux thumb when I get home to start compiling the kernel with the patched sources and see what I can do. I so want to fix the damn accelerometer..
Best of all, my wife can play angry birds the entire time so she won't complain our HTPC is being used for my insanity..
Any suggestions what's a super lite fast distro to toss on a thumb quick that would quickly have me in position to git linux sources and compile this kernel? I don't keep up with the distros these days..
Yes
rswindle said:
Great, so then the next question is, has anyone yet gotten a bootable compiled kernel from these yet?
Would be cool to get a stock android system compiled against a standard kernel for gtab.
Now I'm going to have to go rig up a linux thumb when I get home to start compiling the kernel with the patched sources and see what I can do. I so want to fix the damn accelerometer..
Best of all, my wife can play angry birds the entire time so she won't complain our HTPC is being used for my insanity..
Any suggestions what's a super lite fast distro to toss on a thumb quick that would quickly have me in position to git linux sources and compile this kernel? I don't keep up with the distros these days..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe at least a half dozen of us have now built and deployed our own kernels. I've started cherry-picking Nvidia fixes beyond the baseline looking for something to fix the slowdown problem. Trying the latest variation now.
As for the accelerometer, I don't play any games where that is an issue, so I don't know if this resolves the problems, but there is a 1 line patch beyond our baseline in the Nividia tree which switches the X axis. Maybe this is the issue?
The patch description is:
X direction needs to be reversed to correct orientation in portrait
mode for Whistler.
Bug 678250
and the code diff is here:
http://nv-tegra.nvidia.com/gitweb/?...ff;h=6d57f00bb8276e0392dfa199017fc70fcea7d60b
I have applied this in my current kernel, but I've never seen the bug and can't tell you if it makes a difference.
[email protected] said:
I believe at least a half dozen of us have now built and deployed our own kernels. I've started cherry-picking Nvidia fixes beyond the baseline looking for something to fix the slowdown problem. Trying the latest variation now.
As for the accelerometer, I don't play any games where that is an issue, so I don't know if this resolves the problems, but there is a 1 line patch beyond our baseline in the Nividia tree which switches the X axis. Maybe this is the issue?
The patch description is:
X direction needs to be reversed to correct orientation in portrait
mode for Whistler.
Bug 678250
and the code diff is here:
http://nv-tegra.nvidia.com/gitweb/?...ff;h=6d57f00bb8276e0392dfa199017fc70fcea7d60b
I have applied this in my current kernel, but I've never seen the bug and can't tell you if it makes a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mdwalker, I've likewise built my own kernel and have been running it too. I likewise have been trying to isolate and fix the slowdown problem. I likewise haven't succeeded yet.
There are a bunch of patches in the Nvidia tree that relate to suspend-resume issues, which I'm sure you've noticed. Let me know if you zero in on anything.
question.. I noticed all the developers are from Nvidia, I would think they would be Viewsonic developers... and if not the case are these bugs were not caught a while ago?
Viewsonic doesn't make this
stanglx said:
question.. I noticed all the developers are from Nvidia, I would think they would be Viewsonic developers... and if not the case are these bugs were not caught a while ago?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Viewsonic doesn't make our tablet, it's made by a Chinese company called Malata based on a standard Nvidia design. Viewsonic just resells it in the US.
There are actually a number of "rebadged" variations of this tablet, with more appearing almost every day.
Absolutely
rcgabriel said:
mdwalker, I've likewise built my own kernel and have been running it too. I likewise have been trying to isolate and fix the slowdown problem. I likewise haven't succeeded yet.
There are a bunch of patches in the Nvidia tree that relate to suspend-resume issues, which I'm sure you've noticed. Let me know if you zero in on anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I've certainly noticed the suspend/resume functionality looks to be a frequent source of "fixes". There are lots of patches which sound promising. Hopefully one (or more, gah!) will do the trick without having to hack up the cpu power management itself.
Likewise if you (or pershoot, or ... whomever else is tinkering) finds the right combination, please let us know!
Understand that... The point I am making is why is there so much Nvidia development going on for a version of the Kernel that is considered stable?
