Why cannot we dual boot? - G1 Android Development

I was thinking that dual booting on a single device would be a really great thing. A huge step.
Why we cannot do it?
Cannot we "emulate" partitions of the internal memory on the sdcard and then create a modified spl to boot from sdcard?
I was thinking that it is possible to make the sdcard working like internal memory..
Is it so difficult?

blackgin said:
I was thinking that dual booting on a single device would be a really great thing. A huge step.
Why we cannot do it?
Cannot we "emulate" partitions of the internal memory on the sdcard and then create a modified spl to boot from sdcard?
I was thinking that it is possible to make the sdcard working like internal memory..
Is it so difficult?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this would be a good idea too. have a stable boot partition, then on the second boot have our "testing" partition.
Is this even possible?

Whether or not this is possible, I don't know.
But kinda related, I would like to see a bootloader that made an "image" of the entire phone to sdcard AND would also restore the entire "image" of the phone.
Why?
It would give us an easy way to test out different roms!
You could have your stable build for regular day-to-day use, you could also "image" any other rom you install, then you could switch back and forth without the need for a computer to restore using Fastboot. Using this method, you could "image" any number of builds you wouldn't to try.
There may be a way this could be done right now, I don't know. I haven't found out how. If it's already an option, someone please point me in the right direction!

It would be very difficult cause you would have to find another OS that isn't linux based. Even with a bootloader all the files will be knocked off from the previous flash because everything in these builds are pretty much in the root folder. The OS runs on these references and if you change them the OS will not run. You would have to rework the whole OS to get this to work

Someone delete me

argh xda is so slow

It would be very difficult cause you would have to find another OS that isn't linux based. Even with a bootloader all the files will be knocked off from the previous flash because everything in these builds are pretty much in the root folder. The OS runs on these references and if you change them the OS will not run. You would have to rework the whole OS to get this to work

Booting off the sdcard could be possible but would be pointless to do.
Everytime you mount the sdcard to the computer it would crash the phone. Also, There's not really enough internal space to dual boot. 1 decent ROM barely fits on as it is.

blueheeler said:
Whether or not this is possible, I don't know.
But kinda related, I would like to see a bootloader that made an "image" of the entire phone to sdcard AND would also restore the entire "image" of the phone.
Why?
It would give us an easy way to test out different roms!
You could have your stable build for regular day-to-day use, you could also "image" any other rom you install, then you could switch back and forth without the need for a computer to restore using Fastboot. Using this method, you could "image" any number of builds you wouldn't to try.
There may be a way this could be done right now, I don't know. I haven't found out how. If it's already an option, someone please point me in the right direction!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cyanogen mentioned he was looking into this to try implement it into his recovery image. I don't think anyone's been able to restore a complete nandroid backup outside of fastboot...yet. However people are working on it. I think it's doable.
Meltus said:
Booting off the sdcard could be possible but would be pointless to do.
Everytime you mount the sdcard to the computer it would crash the phone. Also, There's not really enough internal space to dual boot. 1 decent ROM barely fits on as it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe, maybe not. A second or third EXT partition on the sd card could possibly be used for a dual/tri boot enviornment. Only the FAT32 portion gets mounted when you mount through your phone. And there would be virtually no difference when mounting through ADB. Now would be a good time for those interested in persuing this notion to have a look at the data2sd thread. Sounds very possible to me.

overground said:
Maybe, maybe not. A second or third EXT partition on the sd card could possibly be used for a dual/tri boot enviornment. Only the FAT32 portion gets mounted when you mount through your phone. And there would be virtually no difference when mounting through ADB. Now would be a good time for those interested in persuing this notion to have a look at the data2sd thread. Sounds very possible to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, i'm pretty sure all partitions get mounted, they just don't show up on windows.
on linux they all appear for me when i mount the phone.
also, sorry about the triple post, dunno wtf happened there.

Debain As Primarly OS
What Ive Been wishing for is someone to make the Dream Boot straight to Debian, No android running in the background.
Then we could boot into a debian with g1 drivers (if open source) and have gpu accl. x11.
Then maybe dual-booting android.
Im willing to try to get a debian img to boot on my g1 if someone wants to tell me where I would start to even try to attempt it.

lolz
Booting straight to Debian would be cool, except there is really no use for it on our G1's. We are best off running after loading Android, although I'm sure one day we could just boot Debian. What would the point of Debian be on our G1's? I'm running Deb5 on my Dell Mini that has a 9" inch screen and can barely see text.... how in the world would this become useful on a 3" screen???

just my £0.02
there is an old saying in my country. "if you don't believe it can work, then it won't for you". that holds so true for development. yes you will make mistakes on the way. heck i'm on my fourth G1 so far (and i suspect there will be more to come!) I love this phone, and i love the fact that we as a community can build such amazing things as the hero rom for the device.
what would we have done if the first person had said the wheel was impossible? or if the first person had said that fire was impossible. or (shock horror) electricity? or television? or telephone? or GPS? or the internet?
all of those were impossible until someone worked out how to do it.
dual boot would be pheasably posible, as the device is primeraly a computer first, and then a phone second. it boots a linux kernel from the bootloader (if i am correct in my understanding) so all we would need to do is create a bootloader with a choice in it, and then direct the phone to boot a second partition from the SD card.
the phone does mount all partitions - but only if the OS understands all partitions (test it for yourself - if you have windows and apps2sd mount the partitions and then run an app from the card it still works. but it does not under linux).
to answer the what would be the point questions, what would be the point in not doing it? surely development for a device like this is all about trying stuff, and then if it doesn't work not doing the same thing again.
i believe that a second OS would boot quite comfortably on a decent SD card. not that i have this working or anything. to make the screen readable, you just use a lower resolution (320x480). i would probably not want a full-blown GUI linux anyway, what i would want from a dual-boot OS would be a working command-line debian with FULL hardware access - allowing me to really use the phone as a fully-functioning remote terminal for my server.
i recon, though, that one thing that would be absolutely amazing is being able to have a fully-portable totally reliable XDA-Developers OS on my phone.
so, why do we not just try as much as we can to get this working? how do we start?

