Database Users

Minimal UI for LUKS encryption on the Wildfire

This is a basic gui I wrote to unlock my encrypted partitions during boot.
I'm running my /data and /sdcard partitions encrypted, and the "luksunlock" binary is launched from init.rc to read the password and unlock the encrypted partitions.
I have included my somewhat modified init.rc for those interested.
For more information about LUKS on Android see this blogpost, written by shawn (Seems I'm not allowed to have urls in the post, but Google for 'android luks' , first hit)
This works good on Wildfire, altough it should work fine on other phones as well. Just remember that you need to set up your partitions as in the luksunlock.c (or change the defines).
Dont forget to backup before you start playing around!
Good luck!

Thanks! i'll give a try!

Hi,
I tried to use your cryptsetup binary from your blog, but I have some issues that you'll sure have an answer:
I run ./cryptsetup luksFormat -c aes-plain /dev/block/loop2 and after i put the luks password it says 'Command failed', no logs, no other output, even using the -v flag...
Any clue?
Thanks in advance!
PS: the module dm-crypt is necessary for cryptsetup? could be this the error? I don't have it installed on the system because I can't find it for 2.6.35.9-cyanogenmod

tusabe said:
Hi,
I tried to use your cryptsetup binary from your blog, but I have some issues that you'll sure have an answer:
I run ./cryptsetup luksFormat -c aes-plain /dev/block/loop2 and after i put the luks password it says 'Command failed', no logs, no other output, even using the -v flag...
Any clue?
Thanks in advance!
PS: the module dm-crypt is necessary for cryptsetup? could be this the error? I don't have it installed on the system because I can't find it for 2.6.35.9-cyanogenmod
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM6.1 for wildfire uses a 2.6.32 kernel (see HCDR.jacob's post about his custom kernel for more info)

tusabe said:
PS: the module dm-crypt is necessary for cryptsetup? could be this the error? I don't have it installed on the system because I can't find it for 2.6.35.9-cyanogenmod
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you really need dm-crypt support, either compiled into the kernel or as a module. You also need the AES ciphers support.

sigkill1337 said:
Yeah you really need dm-crypt support, either compiled into the kernel or as a module. You also need the AES ciphers support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi! Yeah, that's what I was afraid of.... ok, but the problem is that i'm running CM6.1 with 2.6.35.9 which has no dm-crypt module neither compiled in kernel... where can i find some kernel with this modules included? Is for an HTC Desire (@Sympnotic )
Thanks in advance!

Great work and thanks for sharing @Sigkill. Working on building it here for my NexusOne with CM6.1.
BTW, I’m the lead on a project working on general secure Android distro – we’ve ported Tor, have an OTR IM app, and have supported other projects along those lines. Would love to talk more about supporting anyone working on this specific capability.

wow! awesome work!!! Very exciting news. Gonna give this a go on my MyTouch Slide

NathanFreitas said:
Great work and thanks for sharing @Sigkill. Working on building it here for my NexusOne with CM6.1.
BTW, I’m the lead on a project working on general secure Android distro – we’ve ported Tor, have an OTR IM app, and have supported other projects along those lines. Would love to talk more about supporting anyone working on this specific capability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems really nice. I like the secure phone concept.

New Makefile and wiki info up
_hc from the @guardianproject has a new build process up for Crypsetup/LUKS which includes a Makefile compatible with Android NDK r5.
We have new instructions up on our wiki, as well.
I cannot post links under this account, but you can find the info on github if you search "LUKS" or just under our guardianproject account.

How did you create the encrypted partitions? Could you give some pointers for that. I am familiar with using dmcrypt/cryptsetup on desktop linux, I guess this works similar. What are the relevant device names? Did you run into any problems?

Calavera1 said:
How did you create the encrypted partitions? Could you give some pointers for that. I am familiar with using dmcrypt/cryptsetup on desktop linux, I guess this works similar. What are the relevant device names? Did you run into any problems?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, sorry for the late answer,
/dev/block/mtdblock5 is the "userdata" partition. I formatted it and mount it to /encrypted-data during init:
mount yaffs2 [email protected] /encrypted-data nosuid nodev
The only file on this partition is "data.encrypted" file, which gets created in init.rc as a loopback device:
exec /system/bin/losetup /dev/block/loop0 /encrypted-data/data.encrypted
I created the "data.encrypted" file on my computer with cryptsetup and losetup, and copied all files from my old unencrypted userdata partition to it and then copied it back as a file to the formated userdata partition.
The sdcard "/dev/block/mmcblk0p2" partition is formated with "cryptsetup luksFormat", I did this also on my computer, saves some time. And then copy everything from the old unencrypted sdcard.
I did run in to one problem recently, my phone hung during boot, about 4 months after I started encrypting my phone.
Had to copy my data.encrypted file to my computer, mount it as a loopback device and do a fsck, and then copy it back to my phone.
I suspect this has to do with the filesystem not being umounted properly. (I have had this on my to do list for a while hehe)
Probably should make a script run during shutdown to cleanly "luksClose" the encrypted partition and then umount them. Not doing this is probably very crazy
I also want to fix it so my "/dev/block/mmcblk0p2" partition gets presented to my computer when i attach my usb cable (as it should do), so i can unlock it in ubuntu and copy images and files. Right now i have to take my memorycard out and put it into the computer.
I hope this post makes sense, it was written in haste =) Good luck!

sigkill1337 said:
Hi, sorry for the late answer,
/dev/block/mtdblock5 is the "userdata" partition. I formatted it and mount it to /encrypted-data during init:
mount yaffs2 [email protected] /encrypted-data nosuid nodev
The only file on this partition is "data.encrypted" file, which gets created in init.rc as a loopback device:
exec /system/bin/losetup /dev/block/loop0 /encrypted-data/data.encrypted
I created the "data.encrypted" file on my computer with cryptsetup and losetup, and copied all files from my old unencrypted userdata partition to it and then copied it back as a file to the formated userdata partition.
The sdcard "/dev/block/mmcblk0p2" partition is formated with "cryptsetup luksFormat", I did this also on my computer, saves some time. And then copy everything from the old unencrypted sdcard.
I did run in to one problem recently, my phone hung during boot, about 4 months after I started encrypting my phone.
Had to copy my data.encrypted file to my computer, mount it as a loopback device and do a fsck, and then copy it back to my phone.
I suspect this has to do with the filesystem not being umounted properly. (I have had this on my to do list for a while hehe)
Probably should make a script run during shutdown to cleanly "luksClose" the encrypted partition and then umount them. Not doing this is probably very crazy
I also want to fix it so my "/dev/block/mmcblk0p2" partition gets presented to my computer when i attach my usb cable (as it should do), so i can unlock it in ubuntu and copy images and files. Right now i have to take my memorycard out and put it into the computer.
I hope this post makes sense, it was written in haste =) Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured most of that out without your post and tried it on my desire (I created the luks partitions with adb on the phone though, worked anyway ). Then I couldn't figure out where my regular init.rc is stored (I could only find the one used by Clockwork Recovery), and then I figured I already spent enough time, tried a reboot (which of course didn't work). Then I couldn't even get into recovery (probably because its init.rc tries to mount /data which doesn't work? I didn't investigate any further). Flashed my backup with fastboot and was stuck again with my un-encrypted pre-experiment state
Oddly enough, it was no problem to unlock my encrypted SD-card from my computer (running ubuntu) while in recovery (clockword has an option to present the sd card to a computer connected via usb). Maybe the booted system handles this differently than recovery though? I didn't get a chance to try, as I couldn't boot after my encryption attempt.
I will try again after my algorithm and data structure exam this friday and report back

Is anybody using the UI on another device than the Wildfire? Does it work?
How much is the performance drain when using an encrypted /data partition?

