Related
Huge thanks to Hashcode for all his hard work thus far, what with the totally ingenious Safestrap and his latest victories with CM9. I hope this helps somebody out and that at least *someone* out there thinks this is as cool as I do.
Pushing OK+Backspace will force the console to kick you out back into the recovery, in case you get stuck. Keep in mind that the console is pretty powerful but also really dangerous if you don't know exactly what you're doing. Although, you'll never learn how to do anything awesome unless you get your hands dirty.
The Microphone button is now ESC, command history works, tab-autocompletion works via either the hardware Tab key or by pushing OK+i, and you can scroll back up through the text one line at at time with Alt+Up or Alt+Down or in chunks of 8 lines with Shift+Up and Shift+Down. Home is the home softkey, or the Search button on the keyboard, and End is the Power button. You could also push OK+A or OK+E for Home and End, respectively.
Make sure you uninstall Safestrap and then remove the application before you install this one. I just jacked Hashcode's .apk and stuffed my new binaries inside the .zips, if you don't want to bother with uninstalling and reinstalling the .apk, you can extract the recovery.zip and 2nd-init.zip from the archive and push them both to /system/etc/safestrap and reboot. Enjoy.
..............................................................
EDIT: I finally got my act together and put my modified sources on github:
http://github.com/buddyrich/android_bootable_recovery
............…………………………………………
EDIT: Just finished up my latest update to this branch of Hashcode/Koush's work. Added:
-Use numbers on the hardware keyboard to select menu entries. Got really tired of scrolling around and thought this would make things a bit quicker.
-Scrolling/repeating keys. Holding in for longer than about half a second will repeat even faster now, similar to a real terminal on a PC for instance.
-vim statically compiled to avoid the need for any external libs (ie: having /system or /systemorig mounted). Full color support and syntax is working great now; the only thing missing is background colors, which will be tricky to implement.
-a $HOME directory is now made at /emmc/safestrap/home. This is set up when the .apk is installed; it isn't necessary so it can be deleted if you want, but it is required if you want to have a persistent command history in bash as well as the ability to customize your .bashrc and .vimrc files. Most of you won't really know what this means, but if you do you'll probably appreciate it.
-Revamped all the menus and made everything look a little cooler. Let me know what you guys think! I got rid of the highlighting box that shows which menu entry is currently selected and changed it to simply highlight the text in white to distinguish from the green/yellow menus; I think it's a little easier on the eyes but some feedback would be cool. It wouldn't be very hard to allow the users to customize the menu colours themselves via external files placed on the sdcard/through a menu option.
-Fixed the issue some people were having with restoring to /systemorig; there aren't any more issues mounting/unmounting /systemorig or /system during a restore
-Probably many more things I've forgotten
-.bashrc tweaks, fixed a few aliases, nothing major
-You can flash updates from either safe or non-safe mode now, look in the advanced menu. Really though, be careful and remember to make backups of your /systemorig partitions. Don't say I didn't warn you! Guaranteed, someone out there will complain that they broke their phone so I was pretty hesitant to let that out in the wild, but I know I've found myself in the situation where I could've used it so there you have it.
Let me know if anyone finds any issues, I've done a pretty thorough job testing this over the last few weeks but there's always something to be missed. The new .apk is over the size limit to be posted in the forum due to the new bash and vim binaries and the vim runtime files, so you can download the new version from my dropbox here:
Safestrap (Tweaked) v1.08e for Droid 3
http://db.tt/CArenxr7
EDIT:
----------------------
Just finished thoroughly testing my latest release and think it's ready for human consumption! Another batch of sweet additions:
1) Proper implementation of /systemorig flashing while in non-safe mode... without any modifications needed to the updater-script present in any flashable zip. Even if the updater-script inside the. zip file you are flashing targets "/system", if you confirm it about three times in non-safe mode it will know to copy the files onto /systemorig to replace your stock system.
You can install Gingerbread-based ROMs such as MavROM 3.5 to the stock /system partition while in non-safe mode via the Advanced menu. Safestrap will backup and afterwards restore it's own files needed to ensure you can still get back in after a flash of the /systemorig partition. Note that flashing your original /system partition with an ICS ROM won't work yet because they need custom init.*.rc scripts in place during the 2nd-init process; this isn't hard to do but I was getting anxious to get something out so it'll have to wait until next time.
2) Redesign of the layout for the menus, much more organized
/* 3) Allow for rebooting directly into the recovery, either via the shell command "reboot recovery" or through the Reboot Menu */
// EDIT: Seemed to be causing some users to persistently boot straight into the recovery so on the backburner for now
4) Allow for custom colors for either safe or non-safe mode; to change the colors for now you have to execute a few little shell commands. Here's an example to change safe mode colors to a blue-grey and then non-safe mode colors to maroon:
Code:
s_rgb 139 137 137
ns_rgb 127 34 10
cc
Basically, "s_rgb" sets the colors for safe-mode and the three arguments (139 137 137 in the above example) are the codes for the red, green and blue components of the end result; you can look up rgb color codes for your own custom colors. "ns_rgb" is the command for non-safe colors. "cc" just tells the recovery to update the colors to whatever they've been changed to. If you don't like what you've done and just want to revert back to the stock ones, you can just wipe your /cache partition and they'll go back to normal.
Eventually I thought it'd be cool to be able to do this via the recovery UI but I haven't been able to envision how it would work yet.
5) Added background colors/highlighting in the console now, makes vim look a lot prettier. If there's anyone out there who cares, I preinstalled a few plugins (MiniBufExplorer, MRU (most recently used files), bash-style path completion, etc.)
Also, changed the cursor from the big ol' ugly white block to an easier-on-the-eyes one-character underline.
Yeah, it's overboard.
6) Much faster backups and somewhat quicker restores now. I clocked full backups (including /systemorig and ~350mb /data partition) at around 2 mins and full restores at around 7 minutes. Also fixed up the progress bars so they give a more accurate representation of how much longer the backup/restore will be.
7) Moved $HOME and other misc. Safestrap files to /cache instead of the /sdcard
8) Probably half a dozen other OCD details that I've already forgotten.
Test it out and let me know what you guys think!
As always, sources are posted on my github:
https://github.com/buddyrich/android_bootable_recovery
You can get the new .apk here:
Safestrap (Tweaked) 1.08f for Droid 3
http://db.tt/u4vAwv2u
i need this about 6 hrs ago lol.
Quite useful mate cheers.
=smc
Thank you so much for sharing this file. Your work is greatly appreciated.
This is a nice little(big)addition to safestrap! Thanks for adding it in!
I can't think of any better use for Christmas Eve than coding a bash console into recovery! Merry Christmas to the D3! Thank You!
Sounds good. I haven't grabbed it yet (as I need to keep my own customised Safestrap for ME863 nandroid support) but one thing I'd note is that the "OK" button (i.e. trackball click) is used for "Control" in Console+, and the console in Amon_RA's HTC Dream recovery. That saves you losing the @^ key.
Edit: Also: Source? Sounds like something that could be pushed upstream. I always found the console in Amon_RA's recovery very useful, missed it on my current device, when I didn't have a computer with ADB handy.
TBBIe,
I have an XT860, so I'm curious to see if this would work on your ME863. I remember seeing a post of yours a few months ago mentioning issues with the preinstall and data partitions (I think it seemed that the data partition was extended into the first bytes of the preinstall partition, rendering it unmountable during init) that should also have affected the XT860, but I have never experienced any issues with the partitions since Hashcode released v1.06.
I'll commit my sources to github shortly so you have take a look.
I am trying to get through the preinstall problem myself after flahing xt883 and I was wondering if I could fix it with this?
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
Hey there guys, Village Idiot here...I've been successfully using Hash's SafeStrap for a while now and wanted to try this one out. What's the difference here? Just by looking at it, I can't tell. It seems better from what everyone is saying, but I have no idea how to utilize it. Would you mind dumbing it down for Simple Jack over here? Thanks.
redsox985 said:
Hey there guys, Village Idiot here...I've been successfully using Hash's SafeStrap for a while now and wanted to try this one out. What's the difference here? Just by looking at it, I can't tell. It seems better from what everyone is saying, but I have no idea how to utilize it. Would you mind dumbing it down for Simple Jack over here? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has a console option included, allowing you to run shell commands, which could potentially save your butt if used right.
Otherwise it the same
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
Endoroid said:
It has a console option included, allowing you to run shell commands, which could potentially save your butt if used right.
Otherwise it the same
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which it just did lmao..hash really needs to include this in his release!
Once again thanks for this mod it is PERFECT!
ovelayer said:
Which it just did lmao..hash really needs to include this in his release!
