[2nd-init] Let the ROMs pour in! - Motorola Photon 4G

I ported over 2nd-init for Gingerbread from the Atrix to the Photon. The only thing I changed was init.rc, by replacing it with the Photon's init.rc. The real credit for this goes to eval. He is the one that got it working on Gingerbread for the Atrix.
Requirements:
Rooted Photon
Instructions:
1. Use your favorite method to get http://higgs.cygnusx-1.org/~edgan/2nd-init-Photon-0.9.tar.gz onto the phone in /mnt/sdcard/download
2. Start adb/ssh/terminal
3. Run su to become root
4. export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/system/bin
5. Run mount -o remount,rw /system
6. mv /system/bin/remountpds /system/bin/remountpds.orig
7. Run tar -C / -zxf /mnt/sdcard/download/2nd-init-Photon-0.9.tar.gz
8. Run ls -a -l /system/bin/2nd-init to verify it is there. If it is not there, and you don't know how to fix it, then go to the revert instructions.
9. Reboot phone while holding volume down
10. Wait till you see Fastboot at the top of the screen
11. Press volume down repeatedly till it says USB Early Enumeration
12. Press volume up, and wait for it to boot
13. Start adb/ssh/terminal
14. export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/system/bin
15. mount | grep debugfs
16. Look for good output, but if you get no output, it didn't work.
Good output:
/sys/kernel/debug on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
Revert instructions:
1. mv /system/bin/remountpds.orig /system/bin/remountpds
Thank you eval!
Thank you bane449!
Thank you Yay!

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Happy my work could be of use =) Real credit goes to Skrilax_CZ for writing it!
Anyone curious to know what had to be changed to make it work on Gingerbread should read my posts here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1139768
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15067042&postcount=10
cheers!

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edgan said:
I ported over 2nd-init for Gingerbread from the Atrix to the Photon. The only thing I changed was init.rc, by replacing it with the Photon's init.rc. The real credit for this goes to eval. He is the one that got it working on Gingerbread for the Atrix.
Requirements:
Rooted Photon
Instructions:
1. Use your favorite method to get http://higgs.cygnusx-1.org/~edgan/2nd-init-Photon-0.9.tar.gz onto the phone in /mnt/sdcard/download
2. Start adb/ssh/terminal
3. Run su to become root
4. export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/system/bin
5. Run mount -o remount,rw /system
6. mv /system/bin/remountpds /system/bin/remountpds.orig
7. Run tar -C / -zxf /mnt/sdcard/download/2nd-init-Photon-0.9.tar.gz
8. Run ls -a -l /system/bin/2nd-init to verify it is there. If it is not there, and you don't know how to fix it, then go to the revert steps.
9. Reboot phone while holding volume down
10. Wait till you see Fastboot at the top of the screen
11. Press volume down till it says USB Early Enumeration
12. Press volume up, and wait for it to boot
13. Start adb/ssh/terminal
14. export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/system/bin
15. mount | grep debugfs
16. Look for good output, but if you get no output, it didn't work.
Good output:
/sys/kernel/debug on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
Revert instructions:
1. mv /system/bin/remountpds.orig /system/bin/remountpds
Thank you eval!
Thank you bane449!
Thank you Yay!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for all the hardwork and job well done! Do we need to do this thru Terminal Emmulator, or just adb thru command prompt? Please advise.

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Wondering what is second init? Me too... Here is the text from and-developers.com's wiki page.
The following binary will basically inject code to /init to “restart itself” allowing you to use custom init binary and init.rc scripts without side effects developed by Skrilax_CZ. Technically using code injection the code to call “execve(”/init”, {”/init”, NULL**, environ);” is injected and the environ variables are read from /proc/1/environ by the binary. Note that this is recomended only to be used with the “sh hijack” or inside recovery. You only need to replace the files in the filesystem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

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Second init will allow aosp roms to be ran over the stock kernel with the locked bootloader. This is awesome news and i cant wait to see people working on CM7 and just aosp in general. Awesome work again guys
brianez21 said:
Wondering what is second init? Me too... Here is the text from and-developers.com's wiki page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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yyess!!!! you guys are the best. Cant wait to see AOSP

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What is the difference between this and the cwm bootstrap recovery posted by kennethpenn? Which is better to have?
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Two totally different things. This is not a recovery.
sub2k1 said:
What is the difference between this and the cwm bootstrap recovery posted by kennethpenn? Which is better to have?
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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mikeyinid said:
Two totally different things. This is not a recovery.
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Click to collapse
My experience is that they (2nd-init and CWM) are best used together.
I haven't had the chance to use the photon yet but I have worked a Defy and the 2nd-init gives a way to boot directly into the custom recovery which is super handy when you have flashed something that didn't work perfectly.

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Maybe i dont fully understand 2nd init then. I know on the Droid X if your running CM7(2nd init) and you try to bootstrap into recovery you have to sbf. Guess I better do some more research...
* I think you misread the question that I was answering or something. He asked what the difference between 2nd init and bootstrap were.
mr_wrong_0 said:
My experience is that they (2nd-init and CWM) are best used together.
I haven't had the chance to use the photon yet but I have worked a Defy and the 2nd-init gives a way to boot directly into the custom recovery which is super handy when you have flashed something that didn't work perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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mikeyinid said:
Maybe i dont fully understand 2nd init then. I know on the Droid X if your running CM7(2nd init) and you try to bootstrap into recovery you have to sbf. Guess I better do some more research...
* I think you misread the question that I was answering or something. He asked what the difference between 2nd init and bootstrap were.
Sent from my MB855 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sir I yield to your knowledge.
I am admittedly new to Moto phones and I haven't put any custom roms on one except the Defy and I think that one might be a pretty odd duck.
The process on the Defy is: Root first of course (SuperOneClick was what I used) install both 2nd-init and CWM each via an APK.
Then you could restart the phone and when the blue light came on you had to push vol down and choose custom recovery.
I say they are best used together because if you don't have 2nd-init the only way to boot into the custom recovery was to boot into android and open the system recovery app and choose reboot into recovery, but there are times when something goes wrong and it doesn't boot. In that case it's nice to be able to hardware boot into the recovery using 2nd-init.
I understand that he was asking the difference between the two, but I wanted to point out that there are times when they are used together.
After thinking it over it's possible that it wasn't as helpful as I had hoped it would be.
EDIT ** I see you are from Idaho... What part? I'm in northern Utah just across the boarder.

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If the photon gets cm7 or asop before ATRIX im going to throw my ATRIX in the ocean and buy an iphone. And never look at android again. Ever. Period.
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In step 4 do I actually type export PATH= in adb or does it start with PATH=? Sorry for the noob question im new to this Motorola thing HTC rooting seemed so much easier! Trying to learn all over again. Lol. Actually I love learning all this. I thought I was an expert until getting this Photon.
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And now I know what I'm replacing my locked EVO with next month! Strong work!

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So, if I have the Bootstrap Recovery installed, how exactly would I go about getting to it from 2nd-init once I have made the necessary changes?
Thanks!

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Im wondering the same thing!
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I was glad to see there was another option for custom ROMS via 2nd-init. By the looks of the dates on this thread, 2nd-init became a dead issue? That's too bad, reading thru the posts, it sounded promising for a user with a locked bootloader and possibly using Bootstrap Recovery. Guess imma have to do some more research regarding this because the OP, with the Title "Let the ROMS poor in!!" made it seem like everyone develops using 2nd-init or something to that effect!
Maybe with the locked down bootloader on 2.3.5, some one will come back to this and give it another run thru!!?
I'm currently on 2.3.5 and use BSR and am thinking imma run the 2nd-init script to see what happens. I'm just personally not sure where to go or what to do afterwards...
Typed on my Mo-Pho 4G (using SprintRocko235 ROM *locked* over 2.3.5 thru BSR) using xda-premium

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Of course, Motorola Defy has CM9 running with less issues, than we have and that all with locked bootloader, because of this tool and Epsylon, Quarx, Maniac and others.
And probably thanks TI, for better development support, then Nvidia.

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Here is a good description how 2nd-init works.
http://cvpcs.org/blog/2011-06-14/2nd-init._what_it_is_and_how_it_works
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That was a great read. Its a shame nobody ever developed a cm9 rom for 2nd init but Im not sure cm9 would run so smoothly with the stock Motorola gb kernel. If I remember correctly we ended up unlocking the boot loader about two weeks after this was announced and 2nd init is used for bootstrap recovery so it wasn't an entire waste.
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