Topic: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

I have been talking with quite a few guys about interest to port Android on Chumby; however the conversation have gone no where so far. So I just started on my own. First step will take a look and see how different the two kernels are.

This is funny I saw Bobby on his session a year ago at OSCON in portland, his talk was really good. Have been watching this Chumby project for a year; and during the year, I changed my job, moved from Chicago to San Diego. Suddenly today found Chumby is 2 miles away from my home...

Hey why don't you guys use git to distribute the software? It will be much easier for everybody. Your internal development shall move to git too if you have not done so...

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

Hey,

I'm interested in porting Android as well. A while ago I started a thread about the kernel, which may be of interest to you: http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=3752.

Let me know if you're still interested and would like to collaborate.

- Eric

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

I am also interested with chumby and android, how to contact you guys?

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

Has there been any further development on this project? I am really interested in Chumby but want something with a bit more functionality like the ability to search youtube and other video services. It would be great with Android ported to it.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

I'm not quite hardware savvy enough to know what all this means, but does this information affect anything regarding the possibility for Android on the chumby?

I have become very interested in Android development myself.

Cheers.

6 (edited by gerrynjr 2009-11-28 17:11:01)

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

I've currently managed to get the android distribution recompiled for arm using the chumby toolchain.  I plan on using the stock kernel and modules, copied to my custom rootfs to get this up and running as quickly as possible. (I'm hoping that the touchscreen and audio work right away)  I also plan to have all this up on a google code page...


Unfortunately, I do not currently have a chumby, and I ordered mine yesterday.  (So, i'm waiting in the queue) So, when I do get my chumby one, I'll keep everyone posted on the progress.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

The chumby one ought to have most of the things built in to the kernel you need to get Android running.  It'll run on fb3 (I think), so you'll need to run "switch_fb.sh 3" to change to it.

There's a bug I need to fix in the display driver that prevents the screen from automatically drawing.  I need to find it and fix it.  You'll also need to scale the touchscreen, as Android assumes it gets real coordinates from /dev/input/ rather than the uncalibrated coordinates we get out of a resistive touchscreen.  But other than that, Android should work.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

Thanks chumbylurker, that is very useful info. Curious, do you work for chumby?

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

Yes.  I did a lot of the firmware work on chumby one.  I left a few unsupported surprises in the firmware like [mostly working] Android support.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

i would love to mess around with android on a chumby

also nice logo XD

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

good news: my chumby shipped. I'll have it for christmas eve! Cant wait to try this on real hardware!

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

gerrynjr wrote:

I've currently managed to get the android distribution recompiled for arm using the chumby toolchain.  I plan on using the stock kernel and modules, copied to my custom rootfs to get this up and running as quickly as possible. (I'm hoping that the touchscreen and audio work right away)  I also plan to have all this up on a google code page...


Unfortunately, I do not currently have a chumby, and I ordered mine yesterday.  (So, i'm waiting in the queue) So, when I do get my chumby one, I'll keep everyone posted on the progress.

You can't use a stock kernel to run Android. Android requires /dev/binder and power management functions which aren't available in the stock kernel, and the earliest kernel with them available is 2.6.27, which means you'd have to backport the IPC code, or more the Chumby to a newer kernel.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

The chumby one has all the patches you'll need.  There's a bug in the video driver that I've fixed in the TV-enabled kernel (namely: it'll stomp all over the part of memory that keeps track of whether or not it should draw -- and it chooses not to), so if you want to play around with it you'll need to install the kernel mentioned in the "Composite Out" thread.

I'll come up with a tarball distribution that has my version of Android that I'll post later tonight.  It's a couple of months old, and is more of a Proof of Concept, but it at least shows how to get into Android.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

As promised, here's a Proof of Concept Android build.  It's very rough around the edges, but should give anyone wanting to build their own version of Android a start.

You need to first install the kernel for composite TV out

There is a bug in the current video driver that crops up when switching into Android mode, and it's fixed in that kernel.  If you don't install the new kernel, you'll just get a black screen.

The image contains a "debugchumby" that creates a swapfile, reloads the touchscreen driver with precalibrated coordinates, mounts android.img as a loopback, and then does a chroot into it.  The "android.img" is basically the contents of "out/target/product/generic/system" from when you actually build it yourself.  The only patch I applied is that it supports ALSA, which at the time Android didn't natively support.  This may have changed.  These are all publicly available already.

It also seems very slow for some reason.  I'm not sure why.  And wifi support is kind of wonky.  And so is audio.  As is external device support.  I'm not to familiar with how Android is set up, so these all may be very easy to fix.

If anyone can improve performance, I'd really like to see it.  But in the meantime, you can take a look for yourself.  Unzip to a USB drive and reboot.  Note that because it creates a large swapfile on /mnt/storage/ the first boot can take a loooong time, and you can probably improve overall performance by moving everything onto /mnt/storage:

http://files.chumby.com/hacks/android-c1-1.0.tgz

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

Damn, Chumbylurker, I was just doing that 8-/

I have it booting off of a custom SD card... had a bunch of issues with video.
It does seem rather slow though, been trying to kick it around. (This is sort of why I havnt released anything as of yet)
I'll try your build, or even try the new kernel and see if I get any further progress.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

Chumbylurker, could I have your children?

Err, wait, wrong message board. smile

Seriously, thanks for throwing up the 'droid 1.0 kernel.  I'm playing around with it now, and working on trimming it down a bit.  Still haven't found a good reason why it's so slow - but after 3-4 of the activities are force closed (phone, messaging, mms, calendar) it works alot better.  I don't suppose you've tried anything to get the SD card recognized by 'droid?  Was thinking of throwing an mp3 or two on just to make a good demo for geek friends.

-r

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

I think I made a symlink to somewhere in /mnt/storage.  Can't remember where, though.

In the Dev Tools section there should be an option to Rescan SD card, which will pick up any new files in that directory.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

Hi ChumbyLurker,

Thanks for the android build.

You mentioned that the first boot can take a long time.  About how long would you say that is?  I tried the android build on a USB drive and I think I waited for a long time (maybe more than an hour).  Was that not long enough or should I assume something else is wrong?

Thanks again.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

"Long Time" is defined as about 5-10 minutes, as it creates the swap partition.

Did you install the replacement kernel?  It fixes double-buffering, which Android needs in order to be able to draw anything.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

Hi ChumbyLurker,


I think I did an update when I first powered on the device, but I am not sure if it has the replacement kernel.
Which Chumby forum/post has the replacement kernel update information?


Thanks.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

It's the one mentioned in Composite TV out.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

ChumbyLurker,


Android loads now.  I just realized that your earlier post already had the kernel fix mentioned ... sorry.


Thanks again

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

I get all the way up to the android logo animating on the chumby one screen and then chumby one restarts. Anybody else running into that problem? Could it be my flash drive is sucking too much power and tripping the brown-out detector?

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

vladisuave wrote:

I get all the way up to the android logo animating on the chumby one screen and then chumby one restarts. Anybody else running into that problem? Could it be my flash drive is sucking too much power and tripping the brown-out detector?

Hello,

i have exacly the same problem.

Re: Anybody interested to port Android on Chumby?

Has anyone gotten this to work properly yet?