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Android Porting On Real Target


1. Introduction

¼Ò°³ Google explains that Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. This document explains the Android architecture by Google and porting procedure on the real hardware. The explanation is based on the m3 sdk version of the Android emulator. ±¸±ÛÀº ¾Èµå·ÎÀ̵尡 Åë½Å±â±â¸¦ À§ÇÑ OS, middleware, Áß¿ä ¾îÇø®ÄÉÀÌ¼Ç µîÀ» Æ÷ÇÔÇÑ ¼ÒÇÁÆ®¿þ¾î ÁýÇÕÀ̶ó°í ¼³¸íÇÏ°í ÀÖ´Ù ÀÌ ¹®¼­´Â ±¸±ÛÀÇ ¾Èµå·ÎÀÌµå ±¸Á¶¿Í ±× Çϵå¿þ¾î¿¡ Æ÷ÆÃÇÏ´Â °úÁ¤¿¡ ´ëÇØ ´Ù·ç°í ÀÖ´Ù. ¼³¸íÀº ¾Èµå·ÎÀÌµå ¿¡¹Ä·¹ÀÌÅÍ m3 sdk version¸¦ ±âÁØÀ¸·Î ÇÑ´Ù.

If you have enough knowledge about patching the kernel, resolving rejections from a patch, making an ramdisk image, and the Linux kernel itself, reading this article will be easier. ¸¸¾à ÆÐÄ¡¿¡¼­ ·¥µð½ºÅ© À̹ÌÁö¸¦ ¸¸µé°Å³ª ¸®´ª½º Ä¿³Î¿¡ ´ëÇÑ Áö½Ä µî Ä¿³ÎÀ» ÆÐÄ¡ÇÏ´Â °Í¿¡ ´ëÇØ ÀÌ¹Ì ¾Ë°í ÀÖ´Ù¸é ÀÌ ±ÛÀ» ÀÌÇØÇÏ´Â °Í¿¡ µµ¿òÀÌ µÉ °Í ÀÌ´Ù.

2. Copyright and Acknowledgements


This document is copyright (c) Kwangwoo Lee (kwangwoo.lee at gmail dot com). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

AndroidPortingOnRealTarget/ko - Korean translation by dasomoli (dasomoli at gmail dot com).

3. The brief analysis of the Android architecture


3.1. Android Kernel


The most different things are the Android kernel uses ARM EABI(Embedded Application Binary Interface) and OpenBinder IPC(Inter Process Communication). If you want to compile the kernel supporting ARM EABI, you should rebuild toolchains to support ARM EABI.

The Android sdk emulates goldfish architecture using qemu. The alsa may be used for audio on Android. See the audio.c file in the goldfish architecture directory and the driver uses /dev/eac for audio on the Android system. RTC(Real Time Clock) device is also used through /dev/rtc0.

The following parts explain the main differences:

3.1.1. ARM EABI


EABI is the new "Embedded" ABI by ARM Ltd. The changes are listed on Debian wiki. (http://wiki.debian.org/ArmEabiPort)

Example with long ftruncate64(unsigned int fd, loff_t length):

legacy ABI:
- put fd into r0
- put length into r1-r2
- use "swi #(0x900000 + 194)" to call the kernel

new ARM EABI:
- put fd into r0
- put length into r2-r3 (skipping over r1)
- put 194 into r7
- use "swi 0" to call the kernel

The Android uses EABI kernel feature. Enable kernel options of the CONFIG_AEABI and CONFIG_OABI_COMPAT. You can see the differences of the executable binary as follows :

  • Legacy ABI
$ arm-softfloat-linux-gnu-objdump -x t7-demo | grep private
private flags = 202: [APCS-32] [FPA float format] [software FP] [has entry point]

$ file t7-demo
t7-demo: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (ARM), 
for GNU/Linux 2.4.3, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), 
for GNU/Linux 2.4.3, stripped

  • ARM EABI
$ arm-softfloat-linux-gnueabi-objdump -x t7-demo  | grep private
private flags = 4000002: [Version4 EABI] [has entry point]

$ file t7-demo
t7-demo: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (SYSV), 
for GNU/Linux 2.6.14, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), 
for GNU/Linux 2.6.14, stripped


What is the ABI for the ARM Architecture? Is it the same as the ARM EABI?

