Help with a allwinner a64 tablet... - General Questions and Answers

Help with a allwinner a64 tablet... - General Questions and Answers

So, I have a tablet that has a allwinner a64, same SoC in the pine phone and some SBCs.
My first plan was run any Linux distro, but I have no idea of how to do this
Then, I tried to make a TWRP img, no success...
And now I'm trying to modify it's system img but I can't find a way to unpack it's "system.fex".
It has android 8, and yes, I tried GSIs, but it won't boot any.
The only " important " thing that I did was root it with magisk and remove google stuff, because it was just making the tablet slow.

Mateus Lima133113 said:
So, I have a tablet that has a allwinner a64, same SoC in the pine phone and some SBCs.
My first plan was run any Linux distro, but I have no idea of how to do this
Then, I tried to make a TWRP img, no success...
And now I'm trying to modify it's system img but I can't find a way to unpack it's "system.fex".
It has android 8, and yes, I tried GSIs, but it won't boot any.
The only " important " thing that I did was root it with magisk and remove google stuff, because it was just making the tablet slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
check if it supports project treble

Related

Treble-Enabled Device Questions and Answers

Good morning everyone, I need help with my stf tablet block 10.1, I am in version , 8.1, from there I have tried by all means, twrp, adb, side load, dirty load, flashing by MsmDownloadTool, to update to android 9.0 or higher, but when the updates finish successfully, the phone starts with the screen on but does not give any image, nor by restarting the screen it loads, it looks illuminated, but nothing else, I think the solution may be in the Information from the Treble Info application that I downloaded and says: 1- Treble and VNDK, your device supports the legacy version of the Treble project using VNDK version 27.0
2- System as Root, Your device does not support System as Root. Use an A-only operating system.
3- Architecture, Your device is ARM32.
4- Background updates, Background updates are not supported. Your device must go into recovery mode to install updates, and there is a high risk of failure compared to devices that support background updates.
he truth is my first time that I try to update android, they will have some tutorial or info to be able to change my android successfully

soyputito said:
Good morning everyone, I need help with my stf tablet block 10.1, I am in version , 8.1, from there I have tried by all means, twrp, adb, side load, dirty load, flashing by MsmDownloadTool, to update to android 9.0 or higher, but when the updates finish successfully, the phone starts with the screen on but does not give any image, nor by restarting the screen it loads, it looks illuminated, but nothing else, I think the solution may be in the Information from the Treble Info application that I downloaded and says: 1- Treble and VNDK, your device supports the legacy version of the Treble project using VNDK version 27.0
2- System as Root, Your device does not support System as Root. Use an A-only operating system.
3- Architecture, Your device is ARM32.
4- Background updates, Background updates are not supported. Your device must go into recovery mode to install updates, and there is a high risk of failure compared to devices that support background updates.
he truth is my first time that I try to update android, they will have some tutorial or info to be able to change my android successfully
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fastboot Type fastboot oem unlock.
then extract this once with 7zip (search 7zip on Google)
https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/releases/download/v300.m/system-roar-arm-aonly-vanilla.img.xz
then move the extracted .img file to C drive not under any sub folders.
then
fastboot flash system C:\system-roar-arm-aonly-vanilla.img
then fastboot reboot

