Ubuntu compile enviroment for android...

wild_eyed

Bear with me.

I need to compile a dvb driver for an android device.

Has anyone any experience with anything similiar. I havent used linux since college and am just looking for some starting tips and locations fr things.

Source for drivers etc

humbert

Is that a kernel module? It's possible but not trivial.

Here are instructions on building the android kernel. If memory serves me you'd need a rooted device with s-off to install it.

wild_eyed

humbert wrote: »

Is that a kernel module? It's possible but not trivial.

Here are instructions on building the android kernel. If memory serves me you'd need a rooted device with s-off to install it.

Thank you. I was reading this earlier. Is a .ko file a kernel or a driver? I'm confused by terms.

If I need to build a driver using a certain kernel will I need to reinstall the entire kernel or will I be able to insert the drivers to an already installed kernel?

humbert

wild_eyed wrote: »

Thank you. I was reading this earlier. Is a .ko file a kernel or a driver? I'm confused by terms.

If I need to build a driver using a certain kernel will I need to reinstall the entire kernel or will I be able to insert the drivers to an already installed kernel?

A .ko file is a kernel object or kernel module, i.e. a driver. Had to look that up and found this. You can insert just the module but it should be built against the same kernel version. There is a force option if what they call symbol versioning isn't switched on whereby it will attempt to load the module even if the kernel versions are different.

You'll have to check but I think, at least on some phones, the partition where the kernel/android os is installed is not writeable after the phone boots but I think there is a utility called s-off to disable this feature (I've actually used it on my phone but it was a long time ago so I think that was why).

Best of luck, I'm interested to hear how it goes.

EDIT: When you build the linux kernel you have the option whether to build a lot of features into the kernel image (monolithic) or build them as modules (modular) (the .ko files). So it can be confusing. The kernel image is often compressed and the file name of the image isn't consistent (in case you happen to go looking for it and it doesn't match what you found on google).

wild_eyed

Ive set up my ubuntu and got the source files for the driver.

The device details that im building for are

Kernel 3.0.8

ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v7l)

Does the processor matter? Will i need to reference it during the compile?

syklops

wild_eyed wrote: »

Ive set up my ubuntu and got the source files for the driver.

The device details that im building for are

Kernel 3.0.8

ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v7l)

Does the processor matter? Will i need to reference it during the compile?

Not really. If you are compiling on Android then its assumed you would be working with ARM.

humbert

wild_eyed wrote: »

Ive set up my ubuntu and got the source files for the driver.

The device details that im building for are

Kernel 3.0.8

ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v7l)

Does the processor matter? Will i need to reference it during the compile?

syklops wrote: »

Not really. If you are compiling on Android then its assumed you would be working with ARM.

Yeah, it would only matter if you were looking to optimise your build, i.e. to use newer instructions like neon, which you're not.