I hope this IS the thread for asking questions..haha...
Firstly I'm a noob at Android developing, but I'm willing to learn..So I just got myself a Samsung Galaxy S Advance, and I'm going to try to root it myself.. But I'm quite buffled with the firmwares that I downloaded at samfirmware for this phone, cos the file inside are quite different from what we always see, listed like this:
cache.img.md5
system.img.md5
hidden.img.md5
kernel.bin.md5
modem.bin.md5
And there is also this file (SS_DL.dll) which I don't know how to use.. for rooting, I'm supposed to find the boot.img and modify some files in it, but I have no idea where to look for it... I suspected it would be in the kernel.bin, or compiled from that file, but that would be out of my knowledge... Is there anyone who can point me to the right direction?
So far i have been trying to decompile the system.img to get their NAND imgs using unyaffs and unyaffs2, but both are not working (segmentation fault and file is not multiple of 2048 + 64 or something)... Is there any other way for me to extract boot.img from the files above?
I have decompiled system.img with dsixda kitchen, to get system files, but I don't know how to get boot.img (kernel). I think it is in the kernel.bin file, but the kitchen can't decompile it. I've been asking around how to get boot.img from this phone but nobody gives me any answer. If we somehow manage to get boot.img and decomple it, we can than make insercure kernel, which could be used for rooting the phone.
Here is the guide for rooting Samsung Galaxy S I9070 Advance.
http://software2tech.com/2012/05/01/root-galaxy-s-advance-i9070/#more-18866
There is one problem though, the most important files, that we need, haven't been uploaded yet. I've already searched this group on facebook, and nwrite them to publish those files (kernels), but there was no answer. So I doubt that they even have those rooted kernels. Maybe you could write them too, and lets hope that they will publish kernels soon!
I think they don't really have the rooted kernel.. Cos Samsung haven't even release the opensource k kernel yet.. But yeah, right now I'm stuck.. I have been trying almost every possible way to create the boot.img, including unyaffs and unyaffs2, but keep getting errors... If we can just ask the guys at rootzwiki to port CWM recovery for us, but maybe they need rooted source too..
This would be great if they could build us CWM recovery. I don't think they need kernel source they just need stock recovery, but to get stock recover.img from our phone we need to know here is located. I have pull partitons layout from the phone, but unfortunatly it doesnt tell anything useful. You can see it in the attachment.
whoa...that is great...maybe that could help...i will try to check with other phones, cos it might be that one of this partitions would contain boot.img as well as recovery.img... how exactly you extract this information, using kitchen, perhaps? haha...
No my phone used to be rooted, until I have upgrade it to new firmware (stupid me I know, but I had test firmware before, and had quite few bugs). And I've pulled this from system partition (in /proc folder). But you can also get it with this:
adb shell
cd proc
cat partitions
I can provide some other files, that might be useful. We just need some help from experienced developers, but so far no help was offered. I've been starting threads all over the place, but nothing .
In the attachment are all the files that might help some developer to get us recovery working!
well, after searching throughout the web, I'm starting to think that without the opensource kernel from samsung, it might be quite impossible for us to root this phone... every other imaginable ways to make these system or boot images seemed to require root access... so far samsung had done a very well job in patching those root exploits...
kilsmap said:
well, after searching throughout the web, I'm starting to think that without the opensource kernel from samsung, it might be quite impossible for us to root this phone... every other imaginable ways to make these system or boot images seemed to require root access... so far samsung had done a very well job in patching those root exploits...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I think you are right, but I wish you wer not . Well no we have to wait for samsung to release source code of the kernel.
Ok source code for kernel is now available!!! You can download it from opensource.samsung.com. I will make a thread later, with mirror links! Now lets compile that sh*** !
hahahahaha...at last...i was checking that site every few hours...this would make it!!
I've just made a thread on XDA:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25782811#post25782811
If you managed to compile it before me please PM . I'm just installing linux, but I won't be able to continue until tommorow, cause I do this on work computer .
Related
Phone is a Star X19i
Now I'm looking at getting a system to allow me to back up the rom and re-flash if needed.
Post 4 has attachments of my boot, recovery and scatter files.
Old issue: (Solved)
Stupid thing I did I renamed the mtklockscreen.odex to mtklockscreen.odex1 just as a test in a half asleep phase to see if I would get the stock lockscreen loading.
Suffice to say the phone no longer boots.
Really don't think I can get into ADB and rename the file to get the phone booting again unless anyone knows a way.
Android was 2.3.6 and I asked the seller if it was possible to get the rom incase anything like happened which they didn't.
So anyone have any ideas?
I have attached the stock recovery and boot images made with cat and a scatter file I made to post 4.
