yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Droid Eris Android Development] AnomynousPierson:
The people that are knocking this idea as a whole are retarded. Period.

The eris is already running linux but on top of that it's running java. Yeah, java! Everything with java is SLOOOOOW. I would love to rid myself of the mega bloat and resource hog that is java. The eris would run at least twice as fast without all the java crap.

To those saying "it's only a 528mhz cpu". Well it is, but it's a freaking ARM processor which is way faster than any x86 cpu at the same clock AND we've been overclocking for a while now which means we're getting at least 710mhz of ARM computing power.

For those knocking ubuntu, I totally agree. Ubuntu is bloated and slow. Using debian though, which is far more lightweight and far more stable, with LXDE for the WM/DE would run a lot better. Gentoo is a nice option too, but I think debian would be easier for the ubuntards to adapt to.

This project certainly has my support. No matter what distro or how, getting this going would open the doors for many other linux options. :D
[Droid Eris Android Development] settlethestorm:
Dude, I agree completely! Check this video out... its a virtual box on a nexus one running Windows 95. Wonder if it would work with Ubuntu or any other distro, even tho this thread is about an actual mobile version, so like you said, no bloaty slow java.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata&v=y4xxiTa9Xmk

Sent from my Eris Lightning 3.02 :)
[Droid Eris Android Development] chicken59:
Ubuntu netbook edition could be interesting. Ignore the Debbie Downers of this thread, I'm eagerly awaiting the finished product.
[Droid Eris Android Development] lifyre:
This should be entertaining. Ok I've used linux, I'm kind of a power user. I've compiled a few things, I can install some stuff, but I use ubuntu cause it's easy and I can get as in depth as I want and still have something easy to use.

So it seems to me the first step is compiling an OS for the Eris. If you have a good guide on how to compile a system I'd appreciate it but I'm off to see the wizard on this one.

(Oh I've decided to use Debian instead of Ubuntu since it's leaner and much more stable.)
[Droid Eris Android Development] ForwardTwo:
Hey guys, I've been watching this thread for a while. The ubuntu theory is totally sound. It can, and probably will work.

However, a mobile distro would be much better than it's desktop variants (obviously.)

Recently, there was a new distro released called MeeGo. MeeGo is optimized for netbooks, and now the new source code is out for mobile phones.

It is currently optimized for both Moorestown and ARM processors, specifically the N900's processor.

The N900 runs at a clock speed of about 600 MHz, and the Eris can be overclocked to about 810 MHz. MeeGo would run like a dream on an overclocked eris, and might even run well at the stock speed.

The only trouble is getting it to install through the android bootloader. While the source code can definitely be compiled and booted on the N900's bootloader, booting it on android's bootloader would be a nightmare. And I have a feeling that the DALVIK system would make it a hundred times worse, especially if you're going to flash back to an android ROM.

http://meego.com/
[Droid Eris Android Development] ForwardTwo:
Here is a guide for compiling an N900/ARM image:

http://wiki.meego.com/ARM/N900/Install/MMC

It's important to note that this is still in beta, and still being developed.
[Droid Eris Android Development] lifyre:
Awesome link! It looks like MeeGo might be the way to go. They have a touch based UI. There is also a skunkworks project for the N8x0 phones which is the same processor as ours which might make things much easier. I wonder if I can basically swap their kernal for ours to get a preliminary build...
[Droid Eris Android Development] ForwardTwo:
Well, the way I see it, this can definitely change almost every single android device. If we can figure out a way to dual-boot this and android, life would be fantastic.
[Droid Eris Android Development] honkyusa3:
Well said strungout, well said...
[Droid Eris Android Development] KHancock321:
Any progress on this?
[Droid Eris Android Development] CrackMonkey91:
just posting on this to bring it back to the top.

Is anyone really working on this?
[Droid Eris Android Development] Ad Infinitum:
I will test this on one of my 2 eris phones....if anyone is still working on this project
[Droid Eris Android Development] sword-:
I'm more curious about this myself but it just seems to venture less out of the use for mobile applications and such. Not a naysayer at all or speaking negatively about it because it has actually sparked more interest and I'd like to see how it goes.
[Droid Eris Android Development] ForwardTwo:
Well, to anyone who is looking to test, I am planning on starting to compile sometime next weekend.

