Database Users

Uni speed and ROMs

We use the Universal for speech systems for people with disabilities. However the speed of the device is marginal for us, because the system itself uses a massive (30%+) fraction of the processor time even when the system is at idle.
I've just been asked if using any alternate ROM images might help speed the device up much, and I haven't got a clue. Help!
Does anyone know if any of the ROM images that are out there makes a significant difference to the speed of the universal? Is there a ROM image around which completely removes all phone functionality (not all our users use the phone)?
I'd be very grateful for any guidance, before we start trying ROM images at random...
Stuart

Hello, first of all, -and I'm not sure about this- I think that the ROMs images are not available at this site's FTP anymore.
Then, if you can have a ROM, prefer the "plain vanilla" ones, unless you might need several extra programs, if you need speed, you need a light and simple ROM, there are several of them, from Helmi's, to Ivan's and others that I just can't remember now, look out in the posts and find a stable one to use, test it with your app until you think is the right one.
Alternatively you can increase your CPU's clock, but this drains the battery faster, a solution for this might be to install a larger battery, your use of the uni might permit all of these things.
I haven't tested any custom ROMs, but I have a friend with a uni that has installed in its uni a Helmi's ROM, I saw it, it seems quite speedier than my T-mobile one, he told me that the voice tags call fuction didn't work and something else, but, was it faster indeed.
bye

stuartaw said:
We use the Universal for speech systems for people with disabilities. However the speed of the device is marginal for us, because the system itself uses a massive (30%+) fraction of the processor time even when the system is at idle.
I've just been asked if using any alternate ROM images might help speed the device up much, and I haven't got a clue. Help!
Does anyone know if any of the ROM images that are out there makes a significant difference to the speed of the universal? Is there a ROM image around which completely removes all phone functionality (not all our users use the phone)?
I'd be very grateful for any guidance, before we start trying ROM images at random...
Stuart
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you tried to kill useless proggy at startup???
if you want i may be able to make a clean rom for you...
actually try increasing the pagingpool a simple hexedit on existing roms (wm6 section of this forum look for helmi's kitchen)

Thanks for the suggestions so far.
fallenczar said:
have you tried to kill useless proggy at startup???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried killing everything I can. The processor is occupied by one thread within devices.exe; and I can't really kill that process... Everything else had minimal/no impact.
Stuart

What application are you using to identify process usage? 30% sounds very high to me.

PaulMdx said:
What application are you using to identify process usage? 30% sounds very high to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The remote tools in Visual Studio. Shows 1%-4% processor usage at idle for other PDAs, 30-35% for TyTN and Universal (the only 2 HTC machines I had access to). I used the kernel tracker thing to track execution, and it was one particular thread in devices.exe which was both busy, and also, sometimes, thrashing around at <100 micro-s frequency.
This figure does fit with our other experiences. The particular speed problem we have is with a library which is spec-ed to work on any machine with 400Mhz+ processor. Works fine on other machines, including some quite old PDAs, but has 'issues' due to slow processor on the Universal and is simply unusable on the TyTN.
I couldn't find anything I could do to improve this in RAM - and a colleague asked if any of the alternate ROMs might help - and I've haven't got a clue, but hoped someone might know if any of the ROMs are visibly faster.
Stuart

Have you tried changing the default clock speed?
Hi Stuart,
I think there are a lot of applications out there which allow you to overclock and change the clock speed of Xscale CPU's. Things like XCPUScalar 2007. If you look at this thread(http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=304786)you should be able to find some useful information regarding scaling the CPU speed, hope this helps.
Will.