As I have no idea about modifying these for hard root can anyone take a look?
I don't know the specifics of the phone, but if you can go into recovery mode maybe you can get adb working, or use a flashable zip to rename the file by installing it from recovery (just need to edit the zips' updater script)
dxppxd said:
I don't know the specifics of the phone, but if you can go into recovery mode maybe you can get adb working, or use a flashable zip to rename the file by installing it from recovery (just need to edit the zips' updater script)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got into built in Factory mode and can see the file I renamed through ADB and android commander but cannot rename it back due to not having hard root access.
I also have a copy of the boot and recovery partitions 5 and 6 respectively I made in the adb shell yesterday as I was half looking at getting hard root access.
ren mtklockscreen.odex1 mtklockscreen.odex
ren: permission denied
I read you can do a custom recovery with root using SP Tools still so can anyone help me do this?
I know about system root etc and stuff and have flashed roms before on other tablets and have been a PC I.T tech (wouldn't think it due to the stupid mistake) but this recovery and scatter files etc is kinda new to me.
I have a scatter file now I just made if anyone is interested in helping me.
Yes I have a MTK6573 but the scatter file came from the MT6516 Rom Studio which I read works the same for the 6573.
Attached is also my stock boot and recovery partitions I made with cat yesterday if there usable to anyone to help.
Well I got it working and fixed.
I had to go into adb shell and su and mount the file system as writable, as I have used linux before I didn't know about android and what needed to be done and permission locks etc.
The stock boot, recovery and scatter files will remain on this thread if anyone wants to help create or find a recovery which can allow me to create backups and flash custom roms.
I may be able to provide a dump of android 2.3.6 for those that want it once I'm provided with a backup solution as I have read a few people wanting this updated android rom.
This got too close to what I would like liked with bricking this phone.
And I'm not comfortable unless I have a rom backup of this.
Rooting Advice: For anyone with a MTK6573 on Android 2.3.6 trying to root but having issues with super one click make sure you only turn on USB debugging after Android has loaded and just before you plug the usb cable in to run super one click.
I have seen a few thread and posters here about not being able to root the phone and this is the cause that debug needs to be switched on right before you connect and try to root.
Original seller has agreed to send the firmware and flashing stuff on cd for me so I can upload it for you all.
This is a win for MTK6573 Star X19i owners as I'll have the updated 2.3.6 Gingerbread firmware to release for you all root modify etc in a week or so.
Be careful with ROM studio. I believe it is not compatible with MT6573.
You want to read this: http://bm-smartphone-reviews.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html
cybermaus said:
Be careful with ROM studio. I believe it is not compatible with MT6573.
You want to read this: http://bm-smartphone-reviews.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I read and did to get my scatter as I used cat then used the program linked in that thread to generate the scatter.
Hey there XDAians....
Can someone here point me to a walkthrough or tutorial on porting roms from and to devices of different manufacturers,resolution(mdpi,hdpi etc.) etc.I am familiar with the zip method of porting roms from same manufacturer(sony in my case,xperia U to Sola)but i want to know about porting roms from others like htc,samsung etc and Tools/apps needed to accomplish this.Most of the tutorials i found on XDA are based on the same method of zip porting.
Please help me with this,i really want to learn more about porting.
In the minimum, you must learn how to create a boot.img for your new device based on the boot.img (especially the ramdisk) from the old device.
To do this, you must extract the boot.img of your old device, edit the ramdisk (As there are lots of files named like the device, and those must be renamed to match the new device's name) Probably you must also change the content, to match the needs or to update references to some files, where the name changed.
After this, you can recreate the ramdisk.
Than extract a boot.img of your new device to get the kernel. Take the new Kernel and the new Ramdisk and make a new boot.img
Extracting and recreating a boot.img is described in the later part of this article: How to build a custom kernel
Recreating a ramdisk is described in this article: Create/Modify ramdisk
This might be the first step of a lot of steps...
Kind regards Uwe
This is most likely a really newbie question..
But does anyone know how I can extract the .zip ROM file from an Android phone. The best I could find were people that were doing a backup of there phone (I don't know if they are .zip or not). But I want to somehow extract the .zip from the phone and be able to flash like a custom ROM.
Thanks in advance!
Sparrow40k said:
This is most likely a really newbie question..
But does anyone know how I can extract the .zip ROM file from an Android phone. The best I could find were people that were doing a backup of there phone (I don't know if they are .zip or not). But I want to somehow extract the .zip from the phone and be able to flash like a custom ROM.
