Questions about Kernels & Android OS - G1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Are the Kernels in the phone made for a specific android version? For example, will CM's 1.6Kernel work on a 1.5 device? or better yet... would a 1.5 kernel work on android 1.6?
Also, does 1.5 and 1.6+ have different BOOT partitions? Or can I use the BOOT that came with phone and just try to upgrade the system to 2.0?
Reading that it might just be a stupid question lol. But if someone can shoot me a quick yes or no that would be great...
Here's my plan:
I have the source code for the Behold II. It comes with android 1.5
I want to try to grab the Vanilla version of Android 2.0 from the SDK, grab the drivers from the source and throw it all together to put on the behold (which i currently have running on galaxy firmware)
Is android only in the /system partition? So i can just compile and mess with /system or would I also need to change the BOOT image?

There is a very complex web of dependencies. Although some kernels will work with MANY system images (due to similarities in the system images), there is no guarantee at all that any particular randomly chosen kernel will work with another randomly chosen system image. PARTICULARLY when messing between an OEM hardware kernel and any kind of major customizations. You might get lucky though

Related

[Q] does rooting modify the original firmware?

Hi,
I plan to root a HTC Desire C only for sim unlocking it. So far I am pleased with the original firmware (ICS 4.0) - after disabling some apps the phone runs fast and smooth.
The question is: does rooting modify the original OS in such a way that instabilities may occur?
Thanks.
dr.pythagora said:
Hi,
I plan to root a HTC Desire C only for sim unlocking it. So far I am pleased with the original firmware (ICS 4.0) - after disabling some apps the phone runs fast and smooth.
The question is: does rooting modify the original OS in such a way that instabilities may occur?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting itself doesn't modify anything besides installing an app called Superuser.
You deleting/disabling apps that were not meant to be disabled does.
dr.pythagora said:
Hi,
I plan to root a HTC Desire C only for sim unlocking it. So far I am pleased with the original firmware (ICS 4.0) - after disabling some apps the phone runs fast and smooth.
The question is: does rooting modify the original OS in such a way that instabilities may occur?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please, read this for first before doing anything: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2323518
(Thanks to @aashay960 )
smoza said:
Please, read this for first before doing anything: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2323518
(Thanks to @aashay960 )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the related link. Helpful.
As I like, for the moment, to stick to the original firmware (to me, it is the most stable among all avalable roms for HTC Desire C), I still have two more questions:
- will the rooting stop the handset from receiving official updates?
- assume I root the handset and install cwm recovery and backup the current rom.
if ever I like to restore this backup, I will need to flash a kernel boot.img.
can I extract the kernel related to my current firmware so I can flash it after I restore?
Thanks.
dr.pythagora said:
Thank you for the related link. Helpful.
As I like, for the moment, to stick to the original firmware (to me, it is the most stable among all avalable roms for HTC Desire C), I still have two more questions:
- will the rooting stop the handset from receiving official updates?
- assume I root the handset and install cwm recovery and backup the current rom.
if ever I like to restore this backup, I will need to flash a kernel boot.img.
can I extract the kernel related to my current firmware so I can flash it after I restore?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- As far as I know, you can receive updates but you cannot apply them. It will show in the notifications "Software Update, Click to download" when you download it, it will reboot to recovery and stop there. Again, I'm not 100% sure about this but this happened to me once.
- If you flash a custom kernel like Prometheus Kernel, then you will have to flash the stock boot.img if you wanna go back to stock completely. But if you never changed your kernel from stock, then you don't need to do anything. I have provided the link to stock kernel and stock recovery as well, in the Index thread. (Link in my signature)
PS - As far as Custom ROMs go, you should try the Sense Roms. All of them are based on the stock ROM so all of them are completely stable. You can always put the 'Stock theme' on these roms to make them look like the Stock ROM and you will end up with a ROM that looks exactly like Stock but performs much better and has increased functionality
Hope this was helpful. I'll be glad to answer any further questions.
It will not definitely modify your system it will add a folder to your system to access the system... and also it adds app called Superuser or SuperSU ....
Features of Rooting:
Android rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets, and other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control (known as "root access") within Android's subsystem.
Rooting is often performed with the goal of overcoming limitations that carriers and hardware manufacturers put on some devices, resulting in the ability to alter or replace system applications and settings, run specialized apps that require administrator-level permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise inaccessible to a normal Android user. On Android, rooting can also facilitate the complete removal and replacement of the device's operating system, usually with a more recent release of its current operating system. Most of the time,[citation needed] rooting a device voids its warranty.
From Wikipedia ...

Rooting questions + How can i convert to stock to get ota updates ?

