I've been pondering for some time that if Android has the most customization on the earth for a Mobile OS why doesn't the rooted community make a rom? All the current roms out there Whether it be Cyanogenmod, MIUI, Sense, Touchwiz, Motoblur, it's all based and still resembles of what the manufacturers or companies have given us. Even though MIUI has a company behind it, it shows that you can use the rooted community to make something great. We have an abundance of Developers, Themers, Idealists, testers, etc. to do something like this.They could design it, port it, test it, and put more ideas forward. Even though I have nothing of value to offer, I was just wondering why this has not been done, so my pondering can stop.
imagine how many phones you would have to port it to
Not trying to be rude or anything, but think about that statement.
He has a point. A ROM alone doesn't do much if the drivers are missing... and those are not generally available unless you sign a deal with the hardware maker, which isn't exactly trivial for opensource projects. I don't really see any other way than what people are doing now: What other way than grabbing the drivers from the previously installed system is there to get anything to run on the actual hardware?
Cimer said:
Not trying to be rude or anything, but think about that statement.
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yeah i know your first post says we have a lot of developers to do it, but porting isnt an easy job. each phone has their own specifications. some phones cant handle what other phones can. and even if you manage to port most of the rom, there are bound to be bugs. and maybe you dont know how many phones we have here on xda. we're talking about all the phones here and here
Well since it's off of AOSP...? I don't see where you're getting this whole making deals with manufacturers. How ever since most brands have been ported to Cyanogenmod it's not impossible.
Also you would not need to port it to those devices. Not trying to exclude people but I'm just going to take Cyanogen's stance...It's been two years, most people have updated to new devices. Also most of those are not even Android..cmon
How else do you want to get the drivers... you either have to take them from the device, which means leaving enough of the system in place that they'll function (which is what CyanogenMod is doing now), or make a deal with the people who have the original drivers. I just don't see any other ways, do you?
Cyanogen does not make deals with manufacturers and it's well Cyanogenmod not Cyanogenmod+motoblur or Cyanogenmod + touchwiz.
Look I know you guys are pessimistic about it, but it's a interesting and real possibility.
Drivers, not frontends. What I mean is Cellphone chipsets, battery stats and so on... they're still there when you install Cyanogenmod, since they can't include their own... I thought that was part of what you meant with "Community ROM", that these "leftovers" from the original system should go. I'm not pessimistic, just confused.
Well you're only confusing your self. It's a straight forward idea..The community designs it's own UI and from there it is dependent on specific devices developers. It's not impossible, It's only as possible as the community makes it out to because this community is very talented.
Ah... you just want to change the frontend, not the "bowels" of the system... sorry, simple misunderstanding. I read "community ROM" and thought you wanted to go further than what Cyanogenmod is doing, essentially building a full working ROM instead of what is essentially a kind of patch for the system already in place...
Sort of..Think MIUI but by the community
Hmm... could you be a little more specific what you think should be part of such an alternative main user interface? For example, should it do away with the widgets concept if it feels inadequate? Or remap controls and so on. Or should it be "just" a launcher and a fancy keylock?
Well that's not up to me to be frank. The reason why I can't be specific is because it's a community rom, not a Cimer rom
There always has to be a starting point and you (hopefully) have some thoughts on this, otherwise you wouldn't have created this thread, right?
For me, it's mostly about the launcher and "Task Switcher" or whatever you want to call it ("Recent Applications"). Lock screens for me serve only a single purpose and any more than that usually gets in the way. For example, if you place a lot information on it, you have to keep the screen on for a longer period, which will eventually drain the battery if you keep the phone in your trouser's pockets.
Well yes...I have thought about it. Through thinking about it I came to the conclusion that I don't know what everyone wants, and how it will work out. Now I could be the starting point, but to be realistic I can't do it by myself I would need the previous mentioned people in my first post, and the community to get this rolling. This could either be revolutionary or it could just be lost in XDA's countless topics. It will also be hard because everyone has something they're working on.
You need to give people something to discuss
OK, then I'll start.
As I said, the core functions for me are home screen and task switching.
Let's start with the launcher.
Launchers fall mainly into two categories:
1. Searcher
2. Finder
A "Searcher" allows the user to specify more and more precisely what he wants to do. This can either be key presses, categories/labels or anything really that asks the user for traits of the activity he wants to perform.
A "Finder" on the other hand presents most available functions at once and lets the user pick the one he wants immediately.
There are many shades of gray between those two, but that's the spectrum.
For me one level of "Searcher" functionality has proven the optimal level of traits that I can navigate through without ending up at the wrong point too often. Categories, à la PalmOS are still the best thing I can think of, but obviously that's partly due to my history with mobile devices, which has been dominated by PalmOS. How do other people reach their applications?
P.S. May I suggest a title change for the thread? Something along the lines of "What User-Interface 'Experience' would you like on Android?". The "CustomROM" title still confuses me
Done.
