ROM and recovery structure - Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]

Hey,
I'm generally new to the Android platform.
I got some hands on with simple guided procedures like rooting and flashing ROMs and updates.
I just wanted to get a better picture of how recovery works --
Where does the recovery sit? Is it on a different partition in the phone's internal storage?
Does booting into recovery actually mean that we're instructing the boot-loader to boot from a different partition rather than booting from the OS partition?
When using custom recovery images, do we actually override the phone's original recovery or is it loaded from a separate location (such as the SD card)?
By the way, if anyone knows some good resources where I can read more about the structure of the OS, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

Related

[Q] Pre-flash, some questions

I'm about to flash my first custom ROM on my Desire S.
It's S-OFF, rooted and fully backed up (nandroid, titanium backup, SD to PC).
I tried to read as much as possible abut the flashing process and some of the android internals. Excuse me if my questions are still a bit noobish, I tried to read a lot.
I've decided to try CM7 and repartition my SD card to add an ext4 sd-ext partition.
Before I flash, I still have some questions:
- Where is HBOOT located exactly? /boot ?
- Where is the recovery (ClockworkMod in my case) located? /recovery ?
- Revolutionary installed ClockworkMod. However, ROM Manager also offered me to flash it (that's what I did). Did ROM Manager overwrite the ClockworkMod in /recovery?
- Assuming that /boot and /recovery are critical (from my previous questions), and that they are backed up and available (nandroid backup files) on my PC, can I always push those back with adb in case something goes wrong?
- What's the correct order for the flash + repartition?
Repartition first, allow the wipe (data + everything) to wipe the SD during flashing, copy data back after new ROM is running?
- What's the safest/best way to flash? From HBOOT/recovery? Or ROM Manager? Or do they actually do exactly the same?
I.e. ROM Manager rebooting and starting ClockworkMod?
Sorry for all the questions. I'm pretty sure that the flash will work fine, but I always like to know more about the internals first.
Quark^2 said:
I'm about to flash my first custom ROM on my Desire S.
It's S-OFF, rooted and fully backed up (nandroid, titanium backup, SD to PC).
I tried to read as much as possible abut the flashing process and some of the android internals. Excuse me if my questions are still a bit noobish, I tried to read a lot.
I've decided to try CM7 and repartition my SD card to add an ext4 sd-ext partition.
Before I flash, I still have some questions:
- Where is HBOOT located exactly? /boot ?
- Where is the recovery (ClockworkMod in my case) located? /recovery ?
- Revolutionary installed ClockworkMod. However, ROM Manager also offered me to flash it (that's what I did). Did ROM Manager overwrite the ClockworkMod in /recovery?
- Assuming that /boot and /recovery are critical (from my previous questions), and that they are backed up and available (nandroid backup files) on my PC, can I always push those back with adb in case something goes wrong?
- What's the correct order for the flash + repartition?
Repartition first, allow the wipe (data + everything) to wipe the SD during flashing, copy data back after new ROM is running?
- What's the safest/best way to flash? From HBOOT/recovery? Or ROM Manager? Or do they actually do exactly the same?
I.e. ROM Manager rebooting and starting ClockworkMod?
Sorry for all the questions. I'm pretty sure that the flash will work fine, but I always like to know more about the internals first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very impressed to see someone actually ask intelligent questions....and seek a real understanding..
Unfortunately its now my dinner time....so I only have a few minutes....so I'll attempt to answer quickly:
YES (boot.img in backup), YES (recovery.img in backup) and unless you play lots of games and require lots of ext space this device has a decent amount of internal storage so that it doesn't require sd-ext partitions (that's just my opinion anyway - these partitions are something from when devices had minimal internal storage)
What I will say is yes you downgraded the CWM version that revolutionary had installed with an older one from ROM Mananager. So you'll be much better of to install EXT4 recovery (which is based on CWM) and overwrite the old CWM, so simply download this file onto your SD card and flash it from recovery over the existing CWM recovery....then when you reboot recovery you'll have the EXT4.
what are the advantages of ext4 recovery exactly? im also running the CWM from the CWMM.
kazen44 said:
what are the advantages of ext4 recovery exactly? im also running the CWM from the CWMM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For a start its based on the same code base as CWM, but, has lots of added functionality, is far more user friendly, is constantly being updated and can be themed! The support is immense as well, just look at the thread.
there's too many to mention, simply read the EXT4 forum link in the page above so see them for yourself!
