Seeing all the work being done over in the dev section, I was reminded of something I did when modding my xbox. The boot img for the xbox is very small, it basically just looks for various executable files in order from different places and then fails if it doesn't find them..and that's all it does, so it is much smaller than an entire ROM, 256k to be exact. The thing is the chip it was contained on in earlier models of the xbox were 1MB, 4 times what was needed. By shorting out the board on the TSOP one could use a physical switch to toggle how much of the chip was visible to the CPU, and you could in essence split this chip into four banks, and flash 4 different boot images if you wanted (although you needed a 4 position switch and a hell of a lot of 32 gauge wire + patience). Since that was really overkill, what I did was split the TSOP into 2 banks and flashed 2 separate bootloaders, one could remain stable and near stock, as to maintain all the function of the xbox, while with a flick of the switch I could boot from and flash the other bank experimentally, if it failed to flash or got stuck in a bootloop then you could switch over and reflash from the working side, keeping it from being brickable.
Now, of course we have much more control over a rooted android device's hardware via software than the xbox has, and can dual boot without adding switches and soldering the board (at least in the case of ubuntu), I was wondering is there any way to get a Eee Pad dual-booting from two ANDROID partitions, so one could boot and flash developing roms (like the ICS rom coming along in the dev section) while maintaining a safe bootable img that works as a safeguard?
Or does hardware limit this function in our machines?
It may be possible to do so by installing one of the ROMs to the recovery partition like we can do with Ubuntu.
I'm sure something like Boot Manager, that stores ROMs on the SD card, could be put in place for dual booting.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA App
Does recovery boot from the internal SD card or does it flash to an internal EEPROM chip?
I know the ROM itself is on the SDcard internally like any OS, wondering if there might be a way of getting the bootloader to actually search for a file on the external SD card and if it doesn't find it search for the same sys file that the OS uses on the internal?
On the xbox, the OS file was initiated by launching a single file, named default.xbe (xbe=xbox executable files), and all autorun files on the discs were also named 'default.xbe'..is this an option to actually change the initialization of the bootloader to search for the OS on the external before trying to boot from the internal OR conversely simply partitioning the interanl (though I don't know how you would go about getting the bootloader to differentiate between one partition and the other, much less have control of which it chooses to load/flash, without perhaps an intermediate 'OS selection' option)
this is not an xbox.
EDIT: however there would be a way to boot 2 android partitions, it would just require a very different set up to what you are saying. you are stuck in the minimalist xbox approach that has a small microkernel which can only run one executable at a time
I know it isn't an xbox, but that is the only linux-based system I've got experience hardware modding, I assume the TF could assume a similar function without hardware modifications..?
On another note- I just found out that there is an Android PS3 emulator (WOW) wondering how far off an Xbox360 emulator is from being ported from PC to Android..that would give someone a reason to want to dual boot...would be a novel thing to turn on the TF and be greeted by a gaming console boot animation
luna_c666 said:
I know it isn't an xbox, but that is the only linux-based system I've got experience hardware modding, I assume the TF could assume a similar function without hardware modifications..?
On another note- I just found out that there is an Android PS3 emulator (WOW) wondering how far off an Xbox360 emulator is from being ported from PC to Android..that would give someone a reason to want to dual boot...would be a novel thing to turn on the TF and be greeted by a gaming console boot animation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, xbox is winnt based not linux based
I understood it was UNIX based, at least the EVOX and UNLEASHX dashboards were, I wrote code for them and had to study UNIX in order to do so..I'm sure the OEM xbox stuff was MS proprietary, but everyone went to UNIX based dashboards instead, even installing DSL (Damn Small Linux). I even got a ported version of Windows CT running in a Linux application on the OEM Xbox, but now we are getting way off topic- my knowledge (or lack thereof) of the xbox isn't what's in question, rather my desire to learn MORE about the TF..how about giving me some constructive information instead of simply trying to tell me I am wrong here?
ok yes, we are getting away from the point, as I said, yes it could be done but not quite in the way you propose, it is a fair bit of work.
Check out the ubuntu project for android,
It creates two partitions by using your recovery area.
But the end result is that you a boot android or b boot ubuntu arm. (Don't get excited with arm ubuntu 90% of what I wanted to do I couldn't since its arm.
But my point is, I bet that could be easily modified replacing the ubuntu image with another android image and maybe some other stuff to "dual boot" your tf101.
Course the more I think about it the more reasons I get to doubt it'd be that simple.
Idea 2, one word..... safestrap.
Sent from my XT862
Ok ignore half of what I said, coffee hasn't kicked in and I didn't the part where you mention the Ubuntu project.
So my vote is going to a safestrap. Its exactly what I do on my Droid 3. Non safe is my rooted debloated ROM. Reboot, enable safe mode and I get hashes ics ROM.
Although this use isn't what he designed it for, it's a useful side effect. Takes about 3 minutes to get from nonsafe to safe, for me.
Sent from my XT862
I will have to look up safestrap I've never heard of it, is it a hardware device?
luna_c666 said:
Seeing all the work being done over in the dev section, I was reminded of something I did when modding my xbox. The boot img for the xbox is very small, it basically just looks for various executable files in order from different places and then fails if it doesn't find them..and that's all it does, so it is much smaller than an entire ROM, 256k to be exact. The thing is the chip it was contained on in earlier models of the xbox were 1MB, 4 times what was needed. By shorting out the board on the TSOP one could use a physical switch to toggle how much of the chip was visible to the CPU, and you could in essence split this chip into four banks, and flash 4 different boot images if you wanted (although you needed a 4 position switch and a hell of a lot of 32 gauge wire + patience). Since that was really overkill, what I did was split the TSOP into 2 banks and flashed 2 separate bootloaders, one could remain stable and near stock, as to maintain all the function of the xbox, while with a flick of the switch I could boot from and flash the other bank experimentally, if it failed to flash or got stuck in a bootloop then you could switch over and reflash from the working side, keeping it from being brickable.
