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SD Tweakz v2
Only works on custom ROMs with init.d(aka busybox runparts) support
UPDATED 04/11/11(added a few battery tweaks)
Wondering around on XDA will sometimes lead you to threads with scripts/tweaks that may or may not help you improve your android device in one way or another. Now most of these scripts/tweaks are not boot resistant. Meaning, after rebooting the tweaks gets disabled and you need to enter/execute them once again.
Well here's another script that would help you initialize those scrips/tweaks every time you restart/reboot you phone and make your life a lot more easier.
Instructions / How does it work?
1. Download the initial script here (SD Tweakz v2)
2. Flash via recovery This will install/copy the initial script into a portion of your android system which initializes/runs every time the phone boots
3. Create a folder on SD called "scriptz" (/sdcard/scriptz)
4. Place your tweaks/scripts inside "scriptz" folder. Usefull scripts/tweaks with explanation below
5. Reboot and see your script run on boot time By this point, every time you boot, the initial script will check your sdcard(/sdcard/sctiptz) if any scripts/tweaks are present. Once found it will then run the scripts for you each and every time you boot
What is it good for
Well there are lots of tweaks out there just waiting to be discovered. Some can yield great performance and some can provide you with a better battery management that can extend your battery life for hours. Unfortunately, some tweaks can only give you one of the benefits above and a bad performance on the other. Meaning you just can't have 'em all. Here you can choose which tweaks/scripts to apply, modify the values as you want as well as debugging which script provides the benefits that you expect. Another reason for using this mod is compatibility as some tweaks/scripts can be ROM dependent. Most of the time it's a kernel issue but some libraries can get involved too.
The Scripts
Scripts are just plain linux compliant text document which has certain linux commands that can be issued using adb/terminal.
You can make one yourself using some android text editors(from es file explorer, dropbox, root explorer etc.). Don't forget to add a ".sh" file extension.
Here's a few example of the scripts I use:
Code:
#These scripts are from various sources from different sites including [URL="http://forum.samdroid.net/"]Samdroid.net[/URL]
#And of course in collaboration with FranciscoFranco
#
#My approach in the scripts/tweaks that I use is basically just to
#squeeze more juice out of my phone. So in contrast to the tweaks
#included in FranciscoFranco's thread, the tweaks/scripts I use are less
#aggressive in terms of performance and more inclined to save battery.
#
#non-rotational.sh
#this script tells android that you are not using spinning disks
DM=`ls -d /sys/block/dm*`;
MTD=`ls -d /sys/block/mtd*`;
LOOP=`ls -d /sys/block/loop*`;
RAM=`ls -d /sys/block/ram*`;
for j in $DM $MTD $LOOP $RAM;
do
echo 0 > $j/queue/rotational;
done
#noatime.sh
#Remount all partitions with noatime, for more info visit [URL="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8708125&postcount=1"]http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8708125&postcount=1[/URL]
for k in $(busybox mount | grep relatime | cut -d " " -f3)
do
sync
busybox mount -o remount,noatime $k
done
#scheduler.sh
#Changes the scheduler used by the system, for more info visit [URL="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4806456&postcount=1"]http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4806456&postcount=1[/URL]
for i in `busybox ls -1 /sys/block/mtdblock*`
do
echo "noop" > $i/queue/scheduler;
done
echo "noop" > /sys/block/mmcblk0/queue/scheduler;
echo "noop" > /sys/block/dm-0/queue/scheduler;
echo "noop" > /sys/block/dm-1/queue/scheduler;
#setprop.sh (currently testing)
#various build.prop settings
setprop wifi.supplicant_scan_interval 600
These are few of the tweaks that I have tested(and using right now), I will update it every time I test something out and will eventually add some of FranciscoFranco's tweaks for you to try out.
You can get some useful scripts from here - Performance and battery tweaks - by Franciscofranco (just read along)
Note: These scripts are no different from the scripts in FranciscoFranco's thread, I just categorized each individual tweaks and separated them for you to be able to apply each one separately. I will be more inclined to describe only battery saving tweaks as I am only interested with tweaks that could extend battery life(this includes performance tweaks that doesn't seem to affect the battery behavior at all)
Here's the my initial script again: SD Tweakz v2
Here's the downloadable version of each tweak mentioned above:
non-rotational.sh
scheduler.sh
noatime.sh
setprop.sh
If anything bad happens, just flash this Undo.zip(unsigned so just toggle signature verification) and everything should be back as it was before.
Huge thanks to NervGaz for providing a solution to the mount point conflict issue and of course Franciscofranco for those lively discussions and ideas we exchange.
Awesome job, I already linked this on my first page
@Ungaze
what is the difference from Tweakz V2?
bluviper said:
@Ungaze
what is the difference from Tweakz V2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
almost everything. Flashing this script alone won't do anything. You need to get your tweaks from here first and save it to /sdcard/tweakz folder. reboot and this way it will do exactly what Tweakz V2 did. Now if you notice any lag or performance drop, apply each tweak/script one by one to debug/troubleshoot which one is causing it.
Additionally if you found anything useful, you can make your own script.sh and place it on the /tweakz folder to run it on every boot.
ungaze said:
almost everything. Flashing this script alone won't do anything. You need to get your tweaks from here first and save it to /sdcard/tweakz folder. reboot and this way it will do exactly what Tweakz V2 did. Now if you notice any lag or performance drop, apply each tweak/script one by one to debug/troubleshoot which one is causing it.
Additionally if you found anything useful, you can make your own script.sh and place it on the /tweakz folder to run it on every boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes please, keep posting feedback either here or the other thread. Anything is useful since some users say they suffer some ocasional lag, others don't notice improvements, others say their phone became super fast...
ok now i get it... so the first batch of scripts on zip cannot be run on boot...
thats why you created this...
..ok i have finally applied everything! hehehe since i love smorgasbords...
and its very hard to tell that its there.... hehehe.. seems like fine to me.
no hiccups whatsoever..
but i feel its OK... thanks again man..
ok now i get it... so the first batch of scripts on zip cannot be run on boot...
thats why you created this...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the first batch of scripts had to be manually moved to init.d and had to be in a specific filename with a specific header and containing all the tweaks altogether in order to run on boot.
now what I did with the update.zips(Tweakz V1, Tweakz V2) was make moving it to init.d, renaming and fixing the header all easier for you guys but it still contain all the tweaks with no option for you guys to modify/add/remove lines that you want. This time it already runs on boot.
with this tweak, everything is easily manipulated through the sd card and a simple file explorer for more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. This should also work on most phones with init.d support.
Yes please, keep posting feedback either here or the other thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And to make things neater, just post stuff regarding only this script here and everything about tweaks on the other thread mentioned above.
