[idea] load custom ramdisk from SD card - Xperia SP General

Okay, so the way we are having a recovery on the locked boot loader at the moment is loading recovery.tar on /system/bin/ and the only problem with this is it could be accidently overwritten when a ROM is installed.
I think I have a better method, but it requires you have an SD card.
Instead of extracting the contents of the RAMdisk from an archive, have them loaded from a partition on the SD card? and then when a custom ROM is developed have its ramdisk in the update package and have it written to the external SD card, then when the system is loaded then mount that partition at / .. This is just an idea though.
Sent from my C5303 using Tapatalk

maybe munjeni can help you
here is his work for Xperia Boot Menu v1.0
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-u/u-development/xperia-boot-menu-v1-0-t2418241
KeiranFTW said:
Okay, so the way we are having a recovery on the locked boot loader at the moment is loading recovery.tar on /system/bin/ and the only problem with this is it could be accidently overwritten when a ROM is installed.
I think I have a better method, but it requires you have an SD card.
Instead of extracting the contents of the RAMdisk from an archive, have them loaded from a partition on the SD card? and then when a custom ROM is developed have its ramdisk in the update package and have it written to the external SD card, then when the system is loaded then mount that partition at / .. This is just an idea though.
Sent from my C5303 using Tapatalk
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Related

Corrupted SD Card

I'm running CM 4.1.11.1 I think and just recently new apps wouldn't install, so I rebooted and all of a sudden all of the apps just turned into the standard icon and none of them said they were installed except for like 3 or 4 of them. I think the SD card is alright, but must have some kind of error in the ext filesystem as I can see all of the files on the FAT32 portion just fine. Do you guys know of any way to just fix the errors on the ext portion without reformatting it? Or do I have to kill all of the partitions and redo them?
You could use the repair ext filesystem option if you are running a recovery image that has it (Cyanogen 1.4 or RA 1.2.3) or just reformat the ext partition using gparted under linux.
Yeah, the repair ext thing didn't work. I think I may just have to clear off the entire card and start from scratch.
I got the same problem
then I backup all the apps up with: tar cvf /sdcard/backup.tar /data/app/*
then copy backup.tar to your desktop pc
then reformat your tf card and repart the partitions
when it's done,move it to your tf card FAT32 partition again
insert to your Phone
the install CM ROM
when it's done
enter the terminal or adb shell
cd /data/app
tar xvf /sdcard/backup.tar
(if it says read only filesystem something you can try reboot )
then check to make sure all the .apk files are under the /data/app directory
then type
fix_permissions
when it's all done reboot
if some apps' error
reinstall them
that's all I did
good luck to you ;-)
oh,I suggest that the size of your ext3 partition should under 400MB
that't the key to solve the problem I thought

A bootloader that can boot off of the SD card for the OS?

Has anyone worked on putting bootloader on the G1 Rom, then have the OS install on a partition on the SD card? That might make in possible to run the newer rom updates.
JustNic said:
Has anyone worked on putting bootloader on the G1 Rom, then have the OS install on a partition on the SD card? That might make in possible to run the newer rom updates.
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Click to collapse
If you want /system to be from SD you need to make a ram disk mount part of the SD to /system. .
This is Linux hackery not bootloader hackery.
No such home made bootloaders have been made for the g1 to the best of my knowledge.
I could see usefulness in a bootloader that loaded the partitions from SD before boot for booting multiple android versions w/o using recovery (dual boot)
And we could if needed tweak the partition layout. .
But the bootloader wont be able to remap physical partitions to the SD card.. so if the OS mounts it (system /cache/userdata) it must be either dealt with by Linux/android or be copied to internal storage before the system is booted.

[Q] What can be done to eMMC from CM7 SD install?

I'm running CM7 off of an SD card. I believe if I flash CWM Recovery from ROM Manager, it will flash it onto the eMMC ... is that correct?
Also, if I update the su binary from within Superuser apk, will it update it on the SD or eMMC?
Also, what would happen if I formatted SD from within CM7? Would it format the WHOLE SD or just the FAT32 partition that CM7 sees as the SD card?
My Nookcolor is not rooted or modified at all. I've never booted into the stock rom to be exact.
Thanks for the help.
JoshClarke said:
I'm running CM7 off of an SD card. I believe if I flash CWM Recovery from ROM Manager, it will flash it onto the eMMC ... is that correct?
Also, if I update the su binary from within Superuser apk, will it update it on the SD or eMMC?
Also, what would happen if I formatted SD from within CM7? Would it format the WHOLE SD or just the FAT32 partition that CM7 sees as the SD card?
My Nookcolor is not rooted or modified at all. I've never booted into the stock rom to be exact.
Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, flashing from ROM Manager puts it on emmc. And flashing things from CWM recovery normally flashes things to emmc. There are special modified versions of CWM that will flash things to SD, but I'm sure you don't have one of those. If you are interested in getting one that you put on SD so that you can backup your system, etc, just search for alternate CWM recovery and my name. I posted a version. (Edit: look here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=22719241)
Updating su will put it on the system you are running at the time.
I think formatting the SD will format the whole card, if not at least your boot partition. I would not try it. You can put it in your PC and use partition software to format just partition 4 if you want just that sdcard partition cleared.

