Database Develop

Booting Ubuntu on the O2X

I've spent some (much) time this week with trying to get ubuntu running on the optimus 2x. I have succeeded to boot and get the wifi, X11 and the touch screen sort-of working.
The ramdisk is completely replaced with a busybox executable, some symlinks to it and a shell script that mounts the necessary stuff (/dev/block/mmcblk1p2 as ext3), changes root directory and calls /sbin/init.
USING THE FOLLOWING WILL VOID ANY WARRANTY YOU MIGHT HAVE LEFT AND MIGHT ALSO BRICK YOUR PHONE!
Seriously, don't do this if you don't wish to risk the data on your phone.
I will be providing some demo images for people who don't have a build environment up and running. These images will not work particularly well, don't get your hopes up .
If you want to have a big linux installation (more than 3 GB) you can flash the images to the second partition on your external sd (obviously you have to create this yourself first). You can use the following boot image (which assumes that linux is on /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 with ext3:
https://ha.xxor.net/o2x/boot-20110813.img
I have also targzipped the modifications to the file system that were required to get stuff going here:
https://ha.xxor.net/o2x/o2x-20110813.tar.gz
This should be extracted directly to the root file system.
The kernel source code is up at https://github.com/ergoen/LG-Optimus-2x-linux-kernel
Things that have been done to get this to "work":
1. Boot partition
Apart from grabbing the busybox stuff from some nexus one boot image (I'm sorry whoever fixed it, I don't remember where I got it from ) the boot command line had to be modified a bit, changing stuff from the default usually ends up in a phone that won't boot, but I discovered that it's possible to append new arguments to the default ones. So the following have been appended:
console=tty0 root=/dev/mmcblk1p2 init=/sbin/init
The console=tty0 makes sure that you see stuff on the screen while ubuntu get's running. The last two are not necessary to boot, but ubuntu seem to like (need?) them (or at least the init=/sbin/init), since otherwise you never get to the login prompt on the screen.
2. The Ubuntu installation
To make it possible to communicate with the phone at all adbd was put into the /sbin/ folder and a symlink was created /system/ -> /. Also the "/sbin/adbd recovery &" command was added to rc.local to make it autostart.
2.1. Modules and wifi
We need the /lib/modules/2.6.32.9 directory. Most files inside that were generated using the "depmod" command, the exception is wireless.ko which was taken from android, the firmware and nvram files needed for the wifi chip to work were placed in the /lib/firmware/wl/ folder. To make the wifi module autoload with the proper firmware "wireless" was added to /etc/modules and the file /etc/modprobe.d/wireless.conf was created with the contents describing the location of the firmware and nvram.
To make the wifi autoconnect on boot the /etc/network/interfaces file was modified with the following contents:
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
(To make the wifi autoconnect to your wireless you need to run the command "wpa_passphrase networkname networkpassword > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf using adb or chroot)
2.2. X11
Getting X up by running xinit produces a simple black screen on the phone. At first I thought the problem was that the refresh rate was set to 106 Hz, indeed changing it with xrandr and pushing a new mode got me a visible xterm on Kubuntu 11.04:
https://ha.xxor.net/o2x/xterm.jpg.
On Ubuntu 10.10 it even gave me a nice colored gdm screen:
https://ha.xxor.net/o2x/gdm.jpg
But the image I got there was static and wasn't being updated. Turns out the reason the screen was black earlier with the 106 Hz rate and the reason why the screen is now just showing an image is that the framebuffer device doesn't update the screen like it should..
By modifying the kernel source to redraw the screen every 50 ms (~20 Hz) it's possible to get a scren that works. This is an ugly hack in the tegra-fb driver though, so I'm open for suggestions on how to solve it in a better way!
2.3. Touchscreen
By default the only thing the touchscreen does is force the mouse up in the left corner, I think this is due to some multitouch thing. Some more kernel hacking (basically half-disabling multitouch) makes the touchscreen work.
Pictures:
https://ha.xxor.net/o2x/SAM_0671.jpg
https://ha.xxor.net/o2x/SAM_0672.jpg
Video:
http://vimeo.com/27662093
Thans to RaYmAn and lilstevie on #tegralinux for all their help this far!
3. Misc
(K)Ubuntu 11.04 uses a new version of libc which crashes with the current nvidia kernel (2.6.32.9) on this hardware (http://developer.nvidia.com/tegra/forum/errata-657451-tls-bit-20-cp15-c13-3), so I'm going back to Ubuntu 10.10 until someone ports a newer kernel to the Optimus 2x or this problem can be solved in another way.
edit 1: Ubuntu 10.10 with much more working X11 noted in section 2.2.1.
edit 2: X11 working even more, touchscreen works aswell!
edit 3: Landscape mode works with both X11 and the touchscreen now, getting ready for alpha 1!

Current status:
Working:
- adb (best way of controlling device currently)
- X11 (only framebuffer with hardcoded refresh rate of ~20Hz)
- landscape mode fixed! =D
- touchscreen (probably only single touch)
- wifi (only when running things from console, ubuntus network manager does not recognize it)
Not working:
- Basically everything else
Alpha 1:
EDIT: Seems that multiupload has screwed up and this link was going to some crap, anyway this is not relevant anymore
Username 'ubuntu', password 'ubuntuxda'. Don't use this if you don't know how to restore the boot partition! (Or else you won't be able to boot back into android!)
Experiments:
Tried disabling the CONFIG_TEGRA_ERRATA_657451 switch in the kernel to make newer linux versions boot. This might be a bad idea in the long run, but this far things are working better than with the switch enabled..

