Database Develop

Linux ON droid not IN android question????

Ok, this goes out to any and all DEVs out there. We all know by now that we (some people not me) can run linux within android using the loop mounts, vnc viewer, etc... Now how about REPLACING android with a linux distro like debian or maybe even what these guys use http://openpandora.org/ ..... its linux based and has an arm CPU.. Any way I'm talking about flashing over android wiping the internal sorage and installing linux on it or even using the boot loader to flash over android???, of course this is getting rid of any 3g connection and phone usage. I understand that, I am talking about giving our RETIRED droid 1s a use. I wanna see my D1 run a linux distro in full hardware mode NO MORE ANDROID. now dont get me wrong I love android as much as the next guy, but why now flash something else to it???
Another link I found, this is for windows mobile but hey, similar idea.
http://wing-linux.sourceforge.net/trac/wiki/FAQ
P.S. I AM NOT A DEV JUST AN IDIOT WITH AN IDEA!! my ignorance is NOT bliss and I would love to know if this is even possible. I'm willing to help ANY WAY I CAN. lol
THANKS!!!

I don't think it's possible. Because of the locked bootloader we're forced to use Motorola's bug-ridden Kernel and as Android's Kernel is a heavily modified Linux Kernel it most likely won't run an ordinary Linux distro.
But I'm no expert either

Milestone is locked, Droid is not ...

Maybe this will help (if you don't know german, you can use Google Translate):
http://www.android-hilfe.de/anleitu...debian-chroot-mit-lxde-auf-dem-milestone.html

Thanks for the replies. Again the USA Droid 1 is nit locked or at least has been completely unlokcked. I've read a million "run debian on android" posts... I don't need to know German to see that the post above is the same thing. Like I said before I have NO INTEREST IN RUNNING LINUX ON ANDROID. I want TO REPLACE android completely with Linux to make a device like the openpandora handheld from my first link.
Any one up to the challenge????
Thanks again!

Really, no one??

I've been running Debian on my Droid booting from the SD card for a while, more recently trying Arch Linux after realizing that anything optimized for ARMv7, VFPv3, NEON, or Thumb-2 (I'm not sure which unfortunately) won't boot because of a page fault or something. Ubuntu, MeeGo, and Angstrom just kernel panic and don't give any useful information even at the highest debugging level. I'm back to using an ARMv5te Arch Linux build (http://archlinuxarm.org) although I could just as well use Debian. I really wish Ubuntu worked for multitouch.
Well, I got the touchscreen calibrated! I forgot that my screen rotation hack only rotated the framebuffer It's stuck in portrait for now. I decided to use mtev (MeeGo's multitouch X11 input driver) after being fed up with evdev's aversion to being rotated, but now that I'm back to the stock portrait rotation evdev should work fine.
If you want instructions, either PM me or wait until I post a full guide and/or my patched kernel tree. It's not super difficult, but it's a lot of command line use and compiling.
What works:
*CPU and SD card (obviously )
*Touchscreen (single touch/portrait only for now)
What needs work:
*Keyboard mapping is wrong, the number keys and symbols don't work. I need to figure out how Android handles Alt. I had to patch the GPIO keyboard driver because the keyboard worked in the console but not in X11, which expects EV_SYN.
*Sound is OSS only, but there is no mixer device, so aumix is useless and there's no volume control or sound output.
*I haven't tried the SGX driver, so I can't comment on hardware acceleration yet.
*Battery charging relies on battd, which is a proprietary Android binary from Motorola. It might run on Debian with "ls -s / /system" and the creation of the socket it expects (init.sholes.rc I believe), but I'm not getting my hopes up.
Untested:
*WiFi (needs firmware, but should work)
*Bluetooth
*Calls/data
*Sensors (although the accelerometer and compass seem to be recognized by evdev)
I'll upload my kernel, either as patches or on GitHub (or binaries if there's enough demand) once I get around to fixing the keyboard issue. Fingers crossed that I don't get carried away cleaning up the kernel, or worse yet, give up...

This is incredible news! I'm so glad to hear it. Of course you are running in hardware mode? Not through android? If so I'm super exited about this! I love arch Linux, I run it on all my computers and I understand it more than any other distro I've tried. I would love to give it a shot, though I'm not that great at compiling I think it will be worth it.
As I said before I am in no way a dev or even a Linux pro, but I can get by and if theres any way I can help this project become "complete" I'm willing to learn what ever is necessary to do so.
Also were u able to get an x server running? Possibly a DE? That would be crazy awesome.
Thanks a million, looking foreword to work with you and make this happen!

For anyone who's interested, I put together a quick package containing my kernel patches, configuration notes, and an automated kernel build script.
It's pretty self-explanatory aside from the installation of the root filesystem, which I leave up to your imagination
As I've probably repeated several times now, I've run Debian and Arch Linux natively on my Droid with my patched kernel (no chroot or VNC "hack"). With enough determination, it's possible to run practically anything on it - personally, I'm determined to get Ubuntu on it.

