Android Development Environment

Full Android source compilation requires strong PC hardware. The manual recommends installing Linux directly instead of relying on a virtual machine for full development. It uses Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit as an example, while the dependency section recommends Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit.

Ubuntu and Common Tools

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install meld
sudo apt-get install minicom
sudo apt-get install picocom
sudo apt-get install ckermit

Serial Tools

minicom

sudo minicom -s

A USB-to-UART adapter usually appears as /dev/ttyUSB0. Common settings are 115200 8N1 with no hardware/software flow control.

picocom

sudo picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0

Exit picocom with Ctrl+a, then Ctrl+q.

kermit

Example ~/.kermrc:

set line /dev/ttyUSB0
set speed 115200
set carrier-watch off
set handshake none
set flow-control none
robust
set file type bin
set file name lit
set rec pack 1000
set send pack 1000
set window 5

Open the serial console:

sudo kermit -c

JDK

Android builds require JDK. The manual notes that the JDK can be specified according to the SDK build script. For example, the X8385 Android 12 mk.sh uses:

export PATH=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/bin:$PATH

Device Tree and Partition File Paths

ap-sdk/kernel-4.19/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/tb8788p1_64_Wi-Fi_k419.dts
output/MT6771_Android_scatter.txt

adb

adb devices
adb shell

If error: more than one device and emulator appears on Windows, terminate adb.exe and restart adb.

SecureCRT Serial Console

On Windows, SecureCRT can be used to connect to the debug UART. The manual notes the debug serial baud rate as 921600, protocol Serial, and no DTR/DSR, RTS/CTS, or XON/XOFF flow control.