[Q] Porting Sensation Roms? - HTC EVO 3D

I was wondering, since there aren't as many roms for the gsm 3vo as I would like, and since the Sensation is very similar to our phone expect the camera, would it be possible to port a sensation rom to the gsm evo 3d? Or even better would it work out of the box(except camera of course) by only flashing an evo kernel?

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vipirius said:
I was wondering, since there aren't as many roms for the gsm 3vo as I would like, and since the Sensation is very similar to our phone expect the camera, would it be possible to port a sensation rom to the gsm evo 3d? Or even better would it work out of the box(except camera of course) by only flashing an evo kernel?
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I wanna know too...
bump.

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vipirius said:
I was wondering, since there aren't as many roms for the gsm 3vo as I would like, and since the Sensation is very similar to our phone expect the camera, would it be possible to port a sensation rom to the gsm evo 3d? Or even better would it work out of the box(except camera of course) by only flashing an evo kernel?
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HMZX said:
I wanna know too...
bump.
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I think you can definitely test w/o causing permanent damage. For the smoothest test experience, you'll want to be familar with a custom recovery and the backup/restore modes available along with the type of internal memory unlock used on the device (Revolutionary or HTC official method).
Once you're familar with the basics, it would be fairly simple to test. The combinations for testing, off the top of my head, would be:
1) Sensation kernel and EVO 3D ROM.
2) Sensation kernel and Sensation ROM.
3) EVO 3D kernel and Sensation ROM.
Speaking from experience, once you're familar with how to load kernels and ROMs, the process is fairly generic across devices once write access to the internal memory is obtained.
Again, I'll re-iterate the importance of making a proper backup and being familar with the restoration process.
There are only two main hazards which come to mind:
1) Make sure NOT to flash the radio, bootloader, or any other file. ONLY flash kernel/system partitions.
2) Before flashing kernel/system partitions ensure the partition sizes between devices are the same, or EVO 3D is larger. Not sure the device limits and stops partitions from overwriting each other as I know some older devices did not and this caused an unrecoverable damage.
I'm sure if I missed anything, somebody else will post up. Hope that helps provide some technical background and logic to the approach! Keep us updated!

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Thanks for the reply. I'm already familiar with flashing kernels/roms and how to make a nandroid backup etc so that isn't a problem. However I have 1 question, how exactly would I find the partition sizes of the sensation, I couldn't find it on the internet and I don't have a sensation that I can check.
Anyways I found a few posts on the forums of people claiming sensation roms work almost flawlessly except for the camera, so the next question would be if there are any apk's/libs etc. I can copy to the sensation rom to get the camera working. I'm no dev myself so I don't have a clue, but if someone could tell me I would appreciate it. Thanks.

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Well you can't just flash a sensation ROM out of the box. You would at least need to change the mount points in the updater script otherwise you will get nothing. Regarding the camera, there are libs in /system/lib like liboemcamera.so and such. Not sure fixing the camera would be as simple as copying libs over from our phone though.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
EDIT: Well I took a sense 3.6 ICS rom from the sensation forums, changed the mount points, and replaced the boot.img with ours. It boots to the bootanimation and then reboots by itself. So it is possible I may look at it more tonight.
EDIT 2: I just saw you were talking about the gsm 3d, I did this on the CDMA. The process would be the exact same though.

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Yeah I have a GSM phone so that's why I said GSM. Also wouldn't porting to the GSM version be easier then to the CDMA version since the sensation is also GSM?
Anyways I'm kinda busy today but I will try to see if it boots on my phone tomorrow and post my results. I'll.also try to get the camera to work by copying libs like you suggested.
Sent from my HTC EVO 3D X515m using XDA App

