Experience using LigthBiz OS

Preamble

My hobby for a long time is the use of exotic platforms as a daily workplace. It began, perhaps, in the mid-90s with the advent of the first Linux distributions, the first graphical skins and applications for Linux. Further, over the years, I used the Sony PS3 console as a desktop (which I had to get off when Linux support was stopped and hadn’t managed to break it yet), or the Chinese Lemote Yeeloong netbook ... With the advent of television set-top boxes on Android, I tried several models, starting with Allwinner A10, after switching to Rockchip - 3066, 3188, 3288. All consoles were configured in dual boot - Android for movies and games, and Debian for work. By the way, the developments were later used in a couple of projects.

At the same time, I more and more liked Android as a system, especially in light of the latest innovations in Linux, such as the widespread forcible introduction of systemd, the zoo of shells and toolkits and so on. Yes, and gradually tools began to appear or be found to solve my problems, plus there were tasks for development for Android, which became possible to solve without fuss with emulators.
Thus, when in the middle of last year the announcements of desktop versions of Android began to appear - Remix, LightBiz, later Phoenix, I realized - I want to!

I ordered Remix Mini on kickstarter, in November he arrived. These same days, LightBiz OS firmware for my current Ugoos UM3 device appeared. So it turned out a great opportunity to choose. However, Remix was rejected almost immediately, because some applications (literally a couple, but I needed) in its windowed mode. So I stayed with LightBiz OS, and now I use this system 98% of the time.

So, install!

Download the update from ugoos.net . Unfortunately, OTA is not available, a complete flashing is required. Fortunately, Rockchip firmware utilities work great in VirtualBox. The kit comes with detailed instructions in pictures.



After the first launch, it is advisable to immediately install all the necessary applications from Google in order to prevent the occurrence of 9 ** errors, which many Chinese devices sin. Further configuration, installation of applications is carried out as usual. Root is installed normally - a separate option in the settings.



Since the system was still originally developed for the TV, it is advisable to reduce the DPI to use it as a desktop on the monitor. I experimentally picked up a value of 160.



And finally, for the sake of which everything was started! We go into the screen settings and turn on multi-window mode.



The screen goes blank for a second, and we see a tray that is familiar with the classic desktop OS with the “Start” button, clocks, indicators and icons of running applications. By clicking on the clock, a calendar appears.



By clicking on the notification indicator - the notification panel from Lollipop.

Working with windows in LightBiz is somewhat different from what we used to see and what was implemented in Remix. Windows can be moved around the screen, but their size cannot be arbitrarily changed. This is done in order not to disrupt the operation of applications designed for full screen, and there are slightly fewer of these in Android than all.

The system offers 3 options for displaying applications:

• Tablet mode. The window opens in full screen, but can be proportionally reduced to 3/4 or 9/16 of the desktop size. At the same time, the contents of the window are scaled accordingly. In a reduced state, it can be moved anywhere on the desktop.
• Phone mode. A vertically elongated window with a height slightly less than the height of the desktop, a width of slightly less than half the width of the desktop. The size is fixed, free movement.
• Split mode In this mode, the window occupies exactly half a desktop wide and the entire desktop in height. Moving is possible from the left half to the right and vice versa.

At first glance, the restrictions may seem excessive, however, they do not interfere with the comfortable use of the system. You just need to understand which applications should be used in which mode. I selected the following options for myself:

Full-screen tablet mode - for video and games:





Reduced tablet modes - for IDE (AIDE) and shell (Termux):



Split mode - for browser and Google Docs / Tables:



And finally, phone mode - for almost all other applications.



It just so happened that I best perceive narrow stripes of text. Therefore, it is most convenient for me to run social programs, RSS, chats, online stores in the telephone mode.

A separate topic is the launch of Linux. Unfortunately, the only way to make full use of Linux graphics applications in Android, XSDL and its follower Debian noroot, in LightBiz work extremely crookedly. Firstly, the mouse cursor in X is either offset from the cursor in Android, or does not move at all, moving events without clicking are lost. Secondly, the window X always opens in full screen, is not minimized. But I managed to find analogues in Android of almost everything that I really used in Linux. I especially want to note Termux - a terminal application that allows you to install console utilities through the familiar apt to work directly in Android!

For debugging of own Linux-projects it was necessary to use VNC. Earlier, for one of the projects I already made the LocalhostVNC client - fork androidVNC, from which everything unrelated to the task “connect to localhost: 5900, show the picture in the original scale and send events” was dropped, and the rendering speed was significantly increased. In LightBiz, I also got a shifted mouse cursor, however, everything was decided by moving the code of the overridden onTouchEvent from Activity to the embedded ImageView.

There are bugs in the system. They are few, they do not interfere with life, but there are. I expect that in subsequent revisions they will be fixed, I sent bug reports.

• The clock in the tray always shows the Chinese time utc + 8, while any timezone can be set in the settings.
• The system often spontaneously hides windows. The pause / stop mechanism of an Activity needs to be improved.
• There are no volume buttons in the tray, although the hardware keys on the keyboard work.
• Window positions and window scale in tablet mode are not saved. The mode itself is saved.
• Not all applications work with mouse wheel scrolling. However, the kinetic scroll gesture turned out to be so convenient that recently I began to miss it under Linux.

Conclusion

I hope that I was able to show that Android - contrary to a common misconception, the system is not only “for consuming content”, but also a full-fledged workplace. At the same time, it is convenient, easy to configure, scalable from a 5-inch smartphone to a 24-inch or more monitor and allows you to use the same convenient applications on the entire spectrum of devices.