milestone.it said:
just my £0.02
.....
so, why do we not just try as much as we can to get this working? how do we start?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just hack the spl and flash it, but be cautionous as hell

Okay, I dont claim to know alot but I'll share my thoughts anyway
When you mount the SD all partitions get mounted, if you go into disk management in windows you can see the 'Unknown' partition if you have an ext2 partition.
Secondly, we don't really 'boot' debian, it just mounts an image file on your SD card that contains the debian binaries. As I understand it there is no reason these binaries couldn't be included in android (like busybox).
Thirdly, do we really want debian? What we need is a very light OS, android is the perfect base, take away all the gloss and its linux underneath. I love the idea of having repositories and being able to apt-get and even develop on the device.
Lastly, we're forgettign why android is such a good platform, the reason android is useful is because of the Dalvik VM, it's what allows us to make portable apps that will work on any android phone. I seriously doubt everyday users will be interested enough to learn to compile source on their phone. I've worked programming games for mobiles in J2ME and it was horrible, there was barely any portability between manufacturers, i believe android will be alot better adn from what i've seen (with people porting from other droid devices) this seems to hold true. It will be interesting to see if Android gets bloated with manufacturer specific API's like J2ME.
Also I'll just throw this out there... I'm not a fan of being tied to google, yes google helped along the way, but its not 'google android', its android. Wasn't it strange hoe Gmail worked fine, but the email app didnt? (K9 is perfect though!)

hi guys, i'm not at all a developer of any kind, i suck even at web design, but here's my thoughts expanding on the whole "what if the wheel didn't work" scenario
inventions are created by the need to do something, we need to get from A to B faster, lets make a car. we want to entertain our families in the evening, Hey look, TV. i need to tel my wife to get some milk while she's at the shop, Voila, Mobile Phone.
Basicaly the point i'm trying to make is, if somebody finds a NEED for dual boot on android, then so be it, it shall be done, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but if something is needed, then something shall come from it. we develop technology when we need to do something faster, easier, or just plain do it.
if somebody decides they NEED dual boot, i'm pretty sure they will figure out how to do it, either that or ask haykuro for some tips and alot of help, but i think he's still too busy with regular life at the minute, i'm not so sure, all i know is he's definately a legend, and maybe will want a piece of dual-boot pie

So who is the great man who want to try to do this? ;D
I offer my help, if it could be useful..

re: dual booting
would it be blasphemous to want to try out winmo 6.5 or 7 on these?

personally, i'd love to see WM on here. mainly, just so we know it's possible.
People are always slating Windows but, personally, i don't see whats wrong with it (Linux is my primary OS and always will be ). It would be nice to have say WM for work and Android for play

any news on this? I would really like to run a hero rom one day and then cupcake the next while not losing my settings...

