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How to make a ROM

Hey XDA
This might be a dumb question, but i dont know where else to ask
I would like to try and make my own ROM for my magic, but i have no idea about where to start, so i was wondering if someone knew of a guide, or some other form of "getting startet" thingy?
And what about apps, how do you make them?
Does it require a Linux machine, or can it be done in windows?
Per

I'm interested in this as well , guys nobody wants to share with us your knowledge??

I too would like to know.

bump
I would like to know also. A quick guide or write-up would be supper nice.

Not to burst anyone's bubble but I seriously doubt a quick write-up would explain the steps on to creating your own ROM or how to write apps. If you really want to learn, I would suggest you take some programing classes at your local community college.

cptandroid said:
Not to burst anyone's bubble but I seriously doubt a quick write-up would explain the steps on to creating your own ROM or how to write apps. If you really want to learn, I would suggest you take some programing classes at your local community college.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A quick write up doesn't explain it, but equally going to college isn't applicable to rom cooking either.
All the information you need is on the Internet, have a look in this link where the basics are explained, and use google to fill in the blanks ...
http://www.johandekoning.nl/index.php/2009/06/07/building-android-15-build-environment/
The documentation in ASOP recommends Ubuntu for your dev machine (http://source.android.com/download) so familiarity with Linux is essential, also knowing how to use git will save you some time.
Also use the resources in the Dream section in this site. It's been around much longer than the Magic and most dev topics are already covered in a lot more detail than in Sapphire rom development. Above all I think you need a lot of time on your hands and understanding wifes/girlfriends etc as a lot of reading is necessary!

You basically need a Linux distro to be able to do the most modding. Here are the port tools:
http://www.4shared.com/file/122118622/fd190fe1/PortTools.html
Here's a nice quide that you can use as reference:
1. Download the original Nandroid backup of the Rogers-Wiped from Skittleguy (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4029461&postcount=4).
2. Unzip Rogers-Wiped.zip and move boot.img to a directory called "Org".
3. Download nk02ion_r4_LITE-signed.zip and upzip it to a directory called "nk02".
4. Move boot.img out of the nk02ion_r4_LITE-signed directory into a directory called "temp".
5. Open your Terminal window and navigate to your "temp" directory.
6. Unpack the boot image inside the "temp" directory :
Execute : $unpack-H.pl boot.img
This should give you 2 new files : boot.img-kernel and boot-img-ramdisk.gz
7. Remove boot.img and boot.img-kernel from the "temp" directory by doing :
Execute : $rm boot.img
Execute : $rm boot.img-kernel
You should now have only one file called boot.img-ramdisk.gz in your temp directory.
8. Navigate to the "org" directory.
9. Unpack the boot image inside the "org" folder :
Execute : $unpack-H.pl boot.img
This should give you 2 new files : boot.img-kernel and boot-img-ramdisk.gz
10. Move the boot.img-kernel file from the "org" directory to the "temp" directory.
Execute : $mv boot.img-kernel ../temp/
11. Remove the "org" directory
12. Navigate to the "temp" direcory
You should now have 2 files inside the "temp" directory, boot.img-kernel and boot.img-ramdisk.gz
13. Create a directory called boot.img-ramdisk inside the "temp" directory :
Execute : $mkdir boot.img-ramdisk
14. Move inside the newly created boot.img-ramdisk directory :
Execute : $cd boot.img-ramdisk
14. Unzip the boot.img-ramdisk.gz file :
Execute : $gunzip -c ../boot.img-ramdisk.gz | cpio -i
15. Check that the ramdisk is unpacked :
Execute : $ls -l
You should now see a bunch of files
16. Remove the boot.img-ramdisk.gz file inside the boot.img-ramdisk directory :
Execute : $rm boot.img-ramdisk.gz
17. Navigate to the temp folder and also delete the boot.img-ramdisk.gz file :
Execute : $rm boot.img-ramdisk.gz
You should now have 1 file called boot.img-kernel and 1 directory called boot.img-ramdisk inside the "temp" folder
18. Repack the kernel and ramdisk to a boot.img file :
Execute : $repack-H.pl boot.img-kernel boot.img-ramdisk boot.img
You should now have a new boot.img inside the "temp" directory.
19. Move the boot.img file to the nk02 directory :
Execute : $mv boot.img ../nk02/
20. Remove the "temp" folder.
21. Navigate to the nk02 folder and check that you have 1 boot.img file and 2 directories (META-INF and system)
22. Zip the boot.img and the 2 directories into an nk02.zip file
Execute : $zip -r nk02.zip *
23. Sign the nk02.zip file :
Execute : $java -jar signapk.jar testkey.x509.pem testkey.pk8 nk02.zip update.zip
24. Push update.zip to your SDcard :
Execute : adb push update.zip /sdcard/update.zip
25. Boot the device in fastboot mode.
27. $fastboot boot recovery-RAv1.0H.img
28. Select "Wipe data/factory reset"
29. Select "Apply sdcard:update.zip"
30. Select "Reboot system now"
31. Enjoy nk02ion_r4_LITE on your HTC branded Magic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The above guide shows you how to modify the boot.img and how to sign the updates. That's a good start...

