Ethernet support for Eclair

I have created two patches for Ethernet support in Eclair. I don't want to check them in until I finish a complete test. For the early access, you can download it from the download section in android-x86.org

BTW--Chih-wei has also posted a nice video on youtube to demonstrate a really fast fastboot of Android-x86 on EeePC 901. You can find the video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeSg7SKmz7A

Yi

Merge the Ethernet support to Eclair

I'm in the San Jose Airport now, and about to head to Park city for my vacation.
I was really hoping to make the Ethernet to work before I leave for the vacation ,
I worked until this morning, but unfortunatly, there are still some issues. So, sorry
guys, no Ethernet for Christmas ;-) But I will try to get it to work before the new year for sure.
Yi

shorter Todo list

Ok, we (Kelly, Swan, Swallace and others) have solved three ToDo items during this week. Next,We will try to address the Ethernet and also hope to fix Camera soon.

1. Merge Etherenet changes
2. Fix the Camera issue
3. Fix the sleep issue happened after switched to phone policy (Expected)
4. Fix the home key issue happened after switched to phone policy (Done)
5. soft keyboard support (Done)
6. port libhgl from 1.6 to Eclair.

Yi

The long Eclair ToDo list

We are still working on Eclair merge. Most of the features have been merged in already. And I have switched to use phone policy from mid policy. Here is the current ToDo list:
1. Merge Etherenet changes
2. Fix the Camera issue
3. Fix the sleep issue happened after switched to phone policy
4. Fix the home key issue happened after switched to phone policy
5. soft keyboard support
6. port libhgl from 1.6 to Eclair.

I hope we can close first 5 items in two weeks (not include the holiday week).
Yi

The new HowTo page for debugging

I have wrote a quick note about how to do debugging inside Android-x86 environment. Since we are closing up the feature development on the donut-x86 branch, we believe that more and more people will start to use Android-x86 to write the real applications. So I wrote this simple HowTo to help people on debugging. You can find this HowTo in the documentation section on www.android-x86.org. If you have any question about it, please send e-mail to android-x86 discussion group directly.

Currently, we are doing a final verification on the Camcorder feature. The donut-x86 branch will have a full feature support after we pushed in the Camcorder support.

Yi

Search all Android-x86 web sites

I just turned off the default search engine at www.android-x86.org. But you can use our own Google Custom Search Engine ( www.android-x86.org/search ) to search all related web sites: *.android-x86.org/* , groups.google.com/group/android-x86/* , code.google.com/p/android-x86/* , twitter.com/android_x86/*

Android 2.0 (Eclair) for x86 is built-able

Copied e-mail from Chih-wei Huang

Hi list,
I'm glad to tell you the good news, though it is still far from complete.
With the Yi's great help and hard working, the Android-x86 master branch (eclair) is now built-able. Get it as usual:

repo init -u git://git.android-x86.org/platform/manifest.git
repo sync

The SourceForge mirror is also available
repo init -u git://android-x86.git.sf.net/gitroot/android-x86/manifest.git
repo sync

(if you already have a donut-x86 tree, you can repo init & sync
in the same tree to save time)

Before making, you need to modify frameworks/base/preloaded-classes
to replace PhoneWindow with MidWindow.

The bad news is I only succeeded to boot it in vbox with uvesafb driver.
(i.e., select the first boot item)
See the screenshots at http://blog.android-x86.org/
But uvesafb on vbox has known issue, the screen blinking.
The normal vesa driver doesn't work.
It shown black screen and hung.
On real Eee PC, all drivers (vesa, uvesa, i915) don't work.

Anyway, if you are a developer and want to help us to debug,
just try it.