So i am super new to modifying android devices so i would like to know a few things.
What is a recovery / stock recovery ?
What is a rom ?
What is S-OFF, what can i do with it, and how do i achieve it ?
How can i revert everything so i can update it or where can i find the packages to update it ?
DaftHacker said:
So i am super new to modifying android devices so i would like to know a few things.
What is a recovery / stock recovery ?
What is a rom ?
What is S-OFF, what can i do with it, and how do i achieve it ?
How can i revert everything so i can update it or where can i find the packages to update it ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A custom recovery is like a "hub" that lets you control your system without fully booting your phone. You can flash zips, manage files, install apps, etc...
A ROM is a package designed specifically for a device that changes the look, features, customisability and more it. Example: HTC phones use the "Sense" ROM. This has custom features like BlinkFeed, HTC Lockscreen, Different look and feel. Samsung phones use TouchWiz, a bubble-like fun looking blue ROM. This is why even if 2 devices have Android 6.0.0, one can look one way, and the other completely different.
S-OFF BASICALLY means that the /system partition can be written and modified, allowing tons of customization options. (pretty much a full root) You can achieve it a number of different ways, but most used is a tool called Unrevoked. (Look it up, it's a pretty huge topic)

Why there is delay in development of Roms for X4?

Not even single Custom Rom is ported yet, everyone is flashing Android One Firmware or the stock! ?
I think the A/B partition scheme is slowing down development. If I am not mistaken, several other phones with A/B partitions also have slow development. On top of that, I think our phone is an odd hybrid that has A/B partitions, but will not get Project Treble, so we are stuck in the middle between the two targets.
There is a working TWRP recovery, so that does count for something. I have, as well as several others, been trying to get a bootable device tree for LineageOS, although it is slow going and we all have IRL commitments.
I'm willing to make donations to the custom rom developer. Especially if it is possible to remove the lock from installing sd card as internal memory.
I dont really care about custom roms or new android versions.
I'd just want to be able to install android security updates when motorola no longer supports it..
but that's quite hard if you dont Know a thing about programming i think?

Treble ROMs

Hi guys, I have an SM-N960F dual sim exynos Note 9 and i have recently discovered this whole other element of ROM flashing known as project treble ROMs. I tried to flash a few different ones and i could only get one to work and the rest all just either bootlooped or stayed on the initial splashscreen. I was wondering if anybody could shed some light on them a bit for me and perhaps knew exactly the best way to flash them, and what firmware is best to start on beforehand etc? I found the whole thing EXTREMELY confusing especially with venfor images and kernel images etc...
Thank you for any input/help!
We can't really use the term Project Treble when talking about Samsung phones. Technically it is implemented, but Samsung being Samsung, it's quite a non-standard implementation and not really compatible with anything else.
oddbehreif said:
We can't really use the term Project Treble when talking about Samsung phones. Technically it is implemented, but Samsung being Samsung, it's quite a non-standard implementation and not really compatible with anything else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive flashed a few of them onto my phone but it seems to be a bit of hit and miss as to whether they boot up or not. The ones that do have been good in terms of the size and speed etc, I even flashed a generic copy of OneUI which worked well.
I am on Pie base using the Dr.Ketan rom, so I tried a few GSIs which are supposed to be compatible with Pie base. I took them from here.
The way I flash them is:
1. Factory reset from TWRP
2. Flash the GSI as system image
3. Flash stock kernel otherwise you will be stuck on boot logo or you will get into bootloop. To flash the stock kernel I just use Dr.Ketan's rom, because the UI upon flashing allows you to choose and flash stock kernel and skip everything else.
(They mention that we should flash Permissiver also, but it gives error so I can't flash it)
So those GSIs boot up, but they are barely usable. The "System is finishing update" and "System setup will start soon" are stuck for me and never finish. Also for example in the PixelExperience9 from this collection I was not even able to add my Google account because of the system auto-closing almost all system apps that I try to open.
It might be that these things should be done in a different way, but this is my experience for now. So..... back to Dr.Ketan ROM. I was really hoping to get the MIUI GSI as daily, but it seems impossible to me.
EDIT: Lol I realised we are the same people talking on the other thread also, so you gave me the link to the treble collection.

