Android Fork Brings Froyo To 12 Smartphones

jj110888 writes "CyanogenMod has just been updated to version 6.0, bringing Android Open Source Project 2.2 (Froyo) to several devices. This fork includes enchantments to many of the built-in apps, Ad-hoc network connectivity, OpenVPN support, Bluetooth HID, Incognito browsing, extensive control over audio and UI elements, and more found in the extensive CHANGELOG. The CyanogenMod team uses an instance of Google's gerrit tool for code review and patch submission, helping make this former backport of Android 1.6 to T-Mobile's G1 into thriving development for the G1/MyTouch/MyTouch 1.2, Droid, Nexus One, HTC Aria, HTC Desire, HTC Evo 4G (minus 4G and HDMI output), Droid Incredible, and MyTouch Slide. HTC Hero (including Droid Eris) are coming soon for 6.0, with Samsung Galaxy S devices expected to be supported in 6.1."

Comments

Frodo Phone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Watch out, it's hobbit forming.

Enchantments?

[Iftekhar25]

This fork includes enchantments to many of the built-in apps [...]

Enchantments? iOS doesn't have that. Android rules.

Re:Enchantments?

[matunos]

Are you kidding? Apple fans are constantly accused of being under some sort of spell.

Re:Enchantments?

[Qubit]

Android Rules...and Droid Does...hmmm.

If past confusingly-worded advertisements are any indication, we should look forward to:

Android: Try our new interface for waterproof phones: Slip and Slide Rules!

Re:Enchantments?

[sapphire wyvern]

Yeah, according to the release notes, they added a +1 bonus to the Music and Deskclock apps, amongst others, and added 1d6 [Fire] elemental damage to the Torch app.

how much peer review is going on?

[M. Kristopeit]

i'm concerned about bugs, intentional or not, that would allow someone access to my voice calls or other personal data... how feasible are those situations when using one of these 3rd party mobile operating systems rather than the one supplied directly by the mobile vendor with the device?

Re:how much peer review is going on?

[Anonymous Coward]

review.cyanogenmod.com

They end up patching most vulnerabilities faster than the handset makers, but there is always the chance of users not understanding root and not reading the permissions their apps require. One of the many good things about android though is that it shows you what the app wants wants before installing, if you don't read/know what you're installing, who's really to blame at that point?

Re:how much peer review is going on?

[dargaud]

One of the many good things about android though is that it shows you what the app wants wants before installing

Yes, but without the ability to deny some of those rights, it's not very useful. Case in point: couple days ago I wanted to install a simple music app. It wanted GPS access and internet access. Fuck that, I didn't install the app but I'd much rather block those two things.

Re:how much peer review is going on?

[delinear]

Exactly - better that you're at least informed, if it had said nothing you'd be blissfully unaware that your music app was tracking your position and accessing the web. And if you don't want it to do those things, mail the developer and give them some useful feedback (I would have bought/used your app except...) and maybe they'll explain what the usage is, or even offer a version with those things removed. That's the beauty of the system, you have a lot of visibility of what's going on.

Re:how much peer review is going on?

[bcat24]

It could be useful if you could install an app while denying it some of the rights it wants. Of course that could make the app unstable and useless, but at least you had the option to do so and it was your own free choice.

I agree in principle, but I think this would make life suck for developers. Would you really want to deal with the inevitable people saying "I paid for this app and it doesn't work" when the only reason your app doesn't work is because these same people didn't grant it the necessary rights? Supporting software is hard enough as is; we don't need to make it even easier for well-intentioned—but not technically-minded—folks to break things.

Re:how much peer review is going on?

[hedwards]

By the same token, Google really ought to include a provision to make the application request permission to do certain things after it's been installed. Such as placing phone calls. Most applications that ask for that permission do so in order to allow you to select a phone number from the application and place it as a convenience. They don't generally need the permission all the time, so for something like that making it ask each time is probably reasonable and not going to cause too much trouble for anybody. The ones I really question are the apps which request GPS access which isn't relevant to the apps primary function. That strikes me as something that we ought to be able to disable as there's no legitimate reason why random apps ought to be spying on us.

Re:how much peer review is going on?

[tayhimself]

It could be useful if you could install an app while denying it some of the rights it wants. Of course that could make the app unstable and useless, but at least you had the option to do so and it was your own free choice.

I agree in principle, but I think this would make life suck for developers. Would you really want to deal with the inevitable people saying "I paid for this app and it doesn't work" when the only reason your app doesn't work is because these same people didn't grant it the necessary rights? Supporting software is hard enough as is; we don't need to make it even easier for well-intentioned—but not technically-minded—folks to break things.