If you think about it All roms basically have icons on their home screen in a grid or on a dock of some sort..How would you change that to have the greatest eye candy and functionality.
Well to be honest you can't get away from icons on the home screen judging from other mobile and computer operating systems. So they next question would be how do you optimize that "dock" to be to the user's liking. ADW, Launcher Pro, and somewhat MIUI has provided a little answer to that. You can theme the dock, put 1 to 5 icons on it..But the trouble is to not make it look iPhoneish yet allow the possibility in case someone want to...we don't want that. So what do you do? Also perhaps we could not get rid of the app drawer, but the app drawer short cut. Like there is a little bar or line (depends what shape your dock is) above the dock and you have to drag that up.
Or perhaps having the notification bar on the bottom (top if you wanted to) and improve the notification system
Cimer said:
The community designs it's own UI and from there it is dependent on specific devices developers.
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ah i see now, sorry for the misunderstanding
Cimer said:
If you think about it All roms basically have icons on their home screen in a grid or on a dock of some sort..How would you change that to have the greatest eye candy and functionality.
Well to be honest you can't get away from icons on the home screen judging from other mobile and computer operating systems.
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i came across this...looks pretty interesting to me
I also like this idea, MIUI has done an outstanding job with android, they've added so many things that were never made, but even CM is superior to AOSP or any stock ROM out there. I would like a cool homescreen that's 2D w/ 3D like effect similar to sense 3.0. And the setting menus should resemble honeycomb, it should have extensive theming down to every app. These are just some things I would like to see.
Hi,
I'm interested in purchasing a Nexus 4 I have no cellphone plan, nor do I want one; instead I intend to use the phone as a tablet or PDA.
I would like to hear some feedback on how feasible it is to low-level remove the cell and gps antennas' capabilities. Is there a driver or kernel module of some sort that could be removed to 'neuter' the phone? Can the hardware run the antennas without the ROM or kernel's consent?
I've already read about the code to reach a developer menu and 'disable radio' as well as 'airplane mode'. Neither of these fit the bill, I want the phone to be incapable of transmitting cell/gps information.
I would love to join the android community, but I will not feel comfortable until I know that the device isn't going to hand over my location to anyone with a crafty enough story at the police department, which I believe makes this question one of security rather than battery life or functionality.
My apologies if this is posted in the wrong section, I decided that the android forum would be most appropriate because I'm curious about how android manages the cellular antenna rather than something specific to the Nexus.
Thanks!,
BigBubbaX said:
Hi,
I'm interested in purchasing a Nexus 4 I have no cellphone plan, nor do I want one; instead I intend to use the phone as a tablet or PDA.
I would like to hear some feedback on how feasible it is to low-level remove the cell and gps antennas' capabilities. Is there a driver or kernel module of some sort that could be removed to 'neuter' the phone? Can the hardware run the antennas without the ROM or kernel's consent?
I've already read about the code to reach a developer menu and 'disable radio' as well as 'airplane mode'. Neither of these fit the bill, I want the phone to be incapable of transmitting cell/gps information.
I would love to join the android community, but I will not feel comfortable until I know that the device isn't going to hand over my location to anyone with a crafty enough story at the police department, which I believe makes this question one of security rather than battery life or functionality.
My apologies if this is posted in the wrong section, I decided that the android forum would be most appropriate because I'm curious about how android manages the cellular antenna rather than something specific to the Nexus.
Thanks!,
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I am also interested in this...
I bet if one can compile a kernel for his own device, it is possible to disable the GPS and related drives in the module/kernel config.
and this would completely kill the feature... so no risk of any spyware app triggering it etc...
however it may not make sense to use maps on the device... unless you want to bluetooth pair it to another GPS device.
Nexus is great... but I want to be able to do this for a different phone which may not be as popular on here.. than what ?
G
ghatothkach said:
I am also interested in this...
I bet if one can compile a kernel for his own device, it is possible to disable the GPS and related drives in the module/kernel config.
and this would completely kill the feature... so no risk of any spyware app triggering it etc...
however it may not make sense to use maps on the device... unless you want to bluetooth pair it to another GPS device.
Nexus is great... but I want to be able to do this for a different phone which may not be as popular on here.. than what ?
G
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Hi ghatothkach,
I'm still working on this. First I need to assemble a x64 computer capable of compiling a ROM from source, then I'll see if I can find a way to nullify the radio drivers. If it's possible for the Nexus, I'm pretty sure a similar workflow will be available for your phone.
There are also some other aspects of Android that I'd like to look at for security concerns, such as the way that the phone currently broadcasts a list of wireless networks which it is associated with.
I apologize for digging up an old thread, but has there been any development on this subject? Or physically removing or disabling the GPS receiver on a phone?
6 years later..
Question remains.
Is that possible to root the device and delete the gps driver/kernel completely?
