Database Users

developing for the DSTL1 / N21

I want to try developing for the DSTL1 / N21
There are quite a few interesting things we can do...
Success has been been seen by xda-devs such as JesusFreke, Amon_RA, Haykuro, and Cyanogen (yes there others) in the field of Android ROMs. The ground work is there, porting and developing can commence.
Why do this?
Current ROM 1.5 - has many problems...
Unofficial ROM 1.6 - is a GREAT improvement, but makes one hungry for something better...
It would be awesome to have some success in this field. I know this device is capable of so much more, but I believe the implementation of the system is the issue. This is not the phone developers fault, as they have their own company agenda, but we could improve our own performance and satisfaction .
For example, my device (1.6 rooted) lags with having only ~50% CPU utilization and ~50MB RAM free...
Overclocking (i mean forcing full CPU capacity - 624Mhz) the CPU has barely helped and only aided battery drain...
Relevant comparison of G1 vs DSTL1 (N21) are
RAM - G1: 192MB vs DSTL1: 128MB
CPU - G1: 528Mhz vs DSTL1: 624Mhz
These specification comparisons say that G1 can run a better ROM than DSTL1? I don't think so. DSTL1 only loses in RAM, which can be made up for using swap!
Devs had success with techniques using: App2SD, swap, ext3, and BFS (faster file system). I believe we could do something impressive here! There are pros and cons to this.
Developers and Testers would be needed. A team of 5 developers and a few testers should be able to get us on the right track. We would definitely need Linux experience, or the desire and ability to soak up all the info on Google
A Linux kernel is a must for this phone, we would have to compile our own... It would be nice to preserve DUAL SIM, but in reality we might have to give up this luxury, as it is proprietary code, unless a new ROM is made backwards compatible (which is possible).
Cyanogen's Github is available for knowledge osmosis http://github.com/cyanogen
A DSTL1 Recovery by Amon_RA (based on Cyanogen's Recovery) is already in Beta...
Cool things are possible. Could I find some developers willing to donate their free time?
Please limit responses to dev talk.

reserved for later

crzyruski,
Believe it or not the very luxury you talk about giving up(dual sim) is the reason why may of us bother to buy these phones(DSTL1\N21) in the first place. Other wise we might as well go with a mainstream phone such as hero etc.

chrismotto said:
crzyruski,
Believe it or not the very luxury you talk about giving up(dual sim) is the reason why may of us bother to buy these phones(DSTL1\N21) in the first place. Other wise we might as well go with a mainstream phone such as hero etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a possibility that I'm not going to ignore, so I stated it.
The point is that the current OS is lacking. Initially we would want to port and learn from porting of the quality ROMs available now. Those obviously don't support dual-SIM.
Progress needs to start from somewhere. When someone releases a new port or ROM not all pieces work... look at the Eclair (2.0) port, half the features don't work!
If enough heads came together we could probably retain dual-SIM, common this is linux and I've seen the most amazing development come to realization. I just need the teamwork because it might take me a whole year in my spare time...

Having a kernel working
Hi,
the most important IMHO is having a kernel working, built from sources.
Obviously, some closed source drivers must be rewritten, notably the NXP5209 (the GSM modem), if we want the device to be useful (i.e. if we want to make phone call).
My first attempt of booting with a custom kernel was unsucessfull (black screen), which brings to the second point: the lack of some sort of console for kernel debuging.
Any idea regarding the NXP? Anyone is aware of some opensource driver or specs?
Any idea also regarding kernel debugging in the N21/DSTL1?
sfabris

@sfabris
I will try to find info for the questions you have.
My initial work will be to make an emulator so we can test on PC and not our devices (because we need them functional for every day life )
Have you checked out how other modders have done kernel modifications?
Namely JF and Cyanogen?
I can't begin to comprehend so I'm glad you took the initiative with this.
Lets make some progress

sfabris said:
Obviously, some closed source drivers must be rewritten, notably the NXP5209 (the GSM modem), if we want the device to be useful (i.e. if we want to make phone call).
Any idea regarding the NXP? Anyone is aware of some opensource driver or specs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe we have it all wrong???? Maybe its PNX?
PDA DB reports DSTL1 as having Nexperia PNX5209 (ARM946) Phone Controller.
http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1714&view=1&c=general_mobile_dstl1
A similar Android with this phone controller is WayteQ X-Phone (TechFaith Lancer)
http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1801&view=1&c=wayteq_x-phone_android_techfaith_lancer

crzyruski said:
@sfabris
Have you checked out how other modders have done kernel modifications?
Namely JF and Cyanogen?
I can't begin to comprehend so I'm glad you took the initiative with this.
Lets make some progress
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I'm forced to HTC G1 until I'll wait the replacement for my N21 I'll go in detail on the kernel boot process on other hardware.
A fast way to test kernel in our every day device is kexec which should work also on ARM.