WOOT... insta-fail for me LOL you have it set up to work in specific directories? I thought i placed everything right but I guess not.. I got an error on the first line of output lol
Welcome to gTan64\'s lazy Droid kernel compiler\!
build.sh: line 5: [: missing `]'
build.sh: line 5: -z: command not found
build.sh: line 5: -z: command not found
Entering $WORK
Applying patches
build.sh: line 16: /*.patch: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/arch/arm/boot/compressed': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `/compressed': No such file or directory
Setting up build
cp: cannot stat `/GNUmakefile': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `/sholes_config': No such file or directory
FIXME! No numeral or symbol input until someone finds a third-level
modifier key to use instead of AltGr for the keyboard.
cp $MISC/defkeymap.map $K_SRC/drivers/char
Building kernel!
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
Kernel build done!
You have done something amazing, I'm just to stupid to figure it out my self. XD
I can understand why you would want ubuntu with all its pre-setup glory and support for nearly all hardware but dont you think its a little heavy for this hardware? lol I doubt you would try to use the Unity UI but I doubt that alone would even fit in ram LOL you could just use the ubuntu packages and drivers with debian maybe?
THANKS AGAIN!!!!

That's what happens when I don't test my own scripts
I was thinking too much about making it easy. Just try applying my patches to your tree manually.
Code:
cd kernel_src
patch -p1 <../patches/first.diff
patch -p1 <../patches/next.diff #and so on...
#Obviously, substitute the paths of the actual patches ;)
#Finally, copy sholes_config to .config and invoke 'make'.
It's actually much simpler than my script makes it, and you don't need my convoluted folder setup.

UM lol I cant find any patch files? are they in the ZIP? or do I have to obtain them elsewhere?
I can tell this is gonna be a hell of a project LOL
THANKS!!!

"Duh" moment - I used the .diff file extension instead of .patch
I'm such a scatterbrain... Remind me not to release anything before testing
EDIT: Strike that, reverse it. They're .patch files.

I AM BLIND lol I found them... BUT.. when I try to patch. terminal just seems to lock up... I press enter, the curser moves to the next line but it doesnt do anything. lol how long should 1 patch take?? its been about 10 minutes and I leave it be for now
EDIT:
LOL i forgot the "<" in the command OOPS but I'm not seeing any .config file or folder in the source to copy the sholes_config too. yes I have show hidden files on.. PS unfortatly usinf Fedora 15 gnome 2...... (on server so I can work on this anywhere through vnc )
THANKS

When I said "copy sholes_config to .config", that's literally what I meant. .config is the Linux kernel build configuration file, not a folder.
'cp /path/to/sholes_config .config' from your kernel tree should do it.
Oh, I forgot to mention that you need an ARM cross-compiler/toolchain. I use the gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi package in Ubuntu, but I don't know what the Arch equivalent is off the top of my head.
The "GNUmakefile" is just a convenience, it exports "ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi-" before calling the actual makefile. If you don't have an ARM cross compiler in your path, it won't build at all. If you do, modify CROSS_COMPILE to point to it - on some systems it's called arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi, etc. etc.
Let me know if you get anywhere before it errors out.

OK I put the config file in the kernel_src but unfortainatly I'm using Fedora 15 XP I installed arm-gp2x-linux-gcc which is the fedora arm gcc I guess... lol so wha would I edit in the .config to make it point to arm-gp2x-linux-gcc. Its not my first attempt to compile an android kernel but I've never been succesfull LOLOL
thanks

I'm pretty sure that toolchain won't work - the GP2X was ARMv5 IIRC, so unless it's a newer build of GCC (4.3 or higher) and you're absolutely sure it supports the ARM EABI and the ability to generate ARMv7 instructions (which is unlikely if it's pre-4.1), I would recommend a newer toolchain.
CodeSourcery makes a pretty solid one: https://sourcery.mentor.com/sgpp/lite/arm/portal/release1803
If you end up using it, you can change the second line in GNUmakefile to "CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabi-". Don't worry about changing .config.

Well I DLed the linux/GNU installer and it gave me "arm-2011.03-41-arm-none-linux-gnueabi.bin" LOL
so I was thinking would it just be easier to just use my lappy with crunchbang (debian based) so I can follow ur instructions with deb / apt-get LOL fedora is a ***** and it dont have what I need... I cant find an arm v7 cross compiler for it
thanks

.bin files are the Linux equivalent of Windows EXE installers. Run it like this:
Code:
#cd /path/to/installer.bin
./installer.bin
#substitute the actual name, of course.
It needs root permissions if you want to install it to /usr/local (sudo ./installer.bin or su -c 'sh installer.bin'). You can also install it to /usr, but that will make it more tedious to uninstall later. If you decide to install it in your home folder - say ~/toolchain - you don't need root permissions, but you will need to add ~/toolchain/bin to your path:
Code:
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/toolchain/bin
To be honest, I prefer Ubuntu to Fedora/OpenSUSE/$RPM_distro, so if you have access to a Debian or Ubuntu system, using that would make my life easier

Omg duh... the "non_Linux" part of the name true me off lol i'll start doing this on my laptop it's deb based crunchbang. I prefer anything over rpm distros too but it was a quick painless install on my server XP thanks ill try this when I get home
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