Amazing work!

Did anyone manage to make sigkill1337's luksunlock build from source ?
I would like to change the path of the data/sdcard partitions to match my device but I tried many ways using the NDK and I can't get it to compile properly.
Is there any way to do this ?
I have been trying for days, I am getting literaly insane !
@sigkill1337 : could you give me some pointers ? I would appreciate a lot.

mount manpage said:
The bind mounts.
Since Linux 2.4.0 it is possible to remount part of the file hierarchy somewhere else. The call is
mount --bind olddir newdir
or shortoption
mount -B olddir newdir
or fstab entry is:
/olddir /newdir none bind
After this call the same contents is accessible in two places. One can also remount a single file (on a single file).
This call attaches only (part of) a single filesystem, not possible submounts. The entire file hierarchy including submounts is attached a second place using
mount --rbind olddir newdir
or shortoption
mount -R olddir newdir
Note that the filesystem mount options will remain the same as those on the original mount point, and cannot be changed by passing the -o option along with --bind/--rbind. The mount options can be changed by a separate remount command, for example:
mount --bind olddir newdir
mount -o remount,ro newdir
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If nothing helps, you should always be able to bindmount it

I'd rather get sigkill1337's UI to compile...
Lots of nice security tweaks and settings could be done with a pre-boot GUI
Anyway, concerning encryption, I'll use the bind option for now, thanks for the tip.
But if anyone here could give me some pointers about compiling this stuff it would be great.
I managed to compile it by integrating luksunlock in Android source externals and main.mk but when I push it to my phone and modify init.rc to call it, it just does not work...
Other modifications are working (mount, mkdir, etc.) but the GUI won't show up

Sorry for the late reply.. But you could try running it from a shell when the phone is booted, just to verify that the binary starts (thats how I tested it without having to reboot my phone all the time)
My environment for building the source was setup using one of the tutorials online, nothing out of the ordinary
Im still running this on my phone, for almost 8 months now, I havent noticed that much in performance problems, the Wildfire was slow before i started using luks.
When i get a new phone (maybe SE Arc) i will be easier to see if performance is affected

There is an Issue for getting CM support for encrypted filesystems during boot:
Issue 2736: support encrypted filesystem from boot
If you want to get that feature, just "star" it, so it may get more attention.

[HOWTO] "Partitioning" your Nexus S using LVM

Always wanted a larger /data partition? Want to add a swap partition or an extra partition for your Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora chroot? Want your ROM to have the combined /data and /sdcard of Honeycomb and ICS devices? Then this guide is for you.
Table of contents
This post: background information
(Advanced) users: modifying your phone to use LVM
Developers: adding LVM support to a ROM
Building LVM for Android
The Linux [URL="http://sourceware.org/lvm2/]Logical Volume Manager[/URL] (LVM) is a set of tools which allows you to create virtual disks ("logical volumes", "LVs") backed by a set of real storage devices ("physical volumes", "PVs") organized into "volume groups" ("VGs"). Using LVM, you can:
Create logical volumes which are larger than any of the individual physical volumes available on your device's real storage.
Create an arbitrary number of logical volumes of arbitrary size, regardless of the number of physical volumes or partitions available on your real storage devices. You could, for example, add a dedicated swap partition, or create a separate /system and /data for a dual-boot setup.
Take a snapshot of a logical volume -- a copy of the LV which only stores differences between it and the original (requires additional kernel support). You could, for example, take a snapshot of the external storage LV and export it via USB mass storage to a computer, without needing to unmount the LV from your device.
Grow or shrink logical volumes without unmounting the file system ("online resize", requires filesystem support).
LVM was developed to manage storage on Linux servers and workstations, but was also used by Palm/HP in WebOS devices. It uses the Linux device-mapper technology used in Android for apps installed on the SD card, so any Android kernel will work with LVM.
This guide was developed with the Nexus S in mind, but the technique described should be applicable to many other Android devices as well.

Modifying your phone to use LVM
WARNING WARNING WARNING
While unlikely, you could brick your phone if you do this incorrectly!!!
Read this guide completely before attempting. If you don't understand the procedure, read it again until you do. If you still don't understand, wait for someone else to make this easier. If you're not sure you understand, you probably don't.
BACK UP EVERYTHING ON YOUR PHONE, INCLUDING THE CONTENTS OF /sdcard, BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS PROCEDURE! This will erase everything on your phone.
The preassembled images attached to this post are for Nexus S GT-i9020T running stock Android 4.0.4 IMM76D ONLY. They may or may not work with other phones and ROMs. (See the next post for how to modify any ROM to use LVM.)
You will need:
A Nexus S with unlocked bootloader
A computer with fastboot and adb installed and working
A USB cable
Factory images for your phone, in case something goes wrong
Procedure:
Take a nandroid backup of your phone and copy it to your computer. We'll use it to restore the ROM later. You MUST copy the backup to your computer! This procedure will erase EVERYTHING on your phone, including the contents of /sdcard.
Download the boot and recovery images attached to this post. Reboot your phone into the bootloader, then flash the recovery to your phone using fastboot:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recovery-lvm-clockwork-5.0.2.0-crespo.img
(GPL information: this is the stock kernel image from ClockworkMod 5.0.2.0. For LVM source, see this post.)
Boot into recovery.
Enter the shell on the device:
Code:
adb shell
In the shell on the device, do the following (# is your prompt):
Code:
# /lvm/sbin/lvm pvcreate /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
# /lvm/sbin/lvm vgcreate lvpool /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
This marks the partitions normally used for /system, /data, and /sdcard for use with LVM, and creates an LVM volume group named "lvpool" using those devices.
In the shell on the device, set up your desired logical volumes (partitions).
Code:
# /lvm/sbin/lvm lvcreate -L 320M -n system lvpool
# /lvm/sbin/lvm lvcreate -L 1G -n userdata lvpool
# /lvm/sbin/lvm lvcreate -L 10G -n media lvpool
[...]
This creates the mandatory logical volumes named "system", "userdata", and "media", which will be mounted on /system, /data, and /sdcard, respectively. Replace the argument to -L with the desired size of each partition. (/system needs to be at least 300 MB to fit the stock ROM.) You can create additional volumes similarly:
Code:
# /lvm/sbin/lvm lvcreate -L [size] -n [name] lvpool
replacing [size] with the desired size and [name] with the desired name. You have a little less than 15 GB space in the volume group to work with; depending on how many partitions you want to create, you can adjust the size of the "media" and "userdata" logical volumes as required.
Reboot back into recovery. Mount the USB storage on your computer. On your computer, format your phone's USB storage as you would a USB flash drive.
Copy your nandroid backup from your computer onto your phone.
Reboot back into recovery. Restore the nandroid backup.
Reboot into the bootloader. Flash the boot image to your phone via fastboot:
Code:
fastboot flash boot boot-lvm-crespo-IMM76D.img
(GPL information: this is the stock kernel image for IMM76D. Source is available from AOSP git. For LVM source, see this post.)
Reboot. You should have a working device running on LVM.
Additional tips and hints
To see the logical volumes you've created, use
Code:
# /lvm/sbin/lvm lvs
and to see how much free space you have remaining in the volume group, use
Code:
# /lvm/sbin/lvm vgs
If you want to delete a logical volume (for example, if you screwed up), use
Code:
# /lvm/sbin/lvm lvremove /dev/lvpool/name
(replacing "name" with the name of the LV you want to delete).
It's often useful to leave a bit of free space in the volume group (512 MB to 1 GB or so). This gives you a bit more flexibility to modify the layout or grow partitions in the future, and allows you to take snapshots of logical volumes.
Removing LVM from your phone
Flash a standard recovery such as the regular ClockworkMod recovery to your phone.
Do a full wipe/factory reset.
Restore your phone from a backup.
If things go really wrong, flash the factory image to your phone via fastboot.

