Database Info

[Q] Really in need of advice/guidance!!

Alright so I'm extremely new to Android but I came from iOS jailbreaking and I've read a bit about Androids. I'm running firmware 2.3.6 on GB.VUVKJ6 with 2.6.35.7 Kernel. All I have is a stock firmware phone that I've rooted and done nothing else to it. This is what I want from those who know way more than me about androids: Please direct me to ROMS/ KERNELS that work on GB.. Yes I know that there is a development section of SGS4G and yes i know there is a sticky in there that lists all the roms and kernels and etc. But from what I read from the developers themselves when they try to resolve other people's flashing issues is that their roms and kernels were based off of and/or for FROYO and not GINGERBREAD.
I've actually tried to flash this kernel http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1080871 but it ended up making my phone go into a boot loop. Maybe I'm just jumping the gun here but everything is so disorganized that it's really hard for someone new to get into the circle.
I used SuperOneClick 2.3.3 to root my phone (2nd time) and I -think- it installed CWM again like my first time. So now on top of asking someone to direct me to some roms/kernels, can someone just explain to me black and white:
-Why do I keep on reading RED_CWM or ORANGE_CWM? What is the difference in the label? I remember my first time going into CWM it was green? (maybe i'm remembering wrong)
- What is "Odin"? What is the .tar file? Is it different from what I have now? (Stock with root). Sometimes developers say to flash the kernel using Odin. Is the kernel going to be the .tar file? I -think- it helps you flash kernels onto your phone but can't you just use an app from the market?
- What is ext4? I keep reading from developer threads about "linda" supposedly talking you through the process and it's supposed to "convert" to?
I would appreciate it sooooo much if anyone can answer anything I had a question on. I really want to get into customizing and getting into the fun part of Android but it's just a lot to take in and very confusing when there's so many different developers and roms/kernels for different versions and firmware.

Have you read the SGS4G Wiki? Try it. It's in General Section.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1464066
Also, before flashing anything check the dates of posts and threads. That will give you an idea.

chris31jct said:
Have you read the SGS4G Wiki? Try it. It's in General Section.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1464066
Also, before flashing anything check the dates of posts and threads. That will give you an idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea. The 'last modified date' of the OP and the last post date to the thread.

crazykidguy said:
-Why do I keep on reading RED_CWM or ORANGE_CWM? What is the difference in the label? I remember my first time going into CWM it was green? (maybe i'm remembering wrong)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Color means something for old cwm versions. Red usually denoted "Voodoo Lagfix", which is a way to replace samsung's proprietary RFS filesystem with ext4. Not related to "Voodoo Sound" or any other voodoo.
Newer versions, color is less important and version number of the recovery is king.
crazykidguy said:
- What is "Odin"? What is the .tar file? Is it different from what I have now? (Stock with root). Sometimes developers say to flash the kernel using Odin. Is the kernel going to be the .tar file? I -think- it helps you flash kernels onto your phone but can't you just use an app from the market?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odin, as you may have found on the wiki, is a windows only tool to flash new images directly from the phone's bootloader.
Odin is proprietary, and we don't know what everything in odin does. Luckily, there is an open-source reversed-engineered replacement project called Heimdall. (also found here on xda)
Heimdall will work on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, but it is not compatible with the Kies/Odin/Samsung usb drivers. So you have to make sure that all of those drivers are cleanly uninstalled before installing Heimdall.
crazykidguy said:
- What is ext4? I keep reading from developer threads about "linda" supposedly talking you through the process and it's supposed to "convert" to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext4
As I said before, it's a hack on BML roms to replace the proprietary Samsung RFS filesystem.
This is not relavent to MTD roms, as they can't use ext4 at all.
Read this for MTD/BML terminology.
search and ye shall find...
crazykidguy said:
I would appreciate it sooooo much if anyone can answer anything I had a question on. I really want to get into customizing and getting into the fun part of Android but it's just a lot to take in and very confusing when there's so many different developers and roms/kernels for different versions and firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read, Search, Test... Wash, rince, repeat.
I would start in the Android Development and Hacking forums, but at the same time try to get to know your device as well as you can before doing anything.
There is a reason there are so few SGH-T959V/SGH-T959W developers. It isn't that simple. But don't let me scare you off. We are all happy to help, but we won't spoon feed you to your completion.