The ABI for the ARM Architecture is a standard developed by ARM and its partners (including CodeSourcery) that explains how compilers, assemblers, linkers, and other similar tools should generate object files and executable files. Tools that correctly implement the ABI for the ARM Architecture can interoperate; i.e., objects files built with one toolchain can be combined with object files built with another toolchain if both compilers use the ABI for the ARM Architecture. The "ARM EABI" is an informal name for the ABI for the ARM Architecture.

3.1.2. OpenBinder


The OpenBinder provides a object-oriented operating system environment. It is designed to be hosted by traditional kernels. This project is started at Be. Inc. as the part of the next generation BeOS, and finished implementing at PalmSource as a core part at the Cobalt system.

It is a system oriented component architecture rather than application oriented, and It provides IPC between processes, threadpool, memory management and clean up feature at the end of reference of an binder object.

The vanilla kernel do not have OpenBinder IPC mechanism you should patch the kernel. The OpenBinder offers thread management for the system through /dev/binder. It is the reason that Android system do not offer thread libraries.

After patching the kernel, you can see the files for binder at drivers/binder/.

3.1.3. Frame Buffer


The basic frame buffer driver should be implemented already. After that you need to implement the differences between your architecture driver and the goldfish driver.

The frame buffer driver of the goldfish architecture supports the fb_pan_display function of the struct fb_ops. It means you should allocate memory twice rather than the actual frame size.

  • Initialize frame buffer information
struct fb_info *fbinfo;
...
fbinfo->fix.ypanstep	= 1;
fbinfo->var.yres_virtual    = gm->lcd.yres * 2;
fbinfo->fix.smem_len        =	(gm->lcd.xres *
                                gm->lcd.yres *
                                gm->lcd.bpp / 8) * 2;

  • Allocate frame buffer memory
struct mvfb_info *fbi;
...
fbi->map_size = PAGE_ALIGN(fbi->fb->fix.smem_len + PAGE_SIZE);
fbi->map_cpu  = dma_alloc_writecombine(fbi->dev, fbi->map_size,
                                       &fbi->map_dma, GFP_KERNEL);

  • Implement fb_pan_display fuction hook
static int mvfb_pan_display(struct fb_var_screeninfo *var, struct fb_info *fb)
{
...
}

static struct fb_ops mvfb_ops = {
        .owner		= THIS_MODULE,

        .fb_check_var	= mvfb_check_var,
        .fb_set_par	= mvfb_set_par,	
        .fb_setcolreg	= mvfb_setcolreg,
        .fb_blank	= mvfb_blank,
        .fb_pan_display = mvfb_pan_display,

        .fb_fillrect	= cfb_fillrect,
        .fb_copyarea	= cfb_copyarea,
        .fb_imageblit	= cfb_imageblit,

        .fb_mmap	= mvfb_mmap,	
};

The device file is located at /dev/graphics/fb0.

3.1.4. Input Devices


Android uses event device for user input. There are three devices such as keypad, qwerty2 keyboard and mouse. The qwerty2 keyboard and mouse are normal devices. So I just explain the keypad and touchscreen which mouse device is replaced with.

On the Android shell, Cat the /proc/bus/input/{devices,handlers} and then you will see the devices used for the Android.
$ adb shell

# cat /proc/bus/input/devices
I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="goldfish-events-keyboard"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/class/inut/input0
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd mouse0 event0
...
#
# cat /proc/bus/input/handlers
N: Number=0 Name=kbd
N: Number=1 Name=mousedev Minor=32
N: Number=2 Name=evdev Minor=64
#

  • Keypad

Qemu emulates goldfish-events-keyboard. It is a keypad using event device(/dev/input/event0). So you should know which key event and values come from the event device to activate Android applications. To do that, read event0 device with cat and redirect the output to a file. If you push and release the key button on emulator, the output values will be saved.