Once again thanks for this mod it is PERFECT!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh I'm sure I'll be damn thankful at some point. Made a point of installinng it
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
Rick#2 said:
I have an XT860, so I'm curious to see if this would work on your ME863. I remember seeing a post of yours a few months ago mentioning issues with the preinstall and data partitions (I think it seemed that the data partition was extended into the first bytes of the preinstall partition, rendering it unmountable during init) that should also have affected the XT860, but I have never experienced any issues with the partitions since Hashcode released v1.06.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The difference is the other way 'round. The /data partition is extended backwards over the end of the /preinstall partition.
It doesn't cause problems during init, it was causing nandroid to fail mounting /system, and presumably would make switching to safe-mode fail (although I never tried)
My patch to fix this for nandroid was based on 1.06. The only way this could be 'fixed completely' in safestrap was if safestrap had had repartitioning code added at some point to resize /data back down and grow /preinstall to be large enough to hold a safe system. And Hashcode'd said he didn't have time or real inclination to do that, I thought.
I'm fairly strapped for time at the moment, so I don't know when I'll have a chance to look at the source and/or try out your build. But it's definitely somewhere in my TODO list. ^_^
orry for dumb question...ok, i wanr root my friends drodi 3,i think i know how to do it using the one click software the same i used to root my bionic,now to order to go into custom recovery i need install this apk file am i right,i mean is the same as in bionics bootstrap???? sorr y for noob qustion ,just that i dont speak english very well so i need be 100% sure what am doing thanks again,,btw do u know if the last wifi tethering works on this droid 3???
@rick#2
I'm running CM9 for daily use, but it's a bit wobbly at times, so I run 7.1 as the "non-safe" system. The big limitation to this is that I can't maintain the 7.1 fallback properly as hashcode deliberately disabled installing zips in non-safe mode.
If the wife has forgiven you by now - any chance of adding the ability to install .zips when in non-safe mode?
The alternative is to keep swapping bootstraps all the time, and all it takes is one late night sleepy mistake to stop the device booting one system or both.
I'm in favor of this as well, and have even mentioned it in the main SS thread. Could you add flashing to non-safe, but say with like 3 layers of warnings saying something like "THIS IS YOUR NON-SAFE, MAIN SYSTEM. FLASHING HERE CAN BRICK YOU."
This would be really nice because it's a PITA to keep switching strappers, albeit it easy, just a burden.
This is a great hack! I was considering doing this myself but you beat me to it! BTW, is your modified source code on github or somewhere like that, or can you send it to me if not? Thanks again!
Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates to this thread. Been buuuusy.
I made an account on github about two weeks ago, but still haven't gotten the chance to upload the sources there, for those of you who are interested. I'll do that shortly.
I've got a new version I'll put up pretty soon, just need to do some more testing. I've enabled scrolling (ie: holding a key down to repeat it as opposed to requiring you to push it each time) but have to iron a few things out, and I'd like to add another menu enabling some of the (somewhat dangerous although useful if you know what you're doing) features some of you have requested.
Rick#2 said:
Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates to this thread. Been buuuusy.
I made an account on github about two weeks ago, but still haven't gotten the chance to upload the sources there, for those of you who are interested. I'll do that shortly.
I've got a new version I'll put up pretty soon, just need to do some more testing. I've enabled scrolling (ie: holding a key down to repeat it as opposed to requiring you to push it each time) but have to iron a few things out, and I'd like to add another menu enabling some of the (somewhat dangerous although useful if you know what you're doing) features some of you have requested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude you rock!
Sence you introduced your mod i have used nothing else..
The scrolling feature would be a HUGE improvement i agree ..
Also it would be nice if you could flash on the non-safe system as well..
Hope you can get er done..
I allways seem to watch this thread for updated..i really hope you can continue this adventure without the wife killing you lol..stay real!
---------- Post added at 12:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:41 PM ----------
denpad2010 said:
orry for dumb question...ok, i wanr root my friends drodi 3,i think i know how to do it using the one click software the same i used to root my bionic,now to order to go into custom recovery i need install this apk file am i right,i mean is the same as in bionics bootstrap???? sorr y for noob qustion ,just that i dont speak english very well so i need be 100% sure what am doing thanks again,,btw do u know if the last wifi tethering works on this droid 3???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey bro if you want wifi teather look up android-wifi-teather..it works!
First off, thanks to everyone for helping make the Nook Color such a vibrant community. There's a wealth of information here and I'm really grateful for it. I love the NC and it's great that we can unlock its full Android potential thanks to the hard work of the folks here... both the people that make the tools, and the people that help support it.
I am curious to know if anyone out there has some custom boot animations that aren't so flashy. Both the wife (who also rooted her NC) and I suffer from migraines, and the bootup sequence can be really painful with the bright flashing colors. Something a little more subdued would be preferable.
I'm also not sure if I can run a custom boot animation on the NC without using Cyanogen? I've upgraded to 1.4.1 today (which promptly went into a boot loop which MN 4.6.16 didn't solve, so I reverted to 1.2 and then went back to 1.4.1 and got it re-rooted with MN 5.12.20 properly... thanks again for all the info here!), so I'm just using a rooted stock system. I searched for boot animations on the forum but most of the results were pages of people mentioning which animation they got stuck on while trying to root
Also, does anyone know anything about NookDevs.com going dark? Their site just shows a blank HTML page and any old links give a 404. It's a pity, because their wiki was a bit more in-depth than the NC wiki here.
stormerider said:
[...] I am curious to know if anyone out there has some custom boot animations that aren't so flashy. Both the wife (who also rooted her NC) and I suffer from migraines, and the bootup sequence can be really painful with the bright flashing colors. Something a little more subdued would be preferable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also not a fan of the early MN startup screens, but there's an easy fix (see below).
I'm also not sure if I can run a custom boot animation on the NC without using Cyanogen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can. MN changes it on B&N firmware.
If you've already over-written the boot animation by running MN, you'll need to find a replacement somewhere. Not sure how to do that. However, if you either haven't replaced it yet or are willing to do a factory reset, you can tweak the ManualNooter scripts. If you open the MN .zip file, go into /META-INF/com/google/android/ and edit the updater-script file with a text editor. Look for the 3 lines that begin with "ui_print("Installing Boot Animation...");" and comment them out by putting '#' characters at the start of each line. There are 3 lines in 5.12.20. Write the modified version to that same location, and then run it to (re)root your unit.
Alternately, you could modify /data/local/bootanimation.zip in manualnooter-5.12.20.zip. Hack down the updater-script, and you can have it install ONLY the boot animation if you want to try a few variations.
Finally, if you've already rooted, you could try plugging a replacement in to /data/local/bootanimation.zip directly. No guarantees on this one, though.
bobstro said:
I'm also not a fan of the early MN startup screens, but there's an easy fix (see below).Yes, you can. MN changes it on B&N firmware.
If you've already over-written the boot animation by running MN, you'll need to find a replacement somewhere. Not sure how to do that. However, if you either haven't replaced it yet or are willing to do a factory reset, you can tweak the ManualNooter scripts. If you open the MN .zip file, go into /META-INF/com/google/android/ and edit the updater-script file with a text editor. Look for the 3 lines that begin with "ui_print("Installing Boot Animation...");" and comment them out by putting '#' characters at the start of each line. There are 3 lines in 5.12.20. Write the modified version to that same location, and then run it to (re)root your unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just finished getting everything set back up (I hit a setting page that did a reset on my unit... not so happy. Running Titanium Backup now...), so I'm not really keen on re-running MN. I'd rather just tweak what needs to be done, as things seem to be a little bit fragile and breaking things requires a lot of time to get back up and running.
Alternately, you could modify /data/local/bootanimation.zip in manualnooter-5.12.20.zip. Hack down the updater-script, and you can have it install ONLY the boot animation if you want to try a few variations.
Finally, if you've already rooted, you could try plugging a replacement in to /data/local/bootanimation.zip directly. No guarantees on this one, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does MN override the bootanimation binary to support /data/local, or does bootanimation support that location directly? I did some searching and it looks like some people are patching the binary so it works with more standard Android boot animations and it was unclear to me if the /data/local path was part of that customization as well or not.
Also, I was in part posting to see if anyone had any recommendations for the animations themselves. Graphics work is definitely not my forte, I'm more of a server guy
bobstro said:
I'm also not a fan of the early MN startup screens, but there's an easy fix (see below).Yes, you can. MN changes it on B&N firmware.
If you've already over-written the boot animation by running MN, you'll need to find a replacement somewhere. Not sure how to do that. However, if you either haven't replaced it yet or are willing to do a factory reset, you can tweak the ManualNooter scripts. If you open the MN .zip file, go into /META-INF/com/google/android/ and edit the updater-script file with a text editor. Look for the 3 lines that begin with "ui_print("Installing Boot Animation...");" and comment them out by putting '#' characters at the start of each line. There are 3 lines in 5.12.20. Write the modified version to that same location, and then run it to (re)root your unit.
