Database Develop

Apps2SD greyed out....

Yeah, first thing the 'uber coders' will think is 'google it' or 'rtfm'. Well been all over and still can't get it to work. But I'll jump though the hoops and hopefully someone will point out where the missing information is. As much documentation that is out there for Android, there is much left to be desired and checked for clarity. So here it goes:
After having many issues with Clockwork Mod recovery, I finally got AmonRA installed and was able to install CM5.0.7 (8 would not install properly at all...too many broken thing like FCs on settings and such).
Things I have done to try to get Apps2SD working:
1/ Manually partitioned SD card
2/ Use Recovery option to partition the card (converted to EXT4 as per Cyanogen's suggestion)
3/ Tried following advice here: http://code.google.com/p/android-roms/wiki/A2SD
4/ Tried following advice here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=520582
- which leads to here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3879988&postcount=41 (which seriously need to be re-written.you can't type adb push while already in adb shell....not recognized)
5/ Ubuntu's Disk Utility tells me the EXT4 partition is clean.
So where to go from here? Nothing seems to make any sort of impact on this phone.

...to the QnA section.....
have you enabled apps2sd?
Settings>Applications and tick the Apps2SD box

Moved as not development.

garok89 said:
...to the QnA section.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, looking now....so far I've got 3 tabs opened because of that....this process is seriously sad. Why are there so many ways (some more poorly written than others) to do the same damn thing that the ROM is supposed to do itself? Don't worry, I'll try yet again another set of instructions to get this to work. Geeze....wasn't this hard the last time I enabled it. Seriously, I do't know why I torture myself with this....
garok89 said:
have you enabled apps2sd?
Settings>Applications and tick the Apps2SD box
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See, now that's just insulting. Although I will forgive you if you have some sort of mental deficiency and missed reading the subject of this thread.....but just in case, I'll return the favour. If "Apps2SD" is greyed out, that means I am at Settings/Applications and quite have the capability to select option on the phone by pressing/touching the screen. Guess what.....it stayed greyed out. This is why I have a new thread here with the 5 other things that I've read, quite exhaustively, to whit there have been no positive results.

So, following the directions outline here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=534714
NO freaking change. This is on a fresh ROM install of 5.0.7. Seriously, My card size in 8GB, like his, so I used almost his numbers, just a few bytes different, and nada.
Talk about a sad state.
Yes I repartitioned the card, yes I wiped the partitions (after reinstalling the first time and getting nothing but FCs, wiped each section available in the Amon RA recovery menu....three times each.)
So, let's try yet another method.....
I downloaded Apps2SD.apk. Installed it and ran it....guess what...it aid my card wasn't paritioned?!?! Umm....wft? Why the hell was CM NOT seeing the paritions? This card has been partitioned at least 20 times in the last month, in various methods. Yeah, this i good for it's lifespan....
So I went through it's partitioning process...guess what...still greyed out.
Opened the app again... "It looks like your SD cars isn't partitioned..."...are you kidding me?? (yes the app was granted Super User permissions when it ran....)
So....where do I find the part in CM that is broken and not allowing Apps2SD to work?

How is it that after wiping each item THREE TIMES in th recovery list, and a FRESH INSTALL that my background is still the same????
What is not being wiped?

with 2.1 theres an option for all your settings to be backed up to google. if your background is stored in the same folder on the fat32 partition of your sd card, when you load the new rom, your phone will set your background to what it was.
i know because i went from 5.07 with one background to jubeh's 2.2 with another background, needed gps, wiped EVERYTHING(data, system, ext partition etc.) in RAmon's recovery, flashed 5.08 and had my old background from 5.07 set, along with all my old apps downloading automatically...half hour later and my phone was done syncing and set up exactly how i like it, w/o me doing anythin.
that's how your background is still the same. =P
edit: looking at your signature..is your ext fs first on your sd card? i might be wrong but i think the fat32 needs to be first???

JadedTech said:
Nope, looking now....so far I've got 3 tabs opened because of that....this process is seriously sad. Why are there so many ways (some more poorly written than others) to do the same damn thing that the ROM is supposed to do itself? Don't worry, I'll try yet again another set of instructions to get this to work. Geeze....wasn't this hard the last time I enabled it. Seriously, I do't know why I torture myself with this....
See, now that's just insulting. Although I will forgive you if you have some sort of mental deficiency and missed reading the subject of this thread.....but just in case, I'll return the favour. If "Apps2SD" is greyed out, that means I am at Settings/Applications and quite have the capability to select option on the phone by pressing/touching the screen. Guess what.....it stayed greyed out. This is why I have a new thread here with the 5 other things that I've read, quite exhaustively, to whit there have been no positive results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was not attempting to be insulting, i run the cmupdater support and have received numerous "app2sd is greyed out" emails when in fact it was the "move to sd" that was greyed out, not the apps2sd toggle. so get down from your high horse and dont assume that you are better than anyone else. in my experience dealing with hundreds of support requests, i have found it is the person who asks the question, not the people who attempt to help, who are the problem.
"computers don't make mistakes, people using computers make mistakes" comes to mind...
although ubuntu is showing it as clean, choose the "repair SD.ext" option in the recovery...
and although it is unlikely to correct it, fix apk uid mismatches. apps2sd can be a funny thing which can work one day and not the other at times.....
i dont know why i am still trying to help you after pretty much calling me mentally retarded, but hey....
oh, and by "the qna section" i meant that you asked a question in the development area, ie. the wrong section

