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[A510][Kernel]Development Questions

Hi Folks,
I already spent some years in customizing Linux kernels and in the last time I was already playing around with Android devices and the possibility they offer to boot customized kernel. Now, thanks to NoThrill, we have a working CWM and my interest rises again. I already compiled the Acer Kernel Sources but I got into trouble booting it. Few months ago, I did the same with a lenovo IdeaPad a1 and it should be possible on the A510 too to boot an outside kernel using the command fastboot boot kernel ramdisk.gz. Problem is, that it does download and boot the kernel - but then it returns to fastboot mode instead of booting android. First I thought, it may be due to kernel errors but it does the same if I am using the stock kernel or the boot.img provided by working ROMs. So my questions are:
Is there any possibility to test an experimental kernel without flashing it first? Do I understand correctly, that it is relatively safe to flash it to the boot partition as long as recovery keeps untouched?
What exactly does the (unexplained) command fastboot continue? I thought it may be used to continue booting process with a downloaded kernel, but unfortunately it seems like it does just the same like a normal reboot ...

Simply pack the kernel into a boot.img and flash it to the /boot partition. If something goes wrong, simply reboot into recovery and flash your original boot.img back. Recovery will always work because it uses its own kernel and therefor is independent of whatever kernel you flash to /boot.
A word of warning though: The Acer kernelsource contains code that could brick your tablet. That needs to be fixed before you experiment any further.
Nevertheless, any work done on the A510 kernel is always encouraged :good:

NoThrills said:
Simply pack the kernel into a boot.img and flash it to the /boot partition. If something goes wrong, simply reboot into recovery and flash your original boot.img back. Recovery will always work because it uses its own kernel and therefor is independent of whatever kernel you flash to /boot.
A word of warning though: The Acer kernelsource contains code that could brick your tablet. That needs to be fixed before you experiment any further.
Nevertheless, any work done on the A510 kernel is always encouraged :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
by the way, nothrills, did you set-up a git or something like that to share kernel mods and stuff like that ?

BENETNATH said:
by the way, nothrills, did you set-up a git or something like that to share kernel mods and stuff like that ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, no, because (call me stupid) I really have no clue how git works. I know how to get stuff from it, and used it alot, but never looked into actually setting something up or submitting patches.
I am very ashamed

NoThrills said:
Actually, no, because (call me stupid) I really have no clue how git works. I know how to get stuff from it, and used it alot, but never looked into actually setting something up or submitting patches.
I am very ashamed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THAT is something really easy you know..
but if it's something that you agree, i can upload it to my git if you don't want to use time for that.
i can clearly state about the source and then.. work can be shared and commit done.
otherwise, yu have to set-up a free account and follow this :
https://help.github.com/articles/create-a-repo
it would REALLY help you know

[Huawei P20] getting root on AOSP 10 Preview 2

After several days reading into topic, many tries, (including bricking and unbricking my P20 two times down to fastboot access only..), I still not at my goal: Taking full ownership aka. get root of slick & clean device.
Thanks to @OldDroid and his crew (THX!) now I have a working AOSP 10 Preview 2. It was flashed over a fully working EML-L29 9.0.0.293 (C432E7R1P11), bootloader & FRP unlocked, installed from eRecovery internal download(after second brick..) Thankfully I refused to update to 9.1 before due to /system read-only problems i red about. So everything, including recovery should be genuine. I will try to keep all the Google inside an Island and restrict it as far as possible with firewall.
Now I question myself how I can obtain root without bricking this wonderful machine again. I guess I will need Canary Magisk Manager from this link:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/magisk/dev-magisk-canary-channel-bleeding-edge-t3839337
Switching channel to canary too, going the recovery_ramdisk patching route. (TWRP I already miss you!!)
I already downloaded EML-LGRP2-OVS 9.0.0.293 (FullOTA-MF) via Firmwarefinder to extract recovery_ramdisk from it. As I only flashed system I guess this should be the version I need to patch with Magisk?
I know, this is pretty unknown territory, but on OmniROM 5 beta I the non working touchscreen bug. Would give it a second try if there is no other way, maybe starting from a lower EMUI 9 version? If anybody could confirm my plan, or tell me its rubbish, I would be thankful.
@mods: This whole Treble thing makes it quite confusing, if you believe this post would get more attention in another place, feel free to move it. thx!

Question TWRP coming?

