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I didn't think it belonged in Dream Android Development, so I'm putting it here. If it needs to be moved, move it.
Is it possible to boot anything other than Android on the Dream?
I've seen the Nokia N900 and its Maemo 5 firmware, and I'm absolutely drawn to it, thanks to its debian-based OS (sudo apt-get install anything), it's X-based graphics system (REAL linux GUI programs), and all the apps it already has (Native Gizmo > Hacky Sipdroid).
I've also taken a look at other Linux-based open phone firmwares.
What is keeping us from doing this? If it's drivers, do they exist for another similar Linux-based firmware?
Could we dual-boot Android and this other OS using a third-stage bootloader which loads as a kernel from within the BOOT: partition?
I've seen the (albeit extremely hackish) method of getting Debian on the G1, chrooting into a loop-mounted FS and using a loopback VNC to spring into a KDE/Gnome/LXDE UI, but it's slow, still has Android and its apps loaded into memory, and very hackish and unstable.
I'm more than willing to test anything firmware-wise on my phone as long as it doesn't mess with my SPL.
The possibilities are nearly limitless - WINE under Linux means true "Windows Mobile" without the WinCE kernel.
Or perhaps WinMo/WinCE can be booted on the Dream?
It's more of a question of whether or not it's possible right now than a concept or implementation, but once that's answered, I'll either throw some time into testing and porting, or kick back and enjoy the Android as it is.
For starters:
- How does the SPL hand off to the BOOT: partition and its kernel/initrd?
- What devices need what drivers? What should be thrown into the kernel?
- Do things need reverse-engineering or is it all straightforward and documented?
- How can we use the space provided without messing with the SPL? (use cache partition for OS? Modified recovery that doesn't depend on cache partition?)
- Is dual-booting between Android possible? Can this be switched and launched before Dalvik and the Android stuff loads on the Android kernel?
- Can this be done with other Android-powered, rooted devices?
Have you seen wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/OpenMoko_on_HTC-Dream or lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2009-August/052529.html? (Crap, I can't post links) Looks promising since Angstrom is a very powerful embedded distro, but it's a one-man project now. I hope some people will join it or start a similar project.
G1 is a great device, however, I can see only a few people hacking on OS alternatives for it. You always got to have either an active community or a company in order to complete such a project.
The Android hackers community is very vibrant, however, people are not really interested in bringing a fully-featured Linux distro to G1 or other Android phones. Android is too trendy itself
The Debian/Ubuntu opportunity that we have now is nice, but it looks like an addition to the Android which takes a lot of memory and CPU.
I have just set up a small Ubuntu environment booting on my G1 together with Android. I combined the userspace prepared by Paolo Sammicheli (xdatap1.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/jaunty-under-android/) with Bayle Shanks's instructions (bayleshanks.com/wiki.pl?tips-computer-android-g1_debian_cyanogenMod). I am going to use it for mutt, vim, some coding. X11/VNC experience has been frustrating so far.
I am pretty sure though that there will be more people wanting to use alternative OSes on their phones: Moto Droid and Nexus are powerful enough for a full desktop environment.
vaskas said:
Have you seen wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/OpenMoko_on_HTC-Dream or lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2009-August/052529.html? (Crap, I can't post links) Looks promising since Angstrom is a very powerful embedded distro, but it's a one-man project now. I hope some people will join it or start a similar project.
G1 is a great device, however, I can see only a few people hacking on OS alternatives for it. You always got to have either an active community or a company in order to complete such a project.
The Android hackers community is very vibrant, however, people are not really interested in bringing a fully-featured Linux distro to G1 or other Android phones. Android is too trendy itself
The Debian/Ubuntu opportunity that we have now is nice, but it looks like an addition to the Android which takes a lot of memory and CPU.
I have just set up a small Ubuntu environment booting on my G1 together with Android. I combined the userspace prepared by Paolo Sammicheli (xdatap1.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/jaunty-under-android/) with Bayle Shanks's instructions (bayleshanks.com/wiki.pl?tips-computer-android-g1_debian_cyanogenMod). I am going to use it for mutt, vim, some coding. X11/VNC experience has been frustrating so far.