Just the file system conversion part of it is worth it!
whats the advantage of ext4 on a phone instead of ext3? ive worked with both filesystems quite a lot on my desktop PC. but there does not seem to be a major diffrence. i know that EXT4 supports journaling far better then ext3 does. but thats about the only thing i notice as diffrent on my linux install.
Actually boot and hboot are different things. I'm not 100% sure but I think that the kernel is located in the /boot partition, you are able to format it or replace its content from within the recovery.
Hboot is the initial bootloader that is located in a secure block of eMMC, you can't access it from recovery and can't backup it. If you completely wipe all partitions accessible through recovery, you still can easily install new ROM or restore from backup, even if you lose your recovery you can still restore it through fastboot. Phone with damaged or incorrect hboot is definitely a brick, it won't be accessible through PC connection and won't load up. Normally it's only possible to make permanent damage to the phone if you incorrectly flash hboot or radio image, while it's possible to brick even without messing with them, it's usually caused by faulty hardware (eMMC chip).
Ok thanks all so far.
So, HBOOT resides in eMMC and not is easily accessible (but still flashable).
At least, that's what Revolutionary did, my current HBOOT shows "Revolutionary" in the first line.
The kernel resides in /boot, which is the same for all all regular linux distros.
I think I have a clearer picture of the internals now. Still not 100% clear, but getting there.
I am going to flash 4EXTRecovery first, before trying to flash my first custom ROM.
Ofcourse, repeating the backup cycle, just in case.
I'm only left with these questions (for now ;-):
- What's the best way to flash now? From ROM Manager or 4EXTRecovery (from HBOOT manually)?
- Does the Wiping (everything, data + cache) also clear my SD card? I'm fairly sure it does.
Quark^2 said:
I'm only left with these questions (for now ;-):
- What's the best way to flash now? From ROM Manager or 4EXTRecovery (from HBOOT manually)?
- Does the Wiping (everything, data + cache) also clear my SD card? I'm fairly sure it does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROM Manager loads recovery in order to flash, so there is no real difference. Flashing from HBOOT is only required for updating hboot itself or radio, I'm pretty sure it's better to use recovery to flash everything else.
Wiping everything formats /boot, /system, /data and /cache partitions, it doesn't wipe SD card (would be kinda stupid if it did actually, as CWM recovery places backup files on SD). I still make SD card backups from time to time, just for convenience.
Evilmystic said:
Actually boot and hboot are different things. I'm not 100% sure but I think that the kernel is located in the /boot partition, you are able to format it or replace its content from within the recovery.
Hboot is the initial bootloader that is located in a secure block of eMMC, you can't access it from recovery and can't backup it. If you completely wipe all partitions accessible through recovery, you still can easily install new ROM or restore from backup, even if you lose your recovery you can still restore it through fastboot. Phone with damaged or incorrect hboot is definitely a brick, it won't be accessible through PC connection and won't load up. Normally it's only possible to make permanent damage to the phone if you incorrectly flash hboot or radio image, while it's possible to brick even without messing with them, it's usually caused by faulty hardware (eMMC chip).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the correction , I also have a slightly clearer picture of the internals myself.
Evilmystic said:
ROM Manager loads recovery in order to flash, so there is no real difference. Flashing from HBOOT is only required for updating hboot itself or radio, I'm pretty sure it's better to use recovery to flash everything else.
Wiping everything formats /boot, /system, /data and /cache partitions, it doesn't wipe SD card (would be kinda stupid if it did actually, as CWM recovery places backup files on SD). I still make SD card backups from time to time, just for convenience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the correction , and on thinking it through of course you're right, I also have a slightly clearer picture of the internals myself.

