CyanogenMod for TouchPad – ALPHA 1

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE PROJECT AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE PROJECT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.Got it? Good.

CyanogenMod is a community-developed and supported Android distribution for over 60 tablets and phones. This ported version is for the recently discontinued HP TouchPad tablet.In truth, this “alpha” version is not intended for the general public. Rather, those technically competent hobbyists and developers who are interested in testing an early development version and fully understand the risks of doing so may find interest in it. But there are many bugs and problems in this alpha version. There will be MANY app compatibility issues as well.

*** This early version represents the start of a process, not the end, and as such will not be sufficiently awesome, so take any expectations you have and lower them. Now lower them about five feet below that. ***To be clear, you are encouraged NOT to install this software, as the alpha is only a test version and as stated above, there is no claim that it is fit for any purpose. You may experience issues ranging from the benign to the very serious, including potential data leakage, and/or permanent loss of data, and even the possible “bricking” or permanent disabling of your device. Or worse. It can’t be emphasized enough how risky its use may be. Try it entirely at your own risk and with full understanding of the potential for problems and acceptance of any consequences that may result.

That said, if you do understand, acknowlege, and accept these risks and still want to continue, there are installation instructions (and additional exciting caveats and warnings) bundled with ACME Installer.

While HP has expressed moral support for the project (“For those of you in the development community actively working to port Android to the Touchpad, we applaud your efforts”), other HP representatives have also stated that “anyone who loads Android on their Touchpad voids their warranty.”Therefore, it may be prudent to assume that installing (or attempting to install) Android or any other OS besides the stock WebOS would result in the voiding of your manufacturer’s warranty. Generally speaking, you must assume any and all risk when experimenting with this software.

Most hardware features of the Tablet should now be supported, although not 100%. There may be issues with sound, camera, wifi, etc. As stated previously, it is definitely an alpha build.Here is a helpful list of features that are near-completion. Thanks to DarkRedFlame for compiling this.

* Booting into Android
* ADB commands via ADB
* Power, back/home and volume button layout
* Touchscreen support (Multi-touch, 10 fingers)
* GPU Acceleration (2D Acceleration doesn’t work, but not a release blocker)
* Dual core processing
* Bluetooth
* Sound
* Accelerometer
* Power Management
* Battery Reporting
* Camera(only video chat, no recording or snapshots)
* Vibration
* Backlight
* LED
* Multiboot (via moboot)
* ClockworkMod Recovery
* Fast Switch Boot
* Fake SD card Mount
* Light Sensor(need to check “Enable Light Decrease” in cyanogenmod settings->display->automatic backlight
* Accessing webOS files from Android and vice versa
* Touchstone Support
* Softkeys
* Wifi
* And much, much more!

As far as what *doesn’t* work, that list is probably too long for a FAQ.

* Many apps will have compatibility issues. Many. Including possibly your favorite app.

* Phone-related items (such as the dialer and text messenger) are left in the build. These apps consume minimal energy and can largely be ignored.

* Speaking of energy– power management has not been the focus of the port thus far. Battery life is not as good as it might be, and you can probably expect improvement in this area over time.

Not completely. It can’t be used to install or update ClockworkMod Recovery for example. Developer Koush will first need to add TouchPad compatibility to Rom Manager.

Once CM is installed, you can use the original ACME installer to install most (but not all) subsequent “update…zip” files you come across.Or, if you have installed and are familiar with ClockworkMod Recovery, you can also use it to install “update…zip” files as you would for other CyanogenMod devices.

ClockworkMod Recovery, which you can start into from the boot menu, is a special “Recovery” mode– often used in emergencies when your regular system doesn’t load for some reason. Once you have started ClockWorkMod, you are presented with a series of menus and can chose to reset your installation of CyanogenMod to factory settings or load or format individual areas (called “partitions”) of your installation.Additionally, ClockworkMod can be used to back up or restore your entire Cyanogenmod installation to your SD Card. It can also install updates from special “update files” (which are usually named update-some-name.zip).

Since ClockworkMod Recovery is part of CyanogenMod, it is only “aware” of your Cyanogenmod installation. It can not back up or install updates to WebOS or any other operating system.