Related

Official "Native Linux/Debian" Thread

Ok, theres a lot of threads out there on getting Debian working "with" Android side by side. What about getting Debian working primarily and natively? You can easily modify the bootloader to boot into Debian.
No I'm not talking about chrooting into debian from the Android environment.
With this being said there are plenty of possibilities. Debian works natively with ARM, so you can go ahead and install Xorg with touchpad driver etc. and get Debian working up to fullspeed. Believe me, it works a 1000x better than using AndroidVNC and tightvnc server. You can actually use mplayer with ffmpeg to play any type of vidoes off your sdcard at fullspeed.
So anyway, what do you guys think? Maybe theres a way to modify the bootloader so at boot time you can choose to boot into debian or android etc. or maybe it would be possible to lets say "boot debian" and vnc into androids fb to "make a phone call" etc., kind of a like a reverse vnc method we use to get into X on the debian side. Heck - we could maybe even figure out how to access the framework to make calls natively through debian. The possibilities are endless.
Also, I'll edit this post and try to get a guide going here in a couple days on how to get Debian ARM/Xorg working.
I was actually wondering myself if this could be done. Heck, not like I do not enjoy android or anything. It would be great to be able to run a lot of my *nix apps natively on my phone.
I already have Debian runnin off my 8GB sdcard(unfortunately a class 2) and I enjoy it. Problem is having to shut it down and restart it so much to get functionality out of my G1.
Keep me up to date on your progress and let me know the best GUI to use for better performance.
so whats the deal, anyone actually got this working? i have no use for my brothers g1 considering the low call quality/not recieving mms'es, i mean literally if i put them side by side, my excalibur has better service/reception. and id be pretty sweet to have crystal fvwm running on g1. so it doesnt really matter to me if i could get it to make calls, as theres always skype/amsn w.e. so pretty much anyone got any links on getting a native debian install?
dinscurge said:
so whats the deal, anyone actually got this working? i have no use for my brothers g1 considering the low call quality/not recieving mms'es, i mean literally if i put them side by side, my excalibur has better service/reception. and id be pretty sweet to have crystal fvwm running on g1. so it doesnt really matter to me if i could get it to make calls, as theres always skype/amsn w.e. so pretty much anyone got any links on getting a native debian install?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes they got this working. If you looked at the bible you would've seen this. But I will give you the link enjoy it is very cool. Youtube has some videos also.
http://www.saurik.com/id/10
Royalknight6190 said:
Yes they got this working. If you looked at the bible you would've seen this. But I will give you the link enjoy it is very cool. Youtube has some videos also.
http://www.saurik.com/id/10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no you misunderstand . i mean run debian native, as in to replace android
dinscurge said:
no you misunderstand . i mean run debian native, as in to replace android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha Sorry, um let me look around for yeah.
hey...check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX1BOGl8Fnw
and heres another xda thread here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=624392
USHERROB said:
hey...check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX1BOGl8Fnw
and heres another xda thread here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=624392
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahh thx for the link i saw this before but misplaced the bookmark. but im afraid thats not exactly what im looking for but that probably doesnt exist. as this is only set up to have dual boot booting android/debian of 3rd part on sdcard. and as far as i am seeing in the thread it isnt working to well. that im just going to have to wait and see what happens.
This is an old thread, but still a very interesting topic.
Would be *great* to but debian at the bottom of things.
A note about the bootloader: It is ***ALREADY DUALBOOT***. There are TWO boot partitions on the phone: "boot" and "recovery". If you want to set it up to dualboot, but your primary (automated) boot kernel into "boot", and your secondary in "recovery".
As long as you have an engineering SPL, the actual recovery is not required -- in fact, if you WANT to boot into recovery, you can always "fastboot boot recovery.img" without even having to flash the recovery to the phone.
I tell you the thing that really bugs me about android: that it doesn't support existing X.
What I dream of at night is running the ANDROID stuff ON TOP OF X. It would present a little bit of a challenge in terms of having the PHONE app (or whatever) be able to pop up to the top. There would also be some RESOURCE challenges. DREAM may not be the best hardware to implement this on.
Native Xorg
A slight off-topic because I have Samsung Galaxy
I was also fascinated by this possibility of running debian linux, Xorg on the phone.
So I created this project "linux-on-android" (sorry, I am not allowed to post links yet) on the google code where I am going to post instructions and code. Please, join the project if you are interested. It should be completely open.
The idea is to start with something simple but working and move slowly. In order to run X server from the Debian distribution it is enough to just use the Android kernel, with only a little change to the framebuffer driver. I don't change the boot procedure - only turn off the android services and put things like startx instead. Now I am trying to use matchbox+LXDE and they look nice and fast. Wifi and touchpad work. Nothing else does. I thought about what would be the minimal working configuration and decided that power management + telephony would be very good.
With the telephony I plan to leave the android RIL daemon and write a small python program that would communicate with it and act as a dialer. It appears to be not such a problem, at least I am able to communicate with the daemon now and all requests are nicely wrapped in python methods. The next step is to write phone GUI/dialer.
I think it would be already very nice to have Xorg and debian running on top of the android daemons and android kernel replacing this "zygote" stuff. Also if we do something in this way, it would probably work on any android-based phone without big changes.
About dual-boot: I am still using chroot, I don't find anything bad in it. I have two different boot.img files, they only differ by init.rc, one which starts zygote, and one which starts Xorg. In Android I press a button and reboot in debian, in debian I press a button and reboot in android.
klinck said:
A slight off-topic because I have Samsung Galaxy
I was also fascinated by this possibility of running debian linux, Xorg on the phone.
So I created this project "linux-on-android" (sorry, I am not allowed to post links yet) on the google code where I am going to post instructions and code.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll post it for you in the hope to get something good going here
http://code.google.com/p/linux-on-android/
Wow klinck you really seem to be making awesome progress here man. Just looking through your project page and i see it being updated every day. I just watched the video proof and i must say it's really quite impressive.
What needs to be done now is make a guide for this, so people can easily install this on their G1 and test it.
Also, this will give it more developer attention. I really think this deserves a chance
EDIT: added links for easyness
Jefmeister said:
EDIT: added links for easyness
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To Jefmeister: thanks for posting the links and your interest.
About G1: As I said, I have Samsung Galaxy, so I don't have a chance to test it on G1. But still I can probably make a "binary distribution" for G1 and somebody else can test it. There are some hardware differences, to summarize, there are 3 things I need to change:
I need a kernel for G1 with ext3 support, and patched framebuffer driver which turns double buffering into single buffering and automatically updates screen at regular intervals
I need to know if tslib driver works with touchscreen from G1 and what is the corresponding device (it is /dev/input/event2 in my case)
I need to know where to put the debian distribution. In Galaxy we have a separate 1Gb ext3 partition on SD card which is normally used for '/data' directory, so there is a plenty of free space there. But I guess it may be different on G1.
klinck said:
To Jefmeister: thanks for posting the links and your interest.
About G1: As I said, I have Samsung Galaxy, so I don't have a chance to test it on G1. But still I can probably make a "binary distribution" for G1 and somebody else can test it. There are some hardware differences, to summarize, there are 3 things I need to change:
I need a kernel for G1 with ext3 support, and patched framebuffer driver which turns double buffering into single buffering and automatically updates screen at regular intervals
I need to know if tslib driver works with touchscreen from G1 and what is the corresponding device (it is /dev/input/event2 in my case)
I need to know where to put the debian distribution. In Galaxy we have a separate 1Gb ext3 partition on SD card which is normally used for '/data' directory, so there is a plenty of free space there. But I guess it may be different on G1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(3): You could certainly put it all on the sdcard in exactly the same way. As long as you have the sdcard driver built into the kernel, the sdcard is just like any other storage device.
I dont know if this is going to be of any help to you, but as I was searching around for a way to nativly install linux on my dream I found this.
http://www.htc-linux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Dream
It may interesting as a point of refrence.
anyway, keep up the good work, once my conract expires this is exactly the kind of thing I would love to do with my old phone
Hi all !
I have actually an Debian NATIVE on my G1, both Debian/OpenMOKO/Android on the SAME phone.
android are into NAND FLASH, OpenMOKO (for tests and few binaries/config files) into SD2 Partition, and Debian with all tools to compilation, into SD3 Partition.
Actualy work on my Debian G1 :
USB NET
Xorg
Keyboard (but one touch not responding)
Touchscreen (but the calibration into Worg not work, into FBCONS it's OK)
Trackball (but the ball not "click")
I trying to make call, with OpenMoko I can ring my phone.
I trying also WiFi : Crash :'(
for bluetooth, I don't have the fu***** firmware ...
For ALL : You can boot debian with fastboot or recovery.
Debian CAN be into SD1/FAT32 parition, into loop file. I make an boot img, who can boot from SD1 part with loop image you don't must repartition SDCARD, or have dedicated SD card.