Question Many questions from a total Android newbie

Hi,
Although I passed my 40 I just bought my first smartphone a few week ago. It’s a Doogee S96Pro. As somebody who like to understand how it works, I already learn a few thing on the Android ecosystem.
I’ve been able to activate the developer mode and to use adb to uninstall some apps. I also managed to boot in fastboot mode to unlock the phone.
My first attempt at flashing was a fail, the phone was rebooting in a loop, indicating "Red state". I guess I should have never "fastboot flash boot/recovery foo.img" if "fastboot boot foo.img" didn’t work? What’s your opinion on this?
The Doogee support sent me a link to the files for my phone. In fact someone on this forum has had already posted it. The two archives are named :
S9S88A7.DGE.DOOGEE.EEA.HB.HJ.AYYDVFAZ.1130.V3.02.zip
S9S88A7.DGE.DOOGEE.HB.HJ.AYYDVFAZ.1203.V3.04.zip
To make the phone boot again I flashed the boot partition with the boot.img file I found in the second archive. If I understood what I read, the file with "EEA" in it’s name is the "European version" while the other one is the "Global version".
Although I flashed with the boot.img that was in S9S88A7.DGE.DOOGEE.HB.HJ.AYYDVFAZ.1203.V3.04.zip, if I go to the update info (About the phone > Update), I can see the string S9S88A7.DGE.DOOGEE.EEA.HB.HJ.AYYDVFAZ.0128.V3.03_20210128-1612. I don’t understand why this difference (v3.03 vs. v3.04).
Then I used the Magisk Manager to patch this boot.img file and flash it again. I now have root access on the phone which is nice.
Now the questions!
When booting the phone says: “Orange state, your phone’s unlocked”, then it boots normally. What’s the implication of this? I’m not sure but I think I tried to lock it again (fastboot flashing lock) but the message remains. Does it sound possible to you? I should check again this point…
In the Magisk Manager I also tried the "SafetyNet" check, which is refused. Is it OK? What does it imply? Why would I need to pass this SafetyNet test for?
I’m not sure I understood how the recovery thing works… I understand it’s another partition than "boot", and I know I can boot on it using the boot menu (pressing volume up when turning on the phone). What I don’t know is if it starts a recovering of the system automatically when booting on this partition (then erasing all data on the phone), or not.
Let’s say I flash the boot.img on the recovery partition (fastboot flash recovery boot.img). If I do a normal boot it should boot as usual, but if I boot on recovery it would boot on a virgin system. Am I right? Let says I configure nothing and reboot again, a normal boot this time. I then should get back to my usual, already configured system, as the "boot" partition hasn’t been modified. Is this also right?
Before doing anymore tests I would like to be able to backup an image with the phone already configured, with data and root access and applications. One (or maybe two or three?) file I can keep on my computer, and in case I break the boot on the phone, I could just fastboot flash boot my_custom_image.img to recover my phone configured. Oy maybe also flashing a "userdata" partition? Would I need some other partition? Is it more complicated than that?
It seems I have to identify the right partition(s) and carefully use dd to dump the partition to an image file… Before trying to do so I’d like to have some advice, hence this post!
Also. I read about a software called TWPR. Should I use it, and why ? I understand it’s a system aimed to be flashed on the recovery partition, is it right? What’s its use?
Finally I read about LineageOS which is the ultimate customization for the phone, it’s a “pure” Android, which is totally opensource (but it has to uses a lot of proprietary blob for devices AFAIK). I don’t think I’ll get there anyway. If I’m not mistaken it’s hard to do, especially with new phones nobody has ran LineageOS on, and there is something like no probability all the devices would work anyway.
Have a nice day.

there's no implication when you see "Orange state, your phone’s unlocked” unless you didn't the one who did it that means your device is tampered ..
also on SafetyNet is broad topic you can learn what it is here https://www.didgeridoohan.com/magisk/MagiskHideSafetyNet also
"Why would I need to pass this SafetyNet test for?" there are multiple reason such as you can't install banking apps,netflix, ...etc nor download them via playstore
moving on it is not recommend to backup userdata partition since it just contain all contains evidence of user activity. It contains call and SMS records, contacts, user-installed apps, app data, settings, and so-on-and-so-forth. In most newer phones, it also is likely to contain photos and videos and other user-generated files unless an external SD card is present. Also it would be impossible to restore userdata partition since android is encrypting it with unique key every time you set up your device https://source.android.com/security/encryption/full-disk
this prevent rooted application crawling on other application data such as paypal just stealing your login info and money
TWRP is like recovery mode but more feature packed (you can backup partition with it not available on stock recovery)
also experience is the best teacher you must experience failure to improve

ineedroot69 said:
Also it would be impossible to restore userdata partition since android is encrypting it with unique key every time you set up your device https://source.android.com/security/encryption/full-disk
this prevent rooted application crawling on other application data such as paypal just stealing your login info and money
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With a simple ADB command you can decrypt Android partitions:
Code:
adb shell "recovery --set_encrypted_filesystem=on|off" <- enables / diasables encrypted fs

Hi,
Many thx for your answers.
also experience is the best teacher you must experience failure to improve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm that. I accidentally uninstalled the stock launcher with ADB. I’ve been able to install another launcher (I think I’ll keep on Nova Launcher). I tested a few (Launcher<3 and KISS Launcher), although they work fine none of them support switching between running apps. It’s a little bit annoying but I have another way to stop running apps (with App Manager). I guess the only way to get this functionality back is to flash again the boot partition with the Magisk patched image I already used, and to re-configure all the phone again (this is good to learn and luckily I don’t have important data in the phone yet).
Also it would be impossible to restore userdata partition since android is encrypting it with unique key every time you set up your device https://source.android.com/security/encryption/full-disk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn’t be possible to dump both boot and userdata partitions and then flash them back both “at once”. The key for encrypting/decrypting the user data being contains in the boot (system ?) partition?
I realize Android has a bunch of security configuration you rarely find on a Linux server. Also the hardware is full of devices which require close-source firmware to operate. This is definitively not a good platform for hacking, like most PC are or a Rasberry Pi is . And I bet Windows and Apple phones are evermore closed…
About encrypting, I have a file called "googlekey/kb_0000000000.bin", which is the same in two archives the support sent me
$ md5sum S9S88A7.DGE.DOOGEE.*/googlekey/kb*
ead8a1d0f11e5f12bdda0f7a22935c2b S9S88A7.DGE.DOOGEE.EEA.HB.HJ.AYYDVFAZ.1130.V3.02/googlekey/kb_0000000000.bin
ead8a1d0f11e5f12bdda0f7a22935c2b S9S88A7.DGE.DOOGEE.HB.HJ.AYYDVFAZ.1203.V3.04/googlekey/kb_0000000000.bin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This file is not “per device” knowing every S96Pro users get the same archives. What’s its purpose?
I wonder the same for many files in this archive but I won’t bother you, I’ll make some search.
The one thing I’d like to understand is why the archive is labelled "1203.V3.04" and the system on my phone (after I flashed the boot partition with (a Magisk patched made from) the boot.img in this archive says : "0128.V3.03_20210128". Could it be related to the Magisk patching? (I didn’t check what I had with the stock boot.img). Or I have been downgraded by Google during install?
With a simple ADB command you can decrypt Android partitions:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx for this. What does it imply to do so? Will the Android system run with this unencrypted data partition? Is there a way to encrypt it again? (With ADB or directly in the phone?)
I’ve seen there are dozens of partitions on a running Android. So far this is what I understood (is this correct?) : There are three important partitions : boot, recovery and userdata. "boot" et "recovery" are the only ones the device can boot on (except booting from an image in fastboot mode using "fastboot boot boot.img"?). Are they some other important partitions this is important to be aware of?
Having a bootable "boot" and a bootable "recovery" partitions, it should be possible to install two different Android OS? I guess this is not possible and the "recovery" partition is dedicated to recovering (ie: reinstall the system) but I don’t understand how and why exactly. The encrypting thing maybe? The system must have a userdata partition and this one can’t be shared between to system…
I think I should buy an older Android smartphone to make all that kind of test, especially knowing I don’t have any other phone I can use for everyday use… Do you have some advice on brands and models which are more friendly with customization of the system?
Apart of ADB and fastboot, what are the other important tools to know about?
For Android development (I mean development of apps for Android), does everyone use an emulator? What’s the best option for such an emulator on Linux?
Have a nice day.

Marotte said:
For Android development (I mean development of apps for Android), does everyone use an emulator? What’s the best option for such an emulator on Linux?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My recommendation is GenyMotion for Linux. This emulator requires VirtualBox for Linux gets installed before.
Install GenyMotion
How To Install GenyMotion (Android Emulator) On Linux | 2DayGeek
2daygeek.com Linux Tips, Tricks & News today :- How to Install GenyMotion (Android Emulator) on Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, openSUSE, Arch Linux, Fedora, CentOS, RHEL, Mageia, Manjaro
www.2daygeek.com
DL VirtualBox
Linux_Downloads – Oracle VM VirtualBox
www.virtualbox.org

