Database Info

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.

Why cannot we dual boot?

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...

[HOW-TO] Edit your user.conf

With all these new "hero" builds coming out/updates for them, it is important to have optimal settings. Many people are not sure how to do this so I thought I would take my time to write a quick how to.
I have also attached a user.conf that is setup with comp cache and backing swap, swappiness of 80. I set the cpu scaling from 384 to 528 Mhz. You may edit this with notepad++ if you would like swap instead. Just open the user.conf with notepad++ and make the changes you want (the file is pretty self explanatory) Just be sure to set compcache to 0 along with backing swap
Place the "user.conf" on your sd root, and use the commands mentioned below
P.S. I apologize in advance to the moderators if you feel this is not in the appropriate place or not necessary, just trying to make things a little bit easier
In Terminal type:
Code:
$su
#sh /system/bin/rwsystem
#cp -f sdcard/user.conf /system/bin/user.conf
*If your ROM does not support "rwsystem"* use:
Code:
mount -o remount,rw /dev/mtd/mtdblock3 /system
Once again, I have attached a user.conf along with the JAC kernel that includes the script which allows you to use "rwsystem" (If your ROM supports the kernel)
Here is the link to the JACSki kernel with ttc_smokee's gps fix and Soul Life's script which will allow you to use "rwsystem"
http://www.4shared.com/file/133261717/84fd2884/JACHEROSki_Kernal-_Update.html
*Just like anything else on this site, I am not responsible for you bricking or damaging your device*
CHeErs

Post here if you would like any kind of walkthrough for "dummies" reguarding user.conf's or user.init's or

kingklick said:
*If your ROM does not have a kernel that supports "rwsystem" use
Code:
mount -oremount,rw /dev/mtd/mtdblock3 /system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You missed the space between -o and remount...

cx92001 said:
You missed the space between -o and remount...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
works as-is
some progs accept arguments like that
some don't
mount happens to be one that does

alapapa said:
works as-is
some progs accept arguments like that
some don't
mount happens to be one that does
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know. Thanks

alapapa said:
works as-is
some progs accept arguments like that
some don't
mount happens to be one that does
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yah it does work without the space, thanks, but i edited the space in anyway to prevent more posts like that

Are these edits needed/beneficial for those not interested/using hero ROMs?
I recall MikeTaylor had a file, but i know so little on what these can do. Thanks for doing this man.

s15274n said:
Are these edits needed/beneficial for those not interested/using hero ROMs?
I recall MikeTaylor had a file, but i know so little on what these can do. Thanks for doing this man.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not needed, however I'd say most would argue they are beneficial changes for most ROMS... ie) cyanogen uses comp cache on his builds.
and no problem man my pleasure. My way of giving back to this great site

If you do not know how to edit these files post here and ill make you a user.conf to your liking

kingklick said:
With all these new "hero" builds coming out/updates for them, it is important to have optimal settings. Many people are not sure how to do this so I thought I would take my time to write a quick how to.
I have also attached a user.conf that is setup with comp cache and backing swap, swappiness of 80. I set the cpu scaling from 383 to 528 Mhz. You may edit this with notepad++ if you would like swap instead. Just be sure to set compcache to 0 along with backing swap
P.S. I apologize in advance to the moderators if you feel this is not in the appropriate place or not necessary, just trying to make things a little bit easier
In Terminal type:
Code:
$su
#rwsystem
#cp -f sdcard/user.conf /system/bin/user.conf
*If your ROM does not have a kernel that supports "rwsystem" use
Code:
mount -o remount,rw /dev/mtd/mtdblock3 /system
Once again, I have attached a user.conf along with the JAC kernel that will allow you to use "rwsystem" (If your ROM supports the kernel)
Here is the link to the JACSki kernel which will allow you to use "rwsystem"
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K39IKK7A
*Just like anything else on this site, I am not responsible for you bricking or damaging your device*
CHeErs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rwsystem is not kernel dependent, its a script I wrote that made its way into a few other builds. Just a script which resides in bin or xbin directory, nothing more or less.

soulife said:
Rwsystem is not kernel dependent, its a script I wrote that made its way into a few other builds. Just a script which resides in bin or xbin directory, nothing more or less.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
o ok kool. I was mislead by a few others saying it was in the new JAC kernel silly people.... Anyway thanks for the fix soul life
you did a great thing by adding that script

Just changed the "kernel file" to the kernel with gps fix.
cheers!