See, now that's just insulting. Although I will forgive you if you have some sort of mental deficiency and missed reading the subject of this thread.....but just in case, I'll return the favour. If "Apps2SD" is greyed out, that means I am at Settings/Applications and quite have the capability to select option on the phone by pressing/touching the screen. Guess what.....it stayed greyed out. This is why I have a new thread here with the 5 other things that I've read, quite exhaustively, to whit there have been no positive results.[/QUOTE]
you have to have a partition and it will not be greyed out

Either the poor behavior in this thread is going to stop or I'll close it. There is no need to be insulting in any way.

garok89 said:
i was not attempting to be insulting, i run the cmupdater support and have received numerous "app2sd is greyed out" emails when in fact it was the "move to sd" that was greyed out, not the apps2sd toggle. so get down from your high horse and dont assume that you are better than anyone else. in my experience dealing with hundreds of support requests, i have found it is the person who asks the question, not the people who attempt to help, who are the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, a few things to clear:
1/ This has truly been one of my frustrating experiences in all the tech I have ever played with (and that's pushing 30 years). Granted you would not know my experiences and my tenaciousness in following directions, despite them having me going off-the-beaten-path because something does not fit any proposed remedy.
What was insulting was the fact that you assumed that I wouldn't check the most basic thing when the ONLY indication that Apps2SD was not working was that tick being greyed out. But that would be because I didn't go into great detail about that. I was kinda hoping that was a given because without it being ticked, it obviously doesn't work.
So, since there was some bas assumptions made, allow me to be the first to apologize deeply and hopefully we can move forward.
garok89 said:
"computers don't make mistakes, people using computers make mistakes" comes to mind...
although ubuntu is showing it as clean, choose the "repair SD.ext" option in the recovery...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did that, no change. Although I will add in that your quote applies just as well to programmers as it does the users
garok89 said:
and although it is unlikely to correct it, fix apk uid mismatches. apps2sd can be a funny thing which can work one day and not the other at times.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, doesn't seem to work at all here.<shrug>
garok89 said:
i dont know why i am still trying to help you after pretty much calling me mentally retarded, but hey....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be because I think you recognized how frustrated I have been and in reality, I'm not really venting at you but at the lack of a solution, despite there being soo many ways to supposedly fix this issue. That would also be because you are most likely the kind of techie that hates to see things not work and will spend more time trying to fix it rather than give in and simply 'reinstall' because you want to know the reason why it happened in the first place. Maybe I'm wrong there, maybe I'm not. I'm am seriously glad that you are taking your time because not a single other person has.
garok89 said:
oh, and by "the qna section" i meant that you asked a question in the development area, ie. the wrong section
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I forgot to apologize to the mod for that. Sorry Mod....
So, have any other ideas how to fix this? I am rather loathe to just try to 'update in hopes that it automagically fixes the issue' approach.

tdt1345 said:
you have to have a partition and it will not be greyed out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to read my first post again.....
"Things I have done to try to get Apps2SD working:
1/ Manually partitioned SD card"

jamesd86 said:
with 2.1 theres an option for all your settings to be backed up to google. if your background is stored in the same folder on the fat32 partition of your sd card, when you load the new rom, your phone will set your background to what it was.
i know because i went from 5.07 with one background to jubeh's 2.2 with another background, needed gps, wiped EVERYTHING(data, system, ext partition etc.) in RAmon's recovery, flashed 5.08 and had my old background from 5.07 set, along with all my old apps downloading automatically...half hour later and my phone was done syncing and set up exactly how i like it, w/o me doing anythin.
that's how your background is still the same. =P
edit: looking at your signature..is your ext fs first on your sd card? i might be wrong but i think the fat32 needs to be first???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah...I realized this after I left the house and was getting into the car. Just too frustrated when I posted. It was one of those 'don't drink and drive' but more of a 'don't vent and post' type of deals....well, at least not here. Thanks any ways.

have you tried ext2 before upgrading to ext4?
ext4 didnt like my spare g1 too much....but my main one got along fine with it

JadedTech said:
1/ Manually partitioned SD card"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is the partition system ids correct:
Code:
# fdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 8166 MB, 8166309888 bytes
252 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1020 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15624 * 512 = 7999488 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 1 952 7436993 b Win95 FAT32
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 953 1020 531216 83 Linux
Command (m for help):
The 'b' for the vfat partition and '83' for ext
The startup scripts use there values for some autodetection in cm5.
If all you change is the Id data wont be lost but you are at fault if you don't backup.

garok89 said:
have you tried ext2 before upgrading to ext4?
ext4 didnt like my spare g1 too much....but my main one got along fine with it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a very interesting observation as I have been automatically upgradeding to EXT4 (as I did read that is what Cyanogen uses...figured if it was good enough for him....) so I just reformatted my SD card from the Recovery partition into EXT2 with a 32MBswap and the rest in FAT32. No change. Damn....seemed like one of those 'simple and yet not obvious' type of answers that may have worked too...

