Database Users

[DEV] Kernel Compiling

Hi all! I'm not a dev but i really want to do something for this phone so i'm trying to build a custom kernel.... if anyone have tried the same report here the issue, i will do the same!

I have the pre-requisites for compiling a kernel set up. However I am more interested in getting ClockworkMod Recovery working on our phone as that will encourage developers and we can then start looking at getting CyanogenMod 7. I made a topic here asking for help but I haven't received any replies yet.

I have just compiled a kernel but it doesn't work.... this because - i think - i used the initramfs provided by leshak for the i9000.... now i'm trying to extract from phone......

Kernel
Hi Skin1980, I also compiled a (stock) Kernel two weeks ago - problem is, Samsung does not use the "normal" way of storing it in a boot.img file. That is why I wasn't able to push it to the phone or at least fastboot it. I would be glad to hear from you how exactly this is possible, if you find out.

XDA_Bam said:
Hi Skin1980, I also compiled a (stock) Kernel two weeks ago - problem is, Samsung does not use the "normal" way of storing it in a boot.img file. That is why I wasn't able to push it to the phone or at least fastboot it. I would be glad to hear from you how exactly this is possible, if you find out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used the redbend_ua you can find here to write zImage to bml7.... how do you do with initramfs that is missed when you build the kernel?

Skin1980 said:
I used the redbend_ua you can find here to write zImage to bml7.... how do you do with initramfs that is missed when you build the kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you managed to extract initramfs with redbend_ua?
If you don't mind, please take a look at this post. There is a step build/tools/device/mkvendor.sh device_manufacturer_name device_name /your/path/to/the/boot.img. Because Samsung doesn't use this boot.img building a recovery looks tricky. Any suggestions would help.

rb210 said:
Have you managed to extract initramfs with redbend_ua?
If you don't mind, please take a look at this post. There is a step build/tools/device/mkvendor.sh device_manufacturer_name device_name /your/path/to/the/boot.img. Because Samsung doesn't use this boot.img building a recovery looks tricky. Any suggestions would help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dumped the bml7 partition, i see that inside there's a zimage... but i'm not able to extract this f u c .......initramfs!!!!!

rb210 said:
Have you managed to extract initramfs with redbend_ua?
If you don't mind, please take a look at this post. There is a step build/tools/device/mkvendor.sh device_manufacturer_name device_name /your/path/to/the/boot.img. Because Samsung doesn't use this boot.img building a recovery looks tricky. Any suggestions would help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and if we can find the initramfs i think that is not difficult to modify the recovery to allow unsigned zip files installation

Perhaps, we could use parts of the following method:
h**p://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack%2C_Edit%2C_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images
To extract the ramdisk from the boot.img, they do the following:
Then, look for a bunch of zeroes followed by the hex 1F 8B (which is the magic number of a gzip file). Copy everything from the first line of the file, through the zeroes, and stopping at the 1F 8B. That is the kernel. Everything from the 1F 8B through the end is the ramdisk. You could save each of these files separately. In order to see the contents of the ramdisk, you need to un-gzip it and then un-cpio it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that we don't have a boot.img, but we do have an image including kernel and ramdisk - this should be very similar. And if you can locate the named headers in the file, the extraction should work. Further info and some useful commands can be found behind the link.
Sadly, I won't have time to try this before next weekend...

XDA_Bam said:
Perhaps, we could use parts of the following method:
h**p://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack%2C_Edit%2C_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images
To extract the ramdisk from the boot.img, they do the following:
I know that we don't have a boot.img, but we do have an image including kernel and ramdisk - this should be very similar. And if you can locate the named headers in the file, the extraction should work. Further info and some useful commands can be found behind the link.
Sadly, I won't have time to try this before next weekend...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which file are you referring to? I have some time, I can give it a shot.
EDIT: I found "initramfs.c" and its object file "initramfs.o" under GT-I9003_Kernel/kernel/Kernel/init from the Samsung opensource tarball. Don't think that helps us though.

@rb210: I mean the dumped bml7 partition. It's an image of a partition with a kernel and ramdisk in it, or did I misunderstand something?
PS: You could try "SGS kernel flasher" from the market. It's got a backup option - look if it does produce the same image of the bml7 partition (I tried it, it did a backup image of around 8MB on my SGSL, which is about the size of bml7, as far as I remember). It would be faster and easier to carry out than using a script.

