TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘Linux’ Category

By Chris Meadows

Remember that “worst bug ever” in the Android G1, which echoed anything typed into the phone into a root-enabled command shell? Enterprising hackers have found a use for that after all. One of them was able to parlay it into a complete installation of Debian Linux on his G1. (It actually took fairly little hacking, as there is already a version of Debian compiled to run on the G1’s ARM-based architecture.)

This only works if your Android is still on the RC29 or prior firmware versions; the RC30 patch removes the phantom root shell and thus the ability to install alternate software.

Other Android hackers have since come up with modified versions of RC30 that incorporate command-line access, but as with the Debian hack, they require that your phone not already have been updated to the official version of RC30.

Needless to say, adding Debian to your Android phone is probably not something everyone will want to do. For those who do, however, it will provide access to a wider variety of Linux applications than those available to Android—including, perhaps, compiling the original FBReader rather than using the Android Java port.

By Chris Meadows

Ed Burnette writes about what may be the “Worst. Bug. Ever.” in Android phones. It seems that an “invisible” command-line shell is opened when the phone reboots, and any text entered into the phone, no matter what the application, is also interpreted as a command. (This was discovered by someone explaining that he’d just experienced a reboot for other reasons: he typed “reboot” into a text message and hit enter, and lo, his phone rebooted!)

Fortunately, the fix is simple enough that users can make it themselves: just comment out a couple of specific lines in the phone’s init.rc file. And a patch should be coming soon from Google.

Until then, as Ed writes, “be careful what you type.”

[Other coverage: Slashdot]

By Chris Meadows

Access Linux is the mobile Linux platform, which I covered in this TeleRead entry, produced by the company that used to be Palm’s software division, PalmSource, It includes an emulator for the “Garnet” implementation of PalmOS, which allows it to run many legacy Palm applications.

The PalmDoc Chronicles has spotted the first hardware implementation of Access Linux: the Emblaze Mobile Edelweiss smartphone. The phone includes a number of attractive features, including 8 or 16 gigs storage, a 450×854 screen, built-in GPS, wi-fi, and a 3.2 megapixel camera. It also features support for most commonly-used audio and video file formats.

According to Brighthand, the phone will be released later this month in Russia, and Emblaze is also working with Access and Sharp on a higher-end touchscreen device called “Monolith” which they describe as a “full-blown media and communications center.”

If these devices ever become available in America, they could be very attractive to former PalmOS users who still have a number of legacy apps they would like to run. With those hardware specs, they could definitely compete with the iPhone and Android.

By Chris Meadows

Edit: Although I didn’t realize it until seeing it mentioned in the Ars Technica forum discussion just now, Access also makes the Garnet emulator for Maemo (Nokia 770/8XX) that I previously reviewed here; presumably a version of this emulator is the one that will be integrated into the platform.

Although Android is the platform that generally come to mind when someone mentions “mobile Linux” these days, Ars Technica’s Ryan Paul has had some hands-on interaction with another contender, the Access Linux Platform. According to its creators, “ALP is well-suited for low-end feature phones, business-oriented smartphones, and rich multimedia devices.”

Unlike Android, which is going to be a “highly-insular Java-only platform,” Access can run versions of traditional Linux desktop applications—which, for e-book-lovers, means FBReader. But it can also run Java cellphone applications and even boasts an integrated Garnet emulator for running Palm apps (such as eReader or Mobipocket). A development SDK is under development, though Paul had some trouble getting a preview version to work on his PC.

Although Paul was reasonably impressed by the platform, he does caution that since parts of it are based on proprietary software, it will not be as free as another portable Linux contender, OpenMOKO, and may be more vulnerable than Android to crippling and fragmentation by cellphone carriers.

Still, for those looking for a good portable Internet tablet and e-reading platform, the “access” this one provides to Linux, Palm, and Java apps seems very promising. (And as an avowed scooter rider myself, I really like the logo.)