This is to educate all the wannabe Devs', How to build a perfect ROM.
There will be tutorials from all over. Respective credits will be added.
Everyone's Invited
Know the Basics
Without knowing what you are getting yourself into will only make things worse even before you start off. To build a good Rom is different and to atleast build a fully functional Rom is different. So make sure you are fully aware of the technical fundamentals of building a Rom to enough extent so that you are able to fix the bugs and know what and where can things go wrong and how to solve them.
Performance, Memory, Stability and Battery
These are the four defining points which decide the pros and cons of the Rom that you develop. The Rom should be Fast, Have enough storage and program memory, should be stable and have a good battery backup. Trying to get a good balance of all these is very important. So make sure you keep all these things in mind while developing your Rom.
Be Patient and Polite
Building a good/perfect or bug free Rom wont come immediately. It’ll take many releases, experiments, testing and knowledge till you reach a nearly perfect Rom. So be patient as it sometimes takes weeks or sometimes months. Dealing with the public is not an easy job. You’ll find all sort of people of various characters. The can be nice as well as rude, but do remember that their critics are the only way you can improve. All they want from you is a good Rom, just keep this in mind and ignore the negatives.
Make it User Friendly
There are many ways in which you can make your Rom user friendly. Integrating useful apps. Prepping Eye candy themes, Important shortcuts etc.
Stay Motivated
This is the only driving force behind every Rom developer to continue doing their work with ease and success. Stay motivated and alert so that you can deliver the best with every release. Its hard sometimes but its it important.
Give Time to your Work
Most of the developers are either students or work some where and building Roms is some what like a hobby for us. Its correct that we are not supposed to spend all the time on building Roms but if we want to have a good working Rom we should manage considerable amount of time for few alternate days to work on this project.
Make it Different
You Rom characteristics should be some what different from what is already been provided by other developers. If its nothing different and Catchy then it’ll be hard to get users trying your Rom consistently. I still remember the days when i used to try alot of different Roms but still couldn’t find one that was nearly perfecting my needs. I tried alot of Roms that time.
Join Hands with another Developer
This is what i like the most. Join hands and team up with other developers and thus improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your Rom. The mind of two can bring together wonders. You can even team up with Developers of other devices and build a Rom for device that you personally do not own but you you widen your work area.
Don’t be ignorant
Make sure you are attentive and up to date with all what is discussed about your Rom, all bugs, all tests, reports, etc. so that you do not miss out on any bug possibly to be fixed for next release. If you ignore or avoid fixing the important bugs, the users will think that you are not really capable of solving them or not really interested in this Rom.
Get Testers
Testers are users who like to test the Rom and report you the bugs before you go public with the release. They are very helpful if you like to avoid the criticism after the release of the Rom as before itself you’ll be able to get rid of maximum number of Bugs and issues present in the Rom. That is where testers come in handy. Jus give a notice and many would love to try and test your Beta releases.
Keep Detailed Changelogs
Changelogs keep track of your developments over the time. They come in handy when ever you need to check for prolonged bugs. For example you may not notice it but if someone reports that he has been having an issue since your 3rd Rom release, then you can check out what all changes you made on that release and cross check whether one of those changes cause that bug.
Be Active on the Rom Page
This is the most important part of being interactive with the users cause there is alot that they want to be done in your Rom. Talk to them, answer their questions and discuss the pros and cons of the Roms with them. You can learn alot from them. Being active to the discussion will make them feel that you are eager to further develop and make this Rom improve further.
Add only Useful apps and Regularly Update them
Make sure the application you add to your Rom are useful by the people. Adding two Music Players in the Rom is not a good choice. Choose one that is best and use that only. But make sure you add one possibly best Application for all needs of the users. Keep track of all the applications that you have included in your Rom and make sure the latest versions are included. It keep the user feel updated with your Rom. Many times there are applications which are important to add but have some bug. Later these bugs are fixed in their next releases, so even you should add those updated fixed Applications. Use only Genuine Licenses and No Warez Applications. Warez is like a virus to the development of your Rom. Copyright issues and illegal use of cracked applications make pose a ban on you Roms by the Blogs and threads where you list them. Either you use development licenses to use the in your Roms or use an equally good free Application.
Good looking User Interface and Graphics
This is the major aspect that defines your Rom and makes it distinct from others. Work on that graphics that can be changed in your Rom, try different themes and skin enhancements in different aspects of os like dialer, lockscreen, fonts etc.
Keep Polls and ask Questions
Polls and asking questions from users is a very important way by which you can interact with users and get their feedback. Polls can be asking them about their preferences. Which applications they like or dislike, asking frequents questions on that changes you will be making in the Rom cause at the end of the day it is them who will be using them.
Learn from Competition
I don’t call the fellow developers a competition and usually many share their work and are supportive like i am to each other’s work. But you can learn from what is included in their Rom and if its catchy and important then you can add it to your Rom aswel. There might be many new and useful applications and features that other developers might be using and you are not even aware of that. It can be very helpful in evolving your Rom completely.
Listen and Learn from Users
Listening what a user has to say about their experiences on using your Rom is very important. They might have something very important to share from their experiences which you can incorporate in your Rom. It really helps in fixing bugs and improving your Rom further.
In the end you are the Decision Maker
Its you who has to take the decisions in the end. There will be many people wanting you to do this or that and add this or remove that but in the end you have to keep an unbiased judgment on all the requests, ideas and suggestions and bring forward the changes that you feel the masses are going to appreciate. And for that you will need to take care of all the above mentioned points in mind.
Give Credits
Not to forget that 70%-80% of your work is inspired from that of other developers. And it wonk charge you anything to be humbly give credit or some appreciation to the help you have got from other developers in terms of guides, tips, tricks, applications, UI Enhancements, etc. It just shows your character as a person as well.
[What is it?]
What are Stock Roms and Custom Roms?
What is a Rom?
ROM – Read Only Memory is that memory which stores the system files of your Device. Those files which make up the basic Operating System, be is Windows Mobile Phone OS, Android, Symbian, Windows OS, etc. Every electronic device has a Read only Memory which stores the basic programming of the functions that the Electronic equipment is to perform. ROM in terms of our Android Devices the basic set of programming applications and files of functions which your device performs Out of the Box. Without a Rom no electronic device exists.
What are Stock ROMs?
Those ROMs which come pre installed are called Stock ROMs. Stock ROMs are the ones that come Box packed with your Device preinstalled. These are official Software that are provided by the Manufacturer or the OEM.
Is it possible to Edit/Customize/Alter Stock ROMs?
Yes it is. For a lot of Operating Systems be it Windows Mobile Phone OS, Android, Symbian, etc, it is possible to Customize these stock ROMs and install them to our devices.
What are Custom ROMs?
They are Custom ROMs are based on Stock ROMs but customized by the user in terms of additions in applications, improvements, removal of unnecessary application, etc. A customized ROM may be an minor improvement to Stock Rom or can even be a complete makeover of Stock Rom even changing the drivers of the Rom with that of other compatible devices providing better performance.
Why do we need Custom Rom?
Customization is making things personal. That is one main reason why we customize a Stock Rom. A stock Rom no matter what will have a lot of unnecessary applications, files, images, settings that are pre set by the Manufactures but are not at all important to us and uses a lot of space for no reason. No matter what there has to be one or the other Bug in a Stock Rom. To get rid of these issues we customize a stock ROM by either adding useful applications, settings, removed crap, fixing bugs and on getting a Top Notch easy to use and completely customized Device.
What about the warranty?
This is decision that you need to make personally. Yes, Custom ROMs will take away your precious warranty. But that to only if your device stops working while you are using Custom Rom on your device and you have to take it to the company. If you want you can revert back to Stock ROMs and then take your device to the Service Center and they won’t even know about it. But you need to consider reverting back to Original Stock Rom.
su
Also referred to as substitute user - a command for changing the account in the current terminal (usually black screen with blinking cursor). Default account is root account. So if you insert into terminal 'su' and hit enter, you will become root user.
root
Root alias superuser or poweruser is special user account for system administration. Similar to windows having its administrator account, unix-like systems have a root account. With this, you can do anything and if you run a command to delete the whole system, unix will just do it! No asking, no confirming. So, watch your steps!
rooting
Rooting is just enabling power of root for applications and other purposes.
Superuser app
After rooting is done, you will see a new app called superuser in app drawer. This app can delegate applications to use su (root) feature. When an app asks this from first use, a popup window will appear asking if the application should be allowed to use root permission.
sh, bash
is a command-line interpreter or shell that provides a traditional user interface for the Unix operating system and for Unix-like systems. So simply, it is some interface, which can execute command(s), which you have entered. Many shells exist, but in scope of android you can (as far as I know) use only sh (standard - Bourne-shell) or bash (compiled in BusyBox or separately on XDA). Both are basically same, but bash has much more features and it is more comfortable.
user/root shell
How do I know if I'm root or normal user? It's simple. Root's shell is ended with # (usually it's shell looks like "bash-3.2# _") and user's ends with $ (usually bash-3.2$ _). In terminal emulator you also can have only [path]($|#) (for root for example "/etc # _")
BusyBox
also called "The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux" is a tool which brings into Android basic tools known from unix system, but is much more smaller than standard tools is. But this "packing" has limited functions in comparison to standard tools in unix-system (missing special modes of tool, color output and so on). Many application use this. For example busybox grep (filtering of text) is needed for application called Market enabler.
BusyBox commands
list of commands is really wide, so it's not possible explain all, so I pickup only top few. (hint: if you want what some command do, just search on google for "man <command_name>" for example man mv or enter command here
cd - change directory - same like in windows. You can switch directory. example: cd /sdcard
ls - list of files in actual directory (have few switches like for example: ls -l /sdcard/*.png (detailed listing)
cat - print file into standard output (like more in windows) Example: cat /sdcard/data.txt
vi - editing of file. But on limited phone keyboard (no keyboard) it is little harder Read more about vi
cp - copy of one or more file. Example: cp /sdcard/bike.jpg /sdcard/media/bike-wallpaper.jpg
mv - moving/rename files, Example: mv /sdcard/bike.jpg /sdcard/media/renamed-moved-bike.jpg
rm - delete file (rm -R for recursive, or for delete whole folder), Example: rm -R /sdcard/wallpaper-bad/*
find - search for files, Example find / -name "best-chopper-ever.avi"
mkdir - make directory - creates directory, Example: mkdir mynewdir
chmod - changes access of files
less - similar like cat, but you can scroll in it and it doesn't produce any output. Example: less /sdcard/funnytext.txt
For BusyBox's tool help, just enter BusyBox <command_name> -h.
ADB (shell)
ADB - Android Debug Bridge is a versatile tool that lets you manage the state of an emulator instance or Android-powered device. It is a client-server program that includes three components:
* A client, which runs on your development machine. You can invoke a client from a shell by issuing an adb command. Other Android tools such as the ADT plugin and DDMS also create adb clients.
* A server, which runs as a background process on your development machine. The server manages communication between the client and the adb daemon running on an emulator or device.
* A daemon, which runs as a background process on each emulator or device instance.
Generally, it can be compared with standard cmd prompt in windows (you can write commands which will be executed locally, for example in Terminal Emulator) or it can be just like SSH in unix-like system (you connect to terminal through adb client (in Android SDK) and commands will be run remotely.
Android SDK
Android software development kit is a complex set of tools for developing apps on Android. It includes a fully usable emulator of Android OS on your PC, where you can do everything. You can install/delete apps, browse web page in embedded web browser, play games or make your own application in Eclipse (widely used IDE for development). Of course, with emulator you can use also GPS or camera.
Android SDK tools
* Fully emulated Android device
* Android Development Tools Plugin (Eclipse IDE)
* Android Virtual Devices (AVDs)
* Hierarchy Viewer
* layoutopt
* Draw 9-patch
* Dalvik Debug Monitor Service (ddms)
* Android Debug Bridge (adb)
* Android Asset Packaging Tool (aapt)
* Android Interface Description Language (aidl)
* sqlite3
* Traceview
* mksdcard
* dx
* UI/Application Exerciser Monkey
* monkeyrunner
* Android
* zipalign
Tools for work with Android adb shell
You have two ways to connect into ADB service - locally and remotely.
Locally - for local access you will need some application which can connect to local adb shell.
Terminal Emulator (free) - probably most commonly used app from market, which works and looks like standard unix shell.
ConnectBot (free) - same as Terminal Emulator, but it can be also used for connecting via SSH or telnet
Remotely- For remote connection you need phone configuration adjustment:
Home desktop -> [menu button] -> Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging [ON].
Also you need connect your phone via USB (or finds on market some widget/app, witch enable using ADB also via wi-fi)
adb tool from Android SDK
After downloading Android SDK, extract the archive anywhere (in example I extracted it in c:/AndroidSDK). Then follow instructions on developer.android.com for installation of SDK Platform-tools (contains adb). After installation click on start menu and in Run... (in Windows7 in search bar) enter 'cmd' and press Ok or [enter]. Then write in cmd line:
Quote:
cd c:\AndroidSDK\android-sdk-windows\tools [enter]
now you can enter following command to connect to phone's adb shell if you don't have more connected device (virtual or real-one)
Quote:
adb shell
If you have more then one, you need explicitly say which one should be used for connection. So list connected devices with
Quote:
adb devices
which shows you serial number of connected devices. Than use
Quote:
adb -s <serial-number> shell
3. Custom recovery
* What is custom recovery
* Tools which custom recovery provide - NAND backup/restore, formatting of SDcard, partitioning (ext1,ext2, ext3), wiping, flashing of Custom ROM, ...
