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Hi guys,
Can anyone explain me how to change the boot image contained in initrd.gz?
Thank you vary much...
erestor6 said:
Hi guys,
Can anyone explain me how to change the boot image contained in initrd.gz?
Thank you vary much...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for this, I'm trying to do the exact same thing! Check out this post to create the image in the correct format:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=537515
I created a logo.rle image from a 480x800 image (both attached) but don't know how to overwrite the one inside my initrd.gz file. I tried using 7zip but it seems that it is write-protected. If anyone knows how to do this, it would be much appreciated. I've changed all of the other boot screens but just want to change the green HTC logo if I can.
Thanks in advance
gargon01 said:
+1 for this, I'm trying to do the exact same thing! Check out this post to create the image in the correct format:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=537515
I created a logo.rle image from a 480x800 image (both attached) but don't know how to overwrite the one inside my initrd.gz file. I tried using 7zip but it seems that it is write-protected. If anyone knows how to do this, it would be much appreciated. I've changed all of the other boot screens but just want to change the green HTC logo if I can.
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you very much..but I was arrived at that poit.
In second of me the normal procedure is wrong, there wil be some steps that will be immediate and that we don't know.
help please...
Yeah - now it's working on my HD2!
This method is applicable for firmware, which include the file initrd.gz in zip archive. Many firmwares are distributed as img files, and I have not tried to extract initrd.gz from there, though perhaps it is possible.
The file logo.rle is not the usual rle and programs for creating or convert rle can not create it, also You can not view logo.rle by any usual rle-viewer. I took logo.rle from another firmware, because I could not do it (it can be reached by 7zip from initrd.gz; or copied from root directory after boot by root explorer, if firmware is already installed).
For this process Linux on a PC required - terminal emulator on phone doesn't work correctly! I used Chaox Live CD because I use Windows on my PC.
I put the file initrd.gz (from my firmware) in a folder and the new logo.rle file near this folder. In a Linux terminal I entered to that folder (by command cd) and ran the commands:
gunzip initrd.gz
cpio -i < initrd
cp -f ../logo.rle
rm initrd
find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip > ../initrd.gz
Than I change the original initrd.gz in the firmware to the one I created.
ps: Not necessarily replace the entire firmware to replace the file initrd.gz. You can replace only a boot partition. To do this, take the original files boot/zImage & META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script from the firmware and add Your own boot/initrd.gz & META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script. Now You can zip it and place the archive to the root of the sdcard. Than enter to MAGLDR-ADrecovery-install zip from sdcard
Archive must contain this 4 files with pathnames:
boot/initrd.gz
boot/zImage
META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary
META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script
file updater-script must containe this commands:
mount("MTD", "boot", "/boot");
package_extract_dir("boot", "/boot");
unmount("/boot");
In my case I use this firmware and logo.rle file from this firmware.
Hope it's will be helpfull!
I'm sorry - english is not my language.
Awesome work, vovchok!
However after reading your sequence of 'nix commands multiple times I have determined that the little white guy doesn't look bad at all.
My momma's boy ain't touching that.
I found this Thread . After reading, I landed here. Now this is where I just got stuck.
I'm using Hyperdroid and there is no initrd.gz. There's just a "boot.img" with ~3mb.
I still would like to change my second boot screen to fit in the boot sequence.
(I already mastered to create my own 1st bootscreen, flashed it, and changed my boot animation, but as said, I got stuck here finding a guide how to change the second boot screen.)
Any ideas?
smeee_again said:
I found this Thread . After reading, I landed here. Now this is where I just got stuck.
I'm using Hyperdroid and there is no initrd.gz. There's just a "boot.img" with ~3mb.
I still would like to change my second boot screen to fit in the boot sequence.
(I already mastered to create my own 1st bootscreen, flashed it, and changed my boot animation, but as said, I got stuck here finding a guide how to change the second boot screen.)
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah - it's a lot more complicated to extract the initrd.gz file from a boot.img than it is from a ROM with a boot partition. I spent many hours trying to do it, and failed.