Now, of course we have much more control over a rooted android device's hardware via software than the xbox has, and can dual boot without adding switches and soldering the board (at least in the case of ubuntu), I was wondering is there any way to get a Eee Pad dual-booting from two ANDROID partitions, so one could boot and flash developing roms (like the ICS rom coming along in the dev section) while maintaining a safe bootable img that works as a safeguard?
Or does hardware limit this function in our machines?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldnt you mount the developing or experimental ROM's like ics as loop devices?
Im not sure how many loop devices you can have but i think its like 6 or something
Before little stevie brought out hes ubuntu system thats how i had linux for awhile it wasnt the fastest or most efficient but good enough for testing
Sent from my tf Enigmatic V2 beta 1.65Ghz Panda.test cust kernel settings
Related
Ok, theres a lot of threads out there on getting Debian working "with" Android side by side. What about getting Debian working primarily and natively? You can easily modify the bootloader to boot into Debian.
No I'm not talking about chrooting into debian from the Android environment.
With this being said there are plenty of possibilities. Debian works natively with ARM, so you can go ahead and install Xorg with touchpad driver etc. and get Debian working up to fullspeed. Believe me, it works a 1000x better than using AndroidVNC and tightvnc server. You can actually use mplayer with ffmpeg to play any type of vidoes off your sdcard at fullspeed.
So anyway, what do you guys think? Maybe theres a way to modify the bootloader so at boot time you can choose to boot into debian or android etc. or maybe it would be possible to lets say "boot debian" and vnc into androids fb to "make a phone call" etc., kind of a like a reverse vnc method we use to get into X on the debian side. Heck - we could maybe even figure out how to access the framework to make calls natively through debian. The possibilities are endless.
Also, I'll edit this post and try to get a guide going here in a couple days on how to get Debian ARM/Xorg working.
I was actually wondering myself if this could be done. Heck, not like I do not enjoy android or anything. It would be great to be able to run a lot of my *nix apps natively on my phone.
I already have Debian runnin off my 8GB sdcard(unfortunately a class 2) and I enjoy it. Problem is having to shut it down and restart it so much to get functionality out of my G1.
Keep me up to date on your progress and let me know the best GUI to use for better performance.
so whats the deal, anyone actually got this working? i have no use for my brothers g1 considering the low call quality/not recieving mms'es, i mean literally if i put them side by side, my excalibur has better service/reception. and id be pretty sweet to have crystal fvwm running on g1. so it doesnt really matter to me if i could get it to make calls, as theres always skype/amsn w.e. so pretty much anyone got any links on getting a native debian install?
dinscurge said:
so whats the deal, anyone actually got this working? i have no use for my brothers g1 considering the low call quality/not recieving mms'es, i mean literally if i put them side by side, my excalibur has better service/reception. and id be pretty sweet to have crystal fvwm running on g1. so it doesnt really matter to me if i could get it to make calls, as theres always skype/amsn w.e. so pretty much anyone got any links on getting a native debian install?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes they got this working. If you looked at the bible you would've seen this. But I will give you the link enjoy it is very cool. Youtube has some videos also.
http://www.saurik.com/id/10
Royalknight6190 said:
Yes they got this working. If you looked at the bible you would've seen this. But I will give you the link enjoy it is very cool. Youtube has some videos also.
http://www.saurik.com/id/10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no you misunderstand . i mean run debian native, as in to replace android
dinscurge said:
no you misunderstand . i mean run debian native, as in to replace android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha Sorry, um let me look around for yeah.
hey...check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX1BOGl8Fnw
and heres another xda thread here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=624392
USHERROB said:
hey...check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX1BOGl8Fnw
and heres another xda thread here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=624392
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahh thx for the link i saw this before but misplaced the bookmark. but im afraid thats not exactly what im looking for but that probably doesnt exist. as this is only set up to have dual boot booting android/debian of 3rd part on sdcard. and as far as i am seeing in the thread it isnt working to well. that im just going to have to wait and see what happens.
This is an old thread, but still a very interesting topic.
Would be *great* to but debian at the bottom of things.
A note about the bootloader: It is ***ALREADY DUALBOOT***. There are TWO boot partitions on the phone: "boot" and "recovery". If you want to set it up to dualboot, but your primary (automated) boot kernel into "boot", and your secondary in "recovery".
As long as you have an engineering SPL, the actual recovery is not required -- in fact, if you WANT to boot into recovery, you can always "fastboot boot recovery.img" without even having to flash the recovery to the phone.
I tell you the thing that really bugs me about android: that it doesn't support existing X.
What I dream of at night is running the ANDROID stuff ON TOP OF X. It would present a little bit of a challenge in terms of having the PHONE app (or whatever) be able to pop up to the top. There would also be some RESOURCE challenges. DREAM may not be the best hardware to implement this on.
Native Xorg
A slight off-topic because I have Samsung Galaxy
I was also fascinated by this possibility of running debian linux, Xorg on the phone.
So I created this project "linux-on-android" (sorry, I am not allowed to post links yet) on the google code where I am going to post instructions and code. Please, join the project if you are interested. It should be completely open.
The idea is to start with something simple but working and move slowly. In order to run X server from the Debian distribution it is enough to just use the Android kernel, with only a little change to the framebuffer driver. I don't change the boot procedure - only turn off the android services and put things like startx instead. Now I am trying to use matchbox+LXDE and they look nice and fast. Wifi and touchpad work. Nothing else does. I thought about what would be the minimal working configuration and decided that power management + telephony would be very good.
With the telephony I plan to leave the android RIL daemon and write a small python program that would communicate with it and act as a dialer. It appears to be not such a problem, at least I am able to communicate with the daemon now and all requests are nicely wrapped in python methods. The next step is to write phone GUI/dialer.
I think it would be already very nice to have Xorg and debian running on top of the android daemons and android kernel replacing this "zygote" stuff. Also if we do something in this way, it would probably work on any android-based phone without big changes.
