Re:No One Cares About the Security of Unlocked Android Phones
by djsumdog on Thursday November 17, 2016 @05:58PM
(#12982564)
Linux modules are very kernel specific. If you have modules compiled against the same kernel version, but with slightly differently flags, you won't be able to load it and will get a lot of invalid symbols.
There are thousands of kernel variants between every Linux distro. You always need to recompile drivers. nVidida and AMD/ATI get by this by providing binary blobs and a shim layer than can compile and link the two.
In the Windows/Mac world there is one version of the kernel officially maintained and distributed by their respective companies. They can keep the kernel consistent for a given release. That's what you have one set of drivers for Windows 7, one for 8 and one for 10, instead of a different set of drivers for each and every service pack.
Android could, at a minimum, standardize the kernel for every Android version. With that, binary drivers could work across devices.
There are thousands of kernel variants between every Linux distro. You always need to recompile drivers. nVidida and AMD/ATI get by this by providing binary blobs and a shim layer than can compile and link the two.
In the Windows/Mac world there is one version of the kernel officially maintained and distributed by their respective companies. They can keep the kernel consistent for a given release. That's what you have one set of drivers for Windows 7, one for 8 and one for 10, instead of a different set of drivers for each and every service pack.
Android could, at a minimum, standardize the kernel for every Android version. With that, binary drivers could work across devices.