Marotte said:
Having a bootable "boot" and a bootable "recovery" partitions, it should be possible to install two different Android OS? I guess this is not possible and the "recovery" partition is dedicated to recovering (ie: reinstall the system) but I don’t understand how and why exactly. The encrypting thing maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Partitions /boot & /recovery explained:
/boot
This is the partition that enables the phone to boot, as the name suggests. It includes the kernel and the ramdisk. Without this partition, the device will simply not be able to boot.
/recovery
The recovery partition can be considered as an alternative boot partition that lets you boot the device into a recovery console for performing advanced recovery and maintenance operations on it.
That's what you can do from within the recovery console:
Reboot system now
Install ZIP from SD-card
Install ZIP from Sideload
Wipe data / factory reset
Wipe cache partition
Backup and restore

Boot into Debian or Arch possible on Smartphone? Universal Image for most Devices?

Hello Community!
I am asking myself it is possibe to direkt boot a debian ARM Port or ARCH Linux ARM Port (maybe from SD Card) on my Smartphone? I saw lots of videos booting a Linux on Top of Android but i would like to "natively" run a OS. Where a Custom ROM typically has drivers for a special type of device i am thinking if a very generel distribution could detect most of the devices hardware...
Any Ideas if this would be possible?

AFAIK it's not possible.

Can you give me a (detailled) hint why you think this would not work?
When reading the informations: https://archlinuxarm.org/about/downloads
The released downloads are designed for the specific systems above; however, our package repositories work with any ARM device compatible with ARMv5, ARMv6, ARMv7-a, or ARMv8-a AArch64 instructions.

In TWRP i can select Storage - maybe starting from TWRP command line a image start from SD Card would be possible?

You initially said your goal is to completely replace Android by Linux ( ARCH Linux - what is for tablets only ) on a smartphone, IIRC.
Now you say you want to run Linux ( ARCH Linux ) on top of Android. Confused ...

hello! i meant that my smartphone can start the TWRP bootloader and from there the boot process could be (maybe) handed over to an image at the SD card....
thats the idea... ;-)

TWRP is a Custom Recovery means a restricted Android OS ( like Windows RE for Windows machines), not a bootloader ( what is comparable to UEFI / BIOS on Windows machines ).
The Android bootloader starts the recovery mode and the kernel, which then starts the operating system of your smartphone.

[Firefly] [ROCKCHIP] 3.5-Month UPDATE: Firefly ITX-3588J (Rockchip RK3588) "Deskphone" WORKS! Almost.

After 3.5 months of trial and error, unresponsive communities, ups and down, spending $75 on a video card that may be proving unnecessary ... I finally present to you - an almost fully-working Firefly ITX-3588J Dual-Boot Android/Linux ARM Machine.
WHAT IS IT?
The Firefly ITX-3588J is a Mini-ITX - small PC form-factor - "single-board computer" that was released earlier this year by the Chinese manufacturer Firefly, aka. T-Chip Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd.. It features the Rockchip RK3588 (hence the name) ARM system-on-chip (SoC) in a package that adduces many different kinds of ports including a PCI Express x4 slot, multiple HDMI video outs that go to the on-chip Mali GPU, and an M.2 that can be used in theory to add a telephone network card, making it a mini-desktop and smartphone all in one.
I got one because I saw it as an opportunity to for once have an easily-transportable low-energy consumption system that would be both an alternative to x86 and also not the Mac while still offering reasonable performance even if far from top-of-the-line - and ideally, it'd be great if more such boards come later because other ARM SBC boards tend to be both more limited and also very awkward with their cables. This is the only one I'm aware of, besides certain Raspberry Pi breakout boards like the Turing Pi, that can use a standard PC case.
But getting it to work, on the other hand, proved to be MUCH more diifficult because while the vendors offered a choice between Android 12 and Ubuntu 20.04 operating systems, I realized I needed both: I wanted access to both software ecosystems on the same machine, and was determined to get that to happen. And I want to say that within the last few days I have finally come quite close to achieving this dream in full.
WHAT DOES IT DO NOW?
Right now, the machine dual-boots Android 12 and Ubuntu 20.04 using the vendor-provided patched 5.10.66 Linux kernel source tree, with the user-space data of both OSes stored on a SATA SSD hard disk instead of the embedded eMMC. Boot selection is possible on startup simply by hitting "Ctrl+C" and typing the appropriate command to select the Ubuntu OS; otherwise, Android 12 boots by default. All this happens by video console on U-Boot with no serial port requirement, making it function as a proper stand-alone dual-boot ARM PC.
WHAT IS STILL TO BE DONE?
Graphics support on Ubuntu 20.04. No idea why this isn't working even with the provided kernel and driver packages. Text console over monitor works fine, though.
WHAT DID IT TAKE TO MAKE IT GO?
In retrospect, it's not really all that difficult. The most difficult part was just figuring everything out because there was very little comprehensive documentation given beyond how to simply load the images, and I had before this point zero real experience actually piecing together an Android system on a mobile/embedded-style board and machine. One thing that's a casualty is the stock Ubuntu image; it turned out to be much more fruitful to simply install the system to the hard drive via a procedure analogous to, albeit having to be arranged manually, what a typical installer would do, i.e. setting up and using APT to load the whole Ubuntu system from the Internet over wi-fi with the only vendor-adulterated component being the kernel and Mali graphics drivers because Valhall, nor even the whole RK3588, is currently mainlined in the Linux kernel system.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
The machine:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Running Android:
Ubuntu (no graphics yet!):