I am pretty sure though that there will be more people wanting to use alternative OSes on their phones: Moto Droid and Nexus are powerful enough for a full desktop environment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i really think it lies in what you want from your phone... i know you say you use your ubuntu env for things such as vim and mutt, but everything that vim and mutt can do, can already be done under android..
the biggest challenge is getting people to latch on to an alternate distro which offers MORE than android, which has yet to come to surface... ultimately this is a phone.. not a netbook...and for a phone android is pretty dam sweet...
although in terms of geek work, running ANY other os on non native hardware is cool....albeit not really worth it
anybody were successful by using the internal-memory-image from the openmoko wiki?
I always get kernel panic, when booting it. I flashed it with flash_image boot/system, does this matter? In the wiki they use fastboot.
scheich, I only tried the SD-card way (see my post in http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=624392)
It shouldn't really matter whether you use fastboot or flash the image. The kernel panic could occur due to the inability to find the root filesystem. Try reflashing the yaffs2.
By the way, why did you choose to put OpenMoko in the internal memory? Are you going to use it exclusively or as the primary OS on the device?
Some of what you suggest can be done, but not recommended.
1) Nokia/Maemo is a bad fit for a phone. It is a real HOG. It is also shoehorning (with a sledge hammer) a desktop OS into a phone. It just doesn't work right. Android exists because a totally new UI model was needed to work optimally with a phone's physical form.
2) WINE will NEVER work since the CPU in the phone is ARM and not x86. If you want to run windonkey programs (can't imagine why you would), you would have to run a PROCESSOR EMULATOR, and this will be REALLY REALLY REALLY slow and memory intense.
TylTru said:
I didn't think it belonged in Dream Android Development, so I'm putting it here. If it needs to be moved, move it.
Is it possible to boot anything other than Android on the Dream?
I've seen the Nokia N900 and its Maemo 5 firmware, and I'm absolutely drawn to it, thanks to its debian-based OS (sudo apt-get install anything), it's X-based graphics system (REAL linux GUI programs), and all the apps it already has (Native Gizmo > Hacky Sipdroid).
I've also taken a look at other Linux-based open phone firmwares.
What is keeping us from doing this? If it's drivers, do they exist for another similar Linux-based firmware?
Could we dual-boot Android and this other OS using a third-stage bootloader which loads as a kernel from within the BOOT: partition?
I've seen the (albeit extremely hackish) method of getting Debian on the G1, chrooting into a loop-mounted FS and using a loopback VNC to spring into a KDE/Gnome/LXDE UI, but it's slow, still has Android and its apps loaded into memory, and very hackish and unstable.
I'm more than willing to test anything firmware-wise on my phone as long as it doesn't mess with my SPL.
The possibilities are nearly limitless - WINE under Linux means true "Windows Mobile" without the WinCE kernel.
Or perhaps WinMo/WinCE can be booted on the Dream?
It's more of a question of whether or not it's possible right now than a concept or implementation, but once that's answered, I'll either throw some time into testing and porting, or kick back and enjoy the Android as it is.
For starters:
- How does the SPL hand off to the BOOT: partition and its kernel/initrd?
- What devices need what drivers? What should be thrown into the kernel?
- Do things need reverse-engineering or is it all straightforward and documented?
- How can we use the space provided without messing with the SPL? (use cache partition for OS? Modified recovery that doesn't depend on cache partition?)
- Is dual-booting between Android possible? Can this be switched and launched before Dalvik and the Android stuff loads on the Android kernel?
