Linux-Android x86 on CF31 mk2

Installed the distro via USB stick.
CF31 mk2 GPS installed.
I was using USB wireless mouse. I don't think the touchpad worked. Can't recall if I tried it.
I installed on a blank spinning drive. A SSD in this would be stupid fast.

wifi works
Don't do Google play. It won't work. Just skip the entire signup process.
Apk's must be installed manually. Stock browser won't download apk's.
I installed Firefox via USB and I was off and running.

Google maps works. Very fast.
Touchscreen works but needs configured better.

 

on my '31 both the beta and regular versions of FF worked ok ... installed via the *app store/google play* .
i could not find a version that was labeled "android" ... maybe all the stuff in the store is android based ?
touchpad worked .
touch screen calibration off a bit ... could not find the calibration program .
wireless works .
did not try the gps function .
the "pulldown" in an app (?) did not work .

 

You got Google play to work.. Hmm. wonder why it failed for me? I did read that it would not work, so I stopped trying.

Quick search turned up this OLD post.

Thursday, 19 April 2012
Android x86 and Touch Screen

Now this caused me no end of trouble! Hundreds of Google Searches, 2 evenings of trial and error, physically breaking my Touchscreen Ribbon Connector and repairing it.

Don't worry though! I have made the mistakes and taken the time, so now, I hope you don't have to! And you certainly do not have to break your touchscreen!

When I connected my Touchscreen via the USB, nothing much seemed to happen. I thought, at first, the driver for the touchscreen was not installed. When I looked more closely, on the lock screen, if I touched the screen I saw the circle generate waves, therefore my touches were being detected by android!

Upon closer inspection, I went to Settings -> Developer Options and enabled Touch Location. This puts a cross hair on the screen where it thinks you are touching.

For me, it was all messed up and took me ages to figure out the fix!

When I clicked the bottom left of the screen, the top right would register.
When I moved up the screen, the cursor would move to the left.
It appeared that the Axis were all messed up, like it had been Orientated by 90 degrees, but also inverted as well.

Here is the fix. (All commands are in the quotes and Linux is case sensative, so please copy exactly.

1. Press Alt + F1 to go into Terminal mode. (Alt + F7 will switch back to the GUI)
2. Type in (Without the Quotes) "stop zygote" and press enter (This will stop the Android GUI)
3. Type in (Without the Quotes) "mkdir /data/system/tslib" and press enter (This should make a directory/folder called tslib inside /data/system
4. Type in (Without the Quotes) "cd /data/system" and press enter (This will change the current directory to /data/system
5. Type in (Without the Quotes) "ls" and press enter (This will list all files and folders in the current Directory)
6. Check to see if your new directory, tslib is listed.
7. Type in (Without the Quotes) "ts_calibrate" and press enter
8. This should load up the calibration tool and you should have a X in the top left to press, when you do, you are moved to the top right, then bottom right, then bottom left and finally the centre of the screen.
9. Type in (Without the Quotes) "cd tslib" and press enter (This should move you into your new tslib directory you made earlier)
10. Type in (Without the Quotes) "ls" and press enter (You should see a file in there called pointercal, which was created by the calibration tool)
11. Finally, type in (Without the Quotes) "start zygote" and press enter (This will load up the GUI again along with your new calibration settings)

You should now have a fully working touchscreen!

 

Reading the following makes me believe we need to install a "calibrate app"
https://iegget.no/wiki/technology/computing/android/android_x86_external_touch/

Configuring the touchscreen
Android x86 detected the touchscreen as a trackpad, meaning the input was relative and not absolute.

Make the touchscreen be identified as a touchscreen
Find the id's of the touch interface

cat /proc/bus/input/devices
look for the touch interface, e.g.

