From: Joseph Stewart <joseph.stewart@gmail.com>
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
Subject: Re: [9fans] Announcing Inferno for Android phones
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:59:16 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CANGQBe6H2jsnHRh=ucXTt49of+f_2ickjxRA__sPRrG3839nYw@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAL4LZyjygEb+_f0_mGp7Xttutfbu=JRB44RUG-6_-m_mcbuctw@mail.gmail.com>
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 5199 bytes --]
You guys rock!
On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 6:23 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)!
>
>
[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 5972 bytes --]
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2011-09-16 23:59 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 80+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2011-09-16 22:23 John Floren
2011-09-16 22:30 ` Nemo
2011-09-16 22:32 ` andrey mirtchovski
2011-09-16 22:39 ` Mathieu Lonjaret
2011-09-16 22:43 ` John Floren
2011-09-17 10:58 ` Richard Miller
2011-09-17 12:24 ` Mathieu Lonjaret
2011-09-16 22:41 ` Paul Lalonde
2011-09-16 22:46 ` andrey mirtchovski
2011-09-16 22:49 ` Nemo
2011-09-16 22:49 ` John Floren
2011-09-17 18:02 ` John Floren
2011-09-17 18:26 ` Joel Armstrong
2011-09-21 22:06 ` Ethan Grammatikidis
2011-09-21 22:11 ` ron minnich
2011-09-21 22:14 ` John Floren
2011-09-22 7:38 ` Bruce Ellis
2011-09-22 9:59 ` Ethan Grammatikidis
2011-09-16 23:34 ` Bruce Ellis
2011-09-16 23:38 ` ron minnich
2011-09-16 23:59 ` Joseph Stewart [this message]
2011-09-17 2:01 ` John Floren
2011-09-17 4:24 ` ron minnich
2011-09-17 4:35 ` John Floren
2011-09-17 4:43 ` Skip Tavakkolian
2011-09-17 5:48 ` ron minnich
2011-09-17 15:36 ` Ethan Grammatikidis
2011-09-17 16:29 ` ron minnich
2011-09-17 17:46 ` Wes Kussmaul
2011-09-17 18:01 ` John Floren
2011-09-17 18:23 ` Joel Armstrong
2011-09-17 20:26 ` ron minnich
2011-09-17 21:14 ` Joel Armstrong
2011-09-17 21:15 ` Joel Armstrong
2011-09-17 21:25 ` ron minnich
2011-09-17 21:53 ` ron minnich
2011-09-17 22:05 ` ron minnich
2011-09-17 22:56 ` andrey mirtchovski
2011-09-19 17:25 ` John Floren
2011-09-19 17:29 ` ron minnich
2011-09-19 17:29 ` ron minnich
2011-09-19 21:49 ` Bruce Ellis
2011-09-19 22:09 ` Steve Simon
2011-09-19 22:13 ` Joseph Stewart
2011-09-19 22:19 ` hiro
2011-09-19 22:48 ` John Floren
2011-09-22 10:11 ` Ethan Grammatikidis
2011-09-22 12:30 ` Bruce Ellis
2011-09-23 13:30 ` Ethan Grammatikidis
2011-09-23 13:40 ` Richard Miller
2011-09-23 13:48 ` erik quanstrom
2011-09-23 13:51 ` Mathieu Lonjaret
2011-09-23 23:14 ` Bruce Ellis
2011-09-26 7:26 ` Tharaneedharan Vilwanathan
2011-09-26 10:02 ` Ethan Grammatikidis
2011-09-26 14:52 ` John Floren
2011-09-23 13:55 ` Brian L. Stuart
2011-09-23 14:05 ` Gorka Guardiola
2011-09-23 14:54 ` Jeff Sickel
2011-09-27 23:05 ` John Floren
2011-11-04 21:45 ` Lyndon Nerenberg (VE6BBM/VE7TFX)
2011-11-04 21:55 ` John Floren
2011-11-04 22:43 ` Masen Marshall
2011-09-17 2:24 paul.a.lalonde
2011-09-17 2:35 ` Devon H. O'Dell
2011-09-17 2:40 ` John Floren
2011-09-17 2:46 ` John Floren
2011-09-17 2:48 ` Bruce Ellis
2011-09-17 3:37 ` ron minnich
2011-09-17 3:40 ` ron minnich
2011-09-17 3:55 ` Bruce Ellis
2011-09-17 2:46 ` Bruce Ellis
2011-09-28 14:43 252608386
2011-09-28 14:56 ` ron minnich
2011-09-28 15:11 ` John Floren
2011-09-28 15:31 ` JS enter
2011-09-28 19:53 ` John Floren
2011-09-28 19:57 ` John Floren
2011-09-29 23:02 ` Bruce Ellis
2011-09-30 0:15 ` Ethan Grammatikidis
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to='CANGQBe6H2jsnHRh=ucXTt49of+f_2ickjxRA__sPRrG3839nYw@mail.gmail.com' \
--to=joseph.stewart@gmail.com \
--cc=9fans@9fans.net \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).