CIS 632/EEC 687. Mobile Computing. Report on SMART PC CIS 632/EEC 687 MOBILE COMPUTING REPORT ON. Sruthi Kadaveru ( ) SUBHASREE KIRANMAYEENEELA

Transcription

1 CIS 632/EEC 687 Mobile Computing CIS 632/EEC 687 MOBILE COMPUTING REPORT ON Report on SMART PC Sruthi Kadaveru ( ) SRUTHI Subhasree KADAVERU Neela ( ) SUBHASREE KIRANMAYEENEELA

2 A SMART PC INDEX: CONTENTS PAGE NO 1. ABSTRACT GOAL INTRODUCTION MIXING ANDROID AND LINUX WHY ANDROID? DEBIAN NO ROOT IMPLEMENTATION TARGET PLATFORM: SAMSUNG GALAXY S TOOLS REQUIRED SETTING UP OUR EXPERIMENTS DEVELOPING AN INTERACTIVE GAME APPLICATION USING AN IDE DEVELOPING A DYNAMIC WEBSITE COMMANDS USED INFERENCE ISSUES FACED FUTURE WORK CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES 15

3 1 SMART PC 1. ABSTRACT Android operating system runs on the top of Linux kernel yet lacks the potential to execute standard Linux desktop applications. Despite the fact that efforts have been made to enable this functionality, any approach to deal with this requires a client to change to a separate desktop environment, bringing about a considerable loss of interface consistency and ease of use. In this project we use Debian No Root, an Android application intended to execute in a specially, no root Android construct. It opens desktop Linux abilities by mounting the Debian Linux distribution into the file framework and gives a tool to streamline the establishment and execution of Linux programs within Android. Using this Debian OS application, the project mainly portrays the capabilities of a smartphone as the replacement of a desktop. 2. GOAL We use smartphones for many things like browsing, playing music, games etc but when it comes to development or any complex application, smartphone doesn t support this feature with its native capabilities. On the other hand, programming or developing an application can be done comfortably in a PC. The idea of Smart PC is to convert a smart phone into a PC. The concept of SMART PC holds good when we can demonstrate the unique desktop specific application even on a smartphone. Our main goal for this project is to demonstrate the development of an application and how well is the performance on a smartphone. 3. INTRODUCTION 3.1. BACKGROUND Our old smartphone can be of incredible use than placing it into a garbage can. Strikingly, we can transform our phone into a mini-pc or media streamer when we have the USB On The Go Support (OTG) and a Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) compatible port. There's a huge amount of additional functionality hiding under its hood. We would have never thought of utilizing a smartphone with broken screen however better believe it for this we can even utilize a damaged phone. Mobile phones have made an amazing progress, from being only a basic remote audio transmitting/receiving gadget and a short message exchanger, they can now be utilized as a basic PC as a replacement of desktop. The smartphones we utilize today are only a little, small scale desktop PC in our pocket. It includes a display, processor, storage, memory, graphics card, power source, audio and wireless systems administration. Well our desktop PC has precisely the same, despite the fact that in an alternate form. The processors and display screens in today's cell phone are exceptionally

4 2 SMART PC indistinguishable to a regular desktop PC. On the off chance that we have an Android smartphone, we can simply connect to an active USB center, interface a console (keyboard), mouse and a display and can be utilized as a normal desktop PC MIXING ANDROID AND LINUX We know that, Android OS is the most widely deployed and common version of Linux OS. Expanding Android platform without any extensive and major modifications of the underlying framework to handle desktop tasks can bring out many new opportunities. In order to achieve this the Linux Applications needs to be ported to Android. The issues related to package management must be resolved by giving access to Linux repositories. Then we can finally get an optimal mixture of Android and Linux for use in non-mobile applications. Though Android is built on top of Linux Kernel, Linux and Android look at things differently. OS Apps OS utilities, OS Libraries Linux Kernel Bootloader Linux Applications Application Framework HALs, flingers, etc. Init Linux Kernel Bootloader Android In theory, we can use the Android framework and get the UX. But it is very difficult as android is a tightly-coupled architecture. For Android to function, the elements need to be kept intact. While these restrictions help present an integrated and secure environment, they also obstacle the power of the underlying technologies. Developers are forbidden from directly accessing hardware (preventing features like tethering), compiling to assembly (limiting performance optimizations), or utilizing the libraries supported by Linux. In addition to that, users are prevented from accessing the software already developed for the Linux kernel. The Ubuntu public repositories alone contain over thousands of packages, constituting millions of lines of code, refined by thousands of developers over multiple decades, but none of these can be directly used in Android.