[email protected] said:
Viewsonic doesn't make our tablet, it's made by a Chinese company called Malata based on a standard Nvidia design. Viewsonic just resells it in the US.
There are actually a number of "rebadged" variations of this tablet, with more appearing almost every day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rswindle said:
Now I'm going to have to go rig up a linux thumb when I get home to start compiling the kernel with the patched sources and see what I can do. I so want to fix the damn accelerometer..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't waste your time on the accelerometer, as the problem is with the app devs, not our device.
A nice explanation is here: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/09/one-screen-turn-deserves-another.html
iptables owner module
One of the critical features I am looking for is a kernel built with support for iptables, and specifically the "owner" module.
This is used by apps such as Droidwall and my own app, Orbot, which is the port of Tor to Android. I worked with Cyanogen on this issue previously and am hoping to get this into all of the ROMs for the GTablet as well.
Thanks!
stanglx said:
Understand that... The point I am making is why is there so much Nvidia development going on for a version of the Kernel that is considered stable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why are you considering it's stable? Afaik there are very few products running the NVIDIA kernel at this stage -- the base hardware target is "harmony", which is actually one of NVIDIA's development boards.
G Tablet is one of the first Tegra 2 based products and we are about to see a whole raft of them over the next 6 months. Starting with Gingerbread tablets and then going to Honeycomb. If you check the logs you'll see that stuff from nv-tegra repo is being merged into the AOSP repo pretty regularly at the moment. Presumably, preparing for the Motorola Tegra 2 tablet. I imagine NVIDIA devs are quite busy on that.
I think a bigger question is why the very different codes at kernel.org and Navdia's own repository? In some cases commits are pulled in from each other, but clearly they are on different paths. Motorola seems to be pushing commits to kernel.org.
s_frit said:
Why are you considering it's stable? Afaik there are very few products running the NVIDIA kernel at this stage -- the base hardware target is "harmony", which is actually one of NVIDIA's development boards.
G Tablet is one of the first Tegra 2 based products and we are about to see a whole raft of them over the next 6 months. Starting with Gingerbread tablets and then going to Honeycomb. If you check the logs you'll see that stuff from nv-tegra repo is being merged into the AOSP repo pretty regularly at the moment. Presumably, preparing for the Motorola Tegra 2 tablet. I imagine NVIDIA devs are quite busy on that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So as we all know soon we will have the files to access nvflash. This for one will hopefully allow us to install any OS we want.
Here is a guide to flashing ubuntu through nvflash onto a tegra 2 device:
http://tegradeveloper.nvidia.com/tegra/forum/workaround-run-ubuntu-now
Now lets hope once the nvflash tools get released in the coming days we will be able to do this.
You're my hero men !!!!
I love you
very nice, ubuntu with unity desktop would be great on tf
xufuchang said:
very nice, ubuntu with unity desktop would be great on tf
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely
Asus would dominate the tablet market with this due to the dock that makes it into a possible real pc now. Did asus give any indication on releasing tools for nvflash?
Will dual-boot be possible, too?
Otherwise that would be nothing for me, cause for multimedia Android is much better and I have a netbook.
cowballz69 said:
Asus would dominate the tablet market with this due to the dock that makes it into a possible real pc now. Did asus give any indication on releasing tools for nvflash?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RayMan and bumblebee already got tools set up, and they're releasing soon.
Will dual-boot be possible, too?
Otherwise that would be nothing for me, cause for multimedia Android is much better and I have a netbook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been done on other Android devices so I don't see why not.
Ubuntu on this.....I am salvatating already....ooooooohhhhhh yea....this would definely rock my world
seshmaru said:
It's been done on other Android devices so I don't see why not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be amazing and probably with the dock one of the best devices ever!
When you really think about it.....Android IS a variant of linux.
Digiguest said:
When you really think about it.....Android IS a variant of linux.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the same as saying OSX is a variant of Unix.
Android borrows the Linux kernel, but aside from that the user interface and feature set is completely different from the typical desktop environments like Gnome and KDE in other Linux distributions. If Android was actually able to provide anywhere close to the same capabilities as a desktop Linux distribution, people wouldn't be asking for a way to install Ubuntu instead.
earlyberd said:
That's the same as saying OSX is a variant of Unix.
