Sony release binaries to support JBQ’s Vanilla Android Xperia S project [download]

As many of you already know, Jean-Baptiste Queru, aka JBQ, Technical Lead for the Android™ Open-Source Project (AOSP) at Google, recently started an open source project to build a vanilla Android version for Xperia S (LT26i). From Sony side, we welcome the project and support it with resources and contributions. We always try to promote and support external innovation and the openness that Android brings. We have now published binaries required for the LT26i project to progress. In addition, we want to encourage the open Android community to participate. Read on for download links and more information!
Following the announcement of the LT26i project based on the latest version of AOSP, which we think is a really nice project, we want to give the project our support. Björn Andersson, who is one of our senior engineers, will take lead from our side to help review and contribute patches to this project.
Now, since Jelly Bean, Google has dropped the support to extract binaries from a running device. Binaries are for example hardware drivers that are specific for a certain chipset. Instead of extracting them from the device, you can now download the binaries for Nexus devices from Google Developers. So in order for the LT26i project to progress, we are now providing the Xperia™ S binaries initially needed here on Sony Developer World. Since some of the binaries are proprietary files provided by Qualcomm, you can download Xperia S binaries after accepting an end-user license agreement that states how the files can be used and what limitations that exist.
Obviously a lot of more work is needed but we think it’s great to see the progress in this project, even if we can’t be sure if this software will ever be stable and complete enough for daily use (as also stated by Jean-Baptiste Queru). But we are really excited to see how community Android developers, in this case CyanogenMod, have put in efforts to contribute software patches to help the project move forward. With those patches, and the binaries we are now publishing, we now expect this project to be able to get an Xperia™ S to boot up and reach the homescreen, running the code of the project.
Check out the links below to follow the progress of the project!