As most of you may know, my HDX Toolkit is quite useful for the hdx. I have been trying my best changing and adding features that are useful for you guys but may not have the understanding to develop the toolkit better. I'm not dropping bad news, I feel as if the toolkit should be a community project. I'm still new to Android development but I feel like I'm missing something. I need your help!
The toolkit I put together is written in batch and then compiled into a exe. Currently it is a little messy (not in a bad way) because of some compiler code I used through the toolkit. My plan is to keep my compiled toolkit active* and also start a development toolkit project but have the code completely open and allow you guys to make and post additions and iterations specifically for the hdx.
Why did I type this?
I am looking for proper suggestions and guidance about, how to make the thread, what features or additions can at the time be added to the toolkit, and who is possibly willing at some point in time contribute.
My expectations are just a proper toolkit for this device. More details will be give at a later time.
The copyright will be CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 just in case one is needed.
It will be some time to fix things but I'm guessing around late September early October I'll post it.
*I am running short on time lately and may not compile new versions in the far future.**
**I'm going to be updating the toolkit soon.
Hello! This will be a quick post about how it was good earlier and how it can be better today, so please, stay with me.
I've been using Sony's for a while now, starting with small and cute Sony Ericsson k510i, then k550i, then wt19i (LWW), and then Xperia SP. My "flashing career" started after I've lost warranty on my k510. At that time there wasn't a lot you can do to your phone - there were several official firmwares, various customization options, and a lot of custom patches. No competition, one latest official firmware, a big library of patches that you could port to your device, if someone didn't do it already. The only competing area were a lot of graphical patches, but you could compile them together on your phone. Like today, if you were doing something wrong with your phone - you'll get a brick and it's your fault. But for every device there was an instruction, a beautifully crafted instruction on what to do and how to do everything, step by step. Almost every thread included a complete set of links to get you started. If you needed to flash a customisation after installing something, there would be a link on how to flash custom right there.
Today I have my XSP and try to do something to it. So I open one link (non-sticky, needed to bookmark it), see a lot of ROMs, part of which are no longer maintained. Finally open one of them based on performance rating, and see that it needs some kernel. So I go to kernel list, and see that it can't be flashed without recovery. What recovery? One specific recovery, because another one can't flash it. Now how do I flash recovery in the first place? I need a manual for that. Now I go to kernel and ROM page and see that no manual is available for them, too. So I open main device page and don't see any manual, so I open a sticky thread. And guess what? I don't see manual there. And that's when I start a new thread, type my problem in, and see a non-sticky thread with last post made 2nd of May 2015, and no pages link to that thread at all.
Is that how it goes this days? A newbie comes in, spends whole evening, opens 10 tabs, and still can't find anything relevant? I think we need to do something with this, revisit old threads, compile a new one-for-all guide, or at least a list of guides. And stick it, so people can actually see it. Otherwise there will be small closed community of those who already can develop and flash, and all the others who either got brick or is afraid to get a brick. Thanks.
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UPD: And then I see that the kernel which I almost decided to flash is closed and all developers migrated to another one. I'm talking about tangerine and helium. Again, no info in the first post. And main developer openly says to users of his work - if it didn't work for you, don't use it. What's wrong with you people...
I'm deeply sorry if I offended somebody with my previous post. I'm happy that you guys do such amazing things with this 3 year phone. But damn, FULL INSTALLATION took about 10 minutes, counting PC reboot into linuxes to get fastboot working. In case someone struggles like me, use CyanogenMod instruction to get to Cyanogen Recovery; download TWRP Recovery, ROM of choice and GApps of choice; place all three ZIPs onto your sdcard; go to recovery, flash TWRP, reboot into TWRP (by pressing volume rockers while loading), do Wipe - Factory Wipe, flash ROM, flash GApps, reboot to normal. Wait for about 5 minutes (black screen is normal, there will be dots flying after a minute or so to keep you entertained).
Yes, It's that simple nowadays, so why bothering typing so much? I was in that situation with my SP, too, but if the are so many answers to these questions and so many threads... "You have to read" is the answer! A lot! It's for your own good, trust me. Now I can do anything I want with my phone with nohow! So a little reading and searching here and there is just positive experience for you. Don't complain, the people here ( well a part of them) are hardcore coders or themers or whatever. You can't just ask them to tell you all the stuff. If want help I'm always available.
