Database Develop

[Q] Porting Meego to the Tab, some Android noob questions before I start

Hi chaps,
I've just bought a Galaxy tab with plans to port Meego to the device.
I'm new to all the Android stuff, and tbh the myriad methods for doing this/that/the other and the relative lack of explanation of what's actually being done in these various methods/tools is quite confusing (and worrying).
So, if you'll bear with me, I have a few questions which are probably quite basic.
I've rooted my Tab using SuperOneClick, no problems there, I also understand that there is a leaked flashing tool called (Multi)Odin and an open source flashing tool called Heimdall. I understand adb.
So onto the questions:
Before I start messing about, how should I backup my existing firmware image? I see people talking about taking image dumps using dd, or Odin or Heimdall. What is the preferred method? And how should one then restore the device from these backups?
Alternatively is it possible to simply download the firmware directly from Samsung (I see links to later firmware, but really I'd be happy with what I have currently - P1000XXJK5 and FROYO.XWJJ7)?
I'm assuming that the best installation method would be to replace recovery, then I can add my own kernel and have it boot a rootfs mounted on the external SD card for example. Any thoughts?
I've seen one thread about people compiling their own kernels, with panics and the like which are solved by giving the full path to the initramfs extracted from the existing image. Any clues as to why the built version doesn't work? This is not so important as I can have a look at this when I build the Samsung source.
Is anyone looking at the bootloaders? Is there any information anywhere about them (as changing the bootloader to allow selection of the kernel to be booted would make life easier)?
Thanks for your patience!

Ok, so to partly answer myself, I see www dot samfirmware dot com has links to downloads of firmware images.
I'd really prefer to generate my own image of what's currently on the device rather than trusting a download site, but I guess it's better than nothing. Does anyone know how these images were generated anyway?

lardman said:
Ok, so to partly answer myself, I see www dot samfirmware dot com has links to downloads of firmware images.
I'd really prefer to generate my own image of what's currently on the device rather than trusting a download site, but I guess it's better than nothing. Does anyone know how these images were generated anyway?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samfirmware get their images direct from Samsung insiders. They are not dumps.
If you want to dump from your device search "rotobackup" here in the dev forum.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

alias_neo said:
Samfirmware get their images direct from Saunaing insiders. They are not dumps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok that's reassuring.
alias_neo said:
If you want to dump from your device search "rotobackup" here in the dev forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, just what I was looking for, many thanks

So some more questions:
Any limit to the size of the kernel? Presumably just the size of the partition (which after extracting the image for backup seems to be a pretty large 15.4MB)?
What do all the .rc files in the raminitfs do? They are as follows: fota.rc, init.goldfish.rc, init.rc, init.smdkc110.rc, lpm.rc, recovery.rc
The init.rc is the normal init.rc file, so that's fine. Presumably the recovery.rc file is run if the bootloader detects that recovery mode is wanted (holding down keys during boot). The init.goldfish.rc? I guess this is to do with the emulator, though why it would be in a release image I don't know.
I assume that init.smdkc110.rc is automatically run somewhere along the line, though I don't see where it's started.
Any thoughts on lpm.rc and fota.rc? Are multiple .rc files run for the normal and recovery boots?
Thanks

lpm.rc is for low power mode that displays battery charging animation
goldfish is for running the rom under qemu.
backup your rom using rotobackup. compile samsung's kernel from sources, mix up default initramfs with meego's init scripts. pack all Meego stuff into loop mounted disk image. then flash zImage to kernel and your disk image to factoryfs using heimdall. I assume you have experience hacking N8xx/N900 and Maemo or Meego?
factoryfs is around 300MB so I think it should fit Meego and it (and kernel) can be easily restored with heimdall.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply
Yes I do have experience hacking Maemo/Meego, though have never really had to fiddle with init scripts before and this is as good a reason as any to learn.
I'd actually like to dual boot, so am modifying recovery.rc to bring up the Meego system on the external SD card.
Am just fiddling about building extra kernel modules now (needs btrfs for my image for example) and modifying the recovery.rc file.

Hmm, well I was all set to go and flash my new zImage and was looking for the heimdall command line, when I saw this at the top of one of the threads in this part of the forum (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=870690):
Restoring to factory after using this process (you need using stock images):
heimdall flash --kernel stockzImage --recovery stockzImage --factoryfs factoryfs.rfs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which has made me worry a bit that I've missed a recovery partition with its own kernel and wrongly assumed that the same kernel is used for both recovery and normal running, just with a different .rc file to be interpreted by init.
Any thoughts?

Do we trust the partition sizes reported here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9471190&postcount=14
They seem very small for the kernel partition. I used RotoHammer's dd method to grab the contents of the partitions as a backup, so am assuming the sizes shown above are not correct (or represent something else?)
Going back to RECOVERY and ZIMAGE partitions - the ZIMAGE partition contains a recovery.rc, the question is really whether, even if they use the same zImage in both the ZIMAGE and RECOVERY partitions, the version in the RECOVERY partition is actually booted if recovery mode is selected (by holding the up volume key, etc.)? OTOH it may be that the RECOVERY partition is either empty or unused, has anyone tested specifically to see whether recovery.rc is run from the ZIMAGE partition?

Well I think I can answer my own question there, I flashed my modified kernel (modified recovery.rc) only to the KERNEL partition, and it boots normally if I don't touch anything, and just gets stuck on the first Samsung screen if I boot in recovery mode.
So it's doing something, I just can't tell what. Not sure if any kernel messages are getting lost behind that image, or perhaps they aren't even output to the framebuffer at all. I seem to remember seeing something about disabling the splashscreen so I'll go and have a look for that. Anyone got any other suggestions?
P.S. I also note there's a flash of screen corruption as the device starts up with my new kernel, I don't remember seeing that before. Is this a usual occurance?

I see from the Nexus S port that including adbd in the image seems to be the way to go for early messages, I'll need to generate a new Meego image and have another go later on.

