Related
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HOW-TO: Ubuntu on Asus Transformer Prime TF201
Port by lilstevie (thank you for your hard work)
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DISCLAIMER:
I wrote this how-to from my experience installing successfully Ubuntu on my Prime.
I am in no way responsible for what you do with your Prime, even when you are following my instructions.
There is always the risk of making it worse, hardbricking your device, and this risk is completely down to you !
This is not a final version. This port is currently very unstable !
Install Ubuntu on your TF201 for testing purposes only !
HOW-TO Unbrick your Prime (or not...):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1514088
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VERSION:
v0.1: First version of the tutorial
ABOUT:
- Working:
Wifi – Same patch as for the TF101
Keyboard (if you have a dock)
USB Host (if you have a dock)
- Partially working:
Graphics Acceleration (only 2D at this point)
Touchscreen (it works but every few touches are off target by 1/2 the screen)
- Not working:
Bluetooth
Trackpad
Sound
Sensors (ALS, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, GPS, magnetometer)
Shutdown, Reboot, Suspend
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Links:
Bootimage http://173.244.200.139/ports/prime-sdlinux.blob
RootFS http://173.244.200.139/ports/ubuntu-prime.img.gz
Fastboot http://alpharev.nl/wintools.zip
MD5:
9625d336062b2ff7eb9530dd5e48fb9e prime-sdlinux.blob
1a59e7918c199a85f805cb62ca130dae ubuntu.img
81238957a42b207213442cba7eeff684 wintools.zip
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Hardware:
Asus Transformer Prime TF201 (bootloader unlocked & with data/charge cable)
A computer with Linux installed
MicroSD card of at least 4GB (a fast card is better)
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Pre-requisities:
1. You need to have an already unlocked Prime.
To unlock it, use the official Asus Bootloader Unlock Tool APK on Android.
2. You need to have the latest ClockWorkMod (CWM) Recovery installed to easily backup & restore your device.
To install it, you can use the Android tool 'ROM Manager' from Play Store if you system is already rooted.
Otherwise, you can use the 'Fastboot' tool along with this tutorial (BE CAREFUL!):
HOW-TO 1: http://www.theandroidsoul.com/install-cwm-5-8-2-0-on-transformer-prime/
HOW-TO 2: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1576937
(You can also install the Touch version of CWM to avoid destroying your volume buttons while navigating )
CLASSIC : http://download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-5.8.2.0-tf201.img
TOUCH : http://download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.1.8-tf201.img
3. Before trying to do anything with your device, make a full nandroid backup of the current WORKING Android system.
To do that:
- Reboot on CWM (see the sticky, at the end)
- Navigate to 'backup and restore', then 'backup'
- Wait until the full backup is done...
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- INSTALL Ubuntu -
Introduction:
To have a working Ubuntu system on the Prime, you have to:
- Extract the root file system on your MicroSD card
- Flash the bootimage right on the device
While installing Ubuntu, the only thing you modify about Android, is the bootimage. You leave the system intact,
so you'll be able to do a pseudo-dualboot between Ubuntu, and Android (we'll see that later).
HOW-TO:
Extraction of the root filesystem:
- Connect your MicroSD card on the computer running linux (ex: /dev/sdc)
- Umount all current partitions from the card
- Using fdisk, fully erase it, rebuild partition table, and create one partition (ex: /dev/sdc1)
- Format it in 'ext4' (ex: $ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1)
- Using 'dd' command, extract the 'ubuntu.img' filesystem to the recently created partition
(ex: $ dd if=ubuntu.img of=/dev/sdc1)
- Wait until extraction completes... (It takes a while...)
- Mount the partition to verify that the extraction completes successfully (ex: $ mount /dev/sdc1 folder)
- Umount it, eject the card and put it on the Prime (ex: $ umount /dev/sdc1)
- Your Ubuntu filesystem is ready to use !
Flashing the bootimage (BE CAREFUL!):
- Reboot in fastboot mode (see the sticky, at the end)
- Connect the Prime to the computer, and be sure the drivers are correctly installed
You can find the drivers here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1426502
- Extract the fastboot archive 'wintools.zip' and move the file 'prime-sdlinux.blob' in the same folder
- Execute the command: fastboot -i 0x0b05 flash boot prime-sdlinux.blob
(WARNING! This command will overwrite the bootimage of your Prime! Be sure you know what you're doing!)
- Wait until the flash completes... (it generally takes a few seconds...)
- When the blue progress bar is full, on the Prime, hold the Power switch to reboot the device
- Be sure that the MicroSD card is in the Prime
- Your Prime is now booting on Ubuntu, you should see some text displaying on the screen
- Wait until the system initializes... (It takes a while for the first boot...)
You should see kernel verbose booting, displaying something saying the system is resizing a partition
on the MicroSD card...
- Your Ubuntu system is installed ! You can do the graphical basic setup, then do a hard reboot of the device !
- Good luck with your freshly installed Ubuntu on your awsome Asus Transformer Prime !
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- RESTORE Android -
Introduction:
After installing Ubuntu, to have Android back on the Prime, you have to:
- (OPTIONAL: Do a full nandroid backup to be able to restore the Ubuntu bootimage directly from the CWM later)
- Simply restore the Android bootimage from the nandroid backup made before the installation of Ubuntu
HOW-TO:
To do that:
- Reboot on CWM (see the sticky, at the end)
- Go to 'backup and restore', then 'advanced restore'
- Choose the Android backup made before installing Ubuntu
- Choose 'Restore boot' option
- Wait until the restore is done...
- Choose 'reboot system now' to boot in Android
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- DUALBOOT Android/Ubuntu -
Introduction:
We can note that the both systems are installed on two different storage devices.
Android is directly on the device and Ubuntu is on the MicroSD.
The only thing that changes between the two systems is the bootimage.
If you have a nandroid backup of each WORKING systems, you can do an advanced restore of the boot 'boot.img'
of Ubuntu to boot it from the MicroSD card, or restore the boot of the Android backup to boot on Android !
HOW-TO:
To do that:
- Reboot on CWM (see the sticky, at the end)
- Go to 'backup and restore', then 'advanced restore'
- Choose the correct backup (the Android one, or the Ubuntu one)
- Choose 'Restore boot' option
- Wait until the restore is done...
--------
STICKY:
- Booting the Prime on recovery mode (CWM):
1. Power off the device (using Android, or by a long press of the power switch)
2. Power it on, by keeping simultaneously pressed the power switch and the volume down button
3. When text displays on top of the screen, release all, and press the volume up button
4. Wait a few seconds and CWM will appear on the Prime...
- Booting the prime in fastboot mode:
1. Power off the device (using Android, or by a long press of the power switch)
2. Power it on, by keeping simultaneously pressed the power switch and the volume down button
3. Wait until the message saying 'OS will coldboot in 10 seconds' etc... then release all buttons
4. Use the volume down button to select the USB icon
5. Validate with volume up
6. You can connect your device to a computer to send fastboot commands...
Testing request
If someone want to test it and confirm that this tutorial can be fully approved, it'll be great
This is really great news!!!...I wanted to run ubuntu on my prime and use it as fully fledged portable laptop...
all there already was had either ubuntu running through vnc server and that too outdated version or chroot ubuntu...(if i am not missing anything here)
I wish that we would be soon able to get ubuntu for android (UFA) from canonical preinstalled with the next update of tf201...I heard that we cannot possibly install it without asus agreeing to team up with canonical...
atm, this seems great...will test and report...!!!
Would be nice to have grub or a similar bootmanager to switch between the systems on startup
OP, so what is your connection with lilstevie? I notice the links for the downloads of the blob and image file go to http://lilstevie.geek.nz/ports/ and the files there are almost 6 weeks old. Your working/not working list is also the exact same as the original post from lilstevie at http://androidroot.mobi/2012/02/23/ubuntu-on-the-transformer-prime/
Just wondering are you actually developing any of this or just found the links and put up a howto?
Thanks
As I said at the beginning, this is the work of lilstevie. I searched how to install it, and once I've set it up on my Prime, I made that tutorial today.
I share it here if someone want to try installing Ubuntu on their Prime.
The files are the original ones hosted by lilstevie. And I did not found any version newer, so let's wait for a new release, or a final version.
And no I don't work with him for the development.
I was waiting for something like this! Thanks a lot for writing up a guide and trying it on tf201.