I tried Ubuntu via chroot method posted in other thread, but I'm a noob.. Can you please explain what is different about your ubuntu?? Does it boot without Android and doesn't need VNC stuff?

Yes, it boots instead of android when turning on the phone, but it doesn't work completely, so I mostly put it up here so that people could help test and fix/hack things.

You rock! Unfortunately I'm no dev, so can't help but hopefully others will, so we'll get a fully working linux on our phone, and maybe later even meego. Is there btw drivers for the gpu? Because hdmi, with usb host ofc, would be really useful!
Anyway, good job, really!

This looks great ergoen! I'm no dev either but I can't wait until it's available to everyone, I would love to have Ubuntu running on my O2x.
Best of luck!

gpu drivers are closed source, and the ones released by nvidia require a newer kernel (2.6.38), so thats not really possible yet.
Newer kernel will be necessary anyway though, since the crashes I'm getting seems to be due to a bug in tegra which gets worked around in 2.6.36. I'm not skilled enough to perform that port though. I will of course give it a try, but most likely I'll go for some older version of ubuntu and/or perhaps meego instead.

Håller med tidigare poster. Would be awesome with native Ubuntu and Meego on the phone... keep up the good work, can't wait to follow this development.
Sent from my Optimus 2X using XDA Premium App

ergoen said:
... I realized that it tried to run the screen at [email protected], which is hmm, wrong . So setting up a script at /etc/xprofile, which makes sure the refresh rate is 60Hz...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What would happen if you changed this to 72Hz instead? I saw that info when I was browsing System Information in some app. Im not a dev At. All. But tell me what you think it's probably a stupid question
Sent from my Optimus 2X using XDA Premium App

I can give it a try later, not that it would make any difference .
edit: 72 Hz also seems to work, cool, that's higher refresh rate than my computer screen...

ergoen said:
I've spent some (much) time this week with trying to get ubuntu running on the optimus 2x. I have succeeded to boot and get the wifi working, also X sort-of works (software fb). I have only slightly modified the kernel (built with CONFIG_SIGNALFD=y so that Meego wont complain in a related attempt to get that os booting). The ramdisk is completely replaced with a busybox executable, some symlinks to it and a shell script that mounts the necessary stuff (/dev/block/mmcblk1p2 as ext3), changes root directory and calls /sbin/init.
USING THE FOLLOWING WILL VOID ANY WARRANTY YOU MIGHT HAVE LEFT AND MIGHT ALSO BRICK YOUR PHONE!
Seriously, don't do this if you don't wish to risk the data on your phone.
I will not provide a complete root file system for two reasons:
1. It's pretty easy to make yourself, grab the omap3 kubuntu mobile image from the kubuntu site, or use rootstock from an ubuntu installation to build one yourself.
2. My upload sucks, and putting several hundred MB onto the interwebz would hurt me.
However, I have placed an image of my boot partition here (assumes you've got ubuntu on the second partition of the external memory card formatted with ext3):
https://ha.xxor.net/o2x/boot.img
I have also targzipeed the modifications to the file system that were required to get stuff going here:
https://ha.xxor.net/o2x/o2x.tar.gz
This should be extracted directly to the root file system you aquired earlier.
Things that have been done to get this to "work":
1. Boot partition
Apart from grabbing the busybox stuff from some nexus one boot image (I'm sorry whoever fixed it, I don't remember where I got it from ) the boot command line had to be modified a bit, changing stuff from the default usually ends up in a phone that won't boot, but I discovered that it's possible to append new arguments to the default ones. So the following have been appended:
console=tty0 root=/dev/mmcblk1p2 init=/sbin/init
The console=tty0 makes sure that you see stuff on the screen while ubuntu get's running. The last two are not necessary to boot, but ubuntu seem to like (need?) them (or at least the init=/sbin/init), since otherwise you never get to the login prompt on the screen.
2. The Ubuntu installation
To make it possible to communicate with the phone at all adbd was put into the /sbin/ folder and a symlink was created /system/ -> /. Also the "/sbin/adbdb recovery &" command was added to rc.local to make it autostart.
2.1. Modules and wifi
We need the /lib/modules/2.6.32.9 directory. Most files inside that were generated using the "depmod" command, the exception is wireless.ko which was taken from android, the firmware and nvram files needed for the wifi chip to work were placed in the /lib/firmware/wl/ folder. To make the wifi module autoload with the proper firmware "wireless" was added to /etc/modules and the file /etc/modprobe.d/wireless.conf was created with the contents describing the location of the firmware and nvram.
To make the wifi autoconnect on boot the /etc/network/interfaces file was modified with the following contents:
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
(To make the wifi autoconnect to your wireless you need to run the command "wpa_passphrase networkname networkpassword > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf using adb or chroot)
2.2. X11
Getting X up by running xinit produces a simple black screen on the phone. After some troubleshooting and voodoo magic I realized that it tried to run the screen at [email protected], which is hmm, wrong . So setting up a script at /etc/xprofile, which makes sure the refresh rate is 60Hz, and running it after xinit gets you a xterm!!!
https://ha.xxor.net/o2x/xterm.jpg
Telling /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc to run it makes sure that it gets set up properly by the startx script, unfortunately startx doesn't go through for me on kubuntu because of some weird error caused by a hardware problem in tegra: (http://developer.nvidia.com/tegra/forum/errata-657451-tls-bit-20-cp15-c13-3).
Unfortunately this (probably) means that either we'll have to stay with old versions of libc or get a newer kernel (2.6.36 contains fix). Old libc seems backwards, but porting a new kernel requires a bit more skill than I possess.
2.2.1. Ubuntu 10.10
Grabbed the image ubuntu-netbook-10.10-preinstalled-netbook-armel+omap.img.gz from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-netbook/ports/releases/maverick/release/ . After first unpacking the tgz, then unpacking the raw disk image to partition images (with 7zip on windows) and then flashing the 1.img file to the second partition on my sdcard I managed to run a much more bug free ubuntu than before.
Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) uses an older version of som libraries that don't crash with the old o2x kernel.
This has lead to the following:
https://ha.xxor.net/o2x/gdm.jpg
Obviously touch screen isn't working properly (pressing it puts the pointer into the upper left corner :S) so can't get further than this currently.
3. Misc
avahi-daemon and cups seems to be crashing all the time and restarting, so removing them (apt-get purge if ubuntu/kubuntu) will make the boot much cleaner. Also I get lots of alignment trap kind of errors that shouldn't be there for different kinds of services, (due to tegra bug mentioned earlier).
edit 1: Ubuntu 10.10 with much more working X11 noted in section 2.2.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its good you got it to work.Saves me some work.I was gonna begin this project my self after the 19th when my exams end.Maybe i could help you.

