Hacking MIC and GPS devices on Android - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I would like to hack in to two andorid devices, mic and the GPS device. With the mic I want to get the back ground noise. Measure the intensity of sound for ex - lets say frequency or some dB value (which ever is supported). With GPS obviously the location cordinates.
On the android platform it will be easy to do this as an application. However I want to pass this data to the kernel..how to achieve that? a user space daemon polling the above sensors constantly(then agian how to write to the kernel space..), or can I get these values in the kernel space itself? (ex- as a bite stream from the device driver)
Appreciate any ideas about the matter..

I think the os can do realtime calculations. But kernal????, as of my knowledge kernal is a bridge that connects the hardware with the software( os here) and dnt think that kernal itself can do calculations, but kernal can adjust the o/p , i/p parameters to the os( for eg. Android kernal parameters can be adjusted by init.d or local.prop scripts. ) . But they are executed in os startup, and i think they are constant through out the operating time or untill next boot. So i think either of these scripts can be used to adjust some thing, but not in real time but in each boot.
So the idea is read the values via some app, use the app to generate the script with desired value, inject it to the system folder, and it will be executed on next startup.
Still i dont get the point, why do u want the kernal itself to do the things.
HD2 HYPERDROID EXTREME EDITION V6.0.1 @ FIKERT KERNAL.

I'm not sure why you're so big on doing this in kernel.
GPS data is so slow that you could easily handle it on a TRS-80.
Audio data is not a heap of work either.
Ok, I would write any heavy computations in a native lib (in user space).
I'm not sure if Android phones (versus other Android devices) use ALSA,
but I've written my own code for interfacing with ALSA directly and bypassing Android.

Related

[READ BEFORE ASKING]CoMMON ANDROID TERMS, VERSIONS AND CAF*[FOR EVERYONE]

(*CAF - Custom Aftermarket Firmware.)
This thread is courtesy of Diablo67 in the Android General forum..obviously not many go there and read and then ask questions to which answers already exist..so please..new and old users..go through this ASAP
Apps2SD:A method of storing applications and cache on the device's microSD card.
ADB:Android Debug Bridge (adb) is a versatile command line tool that lets you communicate with an emulator instance or connected Android-powered device. It is a client-server program that includes three components:
•A client, which runs on your development machine. You can invoke a client from a shell by issuing an adb command. Other Android tools such as the ADT plugin and DDMS also create adb clients.
•A server, which runs as a background process on your development machine. The server manages communication between the client and the adb daemon running on an emulator or device.
•A daemon, which runs as a background process on each emulator or device instance.
Android:A Linux-based operating system for mobile devices such as HTC EVO.Versions are alphabetically codenamed after snacks: Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Donut.
AMOLED:Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode. Basically, a very colorful, bright, display found in some smartphones.
APK:Android application package file. Each Android application is compiled and packaged in a single file that includes all of the application's code (.dex files), resources, assets, and manifest file. The application package file can have any name but must use the .apk extension. For example: myExampleAppname.apk. For convenience, an application package file is often referred to as an ".apk".
Alpha:The alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin software testing (alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, used as the number 1). In this phase, developers generally test the software using white box techniques. Additional validation is then performed using black box or gray box techniques, by another testing team. Moving to black box testing inside the organization is known as alpha release.[1]
Alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. The exception to this is when the alpha is available publicly (such as a pre-order bonus), in which developers normally push for stability so that their testers can test properly. External availability of alpha software is uncommon in proprietary software. However, open source software, in particular, often have publicly available alpha versions, often distributed as the raw source code of the software.
The alpha phase usually ends with a feature freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be a feature complete.
Boot Animation:Boot animation is a term for a graphical representation of the boot process of the operating system.
Boot animation can be a simple visualisation of the scrolling boot messages in the console, but it can also present graphics or some combinations of both.
Unlike splash screens, boot screen or boot animation is not necessarily designed for marketing purposes, but can be to enhance the experience of the user as eye candy, or provide the user with messages (with an added advantage of color coding facility) to diagnose the state of the system.
Bootloader:This small program's only job is to load other data and programs which are then executed from RAM.Often, multiple-stage boot loaders are used, during which several programs of increasing complexity load one after the other in a process of chain loading.
Bootloop:When your system recycles over and over without entering the main OS.
Beta: is the software development phase following alpha. It generally begins when the software is feature complete. Software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing. The process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release and this is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it.
The users of a beta version are called beta testers. They are usually customers or prospective customers of the organization that develops the software, willing to test the software without charge, often receiving the final software free of charge or for a reduced price.
Beta version software is often useful for demonstrations and previews within an organization and to prospective customers. Some developers refer to this stage as a preview, prototype, technical preview (TP), or early access.
Some software is kept in perpetual beta—where new features and functionality is continually added to the software without establishing a firm "final" release.
CPU:It stands for Central Processing Unit and handles all the complex mathematical formulas necessary to do everyday things like surfing the Internet.
Custom:Independent developers who like to customize their devices beyond the standard options provided often tend to release the fruits of their labor for the rest to enjoy, in form of custom ROMs.
Cache:A component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere. If requested data is contained in the cache (cache hit), this request can be served by simply reading the cache, which is comparatively faster. Otherwise (cache miss), the data has to be recomputed or fetched from its original storage location, which is comparatively slower. Hence, the greater the number of requests that can be served from the cache, the faster the overall system performance becomes.
CDMA:Mobile phone standards called cdmaOne, CDMA2000 (the 3G evolution of cdmaOne) and WCDMA (the 3G standard used by GSM carriers), which are often referred to as simply CDMA, and use CDMA as an underlying channel access method.
CIQ:Carrier IQ. A piece of preinstalled software that runs with elevated access in the background of portable devices by default and records everything. Potentially can be exploited to steal information.
Dual Core:A dual core processor is a central processing unit (CPU) that has two separate cores on the same die, each with its own cache. It essentially is two microprocessors in one. This type of CPU is widely available from many manufacturers. Other types of multi-core processors also have been developed, including quad-core processors with four cores each, hexa-core processors with six, octa-core processors with eight and many-core processors with an even larger number of cores.
Dalvik:The Android platform's virtual machine. The Dalvik VM is an interpreter-only virtual machine that executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format, a format that is optimized for efficient storage and memory-mappable execution.
Dalvik Cache:Writable cache that contains the optimized bytecode of all apk files (apps) on your Android device. Having the information in it's own cache makes applications load faster and perform better.
EXT2:The ext2 or second extended filesystem is a file system for the Linux kernel. It was initially designed by Rémy Card as a replacement for the extended file system (ext).
ext2 was the default filesystem in several Linux distributions, including Debian and Red Hat Linux, until supplanted more recently by ext3, which is almost completely compatible with ext2 and is a journaling file system. ext2 is still the filesystem of choice for flash-based storage media (such as SD cards, and USB flash drives) since its lack of a journal minimizes the number of writes and flash devices have only a limited number of write cycles. Recent kernels, however, support a journal-less mode of ext4, which would offer the same benefit along with a number of ext4-specific benefits.
EXT3:Third extended filesystem, is a journaled file system that is commonly used by the Linux kernel. It is the default file system for many popular Linux distributions, including Debian. Stephen Tweedie first revealed that he was working on extending ext2 in Journaling the Linux ext2fs Filesystem in a 1998 paper and later in a February 1999 kernel mailing list posting, and the filesystem was merged with the mainline Linux kernel in November 2001 from 2.4.15 onward.Its main advantage over ext2 is journaling, which improves reliability and eliminates the need to check the file system after an unclean shutdown. Its successor is ext4.
EXT4:It was born as a series of backward compatible extensions to ext3, many of them originally developed by Cluster File Systems for the Lustre file system between 2003 and 2006, meant to extend storage limits and add other performance improvements.However, other Linux kernel developers opposed accepting extensions to ext3 for stability reasons,and proposed to fork the source code of ext3, rename it as ext4, and do all the development there, without affecting the current ext3 users. This proposal was accepted, and on 28 June 2006, Theodore Ts'o, the ext3 maintainer, announced the new plan of development for ext4.