Android borrows the Linux kernel, but aside from that the user interface and feature set is completely different from the typical desktop environments like Gnome and KDE in other Linux distributions. If Android was actually able to provide anywhere close to the same capabilities as a desktop Linux distribution, people wouldn't be asking for a way to install Ubuntu instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Linux" is the kernel, while Ubuntu, Android, Fedora is the distribution in full. But those are all powered by Linux... and btw OSX is Unix, since XNU (the kernel, funny enough it's open source) is certified as such.
Clearly if you cripple the potential of the platform with an interface and toolset suited for mobile use like Android or iOS, you lose some features and gain usability. A tradeoff most are happy with
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk
AlexTheStampede said:
"Linux" is the kernel, while Ubuntu, Android, Fedora is the distribution in full. But those are all powered by Linux... and btw OSX is Unix, since XNU (the kernel, funny enough it's open source) is certified as such.
Clearly if you cripple the potential of the platform with an interface and toolset suited for mobile use like Android or iOS, you lose some features and gain usability. A tradeoff most are happy with
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Linux kernel that actually makes it into the final builds of Android is not the same kernel that you would find in desktop and server distributions. Mainly, it is missing the X Window system and doesn't support all of the GNU libraries, and has tons of other Android-specific additions and architecture changes for the sake of security and interoperability with certain mobile device standards. You can't just throw together the Android-ified Linux kernel with any desktop environment of your choosing like you can with the actual Linux kernel that ships with Ubuntu and Fedora. Furthermore, the changes that Google does make to the kernel do not get included into the mainstream kernel, and that fork has existed for quite some time. That is why Android is Linux-based, and not actually a Linux distribution.
ive had that page bookmarked since the week before i got my tab xD
Linux is just the kernel. Ubuntu, fedora etc are distributions with everything else needed to make the OS work.
earlyberd said:
The Linux kernel that actually makes it into the final builds of Android is not the same kernel that you would find in desktop and server distributions. Mainly, it is missing the X Window system and doesn't support all of the GNU libraries, and has tons of other Android-specific additions and architecture changes for the sake of security and interoperability with certain mobile device standards. You can't just throw together the Android-ified Linux kernel with any desktop environment of your choosing like you can with the actual Linux kernel that ships with Ubuntu and Fedora. Furthermore, the changes that Google does make to the kernel do not get included into the mainstream kernel, and that fork has existed for quite some time. That is why Android is Linux-based, and not actually a Linux distribution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
<pedantic>
Pretty sure the Linux kernel proper does not come with X-Windows or GNU libraries (although it does rely heavily on the GNU toolkit, hence GNU's insistence that it be called GNU/Linux - http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html)
</pedantic>
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
jhanford said:
<pedantic>
Pretty sure the Linux kernel proper does not come with X-Windows or GNU libraries (although it does rely heavily on the GNU toolkit, hence GNU's insistence that it be called GNU/Linux - http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html)
</pedantic>
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was that really necessary?
The point of this discussion is that Android is not Linux, does not include the vast majority of libraries found in standard Linux distributions, is thus incompatible with the vast majority of Linux applications, and is otherwise missing large portions of functionality. The fact that Android has some basis in Linux does not solve the problem of there being thousands of users out there that need to be able to do more than just basic word processing and web browsing on their mobile devices, but also want hardware that won't soon be neglected by developers.
Some people need VLC, Eclipse, GIMP, or various Oracle applications to get their work done. Telling people that Android has some similarity to Linux doesn't make those applications any easier to port, and would be pointless anyway if the same hardware can run Linux distros natively.
you made it to he news
earlyberd said:
The Linux kernel that actually makes it into the final builds of Android is not the same kernel that you would find in desktop and server distributions. Mainly, it is missing the X Window system and doesn't support all of the GNU libraries...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
......
Your kernel has the GNU libraries in it? and X Windows? Must be pretty large...
earlyberd said:
Was that really necessary?
