[ROM][UNOFFICIAL] LineageOS 17.1 for Unihertz Atom L (20200828) - Miscellaneous Android Development

Introduction
This thread contains the LineageOS 17.1 custom firmware images for the Unihertz Atom L, a rugged Android phone released by Unihertz in July 2020, and the accompanying LineageOS Recovery used for flashing the firmware.
Please note that this ROM is one of my side projects, for which I could provide zero warranty. By installing this ROM, you acknowledge that you take all the risks that come with installing custom firmwares on your devices, including but not limited to bricking your device, losing your data, etc. You are always suggested to keep backups and make sure you know how to flash back to official ROM before trying any custom ROMs.
Please find the download links in the Download section. The following sections are guides to installing the ROM.
WARNING: DO NOT try to install this on Atom XL. This is ONLY for the Atom L.
Working Features
- All basic features (Telephony, VoLTE, Audio, Camera, NFC, WiFi, Bluetooth, ....)
- Programmable PTT (red) button (Functionality can be set in Settings - System - Buttons, under the "Search Button" section)
- 48MP camera seems to be working (unlike on many other super resolution devices)
Known Issues
- VoLTE is working (at least for me) but sometimes quirky. If you find it somehow stopped working, usually turning it off and back on again (in Settings - Network - Mobile Network) will fix it. Putting the device to SELinux Permissive mode also fixes most of the VoLTE quirks but this is not recommended (a few quirks in Enforcing mode is better than having the whole device Permissive)
Unlocking
1. Boot your Atom L to the official OS
2. Go into Settings - About phone, tap "build number" several times to enable developer settings
3. Go to Settings - System - Developer Settings, enable OEM unlocking and ADB debugging
4. Run `adb reboot bootloader` on your PC (there is no way to enter bootloader directly, only possible through adb)
5. Run `adb flashing unlock` and comfirm unlock on device (THIS WILL WIPE ALL DATA)
6. Reboot and now you should see an unlocked warning during boot screen.
Installing LineageOS Recovery
For now the only working recovery is the LineageOS Recovery, because the device's kernel does not load the touch driver in recovery mode for whatever reason, rendering TWRP useless.
1. Download `lineage_recovery_XXX.img` and `vbmeta.zip`, unpack `vbmeta.zip` to get three .img files starting with `vbmeta`
2. Run `adb reboot bootloader` to put your device in bootloader mode
3. Run `fastboot flash --disable-verification --disable-verity vbmeta vbmeta.img`
4. Run `fastboot flash --disable-verification --disable-verity vbmeta_system vbmeta_system.img`
5. Run `fastboot flash --disable-verification --disable-verity vbmeta_vendor vbmeta_vendor.img`
6. Run `fastboot flash recovery lineage_recovery_XXX.img`
7. Run `fastboot reboot recovery` to reboot into the newly-installed LineageOS Recovery
The LineageOS Recovery is operated by volume keys as selection and power as confirmation (or entering sub-menus). To return to upper levels of menus from sub-menus, press volume up until the selection goes to the first item and then disappears, then press power (i.e. there's a hidden "Go Back" item at the very top of each sub-menu).
The recovery will show a verification failed prompt for most packages that are not signed with the AOSP keys. This is safe to ignore.
Installing LineageOS 17.1
The LineageOS image must be installed via LineageOS recovery.
1. Download `lineage-17.1-Atom_L-XXX.zip`
2. Reboot your device into recovery (`adb reboot recovery` or simply hold volume up while turning power on)
3. Wipe all data (factory reset) (THIS DELETES EVEN INTERNAL STORAGE)
4. Choose Apply Update, then Apply Update from ADB
5. Run `adb sideload lineage-17.1-Atom_L-XXX.zip` from your PC
6. Wait for the process to finish. (The recovery might prompt something about verification failure, just ignore it and continue anyway)
7. At this point, you can then sideload the LATEST Magisk and OpenGAPPS Nano at your will (note that the size of the system partition might only be enough for the `nano` variant of OpenGAPPS) (If installing Magisk / OpenGAPPS fails, you can try rebooting into recovery again in advanced menus, then try installing them again)
8. Reboot into system and enjoy (Note that Magisk might cause your device to boot loop once or two but it will eventually boot)
When updating to a newer build, you have to flash the new zip, and then re-flash whatever mod you have installed previously (Magisk / GAPPS).
Download Links
LineageOS:
lineage-17.1-Atom_L-20200828-peter-signed.zip: https://mega.nz/file/bAgh1BZA#jzMs_0e9NUR9NcALXWp51ZeWttM5rl_3K5T8Or9hAW0
- Synchronized updates from LineageOS upstream.
lineage-17.1-Atom_L-20200728-peter-signed.zip: https://mega.nz/file/vBwlmL5D#wpw8RovBHyVFCLFlhQ2H5QAIb0ECXkT4of0FRijiP6A
LineageOS Recovery:
lineage_recovery_20200728.img: https://mega.nz/file/yc4Dnbyb#yx0Ci9p3q9_lfAiXkGfgWDFnRJI-JSGrv3kyawkU3fw
vbmeta:
vbmeta.zip: https://mega.nz/file/nF51mBoY#ZNY4j92wc_6a1dXch3l5r-w4VFl9QjN7YJaRMKRoEGk
XDA:DevDB Information
LineageOS 17.1 for Unihertz Atom L, ROM for the Android General
Contributors
PeterCxy
Source Code: https://cgit.typeblog.net/android/device/unihertz/Atom_L/
ROM OS Version: Android 10
Version Information
Status: Alpha
Created 2020-07-28
Last Updated 2020-07-28

How different is the Atom XL?
PeterCxy said:
Introduction
WARNING: DO NOT try to install this on Atom XL. This is ONLY for the Atom L.
Unfortunately I've got the XL version which I thought only varied from the L by the presence of a UHF radio! Can you explain to me why its not a suitable candidate for your mods which sound very good!?
And before you ask, I only got this radio for hacking so I don't mind experimenting if that is required. Please let me know if I can help.
The Bitfarmer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

tvroman said:
PeterCxy said:
Introduction
WARNING: DO NOT try to install this on Atom XL. This is ONLY for the Atom L.
Unfortunately I've got the XL version which I thought only varied from the L by the presence of a UHF radio! Can you explain to me why its not a suitable candidate for your mods which sound very good!?
And before you ask, I only got this radio for hacking so I don't mind experimenting if that is required. Please let me know if I can help.
The Bitfarmer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because Unihertz publishes completely different firmware files for the L and XL, so the safest assumption is that there is more difference than just the UHF radio. If you want to risk it, then you CAN try using this ROM on the XL, as long as you know how to revert back to official if things go wrong. (But I cannot guarantee if the kernel image from L that this ROM uses will not cause serious issues like corrupted baseband or something on the XL)
My suggestion is that instead of trying this ROM directly on the XL, someone with XL can try to modify my device tree for L, replacing the kernel, dtbo images and other vendor blobs from the ones from XL, and then re-compile the ROM for XL. This would be the proper way to handle these two devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Going XL
Hi.
Great work. :good:
I want to built a ROM for the Atom XL myself. And because I'm no expert on this (for now) I'm in search of guides and hints on how to achieve my goal.
As far as I know the biggest problem with Unihertz is that they use a Mediatek chipset with which they are not allowed to provide the sourcecode of the kernel. Or at least you have to pay for it from Mediatek.
But there are some variants of the chipset (Helio P60; mt6771) used in other mobile phones (e.g. Nokia X5) for which I was able to find kernelsources on Github. Using these and the latest Android kernel from google I tried to compile a kernel as a starting point. I was able to extract the build.config directly from the phone which helped tremendously. This should at least get me to the point where I'm able to assemble a TWRP build. But I believe that I'm still missing some (vital?) drivers which are specific to the actual device. This includes I think the missing touchscreen driver that you mentioned is preventing the recovery to be useful.
So now I'm a little bit stuck, because most of the guides to arrange a LineageOS (or any other custom ROM) build tree I found require the sourcecode from the manufacturer which we don't have. All other guides to build from scratch were too generic for my current level of expertise.
Can you please share your approach to create this build?
If you don't want to do this in the open you could also PM me.
With kind regards
ADT

