Related
http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android
Pretty stoked for this.
Must. Get. Hands. On. This. !.
Thank you for the link, intesting to know. And it also makes my feet tingle with excitement.
right there with u sir
Here is a video of Ubuntu for Android in Action. Officially supported. No hacks or dual boot needed.
---------- Post added at 07:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:26 PM ----------
Updated post with video
Very excited to try this.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/21/ubuntus-full-desktop-os-coming-to-multi-core-android-devices/
engadget article
That would be so amazing !
Only problem I see is that Ubuntu for Android only seems to be available for vendors (Asus, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, ...) and mobile carriers (AT&T, Bell, ...)
Hope that the Cyanogenmod team can get their hands on this. CM9 + Ubuntu for Android would be so AWESOME !!!
Could this mean that we can get linux usb support instead of having to hack together drivers to support hardware?
foboi1122 said:
Could this mean that we can get linux usb support instead of having to hack together drivers to support hardware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would think so since USB is one of the requirements to run it.
wonder if anyone get a first hand on this. I would not mind to be beta tester.
The Prime is more than capable to handle it.
huytrang90 said:
wonder if anyone get a first hand on this. I would not mind to be beta tester.
The Prime is more than capable to handle it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep! Also like the Ubuntu people said, the more cores, the better. Now this will be something to take advantage of powerful multi-threading capabilities of prime. Quad core tegra3 would push this easily n very fast n smooth also.
This will only work if they can keep the heat down on the processor. That's gonna be the biggest road block that I can see. 4G + charging = hot, so 4G + charging + hdmi mirroring + mucho computing = sizzler. Not sure how hot LTE gets a phone.
This is still a very cool development.
I may be looking at this wrong though, b/c the provided info is mainly about using a phone as a desktop, but the prime could be the desktop. In which, yes, it would definitely have the power to run ubuntu but what is the point? There are already guides to running ubuntu on the prime. Is ubuntu w unity more polished than what is already available?
NastroGlide said:
This will only work if they can keep the heat down on the processor. That's gonna be the biggest road block that I can see. 4G + charging = hot, so 4G + charging + hdmi mirroring + mucho computing = sizzler. Not sure how hot LTE gets a phone.
This is still a very cool development.
I may be looking at this wrong though, b/c the provided info is mainly about using a phone as a desktop, but the prime could be the desktop. In which, yes, it would definitely have the power to run ubuntu but what is the point? There are already guides to running ubuntu on the prime. Is ubuntu w unity more polished than what is already available?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, plus you won't have to jump through hoops to get it to work. It'll be officially supported by Android n Ubuntu. No need to hack or dual boot or whatever. It'll launch like an app. Once in desktop mode, Ubuntu, then everything integrated. So you can even launch your android apps from within Ubuntu. Plus access to all the thousands of free full fledged Ubuntu PC apps. So this will be a more complete version than anything we've seen so far on prime. Plus it'll be alot more powerful. Linux/Ubuntu(Backtrack5) on prime doesn't have complete access to prime power, CPU/GPU, and resources. Everything with this new method will be seamlessly integrated into the android experience.
This might just be what android needed to get it over the hump. I can only see things getting better very fast from here on out. Apple has nothing to match or even come close to this experience we about to have.
My apologies but im not familiar with Ubuntu. What kind of advantages are we going to see. Will this be better than Android in terms of games, apps, productivity, etc? Better office? Better Browsing?
Also, whats with the whole docking situation? And anyone have more information on when this is gonna come out?
Thanks
xGary said:
My apologies but im not familiar with Ubuntu. What kind of advantages are we going to see. Will this be better than Android in terms of games, apps, productivity, etc? Better office? Better Browsing?
Also, whats with the whole docking situation? And anyone have more information on when this is gonna come out?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
more of a real desktop experience. Official PC apps, more in depth productivity and not dumbed down versions for android. Real Office. Docking station is just for phones. We should be able to run it on the tablet itself. No data of release.
For more detailed info just check out the link in the op that takes you to Ubuntu website where they discuss the Ubuntu/Android experience. This will be a big deal.
Well it sounds like it can be, but you're really going out on a limb here dude...might want to pull it in some until this comes to fruition. Just sayin.
demandarin said:
Yes, plus you won't have to jump through hoops to get it to work. It'll be officially supported by Android n Ubuntu. No need to hack or dual boot or whatever. It'll launch like an app. Once in desktop mode, Ubuntu, then everything integrated. So you can even launch your android apps from within Ubuntu. Plus access to all the thousands of free full fledged Ubuntu PC apps. So this will be a more complete version than anything we've seen so far on prime. Plus it'll be alot more powerful. Linux/Ubuntu(Backtrack5) on prime doesn't have complete access to prime power, CPU/GPU, and resources. Everything with this new method will be seamlessly integrated into the android experience.
This might just be what android needed to get it over the hump. I can only see things getting better very fast from here on out. Apple has nothing to match or even come close to this experience we about to have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will be the new convergenceof tech. All that power packing on phone and tablet. Now you can unlease it.
Imagine you have a tablet, then dock with kb to have a netbook, then when you are at office, plug in for the full desktop experience.
This is where tablet can transform the pc.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
This would be amazing if we could run it on the tablet itself, almost sounds too good to be true. Wouldnt care for it as much if it needed to be docked to a computer monitor though. Hope he just did it because the screen size of the phone would make it impractical to run a desktop OS.
i can settle for this until Asus will integrate it!
Seems I'm fated to always play the role of the wet rag..