FC/FC's:Short for "force close," meaning an app that has crashed.
Fastboot:A diagnostic protocol used primarily to modify the flash filesystem in Android smartphones from another computer over a USB connection. It is part of the Android Debug Bridge library.
Utilizing the Fastboot protocol requires that the device be started in a boot loader or Second Program Loader mode in which only the most basic hardware initialization is performed. After enabling the protocol on the device itself it will accept any command sent to it over USB via a command line. Some of most commonly used fastboot commands include:
•flash - Overwrites a partition in flash with a binary image stored on the host computer.
•erase - Erases a partition in flash.
•reboot - Reboots the device into the either the main operating system or the system recovery partition.
•devices - Displays a list of all devices (with Serial #) connected to the host computer.
Flashing:The ROM memory used in smartphones and tablets etc. is often same as flash memory found in SD cards and USB flash drives, simply optimized for better speed and performance while running the operating system.
Hotspot:A spot that offers Internet access over a wireless local area network through the use of a router connected to a link to an Internet service provider. Hotspots typically use Wi-Fi technology.You can connect wifi campatible devices to it.
HDMI:High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a compact audio/video interface for transmitting encrypted uncompressed digital data.It is a digital alternative to consumer analog standards, such as radio frequency (RF) coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video, D-Terminal, or VGA (also called D-sub or DE-15F). HDMI connects digital audio/video sources (such as set-top boxes, DVD players, HD DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players, AVCHD camcorders, personal computers (PCs), video game consoles (such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), AV receivers, tablet computers, and mobile phones) to compatible digital audio devices, computer monitors, video projectors, and digital televisions.
Kang:Someone writes a code,someone else modifies the code to make their own release,its concidered a kang release.
Kernel:A kernel is a layer of code that allows the OS and applications to interface with your phone's hardware. The degree in which you can access your phone's hardware features depends on the quality of code in the kernel. The homebrew (rooting) community for HTC has made several kernel code improvements that give us additional features from our hardware that the stock kernel does not. When you flash a custom ROM, you automatically get a kernel. But you can also flash a standalone kernel ROM on top of the existing one, effectively overwriting it. These days, the difference in custom kernels is less about new features and more about alternate configurations. Choosing a custom kernel is basically choosing one that works best with your ROM.
Launcher:Collectively, the part of the Android user interface on home screens that lets you launch apps, make phone calls, etc. Is built in to Android, or can be purchased in the Android Market.
LCD Densityixel density is a measurement of the resolution of devices in various contexts; typically computer displays, image scanners, and digital camera image sensors.
First of all you need to understand that the Android User Interface uses something called a "display independent pixel" or a "dip" (yes, it's confusing because the density settings are in "dots per inch" or "dpi" which are considered the same as "ppi" or "pixels per inch" as well).
The default LCD Density setting on Android is 160 dpi. As far as the operating system is concerned 1 dip @ 160 dpi = 1 screen pixel. It doesn't mean that's actually true, but you've gotta start somewhere. In my opinion it would have been a lot nicer if they'd chosen 100 dpi because then it would be an easy percentage thing, but they didn't so we're stuck with this formula.
Mod:The act of modifying a piece of hardware or software or anything else for that matter, to perform a function not originally conceived or intended by the designer.
Nandroid:To backup the current running rom.
Nightly:A build that is performed at the end of each day of development. If you use a continuous integration server, it will generally be configured to build the code and run the unit tests on every check in. At the end of each day you may want to run more extensive tests, regression test and integration tests for example, which take too long to run on each check in and these would be triggered after the nightly build. If you have a full continuously delivery pipeline the nightly build may also be used to deploy the built code to environments for user testing.
Open GL:An open source 3D graphics library used in many devices, including Android devices.
Open & Closed Beta: Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a select group of individuals for a user test and are invitation only, while open betas are from a larger group to the general public and anyone interested. The testers report any bugs that they find, and sometimes suggest additional features they think should be available in the final version.
Overclock:To increase the speed of your CPU.
Partition:The phone's internal memory (not the SD card) is solid-state (flash) memory, AKA NAND. It can be partitioned much like a normal hard drive can be partitioned. The bootloader exists in its own partition. Recovery is another partition; radio, system, cache, etc are all partitions.
Here are the standard partitions on an Android phone:
/misc - not sure what this is for.
/boot - bootloader, kernel
/recovery - holds the recovery program (either clockworkmod or RA recovery for a rooted Evo)
/system - operating system goes here: Android, Sense, boot animation, Sprint crapware, busybox, etc
/cache - cached data from OS usage
/data - user applications, data, settings, etc.
Recovery Mode:A small separate operating mode you can boot your device into, used for device administration. Two popular custom recovery modes are Amon Ra and Clockwork.
Rom/Firmware:Read-Only Memory and technically speaking, it refers to the internal storage of a device, which is supposed to contain the operating system instructions that needn’t be modified at all during the device’s normal operation.
Recovery Mode:A small separate operating mode you can boot your device into, used for device administration. Two popular custom recovery modes are Amon Ra and Clockwork.
Rom/Firmware:Read-Only Memory and technically speaking, it refers to the internal storage of a device, which is supposed to contain the operating system instructions that needn’t be modified at all during the device’s normal operation.
Ram: (Random Access Memory) A group of memory chips, typically of the dynamic RAM (DRAM) type, which function as the computer's primary workspace. When personal computers first came on the market in the late 1970s, 64KB (64 kilobytes) of RAM was the upper limit. Today, 64MB (64 megabytes) of SDRAM is entry level for a desktop computer, a thousand times as much (see SDRAM).
The "random" in RAM means that the contents of each byte of storage in the chip can be directly accessed without regard to the bytes before or after it. This is also true of other types of memory chips, including ROMs and PROMs. However, unlike ROMs and PROMs, RAM chips require power to maintain their content, which is why you must save your data onto disk before you turn the computer off. To learn about the types of RAM chips and how to upgrade your memory, see memory module. To learn how memory is used to process data, see computer or memory. See also dynamic RAM and static RAM.
Recovery:RecoverySystem contains methods for interacting with the Android recovery system (the separate partition that can be used to install system updates,wipe user data,etc).
Root:The first level of a folder.
Rooting:A process allowing users of mobile phones, tablet PCs, and other devices running the Android operating system to attain privileged control (known as "root access") within Android's subsystem. Rooting is often performed with the goal of overcoming limitations that carriers and hardware manufacturers put on some devices, resulting in the ability to alter or replace system applications and settings, run specialized apps that require administrator-level permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise inaccessible to a normal Android user. Rooting is analogous to jailbreaking devices running the Apple iOS operating system or the Sony PlayStation 3. On Android, rooting can also facilitate the complete removal and replacement of the device's operating system.
SBC: (the ability to charge your battery beyond the default safe limit). The concept is similar to overclocking a processor: you're overriding the safety limits established to achieve additional performance. The benefit here is that you may gain more use of your battery per charge. The drawback is that you can damage the battery and significantly reduce its longevity. Some kernels claim they are using a safe technique to prevent battery damage. Just be aware of the potential risks.
Sideloading:It means installing applications without using the official Android Market.
Splash Screen:A splash screen is an image that appears while android is loading.Splash screens cover the entire screen or simply a rectangle near the center of the screen. The splash screens of operating systems and some applications that expect to be run full-screen usually cover the entire screen.
Superuser/SU:On many computer operating systems, the superuser is a special user account used for system administration. Depending on the operating system, the actual name of this account might be: root, administrator or supervisor.
Normal work on such a system is done using ordinary user accounts, and because these do not have the ability to make system-wide changes any viruses and other malware - or simple user errors - do not have the ability to adversly affect a whole system. In organizations, administrative privileges are often reserved for authorized experienced individuals.
