Android is almost fully supported with Linux kernel 3.3

http://www.androidcentral.com/linux-kernel-33-released-android-support-almost-complete

by DallaRosa • 14 years ago

48 16 14 years ago

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• 14 years ago

Linux apps already do work with android.

Just be rooted and get this: http://android.galoula.com/en/LinuxInstall/

rlpb2• 14 years 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.

ajross3• 14 years 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.

dsr_• 14 years 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• 14 years ago

iirc there was a port of x server recently to android.

zokier• 14 years 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.

nextparadigms3• 14 years ago

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

Tobu• 14 years 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/

krakensden2• 14 years ago

Don't be too hopeful- Binder is still a big sticking point, and nothing is going to work without it. The two schools of thought on it are:

* It is a terrible, terrible interface that doesn't belong in the kernel

* Linux supports SysV IPC because other Unices do, Binder is at least as popular

Before you pile in and declare your reasonableness by endorsing the latter position, please understand that the former is not exactly on thin ice.

ajross3• 14 years ago

Binder was merged. But yes, both of the above are true.

krakensden2• 14 years ago

I thought it was just merged into staging?

ghost91• 14 years ago

Yay, hopefully I can soon run Android parallel to a x-server on my netbook

Android is almost fully supported with Linux kernel 3.3

Related Stories