Interesting, I can't see that I've done anything wrong, and my extra init shell script is not started. I am trying to use the "exec" keyword in recovery.rc to start a shell script which will pass control to the Meego rootfs. At the start of my shell script I start adbd (i.e. still within the initramfs), so I should be able to tell if it has started, and it doesn't appear to do so.
Therefore I did some Googling, and I've seen that in some cases the initramfs init does not implement the "exec" keyword (http://forum.samdroid.net/f9/new-init-exec-import-implemented-3280/). This is troublesome for me as it's what I'm trying to use, but at least would explain why I don't seem to leave the init process
I couldn't see the Samsung specific source for init anywhere, has anyone found any? I'm not happy to replace it using the standard Android source as I'm guessing there's code missing which allows the bootloader to tell init how the device was started so that it knows which of the .rc files to run. Has anyone looked into this?
Thanks

Looking at the code in that link it looks pretty straightforward, just a case of parsing the kernel command line (though I might just reverse engineer the existing init first to make sure I'm not missing anything).
Would still be easier to get the actual source code from Samsung, so I've emailed their Open Source group.

lardman said:
P.S. I also note there's a flash of screen corruption as the device starts up with my new kernel, I don't remember seeing that before. Is this a usual occurance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get it with CM

Does CM use a compressed initramfs? I'm using one of those and wondering if it's something to do with the (admittedly small) extra time required to move to init.
I don't have my Tab with me here, could someone post the output of /proc/cmdline please? You'll need to be root. Thanks.

Well it's booting you'll all be glad to hear.
More details to follow, but from memory the following were required:
Custom kernel to add btrfs support (as the image I'm booting is a btrfs partition on the external SD); kernel patch to allow compile-time cmdline to be added to the end of the bootloader cmdline (to enable console=tty0); replace Android init with init script to perform some basic setup then pivot_root to the Meego partition.
Next steps are to get the Meego system running usefully (which includes getting a terminal as currently I just have a login prompt but no way of inputting anything!) and also seeing whether I can get dual booting working with an Android system standard boot and Meego replacing the recovery boot.
Poor pic, but still: http://people.bath.ac.uk/enpsgp/Tab/PICT0040.JPG

Good stuff. Thanks for keeping us informed.

After you've got the groundwork for this done, how easy would it be to get Ubuntu running?

Try google http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ubuntu+on+galaxy+tab
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

brilldoctor said:
Try google http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ubuntu+on+galaxy+tab
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's using chroot, which I don't want. I want it running natively.
Sent from my Galaxy Tab

[GUIDE] Changing your Bluetooth/Wi-Fi MAC Address

Hi guys
Well, I had an Atrix for a few days, but had some issues with AT&T and had to return it and deal with some customer service issues before I can re-purchase the device. I didn't let that slow me down though
While I had it, I made a few dumps of the NAND, and have been working on disassembling things. Thanks to the help from a number of great people on IRC (#xda-devs irc.freenode.net) I have been able to successfully change the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi MAC addresses, and discovered a way to write to the flash, bypassing the bootloader security.
The full writeup can be found at pocketnow.com
I will be posting more info about the bootloader bypass as soon as I get it 100% working, right now we are able to write data directly to the NAND, bypassing bootloader security, and also provide a false signature, allowing the device to boot. However there are some remaining issues (a custom kernel that was flashed to the device failed to boot properly) - stay tuned

You the man, thanks for the efforts !

Sweeeet!
Wonderful work!

Excellent, can't wait to see the end result. Hopefully custom kernels and ROMs will be coming soon.

Devs you guys are amazing! Thank you for the hard work that is put into all this! I know the challange is fun for you all, but it really helps us non dev ppl out a lot!
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

nicely done Da-G.... great work as always glad to see you again and i hope to continue using your work as i did back in old winmo cooking !!!
quick question, is there really a reason why to change the bluetooth/wifi MAC drivers??? are there any benefits or basically just the same exact reasons when you do it on pc's

Main reason to change MAC address is to be able to join Wi-Fi networks that have whitelisting.
You could also use it to simplify device administration on your network.
Beyond that I can also imagine a few black-hat reasons to do it
Atrix is one of the few smartphones that can pull it off easily though, others I am aware of are the LG Optimus One and the SGS series (although it's not so easy on SGS)
There are plenty of other interesting datas in /pds, it is the device provisioning partition (NVRAM) and is equivalent to /efs on the i9000/Captivate (which is the last device I used, so easy for me to compare with)
Careful messing with it though, on the Captivate changing the wrong bit would kill your cellular radio until you restored an EFS backup, I suspect the same danger is here with the Atrix too! And we don't have a quick way to restore a PDS backup yet like with odin on SGS (although I am hot on the heels of a method to do so)

Omfg I'm excited! If this device gets real ROMs an even custom kernels, its going to be an even more amazing device
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App

i'm exited about the bootloader bypass, i thought the firmware would do a complete checksum of it, so if it's partial then we should be able to find out exactly what gets checked.
i'm curious to see if you have been able to find something regarding sim unlock, just like the sgs was holding the lock very easily changeable with a simple hex editor. i bought the code already but maybe other people will get lucky

I've asked for a backup of /pds prior to and after locking over in the general forum, hopefully a few people can send those my way. I suspect a good hard look at that will reveal the location and provide an easy unlock method (I think I located it already, but as /pds is not restored via flashing the leaked SBF, i'm loathe to have someone else try it in fear of brickage)
I'll hammer it out once I get my device back in hand, whenever AT&T decides to allow me to purcahse

Da_G said:
I've asked for a backup of /pds prior and after locking over in the general forum, hopefully a few people can send those my way. I suspect a good hard look at that will reveal the location and provide an easy unlock method (I think I located it already, but as /pds is not restored via flashing the leaked SBF, i'm loathe to have someone else try it in fear of brickage)
I'll hammer it out once I get my device back in hand, whenever AT&T decides to allow me to purcahse
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i will do it, but i am getting a permission denied.
Code:
C:\Users\fjleon\Desktop\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools>adb shell tar zcvpf /
sdcard-ext/pds-backup.tar.gz /pds/
tar: can't open '/sdcard-ext/pds-backup.tar.gz': Permission denied
i tried adb shell su and accepted super user on the phone, but i still cannot do it

wow bypass= custom roms...... this would be ingenious hope u get it working....
how does rsd lite 5 flashing work??? it seems to create an image and then re sign it.... would backtracking and try to use the same method work?