Currently just building a ROM with an edited initrd.gz file inside it. I know that the logo.rle file in the initrd.gz file is the correct image that I want (the stock white HTC screen) but I just don't know if I'm building the ROM with the correct options (using the Android Kitchen).
I'll report back with results, because I tried to do this a couple of months ago and failed, since the ROM required me to flash a separate kernel zip after the main ROM, which replaced initrd.gz, and I couldn't edit the initrd.gz file using the Android Kitchen because it was in a boot.img.
EDIT: Okay, just spent about 2 hours trying to change the damn image, having replaced initrd.gz with what was definitely the right one, and I boot it up and see the black HTC logo.
Alright, I've actually successfully modified the logo.rle file from inside a boot.img, rebuilt the ROM with it, and reflashed it - the image is now in place, and the ROM works great.
So, the steps:
Use dsixda's Android Kitchen to unpack the ROM into a working folder.
Locate the boot.img and copy it to a separate folder.
Follow this tutorial to unpack the boot.img file, then locate the logo.rle inside there (there's no initrd.gz).
Use the tools found here to convert the image that you want to use to an RLE file, and then overwrite the existing RLE file in your working directory where you unpacked the boot.img.
Continuing the tutorial found in the link from step 3, repack your boot.img with the edited logo.rle now inside it.
Head back to your working folder in the Android Kitchen, where the ROM that you want to modify has been unpacked. Replace the boot.img there with the one that you just modified.
Choose option 99 in the kitchen to build a ROM from the working folder, and follow the steps.
Now flash your ROM in CWM! I flashed straight over an existing installation instead of wiping etc., although it did still get rid of all my settings
Hopefully this is helpful to someone. I might post it in a new thread - since I spent so long trying to find this, and finally figured out how to do it for myself.
This helped a lot. Thanks.
ryan1990 said:
This helped a lot. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries. If anyone ever gets stuck or doesn't know what I did for some bit, let me know and I'll see if I can help, because it sucked when I was trying to figure this out for ages and nobody else seemed to know how to do it either.
vovchok said:
Yeah - now it's working on my HD2!
gunzip initrd.gz
cpio -i < initrd
cp -f ../logo.rle
rm initrd
find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip > ../initrd.gz
Hope it's will be helpfull!
I'm sorry - english is not my language.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
search for long time, now work fine.
THX bro.
vovchok said:
Yeah - now it's working on my HD2!
This method is applicable for firmware, which include the file initrd.gz in zip archive. Many firmwares are distributed as img files, and I have not tried to extract initrd.gz from there, though perhaps it is possible.
The file logo.rle is not the usual rle and programs for creating or convert rle can not create it, also You can not view logo.rle by any usual rle-viewer. I took logo.rle from another firmware, because I could not do it (it can be reached by 7zip from initrd.gz; or copied from root directory after boot by root explorer, if firmware is already installed).
For this process Linux on a PC required - terminal emulator on phone doesn't work correctly! I used Chaox Live CD because I use Windows on my PC.
I put the file initrd.gz (from my firmware) in a folder and the new logo.rle file near this folder. In a Linux terminal I entered to that folder (by command cd) and ran the commands:
gunzip initrd.gz
cpio -i < initrd
cp -f ../logo.rle
rm initrd
find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip > ../initrd.gz
Than I change the original initrd.gz in the firmware to the one I created.
ps: Not necessarily replace the entire firmware to replace the file initrd.gz. You can replace only a boot partition. To do this, take the original files boot/zImage & META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script from the firmware and add Your own boot/initrd.gz & META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script. Now You can zip it and place the archive to the root of the sdcard. Than enter to MAGLDR-ADrecovery-install zip from sdcard
Archive must contain this 4 files with pathnames:
boot/initrd.gz
boot/zImage
META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary
META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script
file updater-script must containe this commands:
mount("MTD", "boot", "/boot");
package_extract_dir("boot", "/boot");
unmount("/boot");
In my case I use this firmware and logo.rle file from this firmware.
Hope it's will be helpfull!
I'm sorry - english is not my language.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thz for your help^^
The rom i am using hvn't boot.img.
but i can find initrd.gz and i hv change the logo.rle.
the probllem is how to edit the updater-script only update the initrd.gz?
and is it possible to random boot a few of .rle files ?
Please, make initrd.gz for CM9ight
Oops, not the right thread.
I have a complete setup for the Nexus 7, part of a product we are working on, that I need to easily clone on "virgin" tablets for production. The app requires a rooted OS.
I want to write an installation script using fastboot to unlock the bootloader, erase partitions, then flash them with .img files for each partition (kernel, system, cache, etc.).
How do I extract .img files from my "master" tablet? I have an understanding from some where that these are simple byte-for-byte dumps of the partition -- is this true? As such can I create a .img file by simple doing 'cat blkfile >file.img' where "blkfile" is the appropriate block device for the partition in question?
Or do I need to use 'dd'? Or something else?
I have searched and searched, and can't find an anwer. I've found other answers using some tools to create these files from a build on a PC, but nothing about creating them from an existing tablet.
Thanks in advance!
Use the dd command. You can use it both to dump and write a partition. It's how I install recovery programs like TWRP
Sent from my Nexus 7
You can use dd for the boot partition and recovery partition - they are raw binary blobs. (Don't use dd on other Android devices, esp. those that have MTD flash devices, though - it only works most of the time there)
If you want to use the same fastboot-based scenario that Google uses for factory image sets, then for the system & userdata image files you will need to find out about "sparse ext4 filesystem images"
If you took a raw block-device based dump of any of your tablet ext4 partitions, you could actually take those image files and mount them on any other linux machine (using a loopback mount procedure).
But you will find that if you attempt to do that with the Google factory ".img" files (for system & userdata partitions), they will not mount. It's not a simple matter of a offset superblock, either.
Since these are the formats that the stock recovery expects, I suppose you ought to use those formats if you want to do the "all at once all partitions" fastboot flashing if you plan on using the stock recovery.
Note that there is absolutely nothing that prevents you from unpacking whatever you want from whatever archive format you want - so long as the recovery's busybox supports the archive format correctly - you could use cpio or pax or tar archives for that matter. (The stock recovery's "toolbox" has very little functionality, so this comment applies to custom recoveries, which typically have more robust functionality in their busybox) You will be writing your own scripts to do those things though, typically either in one of two ways:
1.A mount target filesystem partition
1.B do a deep recursive remove at that mountpoint ( rm -rf * )
1.C unpack your archive into same mount point ( tar xf archive.tar, etc)
1.D unmount the mount point
OR
2.A unmount target partition and zero it out (dd if=/dev/zero, flash_erase, etc)
2.B recreate filesystem in partition (mke2fs -t ext4 etc)
2.C mount target filesystem
2.D unpack your archive into the same mount point (tar xf archive, pax, cpio, unyaffs2, etc)
2.E unmount that mountpoint
Even though this post is for the Samsung Galaxy S II, the same thing applies to the factory Nexus 7 images from Google:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1081239
As that thread mentions, the simg2img and mkuserimg.sh programs are part of the Android project.
Here's a Nexus 7 thread where the contributor built the tools for both x86 linux and arm linux
Finally, I should note that because /system is typically mounted read-only, imaging /system from the live OS is no big deal. Trying to do the same thing with /data is an extremely dopey idea, however. Accurate backups are rarely made from live read-write filesystems.
cheers
Thank you so much for all the great information! I hit thanks for both of you.
The link to the nexus 7 thread is what I need... This is for my company, and I need a simple cloning solution that can be performed by a non-technical assembly person. The fastboot install procedure is about as simple as it gets.
Thanks again!
I've been tinkering with building aosp framework and kernel from source. I've got it loaded and running on my N7. I've made some changes to an xml file, and the subsequent build resulted in only a new system.img file being generated. Is there any way to "install" the system.img file without wiping the system area first? Or is "fastboot flash system system.img" the only way to update the system area of the ROM? I don't want to have to use Recovery to install gapps and supersu again if I can avoid it.
Try mounting the .IMG file into a folder you created with
sudo(or su) mount -o loop ~/system.img /path/to/created/folder
It may mount it and you should be able to get what you want out of the file and then just replace the individual files and reboot or flash them by themselves in a .zip.
di11igaf said:
Try mounting the .IMG file into a folder you created with
sudo(or su) mount -o loop ~/system.img /path/to/created/folder
It may mount it and you should be able to get what you want out of the file and then just replace the individual files and reboot or flash them by themselves in a .zip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried everything I could think of including specifying all different types of filesystems including iso9660 and nothing recognizes the image. I tried it on my Ubuntu 12.04 machine as well as the tablet, no success, I guess I'll just have to flash it with fastboot.
There is ways to do it. Aosp used to include the necessary tools to do it, but I haven't really cloned aosp source since gingerbread so I can t remember exactly where or if they're still there(if I do some digging I can figure it out but you may already have flashed. I'll still look into it cause it may be of use to others).
Maybe try this in the future
Here's a binary that should work, make it executable first--
http://db.tt/OZnlRJ4L
./simg2img system.img output.img
Then
mkdir systest(make this folder anything you want)
mount -o loop output.img systest(or whatever you made the folder above)
I haven't tested this but I may when I get a chance.
Way cool man, it works. I was able to mount the output IMG without issue. . :good: :good: :good:
Sent from my aosp N7 JSS15Q w/A029 TouchScreen firmware
Good morning family!
It's my very first time posting in this subforum, but I think this tutorial was actually something needed, since all threads everyone can found while Googling are quite old (like, from the Xperia S times ), and also I'm quite tired of infinite threads like this and this, so...
Today I bring you an extensive and unified guide on how to extract ANY SYSTEM FILE from a FlashTool's Firmware (FTF), whether it's from the userdata.sin or from the system.sin.
Since this is going to be a guide for all OSes, there are some programs you'll need in general,
Latest version available of FlashTools (for SIN dumping purposes).
A reader tool for the extracted image, which can be:
An EXT4 reader / mounter.
An Unyaffs2, if you're using this guide for an old device (like the already mentioned Xperia S, and older).
Some cups of coffee, and lots of patience [IMPORTANT].
But, some of them will be platform specific, so the thread will split in:
2nd post: WINDOWS
3rd post: LINUX
4th post: OSX
Here you've a video tutorial showing the whole process for the 3 OSes:
If you're enjoying it, don't forget to press Thanks button and rate this thread!
WINDOWS GUIDE
Step 1 - Extract the SIN we need
Using your favourite archive manager (WinRAR, 7-Zip, etc), open the FTF you want to extract the files from. (FYI: an FTF is just a Zip file with renamed extension)
Now copy/extract the SIN you want to unpack to a folder of your preference.
Step 2 - Dump the SIN
I'll take into account you already had installed Flashtools and Java JRE, in which case I highly encourage you to update both to the latest version available.
Now, open Flashtools. Click on Tools, Sin Editor. Hit the [...] and locate the SIN you previously extracted. Now, hit the [Extract Data] button. After a couple of minutes the bar should start running.
Once finished, you can have 2 kind of files: a .yaffs2 or a .ext4/.ext3/.ext2 file, which require different procedures on how to see it's contents.
Step 3.a - Convert the file to a readable format - UnYaffs2
If the file you get is a .yaffs2 format file, you're going to need to extract it. For doing so, you need this tool, which contains a executable and a cygwin dll.
Extract this .rar contents to the very same folder where you placed the SIN, and thus, where the .yaffs2 is located.
Now, while you're in that folder press the shift key in your keyboard, and while you keep pressing it, right click on a blank space in that folder. In the menu choose Open a Command Prompt here.
To end the proccess, type
Code:
unyaffs2.exe [COLOR="DarkOrchid"]<the-name-of-the-yaffs2>[/COLOR]
Where <the-name-of-the-yaffs2> you must type the file name of the yaffs2 (e.g. system.yaffs2)
The files will get extracted and you'll be able to pick the ones you need.
Step 3.b - Mount the image - Linux Reader
There're many many tools to mount a EXT format image in Windows, but in this case, I'll use the Diskinternals Linux Reader, since it's free and it's compatible with all 3 possible formats you can encounter: .ext4/.ext3/.ext2.
Download it from here and install it. (It must be this version, since newer ones are broken.)
Once done, you should be perfectly able to double-click-to-mount the EXT file Flashtools generated without any trouble.
LINUX GUIDE
Step 1 - Extract the SIN we need
Using your favourite archive manager (Ark, Peazip, etc), open the FTF you want to extract the files from. (FYI: an FTF is just a Zip file with renamed extension)
Now copy/extract the SIN you want to unpack to a folder of your preference.
Step 2 - Dump the SIN
I'll take into account you already had installed Flashtools and Java JRE, in which case I highly encourage you to update both to the latest version available.
Now, open Flashtools. Click on Tools, Sin Editor. Hit the [...] and locate the SIN you previously extracted. Now, hit the [Extract Data] button. After a couple of minutes the bar should start running.
Once finished, you can have 2 kind of files: a .yaffs2 or a .ext4/.ext3/.ext2 file, which require different procedures on how to see it's contents.
Step 3.a - Convert the file to a readable format - UnYaffs2
If the file you get is a .yaffs2 format file, you're going to need an extra tool to extract it. For doing so, you are going to need the unyaffs2 tool.
You can download a pre-compiled binary from here, or you can compile your own using GCC with the source code, the header and the code below inside a Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T to open it).
Code:
gcc -o unyaffs unyaffs.c
Once you've a working UnYaffs2 binary, just copy it to the very same folder where you placed the SIN, and thus, where the .yaffs2 is located, and type in a Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T to open it).
Code:
cd [COLOR="DarkOrchid"]<file-route-of-the-sin>[/COLOR]
./unyaffs2 [COLOR="Blue"]<the-name-of-the-yaffs2>[/COLOR]
Where <file-route-of-the-sin> is where the SIN was located, and where <the-name-of-the-yaffs2> you must type the file name of the yaffs2 (e.g. system.yaffs2)
The files will get extracted and you'll be able to pick the ones you need.
Step 3.b - Mount the image
Since we're already in Linux, mounting a EXT image is not that hard. Just mount it using this commands in a Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T to open it).
Code:
cd [COLOR="DarkOrchid"]<file-route-of-the-sin>[/COLOR]
mkdir android
sudo mount -t ext[color="RED"]*[/color] -o loop <name-of-the-image> android/
Where <file-route-of-the-sin> is where the SIN was located, where <the-name-of-the-image> you must type the file name of the ext image (e.g. system.ext4), and finally, where ext*, replace * with the version number of the EXT image you're mounting, usually, ext4
Now, once finished, to unmount it, type in a Terminal.
Code:
sudo umount android
rm -fr android
OSX GUIDE
Step 1 - Extract the SIN we need
Using your favourite archive manager (UnRarX, ZipEg, etc), open the FTF you want to extract the files from. (FYI: an FTF is just a Zip file with renamed extension)
Now copy/extract the SIN you want to unpack to a folder of your preference.
Step 2 - Dump the SIN
I'll take into account you already had installed Flashtools and Java JRE, in which case I highly encourage you to update both to the latest version available.
Now, open Flashtools. Click on Tools, Sin Editor. Hit the [...] and locate the SIN you previously extracted. Now, hit the [Extract Data] button. After a couple of minutes the bar should start running.
Once finished, you can have 2 kind of files: a .yaffs2 or a .ext4/.ext3/.ext2 file, which require different procedures on how to see it's contents.
Step 3.a - Convert the file to a readable format - UnYaffs2
If the file you get is a .yaffs2 format file, you're going to need an extra tool to extract it. For doing so, you are going to need the unyaffs2 tool.
You can download a pre-compiled binary from here, or you can install your own using Brew. From a Terminal (Command+Space, then type in Terminal) type the following commands.
Code:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" < /dev/null 2> /dev/null #This is just to Install Brew for the first time. If you already have it, it's not needed.
brew install unyaffs
If you chose using the UnYaffs2 binary, copy it to the very same folder where you placed the SIN, and thus, where the .yaffs2 is located.
If you chose the Brew installation, just continue.
Now, type in a Terminal (Command+Space, then type in Terminal).
Code:
cd [COLOR="DarkOrchid"]<file-route-of-the-sin>[/COLOR]
unyaffs2 [COLOR="Blue"]<the-name-of-the-yaffs2>[/COLOR]
Where <file-route-of-the-sin> is where the SIN was located, and thus, where the yaffs2 file is located; and where <the-name-of-the-yaffs2> you must type the file name of the yaffs2 (e.g. system.yaffs2)
The files will get extracted and you'll be able to pick the ones you need.
Step 3.b - Mount the image - Ext4FUSE
There're many many tools to mount a EXT format image in OSX, but in this case, since we don't need RW access, but just RO, I'll use ext4fuse, since it's free and it's more than compatible with our needs.
To install it you'll need Brew. To get things ready, type the following commands in a Terminal (Command+Space, then type in Terminal).
Code:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" < /dev/null 2> /dev/null #This is just to Install Brew for the first time. If you already have it, it's not needed.
brew tap homebrew/fuse
brew install Caskroom/cask/osxfuse
brew install ext4fuse
If you're on OSX Yosemite, El Capitan, or Leopard, you may need an extra command to add yourself to the Operator group, so that you can have readonly permissions to the disks.
Use it only if you get an error while trying to access the mounted EXT image later.
Code:
sudo dscl . append /Groups/operator GroupMembership [COLOR="red"]<your-user>[/COLOR]
Where your user <your-user> is your username.
Now, to mount the ext4 image, type in a Terminal (Command+Space, then type in Terminal).
Code:
mkdir android
ext4fuse [COLOR="DarkOrchid"]<path-to-the-ext4-image>[/COLOR] android
Where <path-to-the-ext4-image> you must type in the full path where the SIN was located, and thus, where the EXT4 image is located.
Use this as reference.
Reserved
In case I need it
Great job! Keep up the good work!!
Well. great guide.
Just a note, Microsoft officially released Bash on Ubuntu on Windows yesterday. Try it. It's a full fledged Linux subsystem but unfortunately only available to Windows Insiders. It would be the best alternate to cygwin.
Boot.img
How can i extract the boot.img
or is this applicable to every single .sin file present in the .ftf file
serajr said:
Great job! Keep up the good work!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I appreciate your words
mfbcool said:
Well. great guide.
Just a note, Microsoft officially released Bash on Ubuntu on Windows yesterday. Try it. It's a full fledged Linux subsystem but unfortunately only available to Windows Insiders. It would be the best alternate to cygwin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, I saw the demonstration in the //build/, but since it hasn't been released for all yet (I guess it'll be for Redstone 2?), I didn't saw it necessary to be included.
sandeep.sethi said:
How can i extract the boot.img
or is this applicable to every single .sin file present in the .ftf file
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, this is only applicable for system.sin, userdata.sin, cache.sin and probably modem.sin.
However, if many of you request it, I could try making another for the kernel (boot.img)... But remember, every device doesn't have the same way/method to unpack the kernel, so making a generic tutorial for all wouldn't be possible
No, this is only applicable for system.sin, userdata.sin, cache.sin and probably modem.sin.
However, if many of you request it, I could try making another for the kernel (boot.img)... But remember, every device doesn't have the same way/method to unpack the kernel, so making a generic tutorial for all wouldn't be possible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if u can provide the guide it would be very helpful :fingers-crossed: :fingers-crossed:
This thread got featured in XDA Portal, thank you guys!
I tried extracting Xperia Pro's system SIN (can't remember the exact name but the one with the largest file size) using the latest version of Flashtool but wasn't successful. Like it's not supported yet.
