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Hi there,
I got Linux to boot at OPAL via linwizard project. Here are steps needed to get it work.
1) download image from:
http://tinderbox.x86.dev.gentoo.org/embedded/linwizard/gizard-20080602.tar.bz2
2) copy content of file to the microSD card
3) edit default txt and replace init=/linuxrc with init=/bin/sh
4) run haret and let it boot.
After a while you'll get to shell. No graphics.
Now you can attach microusb cable and connect it with your linux laptop (I recommend ubuntu)
and you will get usb0 interfece to start up.
Which IP to use to connect with OPAL I still must investigate.
Well ip connectivity now works:
ip=<client-ip>:<server-ip>:<gw-ip>:<netmask>:<hostname>:<device>:<autoconf>
Notas:/# ifconfig usb0 up 192.168.2.200 netmask 255.255.255.0
Listik:/usr/src/linux-2.6.27/Documentation# ping 192.168.2.202
PING 192.168.2.202 (192.168.2.202) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.2.202: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2.95 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.202: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.72 ms
And how to do it:
prolong "set CMDLINE" line with
ip=192.168.2.202:192.168.2.200:192.168.2.200pal:usb0
But in this image there doesn't seem to be any telnet/ssh server running. I will try cook image with ssh server support later
Download error
Were not able to re-upload
404 file not found error!!
http://tinderbox.x86.dev.gentoo.org/embedded/linwizard/
and open latest gizard-<date>.tar.bz2
or that I suppose.
The latest link should be http://tinderbox.x86.dev.gentoo.org/embedded/linwizard/gizard-20090703.tar.bz2
does this mean any chance of android working? anyone tried?
Hey,
I'm a new Opal user and I'm interested in getting *nix running on my device. I still haven't had the chance to mess around with this stuff but I'm excited to see this thread.
I was looking into the possibility of running Android on the Opal and it seems the closest thing is this thread bout running it on the Herald (it uses the same processor as the Opal).
I don't any experience in Linux porting so I thought I'd share this, in case anyone else is interested. And at the same time, I'll try to see if I can get something working based on what has been/is being done for other devices.
Sorry for the long post.
Hey Folks,
Any progress on getting Android on Opal? I am eagerly waiting to load one.
Kindly let me know, if this version of Linux when loaded, gives the UI.
Cheers'
Vijay
cijoml said:
Hi there
I got Linux to boot at OPAL via linwizard project. Here are steps needed to get it work.
1) download image from:
http://tinderbox.x86.dev.gentoo.org/embedded/linwizard/gizard-20080602.tar.bz2
2) copy content of file to the microSD card
3) edit default txt and replace init=/linuxrc with init=/bin/sh
4) run haret and let it boot.
After a while you'll get to shell. No graphics.
Now you can attach microusb cable and connect it with your linux laptop (I recommend ubuntu)
and you will get usb0 interfece to start up.
Which IP to use to connect with OPAL I still must investigate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android can boot on Opal
I have some good news, Android can boot on the Opal. This is just a proof of concept as it's missing tons of drivers and is completely useless.
Touchscreen and all keys except for the volume control (and obviously the reset button) are not working. So you basically can't do anything when you run it.
What I tried is the same as what's written in this thread about running Android on Gene. They're using the build made for the Herald/Wing (just as I was proposing in my last post) with customized initramfs and kernel.
You'll find all the necessary details in that thread. However, there's a newer build than the one mentioned there it's wing-linux-0.4pre2.cab. And the suitable kernel for that build is supposed to be the pre2 posted in this post but it didn't work on my Opal so I tried the older Gene kernel and it worked. The main difference between the two is bluetooth support, and that's obviously is of no use for us.
This doesn't effect the Windows rom, nor does it requires any special partitioning. Still it's best to have everything backed up before launching it, just in case.
This is the official site for the wing/herald build:
http://wing-linux.sf.net/
This thread on their forums about the Gene port will probably be of use to us:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/wing-linux/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4
I'm reading about the next steps but as I said before, I don't have any previous experience or knowledge about this type of things. If someone can give me hand, I would be more than grateful. At any rate, once I have better understanding of the concept I'll contact the people behind the Wing and the Gene ports.
P.S: If you do try to run this, keep in mind that this will take lots of time, specially for the first launch. And when you get an error saying something like "android sh: can't access tty" just ignore it and keep waiting. After a while you'll have a flashing "android" on the screen, and after some more waiting you'll reach the main screen.
Is this just THE BEGINNING
Sooper Stuff..!! So is this just THE BEGINNING??
How do we port the drivers and other required information in the build?
Cheers'
Vijay
www.msigeek.com
A Lil' help
I'm going through the Gene port thread here and on the Wing-linux sourceforge forums but I'm still a bit overwhelmed.
I would appreciate any help as I'm completely new to porting. I have some programming and linux knowledge but never attempted this type of things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So am I.
Hmmm...
Right. Lets do it the way I did it.