ergoen said:
I can give it a try later, not that it would make any difference .
edit: 72 Hz also seems to work, cool, that's higher refresh rate than my computer screen...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most computer screens usually support atleast 72hz also, it's just that it only works with d-sub, and sometimes only at a lower resolution.. It's possible to make special drivers to some screens to enable higher refresh rate through dvi also.
Anyway, it's good the screen on the phone refreshes at 72hz instead of 60 for android, but in linux I really don't see the benefit.. Doesn't hurt to have though. Btw, if we would stay on this kernel, can we use the drivers from android then? Shouldn't gpu also work? Or are the drivers limited and don't allow xorg for example? Sorry if it's stupid question, don't have that much knowledge how android works yet.

Update: X11 and touchscreen work on Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick with new kernel (just a few hacks )!
manasgirdhar: sure! Lot's of things to do new kernel is needed for anything newer than ubuntu 10.10, and even here things like sound etc (cpu scaling maybe too) don't work.
kruppin: actually i removed the xorg.conf now, the phone thinks its running at 106 Hz and it works. Unfortunately in practice it goes at more like 20 Hz because of the hack I made to enable the fbdev output in the kernel. Android doesn't use X11, so those drivers wont be of any use. (I will post the kernel modifications to github soon)
edit: kernel source up on https://github.com/ergoen/LG-Optimus-2x-linux-kernel

A List of Things working at 2nd Post would be nice.
So anybody could fast see Updates,...
Edit:
Have you tried some "cleaner" Linux like Debian?

Alpha 1 is up in the second post for anyone who wants to test it (don't ^^).
I have not tried debian no, I thought ubuntu would be the easiest to google errors and bugs for .

You are great! i was hopin' for this since I have mine. You should try to make usb(otg) work to get some devices going i will try to test it soon

That's amazing We have to test USB OTG function. If it works by default, I'll try this right now
It is possible to make a dual-boot: ubuntu and android?

I don't think usb otg works since I am basically using the android version of the kernel, I also won't be able to try since I don't have a cable... (will buy one sooner or later).
Dual boot probably works if you flash the boot.img onto the recovery partition instead of the boot partition (/dev/block/mmcblk0p7 instead of /dev/block/mmcblk0p5). I have not tried this though. That way regular booting would give android and booting while holding volume down would give ubuntu, only problem with this is that cwm will be gone and the only way to fix broken things would be to flash with nvflash.

well it is not a major deal if have cifs avail needs kernel support as well. Benee mentioned (might) some otg support, mayb u could ask.
also, you might give E17 a try, it is butter-fast, and has a touch module for keyboard (letter zooming.!..) LINK
this can be compiled on a lot of hw, and gives good response with fbdev non-accel drivers also.
and most linux apps work on it fine. ofc until we have 2d/3d accel and might try compiz/fusion as well
LINK

Great job ergoen!
I've worked on exactly the same some weeks ago but i never accomplished it. because i stuck creating a working ramdisk. Which toolchain do you use?
MfG

Webtop2sd

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1119555
Logically speaking, this application should also work with the Bionic correct?
Just wondering, if its deemed safe in this thread to attempt using, I will try it and post back with results.
---------- Post added at 12:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:08 AM ----------
Okay, so I just backed up everything and tried the app, which won't work due to the fact that it checks the phone model number, Theres a manual guide to get ubuntu running on the atrix, and I'm going to start from scratch there. Probably going to be a couple of days before I do anything since I need a new microhdmi...

I tried the app that comes with it to partition the sdcard but it does a device check then it stops with an error message that the device is not an Olympus (Atrix). Maybe we can get the dev to check on the differences, albeit small, for the Atrix and the Bionic.
Worth a shot. I've been playing around with /osh for a few days but had to reflash to stock due to the lapdock staying on the screensaver.