Script:The Scripting Layer for Android (abridged as SL4A, and previously named Android Scripting Environment or ASE) is a library that allows the creation and running of scripts written in various scripting languages directly on Android devices. SL4A is designed for developers and is still alpha quality software.
These scripts have access to many of the APIs available to normal Java Android applications, but with a simplified interface. Scripts can be run interactively in a terminal, in the background, or via Locale.
SDK: (SDK or "devkit") is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.
Stock:This is the operating system in its default form, without any modifications made to it except for any device-specific support required to run it on the particular device.
Tethering:Means sharing the Internet connection of an Internet-capable mobile phone with other devices. This sharing can be offered over a wireless LAN (Wi-Fi), Bluetooth, or by physical connection using a cable. In the case of tethering over wireless LAN, the feature may be branded as a mobile hotspot.The Internet-connected mobile phone acts as a portable router when providing tethering services to others.
Underclock:To reduce the speed of your CPU.
Undervolt:Undervolting means taking some of the voltage from the CPU which in return gives a longer battery life and lower temperature during intensive use of the CPU.
USB:Stands for Universal Serial Bus. Is a method of connecting devices to a computer. Most smartphones now use microUSB cables to charge and sync.
Updater Script:When Android devices install updates via 'update.zip' files using recovery mode they have to perform a wide range of functions on files and permissions. Instead of using a minimal shell such as {b,d,c}sh the Android designers decided to create a small functional language that can be extended by device manufacturers if necessary. Since the Android "Donut" release (v1.6) the scripting language is called Edify and is defined primarily in the bootable/recovery/{edify,edifyscripting,updater} directories of the Android source-code tree.
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Nice work
BELOW IS THE DETAILED LIST OF ALL ANDROID VERSIONS AND DETAILS.
1.0:Android 1.0, the first commercial version of the software, was released on 23 September 2008.The first Android device, the HTC Dream (G1), incorporated the following Android 1.0 features:
•Android Market application download and updates through the Market app
•Web browser to show, zoom and pan full HTML and XHTML web pages – multiple pages show as windows ("cards")
•Camera support – however this version lacked the option to change the camera's resolution, white balance, quality, etc.
•Folders allowing the grouping of a number of app icons into a single folder icon on the Home screen.
•Access to web email servers, supporting POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP.
•Gmail synchronization with the Gmail app
•Google Contacts synchronization with the People app
•Google Calendar synchronization with the Calendar app
•Google Maps with Latitude and Street View to view maps and satellite imagery, as well as find local business and obtain driving directions using GPS
•Google Sync, allowing management of over-the-air synchronization of Gmail, People, and Calendar
•Google Search, allowing users to search the Internet and phone apps, contacts, calendar, etc
•Google Talk instant messaging
•Instant messaging, text messaging, and MMS
•Media Player, enabling management, importing, and playback of media files – however, this version lacked video and stereo Bluetooth support
•Notifications appear in the Status bar, with options to set ringtone, LED or vibration alerts
•Voice Dialer allows dialing and placing of phone calls without typing a name or number
•Wallpaper allows the user to set the background image or photo behind the Home screen icons and widgets
•YouTube video player
•Other apps include: Alarm Clock, Calculator, Dialer (Phone), Home screen (launcher), Pictures (Gallery), and Settings.
•Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support
1.1:On 9 February 2009, the Android 1.1 update was released, initially for the T-Mobile G1 only. The update resolved bugs, changed the API and added a number of other features:
•Details and reviews available when a user searches for businesses on Maps
•Longer in-call screen timeout default when using the speakerphone, plus ability to show/hide dialpad
•Ability to save attachments in messages
•Support added for marquee in system layouts
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FrOM HERE ON, GOOGLE DECIDED TO NAME THEIR VERSIONS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, STARTING WITH C, AS 2 VERSIONS HAD ALREADY BEEN RELEASED.
Cupcake:On 30 April 2009, the Android 1.5 update, dubbed Cupcake, was released, based on Linux kernel 2.6.27.The update included several new features and UI amendments:
•Support for third-party virtual keyboards with text prediction and user dictionary for custom words
•Support for Widgets - miniature application views that can be embedded in other applications (such as the Home screen) and receive periodic updates
•Video recording and playback in MPEG-4 and 3GP formats
•Auto-pairing and stereo support for Bluetooth added (A2DP and AVRCP profiles)
•Copy and paste features added to web browser
•User pictures shown for Favorites in Contacts
•Specific date/time stamp shown for events in call log, and one-touch access to a contact card from call log event
•Animated screen transitions
•Ability to upload videos to YouTube
•Ability to upload photos to Picasa
Donut:On 15 September 2009, the Android 1.6 SDK – dubbed Donut – was released, based on Linux kernel 2.6.29.Included in the update were numerous new features:
•Voice and text entry search enhanced to include bookmark history, contacts, and the web
•Ability for developers to include their content in search results
•Multi-lingual speech synthesis engine to allow any Android application to "speak" a string of text
•Easier searching and ability to view app screenshots in Android Market
•Gallery, camera and camcorder more fully integrated, with faster camera access
•Ability for users to select multiple photos for deletion
•Updated technology support for CDMA/EVDO, 802.1x, VPNs, and a text-to-speech engine
•Support for WVGA screen resolutions
•Speed improvements in searching and camera applications
•Expanded Gesture framework and new GestureBuilder development tool
Eclair:On 26 October 2009, the Android 2.0 SDK – codenamed Eclair – was released, based on Linux kernel 2.6.29.Changes included:
•Expanded Account sync, allowing users to add multiple accounts to a device for email- and contact-synchronization
•Exchange email support, with combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page
•Bluetooth 2.1 support
•Ability to tap a Contacts photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person
•Ability to search all saved SMS and MMS messages, with delete oldest messages in a conversation automatically deleted when a defined limit is reached
•Numerous new camera features, including flash support, digital zoom, scene mode, white balance, color effect and macro focus
•Improved typing speed on virtual keyboard, with smarter dictionary that learns from word usage and includes contact names as suggestions
•Refreshed browser UI with bookmark thumbnails, double-tap zoom and support for HTML5
•Calendar agenda view enhanced, showing attending status for each invitee, and ability to invite new guests to events
•Optimized hardware speed and revamped UI
•Support for more screen sizes and resolutions, with better contrast ratio
•Improved Google Maps 3.1.2
•MotionEvent class enhanced to track multi-touch events
•Addition of live wallpapers, allowing the animation of home-screen background images to show movement
2.0.1:The Android 2.0.1 SDK was released on 3 December 2009.It was a minor platform release deployable to Android-powered handsets, including minor API changes, bug fixes and framework behavioral changes
2.1:The 2.1 SDK was released on 12 January 2010.It was a minor platform release deployable to Android-powered handsets, including minor amendments to the API and bug fixes.
Froyo:On 20 May 2010, the Android 2.2 (Froyo) SDK was released, based on Linux kernel 2.6.32.Its features included:
•Speed, memory, and performance optimizations
•Additional application speed improvements, implemented through JIT compilation
•Integration of Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine into the Browser application
•Support for the Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) service, enabling push notifications
•Improved Microsoft Exchange support, including security policies, auto-discovery, GAL look-up, calendar synchronization and remote wipe
•Improved application launcher with shortcuts to Phone and Browser applications
•USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot functionality
•Added an option to disable data access over mobile network
•Updated Market application with batch and automatic update features
•Quick switching between multiple keyboard languages and their dictionaries
•Voice dialing and contact sharing over Bluetooth
•Support for Bluetooth-enabled car and desk docks
•Support for numeric and alphanumeric passwords
•Support for file upload fields in the Browser application
•Support for installing applications to the expandable memory
•Adobe Flash support
•Support for extra-high-PPI screens (320 ppi), such as 4" 720p
•Gallery allows users to view picture stacks using a zoom gesture
2.2.1:The Android 2.2.1 update was released on 18 January 2011, and included a number of bug fixes, security updates, and performance improvements.