Thank you for linking to my very dusty and lonely Flash ROM guide hahaha
No you didn't offend anyone at all. The guides are actually there, like how to use Flashtool, how to unlock bootloader, how to flash recovery and everything, it is just that they are buried deep with time as the development goes. The thread are there, in the General section and are awaiting to be searched. Though some are outdated, some are not and you can benefit from there.
Some searching will normally do, but if it didn't, just ask in the threads, someone will probably answer to you!
I always have my eyes on the General and Q&A subforums of the Xperia SP, and I will usually respond to a help-able problems. So if you have any problems, feel free to post in the Q&A subforum, and if not me, someone will help you. If there are nobody, don't feel offended. Maybe people don't know what to help or suggest (but lets just hope that is not what it will be )
About recovery, PhilZ and CWM is way outdated, and its time for everyone to make TWRP as a standard as it is a still updated recovery. Cyanogen Recovery in my opinion is crap as there are far too less feature plus, it enforce on signed flashable zips.
About the thread on Tangerine, the developer said dont use if it doesn't work is because of the norm of the Kernel. The kernel is made by using an AnyKernel template, hence render support for almost all Lollipop ROMs. Since ROMs can be updated and all ROMs have different sources, a simple change in the system part can render Tangerine unsupported, and the developer cannot do anything (definitely his choice, please respect that) to only fix the problem on one ROM which could possibly break support for the majority of the ROMs! This also appplies to Helium. Therefore, his words of "dont user it if it doesn't work" has a meaning, and it is not something to degrade new users and so.
kojata said:
If want help I'm always available.
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TechnoSparks said:
I always have my eyes on the General and Q&A subforums of the Xperia SP, and I will usually respond to a help-able problems. So if you have any problems, feel free to post in the Q&A subforum, and if not me, someone will help you. If there are nobody, don't feel offended. Maybe people don't know what to help or suggest (but lets just hope that is not what it will be )
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Thanks for the answers and offering help, happily I was able to install my ROM of choice and it still works flawlessly, I was even able to squeeze 20 battery days from my old XSP.
Thinking about it, I start to understand why that dev answered like that. I was a python dev in the past and know how one feature can kill two others. Just in my head there is one current linux kernel, and all things that are developed should work with that particular kernel. Kernel comes before OS, if you will. Isn't it the case with ROMs and droid kernels?
About TWRP and reading: I honestly did read a lot of info before doing something, because it's my only phone these days. But it's so hard to find information on whether something is deprecated or not. As a new user, you wouldn't just google "is this deprecated and no longer used?", because that search will not provide any info. That is why during that evening and following morning I lost count of how many times I just shaked my head asking which recovery/kernel should I use and how do I install it? Latest being the easy one, because I already found TechnoSparks thread by that time.
In case anybody is interested, I installed Candy 5 on default kernel. But I still don't know if installing android 5 on a kernel used with android 4.2 was a good idea. It went well, however.
sometime back this was posted
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=63556533&postcount=135
unfortunately moonbutt closed his thread just when I and another member posted boot image etc on the board..understand he may have moved on to better things
not knowledgeable here but appreciate if someone can take this up or redirect this to some dev who can make a rooted kernel since the source has been published
thanks
SM-T237P
Would love to root my 5.1.1 tab , so I too would be begging for another developer to step in to fill this need. I need a kernel with UVC video support.
OKAY so now I know my posts were getting deleted when I asked for T235 kernel root
zitomd said:
Would love to root my 5.1.1 tab , so I too would be begging for another developer to step in to fill this need. I need a kernel with UVC video support.
