Re: [9fans] Announcing Inferno for Android phones

[Paul Lalonde <paul.a.lalonde@gmail.com>]

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A pretty good week for 9fans!
Grats all involved!
Paul

On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 3:32 PM, andrey mirtchovski
<mirtchovski@gmail.com>wrote:

> this is cool!
>
> On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 4:23 PM, John Floren <john@jfloren.net> wrote:
> > We would like to announce the availability of Inferno for Android
> > phones. Because our slogan is "If it ain't broke, break it", we
> > decided to replace the Java stack on Android phones with
> > Inferno. We've dubbed it the Hellaphone--it was originally Hellphone,
> > to keep with the Inferno theme, but then we realized we're in Northern
> > California and the change was obvious.
> >
> > The Hellaphone runs Inferno directly on top of the basic Linux layer
> > provided by Android. We do not even allow the Java system to
> > start. Instead, emu draws directly to the Linux framebuffer (thanks,
> > Andrey, for the initial code!) and treats the touchscreen like a
> > one-button mouse. Because the Java environment doesn't start, it only
> > takes about 10 seconds to go from power off to a fully-booted Inferno
> > environment.
> >
> > As of today, we have Inferno running on the Nexus S and the Nook
> > Color. It should also run on the Android emulator, but we haven't
> > tested that in a long time. The cell radio is supported, at least on
> > the Nexus S (the only actual phone we've had), so you can make phone
> > calls, send texts, and use the data network.
> >
> > The Inferno window manager has been re-worked with cell phone use in
> > mind. Windows are automatically sized to fill the whole screen. The
> > menu has been moved to the top and the menu items have been made
> > significantly larger. Physical buttons on the phone are now used to do
> > many common tasks:
> >
> >    (these keys are for the Nexus S, different bindings are used for
> > the Nook, which has different keys available)
> >    * Back: Close the current window
> >    * Menu: Toggle the onscreen keyboard
> >    * Home: Minimize the current window
> >    * Power: Turn off the screen
> >    * Power+Volume Up: Open the screen brightness widget
> >    * Power+Volume Down: Turn off the phone
> >    * Power+Home: Restart Inferno
> >
> > Installation is reasonably simple. You'll need the Android SDK
> > (http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html), with the platform-tools
> > package installed for the adb and fastboot utilities. We also strongly
> > recommend installing CyanogenMod on your phone before
> > proceeding--that's what we use to test.
> >
> > First, make absolutely sure you have the "adb" and "fastboot"
> > commands in your path--see the previous paragraph regarding the
> > SDK and try running "adb" to be sure. Download the tarball from
> > http://bitbucket.org/floren/inferno/downloads/hellaphone.tgz and
> > unpack it in your root. You should end up with a /data/inferno
> > directory (we put it there because of the Inferno build
> > process). Then, go to the /data/inferno/android directory and run
> > the Reflash-Nexus-S.sh script (assuming you have a Nexus S. Run
> > Reflash-Nook-Color.sh if you have a Nook). This will
> > automatically set up the phone to boot into either Inferno or the
> > regular Java environment--during bootup, the screen will go solid
> > white; if you touch the screen at this point, it will boot into
> > the regular Android environment, otherwise it will timeout and go
> > to Inferno. However, at this point you're not yet ready to boot
> > into Inferno, so reboot the phone and touch the screen to go into
> > the regular Android UI. The final task is to run the command "cd
> > /data/inferno; ./parallel-push.sh". Reboot, let it boot into
> > Inferno, and you're ready to go.
> >
> > You can also clone the repository
> > (http://bitbucket.org/floren/inferno/) and build it yourself, but this
> > is a significant effort. I do not recommend it if you wish to simply
> > try the system, but if you want to do development you should get the
> > repository.
> >
> > Disclaimer: If you break your phone, it's not our fault. Don't email
> > us, don't come knocking on our door, and don't call us--oh wait, you
> > won't be able to do that anyway, your phone is broken!
> >
> > Credit where credit is due: Ron Minnich came up with the initial
> > idea--we've been kicking the idea of a Plan 9/Inferno phone around for
> > years. Our summer interns, Joel Armstrong and Joshua Landgraf, did the
> > lion's share of the work of making Inferno into a usable cell phone
> > OS--no small feat, considering that neither had any Limbo or Inferno
> > experience before the start of the summer! They re-wrote the UI,
> > puzzled out the undocumented cell radio interface, figured out audio,
> > worked to make Inferno more portable across phones, and generally
> > figured out how to make Inferno and the Android kernel coexist
> > peacefully. Andy Jones, another intern, also did some very early work
> > with Android that helped us figure out the Android init process and
> > how to build for Android. I took care of getting Inferno running on
> > the phone in the first place and have been adding things occasionally
> > since then. We would also like to thank Andrey Mirtchovski for
> > providing the OLPC framebuffer code (which ported to the Android
> > phones relatively easily), and of course Charles Forsyth for keeping
> > the Inferno torch lit all these years (and helping me figure out some
> > puzzling problems throughout the summer)!
> >
> >
>
>


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