You don't really need to move the scripts to the data partition, just invoke the with sh, ie. "sh /sdcard/scriptz/script.sh" it would make your for loop something like this:
for script in $list
do
sh /sdcard/scriptz/$script
done
Also I'd be careful with mounting SD ahead of vold, atleast on /sdcard or /mnt/sdcard make a tempfolder somewhere as a mount point instead and you shouldn't to worry about vold throwing up on you... Just a thought.
You don't really need to move the scripts to the data partition, just invoke the with sh, ie. "sh /sdcard/scriptz/script.sh" it would make your for loop something like this:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
didn't work last time i tried running the scripts directly from sdcard but will try it with your script.
Also I'd be careful with mounting SD ahead of vold, atleast on /sdcard or /mnt/sdcard make a tempfolder somewhere as a mount point instead and you shouldn't to worry about vold throwing up on you... Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really have a choice right now but to use the same method as "VOID rom" is using when loading modules. Any ideas?
BTW thanks so much
A quick and simple solution would be to just add something along the lines of
mount -o rw,remount auto /
mkdir /tmp
<mount the sdcard>
<run the scripts>
<unmount the sdcard>
rmdir /tmp
mount -o ro,remount auto /
Not the cleanest solution of all time, but it should work and no risk of conflicting mount points. Another solution is to just have people install the scripts on the /data partition in a directory there as /data is mounted rw.
Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
NervGaz said:
A quick and simple solution would be to just add something along the lines of
mount -o rw,remount auto /
mkdir /tmp
<mount the sdcard>
<run the scripts>
<unmount the sdcard>
rmdir /tmp
mount -o ro,remount auto /
Not the cleanest solution of all time, but it should work and no risk of conflicting mount points. Another solution is to just have people install the scripts on the /data partition in a directory there as /data is mounted rw.
Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was worried about the mount point traffic as well, but I guess I will be implementing the second solution instead, with a very different approach, and a more complex script.
You seem to know your trade, too bad we didn't get to collaborate before I made this script(from scratch, with no knowledge at all with scripting and how they work). Was asking and trolling on different threads with no help at all. Good thing mr. google was always there for anyone who needs help .
I'll start working and hope to hear from you about my next release as well.
You might want to look at the userinit script in the CM based ROM's around if you're going down that route, it does what you want and there's no point reinventing the wheel if you know what I mean.
Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
Great! Nice tip, never done that before. Thanks alot man.
so all in all, is this script really running on boot or not?
It runs, only problem encountered is with CM7 roms. (mount point traffic or something like that in a sense) will edit 1st page till I finish the reworked script.
Hey ungaze,I have just flashed the script and everything. I'm on CM7. What is the problem? Do I have to wait for a fix and do everything over again? Because I'm currently not experiencing any problems
Nope, it worked once, it should also work every time. Dunno which beta version of CM7 some people are having problem with. I still think this method is easier and faster for testing scripts to run on boot, but the next script will just be more lets say "compatible to a wider variety of ROMs and even other devices".
The issue can occur on rom's that mount the sdcard on /mnt/sdcard and symlink that to /sdcard as your mountpoint doesn't exist. If memory serves me right this is the correct mount procedure since 2.2 and is more in line with FHS. Potentially you can see issues with this if it mounts before vold runs as well as vold with throw an error if the mountpoint is in use. This can occur on rom's that mount to /sdcard. Hope that clears it up a bit.
Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
How does this look?
Code:
mount -o rw,remount auto /
mkdir /tmp
mount sd
mount -t vfat /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /tmp
if [ -e /tmp/scriptz ]
then
list=`ls /tmp/scriptz/*.sh`
for script in $list
do
sh $script
done
fi
umount sd
umount /tmp
rmdir /tmp
mount -o ro,remount auto /
Also "ls /tmp/scriptz/*.sh" would show the complete path including /tmp/scriptz/------ and so I just used sh $script on line 10. is this ok?
No need to mount the sdcard in the script, vold handles all that and its not used anyway. Apart from that it looks good to me.
Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
Hello xda-kaiser-android community
My configuration is :
SDCARD with 4 partitions :
FAT16 with Haret, zimage, inird, default.txt
SYSTEM (ext2)
DATA (ext2)
swap
I've managed to launch Android, and the phones does work.
Unfortunately, at the moment, some other things does not work :
WIFI : fails when getting the IP (so I scan WIFI networks well, but there is a problemn when creating the network interface...)
Modem : does not work..
Camera : not very important for the moment, but can become more...
So, I wanted to dump log files and try, with the terminal, to guess what is happening, but I COULD NOT MANAGED to SU ROOT (as a Linux user, I don't feel comfortable when I cannont be root on my personnal machine)...
When launching the "SuperUser" program the Applist is empty ?
When I set suid and root:root ownership of /bin/su on the SYSTEM partition, when SD mounted on my computer, It is not preserved when used inside Android...
After some inspection of the init scripts (see here under), my question is :
WHY SYSTEM PARTITION IS NOT MOUNTED with ROOT privileges ??
WHY is it chowned to the user 1000:1000 ?
Code:
# mount and set perms
$BB mount -o noatime,nodiratime -t auto $PARTITION $SD_EXT_DIRECTORY;
if [ "$?" = 0 ];
then
$BB chown 1000:1000 $SD_EXT_DIRECTORY;
$BB chmod 771 $SD_EXT_DIRECTORY;
log -p i -t mountsd "$SD_EXT_DIRECTORY successfully mounted";
Thank you for your comments, any help will be appreciated
Regards
Bernie
I overpost myself : My problem probably comes from the way I extracted the Froyo tarball to the SYSTEM partition...
I'll try again and inform you of my mistake.
Regards
why don't you try FAT32 instead of FAT16
bernie.discale said:
I overpost myself : My problem probably comes from the way I extracted the Froyo tarball to the SYSTEM partition...
I'll try again and inform you of my mistake.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't extract the froyo tarball. Just place androidinstall.tgz and androidupdate.tgz into the SDCARD andboot folder. Then, after you boot linux, touch and hold the center of the screen, and an install menu will appear. Then select your partitions, install system (and format data partition), install updates, and fix permissions, then exit. Android should start. Be sure your kernel (zImage) and drivers (androidupdate.tgz) match, and it also helps for the initrd.lzma to match. When wifi doesn't work, that usually means the driver is mismatched.
Hi Guys
Thnk you for your answers.
I got a more urgent issue than porting my kaiser to android : I've been forced to move my laptop back to windows again ...
So I must know workaround to dual boot linux (and, believe me, this install of windows is not the standard one)..
But A soon as I can, I will try the install stuff.
thank you again
Heydiho !
Things get better...
I caught eu-froyo-odex and installed it as is after entering the installation menu (launched by init ?)... The su command is now working. I have to tackle a few things now :
Wifi works even worse (now I clealry see an error, where, with the other distro, it was probably a permission issue)
Screen has still odd behaviors
Keymap issue with Keyboard arrows does not work in terminal
And camera to be confirmed
I'll dig the forum for topics on these subjects and get back if I'm really stuck
Best regards
Bernie
Hello
Things goes in the good direction :
Wifi is now ok (was not working with panel 1.. can this be correlated ?)
