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Someone else said that full support will come with kernel 3.5. But does that mean Linux apps will be able to work on Android then?

bitwize 15y ago
Linux apps already do work with android. Just be rooted and get this: http://android.galoula.com/en/LinuxInstall/ http://android.galoula.com/en/LinuxInstall/
rlpb 15y ago
Linux apps generally expect a full software stack. Android's userspace is radically different (and for good reason). There's no GNU libc or GNU coreutils or GTK/Qt or X. There's a minimal libc implementation, busybox, and an Android-specific framebuffer-based GUI framework. From the source it appears that Google have tried hard to exclude GPL'd code as much as possible, too. Getting Linux apps to (natively) run on Android isn't really affected by this news. The kernel was already as close as it needed to be. It's userspace that's the issue.
- ajross 15y ago
  No busybox in android; that too is GPL software that Andy Rubin and the pre-Google Android people didn't want to ship. They actually hacked up a minimal "toolbox" to avoid shipping it. Sad, really.
  - rlpb 15y ago
    Of course, yes. My mistake. Busybox is one of the first things I add after rooting an Android phone.
  - nextparadigms 15y ago
    Why did they remove it? What is GPL stopping them from doing?
    - ajross 15y ago
      It's just the standard fear. Shipping GPL code you didn't write means that you need to honor a license in ways you might not forsee. Some people view that as a scary risk and some don't. Rubin is firmly in the "GNU is for commies" camp. Shrug.
dsr_ 15y ago
You can recompile most Linux apps to work on an Android phone now. Anything requiring graphics will require a complete rework, though, because Android doesn't have X.
- shimon_e 15y ago
  iirc there was a port of x server recently to android.
qwe1234_troll 15y ago
The real goal (I think) is getting to the point where the same drivers work on Android and normal Linux. (Paving the way for phone manufacturers to migrate away from Android to a real OS.)
zokier 15y ago
Afaik this means the converse. This will help run Android apps on vanilla Linux systems (eg desktops). Note that kernel is only one piece of the puzzle, but with these patches porting userland should be easier.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  Yes, I figure you'd still need a Dalvik VM on Linux, but that shouldn't be too hard to port.
Tobu 15y ago
No. All this means is that the delta will be lower, and new kernel work will be able to cross-polinate a bit more easily. Though manufacturers don't really follow the mainline's upgrade path, and it seems like they will converge on this (embedded LTSI) instead: https://lwn.net/Articles/484337/ https://lwn.net/Articles/484337/

bitwize 15y ago

Linux apps already do work with android. Just be rooted and get this: http://android.galoula.com/en/LinuxInstall/ http://android.galoula.com/en/LinuxInstall/

rlpb 15y ago

Linux apps generally expect a full software stack. Android's userspace is radically different (and for good reason). There's no GNU libc or GNU coreutils or GTK/Qt or X. There's a minimal libc implementation, busybox, and an Android-specific framebuffer-based GUI framework. From the source it appears that Google have tried hard to exclude GPL'd code as much as possible, too. Getting Linux apps to (natively) run on Android isn't really affected by this news. The kernel was already as close as it needed to be. It's userspace that's the issue.

ajross 15y ago
No busybox in android; that too is GPL software that Andy Rubin and the pre-Google Android people didn't want to ship. They actually hacked up a minimal "toolbox" to avoid shipping it. Sad, really.
- rlpb 15y ago
  Of course, yes. My mistake. Busybox is one of the first things I add after rooting an Android phone.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  Why did they remove it? What is GPL stopping them from doing?
  - ajross 15y ago
    It's just the standard fear. Shipping GPL code you didn't write means that you need to honor a license in ways you might not forsee. Some people view that as a scary risk and some don't. Rubin is firmly in the "GNU is for commies" camp. Shrug.

dsr_ 15y ago

You can recompile most Linux apps to work on an Android phone now. Anything requiring graphics will require a complete rework, though, because Android doesn't have X.

shimon_e 15y ago
iirc there was a port of x server recently to android.

qwe1234_troll 15y ago

The real goal (I think) is getting to the point where the same drivers work on Android and normal Linux. (Paving the way for phone manufacturers to migrate away from Android to a real OS.)

zokier 15y ago

Afaik this means the converse. This will help run Android apps on vanilla Linux systems (eg desktops). Note that kernel is only one piece of the puzzle, but with these patches porting userland should be easier.

nextparadigms 15y ago
Yes, I figure you'd still need a Dalvik VM on Linux, but that shouldn't be too hard to port.

Tobu 15y ago

No. All this means is that the delta will be lower, and new kernel work will be able to cross-polinate a bit more easily. Though manufacturers don't really follow the mainline's upgrade path, and it seems like they will converge on this (embedded LTSI) instead: https://lwn.net/Articles/484337/ https://lwn.net/Articles/484337/