Just saw the following article from XDA regarding TWRP v3.5 being released. I'm hopeful that this means that for devices that ship with Android 10 that TWRP will be able to decrypt the data partition in order to facilitate a complete backup.
That said, does anyone know how long it typically takes for TWRP to be supported on a new device (i.e. G-Stylus 2021)? Just curious what the norm is. Thanks!

That's a good question. I don't know how long it should take, but after reading the article you linked it seems that successfully porting TWRP to these newer phones will take a lot longer than on the older ones. Hopefully someone's already started working on TWRP 3.5 for the 2021 models, but I haven't heard any actual news on that yet.
I would love to be able to get a full backup of my device in case I really screw something up later on. If I had any level of programming skills I would certainly make an attempt at it myself.

DM.IDOL said:
That's a good question. I don't know how long it should take, but after reading the article you linked it seems that successfully porting TWRP to these newer phones will take a lot longer than on the older ones. Hopefully someone's already started working on TWRP 3.5 for the 2021 models, but I haven't heard any actual news on that yet.
I would love to be able to get a full backup of my device in case I really screw something up later on. If I had any level of programming skills I would certainly make an attempt at it myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd look around on github

THIS is a TEST build for the Moto G stylus XT2115-1 minsk_t
(please mind that i have never done this before and i am at least trying to figure out how to create custom recoveries. i just need a good teacher with a little time. .)​
*Touch Screen does not work. OTG mouse necessary.*
(not too sure how to fix this error)
*Mount points were for testing*
(modied fstab files in ramdisk to fix mount points)
*modified ramdisk and split_image from Moto G 9 plus unofficial 3.5.1 twrp*
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/recovery-unofficial-twrp-for-g9-plus-odessa.4195729/
i tried to put a recovery together for this device but im not sure where i went wrong or what to do next. booting into this recovery works but /vendor and /system_root have denied permissions. when it is flashed within twrp and rebooted to recovery or system the screen says no OS installed press power to power off. If anyone can help me figure this one out i would be greatly appreciative. If you need anything i can pull from my device just let me know. Anyone willing to help work on this recovery and figure out what needed to be fixed i would greatly appreciate it!
*EDIT*
i got /data to back without digest verification. Was not able to try to restore the backup as i got NO OS error when i rebooted to restore.
*EDIT*
i was able to figure out pretty much everything except the touch part of the recovery. it has a novatek_ts (NVT-ts)
not sure what to do to enable the drivers for twrp. any feed back would be great.
*EDIT*
Found the driver. I'll post it here and see what you can do. I'll also work on it as I'm still learning where stuff should go in the recovery. And also seems to b that i cannot access external sd from twrp either.
*EDIT*
resolved sd card issues. mountpoint was incorrect. only thing left to get working is touchscreen and not have to use otg mouse.
updated twrp for minsk_t is in files now.
*EDIT*
I found the proper elements to configure the recovery's touchscreen capabilities. Will be recompiling later on today. After I have tested it I will post the new working TWRP recovery. Thanks everybody.

*deleted*

sosthenisRR said:
*deleted*
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So this is fully functioning now right? Is there any reason to use this over the OrangeFox recovery that has been posted?
Also, if I did install OrangeFox, and decided I wanted to install this later, would it be as simple as flashing using fastboot from ADB, overtop of OrangeFox? Or would the procedure be a little more complex?

Several Questions

I'm interested in building an updated, de-googled, de-bloated, ROM for a TCL A30 , model TCL5102D, mt6762/6765. First off was whether to post in tha Alcatel Section. My understanding is that Alcaltel is no more and those phones are now marketed as TCL. Prior Alcaltel posts may be helpful - perhaps the moderators could rename the section "Alcaltel/TCL" rather than adding a New TCL section.
I fouund mtkclient in the forum and it works on my device. I have not TWRP rooted it yet but have pulled boot.img, vbmeta.img and the entire system image. I have also found the TCL source code site, downloaded an earlier device with Mediatek Helio 22P chips and adb pulled /proc/config.gz. GPL source for my specific device has yet to be published by TCL.
I've yet to pull the vendor blobs and have only found guides in the Lineagos documentaion. It's pulling from a zip'd image rather than a device and TCL does not have images for any of their current phone. Also could not find a dump for this particular phone.
My first challenge is trying to build the kernel. The TCL source code, kernel 4.19.127, is not structured like the AOSP kernel source and aarch64, gcc builds hang up on the lcdscreen driver. The screen driver was backported in later 4.19.x versions which built with the config.gz and upstream kernel.org source.
What I'd like to do is to do is update the TCL source to the latest stable 4.19 code base but my web searches have not come up with any examples on how to do this. Could also build with the AOSP 4.19-stable source with the pulled config.gz - chances that it would work?
If I can prebuild the kernel, then make a decision in regards to a LineageOS build vs a GSI build. Maybe even build within GrapheneOS (uses prebuild kernels).
Where, in the forum, should I start the line of questions? Can anybody point me to a guide on howto build an kernel with an up-to-date source?