The point of this discussion is that Android is not Linux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, it is.
Linux == The Kernel. Everything else is just the distribution. Honeycomb is basically a Linux distribution, just like Ubuntu, RedHat, and Gentoo are. It is just highly specialized. And if you think that because it doesn't have the GNU libraries makes it somehow not Linux, you are DEAD wrong. There are a plethora of devices and distributions that do not use the GNU libraries or toolchain.
Aside from this, the fact that you seem to continuously confuse the kernel with the distirbution indicates to me you aren't really qualified to discuss this topic, so I would stop arguing it.
earlyberd said:
Was that really necessary?
The point of this discussion is that Android is not Linux, does not include the vast majority of libraries found in standard Linux distributions, is thus incompatible with the vast majority of Linux applications, and is otherwise missing large portions of functionality. The fact that Android has some basis in Linux does not solve the problem of there being thousands of users out there that need to be able to do more than just basic word processing and web browsing on their mobile devices, but also want hardware that won't soon be neglected by developers.
Some people need VLC, Eclipse, GIMP, or various Oracle applications to get their work done. Telling people that Android has some similarity to Linux doesn't make those applications any easier to port, and would be pointless anyway if the same hardware can run Linux distros natively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you even go to the gnu link? Linux is the kernel. Android uses the Linux kernel. It's the tools on top of it that are missing (hence busybody)
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
I just purchased a Pogoplug because Arch Linux can be installed on it. It looks to be a cheap server when duly modified.
I was wondering if Arch Linux could be installed on the A500?
http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/pogoplug-provideov3
Pogoplug Pro is the first of a new variety of hardware from Pogoplug. They are based on the PLX/Oxford Semiconductor NAS7820 SoC, which provides two ARMv6 cores clocked at 700MHz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Debian can also be installed on the Pogoplug so I assume it can be on the A500.
I know nothing about Linux and this will be my first trial and error install.
But hey for A $16 MEDIA SERVER WHAT IS THERE TO LOSE?
Thank You
You would, of course, have to build an image of the OS as a ROM. I think there are other Linux on Iconia projects. Not sure about driver support.
I'm a big fan of Arch on my net book and desktop. It wouldn't be my choice for a tablet. I think of Arch in terms of its rolling release cycle. You would probably need to pick a point in time and build a ROM. If you could automate the ROM build from some sort of Arch virtual machine, it might be feasable.
Jim
Hi everyone,
I consider buying a this nice little tablet I just wonder if anyone managed to install a complete Linux distribution on it like ArchLinux ARM natively (not emulation/virtualization not even chroot) with everything working. I guess that even if it's not done up to now it will be quite easy to do as everything is open source.
Thanks
So as a few months passed since the Nexus 7 is available and I just bought one yesterday, I thought that I could do a little up...
Hope mods won't think it is offensive to make alive an old thread with some kind of what I think is a good reason.
If no one can help me, I will probably work on a native ArchLinux ARM on my nice new tablet in the next days. But first I have to make sure I can get it back fully stock from a fully rooted/unlocked/repartitioned state. If I have no choice I will dd my entire N7's internal memory to a slightly bigger USB stick to recreate exactly the partition table. But I am not sure I can have a complete access to the internal flash memory (all of the partitions with the boot loader, recovery etc). If someone can confirm if I have only one memory drive or more to backup or if there is no chance that I cannot recrate then entire Android stock system from a corrupted partition table for example... I would appreciate it right!
Thanks in advance!
Sorry if this is already answered I have to confess that I didn't search for the last part, I don't have time this morning.
Sent from my Nexus 7
Yeah installing Linux on the N7 has been done. I think the Ubuntu Distro is the one that was used for the successful install.
I did a little searching and found it for you:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1585009
Hope that helps
Wilks3y said:
Yeah installing Linux on the N7 has been done. I think the Ubuntu Distro is the one that was used for the successful install.
I did a little searching and found it for you:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1585009
Hope that helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer but I was looking for a native installation, not a chroot if possible that I can use hardware
acceleration (maybe that I still could with virtualGL though).
It is already a good point that it has been done in chroot, wich I am not surprised.
