Android Drivers To Be Included in Linux 3.3 Kernel

By tiagosilva29
in Back Page News

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

tiagosilva29

Posted
Posted
Android drivers are returning to the Linux kernel. Kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman has retrieved the Android drivers removed from the staging area of Linux 2.6.33 in the spring of 2010 and put them back into his development branch for version 3.3 of the Linux kernel.

The plan is for a Linux 3.3 kernel to be able to boot on an Android device without further patches ? although not all Android patches are being automatically carried over to the main development branch. For example, the WakeLock code, which helps Android devices' batteries last longer but is not necessary for booting, is not included.

The Linux Foundation's Consumer Electronics workgroup, along with a group at Linaro and various individual developers, is working with Kroah-Hartmann on this project. Tim Bird, chair of the Architecture Group, has launched the Android Mainlining Project with the goal of coordinating work on integrating the Android features. Developers interested in helping to integrate Android patches into the mainline kernel can sign up for the project's mailing list.

Source: The H Online
Grand Master

zivan56

Posted
Posted

Android drivers can never be fully in the kernel, they rely on separate userspace drivers which are invoked via JNI interfaces for any meaningful device (camera, lights, sound, etc). So they would be mostly useless without the Android core itself.

Grand Master

x-byte

Posted
Posted

Another example of Linux not sure what it wants... Linux should be getting together and create a more focused edition, not work on hundreds of distros. The community sure has resources to do it. The last few years they have been lagging too far behind both Mac and Windows.

Grand Master

ToneKnee

Posted
Posted

Another example of Linux not sure what it wants... Linux should be getting together and create a more focused edition, not work on hundreds of distros. The community sure has resources to do it. The last few years they have been lagging too far behind both Mac and Windows.

This isn't an example of anything. Stuff can be added and removed at any time if there are issues with the code. The Android drivers mentioned are infact managed by Google and co companies, nothing to do with the Linux kernel maintainers. Those people need to decide what should be put in the mainline and what doesn't.

And yet again as I just said, this is to do with the Linux kernel, not distros.

Grand Master

Miuku.

Posted
Posted
Another example of Linux not sure what it wants...

They want to include drivers from Android in the kernel, that's all. Ability for users, not necessarily just hardware developers, to use the same kernel on various Android tablets/devices is a nice bonus, hardly fragmentation or anything.

If Windows included drivers for various hardware, would you call it "not knowing what it wants to be?" No, they would just include a new batch of drivers for different hardware.

Grand Master

+Majesticmerc MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Linux should be getting together and create a more focused edition, not work on hundreds of distros. The community sure has resources to do it. The last few years they have been lagging too far behind both Mac and Windows.

So you disagree with Windows 8 being available on tablets as well I take it?

Grand Master

x-byte

Posted
Posted

I rather want the Linux community to use their time creating something for the desktop that can compete with Mac and Windows. Linux haven't been relevant to the desktop market. This is a step into the tablet market. Sure Linux can be relevant there, but not as long as "everyone" thinks what they do is better. Focusing on drivers is one thing. Why not use resources to make a kernel and api's that everyone need to use? Now Linux is so fragmented that you have several systems for audio, video, etc.

Sorry for ranting and going a bit off topic, but I really want Linux to be better that it is today. It's not that it is bad. Only that it can be so much better.

Grand Master

c3ntury

Posted
Posted

I rather want the Linux community to use their time creating something for the desktop that can compete with Mac and Windows. Linux haven't been relevant to the desktop market. This is a step into the tablet market. Sure Linux can be relevant there, but not as long as "everyone" thinks what they do is better. Focusing on drivers is one thing. Why not use resources to make a kernel and api's that everyone need to use? Now Linux is so fragmented that you have several systems for audio, video, etc.

Sorry for ranting and going a bit off topic, but I really want Linux to be better that it is today. It's not that it is bad. Only that it can be so much better.

Linux being relevant to the tablet audience == Android.

Mentor

DeadEndAccount

Posted
Posted
That's cool but do you think anyone will actually use this kernel.