hi, your best place to go would be here and here

I have a TCL a30 android 11. I'm looking for any possible way to unlock the bootloader and install custom recovery. This all started with trying to use a visible sim card in the phone and me not being able to change the APN settings. I've been working on a way for a while now and have gotten absolutely nowhere. If anyone has any insight, it would be greatly appreciated.

danvep5014 said:
I have a TCL a30 android 11. I'm looking for any possible way to unlock the bootloader and install custom recovery. This all started with trying to use a visible sim card in the phone and me not being able to change the APN settings. I've been working on a way for a while now and have gotten absolutely nowhere. If anyone has any insight, it would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TCL A509DL NO FASTBOOT-ABILITY??
Hey there guys and girls. I just bought a cheap TCL A509DL to experiment with and immediately hit a roadblock of megalithic proportions...no fastboot mode available on this cracker-jack prize equivalent phone. Seriously...no way to boot into...
forum.xda-developers.com

971shep said:
TCL A509DL NO FASTBOOT-ABILITY??
Hey there guys and girls. I just bought a cheap TCL A509DL to experiment with and immediately hit a roadblock of megalithic proportions...no fastboot mode available on this cracker-jack prize equivalent phone. Seriously...no way to boot into...
forum.xda-developers.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm working on how to get the device to be recognized in mtkclient. Regardless of what button combination I use, the device fails to be recognized. Any specific way it needs to be done on the TCL A30?

I took the phone apart to look for some test points and I can't find any. Did anyone have success in getting this device to work with mtkclient? I've tried every button combination possible. If anyone has any insight it would be greatly appreciated. This is getting extremely frustrating. Been trying for the past week. Once I get passed that point we will be good to go but I'm at a wall right now.

danvep5014 said:
I took the phone apart to look for some test points and I can't find any. Did anyone have success in getting this device to work with mtkclient? I've tried every button combination possible. If anyone has any insight it would be greatly appreciated. This is getting extremely frustrating. Been trying for the past week. Once I get passed that point we will be good to go but I'm at a wall right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I start mtkclient with the phone connected via usb but powered off. Mtkclient messages that it is trying to establish a connection. Then just power up with the power key only. You should get messages that you connected in brom mode.

I was finally able to get it. Had to use adb reboot edl. Did the trick. Now I'm trying to build a rom with oxygen os but i keep getting stuck in a boot loop.

Boot loops can have many causes.. In the case of a custom rom, it is often that boot verification of the file systems fails, ie a file system checksum is different. In the thread I linked above, the way around this was to overwrite the three different vbmeta.* files with a blank file..

The struggle... (64 bit recovery porting)

I've got the Oukitel WP16 which a 64 bit and has an octa-core MediaTek Helio P60 MT6771V on Android 11. Actually a pretty decent rugged phone. Originally tried to root it through fastboot and bricked it about 2 weeks after getting it. For the life of me, I couldn't bring it back to life. Finally after 4 months of it just sitting in a drawer, I went about flashing it to bring it back to life a little differently than I was before and it stuck. Very thankful that it was working again because in those months I had destroyed 3 of your average break if you touch them phones. However me being me, getting it going again wasn't enough. So I gave rooting it a try again. Got it! Rooted with Magisk. Now because I have one of those devices I believe is under rated and under developed, I can't find any kind of development done on it whatsoever and want to build/port TWRP so I'm able to try a GSI ROM. My problem is that every tutorial I read or watch has nothing like what is my stock ROM. Either names of files are different or I find the files in other folders, I've got more folders than what I'm trying to port, and, I would need to double check again, but I wanna say that I've even found them in different partitions. So my question is, what do I do? Like fstab is not in the recovery but in something else. That something else that has fstab in it, my port doesn't have that folder at all. And there are others like that. I've tried several, I repeat SEVERAL different tutorials and cannot figure out what to do. I know it's beyond the capabilities of the tool, but I even tried one of those Hovatek port tools. Obviously didn't work because of the kernel. So to say I'm lost is an understatement. This isn't the first phone I've tried this with. Had another 64 bit with the same chipset that actually had a unofficial TWRP built for it. But when it came to try to port a ROM, I was left with files in different folders and things that weren't in the ROM i was trying to port. I eventually just have up because I kind of had to since scuba diving with the phone here in the Mexican Caribbean finally took it's toll on the phones external hardware. But yeah, back to my only question. What do I do in this situation? I'm mainly concerned about it because this WP16 has a night vision camera on it which I use quite often and don't want to lose that. Recovery has nothing to do with the camera but the ROM I'd like to port will. So figuring out what to do with the recovery could eventually lead me to my answer with the ROM. Anyway, kind of a long winded explanation just to get to what may seem like a simple question to some. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

