I am a ROM flashing addict, and also looking into getting into ROM dev eventually. I'd go for a Nexus device, if it were not for the fact that each Nexus device(released Nov or so) is only 3-4 months away from being obsolete thanks to the next gen of phones released from February next year.
Of all the manufacturers, who are most dev-friendly? In terms of providing sources etc. (I remember CM9 dev stalled due to unavailability of kernel sources for several weeks). I know you can't predict which model will be most popular among devs, but any general pointers would help.
I read somewhere that TI releases sources for most parts, which is why Google went with an OMAP chip and not Exynos for the Galaxy Nexus. Anything else along similar lines I should look for?
sumeshpremraj said:
I am a ROM flashing addict, and also looking into getting into ROM dev eventually. I'd go for a Nexus device, if it were not for the fact that each Nexus device(released Nov or so) is only 3-4 months away from being obsolete thanks to the next gen of phones released from February next year.
Of all the manufacturers, who are most dev-friendly? In terms of providing sources etc. (I remember CM9 dev stalled due to unavailability of kernel sources for several weeks). I know you can't predict which model will be most popular among devs, but any general pointers would help.
I read somewhere that TI releases sources for most parts, which is why Google went with an OMAP chip and not Exynos for the Galaxy Nexus. Anything else along similar lines I should look for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Htc is now very dev friendly. So mainly the one X, or wait for the samsung galaxy s3. That's about what I see.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
sumeshpremraj said:
I am a ROM flashing addict, and also looking into getting into ROM dev eventually. I'd go for a Nexus device, if it were not for the fact that each Nexus device(released Nov or so) is only 3-4 months away from being obsolete thanks to the next gen of phones released from February next year.
Of all the manufacturers, who are most dev-friendly? In terms of providing sources etc. (I remember CM9 dev stalled due to unavailability of kernel sources for several weeks). I know you can't predict which model will be most popular among devs, but any general pointers would help.
I read somewhere that TI releases sources for most parts, which is why Google went with an OMAP chip and not Exynos for the Galaxy Nexus. Anything else along similar lines I should look for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC and Samsung.
Guys, I'm working on developing an AOSP ROM. I need your help in choosing a phone I can use for the testing. I was thinking of starting with a cheap Samsung Galaxy series phone since they have dual bootloaders (boot.bin and sbl.bin). Better safe than sorry, right? My work partner suggested we start off with a Vanilla Android phone, like an old LG. Can you guys recommend me one to proceed with? Is there a phone out there with Vanilla Google Android and possibly two bootloaders ?
Anyone?
c'mon guys !!
Most developers like the Nexus series phones since they are easy to unlock the bootloader and have a lot of other devs.
Thank you for replying But is the Samsung Galaxy series the only one in the Android universe with dual bootloaders?
Also, what phones run on Vanilla Android other than the Google Nexus series? I take it the old LGs do? If so, which ones?
Someone, please respond...
bump!
Someone please provide some input on this..
I REALLY gotta know this at the earliest so I can acquire the phone. Someone, please help out !!
not sure if this helps but the pantech burst is getting the ICS update shortly (they have it ready just having server issues trying to get it out today) its a cheep but badass att lte phone
I don't live in the USA. I need something available internationally. Also, it needs Vanilla Android. Is Google Nexus my only chance?
Prasad007 said:
I don't live in the USA. I need something available internationally. Also, it needs Vanilla Android. Is Google Nexus my only chance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your serious about development and testing pure vanilla Android is the way to go and the Google's Nexus line of phones and tablet it the way to go. You can easily compile AOSP for these devices, easily unlock the bootloader and root to flash custom ROM's. Also kernel sources are easily available, along with other great resources that will allow you to learn a lot about development.
shimp208 said:
If your serious about development and testing pure vanilla Android is the way to go and the Google's Nexus line of phones and tablet it the way to go. You can easily compile AOSP for these devices, easily unlock the bootloader and root to flash custom ROM's. Also kernel sources are easily available, along with other great resources that will allow you to learn a lot about development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's EXACTLY what I needed to hear! Thank you so much for your time! Considering I'll start with JB, is it necessary to acquire the latest Nexus available, or will any older variant do?