XDA_Bam said:
@rb210: I mean the dumped bml7 partition. It's an image of a partition with a kernel and ramdisk in it, or did I misunderstand something?
PS: You could try "SGS kernel flasher" from the market. It's got a backup option - look if it does produce the same image of the bml7 partition (I tried it, it did a backup image of around 8MB on my SGSL, which is about the size of bml7, as far as I remember). It would be faster and easier to carry out than using a script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But ramdisk=initramfs?

XDA_Bam said:
@rb210: I mean the dumped bml7 partition. It's an image of a partition with a kernel and ramdisk in it, or did I misunderstand something?
PS: You could try "SGS kernel flasher" from the market. It's got a backup option - look if it does produce the same image of the bml7 partition (I tried it, it did a backup image of around 8MB on my SGSL, which is about the size of bml7, as far as I remember). It would be faster and easier to carry out than using a script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah I see what you mean. I was trying to figure out how to extract the initramfs from the opensource package from the Samsung website. I figure if they're providing the kernel and platform, there's got to be an initramfs somewhere. You'll are talking about trying to extract it from inside the phone itself.
I'm still not sure how this is going to fit in with porting Clockworkmod as per that method in the blog post because it's still an initramfs and not a boot.img. Getting custom recovery is vital to attracting development for this phone, we should not make the mistake of overlooking this.

Tools for extract initramfs from a zImage : https://github.com/project-voodoo/kernel_repack_utils

Problems Unpacking/Packing kernel

Hi!
I am trying to create a custom kernel for my Galaxy Note 3. I have successfully modified and built the kernel. Now I want to actually test it. I've searched for possible methods to create a boot.img file from my zImage. I've tried
mkbootimg and unmkbootimg
kernel kitchen
I was able to create a boot.img with both methods and both of them failed to boot. I thought I messed up the kernel, BUT then I tried to just unpack a stock boot.img and repack it again - and this also failed with both methods.
Seeing as there are already people who made custom kernels for the Note 3, I'm wondering what I am doing wrong. Also I'm a bit new to this, that may also be a factor. Could someone possibly give a hint what might be going awry? Will of course provide additional information, if required.
Edit: nevermind that, found out I need Snapdragon 800 patched mkbootimg tools. found binary versions of them on github (Can't post link because I'm a new user). unsure where the source code is though.

Fix Slimbean 3.1 Hardware/Virtual Keyboard problem (update.zip w/o atcmd_virtual_kbd)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=44680433&highlight=keyboard#post44680433
Slimbean 3.1 build is very functional for GT540 - thanks. I do not know if the Cyanogenmod 10 build is affected by the problem described in above post as well. But here is
GT540_Slimbean_Build1_kbd_fix.zip
Simply use ClockWorkMod (CWM) and install this zip AFTER Slimbean 3.1 was installed.
It will fix the "soft keyboard not showing up" problem, since the kernel is built without atcmd_virtual_kbd.
Also, CIFS and TUN are compiled into kernel (not as module, but statically linked in).
For more information see the contents of directory README/ within the zip file, which contains everything you need to reproduce what I've done.
Thanks for hitting thanks.
Cheers
cmuelle8
ps: Thanks to miroslav_mm for having been so thoughtful to include /proc/config.gz option. You'd think this is standard among open developers, but unfortunately it is not. I've seen tons of kernels without config.gz compiled in, which is a pain..
EDIT: You do NOT need to wipe cache/data to apply this, as it just exchanges boot.img, nothing else. If you lack CWM on the phone you can also extract the contained boot.img and push it with fastboot. This alternative method is documented in this forum, search for fastboot and boot.img ..

[Utility] Android Image Kitchen & Flasher APK

Hi all , I'm new here and I would like to present to you this simple application which backup, edit, repack and flash kernel.img or recovery img with a single click.
This apk need root.
All credit of unpak/repack tools used in my apk are to @osm0sis

atoxyd said:
Hi all , I'm new here and I would like to present to you this simple application which backup, edit, repack and flash kernel.img or recovery img with a single click.
This apk need root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can I use this on snapdragon 615 stock kernel
Sent from my 6045X using Tapatalk

Yes, you can try

tested on htc desire 816, cm13
unpacks and repacks kernel and ramdisk successfully, but didn't extract or repack the dtbs (device tables image, kernel 3.4) so the repacked image won't boot.