Sent from my Nexus 7
johnride said:
Thanks for your answer but I was looking for a native installation, not a chroot if possible that I can use hardware
acceleration (maybe that I still could with virtualGL though).
It is already a good point that it has been done in chroot, wich I am not surprised.
Sent from my Nexus 7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest mate, I'm not into it all that deep, couldn't even tell ya the difference between chroot and a native client, perhaps you could explain for me?
the chrooted version is the android kernel with the ubuntu "programs" running. you can access the ubuntu desktop only via a vnc client, as there is no "real" x server running. think of it as ubuntu running as a service in the background which you then access via local network from your android.
would be interested in a native version as well.
kendong2 said:
the chrooted version is the android kernel with the ubuntu "programs" running. you can access the ubuntu desktop only via a vnc client, as there is no "real" x server running. think of it as ubuntu running as a service in the background which you then access via local network from your android.
would be interested in a native version as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That explains it, so basically on chroot the Ubuntu is a virtual machine in essence?
johnride said:
Hi everyone,
I consider buying a this nice little tablet I just wonder if anyone managed to install a complete Linux distribution on it like ArchLinux ARM natively (not emulation/virtualization not even chroot) with everything working. I guess that even if it's not done up to now it will be quite easy to do as everything is open source.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has not been released yet, but definitely check out this: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android
Nooo there is a big difference between chroot and virtualization. On a chroot you still use the same kernel which allows to have the same speed or almost as a native client for what does not require hardware acceleration. the point in getting and Native Client working is that we could get advantage of the GPU after some more or less hard work. I bought this tablet to replace my sold laptop the best I could so that's why I'm interested in this.
When you do virtualization, CPU instructions are converted from a type to another and this is very heavy on the CPU and this way you cannot have good performances.
Think of a road: in chroot you only have to make the instructions take a turn without slowing down while in virtualization you have to stop the "convertible" instructions "remove the roof" and then you can continue. That's why virtualization is much slower than chroot.
Edit:
Chroot says what it does: it changes the root. This means that programs that run in the chroot environment will think that the / is another folder than what it is really. For example if you do chroot /sdcard/ and you have a file named derp.txt on your sdcard than type rm /derp.txt it will work since your / is now /sdcard/. The most come in case of uses of EC truth is when you have a Linux machine not booting anymore so you have to repair the boot loader, you will boot on a Live CD of the same distro (Ubuntu for example), mount the drive with the broken installation, chroot to this installation regular root and perform the same reparation as if this install would be booted, still using the kernel and binaries from your live CD (unless you specify that you want to use those from the chrooted environment).
Hope this is clear.
Sent from my Nexus 7
Stevenator21 said:
Has not been released yet, but definitely check out this: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that's a very nice project but I want the desktop on my tablet, no docks and all. This is also in chroot I believe. Probably that I will install ArchLinux in chroot and try to make VirtualGL work but it's not really what I want.
Sent from my Nexus 7
johnride said:
When you do virtualization, CPU instructions are converted from a type to another and this is very heavy on the CPU and this way you cannot have good performances.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Small clarification. You're describing emulation here. Emulation is one processor pretending to be another. The Android SDK provides an android emulator that pretends to be an ARM device while running on your x86 PC.
Virtualization is a special feature of some processor architectures that allows multiple, virtual memory spaces to be created that are isolated from each other at a very low-level. I seriously doubt (but don't know for sure) that the ARM architecture has much support for virtualization. VMWare and its ilk use virtualization.
Anyway, virtualization runs at full processor speed. However, access to everything but main RAM and the CPU may be emulated in most implementations. Particularly, it's very tricky to get proper access to the GPU via virtualization, so it is often emulated.
Trivia-time: The presence of a primitive form of virtualization in the 386 is what allowed Linux to be written back in the day. The 286 didn't support switching between normal and escalated privilege modes (aka kernel vs user process space) on the fly. Oh crap. Now I'm starting to show my age. Um, get off my lawn!?!
The more you know...
Thanks for the clarification old chap!
