The basics, goal: porting to chromebook

[Darko Luketic]

It isn't really a port when there's a x86_64 build target however I'm completely new to Android.

I'd need to know the basics, that is
- bootloader
- boot process
- what are the images?
- partition layout?

So like I wrote in the topic the goal is running the x86_64 android build (aosp_x86_64-eng) on a chromebook, namely Acer c720.

For bootloader, would grub suffice?
I'd imagine yes, since it's able to boot regular Linux kernels, so it has to be able to boot the Android Linux kernel.
Furthermore it would probably need an unpacked kernel however there is no kernel.img,
so I'm thinking... get the chromebook kernel and "somehow" convert it to an Android compatible kernel (with filesystem), or just take the x86_64 source tree and copy the Chromebook kernel config ~

I'd use just the Chromebook with the original OS but everyone and their mom is using Skype, including my mom, and would make a great replacement for her wireless-only tablet.

From a post from 2009 in this mailing list I read that
system.img is mounted on /
userdata.img is mounted on /data/
what's cache.img?
ramdisk.img is apparently the initramfs that "somehow" needs to be included in the kernel boot process

can I just create partitions and dd the contents of those img files?

Should I use a different bootloader, uboot?

[Stuart Small]

There are a couple good books to start out with to help you out.  Embedded Android[1] has kind of been the android porting book for a while.  A new one[2] hit the market recently that looks great but I haven't read it yet.   From a quick thumbing through it looks much more technical and low level than the first one.  The first book I linked to is very well written, well rounded and easy to read.  I recommend to start with it.

I'd suggest checking them both out.  They will have the answers to all the questions you are asking plus more that you don't know to ask yet :) Normally I hate to reply with "RTFM" but in this case it might be worth it.  These books will give you the most time efficient head start on your project.

Good luck and happy hacking!

1. http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920021094.do
2. http://www.amazon.com/Embedded-Programming-Android-Bringing-Scratch/dp/0134030001