@Shimmy99 Would you please offer the procedure you used to make the board boot from SATA SSD?
That would be greatly apprecaited. I have a similar board and I have been interested in installing Android on a SATA SSD but the vendors don't respond to messages and there is very little information on their forum.
Thank you

qwestmogul2012 said:
@Shimmy99 Would you please offer the procedure you used to make the board boot from SATA SSD?
That would be greatly apprecaited. I have a similar board and I have been interested in installing Android on a SATA SSD but the vendors don't respond to messages and there is very little information on their forum.
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mmm. I don't have a direct boot from SSD possible yet. Getting it to this stage has required coding work on the provided U-Boot and I would share a source pack to my github but it will take more to get direct SATA boot because it crashes when the U-Boot is compiled with those config options enabled for some reason. My focus mostly was on getting graphical console on the U-Boot so that there is not need to use the serial debug simply to switch OSes ). The way it works currently is that the kernels for both Android and Ubuntu are loaded to the eMMC, then the userdata / rootfs are loaded to the SSD. That said, I could try to play with that for sure.

It would really be nice if there was an easy way to install OS on SSD drive,that would be a massive upgrade from the measly 128GB EMMC.
By the way I don't know if you have already figured this out but there is an easy way to install GAPPS without using the tedious method you used.
You simply patch boot.img with Magisk then use ADB to install it back to the unit. From there you can use Magisk to install Magisk GAPPS.
For the life of me I can't seem to figure out how to install GPS/GNSS drivers for Android. The stock firmwares provided by the vendor have GPS drivers but those stock firmware have 1920x1080 resolution whereas I want to use 3840x2160 screen.
One way of dealing with that is editing build.prop file in vendor folder which works but then the unit won't boot past boot screen when a patched boot.img is installed. so it is sort of catch 22.

qwestmogul2012 said:
It would really be nice if there was an easy way to install OS on SSD drive,that would be a massive upgrade from the measly 128GB EMMC.
By the way I don't know if you have already figured this out but there is an easy way to install GAPPS without using the tedious method you used.
You simply patch boot.img with Magisk then use ADB to install it back to the unit. From there you can use Magisk to install Magisk GAPPS.
For the life of me I can't seem to figure out how to install GPS/GNSS drivers for Android. The stock firmwares provided by the vendor have GPS drivers but those stock firmware have 1920x1080 resolution whereas I want to use 3840x2160 screen.
One way of dealing with that is editing build.prop file in vendor folder which works but then the unit won't boot past boot screen when a patched boot.img is installed. so it is sort of catch 22.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Yes. I am currently working on trying to build up a software system that will enable proper booting from SSD "due to popular demand" from here (basically trying to modify the provided "RK U-Boot" and/or combine it with GRUB), however my progress has been set back after having lost the FIQ serial debug converter for my board and needing to get a new one. Also, I didn't know about that trick with Magisk, thanks! And when you say "won't boot past boot screen", what do you mean? Do you have any logs from the USB or from the FIQ serial stream for when that happens?