First, this will go nowhere. It's a proof-of-concept. See the dock? That means it must be a vendor (carrier) implemented solution, as each phone's form factor is different, and there can be no universal dock. This page is a pitch for carriers, not users.
When you get the carriers into the mix, then the question is, why the heck would they want an open-source OS on their product? That would create all sorts of havoc, and would reduce their control on the product. No carrier in its right mind would allow something like this to access their network, let alone officially support it.
Second, the value of the phone is its mobility, go-anywhere access. If dock+big screen are needed just to use Ubuntu, then its utility is marginalized. Ubuntu needs to be accessible and useful on the phone itself, which segues into the last point...
Third, looking at this, I'm disappointed, because it means that the Ubuntu UI still hasn't been adapted to a touch-based, small-screen form-factor. Everybody loves to hate Windows, but at least Microsoft is innovating for once with its Metro UI. Canonical needs to step up and do the same. Whatever it comes up with, Ubuntu needs to be a user-implementable solution, not a vendor (carrier)-based solution, else it will never see the light of day.
I thought I'd share the news since I haven't seen it posted anywhere
http://xbmc.org/theuni/2012/07/13/xbmc-for-android/
and here's the video
http://youtu.be/y4o-k1DxF5w
Can someone compile the source so we can have an apk to test please?
XBMC For Android
July 13th, 2012
We have been keeping a little secret.. the kind that is so much fun to share when the time comes.
Today we announce XBMC for Android. Not a remote, not a thin client; the real deal. No root or jailbreak required. XBMC can be launched as an application on your set-top-box, tablet, phone, or wherever else Android may be found.
The feature-set on Android is the same that you have come to expect from XBMC, no different from its cousin on the desktop. Running your favorite media-center software on small, cheap, embedded hardware is about to become a hassle-free reality. And as Android-based set-top-boxes are becoming more and more ubiquitous, it couldn’t be a better time. In fact, primary development was done on a Pivos XIOS DS set-top-box. And that is no coincidence, you will notice that Pivos is now listed as an official sponsor (more on that later). XBMC is stable and works great there, as well as on various tablets and phones. Though with Android, as many of you probably know, that is only the beginning of the story.
Enjoy the stereotypical dev-shot low-quality demo video. More video, including phone/tablet usage in the next post.
So what’s the catch? None… in time. Currently, for most devices only software decode of audio and video is hooked up. We considered waiting until universal hardware decode was ready before making our announcement, but in the end decided that in the spirit of keeping things open and working with our ever-expanding community, it made sense to open up sooner rather than later. We are confident that an OpenMax-based player (similar to the one used for the Raspberry Pi) will spring up very quickly. That said, software playback of most media plays quite well already.
Though, there is one exception. As Pivos sponsored a large portion of the port, we were able to work with their vendors to achieve buttery-smooth hardware-accelerated playback on the XIOS DS. It remains to be seen if such hardware-specific features will make it into XBMC mainline or exist as patches for vendors to integrate.
While, as you can see in the video, the port is fully usable and lots of fun to play with, it’s not quite ready for prime-time. We will begin releasing apks for interested beta testers in the coming weeks. But for those who are up to the task, as you would expect from XBMC, the source code is available. We have decided not to push to Google Play until we are satisfied that users with all kinds of devices get the same great XBMC experience. We ask that our users stay on the lookout for evil-doers trying to cash in on XBMC’s popularity. If you see anyone masquerading as XBMC, please be sure to let us and Google know about it.
There is also the issue of having a proper UI for small-screen devices. Typically, XBMC skins have been designed for use on a TV, so use on a small phone can be clunky. But there is nothing keeping skinners from creating more functional touch-oriented skins, like the included “Touched” skin from Jezz_X. With the community’s help, we’re sure to have a more refined version available for inclusion by the time we release a stable version.
There are still many details left to iron out, mainly related to the wide variety of Android devices in the wild. We have not yet decided what minimum requirements will be set, due simply to the lack of extensive testing on exotic devices.
As for taking advantage of Android itself, we haven’t even scratched the surface. There are so many interesting features that we could take advantage of: launching apps, location awareness, speech recognition, on and on. Once the core port is finished up, you can bet we’ll be exploring many new avenues.
I could write for days about how the port started, how it was accomplished technically, what tricks were used, etc, but I will save that for a (somewhat more personal) follow-up post. There is much to say about the process that would likely bore most readers, but I will try to answer the questions that come up in the comments as much as possible in that post. The port was a big effort with many contributors, many thanks to Davilla, Memphiz, Phaeodaria, Montellese, Topfs2, and everyone else who was involved.
Full disclosure: I have been working for Pivos for the last few months, where I suggested the port-work and XBMC sponsorship. I hope our users join me in a thanking them for supporting XBMC and allowing me to work on the port (among other things) during the day. Be sure to check out the Pivos forums, where discussions and unofficial builds are bound to spring up quickly.
would like to see this soon as I use XBMC for years on my HTPC and also on my Raspberry Pi
So hope some1 brave enough and with appropriate skills can make this apk for testing
ThaDSman said:
I thought I'd share the news since I haven't seen it posted anywhere
http://xbmc.org/theuni/2012/07/13/xbmc-for-android/
and here's the video
http://youtu.be/y4o-k1DxF5w
Can someone compile the source so we can have an apk to test please?
XBMC For Android
July 13th, 2012
We have been keeping a little secret.. the kind that is so much fun to share when the time comes.
Today we announce XBMC for Android. Not a remote, not a thin client; the real deal. No root or jailbreak required. XBMC can be launched as an application on your set-top-box, tablet, phone, or wherever else Android may be found.