Modifying an existing ROM to use LVM
(This is a condensed version of the full guide: https://raw.github.com/steven676/android-lvm-mod/master/HOWTO-MOD)
You will first want to grab a copy of the binaries and config files by cloning my git repository: https://github.com/steven676/android-lvm-mod.
Unpack the ramdisks from your boot and recovery images. Make the following changes:
Copy the contents of lvm-bin/ in the git repository to lvm/ in the ramdisks.
Copy devices/crespo/lvm.conf to lvm/etc/lvm.conf in the ramdisks.
For the boot image, integrate the changes in devices/crespo/boot/init.herring.rc-changes.diff into your init.herring.rc.
For the recovery image, integrate the changes in devices/crespo/recovery/init.rc-changes.diff into your init.rc.
For the recovery image, copy devices/crespo/recovery/recovery.fstab to etc/recovery.fstab.
Repack the ramdisks and create new boot and recovery images with them (the original kernels are fine to use).
If creating a flashable zip to install your ROM, you will also want to modify the installer script to set up the LVM volume group and logical volumes (see the previous post).
If you're building your own kernel, consider enabling CONFIG_DM_SNAPSHOT in your kernel's build configuration, to allow taking snapshots of logical volumes.
Remember that LVM is released under the terms of the GPL v2 (same as the Linux kernel), so you are required to comply with the GPL's source distribution requirements with respect to LVM.
More extensive modifications (such as changing the devices used to form the volume group) are possible; see the full HOWTO guide for details.

Building LVM from source for Android
The LVM source was written for standard glibc-based GNU/Linux systems, and doesn't build agains Android libc. We could invest time and effort into porting it to Android, but it's easier to just statically link the LVM binary against glibc (we already have to use a statically linked binary, since the boot image doesn't ship shared libraries).
To build LVM with glibc, you will need either an actual GNU/Linux ARM system with a development environment (gcc, make, and glibc header files) set up, or a GNU/Linux ARM cross-compiler toolchain (more difficult to set up). The binaries in lvm-bin/ were compiled with an Emdebian squeeze/armel toolchain running on a Debian squeeze/amd64 machine; this procedure has also been tested with a Nexus S running a Debian squeeze chroot (though any recent Linux distribution and any device should do). The Linaro prebuilt GCC toolchain and the CodeSourcery CodeBench Lite toolchain for ARM GNU/Linux should work; the Android NDK toolchain will not.
Getting the source
Clone the lvm-mod git repository. Then, in the newly cloned repository, do
Code:
git submodule init
git submodule update
You will have a copy of the LVM source (as used to build the binaries in lvm-bin/) in lvm-src/.
(Alternately, clone https://github.com/steven676/lvm2 and checkout branch android-lvm-mod. You can also use upstream's git repository or source tarballs; see their website for details.)
Building the source
(This is a condensed version of the full guide: https://raw.github.com/steven676/android-lvm-mod/master/HOWTO-BUILD)
These instructions are written for a native build (building in a Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora chroot on an actual ARM device).
Configure the LVM source:
Code:
$ ./configure --prefix=/lvm --enable-static_link --disable-readline \
--disable-selinux --with-pool=none --with-cluster=none \
--with-confdir=/lvm/etc --with-default-run-dir=/data/lvm/run \
--with-default-system-dir=/lvm/etc \
--with-default-locking-dir=/data/lvm/lock \
--with-optimisation="-Os -march=armv5te -mtune=cortex-a8 -mthumb"
For a cross build, you need to set up the system to run ARM binaries using QEMU (see the full HOWTO for details). (For extra credit, fix the build so that it works with the configuration produced by running configure without qemu-arm enabled.) Then configure the source with:
Code:
$ export CC=arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc # replace with your cross compiler
$ ./configure --host=arm-linux-gnueabi \
--prefix=/lvm --enable-static_link --disable-readline \
--disable-selinux --with-pool=none --with-cluster=none \
--with-confdir=/lvm/etc --with-default-run-dir=/data/lvm/run \
--with-default-system-dir=/lvm/etc \
--with-default-locking-dir=/data/lvm/lock \
--with-optimisation="-Os -march=armv5te -mtune=cortex-a8 -mthumb"
Build the source:
Code:
$ make
Grab the pieces you need: the statically linked, unstripped lvm binary is located in tools/lvm.static, and a sample configuration file is in doc/example.conf.

(reserved)

Hello steven676,
This post is helpful to me!
But I have some questions on LVM as I am new to it.
1. Is it possible to use LVM only on one pv, say /sdcard?
2. If 1. yes, will lv's on a pv be linear mapped, that is, lv's in a pv are placed one after one?
3. now that removing lvm is possible, is it also possible to backup lvm setting, and switching between non-lvm and lvm environment?
Thanks

solarispika said:
1. Is it possible to use LVM only on one pv, say /sdcard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure. Just modify the arguments to pvcreate and vgcreate accordingly:
Code:
# /lvm/sbin/lvm pvcreate /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
# /lvm/sbin/lvm vgcreate lvpool /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
solarispika said:
2. If 1. yes, will lv's on a pv be linear mapped, that is, lv's in a pv are placed one after one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably, but in general it is not safe to assume this. Imagine the following sequence of commands:
Code:
# /lvm/sbin/lvm lvcreate -L 1G -n vola lvpool
# /lvm/sbin/lvm lvcreate -L 1G -n volb lvpool
# /lvm/sbin/lvm lvresize -L +1G /dev/lvpool/vola
What's likely to happen here is that vola is going to be split into two segments on disk, like this:
Code:
[ 1GB vola ][ 1 GB volb ][ 1 GB vola ][ remaining free space ]
There are ways in which you can give LVM hints as to what on-disk layout you want, and the LVM tools will generate information about the current layout in /data/lvm/backup if that directory's available (and mounted read-write) at the time, but in general, it's best to treat the on-disk layout of a logical volume as unknown. In practice, unless you have physical volumes with widely varying characteristics in the same volume group (say, an SSD and some spinning-platter hard disks), you shouldn't need to worry about the actual layout.
solarispika said:
3. now that removing lvm is possible, is it also possible to backup lvm setting, and switching between non-lvm and lvm environment?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If /data is mounted read-write, running
Code:
# /lvm/sbin/lvm vgcfgbackup
will create a human-readable backup of the current LVM volume group metadata in /data/lvm/backup (if that directory is available and mounted read-write).
I'm not sure what you mean by "switching" between non-LVM and LVM environments. If you mean going between an unmodified stock boot image and an LVM boot image, the answer is yes, but you won't have access to any of the data in your LVM logical volumes while running an image not configured for LVM, and you need to be careful not to accidentally format the LVM physical volume.
If you're asking about having two or more ROMs on the phone, one installed to the normal /data and /system eMMC partitions, and another on LVM logical volumes, the answer is also yes, but both ROMs will need modified ramdisks. The one for the eMMC-installed ROM should only mount /sdcard from LVM, while the others should be set up to mount /data and /system from LVM as well.