The output format is struct input_event. So the output on each event is 16 bytes like 8 bytes for time, 2 bytes for type, 2 bytes for code, 4 bytes for value. Read input.txt and input-programming.txt about input event devices in the Documentation/input directory of the Linux kernel source code.

struct input_event {
        struct timeval time;
        unsigned short type;
        unsigned short code;
        unsigned int value;
};

The Tiger7 evaluation board has it's own scancode table. The following shows the key layout on evaluation board, scancode table, and Android keycodes:
/*
 *  Key Layout       Scancode Table
 *
 *   1  2  3        0x1  0x10  0x100
 *   4  5  6        0x2  0x20  0x200
 *   7  8  9        0x4  0x40  0x400
 *   *  0  #        0x8  0x80  0x800
 */

static unsigned short android_keycode[] = {
        /*
         *  0x66 0x67 0x9e	Home  Up   Back
         *  0x69 0xe8 0x6a	Left  Ok   Right
         *  0xe7 0x6c 0x6b	Send  Down Hangup
         *  0xe5		Menu       just_distinction_for_private
         */
        KEY_HOME,         KEY_UP,       KEY_BACK,
        KEY_LEFT,         KEY_REPLY,    KEY_RIGHT,
        KEY_SEND,         KEY_DOWN,     KEY_END,
        KEY_KBDILLUMDOWN, KEY_RESERVED, KEY_PLAY
};

There is a power button on emulator, but I skipped it to get output value.

If an interrupt of the keypad is caught, translate the scancode with the keycode of the Android on the above table and send event to user space application.
...
keycode = translate_keycode(scancode);
...
input_event(keydev->input, EV_KEY, keycode, KEY_PRESSED);
or
input_event(keydev->input, EV_KEY, keycode, KEY_RELEASED);
...

The high resolution timer - hrtimer is used for reduce keypad debounce.

  • Touchscreen

If you have a touchscreen driver supporting the event interface for a pointing device, it'll work well. If you do not have it, you may implement it or use other pointing devices. Fortunately the evaluation board has already implemented touchscreen driver - drivers/input/touchscreen/tsc2007.c - which is made just before beginning to porting Android. Refer the drivers on drivers/input/touchscreen/ to implement your own driver and the text files on Documentation/input/.

Here is the output of the /proc/bus/input/{devices,handlers} on evaluation board.
# cat /proc/bus/input/devices
I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="MVT7 KEYPAD"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input0
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event0 evbug
B: EV=f
...

I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="TSC2007 Touchscreen"
P: Phys=0-0090/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input1
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event1 evbug
B: EV=b
B: KEY=400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=1000003

# cat /proc/bus/input/handlers
N: Number=0 Name=kbd
N: Number=1 Name=evdev Minor=64
N: Number=2 Name=evbug

As a result, the keypad uses /dev/input/event0 and the touchscreen interface uses /dev/input/event1 on application layer.

3.1.5. Low Memory Killer


The Linux Kernel has an OOM(Out of Memory) killer for the situation that no memory is left to allocate for a request of a process. It examines all processes and keeps score with some restrictions. The process with highest score will be killed except init.

The Low Memory Killer of the Android behaves a bit different against OOM killer. It classifies processes according to the importance with groups and kills the process in the lowest group. It will make the system to be stable at the view of the end users. For example, the UI Process - foreground process - is the most important process for the end users. So to keep the process live looks more stable than keeping other background processes live.

Enable CONFIG_LOW_MEMORY_KILLER after patching the kernel.

3.1.6. Android Logger


If you enable this feature, you can see some useful information about Android through /dev/log/main. There are three device files on /dev/log such as main, events, radio. The /dev/log/radio file seems to be related with a modem device and ril daemon - rild - on Android system.

When this logger is enabled, the system performance is a bit slower on the system. To use this feature, enable CONFIG_ANDROID_LOGGER.

3.1.7. Android Power


The Android power is for the battery management on devices and some subsystem related with power management like inotify feature on file system. It is not necessary to start up Android through the init(ShellScript) of the Android system. But the runtime binary looks up some files regarding Android power - /sys/android_power/acruire_partial_wake_lock - on starting up Android manually and failed to start up. Enable CONFIG_ANDROID_POWER to use.
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- ¹®¼­¸¦ ÀÛ¼ºÇÑ m3 ¹öÀü¿¡¼­´Â binary ¿´½À´Ï´Ù. ´Ù¸¥ ºÐÀÌ shell script·Î ¹Ù²Û °Í °°³×¿ä. ¹ø¿ªÇØ Áּż­ °¨»çÇÕ´Ï´Ù. -- À̱¤¿ì

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3.1.8. Panic Timeout


It is not necessary to start up Android on evaluation board. Set CONFIG_PANIC_TIMEOUT with a desired value.