The feature-set on Android is the same that you have come to expect from XBMC, no different from its cousin on the desktop. Running your favorite media-center software on small, cheap, embedded hardware is about to become a hassle-free reality. And as Android-based set-top-boxes are becoming more and more ubiquitous, it couldn’t be a better time. In fact, primary development was done on a Pivos XIOS DS set-top-box. And that is no coincidence, you will notice that Pivos is now listed as an official sponsor (more on that later). XBMC is stable and works great there, as well as on various tablets and phones. Though with Android, as many of you probably know, that is only the beginning of the story.
Enjoy the stereotypical dev-shot low-quality demo video. More video, including phone/tablet usage in the next post.
So what’s the catch? None… in time. Currently, for most devices only software decode of audio and video is hooked up. We considered waiting until universal hardware decode was ready before making our announcement, but in the end decided that in the spirit of keeping things open and working with our ever-expanding community, it made sense to open up sooner rather than later. We are confident that an OpenMax-based player (similar to the one used for the Raspberry Pi) will spring up very quickly. That said, software playback of most media plays quite well already.
Though, there is one exception. As Pivos sponsored a large portion of the port, we were able to work with their vendors to achieve buttery-smooth hardware-accelerated playback on the XIOS DS. It remains to be seen if such hardware-specific features will make it into XBMC mainline or exist as patches for vendors to integrate.
While, as you can see in the video, the port is fully usable and lots of fun to play with, it’s not quite ready for prime-time. We will begin releasing apks for interested beta testers in the coming weeks. But for those who are up to the task, as you would expect from XBMC, the source code is available. We have decided not to push to Google Play until we are satisfied that users with all kinds of devices get the same great XBMC experience. We ask that our users stay on the lookout for evil-doers trying to cash in on XBMC’s popularity. If you see anyone masquerading as XBMC, please be sure to let us and Google know about it.
There is also the issue of having a proper UI for small-screen devices. Typically, XBMC skins have been designed for use on a TV, so use on a small phone can be clunky. But there is nothing keeping skinners from creating more functional touch-oriented skins, like the included “Touched” skin from Jezz_X. With the community’s help, we’re sure to have a more refined version available for inclusion by the time we release a stable version.
There are still many details left to iron out, mainly related to the wide variety of Android devices in the wild. We have not yet decided what minimum requirements will be set, due simply to the lack of extensive testing on exotic devices.
As for taking advantage of Android itself, we haven’t even scratched the surface. There are so many interesting features that we could take advantage of: launching apps, location awareness, speech recognition, on and on. Once the core port is finished up, you can bet we’ll be exploring many new avenues.
I could write for days about how the port started, how it was accomplished technically, what tricks were used, etc, but I will save that for a (somewhat more personal) follow-up post. There is much to say about the process that would likely bore most readers, but I will try to answer the questions that come up in the comments as much as possible in that post. The port was a big effort with many contributors, many thanks to Davilla, Memphiz, Phaeodaria, Montellese, Topfs2, and everyone else who was involved.
Full disclosure: I have been working for Pivos for the last few months, where I suggested the port-work and XBMC sponsorship. I hope our users join me in a thanking them for supporting XBMC and allowing me to work on the port (among other things) during the day. Be sure to check out the Pivos forums, where discussions and unofficial builds are bound to spring up quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just found out about this awesome finally a full fledged media player for android. Awesome cant wait to use it!!
ThaDSman said:
Can someone compile the source so we can have an apk to test please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I might give it a try. Here a shove in the right direction if anyone is interested: (forum won't let me post this link)
okay... since I just registered I can't leave a link here... great. Well. head over to github forward slash xbmc, then go to the docs folder and choose README.android
Apparently does not work on tegra devices yet.
Well I'm not sure
Check Paul O'Brien's tweets
http://t.co/omqFxuSr -- (@PaulOBrien)
blucmal said:
Apparently does not work on tegra devices yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA Premium App
XBMC APK
So for you guys who can't wait for official release here is the leaked XBMC APK for test. Direct download link >>> and direct web page Miniand Forums >>>
I have installed it on my Transformer but unfortunately I've tried to start it, it just closed
But I also installed it on my HOX and its running fine
Enjoy and post back you findings
Some screen shots from first run
nice touch optimized skin included so its much easier to operate than with the standart Confluence skin
So as you can see from settings info that 2 or more core devices are not supported fully in this unoficial release. for now all load goes on 1core
Looks nice for the first alpha release.
-X5- said:
Looks nice for the first alpha release.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you should go to Settings/Apperance and change your Skin to Touched much easier to operate.But nice video cheers
does any1 know why is it closing on my Transformer ? Here is my logcat file
cheers
rikardo1979 said:
does any1 know why is it closing on my Transformer ? Here is my logcat file
cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard that the tegra 2 devices will have to wait for the official release. Allthough i doubt it very much.
I have the same issue. It won't start.
Hopefully we can get XBMC working on the TF101 before the Official release.
Hi guys,
I've just found that we allready have one thread about XBMC apk allready opened and it have more replies so I would suggest to go and discuss over there
XBMC APK
Thanks
rikardo1979 said:
So as you can see from settings info that 2 or more core devices are not supported fully in this unoficial release. for now all load goes on 1core
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thread closed to prevent further posting, continue in mentioned thread.
Hellooo~!
I'm a tad new to the world of Android Development, but have plenty of programming history. I'm going to be starting a project to get Arch Linux running on my Photon 4G, and am contemplating making this public. My end goal is to get it working on the Photon, with a working on-screen keyboard, decent battery life, and lapdock/HDMI/peripheral support.