2.2.2:The Android 2.2.2 update was released on 22 January 2011, and fixed minor bugs, including SMS routing issues that affected the Nexus One.
2.2.3:The Android 2.2.3 update was released on 21 November 2011, and consisted of two security patches.
Gingerbread:On 6 December 2010, the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) SDK was released, based on Linux kernel 2.6.35.Changes included:
•Updated user interface design with increased simplicity and speed
•Support for extra-large screen sizes and resolutions (WXGA and higher)
•Native support for SIP VoIP internet telephony
•Faster, more intuitive text input in virtual keyboard, with improved accuracy,better suggested text and voice input mode
•Enhanced copy/paste functionality, allowing users to select a word by press-hold, copy, and paste
•Support for Near Field Communication (NFC), allowing the user to read an NFC tag embedded in a poster, sticker, or advertisement
•New audio effects such as reverb, equalization, headphone virtualization, and bass boost
•New Download Manager, giving users easy access to any file downloaded from the browser, email, or another application
•Support for multiple cameras on the device, including a front-facing camera, if available
•Support for WebM/VP8 video playback, and AAC audio encoding
•Improved power management with a more active role in managing apps that are keeping the device awake for too long
•Enhanced support for native code development
•Switched from YAFFS to ext4 on newer devices
•Audio, graphical, and input enhancements for game developers
•Concurrent garbage collection for increased performance
•Native support for more sensors (such as gyroscopes and barometers)
2.2.3:Released on 9 February 2011, Android 2.3.3 included several improvements and API fixes
2.3.4:Version 2.3.4 introduced support for voice or video chat using Google Talk.
2.3.5:Released on 25 July 2011, Android 2.3.5 included a number of system enhancements:
•Improved network performance for the Nexus S 4G, among other fixes and improvements
•Fixed Bluetooth bug on Samsung Galaxy S
•Improved Gmail application
•Shadow animations for list scrolling
•Camera software enhancements
•Improved battery efficiency
2.3.6:Released on 2 September 2011, this version fixed a voice search bug. The 2.3.6 update had the side-effect of impairing the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality of many Canadian Nexus S phones. Google acknowledged this problem and fixed it in late September.
2.3.7:Android 2.3.7 introduced Google Wallet support for the Nexus S 4G.
Honeycomb:On 22 February 2011, the Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) SDK – the first tablet-only Android update – was released, based on Linux kernel 2.6.36.The first device featuring this version, the Motorola Xoom tablet, was released on 24 February 2011.Changes included:
•Optimized tablet support with a new virtual and “holographic” user interface
•Added System Bar, featuring quick access to notifications, status, and soft navigation buttons, available at the bottom of the screen
•Added Action Bar, giving access to contextual options, navigation, widgets, or other types of content at the top of the screen
•Simplified multitasking – tapping Recent Apps in the System Bar allows users to see snapshots of the tasks underway and quickly jump from one app to another
•Redesigned keyboard, making typing fast, efficient and accurate on larger screen sizes
•Simplified, more intuitive copy/paste interface
•Multiple browser tabs replacing browser windows, plus form auto-fill and a new “incognito” mode allowing anonymous browsing
•Quick access to camera exposure, focus, flash, zoom, front-facing camera, time-lapse, and more
•Ability to view albums and other collections in full-screen mode in Gallery, with easy access to thumbnails for other photos
•New two-pane Contacts UI and Fast Scroll to let users easily organize and locate contacts
•New two-pane Email UI to make viewing and organizing messages more efficient, allowing users to select one or more messages
•Support for video chat using Google Talk
•Hardware acceleration
•Support for multi-core processors
•Ability to encrypt all user data
3.1:The 3.1 SDK was released on 10 May 2011.Changes included:
•UI refinements
•Connectivity for USB accessories
•Expanded Recent Apps list
•Resizable Home screen widgets
•Support for external keyboards and pointing devices
•Support for joysticks and gamepads
•Support for FLAC audio playback
•High-performance Wi-Fi lock, maintaining high-performance Wi-Fi connections when device screen is off
•Support for HTTP proxy for each connected Wi-Fi access point
3.2:The 3.2 SDK was released on 15 July 2011,first appearing on Huawei's MediaPad tablet.Changes included:
•Improved hardware support, including optimizations for a wider range of tablets
•Increased ability of apps to access files on the SD card, e.g. for synchronization
•Compatibility display mode for apps that have not been optimized for tablet screen resolutions
•New display support functions, giving developers more control over display appearance on different Android devices
3.2.1:The Android 3.2.1 update was released on 20 September 2011, and included a number of amendments:
•Bug fixes and minor security, stability and Wi-Fi improvements
•Update to Android Market with automatic updates and easier-to-read Terms and Condition text
•Update to Google Books
•Improved Adobe Flash support in browser
•Improved Chinese handwriting prediction
3.2.2:The 3.2.2 update was released on 30 August 2011, and included bug fixes and other minor improvements for the Motorola Xoom 4G.
Ice Cream Sandwhich:Android 4.0 – codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich, and based on Linux kernel 3.0.1– was previewed at the May 2011 Google I/O event,and officially launched at the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich release event on 19 October 2011.
•Enhanced speed and performance
•Virtual buttons in the UI, in place of capacitive or physical buttons
•Separation of widgets in a new tab, listed in a similar manner to apps
•Easier-to-create folders, with a drag-and-drop style
•A customizable launcher
•Improved visual voicemail with the ability to speed up or slow down voicemail messages
•Pinch-to-zoom functionality in the calendar
•Offline search, a two-line preview, and new action bar at the bottom of the Gmail app
•Ability to swipe left or right to switch between Gmail conversations
•Integrated screenshot capture (accomplished by holding down the Power and Volume-Down buttons)
•Improved error correction on the keyboard
•Ability to access apps directly from lock screen (similar to HTC Sense 3.x)
•Improved copy and paste functionality
•Better voice integration and continuous, real-time speech to text dictation
•Face Unlock, a feature that allows users to unlock handsets using facial recognition software
•New tabbed web browser, allowing up to 16 tabs
•Automatic syncing of browser with users' Chrome bookmarks
•A new typeface family for the UI, Roboto
•Data Usage section in settings that lets users set warnings when they approach a certain usage limit, and disable data use when the limit is exceeded
•Ability to shut down apps that are using data in the background
•Improved camera app with zero shutter lag, time lapse settings, panorama mode, and the ability to zoom while recording
•Built-in photo editor
•New gallery layout, organized by location and person
•Refreshed "People" app with social network integration, status updates and hi-res images
•Android Beam, a near-field communication feature allowing the rapid short-range exchange of web bookmarks, contact info, directions, YouTube videos and other data
•Hardware acceleration of the UI
•Resizeable widgets – already part of Android 3.1 for tablets, but new for cellphones
•Wi-Fi Direct
•1080p video recording for stock Android devices
4.0.2:The Android 4.0.2 update was released on 28 November 2011,and fixed minor bugs on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus,the US launch of which was later delayed until December 2011.
4.0.3:The Android 4.0.3 update was first released on 16 December 2011.It included a number of bug fixes and optimizations, and offered improvements to graphics, databases, spell-checking and Bluetooth functionality,along with new APIs for developers,including a social stream API in the Contacts provider. Other features included Calendar provider enhancements, new camera apps enhancing video stabilization and QVGA resolution, and accessibility refinements such as improved content access for screen readers.
Jelly Bean:The report also mentions some interesting features that originally planned in the presence of ice Cream Sandwich is likely to be postponed and will be displayed on the jelly bean.
Reportedly,this is because these features are not ready until it came time to release the ice cream sandwiches.Google itself has not confirmed anything regarding this information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Different Custom After Market Firmwares.
BeLOW ARE THE DIFFERENT CUSTOM AFTER MARKET FIRMWARES.
MIUI
(pronounced "Me You I", a play on the common abbreviation of the words user interface as UI),developed by Xiaomi Tech, is an aftermarket firmware for cell phones based on the open-source Android operating system. It features a heavily-modified user interface that does away with the Android app drawer and has drawn comparisons with Apple's iOS.It includes additional functionality not found in stock Android, including toggles on the notification pull-down, new music, gallery, and camera apps, and an altered phone dialer that displays matching contacts as a user enters a number.
MIUI is based on Android 2.3.7 and CyanogenMod 7.1 sources, and was initially developed in the Chinese language by Chinese startup Xiaomi.Xiaomi added a number of apps to enhance the basic framework; those include MITalk (a Blackberry Messenger clone),MINotes,MIBackup,MIMusic,and MIGallery.MIUI is made up of two parts, MI and UI, where UI stands for User Interface and MI, as stated by Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, stands for Mobile Internet and Mission Impossible.
The modified operating system has been criticized for being similar to iOS.Due to the fact that MIUI is developed in China, some features that are not relevant to the Chinese market, such as WiMax support, are unavailable on MIUI, and without access to the source code, it is not possible for 3rd parties to easily add this support.
AOSP
The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is led by Google, and is tasked with the maintenance and development of Android.According to the project "The goal of the Android Open Source Project is to create a successful real-world product that improves the mobile experience for end users."AOSP also maintains the Android Compatibility Program, defining an "Android compatible" device "as one that can run any application written by third-party developers using the Android SDK and NDK", to prevent incompatible Android implementations.The compatibility program is also optional and free of charge, with the Compatibility Test Suite also free and open-source.
CYANOGENMOD
CyanogenMod is an open source replacement firmware based on the Android mobile operating system for smart phones and tablet computers. It offers features and options not found in the official firmware distributed by vendors of these devices.
Features supported by CyanogenMod include native theming support (also called the "T-Mobile Theme Engine"), Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) support, a large Access Point Name list, an OpenVPN client, a reboot menu, support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB tethering, CPU overclocking and performance enhancements, soft buttons and other "tablet tweaks", toggles in the notification pull-down (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS), app permissions management, as well as other interface enhancements. CyanogenMod is also stated to increase performance and reliability compared with official firmware releases.
CyanogenMod is developed as free and open source software based on the official releases of Android by Google, with added original and third-party code.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You. Now I know what CAF means.
Android_Sheriff said:
Thank You. Now I know what CAF means.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
code aurora forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/sitesearch.php?q=code aurora forum
Thanks!
Now, I know what is "kanging" means, this thread is very useful...

theoretical 'high' perfornance x server using ipc

Hi, I've been looking at running GNU Linux apps on a rooted android. device with modern hardware and I've yet to find a 'nice' way to run x apps with acceptable GUI performance. Currently I've tried the java implemention of x on android which is barely useable and various vnc - rpc intergrations running x11 using a virtual frame buffer which is much better but laggy.
My idea to solve this problem is to completely do away with the vnc etc.. proxying. that 8s hack the virtual frame buffer version of xorg so that the main pixel map surface is in ipc shared memory and use ipc to render this through the android api.
So is it possible to statically link the needed android libraries to allow abdroids ipc to work between a hacked xorg vfb and abdroids shared memory ipc to a native android app. Thus making high performance rendering with near zero memory coppies possible.
Secondly, and this would be a bonus, could I even get rid of ipc and a native android app by getting xorg on my root GNU Linux install to work directly with android graphics and UI apis. This would be ammazing.
Hopefully ipc is at a kernel level so it may be possible to just port the needed parts of android to GNU Linux to do this if the statically linking method is known not to work.
Any ideas and suggestions, what do you think of this idea for intergraring GNU Linux x apps and android.
I really like this idea and I've been looking for something like this. You said you used the "X server" android app? I'm kind of curious on the performance. Was it laggy or just that it wasn't fully what you expected?
jthree2001 said:
I really like this idea and I've been looking for something like this. You said you used the "X server" android app? I'm kind of curious on the performance. Was it laggy or just that it wasn't fully what you expected?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently I'm running xrdp and tightvncserver in a gnu/linux environment (using inode linking not chroot) and xfe as the windows manager.
I connect to this from android using a rdp client.
The main issues appear to be very slow performance on graphics updates, visably slow, which I put down to the overheards of running everything through vnc/rdp - over sockets - mem coppies, compression (which I should turn off to see if it helps) encryption and all that stuff that goes along with rdp and vnc that's not needed if you use something like shared memory and blit to that.
Performanc of the apps in xfe &co, for instance libraoffice or eclipse etc.... seems to be pretty good, so that's not the issue, just the graphics.
Running a Asus transformer infinity T700
my current messing arpund has been trying to get the Android NDK to compile and run on ARM, which in theory should be no problem so long as it doesn't rely on x86 machine code to do the job (which I doubt).
idky google locked down the architecture in the builds and didn't just leae it as any old gnu/linux or whatever and let the person making the build tweek any bugs, instead of having to hack googles custom build system for building the toold chain to for a specific architecture.
floowing some rough profiling
jthree2001 said:
I really like this idea and I've been looking for something like this. You said you used the "X server" android app? I'm kind of curious on the performance. Was it laggy or just that it wasn't fully what you expected?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I did some crude profiling using the setup
tightvncserver
xrdp
and xrdp client on android.
the major bottle neck was the rdp client on android which made my testing cpu limited since it was maxing out cpu usage. I beleive this may be due to a bug in Android on my tablet relating to non opengl es graphics..
anyhow I got some more usefull data
xrdp was typically sitting at around 40% cpu and all it's doing is taking data from tightvnc and shunting it over rdp to the client.
next on the list was the vncserver using typically less than 30% cpu.
I think this shows there is clearly a lot of overhead (based on the 40% cpu xrdp was using) of using a remote desktop protocol over sockets that should be easy to mitigate by using shared memory.
I also tried a different setup
tightvncserver
and a vnc client on android
taking rdp out of the loop
again the android client made the tests cpu limited but perforance was much better.
This VNC client is open source, so my next step is to create an opensource project and modify the VNC client so that the user input is up to scratch and look at using opengl for graphics (assuming that's where the bottle neck is) so that it's not longer cpu limited.
Once that is done (which should also failarize me with the VNC protocol and the client code).. I can look at replacing the graphics part of VNC with a shared memory buffer, but keeping the user IO over the existing VNC protocol as that makes sense...unless that also becomes a major issue.
That also leaves me some way of sending additional data back and forth without having to do it 'all' via shared memory which would be much more of a mission
in theory there shouldn't be any need for any kind of complicated mutexing between the android client and the x server sine the x server will be all but write only and the android client always read only.
on a side note,
running java linpack on android I get about 50mflops per cpu
with disk io I get about 1gig per second cached reads.
so some crude math would give me 250mega words
my screen is 1920 by 1080 (well actually 1200), but we'll call that 2k by 1k, or 2 mega words.
so a theoretical performance into the high tens of fps seems quite achievable, which is much bettern that the 5 or so tops that I'm getting atm by an order of magnitute.
having a quick poke around, mostly related to my xorg wows (that is it complaints about no tty device when starting up. it seems that it's not too difficult to get xorg running using a frame buffer driver after a few android services have been stopped. So i'm not sure if this is still needed or not.. IPC betwen gnu and android is still an interesting project.
So anyhow, I'm going to try and get xorg running properly, there are even tegra 3 drivers for xorg too, so in theory the performance should be substantially better than anything an ipc hack would be able to achieve.

[MOD] CrossBreeder - Entropy Lag Reduce/DNS Speedup/Clean Adblock

Crossbreeder is an 5in1 package created to make Android devices run faster with less lag and to give a significant performance boost.
Tested and confirmed to give our wildfires a considerable boost. Tested on CM6, CM7, CM9.
head to the original thread to get the flashable ZIP. and please remember to read the OP carefully before using this.
Zip files are also attached to this post.
