asked 2019-05-07 13:16:16 +0200
I found that the sailfish x for xa2 on jolla's official website could not be downloaded just now. It shows that Sailfish X images for Xperia XA2 models are temporarily unavailable due to compatibility issues with Android 9 update. Will xa2 be upgraded to Android 9? https://shop.jolla.com/downloads/
answered 2019-05-07 13:21:34 +0200
answered 2019-05-07 14:38:10 +0200
Regarding the "my smartphone has android 9 installed" problem :
it's probably be going to be something along the line of :
They might need to fix some details in the flashing procedure
e.g.: the XA2 device uses the new A/B scheme of update. That works by having separe "_a" and "_b" alternate versions of every single one of the dozens partition that modern android devices use (so your device can currently run by using "_a" variations for every single one of them, and stream the upgrade to every single "_b" of them). They need to make sure that the correct A or B variant are used for every point of the Sailfish stack (bootloader, initial image, etc.) I'm very strongly suspecting that the current Android 9 problems might actually just be some left over bugs that haven't been ironed out.
but mayber Android 9 has completely changed the partition layout and makes the flashing procedure break, and they need the flashing and Sailfish X firmware to be compatible with that new layout.
I'm not sure if it's really relevant. the point is to know, and that's not clear for me. how are the current new xa2 delivered. with v8 or v9?
Because i represent myself that development and production are not operate together. And production get a product with a tool and software to test it at the end. and have instruction. then it is not relevant to give an other software to test, which change something in instruction. Thus for me it make sense that production deliver the device with the same software as before, the v8.
Then it is highly recommended for flashing the device, that there is no upgrade done in between. Jolla began with v8, and to hold a best overview upon the development time shall stay on the v8-line. that is extreme important. Otherwise is a huge chaos between to kind-system basis, especially with a community which is extreme active.
answered 2019-05-07 13:36:36 +0200
I don't think that jolla is ready and have capacity to implement something with android 9.
They have the alternative to v8 with alienD. with licensing system or whatever.
And having the alternative to v9, means more work (more costs), more license cost or whatever, and an other/further "beta" of software.
They should concentrate themselves to only one the v8, avoid x beta for just one phone serie.
After a robust release of v8. They may look after the v9 if it makes sense. Before it, finger away from v9.
My point of view.
I'm nitpicking a bit, but when installing over a phone that has android 9 firmware, the relevant part is libhybris the hardware abstraction layer ("Baseport" in Jolla's parlence). i.e.: the part that is underneath Sailfish OS and is incharge of communicating with the manufacturer's drivers and blobs.
aliendalvik is the part relevant for the Android application compatibility layer, i.e.: the part that is on top of Sailfish OS to make APKs running.
But indeed, Jolla is probably going to concentrate ressource for now on making the Baseport 8 more mature and the 8.2 alien-dalvik more compatible, because a Baseport 9 would be restarting nearly from scratch and spending tons of ressources, and 8.2 is a recent enough APK compatibility.
Jolla will probably decide to write a newer base port once they get contracted to port Sailfish to a more recent hardware or decide to move support to more recent Sailfish X devices. I just hope we'll eventually see some trickle-down (e.g.: Xperia X getting a backport of Baseport 8 from the XA2 once its mature enough and enough devs are free, and/or a backport of some future Baseport 9 to X and XA2 once that get written for the upcoming devices).
DrYak ( 2019-05-07 14:27:03 +0200 )editit's a bit of a mess. Jolla apparently has decided to keep the "Alien Dalvik" brand name, but indeed it's not based on the dalvik "sort of Java VM", because Android starting from 5.0 doesn't use a JVM anymore, but instead runs on ART (i.e.: compiles the applications ahead of time and runs them directly on the smartphone hardware), modern Sailfish on the XA2 indeed uses LXC container to run a "caged" version of Android's ART inside.
I suppose the rest of the infrastructure adapting APK's Android API request to Sailfish's GNU/Linux core has been kept around (i.e.: the non-dalvik part of alien-dalvik). But we'll need the input of Jolla official devs on that.
DrYak ( 2019-05-07 14:27:39 +0200 )editAsked: 2019-05-07 13:16:16 +0200
Seen: 623 times
Last updated: May 07 '19
questions:
cemoi71 ( 2019-05-07 13:33:58 +0200 )edit1) with which version of android did you get your xa2? v8 or v9?
2) Which version do you have NOW on your xa2?
I had Android 8.0 installed and haven't upgraded. I just bought the XperiaX-image and then found out that the downloads are not available. A bit annoying.
EDIT: Just checked again and the downloads for XA2 seem to be available again.
hetas ( 2019-05-07 20:49:41 +0200 )edit