2007년 12월 7일 금요일

Android Porting to Real Target HW



After digging Android a few days, we successfully ported Android to our evaluation board (PXA270, Intel Xscale ARM) including network and touch screen. We know some people already have done similar work with this, but we didn't find the actual working network/touch device yet.

So we want to share our experience with you guys.

Ok, here goes our working process,

We've chosen the target to Intel bulverde evaluation board. Why this one? Actually there is no technical reason. Just selected because we have this one for our Linux project, and thought Xscale would be fit for our project.


Here are the technical spec of our bd,
-------------------------------
Intel Bulverde evaluation board :
- PXA270 520MHz
- SDRAM 128MB
- NAND 32 MB
- 7inch TFT LCD : 800x480
- 2GB USB Storage
-------------------------------

Here are our porting procedure step by step.

* get Linux 2.6.23.8 from kernel.org
* Port 2.6.23.8 to target board
* CONFIG_AEABI=y
* CONFIG_BINDER=y
* CONFIG_LOW_MEMORY_KILLER=y
* CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE=""
* CONFIG_CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SIZE=y
--- EABI toolchain?

* Prepare Filesystems

* rootfs : jffs2 : using acumen270 rootfs as is
* extract android filesystem contents
* / : extract gzipped cpio
* /system & /data : download from benno(http://benno.id.au/blog/ )'s
* build ext2 fs images for /system & /data
* mount /system & /data
* put android files to /etc
init.rc default.prop system.conf system.d init.gprs-pppd init.ril hcid.conf
* put android init-modified in /
* if you have jffs2 for / patch /init
* modify with hexedit : "/system_property" -> "/tmp/sy_property"
* NOTE: jffs2 does not support memory mapped file

* patch /etc/init.rc
---- begin : init.rc
....
## qemu-init {
## exec /etc/qemu-init.sh
## }
network-property {
exec /etc/set_network.sh
}
....
----- end : init.rc


* put this script to /etc/

------ begin : set_networkprop.sh
export PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/system/bin

LOCALIP=`ifconfig|grep "inet addr" |head -1|sed -e
"s/.*addr:\([0-9\.]*\) .*/\1/g"`
DNSIP=`nslookup localhost|grep Address|head -1|sed -e "s/.* //g"`

/system/bin/setprop net.eth0.dns1 $DNSIP
/system/bin/setprop net.gprs.local-ip $LOCALIP
/system/bin/setprop ro.radio.use-ppp no
/system/bin/setprop ro.config.nocheckin yes
----- end : set_networkprop.sh

* Execute a-run.sh as root

----- begin : a-run.sh
export PATH=/system/sbin:/system/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/system/lib

export ANDROID_BOOTLOGO=1
export ANDROID_ROOT=/system
export ANDROID_ASSETS=/system/app
export ANDROID_DATA=/data
export EXTERNAL_STORAGE=/sdcard
export DRM_CONTENT=/data/drm/content

### copy Android files to /etc if not exists there.

copy_if_not_in_etc () {
if /usr/bin/test ! -e /etc/$1; then
cp -vR /home/android/etc/$1 /etc
fi
}
copy_if_not_in_etc init.rc
copy_if_not_in_etc default.prop
copy_if_not_in_etc system.conf
copy_if_not_in_etc system.d
copy_if_not_in_etc init.gprs-pppd
copy_if_not_in_etc init.ril
copy_if_not_in_etc hcid.conf
copy_if_not_in_etc set_networkprop.sh

umask 000
/bin/chmod -R a+rw /data /tmp
/bin/chmod a+rw .
/bin/chmod -R a+rw data*

/init-modified &
------ end : a-run.sh

* have fun :)
you may see android with network enabled
-----------------------------------------------




* NOTICE
(1) you need world wide write permission on
* /data /tmp $PWD
* /dev/binder /dev/fb0
(2) never run dbus-daemon, app_process, runtime by yourself.
(android) init will do it for you
------------------------------------------------------------

Lesson Learned ;
* you don't need /data filesystem image from begining. /init will create
* you need /data /tmp write permissions for other(not root) users (app)
* w/o, app may killed with Segmentation Fault
* you need /init(of android) process for system property service
* / should be ramfs for memory mapped file /system_property created by /init
* you can edit /init with hexedit ; /system_property -> /tmp/sy_property
* you need system property service for network (net.eth0.dns1 for DNS
lookup)
* to see log (in strace detail) you need /dev/log/{main,events,radio}
* just do
# rm /dev/log (if you have)
# mkdir /dev/log;touch /dev/log/{main,events,radio}
* you can see usefull infos from strace log and /dev/log/main
* you may run /init on some directory with write permission.
* init create data/ databases on running directory which cannot found in
emulator.
------------------------------------------------



ok, done for now, we will keep posting our next improvement later.
If you have any question, leave a message to this blog.

Good Luck!


댓글 14개:

Unknown :

Good Job~~!!

익명 :

This is great. Now, can you please take a traditional Java VM and benchmark it against Dalvik? Just some simple benchmarks as found on http://shootout.alioth.debian.org would be wonderful. Also, be sure to include memory usage as it is hopeful that Dalvik will do better than other Java VMs. Thank you!

익명 :

Greate job!
I'm also working on porting Andriod to my custom Xscale-based development board. Would you please give more details on the 'andriod init-modified', i.e. what do you mean by 'android init-modified'? What modifications need to be done to the original 'init' in the ramdisk image of andriod?

RLMK :

That's cool! Do you know if the same procedures work with older Linux kernels? I have Linux 2.6.22.

Unknown :

Beautifull work!
I thought I have to re-compile Dalvik from source as I've done with J2me.
But I can't find Dalvik source anywhere.
I'm wrong?
Bye bye

changho :

This is great. I am korean university student. I have many interet about android, so i try to porting android to my embedded board. But, this is very difficult work to me... If you give a manual or tip, please send me

my email address is superchangho at gmail.com

Please your concern Have a nice day

Unknown :

This is great. I am embedded engineer. I have many interet about android, so i try to porting android to my embedded board. But, this is very difficult work to me... If you give a manual or tip, please send me

my email address is getabhisheksrivastava@gmail.com

Unknown :

Hi,
Its nice to hear that you have successfully ported the Android on the board.
I need some info regarding your board...
What type of evaluation board u r using ?
Where can i get the board spec....i need to purchase a simlar kind of board for porting android.

Have to try to port the latest Android SDK version M5 ?????


Regards,
Saroj

익명 :

hi some chance to run it in pda runing intel pxa (bulverde) procesor? will it work on windows mobile device?

Bhupesh :

Which toolchain you used?

익명 :

Nice story as for me. It would be great to read a bit more about this theme. The only thing this blog misses is some photos of some devices.
Jeff Karver
Cell phone blocker

VOIP Headphones :

This is great. I just saw a review of Professional Android 2 Application Development and thought I would get into programming again.

This is cool.

Android :

In a related vein, it looks like the Motorola Backflip has the same vulnerability, however it does not have /etc/firmware.

Android app developers :

This is one of the genius post.I like your blog strategy.Your blog is providing a out standing performance.I got a deep knowledge about Android by read your post.Android app developers