@franciscojavierleon:
Make sure you don't have usb internal/sd storage mounted when you issue the command, or the sd card will be unaccessible from device
@ahjdmarchi:
I didn't study the program too much yet. I'll look to that if the current method i'm working on proves to be a failure

Da_G said:
@franciscojavierleon:
Make sure you don't have usb internal/sd storage mounted when you issue the command, or the sd card will be unaccessible from device
@ahjdmarchi:
I didn't study the program too much yet. I'll look to that if the current method i'm working on proves to be a failure
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
heres a tattoo that i have on my chest
"failure is not an option" good luck brudda hope all turns well

Da_G said:
@franciscojavierleon:
Make sure you don't have usb internal/sd storage mounted when you issue the command, or the sd card will be unaccessible from device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i unmounted it and tried again and still get the same error. i killed root explorer first since i had it open and no dice

@franciscojavierleon:
Try this instead.
Code:
adb shell tar zcvpf /data/local/tmp/pds-backup.tar.gz /pds/
adb pull /data/local/tmp/pds-backup.tar.gz
adb shell rm /data/local/tmp/pds-backup.tar.gz

RadioComm
You really need to take a look at RadioComm if you haven't yet.
The BT MAC address can be edited directly in the NVM on all Motorola devices.
On CDMA chipset devices it is located in seem 01bf record 0001 bytes 0006 and there is also a module and special set of TCI commands for managing this called HOB restore.
There are also flags set in the firmware for whether the HOB is verified during the flash cycle or not.
just an FYI!

@cellzealot:
Checked out RadioComm already, but none of the commands work for Atrix. Have you tried it? Perhaps you have a more updated version?

Edited. Nevermind just saw you needed it before unlock as well. I've got my PDS folder from my unlocked phone if you need it (not sure)

i should get my unlock between today and tomorrow, so with my locked pds backup i will do a diff to see if anything gets changed at all.

[HOW-TO/INFO] Bell FAQ [9-25-2011]

This is my attempt at a Bell FAQ, it is a work in progress.
Q. Why don't the instructions I found on how to do X not work?A. This is a development forum, sometimes things are written in shorthand assuming you know things you don't. At lot of things are specific to one carrier's phone or another. Sometimes things change and are now obsolete, something new was found, a better way of doing things, if you were not following it all along you are likely to be lost. Read between the lines, you are a human being with reasoning abilities, figure it out. ​Q. What should I do first?
A. Backup your phone. That means everything, especially your pds partition. Nandroid won't cut it and you have already modified your phone beyond the ability to get back if you can run it.
Ex. dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 of=/sdcard/backup/mmcblk0p3
Save your backup on your computer, create a zip of all the files, burn it off on cd/dvd, put it in a safety deposit box at your bank. Be prepared for bricking your phone. A lot of things mentioned in threads here are developed and tested for ATT phones, they may not work 100% on your phone.​Q. What is ADB?A. It stands for Android Debug Bridge or something like that. It is a program that runs on your computer that lets you talk to your phone using special commands. Your phone has to have adb enabled, it's a setting under application/development.
Ex. adb shell
This opens a linux shell connected to your phone. Linux is an operating system for computers, it is also used as the base for android phones.
Ex. adb install file.apk
Ex. adb push file /tmp
Ex. adb pull /tmp/file .​
Q. What is CWM recovery?A. Android phones come with a special boot configuration that allows for changes to the android system from a place outside the system. It is very corporate and does the job for official signed updates, but only Motorola and it's oems can sign the updates. Not much fun for us. CWM recovery is a replacement for the official recovery system that doesn't require signed updates.
You install CWM recovery using fastboot or moto-fastboot.​Q. What is unlocking the bootloader all about?A. It is the means of putting CWM recovery on your phone so you can install roms and other packages. It allows you to flash a partition with mods and have the phone not soft brick when you reboot. When the unlocked versions of the atrix bootloader were found it started a new round of mods. A lot of the threads prior to that are now obsolete.​Q. How do I unlock the bootloader?A. There is a huge thread already about this, see here.
WARNING: this is a permanent change to your phone.
Summary:
1. Download the archive
2. Extract the sbf inside, whatever it's called, that is the one to use.
3. Use linux sbf_flash or rsdlite from windows to install it.
3. fastboot oem unlock
4. Copy code fastboot spits out.
5. fastboot oem unlock code
6. fastboot reboot
You will see unlocked while booting and when you get into android you will have ~300MB of ram. This will need to be fixed. Also, you will lose all your data during the process, do a backup first.​Q. What is fastboot/moto-fastboot?A. It's a program to access the phone and do stuff, write phone partition images mostly. The stock one can only handle tiny system images, pretty useless for the Atrix, xda member eval- compiled the motorola version for us that can handle larger system images, do a search for moto-fastboot.
Ex. moto-fastboot flash recovery recovery.img.​Q. How do I fix the ram problem?A. I did up a CWM recovery zip to update the boot and recovery partitions to contain a kernel command line with the missing bit "[email protected]" added. See here.
There are other means of doing this, some boot images come prepackaged with the command line already embedded. There are ATT compiled kernels with a patch inside the kernel itself to do the same thing. You can search for those when you are ready to try things like custom ATT kernels on your phone.​Q. How do I root the phone?A. If you are unlocked and you have fastboot flashed a version of CWM recovery, it is trivial. By that I mean almost impossible for newbies to figure out.
It would go something like this:
1. Boot into CWM recovery.
2. use adb shell
3. adb push a su binary to the phone.
4. mount system as read write as /system
5. copy su binary to /system/bin
6. make sure it has the right permissions, 06755 mode , user root, group root.
7. unmount -l /system
8. when in android look on the market for Superuser.apk, install.
Every rooting method out there is all about putting su into /system/bin with 06755 permissions, most don't work anymore since Gingerbread. If you are looking for a simple, no brain involved solution, you are likely to get something working and also something else you didn't want like a replaced preinstall partition or an installed busybox with different functionality for some important system commands. (Busybox may be more up to date even, but if it doesn't do what is expected of the older version, it's still not good.)
Another way would be to create a CWM zip that simply puts the linux su binary in system with the correct permissions. Some info about creating your own can be found here. Doing this is more involved that just doing it manually, but it would be a good practice for getting into creating CWM updates.
Here is a link to a exploit someone did up to root the phone when running GB. Haven't tested it, and with an unlocked phone it is totally redundant, but it's nice that some found yet another security hole in the OS, seems similar in result to psneuter, so be sure to reboot the phone to fix the exploited system.
Seriously, if you are going to be reading or posting in the development section of xda for an android phone, take the 5 minutes to become familiar with adb and a few linux shell commands, it will save you hours of confusion and aggravation. If you fly blind trying things on your phone without understanding what you are doing you are eventually going to get into a place you can't get out of and need a new phone or REALLY have to struggle to understand things. You were warned. ​Q. How do I get back to stock?
A. You can't unless you have a backup of all your phone partitions and can update your radio and bootloader to be stock. Once you unlock your phone, it is recorded that you did so by blowing a physical fuse on the phone. This cannot be restored, you will need a new phone.
What does stock mean to you? When I bought my phone it had a certain radio, the bootloader couldn't be unlocked, the android system files had certain versions, etc. Beyond the android system there are 18 partitions that I know of on the phone, most phones do with 5-6. Every ota update or sbf files take the normal files and change them to something else, non android partitions get modified or replaced.
I have some solutions for getting close to stock, do a search for Gobstopper. There is one for Bell 2.2.2 and Bell 2.3.4, use one or the other. These attempt a full back to stock operation, that means the radio and bootloader will be stock, recovery will be stock as well. (All the partitions that are on the phone are written over with the ones that were on my phone when I bought it, with the exception of partitions 3 (pds), 15 (cache), 16 (data), and 18 (userdata or internal memory), factory reset clears cache and data, you don't want pds touched or internal memory.) Unlocked will no longer be displayed when you boot and you will no longer have CWM recovery installed. You will need to install the unlocked bootloader again and fastboot flash recovery again if stock is not what you wanted. (Your pds partition is not involved in this operation, so if you made changes to it, either directly or indirectly via a sbf this will not restore it, your pds partition contains individual phone information.)
More about sbf format here.​Q. What does the pds partition taste like?A. It's not really fit to eat. Now you know.
It is mmcblk0p3, a partition on your phone, it is mounted as /pds when android boots and contains a bunch of folders and files that nobody really understands fully but Motorola. Having a look at some of the files you will see things like your network physical address, bluetooth physical address. You will find threads where the display is all arsed up, cpu running at half speed, touch screen not working right, etc, all due to something going wrong with /pds. It is best to back it up and not mess with it. Restore it in an emergency. Maybe one day everything in there will be figured out, take a stab at it yourself.
See this thread by edgan for how to back up your pds partition.
See this thread by KeRmiT80 about attempting to fix your pds partition. Good motivation to see previous link.
​Q. I lost network data access after flashing X.
A. Check your APN list, if it's not a Bell firmware you are using, it probably doesn't have Bell's APN list. Scratch that, you don't know what that is or how to check it.
It stands for Access Point Name and a big list of them is stored on your phone in one big file (/system/etc/apns-conf.xml), each firmware has it's own version of it. Your phone will get two numbers from your carrier's phone network to do a look up in this list to figure out what configuration to use. So say it gets mcc 302, mcn 610, it will check the phone and look up 302, 610 in the file and read what it says there and use that config to try to connect. Now, another thing is that the phone knows what the home network is by these two numbers, embedded somewhere in the system. A foreign, non Bell carrier won't have Bell's numbers in there so your phone will think it's roaming. If you have roaming disabled, guess what, no data connection. Your carrier should be smart enough not to charge you for roaming, never had a problem with that, but you never know.
Here are the apn settings you can enter manually for your phone, see Bell's support link.
​Q. How do I get webtop over HDMI to work?
A. There are several threads on getting this to work on ATT phones and others, they are specific to the firmware being run on the phone. They involve copying two deodexed files to your system/app folder and replacing the ones already there. You will also need to clear your dalvik cache to get the new code recognized. They are DockService.apk and PortalApp.apk. If you are not deodexed then you also have to remove the .odex files for both.
Here is one thread for Gingerbread, in the zip there is one for ORFR that will get you to viewing the webtop on Bell GB, but applications don't load.
Here is another thread for Froyo that works, see the Bell specific bit in the OP. This does not work from Bell Gingerbread.​ To be continued...

Hoping the Mods sticky this
A link should be attached to the wiki as well. I will try to when I get home if it isn't done already.

shouldn't this be in general? or q&a?

Magnetox said:
shouldn't this be in general? or q&a?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably both. Most things referenced are in development.
Cheers!
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

y2whisper said:
Hoping the Mods sticky this
A link should be attached to the wiki as well. I will try to when I get home if it isn't done already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 this should be a sticky on either or both general or development...
cheers for this...this thread is going to help me with my youtube viewers BIG TIME!!

Very nice!
Keep it up NFHimself!