[Q] ICS on a similar phone

Please forgive me for posting on your forum but I gave googled my problem with no success and the developers for ICS on the Hero have made progress with compiling ICS so I thought I'd ask my question here.
I have successfully compiled ICS 4.0.3 for the ARMv6 using the TeamICS patches here:
hxxps://github.com/TeamICS/ICS_Fixes
(sorry....can't post outside links yet!)
And other relevant pataches like:
hxxp://r.cyanogenmod.com/#change,10532
My phone is the Samsung Intercept with the S3C6410 processor similar to the processor in the Hero. The Intercept ROMs don't use .img files to flash the /system partition so I compiled ICS with: make -j4 otapackage to get a zip.
My dev box is Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and everything is installed EXACTLY like the AOSP website says it should be here:
hxxp://source.android.com/source/initializing.html
I flash the zip using CM recovery and boot and this error is killing me:
Warning PackageParser Exception reading AndroidManifest.xml in /system/framework/framework-res.apk
Warning PackageParser java.lang.SecurityException: /system/framework/framework-res.apk failed verification of META-INF/CERT.SF
Warning PackageParser Exception reading AndroidManifest.xml in /system/app/PicoTts.apk
Warning PackageParser java.lang.SecurityException: /system/app/PicoTts.apk failed verification of META-INF/CERT.SF
No apk will load because they fail verification. The list of failed APK's is long in logcat. I even went into the Java source code to hack out the verification code with no success. If any Devs have seen this or know why this is happening I would be grateful for a hint. Thanks.
UPDATE: I flashed the Hero ICS zip to my phone(with a few modifications to prevent a phone brick!) to see if the problem was with my compile or something else and I got the same errors. This must mean that there is something about the way Android checks APK signatures that I don't understand.
More information:
If I run jarsigner -verify -certs framework-res.apk I get "jar verified".
I have a theory about certs being bad at runtime:
In logcat there are entries saying that bouncycastle classes can't be preloaded and I'm guessing that bouncycastle has something to do with cryptographic keys so maybe PackageParser can't use the crypto classes and bombs.

jaybob413 would definitely be the guy to ask, or even mattcrystal. see if they have time to pm back and forth, and even post this in a dev/wip/rom thread in the intercept forums. exciting what these old phones can do, and i hope you go far with your port.

whoshotjr2006 said:
jaybob413 would definitely be the guy to ask, or even mattcrystal. see if they have time to pm back and forth, and even post this in a dev/wip/rom thread in the intercept forums. exciting what these old phones can do, and i hope you go far with your port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip...I have sent a message on github to mattcrystal so maybe he will respond if he has time.

bads3ctor said:
Please forgive me for posting on your forum but I gave googled my problem with no success and the developers for ICS on the Hero have made progress with compiling ICS so I thought I'd ask my question here.
I have successfully compiled ICS 4.0.3 for the ARMv6 using the TeamICS patches here:
hxxps://github.com/TeamICS/ICS_Fixes
(sorry....can't post outside links yet!)
And other relevant pataches like:
hxxp://r.cyanogenmod.com/#change,10532
My phone is the Samsung Intercept with the S3C6410 processor similar to the processor in the Hero. The Intercept ROMs don't use .img files to flash the /system partition so I compiled ICS with: make -j4 otapackage to get a zip.
My dev box is Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and everything is installed EXACTLY like the AOSP website says it should be here:
hxxp://source.android.com/source/initializing.html
I flash the zip using CM recovery and boot and this error is killing me:
Warning PackageParser Exception reading AndroidManifest.xml in /system/framework/framework-res.apk
Warning PackageParser java.lang.SecurityException: /system/framework/framework-res.apk failed verification of META-INF/CERT.SF
Warning PackageParser Exception reading AndroidManifest.xml in /system/app/PicoTts.apk
Warning PackageParser java.lang.SecurityException: /system/app/PicoTts.apk failed verification of META-INF/CERT.SF
No apk will load because they fail verification. The list of failed APK's is long in logcat. I even went into the Java source code to hack out the verification code with no success. If any Devs have seen this or know why this is happening I would be grateful for a hint. Thanks.
UPDATE: I flashed the Hero ICS zip to my phone(with a few modifications to prevent a phone brick!) to see if the problem was with my compile or something else and I got the same errors. This must mean that there is something about the way Android checks APK signatures that I don't understand.
More information:
If I run jarsigner -verify -certs framework-res.apk I get "jar verified".
I have a theory about certs being bad at runtime:
In logcat there are entries saying that bouncycastle classes can't be preloaded and I'm guessing that bouncycastle has something to do with cryptographic keys so maybe PackageParser can't use the crypto classes and bombs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry sir. I personally do not have enough time to look at your problem. I'm pretty busy with Zero Hero at the moment and ICS development is always on going.
When compiling from source the very last thing the complier does is run Google's signapk before finishing the zip. One reason I never got it to work was I was running 32 bit Ubuntu. Jaybob noticed I needed to be running 64 bit to properly compile and after that I'm able to flash my own builds from source. My guess is this is where you might be failing. ICS is a much bigger than gingerbread and tons of changes that are hard to overcome.
Sent from my HTC Zero Hero Sense 3.5

MattCrystal said:
Sorry sir. I personally do not have enough time to look at your problem. I'm pretty busy with Zero Hero at the moment and ICS development is always on going.
When compiling from source the very last thing the complier does is run Google's signapk before finishing the zip. One reason I never got it to work was I was running 32 bit Ubuntu. Jaybob noticed I needed to be running 64 bit to properly compile and after that I'm able to flash my own builds from source. My guess is this is where you might be failing. ICS is a much bigger than gingerbread and tons of changes that are hard to overcome.
Sent from my HTC Zero Hero Sense 3.5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for posting. ICS on the Samsung Intercept is up and running.