Good write up;-)
wonder if lvm swap could be connected as extra memory .
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA

wizardslovak said:
wonder if lvm swap could be connected as extra memory .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, of course. From my phone:
Code:
$ cat /proc/swaps
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/mapper/lvpool-swap partition 65532 28196 -1
It works just fine, even if it's not a setup I'd use on a mission-critical server.

Hey Guys,
Thanks for this awesome guide.
I just have a quick question, what are the advantages of using LVM instead of the normal partitioning?
I just want to know cause i might added to my rom.
Thanks

mandaman2k said:
I just have a quick question, what are the advantages of using LVM instead of the normal partitioning?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Primarily flexibility in deciding the number and layout of partitions -- see the first post.

Sounds good . Ill try it once home ;-)
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA

I just pushed a couple of changes:
Updated prebuilt binaries and LVM source to 2.02.96.
Fixed the instructions for cross compiling LVM.
The boot and recovery images attached to the second post have been updated accordingly.

Is this the only way to make the device function like HC/ICS/JB devices that ship with combined storage?
Are the images from Google partitioned with internal/external storage or are the latest images partitioned with a layout similar to the Galaxy Nexus?

CocoCopernicus said:
Is this the only way to make the device function like HC/ICS/JB devices that ship with combined storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want a setup that's exactly as on a 3.0+ device with "SD card" data stored in /data, then yes, this is the only way I know of. If you just want MTP functionality, then no.
CocoCopernicus said:
Are the images from Google partitioned with internal/external storage or are the latest images partitioned with a layout similar to the Galaxy Nexus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Official Google software builds use separate userdata and media partitions and continue to offer the 2.x-style USB mass storage access. I'm not sure the partition layout is adjustable in software -- the eMMC presents an EFI partition layout which no one seems to have figured out how to change.

Cool, thanks. Yea, I'm not too interested in the MTP functionality, I just don't want to deal with internal/external storage after using the Galaxy Nexus.

Swap partiton
Hi..
how i can to create a swap partition of 1G and added to system??
I had create a 1G partition "swap" but system no activated this partition.

xxmurdocxx said:
Hi..
how i can to create a swap partition of 1G and added to system??
I had create a 1G partition "swap" but system no activated this partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'd need to format the swap partition:
Code:
# mkswap /dev/lvpool/swap
Also, you need to make sure that your kernel has swap support (CONFIG_SWAP=y -- the default kernel does not have this) and that your init scripts are enabling the swap partition (swapon /dev/lvpool/swap).
One other note: you might find lag to be somewhat severe with a 1 GB swap partition -- I'd suggest smaller.

I'm finally getting around to messing with my NS. From what I understand I can't just modify an existing rom(stock JB in this case) to use the larger partitions without compiling an entire new rom, right?
Which would mean I'd be at the mercy of whoever created the ROM to update when an OTA rolls around?

CocoCopernicus said:
I'm finally getting around to messing with my NS. From what I understand I can't just modify an existing rom(stock JB in this case) to use the larger partitions without compiling an entire new rom, right?
Which would mean I'd be at the mercy of whoever created the ROM to update when an OTA rolls around?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you can modify an existing ROM yourself. It's most definitely not the simplest process around, though -- see the documentation at the top of the thread for instructions. As I say there ... read thoroughly and understand before attempting.

