Hello XDA-Developers,
I'm 16 Years old an I'm from Germany so please excuse my Gramma mistakes etc.
After the release of Jelly Bean there ist only one thing in my Head: learn how to develop
my own custom rom based on Jelly Bean for a Device which havent got get an update
till now.
It would be nice if someone give me advice how to start developing my own Rom. It would be
nice to know how I can start developing an how I can insert WiFi or Graphic Drivers from an older
(official) Rom to my own Rom.
I'll be happy if you can give my some advice for getting started to be a real XDA-Developer.
Greetings from Germany,
Sascha
Find a book on Linux Kernel/device driver development and read it. Build your kernel, make some modifications. Find a device similar to yours and start porting. We can't give you a step by step or do stuff for you. If you have a question about a specific item, error, feature, or bug then ask about it, but we can't do much with these "how do I start developing" questions. Just read kid that's all I can say.
I highly recommend following this guide and building the "hello world" app. If it doesn't work properly the first time, start from scratch and rewrite it again and again until it works. That's what I did and it really helps you gain a basic understanding of XML and java.
http://developer.android.com/training/basics/firstapp/index.html
Check out some of the various guides on this website as well. I highly recommend reading the "introduction to edify language" which is used for coding updater scripts. I had problems at first with the updater script and I had to decompile other roms and check out their updater scripts in order to gain a proper understanding.
http://www.freeyourandroid.com/index.php
This is also a good guide to check out, it's about building your first app as well but significantly more detailed than googles guide. I haven't read the whole thing myself yet but am in the process of doing so. It's good to have an understanding of how to code apps as well since it helps you understand XML and java which is also needed for ROM development, and makes it easier in general to get a grasp of various coding languages.
http://www.vogella.com/articles/Android/article.html
Also decompile some apps/tweaks/roms for your particular device and check out the code. For example I compared the stock rom for my phone to an AOSP build of ICS just to check out the different code and study it. It's very interesting and a good way to learn. PM other devs in your devices forums if you have questions or get stuck somewhere, that's exactly what I did and the devs were very helpful.
Good luck learning and have fun!
Related
hi guys,in the past i made a rom for my wm 6.5 device ,now i want to develop custom ROM's for my Mini,what are the sites/topics that i must see? what are the fundamental things that i must know?how hard it is?is there a Kitchen like in WM?there are REPOS like in WM for specific phone DPI?who is the rom structure?
I had already talked about this in another post so im just going to copy paste it out of laziness:
Some links
Start by going through source.android.com for the general basics if you havent already.
Also, even though Google removed the PDK (Platform Developer's Kit) from the site, it has been mirrored on kandroid here: http://www.kandroid.org/online-pdk/guide/index.html
The stuff in the the PDK, although inadequate, is still very important and explains how to create the necessary makefiles to add to the build, configuring for a new market, etc. etc.
Also,
watch these two videos over here. These were very helpful in my ROM development:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_H4AlQaNa0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFqELLB1Kk8
Learn to use github. It is helpful for you to keep track of your changes as well as incorporate others works into your own.
http://help.github.com/
Finally, Cyanogenmod repos are your BEST friend. Almost all major AOSP ROM devs owe some sort of thanks to those guys who have done so much. If you want to check out some of the code changes and patches that you want to incorporate look here on their gerrit:
review.cyanogenmod.com
If you want to look at the other changes that are actually in the cyanogenmod builds, best to look at their git repos here:
https://github.com/CyanogenMod
I am still learning right now while I create my ROM but your welcome to PM me if you have any questions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As for kitchens, there are a bunch of them.
For theming, there is UOT: http://uot.dakra.lt/
For HTC based phones (+ some others), there is dsxida: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=633246
For others, just search the chef threads.
If you want to learn true ROM development, dont use kitchens. Study, study, study from the links above and the source code. Learn to make custom modifications in code. This will give you a much deeper understanding of how everything works.
If you want to just edit, add apps, and repackage them, then kitchen will be easy and clean.
As to how hard is it? If you're gonna work with source and do significant changes, then it will be difficult (as documentation is slim to none) but very satisfying. Like cyanogen said in the other sticky, learn how regular android apps interact with the system. Create a few test apps and go from there.
Hope I helped
Lemme get some things out of the way.. I am a noob. I have searched. I have read some of the results from the search. I am overwhelmed by the 20+ pages of results (lol). I am not 100% sure this is the correct forum for this (not sure where else would be ).. I believe this is one of those things where I need help based on my situation.. Ok, so here I go.
I wish to start porting ICS to my phone. That's my goal. I have general understanding of how linux works, but I do not know much about the android specifics of how they work, or what needs to be modified for this to work. I do not plan to use the kitchen tool as I wish to learn this the hard way. I believe this will help me become more understanding in what I am doing. However, at this point I don't and that's why I'm here. My phone model is irrelevant almost because its prepaid and usually the communities don't even recognize their existence.. at least that's how I feel about it. But I digress. My phone is the zte warp by boost mobile and I am here to learn hopefully the things that will get me started on porting ICS to this phone. I right now believe that the best thing for me to learn is how the android related files work because as it is, I only looked at guides on how linux works and I understand most of it. I'm not sure that's the best thing that will help me port ics, but I'm certain it is important.