a-dead-trousers said:
Hi.
Great work. :good:
I want to built a ROM for the Atom XL myself. And because I'm no expert on this (for now) I'm in search of guides and hints on how to achieve my goal.
As far as I know the biggest problem with Unihertz is that they use a Mediatek chipset with which they are not allowed to provide the sourcecode of the kernel. Or at least you have to pay for it from Mediatek.
But there are some variants of the chipset (Helio P60; mt6771) used in other mobile phones (e.g. Nokia X5) for which I was able to find kernelsources on Github. Using these and the latest Android kernel from google I tried to compile a kernel as a starting point. I was able to extract the build.config directly from the phone which helped tremendously. This should at least get me to the point where I'm able to assemble a TWRP build. But I believe that I'm still missing some (vital?) drivers which are specific to the actual device. This includes I think the missing touchscreen driver that you mentioned is preventing the recovery to be useful.
So now I'm a little bit stuck, because most of the guides to arrange a LineageOS (or any other custom ROM) build tree I found require the sourcecode from the manufacturer which we don't have. All other guides to build from scratch were too generic for my current level of expertise.
Can you please share your approach to create this build?
If you don't want to do this in the open you could also PM me.
With kind regards
ADT
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need the kernel source code to build a working ROM -- just look at my device tree for Atom L. I think you can build a working ROM for the XL by just replacing the prebuilt kernel in my device tree with the one from Atom XL and also re-extracting the vendor blobs from XL using the script in my devcie tree, then rename everything to Atom XL instead of L. I don't know if the integrated amateur radio would still work though.

PeterCxy said:
You don't need the kernel source code to build a working ROM -- just look at my device tree for Atom L. I think you can build a working ROM for the XL by just replacing the prebuilt kernel in my device tree with the one from Atom XL and also re-extracting the vendor blobs from XL using the script in my devcie tree, then rename everything to Atom XL instead of L. I don't know if the integrated amateur radio would still work though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm already on to that.
But I seem to have trouble extracting the prebuilt kernel. None of the tools I found gave me the exact files you have got (dtb.img, dtbo.img, Image.gz). What did you use?
The best I could get were "dtb", "kernel" and "dtborecovery" (without extensions) which roughly had the same size as yours.
Also, as far as I understand it, with your initial commit (without the modifications for Lineage itself) I should be able to at least compile a recovery image but I got an error regarding a missing dtb.img file in the "out" directory.
Something seems to be missing because, my dtb file is in the "device" directory and not being transfered into "out" during building.
I'm not sure that is because I have got a different naming scheme (renamig it didn't help) or I did something wrong with the extraction.
---------- Post added at 07:30 ---------- Previous post was at 07:14 ----------
Another question I have:
Are the vbmeta-files you used to flash the recovery the ones from the original firmeware zip from unihertz or did you get them from the lineage built?
And reguarding the rather smallish system partition:
I have an idea to bypass that by using the SPFlash Tool from Mediatek. As far as I understand the settings in the scatter-file this tool does a repartitioning of the internal storage. So we only need to "decrease" the userdata, "move" some partitions inbetween and "increase" the system. Only problem is, I couldn't find a partition designated as "system" in the scatter-file, only one big "super" and a "vbmeta-system" (which for my understaning is for verified boot) partition.
What do you think?

a-dead-trousers said:
I'm already on to that.
But I seem to have trouble extracting the prebuilt kernel. None of the tools I found gave me the exact files you have got (dtb.img, dtbo.img, Image.gz). What did you use?
The best I could get were "dtb", "kernel" and "dtborecovery" (without extensions) which roughly had the same size as yours.
Also, as far as I understand it, with your initial commit (without the modifications for Lineage itself) I should be able to at least compile a recovery image but I got an error regarding a missing dtb.img file in the "out" directory.
Something seems to be missing because, my dtb file is in the "device" directory and not being transfered into "out" during building.
I'm not sure that is because I have got a different naming scheme (renamig it didn't help) or I did something wrong with the extraction.
---------- Post added at 07:30 ---------- Previous post was at 07:14 ----------
Another question I have:
Are the vbmeta-files you used to flash the recovery the ones from the original firmeware zip from unihertz or did you get them from the lineage built?
And reguarding the rather smallish system partition:
I have an idea to bypass that by using the SPFlash Tool from Mediatek. As far as I understand the settings in the scatter-file this tool does a repartitioning of the internal storage. So we only need to "decrease" the userdata, "move" some partitions inbetween and "increase" the system. Only problem is, I couldn't find a partition designated as "system" in the scatter-file, only one big "super" and a "vbmeta-system" (which for my understaning is for verified boot) partition.
What do you think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
> None of the tools I found gave me the exact files you have got (dtb.img, dtbo.img, Image.gz). What did you use?
There is a tool called `unpack_bootimg` in the Android source code. Just run `make unpack_bootimg` in the root directory of the Android source tree and you will get one in the output directory. (btw I have renamed those extracted files so the names won't exactly match, but you need this tool to extract the correct images. All other tools won't work properly).
> my dtb file is in the "device" directory and not being transfered into "out" during building.
Because most tools other than `unpack_bootimg` extracts dtb incorrectly.
> Are the vbmeta-files you used to flash the recovery the ones from the original firmeware zip from unihertz or did you get them from the lineage built?
Those don't matter. Either will work as long as you flash it with the correct parameters as given in my post.
> And reguarding the rather smallish system partition
No don't do that. Android 10 does not use a separate system partition anymore, instead both system, vendor and product are sub-partitions in a huge super partition. When flashing a new ROM, the partitions are automatically resized to match the new image exactly, instead of leaving free space unused like before Android 10. That's why I need to reserve space in BoardConfig.mk for gapps to be installed correctly.

Still not able to build.
PeterCxy said:
There is a tool called `unpack_bootimg` in the Android source code. Just run `make unpack_bootimg` in the root directory of the Android source tree and you will get one in the output directory. (btw I have renamed those extracted files so the names won't exactly match, but you need this tool to extract the correct images. All other tools won't work properly).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm still getting an error:
Code:
FAILED: ninja: 'out/target/product/Atom_XL/dtb.img', needed by 'out/target/product/Atom_XL/boot.img', missing and no known rule to make it
Comparing your BoardConfig.mk with mine shows a slight difference in the offset and size values which could be associated with the different kernels of the phones.
But using "unpack_bootimg" I didn't get a value for "BOARD_KERNEL_OFFSET" like you have it in your config. Could this be the problem?
Your BoardConfig.mk
My BoardConfig.mk
Do you see anything else out of the ordinary?
(Because I'm doing everything what you did step-by-step the links point to the best matching commits)
Despite not being able to compile right now I tried to press on with integrating your changes in the hopes that it will be fixed somehow later on
So I'm currently stuck on this commit of yours:
Atom_L: import overlay from official vendor
Where did you get the "config.xml" and "power_profile.xml" from? The best thing I could find was a "power_profile.xml" inside "/vendor/overlay/FrameworkResOverlay/FrameworkResOverlay.apk" which seems to be a "compiled" version of the aforementioned xml-file.