After the patched boot file is loaded back into the unit using ADB,the unit simply shows Firefly logo,the screen goes black then it shows the same logo,it never goes past that logo.
In other words I want a unit that has a patched boot file so that I can root it with Magisk and also have 4K resolution which only attainable by editing the build.prop file.
The root that is already in the stock firmware is inadequate because they lack SU binaries and therefore most apps that require root permission don't work effectively.
I have no way of generating logs,I don't have a serial debugger.
My goal is to have a simple Android system that I can install in my car with 4K portable screens and GPS.
I have tried the Android radios being sold out there and don't meet my needs for a system that can use 4K screens.They are still stuck in 1920x1080 or below resolution,not to mention that they can't play 4K video files without stuttering or freezing. They also lack storage that can store those large files.

qwestmogul2012 said:
After the patched boot file is loaded back into the unit using ADB,the unit simply shows Firefly logo,the screen goes black then it shows the same logo,it never goes past that logo.
In other words I want a unit that has a patched boot file so that I can root it with Magisk and also have 4K resolution which only attainable by editing the build.prop file.
The root that is already in the stock firmware is inadequate because they lack SU binaries and therefore most apps that require root permission don't work effectively.
I have no way of generating logs,I don't have a serial debugger.
My goal is to have a simple Android system that I can install in my car with 4K portable screens and GPS.
I have tried the Android radios being sold out there and don't meet my needs for a system that can use 4K screens.They are still stuck in 1920x1080 or below resolution,not to mention that they can't play 4K video files without stuttering or freezing. They also lack storage that can store those large files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that is some really interesting use of this device. Are you able to capture anything via the debug serial interface? (TTL serial, port is called "DEBUG" on the board, it appears to be the preferred serial interface for this processor.) If you don't have a suitable TTL->USB converter, you might want to get one. It must be able to support 1500000 baud, though, so be careful to check. Firefly offers one, though I lost mine as I mentioned and I had to get another, though a different one so I can mount it permanently in the case and break out a back-of-the-case port.
If you can capture anything via the TTL serial line, that would be great. That should give you some idea of what it's choking on. Send me that just so I can think about it while I'm waiting on this.

I will definitely order one.I never thought I would hit such a roadblock.I have edited various kind of Android roms successfully.This one from Firefly though is something else.I suppose that is what happens when they make their work not open source.
By the way do you know how to unpack super.img? the unpack script provide does not recognize super.img even if I change the name to update.img

qwestmogul2012 said:
I will definitely order one.I never thought I would hit such a roadblock.I have edited various kind of Android roms successfully.This one from Firefly though is something else.I suppose that is what happens when they make their work not open source.
By the way do you know how to unpack super.img? the unpack script provide does not recognize super.img even if I change the name to update.img
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for not responding sooner but I was diligently cracking away at this thing VERY much actually ... !!!
Ah yes, I think though I'm pretty close to getting it to work; most of the work so far has been in trying just to figure out how everything works given documentation is scant and I had never, ever worked with Android or anything else at this level before!
Very little of the material is not opensource - some of the tools required to generate the rockchip images does not appear to be and there are some binary-blob kernel drivers, but a LOT more than one thinks is; you just have to ask Firefly for the "board SDK" and they will provide on request. Other than what I mentioned, the code in there is pretty much all licensed under GPL (hence why they have to give you that code, given they've made kernel modifications to support the RK3588 - apparently mainstream support is coming along but is still not primetime yet).
Nonetheless, I see you've unpacked the Android image ROM, so perhaps you already have that - if so, great. Hence let's get to it (note maybe you know some of this already but I also want to make this post useful for as many people as possible): super.img - which I'm actually playing with right now - is not Firefly magic, but is generic Android and has been mentioned before on this forum if you search for "super.img" here. It's a "super partition" that contains partitions.
Editing system.img inside super.img and flashing our modifications
I'm trying to modify my system.img (/system/build.prop) to include support for multi users. After struggling a lot, I've succeeded following your guide (that's an awesome work btw) to unpack, mount, modify, umount and repack super.img. Then...
forum.xda-developers.com
To unpack it you need to grab OTA Tools:
[GUIDE] OTA Tools LPUnpack
Please see this URL https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build.git/+/eec4a7cba4face3370acb6293ab357879920b467 and this for more information. Hi everyone. I'm surprised I havent seen a thread about ota tools yet and lpunpack. This zip file...
forum.xda-developers.com
and the way to do this is you should first use the program simg2img, which actually ships with Ubuntu as a package of the same name I believe. Suppose you're in the Linux terminal and working in the directory containing super.img. Create (if you haven't already) a directory to unpack it, e.g.
Code:
mkdir super_unpack
Then use simg2img to get a "raw" version:
Code:
simg2img super.img super.img.raw
then finally use the OTATools (replace the string "/path/to/otatools" with whatever, or put them on your PATH, or ...)
Code:
/path/to/otatools/lpunpack super.img.raw super_unpack/
and now you should have it fully unrolled into smaller .img files which will ACTUALLY mount. In particular, I needed this because product.img specifically seems to be the best place to load GApps into - they will both come up on first Android boot and they will be retained if you do an Android system reset ("reset to factory defaults").
Now REPACKING super.img ... that's the fun part!