bhundven said:
Color means something for old cwm versions. Red usually denoted "Voodoo Lagfix", which is a way to replace samsung's proprietary RFS filesystem with ext4. Not related to "Voodoo Sound" or any other voodoo.
Newer versions, color is less important and version number of the recovery is king.
Odin, as you may have found on the wiki, is a windows only tool to flash new images directly from the phone's bootloader.
Odin is proprietary, and we don't know what everything in odin does. Luckily, there is an open-source reversed-engineered replacement project called Heimdall. (also found here on xda)
Heimdall will work on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, but it is not compatible with the Kies/Odin/Samsung usb drivers. So you have to make sure that all of those drivers are cleanly uninstalled before installing Heimdall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext4
As I said before, it's a hack on BML roms to replace the proprietary Samsung RFS filesystem.
This is not relavent to MTD roms, as they can't use ext4 at all.
Read this for MTD/BML terminology.
search and ye shall find...
Read, Search, Test... Wash, rince, repeat.
I would start in the Android Development and Hacking forums, but at the same time try to get to know your device as well as you can before doing anything.
There is a reason there are so few SGH-T959V/SGH-T959W developers. It isn't that simple. But don't let me scare you off. We are all happy to help, but we won't spoon feed you to your completion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you also tell me what is the Voodoo_Red/ other colors? I know Voodoo is a lagfix but I don't know whats the difference with the color. Is it the same as CWM colors?

yes

Opening 2 threads for the same problem don't help either.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=32947580&postcount=4
sent from me

[GUIDE][INFO] The beginner's info thread (aka. the noob helper)

