I want to create my own custom rom, so I searched for noob friendly tutorials. But in every video and tutorial, they edit something in the system folder inside the flashable zip. I have downloded the Lineage OS, build from here , but there is no system folder inside? Show hiddenfiles is active. Can someone help me?
This phone uses a payload.bin package so it's completely different because of the A/B partitions
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Hello all,
I am looking for a good comprehensive guide to creating my own .zip files to flash certain changes I like to make when flashing a rom or just adding files.
Now I have found a few good guides here on XDA but they seem to no longer apply as the update script needs to be in edify and not amend. This is the issue I am having so if anyone can point me to a walk through that explains this type of thing I would appreciate it.
Anyone?
lol, i dont think developers/people-with-knowledge would go into a Q&A sub-forum .
I'm neither on of them, however here is my would-be-successful attempt p) :
1- Make all your modifications and finalize them, the root folder must be /system/ .
2- use apktool to recompile as an apk (apktool b system)
3- sign that .apk.
4- rename extension to zip and violla
theoretically, it should work.
Not shure if this can help you, but i created a zip (original Script is from dungphp) to replace files on my device from CWM:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1241244
These are the steps explaining you how to create a custom firmware based on the SmartQ firmware releases.
Warning : Creating a firmware and changing the files may cause your device to stop working, I won't be held responsible for any damage caused by this.
Creating a firmware file is actually very easy, not much is involved and nothing more than some basic software is required to create the files. If you don't understand the steps below than maybe you shouldn't fiddle around with this and wait for other members to create these.
There is nothing explained here about the flashing itself, as I will create a seperate How-To about that with pictures explaining the steps of the recovery.
Also there is nothing explained about kernel building itself, I have no clue how to do that and I'll leave that up to SmartQ.
Use the instructions below to make your own Firmware file with the software you want in it and make all configuration changes you want.
1. If you haven't already download the latest official firmware from SmartQ.
2. Extract the zip file. You then have 2 files, a Chinese .txt file with the release notes. And a file called "SmartQT15".
3. Rename the file "SmartQT15" to "SmartQT15.zip". Accept any warning about making the file useless, as in fact you are making it useful.
4. Extract the zip file. Then you end up with 4 new folders :
"boot" - This will be the files required for booting the OS. And possibly the recovery.
"data" - The user apps and data are in this folder.
"META-INF" - The certificate SmartQ used is in this folder and also the update script that manages the update process.
"system" - The actual Android OS.Stay clear of the boot folder, unless you are 100% sure about what you are doing, this may cause a bricked device without the possibility to reflash.
Add apps to the app subfolder in the data folder. Make sure if you do add apps to set the permissions in the update script file and make changes accordingly. The data-extra.tar file is extracted during the update process.
In the "META-INF\com\google\android" folder you can find the updater-script file, you can edit this with Notepad++. This file tells the CWM based recovery what to do and in this file the permissions are set for apps. Also is it required to edit this if you want to create a pre-rooted firmware.
Be carefull what to change in the system folder it can cause your OS not to boot, but it should be no problem to revert back to another build that did work previously as you didn't touch the boot folder and the recovery should work normally.
Once you have made all the changes you wanted to do. You follow the steps back.
5. zip the 4 folders backup using Winzip or WinRAR, whatever suits you best (You can use compression, I tried out Fast, Normal, Good compression in WinRAR and the firmware flashed without problems). Make sure you have the 4 folders in the "root" of your zip file. Use for filename "SmartQT15.zip"
6. Rename the "SmartQT15.zip" file to "SmartQT15" and accept any warning again about changing the extension of your file.
You have now created a flashable firmware file for the SmartQ Ten3 T15.
Copy his file to the root of an empty microSD card and follow my How-To about flashing Custom Firmwares.
Don't use the guide to flash original SmartQ firmwares as this won't work, by changing the firmware package you break the firmware signature and the recovery will check for this during flashing.
Signature checking can be disabled though in the recovery as I will explain in the new How-To.
If you have any questions feel free to post below and I'll do my best to answer them, all the above is based on my experience and from what I could find out on the Internet.
I've been scouring the interweb looking for a way to take a stock tar file and convert it to a zip file that will flash with twrp. I know it can be done, but thus far I'm not happy with the processes I've found... how do you guys do it?
The stock TAR files contain partitions in IMG format - an all in one file system, and in this case using EXT4 formatting.
In order to create a ZIP, you need to access the files on the partition, which means finding a way to mount those IMG partitions to copy their contents, or find a piece of software to extract from them w/o mounting. Since they are EXT4, you can probably assume a Windows solution isn't available (EXT4 is Linux). Some utilities may exist to handle EXT4 on Windows, but finding one that knows EXT4 and can extract/mount an IMG file is pretty specific.
EDIT : found a utility for you - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2285831
If you can somehow get the files out of the archive, you'll need to find a tutorial on the structure of a flashable ZIP. Generally, its just folders and files but there is also a META-INF folder, scripts to install and set permissions, etc. There are likely threads here on XDA that can detail these steps.
Spitzaf, thanks so much! I was hoping for just such a tool
Guys I need help, I finished building cyanogenmod 13 for my project, but I can't use the command "make otapakage" becouse it will make an flashable zip with system folder compressed on a .dat file and the META-INF folder will not work if I unpack them
The question is: how can I create a flashable cm 13 with unpacked system folder? like this:
Zip:
META-INF
System
Boot.img
The faster someone helps me, the faster the project goes
Ext4 Unpacker and Ext2Explore here the tutorial http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2285831
and here is the meta inf folder in this folder is all ready you must not change anything in there
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Swc5FblVWARmd3YzdDcmZxajQ/view?usp=sharing
Hey all, I've looked all over an can't find the answer to this... I have a NAND backup I made using TWRP, however, I had the problem many have had with getting errors when trying to restore it. So I thought I'd try a different way by creating a TWRP flashable file from the NAND files. I have taken the files from the backup and extracted them using CYGWIN. I read a thread here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2746044
But I'm stuck on a couple of things... First, the part about using the META-INF folder from another ROM... I've checked the files in in the META-INF folder and notice that the updater-script is what loads the files and directories. But none of the META-INF files I have found matches my backup files.
The files I want to flash are the complete system folder, complete data folder and the boot.img file. Is it possibly to flash these with TWRP without the META-INF folder/files? If I have to use the META-INF how do I make sure all the files and folders are flashed?
Would it be better to create an ODIN flashable file and just use Odin to do the flash? If so should I put the system and data folders into one file and then use the boot.img (or would I put the boot.img finle into a tar) in the Bootloader spot in Odin?
Thanks in advance.