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Hello, Main plasma mobile developer here, I wanted to reply some questions that surfaced in comments and give a bit of overview on current state and where we n
by bshah 10y ago
Hello,
Main plasma mobile developer here, I wanted to reply some questions that surfaced in comments and give a bit of overview on current state and where we need help. We initially based it on Ubuntu Touch, and later on started using our own stack based on Cyanogenmod, more information on it at : http://blog.bshah.in/2016/05/02/plasma-mobile-new-base-system/ http://blog.bshah.in/2016/05/02/plasma-mobile-new-base-syste...
So basically currently Plasma Mobile is made of,
- KDE Frameworks
- kwin_wayland
- Plasma workspace
- Plasma phone shell
- Various Applications
And to run Plasma Mobile stack on mobile devices, we have
- Minimal Cyanongenmod base
- LXC userspace tools for android
- Neon rootfs with Plasma Mobile
Q: Why not use Mer and/or Ubuntu Touch
A: This question is mostly answered in the blog post I linked above, Mer is using RPM .spec based packaging and we don't have resources and as well people who have expertise in RPM packaging, about Ubuntu Touch, we initially based our stack on top of Ubuntu Touch, however later we ended up diverging on various levels, for example libhybris, Qt etc. and it was impossible to keep using Ubuntu Touch stack
Q: Why we are using libhybris and not freedreno?
A: Short answer: In theory, we can use freedreno.
Long answer: kwin_wayland supports DRM backend, and freedreno provides the DRM on android devices, however we don't have access to device which supports freedreno easily. For instance I attempted to get mainline kernel working on Nexus 5 device and also submitted some device tree source files to Linux kernel tree, and will be available in kernel 4.9 release.. But sadly I was not able to finish this project
Q: Why not other devices?
A: Currently we don't have access to multiple devices, however we will be happy to help the community members to "port" or in other words, make Plasma mobile run on their devices.
Q: Where we need help?
A: You can help on pretty much everything.. Some things that come to mind, are
- Porting to other devices
- Various Plasma on Wayland todo items
- More applications for Plasma mobile
- Work on base system
That said, if you have any questions feel free to reach me at bshah@kde.org, or to Plasma team at plasma-devel@kde.org mailing list.
Edit: edited for line breaks
- kbart 10y agoYou should really add this info in one (preferably starting) page within your website, because it's not very informative now. Anyway, it's always nice to see some alternatives in mobile OS world, thank you and keep it up.
- shmerl 10y ago> kwin_wayland supports DRM backend, and freedreno provides the DRM on android devices, however we don't have access to device which supports freedreno easily. For instance I attempted to get mainline kernel working on Nexus 5 device and also submitted some device tree source files to Linux kernel tree, and will be available in kernel 4.9 release.. But sadly I was not able to finish this project Thanks! So were you able to get a usable result on Nexus 5? Sounds like it's the best candidate for this task. Do you plan to continue that effort, or there are some blockers that you couldn't resolve? I'm running Sailfish on Nexus 5 now, which uses libhybris and CM kernel with Qualcomm blobs, but I'm interested in more open alternative, and without driver blobs as well.
- bshah 10y ago> Thanks! So were you able to get a usable result on Nexus 5? Sounds like it's the best candidate for this task. Do you plan to continue that effort, or there are some blockers that you couldn't resolve? Not really there are not much important blocker to get DRM working, however main thing is I don't really have free time to continue that effort.
- shmerl 10y agoI don't have a spare device now, but if I'll get one, I'll be interested in looking into it if I'll have time. Did you document your efforts anywhere?
- flukus 10y agoAny good links to how to build apps for this? All I'm really looking for in a phone is an easy way to build my own apps. Also, when you say DRM, do you mean digital rights management? Why do we want that?