This guide is intended to be an all-in-one resource for people coming to Samsung phones after using other devices. It is a general introduction to the S4 and a glossary/explanation of terms you may see here in the forums.
This thread is slightly out of date but the info is still good, I will be updating again soon!!! Remember to hit thanks if this was useful
Disclaimer "Just because I am trying to be helpful does not make me responsible for anything that you do to your phone. Playing with any of this stuff could destroy your phone"
The layout of this post is as follows:
Welcome
FAQ
Glossary of terms
First off, welcome to XDA
The XDA community is home to the most talented and helpful phone developers on the planet.
These developers spend lots of their free time working on making all of our phones better. You should be nice and respectful to them and follow the rules. WHY? If the statement above isn’t enough reason then think selfishly, the less time they are dealing with redundant questions, the more time they have to develop stuff for all of us!
Help them help you by following the following basic rules:
1.If you are confused or have a question, the first thing to do is READ! Read lots, look things up both on xda and using google.
2.If after searching you still have not answered your question, then post in the Q&A forum.
3.Asking for ETAs on ROMs, updates, etc. is considered rude.. DON’T DO IT!
4.Don’t report bugs to a developer unless:
a.You know 100% that it hasn’t already been reported,
b.You know how to reproduce it
c.You can get a logcat of the problem (more on this later)
Some advice if you are new to all this and don’t want to ruin your phone:
1.Be patient. Don’t be the first or even the tenth person to flash anything. Wait until you see others using whatever Rom or kernel with success.
2.If you have any doubts about what you are doing, read more. Don’t flash.
3.Make sure you are in the forum for your device, not some similar or related device.
FAQ:
Q. Is my bootloader locked?
A. Only if you have an AT&T or Verizon phone
******* Info for AT&T users *******
Q. What is LOKI?
A. Loki is an exploit for phones with locked boot loader that allows us to bypass the locked boot loader in order to install custom roms or recoveries. More Loki info down below
Q. Whats the deal with MF3?
A. MF3 is the current firmware from AT&T that comes on any new phone. Your phone may also auto update to MF3 if you are not careful. MF3 patched the ability to use Loki to install custom roms/recoveries so if you are on MF3 things are much more difficult.
Q. How can I keep my phone from updating to MF3?
A. If you want to avoid the update, you should root your phone and freeze the following three apps using titanium backup or some similar app.
1. AT&T Software update Vxx_x_xxxx_x_x
2. FWUpgrade x.x.x
3. LocalFOTA vx_xxxx_x_x​
Why flash?
by flashing your device you can make your phone act differently, look different, and enable new or disabled options. you could ,for example:
enable native tethering
enable call recording
change the look of your phone
add custom toggle buttons
overclock or undervolt
increase battery life
etc..
Kernel vs Rom vs Recovery vs Modem
Kernel is the layer between the phone hardware and the rom. it controls things like Wi-Fi power, touch sensitivity, possible range of screen brightness, phone logging, and processor max and min speed. kernel must be designed not only for your device but also for the type of rom you are using (Sammy rom or Aosp) some kernels support all roms, others are specific.
Rom is the operating system of your phone. there are three main categories of roms.
roms that are based off of the Samsung stock rom (Sammy rom)
roms that are based off of Android open source project aka AOSP (AOSP, AOKP)
roms based off of the miui project (these used to be a branch of AOSP but recently they have also used Sammy base for miui)
recovery is a partition that you can access at boot by holding down a combination of keys. (volume up and home button in the case of our sgs4) every phone has recovery stock but it doesn't do much. you can replace stock with clockwork mod recovery which is extremely useful for flashing all kinds of things and making backups before you do. There are other alternative recoveries besides clockwork but that seems to be the most common. TWRP is also gaining popularity these days. You can easily switch between recoveries and or upgrade your current recovery. All that needs to happen is for a new image to be flashed onto the recovery partition. See the rooting guide for more info on how to flash a custom recovery.
modem is a file that controls the cell radio of the phone. Helps determine what frequencies to use and settings for a particular network. It is important when flashing a radio that you flash a radio that is for the AT&T sgs4
Methods for flashing files - Odin vs mobile Odin vs. clockworkmod(cwm) vs adb
Odin is the internal Samsung tool for flashing. I believe it only exists on Windows platform. This tool is mostly used to initially flash an insecure kernel or rooted kernel, OR to return to completely stock rom.. Files for flashing in odin generally should end in .tar or .tar.md5 although sometimes they come zipped and the tar is inside the zip. Read more about Odin before using it as it can easily break your phone. !!!as a general rule make sure you never check the "partition" checkbox EVER!!!
Mobile Odin (THIS TOOL DOES NOT SUPPORT ALL S4 MODELS...make sure you check that it specifically works with yours first. I think at this time it works on your phone unless you have locked bootloader but STILL DOUBLE CHECK) is a phone based version of Odin made by the very talented developer Chainfire. It can be installed on a rooted phone and used to flash the same .tar based files as the desktop version. Mobile odin has a few advantages. 1 you can use it from your phone. 2 it can auto root a stock rom (nice if you want to try out a brand new update that has not been rooted yet)
clockworkmod(cwm) or TWRP is recovery based tool that can make backups of your entire phone, flash new roms, kernels etc.., and do many other useful tasks. Once you have this on your phone my guess is that most of your flashing will be done through this tool. The files for flashing through clockworkmod are .zip files.
ADB is the android develpment bridge. It allows for command line interface with your phone through its debugging options. ADB can do most anything as I understand it. In my several years of flashing I have only had to use it once, and i could have waited for someone to come up with another solution. In general as a noob i recommend you stay away from ADB.
open source vs Samsung base(aka Touchwiz or TW) vs miui