Do me a favor and click thanks perhaps and your welcome
Sent from my HTX Zero Hero Sense 3.5

no wip/dev thread on the intercept forums yet? that would be awesome, i a know a few with intercepts that would love to see ics on their phones. op you should think about making it happen, at least posting a guide/howto.

[Q] Help building CM for Nook HD+

I've been running CM on my HD+ for the last few months and it's been great. I'm working on making some modifications to the VM and to the kernel and it requires building CM from source. I've already done this with several other devices and have had only minor problems. I'm following the instructions and it can't build. I get the following error:
Code:
============================================
PLATFORM_VERSION_CODENAME=REL
PLATFORM_VERSION=4.3.1
CM_VERSION=10.2-20140120-UNOFFICIAL-ovation
TARGET_PRODUCT=cm_ovation
TARGET_BUILD_VARIANT=userdebug
TARGET_BUILD_TYPE=release
TARGET_BUILD_APPS=
TARGET_ARCH=arm
TARGET_ARCH_VARIANT=armv7-a-neon
TARGET_CPU_VARIANT=cortex-a9
HOST_ARCH=x86
HOST_OS=linux
HOST_OS_EXTRA=Linux-3.7.10-1.16-desktop-x86_64-with-SuSE-12.3-x86_64
HOST_BUILD_TYPE=release
BUILD_ID=JLS36I
OUT_DIR=/home/david/Android/system/out
============================================
make: *** /.config: Is a directory. Stop.
I've searched and haven't found a solution but It seems like I'm missing a manifest or something. I'm wondering if this is missing from 10.2 and I should just try building 11 or if there's a way I can build from source.
Thanks to anyone who can help!

No experience building CM but it looks like maybe /.config instead of ./config got invoked?
Sent from HD+ MAG2GA CM 11 from SD

Did you follow this guide? -> http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Build_for_ovation (repo init for cm11 instead if cm11 is desired)
Its probably just an error that you made. I don't remember seeing it before.
Edit it doesn't like /.config. That much is obvious. So try to rename or move it or fix your problem to avoid it. (if its ~/.config be careful as that is an important dir.)
There is a .config in /out during building process which is the kernel defconfig file. There is also ~/.config. And that's all I know about that. Look around for .config or google your error with "/.config;" removed and see how the "make: *** is a directory. stop" plain version helps you.

I followed the guide in the wiki but it's a no go. I removed and resynced just in case something didn't pull correctly (wouldn't be the first time). I'm grepping the makefiles for .config to try and narrow down the problem but it doesn't seem to be helping. I've compared the structures of the Galaxy Nexus and the Nook build trees and I don't see any huge differences.
<edit>
Found a bunch of config files but no .config, now I'm even more confused.

ddpruitt said:
I followed the guide in the wiki but it's a no go. I removed and resynced just in case something didn't pull correctly (wouldn't be the first time). I'm grepping the makefiles for .config to try and narrow down the problem but it doesn't seem to be helping. I've compared the structures of the Galaxy Nexus and the Nook build trees and I don't see any huge differences.
<edit>
Found a bunch of config files but no .config, now I'm even more confused.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It shouldn't be in what you received with the guide as your getting the device repo, but how you did it or something that is not configured correctly on your os.
Its a bit confusing but the error says what it wants and that's the key.
Edit: Tried to get my build to do the same but no go. Out of ideas for you. Sorry
Some other thoughts based on testing:
You get the correct manifest, etc. with the git and repo sync so again its not with what your getting. That all will build it without that weird error.
If there's no .config file in android/system/out/target/product/ovation/obj/KERNEL_OBJ/ then its because it didn't do enough to put one there yet. That shouldn't be the issue as it will rename a .config dir and continue or if it can't then have a different error.
Did you try make clean or make clobber and try building again?

sandsofmyst said:
It shouldn't be in what you received with the guide as your getting the device repo, but how you did it or something that is not configured correctly on your os.
Its a bit confusing but the error says what it wants and that's the key.
Edit: Tried to get my build to do the same but no go. Out of ideas for you. Sorry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had someone else try it on an Ubuntu machine and it has the same issue. I'll try to get the verygreen repos instead of the official CM ones see if that helps

Duplicated! ...
You have a .config directory in /
Exactly as the error says as I get the same error only by creating one there. Or I should say the exact same error line and no building.

sandsofmyst said:
Duplicated! ...
You have a .config directory in /
Exactly as the error says as I get the same error only by creating one there. Or I should say the exact same error line and no building.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're an absolute genius. For some reason I did have a /.config directory, I never even though of looking in the root directories. Must be some strange KDE issue. I deleted it and build kicked off and it's rolling fine now.