5 3 SMART PC To be used, these applications have to go through a complicated process of porting, often need to be completely re-written, despite the fact that the technology required to run them exists natively on the device WHY ANDROID? Motorola made attempts on this technology back in 2011 with its Webtop programming and Lapdock equipment, however their efforts died within 18 months. Microsoft struck on a comparative thought with its Continuum feature for Windows 10 Mobile smartphones, yet the Microsoft's declining mobile fortunes didn t look good for its future. We can forget Apple taking a stab at something this radical, as well, so it's left to Android to get a move on. Moreover, system calls have been enabled on some custom Android builds and have been used to install and run desktop environments in parallel with Android. Briefly about Android Android is known for its ease of use and is open source. Android is a mobile operating system built on Linux Kernel. It is a software containing operating system as well as middleware and key applications. Java programming language is used for writing the android application. It is easily available as open source for developers to create applications which can be further used for publishing as a part of android market. Android depends on Linux version 2.6 for core system services, for example, security, memory 3.4. DEBIAN NO ROOT Various hardware and programming boundaries must be overcome to support the execution of non-android software. To enable system calls, the most important aspect is to have a customized working framework. Besides, communication with external processes i.e., transmitting all the incoming data over network connections using any protocol is not a built-in feature in Android. For this process, many nodes must be addressed to be integrated. The installation and removal of any Linux application must be done from within Android; when using external applications, the users should not be compelled to interact with a different desktop environment; as mobile device has a smaller display, windows must be reformatted to fit in these screens without losing the resolution or clarity. Ideally, the users are prevented from coincidentally corrupting the install. All this must be likewise being finished with a minimal memory because of the constraint on the RAM accessible on smartphones. Considering all this, an Android application running on the top of a custom Android environment that empowers enhanced integration of externally executed application in the system is needed. Debian No Root is an Android application that addresses these problems and enables the users to install and interact with Linux desktop functions without requiring the user to root their device or change to an external desktop environment.

6 4 SMART PC Debian No Root is not a complete version of Debian OS; it is a compatibility layer which allows the users to run Debian desktop application. Many Linux based applications can be installed on this app and use it just like a desktop. As it does not require rooting the device it works fine with any stock ROM. This app requires 900 MB space on the internal memory (cannot be installed on SD card) to be installed. This app works on Android version from 2.3 but not yet supported on versions 5 and above (apt-get and dpkg does not work). For higher versions of Android, GNURoot Debian may be used. Debian No Root doesn t have any contents at first, which means no programs are pre-installed, so we need to install all by ourselves. Debian version needs to be updated periodically, so to make sure the version of Debian is up to data, type apt-get update into the root terminal. Updating the version will install the core crucial system and security packages. After updating is done, we can start installing some basic applications using the terminal like- LibreOffice suite similar to MS Office: apt-get install libreoffice GIMP which is an Image-editing software: apt-get install gimp Iceweasel web browser (based on Firefox): apt-get install iceweasel 4. IMPLEMENTATION 4.1. TARGET PLATFORM: SAMSUNG GALAXY S3 Android OS is slightly different from phone to phone, version to version. Thus, more focused approach is required to work with specific phone. We have used Samsung Galaxy S3 to implement the Smart PC technology. It provided flexibility and the emulated environment was loaded in a reasonable time. Performance was good, just bit slow some times. The phone s native capabilities were consistent and the implementation was not hard at all. Android version of Samsung Galaxy S3 is 4.3 which supports the Debian No Root app The CPU of the Samsung Galaxy S3 is Quad-Core with 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9 With an internal memory of 16GB along with 4GB RAM 4.2. TOOLS REQUIRED Before we get started, we will need the following: A relatively new smartphone/tablet A TV or monitor Keyboard (Bluetooth/USB) Mouse (Bluetooth/USB)