[DEV]How to compile TWRP touch recovery

All of TWRP 3.x source is public. You can compile it on your own. This guide isn't going to be a step-by-step, word-for-word type of guide. If you're not familiar with basic Linux commands and/or building in AOSP then you probably won't be able to do this.
You can currently use Omni 6.0, Omni 7.1, Omni 8.1, Omni 9.0, CM 13.0, CM 14.1, CM 15.1, LineageOS 16.0 source code. Omni 9.0 is recommended for now unless your device has a super partition.
If you are using CM/LineageOS, you'll need to place TWRP in the LineageOS/bootable/recovery-twrp folder and set RECOVERY_VARIANT := twrp in your BoardConfig.mk file. TWRP source code can be found here:
https://github.com/TeamWin/android_bootable_recovery (NOTE: The location for the latest TWRP source code has changed!)
Select the newest branch available. This step is not necessary with Omni because Omni already includes TWRP source by default, however, if you are using an older version of Omni, you will probably want to pull from the latest branch (the latest branch will compile successfully in older build trees)
If you are only interested in building TWRP, you may want to try working with a smaller tree. You can try using this manifest. It should work in most cases but there may be some situations where you will need more repos in your tree than this manifest provides:
https://github.com/minimal-manifest-twrp
*BEFORE YOU COMPILE*
Note: If you add or change any flags, you will need to make clean or make clobber before recompiling or your flag changes will not be picked up.
Now that you have the source code, you'll need to set or change a few build flags for your device(s). Find the BoardConfig.mk for your device. The BoardConfig.mk is in your devices/manufacturer/codename folder (e.g. devices/lge/hammerhead/BoardConfig.mk).
Your board config will need to include architecture and platform settings. Usually these are already included if you're using device configs that someone else created, but if you created your own, you may need to add them. Without them, recovery may seg fault during startup and you'll just see the teamwin curtain flash on the screen over and over.
We usually put all of our flags at the bottom of the BoardConfig.mk under a heading of #twrp For all devices you'll need to tell TWRP what theme to use. This TW_THEME flag replaces the older DEVICE_RESOLUTION flag. TWRP now uses scaling to stretch any theme to fit the screen resolution. There are currently 5 settings which are: portrait_hdpi, portrait_mdpi, landscape_hdpi, landscape_mdpi, and watch_mdpi. For portrait, you should probably select the hdpi theme for resolutions of 720x1280 and higher. For landscape devices, use the hdpi theme for 1280x720 or higher.
TW_THEME := portrait_hdpi
Note that themes do not rotate 90 degrees and there currently is no option to rotate a theme. If you find that the touchscreen is rotated relative to the screen, then you can use some flags (discussed later in this guide) to rotate the touch input to match the screen's orientation.
In addition to the resolution, we have the following build flags:
RECOVERY_SDCARD_ON_DATA := true -- this enables proper handling of /data/media on devices that have this folder for storage (most Honeycomb and devices that originally shipped with ICS like Galaxy Nexus) This flag is not required for these types of devices though. If you do not define this flag and also do not include any references to /sdcard, /internal_sd, /internal_sdcard, or /emmc in your fstab, then we will automatically assume that the device is using emulated storage.
BOARD_HAS_NO_REAL_SDCARD := true -- disables things like sdcard partitioning and may save you some space if TWRP isn't fitting in your recovery patition
TW_NO_BATT_PERCENT := true -- disables the display of the battery percentage for devices that don't support it properly
TW_CUSTOM_POWER_BUTTON := 107 -- custom maps the power button for the lockscreen
TW_NO_REBOOT_BOOTLOADER := true -- removes the reboot bootloader button from the reboot menu
TW_NO_REBOOT_RECOVERY := true -- removes the reboot recovery button from the reboot menu
RECOVERY_TOUCHSCREEN_SWAP_XY := true -- swaps the mapping of touches between the X and Y axis
RECOVERY_TOUCHSCREEN_FLIP_Y := true -- flips y axis touchscreen values
RECOVERY_TOUCHSCREEN_FLIP_X := true -- flips x axis touchscreen values
TWRP_EVENT_LOGGING := true -- enables touch event logging to help debug touchscreen issues (don't leave this on for a release - it will fill up your logfile very quickly)
BOARD_HAS_FLIPPED_SCREEN := true -- flips the screen upside down for screens that were mounted upside-down
There are other build flags which you can locate by scanning the Android.mk files in the recovery source. Most of the other build flags are not often used and thus I won't document them all here.
*RECOVERY.FSTAB*
TWRP 2.5 and higher supports some new recovery.fstab features that you can use to extend TWRP's backup/restore capabilities. You do not have to add fstab flags as most partitions are handled automatically.
Note that TWRP only supports v2 fstabs in version 3.2.0 and higher. You will still need to use the "old" format of fstab for older TWRP (example of that format is below), and even TWRP 3.2.0 still supports the v1 format in addition to the v2 format. To maximize TWRP's compatibility with your build tree, you can create a twrp.fstab and use PRODUCT_COPY_FILES to place the file in /etc/twrp.fstab When TWRP boots, if it finds a twrp.fstab in the ramdisk it will rename /etc/recovery.fstab to /etc/recovery.fstab.bak and then rename /etc/twrp.fstab to /etc/recovery.fstab. Effectively this will "replace" the fstab 2 file that your device files are providing with the TWRP fstab allowing you to maintain compatibility within your device files and with other recoveries.
Code:
PRODUCT_COPY_FILES += device/lge/hammerhead/twrp.fstab:recovery/root/etc/twrp.fstab
The fstab in TWRP can contain some "flags" for each partition listed in the fstab.
Here's a sample TWRP fstab for the Galaxy S4 that we will use for reference:
Code:
/boot emmc /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/boot
/system ext4 /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system
/data ext4 /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata length=-16384
/cache ext4 /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache
/recovery emmc /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/recovery
/efs ext4 /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs flags=display="EFS";backup=1
/external_sd vfat /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /dev/block/mmcblk1 flags=display="Micro SDcard";storage;wipeingui;removable
/usb-otg vfat /dev/block/sda1 /dev/block/sda flags=display="USB-OTG";storage;wipeingui;removable
/preload ext4 /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/hidden flags=display="Preload";wipeingui;backup=1
/modem ext4 /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/apnhlos
/mdm emmc /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/mdm
Flags are added to the end of the partition listing in the fstab separated by white space (spaces or tabs are fine). The flags affect only that partition but not any of the others. Flags are separated by semicolons. If your display name is going to have a space, you must surround the display name with quotes.
Code:
/external_sd vfat /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 flags=display="Micro SDcard";storage;wipeingui;removable
The flags for this partition give it a display name of "Micro SDcard" which is displayed to the user. wipeingui makes this partition available for wiping in the advanced wipe menu. The removable flag indicates that sometimes this partition may not be present preventing mounting errors from being displayed during startup. Here is a full list of flags:
removable -- indicates that the partition may not be present preventing mounting errors from being displayed during boot
storage -- indicates that the partition can be used as storage which makes the partition available as storage for backup, restore, zip installs, etc.
settingsstorage -- only one partition should be set as settings storage, this partition is used as the location for storing TWRP's settings file
canbewiped -- indicates that the partition can be wiped by the back-end system, but may not be listed in the GUI for wiping by the user
userrmrf -- overrides the normal format type of wiping and only allows the partition to be wiped using the rm -rf command
backup= -- must be succeeded by the equals sign, so backup=1 or backup=0, 1 indicates that the partition can be listed in the backup/restore list while 0 ensures that this partition will not show up in the backup list.
wipeingui -- makes the partition show up in the GUI to allow the user to select it for wiping in the advanced wipe menu
wipeduringfactoryreset -- the partition will be wiped during a factory reset
ignoreblkid -- blkid is used to determine what file system is in use by TWRP, this flag will cause TWRP to skip/ignore the results of blkid and use the file system specified in the fstab only
retainlayoutversion -- causes TWRP to retain the .layoutversion file in /data on devices like Sony Xperia S which sort of uses /data/media but still has a separate /sdcard partition
symlink= -- causes TWRP to run an additional mount command when mounting the partition, generally used with /data/media to create /sdcard
display= -- sets a display name for the partition for listing in the GUI
storagename= -- sets a storage name for the partition for listing in the GUI storage list
backupname= -- sets a backup name for the partition for listing in the GUI backup/restore list
length= -- usually used to reserve empty space at the end of the /data partition for storing the decryption key when Android's full device encryption is present, not setting this may lead to the inability to encrypt the device
canencryptbackup= -- 1 or 0 to enable/disable, makes TWRP encrypt the backup of this partition if the user chooses encryption (only applies to tar backups, not images)
userdataencryptbackup= -- 1 or 0 to enable/disable, makes TWRP encrypt only the userdata portion of this partition, certain subfuldes like /data/app would not be encrypted to save time
subpartitionof= -- must be succeeded by the equals sign and the path of the partition it is a subpartition of. A subpartition is treated as "part" of the main partition so for instance, TWRP automatically makes /datadata a subpartition of /data. This means that /datadata will not show up in the GUI listings, but /datadata would be wiped, backed up, restored, mounted, and unmounted anytime those operations are performed on /data. A good example of the use of subpartitions is the 3x efs partitions on the LG Optimus G:
Code:
/efs1 emmc /dev/block/mmcblk0p12 flags=backup=1;display=EFS
/efs2 emmc /dev/block/mmcblk0p13 flags=backup=1;subpartitionof=/efs1
/efs3 emmc /dev/block/mmcblk0p14 flags=backup=1;subpartitionof=/efs1
This lumps all 3 partitions into a single "EFS" entry in the TWRP GUI allowing all three to be backed up and restored together under a single entry.
As of TWRP 3.2.0, TWRP now supports a version 2 fstab like those that have been found in Android devices for years. Yes, I know we're really slow to adopt this one, but I also saw no major advantage to v2 and the v2 fstab was being used in regular Android as well as recovery and I didn't want full ROM builds crashing or doing other weird things because of TWRP flags being present in the fstab. Version 2 fstab support is automatic. You don’t need to add any build flags. The regular version 1 fstab format is also still valid and it’s possible to use both v1 and v2 types in the same fstab. TWRP 3.2.0 also supports using wildcards via the asterisk in v1 format which can be useful for USB OTG and micro SD cards with multiple partitions. Note also that v2 fstab formats haven’t been extensively tested so developers should test their v2 fstabs before shipping to users (you should always be testing anyway!).
This is a v1 fstab line with a wildcard intended for a USB OTG drive. All partitions should show up in the list of available storage devices when the user plugs in a drive:
Code:
/usb-otg vfat /dev/block/sda* flags=removable;storage;display=USB-OTG
This line is straight from the v2 fstab for the same device and also should work. In this case the kernel will notify us that new devices have been added or removed via uevents:
Code:
/devices/soc.0/f9200000.ssusb/f9200000.dwc3/xhci-hcd.0.auto/usb* auto auto defaults voldmanaged=usb:auto
In addition to the v2 fstab, you can include /etc/twrp.flags which uses the v1 fstab format. The twrp.flags file can be used to supplement the v2 fstab with TWRP flags, additional partitions not included in the v2 fstab, and to override settings in the v2 fstab. For example, I have a Huawei device with the following stock v2 fstab present as /etc/recovery.fstab
Code:
# Android fstab file.
#<src> <mnt_point> <type> <mnt_flags and options> <fs_mgr_flags>
# The filesystem that contains the filesystem checker binary (typically /system) cannot
# specify MF_CHECK, and must come before any filesystems that do specify MF_CHECK
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system /system ext4 ro,barrier=1 wait,verify
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/cust /cust ext4 ro,barrier=1 wait,verify
/devices/hi_mci.1/mmc_host/mmc1/* auto auto defaults voldmanaged=sdcard:auto,noemulatedsd
/devices/hisi-usb-otg/usb1/* auto auto defaults voldmanaged=usbotg:auto
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata /data f2fs nosuid,nodev,noatime,discard,inline_data,inline_xattr wait,forceencrypt=footer,check
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/cache /cache ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,data=ordered wait,check
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/splash2 /splash2 ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,data=ordered,context=u:object_r:splash2_data_file:s0 wait,check
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/secure_storage /sec_storage ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,discard,auto_da_alloc,mblk_io_submit,data=journal,context=u:object_r:teecd_data_file:s0 wait,check
In addition I have also included this in /etc/twrp.flags:
Code:
/boot emmc /dev/block/platform/hi_mci.0/by-name/boot
/recovery emmc /dev/block/platform/hi_mci.0/by-name/recovery flags=backup=1
/cust ext4 /dev/block/platform/hi_mci.0/by-name/cust flags=display="Cust";backup=1
/misc emmc /dev/block/platform/hi_mci.0/by-name/misc
/oeminfo emmc /dev/block/platform/hi_mci.0/by-name/oeminfo flags=display="OEMinfo";backup=1
/data f2fs /dev/block/dm-0
/system_image emmc /dev/block/platform/hi_mci.0/by-name/system
The first 2 lines in twrp.flags adds the boot and recovery partitions which were not present at all in the v2 fstab. The /cust line in the twrp.flags file is added to tell TWRP to allow users to back up the cust partition and to give it a slightly better display name. The /misc partition is also only present in the twrp.flags file. Much like the /cust partition, the /oeminfo partition is in the twrp.flags file to tell TWRP to allow users to back it up and give a display name. The /data line is needed because this Huawei device, like many Huawei devices, is encrypted but the encryption uses some special Huawei binaries and is encrypted with some sort of default password that the user cannot change. We use the Huawei binaries to decrypt the device automatically in recovery. The /data line here tells TWRP to use /dev/block/dm-0 instead of /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata which is required for proper mounting, etc. Lastly we have the /system_image line so that TWRP will add a system image option for backup and restore.
As we add more new devices, we’ll add more example device trees to https://github.com/TeamWin/ which should help you find more ways to use this new fstab support. Please note that using the v2 fstab format at this point is completely optional, so feel free to continue using v1 if that is what is more comfortable or if you have trouble with the v2 format support.
If you have questions, feel free to stop by #twrp on Freenode. If you post here I may not see it for a while as I have lots of threads out there and there's no way for me to keep track of them all. If you successfully port TWRP to a new device, please let us know! We love to hear success stories!
If you have code changes that you'd like to submit, please submit them through the Omni Gerrit server. Guide is here.
Once you get Omni or CM sync'ed and your TWRP flags set, you should do a source ./build/envsetup.sh We usually lunch for the device in question, so something like "lunch omni_hammerhead-eng".
After you lunch successfully for your device this is the command used for most devices:
Code:
make clean && make -j# recoveryimage
Replace the # with the core count +1, so if you have a dual core it's -j3 and a quad core becomes -j5, etc. If you're dealing with a "typical" Samsung device, then you'll need to
Code:
make -j# bootimage
Most Samsung devices have the recovery included as an extra ramdisk in the boot image instead of a separate recovery partition as found on most other devices.
Old guide here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=65482905&postcount=1471

