Google Android runs on Sharp Zaurus SL-C760
December 6, 2007 – 1:04 pm
Yesterday we managed to get Google Android running on a Sharp Zaurus SL-C760. This seems to be the first documented success with this device. This article provides instructions on how to get it working, in case you would like to try it at home 
Google Android is a new software stack for mobile devices, specifically mobile phones. It uses the Linux kernel as the core, but Google developed a new user space stack:
- Developers use the Java language to write applications.
- The applications are executed using the Dalvik VM instead of the regular JVM.
- Google provides an easy to use SDK, complete with a QEMU based hardware emulator.
However, there is currently no real device on the market that runs Android. Open-source hackers instantly started to get the software from the emulator running on various devices. Most of the initial work was done by Ben “Benno” Leslie, who almost managed to run Android on a Neo 1973. Unfortunately the Neo includes an older ARM core, so the builds of the emulator won’t run on it.
Then, based on Benno’s guide it was possible to run Android on an Armadillo-500.
Based on the findings of the earlier work, Android should run on any device with an ARMv5TE CPU + suitable amounts of RAM and Flash. Work started to get Android running on various devices, like the Sharp Zaurus family. An initial guide on how to get to the “cylon screen” with the moving red dot was posted on the Android Developers group.
With using information from the above work, I was able to run Android on a Sharp Zaurus SL-C760.
Here comes the outline of the process:
- Build or download a console image for the SL-C760 from the Angstrom Distribution.
- Build a patched kernel for Android. I used the android.diff from Benno to patch the linux-rp-2.6.23 kernel of the Angstrom distribution. I had to do some minor tweaks in the patch to apply cleanly: I removed some Goldfish device specific parts. In the kernel configuration enable all Android specific options except the USB gadget and the QEMU / debug options.
- Flash the console image and the patched kernel onto the device.
- Extract the contents of the /data and the /system drives from the emulator using Busybox tar. Benno provides a busybox compiled for the emulator here. Make sure you get the device files as well.
- Extract the ramdisk image of the emulator using gzip and cpio.
- Build a directory tree of the Andoid software which mimics the emulator layout. Make sure to preserve the file ownerships and permissions from the tar archives.
- Share this directory over NFS
- Connect your Zaurus to your host PC either with usbnet or wlan.
- Mount the NFS share on your Zaurus to /android
- Copy the /dev/binder to /android/dev/binder. This was necessary because in the emulator the binder device had major number 252 while in the Zaurus it had 253. Make sure that the binder device has the mode 666.
- Create a small script on your Zaurus as /android/a.sh with the following contents:
#!/system/bin/sh export PATH=/sbin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:$PATH export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/system/lib export ANDROID_ROOT=/system export ANDROID_ASSETS=/system/app export ANDROID_DATA=/data export EXTERNAL_STORAGE=/sdcard export DRM_CONTENT=/data/drm/content mount -t proc proc /proc mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys /system/bin/app_process -Xzygote /system/bin --zygote & /system/bin/dbus-daemon --system & runtime
- Create a small script on your Zaurus as /bin/a.sh with the following contents:
#!/bin/sh umask 000 chroot /android /a.sh
- Execute /bin/a.sh as root on your Zaurus and hope for the best
Current status:
- The system boots and the applications seem to work.
- Runs from an NFS share over a network connection.
- Keyboard input is working.
- Touchscreen is not working.
- No network connection yet for Android applications.
Next steps:
- Get the touchscreen to work.
- Set up networking.
- Make it work from the flash file system as well. (JFFS2 does not support read-write memory mapped files, so we will need to use Yaffs, just like Google does.)
Have fun, and leave a comment, if you get further along in the process!
Good stuff
By dH on Dec 6, 2007
Coooooool
By Stanislav O. Pogrebnyak on Dec 6, 2007
You guys are great!!! Is the android stack fully integrated? BT, Audio/Video etc?
Regards,
Steffen
By mcahornsirup on Dec 7, 2007
Steffen,
As you can see in at the end of the post, some features don’t work yet. The Zaurus doesn’t have a Bluetooth interface, so we don’t really know about that. We have a Buffalo CF WiFi card for it, but it hasn’t yet been recognized by Android. It also has a touch screen, but it doesn’t see it as a mouse yet.
So there are a lot of things to finish - but at least the first step is done - Android fires up
Akos
By maroy on Dec 7, 2007
Hi,
This is really getting exciting and I would like to congratulate you guys on this effort. I have a Zaurus SL-C750 and am trying to replicate your steps. I am not an expert but would like to try this out.
I got the Angstrom console image and android.diff as mentioned in point 1 above.
I would like to get help and/or more details on how and on which device do I do the following:
2. Build a patched kernel for Android. I used the android.diff from Benno to patch the linux-rp-2.6.23 kernel of the Angstrom distribution. I had to do some minor tweaks in the patch to apply cleanly: I removed some Goldfish device specific parts. In the kernel configuration enable all Android specific options except the USB gadget and the QEMU / debug options.
I believe I need to do this on a Linux box before moving things over to the Zaurus.