More Detailed HOW-TO
Thanks for the post. I am in middle of (will take about a year, LOL) writing a HOW-TO on user.conf settings so that it will be easier to understand what needs editing and what settings are best. Currently, I am using a 64MB linux-swap with compcache and have been playing around with tweaking the settings to make my phones run "perfectly." This is much more difficult than it sounds when you take into account the various options such as backing swap, linux swap, swap files, compcache and swappiness settings. This all, of course, is system and user dependent. I use my G1 and my myTouch differently and have different apps installed on each so therefore, my settings are different for both. I still haven't come up with the perfect strategy but I am pretty close.
How about expanding this out (I don't mind actually posting it) to include more details on what each setting means and what the possible benefits/problems are with each. I use this (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=542899) userinit.sh file along with the user.conf. I wrote one script to pull the user.conf from system/sd to my SD card and one that pushes it back to system/sd when I'm done with it. I use "Text Edit" to edit the user.conf right on my phone so I do not need to use ADB and Notepad++. This takes the PC out of the picture so I can tweak the settings wherever I happen to be.
I don't think there is ONE user.conf file that is good for everyone. It all depends on what the user's intentions are with his or her phone. Your default swappiness is set to 80 but that can vary. I am up in the air on that one testing between 30 and 100. But like I said, user dependent.

AndroidAppCritic said:
Thanks for the post. I am in middle of (will take about a year, LOL) writing a HOW-TO on user.conf settings so that it will be easier to understand what needs editing and what settings are best. Currently, I am using a 64MB linux-swap with compcache and have been playing around with tweaking the settings to make my phones run "perfectly." This is much more difficult than it sounds when you take into account the various options such as backing swap, linux swap, swap files, compcache and swappiness settings. This all, of course, is system and user dependent. I use my G1 and my myTouch differently and have different apps installed on each so therefore, my settings are different for both. I still haven't come up with the perfect strategy but I am pretty close.
How about expanding this out (I don't mind actually posting it) to include more details on what each setting means and what the possible benefits/problems are with each. I use this (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=542899) userinit.sh file along with the user.conf. I wrote one script to pull the user.conf from system/sd to my SD card and one that pushes it back to system/sd when I'm done with it. I use "Text Edit" to edit the user.conf right on my phone so I do not need to use ADB and Notepad++. This takes the PC out of the picture so I can tweak the settings wherever I happen to be.
I don't think there is ONE user.conf file that is good for everyone. It all depends on what the user's intentions are with his or her phone. You default swappiness is set to 80 but that can vary. I am up in the air on that one testing between 30 and 100. But like I said, user dependent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
o ok very kool. Although, I did mention in my OP the HEro ROMs and what not, so I figured most people interested would be in the HEro scene. These settings seem to work best for me on 75% of the hero ROMs Ive flashed. DOesnt mean its "right" just whats worked for me. Just wanted to give back to this great site, and help the new comers because we have all been there at some point
P.S. PM me what you think I shoulld change/add to this thread to make it offical. Thank you in advance
ChEerS

Yeah, I just noticed the Hero thing. I suppose that I would like to see (somewhere on XDA either here or a new post) a very detailed explanation of all the possible settings, what they do and how they may or may not affect each other. When I was first trying all of this out I had to search very long to find explanations. If a noob wanted to know what swappiness was, for example, they would have a difficult time finding a good explanation. Even the experts can't agree so how is a novice supposed to understand it.
Perhaps this would be a good place for people who know to informally contribute and it can eventually be moved to its own thread, a sort of compache, linux-swap, backing swap, swappiness manual. A one-stop shop for all things memory related with links to the various XDA threads that can help them accomplish what they want to do.
My G1 and myTouch fly right now with next to no lag but it took me quite some time to get all the settings the way I like it (sort of, still perfecting them). I want the same for everyone.