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=04e7 Product=0050 Version=0100
N: Name="EloTouchSystems,Inc Elo TouchSystems 2216 AccuTouch® USB Touchmonitor Interface"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.0-2/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb4/4-2/4-2:1.0/0003:04E7:0050.0001/input/input4
U: Uniq=50U04090
H: Handlers=mouse0 event4 js0
B: PROP=0
B: EV=1b
B: KEY=10000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=100 3
B: MSC=10
Create the proper IDC file

vi /system/usr/idc/Vendor_04e7_Product_0050.idc
Insert the following

device.internal = 0
touch.deviceType = touchScreen
touch.orientationAware = 1
See https://source.android.com/devices/input/input-device-configuration-files.html for other configuration parameters

Set the permission

chmod 644 /system/usr/idc/Vendor_04e7_Product_0050.idc
And reboot

Calibrate the touchscreen
For some reason the Calibrate app is not included in Android x86 6.0. Boot Android x86 5.1 instead and create the necessary files

mkdir -p /data/misc/tscal
touch /data/misc/tscal/pointercal
chown 1000.1000 /data/misc/tscal /data/misc/tscal/*
chmod 775 /data/misc/tscal
chmod 664 /data/misc/tscal/pointercal
Now run the Calibrate app. It will populate pointercal with the necessary data

cat /data/misc/tscal/pointercal
11494286 -13176376 -2147483648 13173949 -7093665 -2147483648 65536 1024 768
Save the output and reboot to Marshmallow.

Create the directories, populate pointercal and reboot.

 

ok ... clear as mud ...


odd that some things worked for me .
if i remember correctly , the app store worked on my '19 as well and FF worked ok .
i even installed a version of solitaire .
i will go back in and try to get the TS calibrated on the '31 .

yep , it is fast ... no doubt that a real install on a ssd would be smokin' .
from what i see though , there is a lack of programs other than the ones that are "popular" with the smartphone crowd .
ergo ... about 215 solitaire game packages and those *make your picture have sparkly crapola raining down* .

 

I found several touchscreen calibration apk's.
I will test them tonight. Odds are they adjust the color or speed and not x-y axis..

I was tired last night during the install. I was a tad "intolerant" of obstacles at that moment. I could have missed the obvious.

I have some useful Android apps.
Office suite
Handyman calculator
Several "recovery" related programs for my addictions
USPS mobile
G**gle Maps
Ultrachron stopwatch/timer
Metrics conversion
OBD readers
And of course Flashlite---Lookie here at my 13" CF 31 flashlight..

 

My go to Linux guy, Sheepman--aka--Jeff is busy for a while.
So I will throw this out here.
What I would like Is for a software type person to setup the basics of Android for on a Toughbook (CF31 and or CF19 is my choice)
Things like Touchscreen calibration, touchpad etc, add a few basics such as Firefox. Then create a persistent(?) iso/usb that we could install and load. I do hardware and just enough software to frustrate myself. So help is needed.
If we can get a calibration app to work, why reinstall it for every different Toughbook if it could be compiled into a "Android x86 for Toughbooks". Add G**gle Maps and a few basic apps needed for "at work" use.

 

I retried Google play and it works!
Tried several touchscreen apps and no joy.

However I did find out the resolution is set to 720x1020. That is probably more of the problem. I downloaded a couple apps to change resolution but I am done with it for tonight..

 

good idea on compiling a couple of specific ISOs for the '19 and '31 .
i strongly suggest working on the '19 first .
i believe that a few of us here have enough MKxx versions to make sure it is viable across all of them or perhaps compile an ISO for each (if needed) .

got home at 2200 ... grabbed a bite to eat and tipped over .
i have the next two days off ... maybe i can look at some stuff .

recovery programs ?
i have those too ... for extracting information from crapped-out HDDs .

i am certain that the BB has been ported to an e-book format .
it was brought up at a district business meeting (making it available/dl'ing/helping to install it from our local website) .

 

G**gle play search terms of 12 step.

I am hoping someone who is more software focused will jump in here and work on those details needed to make Android smoother on a Toughbook..