ezterry said:
Is the partition system ids correct:
Code:
# fdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 8166 MB, 8166309888 bytes
252 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1020 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15624 * 512 = 7999488 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 1 952 7436993 b Win95 FAT32
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 953 1020 531216 83 Linux
Command (m for help):
The 'b' for the vfat partition and '83' for ext
The startup scripts use there values for some autodetection in cm5.
If all you change is the Id data wont be lost but you are at fault if you don't backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now this produced something interesting.
Code:
# fdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 243328.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help):
#
So, how does one go about fixing this if this is the reason that "in certain setups cause problems"? This seems to be a likely candidate for the root of the issue.
Redo partitions in Fdisk?

instead of doing it from recovery
do it from ubuntu via gparted

Sorry for jumping in here but... A while back Dusty wrote a great tut for doing this correctly. Did you follow his thread instructions? If not, take a look. It may have the key to your happiness.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=534714&highlight=51dusty

JadedTech said:
So, how does one go about fixing this if this is the reason that "in certain setups cause problems"? This seems to be a likely candidate for the root of the issue.
Redo partitions in Fdisk?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The size warning only applies to the short falls of BIOS booting x86 PCs. We don't boot the dream from the sdcard or is the phone booted with a x86 BIOS...
If it was you need to ensure the boot partition is near to the beginning of the disk.. you can safely ignore it

OMAP4430 boot.rom dump

My purpose is to locate the fastboot system, and I thought that I would start from, well, the start. Boot-up on the OMAP4430 tries many places, one is an on-chip 48kb ROM. I initially tried to read /dev/mem, but no matter what address I tried to read it would say Bad Address, so I had to make a kernel module, in which I dumped the boot ROM to a file... and it worked.
The reversion of the ROM on my bionic is 0x03 0x19
(Please read Ch 27(.4.2.1) of OMAP4430_ES2.x_PUBLIC_TRM_vY.zip )
I am more handy with ia32 assembly, not arm...
So where is fastboot? I can see a few other addresses, but if I try to map some of them, the device will reboot.. The TRM spoke of 0x08000000 for a fast boot XIP but a reboot occurs (I think) ... any ideas where to look next?

After a day of digging around, I was able to find that "fastboot"(0x08000000) address at 0x28C18 (0x28000 is the base address of the boot.rom) ... just helping out anyone else interested in looking into this. I somehow don't think that this is what I am looking for though... but atleast I do know that I am making some headway
Edit: Confirm that I am unable to read even one byte from 0x08000000 .. reboots
Edit2: Polling from the Control Register (0x4A0022C4) returned 0x00000AEF ... which means that
1) This is not a GP(General Purpose) OMAP4430
2) SYS_BOOT[5:0] is b101111 which tells us
a) to use Memory, not Peripheral boot devices
b) 1st boot device is MMC2(1)(perm) (eMMC/eSD = GPMC pins)
c) 2nd= USB-ULPI (external transceiver)
... Does the MMC mean it boots from the onboard 16gb? If so, then this might be easier to trace through than I thought...
Has anyone dumped the entire contents of that memory? or just the known partitions?
Edit3: Reading the TRM more (pg 5240) tells me that SDMMC2 only Raw mode is supported, no file system (FAT12/FAT16/FAT32) support because the purpose of this approach is to avoid the boot time penalty of searching for a file system hierarchy when it is not always necessary.
Edit4: ...and Sure enough, dumping the first 512 bytes of /dev/block/mmcblk1 shows the Bootable signature (0x55AA) at the end (0x01FE)
... I thought I read that it would just try to read in RAW mode, which makes it not want to even have such a thing, but I knew it had all those other partitions, so I figured I might have been wrong there...
A proper dump of this soon enough.. atleast I gave you guys the boot.rom from the actual OMAP4430 that would have been otherwise hard to retreive... I only wasted one day on this, not bad and I learned some ARM ASM
Edit5: Maybe I am getting ahead of myself, it is of type 0x83 ... which is Linux, not any of the FAT FS which the boot.rom supports... ?
Edit6: Well, it has the file it's looking for, not sure if it's a FAT system like it's suppose to be though, and it looks like in a 1MB dump that fastboot is in the 2nd or maybe more, partition... I still want to try to dump this "MLO" bootup file... but i have to learn about FAT fs structure, ugh...