a-dead-trousers said:
I'm still getting an error:
Code:
FAILED: ninja: 'out/target/product/Atom_XL/dtb.img', needed by 'out/target/product/Atom_XL/boot.img', missing and no known rule to make it
Comparing your BoardConfig.mk with mine shows a slight difference in the offset and size values which could be associated with the different kernels of the phones.
But using "unpack_bootimg" I didn't get a value for "BOARD_KERNEL_OFFSET" like you have it in your config. Could this be the problem?
Your BoardConfig.mk
My BoardConfig.mk
Do you see anything else out of the ordinary?
(Because I'm doing everything what you did step-by-step the links point to the best matching commits)
Despite not being able to compile right now I tried to press on with integrating your changes in the hopes that it will be fixed somehow later on
So I'm currently stuck on this commit of yours:
Atom_L: import overlay from official vendor
Where did you get the "config.xml" and "power_profile.xml" from? The best thing I could find was a "power_profile.xml" inside "/vendor/overlay/FrameworkResOverlay/FrameworkResOverlay.apk" which seems to be a "compiled" version of the aforementioned xml-file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
> Comparing your BoardConfig.mk with mine shows a slight difference in the offset and size values which could be associated with the different kernels of the phones.
TARGET_KERNEL_OFFSET should normally always be 0x00008000. Also, your other offset values seem to be wrong too -- those values from `unpack_bootimg` cannot be filled in directly to BoardConfig.mk. Instead, you need to subtract BOARD_KERNEL_BASE from them (e.g. BOARD_RAMDISK_OFFSET should be 0x55000000 - 0x40078000, which is 0x14f88000, the same as mine). In fact, I think those parameters should be exactly the same for XL and L. Other than that, I don't think I can see much of a problem about your makefiles.
However, note that not all of my historical commits represent a compilable state of the device tree. I'd suggest you start directly from the latest state and just replace whatever is relevant instead of starting over. And there should not be much that needs changing at all except device names, fingerprints and the proprietary vendor files.
> Where did you get the "config.xml" and "power_profile.xml" from
Exactly from those apks. Just decompile them using apktool.

PeterCxy said:
TARGET_KERNEL_OFFSET should normally always be 0x00008000. Also, your other offset values seem to be wrong too -- those values from `unpack_bootimg` cannot be filled in directly to BoardConfig.mk. Instead, you need to subtract BOARD_KERNEL_BASE from them (e.g. BOARD_RAMDISK_OFFSET should be 0x55000000 - 0x40078000, which is 0x14f88000, the same as mine). In fact, I think those parameters should be exactly the same for XL and L. Other than that, I don't think I can see much of a problem about your makefiles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still giving me errors.
So I tried a very unconventional approach: I just copied the file myself into the mentioned "out/target/product/Atom_XL" folder.
For now it's still compiling. Fingers crossed.
PeterCxy said:
However, note that not all of my historical commits represent a compilable state of the device tree. I'd suggest you start directly from the latest state and just replace whatever is relevant instead of starting over. And there should not be much that needs changing at all except device names, fingerprints and the proprietary vendor files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just reached your biggest commit yet.
Can you tell me how you got the list of needed files? I hope it's not through trial-and-error.
Except for the values in "setup-makefiles.sh" only the "proprietary-files.txt" seems to be device specific. Is there anything else I need to be aware of in this commit?
P.S.: I know it is tedious to go through your commits one by one but I want to learn something of it not just simply copying what you did. To get a feeling where the biggest pitfalls are and what you did to circumvent them.

a-dead-trousers said:
Still giving me errors.
So I tried a very unconventional approach: I just copied the file myself into the mentioned "out/target/product/Atom_XL" folder.
For now it's still compiling. Fingers crossed.
I just reached your biggest commit yet.
Can you tell me how you got the list of needed files? I hope it's not through trial-and-error.
Except for the values in "setup-makefiles.sh" only the "proprietary-files.txt" seems to be device specific. Is there anything else I need to be aware of in this commit?
P.S.: I know it is tedious to go through your commits one by one but I want to learn something of it not just simply copying what you did. To get a feeling where the biggest pitfalls are and what you did to circumvent them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
> Still giving me errors.
Looks like that dtb.img error was totally my fault -- it was due to my jerry-rigged solution of using prebuilt dtb image that conflicted with one of Lineage's update in August and I haven't built the ROM for a month. Now I have fixed it in the latest commit.
> Can you tell me how you got the list of needed files?
All of those files are for VoLTE support and I started with the list from a commit in Redmi Note 7 Pro's device tree that imported those VoLTE blobs, and then added what was missing one by one (when something is missing the Phone process will crash and you can see what got missing in the logs). I don't think the list will be any different on Atom XL so you can just use the one in my device tree.

Hi.
Thanks to you everything is running smoothly here. But what bugs me is that TWRP is not working on our devices.
Although for the Atom there is a possibility: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/twrp-modded-to-unihertz-atom-t3885793
Before I want to go public with my build I wanted to solve this last "mystery".
So I tried to include it in my current source tree according to the (official?) guide but some errors prevented me from a successful build.
Naturally I asked for some guidance at the most reasonable places I know of but got nothing so far:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=83443611&postcount=4622
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=83455271&postcount=4623
https://github.com/TeamWin/android_bootable_recovery/issues/70
I even tried different repositories (omnirom/android_bootable_recovery) and revisions (android-9.0) but these resulted in missing library "type" (static vs. shared) errors so I assume these are too old for LineageOS 17.1
What I want to know is how you managed to get TWRP to built for your device even though the touchscreen wasn't working?
Did you use your LineageOS source tree or one of the many "minimal" manifests? If so, which one would be the "best" to use?
wkr ADT

@PeterCxy and @a-dead-trousers
Thanks for all the work on this so far. I've got an Atom L and have gotten the ROM's PeterCxy posted running on them as in the OP. Do either of you have a quick step-by-step workflow of how you got all the Lineage sources set up and built into the various ROMs? I'd like to be able to build the ROMs from scratch and understand the process.
If I can get caught up to where you two are at with the builds, I can help debug, test and work through issues.

dirtylimerick said:
[MENTION=5351691] Do either of you have a quick step-by-step workflow of how you got all the Lineage sources set up and built into the various ROMs? I'd like to be able to build the ROMs from scratch and understand the process.
If I can get caught up to where you two are at with the builds, I can help debug, test and work through issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I documented my steps to setup up the build environment in the readme of my repo:
https://github.com/ADeadTrousers/android_device_Unihertz_Atom_XL
But leave out the TWRP part. It isn't working yet mostly because TeamWin/android_bootable_recovery and LineageOS/android_bootable_recovery are too similar.
To figure out all the bits and pieces needed for the device I followed the commit log of @PeterCxy build.

Hi, @PeterCxy.
Finally I was able to build a TWRP recovery and surprise, surprise the touchscreen isn't working.
But during my attempts to get a working TWRP build I came acros a guide that explains how to patch the kernel to get the touchscreen to work.
https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-27132.html
So I tried to follow it but failed to identify the "end" of the zipped Image-file (step 18) to remove the payload from the gz-file. Regardless of which of the null-bytes I use for cutting I always get a warning from 7-zip that there is still data at the end.
Do you know a better approach to achieve this whole patching? Maybe even come up with a scripting solution to easily apply this patch in later builds?
wkr ADT

a-dead-trousers said:
Hi, @PeterCxy.
Finally I was able to build a TWRP recovery and surprise, surprise the touchscreen isn't working.
But during my attempts to get a working TWRP build I came acros a guide that explains how to patch the kernel to get the touchscreen to work.
https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-27132.html
So I tried to follow it but failed to identify the "end" of the zipped Image-file (step 18) to remove the payload from the gz-file. Regardless of which of the null-bytes I use for cutting I always get a warning from 7-zip that there is still data at the end.
Do you know a better approach to achieve this whole patching? Maybe even come up with a scripting solution to easily apply this patch in later builds?
wkr ADT
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no sane way to solve the problem without kernel source code. Basically the stock kernel just does not load the touch screen driver in recovery mode. That patching guide is pretty out of date and I imagine it won't work on most recent kernels. The only proper way is to pressure Unihertz to actually obey GPLv2 and release their kernel source code. Or maybe someone can try reverse-engineering the kernel, but at least I won't do it because it'll just be too much of a hassle.