About dual-boot: I am still using chroot, I don't find anything bad in it. I have two different boot.img files, they only differ by init.rc, one which starts zygote, and one which starts Xorg. In Android I press a button and reboot in debian, in debian I press a button and reboot in android.
klinck said:
A slight off-topic because I have Samsung Galaxy
I was also fascinated by this possibility of running debian linux, Xorg on the phone.
So I created this project "linux-on-android" (sorry, I am not allowed to post links yet) on the google code where I am going to post instructions and code.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll post it for you in the hope to get something good going here
http://code.google.com/p/linux-on-android/
Wow klinck you really seem to be making awesome progress here man. Just looking through your project page and i see it being updated every day. I just watched the video proof and i must say it's really quite impressive.
What needs to be done now is make a guide for this, so people can easily install this on their G1 and test it.
Also, this will give it more developer attention. I really think this deserves a chance
EDIT: added links for easyness
Jefmeister said:
EDIT: added links for easyness
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To Jefmeister: thanks for posting the links and your interest.
About G1: As I said, I have Samsung Galaxy, so I don't have a chance to test it on G1. But still I can probably make a "binary distribution" for G1 and somebody else can test it. There are some hardware differences, to summarize, there are 3 things I need to change:
I need a kernel for G1 with ext3 support, and patched framebuffer driver which turns double buffering into single buffering and automatically updates screen at regular intervals
I need to know if tslib driver works with touchscreen from G1 and what is the corresponding device (it is /dev/input/event2 in my case)
I need to know where to put the debian distribution. In Galaxy we have a separate 1Gb ext3 partition on SD card which is normally used for '/data' directory, so there is a plenty of free space there. But I guess it may be different on G1.
klinck said:
To Jefmeister: thanks for posting the links and your interest.
About G1: As I said, I have Samsung Galaxy, so I don't have a chance to test it on G1. But still I can probably make a "binary distribution" for G1 and somebody else can test it. There are some hardware differences, to summarize, there are 3 things I need to change:
I need a kernel for G1 with ext3 support, and patched framebuffer driver which turns double buffering into single buffering and automatically updates screen at regular intervals
I need to know if tslib driver works with touchscreen from G1 and what is the corresponding device (it is /dev/input/event2 in my case)
I need to know where to put the debian distribution. In Galaxy we have a separate 1Gb ext3 partition on SD card which is normally used for '/data' directory, so there is a plenty of free space there. But I guess it may be different on G1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(3): You could certainly put it all on the sdcard in exactly the same way. As long as you have the sdcard driver built into the kernel, the sdcard is just like any other storage device.
I dont know if this is going to be of any help to you, but as I was searching around for a way to nativly install linux on my dream I found this.
http://www.htc-linux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Dream
It may interesting as a point of refrence.
anyway, keep up the good work, once my conract expires this is exactly the kind of thing I would love to do with my old phone
Hi all !
I have actually an Debian NATIVE on my G1, both Debian/OpenMOKO/Android on the SAME phone.
android are into NAND FLASH, OpenMOKO (for tests and few binaries/config files) into SD2 Partition, and Debian with all tools to compilation, into SD3 Partition.
Actualy work on my Debian G1 :
USB NET
Xorg
Keyboard (but one touch not responding)
Touchscreen (but the calibration into Worg not work, into FBCONS it's OK)
Trackball (but the ball not "click")
I trying to make call, with OpenMoko I can ring my phone.
I trying also WiFi : Crash :'(
for bluetooth, I don't have the fu***** firmware ...
For ALL : You can boot debian with fastboot or recovery.
Debian CAN be into SD1/FAT32 parition, into loop file. I make an boot img, who can boot from SD1 part with loop image you don't must repartition SDCARD, or have dedicated SD card.
I was thinking that dual booting on a single device would be a really great thing. A huge step.
Why we cannot do it?
Cannot we "emulate" partitions of the internal memory on the sdcard and then create a modified spl to boot from sdcard?
I was thinking that it is possible to make the sdcard working like internal memory..
Is it so difficult?
blackgin said:
I was thinking that dual booting on a single device would be a really great thing. A huge step.
Why we cannot do it?
Cannot we "emulate" partitions of the internal memory on the sdcard and then create a modified spl to boot from sdcard?
I was thinking that it is possible to make the sdcard working like internal memory..
Is it so difficult?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this would be a good idea too. have a stable boot partition, then on the second boot have our "testing" partition.
Is this even possible?
Whether or not this is possible, I don't know.
But kinda related, I would like to see a bootloader that made an "image" of the entire phone to sdcard AND would also restore the entire "image" of the phone.
Why?
It would give us an easy way to test out different roms!
You could have your stable build for regular day-to-day use, you could also "image" any other rom you install, then you could switch back and forth without the need for a computer to restore using Fastboot. Using this method, you could "image" any number of builds you wouldn't to try.
There may be a way this could be done right now, I don't know. I haven't found out how. If it's already an option, someone please point me in the right direction!
It would be very difficult cause you would have to find another OS that isn't linux based. Even with a bootloader all the files will be knocked off from the previous flash because everything in these builds are pretty much in the root folder. The OS runs on these references and if you change them the OS will not run. You would have to rework the whole OS to get this to work
Someone delete me
argh xda is so slow
It would be very difficult cause you would have to find another OS that isn't linux based. Even with a bootloader all the files will be knocked off from the previous flash because everything in these builds are pretty much in the root folder. The OS runs on these references and if you change them the OS will not run. You would have to rework the whole OS to get this to work
Booting off the sdcard could be possible but would be pointless to do.
Everytime you mount the sdcard to the computer it would crash the phone. Also, There's not really enough internal space to dual boot. 1 decent ROM barely fits on as it is.
blueheeler said:
Whether or not this is possible, I don't know.
But kinda related, I would like to see a bootloader that made an "image" of the entire phone to sdcard AND would also restore the entire "image" of the phone.
Why?
It would give us an easy way to test out different roms!