I had actually managed to find the instructions to unpack the super.img and also managed to mount vendor.img which is where I wanted to make changes in modifying the build.prop file.
After repacking the super.img and flashing it using fastboot the Android did not boot.
I also managed to incorporate the super.img to a ROM but the Android did not boot as well.
My thinking is that Android 12 being a Dynamic partitioned rom does not allow any modification in the root system and that is why I have not had success making the Android boot.
It used to be so easy to do that on Android 10 but Android 11 and 12 are not.
Well,if someone manages to do it,I hope to understand how they did it.
As of now I am pretty much stuck with a vanilla rom which is very disconcerting considering how expensive the ITX-3588J is.
By the way I already have SDK which I have been using to make roms.
Please let me know if you manage to boot the Android using a repacked super.img
As always I am very grateful for your assistance. Happy Ney Year!

qwestmogul2012 said:
I had actually managed to find the instructions to unpack the super.img and also managed to mount vendor.img which is where I wanted to make changes in modifying the build.prop file.
After repacking the super.img and flashing it using fastboot the Android did not boot.
I also managed to incorporate the super.img to a ROM but the Android did not boot as well.
My thinking is that Android 12 being a Dynamic partitioned rom does not allow any modification in the root system and that is why I have not had success making the Android boot.
It used to be so easy to do that on Android 10 but Android 11 and 12 are not.
Well,if someone manages to do it,I hope to understand how they did it.
As of now I am pretty much stuck with a vanilla rom which is very disconcerting considering how expensive the ITX-3588J is.
By the way I already have SDK which I have been using to make roms.
Please let me know if you manage to boot the Android using a repacked super.img
As always I am very grateful for your assistance. Happy Ney Year!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I did not see any mention about build.prop, though maybe you dropped that on another thread that wasn't in my notifications anymore.
You say the "Android did not boot". Do you have a adb dump? Do you have a serial (UART) debug dump (i.e. through the FIQ port)? Also, how are you repacking super.img? It is a tricky process as I mentioned at the end.

I did mention build.prop editing on my second comment of this thread.I initially tried to use root explorer file manager,that did not work.Then attempted to pull file from the system using ADB,edited it on my computer then pushed the edited file back to the system.That did not work either.
That is when I resorted to trying to edit it by unpacking the super.img.
I am still waiting to receive USB SERIAL debugger.
As for how I unpacked and repacked the super.img I used the instructions on the thread on this link
Editing system.img inside super.img and flashing our modifications
I'm trying to modify my system.img (/system/build.prop) to include support for multi users. After struggling a lot, I've succeeded following your guide (that's an awesome work btw) to unpack, mount, modify, umount and repack super.img. Then...
forum.xda-developers.com

Maybe this helps: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/linux-porting-native-linux-to-galaxy-note9.3936077/
Somebody ported Linux to the Galaxy Note 9.

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.

Database Info

welcome