So, now, hopefully you've compiled TWRP for your device and gotten it working. Now, you'd like to know how to get TWRP officially supported for your device so that it can be installed automatically with the TWRP app. In order for us to add "official support" for your device we'll need the following:
1) Device configuration files to compile TWRP from source for your device. This means that you cannot have repacked a recovery.img by hand to get it working. We need to be able to compile it from source so that we can easily release future updates.
2) We'll build a copy of TWRP and send it to you for validation. Once you've validated that we can build a working image for your device, we'll add it to the official TWRP app.
Note that we won't take credit for your port. You'll still get to post it on XDA to collect all the credit that goes with releasing something new for your device along with having your name listed on our website as the maintainer for the device. Also note that it's not always possible to provide automated installs for all devices.
You can now boot TWRP in an emulator. If you're trying to help develop TWRP, this can be a huge help as you don't have to risk your device and you can do everything directly on your computer.
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Download this set of device configuration files.
Compile a recoveryimage using those device files. In the Android SDK, click on Tools -> Manage AVDs. Click New. Set it up as the following:
AVD Name: TWRP
Device: Galaxy Nexus
Target: ICS or newer though anything will probably work here
CPU: ARM (armeabi-v7a)
Check the box for hardware keyboard (your computer's keyboard will work in TWRP)
Up to you if you want to have the skin with controls present
Front Camera: None
Back Camera: None
RAM: 1024 VM Heap: 64
Internal Storage: 200
SD Card: Size: 500 MiB
Then click OK.
Once you have your AVD and your recoveryimage, you can boot TWRP in the emulator by browsing to your android-sdk/tools folder and run this command:
./emulator -avd TWRP -ramdisk CMFOLDER/out/target/product/twrp/ramdisk-recovery.img
Note that ADB doesn't work right away. About 10 to 15 seconds after TWRP finishes booting, ADB will come online. We start ADB via init.rc so even if TWRP fails to boot due to some kind of code error that you may have made, ADB should still work. Enjoy!