* Is it safe to install? - potential problems, backup/restore of original recovery
* How this whole thing works - installation description (not how-to install, just explanation of what is done during installation)
What is custom recovery
Recovery is an image (binary data) stored in internal memory. This image contains something like a "program" or "tool", which can boot-up independently from the Android system. This tool is part of phone system, and in PC terminology recovery can by compared to BIOS with some added features. This recovery state can be reached on all phones, but if you don't have a custom recovery, it will do a so-called HW reset and automatically restart itself into standard boot mode.
Tools which custom recovery provides
* USB-MS Toggle :mounts sdcard as mass storage
It just mounts your phone as USB-mass storage (USB disk) so you can access it through your PC
* Backup/Restore:
Absolutely GREAT feature. With NAND you can copy an image of your actual system (phone's memory). It means that you can backup the whole system with all configuration, customization, wallpapers, system's tweaks... just everything. This image will be written to your SD card which you are then free to copy around and back up on your computer
* Flash Zip From Sdcard
This tool is designed for installation of custom ROMs or tweaks. If you are instructed to install via custom recovery, then you should use this menu. Never unzip the file because it contains meta-information about itself with some validate-checks so if you edit it, or unpack and pack back, it won't work. And remember to place the file in the root (main folder) of your sdcard.
* Wipe Menu:
Wipe data/factory reset: wipes data & cache
- wipes user data (contacts, apps, configuration, ...) and cache (caches of applications)
Wipe cache
- wipes cache only
Wipe Dalvik cache : Wipes Dalvik cache in all possible locations if moved by apps2sd
- wipes Dalvik cache
Wipe SD:ext : Wipes Apps2sd ext partition
- if you used Partition SDcard option, you can wipe it here
Wipe Battery Stats (remember to fully charge your phone before doing this)
- If you think, that your battery life is too short, you can try delete battery stats. Than let phone fully charge. (more)
Wipe rotate settings
- wipe sensor settings (acceleration, ...)
Wipe .android secure : Wipes froyo native .android_secure on sdcard
- wipe information about moved apps
* Partition Sdcard:
Partition SD: Partitions sdcard for apps2sd (this formats card so all data will be lost)
- will create ext2 partition (you will be asked for size of ext2 and cache)
Repair Sd:ext
SD:ext2 to ext3 : converts apps2sd ext2 partition to ext3 (requires kernel support for ext3)
SD:ext3 to ext4 : same as above but ext3 to ext4 (requires kernel support for ext4)
ext2 - file system for the Linux kernel (no journal, fast but not recovery of I/O error)
ext3 - file system for the Linux kernel (journal, slower than ext2 because of journal, but provides recovery on I/O error)
ext4 - file system for the Linux kernel (journal, enhanced version of ext3)
* Mounts:
Gui automatically mounts folders
png-optimized -
png files takes less memory, are loads faster
JIT -
just-in-time compilation also known as dynamic translation, is a method to improve the runtime performance of computer programs, but it takes some time to convert into it on start.
HW:acceleration -
using of HW acceleration for rendering GUI. Increases battery consumption.
VM.Heap Size -
maximum memory an application can consume
stagefright -
In Android 2.2 new media framework that supports local file playback and HTTP progressive streaming
:: How To's ::
Samsung Galaxy 3 (I5801/I5800) Flashing Guide
Before these steps make sure you have latest version of kies installed, it helps in keeping latest drivers installed.
Files required for Flashing can be downloaded here.
1) Start Odin (if using windows 7 or vista right click Odin and use run as administrator)2) Check "One Package" checkbox3) Check “Reboot” checkbox4) Check protect ops checkbox (Don’t check this if you are flashing I5801 with I5800 firmware for the first time.)5) Check reset time checkbox, keep the default value as it is i.e. 300 don’t select any other options.6) Hit reset files button once.7) Click ops button and select OPS file for I5800*8) Click one package and select the firmware you want to flash. The file must a .tar file.9) You can take a backup of your data/apps. For that you can use Titanium Backup. For backing up contacts and SMS.A) go to contacts press menu/left most button select import/export option, then export the contacts to sdcard.B) For sms use the app called SMS backup.10) Now remove your sdcard and sim card from phone and do a factory reset/ Hard Reset also clear cache then restart and put it in downloading mode by pressing vol- + home + power button together.11) Now connect your phone to pc.12) Odin will show yellow color and com port no. in the first box on top in Odin.13) Click Start and watch the progress bar and timer, wait until PASS message appear on Message box.14) Disconnect the phone from PC when Odin displays disconnect serial port & wait until rebooting phone.
Let the phone boot it takes some time 5-10 mins for first boot so don’t panic.
After reboot do factory reset or Hard Reset also clear cache again then restart phone and put sim and sdcard back in.
Sorry cant post images right now in office, will attach images as soon as i get home.
Please let me know if i have missed anything or if anything needs correction.
ATENTION I5801 USERS:to keep the i5801 bootscreen you should remove boot.bin and sbl.bin from the .tar file before flashing.
Deodex
Advantages or disadvantages
- Odexed ROMs are slightly faster, deodexed ROMs are slightly slower
+ You can make custom themes for your ROM
+ Performance los is negligible.
Requirements:
Download XUltimate
Busybox installed
Root
1. Connect phone to computer
2. Start xUltimate, we will now get the required files from our phone to deodex and zipalign it which we will describe in the 3rd step.
3. On the main menu of xUltimate, choose option 5 (Pull and deodex all). Everything will be done for you here. Don't worry. You will see all your finished files in the folders 'done_app' and 'done_frame' which are located in the installation directory of xUltimate.
4. move folders 'done_app' and 'done_frame' folders to your sdcard, you can find these folders in the directory of xUltimate as described in the previous step.
5. Make sure the sdcard is not mounted to pc anymore
6. Open Windows Command Prompt and type the following commands.
adb shell
su
stop
mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/stl12 /system
rm /system/app/*.odex
rm /system/framework/*.odex
busybox cp /sdcard/done_app/* /system/app/
busybox cp /sdcard/done_frame/* /system/framework/
chmod 644 /system/app/*
chmod 644 /system/framework/*
mount -o remount,ro /dev/block/stl12 /system
sync
reboot recovery
7. Now data and cache reset in the recovery menu...
8. reboot
If one of the commands, for example 'cp' is not found, try putting busybox in front of the command:
eg: busybox cp /sdcard/done_frame/* /system/framework/
SRY, but please not again a tutorial. We already have two. I accept your work, but please don't make an another thread for something, that we already have.
lol, again?
Pauri said:
SRY, but please not again a tutorial. We already have two. I accept your work, but please don't make an another thread for something, that we already have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude! This is different from others.
Just wait and see!
OK, I will see^^
@sekhargreen Very nice
kyrillos13 said:
@sekhargreen Very nice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi
+1 here
lets appreciate his hard work look at the amount of info he has give and the time it would have taken to give the same if u are a rom developer this might not be a great thing as u already learn t all this the hard way
but looking at it from the eyes of noobs(or when u were a noob rom developer) who has many questions before they start cooking a rom i would say this is a good place to start as it has many of the answers
i would also say if this goes well this would not just be another tute but one with enough info for the noob rom devloper to start as he would have all his questions answers by reading this one
good job done pls keep up the good work
Note : this has been added to the roll up thread
Gonna throw myself out there and say I kinda fall under this category. I still have a lot to learn so thank you for this. It will most likely improve me.
The Dark Lestat said:
Gonna throw myself out there and say I kinda fall under this category. I still have a lot to learn so thank you for this. It will most likely improve me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Lestat,
Please contribute to this thread, if you have time.
It will help all the Devs in XDA forum.
Thanks dude for wonderful tutorial. It will be really helpful.
InDroid 4.0 (Build 6)
helpful to all..
Tutorials updated
Tutorials updated. Please First page.
can you add this to pocketdroid i think its very useful tutorial..
pflorin said:
can you add this to pocketdroid i think its very useful tutorial..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, added. Just check it out!
Very good now i can see that it's different. Thank you for the wonderful tutorial.
Sent from my GT-I5800 using XDA App
Pauri said:
Very good now i can see that it's different. Thank you for the wonderful tutorial.
Sent from my GT-I5800 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for you appreciation. Encouragement from people like you will boost my energy!!
Hello...firstly like to thank you for these tutorials...they are a gr8 help for everyone...
i would like to request you that if u can cover some kernel basics also then it would be great...
Related
I am attempting to port Cyanogenmod to the Garminfone. I have root, know how to have it load a recovery.img at boot, and know how to flash partitions on it (it comes with a flash_image program that can flash an image to a given partition, which is how it flashes the recovery.img
I am very familiar with the layout of the partitions, os, and with not too much effort could get the current OS running in the emulator,as they left all of the emulator initial scripts on the device and did a great job commenting everything.
The one thing I am not sure about is flashing the bootloader in a way that will not trash the device. I know it is a msm7227 cpu and can provide dumps of anything anyone may need to help.
Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hi Merwin, Have you had any success porting CM to garminfone/nuvifone A50?
No luck yet... still trying to figure out how to do it without bricking it. Not getting much in the way of assistance on how to port the recovery image to my phone properly, so I can recover while testing.
I know how to unpack it and a couple ways of getting it flashed back that are yet untested but should work.
Its pretty standard hardware (msm7227), and aside from the Atheros wifi and potentially the gps in it (crazy accurate, down to 6.6 feet and works without a sim, so I think there must be something different) the sensor drivers all report being standard android drivers.
I make my living doing software development, database development, and lots of middleware to get different systems to play nicely,but have nearly no hardware or driver development experience and very little work with asm, so decompiling and inspection is out, but can figure out most anything when pointed in the right direction. I just need someone experienced to work with me on it.
Anyone interested?
Sent from my Garminfone using XDA App
Wouldn't it just be easier to figure out how to compile a rooted recovery and to set up mayb keymaps to be able to boot from.. With a recovery thats able to flash if we were to have to flash the bootloader change spl/radio or anything we would be able to go about making a update.zip for the recovery and flash it that way???
I can already rebuild the existing recovery img as well as the bootloader. The existing recovery can flash an update.zip if the keymapping to select menu entries was there.
There is no hardware method to boot into recovery aside from the failsafe, which triggers if the main boot image fails to load a certain number of times.
So, you are safe unless you **** up both the main bootloader and the recovery... which is why I flash any test boot image to the recovery partition first, test it, then flash back my rooted recovery, test it, and flash the main boot image.
It takes longer, but works. What would be nice would be to compile the boot image using the first stage loader as well as the second stage loader. That would let you have your minimal loader that responds to the recovery keychord and then boots to the second stage loader that has all the features. Not sure how to accomplish it.
I did check the kernel config and every nonstandard component is loaded as a module and the kernel is 2.6.29 so there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to configure and compile a working Froyo at the very least.
I just need to work my way through the build process. The fun part will be seeing if the Garmin software would run on Cyanogen or if it checks more than just the model and serial.
I'm watching your progress with anticipation. I have no programming or development experience, but if I can help with testing or anything let me know.
Sent from my Garmin-Asus A50 using XDA App
Also watching this thread! Would love to be able to flash a kernel that allows overclocking and hopefully 2.2
Was this ever completed?
Re: Cyanogen for Garminfone
There is a solution. I just made it last weekend. This post will follow with video demos.
---
Start with a factory wipe.. not using garmins KB method: (We want a clean FS mounted)
Unmount and remove SD Card from phone.
Connect a usb cable and enable USB mass storage mode.
Create a desktop folder and move all contents of Garminfone drive to new folder.
Download 7-zip and restore.zip from garmin-asus support site.
Open restore.zip, browse restore and drag drop .system to root of Garminfone storage.
While USB mass storage mode is enabled hit menu > settings > privacy > master reset. Yes, yes.
Wait for the phone to reboot twice.
Pop cover, install SD card.
Menu > Settings > Storage
SD Card detected use as default? No.
Scroll down, unmount, format.
Scroll up, Default storage > SD Card
Home
Slide > USB > File Transfer
Launch Garmin Web Updater .. install select guide icons, voices, etc.
Optionally update garmin lifetime maps now here.
Install z4root and root phone
Open Superuser and check for updates, reboot if updates apply.
Install GO Launcher and replace ‘Breeze’ launcher
You should reboot now. (Apps > Terminal Emulator > #su > #reboot )
Install a startup manager (I used Android Assistant)
Cut the following apps from User/System startup: Flashlight,CardioTrainer,My Tracks, Pandora, Garmin Voice Studio, IM, Messaging, My Account, Offers Provider..
Install Dolphin Browser Mini
Install Google Voice (Port your number!!)
Install SSHDroid
Reboot phone when all is complete (Apps> Terminal Emulator > #su > #reboot )
From here forward it is much easier from a desktop ssh terminal such as putty, but this is entirely up to you. It may also be done in the Terminal Emulator app on the phone without using SSHDroid.
If you use Visual Voicemail still.. (its a mem hog!) omit the line with vvm-signed.apk
Either use T.E. and start with #su (root) and do the following commands or ssh as root/admin:
We’re going to remount the system partition so we can move some stuff around and trim the fat.
mount -o remount,rw,noatime,nodiratime,data=ordered -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcnand
blk0p3 /system
We’re going to hide some of the standard bundled apps since the phones permissions are all over the place we’re going to rename the files instead of doing a chmod -x:
cd /system/carrier/persist-app/
mv amazonmp3.apk amazonmp3.apk.no
mv HotSpotApp.apk HotSpotApp.apk.no
mv Myspace.apk Myspace.apk.no
mv Twitter.apk Twitter.apk.no
mv vvm-signed.apk vvm-signed.apk.no
Let’s make the phone boot the way Garmin-Asus intended:
mv /system/carrier/images/startup/bootanimation.zip /system/carrier/images/startup/bootanimation.zip.no
reboot !
The phone should now have around 70Mb RAM free!! Around 32Mb with Google maps/navigation running. This *will not* break your lifetime maps!