AndroidAthenaProject1.0

[size=+1]Introduction:[/size]
I am proud to introduce "AndroidAthenaProject1.0" on behalf of the Athena Project Team! We have successfully ported Android to the Athena (More info about the Athena). This will be the official thread for optimizing and working out bugs related to Android on the Athena.
YouTube Demo
[size=+1]News:[/size]
05/28/2008 - New update available: (Athena-Android "All-n-1" Release) (More Info and even more info). This update adds touch screen support and screen rotation applet. Video driver still needs a lot of work. Screen updates are slow. Coding decent video drivers will be my next priority and if anyone is willing to give a hand, please let me know. Thanks!
[size=+1]Athena/Android Resources:[/size]
Download Android for the Athena (x7500/x7501/Ameo/etc...): Latest Release or Here (Click here for instructions)
Git: https://github.com/mistadman/android-athena/. This should be easier for us to manage changes. Enjoy!!
Diff and .Config (05282008): Download
[size=+1]Project Status:[/size]
Keyboard (not started) (A USB keyboard can be used for testing while we wait for drivers. See this post)
Touch screen (done):
More info
Testing/Bug fixes
Phone (not started)
Video(in progress):
Correctly implement pan_display() function (double buffering)
Speed improvements
Sound (in progress)
Wifi (not started)
Bluetooth (not started)
GPS (not started)
Camera (not started)
Sub-display (not started)
Accelerometer (not started)
Android Application Functionality(in progress):
RotateView Applet added: (More info)
This applet lets you rotate the screen. Unfortunately, due to incomplete video driver, video performance takes a serious hit during rotation.
[size=+1]Contribute:[/size]
If you would like to test or can contribute to one of the outstanding issues above, please let us know. Also, marthynovak has posted quick and dirty guide to testing our releases. See this post for more information.
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Here is small how to to start android on Athena.By mistadman
Download Android for Athena here(last build): http://rapidshare.com/files/118229739/Android-Athena-05282008.exe.html
free method(please use only when you cant you rapidshare) http://gymjs.net/~m.novak/Android-Athena-05282008.exe
Once downloaded, unzip and copy the unzipped files to a SD Card. The root of your SD Card should have these files:
haret.exe
default.txt
zImage
initrd-android
Once you have verified the files listed, insert the SD Card in to your Athena. From there just load up Windows Mobile and browse to your "Storage Card" in "File Explorer". Click on the file called "haret.exe", and once the program has loaded; click run.
Just remember that this is work in progress!
more info:
its only the system,the keybord is not working,screen isnt working.Just remember that this is work in progress!
Here is some plan what must we do(by mistadman):
1.) Add some Ati specific 3D acceleration (Double Buffering, Rotation).
2.) Optimize Power Saving...
3.) Add/repair touch screen driver.
4.) Add/create keyboard driver.
5.) Add sound
6.) Add phone driver support (be able to make a call).
7.) Add Wifi Driver.
8.) Get the camera working maybe?!?!
more also here:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2242471&postcount=19

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Keyboard?
As you can see on the post located here, they've written a simple onscreen keyboard. Maybe he'll give you the source for it and it wouldn't be hard to implement it into this kernel for future releases...

Let's pull all of our resources together and make this happen. Whoever can contribute let's post here and let's try to get a 1.0 final out ASAP.
Thanks in advance to everyone for helping where you can.
Areas of interest for developing the project:
- Graphics
- Sounds
- Drivers (highest priority of course)
- Apps
- Functionality (highest priority of course)
If you can provide a driver or something that fits in the categories above, please post a description...a how-to....and a link to a RapidShare download. Thank you all in advance.

Now we are talk'n! LOL!
- Graphics
- Sounds
- Drivers (highest priority of course)
- Apps
- Functionality (highest priority of course)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just remember though, we do not want to duplicate Google's efforts... What I mean is that Google OS/Middleware (Android) will be in direct competition with the iPhone, Symbian, Window Mobile, etc. That means we can expect things like onscreen keyboards, SMS apps, Office Apps (probably complements of Google Docs/Google Gears), mapping/GPS software (Google Maps), a camera app, etc... (See: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-9239_7-6546759-1.html for more info) And that’s not to mention some of the great work already being done by Third-Party Vendors (Android Developer Challenge: see: http://phandroid.com/2008/05/10/adc-round-1-winners for more info). Heck, look at what was done on the iPhone... And it was/is "closed source"!
I believe the IMPORTANT thing is that we provide a stable kernel for Google's "Middleware". I envision that most of the kernel work will revolve around driver development (in order of priority): (Here is a pictorial representation of the software stack:http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20080521/android_stack_540x387.jpg, as you can see the kernel is the base to which all other software depends on.)
Keyboard
Touch screen
Phone
Video
Sound
And of course:
Wifi
Bluetooth
GPS
Camera
Long term objectives:
Sub-display
Accelerometer
Of course there will need to be work done on Android itself... Maybe we will need to develop applications custom to the Athena Hardware. At the very least, we will have to provide Android with a way to talk to hardware via kernel icotls (e.g. Camera Settings, Video Settings, etc…). So having some with inside knowledge of Android will help. Not sure though, because I haven’t hacked on Android (yet ;-) )...
Once the kernel/drivers are stable I believe Android will be a better fit for the Athena than WM6 could have ever be.
What do you guys think?
FYI: Looks like Google is already improving Android: http://www.talkandroid.com/99-adc-finalists-receive-android-sdk-snapshot-access/

i will have new develop version of Android soon.i hope so.so maybe it could be better for this project.i will let you know!

