i am interested in project “running android as windowed application” … i know the basic structure of android and how it works … my basic approach would be to run dalvik virtual machine on linux(ubuntu) and then convert the apk files to .dex files , which is the executable type for DVM , although this isnt a detailed approach as of now … i am still learning much about it … presently compiling android and trying to run DVM as a independent process … just like JVM (if possible) …
any suggestions are welcome
i would request the mentors to please suggest or correct me if my approach is wrong!!
Not an expert but I think there are two schools of thought on this:
1. As you suggest, separate the DVM from Android. This has been tried
by a few groups though I haven’t seen any very successful.
2. Run Android in a virtual machine (maybe see OKL’s site for some
ideas)
As a guess, 2 is easier than 1 but may have performance penalties. In
either case, there is obviously a lot of framework maintenance to
consider (perhaps see Android Execution Environment for ideas). This
could be a very useful (and challenging) project.
Let’s see if others on the list comment, or please private msg me on
IRC to brainstorm further and look for mentors.
(IRC: katier)
Do you want to start with chroot-ing it to run it full screen? Would
it at all be feasible to start replacing drivers in Android with
windowed drivers?
This should be lighterweight then full virtualization with something like
QEMU. It'd add the extra challenge of getting UML going on ARM.
I wonder if there is enough time to take this all the way an actual app.
Prehaps any app should include a plan on what could be tackled by the initial
project.