If you're a bit skeptical, know that there is a distribution of Arch Linux that supports ARMv5-v7 processors.
So before I begin my journey, I want to know:
Is anyone interested in this?
Sounds interesting. It appears you may be doing something different than the typical chroot method? As an Archlinux desktop user, a phone version would be cool.
Best of luck with your project. If you need testers, I would be willing to try to help.
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
jahildebra said:
Hellooo~!
I'm a tad new to the world of Android Development, but have plenty of programming history. I'm going to be starting a project to get Arch Linux running on my Photon 4G, and am contemplating making this public. My end goal is to get it working on the Photon, with a working on-screen keyboard, decent battery life, and lapdock/HDMI/peripheral support.
If you're a bit skeptical, know that there is a distribution of Arch Linux that supports ARMv5-v7 processors.
So before I begin my journey, I want to know:
Is anyone interested in this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mighty ambitious! Im definitely interested in this. Arch is one of my favorite distributions. I'm concerned about the usability of it though. What desktop environment would you aim to use? Are there any that I'm unaware of that that are geared toward mobile phones?
jbaumert said:
Sounds interesting. It appears you may be doing something different than the typical chroot method? As an Archlinux desktop user, a phone version would be cool.
Best of luck with your project. If you need testers, I would be willing to try to help.
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to see you're interested!
As far as getting Arch on the phone, I want to the phone to boot straight into the Arch environment without the Android system in the background. This may not be possible due to the phones bootloader, but if anything I'll have an extremely minimal version of Android acting as a crutch for Arch, helping it to boot up and perform other operations. The system should be 90% Arch Linux.
Please don't take this the wrong way but as long as it has nothing to do with the current chroot/VNC method I'm all for it. The chroot method lacks access to the phone's hardware so things like audio, USB host don't work.
If chroot/VNC is what you are trying to avoid then you may want to look at Gentop2 and kholk's original Gentop project. This should give you an idea as to how they achieved framebuffer and hardware access. If you want to provide support for Tegra2 Moto's you'll need to keep the install below 755MB for Atrix support unless a webtop2sd type method will be used.
Another thing you may want to consider is that the upcoming ICS update and AOSP lack the needed framebuffer/HW access. You may need to hack and kang a far bit to get ICS and AOSP support.
Acvice said:
Mighty ambitious! Im definitely interested in this. Arch is one of my favorite distributions. I'm concerned about the usability of it though. What desktop environment would you aim to use? Are there any that I'm unaware of that that are geared toward mobile phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahah, I was just thinking about that myself. As per my knowledge, there are ZERO DE's geared towards phones. We could come pretty close to the mobile-phone experience using a tablet/netbook-oriented DE, similar to Unity. Unity is capable of running on Arch, but I don't know if it's ARM compatible, or how smoothly it would run on a small processor like the Tegra 2. If anything I could just configure an Xmonad environment that runs entirely off of mouse/touch gestures.
jahildebra said:
Hahah, I was just thinking about that myself. As per my knowledge, there are ZERO DE's geared towards phones. We could come pretty close to the mobile-phone experience using a tablet/netbook-oriented DE, similar to Unity. Unity is capable of running on Arch, but I don't know if it's ARM compatible, or how smoothly it would run on a small processor like the Tegra 2. If anything I could just configure an Xmonad environment that runs entirely off of mouse/touch gestures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unity can run on ARM and is pretty but fairly resource heavy. Canonical has Ubuntu 12 running on an Atrix2 but have no intention of releasing source at this time. I would suggest staying with a lightweight "Unity like" enviro. This will free up resources for other things.
Might I suggest OpenBox? Extremely lightweight and easily configurable to suit the needs of a small screen. Desktops and windows are easily manageable from a single bottom bar, all application categories pop up in a menu when taping on any part of the 'desktop', all with gradients and transparency as needed so to still be slick looking. My mental imagine of the setup would be similar to that of Webos and easily achievable and user friendly. A particular distribution that i've been using for a while whom has really made the flexibility of Openbox shine is Crunchbang. The dude who runs the distro has developed many little GUI utilities that are made to configure Openboxs' script-based setup. So if you decided to use it, a lot of work is already done so to speak. Check it out and see if you get any inspiration!
Acvice said:
Might I suggest OpenBox? Extremely lightweight and easily configurable to suit the needs of a small screen. Desktops and windows are easily manageable from a single bottom bar, all application categories pop up in a menu when taping on any part of the 'desktop', all with gradients and transparency as needed so to still be slick looking. My mental imagine of the setup would be similar to that of Webos and easily achievable and user friendly. A particular distribution that i've been using for a while whom has really made the flexibility of Openbox shine is Crunchbang. The dude who runs the distro has developed many little GUI utilities that are made to configure Openboxs' script-based setup. So if you decided to use it, a lot of work is already done so to speak. Check it out and see if you get any inspiration!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion! I've never used OpenBox before, but I've heard its customizability is similar to Xmonad's.
I'll check it out!
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
What's your intended target user base? Will it Linux n00b, average linux user or linux power user?
Lokifish Marz said:
What's your intended target user base? Will it Linux n00b, average linux user or linux power user?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mainly average/power users. Arch Linux is definitely not for the weak hearted.
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
Lokifish Marz said:
What's your intended target user base? Will it Linux n00b, average linux user or linux power user?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, generally speaking, Arch is most certainly not for Linux noobs
::edit::
Haha, totally didnt see there was a page 2. Jahildebra already said it.