What Is Android and Custom Recovery Image..?

ClockworkMod – also known as Clockwork and CWM – is a custom recovery for Android phones and tablets that allows you to perform several advanced recovery, restoration, installation and maintenance operations on your Android device that aren’t possible with the stock recovery. In what follows, we will cover all that this recovery is capable of doing, and how to do it.
About Android Recovery
All Android devices ship with a recovery console that is basically a partition on the device’s internal memory and can be booted into. The stock recovery of almost all Android devices provides a few basic yet handy options that allow you to factory reset your device and also to recover its operating system using an official ROM in zip format, but that’s all you can do with it. That’s where a custom recovery comes handy.
A custom Android recovery basically replaces the stock recovery with one that lets you do all you can do with the stock recovery, plus a plethora of more options to give you a lot more control on your device. With a custom recovery, you can install official and unofficial ROMs as well as other updates including apps, themes, kernels etc. using zip files, wipe not just user data but pretty much every partition on your device, mount the storage card for USB mass storage access without leaving recovery, partition your SD card, wipe Dalvik cache and battery stats, fix permissions, perform, manage and restore backups and so on...
Complete Article:
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile...-and-how-to-use-it-on-android-complete-guide/
Aspire said:
Complete Article:
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile...-and-how-to-use-it-on-android-complete-guide/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thnkss fr ur concern soon ivl complete..
mohitawasthi said:
ClockworkMod – also known as Clockwork and CWM – is a custom recovery for Android phones and tablets that allows you to perform several advanced recovery, restoration, installation and maintenance operations on your Android device that aren’t possible with the stock recovery. In what follows, we will cover all that this recovery is capable of doing, and how to do it.
About Android Recovery
All Android devices ship with a recovery console that is basically a partition on the device’s internal memory and can be booted into. The stock recovery of almost all Android devices provides a few basic yet handy options that allow you to factory reset your device and also to recover its operating system using an official ROM in zip format, but that’s all you can do with it. That’s where a custom recovery comes handy.
A custom Android recovery basically replaces the stock recovery with one that lets you do all you can do with the stock recovery, plus a plethora of more options to give you a lot more control on your device. With a custom recovery, you can install official and unofficial ROMs as well as other updates including apps, themes, kernels etc. using zip files, wipe not just user data but pretty much every partition on your device, mount the storage card for USB mass storage access without leaving recovery, partition your SD card, wipe Dalvik cache and battery stats, fix permissions, perform, manage and restore backups and so on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a little confused, I'm a noob. So if I root a phone and delete bloatware, can I make a custom recovery so the phone doesn't brick and the factory reset resets all settings to a certain way I want it to? Or is my perception of a custom recovery totally off?
factory reset cannot work according to you
it will remove all the data you have in your /data partition
@op
you should delete the [Q] tag from the title
@s.d.oconnor
good to see you as the mod here, wanna post something related to rc let me know
I have removed the [Q] from your thread title, to avoid mistakes.
matthewm223 said:
I'm a little confused, I'm a noob. So if I root a phone and delete bloatware, can I make a custom recovery so the phone doesn't brick and the factory reset resets all settings to a certain way I want it to? Or is my perception of a custom recovery totally off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
replacing the recovery.img file with the custom recovery.img file just by simply coping/overwritting , Will this be same as installing the custom ROM?
Custom recovery partition program killed 32 GB sd card
Is it possible that this partition programmer from clockwork recovery can't work with the new big 32 gb cards?
I wanted to let the custom recovery make an ext2 partition, and a fat 32 partition on a brandnew 32 GB sd card.
Seems that the custom recovery partition program wiped my master boot record from the sd card, I tried everything, the card is recognised,
but it is impossible to write anyting on it. I tried to repair the mbr, but so far it didn't work. I tried with windows fdisk but no solution found.
Someone knows how to save my sd card without sending back to factory?