- Can this be done with other Android-powered, rooted devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vaskas said:
scheich, I only tried the SD-card way (see my post in http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=624392)
It shouldn't really matter whether you use fastboot or flash the image. The kernel panic could occur due to the inability to find the root filesystem. Try reflashing the yaffs2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried reflashing the system image. Also the older image on the ftpserver. The same. I will try the sdcard installation.
vaskas said:
By the way, why did you choose to put OpenMoko in the internal memory? Are you going to use it exclusively or as the primary OS on the device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two reasons:
1. Thought that would be the faster way to get it work. I used BART to backup my android installation.
2. Thougt, I would get a bit more perfomance in using the internal memory.
I really would like to use SHR(or other) as primary OS, because I had an GTA02, depends on what is(could) work(ing) on the dream.
would it be possible to boot ubuntu netbook remix? it uses far less resources.
zenstitution said:
would it be possible to boot ubuntu netbook remix? it uses far less resources.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NBR is targeted at x86, but Ubuntu MID edition is installable. It's similar to the netbook remix. We'll have to wait before we have a proven/stable installation method though.
I would really like to see another OS on my Dream as well - just in addition to android
Che123 said:
I would really like to see another OS on my Dream as well - just in addition to android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, you can try the OpenMoko port (it's in the alpha stage now): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5521417
The more people get interested in the alternative OS, the sooner we'll get one.
vaskas said:
Well, you can try the OpenMoko port (it's in the alpha stage now): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5521417
The more people get interested in the alternative OS, the sooner we'll get one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really hot stuff - but i don't want to loose my recovery
But i will definetly keep an eye on it!
edit: Adding a bootmngr like grub for selecting boot OS (android/openmoko/recovery) would be really nice Or adding bootoptions to the current amon_ra Recovery would be a soloution too. But I'm no dev, so I don't even know if it is possible.
While browsing thru the forums earlier..i remembered a thread where a ported version of debian could run on the g1 using vnc viewer...i tried messing with the vibrant..but it seems its doesnt have ext2 as one of the kernel drivers..or at least it fails to mount it..As u all are aware..this phone has crazy hardware..given size and weight.the hardware is more than capable...maybe we can get a working port of debian or another slimmed down version of linux to run on this phone..ie puppy or dsl....what i was thinking was maybe making an update.zip with a referenced .img file so we can boot to linux via recovery vs using vnc viewer..Not sure if this is a shot in the dark..any insight greatly appreciated ...Bless up!
The stock kernel does have ext2 and ext3 drivers. However, it doesn't mount those partitions by default. Check the dev forum for the userinit enabler zip. You could then use a userinit script to mount an ext partition.
Note that ext4 is NOT supported by default, so you will need to reformat if you have that.
Ubuntu has already been installed on android phones
http://nexusonehacks.net/nexus-one-hacks/ubuntu-on-nexus-one-android/
I personally do not see a huge benefit running a fully fledged linux os on the phone, but everyone has their own use and purpose.
I'd be down for Debian
If we ever got this running on our vibrants, I'd be so dang happy. I would love to try out GIMP
Hello! I've been just a reader for some months, my questions have been always already answered here for basic things (rooting, performance tips etc) but now it's the time to register and start participating I am a professional programmer, just have been "out" of the development world for the last 1+ year, so I'm a bit untrained now...
I was thinking on buying a BeagleBoard for trying some programming in it, just wanted to see what's the power of that board when doing image processing stuff (namely playing with OpenCV). But, before spending those $130 in one, I realised that my Archos A101IT has almost the same board (SoC), well actually even a bit faster (BeagleBoard comes with OMAP3530 while A101IT comes with OMAP3630).
The BeagleBoard works with a linux Kernel for the OMAP architecture, so what would be the closest to bare-bones thing I could get for the A101? If this was Desktop, I'd answer "Debian with the lightest Desktop setup and OpenCV libraries installed", but in this architecture I'm lost.
I see a lot of "custom kernel for you", "Ubuntu over Android" and stuff like that, but I don't get if that's what I'm looking for or just that people here are building replacements to the underlying Android kernel. As you see I'm not interested at all on the Android part of the A101.
