CyanogenMod device support expands to include several from Motorola

CyanogenMod 10.1 is the current stable build at the moment, however work has already begun on CM10.2. We have seen some nightly builds released for those looking to begin playing with Android 4.3 (CM10.2) but it looks like that is not the only work coming from the CyanogenMod team at the moment. In short, they have just announced some additional device support.

The officially supported list has been expanded to include a few additional Samsung smartphones as well as a handful of Motorola smartphones. The interesting part here, these aren’t all brand new devices. In fact, it was said that some of these devices have been a “work in progress for quite some time.” The handset being referred to with that comment was the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G (apexqtmo) which was first teased back in October 2012.

That aside, the other Samsung handset is the C Spire branded Galaxy S 4 (jfltecsp). Shifting over to the Motorola handsets and we find the following;

• Motorola Atrix HD (mb886)
• Motorola Photon Q (GSM xt897)
• Motorola Photon Q (CDMA xt897c)
• Motorola DROID RAZR M (xt907)
• Motorola RAZR HD (GSM xt925)
• Motorola DROID RAZR HD (CDMA xt926)

The additional device support will likely be welcomed by users sporting any of these handsets and it looks like there is still more to come. Details coming from the CyanogenMod team also go on to mention how this is “only the first wave” and the will have “more in the near future.”

Further good news for these handsets mention how they are all (with the exception of the C Spire Galaxy S 4) set and in line with CM10.2. As always, those looking for CyanogenMod will be able to download the ROMs by heading to the get.cm website. Once there it is just a matter of choosing whether you want release candidate, M snapshot, nightly, experiments or stable and then finding your handset in the list.

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The Future of Rooting in Android

The announcement of Android 4.3 last month may have disappointed some people in terms of lacking the usual fireworks, but there was a change that caught some developers by surprise: the inclusion of SELinux as Android’s security system. This seemingly small change has caused many an Android geek to worry not exactly about security but about the ability to gain privileged access in the future. The summary of it is that we’ll still be getting root, but getting there will be different.

SELinux is a security system that goes beyond the simple “normal user vs. root user” of a Linux-based system. It offers fine grained control on who can do what. In previous Android versions, a process can simply be launched as root and it will have power to do anything. With the new system, you can still launch a process as root, but it will practically be able to do nothing except what SELinux allows it to do and nothing more.

Two possible ways are currently being investigated to get around this. The first is simple but also tedious. It involves connecting the device to a computer and using the command line to run commands as root using adb, the Android Debug Bridge. This has worked before for developers and will continue to work in the future. But it’s also inconvenient, as you need to always be connected to a computer. Not to mention always having to type commands for every task.

The second way resembles the normal root access but is also the most debated method. This way requires use of a su (super user) daemon, a process that is started up when the Android is started, sits quietly in the background while waiting for it to be called, does its job and then goes back to sitting in the dark. Sounds convenient, right?

The problem is that, as mentioned, the su daemon needs to run when Android is started. And to do this, you need a modified boot image, and there lies the problem. A modified boot image can only be acquired by flashing a custom firmware, something like CyanogenMod. This poses a potential problem for users of “Stock” Android systems, who currently use nothing more than a rooting app.

It is still not clear whether Google, who is definitely aware of the strong rooting culture in the Android community, is planning to do anything to improve the situation. But as things stand and for the future, gaining root access might require flashing custom firmware.

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CyanogenMod Focal camera app now in CM10.2

The folks at CyanogenMod began teasing something called Nemesis a short while back. That teasing arrived with a short video and a message about how “things can be better.” Since that point we have seen some details of what Nemesis will be. Well, we have seen details of the Focal camera app, which is shown as being phase 1 of Nemesis.

Anyway, while we aren’t yet able to download and install the Focal app on any CyanogenMod build, there is an update on where it can be found. Coming by way of a recent Google+ posting from the CyanogenMod team, the Focal app is now included in the CM10.2 nightly builds. Yes, that is CM10.2 as in Android 4.3.

“Focal has been pushed to the official CyanogenMod repositories, and is now available automatically in CyanogenMod 10.2 builds!”

That of course is the better side of the Focal related information. The other side may bring some disappointment for those planning to stick with CM10.1. It was said that it is “technically possible” to build and release Focal for CM10.1, but that it will not be officially supported.

Further details here reveal the reasons as being that CM10.1 is now “under maintenance mode” and about how the are making “quick progress” with the work they are doing on CM10.2. Needless to say, still nothing in terms of a timeline for other (more stable) CM10.2 builds.

Some of the other points worth mentioning on Focal include how they have yet to remove the regular stock Camera app. This is being held off until Focal is considered 100 percent stable. Otherwise, similar to how there are no plans to release Focal for CM10.1, there are no plans to publish the app in the Play Store. The reasoning for that is simple, it was said that it will be “too much work to maintain.” Bottom line here, it seems those looking to use Focal will need to look forward to a time when they are also running CM10.2.

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CyanogenMod considers removing the need for root access

Rooting an Android device is often associated with installing third party ROMs. And while that is a step in the process, you could simply root your device and keep the stock firmware installed and running. Those who root without using third-party ROMs likely do so for a variety of reasons. One of those is for backups. But it seems there is now some discussion about running CyanogenMod without root.

This topic was recently brought up by Steve Kondik. In a Google+ posting he talks about how many of the ‘root required’ types of apps can actually be done without the need to expose root. Or perhaps more important, he talks about how they can be done in a very secure way without the need to have root.

Aside from backups, root can also be used to get something like Google Wallet working on an unsupported handset. Kondik mentions a few other reasons to need root as being the ability to manage the DNS resolver, tweaking the sysfs notes to control the kernel and even to mess with firewall and network software.

Perhaps key here though, Kondik talks about how “all of these can be done without exposing root, and they can be done in a very secure way.” With that in mind, it looks like there has been talk of pushing things to a point where root is no longer needed. Of course, we should make it clear that a root-free version of CyanogenMod is not currently in the works. At the moment Kondik simply mentions how he is “interested in building framework extensions and APIs into CM to continue to abolish the root requirement.”

On the flip side though, what has recently gotten underway is work on CM10.2 (Android 4.3). It was confirmed the work began last week and more recently we got a “general order (not a steadfast rule)” timeline that showed work will proceed with Nexus, Qualcomm, OMAP, Tegra 3 and then Exynos devices.

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