Applications to SD - WITHOUT PARTITONING (BETA TEST)

I'm looking for beta testers for a new App2SD implementation that does not require your MicroSD card to be partitioned which is potentially unsafe and can result in a loss of your data. If you'd like to test this new implementation before it's release here on XDA shoot me an email at [email protected] with what firmware and version you're using.
More information will be released after I get a few positive beta tests out of the way.
loopback device, eh?
I tried that a while back but never could get the loopback driver to load early enough in the boot process reliably.
Hope you have better luck than I did.
As [email protected] pointed out to me a while ago, this is not a good idea for security reasons. If your loopback file sits on the FAT partition, it is accessible by all of the apps, it can be read, overwritten and deleted by a rogue app bypassing the entire android security model. If this is what you intend to do, it's probably not "safer".
Hey, shot you an email. Ready to try it out. But only for beta.
Hit me up, I have no apps to lose.
But security? Idk just let me know whats up.
what happens when you mount the SD card to your computer?
I'd like to try it, but i don't yet have a class6 sd card. Is that necessary?
i'd be willing to give this a shot. I have no data to lose as well.
southsko said:
what happens when you mount the SD card to your computer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true. Won't all your apps disappear when you mount the SD?
This smells fishy not many app developers with 1 post can this be someone testing their new exploit/virus?No offense to original poster im just sayin....???
Edit:Sorry to OP clearly not a virus,and good luck on getting it stable I will gladly donate to your cause partitioning is a pain!
don't be a jackass, many people have had great ideas and decided to come to XDA to share them. just because you are a complete idiot who can't program does not mean that the OP is too.
@@OP
you are playing with fire my dear friend. i don't think that mounting your apps on the FAT32 partition is a good idea at all. not only because it would allow any program to access and write without asking android permission first, but because it would allow people to mount the SDcard and steal paid apps even easier. i beg of you please rethink your idea
I imagine the phone would be crashing when the phone is mounted to the computer. lol. just kidding. =]
tubaking182 said:
don't be a jackass, many people have had great ideas and decided to come to XDA to share them. just because you are a complete idiot who can't program does not mean that the OP is too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WTF?Just came back to edit my post and put that its for real cause like I should have done first I found this http://noderat.com/loop2sd/.But as for your insults who the hell are you?How the f**k do you know what I can or can not do?I was posting in the first place to start trying be more active in the forums no reason for you to be a **** anyways,I was tryin to help people not get what I thought may have been a virus was that really that bad?
i'm not sure that is 100% true. when i mount my phone(apps2sd) my phone decides to mount the ext2 partion and the FAT32 partition, i am using ubuntu so my computer is able to read the partition, but my phone doesn't crash(i've yet to try running an app while mounted though)
Android can acces the sdcard while mounted.
Try terminal emulator.
crotalusfreak said:
This smells fishy not many app developers with 1 post can this be someone testing their new exploit/virus?No offense to original poster im just sayin....???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, take it from someone who has many posts and 15 years of unix experience, it is a bad idea.
Most of the devs here had this same idea, but as I mention in my previous post, this is opening yourself up to many bad security issues. To all those who answer, "I have no data to lose", that's fine as a beta tester. But what's the point in beta testing something that cannot be safely used by anyone who does have data (or apps) to lose?
I should point out to those who perhaps do not realize some the consequences of my original post, that it is not just a potential data loss problem, but a potential arbitrary code execution vulnerability. If an application manages to replace the loopback file with a new loopback file, it could inject altered common applications. If this succeeds, it means that previously trusted applications which have been granted privileges (or root using the various su apps) at install time, could be replaced with trojan versions which can have complete control over your system... steal your passwords... reflash your bootloader and literally install a permanent trojan... brick your phone... <insert other scary things besides data loss here>.
It's your phone, do what you want. I just figured that I would re-post that this not a new idea, but one that has been rejected by those of us with unix experience who realize the consequences. If you are just messing around, go ahead, it's not likely to hurt your phone. But, as a general method to build upon and be depended on, this should not have a future. If this becomes common practice, it is highly likely that exploits will be written to take advantage of this vulnerability.
So, if you are asking yourself if something is fishy, yes something is: it's a logical idea which seems great on the surface, but it has an unfortunate flaw.
Note: I am not suggesting malicious intent on the OP's part, just that they may not have thought of the consequences of suggesting this as a common method to do apps2sd. And if the OP (or someone else) is able to point out a method to avoid the things I warn against I will happily retract my statements (if I agree that this method would indeed work) since this method has some obvious benefits. However sadly, I think that is highly unlikely.
maxisma said:
Android can acces the sdcard while mounted.
Try terminal emulator.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it can't. It can only access the empty mountpoint.
If you want to do this, there IS a way to make it work SAFELY....
Find the functions that control sdcard mounting and unmounting and FIX it so that it will mount an ext2 first partition. Then forget about the whole loopback thing as thats not going to do anyone any good... If you do it like this, then unionfs it, then unmounting the sdcard should safely vanish the apps that are stored on the card (leaving the internally stored apps), might crash the launcher, but that'll restart immediately and won't even error out.
A second step in the right direction would be to find the place where programs are detected from, which currently looks in /data/app, /data/app-private, /system/app, so it can clearly handle loading software from multiple locations -- add in a new path. Or maybe link app-private to /sdcard... A little more challenging would be to allow it look in multiple locations for thing that are ALL currently in /data/data and /data/dalvik-cache.
And then when its done, submit a patch for the source.
Wow what a response. Here's a few key bulletpoints:
I'm not a forum poster, not the kinda person for it but I have been on XDA Dream since I got my pre-launch G1 as a CSR.
There are potential security flaws with the current ext2 method of a2sd, and bypassing root to mount the ext2 partition is possible.
a2sd is not stable in any format, so it's a use at your own risk until android improves kinda deal.
I'm not cool enough to write a virus, but thank you for the ego boost
Anybody using a third-party firmware is not safe nor secure. If you're reading this forum you're not safe nor secure. The idea of homebrew roms is to add extra features that are not in Android to begin with and with that comes security risks. No ROM is ever perfect but I'd trust a Google or T-Mobile rom with my security before any homebrew-anything.So yes it's use at your own risk
This has the same results for mounting on a PC as MarcusMaximus's a2sd.sh
This doesn't really make it any easier to steal paid apps, it's always been easy and always will be but this doesn't change it.
If you guys have other questions shoot me an email, like I said I don't really do much forum-posting (never had much of anything to say, maybe this'll change all that)
[email protected]
JakeEv said:
I'd like to try it, but i don't yet have a class6 sd card. Is that necessary?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The faster the better but I've done it with the stock card that came in the G1 as well as a Class 6.
id try it since i can not get apps2sd to work.
[email protected]
using JF 1.51

how to make a rom PART 1.5 (w/ and w/out virtualaztion)