Hope you can give me some orientation...
juannm said:
Hello! I've been just a reader for some months, my questions have been always already answered here for basic things (rooting, performance tips etc) but now it's the time to register and start participating I am a professional programmer, just have been "out" of the development world for the last 1+ year, so I'm a bit untrained now...
I was thinking on buying a BeagleBoard for trying some programming in it, just wanted to see what's the power of that board when doing image processing stuff (namely playing with OpenCV). But, before spending those $130 in one, I realised that my Archos A101IT has almost the same board (SoC), well actually even a bit faster (BeagleBoard comes with OMAP3530 while A101IT comes with OMAP3630).
The BeagleBoard works with a linux Kernel for the OMAP architecture, so what would be the closest to bare-bones thing I could get for the A101? If this was Desktop, I'd answer "Debian with the lightest Desktop setup and OpenCV libraries installed", but in this architecture I'm lost.
I see a lot of "custom kernel for you", "Ubuntu over Android" and stuff like that, but I don't get if that's what I'm looking for or just that people here are building replacements to the underlying Android kernel. As you see I'm not interested at all on the Android part of the A101.
Hope you can give me some orientation...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That isn't anything particaly solid but the best you can do is either install one of the os from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1198389
or look at archos sde http://www.archos.com/support/support_tech/updates_dev.html?country=gb&lang=en
juannm said:
The BeagleBoard works with a linux Kernel for the OMAP architecture, so what would be the closest to bare-bones thing I could get for the A101? If this was Desktop, I'd answer "Debian with the lightest Desktop setup and OpenCV libraries installed", but in this architecture I'm lost.
I see a lot of "custom kernel for you", "Ubuntu over Android" and stuff like that, but I don't get if that's what I'm looking for or just that people here are building replacements to the underlying Android kernel. As you see I'm not interested at all on the Android part of the A101.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about what really you want to know, but would note the following:
It's possible to run a Linux kernel on Archos, and Ubuntu on it will be "Ubuntu over Linux kernel". The problem is that Archos needs an Archos-friendly kernel, and it's so tweaked that I don't know at what point Linux ends there and Android starts. So here is another problem: it seems rather hard to make the mainline kernel running on Archos. This means that you'll stay with 2.6.29 till the end of your Archos' days... But if you're happy with custom-made GPL'ed 2.6.29 by Archos -- installing "Debian with the lightest Desktop" on it should be no problem. On Archos-Debian.org they've already made a few rootfs images.
Question: justo out of curiosity, do you know if the Debian compilation from (www .debian-archos.com) is made by following this (dev. openaos.org/wiki/Debian%20gen8) ??
In the other hand, I have just installed Urukdroid 1.6 over my previous system (letting the installer to wipe my previous partitions and creating new ones), and now I'm going to try the Angstrom "rootfs.img" option (that I copied somewhere before installing Urukdroid) and also the Debian beta2 one (altough its a wooping 3,8 GB file... I wonder what did this people install in it? KDE? hahah).
Then for cross-compiling from my desktop computer, I guess all I need is the ARM Gcc version, right? I'm in Kubuntu 11.10 so that would be the g++-4.6-arm-linux-gnueabi package (just tell me if this is not the right direction...)
I guess compiling and copying some "hello world" binary file to the Debian or Angstrom in the tablet would be enough for running it, am I right?
Probably, it's better to send an email to OpenAOS people about how they made their package. Also I think it's not a "compilation", but an "installation": standard Debian binaries installed over Archos-specific 2.6.29 kernel. I don't think they recompiled the kernel or built Debian from stratch. The way shown at http://dev.openaos.org/wiki/Debian gen8 is a working one (at least, in general: I don't know about the goodies like wifi, I didn't get that far).
3.8Gb -- it includes free space too: rootfs.img is like a virtual HDD, it contains the system, user data, and free space.