sfabris said:
A fast way to test kernel in our every day device is kexec which should work also on ARM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I understand, kexec is a program that can run a new kernel on the fly...
So I could try a new kernel right from my device without reflashing?
have you tried this? Or is this still theory?

crzyruski said:
As far as I understand, kexec is a program that can run a new kernel on the fly...
So I could try a new kernel right from my device without reflashing?
have you tried this? Or is this still theory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried it on x86, never on arm.
Support is there also for arm, but this not imply that also the Marvell PXA is supported.
It's basically the same way of booting Android from WM via haret.
Fastest way to boot your new kernel or to crash your machine

I have created an emulator.
FYI, LCD density should be 120.
Edit: Technically the density is 133...

files prevent recovery-RA-DSTL1-v1.2.3 from loading
I have been wrestling with the beta recovery-RA-DSTL1-v1.2.3
Amon_RA retrofitted his own recovery image to work for the DSTL1 (N21)...
IT HAS AWESOME POTENTIAL.
Currently ADB RECOVERY SHELL + ROOT is the only thing that is functional.
But I haven't been able to get in touch with him to continue work on it.
The following files prevent me from booting into RA's Recovery, so I remove them:
- e2fsck
- mke2fs
- parted
- tune2fs
Once I am in ADB RECOVERY SHELL I can push them back on and do what I need to do.
Unfortunately the changes are persistent so if I were to reboot and try Recovery Mode again, it won't load
What is so special about those four programs that prevent my recovery from loading?????

is there any ways to update the firmware of N21
hi,
i'm just buy a sciphone n21 (actually is already in our office for 2 weeks but find it now:-( )
and i've to face myself in a situation that i can't use this phone:-( since i buy this phone because:
- i assume that google apps auto sync contact and calendars. unfortunately this phone has not google apps by default.
- and has dual sim support.
so my question: is there any way to upgrade it to a firmware which support is?
can i do anything to use my phone?
thanks in advance.
regards.

crzyruski said:
I have been wrestling with the beta recovery-RA-DSTL1-v1.2.3
Amon_RA retrofitted his own recovery image to work for the DSTL1 (N21)...
IT HAS AWESOME POTENTIAL.
Currently ADB RECOVERY SHELL + ROOT is the only thing that is functional.
But I haven't been able to get in touch with him to continue work on it.
The following files prevent me from booting into RA's Recovery, so I remove them:
- e2fsck
- mke2fs
- parted
- tune2fs
Once I am in ADB RECOVERY SHELL I can push them back on and do what I need to do.
Unfortunately the changes are persistent so if I were to reboot and try Recovery Mode again, it won't load
What is so special about those four programs that prevent my recovery from loading?????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
e2fsck is a filesystem check utility for ext2
mke2fs is for ext2 filesystem creation
parted is a partitioning tool
tune2fs is for change some filesystem parameters (usually checking interval)
I've read that recovery from Amon-Ra creates automatically 3 partitions (ext2, swap and FAT32). So those commands whould probably mean ext2 filesystem creation. I'm sure Amon-Ra could give us more information on this subject because he added them to the image.
Have you checked your SD card?.
PD: I'm waiting for my N21 . So I can't test yet.

andferno said:
e2fsck is a filesystem check utility for ext2
mke2fs is for ext2 filesystem creation
parted is a partitioning tool
tune2fs is for change some filesystem parameters (usually checking interval)
I've read that recovery from Amon-Ra creates automatically 3 partitions (ext2, swap and FAT32). So those commands whould probably mean ext2 filesystem creation. I'm sure Amon-Ra could give us more information on this subject because he added them to the image.
Have you checked your SD card?.
PD: I'm waiting for my N21 . So I can't test yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for that insight.
I am not sure what RA's recovery would have done on its own...
but I have initiated and completed successfully a partition of my SDCard that includes FAT32, swap, and ext2.
Now that I have done this, for experimentation really, I don't know how to use it and what it gives me.
Obviously the swap is useless because I would need a cooked Android ROM that would actually utilize swap.
ext2 is probably for apps2sd... which I tried unsuccessfully - probably because of my own mistake.
I will continue trying and report again later.
As far as Amon_RA, he mentioned he was working on upgrading all the recovery images he has put out to the next version - thus we will be in queue until this comes to pass. Maybe we can just skip this version and go to the next