Alternately, you could modify /data/local/bootanimation.zip in manualnooter-5.12.20.zip. Hack down the updater-script, and you can have it install ONLY the boot animation if you want to try a few variations.
Finally, if you've already rooted, you could try plugging a replacement in to /data/local/bootanimation.zip directly. No guarantees on this one, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to go through all of that trouble. If you don’t like the boot animation in MN, simply go to /data/local, and delete or rename bootanimation.zip to bootanimation.zip.old, this will take you back to the factory boot animation.
The NC will work with any boot animation you can think of, you just need to follow a few basic rules. The rules are outline at nookdevs.com, Link, the site is down at this time, so here is a link for the cached site, Link.
If you are going to take a boot animation from another device, or from online, and edit it for the NC, the most important step is to NOT use any compression when you zip it back up. You can screw-up almost every other step, and still have a working boot animation, but if you compress the zip, it will not work at all.
CM 7.1.0-encore note
FYI: After putting CM 7.1.0-encore on my NC (and then wanting to change the boot animation), I discovered that the path is: /system/media/bootanimation.zip
Awesome. thanks for the info. Starting to build my own intro...
This thread is for FlashCast image developers ONLY. If you are not developing a FlashCast image, please do not post here. Post in the main thread instead.
Hello developers! I hope that this thread can serve as a place for you to ask any questions you may have about FlashCast development or internals, make feature requests, and report issues you're having. I will edit this post with FAQs as they come up. Until then, take a look at my documentation on GitHub, which contains documentation and sample code to help you create FlashCast mods.
tchebb said:
This thread is for FlashCast image developers ONLY. If you are not developing a FlashCast image, please do not post here. Post in the main thread instead.
Hello developers! I hope that this thread can serve as a place for you to ask any questions you may have about FlashCast development or internals, make feature requests, and report issues you're having. I will edit this post with FAQs as they come up. Until then, take a look at my flashcast-samples repository on GitHub, which contains documentation and sample code to help you create FlashCast mods.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far its working great! Plan on releasing a rooted 13300 system image with this soon, but I was wondering, is there a possibility you could create a partition backup option? so like
Code:
backup_mtd_partition 'rootfs' 'system.img'
Where it will make a folder called backup on the jump drive, and store the rootfs file system with the name of system.img? also a md5 for each file would be nice. I know I could just have a script dd the mount point, but would be nice to see a function to call.
ddggttff3 said:
So far its working great! Plan on releasing a rooted 13300 system image with this soon, but I was wondering, is there a possibility you could create a partition backup option? so like
Code:
backup_mtd_partition 'rootfs' 'system.img'
Where it will make a folder called backup on the SD card, and store the rootfs file system with the name of system.img? also a md5 for each file would be nice. I know I could just have a script dd the mount point, but would be nice to see a function to call.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would definitely be a useful feature. I can see a few implementation details that would need to be worked out in a non-obvious fashion, though:
There is currently no way for a imager script to directly access the root of the user partition. This is intended to prevent multiple scripts from having access to the same filesystem and possibly overwriting each others' files. Instead, scripts are executed in a temporary directory whose contents are discarded on device shutdown. It seems like the solution to this would be to create numbered backup directories, like there are numbered logs now, for mods to place their backups in.
It wouldn't be desirable for a mod to take a backup every time it was flashed, as not everyone cares about backups and they take up lots of space. There would need to be some way for the user to decide whether or not they wanted backups. Maybe another flag file?
Finally, taking a backup of an MTD partition using nanddump (dd should not be used to image NAND partitions, since it is not bad-block aware) images the entire partition, when (in the case of squashfs) only a small part actually has a filesystem on it. This means that a single rootfs backup will take up 400MB on the USB drive. I would want to implement something which can back up only the part of a partition which squashfs is using before I release backup functionality.
Obviously, this is a prime candidate for a new helper function, because of these non-trivial complications. I'll see if I can make the necessary changes to FlashCast and release backup functionality as part of v1.1. Thanks for the suggestion!
One more suggestion, if you do not mind.
How about the ability to flash multiple zips at once? So, if I have 2 files I want to flash, first one will stay eureka_image.zip, and then the next one would be eureka_image1.zip, or some similar process to allow multiple zips.
The issue here would be a naming scheme that would be easy for users to use and understand. so maybe if you flash a single file, just use eureka_image.zip, and if multiple, each would have a number added, starting from 1 and counting up in the order you want them flashed?
ddggttff3 said:
One more suggestion, if you do not mind.
How about the ability to flash multiple zips at once? So, if I have 2 files I want to flash, first one will stay eureka_image.zip, and then the next one would be eureka_image1.zip, or some similar process to allow multiple zips.
The issue here would be a naming scheme that would be easy for users to use and understand. so maybe if you flash a single file, just use eureka_image.zip, and if multiple, each would have a number added, starting from 1 and counting up in the order you want them flashed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is something I intend to implement. My current plan is to support a eureka_images directory, which can contain any combination of zipped and unzipped mods which will be flashed in alphabetical order. Mod authors can distribute their mods with a prefixed number, so, for example, you could distribute 00_13300_rooted.zip and 59_unlocator_dns.zip. I'll write a standard for how to determine the numbers (e.g. full system images get 00-09, major/minor filesystem changes get 40-49/50-59 respectively depending on how many files they affect, etc). It's not perfect and there can still be conflicts, but it should allow most mods to be flashed in a mostly sane order. I'm open to any suggestions or improvements you might have.
tchebb said:
This is something I intend to implement. My current plan is to support a eureka_images directory, which can contain any combination of zipped and unzipped mods which will be flashed in alphabetical order. Mod authors can distribute their mods with a prefixed number, so, for example, you could distribute 00_13300_rooted.zip and 59_unlocator_dns.zip. I'll write a standard for how to determine the numbers (e.g. full system images get 00-09, major/minor filesystem changes get 40-49/50-59 respectively depending on how many files they affect, etc). It's not perfect and there can still be conflicts, but it should allow most mods to be flashed in a mostly sane order. I'm open to any suggestions or improvements you might have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds great to me! Only other suggestion I have is to add another flag file which would allow Flashcast to continue flashing the multiple zips, even if one errors out.
So, by default if multiple zips are going to be flashed, and it errors on the first, it would stop, get a red LED, and then reboot.
with a flag file present, maybe ignore_errors, even if it errors out on the first zip, it would continue down the chain of zips until it finishes all of them.
Anyone got any idea how to get started with some themes for the chromecast? Will be more than happy to help, as soon i know where to start.
bormeth said:
Anyone got any idea how to get started with some themes for the chromecast? Will be more than happy to help, as soon i know where to start.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the resources seem to be kept in the .pak files contained in /chrome. The first step to theming would be figuring out what format those are in and how to unpack and repack them. You might want to start by taking a look at the content_shell source code, as it might have some documentation or scripts for working with .pak files.
tchebb said:
Most of the resources seem to be kept in the .pak files contained in /chrome. The first step to theming would be figuring out what format those are in and how to unpack and repack them. You might want to start by taking a look at the content_shell source code, as it might have some documentation or scripts for working with .pak files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im gonna dive into it
Have a little bug report.
If a person has more then 85~MB in their eureka_image folder, and then they start a SquashFS File system edit, flashcast will report an error saying out of space. Now, here is the error part. Even though it failed to mount with an error, the imager.sh file will continue to run, and will then attempt to flash back a corrupt file, causing a non-bootable chromecast until the system partition is re-flashed.
bormeth said:
Anyone got any idea how to get started with some themes for the chromecast? Will be more than happy to help, as soon i know where to start.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first script on THIS SITE will unpack the .PAK files, although it unpacks everything as a .png as it was made for a different Chromium device. So you would have to manually go rename all the files to their correct extension for the files, but because it expects everything to be a .png it won't pack back properly. The second script, technically should unpack/pack as proper file extensions, but I never got it to work right as I have little to no knowledge of Python.
The chromium source has a script,data_pack.py (which I can't link to since I'm a new user ATM) which can be used to pack and unpack .PAK files. The script posted above seems to be lifted from this source and modified to detect a few filetypes and write the unpacked files. But if you want to modify or add images and need to repack them, this script will help you figure it out. I'll work on adding and making some changes to the theme and give some instructions.
how to mount usb drive
Haven't used linux in years. Thanks!
Hey, want to do some poking around in the flashcast .bin file...how do I go about doing that? What is the file format, and is the image mountable in linux? Even better might be to extract files/folders from the image...what tool can I use to do that?
Ok, so I'm doing some dinking around...I've looked into buildroot, and I think for the most part I understand what is going on. I also tried building from source, and it appears to have worked. So, from this poking around I have a few assumptions I've made and a few questions. Correct me if I'm wrong anywhere but.......
