Related
* Mod EDIT *
Thread closed until moderation team has had an opportunity to properly review as a result of soliciting donations.
Hey everyone,
As you may all know, there’s a fairly large demand to put Android on the Omnia. After researching it myself, I decided since no one else is doing it I’ll take the incentive and give it my best shot. Don’t get too excited, since I may not get very far. But before I begin, there’re three questions I have to ask:
*NOTE: I own a Verizon i910 Omnia*
1. How do I extract the bootloader, kernel, and rom from the device? I’ve tried all sorts of rom kitchens and utilities and the things I get are either useless or work but only with i900 roms I downloaded and therefore not very helpful.
2. I need to disassemble WM’s device drivers (for the screen, touchscreen, buttons to start), and port them to a custom Linux kernel (that’s what Android will be placed on top of). What software do you recommend (for disassembling WM drivers for ARM in PE format)? A day’s worth of google searching turned up little to nothing.
3. This will involve flashing my one and only Omnia with bootloaders, kernels, and roms that, in all likelihood, will brick my device as I test it. I read in certain places something about a “jtag” cable. Can I use this to flash data directly to the chips without any kind of software running on the phone? If so, what kind of information can you provide? I don’t really care about my warranty, considering what I’m going to do to it To rephrase the question, what options (besides returning the phone) do I have to recover it if it gets bricked?
If anyone wants to offer their support I’d really appreciate it. I need people experienced with the inner workings of a WM device and also people experienced in Linux, specifically device drivers.
it would be great if you could install the Android OS. but i think we need to wait for the official drivers for Android, even if they would be released by Samsung. i start thinking it is impossible.
I honestly doubt Samsung will go the extra mile for a single product (even one as awesome as the Omnia) and port an entirely different operating system to just one of their products. This is one we're gonna have to do ourself. It is possible to do, I'm just stuck right now because I don't know how to dump the i910's rom, which contains all the device drivers I need to make a full-featured port of Android possible. This is what I need help with. It's really not that impossible, it just takes a bit of work.
Mods, could you move this thread to "development and hacking"? It would probably be seen by the people I want it to be seen by there. Thanks.
hey..dude.. checkup this from this group of ppl @
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=431329
may be u can join ..
Hey Guys, I've got an Omnia as well and really really want Android on it. Although I am unable to script. I thought of a way to contribute a bit as well. I set up a website to raise money for the first person or organisation that pulls it off to run Android on the Omnia.
Have a look here:
I chipped in a €100 myself as well to make a start. I hope you guys can contribute some money as well so that it motivates the developers even more.
For the developers out there: "We know you can do it!"
* Mod EDIT *
Link Removed
How can an project be real. If Basics are unknown?
Qualcomm, QCT Tools, Firmware structure etc...
For study:
http://www.4shared.com/file/108584795/bb49ee52/I900_090226.html
Big thanx to barisyalcin.
For Android on Omnia. Good Luck.
The way is the Destination.
Best Regards
Why even bother installing a shell?
the android on the omnia only installs a shell compound, it does not actually convert the omnia into a full fledged Android phone.
I would just scrap it and pick up an actual android phone.
Its just a general observation, so now I get interested in running Android on my phone, the chatter, updates, discussions and info seems to have quietened down, was it something I said?
Looked at the XDA wiki for info and that hasn't been updated since 2009 (I put some updated info in there, but really it needs a complete re-write, its still listing version 1.1!), I don't feel qualified to re-write it, or I would. The HTC on Android site, seems also quiet, not listing the latest builds and some of the how to's seem out of date.
I guess its because the original developers have got new phone and moving on to bigger and brighter things, and fair enough, but where does that leave the rest of us?
I know I can't afford a new phone, so am stuck with what I've got, and really I'm happy with it, I know 50% of my office have Iphone's and consider my phone a 'brick' (it still does more than their Iphone's ha ).
So how can we keep this alive? get involved, Maintain the momentum and get people interested in Android development and testing on our devices, I'm not a cook (developer (well not of this kind, my work is Flex and Java back end stuff)), but can test builds (SD Card) or maintain doc's (if needed).
