Android AOSP Can Boot Off Mainline Linux 5.9 With Just One Patch

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Android AOSP Can Boot Off Mainline Linux 5.9 With Just One Patch

The Android open-source project "AOSP" with its latest code is very close to being able to boot off the mainline Linux kernel when assuming the device drivers are all upstream...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...lose-Linux-5.9

[microcode]

This is a huge milestone. Hopefully devices on stable kernels with few or no patches are on their way toward becoming the norm, at least at the mid-low end where there's nothing new under the sun..

[pranav]

There are a lot of Android smartphones (flagship, budget, cheap).
I wonder how everything going to roll out.

But this is a good thing.
Google should have done this years ago.
I wonder why they didn't in the first place. (Probably because of "less work" that comes with it.)

[bug77]

This is a huge milestone. Hopefully devices on stable kernels with few or no patches are on their way toward becoming the norm, at least at the mid-low end where there's nothing new under the sun..

Fat chance, Android phones are full of proprietary drivers.

[zoomblab]

This does not scale. It never will. I am astonished that bright engineers who work on the kernel don't understand or accept that. It is impossible to have all interested parties agree to open their code but also relinquish control over the release cycle as well as the length of the maintenance to an outside entity.

Every logical person should be able to appreciate the idea of decentralization. But that requires stable protocols of communication and collaboration, i.e., stable ABI.

[Danny3]

Nice, but disappointing that the devices will still require closed source drivers.

[kpedersen]

Fat chance, Android phones are full of proprietary drivers.

Drivers are also the least of our concerns. Getting those pieces of shite to even boot into an open OS is usually impossible.

Send all this defective hardware to the landfill and rip this pointless boilerplate back out of the kernel

[bemerk]

Fat chance, Android phones are full of proprietary drivers.

You have work on the graphic side
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...Submit-Support
https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/pr...=-last_updated

You have lots of work done for ARM devices on
https://patchwork.kernel.org/project...-arm-msm/list/

There are multiple people working on mainline support for their devices
https://github.com/masneyb/linux for msm8974-hammerhead , also known as the Nexus
https://gitlab.com/sdm845-mainline/ covers Poco and OnePlus devices
https://github.com/msm8916-mainline/ has oppo-a51f
https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/ works on running linux on various devices +

Maybe Qualcomm devices are a little bit in favour compared to HiSilicon, Mediatek and Exynos SoCs but the amount of work is amazing.

[emblemparade]

Fat chance, Android phones are full of proprietary drivers.

Right, they are now, but moving forward they don't have to be. There is now an opportunity for a phone manufacturer to build a phone around AOSP and more open hardware, with all the goodies that come with more recent Linux kernels.

I'm excited about the new wave of "Linux" phones out there with new mobile operating systems, but we all know the big drawback is the lack of access to Android's app ecosystem. AOSP gives us true open source and true Linux while also being fully functional as a modern daily driver.

[tildearrow]

There are multiple people working on mainline support for their devices
https://github.com/masneyb/linux for msm8974-hammerhead , also known as the Nexus

More like also known as the ONLY phone that can run Linux. Literally.

I am growing tired of hearing the word "Nexus" or "hammerhead".
Couldn't there be another phone?! Why does it have to specifically be the Nexus 5?!

Like, why if alternative Qualcomm-based phones have somewhat similar hardware?

What is the catch and why is Nexus 5 the ONLY PHONE that can run a normal Linux OS??!