Fix broken internal storage on GT-I9000M (/dev/block/mmcblk0 corrupted)

I bypassed dead internal memory on a GT-I9000M.
Symptoms:
- Your GT-I9000M is not booting or bootlooping no matter what firmware you are flashing it with.
- In recovery, you are seeing I/O errors on /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
- Trying to repartition and format the internal storage with fdisk or parted and mkfs.whatever fails.
To recover:
- Partition and format your 16GB+ external microSD with at least two primary partitions, vfat on the first one and rfs (or whatever fs is supported by your firmware) on the second one.
- Acquire a stock ROM, in my case I used JL2
- untar the PDA portion of your ROM of choice (you want zImage and factoryfs.rfs)
- Extract initramfs from zImage ( https://github.com/mistadman/Extract-Kernel-Initramfs )
- grep for /dev/block/mmcblk, there should be 4 .rc files containing references to it as well as within the binary file /init.
- use a text editor to replace all occurances of "mmcblk0" with "mmcblk1" (and vice-versa if you feel so inclined) in the .rc files.
- use a hex editor to replace "mmcblk0" with "mmcblk1" in /init.
- create cpio archive of your modified initramfs with `find . | cpio -H newc -o > ../initramfs.img`
- repack kernel and initramfs ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=789712 ), you should have a new_zImage now.
- Mount the factoryfs.rfs as a loop `mount -o loop,rw -t vfat factoryfs.rfs /mnt/loop`
- Modify vold.fstab - this topic is well covered elsewhere (swap sdcard and sdcard1, swap mount points), then umount your loop
- Flash factoryfs.rfs and zImage using your favorite method.
That's it! Your phone will now boot and complain forevermore that the external memory is corrupt. ToDo: use third partition on external microSD as external_sd...
To recap:
We're telling android's init and whatever .rc scripts contain references to the broken partitions on the internal storage /dev/block/mmcblk0 to point to an appropriate partition on the external microSD card /dev/block/mmcblk1. You can actually do anything you want with the partition structure as long as it's consistent throughout init and in vold.fstab. Different ROMs do it differently.
I am not responsible for misuse of your hex editor, lack of backups, etc. I highly recommend the unbrickable mod.
Corrupt internal storage
Hi b0nafide,
My internal storage is also corrupted (i9000). I'm getting the same errors you descripe in your post. I'm trying your solution in wich you install android on your external SD. I bought a 8GB cat10 SD card....
But I'm stuck at the step: 'Extract initramfs from zImage ( [//github.com/mistadman/Extract-Kernel-Initramfs] )'. When I start the script nothing happens, except for my terminal closing. I'm using a virtualy installed Ubuntu distribution (Backtrack 5).
Do you have a tip? Perhaps you can help me through Teamviewer???
Hope do hear from you... I want to use my phone again
Greatings, Eldoro
My sgs is dead.
Please b0nafide, can you upload this modificated kernel (zImage and factoryfs.rfs) just for noobs like me?
Yes that woud be great. ..
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Here also an i9000 with reboot
Have done allot, stock rom, other pit files...
Is there a way to do this with a i9000 ?
and yes an image for us ?
and is the phone then normale... or is the internal storage still broken ?
Thanxs
Anyone can help us?
grimorct said:
Anyone can help us?
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???
Anyone with working solution for this on i9000? I'll try to pack JW4 following this guide
grozni said:
Anyone with working solution for this on i9000? I'll try to pack JW4 following this guide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yesterday, I made a flasheable pack of JW4, but it doesn't run. Now i'ḿ trying to modify JVU, but a strange thing happen when i'm repacking zImage...the script spends a lot of time in order to make it, and i can't be able to verify the correct pocess of new_zImage.
It's my first post in XDA, because normally I use HTCMANIA... I'm Spanish...and my English it isn't so good. Even, I should said that it isn't my phone...i'm repairing a friend's phone, so it's difficult for me to explain or speak about different ROMs or kernels....sorry
It's very important to advice that the scripts posted should be modified to get it run...because I found different problems to execute on Ubuntu.
Now it's 1:30 am...i'm trying "ext_JVU"....tomorrow i'll tell you the results.
Anyway i'll try to upload it, to reach different conclusions...
sesetxu said:
Anyway i'll try to upload it, to reach different conclusions...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please do, I'll try flashing immediately and get back with results. How did you format external sd card?