Open Source Roms such as AOSP/AOKP are built using Google's open source android code as a base. The developers then add functionality specific to the device. The advantages of these builds are that they often have tons of options built in to the rom that change the behavior and look of the phone. They usually allow you to change the toggles in your notification pull down, change the battery display, make all kinds of adjustments to sounds, vibration etc... Some people also prefer the "vanilla" android look and feel. These roms often provide "bleeding edge" concepts, design, and modifications. The Disadvantages of these roms is that some of the hardware coding is done closed source by the phone manufacturers, which means that things like Infrared, bluetooth, camera, video recording, and MHL video out often don't work or take much longer to get working by the developers. Basically anything that relies on the Samsung framework will not work in an open source build. This means Svoice, Snote, and the Samsung camera app will not work.
Samsung based roms (aka Touchwiz/TW) are taken from the Samsung original phone software and modified by the developer. Usually, these roms are modified in order to be faster and to make changes to some of the features. Expect to see changes to the stock rom like: debloated (ATT and samsung software removed), de-odexed (explained later), enable tethering, unlimited sms recipients, added notification toggles, etc. Most of these changes are made to: make the phone faster, improve battery life, make the phone easier to theme. The advantage of these roms is that they still use the Samsung framework so all the proprietary stuff like camera, bluetooth, MHL still work, the disadvantage is that they will never be as customisable as open source roms.
MIUI is a rom that focuses on theming. Official MIUI (Chinese) gets updated weekly on Friday and then there are lots of miui developers who adapt it to other languanges and make some tweaks to it. MIUI can be built from AOSP source or Samsung source and depending will have different features. The first MIUI rom for our phone just appeared in these forums and it is based off of AOSP. MIUI has a unique look and is also highly customizable through theming. There are tons of themes available for download through the rom itself and you can mix and match any part of any theme you want. This includes icons, lockscreen style, etc.. Some people criticize while others praise MIUI for being very "iphone like". This is because the icons look more iphone like and there is no app drawer in the MIUI launcher. However, you can still use any launcher you like within MIUI.
odexed vs de-odexed
odexed is how the phone comes stock from Samsung. Odexed means that system files and apps are split into two pieces and kept in different places on the phone. This is done to speed things up a bit. However, it makes it harder to theme the phone because the apps are split up. Most custom roms choose to de-odex (basically regroup the files back into one) so that custom themers can make themes more easily for the phone.
Flashing "dirty" vs flashing "clean"
Clean
Doing a clean install of a rom means erasing or formatting all the data from the previous rom before you flash the new one. This is the prefered way to flash a rom to ensure that it will run smoothly. It is necessary if you are switching from one rom type to another (CM to Samsung base). In order to do a clean flash you need to boot into recovery and select the following options: wipe user data (this wipes all apps and personal data, but not your photos/videos), wipe cache, advanced>wipe dalvik cache, storage/mounts>format system. This will ensure that no trace of the former rom is left on the phone. Beware that at this point your phone will not boot until you install a new rom. I suggest using titanium backup to backup apps and smsbackup+ for texts to make getting your new rom configured easy.
Dirty
Doing a dirty install means just flashing a new rom right over the top of the old one without wiping any data. The advantage to this is that you don't lose any apps or account info. The disadvantage is that you open up the possibility for problems. Generally you only want to flash this way if you are upgrading a rom (CM10 nightly to the next nightly, or from one samsung based rom to another). If you decide to flash over the top and have any issues, you should not report bugs, but try flashing clean first.
Logcat
Logcat is a way to access the android system log for everything that is going on behind the scenes. This tool is used to help developers pinpoint problems in a rom. If you want to actually be helpful to a dev when reporting a bug, you should really learn to use this tool. I am no expert on logcat but you can find some good information in this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1726238
What is the Bootloader?
The bootloader is basically what it sounds like...it loads the boot image of the device. Basically it is one of the first things to run on the phone and it shows the phone where to find the boot image and how to start. The bootloader is also responsible for allowing access to the recovery part of the phone.
Locked Bootloader?
This seems to confuse a lot of users so here goes: The AT&T and Verizon versions of our phone have a locked bootloader. What does this mean? To the noob, it means that the devs had to figure out how to bypass or unlock this part of the phone in order to be able to boot custom recoveries such as CWM and TWRP. Getting a custom recovery means being able to backup the phone as well as flash custom roms. Luckily for us, Djrbliss (make sure and thank him! his thread is here:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2292157) figured out how to bypass the locked bootloader. The exploit he used is known as Loki. Please remember that the loki exploit is not the same thing as unlocking the bootloader, it is a bypass/trick. AT&T and Verizon have fixed the exploit that allowed loki to work in there newest firmware. Loki patch will not work for MF3 firmware or later.
Loki
refers to the exploit that allows us to run custom recoveries as well as custom roms. You only need to have a loki'd rom if you have a model with a locked bootloader (AT&T). Thankfully, you can install a custom recovery that will auto-Loki any rom you flash so that you can install almost any rom built for our model phone (see below). I strongly recommend flashing an auto loki recovery if you have a phone with locked bootloader. I use this one here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2291956
Compatible Roms
you should be able to run any rom built for AT&T, TMobile, or the I9505 international model (NOT I9500!!) as long as you flash with an auto loki recovery. You can check out this thread for more info. Make sure and thank TheAxman! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2295557
You may have to manually set the APN. If you encounter problems with the rom look in that roms thread for answers.