marthynovak said:
i will have new develop version of Android soon.i hope so.so maybe it could be better for this project.i will let you know!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check your PM.

we should look here,there are plany of informations about android.its for vogue,but i think that something we can use.they said that touchscreen is working now
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=382265
also see this.its on screen keybord included in the zimage.i cant try it right now,im away and my athena is not with me.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2213637&postcount=303
also see this updates
http://it029000.massey.ac.nz/vogue/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2191014&postcount=344

Update...
Just to let you guys know, I have been working on the touch screen driver. I pretty much have it working perfectly, expect for the fact that the touch screen works in the horizontal position even though Android boots vertically. I am pretty sure I will not be much longer before I release an update.
Also, if anyone is working on any particular issue related to porting Android to the Athena, please let us know. The more the merrier!
The main thing is that we wouldn't want to duplicated efforts or if someone is working on an issue we could match you up with someone doing the same thing. This would speed development a great deal. Two heads or better than one! On the main page I will post updates as to where we are with each issue.
And thanks to everyone who is either showing interest or encouragement!

Maybe you should give to each update a date.So they can know what is new and what is old.I tried to do someting with video driver,but no luck at all.ï can do more when i will be back home.
edit:we have(with mistadman) decided something about marking releases.he will tell everything to you.thx

All in one executable...
Hello everyone,
I am trying something new... Even though there has been some progress with this project, I am re-releasing the original Android release as an All-in-one executable for testing. If all goes well, we will be releasing further updates in this fashion. If you are testing, please post feedback on this thread.
This will help make testing easier, because there will be less files to mess with, and anyone new to testing will not be easily confused. Also the "All-n-1" release will be dated, which should also minimize confusion.
If anyone has any suggestions, or any better ideas, let us know. Thanks!
Here is a the link to the "All-n-1" re-release: http://rapidshare.com/files/117520672/Android-Athena-05172008.exe.html
***NOTE*** There is nothing new with this release, other than the fact its all merged in to one file for easier testing.

New Update...
Hello everyone... I'm back with a new update! I finally got the touch screen working! Still have a lot of work left of course.
If you want to play with it, you can get it here: http://rapidshare.com/files/118229739/Android-Athena-05282008.exe.html. This is an "All-n-1 Release". Just copy the exe to your sd card and run. After clicking, it could take up to 20 seconds to boot. Be patent!
As always, this is work in progress... Thanks for testing!
Here is the patch and .config:

thanks very much it's working fine and waiting for keyborad and wifi

Android 2 on the Omnia 2?

Okay, first post, I apologize if I've broke a rule. And I didn't see this question anywhere. So... Is there any way to use Android 2.0 on the Omnia II? I don't really like Windows Mobile and wish I could replace it. Thanks.

Perhaps in the near future.
Two phones have similar hardware to the Omnia II: first is the Samsung Moment and the next is the Samsung Beam.
The three share the exact same CPU and only the latter differs in RAM; the beam has 384mb ram but this is probably because it also sports a projector and I assume it is going to be a very resource intensive app.
Both the Beam and the Moment (well at least the Sprint version) will eventually have Android 2.1 on there. If someone still has an interest in this old device which seemed to have so much support and potential behind it only 4 months ago they may decide to get the software from that phone and do a few tweaks to have it running on the Omnia II.
There presently is an Android on Omnia dev but the fact is he is going to have a really hard time porting Android on a device which is quite different to anything current on the market now (the Armv6 instruction set is quite dated). Hopefully he moves onto porting instead of building from the ground up like he is doing now, though he may elect not to because he has probably done a lot of work. IF he or someone else ports it will be a very good Android phone, if it is built from the ground up i have a strong feeling it will lag and crap out worse then the Omnia 2 with Samsung BloatWiz on it right now.
=====
In my opinion Modus Windows Mobile is not the issue, it is Samsung. They have a very poorly coded user interface called "Touch-Wiz". All you need to do is go into the My Menu, Find "settings " > click "Display and Light" > click "Items on Today" > scroll down and go to the Samsung widget plus and untick the box > Now go to the very bottom and just tick "Windows Default". Click Done.
You have to wait a second now go back to your home screen, you no longer have three screens (a useless feature anyway) but everything is faster now. You can also make it look better by going back into that place and clicking "themes".

Thanks. I'll give it a try and check the forum periodically for Android-on-Omnia2 news.

