[Q] How to make zimage and initramfs.cpio.lzo - Gen8, Gen9, Gen10 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
My first post into this forum
So, I have installed Plasma active on my Archos 80 G9 with 250G Hard disk using this guide :
h tt p:/ /share.basyskom.com/plasma-active/archos_gen9.h t m l
Then, I installed it on my 1.6 G data partition, but it wasn't working well .. so I checked the disk space remaining in it and it was near zero.
My question now,
at the bottom of the plasma active installation guide you can see "Setup a Android™ and Plasma Active dual Boot System" , where the plasma active files can be put on the SD card and this was possible by just changing the zimage file
1- is there any sde zimage and initramfs.cpio.lzo that can boot from the hard disk ? ( Dynamic multiboot menu says it can but it doesn't at all )
2- Is there any guide on how to create/edit zimage file ?
Thanks ..
regards,
Mostafa

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shalkam said:
Hi,
My first post into this forum
So, I have installed Plasma active on my Archos 80 G9 with 250G Hard disk using this guide :
h tt p:/ /share.basyskom.com/plasma-active/archos_gen9.h t m l
Then, I installed it on my 1.6 G data partition, but it wasn't working well .. so I checked the disk space remaining in it and it was near zero.
My question now,
at the bottom of the plasma active installation guide you can see "Setup a Android™ and Plasma Active dual Boot System" , where the plasma active files can be put on the SD card and this was possible by just changing the zimage file
1- is there any sde zimage and initramfs.cpio.lzo that can boot from the hard disk ? ( Dynamic multiboot menu says it can but it doesn't at all )
2- Is there any guide on how to create/edit zimage file ?
Thanks ..
regards,
Mostafa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi There
You'll find a rough guide to unpacking and repacking here here
Hope that helps!

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trevd said:
Hi There
You'll find a rough guide to unpacking and repacking here here
Hope that helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your post!! Finally I have been able to make some progress after googling around for a couple of weeks
I went through the guide you posted and it turned out to be very helpful ..
I ended up with the file -> new_initrd.lzo
and I have been able to edit the init file
Code:
#!/bin/sh
# kr's init script.
if [ -e /etc/debug_build ] ; then
debug=1
verbose=1
enable_adb=1
#set -x
else
debug=0
verbose=0
enable_adb=0
fi
# source init_lib
. /etc/scripts/init_lib.sh
# source recovery_lib
. /etc/scripts/recovery_lib.sh
if [ -e /etc/scripts/platform_lib.sh ] ; then
. /etc/scripts/platform_lib.sh
fi
# archosboxes
ACAT=/bin/acat
ADBD=/bin/adbd
ADEV=/bin/adev
AOSPARSER=/bin/aosparser
AUI=/bin/aui
AUID=/bin/auid
AUTODIM=/bin/autodim
CREATE_SYSID=/bin/create_sysid
FB_WRITE=/bin/fb_write
FLASH_PARTITION_ERASE=/bin/flash_partition_erase
FSCK_EXT3_PARSER=/bin/fsck.ext3_parser
GET_INFO=/bin/get_info
KD_FLASHER=/bin/kd_flasher
KX_CHECKER=/bin/kx_checker
MKFSEXT3_PARSER=/bin/mkfs.ext3_parser
REBOOT_INTO=/bin/reboot_into
RFBI_REFRESH=/bin/rfbi_refresh
USB_TS_CALIB=/bin/usb_ts_calib
FSCK_EXT3=/sbin/e2fsck.static
FSCK_VFAT=/sbin/dosfsck.static
# busybox
CAT=/bin/cat
CHMOD=/bin/chmod
DD=/bin/dd
INSMOD=/sbin/insmod
LOSETUP=/sbin/losetup
MKDIR=/bin/mkdir
MOUNT=/bin/mount
RM=/bin/rm
RMMOD=/sbin/rmmod
TOUCH=/bin/touch
UMOUNT=/bin/umount
ZCAT=/bin/zcat
AAS_PRESENT=0
# Prepare filesystem
mount_pseudo_fs
ln -s /proc/mounts /etc/mtab
# Get board and product information
PRODUCT_NAME=`$GET_INFO p`
PRODUCT_REVISION=`$GET_INFO r`
PRODUCT_PK=`$GET_INFO P`
AOS_FILENAME=`$GET_INFO f`
AOS_EXTENSION="aos"
log "recovery get_info - PRODUCT $PRODUCT_NAME ($PRODUCT_REVISION) - AOSFILENAME $AOS_FILENAME"
$ADEV -d
platform_init
wait_block_devices rawfs
mount_p rawfs
display_banner $PRODUCT_NAME $PRODUCT_REVISION
$KX_CHECKER -f /mnt/rawfs/init
ki_status=$?
$KX_CHECKER -m -f /mnt/rawfs/custom
kd_status=$?
umount_p rawfs
auid_start $PRODUCT_NAME $PRODUCT_REVISION
$AUI -c message -T "Archos $PRODUCT_NAME" -a centered -t "~ Hello world ~"
wait_block_devices storage
if [ "$ki_status" = "0" ] && [ "$kd_status" = "0" ] ; then
recovery_cmd="boot_menu"
else
recovery_cmd="-"
fi
if [ $enable_adb -eq 1 ] ; then
$ADBD
fi
# enter recovery app main loop :
# check for automatic tasks and process, or ask user what to do
#
# if manual or auto task fail, recovery_loop will try to repair
# (for $COUNTER times) and reloop...
#
COUNTER=4
while [ $COUNTER -gt 0 ]; do
# check for automatic update to perform.
# repair disk silently if AAS present. (double update case)
mount_p storage
aas_fullfilename=`get_mount_info p storage`"/firmware_$AOS_FILENAME.aas"
if [ -e $aas_fullfilename ] ; then
recovery_cmd="flash_aas $aas_fullfilename"
fi
umount_p storage
do_recovery_loop $recovery_cmd
result=$?
case "$result" in
$RECOVERY_RECOVERED)
log "recovery recovered system ($COUNTER)"
;;
$RECOVERY_DONE)
COUNTER=4
;;
$RECOVERY_FINISH)
log "recovery_loop go reboot"
COUNTER=0
;;
$RECOVERY_FINISH_HALT)
log "recovery_loop go shutdown"
COUNTER=0
;;
$RECOVERY_FINISH_NO_NOTIFICATION)
log "recovery_loop go reboot"
COUNTER=0
;;
*)
log "recovery_loop failed go reboot"
if [ $debug -eq 1 ] ; then
# give debug informations
COUNTER=0
else
COUNTER=0
fi
;;
esac
recovery_cmd="-"
let COUNTER-=1
done
case "$result" in
"$RECOVERY_FINISH_NO_NOTIFICATION")
log_and_reboot "reboot"
;;
"$RECOVERY_FINISH_HALT")
aui_message "Device will now halt."
log_and_shutdown "shutdown"
;;
*)
aui_message "Device will now reboot."
log_and_reboot "reboot"
;;
esac
# EOF
all the changes that I made are
Code:
$AUI -c message -T "Archos $PRODUCT_NAME" -a centered -t "~ Hello world ~"
just added "hello world" instead of "starting..." just for now.
So what I need to know is :
1- how to use the "new_initrd.lzo" file should I get renamed to "initramfs.cpio.lzo" and create an empty file called zimage then do the "Flash Kernel and Initramfs"
2- I guess the guide was made before sde was released for archos g9, so do I need to keep all the coding for the recovery menu or just keep the code for mounting the hard disk and loading the system/image ?
3- could you post an example code of how to mount the hard disk and boot from there if you can ?
Thanks

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I renamed the files and it worked just fine, So everything is clear for me now.
and if you have any examples of the "init" file coding, the would be the happy ending for me

---

shalkam said:
Thanks for your post!! Finally I have been able to make some progress after googling around for a couple of weeks
I went through the guide you posted and it turned out to be very helpful ..
I ended up with the file -> new_initrd.lzo and I have been able to edit the init file
...
So what I need to know is :
1- how to use the "new_initrd.lzo" file should I get renamed to "initramfs.cpio.lzo" and create an empty file called zimage then do the "Flash Kernel and Initramfs"
2- I guess the guide was made before sde was released for archos g9, so do I need to keep all the coding for the recovery menu or just keep the code for mounting the hard disk and loading the system/image ?
3- could you post an example code of how to mount the hard disk and boot from there if you can ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
1. To use the initramfs you need a kernel Image as well, look at posts in the development section, there's quite a few kernel variants, ( overclocked etc ), you're best off sticking with the 3.0.8 kernel, folks have experienced some problems with archos' latest release.
You then need to hold volume down while powering on to get into the maintenance mode, from there it's "recovery menu"/"developer edition menu"/"flash kernel and initramfs" this will mount a device on you PC which you copy the initramfs.cpio.lzo and zImage.
2. "We" pretty much had an unofficial sde from day one thanks to some reverse engineering and I can only assume knowledge gained from the previous generation of archos tablets. you don't really need to keep the recovery code but it's probably easier to leave it. It might be worth your while repacking a MultiBoot initramfs.cpio to suit your needs It should be just a case of getting it to look on your hard drive for images instead of/as well as the Internal SD.
3. the mount_p calls take care of mounting partitions, It's a function defined in one of the scripts in the etc/scripts directory in your initramfs, The file you're probably after editing however is etc/mountpoints.
Like I say have a good look around the development section, especially at some of the earlier posts, there's only four pages but some good knowledge and useful info to be had!

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trevd said:
It might be worth your while repacking a MultiBoot initramfs.cpio to suit your needs It should be just a case of getting it to look on your hard drive for images instead of/as well as the Internal SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I repaced the MultiBoot initramfs.cpio and did the following :-
before
Code:
#Build boot menu string
MENULIST="\`$AUI -C \"0x000000,0xdbdac9\" -c select -T \"Archos $PRODUCT_NAME - Multi Boot Menu $BOOTVER\" -a centered -C \"0x000000,0xf1f0dd\" -t \"Please select an image :\" "
IMGLOC1="/data/media/"
IMGLOC2="/data/local/"
after :
Code:
mount_p storage_A80H
#Build boot menu string
MENULIST="\`$AUI -C \"0x000000,0xdbdac9\" -c select -T \"Archos $PRODUCT_NAME - Multi Boot Menu $BOOTVER\" -a centered -C \"0x000000,0xf1f0dd\" -t \"Please select an image :\" "
IMGLOC1="/data/media/"
IMGLOC2="/mnt/storage/
and it worked loaded all the .ext4 files in /mnt/storage/ .
the file for icsblue worked but the file for ubuntu from this topic ->http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1392167
didn't work
anyway you can find a shell script for unpacking-editing-packing attached to make things easier if anyone wants to edit these files instead of the "rough guide to unpacking and repacking"