Sticky!!

Well damn, I thought I knew a lot, but after reading this thread, I really didn't. Well done. :good:

Incredible resource for those coming in from a different ecosystem.
Thanks much!!

Thread stuck!! Nice work!

Got my new At&t Samsung Galaxy S4 and this will definitely help me!!

this is another thread that really helped me as well these two have really helped me so far i have rooted several divices and just relied on everyone else and not i am starting to take a lot more of an interest ant these threads have been the most helpful
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=42055644#post42055644

WoW
Great work! I'm sure this thread will be very helpful to a lot of people (Myself included). Tanks bro! :victory:

More! More! :d

I've been searching high and low ive read everything and maybe im not understanding but after I root my phone how do I do the whole loki thing??... I'm eager to start flashing roms... Ive read of some recoveries that do this is that an accurate assessment??

KINGDROID25 said:
I've been searching high and low ive read everything and maybe im not understanding but after I root my phone how do I do the whole loki thing??... I'm eager to start flashing roms... Ive read of some recoveries that do this is that an accurate assessment??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly are you trying to do?
If you want to install a custom ROM or kernel, you need a custom recovery. The ROM or Kernel developer will have LOKI-fied it for you.
For TWRP (my custom recovery of choice) Download GooManager from the Play Store and install.
Inside the goo.im app, go to menu>Install OpenRecovery Script
then you can boot into recovery to apply kernels, ROMs, etc to your hearts desire

joeybear23 said:
What exactly are you trying to do?
If you want to install a custom ROM or kernel, you need a custom recovery. The ROM or Kernel developer will have LOKI-fied it for you.
For TWRP (my custom recovery of choice) Download GooManager from the Play Store and install.
Inside the goo.im app, go to menu>Install OpenRecovery Script
then you can boot into recovery to apply kernels, ROMs, etc to your hearts desire
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its tht ez just root and add custom recovery??.. The whole loki thing is what's been throwing me off
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

KINGDROID25 said:
Its tht ez just root and add custom recovery??.. The whole loki thing is what's been throwing me off
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes... the difficult part is if you are a developer. They make our lives much easier.

joeybear23 said:
Yes... the difficult part is if you are a developer. They make our lives much easier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx ima root tonight I jus need to get a copy of the stock firmware
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

KINGDROID25 said:
Thanx ima root tonight I jus need to get a copy of the stock firmware
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock Firmware:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2261573
That is a HUGE download, but the process is simple.

im not a newb but i need to boost my post count lol...soooo spam

KINGDROID25 said:
I've been searching high and low ive read everything and maybe im not understanding but after I root my phone how do I do the whole loki thing??... I'm eager to start flashing roms... Ive read of some recoveries that do this is that an accurate assessment??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have updated the OP to explain Loki, hope that helps :good:

Noob here first time posting I rooted my phone and installed cwm using casual method, created backup and installed mint rom love it but after a couple of post I see I didn't backup EFS should I be worried?

I'm not sure what the deal is with backing up the IMEI number on our phones yet. I have not seen anyone post about losing their IMEI yet so I wouldn't be too worried. On the s3 only the international model phones could be backed up by saving the efs folder. The backup process for AT&T phones was much more complex. I assume the same holds true on the s4. Will update when I find out more
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

I wanted to make sure Thx. Is it to late to back EFS or can I just restore my backup and do it?

[Q] Mobile OS questions.

Hi,
I have a very basic question with regards to Android OS. Why can't we easily update the Android OS to newest version; just like we do it for say a Windows PC? I understand that there are hardware limitations for OS updates.. similar to say for example Win7 not supporting older hardware. But if want to update to the newest android version for my phone.. why are there "custom ROMs" posted in forums? What are the contents that go in these Custom ROM? I am interested in the programming part of this.
Also, second question is where do I get the say for example Jelly Bean ROM that I modify to suit for my phone?
Thanks.
--
M
PS:
Note: Please feel free to move this thread to appropriate category, if this does not belong here