Now we need proper dual boot, shouldn't be too hard to figure out...
Just followed your howto and it's working fine on my tf201.
Now I'm updating via apt-get
Looking Forward to this
Will transform then Device into a laptop excellent.
Not sure why more people arn't getting involved.
ryanbell said:
Will transform then Device into a laptop excellent.
Not sure why more people arn't getting involved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably due the the high risk of completely bricking your prime until a safe dual boot or single boot solution is in place. Certainly that is what is holding me back.
The whole reason I bought the Prime was for this, but without nvflash I am going to hold back until some more intrepid soul does the boot work
do we need linux to format the sd card or can we do it in windows?
jellydroid13 said:
do we need linux to format the sd card or can we do it in windows?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need Linux, but don't let that stop you if you're a windows user - installing, say, Ubuntu is INCREDIBLY simple on windows, you can install it as a windows program, run live CDs, or (with just a liitle more effort) set up a dual-boot with windows and the Linux distros you like. I am NOT computer savvy, so trust me when I say it isn't hard
To anyone who has tried this, any comments on how well it runs? I'm not going to try this just yet, but I'm really curious. Does it run as well as Ubuntu on today's low-range laptops? I guess what I'm wondering is, does it seem like ordinary Ubuntu on ordinary x86 machine? Forget about the known issues, just browsing Unity or gnome, is it smooth and pleasant enough? Thanks for any info
Komodo Rogue said:
You need Linux, but don't let that stop you if you're a windows user - installing, say, Ubuntu is INCREDIBLY simple on windows, you can install it as a windows program, run live CDs, or (with just a liitle more effort) set up a dual-boot with windows and the Linux distros you like. I am NOT computer savvy, so trust me when I say it isn't hard
To anyone who has tried this, any comments on how well it runs? I'm not going to try this just yet, but I'm really curious. Does it run as well as Ubuntu on today's low-range laptops? I guess what I'm wondering is, does it seem like ordinary Ubuntu on ordinary x86 machine? Forget about the known issues, just browsing Unity or gnome, is it smooth and pleasant enough? Thanks for any info
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks but i dug through and found my live linux flash drive(im no noob ) i will be installing soon and tell you how it goes.
just tried it and it looks very promising. I could finally use remote desktop decently from my prime and control vms within the server, which was awesome.
can't wait for these corageous and smart people to get dual boot working among the other issues
also found out:
- no functioning battery indicator for both batteries (dock/tablet)
- couldn't install flash so for youtube (guess none is available for arm?)
i also just tried it out and cant wait for it to be fully functional (is anyone even still working on it?) anyways i would replace android with it.
jellydroid13 said:
i also just tried it out and cant wait for it to be fully functional (is anyone even still working on it?) anyways i would replace android with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But then what is the point of having a tablet over a netbook or cheap laptop? Battery life? Touch screen?
dotnerdify said:
But then what is the point of having a tablet over a netbook or cheap laptop? Battery life? Touch screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both of those things, plus versatility (dock, no dock, Linux or Android), and of course the cool factor
I would want to keep android around (hence desire for dual boot) for the times I might want it (like to watch movies on a flight, etc) but I think for the most part if there was a good, fast native Linux that's where I would be.
My opinion is that there is no need for Linux Ubutnu on Primes, because I bought just because PRIME has Android OS and has features that no laptop! And more like Prime with Android OS because it is function of the sea than no have a laptop with Windows, Mac or Linux Ubuntu. Some of the features that I like on my To: Touchscreen, Bluetooth, trackpad, sensor (ALS, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, GPS, magnetometer), shutdown, reboot, no need for always shotdown and wait time for the system start, It is great for work and playing games, two cameras, GPS, BATTERY LIVES IS MUCH BETTER THAN IN LAPTOPS and lot more options.
Sure tabs have their use cases, but having a full blown Linux distro running as well extends that set of use cases by a phenomenal amount. I can certainly use a Linux distro on my tab for the full blown IDE Eclipse an other apps available like FTP, VNC etc.
Current users, can you say how the touch screen works? Still half of the screen?
qubz said:
Sure tabs have their use cases, but having a full blown Linux distro running as well extends that set to use cases by a phenomenal amount. I can certainly use a Linux distro on my tab for the full blown IDE Eclipse an other apps available like FTP, VNC etc.
Current users, can you say how the touch screen works? Still half of the screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My touchscreen has been working fine so far also lilsteve said on his twitter that he has a most stuff working and that the release of Ubuntu 12.04 in 4 days is supposed to have native tegra 3 support so he is planning on a 12.04 release with most stuff working soon.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
UPDATE: See second post for initial downloads of AOSP, CM , Arndale and Linaro/Arndale builds. These are very much a work in progress and may not even work. I am putting them forth for testing for the dev community to try out on their chromebooks.
These builds will be based on the latest JB builds. There is still alot of work to be done here. The AOSP builds initially have been put up. The other builds will go up as they are completed. I am working on the documentation for putting this together as a repeatable process is doable. In time there will be an installer and other goodies, but for now this will just be a very vanilla and manual process.
My goal is to get a working port of JB on the Samsung Chromebook. There has been no significant work on this front AFAIK. So I am taking it on myself to learn and try this out. Any community input would be helpful in making this work. I am fairly n00b at this but am looking to make this work.
I found some promising information. I might be able to build this using the binaries from arndaleboard which appears to mostly use the same hardware.
FYI for anyone experimenting to make this work please note that the following MUST be done for any chance of these root files to boot from SD.
SD/MMC boot
vold.fstab
* Change the sdcard0 and sdcard1 lines so that the first line is sdcard1 and the second is sdcard0.
fstab.arndale
* Change all references to mmcblk0px to mmcblk1px.
init.arndale.rc
* Change the 2 references to mmcblk0px to mmcblk1px.
mountd.conf
* Change the reference to mmcblk0 to mmcblk1
http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
http://forum.insignal.co.kr/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=62
http://forum.insignal.co.kr/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=63
Now that the rootfs part is addressed I am tackling the booting issues. Current uboot methods focus mainly on linux distro booting. Android appears to require its own ramdisk (which is in the links below) there will be some extra downloads such as a working uboot.
Once there are working versions of all the needed components working. An installer or installer script will be put together along with documentation. I may release this to a separate thread which I will post here.
Additional info on flashing the actual arndale. http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/ind...Flash_a_Device
Arndale is the base hardware also used on a Samsung series 3 Chromebook. Most if not all the components will work.
Additionally MANTA aka nexus 10 hardware is similarly identical and can be used with some success. I am working on compiling base builds based on CM10, AOSP, Linaro and Arndale's git.
Some more info on the bootloader
http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot
http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/...arm-chromebook
Im using this post to keep notes on what I find and build. I might edit some more to update as I find stuff. I will create a separate post if I have any success. I got two of these. I can live with bricking one if it happens. And I imagine there is a way to restore the system if needed. I figure I will figure that part out first. To avoid any mishaps and have a brick.
CREDITS: Musical_chairs for his invaluable input and resources he has linked in this post. I will update credits for other contributors once I get through the whole thread and credit all those obviously who build the original code these builds will be based on.
DISCLAIMER: For advanced users ONLY!! Not responsible if your chromebook gets bricked, struck by lightning or eaten by a pack of wild boars or attacked by crab people! Anything you do strongly recommended it be done on an SDcard to ensure easy rollbacks and no destruction of firmware.
Here are the first downloads of the rootfs and ramdisk (both of which are needed for a working android install on chromebook) These are based on AOSP. More files will be coming as I am compiling. Basic instructions on how to set up uboot will be posted above as well as how to properly flash an SDcard. This assumes you know how to get your chromebook into dev-mode. Please note this is strictly for anyone with android system experience. The system may not even boot properly at this point. This is pre-pre-alpha at this point. There is alot of work to do before it even comes close to being usable. But if you get it working, please make a DD image (instructions above) and post it for all to use and work from. FOSS means sharing and sharing means caring. This will speed up the work needed to make this work for all of us.
aosp-ramdisk.img
https://mega.co.nz/#!sZgVmIQY!M9ANXXEJYAWR0TlRxV_mC3CdEXkTKC_Tgr1PdOD0Hxo
aosp-rootfs.tar.bz2
https://mega.co.nz/#!ZNgAFYqR!HkXcLxead3Zgm7lNcUzjb0YlfzEbbogTL5CnZDuUtIA
arndale-kernel
https://mega.co.nz/#!gIQXVLRC!U_L0WSutAXdGzdqhFrlzD1ij750Q8lTlKwHVoC28C14
arndale-ramdisk.img.ub
https://mega.co.nz/#!RB4XBAjS!JtNgciYJrLL_TDmjXjnZkTouPKwAhva26b7U9zvBYA0
arndale-rootfs.tar.bz2
https://mega.co.nz/#!xJwBVALa!QnwJRjQzhC218tcjMtKnimKZE2kn73sGs8XgeC75fDU
I'm super excited that you're working on this Opieum. This would be absolute dream come true. I'd love to help out but I can't be a tester lol. After I get my next few paychecks I'd love to send a donation to you sir!
Im still working on it. Its a bit tricker than I thought to get it working. Not impossible tho. I just lack the experience and knowledge to get this up and running. I figured I could do it over the weekend lol. Humbling experience. Once I have something working that is moderatly usable I figure I will take some donations to support other types of chromebooks, for now tho I will just do this cause I want to get android working on the samsung chromebook series 3.
opieum said:
Im still working on it. Its a bit tricker than I thought to get it working. Not impossible tho. I just lack the experience and knowledge to get this up and running. I figured I could do it over the weekend lol. Humbling experience. Once I have something working that is moderatly usable I figure I will take some donations to support other types of chromebooks, for now tho I will just do this cause I want to get android working on the samsung chromebook series 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May want to wait for IO until after if Chrome and Android get close enough to jump from one to the other.
Also, I guess you could try and use the Cyanogen Mod port tool to try and get Android on it. It's what I used to try and get Ubuntu-Phone on my Nook. Nearly have it, but got the black screen of doom.
Thanks moocow, I appreciate the advice. I had not considered the Cyanogen tool. I know google IO is right around the corner but I want to see if I can get it working. Part of it is as much a technical exercise to see if I can do it as much as it is just doing it.
Do you have a link for this porting tool? I was looking for one. If its just porting from the git I guess I can do that too. I was just wondering if there was a specific tool do this with. I was not aware there actually was a tool.
I'm so excited someone is trying to make this work! I'm no dev, but I'd love to help in anyway. Subbing now.
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Doc:_porting_intro
This might help also.
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Development
Amazing! I wish you the best of luck on this
I've seen some great development for the ARM Chromebook over on the Linux side, so anything is possible
Hope your efforts will be fruitful
Thanks!
I'm excited to see some effort being put into this!
I don't think you need to worry about flashing procedures just yet, and I certainly would forget about messing with uboot until way later in the game. It's pretty easy to get a dual-boot setup on the chromebook, getting the files in place is way easier than it is on a typical Android device because you can write them to an sdcard from inside ChromeOS, then reboot to the sdcard. We can worry about booting Android from the internal storage later, shouldn't be too hard. And to do anything with uboot, you're going to need to physically disassemble the chromebook and remove the write protect screw/sticker, IMO it would be best to avoid that.
Maybe we should start by adapting this procedure, but putting an Android filesystem and kernel on the sdcard instead of Linux?
http://blogs.arm.com/software-enablement/848-running-linux-on-the-series-3-chromebook/
Thanks. I have been hitting wall after wall with u-boot so yea I am working on the dualboot method for now. That post is great! I had not seen it before. Bookmarked among many. Hopefully I can find the issues keeping me from making this work.
The first obstacle I am seeing is that while ChromeOS uses a pretty standard Linux kernel and no ramdisk (and that is what uboot will be looking for), Android uses a kernel and ramdisk on a /boot partition. I don't know enough about Android to know if it's possible to boot it with a different configuration, but I've got a hunch that if we're going to get Android to boot on this thing, we're going to need to do it a lot more like the Android x86 people do it than like a typical Android ROM.
Two exercises that I think will be very helpful here:
1. Install a Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Fedora, whatever) on the sdcard of a chromebook without using a script like chrubuntu
2. Install Android x86 on a 'normal' computer.
I have almost done the first (I cheated and ended up using a script to install Ubuntu), the second I may eventually do if I can find the time.
...and like I said, I think the best approach here is going to be a x86 style Android installation, but with an arm build.
---------- Post added at 01:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:27 PM ----------
...or maybe this is what we need - chainload uboot:
https://plus.google.com/117557107585466185396/posts/hVWc5EE9EK6
---------- Post added at 02:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 PM ----------
Okay, this looks to be the official documentation on using nv-U-boot (chainloading uboot):
http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os...using-nv-u-boot-on-the-samsung-arm-chromebook
Upon further reading, I believe that this is the correct method:
1. Pack nv-U-boot as a signed kernel and dd it to a chromeos kernel partition.
2. nv-U-boot then boots Android using a typical Android boot command.
For the time being, I'm pretty sure it will be better to keep nv-U-boot and all the Android partitions on an sdcard, as it is no harder to boot from there than from the eMMc, and it's a whole lot safer to test stuff this way. Once we've got it working, we can repartition the eMMc and install everything there so it's faster and all that good stuff.
Bear in mind this is pretty much just academic at this point, I tried to chainload nv-U-boot but haven't actually gotten it to work. I'm pretty comfortable mucking around in Linux systems, but this uboot stuff is all new to me.
What I've done so far:
1. Set up partitions on my sdcard (including two kernel partitons) as per the first link I posted.
2. Got a working Lubuntu installation on the sdcard (cheated and used a chrubuntu-derived script).
3. Got a working Crouton (chrooted) Lubuntu setup on the internal storage (doesn't really apply here, though it comes in handy for some of the tools needed for manipulating files and stuff)
4. Tried the nv-U-boot image from opensuse:
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/12.2:/ARM:/Contrib:/Chromebook/standard/armv7hl/
5. Tried the nv-U-boot image from the Chromium Projects:
http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromeos-localmirror/distfiles/nv_uboot-snow.kpart.bz2
In both cases, the process is the same. Pack nv-U-boot as a signed kernel, something like this (both commands are run in a shell from within ChromeOS, in dev mode):
Code:
vbutil_kernel --pack newkernel --keyblock /usr/share/vboot/devkeys/kernel.keyblock --version 1 --signprivate /usr/share/vboot/devkeys/kernel_data_key.vbprivk --vmlinuz u-boot.img --arch arm
write it to the sdcard with dd, something like this (remember you can hose almost anything with dd if you point it at the wrong place, so use with care:
Code:
sudo dd if=newkernel of=/dev/mmcblk1p2
(this writes it to partiton 2 of my sdcard, partition 1 is my good Ubuntu kernel.)
I haven't seen nv-U-boot yet but I think I'm close.
musical_chairs said:
Upon further reading, I believe that this is the correct method:
1. Pack nv-U-boot as a signed kernel and dd it to a chromeos kernel partition.
2. nv-U-boot then boots Android using a typical Android boot command.
For the time being, I'm pretty sure it will be better to keep nv-U-boot and all the Android partitions on an sdcard, as it is no harder to boot from there than from the eMMc, and it's a whole lot safer to test stuff this way. Once we've got it working, we can repartition the eMMc and install everything there so it's faster and all that good stuff.
Bear in mind this is pretty much just academic at this point, I tried to chainload nv-U-boot but haven't actually gotten it to work. I'm pretty comfortable mucking around in Linux systems, but this uboot stuff is all new to me.
What I've done so far:
1. Set up partitions on my sdcard (including two kernel partitons) as per the first link I posted.
2. Got a working Lubuntu installation on the sdcard (cheated and used a chrubuntu-derived script).
3. Got a working Crouton (chrooted) Lubuntu setup on the internal storage (doesn't really apply here, though it comes in handy for some of the tools needed for manipulating files and stuff)
4. Tried the nv-U-boot image from opensuse:
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/12.2:/ARM:/Contrib:/Chromebook/standard/armv7hl/
5. Tried the nv-U-boot image from the Chromium Projects:
http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromeos-localmirror/distfiles/nv_uboot-snow.kpart.bz2
In both cases, the process is the same. Pack nv-U-boot as a signed kernel, something like this (both commands are run in a shell from within ChromeOS, in dev mode):
Code:
vbutil_kernel --pack newkernel --keyblock /usr/share/vboot/devkeys/kernel.keyblock --version 1 --signprivate /usr/share/vboot/devkeys/kernel_data_key.vbprivk --vmlinuz u-boot.img --arch arm
write it to the sdcard with dd, something like this (remember you can hose almost anything with dd if you point it at the wrong place, so use with care:
Code:
sudo dd if=newkernel of=/dev/mmcblk1p2
(this writes it to partiton 2 of my sdcard, partition 1 is my good Ubuntu kernel.)