ok this is a dumb question i imagine but how to i sign a zip file? i have already made my rom but it wont work because it says its not signed

thejesster said:
ok this is a dumb question i imagine but how to i sign a zip file? i have already made my rom but it wont work because it says its not signed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the thread where signing is explained.
I am no expert, but I managed to use this to modify other ROM's (Adding wallpaper, ringtones and removing apps etc.)
Signing made easy thread

[Tutorial] How to port cf-root to other i9003 Firmwares [23/02/2012]

Tutorial for Porting Cf-root To Newer Firmware's
There were quite a few requests for a tutorial to create ginger bread cf-root. So here it is folks.
Big Thanks to skin1980 for helping me out.
Credits:
Chainfire for the cf-root.
Skin1980 for porting it to Samsung Galaxy SLCD.
Prerequisites:
Any Linux. Basic knowledge of linux is mandatory.
Tools for Unpacking and Packing images.
Base Samsung Galaxy SLCD Gingerbread Cf-root.
Samsung Galaxy SLCD Gingerbread Firmware ROM for cf-root creation.
Downloads & Setup
Any Linux: For this tutorial I am using Linux Mint KDE. You are free to use the Linux of your choice. Ideal starting point for downloading and installing Linux would be Distrowatch.com.
Tools for unpacking and packing images: These are sets of tools that allow you to unpack and pack boot images. Basically one requires just a few tools to achieve.
Link to Download: cfroot-tools.zip - 19 KB.
Download and exatract it into your home folder. It will create a cfroot-tools folder under home folder. Go to the folder and execute the following comand:
Code:
chmod +x *
Base Cf-root: Download any latest cf-root from this Link. Extract the normalboot.img from the cf-root tar file.
normalboot.img: Require normalboot.img extracted from downloaded Gb ROM.
Hex editor: You will require and Hex Editor. I am using bless hex editor. You can use any one which you are comfortable or the one available under your linux distribution.
Open terminal window and enter the following commands:
Code:
[FONT=Microsoft Sans Serif][SIZE=2]cd
[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Microsoft Sans Serif][SIZE=2]gedit ~/.bashrc[/SIZE][/FONT]
You can use any editor of your choice. The main purpose is to set the tools path. At the bottom of this file, add the following lines:
Code:
PATH=$HOME/cfroot-tools:$PATH
export PATH
Save and close the file.
Logoff from linux and login again for the new path to take effect.
The Actual Process
For the purpose of tutorial, I am going to use XXKPQ cf-root as the base and DDKP3 for creating new one.
Create a folder called “cfroot” with out the quotes under home.
Go to the created folder and create two more folders: DDKP3 and XXKPQ.
Now copy the normalboot.img extracted from XXKPQ cf-root and copy it into the XXKPQ folder. Next copy the normalboot.img fromDDKP3 firmware and copy it into DDKP3 folder.
Now go to the cfroot-tools folder under HOME and copy the decom.sh and recom.sh into XXKPQ and DDKP3 folders.
The above steps can be accomplished by the below code. Open command window and type the following:
Code:
cd
mkdir ~/cfroot
mkdir ~/cfroot/XXKPQ
mkdir ~/cfroot/DDKP3
cd ~/cfroot/XXKPQ
cp ~/cfroot-tools/*.sh .
chmod +x *.sh
cd ~/cfroot/DDKP3
cp ~/cfroot-tools/*.sh .
chmod +x *.sh
You need to press enter after each command.
From terminal window, first to change directory to XXKPQ, type the following commands:
Code:
cd ~/cfroot/XXKPQ
