Android Porting

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Course Description

Android is not just for smart phones. It is an open source operating system that can be embedded into a wide range of target hardware, with applications such as point of sale, test and measurement, industrial control, and information kiosks. This Android Porting training course will teach you how to create a custom Android platform from scratch, based on code from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The course is presented in modules, each with a practical session where you get the chance to try out the techniques described earlier. You will build up a functional embedded Android system, using a BeagleBone Black development board as the example target device. You will learn how to adapt the Android hardware abstraction layer to work with your target platform, and how to add your own code and packages to the final system image.

Course Outline

1. The Android Open Source Project

•     The steps to port Android to a new platform
•     Getting the AOSP code
•     Building Android from source

2. Creating a new Android product

•     Setting basic hardware characteristics
•     Selecting which packages to build into the final images
•     Adding a new product to the “lunch” menu

3. The Android kernel

•     Android-specific kernel features
•     Obtaining vendor kernel code
•     Building a custom kernel into target images

4. Bootloaders and bootstrap

•     Booting Android: boot image blobs
•     Flashing images using fastboot
•     The init program and init.*.rc scripts
•     Starting native services: how to add your own

5. Tracing and debugging

•     Profiling code execution using perf
•     Profiling using Android Systrace
•     Using gdbserver to debug native code

6. The Android build system

•     Understanding the Android.mk make file
•     Creating your own packages

7. The Android framework

•     Android architecture
•     Binder
•     Android services
•     Interface between framework and native layer: JNI

8. The Hardware Abstraction Layer

•     The role of the libhardware libraries
•     A step-by-step walk through of a HAL library

9. The graphics stack

•     Surfaces and SurfaceFlinger
•     The hwcomposer HAL library
•     The gralloc HAL library
•     The vendor OpenGL ES libraries

10. Human input devices

•     The input layer: touch screens, mice, keyboards and keypads
•     Adding input devices

Learning Path

• Please contact us for suggestions.

• Embedded Android

Ways to Attend

• Attend a public course, if there is one available. Please check our schedule, or register your interest in joining a course in your area.
• Private onsite Team training also available, please contact us to discuss. We can customise this course to suit your business requirements.