N21 vs DSTL1: stock comparisons
I have completed the comparison of recovery images of the DSTL1 and N21.
For this test I used an original mtd2.img from my DSTL1 and an original mtd2.img from Slemmen's N21.
The recovery images are identical:
Both mt2.img are 4,194,304 bytes
Both mtd2.img-kernel are 2,141,616 bytes
Both mtd2.img-ramdisk.gz are 386,645 bytes
What is also interesting to note is that the two boot images i inspected were also identical.
The DSTL1 boot image is one that came with the 1502 update from General Mobile (which may or may not be identical to the original).
The original N21 boot image, thanks to ikarishinjisan, is identical to the DSTL1 boot image:
Both mt1.img are 4,194,304 bytes
Both mtd1.img-kernel are 2,141,816 bytes
Both mtd1.img-ramdisk.gz are 148,671 bytes
*Notice how both recovery and boot are the same size... must be padded?
*Notice how boot kernel is 200 bytes more than recovery kernel.... interesting...
On a side note:
Bootloader is identical as expected: both ikarishinjisan's and my mtd0.img are 1,048,576 bytes.

If things are going to go custom, it might make some sense to put ext3 filesystems on these things.. ext3 is just ext2 with journalling, which could be helpful since phones can just die/get dropped/lose connection with battery/whatever.

Also, this can be done with the tools already there..
mkfs.ext2
tune2fs -j

dnfm said:
Also, this can be done with the tools already there..
mkfs.ext2
tune2fs -j
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you referring to the Amon_RA's custom recovery?
I can't get tune2fs onto the recovery without trickery, definitely not noob friendly... until we figure out why.
But great suggestion
I'm guessing the ROM must be coded to make use of ext3, otherwise its worthless?

The kernel would need to be configured to support ext3.

Mounting an EXT4 partition manually

I'm trying to build a new version of Apps2SD (version 2.6). I'm trying to get this version compatible with EXT4. I have resurrected my Darktremor Kernel (for those of you who don't know what that is...which is probably almost everyone...this is a kernel I built when the Hero source came out), which has EXT4 support.
I have set my ext partition to be EXT4.
The problem I'm having is, if I use the following command:
mount -o noatime,nodiratime -t auto /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /system/sd
I get the following errors:
During boot: Invalid argument
In ADB shell: No such device
I've tried using -t ext4, but I just get "No such device".
What am I doing wrong here? I've search all over XDA and the Internet. I see Roms that have EXT4 in them, but nobody talks about how to manually mount one (I can find all sorts of information about EXT3, but it appears the attitude with EXT4 is "it just works.")
Thanks.

tkirton said:
What am I doing wrong here? I've search all over XDA and the Internet. I see Roms that have EXT4 in them, but nobody talks about how to manually mount one (I can find all sorts of information about EXT3, but it appears the attitude with EXT4 is "it just works.")
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish I could help, but I haven't messed around with the kernel or even EXT4... hmm, maybe it's time for me to start! You have any specific tutorials you'd recommend tkirton?

pseudoremora said:
I wish I could help, but I haven't messed around with the kernel or even EXT4... hmm, maybe it's time for me to start! You have any specific tutorials you'd recommend tkirton?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a guide on how to compile your own kernel. The same guide is one of the threads in XDA, but I know how hard it is sometimes to search for something (hence why I'm asking about EXT4)
http://www.darktremor.com/kernels.html
See if that helps as a starting document.

Sorry that I having nothing useful to offer on this subject. However, am I assuming correctly that current recovery images would support an EXT4 when doing Nandroid backups for A2SD users?
Ceger

tkirton said:
I have a guide on how to compile your own kernel. The same guide is one of the threads in XDA, but I know how hard it is sometimes to search for something (hence why I'm asking about EXT4)
http://www.darktremor.com/kernels.html
See if that helps as a starting document.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
****, I probably should have searched, I'm sure I would have found it. Thanks though, definitely going to take a look at this!

