On Sep 16, 2011 10:25 PM, "paul.a.lalonde@gmail.com" <paul.a.lalonde@gmail.com> wrote:
> For all these plan9ish things on OSX I run a case-sensitive file-system in a file; just use the Disk Utility to make one and then mount it. I link mine into my home directory and use it for all case-sensitive apps.
> Paul
>
> Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T
>
> ----- Reply message -----
> From: "John Floren" <john@jfloren.net>
> To: "Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs" <9fans@9fans.net>, <inferno-list@vitanuova.com>
> Subject: [9fans] Announcing Inferno for Android phones
> Date: Fri, Sep 16, 2011 7:01 pm
>
>
> One caveat that I just came across: If you're trying to set up your
> phone from Mac OS X, it's quite possible that the case-insensitive
> filesystem will bite you. We have two directories at the same level,
> named "android" and "Android". If you do an adb push from OS X,
> they'll both end up in a directory called "android". Here's how you
> can fix it:
>
> (run adb shell)
> # mkdir /data/inferno/Android
> # mv /data/inferno/android/arm /data/inferno/Android/
>
> There may be other problems lurking, but I'm pretty sure all of the
> stuff Inferno needs is all lowercase.
>
>
> John
>
> On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 3:23 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)!
>>
>