MadhaviJ said:
Hi,
I have a very basic question with regards to Android OS. Why can't we easily update the Android OS to newest version; just like we do it for say a Windows PC? I understand that there are hardware limitations for OS updates.. similar to say for example Win7 not supporting older hardware. But if want to update to the newest android version for my phone.. why are there "custom ROMs" posted in forums? What are the contents that go in these Custom ROM? I am interested in the programming part of this.
Also, second question is where do I get the say for example Jelly Bean ROM that I modify to suit for my phone?
Thanks.
--
M
PS:
Note: Please feel free to move this thread to appropriate category, if this does not belong here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it depends on a whole lot of things.
1) The bootloader on the atrix2 is locked. This means that you can not actually flash a custom kernel without using something like kexec. This also means that for ANY real android updates, that they MUST come from motorola, or at least be signed by motorola (like the leaked JB asia version we have, that will NOT run on at&t phones, without major and fairly dangerous work). And Motorola abandoned this phone after ICS for the most part.
2) You can flash any "custom" rom be it based on stock or a compiled ROM like cyanogenmod, AOKP, etc. they just can not use the kernel that comes with it, and there are some very special files and trickery to make that happen when compiling the ROM.
3) This phone is locked done at more than just the bootloader, there are other parts of the phone that they have signatures on that do not allow you to go up or down in versions of android, unless you have a special developer version, or one of the MEARET/SEARET versions of the phone, or you made that fairly dangerous mod, I mentioned before.
The Custom ROMs have some nice acceleration tweaks, UI tweaks, and removal of all the crap and bloat apps that come from most providers. These "Custom" Roms are usually all opensource, just like Linux/Android, and you have the chance to customize it even farther with some C code and Java, if you like.
Here is a link to the Cyanogenmod page, and a couple other "custom" ROM pages:
http://www.cyanogenmod.org/
http://en.miui.com/
http://aokp.co/
There are many many more ^^
Now to make a custom ROM you will need a Linux install someplace (a VM at least, but the compile may run way longer), some C++ and java knowledge (even just a small amount will help a little), be good at using google to fix your compile errors, and a whole lot of patience.
I always suggest a new person who would like to learn to dev, start easy and try their hand at a stock rom first using the kitchen it is much easier, and you can do some nice things and learn. Once you get that down, and learn the trouble shooting part of ROM building, you may try your hand at "custom" ROMs, or you can do what some have done and just jump into the "custom" ROM thing, but it is a little harder, and will take more time to get it down.
You can also do as a few other have done, and learn how to port roms from other like phones, but I never could get them to function as they should with ALL parts working, there was almost always something that did not work well enough for me to want to use a ROM I ported. Though others have had huge success with this, and you could PM them to ask their secrets.
Here is my post on where to get the tools needed to start working with your stock ROM, using the kitchen and other tools with Linux:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1404442

jimbridgman said:
Well, it depends on a whole lot of things.
1) The bootloader on the atrix2 is locked. This means that you can not actually flash a custom kernel without using something like kexec. This also means that for ANY real android updates, that they MUST come from motorola, or at least be signed by motorola (like the leaked JB asia version we have, that will NOT run on at&t phones, without major and fairly dangerous work). And Motorola abandoned this phone after ICS for the most part.
2) You can flash any "custom" rom be it based on stock or a compiled ROM like cyanogenmod, AOKP, etc. they just can not use the kernel that comes with it, and there are some very special files and trickery to make that happen when compiling the ROM.
3) This phone is locked done at more than just the bootloader, there are other parts of the phone that they have signatures on that do not allow you to go up or down in versions of android, unless you have a special developer version, or one of the MEARET/SEARET versions of the phone, or you made that fairly dangerous mod, I mentioned before.
The Custom ROMs have some nice acceleration tweaks, UI tweaks, and removal of all the crap and bloat apps that come from most providers. These "Custom" Roms are usually all opensource, just like Linux/Android, and you have the chance to customize it even farther with some C code and Java, if you like.
Here is a link to the Cyanogenmod page, and a couple other "custom" ROM pages:
http://www.cyanogenmod.org/
http://en.miui.com/
http://aokp.co/
There are many many more ^^
Now to make a custom ROM you will need a Linux install someplace (a VM at least, but the compile may run way longer), some C++ and java knowledge (even just a small amount will help a little), be good at using google to fix your compile errors, and a whole lot of patience.
I always suggest a new person who would like to learn to dev, start easy and try their hand at a stock rom first using the kitchen it is much easier, and you can do some nice things and learn. Once you get that down, and learn the trouble shooting part of ROM building, you may try your hand at "custom" ROMs, or you can do what some have done and just jump into the "custom" ROM thing, but it is a little harder, and will take more time to get it down.
You can also do as a few other have done, and learn how to port roms from other like phones, but I never could get them to function as they should with ALL parts working, there was almost always something that did not work well enough for me to want to use a ROM I ported. Though others have had huge success with this, and you could PM them to ask their secrets.
Here is my post on where to get the tools needed to start working with your stock ROM, using the kitchen and other tools with Linux:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1404442
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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Thanks Jim. That was very helpful. I'm going through the links that you've provided and find them useful.
Any more questions... I'll post them in this thread.
--
M