I've been working on this for quite a time now. (see modaco can't post links yet)
Okay I've uploaded all the necessary files. But no time to make a manual. So please, only those who know what they are doing try it out. For the devvers: in winmo change usb mode to mass storage (my internal storage), stick in into linux, change the size of the vfat internal sd, add an ext3 partition. Make sure you chmod it. And there you go!
My plan is to setup a dedicated website with the full source, split up in to braches for the different s3c6410 devices and supported drivers. This costs money and time, my plan is to do this next week.
For those of you who showed support by donations, I would like to do something extra for you guys. I apreciate this, Please PM me if you need any help and have considered the above but can't get it to work.
Paypal:
EDIT:now it is working
rapidshare:
--Alpha Release--
Note: to accomplish booting android requires reformatting the internal sd, this might brick your phone, I only recommend it for the more advanced (linux) users. I will take no responsibility for this. This release is soley for a proof of concept purpose. For the non-devvers: you could try to see if it works from vfat, you'll have to use mmcblk0p5, I know it gets to the android screen or make .img from these files and use an initr and mount the images.
What works:
-frame buffer
-s3c6410 cpu
-internal sd
Android is now in a state where you could open up almost anything, watch a slide show But because of the TC you need to press a little below/left on what you want to click due to faulty calibration.
What is in the making:
-ALSA support
What needs to be done
-hardware keys (using haret) (then we can shuw down the phone, because often you have to reformat the partition due to corruption)
-ADB/USB connection (shouldn't be too hard)
-UART/RIL/DPRAM config (to make 3G/PHONE/text work)
The first two will speed up development, that's why they need to be appended first.
Then:
-Touch screen should be better calibrated
-optimizations/speedups (G2d, G3d, armv6, VFP) + memory layout issues should be resolved. Now only 128 mb is used.
-external SD support (the s8000 android devvers are working on this)
-BT (I don't use it so it has no priority for me)
Which devices are supported?
I think theoretically every s3c6410 omnia/jet/acer iteration should work. But I know some devices will require a small patch to change the frame buffer adress. So please report back failures/successes.
EDIT: ofcourse I will still make a manual these days for the non-devvers, first thing i do when i have time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

almar2 said:
I've been working on this for quite a time now. (see modaco can't post links yet)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there Almar, how is the speed of the device? Has compiling the drivers been an ok task and what do you think of the new phones coming out soon, will they be of any use to you?
What version of Android have you installed and if it is 2.1, would you say it is at least as fast as pre-2.1 android?

The Possibilities of A7

What are some possibilities that you all see with the original A7?

rombold said:
Gingerbread
New Feature Constants
The platform adds several new hardware features that developers can declare in their application manifests as being required by their applications. This lets developers control how their application is filtered, when published on Android Market.
* android.hardware.audio.low_latency — The application uses a low-latency audio pipeline on the device and is sensitive to delays or lag in sound input or output.
* android.hardware.camera.front — The application uses a front-facing camera on the device.
* android.hardware.nfc — The application uses NFC radio features in the device.
* android.hardware.sensor.barometer — The application uses the device's barometer.
* android.hardware.sensor.gyroscope — The application uses the device's gyroscope sensor.
* android.software.sip — The application uses the SIP API on the device.
* android.software.sip.voip — The application uses a SIP-based VoIP service on the device.
* android.hardware.touchscreen.multitouch.jazzhand — The application uses advanced multipoint multitouch capabilities on the device screen, for tracking five or more points fully independently.
For full information about how to declare features and use them for filtering, see the documentation for <uses-feature>.
* android.hardware.touchscreen.multitouch.jazzhand — The application uses advanced multipoint multitouch capabilities on the device screen, for tracking five or more points fully independently.
IF a7 was limited on the multitouch screen due to software wouldn't this be a relevent fix for it.
I would really like to hear Dexters thoughts on this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a hardware limitation. Please read.

