[chirp_users] Chirp on Android

[Tom Hayward]

On Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 10:59 AM, David Ranch <chirp at trinnet.net> wrote:
>
> There is Python for Android so I'm curious if Chirp could indeed work
> w/o a port to native Java:
>
> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hipipal.qpyplus&hl=en

Here's my list of things required for Chirp to work on Android. Not
sure if I'm missing anything.

- USB serial cable to radio
- USB OTG adapter
- USB OTG support in device hardware
- USB OTG support in device kernel
- USB serial driver for radio cable bundled in kernel (keep in mind
most Android devices use stripped down kernels without most of the
device drivers available to desktop Linux, and have locked bootloaders
preventing custom kernels)
- Linux/Android permissions for app to open serial device (like adding
yourself to dialout group on Ubuntu)
- Python for Android
- GTK 2.x for Android
- PyGTK for Android

Once these dependencies are satisfied, Chirp should work just
fine on Android. You'd probably want to add a mouse to this list,
because otherwise things like right-click menus would be inaccessible.

All these things are possible, but will take a lot of work. GTK and
PyGTK are the biggest issues for developers, while device/kernel
support will block the majority of consumers. If you want to pursue
this further, you should look into the state of GTK on Android. Short of
a rewrite, there's nothing Chirp can do about lack of GTK on Android.

Tom KD7LXL