Database Develop

[Q] Android development

Let's say that I wanted to get into android rom development, what would be a good place to start to learn. I've downloaded several e-books about android development, but they all pertain to writing applications for android OS, not really getting into modding the OS itself. I suspect I'd need to learn about linux then translate that knowledge to android?
Anybody have any good places to start or good reference materials?
It appears that none of the cyanogenmod team is even going to do anything with the Captivate, they're all working on I9000 and Vibrant, totally ignoring the Captivate. So, I thought I'd get in there and try and learn.

Building Android from source - their own site is the best for instructions on how to build android: http://source.android.com/
Building Captivate requires downloading the sources, building the kernel using the build_kernel.sh after you've fixed the toolchain paths. Or you can just use the usual linux kernel building method that the script actually does underneath.
Then you need to build eclair (or froyo). Samsung has opensourced most of the code but not all so you need to figure out how to merge vanilla eclair source into Samsung's tree, and build it. There is a readme in the source from Samsung about what to change in the build files.
You're going to be doing a lot of googling . . . I haven't figured out all the details of the Samsung eclair build so you're on your own there. Maybe others can chime in.
-Atin

atinm said:
Building Android from source - their own site is the best for instructions on how to build android: http://source.android.com/
Building Captivate requires downloading the sources, building the kernel using the build_kernel.sh after you've fixed the toolchain paths. Or you can just use the usual linux kernel building method that the script actually does underneath.
Then you need to build eclair (or froyo). Samsung has opensourced most of the code but not all so you need to figure out how to merge vanilla eclair source into Samsung's tree, and build it. There is a readme in the source from Samsung about what to change in the build files.
You're going to be doing a lot of googling . . . I haven't figured out all the details of the Samsung eclair build so you're on your own there. Maybe others can chime in.
-Atin
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Thanks. Thats what I'm talking about, a lot of what you said seems Greek to me. I'd like to learn how to do all that. I guess, just read a lot from the google source website?

My advice would be to first learn how to go muck in the linux kernel and the Android sources in general. The Captivate code has been hacked some by Samsung so it doesn't quite follow all the rules about where files are supposed to go (there is no vendor tree for example) but at least it is a start. The google source site is the best for instructions on how to do vanilla stuff that's not hardware specific. Google around for more specific instructions related to the particular problem you are trying to solve after that.
Building working stuff at this level isn't easy. Unless you are somewhat experienced or willing to spend a lot of time learning and making mistakes, I'd say leave this to people who have some experience at this level and come back to it when building for the Captivate is well understood and the knowledge has been distributed enough so lots of people can help you when you have specific questions (no one likes answering general "how to" stuff on a device specific thread).
-Atin

[Q] Can't build CM6 from sources. Help please!

Hi,
I'm trying to build cyanogenmod 6 (froyo) from sources on github for G1.
Sidenote. The reason I'm trying to do this is i'd like to modify kernel parameters. I'm trying to make the phone talk to external device using built in serial port. I can do it with my current CM6, but it looks like serial debugger engages and starts responding to the device and also steals some of the data being sent to phone.
To build I used instruction posted at cyanogen wiki "HTC Dream & Magic: Compile CyanogenMod (OS X)" which covers gingerbread but checked out froyo-stable branch at first. I know that gingerbread version stopped supporting G1 at some point last year.
Without much success even after fixing manifest to point to updated repo urls from kernel.org to googles repo etc. The problem is that apache-http seems incompatible with old sources and it is referenced by head.
I also tried froyo branch, but it doesn't build as well because something seem to be broken for dream_sapphire, and it is not present in the devices anymore.
I've tried searching for compilation errors, and general build questions/instructions here and on cyanogen's forum, but looks like CM6 is not very active these days.
Can someone point me into right direction where to search for relevant info on building it? Would getting a proper revision help or should I combine stuff from several branches to make it work?
I've already spent quite a lot of time figuring out how build is being configured and how things stitch together but without much progress on the actual build.
And with times required to sync a whole repo and build it, it is becoming frustrating.
Any help would be muchly appreciated!
Regards,
Oleg

It's dead.
I also wanted to make a cm6 rom, but I couldn't get anything to work.
I got the addresses all updated but it looks like a bunch of the files have completely dissappeared. You may be able to make it skip those, but then it may not work completely.
Go for AOSP?