I knew about material virtualization with some CPU's but did not realize that there was no emulation for the biggest part of the instructions. Will sleep less dumb.
Sent from my Nexus 7
kendong2 said:
would be interested in a native version as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mhmmm as we are probably not alone to be interested in this, I think I will open a topic in original development section to see how many would be interested and what direction I should take. If anyone supports that idea I will create the thread. I think it would be easier to put together all the good ideas in the dev section.
Ah you beat me to it!
Well we (the linuxonandroid team) have been running a device fund which has just finished.
One of the devices i will be getting from this is a nexus 7 which is being bought for two goals.
A) fixing tegra chip bugs with our chroot builds (after all chroot for many is a good way forward as it leaves android intact)
B) building native linux distro installs. Starting with ubuntu but expanding to as many distros that support ARM as possible (debian, backtrack, archlinux, fedora etc etc).
So prehaps you would like to PM me and maybe we can team up for this
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
zacthespack said:
Ah you beat me to it!
Well we (the linuxonandroid team) have been running a device fund which has just finished.
One of the devices i will be getting from this is a nexus 7 which is being bought for two goals.
A) fixing tegra chip bugs with our chroot builds (after all chroot for many is a good way forward as it leaves android intact)
B) building native linux distro installs. Starting with ubuntu but expanding to as many distros that support ARM as possible (debian, backtrack, archlinux, fedora etc etc).
So prehaps you would like to PM me and maybe we can team up for this
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am currently working on developing on booting ubuntu on the nexus 7. Check this thread out - > http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1842915
Well I'm looking for some talent to get the Boxee Box bootloaders unlocked so we can put custom firmware on it and/or XBMC. Boxee is based of of XBMC which is opened source yet the Boxee Box is closed and violates the GPL, see here for more info.
Not only that but they have lied again and again to there customers are now since it has reached EOL, and will only provide one more minor update before they put the maintenance tag on it. People requested they open the box but Boxee still refuses, the firmware still feels like a beta yet they think it's good enough. The firmware is a beta at best and it will become an expensive paperweight soon enough, actually it is for most of UK that have lost all online content. Before that happens to everyone i'm hoping one of you step up
The hardware is good just the software is utter crap, I'm sure if i can get some interested developers we soon will be free of Boxee's strong hold. I don't think there security is that good, we have some great talent here at xda and i'm sure it will be hacked rather easily. We already have root (see here) access its just a matter of time and the right people.
This is a company that has given the middle finger to every customer that has supported them, and i think its will be SWEET SWEET justice to have it hacked.
I have started a bounty thread in the Boxee forums so please do consider this. Hopefully i can get some interest and some donations for you guys.
UPDATE August 27th 2013
Thanks to the Samsung/Boxee buyout we are left with a broken product. I happy Sammy purchased them as it had so much potential and i'm sure we will see great future products. But for the Boxee Box its just junk now, but thanks to the hard work of "quarnster" he was able to get XBMC booting on Boxee. I ask if any dev's are willing to lend him a hand with the port and hardware acceleration.
Source
would love to this boxee box running custom content.....its been rooted in the past and being rooted again isn't going to magically generate interest.....i agree that it can be hacked and should have been by now i just don't think enough ppl have them...
I think all we really need is talented dev, because there s demand for it. I would for sure donate to prolong its life.
bump
Everybody go bump bump bump.
Aside from the (sometimes) lacking ability to shut down via remote, I have had no real issues with my Boxee Boxes (I have two).
I'm running the most current (non-beta) firmware, and use them to stream netflix as well as various media on my NAS. Although I'd love for this to be fully opened up, I see no real issues with the current performance. Don't get me wrong - I am all for unlocking and going fully custom, but these devices are working for me just fine.
I started off with XBMC (almost a decade ago) when I soldered my Xecuter 2.3b lite chip into my original xbox.
After that, I went a little crazy and equipped each room of my house with one (some chipped, some softmodded). But then HD took over, and the processors just couldn't hang... So I retired my clan of Microsoft hardware and picked up my first Boxee Box. It was fully functional right out of the box, and yes it has had its share of issues, but they seemed to always get worked out. I quickly started to prefer the Boxee layout to XBMC and still feel that way. Not to mention the RF/QWERTY remote (although back-lighting would have been nice). - Rii Mini works just fine for that.