Basically, you've built a generic bootloader for the device using buildroot. This is not related at all to the stock CC bootloader (although maybe you borrowed a few drivers, etc). I would guess that the buildroot bootloader has just what you need to display a picture on the TV and do some basic file system operations, and I would also guess that the buildroot bootloader is missing a few features that the stock bootloader has - therefore, it wouldn't be possible to run a full-fledged ROM off of this bootloader. Am I right so far? If so, what is missing from the buildroot bootloader? Libraries? Binaries? No idea?
Also, to access something like USB storage, the buildroot bootloader is able to include the required /dev devices, whereas it wouldn't be possible to include this on CC's stock bootloader without the source. So, doing something like accessing a ROM from an external flash drive isn't feasible because of these limitations? Basically, all that is possible with the current bootloader (of course, the insecure one which allows for unsigned code to run) is to add a few binaries to the stock CC ROM (things like adb, dropbear, etc), maybe add some access to those binaries through Web GUI, etc.
Am I on the right track? Is there anything you would add/correct? Thanks for the help. I'm trying to understand
tomg09 said:
Ok, so I'm doing some dinking around...I've looked into buildroot, and I think for the most part I understand what is going on. I also tried building from source, and it appears to have worked. So, from this poking around I have a few assumptions I've made and a few questions. Correct me if I'm wrong anywhere but.......
Basically, you've built a generic bootloader for the device using buildroot. This is not related at all to the stock CC bootloader (although maybe you borrowed a few drivers, etc). I would guess that the buildroot bootloader has just what you need to display a picture on the TV and do some basic file system operations, and I would also guess that the buildroot bootloader is missing a few features that the stock bootloader has - therefore, it wouldn't be possible to run a full-fledged ROM off of this bootloader. Am I right so far? If so, what is missing from the buildroot bootloader? Libraries? Binaries? No idea?
Also, to access something like USB storage, the buildroot bootloader is able to include the required /dev devices, whereas it wouldn't be possible to include this on CC's stock bootloader without the source. So, doing something like accessing a ROM from an external flash drive isn't feasible because of these limitations? Basically, all that is possible with the current bootloader (of course, the insecure one which allows for unsigned code to run) is to add a few binaries to the stock CC ROM (things like adb, dropbear, etc), maybe add some access to those binaries through Web GUI, etc.
Am I on the right track? Is there anything you would add/correct? Thanks for the help. I'm trying to understand
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buildroot does not let us build a bootloader, it lets us build a custom linux distribution that runs on the chromecast. The reason it is unable to do anything "graphical" minus the static image is due to licensing of the marvell GPU driver the chromecast uses. It is currently closed source, so it is unable to be compiled. We can use the blob from the stock OS, but ATM there is no need, and this can cause licensing issues.
Also, you can still access /dev and such on the stock OS. The big thing is the stock OS has usb input disabled at a kernel level, so it doesn't mount or detect any devices plugged in when the OS is running. This is circumvented though if you build and use your own custom kernel. For the features Eureka-ROM adds to the stock OS, we add those by using googles open source cross compiler for the device to build supported binaries.
Hmm...interesting. So, if I understand the booting process properly, upon power-on, a small bit of code called the bootloader is run, loading the kernel into memory (where, among other things, the graphics driver is located). From there, other components of the operating system are loaded on "top" of the kernel. So, it's not the bootloader that's rebuilt - but the kernel - with buildroot. Now, what sort of things would be possible if an open source alternative for the graphics driver were available (bear with me in the hypothetical), or even if one were to take the blob from the stock CC kernel? Turn CC into an android stick, complete with USB input device compatibility maybe?
Now on another note. I want to learn about cross-compiling. I am thinking of trying my hand at cross-compiling samba for the chromecast. Now if I understand the buildroot compiling process correctly, the right compiler for making chromecast-runnable binaries is compiled (or do you include it externally), and in theory, it should be possible to compile samba, right? I've been poking around the buildroot directory tree with the chromecast source superimposed over the top, and as of yet, I havent found the compiling binary (gcc, maybe?). I will look in a bit more depth. Once I find this, it should be as simple as specifying host and target architecture, putting the compiler for the CC in PATH, and compiling, right?
Thanks again for your help, and if you feel this isn't the appropriate place to post this, let me know.
tomg09 said:
Hmm...interesting. So, if I understand the booting process properly, upon power-on, a small bit of code called the bootloader is run, loading the kernel into memory (where, among other things, the graphics driver is located). From there, other components of the operating system are loaded on "top" of the kernel. So, it's not the bootloader that's rebuilt - but the kernel - with buildroot. Now, what sort of things would be possible if an open source alternative for the graphics driver were available (bear with me in the hypothetical), or even if one were to take the blob from the stock CC kernel? Turn CC into an android stick, complete with USB input device compatibility maybe?
Now on another note. I want to learn about cross-compiling. I am thinking of trying my hand at cross-compiling samba for the chromecast. Now if I understand the buildroot compiling process correctly, the right compiler for making chromecast-runnable binaries is compiled (or do you include it externally), and in theory, it should be possible to compile samba, right? I've been poking around the buildroot directory tree with the chromecast source superimposed over the top, and as of yet, I haven't found the compiling binary (gcc, maybe?). I will look in a bit more depth. Once I find this, it should be as simple as specifying host and target architecture, putting the compiler for the CC in PATH, and compiling, right?
Thanks again for your help, and if you feel this isn't the appropriate place to post this, let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If we had a fully working open source graphics driver, lots could be accomplished. Full custom linux distributions could run x11 shells, we could have xbmc working with hardware decoding, and yes android would technically be possible if enough people wanted to put the time and effort into it. You can take the blob from the rom to do some of this, but things like hardware accelerated decoding will still not be possible due to the fact there is no documentation on how to use the blobs properly for things like that. (this is my understanding so I may be off on some small details, @tchebb can probably explain it more in depth.)
As for cross compiling, you just need to use googles prebuilt toolchain as the compile source.
Link: https://code.google.com/p/chromecast-mirrored-source/source/browse?repo=prebuilt
Mind if I ask why you want to compile samba? do you want to host media or files from a chromecast device? I actually have CIFS added to the eureka-kernel configs on our repo, so if you compile our kernel from source, you can mount samba shares on the chromecast device using the CLI.
ddggttff3 said:
As for cross compiling, you just need to use googles prebuilt toolchain as the compile source.
Link: https://code.google.com/p/chromecast-mirrored-source/source/browse?repo=prebuilt
Mind if I ask why you want to compile samba? do you want to host media or files from a chromecast device? I actually have CIFS added to the eureka-kernel configs on our repo, so if you compile our kernel from source, you can mount samba shares on the chromecast device using the CLI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool. Thanks for the link. Basically, I'm just looking to learn about cross compiling for mobile devices. I figure samba seems easy enough. It was the first thing that came to mind. Any other ideas for something to cut my teeth on? Other binaries that would be well suited to CC, but are easy to compile?
tomg09 said:
Cool. Thanks for the link. Basically, I'm just looking to learn about cross compiling for mobile devices. I figure samba seems easy enough. It was the first thing that came to mind. Any other ideas for something to cut my teeth on? Other binaries that would be well suited to CC, but are easy to compile?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One more question...I've looked through the toolchain...the way it's set up is somewhat confusing. In the root directory of the toolchain: bin=gcc, g++, everything else I need to compile. What are the two folders entitled "arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi" and "target-arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi"? They seem to have relevant stuff (one has gcc, g++, etc except without the arm-unk... prefix, and other binaries which seem important). How do I use these/should I use these/why are they kept separate?
Thanks for the help.
After several hours of tinkering and editing, I think I've finally managed to make an easy way to emulate a Chromecast on your PC. Iv'e only worked on x64 based systems so far, but I'll do x32 if anyone needs it. All you have to do is download the file, place it on your desktop (or it won't work), extract the .tar (don't make a new folder) and follow the directions in INSTALL.txt. It shouldn't require any extra files except Google Chrome, but if it does or you have any other errors or advice, feedback is very appreciated.
I take no responsibility for any damages done by this. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Leapcast is the property of dz0ny at GitHub, not me. All I did was make an all-in-one install script.
I already have Python installed....Can I just run the Bat file?
Error running LeapCast.bat
I completed the installation but when I run LeapCast.bat got this error (see the image)
Edit: I found the problem, I need to Edit "PATH" environment variable to include this "C:\Python27" and this "C:\Python27\Scripts".
Good job!!!!
Only youtube detected the leapcast, I check Plex, Avia, Crackle and Allcast and they don't.
lordkain2 said:
I completed the installation but when I run LeapCast.bat got this error (see the image)
Edit: I found the problem, I need to Edit "PATH" environment variable to include this "C:\Python27" and this "C:\Python27\Scripts".