Things not merged yet:
frameworks/base:
* ethernet
* some wifi (combined with ethernet)
* preloaded-classes
* 3d acceleration
* large screen support(?)

packages/apps/Settings:
* ethernet configuration

packages/apps/AlarmClock:
* adjustable alarm sound

--
Chih-Wei
Android-x86 project
http://www.android-x86.org

Eclair is up running on VirtualBox

After the thanksgiving holiday, we had worked on the Eclair merge for 24 hours a day on everyday (well, I'm in US, Chih-wei is in Taiwan, so both of us worked together for 24 hours a day). After fixed audioflinger, camera code, removed opengl, fixed linker and merge conflicts and ...... when I open my e-mail box this morning, I saw Chih-wei's e-mail named "First Screenshots of Eclair on vbox", so I can not just stop myself to write this blog even longer to let people know this news. We will clean up the things and push the changes to master tree. Surely, we have a lot of fixup works need to be done, but, hi, it boots. It is a good start :-)

New git mirror is ready for use

To solve the git repo accessing problem from North America and EU, Chih-Wei has built a new git mirror server on SourceForge
To use it, you need to do :

repo init -u git://android-x86.git.sf.net/gitroot/android-x86/manifest.git
-b donut-x86
repo sync

Note the SourceForge manifest points all projects
to the SourceForge.net mirror.
(no matter modified by android-x86 or not)


Yi

android-x86 1.6 stable release is ready for download

The Android-x86 project is glad to release the new stable version 1.6 to the public. The live cd iso and usb image are available from our site, as usual:

* http://www.android-x86.org/download
* http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list

Test reports (success or fail) are welcome as always. Please send the reports to the Android-x86 discussion group. If you are working on Android for x86 platform, welcome to join us. See the below contact information.

Key Features

Android-x86 1.6 is based on the Android 1.6, aka the Donut branch. We fixed and added many x86 specified code to let the system runs smoothly on x86 platforms, especially for netbooks. The key features of this release contain

* Kernel 2.6.29 with KMS enabled. Most netbooks can run Android-x86 in the native resolution.
* Hardware OpenGL support on i915/i945 family chipsets. This feature improves greatly the performance of 3D effect and video playback. It is turned on by default if the i915 driver is available. However, if you have trouble with it, you can disable it by adding HWACCEL=0 to the cmdline. (by olv from 0xlab)
* Wifi and Ethernet support. Both are configured from the GUI.
* A new text based GUI installer which supports ext3/ext2/ntfs/fat32 filesystems.
* Support basic bluetooth for builtin device and external bluetooth dongle.
* Keyboard layout is configurable. Ten layouts are supported in this release. To use this feature, you have to install Android-x86 to harddisk and reboot after changing the setting.
* Fn hotkeys support for Eee PC platforms.
* Add touch features to simulate Home/Menu/Back keys, useful for touchscreen only devices.
* Add software mouse cursor. Mouse wheel is also supported.

In addition to the key features, here is the list of all other improvements

* Better keyboard support, including PageUp, PageDown, and so on. The Ctrl key is usable in the Terminal emulator.
* Touchscreen support for Eee PC T91 and Eee Top.
* External usb drive and sdcard are auto mounted on plugging.
* Add shutdown and reboot dialog. To invoke it, press the power button.
* A hotplug tool to load driver firmwares.
* Audio and Camera support.
* Drivers auto detection.
* Battery status.
* Suspend to RAM and wakeup.
* Adjustable Alarm Clock volume.
* Add proxy setting.
* Be able to su in the Terminal emulator.
* Software keyboard is workable.
* Support larger resolutions.
* Chinese Pinyin IME works correctly.
* Add video player.
* Add more sample applications.
* Add third party applications, include
o OpenIntents File Manager.
o ConnectBot ssh client.
o AndAppStore client 1.5.8.
o LIME IME 1.6.3.
o RockOn 1.4.8 For Android.
* Compressed filesystem (squashfs).
* Debug mode including busybox.
* NDK for x86 platforms is supported.