Sorry, but this is how it works on iOS. Your app downloads fine. If it tries to use the GPS the phone prompts you for permission. If it tries to message you, the phone prompts you to allow messaging. etc. Works great, maybe google will copy this too.

One huge reason to buy an android phone

[msevior]

The existence of this project makes my want to buy an android phone.

No lockin for me!

Re:One huge reason to buy an android phone

[milamber3]

You shouldn't really talk when you obviously don't know anything about the subject of conversation. The number of phones that Cyanogen supports is not "dwindling" it is actually booming. Up through CM 5.0 he only supported 3 phones (G1, MyTouch, Nexus one) but with the development of 6.0 he recruited rom developers for all the other phones listed above. This just happened a few months ago and this article is discussing the fruits of their labor. Additionally, the encrypted bootloader you were mentioning on the Droid X/2 has been broken and full custom roms can be installed http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/30/custom-droid-x-roms-starting-to-break-loose-efuse-be-damned/. Really, try to lighted up with FUD and do some more reading before you decide the whole modding community is dwindling and doomed.

Re:One huge reason to buy an android phone

[mcvos]

The proper response to that is of course to advertise widely and loudly which phones are locked down, and which aren't. People who want an open system will buy the unlocked phones, and those manufacturers will be rewarded with extra sales.

I really don't see the point for manufacturers to lock their phones like this. For networks, I can understand, but when I buy a phone without a contract, I should own it, without any limitations. If we want high-end, fully unlocked/unlockable phones, we need to make sure there's a market for them. Manufacturers would be stupid to deny that market.

Re:One huge reason to buy an android phone

[bemymonkey]

Wow. You should really inform yourself better before telling other people they're spreading FUD - and I'd recommend looking for information in places OTHER than blogs.

The Droid X and Droid 2 bootloaders have NOT been cracked, they're still encrypted, keeping you from booting a kernel such as the one included in Cyanogenmod. While read/write access to the system partition and a working recovery are a good step in the right direction, Droid X/2 development is stuck at exactly the same spot where Milestone modders have been stuck for the better part of a year now.

True custom ROMs like Cyanogenmod are NOT possible without bootloader access!

The FUD about the Droid X having been cracked wide open is pretty much what blogs like Droid Life have been spreading all over the internet, and it's just wrong. No custom kernel, no custom ROM. You can heavily modify the existing ROMs, but you MUST keep the kernel that Motorola signed for your device. Note that the developers who made Clockworkmod on the Droid X possible state explicitly that ROMs with custom kernels aren't possible with their recovery...

Remember the Milestone alarm-clock fiasco? The phone would just not wake up properly when it was time to sound an alarm, resulting in the phone being completely useless as an alarm clock. This was a kernel bug that was left unfixed for MONTHs, until the .36 bugfix release of Android 2.1 was pushed just weeks ago... the only way to fix it was by flashing a different kernel. Luckily it was discovered that the Telus version of 2.1 didn't have this bug, and that the kernel from that version could be flashed onto any Milestone due to them all using the same signature. With full bootloader access, custom kernels without this bug (like they've been available for the bootloader-unlocked Droid all along) would have been usable right away, and the problem would have been fixed by the community more or less right away.

And that's just one example of why it's important to have full bootloader access for flashing custom kernels. There are many more... like being able to create a ROM like CyanogenMod for the device. Many of the tweaks built into Cyanogenmod are kernel-level changes, and while you may be able to get somewhere by loading kernel modules at runtime (like the overclocking module for the Milestone), you'll have a tough time replicating all the functions of a full custom kernel that way.

Like I probably mentioned in my earlier post, even HTC is moving in this direction (albeit slowly), with some sort of runtime-protection of the system partition that's apparently uncrackable so far on the Desire and IIRC some other phones too (Legend?).

Re:One huge reason to buy an android phone

[bemymonkey]

More info here: http://www.koushikdutta.com/2010/08/droid-x-recovery.html

Note the following:

"So can we now install custom ROMs?
Yes, but you can't replace the kernel or boot image. But really, once you have access to /system, anything is possible. It will just take a little hackery. "

Re:One huge reason to buy an android phone

[Nursie]

Interesting use of 'FUD'. it's more like Hope uncertainty and unfounded optimism.

