[Sugar-devel] [support-gang] Sugar on a $100 tablet!

[Caryl Bigenho]

Hi...
Will some of you be at the SF Summit? I can bring my XO Tablet if you would like to test Sugar on it. All I ask is that you sweep it clean when finished so I can re-customize it for my grand daughter. It's to be her present for her third birthday in late December.
Caryl
P.S. If others can bring other Android devices they don't mind messing with that would be great. In fact, maybe you could play with my Samsung phone... same conditions... wipe it clean or restore it when we have finished playing.

Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 18:03:51 -0400
From: georgejhunt at gmail.com
To: ruben at activitycentral.com
CC: devel at lists.laptop.org; sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org; support-gang at lists.laptop.org
Subject: Re: [support-gang] [Sugar-devel] Sugar on a $100 tablet!

Ruben,
I was able to install the double boot, and ubuntu touch. But when I ran the script http://ubuntu.activitycentral.com/install_sugar_on_nexus_7.sh , a side effect, (verified a second install), was that the ubuntu dash app lens became inoperative, and I was never able to figure out how to re-initialize it properly, so that I could find and run the "terminal" app.

I was able to get a root shell via adb, (after scratching my head for a while because ubuntu returns a different USB device, and needs a new udev rule to properly select a driver).

I really need terminal on the nexus, in order explore, and  to start the sugar desktop.
Do you have ideas about re-initializing the dash app local lens? (or maybe I don't know what's needed -- I need to correct the symptom that the app search mechanism does not display "terminal" as a choice).

Thanks,
George
On Sun, Sep 15, 2013 at 10:12 PM, Ruben Rodríguez <ruben at activitycentral.com> wrote:

2013/9/11 George Hunt <georgejhunt at gmail.com>:


> I have a nexus, and I'm anxious to learn how to swap out OS, reload stuff,

> etc.



The first step is to install Ubuntu on it, you can follow this howto:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7/Installation



But I recommend following the procedure to install Multirom to have

dual boot instead:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2011403

The only downside is that it seems to interfere with Android system

updates, so you need to upgrade your Android rom manually after that.



Backup and be patient, it takes some time.



When you have ubuntu running on the nexus, activate the

on-scren-keyboard (small icon on the top bar), open the terminal,

install ssh and connect to it. Become root and run this script:
r



This will set some configs, install a bunch of packages including

Sugar, and install some activities as well.



There are some bugs (mainly in the journal) I'm working in, but it is

already pretty usable. Please report your findings! :)



> Does Ubuntu talk directly to the hardware?



Yes. The first part of the procedure installs ubuntu in the android

storage space (a file containing a disk image with ubuntu inside). The

bootloader then is able to run it instead of android by using kexec.

This means there is no emulation, you use Ubuntu as if it was

installed on the machine by itself, and no Android software runs

alongside it.



> If so, how much variation is there in the hardware? If most tablets are based on arm SOC's, this might

> work across many hardware platforms.



There is a lot of variation between SOC's, in particular you will have

to fight with the graphics support, the bootloader, the power

management...

A recent Linus rant on the topic:https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/9/9/562

"I hope that ARM SoC hardware designers all die in some incredibly

painful accident"



In any case with more or less effort we can make sugar work on any

machine that already runs GNU/Linux. In the case of the nexus I

understand Canonical and Google partnered to make it work as a

development exercise. But new arm devices running

standard-non-android-distros appear every day, and several platforms

are already becoming popular, so it is a path worth exploring.



--

Rubén Rodríguez

Activity Central: http://activitycentral.com



Facebook: https://activitycentral.com/facebook

Google+: https://activitycentral.com/googleplus

Twitter: https://activitycentral.com/twitter

 


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