Custom recovery can be downloaded from ROM manger for fit????
adityaf said:
Custom recovery can be downloaded from ROM manger for fit????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes but it can cause a brick
mohitawasthi said:
ClockworkMod – also known as Clockwork and CWM – is a custom recovery for Android phones and tablets that allows you to perform several advanced recovery, restoration, installation and maintenance operations on your Android device that aren’t possible with the stock recovery. In what follows, we will cover all that this recovery is capable of doing, and how to do it.
About Android Recovery
All Android devices ship with a recovery console that is basically a partition on the device’s internal memory and can be booted into. The stock recovery of almost all Android devices provides a few basic yet handy options that allow you to factory reset your device and also to recover its operating system using an official ROM in zip format, but that’s all you can do with it. That’s where a custom recovery comes handy.
A custom Android recovery basically replaces the stock recovery with one that lets you do all you can do with the stock recovery, plus a plethora of more options to give you a lot more control on your device. With a custom recovery, you can install official and unofficial ROMs as well as other updates including apps, themes, kernels etc. using zip files, wipe not just user data but pretty much every partition on your device, mount the storage card for USB mass storage access without leaving recovery, partition your SD card, wipe Dalvik cache and battery stats, fix permissions, perform, manage and restore backups and so on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks
adityaf said:
Custom recovery can be downloaded from ROM manger for fit????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
best thing would be to use odin for CWM
I have CWM installed on my Fit but my CM 10 is buggy and I want to use both CM 9 and CM 10. Is dual boot possible on the Fit?
---------- Post added at 11:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:57 PM ----------
Also, my CWM is not flashing the latest update of CM10. Can anyone help me? I'm getting a status 7 error :crying:
Kronosthelordoftime said:
I have CWM installed on my Fit but my CM 10 is buggy and I want to use both CM 9 and CM 10. Is dual boot possible on the Fit?
---------- Post added at 11:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:57 PM ----------
Also, my CWM is not flashing the latest update of CM10. Can anyone help me? I'm getting a status 7 error :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dual boot is not possible on fit.
Make sure you have CWM5 not CWM4 or any touch versions..only the one by tj_style is gonna work.
but what is a recovery.img?
But is the recovery.img specific to device like the ROMs or it does not make any difference?
The recovery.img I am talking about is like not more than 5MB in size....
It maybe a stupid question but I am unable to find any particular information regarding this point so please help me.....
How do i get cwm without pc please
Sent from my GT-S5670 using xda app-developers app
Asus Memo Pad HD 7
I wiped some necessary programs and completely kill my tablet.
Is there any idea how to recover the device (I'm not maked backup).
CU
shadow452 said:
I wiped some necessary programs and completely kill my tablet.
Is there any idea how to recover the device (I'm not maked backup).
CU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash any custom rom...
♪Cheers♪
RE
Galaxy_Rohit said:
Flash any custom rom...
♪Cheers♪
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't find costom rom for Asus ME173X.
If I use roms for other devices that can make tablet-brick instead of tablet-android.
Do you have same device like me?
shadow452 said:
I don't find costom rom for Asus ME173X.
If I use roms for other devices that can make tablet-brick instead of tablet-android.
Do you have same device like me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess it's a new tablet arrived this year. It might b under warranty. So u can freely expect assistance from customer care
Btw I don't have this tablet

Booting from external SD [CM]

UPDATE: This can't be used with CM10 Alpha 4 (or later) as it is due to the new partitioning system.
____
I made this thing time ago and I thought to share.
What it does is to boot a stock ROM from the external SD card. It's nothing special, I simply changed few things here and there. I did it because I needed a stock ROM for a couple of minutes and this was the faster way to get it.
I'm using CM and I made this with that in mind, so, don't use while using a stock ROM. It won't mess your current setup, but it won't work.
You need to change kernel to boot the stock ROM (reboot recovery > flash zip. Simple and fast). That's because, as you probably now, kernels made for stock ROMs are not compatible with CM.