Myself I'm still only testing Android, I've not set this as my main OS yet, why? hum, well, battery seems to be number one issue. I don't know really what is stopping me from using it fully, maybe it 'seems' a bit rough at the edges, not got used to what button does what, (not always a direct mapping), I guess I just need to spend more time using it.
Anyway I'll stop blabbering on here, just wanted to get all that off my mind
Your thoughts? >>>>>
Android on Kaiser is far from dead, or dying, or even quiet, lol, I'm still beavering away trying to help others through the transition, although, the more users make the transition, the better, since they tend to help others in turn.
Behind the scenes there are a few things going on also, although there is a little bit of a feeling of waiting, since there is an expectation of 2.2 on the horizon now
Battery is not really so much of a problem as it was, yes, android still uses more power than winmo, but thats mostly down to the differences between the OS's rather than purely a device/driver issue. ( you should have been here in January, I actually overheated my battery to such an extent it warped the cover, and killed the battery , I had android running for 45 minutes, full to drained in 45 minutes produces a lot of heat ).
Builds are maturing nicely, and are a lot more stable than previously, all in all, it's perhaps not as much of a mad glorious race as it was, but it's still exciting
status: saving money for hd2 or evo
It's quiet here because most of the discussion seems to occur in the Vogue Android section. That's where a fair amount of work seems to come from, like Myn, DZO, and Incubus26Jc.
A lot has changed recently, especially in bugs and performance. GPS has improved a lot, to the point where I'd say it's stable.
wikis never stay up to date around here. anyone who cares just follows the individual dev threads as they change weekly/daily. start with stickies
Arrr I see, thank you, think I was having a bit of a 'slow day' thing going on, well I had time to update the wiki, I must have been bored!
Wow you killed a battery, 45 mins from full to flat, oh wow that's is bad, glad that has improved some what
I wasn't aware that the Vouge was similar to the Kiaser, so didn't think to look over there, so they share similar hardware?
Well since I started the thread, things have certainly picked up with the VaniljEclair release, whcih I am testing now, (wow that fonts are REALLY small!).
Good to there is there is still interesting and development going on.
Thank you for all the efforts, this really is cool stuff.
leona said:
I wasn't aware that the Vouge was similar to the Kiaser, so didn't think to look over there, so they share similar hardware?
Well since I started the thread, things have certainly picked up with the VaniljEclair release, whcih I am testing now, (wow that fonts are REALLY small!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they are similar enough to share general drivers. the android kernal allows boot parameters to determine which of a small group to load. these are hard coded so you must still install the correct nbh, but losers editor will take any .nbh and convert it to your phone since its just a parameter change. the android OS is like any other OS, all drivers are there and it picks the correct ones. in wimo the kernal and OS flash together with out boot options so you must get phone specific.
download roguetools from market and set the DPI higher. start with 120
Could be the warmer weather...
Thanks, I looked for RougeTools in the market but couldn't find it, so I installed the apps pack that comes with this build which had it in and then changed the dpi to 120, which is better, (still need to use a magnifier to read it but that's me, can't wait for a 'pinch zoom' type app ).
Is there a guide for using using / configuring Android anywhere?
Hi
I'm pretty sure this hasn't been covered off already - well - not to the level of detail I need anyway.
I came to the xda forums after a friend of mine suggested that there were hacks available.
It's clear that 'something' is available, but what I am not finding is:
A) A SIMPLE guide that shows us people totally new to phone 'hacking' how to do it, from start to finish, with minimal lingo and acronyms.
B) An clear and simple explanation on the different 'hacking' options available
C) The reason you would want to do it? From what I can see, the only benefit seems to be a few pointless homebrew apps that you can download - and for the risk involved...why would you chance it?
Don't get me wrong, tinkering in itself is the reason you would want to do it - it's fun - but I can't help thinking that the WP7 side of 'hacking' doesn't offer much reward.
Would really appreciate any advice/help/links with my questions.
Thanks
Did not know whether to bother answering or not but okay. First welcome to XDA, uhhh in easy laymens terms hacking is not for the inexperienced and it is not totally idiot proof so you should have some fair knowledge of the systems and what they do. Don't hack if you need a kindergarten book to explain it all out for ya simple as that. WP is closer too iOS than Android main point being it is the most secure as far as I personally care of the 3, and the system is just as smooth and fluid as iOS. No there are not alot of Homebrew available at the moment, but if you happen to have a phone able to be fully unlocked then you have the option to use many functions that were not available before.