PeterCxy said:
There is no sane way to solve the problem without kernel source code. Basically the stock kernel just does not load the touch screen driver in recovery mode. The only proper way is to pressure Unihertz to actually obey GPLv2 and release their kernel source code.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you on this one, but as long as we don't have the source code we need to resort to other means to achieve our goals.
PeterCxy said:
That patching guide is pretty out of date and I imagine it won't work on most recent kernels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it's from way back in 2019
Anyway, with a little bit of tinkering I was able to modify my kernel to load the touchscreen driver in recovery mode.
Here is the device tree and the manifest i used.
I wouldn't recommend to use it in it's current state at all though because the fstab needs a little bit of tinkering. Everything seems to be either unordered or not mounted properly and I fear anything you do in there now will mess up the whole device. BUT I got the touchscreen goin for me which is nice.
PeterCxy said:
Or maybe someone can try reverse-engineering the kernel, but at least I won't do it because it'll just be too much of a hassle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As soon as I have everything sorted out that needs to be fixed on my build (e.g. signing, radio, included gapps working properly, TWRP) I want to dig deeper into the kernel.
There are some devices with Helios P60 out there from other vendors which offer kernel sources.
P.S.: I also uploaded a HOW-TO in my device tree.
If you or someone else wants to try it. Also if you want to you can send me a "symbl.txt" (see to the HOW-TO) extracted from your device then I can do the patching for the Atom_L too.

a-dead-trousers said:
I'm with you on this one, but as long as we don't have the source code we need to resort to other means to achieve our goals.
Yeah it's from way back in 2019
Anyway, with a little bit of tinkering I was able to modify my kernel to load the touchscreen driver in recovery mode.
Here is the device tree and the manifest i used.
I wouldn't recommend to use it in it's current state at all though because the fstab needs a little bit of tinkering. Everything seems to be either unordered or not mounted properly and I fear anything you do in there now will mess up the whole device. BUT I got the touchscreen goin for me which is nice.
As soon as I have everything sorted out that needs to be fixed on my build (e.g. signing, radio, included gapps working properly, TWRP) I want to dig deeper into the kernel.
There are some devices with Helios P60 out there from other vendors which offer kernel sources.
P.S.: I also uploaded a HOW-TO in my device tree.
If you or someone else wants to try it. Also if you want to you can send me a "symbl.txt" (see to the HOW-TO) extracted from your device then I can do the patching for the Atom_L too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happy to hear that you were able to figure the touchscreen out. I tried to port TWRP at the very beginning when I started tinkering with the device but quickly grew frustrated and just ported Lineage Recovery instead. I guess I might try patching the kernel image too at some point later.
BTW, for TWRP to work with devices released after Android 10, I'm pretty sure you need an extra set of patches that are not yet fully merged to the main TWRP repository. I remember there's some guy providing another manifest with all the patches applied but I couldn't remember the name.

Hi.
I just officially announced my build for the Atom XL:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/rom-lineageos-17-1-unihertz-atom-xl-t4171407
Could you please put a link in your first post for those in search of the Atom XL and found your thread instead. Thanks.
wkr ADT

hi @PeterCxy.
During my daily usage of the phone I encountered a strage problem:
The audio jack isn't working. Plugging in some headphones I get this slight click in the earpieces when the circuits connect but nothing else happens. Neither a "headphone" icon in the status bar nor hearing anything coming from the headphones itself. The main speaker of the phone keeps playing the music. Using bluetooth everything is working as expected though. So I used logcat to see if something is coming up during plugging in but nothing "catchy" shows up in the logs. My guess is that some (vendor?) service is missing or not started during booting. Next I checked If something shows up on logcat during boot but I'm not sure for what to look exactly. There are quite a few errors and warnings though. In my despair I started to "fix" the "avc: denied" (SEPolicy) entries. Thats when I found a specific error reguarding VoLTE. Maybe this would fix the problems you had with VoLTE in enforcing mode:
https://github.com/ADeadTrousers/an..._Atom_XL/blob/master/sepolicy/private/init.te
(The line with "socket_device:sock_file")
My provider doesn't support VoLTE so I'm not sure if this helps or not. Maybe you could check it.
Anyway can you please tell me if your device's audio jack is working or not?
If you're (by some mysterious coincidence) not affected by this, can you at least give me some pointers for what to look for to get this fixed on my side.
The Internet Is not very helpful when searching for "android audio jack" or something similiar.
Thanks in advance.
wkr ADT

Related

Porting Tips

This thread covers what I have learned about porting. When possible, I'll include links.
This post primarily applies to Samsung devices, although parts can also be used by other manufacturer's devices.
Get the stock firmware for your devices. This step is very important. Besides needing it to reset your device, you will need the boot and recovery images that should be in the archive file.
Follow Cyanogenmod's Porting page.
Use Heimdall to get the partition table
Get the block size by taking the number of blocks from the pit file, and then dividing the size of the storage card by that. Round to the nearest power of 2. (E.g., 524 -> 512).
Use unpackbootimg to get the files in the boot and recovery images
Get the kernel building
Use PRODUCT_COPY_FILES to copy files to specific locations. It needs to be in a device_*.mk file. Use this for the initrc's, and anything else that needs to be in the recovery (e.g., kernel modules). Keep in mind that the only variables the mk file knows about are the ones you tell it about.
At this point, you may or may not have a booting recovery. In the event that you cannot boot into the recovery (e..g, it reboots immediately upon attempting to enter the recovery), try looking at the stock recovery files (especially the ramdisk files), and see what the differences are between it and your recovery image. Again, unpackbootimg is helpful.
As a side note, I'm trying to port Cyanogenmod to the Tab 3 7.0 without using anyone else's source. Right now, I'm stuck on (6), which I'm still going through. I'll try to remember to update this post as I learn new things.
Build Environment
I'm currently using Fedora Rawhide -- which doesn't have java 1.6 or 1.7. For building the recoveries, it does not seem to matter.
That said, building using just the "mka" command will error out, as Cyanogenmod 11 is not able to be built under java 1.8.
As such, my recommendation is to use an arch installation and the systemd-nspawn command for java 1.7 (also, see the AUR for older java packages).