./decom.sh
After the execution of the above command, the following files and folders will be created:
normalboot.img-base
normalboot.img-cmdline
normalboot.img-pagesize
normalboot.img-ramdisk.gz => Ramdisk
normalboot.img-zImage => Kernel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apart from these files, a folder called ramdisk will be created, into which the contents of normalboot.img-ramdisk.gz would have been extracted.
Now once more from the terminal window execute the following command:
Code:
cd ~/cfroot/DDKP3
./decom.sh
Also make note of the following values, which are shown, when the decom.sh script is executed.
Code:
BOARD_KERNEL_BASE 81800000
BOARD_PAGE_SIZE 00001000
Now under DDKP3 folder, edit the recom.sh file. Replace the value after --base with the value after BOARD_KERNEL_BASE. Replace the value after --pagesize with value after BOARD_PAGE_SIZE. Save the file.
Now we can switch to file manager. It will be easier to work using a file manager from here on. Open the XXKPQ/ramdisk and DDKP3/ramdisk folders separately in file manager.
Copy the folders res & sbin from base cf-root (XXKPQ in our case) and paste into DDKP3/ramdisk folder. Overwrite all when prompted.
Copy all the files under XXKPQ/ramdisk (in the root) to DDKP3/ramdisk.
From XXKPQ/ramdisk/lib/modules/2.6.35.7/kernel/ copy the fs folder into DDKP3/ramdisk/lib/modules/2.6.35.7/kernel/.
At this point of time, we no longer require the XXKPQ folder. So we can close the file manager window browsing XXKPQ folder.
Now comes the tricky and critical part. This must be done very carefully. We need to edit the .ko files using a hex editor.
Under the kernel/crypto/ folder, there is a pcbc.ko file, edit it using an hex editor. Search for 2.6.35.7 using find option in the editor. Now note down the six digit numbers starting immediately after 2.6.35.7-CL. In our case the magic number is 882023. Close the file and the editor.
Now we open the kernel/fs/ folder in the file manager.
Now open the mbcache.ko file in the hex editor. Search for 2.6.35.7 again. As we can see that the six digits after 2.6.35.7-CL is not 882023. In our case it is 709629. We need to change 709629 to 882023 and save the file. Different editors provide for different methods of editing. In my case I can just simply click on starting number that is 7 and start typing 882023 and save the file.
Now you need to do the same for two more files under kernel/fs/jbd2/ and kernel/fs/ext4/.
Now go back to ramdisk folder. Under ramdisk/sbin/boot/ there is a file called install.sh. We are now going to edit this file. This not important that you edit this file.
Edit the first line and replace XXKPQ with DDKP3.
Similarly under the “# Once be enough”, there is another XXKPQ which is to be replace with DDKP3.
Now save this file.
Now back to command prompt and execute the following commands:
Code:
cd ~/cfroot/DDKP3
./recom.sh
Executing the above script recreates the normalboot.img-ramdisk.gz, the normalboot.img and create DDKP3-CFROOT-16-02-2012.tar.
The DDKP3-CFROOT-16-02-2012.tar is the cf-root for DDKP3 and can be flashed using ODIN as Pda file.
*
Thats it folks. Hope my effort is worthwhile and benefits some of you.
*
Additional Links:
A text file Create Custom Rom (though not for our phone but is quite useful all the same) - Found it while searching google. Don't know who created it. But here is the link. Create_Custom_Rom.txt - 5 KB
The link to tools zip mentioned in the above text file. tools.tar.gz - 49 MB