Having an issue building cyanogenmod 13.0

Hey guys,
I'm having an issue when building cyanogenmod 13.0. It gets to about 20 min into the build, then fails with this error:
Code:
ERROR: /home/edwin/phonelab/cm-shamu/frameworks/opt/hardware/src/org/cyanogenmod/hardware/PictureAdjustment.java:22: The import cyanogenmod.hardware.HSIC cannot be resolved
ERROR: /home/edwin/phonelab/cm-shamu/frameworks/opt/hardware/src/org/cyanogenmod/hardware/PictureAdjustment.java:46: HSIC cannot be resolved to a type
ERROR: /home/edwin/phonelab/cm-shamu/frameworks/opt/hardware/src/org/cyanogenmod/hardware/PictureAdjustment.java:57: HSIC cannot be resolved to a type
make: *** [/home/edwin/phonelab/cm-shamu/out/target/common/obj/JAVA_LIBRARIES/org.cyanogenmod.hardware_intermediates/with-local/classes.dex] Error 41
if anyone can point me in the right direction to get this straightened out I'd be appreciative.

saintsantos said:
/PictureAdjustment.java:22: The import cyanogenmod.hardware.HSIC cannot be resolved
ERROR: /home/edwin/phonelab/cm-shamu/frameworks/opt/hardware/src/org/cyanogenmod/hardware/PictureAdjustment.java:46: HSIC cannot be resolved to a type.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am building CM-13.0 for LG G4 H811 and found the same problem. It's due to
Change 153678 - cmhw: Add PictureAdjustment stubs
which was just merged this morning. This is the sort of glaring bug that will be found and corrected quickly. Sometimes I wonder whether some folks actually build their code before merging it.
Edit to add:
14:00 EDT - I checked the change comments and the senior devs are aware of the problem and are working on it.

It was reverted about 20 minutes ago. You can either repo sync again, or cd to frameworks_opt_hardware and git revert a8ef044be1eb70c0f8a17f0c40d4c5c08bf71593
http://review.cyanogenmod.org/#/c/153678/

saintsantos said:
Hey guys,
I'm having an issue when building cyanogenmod 13.0. It gets to about 20 min into the build, then fails with this error:
Code:
ERROR: /home/edwin/phonelab/cm-shamu/frameworks/opt/hardware/src/org/cyanogenmod/hardware/PictureAdjustment.java:22: The import cyanogenmod.hardware.HSIC cannot be resolved
ERROR: /home/edwin/phonelab/cm-shamu/frameworks/opt/hardware/src/org/cyanogenmod/hardware/PictureAdjustment.java:46: HSIC cannot be resolved to a type
ERROR: /home/edwin/phonelab/cm-shamu/frameworks/opt/hardware/src/org/cyanogenmod/hardware/PictureAdjustment.java:57: HSIC cannot be resolved to a type
make: *** [/home/edwin/phonelab/cm-shamu/out/target/common/obj/JAVA_LIBRARIES/org.cyanogenmod.hardware_intermediates/with-local/classes.dex] Error 41
if anyone can point me in the right direction to get this straightened out I'd be appreciative.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue here when building for jem (the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9"). I'm going to run repo sync and rebuild as suggested in post #3.

Neo said:
It was reverted about 20 minutes ago. You can either repo sync again, or cd to frameworks_opt_hardware and git revert a8ef044be1eb70c0f8a17f0c40d4c5c08bf71593
http://review.cyanogenmod.org/#/c/153678/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I reverted the commit in my repo anyway, but I'm just glad it was caught and handled.

Lenovo failing to provide working kernel sources that can be compiled for TB-8704F

On the Lenovo website, I have finally found source code for the kernel of the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus. I downloaded the source, made defconfig, and enabled KVM in the kernel and then compiled. I got several errors which couldn't be fixed. I wondered if this was the cause of KVM, so I disabled KVM and tried again. Same errors. Strange that the archive containing the sources for the Lenovo Tab 4 10 Plus is much larger than that of the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus, which suggests that the Tab 4 8 Plus sources are not complete yet they both have the same SoC. Shame on Lenovo! This is the last time I get a product from them unless things improve. When I went to complain on the forums, I couldn't even start a thread, even though I had logged in and had verified my email, which is why I'm complaining here. They're also violating the GPL. The Tab 4 series were released in 2017 yet only in 2019 has Lenovo started releasing the kernel source code, clearly a GPL violation. I wanted to start learning ROM development and possibly port Android Pie to the Tab 4 8 Plus but because of this I can't. I love my Tab 4 8 Plus and my Ideapad 310 laptop but I think I'm done with Lenovo after this unless things improve.

