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Hi all,
Here are my findings about how to boot android from an SD card, useful for example to test development Android builds without messing your phone. This procedure was inspired by legacy GNU/Linux boot process and then should work on most hardware with a flashable recovery.
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I can't stress enough the fact that this procedure is targeted to experienced user. A good knowledge of linux/android booting process is more than required. This procedure is not meant to be useful to most people given its limitations (no recovery mode, rebuild of boot.img required)
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I won't propose a step by step tutorial as it's better to understand how to do it and adapt the procedure to each need.
Two modifications are required:
1. Declare to mount sd card partitions instead of internal flash volumes. This has to be done in the init.rc script.
For example:
mount yaffs2 [email protected] /system
mount yaffs2 [email protected] /system ro remount
with
mount ext2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p6 /system
2. For some reasons, in the boot process, sd card partitions generally show up later than the mount actions, so it is generally necessary to add a timer in init binary to give to to the kernel to detect sd card partitions before mounting them (adding a sleep(5) after the "A N D R O I D" text in init.c is enough).
Build your special boot.img embedding those two modifications and flash it on the recovery volume of your phone. Now, booting into recovery will launch the system on your sd.
Regards,
I would like to report success on booting the G1 from a system located on sd card (cyanogenmod 4.2.7.1). I will describe the procedure step by steps when every thing is okay.
There is just an issue that you might have encountered during cyanogenmod ROM cooking, all wireless connexions (wifi, BT, GSM) do not work. The same system on flash if okay. I made a diff on boot log messages and the only notable difference is this error :
E/MemoryHeapBase( 83): error opening /dev/pmem_gpu0: Permission denied
E/MemoryHeapBase( 83): error opening /dev/pmem_gpu1: Permission denied
E/MemoryHeapBase( 83): error opening /dev/hw3d: Permission denied
I tried to chmod 0555 /dev/pmem* with no success.... Any idea ?
Although I finally managed to have a usable system, this work is still experimental. Please fell free to test and report success, failures here so I can improve the thing.
Let's see how we can boot a copy of cyanogen ROM 4.2.7.1 located on sd card. The main purpose is to test future ROMs (eclair ?) without messing up your phone...
DISCLAIMER : This procedure is targeted to experienced user. I am not responsible if you loose your data, your phone or your Mom !
Prerequisites are :
- adb and fastboot operationnal on your host computer
- Boot image file boot.img :
http://www28.zippyshare.com/v/19654421/file.html
- files data.cpio.gz, system.cpio.gz (data.cpio.gz and system.cpio.gz are unmodified images of a fresh install of cyanogen ROM that fit the modified boot.img) from :
http://www15.zippyshare.com/v/57489279/file.html
http://www15.zippyshare.com/v/13077582/file.html
1.
Create 3 partitions on sd card. The first one (vfat) is to store your music, videos etc. The second and the third will hold /data and /system. Result shoul look like this :
# fdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 1977 MB, 1977614336 bytes
64 heads, 63 sectors/track, 957 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 = 2064384 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 1 864 1741792+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 865 903 78624 83 Linux
/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 904 957 108864 83 Linux
Command (m for help):
2.
Copy data.cpio and system.cpio on the first partition of your sd card.
3.
Connect to your device with adb :
adb shell
4.
Mount mmcblk0p2 on temporary folder and extract user.cpio.gz archive :
mkdir /dev/tmp
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /dev/tmp
cd /dev/tmp
gunzip -c /sdcard/data.cpio.gz | cpio -i
cd /
umount /dev/tmp
5.
Mount mmcblk0p3 on temporary folder and extract system.cpio.gz archive :
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /dev/tmp
cd /dev/tmp
gunzip -c /sdcard/system.cpio.gz | cpio -i
cd /
umount /dev/tmp
6.
Reboot the phone in bootloader :
adb reboot bootloader
7.
Boot the phone with custom boot image :
unzip boot.img.zip
fastboot boot boot.img
Reports are welcome !
I haven't tried this, but great idea. Well done.
Maybe a nice additional idea would be a boot-menu style idea. Eg, detect OS on mem card and display a menu of "Internal" or "SD Card"?
I'm on it but as it will imply flashing people's phone, I need more testing and suggestions from experienced hackers. I only own my G1 for 5 days...
I acytually just started a thread about this in the Dream development subforum!
Some suggestions:
-Use a recovery image to boot the ROM on the sd card (look at modifying the CM recovery image) if this is possible. This way, you can boot from sd card when you want to, by booting into recovery image, without interfering with the flashed rom at all. No worries that flashin a new rom will require a reflash of your bootloader. Also, you can use the ROM installed in flash after a reboot without any hassle, which would be very useful when testing a ROM from the SD if it doesn't work very well and you need a working phone.
-Have the /data and /system-partition as folders on the 4th partition on the SD card, or as logical volumes on a primary one. Why?
Well, many people have their sd-cards set up with fat, extX, swap in that order. The partition layout you have described here simply isn't compatible with that, and will require a separate SD card just for this testing (which everyone might not have).
I must say, I think this is a GREAT idea! I so often want to test a few ROMS, but often they don't get the test-time they deserve because I need to swicth back to my working environment for job/uni the day after. This would be a great way to test a ROM thoroughly. And also it would be the best way to give a ROM a quick testdrive. switchroming back and forth is, for all its simplicity, hassle.
Using the recovery is the only way I found at the moment to boot from the sd card and was about to extend cm recovery with a dedicated menu Nevertheless, there will be a limitation with that: it will not be possible to use a different kernel for the system on sd as it will have to use the kernel of the recovery... Anyway, many custom roms around here use cm kernel (even those I saw with eclair) so it is not so problematic I think (tested Eugene373 AOSP20 yesterday). Anyway, it is possible to adapt the recovery with a test kernel...
I think I found a workaround for sd partitionning scheme pb, using bind mounts but I have not tested already. I will work on it this WE.
If I remember correctly you can use the command "reboot recovery" from the recovery shell to reboot again into recovery. It could mean that it is possible to choose what (kernel) to boot after the reboot. Even cyanogenmod has made quite a few changes to the kernel since the recovery image came out, and I think it would not be a very good solution to use the same kernel as the recovery image for all ROMs loaded via SD. (Especially the Hero ones won't work at all, I'm afraid.
It could also be possible maybe, to tweak the built-in bootloader into booting form either SD-card or from the internal flash? It already has the possibility to boot different things on different keypresses (home for recovery mode, and camera for fastboot). I have (again) no idea of its capabilities for reading anything off of the sd card, though.
I get your point naguz . I am not satisfied either with the solution of using the recovery kernel to boot the system on sd. I found that it adds quite much complexity to the init process: I tweaked the recovery executable to add an entry to boot from sd but I faced troubles in services startup and pre-init definitions. I think that the solution of using the recovery menu to choose to boot from sd have to be abandoned as it will require heavy additional changes to the init.rc scripts of the second system and will break its advanced features.
The ideal solution (as you suggested) would be to tweak the bootloader to boot natively from the sd card but unfortunately, we do not have the sources of the SPL (tell me if I am wrong) so it is definitely not possible.
The remaining solution is to use the recovery partition to flash the boot image of the second system. I works well, just press the home key and the second system boots ! The drawback is that you do not have recovery any more... Personnaly, I don't find that so problematic as I is still possible to boot a recovery image with fastboot when needed, so I think I will stick to this solution. I somebody have another solution, I am ok to investigate...
Aha, it makes sense that booting the sd directly from recovery mode would mess something up. I would think some of the same problems would be faced when booting the kernel from the recovery partiotion, doesn't it look like a different device to the kernel? Well, if it works, it works.
Regarding the source of the SPL, I have no idea, but I know hyakuro (a (former?) user here) has released a modified one. Trying to get in touch with him
As for the latest method: Is the recovery partiotion big enough to hold both the recovery image AND the kernel? If so, one could maybe have both. Maybe make a new "recovery image" that can either boot from sd or boot recovery image? Just throwing out ideas here.
Personally I don't see the big problem with not having a recovery image, as I would (in a dual-boot scenario) already have another, working install on the flash that I could use if the one booted from sd wasn't good enough. Re-flashing the recovery image could also be done from the working ROM in flash, for those without the SDK tools.
I think, however, that quite a few people will object to not having a recovery image.
Btw, was your latest working test done with one (4th) partition on the sd card for loading the ROM from SD? If so, new instructions please. I'd like to give it a try.
I think that it is technically impossible to boot directly from the sd, even with the sources of the SPL as drivers are required to drive the sd that can not be included in a SPL. It is the same issue on PC with PCMCIA network cards for instance. IPL+SPL has to be seen more or less like a simple BIOS...
The recovery partition size is not a matter her. The problem is the lack of control over what has to be booted as the only action we can make in the SPL is the HOME key to choose a regular boot or a recovery boot (the system on SD here). I think I have a good knowledge now of the boot process and I think we can not got further than that, despitely...
I am now trying to have /data and /system on the same partition, mount them on /mnt and bind mount each directory on /system and /data but with no succes . investigating....
Okay, bind mounting was a dumb idea of mine. The solution is to create an extended partition with 2 logical drives in it, so partitions are:
[1-3] FAT and/or EXTX and/or swap as needed (I have personnaly just one partition here)
4 extended
5 ext2 for /data
6 ext2 for /system
Now its time to bake a boot.img with the kernel of the system on the sd card + the ramdisk. I do not explain how to do that, google knows :
1.
In the ramdisk image, put my modified init program attached hereater
2.
In the init.rc script, change the lines that mount /data and /system :
mount yaffs2 [email protected] /system
mount yaffs2 [email protected] /system ro remount
with
mount ext2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p6 /system
and
mount yaffs2 [email protected] /data nosuid nodev
with
mount ext2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /data
Flash boot.img on the recovery and reboot in recovery... That's all.
Jahrome,
Trying the idea on the HTC has a subtle difference. So I'm curious what change you put in the /init process.
Lets say the image one wants to use is the 'eclair' branch. This branch uses vold, so the block device, such as '/dev/block/mmcblk0p#', does not appear to be created until the vold service is started, which is after the init.rc mount operations. So the mount proposed does not work.
Curious what changes you made to the init process that might give me some ideas of what might be the simplest change. It seems that there is a relatively easy solution, that I don't yet see.
Ideas (or additional questions to clarrify) appreciated...
Hi Dale !
On which HTC are you trying the trick ?
First your trouble is not related to eclair as I successfully booted eclair on my G1 with this trick. You need to add a timeout in init so as it waits for the kernel to detect sd card partitions (need to recompile init, or use my recompiled init).
Vold has nothing to do at this point
Hope this helps
Init Delay for SDisk
Thanks for the reply. That's what I needed, it seems so ungraceful.
I thought vold was enabling something to make the kernel's discovery of the SD partitions. It is "by coincidence" that the log of the vold occured shortly before the adding of the block-device event. My apologies for not recognizing the coincidence of the log entries.
I had hoped the solution was a bit more "graceful", though I can't say what that would be or why a sleep is "ungraceful". I would like a "mount retry for n-seconds" option in the init.rc, that would be slick. Nonetheless I will add in a sleep-spin-check for a few seconds.
For the record, we are discussing the change to:
android-source: .../system/core/init/init.c
code-routine: main()
code-location: Somewhere after the "A N D R O I D" text
code-change: add in a sleep spin-check of some sort
I appreciate the comment that all we need is just a sleep. I think this completes the thread?!
Most interesting...
This is something akin to how I am using my company's Android solution for the Beagle Board...
In that environment, the entire kernel and rootfs are located on a SD/MMC card. The environment variables and boot script are stored in the NAND chip
through a "setenv" command. The U-boot monitor on the hardware defaults to run the boot script unless there is any user interaction. This image can then be converted into a typical distribution that can be flashed and ran without the SD card...
I have wondered about the implementation of this approach on my G1, but I have not had time to test it out. It is good to see that there are others that are interested in this as well...
I will be following this thread and will try to help in any way if I can... meaning if I can get some free time...
If you are interested in our Beagle Board solution, it is open source and can be found by a simple Google search using "Android rowboat"...
L8R...
very easy fix.
rename the /init to /init.android (or whatever you like)
create an init script. have it prompt on boot too boot from sd or internal. symlink the init.rc from /system. That way you only need one boot.img for multiple builds. We've been doing this a really long time on the android on vogue project. My development phone is simple, I hold down the menu button if I want to boot from the sdcard otherwise it boots from the internal.
Oh and don't worry about this.
jahrome said:
log messages and the only notable difference is this error :
E/MemoryHeapBase( 83): error opening /dev/pmem_gpu0: Permission denied
E/MemoryHeapBase( 83): error opening /dev/pmem_gpu1: Permission denied
E/MemoryHeapBase( 83): error opening /dev/hw3d: Permission denied
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's just that you don't have HW3D enabled in your kernel. It's important to note that if you're trying to use multiple builds that eclair with 3d and donut use different kernels.
Exactly the vogue and kaiser have been doing this for ages. If you want you can also boot ext2 and squashfs images. It's pretty simple stuff.
Anyone have a backup of the files in post #3? I've been trying this solution with files of my own creation (as in: my own cooked boot.img, and data/system files) but it doesn't seem to get past the G1 boot screen (as in: blank screen.) I've also tried the recovery boot solution however it gives me the same reaction. It leads me to believe the problem lies in my boot file.
ok anyone interested in creating a simple step by step manual? and can someone post the files again please?
I'm running Cyanogen's 4.2.7.1 already but wish to partition my sd card to take advantage of swap, ext3 etc, Do i need to re flash the ROM after the partion is created for the ROM to recognise the partitions and use swap etc or can this be done after the rom is loaded.
Sorry to be a tard but still fairly new to this game, hope this all makes sense!!!!
You should be able to do it after the fact or before. It really shouldn't matter. I used AmonRA's recovery image and the options to partition your card are right on the recovery screen. They are standard settings if you want to change them (ie. ext3 to ext4 or amount of swap) you'll most likely need to run the SDK from your computer. I used a little program called sdparted. I know they make an app for swap space, but you can change it from the SDK also. Hope this helps.
I'm using Amon Ra's recovery so AFAIK sdparted is intergrated into it. So do I uninstall all my apps then redownload they, Will they install in the the right partition? Not exactly sure I fully understand the concept as yet...
Damnit.. My company required encryption of the data on my Nexus S when I was testing ICS Beta with Email / Exchange.
Went ahead and encrypted the device.
Then, I wanted to install ICS Combo Beta 11, so I formatted /system /data /boot and tried to install from /sdcard/*.zip.
No luck.
Clockworkmod recovery cannot mount /sdcard anymore.
Wanted to try and format it, but the clockworkmod tries to mount it first, before formatting
HELP!
I'm stuck with only recovery now and no way to get the update package installed
Is there a way to install from zip via the command line?
You should be able to use fastboot to load the rom on your device. I haven't tried it this way before but it should work:
Code:
fastboot update rom.zip [-w if you want to erase data too]
Give it a spin.
The SDCard not being able to be mounted has been covered a few times but I can't recall the proper fix by heart - search around and you'll definitely get some results that can help you with that.
Greetz
Sounds like it's busted.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium
Can you still enable USB Mass Storage in recovery? Try reformat the SD from your desktop?
Si_NZ said:
Can you still enable USB Mass Storage in recovery? Try reformat the SD from your desktop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thought about that, but what filesystem? FAT32?
Sure
Greetz
I had the same problem with one of the first ICS betas.
Formatting to FAT32 on my Mac was not enough, I had also to reformat under Android. Hope, you backed up your data
dr911 said:
I had the same problem with one of the first ICS betas.
Formatting to FAT32 on my Mac was not enough, I had also to reformat under Android. Hope, you backed up your data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definately backed up..
This was a real scare.. I couldn't mount or format from clockworkmodrecovery. All I had was the adb shell and the builtin /sbin commands.
LUCKILY I found this article;
http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/...mmcblk0++mkfs++ext2__fromsearch__1#entry56396
It didn't exactly match what I was experiencing, but the key was the parted program.
Using it, I was able to reformat my media (partition 3) and am now able to repush things to it.
Stupid sdcard encryption..
Reinstalling ICS Beta 11 now
Blood pressure slowly decreasing.. damn that was a nightmare
So some lessons learned;
DON'T try to partition your SDCARD from clockworkmod or Windows or Mac. The USB storage presented to your computer is a single partiton from you mmcblk0 sd storage. If you partition it, you've got a partition inside a partition which will only make sense to your windows/mac system. Inside of Android, the partition is essentially corrupted and it won't mount.
Formatting from Windows only makes it appear to be working.. in reality you've created a second partition and it's corrupted from the Android point of view.
parted is the only way to fix it. from parted do mkfs type fat32 partiton 3 (media) that will reformat the partition correctly and give you access from Android and external USB hosts.
That's weird...
People have been able to format the SD as ext4 on a desktop using Ubuntu for example. I don't understand how that is different to mkfs.ext4 vs mkfs.vfat. I mean why am I confined to formatting on the phone itself? I'm really confused now.
On a side note. What you experienced is totally expected if you think about it carefully. It's like you have just lost the key to open your SD content by wiping the phone, of course it can no longer be mounted. But I'm not sure why it cannot be simply formatted in CWM.
nauckwj said:
Formatting from Windows only makes it appear to be working.. in reality you've created a second partition and it's corrupted from the Android point of view.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That means, I should check my SD Card, which I formatted under OSX with Disk Utility?
Maybe I'll do it next time I flash a new ROM, because for now it works fine.
nauckwj said:
Blood pressure slowly decreasing.. damn that was a nightmare
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I had a similar situation a few weeks after I got my beloved NS when I tried Whispercore. The hole NS got encrypted and formatting the system partition in CWM didn't work, but what I read it was luckily due to a problem with the CWM version. Flashing a newer Version of CWM solved the problem. First I was dying!
So, when I encrypted with ICS and got this problem I calmed down much faster
Si_NZ said:
That's weird...
People have been able to format the SD as ext4 on a desktop using Ubuntu for example. I don't understand how that is different to mkfs.ext4 vs mkfs.vfat. I mean why am I confined to formatting on the phone itself? I'm really confused now.
On a side note. What you experienced is totally expected if you think about it carefully. It's like you have just lost the key to open your SD content by wiping the phone, of course it can no longer be mounted. But I'm not sure why it cannot be simply formatted in CWM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My problem was I used the Windows fdisk partitioning utility to repartition my /sdcard partition. That was part of the problem. I did also read how some people were repartitioning the /sdcard partition, which is kind of weird. I can understand why someone might want to reformat it as an ext4 filesystem, but why would you want to partition a partition?
The /sdcard partition is actually the third partition on your mmcblk0 device. If you partition it, most utilities will fail to recognize it as a valid media device anymore, because they expect to be able to read the filesystem data structures when they mount it. These won't exist if a partition table is sitting at the beginning of the blocks.
I couldn't reformat from within CWM because it first tries to mount the partition. if it fails to mount, CWM won't reformat it. Only way to reformat it was with parted, unless you have a working system installation.
Last night I was also able to reformat it from within ICS. Had to do a full factory-wipe from within ICS, then it indicated the sdcard was no longer valid and asked me if I wanted to reformat it. Once I said yes, all was back to normal.
Fun fun
Hi all,
First of all I would like to say that this is purely not my work.All thanks goes to Fi***o(Guess him...).
Ok to the matter.You all know that most of the superbricks are caused because of the wipe done in recovery.It actually causes an I/O error which causes the /data partition in eMMC to get unrepairable.Even Odin,heimdall,shell....Nothin can fix it.And without /data partition your phone cannot boot.Since only the /data partition is damaged,you can use download mode and flash any kernel and even enter recovery sometimes.So explanation part is over.
Now to make our phone to boot up we must find a way to get /data partition working.But how can we?You know,there is a partition called /preload (hidden.img) which is always empty and almost not at all used and its size is 512 MB.So we are actually wasting 512 MB.A kernel only controlls where to mount what partition.So If we could make a kernel which would swap /data and /preload,/data will be mounted at /preload location and it will be fine and working and our phone will be able boot and run normally.
So does it only have advantages?Surely no.It has its own disadvantages too...
1.Your /data partition is shrinked to 512 MB
2.You should only stay on custom roms.You cannot flash a stock rom or anything through odin except kernels....
3.You can flash this kernel only through PC odin which means yellow triangle and increase counter.
But you can use CWM to flash any custom roms because it doesnt check for /preload but stock rom does....
And as I said earlier this is ain't my work but dont feel shy to press that thanks button if you like it....
I think it is Ficeto (DarkyROM kernel dev) who did this first. I remember someone posting something about this previously, but was probably missed.
EDIT: Worth it for people who don't have the $200 odd dollars in the meantime for a new MOBO
I actually do not recommend any custom ROMs! as they are all deodexed and that means that they store their odex(dex) files in /data/dalvik-cache which further uses more /data space.
What you can flash is: custom factoryfs.img(less apps and added CSC), empty hidden.img, custom zImage(that is made to swap /data and /preload) and boot loaders(boot.bin, Sbl.bin and param.lfs).
Do not flash stock cache.img or data.img!
With taking all that in consideration, my Note is now running LPF with LPY CSC
hkgrob said:
I think it is Ficeto (DarkyROM kernel dev) who did this first. I remember someone posting something about this previously, but was probably missed.
EDIT: Worth it for people who don't have the $200 odd dollars in the meantime for a new MOBO
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already gave a vague idea in someother thread.But I'm not use it was my post or not...
vijai2011 said:
Hi all,
First of all I would like to say that this is purely not my work.All thanks goes to Fi***o(Guess him...).
Ok to the matter.You all know that most of the superbricks are caused because of the wipe done in recovery.It actually causes an I/O error which causes the /data partition in eMMC to get unrepairable.Even Odin,heimdall,shell....Nothin can fix it.And without /data partition your phone cannot boot.Since only the /data partition is damaged,you can use download mode and flash any kernel and even enter recovery sometimes.So explanation part is over.
Now to make our phone to boot up we must find a way to get /data partition working.But how can we?You know,there is a partition called /preload (hidden.img) which is always empty and almost not at all used and its size is 512 MB.So we are actually wasting 512 MB.A kernel only controlls where to mount what partition.So If we could make a kernel which would swap /data and /preload,/data will be mounted at /preload location and it will be fine and working and our phone will be able boot and run normally.
So does it only have advantages?Surely no.It has its own disadvantages too...
1.Your /data partition is shrinked to 512 MB
2.You should only stay on custom roms.You cannot flash a stock rom or anything through odin except kernels....
3.You can flash this kernel only through PC odin which means yellow triangle and increase counter.
But you can use CWM to flash any custom roms because it doesnt check for /preload but stock rom does....
And as I said earlier this is ain't my work but dont feel shy to press that thanks button if you like it....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm I actually had a simillar idea couple of days ago ,but not the preload parttion ,I thought that someone could mount data and system partitions on any other partitions ,like internal sdcard (the user accessable space) and then move the actual user accessable Sdcard to external storage ?
but I don't think it's the kernel alone that can do this ,but rather a modified .pit file (to repartition the sdcard) along with a modified kernel?
just thinking out loud here and could be just mumbling and totally wrong ,but I hope it gives the devs a starting point to help those poor superbricked people.
MR.change said:
Hmmm I actually had a simillar idea couple of days ago ,but not the preload parttion ,I thought that someone could mount data and system partitions on any other partitions ,like internal sdcard (the user accessable space) and then move the actual user accessable Sdcard to external storage ?
but I don't think it's the kernel alone can do this ,but rather a modified .pit file along with a modified kernel?
just thinking out loud here , hope it gives the devs a starting point to help those poor superbricked people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you ever use a pit file in flashing custom roms through CWM or when flashing kernel through PC odin???As I said earlier you cannot flash any rom through odin except a kernel I guess.I'm not a superbrick owner.
But yeah what you said should also work but its very time consuming and confusing.
MR.change said:
Hmmm I actually had a simillar idea couple of days ago ,but not the preload parttion ,I thought that someone could mount data and system partitions on any other partitions ,like internal sdcard (the user accessable space) and then move the actual user accessable Sdcard to external storage ?
but I don't think it's the kernel alone can do this ,but rather a modified .pit file along with a modified kernel?
just thinking out loud here , hope it gives the devs a starting point to help those poor superbricked people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
much simpler to just use /preload most is still as it should be and only 3 lines need changing in a stock kernel(initramfs) for it to work. cwm requires another line changed and that is it.
I can provide a working GGB and LPF kernels (no cwm in LPF)
its one of my ideas.. relocating the partition to be used...
vijai2011 said:
Do you ever use a pit file in flashing custom roms through CWM or when flashing kernel through PC odin???As I said earlier you cannot flash any rom through odin except a kernel I guess.I'm not a superbrick owner.
But yeah what you said should also work but its very time consuming and confusing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No not through CWM but PC ODIN ,and yes many superbricked people could flash .pit file successfully from pc odin.
ficeto said:
much simpler to just use /preload most is still as it should be and only 3 lines need changing in a stock kernel(initramfs) for it to work. cwm requires another line changed and that is it.