You could have your stable build for regular day-to-day use, you could also "image" any other rom you install, then you could switch back and forth without the need for a computer to restore using Fastboot. Using this method, you could "image" any number of builds you wouldn't to try.
There may be a way this could be done right now, I don't know. I haven't found out how. If it's already an option, someone please point me in the right direction!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cyanogen mentioned he was looking into this to try implement it into his recovery image. I don't think anyone's been able to restore a complete nandroid backup outside of fastboot...yet. However people are working on it. I think it's doable.
Meltus said:
Booting off the sdcard could be possible but would be pointless to do.
Everytime you mount the sdcard to the computer it would crash the phone. Also, There's not really enough internal space to dual boot. 1 decent ROM barely fits on as it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe, maybe not. A second or third EXT partition on the sd card could possibly be used for a dual/tri boot enviornment. Only the FAT32 portion gets mounted when you mount through your phone. And there would be virtually no difference when mounting through ADB. Now would be a good time for those interested in persuing this notion to have a look at the data2sd thread. Sounds very possible to me.
overground said:
Maybe, maybe not. A second or third EXT partition on the sd card could possibly be used for a dual/tri boot enviornment. Only the FAT32 portion gets mounted when you mount through your phone. And there would be virtually no difference when mounting through ADB. Now would be a good time for those interested in persuing this notion to have a look at the data2sd thread. Sounds very possible to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, i'm pretty sure all partitions get mounted, they just don't show up on windows.
on linux they all appear for me when i mount the phone.
also, sorry about the triple post, dunno wtf happened there.
Debain As Primarly OS
What Ive Been wishing for is someone to make the Dream Boot straight to Debian, No android running in the background.
Then we could boot into a debian with g1 drivers (if open source) and have gpu accl. x11.
Then maybe dual-booting android.
Im willing to try to get a debian img to boot on my g1 if someone wants to tell me where I would start to even try to attempt it.
lolz
Booting straight to Debian would be cool, except there is really no use for it on our G1's. We are best off running after loading Android, although I'm sure one day we could just boot Debian. What would the point of Debian be on our G1's? I'm running Deb5 on my Dell Mini that has a 9" inch screen and can barely see text.... how in the world would this become useful on a 3" screen???
just my £0.02
there is an old saying in my country. "if you don't believe it can work, then it won't for you". that holds so true for development. yes you will make mistakes on the way. heck i'm on my fourth G1 so far (and i suspect there will be more to come!) I love this phone, and i love the fact that we as a community can build such amazing things as the hero rom for the device.
what would we have done if the first person had said the wheel was impossible? or if the first person had said that fire was impossible. or (shock horror) electricity? or television? or telephone? or GPS? or the internet?
all of those were impossible until someone worked out how to do it.
dual boot would be pheasably posible, as the device is primeraly a computer first, and then a phone second. it boots a linux kernel from the bootloader (if i am correct in my understanding) so all we would need to do is create a bootloader with a choice in it, and then direct the phone to boot a second partition from the SD card.
the phone does mount all partitions - but only if the OS understands all partitions (test it for yourself - if you have windows and apps2sd mount the partitions and then run an app from the card it still works. but it does not under linux).
to answer the what would be the point questions, what would be the point in not doing it? surely development for a device like this is all about trying stuff, and then if it doesn't work not doing the same thing again.
i believe that a second OS would boot quite comfortably on a decent SD card. not that i have this working or anything. to make the screen readable, you just use a lower resolution (320x480). i would probably not want a full-blown GUI linux anyway, what i would want from a dual-boot OS would be a working command-line debian with FULL hardware access - allowing me to really use the phone as a fully-functioning remote terminal for my server.
i recon, though, that one thing that would be absolutely amazing is being able to have a fully-portable totally reliable XDA-Developers OS on my phone.
so, why do we not just try as much as we can to get this working? how do we start?
milestone.it said:
just my £0.02
.....
so, why do we not just try as much as we can to get this working? how do we start?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just hack the spl and flash it, but be cautionous as hell
Okay, I dont claim to know alot but I'll share my thoughts anyway
When you mount the SD all partitions get mounted, if you go into disk management in windows you can see the 'Unknown' partition if you have an ext2 partition.
Secondly, we don't really 'boot' debian, it just mounts an image file on your SD card that contains the debian binaries. As I understand it there is no reason these binaries couldn't be included in android (like busybox).
Thirdly, do we really want debian? What we need is a very light OS, android is the perfect base, take away all the gloss and its linux underneath. I love the idea of having repositories and being able to apt-get and even develop on the device.
Lastly, we're forgettign why android is such a good platform, the reason android is useful is because of the Dalvik VM, it's what allows us to make portable apps that will work on any android phone. I seriously doubt everyday users will be interested enough to learn to compile source on their phone. I've worked programming games for mobiles in J2ME and it was horrible, there was barely any portability between manufacturers, i believe android will be alot better adn from what i've seen (with people porting from other droid devices) this seems to hold true. It will be interesting to see if Android gets bloated with manufacturer specific API's like J2ME.
Also I'll just throw this out there... I'm not a fan of being tied to google, yes google helped along the way, but its not 'google android', its android. Wasn't it strange hoe Gmail worked fine, but the email app didnt? (K9 is perfect though!)
hi guys, i'm not at all a developer of any kind, i suck even at web design, but here's my thoughts expanding on the whole "what if the wheel didn't work" scenario
inventions are created by the need to do something, we need to get from A to B faster, lets make a car. we want to entertain our families in the evening, Hey look, TV. i need to tel my wife to get some milk while she's at the shop, Voila, Mobile Phone.
Basicaly the point i'm trying to make is, if somebody finds a NEED for dual boot on android, then so be it, it shall be done, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but if something is needed, then something shall come from it. we develop technology when we need to do something faster, easier, or just plain do it.
if somebody decides they NEED dual boot, i'm pretty sure they will figure out how to do it, either that or ask haykuro for some tips and alot of help, but i think he's still too busy with regular life at the minute, i'm not so sure, all i know is he's definately a legend, and maybe will want a piece of dual-boot pie
So who is the great man who want to try to do this? ;D
I offer my help, if it could be useful..
re: dual booting
would it be blasphemous to want to try out winmo 6.5 or 7 on these?
personally, i'd love to see WM on here. mainly, just so we know it's possible.