7 5 SMART PC The concept of Smart PC starts with two main things, USB OTG support and MHL ports. The MHL port s main functionality is to add HDMI output capabilities (with 1080p and 7.1-channel digital multi-channel audio support) to the phone s USB port along with functionality to remotely control the phone. The USB OTG port is the one we use to charge our smartphone. The ability to connect and work with a number of different USB peripherals, like storage and input devices is given by the USB OTG support. We can connect to an external screen i.e., a display and peripherals like a keyboard or mouse by combining smartphone with MHL along with USB OTG support. We can even use wireless/bluetooth keyboards and mouse as well, if they use standard USB HID (human interface device) drivers 4.3. SETTING UP The first thing to do is to download Debian No Root app from Google Play Store. Once the app is installed we will need to grant it some permissions to access app usage data (to manage running apps in the task bar) as well as the access to notifications, so that we can manage these directly from the external display. The next step is to set up screen and peripherals. The OS suggests using a display with a minimum resolution of 1080p and can be used either as a dedicated computer monitor or hook it up to television. Then we need to connect a mouse and keyboard. Connecting Bluetooth-enabled wireless devices makes everything a lot easier by simply following the normal pairing setup. Bluetooth Mouse MHL Cable with HDMI and USB Audio Cable with HDMI/VGA port Samsung S3 Android Smartphone Bluetooth Keyboard We can even connect a USB mouse or keyboard to your smartphone or tablet using a USB OTG as mentioned in earlier section unless we are using an OTG hub, we will be able to connect

8 6 SMART PC only one of these peripherals at any time and it also mean we won t be able to charge smartphone at the same time. 5. OUR EXPERIMENTS 5.1 Developing an interactive game application using an IDE: ECLIPSE [IDE]: Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment. It is written mostly in Java. It can be used to develop applications in Java and, other programming languages including Ada, C, C++, and much more. Development environments include the Eclipse Java development tools (JDT) for Java and Scala. We have developed an interactive game application using Java on Eclipse IDE. The title of the game being CODE BREAKER. AIM of the game A random four-digit code with non-repeated digits is generated by the system and player/user should guess the code within limited number of attempts. Ducks It represents number of correct digits, placed in correct location. Chicks It represents number of correct digits, but placed in wrong location.

9 7 SMART PC 5.2 Developing a Dynamic Website: Initially for developing a website we focused on using PHP scripts as an alternative for JSPs as there was so ECLIPSE EE for writing JSP scripts. Though PHP is popular now-a-days, JSP is more powerful than PHP since it doesn t provide access to all the JAVA libraries like JSP, it is limited only to PHP libraries. Even without a proper IDE, Debian OS allows developers to write JSP and HTML files in the terminal using nano editor. As we were more comfortable with JAVA than PHP scripting, we shifted to JSPs relying on the nano feature. Though it was less interactive compared to IDE, it helped us succeed in creating JSP files. For developing our dynamic website, we used the following: Tomcat7 MySQL JSP HTML CSS Which acts as Server Which is our backend database Java Server Pages which provides the communication between server and database Serves as User Interface Cascading Style Sheets adds style to the pages ROLE OF STUDENT INFORMATION RETRIEVAL WEBSITE: We have designed and developed a website Student Information Retrieval which will provide detailed information of different projects under Mobile Computing Course, along with student information. Figure [1] Login Page Figure [2] Home Page

10 8 SMART PC Figure [3] Add New Student Page

11 9 SMART PC Figure [4] View Students by ID Page

12 10 SMART PC Figure [5] View Students by Project Page -----

13 11 SMART PC MySQL Database: Figure [6] Starting MySQL Figure [7] Studentdb Tables Figure [8] Student Table

14 12 SMART PC Detailed Description of website functionalities 1. Login Page: This page allows students to login to the website using their CSU ID and password same as our campus net or blackboard. 2. Home Page: This page provides link to different pages like view by student page, view by ID page, add student page, logout. 3. View Students by Project: This page will allow students to view information about students working on different projects in mobile computing course. 4. View Students by ID: This page will allow students to view projects done by a students under mobile computing course using their ID. 5. Add Students: Using this functionality, students are allowed to add themselves to their projects by providing detailed information like their name, CSU ID, gender, project they belong to, year of enrollment, address, address. For building this page we have used CSS and html 5. Whenever 6. Logout: This page will allow students to logout from the website More about JSP s: Java Server Pages (JSP) is a technology that helps software developers create dynamically generated web pages based on HTML, XML, or other document types. It uses the Java programming language. JSP pages use several delimiters for scripting functions. The most basic is <%... %>, which encloses a JSP scriptlet. A scriptlet is a fragment of Java code that is run when the user requests the page. Java code is not required to be complete or self-contained within a single scriptlet block. Before running the website there are few steps which have to be completed first: We have to start tomcat and mysql first using the command /etc/init.d/tomcat7 start service mysql start, mysql -u root -p, mysql Deploy the project by copying project folder under webapps in tomcat7 folder. Project folder includes html, jsp, css, image.

