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[Q] Porting android to...

I know there is a website dedicated entirely to working on this but I feel more comfortable working on an answer on my terms. Has anyone been successful in finding an .iso to put android on any X86 or X64 system. I promise Ive stressed every resource I can I mainly NEED feed back.

I don't understand. You know there is a site with such iso image and you don't want to download it, but to find an answer where to download it? ;-)
There is only one x86 project worth your attention: http://www.android-x86.org/ . If they're missing something then most probably you won't find anything better anyway.

I want to build a Rom! Need direction...

Sorry for posting a whole new thread for this. I poked around with the search, however I figure the developers that are doing stuff for the Infuse have a lot on their plates to be able to write out a tutorial for this individual phone forum.
But, I have absolutely 0 experience in making a rom for anything. I have flashed Infused on my Infuse. This is my first Android device and I really love the customizability over the iOS software (previous phone). I know Gingerbread is just around the corner but I would love to take my first few steps towards developing with a rom thats been out already. This way by the time I get a better grip of things I can maybe transfer these skills to the new version.
If anyone can be so kind, Ide appreciate it if the helpful devs could maybe point me to some links with the necessary files and programs/files that are needed to build a custom rom. As well as maybe some tutorial threads or videos.
Anybody feel free to shoot me some useful links if possible. Thanks so much in advance! Cant wait to contribute.

Mikeymike had something you're looking for in the Captivate forum. Can't find the thread on my phone but it was basically a how to thread. Good stuff if ur interested

This should be in Q&A. But yeah, MikeyMike has a tutorial somewhere.
In my opinion - start off small. Get familiar with making customizations to a ROM (theming, app replacement, etc) and then grow from there. Don't bite off more than you can chew.

tazbo28 said:
Sorry for posting a whole new thread for this. I poked around with the search, however I figure the developers that are doing stuff for the Infuse have a lot on their plates to be able to write out a tutorial for this individual phone forum.
But, I have absolutely 0 experience in making a rom for anything. I have flashed Infused on my Infuse. This is my first Android device and I really love the customizability over the iOS software (previous phone). I know Gingerbread is just around the corner but I would love to take my first few steps towards developing with a rom thats been out already. This way by the time I get a better grip of things I can maybe transfer these skills to the new version.
If anyone can be so kind, Ide appreciate it if the helpful devs could maybe point me to some links with the necessary files and programs/files that are needed to build a custom rom. As well as maybe some tutorial threads or videos.
Anybody feel free to shoot me some useful links if possible. Thanks so much in advance! Cant wait to contribute.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=928955
remember to post in the right section next time bud.

Thanks so much guys. Sorry I was totally debating on whether to post this there but I thought that maybe the devs dont frequent that section.
Please do move this thread if possible.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App

Ok so I have one last question.
Is it better/easier to build the rom using an ubuntu virtual machine, dual boot ubuntu, or a Mac OSX Lion virtual machine in Windows 7?
I have the option to run any one of these types of systems. Unfortunately I do not have a Mac available, so Im wondering if it is even possible to build the source using a Mac VM seeing as how there are certain types of partitions necessary.
Thanks in advance.

tazbo28 said:
Ok so I have one last question.
Is it better/easier to build the rom using an ubuntu virtual machine, dual boot ubuntu, or a Mac OSX Lion virtual machine in Windows 7?
I have the option to run any one of these types of systems. Unfortunately I do not have a Mac available, so Im wondering if it is even possible to build the source using a Mac VM seeing as how there are certain types of partitions necessary.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd dual boot windows and Linux
Samsung infuse running gingerbread!

Dual-booting Linux is your best bet. VMs mean that if you eventually get as far as doing kernel or AOSP/Cyanogenmod compiles, you'll have less RAM available, and also sometimes accessing USB devices (such as to use ADB or Heimdall) is a bit of a pain with VMs.