I can provide a working GGB and LPF kernels (no cwm in LPF)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes I understand that my method is much harder ,but like I said I'm no dev and this just an idea that I had couple of days ago.
but there is some methodology to my madness:
the preload partition is only 512 mb ,thus very small for some ROMs .
my method (if doable at all) should give users much larger ROM space ,as they can use the SDcard which is 12 GBs of space.
ficeto said:
much simpler to just use /preload most is still as it should be and only 3 lines need changing in a stock kernel(initramfs) for it to work. cwm requires another line changed and that is it.
I can provide a working GGB and LPF kernels (no cwm in LPF)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a bricked note, but that's worth a thanks for sure. If you could share, I am sure a bunch of people will be doing random cartwheels.
Then again, someone will probably asked if they can flash it here, or there, or everywhere!
hkgrob said:
I don't have a bricked note, but that's worth a thanks for sure. If you could share, I am sure a bunch of people will be doing random cartwheels.
Then again, someone will probably asked if they can flash it here, or there, or everywhere!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the problem is that that kernel should be used correctly.Its not like cf-root,abyss kernel.If you flash on a note in good condition,you might have some problems...
I thought /data has user data and ROM is flashed onto a different partition, no?
anilisanil said:
I thought /data has user data and ROM is flashed onto a different partition, no?
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Click to collapse
Yeah partially right.A rom requires both /system and /data.
Good work.
Once the bricked note is up nd running, and rooted, ain't it possible to write some lowlevel partition and format utility to repair the original /data portion of EMMC ?
friedje said:
Good work.
Once the bricked note is up nd running, and rooted, ain't it possible to write some lowlevel partition and format utility to repair the original /data portion of EMMC ?
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Click to collapse
Nope.Not at all possible.The partition becomes completely inaccessable.
Yes there are low level programs like parted - to repartition.
e2fsck to scan for bad sectors -like scandisk in windows.
format - should be possible -- I have to get help of forest1971 for this.
prabhu1980 said:
Yes there are low level programs like parted - to repartition.
e2fsck to scan for bad sectors -like scandisk in windows.
format - should be possible -- I have to get help of forest1971 for this.
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Click to collapse
Is this correct? I was under the impression that the emmc error was due to incorrect voltages being passed and therefor physically frying the chips, hence the only fix is to replace the chips/mobo?
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Ofcourse there are no weird voltages applied. It's still the same chip being programmed by the same program delivering the same voltages.....
Actually the program doesn't set any voltages, it just tells the chipset to put the memory into the 'writing mode'
The most likely problem is that a wrong entry point is being written into the filesystem for the data partition.
I was not able to format it in any way and trust me I tried everything ....
Just found this on the net.
http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/samsung-galaxy-note-jtag-brick-repair/
expensive but less then 200 for a new mobo. maybe somebody wants to try.
Hi, I have an old phone and want to install a custom rom on it. My phone is set up so the /system and /data partitions are on a micro SD card and are mounted from there (so if I remove the micro SD card, the phone won't switch on).
So here's the question, can I install a ROM by moving all the files and folders that are in the ROM zip in the System folder into /system or are there any other parts needed to install a ROM?
I don't want to flash a ROM because I don't want to risk bricking my phone but I don't mind messing with /system and /data partitions since they are on the SD card and are backed up.
Thanks!
crazyhack said:
Hi, I have an old phone and want to install a custom rom on it. My phone is set up so the /system and /data partitions are on a micro SD card and are mounted from there (so if I remove the micro SD card, the phone won't switch on).
So here's the question, can I install a ROM by moving all the files and folders that are in the ROM zip in the System folder into /system or are there any other parts needed to install a ROM?
I don't want to flash a ROM because I don't want to risk bricking my phone but I don't mind messing with /system and /data partitions since they are on the SD card and are backed up.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats a really complex implementation you got there, why would someone want system on the sd card? Flashing will/should break all the changes that make your current configuration work, so, keep that in mind.
Thanks for responding! The reason for using the sdcard is rather complicated but doesn't matter much so I wont get into it. I want to keep the mounts as it is but I thought that I could use a custom rom without boot.img and only modify /system partition. I don't know if that's possible but that's why I came here
I tried mounting the partitions on my PC (using Linux File System Mounter) and then extracting the contents of system folder in custom rom to the partition but I get error because Windows cant handle symlinks.
I'd really appreciate any help on this. Thanks!