I highly reccomend making a point in time snapshot of some sort (Titanium Backup)
---------- Post added at 12:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:37 PM ----------
There is a solution. I just made it last weekend. This post will follow with video demos.
---
Start with a factory wipe.. not using garmins KB method: (We want a clean FS mounted)
Unmount and remove SD Card from phone.
Connect a usb cable and enable USB mass storage mode.
Create a desktop folder and move all contents of Garminfone drive to new folder.
Download 7-zip and restore.zip from garmin-asus support site.
Open restore.zip, browse restore and drag drop .system to root of Garminfone storage.
While USB mass storage mode is enabled hit menu > settings > privacy > master reset. Yes, yes.
Wait for the phone to reboot twice.
Pop cover, install SD card.
Menu > Settings > Storage
SD Card detected use as default? No.
Scroll down, unmount, format.
Scroll up, Default storage > SD Card
Home
Slide > USB > File Transfer
Launch Garmin Web Updater .. install select guide icons, voices, etc.
Optionally update garmin lifetime maps now here.
Install z4root and root phone
Open Superuser and check for updates, reboot if updates apply.
Install GO Launcher and replace ‘Breeze’ launcher
You should reboot now. (Apps > Terminal Emulator > #su > #reboot )
Install a startup manager (I used Android Assistant)
Cut the following apps from User/System startup: Flashlight,CardioTrainer,My Tracks, Pandora, Garmin Voice Studio, IM, Messaging, My Account, Offers Provider..
Install Dolphin Browser Mini
Install Google Voice (Port your number!!)
Install SSHDroid
Reboot phone when all is complete (Apps> Terminal Emulator > #su > #reboot )
From here forward it is much easier from a desktop ssh terminal such as putty, but this is entirely up to you. It may also be done in the Terminal Emulator app on the phone without using SSHDroid.
If you use Visual Voicemail still.. (its a mem hog!) omit the line with vvm-signed.apk
Either use T.E. and start with #su (root) and do the following commands or ssh as root/admin:
We’re going to remount the system partition so we can move some stuff around and trim the fat.
mount -o remount,rw,noatime,nodiratime,data=ordered -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcnand
blk0p3 /system
We’re going to hide some of the standard bundled apps since the phones permissions are all over the place we’re going to rename the files instead of doing a chmod -x:
cd /system/carrier/persist-app/
mv amazonmp3.apk amazonmp3.apk.no
mv HotSpotApp.apk HotSpotApp.apk.no
mv Myspace.apk Myspace.apk.no
mv Twitter.apk Twitter.apk.no
mv vvm-signed.apk vvm-signed.apk.no
Let’s make the phone boot the way Garmin-Asus intended:
mv /system/carrier/images/startup/bootanimation.zip /system/carrier/images/startup/bootanimation.zip.no
reboot !
The phone should now have around 70Mb RAM free!! Around 32Mb with Google maps/navigation running. This *will not* break your lifetime maps!
I highly reccomend making a point in time snapshot of some sort (Titanium Backup)
---------- Post added at 01:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:50 PM ----------
Since I can't link, I'm too new. You'll have to search youtube for Garminfone 2.1 root demo under user mjlar94. There are three videos, enjoy. You are now back on the grid using actively supported and updated applications.
I was unable to locate and disable the WhereTo app, this would take some discovery to find out if the GPS functionality is nested in the Garmin apk's. You should switch to google Nav/Places
Hi
Any help where can I fine the procedure on how to port Cyanogenmod 10 on a ICS phone? Can I do this on a stock rom of an ICS phone or do I need to wait for a JB Rom?
Hello all,
It's fantastic this works, but as you see i'm a noob. And these guidelines above are simply too difficult to follow...
I looked for the vid's but none of them show the whole deal...
Can you bee so kind to go thrue this step by step?
That would help me very much to get cyanogen on my Garminfone...
I'm waiting already very very long to do so...!!
So MLARIV, thank you in advance!
Grtz From Belgium
Dreezyne
DO NOT POST IN THIS THREAD BEFORE READING THE WHOLE POST
PLEASE ADD GUIDES TO COMMON ISSUES YOURSELVES
To my recollection, the previous WM Guides thread was successful.. so we'll be moving on to android as well - from beginner to pro.
I hope this thread will provide answers to a decent percentage of your questions.
Please hold until guide collecting is finished..
In the meanwhile you are ALL invited to send me links or full guides to add to this thread.. remember, we are all about sharing.
COMING SOON! (in the meanwhile, you've got a great battery life guide at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=471521 - be sure to thank BruceElliot for it!)
also, if you decide to post a guide, please keep the guide as neat as possible, with a title containing the LEVEL ([BEGINNER], [INTERMEDIATE], [PRO]) and the commonly searched words so that people who look for it can find it easily. (if you can, use the same color (dark orange) and same size (4) and Bold.. for the main title.. tho that's not a must )
post #2. [BEGINNERS+INTERMEDIATE] Replacing System Files using Android Commander
post #3. [EVERYONE] ADB Workshop by Adrynalyne and Guide by Captainkrtek
post #4. [QUICK FAQ's] Common QnA's for beginners by Timmymarsh (work in progress)
[BEGINNERS] Replacing system files using Android Commander
Replacing system files using Android Commander:
(This post was formally based in the HD2's RTL support thread and revolved around our need to replace frameworks)
so:
1. Download the android SDK from: http://dl.google.com/android/android...08-windows.zip
2. EXTRACT(!!!) the android-sdk-windows to c:\
(make sure you extract the dir - not run the setup from inside the zip file)
3. install Android Commander from http://androidcommander.com
4. Connect your device and make sure it's set to Debugging mode in /settings/applications/development/
5. You might have to set a dir containing your adb.exe file. set it to c:\android-sdk-windows\tools\
6. You will see a Total Commander-like interface. you can then copy the framework.jar file to the correct directory (there's no difference between SD android builds and androids in ROM - the system dir will be shown the same way)
a. Yes, you can replace/delete system files while android is running.
b. (for androids running from SD) Any file copied to /sdcard/android/root/system/X will be copied to /system/X in the system file. The sdcard/android root dir is JUST LIKE your root in ROM androids.
c. Make sure you either created a backup or verified a match in any other way before replacing files like frameworks, zimage, modules, etc.. your android might not boot afterwards (I keep all system.ext2 files backed up so that i can restore them incase i screw something up.)
enjoy
[EVERYONE] ADB Workshop by Adrynalyne and Guide by Captainkrtek
This following guide was rewritten by Captainkrtek, please make sure to thank him for it
Original Post:
(http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=879701)
This workshop was held in #android-learning on irc.freenode.net by XDA Member Adrynalyne. All credit to him for this guide, I simply am taking it and turning it into a guide. Here we go!
You can find the raw IRC log here
Good evening folks, and welcome to my ADB workshop. This is by no means a full explanation on the subject, but more of a crash course to help folks get up to speed, and get more from their devices. There may be some things you already know here, so please be patient and respect those who do not.
Reference Files
http://adrynalyne.us/files/How to install adb.pdf
http://adrynalyne.us/files/Using ADB.pdf
So, lets just start with the basics.
What is ADB?
ADB stands for the android debugging bridge and is used for testing and debugging purposes by developers.
However, we like to get more out of our devices, and its a great way to fix things.
Knowing adb can mean the difference between a paperweight and a working phone.
So, to start with, we will look at installing ADB.
Generally speaking, the Sun/Oracle JDK is required to run all SDK functions.
ADB is but one tool in the SDK arsenal.
So, we begin by downloading and installing the JDK. This can be found here:
https://cds.sun.com/is-bin/[email protected]_Developer
Choose your OS, download and install. I recommend that 64 bit users use the regular x86/32 bit version as well.
Moving ahead, we download the Windows sdk from here:
http://dl.google.com/android/installer_r08-windows.exe
Due to already installing JDK, you won't be stopped by the install process.
Now, if you notice, I installed it to:
C:\android-sdk-windows
I did this because it makes things easier when setting up path variables.
I encourage everyone to do the same, but obviously it is not required.
So, this SDK is handy, but is only good up to 2.2. We want the latest and greatest! (Well I do)
So, we navigate to:
C:\android-sdk-windows\
and we run SDK Manager.exe
If you notice in your PDF file for installing adb, you will notice that you can update, and I made a choice not to include earlier sdk versions.
I won't go into full detail on that, but depending on the version of SDK you have, 8 or 9, it WILL make a difference in using adb.
By default, for version 8 adb.exe resides in C:\android-sdk-windows\tools
By default, for version 9 adb.exe resides in C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
We will assume version 9 in this guide
Really, the SDK is installed and adb is usable right now, but in my humble opinion, its not enough
I like the ability to use adb in ANY directory on my machine.
To do this, we edit Windows's environment variables.
Specifically, the system path.
To do this, we click on start, or the orb (depending on OS), and right click on Computer, left clicking on properties in the menu.
If its windows XP, I believe it brings you into advanced system properties immediatly. Vista and 7 need a second step.
On the left hand side, as you notice I have highlighted in the pdf, left click advanced system settings.
Under advanced tab, we left click environment variables...
There are two boxes here.
We are concerned with system variables, however.
So we scroll down the list and highlight path and click edit.
Ignoring all the extra stuff in here, make sure you are at the end of the line, and type
Code:
;C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
The semicolon allows us to separate it
from the previous path statement.
Click ok all the way out.
We now have ADB setup globally. We can use cmd.exe (I use powershell) and no matter what directory we are in, adb is recognized.
If it is not, make certain you entered the path into system variables, and made no typos.
If you installed to a different location, you will need to adjust the path accordingly.
This concludes the section on installing the Android SDK to use ADB.
This next section will be on using ADB, so please open that pdf now.
Now, this applies to any OS, not just Windows.
Well, with the exception of the USB drivers.
I will not go too much into that, but if you take a look at the PDF, it goes through installing usb drivers for the sdk, and how to download them.
Fiarly straightforward, in that rspect.
Now, to setup our phones to use with the SDK and ADB, we must change some settings.
First, we go to menu softkey, then settings.
We scroll down to Applications and tap it.
Under Development, we will check Enable USB Debugging. Please note the SGS phones are different in this respect.
The USB cable must be unplugged before enabling or disabling this setting.
Once this is done, we are now ready to play with adb
One quick note: If you get device not found/conencted, please reboot your phone. DJ05 has a quirk in it where ADBD randomly crashes on boot.
A reboot will fix this
ADBD= ADB Daemon
Ok, continuing on.
Lets look at installing applications. This is also known as sideloading.
Unlike installing from the SD card, it does not require unknown sources to be enabled.
The command for this is
Code:
adb install packagename
This assumes that you are working from the directory where the file is located.
This will install the application to /data/app.
It will also show sometimes useful errors if install fails.
That is not something you will see from the Android GUI.
Now, a lot of us have probably deleted files with apps like Root Explorer. While this isn't really a bad thing, it leaves behind databases and data for the application removed.
This is where the 0kb applicaiton entries come from.
If you take that application entry name, you can uninstall the extra data via adb.
First we go to the adb shell which logs into the phone.
Code:
adb shell
If we end up with a $, we will want admin rights, in many cases. This is not one of them, I don't beleive.
To get admin rights, you want to type
Code:
su
Look at your phone if this is the first time, it may prompt you to allow access. Else you will get permission denied.
If you are not rooted, this will not work either.
Ok, now that we are logged in, we will type
Code:
pm uninstall packagename
where packagename is the name of the 0kb listing.
Now this seems like a pain in the a** and I agree.
HOWEVER
There will be a time where Manage applications crashes when you try to uninstall it from the phone. In this case, a factory reset, or this method is the only effective way to fix the problem.
Moving on.
How many of us have removed system applications or renamed them? Did you know that you can simply disable them from the system?
Code:
adb shell
su
pm disable appllicationname
This will disable it, and the system will ignore it.
This can be seen as safer than deleting or renaming things, but your mileage may vary.
On the other hand, you can also re-enable these applications.
Code:
adb shell
su
pm enable applicationname
Please note: Not all applications will properly re-enable. I believe a factory reset or reinstall of said application will fix the issue.
Also, application names are absolutely case sensitive.
*nix based Operating Systems see the letter 'a' and 'A' as two different things.
when you log into adb shell, you are playing by android rules
Ok, a lot of us tweak and mod our phones and turning off the device to get to clockwork recovery, or battery pulls, or multiple button holds to get into Download mode are troublesome and annoying at best.
ADB can help us here.
Here, we do not need to be logged into the shell
If we want to merely reboot the phone:
Code:
adb reboot
If we want to go to recovery (works well with voodoo5)
Code:
adb reboot recovery
If we want to go to Download Mode because we need Odin, heaven forbid:
Code:
adb reboot download
Its instant. No waiting on animations or anything else.
Its also handy if Android has locked up, but yet still works in adb.
I for one hate taking my case off to battery pull.
So now we move on to pushing and pulling files.
Sometimes, I don't feel like mounting my sd card to copy a file over to my phone.
I can use this command to push a file straight to my sd card:
Code:
adb push filename /pathtodirectoryonphone
So for instance, if I have test.txt that I want to send, I would type:
Code:
adb push test.txt /sdcard/
and there it goes.
Ok moving on
Pushing files can be done to any directory, however, some are protected.
For instance, /system is going to give you a permission denied or a read only filesystem error.
To get around this, the easiest thing to do is push the file to your sdcard, then log into the shell:
Code:
adb shell
Code:
su
We will then mount the system as writable
Code:
mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/stl9 /system
Then we can use something like
Code:
cp /sdcard/test.txt /system/app/test.txt
cp stands for copy
and it requires the path of the file and destination path. The name of the file is optional
When you copy it, you can rename it to whatever you like.
For instance, if we wanted to backup a file
Code:
cp /sdcard/test.txt /sdcard/backuptest.txt
Now, lets assume you do not have busybox installed.