For cross-compilation you need a toolchain: a cross-compiler plus some other tools. Look for Mentor (Codesourcery), Emdebian, OpenEmbedded, Buildroot, etc. Here is a ready-made custom built one: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1328027 . Maybe Kubuntu has their own build-in toolchain too, I don't know. Which one is better for you, and how to install and use it -- it depends on many things, actually. Generally: yes, g++-arm-linux-gnueabi looks like a cross-compiler for ARM. And yes, if you cross-compile a "Hello, world!" correctly -- it will run on Archos.
Hi juannm,
welcome to XDA-Developers
juannm said:
I was thinking on buying a BeagleBoard for trying some programming in it, just wanted to see what's the power of that board when doing image processing stuff (namely playing with OpenCV). But, before spending those $130 in one, I realised that my Archos A101IT has almost the same board (SoC), well actually even a bit faster (BeagleBoard comes with OMAP3530 while A101IT comes with OMAP3630).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was able to buy an A101it with was a brick few weeks ago and merely had the same intent. Thought of getting an OMAP3 platform to fiddle around with.
I started to collect some information of the hardware in use.
Luckily i was able to repair it.
For information about that look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1199450
The design of the board is pretty clean and apart form running Android OS, Archos offers the SDE as people already pointed out.
You might also start from scratch and build up Ubuntu or Debian images for this device.
In fact i consider it nearly perfect for such experiments.
juannm said:
The BeagleBoard works with a linux Kernel for the OMAP architecture, so what would be the closest to bare-bones thing I could get for the A101? If this was Desktop, I'd answer "Debian with the lightest Desktop setup and OpenCV libraries installed", but in this architecture I'm lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly do you mean?
It's too much to built up rootfs from scratch...
Need a starting point?
So basically you'll need to know how the boot process works on these devices, how rootfs is stored and how the rootfs gets mounted during boot up.
First i recommend to install SDE from Archos to get the alternate bootloader installed.
This way you might use bootmenu to load custom kernels and install your own rootfs on top of this.
It's too much to explain it all, so look around and read first.
Just in short:
Stock OS uses squashfs images as rootfs, which are mounted ro if you don't tweak anything.
SDE uses uncompressed EXT2 image, as far as i remember.
It might be a good idea to install UrukDroid (this will wipe out SDE, but leaves Stock OS untouched).
Afterwards you got true EXT4 filesystem, which is still Android but offers a lot of useful tools.
You'll need some background of course and it might be useful to tweak the bootloader to accept the first kernel to be unsigned as well.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1018260
juannm said:
I see a lot of "custom kernel for you", "Ubuntu over Android" and stuff like that, but I don't get if that's what I'm looking for or just that people here are building replacements to the underlying Android kernel. As you see I'm not interested at all on the Android part of the A101.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As already pointed out the kernel needs hardware specific tweaks to run on the Archos devices.
So does the Beagleboard kernel.
The vanilla kernel won't do it on these platforms.
Anyway there are some projects which use standard ARM distributions (e.g. Ubuntu, Debian) to get a working Linux on top of a custom kernel, which is based on stock kernel sources (2.6.29-omap1).
If you intent to change to a newer kernel version, there's more work to do.
There'd been some progress for 2.6.35 recently.
It really depends on what you expect to have working on the device.
I might even write more on this, but i guess you'll need to get a better overview yourself.
All i might say is, that Archos give good support for the open development (at least compared to other manufacturers).
They keep their git repo up to date and try to fix bugs as well.
So start hacking and have fun!!
scholbert
Hi there,
Just wanted to add few tidbits on top of what Scholbert said which I agree with 100%:
If you want to tweak the bootloader like Scholbert said to have three different bootable kernels (main android, sde, recovery), contact me first, I have few resources that could help you and add extra safety.
However, I believe that it's not needed at first and safer to get a hold on the platform to go sde route first.
Compared to beagleboard, you won't loose much with the a101, the thing I miss the most is a serial port to help with kernel dev, but even this is possible if you're comfortable with opening the a101 and soldering.
Webos Ports has released Open webOS for Touchpad and now has new name of LuneOS.
