Unsolved bunch of noob questions
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Hello everyone. As newbie I've some question that i hope somebody can answer.
1- If drivers in Linux are tied with kernel and we have kernel source code provided by manufacturers then what Halium project exactly do for us.
2- What exactly we name Ubuntu touch while we cant have for example apt package manager or gnome desktop? In the other word I want to know what's relation between Ubuntu and Ubuntu touch? Is it just a name?
3- Can we use gcc on Ubuntu touch or any other environment IDE such as Lazarus (of-course compiled for arm) to develop apps for it?
4- if we want to use USB port of device to use mouse and keyboard how about using wireless monitor? In fact i want to know, can we turn our phone completely for a development computer by connecting monitor/keyboard and mouse to it? -
- arm devices from Android OEM's do not use mainline Linux kernels, rather they use generally fixed version ones that are setup with proprietary binary blobs and firmware to run the hardware. The Halium layer allows the Ubuntu Touch OS to communicate to these drivers
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@delphi_coder -
2) Ubuntu Touch was originally created and named by Canonical, the developer of Ubuntu, who maintained it from 2013 until abandoning it in 2017. UBPorts took over development and kept the name. -
@delphi_coder
2) Ubuntu Touch by very specific design, only uses its own unique desktop environment, originally called Unity 8, and recently renamed Lomiri. This is why it does not use Gnome.If you want to use Gnome there are other mobile OS's that use it, but the core developers of Ubuntu Touch do not have an interest in implementing it.
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@delphi_coder
4) some of the Ubuntu Touch devices can send to external display monitors wirelessly through the Miracast protocol. -
@delphi_coder To add to what @TotalSonic has already mentioned
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Some phone manufacturers do provide the sources for their modifies kernels (all should, legally, but only some do unfortunately), but the drivers are proprietary binary blobs without available source code. These drivers are written to work with specific versions of the kernel. They could possibly work with a newer kernel if they were recompiled against itm, but alas, that cannot be done, since the there is no available source code for the drivers.
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Something being Ubuntu is not defined by the package manager or the Desktop Environment. Ubuntu Core exists, which does not use apt, and the dozens of flavors, each focussing on a different DE, and some even without any, also show that the DE does not define a distro being Ubuntu or not either. Ubuntu Touch uses the Ubuntu repos for its base packages, and Canonical has granted the project permission to use the name Ubuntu in the name for the OS.
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