SRUTHI KADAVERU

SUBHASREE KIRANMAYEENEELA

CIS 632/EEC 687

MOBILE COMPUTING

REPORT ON

CIS 632/EEC 687

Mobile Computing

Report on

Sruthi Kadaveru (2657464)

Subhasree Neela (2657462)

SMART PC

A SMART PC

INDEX:

CONTENTS PAGE NO

1. ABSTRACT 01

2. GOAL 01

3. INTRODUCTION 01

3.1 MIXING ANDROID AND LINUX 02

3.2 WHY ANDROID? 03

3.3 DEBIAN NO ROOT 03

4. IMPLEMENTATION 04

4.1 TARGET PLATFORM: SAMSUNG GALAXY S3 04

4.2 TOOLS REQUIRED 04

4.3 SETTING UP 05

5. OUR EXPERIMENTS 06

5.1 DEVELOPING AN INTERACTIVE GAME APPLICATION

USING AN IDE

06

5.2 DEVELOPING A DYNAMIC WEBSITE 07

6. COMMANDS USED 13

7. INFERENCE 13

8. ISSUES FACED 13

9. FUTURE WORK 14

10. CONCLUSIONS 14

11. REFERENCES 15

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

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.

3.2. 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.

Linux 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.

Applications

Application Framework

HALs, flingers, etc.

Init

Linux Kernel

Bootloader

Apps OS

ServicOS utilities,

runtime,etc.OS Libraries

Linux Kernel

Bootloader

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.

3.3. 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.

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)

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.

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

Bluetooth Mouse MHL Cable with HDMI and USB Audio Cable with

HDMI/VGA port

Bluetooth Keyboard Samsung S3 Android

Smartphone

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.

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:

5.2.1 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

Tomcat7 Which acts as Server

MySQL Which is our backend database

JSP Java Server Pages which provides the communication between server and

database

HTML Serves as User Interface

CSS Cascading Style Sheets – adds style to the pages

8 SMART PC

Figure [3] – Add New Student – Page ---------

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Figure [4] – View Students by ID – Page --------

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Figure [5] – View Students by Project – Page -----

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MySQL Database:

Figure [6] – Starting MySQL Figure [7] – Studentdb Tables

Figure [8] – Student Table

12 SMART PC

5.2.2 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, email 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.

5.2.3 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 –

Deploy the project by copying project folder under webapps in tomcat7 folder. Project folder

includes html, jsp, css, image.

/etc/init.d/tomcat7 start

service mysql start, mysql -u root -p, mysql

13 SMART PC

6. COMMANDS USED

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 fully-

fledged 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.

Tomcat7 apt-get install apache2

MySQL apt-get install mysql-server

Java apt-get install openjdk-java7-jdk openjdk-java7-jre openjdk-java7-lib

Eclipse apt-get install eclipse eclipse-jdt

FireFox apt-get install iceweasel

Word apt-get install abiword

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.

15 SMART PC

11. REFERENCES

[1] Christina Bonnington.(02.10.15).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. http://www.trustedreviews.com/how-tos/how-

to-turn-your-android-smartphone-into-a-pc#FKrM1pEuZAdp0KEL.99

[4] Dan Lohrmann. Will a Smartphone Replace Your PC? APRIL 24, 2016

[5] https://github.com/pelya/commandergenius/tree/sdl_android/project/jni/application/xserver-

debian

[6] https://www.androidpit.com/turn-your-android-device-into-a-linux-pc-without-rooting

[7] http://www.engineersgarage.com/articles/what-is-android-introduction