I warn you though, the odds of bricking your eris are tenfold. I almost can guarantee that a brick will happen on our first couple of tries.

This not only messes with the OS, but also the Boot-loader by installing it's own boot-loader. That's a risky process. It's not based off of Dalvik, for one thing. Also, it might have dependencies that the Eris can't meet.

I'm busy now with school and whatnot, and I am NOT a coder by any means. I work on design, so this is all new to me.

I do have Ubuntu so I can compile. I hope this all works out.

- Dylan.
[Droid Eris Android Development] ForwardTwo:
PS, make sure you read the rest of the thread other then the first page. We agreed on a Mobile Linux Distro called

MeeGo

, Ubuntu is too heavy in certain aspects.

Look it up, there are instructions on how to compile on the fourth page of this thread.
[Droid Eris Android Development] firestrife23:
ban_dover haven't been around lately, he was once known as Andrizoid (banned account perhap?) due to old flame war in regard to white widows so there's mixture of love/hate going on in this forums toward him. All I can say he went AWOL from xda forum, he might be more active elsewhere, I stop following up with his works in ROMS development since I'm more interest in xtr, tenzo and kaos.

here's much better approach without brinking your phone http://www.phonedog.com/2009/05/06/g1-running-ubuntu-with-full-desktop-environment/ however i cannot say it'll work on Eris as it did on G1 and good luck.
[Droid Eris Android Development] Ad Infinitum:
I have an Eris with a "cracked screen mod" that i use to test on if it got bricked I wouldn't care too much.
[Droid Eris Android Development] es0tericcha0s:
Untrue. if you go by the instructions on the first page your not installing another bootloader or anything like not. Not sure where you got that idea. What your doing is symlinking the android and ubuntu OS and changing the root directory to that of Ubuntu. The odds of a brick arent tenfold. I worked with Andrizoid on this in the beginning and have worked with him closly on other things and I can say for a fact that in testing this your running no extra risk than if you were doing any of the other mods.
[Droid Eris Android Development] settlethestorm:
Brick or not, I'm willing to give it a shot. If you need me as a tester, just PM me. Think of how sweet it'd be for newcomers as well as ol' xda members to see that the Eris can run a different Linux distro on their phones :)

Also, I thought androzoid was still active on AndroidForums
[Droid Eris Android Development] es0tericcha0s:
Andrizoid is still on AF all the time and lurks around here, but from what i gather hes kinda given up on xda.
[Droid Eris Android Development] settlethestorm:
I don't blame him. Don't get me wrong, I love xda, but some of the flame wars and disrespect I see here are completely uncalled for, childish and immature lol.
[Droid Eris Android Development] es0tericcha0s:
Lets not get into that right now.

Im working with Andrizoid atm at seeing if we can get some progress on this. Heres the issue.

busybox mount -o --bind ./dev/pts /data/local/ubuntu/dev/pts
mount: cannot read /etc/fstab: No such file or directory

In doing a little research I came across this

This come from http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html which gives a quick breakdown of what the etc/fstab file is. When i went exploring I couldnt find an etc/fstab Because as I have found doing a little more reading, Android doesnt use an etc/fstab file

[/B]
[Droid Eris Android Development] ForwardTwo:
I'm not talking about Ubuntu here. MeeGo has it's own alternative bootloader, I believe.
[Droid Eris Android Development] es0tericcha0s:
do you have an arm6 compatible disk image of meego? if you do could you send it to me and ill see what i can do with that?
[Droid Eris Android Development] ForwardTwo:
I don't have one right now, but there is instructions on compiling somewhere in this thread, fourth page I think? I should have posted a link somewhere. I'm working on some design work right now, so I can't boot up into Ubuntu, simply for productivity reasons.

The Nx8 uses an ARM6 however, am I correct? I think some tweaking of an Nx8 based MeeGo Image would work fine too. :)
[Droid Eris Android Development] es0tericcha0s:
Heres the new /etc/fstab that im using.