15 13 SMART PC 6. COMMANDS USED Tomcat7 MySQL Java Eclipse FireFox Word apt-get install apache2 apt-get install mysql-server apt-get install openjdk-java7-jdk openjdk-java7-jre openjdk-java7-lib apt-get install eclipse eclipse-jdt apt-get install iceweasel apt-get install abiword 7. INFERENCE ADVANTAGES On the positive side this offers a simple, relatively economical and straight-forward way of turning an old smartphone into something useful. It is not a replacement for a fullyfledged PC, but if we need something for word processing, photo editing or developing/running small Linux/Windows based applications, then Debian OS is certainly an affordable option than buying a new PC provided we already have the required equipment. Moreover, for those who can t afford a PC but still want a desktop, smart pc technology would be very useful. Navigating the interface with a mouse and keyboard feels very normal and while the software is still a hitch, performance on the smartphone is not a big issue. DISADVANTAGES On the negative side, the interface is still very buggy and limited in what it allows us to do. As the concept of smart pc is still evolving there are limited features available. The inability to open non-debian apps and the need for better keyboard shortcuts to help navigating the interface will help improve the usability of smart pc immensely. 8. ISSUES FACED Since the Debian OS doesn t come with any of the built-in softwares, biggest hurdle was to install all the necessary softwares needed for developing or running applications for testing. The basic features like text editors, audio/video compatibility tools, picture viewers are missing and need to be installed.

16 14 SMART PC As this Debian OS works on a mobile, the version of the OS is still the underlying mobile OS. With this scenario, if we try to download any software and try to run the executable file, it cannot be run on this Smart PC due to mismatch with underlying OS versions. To overcome the problem of running.exe files in Debian OS, a tool called as Wine or winehq is given by the server. But this tool doesn t work for every.exe file execution. As this Debian mobile version is not yet fully constructed OS, it allows very few packages for downloading, which restricts the users. Limited RAM storage, disk space and CPU are always constraints compared to desktops/laptops. Programming on this mobile Debian OS was always challenging because of limited programming environment. Working with Tomcat is always troublesome. We faced issues while starting tomcat. 9. FUTURE WORK In this project, we mainly focused on the demonstration of one of the desktop specific feature i.e., programming/development of applications. Programming being our main aspect, we could successfully demonstrate how well a smart pc can be used to replace a desktop in this scenario using different ways like coding using terminal, developing an interactive game using java with the help of an IDE and also designing and developing a dynamic website. This approach helped us demonstrate the extent to which a smart pc can be used over computers. As part of our future work, we would like to extend our scope by working with different mobile OS versions. Also explore other desktop unique features. 10. CONCLUSIONS Turning a mobile phone into a Smart PC not only allows users to view videos, play music, internet browsing, editing documents, but it can also be used by developers same as traditional desktops, for programming and developing different applications. Working on Debian mobile OS on smartphone is much like desktop Linux version. Even though downloading different tools and software was little problematic because of the limited availability, we can overcome this with the availability of better OS. As this is a new concept/technology the OS applications are not much available. It s still work-in progress. Increased processing power, better battery life, vastly improved networking speeds on mobile devices, are the demands with which accelerate the shift from desktops to Smart PC. Beyond shadow of doubt, Smart PC can be a better replacement to traditional desktops for low cost.

17 15 SMART PC 11. REFERENCES [1] Christina Bonnington.( ).In Less Than Two Years, A Smartphone Could Be Your Only Computer [2] Deccan Chronicle. How to use a smartphone as a desktop PC. Published Mar 7,2016 [3] How to turn an Android smartphone into a PC. [4] Dan Lohrmann. Will a Smartphone Replace Your PC? APRIL 24, 2016 [5] [6] [7]