People have been building and installing custom ROMs on Android phones for almost as long as there have been Android phones. But over the past few years we’ve also seen the rise of GNU/Linux-based operating systems including Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS, Mer, and Plasma Mobile that are capable of running on hardware that would normally be used for Android phones.

So far, these projects have mostly been developed independently of one another. But now there’s a new effort called Project Halium which is designed to create a single base that can be used to get any non-Android operating system to run on Android-compatible hardware.

Project Halium includes a Linux kernel, Android Hardware Absrtaction Layer (HAL), and libhybris.

In slightly simpler terms, the Android HAL allows the operating system to communicate with the proprietary bits of a phone’s hardware, the Linux kernel includes source code provided by phone makers to ensure that everything runs, and libhybris brings Android libraries to Linux-based operating systems.

By standardizing these things, as well as audio, video, camera, GPS, and display features, Project Halium could make it simpler for developers to create new Linux-based ROMs for smartphones.

In addition to support GNU/Linux-based operating systems like Ubuntu, Sailfish, and Mer, Project Halium could be leveraged for other operating systems including LuneOS (an open source project based on webOS) and AsteroidOS (an open source operating system for smartwatches).

via /r/Android and xda-developers

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

3 replies on “Project Halium aims to create unified base for Linux-based smartphone operating systems”

    1. XKCD always has a relevant comic. Personally though, I think a unified hardware abstraction layer is a good thing. It helped x86 be so dominant today.

    2. Did you even read the article? This isn’t about adding more standards but amalgamating shared configurations between them for the benefit of us all.

Comments are closed.