3.2. Android Root File system


Android emulator has 3 basic images on tools/lib/images directory.

  • ramdisk.img
  • system.img
  • userdata.img

ramdisk.img is gziped cpio archive. ramdisk image is very small and contains configuration files, and some executable files such as init and recovery. The init file is not a regular system V init. It is made just for the Android and do special things to start up the Android system.

system.img and userdata.img are VMS Alpha executable. system.img and userdata.img have the contents of /system and /data directory on root file system. They are mapped on NAND devices with yaffs2 file system. /dev/block/mtdblock0 for /system and /dev/block/mtdblock1 for /data.

/system directory has libraries and default system packages (*.apk). /data directory has timezone, cache, and ApiDemos.apk package.

The main services are zygote(/system/bin/app_process), runtime(/system/bin/runtime), and dbus(/system/bin/dbus-daemon). You can see the /etc/init.rc file on the Android ramdisk image.

...
zygote {
    exec /system/bin/app_process
    args {
        0 -Xzygote
        1 /system/bin
        2 --zygote
    }
    autostart 1
}
runtime {
    exec /system/bin/runtime
    autostart 1
}
...
dbus {
    exec /system/bin/dbus-daemon
    args.0 --system
    args.1 --nofork
    autostart 1
}
...

3.3. Licenses of the Android Packages


tools/lib/images/NOTICE contains package lists and licenses for each libraries. The table of the licenses is cited from the presentation by Lim,GeunSik at 2008 Korea Android Summit.

Open Source License
Linux Kernel GPL
NetBSD C Library BSD
DBUS GPL2
OpenBinder (core) GPL2
YAFFS2 GPL
SQLite GPL2
Webkit BSD (including LGPL)
WebCore LGPL
SDL LGPL
SGL Google(Skia)
OpenGL SGI OpenGL (BSD/MPL)


4. Toolchain supporting ARM EABI


The toolchain represents the tools to be used for the system development. It contains C/C++ compiler, linker, libraries, binutils, and etc. The Android kernel and system requires EABI support. So legacy toolchain is not compatible to make the Android system.

4.1. Building toolchain


To make life easier, I used the crosstool-0.43 script (http://www.kegel.com/crosstool/) by Dan Kegel. Unfortunately it is not support to build eabi toolchain, so I applied a glibc 2.5+ nptl build for arm softfloat eabi patch (http://sources.redhat.com/ml/crossgcc/2006-12/msg00076.html) by Khem Raj.

$./arm-softfloat-eabi.sh

If the network is connected, the script will download and build toolchain using gcc 4.1.1 and glibc 2.5.

4.2. Other toolchain


I did not use the codesourcery toolchain, but they said it will work for the building Android system.


5. Kernel


To port the Android on a real hardware is started by Benno (http://benno.id.au), you can see some useful information on his blog. On his blog some pre-compiled static binaries are linked. It is very helpful for debugging Android system. You can also build static build busybox and strace binaries, but it's better to get them and use.

You can get patch file including the differences between the Android kernel and the vanilla kernel with 2.6.23 version. It has all differences between them. So you need to extract parts of them, and make your own patch for your system architecture.

For example, the Android kernel has it's own yaffs file system patch. If you have your own yaffs or some other file systems like jffs2 on your architecture, then you need to remove the yaffs parts of the patch. The goldfish architecture which the Android kernel emulate an ARM architecture on qemu is not necessary part for your architecture. It can be removed.

The Android kernel emulates ARMv5 instructions. So ARM926EJ-S (ARMv5TEJ) will be good to work.

5.1. Patch kernel


Benno played with a NEO1973 device by openmoko. So he made patch files for it. Get the original patch file from http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/21/android-neo1973, I used android.diff. It has whole things about goldfish, qemu, yaffs, and Android specific parts.

You can edit and remove the patch file directly. After making patch including binder, android power, android logger, low memory killer except goldfish and qemu specific parts, get vanilla 2.6.23 version Linux kernel and patch it.

If you use a 2.6.24.1 version Linux kernel, some part regarding android power should be fixed accordingly or disabled to work.

5.2. .config


  • Necessary
...
CONFIG_PANIC_TIMEOUT=0
CONFIG_AEABI=y
CONFIG_OABI_COMPAT=y
CONFIG_BINDER=y
CONFIG_LOW_MEMORY_KILLER=y
...