AndroidAppCritic said:
Yeah, I just noticed the Hero thing. I suppose that I would like to see (somewhere on XDA either here or a new post) a very detailed explanation of all the possible settings, what they do and how they may or may not affect each other. When I was first trying all of this out I had to search very long to find explanations. If a noob wanted to know what swappiness was, for example, they would have a difficult time finding a good explanation. Even the experts can't agree so how is a novice supposed to understand it.
Perhaps this would be a good place for people who know to informally contribute and it can eventually be moved to its own thread, a sort of compache, linux-swap, backing swap, swappiness manual. A one-stop shop for all things memory related with links to the various XDA threads that can help them accomplish what they want to do.
My G1 and myTouch fly right now with next to no lag but it took me quite some time to get all the settings the way I like it (sort of, still perfecting them). I want the same for everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I agree cuz when I was trying to root my phone and stuff around fiveish months ago... and I had to do the whole runaround because there was not any good organized information like now it is pretty close. But we definitely have a ways to go to get some good stuff for n00bs... lets get it done.'

AndroidAppCritic said:
Yeah, I just noticed the Hero thing. I suppose that I would like to see (somewhere on XDA either here or a new post) a very detailed explanation of all the possible settings, what they do and how they may or may not affect each other. When I was first trying all of this out I had to search very long to find explanations. If a noob wanted to know what swappiness was, for example, they would have a difficult time finding a good explanation. Even the experts can't agree so how is a novice supposed to understand it.
Perhaps this would be a good place for people who know to informally contribute and it can eventually be moved to its own thread, a sort of compache, linux-swap, backing swap, swappiness manual. A one-stop shop for all things memory related with links to the various XDA threads that can help them accomplish what they want to do.
My G1 and myTouch fly right now with next to no lag but it took me quite some time to get all the settings the way I like it (sort of, still perfecting them). I want the same for everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yah for sure bro. Maybe you and me should put a detalied one together... This was intended to be a crude easy guide for pure n00bs who just want a "faster" phone. Most n00bs are not too concerned with what "swappiness" is and the technical difference between CC or linux-swap. Thats just my opionion though brother

Sorry if this is a stupid question but what exactly do I do with the two files? Do I rename the kernal update as update.zip and run that after I'm done installing the Hero ROM of my choice (I was looking at doing drizzy's)? Then what do I do with the user.conf file?

markdt098 said:
Sorry if this is a stupid question but what exactly do I do with the two files? Do I rename the kernal update as update.zip and run that after I'm done installing the Hero ROM of my choice (I was looking at doing drizzy's)? Then what do I do with the user.conf file?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ima change the OP thanks anyway, if you have recovery 1.4 you can actually flash "any" zip meaning it does not need to be renamed. MOst ROMS now have this kernel built in, however MOdaco 2.2 DOES NOT, so if you plan on using modaco 2.2, flash this kernel. FLash MOdaco (or whatever ROM is missing this kernel) THEN flash the kernel right after without rebooting.

as far as the user.conf goes, put it on your root and use the commands i provided in the OP.
ChEeRS