[Sofia(p)(r)][Recovery][WIP] TWRP 3.4.0.0

vache said:
Here you go : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x4t6ca8TLf1bNHrQa-jjCN_AhdV2W78u/view?usp=drivesdk
Boots on sofia (g power), sofiar (g8 power), sofiap (g stylus), sofiap_ao (g pro)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started the thread, but did not make this build. Everything should work. Thank @vache.
Quick update I did get TWRP to build successfully. Unfortunately it just sits on the boot logo but doesn't go back to fastboot, but that was just a quick see what happens build. I haven't added everything I need to yet. Will work on it more tonight, but progress is good so far.
@CodyF86 thanks for taking the lead on porting TWRP to the G Power. The G Power appears to be the best "bang for the buck" phone on the market currently, and has been widely covered by the media so far. I expect that the Moto G Power sub will grow steadily in the upcoming months, leading to custom rom development for the G Power. Having TWRP ported would be a start to paving way for custom rom development.
So another quick little update. I have the device repo basically where it should be...give or take heh. It's changed a bit from what is on my github, but it's pretty close. The only issue i'm having is that compiling it with the minimal manifest isn't going to work. It doesn't compile right. It compiles, but it doesn't copy things over correctly and/or at all depending on what it is.
My repo is pretty close to what the moto one power and the g8 power have, at least for their android 9 device tree, and I can get TWRP to boot, if I use the moto one power image and just dump the moto g power kernel into it.
So short version is i'm downloading the full manifest, basically all of Omni, which should hopefully sort it out. It's downloading right now.
EDIT:
Actually it helps to read the documentation I guess lol.
https://source.android.com/devices/bootloader/system-as-root#using-vendor-overlay
Will keep playing with it.
This is exciting! Thanks for your hard work.
CodyF86 said:
Will keep playing with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for taking this on! Having TWRP recovery for "sofia" will really make this phone great!
GoodOlDan said:
Thank you for taking this on! Having TWRP recovery for "sofia" will really make this phone great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I "should" have it working in a day or two...(or even tonight...) The Code Aurora repos have been helping greatly.
https://source.codeaurora.org/quic/la/platform/vendor/qcom/trinket/tree/BoardConfig.mk?h=LA.UM.8.11.r1-03800-NICOBAR.0
Quick question, is the Moto g power the same as Moto g8 power? If they get custom Rom they'll unified? From what I know, the g power is the us variant release of the g8 power, right?. Thx in advance
Been making changes and even trying to repack some files from our devices into chef from when I got chef to boot with a repacked kernel but the touch screen wouldnt work and it couldnt see any partitions really.
Part of the problem seems to be the build system. It's not populating the output image fully. It's not even putting the TWRP directory in there lol.....
Going to keep trying. Going to try to find a native android 10 device that has twrp working unless there isnt one yet. Also our device is a little different it actually puts certain things in /system where in android 9 they went into /vendor. Spent about 3-4 hours on it today, but not going to give up.
I think there is an issue with the OMNI build system though also.
CodyF86 said:
Been making changes and even trying to repack some files from our devices into chef from when I got chef to boot with a repacked kernel but the touch screen wouldnt work and it couldnt see any partitions really.
Part of the problem seems to be the build system. It's not populating the output image fully. It's not even putting the TWRP directory in there lol.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HI, I'd be willing to help with this, I'm a developer, I worked with @tecknight on TWRP for a phone called the Wiko Ride. We never quite got a working TWRP but learned quite a bit about AVB and such. I've already got my Sofia (US unlocked retail, running on Boost Mobile) rooted and could use a new challenge.
I too have been quite baffled by the Android build process at times - the docs that exist seem to assume a LOT of prior knowledge - the barrier to entry seems higher than ordinary Linux kernel hacking by quite a bit.
rlrevell said:
HI, I'd be willing to help with this, I'm a developer, I worked with @tecknight on TWRP for a phone called the Wiko Ride. We never quite got a working TWRP but learned quite a bit about AVB and such. I've already got my Sofia (US unlocked retail, running on Boost Mobile) rooted and could use a new challenge.
I too have been quite baffled by the Android build process at times - the docs that exist seem to assume a LOT of prior knowledge - the barrier to entry seems higher than ordinary Linux kernel hacking by quite a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look at my github you can see the cluster ef of changes I made to at least get to a console. Ironically if you repack the kernel into the chef version of TWRP it boots to the GUI but the touch screen doesnt work.. Our device is weird although it is android 10 native but it has a /system folder. Also on android 10 you can just add things to the vendor partition without using the product partition as an overlay.
Unpack the stock recovery. I went back to the basics and am basically going to mirror the stock recovery then inject the twrp binary, but its weird, the omni build system isnt doing some things correctly it seems also.
This will be your greatest resource. Code Aurora has the answers.
https://source.codeaurora.org/quic/la
https://source.codeaurora.org/quic/la/platform/vendor/qcom/trinket/tree/?h=LA.UM.8.11.r1-03800-NICOBAR.0