 

yeah ... me as well .
there is a double fist-full of gps/map programs available .

 

Here is a decent article on 15 actually useful Android apps.
I think many of them would fit in with the Toughbook crowd.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/509-best-android-utility-apps.html#s1

 

Here are some discussion/blog about Android x86

https://android-x86.net/forum.php

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/android-x86

 

joined up at the android-x86 forum listed ...
i see they are looking for part-time (so to say) mods .
i figure that the android stuff is the next logical permutation to/of unix/linux based OSes .
being *lightweight* and seemingly more efficient when it comes to "running" (remember ... development was for low HP processors) , using it on the toughbooks should breath new life into them ...
especially those that *somehow* have had the original windows activation key *removed* .

 

If we//they get some drivers worked out, Android ought to be great on older CF19's.
Great for OBD work too.

 

Remix seems to be a desktop fork of Android x86.
I am going to try it tonight.

Phoenix is another version of Android I will try.

 

argh..

Remix and Phoenix both have desktop mods to them to make things easier BUT...

Both have installation issues. Remix ONLY loads onto a usb drive from Windows. What the fracking is that about?
It booted from the stick but not a HDD I installed it on via usb. received grub error 17? from HDD boot.
Touchscreen was off and touchpad was in-op.
Wireless usb mouse worked.
Sound worked!
Google play worked
Maps worked

Phoenix install was worse.
Rufus to create bootable usb as recommended.
Boots to grub menu. Install or live are the options.
Either one goes into reboot.
Next and LAST attempt will be exe version download for Windows install..Downloading that now
Hopefully the windows install will allow to a usb device.

Neither one are ready for prime time.

 

and therein lies the rub ...
it seems to be a fairly common theme ... "fails to ..." , and not just one or two minor things .
this is where concentrated effort is required in respect to a single OS and why so many of these things have come and gone .

 

Android IS Linux....

It is frustrating that the developers don't seem to follow through and finish distros properly.
Installation issues and complicated install requirements are totally unacceptable.
Even the so called commercial releases have some glaring problems.
It confuses me because all the developers need to do is copy the install routine from another distro. Why on one of the Android distros am I required to make a USB stick on WINDOWS? No option to download an iso to create a CD. They could have just copied the entire install setup from Zorin for example and used it. Why reinvent the wheel?
The developers don't seem to look at the big picture. They get it to work on their hardware and stop....

Sorry, I went into Linux rant mode.
Zorin installs and everything works. I do not NEED to use terminal for anything. But, I can if I WANT to..."Just sayin"
I still want the real official OSX gui on top of a Linux kernel. Beauty and power in one OS.

 

I think this is the main reason why it only has 2.14% market share. It needs to be more user friendly. The way they do it now it's just not going to happen.

 

I suppose it's the same as if Ford or GM did not sell completed vehicles. Just a rolling chassis and every dealer "assembled" their own body.
YIKES!

 

Better yet the customer builds the body to suit themselves.

Check youtub! for redneck vehicles.

 

eeeehhhh ...
i don't need to check youtube ... all i have to do is look around here .
cue : dueling banjos and a pig squeal

 

Actually Ford use to do that. You could buy just the chassis with hood, then you made your own body or there were companies that sold wood bodies to make it a truck, station wagon, delivery vehicle or ??? Certain cabinet makers use to make there own bodies as well. I have seen these done from the Model T era all the way up to 32 Ford 1ton chassis (it was a school bus around Vicksburg, Mississippi)

 

I have been running Linux mint build and touchscreen and everything works just not the 4 front buttons. Seems pretty stable on the mk6. Never had to mess with anything it just booted and everything worked. I have it dual booted with my win 7 32

 

what year was it when ford went to hydraulic brakes ?
i know he balked at changing over to shoe/drum brakes instead of the friction band type .

linux , yep , that is what it is like ...
one guy builds something and then a couple of other guys gut it and hang their own crap on it .

 

And the answer is....