Prepare you SD card
You need first to repartition your external SD like this:
Code:
1° partition (mmcblk1p1): FAT - it will be the usual external SD
2° partition (mmcblk1p2): ext4 - /system (make it around 300MB big, 254MB will be more or less the space used)
3° partition (mmcblk1p3): ext4 - /data
I can't help you with this, I did it with adb and parted (the command is available in CWM). Look for instructions on the web, it's full of guides out there. Your external SD card is /dev/block/mmcblk1 (mmcblk0 is the internal one).
If you'll use the zip linked to flash the ROM, the two partitions (mmcblk1p2 and mmcblk1p3) will be automatically converted, unless they are already two ext4/ext3/ext2 partitions.
It shouldn't matter which kernel you are currently using and it should be safe flashing it, the only important thing is to have three partitions. If mmcblk1p2 or mmcblk1p3 are not detected, the installation will be aborted (it means that your SD card is not partitioned). Nothing else will be touched.
If you don't want to use the zip, mount mmbclk1p2 and copy the ROM there.
/dbdata will be the usual one (it's not used in CM. This will also makes Samsung apps a lot faster when using a slow SD card), same for /cache.
The flashable ROM is a stock XXLE4 + su/Superuser.apk.
How to use the additional ROM
To use the ROM on your SD, flash kernel-stock-SD.zip (see below) from recovery.
To go back to the real ROM you have to flash its kernel. Here below you can find CM10 Alpha 2 kernel, flashable from recovery. If you have doubts, reflash the entire ROM, it won't wipe your data.
I only mentioned CM10 because it's what I'm using, but this thing should work with CM9 too.
Things to know
I built the kernel using the latest Samsung sources with inbuilt ext4 support (and ext3/ext2 compatibility). Nothing else was changes, so I think there's no need to publish the sources, they are available here.
I attached the tools I use to unpack/repack boot images (they are a modified version of skin1980's tools):
Code:
./unpack.pl boot.img
./repack.sh [gz|lzma|bzip2|xz]
To see the changes I made, compare "out/android" with the stock XXLE4 ramdisk and the other two directories with CM10 boot.img ramdisk.
I changed recovery.fstab accordingly, but I can't tell you if flashing stuff from CWM while using the additional ROM will work as expected. You should read the updater-script to know it for sure.
I can only tell you that dhiru's builds will be flashed into the real /system partition and not your SD card.
Backups should work too, but I didn't try.
Of course, performances depends on your SD card. Mine is not that good I think, I took it from an old phone and I really don't know anything about it. The ROM is still usable, but apps that intensely use databases are slow (not Samsung apps, those will use /dbdata). Maybe disabling journaling will help (search for more info).
The Galaxy SL screen will last more than usual because I intentionally added a delay (3 seconds, SD cards are detected after a while) and of course because of the slower load.
Please, use this if you have some experience.
Note: dual booting two ROMs with a single kernel is possible, but only if they use the same kernel image. See this and this.
Downloads
XXLE4-CWM.zip: CWM flashable ROM
kernel-stock-SD.zip: kernel to boot the ROM from the external SD, flashable from recovery
kernel-CM10-Alpha2.zip: CM10 Alpha 2 kernel, flashable from recovery
Wow ! thats dualboot for i9003 ! sweet gud to see development back in action
Good work.
The class of an SD card can be misleading. It is only a measure of the sequential Write access and that doesn't tell the whole story. Class 10 cards are great for cameras and applications that write or read sequential data, such as saving a picture and transferring a file. They are not so good for random access which is what the Android OS does when operating. In fact the random access speed for class 10 cards is lower than class 4 or 6 cards. From what I have seen, the sweet spot for smartphones is class 6.
Awesome. Only if we could achieve dual boot without flashing kernel everytime. But anyways awesome guide. Thanks.
Reminded me of dual booting of maemo and android on my brother's n900.
Whats the benefits of dual boot? I heard about it but i dont have an idea
juztinlee said:
Whats the benefits of dual boot? I heard about it but i dont have an idea
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dual Booting means you can have two OS's (here firmware) on the phone at the same time. You can choose on which you want to go. This, besides being awesomely cool, is really helpful in many scenarios.