THANK YOU JOHAN DE KONING
This will explain how to make your computer fast enough to run ubuntu (a form of Linux). And how to download the android package. This will take up 7 to 8 gb of space.
THIS IS FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT UBUNTU (NOT VIRTUAL AND NOT DUAL IF DON'T WANT TO BE)*This could delete windows if you didn't partion your hard drive right
NOT FOR NOOBS BE WARNED
Go to the ubunutu download page given below and download the 700 mb iso image file. Iso is a cd formatted file u can open it with a zip appclation(but don't). When it is finished I recommand getting a dvd but maybe it could fit on a cd.(*Note that you don't have to burn on to cd u could extract to decktop and run the setup manually.) Burn the ubuntu on to the cd/dvd and than restart your computer with the cd/dvd still in the computer's cd/dvd rom. When the computer goes to a blink screen and asks you if want to boot from cd/dvd press enter. And than from here on follow the instractions.
STEP 1 (CLEAN COMPUTER)
*Note: for performance do this in safe mode.
First we need to make your computer fast as possible. Create a backup just in case you want to back up something. So go to download.com and download Advanced SystemCare Free(7 -10 mb). After you have installed click on the CARE! button to get started. This could depend on your computer usage space the bigger the longer it will take. It will wipe all internet data. If you don't want that to happen just go to maintain windows and click on the Privacy Sweep box to uncheck. Than scan. Than go to utilities and run all the following Disk Check, Disk Cleaner and install Smart defrag. After installing Smart Defrag click start on all the options in this order defrag only, deep optimize, and fast optimize.
STEP 2: RESTART COMPUTER
After restarting go back to System FreeCare and run game booster(install). Click game mode and a pop up will show. Click the button on the left side of the box. Check all boxes but not explore. than go to game mode.
STEP 3: Download virtualbox(68 mb download)
You could have a dual if you want. The download page is http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. Download the correct version. (windows= *VirtualBox 3.0.4 for Windows hosts x86/amd64). than install it.
Install Virtualbox(takes from 5-30 minutes depending on your computer)
Next>accept>next>next>next>yes>install>continue anyway(i got this like 6 times so...)>finish(i think)>cancel>new>Next>name=ubuntu>next>Next>Next>Next>Next>Next>
when u get to the virtual size thing move the bar to 7.5 gb (min). this should be a little extra space. Next>Finish>Next>
STEP 4: Download UBUNTU(700 mb)
DOWNLOAD PAGE http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download and choose the ftp. than begin downloading. After download save the file to desktop and DON'T DO ANYTHING. go to the VirtualBox and click CD/DVD-ROM. Check the box and also ISO IMAGE FILE after that and mount to that image on the desktop. THAN OK. press CTRL+ALT+DELETE. go to processes and end explore(for speed). Click Start.
PART 2
OK. START by running VirtualBox with the mount on the ISO ubuntu and than click start on the top right hand side. press enter to leave language than enter again to install ubuntu. on the top of the bar it may pause alot so go to machine and resume it. if it total doesn't work just exit and power down and reboot with explore.exe gone and also no windows up and running. and than just follow the instructions to installing it about 1 hour to 2 hours depending. Make sure that it is completely partation to the virtual drive. After like forever when u reach the main desktop go to app... terminal and make sure u knoe your password. Than type
The rest is here http://www.johandekoning.nl/index.php/2009/06/07/building-android-15-build-environment/. How to bulid the enviroment and getting the libs and other tools together. After all that run.
Sudo apt-get autoremove
Sudo apt-get autoclean
Than on Saturday and Sunday I will teach u how to make a rom.
There is a kernel problem with johan's idea I think I know what it is
Was going to wipe one of my computers anyway. This gives me a reason to stop procrastinating! Will give this a try. Waiting for part 2!
I know I will never get into rom making but it is very interesting to read about.
P.S. Make the paypal link a bit bigger, I can't read it
I already turned my back on windows so I run ubuntu so this is useless to me but I am waiting for part 2 so I can learn more about this, prob won't ever use it but it is good to knowhow to
Already running Mint in VB .. runs just great. I am interested in reading the ROM part though
WTF? Why do you need to do all of this crap on your computer to run Ubuntu? If I was going to dual boot with windows I would not use the stuff you listed. Why not just explain how to use it create a ROM and let people figure out how to get Ubuntu on their computer.
this seems more like spam, an advertisement for those products he listed. Any sensible person would not use virtual box to build android from source (problems you run into with the jvm running out of memory).
Besides, Johan already has a well posted blog about this:
http://www.johandekoning.nl/index.php/2009/06/07/building-android-15-build-environment/
but I would really recomend installing ubuntu through the windows installer (wubi) if you're a linux virgin, that way you don't risk anything in your windows partition, it's faster than virtualization, and eventually you'll drop windows once you learn how to use ubuntu at least.
Really, I think this is spam though.
jubeh said:
Really, I think this is spam though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are right. I don't know if "part 2" is ever going to come, or if it will just be a copy/paste from the link you posted.
Wasn't it simpler to just install ubuntu as second os? If someone wants to dedicate himself to developement it would be better to have ubuntu not virtualized
jubeh said:
this seems more like spam, an advertisement for those products he listed. Any sensible person would not use virtual box to build android from source (problems you run into with the jvm running out of memory).
Besides, Johan already has a well posted blog about this:
http://www.johandekoning.nl/index.php/2009/06/07/building-android-15-build-environment/
but I would really recomend installing ubuntu through the windows installer (wubi) if you're a linux virgin, that way you don't risk anything in your windows partition, it's faster than virtualization, and eventually you'll drop windows once you learn how to use ubuntu at least.
Really, I think this is spam though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure if you have ever tried virtual box but it is quite responsive and seems too run better than wubi. I am sure it depends somewhat on the system a person is running, but with a quad and 4 gb of ram VB runs very well. While I have a dual boot with Ubuntu , I have still found it easier to do my android stuff in it's own virtual space. With a dedicated 75gb I can use it seamlessly with my Windows 7 install. You should try it it really works very well and I have had no memory problems at all and have manged to build from source without any difficulty whatsoever. My Ubuntu install stays clean and I can mess with my virtual Mint install as much as I like without ever affecting my Ubuntu partition.
Personally I have Ubuntu on a Prtition of My portable drive,which means I can boot it up anywhere (so long as the computer can USB Boot). I shall certainly be following the original info. The same guy has posted many good Android Articles.
As for the OP here, he only really needed to post a link, not copy the whole thing.
pixel-painter said:
I am not sure if you have ever tried virtual box but it is quite responsive and seems too run better than wubi. I am sure it depends somewhat on the system a person is running, but with a quad and 4 gb of ram VB runs very well. While I have a dual boot with Ubuntu , I have still found it easier to do my android stuff in it's own virtual space. With a dedicated 75gb I can use it seamlessly with my Windows 7 install. You should try it it really works very well and I have had no memory problems at all and have manged to build from source without any difficulty whatsoever. My Ubuntu install stays clean and I can mess with my virtual Mint install as much as I like without ever affecting my Ubuntu partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost everything runs well with quad processors and 4GB of RAM. Oracle 10g runs well with that hardware. So that isn't saying much.