NFHimself said:
This is my attempt at a Bell FAQ, it is a work in progress.
Q. How do I root the phone?A. If you are unlocked and you have fastboot flashed a version of CWM recovery, it is trivial. By that I mean almost impossible for newbies to figure out.
It would go something like this:
1. Boot into CWM recovery.
2. use adb shell
3. adb push a su binary to the phone.
4. mount system as read write as /system
5. copy su binary to /system/bin
6. make sure it has the right permissions, 06755 mode , user root, group root.
7. unmount -l /system
8. when in android look on the market for Superuser.apk, install.
Every rooting method out there is all about putting su into /system/bin with 06755 permissions, most don't work anymore since Gingerbread. If you are looking for a simple, no brain involved solution, you are likely to get something working and also something else you didn't want like a replaced preinstall partition or an installed busybox with different functionality for some important system commands. (Busybox may be more up to date even, but if it doesn't do what is expected of the older version, it's still not good.)​ To be continued...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used this method to root the stock Bell Gingerbread ROM. Works on an Atrix too. It's a quick download and easy for those people who may not be comfortable with the adb command line.
http://www.psouza4.com/Bionic/

thx
useful for newbies
but can you put some more details about returning to stock and explain the pds partition in details plz?

papakilo10 said:
I used this method to root the stock Bell Gingerbread ROM. Works on an Atrix too. It's a quick download and easy for those people who may not be comfortable with the adb command line.
http://www.psouza4.com/Bionic/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had a look at the script in that one, should be fine, doesn't install a busybox or anything like that. I don't care for Superuser.apk in /system/app myself, but it won't harm anything having it there.
Cheers!

ytwytw said:
thx
useful for newbies
but can you put some more details about returning to stock and explain the pds partition in details plz?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I added a few things, anything in particular you wanted?
I am trying to avoid step by step tutorials or spoon feeding everything, so people who are lazy/careless will have to attempt to think for themselves. It just leads to more questions, more laziness, and bricked phones, and I don't have the time these days.
Cheers!

[Q] Any changes to the sdcard files will not take

editi guess sdcard is incorrect/confusing for my situation, it's the entire system up to root folders is stuck in a read-only type state.
I didn't really see anything that fits my current problem (sorry if there is an answer somewhere buried in here)
So to start off with info, I installed Android on the TP back in February for my fiancée just for the basics of email, videoplayer, comic reader, internet browsing. Nothing too extravagant, just something with more to offer than webos.
I never did any updates on it because it worked perfectly fine for what it was being used on.
I've changed out the video selection many times as she watches through the shows with no problems.
Now I go to change the files and I delete them, add the new stuff, all seems fine. Then I unmount it and everything I deleted is back and everything I added is gone. I've uninstalled apps and they come back, I've done updates to apps and they revert back to before the update.
I've gone into CMW and done the wipes and even formatted sdcard, cache, etc. Nothing works. Even mounting USB in CWM to add files gives the same result of them disappearing right after it is unmounted.
I've tried ACMEUnistaller but it doesn't work. I saw something flash by the screen about something failing, but it goes too fast to even really see what it's about.
Sorry this is so long. I appreciate any insight!
Kernel
2.6.35-palm-tenderloin
[email protected]ost #12
CyanogenMod version:
9.0.0-RC0-Touchpad-alpha2
Build Date
Mon, Feb 20 13:59:21 CST 2012
Build Number
IML74K

plasticsoldier said:
I didn't really see anything that fits my current problem (sorry if there is an answer somewhere buried in here)
So to start off with info, I installed Android on the TP back in February for my fiancée just for the basics of email, videoplayer, comic reader, internet browsing. Nothing too extravagant, just something with more to offer than webos.
I never did any updates on it because it worked perfectly fine for what it was being used on.
I've changed out the video selection many times as she watches through the shows with no problems.
Now I go to change the files and I delete them, add the new stuff, all seems fine. Then I unmount it and everything I deleted is back and everything I added is gone. I've uninstalled apps and they come back, I've done updates to apps and they revert back to before the update.
I've gone into CMW and done the wipes and even formatted sdcard, cache, etc. Nothing works. Even mounting USB in CWM to add files gives the same result of them disappearing right after it is unmounted.
I've tried ACMEUnistaller but it doesn't work. I saw something flash by the screen about something failing, but it goes too fast to even really see what it's about.
Sorry this is so long. I appreciate any insight!
Kernel
2.6.35-palm-tenderloin
[email protected] #12
CyanogenMod version:
9.0.0-RC0-Touchpad-alpha2
Build Date
Mon, Feb 20 13:59:21 CST 2012
Build Number
IML74K
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've run across this 3 times with TPs I work on....
1st one had to be sent back to HP because somehow internal memory was damaged and got locked in some some of read only mode
2nd one I saw, I went into webOS, installed the internalz app, mounted the TP to the computer, then added and erased some files and from then on all was good in both webOS and Android
3rd and 4th (same customer) had to be sent in to HP
Now let me mention I live in Costa Rica so all these have been exposed to several scans at airport security checkpoints. I mention this because I haven't seen anything close to a read only problem with the TPs in the USA
Sent from my aokp_tenderloin using Tapatalk 2

thank you so much for the info. Unfortunately Internalz didn't want to help the items stay deleted either. The stuck in read-only type mode is very weird.
I'm pretty sure I am 3 weeks out of the 1-year warranty on it, plus I am unable to remove android from it to even trick them that it just doesn't work.
I guess I'll try webos doctor and see if that can get it going.
edit: webos doctor not working, even with the closing it at 8-12% tricks and doing the lvm.static..... stuff... 'cause it of course doesn't see to actually delete anything... i'll have to double check tomorrow when i bought it, pretty sure it's over the year and since it turns on and has android kinda screwed

plasticsoldier said:
thank you so much for the info. Unfortunately Internalz didn't want to help the items stay deleted either. The stuck in read-only type mode is very weird.
I'm pretty sure I am 3 weeks out of the 1-year warranty on it, plus I am unable to remove android from it to even trick them that it just doesn't work.
I guess I'll try webos doctor and see if that can get it going.
edit: webos doctor not working, even with the closing it at 8-12% tricks and doing the lvm.static..... stuff... 'cause it of course doesn't see to actually delete anything... i'll have to double check tomorrow when i bought it, pretty sure it's over the year and since it turns on and has android kinda screwed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest trying to restore down to WebOS 3.0. In that procedure you literally wipe EVERYTHING on the internal partitions in novaterm and start from absolute scratch. Therefore, if it a software issue you could solve the problem. However, if it is a hardware issue, you'd be kinda screwed.

Yeah, none of the methods I've ended up finding about this problem or other bricked problems are working at all.
i checked at work when i bought it, which of course the 11th was the year mark... but I do have android installed so even if i can get any chance of them honouring it so close they'll probably be like "oh you have android, that'll be $$$ for us to do anything. thanks!"
So I guess I now I have a paperweight with some features.

cdzo72 said:
I've run across this 3 times with TPs I work on....
1st one had to be sent back to HP because somehow internal memory was damaged and got locked in some some of read only mode
2nd one I saw, I went into webOS, installed the internalz app, mounted the TP to the computer, then added and erased some files and from then on all was good in both webOS and Android
3rd and 4th (same customer) had to be sent in to HP
Now let me mention I live in Costa Rica so all these have been exposed to several scans at airport security checkpoints. I mention this because I haven't seen anything close to a read only problem with the TPs in the USA
Sent from my aokp_tenderloin using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you got the tablets back had they been fixed or were they refurbs ? Did HP say anything about Android still being on it?

There is a thread in the General forum about how to restore and downgrade. Have you tried that thread ? It is usually a great way to try and get that last restore before sending it back to HP.
73 de VE6AY
Sent from my HP Touchpad, running the latest CM9 nightly, from the XDA Premium App

how are you adding and deleting files when in android? which version of android do you have installed? have you tried different rom versions? have you tried moving and/or deleting files over adb? are you using windows or linux on your computer that youre connecting the touchpad to? it doesnt make sense that the sdcard would be set to read only. is it only certain folders that you cant modify the contents of, or is it the entire sdcard? are you able to modify contents of folders in the / directory of the device using root file explorer or es file explorer in android? have you run "fix permissions"? Also, running webosdoctor wont wipe the sdcard contents or format the sdcard in any way. its going to change the data in the webos partition and may change some data in the /boot directory.

sstar said:
When you got the tablets back had they been fixed or were they refurbs ? Did HP say anything about Android still being on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They had been fixed but the owners sent them off and had to pay for the whole thing because they had Android on them. When I got my hands on them again I just reinstalled Android. HP charged a little over a hundred dollars for the fix
Sent from my aokp_tenderloin using Tapatalk 2

cdzo72 said:
They had been fixed but the owners sent them off and had to pay for the whole thing because they had Android on them. When I got my hands on them again I just reinstalled Android. HP charged a little over a hundred dollars for the fix
Sent from my aokp_tenderloin using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the answer, this would tend to suggest that the problem is software based corrupted or otherwise. I am trying to find a program that will allow me to read/format the Android partition on my windows computer and will let you know if come up with anything.
Regards

i guess i should change the title slightly.. it's not sdcard, but basically the entire touchpad contents. go to root and delete whatever i want and it doesn't matter. connect it and format with windows and it doesn't actually matter.
haxin said:
how are you adding and deleting files when in android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've added and deleted just by using mtp. i've also deleted the files on the android side with the video player (vplayer) i've installed es file explorer (which after restart is gone) and deleted with that. i've also gone into webos and installed internalz pro and deleted files that way, which it then seems to work until i of course do anything related to restarting.
some of the files i've put on, i've had it recognize briefly. so for the video file, start it, then it gets really choppy/glitchy playing it. so stop it, go back into the vplayer and it's back to the old stuff
which version of android do you have installed? have you tried different rom versions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
android version 4.0.3. nothing else will install. if i add files while in android, when i boot into cwm they are gone. if i mount usb in cwm and add them they stay briefly but when i try to flash them they fail.
have you tried moving and/or deleting files over adb? are you using windows or linux on your computer that youre connecting the touchpad to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have not tried adb yet, just not as familiar using it properly, i will give it a try though.
i am using windows 7 on my laptop currently. i do have a pc upstairs that i barely use that has vista, but i don't know how that would make a difference to the touchpad
it doesnt make sense that the sdcard would be set to read only. is it only certain folders that you cant modify the contents of, or is it the entire sdcard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah as i put above i guess saying sdcard was a bit confusing/misleading (my bad, sorry!), i didn't really know what else to call it at the time or how to explain myself properly at first.
are you able to modify contents of folders in the / directory of the device using root file explorer or es file explorer in android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i can move/delete/modify anything which has absolutely no effect to the device. i've used es file explorer and gone up to root and deleted everything and the system runs fine. says the system is empty with lots of free space (its the 32gb model) but restart or even go into recovery and everything is once again there.
have you run "fix permissions"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've run it a few times. just acts likes it's working and then says done. i've even gone into the mounts and storage in cwm and formatted sdcard/cache/data/system. does nothing at all in the end of things
Also, running webosdoctor wont wipe the sdcard contents or format the sdcard in any way. its going to change the data in the webos partition and may change some data in the /boot directory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it was just something to try to get somewhere right. it never gets past 12%. always fails to reboot.
I am currently letting the battery drain and see if it dying and then being charged will do anything. probably not. but who knows. i talked to a "tech" on the chat support (i never mentioned android) who told me that having preware installed in webos causing it to become corrupt and they "don't knowledge of preware installed devices" exact words. no idea what that means haha don't have knowledge, don't acknowledge...
anyhow. i've not quite given up. i just don't really see it turning out any differently from the previous times. i do appreciate all the feedback and help very much though

ok so heres what I would try. First try flashing a new fresh rom. download one that you want to your computer like cm9 nightly or aokp or whatever you feel like. then boot into CWM recovery connect the touchpad to the computer via usb. then connect to the touchpad with adb. I'm not sure how to do this in windows because it's been so long since I've done it on a windows box, I always use linux.
adb has alot of options, you can move files to and from the device, you can uninstall or install app packages, and more. this way you can adb push the rom .zip to the touchpad's sdcard while youre in cwm recovery. this way you dont have to reboot the touchpad and risk having the file disappear, you can just go to 'install zip from sdcard' and then 'choose zip from sdcard' in cwm recovery after you adb push the rom, you should see it in the folder you pushed it to on the sdcard.
If you arent familiar with how to use adb from the command line or the terminal this might not make alot of sense and i dont know how better to explain it than that. Also yes windows 7 vs windows vista does make a difference there are issues with novacom installing properly, that's why you would have problems running acmeuninstaller or acmeinstaller2. if you look around you should find some videos or how to's that can probably explain it better. Hope this helps.
http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/Novacom_with_Windows_7
http://forums.webosnation.com/webos-internals/295881-webos-doctor-12-issue-fixed-5.html

