I'm sure this is a stupid noob question, but:
Can I build from source on a Chromebook without running Ubuntu in a box? If so, can anyone point me in the direction of a resource for that? I'm only asking because the wifi only Chromebooks are pretty cheap - cheaper than I am likely to find a macbook.
austontatious said:
I'm sure this is a stupid noob question, but:
Can I build from source on a Chromebook without running Ubuntu in a box? If so, can anyone point me in the direction of a resource for that? I'm only asking because the wifi only Chromebooks are pretty cheap - cheaper than I am likely to find a macbook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are very unlikely to find your answer here. What exactly are you wanting to do? Install a different OS on it?
Sounds like he wants to build Android from source code which is usually done it a Linux system. I'm not sure the answer, but it seems like you should be able to. Unless Chrome is not as powerful since it is browser based system.
I don't know if this is correct but....
I would assume that you can't because chromebooks are not powerful at all. There's almost nothing that eye popping about the specs of chromebooks. On top of that, there isn't much you can do with a chromebook because it is a browser-based operating system. If you really want to build from source just buy a cheap DIY computer from Newegg or something and install Linux on it.
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
You can't do what you want right out of the box on a chromebook. But you can open em up and flip a switch which will allow you to load linux or ubuntu on them. Only caveat is that the one I have is an alpha tester model they gave to us (the company I work for had a deal with google) so jot sure if that I the case wih the newest ones.
3VO Sent
austontatious said:
I'm sure this is a stupid noob question, but:
Can I build from source on a Chromebook without running Ubuntu in a box? If so, can anyone point me in the direction of a resource for that? I'm only asking because the wifi only Chromebooks are pretty cheap - cheaper than I am likely to find a macbook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as you're able to get to a unix/linux based terminal/shell, you *should* be able to compile the Android OS.
Now there are a few caveats to the process, I recall hearing a 64 bit instead of a 32 bit system was required for gingerbread and above, plus there might be some other operating system dependencies. There might also be a RAM requirement.
Also, it can take an hour or two on many modern computer builds. This might take a very long time on a laptop or stripped down laptop such as a chromebook.
I've only compiled inside Ubuntu as that is the recommended OS by Google in their directions. I've compiled using Ubuntu as main booting OS and with Ubuntu being booted inside a VM on a Windows Host.
Best place to start is with Google's official directions for compiling AOSP: http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html
I found this link by searching google.com using the terms: android complie source code
The requirements and notes Google's mentions in their directions:
"Note: The source download is approximately 6GB in size. You will need 25GB free to complete a single build, and up to 80GB (or more) for a full set of builds."
"The Android build is routinely tested in house on recent versions of Ubuntu LTS (10.04), but most distributions should have the required build tools available. Reports of successes or failures on other distributions are welcome.
Note: It is also possible to build Android in a virtual machine. If you are running Linux in a virtual machine, you will need at least 16GB of RAM/swap and 30GB or more of disk space in order to build the Android tree"
Hope that helps! Good luck!
Thanks for the help! So it looks like I could *maybe* do the build on a chromebook, but regardless I wouldn't want to. Correct?
austontatious said:
Thanks for the help! So it looks like I could *maybe* do the build on a chromebook, but regardless I wouldn't want to. Correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming you were able to get everything setup on the Chromebook, at bare minimum it would take a few hours, if not much much longer to complete the compile based on Chromebook hardware and Google expectations as outlined in my previous post.
An alternative, would be to ssh into a build box from the chromebook and compile using this method. This would probably be an approach I would be willing to take. Just throwing out another idea as there are a few reasonable alternatives.
In my experience, compiling AOSP is one of the more hardware intensive tasks I perform on my desktop .. if not the most intensive.
Hope that helps!
Related
http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/releases/1.0/core/images/meego-n900-open-armv7l/
My idea is to use the current effort to run Ubuntu/Debian on the phone as a method to get MeeGo running on the phone as well (Maemo should be similar). What we'd need to achieve is to get an .img of MeeGo/Maemo as we do Debian/Ubuntu. Driver issues (If present) should be rectifiable by porting over some of the Debian/Ubuntu ARM drivers.