[Q] A couple of starting developer questions about the device

I hope there are some devs looking through this part of the forum.
This is NOT a request thread, I merely need some pointers as to questions I have about development so I can experiment on my own and hopefully attain results which are to some degree helpful to the community.
1) The sony stock firmwares come in these weird .sin formats, does this mean the device partitions work differently on Xperias than they do on other devices or does this stand in the way when reading general guides on e.g. cyanogenmod about flashing a certain partition?
2) The bootloader on this device acts differently than the one on my nexus 7, as in, in a weird way. I gather this is because sony made it themselves and to their liking to add flashmode.
2a) Is it normal that I can use fastboot to flash a kernel, but not use "fastboot boot boot.img" to boot e.g. extended stock temporarily? My device then hangs on the black-screen-blue-light standard fastboot look, but it doesn't power off when removing the USB cable and I have to pull out the battery. Flashing works though.
2b) Is "Flashmode" necessary for anything? Does it do anything else then allow for ftf's to be flashed, thus not having much to do with custom rom development?
2c) also, on original stock kernel, is it normal that the only way to get into recovery I have found up until now is using the Quickboot app? Using a recovery keycombo or trying from fastboot or adb does nothing, sometimes even hanging the device, so taking out the battery is necessary again...
3) How do you guys make booting images out of a compiled kernel? I can compile a kernel just fine, but I don't really figure what to do with the zImage file other than "packing it somehow". Been searching around on google for this, but I can't find any working ways to pack anything, and I don't even know where to get a ramdisk or how to make one.
4) On that note, I have been trying to figure out compiling CM, by forking some repos of taoshan and sony common, but I don't really know how for these are in correctness. Are there specific repos with the taoshan board configuration that are being worked on right now that I should/could fork to figure stuff out myself? I don't know how this forking is looked upon, if it is regarded as stealing someone's code or something, any insights about that might also be helpful.
That's what I can form off of the top of my head. I hope I get some insights from you guys at least. I have been trying and breaking my device for a week now, wishing to get something working of my own, but to no real avail
All the best.
MajorMonodon

MajorMonodon said:
I hope there are some devs looking through this part of the forum.
This is NOT a request thread, I merely need some pointers as to questions I have about development so I can experiment on my own and hopefully attain results which are to some degree helpful to the community.
1) The sony stock firmwares come in these weird .sin formats, does this mean the device partitions work differently on Xperias than they do on other devices or does this stand in the way when reading general guides on e.g. cyanogenmod about flashing a certain partition?
2) The bootloader on this device acts differently than the one on my nexus 7, as in, in a weird way. I gather this is because sony made it themselves and to their liking to add flashmode.
2a) Is it normal that I can use fastboot to flash a kernel, but not use "fastboot boot boot.img" to boot e.g. extended stock temporarily? My device then hangs on the black-screen-blue-light standard fastboot look, but it doesn't power off when removing the USB cable and I have to pull out the battery. Flashing works though.
2b) Is "Flashmode" necessary for anything? Does it do anything else then allow for ftf's to be flashed, thus not having much to do with custom rom development?
2c) also, on original stock kernel, is it normal that the only way to get into recovery I have found up until now is using the Quickboot app? Using a recovery keycombo or trying from fastboot or adb does nothing, sometimes even hanging the device, so taking out the battery is necessary again...
3) How do you guys make booting images out of a compiled kernel? I can compile a kernel just fine, but I don't really figure what to do with the zImage file other than "packing it somehow". Been searching around on google for this, but I can't find any working ways to pack anything, and I don't even know where to get a ramdisk or how to make one.
4) On that note, I have been trying to figure out compiling CM, by forking some repos of taoshan and sony common, but I don't really know how for these are in correctness. Are there specific repos with the taoshan board configuration that are being worked on right now that I should/could fork to figure stuff out myself? I don't know how this forking is looked upon, if it is regarded as stealing someone's code or something, any insights about that might also be helpful.
That's what I can form off of the top of my head. I hope I get some insights from you guys at least. I have been trying and breaking my device for a week now, wishing to get something working of my own, but to no real avail
All the best.
MajorMonodon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Not at all. Just extract .sin using flashtool and then mount the dumped .ext4 as a regular filesystem.
Xperia devices have all partitions except /recovery.
2) I can't answer your question because I didn't have any non Sony android device before.
2a) Sony bootloader doesn't allow hotbooting kernels.
2b) You can cherrypick components of firmware like baseband, kernel, system etc and flash through flashmode. Really handy!
2c) As I mentioned before, Xperia devices don't have /recovery. So any attempt to boot recovery partition is futile.
Another way round, is to load recovery.cpio as an initrd during boot by keymaps.
3) use mkbootimg. Check my git for more info.
Randisk can be obtained by extracting stock kernel.
4) maybe a cm developer can help you regarding this.