People are always slating Windows but, personally, i don't see whats wrong with it (Linux is my primary OS and always will be ). It would be nice to have say WM for work and Android for play
any news on this? I would really like to run a hero rom one day and then cupcake the next while not losing my settings...
I cracked the img format for Garminfones... started out by looking at the format of the file and it turns out the only difference is the loader addresses.
Took the stock recovery and disabled security, which worked. Then modified the boot.img to disable security and had the filesystems mount rw by default and flashed it to the recovery partition. Booted into recovery mode and viola... security disabled. Now it is time to flash it to the boot partition and cross fingers.
Now I just need to figure out how to compile a working recovery mode... preferrably one that can be activated by keypress. Not sure how to do that part. I can only get to recovery and bootloader mode after booting into the os.
I should have a working mkbooting soon so I don't have to hex edit the generated img files.
Well done!
I look forward to any progress reports that you make.
Are you using the official or leaked version of the 2.1 Eclair?
The official and leaked versions are equal.
And I did find out that we do have fastboot It's the blue screen that you get when you hold UP+POWER, or do adb reboot bootloader... two different messages on the screen. I can get fastboot to accept a reboot-bootloader command, but I'm having some issues actually getting any information out of it or flashing something like a boot image.
To get it to respond, you do:
fastboot -i 0x091E <command>
the -i makes it specify the Vendor ID, since fastboot only accepts a few vendors by default.
I also found out that I don't have to rebuild the mkbootimg program... if you add --base 0x1AC00000, then the load addresses match up in the resulting img file.
If someone is willing to host it, I can share the modified boot.img that sets ro.secure=0 and mounts the filesystems RW by default.
Hey, just joined to reply to this thread. Is it possible for you to upload to a file-sharing site such as megaupload, fileserve, etc.
I'm just getting into this whole rooting/modifying stuff. I used z4root to root my A50 and have installed superuser. I have deleted some of the carrier .apks but am thinking I should have made a back-up before doing so. I also bought setcpu from the market before finding out the Qualcomm chip does not allow overclocking.
Can I ask what the point of modifying the boot image is? Is this the first step in being able to install custom roms to the phone?
Anyway, appreciate the effort you guys have put in to modifying the phone.
You get a higher level of access, along with things like being able to customize parts of the phone, in my case enabling read/write by default. I also am planning on playing a bit, like remapping partitions... the instructions are in the init.rc file.
Always take a dump_image (or remount all mtd partitions as read only and just use cat to dump the mtd partitions). Also tar up each of the root folders (and files) in case you need quick access to any files you may have deleted. If you need a system app back and you don't have a backup, you have to reflash 2.1 again. Very important... if you care about the Garmin map software, make sure to get the /storage folder, including the one in it named .System... you can recover the maps, vehicles, etc by using two different Garmin web update windows programs-- one for the system stuff and one for the maps. Better safe than sorry.
any news on this
What would we need to be able to overclock?
I spent a good portion of the day yesterday rooting and installing CyanogenMod on my fiance's MyTouch Slide, and I have to say, it was amazing. It's a lot more than just a throwing around some custom default apps, cleaning up bloatware, even adding some kernel modules... I can do all of that on my rooted Garminfone just fine. It also had the Android 2.3 base, and it has polish and refinements that just can't be done without a custom built ROM.
I bought my Garminfone on purpose, even knowing that it shipped with Android 1.6, even knowing that the interface was awful, even knowing that the device wasn't going to sell as well as I wished it would. I bought it for it's offline maps, and for it's fantastic GPS. Things have improved since I bought my device... Android 2.1 was released, an improved user interface arrived, I gained root access and was able to clean up some stuff, etc. etc. But none of that prevented me from being jealous yesterday after seeing CyanogenMod. Further, Cyanogen has experience with preserving apps through the process of installing his mod for the first time; He did it when Google first sent him the Cease and Desist letter barring him from packaging CyanogenMod with Google Apps. I'm not sure HOW he did it, and I don't care, but I do think that it's very possible for him to do just that again with our Garmin Maps and the associated apps.
For these reasons, I suggest that we could have our cake, and we could eat it too: Have a modern OS (Based on Android 2.3), have a clean, unified interface, with no bloatware AND our maps... Cyanogen is not known for making his mod for phones he doesnt own. Further, as we all know, ours was possibly the worst selling and least popular android device ever released to market. While I consider myself versed in the ways of Linux, I am not a developer. I run Gentoo, and have the associated skills, and I will contribute in any way I know how, but hacking is not my forte. I can't expect brilliant minds to work for any project for nothing. Therefore, I am putting my money where my mouth is... I'm going to take all the money from my weekly paycheck that I can afford, and I'm going to donate it to that project. It won't be much... I am a starving college kid, after all... but it will be generous within my means. I am also going to post a reference to this thread everywhere I know how... My contribution might be small, but the community might be able to get something together that is mighty.
Visit topic 5864-garminfone on their forums to add your support.
(Edit: They moved my post, I have corrected this with the correct forum topic)
Presenting Problem: Tablet is stuck rebooting itself once it gets to the booting screen animation, USB Debugging was not turned on on the tablet when it was working properly last time, and I need to turn USB Debugging on to fix my tablet. How do I do this?
Disclaimer: Yes, you'll think there are a million other threads about enabling USB debugging and whatnot, but this is totally different!
The Story: My device is a Grid10 tablet. It runs its custom OS built on Android Kernel (Gingerbread). Everything about it is android, except it's not android (and it's not a custom launcher or a skin).