But its not exactly a dual booting. On galaxy s2 dual booting uses a single kernel but in our case.we are still using two different kernels which has to flash saperately.
Really we should create a kernel which can be used for cm9/10 & for stock GB rom. Then real fun will begin
^But this can be useful when you have to go for a long trip and want to record videos which only our stock rom is capable of doing good. Thanks to the developer.
Also, if anyone can, please tell me what is the possibility we can create a dualboot kernel like siyah kernel?
vishal24387 said:
But its not exactly a dual booting. On galaxy s2 dual booting uses a single kernel but in our case.we are still using two different kernels which has to flash saperately.
Really we should create a kernel which can be used for cm9/10 & for stock GB rom. Then real fun will begin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't say dual boot
Creating a single kernel for ICS/JB and GB is not possible, or at least not an easy thing.
CyanogenMod is using newer graphic drivers not compatible with GB. I tried to use my CM10 kernel with GB, just to see what could happen. Well, it works, but with no hardware rendering as expected. It doesn't mean "it's laggy", it's painfully slow. And if we'll have the 3.0 kernel working, I guess this will be even more difficult.
The only option I think is kexecing an additional kernel, but kexec is hard to implement.
However I dual booted CM10 and CM9 (SD) with a single kernel (there are traces of this in my unpack/repack tools), I simply added an additional "cpio.gz" inside the boot.img. There's an additional boot reason that we never use, so we can use it to choose the corrent "cpio.gz" by parsing /proc/cmdline. The only problem is that you need to boot the ROM first and the reboot, because to get the other boot reason you have to run this:
Code:
reboot arm11_fota #or arm9_fota
(if you are using a stock ROM and try to reboot with the command above, you'll see weird stuff, but nothing should happen to your phone. I did it once.).
Maybe there's something else possible, but dual booting never interested me. As I said, I did it because I needed it.
You can do a lot of things, I even stored a ROM in a subdirectory in /data and use it from there (=> fast).
santoshsadani009 said:
^But this can be useful when you have to go for a long trip and want to record videos which only our stock rom is capable of doing good. Thanks to the developer.
Also, if anyone can, please tell me what is the possibility we can create a dualboot kernel like siyah kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know how exactly dual booting with this kernel works. I actually don't know how usually dual booting is implemented in Android.
I just looked at it. It allows you dualbooting only two ICS+ ROMs (so no GB), it automatically creates an hidden partition, automatically stores the ROM there, provides additional tools in CWM and other nice things.
I guess is something possible, but don't expect it from me. As I said, I'm not interested in dual booting and this thing requires time and knowledge.
loSconosciuto said:
I didn't say dual boot
Creating a single kernel for ICS/JB and GB is not possible, or at least not an easy thing.
CyanogenMod is using newer graphic drivers not compatible with GB. I tried to use my CM10 kernel with GB, just to see what could happen. Well, it works, but with no hardware rendering as expected. It doesn't mean "it's laggy", it's painfully slow. And if we'll have the 3.0 kernel working, I guess this will be even more difficult.
The only option I think is kexecing an additional kernel, but kexec is hard to implement.
However I dual booted CM10 and CM9 (SD) with a single kernel (there are traces of this in my unpack/repack tools), I simply added an additional "cpio.gz" inside the boot.img. There's an additional boot reason that we never use, so we can use it to choose the corrent "cpio.gz" by parsing /proc/cmdline. The only problem is that you need to boot the ROM first and the reboot, because to get the other boot reason you have to run this:
Code:
reboot arm11_fota #or arm9_fota
(if you are using a stock ROM and try to reboot with the command above, you'll see weird stuff, but nothing should happen to your phone. I did it once.).
Maybe there's something else possible, but dual booting never interested me. As I said, I did it because I needed it.
You can do a lot of things, I even stored a ROM in a subdirectory in /data and use it from there (=> fast).
I don't know how exactly dual booting with this kernel works. I actually don't know how usually dual booting is implemented in Android.