I personally think it won't be too hard.
You compile it with the right GCC, fix any possible errors, then add an android kernel (hoping the API doesn't change, which is a longshot and probably the biggest obstacle). After that is set up we move everything to their appropriate partition, fix the path, and it really aught to work then.
i have no idea how to and how hard, but i think if people can port Android to iPhone , so this wont be something impossile
I would absolutely LOVE for this to come true. I've been frustrated with my gma500 netbook, since I can't run Meego, or even Moblin. This seems like it would be fun to run on the n1.
Should we start a bounty, I would be willing to put money up for this, dual booting two open source systems would be great.
Same here! $5 from me for the person who gets it to boot!
Finally! I've waited for someone to take up this work!
Not that I could be of any help, but I appreciate your efforts and hope for your success!
Good look!
Will be working on this. I don't think I want to flash it instead of Android and as a chroot it'll be more compatible (among ARM7 at least for now..) with other phones. Been barely successful with my old ATT Tilt w/1MB of RAM I gotta see what a Nexus can do =D
dictionary said:
I would absolutely LOVE for this to come true. I've been frustrated with my gma500 netbook, since I can't run Meego, or even Moblin. This seems like it would be fun to run on the n1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know that the recently released Intel EMGD drivers work on Maemo? Since they are a binary blob even worse than the PSB drivers, they won't work on (k)ubuntu, only on Maemo and Fedora 11.
i'm hazy on how we got fb support on kaiser/vogue but they're msm7k boards as well. i could be wrong but i believe team douche already has it built in. i did a lot of trial and error today to get a chrooted x-server to override android's display. i'm not sure how to get the hardware support because i fail at it and thought it would be easier to hybridize maemo over android at least for testing.
i'm all about getting this to work but irc is tedious so if anyone is actively working on it, i'm down for the cause.
I plan on, when I get time, starting my attempts. It would be much easier if I could see the basic layout of the system, but I'm so inexperienced that I don't know where to start. I have a basic idea what to do with the source once I get it, but most of my assumptions rely in part on what I can find out.
it's basically ARM Ubuntu w/a ton of customized UI but a basic Debian based distro nonetheless which is why I <3 it so much.
Well, I guess it won't be too bad then, I personally was hoping for something that was update.zip capable, and a few simlinks might just do the trick.
The key questions I can think of so far are: how are the files are laid out, how does the window server interact with the kernel, what modules will be essential, how does the phone interface with the radio, minutiae like that.
The main road block I see is that we have still not yet been able to run anything outside of virtualization. I'm not sure how the boot process works outside of running an Android build, but a pure solution would be needed for best results.
yes we can:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=631389
who wanna help me
I'm in. I found out something interesting yesterday, the Adreno 200 2D framebuffer is a standard kernel interface. So, if 3d acceleration isn't a priority, we shouldn't even have to port the windowserver. Heck, I'm pretty sure we won't have to port anything.
I guess I'm going to look at the source for debootstrap and see what hints I can gleam from it though.
what do you need from debootstrap- it just pulls down the system image but we have meego's already.
here's what we have so far to play with, where to start?
custom dual/tri boot recovery image we'll need to avoid fastbooting the kernel:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=5521417&postcount=5
i'd like to mix this into amon's or clockwork mod source with a text file on the SD card to configure kernel parameters
how to boot debian/ubuntu which we'd swap for meego's system:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=631389
should handle enough to fully boot this thing
including his premade zImage you can mess with if you suck at compiling:
http://irregular-expression.com/tmp/zImage
meego's system as linked in the OP:
http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/releases/1.0/core/images/meego-n900-open-armv7l/
no gsm, no audio, crappy fb based x11 w/o drivers.
