Karim Yaghmour - Embedded Android: Porting, Extending, and Customizing

Embedded Android

Karim Yaghmour

Beijing Cambridge Farnham Kln Sebastopol Tokyo
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To Anas, Thomas, and Vincent.

May your journeys be filled with the joys of sharing and discovery.

Praise for Embedded Android

This is the definitive book for anyone wanting to create a system based on Android. If you dont work for Google and you are working with the low-level Android interfaces, you need this book.

Greg Kroah-Hartman , Core Linux Kernel Developer

If you or your team works on creating custom Android images, devices, or ROM mods, you want this book! Other than the source code itself, this is the only place where youll find an explanation of how Android works, how the Android build system works, and an overall view of how Android is put together. I especially like the chapters on the build system and frameworks (4, 6, and 7), where there are many nuggets of information from the AOSP source that are hard to reverse-engineer. This book will save you and your team a lot of time. I wish we had it back when our teams were starting on the Frozen Yogurt version of Android two years ago. This book is likely to become required reading for new team members working on Intel Android stacks for the Intel reference phones.

Mark Gross , Android/Linux Kernel Architect, Platform System Integration/Mobile Communications Group/Intel Corporation

Karim methodically knocks out the many mysteries Android poses to embedded system developers. This book is a practical treatment of working with the open source software project on all classes of devices, beyond just consumer phones and tablets. Im personally pleased to see so many examples provided on affordable hardware, namely BeagleBone, not just on emulators.

Jason Kridner , Sitara Software Architecture Manager at Texas Instruments and cofounder of BeagleBoard.org

This book contains information that previously took hundreds of hours for my engineers to discover. It is required reading for any new person that is working with Android on my team.

Dr. Mark Micire , Researcher in Space and Mobile Field Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University

Thanks to this book, for the first time embedded system developers have access to an open and vertically integrated stack that contains everything they need to build robust and high-performing Linux-based products. Androids revolutionary execution model transcends phones and tablets, and its application developer platform is unmatched in the industry for features and development speed. This book will give developers a valuable resource for understanding everything between the application layer and the kernel, and how to extend and change things to create an infinite variety of Androids.

Zach Pfeffer , Tech Lead for Linaros Android team

Finally, a book on the Android platform from a systems perspective! There are plenty of books on creating Android applications, but for too long no single, comprehensive source for information on Androids internals. In Embedded Android , Karim has collected a vast quantity of material that is essential and helpful for Android systems programmers and integrators (although, to be sure, application developers would benefit from a reading as well). Karims copious examples, references, and explanations are gleaned from his extensive experience with and analysis of Android. Its the book I wish I had had when I walked my own trail of tears learning Android for work at Sony. With this book, I could have saved myself months learning the ins and outs of Android. No doubt this will be the canonical reference book for Android system developers for years to come.

Tim Bird , Senior Staff Engineer, Sony Network Entertainment, and Architecture Group Chair, CE Workgroup of the Linux Foundation

Karim Yaghmours book is an excellent guide for those wishing to get into the burgeoning field of Android-based embedded projects and products. The book covers the full range from kernel support through licensing and trademark issues, including information on running Android systems in headless mode as well. This book deserves a place on every serious embedded Android developers bookshelf.

Paul E. McKenney , IBM Distinguished Engineer and Linux Kernel RCU Maintainer

Although Android is officially designed for mobile and tablet segments, its unquestionably getting considered for many other product segments, like automotive, UI panels like HMI, wearable gadgets, and so on. This book is highly recommended, as it covers all the essential fundamentals and concepts that help developers port and develop Android-based solutions for both mobile and nonmobile product segments.

Khasim Syed Mohammed , Lead Engineer, Texas Instruments

A great resource not only for embedded Android developers, but also for Android app developers to learn the wiring below the Java surface.

Lars Vogel , CEO, vogella GmbH

Once again, Karim has hit the nail on the head. If youre interested in porting Android to a new device or just interested in the guts of how Android runs on a piece of hardware, this is the book youve been searching for. This book leads you through all of the facets of build-environment setup, getting the AOSP sources, adding your hardware to the Android sources and deploying a new Android build to the hardware. It discusses the underpinnings of Android including the HAL and how to give your custom hardware support within the Android framework. In short, of all the books on Android, this is the one book that targets the Android device builder rather than Android application developer or end user. I just wish this book would have been available when I first got into Android porting. It could have saved me months of trial and error efforts.

Mike Anderson , Chief Scientist, The PTR Group, Inc.

Embedded Android has been a great resource for our company. It is a must-have when porting Android to new hardware or integrating new features at a low level. Karim is a great instructor, and his writing captures his style well.

Jim Steele , VP of Engineering, Sensor Platforms

Embedded Android is a must-read for anyone who wants to seriously work the Android internals and bring up Android on new platforms. It helps in navigating the extensive AOSP codebase, and understanding the overall architecture and design of the system.

Balwinder Kaur , Senior Member, Technical Staff, Aptina Imaging

So you thought you knew about Android internals? Well, think again! Chapter after chapter, youll discover whats behind the scenes and why Android is not just another embedded Linux distribution. Get yourself ready for stepping into a whirlpool, cause Embedded Android is a gold mine for anyone looking to do serious hacking on Googles OS.

Benjamin Zores , Android Platform Architect, Alcatel-Lucent

Definitely one of the most valuable and complete resources about the Android system stack. A must-have for every Android system engineer.

Maxime Ripard , Android Lead, Free Electrons

When I was handed a development board running Linux, and was told to get Android running on it, it was difficult to find much information about how to bring Android up on a new device. Luckily for me, Embedded Android became available about the same time that I was beginning development. What a lifesaver! Embedded Android