[Kernel] EFIDROID - Ultimate preboot enviroment! - Multiboot / Fastboot / UEFI

updated4/4/2017 (Still does not work on stock 5.0) - Removed due to it still not booting stock 5.0, and ALSO now breaks booting unpatched.
twrp 3.1 is broken
twrp 2.7 is broken
twrp 3.0.1 works
some/most custom roms work
Most official/stock do not.
EFIDROID - Official link
Developer: m11kkaa
DO NOT BUG THE AUTHOR ABOUT BUGS/FEATURES, THIS IS UNOFFICIAL.
Most custom roms appear to boot
Install:​
assumes on stock firmware (Custom roms must report the DEVICEID as hlte, hltetmo, hltespr or hltevzw. Ask your Rom maintainer to correct it or visit post #51)
assumes root and bootloader unlocked
For now "efidroid" on playstore is not configured for our device, so we will do this using our own server:
Download "EFIDROID" from the playstore
Download "TerminalEmulator" from the playstore (or use adb shell)
Download "SimpleHTTPServer" from the playstore
NEW UNTESTED - Removed
OLD Download EFIDROID_SERVER_FILES from View attachment EFIDROID_SERVER_FILES.zip
Open and extract the "device" and "ota" folder to the INTERNAL storage of your phone
Open SimpleHTTPServer (do not change default settings)
Open Terminal Emulator and enter: (make sure you didn't forget any spaces)
su
setprop efidroid.server_url "http://localhost:12345"
Now open efidroid, it should automatically connect. Now press the menu key in the top left corner and press install, then press the big install button.
Now create your slot, and reboot.
Use the vol +/- to navigate up or down, use the power button to select an option
Long press power button on internal rom/recovery to boot without efidroid
Reinstalling/Updating:
Download the new OTAPACKAGE file and extract to INTERNALSD, replace old device/ota folders
Clear EFIDROIDMANAGER cache/data
Run the SETPROP command (don't forget su)
Turn on SimpleHTTPserver
Open efidroid and click uninstall, and then click install (Or click reinstall)
MAKE SURE YOUR BUILD DATE NOW MATCHES THE UPDATED BUILD DATE
Uninstall:
if you hit the uninstall button, the app copies the contents of the UEFIESP back to the real partitions and deletes the partition_*.img files. It does not delete the UEFIESP directory or any of the multiboot directories because they may contain other important files.
flashing boot+recovery outside of EFIDroid's control(e.g. using stock's fastboot/odin flash, or using unpatched boot) is pretty much the same as uninstalling efidroid without deleting the partition_*img files.
All that means that you don't have to worry about any of that if you restores your boot+recovery partitions(either through the app or manually). If you want to free up some space you can delete the UEFIESP directory using a root file manager.
Bugs/Issues:
REPORT ERRORS/BUG ON GITHUB
"can't find tagloader for type -1" - your recovery/rom is not supported (like twrp 3)
Report errors: https://github.com/efidroid/projectmanagement/issues
What you must include:
Exact steps to reproduce the error
Give the exact error shown on screen
If its storage related:
Give the output of "cat /proc/1/mountinfo"
EMERGENCY :
If you find yourself frustrated and just wanting things back the way they were:
Download odin
Download twrp (get the md5/tar version for odin)
Turn off phone (pull battery)
boot to download mode by holding vol down and home and power
Start up odin and press the AP button and browse for the TWRP file. Press start to flash.
Reboot phone into twrp recovery (vol up + home + power), and restore your boot/recovery partitions.
EFIDROID has now been effectively disabled[/HIDE]
Help and info:
If you are familiar with adding touchscreen support please visit us!
Join us on Slack : http://join-efidroid.rhcloud.com/
Once joined: https://efidroid.slack.com/
EFIDROID G+ page : https://plus.google.com/communities/...43671219382368
[/CENTER]
Works on N9005 LTE ?
It looks pretty cool but I've got limited knowledge. My N9005 is on phronesis rom v4.1, IdleKernel v6.6.5 and all partitions converted to F2FS, will it work on this format as well :/
As long as it is a note 3 on msm8974 (sorry exynos) it should work.
File system support should be trivial. I used that same FS myself
Is this an actual GRUB loader for android?
If so am ashuming this means it's possible for UNIX install
i.e. Arch Linux as OS.......
Hmmm.... Windows RT on Note 3... ^^
What about ACPI? We might need this for WinRT
With all due respect, I think you've posted a how to post bit earlier. I'm a flashaholic & the wait for the zip is killing me
I didn't think the day would come.
As a pleb, I will follow this thread with great interest.
djmalik420 said:
With all due respect, I think you've posted a how to post bit earlier. I'm a flashaholic & the wait for the zip is killing me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lololol
Wonder if this is ever going to work Great concept though.
Fake ¿ ???
Only what i see its a bootanimation, in the Video from a "older and other"
The OP account is suspended so I guess something fishy is going on.
Guess we will wait and see
oh come on now. I got suspended for being rude to a well respected member of xda. And its not fake... Really? Anyways... I took my ban as a break and just started back with m1cha on getting the uefi part to work with the screen.
A few pointers: You still need devs to port each os, like windows, true linux ect.
This is just a multiboot. So many devices lack that, some had safestrap, or kexec ect, but all those methods had quirks or special rules, or depended on android. This loads before even the kernel.
Also, it will have many tools that a typical recovery has, so you may not even need to reboot into recovery to setup partitions, also aroma was ported, so maybe even installing roms/kernels too.
Also, there will be an efidroid server "store" where you can get tools and apps to run in efidroid. So devs can extend functionality. Also there will be an android installer to make everything easier.
Just think of this as a pimped out safestrap.
SaschaElble said:
oh come on now. I got suspended for being rude to a well respected member of xda. And its not fake... Really? Anyways... I took my ban as a break and just started back with m1cha on getting the uefi part to work with the screen.
A few pointers: You still need devs to port each os, like windows, true linux ect.
This is just a multiboot. So many devices lack that, some had safestrap, or kexec ect, but all those methods had quirks or special rules, or depended on android. This loads before even the kernel.
Also, it will have many tools that a typical recovery has, so you may not even need to reboot into recovery to setup partitions, also aroma was ported, so maybe even installing roms/kernels too.
Also, there will be an efidroid server "store" where you can get tools and apps to run in efidroid. So devs can extend functionality. Also there will be an android installer to make everything easier.
Just think of this as a pimped out safestrap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't matter what negative comments you get because "Criticism Is The Key To Innovation" it's my personal quotation ...I've been visiting this thread since day one at minimum of three times a day hopping that you would have uploaded the zip...Make it quick buddy & keep up the good work :good:
We need a samsung expert. Getting the display to work in uefi is troublesome. DTSI and gcdb display experience is needed.
SaschaElble said:
We need a samsung expert. Getting the display to work in uefi is troublesome. DTSI and gcdb display experience is needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as far as my knowledge is concerned, Master @darkera13 is kinda expert you're looking for...I don't personally know him or his skills but people around note 3 forums praise his work very much
Is this Note 3 specific?
This is kinda an off topic question, but, just a few days ago i wanted to try Remix OS out in my PC, but noticed that there is no direct EFI support...just thinking if this thread would be any benefit for PC UEFI users trying to boot Android x86 directly through efi file.
sorry for the question, might be my knowledge limitation on the field...
Using a x64 cpu and grub or refind you can boot RemixOS, they have a uefi image on their site. (Thats what they said) Basically you really don't need efidroid for this, as it would only make it more complicated.
grub is exactly my problem...
thanks a lot for clarifying

Is there a Stock Kernel with Safetynet Patch?