What system image are you using and how are you unpacking it? I'm not too worried about drivers, as with GSM I'm pretty sure that the API is either already set up as we need it or configurable. People on debian were getting texts to send at one point if memory serve
meego-n900-open-armv7l-1.0.0.20100525.1-sda.raw.bz2
should be the one. i believe it's an ext3 partition but haven't looked at it yet as i was looking into the debian thing. i mean gsm support for our boards which should be okay if we branch off of cyanogenmod's or similar. and if i'm right then "okay" means "complete support."
let me be more specific:
http://wiki.meego.com/ARM
and if you look at the MSM link it references a repost of the debian guide as well..
adapt these instructions for working with the image on your desktop:
http://wiki.meego.com/ARM/N900/Install/MMC
and as further motivation, remember when the N900 got x86 WINE via a statically compiled ARM QEMU binary within a x86 chroot? with an x-server we don't have the ****ty VNC fail we've currently had. we could truly run x86 chrooted software (or anything in a chroot like hot-swappable desktop distros) and connect to the host (maemo's) display. and the possibilities with xephyr nested x-servers.
Well, great news on that front too, they use X.org by the looks of it. There's a 3d acceleration driver under development for it. I'm going to try first with a SD card install, as weaving around the wacky partition format is annoying. It'll be a few hours until I'm using an x86 system though to compile the kernel. By the looks of it, the kernel has to be custom in order to use an initramfs partition.
Is it now possible to install Ubuntu on the Nook Tablet? - not as a stand-alone Operating System, but as a process running from the Android environment, as has been done for the Nook Color .. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=10306407#post10306407
This site .. http://androlinux.com/android-ubuntu-development/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-android/ .. states 'First of all, you should have your Android device “rooted” because you need root access to run Ubuntu off your Android. Second, your Android OS must support loop devices.' - are these conditions met now with the Nook Tablet?
The emphasis of the above articles is on using Ubuntu as an alternative desktop system to Android.
I see a second reason, though, for doing this - running a Ubuntu server on the tablet gives you access to all the server packages that are available with Ubuntu - eg. Apache2/PHP, MySql, Postgres - maybe not useful if you are connected to a network, but potentially useful if you have a field tablet (ie. with no connectivity) that you want to develop database applications for.
Edit: ignore me......
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
You're asking whether you can follow a tutorial you yourself posted? Why don't you try, and let us know?
There may be kernel modules you need missing, but other than that there isn't a reason the same thing done on the NC wouldn't work on the NT. All you need is a rooted NT (the NT has been rooted for a while)—the NT's locked bootloader is irrelevant for a chroot.
tamasrepus said:
You're asking whether you can follow a tutorial you yourself posted? Why don't you try, and let us know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mmm .. I would if I had a Nook Tablet, but I'm still working out whether to get a Nook Color or Nook Tablet - hence my interest in the question I'm asking. Of course, if I can do what I want with the NT, then that will be better than the NC because the NT is better hardware.
But, thanks for the other info.
And yes, I am hoping that someone with a Nook Tablet might be able to help answer this question.
Tybion said:
Mmm .. I would if I had a Nook Tablet, but I'm still working out whether to get a Nook Color or Nook Tablet - hence my interest in the question I'm asking. Of course, if I can do what I want with the NT, then that will be better than the NC because the NT is better hardware.
But, thanks for the other info.
And yes, I am hoping that someone with a Nook Tablet might be able to help answer this question.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ubuntu on the nook color is not very far along. I just added a nook tablet to my nook color household. I have a motorola phone with webtop and there are a ton of hacks to get it to work that have prevented updating ubuntu.
If you want a tablet that runs ubuntu, look into an x86 tablet.
Sent from my BNTV250 using xda premium
We are running linux kernel, so as long as chroot is there (it is) then we can run (almost) any linux distro. This stuff is (relatively) easy and there interwebs are instructions on it dating back to the g1 days that still work.