Released Files

* Live CD iso: android-x86-1.6.iso

sha1sum: 9201e1eae9c4d48bc4436bce163c3eb12052603b
* Live USB image: android-x86-1.6_usb.img.gz

sha1sum: 9070bd35835f0790acfe30adef7dc21ef5a4537f

Source code

As uaual, the source code is available in our git server:

$ repo init -u git://git.android-x86.org/platform/manifest.git -b donut-x86
$ repo sync

Read this article for how to compile the source code.
Contact us

* Google group: Android-x86

http://groups.google.com/group/android-x86?hl=en

* IRC channel at irc.freenode.net #android-x86

android-x86 20091113 test build is released

The Android-x86 project is glad to announce a new test build
20091113 for public testing. A live cd ISO and USB image are
available from our site:

http://www.android-x86.org/download
http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list

Features:
Build 20091113 is Android 1.6 (Donut) based and it is a release candidate for android-x86 1.6 stable release.
In addition to the features available in previous release, the new build contains

* Hardware OpenGL support from olv in 0xlab.
* Fn key support for EeePC platforms.
* External USB bluetooth support.
* NDK for X86 platforms is supported (based on the original work from guillaume.etievent@laposte.net)
* new touch features to simulate home/menu/back keys to support touch only device.
* Improvement on the keyboard support. User can use ctrl+c directly from terminal simulator now.
* A lots of bug fixes.

Released Files:
* Live CD iso: android-x86-20091113.iso

sha1sum: dec0b99a6fe1e33e05b665e82f3020f612eb14bf

* Live USB image: android-x86-20091113_usb.img.gz

sha1sum: ce040ced2da92c278c7df2527b5f3498a68afbfa


Source code:
The source code is available in our git server:

$ repo init -u git://git.android-x86.org/android-x86/platform/manifest.git
$ repo sync

Test reports (success or fail) are welcome.
Please send the reports to the Android-x86 discussion group.
http://groups.google.com/group/android-x86

The new feature for the touch only device

Swan_Wang has pushed in a new feature for the device that only has a touch screen. For these kind of devices, user need to have a way to get into menu, home or going back to the last screen. To do it, user only need to touch the right end of the status bar and then use following touch actions to simulate menu,home and back keys

* Home: Touch the status bar.
* Menu: Touch the statusBar from left to right.
* Back: Touch the statusBar from right to left.

You can touch the right end of the status bar again to disable the feature.

Yi

The NDK tarball is ready for test

I have released a NDK tarball. It is based on the original work from guillaume.etievent@laposte.net.
The tarball includes following things:
1. original arm NDK that built from android-x86 source tree.
2. the x86 NDK support.

To use the x86 support from the NDK tarball, the only extra thing you need to do is to add TARGET_PRODUCT=eeepc to your compile command line. I hope that we could have a better compile flag to tell the targeted CPU type. But I would rather to collect some feedbacks before I moving further.

Please send your comments/questions/suggestions to android-x86 discussion group.

Yi

new daily build 20091024 is available

Android-x86 project is glad to announce a new daily build 20091024 for public testing. A live cd iso and usb image are available from our site:

http://www.android-x86.org/download
http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list

Features
Build 20091024 is Android 1.6 (Donut) based. In addition to the features available in previous release, the new build contains

* Bluetooth support.
* ACPI4ASUS kernel support back port .
* Made Chinese IME to work correctly
* Made software keyboard to be enabled based on user configuration
* Added ConnectBot to support SSH client.
* Large size screen support (1024x768)
* New power button dialog to support reboot.
* Fixed the airplan mode issue reported before.
* Fixed keyboard layout issues reported before.
* Fixed Web browser crash with https access issue.
* A lot of other bug fixes.

Released Files

* Live CD iso: android-x86-20091024.iso

md5sum: f57c7ad13deef92632d3dbcdfd40e7f5
* Live USB image: android-x86-20090916_usb.img.gz

md5sum: abf007c478d6e8238fe93360f09af6d2

Source code

As usual, the source code is available in our git server:

$ repo init -u git://git.android-x86.org/platform/manifest.git
$ repo sync

Test reports (success or fail) are welcome. Please send the reports to the Android-x86 discussion group.

Mid policy needs to be fixed

Android-x86 is using Mid policy. It is so premature. Similar to the init and vold, it is another item that on the "to be fixed" list
All the recent issues like IME and software keyboard are all caused by the incompleted mid policy.