The reason I asked is that I agree that Arch "out of the box" is more "power user" than say Ubuntu Desktop but not much more so than most server distros. It would really depend on what extras are put in. Arch running Gnome with all the bells and whistles could be very n00b friendly if set up with them in mind. Then again my perspective may be a little off as I still remember Mandrake coming on floppies with only a command line installer.
Lokifish Marz said:
The reason I asked is that I agree that Arch "out of the box" is more "power user" than say Ubuntu Desktop but not much more so than most server distros. It would really depend on what extras are put in. Arch running Gnome with all the bells and whistles could be very n00b friendly if set up with them in mind. Then again my perspective may be a little off as I still remember Mandrake coming on floppies with only a command line installer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah I get what you're sayin. As long as you hook people up with multimedia codecs, a good package manager, and some necessary apps i think even noobs would be happy. And I havnt heard anyone mention Mandrake in many years since Mandriva. I popped into the linux scene around Ubuntus dapper drake release. Ever since Ive ran debian.
Well, it seems like there's interest aplenty.
I'll be starting the project as soon as possible.
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
More interest will arrive when some solid progress is made im sure. I do have a question though.. Im a little unsure of how you plan to get sms, mms, data and such working on this. Or maybe i missed the point entirely. Is it not meant to be a fully functional replacement of android?
Acvice said:
More interest will arrive when some solid progress is made im sure. I do have a question though.. Im a little unsure of how you plan to get sms, mms, data and such working on this. Or maybe i missed the point entirely. Is it not meant to be a fully functional replacement of android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That will be one of the biggest challenges, alongside getting Arch to boot initially and having the phone be usable even without a physical keyboard. I plan to at least have 3G working, but I don't quite know how that will play out. None of the devices Arch Linux ARM has a release for have a 3G radio in the first place, so we have no examples to follow, and we'll have to figure this out on our own.
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
What utility does Ubuntu and other desktop distro's use to accept usb tethering from any android phone? I'm guessing netcfg (it's all I know in that department) is the norm, if so there may be a way to point it at the radio internally and then play around with settings for data and possibly calls. Webtop may still be running acual Android but it still has configuration files just like everything else in linux. We should be able to figure this out over time.
Interested? Not as such... More like curious.
I'm new to Linux and have never really been able to gain a foothold. I'm still kicking myself for building a gaming PC and thus tying myself to Windows. With Steam announcing support for Linux... If Bethesda joins them and support for the Fallout games and Skyrim comes to Linux... bye bye Windows. But for now Ubuntu 12.04 doesn't like my computer. And Arch isn't Ubuntu, but I'm willing to learn.
Would this support the phone parts? I understand that Arch has ARM builds, and they support a Tegra 2 device very similar to the Photon/Electrify, but that device doesn't have a CDMA radio in it, and possibly other components. Does it have Bluetooth? In any case, you'd need drivers for the hardware specifically in the Photon/Electrify, and Motorola hasn't been very forthcoming with community support.
As for keyboards, anyone in America at least can get a physical keyboard for $16. Newegg has a mini keyboard like an iMac's for $15 shipped, and Amazon has a USB OTG cable for under a buck. The two won't work for me on my phone under a couple CM10 ROMs, though. I read for drives it's a matter of power, but a keyboard shouldn't draw any (surely the 100mA the phone puts out over the micro USB should be enough for the caps/num/scroll lock LEDs). But the software on the phone has to support a keyboard that way; I don't know that Android knows to expect input that way.
I usually do not start threads and hang in the shadows here on xda, but I love the site and all the awesome development.
With that said:
Please do not close this thread - This is not a question, or a discussion about a computer. The new Samsung Chromebook with the ARM chip is basically an Android tablet built like a laptop running chrome. It has a Samsung Exynos 5 Dual processor, so this falls under Android development and HACKING for devices that do not have a forum on XDA.
So I have this device and I have to say, it's very well built for the price. The only negative is that it runs Chrome. Now - I'm not here to bash on Chrome OS and I don't need a discussion on the pros and cons of it...
The point of starting this thread is to get Android ported over to this thing. I actually went out and purchased it at Best Buy because I knew that I could go to xda-developers a week later and someone will post instructions on how to install Android. Didn't happen. Not sure why.
So please chime in on ideas on how to get the ball rolling. Who do we have to buy a Chromebook for to make this happen? Do we start a bounty?
Let's keep the xda-developer community going strong! Thank you.
Like you, I did the same.
dalethefarmer said:
I usually do not start threads and hang in the shadows here on xda, but I love the site and all the awesome development.
With that said:
Please do not close this thread - This is not a question, or a discussion about a computer. The new Samsung Chromebook with the ARM chip is basically an Android tablet built like a laptop running chrome. It has a Samsung Exynos 5 Dual processor, so this falls under Android development and HACKING for devices that do not have a forum on XDA.
So I have this device and I have to say, it's very well built for the price. The only negative is that it runs Chrome. Now - I'm not here to bash on Chrome OS and I don't need a discussion on the pros and cons of it...
The point of starting this thread is to get Android ported over to this thing. I actually went out and purchased it at Best Buy because I knew that I could go to xda-developers a week later and someone will post instructions on how to install Android. Didn't happen. Not sure why.
So please chime in on ideas on how to get the ball rolling. Who do we have to buy a Chromebook for to make this happen? Do we start a bounty?
Let's keep the xda-developer community going strong! Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As this is arm based I thought for sure there would be an android build for it, a cheaper asus transformer.. its a perfect platform really for Android - I am surprised there isn't more discussion on getting JB ported to this chromebook. Is there any interest?
It has the same Exynos 5 SoC as the Nexus 10, so it seems like it should be possible to get something working for it if it can be hacked to boot another OS. Seems like a kernel based off the Nexus 10 source would be possible.