Script to uncompress and compress UC Kernel
uc_decom.sh - 258 b
uc_recom.sh - 382 b

10 Chars ......

For Future Use

Whoa! This is huge! Awesomr work man! Thanks.
Edit - No offence meant, but it would be appropriate if the title is How to "port" or similar. Since it ws "created" by ChainFire and we just porting it.

ganeshbiyer is good, very patient, did not think that my trouble!
Has been helping me! Am very grateful!

great job! & i already translate it into chinese^^
and a problem:
after i run the script "decom.sh",it display following words:
[[email protected] xxkpq]# ./decom.sh
./decom.sh: line 5: unpackbootimg: command not found
gunzip: ../normalboot.img-ramdisk.gz: No such file or directory
cpio: premature end of archive
[[email protected] xxkpq]#
help me please~what's going on?

cRainin said:
great job! & i already translate it into chinese^^
and a problem:
after i run the script "decom.sh",it display following words:
[[email protected] xxkpq]# ./decom.sh
./decom.sh: line 5: unpackbootimg: command not found
gunzip: ../normalboot.img-ramdisk.gz: No such file or directory
cpio: premature end of archive
[[email protected] xxkpq]#
help me please~what's going on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unpackbootimg must be in the path.
also it must be executable.

ganeshbiyer said:
unpackbootimg must be in the path.
also it must be executable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry,i paste the wrong code. my problem is this:
[[email protected] XXKPQ]$ ./decom.sh./decom.sh: /home/chenyu/cfroot-tools/unpackbootimg: /lib/ld-linux.so.2: bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory
gzip: ../normalboot.img-ramdisk.gz: No such file or directory
cpio: premature end of archive
[[email protected] XXKPQ]$

cRainin said:
sorry,i paste the wrong code. my problem is this:
[[email protected] XXKPQ]$ ./decom.sh./decom.sh: /home/chenyu/cfroot-tools/unpackbootimg: /lib/ld-linux.so.2: bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory
gzip: ../normalboot.img-ramdisk.gz: No such file or directory
cpio: premature end of archive
[[email protected] XXKPQ]$
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Need to install the missing file ld-linux.so.2
Sent from my GT-I9003 using xda premium

Thank you Ganeshbiyer! this is the tutorial for which send multiple private messages and never answered .. Thanks again, nowI can make a version for Gingerbread UBKPD.
goodbye

Yeah ganesh! A superb work..well done bro

thanks bhaiya....

Thanks for the tutorial buddy

Hope it has been useful.

_
Release all PERFECT! I had no problem in making the entire guide .. BUT ... when flashing in ODIN, and says that when it failed to finish.
I knew that I would be so easy, so I started to analyze both folders (my UBKPD and XXKPQ) and did not get that at the root of KPD I have 12 files and only 11 KPQ. The 12th file executable type KPD called RECOVERY. This file should remove it before using recom.sh?
Thanks again for the guide. goodbye
Edit2:
Well, my little patience led me to delete that file and then went back to RECOVERY recom.sh run and throw me error that could not erase normalboot.img and did not understand, but looking at the files in the root, not the size you normalboot.img was higher than the stock then replace the stock normalboot (+5 mb), run again and finally he created recom.sh cf.root, I flash with ODIN successfully without any problem in these +30 minutes.
Thanks (again).
Now I have as including UV & OC (freqmax 1100MHz is very good speed and would think you do not need more with this phone)

maybe a stupid question:
would it work with other phones as well? natually with the files of the other phone and not with the 9003 files

fabsau said:
maybe a stupid question:
would it work with other phones as well? natually with the files of the other phone and not with the 9003 files
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you can always try

thanks for your reply
I will try it soon^^
wait for my next reply
greetings fabsau

i do it all at this tutorial and it create .tar fine without trouble.. i flash with odin also no problem happen.. but while device open.. at boot logo get stuck or freeze at long time.. why it happen???
i confuse with this line:-
-Copy the folders res & sbin from base cf-root (XXKPQ in our case) and paste into DDKP3/ramdisk folder. Overwrite all when prompted.
-Copy all the files under XXKPQ/ramdisk (in the root) to DDKP3/ramdisk.
-From XXKPQ/ramdisk/lib/modules/2.6.35.7/kernel/ copy the fs folder into DDKP3/ramdisk/lib/modules/2.6.35.7/kernel/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why do not copy all the file in ramdisk n skip copy file inside the ramdisk folder.. it is difference?? please tell me if i do a mistake.

