Database Users

[GUIDE][FAQ] Everything you need to know about porting roms (Easiest method to port)

Introduction​You may have seen many threads on xda about porting roms. All of them provide step by step tutorial but they do not explain everything and do not answer common questions. So i decided to post a guide and answer all questions about porting roms.
Please note that I am not a developer or an expoert porter (I should say i am a noob) but I will to explain everything as simply as possible.
What is Porting?​You can think of porting as simply getting a rom, designed for another device to work on your device.
What do I need for porting roms?​You need two roms. One designed for your phone called "Base rom" and another which you want to port called "Port rom"
What skills/software do I need to port rom?​Porting a rom is as simple as copy and paste. If you know how to copy and paste folders then you can port a rom.
For software side, you only need an archiver for porting (eg 7-zip)
How do I choose a base rom?​Usually you choose cyanogenmod as base. The version number is important for porting.
Choose CM7 if you are porting android 2.3 (gingerbread rom)
Choose CM9 if you are porting android 4.0 (Ice cream sandwich rom)
Choose CM10 if you are porting android 4.1 (Jellybean rom)
Choose CM10.1 if you are porting android 4.2 (Jellybean rom)
Can I port all roms?​No you cant.
You cannot port stock roms like sense, touchwiz etc.
You can port aosp roms like aokp, paranoid etc
Can I port from any phone?​No. The phone must meet some requirements for you to be able to port.
What are those requirements?​Well these things should be common in your phone and the phone you are porting from
1. Both should be armv7 (very important)
2. Both should have same resolution
3. Both should have same pixel density
4. Both should be of same brand (Not required but highly recommended)
5. Both should have same cpu (again not required but recommended)
What phone is best for porting?​There is no "best phone for porting". It depends upon your phone. Simply put that if your phone and port phone have all the above things common then it is probably the best phone for porting.

HOW TO PORT ROM​
1. Download base rom (designed for your phone) and port rom (the rom you want to port)
2. Open them with 7-zip (no need to extract)
3. Delete app, framework, fonts and media folders in BASE rom and move the app, framework, fonts and media from PORT rom to BASE rom
4. Your rom is now ready. Boot into recovery, Wipe everything and flash the BASE rom. It should boot. If it does not boot then do the next step
5. Go into system/lib folder in both the roms and replace the libandroidruntime.so file
6. Remember the final rom is BASE rom which you should flash on the phone.

reserved

Important: Before porting any rom always ask the developer about permission. I he allows then port and if he refuse then work on another rom. Dont ask him again and again.​

Hey,
Good work!
You can port roms like sense, touchwizz... see my guide
Sent from my XT890 using xda app-developers app

GalaxyUser said:
Hey,
Good work!
You can port roms like sense, touchwizz... see my guide
Sent from my XT890 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well yes but they require advanced knowledge about porting and are always buggy. This faq is for absolute beginners

UPDATE: added a guide to port rom. Hope you will like it

Could I port a rom designed for Samsung Galaxy Beam GT-i8530 to my Samsung Galaxy Beam GT-i8520 (Note that the first product model ends with 30 and the other ends with 20).
They are different phones and I would like to be able to update the stock Android 2.1 on my i8520 to Android 2.3 or above, preferably with the projector app/function of the i8530.
Both phones have projectors built in, but they are a little different in specs.

can we port 4.2 rom to 4.1.2 with same resolution, cpu & processor ??
plz confirm

Maveric-Romeo said:
Could I port a rom designed for Samsung Galaxy Beam GT-i8530 to my Samsung Galaxy Beam GT-i8520 (Note that the first product model ends with 30 and the other ends with 20).
They are different phones and I would like to be able to update the stock Android 2.1 on my i8520 to Android 2.3 or above, preferably with the projector app/function of the i8530.
Both phones have projectors built in, but they are a little different in specs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I doubt that you will be able to get it to load, I've ported cm7,9 and cm10( cm10 requires me to decompile framework.jar add cdma smali files recompile the framework.jar. swap out the baseband libs and edit the build.prop cm7 and cm9 are the easiest for porting as its basically copy and paste cm9 is just baseband and build.prop edits for me to get cdma working it
Sent from my R800x using xda premium

darkharbinger81 said:
I doubt that you will be able to get it to load, I've ported cm7,9 and cm10( cm10 requires me to decompile framework.jar add cdma smali files recompile the framework.jar. swap out the baseband libs and edit the build.prop cm7 and cm9 are the easiest for porting as its basically copy and paste cm9 is just baseband and build.prop edits for me to get cdma working it
Sent from my R800x using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I'm completely new to this and I'm not sure I really understand porting yet.

can i port 4.1 rom to 4.0 device with same specification ?

pankycool123 said:
can we port 4.2 rom to 4.1.2 with same resolution, cpu & processor ??
plz confirm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vny10 said:
can i port 4.1 rom to 4.0 device with same specification ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for being late but someone pm'ed me about this thats why answering.
You need the same android version for both the port and the base rom otherwise it will not boot.

grt guide!!!!
from which phone i can port roms for my karbonn a9?

