Porting Android to Samsung Chromebook ARM

[blackhand1001]

I don't think they would put Android on a laptop seeing as it's not optimized for that type of hardware, but don't get me wrong it would be sweet, however the OS might be able to take advantage of of certain Input controls such as Keyboard, Mouse, Flash Drives etc... most 3rd party apps wont support it or be optimized for it. However a Hybrid ChromeOS/Android may work very well where you have a Standard Chrome OS base with the Ability to run certain android Apps that have been written to take advantage of such input devices. As far as the OS itself it's actually Open source so in theory it should be possible to allow the running of android apps without Google them selves implementing it. it just might be a little challenging.

You'd be surprised how well android handles keyboard and mouse input.

 

[okayokayokay]

There are still lots of things you can't do with the Chrome OS that Android can do - such as a unifed inbox for email. I'd love to dual boot to Android just to be able to run K-9 mail.

 

[duce102]

Bump

:cyclops::cyclops:

 

[ss2pheonix]

You'd be surprised how well android handles keyboard and mouse input.

and flash drives if you have a usb otg capable device i love being able to plug my portable hard drive into my phone when i want to watch a movie on the go or something.

 

[sk8ordie0]

What's everyone running right now ? System wise.... I saw you can run Linux on a external SD card sort of like the Ubuntu method but stores the system files on SD....

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---------- Post added at 04:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:45 PM ----------

You'd be surprised how well android handles keyboard and mouse input.

For sure . I use a Logitech wireless keyboard on my MINIX and its awesome!

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[europeancity]

Bump!

A 250USD android laptop would be great.

 

[wjones]

I just bought a Samsung Chromebook yesterday. I'm also supportive of an Android port. I can't imagine this being too hard especially since we've already got Ubuntu running on it.

 

[droidmakespwn]

Wish I had the skills...bump.

 

[sk8ordie0]

There should be a platform off of the tablets that allow things to function correctly . For instance a have a MINIX (mini computer that connects to TV monitor) and it has a USB port that holds a bungle to a wireless keyboard....so everything functions through the keyboard.... basicly someone needs to create a ROM with the framework of the MINIX/ Android tablet and functions that suit the chrome book.

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[sk8ordie0]

Anyone found/ making progress or any reports on this happening? Seems dead in the water. :elbow bump:

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[moocow1452]

Anyone found/ making progress or any reports on this happening? Seems dead in the water. :elbow bump:

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Yeah, that would be that deep hardware layouts were never given for the ARM Chromebook, porting x86 Android to x86 Chromebook is kinda silly, and Google isn't really doing all that much to link the two. ChromeOS being their sandboxed world, Android being the open wildlands, and never shall the selves meet.

 

[opieum]

The Samsung Series 3 is an arm based system. Uses the dual core version of the EXYNOS CPU found in the note 2 in a quad core form. A port for this technically could be possible. The question is if the bootloader or whatever is locked. Right now Chrubuntu and a couple of other methods for installing linux exist but they dont truly replace ChromeOS. They just live on an SD card as an alternate boot method.

 

[sk8ordie0]

The Samsung Series 3 is an arm based system. Uses the dual core version of the EXYNOS CPU found in the note 2 in a quad core form. A port for this technically could be possible. The question is if the bootloader or whatever is locked. Right now Chrubuntu and a couple of other methods for installing linux exist but they dont truly replace ChromeOS. They just live on an SD card as an alternate boot method.

I have no problem with side loading other than the fact it can make things a little slower. I certainly hope this makes head way. I would love to be able to do a little more on the arm. :fingers crossed:

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[itechnoguy]

Do you think it would be possible to compile a working system on an external USB/SD drive using this:
blogs.arm. com/software-enablement/848-running-linux-on-the-series-3-chromebook/ (can't post links yet)
and a tarball of Android?

 

[opieum]

I think someone tried to do this and had issues. I haven't found the link. But I think it was related to the boot code. I suppose if android could be loaded onto a USB drive or SDcard and booted that would be the bee's knees. There is a mixed group of people who are all androids on laptop suck and the other is all gungho about it. Honestly with the right launcher Android on desktop would be awesome.