finnroth69 said:
I've got the Oukitel WP16 which a 64 bit and has an octa-core MediaTek Helio P60 MT6771V on Android 11. Actually a pretty decent rugged phone. Originally tried to root it through fastboot and bricked it about 2 weeks after getting it. For the life of me, I couldn't bring it back to life. Finally after 4 months of it just sitting in a drawer, I went about flashing it to bring it back to life a little differently than I was before and it stuck. Very thankful that it was working again because in those months I had destroyed 3 of your average break if you touch them phones. However me being me, getting it going again wasn't enough. So I gave rooting it a try again. Got it! Rooted with Magisk. Now because I have one of those devices I believe is under rated and under developed, I can't find any kind of development done on it whatsoever and want to build/port TWRP so I'm able to try a GSI ROM. My problem is that every tutorial I read or watch has nothing like what is my stock ROM. Either names of files are different or I find the files in other folders, I've got more folders than what I'm trying to port, and, I would need to double check again, but I wanna say that I've even found them in different partitions. So my question is, what do I do? Like fstab is not in the recovery but in something else. That something else that has fstab in it, my port doesn't have that folder at all. And there are others like that. I've tried several, I repeat SEVERAL different tutorials and cannot figure out what to do. I know it's beyond the capabilities of the tool, but I even tried one of those Hovatek port tools. Obviously didn't work because of the kernel. So to say I'm lost is an understatement. This isn't the first phone I've tried this with. Had another 64 bit with the same chipset that actually had a unofficial TWRP built for it. But when it came to try to port a ROM, I was left with files in different folders and things that weren't in the ROM i was trying to port. I eventually just have up because I kind of had to since scuba diving with the phone here in the Mexican Caribbean finally took it's toll on the phones external hardware. But yeah, back to my only question. What do I do in this situation? I'm mainly concerned about it because this WP16 has a night vision camera on it which I use quite often and don't want to lose that. Recovery has nothing to do with the camera but the ROM I'd like to port will. So figuring out what to do with the recovery could eventually lead me to my answer with the ROM. Anyway, kind of a long winded explanation just to get to what may seem like a simple question to some. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your device already have TWRP [Firmware version: OUKITEL_WP16_RU_V04_20220621 ] but you not need Custom Recovery for install GSI. Use stock recovery.
About GSI with a night vision camera support so is much expensive solving that. You can try but need very experience and patience of the tests and solutions.

lopestom said:
Seriously? Thank you! I'm guessing the link is gonna be in 4pda being that it's Russian? I've spent a month searching and haven't found anything whatsoever. And since I don't read Russian, I always overlook 4pda even though it's been a great resource in the past. And yes, I'm aware you don't "need" custom recovery for GSI's. It does make things a little easier for me though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The recovery issue will be solved since there is a recovery out there. That still doesn't solve the mystery and problem i have of files being in different places though. In that case what do I do if the files isn't in the same place in the port as it is in the stock, or the other way around? Add the stock file to the same folder it is in for the port? Or should I make a new folder in the port that's name is the same as in the stock? If neither, what do I do?