1. Get the touchscreen working. Through HaRET, you must have got the GPIO interrupt whenever you pressed the touchscreen. You must have got two numbers corresponding to each press - a smaller number and a bigger number. The smaller number is the GPIO, and the larger number is, well, lets say a special GPIO value for the same pin.
Now checkout the Gene branch through git.
Goto /wing-linux/kernel/arch/arm/mach-omap1/board-htcherald.c
Scroll down to a block of code where you'll see the touchscreen code. Enter the smaller number in the .dav_gpio statement, and the IRQ number in the OMAP_GPIO_IRQ() statement below.
2. Follow the Kernel build instructions on the development section of the wing-linux wiki (the two make commands)
Copy the zImage into the linux folder on your SD card
Boot into wing-linux. The touchscreen should start working.
3. Now, hopefully, after the touchscreen's working, You would essentially just require two more buttons - the home button and the back button for minimum functionality. Everything else can be worked on by the touchscreen.
Then follow the instructions on the wing-linux forum (Page 2) to get the KEY(row,col) values of the keys on your handset. Hopefully you should get atleast a couple. Note down the corresponding keys and their KEY(r,c) values output.
4. Fire up board-htcherald.c again and goto the place where you have the KEY(r,c,KEY_blah) thing and replace the codes as per your obtained KEY(r,c,KEY_blah) values (The Home button is the one commented as Left Button)
5. That's all I can help you with as of now. I'm also figuring out a stable way of getting the DPad and the center select key to work, but It'll take some time.
Thanks kshaurya!
(This guy right here is the one who fixed the kernel for Gene, I asked him for some pointers).
I don't want to take my device apart just yet (I usually do my best not take to dismantle anything that I haven't owned for at least 3 months unless absolutely necessary) and I couldn't find a place that states what touchscreen it uses. I'm just hoping that it's the same a tsc2046 as well. [Is there anyone without a warranty and/or willing to check for us?]
I'm gonna double check the values I got from the touchscreen as for some reason I seem to have to IRQ values, probably forgot to get rid of some spamming irq. And, at the same time, I'm currently setting up a VM as a building environment, my main boot is Intrepid 64 and there's no 'psyco' package for 64 machines.
If anyone else have some experience and wants to try this, refer to: http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/HaRET_20Documentation (using haret to get the GPIO and IRQ values needed).
And to:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/wing-linux/wiki/Development (acquiring the source code from Wing Linux and how to build it).
And a quick question for anyone that tried booting Android on the Opal, what screen did you get when Android finally finished booting?
I don't want to take my device apart just yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh? where did that come from? Wing Linux will not touch your WM.
I seem to have to IRQ values
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean two? Well, that's exactly what you should get. Even if it's just one, enter that value in the code.
my main boot is Intrepid 64 and there's no 'psyco' package for 64 machines
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh no. dont tell me that you are building the entire thing. all you need to do is build the KERNEL! Please! Don't go into building the whole thing from scratch. Use the make ARCH ARM commands given on that page.
kshaurya said:
Huh? where did that come from? Wing Linux will not touch your WM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean to check the screen, in case it turned out to be different that what you have.
kshaurya said:
Do you mean two? Well, that's exactly what you should get. Even if it's just one, enter that value in the code.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, stupid typo.
I noticed now that one of them appears when I keep the screen 'touched' for a bit longer.
kshaurya said:
Oh no. dont tell me that you are building the entire thing. all you need to do is build the KERNEL! Please! Don't go into building the whole thing from scratch. Use the make ARCH ARM commands given on that page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not gonna build the complete thing. Seems like I got too exited and failed to notice that building the kernel only requires a cross-compile toolchain, te rest is for compiling the whole thing.
I'm not THIS stupid usually . Honestly!
Thanks again!
I'm not THIS stupid usually . Honestly!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its pretty normal
Weird.
I've only changed the two touchscreen values and built the kenrel. It finished without any error but now it won't boot.
It gets stuck, even before the space allocation part, with this error: "sh: can't access tty; job control turned off". And then it displays a prompt.
I'll try modifying an older build, I'm pulling them from the repos at the moment.
After all, the pre2 kernel from Gene didn't boot on my device (although it got stuck later on).
Try doing a clean install - Remove the linux folder and try again.
Also, make sure that you're not forgetting to checkout the Gene branch.
Code:
git checkout Gene
Is your default.txt modified? And have you downloaded the modified initramfs.cpio?
check in the Gene forums for that.
Already tried the clean install, no dice. The default.txt is untouched and I'm using the modified intramfs. What happened this time is different from what happens using the original one, it's not asking me to specify the partition size but instead it's waiting for a command. I could probably ssh via usb but I have no clue how that might help.
And I've already checked out the Gene branch from the beginning.
I've tried compiling the kernel for pre1 (after changing the screen values) from SVN and it did boot (both using the cabs for pre1 and pre2) but no touch screen yet. All in all, I'm guessing that there's too much hardware difference here.
And the button for lowering volumes didn't work either, it seems like whatever you changed for getting it to work on Gene is the same as what we need here, but I'll think about that later.
