Re: Debian-mobile

[Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org>]

On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 3:14 PM, Axel Richter wrote:

> Hi, i'm very happy to see Debian mobile. Thats also my greatest wish. Debian for my tablet and Android phone. How can we do, to make this possible. My program tech are not good. But how can i help a bit for make this real.? Thanks for reading. Greetings. Axel

For most Android-based devices the best you can get without doing real
work is a chroot under Android:

https://wiki.debian.org/ChrootOnAndroid

If you are willing to do a small amount of work and choose the right
device, you can get a Debian userland running under the Android fork
of the Linux kernel.

http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2012/12/03/debian-mobile/
http://cascardo.eti.br/blog/GNU_on_a_Smartphone/

Anything more than that is a lot more complicated and requires a bunch
of software development and packaging work:

For each device, figure out which parts have source code under free
licenses and which parts are only available as binary blobs. The parts
that are blobs you can probably ignore, but that will render parts of
your device (like GPS or cameras or wifi) non-useful.

For each device, figure out if the bootloader is locked or can be
replaced with Free Software. Port u-boot or another free bootloader to
the device and get the code included upstream. Then update the Debian
package for the bootloader.

For each device, take the version of the Linux kernel that Android
uses. Clean up or rewrite all of the drivers and get those included in
Linux mainline. Then update the Debian package of Linux.

Package/port any needed flashers, firmware or userspace drivers.

Decide which mobile middleware you want and package that for Debian.

https://wiki.debian.org/Mobile#software-middleware

Decide which UI you want and package that for Debian, possibly porting
it to your chosen middleware.

https://wiki.debian.org/Mobile#software-ui

Decide which apps you want and package them for Debian, possibly
porting it to your chosen middleware/UI.

https://wiki.debian.org/Mobile#software-apps

For more information, read through these two pages:

https://wiki.debian.org/Mobile
http://cascardo.eti.br/blog/GNU_on_Smartphones_part_II/

-- 
bye,
pabs

https://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise