Related
It seems that there are a lot of ROMs out there that are doing some funky stuff from the edify scripting in CWM and providing a poor user experience. This overall hurts the entire custom NookColor community and puts a bad taste in peoples mouths.
This post is to point out best practices when creating CWM flashable zips in a consistant way allowing the user to upgrade and migrate between roms in a predictable way.
Rule #1: Don't touch /data!
There are many reasons why you don't want to touch /data but the most important is to allow the user to be able to upgrade your rom without completely wiping your data.
If you want to bundle in an applications (first of all... don't but if you reaally think it is necessary) put it in /system/app as a system app.
Rule #2: Don't overwrite /boot/uRecRam and /boot/uRecImg!
ROM and CWM should be separate. Users should be able to use your rom with CWM or even the stock recovery if they wish to. Allow the user to choose what version of CWM they want to run and allow them to upgrade it independently of your rom.
This allows you to not re-release roms every time a new version of CWM is released.
Exceptions to the rule are update zip that are intended to install CWM (which is ok) or zips that will restore the entire system to stock.
Rule #3 Learn edify
Edify scripting is quite powerful. It saddens me to open up the updater-script of a rom and see it extracting a script and then executing the script.
Don't store your roms as .tars and require a script to extract them to the right locations, you should be doing this all from edify scripts.
Rule #4: Only touch /system and /boot/uImage and /boot/uRamdisk
All other files should be off-limit! This goes back to rule #1 and rule #2. A rom should consits of a kernel, a ramdisk to boot the system and /system files for running the rom!
Rule #5: NEVER EVER EVER modify partitions or wipe the EMMC completely!
I cannot stress this one enough. Use stock partition scheme for your rom. It may seem like a "waste" to you but this is what will make all our roms compatible with each other!
Also the Nookcolor stores NVRAM type information on /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 and factory restore information and a backup of p2 on /dev/block/mmcblk0p3.
If you wipe these directories in your update.zip you WILL BRICK THE USERS NC! It may work for you but they can never return to stock. Their serial number and mac addresses will be lost!
Just don't even think about doing anything with the partition map or these partitions!
Rule #6: When in doubt look at the CM update.zips
A good example of the rules above is portrayed in the CyanogenMod nightly roms for the NC. Look at the updater-script in META-INF/com/google/android and see how things are done.
If we all agree to follow these rules the NC users will get a better and more consistent experience and you will have more users for your rom.
For the users I will list the ROM that are compatible with the list above and list ROMs that don't follow these rules.
ROMs that follow proper packaging
These rom have been built properly according to the rules in the OP. I highly recommend testing any of these out.
Cyanogenmod Nightlies
phiremod nook V5.2
Nookie Froyo 0.6.8
(Utility Update.zip) Nook Color SDcard and emmc swap
ROMs that DON'T follow proper packaging
Use these roms at your own risk!
Flashable eMMC dual boot ROMs
Dual booting roms violates changing the the parition table! If you want to dual boot I would use a bootable SD. If you get a class 6 or higher SD card the performance difference should be pretty low. The perceived speed boost i believe is negligible.
Avoid this rom if you are new to Android or the NookColor. I would call this rom an "Advanced user" rom and not for new members of the community who are unfamiliar with Android, Linux, or the NookColor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HC v4 eMMC 2nd ed. - Flashable ZIP
This rom packaging is the poster child for how to do it wrong. They overwrite your /data for app customization. It uses an external script and tar files for extraction and overwrites all of /boot!
AVOID THIS ROM PACKAGE!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This looks very wise and in accord with general programming principles.
In the same area of discussion, can you talk about whether or not to clear cache while doing this same update process.
In fact, some explanation of /cache and Dalvik Cache and Market Cache might help to alleviate confusion, especially in regards to specifically what they are, and when one should clear them.
Sure, a "cache" is a piece of data that is frequently used, and so put in a more accessible place, but in typical confusing fashion, that general term is being used in a specific way in Android.
Thanks !
Nice. Good guidelines.
It would, in a perfect world, be nice if a standard CWM recovery would give a choice to either write to SD or EMMC. Then we would not have many of these more involved boot file and CW file edits and changes that are making things more complicated.
If everyone used CW to right to EMMC, this would be easy. But users like myself are running ROMs from SD and are always looking for a way to easily update and flash mods or ubdate ROMs to SD. Yes I use ADB, and other methods, but often I am traveling and away from my office or studio were my PC's are.
Any ideas on CWM to keep things more unified as the op suggests and be able to write to bootable SD cards?
Thanks for starting the discussion.
12
Good explanation/write-up, nemith. Not being a dev, but a user, it helps me to better understand which ROMs to use on my NC. I really liked HC EMMC, but did not realize that it would make it so I could never return back to stock (losing my S/N and such).
Also concur with ADude about cache....a good explanation would be helpful here. I only clear the cache/Dalvik when installing a new kernel. Not sure if even necessary? And, I clear AFTER installing, not before, so not sure if I am even doing that in the correct order. Setting the record straight would go a long way for us non-devs.
Sorry, one more thing, it would be great to have a consistently updated bootable SD card with latest/greatest of CWR on it. I am still on 3.0.0.6 and I am not sure why??
Thanks!
~ Razir
Could have used this a few months ago.
Thank you.
Nemith, your thread is directed at devs. If you want to make sure people don't flash my HC v4 2nd edition, you might want to invite users to read this as well.
nemith said:
ROMs that DON'T follow proper packaging
Use these roms at your own risk!
Flashable eMMC dual boot ROMs
Dual booting roms violates changing the the parition table! If you want to dual boot I would use a bootable SD. If you get a class 6 or higher SD card the performance difference should be pretty low. The perceived speed boost i believe is negligible.
I would avoid dual booting roms if you can!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have this installed..... I am going to run the dual boot removal zip when I get home.
Am I screwed? Anthing I need to worry about?
12paq said:
Nice. Good guidelines.
It would, in a perfect world, be nice if a standard CWM recovery would give a choice to either write to SD or EMMC. Then we would not have many of these more involved boot file and CW file edits and changes that are making things more complicated.
12
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've thought of this. CWM would require a major rewrite to do this and the changes would never be sucked in.
Maybe one of these day's I will may my own CWM Kang that can do this, or better yet a desktop application that takes a update.zip and splits out a SD image!
cromanorn said:
I have this installed..... I am going to run the dual boot removal zip when I get home.
Am I screwed? Anthing I need to worry about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you are just in the "I am smart enough to use these roms without posting big "help me" posts on XDA.
These roms are not really harmful, but they should be avoided by people who don't understand the nook and how it works.
If you understand Android and how the NC is laid out then there should be minimal risk to using these roms. I just want to spell it out for people who are new to the NC or Android that these are "advanced" roms.
nemith said:
No you are just in the "I am smart enough to use these roms without posting big "help me" posts on XDA.
These roms are not really harmful, but they should be avoided by people who don't understand the nook and how it works.
If you understand Android and how the NC is laid out then there should be minimal risk to using these roms. I just want to spell it out for people who are new to the NC or Android that these are "advanced" roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANKS!!! I had the NC for about 4 days now and would hate to have messed it up in the long run. I have a Droid Incredible that has been flashed more times than I can remember. It would be nice if the warnings were incorporated into the OP of these roms. I read the entire thread before flashing and I may not have flashed if this warning was there. I like having the option of going back to Stock without repercussions.
edit: Just saw the update you put in your OP about advanced users. I don't consider myself advanced but I am not a beginner either.
nemith said:
I've thought of this. CWM would require a major rewrite to do this and the changes would never be sucked in.
Maybe one of these day's I will may my own CWM Kang that can do this, or better yet a desktop application that takes a update.zip and splits out a SD image!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. That would be very nice.
The Nook having SD boot priority really makes it versatile for testing, and quite recoverable. It also satisfies a unique situation where many users have a family device with Nook magazines and children's books not available on the Nook app, so many like myself are booting experiments and daily runners from SD and keeping the wife happy. LOL.
cromanorn said:
edit: Just saw the update you put in your OP about advanced users. I don't consider myself advanced but I am not a beginner either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you go digging at nookdevs.com and on your own NC you should be able to figure out what is safe and what is not.
nemith said:
Rule #6: When in doubt look at the CM update.zips
A good example of the rules above is portrayed in the CyanogenMod nightly roms for the NC. Look at the updater-script in META-INF/com/google/android and see how things are done.
If we all agree to follow these rules the NC users will get a better and more consistent experience and you will have more users for your rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the ironic thing is CM Roms don't fully follow Rule #3 since they have multiple scripts that run inside their packages during rom installation.
I'm not sure you are correct in saying that if you flash one of the HC emmc roms you can not revert back to stock. I know for a fact I have done both the dual boot, and HC emmc roms and reverted back to stock multiple times after doing so
I'm not saying you are wrong but I don't think i did anything to "advanced" to get back.
Quoted:
(I have this installed..... I am going to run the dual boot removal zip when I get home.
Am I screwed? Anthing I need to worry about?)
I had it installed and got back to stock no problem... i'm not sure what he is talking about.... i could be wrong though...
It was dualbooted CM7 and HC
went back to stock, registered with BN and all was well.
nooted it and then install HC on emmc
reverted back to stock to set up the ubuntu on NC
got bored of that and am back on HC on emmc
I went back to stock after both as well. Has anyone not been able to after using one of those two roms? I work at b&n and I had to spend time with the stock since they wanted me on the nook counter. I've been back and forth between all the roms more times then I can count.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
To the OP again i'm not trying to be rude, but could you respond to the last few commenter on this thread, it seems like my self a few others are having an experience that is quite different from what you described in your first post.
Could you help me understand why it hasn't been that difficult to get back from the roms that you specifically said can make it very hard to go back to stock from for us?
I'm currently on HM on emmc and if i did something fancy to get back the last time i restores i'd like to know if i need to do it again.
(edit) I bring this back up only because I saw this thread referenced again recently, which means it is having an effect on peoples work so i'm just trying to understand it.
[Edit] It was the SD card's fault. It seemingly worked fine in the laptop and it mounted fine in CW Recovery, but as soon as I used a different SD card I could flash zips again.
So, now I'm playing with phiremod v6 and loving the Nook again.
I believe I just bricked my Nook through use of the dual boot script.
I can only boot from SD into CW but not a single zip can be applied to the internal storage. Not even the "reverse dual boot" zip will run. They all error out.
I believe this is due to unexpected partitioning.
I even formatted boot, system and cache and still it will not restore any Roms.
So now I'm hoping to access the Nook through USB and repartition the internal storage manually. But before I do that, I need to learn about ADB and what the correct settings are.
jlt220 said:
To the OP again i'm not trying to be rude, but could you respond to the last few commenter on this thread, it seems like my self a few others are having an experience that is quite different from what you described in your first post.
Could you help me understand why it hasn't been that difficult to get back from the roms that you specifically said can make it very hard to go back to stock from for us?
I'm currently on HM on emmc and if i did something fancy to get back the last time i restores i'd like to know if i need to do it again.
(edit) I bring this back up only because I saw this thread referenced again recently, which means it is having an effect on peoples work so i'm just trying to understand it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think Nemith was saying that the existing dual boot installer is going to prevent you from returning to stock. He singled it out as a "ROM" that modifies the partition table, which can be a dangerous thing to do. There is information stored in the /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 and /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 partitions that is specific to each device and required by the B&N software. This information can't be rebuilt easily if lost.
The dual boot install and removal tools (in their current versions) appear to leave these partitions in tact. They are modifying the partition table though, so they're not recommended for novice users. You were able to install and uninstall it with no problems, so you're clearly not one .
The other point is that future versions of the dual boot (doubtful since it has a good dev) or other similar style "ROMs" may not be so careful with your 0p2 and 0p3 partitions.
Rooted my Viewpad 7
I created with the adb shell backups, no problem there.
I now have 12 img files saved on my SD card.
boot.img, recovery.img sytem.img and more.
But before I go wild on installing other roms I like to know how to restore those *.img files.
I don't want to install cwrecovery before I know how to fix things in case something goes wrong.
TIA
Install rom just like u install window. If your hardware's not has a problem. U can re-install it anytime you want. Just u backup and synchronize your bookmark and private data. It's not difficult like the other said in board. I'm install new rom everyday for fine the best's rom for myself. JUST DO IT. cwrecovery is the best.
indyend said:
Install rom just like u install window. If your hardware's not has a problem. U can re-install it anytime you want. Just u backup and synchronize your bookmark and private data. It's not difficult like the other said in board. I'm install new rom everyday for fine the best's rom for myself. JUST DO IT. cwrecovery is the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On all the threads here I read that I need (before I do anything else) make a backup of my stock rom with adb, but I can't find how to restore those, nobody seems to know
I don't want to overwrite (flash) my current stock restore partition with cwrecovery before I know how restore to the original rom manually.
CastleGuy said:
On all the threads here I read that I need (before I do anything else) make a backup of my stock rom with adb, but I can't find how to restore those, nobody seems to know
I don't want to overwrite (flash) my current stock restore partition with cwrecovery before I know how restore to the original rom manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's your HWver and SWver (along with Build/OS info) for this rooted VPAD7? Check it via FTM mode & let us know - and does it use the latest/new ITE hardware?
If yours doesn't have ITE and has an earlier built, Viewsonic's website has both the firmwares (*.zip files) and utilities (SUTL3 xxx) to reflash & fully restore it to stock, rooted conditions in case one of the custom ROM resulted in a "soft" brick. CWR does NOT work with *.img files in restoring and it's a problem especially with newer build/ITE hardware & I have yet to find a stock zip file for mine, but I did saved a rooted version with CWR based on the stock build that I've restored successfully with CWR. One of our fellow XDA geeks here is working on the 2 *.img files and should be posting a beta one soon.
The stock ROM based on Froyo 2.2.2 is very good - rooted so I can use Astro, ES File Manager & Titanium Backup, etc., IMO and the Froyo Enhanced (non-OC) works nicely (OS 2.2.1) on mine too - both could benefit from more tweaking especially with the status bar/interface & launcher, etc. But, neither of them are loaded with bloatware or junks - so you might just want to stick with the stock ones as this is still a relatively "small" circle of users "pushing" the boundaries.
Good luck & have a nice day - hope this helped !
Link to VS's website:
http://vsg.viewsonic.com/ViewPad7/
Letitride said:
What's your HWver and SWver (along with Build/OS info) for this rooted VPAD7? Check it via FTM mode & let us know - and does it use the latest/new ITE hardware?
If yours doesn't have ITE and has an earlier built, Viewsonic's website has both the firmwares (*.zip files) and utilities (SUTL3 xxx) to reflash & fully restore it to stock, rooted conditions in case one of the custom ROM resulted in a "soft" brick. CWR does NOT work with *.img files in restoring and it's a problem especially with newer build/ITE hardware & I have yet to find a stock zip file for mine, but I did saved a rooted version with CWR based on the stock build that I've restored successfully with CWR. One of our fellow XDA geeks here is working on the 2 *.img files and should be posting a beta one soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
SWVer:3.16K
Model:FMR-0001
HWVer:103
OS is version 2.2 that's not an ITE, am I correct?
Below are the files on the Viewpad site, whitch are the ones I need?
FM6-316Q-0-1008-A01.nb0
FM6-3310-0-5029-A02.nb0
SUTL3_v1.6.5.zip
SUTL3_v1.7.9.zip
SW_3.310_P1_20110201_VSI.zip
BTW The language on my current rom is in Dutch, do you know if the rom at Viewpad also has Dutch, it seems that the most selectable languages I see on my Viewpad are from Europe.
The stock ROM based on Froyo 2.2.2 is very good - rooted so I can use Astro, ES File Manager & Titanium Backup, etc., IMO and the Froyo Enhanced (non-OC) works nicely (OS 2.2.1) on mine too - both could benefit from more tweaking especially with the status bar/interface & launcher, etc. But, neither of them are loaded with bloatware or junks - so you might just want to stick with the stock ones as this is still a relatively "small" circle of users "pushing" the boundaries.
Good luck & have a nice day - hope this helped !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My stock rom seems to be very good also, for now I'll stick to that one but will play a bit with it to see what can be done to remove some software and make more room via an ext3 partition.
Still not sure what to do with the image files I created, it seems they are quite useless.
Thanks again
CastleGuy said:
Thanks
SWVer:3.16K
Model:FMR-0001
HWVer:103
OS is version 2.2 that's not an ITE, am I correct?
Below are the files on the Viewpad site, whitch are the ones I need?
FM6-316Q-0-1008-A01.nb0
FM6-3310-0-5029-A02.nb0
SUTL3_v1.7.9.zip
BTW The language on my current rom is in Dutch, do you know if the rom at Viewpad also has Dutch, it seems that the most selectable languages I see on my Viewpad are from Europe.
Still not sure what to do with the image files I created, it seems they are quite useless.
Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on what I read & seen, your VPAD is one of the earlier/est one so it's unlikely to come with ITE hardware, so nearly all of the custom ROM here should easily install without any problems at all using CWR.
Mine is 3.41 - FM6-0001 - 107 and OS 2.2.2 with ITE, and under "About phone" in Settings - Baseband PR3.7_125, Kernel 2.6.32.9 and Build 1008_3.350
SUTL3_v1.7.9.zip is the newer of 2 installer to flash the ROM - probably FM6-316Q*.nb0 being the closest one to yours (FM6-3310*.nb0 should be a newer one) Not sure what that SW*VSI.zip file is for but I got an error when trying to open/unzip it - bad d/l or corrupted ?? Both 316R & 3310 flashed successfully to my VPAD7 but since I got ITE, I cannot use it since the touchscreen with Android is frozen - yours should work with it as long as hardware isn't ITE.
I do not have enough info to help with the Dutch language question as my current Froyo Enhanced ROM only showed English, French & Spanish as choices - perhaps someone else running stock/OEM rom can help check theirs for you.
As for the stock ROM itself, I used TB to identify & freeze/uninstall some of them safely as I never used them - but to truely free up internal storage/memory, d/l and use App2SD to Ext3 partition - it DOES make a great deal of difference. If you have a spare mSD card (4 GB size will do nicely for experimental purposes, done it with 2 GB myself) - using CWR to reformat & create 3rd ext partition, moved the saved files/zips/apks back to it - reboot once the initial setup/installations are finalized & stablized - and enjoy ! With over 35 apps moved, I still get about 60MB free up ....
Agreed about those saved *.img files - except for those with the "kitchen" tools to take it apart & rebuild ....
I'm going to use TB to uninstall some apps, I think I'm going to find a faster SD card to try an Ext3 partition, probably that will help to keep the VP7 running as fast and smooth as it does now, great device
Thanks again for you help
I have been reading all the info on rooting,flashing,backup, and recovery.
Please tell me if I understand this correctly:
My viewpad details are as follows:
Android 2.2.1
Basebandversion PR3.7_125
Kernel version Apps_2.6.32.9
Build 1008_3_240
Manufactured 12/02/2011
Swver 3.240
Model FM6-001
Hwver 107
I am correct in assuming this is an ite version and if I root there currently is no stock unrooted rom available to unroot if I need to?
droid5800 said:
My viewpad details are as follows:
Android 2.2.1
Basebandversion PR3.7_125
Kernel version Apps_2.6.32.9
Build 1008_3_240
Manufactured 12/02/2011
Swver 3.240
Model FM6-001
Hwver 107
I am correct in assuming this is an ite version and if I root there currently is no stock unrooted rom available to unroot if I need to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most likely, yours is ITE hardware. BTW, what country/region are you in - the Americas, Asia or Europe b/c stock ROMS available for one region or zone might/should work in another, depending on locales & language requirements .... WiFi issues experienced by some users could, I feel / suspect, be related partially to radio bands intended for region/zone x being flashed and used in region/zone y.
I believe that at least one of the recent stock/factory ROMs cited in the development subforum is for ITE/new pads.
Welcome abroad & cheers
Letitride said:
Most likely, yours is ITE hardware. BTW, what country/region are you in - the Americas, Asia or Europe b/c stock ROMS available for one region or zone might/should work in another, depending on locales & language requirements .... WiFi issues experienced by some users could, I feel / suspect, be related partially to radio bands intended for region/zone x being flashed and used in region/zone y.
I believe that at least one of the recent stock/factory ROMs cited in the development subforum is for ITE/new pads.
Welcome abroad & cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks nice to be here.
I am from the Caribbean so I guess that would be the Americas.
My only complaint with this device is the available space so wanted to root to install something like link2sd. Might not even need a custom ROM if that works out.
In my parts these devices aren't cheap/reasonable so just want to make sure there is a fall back stock ROM in case I need to return for warranty repairs.
Most of the current ROMs seem to be for non ITE devices. Any hopes that there will be more ITE custom ROMs anytime soon an o/c one for a little speed boost would be nice.
Regards
droid5800 said:
from the Caribbean so I guess that would be the Americas .... complaint with this device is the available space so wanted to root to install something like link2sd. Might not even need a custom ROM if that works out .... in my parts these devices aren't cheap/reasonable so just want to make sure there is a fall back stock ROM in case I need to return for warranty repairs .... current ROMs seem to be for non ITE devices .... an o/c one for a little speed boost would be nice. Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The stock ROM isn't loaded with bloatware & with 3G unlocked, the device is fine for non-power, speed freaks chasing the latest dual core CPU, LOL - but, it's easy to fill up internal space & memory. Without rooting, it's difficult to load & experiment with A2SD, do Titanium Backup & use ES File Manager or Astro - but even stock ROM has full access to Google Market, so it's pretty cool.
Agreed on high prices down in the islands & even worst in the Bermudas and with little to no competition, unless one can bring them back from mainland USA and not have to pay import duties.
I've tested just about every available custom ROM floating around - Amalgation's EU v1.7 ITE ROM is what I use, it's responsive & adapted for ITE, 3G worked on AT&T and T-Mobile's GSM network + WiFi, and managed to install DT's A2SD on it, so it freed up lots of space & memory - using a 16GB mSD card.
As for overclocking, it's difficult if not impossible to do it without the ITE device driver, contacted tech. support & requested them - haven't heard a word from them, so not hopeful - without it, the handful of developers around won't be able to do anything.
Thanks for your help So one last question:
When I root can I restore to stock unrooted with any of these Roms found here :
vsg.viewsonic.com/ViewPad7 (sorry I'm not allowed to post links)
Just in case I need to return for warranty repairs.
Thanks
droid5800 said:
When I root can I restore to stock unrooted with any of these Roms found here : vsg.viewsonic.com/ViewPad7
Just in case I need to return for warranty repairs.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The newest one in the link is for ITE and if I recall, based on EU rom, and should be good for your device (for flashing back to stock, if ever needed, using the SUTL3 utility as it need the image to be in *.nb0 format and not an update.zip)
Yes, use either One Click v1.7 (newer ones not always work) method or Gingerbreak apk (which I find easier) to root & install CWM Recovery - once you do that, before doing anything else - do a Backup of your stock ROM first, it will be saved on the mSD card (and, to the PC or usb/portable hdd device) - before doing anything else.
If you are using both 3G & WiFi for data access, make a note of your settings (including under the wireless/advanced tab - check that your MAC address is shown).
Your saved CWM image files can be restored - returning it to near stock condition, except for rooting. If you feel comfortable enough at that point, do a Restore from CWM after a full wipe, then let it reboot & viola - you "stock" rom again.
AFAIK, newer ITE hardware-based vpad7 have 3 custom ROM to work with -
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1264647
Froyo Enhanced is nice & simple, very close to stock with a few Apps gone to make room, simple to flash & setup and WiFi working, a good starting point to try & fall back upon.
TJ's FM6 is designed for OC kernel and non-ITE rom, but with a patched kernel, will work - a bit more challenging to setup, but it's just as stable.
EU'v latest V1.7 ITE rom is my personal ROM of choice for daily use, very stable & smooth, responsive - developer is working toward a final release, due out soon. It support App2SD for ext3 with CWM Recovery, not as simple to get everything working together - but it does, patience needed. AND, the backup ROM is very important in case something didn't go "right" - sometimes, another pass with flashing the zip will get it, or, just restore to earlier known working version as saved.
Should be tons of fun & hours of flashing, sit back, read & take notes of steps - brew up a nice cup of coffee or tea, and enjoy the challenge - this isn't the faster Galaxy tablets, but for it's designed for - it's great (Flash 10.x not really going to work, just stay away - I still enjoy YouTube on it ....) Once configured & logged into Google Market, the newest update will be shown & downloaded, so don't worry about missing a few Apps as it's full access to nearly everything, free & paid.
Cheers !
Thanks for all the information. Spent the last few days doing a lot of reading. Ready to jump in.
The Froyo 2.2 Enhanced I notice the link was taken down by developer pending a newer version with better ITE support. Do you have a copy that works with the ITE hardware?
Found a link for superoneclick here: megaupload.com/?d=7S2CI6OY is that the correct version? Couldn't find any link to 1.7 in forums.
Thanks
droid5800 said:
Froyo 2.2 Enhanced link was taken down by developer pending a newer version with better ITE support. Do you have a copy that works with the ITE hardware?
Found a link for superoneclick here: megaupload.com/?d=7S2CI6OY is that the correct version? Couldn't find any link to 1.7 in forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, oh yes - I read that a while ago, use this link to download - it worked for me with ITE hardware. There is no need to patch or use a different kernel. Just backup your original rom & test it by restoring first, do a full system/cache/dalvik wipe - then flash it, reboot for 1st. time, set it up past the activation screen, and enjoy.
http://www.multiupload.com/C3BM5IVRXJ
Your discovery is correct, the older SOC v1.7 to achieve root from shortfuse - user experience varied, some find it easy & others find it difficult.
Here's link to Gingerbreak v1.2 - please read the info/page & notes - alternative to SOC v1.7 just in case.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1044765
Either one of them could trigger antivirus/firewall warnings & alerts, it's typical depending on what you use - turn them OFF while rooting - once you get it done, you can switch them all ON again.
Just checked my email account used for various tech. support request, still no reply or release of ITE device drivers for the pad, NOT good - without it, developers will find it ---- to get OC kernel, etc.
Definitely no Ice Cream Sandwich for our device, not even Honeycomb, I'm afraid .... oh, well - we make the best use of what we got !
Letitride said:
Hmm, oh yes - I read that a while ago, use this link to download - it worked for me with ITE hardware. There is no need to patch or use a different kernel. Just backup your original rom & test it by restoring first, do a full system/cache/dalvik wipe - then flash it, reboot for 1st. time, set it up past the activation screen, and enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The backup you are referring too is a NANDROID backup with CWR or do I backup the individual partitions to *.img files. As I understand it there i currently no way to restore the *.img files is that correct or have I misunderstood? Additionally is there any point to create these image files.
Regards
Use CWM Recovery to create Nandroid backup of your existing stock ROM, just in case - restoring it will bring it as close to rooted stock "condition" as possible. Flashing the *.nb0 file with SUTL3 will unroot it & make the pad 100% back to stock. It only take a few extra minutes and will sit on the mSD card just in case it's needed.
Under CWM Recovery's Advanced Menu (I'm on v5.x that work with A2SD and ext3 partition) - you can selectively go back in, highlight & restore, say, the recovery.img file after flashing a ROM (which has the working non-OC stock kernel) - which is the patch needed to work with TJ Style's ROM.
I'm learning & discovering something new each week on squeezing more out of the pad - yet to explore the newest ext4 apps, that's a challenge. Although, I'm very happy & pleased with freeing up so much internal space & rom memory with A2SD and ext3,
Have fun !
Letitride thank you for your valuable insight and information it was truly appreciated.
I have rooted, installed CWM and made a nandroid backup. Cool considering when I started in on this thread a few days ago I new nothing about any of this stuff.
Thinking about experimenting with ROMs tomorrow can't have all the fun tonight.
What are your thoughts on A2SD I know you use it but does it shorten the life of the sdcard significantly and is it laggy. I was doing some research on just installing that rather than a custom ROM but a lot of the comments were negative.
You haven't steered me wrong so wanted your take.
One last thing completely unrelated is there a way to get rid of the autorun CD that loads when you plug device into PC it's annoying. Don't want to disable autorun on PC.
Again thanks for your assistance.
droid5800 said:
rooted, installed CWM and made a nandroid backup. when .... a few days ago I (k)new nothing about. Thinking about experimenting with ROMs .... can't have all the fun tonight.
your thoughts on A2SD .... research on just installing that rather than a custom ROM but .... comments were negative.
completely unrelated is there a way to get rid of the autorun CD that loads when you plug device .... Don't want to disable autorun on PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YES - excellent, well done & pat yourself on the shoulder for success. So you are still running your stock rom, correct - I would make sure Titanium Backup, Astro or ES File Explorer and/or Root Explorer are installed, and, get comfortable with using them. Froyo Enhanced would be a safe 1st. custom ROM to try, very close to stock with tweaks & minor customization, easy to adapt for one's own.
As far as A2SD is concerned, if you are referring to DT's verison, I do not have any problems with it at all running on ext3 partition with the EU V1.7 ITE ROM - it's best to upgrade CWM to v5.x first and be prepared for the mSD card to be reformatted, thus losing any & all stored data and having to restore it from a safe backup location (i.e. from the PC or portable HDD, usb device, etc.) It's a bit tricky for ITE hardware pads, but several others using my detailed notes also managed to do it - (and, that's why it's so important to have backup, run TB backup and CWM backup, and, to make sure your 3G and WiFi settings are saved & working along the way)
I tried several other App2SD apps on the "Market" and they're okay, the last one that I used was App2SD by Sam Lu (as listed) but even that was limited as it wasn't using ext3 or ext4 - whereas DT's A2SD did it with ease and really freed up quite a bit (I have about 60 Apps loaded plus nearly all of the standard Google Apps like Talk, Voice, Gmail, Maps/Navigation, Facebook along with Twitter & YouTube installed - which easily overwhelmed the pad's resources otherwise.) I would recommend installing it - just make it a habit to run CWM Backup & TB Backup at major milestones or checkpoints, so that if something go wrong, just go into Recovery & restore the last working one.
The mSD card is inexpensive enough vs. the price paid for the pad itself, so I'm okay if I need to replace it sooner - I use a 2nd. mSD card (smaller at 8GB) to test & experiment, and, once I'm comfortable with major changes made & have time, I transition back to the bigger 16G mSD card.
Additional ideas: install alternate launchers (Go EX, ADW & my preferred - VTL.Launcher) and keyboard (Gingerbread, Go or Swype beta (via registration & emailed link to download) and Sense-themed Fancy Widgets, and, Dolphin HD browser, and WidgetSoid, Moon+ Reader, and, of course, Lookout Security. These & others of your own choosing will give you hours of fun in practical hands-on experimentation.
All in all, my configuration has been stable & solid for the past month, and I have yet run into any problems with freezes or FC, lost of data or issues with either the hardware or ROM - my "regular" smartphone is faster, quicker & fancier, but there's something about the 7" screen size, it keep me occupied & entertained for hours - and battery life while on standby mode is quite good.
Lastly, not much one can do about that autorun feature on the PC when the pad is connected via the mini-usb cable, I just hit the Esc key or Cancel to bypass all those messages & prompts (it's just like other usb devices & mobile phones, once they sync. up with the pc, the Apps are awaken and ....)
Have fun over the weekend with the pad & experiment
Hi,
Im a newbee also in android rooting, i had some question and clarification about some terms and hope someone can share their knowledge.
Here are some of my questions:
Im confused with the img backup file of each partition. Does redirecting again to each partition mean restoring the individual img file to each partition ex"cat /sdcard/mtd3_recovery.img > /dev/mtd/mtd3"
or we need a tool like in linux which is DD or DDRESCUE or something else.
For instance my backup individual partition img file i created before i install costum rom. If im correct in restoring the individual image file to each mtd partition is possible does it means im
back to the state where i used the original stock or before i installed the costum rom. Its like in linux where if u restore a dd root image file to the partition you will back to the state where you created
the image backup.
Does NANDROID backup means using a CWR recovery to backup the original/stock+rooted rom and restoring it using the same process from a costum rom will means im back to the state of original/stock+rooted rom
Im still in the rooted state right now. i just want to understand a few things like restoring to original/stock+rooted before i procedd to installing costum rom and other tweeking on the device.
Hope someone can share some info.
Thanks in advance.
I hope I am in the right forum for this thread. I have plenty of questions and hope to get answers to a few..... Here goes -
A few weeks ago I bought a nook 16Gb Tablet essentially for my wife and created a CM7 SD card to allow using it in stock BN system as well as experiment with Android use from that card. The end result is I decided I needed one for myself so I wouldn't conflict with her use. I had months ago rooted my nook eink but regardless of its expanded capability it was still only a great ebook reader and hopeless as a web browser, etc. So bought a Certified Preowned 16Gb nook Tablet for myself and duplicated the CM7 SD card process and was able to switch between stock nook use and Andorid use from the SD card using the dual boot process. I found myself mostly in the Andorid side and began to wonder why I was keeping the unused nook side around. After a ton of forum reading I decided to root my tablet and leave my wife's in its dual boot format - undoubtedly a safe move....
I used this process:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1466583&page=24
it is titled:
How to root 1.4.1 (or any other version) using just an sdcard {easy}
and I followed the detailed steps and links from "liquidzoo" post #240. Creating the SD card for the rooting process was easy. It went well up to the point of the step of powering up after inserting the SD card in the powered down nook. It kept booting into the stock BN nook side by use of the power on button. It began booting to the SD card only after I allowed it to power up by plugging it into my pc with the usb cord. Then the following steps went fine after I discoverd I had to use the volume controls to step through the menu selections. Thereafter it did go smoothly through the process. When the process indicated it had completed powered off, removed the SD card, and powered up into Android.
It seems to be somewhat faster than using Android from a dual boot (CM7 on SD card). I guess I missed somewhere that it would have dual a home selection menu allowing the stock nook home menu choice along with Android - so the best of both worlds. I am still familiarizing my self with the new configuration but so the fiirst of a few questions are:
Aside from experimentation, is there any way of finding out what all the icons in the status bar are for on the vbarious screens? Some are obvious but at one point I had a flashing-inverted-chevron icon that seemed to be maybe a downloading indicator but I couldn't find what.
Is there a simple toggle to switch from nook to android screens? Seems to be several taps to achieve that.
How do I install the Amazon Android App? I can' seem to find it.
I'll probably reply to this with other questions after I do more experimenting but answers to these woiuld be helpful.
Thanks in advance. I'm still a noob so I can't post to the link above but I think somewhere I saw the ability to 'Thank' as well as 'Donate' - both of which I need to do now. I think I'm really going to like the newly configured nook Tablet.
sawbuck00 said:
I hope I am in the right forum for this thread. I have plenty of questions and hope to get answers to a few..... Here goes -
A few weeks ago I bought a nook 16Gb Tablet essentially for my wife and created a CM7 SD card to allow using it in stock BN system as well as experiment with Android use from that card. The end result is I decided I needed one for myself so I wouldn't conflict with her use. I had months ago rooted my nook eink but regardless of its expanded capability it was still only a great ebook reader and hopeless as a web browser, etc. So bought a Certified Preowned 16Gb nook Tablet for myself and duplicated the CM7 SD card process and was able to switch between stock nook use and Andorid use from the SD card using the dual boot process. I found myself mostly in the Andorid side and began to wonder why I was keeping the unused nook side around. After a ton of forum reading I decided to root my tablet and leave my wife's in its dual boot format - undoubtedly a safe move....
I used this process:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1466583&page=24
it is titled:
How to root 1.4.1 (or any other version) using just an sdcard {easy}
and I followed the detailed steps and links from "liquidzoo" post #240. Creating the SD card for the rooting process was easy. It went well up to the point of the step of powering up after inserting the SD card in the powered down nook. It kept booting into the stock BN nook side by use of the power on button. It began booting to the SD card only after I allowed it to power up by plugging it into my pc with the usb cord. Then the following steps went fine after I discoverd I had to use the volume controls to step through the menu selections. Thereafter it did go smoothly through the process. When the process indicated it had completed powered off, removed the SD card, and powered up into Android.
It seems to be somewhat faster than using Android from a dual boot (CM7 on SD card). I guess I missed somewhere that it would have dual a home selection menu allowing the stock nook home menu choice along with Android - so the best of both worlds. I am still familiarizing my self with the new configuration but so the fiirst of a few questions are:
Aside from experimentation, is there any way of finding out what all the icons in the status bar are for on the vbarious screens? Some are obvious but at one point I had a flashing-inverted-chevron icon that seemed to be maybe a downloading indicator but I couldn't find what.
Is there a simple toggle to switch from nook to android screens? Seems to be several taps to achieve that.
How do I install the Amazon Android App? I can' seem to find it.
I'll probably reply to this with other questions after I do more experimenting but answers to these woiuld be helpful.
Thanks in advance. I'm still a noob so I can't post to the link above but I think somewhere I saw the ability to 'Thank' as well as 'Donate' - both of which I need to do now. I think I'm really going to like the newly configured nook Tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, read this.
Now, just so we're on the same page.
You created an sd card that allowed you to boot into a custom recovery and then using the volume up/down buttons, navigated to install and installed a zip file that allowed you to root the device correct?
If that is the case, you are still on the stock OS (as it sounds from your description). This is why you have both the stock B&N user interface (launcher) and a custom one (the one that looks more like cm7 did when booting from an sdcard).
Still have that custom recovery card? Here's my suggestion. Download a custom rom like cm7 and the appropriate gapps file (google apps, including the play store). Store these files on your internal storage. Next, boot back into the custom recovery and create a backup. Then, just as you did before, navigate to installing a zip and find the cm7 zip file you found before. Install the gapps zip file as well. When you're done, wipe data/factory reset and wipe cache. DO NOT FORMAT SYSTEM OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT (people do this for some reason, I don't understand why and it breaks things - don't do it.) Upon rebooting, you will no longer have the stock OS installed You will have a custom rom, cm7 installed.
The difference from your current setup is that right now, the core of the device is still based on B&N version of Android. The alternate user interface is nothing more than a tease of what Android is truly capable of. A custom rom opens up many more doors and should be a much smoother experience.
Any questions post them. And please read the first post of the thread I linked.
---------- Post added at 12:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 PM ----------
Also, I'm morally obligated to advise you to return the Nook and buy a Nexus 7, if you truly prefer the Google experience.
A bit to more to chew on....
Cubanluke88 said:
First, read this.
Now, just so we're on the same page.
You created an sd card that allowed you to boot into a custom recovery and then using the volume up/down buttons, navigated to install and installed a zip file that allowed you to root the device correct?
If that is the case, you are still on the stock OS (as it sounds from your description). This is why you have both the stock B&N user interface (launcher) and a custom one (the one that looks more like cm7 did when booting from an sdcard).
********
part of post edited out for future coment
********
Any questions post them. And please read the first post of the thread I linked.
---------- Post added at 12:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 PM ----------
Also, I'm morally obligated to advise you to return the Nook and buy a Nexus 7, if you truly prefer the Google experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, Cubanluke88, for you thoughts and suggestions.
First, I did grab your first linked post and realized some misconceptions. I still need to digest it more thoroughly, though.
On the part of your response that I have edited out in the qoute, I also want to read more troroughly and pose some questions in a later response.
As for the final suggestion, I have been eyeing the Nexus 7 for some time ane even though it is a bit more expensive than the nook Tablet I currently own I think I might get it (or a similar device) when fortune and convenience presents itself. For now, I am still in a learning mode with the Android-like device I currentlhy have and need to read and educate myself further. As stated in my opening post - I am a noob - there is a lot of experimenting I need to do.
I will be replying with some questions after more reading and thought on your offered suggestions in the section I edited out for the time being.....
questions....again
Cubanluke88 said:
First, read this.
Still have that custom recovery card? Here's my suggestion. Download a custom rom like cm7 and the appropriate gapps file (google apps, including the play store). Store these files on your internal storage. Next, boot back into the custom recovery and create a backup. Then, just as you did before, navigate to installing a zip and find the cm7 zip file you found before. Install the gapps zip file as well. When you're done, wipe data/factory reset and wipe cache. DO NOT FORMAT SYSTEM OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT (people do this for some reason, I don't understand why and it breaks things - don't do it.) Upon rebooting, you will no longer have the stock OS installed You will have a custom rom, cm7 installed.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cubanluke88,
Thanks again for giving me something to think about.
I have read/reread both of your linked posts and your complete response to my post. Further, it is useful to comment that with my nook Tablet hardware it is not at all important for me to have the BN OS. I have a classic nook eink that is totally satisfactory for anything I may need for BN usage alone - mostly, ebook purchase and reading. I purchased the tablet as a means to get access to Android applications not possible from the nook classic which was also hopeless as a general web access device. As a rooted Android device, I anticipate it's nook app to be satisfactory as an ebook reader as well.
Referring to the quoted segment of you initial response:
Still have that custom recovery card?
Yes.
Download a custom rom like cm7 and the appropriate gapps file (google apps, including the play store) Store these files on your internal storage..
Can you suggest a pointer? I get swamped and cofused on what to choose when I google. The verison I have filed on my PC is embedded in an SD image file and I suspect that is not what you were referring to ( I have: -->> "Team-B-CM7SD-Alpha_final.img".
By "internal storage" do you mean in the recovery card or within the Tablet through USB connection?
Next, boot back into the custom recovery and create a backup. Then, just as you did before, navigate to installing a zip and find the cm7 zip file you found before. Install the gapps zip file as well. When you're done, wipe data/factory reset and wipe cache.
The backup would be my current loaded system - in case I need to get back?
.
When you're done, wipe data/factory reset and wipe cache.
Is this a single menu item on the recovery card or separate commands?
I appreciate the help and apologise for the need for spoon feeeding but I hope it helps avoid making further mistakes......
One last thought, on the recovery card I downloaded and included "flash_B&N_Stock_v1.4.3_8-16gb_emmc" which I assume would restore to stock 1.4.3 BN version. Is that prossible? and would that be easier to do and start fresh?
Thanks in advance....
sawbuck00 said:
Can you suggest a pointer? I get swamped and cofused on what to choose when I google. The verison I have filed on my PC is embedded in an SD image file and I suspect that is not what you were referring to ( I have: -->> "Team-B-CM7SD-Alpha_final.img".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That .img file is what you used to create the sdcard your wife and you used. Just as with the recovery sd card, you take said .img file and burn it to it to create a "bootable" sdcard. Thats not what we want to do now (if you're ready to replace the stock OS). Go to this thread for cm7. See where it says "Internal version 8GB & 16GB Compatiable?" Grab that. That is the rom zip file itself. To get gapps, youll need cm7 compatible gapps, found here.
By "internal storage" do you mean in the recovery card or within the Tablet through USB connection?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By internal storage, I'm referring to the internal storage on the Nook itself. (like what you see when you mount it via USB on your computer). It should come up as "My Nook" or something to that effect. If you store the rom zip file here, you will be able to boot into recovery via the sdcard you created, navigate to the internal storage and find the zip file and install it. Now personally, I would recommend, that if you plan on using internal roms, that you should also change the internal recovery to a custom one. With an internal custom recovery, you could swap between various roms without ever needing to use that recovery sd card. You would simply boot into recovery, grab the zip file for whatever custom rom you want to use and install it.
The easiest way to get a custom recovery is via this app here. Simply install the app and flash the custom recovery within it. Its also a great tool to return to stock recovery should you ever need to.
The backup would be my current loaded system - in case I need to get back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep.
.
Is this a single menu item on the recovery card or separate commands?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its in the recovery menu there right at the front. You should see something like reboot system, apply sdcard, wipedata/factory reset, wipe cache, install zip, backup and restore. Backup/restore to backup your current installation, install zip to install the rom + gapps, and wipe data/factory reset + wipe cache after installation.
One last thought, on the recovery card I downloaded and included "flash_B&N_Stock_v1.4.3_8-16gb_emmc" which I assume would restore to stock 1.4.3 BN version. Is that prossible? and would that be easier to do and start fresh?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what this is. I'll take a look at it.
Cubanluke88 said:
Now personally, I would recommend, that if you plan on using internal roms, that you should also change the internal recovery to a custom one. With an internal custom recovery, you could swap between various roms without ever needing to use that recovery sd card. You would simply boot into recovery, grab the zip file for whatever custom rom you want to use and install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read much of the following thread and while I think it will be simpler in the future I assume I can do that at any time. Right?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1458630
Albert Wertz's youtube video throws a lot of stuff into the process which looks very interesting but I think I'll "crawl" around a bit and use recovery card for little longer while I become more familiar with a rooted tablet.
I grabbed the CM7 and gapp zips you pointed to and I'm going to give that a whirl with my current recovery card and post back with results - hopefully good......
Note that if you install cm7 to the device, you are not simply on a "rooted" tablet anymore. You will be on a custom rom that also happens to have root access (most custom roms do). Its also worth noting that cm7 is a custom rom based on Android 2.3.4, so the roms capabilities and limitations will be subsequently limited to what cm7 is capable of. The latest version of Android is 4.1 and we are lucky enough to have a custom rom (cm10) in development based on it.
sawbuck00;33537204.
I grabbed the CM7 and gapp zips you pointed to and I'm going to give that a whirl with my current recovery card and post back with results - hopefully good......[/QUOTE said:
Well it seemed to go smoothly. Currently geting updates downloaded. Back to exploring and experimenting....
Thank you, Cubanluke88, for help and advice. I expect I'll be back in awhile when I'm ready to install the internal recovery app and probably will screw things up at some point but it is my aim to get a better understanding the capabilities......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
undeeded apps
Been doing some exploring and contemplating addition of a few apps. However, some of the apps loaded with CM7 and Gapps (like car home, phone, camera to name a few) don't make sense on a nook tablet - unless I'm missing a reason they should be there. What is the best way of uninstalling/deleting these or any I may install but discover no need for?
TIA....
sawbuck00 said:
Been doing some exploring and contemplating addition of a few apps. However, some of the apps loaded with CM7 and Gapps (like car home, phone, camera to name a few) don't make sense on a nook tablet - unless I'm missing a reason they should be there. What is the best way of uninstalling/deleting these or any I may install but discover no need for?
TIA....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They're there because cm7 is a port of a phone based OS (Android 2.3 was designed for phones). You can disable them but I believe camera is tied to gallery so that could screw up picture viewing and phone might be tied to contacts so that could screw up your contacts database if you use gmail. If you have a file explorer that has root access (I use root explorer, paid app in play store), you can navigate to /system/apps and all the apks for those apps (system apps) are found there. You can add a ".bak" extension to each one, then reboot and see if anything breaks. If for some reason things break really badly, you can always reboot to recovery and just flash the rom on top of it again.
Hi there,
Joined these forums to see if any fellow Safestrap users could help... I installed a custom rom (HyperDrive) onto the stock rom boot option in Safestrap, despite the big red text saying NOT TO INSTALL A CUSTOM ROM ON STOCK ROM.
My problem is: I have 3 different partitions on my phone, each with a different version of hyperdrive. The phone's original capacity is 16gb, but now it has the three different partitions within that 16 gb. I want to unroot and get rid of all these partitions. Anyone know how to help?
How did you create the partitions in the first place? Safestrap makes no sense to me.
mattk3650 said:
How did you create the partitions in the first place? Safestrap makes no sense to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you recover into SafeStrap, there are 8 menus. One of the menus is boot options. You click on boot options and you're given 4 partition portions (depending on the internal storage size of your device). 3 of the choices are custom rom slots, one of the choices is stock rom. If you wipe your stock rom, you're out of luck. You can have a whole bunch of other roms preloaded, but if you remove your stock rom and have no backups, you're finished...
So, the question is, how can I get all 16 gb back and restore my phone completely?
Thanks dude
SafeStrap Custom Rom Support -- Answer
brykayne said:
When you recover into SafeStrap, there are 8 menus. One of the menus is boot options. You click on boot options and you're given 4 partition portions (depending on the internal storage size of your device). 3 of the choices are custom rom slots, one of the choices is stock rom. If you wipe your stock rom, you're out of luck. You can have a whole bunch of other roms preloaded, but if you remove your stock rom and have no backups, you're finished...
So, the question is, how can I get all 16 gb back and restore my phone completely?
Thanks dude
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it operates the same way on the S4 as it did on my Razr. There should be a directory on your internal storage (sdcard0) named SafeStrap; that is where your images are stored for any custom ROM -- each one should be in a directory of it's own (Slot1, Slot2, etc), with each of those directories containing it's own system.img, cache.img and userdata.img files.
I don't believe that Safestrap will let you wipe the stock ROM slot -- hashcode has built a lot of safety features into it!
In order to uninstall Safestrap, even though you uninstall it in your Applications, you may have to use adb. If you aren't interesting in keeping the custom ROMS you have in those slots, you can simply uninstall Safestrap and then delete that Safestrap directory on your internal storage. After that, if you reboot and it still goes into Safestrap recovery before booting the stock image, you'll have to uninstall Safestrap with adb. If you need to use adb to get rid of it, go to HashCode's page -- blog.hash-of-codes.com/2012/12/27/how-to-manually-remove-safestrap-via-adb/ -- where he has full instructions -- it is only about 8 command lines and only takes a couple of minutes.
Sorry I had to post the link like that, but this STUPID board thinks I'm too "new" to post a frigging link to one of it's own developers!
budding_developer said:
I believe it operates the same way on the S4 as it did on my Razr. There should be a directory on your internal storage (sdcard0) named SafeStrap; that is where your images are stored for any custom ROM -- each one should be in a directory of it's own (Slot1, Slot2, etc), with each of those directories containing it's own system.img, cache.img and userdata.img files.
I don't believe that Safestrap will let you wipe the stock ROM slot -- hashcode has built a lot of safety features into it!
In order to uninstall Safestrap, even though you uninstall it in your Applications, you may have to use adb. If you aren't interesting in keeping the custom ROMS you have in those slots, you can simply uninstall Safestrap and then delete that Safestrap directory on your internal storage. After that, if you reboot and it still goes into Safestrap recovery before booting the stock image, you'll have to uninstall Safestrap with adb. If you need to use adb to get rid of it, go to HashCode's page -- blog.hash-of-codes.com/2012/12/27/how-to-manually-remove-safestrap-via-adb/ -- where he has full instructions -- it is only about 8 command lines and only takes a couple of minutes.
Sorry I had to post the link like that, but this STUPID board thinks I'm too "new" to post a frigging link to one of it's own developers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your help! I'm going to try it out now. I'll let you know my results.
brykayne said:
Thanks for your help! I'm going to try it out now. I'll let you know my results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just getting to this now... school's been busy.
Will post results by the end of the weekend!
You can wipe the primary slot.
I'm running GPE on that slot now.
You can make a backup of your Safestrap compatible rom and I suggest one of your primary slot, and restore the backup to the primary, then delete all the slots.
Test your backups! And remember if you wipe your primary slot Safestrap is gone! You must reinstall it to get the recovery menu again.
Sent from my i337 MF3 using tapatalk.
Still Not Working
I tried using ADB to remove Safestrap and it didn't work.
I downloaded root browser and noticed that, for some reason, I have 5 gb of storage taken up by something unknown.
My next question is: Where are the files on my internal storage for Safestrap? Can I delete those?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been trying to figure this out for weeks... I just want my normal phone back!
Hi there,
I'm very happy with my BMM however I noticed that I am part of a minority for some reason. Anyone knows why?
Further more, it seems that most tutorials to install nightly releases are mostly done for Safestrap. I really like my BMM and had a look at Safestrap but it does not seems very appealing to me. Should I consider to switch from BMM anyway?
Is Safestrap better than BMM? What good reasons would I have to switch, apart from the fact that its a software that has more spread.
Thanks in advance.
Vonz
vonz33 said:
Hi there,
I'm very happy with my BMM however I noticed that I am part of a minority for some reason. Anyone knows why?
Further more, it seems that most tutorials to install nightly releases are mostly done for Safestrap. I really like my BMM and had a look at Safestrap but it does not seems very appealing to me. Should I consider to switch from BMM anyway?
Is Safestrap better than BMM? What good reasons would I have to switch, apart from the fact that its a software that has more spread.
Thanks in advance.
Vonz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had been on BMM for a very long time while running stock ROM. When I finally decided I wanted KK and options opened up in the custom kernel area to keep hdmi, I finally flashed slimkat and JBX to slot2. After about three days, I switched recoveries to safestrap and didn't look back.
It isn't that I didn't like BMM or to say BMM is a bad recovery or didn't serve it's purpose. The main reasons were that:
1. I ran out of space fast with slot1&2 loaded up, and I couldn't find a way of repartitioning the sd card with BMM. So I would have to go to slot3 to not run into "running out of space" issues since that would not run off the system side of the sd card. Not a big deal except sometimes I need the space.
2. I didn't want two or more ROM's on my phone, I had already had a good setup with SlimKat and JBX so, I didn't use, or even want the stock ROM anymore, but can run into trouble trying to flash them into slot 1 of BMM, while you can flash to slot1 on safestrap with no problems at all.
3. You CAN repartition the sd card with Safestrap so if I did decide I wanted another ROM, I could repartition my sd card to better accomodate my ROM's and apps, and not have to worry about losing space again.
TL : DR I was going to have to make sacrifices or accomodation's to keep BMM around so it is safestrap for me Maybe I am lazy, maybe not, but either way it is right in front of my face with safestrap, with BMM I did some digging, didn't find, lost interest and flashed!
Well,I don't think that SS is better because SS takes free space from internal memory for second slot.
In BMM second slot is on webtop partition,so you have your full 8gb available.
Sent from my Razr XT910
welder73 said:
Well,I don't think that SS is better because SS takes free space from internal memory for second slot.
In BMM second slot is on webtop partition,so you have your full 8gb available.
Sent from my Razr XT910
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, I agree, and disagree. Yes BMM will put the second slot on top of the webtop partition, but that is only 1.3 gb if I am correct. One ROM and a few bulky apps/games, and slot2 is filled up. You once again get insufficient space toasts, even with another 2 gigs sitting on your card, because your system partition is filled up(slot 2 apps go into the slot2 partition which was webtop.) Sure you can swap back and forth between ROM's for various things but, some people don't want to have to swap between 2 ROM's for all their apps to accommodate a recoveries limitations that doesn't suit them.
And also remember some of that 8 gigs is cache, so we really never get to use it for our own purposes anyways, it is for the system.
Safestrap you can flash to the stock slot, and you can reconfigure the partitions to accomodate any other slots so that you don't get insufficient storage issues. Does it use internal memory, yes it does, but then again, that is the best source for unhindered space, and the phone does have ext. card capabilities so it isn't putting near the burden on us as, say, it would a nexus device.
Just my opinion, and I have nothing against BMM, it was a great recovery! It just doesn't suit my needs anymore.
Draxin said:
Ahh, I agree, and disagree. Yes BMM will put the second slot on top of the webtop partition, but that is only 1.3 gb if I am correct. One ROM and a few bulky apps/games, and slot2 is filled up. You once again get insufficient space toasts, even with another 2 gigs sitting on your card, because your system partition is filled up(slot 2 apps go into the slot2 partition which was webtop.) Sure you can swap back and forth between ROM's for various things but, some people don't want to have to swap between 2 ROM's for all their apps to accommodate a recoveries limitations that doesn't suit them.
And also remember some of that 8 gigs is cache, so we really never get to use it for our own purposes anyways, it is for the system.
Safestrap you can flash to the stock slot, and you can reconfigure the partitions to accomodate any other slots so that you don't get insufficient storage issues. Does it use internal memory, yes it does, but then again, that is the best source for unhindered space, and the phone does have ext. card capabilities so it isn't putting near the burden on us as, say, it would a nexus device.
Just my opinion, and I have nothing against BMM, it was a great recovery! It just doesn't suit my needs anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree,everyone has different needs,for me it's enough 1.3gb.
But what do you mean by "you can flash to the stock slot",you can do it with BMM also?
Sent from my Razr XT910
welder73 said:
But what do you mean by "you can flash to the stock slot"
Sent from my Razr XT910
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I didn't complete the comment as I did in the previous post. The stock slot can be flashed in BMM but problems can arise. At least they did for me. It wasn't for a lack of trying but, when I was done and rebooted, I got logo, hijack, and then blank, twice! First time restored stock slot and redownloaded ROM, second time ended up being a firmware reflash.
I am not above saying I did something wrong, I probably did, but heck if I know what it was, I had no problem flashing slot2, and have had zero issues with safestrap. Same download of ROM and Gapps that were used in second flash was used in slot2 BMM and Safestrap. So I am not going to say BMM CAN'T do it, I am just not going to say it can when I couldn't do it successfully.
So I retained from previous comments that SS could help with saving memory? Correct? If so that is definitely interesting. Further more BMM is discontinued development am I right?
I will give SS a go and see what happens (even though the interface is not as schmick as BMM, oh well..!) .
So in order to switch from BMM to SS I shall save my stock ROM that is on slot 1 and my CM10 that is on slot 2, then uninstall BMM from settings/apps menu, then install SS, reboot in SSR and install CM11 from zip file correct?
Cheers.
ttt
vonz33 said:
So I retained from previous comments that SS could help with saving memory? Correct? If so that is definitely interesting. Further more BMM is discontinued development am I right?
I will give SS a go and see what happens (even though the interface is not as schmick as BMM, oh well..!) .
So in order to switch from BMM to SS I shall save my stock ROM that is on slot 1 and my CM10 that is on slot 2, then uninstall BMM from settings/apps menu, then install SS, reboot in SSR and install CM11 from zip file correct?
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes BMM does seem to have discontinued development. Doesn't mean Boot menu manager right now isn't good, just means there probably won't be any more improvement.
As for saving space, no, safestrap doesn't do that. When you install a second slot in BMM it will install it on top of the webtop partition(read and watch your tutorial's on how to do this correctly.) So it isn't taking any extra space yet, the downside to that is that it is limited to 1.3gb. If you don't use alot of apps, or going to be using it strictly for testing ROM's, then it isn't a big deal. Any more slots after that eats into your internal storage.
Safestrap from what I understand, won't install a slot on top of webtop, instead, when you install to slot 1 it will be taking space from your internal storage right off the bat. You can choose from 1gb, 2gb, or 3gb, size for your new slot partition. Same for any more slots you make. The more space you take for one slot partition, the less you leave for any others you would make. From what I understand though, with safestrap, you CAN still remove webtop for stock slot (I haven't needed to yet) so the 1.3 gb is freed up for more storage to stock.
As welder and I had discussed prior, it completely depends on your needs. If you don't have alot of apps, and want to dual boot a stock ROM and a custom one... BMM will do you fine. If you have a lot of apps or games and want to dual boot both ROMS with both of them loaded up, then safestrap is the way to go. Some ROM's play well with one recovery but not the other, there are also work arounds in some cases.
Any of your backups from one will not work with the other
Draxin said:
Yes BMM does seem to have discontinued development. Doesn't mean Boot menu manager right now isn't good, just means there probably won't be any more improvement.
As for saving space, no, safestrap doesn't do that. When you install a second slot in BMM it will install it on top of the webtop partition(read and watch your tutorial's on how to do this correctly.) So it isn't taking any extra space yet, the downside to that is that it is limited to 1.3gb. If you don't use alot of apps, or going to be using it strictly for testing ROM's, then it isn't a big deal. Any more slots after that eats into your internal storage.
Safestrap from what I understand, won't install a slot on top of webtop, instead, when you install to slot 1 it will be taking space from your internal storage right off the bat. You can choose from 1gb, 2gb, or 3gb, size for your new slot partition. Same for any more slots you make. The more space you take for one slot partition, the less you leave for any others you would make. From what I understand though, with safestrap, you CAN still remove webtop for stock slot (I haven't needed to yet) so the 1.3 gb is freed up for more storage to stock.
As welder and I had discussed prior, it completely depends on your needs. If you don't have alot of apps, and want to dual boot a stock ROM and a custom one... BMM will do you fine. If you have a lot of apps or games and want to dual boot both ROMS with both of them loaded up, then safestrap is the way to go. Some ROM's play well with one recovery but not the other, there are also work arounds in some cases.
Any of your backups from one will not work with the other
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply, Draxin.
Which one are you using? I take it you are using BMM. You are talking about a tutorial.... this is A thing I could not find. Let me know if there is one, and if so where I can get it from.
My main concern is that I wanted to give a shot to CM11 and it seems that the install is not 100% reliable, even with the BMM workaround. So maybe I shall wait for a release candidate to occur.
I have 80 user apps apparently under CM10 according to Titanium Backup, is that a lot?
Also you talk about this webtop thing... After some research it appears that a webtop is a desktop integrated in a web browser. What does it have to do with android platform more exactly?
I mostly have 2 used slots, Official Moto ROM on slot 1 (just in case but never use it) and CM10 on slot 2 as it was advised on a youtube video. If I have to test a kexec ROM I usually backup my CM10 and try it out on slot 2, to avoid munching all the space on side storage.
So what do you recommend for us at this stage?
Thanks in advance.
Vz
vonz33 said:
Thanks for your reply, Draxin.
Which one are you using? I take it you are using BMM. You are talking about a tutorial.... this is A thing I could not find. Let me know if there is one, and if so where I can get it from.
My main concern is that I wanted to give a shot to CM11 and it seems that the install is not 100% reliable, even with the BMM workaround. So maybe I shall wait for a release candidate to occur.
I have 80 user apps apparently under CM10 according to Titanium Backup, is that a lot?
Also you talk about this webtop thing... After some research it appears that a webtop is a desktop integrated in a web browser. What does it have to do with android platform more exactly?
I mostly have 2 used slots, Official Moto ROM on slot 1 (just in case but never use it) and CM10 on slot 2 as it was advised on a youtube video. If I have to test a kexec ROM I usually backup my CM10 and try it out on slot 2, to avoid munching all the space on side storage.
So what do you recommend for us at this stage?
Thanks in advance.
Vz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using safestrap now, I had been using BMM for a while til I started flashing custom ROM's. After that safestrap suited MY needs better
BMM tutorials: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2325764
CM11 requires safestrap 3.65 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1391900
If you really want to try out CM11, and then it doesn't live up to your expectations, you can always go back to BMM and restore the backups you saved to where you are right now. SlimKat I know for a fact will install with BMM. You just have to make sure to completely uninstall whatever recovery you had previously, before adding a new one
It doesn't matter so much how many apps you have, as, how much space they take up. If you are just taking a ROM for a test run, you don't need all your apps, especially if you are dual booting, if you are going to use slot 2 as a daily driver, and they are bulky apps, that is when you get concerned.
Webtop, basically allows you to explore your phone as if it were a desktop computer, bluetooth keyboard, and the phone's touchscreen will act as a laptop touch pad, or you can run a bluetooth mouse, and using a typical tv with hdmi in as a moniter. Motorola thought it would be a bigger hit than it turned out to be. It really is a neat idea, turning your phone into a handheld desktop but, it has plenty of limitations. For most people, if they even know what it is, it's just taking up space.
What do I recommend? Well, it completely depends on what you are looking to do. Like I said before bro, you can save what you have with BMM, uninstall it and try out safestrap. If you don't like it, uninstall safestrap and go back to BMM and reinstall your backups, no harm, no foul. If you really like safestrap, then dump your BMM backups as they are just taking up space at that point. With titanium backup, as long as you saved your apps and modified data, call logs, wifi, and sms, really all you cost yourself in the switch, is time setting everything back up.
If I helped, hit the thanks.
Cool bro.
Will try ST to see what happens. Thanks again you're a true gentleman.