Android status update

We are now 9 days after Google brought Android into the opensource community and many people are eager to see the Android on a Neo FreeRunner. There are also many people busy with making this wish reality. Let's look at what's already done.

In short

1. Make compatible Linux kernel (done)
   
2. Replace ARMv5 specific code (almost)
   
3. Replace hardware specific code
4. Adding additional software, like on-screen keyboard

In depth
The Linux kernel was almost directly made compatible by McNeil, because he had early access to the Android source code and could start (in complete silence) with porting it onto the Neo FreeRunner. So most of this work was already done when the Android became open source.

After that Leslie and McNeil started the second phase. They had to find all ARMv5 code and replace it by other. Luckely for them, there exists tools like grep. So they could easily locate the files that had to be changed and they made a nice spreadsheet about their progress. That phase is almost done, only 2 files need to be changed.

So now we are balancing between phase 2 and phase 3. In theorie the whole android can now be compile and thrown into an image. And that's what Benno is trying to do. He started and verly early he noticed he had to change the default filesystem (YAFFS) of android and turn it into jffs2. That was because the YAFFS filesystem doesn't want to mount. After he had more trouble with the filesystems, he was forced to put a part of the system into a YAFFS partition and a part into a jffs2 partition.

After that horror was done, he could make some images and throw it onto his Neo FreeRunner and test if all the theory and coding has paid off. He could let the system boot and go trough the init. It started most of the system services, but failed at some graphics code with an out-of-memory error.

So we have almost a working android. In the next phase, they will try to replace the hardware specific code. So they will for example replace the specific gsm modem code by code that the Neo FreeRunner modem understands.

For really in-depth story about what benno did, look here