Please help me figure out where I should start in learning how to port ICS to my phone basically.
Thanks XDA
anyone? I am quite serious about wanting to do and go into this but I have yet one thread that anyone's ever replied to.. (or post iirc) which puts a damper on me
Snake X said:
Lemme get some things out of the way.. I am a noob. I have searched. I have read some of the results from the search. I am overwhelmed by the 20+ pages of results (lol). I am not 100% sure this is the correct forum for this (not sure where else would be ).. I believe this is one of those things where I need help based on my situation.. Ok, so here I go.
I wish to start porting ICS to my phone. That's my goal. I have general understanding of how linux works, but I do not know much about the android specifics of how they work, or what needs to be modified for this to work. I do not plan to use the kitchen tool as I wish to learn this the hard way. I believe this will help me become more understanding in what I am doing. However, at this point I don't and that's why I'm here. My phone model is irrelevant almost because its prepaid and usually the communities don't even recognize their existence.. at least that's how I feel about it. But I digress. My phone is the zte warp by boost mobile and I am here to learn hopefully the things that will get me started on porting ICS to this phone. I right now believe that the best thing for me to learn is how the android related files work because as it is, I only looked at guides on how linux works and I understand most of it. I'm not sure that's the best thing that will help me port ics, but I'm certain it is important.
Please help me figure out where I should start in learning how to port ICS to my phone basically.
Thanks XDA
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Click to collapse
From my limited knowledge, I think it is a huge task undertaking, you can download Android source code from Google, the hard part will be the device driver development and porting for Linux kernel (and maybe portion of Android). If you are lucky, you can use the existing phone bootloader (or you have to port one). Understanding the inner of the phone (different chip set may need different device driver) will be another challenging task.
by the device driver development, you mean all the libs that go into the phone? Couldn't I just copy/paste the pre-existing libs that are already made for the phone? Also the phone im working with is a bit strange really.. noone has been able to compile the kernel from its source and get it to boot yet.. when it was compiled the zImage was different than that of the stock one.
And yeah, I have downloaded the aosp source.. I just need to know where to start at and the processes involved really
Snake X said:
by the device driver development, you mean all the libs that go into the phone? Couldn't I just copy/paste the pre-existing libs that are already made for the phone? Also the phone im working with is a bit strange really.. noone has been able to compile the kernel from its source and get it to boot yet.. when it was compiled the zImage was different than that of the stock one.
And yeah, I have downloaded the aosp source.. I just need to know where to start at and the processes involved really
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To answer you question no the drivers and lib files are different for aosp based rooms then they are for the stock OEM from. The first step will be to get a working kernel. Without anything you do will be pointless
I'm somewhat interested in the same thing, and from what I've gathered, you'll need to do these things to begin ROM development:
1. Read every page on the AOSP site and grab a copy of the AOSP source. It probably wouldn't hurt to read the regular Android developer wiki as well.
2. Learn about Linux driver development:
http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/ (this is apparently considered THE BOOK on Linux driver development)
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/drivers_linux
3. Learn pretty much every detail about your phone and its hardware, especially when it comes to how ROMs are installed on it. For example, my phone (the Droid X2) has a locked bootloader, so 2nd init has to be used to boot new ROMs, and this makes it so that we cannot update the kernel.
You can usually find this sort of information on your phone manufacturer's website. Sometimes they even post the source code to their phone's drivers, which is helpful.
4. Look at other ROMs (preferably for your phone) and see how they work. The source code is freely available for most popular ROMs.
For example: CyanogenMod keeps their source code in a public git repository: https://github.com/cyanogenmod
5. Get to work on porting!
I would highly recommend starting with something smaller, however, just as a start. One good jumping-off point is probably this guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1272270
If any part of this was wrong, or if I left something out, somebody feel free to correct me, I'm still a noob.
Thank you so much for your direction, however,, android kitchen.. im not sure about that because isnt that only ment for htc devices? My phone is made by zte
what device do you even have?
if it's stuck officialy on 2.1 or 2.2 there's no hope that if you even port it that it'll work
its the zte warp from boost mobile (prepaid). Btw if I compile an aosp ics launcher and put that on my phone whats the chances of that working?