Device specific is where you should such that search block is your best friend, nobody here is going to write a full guide to the whole forum section for every single new hack and crack that comes out. If you want to you are more than welcome.
Thanks pal
I'm ok with the concepts of hacking, just not specifically this OS.
I'm technically minded and do a lot of similar stuff elsewhere, but when it comes to the phone that I use daily, and comntracted for another 12 months with and have no experience with tinkering WP7 - Im slightly more nervous.
I guess my main issue was the d&h forum for WP7. Every sticky/thread is far too long and they all contain a lot of acryonyms that a new WP7 hacker wouldn't understand. So my forum instinct is to look for the sticky that says "start here - everything explained" - but there isn't one?!
It's almost like "where do people start if there is no starting point"?
As far as covering a good amount of info, this post is a good one:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1299134
Don't really think there is a way to avoid all the jargon though, if there is something that isn't explained well it should be simple to find information to fill in the gaps. The terms used are very specific to the environment, so anything returned in a search would probably be relevant.
The most common homebrew option is Interop Unlock, Samsung models of phone are the easiest to unlock. This allows you to use native code that has not been wrapped in a tidy c# class.
The benefit of all this is that your phone is a full fledged computer that by default is locked down like an appliance. Developing additional homebrew apps allow you to get further phone customization out of your device, and therefore the most value out of your purchase.
I for myself thought about unlocking my device considering the risks involve. but I weighed the consequences. Thus, I end up now, having a fully unlocked HTC 7 Mozart with a custom rom. I am happier with my device now, I can do BT transfers, explore the folders within my device, install more applications than the usual apps/games from the marketplace, and tweak my device. One more thing, when my device was still running on stock rom, battery life is shorter, now I have 1.5x the battery life.
MY CONCLUSION: unlock your device's potential
as for the guides, yes it is not really like spoon feeding, but contents of the guides/tutorials are somehow progressive. one can learn from them, so that on the next development, we can do the "hacking" easier since we understood how the process goes. This is why it is called development. Cheers!
before i can give you advice on what hack that you can use, what is the name your device that way there are more specific hacks that we can talk about.
Hi
Thanks for the helpful replies.
I have a HTC Trophy. I'm doing the SD card upgrade next week to start with, so I can finally put all my music on it, so thought i'd look at hacking it at the same time.
Cheers
Sent from my 7 Trophy using Board Express
look at the HTC part of this guide, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1271963
lovenokia said:
look at the HTC part of this guide, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1271963
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like a good guide but how am I meant to know if I have a first or second gen phone....there's no definitive list?! And I can't remember what updates I have.
This is a nightmare - I'll give it a miss
check your processor, as far as i know, if your phone has 1.5GHz then it's a gen2, otherwise, it's just gen1
Let me at least give the "legitimate" talk about unlocking your phone:
For $99/year, sign up for a developers account with Microsoft (create.msdn.com). You can unlock up to 3 separate devices officially for app development. Then you can build and deploy all kinds of .xaps to your phone. To top it off, you can get the betas and early OS upgrades (had Mango almost 6 months before my friend got it from his vendor). Ultimately, you can even release your own apps to the marketplace for sale or for free.
sounds like, since this is a phone you use every day, this might be an investment worth considering. Its an easy and legitimate way for someone not too experienced with the phone's innards to get it unlocked and get exposed to how things work. Plus if you back up your phone vefore you unlock it, and something goes wrong, you haven't done anything thats voided a warranty. If the OS crashes, try returning to the "pre-unlocked" backup and bring it back to the store saying it crashed. They'll replace it. Nice deal, considering most Windows phones run around $500 to replace.
