Could we run Linux/X11 natively instead of Android?

[southbird]

This was originally posed by a few people in Debian/Xfce on Ainol Paladin, but I figure we should extract it from that thread since alezzandro is really doing a chroot effort in his thread.

Taking from a post pinkflodz made:

its working really good...i installed enlightenment and its a lot easier to use the tablet now ...
im really looking forward in a possibility of a native X

maybe some further reading about x11 on android phone
How to run Debian with X11 on your Nexus One | Android Devs

and my sources for kernel and xboot
GIT | Varjanta

We should try to figure out what would be needed to accomplish a defacto Linux system and possibly figure this out a step at a time...

[xupthree60]

pretty soon Ubuntu will release the ability to run both sanctimoniously. since they use the same kernal they wont require a reboot.

[southbird]

pretty soon Ubuntu will release the ability to run both sanctimoniously. since they use the same kernal they wont require a reboot.

That's not QUITE the same thing as a dedicated Linux system... what we're looking at here would drop the Android part of the device. Also I doubt that Canonical is going to support the MIPS architecture, I don't think that's a current priority for anyone in the Android world.

[southbird]

If anyone is interested in pursuing this, check out this article: Compute for Life: Arch Linux LXDE /w Xorg Mouse Keyboard on Nook Color Android Tablet

I will try this on my Paladin when I get home! The directions are for a different tablet, but they're so non-specific Android I'm hoping that they translate more or less directly.

I imagine with a little tweaking we could get alezzandro's Linux running on the system taking up the screen properly without Android interference. Whether or not that makes it a useful or faster device I don't know. But I have reached the point where I think I can make more use out of the Paladin as a Linux device than an Android one.

If it really works as well as the article suggests, I could see "shutting down" Android, going into Linux, and providing the option of going back again, if you want. And maybe with a little hackery, a modified ROM could be produced which makes it a Linux-only device in the most compatible way... if anyone would want that.

[southbird]

The above DOES work! I had to build a slightly modified versions of pinkflodz's kernel though (specifically, I needed to enable virtual terminal support or X11 wouldn't start.)

This terrible photo shows the little Paladin running native X11 with ! This is not VNC, this is X11 having taken over the framebuffer completely and running LXDE with Android kicked off per:

setprop ctl.stop media && setprop ctl.stop zygote && killall bootanimation

SAM_4108.jpg


I didn't have working input (keyboard / mouse / etc.) so I wasn't able to interact with it, but it did start doing a screensaver after a while, so it was alive. Unknown yet whether this would be any more usable than Android or whatever. I'll keep this thread alive if anyone is interested in further developments... please reply, so I know whether or not time invested would be appreciated.

EDIT: Got USB keyboard working now...

[galorin]

Southbird, can you tell me where or how to get ahold of the source so I can do some kernel hacking on Pinkfloydz' kernel as well? Got a few things I want to try.

The above DOES work! I had to build a slightly modified versions of pinkflodz's kernel though (specifically, I needed to enable virtual terminal support or X11 wouldn't start.)

This terrible photo shows the little Paladin running native X11 with ! This is not VNC, this is X11 having taken over the framebuffer completely and running LXDE with Android kicked off per:

setprop ctl.stop media && setprop ctl.stop zygote && killall bootanimation

Attachment 422




I didn't have working input (keyboard / mouse / etc.) so I wasn't able to interact with it, but it did start doing a screensaver after a while, so it was alive. Unknown yet whether this would be any more usable than Android or whatever. I'll keep this thread alive if anyone is interested in further developments... please reply, so I know whether or not time invested would be appreciated.

EDIT: Got USB keyboard working now...

[closertozero]

Southbird, can you tell me where or how to get ahold of the source so I can do some kernel hacking on Pinkfloydz' kernel as well? Got a few things I want to try.

GIT | Varjanta as published in other threads.

[southbird]

GIT | Varjanta as published in other threads.

Yup... once you have the kernel mirrored, do the following to build it:

To be done in the directory of the kernel source...

export CCOMPILER=[source]/Ingenic-JZ4770-Android-Kernel/toolchain/4.4.3/bin/mips-linux-gnu-
make ARCH=mips CROSS_COMPILE=$CCOMPILER npm702_pinkflozd_defconfig
make menuconfig
make ARCH=mips CROSS_COMPILE=$CCOMPILER

NOTE: You must run "make menuconfig" even if you don't plan any changes to avoid lots of questions



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Update... I upgraded my test setup from Debian Squeeze (stable) to Wheezy (testing), mainly for the new evdev. "evtest" shows proper, recognized "multi-touch" events coming from the touchscreen, but as yet I haven't been able to get X to recognize them. I'm not sure if it's something lacking in Ingenic's touch driver (possible, since it looks like they wrote their own?) or I just haven't found the right combination of xorg.conf magic.

[will567]

If this could be made into something flashed through cwm, I think a number of people-including me- would be interested.

Sent from my JXD S9000 using tapatalk

[southbird]

If this could be made into something flashed through cwm, I think a number of people-including me- would be interested.

Sent from my JXD S9000 using tapatalk

Realistically, the way I'm doing it now, it would be fairly feasible to "reboot" from Android into Linux (literally it kills the Android processes and hands over the framebuffer to X.) According to what I've read, the processes should be re-startable, meaning you could "reboot" back to Android (I haven't tried that yet though...) So, as long as you have the right kernel, this could be a mod rather than needing to replace the whole system.

Of course, having said that, I could see making a hacked apart ROM that does only boot into Linux as a possibility...