I only have two ideas left:
- Trying to go back to a more stable build (with lesser features and lesser possibilities for errors). Maybe 0.3.
- Trying to create some kind of hybrid kernel using this alongside the HTC Vogue build as it probably has closer hardware to the Opal (obviously, I'm talking about everything beside the MSM7500 400MHz processor that it has). I'm hoping it won't get to this cause I'm definitely under qualified for that at the time being.
What happened this time is different from what happens using the original one, it's not asking me to specify the partition size but instead it's waiting for a command.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you post a screenshot?
I've tried compiling the kernel for pre1 (after changing the screen values)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm assuming you mean the touchscreen values? Try interchanging and see.
Trying to go back to a more stable build
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't recommend that. Defeats the whole purpose.
Why don't you try getting in touch with darkstar?
kshaurya said:
Could you post a screenshot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A friend borrowed my digital camera, I tried my laptop's webcam but the text it too blurry. Couldn't fix it using gimp either. So here's exactly what's showing on the screen:
Code:
mdir: Cannot creat directory `/mnt' : File exists
modprbe: could not parse modules.dep
initramfs: Creating device nodes:
initramfs: Loading /initrd.d/10-initfs.sh module
initramfs: Loading /initrd.d/30-wingboot.sh module
Selected:
ROOT_DEVICE=/dev/
CMDLINE=debug quiet psplash=false loglevel=7 init=/sbin/init console=tty0 video=omapfb:accel fbcon=rotate:3 4 root=/dev/
initramfs: Loading /initrd.d/80-loopboot.sh module
initramfs: Loading /initrd.d/85-blockboot.sh module
booting from: /dev/
mount: Mounting /dev/ on /mnt failed: Invalid argument
Unable to mount rootfs device
sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
/ $
And after the prompt, on the same line, there's a flashing '_' waiting for input.
Using the original zImage (from the pre2 cab) it's right around here that the screen clears and the Wing Linux installation script kicks in.
kshaurya said:
I'm assuming you mean the touchscreen values? Try interchanging and see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will try that next.
kshaurya said:
I wouldn't recommend that. Defeats the whole purpose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant it as just a temporary test to till the cause of the incompatibility is figured out. With less things that could go wrong, it'll be easier to locate the ones that are going wrong.
kshaurya said:
Why don't you try getting in touch with darkstar?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right. I should post a thread on the project's forums asking for his help.
Tonight I managed to get my first Android build, 2.0.1, compiled myself from AOSP, up and running on the Vogue from NAND.
I made some small changes, most notably, updating the build.prop to adjust the DPI to 120 and adding the libhtcgeneric_ril.so library, as well as adding the necessary (or.. is it necessary?) build.prop entry to get the radio functioning.
I proudly present my first Android build.
NOTE: This is purely for testing/evaluation purposes.
Working:
Radio
Data
Screen resolution is accurate
Not Working:
Audio
Power Functionality (buttons do not wake the phone?)
GPS
Anyone up for pointing out what I need to do differently to get the non-working aspects functioning? Any tips on optimization? Clues to setup and take full advantage of build.prop?
Additionally, do we have a central repository of Vogue (or MSM7k) drivers that've been ported as source, ready to be compiled for different versions?
There's probably a lot missing here that I'm not even considering.. so please feel free to make any comments, give any advice, or point me towards any documentation.
All help is appreciated. Thanks!
I think this is the repo you're looking for:
http://androidhtc.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb-index.cgi
It contains Audio & GPS drivers, among other things. Can you wake the phone over adb shell with the command echo "wake" > /sys/android_power/request_state ? I'm also interested in getting an AOSP build running from source, I'd like to get the camera working for Eclair.
EDIT: Also, in the zenulator's eclair mod, the /system/etc/keychars directory contains these files:
Code:
htcvogue-ts.kcm.bin
qwerty2.kcm.bin
qwerty.kcm.bin
sapphire-keypad.kcm.bin
trout-keypad.kcm.bin
trout-keypad-qwertz.kcm.bin
trout-keypad-v2.kcm.bin
trout-keypad-v3.kcm.bin
tuttle2.kcm.bin
vogue-ts.kcm.bin
Perhaps that vogue binary is needed? That's my shot in the dark.
Those files are just for the keymapping, nothing more..
polyrhythmic said:
I think this is the repo you're looking for:
http://androidhtc.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb-index.cgi
It contains Audio & GPS drivers, among other things. Can you wake the phone over adb shell with the command echo "wake" > /sys/android_power/request_state ? I'm also interested in getting an AOSP build running from source, I'd like to get the camera working for Eclair.
EDIT: Also, in the zenulator's eclair mod, the /system/etc/keychars directory contains these files:
Code:
htcvogue-ts.kcm.bin
qwerty2.kcm.bin
qwerty.kcm.bin
sapphire-keypad.kcm.bin
trout-keypad.kcm.bin
trout-keypad-qwertz.kcm.bin
trout-keypad-v2.kcm.bin
trout-keypad-v3.kcm.bin
tuttle2.kcm.bin
vogue-ts.kcm.bin
Perhaps that vogue binary is needed? That's my shot in the dark.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's responsible (or handles) power management, then?