Good job!!!!
Only youtube detected the leapcast, I check Plex, Avia, Crackle and Allcast and they don't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's probably an error in my install script. It should have edited your PATH automatically, so I'll look into it. The compatibility problem is probably just an issue with the emulator itself. I'll keep an eye on the github page and update this as soon as its available. Thanks for the feedback!
Did you use the Chromecast app on your phone/tablet to detect it before you tried the other apps?
Asphyx said:
I already have Python installed....Can I just run the Bat file?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's part of what the script does. If you want, you can ignore the basic Python install if you specifically have Python 2.7.5 installed, but you definitely need to let setuptools and pip install. Won't work without them I'm afraid. Thanks for the feedback!
thatscottguy93 said:
That's part of what the script does. If you want, you can ignore the basic Python install if you specifically have Python 2.7.5 installed, but you definitely need to let setuptools and pip install. Won't work without them I'm afraid. Thanks for the feedback!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Kind of what I expected....Will try this later tonite
Thanks for the effort!
Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work. The .bat file it leaves on the desktop has a strange trailing ascii-character, but it still doesn't run correctly even after you remove it. I don't know why you would run it from desktop anyway rather than c:\python27\scripts anyway... It should run from anywhere if the PATH is set correctly, but this script didn't seem to do that. Finally, it would be smarter to use the .vbs provided by the leapcast dev instead of your errant .bat on the desktop. Again though, thanks for the attempt.
It would be great if someone could put together a full install using install-shield and all, or at least a working batch script that has been tested on a fresh install of WinXP/Win7/Win8.1 Maybe I will try to.
NOTE: If this works for others, please let us know, but I am fairly certain it has at least a few minor errors preventing it from working by following the instructions alone.
thatscottguy93 said:
It's probably an error in my install script. It should have edited your PATH automatically, so I'll look into it. The compatibility problem is probably just an issue with the emulator itself. I'll keep an eye on the github page and update this as soon as its available. Thanks for the feedback!
Did you use the Chromecast app on your phone/tablet to detect it before you tried the other apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have tried editing my system variables, but after running Leapcast.bat it say:
'leapcast' is not recognized as an internal or external command,operable program or batch file.
Please guide me through. AND github is down in my country right now
---------- Post added at 01:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:49 PM ----------
Okay I got this post on google+
https://plus.google.com/+NicandrosNicolaou/posts/8RjWfMXxje8
it help me do a complete install of LEAPCAST...
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I just wanted to ask if there will be any update for V2 chromecast ? @thatscottguy93
link is not working
can you post a mirror link please?
thatscottguy93 said:
After several hours of tinkering and editing, I think I've finally managed to make an easy way to emulate a Chromecast on your PC. Iv'e only worked on x64 based systems so far, but I'll do x32 if anyone needs it. All you have to do is download the file, place it on your desktop (or it won't work), extract the .tar (don't make a new folder) and follow the directions in INSTALL.txt. It shouldn't require any extra files except Google Chrome, but if it does or you have any other errors or advice, feedback is very appreciated.
I take no responsibility for any damages done by this. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Leapcast is the property of dz0ny at GitHub, not me. All I did was make an all-in-one install script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
punkmexic said:
can you post a mirror link please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried, and works for me....
punkmexic said:
can you post a mirror link please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its attached to the first post... no need for a mirror...
Installation files for 32 bit system
can you make a setup for 32 bit computer?
Can i run xbmc/kodi on my windows pc and use leapcast to send the video feed to my android phone - this way I can use the laptop as a remote and the phone as existing hardware - lowering my android tv experience to a cost of zero - or should I stick with remote desktop... lag could be an issue as leapcast is light weight via python - minus the $5 mhl
Nope
mikeymackinon said:
Can i run xbmc/kodi on my windows pc and use leapcast to send the video feed to my android phone - this way I can use the laptop as a remote and the phone as existing hardware - lowering my android tv experience to a cost of zero - or should I stick with remote desktop... lag could be an issue as leapcast is light weight via python - minus the $5 mhl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Leapcast does not work that way, its mainly for youtube etc... web based viewings. Why not run the laptop/ desktop to the TV set and remote in from the Android phone/ tablet via a remote control app or team view etc... You would defiantly have lagging issues if reversed. Plus you do not have the buy the micro usb to hdmi adapter? Kewl story bro!
Seriously smart, as you will not have to get up to change from one episode to the next and at no cost.
thatscottguy93 said:
After several hours of tinkering and editing, I think I've finally managed to make an easy way to emulate a Chromecast on your PC. Iv'e only worked on x64 based systems so far, but I'll do x32 if anyone needs it. All you have to do is download the file, place it on your desktop (or it won't work), extract the .tar (don't make a new folder) and follow the directions in INSTALL.txt. It shouldn't require any extra files except Google Chrome, but if it does or you have any other errors or advice, feedback is very appreciated.
I take no responsibility for any damages done by this. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Leapcast is the property of dz0ny at GitHub, not me. All I did was make an all-in-one install script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much!!! Nice Work! I love you <3 #nohomo
Hi,
i wanted to try this but iam stucking at this error
C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\LeapcastForWindows\leapcast>leapcast --name Leapcast --chrome "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe" --fullscreen
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python27\scripts\leapcast-script.py", line 9, in <module>
load_entry_point('Leapcast==0.1.3', 'console_scripts', 'leapcast')()
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources.py", line 356, in load_entry_point
return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources.py", line 2431, in load_entry_point
return ep.load()
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources.py", line 2147, in load
['__name__'])
ImportError: No module named leapcast.__main__
Anyone know how to fix this?
Managed to got it almost working IT's an old thread but I will give it a go.
Had to update Python to 2.7.9 for the SSL thing.
This is my issue :
Code:
C:\Users\d3x\Desktop\LeapcastForWindows\leapcast>leapcast --name Leapcast --chrome "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe" --fullscreen
INFO:root:Starting SSDP server
INFO:root:Starting LEAP server
INFO:root:Loading Config-JSON from Google-Server
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python27\Scripts\leapcast-script.py", line 9, in <module>
load_entry_point('Leapcast==0.1.3', 'console_scripts', 'leapcast')()
File "c:\leapcast\leapcast\__main__.py", line 38, in main
leap_server.start()
File "c:\leapcast\leapcast\services\leap.py", line 35, in start
resp = requests.get(url=app_dict_url)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\requests-2.18.4-py2.7.egg\requests\api.py", line 72, in get
return request('get', url, params=params, **kwargs)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\requests-2.18.4-py2.7.egg\requests\api.py", line 58, in request
return session.request(method=method, url=url, **kwargs)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\requests-2.18.4-py2.7.egg\requests\sessions.py", line 508, in request
resp = self.send(prep, **send_kwargs)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\requests-2.18.4-py2.7.egg\requests\sessions.py", line 618, in send
r = adapter.send(request, **kwargs)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\requests-2.18.4-py2.7.egg\requests\adapters.py", line 506, in send
raise SSLError(e, request=request)
requests.exceptions.SSLError: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='clients3.google.com', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /cast/chromecast/device/config (Caused by SSLError(SSLError(1, u'[SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed (_ssl.c:581)'),))
Would that mean that google changed something and this no longer works?
-chrizz- said:
Hi,
i wanted to try this but iam stucking at this error
C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\LeapcastForWindows\leapcast>leapcast --name Leapcast --chrome "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe" --fullscreen
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python27\scripts\leapcast-script.py", line 9, in <module>
load_entry_point('Leapcast==0.1.3', 'console_scripts', 'leapcast')()
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources.py", line 356, in load_entry_point
return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources.py", line 2431, in load_entry_point
return ep.load()
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources.py", line 2147, in load
['__name__'])
ImportError: No module named leapcast.__main__
Anyone know how to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did u solved this?? same problem here.. let me know if u solved this
Don't know about your specific error, but Google definitely changed something. Leapcast doesn't work anymore. According to dz0ny on github:
This project no longer works because Google locked down entire API. There are alternatives like cloning device, casting apk from nexus player etc. Thanks for all contibutors and I hope we all learned something from this project. Meanwhile I'am keeping https://github.com/dz0ny/leapcast/issues/130 open if anyone wants to discuss something related to lepacast or 2nd screen paradigm.
I would love to re-implement this as an open source alternative to chromecast someday, but I won't make any promises.
Does anyone know a proper way to uninstall this?
Hi all.
Noob here on the forum, my very first post so i am not allowed to post this where i imagine this would belong - the 'Original Android development'. That's why it is posted here.