Enough of the history rambling... I'd support this - especially since Boxee has turned its back from the Box, and moved on to a lesser device. I have no intention on picking up a BoxeeTV - the IR remote is the FIRST (of many) issues I have with it.
Just a heads up, there is already some movement on this front with Boxee+.
forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=64648
boxeeplus.com
actually they are not violating the gpl
you can customize the "look" of boxee box - but cannot remake the firmware since it's signed....
if anyone is reading this - i believe the best method of approach is to access it's boot console (i believe it uses redboot) - method i have tried is direct ethernet connection and the boxee box is at 192.168.0.1 port 9000 - usually you access the console by hitting ctrl+c - i haven't tried ctrl+a though (i found ctrl+a within an iso file - for minicom) - the ctrl+alt+del seems to "freeze" or pause the boxee box.... and no i cannot check at the moment... lol
there is a 2-second window only for the redboot however, i can't find it
good luck
oh, and curious as this is:
from buildinfo:
build by [email protected] on Fri, 02 Mar 2012 05:36:33 +0000
boxee 1.5.1.23735
ce_plumb dd2cb6584bd70454ebc4451d414f1ed77bb42b2f
and preflight.sh:
#!/bin/sh
# this is preflight.
# dump kernel
logger -t bxrec.preflight -s -p 0 "dd'ing kernel"
dd conv=sync if=/dev/spectra of=/tmp/kernel.img bs=256k skip=20 count=12
# hash it
logger -t bxrec.preflight -s -p 0 "hashing kernel"
kmdfive=$(md5sum /tmp/kernel.img | cut -f 1 -d " ")
logger -t bxrec.preflight -s -p 0 "kernel md5 hash is $kmdfive"
# if version 1 kernel, copy kernel.1 to kernel.img
# if version 2 kernel (hatung), copy kernel.2 to kernel.img
# else unknown kernel, use dumped version and note hash in mr. wong for support pickup
case $kmdfive in
"9f2ed11d55a3750019d019470212bf36") cp /tmp/upgrade_iso/kernel.1 /tmp/kernel.img;;
"a81c639b7c21d98fdde0b55d4e5356c1") logger -t bxrec.preflight -s -p 0 "doing nothing, this IS kernel.1";;
"d2ed7f9be38c0e0590a5680febd27502") cp /tmp/upgrade_iso/kernel.2 /tmp/kernel.img;;
"68777d9a8fede193ed434cf9a9cd3495") logger -t bxrec.preflight -s -p 0 "doing nothing, this IS kernel.2";;
*) echo $kmdfive >/data/.persistent/.mrwong/boxee.khash;;
esac
logger -t bxrec.preflight -s -p 0 "sync'ing"
sync;sync;sync
logger -t bxrec.preflight -s -p 0 "and we're outta here"
return
anyway... without accessing the box itself before it loads it's internal normal.img (ext2) and dlink_boxee_runtime.img (squashfs) - you are sol
the boxeeplus community is at least "hacking" - so does this mean boxee company is finally getting hacker interest?
My 2 pennies....
Boxee won't open source the box supposedly due to concerns from content providers. 1st off they are closed-sourcing a product which is based off of the hard work of the open sourced XBMC community. What really kind of sucks is that people who invested in the box are pretty much being left out in the cold. I invested in the box because I thought Boxee had the potential to be at the forefront of innovation for media boxes (which in some regards it was). Boxee needs to take a page from Google's playbook. Open source the box and benefit. Or, stagnate innovation and die....its your move Boxee. The set-top media box market will only continue to get more and more crowded. Why not have an army of innovators who will make your current and future products better.
Vision77 said:
Boxee won't open source the box supposedly due to concerns from content providers. 1st off they are closed-sourcing a product which is based off of the hard work of the open sourced XBMC community. What really kind of sucks is that people who invested in the box are pretty much being left out in the cold. I invested in the box because I thought Boxee had the potential to be at the forefront of innovation for media boxes (which in some regards it was). Boxee needs to take a page from Google's playbook. Open source the box and benefit. Or, stagnate innovation and die....its your move Boxee. The set-top media box market will only continue to get more and more crowded. Why not have an army of innovators who will make your current and future products better.