Re:One huge reason to buy an android phone

[milamber3]

You are utterly mistaken. If the Desire is as locked down as you say it is then explain the fully functional CM 6.0 that runs on it including the custom kernel. Check out the XDA Desire forum for some details and then hopefully you can come back better informed. Also, AOSP builds for the Droid X are coming with custom kernels. I find if funny that below you posted a quote to try and make your point that custom kernels wont be happening but you tried to completely ignored half of the quote by bolding just what you wanted people to see. Here's the quote YOU posted with your bolding left in place, but I've added a second bold+italics of the relevant portion you should be paying attention to.
"So can we now install custom ROMs?
Yes, but you can't replace the kernel or boot image. But really, once you have access to /system, anything is possible. It will just take a little hackery ."

Also, this quote was written when the Droid X was first released and they were just starting to get root access. Since then, a lot more progress has been made using a "little hackery."

Please stop posting FUD and misleading quotes. It was bad enough you couldn't even attempt to defend your initial post that cyanogen mod phone support was dwindling after I pointed out it had more that tripled in # of phones over the last few months.
You simply don't know enough. End of story.

Re:One huge reason to buy an android phone

[bemymonkey]

Dear Milamber,

You seem to be misinterpreting some of my posts, as well as adding things that I myself never actually wrote.

1. About the Desire, please try to understand what I'm saying: Cyanogenmod runs perfectly well on the Desire. I'm using a ROM that's mostly based on CyanogenMod, custom kernel and all. The lockdown that has been implemented by HTC on the Desire ONLY limits writing to the system partition at runtime (i.e. with Android fully booted). It's still possible to write to the system partition via ADB through a custom recovery like Clockworkmod or AmonRA. I NEVER said that the Desire was locked in a way that would prevent custom ROMs or custom kernels.

And I quote, from my first post: "Even my HTC Desire has some (so far uncrackable) form of protection that prevents users from writing to the system partition when the phone is running...". I never said anything about being unable to flash custom ROMs or custom kernels...

2. As for the quote: In my opinion, your interpretation is overly optimistic. I am surely not a Linux expert (more of a n00b, really, as my Linux experience is largely limited to Android), but it's my understanding that without switching out the kernel, it won't be possible to change certain things. If you have information to the contrary, I'd love to learn something from you, if you were inclined to share your apparent knowledge.

3. I didn't attempt to defend the statement that Cyanogenmod-supported handsets are dwindling, because quite simply, you are right in that aspect. My wording is completely incorrect, and the dwindling support was actually supposed to be referring to the general availability of fully unlocked (i.e. bootloader unlocked, no weird system partition read-only access at runtime...) Android phones. Thank you for making me aware of my error.

I cannot, however, thank you for resorting to the (unfortunately, typical these days) "You have no idea what you're talking about" argument... it makes it impossible to have a conversation, so please refrain from telling everyone they don't know squat when you disagree with them.

I would, by the way, like to invite you to take apart my arguments about past experiences on the Milestone, which was bootloader-encrypted just like the Droid X/2 is now. What makes you think that the Droid X bootloader will be easier to crack/circumvent?

Re:One huge reason to buy an android phone

[bemymonkey]

Hi Milamber,

I implore you: Please inform yourself about the situation with the Desire before telling me I just don't know what I'm talking about. Try these links (just the first two Google results for "read write system desire"):

http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-desire-desire-modaco-com/315002/htc-desire-system-partition-write-access-in-progress/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=690744

After reading just a few of the posts in each thread, you should get an idea of the situation. There is a solution that has been proposed, and does work, in theory, but IIRC it involves an overlay file system that caches writes until the device is rebooted... or something like that.

About this AOSP ROM on the Droid X: How was the kernel modified? Since you can't boot a completely different kernel, you would have to modify the existing one at runtime... do you have any more information about this? I would love to see a link for it...

As for your point about full NAND access and custom kernels not going away: I wish I could share your optimism. As a former Milestone owner I've seen what manufacturers can do on a whim, and contrary to the headlines circulating in blogs lately, we've seen that it's definitely possible to lock down devices to a level that makes them uninteresting for modders. I would advise you to take a closer look at the Milestone situation, as it should give you a very good idea about the challenges that will be faced by users of subsequent Motorola devices like the Droid X.

What will it take to end this fragmentation?

[Kethinov]

As a Droid Incredible owner, I'm pretty pissed off that Android 2.2 is so many months old and there's STILL no official build available for my device. Why can't I just go to a magic URL like google.com/android/2.2, then download a supported ROM for my device, and then install the new OS just like downloading a new version of Ubuntu for a PC?

Re:What will it take to end this fragmentation?

[deltantor]

As a Droid Incredible owner, I'm pretty pissed off that Android 2.2 is so many months old and there's STILL no official build available for my device. Why can't I just go to a magic URL like google.com/android/2.2, then download a supported ROM for my device, and then install the new OS just like downloading a new version of Ubuntu for a PC?