code_exec said:
Shame on Lenovo! This is the last time I get a product from them unless things improve. When I went to complain on the forums, I couldn't even start a thread, even though I had logged in and had verified my email, which is why I'm complaining here. They're also violating the GPL. The Tab 4 series were released in 2017 yet only in 2019 has Lenovo started releasing the kernel source code, clearly a GPL violation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree with your opinion on Lenovo. However, cannot confirm the problem with their forum. Also, they would have published the kernel sources much sooner if someone had asked earlier - which doesn't excuse the fact that they should publish the kernels immediately on their own.
I asked for the kernel source for the 10 Plus and the 8 Plus and got both after a longer wait.
code_exec said:
On the Lenovo website, I have finally found source code for the kernel of the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus. I downloaded the source, made defconfig, and enabled KVM in the kernel and then compiled. I got several errors which couldn't be fixed. I wondered if this was the cause of KVM, so I disabled KVM and tried again. Same errors. Strange that the archive containing the sources for the Lenovo Tab 4 10 Plus is much larger than that of the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus, which suggests that the Tab 4 8 Plus sources are not complete yet they both have the same SoC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't right. Text can be compressed very well. You have to compare the sources after unpacking, the code of the 8 Plus is compressed twice and therefore much smaller. At first view the kernel looks ok. But I didn't compile it, so you can still be right with your error messages, but the size of an archive is not an argument.
To compare two directories I use the tool Meld.
code_exec said:
I wanted to start learning ROM development and possibly port Android Pie to the Tab 4 8 Plus but because of this I can't. I love my Tab 4 8 Plus and my Ideapad 310 laptop but I think I'm done with Lenovo after this unless things improve.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started with rom development for the same reasons as you, only that I have the Tab4 10 Plus. I want to motivate you not to give up at this point. You have actually very good conditions to develop a working rom, because the Tab3 8 Plus has one or more device tree and kernel and you can use my work on the 10 Plus as well.

LumenReaper said:
I started with rom development for the same reasons as you, only that I have the Tab4 10 Plus. I want to motivate you not to give up at this point. You have actually very good conditions to develop a working rom, because the Tab3 8 Plus has one or more device tree and kernel and you can use my work on the 10 Plus as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does the 10 Plus kernel work on the 8 Plus though?

code_exec said:
Does the 10 Plus kernel work on the 8 Plus though?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not without adjustments.
The archive of the X704F contains build instructions from Lenovo and a working defconfig.
Compare the defconfig of the 10 Plus with your own. And as already said, compare the sources with Meld. I'm pretty sure you could get a working kernel out of it.

LumenReaper said:
Not without adjustments.
The archive of the X704F contains build instructions from Lenovo and a working defconfig.
Compare the defconfig of the 10 Plus with your own. And as already said, compare the sources with Meld. I'm pretty sure you could get a working kernel out of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's the actual error I get when compiling: https://pastebin.com/mJyei1Y9

code_exec said:
Here's the actual error I get when compiling: https://pastebin.com/mJyei1Y9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you send me your defconfig please? I will look into it but probably not today.

LumenReaper said:
Can you send me your defconfig please? I will look into it but probably not today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's just called defconfig and is located in arch/arm64/configs. The MSM ones appear to be for the Snapdragon 430 and not the Snapdragon 625 the Tab 4 8 Plus uses.

code_exec said:
Here's the actual error I get when compiling: https://pastebin.com/mJyei1Y9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
interestingly, I get a different error:
HTML:
CHK include/config/kernel.release
CHK include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h
CHK include/generated/utsrelease.h
CALL scripts/checksyscalls.sh
CHK include/generated/compile.h
CC arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.o
In file included from ./arch/arm64/include/asm/dma-iommu.h:12:0,
from arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.c:33:
include/linux/dma-mapping-fast.h:46:15: warning: 'struct dma_iommu_mapping' declared inside parameter list
error, forbidden warning: dma-mapping-fast.h:46
scripts/Makefile.build:257: recipe for target 'arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.o' failed
make[1]: *** [arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.o] Error 1
Makefile:946: recipe for target 'arch/arm64/mm' failed
make: *** [arch/arm64/mm] Error 2
and using the kernel config extracted from the kernel in build 180906 for the TB-8704X (I don't have the tablet yet):
HTML:
CHK include/config/kernel.release
CHK include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h
CHK include/generated/utsrelease.h
CALL scripts/checksyscalls.sh
CHK include/generated/compile.h
CHK kernel/config_data.h
CC drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa.o
In file included from drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa_trace.h:81:0,
from drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa.c:32:
include/trace/define_trace.h:83:43: fatal error: ./rndis_ipa_trace.h: No such file or directory
#include TRACE_INCLUDE(TRACE_INCLUDE_FILE)
^
compilation terminated.
scripts/Makefile.build:257: recipe for target 'drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa.o' failed
make[4]: *** [drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa.o] Error 1
scripts/Makefile.build:402: recipe for target 'drivers/net/ethernet/msm' failed
make[3]: *** [drivers/net/ethernet/msm] Error 2
scripts/Makefile.build:402: recipe for target 'drivers/net/ethernet' failed
make[2]: *** [drivers/net/ethernet] Error 2
scripts/Makefile.build:402: recipe for target 'drivers/net' failed
make[1]: *** [drivers/net] Error 2
Makefile:946: recipe for target 'drivers' failed
make: *** [drivers] Error 2
I'll play with it some more when I get mine sometime next week and update it and extract the kernel config
I haven't had any luck playing with merging the TB-X704L and TB-8704X sources, still getting the same error.
Edit: I get the same error for the TB-X704L and TB-X704F.
Another edit: did a diff with the Pixel kernel:
HTML:
diff -ur tab48plus/drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa_trace.h msm/drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa_trace.h
--- tab48plus/drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa_trace.h 2017-05-02 05:06:34.000000000 +0100
+++ msm/drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa_trace.h 2019-04-08 13:21:43.806756700 +0100
@@ -77,5 +77,5 @@
/* This part must be outside protection */
#undef TRACE_INCLUDE_PATH
-#define TRACE_INCLUDE_PATH .
+#define TRACE_INCLUDE_PATH ../../drivers/net/ethernet/msm
#include <trace/define_trace.h>
now I've gotten further, there's a lot of these errors
After fixing all the incorrect includes and adding the missing files, I have a kernel image
Edit: https://github.com/Phoenix09/android_kernel_lenovo_tb8704
 @code_exec: you should probably extract the config from your device and try building with this repo, I have no idea if any of the configs in the source are for this tablet.