/dev/block/mtdblock3	/system	yaffs2	rw
/dev/block/mtdblock4	/cache	yaffs2	rw
/dev/block/mtdblock5	/data	yaffs2	rw
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1	/sdcard	vfat	rw
/dev/pts/ /data/local/ubuntu/dev/pts/ yaffs2 rw

Ive gotten past the errors about there not being an /etc/fstab obviously, but im runnign into input/output errors.
[Droid Eris Android Development] crimson12:
Idea?

Sorry I must admit I did not read the entire thread yet, but as a recent Jolicloud adopter, I was wondering what merits it may have being able to run on the eris? As far as I know it has an entirely HTML5 interface, has multitouch capabilities, and is based on ubuntu. If anyone needs a tester, I would be happy to help :)
[Droid Eris Android Development] Yahtaa:
I would definitely love to see this working. More than happy to test on my extra eris.
[Droid Eris Android Development] jrozga:
Boot from sd

Kaos has a boot from SD dealio, so now just waiting on something to try to boot.....

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=779274
[Droid Eris Android Development] composerdude:
Hey guys,

I have experience using linux, especially debian-based distros, and I have some thoughts about what I've read. I think that the following thoughts will help point things in the right direction, if not, I'm sorry ahead of time.

Mount isn't the issue.The loopback kernel appears to have certain limitations.

Also, chroot must be called as a privileged process. If busybox is not running as root, or if chroot is not being called with superuser permissions, then chroot will return the error that was being experienced. We have su on rooted eris images, right?

As it stands, I'm currently backing up my phone and prepping to go through the motions of getting a minimal debian bash command line to run. THAT really is the first step; ensure that a basic linux command line can run and then X. Once that's done, we can probably enjoy getting a .deb Maemo package to install and run.
[Droid Eris Android Development] composerdude:
Alright, I can get bash to run. I've found some alternative resources through an outdated G1 hack http://bayleshanks.com/wiki.pl?tips-computer-android-g1_debian_cyanogenMod and http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=Installing_Debian. I pretty much skipped the loopkernel step and installed basic debian to a secondary partition. I may start a new thread after I can repeat this process more thoroughly, especially since it is similar but a slightly different method to the one stated at the outset. I.E., I didn't chroot a loopback device, I chrooted an EXT3 partition and ran bash.
[Droid Eris Android Development] composerdude:
Rebuilding a rootstock Ubuntu ARMv6 filesystem so that I can chroot it in Android. I'm basing it off of Ubuntu Karmic since that was the last ARMport to support v6. After I have that running, I'll add the karmic repositories for Meego from this site. I should have it finished by tonight. If I do, I'll try and get photos and instructions posted!

Also, there will be no bootloader changes or recovery rom or anything of that sort. What I've done so far is 90% safe and will not brick a phone. The only problem is the potential for data loss when formatting the SD for EXT3 FS.
[Droid Eris Android Development] dadurf:
Go Devs, go!

I would like to say that all of you devs are beyond amazing. I don't understand half the **** you are saying, at least the code stuff, but I know that being able to run Linux, any distro, on our Erises would be astounding. If I had an extra Eris, I would jump at the chance of helping you all!!

As it stands, the one I have is the only one I have, and I treasure it too much to put it in your hands. Sorry guys!

But I did have a thought, both Slitaz and Backtrack are simple and small distros of Linux, Slitaz I believe only takes a couple hundred meg, and both are extrodinary for...offensive security...Anyway, just a thought, my $.02. And good luck, everyone keep it up, I am lurking this thread to find out when you guys get it working!
[Droid Eris Android Development] 8on3s:
Lol that sure would take war-driving to a whole new level, that would be kinda fun to explore.
[Droid Eris Android Development] composerdude:
Hey guys, finally had a moment to post again, so sorry. Recently started a new job, between that and family I've not gotten around to finishing the compile. I'm going to hack on it more if I have time this weekend.