I'm going to give it a go tonight and see what kind of results I can get on my chromebook (dont expect much). I'm mostly curious to see if it will be doable just to get it working. Usually thats enough to open the floodgates. Shame samsung (on the chrombook series 3) isn't releasing much info on how to get this thing to load alternative OSes. It would make this process so much smoother than sideloading. But I guess its safer to do things this way.

Kinda n00b at building android but I think I can make it work. Compiling from cyanogenmod or some other source that uses the exynos5. Hoping I can get some results that way.

 

[opieum]

Well I found some promising information. I might be able to build this using the binaries from arndaleboard which appears to mostly use the same hardware.

http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

http://forum.insignal.co.kr/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=62
http://forum.insignal.co.kr/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=63

Maybe using bits from this might be the key to getting it to load. It appears to use identical hardware. Not sure about the boot details tho. That might be trickier due to the lack of a method to get into the u-boot system and make changes there. However it certainly seems possible to boot (sideloaded) android with this information from a USB or SDcard. If some more knowledgable hacker took on the boot u-boot challenge and was able to do this in a reliable way I think it could create the android books easily. Im excited as I got this info I will post more details once I have android even coming up on a sideloaded basis.

Additional info on flashing the actual arndale. For any devs reading. How much would apply to an arm based chromebook? http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/index.php/WiKi#How_to_Flash_a_Device
Is it possible to even do this onto a chromebook? I am still looking to see if its even possible to switch a chromebook into a firmware receive mode like this.

Some more info on the bootloader

http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot
http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os...-for-chrome-os-devices/samsung-arm-chromebook

Im using this post to keep notes on what I find. I might edit some more to update as I find stuff. I will create a separate post if I have any success. I got two of these. I can live with bricking one if it happens. And I imagine there is a way to restore the system if needed. I figure I will figure that part out first. To avoid any mishaps and have a brick.

---------- Post added at 03:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:28 PM ----------

I'm actually rather excited. I think its very possible to make this happen using the arndale info. Not sure how much of the hardware I could get working. Going to create a separate thread for this and see if a community effort can be started to get this working.

 

[sk8ordie0]

Sounds good my friend. Please post the link to the thread you will be opening here. Also have you seen "Slackware arm" alien Bob and some others have pulled some fast moves but server based thru the means of developer mode. Just sharing as I'm no dev just curious eyes and drooling over the fact that my Samsung chomebook might some day run android :hats off:

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[itechnoguy]

Additional info on flashing the actual arndale. For any devs reading. How much would apply to an arm based chromebook? [can't post links]
Is it possible to even do this onto a chromebook? I am still looking to see if its even possible to switch a chromebook into a firmware receive mode like this.

The only Chromebook that had a physical switch similar to those on the Arndale was the CR-48 and the older Series 5. The Series 3 only has a soft reset button on the bottom, but it doesn't have firmware flashing capabilities. I guess the only "flashing" feature it really has is recovering from a recovery image.
I don't know if you could get the Chromebook's recovery to work with an Android build substituted. I think it has to be signed.

For the uboot problem: www.chromium .org/chromium-os/u-boot-porting-guide/using-nv-u-boot-on-the-samsung-arm-chromebook
Devs probably need to use nv-U-boot since it's less risky, but the instructions assume you have a running Chromium OS chroot.

But anyways, keep up the good work and good luck!

 

[opieum]

Here is the link to the new thread. No progress yet. This is going to take time. Either way I am pretty amped about getting this to work. I attempted a boot from SDcard yesterday but it failed. Going to figure out what happened. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2258446

 

[Devman-0903]

Got an idea

If you are in dev mode you can enable usb booting as root, after that we need to make the system r/w (read-write). we will need to boot android from a usb stick. if we can support a live secssion of andriod from the drive, that will verify that our hardware will support, and mabye we can begin installation.