  • Optional
...
# CONFIG_ANDROID_GADGET is not set
# CONFIG_ANDROID_RAM_CONSOLE is not set
# CONFIG_ANDROID_POWER is not set
# CONFIG_ANDROID_LOGGER is not set
...

6. Root file system


The root file system is composed of three parts such as a primary ramdisk image on ram, a system image on nand dev0 (/dev/block/mtdblock0), and a data image on nand dev1 (/dev/block/mtdblock1). The mtd devices has a yaffs2 file system and each of them has 64 MiB capacity on the Android emulator.

The extracted system and data directories are copied to the real existing NAND device and they are mounted with --bind option to work on a real hardware.

6.1. Get ramdisk image from emulator


1. unpack ramdisk image from tools/lib/images/ramdisk.img
$ gzip -cd ramdisk.img > ramdisk
$ cpio -iv -F ramdisk

cpio will extract files and directories on current working directory.

2. the contents list of the ramdisk
data
dev
etc
etc/default.prop
etc/firmware
etc/firmware/brf6150.bin
etc/firmware/brf6300.bin
etc/hcid.conf
etc/hosts
etc/init.gprs-pppd
etc/init.rc
etc/init.ril
etc/init.testmenu
etc/ppp
etc/ppp/chap-secrets
etc/ppp/ip-down
etc/ppp/ip-up
etc/qemu-init.sh
etc/system.conf
etc/system.d
etc/system.d/bluez-hcid.conf
etc/usbd.conf
init
proc
sbin
sbin/recovery
sys
system
tmp
var
var/run

6.2. Get data and system directory from emulator


To get data and system directory you need a static compiled busybox binary. The compiled binary can be obtained from http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/14/android-busybox , or make your own binary.

1. launch the Android emulator

2. push static compiled busybox into emulator
# adb push busybox .

3. launch the Android shell
# adb shell

4. make tarball with busybox
# chmod +x /busybox
# busybox tar -c /data.tar /data
# busybox tar -c /system.tar /system
# exit

5. extract tarball from the emulator
# adb pull /data.tar .
# adb pull /system.tar .

Extract command often failed. So you may repeat it again until it has done successfully.

6.3. Integrate the Android system with a existing ramdisk image.


The ramdisk for your architecture can make your work a bit easier. Copy the contents of the Android ramdisk to your own ramdisk except system and data directory. And make just mount point for system and data directory. The mount points will be used later with a bind option. The init binary of the Android ramdisk image is the key binary to start the system and It read a configuration file on /etc/init.rc.

Edit /etc/init.rc and comment out qemu part.

...
startup {
        ...
#       qemu-init {
#           exec /etc/qemu-init.sh
#       }
}
...

Make run.sh script. /dev/block/mtdblock5 is a mtd partition on a real NAND device, and it is mounted on /mnt. data and system directories are already copied on mtdblock5. So the script below just shows bind mounting each directory on /. Fix your script according to your board configuration.

#!/bin/sh
mount -t yaffs /dev/block/mtdblock5 /mnt
mount --bind /mnt/data   /data
mount --bind /mnt/system /system

# data folder is owned by system user on emulator. Fix 777 to other.
chmod 777 /data
#chmod 777 /system

export PATH=/system/sbin:/system/bin:/sbin/usr/local/bin
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/system/lib

export ANDROID_BOOTLOGO=1
export ANDROID_ROOT=/system
export ANDROID_ASSETS=/system/app
export EXTERNAL_STORAGE=/sdcard
export ANDROID_DATA=/data
export DRM_CONTENT=/data/drm/content

/init &

An optional configuration for touchscreen - TSLib.

...
export TSLIB_CONSOLEDEVICE=none
export TSLIB_FBDEVICE=/dev/fb0
export TSLIB_TSDEVICE=/dev/input/event1
export TSLIB_CALIBFILE=/etc/pointercal
export TSLIB_CONFFILE=/etc/ts.conf
export TSLIB_PLUGINDIR=/lib/ts

export LD_PRELOAD=/lib/libts.so:/lib/ts/pthres.so
...

6.4. System and Data directories


The contents of the system and data directories are copied to mtdblock5 already. You should copy your own method. To use it, I chose bind mounting on root directory. Bind mounting is a technique to mount an existing directory with a new mount point.