Really?
You said that you can port from ARMv7 to ARMv7 only. Is it not possible to port ARMv6 to ARMv6?

Good day! im using galaxy y, is it possible to port apps and framework from stock based roms to cm7 rom through your guide?

Are there any additional steps to be followed if jumping to the next android version aka from 4.2.2 to 4.4.2 ? I am asking this because i want to port a Kitkat based rom from a similar MTK 6572 device to our own device with exactly the same specs but different android versions, they even are the same brand.

Hi, can I use touchwiz stock like base rom and port on it cm10.1 ?

[HELP] Port CM to i9506

Hi.
I need help on this one.
I would like to port the i9505 CM 10.2 version to the new i9506 (S4 LTE+A)
But someone told me that i should use the Nexus 5 build of CM because it have the same processor (Snapdragon 800)
Is that the right thing to do ?

zimmen said:
Hi.
I need help on this one.
I would like to port the i9505 CM 10.2 version to the new i9506 (S4 LTE+A)
But someone told me that i should use the Nexus 5 build of CM because it have the same processor (Snapdragon 800)
Is that the right thing to do ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if it is exactly the same then it ok i didnt checked right now....the other things you have to port from i9505
Sent from my GT-I9506 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

You dont port open source roms, you need to make a new device spec and maybe just copy some parts (the cpu hardware part) from nexus 5 into it and then compile it. but I think its better to look at the device spec of the note 3 since thats also a snapdragon800. and better samsung as vendor than LG obviously.
the rom itself doesn't support snapdragon 800 or not, it's mainly bionic that supports cortex a15, a9, which is the arch of the snapdragon 800.
the source for the kernel can be found at samsungs site. and this is where the actuall code is for the cpu and stuff.
but you will not get it working by copying files from the nexus 5 believe me. you need to compile it

broodplank1337
Any help with porting to I9506 is much appreciated. So thanks!

port from Note3 CM should be more reasonable coz its a samsung.
I dont make roms, dont blame me if i am wrong

Resurrection Remix ROM

HI I am not an Expert at building rom. I Really love Resurrection Remix ROM as it got most costimizable feature and extreme good battery and i am sure you would love it aswell and i got this rom on my nexus 5 and galaxy s3 so, i tried to port this rom From Oneplus one as it has similar specs but it didn't work after lots of try i cant build it i want to build it from source but i dont have computer with high specs and ubuntu os .( Even if i did build it from a source i wont be able to solve bug so no point)
So could any one please build this ROM For our device please .
about this rom: http://www.resurrectionremix.com
Source: https://github.com/ResurrectionRemix/platform_manifest/blob/kitkat1/README.mkdn
:good:Thank you :good:

[email protected] said:
HI I am not an Expert at building rom. I Really love Resurrection Remix ROM as it got most costimizable feature and extreme good battery and i am sure you would love it aswell and i got this rom on my nexus 5 and galaxy s3 so, i tried to port this rom From Oneplus one as it has similar specs but it didn't work after lots of try i cant build it i want to build it from source but i dont have computer with high specs and ubuntu os .( Even if i did build it from a source i wont be able to solve bug so no point)
So could any one please build this ROM For our device please .
about this rom: http://www.resurrectionremix.com
Source: https://github.com/ResurrectionRemix/platform_manifest/blob/kitkat1/README.mkdn
:good:Thank you :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, its realy good rom i use this rom on galaxy s3.
What specs need to build, I have ubuntu i can help.

you can build with any specs, all you need is a decent cpu and hdd (ssd not recomended)

Envious_Data said:
you can build with any specs, all you need is a decent cpu and hdd (ssd not recomended)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why ssd isnt recommend for build roms?

I find:
Operating system – Tested on Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10 and 13.10 (64-bit)
Terminal
Decent hardware (minimum of at least a dual core CPU and 4 GB of RAM)
Optimally have an SSD (standard mechanical drives work as well but slow down the process drastically)
Must have required packages for building installed, I will list them further down

PRO>KOMP.< said:
I find:
Operating system – Tested on Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10 and 13.10 (64-bit)
Terminal
Decent hardware (minimum of at least a dual core CPU and 4 GB of RAM)
Optimally have an SSD (standard mechanical drives work as well but slow down the process drastically)
Must have required packages for building installed, I will list them further down
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try using this guide
https://github.com/ResurrectionRemix/platform_manifest/blob/kitkat1/README.mkdn