Prasad007 said:
That's EXACTLY what I needed to hear! Thank you so much for your time! Considering I'll start with JB, is it necessary to acquire the latest Nexus available, or will any older variant do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't go any lower then the nexus s, since that's the oldest pure Google device that officially supports compiling AOSP JB from source. Personally I'd pick up the galaxy nexus if you want something right now. If you can wait until around November (November 5th) it's rumored Google is launching several (Supposedly five new nexus devices) new nexus devices to celebrate androids 5th birthday :thumbup:
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
shimp208 said:
I wouldn't go any lower then the nexus s, since that's the oldest pure Google device that officially supports compiling AOSP JB from source. Personally I'd pick up the galaxy nexus if you want something right now. If you can wait until around November (November 5th) it's rumored Google is launching several (Supposedly five new nexus devices) new nexus devices to celebrate androids 5th birthday :thumbup:
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know Guess I'll be picking up the Galaxy Nexus then!
I read some posts on G+ and noticed all cyanogen i9300 mainterners complain about samsung sources policy, they release out-dated, imcompatible source code. I want know what samsung have released after Open Exynos petetion.
On originboard.com, I have only found 4x12 sources for ICS, not JB.
They've given is squat. Broken, useless crap which requires a sh*t ton of hackery to even work.
Nothing.
Just like the life left in this beaten horse.
After some research I found something.
Samsung actually released some exynos sources (camera, mali) after petetion, but they are outdated and can't be used with Jelly bean HWA.
We have only extracted pre-built JB HWA, and older sources (probably ICS compatible)
But can ICS sources be updated to support Jelly bean?
At this point of time only mali (OLD), camera (OLD), thermal control, barometer, LED are open-source (I found them on github and originboard.com).
GR0S said:
After some research I found something.
Samsung actually released some exynos sources (camera, mali) after petetion, but they are outdated and can't be used with Jelly bean HWA.
We have only extracted pre-built JB HWA, and older sources (probably ICS compatible)
But can ICS sources be updated to support Jelly bean?
At this point of time only mali (OLD), camera (OLD), thermal control, barometer, LED are open-source (I found them on github and originboard.com).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They have been analyzed, looked over, poked at, cursed at, burned and hacked by CM team.
I'm pretty sure that the actual quality of 10.1 is very close to as good as it gets (without the damned sources).
Please search and see how this saga has evolved and progressed to. I hold no hope of seeing sources and neither should you or anyone.
If the sources Samsung is throwing out every now and then are so out dated, crappy and bad documented, what the hell do GM, AndreiLux, AndiP and all the other kernel devs work with??
I don't get it.
AW: Exonys jellybean sources
*Exynos
Sent from my GT-I9001 using xda app-developers app
According to the devs, what's really needed is the userspace sources, so until those are released, all this is useless. Samdung is under no obligation to release these, so they probably never will.
harise100 said:
If the sources Samsung is throwing out every now and then are so out dated, crappy and bad documented, what the hell do GM, AndreiLux, AndiP and all the other kernel devs work with??
I don't get it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung do release the latest kernel sources because they are legally obligated to. But AOSP ROMs such as CM require more than just working kernels.
XeLLaR* said:
*Exynos
Sent from my GT-I9001 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Mimsy said:
Samsung do release the latest kernel sources because they are legally obligated to. But AOSP ROMs such as CM require more than just working kernels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, codeworkx said that kernel source is always free, but they need userspace
Enviado desde mi Tamagotchi usando Tapatalk
without userspace source development is limited
Hi! This is my first post on XDA.
As a user of CM for more than a year ago on my i9300, and after enduring a lot of bugs, I wonder: What happens to CM?
It's a known fact that the Exynos platform is a headache for developers because there is no documentation or open sources from Samsung. So, things like the camera, the sound system, the HDMI output and the GPU do not work as they should.
However, here are many good developers who have fixed these bugs, or at least improve them a bit. And most of these fixes are open source and accessible by everyone on Github.
So, what is waiting CM to implement them? Giving credit to their authors, obviously.
CyanogenMod announces itself as an alternative to the stock firmware that lets you take full advantage of your smartphone, making it better and more stable. Now they are also a company: Cyanogen Inc. As a reputable brand, it should offer a higher quality firmware. ROMs like Nameless (I'm using it right now) works better even being "not official".
This is just an opinion as a user. I'm not criticizing or forcing anyone to do anything. But if there are hundreds of people using a ROM with bugs that were fixed, why not implement them? I would be the first to help, but my skills are just about webdev.
Respect and thanks for i9300 developers on XDA, and sorry about my bad English. When I use my native language I express myself MUCH better. Trust me. lol
Thanks for reading.
There's no i9300 maintainer, and they accept pull requests (on gerrit) when somebody sends them.