[APP] MyDroid - Progress Report

I am working on an application, akin to Droid Explorer, with my own tweaks and such.
Based on the idea of Droid Explorer, My Droid allows you to update your ROM, install/uninstall applications (APKs), take screen shots, view/interact with a screencast, input commands directly into the android command line, edit the file systems, browse files, etc.
UPDATE: It seems that AndoridSpin has changed their website layout for everything, which has caused me to need to rewrite the way I am parsing their page to be able to get the Download links for the ROMs. I will be working on getting this updated within the next few days.
Currently Working:
Install Single APK
Install Multiple APKs (Batch)
Backup (nandroid/nandroid+ext/bart (including backup name for bart)
Rebooting Phone (into recovery, or plain reboot)
Powering off phone
Partially Working/In Progress:
File and Directory Explorer
AndroidSpin Integration
Currently reads the ROM Database RSS Feed. Working on implementingthat data into the application.
Needed to be done:
Uninstalling APKs
Backing Up APKs (might remove due to 'theft' of paid apps)
Installing custom ROMs
The installation of Custom ROMs is going to be the big hurdle. Not because of the steps involved in the process though, thats fairly easy. But, I am going to include updating from the AndroidSpin ROM Database (as you can see in the menus). That will parse the RSS and Summary feeds of the ROM Datbase, and you can pick/choose the ROM of your liking. It will download it, and do the installation for you, including wiping the appropriate partitions and such.
As I progress further into development, I will also include things such as "screencast", to control your phone completely from the computer, as well as screenshots, debugging, etc.
I am hoping for an initial 'pre-pre-alpha' release shortly
Download: Not Yet Available
Any questions/comments/ideas/etc would be greatly appreciated!

Pre-requisites for installing?
Will there need to be anything installed prior to this package? Will this be a seamless process from download to altering system files? I have had issues with Droid Explorer and Windows Vista, and i could never get adb to work right.
It would be very nice to have an app like this while keeping it simple. For the people who cant figure out multiple installations/drivers and such.

This would (does) require that ADB be installed (with the correct drivers) for your system. ADB should also be in your %PATH% so that the application can utilize it. I will also add an option to specify the path for ADB so that you do not have to put it into your %PATH%

Looks great! If you'd like any help testing, I'd be glad to help.
Also, keep the ability to backup. If some users choose to use it for the wrong reasons, then that's a problem with their own morality. For the rest of us, constantly cooking roms and playing with new builds, being able to easily backup and restore all of our apps is a god-send.
It's nice to have a tool that does everything you need, not just some
Again, looks great so far

Hopefully yours will work with Vista 64bit. I have adb installed and working but Droid Explorer still doesnt work currently.

Joe333x said:
Hopefully yours will work with Vista 64bit. I have adb installed and working but Droid Explorer still doesnt work currently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not have a 64 bit machine to test this on, but seeing as it is being written strictly in .Net, and not using any 3rd party libraries, I do not see why it should be an issue.
If anyone knows of any complications that the .Net framework has with any certain functions on a 64 bit system, let me know, so I can attempt to program in appropriate work-arounds for the 64 bit crowd.

[email protected] said:
I have had issues with Droid Explorer and Windows Vista, and i could never get adb to work right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had these issues as well. My ADB was working just fine in Vista, then I installed Droid Explorer and ADB stopped working, it stopped recognizing that my device was there. Yet, ADB works just fine in my laptop.

It looks interesting I'm waiting for download link

jmhecker said:
I am working on an application, akin to Droid Explorer, with my own tweaks and such.
Features:
snip snip
Backing Up APKs (might remove due to 'theft' of paid apps)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you disable this feature...people will just find another way to steal paid apps(its not the hardest task).... just sayin
i say you keep it

PanPiotr said:
It looks interesting I'm waiting for download link
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might be a while. I have a long way to go to even consider an alpha release, heh.
jamezelle said:
if you disable this feature...people will just find another way to steal paid apps(its not the hardest task).... just sayin
i say you keep it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, y'all twisted my arm, I'll add that feature

Hmmm looks pretty promising, wouldnt mind tryin it, n am I the only 1 who thinks this is the wrong section? This should be in the Apps section

i also thought creating such app, i wanted to start working at it these days but it seems someone else already doing it, keep the good works, cheers

AsaSpades said:
Hmmm looks pretty promising, wouldnt mind tryin it, n am I the only 1 who thinks this is the wrong section? This should be in the Apps section
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you're not only one, I'm also think this is wrong section.

Just a quick update:
Progress is coming along nicely. A lot of features are implemented as of now, but not enough to constitute an alpha or beta release.
What I am currently working on is the parsing of the AndroidSpin database (using their RSS feed). That progress is coming along great, just a few hiccups.
Any other feature requests besides what I have listed in the OP?
And for those complaining that this is in the wrong section, please clarify as to where you think it should be, so I can be sure that future posts go to there.

