Using Chroot to Bring Linux

Applications to Android

Mike Anderson
Chief Scientist
The PTR Group, Inc.
[email protected]

Copyright 2013,
The PTR Group, Inc.
 Why mix Android and Linux?
Android under Linux
Linux under Android
Communicating between the domains

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What are we trying to Accomplish?
Android is probably the most widely
deployed version of Linux on the planet
We want to extend the platform to handle
other tasks without extensive modification of
the underlying framework
Enable porting of Linux applications to
Android
Ease package management issues by
allowing easy access to Linux repositories
Get an optimal mix of Linux and Android
for use in non-phone applications
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Advantages of Android
Tremendous market position
Well-defined development and
deployment environments
Great application framework with Source: pctechmag.com

good modularity
Network, audio, power, etc.
Well-understood GUI/UX
Good selection of Java libraries
Availability of NDK gives option for higher
performance than Java implementation
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Good Integration of SDK

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Disadvantages of Android
Package management
Difficult to update the underlying framework
Library and application availability
Purpose-built for phones/tablets and not much
else
Extensions to elements like libsensors
requires rebuilding the AOSP sources
GUI choice dictates the kernel choice
4.1 is different from 4.4
Look and feel are different too
Difficult to go off the path set by Google
Android SCM does not facilitate easy
extensions by non-OHA folks
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Bionic libc Compatibility Issues
Restricted POSIX compatibility
No C++ exceptions
No locales or wide char
support Source: slideshare.net

Several missing functions like getpwd()

Really built as a single-user user space
More info found in bionic/libc/CAVEATS
These issues and more make it difficult to
port standard Linux applications to
Android
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Different Views of the World
Linux and Android see things differently
Applications

OS Application
Apps
Services Framework
OS utilities, runtime,
HALs, flingers, etc.
etc.

OS Libraries Init

Linux Kernel Linux Kernel

Bootloader Bootloader

Linux Android

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The Ideal World
In the ideal world, we could just use the
Android framework and
get the UX
Applications

Application
Unfortunately, Android Framework

is a tightly-coupled HALs, flingers, etc.

architecture that makes Init

that very difficult Linux Kernel

These elements need Bootloader

to be kept intact for
Android to function
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 If we want to run Linux code under
Android, we could:
1. Port the Linux code to bionic libc
Problematic due to differences between bionic and
glibc
2. Run Android as a package under Linux
The approach taken by Pragmatux
3. Run Linux applications in a chroot
environment
4. Extend LXC to support options 2 or 3 better

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 Chroot is a command that was
introduced into Unix in 1979
Changes the apparent root file
system for the calling process
and its children
Used for development and testing
when the target O/S release is Source: bukisa.com

different from the development host

typically get to files outside of the chroot

Only root user can execute the chroot

command
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Pragmatux
Found at http://www.pragmatux.net/
Project leads are Bill Gatliff and Ryan Kuester
Hardware boots Linux
Uses a Debian-like approach for repos
Leverages idea that Android file system has
little overlap with Linux file system
/proc, /etc, /dev, /sys are a few exceptions
Uses bind mounts to keep things straight
Primary goal is to use Android framework for
the UI but keep predictability of Linux for
embedded applications

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Android File System in chroot
We can encapsulate the Android
environment into the embedded Linux file
system
Sockets and kernel communications work
as normal

Source: insymbols.com

Android FS Embedded FS Communications Channels

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+/- of this Approach
+
Linux is in charge and we can use modern kernel with
PREEMPT_RT and Android code from staging tree for
Android support
Gives us Android UX with HRT/SRT support for control
applications
We can prioritize Android apps as needed
Helps keep costs down
Only one CPU needed
Multi-core is a big plus
-
We need to tweak the Android init sequence so Android

We need to do the bind mounts as well

Complexity can be troublesome
We need enough RAM and storage for 2 O/S user spaces

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Linux File System with chroot
An alternate approach is to host the Linux
file system in the Android F/S
The Android device must be rooted for this
approach to work
Using chroot, we can create an alternate root
file system that Linux applications can live in
easily
Linux can live with /bin, /etc, /dev, /lib
/proc and /sys can be bind mounted
Alternatively, we can loop mount an image
and chroot to the mounted image
Gives us a full Linux in our Android

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+/- of this Approach
+
There are already apps on Google Play that streamline this sort
of installation
We get Linux package management capabilities
You can use VNC to get GUI-centric Linux applications running
Only one CPU needed
Multi-core is a big plus
We only need to install the libraries and minimum files to run
-
RAM and storage requirements vary depending on applications
being run
Android framework is in charge
Not likely that the kernel will have PREEMPT_RT or other latency
settings
Development environment can be tricky
chroot

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Simple Example
We had a customer that
needed to run some
RedHat-based programs,
but wanted to get the
Android UX
Media-scanning kiosk device
Looking for malware on user media
Cut down on training time for
users and get touch-screen support
Developers were mostly Java centric
We constructed an Android x86 platform running
Atom using a COTS motherboard
Built Android from AOSP sources and edited
libsensors for the devices we had on the
motherboard
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Simple Example #2
Using ldd we were able to isolate the
application and required libraries to the bare
minimum
Installed chroot was < 100 MBs with the app and
libraries
We created a daemon that ran in the chroot
that listened for requests from the Android
app via socket communications
We then created the Android application that
passed configuration and scanning requests
to the daemon that dispatched the
application and returned responses to
Android
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Simple Example #3
Small team of 2.5 FTEs to build Android,
chroot components and interface daemon
We had to start the chroot and the daemon
from the Android init process
Two month project including custom
enclosure
Final product:

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Step-by-step for an Android Device
Make sure you have the device rooted
Go to the Google Play Store
Install busybox, terminal emulator
and VNC client if you need Linux
window manager
Source: google.com

that can install Linux

Pick one and install it
Start the Linux installer, pick your distribution and
download it
Follow the steps to install it
Voila! Linux on your Android device
Linux will see your Android devices /dev and the network
will just work
You can start an ssh server, VNC server, web server, etc.
automagically
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Tuning the Linux Side
Linux will be a console application visible in the
terminal emulator
Graphical Linux applications will use VNC for display
Use the Linux package manager for your variety
to install additional package as needed
You will need to edit the ~/.vnc/xstartup to add
the applications you want to start on VNC
connection
I installed lxde, but others are posible
Set your VNC password using vncpasswd
Start your VNC client for window manager
goodness

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Example Walkthrough

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Example Walkthrough #2

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Example Walkthrough #3

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Example Walkthrough #4

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Example Walkthrough #5

Launch VNC

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Communications Between Domains
Android is missing most of the POSIX IPC
mechanisms
No message queues, shared semaphores, etc.
IP sockets work fine
Path of least resistance
You can create your own communications
channels via the kernel
Device drivers work via the kernel
/proc and /sys work too

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Summary
Via the common Linux kernel, it is possible to co-
host Linux and Android apps at the same time
Easier than porting the application to Android
Allows you to extend Android with existing Linux ARM
repos

more flexible than Google Play Store

Allows you to do native ARM development on Android
Multi-core platforms with at least 2 GBs of RAM work
reasonably well
You can tune the chroot to contain just what you need
Smaller footprint

portable platform

ABS-SClara-0428-28 Copyright 2014, The PTR Group, Inc.