If you’ve used WebOS, you may be familiar with the user-accessible “media” partition that can be mounted to your computer via USB. Well, that “media” partition is now also shared with ClockworkMod Recovery and CyanogenMod, both of whom now identify it as the SD Card (or /sdcard or /mnt/sdcard). So think of this area as a “fake” SD Card, which can be accessed from WebOS, ClockworkMod Recovery, AND CyanogenMod. You can therefore use it as a common area to share files between different operating systems as well as mount it to your PC (again, from different boots). Neat, huh?

MoBoot is a project separate from CyanogenMod, lead by jcsullins and tmzt and based on the “lk” project, which allows the TouchPad to boot into multiple operating systems or recovery images. Technically speaking, it loads just after the “bootie” bootloader that comes with the TouchPad, and displays a menu for the user to select whether they’d like to boot into the stock WebOS or Cyanogenmod, or something else.You can install the latest version of moboot using ACME Installer. It can NOT yet be installed from ClockworkMod Recovery.

More information about using moboot can be found on IRC (freenode server) in the #moboot channel.

Or, you can learn more about the project at:

http://code.google.com/p/moboot

The issue list is currently at http://code.google.com/p/cmtouchpad/issues/listTo avoid duplication, do not submit a new issue until you have thoroughly read the existing issues.

After you freak out and regret having tried this, you can attempt to hold down the “home” button and the power button together for about 30 seconds.DIDN’T WORK 🙁

Still nothing? Or maybe you have a dreaded triangle-with-an-exclamation-mark on the screen?

Another “emergency” idea (for advanced folks only) is to boot ClockWorkMod Recovery *directly* from your computer via USB cable rather than from the TouchPad’s internal storage. To try this, find an “update…zip” file that contains ClockWorkMod. Inside this zip file is a file called something like “uImage.ClockWorkMod”. Extract/unzip that file to your computer, then use novacom (which you used with ACME installer) to “inject” ClockworkMod into your TouchPad.

This process should be familiar to you– very similar in fact to using ACME Installer. It’s done by starting the tablet with the up-volume key held down. When you see the USB icon, connect your computer to the TouchPad via USB, then, in a Terminal, navigate on your computer to where the uImage.ClockWorkmod file is, and type:

novacom boot mem:// < uImage.ClockworkMod

Assuming everything went well and ClockworkMod did start up, you may now use CWM to re-install “update…zip” files, restore from backups, format partitions, or reset everything to factory settings. Or use ADB (search online for “ADB” if you’re not familiar with this fantastic Android tool) to figure out what’s wrong.

Sounds like you should give the “WebOS Doctor” a shot. The WebOS Doctor is a program from HP that is used, effectively, to wipe your TouchPad and reinstall the WebOS software so you can begin anew. Get more info here:http://ws.hpwebos.com/webosdoctor/sorry.htm

The very helpful homebrew site WebOS-Internals.org also has a page that talks about how to use it:

http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/How_To_Recover

If none of the above ideas helped, you’ll have to go online for assistance.Browse to http://webchat.freenode.net/ and fill out the web form. Under “Channels”, put #cyanogenmod-touchpad and hopefully someone there will have some helpful advice. It is usually not necessary to preface your question with “Can I ask a question?”– just go ahead and ask.

You may also try one of the many support forums at www.rootzwiki.com or www.xda-developers.com or another Android site.

To a large extent, the Android community will have to help each other as this is an unofficial, buggy release with no corporate, official, or really *any* support. Now you know the reason for all the caveats and warnings.

Some of the Android code licensed under the Apache and other Open Source licenses for this alpha test version is not yet available to the general public. However, all GNU Public Licensed software that comprises CyanogenMod, including the kernel, is available at http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod. The kernel for TouchPad used by this project is available at https://github.com/CyanogenMod/hp-kernel-tenderloin.When appropriate (hopefully sooner rather than later), CyanogenMod will open the code, and patches/fixes can then be submitted by developers via Gerrit at:

http://review.cyanogenmod.com

Overclocking is optional and can be done with an app like SetCPU. Keep in mind it can cause additional instability!