Now as for unlocking it via other means: maybe you dont want to sell apps. Maybe you dont really want to give microsoft a credit card for $100 every year. Maybe you want to just do more than a developer unlock will get you - like load a whole new aspect of the operating system. Or maybe you just dont want to pay to unlock your phone. Understandable, i suppose (though for MOST people, a developer unlock is more than sufficient). There are options, but they will require a lot of time and investigation (maybe even translation) to get it right, because the WP7 is new. The devices are many - its not like having a single hardware baseline to crack - like the iPhone. And to throw another monkey in the wrench, they did a full-fledged update to the OS not 6 months ago. So - no - not a a lot of "beginners" guides out there. Even for experienced people, an unofficial unlock is still a tricky feat. Take a look at the number of posts that have to do with phones randomly "re-locking" themsleves. Hell, I'm a legit developer and my phone "re-locked" itself last night. (turns out MS has a "lease" on deve unlocks that you need to physically update every year by un-registering and re-registering the device)
hope this was informative and helps.
I found exactly the same problem. Today I saw this post in the HTC Titan forum which helped me understand all the different unlocks that you hear mentioned on the web.
Hope this helped
Developer interest in Android has decreased
Administrator | 09/28/2012 | 16:12
Android logoDespite its continued increase in the mainstream consciousness, Android has seen a decrease in developer interest. A new survey from Appcelerator found that 76% of mobile developers are "very interested" in creating apps for Android. 85% said they were very interested in the iPhone.
Last year at this time, both of those numbers were closer to 90%.
So interest among all platforms has deen a drop-off, but Android is showing the starkest decline, especially in comparison to its relative growth in the market.
The survey didn't provide much in the way of qualitative information to figure out why this is. In fact, one of the results of the survey found that developers see a large installed base as one of the key factors when deciding which platform to develop for - something that Android obviously has.
This survey comes just as Google announced that Google Play app downloads have exceeded 25 billion. The total number of apps in Google Play now stands at around 675,000. So it seems very odd that interest in these platforms has declined.
Maybe it's just due to the changing tide of the industry right now, and hopefully interest in development will start climbing back up.
As Phandroid's Kevin Krause points out, it’s important to note a trend common among nearly all platforms in Appcelerators Q3 survey.
"All platforms, including iOS, saw a drop off from the previous quarter except for Windows 8 Tablets. While developer interest still remains higher for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, it too has declined since the middle of 2011, though to a lesser degree than Google’s Android platform," he explained.
"As such, the figure could be easily attributed to the introduction of new platforms such as Windows Phone or to a general shift towards HTML5 over native mobile apps."
Source: TGDaily
found here on this site- http://www.x-drivers.com/news/software/index.html
please post in the right section. development is for roms/mods/kernels. all questions belong in Q&A. an this will be moved to general
i think people are running out of creativity and are just working on improvement of what is already out. windows platform are increasing because they lack in apps... so developers are obviously flocking over there to try to be the first at something that is already made for android and ios.
Op despite copy pasting something from somewhere can you also let us know what did you understand from the stuff u copy pasted? Cuz i personally do not see how it affects us, since there already are all kind of apps one can need
It was just kind of a shock. Personally I'm pretty new at all this and am surprised at the strength of the Android OS community. That "copy and paste" seemed to me as if they were trying to say Android is a thing of the past and will soon be forgotten. It was really meant to be a post along the "informative" lines or to help others involved in the Android OS community remain up to date on the current events unfolding around us, and/or to see what others may think of the statements made in the article as well. So as far as learning something goes............nah, I didn't learn a single thing that I probably couldn't have figured out on my own. Thanks for askin' there though buddy!
countryboy092782 said:
It was just kind of a shock. Personally I'm pretty new at all this and am surprised at the strength of the Android OS community. That "copy and paste" seemed to me as if they were trying to say Android is a thing of the past and will soon be forgotten. It was really meant to be a post along the "informative" lines or to help others involved in the Android OS community remain up to date on the current events unfolding around us, and/or to see what others may think of the statements made in the article as well. So as far as learning something goes............nah, I didn't learn a single thing that I probably couldn't have figured out on my own. Thanks for askin' there though buddy!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with stories like this are that people don't look at all the facts, just the ones that help prove their point (not talking about anyone in particular, more of a generalization).
Yeah, there's been a 15% drop in interest in app development, 20% total if you include iOS.