miketaylor00 said:
Oracle 10g runs well with that hardware. So that isn't saying much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ha! this bit gave me a chuckle.
I freaking hate Oracle. I run a bunch of dbms' & 95% of my headaches come from them.
I prefer dual-booting, personally. I just started messing around with ubuntu (about 6 months maybe) and i love it, after using ubuntu i fully hate Windows Vista and all its sparkly, money-making horse-****. So now i have ubuntu and Windows both running smoothly on a compaq presario f700 laptop, and the only thing i really use my windows partition (i know thats not the correct technical terminology, just pay attention to the story) for is, well, basically just theming, and media storage. I use photoshop, and havent bothered to try using GIMP very much yet, and so i do all my theming (which isnt much really) in windows, which is where i also already have the autosign tools and draw9patch and other such things setup...and then all my music, pictures, whatever are all on my fat32 partition, and can all be accessed from either OS. aside from that, my computer boots into ubuntu by default. so if im using my computer, im doin it the ubuntu way, unless i NEED to use windows, for something like photoshop, and thats about it.
So long story short...(like its not already to late for that) im eagerly awaiting part 2 cuz ive been hitting some roadblocks...hope it helps!
-BMFC
mohsinkhan47 said:
Please donate and help me get a good ubuntu desktop from the case to the motherboard. Please donat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll get right on that. Is $500 enough?
miketaylor00 said:
Almost everything runs well with quad processors and 4GB of RAM. Oracle 10g runs well with that hardware. So that isn't saying much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok Granted u are right about that and so it should.
But assuming I am not the only person with a quad and 4 gb of RAM, this may work just as well for others too. As as a relative newb with Linux, I can honestly say I have killed a few installations of Linux on my Hard Drive by breaking packages and other things that prevent it from working properly. Sometimes it is easier for me to reinstall the whole thing because I lack the knowledge to fix it.... in comes Virtual Box. I can totally screw it up as much as I want and my Linux partition on my hd remains intact with no errors.
pixel-painter said:
I am not sure if you have ever tried virtual box but it is quite responsive and seems too run better than wubi. I am sure it depends somewhat on the system a person is running, but with a quad and 4 gb of ram VB runs very well. While I have a dual boot with Ubuntu , I have still found it easier to do my android stuff in it's own virtual space. With a dedicated 75gb I can use it seamlessly with my Windows 7 install. You should try it it really works very well and I have had no memory problems at all and have manged to build from source without any difficulty whatsoever. My Ubuntu install stays clean and I can mess with my virtual Mint install as much as I like without ever affecting my Ubuntu partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do have virtualbox running on my linux box, my laptop's ubuntu side, and my laptop's win7 side. I also have a third computer that I have loaded with windows vista for the computer illiterate people in my house and a tiny dell mini 9 that I bought god-knows-why.
My main computer (since I can take it anywhere and my linux box i use mainly as a file server) is a gateway fx p-7805u. I won't have you google the specs, it's a 2.27 Ghz core 2 duo, 4 gb of ram, 320 gb main hard drive (plus I tossed a slow 5400 rpm 500 gb hd for files), so yeah, I can run virtualbox, but I mainly use it for running micro-xp on it for whatever else I need it.
I've used vb before like i said even configuring the vm with dual core support but there's no way it's as fast as a native system.
Anyway, wubi is not virtualization. It's an actual, loop-mounted image file/partition that fully utilizes the hardware it runs on. It's exactly the same as running a dual-booted system through partitioning, the only difference is that the ubuntu filesystem exists inside your ntfs partition rather than it's own partition, this has the effect of having a very slight hit on disk performance (much less than virtualization though), but everything else is running natively, even drivers. It's entirely safe for your host file-system and can be removed leaving no residual files anywhere on your system. It's also easy to share files with your host computer (with vb you have to set up a network share and then edit your /etc/init.d/rc.local to have it automount on startup, with wubi, it automatically creates a link to the host filesystem located at /host).
I've had to leave my computer building on vb overnight and then I come back to find that the process is stuck at some dex or java compilation, with an actual running system, this doesn't happen.
Give it a try, it costs nothing.
mohsinkhan47 said:
U guys are evil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow thanks! I really appreciate your work and considering donating to you. Since you make your paypal link so large, it really inspires me to donate.
Thanks again!
edit: (hope this post isn't considered to be spam like the original post is)
Better if you do
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge
jubeh said:
I do have virtualbox running on my linux box, my laptop's ubuntu side, and my laptop's win7 side. I also have a third computer that I have loaded with windows vista for the computer illiterate people in my house and a tiny dell mini 9 that I bought god-knows-why.
My main computer (since I can take it anywhere and my linux box i use mainly as a file server) is a gateway fx p-7805u. I won't have you google the specs, it's a 2.27 Ghz core 2 duo, 4 gb of ram, 320 gb main hard drive (plus I tossed a slow 5400 rpm 500 gb hd for files), so yeah, I can run virtualbox, but I mainly use it for running micro-xp on it for whatever else I need it.
I've used vb before like i said even configuring the vm with dual core support but there's no way it's as fast as a native system.
Anyway, wubi is not virtualization. It's an actual, loop-mounted image file/partition that fully utilizes the hardware it runs on. It's exactly the same as running a dual-booted system through partitioning, the only difference is that the ubuntu filesystem exists inside your ntfs partition rather than it's own partition, this has the effect of having a very slight hit on disk performance (much less than virtualization though), but everything else is running natively, even drivers. It's entirely safe for your host file-system and can be removed leaving no residual files anywhere on your system. It's also easy to share files with your host computer (with vb you have to set up a network share and then edit your /etc/init.d/rc.local to have it automount on startup, with wubi, it automatically creates a link to the host filesystem located at /host).
I've had to leave my computer building on vb overnight and then I come back to find that the process is stuck at some dex or java compilation, with an actual running system, this doesn't happen.
Give it a try, it costs nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info... now I know you have a lot of computers in your household But seriously, I am not trying to put anyone's opinion down here... so there is no need to be quite so elitist I am just pointing out my own experiences with Virtual Box which have been very good. If it doesn't work for you... fine.. but you are suggesting to everyone else that it doesn't work properly or well and I can quite definitively say that yes it does.. and very well too.
I would imagine that your system from what you say may not be powerful enough to handle it as well... so maybe a quad is needed to make it run the way it does for me, I don't profess to know the answer... only that it works great on my system.. it is not slow.... does not have errors and compiles Android source quite easily using Mint Linux (another Debian based Linux Distro for those that are unfamiliar with it)
I don't think I ever mentioned it was as fast as a native system... all I am saying is that it runs well and for a noob it can be run without messing anything else up as it runs in it's own little environment.