Okay, time is coming close for a Beta.
I have finished the AndroidSpin RSS portion. I have successfully used my application to browse the ROMs (categorized by phone) from the AndroidSpin RSS feed, selected a rom, downloaded it, copied it to the SD card, rebooted into recovery, performed a nandroid and bart backup, wiped all 3 items(system/dalvik/ext), installed the new ROM, and rebooted, without ever having to touch my phone.
I need to do some code cleanup in that area to streamline the process, but at least I know it works
After I streamline the ROM upgrade process, I am going to work on getting things like screenshots, screencasting, etc, working as they should. Nothing really difficult with any of that, but just time consuming to get it all pieced together properly.
I am hoping for a beta release sometime soon.

any progress?

looks good.. now will this be open source?

[TOOL] G2x Nullifier AROMA [UPDATED!] 2 August, fully customizable: Made with AROMA!

Hello,
Here is my no longer new wipe tool, inspired by the G2x Scrubber.
The Nullifier.
This uses a special command in combination with a special file to overwrite the internal partitions with 0's, hence "Null" for 0 and "-ifier" for the fact that it does the action of the root word to something else. It also formats *all* the partitions afterward and *new* checks for, and repairs any errors on them.
6 Oct: This tool is now depreciated and succeded by the G2x AIO wipe tool.
New 2 August:
Updated to 3.1, now fully customizeable by partition. Still haven't gotten around to making status bars, it's going to take a little bit to work out the best implementation.
New 28 July: I've been working on wrapping my head around the infamous AROMA installer and have at least made some progress in understanding it. As alot of people in the past had wanted to have the option to choose which to wipe, and how many times. We're not there yet. Yet. I just wanted to give those interested something new to chew on while I work out how to break it down function by function. Currently I have it made so that you have one installer which allows you to choose between a single and dual wipe.
New 26 March: The Cache Nullifier I edited the script down to just do a single pass Nullification then format and error check. This will work on the G2x, O2x and su660.
26 April update: Changed the commands so that it writes ext4 file system instead of ext3 when it formats and created an error check zip, mostly just because it could prove to be useful. I tried a couple of different sign programs to sign these properly but in testing signature verification fails still.
Minor update 1 March: swapped out the binaries on the 2.0.6 releases so they're the same as the older versions, added an ext4 cache nullifier, and fixed the code on the dual-wipe as I was sober when that one was revised as it had errors which would prevent it from running.
Some brief need to knows:
1. This is a little lengthy process so please bear with it. The longest wipe is on /data which will take about 7 minutes. Obviously, make sure you have plenty of battery life before running it or are charging.
2. You *must not* power off your phone without first installing a new ROM or restoring a nandroid after you use this. See post here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=23998091&postcount=125
3. I will provide help, support, etc., but I am not, nor is anyone else involved with this, responsible for any problems you may have in the extremely unlikely event that you do.
old links:
Depreciated
Direct link to 3.1:
Depreciated
Thanks to da-pharoah for being my main beta tester who stuck with me all the way, even after bricking his phone and getting the progress bar pinned down as best as possible.
Additional thanks to anyone who contributed (you know who you are).

Nullifier Q and A:
Q: Will this harm my phone in any way or brick it?
A: No, the incident with Pharaoh's phone was an unexpected problem brought about from the source-file I was using at the time causing CWM and Android to think the phone was encrypted. I no longer use that source-file.
Q: Why not just format everything?
A: Because a format isn't intended to erase data, though, to a degree, does so. This script is intended to and will wipe out the data and leave a clean set of partitions for a ROM to be installed to.
Q: (Submitted by Cargohook) Would it be idiotic or fruitless to run this and then restore a nandroid backup? I mean, would that defeat the purpose?
A: I highly doubt it would be a waste of your time. On an educated hunch, when you restore a nandroid all CWM does is format the partitions then load the data from the nandroid to those partitions; back to square 1 with old data being left behind.
Q: Why don't I get a message about formatting /boot?
A: Because it doesn't format /boot. Why? In testing I found that it doesn't need it. It's all a matter of how Android uses boot.img and how it's copied.
Q: Does this wipe internal or external SD? (added because it keeps getting asked)
A: In a word, no.
Q: Will using this cause nand-failure or make my phone unusable if used too much?
A: In my opinion, no. In other's, yes. By my experience I have never encountered such a problem. To give you a better answer, please see Overground's post on that subject here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=25257903&postcount=327
(Thanks for the objective opinion overground)
(More to come as need be)

