Subject: Re: [bug#51737] [PATCH v3 1/8] gnu: Add linux-libre-waydroid.

From: Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2022 18:02:51 +0100

On Tue, 13 Dec 2022 17:48:28 +0000
phodina <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Hi Denis,
Hi,

> Waydroid can show the whole UI screen or just the application.
> 
> The only issue is that the apps are more designed for touch than
> mouse since most laptops and PCs don't have a touchscreen.
I think there are more limitations. For instance the "silence"
application will probably not work as it requires a modem stack that
would somehow be able to interact with GNU/Linux modem stack.

But applications like Replica Island will probably work.

> > (2) Another approach would be to look more closely at lineage-17.1
> > and make a stripped down version that is hopefuly FSDG compliant. It
> > should normally build fine on top of Trisquel.
> 
> This is probably the best approach atm. What's missing is the host -
> Trisquel, Robotnix and the base image (AOSP, LineageOS, Replicant
> ...).
> 
> 
> > The waydroid additions probably need to be reviewed too.
> 
> Agreed. As users want to pack other proprietary stuff inside e.g.
> GApps and others.
I was more thinking about (1) the code that they added, like their
HAL etc. That code is probably fine and fast to review.  And (2)
the apk they bundle in to get their windowing system working. That
might be harder to review but it has more probability to be
problematic.

> > (3) Porting the Waydroid modifications[2][3] on top of Replicant 11
> > (and reviewing these modifications too).
> 
> Well IMHO I'd rather focus in another direction - PostmarketOS[1].
I wasn't implying to use Replicant as the operating system controlling
the computer, but rather to reuse Replicant 11 to make a base image to
be used with Waydroid. The advantage here is to share the maintenance
of the FSDG compliance. The downside is that it requires porting the
Waydroid changes in ways that don't confilict with the current Replicant
source code.
 
> It's GNU/Linux on Phones and works quite good. The downside are the
> Apps. As most corporations and developers won't port their apps the
> Waydroid fills in quite nicely with the ability to launch the Android
> app.
The nice thing about PostmarketOS is that they also work to upstream
their work, so for instance Guix could also package what they use to
make the Pinephone work for instance. 

In Replicant we also collaborate with PostmarketOS to try to support the
devices supported by Replicant 6.0 with upstream kernels, so you can
even collaborate with them if you're using a completely different
userspace (and without having to run postmarketOS).

> However, if you are interested somebody already asked about different
> base images [2]
> 
> > By the way, does someone knows where to find information about the
> > architecture of Waydroid. For instance is there some document that
> > explains how it works (like that it uses a HAL that use alsa that
> > then somehow talks to the host pulseaudio?, what modifications it
> > did for graphics, etc).
> 
> Haven't found any architecture wiki or document that would describe
> in greater detail how it exactly works. Just issue on github which is
> already closed :-( [3]
Thanks, I'll look into it.

Denis.