Ceger said:
Sorry that I having nothing useful to offer on this subject. However, am I assuming correctly that current recovery images would support an EXT4 when doing Nandroid backups for A2SD users?
Ceger
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly I never tried to backup or restore on an EXT4 drive. I'm sure it will work, but I'm suspecting there's issues with the kernel source. I never had a reason to go to EXT4 (EXT3 suited my needs just fine and there aren't a lot of Roms that support EXT4).

tkirton said:
Honestly I never tried to backup or restore on an EXT4 drive. I'm sure it will work, but I'm suspecting there's issues with the kernel source. I never had a reason to go to EXT4 (EXT3 suited my needs just fine and there aren't a lot of Roms that support EXT4).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll ask Toast and Fresh as their Dev ROM supports EXT4, so they should know if Nandroid backs that up or not... I suppose.
Ceger

Ceger said:
I'll ask Toast and Fresh as their Dev ROM supports EXT4, so they should know if Nandroid backs that up or not... I suppose.
Ceger
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not doubting it does...Amon_RA stated in several threads that it does. But that kernel and the one used to boot are completely different. The problem I'm running into is the one for boot (the 1.5 kernel, or version 2.6.27 of the kernel). It won't activate there, although there is an entry called /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 (so the kernel does see something...it just won't mount).
Maybe the issue is busybox. I'll see if I can find busybox on the recovery kernel and port it.

I was thinking it could be because .27 uses ext4-dev. I've seen a gang load of ext4 patches for .27 I used the rename patch in my kernel. But it seems not to work. When testing it I thought it did work. As a2sd in our init.d was seeming to be working and I had all my apps. But after everyone was saying they couldn't get it to work, I'm thinking I may need to try another patch. But yeah I'm not sure what the issue is. Maybe we can contact cyanogen or amon on this as I know they get it to work somehow.

toastcfh said:
I was thinking it could be because .27 uses ext4-dev. I've seen a gang load of ext4 patches for .27 I used the rename patch in my kernel. But it seems not to work. When testing it I thought it did work. As a2sd in our init.d was seeming to be working and I had all my apps. But after everyone was saying they couldn't get it to work, I'm thinking I may need to try another patch. But yeah I'm not sure what the issue is. Maybe we can contact cyanogen or amon on this as I know they get it to work somehow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm coming up with the same conclusion...the ext4dev drivers don't appear to work. They load up (I'm getting that from a device dump), but they won't mount. Apparently, it won't mount in recovery, either.
I'm wondering if I grab a 1.6 or better source if I can recompile the part for ext4 inside the rest of the Hero 1.5 source. If I remember correctly with Linux compiling, as long as I have the correct dependencies, I should be able to compile it.

LolBoot xD SGS2 dualboot - NEW 12.12.11: Easy-Setup App v2.51

(I wasn't really sure if this might fit into "Development", so I put it here, maybe a mod will move it, if it's a dev topic )
Anyways, here we go, I DUALBOOTED two different, independant ROMs on the S2
Video of dualboot in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9-V_6Ua_D0
** THIS IS NOT (YET) COMPATIBLE **
** WITH ICS (ANDROID 4.0.x) ROMS! **
-- this goes for custom ROMs as well as stock ROMs --
Icey Sammich compatibility will be added once Sammy released their ICS kernel sources.​
!!! There now is an app for more convinient and easy setup of the dualboot !!!
(04.11.2011) DualBoot setup app v2.00: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=19049047&postcount=94
(12.12.2011) App has been updated to 2.51, lot's of good new stuff! >> Free Version -- Donate Version <<
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off:
This is only a little experiment I did like "c'mon, has to be possible" - this is NOT (at least yet) tweaked for usability and anything the like, just a humble experiment.
That said, don't flame me if things are rather complexicated to do this ATM.
Maybe I'll come up with a more userfriendly way of setting this up, maybe someone else does, maybe no one does.
Also now that I found a base on what to do, there might be different ways (more easy ones maybe) to set this up, I'll keep toying around with it.
But let's cut to the chase, shall we
So, how was this set up? I'll give a brief rundown of what I did:
I edited a few .rc files in the initramfs of the kernel to make it actually perform a full boot when recovery mode was triggered and to fire up recovery mode when in battery-charging mode.
I also edited a few mounts in the boot .rc for the 2nd OS (in "recovery" mode) to use different partitions for /system and /data, so that we'd end up with really independant installs.
What partitions did I missuse for that:
partition 12 (mostly unused, only when installing a stock ROM AFAIK) for /system - that's a neat choice IMO as p12 is 512MB in size, just as p9 where /system usually sits on
partition 7 (which is usually /cache) for /data
gives us only 100MB of user data space, but for now that's OK, as said, it's only an experiment on how such a thing could be done.
with the original partition for /cache "gone", I mounted a tmpfs for it.
So the OS still has a usable /cache
Then I set up the two OSes:
(dualboot kernel not yet flashed)
Launchprep part 1:
I made a CWM backup of my normal installation I was running (stock XXKG6 at the time).
I installed DevNull-Test AOSP as to it's instructions
Some su'ed voodoo via a terminal while having the 2nd OS (the DevNull AOSP one, in this case) installed - best done in recovery mode via ADB:
rm -Rf /cache/*
cp -Rp /data/* /cache/
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 bs=4096
That did "set up" the 2nd OS to where it's supposed to go.
Launchprep part 2:
Then, "advanced restore" of the backup made a few minutes earlier:
- boot
- system
- data
Reboot
At this point OS #1 is running again and OS #2 is sitting in hiding, prepared to roll - so, let's roll:
Flashed the modified "dualboot kernel" (via an App or Odin or magic, doesn't matter).
---> DONE <---
reached the point to where everything works as shown in the video.
As said above already, yes it needs some manual work to set it up, yes there's a lot of things that might not work, yes there are other/better ways to set it up.
It's only a humble experiment - lot's of space for improvement.
Maybe you like it - for those who do, I wanted to share this
Attached to this post you find the modified kernel I used, it's based on my v1.20 custom kernel (see sig) but with the above mentioned changes.