And why are there so many keymapping files? According to AOSP, Android will default to qwerty.kl, and certainly with the Vogue being as simple as it is, a single qwerty.kl set up for the Vogue would be sufficient.
So what gives? Or are these files all leftover as this was "ported", and they existed to support previous devices, etc.?
first off great job. this is exactly how i started out by building my own builds from source and then taking apart others to see what fits together. if i have time this weeked i'll have a look at it.
There are an awful lot of moving parts in power management in Android (and any OS, really) - there's the kernel's power subsystem which controls deep sleep / suspend, and which Android attaches a "wakelock" system to, each radio lib (Bluetooth, WiFi, phone) has power management (which hooks up to kernel interfaces), there's the panel driver which controls brightness, etc.
I think the keymapping files are just there so that no matter which one the framework looks for, it always finds one, speeding things up - rather than having to try to find each one and failing down until it finds its eventual failsafe qwerty, it loads the Vogue one straight away.
Awesome man, way to go!
Can you throw in links for rootfs/zimage, I will try later today on my wife's phone.
Thanks sshark, I would, but I've been tweaking that image continuously and at it's current state, it's broken.
Here are the major hurdles I'm facing right now:
How do I determine which drivers are and are not necessary in a build? If we use an AOSP build, or someone else's port, obviously we don't want audio drivers from the Nexus One or generic Goldfish sensors from AOSP, so how can we know what we need to be able to keep images clean?
Along the same vein, how does one incorporate drivers accordingly, such as audio?
Is power management really a dark art right now? Plemen's AOSP build is fantastic, but I typically have to push the power button four times to get the OS to wake up, whereas a 2.1 build I just played with on the Vogue would power up right away on one click. What gives?
When compiling images using genext2fs, does 80000 vs 160000 matter, NAND vs HaRET booting? What's the maximum?
Lastly, I've recently tried unsquashing others images, making changes, and then trying to re-ext2 them, mount them, and squash them. However, when I do this, my images no longer boot fully on my Vogue--instead they'll get as far as the boot animation, it'll run for a bit, and then the boot animation will pause for a second or two, and restart. This happens endlessly. Is this a problem with my process, be it ext2, sqsh (sqsh version, perhaps?) anyone have an idea?
Shidell said:
Thanks sshark, I would, but I've been tweaking that image continuously and at it's current state, it's broken.
Here are the major hurdles I'm facing right now:
How do I determine which drivers are and are not necessary in a build? If we use an AOSP build, or someone else's port, obviously we don't want audio drivers from the Nexus One or generic Goldfish sensors from AOSP, so how can we know what we need to be able to keep images clean?
Along the same vein, how does one incorporate drivers accordingly, such as audio?
Is power management really a dark art right now? Plemen's AOSP build is fantastic, but I typically have to push the power button four times to get the OS to wake up, whereas a 2.1 build I just played with on the Vogue would power up right away on one click. What gives?
When compiling images using genext2fs, does 80000 vs 160000 matter, NAND vs HaRET booting? What's the maximum?
Lastly, I've recently tried unsquashing others images, making changes, and then trying to re-ext2 them, mount them, and squash them. However, when I do this, my images no longer boot fully on my Vogue--instead they'll get as far as the boot animation, it'll run for a bit, and then the boot animation will pause for a second or two, and restart. This happens endlessly. Is this a problem with my process, be it ext2, sqsh (sqsh version, perhaps?) anyone have an idea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i cant answer all of those questions, with that said ill tackle the last two
4. when using genext2fs to compile builds it doesnt matter what the -b count is we just use
Code:
genext2fs -d ./system -b [B]180000[/B] -a system.ext2
to make sure we could fit a ~180 mb system so if your system folder is ~120mb(uncompressed), using -b 125000 should work.
5. make sure you arent using squashfs-tools 4.0 because it isnt supported in our kernel version. so use 3.3 or 3.1 .
5b. when you see the boot logo looping, that means the build has crashed and like i said to you before i strongly recommend you setup adb on you box so you can run logcat to see what the phone is actually doing and to debug what went wrong and why it is looping
Thanks Jamezelle. So NAND users need to make sure it's -b 90000 (or less), as NAND only supports 90 mb. max, correct?
Shidell said:
Thanks Jamezelle. So NAND users need to make sure it's -b 90000 (or less), as NAND only supports 90 mb. max, correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right i would keep it around 88 to be safe.
I'm trying to get ADB to work (using ubuntu 9.10) and I've followed the instructions here, including restarting udev, but even still when I try to start adb, I get "command not found" in terminal.
Any ideas on what I'm missing?
EDIT: I'm missing a ./. I'm really starting to wish I could do this natively in Windows.. geeze.