... anyway
The Grid10: Almost nobody here own a Grid10 (I assume), so here's the thing... the Grid has only ONE button. The power button. No volume buttons, no home or back or menu buttons or anything... all those commands are gestures on the Grid (... if it started properly)
The Problem and its Cause: Now, It's stuck continuously rebooting itself once it gets to the the booting animation screen because I mistakenly deleted a file from system/app called SettingsProvider.apk
The Solution: I have the missing file on my laptop, and I need to put it back on the tablet. When I plug in its USB cable, I don't get a drive in My Computer. Obviously, it won't get into storage mode without being told to do so from the settings list (which I have no access to... because it's stuck rebooting itself at the booting animation screen... yes, I'm repeating myself so no one will tell me to "enable USB debugging" when I say that...)
So aparently, to get the file on my Grid, I need to use adb.
And since I didn't have USB Debugging enabled when the Grid was last operating properly, the adb can't see my tablet! (as shown by a 'adb devices' command).
The Sucky Recovery Menu: There is no fastboot on this thing (not that it would help with anything), but there is a recovery menu i can access (by holding down the power button while the tablet is booting), but it's no use. It looks like some kinda' custom recovery menu called "PBJ40 Recovery Utility". It has 4 commands:
reboot system now
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache partition
apply sdcard: update.zip
I've tried all of these commands (selecting is done by pressing the power button, and when un-pressed for a few seconds, whatever command is highlighted gets executed).
My best bet would have been the update.zip as I created a signed update.zip with the missing file in it so it can put it back in its rightful place... but sd card in question appears to be the built-in sd card, and not the external (removable) sd card... the recovery tool doesn't even look in the external sd card for the update.zip
In Short: To get the file on the tablet, for now, the only way I can see how, is through adb, and seen as how USB Debugging was not enabled when the Grid was operational last time, I come here, to the XDA Forums, asking for advice.
The Question(s):
A) How do I turn on USB Debugging on the tablet so i can use adb and fix it?
or
B) Is there some alternative way for me to get the missing apk in system/app folder that does not require USB debugging?
Got you scratching your brain? Been trying to solve this for so long, I finished scratching mine, and started hitting it against the wall now!
I hate to tell you this man, but I am pretty sure that you messed up your tablet/bricked it.
Problem solved.
Not the USB Debugging thing, but I ended up fixing the tablet.
Can't disclose how I did it though... privacy issues.
So the system is fixed and the GirdOS is running perfectly on the Grid10, but I still can't use the tablet anyway, because of some kinda' server-side failure, because I need to register myself on the server before I gain access to any of the tablet's functions, while the server isn't responding to register my credentials... so yea... the tablet works, but it's still useless to me.
There's not much if any hope that the server will be fixed or get running anytime soon, because from the rumors/reports, FusionGarage (the producer of said tablet) has disappeared off the grid. Ironic, isn't it?
Maybe some day somebody will be able get ICS or Honeycomb running on the Grid10, and will share the knowledge-how with everybody.
I got one of those PBJ40 tablets too with 1366x768 , but no real android (just 2.1) on it.. do you mind sharing the one you got?
maybe you even have the Kernel source for this? could be nice having too
Dexter_nlb said:
I got one of those PBJ40 tablets too with 1366x768 , but no real android (just 2.1) on it.. do you mind sharing the one you got?
maybe you even have the Kernel source for this? could be nice having too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Explain yourself please.
What is this android 2.1 you speak of? The Grid10 (aka PBJ40) comes with its custom OS called GridOS that's based on Android.
So what's the 2.1 android you have? Is it pre-upgrade GridOS or what? After the upgrade, GridOS's kernel was made into Gingerbread.
Ghoymakh said:
Explain yourself please.
What is this android 2.1 you speak of? The Grid10 (aka PBJ40) comes with its custom OS called GridOS that's based on Android.
So what's the 2.1 android you have? Is it pre-upgrade GridOS or what? After the upgrade, GridOS's kernel was made into Gingerbread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guess hardware was tried sold to different parties, as mine is with Android 2.3 ( i made that ) but touchscreen is poor on this device, and Tegra2 got a tough time managing 1366x768 on it, compared to previous devices..
and lastly it was in development so drivers are not finished.
As your GridOS is 2.3 compatible it has a better kernel, and maybe a source for the kernel too, since i got no kernel source and no one that knows this hardware.
but maybe it'll show up with some totally different supplier, i seen talk on chinese forums where ppl compiles linux for it, so its still in the works.
Dexter_nlb said:
i guess hardware was tried sold to different parties, as mine is with Android 2.3 ( i made that ) but touchscreen is poor on this device, and Tegra2 got a tough time managing 1366x768 on it, compared to previous devices..
and lastly it was in development so drivers are not finished.
As your GridOS is 2.3 compatible it has a better kernel, and maybe a source for the kernel too, since i got no kernel source and no one that knows this hardware.
but maybe it'll show up with some totally different supplier, i seen talk on chinese forums where ppl compiles linux for it, so its still in the works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see.
Looks like whoever made the PBJ40 (aka Grid10) also sold some of its stock to other companies, and since the 'other companies' don't have a dev. team to compensate for the lack of drivers for the Tegra2 (I heard they're going to release the drivers in some 2 months), they had to sell it with Android 2.1 (froyo) on it, with lots of problems like screen responsiveness, poor power management, and the like.
I'm also guessing that you do not have Market, Talk or GMail on your tablet... or at least, you didn't have it at first (doesn't take much skill to install them... the tablet comes rooted).
I'm also guessing you have a serious gestures issue, am I right?
Do you have the 40 pin USB cable? (or did yours come with a regular female USB port??)
... I might be of assistance, if you're able to make your dev skills work in your favor.
So help me help you...
The only way this will work, is if you're able to reverse engineer the GridOS to:
1) Extract the programming that's responsible for the gestures so we can install it on any other device (like your PBJ40, which doesn't have gesture support as advanced as the Grid10), to make the device easier to use.