Any help will be appreciated. Which kernel source do I use for patching android.diff ? Where do I do a “make” for compiling my own patched kernel ? Does it need to be cross-compiled for ARM ?
I will appreciate any help/steps for the same. Is there an IRC group where I can get some live help for this ?
After I get through the steps outlined above, I can assist in getting Networking up and running.
Thanks in advance,
Regards
Nishi
By Nishi on Dec 11, 2007
> Build a patched kernel for Android. I used the
> android.diff from Benno to patch the
> linux-rp-2.6.23 kernel of the Angstrom
> distribution.
I’ve looked into Angstrom tree, but couldn’t find linux-rp-2.6.23 tar ball. It would be very appreciated if you could point out where I can find the tar ball.
-OR- I’m wondering, by any chance, you mixed up with Open Embedded distribution?
By mizmit on Dec 13, 2007
HI Gergely and Mizmit,
I was told on irc.freenode.net, channel angstrom and android that Angstrom builds are based on openembedded.com. I have followed the steps listed in the “Building Angstrom” page but still can’t see where I can get the linux-rp-2.6.23 kernel source to patch “android.diff”. I will appreciate if you can assist in any way.
Thanks
Regards
Nishi
By Nishi on Dec 16, 2007
Hi,
The Angstrom Distribution is based on OpenEmbedded. However, I couldn’t find the kernel sources for linux-rp-2.6.23 in the OpenEmbedded tree.
Please let us know where to locate the sources so that we patch it with android.diff.
Thanks in advance,
Regards
Nishi
By Nishi on Dec 16, 2007
Well, I spent my spare time to explore Open Embedded and found how to get linux-rp source tree, I guess.
1) Build bitbake environment as described in Open Embedded.
2) Edit SRC_URI line in linux-rp_2.6.23.bb from http://www.kernel.org to http://www.angstrom-distribution.org. The reason why this modification is there’s no linux-2.6.23.tar.bz2 file in kernel.org tree anymore. All the tar balls got each sub-version.
3) bitbake -b /path/to/linux-rp_2.6.23.bb and you will get an oe_256sha error.
4) Add sha256 key for linux-2.6.23.tar.bz2 in checksums.ini. You can just copy and paste the value which you get along with the build error.
5) Retry 3) and hope the best.
I still don’t get arm toolchain successfully, so that’s what I got today so far. I got the linux-rp-2.6.23-r10 tree under tmp/work/spitz-angstrom-linux-gnueabi.
Cheers,
By mizmit on Dec 18, 2007
Dear Mizmit and Nishi,
I am sorry that it took so long to answer. I simply used OpenEmbedded to build the angstrom images. Then I added the android.diff to the packages/linux/linux-rp-2.6.23 directory, and added a reference to it in the linux-rp_2.6.23.bb file. I also had to change the kernel configuration: I interrupted the kernel compilation, and ran make menuconfig manually. I enabled all android specific options except for QEMU specific (e.g. RAM console) options. Then I saved the resulting .config file as defconfig-c7×0 in the packages/linux/linux-rp-2.6.23 directory and used “bitbake -c rebuild” on linux-rp, As a final step I rebuilt the console image to include the just built kernel modules.
I hope this helps,
Gergely
By gergely on Dec 18, 2007
HI Mizmit and Gergely,
Thank you for your email. I’ve also been toying with OE and bitbake over the last 24 hours trying to get the environment to build me a base Angstrom image, before playing with android. However, I have been having issues with compilation when I issue bitbake gpe-image.
My errors can be seen at : http://pastebin.ca/822813
I will continue to play with this today and get back to you. In the meanwhile, if the errors I am seeing seem easy to fix and you know of the fix, I will appreciate if you can let me know what the fix is.
Thanks a bunch for your email. I can be reached at nishin at hotmail dot com directly.
Gergely, can you please send us your linux-rp-2.6.23.bb file or the line that you added android.diff to ?
Thanks in advance,
Regards
Nishi
By Nishi on Dec 19, 2007
good job! I would try my c1000.
By encodeco on Dec 20, 2007
Dear Gergely and Nishi,
Gergely,
Thank you very much for your advice. Now I’m bitbaking console-image with android.dff patch. I’ll try to run it on my Zaurus this weekend.
Regarding network access from Android applet, would you look into /etc/network/interfaces? If you find usb0 as a gateway, just delete the line. It might be the reason why you can’t connect to the net from Android applet.
Nishi,
I’m working on Spitz (C3000) and my not your case though, I would suggest to try;
$ bitbake task-sdk
$ bitbake console-image
Bitbaking task-sdk takes very veeeerrrry long. But it builds whole toolchain nicely in my case.
Regards,
By mizmit on Dec 21, 2007
Dear Gergely,
Somebody done it.
Android Zaurus: Google Android runs on Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000
http://androidzaurus.seesaa.net/article/74237419.html
By mizmit on Dec 23, 2007
Hi and I would like to say nice job!
OK I have IMX31 I would like to install android on it.