To address the recent port of MeeGo to Nexus One, the biggest hurdle is ensuring that things run properly on Arm EABI v6. Nexus One is v7, and almost all Linux distros that target mobile target v7. This is why I'm personally compiling a Linux distro to ensure binary compatibility with Eris. So far, everything I've downloaded that was pre-compiled hasn't run.

If I can get my hands on the Nx8 port, I may compile that. But right now, it's easier for me to hack on something fully documented with readily satisfied dependencies that I can run binary packages of MeeGo for ARMv6 on when it compiles. Hence why I've chosen Ubuntu.

EDIT: Ok, so last night I had the bright idea to go back over the info regarding G1 running debian. I think I'm closer, y'all, after some late-night hacking. My family is a little miffed with me.
[Droid Eris Android Development] joshw0000:
I realize that this is in the VERY early stages of development and want to thank you for your hard work. Any chance we'll see something flashable (or more noob friendly) in the distant future? I really want to try this but honestly wouldn't know what I'm doing or, better yet, how to fix my phone if I screwed something up.

Again, thanks for the awesome work! I'll be following this thread.
[Droid Eris Android Development] composerdude:
Once the kinks are worked out, it should be possible for simpler "n00b" instructions using some scripts I make and an image to download. We'll see how quickly I can get it done, no promises and no deadlines. It's something I'd like to do, definitely a goal, but I also have job/family to consider.
[Droid Eris Android Development] joshw0000:
No rush whatsoever. I barely find time to read forums and flash roms, so I can understand the whole job/family thing. Take your time man, I was just curious if this would be something that the non-programmers could one day enjoy.
[Droid Eris Android Development] composerdude:
BTW, since my work deviates significantly from ban_dover's initial project, you can find my continuing efforts, corrections, bug fixes, and updates on this thread.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hawkeyexp:
Hi guys,

how can i define which widgets are placed on the screen after flash with a new custom rom directly in the rom without manual work after flash ?

Greats Hawkeye
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] YarsRevenge78:
I have been wondering the same thing. I intentionally removed everything except a couple of widgets from my home screen and dug around /data to see what I could come up with.

"/data/system/appwidgets.xml" looks promising:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8' standalone='yes' ?>
<gs>
<p pkg="com.android.protips" cl="com.android.protips.ProtipWidget" />
<p pkg="com.android.settings" cl="com.android.settings.widget.SettingsAppWidgetProvider" />
<h pkg="com.android.launcher" id="400" />
<g id="5" h="0" p="1" />
<g id="6" h="0" p="0" />
</gs>

"id=5" and "id=6" may be the order of when the widgets were added to my home screen. I did this just after a wipe and restore, so these very well could have been the 5th and 6th widgets I added.

"h=0" could be my main home screen.

"p=0" and "p=1" could be the order of how the widgets are displayed. power is above protips.

Can anybody verify what I'm reading in this XML file is correct?

Could it be as simple as including this file? I'll have to give it a try in a little while. I'm about to do some remodeling in my kitchen. I'm going to install the latest nightly of ubuntu 10.10 to see if it works better with my wifi card.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] YarsRevenge78:
Were you able to figure it out yet? I have not had any time lately to mess around with my phone at all. I'll try to see what I can do out over the weekend.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hexskrew:
I have been wondering this since I started cooking! I have searched high and low and not found nada..

One side note: if you open your rom and look in /system/customize/cid, you can look through those xml files, and depending on your carrier/rom setup, you can set things like what footprints shows, and define the stock flashed home background, lock background, and browser favorites :)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] YarsRevenge78:
Awesome info. I'll have to take a look at those files.

I added "/data/system/appwidgets.xml" to a rom and it just made my boot animatin go on forever. Maybe I did something wrong, I'm not sure. I was modifying a CM6 rom, so I altered my updater-script to copy the file to /data. I dig up my code and paste it later, but if anyone has the best way to include files in /data for update-script or updater-script, feel free to post it.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] YarsRevenge78:
I have not been customizing any roms in awhile, did anybody successfully set the default widgets yet?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gnarlyc:
Look here:

1) /system/customize/MNS/default.xml (Sense ROMs)

2) inside Launcher.apk - res/xml/default_workspace.xml (AOSP ROMs)

Launcher2.apk seems to be setup the same. You might want to use something like APK Manager to decompile the apk, so you can edit the xml. Or, I believe you can use a hex editor although I have not tried that yet. TinyHexer is a good one for Windows.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] YarsRevenge78:
Awesome, thanks for the info. I'll have to give it a try soon.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hexskrew:
the default.xml is not compiled by default, so you can just use notepad to edit it.

