Porting Android

I think he means that his father would rather load straight into a graphical operating system, than have to enter login, password and then enter the command startx.

Good Luck with this!

Benefit of Android is installing any apps without having to learn basic command line. Tried to teach my dad some of this stuff but at 55, he is not so interested.

You could try using synaptic on Debian - software installer GUI.

He could also install software center to make things easier. sudo apt-get install software-center

I think he is trying to get away from having to enter a login, password, and entering commands (i.e. startx) to load the operating system. Debian squeeze and wheezy don't run very well on the Raspberry Pi yet, because of constant memory issues. I'm sure with time, it will be optimized to run more efficiently.

Android is a much more user friendly operating system for people that aren't computer savvy, but will Android run well enough to be useful on the Raspberry Pi?

[jamesh]

My opinion is that it will run slower than the Debian release. Basically because Android is built on top of Linux and just adds a pretty GUI, which will probably be slower as it won't user graphics acceleration either.

There's no reason why it won't run android 2.x just as well as on a similarly-specced phone/tablet.

I'll be going away for 3 weeks on Sunday, so if anyone wants to take over from me, I will upload the files and post a link here

Would the play store be usable on the android port or is that out of bounds ?

it would be a fully functioning android device, similar to, say, a tablet.

Can we get Eben to tell us if this chip was used in a specific tablet / device with android ?
I realy think it woud be easier to start from a working device with android for this chip ( Broadcom BCM2835 )and to start adapting /cuting a unnecesary stuff.

Lets try to find devices with this chip on google ...start from there ...
(i may be wrong in my aproach ... due to lack of bios ...flash ..etc there baybe a lot of difrences)

I'll be going away for 3 weeks on Sunday, so if anyone wants to take over from me, I will upload the files and post a link here

I would like to give it a shot.

I'd also like to give this a shot, I have compiled kernels before and I might be able to get it to work on the RPi with the right tools and files needed to get android running.

Is there a writeup available on how to compile & build the RPi kernel from the github source?
https://github.com/lp0/linux/tree/raspberrypi-3.3

Shawn

My apologies to all, but due to problems with my computer (damn quad boot) I am unable to upload what I've been working off. However, for the kernel I used https://github.com/lp0/linux/tree/rpi-linear and checkout-ed the 3.3 kernel.
Source, I used git://android.git.kernel.org/kernel/common.git and got gingerbread from that.

Really, I've just been following this: http://blogs.arm.com/software-enablemen ... -platform/ but changing some stuff for the Pi.
Have a look, see what you can do.

See you in 3 weeks, and good luck

I get this error when I try to check out 3.3 -

fatal: https://github.com/lp0/linux/tree/raspb ... /info/refs not found: did you run git update-server-info on the server?

Are others seeing this as well?

Thanks!
Suresh

I get this error when I try to check out 3.3 -

fatal: https://github.com/lp0/linux/tree/raspb ... /info/refs not found: did you run git update-server-info on the server?

Are others seeing this as well?

Thanks!
Suresh

What is the exact command you used for checking out using git?

git clone https://github.com/lp0/linux/tree/raspberrypi-3.3

git clone https://github.com/lp0/linux/tree/raspberrypi-3.3

Thats not the git repo. You need to get clone https://github.com/lp0/linux.git. Then you can checkout the specified branch you would like to use.

I think he is trying to get away from having to enter a login, password, and entering commands (i.e. startx) to load the operating system.

Puppi SAP (currently in Alpha 2) goes straight to desktop
- no log in
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Puppi

Guys we need this Android potential.
Imagine being able to chroot into Android apps from your main Linux box. Puppy in my case.
It would be pawsome

Good luck, keep taking the raspberries.

Casey Anderson's kernel port
He provides step-by-step instruction for porting Android ICS kernel to the Rapsberry Pi. However he did not received his board yet, so it is untested.
The notes he provided with the tutorial: NOTE: Since I have not been able to get my hands on the hardware I haven't tried it myself. You are on your own with this. I doubt it works right out of the box...
Anyway, I think it is a good start.

I tried that tutorial and it wouldn't compile at all. I'm actually shocked it didn't work, it seemed like that tutorial would work. The command that failed was

Code: Select all

make -k -j6

If anyone has a fix or a solution let me know so I can try to compile this kernel.
Error log:

Code: Select all

shawnbusker@RPi-DEV:~/work/raspberry-pi/kernel/linux-3.1.9$ make -k -j6
  CHK     include/linux/version.h
  CHK     include/generated/utsrelease.h
  CC      scripts/mod/empty.o
cc1: error: unrecognized command line option "-mlittle-endian"
cc1: error: unrecognized command line option "-mapcs"
cc1: error: unrecognized command line option "-mno-sched-prolog"
cc1: error: unrecognized command line option "-mabi=aapcs-linux"
cc1: error: unrecognized command line option "-mno-thumb-interwork"
scripts/mod/empty.c:1: error: bad value (armv5t) for -march= switch
scripts/mod/empty.c:1: error: bad value (strongarm) for -mtune= switch
make[2]: *** [scripts/mod/empty.o] Error 1
make[2]: Target `__build' not remade because of errors.
make[1]: *** [scripts/mod] Error 2
make[1]: Target `__build' not remade because of errors.
make: *** [scripts] Error 2
make[1]: `include/generated/mach-types.h' is up to date.
  CC      kernel/bounds.s
cc1: error: unrecognized command line option "-mlittle-endian"
cc1: error: unrecognized command line option "-mapcs"
cc1: error: unrecognized command line option "-mno-sched-prolog"
cc1: error: unrecognized command line option "-mabi=aapcs-linux"
cc1: error: unrecognized command line option "-mno-thumb-interwork"
kernel/bounds.c:1: error: bad value (armv5t) for -march= switch
kernel/bounds.c:1: error: bad value (strongarm) for -mtune= switch
make[1]: *** [kernel/bounds.s] Error 1
make[1]: Target `__build' not remade because of errors.
make: *** [prepare0] Error 2
make: Target `_all' not remade because of errors.

Shawn

[jamesh]

Appears to be using the wrong compiler (x86 not Arm?)- have you set up a cross compilation toolchain (you are compiling on a PC not the Raspi I assume).

I tried compiling the rpi-linear kernel (appears to have android drivers in staging), but for the android alarm driver a RTC is needed. The R-Pi does not have a RPC, correct?

[jamesh]

No, it doesn't have an RTC.

Yep, the cross-compiler included with the tutorial was not working, had to use another way since I'm on 10.04. I got it to compile so now I'm going to test it using my Raspberry Pi once it finishes. If anyone wants the kernel or kernel.img let me know and I'll post it.

Shawn

I compiled a 3.3 kernel with Android support. It runs Debian Wheezy. Compiling ICS for ARMv5/ARMv6 might be harder though...

I compiled a 3.3 kernel with Android support. It runs Debian Wheezy. Compiling ICS for ARMv5/ARMv6 might be harder though...

I don't know about harder, but it certainly takes a lot longer than the kernel. I've compiled both the kernel and Gingerbread (due to ICS demanding proper video drivers), now I'd appreciate some help as to making an actual SD-image out of it.

I have the entire filesystem that was created by the GB-compile, I have a .img-file containing it, now I just need to restore that .img onto a partition on the SD-card (not the entire SD-card as that'd kill the FAT32 /boot, no?), and that's where I'm stuck.
Any and all help appreciated,
Warg