You non rooted users will not.
Then you must use a slightly more complicated command called dd
This is used like this:
Code:
dd if=/sdcard/test.txt of=/system/app/test.txt
if is for inputfile
of= output file
Not every user friendly, but probably one of the safer copy commands.
Ok, moving on to pulling files.
Lets say you want to get a file from your phone, to modify, backup, etc.
To do this, we simply use adb in this manner:
Code:
adb pull /pathtofile/filename destinationname
For instance, if I wanted to backup ADW launcher in system/app
I would do this
Code:
adb pull /system/app/ADWLaucnher.apk ADWLauncher.apk
And it will pull the file from the phone and put it in the current directory.
Like above, you can specifcy where it goes.
pushing files to the sdcard, it seems prudent to talk about changing permissions.
sdcards are typically fat32, which destroys permisisons, and Android is heavily permission based.
So if you push an application to your sd card, then try to copy it to /system/app/ bad things are going to happen, or the app may not even show up.
So in that case, we use something called chmod.
This is used in this manner
Code:
adb shell
su
chmod 755 /pathtoapplication/applicationname
Keep in mind
you dont want to do this while its still on your sd card.
an example
Code:
adb shell
su
chmod 755 /system/app/ADWLauncher.apk
755 is good for applications and script files.
Just a couple more topics to cover.
Lets go over deleting files.
This becomes especially handy for removing rogue applications.
To do this, we must be in the adb shell.
Code:
adb shell
su
rm /system/app/ADWLauncher.apk
You may need to remount system as writable with:
Code:
mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/stl9 /system
That applies when using chmod as well.
So what I did above was delete ADW Launcher from system/app
However, what if I wanted to delete the entire contents of a directory?
Same thing as before, except
Code:
adb shell
rm -f /data/dalvik-cache/*.*
I just cleared my dalvik-cache with that command
very quick, very effective.
If you just tried that, please reboot your phone now
Ok....this leaves us with the final topic: logcat
logcat allows us to log what the OS is doing, and possibly delve information for when things are not working
its quite simple Reading it is another.
To use logcat
Code:
adb shell
logcat
To logcat to a certain file do
Code:
adb shell
logcat > /sdcard/logcat.txt
Now we let the log settle down to a reasonable amount of data coming in and not a wall of scrolling, then start the app in question. When it gives an error, we hit ctrl-C and kill the adb shell session.
This should have captured enough data to see the error. Now, I prepared an example. A user came to me on IRC, and Google Maps was force closing. Clearing data didnt fix it, Clearing dalvik-cache, and fix permissions did not fix it. In this case, the user did not know how to use adb So I had him grab an app called alogcat from the market and email me the log. This is also a very valid method.
this file explains what the problem was, and highlights what to look for as an example.
http://adrynalyne.us/files/logcat.pdf
___________________________________________________________________
This concludes the guide from Adrynalyne, there will be more workshops such as this one in irc.freenode.net #android-learning.
Thanks to everyone in #samsung-fascinate !
QUICK FAQ's
sources: Q&A Section, The Weekly Q&A Section by XDA News Writers (thanks guys)
Q: ‘Is there any way to block specific apps from using my data connection?’
A: Try the Droid Wall application.
Q: ‘I read how you can make changes in the build.prop file on my Android device. How exactly do I get to it?’
A: Install ASTRO file manager, browse to /system, long press on build.prop – Edit – Copy. Press on the home icon then Edit icon – Paste. Connect sd card, edit it, and paste it over from where you copied build.prop
Q: What happens if I update my phone? will I need to re-root it and get the ROM again? will all of my applications get erased? If so, is there a way around this?
A: You will lose your root, but not apps if it is just an update.
Q: I just tried to flash a ROM from recovery on my Android phone and got “Verification Failed, Installation Aborted” What happened?
A: Before you can flash a custom ROM the .zip file must be digitally signed in the ROM kitchen, if unzipped and re-zipped it will lose its verification, this happens often using the Safari browser as it likes to decompress .zip’s. Or if your download is corrupted (download the ROM again) it will fail the Verification.
Q - HTC Location Widget shows "map data unavailable"
A - On the widget, click the pin/then click the windows button/click get more/scroll to download maps/download relevant map (care, maybe a big file). Now exit and click onto map, your location should now be visible :)
Q:So, I moved all the apps on the SD, but is still not enough. How can I free some memory? I could delete the cache of the older upgrade or something else?
A:Do you have pictures and videos? If so, check if they are on the SD card and not on your internal memory. Cleaning your cache helps, and try deleting your text messages threads.
Q: ‘What exactly is a kernel and what are the benefits in changing it?’
A: A kernel is a bridge between the applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level. The kernel’s responsibilities include managing the system’s resources – the communication between hardware and software components. Flashing different kernels gives you different operating speeds, better battery life, the ability to overclock, and more.
Android control other device with IOIO Board.
It use ADB.
http://androidcontrol.blogspot.com/2011/10/ioio-board-for-android-control-io.html
timmymarsh said:
QUICK FAQ's
sources: Q&A Section, The Weekly Q&A Section by XDA News Writers (thanks guys)
Q: ‘Is there any way to block specific apps from using my data connection?’
A: Try the Droid Wall application.
Q: ‘I read how you can make changes in the build.prop file on my Android device. How exactly do I get to it?’
A: Install ASTRO file manager, browse to /system, long press on build.prop – Edit – Copy. Press on the home icon then Edit icon – Paste. Connect sd card, edit it, and paste it over from where you copied build.prop
Q: What happens if I update my phone? will I need to re-root it and get the ROM again? will all of my applications get erased? If so, is there a way around this?
A: You will lose your root, but not apps if it is just an update.
Q: I just tried to flash a ROM from recovery on my Android phone and got “Verification Failed, Installation Aborted” What happened?
A: Before you can flash a custom ROM the .zip file must be digitally signed in the ROM kitchen, if unzipped and re-zipped it will lose its verification, this happens often using the Safari browser as it likes to decompress .zip’s. Or if your download is corrupted (download the ROM again) it will fail the Verification.
Q - HTC Location Widget shows "map data unavailable"
A - On the widget, click the pin/then click the windows button/click get more/scroll to download maps/download relevant map (care, maybe a big file). Now exit and click onto map, your location should now be visible :)
Q:So, I moved all the apps on the SD, but is still not enough. How can I free some memory? I could delete the cache of the older upgrade or something else?
A:Do you have pictures and videos? If so, check if they are on the SD card and not on your internal memory. Cleaning your cache helps, and try deleting your text messages threads.
Q: ‘What exactly is a kernel and what are the benefits in changing it?’
A: A kernel is a bridge between the applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level. The kernel’s responsibilities include managing the system’s resources – the communication between hardware and software components. Flashing different kernels gives you different operating speeds, better battery life, the ability to overclock, and more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your patience and taking the time to answer those questions. I loved your simple and easily digestible format.
There is a note
*nix based Operating Systems see the letter 'a' and 'A' as two different things.
when you log into adb shell, you are playing by android rules
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this note is all wrong..
1. linNUX is not *NIX.
2. Mac OS-X is a *NIX OS, it is based upon UNIX, they use their own variant called Darwin. Darwin does not require capitolization.
3. The word should be POSIX. Linux is POSIX compliant and POSIX defines the capitolization standardards
soft brick
Taioba said:
Is there any way to use ADB even though I can not enable USB debugging by the android?
I have an Atrix with soft-brick. How can I restore a file (framework-res.apk) knowing that my USB debugging is off?
I can enable ADB via fastboot?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found this for atrix 4g....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=965546
hope it helps
knoknot said:
i have a bricked s2 not so sure how to go about reviving it via adb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
check this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1237815
thanks. searched for that
Thanks for it.
Great Guys............ :good:
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this guild :d, i am new member for reccod
Great job~ Sometimes could be used this.
I'm using Windows 10 RTM and I've set the path, yet I still get the "unrecognized application" error in the command console. What am I missing?
Nevermind, a restart fixed it. Used to be you didn't have to.... sheesh.
nir36 said:
Replacing system files using Android Commander:
(This post was formally based in the HD2's RTL support thread and revolved around our need to replace frameworks)
so:
1. Download the android SDK from: http://dl.google.com/android/android...08-windows.zip
2. EXTRACT(!!!) the android-sdk-windows to c:\
(make sure you extract the dir - not run the setup from inside the zip file)
3. install Android Commander from http://androidcommander.com
4. Connect your device and make sure it's set to Debugging mode in /settings/applications/development/
5. You might have to set a dir containing your adb.exe file. set it to c:\android-sdk-windows\tools\
6. You will see a Total Commander-like interface. you can then copy the framework.jar file to the correct directory (there's no difference between SD android builds and androids in ROM - the system dir will be shown the same way)
a. Yes, you can replace/delete system files while android is running.
b. (for androids running from SD) Any file copied to /sdcard/android/root/system/X will be copied to /system/X in the system file. The sdcard/android root dir is JUST LIKE your root in ROM androids.
c. Make sure you either created a backup or verified a match in any other way before replacing files like frameworks, zimage, modules, etc.. your android might not boot afterwards (I keep all system.ext2 files backed up so that i can restore them incase i screw something up.)
enjoy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, this Guide is very informative
Help with LG D722
I'm using LG D722 phone and I somehow unlocked bootloader and installed twrp recovery. I backed up Lollipop that's what I'm using and i want to restore custom ROM
I know I need to install Google Apps after installing Custom ROM. But Do I also need to install Modem files on my device ? Because I can't find them on XDA Forums. Please give me a link or something. The help is not just appreciated but seriously needed.
Success. Thanks
Hello, I walk testing one recovery but I'm booting before flashing, the question is, will the recovery feel same when booted vs flashed? I've booted and used to flash a pair of zips but felt very laggy and bugged although did the work right. Thanks
Edit: solved, tried myself
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet K1 using XDA-Developers mobile app
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=872128&page=2
temporarily "abandoned" .. please use Zep's ultimatic jar power tools instead.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hate that Zeppelinrox's thread is being cluttered with OT questions about this.. so opening a new thread. Please post any JellyScreamPatcher.exe questions here. Thanks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[experimental] Windows tool for patching services.jar for V6 SuperCharger
Opening note: When replying to this post, please do not quote it!!! Or quote selectively.
For each fully quoted reply a puppy will die somewhere in the world. If you love puppies as much as I do, you'll stop quoting long posts.. thank you
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Code:
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
/*
* Your warranty is now void.. LOL I guess you knew it already.
*
* I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards,
* thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because your phone bootloops. Please
* do some research if you have any concerns about features included in my utility
* before using it! YOU and only YOU are choosing to make these modifications.
* I'm providing no ETA's, though usually I'm responding PM's in a timely manner ;)
*
* While the tool provides some backup functionality, allowing you to roll back to
* a working system, feel free to create a nandroid backup trying this ;)
*
*/
For downloads and changelog, see Post #2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Preface:
Many of us V6 Supercharger users have been flashing nightlies nightly and dailies daily, resulting in the need for a patched services.jar almost daily since the automatic web patcher no longer works for Android 4.1.1 Jellybean files, we had to stick with manually patching this files as described in Zep's guide here. Eventually Zep prepared several versions of the Jelly_Scream_Smali_Patcher_Test_x.sh script, which does the job perfectly, but the user still has to get his services.jar, extract the .smali files, put them to the phone, put the script to the phone, run it in the phone's terminal, copy the patched .smali files back to the PC etc. etc. and for many of us, this is time consuming (and difficult for others). Time is money, right?
Currently, this tool is using a ported version of the ALL_ROMS_Ultimate_Jar_Power_Tools-Jelly_ISCream+Maximum_MultiTasking_Mods-Smali_Patcher_Test_11.sh script for patching.
So... here an automated workflow, which assumes a few things:
you are running a MS Windows operating system (tested on Win7 x64)
you have Java installed. This was tested with Java7, should run fine on Java 6 as well. In the Q&A section below I provide a link to download Java. Make sure that java.exe is accessible from any folder (is in PATH). Some version of Java 7 installs the binaries into the windows/system32 folder, other versions use different folders (e.g. "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin"), so you need to know where the binaries are. Make sure you have that folder in your PATH. If not, just google how to add a folder to the PATH, there are many tutorials on the web.
[optional] you know how to connect your phone to the PC via USB
[optional] you have ADB drivers installed (either via Android SDK or from your phone's manufacturer)
[optional] you know how to enable USB debugging in your phone and did that
[optional] the USB connection mode is NOT "mass storage" (for the online mode) - please set it to "Charge only" or "None" (varies from device to device)
Before you start:
The following needs to be done only once. Of course, when Zeppelinrox updates his shell script, I'll be updating my tool and this guide to provide a new download file.
download the 7zipped tool (single archive) to your PC . Make sure you always download the latest version (link in the changelog)
extract it to an empty folder (e.g. c:/super/ .. just like in the ICS Guide) so that you get a nice folder structure like this - see explanations for the folders as well:
Code:
C:.
│ JellyScreamPatcherV6_0.9.0.6.exe
│
├───adb
│ adb.exe
│ AdbWinApi.dll
│ AdbWinUsbApi.dll
│
├───backup
├───cwm
│ signapk.jar
│ testkey.pk8
│ testkey.x509.pem
│ update.odex.zip.empty
│ update.zip.empty
│
├───dist
├───framework
├───odex
│ dexopt-wrapper
│
├───scripts
│ deodex-pusher.sh
│ dexopt-wrapper.sh
│
└───smali
baksmali
baksmali.jar
smali
smali.jar
version.txt
Before we start, I'll explain the folder structure.