Awesome thanks a bunch guys i just got my ubuntu dual boot set up but i don't seem to have a working Linus driver for my trendnet wifi adapter.
But i have downloaded the infuse 4g source and im about to start setting up the build components from the android website.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App

tazbo28 said:
Awesome thanks a bunch guys i just got my ubuntu dual boot set up but i don't seem to have a working Linus driver for my trendnet wifi adapter.
But i have downloaded the infuse 4g source and im about to start setting up the build components from the android website.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, there are two routes to building ROMs right now:
1) Start from a Samsung ROM - there is source to the kernel and a few small parts of the userland stack available, but most of it is lacking source. Most custom ROMs available here are created by taking the stock Samsung ROM and tweaking them - removing apps, adding others, or attempting to bring apps from other devices to ours.
2) Cyanogenmod 7 - this is a source build, HOWEVER - it is not complete, open-source reimplementations of some Samsung stuff is not complete, so some features (like Bluetooth) are broken
A lot of ROM devs (those that work on Samsung-derived ROMs) don't even have a copy of Samsung's source code release as it's not useful to them. (Exception are those of us who do kernel work.)

It's not something you can just jump into. To do it properly, you need patience and a willingness to spend a lot of time researching a lot of different things.
1) Some things are easier to do in Linux and other things are best done in Windows due to some tools only being available for Windows. It's best to have both.
2) Learn how to dump the system partition (using the dd command) and mount/extract the resulting factoryfs.rfs on your computer.
3) Learn the /system folder structure. Explorer the files in each folder and try to figure out what those files are.
4) Find and learn how to use a script or program that can deodex the apps and framework from the extracted system image.
5) Learn the structure of flashable zips and what all of the commands in updater-scripts do. Easiest way to do this is to download a bunch of roms and look at their folder structure and updater-scripts. Google commands in them that you do not understand.
6) Learn which apps can be removed and replaced without consequence. If you can't figure out exactly what a particular apk does, best to leave it alone.
7) Experiment with changing build prop entries to see what some of them do.
8) Learn how to manually decompile and compile the dex portion of apk and jar files. Use smali and baksmali for this. This lets you modify app and framework code, but the decompiled smali can be a bit confusing. Try to learn how to read it. Try this AOSP lockscreen mod tutorial.
9) Learn how to use a program that can decompile and compile entire apps, including resources. Apktool is a good program and APK Manager is a good front end for it. Look through all of the folders in the resources (res) directory of a decompiled app. Learn which images and types of files are in each folder. There are a ton of xml files that do various things in the resource folders. Open a bunch of them up and learn some basic xml structure so you can see what all that xml is doing. Most visual app mods are done via xml. Here's a slightly more advanced mod tutorial than the AOSP lockscreen was: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=811532
10) Learn proper apk compression techniques. Though it works, just dropping images into apks via 7zip and calling it a day isn't really the right way to theme. The default Android Asset Packaging Tool (used by the Android SDK to package apps) does not compress certain file types, including images. This is because images, especially pngs, typically do not compress a great deal anyways and the added cpu time it takes to decompress those images at app launch makes the total app loading time longer than if the images were uncompressed, even if they are slightly larger. Also, compressing some file types, like oggs and system objects, too much can even cause the app to not be able to load them. See here for a handy script to repack apks with proper compression: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1123463
I could go on forever, but that should point you in the right direction. At least you know some of the basics you need to learn now even if I didn't tell you exactly how to do each thing. Remember, Google will be your best friend. Use it. A lot.

Man I really appreciate this so much gtg. Its exactly the kind of encouragement i was hoping for. I just get a general sense of excitement when thinking of all the different possibilities in both Rom and app development. And seeing as how im and artist first, its awesome to know that ill down be able to be a double threat in both designing the look of, and building the Rom myself.
I can't thank you enough for pointing me in the right direction. Maybe one day someone will put together a kitchen for the Infuse. Until then ill be happy to dive into all the nitty gritty.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App

[Q] Windows Phone 7 drivers help?

Hey, I wanted to know how to extract the driver files for an HTC Titan (WP7). When I use OSBuilder to dump all the packages, I get the drivers in this really weird format that I don't know how to open. There will be a folder named xxxxx.dll and inside the folder there will be files 0000, 0001, 0002, and 0003. None of these files have file extensions. Given the name of the folder, it stands to reason that somehow, the files inside can be compiled into the driver the folder is named after.
Can someone please help me figure out how to open the driver files? I need to write custom drivers for a project I am working on and I need to be able to use these and preferably decompile them.

A .dll is really the same as an executable. You could try renaming the dll to exe and it should run, but basically that file is a library of assets used by Windows, so your drivers are probably embedded somewhere within the dll itself. You can always try opening the files contained within inside notepad, or hex editor if you need a more precise instrument.

Thanks For Your Reply
syung said:
A .dll is really the same as an executable. You could try renaming the dll to exe and it should run, but basically that file is a library of assets used by Windows, so your drivers are probably embedded somewhere within the dll itself. You can always try opening the files contained within inside notepad, or hex editor if you need a more precise instrument.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not quite what I had in mind but I did end up learning a little bit about the structure of the drivers, so thank you very much.
It was mostly unintelligible, but I was able to find some important file names and function calls, although I have no idea where these are located or how I can use them myself. At least it gives me something else to Google, and believe me, I appreciate that.
Ideally, I would like to be able to find/recreate the source code for the drivers so that I can edit them and I would like to know how to compile them/add them to a ROM so that they will actually run on a real phone.
Can anywhere tell me a place that I can find a guide or book or website, anything really? I've been at it for about three weeks now and I'm starting to think that either the information simply isn't there or that I've passed over it not realizing what it was.

Windows phones have never been extremely popular, so it is not surprising that material for it is limited. Your best bet would be to go into a brick and mortar bookstore and look for some windows phone development books, as I'm sure there is bound to be at least one book regarding development. Although it might not have exactly what you are looking for, it can give you a good starting point.

Paper Books on Custom ROMs???
syung said:
Windows phones have never been extremely popular, so it is not surprising that material for it is limited. Your best bet would be to go into a brick and mortar bookstore and look for some windows phone development books, as I'm sure there is bound to be at least one book regarding development. Although it might not have exactly what you are looking for, it can give you a good starting point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are there really any books published on working with rooted phones? I've seen a lot of development books, but never one in which the phone had been hacked for administrative rights. They are always written for the developer who will be using the stock ROM with no modifications, or so I thought...

They will probably not have the exact information you are looking for, but it can give you insight into how the OS was developed in the first place, thus giving possible clues as to where the files you require reside.

Thanks for all your help!
syung said:
They will probably not have the exact information you are looking for, but it can give you insight into how the OS was developed in the first place, thus giving possible clues as to where the files you require reside.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps. Thanks a lot for the idea. I'm going to go look into the fundamentals of the OS then.

[Q] Question on Android SDK

Hello, guys.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself: I'm a software and hardware enthusiast. I have lots of experience slimming down operating systems, including iOS, BlackBerry OS, and Windows itself (I'm pretty proud of my knowledge to tell you the truth). However, I don't know squat about programming. I have very little experience with Python, but nothing else.
Not until recently was that I first had an Android smartphone under my property (3 days ago to be accurate), and I've been playing around with it this whole weekend. So far, I've managed to unlock the bootloader and root the phone (a Moto G, by the way) without installing any other ROM. Not bad for my first time, is it? Anyway, now that I know stuff as "simple" as that (took me a whole day to accomplish them), I want to take the next step: installing a ROM.
I downloaded the Android SDK, and I realized it contained a system.img file. I know that image is generic, and you're supposed to custom it according to your needs, but my questions are: if I install the untouched system.img file to my device, is my device going to work? What are the risks of doing that? Would I need to integrate my device's drivers in order for the image to work, or many more things than just integrating drivers? And, most importantly, is that file what you guys call a "pure Android (or AOSP)"?
Thank you very much.

Looking for help on porting .. I think? crDroid specific (Wallpaper won't set)

I've been using crDroid for a few years now -- it's my preferred ROM.
Someone recently ported it to work on the Pixel 2 XL, which is honestly the only reason I bought the phone. Well that and its bootloader was easily unlockable and is CDMA capable (Verizon.. sigh.)
However, regardless of how one goes about doing it, the wallpaper won't change. It's a bug within the ROM and I'm wondering how I might be able to fix it myself without having to wait for the original poster to release an update -- I've got a lot of free time and this kind of stuff genuinely interests me.
I've got (albeit basic) experience with python, perl, batch and shell scripting, pretty limited knowledge with C++ but am familiar with system architectures and such though have no knowledge of using java or porting apps, that kind of thing. I'm thinking this issue is just a problem with how the wallpaper's linked when selected.. or just a simple permission issue.
I've gone through the process of extracting the payload.bin and the image files within, looked through a few files and their contents (specifically for *wall*) but don't see anything promising. Anyone have any ideas who might be able to help a newbie with this stuff? I see a lot of posts on how to extract apk contents and recompile, that sort of thing. But I'm .. honestly not sure what I'm looking for, or whether it's an app-specific issue or a system issue, you know?
Kudos in advance.