Phoenix09 said:
interestingly, I get a different error:
HTML:
CHK include/config/kernel.release
CHK include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h
CHK include/generated/utsrelease.h
CALL scripts/checksyscalls.sh
CHK include/generated/compile.h
CC arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.o
In file included from ./arch/arm64/include/asm/dma-iommu.h:12:0,
from arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.c:33:
include/linux/dma-mapping-fast.h:46:15: warning: 'struct dma_iommu_mapping' declared inside parameter list
error, forbidden warning: dma-mapping-fast.h:46
scripts/Makefile.build:257: recipe for target 'arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.o' failed
make[1]: *** [arch/arm64/mm/dma-mapping.o] Error 1
Makefile:946: recipe for target 'arch/arm64/mm' failed
make: *** [arch/arm64/mm] Error 2
and using the kernel config extracted from the kernel in build 180906 for the TB-8704X (I don't have the tablet yet):
HTML:
CHK include/config/kernel.release
CHK include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h
CHK include/generated/utsrelease.h
CALL scripts/checksyscalls.sh
CHK include/generated/compile.h
CHK kernel/config_data.h
CC drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa.o
In file included from drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa_trace.h:81:0,
from drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa.c:32:
include/trace/define_trace.h:83:43: fatal error: ./rndis_ipa_trace.h: No such file or directory
#include TRACE_INCLUDE(TRACE_INCLUDE_FILE)
^
compilation terminated.
scripts/Makefile.build:257: recipe for target 'drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa.o' failed
make[4]: *** [drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa.o] Error 1
scripts/Makefile.build:402: recipe for target 'drivers/net/ethernet/msm' failed
make[3]: *** [drivers/net/ethernet/msm] Error 2
scripts/Makefile.build:402: recipe for target 'drivers/net/ethernet' failed
make[2]: *** [drivers/net/ethernet] Error 2
scripts/Makefile.build:402: recipe for target 'drivers/net' failed
make[1]: *** [drivers/net] Error 2
Makefile:946: recipe for target 'drivers' failed
make: *** [drivers] Error 2
I'll play with it some more when I get mine sometime next week and update it and extract the kernel config
I haven't had any luck playing with merging the TB-X704L and TB-8704X sources, still getting the same error.
Edit: I get the same error for the TB-X704L and TB-X704F.
Another edit: did a diff with the Pixel kernel:
HTML:
diff -ur tab48plus/drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa_trace.h msm/drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa_trace.h
--- tab48plus/drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa_trace.h 2017-05-02 05:06:34.000000000 +0100
+++ msm/drivers/net/ethernet/msm/rndis_ipa_trace.h 2019-04-08 13:21:43.806756700 +0100
@@ -77,5 +77,5 @@
/* This part must be outside protection */
#undef TRACE_INCLUDE_PATH
-#define TRACE_INCLUDE_PATH .
+#define TRACE_INCLUDE_PATH ../../drivers/net/ethernet/msm
#include <trace/define_trace.h>
now I've gotten further, there's a lot of these errors
After fixing all the incorrect includes and adding the missing files, I have a kernel image
Edit: https://github.com/Phoenix09/android_kernel_lenovo_tb8704
@code_exec: you should probably extract the config from your device and try building with this repo, I have no idea if any of the configs in the source are for this tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That GitHub repository lacks a defconfig for the TB-8704F (WiFi-only variant), which I have. Will the TB-8704X (LTE variant) kernel work on the TB-8704F out of the box without adjustments or will adjustments be needed for the kernel to boot? Also, how do I extract the defconfig from my device?

code_exec said:
That GitHub repository lacks a defconfig for the TB-8704F (WiFi-only variant), which I have. Will the TB-8704X (LTE variant) kernel work on the TB-8704F out of the box without adjustments or will adjustments be needed for the kernel to boot? Also, how do I extract the defconfig from my device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it might work, I don't know.
to extract the config:
you'll need mkboot
backup boot with TWRP, transfer boot.img to PC
extract boot.img:
Code:
./mkbootimg_tools/mkboot boot.img boot
decompress kernel:
Code:
cd boot
zcat kernel > kernel.out
extract the config:
Code:
/path/to/kernel/source/scripts/extract-ikconfig kernel.out > defconfig.txt