Shidell said:
I'm trying to get ADB to work (using ubuntu 9.10) and I've followed the instructions here, including restarting udev, but even still when I try to start adb, I get "command not found" in terminal.
Any ideas on what I'm missing?
EDIT: I'm missing a ./. I'm really starting to wish I could do this natively in Windows.. geeze.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you make sure you added the path to adb in .bashrc
# On Linux, edit your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc file. Look for a line that sets the PATH environment variable and add the full path to the tools/ directory to it. If you don't see a line setting the path, you can add one:
Code:
export PATH=${PATH}:<your_sdk_dir>/tools
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that should clear up the "Command not found" issue
jamezelle said:
did you make sure you added the path to adb in .bashrc
that should clear up the "Command not found" issue
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that was the issue. It needs to be there, or launched as ./, I presume.
Thanks much for your help tonight, Jamezelle.. I'm happy to report that I'm steadily making progress for a working release.
Shidell said:
Yep, that was the issue. It needs to be there, or launched as ./, I presume.
Thanks much for your help tonight, Jamezelle.. I'm happy to report that I'm steadily making progress for a working release.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats great to hear, also thanks for your additions to the libgps.so! its nice to still see some android enthusiasm in this community
Well hello everyone.
I am an application development student from Belgium.
I am proficient in Java, VB.NET, some c/c++ and also PHP/JS/HTML/CSS
Anyways, my recent interest has been going out to creating custom roms for the galaxy S!
The problem now is though, I was able to find some guides and such, but most were incomplete, and for HTC(and other) devices.
I have no idea what is different between making a ROM for galaxy S or a ROM for an HTC device.
If anyone would like to link me to some good resources that can help me on my way, or would like to collaborate (and in the meanwhile teach me a bit) I would be more than happy! (I am open for collaboration as I am pretty proficient in Java and I'm always happy to code and learn more about coding!)
I think the question is really want you want to do!
Custom ROMs for Android are as simple as using recovery console to replace files on the system with your own versions.
ie. Replace the framework.apk which contains all theme images with your own modified one, which you can use to skin the device. Same for replacing other system apps.
Unfortunately, most of these apps are closed source, so modifying them is difficult. The stock android system has open source versions of most of them though, and you can modify those and build them, and then replace the ones on the device. I'm not entirely sure how to build them up though, but it probably isn't too hard.
Then there are custom kernels, which let you actually change the underlying linux system underneath android - Samsung has an open source version of the kernel available that you can compile, and then flash to your phone using Odin or other tools. Compiling the kernel is pretty tricky though.
Well i'm really talking about stuff like SamSet, MoDaCo, Doc's ROM and others.
I'm not saying I want to create a pro ROM in a day or anything, but i'd really love to learn more to get better (always looking for more stuff to put on the resume, I guess?!)
Thanks a lot,
Kenny
Bump for some help
(sorry for the double post but i'm really eager to learn)
I don't have time to give a detailed response right now. However you will want to read up on yaffs (file system) and odexing/deodexing ROMs.
Thank you I will definately do that,
I am following a guide now to start out creating custom ROMs for android, however it was written for Motorola Droid and I have no idea what you have to do different for a samsung galaxy s.
I am a good coder, even though I say so myself, with a lot of experience. I also have a lot of linux experience, you name it
Only the problem is the old, and much known "where do I get started?"
So if anyone can point me out in the right direction on that, tell me how/where you started out, I would appreciate it greatly!
Thanks!
Very sorry to bump again
I set up my environment in ubuntu today to get started (just gotta fix a few errors, didn't know android wouldn't compile on java 1.6, only on 1.5)
Anyways, still need some help here! thanks!
Again I am awefully sorry for the bump here but i'd really like some help.
Note that i'm not a newbie at coding whatsoever and i'm not unfamiliar with some hardcore java, c/c++ and other languages, I'm just having trouble getting started when it comes to modding an existing android release (there are tutorials on HTC and other devices but some methods do not apply to the galaxy S)
If you're trying to create a ROM from scratch then unfortunately you're out of luck at the moment. No one has really managed to do so yet. By "from scratch" I mean the Android Open Source Project (i.e. official Android git repository).
What you can do is grab an existing firmware. Extract the contents, de-odex the apks, modify them or add new apks, optionally you can also compile a custom SGS kernel using Samsung's kernel source. Then you can re-odex the ROM, pack it back up and distribute it.
There's no real "starting place" as such and you won't yet find any tutorials about how to create SGS ROMs. Just give it a go and see where you get.
Yes, I do mean creating a ROM from stock samsung firmware, of course.
So my next logical question would be now:
How do I go over extracting contents from the existing samsung firmware, de-odexing and so on?
Any links/guides/tips are greatly appreciated, as long as they are applicable to this cell phone and not totally crap, thanks!
Samsung uses rfs, I think you should know. There is a thread somewhere in this forum regarding extracting .rfs file. Understood you need Debian though.
For some readup, go search for a famous guy named JesusFreke. Tons of materials...