I'm looking for a stock kernel that only patches Safetynet checking. Does this exist? If not, is it easy for me to "make it" myself?
I'm not sure if there's a prebuilt one, but building one yourself isn't too hard. The patch is at https://github.com/sultanxda/androi...bc05b16bbd33521c2fffaf491c5657a94bfcfc5.patch. You just follow the steps at http://source.android.com/source/building-kernels.html as usual with the following notes:
Use "kernel/msm" as the source location
Use "marlin_defconfig" as the build configuration
Apply the patch after running the git checkout command
Use the aarch64 prebuilts, not the arm ones
Cares said:
I'm looking for a stock kernel that only patches Safetynet checking. Does this exist? If not, is it easy for me to "make it" myself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depending on your motivation for a "stock kernel" you might try franco kernel. He doesn't seem to do anything that MIGHT introduce instability or strays very far from stock.
I can vouch for franco. He does minimal performance-only tweaks by default.
josephcsible said:
I'm not sure if there's a prebuilt one, but building one yourself isn't too hard. The patch is at https://github.com/sultanxda/androi...bc05b16bbd33521c2fffaf491c5657a94bfcfc5.patch. You just follow the steps at http://source.android.com/source/building-kernels.html as usual with the following notes:
Use "kernel/msm" as the source location
Use "marlin_defconfig" as the build configuration
Apply the patch after running the git checkout command
Use the aarch64 prebuilts, not the arm ones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey thanks for the tip. I went ahead and patched the no safetynet patch to the android-msm-marlin-3.18-nougat-mr1 kernel source and compiled it. I now have a Image.gz-dtb file which I zipped (I also just have a binary file named "Image"). What should I with those now, just flash those like I would one of the other kernels? And which file exactly? The gz file? or the just binary file named "Image"?
So essentially "fastboot flash kernel <file_name>"?
When I was compiling I got two warnings by the way:
drivers/soc/qcom/Kconfig:371:warning choice value used outside its choice group
drivers/soc/qcom/Kconfig:376:warning choice value used outside its choice group
Anything I should be concerned about? I've never done this before, but did a lot of reading before I went ahead and used to do some C coding back in the day, so it's not completely unknown to me.
Essentially, these are the steps I followed, after quickly installing Linux Mint:
Code:
Create a working directory in /home/$USER/ (I created /home/sakete/android)
Enter working directory
Download android kernal source
git clone https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/msm
Download prebuilt toolchain
git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/prebuilts/gcc/linux-x86/aarch64/aarch64-linux-android-4.9
cd aarch64-linux-android-4.9
export PATH=$(pwd)/prebuilts/gcc/linux-x86/aarch64/aarch64-linux-android-4.9
export CROSS_COMPILE=$(pwd)/bin/aarch64-linux-android-
export ARCH=arm64
export SUBARCH=arm64
Checkout specific kernel branch for Pixel/PixelXL (be in 'msm' folder)
git checkout android-msm-marlin-3.18-nougat-mr1
Get Safetynet Patch (still be in 'msm' folder)
git fetch https://github.com/sultanxda/android_kernel_oneplus_msm8996 cm-13.0-sultan
git cherry-pick abc05b16bbd33521c2fffaf491c5657a94bfcfc5
Build kernel (still be in 'msm' folder)
make clean
make mrproper
make marlin_defconfig
make -j$(grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo)
I initially got some build errors, but running this command solved it: sudo apt-get install build-essential
This is a useful link for those of you who are interested in doing this as well: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=69627576&postcount=7108
Hey if you can build it and post it here, that would be awesome. This is exactly what I'm looking for.
It will let me preemptively unlock my Verizon bootloader before flashing the latest OTA, while keeping Android Pay.
Has Google already posted the source for the 7.1.1 update kernel?
The source I pulled (android-msm-marlin-3.18-nougat-mr1) should be what's in the December update. It should be 7.1.1
Sakete said:
Hey thanks for the tip. I went ahead and patched the no safetynet patch to the android-msm-marlin-3.18-nougat-mr1 kernel source and compiled it. I now have a Image.gz-dtb file which I zipped (I also just have a binary file named "Image"). What should I with those now, just flash those like I would one of the other kernels? And which file exactly? The gz file? or the just binary file named "Image"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Image.gz-dtb file is the one you want.
Sakete said:
So essentially "fastboot flash kernel <file_name>"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never done it like that, but that's apparently how Franco's kernel installs, so it's worth a shot I guess. Another way of doing it is to unpack the stock boot image with either pbatard's unmkbootimg or osm0sis's Android Image Kitchen, replace its kernel with your Image.gz-dtb, then repack and flash the new boot.img to the boot partitions.
Sakete said:
When I was compiling I got two warnings by the way:
drivers/soc/qcom/Kconfig:371:warning choice value used outside its choice group
drivers/soc/qcom/Kconfig:376:warning choice value used outside its choice group
Anything I should be concerned about? I've never done this before, but did a lot of reading before I went ahead and used to do some C coding back in the day, so it's not completely unknown to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing you need to worry about.
josephcsible said:
The Image.gz-dtb file is the one you want.
I've never done it like that, but that's apparently how Franco's kernel installs, so it's worth a shot I guess. Another way of doing it is to unpack the stock boot image with either pbatard's unmkbootimg or osm0sis's Android Image Kitchen, replace its kernel with your Image.gz-dtb, then repack and flash the new boot.img to the boot partitions.
Nothing you need to worry about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, thanks, I'll try flashing the kernel tomorrow night and will post it if successful.
Interestingly it seems that Pixel (sailfish) and Pixel XL (marlin) use the same kernel / kernel source? There at least doesn't seem to be a sailfish specific source. Will be interesting to see how it pans out tomorrow.
Sakete said:
Interestingly it seems that Pixel (sailfish) and Pixel XL (marlin) use the same kernel / kernel source? There at least doesn't seem to be a sailfish specific source. Will be interesting to see how it pans out tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. The same kernel binary can run on both devices. (The ElementalX and Franco kernels don't even have separate builds for the two.)
Would you mind posting the image you built?
iPwn_ said:
Would you mind posting the image you built?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm at work now, will post it tonight.
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
Stock Kernel + SafetyNet Patch applied
Well holy crap, it actually worked! Just flashed the kernel, set up android pay no problem! And everything else works just fine too.
Attached is a zip.
Steps to install (make sure you have adb and fastboot set up):
- Download file and unzip
- Reboot into bootloader (power down, hold Power + Volume Down)
- Attach device to computer
- Enter command: fastboot flash kernel <kernel_image>
- Enter command: fastboot reboot
- Disconnect device and wait for it to finish booting. That's it!
You're my hero.
Might be a lot to ask, but it would be dope if you maintained where you update the build every month for Google's latest release.
iPwn_ said:
You're my hero.
Might be a lot to ask, but it would be dope if you maintained where you update the build every month for Google's latest release.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm creating a thread in the dev section.
Edit: thread is up.
Cares said:
I'm looking for a stock kernel that only patches Safetynet checking. Does this exist? If not, is it easy for me to "make it" myself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A bit late, but just for the record, ElementalX is just like stock with added features. If you don't use those features, you are essentially using the stock kernel.
I am thinking about going this route.. but I am not sure the process to flash a custom kernel on my Pixel.. would anyone be able to walk me through it? thanks!