[DEV-GUIDE] Flytouch 3 Superpad 2 - Custom ROM building tutorial

Dear All,
I have been building some custom Android ROMS for the past few years, and my latest toy is a Flytouch 3 I wanted to share some of my findings and methods here, perhaps other newbies like me will find it useful.
1. FT3 ROM contents:
FT3 ROMs will be in RAR or ZIP format and have 2 or 3 files in them as explained below. Just unzip or unrar the package to use them:
firmware2 - flash tool which burns the firmware ( I guess...lol)
bootloader-discovery - 7zip file which contains the bootloader
IMPORTANT! Do not flash a wrong bootloader to your device or it will be bricked! Actually this is the only way you can brick the thing, it's pretty sturdy in that sense. If you are not sure, do not copy bootloader-recovery to your sdcard when flashing, it will boot with your existing bootloader anyway.
firmware-discovery - 7zip file which contains the firmware and it's the main file you want to edit.
2. firmware-discovery contents:
This is the easy part! Modifying this file will let you modify system and data partitions. You can also use different ramdisks and kernels compatible with your device. It's a 7zip file and you can unpack and repack easily with the 7-zip file manager (http://www.7-zip.org/).
I use 7-zip on Windows although I use Ubuntu Linux as my main OS. There is something wrong with my 7-zip installation most probably, but I was too lazy to check it If you are on Windows anyway, you are good, just download and use 7-zip from the URL above. I advise that you do all your firmware-discovery editing within 7-zip file manager. That way, you won't have to worry about re-packing with the correct 7-zip settings. At least, that's how I do it and had no problems.
firmware-discovery will have these files in the 7zip package:
uImage - kernel
Very important Your kernel will make the difference between having and not having certain functionality, even if your hardware supports it.
uImage_recovery - recovery file - I beleive this is what runs when you push menu+power.
ramdisk.img - ramdisk
This is one of the interesting files you might want to play with. Ramdisk is a simple file system with some crucial files, mainly init.rc that lets you control the boot process. You can also stick a initlogo.rle image here to display a splash image in initial boot. More details below at title 4.
data.tar - /data partition - tar archive
All user data is stored here, including apps and user definable settings. This is what gets wiped when you do a recovery by pushing menu+power.
system.tar - /system partition - tar archive
System data, drivers and apps, including Android OS itself (except kernel). Certainly the most interesting part for the average modder
3. Editing system.tar and data.tar:
This might be the bulk of your modding, and most probably what will be most visible to the end user.
I very strongly suggest that you use a Linux system to edit these files. If you use Windows, file permissions will not be saved! If Windows is your main OS, simply install a VM host such as VirtualBox and install your fav Linux distro inside it. Most of them will have an Archive Manager with a GUI and will certainly support TAR. Even without a GUI, you can use "tar" and "untar" commands from a terminal to unpack and repack these files. When you are on Linux, TAR files will preserve file ownership and file permissions. This can be very crucial in your modding.
For modders who are new to Linux, I can recommend Ubuntu. It's very user friendly and easy to use in my opinion.
When you are done editing system.tar and data.tar copy them to your Windows box and drop and them to firmware-recovery file within 7-zip file manager.
4. Unpack, Edit and Repack ramdisk.img:
Now we are on to more serious stuff ramdisk.img consists of a 64 byte U-Boot header, followed by a gzip compressed ramdisk cpio image. So we need to strip the first 64 bytes, and use gunzip to extract it to a folder. After making the changes in the folder, we need apply cpio+gzip compression to the folder and add the 64 byte u-boot header again. You will need to use Linux and install the mkimage tool for these operations.
Here's the command to install mkimage tool in Ubuntu:
Code:
sudo apt-get install uboot-mkimage
It sounds complicated, but no worries, I have some shell scripts that can do all that for you! Thanks to leeh33 from Techknow for the scripts below:
unpack_ramdisk.sh
Code:
mkdir ramdisk
cd ramdisk
dd if=../ramdisk.img bs=64 skip=1 of=ramdisk.gz
gzip -dc ramdisk.gz | cpio -idmv
rm ramdisk.gz
repack_ramdisk.sh
Code:
cd ramdisk
find . | cpio -o -H newc -C 512 | gzip -n > ../ramdisk.cpio.gz
cd ..
mkimage -A ARM -O Linux -T ramdisk -C none -a 0x41000000 -e 0x41000000 -n hRamdisk -d ramdisk.cpio.gz ramdisk.img
rm ramdisk.cpio.gz
Create the scripts above using a text editor or download the attachment to this post and put the scripts together with your ramdisk.img file in a new folder. Executing unpack_ramdisk.sh will create a folder named ramdisk and extract the ramdisk contents here. You can edit e.g. init.rc in this folder, or add a static bootlogo. To add a custom bootlogo create a initlogo.rle image file by following this guide: http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/android-tablet-hacking/438-how-setup-static-bootlogo-before-animated-boot-animation.html Then place the resulting initlogo.rle file directly in the ramdisk directory.
After you are done editing the ramdisk folder, simply run repack_ramdisk.sh and your new ramdisk.img will be created, replacing the old one. Copy the ramdisk.img file to your Windows box again and drop it to firmware-recovery file within 7-zip file manager.
That's it, you have a custom ROM now! Please feel free to ask questions or correct me if you think I have any errors in the info above.
Happy Modding!!!
Tolga

Big problem about my device...
Thank you for this useful post!
I have seen a good knowledge about these devices(flytouch 3) and decided to post my question here:
I have a big problem! I used IUW Burning tool to flash my device. my device is:
SuperPad III (As box says)
Model: ANDR P1001
I decided to try tim's custom rom. It doesn't work. After restarting the device, screen become black (There was no connection
with screen, it was not turned on). The device had vibration when I pressed power button. It continued vibrating periodically(like it was restarting).
After that I flashed my device using IUW with most likely firmware, but during the process I FORGOT TO CHOOSE userdata.img FILE!
Now the device can't even communicate with pc.
OTG method is not working. The device no more vibrates at start up! At motherboard led is lighting when pressing power button.So IS MY DEVICE DEAD? Or is there any solution in this situation(Alternative communication, or whatever...)