Google doesn't want Android to be a desktop style OS which is part of the reason they ended the Motorola lapdock after they took over Motorola. But if this thing had Android on it for $249 its a pretty good deal considering it has an Exynos 5.
Samsung Chromebook A15 Exynos
There has been much progress porting Ubuntu Raring Ringtail and Quantal Quetzal to this thing. I look forward to being able to choose between running stable Android and stable Ubuntu (or other distros, even).
With that said, I think that although this device is selling out I'm not sure that enough of these users will be aware of how close this device is to being a true, first Android laptop. From benchmarks I've seen on Phoronix.com the Exynos Dual in this Samsung Series 3 XE303 Chromebook is at least twice as fast as the Tegra 3 Quad in processing and graphics tasks.
Many people don't seem to see the value of Android as a fuller OS that would flourish within a laptop hardware suite. I argue that it is because they do not see the possibilities that software such as ParanoidAndroid would allow for with it's per-app DPI settings and ability to force a Phone, Phablet, or Tablet UI for every single app you run. These features are core to getting the most productivity out of a Samsung XE303 running Android.
I do enjoy the ChromeOS/ChromiumOS interface much because it is simple enough to have a low learning curve, yet it has enough options available to it to be somewhat powerful in the productivity department. It is indeed lacking in its offline capabilities, though. And Android would fix those and then some.
I guess I should also mention that the latest 4.2.1 Android ninja tweaked the native support for gamepads including Sixaxis controllers and Xbow controllers. Now you can game with them for apps that support the controllers. Neat.
Android can be kind of awkward with mouse/keyboard input only. But its the app compatibility of Android which is the biggest selling point. Since it contains a very capable ARM SoC this thing should run all of the latest games on Android no problem.
I'm fairly sure that there are a large number of ASUS Transformer + Dock users that would say they are quite happy with the touchpad/keyboard input on Android 4+.
As for the touchpad and and keyboard on the XE303, it is STELLAR under ChromeOS. Getting it to match under Android is simply a matter of hardware tweaking.
All the Android apps and games I've purchased deserve to be utilized on this device.
+1 for this idea - just got my chromebook today!
disynthetic said:
There has been much progress porting Ubuntu Raring Ringtail and Quantal Quetzal to this thing. I look forward to being able to choose between running stable Android and stable Ubuntu (or other distros, even).
With that said, I think that although this device is selling out I'm not sure that enough of these users will be aware of how close this device is to being a true, first Android laptop. From benchmarks I've seen on Phoronix.com the Exynos Dual in this Samsung Series 3 XE303 Chromebook is at least twice as fast as the Tegra 3 Quad in processing and graphics tasks.
Many people don't seem to see the value of Android as a fuller OS that would flourish within a laptop hardware suite. I argue that it is because they do not see the possibilities that software such as ParanoidAndroid would allow for with it's per-app DPI settings and ability to force a Phone, Phablet, or Tablet UI for every single app you run. These features are core to getting the most productivity out of a Samsung XE303 running Android.
I do enjoy the ChromeOS/ChromiumOS interface much because it is simple enough to have a low learning curve, yet it has enough options available to it to be somewhat powerful in the productivity department. It is indeed lacking in its offline capabilities, though. And Android would fix those and then some.
I guess I should also mention that the latest 4.2.1 Android ninja tweaked the native support for gamepads including Sixaxis controllers and Xbow controllers. Now you can game with them for apps that support the controllers. Neat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who exactly is making progress and how do I sign up. How do we get a dedicated forum fired up for this? Let's get this party started, my chrome book should be in in Monday!
---------- Post added at 09:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 AM ----------
OK I answered my own question. The Ubuntu port instructions can be found here... http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/04/chrubuntu-1204-now-with-double-bits.html
I'd still love to see a JB port.
dbdrop said:
Who exactly is making progress and how do I sign up. How do we get a dedicated forum fired up for this? Let's get this party started, my chrome book should be in in Monday!
---------- Post added at 09:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 AM ----------
OK I answered my own question. The Ubuntu port instructions can be found here... http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/04/chrubuntu-1204-now-with-double-bits.html
I'd still love to see a JB port.
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Click to collapse
Me too... I was reading about the Chromebook and thought... ARM CPU needs Android. The games on ChromeOS look pretty damn awful and Android would also bring many emulators to life.. Amiga, Atari, DosBox, Nintendo... And you could do what ChromeOS does in Android but with all the Android extras.
If there was Android for the XE303 Chromebook I'd buy one tomorrow.. maybe two!
Texting
I do a lot of texting, hundreds and hundreds of messages a day.
The only tolerable way used to be Google Voice, but they recently lowered their daily sms limit (that limit is only imposed if you txt through a computer). So my new solution is this: tether my phone to a tablet that has TabletTalk and a keyboard and go at it from there. The Chromebook seemed like a good alternative to that route.
Please don't ignore the community that needs this.
I think JB on the chromebook would be beast. From the score ubuntu is beast! lol. I cant wait till its outta beta. I have had my CB for almost a week, Already bored with the OS. Cant do anything hardly. Time to flash already. Please keep the thread going as we keep it updated more will see and hopefully a dev will step up and tame this beast from the inside out. Thank you for starting this thread. :good::good:
Started working on this already seems the BOOT partition needs to be rewritten to work with UEFI...Anybody wanna help..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1951114&page=2
I wouldnt bet on a 12" ARM chromebook, rumors say some people at google are getting tired of the chromebook not getting enough traction and are thinking about axing the project, perhaps even the OS itself.