I've seen the video m8, this is totally different approach, ur giving this device a new dimension. love u "in a straight way" hahaa

there currently an app called Bootmanager which also handle up to quadruple booting. But sadly currently only support HTC phones.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/bootmanager/com.drx2.bootmanager
well, one can hope!

Thanks OP this is an awesome concept! Very happy to see you posted it with a video! and nice boot animation!

sunwee said:
there currently an app called Bootmanager which also handle up to quadruple booting. But sadly currently only support HTC phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's the thing.... that app is HTC only.... but we have Samsung S-II and want dualboot as well.
I'm already brainstorming on how to enhance the actual usability of this, i.e. flashing a 2nd OS directely to it's place instead of first installing it to the main system partition. But there is problems when /data is not mounted to the original partition, at least stock doesn't like it on initial boot.... well, well....

That is great. Going to use this for sure. This should be in development for sure.
Congratulations already.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

This is impressive bro sure will use it
but i want to ask one thing
SD card needed for this or not ?

That would be really cool (and definitely should goes to original development). Does it work with CM7/MIUI + custom rom?

vikas776 said:
SD card needed for this or not ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, so far this completely works with all internal storage.
But I have a few ideas I have yet to try to get mounted from other places - like images in /sdcard for example (I *so* hope that'll work.... )

Hi
Does this kernel include any of the Hellcat kernel tweaks or are they work in progress.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

Tricky103 said:
Does this kernel include any of the Hellcat kernel tweaks or are they work in progress.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made this build based on my v1.20 custom kernel, so it has everthing that one has - plus the touchfix already

exactly what i was hoping for.
great job - pls continue your work

Hi i tried this with instanity rom last night. When I use the three buttons to boot it just sits there not booting. My guess is the kernel is not compatible. Unless I made a mistake somewhere.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

Hm, yah, might be that the kernel isn't fully compatible with that ROM, what kernel does the ROM usually use?
Did you boot it up fully at least once before copying /data to /cache ?

Yes I did fully boot up. But his kernel didn't have advanced activated in recovery so I flashed your kernel and moved the cache okay. But it said /data not found when I ran the 2nd command line.
I will flash aosp later. I like that rom.
I am not sure what kernel nitr8 uses. I think it is his own, Insane.tar would you like it to see if they can work together.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

Tricky103 said:
But it said /data not found when I ran the 2nd command line.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, yeah, that sounds like something didn't work.... make sure you run those commands as root, i.e. "su" as very first command (I'll add that to the first post).
Give me a direct link to the ROM and I'll try it.
Make take a few days though as I'm away from my computer a lot because of work the next two days, but I'll try once time permits.
Well yeah, and this still is in highly experimental stage, if I (or someone else) should ever get this to more stable and reliable state, I'll make an easy to use installer/setup tool
But I got a few other ideas on setting it up I have to try first....

http://goo.gl/2uZCh
This is the complete rom. Only 47mb. I thought you would like the whole rom

Tricky103 said:
Hi
Does this kernel include any of the Hellcat kernel tweaks or are they work in progress.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May be someday WINDOWS Mo 7 and Android on our sweet beast

Hi
I tried again with Aosp Dev-null. I still get this error "cp: can't stat '/data/*': No such file or directory "
after running this command line " cp -Rp /data/* /cache/ "
Any Ideas ?
It still doesn't boot if I press 3 button it brings up the boot logo and then black screens until it boots to the 1st partition.