I have tried editing it but without much success.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gnarlyc:
Hmm. Ok. Must be that some are and some aren't. I just opened up a Launcher2.apk from Froyo AOSP, and the default_workspace.xml is compiled. And I looked at a Launcher.apk from a mostly AOSP Eclair build. It's compiled too. If you find them that aren't, it should be easier to work with.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 3c:
Interested to know we can make it work?

FYI, the various data in the appwidgets.xml are as follows:

The <p/> tags are for listing which widget is using which package/class already installed... Order is important as it is referenced from the <g /> tags.

The <h/> tags lists all launcher installed, its package name and id. It seems custom launchers loaded from market have all an id of 400!

The <g/> tags are the actual widgets already added to a launcher/home screen,

it's ID is the dev ID used by apps, unique on a single device

the h= attribute is the launcher reference (0, 1, ...) from the <h/> tags above.

the p= attribute is the package ref (0, 1, ...) from the <p/> tags above.

That file is updated when an launcher/home screen app calls many Android API methods, including those:

allocateAppWidgetId() to get a new dev ID as mentioned above and link future <g> tags to an existing <h> tag.

The h tag is ALWAYS a reference to the package having called this method! No way to get a widget ID from another app for a particular launcher!

bindAppWidgetId(int appWidgetId, ComponentName provider) to link the <g> tag along with the <p> tag

Even tried ADW Launcher and its home-screen backup/restore but it fails to restore anything!? What a crap!

I personnally use 'System Tuner' which actually restores home screens, except the widgets! Is Titanium Backup able to restore home screens widget?

I've been messing around with the appwidgets.xml file manually to restore a widget... Unfortunately nothing worked.

Did anyone found more info on the subject?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ripclawrings:
Titanium Backup not restore widget......

Any news editing xml????
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] YarsRevenge78:
Merry Xmas everyone! I finally got this to work with ADW.Launcher.

After setting up my widgets, icons, and ADW settings, I copied a couple of the files from "/data/data/org.adw.launcher" into a backup dir, and used an init.d script to replace the default files. The script deletes itself to make sure it only runs on the very first boot.

I had to experiment forever to get the right sleep time. This script needs to sleep for 45 seconds minimum in order to let ADW finish before it can swap the files. If you are using this with another launcher, you might need to change the sleep time.

#!/sbin/busybox sh

# THE SCRIPT MUST WAIT A MIN OF 45 SECONDS OR ELSE IT WILL NOT WORK
sleep 45
if [ -d "/data/data/org.adw.launcher-backup/" ]; then
# RESTORE WIDGETS AND ICONS
rm "/data/data/org.adw.launcher/databases/launcher.db-wal"
cp "/data/data/org.adw.launcher-backup/databases/launcher.db-wal" "/data/data/org.adw.launcher/databases/launcher.db-wal"

# RESTORE ADW SETTINGS
rm "/data/data/org.adw.launcher/shared_prefs/launcher.preferences.almostnexus.xml"
cp "/data/data/org.adw.launcher-backup/shared_prefs/launcher.preferences.almostnexus.xml" "/data/data/org.adw.launcher/shared_prefs/launcher.preferences.almostnexus.xml"

# RESTART LAUNCHER
killall android.process.acore

# DELETE THIS SCRIPT TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T RUN AGAIN
rm /system/etc/init.d/98adwreset
fi
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 3c:
Great finding! I'll try to integrate that into System Tuner asap! That would be awesome to have a way to restore launchers setup. All I managed so far is to restore a launcher's icons, without widget, but with that might be able to restore the widgets too :D