Related
I have read a few posts in this section, but it is totally impossible for someone like me (new to smartphones, flashing and the rest) to understand anything. Would you please explain some of the terminologies used here? Some of them are: kernel, 3g, port, system.ext2, BT... and thousands more.
Thank you very much!
you don't really "need" to understand any of that.
all you need to do is to learn how to download files, learn how to extract the downloaded file, learn how to copy them to an sd card, and learn how to run a program inside windows mobile.
if you can do all that, you should be set!!!
just follow steps 1-6 (ignore step 1b - the part about system.ext2) - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=951962
Well noted AkumaX. Thank you very much!
XDAndroid is a project to port Android onto older HTC phones.
There are two main parts of XDAndroid, which combine to form a complete port:
Kernel/drivers: You can find packages to run Android on old HTC phones from a variety of sources, but whatever package you use, all rely upon the kernels/drivers created by the XDAndroid team to enable the basic hardware.
Android system: The Android system forms all of the parts of the phone's interface that you can directly interact with. Once the kernel/drivers have setup the hardware, you can add on an Android system port of your choice to form a complete build. Many system ports are available, both in terms of different versions (2.1 Eclair, 2.2 Froyo, 2.3 Gingerbread, etc.) and different starting points in the case of ports written by those outside of XDAndroid.
XDAndroid releases an "official" system port you can use, which is directly ported over by the XDAndroid team from the Android Open Source Project, and is very close to stock. Many of the alternative builds you come across are modifications of the XDAndroid system, containing customizations that deviate farther from stock Android, while others have different starting points altogether, and are ports of the ROMs found on official shipping devices that have already been customized (but still use the same basic kernel/drivers found here).
Android is a framework that runs on top of Linux. In order to get Android running on our devices, first we must get Linux running on the hardware with all drivers implemented, and then, we hook Android into these drivers. Thus, broadly viewed, the XDAndroid project is divided into two parts: the kernel/drivers and the Android port.
When you look at the files in your Android directory, you'll probably see something like the following:
zImage: The Linux kernel and drivers.
modules-###: Additional drivers for the kernel. Your system will load without this, but things like wifi may not work, or you may encounter instability.
initrd.gz: Used in the Linux boot process.
system.ext2: Most of the Android framework.
rootfs.img: Additional parts of the Android framework that are customized for our devices.
data.img: This file contains what would be your internal memory on a real Android device. Whenever you install a program it goes in to here. A new empty one will be automatically created if you don't have one.
haret.exe: Reboots you from Windows into XDAndroid.
startup.txt: Commands passed to XDAndroid on bootup that are customized by the user.
ts-calibration: Contains calibration information for the touch screen. If you don't have this file, you will be prompted to calibrate your screen on startup.
AndroidApps: A folder where if you copy any apks into it, they will be automatically installed on bootup.
manekineko said:
XDAndroid is a project to port Android onto older HTC phones.
-------.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good explanation manekineko!...I believe this is what op was looking for.
there is light at the end of the tunnel, it wont take much longer if the devs keep up this good work, until there can be made stable and good builds with good battery life etc. when the time is there i will create an complete noob friendly installation guide (with pics and maybe even an vid).
I'm currently trying to figure out which one to install!
manekineko said:
XDAndroid is a project to port Android onto older HTC phones.
There are two main parts of XDAndroid, which combine to form a complete port:
Kernel/drivers: You can find packages to run Android on old HTC phones from a variety of sources, but whatever package you use, all rely upon the kernels/drivers created by the XDAndroid team to enable the basic hardware.
Android system: The Android system forms all of the parts of the phone's interface that you can directly interact with. Once the kernel/drivers have setup the hardware, you can add on an Android system port of your choice to form a complete build. Many system ports are available, both in terms of different versions (2.1 Eclair, 2.2 Froyo, 2.3 Gingerbread, etc.) and different starting points in the case of ports written by those outside of XDAndroid.
XDAndroid releases an "official" system port you can use, which is directly ported over by the XDAndroid team from the Android Open Source Project, and is very close to stock. Many of the alternative builds you come across are modifications of the XDAndroid system, containing customizations that deviate farther from stock Android, while others have different starting points altogether, and are ports of the ROMs found on official shipping devices that have already been customized (but still use the same basic kernel/drivers found here).
Android is a framework that runs on top of Linux. In order to get Android running on our devices, first we must get Linux running on the hardware with all drivers implemented, and then, we hook Android into these drivers. Thus, broadly viewed, the XDAndroid project is divided into two parts: the kernel/drivers and the Android port.
When you look at the files in your Android directory, you'll probably see something like the following:
zImage: The Linux kernel and drivers.
modules-###: Additional drivers for the kernel. Your system will load without this, but things like wifi may not work, or you may encounter instability.
initrd.gz: Used in the Linux boot process.
system.ext2: Most of the Android framework.
rootfs.img: Additional parts of the Android framework that are customized for our devices.
data.img: This file contains what would be your internal memory on a real Android device. Whenever you install a program it goes in to here. A new empty one will be automatically created if you don't have one.
haret.exe: Reboots you from Windows into XDAndroid.
startup.txt: Commands passed to XDAndroid on bootup that are customized by the user.
ts-calibration: Contains calibration information for the touch screen. If you don't have this file, you will be prompted to calibrate your screen on startup.
AndroidApps: A folder where if you copy any apks into it, they will be automatically installed on bootup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for your explanations, manekineko. I believe that I am now ready to cruise through all the threads of this section without fear.
shatred said:
there is light at the end of the tunnel, it wont take much longer if the devs keep up this good work, until there can be made stable and good builds with good battery life etc. when the time is there i will create an complete noob friendly installation guide (with pics and maybe even an vid).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
shatred, I am eagerly waiting for two things: (i) for the developers to release the perfect Android builds (my sincere encouragements to them by the way!!!) and (ii) for your installation guide.
gueyenono said:
I'm currently trying to figure out which one to install!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tell me your phone type, so an rhod-100? 200? 300? etc.
and tell me what you prefer more, an good battery life and an stable running system without camera support OR less stable system, bad battery life but with camera support.
Tell me and i will help you
shatred said:
tell me your phone type, so an rhod-100? 200? 300? etc.
and tell me what you prefer more, an good battery life and an stable running system without camera support OR less stable system, bad battery life but with camera support.
Tell me and i will help you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhm... You no longer have to choose. WisTilt2 pulled the latest commits from GIT into his test kernel.
arrrghhh said:
Uhm... You no longer have to choose. WisTilt2 pulled the latest commits from GIT into his test kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah but if you activate the camera libs the phone wont go into deep sleep mode right? or is that fixed already?
shatred said:
yeah but if you activate the camera libs the phone wont go into deep sleep mode right? or is that fixed already?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems I was wrong about that. It was the other way around, if the libs are disabled the phone won't sleep.
However, with FRX05 there's no need for the libs. FRX05 + GIT kernel or WisTilt2's newest kernel is all you need for cam.
arrrghhh said:
Seems I was wrong about that. It was the other way around, if the libs are disabled the phone won't sleep.
However, with FRX05 there's no need for the libs. FRX05 + GIT kernel or WisTilt2's newest kernel is all you need for cam.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm yeah about that, i tried frx05 with wistilt2 latest kernels but it doesnt work for me, i think its an problem with my user conf... can you perhaps send me your user conf from frx05?
shatred said:
hmm yeah about that, i tried frx05 with wistilt2 latest kernels but it doesnt work for me, i think its an problem with my user conf... can you perhaps send me your user conf from frx05?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for FRX04... It's in my bundle.
If you remove all of the ln -s and bind mounts, should work just fine...
Hello,
I want to compile Android from source. I want to just build a fully default Gingerbread that would run nice on my phone. I got the Android source, kernel source (kernel-2.6.32-U8800-Froyo) and now I don't know what to do next. I compiled the generic one already (lunch full-eng) and it ran fine on the emulator.
My most important question is, if I make it otapackage and flash it, would it start? If it doesn't, can I recover? What folders/files are essential if I make my own device for example in "device/huawei/u8800"
Also, where can I find a GOOD porting guide? I have found some that are old and not used anymore.
Some links
Start by going through source.android.com for the general basics if you havent already.
Also, even though Google removed the PDK (Platform Developer's Kit) from the site, it has been mirrored on kandroid here: http://www.kandroid.org/online-pdk/guide/index.html
The stuff in the the PDK, although inadequate, is still very important and explains how to create the necessary makefiles to add to the build, configuring for a new market, etc. etc.
Also,
watch these two videos over here. These were very helpful in my ROM development:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_H4AlQaNa0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFqELLB1Kk8
Learn to use github. It is helpful for you to keep track of your changes as well as incorporate others works into your own.
http://help.github.com/
Finally, Cyanogenmod repos are your BEST friend. Almost all major AOSP ROM devs owe some sort of thanks to those guys who have done so much. If you want to check out some of the code changes and patches that you want to incorporate look here on their gerrit:
review.cyanogenmod.com
If you want to look at the other changes that are actually in the cyanogenmod builds, best to look at their git repos here:
https://github.com/CyanogenMod
I am still learning right now while I create my ROM but your welcome to PM me if you have any questions
Glad someone helped. Now that ICS is available, I will build that instead. Now, I will follow the kandroid tutorial and add hardware_msm7x30 from cyanogenmod's repos. Then I'll make my own makefiles in the huawei/u8800 and I'll see if that works.
Also, some things I am not still clear. If I am not adding any recovery files, it shouldn't replace it, right? I want to make sure I can recover. However, my phone has a bootloader mode, which should still work, even if other's messed up. And the kernel, if I already have a compiled kernel for android 2.2, should it work for newer versions?
Thanks
Well AOSP as far as I know adds the stock recovery into the build so if you have a stock ROM, then you will lose your recovery (unless you change the source to skip the adding of recovery to otapackage).
Your bootloader should be fine. so you will theoretically be able to re-flash a custom recovery with fastboot as long as your bootloader is unlocked (assuming your phone is already rooted and has a custom rom, then it should be unlocked)
If you are using CM7 as base, then you dont have to worry about it as it is configured to NOT replace the recovery during the building and creating the otapackage.
The kernel should not be compatible as there were significant changes from Froyo and you should not use it. By the way, for now, work on the ROM first. Creating a custom kernel from scratch is hard work and should be left as the last task to do (assuming you know linux kernel development). Just use the stock pre-built kernel that comes with the source.
Also, according to Google:
Starting with IceCreamSandwich, the Android Open-Source Project can't be used from pure source code only, and requires additional hardware-related proprietary libraries to run, specifically for hardware graphics acceleration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This means you need to find the correct hardware drivers first. Where to find that is beyond me. Check CM repos. It would be easy if everyone had a Nexus S/ Galaxy Nexus as the drivers are immediately available on source.android.com. Ah...well....
Personally, I am going to wait a few weeks before dabbling into ICS ROMs. Wait till CM7 comes out with a nightly for my nexus one and then rip the drivers from their ROM and use it for mine
I got ICS source and made the necessary Android.mk, AndroidProducts.mk, BoardConfig.mk and u8800(my device).mk, also vendorsetup.sh . Now, when I am trying to build it doesn't give me an error, more of a suggestion. It says to include "LOCAL_MODULE_TAGS := optional" in the hardware/msm7k/liblights/Android.mk. I added that, and tried again. Got that message again, but with other type /libril/Android.mk
About fastboot, I am not sure if my device has that. It can be turned on with volume up and down + power, but it boots to so called "pink screen". When I mount phone using usb to my pc, I can browse the recovery.img and other related stuff. If I have the otapackage, can I just take the recovery out from there or what should I modify in source? Add something to the makefiles?
Yeah I am pretty sure you should add the LOCAL_MODULE_TAGS to all of the relevant pre-built files. maybe they made the compiler less harsh in ICS when compared to the one for gingerbread. In gingerbread, it outright crashed the compile and asked you to add the tags.
According to Google engineers, here is the reason why they use these tags:
Short answer: lack of time.
The urgent concern was to prevent new modules from using a user tag
(implicitly or explicitly), and we took care of that. We haven't had
time to deal with the existing modules, there are over 1000 of those.
JBQ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By the way, I hope you have git setup and the changes you have made are being staged and commited to your repo in github. If you ever make a mistake that hardcore crashes your compile and you dont know what you did, git will be there for you to rollback the changes as well as keep track of everything you have done from commit to commit
As far as I know, CM repos dont have everything complete for a full build of ICS but I could be wrong.
So you are working with AOSP correct?
As for the fastboot every android phone should have a fastboot by default but I believe each phone has a slightly different version. I will post how my fastboot looks like in a bit.
As for the removal of recovery, there should be somewhere in either source, makefiles or argument for the otapackage command that should leave out the recovery when making update.zip. You could just remove the recovery from the update.zip, change the updater-script and repackage it but its not a clean solution and those changes should be done in a uniform manner so you dont repeat this step every time you do a new build.
Where exactly is it, I have yet to know. Still learning much of this myself.
I now completely understand what modes of turning on my phone has... First one is normal, second is recovery, third is update-bootloader(I can access all files with it too) and four being the fastboot. The custom recovery I have on has an issue that it wants to boot to charging mode when I type "adb reboot bootloader". I can get to fastboot with the custom ROM I have on right now though. I think I am safe if I have issues.
I edited msm7k Android.mk to remove libaudio and libgralloc (errors with those), and it compiles to the step where it says it has no rule to make kernel requied by boot.img. I have put into BoardConfig.mk the line TARGET_PREBUILT_KERNEL with my kernel. I don't understand, what's wrong now...
My goal is to simply get it booting up. I'll look into libraries and other later.
-e-
Got the kernel thing sorted out. Copied device.mk from tuna device and edited to fit my device. Also modified full_u8800.mk and made the call to inherit from device.mk. Compiling now and I think I got past that.
-e2-
Got it built successfully. Fastboot won't let it install, because it has no mount points. Added mount points and let's see...
Nice to see you are making progress.
Got it built, but the fastboot is kinda buggy in my device, maybe custom rom issue. I can't make otapackage, it says "no rule to make target otapackage". I have a possible fix, trying that later.
Otherwise, I read its possible to flash system.img from recovery via advanced restore, update.zip package or advanced flash_image, but I don't know. Will post results.
Sent from my u8800
-e-
Tried make otapackage again. It still says "make: *** No rule to make target `otapackage'. Stop.". Maybe some things are still missing, I don't know. adb flash_image command will always post -1 to me, update.zip didn't work, advanced restore is not for this. I have a compiled image and I can't wait to test it, but I can't flash it...
If nothing works I'll revert to stock ROM and try again.
Blefish said:
Got it built, but the fastboot is kinda buggy in my device, maybe custom rom issue. I can't make otapackage, it says "no rule to make target otapackage". I have a possible fix, trying that later.
Otherwise, I read its possible to flash system.img from recovery via advanced restore, update.zip package or advanced flash_image, but I don't know. Will post results.
Sent from my u8800
-e-
Tried make otapackage again. It still says "make: *** No rule to make target `otapackage'. Stop.". Maybe some things are still missing, I don't know. adb flash_image command will always post -1 to me, update.zip didn't work, advanced restore is not for this. I have a compiled image and I can't wait to test it, but I can't flash it...
If nothing works I'll revert to stock ROM and try again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you successfully compiled, take the boot.img and system.img and package them into a zip and use dsixda's kitchen to make it flashable
Blefish, is it possible for you to share your device/vendor structures somewhere? I just finished setting up a build machine for ICS (using Cyanogenmod's repos in my case), and made a working full-eng image that seems to boot just fine in the emulator, so I'm seemingly all ready to hack around our device's specifics. But I would rather not do duplicate work, so I decided to ask
I'm also grabbing Huawei's new 2.6.35-based package to get the new kernel config, can't wait for them to release the actual sources for the update.
I'll share them on GitHib once I get a working build. I haven't got much time, and I changed to CM9 alpha now (repo branch ics). Since we got a 2.3 update, my first task is to port the latest clockworkmod recovery and then the ICS.
Compiling Android is long task and I'll do it in weekends, but the recovery should be available sometime, it shouldn't be hard to port that.
Oh yeah, look up stockwell's, dzo's and genokolar's github, they have done the device configuration. You can get much help from there. This weekend I'll propably test the build, I got otapackage command working now (it needed some things I can't write on mobile).
Sent from my U8800 using Tapatalk
UPDATE: See second post for initial downloads of AOSP, CM , Arndale and Linaro/Arndale builds. These are very much a work in progress and may not even work. I am putting them forth for testing for the dev community to try out on their chromebooks.
These builds will be based on the latest JB builds. There is still alot of work to be done here. The AOSP builds initially have been put up. The other builds will go up as they are completed. I am working on the documentation for putting this together as a repeatable process is doable. In time there will be an installer and other goodies, but for now this will just be a very vanilla and manual process.
My goal is to get a working port of JB on the Samsung Chromebook. There has been no significant work on this front AFAIK. So I am taking it on myself to learn and try this out. Any community input would be helpful in making this work. I am fairly n00b at this but am looking to make this work.
I found some promising information. I might be able to build this using the binaries from arndaleboard which appears to mostly use the same hardware.
FYI for anyone experimenting to make this work please note that the following MUST be done for any chance of these root files to boot from SD.
SD/MMC boot
vold.fstab
* Change the sdcard0 and sdcard1 lines so that the first line is sdcard1 and the second is sdcard0.
fstab.arndale
* Change all references to mmcblk0px to mmcblk1px.
init.arndale.rc
* Change the 2 references to mmcblk0px to mmcblk1px.
mountd.conf
* Change the reference to mmcblk0 to mmcblk1
http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
http://forum.insignal.co.kr/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=62
http://forum.insignal.co.kr/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=63
Now that the rootfs part is addressed I am tackling the booting issues. Current uboot methods focus mainly on linux distro booting. Android appears to require its own ramdisk (which is in the links below) there will be some extra downloads such as a working uboot.
Once there are working versions of all the needed components working. An installer or installer script will be put together along with documentation. I may release this to a separate thread which I will post here.
Additional info on flashing the actual arndale. http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/ind...Flash_a_Device
Arndale is the base hardware also used on a Samsung series 3 Chromebook. Most if not all the components will work.
Additionally MANTA aka nexus 10 hardware is similarly identical and can be used with some success. I am working on compiling base builds based on CM10, AOSP, Linaro and Arndale's git.
Some more info on the bootloader
http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot
http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/...arm-chromebook
Im using this post to keep notes on what I find and build. I might edit some more to update as I find stuff. I will create a separate post if I have any success. I got two of these. I can live with bricking one if it happens. And I imagine there is a way to restore the system if needed. I figure I will figure that part out first. To avoid any mishaps and have a brick.
CREDITS: Musical_chairs for his invaluable input and resources he has linked in this post. I will update credits for other contributors once I get through the whole thread and credit all those obviously who build the original code these builds will be based on.
DISCLAIMER: For advanced users ONLY!! Not responsible if your chromebook gets bricked, struck by lightning or eaten by a pack of wild boars or attacked by crab people! Anything you do strongly recommended it be done on an SDcard to ensure easy rollbacks and no destruction of firmware.
Here are the first downloads of the rootfs and ramdisk (both of which are needed for a working android install on chromebook) These are based on AOSP. More files will be coming as I am compiling. Basic instructions on how to set up uboot will be posted above as well as how to properly flash an SDcard. This assumes you know how to get your chromebook into dev-mode. Please note this is strictly for anyone with android system experience. The system may not even boot properly at this point. This is pre-pre-alpha at this point. There is alot of work to do before it even comes close to being usable. But if you get it working, please make a DD image (instructions above) and post it for all to use and work from. FOSS means sharing and sharing means caring. This will speed up the work needed to make this work for all of us.
aosp-ramdisk.img
https://mega.co.nz/#!sZgVmIQY!M9ANXXEJYAWR0TlRxV_mC3CdEXkTKC_Tgr1PdOD0Hxo
aosp-rootfs.tar.bz2
https://mega.co.nz/#!ZNgAFYqR!HkXcLxead3Zgm7lNcUzjb0YlfzEbbogTL5CnZDuUtIA
arndale-kernel
https://mega.co.nz/#!gIQXVLRC!U_L0WSutAXdGzdqhFrlzD1ij750Q8lTlKwHVoC28C14
arndale-ramdisk.img.ub
https://mega.co.nz/#!RB4XBAjS!JtNgciYJrLL_TDmjXjnZkTouPKwAhva26b7U9zvBYA0
arndale-rootfs.tar.bz2
https://mega.co.nz/#!xJwBVALa!QnwJRjQzhC218tcjMtKnimKZE2kn73sGs8XgeC75fDU
I'm super excited that you're working on this Opieum. This would be absolute dream come true. I'd love to help out but I can't be a tester lol. After I get my next few paychecks I'd love to send a donation to you sir!
Im still working on it. Its a bit tricker than I thought to get it working. Not impossible tho. I just lack the experience and knowledge to get this up and running. I figured I could do it over the weekend lol. Humbling experience. Once I have something working that is moderatly usable I figure I will take some donations to support other types of chromebooks, for now tho I will just do this cause I want to get android working on the samsung chromebook series 3.
opieum said:
Im still working on it. Its a bit tricker than I thought to get it working. Not impossible tho. I just lack the experience and knowledge to get this up and running. I figured I could do it over the weekend lol. Humbling experience. Once I have something working that is moderatly usable I figure I will take some donations to support other types of chromebooks, for now tho I will just do this cause I want to get android working on the samsung chromebook series 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May want to wait for IO until after if Chrome and Android get close enough to jump from one to the other.
Also, I guess you could try and use the Cyanogen Mod port tool to try and get Android on it. It's what I used to try and get Ubuntu-Phone on my Nook. Nearly have it, but got the black screen of doom.
Thanks moocow, I appreciate the advice. I had not considered the Cyanogen tool. I know google IO is right around the corner but I want to see if I can get it working. Part of it is as much a technical exercise to see if I can do it as much as it is just doing it.
Do you have a link for this porting tool? I was looking for one. If its just porting from the git I guess I can do that too. I was just wondering if there was a specific tool do this with. I was not aware there actually was a tool.
I'm so excited someone is trying to make this work! I'm no dev, but I'd love to help in anyway. Subbing now.
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Doc:_porting_intro
This might help also.
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Development
Amazing! I wish you the best of luck on this
I've seen some great development for the ARM Chromebook over on the Linux side, so anything is possible
Hope your efforts will be fruitful
Thanks!
I'm excited to see some effort being put into this!
I don't think you need to worry about flashing procedures just yet, and I certainly would forget about messing with uboot until way later in the game. It's pretty easy to get a dual-boot setup on the chromebook, getting the files in place is way easier than it is on a typical Android device because you can write them to an sdcard from inside ChromeOS, then reboot to the sdcard. We can worry about booting Android from the internal storage later, shouldn't be too hard. And to do anything with uboot, you're going to need to physically disassemble the chromebook and remove the write protect screw/sticker, IMO it would be best to avoid that.
Maybe we should start by adapting this procedure, but putting an Android filesystem and kernel on the sdcard instead of Linux?
http://blogs.arm.com/software-enablement/848-running-linux-on-the-series-3-chromebook/
Thanks. I have been hitting wall after wall with u-boot so yea I am working on the dualboot method for now. That post is great! I had not seen it before. Bookmarked among many. Hopefully I can find the issues keeping me from making this work.
The first obstacle I am seeing is that while ChromeOS uses a pretty standard Linux kernel and no ramdisk (and that is what uboot will be looking for), Android uses a kernel and ramdisk on a /boot partition. I don't know enough about Android to know if it's possible to boot it with a different configuration, but I've got a hunch that if we're going to get Android to boot on this thing, we're going to need to do it a lot more like the Android x86 people do it than like a typical Android ROM.
Two exercises that I think will be very helpful here:
1. Install a Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Fedora, whatever) on the sdcard of a chromebook without using a script like chrubuntu
2. Install Android x86 on a 'normal' computer.
I have almost done the first (I cheated and ended up using a script to install Ubuntu), the second I may eventually do if I can find the time.
...and like I said, I think the best approach here is going to be a x86 style Android installation, but with an arm build.
---------- Post added at 01:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:27 PM ----------
...or maybe this is what we need - chainload uboot:
https://plus.google.com/117557107585466185396/posts/hVWc5EE9EK6
---------- Post added at 02:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 PM ----------
Okay, this looks to be the official documentation on using nv-U-boot (chainloading uboot):
http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os...using-nv-u-boot-on-the-samsung-arm-chromebook
Upon further reading, I believe that this is the correct method:
1. Pack nv-U-boot as a signed kernel and dd it to a chromeos kernel partition.
2. nv-U-boot then boots Android using a typical Android boot command.
For the time being, I'm pretty sure it will be better to keep nv-U-boot and all the Android partitions on an sdcard, as it is no harder to boot from there than from the eMMc, and it's a whole lot safer to test stuff this way. Once we've got it working, we can repartition the eMMc and install everything there so it's faster and all that good stuff.
Bear in mind this is pretty much just academic at this point, I tried to chainload nv-U-boot but haven't actually gotten it to work. I'm pretty comfortable mucking around in Linux systems, but this uboot stuff is all new to me.
What I've done so far:
1. Set up partitions on my sdcard (including two kernel partitons) as per the first link I posted.
2. Got a working Lubuntu installation on the sdcard (cheated and used a chrubuntu-derived script).
3. Got a working Crouton (chrooted) Lubuntu setup on the internal storage (doesn't really apply here, though it comes in handy for some of the tools needed for manipulating files and stuff)
4. Tried the nv-U-boot image from opensuse:
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/12.2:/ARM:/Contrib:/Chromebook/standard/armv7hl/
5. Tried the nv-U-boot image from the Chromium Projects:
http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromeos-localmirror/distfiles/nv_uboot-snow.kpart.bz2
In both cases, the process is the same. Pack nv-U-boot as a signed kernel, something like this (both commands are run in a shell from within ChromeOS, in dev mode):
Code:
vbutil_kernel --pack newkernel --keyblock /usr/share/vboot/devkeys/kernel.keyblock --version 1 --signprivate /usr/share/vboot/devkeys/kernel_data_key.vbprivk --vmlinuz u-boot.img --arch arm
write it to the sdcard with dd, something like this (remember you can hose almost anything with dd if you point it at the wrong place, so use with care:
Code:
sudo dd if=newkernel of=/dev/mmcblk1p2
(this writes it to partiton 2 of my sdcard, partition 1 is my good Ubuntu kernel.)
I haven't seen nv-U-boot yet but I think I'm close.
musical_chairs said:
Upon further reading, I believe that this is the correct method:
1. Pack nv-U-boot as a signed kernel and dd it to a chromeos kernel partition.
2. nv-U-boot then boots Android using a typical Android boot command.
For the time being, I'm pretty sure it will be better to keep nv-U-boot and all the Android partitions on an sdcard, as it is no harder to boot from there than from the eMMc, and it's a whole lot safer to test stuff this way. Once we've got it working, we can repartition the eMMc and install everything there so it's faster and all that good stuff.
Bear in mind this is pretty much just academic at this point, I tried to chainload nv-U-boot but haven't actually gotten it to work. I'm pretty comfortable mucking around in Linux systems, but this uboot stuff is all new to me.
What I've done so far:
1. Set up partitions on my sdcard (including two kernel partitons) as per the first link I posted.
2. Got a working Lubuntu installation on the sdcard (cheated and used a chrubuntu-derived script).
3. Got a working Crouton (chrooted) Lubuntu setup on the internal storage (doesn't really apply here, though it comes in handy for some of the tools needed for manipulating files and stuff)
4. Tried the nv-U-boot image from opensuse:
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/12.2:/ARM:/Contrib:/Chromebook/standard/armv7hl/
5. Tried the nv-U-boot image from the Chromium Projects:
http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromeos-localmirror/distfiles/nv_uboot-snow.kpart.bz2
In both cases, the process is the same. Pack nv-U-boot as a signed kernel, something like this (both commands are run in a shell from within ChromeOS, in dev mode):
Code:
vbutil_kernel --pack newkernel --keyblock /usr/share/vboot/devkeys/kernel.keyblock --version 1 --signprivate /usr/share/vboot/devkeys/kernel_data_key.vbprivk --vmlinuz u-boot.img --arch arm
write it to the sdcard with dd, something like this (remember you can hose almost anything with dd if you point it at the wrong place, so use with care:
Code:
sudo dd if=newkernel of=/dev/mmcblk1p2
(this writes it to partiton 2 of my sdcard, partition 1 is my good Ubuntu kernel.)
I haven't seen nv-U-boot yet but I think I'm close.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea the u-boot stuff is real new to me. I have no issues either with linux its the bootloader stuff with android I am struggling with. I'm going to look at the arndale instructions as it uses similar hardware on how to load it from SDcard. The documentation there seems to show how to load the system. I already built and compiled the code from arndale seeing as it uses the exact specs needed. Since we have the ability to boot from SDcard on a chromebook this should be easily doable. The build will be the hard part. I am going to see what i can do with that method, I'm adapting from various sources. Ideally if I can come up with a simple image that can just be DDed over to a 32GB SD card that would be best for all to start and test with until a much easier method can be adapted. I had read elsewhere that the android method had been tried using the linux methods and it did not work. Hence why I havent looked as deeply into it. But I think at this point it seems like looking at this with a mixed methods might be the better approach. I'll post my results tomorrow as I am trying this out now.
UPDATE: I got some promising news. I am following this guide I have built android according to those instructions. http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/index.php/WiKi#How_to_Flash_a_Device (ignore the dipswitch references here as we got the ctrl-U option to boot and devmode)
The uboot install part is automated via a script which saves some time. Easy enough to break down the script to see how its done manually. The build will have 4.1.1 That said arndale provides pretty much all the tools to do this simpler. I think if we get this working then all we need to do is further automate the process OR provide an image with a simple script to image an SDcard with. Additionally I suspect (I have not confirmed) that the wifi and other components on the arndale are also the same on the chromebook.
Hmm, I wonder if the uboot from the arndale board will work on the chromebook? The chromebook's uboot doesn't have fastboot, and there's no way to interrupt it either (as in, hold down a key to access the uboot menu). BUT, if we put the arndale's uboot on the sdcard, as in, this:
http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/index.php/WiKi#Prepared_micro_SD.2FMMC_for_ARNDALE_bootable.
...that looks rather promising.
Yea that was the idea and portion I was looking at. I'm trying it out now to see if this will work.
I thought something similar might be done with Plop, the most awesomest boot loader in the world when Chrubuntu was first finding it's feet. Booting into a bootloader might be the answer for not just Android, but Windows 7.
But this is booting on ARM. So Win7 would not work here as there is no ARM capable version. The work now is being done for the Samsung Chromebook ARM version (series 3) which would also work on the Acer version that is also ARM based as well.
Nuh uh, Acer C7 is x86 based. RT can play on ARM, but a Chrome bootloader might be worth it.
You are correct sir on the Acer being intel. That being said. This project is to get android on the samsung chromebook (series 3) which is an arm EXYNOS 5xxx series CPU. The methods developed here would also likley apply to any other arm based books on the market.
Hello,
I'm willing to try and build a custom rom, but I've been diving through the site for a few days and I still don't get it. I believe I do have the required background to do this: programming, linux, etc. and I have wide experience as a phone user, etc. It's just that either I'm not reading what I need or the way I want it. The problem, I believe, is that all I find are guides telling me to install this and those tools and then open this and that and voila! you got your rom. But they're not explaining WHAT exactly goes into those roms, or what is expected to go there, what's the purpose of those contents, etc., and I can't really catch with that. I feel at a loss and hate wasting my time turning around for nothing.
1. I don't understand the difference between a flashable rom and one that is meant to be installed through recovery, although I can see they're different. Do they both models contain the same kind of data? Is there any restriction to what one model can contain over the other one? If so, how would I convert from one to the other? But please, don't tell me to use this or that tool. I just need the theory behind it. Something of sorts like: "You need to extract this or that from this tarball, then mount this image, then the directory tree there goes in that directory over the other model of rom"
2. update-binary: Okay I guess this is run when installing from recovery, and this takes care of installing the rom, right?wrong?. Is this a per-rom thing, per-device thing? generic? If it's per-rom, how to generate it? do I need to compile something? Is there any generic source code that can be used as a start?
3. Although I have a basic understanding of how the Linux directory tree works, I know Android works on top of a heavily modified Linux. So can you explain briefly how the directory tree works? For instance, I believe /data/data is where Android apps install to, in /system/bin or xbin I can find busybox binaries/symlinks if present. /dev and /proc look the same as in Linux. I don't know about /sys. Also how are both rom models deployed to this tree? What is basically being copied?
4. If I were to compile a kernel, where do I find the Android kernel sources? or is it just a generic Linux kernel? where can i get a basic config for the device? Last time I checked my device hadn't /proc/config.gz but maybe I could get it from another rom with it enabled or something. What toolchain and where to get it? Oh and if you know of a native arm version of gcc or whatsnot, I'd prefer that. Setting up IDEs or toolchains is a nightmare. I don't like crosscompiling. But crosscompiling or not, a directory with all needed binaries without needing to set up system variables nor other stuff, would be amazing.
I surely have a lot more questions that I can't get from the back of my mind now, and I'll have yet more as you explain. But the point of my questions was mainly trying to explain the degree of the loss I'm at, so you can assist me better.
If it looks like a foolish petition, well, that's because I'm quite stubborn and can't catch things that don't go my way. I really need to understand the basics before I can move into actually doing something. I want to build a rom for the right reasons(to me). It's not just about packing a set of apps or themes with it, but about learning and doing other stuff like trying to fix things that are not supposed to work for the device in that Android version, etc.
If you can't help, congrats for reading through here anyways But any help is greatly appreciated :good:
oxiroxt said:
Hello,
I'm willing to try and build a custom rom, but I've been diving through the site for a few days and I still don't get it. I believe I do have the required background to do this: programming, linux, etc. and I have wide experience as a phone user, etc. It's just that either I'm not reading what I need or the way I want it. The problem, I believe, is that all I find are guides telling me to install this and those tools and then open this and that and voila! you got your rom. But they're not explaining WHAT exactly goes into those roms, or what is expected to go there, what's the purpose of those contents, etc., and I can't really catch with that. I feel at a loss and hate wasting my time turning around for nothing.
1. I don't understand the difference between a flashable rom and one that is meant to be installed through recovery, although I can see they're different. Do they both models contain the same kind of data? Is there any restriction to what one model can contain over the other one? If so, how would I convert from one to the other? But please, don't tell me to use this or that tool. I just need the theory behind it. Something of sorts like: "You need to extract this or that from this tarball, then mount this image, then the directory tree there goes in that directory over the other model of rom"
2. update-binary: Okay I guess this is run when installing from recovery, and this takes care of installing the rom, right?wrong?. Is this a per-rom thing, per-device thing? generic? If it's per-rom, how to generate it? do I need to compile something? Is there any generic source code that can be used as a start?
3. Although I have a basic understanding of how the Linux directory tree works, I know Android works on top of a heavily modified Linux. So can you explain briefly how the directory tree works? For instance, I believe /data/data is where Android apps install to, in /system/bin or xbin I can find busybox binaries/symlinks if present. /dev and /proc look the same as in Linux. I don't know about /sys. Also how are both rom models deployed to this tree? What is basically being copied?
4. If I were to compile a kernel, where do I find the Android kernel sources? or is it just a generic Linux kernel? where can i get a basic config for the device? Last time I checked my device hadn't /proc/config.gz but maybe I could get it from another rom with it enabled or something. What toolchain and where to get it? Oh and if you know of a native arm version of gcc or whatsnot, I'd prefer that. Setting up IDEs or toolchains is a nightmare. I don't like crosscompiling. But crosscompiling or not, a directory with all needed binaries without needing to set up system variables nor other stuff, would be amazing.
I surely have a lot more questions that I can't get from the back of my mind now, and I'll have yet more as you explain. But the point of my questions was mainly trying to explain the degree of the loss I'm at, so you can assist me better.
If it looks like a foolish petition, well, that's because I'm quite stubborn and can't catch things that don't go my way. I really need to understand the basics before I can move into actually doing something. I want to build a rom for the right reasons(to me). It's not just about packing a set of apps or themes with it, but about learning and doing other stuff like trying to fix things that are not supposed to work for the device in that Android version, etc.
If you can't help, congrats for reading through here anyways But any help is greatly appreciated :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not terribly knowledgeable about all of this, but I will take a crack at it. Others can feel free to correct me.
1. "Flashing" is usually done through the recovery from a zip with an update script inside. That script is in a language called "edify". Read more about Edify Here and Here.
The only other common way that I know of installing a ROM is through fastboot in the bootloader, but that is normally only used with official factory images. Also, I think Samsung ROMs are often flashed with a proprietary program called Odin.
2. I think that the update-binary is standard across all recent devices. I think it is just an interpreter for the Edify scripting language. Old versions of android used a somewhat different scripting language and required a different file. You can probably pull the binary out of another recent zip and use that. The main thing you have to worry about is the update script (instructions for what the zip does) and the folder structure of the zip.
3. I am not confident to explain much here, but the apps and their data are stored in different places. User apps are stored in /data/app with app data stored in /data/data, I think. System apps are installed in /system/app. There is more files stored on the "sdcard" partition which can be internal or external, depending on the device.
4. Kernel sources are usually provided in the source code from whatever repo you are using. Different ROMs use different bases. Here is some info about grabbing the AOSP kernel sources with git: http://source.android.com/source/building-kernels.html
Many of the more popular ROMS have specific build instructions on their individual github pages (Cyanogen, Paranoid Android, etc), so you might what to look at those, too. Also, depending on the individual devices, there might be proprietary binaries sourced from the device or hardware manufacturers for things like camera drivers, graphics chips, etc.
If you want a walk through of the basic build process google has a tutorial. The last time I checked there seemed to be some outdated info, but it might give you a general idea of the build process. http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can give you more info, but that is all I got
synesthete said:
I am not terribly knowledgeable about all of this, but I will take a crack at it. Others can feel free to correct me.
1. "Flashing" is usually done through the recovery from a zip with an update script inside. That script is in a language called "edify". Read more about Edify Here and Here.
The only other common way that I know of installing a ROM is through fastboot in the bootloader, but that is normally only used with official factory images. Also, I think Samsung ROMs are often flashed with a proprietary program called Odin.
2. I think that the update-binary is standard across all recent devices. I think it is just an interpreter for the Edify scripting language. Old versions of android used a somewhat different scripting language and required a different file. You can probably pull the binary out of another recent zip and use that. The main thing you have to worry about is the update script (instructions for what the zip does) and the folder structure of the zip.
3. I am not confident to explain much here, but the apps and their data are stored in different places. User apps are stored in /data/app with app data stored in /data/data, I think. System apps are installed in /system/app. There is more files stored on the "sdcard" partition which can be internal or external, depending on the device.
4. Kernel sources are usually provided in the source code from whatever repo you are using. Different ROMs use different bases. Here is some info about grabbing the AOSP kernel sources with git: http://source.android.com/source/building-kernels.html
Many of the more popular ROMS have specific build instructions on their individual github pages (Cyanogen, Paranoid Android, etc), so you might what to look at those, too. Also, depending on the individual devices, there might be proprietary binaries sourced from the device or hardware manufacturers for things like camera drivers, graphics chips, etc.
If you want a walk through of the basic build process google has a tutorial. The last time I checked there seemed to be some outdated info, but it might give you a general idea of the build process. http://source.android.com/source/initializing.html
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can give you more info, but that is all I got
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG Finally some light! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the info. I didn't get much right now, I'll need to read through your post a few times before I get it all, haha. I'll be sure to check the links too. Thank you!
I've been through all the relevant threads on AskUbuntu and they are either outdated, conflicting and/or dont work.
My Nexus10 sees the atheros AR9271 device on Bus 001 USB but does not create an additional WLAN for it.(wlan0 is the normal integrated wifi) I assume I need the ath9k or ath9k_htc driver? I installed backports 4.4.2-1 and unzipped it. If I try to do a 'make' or 'make clean' I get:'your kernel headers are incomplete/not installed'. I've already got the latest version of build-essential. If I try to install 'firmware-atheros', it cannot find the package. I've been through several other things to no avail.
I've read the driver is installed with 15.x+ anyway, true? and if so how to install it? If someone could do a step-by-step wifi driver install for a U-touch or at least Ubuntu 15.x I'd be very very grateful.
I do not want to bridge the 722n, I want to use it instead of the integrated card. Not even there yet, but just in case it matters.
Thanks!
roninisc said:
I've been through all the relevant threads on AskUbuntu and they are either outdated, conflicting and/or dont work.
My Nexus10 sees the atheros AR9271 device on Bus 001 USB but does not create an additional WLAN for it.(wlan0 is the normal integrated wifi) I assume I need the ath9k or ath9k_htc driver? I installed backports 4.4.2-1 and unzipped it. If I try to do a 'make' or 'make clean' I get:'your kernel headers are incomplete/not installed'. I've already got the latest version of build-essential. If I try to install 'firmware-atheros', it cannot find the package. I've been through several other things to no avail.
I've read the driver is installed with 15.x+ anyway, true? and if so how to install it? If someone could do a step-by-step wifi driver install for a U-touch or at least Ubuntu 15.x I'd be very very grateful.
I do not want to bridge the 722n, I want to use it instead of the integrated card. Not even there yet, but just in case it matters.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
anyone anyone, Beuller...
Hey, saw this was unanswered and figured I could help. First off, you will not be able to compile or install headers in the Ubuntu Touch system, as /lib/modules/<kernel version> is a bind-mount into the read-only LXC system image, one way to work around this issue on device is to mount the LXC container's system image read-write somewhere, move out the lib/modules directory to someplace else, umount, reboot and then link your moved lib/modules back into /lib/modules. You will need to do this compilation outside of your Nexus 10 in a cross-compilation environment or in an armhf chroot (imho, a chroot running the ARM build of Ubuntu works very well for this).
Once you have that, you can install the kernel package for your device (which I believe are labeled linux-headers-manta and linux-image-manta respectively) and build the driver you seek. However the kernel already comes with backports 4.4.2 in it's tree, so you may be able to apt-get source linux-image-manta and build the driver and/or the kernel itself if you wish. (I believe building the kernel builds the firmware needed for the drivers as well, but I have no way of knowing as I haven't actually rebuilt any drivers with firmware yet in my foray into linux-image-flo's source.)
One piece of advice: Make sure to join together the config.*.ubuntu files under the debian.flo and debian.master folders to get the working .config for your device. The defconfig from arch/arm/configs doesn't have all the needed options for uTouch and won't boot it.
Your 'thanks meter' improved, and big thanks for answering, but this is beyond my level. Was hoping I could run an external wifi stick on a tablet with some flavor of linux, but looks like a no go for mortal users.
roninisc said:
Your 'thanks meter' improved, and big thanks for answering, but this is beyond my level. Was hoping I could run an external wifi stick on a tablet with some flavor of linux, but looks like a no go for mortal users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly at this time, it definitely seems to be. The normal linux way of building drivers doesn't work on here because the modules directory (/lib/modules/3.4.0-5-flo) is read-only, also due to this kernel headers cannot be installed, this can be worked around, but it is definitely not something that the casual user can do easily. I hope this will change so I could start compiling modules and NOT need to rebuild the entire kernel for it.
Glad I could be of help and I love answering questions, I am currently using Ubuntu Touch as my main OS on my Nexus 7 as I'm trying to make it into my own portable workstation. So I'm constantly digging into the system and learning what I can, and I love to share.