Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Feb 22, 2012 1:50 UTC (Wed) by karim (subscriber, #114)
In reply to: Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android by aryonoco
Parent article: Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Wait, pause that, yeah right there. That part of running Android apps in Ubuntu ... how the heck are they pulling that off? Any dox anywhere on that?

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Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Feb 22, 2012 3:31 UTC (Wed) by felixfix (subscriber, #242) [Link] (1 responses)

Android apps are just java. There should be no problem running them outside of Android, given the right libraries. I believe the Android SDK includes all that.

Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Feb 22, 2012 4:13 UTC (Wed) by ThinkRob (guest, #64513) [Link]

> Android apps are just java.

Not quite. They're written (mostly) in Java, but they're not Java apps per se, as they compile to different bytecode and run on a different VM (Dalvik, not a JVM.)

Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Feb 22, 2012 6:28 UTC (Wed) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (3 responses)

Probably they run them on the Android side and just use rendered surfaces.

Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Feb 22, 2012 15:14 UTC (Wed) by karim (subscriber, #114) [Link] (2 responses)

I'd love to see the code for that.

Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Feb 22, 2012 22:07 UTC (Wed) by rvfh (guest, #31018) [Link] (1 responses)

Well you have only one graphics driver, and it's on Android's side, so that implies SurfaceFlinger is the ultimate compositor and Ubuntu is just one object (albeit using the full second screen), correct? Having the Android app display on top of the Ubuntu desktop is then just a compositing issue: "blit that window on top of that framebuffer at that position".

Please let me know if I'm talking BS :-)

Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Feb 22, 2012 22:14 UTC (Wed) by karim (subscriber, #114) [Link]

Your guess is as probably better than mine. I'd just like to see how that code does it.

Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Feb 22, 2012 11:10 UTC (Wed) by mgedmin (guest, #34497) [Link] (1 responses)

I assumed it was a VNC-like solution of some kind when I looked at that video earlier today.

Now all I can see is "This video has been removed by the user. Sorry about that."

Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Feb 22, 2012 15:15 UTC (Wed) by karim (subscriber, #114) [Link]

Hmm. Yeah, VNC might be it. But it's hard to tell.