Android Apps on Chromium OS & Open Source

[Gizmo Chicken]

According to an article on Android Authority, the current method for running Android apps on Chrome OS is achieved “through Linux namespaces which isolate the Android and Chrome OS" and "Android is running directly on top of the Linux kernel."  See http://www.androidauthority.com/preparing-your-android-app-for-chromebooks-710138/

Will the code that allows Android apps to run on Chrome OS be released in a form that will allow Android apps to run on Chromium OS?

And if so, has there been any talk of porting the code to a form that would allow Android apps to run on other Linux distributions, such as Arch, Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu?

[Mike Frysinger]

the Android container itself has no plans to be released (which is basically just the rootfs of an Android system).  everything else is already released, and as noted, is using standard Linux technology to isolate things (namespaces, etc...).

with that in mind, there's nothing stopping people from implementing this approach elsewhere.

-mike

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[Gizmo Chicken]

Mike,

Thanks for the reply.  Much appreciated!  And that's promising news.

One follow-up question:  I'm under the impression (possibly mis-impression) that Chrome OS uses a Linux kernel that has been somewhat modified relative to a stock Linux kernel. To your knowledge, does Chrome OS rely on anything not in the stock kernel to allow Android apps to run on Chrome OS?

Sorry for the naiveté of my questions.  Obviously, I'm not a developer, but just a hobbyist.

GizmoChicken

On Friday, September 2, 2016 at 6:03:23 PM UTC-4, Mike Frysinger wrote:

the Android container itself has no plans to be released (which is basically just the rootfs of an Android system).  everything else is already released, and as noted, is using standard Linux technology to isolate things (namespaces, etc...).

with that in mind, there's nothing stopping people from implementing this approach elsewhere.

-mike

On Fri, Sep 2, 2016 at 5:57 PM, Gizmo Chicken <gizmoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

According to an article on Android Authority, the current method for running Android apps on Chrome OS is achieved “through Linux namespaces which isolate the Android and Chrome OS" and "Android is running directly on top of the Linux kernel."  See http://www.androidauthority.com/preparing-your-android-app-for-chromebooks-710138/

Will the code that allows Android apps to run on Chrome OS be released in a form that will allow Android apps to run on Chromium OS?

And if so, has there been any talk of porting the code to a form that would allow Android apps to run on other Linux distributions, such as Arch, Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu?

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[Mike Frysinger]

we use altsyscall for security which only CrOS has atm, but it isn't required to run.

we might have backported some fixes from AOSP, but I don't think we have anything unique. certainly all the kernel code has been released. we do enable Android drivers that no distros enable by default (like binder).

I've been out of touch with the kernel work here, so I could be wrong.

g'luck!

-mike

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[Dylan Reid]

Mike has it correct. We are running a fairly upstream kernel, with
additions from the public android kernel tree.

You will need some relatively recent kernel features. cgroup
namespaces are used, so you'll need a 4.5+ kernel or to backported
that feature.

You can find all the details you want in our kernel tree.

[David Sayles]

So if we build chromiumos with "USE=arc", should we expect to see everything except the container (which I think should end up in `/opt/google/containers`)?  I tried that, then started to diff my build against an asus flip (in dev mode) and found a bunch of stuff in addition to the container missing.  Init scripts such as `arc-camera.conf`, `arc-mount.com` are missing.  Binaries in /usr/bin such as `arc_camera_services` and `arc-obb-mounter` are missing.  And some users and groups such as `arc-bridge` were missing.

I used an Asus Flip v54.0.2824.5, and the release-R54-8743.B building for the `veyron_minnie` board as comparisons.

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Thanks,
Dave

[Mike Frysinger]

we haven't migrated some of the supplementary files to the public, however, if you read the content of those, you'll see they're not that complicated, and are largely board-specific.  they're the glue layer that combines the capabilities of the current system with the Android world.

-mike

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Thanks,
Dave

[Gizmo Chicken]

Looks like someone is finally applying an approach similar to ARC++ to bring Android apps to traditional Linux distributions.

http://anbox.io

https://mm.gravedo.de/blog/posts/2017-04-10-introducing-anbox/

I still hope that Google will provide, either on its own or in partnership with others, a fully supported and production ready port of ARC++ that can be installed and run on a traditional Linux distribution.

Or at the very least, I hope that Google will provide an appropriately licensed mechanism that will allow Anbox users to access the Google Play Store (and other Google Mobile Services), so that Anbox users won't be tempted to resort to legally questionable, and potentially insecure, methods.

