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[OT slightly] about Android etc, compared to Fremantle

moved these posts over here from device/Neo900

cheers
jOERG

Re: Neo900 - finally a successor of N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by juiceme (Post 1533019)

Think about the rigidness and weight of the whole concept, how it is a fragmented and torn piece-of-os...

I'm currently using an Android ROM without google play services. Android can be made less awful using things like Termux (adds linux utils with Linux style packaging on top of Android).

However, every now and then I find something that makes me lose my cool. For example, in Android 6+ if you mount a USB drive with USB OTG, Android doesn't actually create a linux mount for it. Instead it abstracts it using some API. All I wanted to do was move files from the phone to a flash drive! I would have been happy with a GUI method or a commandline method, but I couldn't find a path for the flash drive which is needed for both. Bloody nightmare.

I think that running those few Android bits that are necessary (i.e. apps that can't be replaced) on top of a proper Linux distro (i.e. SFOS) is generally less annoying than trying to rebuild linux on top of Android, because Android seems to be getting less and less linuxy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by juiceme (Post 1533019)

I see no merit in attracting allsorts of second rate wannabe crackers writing bad software, there is enough of that already in the world...

Do you mean hobbyists? We don't write bad software on purpose ;)

Re: Neo900 - finally a successor of N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feathers McGraw (Post 1533073)

Do you mean hobbyists? We don't write bad software on purpose ;)

Not specifically hobbyists; at least I don't think it is hobbyists that create the millionth fartapp. (could be wrong though?)

Now I must admit I don't have that much visibility in what goes around in android application world nowdays, but at least it used to be so that there are hundreds of applications that basically do the same thing (or even nothing useful at all) and some of those are just made to purpose of violating user's privacy.

Re: Neo900 - finally a successor of N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feathers McGraw (Post 1533073)

However, every now and then I find something that makes me lose my cool. For example, in Android 6+ if you mount a USB drive with USB OTG, Android doesn't actually create a linux mount for it. Instead it abstracts it using some API.

Doesn't actually solve the real mount point problem but in the f-Droid repos(I assume you use it) the app Mountie(needs root) does a half-assed job of auto-adding a user accessible mount at /storage/emulated/0/mountie (emulated, sigh). With Amaze file manager(can do root) and FTP server(really!?!.. no scp?!) and you have a working system that works reasonably well to move files both wireless and USB-OTG. But yea, no real mount point.

Re: Neo900 - finally a successor of N900

Apologies for off topic stuff

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feathers McGraw (Post 1533073)

Android doesn't actually create a linux mount for it.

I find it highly unlikely.* Have you diff'd /proc/mounts contents before and after attaching a drive?

* That would require rewriting all of the tagret FSes instead of writing a simple shim.

Re: Neo900 - finally a successor of N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by biketool (Post 1533075)

Thanks, that's actually what I tried - I use Amaze, and I get an error when I try and download/install mountie. Not sure if it's because it's incompatible or if it's something to do with my fdroid setup (I use the privileged extension, may need to re-flash that part).

Re: Neo900 - finally a successor of N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by hxka (Post 1533076)

Have you diff'd /proc/mounts contents before and after attaching a drive?

I haven't, thanks for the suggestion, I will try it later. The point was mainly about it not mounting under /media or /mnt like it used to (can't remember which one).

Re: Neo900 - finally a successor of N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feathers McGraw (Post 1533079)

I haven't, thanks for the suggestion, I will try it later. The point was mainly about it not mounting under /media or /mnt like it used to (can't remember which one).

By the way, some recent desktop distribution (Fedora with Gnome at least) don't mount automatically to /mnt ou /media anymore, but to /run/media/username/.
The reason is related to making it easier to have read-only filesystem, where most things that don't need persistence are moved to /run.

Not sure how far from that Android is.

[OT slightly] about Android etc, compared to Fremantle

moved these posts over here from device/Neo900

cheers
jOERG