Monthly Archive:: February 2014

With the release of version 14.02, the Genode project has added two major features to the OS-construction framework: Using VirtualBox on top of Genode/NOVA, a wide range of unmodified guest OSes can now be integrated as components into Genode-based systems. The second feature is the addition of the file systems of the NetBSD kernel as rump kernels. The release documentation covers plenty of further improvements.

With storage and virtualization, the new release addresses two topics that are fundamental for using Genode as general-purpose OS, and both topics have been approached in a pretty holistic manner.

When it comes to storage, the project has significantly advanced over the past year but a few key pieces were still missing, namely mature file systems and a block cache. After having investigated FUSE-based file systems in the previous release, the project started exploring so-called rump kernels, which enable the execution of subsystems of the NetBSD kernel at user level. Originally, the rump kernel project was created to ease the development of drivers on NetBSD. The basic idea behind them is to link a driver to a stripped-down version of the NetBSD kernel that does not contain any privileged instruction. Hence, it can be executed in user mode. To interact with the outside world, a rump kernel uses a small so-called "hypercall" interface. By implementing this interface on top of the Genode API, rump kernels have become usable on Genode now. The immediate benefit is the availability of the time-tested file systems of the NetBSD kernel. But in the future, other NetBSD subsystem such as the TCP/IP stack or device drivers could be considered just as well.

At block level, the project took the chance to redesign the internal interfaces of the existing block-level components to support fully asynchronous operation. This step enables the effective use of modern disk-controller features such as native command queuing, and even the out-of-order processing of block requests. As the cherry on top of this line of work, there is a new block-cache component.

Over the past 5 years, virtualization has always played a role for the project. It started with running the paravirtualized OKLinux on top of the OKL4 microkernel. Later L4Linux was made available to Genode running on the Fiasco.OC kernel. Once the NOVA hypervisor found its way to the framework, the project embraced the use of the Vancouver virtual machine monitor, which enabled the use of unmodified Linux kernels. However, none of these solutions appealed well for a large user base, mainly because they were difficult to use or lacked features. By adding support for VirtualBox on top of NOVA, the project has finally found an answer to the question for product-grade virtualization on top of the framework. The integration of VirtualBox with Genode was no ordinary porting work but quite an engineering feat, which turns the architecture of VirtualBox pretty much upside down. In contrast to the host operating systems already supported by VirtualBox, Genode's version does not extend the host kernel in any way. VirtualBox leverages hardware-based virtualization (VT-x) but lives as a plain user-level program with no special privileges.

As with each new version, there are numerous smaller improvements and new features. For example, a new pseudo file system called trace-fs makes it possible to interactively use Genode's event tracing mechanism via Unix tools such as cat, grep, and echo.

All the changes are covered in detail in the release documentation of version 14.02.

Google's Android head, Sundar Pichai, on security (original in French):

Malware authors may be writing a lot of malware for Android, but they're not very good at it - less than 0.001% of all application installations on Android (in and outside of Google Play) penetrate Android's security.

In other words, this is a complete non-issue - no matter how often antivirus companies and certain bloggers drum it up.

High Chancellor Cameron will not be pleased this information is out.

Project Ara is that modular smartphone concept Google/Motorola unveiled last year. I'm excited to see that it's actually moving beyond concept to arrive in developers' hands. I love crazy, pie-in-the-sky innovation like this. Google is really getting all PARC-y lately.

John Gruber, on Google's Project Tango:

Funny. Google's 'moonshots' actually remind me more of another R&D-focused company. Interestingly enough, without that company, the computer industry would have been set back decades, and Apple would most likely have been reduced to a footnote in computer history.

I would rather large companies spend their cash on potentially awesome research that may (or may not) advance computer technology and the human race, than have them stash it away in shady overseas bank accounts.

If you ever wanted to know why some people - including myself - have such a negative opinion of Samsung devices, consider the following. Let's take the latest CyanogenMod ROM for, say, my Find 5¹, and add the latest Google Apps package, and it totals at about 300 MB. That's the complete, fully functional Android operating system with all the Google applications and services.

The ROM on the Galaxy S5 takes up a whopping 8 GB.

No wonder Samsung swears by SD card slots.

¹ I actually run OmniROM.