Regards,
GizmoChicken

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 12:40:09 PM UTC-4, Mike Frysinger wrote:

we haven't migrated some of the supplementary files to the public, however, if you read the content of those, you'll see they're not that complicated, and are largely board-specific.  they're the glue layer that combines the capabilities of the current system with the Android world.

-mike

On Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 12:15 PM, David Sayles <dsa...@neverware.com> wrote:

So if we build chromiumos with "USE=arc", should we expect to see everything except the container (which I think should end up in `/opt/google/containers`)?  I tried that, then started to diff my build against an asus flip (in dev mode) and found a bunch of stuff in addition to the container missing.  Init scripts such as `arc-camera.conf`, `arc-mount.com` are missing.  Binaries in /usr/bin such as `arc_camera_services` and `arc-obb-mounter` are missing.  And some users and groups such as `arc-bridge` were missing.

I used an Asus Flip v54.0.2824.5, and the release-R54-8743.B building for the `veyron_minnie` board as comparisons.

On Fri, Sep 2, 2016 at 6:02 PM, Mike Frysinger <vap...@chromium.org> wrote:

the Android container itself has no plans to be released (which is basically just the rootfs of an Android system).  everything else is already released, and as noted, is using standard Linux technology to isolate things (namespaces, etc...).

with that in mind, there's nothing stopping people from implementing this approach elsewhere.

-mike

On Fri, Sep 2, 2016 at 5:57 PM, Gizmo Chicken <gizmoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

According to an article on Android Authority, the current method for running Android apps on Chrome OS is achieved “through Linux namespaces which isolate the Android and Chrome OS" and "Android is running directly on top of the Linux kernel."  See http://www.androidauthority.com/preparing-your-android-app-for-chromebooks-710138/

Will the code that allows Android apps to run on Chrome OS be released in a form that will allow Android apps to run on Chromium OS?

And if so, has there been any talk of porting the code to a form that would allow Android apps to run on other Linux distributions, such as Arch, Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu?

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Thanks,
Dave

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[RAAVAN]

Hi Mike,

Need Help.

I am currently running :

Chromium by Arnoldthebat Version 58.0.3029.140

Platform 9334.72.2017_05_22_1905 (Developer Build - vanilla) developer-build x86-vanilla

Do we currently have any possibility of running the Android apps on the same.

I need it as my android handset is out for repair and would take another 20 or so days.

Please help.

Regards,

Raavan

[Capuccino]

Hey Gizmo,

Looks like we got the ARC Container bundle as well already open sourced.

If anyone got the ability to compile CrOS with this would be highly appreciated.

Capuccino

(PS: I still haven't got to build it myself because my main issue with CrOS is on BIOS systems, the image would just never load because its non-UEFI)

[Adam Kearn]

+1  Has anyone got this working yet.  I have tried many times but still, couldn't find out how to do it due to lack of documentation/guides 

Thanks

Adam

[Capuccino]

Hey Adam,

More recent CrOS builds should have it right now, but I doubt it would initialize properly since we don't know what's missing. Feel free to log a bug in crbug.

Cheers,

Capuccino

[Mike Frysinger]

please don't file a bug in this regard.  Chromium OS builds do not include Android support.  we've open sourced a lot (if not most by this point) of the code, but we haven't published any containers.

-mike

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Thanks,
Dave

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[Keith I Myers]

Hello Mike,

Do you know if theere are anyy plans to release instructions to build our own containers from source?

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[Mike Frysinger]

unfortunately, there are no such plans at this time.  it sucks for everyone involved, but there are overarching concerns outside of CrOS influencing things.

-mike

[Adam Kearn]

No worries Mike,  I wasn't going to file a bug anyway.

You have probably noticed that I haven't been bothering the group for a while with my questions,  the reason for this is because I have been quite busy the last couple of months revising for my GCSE exams

I have also got a Job as an IT specialist, where I'm building/fixing computers most of the week.

Of course, having this job doesn't give me much time at home to spend developing so I have had to cease my development on CrOS

until I have enough money to afford a decent CPU to compile on.  (thinking of getting an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2920X (12-Core/24-Thread)

Unless you have any better recommendations???

I am fed up using a slow 4 core VM to compile chromium os so that's why I am thinking of building a dedicated system.

Regards, Adam.

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Thanks,
Dave

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