Hello!
I'm having some problems "migrating" to Android from Maemo.
I generally build up a lot of custom scripts and I am having trouble getting used to the VKB over hardware KB.
What I require and what I used to do:
Build my script.
Then, I would make a little script which installs an icon to the program menu to launch said script.
It saves me using the VKB so much.
Essentially, just adding an icon to launch a script.
Can this be done in Android?
What I want to do is build a script to launch a CHROOT environment (but this could be anything, not just chroot env).
I'd like to know if a script/file can be made to place an icon in program menu (ala Maemo).
This is where maemo has it's icons:
filename.desktop /usr/share/applications/hildon/
image.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/hildon/
I have searched a number of ways for a definitive set of steps to install Linux applications, fix apt-get dependencies, and create icons for those newly installed applications in Webtop on my Atrix 4G. I have installed Debian Linux and Xterm on my Webtop, and have successfully used the VI commands to unhook the new 4.0.1 version of Firefox, but my success ends here.
What I have found in my searching is piecemeal, version specific, or so highly specialized that a Linux noob like me has no chance of pulling together a successful install. I would like to install Gimp, OpenOffice, and maybe even a desktop application (like Gnome), and am having an appreciable amount of difficulty closing the circle.
I would be happy to buy a cup of coffee for someone who can put together a sequential list of steps (preferably with the actual Linux commands) that can be adapted to accomplish this. Thank you!
Sent from my Atrix 4G running Homebase 5.2 with Fauxs enhanced stock Kernel
I'm definately no Linux Guru, but This is what I did to install openoffice on my webtop. (assuming you followed the steps to fix the repo listed in the Webtop2SD post)
sudo apt-get install openoffice.org
and that was it....now running it nearly every day with no problems, good luck.
I installed Synaptic. It's a package manager. Just select the package you want to install and it does it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1279724&highlight=synaptic
If the Synaptic install errors, it should suggest what to run to fix it.
use backports
Use pdmenu (the penguin) to open a shell, bash will do nicely and type "apt-get install synaptic" as suggested by robrj. Then do a search for backports and libreoffice. That should help you get started. Remember, this is just Debian squeeze and the Debian support groups have the answers you need until you jump back into android or webtop mods.
So, I actually own an Atrix 2, but I figured I'd post this here as webtop/linux development is much more active. I've gotten my device set up with a custom linux installation, but it seems the OS could run much faster were it not hampered by the phone running its own OS at the same time. Would it be possible to, say, modify the android boot scripts to launch webtop instead if it detects a dock? Just have the phone with a blank screen fully powering the /osh environment on the lapdock. Once undocked, you'd have to manually reboot so the system could actually boot up android again.
It seems like there's no reason why this shouldn't be possible. Just a simple boot script that uses the phone's ability to detect whether or not it is docked; if it is, boot into webtop, if not, run android. Once, my phone had a forced reboot while I was in webtop mode. However, instead of webtop going down with the phone, I opened the mobile view and actually watched the phone's boot animation and boot process, with webtop still running. Maybe there could be a script that runs android until webtop is fully "hooked", then shuts down android and continues running webtop?
Secondary question, is it possible to upgrade the linux install itself with the sudo dist-upgrade command?
I think it is actually quite possible to do this. The reason I say that is because I have seen the Android component of the phone reboot whilst being docked into the Lapdock. The whole Android environment is then reloaded once again meaning that Ubuntu is running as the host OS.
The challenge is if you can get it to boot directly into the Ubuntu shell primarily as opposed to going directly into Dalvik.
bchliu said:
I think it is actually quite possible to do this. The reason I say that is because I have seen the Android component of the phone reboot whilst being docked into the Lapdock. The whole Android environment is then reloaded once again meaning that Ubuntu is running as the host OS.
The challenge is if you can get it to boot directly into the Ubuntu shell primarily as opposed to going directly into Dalvik.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly what happened to me! Te webtop environment stayed booted, but just ran the boot script again. All you'd have to do would be to edit the android boot script to check if RM_IS_DOCKED, right? Or does the webtop rely on certain android components to run?
Secondary question, if I were to go the route of letting it load android, then webtop, then unload android, how would I send a command to android to shut down without *actually* shutting down?
Sent from my ATRIX 2 using Tapatalk 2
I dont know enough about the technical details of the boot scripts to do this. But just as a observation, it does look plausible from the Dalvik rebooting separate to the Jaunty instance I have running.
I would like to know how to do this as well
Sorry guys, this is technically not possible.
At boot, the Linux kernel starts first. It is a custom kernel with Android patches - that implies, as far as I know, some extra security (only users with uid of 3000something have IP access) and something that breaks udev. The latter thing messing up init scripts of most modern Linux distros.
Then the Dalvik VM is started - which is the one that sucks the RAM.
Then the mountosh command is started, which takes care of mounting the webtop partition.
Then ubuntu.sh is started, which takes care of initializing the webtop environment.