Code:
adb - support folder, includes google's adb tool
backup - this folder will include your old files
cwm - support folder, includes files for generating cwm compatible update.zips
dist - this folder will include the patched files for further processing
framework - this is the working folder, where files will be compiled/decompiled/patched
odex - support folder, includes the binary for odexed ROMs in-phone final patching
scripts - support folder, includes files for online mode
smali - support folder, includes the smali/baksmali tool
How to patch the services.jar file
The following assumes you have a "stock" (or unchanged) services.jar in your phone's ROM or in my tool's framework subfolder .
Note: The current version should still be considered as beta-release. While it works for me (most of the computer stuff works when I'm near it, my family has been puzzled about this since long ago.. LOL), it may not work for you. Please report any bugs you find (thread, PM) and I'll be happy to fix them. Although I inserted many "hit the Enter" prompts into the tool, it's always good to run the tool from a console so that you can keep the output in case you flash through the workflow too fast
Also, the tool maintains an activity.log file where it flushes messages about what's happening. If you encounter a bug, send me this file. Please do not copy/paste the log contents into the thread!!! Attach it. Or upload to any cloud service and send me the public URL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tip: When running the tool, feel free to enlarge the command prompt window vertically
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After running the tool and passing the initial screen, you will be presented with a choice between online and offline mode.
Online mode
Online mode assumes that the phone is connected via USB. In this mode, the tool can pull all the information from the phone. Not only the files, but system variables, as well as some debug info (e.g. is the ROM odexed?)
Connect the phone via USB
Enable connection mode "Charge only" or "None". This won't work, if the phone is in "Mass Storage" mode!
Sit back and enjoy (and don't forget to answer the tool's questions!)
After patching there will be a warm reboot
Offline mode
Offline mode means, that there will be no interaction of the tool with the phone via USB. You need to do all the file transfers and in case of odexed ROMs, the final in-phone patching, manually. Also you will have to enter some other information into the tool manually.
make sure to copy your /system/framework/services.jar to the tool's framework folder. If you have an odexed ROM (e.g. stock), copy the whole /system/framework folder contents to the tool's framework folder.
make sure to know your system's version because the tool will ask for it
make sure to know your BOOTCLASSPATH variable. It can be pulled from the phone using the command
Code:
adb.exe set | grep BOOTCLASSPATH
make sure you know if the ROM is odexed or not
After patching, you will need to transfer the patched files to the phone and perform manual patching/replacement:
Odexed ROM:
For odexed ROMs, there is some more patching required that you can do in the phone.
copy services.jar from the 'dist' folder to the sdcard
copy 'dexopt-wrapper' from the 'odex' folder to the sdcard
copy 'dexopt-wrapper.sh' from the 'scripts' folder to the sdcard
Make sure they are in the card's root folder !!
In the phone, open Script Manager or any other app that can run shell scripts with superuser rights.
Open the app, run the dexopt-wrapper.sh script. A warm reboot may occur, since the script will restart the framework
Reboot to recovery, Clean Cache, Clean Dalvik Cache
That's it
Deodexed ROM:
update-signed.zip in the dist folder
Copy this file to your sdcard, then reboot to cwm recovery and install it from there. Then do a Dalvik Cache wipe, Cache wipe and reboot.
services.jar in the dist folder
You can copy this file to phone's /system/framework folder and replace the existing one. Make sure that the new file will have owner/group 'root' and permissions 644. Then reboot to recovery, clean Cache & Dalvik Cache.
Rollback
In case something goes wrong, there should be a message about that in the activity.log file.
Feel free to send this file to me - either attach (not paste!!!) the file to a post in this thread, or upload it to any of the cloud services and tell me the URL. I'll take a look.
Before patching, the tool creates backup of the files as a CWM recovery compatible update.zip file. It will sit in the backup folder. This is your way back to a working system. Of course, you can do a nandroid backup..
So what is the tool actually doing?
Very easy to explain.
it pulls the services.jar (and odex files if needed) from your phone to the working folder (or takes an existing one that you put into the folder)
it uses the baksmali.jar to decompile the services.jar/odex
creates a backup of the unchanged files
it runs a ported perl version (and compiled to exe) of Zeppelinrox's JellyScream patcher script (v6) to patch the .smali files
it uses smali.jar to compile the new classes.dex
inserts the new classes.dex back to the services.jar
[optionally] it pushes the new services.jar back to the phone
[optionally] for ODEXed ROMs, created services.odex from the patched services.jar
[optionally] for deODEXed ROMs, it creates and signs an update.zip that can be flashed in CWM recovery
collects the garbage and exits with a nice message .. LOL
Q&A
Q: It doesn't decompile the services.jar and complains that the .smali files don't exist !!!
A: Yeah, probably your Java is crap. Install Java JRE from Oracle's web (http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp), it will offer you the latest version. I tested with Java 7, but latest releases of Java 6 should work as well.
Q: Getting java errors "not recognized" "not found" and so !!!
A: You probably don't have the java executable in the system PATH. Search the web on how to do this. Example - Java7 installs its binaries to the <system>:\Windows\System32 folder, other versions may act differently and they may have the binaries in a different folder (e.g. "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin") . That folder needs to be in the PATH.
Q: I'm getting bootloops after patching the services.jar with this tool!
A: Make sure to Wipe Cache, Wipe Dalvik Cache and Fix permissions in the CWM recovery. ALso, feel free to send me your original services.jar, I'll take a look. If you have an odexed ROM, send me the whole /system/framework folder and the activity.log file generated while using this tool in "online" mode.
Q: After reboot with the new services.jar file, it says "Android is upgrading" and optimizing apps, even though I did not wipe my dalvik cache.
A: Well, yes that is expected. It will take a while, depending on how many apps you have installed.
Q: Will my phone's memory be blazing fast and effective after this?
A: No, you still have to run the V6 Supercharger script.
Q: Does it run on Linux?
A: Not yet, but it will. I need some more internal testing to release a Linux version.
Q: Does it run on ODEXed ROMs?
A: Yes !!!
Q: Why is the executable so large???
A: Blame PAR long story short, I wrote my stuff in Perl and used Perl to port Zep's stuff as well. Then I compiled the script to exe using the PAR:acker package, resulting in the huge executable. I know, there is another way, to use Activestate's PDK (Perl Development Kit), but the license is approx. $250 and I just don't have that money for spending on a single tool. PDK creates much smaller files (approx. 1/3rd), but for now we have to stick with what we have
Q: Tool fails and in the log I see messages like "failed to copy 'C:/super/backup/services.jar' to '/mnt/sdcard/services.jar': Permission denied"
A: Make sure the USB connection mode is other than "Mass Storage". It can be "Charge Only" or "None", really this is depending on the device you own.
Q: Isn't there a virus included in the executable?
A: LOL.. No. This community gave me a lot since 2007 and I have no intention to harm it in any way. If you are using NOD32 and it starts complaining about the URL to my file I posted above, let me know. ESET support is pretty quick in identifying and fixing false warnings
Enjoy.. and feel free to PM me in case of any questions. I'll keep this post updated all the time.
Thanks
- Zeppelinrox for the V6 Supercharger and the associated scripts/tools
- Rexstor for the ODEX guide
- Android community for all the other tools (smali/baksmali/sign)
- Google for Android... luv ya!!!
If you feel like I deserve a beer for what I've done, feel free to consider donating to Zeppelinrox first as I'm just making his fabulous work a tiny bit more accessible. And if you still think I deserve a beer, you can use the button below.
downloads and changelog
Downloads
http://dev.pepcok.info/jellyscreampatcher/JellyScreamPatcherV6_0.9.0.6.7z
Changelog
0.9.0.6 [2012-09-23]
still using ALL_ROMS_Ultimate_Jar_Power_Tools-Jelly_ISCream+Maximum_MultiTasking_Mods-Smali_Patcher_Test_11.sh
added a proper error reporting when sdcard is not writable in online mode
0.9.0.5 [2012-09-20]
using ALL_ROMS_Ultimate_Jar_Power_Tools-Jelly_ISCream+Maximum_MultiTasking_Mods-Smali_Patcher_Test_11.sh
multiple users with Odexed ROMs have reported this version to work. Feel free to try
with online mode, there is a framework restart after patching, causing warm reboot of the device.
0.9.0.4 [2012-09-13]
using ALL_ROMS_Ultimate_Jar_Power_Tools-Jelly_ISCream+Maximum_MultiTasking_Mods-Smali_Patcher_Test_11.sh
Warning for odexed ROM users - proceed with cautions, many have reported bootloops (even with previous version). Investigating
0.9.0.3c [2012-09-12]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_9.sh
fixes STUPID bug with storage detection (I hope)
0.9.0.3b [2012-09-12]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_9.sh
storage detection, as requested by one of the users (thanks Zep for the code! )
fixes in shell scripts for online mode
removal of the -f flag for rm commands
0.9.0.3 [2012-09-11]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_9.sh
odex: if the baksmali decompile fails (e.g. file missing, although being in BOOTCLASSPATH), the tool will create an alternate BOOTCLASSPATH based on the files that were pulled from the phone and try decompile again. It even this fails, then I guess the world will end in 2012
ui: revamped the whole ui, user is now selecting offline vs online (adb) mode at the beginning
ui: added a proper note for the user to make sure to clean cache/dalvik cache when rebooting for the first time with the new services
ui: added instructions for the user in offline mode (when he wants to do the final steps manually)
internal: added some file exists checking, online (with adb) mode works better now and is prettier
other: as always, please read what the tool says.
0.9.0.2 [2012-09-06]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_9.sh
instead of using crappy adb commands, the final patching is done via shell scripts in the phone - please help me test that. I already restored my phone's system partition 4 times (since patching a GB MotoDefy+ with ICS HTC Evo services is not healthy, but necessary for my testing), all the final patching seems to work fine here. Tested for both odexed and deodexed files and my phone already hates me
the tool will make a backup of your original services.jar/odex file into a CWM recovery update.zip (will be in the backup folder) .. that's your way back from potential hell
fixed a typo in manual API level selection - thanks for catching
0.9.0.1 [2012-09-05]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_9.sh
few fixes (shell user detection, trying to implement better /system rw mount )
0.9.0 [2012-09-05]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_9.sh
initial support for ODEXed ROMs - alpha version. I need testers please ! Since my phone does not have any odexed ICS or JB, I was able to test with sample files from xda fellow members end-to-end, but the real full fledged experience, I can't verify
0.8.9.2 [2012-09-05]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_9.sh
minor update to capture the system calls, stdout and stderr into the log, for people who have problems with java. Let's see how it works
0.8.9 [2012-09-04]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_9.sh
updated adb communication
added proper logging
internal preparation for ODEX ROMs (yeah, 0.9.0 will work with ODEXed ROMs !!!)
added framework folder as the working folder (reduces file clutter.. LOL)
0.8.5 [2012-08-27]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_9.sh
update-binary from Titanium Backup
0.8.4 [2012-08-26]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_8.sh
minor fixes only
0.8.3 [2012-08-25]
patcher: Jelly_IScream+Time_Killer_Killer--Smali_Patcher_Test_8.sh
this one should work with services.jar files where the smali files don't include debug information
0.8.2 [2012-08-23]
some more checks for "non-compatible" data, will provide warnings to the user in case of "incompatible" services.jar. Users seeing that message should proceed with caution until the next version. Zeppelinrox is aware of the potential problem.
0.8.1 [2012-08-22]
patching based on Zep's v7 script
resolves patching issue with the services.jar from the Alliance 2.1 ROM for Galaxy Note (GT-N7000)
resolves a weird compilation error when running the executable
0.8 [2012-08-22]
First public version, based on Zep's v6 patcher
Good job and thanks.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
FYI I added this to Post 2 of the SuperCharger thread...
B) Equally Effective AND EASIER than A) - use the Jelly ISCream Automatic Patcher for Windows!
This does everything that is explained in this very post - from start to finish! Yep... it does Steps 1 to 9!
I know... it's complicated... this is what you do...
1. Plug in your phone
2. Run the Windows exe to patch and install services.jar!
OK?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks buddy
I guess tomorrow I'll need a guinea pig ... oh... I mean a tester !!! LOL ... for the ODEX stuff.. it looks good locally, just need to close my eyes for a few hours cuz I can't see anything any longer today.
zeppelinrox said:
FYI I added this to Post 2 of the SuperCharger thread...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People are still going to get it wrong....
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Thanks for this. Trying it now on my GS3 (running a deodexed Touchwiz rom). After hitting [ENTER], the screen hangs on:
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did I miss something?
jdhas:
The text you pasted is start of the adb server, the next step after that is waiting for device. Did you have the phone connected to the PC via USB, with USB debugging enabled? I should probably add some text saying that it's waiting for the device
pepcisko said:
jdhas:
The text you pasted is start of the adb server, the next step after that is waiting for device. Did you have the phone connected to the PC via USB, with USB debugging enabled? I should probably add some text saying that it's waiting for the device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm definitely connected, and I definitely have USB debugging enabled. I am, admittedly, trying this from my work computer, which may be too "locked down" for this sort of fun. Will attempt again when I get home.
well, the easiest thing to check (even at work) is to run
Code:
adb devices
manually from the console. This way you can check if adb is seeing the device.
EDIT: What the tool is doing, is the following:
Code:
adb\adb.exe start-server
adb\adb.exe wait-for-device
adb\adb.exe pull /system/framework/services.jar framework\services.jar
so my assumption is, if it fails in the second command, it's waiting for the device.
jova33 said:
People are still going to get it wrong....
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why the next update might have a little surprise if they run the jelly iscream script without the smali files in the same folder... hehehe... makem scream for realzzz
Looking forward to the update....
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
Well... here's what may be possible...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=31137111&postcount=5066
I just quickly made a new services.jar hack.