Thanks for the link, will download and try as soon as time permits.
Also, try this command sequence, I got an idea what the issue maybe might be, give it a shot:
Code:
su
rm -Rf /cache/*
busybox cp -Rp /data/* /cache/
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 bs=4096
(use "busybox cp" instead of plain "cp", maybe it helps)
And some update on my ongoing thoughts for those interested:
- got an idea on how to make a more easy to use App for prepping and setting up the dualboot environment
- managed to do a neat thing I didn't really think it would work: issued a "mount" command and the OS thought it was mounting a partition of the internal flash (/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 in this test, but was testing for later on actually doing it with p9 - you might see where I'm headed here ) but instead of the partition it actually mounted from an .img file! (loopback)
i.e. "mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p12 /somedir" actually mounted "/somepath/someimage.img" to "/somedir" instead of the partition from /dev/block/... (you just gotta love Linux and it's flexible way of handling things....)
NOW, imagine /dev/block/mmcblk0p9 (the partition carrying the system) and p10 (data) being (kinda) transparently mounted from an IMAGE FILE
I "only" have to find a way to sneak this in before init starts mounting stuff.
If there's a way to do THAT.... unlimited multiboot from OS images, anyone?
(so far this is kinda dreaming, but would be cool to get it working )

[Q] ra 3.16 recovery encryption problems

Tonight i was going to flash the newest flexreaper ics build on my iconia tab. While i was waiting for it to download, i decided to play around with the ra recovery options. I tried to upgrade the internal storage to ext4 but it said that it failed at data so i formated all of them back to ext3 but data still wouldn't mount and still won't. When i booted the rom up it said that there was a problem with the encryption and it needed to reboot. I tried an older honeycomb rom but now it asks for an password to decrypt the tablet but i never put one on. Is there anyway to get around it because it is unusable right now?

darktwolf380 said:
Tonight i was going to flash the newest flexreaper ics build on my iconia tab. While i was waiting for it to download, i decided to play around with the ra recovery options. I tried to upgrade the internal storage to ext4 but it said that it failed at data so i formated all of them back to ext3 but data still wouldn't mount and still won't. When i booted the rom up it said that there was a problem with the encryption and it needed to reboot. I tried an older honeycomb rom but now it asks for an password to decrypt the tablet but i never put one on. Is there anyway to get around it because it is unusable right now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought Drellisdee put warnings about messing with those things. Check his RA Revamped thread, and I think he put some answers. More specifically in the very first paragraph, with a link to the fix
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1459821
Here I believe is the part you need, quoted from the post;
"Those are advanced options that most users shouldn't have a need for and shouldn't normally use. Your data should have already been ext4 and you tried to reupgrade it to ext4 and looks like you corrupted your /data partition. For reference the 1st page has a description of the menu items. Dont just go selecting every option if you dont know what it does.
To fix your blunder you will need to boot into my recovery and open adb shell.
This will cause loss of all data contained on /data which will lose your /data/media.
From adb shell
Code:
mount (this is to check data isn't mounted) if mounted use "umount data"
mke2fs -j -b 4096 /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index -C 1 /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
e2fsck -fy /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
After this is done your file system on /data will be fixed."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Moscow Desire said:
I thought Drellisdee put warnings about messing with those things. Check his RA Revamped thread, and I think he put some answers. More specifically in the very first paragraph, with a link to the fix
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1459821
Here I believe is the part you need, quoted from the post;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried that method but it didn't find my device in adb but i found another way. If you hold the power and volume up button on boot and switch the rotate lock over it erases all file systems. I tried that and it booted up like brand new.

darktwolf380 said:
i tried that method but it didn't find my device in adb but i found another way. If you hold the power and volume up button on boot and switch the rotate lock over it erases all file systems. I tried that and it booted up like brand new.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that sometimes fixes it also. Sometime
ADB sometimes takes 2 or 3 plug ins to connect. Was messing with it earlier today, and had the same issue, but eventually it found the tab.
Glad you got it going.