Original Thread -
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2113150
all credit goes to idcrisis for creating this package. I'm just sharing this with my fellow buzzers.
what Crossbreeder actually do, QUOTED FROM ORIGINAL POST,
This is a combination of 5 different
key methodologies to improve the
Android experience:
1. It's a big new feature, DNS
caching, parallelising and tether
boost . A lot of the lag in a lot of
apps, apart from the GUI lag, is due
to slow DNS querying, specially on
the mobile network.
CrossBreeder now runs a caching,
parallelising DNS client on the
device. So now most of your DNS
queries will be served from the
cache and if not found, the query
will be sent in in parallel to
multiple DNS servers including the
two Google DNS servers and your
two ISP servers and the quickest
reply will be served to you, hot and
transparent. You can read this
rationale for this approach - http://
ma.ttwagner.com/make-dns-fly-...q-
all-servers/
This speeds up network access and
networked apps, like Browsers of
course, and Tapatalk, Gmail and
thousands of others drastically. And
removes a lot of the lag where it was
due to DNS querying. This will not
increase your network or download
speed but pages will load much
faster.
This will future proof your devices as
more and more apps start using
HTML5 and/or reside completely as
web pages or the like.
CrossBreeder boosts your tethering
connection. Client devices to your
device will take advantage of the
new DNS. Hence their usage is also
improved! In many cases this update
might even fix a broken tethering
feature on your phone. So if your
ROM doesn't have a working
tethering support, you an try and
install this update. It might
magically start working!
CrossBreeder blocks ads and
spyware in an efficient manner by
blocking access to the host. It does
this using a static block list of known
ad sites and behaving as an
authoritative DNS server for these
sites and redirecting them to a
dummy address. CrossBreeder runs a
simple web server serving empty
images and pages, so ads completely
disappear instead of showing an ugly
Page/Image Not found error.
You can update this block list from
an external specialised tool like
Adaway if you need
It also renames any existing /etc/
hosts file on your device. Testing
has proven that keeping a system
wide /etc/hosts file as is used by
most other Ad blocking software
actually slows down your system. So
it is recommended to use this
method instead. Check this out for
the demonstration of the slowdown
and how to test it yourself - http://
forum.xda-developers.com/
show...php?p=41877518
In order to achieve all this DNS
related functionality, CrossBreeder
relies on the excellent open source
utilities - DNRD and Dnsmasq
2. Modulate OS entropy levels for
lag reduction ala Seeder. The whole
OS reads either /dev/random or /
dev/urandom and both need
entropy. However this mod uses a
completely different, lightweight and
efficient random number generator
called Havege . This sharply reduces
cpu consumption and corresponding
battery life loss compared to Seeder.
It also does a better job at keeping
entropy levels high hence your
device is more responsive. It doesn't
run in a CPU intensive loop either.
The extend queue functionality has
also been added to CrossBreeder.
See here for another rationale
favouring Havege compared to Rngd
- ( http://code.google.com/p/csrng/ -
Look for the limitations.)
3. Change kernel parameters
specially the wakeup threshold ones
so read blocks are released instantly
and writes never wake up as we have
an external entropy generator. And a
host of other fail safe and working
tweaks from the community for each
key subsystem. ( one can look
inside /etc/CrossBreeder/
zzCrossBreeder ).
4. Remove /dev/random as it's
blocking . Link it to non-blocking /
dev/urandom. Since /dev/random is
blocking and designed to protect us
from Quantum alien cryptographers
with mathematical certainty and
urandom is non blocking pseudo-
random device that most apps and
OSs are using anyway and with
Haveged running, is as secure
anyway as it's very difficult to empty
the entropy pool faster than Havege
can replenish it. Pre ICS devices
have a lot to gain with this but ICS+
devices show visible gains too.
5. Frandom support (Optional) -
CrossBreeder now supports linking
both your random devices to the
extremely fast alternative - Frandom
( http://billauer.co.il/
frandom.html ). This module is
orders of magnitude (10-50 times)
faster than the standard character
devices ( Check this out - http://
forum.xda-developers.com/
show...&postcount=134 ). The
erandom character device also
installed by Frandom doesn't use up
system entropy at all on top of being
fast. You will need to ask your ROM
developer to develop the kernel
module for you and then place it
in /system/lib/modules.
CrossBreeder will then try and load
it and if successful, make all the
necessary adjustments so that both /
dev/random and /dev/urandom are
pointing to /dev/frandom and /dev/
erandom respectively. The speed
benefits are to be seen to be
believed. But since each ROM
requires a unique kernel module,
this option is left optional ( but
auto detect ). Advanced users can
even try and load the frandom
module built for other kernels if
they don't have one readily available
for their own kernel version using
the Punchmod utility. Read this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/
show...5#post41920265
remember to download both Crossbreeder and uninstall ZIP files. it's very unlikely that crossbreeder will cause any problems, but it's better to be prepared.
Feedbacks are welcome
Edit - Attachments will no longer be updated. Visit the original thread for latest versions.
lakshan_456 said:
Crossbreeder is an 5in1 package created to make Android devices run faster with less lag and to give a significant performance boost.
Tested and confirmed to give our wildfires a considerable boost. Tested on CM6, CM7, CM9.
head to the original thread to get the flashable ZIP. and please remember to read the OP carefully before using this.
Zip files are also attached to this post.
Original Thread -
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=21131500
all credit goes to idcrisis for creating this package. I'm just sharing this with my fellow buzzers.
what Crossbreeder actually do, QUOTED FROM ORIGINAL POST,
This is a combination of 5 different
key methodologies to improve the
Android experience:
1. It's a big new feature, DNS
caching, parallelising and tether
boost . A lot of the lag in a lot of
apps, apart from the GUI lag, is due
to slow DNS querying, specially on
the mobile network.
CrossBreeder now runs a caching,
parallelising DNS client on the
device. So now most of your DNS
queries will be served from the
cache and if not found, the query
will be sent in in parallel to
multiple DNS servers including the
two Google DNS servers and your
two ISP servers and the quickest
reply will be served to you, hot and
transparent. You can read this
rationale for this approach - http://
ma.ttwagner.com/make-dns-fly-...q-
all-servers/
This speeds up network access and
networked apps, like Browsers of
course, and Tapatalk, Gmail and
thousands of others drastically. And
removes a lot of the lag where it was
due to DNS querying. This will not
increase your network or download
speed but pages will load much
faster.
This will future proof your devices as
more and more apps start using
HTML5 and/or reside completely as
web pages or the like.
CrossBreeder boosts your tethering
connection. Client devices to your
device will take advantage of the
new DNS. Hence their usage is also
improved! In many cases this update
might even fix a broken tethering
feature on your phone. So if your
ROM doesn't have a working
tethering support, you an try and
install this update. It might
magically start working!
CrossBreeder blocks ads and
spyware in an efficient manner by
blocking access to the host. It does
this using a static block list of known
ad sites and behaving as an
authoritative DNS server for these
sites and redirecting them to a
dummy address. CrossBreeder runs a
simple web server serving empty
images and pages, so ads completely
disappear instead of showing an ugly
Page/Image Not found error.
You can update this block list from
an external specialised tool like
Adaway if you need
It also renames any existing /etc/
hosts file on your device. Testing
has proven that keeping a system
wide /etc/hosts file as is used by
most other Ad blocking software
actually slows down your system. So
it is recommended to use this
method instead. Check this out for
the demonstration of the slowdown
and how to test it yourself - http://
forum.xda-developers.com/
show...php?p=41877518
In order to achieve all this DNS
related functionality, CrossBreeder
relies on the excellent open source
utilities - DNRD and Dnsmasq
2. Modulate OS entropy levels for
lag reduction ala Seeder. The whole
OS reads either /dev/random or /
dev/urandom and both need
entropy. However this mod uses a
completely different, lightweight and
efficient random number generator
called Havege . This sharply reduces
cpu consumption and corresponding
battery life loss compared to Seeder.