To be clear, the key developers of CyanogenMod for TouchPad are not interested in monetary donations for this effort. This is a project motivated by the challenge and satisfaction of working on the port itself, not by financial reward. The developers have previously announced that any “bounty” won for completing this port to TouchPad will be donated to charity.That said, there are some who have insisted on making some kind of donation to express their support and gratitude. It should therefore be noted that the official CyanogenMod Web site does have a “donation” area in the bottom right-hand corner of the front page.

http://www.cyanogenmod.com/

Also, the CM for TP developers recommend you learn about the Electronic Frontier Foundation ( http://www.eff.org ), which is an organization fighting to preserve and protect the legal rights of the common citizen in this rapidly changing digital age. As large companies and governments try to limit or narrow your rights, the EFF is on the front lines defending the public interest. A contribution to the EFF is also tax-deductible for United States citizens. As supporters, the developers invite you to visit the EFF web site and learn more about their activities and goals.

http://www.eff.org

Absolutely not. One of the concerns about releasing an early alpha is the sad fact that unscrupulous parasites will creep from the shadows of the Internet, slap their name on this port, then try to sell it for an inflated and unwarranted profit. This has been the case for CM on other devices, and we expect, unfortunately, the same thing will likely happen here.While the GPL and Apache licenses certainly allow CyanogenMod and Android to be sold, and while there may be legitimate occasions where installation or support expenses may warrant or justify charging money, the CM for Touchpad developers are unified in disgust for those who prey upon the uninformed by simply not telling them that a free version of the software is available or by claiming in their advertisements or to the media (who should know better) that they have created or designed the port themselves.

To be clear now– mods, themes, remixes, and hacks are great- it’s the life blood of open source. And there’s nothing at all wrong with asking for donations or even charging for something of value you’ve contributed. But skimming off the free work of others is plain douchy. And not in a good way.

So the developers ask YOU, beloved Internet, to do your part in keeping an eye out for each other’s welfare, and enlighten those, including in the media, who might otherwise be taken in by unscrupulous hucksters.

Shout-outs, yeah! Let’s start with Hewlett Packard/Palm — for creating a wonderful tablet, then making it affordable. We are inspired and encouraged by their commitment to Open Source (and do hope this kernel source kerfuffle is resolved quickly). Generally speaking, we really like WebOS and especially the WebOS community, and wanted to made sure that WebOS would continue to be accessible along with CM7, so that users can have the best of all worlds. While thanking HP, it’s appropriate to also thank their technical partner Qualcomm, whose Code Aurora project makes CM7 possible not only on the TouchPad, but many other devices as well.Thanks to Rootzwiki for hosting a forum where people could have meta-conversations about what was appropriate for the forum, as well as meta-meta-conversations and meta-meta-meta conversations… to degrees extending into meta-oblivion. Similarly, thanks to the residents of the freenode IRC channel #cyanogenmod-touchpad for never, ever asking for an ETA. Again, big ups to the WebOS homebrew community for their participation and willingness to offer all kinds of technical insights into how things worked. Particularly we’d like to recognize http://www.webos-internals.org as a source of enlightenment for anyone who’s interested in WebOS. If you haven’t installed their excellent Preware by now, you have no excuse. Go do it.

A special moment of recognition goes to the members of Team TouchDroid. Wow, that was some drama, huh?

There are countless others who deserve buku credit– Google, Github, Kernel.org, the wider CyanogenMod and Android community, the thread-that-never-ended on slickdeals.net, those who contributed TouchPads to developers, our teachers, parents, wives, husbands, children, pets, Newton, Tesla, Turing, etc. But this isn’t the Grammys, so we’ll stop here. The general point is to recognize that all developers stand on the shoulders of giants.

So thanks, everyone, for your help and support so far. And if anyone was missed, sorry.

You mean the next version of Android expected from Google sometime in November ’11? Well, if the transition from Froyo (2.2) to Gingerbread (2.3) is a model, it may take several months from the release of the Ice Cream Sandwich source code before a viable port to TouchPad is available.Or not. Ya never know.

Source code can be found at http://www.github.com/cyanogenmod
As of alpha 1 the kernel source is open. The rest of the source will be opened
as soon as some code can be merged into mainline CM7. This expected to happen
very soon.