6.5. Run and Debug


Now the kernel, ramdisk, and data directories - data and system - are ready. It's time to see the red cylon eye. After boot up your integrated system, run the run.sh on root directory.

# cd /
# . /android/run.sh
yaffs: dev is 32505861 name is "mtdblock5"
yaffs: passed flags ""
yaffs: Attempting MTD mount on 31.5, "mtdblock5"
yaffs: auto selecting yaffs2
# init: HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN
init: reading config file
init: device init
init: mtd partition -1,
init: mtd partition 0, "l1boot"
init: mtd partition 1, "u-boot"
init: mtd partition 2, "params"
init: mtd partition 3, "kernel"
init: mtd partition 4, "ramdisk"
init: mtd partition 5, "rootfs"
sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
# binder_open(c394bcc8 c3c731a0) (pid 1577) got c3e48000
binder_open(c394bcc8 c3cd8dc0) (pid 1616) got c319f000
binder_open(c394bcc8 c3cd8ac0) (pid 1673) got c3d10000
binder_open(c394bcc8 c3cd8940) (pid 1680) got c0e19000
binder_open(c394bcc8 c3cd88c0) (pid 1691) got c2fa0000
binder_open(c394bcc8 c3d174a0) (pid 1592) got c25b8000
binder_release(c394bcc8 c3cd88c0) (pid 1691) pd c2fa0000
#

  • Do not make eac device file on /dev. It is for the audio on qemu. If it exists, the start up sequence will wait forever to finish writing some data to the sound device.
  • Use the Android init binary instead of manual startup. The manual start up will require the android power patch. In that case the start up sequence will access /sys/android_power/acquire_partial_wake_lock and wait.

To debug the Android system, use static compiled strace binary from http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/18/android-runtime-strace and run the Android manually.

#!/bin/sh
# set environment variables above example
...
/system/bin/app_process -Xzygote /system/bin --zygote &
/system/bin/dbus-daemon --system &
/system/bin/runtime

The above example shows manual startup sequence, use strace on run /system/bin/runtime binary.

./strace -ff -F -tt -s 200 -o /tmp/strace runtime

6.6. Screenshots


  • Skipped

7. Application Development


The Android applications use Java syntax and xml layouts, but it is not a Java. Because they use their own virtual machine - dalvik - and compiler for dex file format. And use package named apk such as Home.apk, Phone.apk, ApiDemos.apk and etc.

The apk file is a Zip archive and it has four parts.

  • AndroidManifest.xml
  • classes.dex
  • resources.arsc
  • res directory

The Dex file format is explained on http://www.retrodev.com/android/dexformat.html. And the contents of the files and directories are explained some day by Google. It is not explained currently. We can just guess about it.

The Android SDK will create an *.apk file.

7.1. Install Eclipse IDE



1. Eclipse IDE for Java developer (JDT and WST plugins are included) from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/


3. ADT (Android Development Tools) with a eclipse plugin including Apache Ant

7.2. Build and Run Sample Applications


1. Open sample projects and build

2. Run sample applications on emulator

7.3. Screenshots


  • Android Platform on Nokia's N810 Product(arm1136jf-s)
    n810.kandroid200805.PNG
    [PNG image (144.11 KB)]

  • Android Platform on arm1136jf-S for another CE Product.
    fi.initial_display.jpg
    [JPG image (16.44 KB)]
  • invain´ÔÀÌ shotÀ» ¿Ã·ÁÁּ̱º¿ä. -- À̱¤¿ì

8. Epilogue


The Android system seems to be a new kind of a Linux based distribution for a mobile environment like Debian, RedHat, SuSE, and etc. They just use the Linux kernel and a lot of different libraries in the open source world. They offer a software based OpenGL-ES library on a 3D acceleration currently, but they are developing on a hardware accelerated baseband processor for it. The hardware acceleration is necessary for fast UI rendering effects later.

The Android system on the sdk is not a completed one to port on a real hardware, because some device - for example, camera - related libraries and classes are not implemented yet and not opened for users. It seems to be under the development stage. So we would better to wait the Google announces the whole porting kit.

Until then, we should look for the business model with the Android system. It requires a bit high cpu performance, so the carrier vendors will require a cheap baseband processor (RF part) and a multimedia co-processor, because the baseband processor including multimedia features will be very expensive.


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