[Q] [DEV][Android Platform]Creating partitions through script in init.rc

Context/Resume:
-I´m changing the android platform to create two partitions in a SD Card. I need to do this as early as possible. I´m currently trying at init.rc
-It would be nice to obfuscate the access to one of the partitions. If i could keep ithidden would be better
And...the long story:
I´m trying to create new partitions in a sdcard in a device, and i need to be done as early as possible. I thought that the init.rc should be the best location for this, so i tried to add a script call to perform the task, but i´m unable to create these partitions ( or get information of the reason of fail ) First of all, is this premiss valid? Should i be able to do this?
I call the script by:
service myscript /system/bin/logwrapper /system/bin/myscript.sh
disabled
oneshot
at init-time
And the content´s of the .sh file is
fdisk /dev/sdcard < mykeys.input
where "mykeys.input" is the sequence os keys used to perform the taks of create the partitions.
Well, is this the recommended way to do this?
thanks!
Not to sure bout the boot order and its effect on what you are trying to achieve. What phone and os? You might want to look at your phones logs to see in what order what/which/where is going on when. As that could explain your issues a bit more clearly and possibly even provide the mystery errors. If not try running it in an emulator where you can make the boot up verbose and boot log it.
As for hiding the partition have you tried formatting the sdcard outside the phone environment. The hiding ability should be able to be gotten if you were to format in gparted I.e. Format it how you want size wise and format wise, then for the partition you want hidden flag it lba. Not sure if lba hides from your phone or not, but worth a shot.
*edit* what are you trying to achieve again? Dual booting os on phone? If so, I would take a look more towards the /dev/loop and chmod approach. Also keep in mind if this is what you are aiming at you might want to make 3 partitions as a swap partition would be beneficial.
Sent while wearin my foam helmet ridin the short bus.
Hy blackadept:
What i want: Ensure that there is two partitions in a sdcard as early as possible. ( i must create them if needed ). My focus now is in how to create. The logic of "if/when" todo a will deal later.
Why i want this: Project requirement. Not negotiable.
What will be stored: Part1 : User acessible. Nothinf special. Part2: Special Data user by an apk.
"Phone model": It´s a tablet. STI´s tablet. Android 2.2
Well the partitions will be there just from formatting the card, as to whether or not the init sees that I am not sure. I'm one of them poor simple folk who ain't got no money....aka I don't have the fun fancy toys like a tablet. haha. Only reason I bring that up is for the fact that being as I am not around them, literally haven't even seen one let alone hold lmao, not sure how it's boot up goes.
Have you tried creating a partition and formatting it with various flags such as lba to hide it from the OS? If we are talking small sizes here then I'd think you could hide it within such a flagged partition surrounded by fluff. Throw some encryption into the mix and your gtg. At that point all that's left for you to do would be writing script to navigate the maze and unlock it. If that would work then it would be a fairly easy out.
Otherwise we could go back to the "dual booting" that I brought up in the last post. Being as my phone can't mnt to bin *droid x.....hate u Motorola* I have done all of my dual and triple boots via looping thru /dev. This could work for you as well, tho again I'm not familiar with the tablets. If you did that tho..... well you could hide it in a myriad of ways.... flags, encryption, straight up "Where's Waldo" type shenanigans....
Have you ever put an ARM OS onto an android device before? If so, maybe give it a shot and let me know? Only question I'm wondering, tho, is android's ability to see the flag and be able to handle it. Also as to the level of root that particular device has (regular not-so-super user like my phone or is it completely unlockable?) would determine a game plan too in a way. If you have full access then you could just format the card thrice (sorry always wanted to use that in a sentence and feel all smert), making a special ext3 partition with the flags or encryption, make note in the root mnt's of it's existence thru your init script (tho just giving physical note to it.... not size or content). Write your .apk or specialized script with the UUID or GUID or w/e the *beep* android uses this week, and again you win at android....
Sorry for the long winded verbal response....lately I always seem to post when I ain't slept for 2-3 days as opposed to when I ain't delirious...

Dual boot 2 Android partitions on the Eee Pad...possible?