It should help the custom rom/homebrew community that is being built around handset OEM's who are shipping phones with unlocked boot loaders - IIRC HTC's Android phones have unlocked boot loaders.

Another example of Linux not sure what it wants... Linux should be getting together and create a more focused edition, not work on hundreds of distros. The community sure has resources to do it. The last few years they have been lagging too far behind both Mac and Windows.

Linux is the kernel not the distribution - this has been covered so many times it isn't funny to hear the same ill-informed half baked comments like yours every time this topic appears on the radar. The issue is about drivers within the kernel source code rather than it being a separate project - the issue has been discussed on and off because Google was too lazy to properly support the drivers once they were in the tree but it appears things have changed and Google has finally taken on the responsibility required to have their code in the main tree.

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

They want to include drivers from Android in the kernel, that's all. Ability for users, not necessarily just hardware developers, to use the same kernel on various Android tablets/devices is a nice bonus, hardly fragmentation or anything.

If Windows included drivers for various hardware, would you call it "not knowing what it wants to be?" No, they would just include a new batch of drivers for different hardware.

no they'd call it bloat.

on linux it's "choice"....

Grand Master

Miuku.

Posted
Posted

no they'd call it bloat.

on linux it's "choice"....

That must be why Windows 7 takes more space installed currently, and supports less hardware out of the box, than a Linux distribution that fits on a single CD and comes with as much software.

I'd say there's still quite a lot of room left for "bloat" to be added.

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

That must be why Windows 7 takes more space installed currently, and supports less hardware out of the box, than a Linux distribution that fits on a single CD and comes with as much software.

I'd say there's still quite a lot of room left for "bloat" to be added.

1. You just proved my point

2. you need to learn what bloat is.

oh and yeah, but that's because MS sropped supporting crap from the 90's, and linux still doesn't support a lot of stuff from the 2000's :)

Grand Master

ichi

Posted
Posted

Adding drivers to the kernel tree doesn't mean that they will ship with every distro, just that they'll be properly mantained and that they'll work out of the box if they are enabled when the kernel is compiled.

You won't be seeing Android drivers enabled on a desktop distro that's not intended to run on Android related hardware.

I'd say the comments about bloat are largely ignorant.

Grand Master

Miuku.

Posted
Posted
2. you need to learn what bloat is.

Unnecessary things, which including more support for hardware that millions of users already have isn't. Then again, Windows includes DVD makers and useless crap that no one I know has ever used or most of the time doesn't even realize is included with it.

oh and yeah, but that's because MS sropped supporting crap from the 90's, and linux still doesn't support a lot of stuff from the 2000's :)

And Windows doesn't include a ton of modern hardware either - for example HP Printers that work out of the box on OSX or Linux still require manual installation of drivers from their website.

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

No they don't, just use the universal driver, which is what linux does. pf course it isn't as good as the individual driver for the product so it doesn't auto install it when the printer is connected.

and most printers have a usable life of years or less before they're no longer any purpose of having. so most won't be in the windows drivers because they weren't out when the disc was burned. Also with windows 7 MS delibaretaly removed many gigs of printer driver bloat from the disc because it was taking up space and was unnecessary for 99.99999% of people. s

eriously, the best you could come up with was printer drivers....

also any HP laser pritner will work OOB on ANY OS (whith the exception of a few low end cheap "widnowsPritners" or HostUSB printers as they're known internally and technically. These generally won't work on OSX or Linux at all due to lack of drivers. I don't think they do a lot of HostUSB printers anymore though.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • Zed 1.7.2 has landed with updated OpenCode models, bug fixes and other improvements

      By David Uzondu · Posted

      Zed 1.7.2 has landed with updated OpenCode models, bug fixes and other improvements by David Uzondu Zed 1.7.2 recently landed on the stable release channel, bringing a host of AI-related features including automatic context compaction and settings-based skill management, along with other things like better Markdown preview rendering and custom git commands in the graph view. Starting with the AI stuff, the developers introduced "/compact", a command that basically summarizes your conversation history on demand. This tool prevents your active chat window from hitting token limits by compressing older parts of the dialogue into a brief overview. In addition to that, the team relocated skill management to the settings UI, improving how the application communicates errors regarding those skills, and updated the OpenCode model roster to support DeepSeek V4 Flash, MiniMax M3, Qwen 3.7 Plus, and Nemotron 3 Ultra Free. External agent users can also monitor context window cost metrics and delete individual sessions directly from their history. Right-clicking ref labels in the git graph now opens a context menu that runs different actions against selected targets, kind of how VS Code does it. Here are some of the bug fixes this new release brings: The active agent fails to auto-select when creating a new git worktree. A scrollbar unexpectedly appears on wrapped code blocks in the agent chat. Collapse indicators for project headers appear when performing sidebar searches. Bracketed ellipsis title prefixes fail to show the ellipsis icon properly. Project icons render incorrectly in the recent projects picker. Diff hunk controls appear inside non-editable commit view multibuffers. The software update button hangs indefinitely on the downloading stage. Restoring an agent terminal in a remote project triggers a sudden crash. Splitting a pane that contains an active commit view causes a crash. Linux Wayland freezes when trying to read the clipboard from laggy external apps. Zed is a "newish" code editor trying to break the massive stronghold VS Code has on the developer community. Funny enough, the editor was created by former GitHub employees who worked on the Atom text editor (which Microsoft killed in 2022, several years after it bought GitHub). The project officially hit version 1.0 back in April, introducing platform parity for Windows and Linux alongside deep support for DeepSeek-V4-Pro.
    • Microsoft confirms Windows 11 26H2, urges IT admins to prepare for release

      By TheGhostPhantom · Posted

      26H2 absolutely will support ARM Windows just not on devices that came with 26H1. This is evident by the fact I am running 26H2, which on my MacBook Neo and Surface Pro 12 (inch), within a VM.
    • Mp3tag 3.35

      By Copernic · Posted

      Mp3tag 3.35 by Razvan Serea Mp3tag is a powerful and yet easy-to-use tool to edit metadata (ID3, Vorbis Comments and APE) of common audio formats. It can rename files based on the tag information, replace characters or words from tags and filenames, import/export tag information, create playlists and more. The program supports online freedb database lookups for selected files, allowing you to automatically gather proper tag information for select files or CDs. Mp3tag supports the following audio formats: Advanced Audio Coding (aac) Free Lossless Audio Codec (flac) Monkeys Audio (ape) Mpeg Layer 3 (mp3) MPEG-4 (mp4 / m4a / m4b / iTunes compatible) Musepack (mpc) Ogg Vorbis (ogg) OptimFROG (ofr) OptimFROG DualStream (ofs) Speex (spx) Toms Audio Kompressor (tak) True Audio (tta) Windows Media Audio (wma) WavPack (wv) Mp3tag 3.35 changelog: This version introduces a new Files options page, enhanced toolbar customization, support for RF64 WAV files, improved Discogs and MusicBrainz tag sources, and many other improvements and fixes. See the Release Notes for more details. Download: Mp3tag 64-bit | 5.7 MB (Freeware) Download: Mp3tag 32-bit | 5.2 MB Link: Mp3tag Homepage | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Microsoft confirms Windows 11 26H2, urges IT admins to prepare for release

      By +Good Bot, Bad Bot · Posted

      The FIFA World Cup is not US centric.
    • Microsoft confirms Windows 11 26H2, urges IT admins to prepare for release

      By WrongHead™ · Posted

      It’s amusing how Microsoft is pushing IT admins as if this was a major, game-changing update. In reality, it’s just an enablement package that bumps the build number, which is disappointing compared to the more substantial 22H2 and 24H2 releases. Technically, 25H2, 26H1, and the upcoming 26H2 are essentially the same, differing only in support schedules. They could have included the Windows K2 improvements here, but chose not to. The era of Windows being in the backburner continues, and this 26H2 release feels like an afterthought. Shame, Nadella, shame.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      AMV earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      AMV earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Collaborator
      ryansurfer98 went up a rank
      Collaborator
    • One Month Later
      Eurosoft10 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Eurosoft10 earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      523
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      172
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      78
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      72
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      71
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!