Linux on Shield

[MADCastro]

I would like to know some things about the Linux on the Shield.

1) I've heard in December of the Last Year it didn't support wifi, bluetooth and SD Cards. What is their current status now?
2) Does it supports USB Devices, like Keyboard, Mouse, Ethernet Adapter (I REALLY hope i don't need this), Printer and USB HUB?
3) Is there some kind of Driver for the Tegra 4 on the Linux?
4) How do i install Linux on the Shield?
5) Is there some way to dual boot it with Android?

 

[Gnurou]

Hi,

1) I've heard in December of the Last Year it didn't support wifi, bluetooth and SD Cards. What is their current status now?

Good news - Wifi and SD cards are now working (well, most SD cards at least) on my roth_next branch: https://github.com/linux-shield/kernel/tree/roth_next Bluetooth is still out of luck for now.

2) Does it supports USB Devices, like Keyboard, Mouse, Ethernet Adapter (I REALLY hope i don't need this), Printer and USB HUB?

All USB devices supported by Linux should be working with SHIELD, as long as the kernel driver for them is compiled. I have played with a keyboard, mouse, network adapter and mass storage device, all connected to a hub.

3) Is there some kind of Driver for the Tegra 4 on the Linux?

Not sure what you mean - Tegra 4 is supported in Linux mainline, and some of its devices as well.

4) How do i install Linux on the Shield?

It's a quite manual process at the moment. You might want to consider what your end goal is, and whether it is worth the trouble, knowing that there is no graphic acceleration, no way to sleep, and so on. If you really want to give it a try (it implies cross-compiling the kernel, playing with fastboot, and extracting user-spaces to SD cards), let me know and I will try to come with a documentation sometime soon.

5) Is there some way to dual boot it with Android?

Sort of. You can store the Linux user-space on a SD card, or even in a file on your Android data partition that will be mounted as a root loopback device.

The problem is that SHIELD's bootloader only supports booting via two means:
- Whatever kernel is on the BOOT partition
- Whatever boot image is given to it using the fastboot boot command.

This means that you can either keep the Android boot image on the BOOT partition and boot Linux using "fastboot boot" while your SHIELD is connected to your PC via USB, or the other way around. But if you want to switch the system to boot, you will need to connect your SHIELD to your PC and play with fastboot.

Let me know if this answers your questions and if you need more information. What you can do with Linux on SHIELD is still limited ; but it's a fun way to get involved in kernel hacking since many missing drivers can easily be written and general support can also be improved.

 

[MADCastro]

"Good news - Wifi and SD cards are now working (well, most SD cards at least) on my roth_next branch: https://github.com/linux-shield/kernel/tree/roth_next Bluetooth is still out of luck for now."

Nice! No need of a ethernet adapter.


"All USB devices supported by Linux should be working with SHIELD, as long as the kernel driver for them is compiled. I have played with a keyboard, mouse, network adapter and mass storage device, all connected to a hub."

Nice. Does there is HPLIP for ARM devices?

"Not sure what you mean - Tegra 4 is supported in Linux mainline, and some of its devices as well."

I mean 3D drivers. Which would allow specific apps to run fine.

"It's a quite manual process at the moment. You might want to consider what your end goal is, and whether it is worth the trouble, knowing that there is no graphic acceleration, no way to sleep, and so on. If you really want to give it a try (it implies cross-compiling the kernel, playing with fastboot, and extracting user-spaces to SD cards), let me know and I will try to come with a documentation sometime soon."

I want to use it as an office OS for doing things that Android can't as my desktop is dead.

"Sort of. You can store the Linux user-space on a SD card, or even in a file on your Android data partition that will be mounted as a root loopback device.

The problem is that SHIELD's bootloader only supports booting via two means:
- Whatever kernel is on the BOOT partition
- Whatever boot image is given to it using the fastboot boot command.

This means that you can either keep the Android boot image on the BOOT partition and boot Linux using "fastboot boot" while your SHIELD is connected to your PC via USB, or the other way around. But if you want to switch the system to boot, you will need to connect your SHIELD to your PC and play with fastboot.

Let me know if this answers your questions and if you need more information. What you can do with Linux on SHIELD is still limited ; but it's a fun way to get involved in kernel hacking since many missing drivers can easily be written and general support can also be improved."

So i still need a Desktop for boot it? :/


Sent from my GT-S7562L using XDA Free mobile app

 

[Gnurou]

If you just want to use your SHIELD as an office device, your needs may be better served by one of the many "Linux on Android" apps, e.g:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zpwebsites.linuxonandroid

This will allow you to run a Linux desktop alongside with Android, without rebooting, without recompiling kernels, and without requiring a desktop PC.

Graphics will be slow as death, but that should be enough for LibreOffice & pals.

Network will work using the Android stack, USB devices such as keyboards and mouse should work fine too.

 

[CodieRae]

Jetson TK1 Development Pack

Have either of you looked at the Jetson TK1 Development Pack and the Linux4Android drive image that comes along with it? Its based off of Ubuntu 14.04 - and i believe has acceleration - so if it were to be flashed, it 'should' work - since its meant to work on the TK1 dev kit - no garuntees though

 

[berryman13]

Can we please get a documentation writeup?

Very interested in your development process. I'm a new developer, and this is my main device.