Auto-waking of a suspended OS in a dockable system

• US 9,317,457 B2
• Filed: 04/03/2015
• Issued: 04/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Z124 LLC (Flexis)
• Original Assignee: Z124 LLC (Flexis)
• Inventors: Reeves, Brian, Reeves, Paul E., Teltz, Richard, Reeves, David, Sirpal, Sanjiv, Tyghe, Christopher, Yusupov, Alisher, Chincisan, Octavian, Liu, Wuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Tim T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huynh, Kim T.
• Application Number:
  US14/678,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20150212830A1
• Time in Patent Office: 382 Days
• Field of Search: 710301-306, 713300-340, 713/2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/14 Handling requests for interconnection or transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4068 Electrical coupling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4418 Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

A mobile computing device with a mobile operating system and desktop operating system running concurrently and independently on a shared kernel without virtualization. The mobile operating system provides a user experience for the mobile computing device that suits the mobile environment. The desktop operating system provides a full desktop user experience when the mobile computing device is docked to a secondary terminal environment. The desktop operating system may be suspended when the mobile computing device is not docked with a secondary terminal environment and resumed when the mobile computing device is docked with a secondary terminal environment that provides a desktop computing experience. The mobile computing device may be a smartphone running the Android mobile OS and a full desktop Linux OS distribution on a modified Android kernel.

Claims

1. A method for configuring a computing device to multiple user environments, the method comprising:

starting, by a microprocessor, a first operating system in a first execution environment on a shared kernel;

after starting the first operating system, establishing, by the microprocessor executing the first operating system, a second execution environment on the shared kernel;

starting, by the microprocessor executing the first operating system, a second operating system in the second execution environment;

after starting the second operating system, determining, by the microprocessor, whether the computing device is docked with a secondary terminal environment;

determining, by the microprocessor, that the computing device is not docked with the secondary terminal environment;

suspending, by the microprocessor, the second operating system by the first operating system;

after suspending the second operating system, detecting, in the microprocessor executing the shared kernel, a docking event of the computing device with the secondary terminal environment;

notifying, by the microprocessor executing the shared kernel, the first operating system of the docking event;

determining, by the microprocessor executing the first operating system, that a user experience profile of the docked secondary terminal environment is associated with the second operating system;

resuming, by the microprocessor, the second operating system from a suspended condition by the first operating system, wherein the second operating system and the first operating system run concurrently on the shared kernel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second operating system is a desktop operating system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first operating system is a mobile operating system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the user experience profile of the docked secondary terminal environment is associated with the second operating system comprises:

receiving, in a monitor service of the first operating system, a notification of the docking event from the shared kernel; and

determining, by the monitor service, that the user experience profile of the docked secondary terminal environment is associated with the second operating system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the user experience profile of the docked secondary terminal environment includes receiving, by a monitor service of the first operating system, an indicator of the user experience profile of the secondary terminal environment from a dock connector.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

determining the user experience profile of the secondary terminal environment is based on predetermined criteria associated with one or more input or output devices of the secondary terminal environment; and

the predefined criteria include a resolution of a display device of the secondary terminal environment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user experience profile of one or more secondary terminal environments is selectable by a user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the user experience profile of the docked secondary terminal environment includes determining a user experience profile for the secondary terminal environment based on past selections made by a user of user experiences for secondary terminal environments.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein resuming the second operating system from the suspended condition comprises:

sending, by a monitor service of the first operating system, a call to a remotable object;

receiving, in a daemon process of the second operating system, the call to the remotable object, the call to the remotable object including an action to be performed by the daemon process to resume the second operating system, wherein the daemon process continues to run while other processes of the second operating system are in the suspended condition; and

performing the action in the daemon process of the second operating system.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after resuming the second operating system, providing a first user experience by the first operating system through a screen of the computing device;

while providing the first user experience, concurrently providing a second user experience by the second operating system through a display device of the docked secondary terminal environment;

accepting, by the second operating system, inputs from input devices of the docked secondary terminal environment; and

ignoring, by the first operating system, inputs from input devices of the docked secondary terminal environment.

11. A computing device, comprising:

a memory;

a display screen; and

a processor in communication with the memory and the display screen, the processor operable to;

start a first operating system in a first execution environment on a shared kernel;

after starting the first operating system, establish, by the first operating system, a second execution environment on the shared kernel;

start, by the first operating system, a second operating system in the second execution environment;

after starting the second operating system, determine whether the computing device is docked with a secondary terminal environment;

determine that the computing device is not docked with the secondary terminal environment;

suspend the second operating system by the first operating system;

after suspending the second operating system, detect, in the shared kernel, a docking event of the computing device with the secondary terminal environment;

notify, by the shared kernel, the first operating system of the docking event;

determine, by the first operating system, that a user experience profile of the docked secondary terminal environment is associated with the second operating system; and

resume the second operating system from a suspended condition by the first operating system, wherein the second operating system and the first operating system run concurrently on the shared kernel.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the first operating system is a mobile operating system, and wherein the second operating system is a desktop operating system.

13. The computing device of claim 11, wherein determining that the user experience profile of the docked secondary terminal environment is associated with the second operating system comprises:

receiving, in a monitor service of the first operating system, a notification of the docking event from the shared kernel; and

determining, by the monitor service, that the user experience profile of the docked secondary terminal environment is associated with the second operating system.

14. The computing device of claim 11, wherein resuming the second operating system from the suspended condition comprises:

sending, by a monitor service of the first operating system, a call to a remotable object;

receiving, in a daemon process of the second operating system, the call to the remotable object, the call to the remotable object including an action to be performed by the daemon process to resume the second operating system, wherein the daemon process continues to run while other processes of the second operating system are in the suspended condition; and

performing the action in the daemon process of the second operating system.

15. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further operable to:

after resuming the second operating system, provide a first user experience by the first operating system through the display screen of the computing device; and

provide a second user experience by the second operating system through a display device of the docked secondary terminal environment while concurrently providing the first user experience.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium, having stored thereon, computer-executable instructions executable by a processor, the computer-executable instructions causing the processor to execute a method for configuring a computing device to multiple user environments, the computer-executable instructions comprising:

instructions to start a first operating system in a first execution environment on a shared kernel of the computing device;

after starting the first operating system, instructions to establish, by the first operating system, a second execution environment on the shared kernel;

instructions to start, by the first operating system, a second operating system in the second execution environment;

after starting the second operating system, instructions to determine whether the computing device is docked with a secondary terminal environment;

instructions to suspend the second operating system by the first operating system in response to determining that the computing device is not docked with the secondary terminal environment;

after suspending the second operating system, instructions to detect, in the shared kernel, a docking event of the computing device with the secondary terminal environment;

instructions to notify, by the shared kernel, the first operating system of the docking event;

instructions to determine, by the first operating system, that a user experience profile of the docked secondary terminal environment is associated with the second operating system; and

instructions to resume the second operating system from a suspended condition by the first operating system, wherein the second operating system and the first operating system run concurrently on the shared kernel.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first operating system is a mobile operating system, and wherein the second operating system is a desktop operating system.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, the computer-executable instructions further comprising:

instructions to receive, in a monitor service of the first operating system, a notification of the docking event from the shared kernel.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions to resume the second operating system from the suspended condition further comprise:

instructions to send, by a monitor service of the first operating system, a call to a remotable object; and

instructions to receive, in a daemon process of the second operating system, the call to the remotable object.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the call to the remotable object includes an action to be performed by the daemon process to resume the second operating system, wherein the daemon process performs the action, and wherein the daemon process continues to run while other processes of the second operating system are in the suspended condition.