It also does a better job at keeping
entropy levels high hence your
device is more responsive. It doesn't
run in a CPU intensive loop either.
The extend queue functionality has
also been added to CrossBreeder.
See here for another rationale
favouring Havege compared to Rngd
- ( http://code.google.com/p/csrng/ -
Look for the limitations.)
3. Change kernel parameters
specially the wakeup threshold ones
so read blocks are released instantly
and writes never wake up as we have
an external entropy generator. And a
host of other fail safe and working
tweaks from the community for each
key subsystem. ( one can look
inside /etc/CrossBreeder/
zzCrossBreeder ).
4. Remove /dev/random as it's
blocking . Link it to non-blocking /
dev/urandom. Since /dev/random is
blocking and designed to protect us
from Quantum alien cryptographers
with mathematical certainty and
urandom is non blocking pseudo-
random device that most apps and
OSs are using anyway and with
Haveged running, is as secure
anyway as it's very difficult to empty
the entropy pool faster than Havege
can replenish it. Pre ICS devices
have a lot to gain with this but ICS+
devices show visible gains too.
5. Frandom support (Optional) -
CrossBreeder now supports linking
both your random devices to the
extremely fast alternative - Frandom
( http://billauer.co.il/
frandom.html ). This module is
orders of magnitude (10-50 times)
faster than the standard character
devices ( Check this out - http://
forum.xda-developers.com/
show...&postcount=134 ). The
erandom character device also
installed by Frandom doesn't use up
system entropy at all on top of being
fast. You will need to ask your ROM
developer to develop the kernel
module for you and then place it
in /system/lib/modules.
CrossBreeder will then try and load
it and if successful, make all the
necessary adjustments so that both /
dev/random and /dev/urandom are
pointing to /dev/frandom and /dev/
erandom respectively. The speed
benefits are to be seen to be
believed. But since each ROM
requires a unique kernel module,
this option is left optional ( but
auto detect ). Advanced users can
even try and load the frandom
module built for other kernels if
they don't have one readily available
for their own kernel version using
the Punchmod utility. Read this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/
show...5#post41920265
remember to download both Crossbreeder and uninstall ZIP files. it's very unlikely that crossbreeder will cause any problems, but it's better to be prepared.
Feedbacks are welcomed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tested on rempuzzle, change nothing , will test other thing.
And Tested on miui v2.3,it improve the performances.
On aokp v5, it make bootloop when We usés the ROM too long ( without oc ).
On miui v4, improve stability.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using xda app-developers app
Pator57 said:
Tested on rempuzzle, change nothing , will test other thing.
And Tested on miui v2.3,it improve the performances.
On aokp v5, it make bootloop when We usés the ROM too long ( without oc ).
On miui v4, improve stability.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well,rempuzzle probably don't need this, since its fast enough as it is now. but it would have been great if this worked.
I think aokp v5 has seeder intergrated, maybe they are conflicting with each other. but crossbreeder says it prevents seeder from executing, so I'm not sure.
anyway thanks for the info
but crossbreeder says it prevents seeder from executing, so I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does. I had that myself when crossbreeder stopped seeder app automatically after having flashed it.
gerope said:
It does. I had that myself when crossbreeder stopped seeder app automatically after having flashed it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, I know it does, I was just guessing a probable cause for the bootloop.
Maybe it's something else, better leave that to devs to look into.
Tested this on DK froyo ROM. It does make a difference.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2
Updated Attached files to latest version (6.23.13_v2)
If your current Kernel doesn't support Init.d executions, try an app like Universel Init.d
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...&utm_medium=organic&utm_term=universal+init.d
Pator57 said:
Tested on rempuzzle, change nothing , will test other thing.
And Tested on miui v2.3,it improve the performances.
On aokp v5, it make bootloop when We usés the ROM too long ( without oc ).
On miui v4, improve stability.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed AOKP v5 and deleted the seeder script from Init.d folder after flashing Crossbreeder, and I did not experience any bootoops while I was using that ROM ( I used it for about 2 weeks)
Does Rempuzzle support Init.d scripts?
lakshan_456 said:
I flashed AOKP v5 and deleted the seeder script from Init.d folder after flashing Crossbreeder, and I did not experience any bootoops while I was using that ROM ( I used it for about 2 weeks)
Does Rempuzzle support Init.d scripts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, im sure.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using xda app-developers app
Definitely, this mod effects, cm7 becomes smoother.
while coming out of app drawer back to main screen, scrolling has also improved.
Thanks
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2
Intresting..
Thnx for this m8 Going to try hopefully it will reduce many lags :]
-------------------------------
Btw i'm new to this all :] :good:
New update available.
Visit the Original thread for more info and downloads.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2113150

[Q] Does ro.config.low_ram=true have an effect on <4.4 ROMs?

As most of you following the KitKat developing scene for lower end devices probably know, Android 4.4 introduced the low_ram property. On 4.4 ROM's, transparent statusbar is disabled for example for devices with this property set to true.
Now, the situation is:
I'm running CM10 (4.1), because it's one of the most stable custom ROM's for my device. A few days ago I put the following line to build.prop:
Code:
ro.config.low_ram=true
hoping to notice better optimized RAM management. It's hard to claim an effect knowing that it could very well be placebo, so I was hoping someone understanding this better could explain the effects to me.
Added a new ActivityManager.isLowRamDevice() to allow applications to detect when running on low memory devices and choose to disable large-RAM features.
(...)
We are introducing a new API called ActivityManager.isLowRamDevice() for applications to determine if they should turn off specific memory-intensive features that work poorly on low-memory devices.
For 512MB devices, this API is expected to return: "true" It can be enabled by the following system property in the device makefile. PRODUCT_PROPERTY_OVERRIDES += ro.config.low_ram=true
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://source.android.com/devices/low-ram.html
I too noted that it says API, so that means that it's dependent on the OS version. Is there any way it can have an effect on memory mangement if not runnign 4.4?
Same goes for disabling JIT(see a bit lower on the source page), which needs to be set in the 'product makefile'
Bump
good queries always go unanswered
I asked it in a Reddit thread too and someone said it won't work, but I don't think that guy has more knowledge about it than you or me. However, since they say it's an API, and API's are bound to the Android version I don't have much hope for this to work...
For the time I've tried it, I didn't notice any difference anyway, if there is, tweaks like zRam will benefit you much more anyway.
On CM11 it disabled some effects and gave a lotof free ram. The effect depends on rom and implementation.
so we may as well just add it to the build.prop anyway, if it works then its a bonus if not no harm done.
i think it's only for KitKat
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/b4e12494935697fa4ede006b37e6be889ef27109
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/9fc5bae^!/
It was only added in kitkat.
Previously (only going as down as 4.2 though) if any you had isHighEndGfx and isLargeRAM (which at least on vanilla android were automatically detected at runtime, thus not user-settable)

Compass / magnetometer potential bug fix

I own a JFLTEVZW i545, but I understand that this affects other variants as well.
I'm not a developer, but in the last 4 weeks or so, I've been trying to learn more about android, linux, and kernels. Hopefully what I've come up with can be attempted by someone with a more advanced skill set, because although I've had what appears to be success in attempted fixes, I really don't know if I'm implementing the changes appropriately because I don't see the appropriate fix. I'm also wasting many, MANY hours (200-300?) learning, tinkering, and waiting on compiling because I'm not skilled enough to make a quick change that I want, or to implement that change easily, without a complete recompile (which costs me 2 hours each time). Someone who is more knowledgeable with kernels and building/compiling from source could probably do everything I'm doing in 1%, or less, of the time that I'm doing it.
Core issue:
The magnetometer's X and Z axes are off 180degrees. This has been a consistent issue since early/mid 2014 builds in both CM11 and CM12, as well as CM12.1 (as of a few days ago when I last tested). This causes problems with navigation and multiple user apps.