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1426244 is the thread I was talking about - it allows you to access the hard root of the device, repartition it, and start again from scratch. It is what I was suggesting last night, from my tablet when I didn't have the link handy.

ve6ay said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1426244 is the thread I was talking about - it allows you to access the hard root of the device, repartition it, and start again from scratch. It is what I was suggesting last night, from my tablet when I didn't have the link handy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably the best suggestion yet given that everything else has been tried.
Good luck.

****EDIT****
Before you attempt the step above I have just noticed a difference between between cwm and. TWRP2.2 which I have installed on my Touchpad via goo manager. If I open recovery via goo manager and then select wipe it gives me 4 options cache, davlik, factory reset AND system which i think says will remove your rom . I don't see the forth option available with the regular cwm/clockwork. Just a thought.
All the best with whatever you try next.

sstar said:
Probably the best suggestion yet given that everything else has been tried.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this would work, however you have to fix you novacom/novaterm issues on your windows machine before you'll be able to do any of this. the reason acmeuninstaller, acmeinstaller2 arent working is likely because youre on a windows7 64bit box and Palm-sdk, the novacomd.exe, noverm.exe, and javaruntime apps and drivers arent setup right. just make sure you have the proper javaupdates on your computer then you can install preware in webos, preware has some nice tools that will delete the entire android install partitions, one is called 'remove android' and the other is called 'tailor' you run them from within webos. after you do that then in webos you should do a full device reset. you'll find it in the "info" tab under settings in webos. this will delete and reformat the whole /media ,(aka sdcard) partition. so you will lose all the files you have stored on both webos and android. that format will take a long time probably like 30 min or more. after thats done. reboot the hp and run webosdoctor. now i know for sure this will work because ive done it on mine. remember to put the touchpad in developer mode in webos first to install preware. you can do that by typing webos20090606 into the webos search bar and hitting enter. I'll put links from my box.com accou t to everything you need.
https://www.box.com/s/479acdb6ef9c99fc7b92
https://www.box.com/s/1aed4722990aad251570
edit: also I'm not sure if youre on the 16gig 32gig or 64gig pad, the webosdoctor that i linked is for 32gig wifi only US version. if thats not what you have then youll need to get the doctor for for specific touchpad. or you could create a webosmetadoctor but thats a whole nother project.

i have the 32gb version. i assume US and Canadian aren't gonna make a difference
i've tried all those threads. any novacom/novaterm stuff doesn't work, the files won't delete so when trying to recreate they just error saying it already exists.
if the devices is on in androind the adb can find the device although the "Serial" has a bunch of ???? at the end of it. when i go to cwm adb cannot find the device.
in cwm i can mount and add files that way and go back to install zip sdcard but get:
Code:
--Installing /sdcard/aokp_tenderloin_milestone-4.zip
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
E: Can't open /sdcard/aokp_tenderloin_milestone-4.zip
(bad)
Installation aborted
used "remove android" in webos, but then nothing is different after the fact as usual. 'tailor' doesn't seem to exist anymore in preware at least that i can find
not sure if there is anything else I can do at this point

plasticsoldier said:
i have the 32gb version. i assume US and Canadian aren't gonna make a difference
i've tried all those threads. any novacom/novaterm stuff doesn't work, the files won't delete so when trying to recreate they just error saying it already exists.
if the devices is on in androind the adb can find the device although the "Serial" has a bunch of ???? at the end of it. when i go to cwm adb cannot find the device.
in cwm i can mount and add files that way and go back to install zip sdcard but get:
Code:
--Installing /sdcard/aokp_tenderloin_milestone-4.zip
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
E: Can't open /sdcard/aokp_tenderloin_milestone-4.zip
(bad)
Installation aborted
used "remove android" in webos, but then nothing is different after the fact as usual. 'tailor' doesn't seem to exist anymore in preware at least that i can find
not sure if there is anything else I can do at this point
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok no one will be able to help you fix this issue unless you give complete details of the problems. when you say " novacom/novaterm stuff doesn't work" we cant really help specific error details is what i need. I dont mind helping you fix this but you have to be a little more specific on exactly what,where, and how youre installing and running and mounting apps and directories.
your problem IS fixable but you need to slow down and really do things exactly step by step.
Ok so back to ./adb. now when you boot in to CWM recovery on he touchpad DONT do anything in CWM just plug it into the computer. do not mount it as a usb storage and dont mount or unmount the sd partition LEAVE IT.
you can then use ./adb from the command line or terminal on the computer to move the files to the touchpad' or install apk's uninstall apk's you name it. This will require that you know some linux terminal commands. for example to move a new rom zip to the internal sd card or into any other folder you can use ./adb push command to run a root shell on the android device itself you can use ./adb shell and then change folder and file properties from readonly to rw. this can all be done while the touchpad is patiently waitng in CWM recovery. this way when youre done installing or uninstalling apps from the device and moving flash zips to it, you can disconnect the .adb connection with ./adb disconnect or just type exit from the terminal till it closes. unplug it then you will be able to pick up the touchpad and install zip from the sdcard, keep in mind you dont want to choose 'apply u[date from sdcard' you want to use the 'install zip from sdcard option' you can read up more on how adb works. it is probally the most important part of hacking android.
with that being said. novaterm is the palm webos version of .adb. this is why when you boot into webos recovery to do things like acmeinstaller and acmeuninstaller2 the novaterm novacom and novacomd apps have to be installed correctly on the computer or else you wont be going anywhere fast. some screenshot examples of how it should appear below.
https://www.box.com/s/432e63a83215f00eea6a
https://www.box.com/s/970bc29542a05f98f036
https://www.box.com/s/63c0f656e8354f7f2d6a
https://www.box.com/s/cbe3266467ae8e3ebabe
https://www.box.com/s/005e56a61a178dd17fa4 some better resolution images.

