Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Android?

While playing around with Linux I accidentally made Android work on Palms. Is this of value to anyone?



UPDATE: "first success"

73 comments:

aap said...

Would it work on my T|C ? How slow? Would I be able to dual-boot with PalmOS?

I have been using PalmVNC over wifi to access the Android emulator running on a PC. But that only works when I am home.

ashley said...

I think it would be really useful as a dual / multi-book option for a Palm PDA.

Sounds great

Derek said...

It's of interest to me. I'm not sure how practical it would be. But it's definitely of interest.

I replaced my TX with an Aria, and have been mostly happy. I'd love to repurpose the TX.

asdf said...

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Would it work on a T|X? Again, dual-booting? What version? Probably an older one like 1.5 or 1.6?

Definitely interested!

Uriah

Dmitry Grinberg said...

old? well, so far i tried 2.1

asdf said...

Sweet. I was just assuming it would be older because of the older hardware of the TX. How smoothly does it run?

Unknown said...

I would say that it interests me based on the novelty alone.

Unknown said...

Дмитрий, никак не могу связаться с тобой вот уже в течении двух месяцев. Прошу прощения за офф-топик, но похоже это единственное место, где тебя можно найти. Суть моей проблемы: я отправлял тебе на почту подтверждение оплаты почтовым переводом в Астрахань программы PowerSDHC. Ответа с ключом к программе так и не получил. :( Мой e-mail rudenko_dima@inbox.ru

Ivo Santamaria said...

If it is possible to have any kind of connectivity (wifi, bt or at least usb, then i'm definitely interested

Harold Goldner said...

Being as I have already put away my Treo 755p and T|X, and moved to a Droid Incredible, I'd love to see what you've done. Android on a T|X would be amazing.

efabric said...

Which palms ?

selmo said...

Definitely full worth on my LD!!!

Xavi Rubio said...

I'll definitely love to give a new life to my T5! Dimitry, you rock! ;)

Andrea Gangemi said...

I'm not an Android fun but, if it works on TX, it could be interesting to try while waiting for DGOS ;D

Dmitry Grinberg said...

TX+SD card for now. T5 and LD are possible. It lags a bit with slow SD cards, since palms have very little RAM and slow swap-files are...well...slow.

I used pre-built binaries, i am now attempting a full android build with proper optimizations, in hopes of better performance. Other palms will be harder to support dues to screen size and older processors (v4T vs v5TE)

Q&V said...

That is awesome! I would totally use android on my Palm TX

Anonymous said...

COOL!!! AWESOME!!!
It'd be great to toy with it on my LD. :D

Unknown said...

I would definitely use it!

Unknown said...

really good news,and I will wait for Android running on Palm LD.
we can not wait too long, again and again.....

Coffee-Turtle said...

Dmitry, that would be so awesome! That is great. What you find by accident, many of us only dream about. Yes, very interested and I have a waiting LD willing and ready!

Thank you.

Coffee-Turtle said...

Also, a multi-boot system would be very good to have. I wonder if PalmOS/DGOS/Android can all be included?

tzel said...

Well, till DGOS is live, let us play ANDROID on our TX. share please

ashley said...

Would it work on a Treo 650?

che said...

let us play ANDROID on our TX while we expect DGOS

Wingborn said...

Android on a Lifedrive? Hell yes it's valuable! I'd buy it!

zarazum said...

Yeah!

Unknown said...

sounds great! Let us try android while while waiting for DGOS.

aap said...

Not that you need me to tell you this... but you rock! I was afraid that the T|C's processor might not be up to the task.

I could have made a similar screenshot with PalmVNC, but the colors would be all wrong due to what might be a Froyo bug.

Is dual-boot likely to become an option?

Dmitry Grinberg said...

This is dual-boot
you ran an PalmOS app (AndroidLoader) and Android boots from the SD card [which you may not remove while it's running]

ashley said...

Fantastic stuff, looking forward to Android on my old Treo if that's possible.

Xavi Rubio said...

Cool! I've got a spare Tungsten C too :D So, it will be one for Android and another for DGOS :D

Dimitry, is the loader a custom one?

Dmitry Grinberg said...

The loader is entirely my work. It can be used to load any linux kernel and ramdisk on any PXA-cpu based Palm device.

Wingborn said...

Outstanding! I can't wait to try this on my Lifedrive!

Unknown said...

EXCELLENT!!!

R said...

Amazing. I'd like to try!. Is the booting fast?. Is the exit process clean? (I mean, Opie Linux exit was slow and corrupted date and time everytime). Does it have wifi and bluetooth conectivity?. Can you access the files in the SD card and RAM?

aap said...

So... where are you thinking of going with this? I can imagine that you might want to make it perfect before releasing anything. Or you might want to just release your loader and let xda-developers or some other group work on finishing up the Android port so you can get back to DGOS. Or maybe something in between with you accepting contributions but managing the effort yourself. (Might DGOS become a layer on top of Android?) Anyway I imagine that there are tweaks required for hardware support such as key mappings etc and there are probably people who would be willing to help if you would be willing to share. Just wondering which way you are leaning on this.

Ivo Santamaria said...

if this Android on palm can be used to browse the internet, then it would be certainly of use.

web and HTML are evolving and Blazer or netfront are not able to show properly most web pages.

Dmitry Grinberg said...

So far this only works on TC (one of only two palms with 64MB or *real* RAM). The boot process gives linux command of the entire RAM, so all palm things are wiped out entirely and completely. I am working hard to get this to work on the TX (the real goal). There is a lot of work to be done (so far no wifi, no bluetooth, no sound). I imagine I'll release the loader and my changes openly and let anyone pick at them, while I continue to as well.