The Latest Git Server Status

from cwhuang's mail :

Hi All,

Since the old git server sometimes suffered from bandwidth issues,
we moved it to a new server provided by Taiwan Linux User Group (TwLUG).

We also simplified the git url from git://git.android-x86.org/android-x86/ to
git://git.android-x86.org/

That is, for repo init, it is
$ repo init -u git://git.android-x86.org/platform/manifest.git

For each individual Android project, it is
git://git.android-x86.org/path_to_project.git

The old url is still valid, but maybe removed in the future.

The Android mirror (android.git.kernel.org) is moved
git://korg.android-x86.org/

So to get the original Android tree from our mirror, use
$ repo init -u git://korg.android-x86.org/platform/manifest.git

The gitweb does not work yet on the new git server.
We will try to fix it as soon as possible.

git.android-x86.org is temporary down

info from cwhuang:
git.android-x86.org is temporary down, please use git.linux.org.tw

By the way, you can join our mailing list for the latest discussion
http://groups.google.com/group/android-x86

You can also follow android-x86 to see the latest comment at twitter
http://twitter.com/android_x86
http://twitter.com/cwhuang1
http://twitter.com/beyounn

cant not access www.android-x86.org from Mainland China

At this moment, the people from Mainland China can not access http://www.android-x86.org.

If you are in Mainland China, cwhuang suggested us to try anonther web address
https://sites.google.com/a/android-x86.org/web/home

If you have any idea to resolve this problem, please let us know, thanks !!