Screen works better with panel 2, but I'am still not sure if mine is 2 or 3)
Keymap Fixed : was only a matter of using bash insted of default busybox's shell
camera is not working
GPRS modem not working
Battery consumption is high with system on sdcard
Stay tuned !
I am working on a couple of things, specifically a "build.prop" mod and adding a "gps.conf" file to /system/etc, which is just a list of AGPS servers and to fix some GPS issues.
The modded build.prop that I have reworked adds some dalvik cache lines and "sleep mode" lines, as our Kaisers don't have a sleep mode implemented.
Camera and GPRS can be associated with the radio rom installed. I found that on my specific device, radio 1.70.19.09 allowed GPS and data to work smoothly, but I would lose the phone after the first call and camera had just a dark green screen. 1.65.16.25 dropped GPRS but improved data speeds and allowed the phone to work as well as the camera.
YMMV but I would say wipe any trace of WM from that phone (support is ending this May) and go directly with Android via NAND install.
Hello guys
@PoXFreak
I still have some habbits on my WM (freeOTFE encryption, contacts and some other stuffs) that are still working well on WM, and I don't feel very comfortable in switching on full Android (I mean on NAND) while I'am not very used to use Android... I would have definitely preferred to have a working platform booting from sdcard before flashing the NAND, but you confirmed that some issues may be linked to the SDCARD install...
I'm stuck since the beginning of march with the GPRS modem, and I don't clearly understand what are you talking about (have to check what you mean by radio).
My problem is, at the moment, that I don't have any mean to debug : is there a way to activate logs for users spaces programs ? Where to find em ?
If there is a better way to debug, what is it ?
As always, thank you, in advance, for any answer.
I'll try by myself a soon as I can (and, during the last weeks, it was not the case).
Best regards
I will add, moreover, that I'am still not sure of my panel (2 or 3 !!!)
Regards
During my time hacking on android I've discovered some nice easter eggs deep in the android platform. One such easter egg is the mounting of ext4 images directly in the init.rc script. This is a feature I have never seen used by any oems and only by one custom rom [ EDIT: and by letama in his Sony Xperia Boot Manager ]! looking at the git logs this functionality has been present since September 2010 [ commit 49b8124a1759cb8b27e0c21a1a5a54b8a81bdb19 ]. What this effectively gives us is the ability to overlay a pseudo partition layout over the top over the existing layout, thus avoiding any "Danger" of accidental bricking the device by reformatting the SDCard. This is very similar to the way archos mount the stock file system and a variation/extension on the existing methods we use for the SDE Roms.
Although the explanation assumes the use of the SD models it should be fairly straightforward to apply the the HDD models.
THE METHOD:
PART 1 - Prepare a recovery ext4 image file
1. Build CWM6 from the CM10 source.
2. Modify The Recovery's init.rc file to look something similar to this
Code:
on early-init
start ueventd
on init
export PATH /sbin
export ANDROID_ROOT /system
export ANDROID_DATA /data
export EXTERNAL_STORAGE /sdcard
symlink /system/etc /etc
mkdir /boot
mkdir /sdcard
mkdir /system
mkdir /data
mkdir /cache
mount /tmp /tmp tmpfs
mkdir /partitions 0771 system system
mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 /partitions
# Mount /system rw first to give the filesystem a chance to save a checkpoint
mount ext4 [email protected]/partitions/CAC /cache nosuid nodev
mount ext4 [email protected]/partitions/DATA /data nosuid nodev
mount ext4 [email protected]/partitions/SYS /system
mount ext4 [email protected]/partitions/SDCARD /sdcard nosuid nodev
mount ext4 [email protected]/partitions/BOOT /boot
on boot
ifup lo
hostname localhost
domainname localdomain
class_start default
service ueventd /sbin/ueventd
critical
service recovery /sbin/recovery
service adbd /sbin/adbd recovery
disabled
# Always start adbd on userdebug and eng builds
# In recovery, always run adbd as root.
on property:ro.debuggable=1
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 0
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/idVendor 18D1
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/idProduct D001
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/functions adb
#write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 1
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/iManufacturer $ro.product.manufacturer
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/iProduct $ro.product.model
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/iSerial A101S_REC
#start adbd
setprop service.adb.root 1
# Restart adbd so it can run as root
on property:service.adb.root=1
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 0
restart adbd
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 1
3. Modify the etc/recovery.fstab to look like this
Code:
# mount point fstype device
/cache ext4 /dev/block/loop1
/data ext4 /dev/block/loop2
/system ext4 /dev/block/loop3
/sdcard ext4 /dev/block/loop4
4. Creating an empty ext4 image file name REC and mount it on your pc. [ 5MB should do it ]
5. Copy the contents of the built recovery/root directory to the root of your mounted image.
6. chmod init.rc , default.prop and ueventd.rc to 644 ( rw-r-r- )
7. umount the ext4 image and push it to the root of you data partition
That's stage 1 complete. Part 2 Will Follow Shortly.....
Part 2 - Make a dual boot initramfs.cpio.lzo
1. Change the name of the /data directory to /bootdata by modifying the etc/mountpoints file in the initramfs.cpio.lzo. This stops CWM getting confused when trying to un/mount the data partition
Code:
mount_name mount_dev mount_point mount_fs mount_opts volume_name error_code custom_opt
rawfs /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/rawfs rawfs none 150
system /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt/system ext4 rw,noatime,noexec system 152
bootdata /dev/mmcblk0p4 /bootdata ext4 rw,noatime,noexec bootdata 154 crypt_compat
storage /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/storage ext4 rw,noatime #storage_name# 155
storage_A80S /bootdata/media /mnt/storage bind bootdata none 155
storage_A101S /bootdata/media /mnt/storage bind bootdata none 155
storage_A101XS /bootdata/media /mnt/storage bind bootdata none 155
storage_LUDO /bootdata/media /mnt/storage bind bootdata none 155
storage_A80H /dev/hdd1 /mnt/storage ext4 rw,noatime #storage_name# 155
storage_A101H /dev/hdd1 /mnt/storage ext4 rw,noatime #storage_name# 155
usbhost_ehci /dev/storage_ehci1 /mnt/usbhost_ehci vfat rw,noatime,utf8,shortname=mixed none 156
usbhost_otg /dev/storage_otg1 /mnt/usbhost_otg vfat rw,noatime,utf8,shortname=mixed none 156
rfsext4 /dev/loop0 /new-root ext4 rw,noatime none 157
rfsext3 /dev/loop0 /new-root ext3 rw,noatime none 157
rootfs /dev/loop0 /new-root squashfs ro,cts_compat none 157
ramdisk /tmp/ramdisk /ramdisk vfat loop,rw,utf8,shortname=mixed #ramdisk_name# 158 ramdisk,ramdisk_size=256
2. Using sirduke989 dmenu initramfs you can modify the init script in the initramfs to mount /bootdata instead of /data and also add /bootdata/REC and /bootdata/BOOT to the list
of known locations , I see this a temporary measure as there are a number of other ways to enable dual ( Triple?!? ) booting
3. Flash the modified initramfs and your choice of kernel using either the recovery menu or kd_flasher, I used the 3.0.21 kernel extracted from the 4.0.24 aos file.
You should now be able to boot into CWM Recovery!
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Clearly I'm a developer not a photographer!!
Part 3 - Create rest of the "partition" images.
You should have a /partitions directory in you device root, This is what is normally mounted as your /data ( /dev/block/mmcblk0p4) and contains normal android user data e.g installed app settings databases etc. This is where I've created the reset of my Partitions which are just more ext4 images files. I did this using "dd if=/dev/zero ...." and "mke2fs -text4 ...." on the device through adb whilst booted into CWM. This saved time in pushing large empty ext4 files from my pc.
I called my image CAC ( cache ) DATA ( data ) SYS ( system ) SDCARD ( sdcard ) BOOT ( boot ) you can obviously call them what you like and place them anywhere as long as you match up the image names with those in init.rc and make sure the loop numbers are correct in the etc/recovery.fstab everything should be fine.
You can play around with the files sizes, I have an 8gb my current file sizes at the moment are
BOOT = 25MB
CAC = 500MB
DATA = 3GB
SYS = 500MB
SDCARD = 2GB
The sdcard mount point is probably worth pointing at an external sd if you have one available. I have a 32GB Class 10 that I'll probably set up.
After you've setup your psuedo partitions you should then be able to reboot into recovery, if you've done things correctly you mount output should contain the following
Code:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p4 on /partitions type ext4 (rw,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
/dev/block/loop1 on /cache type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
/dev/block/loop2 on /data type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
/dev/block/loop3 on /system type ext4 (rw,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
/dev/block/loop4 on /sdcard type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
/dev/block/loop5 on /boot type ext4 (rw,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
Everything seems to function correctly, I have successful done a backup and restore of my system partition. I have also applied CWM-SuperSU.zip through install zip from sdcard. Mounting and Remounting works although I'm not sure if Mount USB Storage works yet, I didn't on linux and I've not tested on windows and finally wiping and formating was also successful.
Part 4 - Notes on setting up rom images.
Now you may of already realized normal archos images don't come as separate the /boot and /system images so work is require to split them up.
Also if you want to split the /system from the reset of a archos image your boot partition will need to be about 50MB as archos have they /bin /lib /usr directories which contains binary files that use /lib/libuClibc-*.so as it's libc which brings there root filesystem in at around 38MB.
There is a very strong case for ditching these binaries especially when using AOSP/CM based roms. My intial tests show this is possible.
Just like the recovery init.rc Similar changes have to be made to the roms init.rc
Moving Forward:
of course, there's a lot to do but I wanted to at least get this initial information out there for people to consider. I'm currently booting a Linaro 4.1.1 rom using the split partitions. I have also been working on better booting methods which is why I haven't given any details re the initramfs init script but It's fairly straight forward to adjust and adapt. I'll write up more details soon!
More Research!
As I mentioned, I've been further looking into different booting methods and I think I'm approaching what could be a workable solution that will make the Gen9 more like standard android devices
Here's some more of my findings
1. It turns out that we can dump the existing initramfs.cpio.lzo and we can use a standard android ramdisk layout as the android init will load instead of the init script that is currently being used, this also removes the need for switch root and other nonsense that archos have in there. There was one gotcha when had me stumped for about ten minutes, I needed to add "write /sys/class/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness 75" to the init.rc to turn the screen on.
2. It's possible to stop android either using adb shell stop or stopping each service zygote etc, and start CWM while android is booted. It's probably also feasible the manage booting between recovery and android using the persist properties system which should make switching between the 2 fairly easy to control without much tweaking to any binaries. Looking at other devices, namely samsung, they seem to do something similar with recovery being in the same boot.img as the standard files, they simply load a recovery.rc instead of the main init.rc, this might mean that we have to patch CWM to load the correct init.rc I've not looked at the code properly yet but It's not going to be an issue anyway as all the code is fully available, You've gotta love open source.
3. By mounting /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 to /mnt/rawfs we are still able to use abcbox, reboot_into writes to the params file in the partition to control boot switching, so we can maintain booting into sde while leaving the stock android partition in place. I was unable to get any immediate joy from kd_flasher, that maybe because we currently have the ramdisk we want to overwrite mounted as the rootfs. Again I can't imagine it being too difficult to jig this, It can probably be worked out by looking at the current recovery ramdisk scripts should kd_flasher style functionality be required at any point.
4. Most of the binaries that rely on uClibc can be recompiled against bionic without any issue, usb_modeswitch for example. If there are any closed source ones, then the dynamic linker ld-uclibc or whatever is called, ultimately symlinks back to uClibc and we can just grab the one file and place it in the /lib directory. I tested /usr/bin/lsdvd in this way and It seemed to work fine.
I've got all this going on while still leaving a stock android fully intact, which is a great fallback Just in case.... Keeping these modifications at a safe level is one of the primary goals to enable much wider use
I'll put together some examples within the next couple of days to demostrate what I'm talking about here.
I've got a Linaro 4.1.1 ( JRO03R ) which has working powervr drivers with a 3.0.21 kernel, although that's about all that's working on it at the minute.
It's more a proof of concept than anything else, The kernel would need recompiling to add tracefs functionality which is required by jellybean but using the same magic should leave the powervr drivers functioning still, If anyone's interested I can stick that up, I've foolishly deleted ( misplaced/can't remember ) the device files I used to build this.... Too many android source trees and not using git properly leads to school boy errors.
I'm currently working on an omapzoom 4.1.2 tree using the blaze_tablet device as a base, I think this may yield the best results for the archos.
I suppose one other thing to do is the fix up a stock rom to use these methods and give it CWM, that should be pretty simple to do. Although ICS is ooold and I'm really not a fan of some of archos' methods e.g booting 4 different devices off one firmware. Although to their credit they do demostrate just what possible with deviating android from it's normal standard structures.
Hopefully this has whetted your appetites, I'm pretty excited about what's possible here as I feel it brings these archos devices in line with most others.
Me Again!
Just a cheeky little update, I been trying the figure out the best approach to handle switching between android and recovery mode. In effect I kind of wanted to create a Stage 4 bootloader! because you can never have too many bootloaders LOL I certainly wanted to do a "proper" job on it and try to avoid changes to the android platform code.
While to doing research into this I found this patch to the linux kernel which the android team submitted for review, Reading the mailing list thread I don't think it's been accepted yet! It's true what they say about the Kernel Mailing List, You need to bring your A game and be sure of what your doing..
Anyways the patch add a boot-control-block driver to kernel which check for a boot flag, which is exactly what I need to make booting into alternative configuration nice and simple. I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult to chuck in support for the fastboot protocol on one of those configurations. So a CWM Shouldn't be too far off now!!!
As a little treat I've attached a recovery based ram disk if anyone what's to play, just flash it with you favourite kernel on to your sde partition. Then You can boot into recovery and set your self up a pseudo partition image layout through adb. You won't be able to be into android, obviously until you put your old initramfs back.......
This is totally unsupported.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm just chucking up for those who want to get a feel for to do so. If your uncomfortable playing around in this area then stand well back, It's not prime time yet!!!!
However Feel free to ask questions of a technical bent but If you can't get it to boot then tough luck I'm afraid for now! :laugh:
You shouldn't be able to do any damage with this be I wouldn't go selecting wipe/format etc until you've got some partition images sorted.
I've add abcbox to sbin and symlink reboot_into. It does not seem to fully reboot but It will set the boot flag which you then follow with a call to reboot, That will reboot back into CWM (sde).
Onward
EDIT: Here's the Init.rc and etc/recovery.fstab that It attempts to use.
Code:
on early-init
start ueventd
on init
export PATH /sbin
export ANDROID_ROOT /system
export ANDROID_DATA /data
export EXTERNAL_STORAGE /sdcard
symlink /system/etc /etc
mkdir /boot
mkdir /sdcard
mkdir /system
mkdir /data
mkdir /cache
mkdir /mnt
mkdir /mnt/rawfs
mount /tmp /tmp tmpfs
mkdir /partitions 0771 system system
mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 /partitions
mount rawfs /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/rawfs
# Mount /system rw first to give the filesystem a chance to save a checkpoint
mount ext4 [email protected]/partitions/CAC /cache nosuid nodev
mount ext4 [email protected]/partitions/DATA /data nosuid nodev
mount ext4 [email protected]/partitions/SYS /system
mount ext4 [email protected]/partitions/SDCARD /sdcard nosuid nodev
mount ext4 [email protected]/partitions/BOOT /boot
on boot
ifup lo
hostname localhost
domainname localdomain
class_start default
service ueventd /sbin/ueventd
critical
service recovery /sbin/recovery
service adbd /sbin/adbd recovery
disabled
# Always start adbd on userdebug and eng builds
# In recovery, always run adbd as root.
on property:ro.debuggable=1
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 0
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/idVendor 18D1
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/idProduct D001
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/functions adb
#write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 1
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/iManufacturer $ro.product.manufacturer
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/iProduct $ro.product.model
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/iSerial A101S_REC
write /sys/class/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness 75
#start adbd
setprop service.adb.root 1
# Restart adbd so it can run as root
on property:service.adb.root=1
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 0
restart adbd
write /sys/class/android_usb/android0/enable 1
Recovery.fstab
Code:
# mount point fstype device
/cache ext4 /dev/block/loop0
/data ext4 /dev/block/loop1
/system ext4 /dev/block/loop2
/sdcard ext4 /dev/block/loop3
Any words about hdd versions?
DragosP2010 said:
Any words about hdd versions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I all depends how you want the structure it, What it would change is the mount point of the paritions directory. After that. everything is loop mounted and sitting on top of the existing structure.
Code:
mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 /partitions
Great stuff!!!!
Hey trevd,
that's fantastic... i will definitely try this CWM in a few days with my custom kernel and bootloader (mountpoint will need some tweaks as well ).
I'm very busy these days, so i gess i'll leave some longer statements to the recent developments in a few days.
Just in short... it's very pleasant to see all these open developments popping up and i really, really appreciate this kind of hacking!
Keep on your great work... you rock!!
Cheers,
scholbert
Hi Trevd,
Nice job!
I've been using the same kind of trick on my Xperia S boot manager project, recovery on loops and mount [email protected] in inits. You may want to take a look at what I did there (see my sig), it may have some use for your project.
Basically, what I do is storing multiple kernels+cpios on the regular kernel partition. I use one (trimmed down to maximize space) to handle the boot logic and cwm, and I have enough space to handle two "regular" kernels. I handle kernel switch just before they load with a small assembly loader. It works very nicely on Xperia, and it's very nice to be able to dual boot with isolated cwms. I can't remember maximum size on a g9 kernel rawfs file, but I think you could have at least enough space to have two kernels to isolate recovery.
Hey letama,
nice to read you :highfive:
letama said:
I've been using the same kind of trick on my Xperia S boot manager project, recovery on loops and mount [email protected] in inits. You may want to take a look at what I did there (see my sig), it may have some use for your project.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool stuff again...
letama said:
Basically, what I do is storing multiple kernels+cpios on the regular kernel partition. I use one (trimmed down to maximize space) to handle the boot logic and cwm, and I have enough space to handle two "regular" kernels. I handle kernel switch just before they load with a small assembly loader. It works very nicely on Xperia, and it's very nice to be able to dual boot with isolated cwms. I can't remember maximum size on a g9 kernel rawfs file, but I think you could have at least enough space to have two kernels to isolate recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK, we got around ~30MBytes in the raws partition on our tablets so would be possible to put some more kernel+cpios here easily.
Anyway, made some experiments with my latest u-boot port for the tablet this weekend.
I was able to bring up my A80S completely from MicroSD and boot into CWM by using uImage and uInitramfs (based on trevd's CWM image).
There's also some lowlevel multiboot implemented now by using the volume keys... but i know that i use a very special setup, so this is more a proof of concept and not a suitable environment for the average user
Cheers,
scholbert
Thanks Letama + Scholbert
I'll look at all this stuff this week....As a aside, I've played around with mmcblk0p3 and given myself an mmcblk0p5 / 6 of 4MB each. I found parted to be pretty useful (read:safe) for this..... I'm dubious about playing around with the rawfs too much at this point, mainly because I don't understand it fully, yet!.
Have you guy seen this https://github.com/swetland/omap4boot ( I think it's along the line of what Scholbert been working with/on )
Like I've mentioned to ultimate goal is a solution that is "safe" for the average user and also leaves the rest of the tablet in-tact, it maybe a lofty goal but worth a shot. :good:
Thanks for the input guys!
scholbert said:
AFAIK, we got around ~30MBytes in the raws partition on our tablets so would be possible to put some more kernel+cpios here easily.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
30 for init kernel ? That's plenty indeed! Cool!
Anyway, made some experiments with my latest u-boot port for the tablet this weekend.
I was able to bring up my A80S completely from MicroSD and boot into CWM by using uImage and uInitramfs (based on trevd's CWM image).
There's also some lowlevel multiboot implemented now by using the volume keys... but i know that i use a very special setup, so this is more a proof of concept and not a suitable environment for the average user
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice job! Too bad that Archos doesn't do this on their board with a small internal switch. Would be cool for people like me with big fingers and poor soldering skills
trevd said:
I'll look at all this stuff this week....As a aside, I've played around with mmcblk0p3 and given myself an mmcblk0p5 / 6 of 4MB each. I found parted to be pretty useful (read:safe) for this..... I'm dubious about playing around with the rawfs too much at this point, mainly because I don't understand it fully, yet!.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hummm... You're going to end with a full re-partitioning scheme with system and data if you continue this way . Just be careful when you recreate partitions to let the empty space at the beginning of the disk untouched, instant brick ahead if you go there...
Just in case, here is what I did with my repartition script (do you have it ?): delete p3, delete p4, re-create p3 (careful with start point, leave the hole! it should start just after p2) as extended partition, big enough to hold the new partitions, recreate p4 (same thing about the hole, it should start after p3) with what remains and then you can create p5,p6,p7 with the size you want inside p3.
Last advice: rawfs, don't touch it .
Anyway, the good thing with what I did on Xperia S is that you don't mess with rawfs and re-partition, it's just like flashing a very big SDE kernel from recovery with unmodfified sde firmware, that's all. If I find some time, I'll take a look to see if we can do the same thing here.
letama said:
Just in case, here is what I did with my repartition script (do you have it ?): delete p3, delete p4, re-create p3 (careful with start point, leave the hole! it should start just after p2) as extended partition, big enough to hold the new partitions, recreate p4 (same thing about the hole, it should start after p3) with what remains and then you can create p5,p6,p7 with the size you want inside p3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Yes I have read your previous threads on the subject which provided alot of the inspiration for the work currently at hand, It is also why I am being ultra careful around the partitions
I think maybe I'm just being too clever trying too pull everything back a step into the intramfs when we can just do the old switch root method method.... It's a little messy on the inside but it will get the job done!
Well, I don't like much the switch root too, it's not a very "Android way" of doing things and make some apps not very happy with it, but yes, it will get the job done, one root for recovery, one root for firmware. And Archos stock would be difficult without switch root, they did put far too much stuff outside of system.
letama said:
Well, I don't like much the switch root too, it's not a very "Android way" of doing things and make some apps not very happy with it, but yes, it will get the job done, one root for recovery, one root for firmware. And Archos stock would be difficult without switch root, they did put far too much stuff outside of system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm very much for the "Android Way" I believe the archos stock roms can be re-jigged as the stuff outside of the system is not required by the system, this is all stuff that is a result of the BuildRoot build system and has a dependency on uClibc.
I'm going to try and get something usable this week, can I store additional files in the rawfs partition without running into trouble?
trevd said:
I'm very much for the "Android Way" I believe the archos stock roms can be re-jigged as the stuff outside of the system is not required by the system, this is all stuff that is a result of the BuildRoot build system and has a dependency on uClibc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it's required. It's used inside Android, it handles audio, wifi, codecs, smb...
I'm going to try and get something usable this week, can I store additional files in the rawfs partition without running into trouble?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In rawfs or initramfs ? I wouldn't add any file in rawfs, it would be difficult to do and I don't know how would behave the bootloader if it sees new files there. Initramfs you're free to do whatever you want until you reach maximum size of kernel+initramfs.
trevd said:
Have you guy seen this https://github.com/swetland/omap4boot ( I think it's along the line of what Scholbert been working with/on )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well kind of... while i try to stick with the MicroSD our fellow vincencb follows the omap4boot path.
He already made a port of barebox bootloader to work with this tool and pushed it to the repos.
This way you may put anything you like on the tablet's RAM by using MicroUSB for communication and file transfer.
My way is more to get a full featured u-boot and put it into a state, where it might replace stock loader.
Last step is to put it in internal eMMC... so this is also research and development for now.
trevd said:
Like I've mentioned to ultimate goal is a solution that is "safe" for the average user and also leaves the rest of the tablet in-tact, it maybe a lofty goal but worth a shot. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yepp that sounds like a reasonable approach.
letama said:
30 for init kernel ? That's plenty indeed! Cool!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be even more precisely, there are 32512*1K blocks for the rawfs partition.
On my device there's ~12MB left...
letama said:
Nice job! Too bad that Archos doesn't do this on their board with a small internal switch. Would be cool for people like me with big fingers and poor soldering skills
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, a real switch would be nice indeed... there's some unused testpoints giving us additional GPIO
Need to solder though...
trevd said:
I'm very much for the "Android Way" I believe the archos stock roms can be re-jigged as the stuff outside of the system is not required by the system, this is all stuff that is a result of the BuildRoot build system and has a dependency on uClibc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some stuff outside of system is quite useful and gives us something like a minimal linux ecosystem.
Very useful at console level... some tools seem to be used by the Android system as well.
trevd said:
I'm going to try and get something usable this week, can I store additional files in the rawfs partition without running into trouble?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mmmh, letama maybe right with being very careful with this part of internal storage. If it get's corrupt you'll risk a brick (could be restored though by using external boot mechanism).
Anyway the best would be to mount it RW and use the kernel driver to access it... the unknown part is still the bootcode.
There's some kind of allocation table at the beginning of rawfs partition. It is yet unknown how bootcode behaves with an additional entry
Anyway, this is a real nice project and i would really appreciate to see it pushing forward.
Take your time trevd, and again thanks a lot for contribution!!
Have a nice day,
scholbert
Not to put this down in any way, but wouldn't TWRP be better for the G9? It has a full touch tablet UI, which is better than CWM's
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Quinny899 said:
Not to put this down in any way, but wouldn't TWRP be better for the G9? It has a full touch tablet UI, which is better than CWM's
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Quinny
There's nothing to stop us using whatever recovery we like.... they all work the same way ( I think ) , i.e the code is compiled into a recovery binary. Unfortunately my touch screen stopped working long ago so I wouldn't really benefit
scholbert said:
To be even more precisely, there are 32512*1K blocks for the rawfs partition.
On my device there's ~12MB left...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, yes, but there is space reserved for each file there, what I have to figure is how much is reserved for custom file (sde kernel). I don't want to have to shift the files located after custom to make room for sde kernel , it would defeat the "no-fuss/no-risk" of the method.
Anyway the best would be to mount it RW and use the kernel driver to access it... the unknown part is still the bootcode.
There's some kind of allocation table at the beginning of rawfs partition. It is yet unknown how bootcode behaves with an additional entry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely. Re-partitioning is much safer if space is needed.
trevd said:
.... they all work the same way ( I think ) , i.e the code is compiled into a recovery binary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a good keyword: The recovery binary itself!
Most tools inside the recovery are simply linked to busybox, which itself is a link to recovery executable.
In other words, we have some code responsable for the menu and framebuffer stuff and we have busybox.
The strings command gave me version 1.2.0. Now my question...
How to configure this part of code?
I'd like to enhance the busybox part.
Could you please provide a little to howto for a compiler run?
Will i need all that Android stuff installed...
I you have any clue, please point me in the right direction.
Lazy,
scholbert
scholbert said:
How to configure this part of code?
I'd like to enhance the busybox part.
Could you please provide a little to howto for a compiler run?
Will i need all that Android stuff installed...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you need full android repo. Android Build system is messy and tightly coupled, busybox is compiled with bionic (android libc), recovery is built on top of it with few android libraries links. Isolating all this "mess" would be difficult. Except disk space required, there is no big deal in getting full android repo.
I'd suggest to take a look at this, you should do the "Prepare the Build Environment" section.
I don't know how trevd built his recovery, but what I did is create a gen9 device to get proper configuration for recovery (frame buffer config, ...). You can get mine if you want, it's a little outdated (latest cwm doesn't need a specific gfx anymore, the custom one I used has been moved to upstream for instance), but it should give you a base.
To do that, you have to create an "archos" directory in cm9/device directory, then from inside it do:
Code:
git clone git://gitorious.org/archos-ics/device-g9.git gen9
Then, you need to setup the build env once. From cm9 root, you have to do that:
Code:
. build/envsetup.sh
(it setups android build environment)
then
Code:
lunch
then choose full_gen9-eng.
(it selects device target for build)
You should have something like that:
Code:
============================================
PLATFORM_VERSION_CODENAME=REL
PLATFORM_VERSION=4.0.4
TARGET_PRODUCT=full_gen9
TARGET_BUILD_VARIANT=eng
TARGET_BUILD_TYPE=release
TARGET_BUILD_APPS=
TARGET_ARCH=arm
TARGET_ARCH_VARIANT=armv7-a-neon
HOST_ARCH=x86
HOST_OS=linux
HOST_BUILD_TYPE=release
BUILD_ID=IMM76L
============================================
from this point, you can compile:
make -j4 recoveryimage (change j4 with the number of parallel build you want depending on your cpu).
whole recovery fs should be in out/target/product/gen9/recovery/root, with recovery command in sbin
Last, how do you want to extend it? If you want to add custom commands, take a look at cwm bootable/recovery/extendedcommands.c, it may be easier to add stuff there than in busybox.
Welcome. Already he was just asking about the same with the addition of some suggestions.The init.d directory has the opportunity to start up the concrete near the beginning of a comment, start the machine.One could initiate concrete partitions on the SD card to have played a role partition "mtd" for example / system / data / cachefrom what I noticed the kernel to jb has otherwise changed little these partitions (size).I do not know exactly how it looks with them, but if one could perform 2 partitions by mtd / system (small to perform the basic start-up and later redirects to / systemsd and the rest used as a framework or a particle cache?)
examples of partition
mtd / system (start-up)
mtd / ram (unless you know)
mmc / fat32
mmc / systemsd (the rest of the system)
mmc / data
mmc / .......
and so onthat was a minimum of 4 block
for it is our memory that was on the phone at the same time much bigger and faster (unless there think) than a swap sdanother thing that applications were loaded into the framework so that if they were around 500 + mb ram for the system to switch on only long landing and later had to speed up.I came up with this idea a bit strange when I have made applications to change fat32, after connecting the USB cable.for me my memory card is slightly odd partitions of personal reasons
Class10+ 32gb
fat32 / sdcard 26gb block1
ext4 / 4gb sd-ext Block2
swap ... 2gb block3
fat32 / sdcard2 2gb block4
sorry to my poor english. I hope you understand my gibberish (a lot of words I could not remember so I used google translator)
-AsA- said:
Welcome. Already he was just asking about the same with the addition of some suggestions.The init.d directory has the opportunity to start up the concrete near the beginning of a comment, start the machine.One could initiate concrete partitions on the SD card to have played a role partition "mtd" for example / system / data / cachefrom what I noticed the kernel to jb has otherwise changed little these partitions (size).I do not know exactly how it looks with them, but if one could perform 2 partitions by mtd / system (small to perform the basic start-up and later redirects to / systemsd and the rest used as a framework or a particle cache?)
examples of partition
mtd / system (start-up)
mtd / ram (unless you know)
mmc / fat32
mmc / systemsd (the rest of the system)
mmc / data
mmc / .......
and so onthat was a minimum of 4 block
for it is our memory that was on the phone at the same time much bigger and faster (unless there think) than a swap sdanother thing that applications were loaded into the framework so that if they were around 500 + mb ram for the system to switch on only long landing and later had to speed up.I came up with this idea a bit strange when I have made applications to change fat32, after connecting the USB cable.for me my memory card is slightly odd partitions of personal reasons
Class10+ 32gb
fat32 / sdcard 26gb block1
ext4 / 4gb sd-ext Block2
swap ... 2gb block3
fat32 / sdcard2 2gb block4
sorry to my poor english. I hope you understand my gibberish (a lot of words I could not remember so I used google translator)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't get you.
But it is possible to install rom on sdcard with High read/write speed.(class 6 or higher)
all U need is a dual-boot recovery
(I don't know that u must have a Rom installed in internal memory or not(
Sent From My "ULTIMATE ROM- gb - WP8 edition" via Tapatalk
yes, but not on my mind
dual-boot umount dir and make new to port img file. mtd block is not changed
my idea if edit mtd block
Memory phone
mtdblock0 /system size 206 mb
mtdblock1 /cache size 50 mb
mtdblock3 /data size 211mb
mayby mtdblock2 is block ram1, ram2 ..... size ~200mb
all ~667mb
my idea is
mtdblock0 /system (basic start-up i don't know mayby 20mb-67mb)
and mtdblock1 is block ram 600mb
of sd card make block to /system /data etc
this is my idea but I do not know if possible
@-AsA-
Hi. I am working on a dual-boot project. I sent you an invite to our group. It would be awesome if we could work together. I have a test kernel ready, if you want to test. It's still a WIP. Everything modified is mentioned there. Please take a look. Thank you.
Looking forward to working with you.
sgt. meow
sgt. meow said:
@-AsA-
Hi. I am working on a dual-boot project. I sent you an invite to our group. It would be awesome if we could work together. I have a test kernel ready, if you want to test. It's still a WIP. Everything modified is mentioned there. Please take a look. Thank you.
Looking forward to working with you.
sgt. meow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im helping you on dboot project
The bootloader won't boot directly from the sdcard.
Nevertheless, you can definitely have ROM images in the sdcard and use those while booting android (basically you only have to update init.rc for that).
Check 'multiboot' in my signature for more details.
nobodyAtall said:
The bootloader won't boot directly from the sdcard.
Nevertheless, you can definitely have ROM images in the sdcard and use those while booting android (basically you only have to update init.rc for that).
Check 'multiboot' in my signature for more details.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can we edit bootloader?
Sent from my XPERIA X8 using xda premium
fotak-x said:
Can we edit bootloader?
Sent from my XPERIA X8 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First make it unlockable for newer devices
Then edit
sent from my W8 using client-server technology
fotak-x said:
Can we edit bootloader?
Sent from my XPERIA X8 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S1loader is not open source to work with. You could hex-edit it if you had some easy way to flash it and recover from the countless hard bricks the bootloader development process has. Unfortunately this is doable via jtag only. My knowledge is limitted on that area.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
As for the bootloader, what could be the first real-time editor hex can perform a large change in the machine switched on.
When it comes to dual boot I can help not only the development of a test.
slightly going back bootloader to my x8 from the beginning she had unlocked (date of manufacture 10W40 surprisingly). I had not unlocked. To change the kernel or other heavy operations.Never failed to I managed to brick trying to do specifically
not worried about the phone I'm always ready to purchase a new...
The idea of a modified bootloader is nice, but it have two problem.
1. Modify the bootloader to add capability to boot directly from sdcard is basically useless because this is possible with a simple script in a modified ramdisk. Check the post from nAa, or search the thread about nBoot from feherneoh. This is easy and not need to do dangerous things.
2. The modification of the bootloader is near impossible because:
- the working of S1Boot is not documented
- this is a non-standard raw binary, hard to disassembly/decompile
- if someone can disassembly it correctly, need VERY HIGH skills in native arm assembly programming
- need special hardwares to revive the dead phone after all failed modifications (special cables, setool, etc...)
Don't forget: we had to wait more than a year to get unlocked bootloader (and this modification only skip the security verification), and this is working only with devices what older than 1-1,5 years.
I think if someone have these prerequisites, better if he/she working on valuable things instead of boot from sdcard (add fastboot support to bootloader, etc...)
I was thinking of making nBoot work with JB (it didn't). If that fails we will come up with a new method.
It's almost impossible for us to re-write the bootloader.
It would be super cool if someone added fastboot support to our bootloaders.
nobodyAtall said:
The bootloader won't boot directly from the sdcard.
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maybe not in our device but its not impossible
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2061437
stamatis said:
maybe not in our device but its not impossible
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2061437
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Obviously I was talking about these devices not some Samsung one...
@sgt. meow fastboot support is not something that can be added to an existing bootloader. The bootloader itself has to support this protocol. Hence the only solution would be to switch to another bootloader which would have to be ported from scratch for these devices.
The job would require a tremendous amount of effort since not even miniloader works for them!
Can we use dd to write an entire directory to a .img file? I'm thinking of something.
@nAa
I know. I was just unaware that bootloaders could be ported for our device (even if it meant no sleep for 6 months for the brave dev).
sgt. meow said:
Can we use dd to write an entire directory to a .img file? I'm thinking of something.
@nAa
I know. I was just unaware that bootloaders could be ported for our device (even if it meant no sleep for 6 months for the brave dev).
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Mtd devices are not block devices. What are you trying to achieve?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
I was thinking of using feherneoh's nBoot, but in a different way. My idea was to somehow write the current ROM's /system to system.img on sdcard and the same thing with data and cache. Then install another ROM that uses the same kernel (JellySony for example). Then if XXX is present in /sdcard, it would mount system.img as /system (and the same with data and cache), thus enabling dual-boot. In a kinda stupid way.
sgt. meow said:
I was thinking of using feherneoh's nBoot, but in a different way. My idea was to somehow write the current ROM's /system to system.img on sdcard and the same thing with data and cache. Then install another ROM that uses the same kernel (JellySony for example). Then if XXX is present in /sdcard, it would mount system.img as /system (and the same with data and cache), thus enabling dual-boot. In a kinda stupid way.
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This is how my multiboot mod worked actually - except from the fact that back in those days we couldn't flash custom kernels and the whole job was done via the chroot/hw_config.sh hack.
The bummer is you can't switch kernels so multiboot between say gb and jb is not possible.
nobodyAtall said:
S1loader is not open source to work with. You could hex-edit it if you had some easy way to flash it and recover from the countless hard bricks the bootloader development process has. Unfortunately this is doable via jtag only. My knowledge is limitted on that area.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
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...where can i find s1loader in phone? can i pull it out?just curious.....
fotak-x said:
...where can i find s1loader in phone? can i pull it out?just curious.....
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There are two options:
- Export all the partitions (I think the file is nand_partitions.c) from kernel. The mtdump/dd it.
- Use the mtdmapper module that is in the unlocking bootloader tool to get all the partitions to map and then dump it.
Both ways basically do the same thing and they both have a pretty BIG chance of getting your device hard bricked (even when you are in read-only mode).
Hi
I just discovered that my phone's /data (and /cache) partitions (f2fs filesystem) seem to have gotten corrupted.
my suspicion is that it didn't shutdown safely (powerloss during shutdown, maybe the battery was already emptier than the os thought it was, starting the shutdown then increased the power usage)
The battery is less than a year old. (official replacement, not done by myself)
I didn't connect my 3T to power last night (forgot about it)
I connected it to power the next morning and went to eat breakfast, when I came back it was booted up. It still recognized my fingerprint and last app sessions still have screenshots from my apps. The home screen background is still the same. My apps are all still there as far as I can see.
But: all the data is gone. My apps start like I installed them fresh from the store and opening my file manager none of my files are there any more. only 15gb of 128gb used up. (it was closer to 100gb)
Upon noticing this I immediatly went to twrp (3.2.3-10) to use it's repair feature for the partition. -> Error 139
I did the same for my /cache partition and got the same error so I suspect it got corrupted as well.
I'm running Havoc OS 2.4, Android 9.0 (didn't get around to update it and it ran smooth without any major issues for months)
Is there any way for me to backup what is still there (maybe even sector copy (dd))?
Is it possible to repair such an image in Linux or recover some of the files from it?
Is it possible that a newer twrp version actually still can repair my /data partition?
Or is all hope lost? Did my smartphone automatically reformat /data? or has it maybe not touched the partition but cannot use it correctly?
What happens in this case on Android? Would've been nicer (for me) to run into a bootloop instead so I can figure out what's going on, before any hope is lost.
I'm pretty sure encryption was turned off due to magisk/root.
Once I set up the smartphone again I'll switch ext4. I currently blame f2fs but I'm not sure.
I have backups of the important data that was on my smartphone, but if there is any way, it would be nice to recover the rest (images, videos in original resolution etc.)
:fingers-crossed:
If anyone could contribute ways for me to look into this or show me how to proceed, I would be very greatful.
and maybe it's not even f2fs's fault after all.
Regards
EDIT:
in twrp's file manager the file system looks the same btw. (/storage or /sdcard look like factory default)
EDIT2:
I managed to create an .img file from my userdata partition by using the adb command from twrp's adb shell
adb shell 'dd if=/dev/block/sda15 2>/dev/null' > sda15.img
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I hope that will help
I'll try https://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=17133/ once it finished transfering the img file