64 Bit OS Development

Edit 25/10/2020: OK its been a while guys, if you want to try a ROM I'd highly recommend following LineageOS's wiki for instructions. Then if u want to try other ROMs keep an eye out in these forums, ill have a build up every now and then. See ya around guys
==========================================================================================
Rather than having random comments in random parts of the forum here is a thread for everything 64 bit on G7 Play.
CURRENT STATUS
WE DID IT!!!! CHECK SyberHexen's ANDROIDFILEHOST FOR DOWNLOAD!
OLD POST ARCHIVED BELOW
And here is what is available so far:
A nice selection of ROMs for the other G7's, but they dont actually boot on the Play, although should do something in theory
postmarketOS is aarch64, but that is mobile linux, and no phone interface works (x.org doesnt work with the current drivers)
Here is what I've tried:
crDroid from ocean:
I got it to install by: repartitioning device using ocean gpt.bin
Then flashing stock rom from channel
Booting TWRP
Flashing ROM, with modified zip accepting channel
Doesnt boot
Also tried a flash using ocean firmware completely, doesn't boot, but got the logos and bootloader works lol
If anyone has any tips or progress drop it here, eta kids go away. Read the status above if you want the up-to-date answer
00p513 said:
Rather than having random comments in random parts of the forum here is a thread for everything 64 bit on G7 Play.
CURRENT STATUS
NO 64-BIT ANDROID ROM AVAILABLE
And here is what is available so far:
A nice selection of ROMs for the other G7's, but they dont actually boot on the Play, although should do something in theory
postmarketOS is aarch64, but that is mobile linux, and no phone interface works (x.org doesnt work with the current drivers)
Here is what I've tried:
crDroid from ocean:
I got it to install by: repartitioning device using ocean gpt.bin
Then flashing stock rom from channel
Booting TWRP
Flashing ROM, with modified zip accepting channel
Doesnt boot
Also tried a flash using ocean firmware completely, doesn't boot, but got the logos and bootloader works lol
If anyone has any tips or progress drop it here, eta kids go away. Read the status above if you want the up-to-date answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to compile the kernel from source and use a 64bit gsi and flash a 64 bit vendor partition I'm pretty sure everythi
---------- Post added at 04:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:42 AM ----------
00p513 said:
Rather than having random comments in random parts of the forum here is a thread for everything 64 bit on G7 Play.
CURRENT STATUS
NO 64-BIT ANDROID ROM AVAILABLE
And here is what is available so far:
A nice selection of ROMs for the other G7's, but they dont actually boot on the Play, although should do something in theory
postmarketOS is aarch64, but that is mobile linux, and no phone interface works (x.org doesnt work with the current drivers)
Here is what I've tried:
crDroid from ocean:
I got it to install by: repartitioning device using ocean gpt.bin
Then flashing stock rom from channel
Booting TWRP
Flashing ROM, with modified zip accepting channel
Doesnt boot
Also tried a flash using ocean firmware completely, doesn't boot, but got the logos and bootloader works lol
If anyone has any tips or progress drop it here, eta kids go away. Read the status above if you want the up-to-date answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to compile the kernel from source and use a 64bit gsi and flash a 64 bit vendor partition I'm pretty sure everything else will work fine. I'm working on getting a new dev environment set up I'll give it a shot... This phone is reeeeealy under developed. Proly cause the g6 play is a way better phone and much cheaper to boot
mrsurge said:
You have to compile the kernel from source and use a 64bit gsi and flash a 64 bit vendor partition I'm pretty sure everythi
---------- Post added at 04:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:42 AM ----------
You have to compile the kernel from source and use a 64bit gsi and flash a 64 bit vendor partition I'm pretty sure everything else will work fine. I'm working on getting a new dev environment set up I'll give it a shot... This phone is reeeeealy under developed. Proly cause the g6 play is a way better phone and much cheaper to boot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We have a 64-bit kernel and 64-bit Lineage OS testing builds but porting 64-bit vendor partition for it to flash in g7 play hasn't been achieved yet.
kD said:
We have a 64-bit kernel and 64-bit Lineage OS testing builds but porting 64-bit vendor partition for it to flash in g7 play hasn't been achieved yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think maybe you can just pick out driver binaries from 64 bit /vendor and use all the configs scripts and frameworks from the original vendor
Try backing up/vendor pieceing the drivers from another device of the same model but diff carrier and a combo as such would work. If not mistaken the. Vendor from the Verizon g6 play worked for sprint except data and wifi or radio in general didn't work.. that's a start right there
I think the modem is going to be the same architecture no matter what so you wouldn't have to worry to much about that
64bit Test
Okay so this sh*t probably totally won't boot up at all, but if someone is feeling brave, you can test this out.
1. From your active slot, with root access, you'll need to dd these images to the correct partitions. It's easiest to do this from the internal sdcard using termux. Use the following as a template. These commands assume you're installing it to slot b.
Code:
su
dd if=/sdcard/boot64.img of=/dev/block/by-name/boot_b
dd if=/sdcard/dtbo64.img of=/dev/block/by-name/dtbo_b
dd if=/sdcard/vendor64.img of=/dev/block/by-name/vendor_b
dd if=/sdcard/oem64.img of=/dev/block/by-name/oem_b
2. Reboot into fastboot, swap active slots, and wipe userdata + DDR. Then flash an arm64 AB GSI. I'd recommend trying Phh's AOSP Vanilla to maximize the chances of success.
To swap slots and wipe user data...
Code:
fastboot --set-active=_b
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase DDR
3. Reboot system, and tell me what happens.
**Do NOT attempt to use TWRP with this. You'll probably have to reflash stock firmware to the slot you tampered with to get everything back to normal afterwards.**
Link: 64bit Folder
This is not source built, and it's very much a hack job, so I'm really not expecting anything to work. I did get Ubuntu installed this morning, so I will attempt to build from source in the near future.
Please don't use this if you don't know what a "brick" is or how to recover from one
PS: it probably wont work cause vendor is twice the size xD
The G7 play is coming so far little by little it was like yesterday we never thought we would have twrp and magisk and now in fact we do on a GSI
([emoji88]Havoc GSI[emoji88])
00p513 said:
PS: it probably wont work cause vendor is twice the size xD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct. She's way too hefty. It's ~164mb too large. I tried resizing last night, but I can only shrink it to 433mb. I can probably remove the modem files and replace them with the ones from stock. I think it's where most of the extra weight is from. The 64bit libs are about 1.5x bigger, but I don't think that accounts for all of it. The Muppets have a tree for sdm632, so all I need to do is look at it, and delete everything in vendor that's not in there. It should help but I'm not sure if it'll be enough. I could repartition it, but I'm not a fan of resizing partitions because I'm very fearful of bricks.
Spaceminer said:
You are correct. She's way too hefty. It's ~164mb too large. I tried resizing last night, but I can only shrink it to 433mb. I can probably remove the modem files and replace them with the ones from stock. I think it's where most of the extra weight is from. The 64bit libs are about 1.5x bigger, but I don't think that accounts for all of it. The Muppets have a tree for sdm632, so all I need to do is look at it, and delete everything in vendor that's not in there. It should help but I'm not sure if it'll be enough. I could repartition it, but I'm not a fan of resizing partitions because I'm very fearful of bricks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can get a bit more space with an ocean gpt.bin btw. i suppose we could see how those files work i guess and make a bigger vendor?
00p513 said:
I can get a bit more space with an ocean gpt.bin btw. i suppose we could see how those files work i guess and make a bigger vendor?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you flashed the gpt.bin from ocean before? If so I'll definitely try using that with the slightly smaller vendor I made. I'm thinking most things from Ocean should work natively. The only difference is screen size by a few pixels, ram, and battery capacity. Otherwise they're essentially the same.
Spaceminer said:
Have you flashed the gpt.bin from ocean before? If so I'll definitely try using that with the slightly smaller vendor I made. I'm thinking most things from Ocean should work natively. The only difference is screen size by a few pixels, ram, and battery capacity. Otherwise they're essentially the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah i use channel firmware extracted, then i use motoflash2sh to generate a bashscript from the flashfile. I then replace gpt .bin and remove it from the md5 checks at the beginning of the script. run the script and im repartitioned!
00p513 said:
yeah i use channel firmware extracted, then i use motoflash2sh to generate a bashscript from the flashfile. I then replace gpt .bin and remove it from the md5 checks at the beginning of the script. run the script and im repartitioned!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's awesome! I'll try working with this.
Spaceminer said:
That's awesome! I'll try working with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ill send a repartition kit later. just unzip and run the script
00p513 said:
ill send a repartition kit later. just unzip and run the script
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already found it. So I'd just remove 61863ba7dac0c512d610ffa6406a50f8 and it'll flash correct?
Code:
md5sum --check <<EOF || exit 1
[B]61863ba7dac0c512d610ffa6406a50f8[/B] *gpt.bin
Spaceminer said:
I already found it. So I'd just remove 61863ba7dac0c512d610ffa6406a50f8 and it'll flash correct?
Code:
md5sum --check <<EOF || exit 1
[B]61863ba7dac0c512d610ffa6406a50f8[/B] *gpt.bin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that whole line needs deleting. That is just to stop it failing on md5 verification ,as it is a dfiferent file
Spaceminer said:
I already found it. So I'd just remove 61863ba7dac0c512d610ffa6406a50f8 and it'll flash correct?
Code:
md5sum --check <<EOF || exit 1
[B]61863ba7dac0c512d610ffa6406a50f8[/B] *gpt.bin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did it work? Any update on the vendor image?
00p513 said:
Did it work? Any update on the vendor image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried it yet. I got side tracked compiling twrp. I'm 3 errors away from success. Something about unknown compiler flags.
As an FYI, I'm out of a computer for the next several months, possibly up to a year. I'm going through a nasty divorce at the moment, and that's all I'm going to say about that. I'll get back into the game as soon as I can, but for now, you should not expect me to put out anything new for quite awhile. I can and will help people as much as possible during this time. But my ability to do so is going to be hindered without an PC.
I'm sorry to hear that. My divorce lasts since two years.
However, that's not why I registered. I received a Moto G7 Play for app security testing just a few days ago and found this forum when trying to install GSI to the phone. Everything works fine, but I'm interested to upgrade the OS to 64bit. Therefore, I'd like to try out the work already present in this thread. Unfortunately, I have neither found the repartition kit nor gained enough information about gpt.bin file format yet in order to repartition the flash memory of the G7 Play.
I'd really appreciate if anybody could either post or send me the repartition kit or supply information about the partition table format, because I failed to google for that kind of information.
[edit] Ok, I found out how to change partition size to the size of ocean. I flashed the following images:
* Partition table from ocean
* Everything else except system_a from channel
* system_a from phh (binder64)
Everything worked just fine.
Then I proceeded to flash the files posted in this thread earlier. The vendor64.img fits into the new partition layout just fine. After flashing all 4 files, I proceeded to flash phh 64bit version. Then I rebooted, but the boot failed:
First, the device showed up some very long hexadecimal number (maybe some UUID?) on a black screen, where it had shown "bad key" before when everything went right.
Afterwards, it ran into fastboot:
Start Up Failed:
Your device didn't start up successfully.
Use Software Repair Assistant on computer to repair your device.
Connect your device to your computer to get the Software Repair Assistant.
AP Fastboot Flash Mode (Secure)
Failed to verify hab image boot_a
Error: failed to load kernel!
No bootable A/B slot
Failed to boot Linux,falling back to fastboot
Fastboot Reason: Fall-through from normal boot mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I'm back on binder64 again.
Please, could you provide any help for fixing the images, or at least the information how you have built the 64bit images?