Also, the fact that there's no i9300 maintainer is directly connected with what you already said - lack of proper documentation. Nobody wants to fix the mess that has been created since whole this time. The amount of hacks required to make AOSP work on i9300 is too damn high. I'm slowly fixing this mess, making i9300 a bit better supported, but it's still a long way until it's done. Take a look at ArchiKernel for example, why I had to create my own kernel? Because smdk4412 sources were so much outdated that they finished around update7, right after sudden death fix. XXELLA, 4.1.2 Android times, hello. So first thing was to cleanup the kernel mess, use up-to-date samsung sources (used for stocks) and make them work with AOSP. Now, if I commit my work to CM, they'll deny this instantly because new kernel supports only i9300 and this commit would break all other exynos4 variants from compiling. Yes, together we COULD fix it, make it work with other devices. But I have better things to do than trying to fix whole exynos4 family, I focus on i9300.
This is one of the reasons why we won't see any official cm12 nightly for i9300. Because nobody is going to maintain that. Even if we can fix something, nobody is going to commit that, unless we put serious effort for making it universal across all supported devices.
That's a real shame the device is in such a mess.
Actually, to be fair, using Omnirom 4.4.4, I'm finding that the only thing that doesn't work properly is the notification led (no one seems to know why it only works 3 times out of 4).
I'll probably end up buying a new phone next year, anyway, since buy this time next year the i9300 will be almost 4 years old. In smartphone terms, that means it's getting along a bit.
(oh, and thanks for all your work on it, JustArchi!)
JustArchi said:
There's no i9300 maintainer, and they accept pull requests (on gerrit) when somebody sends them.
Also, the fact that there's no i9300 maintainer is directly connected with what you already said - lack of proper documentation. Nobody wants to fix the mess that has been created since whole this time. The amount of hacks required to make AOSP work on i9300 is too damn high. I'm slowly fixing this mess, making i9300 a bit better supported, but it's still a long way until it's done. Take a look at ArchiKernel for example, why I had to create my own kernel? Because smdk4412 sources were so much outdated that they finished around update7, right after sudden death fix. XXELLA, 4.1.2 Android times, hello. So first thing was to cleanup the kernel mess, use up-to-date samsung sources (used for stocks) and make them work with AOSP. Now, if I commit my work to CM, they'll deny this instantly because new kernel supports only i9300 and this commit would break all other exynos4 variants from compiling. Yes, together we COULD fix it, make it work with other devices. But I have better things to do than trying to fix whole exynos4 family, I focus on i9300.
This is one of the reasons why we won't see any official cm12 nightly for i9300. Because nobody is going to maintain that. Even if we can fix something, nobody is going to commit that, unless we put serious effort for making it universal across all supported devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for answering my topic. The opinion of a developer like you is very appreciated.
This situation only seems to give more reasons for not buy a Samsung phone again. This lack of support from the manufacturer is a disrespect to the user's investment. And fragmentation strikes again. Sad but true.
Thanks again for your great work of keeping this device alive for all of us.
StephenJSweeney said:
That's a real shame the device is in such a mess.
Actually, to be fair, using Omnirom 4.4.4, I'm finding that the only thing that doesn't work properly is the notification led (no one seems to know why it only works 3 times out of 4).
I'll probably end up buying a new phone next year, anyway, since buy this time next year the i9300 will be almost 4 years old. In smartphone terms, that means it's getting along a bit.
(oh, and thanks for all your work on it, JustArchi!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried OmniROM few months ago, but it had some annoying bugs (like camera crashes) and I missed some customizations of CyanogenMod. Anyway, I'll try it again. My next buy might be a Motorola phone. The AOSP support is priceless.
ouch01 said:
I tried OmniROM few months ago, but it had some annoying bugs (like camera crashes) and I missed some customizations of CyanogenMod. Anyway, I'll try it again. My next buy might be a Motorola phone. The AOSP support is priceless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the camera crash on CM11 M11, and switched over to Omnirom shortly after that. I'm using Google Camera with an Omnirom nightly from November, and I've never had a camera crash.
Agree with you about getting a Motorola. I'd love it if the next Moto G refresh (if there is one) came with some more RAM, increased storage (16GB instead of 8), 4G, and a multicolour led. Being able to customize the colours to suit the category of app is something I love about custom ROMs. That should be baked into Android, to be honest (but at least there's LightFlow).
JustArchi said:
There's no i9300 maintainer, and they accept pull requests (on gerrit) when somebody sends them.
Also, the fact that there's no i9300 maintainer is directly connected with what you already said - lack of proper documentation. Nobody wants to fix the mess that has been created since whole this time. The amount of hacks required to make AOSP work on i9300 is too damn high. I'm slowly fixing this mess, making i9300 a bit better supported, but it's still a long way until it's done. Take a look at ArchiKernel for example, why I had to create my own kernel? Because smdk4412 sources were so much outdated that they finished around update7, right after sudden death fix. XXELLA, 4.1.2 Android times, hello. So first thing was to cleanup the kernel mess, use up-to-date samsung sources (used for stocks) and make them work with AOSP. Now, if I commit my work to CM, they'll deny this instantly because new kernel supports only i9300 and this commit would break all other exynos4 variants from compiling. Yes, together we COULD fix it, make it work with other devices. But I have better things to do than trying to fix whole exynos4 family, I focus on i9300.