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vipirius said:
Thanks for the reply. However I have 1 question, how exactly would I find the partition sizes of the sensation, I couldn't find it on the internet and I don't have a sensation that I can check.
Anyways I found a few posts on the forums of people claiming sensation roms work almost flawlessly except for the camera, so the next question would be if there are any apk's/libs etc. I can copy to the sensation rom to get the camera working. I'm no dev myself so I don't have a clue, but if someone could tell me I would appreciate it. Thanks.
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Answer to first question: partition sizes are generally mentioned in a handful of different locations depending on the device: /proc/partition(s), /proc/emmc or /proc/mtd off the top of my head. Since the devices are similar and others have already tried this approach, probably not a concern, but none the less never hurts to learn more!
Answer to second question: the cameras (2 of them for 3D) on this device, along with the 3D display are the two biggest difficulties in porting AOSP such as CM to this device, in my opinion. they use closed source proprietary code from HTC. this requires a bit of reverse engineering and kanging from other random sources in order to get a final working product. personally, i wouldnt invest the time/effort into it, but others might find it a beneficial endeavor for themselves. either way, you're guaranteed to learn a bit about cameras! as stated above, all android libraries are loaded in /system/lib.
For the camera, I view android as having essentially three components contributing to a fully functional camera.
1) Camera drivers in the kernel
2) Camera libraries in /system/lib
3) Camera application apk file for Android UI
These three need to work together to at least some degree in order for there to be some functionality in the camera.
Gumby63 said:
EDIT: Well I took a sense 3.6 ICS rom from the sensation forums, changed the mount points, and replaced the boot.img with ours. It boots to the bootanimation and then reboots by itself. So it is possible I may look at it more tonight.
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Might be more off topic but could related also to this OP depending on his approach. If you encounter the boot animation this is generally a good sign the kernel has fully loaded and is handing off to the ramdisk/init process.
There are two possible situations at this point
1) If the boot animation loops, i.e. starts over and over, this shows there is an issue with Android/ramdisk init process. Adb has generally been loaded by this point and the issue should be outlined in logcat showing the specific .apk file along with line number which makes for a great starting point in troubleshooting.
2) If the boot animation starts/completes but the device completely reboots back to the splash screen, this is more difficult to troubleshoot. I'm not aware of a great approach to this but I might start by glancing at the /proc/last_kmsg file along with executing adb logcat as soon as I see the boot animation in an attempt to grab the logcat before the device reboots itself.
Good luck and keep us updated!

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joeykrim said:
Might be more off topic but could related also to this OP depending on his approach. If you encounter the boot animation this is generally a good sign the kernel has fully loaded and is handing off to the ramdisk/init process.
There are two possible situations at this point
1) If the boot animation loops, i.e. starts over and over, this shows there is an issue with Android/ramdisk init process. Adb has generally been loaded by this point and the issue should be outlined in logcat showing the specific .apk file along with line number which makes for a great starting point in troubleshooting.
2) If the boot animation starts/completes but the device completely reboots back to the splash screen, this is more difficult to troubleshoot. I'm not aware of a great approach to this but I might start by glancing at the /proc/last_kmsg file along with executing adb logcat as soon as I see the boot animation in an attempt to grab the logcat before the device reboots itself.
Good luck and keep us updated!
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Well yeah it completely reboots back to the splash screen. During the bootanimation, I can't get a logcat and adb says there is no device connected. This isn't my first port but I've never had this happen lol. I'll look into what you said.
Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using Tapatalk

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Well, I successfully installed Android Revoltion HD 3.6.13, It boots, everything seems to work, however I didn't test GPS and BT yet. And the camera is well, half working I guess. The camera app opens, and i can see the controls etc but no image comes, and when I press the capture button the flash pops but the app FC's after that. I'm gonna try flashing [MOD] Camera from HTC Amaze 4G, v0.11 and see if it works. If it doesn't I'll copy over all the camera related libs I can find from my old ROM and see if it works then.
Edit: Hahahaha yessss it works I just flashed the Amaze camera app and now camera works only 2D of course but it's enough for me. I'll keep testing for a few days and of there aren't any serious bugs I can find I'll be using this as my daily driver from now on
Edit2:Audio doesn't seem to work If I can't get that fixed then this ROM will be useless :/

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vipirius said:
Edit2:Audio doesn't seem to work If I can't get that fixed then this ROM will be useless :/
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then move over the proper sound drivers also located in /system/lib, /system/lib/modules and /system/lib/soundfx

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t3project said:
then move over the proper sound drivers also located in /system/lib, /system/lib/modules and /system/lib/soundfx
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Yeah that's what I was going to do, but thanks anyways. I'll report back on my success.

