Re: [gentoo-embedded] Android phones

[Raffaele Recalcati <lamiaposta71@gmail.com>]

remind that the kernel has inside android patches, not, even if your
gentoo is chrooted, it could have some pb anyway

2009/11/5 wireless <wireless@tampabay.rr.com>:
> Christopher Friedt wrote:
>> On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 8:34 PM, wireless <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
>>> Can the gentoo embedded, openmoko, or any other
>>> embedded linux stack run on the (verizon) Android
>>> (verizon droid) phone?
>>
>> yes.
>>
>> my suggestions would be to
>>
>> 1) cross-compile busybox statically for armv5tel
>> 2) push the busybox binary (and symlinks) to the device using adb
>> 3) download a gentoo stage3 filesystem for armv5tel
>> 4) extract the filesystem to a suitable memory card
>> 5) log in to the device using 'adb shell'
>> 6) execute '/bin/ash' (the busybox shell)
>> 7) mount proc sys dev -o bind to your memory card, where the gentoo
>> root is installed
>> 8) chroot to the gentoo root filesystem
>>
>> If you do that, you'll have android and gentoo 'running' on the device
>> at the same time. I'm not sure how easy it is to do all of that on a
>> Motorola Droid, and you might need to make some software modifications
>> to start the adb (android debug bridge) service on the device.
>>
>> You can of course do the same with an OpenMoko filesystem image
>> instead of a Gentoo filesystem image. Unfortunately, you won't be able
>> to use the framebuffer while Android is using it (AFAIK).
>>
>
> Nice to know.
>
>>> Isn't the Android(2.0) phone just somebody's Linux
>>> stack? If so, is it an open/hackable embedded
>>> linux stack for an Arm?
>>
>> I would suggest that you ask Motorola to release the source code for
>> their Droid Linux kernel. Aside from that, all of the available source
>> and documentation for Android is at http://source.android.com . Note
>> that most of the 'good' Android apps are not open source - they (e.g.
>> Google, Motorola, HTC) can get away with that because the userland is
>> made available under an Apache-2.0 license.
>
> I do not think I'll be leading the charge here.
> Just looking for folks that I can follow on
> putting eGentoo on a cell phone, with wifi and
> compatible with Verizon.
>
>> If you really want to experiment, then try to modify the Droid boot
>> loader so it will boot into your Gentoo root on /dev/mmcblk0p1 or
>> something instead of /dev/mdtblockX (where Android resides). You'll
>> probably want to check out mtd-utils to do that. Warning: You'll most
>> likely void your warranty by doing so, and you might end up with a
>> bricked device.
>
> I do not think the DROID phone is what I want,
> after looking more closely... However, I am wedded
> to Verizon, for a variety of reasons, so the cell
> phone I choose should run Gentoo and work with
> Verizon and WiFi.
>
>> IMHO - the best (current) device you can use for a hackable handheld
>> is the Nokia N900 - I wish I had one myself.
>
> I do not see much about this phone on Verizon's
> wireless plans..... I could consider T-mobile?
> I'm not sure about how good the T-mobile coverage
> is in Florida?
>
>
> James
>
>
>