And I hope the following article can also help you:
http://www.10w.org.cn/marketing-site/Google-GFW.html

~~~

richliu tested our google site by
http://www.websitepulse.com/help/testtools.china-test.html

and this is the report

Tested From:Shanghai, ChinaTested At:2009-09-18
06:27:33 (GMT -04:00)URL Tested:http://www.android-x86.org/Resolved
As:74.125.53.121 Status:couldn't connect to host Response Time:0.939
sec DNS:0.939 sec Connect:0.000 sec Redirect:0.000 sec First
Byte:0.000 sec Last Byte:0.000 sec Size:0 bytes

( traceroute results from Shanghai, China )

http://www.websitepulse.com/help/tools.php?PHPSESSID=91fmq2jlhbbksjbo53sbdnrkl1&testtype=mtr-test&port=2&host=http://www.android-x86.org/&location=18&gogogo=1&dotest=1&seltest=mtr-test&tab=network
1203.142.12.1CN20 %540.8771.1181.646 2152.104.168.2
(152.104.168.2)HK0 %551.0151.3521.588 3152.104.134.241
(152.104.134.241)HK0 %5518.33319.32722.602 4152.104.130.2
(152.104.130.2)HK0 %5518.39118.62818.931 5219.142.0.125CN0
%5518.95619.62320.405 6bj141-130-125.bjtelecom.net
(219.141.130.125)CN0 %5519.03320.85324.466 7202.97.57.217CN0
%5520.38820.17520.54

( traceroute results from US )

http://www.websitepulse.com/help/tools.php?PHPSESSID=91fmq2jlhbbksjbo53sbdnrkl1&testtype=mtr-test&port=2&host=http://www.android-x86.org/&location=9&gogogo=1&dotest=1&seltest=mtr-test&tab=network
166.249.6.105US0 %550.4010.5490.689 2po1-br0-tuk.wa.spry.com
(64.79.223.1)US0 %550.4640.6460.796 3ge1-4.cr01.sea02.mzima.net
(72.37.232.33)US0 %551.1605.50910.835 4xe0-2.cr01.sea01.us.mzima.net
(216.193.255.233)US0 %551.1515.73611.226 5six.sea01.google.com
(206.81.80.17)US0 %550.8301.1331.825 6209.85.249.34US0 %550.8417.71034.595 7209.85.250.126US0 %554.4864.7995.170 8209.85.250.144US0 %556.9918.20511.727 964.233.174.121US0 %556.85522.44983.867 1072.14.232.10US0 %557.1258.33512.111 11pw-in-f121.google.com
(74.125.53.121)US0 %556.9026.9497.01

Build 20090916

Announcement from cwhuang ( http://cwhuang.info/ )  :

 The Android-x86 project is glad to announce a new daily build 20090916 for public testing. A live cd iso and usb image are available from our site:

http://www.android-x86.org/download
http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list

Features

Build 20090916 is Android 1.6 (Donut) based. In addition to the features available in previous release, the new build contains

• Ethernet status tracker. You can configure ethernet to DHCP or static IP via GUI.
• Proxy Setting.
• Adjustable Alarm Clock volume.
• Video Player.
• OpenIntents File Manager.
• AndAppStore client for application installation.
• RockOn For Android.
• Better mouse cursor.
• More sample applications.
• A lot of bug fixes. Wifi is more stable. Application download works.

As Google just released the Android SDK 1.6, Android-x86 build 20090916 may be the first available platform for the developers to test new features of Android 1.6 (except the emulator).

Released Files

• Live CD iso: android-x86-20090916.iso
sha1sum: c3ba5672a93f0157976cc72e333a7ce0ba8e5f22
• Live USB image: android-x86-20090916_usb.img.gz
sha1sum:  d03090e1c15a1bc5fd5890e3aeef722e141a8ba2

Source code

As uaual, the source code is available in our git server:

$ repo init -u git://git.android-x86.org/android-x86/platform/manifest.git
$ repo sync

Test reports (success or fail) are welcome. Please send the reports to the Android-x86 discussion group.

The wifi problem has been fixed

Recntly, people reported issues with wifi. The bug really has nothing to do with the wifi. It is a memory usage issue inside the system property manager. Long ago, I changed the size of system property name to support user configure-able battery sysfs path. This change will cause the size of shared memory for the system properties to increase. But the original code of shared memory creation uses a hard coded size and I was not aware of that. When the amonut of the total used system property entries increased to certain level, segfault will happen since system property entry may have pointed to a wrong address. After adjusted the code to create the share memory, it seems that the problem goes away.

If you are still seeing the issue, please report it in the discussion group.

Thanks

Yi

The Ethernet State Tracker is pushed into master branch

We have merged new Ethernet State Tracker into master branch from the eth branch. You can get it with the normal repo sync. It is still in an early stage, Chih-wei has pointed out that we missed some features like status icon and notifications for the connection up and down. we will continue to work on it.

For now, the ethernet is enabled by default. If you don't want to use it, you will have to manually disable it from the setting.

Please report the issues you found in Android-x86 discussion group.

Please Help us to Promote the Android-x86 Website

We have a sticker now. Please consider to put this sticker on your blog.
Please help us to promote the Android-x86 website. Thank you !!



Put following html code in your blog:
<a href="http://www.android-x86.org/" title="android x86 project" alt="android x86 project"><img border="0" src="http://www.android-x86.org/download/android-x86-120.png"/></a>

New Android-x86 Website

We have a new web site now ( based on Google sites )

http://www.android-x86.org

Does it look better ? But we need a logo, if you can help us to design the logo or maintain the web site, please contact with us, thanks

contact@android-x86.org

( The article is translated from http://cwhuang.info/2009/08/new-android-x86-site )

new Android-x86 iso release ( 20090820 )

The new features:

1. based on Donut (Android 2.0)
2. support wifi network, wifi could be controlled via GUI
3. new installer, the android-x86 could be installed onto ext3/ext2/ntfs/fat32
4. 可載入 firmware 的 hotplug
5. include most device drivers to complete auto-detection
6. Improve the keyboard support, including the USB keyboard
7. The computer will be turned off after pressed the power button.

if you want to compile the source, please

$ repo init -u git://git.android-x86.org/android-x86/platform/manifest.git
$ repo sync
$ make iso_img usb_img TARGET_PRODUCT=eeepc

please enjoy it, and remember to report the bugs, thanks !!

http://web.android-x86.org

download the iso here: http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list

( The article is translated from http://cwhuang.info/2009/08/android-x86-daily-build-20090820 )