finnroth69 said:
Seriously? Thank you! I'm guessing the link is gonna be in 4pda being that it's Russian? I've spent a month searching and haven't found anything whatsoever. And since I don't read Russian, I always overlook 4pda even though it's been a great resource in the past. And yes, I'm aware you don't "need" custom recovery for GSI's. It does make things a little easier for me though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No! Search my repository in the github in the release option.
finnroth69 said:
The recovery issue will be solved since there is a recovery out there. That still doesn't solve the mystery and problem i have of files being in different places though. In that case what do I do if the files isn't in the same place in the port as it is in the stock, or the other way around? Add the stock file to the same folder it is in for the port? Or should I make a new folder in the port that's name is the same as in the stock? If neither, what do I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I wrote before, it is very difficult to solve issues like the original stock ROM camera. There are even one or two people who managed to get this to work.
Now what you don't understand: If you want a Custom ROM, use GSI and adapt, solve, analyze and test by changing some stock ROM files in GSI. You must understand that you need experience and time. You can even compile a Custom ROM - any GSI - specifically for your device. So you just need to have the source code of your device, have the GSI source code and know how to compile the file so that you can do the tests. Again, you must understand that you need experience and time.
If you haven't researched what is GSI and still think that Custom ROMs portability that happened before until Android 7.1 then look, read and update yourself.
In your questions, be as detailed as possible. You write a lot of parts and you scramble the words.
As for having GSI normally I already wrote where there is an instruction to install and you follow. As for TWRP, look it up on my github.
As for solving something in the GSI, if you managed to install it and still used the phh options to try to fix any bad part, then it is only you who will be able to solve any error/adaptation/bug/extra installations that there.

Trust me when I say I understand what you're saying. I have done some testing I have watched tutorials, I have studied. but everything that I have seen is basically switching a file from a folder on the stock ROM to a folder in the ported ROM with the same name as what's in the stock ROM, and possibly adding a little script to something. What I'm trying to figure out is what I asked. Fstab is not in recovery on my phone's stock ROM. It is in something else. But fstab is in and a part of recovery for TWRP. So even though there might be a TWRP for my phone doesn't help me to know if I should be creating that same folder that's in my stock ROM in the ported one for fstab or other files that are like it. I have downloaded the TWRP from your profile and I've gone to the 4pda and discovered that you're the dev who ported it with and without encryption. Nice work and thank you! I would like to move beyond being a flash baby though. So I'm simply trying asking that one specific question to help me learn because it is something I am lost on. Whether it is to port recovery, port a ROM, or whatever, I don't know what to do when the location of the files I need to port from the stock aren't matching with the with the location of the files in the port itself. Fstab is just one example. I'm gonna send you a friend request. Later when I fire up my laptop, I'll take screenshots to physically show you exactly what I mean. Please be patient and don't get upset at me for trying to learn. As well as please take your time in responding. It's no rush since I've got a business to run and this is something I'm trying to teach myself on the side. It really is something I'm lost on, and if I'm lost on it, how many others has it confused as well?

As for the camera app issue. We can forget I asked that also. I understand completely what you're saying about it being far beyond my reach right now. Thank you for the heads up on that.

Mr. Lopestom can you please help me with your recovery images? I cannot seem to get any of them to boot. I've tried the with script found on 4pda, without that script, I've tried flashing an empty vbmeta, but nothing is getting the images to boot. See attachment for script I'm talking about. Attachment only shows me running it, but I have tried without.

What sense does it make to flash an empty VBMETA ? You typically pull the existing VBMETA and pass this file to Fastboot what rewrites 2 bytes in that file.

finnroth69 said:
Mr. Lopestom can you please help me with your recovery images? I cannot seem to get any of them to boot. I've tried the with script found on 4pda, without that script, I've tried flashing an empty vbmeta, but nothing is getting the images to boot. See attachment for script I'm talking about. Attachment only shows me running it, but I have tried without.
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Click to collapse
The problem is not in the vbmeta file. You can use this one if you can: Post in thread 'Looking for a walkthrough on installing a custom ROM on a BLU G90 PRO' https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...om-rom-on-a-blu-g90-pro.4253737/post-85180967
The big fact is that the company put a recovery.img stock file inside /vendor/etc/ and you should know how to deal with it. So only removing this recovery.img and repacking modified vendor.img made by u; install that in your device so you can have TWRP.

jwoegerbauer said:
What sense does it make to flash an empty VBMETA ? You typically pull the existing VBMETA and pass this file to Fastboot what rewrites 2 bytes in that file.
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Click to collapse
I'm not sure to be honest with you. Like I told lopestom, I'm just trying to teach myself as I can in my free time. A lot of what I do is imitate what I see or read. While reading post about flashing twrp i had read something about flashing an empty vbmeta file.