I haven't seen nv-U-boot yet but I think I'm close.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea the u-boot stuff is real new to me. I have no issues either with linux its the bootloader stuff with android I am struggling with. I'm going to look at the arndale instructions as it uses similar hardware on how to load it from SDcard. The documentation there seems to show how to load the system. I already built and compiled the code from arndale seeing as it uses the exact specs needed. Since we have the ability to boot from SDcard on a chromebook this should be easily doable. The build will be the hard part. I am going to see what i can do with that method, I'm adapting from various sources. Ideally if I can come up with a simple image that can just be DDed over to a 32GB SD card that would be best for all to start and test with until a much easier method can be adapted. I had read elsewhere that the android method had been tried using the linux methods and it did not work. Hence why I havent looked as deeply into it. But I think at this point it seems like looking at this with a mixed methods might be the better approach. I'll post my results tomorrow as I am trying this out now.
UPDATE: I got some promising news. I am following this guide I have built android according to those instructions. http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/index.php/WiKi#How_to_Flash_a_Device (ignore the dipswitch references here as we got the ctrl-U option to boot and devmode)
The uboot install part is automated via a script which saves some time. Easy enough to break down the script to see how its done manually. The build will have 4.1.1 That said arndale provides pretty much all the tools to do this simpler. I think if we get this working then all we need to do is further automate the process OR provide an image with a simple script to image an SDcard with. Additionally I suspect (I have not confirmed) that the wifi and other components on the arndale are also the same on the chromebook.
Hmm, I wonder if the uboot from the arndale board will work on the chromebook? The chromebook's uboot doesn't have fastboot, and there's no way to interrupt it either (as in, hold down a key to access the uboot menu). BUT, if we put the arndale's uboot on the sdcard, as in, this:
http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/index.php/WiKi#Prepared_micro_SD.2FMMC_for_ARNDALE_bootable.
...that looks rather promising.
Yea that was the idea and portion I was looking at. I'm trying it out now to see if this will work.
I thought something similar might be done with Plop, the most awesomest boot loader in the world when Chrubuntu was first finding it's feet. Booting into a bootloader might be the answer for not just Android, but Windows 7.
But this is booting on ARM. So Win7 would not work here as there is no ARM capable version. The work now is being done for the Samsung Chromebook ARM version (series 3) which would also work on the Acer version that is also ARM based as well.
Nuh uh, Acer C7 is x86 based. RT can play on ARM, but a Chrome bootloader might be worth it.
You are correct sir on the Acer being intel. That being said. This project is to get android on the samsung chromebook (series 3) which is an arm EXYNOS 5xxx series CPU. The methods developed here would also likley apply to any other arm based books on the market.
This thread is for development updates, and an eventual release of testing candidates for the future of dual booting CM12 android roms on the Amazon Fire TV. At this time I am not planing on supporting the Fire TV stick since my development platform is based off USB3 booting.
There currently isn't even a stable branch in CM12 upstream so things are quite tricky right now.
I may eventually setup public nightlies once the core is stable.
IN PROGRESS FORM HERE: https://t.co/TXp9z7htDx
The goals for development are in this order:
Wifi [working]
Bluetooth [crashing]
Stable core [random resets possibly storage related]
Audio [possibly needs hacking to default to hdmi]
Recovery system [rom boots using the recovery partition currently]
Hardware Acceleration [untested]
Android TV addons [require stable core]
USB Formating and install app [apparently not everyone knows what gparted is]
Modified version of Rbox's bootloader [I'd like to add recovery to the loader then have stock and custom boot options]
Also, if you want to be ready for possible nightly testing, I highly recommend going to walmart and buying one of the playstation USB3 hubs. It's about $20 but allows you to plug in a USB3 drive and keyboard and mouse until bluetooth is working.
SETTING UP USB BOOTING:
Code:
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
/* * Your warranty is now void. *
* I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead USB drives,
* thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please
* do some research if you have any concerns about features included in these files
* before flashing them! YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if
* you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you. */
PART ONE [Preparing the drive]:
This process will eventually be streamlined but for now I'll explain the process and how it relates to testing builds during development. Since the Fire TV only has an 8gb flash chip and has no hardware recovery trigger, it is quite the unforgiving device to develop on. The current boot method for my CM12 builds involves flashing over the recovery partition and using it as a sort of dualboot partition. The modified recovery partition then searches for ext4 partitions on and external (USB3 preferred) flash drive. Currently each build generates its own boot image to be flashed over recovery, but I'm currently in the process of exploring the possibility of following Rbox's method of loading a boot image from a system folder instead making only one flash to the actual device necessary going forward.
For USB3 booting during the development process I highly recommend using a USB3 hub for a keyboard and mouse while bluetooth pairing and control mapping is being worked on. I also recommend a USB3 drive.
1) Turn on a Linux machine or boot a Live CD
2) Open Gparted
3) Delete any partitions on the usb drive
4) Create three ext4 partitions, the first partion is system and should be about 1GB, the THIRD partition is cache, and should be about 768mb with 0mb following, you should then have the middle portion empty in the display, in this SECOND partition make your data partition fill the rest of the space.
PART TWO [Preparing the bootloader]:
WARNING this process currently involves replacing your recovery partition, remember kids dd and root is like holding a grenade, make sure you don't throw it at something you care about.
Also, if you are testing a build and it does not load using the previous bootloader, try flashing the latest one from the nightlies (and vise versa) as I am still in the process of stream lining the boot process as far as what should take place before system bring up on our device. If a different boot image loads the system with noticeably more stability let me know asap so I can track the causes of my current issues.
Code:
adb connect <STOCK FIRE TV IP>
adb push boot-<DATE>.img /sdcard
adb shell
cd /sdcard
su
dd if=boot-<DATE>.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/recovery
Next I recommend side loading this apk to make rebooting into USB boot easier.
The three most recent "boot" images have been added to the downloads section, remember these should be flashed to recovery. Although they would work in boot, that would disable Rbox's loader and prevent you from loading stock OS.
PART THREE [Playing with instability]:
Great so now you have a USB3 booting image flashed to your recovery partition and you have an empty flash drive. This is where the tinkering begins. In the download section you will find a .tar.gz archive with a somewhat booting system with the aforementioned issues. Inside this archive is a system.img file which you will use dd to flash to the first partition of the flash drive you formated. After the system image is flashed you can plug your flash drive into your hub and reboot into recovery. Things will be great, wifi will show up and if you're quick enough you can complete setup and make it to the launcher. (the issue I'm currently working on is an odd timed reset that may be kernel or storage related oddly if you make it to the launcher and don't touch anything, it takes longer to reset)
If you made it this far, welcome to development. You can help by "kanging" (replacing system apk's and files with other versions to find more stable matches, or remove apks until things don't die then report back to me) Also if you make it to this point go ahead and fill out the form I mentioned earlier. Eventually any hotfix builds I do between nightly builds will be accessible to those users to play with.
Overhauling the boot system next and working on the reset debugging.
XDA:DevDB Information
TechVendetta ROM Development, ROM for the Amazon Fire TV
Contributors
TechVendetta, rbox
Source Code: https://github.com/TechV/android_device_amazon_bueller
ROM OS Version: 5.0.x Lollipop
Based On: CyanogenMod
Version Information
Status: Testing
Created 2015-01-29
Last Updated 2015-01-29
Reserved
UPDATE: I'm pretty much settled in to my new job/home now so I'm going to resume this project shortly. The first order of business is to see what sort of driver improvements we got from Amazon and whether their modifications help resolve the issues I was having. I only have the original FireTV so I'll be only testing on that. Not sure if the new one has an unlocked bootloader or recovery system so that will be up to whichever brave soul wants to test that. Hopefully tomorrow I can resync my repos and get a look at whats changed.
Reserved
Thanks for the update! Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.
Thanks for your work!
It would be nice run a CM12 build in Fire TV
So far the main system seems promising, I feel like the reset issue, which is the primary major roadblock is either in the kernel, or in the storage management/selinux services. Selinux should be disabled in this build so I'm looking into the other two options right now.
TechVendetta said:
So far the main system seems promising, I feel like the reset issue, which is the primary major roadblock is either in the kernel, or in the storage management/selinux services. Selinux should be disabled in this build so I'm looking into the other two options right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for keeping us updated!
[email protected] said:
Thank you for keeping us updated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll link this here for now, while I finish looking into the logs for bluetooth/wifi/audio before uploading a rough copy here. I think I'm going to use the individuals who filled out the form to test the installer and recovery apps I'll be doing after fixing the above three things.
:victory:| TEASERS |:victory:
TechVendetta said:
I'll link this here for now, while I finish looking into the logs for bluetooth/wifi/audio before uploading a rough copy here. I think I'm going to use the individuals who filled out the form to test the installer and recovery apps I'll be doing after fixing the above three things.
:victory:| TEASERS |:victory:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey,
i've got one question for the installation:
you use the recovery as boot partition (because you dont want to mess with the actual boot partition where the bootmenu is).
is there a reason we cant use rbox's bootmenu, add another entry "usb boot" which will boot from /system/boot/usbboot.img ?
Or is the only reason that this just hasnt been added by rbox so we have to use another way?
I think this would be the most brick safe version and shouldnt be a big problem for rbox to implement....
Chris
[edit]
i'm really looking forward to this
aHcVolle said:
Hey,
i've got one question for the installation:
you use the recovery as boot partition (because you dont want to mess with the actual boot partition where the bootmenu is).
is there a reason we cant use rbox's bootmenu, add another entry "usb boot" which will boot from /system/boot/usbboot.img ?
Or is the only reason that this just hasnt been added by rbox so we have to use another way?
I think this would be the most brick safe version and shouldnt be a big problem for rbox to implement....
Chris
[edit]
i'm really looking forward to this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats one of the goals I put up there, just unlike rboxs current loader I know a way to make it remote controlled. ;D I started a bit on it. The "friendly user release" will have a root installer app that will handle multiboot, formating flash drives, recovery options, updates etc.
Really looking forward to a CM12 Android TV ROM. It would be nice to know that Amazon would not be able to kill a rooted Fire TV when this becomes reality. Peace of Mind regarding the Fire TV would be Priceless!
Xposed too http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3030118
hhairplane said:
Xposed too http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3030118
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a big fan of exposed, I'll have to add that to my testing list. I get a bit more free time tonight so I'll be getting back to looking at WiFi and Bluetooth and the installer. I still have two possible routes for both installing and updating i have to consider.
Sent from my LG-VM670 using XDA Free mobile app
TechVendetta said:
I'll link this here for now, while I finish looking into the logs for bluetooth/wifi/audio before uploading a rough copy here. I think I'm going to use the individuals who filled out the form to test the installer and recovery apps I'll be doing after fixing the above three things.
:victory:| TEASERS |:victory:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any luck with the video acceleration, eg for Kodi or others such as Netflix, etc? How about hdmi audio?
Thanks for the update!
Video acceleration appears to be working, haven't got to audio. Had a death in the family this morning so i haven't had time to test my latest build.
Sent from my LG-VM670 using XDA Free mobile app
Sorry to hear that, Family is first! Although, maybe working on this will help take your mind away from that. Feel better!
TechVendetta said:
Video acceleration appears to be working, haven't got to audio. Had a death in the family this morning so i haven't had time to test my latest build.
Sent from my LG-VM670 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear that.
I recently installed CM 12 on a 2012 kfhd and wow!--it really brought that device to life! Performance/OC options are built right into the OS and another Dev made a custom kernel to oc to 1.7 ghz. But I have limited experience with CM and Android TV. Can we expect a similar UI and performance options with this? Or is it different for the set top boxes?
BTW--I think it's really great you're doing this. Lots of people are excited and it's very appreciated!!!
KLit75 said:
I recently installed CM 12 on a 2012 kfhd and wow!--it really brought that device to life! Performance/OC options are built right into the OS and another Dev made a custom kernel to oc to 1.7 ghz. But I have limited experience with CM and Android TV. Can we expect a similar UI and performance options with this? Or is it different for the set top boxes?
BTW--I think it's really great you're doing this. Lots of people are excited and it's very appreciated!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can overclock the kernel but I'm not sure if it will be necessary yet. As for the features, CM12 doesn't even have a "stable" build yet. (they call them M builds now) They are still porting customizations like that in. That rom may use some stuff pulled in by the dev from other projects like paranoid, aokp etc. I'm listening to what people are asking for and I'll be taking it into consideration once I get to tweaking release candidates.
TechVendetta said:
I can overclock the kernel but I'm not sure if it will be necessary yet. As for the features, CM12 doesn't even have a "stable" build yet. (they call them M builds now) They are still porting customizations like that in. That rom may use some stuff pulled in by the dev from other projects like paranoid, aokp etc. I'm listening to what people are asking for and I'll be taking it into consideration once I get to tweaking release candidates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds great. Thinking now...an OC kernel probably isn't necessary since it's already real fast. But this rom I have works well on a relatively low end/older device. So I'm super excited about your project. Thanks again!
hello
I install Remix OS on my pc
Config
moderbord Asus P6TSE
Ram 24 GB
GPU GTX 960
CPU Intel® Core i7-920
i use a ssd to boot this os and freeze on boot ...
Image
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/339816IMG20160124171700.jpg
Checking Data Partition....
ANDROID
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ty in advence
When you boot up press "e" to edit the boot info, place DEBUG=2 into the script after 'androidboot.hardware=remix_x86_64' so it looks like 'androidboot.hardware=remix_x86_64 DEBUG=2' hit F10 (softly)
Debug boot should begin.
Type exit when prompted, ignore any warnings that might come up concerning hardware not being picked up, type "exit" when prompted to do so to move on. After a few times typing "exit", does an error like this continue to roll up your screen: "init: Couldn't probe module 'net-pf-16-proto-5' "? :fingers-crossed:
i make a video
https://youtu.be/7tdO9nmLBmg
A quick question. Are there any other drives connected?
You could try actually install it onto your SSD from the boot up.. Your SSD would need 2 partitions though.. One is FAT32 (around 3GB large) and the other can be FAT32 or NTFS, it wont make a difference. If you want to know how to do the install from boot then just send a reply asking.
I have just tried with a different machine and I'm getting a full SELinux error. I doubt that there is anything that we would do.. (I'm not pro enough to go reading through the actual OS files... ) Not all PC's are supported unfortunately. Mine is not, I have had better luck running Remix OS in Virtual Box, well... before the latest release at least. Now I'm getting errors that seem to have been around since Android_x86 project began.
Another option would be to try the Legacy version if your motherboard is able to boot legacy. (Sorry, have not tried looking at your MoBo)
My advice (which I am also following) would be to be patient and just hold out for a while. Until the next update comes along for us to try.
More support is intended on being added with every release.
all my files is in a fat32 partitions and work on my laptop is just my pc ... wont works
Are there any other drives connected?
yes i have 4 drive with my pc
If it is working on your laptop then settle with that for now.
No, not other drives would be recommended, just saw them in the debug at the beginning.
The error that seems to be coming up for you and I (this is as far as I understand) has to do with kernel security settings as to what to allow on boot. The issue can arise when certain files have not been given the policy labels that they require to run. So they effectively get denied constantly. This is likely where a lot of the added hardware support will sort things out... I'm also running an NVidia Card.. could be the drivers needed..(although that would not explain why VM's don't work)
Sorry that I cannot help you mate.. This is going too deep into the realm that I know little about when it comes to the actual stuff. I follow instructions when having to make a change to my Linux distro.
I do envy you having the latest version working on a device. My laptop wont boot for me either.
You could try the Andriod_x86 forums and see what the common threads are. Seeing as Jide is using android_x86 as a base.
If anyone else knows more and is able to shed light on the matter, please do so? I am also up to correction on my statements.
I asked the same question on other forums and on google group
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/remix-os-for-pc
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/67863-Remix-OS-freeze-on-boot
gaaara said:
hello
I install Remix OS on my pc
Config
moderbord Asus P6TSE
Ram 24 GB
GPU GTX 960
CPU Intel® Core i7-920
i use a ssd to boot this os and freeze on boot ...
Image
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/339816IMG20160124171700.jpg
ty in advence
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nvidia GPUs have trouble with remix os and you wont be able to run it properly.
ty
a new version of remixos is released
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/remix-os-for-pc/Tl9yTkALhN8
i test it and the os boot and loop on welcome menu ... loll i make video for skip the logo go to 1:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu6hF39CoJI
ty for your poste
I know its not an answer to your question, but have you tried the new 2 February version? I have got it working in VirtualBox atm.
Hi all, I am new to the forums and I think that I need some help with a custom android project.
[Background]
I have bought a Meraki MC74, This phone is a VOIP office desk phone that has a nice 7 inch LCD screen that make for a ballin' custom intercom phone/general android device.
Cisco Meraki has dropped support for this phone, so even if I wanted to pay for a subscription, I couldn't. So custom android it is
[So what I know]
I know that the OEM OS is android 4.X.X with a custom Cisco Meraki dialer to do Meraki's cloud mumbojumbo. I was able to use ADB and Fastboot to flash ClockworkMod, and a custom version of Android 4.1.2 to get the device somewhat working. (it had lots of bugs and problems; but it was running android free of the Cisco Dialer!)
I was able to do this with the help of fellow xdadevelopers forum user "andrewmospak" (If you're reading this; I'm the dude from Ebay. And of course, thanks bro for the help so far!)
The storage is on a 4 GB Kingston EMMC.
[What I wanted for an end goal]
I wanted to have an interesting discontinued Meraki Desk phone that runs android and get all the functions of the phone working within android.
I also wanted to expand the storage from 4GB to 32GB. ( involving de-soldering existing EMMC and solder in the bigger EMMC.)
[What caused me to write this]
I would be fine if I wanted to stop there, but I wanted to try to install a GSI of android 9 in place of 4.1.2.
Again, this wouldn't be a big deal but I had to go and screw this up. I tried to resize some of the partitions (namely system to accommodate the bigger image of the android 9 GSI)but I accidentally completely killed the system,cache, and recovery partitions.
So, as one of the first steps of trouble shooting, I went to the hardest solution. The de-soldering of the EMMC.
I reached out to Andrewmospak again and asked for a full system emmc dump to try to flash his working file system to a spare 4GB EMMC to see an example of the file system of a working android EMMC. I received the image and flashed it to a spare Toshiba chip and soldered that to the phone, but I was unable to get the phone to boot into android right away, only able to load up fastboot.
Interestingly, I know that the EMMC is working because fastboot reports the S/N as the S/N of Andrewmospak's device and not the one written on my device.
[What I don't know]
Should some of the partitions on the EMMC not be recognized by Gparted in Debian? Like the User/System and others are partitioned ext4 while others are just not recognized.
Why when trying to flash partitions using Fastboot, wont fastboot recognise a recovery partition. It would just say that the partition just doesn't exist. same story with boot.
[What needs help]
I would like to know why fastboot wont see flashable volumes when using the EMMC dump flashed to another spare Toshiba EMMC, it is clearly there.
I would like to know how to reconstruct a volume to fix missing ones, and the number of partitions android needs to run.
Would I be able to flash an image of my working device to a 32gb emmc and just expand the system and user partitions into that extra space?
I will appreciate all help given to assist me and others that want a working device instead of a paperweight. ogChamp: :fingers-crossed:
That is an awesome project, and a great idea for an office line. I'll look into this!
Use MC74 for dashboard
I'm really interest to know, if you can have run a web browser on the MC74.
My needs are not fancy, I want to run a web browser on the touch screen, and have network connection with the ethernet jack in the back. I want to use it to interact with a touch dashboard for my home automation trough the webbrowser.
Thank you
Is it possible you didnt get the hidden boot partition in the emmc device? I know it isn't accessible through a sd card reader but can be seen through a SDIO controller interface.
page 15 of this document discusses this:
Google this: "us-17-Etemadieh-Hacking-Hardware-With-A-$10-SD-Card-Reader-wp.pdf" first link on blackhat.com
This project interests me as these devices are dirt cheap and i could use a few multipurpose desk phones
Thank you for starting this work. I have been waiting for this day since past couple of years now.
When you get a chance, could you please post the steps up to the point where you decided to swap the emmc?
sasha0413 said:
Hi all, I am new to the forums and I think that I need some help with a custom android project.
[Background]
I have bought a Meraki MC74, This phone is a VOIP office desk phone that has a nice 7 inch LCD screen that make for a ballin' custom intercom phone/general android device.
Cisco Meraki has dropped support for this phone, so even if I wanted to pay for a subscription, I couldn't. So custom android it is
[So what I know]
I know that the OEM OS is android 4.X.X with a custom Cisco Meraki dialer to do Meraki's cloud mumbojumbo. I was able to use ADB and Fastboot to flash ClockworkMod, and a custom version of Android 4.1.2 to get the device somewhat working. (it had lots of bugs and problems; but it was running android free of the Cisco Dialer!)
I was able to do this with the help of fellow xdadevelopers forum user "andrewmospak" (If you're reading this; I'm the dude from Ebay. And of course, thanks bro for the help so far!)
The storage is on a 4 GB Kingston EMMC.
[What I wanted for an end goal]
I wanted to have an interesting discontinued Meraki Desk phone that runs android and get all the functions of the phone working within android.
I also wanted to expand the storage from 4GB to 32GB. ( involving de-soldering existing EMMC and solder in the bigger EMMC.)
[What caused me to write this]
I would be fine if I wanted to stop there, but I wanted to try to install a GSI of android 9 in place of 4.1.2.
Again, this wouldn't be a big deal but I had to go and screw this up. I tried to resize some of the partitions (namely system to accommodate the bigger image of the android 9 GSI)but I accidentally completely killed the system,cache, and recovery partitions.
So, as one of the first steps of trouble shooting, I went to the hardest solution. The de-soldering of the EMMC.
I reached out to Andrewmospak again and asked for a full system emmc dump to try to flash his working file system to a spare 4GB EMMC to see an example of the file system of a working android EMMC. I received the image and flashed it to a spare Toshiba chip and soldered that to the phone, but I was unable to get the phone to boot into android right away, only able to load up fastboot.
Interestingly, I know that the EMMC is working because fastboot reports the S/N as the S/N of Andrewmospak's device and not the one written on my device.
[What I don't know]
Should some of the partitions on the EMMC not be recognized by Gparted in Debian? Like the User/System and others are partitioned ext4 while others are just not recognized.
Why when trying to flash partitions using Fastboot, wont fastboot recognise a recovery partition. It would just say that the partition just doesn't exist. same story with boot.
[What needs help]
I would like to know why fastboot wont see flashable volumes when using the EMMC dump flashed to another spare Toshiba EMMC, it is clearly there.
I would like to know how to reconstruct a volume to fix missing ones, and the number of partitions android needs to run.
Would I be able to flash an image of my working device to a 32gb emmc and just expand the system and user partitions into that extra space?
I will appreciate all help given to assist me and others that want a working device instead of a paperweight. ogChamp: :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't get to recovery mode -- wanna help
I'd like to help and write and app that is a (open) SIP client for the MC74. I bought an apparently new MC74 but I can't get it into recovery mode. Any help in doing this (so I can install a rooted Android)?
Holding down VolUp while connecting the POE ethernet to the WAN port doesn't work. The display remains blank then every several seconds the dislpay backlight flashes for a moment. Holding down Mute and connecting power has no effect, just boot normally to the Meraki logo screens then a minute later the normal keypad and menu display. (VolDn and powerup boots normally). I've tried this with USB flash drive (with some random recovery.img file on it) in the side USB port -- then I get an icon of a broken Android robot (presumably meaning it tried something with booting off the USB.
Has my MC74 been locked down somehow? What can I do to get a rooted Android on it?
ribo said:
I'd like to help and write and app that is a (open) SIP client for the MC74. I bought an apparently new MC74 but I can't get it into recovery mode. Any help in doing this (so I can install a rooted Android)?
Holding down VolUp while connecting the POE ethernet to the WAN port doesn't work. The display remains blank then every several seconds the dislpay backlight flashes for a moment. Holding down Mute and connecting power has no effect, just boot normally to the Meraki logo screens then a minute later the normal keypad and menu display. (VolDn and powerup boots normally). I've tried this with USB flash drive (with some random recovery.img file on it) in the side USB port -- then I get an icon of a broken Android robot (presumably meaning it tried something with booting off the USB.
Has my MC74 been locked down somehow? What can I do to get a rooted Android on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way That I was able to boot into recovery was to hold mute and volume down NOT IMMEDIATELY hold the two only after the LCD backlight turns on. Only then you will be in recovery.
realc3blues said:
Is it possible you didnt get the hidden boot partition in the emmc device? I know it isn't accessible through a sd card reader but can be seen through a SDIO controller interface.
page 15 of this document discusses this:
Google this: "us-17-Etemadieh-Hacking-Hardware-With-A-$10-SD-Card-Reader-wp.pdf" first link on blackhat.com
This project interests me as these devices are dirt cheap and i could use a few multipurpose desk phones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My linux machine recognizes the mystery partitions but not their contents or partition scheme with some cheap USB to SD adapters. I think it works well. Thanks for the recommendation though!
ribo said:
I'd like to help and write and app that is a (open) SIP client for the MC74. I bought an apparently new MC74 but I can't get it into recovery mode. Any help in doing this (so I can install a rooted Android)?
Holding down VolUp while connecting the POE ethernet to the WAN port doesn't work. The display remains blank then every several seconds the dislpay backlight flashes for a moment. Holding down Mute and connecting power has no effect, just boot normally to the Meraki logo screens then a minute later the normal keypad and menu display. (VolDn and powerup boots normally). I've tried this with USB flash drive (with some random recovery.img file on it) in the side USB port -- then I get an icon of a broken Android robot (presumably meaning it tried something with booting off the USB.
Has my MC74 been locked down somehow? What can I do to get a rooted Android on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to hold down the VOLUME DOWN button before powering on the unit, and then continue to hold it. The phone will go into Fastboot mode. The screen will be blank, but backlit, and usually the LED lights up red. Here, you can flash a custom recovery firmware image (such as the ClockworkMod one that's floating around) that allows you to make changes to the system and user partitions. The thing you're seeing with the Android robot is expected. That's the default recovery firmware. Once you flash custom recovery firmware in Fastboot mode, you then unplug the unit, hold down the MUTE button, plug the device in, and continue to hold the MUTE button. It may take some time for it to get into the recovery firmware, but be patient. FYI, VOLUME UP is used for that feature where you can switch between two "slots" for firmware. I don't really know what that is, but I know that it's a thing with Android. It's pretty much unused on the MC as far as I can tell.
Has anyone considered working backwards with the version of Android running on the MC, rather than installing an entirely new version? So, instead of trying to get new firmware to work on the unit, why not work with whatever's on the device by default and pull out what you don't need? I know that some people have gotten different versions of Android to work on the unit, but this leads to bugs or hiccups. I'd imagine that this is because the kernel for that firmware isn't specifically made for the MC, but don't take my word for it. That's just a guess.
Due to the current pandemic situation that's going on here, I've decided to occupy my time by examining the MC in depth. I've managed to get ADB shell working when the device has booted normally, allowing me to examine the filesystem and pull out whatever Meraki included with the firmware. Even got the rainbow LED to stop obnoxiously glowing! I'm currently working on getting the system UI to work (there's no status bar or app switcher).
Got adbd running on MC74, Sort of got Linphone going
@sasha0413 and @jazzcandle, I got the boot.img updated so I could set 'ro.secure=0' in /default.prop in the boot up ramdisk. So now I can 'adb' into it by TCP or USB. Thanks for the help. (My MC74 calls itself a 'test-phone' so it may be a little different software. The problem was that the 'recovery' mode installed on it was pretty subtle, nothing showed on the screen.
My MC74 runs '4.2.5-meraki' version of JellyBean api 17, because I'm not good at porting newer versions of Android -- and because there may be modifications / drivers that Meraki put in to support the hardware, I'm working on a phone app with the original JellyBean.
I managed to get an old version of 'linphone' working to the extent that I can make a call -- and can be heard -- but I haven't mastered the speakers (Android AudioManager/MediaPlayer, etc) so I can't hear the phone call. I can play audio speakerphone speaker, but can't play it on the handset speaker. Figuring out the Android Audio system for JellyBean is hard, the implementation has change a lot since then.
---------- Post added at 14:11 ---------- Previous post was at 14:04 ----------
[/COLOR @jazzcandle I installed com.teslacoilsw.launcher-4.1.0-41000-minAPI16.apk as a launcher and told use it as the launcher rather than /data/app/com.meraki.dialer2-1.apk
How did you stop the RGB LED from cycling through the colors? Does something like: /system/app/DroidNode.apk or /system/app/DroidNodeSystemSvcs.apk start the led cycling, then perahps com.meraki.dialer2 stop it -- when it initializes?
ribo said:
My MC74 calls itself a 'test-phone' so it may be a little different software. The problem was that the 'recovery' mode installed on it was pretty subtle, nothing showed on the screen.
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Click to collapse
This is something that stumped me early on as well. But have no fear, all MCs run the same firmware, and you're not running different "test" firmware. The "test phone" value you're referring to is only seen in the recovery partition in the "default.prop" file, where "ro.product.model" is set to "BCM28155_TEST_PHONE". When booting normally, this value is set to "Meraki MC74" instead.
ribo said:
I managed to get an old version of 'linphone' working to the extent that I can make a call -- and can be heard -- but I haven't mastered the speakers (Android AudioManager/MediaPlayer, etc) so I can't hear the phone call. I can play audio speakerphone speaker, but can't play it on the handset speaker. Figuring out the Android Audio system for JellyBean is hard, the implementation has change a lot since then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way audio output works on the MC is a bit strange. In fact, it's not really Android's fault from what I can tell. However, I found that you have to "poke" the audio HAL to get it functioning somewhat normally (ie. getting audio to actually play through the speakers). You can do this by running the following command in the shell:
$ tinymix 1 1
At this point, you should be able to hear audio output through the speakers. Additionally, you should be able to switch between handset and speakerphone mode (so long as the app you're using allows you to do this).
ribo said:
I installed com.teslacoilsw.launcher-4.1.0-41000-minAPI16.apk as a launcher and told use it as the launcher rather than /data/app/com.meraki.dialer2-1.apk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should delete the Dialer apk, you don't need it. In fact, you should delete the DroidNode.apk and DroidNodeSystemSvcs.apk files as well.
ribo said:
How did you stop the RGB LED from cycling through the colors? Does something like: /system/app/DroidNode.apk or /system/app/DroidNodeSystemSvcs.apk start the led cycling, then perahps com.meraki.dialer2 stop it -- when it initializes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to modify "init.bcm911130_me1.rc" within "boot.img" and either remove or comment out the following:
Code:
service lightsd /system/bin/lightsd
class main
socket lightsd stream 600 system system
user root
Controlling RGB LED on MC74
Thanks jazzcandle, I'll look into /system/bin/lightsd to see what it does.
lightsd seems to open ANDROID_SOCKET_lightsd and listen to /dev/socket/lightsd
It seems to directly write to these /sys files to change the LEDs through which must be controlled through the SOC's GPIO pins..
/sys/class/leds/red/brightness
/sys/class/leds/green/brightness
/sys/class/leds/blue/brightness
/sys/class/leds/white/delay_off
/sys/class/leds/white/brightness
/sys/class/gpio/export
/sys/class/gpio/gpio11/directionout
/sys/class/gpio/gpio11/value
am broadcast -a com.meraki.LIGHTSD_START
I would be great to know what all the GPIO devices did and their a addresses.
I've left the Dialer2, DroidNode and DroidNodeSystemSvcs apps running at this point to see what they do and how they are used. I agree that eventually they need to be removed because they connect to cisco/meraki web services when they start up.
I noticed that the com.meraki.dialer2.LEDController class is how the dialer controls the LEDs:
public void notifyLeds(LedMode mode, int red, int green, int blue) {
this.r = red;
this.g = green;
this.b = blue;
this.m = mode;
sendLightCommand();
}
class LightCmd implements Consumer {
public void accept(Object o) {
Intent i = (Intent)o;
i.putExtra("red", r);
i.putExtra("green", g);
i.putExtra("blue", b);
Log.i(TAG, String.format("Broadcasting color change to rgb(%d, %d, %d)",
new Object[]{r, Integer.valueOf(g), Integer.valueOf(b)}));
ctx.sendBroadcast(i);
}
}
private void sendLightCommand() {
Consumer cons = new LightCmd();
getIntent().ifPresent(cons);
}
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Methods ilke 'notifyLeds' takes a mode (Solid, Pulse, or Rainbow) and the R, G, B values and uses the sendLightCommand() method which broadcasts an intent that will probably be handled by something like the /system/bin/lightsd daemon. (I'm trying to document all these things for customizing/developing a SIP app.
I notice that the MC74 app is built on the PJSIP ( org.pjsip.pjua2 package) I was thinking of use the org.linphone SIP package. Anyone have experience with these SIP packages?
ribo said:
(I'm trying to document all these things for customizing/developing a SIP app.
I notice that the MC74 app is built on the PJSIP ( org.pjsip.pjua2 package) I was thinking of use the org.linphone SIP package. Anyone have experience with these SIP packages?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for documenting this, this is awesome info. A while back I built a rudimentary SIP client for MC74 based on the AJVoIP SIP package. I gave up on it once my trial period for that package expired. It was quirky, with flaky audio and no LED control (which both now could be solved by the info in this thread), but I did have hookswitch (hangup/answer by picking up the handset) working.
In the spirit of documentation, the hookswitch is an ambient light sensor that gets covered or uncovered by the handset's earpiece. The original Dialer2 app reads the raw value and compares it to a calibrated set point to determine on/off hook state. Reading the path
Code:
/sys/devices/virtual/input/input0/event0/device/raw_adc
with a FileReader will get you the current value. For my device, off hook (answered) is a value below 110. On hook (hung up) is a value above 110. For my testing I just polled this file every 250ms but you could attach a FileObserver to it or something.
jazzcandle said:
Has anyone considered working backwards with the version of Android running on the MC, rather than installing an entirely new version? So, instead of trying to get new firmware to work on the unit, why not work with whatever's on the device by default and pull out what you don't need?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is actually what I am working on with a unit that I got.
The phone I have (from the build.prop file):
Code:
ro.build.version.release=4.2.3-phone-5068355-southern-userdebug
ro.product.model=Meraki MC 74
ro.product.brand=Meraki
ro.product.name=capri_me1
ro.product.device=capri_me1
ro.product.board=capri
Currently trying to work on getting ADB working from within the phone and not just within the Clockwork recovery that I got loaded on it.
Getting a pretty close stock experience on the MC74 is totally possible with some dedication and work. For reasons I cant get into, I am unable to provide the steps / files that it took to get where I am, but I have a functional MC74 with working handset & speakerphone. The only next thing I need to work on is getting the "IR" sensor to hangup in specific Dialer applications.
https://imgur.com/a/FFVq1sL
I am using Grandstream Softphone dialer.
drraccoon said:
Getting a pretty close stock experience on the MC74 is totally possible with some dedication and work. For reasons I cant get into, I am unable to provide the steps / files that it took to get where I am, but I have a functional MC74 with working handset & speakerphone. The only next thing I need to work on is getting the "IR" sensor to hangup in specific Dialer applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was able to achieve the same, except GS dialer is not scaled correctly.
Not able to post link to image, as I don't have 10 messages.
So it is a/6aQYsz6 on imgur
Did not bother to fix it, as my intent is custom PJSIP dialer (someday
Headset sensor, led, mixer - figured out.
The only mystery is "mute" button and the red LED behind it.
sasha0413 said:
Hi all, I am new to the forums and I think that I need some help with a custom android project.
[Background]
I have bought a Meraki MC74, This phone is a VOIP office desk phone that has a nice 7 inch LCD screen that make for a ballin' custom intercom phone/general android device.
Cisco Meraki has dropped support for this phone, so even if I wanted to pay for a subscription, I couldn't. So custom android it is
[So what I know]
I know that the OEM OS is android 4.X.X with a custom Cisco Meraki dialer to do Meraki's cloud mumbojumbo. I was able to use ADB and Fastboot to flash ClockworkMod, and a custom version of Android 4.1.2 to get the device somewhat working. (it had lots of bugs and problems; but it was running android free of the Cisco Dialer!)
I was able to do this with the help of fellow xdadevelopers forum user "andrewmospak" (If you're reading this; I'm the dude from Ebay. And of course, thanks bro for the help so far!)
The storage is on a 4 GB Kingston EMMC.
[What I wanted for an end goal]
I wanted to have an interesting discontinued Meraki Desk phone that runs android and get all the functions of the phone working within android.
I also wanted to expand the storage from 4GB to 32GB. ( involving de-soldering existing EMMC and solder in the bigger EMMC.)
[What caused me to write this]
I would be fine if I wanted to stop there, but I wanted to try to install a GSI of android 9 in place of 4.1.2.
Again, this wouldn't be a big deal but I had to go and screw this up. I tried to resize some of the partitions (namely system to accommodate the bigger image of the android 9 GSI)but I accidentally completely killed the system,cache, and recovery partitions.
So, as one of the first steps of trouble shooting, I went to the hardest solution. The de-soldering of the EMMC.
I reached out to Andrewmospak again and asked for a full system emmc dump to try to flash his working file system to a spare 4GB EMMC to see an example of the file system of a working android EMMC. I received the image and flashed it to a spare Toshiba chip and soldered that to the phone, but I was unable to get the phone to boot into android right away, only able to load up fastboot.
Interestingly, I know that the EMMC is working because fastboot reports the S/N as the S/N of Andrewmospak's device and not the one written on my device.
[What I don't know]
Should some of the partitions on the EMMC not be recognized by Gparted in Debian? Like the User/System and others are partitioned ext4 while others are just not recognized.
Why when trying to flash partitions using Fastboot, wont fastboot recognise a recovery partition. It would just say that the partition just doesn't exist. same story with boot.
[What needs help]
I would like to know why fastboot wont see flashable volumes when using the EMMC dump flashed to another spare Toshiba EMMC, it is clearly there.
I would like to know how to reconstruct a volume to fix missing ones, and the number of partitions android needs to run.
Would I be able to flash an image of my working device to a 32gb emmc and just expand the system and user partitions into that extra space?
I will appreciate all help given to assist me and others that want a working device instead of a paperweight. ogChamp: :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, I am interested but I don't have the device.
First of all:
I would be fine if I wanted to stop there, but I wanted to try to install a GSI of android 9 in place of 4.1.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can install a GSI on a 4.1.2 based device, but you can't without creating a vendor partition, GSI is a part of the Project Treble released with Oreo. It requires a vendor partition to work. On 4.1.2, there's simply no device with a partition called vendor, so you can't flash a GSI.
But, if you have a fully working Android Pie tree, you can make a vendor partition yourself.
alex39wkd said:
I was able to achieve the same, except GS dialer is not scaled correctly.
Not able to post link to image, as I don't have 10 messages.
So it is a/6aQYsz6 on imgur
Did not bother to fix it, as my intent is custom PJSIP dialer (someday
Headset sensor, led, mixer - figured out.
The only mystery is "mute" button and the red LED behind it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As you didn't mention that you couldn't share any information like the reply previous to yours, would it be possible for you to share what you used to get there?
As someone with only linux, networking and voip knowledge and that never played around with Android ROMs/ADB before, that would get me started as I can ATM only get to ADB.
Also, did you use the version of android already on the Phone or Flashed it with a new ROM?
Thank you!
jtthecanadian said:
As you didn't mention that you couldn't share any information like the reply previous to yours, would it be possible for you to share what you used to get there?
As someone with only linux, networking and voip knowledge and that never played around with Android ROMs/ADB before, that would get me started as I can ATM only get to ADB.
Also, did you use the version of android already on the Phone or Flashed it with a new ROM?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used "adb pull" (in recovery mode) to dump boot partition, just used path to it in /dev/...
Used android tools to decompress and unpack boot.
Changed ro.secure to 0 and something like "meraki usb debug" to 1
Repacked boot partition
Used adb to switch to fastboot
Flashed boot and boot2 with this image
Now it is accessable as normal Android phone, for whatever you might want to do with it.
Is anyone able to provide a working ROM for this device? I'm extremely confused about how to get this working. I would greatly appreciate any advice.