I have obtained the stock firmware for my device, how hard would it be to build generic android?

Hi, I just registered today to ask this question. Through somewhat simple means using the tools I had available, I was able to readback the stock rom from a TCL 20 XE 5087Z branded under Boost Mobile. I have successfully rooted via magisk and have confirmed that it is indeed the correct stock firmware through a bit of an accident, I forgot to patch vbmeta when flashing magisk_patched_boot.img, so in a panic, I flashed back all the roms I had read back from the device except userdata, and miraculously the device worked! Now the problem I run into is all the bloatware the carrier has installed on the phone. My main reason for rooting my device was I wanted the ability to prevent apps from being killed by the "Smart" manager on the device, because it seems that important apps keep getting killed by the built-in software. I ended up determining that the ram manager on the phone was killing apps based on the amount of ram available. Now that the phone is rooted, you would think I would have no problem getting rid of all the bloatware, except that whenever I forcefully uninstall the ram manager (com.tct.onetouchbooster), the app is still available on my apps menu and clicking on it with pretty much no delay opens the app right up as if the data had just been cleared. Now I have no idea what is causing this, probably another app, but I was wondering if maybe an easier alternative would be to get a generic android image for the device without bloatware that I can install just what I need. Now I say easier, but I find little documentation on how to do this, better yet if it will work. I have limited knowledge of how the android system works, mainly I just understand that /boot contains the bootloader, /system contains the os, and /userdata contains all the extra data apart from the stock image. If someone would enlighten me, would it actually be easier to build a generic image? Are there tools to do this? I understand that firmware is very touchy and that there is no "Generic" image in the sense, but having my stock rom available, would I be able to somehow generate a generic image based on the rom contents? If this would be way harder, how would I go about removing bloatware? I would not want to have to reset my phone each time I uninstall the wrong application, is there a non-data-damaging way to go about removing bloatware? If it ends up not being bloatware that is causing it and some hidden property somewhere in the stock rom config, how hard would it be to find that? Any help would be appreciated, and I am open to any comments and criticism. Please let me know how I might go about this, thanks in advance!
The stock firmware for this device can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q5IDP8V7PvuH2_1z63IFe23O2DF0cXZR/view?usp=sharing
The phone was bought from Walmart with prepaid Boost Mobile and it is a TCL 20 XE 5087Z with a MT6765 processor.
The password for the file is: xda5087Z-MT6765
Is the phone Project Treble enabled? If not don't waste your time.
A GSI is related to Project Treble, which means that the image can be installed on any Project Treble-supported device, regardless of the manufacturer, because it does not contain any hardware-specific components. The advantage is that a GSI can theoretically be used on any Project Treble-supported device.
xXx yYy said:
Is the phone Project Treble enabled? If not don't waste your time.
A GSI is related to Project Treble, which means that the image can be installed on any Project Treble-supported device, regardless of the manufacturer, because it does not contain any hardware-specific components. The advantage is that a GSI can theoretically be used on any Project Treble-supported device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded the treble info app from the play store and indeed it is available with treble, the system image i need is system-arm64-ab.img.xz, would you mind pointing me in the right direction for how to install this? I'm assuming this just gets installed in the /system partition but let me know if I'm wrong. Thanks!
Can't help you, never did this.
You may look inside here:
[GUIDE] How to build a Project Treble GSI ROM from source? [31/08]
Hello guys, in this guide I'll try to simplify building Treble GSI process. As you read this guide now I'll assume you already have a previous knowledge about How to build android from source, so I won't cover some points with too many basic...
forum.xda-developers.com
Yes, only flash system.img. I recommend Android 10 (Android 11+ introduced restricted permissions)
[DISCONTINUED][GSI][10] LineageOS 17.x GSI (all archs)
Background: This is a natural continuation/extension of the LineageOS 16.0 GSIs I've been making since March 2019. If you clicked in here, I bet you know what LineageOS is already, but just to fill the blank: LineageOS is a free, community built...
forum.xda-developers.com
alecxs said:
Yes, only flash system.img. I recommend Android 10 (Android 11+ introduced restricted permissions)
[DISCONTINUED][GSI][10] LineageOS 17.x GSI (all archs)
Background: This is a natural continuation/extension of the LineageOS 16.0 GSIs I've been making since March 2019. If you clicked in here, I bet you know what LineageOS is already, but just to fill the blank: LineageOS is a free, community built...
forum.xda-developers.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DO NOT DO THIS!!!! The TCL 20 XE is NOT compatible with Android 10 (it only supports something 30, which corresponds to Android 11), and the device will bootloop. I have made this mistake but I can not reach fastboot as the option is not in the recovery, therefore I need to run "adb reboot fastboot" within Android. MTKClient should fix this if you can find a stock super.img file for the 5087z.
note "adb reboot fastboot" is for fastbootd which is in recovery, while "adb reboot bootloader" is for fastboot (you can always enter from Volume button, regardless of destroyed boot/system partition)
boot-loop is probably caused by dm-verity, you forgot vbmeta?
alecxs said:
note "adb reboot fastboot" is for fastbootd which is in recovery, while "adb reboot bootloader" is for fastboot (you can always enter from Volume button, regardless of destroyed boot/system partition)
boot-loop is probably caused by dm-verity, you forgot vbmeta?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fastbootd doesn't have an option in the recovery on my model, I've seen other TCL 20 XE phones have it though (I have the Boost Mobile varient like the thread maker), however Fastbootd let's me boot into recovery. I was only able to flash the stock ROM with MTKClient, which mikedcoombs thankfully provided (I just needed the super partition). For vbmeta, I just have an empty vbmeta that I flashed when I first rooted the phone. I don't think it is dm-verity, because LineageOS 20 as an GSI worked except for the Wi-Fi.

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