The implications of deep hardware hacking like this make me very excited for what could be possible with the Bionic. It contains some absolutely absurd hardware for a mobile device so the sky's the limit at this point. Fantastic work! I could only dream of being able to comprehend the things that guys like you can.
Also I wonder if this thread would end up getting proper attention in the dev section.

projektorboy said:
The implications of deep hardware hacking like this make me very excited for what could be possible with the Bionic. It contains some absolutely absurd hardware for a mobile device so the sky's the limit at this point. Fantastic work! I could only dream of being able to comprehend the things that guys like you can.
Also I wonder if this thread would end up getting proper attention in the dev section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only wish I could comprehend what he is talking about. I'm glad to see a vested interest is being taken!
Sent from my DROID BIONIC

Thanks so much, Noxz for making the effort to do this!

hey, thanks finally for the responses, a full day after the initial dump and no responses... I think because it's NOT in the dev section... but I can't post a thread there until I have 10 posts... maybe I can get that privilege now, moderators?
The bad part with disassembling is that when it computes an jump in code(in ARM it's called a branch) and doesn't give a specific address, it makes finding that code very hard.. I found the text "MLO", the bootable file, in the boot.rom but nothing of the code I know referenced it yet, unfortunate because that partition is not a standard FAT fs and thus is taking a while to read, but if I did have the disassemble of the ROM code where it looks for that, or even just the file search, then I could easily see what it is reading...
Obviously knowing that fastboot and such is in the second or third partition is quite a step forward, but I need to dump this MLO file so we can read from start to finish...
I'll keep everyone posted

So this partition isn't a correct FAT fs... I don't know if being identified as a Linux partition means anything and I'm just not reading into it right, but I am having some time trying to look into these files, you can easily see the MLO file, a KEYS file, and a PRIMAPP file right at the start, or I should say the file name, but there isn't much information on where they are mapped, etc etc...
Maybe partition2 will be better? It's also identified as a Linux partition
I still have a few days to waste...

Sorry to ask dumb. But what exactly does this benefit me when flashing it?
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

The current fastboot does not have several commands that is in the original source... but really, I am just interested in the entire boot procedure.. there's a few things I might like to change... The good news is because everything but the boot.rom resides on the eSD, that means we should be able to write to it very easily, so we can change quite a bit

Noxz, I am along with these guys in I would understand more if I was just dropped in the middle of Ghana :\ but I would like you to know that you have given me my 1024th item on my 'to research' list. So once I get bored with what I'm doing now, I am going to try to learn a little bit about ARM and OMAP

Hah, I understand...
I've done a bit of x86 ASM and BIOS disassembly before.. so I figured I might as well peek into this and see what is being hidden and such...
I am seeking help right now... If you know anything about the FAT filesystem... you can start by doing "dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk1p1 of=/mnt/sdcard-ext/partition1"
.. It obviously has that MLO bootup file in it as mentioned in the OMAP4430 TRM but I can't seem to trace what cluster it might be in... I have to assume that it is in fact a FAT fs... but it doesnt seem to follow any of the structures/formats I've been reading... ???

The boot rom you've dumped is the ti omap itself; the only real purpose of that is to bootstrap the bootloader. You are correct in that it's not a GP; none of the Motorola phones are -- this boot rom is what verifies the signature of the bootloader.
http://www.droid-developers.org/wiki/Booting_chain
While not exact, the above diagram will give you an overview of the layout used by Motorola phone. The short version is boot rom -> mbmloader -> mbm -> lbl -> kernel, where mbmloader is the Motorola terminology for the MLO or X-LOADER referenced in the TRM. mbm is the bootloader (motorola boot manager) and controls all actions henceforth, including fastboot (which replaced an older sbf protocol).
The CDT acts as a partition table and lists the layout of the device, including marking where the signatures are located and how often they're checked.
http://blog.opticaldelusion.org/2011/10/bionic-development-notes.html

Sorry for late answer.
Here you can find example of reversing OMAP 3430 bootrom http://hg.droid-developers.org/reverse_engineering/src/b8b881184b5f/asm
As mentioned before droid-developers wiki contain a lot of info about bootrom.
Here you can find info about bootrom itself http://www.droid-developers.org/wiki/Application_Processor_Boot_ROM
Here you can find info about security model in omap http://www.droid-developers.org/wiki/Security http://www.droid-developers.org/wiki/Secure_Services
Here you can find info about my project - emulation of early OMAP booting (including bootrom debugging) http://www.droid-developers.org/wiki/QEMU

[Q]Is there a possibility to install rom on sd

Welcome. Already he was just asking about the same with the addition of some suggestions.The init.d directory has the opportunity to start up the concrete near the beginning of a comment, start the machine.One could initiate concrete partitions on the SD card to have played a role partition "mtd" for example / system / data / cachefrom what I noticed the kernel to jb has otherwise changed little these partitions (size).I do not know exactly how it looks with them, but if one could perform 2 partitions by mtd / system (small to perform the basic start-up and later redirects to / systemsd and the rest used as a framework or a particle cache?)
examples of partition
mtd / system (start-up)
mtd / ram (unless you know)
mmc / fat32
mmc / systemsd (the rest of the system)
mmc / data
mmc / .......
and so onthat was a minimum of 4 block
for it is our memory that was on the phone at the same time much bigger and faster (unless there think) than a swap sdanother thing that applications were loaded into the framework so that if they were around 500 + mb ram for the system to switch on only long landing and later had to speed up.I came up with this idea a bit strange when I have made applications to change fat32, after connecting the USB cable.for me my memory card is slightly odd partitions of personal reasons
Class10+ 32gb
fat32 / sdcard 26gb block1
ext4 / 4gb sd-ext Block2
swap ... 2gb block3
fat32 / sdcard2 2gb block4
sorry to my poor english. I hope you understand my gibberish (a lot of words I could not remember so I used google translator)