Plasticsoldier said
used "remove android" in webos, but then nothing is different after the fact as usual. 'tailor' doesn't seem to exist anymore in preware at least that i can find
not sure if there is anything else I can do at this point
Yes there is
Firstly tailor does exist, it is a beta and the facility to dl must be enabled.
Read this and scroll down to Enabling beta test feeds and follow the instructions , when you get as far as using the Linux command you CAN copy and paste thank God.
http://en.m.webos-internals.org/wiki/Testing_Feeds?wasRedirected=true . After that reboot into Webos and launch preware. Go into managed feeds as per the instructions in the link above and install Tailor. Reboot again and the app will work. It looks very good actually.
But before attempting to actually use Tailor please read the article I have posted below it is only 7 pages long but will explain how to use Taylor properly as it is a powerful tool.
http://forums.webosnation.com/webos...partition-filesystem-editor-beta-testing.html
I have done all of this , this morning so if you have any problems pm me or ask in this thread.
I sincerely hope that this helps, it should be the answer to your problems.

@haxin: sorry, wasn't trying to be unhelpful when everyone is being helpful to me. I shall be more detailed in future responses. I think i was getting frustrated and had had a busy exhausting day so it didn't help me come across clearly/properly.
OK, so I had preware installed already, so I removed it, went into developer mode, used the linux commands, reinstalled preware, added Tailor.
(i've done this a few times, because I didn't remove the cable after doing the linux commands for preware, then i accidentally hit the wrong buttons and it connected to 'usb drive' mode and wouldn't connect on the pc side and got stuck on the "ow disconnected me properly next time" screen).
So it gives me the following options
USB (media)
Android (system)
Android (cache)
Android (data)
Unused Space
the 'usb media' starts mounted and will mount again if unmounted. If I use 'check filesystem' it'll pass. So then I try 'delete partition' which pretends to delete, then it takes me to the unused partition which is still at 16mb. so i try to use "check filesystem' again and it fails. try repair and it fails as well
I've tried mounting the android parts just to see, they just sit there processing that they are trying to mount. trying to delete or anything else fails as well.
and now after trying things, any of the 'cards' will try to open and just sit there grey. and with my usb cable not plugged in it still is giving me the option to enter usb drive mode. and with this i have to restart and go through the steps again of adding Tailor which is getting tedious.
I restarted, went through the motions to get back to Tailor. trying out resizing just to see how that goes. So far 15%. not sure what will happen when done, but we will see.
This is getting long, so i'll end this part and update on anything and also try to familiarize myself with adb a tad more

De-Bloater: fix mistake without TWRP in Android recovery possible?

Hi,
I am in a bit of trouble I have a Motorola Edge 20 (2022) and I was playing with De-Bloater under Magisk. It worked really fine until I pushed the limit of how many Motorola apps i can remove. The last one was the wrong one, I think it was Motorola settings storage (provider) or so. Now the phone won't boot anymore and I was stupid enough not to back up the photos I made in the last three days.
I don't have TWRP on the phone (it's not available yet), so the Android recovery has to do. I saw that I can mount /system, but I don't know how to modify or even read it after mounting it. The internet is full of instructions of how to mount it and always mentions that you can then modify anything on it, but nowhere does it explain exactly HOW to do that
adb shell/push/pull just says "unable to... : closed"
The second option seems to adb sideload some zip. But what zip would I have to flash to disable the De-Bloater without factory resetting everything?
thanks

whoohoo! I jst discovered Safe Mode. Immediate problem thereby solved However, I am still interested in the first part of my question: how to use the mounted /system in Recovery Mode?

michael-brade said:
whoohoo! I jst discovered Safe Mode. Immediate problem thereby solved However, I am still interested in the first part of my question: how to use the mounted /system in Recovery Mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with stock recovery, youre unlikely to win as /data is decrypted (usually) and /system is largely unmountable and writeable (at least easily)
the usual prescription if you cant get into safe mode is:
Code:
adb wait-for-device shell magisk --remove-modules
from the bible (read on for TWRP ways which are 100% easier):
Magisk - Installation and troubleshooting:Magisk and MagiskHide Installation and Troubleshooting guide
didgeridoohan.com
which obviously removes all modules, even us experienced folks fond ourselves using the magical key combo to get into safe mode on occasion because we flew too close to the sun doping something in magisk
ironically debloating wasnt one of those times for me, i gave a log of what i debloated to the author of one debloater modules recently when he released a new version of his module and he was like "and it still boots?"...the list of debloated packages was at 135, and i could remove even more...

Thanks, good to know. But even adb wasn't able to connect anymore, Android got stuck even earlier.
However, I don't really mind if /system is read-only, I am more interested in how to (even theoretically) use the stock recovery. There is no manual and nobody said anything so far. So once you clicked "mount /system", what to do?

Lenovo (owner of Moto) has a online 'rescue' site that u can go to with your phone connected to the PC and it'll flash your Moto back to stock...prolly won't retain ur data, but it saved my a$$ a few times with my old twrp-less A/B slotted Moto G7. Can't recall the exact url but am sure u can dig it up with google.

Zaxx32 said:
Lenovo (owner of Moto) has a online 'rescue' site that u can go to with your phone connected to the PC and it'll flash your Moto back to stock...prolly won't retain ur data, but it saved my a$$ a few times with my old twrp-less A/B slotted Moto G7. Can't recall the exact url but am sure u can dig it up with google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... but I can already do that without their help using fastboot. No need for the Android recovery.
Isn't it strange that there is a function we don't know how to use or how it works?