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yesterday or may have been on Sat night, on the T533 thread I tried to catch moonbutt's attention by pointing to the T235 source (when apparently he was saying the T533 had no source but was addressing that kernel) and now that post has gone like on his closed thread (just when it seemed he was taking an interest thanking me for providing boot.img and other files)
anyway...need some dev who can volunteer to work on this and at least someone who would respond yes or no (deleting posts maybe to avoid a side conversation)
I pulled the source started to look it up and looked up on how to modify kernel..looked doable to a point but this is from a total novice (all i know is to mod some apk, compile/re-compile but no building stuff)
mac231us said:
yesterday or may have been on Sat night, on the T533 thread I tried to catch moonbutt's attention by pointing to the T235 source (when apparently he was saying the T533 had no source but was addressing that kernel) and now that post has gone like on his closed thread (just when it seemed he was taking an interest thanking me for providing boot.img and other files)
anyway...need some dev who can volunteer to work on this and at least someone who would respond yes or no (deleting posts maybe to avoid a side conversation)
I pulled the source started to look it up and looked up on how to modify kernel..looked doable to a point but this is from a total novice (all i know is to mod some apk, compile/re-compile but no building stuff)
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mac,
i had your post removed because it was interfering in H's thread. I tried with this device a little while ago but testers seem to think they are at liberty to not follow instruction, or just change their minds mid-stream like they haven't just wasted my time and resources. . The upside would be if you have the source and the setup to compile it and thereby test your own work then, i can absolutely run you through what you need to do, The tricky part is knowing which tools you need for the packing/unpacking of the ramdisk.
If this is a qcom/msm device you will need AIK which is the best solution.
If this is a marvell variant you will need ketut's degas bootimg toolkit which is the best solution.
You need [likely] to apply the patch mentioned in my thread to security/selinux/selinuxfs.c
Be aware that samsung's source releases are usually incredibly sloppy and the defconfigs for devices are usually somewhat off, missing config settings.
Check for sdcardfs xattrs, virtual xattrs, etc . you need to make sure those are selected in order for your internal and external storage to mount.
Find the correct defconfig for your device and post it as a zipped attachment. or check my thread and look at my sources on git, specifically the commit history [msm devices mostly] to get an idea of what you need. You can get a linux os running in a virtual machine and compile just fine as long as you have all the pre-requisites installed. The getting started link in my signature is a rough/general guide to help get you up and running.
m
ps, my thread is just locked, not closed, i was getting too many OT/non-dev postings. I open it when/if i have something new and then close it again.
thanks moonbutt74...totally understand...appreciate the links in your signature and other resources...will start looking into it (long long journey but gotta try)
mac231us said:
thanks moonbutt74...totally understand...appreciate the links in your signature and other resources...will start looking into it (long long journey but gotta try)
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mac,
no prob, recommended step 1, get your linux distro set up, stongly recoommend kali/debian 2.0, either in vm or better as 2nd os in a dual boot scenario.
m
Hi there,
I own a Galaxy J500FN and have been unsuccessfully searching the web for a custom rom for my device.
I have used PA on both my S4 and S4 mini and would be very glad (so would many others) if somebody could dedicate some time on working on a build for this device?
It currently ships Lollipop 5.1.1 out of the box.
There is no CWM Recovery build for this device but there is a TWRP Recovery Build that CTxz has kindly developed for us.
I am more than happy to flash experimental builds onto my device to help develop a custom ROM for it.
Thanks a lot!
Kyle
P.S: As many others have found, all root methods currently known for this device will trip the knox security.
No plans as we don't dev for devices we don't own or have access to. It is not on our radar at all, as with most Samsung devices.
@Pirateghost i can provide you all the files of j5 that you needs.
Avigupta.1996 said:
@Pirateghost i can provide you all the files of j5 that you needs.
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And what exactly does that do for us? That doesn't put a device in a developer's hand and they have ZERO way to test it. We know nothing about the device and we don't care to. It is not on the radar, it is not in the cards....
NO.
Not going to happen.
Please realize that developing for a device isn't easy. Even well documented ones bring along lots of hiccups along the way. There is no way in hell that we will take on a device request for a device that we don't own or plan on ever owning.
Here's a little FYI for you: we prefer Nexus devices or devices where the manufacturer/OEM is willing to allow/support bootloader unlocks, roms, development.
My advice to you: Learn how to bring up the device yourself, and build unofficials for yourself. This site was founded on being a resource BY developers FOR developers. Use the information available to you to build your own.
Hey Guys,
After the lead developers /quasi-developers abandoned (flag)ship, development seems to have stopped for the G935P variant. I have been making due using the other, lesser money-hoarding carrier, variant forums. I unfortunately don't have the resources to build / compile to anything, thorough enough knowledge to develop, nor a Windows OS. ( I usually just stick all relevant files on a usb and use someone else's computer to flash). I was just wondering if there was anyone else in my "ship" who may want collaborate or something to continue pushing out development. That of course would mean there was atleast one more user with a G935P on BL V4.