-AsA- said:
Welcome. Already he was just asking about the same with the addition of some suggestions.The init.d directory has the opportunity to start up the concrete near the beginning of a comment, start the machine.One could initiate concrete partitions on the SD card to have played a role partition "mtd" for example / system / data / cachefrom what I noticed the kernel to jb has otherwise changed little these partitions (size).I do not know exactly how it looks with them, but if one could perform 2 partitions by mtd / system (small to perform the basic start-up and later redirects to / systemsd and the rest used as a framework or a particle cache?)
examples of partition
mtd / system (start-up)
mtd / ram (unless you know)
mmc / fat32
mmc / systemsd (the rest of the system)
mmc / data
mmc / .......
and so onthat was a minimum of 4 block
for it is our memory that was on the phone at the same time much bigger and faster (unless there think) than a swap sdanother thing that applications were loaded into the framework so that if they were around 500 + mb ram for the system to switch on only long landing and later had to speed up.I came up with this idea a bit strange when I have made applications to change fat32, after connecting the USB cable.for me my memory card is slightly odd partitions of personal reasons
Class10+ 32gb
fat32 / sdcard 26gb block1
ext4 / 4gb sd-ext Block2
swap ... 2gb block3
fat32 / sdcard2 2gb block4
sorry to my poor english. I hope you understand my gibberish (a lot of words I could not remember so I used google translator)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't get you.
But it is possible to install rom on sdcard with High read/write speed.(class 6 or higher)
all U need is a dual-boot recovery
(I don't know that u must have a Rom installed in internal memory or not(
Sent From My "ULTIMATE ROM- gb - WP8 edition" via Tapatalk

yes, but not on my mind
dual-boot umount dir and make new to port img file. mtd block is not changed
my idea if edit mtd block
Memory phone
mtdblock0 /system size 206 mb
mtdblock1 /cache size 50 mb
mtdblock3 /data size 211mb
mayby mtdblock2 is block ram1, ram2 ..... size ~200mb
all ~667mb
my idea is
mtdblock0 /system (basic start-up i don't know mayby 20mb-67mb)
and mtdblock1 is block ram 600mb
of sd card make block to /system /data etc
this is my idea but I do not know if possible

@-AsA-
Hi. I am working on a dual-boot project. I sent you an invite to our group. It would be awesome if we could work together. I have a test kernel ready, if you want to test. It's still a WIP. Everything modified is mentioned there. Please take a look. Thank you.
Looking forward to working with you.
sgt. meow

sgt. meow said:
@-AsA-
Hi. I am working on a dual-boot project. I sent you an invite to our group. It would be awesome if we could work together. I have a test kernel ready, if you want to test. It's still a WIP. Everything modified is mentioned there. Please take a look. Thank you.
Looking forward to working with you.
sgt. meow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im helping you on dboot project

The bootloader won't boot directly from the sdcard.
Nevertheless, you can definitely have ROM images in the sdcard and use those while booting android (basically you only have to update init.rc for that).
Check 'multiboot' in my signature for more details.

nobodyAtall said:
The bootloader won't boot directly from the sdcard.
Nevertheless, you can definitely have ROM images in the sdcard and use those while booting android (basically you only have to update init.rc for that).
Check 'multiboot' in my signature for more details.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can we edit bootloader?
Sent from my XPERIA X8 using xda premium

fotak-x said:
Can we edit bootloader?
Sent from my XPERIA X8 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First make it unlockable for newer devices
Then edit
sent from my W8 using client-server technology

fotak-x said:
Can we edit bootloader?
Sent from my XPERIA X8 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S1loader is not open source to work with. You could hex-edit it if you had some easy way to flash it and recover from the countless hard bricks the bootloader development process has. Unfortunately this is doable via jtag only. My knowledge is limitted on that area.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

As for the bootloader, what could be the first real-time editor hex can perform a large change in the machine switched on.
When it comes to dual boot I can help not only the development of a test.
slightly going back bootloader to my x8 from the beginning she had unlocked (date of manufacture 10W40 surprisingly). I had not unlocked. To change the kernel or other heavy operations.Never failed to I managed to brick trying to do specifically
not worried about the phone I'm always ready to purchase a new...

The idea of a modified bootloader is nice, but it have two problem.
1. Modify the bootloader to add capability to boot directly from sdcard is basically useless because this is possible with a simple script in a modified ramdisk. Check the post from nAa, or search the thread about nBoot from feherneoh. This is easy and not need to do dangerous things.
2. The modification of the bootloader is near impossible because:
- the working of S1Boot is not documented
- this is a non-standard raw binary, hard to disassembly/decompile
- if someone can disassembly it correctly, need VERY HIGH skills in native arm assembly programming
- need special hardwares to revive the dead phone after all failed modifications (special cables, setool, etc...)
Don't forget: we had to wait more than a year to get unlocked bootloader (and this modification only skip the security verification), and this is working only with devices what older than 1-1,5 years.
I think if someone have these prerequisites, better if he/she working on valuable things instead of boot from sdcard (add fastboot support to bootloader, etc...)

I was thinking of making nBoot work with JB (it didn't). If that fails we will come up with a new method.
It's almost impossible for us to re-write the bootloader.
It would be super cool if someone added fastboot support to our bootloaders.

nobodyAtall said:
The bootloader won't boot directly from the sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe not in our device but its not impossible
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2061437

stamatis said:
maybe not in our device but its not impossible
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2061437
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously I was talking about these devices not some Samsung one...
@sgt. meow fastboot support is not something that can be added to an existing bootloader. The bootloader itself has to support this protocol. Hence the only solution would be to switch to another bootloader which would have to be ported from scratch for these devices.
The job would require a tremendous amount of effort since not even miniloader works for them!

Can we use dd to write an entire directory to a .img file? I'm thinking of something.
@nAa
I know. I was just unaware that bootloaders could be ported for our device (even if it meant no sleep for 6 months for the brave dev).

sgt. meow said:
Can we use dd to write an entire directory to a .img file? I'm thinking of something.
@nAa
I know. I was just unaware that bootloaders could be ported for our device (even if it meant no sleep for 6 months for the brave dev).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mtd devices are not block devices. What are you trying to achieve?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

I was thinking of using feherneoh's nBoot, but in a different way. My idea was to somehow write the current ROM's /system to system.img on sdcard and the same thing with data and cache. Then install another ROM that uses the same kernel (JellySony for example). Then if XXX is present in /sdcard, it would mount system.img as /system (and the same with data and cache), thus enabling dual-boot. In a kinda stupid way.

sgt. meow said:
I was thinking of using feherneoh's nBoot, but in a different way. My idea was to somehow write the current ROM's /system to system.img on sdcard and the same thing with data and cache. Then install another ROM that uses the same kernel (JellySony for example). Then if XXX is present in /sdcard, it would mount system.img as /system (and the same with data and cache), thus enabling dual-boot. In a kinda stupid way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how my multiboot mod worked actually - except from the fact that back in those days we couldn't flash custom kernels and the whole job was done via the chroot/hw_config.sh hack.
The bummer is you can't switch kernels so multiboot between say gb and jb is not possible.

nobodyAtall said:
S1loader is not open source to work with. You could hex-edit it if you had some easy way to flash it and recover from the countless hard bricks the bootloader development process has. Unfortunately this is doable via jtag only. My knowledge is limitted on that area.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...where can i find s1loader in phone? can i pull it out?just curious.....

fotak-x said:
...where can i find s1loader in phone? can i pull it out?just curious.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are two options:
- Export all the partitions (I think the file is nand_partitions.c) from kernel. The mtdump/dd it.
- Use the mtdmapper module that is in the unlocking bootloader tool to get all the partitions to map and then dump it.
Both ways basically do the same thing and they both have a pretty BIG chance of getting your device hard bricked (even when you are in read-only mode).

Managed to get my emmc-bricked i9001 working... somewhat

Since I've been mainly a lurker/reader I can't write in the threads involved:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2224029
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2233138
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2224029&page=15
and finally:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2216996&highlight=userdata+img+ext4
Btw, this is a screenshot of that eMMC test tool and sure enough, I've got the M8G2FA eMMC chip:
I can't get root to work and any app I try to use that require root stall and then make the Holo launcher in Slim-3.1.0-ariesve-20130403-1127-UNOFFICIAL rom (the only one I managed to get working, probably because it writes ALL partitions) drop to main screen an flash the menu window until I click the menu button.
I flashed, reflashed, tried all the "fixes" to no avail, flashed that 1.4GB userdata.img.ext4 file in odin, flashed the TEST KERNEL eMMC Brick Fix, tried replacing the boot.img in the slim package with the eMMC boot after repartitioning my external SD etc... Thing is, I tried them in so many different ways that I can't say exactly what the right procedure is and I'm not going to risk a reflash now that I've got it going until someone have a more permanent fix.
If a dev want me to do adb tests, scripts, get logs etc. just PM me and I'll supply you with what you want. I'm not all that proficient in adb usage but I learnt a thing or two when I bricked my Desire.
It is frustrating to not have a functioning Superuser/SuperSU/Rooted OS (tried flashing Root-i9001-Signed.zip among other things which does nothing) but I guess that's the price I have to pay for flashing a 3.x based CWM's without knowing about eMMC brick bugs and crap. Right now I'm running an OS with the eMMC fixed (used External SD instead of eMMC I believe) Linux kernel 3.0.70 since it's the only one I got working (albeit with a few random reboots here and there when I use the android debug bridge). Starting normal apps is quick and JB is blazing fast though. Can't change any system settings in Holo launcher (since they require root) so I edited the build.prop with the excellent adb-plugin for total commander (which I use almost exclusively to access my phone)
Good news is that it works as an unrooted phone.. Wifi, phone, e-mails etc. all work. So I'll be content for now since last night I thought I had a graveyard bricked phone I bought second hand for $95 5 days ago, esp. after bricking my Desire which made me buy this one.
Of course, Slim comes with a bunch of scripts in the init.d folder that may make things less stable/slower since I (think) I'm running my 8GB Class 10 MicroSDHC as the Internal and vice versa with that kernel fix.
I copied the logcat.txt and debuglog.txt and zipped them for anybody interested: http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/411145/Logs-zip.html

Hi Scyphe,
I understand you do not remember the exact procedure you used but could you give me some help understanding how the "normal" procedure should work? I read all posts you linked, I've tried, but I still can't get what I'm doing wrong... What are the basic steps that are needed make it work with data on SD?

[Q] XT890's Medfield SoC architecture

(I know this thread maybe should belong to Development forum, but I'm posting here since I don't have enough posts to discuss there yet)
I'm in the second year of Computer Science, being a dynamic/interpreted languages programmer for over 6 years now, C/C++ for 2 years.
I have a solid understanding on the x86 PC architecture: interrupts, buses, etc. I'm pretty good at basic x86 assembly... Been studying UEFI for over a month... Whatever.
I've lost the past couple hours searching but didn't find anything on the architecture of our device. Is the "Bootloader" here compared to a BIOS? Or is it like any PC bootloader (MS-DOS, Windows, Linux bootloaders). Is there anything like a BIOS at all or does the OS, once booted, manages all the hardware interrupts by itself? Can I use INT 10H on XT890? Is it ANYTHING close to the PC architecture?
PCI, ISA, (parallel and serial) "ports" managed by a chipset between the peripherals and the x86 core itself?
Ok, it's x86. Once the system has booted, we can call x86 instructions, ok... But what is under that? Is there any reference on this? How can I boot my own code, if it's not Linux?
I really got nowhere trying to learn about the architecture underneath Android and Motorola's Bootloader on Medfield. Found nothing on Intel nor Motorola websites. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance!

I'm studying this myself but there is a lot that i need to learn. Check those to see if helps.
http://bootloader.wikidot.com/android
http://elinux.org/Android_Booting
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linuxboot/

I would like more info about the RAZR I as well, considering it's the only mainstream phone with a x86 processor I'd expect more documentation about it, I am receiving a RAZR I soon.
For what I know, it's boot process is similar to other Android devices, it loads and decompresses a boot.img file that includes a ramdisk and the kernel, you should be able to load another non-linux OS by chainloading a secondary bootloader there, I honestly would like to see more development on the Razr i, specifically to get native Gnu-linux with x11 running

Using @thiagomtl's links, I was able to understand a little more about the Boot process. XT890 seems to have basically the same mechanics of the ARM ones, but x86 tuned.
However I'm yet to understand the differences between "normal" Linux bootstrapping and the Android Bootloader's one.
On a average legacy Linux box we have GRUB/LILO on the MBR. Making a hell of a simplification here: The user turns the PC on, BIOS does the POST and then loads whatever code is on the MBR. GRUB is a very small program there, which simply loads a driver for the storage device, loads vmlinuz and the f*ing ramdisk on the memory and executes it (effectively by simply pointing the IP to the address where the kernel is on the memory).

Samuelgames said:
I would like more info about the RAZR I as well, considering it's the only mainstream phone with a x86 processor I'd expect more documentation about it, I am receiving a RAZR I soon.
For what I know, it's boot process is similar to other Android devices, it loads and decompresses a boot.img file that includes a ramdisk and the kernel, you should be able to load another non-linux OS by chainloading a secondary bootloader there, I honestly would like to see more development on the Razr i, specifically to get native Gnu-linux with x11 running
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But the Boot process is just a part of my original question. Ok, a important one, but a part.
What about the structure of the device? How it's all implemented? Is the display using plain old VESA VBE? Are the input devices PS/2? USB? Is the power implemented using ACPI standards? lol

As far as I'm concerned Atom SoC doesn't respect many industry standards for the architecture, even for those who run Windows 8, buttons on the Razr I should be naturally be defined as GPIO as the notification LED, I don't think the display respects VESA standards (SGX 540 can't even do scaling) but it should fallback to them at some extent depending on how you initialize the framebuffer.
All of this should be in the Motorola kernel, I haven't taken a look at it but I'll surely will once I get my phone

@Hazou, @YaPeL, @Omar-Avelar
you guys know anything about this?

Ok this is all i know about it by searching through the code and internet and by finding out myself (no sources included, just my memory). It's all linux, nothing like Windows.
Kernel:
We indeed are making a x86 kernel, but not for normal PC's. We use the mid-x86 implementation within the x86 code of the kernel. (arch/x86/platform/mid-x86) MID is the intel word for all the socs for mobile platforms intel is using. The normal upstream linux doesn't provide all the necessary code. And is has changed with the new android version 4.4.2 for our device.
Boot sequence:
The android devices use some sort of bootloader. Droidboot. Droidboot includes the fastboot commands and starts the bringup of the android system. You can read about it on the internet. In most devices (ARM) it is the first thing thats get called for.
Our intel device is a little different. Before the droidboot gets loaded the firmware of the device loads another OS. Also called POS (i think preprocessor OS, or something). Those gets updated with the dix and efwi(wrong name) files we got. The POS can be accessed by booting in the medfield download through the camera button, if i am correct. The POS then loads the droidboot which will in turn load the rest, like a linux device which loads from the bootloader.
The partition layout can be found in the gpt.bin. It can be flashed through fastboot and can change every partition afaik.
So the boot order is:
1. POS/RADIO
2. DROIDBOOT
3. BOOT.IMG is like linux. First the kernel then the ramdisk with the kernel modules.
4. ANDROID
To comment about the JB implementation.
We can build our own kernel and we can, if we want and take the time, upgrade the kernel to the newest version (for android is that 3.10, but we should be able to manage to go fully upstream 3.17). But that takes a lot of time.
I also noticed that, from what i heard, some kernel modules specific for our device has changed and now the kernel that we have can't load the new firmware files in 4.4. So we will need the next kernel from Moto to compile our own when 4.4.2 is released. Those changed are not upstream.