I'm very new to android OS and have been doing alot of research on the whole multi touch thing, most things lead me to believe its a software issue. Most things I have read spoke of the firmware supporting the screen must be very indepth. Maybe I am grabbing for something that isn't there but I find it hard to believe the a7 doesn't have full multi touch for any reason aside from a rush firmware the lacked the coding to do so.

rombold said:
I'm very new to android OS and have been doing alot of research on the whole multi touch thing, most things lead me to believe its a software issue. Most things I have read spoke of the firmware supporting the screen must be very indepth. Maybe I am grabbing for something that isn't there but I find it hard to believe the a7 doesn't have full multi touch for any reason aside from a rush firmware the lacked the coding to do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=932035
http://www.cypress.com/?id=1938
Look at screen Generation 2
Anything else?

rombold said:
I'm very new to android OS and have been doing alot of research on the whole multi touch thing, most things lead me to believe its a software issue. Most things I have read spoke of the firmware supporting the screen must be very indepth. Maybe I am grabbing for something that isn't there but I find it hard to believe the a7 doesn't have full multi touch for any reason aside from a rush firmware the lacked the coding to do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From the eLocity webite FAQ:
Q: I've heard different information about the A7's touch screen. Is it really multi-touch?
A: The eLocity A7 has a capacitive touch screen with single point zoom out and zoom in gesture technology. It is not a multi-touch screen. We are sorry for the touch screen confusion mentioned in the Amazon description and other articles which were written early on in the product development stage. Our capacitive touch screen still outperforms most if not all of the tablets on the market. We use Grade "A" LCD panels from Tier 1 suppliers in our products and our goal with the A7 is to deliver the best performance, video and image quality and other functionality (i.e. NVIDIA Tegra 2, 1080P HDMI Output) that is superior to other tablets at similar price points. We know of no other tablets in our price range that offer true multi-touch, which is fairly expensive for larger LCD screens at this time.

What are some possibilities that you all see with the original A7?

[Q] netfilter and other issues

Hello fellow A7 sufferers ;-)
I've got my tablet last week and so far I'm loving it. I got it to do almost everything I need.
But I still need 2 more things:
- Networking proxy system
- Bluetooth DUN (or USB Modem to phone / USB 3G Stick (Modem))
I've searched quite a bit and found some apps, none of them really work as intended on the A7 and some are actually unstable.
Is there anyone with a reliable method to make any of this to work?
Do we know if building the kernel of the git repo will render a usable ko module? or do we need some set of A7's specific patches?
I really thing this device has lots of potencial.
Cheers.
PS: By the way what's that thing of putting the device to sleep means no notifications of alarms nor emails... ? When I put my cellphone to "sleep" or even if it's off I get the alarms to work.

casathom said:
PS: By the way what's that thing of putting the device to sleep means no notifications of alarms nor emails... ? When I put my cellphone to "sleep" or even if it's off I get the alarms to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason is developers from NVidia. Good hardware but poor programmer skills.
This problem exists at eLocity A7, Toshiba AC100, Point of View Mobii and others devices on tegra 2.

casathom said:
- Networking proxy system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I need Proxy as well. I know that the Galaxy tablet has a proxy setting under Wireless / Advanced, yet ours doesn't somehow. I've worked with Linux/Unix type systems for almost 20 years so I have a very good understanding of their system/subsystems and underlaying configurations. I am curious if the proxy setting/setup is just a quick config change somewhere, as I do not know entirely how the GUI builds it's specific options to present to the user (not sure if they are hard coded, or dynamic based on the configuration files at the system level). I'd love to hear from some DEV that knows more than I, and I might be able to hack something together to open up some other things.

5[Strogino] said:
The reason is developers from NVidia. Good hardware but poor programmer skills.
This problem exists at eLocity A7, Toshiba AC100, Point of View Mobii and others devices on tegra 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, that sounds like many big companies... too many products too quick that would need a couple more moths of cooking in the oven ;-)
What would be really nice is if they would open the code to the comnunity so we could fill in the missing parts. Is there any precedent from NVidia doing that in this context (Android tablet/phone) anyone who may know a contact in there?

jtodaro said:
I need Proxy as well. I know that the Galaxy tablet has a proxy setting under Wireless / Advanced, yet ours doesn't somehow. I've worked with Linux/Unix type systems for almost 20 years so I have a very good understanding of their system/subsystems and underlaying configurations. I am curious if the proxy setting/setup is just a quick config change somewhere, as I do not know entirely how the GUI builds it's specific options to present to the user (not sure if they are hard coded, or dynamic based on the configuration files at the system level). I'd love to hear from some DEV that knows more than I, and I might be able to hack something together to open up some other things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess first thing would be then to get out hands on a Galaxy Tab rootfs and see what differences it does have to ours... I'm new into the Android internals stuff but I assume that in theese cases as settings and other non-changing "Activities" as they call them, they are probably coded into xml files as UI descriptions... but all that is a wild guess (for now).
One test that I'll try is compiling the git repos kernel using the tegra2 defconfig and see how those modules interact with our device's kernel
Let's see if we get this thing done.