Hope that from here onwards, this can lead you on, and to find out more. Google is your friend too...
I'm afraid my biggest problems already occur in setting up the environment, so it's really the very beginning that gets me stuck, i'm sure coding would be a bikeride compared to setting up the environment for me (i'm no hero in linux,not at all, i'm afraid)
How the hell do I get from point A (being downloading the full source) to point B (starting to create a custom ROM?)
thanks
of course if anyone has the time, and wants to, you can PM me your msn or something, if anyone is up to it
Raykoid666 said:
I'm afraid my biggest problems already occur in setting up the environment, so it's really the very beginning that gets me stuck, i'm sure coding would be a bikeride compared to setting up the environment for me (i'm no hero in linux,not at all, i'm afraid)
How the hell do I get from point A (being downloading the full source) to point B (starting to create a custom ROM?)
thanks
of course if anyone has the time, and wants to, you can PM me your msn or something, if anyone is up to it
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Agreed completely! Getting a full cross-compilation to Samsung's Android going is seriously difficult! There have been some promises for tutorials and guides for setting things up though, but none have appeared yet. Probably because it's hard!
Well thank you for agreeing with me on that.
I am really hoping for anyone that can help me out here, either on here or in private, and give some detailed instructions on how to get started.
Hell there is enough information on creating roms alread, deodexing, adding/removing apps etc etc etc... The real problem lies in setting everything up properly.
I think I have gotten to the point where I'm compiling the android source (without samsung specific files)
note i'm saying "i think i am compiling" because i'm hoping it won't error out on me again after an hour of compiling!
But once that is done... I have no idea where to go next, where to get the samsung specific files, or what to do with them whatsoever once i have them
thanks!
Android generic source won't actually help you much. Samsung has made a huge number of changes to it, and while it is all open source, backporting their changes to get your stock source running on the phone is a major undertaking. I believe cyanogenmod was actually working on this, but it seems without much success so far.
What the other rom makers you see are doing is taking a snapshot of a running rom, copying over all of the APKs and the files on a running device, and then tweaking those. ie. Opening up framework-res.apk and changing the image files inside.
The update.zip roms that are what most people are doing are really just using the Android recovery to replace files on the phone with their own versions. Since the underlying system is linux, and everything is a file, this actually works pretty well.
The kernel development effort is completely separate from the rest of the system though, and Samsung has provided the entire source tree that just has to be compiled. I'm a bit stumped myself on all the details of setting it up, but I have seen some threads on this forum about it, and it didn't seem too bad to set up. Apparently you shouldn't use the codesourcery toolchain though, or something. Not too clued up on it, sorry. Hopefully someone with the details can chime in, or give us a link to the old post on it (I'm failing to find it using the search function! )
Alright sounds good!
So these recovery files you are talking about (the contents of /system) how do i retrieve those from a base ROM such as JM7 or the likes after a clean flash?)
Raykoid666 said:
Alright sounds good!
So these recovery files you are talking about (the contents of /system) how do i retrieve those from a base ROM such as JM7 or the likes after a clean flash?)
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Root your phone, zip them up onto the sdcard, and then copy them off.
There are probably better methods, but this works fine.
Also, with credits to Unhelpful, he has told me that the correct toolchain to be using is 'uClibc or eglibc toolchain with ct-ng'. I have no idea what to do with that yet, but it's a start.
RyanZA said:
Root your phone, zip them up onto the sdcard, and then copy them off.
There are probably better methods, but this works fine.
Also, with credits to Unhelpful, he has told me that the correct toolchain to be using is 'uClibc or eglibc toolchain with ct-ng'. I have no idea what to do with that yet, but it's a start.
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You don't even need to root your phone to pull /system Ryan
adb pull /system <random folder>
is all you need ^^
Alright thank you, I managed to get all the /system files using abd pull /system
now next thing up would be de-odexing right, before I go editing stuff?
Now before I go de-odexing. Can anyone tell me what exactly de-odexing is and why I need it?
and what do I need to do to create an update.zip again?
thanks a lot all!
Tayutama said:
You don't even need to root your phone to pull /system Ryan
adb pull /system <random folder>
is all you need ^^
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Haha cool, didn't know you could pull whole folders!
Raykoid666 said:
Alright thank you, I managed to get all the /system files using abd pull /system
now next thing up would be de-odexing right, before I go editing stuff?
Now before I go de-odexing. Can anyone tell me what exactly de-odexing is and why I need it?
and what do I need to do to create an update.zip again?
thanks a lot all!
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The apk files in Android are odexed - that means they have a special index applied for dalvik that speeds them up somehow! I don't know how, I haven't checked how it actually works.
The important point is though:
odexed is faster, but you can't edit it because of signatures or something technical
deodexed means you can change it however you want
More useful info can be found from google - lots of it!
update.zip is easy - it's a zip file in a special format that can be understood by Android's recovery console. The easiest way to do it is to grab an existing update.zip and modify it as needed. Tayutama has millions of em around, so use his!