I'm willing to try aswell... almost gave up hope.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Hello friends!!!
I've the CODE (PDA file in ODIN) modified to execute android in ext-sdcard.
I do it as the first post said....but it doesn't run for me...
Anyway here is...Yo must get the MODEM and CSC os the stock firmware
XDA block the urls for me...for this reason its haven´t the WWW ...
Stock firmware..only to get MODEM and CSC: 4shared.com/zip/W1NeYAPA/I9000XXJVU_I9000OXAJVU_OXA.html?
Code modified to run in sdcard external: rapidshare.com/files/3786190721/ext_XXJVU.tar.md5
To solve my problems, i'll try to generate an CWMfile flasheable to try it...but now i'm hopeless....
Good luck men!!
sesetxu said:
Good luck men!!
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Click to collapse
Great work men!! It works for me. After flashing I got error in picture I posted (same error as before when writing to internal storage with stock rom). I just hit reboot but honestly I was not thinking it will boot. Thing I noticed when I start camera I get message turn off usb storage first. My files app shows no sd card inserted. How did you format your sd card? I'm using 8gb class 6 sd card
grozni said:
Great work men!! It works for me. After flashing I got error in picture I posted (same error as before when writing to internal storage with stock rom). I just hit reboot but honestly I was not thinking it will boot. Thing I noticed when I start camera I get message turn off usb storage first. My files app shows no sd card inserted. How did you format your sd card? I'm using 8gb class 6 sd card
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Click to collapse
I've modified all to use an sdcard with the folowing partitions:
1st primary fat32 which is internal sd card (4 gb)
2nd primary reiserfs which is /data (2 gb)
3rd primary fat 32 as external sd card
Try it...and I am happy to help you
sesetxu said:
I've modified all to use an sdcard with the folowing partitions:
1st primary fat32 which is internal sd card (4 gb)
2nd primary reiserfs which is /data (2 gb)
3rd primary fat 32 as external sd card
Try it...and I am happy to help you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try this layout. At first I prepared sdcard with 2 partitions which currently boot into Android but storage isn't working:
1st primary fat32 (6gb)
2nd primary ext4 (2gb)
You said raiserfs, should be that rfs type partition?
Update: I just noticed that both partition on my sdcard are fat32. First partition which should be internal storage I had to format again (not sure why). After this internal storage is still not available when in Android. I guess some mounting point is not good. Second fat32 partition is where the data is I guess (picture attached)
Exactly the same result as grozni. Same errors upon installing but booting into android. Amazing work! Also formatted 2 partitions. WiFi also not working btw. Hangs on obtaining ip...
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
eldoro said:
Hangs on obtaining ip...
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Click to collapse
Same here
Is imposible to start Andoird without a rfs partition to mount /data (or ext4, for ROMs wich has fixed the troubles with ext4/rfs file systems...)
I can´t start the phone, because i get an added problem (my system can't format rfs data..but i don't know why)
I'm going to review the file /system/etc/vold.fstab who manages the mount points of the internal and external storages.
If anyone gets the correct configuration...please post it..
Tomorrow is Monday...and although I'm Spanish, I have a job (****ing crisis)...and i haven't so much time as weekend
Edit: wifi sockets are created over /data partition, if there is any problem in this partition is probably to get troubles obtaining IP
sesetxu said:
Is imposible to start Andoird without a rfs partition to mount /data (or ext4, for ROMs wich has fixed the troubles with ext4/rfs file systems...)
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Click to collapse
If I understand correctly samsung rfs and reiserfs are not the same thing? Why you use raiserfs on sdcard layout?
sesetxu said:
Edit: wifi sockets are created over /data partition, if there is any problem in this partition is probably to get troubles obtaining IP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is the reason
Update: One more thing I forgot to mention. When I try to format USB storage (internal sd) I get message sd card removed

Old phone custom ROM question

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!

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