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Gumby63 said:
Well you can't just flash a sensation ROM out of the box. You would at least need to change the mount points in the updater script otherwise you will get nothing. Regarding the camera, there are libs in /system/lib like liboemcamera.so and such. Not sure fixing the camera would be as simple as copying libs over from our phone though.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
EDIT: Well I took a sense 3.6 ICS rom from the sensation forums, changed the mount points, and replaced the boot.img with ours. It boots to the bootanimation and then reboots by itself. So it is possible I may look at it more tonight.
EDIT 2: I just saw you were talking about the gsm 3d, I did this on the CDMA. The process would be the exact same though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say Replaced the Boot.img, How'd you do that? Was it done with a ROM kitchen? Reason I'm asking because I read something saying that a Complete Rom Port could be achieved just with Apps on our phones... Using something like Root Explorer and whatever else (Can't Remember?) But I was wondering is that True?
And as for Extracting the Kernel can that Also be done Without the use of a Computer? In other words straight from a phone?
Thanx in Advance guys!!

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PMGRANDS said:
When you say Replaced the Boot.img, How'd you do that? Was it done with a ROM kitchen? Reason I'm asking because I read something saying that a Complete Rom Port could be achieved just with Apps on our phones... Using something like Root Explorer and whatever else (Can't Remember?) But I was wondering is that True?
And as for Extracting the Kernel can that Also be done Without the use of a Computer? In other words straight from a phone?
Thanx in Advance guys!!
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Click to collapse
im not sure what you read but IT WAS WRONG..........
while you can do some of this stuff from your phone, you can not do a complete port properly without a computer

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PMGRANDS said:
When you say Replaced the Boot.img, How'd you do that? Was it done with a ROM kitchen? Reason I'm asking because I read something saying that a Complete Rom Port could be achieved just with Apps on our phones... Using something like Root Explorer and whatever else (Can't Remember?) But I was wondering is that True?
And as for Extracting the Kernel can that Also be done Without the use of a Computer? In other words straight from a phone?
Thanx in Advance guys!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah like t3project said, that is wrong.
But anyhow, I replaced the boot.img simply by opening the two ROMs with winrar and then deleting and replacing it. And to extract the kernel, you would need to split the boot.img either using a kitchen or some other tools that do the job.
A little update on my port: I still haven't gotten it to fully boot, it just keeps restarting

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Gumby63 said:
A little update on my port: I still haven't gotten it to fully boot, it just keeps restarting
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Aren't you on the CDMA EVO? If you are wouldn't the radios be completely different since the sensation is a GSM device? So maybe that's what's causing the reboot issues. I mean as far as I know even porting from the CDMA EVO to the GSM EVO is hard so wouldn't porting from the sensation to the CDMA EVO be even harder?

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vipirius said:
Aren't you on the CDMA EVO? If you are wouldn't the radios be completely different since the sensation is a GSM device? So maybe that's what's causing the reboot issues. I mean as far as I know even porting from the CDMA EVO to the GSM EVO is hard so wouldn't porting from the sensation to the CDMA EVO be even harder?
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this is only patrialy the problem. flashing roms doesnt affect the radio so that wouldnt change but i there are some other libs that need to be moved that are associated with communication to the radio. cant remember which off the top of my head

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Gumby63 said:
Yeah like t3project said, that is wrong.
But anyhow, I replaced the boot.img simply by opening the two ROMs with winrar and then deleting and replacing it. And to extract the kernel, you would need to split the boot.img either using a kitchen or some other tools that do the job.
A little update on my port: I still haven't gotten it to fully boot, it just keeps restarting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I thought the article I read was Bull****! I wish I could remember where I read it to show you guys what it said but just can't remember for ****... Lol!
Well Thanks for Confirming guys...