This is a complete working guide on how to extract the /system partition from a Samsung S7 FW/OTA package using Windows (This is the same package one might flash to their phone with ODIN.) You can get this FW/OTA package from sites like Samsung-Firmware.org & SamMobile.com. It is very likely this works (or parts of it duct-taped together ) on other Phone models,etc, but I vouch that this guide works on the Samsung S7. Please chime in if it works on other models & brands!
Intro:
I found a LOT of guides similar to this, but couldn't get any to work with the Samsung S7 packages! And there are MANY different versions of the tools I mention below, many not working! So be sure to use the tool versions I post below. Over much time, it was a tiny step with each new attempt until I finally got it...& wanted to share!
Purpose:
Why would anyone want to do this? If you're reading this thread and don't know the answer to that, then I'm confused But I'll answer anyway - What is the purpose of this thread?
You would want to do this because you're a ROM Developer and don't want to have to go through the time & trouble of installing an OTA, then do a dd/cat to get the system image, etc. (With this method you don't even need a phone, just a PC!)
You are using a custom ROM, but want a stock app; for example the custom ROM you're using has the Google Dialer/Phone app builtin, but you prefer the stock Samsung Phone. Doing the steps outlined here will yield a "system" folder in Windows that you can simply navigate to /system/app or /system/priv-app and copy over the apk to your phone and install it! (via ADB or phone File manager app, etc). Obviously not all apks will work. Or maybe you want the libraries from another phone OTA package in order for an apk to work, and so on...
You are just curious what's in the /system partition for an OTA package!
Tools:
7-Zip
LZ4
simg2img: "Clone or download"->Download ZIP
Ext2Explore (Same as Ext2Read)
Guide:
Download FW/OTA (TMB-G930TUVU4CRI2.zip) from SamMobile website (or whereever)
Use 7zip to extract TMB-G930TUVU4CRI2.zip to a folder
Use 7zip to extract AP_G930TUVU4CRI2*.tar.md5 to a folder (ignore "There is no correct record at end of archive" error)
Use lz4 to extract system.img.ext4.lz4 -> system.img.ext4
lz4 system.img.ext4.lz4
Extract simg2img_win-master.zip -> \simg2img_win-master\
Copy system.img.ext4 to \simg2img_win-master\ folder
Rename system.img.ext4 -> system.img
Use simg2img_win-master to convert system.img -> system.ext4.img
Double-click convert.bat (or run in cmd prmpt) (This will take a few minutes)
Create new folder to save contents in, eg: "C:\System"
Use ext2explore to mount system.ext4.img: Open ext2explore->File->Open Image->Select system.ext4.img
Click Save icon->Save to your new folder, eg: "C:\System"
Wait for it to extract. Once complete, enjoy!
Links & Useful Resources:
Tmobile Versions: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-30276
Search Keywords:
(This section is here so this thread comes up in searches for the many errors I came across while trying to get this to work in both Windows & Linux. That's right! I tried in both OSs and actually got it to work first in Windows... & yet to get it to work in Linux!)
- losetup /dev/loop2 /media/sf_Share/system.img.ext4 ->warning file does not fit into 512-byte sector; the end of the file will be ignored
- mount /dev/loop2 /mnt/mysystem2 -> mount: /mnt/mysystem2: cant read superblock on /dev/loop2
- mount -t ext4 /media/system.img /mnt/mysystem6 -> wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop6, missing codepage or helper program, or other error
fsck /media/system.img -> ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open ...
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate suberblock: ...
Reserved
Just happened to see this thread.
Dropping in the let you know for linux just do this
Code:
simg2img system.img.ext4 system.img
mkdir system
sudo mount -t ext4 system.img system/
Of course all work is done in the current working directory.
You can just copy whatever you want from this mounted loop device of the system.img or whatever.
This is what i do because it seems to be the fastest in terms of work.
Hope it helps. I prefer all android work on linux
kevin71246 said:
Reserved
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oh man you saved my day thanks man none of the old method worked but this did wonders