This is one of the reasons why we won't see any official cm12 nightly for i9300. Because nobody is going to maintain that. Even if we can fix something, nobody is going to commit that, unless we put serious effort for making it universal across all supported devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i feel you
SlimRoms is the answer
unlike CM, Slim has a I9300 maintainer, has support, every weekly update works properly.
Devs should really take a look at Slim's Gerrit and Freenode/#SlimDev
StephenJSweeney said:
I had the camera crash on CM11 M11, and switched over to Omnirom shortly after that. I'm using Google Camera with an Omnirom nightly from November, and I've never had a camera crash.
Agree with you about getting a Motorola. I'd love it if the next Moto G refresh (if there is one) came with some more RAM, increased storage (16GB instead of 8), 4G, and a multicolour led. Being able to customize the colours to suit the category of app is something I love about custom ROMs. That should be baked into Android, to be honest (but at least there's LightFlow).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing with Motorola is that their stock roms are basically just stock android. No laggy touchwiz skins, just a google launcher. Bloatware is at a minimum. A low spec phone like the moto G still is great because of how vanilla its experience is.
Rumours have it that the galaxy S6 international variant will have an exynos processor. I found a thread comparing the leaked info of the snapdragon 810 vs the next exynos processor and it seems that the exynos is getting a lot of popularity from users on the thread and it ain't no slouch. As it is now, phone's are so fast, that it's very hard to find a way of improving them. Like who compares app opening times nowadays? That will be much the case for 2015's flagships as well. I doubt I'd be disappointed if I had the next Samsung release if I thought I'd be in for a laggy UI, it's just whether I can tolerate the touchwiz experience or if I wanna switch to a vanilla aosp rom. That's where the problem arises.
arashvenus said:
SlimRoms is the answer
unlike CM, Slim has a I9300 maintainer, has support, every weekly update works properly.
Devs should really take a look at Slim's Gerrit and Freenode/#SlimDev
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But only in your imagination. There is noone at slimrom. Just check their gerrit.
whatsgood said:
Rumours have it that the galaxy S6 international variant will have an exynos processor .... I found a thread comparing the leaked info of the snapdragon 810 vs the next exynos processor and it seems that the exynos is getting a lot of popularity from users on the thread and it ain't no slouch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aren't the Exynos processors the cause of much grief in the open source community, though? Aren't Qualcomm processors, such as the Snapdragon, much more popular because they're easier to work with..?
StephenJSweeney said:
Aren't the Exynos processors the cause of much grief in the open source community, though? Aren't Qualcomm processors, such as the Snapdragon, much more popular because they're easier to work with..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct.
Eleve11 said:
Correct.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well then, no more Samsung phones for me, then. Not unless they use Qualcomm..!
StephenJSweeney said:
Aren't the Exynos processors the cause of much grief in the open source community, though? Aren't Qualcomm processors, such as the Snapdragon, much more popular because they're easier to work with..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's what i thought but people are showing interests due to how powerful the processor is. I think they're saying it's more powerful than the snapdragon 810. I'm not that techy but they were mentioning that the new exynos will be smaller in size or something, whilst the snapdragon will be bigger. Apparently smaller is better, but yes the problem is open sourcing. If you want to install a stock android custom rom, it will be difficult for developers to build a rom that can push your phone to it's full potential. Snapdragon doesn't have this problem.
Basically if you love flashing different roms that are fully functional a snapdragon 810 phone is for you. If you like what Samsung offers in it's next flagship and won't be tempted to flash other roms then the exynos is for you
whatsgood said:
Yes, that's what i thought but people are showing interests due to how powerful the processor is. I think they're saying it's more powerful than the snapdragon 810. I'm not that techy but they were mentioning that the new exynos will be smaller in size or something, whilst the snapdragon will be bigger. Apparently smaller is better, but yes the problem is open sourcing. If you want to install a stock android custom rom, it will be difficult for developers to build a rom that can push your phone to it's full potential. Snapdragon doesn't have this problem.
Basically if you love flashing different roms that are fully functional a snapdragon 810 phone is for you. If you like what Samsung offers in it's next flagship and won't be tempted to flash other roms then the exynos is for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I prefer to have less powerful processor, with full documentation how it works, rather than exynos and big giant hackish black box, which noone understands.
