Android Kernel Features
Contents
List of Kernel features unique to Android
Binder
- Binder - corba-like IPC
- used instead of SysV IPC for interprocess communication
- The Linux version of Binder was originally derived from a project by PalmSource to implement a CORBA-like message-passing or method invocation system. Documentation on that system is at: http://www.angryredplanet.com/~hackbod/openbinder/docs/html/index.html
- implementation is at: drivers/android/binder.c, with include file include/linux/binder.h
ashmem
- ashmem - Android shared memory
- implementation is in mm/ashmem.c
According to the Kconfig help "The ashmem subsystem is a new shared memory allocator, similar to POSIX SHM but with different behavior and sporting a simpler file-based API."
Apparently it better-supports low memory devices, because it can discard shared memory units under memory pressure.
To use this, programs open /dev/ashmem, use mmap() on it, and can perform one or more of the following ioctls:
- ASHMEM_SET_NAME
- ASHMEM_GET_NAME
- ASHMEM_SET_SIZE
- ASHMEM_GET_SIZE
- ASHMEM_SET_PROT_MASK
- ASHMEM_GET_PROT_MASK
- ASHMEM_PIN
- ASHMEM_UNPIN
- ASHMEM_GET_PIN_STATUS
- ASHMEM_PURGE_ALL_CACHES
pmem
- PMEM - Process memory allocator
- implementation at: drivers/misc/pmem.c with include file at: include/linux/android_pmem.h
logger
- logger - system logging facility
- This is the kernel support for the 'logcat' command
- The kernel driver for the serial devices for logging are in the source code drivers/android/logging.c
- See Android logger for more information
wakelocks
- wakelock - used for power management
- Holds machine awake on a per-event basis until wakelock is released
- See Android Power Management for detailed information
oom handling
- oom handling modifications
- lowmem notifications
alarm
- alarm
paranoid network security
- paranoid network security
timed gpio
Generic gpio is a mechanism to allow programs to access and manipulate gpio registers from user space.
"Timed gpio" appears to be a system to allow for similar gpio manipulation, but with an added capability to automatically set a value in a gpio after a specified timeout.
On my ADP1, there is a driver at:
I'm not sure who uses this, or how it is used, but this is a directory with the following items:
# cd /sys/bus/platform/drivers/timed-gpio # ls -l --w------- 1 0 0 4096 Nov 13 02:11 bind lrwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 0 Nov 13 02:11 timed-gpio -> ../../../../devices/platform/timed-gpio --w------- 1 0 0 4096 Nov 13 02:11 uevent --w------- 1 0 0 4096 Nov 13 02:11 unbind
Also, there is a device at:
# cd /sys/devices/platform/timed-gpio # ls -lR .: lrwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 0 Nov 13 01:34 driver -> ../../../bus/platform/drivers/timed-gpio -r--r--r-- 1 0 0 4096 Nov 13 01:34 modalias drwxr-xr-x 2 0 0 0 Nov 13 01:34 power lrwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 0 Nov 13 01:34 subsystem -> ../../../bus/platform -rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 4096 Nov 13 01:34 uevent ./power: -rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 4096 Nov 13 01:34 wakeup
Possibly this means that one of the GPIO pins on the ADP1 is tied to a power wakeup event???
Kernel configuration options
The file Documentation/android.txt has a list of required configuration options for a kernel to support an Android system.
Resources
- Peter McDermott's excellent description of his work to port Android to the Nokia N810.
- See http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/Linux-For-Devices-Articles/Porting-Android-to-a-new-device/
- Also, see his annotated list of modified and added kernel files, at: http://www.linuxfordevices.com/files/misc/porting-android-to-a-new-device-p3.html
- Jollen Chen's excellent presentation on system-level Android features, including an overview of kernel features unique to Android: Note: Parts of the presentation are in Chinese