But you can, with cyanogenmod. CM is one of the only things that is fighting to end fragmentation.

Re:What will it take to end this fragmentation?

[JoshRosenbaum]

Mine just came OTA (over the air) last night. Or you can do a manual update as shown here: http://www.droid-life.com/2010/08/31/manual-update-droid-incredible-to-android-2-2/

stability

[Blymie]

This is a great ROM, and the whole crowd that put it together does deserve applause.

The only detractor is stability with smaller issues. There is an 'experimental' branch, which is essentially alpha like code, and the stable branch is more like a constantly moving, fairly mature beta.

Part of this, of course, is the speed with which this whole environment is moving. Just when the Cyanogenmod team release a ROM, it seems that a whole whack of changes manifest upstream, with the goal of a whole new Google branded release. So, naturally, the compulsion is to move to that newer codebase..

I'm hoping that for a while at least, Google doesn't fork for another release branch. Hell, there are already issues with phone manufacturers and the fragmentation in the Android market as a result. So, maybe it should be.. oh, I don't know, a YEAR before there is another fork and release on the Google side?

Perhaps then, people will be able to fork 6.1 or 6.2 of Cyanogenmod, and spent about 20 sub-releases just on stability issues.

All and all though, that would just be icing on the cake. And what a sweet cake it is!

Thanks Cyanogenmod dudes!

Smartphone + VPN is the killer app

[synthesizerpatel]

I have been wishing for OpenVPN support on my iPhone for some time now. The idea that you'll 'control your whole life' through your phone is so hollow until you have 'secure' tunnels to your resources. The person who put the effort in to get OpenVPN working on android has my respect. Good work!

Re:Smartphone + VPN is the killer app

[sam0737]

And this is so essential to mainland user like me!...or else how you think the facebook app is going to work?

Re:Smartphone + VPN is the killer app

[trawg]

Uh, I assume the GP was referring to the fact that the previous user described the VPN component as a 'killer app'.

I consider myself a pretty nerdy Android user - I'm probably in the 1% of Android users who a) actually know what OpenVPN is and b) would actually use it.

I sure would like to have OpenVPN but I certainly can't be bothered figuring out how to mod my phone to get it. So I think the GP was merely saying that for the vast, vast majority of people, it is pretty irrelevant when compared to something like having the Facebook application working.

Because Google didn't make the Droid Incredible

[Namarrgon]

So why should they build, test and support new roms for every different Android device out there? They've got enough on their plate developing the reference OS itself. You should be asking Verizon, or at least HTC.

With Ubuntu, a lot of people chipped in to write and make available many different device drivers so that a huge range of hardware could be supported. Phones too require different device drivers - but on phones, many of those drivers are still proprietary. Cyanogen (among others) is the best recourse we've got.

But for actual solutions - well, you could insist on buying only phones with minimal vendor changes from vanilla Android, thus reducing the amount of work needed for porting the latest OS. Vendors could devote more effort to supporting older hardware, since it's clear it's a big issue with customers. From Google's pov, they've said they're working on separating as much as possible from the base OS, so that the cooler stuff can be updated independently.

Only other "solution" I can think of is for Google to hold off releasing new versions until major vendors complete porting it to their older hardware. But all that would do is disadvantage Google's own customers to no purpose, just so that other vendors' customers don't know what they're missing, not to mention reducing the valuable feedback Google needs to work on the next version. Might as well go to an annual cycle and change their name to Apple 2.0.

Re:What doesn't work?

[RMH101]

Well, yes, if you go check the release notes it'll tell you exactly what doesn't work. It'll be a small list. On current version I think there's a bug that occasionally prevents phone from sleeping, draining battery. It'll be fixed.
CM ROMs do NOT include Sense UI -they are "clean" Android. Personally I like Sense, which is why I'm using the AuraxTSense 7.1 ROM from XDA Devs on my HTC Desire. It's lovely. Now the CM code is out, they basically set a gold-standard baseline for others to tinker with.
Seriously, the community ROMs tend to be more stable than the OEM ones - and they fix bugs, rather than ignore them.

Is there any full-fat linux available?

[Nursie]

Has anyone managed to, or even bothered to try to put a full linux distro on any of these instead of android?

I know the debian chroot thing has been around for a while, but I'd really love to be able to put debian or maemo or something like that onto another handset.

I love my N900, but there are newer, shinier toys out there but I like my mainstream mobile linux...

Re:Is there any full-fat linux available?

[TeknoHog]

You can boot Ubuntu on a Nexus One. And Win95, should you be masochistic enough to try it. I also run PSX4DROID as a playstation emulator!