Seeing all the work being done over in the dev section, I was reminded of something I did when modding my xbox. The boot img for the xbox is very small, it basically just looks for various executable files in order from different places and then fails if it doesn't find them..and that's all it does, so it is much smaller than an entire ROM, 256k to be exact. The thing is the chip it was contained on in earlier models of the xbox were 1MB, 4 times what was needed. By shorting out the board on the TSOP one could use a physical switch to toggle how much of the chip was visible to the CPU, and you could in essence split this chip into four banks, and flash 4 different boot images if you wanted (although you needed a 4 position switch and a hell of a lot of 32 gauge wire + patience). Since that was really overkill, what I did was split the TSOP into 2 banks and flashed 2 separate bootloaders, one could remain stable and near stock, as to maintain all the function of the xbox, while with a flick of the switch I could boot from and flash the other bank experimentally, if it failed to flash or got stuck in a bootloop then you could switch over and reflash from the working side, keeping it from being brickable.
Now, of course we have much more control over a rooted android device's hardware via software than the xbox has, and can dual boot without adding switches and soldering the board (at least in the case of ubuntu), I was wondering is there any way to get a Eee Pad dual-booting from two ANDROID partitions, so one could boot and flash developing roms (like the ICS rom coming along in the dev section) while maintaining a safe bootable img that works as a safeguard?
Or does hardware limit this function in our machines?
It may be possible to do so by installing one of the ROMs to the recovery partition like we can do with Ubuntu.
I'm sure something like Boot Manager, that stores ROMs on the SD card, could be put in place for dual booting.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA App
Does recovery boot from the internal SD card or does it flash to an internal EEPROM chip?
I know the ROM itself is on the SDcard internally like any OS, wondering if there might be a way of getting the bootloader to actually search for a file on the external SD card and if it doesn't find it search for the same sys file that the OS uses on the internal?
On the xbox, the OS file was initiated by launching a single file, named default.xbe (xbe=xbox executable files), and all autorun files on the discs were also named 'default.xbe'..is this an option to actually change the initialization of the bootloader to search for the OS on the external before trying to boot from the internal OR conversely simply partitioning the interanl (though I don't know how you would go about getting the bootloader to differentiate between one partition and the other, much less have control of which it chooses to load/flash, without perhaps an intermediate 'OS selection' option)
this is not an xbox.
EDIT: however there would be a way to boot 2 android partitions, it would just require a very different set up to what you are saying. you are stuck in the minimalist xbox approach that has a small microkernel which can only run one executable at a time
I know it isn't an xbox, but that is the only linux-based system I've got experience hardware modding, I assume the TF could assume a similar function without hardware modifications..?
On another note- I just found out that there is an Android PS3 emulator (WOW) wondering how far off an Xbox360 emulator is from being ported from PC to Android..that would give someone a reason to want to dual boot...would be a novel thing to turn on the TF and be greeted by a gaming console boot animation
luna_c666 said:
I know it isn't an xbox, but that is the only linux-based system I've got experience hardware modding, I assume the TF could assume a similar function without hardware modifications..?
On another note- I just found out that there is an Android PS3 emulator (WOW) wondering how far off an Xbox360 emulator is from being ported from PC to Android..that would give someone a reason to want to dual boot...would be a novel thing to turn on the TF and be greeted by a gaming console boot animation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, xbox is winnt based not linux based
I understood it was UNIX based, at least the EVOX and UNLEASHX dashboards were, I wrote code for them and had to study UNIX in order to do so..I'm sure the OEM xbox stuff was MS proprietary, but everyone went to UNIX based dashboards instead, even installing DSL (Damn Small Linux). I even got a ported version of Windows CT running in a Linux application on the OEM Xbox, but now we are getting way off topic- my knowledge (or lack thereof) of the xbox isn't what's in question, rather my desire to learn MORE about the TF..how about giving me some constructive information instead of simply trying to tell me I am wrong here?
ok yes, we are getting away from the point, as I said, yes it could be done but not quite in the way you propose, it is a fair bit of work.
Check out the ubuntu project for android,
It creates two partitions by using your recovery area.
But the end result is that you a boot android or b boot ubuntu arm. (Don't get excited with arm ubuntu 90% of what I wanted to do I couldn't since its arm.
But my point is, I bet that could be easily modified replacing the ubuntu image with another android image and maybe some other stuff to "dual boot" your tf101.
Course the more I think about it the more reasons I get to doubt it'd be that simple.
Idea 2, one word..... safestrap.
Sent from my XT862
Ok ignore half of what I said, coffee hasn't kicked in and I didn't the part where you mention the Ubuntu project.
So my vote is going to a safestrap. Its exactly what I do on my Droid 3. Non safe is my rooted debloated ROM. Reboot, enable safe mode and I get hashes ics ROM.
Although this use isn't what he designed it for, it's a useful side effect. Takes about 3 minutes to get from nonsafe to safe, for me.
Sent from my XT862
I will have to look up safestrap I've never heard of it, is it a hardware device?
luna_c666 said:
Seeing all the work being done over in the dev section, I was reminded of something I did when modding my xbox. The boot img for the xbox is very small, it basically just looks for various executable files in order from different places and then fails if it doesn't find them..and that's all it does, so it is much smaller than an entire ROM, 256k to be exact. The thing is the chip it was contained on in earlier models of the xbox were 1MB, 4 times what was needed. By shorting out the board on the TSOP one could use a physical switch to toggle how much of the chip was visible to the CPU, and you could in essence split this chip into four banks, and flash 4 different boot images if you wanted (although you needed a 4 position switch and a hell of a lot of 32 gauge wire + patience). Since that was really overkill, what I did was split the TSOP into 2 banks and flashed 2 separate bootloaders, one could remain stable and near stock, as to maintain all the function of the xbox, while with a flick of the switch I could boot from and flash the other bank experimentally, if it failed to flash or got stuck in a bootloop then you could switch over and reflash from the working side, keeping it from being brickable.
Now, of course we have much more control over a rooted android device's hardware via software than the xbox has, and can dual boot without adding switches and soldering the board (at least in the case of ubuntu), I was wondering is there any way to get a Eee Pad dual-booting from two ANDROID partitions, so one could boot and flash developing roms (like the ICS rom coming along in the dev section) while maintaining a safe bootable img that works as a safeguard?
Or does hardware limit this function in our machines?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldnt you mount the developing or experimental ROM's like ics as loop devices?
Im not sure how many loop devices you can have but i think its like 6 or something
Before little stevie brought out hes ubuntu system thats how i had linux for awhile it wasnt the fastest or most efficient but good enough for testing
Sent from my tf Enigmatic V2 beta 1.65Ghz Panda.test cust kernel settings

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