Today, at Mobile World Congress, Nokia has unveiled its new line of smartphones: Nokia X. Instead of running Windows Phone or even Asha, these devices run Android, altered to look (somewhat) like Windows Phone. There's really not a whole lot of new stuff to say here, since most of it has already been leaked - except for the fact that there will be three Nokia X devices (with more to come!). The Nokia X, Nokia X+ (with slightly more memory), and the Nokia XL (with a larger display).

They look as colourful as any Nokia phone, but specifications are low-end; a dual-core 1Ghz processor, 800x480, and 512 or 768 MB RAM. It runs Android 4.1.2, and not the low-specifications optimised Android 4.4. It turns out that the low specifications impact the user experience, as evidenced by Tom Warren's first impressions:

The user interface feels like Windows Phone, Android, and Harmattan had an illegitimate baby born out of wedlock. The end result is something that looks like a Frankenstein user interface, whose different aspects do not really align very well. The Metro-inspired homescreen, for instance, looks like a Windows Phone knock-off you would find on a cheap no-brand clone. The Android parts - inside applications, mostly - looks weird because Nokia's signature font simply doesn't fit.

I haven't used it, of course, so imagine a big asterisk here, but it looks like a classic example of design-by-committee. The Metro homescreen? Implemented because of Microsoft. The Nokia fonts? Implemented because Nokia. The swipe aspects? Because hey, the N9 is loved, so let's throw that in there as well. It doesn't feel like it has a unifying vision behind it.

The Nokia X looks like great hardware - as always, this is Nokia - but with a rather unusual and unappealing operating system. I honestly cannot wait until the XDA community gets its hands on this thing - I predict Google Play within a few days, and CyanogenMod within a few weeks. With this Android fork being completely void of Google services or Google applications, I would really wait until that's sorted out - unless you want to restrict yourself to a limited set of applications (developers need to port applications).

This raises the question of 'why'. Nokia now ships phones with four different operating systems - Windows Phone, Android, Series 40, Asha platform - which must be a hell to maintain. It doesn't really seem like Nokia needed to make an Android phone, considering that it already sells the 520 with Windows Phone. The only reason I can think of is that Nokia plans to eventually supplant Nokia Asha platform with this Android fork.

However, there's a problem here, and that's Microsoft's reaction to the Nokia X. Microsoft's Joe Belfiore:

That doesn't exactly instill confidence in the future of the Nokia X product line.

All in all, despite the somewhat shoddy first impressions of the user interface, and the warnings of slow performance, I'm still quite excited about the Nokia X. They look great, and once the XDA community gets its hands on it, it will actually become useful - because I saved the best for last: price. It'll be EUR 89 for the Nokia X, EUR 99 for the Nokia X+, and EUR 109 for the Nokia XL. To be honest, I think the X+ is the best deal, since the low resolution's pixelated edges of the 5" XL will most likely cut your eyeballs. Important note: it won't be available in the US.

That's a great price, and once CyanogenMod and other ROMs (4.4 instead of 4.1.2) run on it, it'll be useful too.

NuttX saw its 100th release at the end of last month.

Inside the bubble of Windows Phone, this is a huge update, and definitely one I'm looking forward to. However, outside of this bubble, this update contains nothing that iOS and Android haven't had for years, making WP 8.1 feel like what the platform should have been from day one.

If Microsoft can keep up with the competition going forward from 8.1, things could (finally) get interesting.

Interestingly enough, two Android OEMs, Huawei and Explay, will show Yandex.Kit devices at MWC. Which is interesting, because earlier this month, Ars Technica claimed that leaked GMS licensing terms prohibited companies from releasing Android forks ("The agreement places a company-wide ban on Android forks "). If that is indeed true, then Huawei (I'm not familiar with Explay) will be in for a surprise.

Alternatively, companies can release de-Googled Android phones (alongside Google Android phones) just fine. I guess we'll find out.

A major milestone for the young company. The fourth big update to Sailfish OS will be released early March, at which point the operating system leaves beta and hits 1.0. This fourth update will further improve landscape supports, include visual changes, new camera functionality, and more.

On top of that, Sailfish will be made available for popular Android devices as well, so that you no longer need to buy a Jolla phone in order to use the operating system. Furthermore - and I did not see this one coming - they will release a Sailfish launcher for Android that brings some of the operating system's unique features to Android.

These men and women are on a roll.

A privacy nightmare, obviously, but the technology is impressive, still.

A huge deal. WhatsApp is one of the biggest messaging services is in the world - maybe even the biggest.

Good news for Canonical.