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/homepage.jsp?nodeId=0162468rH311432973
Do you think that your procedure could work for me? It will be the first time that I do this so do not hesitated to give a lot of details
Right now I have Computer with CentOS 5 connected on the bord that is running Linux freescale 2.6.22.6
What should I do first?
Why are you using Angstrom? Because this is a version of Linux for Sharp Zaurus?
Why you didnt use
http://code.google.com/p/android/downloads/list
linux-2.6.23-android-m3-rc20.tar.gz
????
Sorry for all those questions but Im trying to undertand a lot and have a lot to learn
THX
ps: This have already be done by Willcom:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/11/willcom-shows-off-an-android-prototype/
By kapare on Jan 9, 2008
This article speak by it self:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/09/android-hacked-to-run-on-real-hardware/
By kapare on Jan 10, 2008
Hi
Will this work on a Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000 as well?
By Dani on Jan 11, 2008
Guys at the OpenEmbedded Software Foundation (OESF) created an installable image that can be used to flash a Zaurus SL-C3×00:
http://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=25292
Respect!
By maroy on Jan 12, 2008
Hello, Yah has found many links to those question and has published it in a Spot.
http://www.jamespot.com/s/344-Google-Android.html
By Alan on Jan 12, 2008
Nagyon várom én is !
By számítógép on Jan 14, 2008
Dear Gergely,
I was able to port Android on my ARM9 device, but i am having problem with the display colors.
The colors on the android startup wallpaper (mountains,snow,valley river) dont come out well on my display screen - there’s lots of pink instead of white and green color shows up instead of blue.
Through strace utility i saw that android sets the display driver to 16bpp. So i replaced the original wallpaper with a 16bpp picture but still the colors did not come out well.
Did you face any such problems ? What was your display driver configuration ?
Regards
–HAbdul
By HAbdul on Jan 15, 2008
Is that possible to lunch Android on Nokia smartphones?
…I mean, someone tried to work it out?
By david2tm on Jan 19, 2008
Hello Gergely,
I have placed the android filesystem images in NAND flash of my ARM9 device, in jffs2 format. When i run a.sh, the zygote process exits. I get the following strace log for zygote -
Looks some mmap2() call to a file inside data folder is failing. But why ? mmap2() calls to libraries in the system folder seem to be working fine.
————————————-
00:03:14.071414 open(”/system/framework/core.jar”, O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 7
00:03:14.080763 lseek(7, 0, SEEK_CUR) = 0
00:03:14.080429 lseek(7, 0, SEEK_END) = 2400329
00:03:14.090516 lseek(7, 0, SEEK_SET) = 0
00:03:14.090205 mmap2(NULL, 2400329, PROT_READ, MAP_SHARED, 7, 0) = 0×41402000
00:03:14.210612 brk(0×13000) = 0×13000
00:03:14.210866 mkdir(”/data”, 0777) = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
00:03:14.221297 mkdir(”/data/dalvik-cache”, 0777) = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
00:03:14.240187 open(”/data/dalvik-cache/system@framework@core.jar@classes.dex”,
00:03:14.250349 flock(8, LOCK_EX) = 0
00:03:14.251338 fstat64(8, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0666, st_size=7252804, …}) = 0
00:03:14.261538 stat64(”/data/dalvik-cache/system@framework@core.jar@classes.dex
00:03:14.260308 read(8, “dey\n006(\375\252k(\253k\20008\253k
00:03:14.280527 lseek(8, 7056168, SEEK_SET) = 7056168
00:03:14.280702 read(8, “6gk7t\355\346\230\v”, 16) = 16
00:03:14.290720 lseek(8, 0, SEEK_SET) = 0
00:03:14.290410 lseek(8, 0, SEEK_CUR) = 0
00:03:14.300851 lseek(8, 0, SEEK_END) = 7252804
00:03:14.300045 lseek(8, 0, SEEK_SET) = 0
00:03:14.310654 mmap2(NULL, 7252804, PROT_READ, MAP_SHARED, 8, 0) = -1 EINVAL (I
00:03:14.310757 writev(3, [{”\5″, 1}, {”dalvikvm”, 9}, {”mmap(7252804, R, FILE
00:03:14.321732 writev(3, [{”\6″, 1}, {”dalvikvm”, 9}, {”Unable to map file\n\
00:03:14.321060 writev(3, [{”\4″, 1}, {”dalvikvm”, 9}, {”Unable to map classes
————————————–
Did you face such a problem ? Any clues ?
–Joey
By Joey on Jan 22, 2008
Possible start android on motorola E2?
We lead development connected with improvement this linux platforms, but Motorola too reduced her(its) possibility so we entrust greater hopes on android.
p.s. Excuse me for my english.
By INEDI on Jan 28, 2008
hmm late to the peice, but does this mean it could be installed on the current windows mobile type devices ? (htc tytn or tytn II, etc)
By Terry on Jan 30, 2008
Check out the video demonstrations of Google Android running on the Sharp Zaurus!
By phraktle on Feb 4, 2008
What kind of cell phone support google android??? Wheter google android faster in browsing and download???
By gOOGLE aNDROID on Apr 1, 2008
Does google android safe???
By gOOGLE aNDROID on Apr 1, 2008