Breaking the lowmemorykiller so that it doesn't kill anything was easy... just one simple edit LOL
I'm hoping that increasing max hidden apps from 15 to 50 will work... that would be optimal
===============================
Oh yeah I had used a goo.gl link in Post 2... http://goo.gl/OfOOE+
Already a nice number of clicks lol
Great work. Looking forward to your next update for odexed roms. :thumbup:
Sent from my Pro using xda app-developers app
jdhas said:
Thanks for this. Trying it now on my GS3 (running a deodexed Touchwiz rom). After hitting [ENTER], the screen hangs on:
Did I miss something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
USB debugging enabled? Phone plugged it?
Close the win app and try again. It's hung in a couple of spots for me. I just close it and run it again and it'll go through the second time
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
I need help. I get the following error message when the patch is running on my computer.
"Important files are missing after decompiling services.jar See the log for details. Exiting..."
Log attached below. The log shows me trying twice with the same error message causing exit. Please advise.
Edit: I'm on Jellybean CM10 with the Droid Incredible.
Do you have java installed on the PC?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
jova33 said:
Do you have java installed on the PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Java6 Update 26 (64-bit) shows as installed under programs.
folks, who have problems with this
Important files are missing after decompiling services.jar See the log for details. Exiting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you download the new minor update? I uploaded 0.8.9.2 which adds some more logging and is a bit more "bulletproof" in the system calls.
Please let me know and send (or attach) logfiles if it goes wrong.. Thanks
Good news !!!
I successfully broke my device when I end-to-end tested the ODEX patching on my Motorola Defy+, using test files from a HTC EVO
But that was expected and I did it willingly.
Flashing the stock SBF now, will do one last final test and then (within 1-2 hours) upload the ODEX-capable patcher
Notice (4/16/14): I'm no longer here. I've said "goodbye" to AT&T and their locked bootloader schemes. I'm voting with my wallet - I've sold my I337 and switched to T-Mobile. My apologies to the community, but you're now on your own here.
Intro/About/Requirements:
This thread started as a guide for people who wanted to run Ubuntu in a chroot, and then connecting to it locally with a VNC client. This method has been used countless times on other devices, with many thanks to @zacthespack and his his group, LinuxonAndroid. Unfortunately, this method did not work out-of-the-box on my device, so I tweaked things to work with the Galaxy S4 and posted them here in this thread.
However, the most people immediately noticed that with this method the performance is not great, and some applications can't work in a headless environment. With a comment made by zackthespack, I began researching what it would take to get Ubuntu to write directly to the device's framebuffer. After a few months, I not only managed to accomplish this, but also developed a way to get the Galaxy S4 to boot directly into Ubuntu. As far as I have seen, both of these are a "first" for this handset.
All of these methods require root. The VNC Chroot does not require a custom kernel, but the other methods require a custom-built kernel. For the I337 (AT&T) handset, this can pose a problem if you have bootloaders that are MF3+. If you're using MDB/MDL bootloaders still, you shouldn't have a problem with this and you can Loki the custom kernel without issue.
Depending on your ROM and/or Kernel, you may also need a new version of BusyBox installed, even for the VNC method. You'll find a few apps on the Play Store that can do this for you. Beware that some of them are not easily reversible (such as TinyBox), so if you're stuck on MF3 with no way to create/restore a nandroid/system backup, you should be careful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disclaimers:
Following this guide and/or flashing anything I've provided to your device is your own responsibility. If something breaks, you break your device, or something explodes, I can't be held liable (I'll help correct any situations you may put yourself in, however). I claim no rights to any proprietary software or intellectual property included in this post or the packages contained herein. By using any of this software, you agree to whatever licenses/agreements that the creators may have included with their software. If you use any of this stuff in your own project, please provide credit where credit is due. For example, if you take my u.sh script and adapt it to some new device (i.e. Galaxy S 5), please at least mention where it came from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VNC Chroot Method (original):
This method is loosely based on this thread for the Galaxy S3 and the ubuntu.sh script there. It didn't work for the S4, but I've made several tweaks to it, simplifying it a ton, and otherwise getting it to work perfectly on my S4. I've tried this using my AT&T Galaxy S4 (SGH-I337) on both the MDL build and the MF3 build - both seem to work great.
Instructions:
Download the Ubuntu 13.04 Small v1 image here.
Create a folder on your sdcard labeled "ubuntu" by whatever means you want to.
Extract the ubuntu.img from your downloaded zip into this folder.
Download my version of the ubuntu.sh and place it on the root of your sdcard.
Open the script in a text editor and read through it. Never run a script like this on your android without first knowing what it does - especially when the author is telling you that you need root. If you're happy with it, proceed.
Install an terminal emulator of your choice. I personally used this one, and technically an adb shell will work too (but you'll be tethered to your PC...).
Install a VNC Client of your choice. I personally used this one, but there might be better/faster ones out there.
Open the terminal emulator, and execute the following commands:
Code:
su
sh /sdcard/ubuntu.sh
If you see a bunch of errors and get dumped back at the "[email protected]:/ # " prompt, then something went wrong. Report your errors in this thread. Remember, this requires root (and the "su" command to get there, of course).
You'll be prompted for some setup parameters, which you can save at the end for later. Just answer each question and press Enter after each:
You'll need to provide a new password for the "ubuntu" user. A simple passwords like "ubuntu" works, unless you want some security.
Start VNC server? (y/n) - always choose "y". We need this to interact with the device.
SSH server? Optional. If you use it, you should enable it.
Screen size: Enter whatever you want. I personally used 960x540 (one quarter of the S4's screen size) so that I could actually interact with things using the touch screen.
Save settings as defaults? - You might not want to do this until you have a screen size that works best for you.
Once you see the prompt, "[email protected]:~# " - you're in! You now have Ubuntu running in a chroot. As the on-screen instructions suggest, type "exit" at this prompt to end the chroot and Ubuntu. It is recommended to do this when you are done so that the ubuntu.sh script can clean up after itself (unmounting things, etc.).
Leave your terminal emulator app running! Use your Home button to return home and leave it running.
Open you VNC client and connect with the following settings:
Nickname: (whatever you want)
Password: ubuntu
Address: localhost
Port: 5900 (default)
Username: (leave blank)
Color Format: 24-bit color (you can use lower if you want better performance)
Connect. For the VNC app I used, I had to zoom in to make the screen fit correctly (use pinch-to-zoom, and then use the "+" button on-screen). Also, you can play around with the Input Mode some if you wish.
Enjoy Ubuntu!
As you can see, it's not terribly complicated to get this up and running. Once you have set it up the first time, it's a lot smoother from then on out. The script is designed to allow you to use the external SDCard if you wish. Just use place the ubuntu.img in an "ubuntu" folder on your external SDCard, drop the ubuntu.sh on the root of the external SDCard, and use "sh /mnt/extSdCard/ubuntu.sh" instead (don't forget "su"!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Freedreno Chroot Method (NEW):
This long-winded tutorial will explain how you can setup Xubuntu-desktop in a chroot. Before attempting any of this, you should read through all the steps and be sure you're comfortable performing the steps needed.
This requires roughly 2GB free space on your /data partition - the actual finished install is about 1.4GB, but it will require some extra space while it installs Freedreno and other components. HINT: Keep in mind that your /data partition is shared with your internal sdcard (your internal sdcard gets whatever space is leftover at the end of the /data partition), so you can get an idea how much free space you have by looking at how much space your internal sdcard has available.
Instructions:
Step 0 (option A) - Build Custom Kernel
You will need to install a custom kernel that has specific options enabled in the configuration, along with a few patched files in the source code. This list of changes is based on a delta from the stock I337 MF3 kernel, available at http://opensource.samsung.com/. You should be able to apply these changes to "any" kernel that you can build from source, so this documentation may apply to devices other than the I337.
Kernel Mods:
Required config changes:
Code:
CONFIG_DEVTMPFS=y
# CONFIG_DEVTMPFS_MOUNT is not set
CONFIG_DRM=y
CONFIG_MSM_KGSL_DRM=y
# CONFIG_KGSL_PER_PROCESS_PAGE_TABLE is not set
# CONFIG_MSM_KGSL_PAGE_TABLE_COUNT is not set
CONFIG_FB_MODE_HELPERS=y
CONFIG_FB_MSM_TRIPLE_BUFFER=y
CONFIG_FB_MSM_DEFAULT_DEPTH_BGRA8888=y
# CONFIG_FB_MSM_DEFAULT_DEPTH_RGBA8888 is not set
Fix for Wi-Fi problems when using MF3 kernel on UCUAMDL bootloaders (i.e. "unadulterated" or "neutered"):
Code:
CONFIG_PROC_AVC=y
Required Patches to kernel source code:
https://github.com/freedreno/kernel-msm/commit/4c0281745f8c85707be88acebb557aca0b8f1dba
https://github.com/freedreno/kernel-msm/commit/228f65d48d4855d903e3b4642179dfa14eedd040
https://github.com/freedreno/kernel-msm/commit/54b510b2e6bccf08fdf3a8ad00a62b27c2f8c1e6
Additional changes required for sudo to work (added 10-25-13 in v4):
Code:
# Samsung Rooting Restriction Feature
#
# CONFIG_SEC_RESTRICT_ROOTING is not set
# CONFIG_SEC_RESTRICT_SETUID is not set
# CONFIG_SEC_RESTRICT_FORK is not set
# CONFIG_SEC_RESTRICT_ROOTING_LOG is not set
Additional changes to the initramfs required for sudo to work (added 10-25-13 in v4):
Edit fstab.qcom, remove the nosuid, part of the line that references userdata.
Step 0 (option B) - Download Custom Kernel Instead
Don't want to compile your own kernel from source? If you have the I337, you can use mine! As mentioned above, this kernel is based on the original MF3 source from Samsung, with the modifications listed above. If you are stuck with MF3+ bootloaders on your I337, you will not be able to install this kernel directly (at the time of this writing). MDB/MDL bootloaders are fine, but you will need to flash loki-doki afterwards (this kernel is not pre-lokified!). This kernel might work with other similar variants (such as the M919), but I haven't tested this on anything except my own I337 daily-driver. YMMV. If you run into issues, you might need to wipe cache/dalvik. This will likely only work with TouchWiz-based ROMs (I have not tried it with AOSP). Here's some downloads for you:
mf3-freedreno-android-boot-v4.zip - CWM/TWRP flashable zip.
- Boots to android, allows Ubuntu with Freedreno to work in a chroot.
- Compiled with the original (slightly modified) MF3 initramfs and "mf3-freedreno-minimum-zImage-v4" (below).
- Includes minimal configuration changes described above, plus the WiFi fix part.
mf3-freedreno-minimum-zImage-v4 - Just the MF3 kernel itself with minimal changes to get the chroot to work.
mf3-freedreno-minimum-config-v4 - Yeah, that's right. I'm providing the .config files I used for all of this.
Step 0.5 - Install the Kernel
Before you can start up the chroot properly, you'll need to have the custom kernel installed. You don't want the "ubuntu-boot" version right now, because you don't have an Ubuntu install to boot to. If you're using my pre-built kernel, first flash mf3-freedreno-android-boot-v4.zip and then flash loki-doki.zip.
Step 1 - Companion Files
Download this file: mf3-freedreno-companions-v4.zip - Non-flashable zip. This includes the script files, which you should promptly read through both u.sh and launch.sh. It is always good practice to read through any script file you get from the internet, making sure it's doing what you would expect it to. Also check out CREDITS.txt, which includes information about the included upstart-dummy.tar.gz and start-stop-daemon files.
Extract the companion files .zip and place its contents on the root of your internal sdcard (/sdcard/). Don't extract the contents of upstart-dummy.tar.gz. This is your $src directory. You can change this if you wish (see script for details).
Step 2 - Install/Configure Ubuntu
Install an terminal emulator of your choice. I personally used this one, and technically an adb shell will work too (but you'll be tethered to your PC...). At the console/shell, type the following two commands:
Code:
su
sh /sdcard/u.sh bash
The script will download Ubuntu Core and install Freedreno, upstart-dummy, and lubuntu-desktop. Total download size will be around 425MB. Total install time will vary, but count on it taking at least 45 minutes to install and configure everything. At the very end, you'll be prompted to enter a password for the new user "ubuntu".
Step 2.5 - Exit ubuntu
When you see the message "Type 'exit' (without quotes) to leave ubuntu," the install is complete. You'll notice that your prompt changed to "[email protected]". This is the easiest way to confirm that you're actually inside the ubuntu chroot. Type exit and hit Enter to get back to android.
Step 3 - Fire it up!
From now on, you can start Ubuntu using u.sh in any of these three ways:
sh /sdcard/u.sh - This will make initial prep, STOP android (black screen), launch the chroot, install/configure if needed, and will execute "service lightdm start". This will give you the greeter and you can login as "ubuntu". If the lightdm service stops for whatever reason (see info about the home button below), the script will continue by exiting the chroot and rebooting your device.
[*]sh /sdcard/u.sh bash - Same as above, except that it will not stop android, not startx (will give bash shell instead), and will not reboot your phone when you exit the shell.
[*]sh /sdcard/u.sh destroy - This will do exactly as it sounds - destroy your ubuntu installation. This will unmount your /sdcard from ubuntu (if still mounted somehow) and then recursively delete your ubuntu installation. If you change the source or destination directories in the main script, you should be careful deleting things.
NOTE: Remember to ALWAYS run any these from a root shell, whether via terminal emulator, via adb shell, or using SManager (or similar).
Step 4 - Note the Home Button and Touchpad
Take note that any time you have X running via lightdm, the hardware Home button will kill the X server. This is intentional, and will exit the chroot and reboot your phone. You'll also notice that currently, the touchscreen acts like a giant touchpad (like on a laptop). Use two fingers to right-click or scroll. Direct touchscreen input is not available at this time due to a segmentation fault that evdev causes when used on this device in a chroot.