Well I use in my apk AIK.mobile tools proposed by osm0sis.

atoxyd said:
Well I use in my apk AIK.mobile tools proposed by osm0sis.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://github.com/osm0sis/AnyKernel2/ ?
from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2670512

bigsupersquid said:
tested on htc desire 816, cm13
unpacks and repacks kernel and ramdisk successfully, but didn't extract or repack the dtbs (device tables image, kernel 3.4) so the repacked image won't boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I test it on cm13 and I unpack recovery.img for HTC desire 816, I think it work fine.
If the apk didn't work properly that's means the boot image doesn't not following Google's standard format so you'll need to find other tools to unpack and edit your image.

atoxyd said:
Hi, I test it on cm13 and I unpack recovery.img for HTC desire 816, I think it work fine.
If the apk didn't work properly that's means the boot image doesn't not following Google's standard format so you'll need to find other tools to unpack and edit your image.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can unpack, edit, and repack successfully.
but, it wont boot.
I used official twrp 3.0.0-0 recovery.img and cm13 boot.img both, tried without editing.
just unpack/repack/flash.
boots straight into hboot, which is what happens if I build a boot.img or recovery.img without dtbs.
I pointed to the anykernel2 link because I know its scripting handles dtbs.
the whole kernel device table thing is new to me, and so far only on this device, so I'm not very savvy with dtb work. been lucky enough that it was preconfigured in the build system for cm.

nero curin said:
can I use this on snapdragon 615 stock kernel
Sent from my 6045X using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, did my apk work for you?

atoxyd said:
Hi, did my apk work for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
only unpacking and repacking,didnt help on my device but yet again nothing else helps me compile kernel for this idol 3 so i guess this app works just not for me, bad luck :/
Sent from my 6045X using Tapatalk

Well, this is a beta version of my apk, only for testing, I use @osm0sis tools ,this doesn't mean that you have bad luck my friend, this is due to the limitation of @osm0sis tools, but I will find another way to make it universal apk. Okay

atoxyd said:
Well, this is a beta version of my apk, only for testing, I use @osm0sis tools ,this doesn't mean that you have bad luck my friend, this is due to the limitation of @osm0sis tools, but I will find another way to make it universal apk. Okay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The scope of my tools is for Google's Android image standard as defined in the bootimg.h header from AOSP/CM. My tool forks have the widest support available for images which are standards compliant, supporting all commonly used ramdisk compression formats.
Supporting Sony's ELF, MTK's labeled and Samsung's headerless image formats along with the standard images (not to mention Samsung's and others' various deviations based on the standard header) and having the script/app differentiate between them would be a very large and difficult undertaking indeed. If that's your plan then I wish you the best of luck in your efforts.

hey, ran more tests.
no issues with the dtb or other functions either.
backup and flash functions working fine too.
here, for your devices.xml
Code:
<!-- Desire 816 a5 (710C) added by bigsupersquid -->
<device>
<model>710C</model>
<kernel>/dev/block/mmcblk0p40</kernel>
<recovery>/dev/block/mmcblk0p41</recovery>
<cache>/dev/block/mmcblk0p42</cache>
</device>
thanks for your work.
eagerly awaiting your open source as well

atoxyd said:
Hi all , I'm new here and I would like to present to you this simple application which backup, edit, repack and flash kernel.img or recovery img with a single click.
This apk need root.
All credit of unpak/repack tools used in my apk are to @osm0sis
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for adding the appropriate credit back to your post. Patching, cross-compiling and scripting has taken significant work. :good:
The only other thing that I'd ask is that you do not use the name of Android Image Kitchen or AIK in the title of your app. I'd like to suggest maybe "Image Editor and Flasher" as a snappy alternative?

bigsupersquid said:
hey, ran more tests.
no issues with the dtb or other functions either.
backup and flash functions working fine too.
here, for your devices.xml
Code:
<!-- Desire 816 a5 (710C) added by bigsupersquid -->
<device>
<model>710C</model>
<kernel>/dev/block/mmcblk0p40</kernel>
<recovery>/dev/block/mmcblk0p41</recovery>
<cache>/dev/block/mmcblk0p42</cache>
</device>
thanks for your work.
eagerly awaiting your open source as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you my friend , you are the only one who supported me , and from the beginning.