TWRP and A/B devices:
From a TWRP standpoint, A/B devices aren't a whole lot different from regular devices, but developers seem to be shy about working on these devices. I'm going to try to shed some light on this subject and hopefully this will serve as a guide for porting TWRP to A/B devices.
Firstly, let's understand what is an A/B device and how it's different. A/B devices have duplicates of many partitions on the device. An A/B device has 2x system partitions, 2x boot partitions, 2x vendor partitions, 2x modem / firmware partitions, etc. Only one slot is in use at a time. During early boot, the first stages of the bootloader read some small amount of data called the BCB or Bootloader Control Block and decide whether to boot the A partitions or the B partitions. When an OTA update is available, the data from the active slot is copied from the inactive slot and patched / updated. For example, if you're currently on slot A, your device would download the update and copy the existing system partition from slot A and patch / update it with the new updates into slot B. Once the copying and updating is complete, the BCB is updated and the device reboots using slot B. Next time an update is available, the system partition in slot B is copied to slot A and updated, the BCB gets updated, and we reboot to slot A. When viewing partitions on the device, you'll see something like this:
Code:
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot_a
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot_b
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system_a
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system_b
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/vendor_a
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/vendor_b
Note the dual boot, system and vendor partitions in the list above, but only one userdata partition.
While there is technically no requirement that I am aware of, all A/B devices shipped thus far have no separate recovery partition. Instead, the boot image contains the recovery in its ramdisk. The important thing is knowing that the boot image now also contains the recovery. For completeness, the system partition is a full root file system. During boot, if the kernel is told to boot to recovery, it will extract the ramdisk in the boot partition. If the kernel is not told by the bootloader to boot to recovery, then the kernel will mount the appropriate system partition (A or B) because the system partition is a full root file system. This means that the system partition on these devices is mounted to / instead of to /system and the system partition contains all of the files that would have normally been in the boot image ramdisk and a /system subfolder.
From a TWRP standpoint, there are 3 things that you have to do for an A/B device. First, you need to set
Code:
AB_OTA_UPDATER := true
in your BoardConfig.mk. Secondly, for any partition that has an A/B option, you need to add
Code:
flags=slotselect
in your fstab so something like this:
Code:
/boot emmc /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot flags=slotselect
/system ext4 /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system flags=slotselect
/system_image emmc /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system flags=slotselect
/vendor ext4 /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/vendor flags=slotselect;display="Vendor";backup=1
/vendor_image emmc /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/vendor flags=slotselect
Lastly, once you get into TWRP, you will probably want to make sure that bootctl hal-info responds correctly with no errors. Usually the bootctl binary requires a proprietary library or even a couple of services to work correctly. If bootctl does not work correctly, then you will not be able to switch slots within TWRP correctly either.
In addition to setting
Code:
AB_OTA_UPDATER := true
you may also want to set:
Code:
BOARD_USES_RECOVERY_AS_BOOT := true
BOARD_BUILD_SYSTEM_ROOT_IMAGE := true
If you set
Code:
BOARD_USES_RECOVERY_AS_BOOT := true
then make recoveryimage will no longer work and instead you will have to make bootimage. I don't recommend setting either of these flags for TWRP-only build trees. These flags will probably be required for developers building full ROMs for A/B devices.
Installing / Flashing TWRP on A/B devices:
Since all known A/B devices do not have a separate recovery partition, you will eventually have to flash TWRP to the boot partition. On the Pixel 1 and 2, we use fastboot boot to temporarily boot TWRP without flashing TWRP. We are then supplying a zip to allow users to flash TWRP to both slots. You can download one of these zips from our website and update the zip as needed to support your devices. Eventually we will add tools to TWRP to allow users to flash recoveries on these devices without needing to use zips.
Recently, I worked on the Razer Phone. The Razer Phone unfortunately does not support fastboot boot. Instead, users have to determine their currently active boot slot using
Code:
adb shell getprop ro.boot.slot_suffix
then use
Code:
fastboot --set-active=_a
to switch slots to the inactive slot. From here, the user can
Code:
fastboot flash boot twrp.img && fastboot reboot
to get into TWRP. Once in TWRP they can then go to the reboot page and change back to their originally active slot, make a backup, then install TWRP. Using the inactive slot allows users to get a good, unmodified backup of their device before installing TWRP.
Hopefully this helps!
Debugging with gdb in TWRP guide can be found here!

Beep boop zee doop

I know I've PM'ed you but I would like to ask you again. What should I do after compiling the TWRP recovery binary? What files have to be copied and where? I'm trying to integrate it with an ICS kernel.

Dees_Troy said:
Once you get CM sync'ed, I suggest that you go ahead and compile a build of ClockworkMod (ClockworkMod source is included in the CM repos). We usually lunch for the device in question, so something like "lunch full_tenderloin-eng".
After you lunch successfully for your device this is the command used for most devices:
Code:
make clean && make -j# recoveryimage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get this part. What is lunch supposed to be? is it supposed to be a individual command for a device or can I do "lunch full_tenderloin-eng" for all devices? Because I am building for a device that doesn't run Android natively (at least out of-the-box) so cyanogenmod doesn't support it on any way...
Also, can I use this for resistive screens? Just to make sure.
Thanks for the guide, I have been looking for this for a long time

thanks for the guide, well structured and not so complicated
i have only a question: i'm trying to build it for galaxy 5, the problem is that the resolution is 320x240, so can you tip me on modify the sources? (i've done this some days ago, but images were too large)

manuel100 said:
thanks for the guide, well structured and not so complicated
i have only a question: i'm trying to build it for galaxy 5, the problem is that the resolution is 320x240, so can you tip me on modify the sources? (i've done this some days ago, but images were too large)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Set the device resolution to 320x240...I'm pretty sure they have support for that resolution...and if they don't then you can copy one of there's except resize it all to 320x240
Edit-they only have 320x480 https://github.com/TeamWin/Team-Win-Recovery-Project/
My question: I built twrp from source a while ago using smasher's Samsung inject twrp zip...that worked fine for a while...but recently we switched to mtd format so that inject twrp zip doesn't work...neither does the inhect twrp button within twrp anymore...I've seen that the galaxy s has the same problem as well...just wondering if you know of a work around...
Sent from my SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

mg2195 said:
Set the device resolution to 320x240...I'm pretty sure they have support for that resolution...and if they don't then you can copy one of there's except resize it all to 320x240
Edit-they only have 320x480 https://github.com/TeamWin/Team-Win-Recovery-Project/
My question: I built twrp from source a while ago using smasher's Samsung inject twrp zip...that worked fine for a while...but recently we switched to mtd format so that inject twrp zip doesn't work...neither does the inhect twrp button within twrp anymore...I've seen that the galaxy s has the same problem as well...just wondering if you know of a work around...
Sent from my SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for respond, however i've tried resizing images to 320x240 but i don't know what should be the size of bottoms, because they are alway out-of-screen
what is smasher's Samsung inject twrp zip? but i think that the recovery doesn't work because you have to built it with mtd support (for ex. on madteam they are trying to build a mtd kernel, but for install that testing rom they built a special cwm with mtd support)

manuel100 said:
thanks for respond, however i've tried resizing images to 320x240 but i don't know what should be the size of bottoms, because they are alway out-of-screen
what is smasher's Samsung inject twrp zip? but i think that the recovery doesn't work because you have to built it with mtd support (for ex. on madteam they are trying to build a mtd kernel, but for install that testing rom they built a special cwm with mtd support)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Smashers inject twrp zip is a tool for Samsung devices that let's you get the recovery without flashing the whole kernel. You basically put the ramdisk-recovery.img in the zip and then flash. During the flash process it pulls the boot.img, replaces the current ramdisk-recovery.img with the new one that contains twrp. It then deletes the old boot.img and flashes the new one...not affecting the actual kernel...
The recovery itself has mtd support...I can use it if I flash the whole boot.img, but I don't want to release the recovery within a whole kernel...because then I have to keep it up to date with both twrp and kernel sources, not to mention the different kernels available for my device....I can't make a recovery for each kernel...don't have the time for that...that's where the inject came in handy....the user could use any kernel he wanted while still using twrp
Recovery logs say it fails to find the ramdisk inside the boot.img and then in parenthesis something about may not be using gzip compression...which it is....
Sent from my SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2
---------- Post added at 07:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 AM ----------
Deestroy did this same tutorial on rootzwiki...if you look at the second post you'll see info about the smasher inject twrp I was referring to...http://rootzwiki.com/index.php?/topic/23903-How-to-Compile-TWRP-from-Source
Sent from my SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

mfsr98 said:
I don't get this part. What is lunch supposed to be? is it supposed to be a individual command for a device or can I do "lunch full_tenderloin-eng" for all devices? Because I am building for a device that doesn't run Android natively (at least out of-the-box) so cyanogenmod doesn't support it on any way...
Also, can I use this for resistive screens? Just to make sure.
Thanks for the guide, I have been looking for this for a long time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can I get help here please?

mfsr98 said:
can I get help here please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a single command...it opens up the menu for devices...just type lunch into the terminal and hit enter...you'll see what I mean. You will probably have to add your device to the menu by creating a vendorsetup.sh in your device repo if it doesn't already exist....
Sent from my SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

Thank you for the quick answer. Yes, I already have vendorsetup.sh on the boot.img. Sorry for the noob question

What about for android beginners???

Devarishi said:
What about for android beginners???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's only so much that you can dumb it down and simplify it. There's lots of other guides out there for getting started. Compiling a recovery is not a super simple task that anyone and everyone can do and there's plenty of potential pitfalls including the possibility of bricking your device. If none or very little of this guide makes sense, then you might see if a developer for your device is interested in working on it instead.

how would you compile this for a device without an official cm9 build?

azoller1 said:
how would you compile this for a device without an official cm9 build?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, you don't need official cm9 if you can find any working device tree for you phone you are good to go.. For lg spectrum 4g, this could be useful.

Hey guys I'm trying to compile this for my phone the problem I'm running into is I need the root.ts I've searched and it doesn't come up with anything any help would be appreciated thanks
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I577 using xda premium

I have a mtk6577 device which is not in de device tree of CM9.
I can compile CWM for my device with CM9. Because I was only making recovery, there was no need for setting up boardconfig.
In this guide there is a part starting with TARGET_RECOVERY_INITRC which is not there in my boardconfig.
Also is stated:
"Your board config also needs to include architecture and platform settings. Usually these are already included if you're using device configs that someone else created, but if you created your own, you may need to add them. Without them, recovery will often seg fault during startup and you'll just see the teamwin curtain flash on the screen over and over."
Does this mean that I cannot build TWRP without it, even I can build CWM ?

gls9 said:
I have a mtk6577 device which is not in de device tree of CM9.
I can compile CWM for my device with CM9. Because I was only making recovery, there was no need for setting up boardconfig.
In this guide there is a part starting with TARGET_RECOVERY_INITRC which is not there in my boardconfig.
Also is stated:
"Your board config also needs to include architecture and platform settings. Usually these are already included if you're using device configs that someone else created, but if you created your own, you may need to add them. Without them, recovery will often seg fault during startup and you'll just see the teamwin curtain flash on the screen over and over."
Does this mean that I cannot build TWRP without it, even I can build CWM ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look for another mtk6577 device that has CM & copy the arch flags from it.

[Q] how to make .img files from existing tablet?

I have a complete setup for the Nexus 7, part of a product we are working on, that I need to easily clone on "virgin" tablets for production. The app requires a rooted OS.
I want to write an installation script using fastboot to unlock the bootloader, erase partitions, then flash them with .img files for each partition (kernel, system, cache, etc.).
How do I extract .img files from my "master" tablet? I have an understanding from some where that these are simple byte-for-byte dumps of the partition -- is this true? As such can I create a .img file by simple doing 'cat blkfile >file.img' where "blkfile" is the appropriate block device for the partition in question?
Or do I need to use 'dd'? Or something else?
I have searched and searched, and can't find an anwer. I've found other answers using some tools to create these files from a build on a PC, but nothing about creating them from an existing tablet.
Thanks in advance!

Use the dd command. You can use it both to dump and write a partition. It's how I install recovery programs like TWRP
Sent from my Nexus 7

You can use dd for the boot partition and recovery partition - they are raw binary blobs. (Don't use dd on other Android devices, esp. those that have MTD flash devices, though - it only works most of the time there)
If you want to use the same fastboot-based scenario that Google uses for factory image sets, then for the system & userdata image files you will need to find out about "sparse ext4 filesystem images"
If you took a raw block-device based dump of any of your tablet ext4 partitions, you could actually take those image files and mount them on any other linux machine (using a loopback mount procedure).
But you will find that if you attempt to do that with the Google factory ".img" files (for system & userdata partitions), they will not mount. It's not a simple matter of a offset superblock, either.
Since these are the formats that the stock recovery expects, I suppose you ought to use those formats if you want to do the "all at once all partitions" fastboot flashing if you plan on using the stock recovery.
Note that there is absolutely nothing that prevents you from unpacking whatever you want from whatever archive format you want - so long as the recovery's busybox supports the archive format correctly - you could use cpio or pax or tar archives for that matter. (The stock recovery's "toolbox" has very little functionality, so this comment applies to custom recoveries, which typically have more robust functionality in their busybox) You will be writing your own scripts to do those things though, typically either in one of two ways:
1.A mount target filesystem partition
1.B do a deep recursive remove at that mountpoint ( rm -rf * )
1.C unpack your archive into same mount point ( tar xf archive.tar, etc)
1.D unmount the mount point
OR
2.A unmount target partition and zero it out (dd if=/dev/zero, flash_erase, etc)
2.B recreate filesystem in partition (mke2fs -t ext4 etc)
2.C mount target filesystem
2.D unpack your archive into the same mount point (tar xf archive, pax, cpio, unyaffs2, etc)
2.E unmount that mountpoint
Even though this post is for the Samsung Galaxy S II, the same thing applies to the factory Nexus 7 images from Google:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1081239
As that thread mentions, the simg2img and mkuserimg.sh programs are part of the Android project.
Here's a Nexus 7 thread where the contributor built the tools for both x86 linux and arm linux
Finally, I should note that because /system is typically mounted read-only, imaging /system from the live OS is no big deal. Trying to do the same thing with /data is an extremely dopey idea, however. Accurate backups are rarely made from live read-write filesystems.
cheers

Thank you so much for all the great information! I hit thanks for both of you.
The link to the nexus 7 thread is what I need... This is for my company, and I need a simple cloning solution that can be performed by a non-technical assembly person. The fastboot install procedure is about as simple as it gets.
Thanks again!

[Q] Any way to "install" system.img?

I've been tinkering with building aosp framework and kernel from source. I've got it loaded and running on my N7. I've made some changes to an xml file, and the subsequent build resulted in only a new system.img file being generated. Is there any way to "install" the system.img file without wiping the system area first? Or is "fastboot flash system system.img" the only way to update the system area of the ROM? I don't want to have to use Recovery to install gapps and supersu again if I can avoid it.

Try mounting the .IMG file into a folder you created with
sudo(or su) mount -o loop ~/system.img /path/to/created/folder
It may mount it and you should be able to get what you want out of the file and then just replace the individual files and reboot or flash them by themselves in a .zip.

di11igaf said:
Try mounting the .IMG file into a folder you created with
sudo(or su) mount -o loop ~/system.img /path/to/created/folder
It may mount it and you should be able to get what you want out of the file and then just replace the individual files and reboot or flash them by themselves in a .zip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried everything I could think of including specifying all different types of filesystems including iso9660 and nothing recognizes the image. I tried it on my Ubuntu 12.04 machine as well as the tablet, no success, I guess I'll just have to flash it with fastboot.

There is ways to do it. Aosp used to include the necessary tools to do it, but I haven't really cloned aosp source since gingerbread so I can t remember exactly where or if they're still there(if I do some digging I can figure it out but you may already have flashed. I'll still look into it cause it may be of use to others).

Maybe try this in the future
Here's a binary that should work, make it executable first--
http://db.tt/OZnlRJ4L
./simg2img system.img output.img
Then
mkdir systest(make this folder anything you want)
mount -o loop output.img systest(or whatever you made the folder above)
I haven't tested this but I may when I get a chance.

Way cool man, it works. I was able to mount the output IMG without issue. . :good: :good: :good:
Sent from my aosp N7 JSS15Q w/A029 TouchScreen firmware