[TOOL] Boot.img tools [unpack, repack, ramdisk]

I have not seen this posted anywhere, so I thought I would post it here. This is NOT purely my work, and I do not take credit for it as such.
Included in the attached ZIP are the following files:
boot_info - prints information about the boot.img passed to it, including the base address and ramdisk address. This tool prints out everything needed to repack the boot.img correctly.
split_boot - More commonly known as split_bootimg.pl, this rips apart the boot.img to extract the ramdisk and zImage. It has been modified by me to split the boot.img into a separate folder (specified by the file name of the boot.img passed to it) and to extract the ramdisk into a sub-folder as well (extracts the cpio from the gz and then extracts the actual files from the cpio archive)
unpack_ramdisk - unpacks the given ramdisk file.
Code:
Usage: unpack_ramdisk <ramdiskFile>
repack_ramdisk - repacks the ramdisk from the given directory (found online and modified slightly to take a directory)
Code:
Usage: repack_ramdisk <ramdiskDirectory> [outputFile]
mkbootimg - mkbootimg binary that creates a boot.img file from the given ramdisk and zImage. Updated to a version compiled by me to support the --ramdiskaddr option (ramdisk address) so that even nonstandard boot.img's can be repacked correctly (Use with boot_info for best results).
umkbootimg - included for convenience. Not made by me. Original thread here.
unpack - wrapper script made by me for the umkbootimg binary^ to unpack the boot.img into a separate directory and then unpack the ramdisk into a sub-directory.
Note: These tools were made for Linux. They may also work on Cygwin, but I have not personally tested them.
ANYONE is free to use / modify / kang these files as they see fit. No need to ever ask or do anything more than download.
Enjoy.

UPDATE: If you downloaded, please redownload. There was an error with my repack_ramdisk script, but it's fixed now.

Updated tools with a new boot_info script, also added my own mkbootimg binary compiled with the ramdisk address option.
Boot_info now displays the following information:
Commandline
Pagesize
Base address
Ramdisk address.
Which is everything you need to make a functional boot.img, even when the original boot.img is packed with a non-standard mkbootimg (ie, the ramdisk offset is different than the normal offset).

How exactly do we use these files to unpack and repack?
I've tried running the scripts with chmod at 755 but it doesn't work.
I am i missing something?

All the scripts must be in a folder in your path (~/bin for example)
Then it should work, because they call on each other. I keep all of them in my ~/bin folder, but they can be anywhere in your PATH
Sent from my buttered S3

if Android Magic Word not found at offset 0, it fail.

twins.7 said:
if Android Magic Word not found at offset 0, it fail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, if you use unmkbootimg instead split_boot, it also finds embedded images.

CNexus said:
No, if you use unmkbootimg instead split_boot, it also finds embedded images.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, it work. But .... sorry to much complain
My boot.img has magic word in offset 2048. so it mean, there is additional header in first 2048 byte.
umkbootimg succesfully extract embedded boot.img, but in repacking, I lost the first 2048 byte, because magic header placed in offset 0.
Actually, what is the additional header for? really asking...
I fail to fastboot flash if the image have no additional header.
And it will fail to verify, if the additional header is wrong. or is it called signed boot.img?
If I change the content of boot.img, I can't flash it to device. It always said verify fail. I though, the additional header has CRC or hash or anything.
If you have spare time and want to help me, I'll post my image

Thanks for this tools
Send from my AMOI N828 using Xda Premium

twins.7 said:
OK, it work. But .... sorry to much complain
My boot.img has magic word in offset 2048. so it mean, there is additional header in first 2048 byte.
umkbootimg succesfully extract embedded boot.img, but in repacking, I lost the first 2048 byte, because magic header placed in offset 0.
Actually, what is the additional header for? really asking...
I fail to fastboot flash if the image have no additional header.
And it will fail to verify, if the additional header is wrong. or is it called signed boot.img?
If I change the content of boot.img, I can't flash it to device. It always said verify fail. I though, the additional header has CRC or hash or anything.
If you have spare time and want to help me, I'll post my image
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure. No tool will work for all devices, and since I've never had a device that has this special packing, it would be best if you asked one of your kernel devs for help unpacking/repacking

CNexus said:
I'm not sure. No tool will work for all devices, and since I've never had a device that has this special packing, it would be best if you asked one of your kernel devs for help unpacking/repacking
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ok thank's