Step 5 - (optional) Make Changes and Do it All Over Again
Customize the crap out of it! Edit my u.sh, launch.sh or xorg.conf and have fun. If you find great improvements, please post them in this thread! In future revisions, I might include them. Things should be well documented within the scripts. You might even change the bit at the end of launch.sh that starts "service lightdm start&" instead of "startx" - this would give you the greeter and let you login as the user "ubuntu" if you want. Also note that those three files are the only ones that must remain in your $src directory if you wish to continue to run this as a chroot. By the way, booting directly to Ubuntu after it is installed does not require any of the companion files anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Native Boot Method (NEW):
This part of the tutorial is for those who wish to take things a step further and boot your device directly into Xubuntu-desktop. This will require that you setup the Freedreno chroot properly, and then you'll be installing a new boot.img. While this doesn't replace your /system partition, you won't be able to boot directly into Android while you have this boot.img installed.
Instructions:
Step 1 - Install Ubuntu
Basically, you need to perform all the steps for the Freedreno Chroot method, and get that up and running first. All you're doing here is swapping out your kernel.
Step 2 (option A) - Build Custom Kernel
You'll need all of the kernel customizations included in the freedreno chroot method, plus these listed below:
NOTE: You will need some proprietary blobs, which can be found on your device in the /etc/firmware directory.
Config changes to enable booting directly into Ubuntu (beyond replacing the initramfs...):
Code:
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE_="audience-es325-fw.bin a300_pm4.fw a300_pfp.fw vidc_1080p.fw"
CONFIG_CMDLINE="console=tty0 fbcon=vc:0-3"
# CONFIG_CMDLINE_FROM_BOOTLOADER is not set
CONFIG_CMDLINE_EXTEND=y
# CONFIG_CMDLINE_FORCE is not set
Optional config changes to enable the framebuffer console when booting directly into Ubuntu - useful for debugging.
Code:
CONFIG_VT_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_VT_CONSOLE_SLEEP=y
CONFIG_VT_HW_CONSOLE_BINDING=y
CONFIG_DEVPTS_MULTIPLE_INSTANCES=y
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=m
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DETECT_PRIMARY=y
# CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_ROTATION is not set
# CONFIG_FONTS is not set
NOTE: You will need to grab some .ko files that are created, which must be loaded in the following order:
Code:
insmod /ko/font.ko
insmod /ko/softcursor.ko
insmod /ko/bitblit.ko
insmod /ko/fbcon.ko
I recommend that you include these four lines into the init script that is included in the ubuntu ramdisk. These can go pretty much anywhere after the ". /scripts/functions" part, but before it calls out to run-init. Also, don't forget to drop those .ko files into a new /ko directory in the initramfs. If you want to load these with modprobe, I'll leave that up to you (good luck).
Replace the entire ramdisk/initramfs:
At this time, I'm not going to provide instructions on how to do this. You'll need this mako boot.img straight from Ubuntu, repacked with the zImage created here. For what it's worth, the re-pack tool I'm using includes --cmdline 'androidboot.hardware=qcom user_debug=31 zcache', but I'm not sure if that's needed (especially considering our kernel seems to use qcache?). Anyways, good luck.
Step 2 (option B) - Download Custom Kernel Instead
Again, if you don't want to compile your own kernel from source, you can download mine and use it. The same warnings and restrictions apply as they do in Step 0 (option B) of the Freedreno Chroot method. And here's your downloads:
mf3-freedreno-ubuntu-boot-v4.zip - CWM/TWRP flashable zip.
- Boots to Ubuntu directly, but only if your Ubuntu install is located at /data/ubuntu (Default).
- Compiled with the original MF3 initramfs and "mf3-freedreno-everything-zImage-v4" (below).
- Includes all configuration changes described above.
mf3-freedreno-everything-zImage-v4 - Just the MF3 kernel itself with all changes for both chroot and direct booting to Ubuntu.
mf3-freedreno-everything-config-v4 - Yet again, I'm providing my complete .config file for this.
Step 3 - Install the Kernel
Here's the easy part. Flash your completed boot.img, flash loki-doki, and reboot. If you're using my pre-built kernel, first flash mf3-freedreno-ubuntu-boot-v4.zip and then flash loki-doki.zip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashable Zip Method (NEWEST):
It's finally finished: a flashable .zip that you can use to dump a pre-built rootfs onto your data partition. This will still require that you flash one of the two custom kernels (whether for chroot or native booting), but it will allow you to skip the whole build/install process.
ubuntu-install-v4.zip - CWM/TWRP flashable .zip. Requires approx 2GB free space on your data partition during install, and the final install size is approximately 1.3GB (may want more free space to add your own programs/etc.). Output folder is /data/ubuntu. This can be changed in u.sh, but heed the warnings within!
Instructions:
Instructions for Chroot-style Ubuntu:
Download the "companions" .zip and extract its contents to the root of /sdcard.
Download the "ubuntu-install" .zip to your internal or external SDCard.
Download the "mf3-freedreno-android-boot" .zip to your internal or external SDCard.
Make a nandroid backup of your phone, and store it on an external SDCard or your computer. Always a good idea to have this.
Install the "ubuntu-install" and "mf3-freedreno-android-boot" .zip files, followed by loki-doki.zip if you need that for your device (e.g. I337).
Restart and resume with Step3 of the Freedreno Chroot Method.
Instructions for Native Boot Ubuntu:
Download the "ubuntu-install" .zip to your internal or external SDCard.
Download the "mf3-freedreno-ubuntu-boot" .zip to your internal or external SDCard.
Install the "ubuntu-install" and "mf3-freedreno-ubuntu-boot" .zip files, followed by loki-doki.zip if you need that for your device (e.g. I337).
Restart and let it start into Ubuntu!
NOTE: The username is "ubuntu" and the password is also "ubuntu" - it is highly recommended that you change this ASAP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Known Issues/Bugs:
Below is the list of known issues that I can think of, from the top of my head. This will probably be updated later as everyone points stuff out. Some issues only apply to some of the methods, so the applicable methods are listed in parenthesis after each.
Sound has not been tested (freedreno/native)
3D graphics or OpenGL support has not been tested (all)
Some applications don't work in a headless environment (vnc)
Some applications don't like to run as root, such as chromium (freedreno) lightdm is working in companions-v3, so no need to login as root anymore
Onboard is not working (freedreno/native) fixed in companions-v3
sudo does not work (all) fixed in kernel-v4 for freedreno/native, but problem remains for (vnc) if you are not using a custom kernel
A few kernel Oops's (native)
Shutdown menu doesn't always work (freedreno/native) fixed partly in companions-v4 - proper locale settings seem to allow the shutdown menu to work once you are logged in
Performance issues due to VNC connection (vnc)
No 3G/WiFi/network connection that I'm aware of... (native)
No control over 3G/WiFi/network/bluetooth yet (all)
Xorg's normal touchscreen driver evdev causes segmentation faults (freedreno/native)
Working on a possibly trying to get fbdev to work natively without Freedreno for simplicity (freedreno/native)
Anything you'd normally expect from a phone does not exist (freedreno/native)
Screen rotation (with or without accelerometer) doesn't work yet (freedreno/native)
HDMI/MHL output remains untested at this time. I got it to briefly work once, but I need to revisit this. (freedreno/native)
Many more to come, I'm sure...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To-Do:
Add mirrors to the download links.
Add a CWM/TWRP-flashable .zip that just dumps a clean Ubuntu install onto your data partition. This should be easy enough. completed!
Fix some of the bugs above.
Simplify the launch.sh and xorg.conf files. The u.sh script seems pretty solid.
Develop a method that works with only fbdev. This method might eliminate the possibility of 3D acceleration, but should enable screen rotation and other nifty things.
Possibly look into getting kexec (or similar) to work on the Galaxy S4 to offer a dual-boot option. Low priority at the moment, because flashing a kernel back and forth is pretty easy stuff.
Get Ubuntu Touch to work. This would eliminate a lot of bugs. I mostly need to just buckle-down and build CM10.1 from source, and then slowly visit each step of the Ubuntu Touch boot process.... Ugh.
Rebuild Freedreno to try to get Mesa/Gallium3D working properly. I'm probably going to need a lot of help from Rob Clark on this one!
More to come...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Revision History:
[11-13] mf3-freedreno-companions-v2.zip - Updated launch.sh: added some error checking and fixed the Freedreno build process.
[11-15] mf3-freedreno-companions-v3.zip - Updated launch.sh to include onboard and English language. Removed florence and xvkbd. Removed .keyb script. Added sudo. Simplified upstart-dummy, and included new upstart-dummy.tar.gz. Prepped for new flashable .zip method.
[11-26] mf3-freedreno-companions-v4.zip - Updated launch.sh: included fix for onboard so that it should work anytime lightdm is launched, added some bits for sudo to work, and home button now kills lightdm (not just the Xsession); Updated u.sh: Added check for root, added notes about sudo and nosuid.
[11-26] mf3-freedreno-android-boot-v4.zip & mf3-freedreno-ubuntu-boot-v4.zip - Finally fixed sudo! See kernel mods sections for details.
[11-26] ubuntu-install-v4.zip - rebuilt with new companions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aou said:
Check out this app: SManager (Script Manager). It makes running the ubuntu.sh or u.sh a whole lot easier, plus you can send it into the background (vnc method only). Just remember to jump back into SManager later, use the Menu Key and open the console to be able to kill the ubuntu.sh. You can also add "bash" as an additional argument (freedreno method only). This seems to be an effective replacement for the Terminal Emulator. Don't forget to choose the "su" option to run either script as root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have literally spent hundreds of hours working on this project, and many more hours documenting it thoroughly - just so that I could share it with all of you. If you found this guide, custom kernel or scripts to be beneficial, please hit the THANKS button on this post.
This mostly works, but I think I may have made an error. I see it starting the sshd, but not VNC server. I can call vncserver, but when launching the vnc client app I just get stuck at "Establishing Handshake" until it times out. This differs from when I don't call vncserver, where I get immediately connection refused.
I'm going to redownload the image and start from scratch, but the image isn't very friendly when I'm trying to figure out how to rerun the initial configuration script...
On my S4 running OTA-MF3 with root, this didn't work for me until i used Busybox Installer from the market. Tried internal and external without it, neither worked. Only thing that looked like an error after that was
Code:
chown: cannot access '/external-sd/': no such file or directory
but this only showed the first time I ran it. Opened VNC connection just fine from my computer to the phone, and though there was slight graphics glitching (orange and red boxes on desktop) it worked just fine and they didn't interfere. Thanks for this!
Tsaukpaetra said:
This mostly works, but I think I may have made an error. I see it starting the sshd, but not VNC server. I can call vncserver, but when launching the vnc client app I just get stuck at "Establishing Handshake" until it times out. This differs from when I don't call vncserver, where I get immediately connection refused.
I'm going to redownload the image and start from scratch, but the image isn't very friendly when I'm trying to figure out how to rerun the initial configuration script...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not, I agree. I found that the easiest way to clear the configuration and start anew is to do the following from the "[email protected]" prompt (that is, within ubuntu):
Code:
rm /root/DONOTDELETE.txt
rm /root/cfg/linux.config
DeadlySin9 said:
On my S4 running OTA-MF3 with root, this didn't work for me until i used Busybox Installer from the market. Tried internal and external without it, neither worked. Only thing that looked like an error after that was
Code:
chown: cannot access '/external-sd/': no such file or directory
but this only showed the first time I ran it. Opened VNC connection just fine from my computer to the phone, and though there was slight graphics glitching (orange and red boxes on desktop) it worked just fine and they didn't interfere. Thanks for this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. I looked through the image's init.sh, and found something that's relatively new (wasn't in beta):
Code:
# Fix for sdcard read/write permissions by Barry flanagan
chown ubuntu /external-sd/
As far as I can tell, that message is harmless. It's only included in the initial configuration, as it's in the section:
Code:
if [ ! -f /root/DONOTDELETE.txt ]
As for the need to download/install the BusyBox installer, that's not surprising at all. I've had so much trouble BusyBox ever since I switched to MF3. I might include this as an extra step in the OP - thank you.
You kidding right...does this really work? To cool, thanks Aou. Great work.
TheAxman said:
You kidding right...does this really work? To cool, thanks Aou. Great work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yessir, it does indeed work! The S4 handles it very nicely with the extra RAM & CPU it has to spare, so the only limiting factor is VNC. If someone could devise a way to get Ubuntu to draw directly on the screen from within that Chroot, that would be perfect. I don't think it's really possible by design, but this might be the closest we get to running native linux on the I337 until we see some unlocked bootloaders.
Thanks
Aou said:
Yessir, it does indeed work! The S4 handles it very nicely with the extra RAM & CPU it has to spare, so the only limiting factor is VNC. If someone could devise a way to get Ubuntu to draw directly on the screen from within that Chroot, that would be perfect. I don't think it's really possible by design, but this might be the closest we get to running native linux on the I337 until we see some unlocked bootloaders.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact I am currently working on getting xorg to write to androids frame buffer which will mean no more vnc
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
zacthespack said:
In fact I am currently working on getting xorg to write to androids frame buffer which will mean no more vnc
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You, sir, are the man. thank you so much for working on this! I threw $10 at you to help fund the skittles/cheetos/carrots/beer/pizza/whatever it takes to help you along.
Added a couple things to the OP. Looks like pure-stock roms will indeed need BusyBox installed, by some means or another. Also, found SManager, which makes executing the ubuntu.sh script much, much easier.
The second script that allows me to launch ubuntu, but the first that allows me to get a real X server on my vnc. Thank you so much !
PS: Why am I unable to install wine ?
"Package wine is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source"
This is working pretty good, slow though, do I have it setup right, or did I miss something?