Hazou said:
The POS then loads the droidboot which will in turn load the rest, like a linux device which loads from the bootloader.
The partition layout can be found in the gpt.bin. It can be flashed through fastboot and can change every partition afaik.
So the boot order is:
1. POS/RADIO
2. DROIDBOOT
3. BOOT.IMG is like linux. First the kernel then the ramdisk with the kernel modules.
4. ANDROID
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the most interesting part for hundreds of us. Is there a way we can find what sectors are used for the pos so we can possibly repair code corrupt?
I have a feeling the gpt is messed up so any amount of writing to the dnx or ifwi will be in the wrong location.
I can't find any information on this phone at all.
I think it's time I bought a spare mobo and dumped everything to compare a broken to working

Flacid Monkey said:
This is the most interesting part for hundreds of us. Is there a way we can find what sectors are used for the pos so we can possibly repair code corrupt?
I have a feeling the gpt is messed up so any amount of writing to the dnx or ifwi will be in the wrong location.
I can't find any information on this phone at all.
I think it's time I bought a spare mobo and dumped everything to compare a broken to working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If i am correct they are present on the partition layout of the phone. I just don't know wish ones are the right ones. Never looked good enough at that.
Also to repair the gpt and write the dnx or ofwi to the right location u need a dd command or flash command with the right parameters. The flash command most likely won't work because of the gpt partition and the DD command wont either because most of the time u don't have access to a recovery anymore.
But my knowledge about this is limited, so if u dare to put your phone on the line and have maybe the knowledge and skills to do what some people need, please do I can't and need my phone working

Hazou said:
If i am correct they are present on the partition layout of the phone. I just don't know wish ones are the right ones. Never looked good enough at that.
Also to repair the gpt and write the dnx or ofwi to the right location u need a dd command or flash command with the right parameters. The flash command most likely won't work because of the gpt partition and the DD command wont either because most of the time u don't have access to a recovery anymore.
But my knowledge about this is limited, so if u dare to put your phone on the line and have maybe the knowledge and skills to do what some people need, please do I can't and need my phone working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Skills/knowledge = limited. I'm no programmer but I take information in like a 100 petabyte SSD.
My phones knackered, I'm trying to fix it but it's not easy! If it's fixed, I'll break it again to make sure the fix works :good:
It's going to be a long road, there is zero success since the first report of code corrupt.
As you say, I need the right param. There's almost no information about it anywhere and what information is about is very fragmented.
I'll keep you updated

Flacid Monkey said:
Skills/knowledge = limited. I'm no programmer but I take information in like a 100 petabyte SSD.
My phones knackered, I'm trying to fix it but it's not easy! If it's fixed, I'll break it again to make sure the fix works :good:
It's going to be a long road, there is zero success since the first report of code corrupt.
As you say, I need the right param. There's almost no information about it anywhere and what information is about is very fragmented.
I'll keep you updated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am almost certain it can be fixed as long as it is a software failure (some maybe have a hardware failure). As this seems one of them it should be fixable as long as your BL is unlocked. With a locked bootloader u don't stand any chance (nah, maybe with medfield flasher, but that one is also limited).
Take a look at the acer padphone or something. Dunno how it is called exactly. Is also uses the intel SOC and makes use of the medfield flasher.
I never had a phone thats corrupt so can't say much about it, but i can help with thinking my way through. If u have that problem can u boot in fastboot or is that even impossible? I know we can flash the POS and fastboot through xfstk. So with the right combination it should work. And if not we can try flash the modem as extra if that is possible. But do know it can hard-brick the device (modem, lowest thing of the device) of-course, aldo u don't have much choice now
Another thing, because fastboot (and even recovery) can flash the dix, ifwi and bootloader files. I 'assume' xfstk (that can also flash the ifwi, dix and bootloader) can flash the whole emmc with indeed the right parameters. We have the source code of the fastboot/recovery ifwi, dix and bootloader flasher. Also called update_osip.
So think it out, i will wait and see.

uart console
Has somebody tried to access a uart console on our razr-i? would be nice for debugging.
Intels datasheet says the board has 3 uart ports. http://ark.intel.com/products/70097
I hope one uart port can be accessed via usb or audio jack. Like on this device: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1081743
Or is it only possible with opening the phone and looking for jtag pins?