Reserved just in case. (I knew there was a reason for me reserving this)
Changelog for 3.1:
Now you can select one, two or no wipes per partition, a long-requested feature.
Changelog for 3.0.5:
1. Obviously this is now AROMA based.
2. The scripting for the progress bar is different due to AROMA, so for now we have no status bar progress. I'm waiting to see if someone can explain what Amarullz means in his explanation since I can't make heads or tails of it. Otherwise all the old functionality is the exact same.
Changelog: (old)
1. Added progress bar.
It's not 100% accurate, but sadly it's impossible to get it 100%, even after tons of testing.
2. Fixed format issue with /cache.
Thanks Overground for showing us a better format command to use
and to my tester/protogee Pharoah, who added the unmount command which made CWM less pissed at me.
3. Added a model check just in case someone doesn't know what they're getting ahold of and turn their phone's internals into something resembeling Chernobyl's Reactor Number Four.
4. Removed unneeded mount command in dual wipe script which was causing problems.
Plans for the future:
Create a menu system so that the user has a choice of what to wipe, and single vs dual wipes, or no wipe at all.
This is coming along well, I decided to keep it more straight-forward versus making a system of menus, so once it's thoroughly tested it'll be released
Hopefully a time-based progress bar is still possible, if not I guess it's time to find someone who likes math to figure out the percentage of each operation.

Cool, will try in a second.
How long am I looking at here?

IRASadPanda said:
Cool, will try in a second.
How long am I looking at here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow deja vu!
But maybe like 12-14 minutes. Didn't time exactly but that's a good estimate..

Волк said:
4. I will provide help, support, etc., but I, nor anyone else involved with this, is responsible for any problems you may have in the extremely unlikely event that you do.
(you know who you are).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to change that so that it says "I am not, nor is anyone else involved in this, responsible for any problems....etc."
The way it's worded right now makes it look like you're claiming responsibility, which could get ugly.

No, it'll be a little longer than that since it wipes each partition twice. The big one is /data since it's 1.5GB.
@IRASadpanda: I guess I should make it a little simpler.

Волк said:
No, it'll be a little longer than that since it wipes each partition twice. The big one is /data since it's 1.5GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the new tool I have to wipe now!

and thats why he is a dev on team hellfire

i know a regular "format" of a nand flash just breaks the links to the data stored in the cells and doesn't actually overwrite the data, but won't doing this often wear out the flash card

Why does the data wipe take 7 min?
Sent from my PG41200 using xda premium

wyldkard said:
Why does the data wipe take 7 min?
Sent from my PG41200 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because it's actually making sure everything is wiped.

Worked like a freaking charm! Thanks! Start it... let it do its thing, right at the "oh ****, something is wrong" moment it will move on... let it work...
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Yea, the time I mentioned is actually the time. I got the time straight from CWM's log.

dang just when i got my phone all setup with HFS 1.4, could have used this a few days ago
nice work man!!! downloading now!!

Thanks for you're hard work!
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Congratulations!
Nice job Volk, glad to see all your hard work pay off. Keep up the good work

Let it run and it cleaned it all up running way faster you rock!!!!!!"
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Thanks! Also, thank da-pharaoh as well, he did most of the testing on it once my initial tests were done, and even helped with those.

Question: Would it be idiotic or fruitless to run this and then restore a nandroid backup? I mean, would that defeat the purpose?
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium