I'd like to know if there are any dangers in switching from Master Boot Record to GPT, what are the precautions I should take and if it is safe to switch to GPT with legacy bios?
thing i forgot to mention: i'm thinking of switching with mbr2gpt built into windows
meowHelpMeRoot said:
I'd like to know if there are any dangers in switching from Master Boot Record to GPT, what are the precautions I should take and if it is safe to switch to GPT with legacy bios?
thing i forgot to mention: i'm thinking of switching with mbr2gpt built into windows
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done it on a couple of machines without any issue, however you do need to make sure your bios has uefi support. After the change to gpt, you will need to enable uefi in the bios, else Windows will no longer boot.
had a lot of issues when using 3rd party tools, but with mbr2gpt went smoothly for me without any issues, even forced from within windows running from the drive.
meowHelpMeRoot said:
I'd like to know if there are any dangers in switching from Master Boot Record to GPT, what are the precautions I should take and if it is safe to switch to GPT with legacy bios?
thing i forgot to mention: i'm thinking of switching with mbr2gpt built into windows
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is a software utility
mbr partition table to gpt
I have tried disk management and diskpart, both of them cause data loss because you have to delete all partitions if you want to make the conversion.
While the software in the article requires no steps like that and you can directly convert MBR to GPT without deleting anything.
Related
I have a few questions about Archos' devices, in particular those belonging to the Generation 8 family. Here they are:
How is the partition table setup on the device and is the partition table signature checked? How are the partitions logically laid out?
When the SDE is installed and run, boot1 locks up boot0, itself and the recovery partition to prevent them from being modified. I would imagine that this type of setup would require keeping the partition table from being modified, thereby preventing dual boot. Can dual boot be achieved using the SDE without any extra modifications?
Are some of the partitions on Archos devices contained in compressed images and then loaded into the RAM in a manner similar to the way Damn Small Linux boots?
Is the recovery partition a minimal OS setup that exists to perform recovery operations or is it in fact copied in it entirety to the primary partition when recovery mode is entered?
I have realized/learned some things Linux that I hadn't noticed before such as the fact that folders like /home and /boot have their own partitions and that /boot may contain more than one kernel and that bootloaders like GRUB are actually represented in the filesystem. I don't if these are real partitions or logical partitions so I might have to do some relearning.
I'm bumping this thread.
Master Melab said:
I have a few questions about Archos' devices, in particular those belonging to the Generation 8 family. Here they are:
How is the partition table setup on the device and is the partition table signature checked? How are the partitions logically laid out?
When the SDE is installed and run, boot1 locks up boot0, itself and the recovery partition to prevent them from being modified. I would imagine that this type of setup would require keeping the partition table from being modified, thereby preventing dual boot. Can dual boot be achieved using the SDE without any extra modifications?
Are some of the partitions on Archos devices contained in compressed images and then loaded into the RAM in a manner similar to the way Damn Small Linux boots?
Is the recovery partition a minimal OS setup that exists to perform recovery operations or is it in fact copied in it entirety to the primary partition when recovery mode is entered?
I have realized/learned some things Linux that I hadn't noticed before such as the fact that folders like /home and /boot have their own partitions and that /boot may contain more than one kernel and that bootloaders like GRUB are actually represented in the filesystem. I don't if these are real partitions or logical partitions so I might have to do some relearning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Partition tables are not locked. Devices are populated as normal in kernel. Partitions can be edited and the device repopulated with partprobe as normal.
The bootloader/recovery is held on a partition on mmcblk0, they are signed using a public/device encryption key, that has been broken. When the system is booted it mounts the recovery image and performs requested functions. The AOS firmware format is also encrypted, but has not been broken. The stock firmware is held on mmcblk0 as well, in an 256bit device key encrypted SquashFS(which has also been broken). It is mounted with a chroot as R/O at stock boot.
Dual boot can be achieved in multiple ways, easiest of which is installing the openAOS multiboot menu. A current limitation is that all OSes must use the same kernel, until we can get kexec working correctly(or other more dangerous solutions).
P.S. Folder's like /boot and /home can be many different things. Folders, partitions, images, symlinks, etc. The advantage of linux/debian is that everything is represented in the file system. Even sending commands to devices or modifying driver settings is done by "modifying files". For example, to flip the touchscreen's input on my A101, you write the letter "N" to a "file" called /sys/module/hid_hanvon/parameters/rotate180.
This is actually an interface to the driver for the touchscreen, not an actual file, so sending the letter N to "rotate180" tells the driver to flip the input coming from that device(hid_hanvon = the touchscreen).
If you tell me what you're trying to achieve, I can give you more details. If you are just trying to learn, you should come to the openaos IRC channel. Lot's of years of experience in there.
I didn't think bootloaders were stored on partitions. On PCs, the first stage bootloader is stored outside of any partition on the MBR.
Master Melab said:
I didn't think bootloaders were stored on partitions. On PCs, the first stage bootloader is stored outside of any partition on the MBR.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's flashed on eMMC2. I was talking about the recovery bootloader. Basically, the bios is off limits, and the recovery bootloader allows updates, SDE flashing, etc. without risking bricking, as I'm sure you know.
So boot0, the root of all control on the device, is not stored in a partition, like the first stage bootloader on a PC while boot1 (or whatever special bootloader that exists for recovery purposes) is stored on its respective partition like a second stage bootloader on a PC?
I'm bumping this thread. Please explain further. What do you mean when you say "BIOS" and is boot1 the recovery bootloadr?
Master Melab said:
I'm bumping this thread. Please explain further. What do you mean when you say "BIOS" and is boot1 the recovery bootloadr?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another bump.
I also want to know the partition layout of gen8 devices after installing SDE and UrukDroid.
I already installed SDE and when I plug the device to my computer I see 3 partitions:
/dev/sdb1 76295 469632 12586808+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 1 30518 976563 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 30518 76295 1464844+ 83 Linux
sdb1 - 13GB, doesn't contain a /system, but here's the menu.lst
sdb2 - 1GB, contains a /system (but i think it's not the stock android installation) ...maybe UrukDroid?
sdb3 - 1.5GB, contains a /system, but has only a few files, etc is missing for example
So is the stock android partition invisible?
I am bumping this thread.
Maybe this thread could be usefull for you : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1199450
Hi.
Last time I flashed a new firmware I made a backup of the phone. The problem was that I couldn't get it back after flashing.
So, my question is:
How on earth do I make a backup of everything before flashing. And how do I restore it afterwords.
Thanks in advance
Pemell
Hi pemell,
How did you generate the backup? Yesterday I generated a full backup of my Lumia 800 and the command that I executed was the following:
sudo dd if=/dev/sdX of=~/fulldump
This generated the fulldump file (16GB).
David Ortega.
I'd suggest that you back up in two ways: First in Zune and then via the DD. I would suggest that you create a separate backup of each partition in order to make reflashing easier.
davortsan - I didn't update by cab sending so aren't that familiar with these commands. I guess of course I could find out by some testing and reading.
chrisKringel - two partitions? are there two partitions? If the phone had a memorycard I would get where you're going.
kind of strange there are no step by step guide of how to backup pre flashing and restore afterwords. I'm too much of a noob to write it myself.
pemell said:
chrisKringel - two partitions? are there two partitions? If the phone had a memorycard I would get where you're going.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's take a computer for example. When you open up explorer on said computer you see multiple HDD-icons. One for the system, one for Music and Pictures and one for games. This doesn't necessarily mean that this computer has 3 physical HDDs as you can split up a storage device into multiple logical partitions. The computer can easily have only one physical drive.
Same thing goes for our Lumias. They have (as far as I know) only one NAND chip that stores all the data. But this chip is split up into 9 logical partitions, containing the bootloader, serialnumber, mac etc. (head over to the Development Section, a few of the early posts discuss the partitions). When you have a Linux at your hands you can use the DD command to dump every single partition. Of course you should only touch the 9th partition later but better safe than sorry. In order to backup with Linux you have to either run the full dump command from above. When you want to reflash the fulldump every single partitions gets reset to the state from when you created the backup. I never tried this but I would not advise to reflash all partitions. I'd rather advise you to create a single backup of each partition. Charge your phone and enter QUALCOMM mode. Plug it into your Linux and run the commands
Code:
dd if=/dev/sdX1 of=backup1.bin
Code:
dd if=/dev/sdX2 of=backup2.bin
... repeat for every number until the following ...
Code:
dd if=/dev/sdX9 of=backup9.bin
X refers to the mount point where your device is connected. You can use fdisk -l to get the right letter. When you need to restore your device you need only partition 9, but better safe than sorry You never know, these additional backups might come in handy sometime...
What do you intend to do? Do you want to have your Apps back after you flashed your phone?
Thanks Chris, a perfect post!
I know that most of the information on the phone comes from the cloud, but some doesn't. For exemple I use the call history a lot and I would like to keep all of my sms+mms. Reinstalling all the apps is, of course, something i would prefer not to do at every update (even though they don't come that often).
I'll look into the information you posted and see what I can come up with. / Pemell
pemell said:
Thanks Chris, a perfect post!
I know that most of the information on the phone comes from the cloud, but some doesn't. For exemple I use the call history a lot and I would like to keep all of my sms+mms. Reinstalling all the apps is, of course, something i would prefer not to do at every update (even though they don't come that often).
I'll look into the information you posted and see what I can come up with. / Pemell
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keeping the specified data like messages, settings and call history during a reflash is not easily possible. When you reflash (or flash) your phone all the data gets wiped and completely new data is written to the phone. There are some homebrew solutions for texts in the WP7 Dev & Hacking boards that might work, depending on your current ROM. Another thing is that the flash you do when using the methods described in this board is different from a flash in a Nokia Care Point. The official flashing flashes in a certain way that the first boot writes all the phone data in the registry, like the WP activation key and some other serials. This won't happen when you write the file in Qualcomm mode. This could cause problems when you try to restore a backup from Zune. I'm not really sure about this, though.
Another thing to note is that some ROMs are not updateable through Zune, on these ROMs you have to do a manual update or a new flash to get up to date.
I would suggest that you wait a few weeks if you can. Maybe Microsoft will announce a cloud backup for text messages when the introduce WP8. A official backup would be the safest way.
Thanks Chris, a good advice.
Hi,
Very noob with a very noob questions
I read a lot about backups etc... Some have to be rooted first...
I'm used with my Windows computers to make a genuine unstarted system image (Ghost, now Acronis)
When I have a new computer, I take out the main HDD and make an image or boot with an Acronis boot disk and make an genuine image, can I do something similar with Android devices?
Is EFS the system image or just the system files, restoring an EFS backup is enough to make a device bootable again without Root?
Windows PC suitable for this? ADB I guess...
Perhaps it's not possible because I haven't see any topic about making an genuine image before first start of an new device or restoring a factory image... Every time Root is involved
Thank you to make me a little wiser Sorry for my poor english
You probably want an adb backup or a nandroid backup.
Hi GermainZ,
Thanks for the tip, I'll look for both alternatives, probably ADB I guess...
Will the backup be bootable or the simple fact to recopy all the files is sufficient to boot the device? Windows uses a boot sector, is there something equivalent in Android?
Thanks
cbx6 said:
Hi GermainZ,
Thanks for the tip, I'll look for both alternatives, probably ADB I guess...
Will the backup be bootable or the simple fact to recopy all the files is sufficient to boot the device? Windows uses a boot sector, is there something equivalent in Android?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The backup can be restored from your recovery (nandroid backup) or using adb (for adb backups.) You can't directly boot from it, not really.
For the boot sector, I'm not sure what that is for Windows. The bootloader, maybe? Android has that too, of course.
of course the bootloader I lost my brain I think
Is the bootloader a part of the firmware or is it copiable as a file, I'll find it out
On a Windows HDD it's a track (boot sector) but UEfI bios modifies the game now
So a full Android system restore is firmware + backup I guess
Just as the title says, I'm curious if there exists a touch (or hardkey, i.e. volume up/down and windoes key) enabled bootloader.
Currently i have to press arrow keys and enter to select either windows or android.
Is there such a thing? It would be amazing. Id rather not have to stop at the keyboard to boot to an os from grub.
Thanks in advance!
Well .. I had suffered from this problem for longtime and finally I solved by an app called android-x86 installer it's the only way to boot from your Windows tablet without keyboard at last what I ended up with .. so yo have to download an old version I recommend the ALPHA version and install it with android-x86 installer 2.4 UEFI version after finished installing you have to download the latest version of remix OS and extract with 7zip or winrar then replace all file with the same name in folder androidOS that the direction of ALFA you already installed now You can boot with two ways either from settings/update / recovery and then press restart now at advanced startup then after reboot choose "use a device " and last thing chose android OS wait 9 seconds in grub2 an finally the remixOS will boot or by simply choose android OS from boot menu by volume Up/down
Boot solution for XPS 12 9250
Will thank you for this post when my 'Thanks!' get replenished on XDA. I'm still only using windows 10 on this tablet PC.
It is not clear to me is this is dual boot Android/Windows, my understanding is that this particular usage of the Linux grub bootloader only boots to Remix OS which is android. Grub, as you know does have dual boot capabilities, but maybe not yet on the XPS 12 9250.
Sorry, but the instructions are not step-by-step details for me, and I seem to be not smart enough to follow them. Could you point me to a 1..., 2..., 3.... please?
Please update or PM me whenever you feel you have found a better boot solution for our 9250's. I will be most grateful.
namitutonka said:
Will thank you for this post when my 'Thanks!' get replenished on XDA. I'm still only using windows 10 on this tablet PC.
It is not clear to me is this is dual boot Android/Windows, my understanding is that this particular usage of the Linux grub bootloader only boots to Remix OS which is android. Grub, as you know does have dual boot capabilities, but maybe not yet on the XPS 12 9250.
Sorry, but the instructions are not step-by-step details for me, and I seem to be not smart enough to follow them. Could you point me to a 1..., 2..., 3.... please?
Please update or PM me whenever you feel you have found a better boot solution for our 9250's. I will be most grateful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Grub can chainload the entry just fine. And when using the official tool it auto-adds an entry if it detects Windows is installed, which it will be as it's a windows tool [unless running via wine] it'll add an entry for it.
Without the tool you can do it manually. Personally I have a second easy to access efi partition that I use, if you want to do the same download a partition manager like minitool and confirm that you have 16MB of unallocated space between your efi and C: drive and I'll dig up a post/walk you through the rest tomorrow
HypoTurtle said:
Grub can chainload the entry just fine. And when using the official tool it auto-adds an entry if it detects Windows is installed, which it will be as it's a windows tool [unless running via wine] it'll add an entry for it.
Without the tool you can do it manually. Personally I have a second easy to access efi partition that I use, if you want to do the same download a partition manager like minitool and confirm that you have 16MB of unallocated space between your efi and C: drive and I'll dig up a post/walk you through the rest tomorrow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very excited to pursue this, but this week is filled with close family coming here to stay for our only holiday celebration. Will post back here when I get that unallocated space, after creating a backup of the current system. May use Gparted, but will check out minitool as well.
Walk through, dual boot Remix OS + Win10 on XPS 12 9250
@HypoTurtle
Waiting on a second USB-C to USB cable so I can boot a Macrium Reflect flash drive and backup a restorable PC image to an external Hard drive. After I'm sure I can restore this image I'll try to install Remix OS.
This youtube link is straightforward and simple to follow for the dual boot installation process. I've seen many reporting hardware/software issues on the many XDA forum threads branching off of "Remix OS for PC". So obviously one size does not fit all. Compiling and replacing different Linux kernels, editing grub.cfg, initrd.img, system.img, data.img.... The very worse thing on xda forums are ignorant end-user whiners like me who want instant gratification with their perfectly working phone or tablet. This vast forum has so many xda-developers, steeped in code, gaining and sharing trial and error knowledge. So many thousands of threads where xda-developers are taken for granted to lay solutions into end-user's laps. So many of us end-users are oblivious to this baby sitting. I will try the time consuming and painstaking learning curve. The least knowledgeable member on xda-forums should try to learn and not be spoon fed. It is essential, whatever our capacity, to all become developers interested in expanding the usefulness of our devices over and above the limited and constrained manufacturer's parameters.
Hello.
On a Chuwi Hi12 dualboot tablet, loaded on Windows 10, I reduced the partition "Windows", by telling me that it was the first stage to pass place of Windows (that I use little) to Android (which misses it).
I used EASUS. The manipulation was made well, in the sense that Windows always works and when I have well a free place on the memory.
Other partitions, EXT3, are always there, and nothing strange under Windows. But I cannot any more booter on Android: logo Chuwi one moment then black screen.
I can switch off and reload Windows.
It seems that the table of the partitions or one of the partitions which interest Android was modified.
Attempt to reinstall Android. Using ROM of Hackerjac (http: // forum.chuwi.com / forum.php typeid%26typeid%3D6). With Phone flash Tool Intel with flash-no-erase.json, config Recover).
Many failures (fragility driver USB? Reinstalled). At the end and at best: failure repeated on the installation of the bootloader, with message on the tablet " Failed to get partition bootloader2: Not found ". Rather clear but disappointing: the partition is not recreated?
Thus I am there to try to understand what is made by flash, and how have a gpt.bin which corresponds to a chosen distribution (editor of gpt.bin).
Thank you for your help.