Category: Phone

Build an Android Superbook with DisplayLink adapter

Uranus Zhou Android, Phone 11 Comments

About Superbook A couple of days ago, I saw an interesting Kickstarter project called Superbook. The Superbook is a shell that turns your Android smartphone into a laptop. It’s created by the Andromium team, backers have pledged more than eight hundred thousand dollars for this project. You should take a look at their Kickstarter project page: http://getsuperbook.com/ After reading the introduction of Superbook, I think it is kind of familiar with LapDock 100, which is launched by Motorola couple of years ago. While LapDock is designed for Motorola smartphones like ME865 or Atrix. If you want to use LapDock for other devices, then your device must be capable of USB Host/OTG and HDMI output function, also you need to prepare kinds of converter adapters/cables. The main features of Superbook includes: Support all Android smartphone with USB OTG function; 11.6” HD Display with 1366x768 resolution; 10 hours of battery, charge your phone when connected; Support Raspberry Pi and other MiniPC type devices; Multi-Touch trackpad & keyboard, also include an extra USB port; Access all data in Android phone (familiar with LapDock and ASUS PadFone Station). Your Android phone will switch to Andromium OS UI after it is connected to Superbook, Andromium OS also supports running multiple Android App in different windows, which really looks like Remix OS. After looking at Superbook’s technical details, I know it does not depend on smartphone’s HDMI or MHL video output function. Superbook is based on DisplayLink’s Android video output function, you can refer to DisplayLink for Android web page for more details. Now it seems that the biggest different between Superbook and Motorola Lapdock is: a DisplayLink USB graphic adapter is integrated into Superbook’s USB hub. USB graphic adapter starts working after it is connected to Android phone with USB OTG port, then Superbook can […]

Ubuntu for Android on XOLO X900

Uranus Zhou Android, Linux, Ubuntu, Phone, Technology 19 Comments

This post is synchronized from (click here for best display effect): https://zohead.com/archives/ubuntu-for-xolo-x900/ Lava XOLO X900 smartphone use Intel Atom Z2460 x86 CPU, so we can try to make some modifications to default Android system, then we can get a tentative Ubuntu for Android system. The important part of this is we can run x86 version Ubuntu, which is much more useful than ARM version Ubuntu (you can do nothing without source code, no proprietary software at all). Let’s see the final Ubuntu for Android effect (on Motorola LapDock 100): For now, I can run some quite useful program like: Skype, Ubuntu One, sopcast in this Ubuntu system on Android. And the most brilliant thing is we can run Ubuntu and Android system simultaneously, Ubuntu is running on another display screen, doesn’t affect Android system at all, we don’t need VNC to remote login to Ubuntu. Click here for introduction about Canonical’s Ubuntu for Android: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android Requirements of Canonical’s Ubuntu for Android: Dual-core Android smartphone, at least 512MB RAM; support secondary frame buffer; support USB OTG While sad point is secondary frame buffer is not enabled on XOLO X900, cause stock kernel only register a /dev/graphics/fb0 frame buffer device. But we the powerful USB OTG, so we can use USB external display adapter to provide secondary frame buffer. Devices & accessories we need: Motorola LapDock 100 (for display screen, keyboard and mouse input, quite convenient, of course you can use your own display device) DisplayLink USB display adapter USB OTG cable HDMI cable 1. Prepare x86 Ubuntu system: Cause XOLO X900 only has 16GB ROM space, and consider about speed and expansibility, you’d better use Class 10 microSD card (otherwise your Ubuntu system’s performance may not be good), and install Ubuntu in hidden microSD slot of XOLO X900. You can check […]

构建Lava XOLO X900非官方kernel

Uranus Zhou Android, kernel, Linux, Phone, Technology Leave a comment

本文同步自（最佳显示效果请点击）：https://zohead.com/archives/xolo-x900-kernel/ 本文目标为 Lava XOLO X900 这一印度咖喱味手机，同样 Intel Atom Z2460 的芯，移植 kernel 的方法和之前的联想 K800 手机基本一致，具体请移步下面的链接： https://zohead.com/archives/k800-kernel-otg-udisk/ 经过确认 XOLO X900 默认也是 Android 4.0.4 ROM，同样 3.0.8 kernel，当然硬件会有所不同，不过 OTG U盘所需要使用的 usb-storage 模块也是和 K800 一样默认没有开启的。 基于基本相同的 kernel source，先使用 Medfield 默认的配置 i386_mfld_defconfig，发现与现有的 kernel 差距比较多，然后用 Moto 的 i386_mfld_moto_defconfig 编译出的模块加载依然 panic。没办法，硬着头皮与实际运行中 kernel 情况进行对比，发现基于默认配置 i386_mfld_defconfig 进行修改是比较好的方法，而且看得出 XOLO 相对联想还是做了一定的优化，去掉了像 CONFIG_DEBUG_KERNEL 之类的很多调试选项，默认允许了 tun 驱动等。另外声卡相关的配置不同的地方也比较多，经过最终改动和确认，编译之后，先已能成功加载并使用之前在 K800 上编译的那些模块。 XOLO X900 的内核模块和配置文件的下载地址： http://miseal.googlecode.com/files/x900-kernel-config-modules.7z 使用方法和 K800 的基本一致，只是 CIFS 文件系统的使用上有变动： insmod des_generic.ko insmod md4.ko insmod cifs.ko ASIX Electronics 的 USB 以太网卡的驱动 asix.ko 也已经更新到官方最新的版本（kernel 自带的版本无法使用）。 现已基本可以确认我改动之后的 kernel 和 X900 现有 kernel 的相似性已有 90% 或以上了，不过由于 X900 手机悲剧滴将 bootloader 给锁了，无法刷未签名的 kernel，暂时还没有太好的办法来直接替换 kernel 进行测试哦。 另外有一些需要说明的地方： XOLO X900 现有 kernel 中支持 Kineto GAN 虚拟网卡驱动（支持 VOIP 网络电话的），Moto Razr i 公开的 kernel source 中却并没有这个的支持，为此我手工增加了这个的驱动（上面下载的 kernel configuration 中也有的）； 目前还有 apwr3_0、pax、sep3_7 这三个非免费开源的内核模块没有源代码，暂时也没有办法在网上找到，不过从现在来看，似乎 X900 实际运行时也未使用这三个模块。 同样我不对任何导致你的手机 panic 挂掉的后果承担责任，有任何问题欢迎提出指正哦 ^_^