This be another OS for our touchpad
Warning its still early Alpha. I hope it also get some supports
http://webos-ports.org/wiki/Tenderloin_Info
I have data reset my Touchpad and installed android Kitkat via the great Touchpad Toolbox by jcsullins. I like to dual boot between android and LuneOS
The difficult part is to do step 1. of install with no webOS. installed. I have tried but have limited knowledge of android / linux file systems
1. Create an ext3fs lvm partition of at least 1GB (use Tailor or Meta-Doctor to achieve this). It must be named ext3fs ! Tailor automatically uses this name for an ext3 partition.
If some dev or android guru's could help by creating a android app or script to create ext3fs partition and allow it to be mounted. (maybe another option for Touchpad Toolbox)
LuneOS is based on android kernel/drivers and even list android version in settings / about.
The future plan is to be able to install on any rooted android device. Currently installs on Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7 (2012), and Touchpad.
You could always use the touchpad toolbox to reinstall webos then follow the instructions there…
chris5s said:
You could always use the touchpad toolbox to reinstall webos then follow the instructions there…
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it and was lot of work for create one partition, I corrupted my webos boot and the lune.OS image had bug of no WiFi connection.(webos Ports were quick to update new image that worked). Had to data reset and start again. After seeing that lune.OS is android based has to be a easier way for us who now only have android. I don't plan to go back to webos as apps are loosing there support and browser so outdated. Line.OS is using modern browser engine, so even not many apps should be able to use websites apps.
I think atm its a very major WIP, and as such installation etc is for the very hardy lol.
Once more development has taken place then it will become easier to install and use.
Btw, think maybe this thread should be in a different forum?
Anyway, thanks for the info!
chris5s said:
I think atm its a very major WIP, and as such installation etc is for the very hardy lol.
Once more development has taken place then it will become easier to install and use.
Btw, think maybe this thread should be in a different forum?
Anyway, thanks for the info!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should be in the "Other Touchpad Development" forum
I think what could help you might be this topic : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1426244
If you try to do something like this, just knowing what are the partition space and name value you need instead for android /data/media and the luna webOS port and you might be able to do something.
General Idea :
#1 : Using the recovery from the link, make the partition you need for luna and make a single partition of android which is the media store line, don't do the other line if you don't need it, they are legacy dual boot value.
#2 : Untar your installing file, you might want to refer to the old Arch Linux installer or Ubuntu Installer, they are pretty easy to code.
#3 : Boot Toolbox and install your android.
I hope for you this Luna WebOS port don't use the old media partition from Android non data/media because it will be a pain to get enough space for each partition to share between the 2 OS.
Edit : Ok, so you really need WebOS... Ok, just follow the full tutorial from the link or use the toolbox by following the onscreen tutorial (toolbox's the better option). I was thinking it was something like the Ubuntu Touch install or other Linux.
Atari-San said:
I think what could help you might be this topic : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1426244
If you try to do something like this, just knowing what are the partition space and name value you need instead for android /data/media and the luna webOS port and you might be able to do something.
General Idea :
#1 : Using the recovery from the link, make the partition you need for luna and make a single partition of android which is the media store line, don't do the other line if you don't need it, they are legacy dual boot value.
#2 : Untar your installing file, you might want to refer to the old Arch Linux installer or Ubuntu Installer, they are pretty easy to code.
#3 : Boot Toolbox and install your android.
I hope for you this Luna WebOS port don't use the old media partition from Android non data/media because it will be a pain to get enough space for each partition to share between the 2 OS.
Edit : Ok, so you really need WebOS... Ok, just follow the full tutorial from the link or use the toolbox by following the onscreen tutorial (toolbox's the better option). I was thinking it was something like the Ubuntu Touch install or other Linux.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may be able to set Lune OS and Android on the same /data/media and then set permissions in each OS to only allow each respected OS read its own "sdcard".
Sent from my LGLS990 using XDA Free mobile app
Hey guys,
I have two questions.
1. How can I install a new nightly? There are so many different files for one date.
2.Can I replace webos with lunaOs? and how can I do it?
There are 2 types of luneOS images, one Dev and one non Dev, Dev has a lot of inbuilt logging for developers.
There is now a luneOS forum at
http://forums.webosnation.com/luneos/
The luneOS install has been updated and easier to understand.
May be able to use this info to install luneOS on data media.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2761381
I was wondering if it would be possible to install linux (ubuntu) on the Nexus Player? I feel like this would be the perfect device for this.
No. Seriously. This is worthwhile. Small footprint, capable hardware. No significant hurdle.(?)How? Tutorial! Please!
lefigue said:
No. Seriously. This is worthwhile. Small footprint, capable hardware. No significant hurdle.(?)How? Tutorial! Please!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. The only thing I can see possibly being a problem is getting 3D acceleration working because of the PowerVR GPU. Everything else on this device seems well suited for Linux. Would just need a boot image akin to Ubuntu Touch on the old Nexus 7. Sadly I haven't seen anything that would help get this started on the Player, and I currently don't have the experience to start it myself.
Uh, it's already running Linux. It sounds like you just want to run a different Linux distribution than Android. Shouldn't be difficult. You can run debootstrap on a clean system partition from recovery. You'll need to modify the boot image to run your distribution's init instead of trying to boot android. I would just look at the Ubuntu phone images for an idea of how they do it.
hackel said:
Uh, it's already running Linux. It sounds like you just want to run a different Linux distribution than Android. Shouldn't be difficult. You can run debootstrap on a clean system partition from recovery. You'll need to modify the boot image to run your distribution's init instead of trying to boot android. I would just look at the Ubuntu phone images for an idea of how they do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's usually not that simple. The boot partition from the examples I've seen (Ran Ubuntu desktop on my Nexus 7 2012) has to contain the kernel for the regular Linux install. I haven't looked into how big the partition is on the Player, but I know I had issues getting a mainline kernel to fit on the 8MB of the N7 2012. Plus most of the people here (including myself) wouldn't know where to even start at trying to get this to work for the Player (Hence why we ask in a community that has the expertise to possible pull it off). Specs wise the Player could be a fairly nice cheap NUC (If the PowerVR has support, that would be even better)
parkerlreed said:
It's usually not that simple. The boot partition from the examples I've seen (Ran Ubuntu desktop on my Nexus 7 2012) has to contain the kernel for the regular Linux install. I haven't looked into how big the partition is on the Player, but I know I had issues getting a mainline kernel to fit on the 8MB of the N7 2012. Plus most of the people here (including myself) wouldn't know where to even start at trying to get this to work for the Player (Hence why we ask in a community that has the expertise to possible pull it off). Specs wise the Player could be a fairly nice cheap NUC (If the PowerVR has support, that would be even better)
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You are not making sense. Usual linux distro has a boot partition that contains 1 or more kernels, and 1 or more ramdisks that match those kernels. Usual linux distro also has a multi-boot boot loader, which is able to select between the available kernels and ramdisks. An android device is arranged such that it has a SINGLE-boot bootloader, and its boot partition is just a kernel+ramdisk stuck together. You can stick a ubuntu kernel and ramdisk together in the EXACT SAME WAY, if that is what the bootloader requires.
As far as "getting a mainline kernel to fit... blah blah blah", the thing is... mainline kernel isn't any bigger than what you have. The difference with a "typical linux kernel" is that it isn't built with just the drivers that support that specific device, it is built with pretty much EVERY common driver built in, so that it will work on most hardware without being rebuilt. Delete the crap that you don't need, and it should fit just fine.
OR for that matter, what makes you think that something like Ubuntu won't work just fine with a kernel built for Android? Android runs on a LINUX KERNEL. Just change out the ramdisk for one more suitable for... whatever, and call it good.
Now the big question I would have about doing this.... is WHY? Nexus Player is awesome BECAUSE it runs Android TV. If you are looking to run a desktop linux on a thing that plugs into your TV, look into something like an INTEL COMPUTE STICK.