Then you need to sign it once you're finished with it so that the SGS will accept it. Samsung made a boo-boo and didn't disable the test keys for the 2.1 SGS firmwares. That makes it easy!
http://www.londatiga.net/it/how-to-sign-apk-zip-files/
Just use the test keys to sign it, and then copy it to /sdcard/update.zip and reboot into recovery and it'll work.
Ok so I am in the process of building my own android rom. I have built the system.ext2 file using nexus one 2.16.17001 base image. I then ran the build on my HD2 was able to get it to fully boot!
It seems to run really fast, but my first issue is I can not get network to connect, it simply does not recognise the sim card.
I know there are drivers I need to download and update the build with but I am unsure what I need to download and were to get them from.
If anybody could help me it would be great. I am very close to getting a working build!
Can anybody help with this?
GhostXSeries said:
Ok so I am in the process of building my own android rom. I have built the system.ext2 file using nexus one 2.16.17001 base image. I then ran the build on my HD2 was able to get it to fully boot!
It seems to run really fast, but my first issue is I can not get network to connect, it simply does not recognise the sim card.
I know there are drivers I need to download and update the build with but I am unsure what I need to download and were to get them from.
If anybody could help me it would be great. I am very close to getting a working build!
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Click to collapse
I've been trying to figure this out myself. I'm still working on it. I was able to get in the new radio - FRG33 built into the ROM, but that's about it so far.
Can you do me a huge favor? Don't suppose you can tell me - in a PM or otherwise - what steps you took to get it to boot as far as you did? I think if I can fiddle around with that I might be able to get the rest working.
Thanks!
Hatelfy I have sent you a PM as requested.
As Hatelfy suggests I think I need to extract the radio.img file and add the contents into my rom but I cant figure out how to extract the file. Does anybody have any ides?
I have tried mounting the file in ubuntu but it simply does not recognise the file type.
Don't know if it'd work but could you not use something like iso buster and extract raw data? Saying that I searched the other day "nbh extract" and there's a program on here somewhere that'll dump the contents into a folder if that's what you're after!?!?
Im not even sure if im on the right track. Everything on my build is working perfectly. Except the data. I cant get it to see the sim card. I am not sure what I have to update to get it to go on to the network.
Any ides?
Can anybody help with this?
GhostXSeries said:
Can anybody help with this?
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OK, well how I did it was like this. Not sure if it's the right way of doing it, but the system didn't error and was perfectly happy doing it sooo..
Using a standard Android kitchen, I just downloaded the contents of the FRG33 Radio rom into the root of my working folder. After I was done tinkering with various aspects of my ROM I gave it the command to build from the working folder.
I guess what it does is looks for a radio from root and it incorporates everything on fly. (at least that's what the status messages said it did...)
Once I had my custom rom built I used Coffeeshop to make the system image. After that, I had no idea. I'm not even sure if I was supposed to incorporate anything to the build or not module wise.
When I get back home from work today i'll try out the info you gave me and get back to you and let you know if worked or not.
Hey man Can you PM me on what kitchen you used? I only know of the coffee shop?
Yep sure thing.
I need a little bit of help portingh crDroid 6 to the sm-t350. Nubianprince started then got pulled away by work. I have initalized the crdroid repo, but i when i run repo sync i think it only downloaded like, 300 mb. i do have an android pie enviroment, does repo link resources? i dont know what is going on there. I will upload my roomservice.xml. I had to remove a couple lines from the original and manually clone them because it keeped giving me an error. the original is here https://github.com/Nubianprince/local_manifests/blob/master/crdroid-ten.xml .
Currently i am using this device tree: https://github.com/Nubianprince/android_vendor_samsung_gt58wifi most custom roms i see are using this: https://github.com/Valera1978/android_device_samsung_gtaxlwifi . I have not seen any non sm-5xx devices using it though, so i hesitate to switch. i worked out a a couple errors of things being defined twice, and then built. but i think i am missing something as the build fails with this: FAILED: ninja: 'out/target/product/gt58wifi/root/init.usb.configfs.rc', needed by 'out/target/product/gt58wifi/ramdisk-recovery.cpio', missing and no known rule to make it
Is there a "quick fix" to provide this file? I am not actually sure what i am missing, or what creates it.
Any help would be appreciated.
This file "init.usb.configfs.rc" is missing from your device tree, somewhere in one of your files you have the path pointing to "init.usb.configfs.rc" which does not exist. Let me know if that makes sense.
nubianprince said:
This file "init.usb.configfs.rc" is missing from your device tree, somewhere in one of your files you have the path pointing to "init.usb.configfs.rc" which does not exist. Let me know if that makes sense.
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Yes, it does make sense. I just don't know enough about the android environment to know where the file, or what is pointing to it, would / should be.