CNexus said:
I have not seen this posted anywhere, so I thought I would post it here. This is NOT purely my work, and I do not take credit for it as such.
Included in the attached ZIP are the following files:
boot_info - prints information about the boot.img passed to it, including the base address and ramdisk address. This tool prints out everything needed to repack the boot.img correctly.
split_boot - More commonly known as split_bootimg.pl, this rips apart the boot.img to extract the ramdisk and zImage. It has been modified by me to split the boot.img into a separate folder (specified by the file name of the boot.img passed to it) and to extract the ramdisk into a sub-folder as well (extracts the cpio from the gz and then extracts the actual files from the cpio archive)
unpack_ramdisk - unpacks the given ramdisk file.
Code:
Usage: unpack_ramdisk <ramdiskFile>
repack_ramdisk - repacks the ramdisk from the given directory (found online and modified slightly to take a directory)
Code:
Usage: repack_ramdisk <ramdiskDirectory> [outputFile]
mkbootimg - mkbootimg binary that creates a boot.img file from the given ramdisk and zImage. Updated to a version compiled by me to support the --ramdiskaddr option (ramdisk address) so that even nonstandard boot.img's can be repacked correctly (Use with boot_info for best results).
umkbootimg - included for convenience. Not made by me. Original thread here.
unpack - wrapper script made by me for the umkbootimg binary^ to unpack the boot.img into a separate directory and then unpack the ramdisk into a sub-directory.
Note: These tools were made for Linux. They may also work on Cygwin, but I have not personally tested them.
ANYONE is free to use / modify / kang these files as they see fit. No need to ever ask or do anything more than download.
Enjoy.
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is it possible to make these run on the device?
i have tried
adb root
adb remount
adb push * /sdcard/tmp/
adb push * /system/xbin/
adb push * /system/bin/
adb shell
cd /sdcard/tmp/
for f in $(ls)
do
chmod 755 /system/bin/$f
chmod 775 /system/xbin/$f
done
cd /
rm -r /sdcard/tmp
cd /sdcard/working
split_bootimg.pl boot.img
returns "Permission denied"
hmmmmm???????? what could be the problem????????

ricky310711 said:
is it possible to make these run on the device?
i have tried
adb root
adb remount
adb push * /sdcard/tmp/
adb push * /system/xbin/
adb push * /system/bin/
adb shell
cd /sdcard/tmp/
for f in $(ls)
do
chmod 755 /system/bin/$f
chmod 775 /system/xbin/$f
done
cd /
rm -r /sdcard/tmp
cd /sdcard/working
split_bootimg.pl boot.img
returns "Permission denied"
hmmmmm???????? what could be the problem????????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Perl script should work if you have Perl (compiled for ARM x86) on your device.
The binaries will not work as they are not compiled for ARM. The scripts (at least some of them) should work if you change all instances of "#!/bin/bash" and "#!/usr/bin/env bash" to "#!/system/bin/sh".

CNexus said:
The Perl script should work if you have Perl (compiled for ARM x86) on your device.
The binaries will not work as they are not compiled for ARM. The scripts (at least some of them) should work if you change all instances of "#!/bin/bash" and "#!/usr/bin/env bash" to "#!/system/bin/sh".
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will see if i can get it working tonight! this could be pretty good if i can get it to unpack on device!

ricky310711 said:
will see if i can get it working tonight! this could be pretty good if i can get it to unpack on device!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need...download this zip and extract http://www12.zippyshare.com/v/37266634/file.html
It already contains an unmkbootimg binary compiled for ARM. Then you would just need to unpack the ramdisk to finish it off.

CNexus said:
No need...download this zip and extract http://www12.zippyshare.com/v/37266634/file.html
It already contains an unmkbootimg binary compiled for ARM. Then you would just need to unpack the ramdisk to finish it off.
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Click to collapse
no way, ive been looking for something like this for ages, who is the author?

ricky310711 said:
no way, ive been looking for something like this for ages, who is the author?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know who originally compiled that unmkbootimg binary for ARM.

CNexus said:
I don't know who originally compiled that unmkbootimg binary for ARM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm, gotta findout! i wanna use it in my tool!

Is this boot.img tool compatible with Microsoft windows as well?
Sent from my SPH-L710 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

shakim24 said:
Is this boot.img tool compatible with Microsoft windows as well?
Sent from my SPH-L710 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read the OP.

