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

[pal666]

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

my guess is someone has nexus 5 and developed linux support for it. people who have other models didn't develop linux support for them(yet)

[milkylainen]

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

What do you mean? They are embedded devices. Probably signed boot aswell.
And if you don't have RAM-settings etc you probably won't make it, no.
But this is the case with a lot of embedded devices. They don't want you tinkering with it.
I differ between open support for various interfaces and android specifics... and easy hardware access.
The hardware itself is not magic though. Most of the time it's pretty standard stuff.
If you could have access to an open bootloader for the board and non signed boot process then slapping a somewhat matching dtb + kernel to make it boot should not be too much of an issue.
But of course, that will never happen.

[bemerk]

A lot of mobile devices let you unlock the bootloader. Their manufacturers even send out developer devices to get the ball rolling for custom rooms.
We need to keep in mine that drivers will be possible to get mainline but the firmware will remain closed. I think that is not perfect but keep devices alive a lot longer

[gregzeng]

It's interesting read about the gripes: "why do it so late?". All these people carrying powerful computers around, better than any computer used to and from our moon. Perhaps if these people stayed with their iPads, with very few options. All operating systems (software) are being forced to change, to keep pace with advanced hardware engineering. Software & human-ware will continue to be long distance away from hardware advances. Unfortunately the limit are the limits created by human intelligence. We need more artificial intelligence to better coordinate this very limited human intelligence. DARPA invented the Internet. Now we can rely on the next POTUS to create 6G wireless networking, to create a new open source IoT than includes human intelligence much better than we have right now.

[Danny3]

some don't

Really?
That would be great!
Do you know any brand that does that ?

[Neuro-Chef]

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.

Haha, if only they would care about maintenance. If your Android device still gets security updates 3 years after buying it that's already good. The end users realtiy is the choice between vulnerable devices oder buying a new one every 2 to 4 years because device vendors fail to track an LTS kernel and their device specific patches on top of it - even if silicon vendors provide them with updated blobs.
If someone manages to provide LineageOS for your device you're lucky, I have two Samsung S4 Minis from 2013 that came with Android 4.x and now run 10, both still with the first battery. But LineageOS means pure AOSP fixes only, underlying driver vulnerabilities may still affect you.
So, being sick of Android, my Pinephone is already being shipped and should arrive next week

[Neuro-Chef]

More like also known as the ONLY phone that can run Linux. Literally.
[..]
What is the catch and why is Nexus 5 the ONLY PHONE that can run a normal Linux OS??!

You heard about Librem 5, Pinephone and Volla Phone, right? OK, first two sort of in in beta and the last one only announced, but still, there is hope!

[Neuro-Chef]

Pinephone is running 5.6.
It also means pinephone would be able to run Android easily.

It already does:

https://peertube.co.uk/videos/watch/cd49d081-db3e-4ef7-8338-cb929f57e149

[tildearrow]

You heard about Librem 5, Pinephone and Volla Phone, right? OK, first two sort of in in beta and the last one only announced, but still, there is hope!

I heard about the first two, but not the latter one (which seems to be more promising).

Librem 5 is in pretty much experimental state, and lasts a few hours. Yeah, the phone is on even when it is turned off.

The PinePhone isn't a high-end phone, and its hardware comes from a GPL violator (Allwinner).

[Flaburgan]

its hardware comes from a GPL violator.

Where does that come from?