Running complete Native Linux on phones that are bootloader-unlocked [on hold]

Posted by james on Super User See other posts from Super User or by james
Published on 2013-10-27T01:03:14Z Indexed on 2013/10/27 3:59 UTC
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Filed under:

linux

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android

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linux-kernel

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gnu

Since there are many phones (HTC, Samsung, LG, Nexus) today that have bootloader unlocked, I want to ask what's preventing them from running a complete native GNU/Linux. GNU/Linux has ARM port and we can run a command line GNU/Linux on top of Android by the method of chroot.

So, what's preventing for existing bootloader unlocked Android phones from running a complete GNU/Linux natively? The device should get a long shelf life if it has one such port.

My few thoughts..

Proprietary drivers for hardware that cannot be made to work when using a different OS. And the binary provider will never support any OS other than what the phone is shipped with.
Application Interface. The interface for desktop apps doesn't fit to the mobile display with different PPI.
Kernel. Since android devices use Linux kernel whose sources should be available, could the device kernel be modified to work with GNU/Linux.

And any other reasons?

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