I just looked at it. It allows you dualbooting only two ICS+ ROMs (so no GB), it automatically creates an hidden partition, automatically stores the ROM there, provides additional tools in CWM and other nice things.
I guess is something possible, but don't expect it from me. As I said, I'm not interested in dual booting and this thing requires time and knowledge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so that means we can dualboot cm9/10 with miui v4 . right ? since they both use the same kernel
vishal24387 said:
But its not exactly a dual booting. On galaxy s2 dual booting uses a single kernel but in our case.we are still using two different kernels which has to flash saperately.
Really we should create a kernel which can be used for cm9/10 & for stock GB rom. Then real fun will begin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya a Universal kernel will do the trick.If later then we can achieve dual boot then the people who were holding back from CM9 or CM10 can flash that for features and a stock rom for stability and camera.
shriomman said:
so that means we can dualboot cm9/10 with miui v4 . right ? since they both use the same kernel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as the kernel is the same, yes.
If you want, here you can find the unpacked boot.img I (probably) used to dual boot CM10 and CM9 (SD).
There's no zImage in there, use the one you prefer, CM10 and CM9 are using the same kernel.
EDIT:
I almost forgot. "out/ramdisk/2ndROM" is for the ROM stored in your SD card, so you have to adjust the mount points there (already done in the one linked). "out/ramdisk/android" should be the "stock" ramdisk.
recovery will work only for the primary ROM in this case, maybe with some scripting you can make it works for both the ROMs, but I won't do it (if it's something possible).
The tools I posted will automatically take care of the additional ramdisk.
Possible to fix the download links? I want to boot rom from SD card since my internal is corrupted...
nick0016 said:
Possible to fix the download links? I want to boot rom from SD card since my internal is corrupted...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what happened to the links, probably I deleted the files by mistake on dev-host. Sadly I no longer have them and I currently don't have the time to make them again.
Anyway, I suggest you to follow other guides in order to replace only the corrupted memory instead (we have two different memories). This one for example, but there are other guides probably.
Thanks for your answer, problem is that my "device" memory is corrupted (as in read only).
I did the SD / USB storage swap but still have the problem that I cannot run/remove/install. So I need a ROM that loads completely from the external SD card and also uses it for data/storage...
I can flash a rom/kernel without problems, but changing version makes it only worse because the data does not get erased (background/applications/settings.... stays the same everytime, even after a wipe from the recovery).
If it helps I would love to pay/donate money to you as a thanks for your help and effort because the phone itself is working fine (except the corrupted memory of course) and would like to use it again
nick0016 said:
Thanks for your answer, problem is that my "device" memory is corrupted (as in read only).
I did the SD / USB storage swap but still have the problem that I cannot run/remove/install. So I need a ROM that loads completely from the external SD card and also uses it for data/storage...
I can flash a rom/kernel without problems, but changing version makes it only worse because the data does not get erased (background/applications/settings.... stays the same everytime, even after a wipe from the recovery).
If it helps I would love to pay/donate money to you as a thanks for your help and effort because the phone itself is working fine (except the corrupted memory of course) and would like to use it again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The guide I linked is fine then.
It explains how to repartition your SD card and the script Dipu K attached to his post is to use the newly created partition inside your external SD for /data. It's not to swap internal and external SD.
As I said, we have two memories, /data is in one, /system, kernel and other things are in the other memory. The corrupted one must be the one which holds /data.
Try to do as explained in the guide, if the problem persists, I'll see what I can do to help.
I followed the guide and got the Device memory replaced (data partition). Problem is now it is stuck in at boot because the partition is empty.... and when I copy the files from the corrupted data partition it boots fine but get message that I must wipe my data or the system will be unstable (which is correct because I get then flooded with unexpected errors which make it unusable). But formatting data partition gives stuck @ samsung boot logo??
So I need to get the "factory" data files from somewhere... I am running stock KPE ROM with BAM kernel (for init.d support).