First of all, i wish to express my sincere gratitude to all you people that work hard on making it possible for rest of us mortals to make the best of those small devices that somehow managed to become so big parts of our lives.. I have been following the forum for a while and been using some things posted here to fiddle with several devices without actually bricking any of them as yet. And this is the first time i felt the need of actually asking for help and/or guidelines.
Anyhew - here's the thing: i still run a N910F on stock marshmallow as my main device. (Please no lectures about this). And lately i came to really, really resent mr.Google. I did make a Lineage version of the Android Pie work together with microG (without google), and that actually is rather sweet, runs smooth as silk. I run that on my backup N910F device. (Ok, so i am a Note 4 freek, sue me).
But for different reasons, actually mainly because i really appreciate the s-pen, i want to continue using stock rom on my daily driver so now i am looking for a google-free version of the stock marshmallow for the N910F (trlte) model. I tried to find it here on the forum, but i couldn't, or i couldn't understand the terminology. Haven't found in the rest of the internet either. So i would appreciate if somebody here could either:
1. point me to the direction of such a version if it's already existing, or
2. give me very specific information as to how i could de-google the stock rom by myself. Either on the device or in Windows. I haven't used adb or fastboot yet, but perhaps i could learn if i don't have to take a class in engineering first…
Or could i simply use Titanium backup and just delete (freeze first of course) all the apps that have 'google' in their name?
The third option is perhaps that some kind sould de-googles the stock rom for me and lets me download it. I would donate, of course.
I would really appreciate all the pointers you could give me.
Regards,
prkfsz
Nope, the N910F stock firmwares are definitely not de-Googled. Flash one for yourself and see. I would recommend flashing a LineageOS/AOSP-based ROM, they are generally Google-free.
If you are really insistent on running stock, then do this to completely de-Google it:
In Titanium backup, search for 'goo', this will find almost all Google apps on the ROM. Uninstall them.
Also, download the latest OpenGapps ARM 6.0 nano zip from opengapps.org. Extract the gapps-remove.txt file from the zip. Use the contents of that file as a reference, find all the files listed in it, manually delete them. The reason for this is that Titanium will miss some things.
Now you should be mostly if not entirely Google-free.
Once you have done that, you can optionally patch your ROM for signature spoofing support, and install MicroG, which is an open source Google Play Services alternative. These 2 steps are optional, your choice.
Very simple. I've done this before, things will work fine overall. But some things (apps) requiring Google components may not work correctly, if at all. MicroG can help mitigate this to an extent. You've been warned.
I'm running Resurrection Remix Nougat v5.8.5 (Android 7.1.2), SPen works fine here. Every app I've tested that can use the pen, works fine. There is really no reason to stay with stock just for pen functionality. I also like the huge amount of customization options that RR has compared to stock. And I can use Substratum (no go on stock) with all black themes, for battery savings.
Thank you! Wasn't aware of the google-remove.txt file within gapps. Will definitelly use it. Otherwise it's like i thought: use Titanium and just go loose on everything that starts with 'go'...
I know about microG and use it regularly. Happy customer…
I do like stock marshmallow on note 4 and want to run it as long as it can go. I will perhaps try the RR nougat you suggested on the backup unit. Even tho i am in no particular need of customisation.
Thanx again.
prkfsz said:
Thank you! Wasn't aware of the google-remove.txt file within gapps. Will definitelly use it. Otherwise it's like i thought: use Titanium and just go loose on everything that starts with 'go'...
I know about microG and use it regularly. Happy customer…
I do like stock marshmallow on note 4 and want to run it as long as it can go. I will perhaps try the RR nougat you suggested on the backup unit. Even tho i am in no particular need of customisation.
Thanx again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might find this of some interest.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/guide-degoogle-device-install-microg-t4058743
I'm afraid i got stuck here and i need a bit further assistance.. :-/
Coming from stock marshmallow on Galaxy Note 4. I uninstalled google things first using Titanium. Then manually cleaned some leftovers using file manager in TWRP (not sure i did the right way), altho it looked quite empty in the /system map. Another time erased just the Google Play-services before going to TWRPs file manager and it looked just as empty. At both occasions i lost auto-rotate. Is this normal?
After deleting all the google (and in the second try only google play services app) i tried just for the heck of it to run the Nanodroid patch file but i got an error message that it couldnt deodex services.jar file, which was pretty much expected. My skills are not sufficient for deodexing files so i tried other approaches for patching. Smalipatcher - the damn thing couldn't even see i had admin privileges in Win no matter what i did and just refused to run alltogether.
Then i tried the link that was put here by @MrJavi in the post above (thank you sir!). Did everything as the tutorial says, got no error message, everything seemed to run smooth and the apps i chose were installed. (altho TWRP did freeze a couple of times during aroma setup so i had to reset by taking out the battery). When i wanted to set up the microG settings, the microG icon and the app is nowhere to be found. The modul named NanoDroid exists and is activ in Magisk, but it's not possible to open it.
Last, but not least of course, i tryied patching with fake gapps module in Xposed, but Xposed of course does not want to play nice with mr.Samsung. Even when i try and run Xposed from Magisk...
Not sure how to proceed from here.. I'm thinking of switching my starting point to the already deodexed version of marshmallow i thought i saw around here, because it would be easier to patch.
If it's still out there available for download, which i don't take for granted anymore nowadays..
But i would like to make it work on my device anyway. So, if anyone has any ideas, they will be so welcome.
Perhaps Samsung knox is causing issues with Xposed framework/installer. The link below is for a different "Samy" but the the Knox remover is a flashablw .zip made specifically for the Note 4 .
https://www.google.com/amp/s/forum....-how-to-deodex-root-remove-knox-t3458921/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/forum....al/toad-source-android-deodexer-t3848307/amp/
Always take a full Nandroid backup by checking all partition beforehand and save to your external sd card. You can then choose to flaah an Aroma Google debloater .zip .
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/aroma-google-services-debloater-t3668456
Mr. JAVI said:
Perhaps Samsung knox is causing issues with Xposed framework/installer. The link below is for a different "Samy" but the the Knox remover is a flashablw .zip made specifically for the Note 4 .
https://www.google.com/amp/s/forum....-how-to-deodex-root-remove-knox-t3458921/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/forum....al/toad-source-android-deodexer-t3848307/amp/
Always take a full Nandroid backup by checking all partition beforehand and save to your external sd card. You can then choose to flaah an Aroma Google debloater .zip .
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/aroma-google-services-debloater-t3668456
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow, those were really some good links! thanks, @mr.javi. However....
tried the first link and to work with firmware but the ext4uninstaller does not want to recognize the ext4 file (wtf??), regardless from where i download the software and regardless what ext4 file and from what firmware (tested a few), and without that part working it was pretty much impossible to go on. So i ran only the deknoxing tool through twrp. No error. But still when i try and install the xposed - boom! it will not boot. Not even damn zip uninstaller for magisk will work as it should..
Tried the second link with the TOAD. Weird: some versions get recognized as malware by my antivirus and windows does not want to run other versions for safety reasons. Strange..
Tried the third and that de-googling script is rather sweet.
But my conclusion from all this is that it is not so hard to exorcise the google, but to patch the rom in the next step... If i understand correctly i have to get the rom deodexed first to be able to patch it with nanodroid?
I tried some deodexing tools on pc, but i'm not really sure if i'm doing it correctly. I take it i have to copy some folders (/apps, /framework and one more) from the phone to the computer to work with them there, but i get error message when i try to copy files through file manager in twrp. Am i supposed to do it some other way? And can you do that directly in the phone? I tried an app called 3c -all in one-toolbox that has native option of deodexing but i get error message there, something about classes i think, i don't remember and i can't see it now cause the phone is just being reflashed..
Any more thoughts and ideas? As usual, grateful for anything you can give me.
AnonVendetta said:
Once you have done that, you can optionally patch your ROM for signature spoofing support, and install MicroG, which is an open source Google Play Services alternative. These 2 steps are optional, your choice.
Very simple. I've done this before, things will work fine overall. But some things (apps) requiring Google components may not work correctly, if at all. MicroG can help mitigate this to an extent. You've been warned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HOW?! did you manage to patch it??
prkfsz said:
wow, those were really some good links! thanks, @mr.javi. However....
tried the first link and to work with firmware but the ext4uninstaller does not want to recognize the ext4 file (wtf??), regardless from where i download the software and regardless what ext4 file and from what firmware (tested a few), and without that part working it was pretty much impossible to go on. So i ran only the deknoxing tool through twrp. No error. But still when i try and install the xposed - boom! it will not boot. Not even damn zip uninstaller for magisk will work as it should..
Tried the second link with the TOAD. Weird: some versions get recognized as malware by my antivirus and windows does not want to run other versions for safety reasons. Strange..
Tried the third and that de-googling script is rather sweet.
But my conclusion from all this is that it is not so hard to exorcise the google, but to patch the rom in the next step... If i understand correctly i have to get the rom deodexed first to be able to patch it with nanodroid?
I tried some deodexing tools on pc, but i'm not really sure if i'm doing it correctly. I take it i have to copy some folders (/apps, /framework and one more) from the phone to the computer to work with them there, but i get error message when i try to copy files through file manager in twrp. Am i supposed to do it some other way? And can you do that directly in the phone? I tried an app called 3c -all in one-toolbox that has native option of deodexing but i get error message there, something about classes i think, i don't remember and i can't see it now cause the phone is just being reflashed..
Any more thoughts and ideas? As usual, grateful for anything you can give me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're very welcome @prkfsz
https://mtkcustomroms.com/deodex-stock-rom-custom-rom-without-pc-2018/
https://how-to-easily-deodex-android-stock-rom-without-pc/
Mr. JAVI said:
You're very welcome @prkfsz
https://mtkcustomroms.com/deodex-stock-rom-custom-rom-without-pc-2018/
https://************/how-to-easily-deodex-android-stock-rom-without-pc/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx again, @Mr. JAVI! :good:
Both links are about the same app and i've tried that one recently, so it seems like we think rather alike.
I get the exact same error message like the guy that wrote that one comment at the bottom of the second link (error saying "needs rebuild classes.dex").
And strangely enough when i open the deodexing window in the app it says that of the number of apps in the rom not all are odexed (says something like "deodexed 124/187"), which is rather perplexing because it's on the freshly installed stock (from nandroid backup directly after factory reset). So I tried to fool the app and get all the apps odexed first, but that didn't fly either..
Btw, thanks for the advice before - i always back the device upp (all partitions) before messing with it.. I forgot to do that on one device before and instantly regretted it..
-------------------------------------------
Edit: the second link in your last post was dead so i tried to correct it in my message, but xda forum doesn't like that.
Tried to post in the right link here in the message too, but that didn't work either for some reason.
but searching the phrase 'how to easily deodex Android stock rom without pc' will give you the first search result.
Oat2dex.jar
https://www.google.com/amp/s/forum....eral/tool-deodex-tool-android-l-t2972025/amp/
https://github.com/testwhat/SmaliEx/releases
---------- Post added at 01:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 PM ----------
prkfsz said:
Thanx again, @Mr. JAVI! :good:
Both links are about the same app and i've tried that one recently, so it seems like we think rather alike.
I get the exact same error message like the guy that wrote that one comment at the bottom of the second link (error saying "needs rebuild classes.dex").
And strangely enough when i open the deodexing window in the app it says that of the number of apps in the rom not all are odexed (says something like "deodexed 124/187"), which is rather perplexing because it's on the freshly installed stock (from nandroid backup directly after factory reset). So I tried to fool the app and get all the apps odexed first, but that didn't fly either..
Btw, thanks for the advice before - i always back the device upp (all partitions) before messing with it.. I forgot to do that on one device before and instantly regretted it..
-------------------------------------------
Edit: the second link in your last post was dead so i tried to correct it in my message, but xda forum doesn't like that.
Tried to post in the right link here in the message too, but that didn't work either for some reason.
but searching the phrase 'how to easily deodex Android stock rom without pc' will give you the first search result.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well to tell you the truth, even a full Nandroid backup couldn't fix a dm-verity/drk issue on one of my Note 4's. Up until then I have always recovered from softbricking my devices. Stubborn as I am, I spent hours and hours and hours o no avail. I connected my other N4 but still kept trying to revive my old N4. It wasn't until a year and a half later, assisting another member that I came across a possible solution and it worked. Spent more time than my old N4 was worth but my record is untarnished non the less. lol I sure hope you never ever encounter either of thoughts @prkfsz .
Mr. JAVI said:
Oat2dex.jar
https://www.google.com/amp/s/forum....eral/tool-deodex-tool-android-l-t2972025/amp/
https://github.com/testwhat/SmaliEx/releases
---------- Post added at 01:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 PM ----------
Well to tell you the truth, even a full Nandroid backup couldn't fix a dm-verity/drk issue on one of my Note 4's. Up until then I have always recovered from softbricking my devices. Stubborn as I am, I spent hours and hours and hours o no avail. I connected my other N4 but still kept trying to revive my old N4. It wasn't until a year and a half later, assisting another member that I came across a possible solution and it worked. Spent more time than my old N4 was worth but my record is untarnished non the less. lol I sure hope you never ever encounter either of thoughts @prkfsz .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And i thought i was stubborn for this, insisting on tweaking an age-old os and spending hours on looking for solutions.. thank you!
Not sure about what that issue you mentioned was, since i'm not really on that experience level, but i'm sure it was a mean one.. lol Good job of fixing it! I ended up a few times in similar situations (not with that high level issues apparently) and i just couldn't let go untill i resolved them or bricked them completelly... Luckily haven't bricked anything even tho i play mostly with older devices so it wouldn't be such a waste. But as you too apparently feel - unblemished record is a matter of pride..
And yes, i too recently understood that nandroid backup isn't allmighty - it can't for instance save certain safety settings, fingerprints and such. I always thought of nandroid backup like a 'clone' feature on PC. Loved that..
Aanyhew - back to business.
I hit the wall here again, the same one as with Fulmics deodexer. It's not that it isn't working, it's that i don't know how to point it to the right maps for deodexing.
As far as i understand, i have to copy those 3 folders from the phone to the PC, do the deodexing on the pc, and then move back to the phone and replace the original folders. Is this correct? I tried doing this in TWRPs file manager using micro sd card, but i gott error message that it wouldn't copy all the files for some reason. Should i use some other method of copying those folders to the PC?
Perhaps a stupid question but is there any way to let the deodexer on the pc find the folders directly on the phone?
As always - a huge thank you from the struggling noob, @Mr. JAVI. :good:
Perhaps this is the Xposed framework and installer that might be compatible with your N910f
https://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/themes-apps/unofficial-xposed-v87-3-magisk-v18-t3897017/amp/
As far as TWRP you might be able to patch it and save internal data with Tipatch apk. The drawback is you backups will be much larger.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/forum....pp-twrp-tipatch-backup-internal-t3831217/amp/
PS: Thsnks for the compliment my friend but I'm still learning. Modifications is just a hobby of mine. We learn from each other here on XDA.
PC : skills are not my strong point . Your skills with PC far
exceed your ability. I actually bought a laptop years ago, just so I could flash TWRP Odin and root . The complete ssd laptop cost alot more than my Note 4. I port or create my own flashable .zips. Although, I've never been faced with having to deodex a custom rom, simply because there readily available from the developers on xda for the n910p. Sucks there hasn't been one developed for your n910f.
Something posted by @IBNobody
"Anything past Magisk v15.3 will not pass SafetyNet on QI5.*
Magisk v15.4+ added a check in its Magiskhide subsystem that looks a service (logd) to be loaded. That service is not running on our stock or slightly modified QI5 build. If this service check fails, Magiskhide does not get loaded. If Magiskhide is not running, it can't hide Magisk from the SafetyNet checks.
(You'll know if this is affecting you because the Magisk Manager app won't remember any settings you make in the Magisk Hide tab.)*
Our only options are:
1. Build our own fork of Magisk that skips this check.
2. Enable logd by modifying the init.rc file in boot.img. (logd is commented out. I have not tried un-commenting it.)
3. Remain on v15.3."
DQ15 is the Sprint firmware 6.0.1 and not n910f but it could be the same with yours as well.
A slightly lower version Xpoaed framework api 23
https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=529152257862685344
Mr. JAVI said:
Perhaps this is the Xposed framework and installer that might be compatible with your N910f
https://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/themes-apps/unofficial-xposed-v87-3-magisk-v18-t3897017/amp/
As far as TWRP you might be able to patch it and save internal data with Tipatch apk. The drawback is you backups will be much larger.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/forum....pp-twrp-tipatch-backup-internal-t3831217/amp/
PS: Thsnks for the compliment my friend but I'm still learning. Modifications is just a hobby of mine. We learn from each other here on XDA.
PC : skills are not my strong point . Your skills with PC far
exceed your ability. I actually bought a laptop years ago, just so I could flash TWRP Odin and root . The complete ssd laptop cost alot more than my Note 4. I port or create my own flashable .zips. Although, I've never been faced with having to deodex a custom rom, simply because there readily available from the developers on xda for the n910p. Sucks there hasn't been one developed for your n910f.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Laptop cost way over Note 4? I see i'm not the only one..... ehh, let's say determined bloke around here haha.. Hope it was worth it.. And btw creating your own flashable zips is way above my level of skills, i can tell you that, my friend. Never did that, nor am i planning to. But since i am stubborn (or so i've heard.. lol) and i feel uttermost distaste for mrGoogle and, like you said, noone has apparently done the deodexing the stock N910F - I am simply forced to take matters into my own hands. Flashing a pie and microG is ... apparently too easy. Besides, i am already running that on one of my spare Note 4s.. And i appreciate xda, just like you say people can give each other a hand. What i dislike tho is lots of dead download links... Oh, well..
ok, back to business again.