[NEED HELP with e2fsck] Soft-Brick : corrupted /data/ & /sdcard/ partitions

----------- FIXED ----------
Hey guys,
I'm encountering a terrible problem with my P6810 tab. Here is the story :
At first, I just did format /system/ (and /data/, cache and dalvik) in CWM before flashing a new Rom.
After reboot, the tab just got stuck on the "Galaxy Tab 7.7" logo. no bootloop, just stuck on static logo.
At this stage i could go to download mode and recovery, which I did.
I tried to reflash the rom, no success so then i tried to flash stock ICS firmware through Odin 1.85 : Stuck on flashing Factoryfs.img for several hours, so i had no choice but to reboot the tab. (i had no kies-related software running, neither my antivirus)
There, the tab got stuck on the "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. please select recovery in Kies" screen, no way to go to either recovery or download mode (not even worth saying Kies didn't recognize the tab).
I've been struggling a few hours with that brick and finally managed to get acces to download and recovery modes again by flashing CWM with Odin alongside a PIT file with "repartition" ticked in Odin.
So there I could access recovery, I flashed CM9, everything went smooth. The tab rebooted and got passed the Galaxy tab 7.7 logo and went to the cm9 bootscreen but got stuck there (big desillusion right there).
So now in recovery, i can mount every partition but those two : /data/ and /sdcard/
I figured out by reading similar threads that the solution to my issue might be e2fsck through adb. I'm a complete noob to adb.
I can acces the adb shell but here are what the commands i've been reading about return me : (mmcblk0p9 is /data/ partition on P6810)
# e2fsck -fDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p9 :
e2fsck : Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
The superblock could not be read or does not describe as a correct ext2 filesystem.
If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else),
then the superblock is corrupt and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock : e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
also had this once with this command :
bad magic number in superblock while trying to open /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
# e2fsck -b 8193 /dev/block/mmcblk0p9 :
Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
Could this be a zero-length partition ?
# e2fsck -c /dev/block/mmcblk0p9 :
same as above
can you guide me with e2fsck or give me a link to a specific tutorial related to android e2fsck?
is there not a way in adb to like replace the corrupt partitions with freshly created ones ? or any other workaround ?
Any help will be appreciated a lot, i'm willing to donate to whoever provides me with a solution to get my tab running again.
Thanks for reading.

check this thread, very informative, helped me before
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1625675&highlight=bootscreen

Thanks a lot, already checked that one though.
Everything that worked for the guys in that thread doesn't work for me, or I'm too ignorant to find out the right e2fsck command...

Still no one able to provide some help please ?
It's weird that so many people are having the same issue on 7.7 these days, could it be related to the EU ban of this tab ?^^
Anyway, last day before i send it to Samsung

check this thread here it may help you solve your issue. All problems are coming from a brick bug in the ICS Kernel thats trigerred by wiping.

Thanks a lot, trying this right now

Can someone please post a (parted) print of a safe and working Galaxy Tab 7.7 (either of the two models) ?
I need the exact size of the /data partition

ISSUE FIXED Thanks to Zorbakun's last post. A million thanks dude.
However, the actual internal storage of my tab is now 50mb :silly: anyway i'll find a way to fix that too.

the actual internal storage of my tab is now 50mb
Hello Androguide.fr.
Did you manage to find a way to fix your shrink of internal storage? If so, would you mind to share the method. Thanks
Regards
Budi

cakrabayu said:
Hello Androguide.fr.
Did you manage to find a way to fix your shrink of internal storage? If so, would you mind to share the method. Thanks
Regards
Budi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well yeah, didn't recover the 16gb but you can try to earn yourself some extra gigs by doing this once you created a fresh /data partiton :
this is an example for p6810, replace resize 9 with resize 10 if on a p6800
Code:
adb shell
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
print
resize 9
It will ask you for start/end values, keep the same start value otherwise it will give you an error. A good idea is to resize the partition like + 500mb at a time, to avoid i/o errors you might get when creating/resizing large file systems.
Hope it helps, good luck.