Need help! Port Lollipop from tab 4 8 to tab 4 7

Hello everyone,
I would like to know if I can install a lollipop (original or custom) rom from the 8 inch tab 4 (sm330) on the 7 inch tab 4 (sm230) and flashing the kitkat kernel of the sm230 without bricking my device.
Correft me if I am wrong, but I believe they have the same hardware and I see no reason why it wouldn't work. I wonder why the 7 inch version is the only one of the tab 4 family that hasn't recceived a lollipop update yet (no official samsung rom and no custom rom).
So here are my questions:
Why can I not flash the sm330 rom on the sm230? (Tab 4 8 rom on tab 4 7)
If I want to try flashing the rom from the 8 inch version, is there anything more I need to flash? (Kernel, mod,...???)
Will the kernel from the kitkat 4.4.2 work on the lollipop rom? Or will it hard brick the device due to different partitioning?
I am ready to experiment and report the results here (such as potential bugs), as long as I don't get a my tablet bricked.
Thank you for reading and I look forward to some inputs from the community

It won't work, they have different chipsets

thisisapoorusernamechoice said:
It won't work, they have different chipsets
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for the quick reply, I checked the specs and you are right, Marvell chipset for the 7 inch against a Qualcomm chipset for the 8 and 10 inch versions.
But then, is there a device out there (regardless of what manufacturer) that is equipped with the same Marvell chipset and has lollipop? And how hard would it be to port it to the tab 4?
Where can I request this port? (Cyanogenmod, Paranoid-Android, or other rom developement teams?
Thank you in advance for any input

Elements1984 said:
Thank you very much for the quick reply, I checked the specs and you are right, Marvell chipset for the 7 inch against a Qualcomm chipset for the 8 and 10 inch versions.
But then, is there a device out there (regardless of what manufacturer) that is equipped with the same Marvell chipset and has lollipop? And how hard would it be to port it to the tab 4?
Where can I request this port? (Cyanogenmod, Paranoid-Android, or other rom developement teams?
Thank you in advance for any input
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's actually being worked on right now, over in this thread and it sounds like they're close to releasing something

thisisapoorusernamechoice said:
It's actually being worked on right now, over in this thread and it sounds like they're close to releasing something
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you again, your reply was extreamly helpful, I read all the posts of the thread you shared and it looks promising, although it will possibly have many bugs on the first builds once posted and one should not expect anything stable for at least a month or two after the first release.
I have been checking xda twice a week since 2 or 3 months hoping to see a lollipop release and I am glad to see that we are almost there
I am satisfied with the answer and will try to be patient for this release
But if you or anyone else has more information to share, please feel free to post it here
Have a wonderful day everyone

[Mediatek] [MT65xx] MT6595 support is dead now ?

Im using Infocus M530 [MT6595] i saw lots of that for MT65xx but only few is worked on MT6595. There is no specific guides for MT6595 for development etc and Mtkdroid,SP flash tool both also not work on my device. Only found "How To Root".Please Respective MTK devs do anything for MT6595 also n help others..
Thank You !
Sorry for my RIP english.

Hello Sahil Sir,
Lenovo vibe x2 is based on same procesor mt6595 and they just rolled out Android L update for their device, is it possible to port that rom on infocus m530 its also shares the same specs.
if it is possible kindly guide me i'll be highly thankfull for ur support.

snandan.gupta said:
Hello Sahil Sir,
Lenovo vibe x2 is based on same procesor mt6595 and they just rolled out Android L update for their device, is it possible to port that rom on infocus m530 its also shares the same specs.
if it is possible kindly guide me i'll be highly thankfull for ur support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Lenovo Vibe X2 is having same specifications as you said. I think it is possible to port that rom in Infocus M530 but, before that I want to say that the lenovo X2's L update is having some serious bugs. Please check it. And one more thing, in order to port you need custom recovery. Did ported any custom recovery into your M530. If yes, please let me know. Because I tried lot times & failed to port CWM & as well as TWRP.

No update for our device yet?
No custom rom,No recovery..... Is infocus m530 support dead?

shra1 said:
No custom rom,No recovery..... Is infocus m530 support dead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Since it is rooted you can directly write to the raw partitions for "flashing" a rom, thus no need for a recovery. But it is too dangerous. One tiny error would brick the device.

Jamesits said:
Nope. Since it is rooted you can directly write to the raw partitions for "flashing" a rom, thus no need for a recovery. But it is too dangerous. One tiny error would brick the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so better to buy a new phone than waiting for a os update...

I have a zopo zp999 (with a shattered screen so I'm back on ol' faithful - Galaxy Note 2 n7100)
The whole MT6595 I think suffered from being relatively closed source. Even though there was an ubuntu version of the mi3 I think and its source code released, other manufacturers didn't come to the party - like zopo.
Manufacturers are really their own worst enemy for slitting their own throats by being so restrictive with source.
It also might be partly associated with the MT6595 containing a PowerVR GPU.
Non-Mali (ARM) gpus tend to be more closed with their drivers too.
Whereas ARM have been releasing the drivers for their mali gpus for years now.
the MT6595 was the targeted at being a super-mid SoC. The top of its time. I think the last 32-bit CPU, and once the 64-bit MT697x cortex A57 & A53 based product well everyone lost interest really.
It's a good modem. They have a pretty good engineering mode - eg ability to choose LTE/HSPA frequencies.
beyond that... eh...