Personally I wouldn't care since they might finally realize the potential of android on laptops and launch a "Nexus 12"
Anyway, any news with the port?
MGREX said:
I wouldnt bet on a 12" ARM chromebook, rumors say some people at google are getting tired of the chromebook not getting enough traction and are thinking about axing the project, perhaps even the OS itself.
Personally I wouldn't care since they might finally realize the potential of android on laptops and launch a "Nexus 12"
Anyway, any news with the port?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think they would put Android on a laptop seeing as it's not optimized for that type of hardware, but don't get me wrong it would be sweet, however the OS might be able to take advantage of of certain Input controls such as Keyboard, Mouse, Flash Drives etc... most 3rd party apps wont support it or be optimized for it. However a Hybrid ChromeOS/Android may work very well where you have a Standard Chrome OS base with the Ability to run certain android Apps that have been written to take advantage of such input devices. As far as the OS itself it's actually Open source so in theory it should be possible to allow the running of android apps without Google them selves implementing it. it just might be a little challenging.
Figured I'd bump and share.
Got my CB a week or so ago and so far it's been a pretty good device for when I instantly need a new tab open in a desktop format so I can use a full site and keyboard. Today I loaded up the alpha Ubuntu 12.04 build and so far I'm thrilled that I got this full fledged desktop OS on a 250 dollar solid state machine. I might get another 1 or 2 lol
Android could make it even better, especially PA since it has the different layout settings.
Linux + Chrome + Android - $250 = dope laptop
theduce102 said:
Figured I'd bump and share.
Got my CB a week or so ago and so far it's been a pretty good device for when I instantly need a new tab open in a desktop format so I can use a full site and keyboard. Today I loaded up the alpha Ubuntu 12.04 build and so far I'm thrilled that I got this full fledged desktop OS on a 250 dollar solid state machine. I might get another 1 or 2 lol
Android could make it even better, especially PA since it has the different layout settings.
Linux + Chrome + Android - $250 = dope laptop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm waiting for Ubuntu to come off of beta and then I'm there!!!! Lol. Its badass for 250.00
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
Anyone fancy attempting to get RISC OS running on this, as an alternative desktop OS?
trevj said:
Anyone fancy attempting to get RISC OS running on this, as an alternative desktop OS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would be nice....However got my hands full trying to get the N10 system image booting the CB..does look very interesting I might add.
rawtek said:
Would be nice....However got my hands full trying to get the N10 system image booting the CB..does look very interesting I might add.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Less posting, more developing!!! Seriously though, waiting and watching patiently... Good luck!
rawtek said:
hands full trying to get the N10 system image booting the CB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I expect you'll get there sooner or later - keep at it!
..does look very interesting I might add.
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Click to collapse
It should fly on this thing, even only using a single core.
Finally Ubuntu for the tablets is here. That's Right!!! This Thursday for the nexus7 and 10. Here goes the official video http://youtu.be/h384z7Ph0gU
hit the thanks... been a while
Almost here ,.....
Sent from my HTC Droid Dna Venom Rom using Tapatalk 2
horatiob said:
Finally Ubuntu for the tablets is here. That's Right!!! This Thursday for the nexus7 and 10. Here goes the official video http://youtu.be/h384z7Ph0gU
hit the thanks... been a while
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
I think I'm going to wait a little bit, conceptually it seems great but I would initially like to "dual-boot" if that is in any way possible - does it actually install a grub like pre-loader where I could choose to boot to my SentinalROM instead? How about Google Play store integration, any news on that? The biggest hurdle for myself would be losing access to all my Play Store games/books.
Astriaal said:
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
I think I'm going to wait a little bit, conceptually it seems great but I would initially like to "dual-boot" if that is in any way possible - does it actually install a grub like pre-loader where I could choose to boot to my SentinalROM instead? How about Google Play store integration, any news on that? The biggest hurdle for myself would be losing access to all my Play Store games/books.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh absolutely. I plan on downloading it as soon as it goes live.
Sent from my GT-N7100
Astriaal said:
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep
Astriaal said:
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to give it a try on my Nexus 7.. That's my entertainment/screw around with my own builds tablet.. I'm really not privvy to testing "development previews" of an alternate OS on a $500 tablet.. I'll at minimum wait a bit to feel it out on the Nexus 7 first and hear back from those who did try it on the Nexus 10.
Can this be dual booted?
I already backed up my tablet's data on pc. Ready to install it on both nexus 7 and 10!
tawfiqmp said:
Can this be dual booted?
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Click to collapse
I haven't read detail on it yet, but I did see a note indicating that it can be set up with dual boot -- needs a custom recovery, but it appeared pretty straightforward when I glanced at the description. Dual boot would certainly make me more receptive to giving it a try.
I'm not much of a developer but I'm all over this. Been waiting for over a year for this.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Dual boot is mandatory for me to do this
SayWhat10 said:
Dual boot is mandatory for me to do this
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Click to collapse
agreed. dual boot or no go!
if there is ubuntu for android where you have access to your android apps. Why cant we do that with our nexus 10?
I dont care for dualbooting if I can have access to android apps from within ubuntu.
horatiob said:
if there is ubuntu for android where you have access to your android apps. Why cant we do that with our nexus 10?
I dont care for dualbooting if I can have access to android apps from within ubuntu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know you do not have access to your android applications you simply have ubuntu.
Sent from a SGS3 GT-i9305
Loving this. You know they're turning this loose for the imaginative dev/hacker community to get great ideas for a full release on their own devices. It will benefit all in the long run. Google better embrace this as the future, I hope.