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Click to collapse
I absolutely agree with you. Desperate situation.
Coming from a fellow boxee user, it would be awesome to get this opened up. I'm tired of the audio drop outs. If it were hacked that issue could be eliminated and being able to really stretch boxee's legs to show the real power, would be awesome.
demoncamber said:
Coming from a fellow boxee user, it would be awesome to get this opened up. I'm tired of the audio drop outs. If it were hacked that issue could be eliminated and being able to really stretch boxee's legs to show the real power, would be awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never once have had audio drop outs. But have heard that a lot. Strange.
Use hdmi with lossless codes enabled and play back some dtsma or truehd content.
For me, it happens with .mkv's all the time.
You can already install a custom firmware to it, Boxee+
https://www.facebook.com/boxeeplus
http://boxeeplus.com
Dude!!! Never heard of this!!! Thanks I'm going to check it out right now!!!
Sent from my MyTouch 4G
mortenaa said:
You can already install a custom firmware to it, Boxee+
https://www.facebook.com/boxeeplus
http://boxeeplus.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - checking this out now. Would still love to have an open system with a variety of choices. My Boxee box has basically been a dust collector since I got it. It sounded great and had fantastic potential, but like so many of these devices, support was not as it should have been and now its been dropped :crying:
EDIT: Ok, had a look at the Boxee+ Hacks. It's good for what it is however it's not really what I was looking for. It's not really a custom firmware, it's more of a boot-time patch that adds a bit of functionality.
Android
the main problem with the boxee and with boxee+ installed, it´s still slow, realy slow, if we could install Plex on it, the box could take care of the plkayback nothin else, and it would most probobly be faster?
Android or, plex straight into it would be lovley! the hardware is decent ant if i dont remember completly wrong there is stuff out there that uses the sama cpu running android, am i wrong?
xbmc is fine, but there is one problem with xbmc, watched content, if i start watching a movie in my livingroom i want to be able to continue in the kitchen and also know what i have seen and not seen.
Unfortunately boxee going to remain just as it is.
Its approaching its end of life as it would have if it had gotten continued support.
Boxee plus adds much needs features but other some minor tweaks it does nothing to fix the the core issues in the firmware.
Would have been great if it was open but for once boxee was probably being honest (go figure) that they were forced to not breach thier contracts with the likes of netflicks.
The added money from sales of box's still out there don't hurt either.
linusthaman said:
xbmc is fine, but there is one problem with xbmc, watched content, if i start watching a movie in my livingroom i want to be able to continue in the kitchen and also know what i have seen and not seen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can do it with XBMC, you have to setup a MySQL server to host data between clients. It looks like a pain though. I do agree with you though, having a full Plex client on my Boxee Box would be awesome.
i dont know how useful any of this info will be but, boxee uses Intel Atom CE4110 processor. maybe one day, some version of android could be put on it?
i dont know much about it, but didnt intel release an intel atom x86 version of android? http://software.intel.com/en-us/art...ly-bean-installation-instructions-recommended
or, what about google tv? the boxee apparently uses many of the same system components as the logtiech review. logitech revue uses/used google tv. and seems as though there was an update for google tv for the revue recently http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Revue-and-Accessories/New-Revue-Update-Currently-Going-Out/td-p/906482
so maybe somehow, that could get showehorned into boxee. i know, a lot harder than i make it seem, but just putting the indo out there
here are the system specs from ifixit:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Boxee+Box+Teardown/4109/2#s19326
(also mentioned on an earlier page)
Nordic Semiconductor NRF24LU1P (same as logitech revue)
Mini PCI-E wireless card: Broadcom BCM4319XKUBG
some other hardware info http://www.boxeeboxwiki.org/hardware
here is a link stating it has similar hardware as logitech review http://gtvhacker.com/index.php/Boxee and mentions some stuff about rooting.