Things that weren't taken into account:
1. There are 1 in 5 people who aren't interested in mobile app development anymore...that means there is still (on average) about 4 out of 5 people who are interested. 4 out of 5 is about 4 times bigger than 1 out of 5. Which means 4 times as many people are still interested than those who aren't interested. Sounds pretty healthy to me.
2. The Play Store and the App Store have something like 1.3 million application between Android and iOS. People who "lost interest" very likely had interest, developed their application, and are no longer interested in developing any more applications. 1.3 million is a very crowded app market. It's not like Pokemon where there's a chance you can catch em all if you play long enough. You'll never use every app in Android or iOS. So is it really that big of a deal if app development slows down a little bit?
3. As others have mentioned, Windows 8 is about to launch. Windows 8 has like no applications (very few, I've looked)...so devs could be looking for greener pastures. It doesn't mean they won't come back if they have a great idea for Android or iOS, it just means they don't have any now.
For every negative thing you can think of about there being a 20% drop in app dev interest over 2 mobile platforms, there are still just as many (if not more) positive things you can counter it with...so this isn't a statistic really worth worrying about.
I really just kinda threw it out there to see folks thoughts on it. Thank you for your take on it all Mr. Poor College Guy, and thank you for the rescue. I thought I was about to be tied up in a political pissin' contest there for a moment
.
Otherwise we will get big mess here in few months.
Since problems and solution will be different for both systems it will be hard to find correct information.
What do you think?
galtom said:
Otherwise we will get big mess here in few months.
Since problems and solution will be different for both systems it will be hard to find correct information.
What do you think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. At the moment I have to comb through the comments to find which o/s they relate to.
The Windows (Win8 + RT) forums don't have much traffic. Splitting into smaller forums will make it worse, as traffic will be further chopped up, and forums need a certain traffic volume to be self-sustainable. People are more likely to participate--as I'm responding to you right now--when there are postings to reply to, even if it isn't wholly on-topic.
On/off-topic is a means to an end, the end being to allow users to easily find the info they're looking for. That doesn't happen if there's no info (no traffic) to speak of. If traffic were high, then segregration is desirable. If it's a ghost town, then consolidation is better, just to get more people talking and participating.
Anyway, it's a bit of a moot point, because even outside of here, there's not much happening for Metro.
Aside: I applaud what netham45 and GoodDayToDie are doing on the RT dev front. It's what XDA is about. But from the larger view, I don't see any momentum for Metro. As it is now, it's not suitable to host desktop-type software (read: rich productivity applications), and MS in all its wisdom has locked down the platform ala Apple, driving away garage devs when it needs them the most. Why would devs bother, when Win8/RT devices are expensive, the platform is locked down, and there's no market demand?
So, I wonder when you mention "in a few months." Hardware availability will get better, and prices will (slowly) drop, but I don't see a large surge to adopt Win8 or RT--especially RT. It'll still be a slow slog, like what we've seen over the holidays.
I'm watching Surface Pro with interest. It's basically the flagship for the whole Win8 effort. A lot of hype and hope are bestowed upon it. I'm not optimistic that people will shell out $1K for it, when ultrabooks as a category has largely failed at the same price point for the last two years. Let's see how it fares.
Temporary Fix
For now wouldn't it be sufficient to prefix posts with either "X86" or "RT" - then it might be easier to find those of interest to the person searching for info - also easier to search. This was done in many of the Android dev forums that I participate in and it helped a lot.
Just my humble thought
I wouldn't mind if there was just one more forum added for Windows RT development.
The 'Surface RT' subforum should be renamed to 'Windows RT Devices', too.
docfreed said:
For now wouldn't it be sufficient to prefix posts with either "X86" or "RT" - then it might be easier to find those of interest to the person searching for info - also easier to search. This was done in many of the Android dev forums that I participate in and it helped a lot.
Just my humble thought
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would definitely help
the problem with those headers is that people don't use them or forget what they are supposed to use or just make up new ones which confuses the hell out of everyone
a much better idea is to tag your threads with key words that are relevant
ill start adding tags to popular existing threads if it helps but we should all get in to the habit of doing it to start with
with x64 just an extension of x86 id propose a simple x86 or ARM tag to id posts, like ive done to this one