Phoenix09 said:
it might work, I don't know.
to extract the config:
you'll need mkboot
backup boot with TWRP, transfer boot.img to PC
extract boot.img:
Code:
./mkbootimg_tools/mkboot boot.img boot
decompress kernel:
Code:
cd boot
zcat kernel > kernel.out
extract the config:
Code:
/path/to/kernel/source/scripts/extract-ikconfig kernel.out > defconfig.txt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I backed up boot to a microSD card in TWRP recovery. However, there are three files in the backup folder of the microSD: one called 'boot.emmc.win', one called 'boot.emmc.win.sha2', and one called 'recovery.log'
The first file could possibly contain boot.img, but how do I extract it? The second one contains a SHA2 checksum for the first file. The third one is a more detailed log of what was happening in TWRP.
EDIT: Simply renaming boot.emmc.win to boot.img seems to have done the trick. Just extracted it, will look into it now.
EDIT 2: Managed to extract the defconfig and copied it over to the arch/arm64/configs folder and renamed it to tb8704f_defconfig. I then made defconfig and started compiling. Unfortunately same error. Something about topology.c is either broken on this kernel or my version of gcc is unable to parse something in topology.c. Even on the version off of GitHub. You said it was working for you, just curious, what Linux distro are you using? I'm happy to install it into a VM and compile the kernel from that. I'm running Ubuntu 18.04 and have tried compiling both on my host and in a systemd container, but same error.
EDIT 3: Yeah, it's an issue with my gcc compiler, because it doesn't error out at topology.c on an Ubuntu 16.04 systemd container with gcc 5 vs the Ubuntu 18.04 host and container I tried building it on with gcc 7 which did error out at topology.c. It's compiling right now in the Ubuntu 16.04 container and I do hope that it doesn't error out at another stage. It seems to be building well so far.
EDIT 4: I'm currently building it with the tb8704f_defconfig file I extracted from the tablet's boot image. Working well so far. I'm gonna build it without any modifications to the .config file and then flash it to the tablet to see if it works before making modifications with menuconfig. If this compilation goes well, I'll start making modifications with menuconfig.
EDIT 5: Kernel built, now I've got a file called 'Image' as well as Image.gz and Image-dtbs.gz Gzip archives. How do I flash these to the tablet?

code_exec said:
EDIT 2: Managed to extract the defconfig and copied it over to the arch/arm64/configs folder and renamed it to tb8704f_defconfig. I then made defconfig and started compiling. Unfortunately same error. Something about topology.c is either broken on this kernel or my version of gcc is unable to parse something in topology.c. Even on the version off of GitHub. You said it was working for you, just curious, what Linux distro are you using? I'm happy to install it into a VM and compile the kernel from that. I'm running Ubuntu 18.04 and have tried compiling both on my host and in a systemd container, but same error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure 3.18 won't built with GCC newer than 4.9 (at least without a lot of patches), I'm using Ubuntu 18.04 and Google's toolchain
code_exec said:
EDIT 5: Kernel built, now I've got a file called 'Image' as well as Image.gz and Image-dtbs.gz Gzip archives. How do I flash these to the tablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
replace kernel in the unpacked boot image with Image-dtbs.gz, repack using:
Code:
mkboot boot/ new-boot.img
then you can flash that using the "flash image" option in TWRP

Phoenix09 said:
then you can flash that using the "flash image" option in TWRP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got bootlooped when doing this, but thankfully I made a backup of my previous boot partition so I could restore in TWRP.
Unfortunately, I don't think we're getting very close to making custom ROMs for this tablet. Maybe the reason I got bootlooped was because you used files from the Pixel kernel for the missing files on your GitHub repository. I wonder if files from the Lenovo Tab 4 10 Plus kernel (which has been compiled in the past because there are custom ROMs available for this tablet) could be used instead.

code_exec said:
Got bootlooped when doing this, but thankfully I made a backup of my previous boot partition so I could restore in TWRP.
Unfortunately, I don't think we're getting very close to making custom ROMs for this tablet. Maybe the reason I got bootlooped was because you used files from the Pixel kernel for the missing files on your GitHub repository. I wonder if files from the Lenovo Tab 4 10 Plus kernel (which has been compiled in the past because there are custom ROMs available for this tablet) could be used instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the files I used from the Pixel kernel were probably generic Qualcomm stuff, I had the exact same issues with the 10 Plus kernel, I can play with it more when I get mine on Thursday.
Edit: I checked properly, they're generic Linux ones, those wouldn't affect booting (all netfilter stuff).
Edit 2: Have opened a ticket about the broken source, let's see if we get anywhere.
Edit 3: There is definitely issues with their source, repacked the stock boot image without modifying it and that boots, repacking it with my compiled kernel does not.

Hi Guys. Great to see people working on this. Will be great to eventually see a ROM for the tab 8 4. Best of luck.