Rachit Rawat said:
1) Not at all. Just extract .sin using flashtool and then mount the dumped .ext4 as a regular filesystem.
Xperia devices have all partitions except /recovery.
2) I can't answer your question because I didn't have any non Sony android device before.
2a) Sony bootloader doesn't allow hotbooting kernels.
2b) You can cherrypick components of firmware like baseband, kernel, system etc and flash through flashmode. Really handy!
2c) As I mentioned before, Xperia devices don't have /recovery. So any attempt to boot recovery partition is futile.
Another way round, is to load recovery.cpio as an initrd during boot by keymaps.
3) use mkbootimg. Check my git for more info.
Randisk can be obtained by extracting stock kernel.
4) maybe a cm developer can help you regarding this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rachit,
Thanks a lot for the answers! This really gives me a boost, because sometimes when stuff doesn't work I'm ready to just give up!
I'll take a look at and fork your kernel repo if that is okay with you, to take a look at how you do things.
If I have an occasional question later on, would you mind me contacting you in some way, like pm?
Thanks again
(a very happy) MajorMonodon

MajorMonodon said:
Rachit,
Thanks a lot for the answers! This really gives me a boost, because sometimes when stuff doesn't work I'm ready to just give up!
I'll take a look at and fork your kernel repo if that is okay with you, to take a look at how you do things.
If I have an occasional question later on, would you mind me contacting you in some way, like pm?
Thanks again
(a very happy) MajorMonodon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure. You can do whatever you want with my sources.
Atm I think one is broken because I kinda messed it up while patching wcnss.
Better you start with stock and patch it with commits I've done. If you don't understand what the patch is all about, hit me anytime via pm. I don't browse forums frequently.
:thumbup:

Rachit Rawat said:
Sure. You can do whatever you want with my sources.
Atm I think one is broken because I kinda messed it up while patching wcnss.
Better you start with stock and patch it with commits I've done. If you don't understand what the patch is all about, hit me anytime via pm. I don't browse forums frequently.
:thumbup:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Rachit, I'll do that!
All the best

The permission paradox for my device Kernel

Hi everyone!
Details: Oppo F9 Pro CPH1823
So, I have installed Lineage into one of my phones that is officially supported. There was not problem I faced doing that. Now, my new phone is not officially supported, so I decided to build from source for which I started doing research. I found guides and have many of the things figured out. There is a step that build Lineage for my device identity. After hours of research, I found the device vendor and the device tree (Dummy device tree). What remains is the device kernel which gave me a lot of pain. So, after not finding the kernel available on the internet, I gave up and said I guess I will have to make a custom one. But here is where the permission paradox comes in. I looked up guides to make custom kernel as I couldn't find one for CPH1823, but it turns out I need a 'source kernel' from the vendor website to even build a custom kernel. Every guide I see says I need to go to the developer website and download the source kernel code which my ****ty vendor has not made available. I mean there is a GitHub repo but my device seems to be lucky enough to not be on that list. What looks like a good option for me right now? Links should be enough as I willing to work and do more research. BTW, hope my first post is worthy!
-Mackenzie