atoxyd said:
Thank you my friend , you are the only one who supported me , and from the beginning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's a useful project, definitely worth a little testing and feedback.
besides, i remember what a pain it was getting my xda account eligible for posting the project i was all gung-ho about sharing (optimus v boot from sd card if i remember correctly)
sharing is cool, but a lot of the feedback tends to be annoying when there's no logs or other usable information, just "it's broken" or "can you implement for me on device XYZ."

bigsupersquid said:
I can unpack, edit, and repack successfully.
but, it wont boot.
I used official twrp 3.0.0-0 recovery.img and cm13 boot.img both, tried without editing.
just unpack/repack/flash.
boots straight into hboot, which is what happens if I build a boot.img or recovery.img without dtbs.
I pointed to the anykernel2 link because I know its scripting handles dtbs.
the whole kernel device table thing is new to me, and so far only on this device, so I'm not very savvy with dtb work. been lucky enough that it was preconfigured in the build system for cm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you have an unlocked bootloader ?

nothing changed on the device, unlocked and still s-on, I'm not sure what went wrong the first try.
PEBKAC error probably
(problem exists between keyboard and chair)

I release AIK&Flasher v2 , I use @xiaolu unpack/repack tools.

atoxyd said:
I release AIK&Flasher v2 , I use @xiaolu unpack/repack tools.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please use a different name for your app as I have requested.

Building arm64 kernel for Galaxy S7 Edge (SM-G935F) question.

Hello,
First of all, im new to android modding and linux. I tried to build a kernel from stock G935FXXU1BPH6 source based on their readme file. My problem is, I don't have a zImage file after build that I could put into a flashable zip. I only have Image and Image.gz (I guess thats normal for arm64 kernels?) and I don't know how to make them flashable. I found a youtube video where the dude placed the Image file in a directory called "tools" in his flashable zip, I tried it and TWRP said I installed it successfully but when I start up my phone and check kernel version its still the previous one not mine.
Used this toolchain: aarch64-linux-android-4.9/bin/aarch64-linux-android-
I've set up CROSS_COMPILE path, then I set up configuration:
make ARCH=arm64 exynos8890-hero2lte_defconfig
make menuconfig (to tweak it a little bit more, like custom kernel version string so I can see if it worked)
Then I started build:
make ARCH=arm64
Output when build finished:
>>>>> Time used for generated all hashes is 6 sec
OBJCOPY arch/arm64/boot/Image
GZIP arch/arm64/boot/Image.gz
DTC arch/arm64/boot/dts/exynos8890-smdk8890.dtb
DTC arch/arm64/boot/dts/exynos8890-universal8890.dtb
Anyone knows how could I make it flashable? Thanks.

keezay said:
Hello,
First of all, im new to android modding and linux. I tried to build a kernel from stock G935FXXU1BPH6 source based on their readme file. My problem is, I don't have a zImage file after build that I could put into a flashable zip. I only have Image and Image.gz (I guess thats normal for arm64 kernels?) and I don't know how to make them flashable. I found a youtube video where the dude placed the Image file in a directory called "tools" in his flashable zip, I tried it and TWRP said I installed it successfully but when I start up my phone and check kernel version its still the previous one not mine.
Used this toolchain: aarch64-linux-android-4.9/bin/aarch64-linux-android-
I've set up CROSS_COMPILE path, then I set up configuration:
make ARCH=arm64 exynos8890-hero2lte_defconfig
make menuconfig (to tweak it a little bit more, like custom kernel version string so I can see if it worked)
Then I started build:
make ARCH=arm64
Output when build finished:
>>>>> Time used for generated all hashes is 6 sec
OBJCOPY arch/arm64/boot/Image
GZIP arch/arm64/boot/Image.gz
DTC arch/arm64/boot/dts/exynos8890-smdk8890.dtb
DTC arch/arm64/boot/dts/exynos8890-universal8890.dtb
Anyone knows how could I make it flashable? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This particular chipset (64-bit Exynos) uses the uncompressed Image and a separate dtb.img file made from combining all the dtb revisions of your device codename and region into a DTBH format.
You can flash them using my LazyFlasher project.
See: https://github.com/jcadduono/lazyflasher
You will want to use the kernel-flasher branch. The kernel-flasher-samsung branch isn't fully ready and adds additional patch files to remove TIMA/Knox. I've yet to find out everything that needs to be changed from stock state to allow a bootable custom kernel without disabling encryption, unfortunately.
You can simply git clone it, then place your Image and optionally dtb.img in the root folder of the repository, then type "make" to build a TWRP flashable zip. They will be dynamically replaced in the current boot image on the device when the zip is flashed. You can check out the README.md for more info.
If you want to generate your own dtb.img to include in the installer, you can use a script I made from my universal8890 kernel sources on GitHub:
https://github.com/jcadduono/android_kernel_samsung_universal8890/blob/stock-6.0/dtbgen.sh
(correct the toolchain location for your build in the script)
It also requires the scripts/dtbTool folder (from the same git linked above) to be present in your repository. It's not the same as the Qualcomm dtbTool, and the sources are included (and fairly clean!) if you're interested in learning the Exynos dtb.img (DTBH) format.
./dtbgen.sh hero2lte xx
Now, there's still quite a bit that needs to be done to make the device actually boot successfully and be stable with a custom kernel. While the kernel is perfectly stable, the Samsung customized Android OS will absolutely freak out. That's a bit beyond me, and the reason I haven't really worked on any custom kernels for it myself.
Have fun!

jcadduono said:
This particular chipset (64-bit Exynos) uses the uncompressed Image and a separate dtb.img file made from combining all the dtb revisions of your device codename and region into a DTBH format.
You can flash them using my LazyFlasher project.
See: https://github.com/jcadduono/lazyflasher
You will want to use the kernel-flasher branch. The kernel-flasher-samsung branch isn't fully ready and adds additional patch files to remove TIMA/Knox. I've yet to find out everything that needs to be changed from stock state to allow a bootable custom kernel without disabling encryption, unfortunately.
You can simply git clone it, then place your Image and optionally dtb.img in the root folder of the repository, then type "make" to build a TWRP flashable zip. They will be dynamically replaced in the current boot image on the device when the zip is flashed. You can check out the README.md for more info.
If you want to generate your own dtb.img to include in the installer, you can use a script I made from my universal8890 kernel sources on GitHub:
https://github.com/jcadduono/android_kernel_samsung_universal8890/blob/stock-6.0/dtbgen.sh
(correct the toolchain location for your build in the script)
It also requires the scripts/dtbTool folder (from the same git linked above) to be present in your repository. It's not the same as the Qualcomm dtbTool, and the sources are included (and fairly clean!) if you're interested in learning the Exynos dtb.img (DTBH) format.
./dtbgen.sh hero2lte xx
Now, there's still quite a bit that needs to be done to make the device actually boot successfully and be stable with a custom kernel. While the kernel is perfectly stable, the Samsung customized Android OS will absolutely freak out. That's a bit beyond me, and the reason I haven't really worked on any custom kernels for it myself.
Have fun!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much!

@jcadduono couldn't make the kernel boot after packing it with lazyflasher. I built a completely stock kernel from the mentioned source, pasted the "Image" (not the Image.gz) file in lazyflasher root and then used make command. Tried including "exynos8890-smdk8890.dtb" file as well. Same story. Not sure if I need anything else in the package or I made user mistake. Do you have any ideas how could I debug what makes it stuck on that screen?
Thanks!
EDIT: Solved Problem.

keezay said:
@jcadduono couldn't make the kernel boot after packing it with lazyflasher. I built a completely stock kernel from the mentioned source, pasted the "Image" (not the Image.gz) file in lazyflasher root and then used make command. Tried including "exynos8890-smdk8890.dtb" file as well. Same story. Not sure if I need anything else in the package or I made user mistake. Do you have any ideas how could I debug what makes it stuck on that screen?
Thanks!
EDIT: Solved Problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you help me set up an environment to build a kernel, arm64, for s7? I'm on Ubuntu having a heel of a time..

Galaxy S7 Edge Kernel Flashing Issues
I am currently trying to flash a different kernel into a galaxy s7 edge (SM-G935S).
I have gone as far as building a kernel and extracting a Image file from it, but every time I try flashing a boot.img with a replaced kernel image file, it seems to never work.
A mkbootimg tool that I am currently using requires a dtb file, but I cannot find where to get it from.
I have tried using @jcadduono's git code, but the dtb file created from it doesn't seem to work as well.
Can anyone tell me what I should do to flash a kernel successfully?

kernel panic after flashing
Hi @ll,
with this guide I was able to compile my own kernel and also flashing it to my phone. Unfortunatelly I'm getting kernel panic after rebooting the phone. is there any possibility to get the reason for this? Or do you have any hint, what I may have done wrong?
Thanks for your help.
Kind regards
v0ti