Hi just asking if anyone knows any links or archives or anything i can read through, im looking to build my own ROM. any help would be much appreciated and dont mind donating to someone that can help me start to learn.
Thanks
Well, first of all you need to be able to compile Android. This is pretty easy and it's explained directly in the developers google website. If you're not running a Nexus One or a Nexus S, you can't actually compile a working android copy for your own phone "as is" from AOSP. Because of this, you firstly need to change / create some dirs and files in order to add the support for your particular device. I'd start searching on CM repositories for this (I've got the Nexus One and thus I don't have such problems).
After you've compiled Android for your device and your changes (for example root), you'll have some disk images (you can find them all under out/target/product/PHONE_MODEL/, they are the .img files). You can directly flash them via fastboot ("fastboot flash boot boot.img" etc.). You can though create an update.zip file, and this can be made extracting the system.img file in a folder. Remember that you'll have to recreate the symlinks (to toolbox and/or busybox if you want to include it in your build) and set permissions, as zip doesn't save the permissions of the files once compressed.
Thus so far, if you succeed making every single step you should have your ROM on your phone
I just wanted to remind everyone that sometimes what keeps a phones community/ROM selection going can be as simple as changing whats in a rom, you don't have to be a developer to do that!
In the sense of the backups, like how CM7 and MIUI are installed a person can simply edit either the stock system.img or the cm7/miui system.imgs... theyr'e basically zip files... but you have to extract them a special way!
for someone who is using a windows box they need to install Cygwin and get unyaffs.exe... Cygwin, will emulate linux support, so if you're willing to learn linux lets just do this all at once! (Go download ubuntu or something!)
W/ Cygwin installed you put unyaffs.exe cygwin1.dll in the same folder as system.img and type something along the lines of unyaffs system.img system
Google for a more clear guide, I'll look soon...
But if you can unpack system, change the launcher, maybe some sounds, later learn to unpack the framework-res.apk via apktool(for themes!)
Anyway t's not a hard process, you need to get them put into update.zips afterwords (Which is more script work we'll get to that later...)
for now, if anyone wants to;
_Install cygwin,
_Extract System.img
_Change it up.
_Pack system.img (Unsure what tool, yaffs?)
_Test by restoring backup via custom recovery on the phone!
_Create update.zip
I believe that would be a great thing for someone who wants to learn or doesn't think they can learn, to do... I honestly got distracted somewhere around step 3 and have wandered off to play with all sorts of other things!
Great starter tutorial...
And also don't forget to ask people... I prefer posting over pm so everyone can read and learn
You can also set up cygwin on your windows computer and use dxhidia kitchen to build roms
If you edit any scripts use notepad++ if your not on Linux as it keeps the integrity of the script.
The great thing is this phone is hard to brick so if you mess up Judy sbf back to stock
Sent from my MB520 using XDA App
Now that I am getting a new phone (T-Mobile MyTouch 4G) I can learn this stuff and not be too afraid of breaking my phone. Thanks for this post... this will be a fun phone to work with
Sent from my MB525 using XDA App
OK . We all i believe find it chaotic to organize in forums now. So this is a thread just for ideas and problem with cwm or twrp on our device.
All that i have found now is that recovery.img is somehow backed with boot.img. So i have to ask if there is any developer that can look inside this.
Help appreciated. We (developers) have already compiled TWRP and CWM ( me via ubuntu and clockworkmod recovery builder) and none of them is booting.
You might want to look at xperia p boot.img??? Same processor u8500 same screen size. I'm a noob. Just said what I felt. Coming from xperia device where our recoveries are always packed inside boot.img
In ramdisk . /sbin/recovery is where our recovery binary is present.
#pitchblack5691#
thanks for help ! i will definetely looo for it
Might be useful
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2020895
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1903017
#pitchblack5691#
also coming from xperia forum and for My xperia U and have also novathor u8500 and i have asked dev to explain mothod used in XU for port this method to GIII mini but no reply from him now in XU the recovery are in tar and flashable to phone without odin or another flash only by ADB + run me script in commande window inside recovery tar we have unziped recovery ( icone ....) and some files relative to phone ( fstab ..... )
How is it going? Did everyone stop developing or are you guys just moving in silence trying to figure things out?