Gentoo works for sure, i'm sure ubuntu does as would debian no doubt. i'm pretty sure there is an arm port of arch linux out there too. The main thing is to get the ARM version of your distribution of choice, and then look into running it under "chroot"
I'd probably go with debian over ubuntu. Seems simpler/easier for this kind of thing.
i've got a gentoo chroot running just fine on my NT. Don't do that btw. Deciding to emerge glibc just before bedtime--over adb. Now all you really wanna do is go to bed and read a couple chapters while you fall asleep but you can't because you thought it would be a good idea to compile glibc...on your tablet...tied to your pc...not that i would know
ylixir said:
We are running linux kernel, so as long as chroot is there (it is) then we can run (almost) any linux distro. This stuff is (relatively) easy and there interwebs are instructions on it dating back to the g1 days that still work.
Gentoo works for sure, i'm sure ubuntu does as would debian no doubt. i'm pretty sure there is an arm port of arch linux out there too. The main thing is to get the ARM version of your distribution of choice, and then look into running it under "chroot"
I'd probably go with debian over ubuntu. Seems simpler/easier for this kind of thing.
i've got a gentoo chroot running just fine on my NT. Don't do that btw. Deciding to emerge glibc just before bedtime--over adb. Now all you really wanna do is go to bed and read a couple chapters while you fall asleep but you can't because you thought it would be a good idea to compile glibc...on your tablet...tied to your pc...not that i would know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We may need a tranquilizer dart for you. I think we also need to ban you from all nook tablets.
Also, you should help me get backtrack 5 running on the device so I can see if our wifi chip supports injection.
ylixir said:
i've got a gentoo chroot running just fine on my NT. Don't do that btw. Deciding to emerge glibc just before bedtime--over adb. Now all you really wanna do is go to bed and read a couple chapters while you fall asleep but you can't because you thought it would be a good idea to compile glibc...on your tablet...tied to your pc...not that i would know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gentoo is a very good Base for Crossdeveloping. You can employ a Crossdev toolchain for ARM or you can use your ARM Plattform to build native and use distcc to accelerate the Process.
I had Gentoo already on Plattforms like mips (Octane), Alpha and PPC
ylixir said:
We are running linux kernel, so as long as chroot is there (it is) then we can run (almost) any linux distro. This stuff is (relatively) easy and there interwebs are instructions on it dating back to the g1 days that still work.
Gentoo works for sure, i'm sure ubuntu does as would debian no doubt. i'm pretty sure there is an arm port of arch linux out there too. The main thing is to get the ARM version of your distribution of choice, and then look into running it under "chroot"
I'd probably go with debian over ubuntu. Seems simpler/easier for this kind of thing.
i've got a gentoo chroot running just fine on my NT. Don't do that btw. Deciding to emerge glibc just before bedtime--over adb. Now all you really wanna do is go to bed and read a couple chapters while you fall asleep but you can't because you thought it would be a good idea to compile glibc...on your tablet...tied to your pc...not that i would know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a Linux installer in Market. Good luck on getting it to work. The drivers required to get a functional desktop running on ARM hardware is pretty limited and mostly closed.
If it was as easy as you say all the Motorola webtop phones would be upgraded to Oneric. As it stands my Atrix will only run Jaunty, because that's what came on it.
If you know some secret please contribute to the webtop forums like the Attic, Bionic and Photon. They have been trying for months.
Sent from my BNTV250 using xda premium
dragon_76 said:
There is a Linux installer in Market. Good luck on getting it to work. The drivers required to get a functional desktop running on ARM hardware is pretty limited and mostly closed.
If it was as easy as you say all the Motorola webtop phones would be upgraded to Oneric. As it stands my Atrix will only run Jaunty, because that's what came on it.
If you know some secret please contribute to the webtop forums like the Attic, Bionic and Photon. They have been trying for months.
Sent from my BNTV250 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Drivers are a nonissue. Im sure youve noticed the nook comes with support for it's storage and filesystems and networking out of the box. If the nook didnt come with working linux drivers we wouldnt have a working nook.