I guess i am going to need a more detailed help now.
I tried with that version of Framework you linked to. At that page the link for Xposed installer app for Magisk is dead. Tried to play a little with the other file, the version 87.3 of Xposed and just flashed it in TWRP, but nothing happens.
As far as the Tipatch, excuse my ignorance but i have to ask here: what difference would it make for deodexing to be able to copy internal storage? I am thinking it's other folders that need to be copied, like /system.
Apart from that, i love the idea of Tipatch! Will install it anyway.
--------------------------------------------------------
I am beginning to realize that there are not many reasonable options left, since i'm not sure it is worth much more time and effort on my part. I am not going to be an engineer over this..
So there is but one more question to perhaps get solved before i run out of options and go with custom Pie anyway.
And that is - how do i copy the needed 3 folders intact to PC for deodexing software? I can't find that information anywhere together with this pc based deodexers.
Oh well. I have vague memory of ES file manager being mentioned somewhere. So i guess that will be my last attempt before i give up. Unless some new solution emerges.
Mr. JAVI said:
Something posted by @IBNobody
"Anything past Magisk v15.3 will not pass SafetyNet on QI5.*
Magisk v15.4+ added a check in its Magiskhide subsystem that looks a service (logd) to be loaded. That service is not running on our stock or slightly modified QI5 build. If this service check fails, Magiskhide does not get loaded. If Magiskhide is not running, it can't hide Magisk from the SafetyNet checks.
(You'll know if this is affecting you because the Magisk Manager app won't remember any settings you make in the Magisk Hide tab.)*
Our only options are:
1. Build our own fork of Magisk that skips this check.
2. Enable logd by modifying the init.rc file in boot.img. (logd is commented out. I have not tried un-commenting it.)
3. Remain on v15.3."
DQ15 is the Sprint firmware 6.0.1 and not n910f but it could be the same with yours as well.
A slightly lower version Xpoaed framework api 23
https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=529152257862685344
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, i managed to actually copy the system directory from the phone to the pc using Root explorer app. And none of the deodexers work. Fulmics says it needs smali and baksmali versions over 2.2 even tho i fed it with versions 2.4. SVADeodexerforart runs through all the files without actually doing anything. Logfile shows error 'cannot acces jar file' on all 300+ files.
So i believe this is it for me at this point. I just can't see how further struggle would be meaningsfull since it would just take even more time and i already invested way too much of it on this. But i guess being stubborn has it's price.. :silly:
I want to extend my sincere gratitude, @Mr. JAVI, for your patience, tips and guidelines. I think if it wasn't for you i would given up much quicker.. Which perhaps would've been a smart thing to do... But i wouldn't learn anything..
We will probably bump into each other more times here, since we seem to share the common affection towards a certain gadget.
all the best to you
prkfsz said:
Ok, i managed to actually copy the system directory from the phone to the pc using Root explorer app. And none of the deodexers work. Fulmics says it needs smali and baksmali versions over 2.2 even tho i fed it with versions 2.4. SVADeodexerforart runs through all the files without actually doing anything. Logfile shows error 'cannot acces jar file' on all 300+ files.
So i believe this is it for me at this point. I just can't see how further struggle would be meaningsfull since it would just take even more time and i already invested way too much of it on this. But i guess being stubborn has it's price.. :silly:
I want to extend my sincere gratitude, @Mr. JAVI, for your patience, tips and guidelines. I think if it wasn't for you i would given up much quicker.. Which perhaps would've been a smart thing to do... But i wouldn't learn anything..
We will probably bump into each other more times here, since we seem to share the common affection towards a certain gadget.
all the best to you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am just one of the "common folk". One of my hobbies is modifying my rooted Note 4. I have learned from my failures as well. The creating custom zips is not as hard as you think, in fact it was a failed camera .zip fash that ended in FC's. I came up with an idea to take the previous working camera .zip. left the meta-imf and replaced tge rest with an N7 camera from another rom and fkashed it. It's much easier explained with screen shots.
One of my favourite apps is ZArchiver apk. Downliad it and you'll see why. Ext4, tar, zip, roms, jar, apks and more. Freaking Awesome!!!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...pk&pcampaignid=APPU_1_YUIBX4STE-aD9PwPh7ylmAg
Its like gold and did I mention free? lol
Welcome to XDA @prkfsz
Mr. JAVI said:
I am just one of the "common folk". One of my hobbies is modifying my rooted Note 4. I have learned from my failures as well. The creating custom zips is not as hard as you think, in fact it was a failed camera .zip fash that ended in FC's. I came up with an idea to take the previous working camera .zip. left the meta-imf and replaced tge rest with an N7 camera from another rom and fkashed it. It's much easier explained with screen shots.
One of my favourite apps is ZArchiver apk. Downliad it and you'll see why. Ext4, tar, zip, roms, jar, apks and more. Freaking Awesome!!!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...pk&pcampaignid=APPU_1_YUIBX4STE-aD9PwPh7ylmAg
Its like gold and did I mention free? lol
Welcome to XDA @prkfsz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why thank you good sir, @Mr. JAVI! :good:
Every noob should get this friendly a welcome..
See? All that meta-inf, FC-talk is a bit over my lever right now. But i will check out your tool. Might come in handy for some future project. And free it is you say? Sold! haha
As for this project i had, i had to abandon it for now. I realized it wasn't the degoogling that was the problem, but the patching afterwards, and the deodexing that turned out to be downright impossible to get done. And it just gotten too time-consuming in relation to how much time i actually have and how much win i would get out of it. So i took the easy way for now and i went with the custom Pie. I do want the audio from the headphones..
@prkfsz: I used Tingle patch to integrate signature spoofing. You have a few options:
Tingle patch (requires deodexed framework.jar)
Needle patch (requires deodexed framework.jar)
Nanodroid patcher (requires deodexed services.jar)
Haystack patch (requires deodexed services.jar)
Smali patcher (services.jar can be odexed or deodexed, it will deodex and patch the file for you)
FakeGApps (requires Xposed)
Options 1/2/4/5 require a PC. Options 3/6 can be done on device without PC.
Hope this helps!
I don't really have a lot of time to go into detail, but if either of you are looking for a comprehensive way to properly deodex a ROM, check out SuperR's Kitchen. There a free and paid/donate versions. The free version can do what you want just fine.
I had recently used this to deodex the latest stock MM UK firmware for the N910F. In addition to deodexing, the Kitchen can also customize your ROM, and even build a zip that you can flash in TWRP. It flashed and booted fine for me. Once you have done this, you can debloat the ROM (or let the Kitchen do it for you). It won't remove all Google stuff by default, but you can configure it to delete pretty much any file/directory in the system partition. My advice is to use the Kitchen's debloater/Knox removal features, then use gapps-remove.txt and a root file manager to delete the rest. Once you have debloated/deodexed, you can then easily signature spoof patch with any of the tools I mentioned in my previous post.
I have also discovered that you can also run the Tingle patch without a PC, by using QPython3 app. Just supply the deodexed framework.jar and build.prop, it will do the rest. Grab the Tingle master zip from GitHub, unpack it into QPython3's scripts directory on the internal storage, then provide the 2 files into input folder, and run main.py from within the app. You will find the patched jar file in output folder, replace your ROM's framework.jar with the patched one. Use Signature Spoofing Checker to confirm that it worked. I don't think root is required, but it's better to have it anyway, just enable root in QPython3 settings.
Some last notes: don't use Titanium to debloat Google apps, it may also remove some needed shared library files that Android uses. Namely, a library file called libgnustl_shared.so, which will cause autorotation to not work. Use Titanium to determine the locations of Google apps, then delete them manually. This will keep the shared library files while still deleting the apps. On top of this, use gapps-remove.txt.
But while you are debloating, there may be 2 Google apps present that you should not remove, period:
/system/app/WebViewGoogle
/system/priv-app/GooglePackageInstaller
The first is needed by Android and apps to provide webview functionality (this might not sound important, but it is). The 2nd is needed to install apps, remove it and you won't be able to install any app from anywhere (Play Store, manual APK install, etc).
On the subject of Xposed, do *NOT* install the Xposed installer from the Magisk Manager downloads. It isn't designed to work on stock Samsung MM firmware, you won't be able to boot. Use the custom Xposed by wanam (available on XDA). Or you can google for "Xposed kevintm78", this will come up with an AndroidFileHost link that you can install from Magisk. The latter is just a systemless Magisk version of Wanam's Xposed.