Still Diffing

Right now, most updates to the blog will show up on the rowboat kernel <--> nook 1.2.1 kernel diffs page.  I will only make new posts to the main blog if I find something significant worth reporting...

Clarification RE Linux Kernels in Android 2.1 and Android 2.2

On September 3, 2013, I posted that these were the same.  With new info and understanding, I thought it necessary to clarify this statement.  The kernel for Android 2.1 is based on the Linux 2.6.29 kernel.  The Android 2.2 kernel is based on Linux 2.6.32.  I am proceeding on the assumption that replicating changes made by B&N to the 2.6.29 kernel to the 2.6.32 kernel, although tedious, will be relatively simple.

What I am not sure of and would be very interested to hear from people who know more about Linux than me -- which would be just about everyone in the world, lol, is whether you think that assumption is correct.

Some of these changes will probably be unnecessary because of fixes in the kernel itself from v 2.6.29 to v 2.6.32.

I am currently thinking that when I move to the next step, I will try to compile the 2.6.32 kernel with as few changes as possible, and use B&N's changes to 2.6.29 to give myself an educated guess to solve any problems I may encounter rather than taking pot shots in the dark.

Using Meld to Look for Gold...

I successfully downloaded the rowboat kernel source.  I installed meld on my VM this morning.  At first glance, the differences are few enough that I am pretty confident this was the starting point they used, and even if not, is close enough that I can find the information I am looking for!  Meld will be my best friend for a while...

Trying to Isolate Changes B&N Made to the Kernel & Drivers -- If any.

I tried getting the kernel with the Android repo tool, but got nowhere.  I posted a request for help to the  Android Linux Kernel Development forum  on Saturday, but it has not been moderated, let alone answered.

Trolling Google, I found the  OMAP3 kernel source .  I am downloading and will compare with the B&N source!  More later...

Building Newer Versions of Android In 32-Bit Windows

If you are interested in trying to use my Virtual Machine to build more recent versions of Android on 32-bit Windows, you will need to do the following:

1.  Remove the Sun Java JDK5
2.  Install Sun Java JDK6

ia32-libs, lib32ncurses5-dev, lib32readline5-dev,  & lib32z-dev are the only required packages listed by Google that will not install on the VM.  (All the others are already in there for you.)  These packages are used on 64-bit machines to compile 32-bit code.

Then, check out this Google doc by Bart Van Bos  .

If you try this, please leave me a comment and let me know how it went!

New & Improved VM Now Available.

The new & improved VM is now available on my Google Drive .  I cleaned it up and updated it with all the required software for building pre-Gingerbread Android.  The total download is 11.5GB, and uncompressed it is over 25 GB!

I had 7Zip compress it and break it into 24 500MB chunks.  That way, if you download it, you should only have to re-do one or two parts if something gets corrupted in transit.

You can read the  ReadMe  without having to download the entire VM.

If you use it and find it helpful, please leave me a comment and let me know!

A Brief Update

My new work schedule leaves me very little time to work on this project.  Unfortunately, next week my schedule changes again, and I will have even more hours working.  Even so, I discovered that gperf will no longer install on Ubuntu 10.04.  I also noticed that the Virtual machine I was using maxed out at 30GB.

To make a long story short, I have completely redone the VM with Ubuntu 12.04 and it will now allow itself to grow as large as 250GB.  I am currently compressing the machine and will post links to the new files here when it is done, and I get it uploaded to my google drive.