I am about to have to do this myself, and i'm not a developer. i have accessed and navigated around my device through adb, but this level of complexity *almost* over my head. i just want to make sure i'm not going to permanently mess this up. also, someone in another thread tried flashing ICS with an older version of ODIN and now his tab won't even power on. which i'm trying to avoid... so after reading around these forums for a few days (it happened saturday morning--and i KNEW to avoid flashing from stock ICS recovery--i think i wiped /data-cache-dalvik with CWM 5.0.1) i'm pretty sure that failure to mount /data seems to be the super brick bug everybody's talking about. i bought the p6800 as an import in the US so i am without warranty... if anyone can help with a step by step guide for the masses or something... i'm intelligent, and quite computer literate/net saavy, but i'm not a mentat ("dune" reference)...
like, i'm having trouble figuring out how to install adb on windows. and how do i use parted when it's linux software? i've repartitioned HD's before, and i'm familiar with some command-line basics, but....
--going to bed now...my head hurts--

aletheus said:
I am about to have to do this myself, and i'm not a developer. i have accessed and navigated around my device through adb, but this level of complexity *almost* over my head. i just want to make sure i'm not going to permanently mess this up. also, someone in another thread tried flashing ICS with an older version of ODIN and now his tab won't even power on. which i'm trying to avoid... so after reading around these forums for a few days (it happened saturday morning--and i KNEW to avoid flashing from stock ICS recovery--i think i wiped /data-cache-dalvik with CWM 5.0.1) i'm pretty sure that failure to mount /data seems to be the super brick bug everybody's talking about. i bought the p6800 as an import in the US so i am without warranty... if anyone can help with a step by step guide for the masses or something... i'm intelligent, and quite computer literate/net saavy, but i'm not a mentat ("dune" reference)...
like, i'm having trouble figuring out how to install adb on windows. and how do i use parted when it's linux software? i've repartitioned HD's before, and i'm familiar with some command-line basics, but....
--going to bed now...my head hurts--
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the .PIT file for the P6800 located here. You will lose all data, and part of your internal SD space. Looks like the brick happens consistently at the same point of the memory chip, so the same .PIT works for most people. If that doesn't help, you will need parted.
How can you use parted? It's a Linux program that runs in your tablet. You will adb shell to it, then you will have a Linux shell. Everything you put down there will run in your tablet, as if you were typing on it (think ssh, or remote desktop). I can't help you much more, because (knocks on wood) my tablet is still very much alive, and I don't use ADB that much.
Now, I don't know how it works in your country, but here in Brazil the Samsung service accepts warranties issued anywhere. It may be worth a shot.

aletheus said:
I am about to have to do this myself, and i'm not a developer. i have accessed and navigated around my device through adb, but this level of complexity *almost* over my head. i just want to make sure i'm not going to permanently mess this up. also, someone in another thread tried flashing ICS with an older version of ODIN and now his tab won't even power on. which i'm trying to avoid... so after reading around these forums for a few days (it happened saturday morning--and i KNEW to avoid flashing from stock ICS recovery--i think i wiped /data-cache-dalvik with CWM 5.0.1) i'm pretty sure that failure to mount /data seems to be the super brick bug everybody's talking about. i bought the p6800 as an import in the US so i am without warranty... if anyone can help with a step by step guide for the masses or something... i'm intelligent, and quite computer literate/net saavy, but i'm not a mentat ("dune" reference)...
like, i'm having trouble figuring out how to install adb on windows. and how do i use parted when it's linux software? i've repartitioned HD's before, and i'm familiar with some command-line basics, but....
--going to bed now...my head hurts--
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am working on writing a specific 7.7 guide to teach people the parted/e2fsck technique I use to revive my bricked p6810 everytime I want to flash a new rom or test my builds.
First, as pointed out, try to Odin the PIT file for your particular model (eg : P6800 16gb).
You got to know that the parted technique is a pain in the ass, that you'll have to do it quite often if you like flashing roms, and that your tab will have a much smaller internal storage.
I think the guide will be ready in a couple days but you can pm be if you need help before that, no problem.
Good luck with this superbrick curse

thanks guys for your help, i'm going to try to figure this out this afternoon. i'm in the US, so they don't even offer warranties on imports. i was told by a samsung rep in the US that they don't grant warranties to imported models. i will first try the modified PIT file, then i will try the more complex method. @Androguide.fr i will PM you if i have trouble with the more complicated method later. thanks!!!!

aletheus said:
thanks guys for your help, i'm going to try to figure this out this afternoon. i'm in the US, so they don't even offer warranties on imports. i was told by a samsung rep in the US that they don't grant warranties to imported models. i will first try the modified PIT file, then i will try the more complex method. @Androguide.fr i will PM you if i have trouble with the more complicated method later. thanks!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just finished writing the guide, it's here : forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1862294