2) Override the sign-up screen for the GridOS. In case you do not yet know, once you boot GridOS for the first time, you're taken to a setup page (much like the setup page of Windows) where you register yourself on the FusionGarage server (people who made the GridOS) to gain access to the tablet... for some time now, the FusionGarage server has been down, and since the company recently went under, there's no way the server will be fixed ever again, so even with linux kernel 2.3 (aka android gingerbread... without the market) you can't have any kind of access to the tablet, because you'd be unable to proceed form the sign-up page forward! So if you can find a way to over-ride the sign-up page or 'delete' it from the equation altogether, we both win!
So: I can provide you with GridOS kernel version 2.3 (not android... GridOS! It's basically the same, it just doesn't have the Market, and its UI is different... still very nice... I like it).
So... you can't install GridOS on your Froyo tablet (just yet), even if you had the 2.3 GridOS at your disposal, because you'd be stuck there.
So the question remains:
- Can you reverse engineer a linux OS that is android based (but not truly android) to extract from it the gestures program so you can make your PBJ40 more responsive?
- Can you somehow customize GridOS to delete the whole signup page issue?
Both of these things will help me a lot... but only the gestures-solution will be of help to you, unless you have the USB cable for the tablet.
If you PBJ40 is not a regular Grid10, I'd like to see it from all angles + a picture of its cables and chargers... if possible, please upload them to this thread.
For now, to make your life easier, install the program called zMooth from the Market. Its gesture responsiveness will be much better than the 2.1 Froyo version your tablet is now running.
"swipe left to go back, swipe right for menu, gesture a up-arrow(^) for home"
Look at the screenshots to better understand.
While setting up the program sensitivity level, keep in mind that the lower the level, the more sensitive (it's in fine print).
... let me know what you get!
PS: It might also be of help if you can somehow get the gesture program from ICS kernel and adopt it to PBJ40!
Could be we should continue this OT, in a private PM and maybe exchange mails
I think i can do most of it, I even have Android3.0 running on it, but again kernel needed changing since touch driver is not supporting the way 3.0 works.
but it works even with highres..
I do not have 2.1 on it, i ported a CM7/2.3.6 to it, and it worked 95%, some issues with DSP manager and movie codecs, but i did not put my 100% in it, since i was doing it all for fun and my own interest, since i could not share with anyone anyways as no one had it. That was until i saw the design of Grid10, i knew it was 99% like mine.. Flash11.1 works great for movie playback here though..
I got the 4leds on it too and mine has USB HOST/device switching only by compal (writers of many tablets today), but i found the USBUTG tool to use with it, to make switching easier, than doing it in a shell.
anyways, lets maybe continue by PM.. and we can maybe exchange "partitions"
My vow of secrecy has been lifted!
To Flash your Grid10 (aka PBJ40), follow this tutorial I made:
http://www.thejoojooforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=49654
There's also more info on the general forum (and one or two other tutorials/suggestions I've made that could prove to be of benefit to anybody with a Grid10): http://www.thejoojooforum.com/viewforum.php?f=17
Ghoymakh said:
My vow of secrecy has been lifted!
To Flash your Grid10 (aka PBJ40), follow this tutorial I made:
http://www.thejoojooforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=49654
There's also more info on the general forum (and one or two other tutorials/suggestions I've made that could prove to be of benefit to anybody with a Grid10): http://www.thejoojooforum.com/viewforum.php?f=17
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you know how to use APX mode on it (Reset button on right side(if looking at front). I got android 2.3.6 (CM7) running on it, i think only difference is that i got 4 hardware button (soft light buttons on right side of tablet)
let me know, and i can maybe upload the kernel + system to a site.
I dnt even know what APX is!
I'm new to the android dev. scene, so i dnt know much yet.
I don't have much use for a Gingerbread ROM that's not going to be filly compatible with the Grid10. We don't have ANY buttons on our tablets.
To compensate for that, you might want to include the program Zmooth in the list of apps that the flashing-process will auto-install, so whoever flashes the CyanogenMod won't be left stranded without any buttons to use on the Grid10.
As mentioned in the flashing tutorial, V. is recompiling the original GridOS to make it skip the registration page, and it's Gingerbread too, one that's completely compatible with the tablet's specs, including gestures. It will be the GridOS as (previously) advertised by FusionGarage, only this time, no registration page, which means we can flash it and actually use it (up till now, whoever re-flashed or did a factory reset couldn't use their tablet because the registration could not be completed since the FG servers were down).
Maybe that could prove to be useful to you... I'll upload the file to the Grid10 forum once it's finished.
(i wonder if there's a way to open a Grid10 section in the xda forums...)
But what you have could be useful to somebody else out there!
How about you upload your files in Dropbox, and create a new thread on the above-linked forum, and share your ROM so other people might benefit from it.
https://www.dropbox.com/
Make sure you write your tablet's full specs, including the information about your soft and hard buttons, as our tablets have NO soft-buttons, and only have 2 hardware buttons: a power button and a reset button.
Edit: as the Grid10 doesn't have volume buttons, i don't think it's even capable of entering APX mode. It does have a recovery mode... but the only options in there are to factory-reset, delete cache partition, and install update.zip.
Ghoymakh: YOU ARE THE CLOSEST THING TO.... THX
Ghoymakh said:
My vow of secrecy has been lifted!
To Flash your Grid10 (aka PBJ40), follow this tutorial I made:
There's also more info on the general forum (and one or two other tutorials/suggestions I've made that could prove to be of benefit to anybody with a Grid10):
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
============================================
I'm one of the fortunate-unfortunates.
I previously reset my G10 and it has been useless ever since. I did however purchase the USB adapter with my device and I'm looking forward to making use of your extensive research and hard work.
Again, thanks and I'll let y'all know how it goes (within the next 7 days or so).
Praise and thanks to you and everyone else out here.