Ways to experience the issue:
If you aren't familiar with this bug, or if you're of the opinion that the compass doesn't have any problems, fire up google sky and you'll see that things are wonky when the phone flips around crazily and none of the constellations, planets, or moon are where they should be via the augmented reality. This app is NOT incompatible--the data it's being fed is erroneous.
Alternatively, you can use Physics Toolbox Sensor Suite to view the true raw data (other sensor apps are either adulterated or show false or useless data). With this, the sections I've found most worth looking at are the Linear Accelerometer, Magnetometer, and Orientation, and you can compare the data to an OEM phone if you have another one handy.
For the magnetometer, I've found that the absolute best way to calibrate it is by performing a figure-8 movement in three-dimensional space, rather than two-dimensional as shown in some apps and videos, or by the method mentioned in GPS Status & Toolbox. See this video for an example. I perform a larger figure-8 and do it multiple times--once can work, but a few times really settles it down.
What aren't contributing factors:
Calibration
Hardware malfunction (many others have confirmed)
App malfunction
Magnetometer driver source code (note: the code itself in the files I've looked at are the same as Samsung's source, but the way in which it's implemented may not be)
Please keep in mind that because I'm very new to this, I don't have instant intuitive feedback to know how to confirm these things in the contributing factors or possible solutions. I really need to pass the reigns on this one to someone much more advanced than myself, who will see this post and churn out the fix in a half hour.
Possible contributing factors (could be more than this):
Driver implementation. The source in /kernel/samsung/jf/drivers/sensors/ is new, and OEM, but I don't see it compiling.
Driver implementation. I'm having difficulty knowing which source files from Samsung need to be dropped in to try and compile a kernel without CM modifications which pertain to the sensors. I also have significant difficulty knowing if it succeeded, correctly, rather than something in CM taking over and undoing my changes. This is the case for one particular thing, so I have no idea how to confirm the things that I can't readily see.
Sensor(s) orientation configuration(s).
Possible solutions:
Should /kernel/samsung/jf/drivers/sensors/ actually be compiling? I don't think it is (because I don't see the folder), or even know if it's necessary for our phones, but Samsung has it in their source and I cannot successfully compile Samsung source to try and compare. I also don't know if it gets merged in with other files somewhere else.
Dropping in all OEM necessary files and compiling, without CM interrupting. I don't understand linux and the filesystem enough to know what happens when, and I've resorted to using shred/srm to try and truly delete files, but I still struggle with understanding what's going on. I also don't know what encompasses a swap like this. I don't know if replacing sensorhub is all that needs to be done or if there are 3 other files in completely different directories that are critical, and must overwrite the CM modifications for things to compile appropriately.
Setting sensor orientation correctly with CONFIG_SENSORS_SSP_ACCELEROMETER_POSITION=0, CONFIG_SENSORS_SSP_GYROSCOPE_POSITION=0, CONFIG_SENSORS_SSP_MAGNETOMETER_POSITION=0 being different values than zero.
I've tried the first two and had intermittent success. Sometimes things compile, sometimes they don't. But I also don't know if what I'm changing even matters. I've been checking file hashes to see when things change, but it's becoming tedious and someone who knows all of the linux commands and knows how the source gets compiled would know without having to check.
My favorite possible solution is the third. This is in the .config file which is made by the make menuconfig process, which I believe is influenced by various defcofig files. I've tried changing the .config directly, but CM undoes that. I've tried adding those lines to the defconfig files, but CM either undoes or ignores that. I've tried compiling a kernel outside of compiling CM as a whole and am hitting roadblocks with my lack of experience and knowledge. I've successfully compiled kernels, but I don't even know if my changes are sticking. I've taken what I though may have been an appropriately compiled kernel (Image and zImage) by modifying the .config and then manually doing a make zImage, but even dropping those in to compile with CM, chmod 555, chown/chgrp root and CM somehow manages to overwrite the renamed zImage-->kernel file, but it would actually leave them alone when I did all that nonsense to the Image and zImage in their normal output spot, /arch/arm/boot/kernel/ I believe.
The third possible solution sets how the sensors are physically placed within the phone. If the readings are off by right-angles, it seems that a coding change for one or more of these would be appropriate:
CONFIG_SENSORS_SSP_ACCELEROMETER_POSITION=0
CONFIG_SENSORS_SSP_GYROSCOPE_POSITION=0
CONFIG_SENSORS_SSP_MAGNETOMETER_POSITION=0
I've had no success in making this happen, but as I said, someone who is a genuine programmer would be able to make these things happen and compile and test quickly...rather than me spend an entire day trying 20 different ways to see if I can get something to stick, and then not even being able to confirm if what I changed, actually made its way into the final compiled files.
Hopefully someone is willing to take a stab at this, because I'm apparently the equivalent of an elderly person having their first encounter with a computer when it comes to this stuff. It seems so simple, but I'm not the one to make it happen, and I feel like this may be the route to take. Thanks, y'all!
EDIT: I've tried other methods to make this work that I didn't list, I just can't remember everything and my mind is breaking down after going at this for about 13 hours straight today.
I suppose you own a Verizon phone, the unique with Compass issue. I'm currently helping jfltevzw guys to find a fix, and still nothing real even after some tries...
Already tried to change magnetometer physical angle (the correct value must be 3 or 5 according to board-jf_vzw), but if you think: even in CM10.2 the MAGNETOMETER_POSITION was 0
I'm going to try some other things...
Sorry, yes, I own a JFLTEVZW
What are your thoughts on the new "sensors" source folder and it seemingly not being compiled/built? The \Kernel\drivers\sensors\geomagnetic\Kconfig has a completely separate orientation reference of INPUT_YAS_MAGNETOMETER_POSITION:
Code:
#
# Copyright (c) 2010 Yamaha Corporation
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
# USA.
#
config INPUT_YAS_MAGNETOMETER
tristate "YAS Geomagnetic Sensor"
depends on I2C
config YAS_MAG_DRIVER_YAS532
tristate "YAS Geomagnetic Sensor - yas532"
depends on I2C
help
Say Y here if you want support for the yas532 sensor
device.
To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
module will be called yas532.
config INPUT_YAS_MAGNETOMETER_POSITION
int "YAS Geomagnetic Sensor Mounting Position on Board"
depends on INPUT_YAS_MAGNETOMETER
default "0"
help
Chip mounting position (pin 1).
0: top, upper-left
1: top, upper-right
2: top, lower-right
3: top, lower-left
4: bottom, upper-left
5: bottom, upper-right
6: bottom, lower-right
7: bottom, lower-left
This is one of the points where I get stuck, because even if I can forcefully input a different number and reference, I don't know how to reverse engineer and get the pseudo-code (or how to read it) to confirm that what I input actually made it into the kernel. I want to confirm one of two things:
1) The change made it into the kernel successfully, and there is proof of that, yet the magnetometer data is not fixed, or
2) The change cannot be confirmed that it made it into the kernel successfully, with proof, so things such as this are still viable options.
Side note:
Samsung is also using this driver setup for their new "wear" devices. Both sensors and sensorhub source folders, for the same YAS532 (YAS532B is the same chip from my research, it's akin to calling the phone the s4 or galaxy s4). This source code change was made without any hardware change to our phones, so that why I wonder if something is awry and something completely unexpected and seemingly unrelated, on first glance, is expecting the sensors source folder to be compiled, but it isn't.
jfltevzw compass now works on CM
Feel free to donate to invisiblek as part of the bounty
Heh, I saw that commit and was tinkering around before sunrise today--very excited!
Hi there everyone -
I am running an AOSP / CM12.1 / Lollipop 5.1 ROM (Fusion) with KT Kernel. IT's a Sprint variant and I, too have the Compass / magnetometer bug. North points south / east points west. Maddening. Everything else in the ROM is Really wonderful, but without the compass / GPS / Maps, it's a deal breaker for me.
My last ROM - GPE on this forum had NO issues with the compass, so I am assuming that it is either the Kernel, or the ROM, or some odd combo.
If anyone else has any other info, please let me know? Thanks in advance!

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