[Tutorial] NOOB-Friendly Instructions on Packing and Repacking system.new.dat file

I am a Windows user, and I was having quite the trouble unpacking and repacking system.new.dat files. I tried all sorts of Windows Chinese tools for the job, but no matter what I did, when I put the system.new.dat file and system.transfer.list file back into the flashable zip (even if I made no changes to the system.new.dat file... just unpacked and repacked), I would get an error flashing the file.
I finally got around this by installing Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus on VirtualBox. You can find a lot of tutorials online about how to do that. I am basing my instructions off of xpirt's tutorial on unpacking and repacking with the tools he provides. But it took me about 2 days to figure it out because I kept running into problems since some of the instructions made assumptions that the user knows how to use Linux. I am very new to Linux. I am not completely sure how to do *everything* from the command line, so if someone wants to add to my instructions to make it easier, please do so. But these are the things I did to figure it out.
So here are the noob-friendly Linux Ubuntu instructions on how to unpack and repack:
Section 1: Getting everything Ready
1. Download your flashable .zip rom. In my case, I downloaded cm-12.1-20150619-UNOFFICIAL-afyonltetmo.zip to my Ubuntu Desktop. You can download it to your Home Directory as well. Doesn't matter.
2. Download sdat2img. I downloaded mine to my Home Directory.
3. Download img2sdat. I also downloaded this to my Home Directory.
4. Extract all 3 zips, by right clicking on them and choosing 'Extract Here.' It will extract them into their own directories. The main directories that you need to pay attention to are /sdat2img-master/ and /img2sdat-master/
5. Download ext4fs either right into the sdat2img-master folder, or anywhere you want and then drag and drop it into the sdat2img-master folder.
6. Open Terminal, and install Python 2.7, if it's not already installed. Put
Code:
sudo apt-get install python-2.7 python-pip
Section 2: Beginning the Unpacking Process
*Note, you can copy and paste the codes; however, you can't use keyboard shortcuts in terminal. You have to right click and choose your option.
*Another note: Where you see "user" in the terminal commands, substitute it with your Linux username.
1. In your extracted folder from your flashable zip, right click on system.new.dat and system.transfer.list and choose 'cut.' Then paste them in the sdat2img-master folder.
2. Back in Terminal put
Code:
cd sdat2img-master
. That will get you into the right directory.
3. Now put
Code:
./sdat2img.py system.transfer.list system.new.dat system.img
. That will create your raw ext4 .img file.
4. You want to create an output directory for all the files that are in system.img. Put
Code:
mkdir output
5. Now you can mount system.img, and it will mount it into that output folder. Put
Code:
sudo mount -t ext4 -o loop system.img output/
6. You might have the problem that you don't have ownership of all the files (they have little "locks" on them). To gain ownership, put
Code:
sudo chown -R user:user /home/user/sdat2img-master/output
. If you still can't get read and write access, just try rebooting your Ubuntu virtual computer. That was the only thing that finally worked for me. You can start modifying stuff as you wish.
Section 3: Compress files back to a raw ext4 image
1. You are now going to need your file_contexts file from your original extract rom zip. COPY (not cut) and paste it into the sdat2img-master folder.
2. You are also going to need your 'make_ext4fs' file. Make sure it is in the sdat2img-master folder. You might have trouble with permissions, so just in case, put
Code:
chmod 777 /home/user/sdat2img-master/make_ext4fs
into terminal.
3. In Files (Ubuntu's "File Manager"), in the sdat2img-master folder, right click on your system.img file and go to 'Properties'. Notice the information in "Size." Ignore the GB, but look at the bytes. Mine is 2,411,724,800. Copy that number, but remove the commas. So mine is 2411724800.
4. Next is the actual compressing part. Put
Code:
./make_ext4fs -T 0 -S file_contexts -l 2411724800 -a system system_new.img output/
into terminal, but substitute '2411724800' with whatever size you got from the Properties in system.img. You will now how a new file called system_new.img.
Section 4: Converting ext4 (raw image) to img (sparse image)
1. Now you will need to install img2simg. In Terminal, put
Code:
sudo apt-get install android-tools-fsutils
2. Now you can put
Code:
img2simg system_new.img system_new_sparse.img
You will now have a file called system_new_sparse.img that is ready to be packed in a new dat file.
Section 5: Converting img (sparse image) to dat (sparse data)
1. Cut and paste your system_new_sparse.img into img2sdat-master folder that you made earlier.
2. Now you need to navigate to that folder in terminal. Put
Code:
cd /home/user/img2sdat-master
3. Now you can put
Code:
./img2sdat.py system_new_sparse.img
to create your new dat file. It will first ask you which Android version it's for. Enter the number corresponding and hit enter.
4. You're now pretty much done. As you'll see, it created 3 files: system.new.dat, system.patch.dat, and system.transfer.list. Just paste these files into your folder where your flashable zip files are, replacing any original ones in there. Make sure you also have your file_contexts file in there as well. Highlight all the files in there, right click, and zip them up. Then name your flashable zip whatever you want and try flashing!