Okay. I believe there is a missing, or many many missing makefiles. I found the file and manually copied it to out, and then the build fails with another missing file. Rinse and repeat, there are a ton of files not being put where they should be. Now what to do with that information, i am not sure ??. I tried including a couple of the make files from android 9, but they didn't make any difference.
oh yeah, and if i do lunch instead of brunch it fails with a different file missing: FAILED: ninja: 'out/target/product/gt58wifi/system/addon.d/50-lineage.sh', needed by 'out/target/product/gt58wifi/verified_assembled_framework_manifest.xml', missing and no known rule to make it
it makes no sense adding files to the "out" folder, fix the issues in your "device" folder check your device.mk file
Wow. That was really awful. I don't even know what i was thinking there. What i was trying to say, is that i was manual copying the files to see if it was just one or two not being copied. I have been comparing the Pie and Q makefiles to try to determine what file was supposed to be copying it to out, but i cant find it in Pie, all i know for now is that it is being copied in Pie but not Q. For now I'm gonna' keep looking for the correct file.
lividhen99 said:
Wow. That was really awful. I don't even know what i was thinking there. What i was trying to say, is that i was manual copying the files to see if it was just one or two not being copied. I have been comparing the Pie and Q makefiles to try to determine what file was supposed to be copying it to out, but i cant find it in Pie, all i know for now is that it is being copied in Pie but not Q. For now I'm gonna' keep looking for the correct file.
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What device tree are you using, do you have it on Github?
nubianprince said:
What device tree are you using, do you have it on Github?
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Click to collapse
I am just using the device trees (ten branch) on your GitHub. I haven't made any changes that have gotten me anywhere so i haven't committed my local changes to my GitHub.
That crdroid ten branch still need a lot of work, the last build I did when I was working on it was not getting past the logo
nubianprince said:
That crdroid ten branch still need a lot of work, the last build I did when I was working on it was not getting past the logo
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I have been away for a while and haven't followed along, but the last week I spent compiling ROMs. I also tried compiling Android 10 using "stock" lineageos gt58wifi and I got stuck at the logo as well. I also tried another device from the msm8916 repository and got stuck at the logo.
The "stock" gt58wifi build, as we all know, has problems with audio, bluetooth, smart cover, etc, etc in all versions 14.1, 15.0, 16.0 and won't even boot with 17.1.
When I first compiled it, it would fail due an error with a config.xml file. I submitted a patch, like others, but haven't seen anything yet.
https://github.com/Galaxy-MSM8916/android_device_samsung_gt58wifi/pulls
nubianprince said:
That crdroid ten branch still need a lot of work, the last build I did when I was working on it was not getting past the logo
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Click to collapse
I'm working on SM-T560NU 17.1. It too was stuck at the boot logo. I built an eng build and found it was the hardware vibrator that was getting stuck in a loop. If you remove the vibrator hal from
/device/samsung/msm8916-common/manifest.xml
that should work on the SM-T350 because both platforms share the same msm8916 code?
I did build SM-T350 with 17.1 and was stuck at boot logo and gave up. However, I have not rebuilt it knowing this new information. I will try again with the above change in a few days?
So, as retiredtab has said, he got android 10 booting. But it has all the issues android 9 did: no camera, sound, Bluetooth, or Hal sensor (sort of, it can turn the device on but not off). The system ui is also a little funny on crdroid, not sure about lineage. I don't know how to fix these issues, or where the roots of the problems may lay. Do you have any suggestions for learning more about the android source code? I feel like the aosp docs are good, but you kind of have to know what you're looking for.
I think part of the problem with the SM-T350 is that there has never been a fully working build since day 1. Lineageos 14 had problems to begin with and they were never fixed and got carried over to 15, 16 and now 17. If stock Lineageos 16 was fully working, then getting it to work on 17 would be less of a challenge.
The most likely problem to no audio, camera, bluetooth etc is the Samsung proprietary blobs are not in the correct directories or the configuration blob files are pointing to the wrong directory.
When I face this problem, I find it helpful to look at a working roomservice.xml file and do comparisons.
If there is no working roomservice.xml like "stock" lineageos 14, 15, and 16 for the SM-T350, then I look at similar models. For example, the T550 is the bigger brother and it helps to look through it's roomservice.xml file for hints.
Remember that a compiler mainly checks for syntax errors, not semantic. If you make a typo, a compiler will flag that as an error, but if you write correct syntax, but put a file or files in directory ABC instead of XYZ, the compiler won't say anything.
Another thing that might help is doing a logcat of a working build and comparing it to a non working build. There might be a very obvious error message like "can't find audio.hw.msm8916 in directory /device/samsung/msm8916" or something like that.
Learning how to use tools like meld and diff help tremendously in finding file and directory differences in case you put the blobs in the wrong place. See
https://www.tecmint.com/compare-find-difference-between-two-directories-in-linux/
I used meld when troubleshooting the stuck at boot logo.
If you are a visual learner, I found the following youtube channel helping in learning the overall process of building ROMs.
https://www.youtube.com/c/AlaskaLinuxUserAKLU/videos
I think we have lineage 16 fully working. I think the part I'm having trouble with here is the difference between where the files are read from in Android Q vs P.
If I understood what you said incorrectly, please say so.