So, I'm building my very first LineageOS 15.1 ROM with the files I got from Stock Android 7.1.1. I don't have a phone to test it yet, so I decided to collect some info to improve it.
My device has a chipset MSM8937. The latest Android version was 7.1.1 by the time I started to mess with the Lineage, now they released 8.1 for the device.
1- If I want to build LOS16.0, am I supposed to replace the proprietary files with a device with LineageOS 16 and same chipset's proprietary files?
2- What kind of changes I have to make when using files of a lower Android version to make a higher Android version?
Thanks in advance. :fingers-crossed:
Related
Hello!
I have been following annual Google I/O 2017 and heard about all the benefits of Google's Project Treble.
I cannot help but wonder how are developers (for example here at XDA) able to create custom roms or unofficial Android updates. Why Google can't make official Android Nougat update for Nexus 7 2013, but you here at XDA can. What is different between your work and Google's when it comes to these things, as far as neither has access to hardware manufacturer's code support.
I have to say I am not a professional software developer, so I understand if this topic is beyond my comprehension.
Thank you!
"Why Google can't make official Android Nougat update for Nexus 7 2013"
Planned obsolescence.
"neither has access to hardware manufacturer's code support"
Google is obliged to release kernel source code because Linux(the kernel powering Android) is released under the GPL. The kernel is responsible for letting Android "talk" to the hardware. Developers at XDA can then modify the open-source kernel to "fit" newer versions of Android.
I'd like to chime in on this.
Let's use the Nexus 7 2013 as an example. The difference between what an official build of Nougat from Google would be and what a build of Nougat from XDA is that the Google released one will have updated devices drivers that are made specifically for Nougat, while the XDA released one simply uses the older device drivers and hope they work. In some cases they work flawlessly (mostly on Nexus devices), however other times there are things that don't work so they either need to be disabled or worked around. So essentially a Google released OS has everything updated and tested to work with the new OS, while XDA releases are more 'hacked' together to work (simply because the device drivers aren't Open Source). Google may not have access to the hardware drivers, but they still get them updated.
Now let's touch on Project Treble (and why I am so excited about it). Instead of each and every device driver needing to be upgraded and tested for each new OS version, the OS version will specify which version of the drivers (HAL's) will work with the OS. This means there will be a separate space where all the device drivers will reside, and the OS will simply load those when booting (no more proprietary binary blobs to include in the ROM! hopefully...).
This means on any Project Treble compatible device (all phones that ship with Oreo, and some that update to Oreo) with an unlocked bootloader, a user can simply compile AOSP and flash it directly to the device with no modifications and have the device work. I believe this is actually a requirement to pass Google's certification process for new devices with Oreo. That means, say, with the LG v30 if the bootloader is unlocked, there can be an AOSP ROM on day one of its release.
So instead of Android being strictly a per device compile, it is just a general compile (sans device specific features). However, this doesn't remove the old driver issue. If the drivers in their respective partition no longer are updated by the manufacturer, the later AOSP code will need to be modified to work around these (and accept them). This is still easier in my opinion than the binary blobs.
As for official updates, Project Treble allows device hardware manufacturers to work on updating the device drivers while the OS Dev (Samsung, etc) works on updating their OS. So it is a parallel development instead of a serial one (hardware AND os instead of hardware THEN os).
A question.
Do the Nexus 5X devices have the Treble system or project incorporated with Oreo?
I do not understand the other manufacturers that cheaper excuses are giving, it is true that they are not obliged but I think it would be good practice, maybe they think as before that you will not buy them a phone.
Does someone make a Change.org or similar campaign to ask all Android manufacturers to make a minimum effort?
I am new in android rom development, but I am very experienced in object-oriented languages, especially Java, so I thought I can check it out. I have a Nexus 5. I have followed AOSP guide (I've synchronised whole android repo). I want to build Android 8.1.0 for my Nexus 5, but I need drivers, right? On google driver binaries there ARE Nexus 5 drivers, but only for android 6.0.1 and below.
My question is: Can I use these drivers (for 6.0.1) with android 8.1.0? If not, How much changes will i need to make?
If you know any good tutorial for porting device drivers, please include the link.
Thanks for every answer, tip or advice
EDIT: Oreo is on project treble, right? So if I contact the guy who made 8.0.0 rom for Nexus 5 and get the drivers from him, can I use them with 8.1.0?
Hi, I just set up a build environment to be able to compile LineageOS from source for my Galaxy S3 (I know it's an old device, but I'll move over to a Galaxy S4 as soon as the replacement screen comes in the mail). I followed the official instructions on LOS's website for my particular device, without knowing I wouldn't be able to build the latest version (15.1 at this point in time) because they only support 14.1 for the Galaxy S3. So my question is: is there a way I can "port" a newer version of lineageos, in this case, 15.1 to a device that is already supported by 14.1? If so how? I'm new to the rom building community and I've always relied on other people's builds but I want to move on to building my own, that implies that I have some basic knowledge of linux commands and computers in general, but if you could point me to a comprehensive tutorial or just write instructions on how to do it
FYI I'm using Google Compute Engine's VM through SSH to build but I can also free up some space on my physical machine's SSD and build from there if that's easier.
Thanks.
As there is no interest nor popularity on this device to stimulate a healthy developer community, I have decided to look into ROM building and what is required. I have followed this three part video in explaining how to build Lineage OS from source to a device. I have made it to part two where I download the Lineage OS source code to my Linux work-space. Where I get stuck is adding the source to the ROM. The question now is How do I attach the Lineage OS source code to the kernel source code for this device?
Information sources...
Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZmjOlUq_3c&t=1s
Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGI3NSJFtKA
Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJCgOHtli64&t=153s
Current Kernel source code from Asus https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Phone/ZenFone-4-ZE554KL/HelpDesk_Download/
Just ordered one. I've never built Lineage OS either, but maybe we can work together to figure it out.
I have the lineage OS sorce code ready to compile on my system. I just need to know how to add the nesary kernel with it. Any ideas?
Any progress?
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Nope! Unless you have anything to contribute.
someaguy said:
As there is no interest nor popularity on this device to stimulate a healthy developer community, I have decided to look into ROM building and what is required. I have followed this three part video in explaining how to build Lineage OS from source to a device. I have made it to part two where I download the Lineage OS source code to my Linux work-space. Where I get stuck is adding the source to the ROM. The question now is How do I attach the Lineage OS source code to the kernel source code for this device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also looked into building Lineage, seems like it's going to be more than I'm willing to commit to, so I'll share what I found in hopes that it will help you or anyone else move forward with this.
I found this restored CM wiki page on the subject: fat-tire.github.io/porting-intro.html (Sorry, can't make it clickable since I'm new)
The gist seems to be that you need to make three directories in the lineage source (note z01kd appears to be the codename for the Zenfone 4 based on the build.prop file I pulled from my phone)
device/asus/z01kd - Device file tree
kernel/asus/z01kd - Kernel
vendor/asus/z01kd - Proprietary blobs
In the above CM guide, it says to use ./build/tools/device/mkvendor.sh to generate the Device file tree from a boot.img file extracted from an update.zip (from Asus) or extracted from the phone, but that didn't work with the version I was trying to do (15.1), mkvendor.sh wasn't there at all. So I explored option #2 which was to fork an existing device file tree repo from a similar device and tweak it for the device you want to port and I found that the Zenfone Max Pro M1 (X00TD) (github.com/LineageOS/android_device_asus_X00TD) is the closest lineage supported device that we could copy from (at least that I could find). It looks like you might even be able to use the same kernel as that device (github.com/LineageOS/android_kernel_asus_sdm660) because the SOCs are pretty close (Snapdragon 630 vs Snapdragon 636), but you may need to use the stock kernel that you linked to in your original post, not sure.
There's a part in the lineage docs about building from source (only for supported devices) (wiki.lineageos.org/devices/X00TD/build#extract-proprietary-blobs) about extracting proprietary blobs (wiki.lineageos.org/extracting_blobs_from_zips.html) for the vendor/asus/z01kd folder. It said that you could use a lineage update.zip, but I was able to do it with the Asus update.zip. Don't know if that will work or not, but it seems like the only option since the Zenfone 4 doesn't have a lineage update.zip to pull proprietary blobs from.
And that's about as far as I got
Once you have those three folders set up and properly configured you should in theory be able to build it.
Update 9/3/2018
I just found the device file tree and kernel for Zenfone 4 that @shakalaca used to build TWRP. Looks like there are some different naming conventions from what lineage would expect (omni_Z01K.mk vs lineage.mk), but a lot of the stuff looks to be the same (eg BoardConfig.mk) and the files that do have a different name look like they're roughly equivalent.
github.com/TeamWin/android_device_asus_Z01K - Zenfone 4 TWRP device file tree
github.com/shakalaca/android_kernel_asus_ze554kl - Zenfone 4 TWRP kernel
Between these and the above X00TD device file tree and kernel links, we should be able to get pretty close to a working config.
What if you compile what you have and see if it boots on your device?
someaguy said:
What if you compile what you have and see if it boots on your device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry...I already deleted the environment I had set up, to reclaim the 50+ GB of disk space.
If it's any consolation, I never made it far enough for it to build successfully.
I am trying to build Lineage OS too
In this guide(https://forum.xda-developers.com/chef-central/android/guide-android-rom-development-t2814763)
It says we need three files(device tree,kernel,vendor) to build it.
We have kernel and device tree from github(https://github.com/TeamWin/android_device_asus_Z01K)
but we still need vendor from our device,and the commend under this guide(https://www.isthnew.com/archives/build-lineageos.html) says that we can get vendor files by running "extract-files.sh".
But where can we find that?
(Sorry for my bad English
rol.
try to look here.https://forum.xda-developers.com/pr.../tool-capire-le-treble-terble-vendor-t3774629
I have tried that CLT project,but it didn't work
Maybe use this?
https://forum.xda-developers.com/axon-7/development/tool-party-v0-1-vendor-partition-t3831517
I would like to develop a custom ROM for my device. I read some guides and obtained some basic knowledge, but still don't know how to start. So I would like to ask some questions to test my knowledge and expand them.
My device: Wiko View
My Android version (actually installed): 7.1.2 almost pure Android (just some third-party apps)
Desired Android version: AOSP 9.0 (maybe?)
So as far as I know I need these things:
AOSP Source Code (9.0)
Kernel
Vendor (tree or blobs?)
Device tree
So for the AOSP: I can get it from the repo hosted by Google. How should it look once downloaded?
For the kernel: should I use that from my actual ROM, or the most recent one? And how to include it in my ROM before compiling?
For the Vendor: As far as I read, with project treble I shouldn't edit this. But since I'm not developing a treble ROM, I'm in troubles, right? In older ROMs (before Oreo and Treble), they're stored in /system/vendor. Is just that folder or are there more? Do I need to update something? Where do I need to put this folder?
For the device tree: I read some guides that explains how to extract it from ROM (only from 5.0 and up, since mine is 7.1 no problems, I hope). Is this right or are there other ways? Or do I need to write it myself?
I'm going to thanks anyone in advance. I know there are plenty of questions, but I hope this thread will be a place for begginer (like me) to know more about compiling from source a ROM. Have a great day!