I have considered taking my PalmOS compatibility layer and putting it on top of android. That would make my life a lot easier (no need to write lots of drivers under DGOS) but it would be slower (huge overhead of Android). I have no yet come to a final decision on that. Does anyone know anyone who'd be interested at picking at Android on Palm? (Is marex still around?)

aap said...

So you are saying it is dual boot but the PalmOS data needs to be restored from backup after running Android and switching back.

Would your compatibility layer let me run HandyShopper in Android?

This blog seems to suggest marex is still around. The 14-Aug-10 post mentions Debian running on a T|C as part of an arm compile cluster. I seem to recall reading at some point that he had T|C WiFi working.

Unknown said...

T|C is supported in Vanilla thanks to Hack&Dev project, so you were able to compile kernel and userspace? Lucky you! :)

Unknown said...

Hi Dmitry,

Sorry for offtopic, but I was not able to find other way to reach you...

My question is:

I have tried your PowerDigi utility and would like to buy it, but unfortunately I don't have PayPal account yet.
Is it possible to pay by WebMoney?

I have Palm TX and faced some touchscreen problems lately.
Looks that PowerDigi fixes them...

Thanks

Egor
Minsk, Belarus
egor.abramovich@googlemail.com

Wingborn said...

Fortunately, I have a hot spare Lifedrive, which I could use to play around with this before committing to something potentially irreparable.

Dani said...

"I have considered taking my PalmOS compatibility layer and putting it on top of android."

It would be nice,palmos app on android.I imagine it would work on any android?

The compatibility layer is finised already?Would be open source?(linux/webos/ipod ports could be posible and far better than emu)

./ said...

So awesome...!

ZehHa said...

Yes. Yes. Yes! Count me as another future Palm Android user. It' awesome. I would like to see it run on my TX, as well as on the LD.

Unknown said...

I think it is unanimous. Bring it on.

Christian said...

+1 from small austria.
using a treo680...
a really great project for a one-man-show, isn't it?
i wish you the best!!!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Dmitry, could you share a loader and Android's image for testing purposes? I can deeply test it on T|X as well as on Tungsten T5. I can also help with testing of Palm SD Wi-Fi card with Android.

+1 for this great project ;-)

Chris said...

You asked if anyone would pick at Android on Palm. Does that mean you're looking for developers? I'm *very* interested.

Unknown said...

AWESOME!

Would love to see it working on T5

serfree said...

Yes! I am absolutely interested in running of Android on my old good Tungsten C!

Just please let me know when it will be possible to do, OK?

Спасибо огромное за интересную новость!

Удачи в твоих замечательных делах, Дмитрий!

enotar said...

Let me comment:
You can get a decent Android tablet that play HD movie with HDMI output an have all you need; better than palm!
So I think this would be loosing time.
Android is really the way to go to be Apple free
My tought.....
enotar

enotar said...

And all that for 163 bucks
In China of course
I got a GPAD G11 X5 in 10 days
Only hip resistive touchscreen!
But it play eveything better than Chuck Norris hehe....

aap said...

@enotar, good for you, but meanwhile if I can run Android on the T|C's I already have, the marginal cost will be zero dollars, and some electronics will stay out of the landfill a bit longer.

enotar said...

@aap
You are maybe right but if DGOS doesnt come out our best option speedwise and feartures is still palmOsm
I repeat it is nice but timeloosing as these palm devices have small Ram and slow processor.You will install it and run it a few time, get desperate and go back Palm,unless dmitry do a such great job giving us the feeling of speed and power.
If not that would only be a toy!

But I think this is dmitry's call

emilio said...

me gustaria que lo aplicaras a la treo 755p o mas bien un linux para esa palm saludos y grasias por su atencion

Unknown said...

DO you have any news about android on Palm TX?

ZehHa said...

Count me as someone who is highly interested running Android on the TX or the LD

Unknown said...

Tapwave zodiac 2 has 128MB of REAL ram. And two sd slots.
Dimitry, have You considered the zodiac for Android?

Cláudio said...

Hi,

Could you write a post/tutorial how to do ?
It would be nice to give a after life to my LifeDrive.

Thanks

Unknown said...

Could you PLEASE give us atleast some hope for Android?

Holyboy said...

Android on TX, Any updates ?

L. P. Coronel said...

This would be awesome if we could install in our TXs

Ian D. Scott said...

I have a Tungsten C, and have been wondering about getting something more modern on it. Is there somewhere I can download it?

Dan Georges said...

Any chance of a download and install instructions? I would be willing to try my old T|C or even my Zodiac.

Good work - I think. It could also be just a photoshop image for all we know.

Slamlander said...

I have both the Palm TX (PalmOS) and the iPaq 110 (WinMob6.1) that I moved to after Palm orphaned the TX.

I would love to have both on Android ;)

I still have a use for a PDA and ebook reader since the batts on my LG Optimus 2x (CynogenMod7.1) get sucked down quickly by the screen.

Bob said...

can u send me al the nessesary file for it to run im really interested

David said...

I would use it.

SilentAero (Jake) said...

I want this for my palm treo 700 when i get a new charger! Is there a download for this somewhere?

Thireus said...

Hi Dmitry,

I'd be quite interested to take a look at them and eventually give a second life to my LD.

I'll be very grateful if you can send me a copy of your work.

Unknown said...

I can donate my palm tx

Unknown said...

Yes, I would be interested.