Sent from my LT28at using XDA Premium HD app
fredphoesh said:
As far as I know you do not have access to your android applications you simply have ubuntu.
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Click to collapse
well that sounds like............it sucks. smh
i mean all these people happy to that ubuntu is about here, that they would give up all their android apps? really????????????????
Recon Freak said:
Loving this. You know they're turning this loose for the imaginative dev/hacker community to get great ideas for a full release on their own devices. It will benefit all in the long run. Google better embrace this as the future, I hope.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's great seeing this kind of development, but I'm not yet clear that it's something that would help Google or necessarily benefit the majority of the user community...at least not in the near term. Google's been working hard at gaining market acceptance for Android, and a significant component of this will likely be, increasingly, the availability of Android as an internally consistent ecosystem that spans phone and tablets. Ubuntu is pushing the same idea, i.e., a single ecosystem that encompasses phones, tablets and PC's -- and that's great. But unless there's interoperability between OS's, it may be a while before the consumer market is ready to embrace yet another mobile OS in a big way, as appealing as Ubuntu may be.
My Android phone (Galaxy Nexus) and tablets (N10 and N7) work so well together these days that I really wouldn't want to replace any of them with a device running an OS and aps that didn't "connect" with my other devices as well and seamlessly as they all work together now. I'm also not about to replace all 3 devices right away, and start fresh finding apps that mimic the functionality of the 100+ Android apps that I have installed.
Android and Ubuntu are both based on Linux at the lowest levels, so they can take advantage of common hardware drivers. But at the app level, they're based on different languages and runtime systems - so far. At the moment, Android apps can't run on Ubuntu in any kind of native mode and vice versa. While Google is working to gain broad acceptance of Android, what incentive would they have to throw another OS in the mix at this stage of the game?
jonstrong said:
Android and Ubuntu are both based on Linux at the lowest levels, so they can take advantage of common hardware drivers. But at the app level, they're based on different languages and runtime systems - so far. At the moment, Android apps can't run on Ubuntu in any kind of native mode and vice versa. While Google is working to gain broad acceptance of Android, what incentive would they have to throw another OS in the mix at this stage of the game?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I meant to quote and managed to thank you - While they are based on different levels I do recall hearing that there would be a dalvik vm built into ubuntu to allow for android applications to run inside the system as well - as long as you have the apk and such. Similar to BlueStacks for W8 and Windows desktop.
omac_ranger said:
Well I meant to quote and managed to thank you - While they are based on different levels I do recall hearing that there would be a dalvik vm built into ubuntu to allow for android applications to run inside the system as well - as long as you have the apk and such. Similar to BlueStacks for W8 and Windows desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the thanks, however inadvertent
As far as I've read, Canonical doesn't plan on creating a Dalvik JVM for Ubuntu any time soon. The statement from them suggested that they recognize that native compiled apps (the dev ecosystem on Ubuntu is primarily HTML5, QML, C++) will run faster and more efficiently than code running within a JVM -- this was part of the comment when asked if they were planning to incorporate a Dalvik emulator in Ubuntu. There's nothing to prevent someone from developing one, but making this work properly will also require cooperation between the Dalvik implementation and the security framework in Ubuntu -- certainly possible, but I'm guessing it could be a year before anything comprehensive along those lines is likely to make it to market.
There's also another question nagging at me: how will Google evolve Android over the next couple of years? With an increasing number of apps rolling out for Android, it's conceivable that multiple windows (such as Samsung already offers) may become a regular feature, apps will become increasingly powerful -- and the distinction, at least for many people and many applications -- between PC and Android device -- will become vanishingly small for many purposes. If that happens, my guess is that this would further reduce any incentive for Google to somehow tie Ubuntu in with Android.
Of course I could be 100% wrong, and this just be the kind of thinking that happens after a 12 hour day without enough coffee... I personally love the evolution of hardware and software, and look forward to seeing how this all pans out. Fun to speculate in the meantime.
jonstrong said:
Thanks for the thanks, however inadvertent
As far as I've read, Canonical doesn't plan on creating a Dalvik JVM for Ubuntu any time soon. The statement from them suggested that they recognize that native compiled apps (the dev ecosystem on Ubuntu is primarily HTML5, QML, C++) will run faster and more efficiently than code running within a JVM -- this was part of the comment when asked if they were planning to incorporate a Dalvik emulator in Ubuntu. There's nothing to prevent someone from developing one, but making this work properly will also require cooperation between the Dalvik implementation and the security framework in Ubuntu -- certainly possible, but I'm guessing it could be a year before anything comprehensive along those lines is likely to make it to market.
There's also another question nagging at me: how will Google evolve Android over the next couple of years? With an increasing number of apps rolling out for Android, it's conceivable that multiple windows (such as Samsung already offers) may become a regular feature, apps will become increasingly powerful -- and the distinction, at least for many people and many applications -- between PC and Android device -- will become vanishingly small for many purposes. If that happens, my guess is that this would further reduce any incentive for Google to somehow tie Ubuntu in with Android.
Of course I could be 100% wrong, and this just be the kind of thinking that happens after a 12 hour day without enough coffee... I personally love the evolution of hardware and software, and look forward to seeing how this all pans out. Fun to speculate in the meantime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why does Ubuntu have to do anything with Google?
The developer preview is being made for Nexus devices but that's only because they are readily available and open to hacking.
I don't think Canonical realistically thinks Ubuntu will be the lead platform for Phones and Tablets but that's okay. They're currently trying to fill a niche with their tablet OS which is the enterprise market. This is one place where Android hasn't made a ton of inroads and it happens to be where Canonical makes their money(albeit still not profitable).