Sent thru time and space from my s3mini.
silently moving
Shapeshift said:
silently moving
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know! Give us a shout if we can help somehow.
currently working on cwm 6. dont know why i cant boot
Perhaps need to no only make recovery but also kernel ?
If this 2 filz run together
Sent from my GT-I8190 using xda app-developers app
From what I understand, You just need to write a piece of code in the ramdisk init files to execute the recovery during boot. No need to modify the kernel.
#pitchblack5691#
If any one is interested i got a dumped ram disk also a got it rebuild-ed,
and yes the recovery scripts are there plus the pngs etc.
I also believe that the device has 2 recovery's, they are the same one just acts as a backup.
is an idea
i explain when you make recovery and extract it you find some files inside ( fstab , RC , init , propr ...
now we have also one with CM device info the device have not CM rom and also have not CM kernel her why i posted this comment because when you extract stock recovey you find kernel part and when you extract boot.img find recovery part now this 2 files perhaps have dependency to work together ? is an idea do not yell at me :silly:
spawk said:
is an idea
i explain when you make recovery and extract it you find some files inside ( fstab , RC , init , propr ...
now we have also one with CM device info the device have not CM rom and also have not CM kernel her why i posted this comment because when you extract stock recovey you find kernel part and when you extract boot.img find recovery part now this 2 files perhaps have dependency to work together ? is an idea do not yell at me :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They had the internet in 1969?
Take your time. We have root and what roms we have are stable.
Sent from Spaceball One.
Hahaha!
Sent thru time and space from my s3mini.
xd the error is not from me haha i have corect date and time
is new technologie hahahaha retoure backwards in android
and if you see here you can read need new builded kernel to make CWM just read thread 2# and 3# http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1771347
Help ful apps find on playstore this apps need busybox 2.1 and rooted rom and he let you backup your rom but without boot.img and recovery.img but bacup all system data ..... here is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pommedeterresautee.twoborange3
spawk said:
Help ful apps find on playstore this apps need busybox 2.1 and rooted rom and he let you backup your rom but without boot.img and recovery.img but bacup all system data ..... here is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pommedeterresautee.twoborange3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sent info about device to that developer. That app is now supporting our golden for full backup incl boot & recovery.img with .zip from here. Only problem is we dont have a working custom recovery to flash that .zip with :/
as Faria wrote above should change the recovery that is in the kernel and the same meter and the same rom in it and in the kernel for which you go just tell me that the two are complementary if a move (size , addition, retirees), the other answers are more about the two is that one feature that the other is that we will say to his control as .
now change I believe that both will adjust in any case theoretically
Hello Moto
I've just downloaded Verizon Jelly Bean 4.1.1 by "Firmware Team".
Just to play with it a little, extract apks and test them on Galaxy SII Skyrocket.
The thing is i'm having a hard time opening system.img.
Now i've tried LinuxReader, Unyaffs and ext2explore/read but none of these can open it, they all say that it's an unrecognized image.
Do you guys know how to properly open a stock moto System.img?
lingowistico said:
Hello Moto
I've just downloaded Verizon Jelly Bean 4.1.1 by "Firmware Team".
Just to play with it a little, extract apks and test them on Galaxy SII Skyrocket.
The thing is i'm having a hard time opening system.img.
Now i've tried LinuxReader, Unyaffs and ext2explore/read but none of these can open it, they all say that it's an unrecognized image.
Do you guys know how to properly open a stock moto System.img?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google for a tool called simg2img (I used the python script that appears in get first few results, there should be other versions as well). That will unpack the image into a plain ext4 image that you can mount with any Linux pc (I recommend using a virtual machine if you have windows or mac).
Happy hacking!
Sent from my XT907
aslomagic, did you try this with the firmware lingowistico is talking about? I also tried before to unpack system.img from this package, and system.img.ext4 from ICS package, and another ICS soft for XT897, and all of them give "Bad magic" error in simg2img. All of those softs are published by the same "Firmware Team" - maybe that's the case? I also tried dsixda kitchen (which also uses simg2img, but anyway...) and it also didn't work. Might be also some custom Motorola's approach to system.img....
Could you possibly help? Thanks.
micx_pl said:
aslomagic, did you try this with the firmware lingowistico is talking about? I also tried before to unpack system.img from this package, and system.img.ext4 from ICS package, and another ICS soft for XT897, and all of them give "Bad magic" error in simg2img. All of those softs are published by the same "Firmware Team" - maybe that's the case? I also tried dsixda kitchen (which also uses simg2img, but anyway...) and it also didn't work. Might be also some custom Motorola's approach to system.img....
Could you possibly help? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I know for a fact that those images are packed ext4, but I haven't tried specifically with that one.
Now that you mention, I think I remember signed images (like those ones) have some additional header, maybe that needs to be removed with an hex editor, or with dd of you like
If I get a chance, I'll try and report back...
Sent from my XT907
aslomagic said:
Well, I know for a fact that those images are packed ext4, but I haven't tried specifically with that one.
Now that you mention, I think I remember signed images (like those ones) have some additional header, maybe that needs to be removed with an hex editor, or with dd of you like
If I get a chance, I'll try and report back...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I tried, and yes, it complains it cannot find the magic (again, I'm using the python script). I modified the script to look for the magic value in the first 50Mb of the file, and if it finds it, it starts unpacking from there. Python scripts are very easy to play with
It seems to work for me, but I don't have a linux vm handy to see if it mounts correctly (I'm currently on a mac). micx_pl, can you give it a try and let me know?
I had to zip the file even though it's very small because the forum won't let me upload a .py file... who knows, just unzip it.
Holy cow! It works! You're the master I was looking for such solution everywhere, and was stunned to see barely few topics with similar problem, and no solution at all. Thanks!
micx_pl said:
Holy cow! It works! You're the master I was looking for such solution everywhere, and was stunned to see barely few topics with similar problem, and no solution at all. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome, glad I could help!
Sent from my XT907
aslomagic said:
Ok, I tried, and yes, it complains it cannot find the magic (again, I'm using the python script). I modified the script to look for the magic value in the first 50Mb of the file, and if it finds it, it starts unpacking from there. Python scripts are very easy to play with
It seems to work for me, but I don't have a linux vm handy to see if it mounts correctly (I'm currently on a mac). micx_pl, can you give it a try and let me know?
I had to zip the file even though it's very small because the forum won't let me upload a .py file... who knows, just unzip it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HOLY $#!+ THANKS!!! I've been trying to decompress the moto images for awhile and have never been able to do it until now
Would it be possible to modify make_ext4fs to re-sparse the image and copy the original signature?
Q9Nap said:
Would it be possible to modify make_ext4fs to re-sparse the image and copy the original signature?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome to try ... my guess is that it could be made to work if the image was an official, originally signed image that was unpacked by the script above or equivalent, but if you want to modify it, re-pack it and re-attach the signature, most likely the signature won't match the content. But I may be wrong, so if somebody is willing to try, best of luck to you
If your goal is just to create a packed image, but not necessarily signed (needs bootloader unlock), then I'd say it's definitely possible, search around here.
aslomagic said:
You're welcome to try ... my guess is that it could be made to work if the image was an official, originally signed image that was unpacked by the script above or equivalent, but if you want to modify it, re-pack it and re-attach the signature, most likely the signature won't match the content. But I may be wrong, so if somebody is willing to try, best of luck to you
If your goal is just to create a packed image, but not necessarily signed (needs bootloader unlock), then I'd say it's definitely possible, search around here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm sure you're right about the signature not working on a modified image; it was just wishful thinking. the idea of course would be to inject superuser.apk and su, which wouldn't be necessary on a bootloader unlocked device.
for bootloader unlocked devices though, the ability to repack a modified image does give you another way to build custom roms. here's the code to unpack and repack images with simg2img.py and make_ext4fs:
Code:
mkdir system
./simg2img.py system.img.ext4 system.raw
sudo mount -t ext4 -o loop system.raw system/
#make changes, then:
wc -c system.raw #lists size in bytes of system.raw
sudo make_ext4fs -s -l 1234567890 -a system system.img system/ #where 1234567890 is output from wc -c
sudo umount system
rm -rf system
i've used this proecess with samsung system images, should work for moto images now too (bootloader unlocked, of course)
Yep, it's a good cheat sheet reference
Besides, on razr m and hd at least, you can also use this with safestrap without unlocking the bootloader.
aslomagic said:
Besides, on razr m and hd at least, you can also use this with safestrap without unlocking the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what you mean by this; do you mean you could mount a modified system.img with safestrap? I guess it's possible since safestrap uses a system.img on the emmc, interesting idea
Q9Nap said:
Not sure what you mean by this; do you mean you could mount a modified system.img with safestrap? I guess it's possible since safestrap uses a system.img on the emmc, interesting idea
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's what I mean, more or less. You don't need safestrap to just mount it (use the terminal and "mount"), but you can use it to boot from it and try it.
I did this to try the Telstra image that pjcons dumped, which is pre-rooted and not signed (there it's no official signed image to date), and with a few tricks it worked without me having to unlock the bootloader.
Sent from my XT907
aslomagic said:
Google for a tool called simg2img (I used the python script that appears in get first few results, there should be other versions as well). That will unpack the image into a plain ext4 image that you can mount with any Linux pc (I recommend using a virtual machine if you have windows or mac).
Happy hacking!
Sent from my XT907
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hello, i cant find anything on the basics of how this works, could you point me somewhere that explains it step by step or do one here. sorry of the noob question
TheWhiteChallenger said:
hello, i cant find anything on the basics of how this works, could you point me somewhere that explains it step by step or do one here. sorry of the noob question
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1588461
CNexus said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1588461
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link I need to go learn Linux now. Lol I dontbgt the virtual machine thing at all. Its basically a Linux emulator right?
Sent from my XT1080 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
TheWhiteChallenger said:
Thanks for the link I need to go learn Linux now. Lol I dontbgt the virtual machine thing at all. Its basically a Linux emulator right?
Sent from my XT1080 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to
http://sourceforge.net/projects/androidicsjbext/
CNexus said:
No need to
http://sourceforge.net/projects/androidicsjbext/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh damn it. ok first i do appreciate the help. but that sucked. that was the frist program i tryed and it gives me "unknown file format" have i just been screwing up from the begining?
I believe the next step for the Droid Turbo are system images.
With MofoRoot, the next goal is to create a system image that is lollipop 5.1 and has root.
I've only flashed system images that were created up to this point but I'd be interested in learning how to take apart a system image and go as far as changing/manipulating it have wifi tether and root. Anyone have any good suggestions on where to start learning?
I plan to collect what I discover in this thread.
windraver said:
I believe the next step for the Droid Turbo are system images.
With MofoRoot, the next goal is to create a system image that is lollipop 5.1 and has root.
I've only flashed system images that were created up to this point but I'd be interested in learning how to take apart a system image and go as far as changing/manipulating it have wifi tether and root. Anyone have any good suggestions on where to start learning?
I plan to collect what I discover in this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will need a different kernel to work with a 5.1 or 5.0 system image. We cannot flash a kernel with this method yet just system images.
Right, so the only thing we can do are modified "roms" based on stock. Can't flash recovery or kernel since those are on separate partitions.
This tool, yaffy, might be of some help. I'm downloading it now to see if it works...
timmyk465 said:
This tool, yaffy, might be of some help. I'm downloading it now to see if it works...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not going to work. You need to mount an ext4 image which is not what that tool is designed for. I'm currently doing so by using Linux and mounting the image as a loop device. I can create a guide for doing so if there's demand.
Ekkoria said:
Not going to work. You need to mount an ext4 image. I'm currently doing so by using Linux and mounting the image as a loop device. I can create a guide for doing so if there's demand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd definitely be interested in a guide. I just wish there was a tool for windows that would work.
You can do it on windows but it's way easier on Linux.
I'm gonna get Linux back up and running and see what I can cook up.
Ekkoria said:
Not going to work. You need to mount an ext4 image which is not what that tool is designed for. I'm currently doing so by using Linux and mounting the image as a loop device. I can create a guide for doing so if there's demand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All I want to do is build a flashable img with a modified hosts file. I've found a guide for mounting the image as a loop (which Ive done....) the issue Im running into is changing permissions to be able to actually edit the file once its mounted.
Guess I'll read more and keep tinkering..
ntxct said:
All I want to do is build a flashable img with a modified hosts file. I've found a guide for mounting the image as a loop (which Ive done....) the issue Im running into is changing permissions to be able to actually edit the file once its mounted.
Guess I'll read more and keep tinkering..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Open your file manager as root, then open the file.
---------- Post added at 11:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 PM ----------
I wrote up and posted a quick guide (which probably sucks) for this purpose.