If yes which of the file as to be removed
0
I'm looking into building a custom android device to be embedded in a project I'm working on. I won't need GSM/cell service, so this would be more of a 'tablet' with wifi that's the size of a phone. The first version of this project used some lower level embedded controllers, but for a better user experience (capacitive touch screen, full featured app, etc), I'm looking into using an embedded android device and having a friend (who told me to post here about this) write an app to run on it for me. This project is starting to scale, so buying a cheap tablet and tearing it apart isn't really a good option; I'll need to build something from the ground up. My problem is that I'm more of a microprocessors guy, so I don't really know where to start with this kind of hardware.
I found this thread which was a good start, but the info is like 3 years old now.
Has anyone tried to do something like this? Should I be trying to find a manufacturer who already does this type of thing to work with? If so, how do I find someone like that? If I am going to do the design myself, what kind of processors can run an Android OS? Where's a good place for learning that type of info? Are there any reference designs out there I can use to get started? Is running Android on RaspberryPi a good starting spot, or is that simply not scalable?
Thanks for the help, I hope I'm in the right spot. Apologies if not!
Hi,
When I read the questions and guides, it seems the Surface Duo can be unlocked and rooted pretty easily.
So I was wondering why there is no custom ROM for this device which is, by all means, not perfect (it has a lot of flaws) but that I consider as at least a refreshing attempt to dig out of the "one glass rectangle touch screen" that we're now used to for years.
Is it beacause there's no love for the device ?
Or is it because Microsoft released absolutely no sources for the internal hardware ?
If there's anyone willing to try, I can offer build server to do it...
And contacts in a community to help iron out problems...
Regards.
Microsoft has indeed released the sources of the internal hardware, or, at the very least, some of it. I don't really know how to determine whether or not all of the drivers are included with the kernel source code. But they do have this kernel source code hosted on GitHub, under a combination of MIT, Apache, and GPL licensing, as well as full instructions on how to build the kernel. The instructions are located at microsoft/surface-duo-oss, and the scripts end up downloading from other microsoft/surface-duo-oss-* repositories. I've not actually tried to build this myself, and I'm not sure what you actually end up with afterwards, whether it is just a kernel, or if it also includes AOSP, and whether or not this can be included in the process of generating another distribution such as Lineage. But, I think this should at least be some information that can be used to at least start the process assuming anyone with existing experience is interested in starting this.
I have seen it expressed elsewhere that one reason people have not created a custom ROM is that android 10 does not have native support for multiscreen devices, while android 11 does. Meanwhile, Microsoft has only released android 10 for the device, and this includes the surface-duo-oss scripts as well, but that there is plans here soon (late September) by Microsoft release android 11 for the Surface Duo.
Fingers crossed! Looking forward to a robust desktop mode and multiple external monitor support like the regular Surface Pro does
Basically a phone that acts like a Surface PC when you dock at home or at work so you can actually work from the device like a normal Surface laptop and then fold and put it in our pockets when we're done working
I know this is an older post but I sure wish someone would go ahead and give me the dummy guide to flash their custom rom!! If anyone needs a duo that thinks they can make it happen I have a spare one..... The left screen is glitching in and out tho.
So, I've got the Blackview BV9900Pro which as you probably know if you are reading this, is a wonderfully well priced, rugged phone with the Lepton FLIR camera built in. Being a Treble device, it is possible to install most GSI ROMs to it, however there is currently no build of TWRP, and thus far, nobody seems to have been able to get the FLIR working on the GSIs. This presents two problems. First, recovery is a wonderfully useful tool to have, and the stock recovery leaves a lot to be desired, Second, the FLIR is the main reason for buying the pro model of this phone, rendering custom ROMs virtually useless.
That being said, I love this phone, and want to start to work on both. This will be a major learning curve as a) I'm not a developer by trade (I'm a marine engineer and environmental officer on a cruise line) and b) My job takes 10+ hours a day, 7 days a week when I am on board leaving me with limited time to put into it. I've built Linux from scratch (LFS back a number of years ago) which gave me good experience with the build environment and with compiling code / troubleshooting issues so I am confident I can pull it off, but I'm intersted in gauging if there is interest in publishing my work for others ot use.
If you have the 9900Pro phone, and are intersted in either TWRP and/or custom ROMs that support the FLIR, drop me a reply here and let me know. If you have any experience with modifying custom ROMs to work with vendor hardware, I would LOVE to hear about it - it will perhaps help guide me in my efforts. One of my biggest peeves with the phone is the lack of support for basic features (ie, SIP calling is not natively supported in the vendor's ROM) and the bugginess of the OS (apps being closed int he background, widgets not loading on boot etc). The GSI I am running now (Lineage) solves these issues, but the lack of IR camera really devalues the phone, so I'm hopeful that I can resolve the issue, and make this phone worth having.
Also, if anyone knows how to go about adding a new device to the forum tree, please chime in. I'm completely new to this whole developer support thing but comitted to making it work!
Cheers everyone!