G
Ghoymakh said:
Edit: as the Grid10 doesn't have volume buttons, i don't think it's even capable of entering APX mode. It does have a recovery mode... but the only options in there are to factory-reset, delete cache partition, and install update.zip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you check when you got the tablet in front of you facing up. that on your right side a little hole is found just about center, 5-6cm above simcard slot (at least on mine simcard is on the right side)
if you turn it off, holding in the tap inside the small hole (you can feel the click when its pushed), press power and it goes into APX mode. but you will need the bootloader.bin to get it in full apx mode and ready to accept commands.
A small step for man.... My Grid10 is more than just a brick
- Using Ghoymakh's instructions from JooJoo Forum, I successfully flashed my Grid10 yesterday.
-- The identified 'tar' command didn't work on the compressed file but the Archive Mounter within Back Track worked just fine.
- Now, as time permits, I'm going to move forward and attempt to incorporate the Xmooth and Market.
-- If only I could get my JooJoo Forum account activated....
Again, Props to Ghoymakh, V, and any/all other contributors.
G
I would like to know some things about the Linux on the Shield.
1) I've heard in December of the Last Year it didn't support wifi, bluetooth and SD Cards. What is their current status now?
2) Does it supports USB Devices, like Keyboard, Mouse, Ethernet Adapter (I REALLY hope i don't need this), Printer and USB HUB?
3) Is there some kind of Driver for the Tegra 4 on the Linux?
4) How do i install Linux on the Shield?
5) Is there some way to dual boot it with Android?
Hi,
MADCastro said:
1) I've heard in December of the Last Year it didn't support wifi, bluetooth and SD Cards. What is their current status now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good news - Wifi and SD cards are now working (well, most SD cards at least) on my roth_next branch: https://github.com/linux-shield/kernel/tree/roth_next Bluetooth is still out of luck for now.
MADCastro said:
2) Does it supports USB Devices, like Keyboard, Mouse, Ethernet Adapter (I REALLY hope i don't need this), Printer and USB HUB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All USB devices supported by Linux should be working with SHIELD, as long as the kernel driver for them is compiled. I have played with a keyboard, mouse, network adapter and mass storage device, all connected to a hub.
MADCastro said:
3) Is there some kind of Driver for the Tegra 4 on the Linux?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what you mean - Tegra 4 is supported in Linux mainline, and some of its devices as well.
MADCastro said:
4) How do i install Linux on the Shield?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a quite manual process at the moment. You might want to consider what your end goal is, and whether it is worth the trouble, knowing that there is no graphic acceleration, no way to sleep, and so on. If you really want to give it a try (it implies cross-compiling the kernel, playing with fastboot, and extracting user-spaces to SD cards), let me know and I will try to come with a documentation sometime soon.
MADCastro said:
5) Is there some way to dual boot it with Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sort of. You can store the Linux user-space on a SD card, or even in a file on your Android data partition that will be mounted as a root loopback device.
The problem is that SHIELD's bootloader only supports booting via two means:
- Whatever kernel is on the BOOT partition
- Whatever boot image is given to it using the fastboot boot command.
This means that you can either keep the Android boot image on the BOOT partition and boot Linux using "fastboot boot" while your SHIELD is connected to your PC via USB, or the other way around. But if you want to switch the system to boot, you will need to connect your SHIELD to your PC and play with fastboot.
Let me know if this answers your questions and if you need more information. What you can do with Linux on SHIELD is still limited ; but it's a fun way to get involved in kernel hacking since many missing drivers can easily be written and general support can also be improved.
"Good news - Wifi and SD cards are now working (well, most SD cards at least) on my roth_next branch: https://github.com/linux-shield/kernel/tree/roth_next Bluetooth is still out of luck for now."
Nice! No need of a ethernet adapter.
"All USB devices supported by Linux should be working with SHIELD, as long as the kernel driver for them is compiled. I have played with a keyboard, mouse, network adapter and mass storage device, all connected to a hub."
Nice. Does there is HPLIP for ARM devices?
"Not sure what you mean - Tegra 4 is supported in Linux mainline, and some of its devices as well."
I mean 3D drivers. Which would allow specific apps to run fine.
"It's a quite manual process at the moment. You might want to consider what your end goal is, and whether it is worth the trouble, knowing that there is no graphic acceleration, no way to sleep, and so on. If you really want to give it a try (it implies cross-compiling the kernel, playing with fastboot, and extracting user-spaces to SD cards), let me know and I will try to come with a documentation sometime soon."
I want to use it as an office OS for doing things that Android can't as my desktop is dead.
"Sort of. You can store the Linux user-space on a SD card, or even in a file on your Android data partition that will be mounted as a root loopback device.
The problem is that SHIELD's bootloader only supports booting via two means:
- Whatever kernel is on the BOOT partition
- Whatever boot image is given to it using the fastboot boot command.
This means that you can either keep the Android boot image on the BOOT partition and boot Linux using "fastboot boot" while your SHIELD is connected to your PC via USB, or the other way around. But if you want to switch the system to boot, you will need to connect your SHIELD to your PC and play with fastboot.
Let me know if this answers your questions and if you need more information. What you can do with Linux on SHIELD is still limited ; but it's a fun way to get involved in kernel hacking since many missing drivers can easily be written and general support can also be improved."
So i still need a Desktop for boot it? :/
Sent from my GT-S7562L using XDA Free mobile app
If you just want to use your SHIELD as an office device, your needs may be better served by one of the many "Linux on Android" apps, e.g:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zpwebsites.linuxonandroid
This will allow you to run a Linux desktop alongside with Android, without rebooting, without recompiling kernels, and without requiring a desktop PC.
Graphics will be slow as death, but that should be enough for LibreOffice & pals.
Network will work using the Android stack, USB devices such as keyboards and mouse should work fine too.
Jetson TK1 Development Pack
Have either of you looked at the Jetson TK1 Development Pack and the Linux4Android drive image that comes along with it? Its based off of Ubuntu 14.04 - and i believe has acceleration - so if it were to be flashed, it 'should' work - since its meant to work on the TK1 dev kit - no garuntees though
Can we please get a documentation writeup?
Very interested in your development process. I'm a new developer, and this is my main device.