Is it possible to extract the data partition from the stock rom?!
nick0016 said:
I followed the guide and got the Device memory replaced (data partition). Problem is now it is stuck in at boot because the partition is empty.... and when I copy the files from the corrupted data partition it boots fine but get message that I must wipe my data or the system will be unstable (which is correct because I get then flooded with unexpected errors which make it unusable). But formatting data partition gives stuck @ samsung boot logo??
So I need to get the "factory" data files from somewhere... I am running stock KPE ROM with BAM kernel (for init.d support).
Is it possible to extract the data partition from the stock rom?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The content of /data is generated, there's nothing like what you asking for.
Maybe the problem is that the script posted in the guide copies the content of the old /data partition to the new partition inside the SD card. Wiping data shouldn't work because the path to the SD card is not specified.
Try the script attached. I zipped it to be able to upload it here, but it's not flashable. Since you've been able to follow the guide I assume you know how to use adb.
Wipe the content of the data partition you created inside you SD card (/dev/block/mmcblk1p2). You could reformat it with make_ext4fs, use a computer and so on. What's important is that it's ext4 formatted.
While in recovery, run:
Code:
adb shell mount /system
adb shell mkdir -p /system/etc/init.d/
adb push [I]PATH_TO[/I]/remount_data /system/etc/init.d/
adb shell chmod 777 /system/etc/init.d/remount_data
I'm sorry, but I currently don't have much free time to help more than this. With no logs or access to the device it's really hard for me to know what's the problem.

[Completed] Soft Bricked Irulu with MT6582 Set

Hey guys, its been a long time since I've been on here asking questions, but I am completely stumped. I got an Irulu Victory 1S china phone. I achieved root, installed CWM. Problem was there was not enough storage space on main drive, as it was partitioned at 800mb for system apps and 5gigs internal SD storage. I found an app specifically for that phone manufacturer that partitioned the drive to 2.5 gigs. Flashed new Rom, Cyogen, now I am stuck in a boot loop. I can get into CWM no problem. But no matter what Rom I install, even after clearing delvik, cache, system, it just boot loops. I found from manufacturers website the original disk img files, but when using MTKtools it says disk size doesn't match file. I found a a blog that has a more detailed instructions on how to modify MBR and EBR1 using editors, but nothing on how to fix size issues. Any help is appreiated. I have win10 and Linux Mint systems if that helps any. Im assuming that there is a file or something I need to edit to get new roms to boot. I can do remote desktop sessions as well if needed. Im not computer dumb, but I know enough to get around windows and linux.
PS: I can only boot into recovery, when I ADB Shell it, it comes up as 123456789ABCDE RECOVERY as device. Cant seem to pull or push any files this way.
Update; Ok so I tried using EBR edit tool. Modified EBR to 2.5 gigs. Did a system, cache, and delvik wipe. Tried to install rom. Now it finds package, starts to open it, and then goes back to CWM main page. Tried several Roms with same results. It starts to install, but then flashes back to main recovery page. Now Im even more confused!
Hello,
Best bet is to get your partitions restored to factory partition table and then try flashing the stock firmware.
When in recovery, have you tried doing a full system and data wipe with the advanced wipe options and then flashing your ROM?
I'm not familiar with your device to give you better answers. Try posting your question in the forum linked below.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help?
The experts there may be able to help.

System Partition reporting 20GB but can't find files

Background: I have unlocked the bootloader and used Team Win Recovery project to root the phone. I'm running the latest Sailfish Google stock img.
Problem: Android 7.1.1. is reporting close to full, unable to receive emails and trouble with taking pictures etc. When running a check on file sizes via the OS, all partitions are as expected except the /system partition is reporting 20GB. When viewing the system partition via TWRP terminal window I can't find 20GB worth of files.
Questions: Could OS be reporting the cumulative SLOT A and SLOT B system partitions? If so, how would I clean up the system partition in this case? I think TWRP is loaded on one slot and the OS is loaded on the other but I'm not sure because I did rooting a couple months ago.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Downalod the 7.1.1 stock image and run flash all.bat then start over, it's probably your best bet.

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