edit: it uses 2.3.5
Well Sebastian responded on android forums, apparently zte is very bad at version control with their kernel sources. So when they complete one project, they use the same source for the next project, and what they release could be for anything. Apparently the blade source had the same issues, it took him a while to get them to correct the source
Sent from my N860 using Tapatalk
Yeah I noticed that there were ppl saying there were things similar but I'm not sure what will work or what won't.. guess its time to start a petition on zte to release the source code lol
edit: seems like zte's bein a bad company and violated the GNU GPL license for not providing a complete source code.. I compiled an email and sent it to someone who can proof read it and send it to the right person for this kinda thing.. danggit zte
Hey guys,
so this is applicable to all devices and its android specific therefore I think this is the best place to ask these question/s. I learned coding with Python for a few months last year and really enjoyed it. Now I am thinking since I have an android phone that is claimed by most "unbrickable" and I am probably stuck with it for another year I decided to learn android programming and contribute to this awesome community and hopefully make my phone awesome myself. Before I can do all that I have a few questions. Most of the development guides I saw after google searching, referred to how to create apps ( now I know there are guides to creating roms here). If I learn with those guides how to make apps will it be a similar process when I wan't to make custom roms? Also how to start? Start with Java SDK, with eclipse? Point to some guides plox
early thanks
There are guides for building apps... and guides for building ROMs... but AFAIK, guides for customising ROMs don't really exist... ROM customisations are generally just done following the API or using someone's work as a reference point....
craigacgomez said:
There are guides for building apps... and guides for building ROMs... but AFAIK, guides for customising ROMs don't really exist... ROM customisations are generally just done following the API or using someone's work as a reference point....
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Click to collapse
I think I worded that wrong. I know there are guides for building apps and building roms but I was asking If I use one of those guides to build app + learn to build app using a book or something will it help me build roms later? And for the custom rom thing, I meant like theres hellfire ics cm9 then theres eaglesblood ics cm9 for same device but by different people so I when I said custom rom I mean like my own ics cm9. but anyway thanks for your answer.
First and last bump
Making ROM's is different then making apps, while the skills you learn using Eclipse and Java JDK will only teach you Java, XML and ADB at most, when making ROM's you need to know many different things. While you can make custom ROM's with little programming experience to be a true master of making custom ROM's you need to know Java and XML, for modifying and creating your own custom apps you can include in your ROM, C and C++ for tweaking the kernel to truly optimize performance, Shell for creating scripts to automate tasks and performing other functions in your ROM, Photoshop/GIMP for image editing and creation in order to customize the look of your ROM, as well as patience to debug any problems you may run into and a couple other skills as well.
If you want to learn how to compile CM9 check out these guides:
[TUTORIAL]Setting up and compiling CM9/CM10 from source
Galaxy Nexus (GSM): Compile CyanogenMod 9 (Linux) It's for the Galaxy Nexus but it's still a very good place to start with to learn how to compile CM9 from source.
For learning basic customization of ROM's check out these great videos:
Let me know if you still have questions .
shimp208 said:
Making ROM's is different then making apps, while the skills you learn using Eclipse and Java JDK will only teach you Java, XML and ADB at most, when making ROM's you need to know many different things. While you can make custom ROM's with little programming experience to be a true master of making custom ROM's you need to know Java and XML, for modifying and creating your own custom apps you can include in your ROM, C and C++ for tweaking the kernel to truly optimize performance, Shell for creating scripts to automate tasks and performing other functions in your ROM, Photoshop/GIMP for image editing and creation in order to customize the look of your ROM, as well as patience to debug any problems you may run into and a couple other skills as well.
Okay that makes sense. So if I learn to make apps since thats what most guides are, I will learn to work with JDK and XML but creating ROMs requires much more knowledge. I am okay with just being able to compile source codes/porting roms from similar devices and what not. I am pretty decent with Photoshop so thats a win Thank you sir
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Mods, please delete
I would like to see how to set-up working machine to compile htc villec2 kernel from sources provided on htc's site. I've been searching so much threads on what and how to do it that i forgot how to do it fully. Would be fun to compile kerne on my own and try to add some features
I've been reading about Eclipse & SDK to learn how to build my own rom or patch some together. I have used ADB for about a year now but I'm not sure if this is where I need to start with rom building/patching. Helping in the forums with builds is something I am wanting to learn, any suggestions? I currently have 3 Dincs and 2 ThunderBolts to test, one of which is my DD and the Dincs belong to my kids. I do realize that I must first have permission from the original builder to mess with their rom but I really don't know enough yet to even ask permission.
Hi guys,
I'm currently a university student with some decent Java skills, I want to start some android rom development mostly for the Nexus 7 2013 but I'm not sure where to start. I have googled and all I have found are guides on using kitchens, I'm looking for something more advanced, where I could learn to create a rom like SmoothRom for the Nexus 7 2012 with performance tweaks to make it super smooth and stable.
Any help would be apreciated. Sorry if there is an answer to this somewhere, like I said so far I've only found kitchens and I don't think that's the type of development I need to be doing.
Thanks
Http://source.android.com
Try building cyanogen mod first
GO TO THIS SITE
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Devices#vendor="Google";
THIS SITE OFFERS YOU TO BUILD ROM FOR YOUR DEVICES AS WELL AS OTHER DEVICES
Thanks, will try building some source code first
Also could someone maybe provide some info on where to learn about implementing linaro and what it is? It sounds very interesting but not much info on it.