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand what you are looking for, but there is not a way to do that. The backup and restore method would be as close as you could get, but the method to backup leaves the various partitions in .img file formats which the custom recovery (has to be a custom recovery like ClockWorkMod, TWRP, etc) would be able to read, copy, and restore. Does the same thing that you are looking for, just in a different way.
es0tericcha0s said:
I understand what you are looking for, but there is not a way to do that. The backup and restore method would be as close as you could get, but the method to backup leaves the various partitions in .img file formats which the custom recovery (has to be a custom recovery like ClockWorkMod, TWRP, etc) would be able to read, copy, and restore. Does the same thing that you are looking for, just in a different way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I am unable to extract a .zip of the ROM, how do I work on the ROM and do things like port it?
All the websites I look at say to download the .zip, but my phone (JiaYu G4s) doesn't have a ROM available. The closest would be the JiaYu G4; which to my (very small) knowledge is no good to me because the internals are all different.
That's one of the major downsides to having a phone that isn't supported by the manufacturer or the dev community. Technically, the manufacturer is supposed to release the source code per GPL, but most of the ones that use MediaTek chips never do.
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/have-you-paid-your-linux-kernel-source-license-fee/
I'm not sure how devs that work on those devices do it...
Edit: Found it
http://phonegist.blogspot.com/2014/02/how-to-make-stock-rom-of-mediatek.html
es0tericcha0s said:
That's one of the major downsides to having a phone that isn't supported by the manufacturer or the dev community. Technically, the manufacturer is supposed to release the source code per GPL, but most of the ones that use MediaTek chips never do.
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/have-you-paid-your-linux-kernel-source-license-fee/
I'm not sure how devs that work on those devices do it...
Edit: Found it
http://phonegist.blogspot.com/2014/02/how-to-make-stock-rom-of-mediatek.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, by following the steps on the link provided. I actually am able to create a .zip from the ROM installed on the phone?
That's the idea. I dunno if that one is compatible with your chipset, but you will have to find the version that does and should be able to get started.
Been trying for days to extract the kernel from Nougat to use it within Marshmallow in order to downgrade with vibration working on nougats bootloader - but for the life of me i can NOT get windows to actually read these files properly. have all kinds of mounting programs, a java based converter that doesnt actually work (sgs2ext4) i end up with this loop of the same lines, and a 0kb converted file. I can mount the regular img file fine, but it will NOT open without some sort of error. the files themselves are just fine as they will properly flash and run when using odin (when compressed into tar.md5)
Tried wthin twrp hoping the file manager might just let me browse through it since the phone is already linux based and can actually see the information... but no dice there either. It doesnt go into further detail than just showing me that theres an img file present, with options to delete, chmod, etc.
what can i do to dig down to this zimage portion of boot.img that everyone insists the kernel is within? (i say insist cuz i havent actually seen it for myself!)
none of the tutorials ive come across address these specific opening errors - other than that the error is happening because windows cant read it
diskinternals wont work, osfmount will mount but i cant read it .... where on earth are these drivers or programs or whatever i need to actually allow me to browse and explore these files properly? and dare i say, recompress them once ive found what im looking for!
i did also try flashify, thinking run nougat, backup kernel, install marshmallow, restore nougat kernel, but it just leads to freezing on boot logo. I need to get within these img files to actually do what i want to successfully, switching out only that one specific zimage part of the file, leaving the rest intact.
very frustrated here, would very much love some help with this...
Try this, helped so much!
https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/xda-university/unpacking-editing-packing-roms-img-dat-t3350261
Also, If you want to try, here is a link for the tools:https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24459283995310951
Hey all,
So I downloaded hexagon OS for mt6580 and LineaseOS13 for mt6580.. of course installing them gives me a bootlop since they are not ported for the K-touch i10... so I followed a guide to replace the files in those custom roms with the required ones from the stock rom to get them to work. zipped them up, put the zip on the phone, and twrp gives me the "invalid zip file" error when trying to flash them...
help?
@SaucemanBangorang
Isn't the error message "Invalid Zip File Format"?
0
Seppppx said:
1. You used the wrong compression method (most likely.)
You need to set the compression method to "store"
2. Don't port ROMs. Build them from source as they were intended to be. It is much easier to build them than port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for replying.
I did something dumber, when it zipped, it put the files into a folder, hence the error, re-zipped so it wouldn't do that, and it installed, but the roms of course don't work despite porting them.
2. Building the rom from source sounds way beyond me. Porting meant coping files from the stock rom to the custom rom.. is building a rom easier than that? I actually hate this iteration of the i10 I was given, since it is actually weaker and less functional than my i9.. so I just wanted to see if a better rom would at least make it a usable phone.. I already spent hours flashing and rooting just to get past the stupid trojans/spyware that were installed on the phone.. irritates me that I would have to spend even more time building a rom for it.. especially when it's not a popular phone and said no rom would be of no use to anyone.