Hey guys, I am working on the same thing at the moment trying to port over Sogarth's method of unlocking the 10.10 maverick build of Ubuntu on our phones.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1000316
The link here is for his old automated .bat script he made for the Atrix that I believe will work for our phones with a little modification to it to reflect Maverick packages instead of the Jaunty packages for their phones.
Please jump into the irc in my sig because I would like to get this going as well.

I would hop in IRC but I'm about to head out the door.
I'm currently approaching this situation from two directions:
1.) I'm dumping /osh/ (webtop partition) and uploading it to dropbox as soon as I can get a complete dump. (hopefully tonight) and providing it to the original Atrix dev to see if he can hook us up with an app to help do whats needed
2.) I'm also attempting the manual method as soon as I get a new microHDMI cable (I was using a cheap adapter).
You are 100% correct though, you should be able to get that install script working just by changing the packages to reflect the updated Ubuntu. MAKE SURE you backup ANY files before you change them (and preferably a complete backup of /osh/. Since we have SU on our phones we have free reign over the /osh partition, so be careful in there.
OT: I can't wait until we can get on-demand CPU overclocking for this thing... if it clocks as well as past mobile chips... Toggle 1.2-1.4ghz and plug it in the LapDock. You'd have a damned fine netbook...
(Not necessarily talking to any experienced users or noobs, the disclaimer about Linux & SU is for everyone reading this thread - I'm relatively experienced in the Linux world... and I need to be reminded of SU's power sometimes.)
I just realized that their phone's Ubuntu distribution is under the 9.x series versus the 10.x series. A lot of Major changes happened to Ubuntu between 9.x and 10.x that affected the way the operating system talked to devices and booted, they stopped using HAL and moved to a new boot method, I am uncertain whether or not the install script will work or not, though I'm somewhat confident it will, given the nature of webtop (Android does the hardware abstraction, and the booting, we just run a second set of executable's on a different X window session attached to a different display) This should mean that the portions that would normally prevent us from just duplicated the script are omitted from the Ubuntu distribution entirely. As long as we keep a backup we should still be fine.

No worries, just remember to keep FXZ and RSD handy. I've screwed up the /osh partition a couple times but that has saved me from complete disaster so far

Good call on bringing this up. Let me know if you need to test anything for this.

@xaero252
So I modified Sogarth's script to use Maverick build of all the tools it downloads and installs but the problem with the script is that it needs the phone to have the ro.secure=0 so that ADB always launches with root access without manually initiating su each line of code. I am not sure if there is a way around it or if we have to modify the script differently. Anywho, I've upload a copy of the work I've done to the script.

Is it just an sh script? If so and ut doesn't reboot the phone at all you could launch a SU terminal and do "su sh script.sh"
oh i see the issue now... we would have to be able to edit the boot loader for that method... if i'm correct though his android app doesnt use the pc for much... if you change that variable on boot do you think it woukd work?
Hmm, I have an idea, its not as polished as the pc based script, however it should still work presuming you can get a SU terminal to run on the phone ( I happen to have one running right now ) I'm going to see if I can't adapt that to a bash script. probably going to take a while.
Curiously we happen to have a 1.5gb partition for Ubuntu on built in memory, where as the atrix only had a 600 or so mb partition... This is great because we should likely be able to continue to install /, /boot and such to internal memory, and use the sd card (even left as ntfs) for /home...
Couple of things: reading through the script it looks like 100% of the commands he runs could be run on the phone via a bash script run as su. The idea is this: convert the entire script over to bash, copy the script, and the required files to the phone, and execute the script from the phone. The only other concern I can see is the wget package included with the script not being compatible with maverick, which doesn't seem likely.
I'm gonna start working on rewriting the script linux native. My idea is to use a terminal emulator (they are free on the market) and run su script.sh and pray. I need to get a new microHDMI before I do this though, so I can test my results reliably.

xaero252 said:
Is it just an sh script? If so and ut doesn't reboot the phone at all you could launch a SU terminal and do "su sh script.sh"
oh i see the issue now... we would have to be able to edit the boot loader for that method... if i'm correct though his android app doesnt use the pc for much... if you change that variable on boot do you think it woukd work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as correcting that, no one has attempted doing custom kernels yet so to do the edit to get root access out of the gate is moot at this point.
Hmm, I have an idea, its not as polished as the pc based script, however it should still work presuming you can get a SU terminal to run on the phone ( I happen to have one running right now ) I'm going to see if I can't adapt that to a bash script. probably going to take a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your linux skills are probably 10 folds better than mine but I believe if you convert my modified script, which has all the necessary links to the correct packages for our phone, then it might just work.
Curiously we happen to have a 1.5gb partition for Ubuntu on built in memory, where as the atrix only had a 600 or so mb partition... This is great because we should likely be able to continue to install /, /boot and such to internal memory, and use the sd card (even left as ntfs) for /home...
Couple of things: reading through the script it looks like 100% of the commands he runs could be run on the phone via a bash script run as su. The idea is this: convert the entire script over to bash, copy the script, and the required files to the phone, and execute the script from the phone. The only other concern I can see is the wget package included with the script not being compatible with maverick, which doesn't seem likely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The WGET I packaged in the .zip is the correct for Maverick along with all the files in the \bin directory are corrected to match our phone. If you can convert all this to a bash script, that would be awesome instead having to do each command via ADB Shell. The only problem I had with this is every time I tried to run the DPKG command on the .deb I downloaded manually, it threw up an error saying it could not find the file or destination.
On a side note, you are correct that we have 1.5gb partition opposed to their 700mb so we could honestly forget the part about creating a ubuntu.disk on the /data partition and modify the /osh directly for now until the time we need more space. After that, we can see if Sogarth will incorporate your script into his Webtop2sd app or we could make a 3gb ubuntu.disk on the /data partition since we have plenty of space there.
I'm gonna start working on rewriting the script linux native. My idea is to use a terminal emulator (they are free on the market) and run su script.sh and pray. I need to get a new microHDMI before I do this though, so I can test my results reliably.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure you get the adapter as well to trigger Webtop cause at the moment our phone wont do webtop directly over HDMI without the HD Dock, Webtop adapter or Laptop dock. If you want to test the script out for now, hit me with the script and I will test it for ya

[Q] Anybody up for porting Ubuntu?

Since we got a x86 cpu i want to use ubuntu on it, as im from germany i still dont have my I but has anybody tried linux on android?
Adam Outler mentioned something that this would not work...
Btw can somebody tell me what the kernel version is..?
Sorry mods for (possibly) posting in the wrong section :/
//Robert
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium

Robbilie said:
Since we got a x86 cpu i want to use ubuntu on it, as im from germany i still dont have my I but has anybody tried linux on android?
Adam Outler mentioned something that this would not work...
Btw can somebody tell me what the kernel version is..?
Sorry mods for (possibly) posting in the wrong section :/
//Robert
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kernel version is 3.0.8.
If you can install linux distros on the backend of rooted ARM devices it should make sense we could do the same....maybe

Ubuntu on a RAZR I ? Linux x86 apps + windows apps with wine without even recompile? I think this devece needs some love. It can be the next HTC HD2 for shure.

I dont understand the htc comparison
But i have your ideas about no need to recompile and wine in mind too...
But i understand adam because linux for android is compiled for arm achitecture so a usual desktop image would make more sense...
Why is the kernel version so low?!
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium

What we need to do
I have a friend with this device, after rooting he reports there is no chroot command from terminal. If so we must:
Compile busybox (with more extensions) for x86 and install it alongside root (or after root)
Make a mountable image from an ubuntu clean install and mount it (probably also needs busybox)
chroot into this mounted image
run a vnc X server on a framebuffer
vnc from android
This is how it is done on other android devices, will attempt to compile and try these instructions out this weekend when I meet him but booting native ubuntu is a much better idea (even better if we can make it receive calls ).

And for what Windows on 4,3 inches display? It dont have hdmi.
Odoslané z GT-P7300 cez Tapatalk 2

The micro usb is acting like hdmi with adapter...
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium

Go look up the HTC HD2. It can run Windows Phone 7 and Android dual-booted (with Linux from SDCard), and was originally the last, albeit most powerful, Windows Mobile 6 phone ever made.
Even though it is four years old, there is a massive and vibrant dev community behind it, making it reach the front page of XDA forums.
However, even the venerable HD2 is getting old, with 1GHz processor and half a gig of RAM that was top-of-the-line years ago, and people have looked in vain for some kind of successor. Hopefully, the Razr I, with an unlockable bootloader and Intel processor, will be the one. But that remains for us to do.

pablocrossa said:
I have a friend with this device, after rooting he reports there is no chroot command from terminal. If so we must:
Compile busybox (with more extensions) for x86 and install it alongside root (or after root)
Make a mountable image from an ubuntu clean install and mount it (probably also needs busybox)
chroot into this mounted image
run a vnc X server on a framebuffer
vnc from android
This is how it is done on other android devices, will attempt to compile and try these instructions out this weekend when I meet him but booting native ubuntu is a much better idea (even better if we can make it receive calls ).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I tried this out and there is a chroot-compatible busybox after rooting ("busybox chroot" needs to be called as opposed to "chroot" as there is no properly made link), so anyone with this phone can try (using a PC) install Ubuntu without the grub bootloader using manual partitioning on a single ext3 (I am not sure if ICS supports ext4) partition on a microsd, put into your phone, use a root terminal, mount it, mount the adequate dev, dev/pts, proc and sys partitions and chroot right in. You then might want to install a VNC server in Ubuntu to be able to create a VNC X session in a framebuffer and a VNC client on the android side to VNC into localhost (127.0.0.1), but that should work, I didn't have time to try it this weekend If someone gets stuck post and let us see what happens I cannot wait to see if wine can run desktop Spotify with sound, excited a little hehe.
EDIT: So to make this more understandable you must:
Install Ubuntu (using your computer) to a MicroSD, specifying partitions manually and choosing only a single ext3. Right before clicking install there is a button with something along the lines of "Advanced options", disable the install the bootloader (grub) option.
Insert the MicroSD into the phone and open a root terminal
I don't use Android, maybe it automounts in /media/sdcard or /sdcard, if not you will have to find the device and partition name (probably /dev/mmcblk0p1 or /dev/sdb1) and issue "mount /dev/DEVICEPARTITION /media/sdcard"
mount -t proc proc /media/sdcard/proc
mount -o bind /dev/ /media/sdcard/dev/
mount -t devpts devpts /media/sdcard/dev/pts
busybox chroot /media/sdcard /bin/bash
Now a shell from Ubuntu should open. apt-get update && apt-get install vncserver (maybe the DNS settings must be set in /etc/resolv.conf, not yet sure)
vncserver (or start vncserver, something along those lines)
Now from Android install a VNC viewer and vnc into 127.0.0.1 (or localhost)
That should do it, again if you get stuck post here

i had htc hd2, the most amazing phone in the world. I wanna buy the rarz i for the x86 processor in it. But cpu power without community and developers is nothing :|
Sorry for my bad english.

Yesterday we tried something:
We used dd to put an arch linux image on a micro sd card...
Though my laptop wasnt even able to boot from any sd card, this should work on our phone...
but how to make it boot from the sd card? xD
btw you might have noticed, this will make only linux boot, not android, we dont chroot, may somebody build a simple ubuntu img for complete linux installer?
//Robert

so right now i am trying to chroot into an img file, mounting it and then chrooting it but all i get is:
chroot: can't execute '/system/bin/sh': No such file or directory
whats wrong?

Robbilie said:
The micro usb is acting like hdmi with adapter...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Razr i MHL capable???

as far as i know, sadly not no

Ok so finally I got Ubuntu Quetzal running with chroot, still some problems (missing randr extension in vnc) but ill get over this

Hey,
great work. :good:
Good to see there are people with the same ideas. I´ve searched a lot for this thread.
I will also try to get this device for the same reasons when it´s cheaper. Has anybody tried to get Plasma Active or Tizen to run?
I think Active should now be possible through kubuntu Active?
Cheers!

Hi all
At first you can try a application from play store called Linux installer
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zpwebsites.linuxonandroid
Otherwise you can wait some weeks for an nexus 7 Ubuntu port witch looks really interesting.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1957561
Ahhh maybe have a look at the andrinux project here at xda
[/COLOR]Here's the andrinux link
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1387105
Sent from my sweet little Blackbox

Robbilie said:
Ok so finally I got Ubuntu Quetzal running with chroot, still some problems (missing randr extension in vnc) but ill get over this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for your post on preparing an arch image (I don't have permision to post in devel forum, maybe because I'm a newbie ), It worked well for me although I had to adjust some things such as path and pts mount
I now have a gcc toolchain and a latex distrib on my phone I had never used arch, found it very good
I've also tried some window managers ... the one I find best for the moment is enlightenment in the touchscreen mode, awesome works great as well.
I would also suggest to use Hacker's keyboard instead of stock android, it is a complete keyboard, very usefull when dealing with terminals ... as for VNC viewer, one should recompile android-vnc-viewer with the patches given in Issues 238 and 239 (can't post links either), it's a lot better
I've had a lot of fun, thanks

First, Complete Linux Installer doesnt work because its images are compiled for arm not x86 (i tried )
Secondly, I did a tutorial here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1966984
the nexus 7 stuff is interesting and we consider making flashable fastboot for the razr i since we dont have cwm or such you know
i am talking to jordan keyes who recently owned a nexus 7 who probably will try out the ubu stuff and i might get some system info
but i would really prefer a dual boot, capable of booting from sd...

I came across this site today:
http://www.pvsm.ru/wine/10369
translated here
I don't know if this could possibly help you any further but I thought that I might as well post it.

DebiAndroid [WIP] - Debian native/chroot for datamedia Android installations

Debian for the HP TouchPad
Downloads:
todo: add pics and binary links, for now there's https://mega.co.nz/#F!xZ81iKoK!Xio5bV9yjBRPTIzjLhCX3A
Source:
Kernel Builder: https://github.com/CalcProgrammer1/kernel_tenderloin_debian
I put together this kernel builder repository that contains the ramdisks needed to boot either a discrete Debian partition or a chrooted Debian install. It uses submodules for the kernel and backports sources. You can just run the mkbootzip.sh file and it will build the uImage.Debian/uImage.DebiAndroid moboot kernels. Choose the one that fits your installation method and install it to /boot on the TouchPad.
Kernel Source: https://github.com/CalcProgrammer1/..._msm8660-common/tree/tenderloin-cm-11.0-wip-5
Backports Source: https://github.com/CalcProgrammer1/backports-3.10-2
Thanks to jcsullins for porting the TouchPad to the samsung_msm8660-common kernel, without which this would not have been so easy! The Note 1 shares this kernel tree and I already had Debian working on it, made the port to TouchPad dead simple.

So I got an idea that I'm working on. I have been using Debian in a chroot on my Note 3 and it's really convenient to have both Debian and Android running side-by-side, but there are some things (mainly hardware/GPU hacking) that work better with a native install of Debian/Ubuntu/etc. On my Note 3 (which uses a datamedia partitioning scheme) I decided to forgo using a loopback mounted img file for my chroot and instead dump the Debian rootfs straight into my /data partition in the /data/debian directory. Why? With this configuration, Android, Debian, and Internal SD all share the same storage partition and can grow or shrink as space allows rather than deal with micromanaging partitions and having to resize. Want to install a desktop environment and delete it later? Go ahead, space allows.
So I decided to reformat my TouchPad with TP Toolbox last night and get CM11 running on it so my Ubuntu partition got wiped. That got me thinking...if I install my datamedia Debian installation, could I then write an init script to boot directly into it from a kernel? If so, the same Debian installation (residing in cm-data LVM in the debian directory) could be used both as a native install as well as a chroot from Android. Awesome!
So that's what this project is, create a Debian rootfs that doesn't require repartitioning, works as a chroot, and works natively as well. I'm calling the project DebiAndroid because it merges Debian and Android. Got some time to work on it over the weekend so hopefully I get something up, but for those who want to do it yourself it's basically just that:
1. Use debootstrap to generate a Debian armhf rootfs
2. Use qemu-user-static and chroot on your PC to install all the packages you want on your rootfs
3. Compress rootfs, put it on TouchPad, decompress in /data/debian
4. Write script to bind system FS entries to /data/debian and chroot in
5. Write init script to boot directly into /data/debian for native use
So far I've been successful at all of these, having a working chroot (with MATE desktop through XServer XSDL app) as well as booting into the chroot (terminal only right now, and USB OTG was broken so I couldn't log in). Hopefully I can get some 3.4 kernel action going as well. I'll update this post once something happens.
EDIT 1: I'm in! I forgot to set a password for root and I don't have any other accounts at the moment, so I rebooted into CM11 and chrooted in, set a password. Also had to disable the ALSA service because there's a missing firmware file that crashes it. Now to get networking up and running, I think I'll just build a kernel locally and modules_install rather than deal with cross compiling.
EDIT 2: I'm at it again, this time going to focus on Freedreno graphics as I'm really close on my Note 1 port which uses the same GPU and now the same kernel source tree as well. I was able to get a rendered 3D screensaver to run for a few seconds on my Note, should be repeatable on the TP.
EDIT 3:
Kernel Source: https://github.com/CalcProgrammer1/..._msm8660-common/tree/tenderloin-cm-11.0-wip-5

O_O
Man, that sound really great ! I would like to try it and install it as a zip file on another partition. How much space do you need for the root partition with your mate install ? Did you got some problem with the touchscreen sensibility or with bluetooth, wifi, camera, micro or sound not working ? I guess i could try one with Gnome 3 on my side. Thank in advance for your reply.

Right now it's only working in chroot, so Android is providing the X-server and touchscreen and everything else. I'm trying to get the kernel 3.4 to boot it outside of Android.

I hope you can do it. ^_^ Maybe I will try to find a way to make it work with Arch Linux with your kernel if you succeed to this project.

So finally, one month later, did you succeed into making Debian work for the Tenderloin ?

I got Debian with Freedreno sorta working on my Galaxy Note:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtb-TSGumNo
The kernel patch I used to make this work seems compatible with the TouchPad kernel source here:
https://github.com/TLOIN-3X-WIP/android_kernel_samsung_msm8660-common/tree/tenderloin-cm-11.0-wip-5
which is based off the same Samsung msm8660-common 3.0 kernel.
If all goes well, this should be pretty simple to get running on the TouchPad same as it is on the Note, which are pretty similar devices in terms of core (MSM8660 vs APQ8060).
EDIT: My kernel patch applied perfectly! I was able to get into X but the backlight shut off and I couldn't see anything without shining a bright light through the swamp of fingerprints covering the screen. Need to fix that issue but hopefully it's working otherwise!
EDIT: Freedreno confirmed working, but still no backlight. It should be at the same level as where my Note 1 demo is (runs es2gears, rss-glx screensavers) but of course I can't see much anything so once I figure out what's turning off the backlight then we should be good to go.
EDIT: Using jcsullins' wip-5 branch fixes the backlight issues. Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx8_u1jhXJY

CalcProgrammer1 said:
I got Debian with Freedreno sorta working on my Galaxy Note:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtb-TSGumNo
The kernel patch I used to make this work seems compatible with the TouchPad kernel source here:
https://github.com/TLOIN-3X-WIP/android_kernel_samsung_msm8660-common/tree/tenderloin-cm-11.0-wip-5
which is based off the same Samsung msm8660-common 3.0 kernel.
If all goes well, this should be pretty simple to get running on the TouchPad same as it is on the Note, which are pretty similar devices in terms of core (MSM8660 vs APQ8060).
EDIT: My kernel patch applied perfectly! I was able to get into X but the backlight shut off and I couldn't see anything without shining a bright light through the swamp of fingerprints covering the screen. Need to fix that issue but hopefully it's working otherwise!
EDIT: Freedreno confirmed working, but still no backlight. It should be at the same level as where my Note 1 demo is (runs es2gears, rss-glx screensavers) but of course I can't see much anything so once I figure out what's turning off the backlight then we should be good to go.
EDIT: Using jcsullins' wip-5 branch fixes the backlight issues. Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx8_u1jhXJY
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG ! It seem great ! Can you share your method how to install it with a zip file and if you can, make a tutorial of how to port a Linux OS on the TP ? It would be really appreciate to be able to finaly run a linux desktop on the Touchpad. Thank you very much for your hard work. ^_^ Cannot wait to try it.

awesome job ! I cannot wait to try it out myself !!!!!!!!!!
let us know how to install it
Still lovin and rockin my good ol' Touchpad haha

I updated the OP with links to my source code and the build root I use to build the kernel images. If you want to build your own kernel go right ahead and play with it. As for a prebuilt image, it probably won't happen for some time because my rootfs on the TouchPad is a mess (installed a bunch of very large apps like games that aren't feasible to redistribute). I'll have to make a new rootfs from scratch. Since Freedreno is on the verge of making it into Debian testing as it is, it would be best to just wait for that to happen so I don't have to redistribute custom builds of the xserver-xorg-video-freedreno driver (you can build it from source as it's on Debian's git and builds with dpkg-buildpackage, just hasn't made it into a binary release yet). There's also a bug in Mesa that prevents Freedreno from accelerating 3D (GL or GLES). It's a one-line fix and Rob Clark said he's pushed it to master, but it hasn't made its way into a stable Mesa branch yet and thus still needs to be applied manually. Rebuilding Mesa on a TouchPad takes hours. Hopefully that one gets merged soon as well and then we can use straight up Testing without modification. That will make creating a new rootfs image a lot easier. I still haven't messed with getting Bluetooth or touchscreen to work, though the work I and others have done for older Ubuntu releases should apply just fine here. Audio is also going to be tricky, as I deleted WebOS completely and Ubuntu relied on a file from it. I have a webos rootfs that I was able to pull the required files from, but it's not working right.
EDIT: Sound! I talked to jcsullins on #freedreno and he gave me this: https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_device_hp_tenderloin/blob/cm-11.0/configs/mixer_paths.xml
Those are the initialization settings for ALSA that need to be configured for sound. We can use alsaucm to set these, I just need to figure out how the heck alsaucm configurations work. I got the device initialization working and I threw in the speaker initialization just to test, but no idea how to switch between speaker, headphones, bluetooth, etc. With this method we don't need to pull audiod from webos! That means no more dependency on closed source binaries pulled out of that OS that may or may not exist anymore.
EDIT: I wrote some new alsa ucm files, now it should be able to select headphones or speaker directly. There isn't any jack detection so you'll have to manually switch, though if I could find the input for the jack switch it might not be hard to implement automatic switching. Still need to apply that RGB patch and fix the broken colors.
EDIT: New pic: http://i.imgur.com/SjOPWB5.jpg That's right, applying the RGB patch fixed the desktop and broke the rendering! Some reason the Freedreno GPU-rendered things are using the opposite color format. The big gear should be red and the top one blue. Here's another pic with the TP and Note side by side, running almost the same software: http://i.imgur.com/1kmKDOw.jpg

[REQUEST] Compile for any phone script

I propose a single script that generates images for any android compatible phone. It will (maybe?) require a bootloader unlock, the kernel source, and a cached 'update.zip' or internet connection, but not much else.
Essentially, all you will need to do is plug in your phone and run the script as an admin (sudo sh ubuntuphone-auto.sh). Then, the script will install all of the (cached) dependencies, automatically download (or used the cached one) the system's flash/update zip, and compile ubuntu with the contained images.
It should also do a sideload of a processor test (if compatible) and warn of currently incompatible or too hot/slow hardware while it's compiling on the computer.
This will help clear out that system fragmentation thing where it's hard to develop for all systems. We should add options for a bunch of android app stores to be installed. (Something like 'do you want the play store' and if they press enter it skips it. The generic install without any extras will need you to put a --generic or hold down the enter key)
The script will be just that - a bash or python script that has a comment at the end of each line with a line number and a note briefly explaining what you can change on that line.
We eventually could make it not just for ubuntu, but for every arm based OS like CM13, FireOS, etc.
However, things should start small... Let's just start with Ubuntu.

runed.OS said:
I propose a single script that generates images for any android compatible phone. It will (maybe?) require a bootloader unlock, the kernel source, and a cached 'update.zip' or internet connection, but not much else.
Essentially, all you will need to do is plug in your phone and run the script as an admin (sudo sh ubuntuphone-auto.sh). Then, the script will install all of the (cached) dependencies, automatically download (or used the cached one) the system's flash/update zip, and compile ubuntu with the contained images.
It should also do a sideload of a processor test (if compatible) and warn of currently incompatible or too hot/slow hardware while it's compiling on the computer.
This will help clear out that system fragmentation thing where it's hard to develop for all systems. We should add options for a bunch of android app stores to be installed. (Something like 'do you want the play store' and if they press enter it skips it. The generic install without any extras will need you to put a --generic or hold down the enter key)
The script will be just that - a bash or python script that has a comment at the end of each line with a line number and a note briefly explaining what you can change on that line.
We eventually could make it not just for ubuntu, but for every arm based OS like CM13, FireOS, etc.
However, things should start small... Let's just start with Ubuntu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that script had existed, we would'nt had a need in developers at all
This script would be a reality only in ideal world with open drivers. Because of rush in smartphone production we have binary blobs with tons of lags and devices with unupgradable kernels at all (that are VERY important for security).
the reality is that not all companies release AOSP sources for their device, this devices need patches in order to provide all functions of phone, and in fact enthuthiasts do a little reverse-engineering work where possible.
This script isn't possible now, maybe in few years when machines will learn reverse-engineering and some logic.
But generally idea is nice, implementation will lack for some time

Haha, look! Ubuntu just made one of these! It only works for their phones, though.

runed.OS said:
Haha, look! Ubuntu just made one of these! It only works for their phones, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it doesn't work as you want.
You still have to download binary drivers and place them manually in corresponding folder. It doesn't automatically port ROM
Plus you have to download precompiled kernel for UT separately.
It's FAR for script you want.