https://github.com/codyf86/device_motorola_sofia
LA.UM.8.11.r1-03800-NICOBAR.0 is our current CAF version tree.
Actually I just started the repo over the commits were nasty. Everything important and pertinent is in the initial commit now.
Ive been compiling and hacking kernels for 10 years, building Android for probably the same and this switch to the new partition layout + TWRP has so far been the... I don't want to say hardest but longest thing i've tried to do without any forward movement.
Like I said I got farther just by repacking the our kernel into the moto chef kernel, but they have a system_root directory and we dont. We just have system.
Theyre lib64 goes in /vendor ours goes in /system.
unpack the stock recovery image to start also TWRP uses init.qcom.recovery.rc to do things on the init and init.rc hand off where as stock recovery version of that file is different.
Actually I know partially why it wont boot. I have the paths in the init.recvoery.qcom.rc messed up, but also [email protected] doesn't exist in our lib64/hw directories, but there is a [email protected] file in the stock recovery so going to try that, plus were building bootctrl.trinket.
Nm i found the -service binaries for the boot gatekeeper keymaster libraries etc. think I made some progress but I have to build it and make sure everything gets in the right spot. will keep on keeping on.
The current code I have on my github will boot the stock recovery lol (the build system is being weird)....the build system isn't putting things in the right spot still. I was able to get TWRP to boot by rearranging some things manually, but it isn't pretty. So there is some progress, but the build system is part of the problem at this point at least for android 10. I'm still working on it.
CodyF86 said:
The current code I have on my github will boot the stock recovery lol (the build system is being weird)....the build system isn't putting things in the right spot still. I was able to get TWRP to boot by rearranging some things manually, but it isn't pretty. So there is some progress, but the build system is part of the problem at this point at least for android 10. I'm still working on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, do you have a telegram account for easier conversing? I feel we might be able to help each other here?(I'm working on sofiar)
Dark98 said:
Hey, do you have a telegram account for easier conversing? I feel we might be able to help each other here(I'm working on sofiar)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can make one and ill dm you.
Here are my questions so far / some observations.
The init.rc that the twrp build system puts in the build is incorrect. It needs to be manually added...I think there is a flag for that actually, but I had to change it once it was built. (I was able to make it boot to the first screen by dropping in things in /sbin from https://github.com/TeamWin/android_device_motorola_chef)
The build system doesn't add the twrpres folder to the built image lol; or the twrp binaries to /sbin.
I literally had to copy them over from chef.
Also for example servicemanager and hardwaremanager aren't in the chef repo but they are in /sbin when you unpack the recovery image (chef), is the build system building them or putting them in from somewhere or are the repos not actually the final product and they had to hack the image a bit too.
I had ours added in then took it out when I couldnt find them in anyones device tree but they are there when you unpack all of the recovery images lol.
edit: It's actually putting most of the stuff (adbd) and symlinks in /system/bin including the recovery bin which is twrp, so let me readjust the init scripts.
our device is different it still has /system and not system_root.
another edit: Looking at android_bootable_recovery/crypto/ex4crypt I think im missing some libraries still.
Okay, if/when you do message me on there please, I hardly check XDA other than when I'm updating a Rom I maintain? @Dark998 is my username
@CodyF86
Interested and surprised to see that twrp for native android 10 is in the works.
After reading Dees Troy's article in late 2019 regarding twrp on android 10, I had resigned myself to the notion that twrp is more or less dead for android 10+...
https://twrp.me/site/update/2019/10/23/twrp-and-android-10.html
Hope you're able to get it working!
Q9Nap said:
@CodyF86
Interested and surprised to see that twrp for native android 10 is in the works.
After reading Dees Troy's article in late 2019 regarding twrp on android 10, I had resigned myself to the notion that twrp is more or less dead for android 10+...
https://twrp.me/site/update/2019/10/23/twrp-and-android-10.html
Hope you're able to get it working!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was absolutely able to get it to boot with adb up but with no touch screen and it couldn't see any paritions, but ive adjusted the fstab file.
Also slightly embarassed to say I repo synced and forgot to drop twrp 10 back in, but i need a libinit with twrp 10 and it actually gave me a couple solutions to that accidentally doing that, accidentally building aosp recovery once time lol xD
CodyF86 said:
I was absolutely able to get it to boot with adb up but with no touch screen and it couldn't see any paritions, but ive adjusted the fstab file.
Also slightly embarassed to say I repo synced and forgot to drop twrp 10 back in, but i need a libinit with twrp 10 and it actually gave me a couple solutions to that accidentally doing that, accidentally building aosp recovery once time lol xD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking that if twrp isn't possible, how difficult would it be to modify stock recovery to remove signature verification?
With stock recovery signature verification disabled, at least side loading would be possible. Thoughts?
Also, I'm willing to help test if needed

Categories

Resources