The difference between gnu/linux amd android is just the userland. So put a working userland of your favorite linux distro in /data/local, mount the dev proc and sys filesystems, chroot. Boom gnu/linux. All drivers provided and working.
It's not a secret. As a matter of a fact it's how most linux installers on the pc work and as was mentioned earlier how many people develop for embedded platforms like android to begin with.
FYI, there is a developer thread for Ubuntu App on the NT ..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1394329
Tybion said:
Is it now possible to install Ubuntu on the Nook Tablet? - not as a stand-alone Operating System, but as a process running from the Android environment, as has been done for the Nook Color .. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=10306407#post10306407
This site .. http://androlinux.com/android-ubuntu-development/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-android/ .. states 'First of all, you should have your Android device “rooted” because you need root access to run Ubuntu off your Android. Second, your Android OS must support loop devices.' - are these conditions met now with the Nook Tablet?
The emphasis of the above articles is on using Ubuntu as an alternative desktop system to Android.
I see a second reason, though, for doing this - running a Ubuntu server on the tablet gives you access to all the server packages that are available with Ubuntu - eg. Apache2/PHP, MySql, Postgres - maybe not useful if you are connected to a network, but potentially useful if you have a field tablet (ie. with no connectivity) that you want to develop database applications for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1354002&page=12
Loglud answered the Ubuntu question post#113 YouTube video
Sorry first off I'm not sure if this is the right forum. Was thinking developers but there was an ominous warning at the top of that one so I decided not to take the chance.
The question is can Linux be installed on an Android based device natively? I'm aware of chroot enviroments and have done those. I also found this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=981688 which is slightly cooler but it's still an AUFS based chroot mount. I found the same question asked here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1272964 but there was no answer and I didn't want to zombie the thread. Google searches didn't turn up anything useful either.
While I'm thinking the question is fairly device agnostic my device is a Droid 2 Global. I'm getting ready to replace it soon but I'm thinking it might make a nice little embedded system. From what I've read about my device in particular it's got some type of "lock" that disallows the use of other kernels but I am not afraid of recompiling the kernel for my device with additional needed modules for file systems or whatever. I have done this in the past.
I'm not super picky on the distro, but given a choice I guess I'd go with Debian (hardly ever changes so I can just check for security updates once a week or so and otherwise forget about it).
I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to answer this directly as I'm sure it'd be a novel. I'm more hoping someone might have a link to a guide or something that I just completely failed to locate.
So I kept digging and I found this: http www dot htc-linux.org forwardslash wiki forwardslash index.php. As the link suggests it's focused towards HTC devices but between it and some other links on there I think I can work with it.
I'll mark the thread as [SOLVED], but since it ended up being fairly useless (sorry) go ahead and delete if it amuses you to do so, any passing admin.
Ubuntu is coming out with an official version for Android soon.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW
I Am Marino said:
Ubuntu is coming out with an official version for Android soon.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is probably your best answer. The Ubuntu build that runs on top of Android for webtop/lapdock purposes is running from the same kernel as Android is according to what I've heard. They will be providing the source so we'll see what the community can do with it.
It is possible on some Android devices, such as the Transformer and Desire.
But the Droid 2 Global, having a locked bootloader and the inability to install custom kernels, is not able to use native Linux.
If you want an Android device that is able to use native Linux do some research to find the one that fits you best.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
have you seen this? interestiong reading...
http://whiteboard.ping.se/Android/Debian
Itbelikedat said:
have you seen this? interestiong reading...
http://whiteboard.ping.se/Android/Debian
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it a small time ago. Everything works but zygote and its forks fail to start, perhaps due to mount namespaces implementation on Android, but I'm not sure. Seeking a way out for this but not successful so far due to lack of knowledge.
I am completely let down by the lack of custom ROMs for the Player 4.2. So, I've decided I'm going to start building my own from source. Before I start, however, I have many questions. Hopefully, developers of other Player devices can really help me out.
The first batch of questions before starting:
What Linux distribution should I build with?
