Android binaries

[Martin]

I just put some Android binaries into the Downloads section at
http://code.google.com/p/loox7xxport/downloads/list to provide you
something to play with. I put two zip files there, one is for booting
from an SD card, the other one for booting from a CF card. Just put
the content of the right file into the root directory of the desired
card and run haret.exe.

Be patient with the first boot, the Android splash screen will
probably last for more than a minute (Android scans the Dalvik
packages and precompiles them). Subsequent boots will be faster.

These Android binaries will not give you the best performance possible
(it's a debug build), it's just a demonstration that it is possible to
run Android on the Loox.

All data partitions are mounted as loopback files for the ease of
installation. Putting data on native partitions will improve
performance. You can probably do that with the files provided, the
mount points are configured in the file "/init.rc" in the initramfs.
Note that the initramfs is actually embedded in the kernel image, but
I put a copy into a file ("initramfs_data.cpio") for the curious. The
reason for the embedding is that I could not get haret to correctly
set up the initramfs when it was read from a separate file. The kernel
never recognized it, only kernels with embedded initramfs did. Maybe
one of you knows this problem (and a solution)?

All filesystem images are in ext2 format, I would also recommend using
ext2 when you want to put the data on native partitions. The provided
kernel does contains neither ext3 nor ext4 support (because ext3 is
not really a good choice for our rather slow flash media, the
journaling wears flash and slows down the writes even more, ext4
without journaling would be an alternative, but I did not try that
yet).

Another thing you should know is the assignment of the buttons:

Scrollwheel up: Volume up
Scrollwheel down: Volume down
Scrollwheel push: enter
Power button: suspend
Arrow buttons: as they are
Arrow button center: OK
Buttons arround the arrow buttons (clockwise from top left): unused,
back, menu, home
Left side button (below scroll wheel): camera
Right side button: record

And don't be surprised when your touchscreen is decalibrated, the
kernel contains hard coded calibration data for my device. I hope to
change that soon.

That's it so far, sources will follow later. Have fun.

Martin

[xavitron]

Great Job Martin!
I tested it in my Loox720 and it works quite well.
In think that the web browser works faster than the wm5 one..wow, I'm
very impressed.
Thank you very much. You are making a fantastic port of Android to
Loox.

Thanks again!

On 5 feb, 01:41, Martin <loox.mar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I just put some Android binaries into the Downloads section athttp://code.google.com/p/loox7xxport/downloads/listto provide you

[Martin]

I've just put up a new set of binaries.

News:

Touch screen calibration
Calibrate your touch screen in WinCE. Install a registry editor (such
as PHM RegEdit, http://www.freewareppc.com/download/utilities/phmregistryeditor.shtml)
on your Loox and read the string value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware
\Devicemap\Touch\CalibrationData. Replace spaces by semicolons, and
specify the result as kernel parameter ads7846_calib in startup.txt.

Performance improvements
I removed some telephony stuff that we do not need. This frees up some
memory and CPU and makes Android feel a little bit more snappy.
This is still a debug build, though. I cannot provide a retail build
anytime soon because I'm quite low on disk space on my build machine.
I've no space for a second Android working tree, and I do not want to
lose my debug build because a complete rebuild takes my machine about
three days (my desktop PC is older than my Loox). I think about
getting a new machine, but it will probably not happen too soon.

Resume does not crash anymore when Wifi is on
It should now be possible to resume when Android was suspended with
Wifi enabled. Wifi will still not work properly afterwards (disable
and reenable to make it work again), but the system should not crash
anymore.
It is possible that the boot-from-SD-version has another unrelated and
new resume problem (I could not resume even with Wifi disabled in a
quick test), but it could also be a problem with my SD card. I did not
see this problem when booting from CF.

Martin

[Dmitriy Geels]

Hello!

2011/2/16 Martin <loox....@gmail.com>:

> I've just put up a new set of binaries.
>
> News:
>
> Touch screen calibration
> Calibrate your touch screen in WinCE. Install a registry editor (such
> as PHM RegEdit, http://www.freewareppc.com/download/utilities/phmregistryeditor.shtml)
> on your Loox and read the string value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware
> \Devicemap\Touch\CalibrationData. Replace spaces by semicolons, and
> specify the result as kernel parameter ads7846_calib in startup.txt.

Better way is to create sysfs entry for calibration read/write and set
calibration data through init.d script.

[Dmitriy Geels]

BTW, it would be interesting to see, how chinese tablets with
resistive screens do calibration. May be we can get calibration
utility from their rom.

2011/2/16 Dmitriy Geels <dmitri...@gmail.com>:

[Martin]

On 16 Feb., 09:47, Dmitriy Geels <dmitriy.ge...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Better way is to create sysfs entry for calibration read/write and set
> calibration data through init.d script.

Sure, there are nicer solutions. My goal was to get something usable
with minimum effort. Feel free to improve.

Martin

[Mike Protts]

Thanks for your work on this!

I am trying to set up a build environment, and if I succeed I'll find somewhere to put a userdebug or user build.  It seems to be building at the moment but I'll have to wait a while until I know if it works.

I have a 720 and a 710 to test on - your 720 build seems fine, so I should be able to compare with mine.

The 710 has a QVGA screen and the current build seems to use VGA size so it's not possible to see how far I've got.  Any hints on how to make a QVGA build?  The 64MB memory will probably also be a problem, but the system did seem to run and display something that looked like a corrupted lock screen.

Cheers

Mike

[jan rinze]

Hi Mike,

if you succeed, let me know. we can put both sources and binaries up on the googlecode site.

Jan Rinze.

2011/7/22 Mike Protts <mikep...@gmail.com>

[Mike Protts]

I have a build environment, but I don't think I've got the setup for the loox correct yet.  I can't see the 

drivers mentioned at http://code.google.com/p/loox7xxport/wiki/AndroidBuildSystemSetup (drivers/net/wireless/acx/acx-mac80211.ko and drivers/net/wireless/acx/platform-pcmcia/pcmcia_acx.ko) and there are a lot of differences in the files in the system image (loop mount) - just a few as an example (origloox is from the download, myloox from my build):

Only in origloox//app: Development.apk

Only in myloox//app: Mms.apk

Only in myloox//app: Phone.apk

Only in origloox//app: SpareParts.apk

Only in origloox//app: SpeechRecorder.apk

Only in myloox//app: TelephonyProvider.apk

Only in origloox//app: Term.apk

Only in origloox//bin: applypatch_static

Only in origloox//bin: check_prereq

Only in origloox//bin: flash_image

Only in origloox//bin: gdbjithelper

Only in myloox//bin: gdbserver

Only in origloox//bin: recovery

Only in origloox//bin: skia_test

Only in origloox//bin: updater

Only in origloox//etc/dhcpcd: dhcpcd.conf

Only in origloox//etc: firmware

Only in origloox//etc: wifi

Only in origloox//lib: corgi.so

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Cheers

Mike