TheAxman said:
This is working pretty good, slow though, do I have it setup right, or did I miss something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have found it to run a bit slow, and with regular crashing of GUI programs too. Is it just slow or unusable? You can always try closing other apps besides terminal and VNC, or try to VNC from a computer even.
tboss1995 said:
The second script that allows me to launch ubuntu, but the first that allows me to get a real X server on my vnc. Thank you so much !
PS: Why am I unable to install wine ?
"Package wine is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like you're not the only one. Check out this thread on the LinuxOnAndroid site:
http://forum.linuxonandroid.org/index.php?topic=268.0
TheAxman said:
This is working pretty good, slow though, do I have it setup right, or did I miss something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DeadlySin9 said:
I have found it to run a bit slow, and with regular crashing of GUI programs too. Is it just slow or unusable? You can always try closing other apps besides terminal and VNC, or try to VNC from a computer even.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the slowness comes from interacting with it via VNC, it would seem. Hard to compare to anything else, considering VNC is all we've got at the moment. I wonder if @zacthespack can shed some light on this. As he mentioned before, he's working on getting it to draw directly to the Android screen. I'm certainly not going to ask for any status updates, but I'm wondering if he can confirm that we'd see a speed increase without VNC...
EDIT: Also, as I use it more, I am noticing the app crashes too (such as Chromium). Could just be something in the 13.04 image, but also could be because we're running this all on ARM architecture.
Aou said:
Looks like you're not the only one. Check out this thread on the LinuxOnAndroid site:
http://forum.linuxonandroid.org/index.php?topic=268.0
Most of the slowness comes from interacting with it via VNC, it would seem. Hard to compare to anything else, considering VNC is all we've got at the moment. I wonder if @zacthespack can shed some light on this. As he mentioned before, he's working on getting it to draw directly to the Android screen. I'm certainly not going to ask for any status updates, but I'm wondering if he can confirm that we'd see a speed increase without VNC...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RE installing WINE, sure you can install the ARM verson but Wine is not a emulator (infact WINE stands for Wine Is Not a Emulator) so you can only run ARM compiled windows software.
Yest there is a good speed increase, as with VNC xorg writes to the vnc server and passes it to the vnc client to then render on the screen.
With the new method xorg just writes to Androids frame buffer, no inbetween man.
And it can get even faster once we have graphics accelerations although not all chip sets will get that.
zacthespack said:
RE installing WINE, sure you can install the ARM verson but Wine is not a emulator (infact WINE stands for Wine Is Not a Emulator) so you can only run ARM compiled windows software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point, forgot about that. It's really just a big package of Windows dependencies, responding to API calls, etc. The software that Wine runs is still sending stuff to/from the processor directly, therefore it would have to be compiled for ARM.
I wonder what Windows8 programs are available that are compiled for ARM (because of the Microsoft Surface and all...).
Aou said:
Good point, forgot about that. It's really just a big package of Windows dependencies, responding to API calls, etc. The software that Wine runs is still sending stuff to/from the processor directly, therefore it would have to be compiled for ARM.
I wonder what Windows8 programs are available that are compiled for ARM (because of the Microsoft Surface and all...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's plenty or ARM software within the built in app store, but I'm not sure where they install to or how one would go about extracting them. I have it on desktop and it shows what processors it runs on. Can't wait for the straight to screen function though
Also, I'm going to see if a different image is more stable. Chromium was the most obvious crashing for me and others generally crashed.
DeadlySin9 said:
There's plenty or ARM software within the built in app store, but I'm not sure where they install to or how one would go about extracting them. I have it on desktop and it shows what processors it runs on. Can't wait for the straight to screen function though
Also, I'm going to see if a different image is more stable. Chromium was the most obvious crashing for me and others generally crashed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed that with 12.04, it doesn't seem to connect to Xorg or something, because when you use VNC, it only shows a grey screen with a cross cursor. Same for both "Lite" and "Full" packages. Haven't tried older (10.x) packages of Ubuntu.
The other Linux images should work just fine. Optionally, you can edit the ubuntu.sh script to be more appropriate, but it should theoretically work the same (unless the init.sh is located elsewhere inside the image...).
I tried the Ubuntu 10 image and the Debian image but ubuntu didn't run vnc (vncserver not found or something) and debian kept saying I didn't have permissions.
It appears chromium is incredibly unstable on this image, so I've uninstalled it.
I'm currently working on trying to get Minecraft to work, but ever since 1.6.2 and this new launcher, it's incredibly difficult to modify the client files and such. Something is going wrong with liblwjgl.so. I can get the launcher to work correctly, but when it goes to load the game, it can't find liblwjgl.so and says that it might be because of 32bit vs ARM. I did get lwjgl installed correctly, and pulled the ARM version of the .so and stuck it in [what I believe was] the right .jar file, but it still has the error.
I'll keep you all posted. If I can get this to work, and if zacthespack can get xorg to draw on the android screen, ... :good:
EDIT:
Found out that every time the launcher runs minecraft, it downloads several libraries and other crap to run the game, to keep itself current and to support multiple versions, yada, yada. Unfortunately, this means that it downloads https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft..../2.9.0/lwjgl-platform-2.9.0-natives-linux.jar every time you click Play, and overwrites any custom one you might have (i.e. one with ARM libraries inside). I tried revoking write access to the file, but then the launcher aborts the launch because it can't overwrite the file.
Any suggestions?
EDIT #2:
Well, the easy solution was to modify the file, run the launcher, disconnect mobile data temporarily, and then launch the game ("couldn't connect to server .... have local copy of file .... assuming it's good...."). No more errors about that stupid library file. However, the game immediately crashes now with an error report. Investigating this now. PROGRESS!
Problem
I'm aware I may need to modify the script in order to accommodate my setup, but I figured I'd post here first before changing anything in case someone else had a similar problem and came up with the solution.
I followed all the instructions, except I want to boot from an external USB stick (mounted using StickMount).
I reviewed the script, dropped it on the root of the USB stick, and copied the unzipped image to a folder named ubuntu.
Here is the output when I run the script:
Making mount points and mounting to them...
mount: mounting /dev/loop20 on /data/local/ubmnt failed: Operation not supported
mount: mounting devpts on /data/local/ubmnt/dev/pts failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting proc on /data/local/ubmnt/proc failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting sysfs on /data/local/ubmnt/sys failed: No such file or directory
Connecting to /sdcard...
mount: mounting /sdcard on /data/local/ubmnt/sdcard failed: No such file or directory
Putting in some settings...
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1
/sdcard/usbStorage/sda1/ubuntu.sh[19]: can't create /data/local/ubmnt/etc/resolv.conf: No such file or directory
/sdcard/usbStorage/sda1/ubuntu.sh[20]: can't create /data/local/ubmnt/etc/resolv.conf: No such file or directory
/sdcard/usbStorage/sda1/ubuntu.sh[21]: can't create /data/local/ubmnt/etc/hosts: No such file or directory
ubuntu is configured with SSH and VNC servers that can be accessed from the IP:
(You will see an error about wlan0 if your WiFi is disabled. Safe to ignore.)
----------------- OKAY, starting Ubuntu! -----------------
chroot: can't execute '/root/init.sh': No such file or directory
----------------- Ubuntu has exited! -----------------
Cleaning up - unmounting everything and removing what we made...
umount: can't forcibly umount /data/local/ubmnt/dev/pts: No such file or directory
umount: can't forcibly umount /data/local/ubmnt/sys: No such file or directory
umount: can't forcibly umount /data/local/ubmnt/proc: No such file or directory
umount: can't forcibly umount /data/local/ubmnt/sdcard: No such file or directory
umount: can't forcibly umount /data/local/ubmnt: Invalid argument
Welcome back to your android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am running as root, BusyBox free has been installed. My terminal app has been granted root privileges. The path to the USB stick is sdcard/usbStorage/sda1.
Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated! :fingers-crossed:
Hello XDA comunity!
I want to share you a very useful tool that I have created, its name is: "kielyd".
What's keilyd?
Keilyd is a BASH daemon that constantly dumps the system's logs, warnings and other useful info in a easy-to-share "ZIP" with the main purpose to create a very informative and useful bug report.
keilyd is expansible and configurable. It's very easy to add new features because BASH interacts directly with the Linux/BSD commands in the Android System.
How does it works?
Keilyd is launched at device boot, with the "init.d support" and as root (see requeriments below). After launched, keilyd relaunches itself in a "daemon mode", that runs in the background, then, it dumps several information in the /sdcard and compress it in a single zip, so, the user can send that zip (in fact, are 2 zip's or more if you use the "snapshot" feature) to the developer of their ROM, to a forum or send it to a 3rd party developer and report a bug with all the system logs included.
Keilyd stores 2 zips: the first one is the current log (the "very last file") and the second one is the last log before keilyd were launched again.
If you won't enable de daemon, you can create a single zip when you use the "snapshot" feature, if you take two or more snapshots in the same minute, the ZIP will be the same, otherwise, one script per different minute will be created. The Snapshot feature can create as much zips as needed.
What info is collected?
That's a good question!
The info that is collected is (this applies ONLY for a vanilla copy of keilyd):
Kernel log (aka "dmesg") and other kernel info
Logcat (aka "logcat")
List of process running and memory statics
A copy of all tweaks in init.d (including keilyd itself)
A copy of build.prop and sysctl.conf
A copy of /proc/config.gz (if exists)
Some cpuinfo
Mounted filesystems and usage
How does this "daemon" can help me?
Developer:
Have you had the need to get some system log from a user?
Probably the answer is "yes", but, the user may have no idea how to do that, so, you have to give them a "step-by-step" guide of "how to get a system log in the terminal".
This simplifies the process, so, the user can report a bug with logs with no terminal (if the daemon is enabled) or with a single command that looks like
Code:
keilyd --snap
User:
Well, the complement of the developer... You can share "golden" information just by sending 2 zips files to the dev. Minimal Android knowledge is the only prerequisite if the daemon is working as spected.
This daemon is not a demon, but it can be very bad if not implemented as spected. Please, ensure that ALL THE COMMANDS ARE KNOWN and that THERE IS NO PORPRIETARY interference.
Why BASH?
A good idea is to create a daemon in C/C++ and share it as a "binary", BUT, as we are recolecting information from the device, the user must have to be concient of what are the script recollecting, if the user can't read bash, it can ask to a 3rd developer. You can feel safer because it's under the GPLv3 licence!
In addition, BASH run in (almost) any UNIX based OS, including but not limited to Apple OS X, GNU/Linux, Android, iPhone OS, etc...
This prevent a "blind trust" from the user, and give them facility of enable-disable the script, add features and so on.
Requeriments
- A rooted device
- Busybox (or run-parts)
- init.d support
- BASH 4.3.x ONLY SUPPORTED by the moment.
- Terminal emulator/HIDE]
How can I include it in my ROM?
Take a look of my repo in GitHub, it contains the last version of keilyd and the implementation during compilation in the Makefile.
If you are a ROM modder, download the latest version from above, include init.d and bash support in you ROM.
Or you can create a CWM/TWRP/Philz... flashable zip (it would be great!)
Users: how to use
When something goes weird, open the terminal emulator and write:
Code:
keilyd --snap
and send to the developer all zips in
Code:
/sdcard/keilyd/out
type
Code:
keilyd --help
and a helpful message will be printed.
If something goes wrong and you need to reboot the device (or the device reboots itself), just send both zips to the developer or the forum where you are asking help (This feature only works if the daemon is enabled).
Developers: how to use
You can add/remove things in order to fit your needs, the only thing that we ask you is that you write the whole script in BASH, without "blobs" that may private the user from know what is exacly logged and stored.
If some user sends you the zip, you will notice that the files are plain-text, and you can view it in any text editor.
TODO:
List all apps installed (system and user)
Secure "user-modificable" settings (Allmost DONE)
A graphical interface (an app) to manage the daemon
A flashable ZIP
Aports and sugestions are WELLCOME, please, coment in the box below
Install redistributable package:
If the avobe requeriments are meet...
1. Open this GItHub URL
Click in the "Download ZIP" icon in the right.
2. Put the zip in your phone
3. Unzip it.
4. If you want to use the script... A; otherwise, B.
A.
a. Open the terminal emulator.
b. cd to the folder that contains
Code:
install.sh
c. As root, type "
Code:
sh install.sh
" in the terminal.
B.
a. Open ES File Explorer
b. Enable root explorer and mount /system as rw
c. Copy
Code:
daemon/18keily
to
Code:
/etc/init.d
d. Tap and hold the
Code:
18keily
file and open the poperties
e. Change te permisions to
Code:
rwx r-x r-x
f. Copy the
Code:
redistrib/bash
file to
Code:
/system/xbin/bash
g. Change the permisions as above.
h. Symlink /etc/init.d/18keily to /system/xbin/keilyd
i. Reboot
NOTE:
Keilyd can be used in 2 ways:
1. As a daemon that does it job without human interaction, that constatantely and automaticaly creates 2 zips in the output directory.
2. As a Script that only needs to be called with the '--snap' parameter, but it requieres human interaction and does not constantely repeat the process.
Use the first one if you are a beta tester, or if you know that you ROM can hang sudently. Recomended for Unstable ROM'S.
Use the Last One if your ROM is stable or official, but you want to do a bug report.
You can allways use the second option if you use the first one.
By default, the daemon is disabled. You can enable if you change the "ENABLED" variable to "Y". I personally recommend values for "MINS" between 5 and 15.
BUGS REPORTS in the GITHUB REPOSITORY
Reserved
Hi there,
This looks like what I need, did you close the repo? Can you share a link to the script? I have a few devices, and I want to have some forensic information for troubleshooting (I.E. log all the warnings, errors and critical logs, + a snapshot every n minutes about the system usage). Right now I have to go where the device is, connect it with ADB and query the logs (most of the time, the logs were overwrited)... Thanks in advance.