Now that's a shame. I wanted to build CM because I'm familiar with it and the other thing is that they have reasonable instructions about building it. But at least I don't need to waste my time trying to figure out how to fix it.
In fact I don't need any extras they provide, a bare android would suffice to me if all the sensors and connectivity would be available. But I'm not familiar with internals of building vendor specific stuff. My understanding was that I need proprietary parts together with AOSP to build a working ROM and that's one of the things CM guys did. Correct me if I'm wrong.

aliher1911 said:
Now that's a shame. I wanted to build CM because I'm familiar with it and the other thing is that they have reasonable instructions about building it. But at least I don't need to waste my time trying to figure out how to fix it.
In fact I don't need any extras they provide, a bare android would suffice to me if all the sensors and connectivity would be available. But I'm not familiar with internals of building vendor specific stuff. My understanding was that I need proprietary parts together with AOSP to build a working ROM and that's one of the things CM guys did. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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Nope AOSP is as easy to build now
Go to the android site and follow directions
Google for "build android"
At the part when doing repo init you need to get the right branch
Go to "build for devices" then scroll down for recommended branches and look for the dream
One thing you'll need to do differently is do "make otapackage" instead of plain "make"
And once that's done you'll need to tweak the zip and get rid of the "recovery" folder and tweak the updater-script
Oh yeah, and I don't know exactly how you would do this part, but you'll need to get the source for a newer kernel in there, like ezterry kernel and use it with 2708+ radio/spl
Unless you wanna use the AOSP kernel & spl & radio which is old
What I did is just flash his kernel after the rom, but you want to do kernel stuff so yeah...
Sent from my HTC Dream using Tapatalk

Budding dev needs some help

Hello all. I've recently been trying to get into Android development, more specifically Kernel development. I've played around with some kitchens and looked at the GB kernel sources from Samsung and tweaked it around.
Previously I previously learned Java to a point where I can put basic lines down and also more advanced stuff but with a bit of help here and there.
I have one question though, what would be the recommended path for creating an ICS Kernel. My plan is to start of with something "stock" and build up but I'm not quite sure what to consider stock seeing as the S1 never got ICS officially. Would I have to use CM9's Kernel sources and if so where do I acquire them.
I also have a good understanding of Ubuntu and its terminal and have a functional idea of what I'm doing there.

[Q] Build help with local_manifest.xml

Hi everyone,
I'm still quite new to building ROMs from scratch, so please bare with me. As my HD+ (ovation) has been so happy n stable on cm12.1 (this thread) I've decided to attempt to compile it myself to start with, then I can look into the few simple mods i wish to add to the source, bundle a few apps etc etc maybe a couple of minor fixes in time....
Right anyway my question,
I have syncd the repo, and using the cm wiki and the breakfast command I have downloaded the device code. I have started to explore it, however I have been reading about the local_manifest.xml which i dont yet have, now looking around on github I have:
android_device_bn_ovation
android_kernel_bn_omap
android_vendor_cm
is that right? how to do I inc the forks of airend, hashcode, and verygreen? what about other kernels? Please any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

M7 Specific Rom Building Instructions?

I've done some searching and found many dated and non-specific references on building AOSP for your device. I didn't even find anything referencing lollipop. I was wondering if somebody had written up some device specific instructions for the m7. I'm looking for information like pulling in the correct binaries and kernel source.

91ludesit said:
I've done some searching and found many dated and non-specific references on building AOSP for your device. I didn't even find anything referencing lollipop. I was wondering if somebody had written up some device specific instructions for the m7. I'm looking for information like pulling in the correct binaries and kernel source.
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Which ROM are you looking for? I found the instructions for building CyanogenMod for the Nexus 6 to be helpful when I rebuilt CM7 for the original Droid Incredible. I don't see any reason it can't be extended to the M7 and lollipop--I can indicate the appropriate changes, if that's helpful.
wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Build_for_shamu

I'm just wanting to build straight from aosp with maybe a custom kernel source.

91ludesit said:
I'm just wanting to build straight from aosp with maybe a custom kernel source.
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Ah. Well, I'm not an expert by any means, but I don't think it's quite that straightforward. The Android source released by Google has no support for any devices except Nexus devices. Various ROMs, CyanogenMod being the biggest, have created open-source device trees to support additional devices. In the source tree for the device that I built for (Droid Incredible), for example, there is code for "liblights", "libsensors", a kernel module, some firmware, some configuration tweaks for various system apps like Camera and Torch--and a configuration file for the kernel. So if you want to compile AOSP for your m7, you'll have to port all that code over to the AOSP tree.
You might find it valuable to try building CM12 for your device. If you can do that successfully, then you can start tweaking with the kernel config that CM provides to suit your needs. Building CM is also very well documented, and once you've done that, it's more clear how you'd go about trying to build AOSP, and you can use the stuff that CM has done to help you port to AOSP if you want.
Here's Google's information on building straight AOSP:
https://source.android.com/source/building-devices.html
Here are CyanogenMod's guides on building for m7 and tweaking the kernel config:
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Build_for_m7
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Doc:_integrated_kernel_building
Here is an XDA Developer guide to porting a device from one AOSP-based ROM to another:
http://xda-university.com/as-a-developer/porting-aosp-roms-using-source-code

Thanks for the info, that's what I was afraid of. I was wanting to build something like the Google play edition, but with all the latest security updates.