The only Ubuntu/Nexus installations I can find are running in a chroot, like the Debian that grandparent mentions. Win95 wouldn't run natively anyway.

Android devices are fairly limited compared to most computers, so I would like to run a real distro, instead of layers of emulation. In fact, native binary applications should run faster than the bytecode apps in Android.

Re:Is there any full-fat linux available?

[gmuslera]

Don't forget that you had Froyo as alternate OS for the N900 before it was available officially for any Android phone (even before the Nexus One). Still no full functionality because the parts that Nokia didn't opened on it, but is actively being worked for fixing that. Nitdroid was a different android fork, and was targetted to one smartphone only (and the N8x0 tablets).

There are a few newer Android phones with better hardware specs, but still the N900 is an impressive piece of hardware, and Maemo is nothing to be ashamed of. And you should add to its Multi OS powers Garnet VM (palm), a bunch of console emulators (from zx spectrum to nintendo 64), and the upcoming Meego.

Re:Is there any full-fat linux available?

[asnelt]

The only Ubuntu/Nexus installations I can find are running in a chroot, like the Debian that grandparent mentions. Win95 wouldn't run natively anyway.

There is a tutorial at http://www.irregular-expression.com/ for installing Debian on a Nexus One that runs directly on the hardware, no chroot. The only catch is that you need a PC hooked up to the device in order to initiate booting. So the only thing that is missing to be usable in the field is a bootloader that is able to boot an alternative OS. Or you could try to keep the device running without rebooting, but I guess that Debian without chroot is a bit too power hungry for that.

I'm going to say it.

[w0mprat]

The Android open source community is fucking awesome.

Thank you.

Re:backing up Google Apps on non-rooted G1?

[_generica]

Correct, they don't include Google Apps as part of the ROM.
They are distributed separately

Download, and flash in the same way as the ROM. No hassles at all.

Re:backing up Google Apps on non-rooted G1?

[kyuubi]

None of that is neccesary. For a while I dispaired that Google was going the way of Apple, but they have since worked with Cyanogen and released all the apps as a seperate installable .zip file. The only difference is that you need to flash two zips instead of 1. A company working WITH a mod guy to solve his problems and let him do his thing!? What is the world coming to. I've tried a million different ROMs, and Cyanogen is teh BOM in my opinion. I've still got an old Magic (Sapphire, G2, or whatever they keep naming the same device), and every time a new version of Cyanogen comes out it's like getting a new handset. It's awesome. ;-)

Re:backing up Google Apps on non-rooted G1?

[__aaelyr464]

Mod parent up. I currently am running the latest Sapphire ROM on my Droid (shamefully, I have not yet tried Cyanogen). They had the exact same "issue"--a C&D was sent stating they could not bundle the stock Google apps with their ROM. However, instead of essentially killing the project by doing this, they provided an alternative--a separate update.zip file that you would install after the main ROM, which placed the stock Google apps back on your device. I am happy to see a company doing something like this--it's unheard of. I could never see Microsoft or Apple doing something similar, at least at this point in the game! Props to ALL the Android modders out there, and Google. I absolutely love the Android platform, and have no regrets.

semi-offtopic question

[Eil]

Recently, I decided I wanted to ditch my iPod Touch. I'd really like a good quality Android device to replace it. So far the only decent Android devices that I know of are phones. (Yes, there are non-phone Android devices, but they often lack critical pieces, like the App Market.)

If I were to buy an Android phone (say, a Nexus One), and have no intention of using it as a phone (no phone calls, no text messages), can I use use all the other Android functionality without a carrier, just wifi? I've done a lot of Googling but haven't yet come across a definitive yes or no. I'd preferably like to hear someone who is already doing this.

(And yes, I already know I will pay a lot more than I did for the iPod Touch.)

Re:semi-offtopic question

[g4pengts]

I'm running CM6 RC3 (haven't updated to release yet) on a N1. The situation with other phone may be different. To test with no carrier, I pulled the SIM out of the phone. A quick test show WIFI works, GPS works (tested via opening up map and see that it has accurate location instead of the location with a radius when it can only do wifi), can access market (although I didn't download or buy anything). GMail and Facebook app works too. That is about all I tried. I cannot guarantee that everything works, but at least the basic stuff should. This is much better than my last phone, where it locks if there isn't a SIM inside.

CyanogenMod = Android.

[crhylove]

Any other (Android) is not really Android. It's some crippled crap corporate malware. CyanogenMod is awesome: Wifi tethering, fast speed, uncrippled features. I would not have an Android phone if there wasn't a Cyanogenmod.

rhY