Posts Tagged ‘Android 2.2’

An interim fix for booting Android and Ångström

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Bubu worked out how to tweak the kernel with fbset to do what we want.

A known working snapshot is here:

http://www.openaos.org/wp-upload/gen7/2010-09-15/

You’ll most likely only need the zImage and initramfs.

He added an temporary extension to the menu.lst structure. If you add ‘|1′ then fbset will set the framebuffer like in the original SDE kernel (e.g. for Ångström). If you add ‘|0′ then it will be set like for the Archos firmware and FroYo. In addition it tries to guess the right defaults: Everything gets the old 24 bit framebuffer unless it is: Archos firmware or the menu entry name contains ‘android’ or ‘froyo’, then it is set to the new mode.

Example for an android froyo override:
MyDroid|/dev/sda1|/rootfs.img|/init|0

Example for an linux image using SDE framebuffer override:
MyLinux|/dev/sda1|/rootfs.img|/sbin/init|1

This is a temporary hack though. We will rework the menu.lst structure to be more flexible in terms of options.

Froyo Alpha1 a quick summary

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

It looks like we’ll be trying to get an alpha2 out sooner than we thought.
There are various issues we’ve found.
The most annoying is the random shutdown which was caused by a typo. There are also some other problems with the initramfs not working 100% as we’d like (serial debugging doesn’t activet or if it activates the kernel log is missing, the menu.lst is not generated/extended automatically, etc.)

We’ll keep you posted.

For more info on what’s been discovered, fixed or still open please check this report on our developer pages.

openAOS brings you: FroYo alpha1 for Archos 5 IT!

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

We had some early development snapshots already, but for an real alpha version we said we want to fix at least WiFi and SGX. For WiFi we even had an bounty and I guess this image is best proof that the bounty has been earned. Furies did the work on it. Thanks to AndAppStore for sponsoring the bounty!

Well we don’t want to make the tension unbearable here is the image:

FroYo Alpha1 for Archos5IT

This also needs this boot-menu update: zImage and initramfs

Enjoy your FroYo! Here are the much easier new instructions for setting up the boot-menu if you haven’t yet.

This image needs the following line added to menu.lst (do NOT use notepad! use an editor capable of proper unix line endings!):

openAOS Froyo alpha|/dev/sda1|/rootfsfroyo.img|/init

This all comes with a bootnote, a rather extensive one:

  • This is alpha grade software intended for developers and tech-savy testers.
  • There are still many unresolved issues and problems.
  • If you ‘just want FroYo’ – this is not for you! Wait until it’s stable and usable.
  • If you don’t plan to give us feedback – this is not for you! Wait until it’s stable and usable.
  • If you expect everything to work – this is not for you! Wait until it’s stable and usable.
  • After this has been said, thank you very much you seriously want to help us with this. We appreciate this very much as we really need every help we can get!
  • If you notice anything that doesn’t feel right, please file an ticket and
    use Android 2.2 Alpha2 as the target milestone
    and Android 2.2 – alpha1 as the version
  • Please do the same if you want some feature included or something improved
  • First boot will take very long! Keep your USB cable connected.
    • First the rootfs gets unzipped (You can unzip it on your PC that’s much faster!)
    • The Android cache is compiled – this can also take a while, just watch the boot logo while this happens.
  • Please join the mailing-list to discuss this image!
  • Want to see if someone is online right now to ask a question or discuss? Join us on IRC!
  • Yes sound does not work, sorry. Next Alpha maybe.
  • Don’t want to install the alpha but still want to help? Consider donating to the openAOS project!

¹ please note that the default Ångström image needs to be modified to work with this kernel! adding the command ‘fbset -nonstd 0′ could fix at least part of the issue during boot process. Expect updates on this soon.

Closer to Archdruid Froyo Alpha 1 – again a video

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Second video today.
We’ve supplied Furies with some updated binaries and the latest SGX enabled Froyo build from internal testing. Also checked things to make sure we will be able to distribute an image.

This video is what we got back:

Sure looks nice.

As soon as we get our hands on the necessary steps and scripts we’ll spin an Archdruid Froyo Alpha 1 image for all the impatient people out there.

bootnote: Alpha 1 should give you an idea what we think about general stability and buggyness. If you want something as stable as the Archos firmware come back in a few months at the earliest. Currently there are e.g. still power management issues that make the unit randomly freeze.

finally an contestant for the first bounty? – video shows WiFi under FroYo on A5IT

Monday, August 30th, 2010

We heard some rumors already yesterday but now we’ve received a video that shows what seems to be working WiFi.

We’re eagerly awaiting the formal submission by Furies.