Looking for direction to learn

[MonkeyTime]

Mods - if this is the wrong place for this, feel free to move......

Can't say enough about all the great people here on the forums and all that I've learned about the Droid.

If this were a computer, I've have no problem changing things and not worrying about mistakes, I have a number of computers to fall back on should something not go as planned. However, when it comes to phones, the majority of us only have one, and in this case, it's also my work lifeline. Mistakes are more than costly.

That being said, as much as I appreciate all the advice and guidance, I'd really like to learn more about this for myself. I have a fair amount of "begginers" knowledge in the windows world and can hold my own, but linux is a mystery to me. I don't want to learn all the short cuts, I want to learn this from the ground up, or at least get a good base to work from.

Some early questions:
1. What OS is Android most closely related to or based on? My understanding is Linux, but now I find there are many variations of that.
2. Terminal Emulator, just what are we emulating lol. Are busybox, android terminal emulator and abk(?) all basically the same thing, just different versions? It seems the commands for busybox are different than TE.
3. Does any one have suggestions as to how to start this quest? I looked for some books, but only found ones dealing with application developement for Android. I'm not just there yet lol.

Again, thanks to everyone here that contributes, it's greatly appreciated by those of us without a background.

[KZIWarrior]

If this were a computer, I've have no problem changing things and not worrying about mistakes, I have a number of computers to fall back on should something not go as planned. However, when it comes to phones, the majority of us only have one, and in this case, it's also my work lifeline. Mistakes are more than costly.

As long as you install SPRecovery you have nothing to worry about. The Droid is nearly unbrickable and as long as you don't purposely screw with the primary boot image/partition anything you do can be undone.

That being said, as much as I appreciate all the advice and guidance, I'd really like to learn more about this for myself. I have a fair amount of "begginers" knowledge in the windows world and can hold my own, but linux is a mystery to me. I don't want to learn all the short cuts, I want to learn this from the ground up, or at least get a good base to work from.

Pick up a Linux guide (like the Sams Guides) and get going. Personally suggest starting with Linux running in a Virtual Box on one of your machines.

Some early questions:
1. What OS is Android most closely related to or based on? My understanding is Linux, but now I find there are many variations of that.

Any linux distro.... they all run the same in how the communicate with the kernel and handle things and share a common base of instructions. The current champ of linux distros is Ubunto but there are several out there DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

2. Terminal Emulator, just what are we emulating lol. Are busybox, android terminal emulator and abk(?) all basically the same thing, just different versions? It seems the commands for busybox are different than TE.

If you don't know this answer you need to start from scratch (see above about a basic book)... yes they are just different methods of issuing commands to the system and busybox is a basic set of common (and helpful) linux commands that Google 'left out' of the basic Android system. There are TONS of others.

3. Does any one have suggestions as to how to start this quest? I looked for some books, but only found ones dealing with application developement for Android. I'm not just there yet lol.

Again, thanks to everyone here that contributes, it's greatly appreciated by those of us without a background.

Android apps are written in Java so... most books aren't going to cover both (i.e. android AND app development) because Java is just too big on it's own to cover in just one book. Pick up some Java resources and then a basic book to cover the android integration:
Additional resources:
Amazon.com: android programming

[natediddy1120]

Yeah....exactly what KZ said....lol

But man that is the BEST thing you can do is to learn the base foundation of this stuff...no ones rushing you...in fact, I wish everyone that attempted these modifications would do this...then we wouldn't get people that have hacked their Droid to death and then have a problem and cannot backtrack because they don't even know what they did to begin with ya know??

But yes man....I totally support this line of thinking...how else would we get the devs out there right now working hard to build these custom ROMs? If they didn't take the time to truly learn what they are doing?

But I wish you luck! And have fun!

[MonkeyTime]

Thanks KZI,

I guess I have enough background to know how much I don't know. I also think I sorta knew the answers you gave me were coming, but find I have less time as I get older to learn/play with the things I'd like, and didn't want to start reading about one version or kernel if there were distict variations that wouldn't be as helpful.

Thanks Nate, this forum is great. I can't finish thanking one, before I get more support!

I guess I'd prefer to learn some of this for myself so I can help others, and I have a long standing belief in learning from the beginning or the why's, not just the how's.

I think B&N is going to be a lunch stop today.........Now if only I could get my son interested in this, he HAS the time to spend on this!

[R1Lover]

I recommend Centos personally but that's because I'm familiar with it.

[KZIWarrior]

NP, don't expect much at B&N they have been very crappy lately (at least around here) in their IT offerings. You'll find the Linux and Java books but don't expect to find an Android book (least a good one) but you never know.

Oh, this is a PERFECT time to d/l and try the app "ShopSavy"... you take a picture of the books SPU and it will go online and get you the prices at Amazon ect. and you can save them for later. There are a few similar apps out there but personally ShopSavvy has given me the best results, especially with books.

[vegainey]

2. Terminal Emulator, just what are we emulating lol.

Terminal Emulators are software that emulates a "Dumb Terminal".

Terminals were used on Mainframe (and midsized) computers that had no other direct interface for a user to use. They were the "green screen" - text only screens seen in places like banks, where the only thing done on a computer was done through the terminal. The terminal had no computing capability. It was essentially a CRT screen and a keyboard tht provided access to the remote computer. Remote could be 2 feet away, in the next room or half way around the world. Today, most companies that use Mainframe computers use PCs with Terminal Emulator software so users can access the remote computer via the Terminal Emulator and also use the local PC to do other tasks.

A Terminal Emulator can provide a window (a terminal) that allows you can enter commands into any remote device, such as, your Droid. Everything you type is sent to the device and any response you get is from the device.

The key point is; it is NOT emulating the device itself. You are simple emulating a terminal (screen and keyboard directly attached to the device).

To accomplish this for a Droid you typically start from a Windows Command Window (sometimes generically referred to as a "DOS Window"). When you type a command to Windows telling it to connect to the remote device, such as "adb", that command window becomes a terminal emulator for the remote device and from that point forward, until you end that connection, everything you type is sent directly to the Droid, and NOT processed by the local computer you are working on.

[KZIWarrior]

Oh, the above comment reminds me.. OP, FYI instead of putting untested apps on your device remember that you can 'emulate' a virtual device with the SDK to test them on first This can save you a LOT of time (and heartache)...