How much space do I really need for a repo sync?
What is the best place to find a device tree?
And finally:
Is building difficult?
I have experience with syncing the repo but that's it; anything past that point, such as adding device support, has given me issues.
You can also PM me if you so wish, I'm on XDA every day and I will do my best to respond quickly.
Any help will be greatly appreciated, and if this is the wrong place to post this, please let me know right away to avoid further problems.
Why do we have to miss out on the great things this mobile operating system has to offer?
Cheers, 64kb.
64kb said:
I am completely let down by the lack of custom ROMs for the Player 4.2. So, I've decided I'm going to start building my own from source. Before I start, however, I have many questions. Hopefully, developers of other Player devices can really help me out.
The first batch of questions before starting:
What Linux distribution should I build with?
How much space do I really need for a repo sync?
What is the best place to find a device tree?
And finally:
Is building difficult?
I have experience with syncing the repo but that's it; anything past that point, such as adding device support, has given me issues.
You can also PM me if you so wish, I'm on XDA every day and I will do my best to respond quickly.
Any help will be greatly appreciated, and if this is the wrong place to post this, please let me know right away to avoid further problems.
Why do we have to miss out on the great things this mobile operating system has to offer?
Cheers, 64kb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What Linux distribution should I build with?
While it may be technically possible to build on any Linux distro, a recent version of Ubuntu will probably have the most support. The developer site at google says that you should build on Ubuntu 10.04 and that Ubuntu 12.04 is experimental. I build on Ubuntu 12.04 and use xfce4 to reduce my memory foot print, plus heimdall does not work in 10.04 and I use it all the time for kernel builds.
How much space do I really need for a repo sync?
You download approximately 10 gigs ( give or take ) but you also "check out" the files which will take another 10 gigs. In addition you need space to build. If you are planning to use a virtual machine your going to need extra swap space. I uses VMware player and have allocated 1.4 gigs of ram and 15 gigs of swap. Google site recommends 16 gigs of ram/swap. I allocated 100 gigs to my VM.
What is the best place to find a device tree?
The best place to find a device tree would be github.com .Almost everyone who works on a rom or develops for android uses github.com
Is building difficult?
I've only been building for about a month and I will say that building is all over the spectrum of difficulty. If your building for a supported device then it probably really easy. I guess the player 4.2 is not supported so your task is probably going to be quite difficult. IMO, what you are trying to do should be done by someone with experience in building and you, in order to get experience, should build for a device that already has support so you can get the feel of how things are supposed to work. I realize that is not always possible but ideally...
Good luck!
So, I recently got an X131e Thinkpad. And the operating system is... functional, but lacking. I definitely want to run Android apps and all that good stuff, but there's no official support. So I figured I'd turn to open source. For Android phones and tablets, the community does a good job of providing updated OS's after the manufacturers have stopped making new firmware. So, what are my options?
I'd kind of like to stick with a ChromeOS-type system. I'm not sure what the compatibility is, though. Can I get a good system that will support Android apps? FydeOS maybe? Would that do it? I've been trying to find out the compatibility, but Google just leads me down a hundred different rabbit holes. I want to be sure any OS will be worth installing, and will work for what I want, before I take the big step of installing it. I'd hate to go to a lot of trouble only to end up with a crippled computer.
Failing an open-source type of ChromeOS, what do I do? Gallium? Crouton thing where I have two parallel OS's? I want to stick to a Chrome OS and have support for Android apps, just because I'm familiar with Android, and not a fan of endless command lines. But if Linux is the only alternative (aside from some type of Windows or MacOS), I guess I'll have to be open to that. Maybe the thing where I have two operating systems running at once (yes, yes, Linux isn't really an operating system, yadda yadda.) So what are my options?
And I've never done this with a Chromebook before. Never. What do I do? Gonna need the foolproof newb tutorial.
Thanks for any help.
Maybe thy this, I worked for me, just make sure that your computer supports UEFI.