The "docked" event launches a script in /etc/init.d (don't remember the name, probably stg like StartWebtop.sh) which starts the Moto's customized Xorg and some other software for the trackpad.
I think that what you have seen rebooting is probably the Dalvik VM - not sure why, I've seen it too at times.
IMHO webtop is slow because the Linux apps in Ubuntu are memory-hungry and not optimized for ARM.
I think Moto was hoping that HTML5 apps would take off sooner - so to make webtop useful just with the bundled firefox - but that never happened.
In the meanwhile, android tablet apps are getting more and more mature, and they are optimized for lower memory and less CPU than Ubuntu apps (eg Quickoffice vs Libreoffice, maildroid vs thunderbird). Hence Moto killing the webtop the way we know it and replacing it with TabletUI ICS.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
Interesting thread. I have always been amazed by the Atrix with webtop (only had it for a few days, until I hard bricked it ).
Actually, from what I was able to see, it was not Android as host OS, then running Ubuntu. It was 1 kernel (the Linux kernel for Android, as we always have on an Android phone), and on top of that kernel, two different OSes: "Android" and "Webtop (ubuntu based)". It was especially visible when running ps from one or the other, you could see there was actually no distinction, no isolation between both. From Android you could see all the webtop processes, and from webtop the android processes as well. It was amazing!
(confirmed in https://books.google.nl/books?id=E9...btop a second OS on same linux kernel&f=false, Figure 6.8)
Technically it 's the once and only time I have seen this happen actually. Never before, and never since.
So, yes, it was very possible to "soft reboot" any of the two OSes and keep the other one running, as long as the kernel was kept running (not rebooting the phone). That would mean restarting the Android zigote or Ubuntu/Webtop init (or whatever was doing that function).
NOTE: As of 7/5/2012 I've decided that the Samsung Galaxy S3 is a better fit for me and have returned my HTC Evo 4G LTE. I will not be updating this post. Any expressed intention to do so later on this post is therefore a LIE!
Short version: You can get Ubuntu (and presumably Backtrack and/or Debian) running on top of Android on the HTC Evo 4G LTE (EvoLTE, from now on).
What's working for me now:
Rooted/Unlocked/S-Offed (Dunno if all that is NEEDED, it's just what I'm working with ATM.)
ViperROM eLiTE v1.2.1
Dual Core Mod Ultimate (I flashed the ViperROM-specific mod.)
Market App: Complete Linux Installer (Paid App)
Before I bought the paid app, I tested it with the free Ubuntu Installer app. It didn't work "out of the box" so to speak as the busybox installation included with the free app seemed broken. The free app worked only after I renamed the included busybox and copied the one I have from Busybox Installer in it's place. If you get errors about not being able to create a loopback device when you try the 'sh ubuntu.sh' script, then you're seeing what I saw.
Both the paid Linux Installer app and the free Ubuntu Installer app contain a guide with buttons to download the necessary scripts, Ubuntu/Linux boot images and applications to boot Linux on Android. The other apps are a specific terminal emulator and a VNC client. The installer apps also provide directions on what to do with the files, where to unzip them and such.
Main things you get with the paid vs. free app are:
Support for Debian, Backtrack and Ubuntu in one app.(Note1)
No need to download a script or run it manually.
A "launch" button inside the app instead of manually running a script.
A widget to boot your linux image from the homescreen.
(Note1: There are one-off paid apps that only support one distribution of Linux each, they're cheaper than the "Complete" version).
I don't see any reason why someone couldn't eschew the paid installer apps and just use the free ones along with ScriptManager or similar program to launch their Linux images.
You may be wondering: "But is the hosted" Linux USABLE?"
Yup, it sure is! I'm using VNC on my desktop computer to access the LXDE desktop of my phone's Ubuntu session right now and it's pretty quick. I suspect what minor speed/lag blips I'm seeing are more because of the network and VNC than the performance of my phone.
Hopefully this post passes muster as-is. As I mentioned above, I will be fleshing it out as I tinker with it and have to time until it's more of a how-to. I will also flash other ROMs and see if it's possible on other ROMs. I suspect that it will be, as the Stock ROM apparently supports loopback devices, which is the real hurdle once you've rooted your phone.
Now this is cool stuff, keep us posted on your progress. I know is possible to hook up a mouse/trackpad and keyboard along with mirrored display with android but have not seen anyone other than those on the website for ubuntu make it work. http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android
Hi.
I would like to run Debian Squeeze on Android.
Complete Linux Installer delivers Debian images that are very problematic and annoying.
Debian Kit doesn't let me install openssh-server and not only that, skipped many packages due to extracting problems.
Lil' Deby is very unstable, it hangs before it does everything to complete the installation.
Linux Deploy causes many errors to happen
Is there another app to do that? Or if there's a well explained way to do that manually? I'm having some software that would be great to have in my phone so let's just focus on it
I'm counting for help!
EDIT: Sorry, forgot to check "Is this a question". Yes, it is