The problem is not with the exynos, but with Samsung. Judging from Exynos4, their kernel sources and own experience, exynos may look like it works, but amount of hacks and dirty workarounds to make it work, is too damn high. This could all be solved if Samsung changed their policy from "respect GPL, f*ck the rest" to "respect developers, show them that our SoC can be developer-friendly, too".
The problem is that we're not even 0.01% of Samsung sales, so why should they care. I'm not going to buy Samsung phone again, regardless if it has Snapdragon inside or not. The problem is not with the Exynos, the problem is in Samsung's policy.
JustArchi said:
I prefer to have less powerful processor, with full documentation how it works, rather than exynos and big giant hackish black box, which noone understands.
The problem is not with the exynos, but with Samsung. Judging from Exynos4, their kernel sources and own experience, exynos may look like it works, but amount of hacks and dirty workarounds to make it work, is too damn high. This could all be solved if Samsung changed their policy from "respect GPL, f*ck the rest" to "respect developers, show them that our SoC can be developer-friendly, too".
The problem is that we're not even 0.01% of Samsung sales, so why should they care. I'm not going to buy Samsung phone again, regardless if it has Snapdragon inside or not. The problem is not with the Exynos, the problem is in Samsung's policy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah +1 for that. My next Phone will be definitly a Sony or a One plus. I think both are the developer friendliest in android ...
what for get android with huge ram but still lag? i won't go for android for sure. just stick with ios better. with android 8gb & asop, cm etc still can't fix the bugs. android received update so slow than ios.
khanmein said:
what for get android with huge ram but still lag? i won't go for android for sure. just stick with ios better. with android 8gb & asop, cm etc still can't fix the bugs. android received update so slow than ios.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you are right but i think the most decent phone is the htc one......i would buy a windows phone rather than an iPhone
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/2qn8s4/new_impressive_lollipop_touchwiz_gives_nexus_line/
This is an interesting article on the new touchwiz that appears in android lollipop on the galaxy note 3. Surprisingly I can see nothing but praise from this person, apparently it seems to be running very well in comparison to touchwiz on KitKat. Is Samsung finally doing something good?
whatsgood said:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/2qn8s4/new_impressive_lollipop_touchwiz_gives_nexus_line/
This is an interesting article on the new touchwiz that appears in android lollipop on the galaxy note 3. Surprisingly I can see nothing but praise from this person, apparently it seems to be running very well in comparison to touchwiz on KitKat. Is Samsung finally doing something good?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its useless even if they port it to our i9300..1gb of ram..maybe its time to upgrade to more stronger phone..
I can't find any information on the kernel source release situation. Last time with Mi 12, the sources were posted immediately with the release of the phone. Is there a reason for the delay or xiaomi decided to go back to the old source release cycle.
Asko on wrong community, try to Mi community, they will maybe know
It looks like Xiaomi is not going to open source this phone's kernel. Xiaomi's open source kernel is now available on only a handful of phones
Dispossible said:
It looks like Xiaomi is not going to open source this phone's kernel. Xiaomi's open source kernel is now available on only a handful of phones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this claim official? How much can you believe in this?
user2332 said:
Is this claim official? How much can you believe in this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, I can give you Xiaomi official opensource kernel link. https://github.com/MiCode/Xiaomi_Kernel_OpenSource
You can see that Xiaomi has been very negative about opensource kernel in recent years.
So, the third-party ROM such as LineageOS will be very hard to make or even can't make.
Under the GPL license, Xiaomi is supposed to provide opensource kernels for all of its devices.
Samsung, OnePlus, MOTOROLA, Nokia and some others can follow the GPL.
But there is no penalty for violating the GPL.
Xiaomi Shows No Interest in Releasing Kernel Source Code of its Devices
Xiaomi is having a good time in all the smartphone markets over the world releasing numerous devices. It is popular for producing budget-friendly phones. It has a great user base in the Indian market…
www.thecustomdroid.com
but
newer platforms all use GKI, which means it's identical between devices, even if the SoC vendors are different.
Not sure that they are obliged to release source codes for vendor kernel modules, those are proprietary.
Its a shame... May be they are somethink bigger behind, probably money ...
snx413 said:
Its a shame... May be they are somethink bigger behind, probably money ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to be the beginning of the end for some brands like OPPO/ONE PLUS who are considering withdrawing from the international market.
NOSS8 said:
Seems to be the beginning of the end for some brands like OPPO/ONE PLUS who are considering withdrawing from the international market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But Oneplus opensource is still good. Oppo opensource is still bad.