[HowTo] build / boot a linux kernel on M8

we definitly have a sounddriver loaded in bills kernel (see the bootlogs)
And we hear a noise fromt he speaker. I had an android alarm going. So if you are using the right kernel, there should be sound.
Just have a look at dmesg.

btw im really glad that someone it going into this id love to have someone to discuss problems because seeing something from other sides might help find problems one cant see.

I will pack and upload my nfsroot this evening along with my kernel config.

Originally Posted by r3wDy

im really glad that someone it going into this

you are not alone :-)

we definitly have a sounddriver loaded in bills kernel
...
I had an android alarm going
...
it does say we have "running sound support (more or less)". hmmmm

Also on the SE you have some noise when playing sound, but you will need to listen very carefully.

Got a dual-boot image (images maybe) that I can mount the moviNand to /sdcard as well.

Great job!

At this stage, I'm beginning to think that it's impossible to dual-boot Android and WinCE and share the same VFAT disk. Probably a Linux partition is the only way to get Android working.

indeed, that is something i pointed ou in the past in the porting topic.
it is a real pain in the ass that you are loading it from the same vfat.
We should manage to partition the movinand in 2 part, 1 vfat from about a 200 mb for androdi, and all the rest for the wince.
I will have a look to a solution to do this later today (problably in the evening since i am working late this week & it is a snowstorm atm, so need to get somehow at work :s )
With some luck we can use the tools found in de windows directory:-)
But when repartitioning the best way to go is test it on a m8fe since there we got for sure a serial port, so if something gets fucked up we can repair it.

If anybody is interested in trying/playing, I can upload howto, images (dualboot with the latest firmware).

I am interested, i am sure other people to but they focus more on the new FW :-)
What packages are changed? the android image or tinyloader/zimage?
I think it would be fair enough to add the download links as a rc 4 build?
But before uploading it would be a good idea to add ethernet through usb support? this to be able to browse through the usb cable and thus using the appstore ? :P

Maybe we better continue this coversation in the porting topic to avoid loss of information?
(i was going to update it too )

thanks again guys.

i would like if you could write a small howto on this. On my m8, i already made a ext2 partition for android (can see it under linux )
and i could try to install andoid there. But i just dont know how :D

I also would like to see a small how to from lang2 how he did it :-)

Originally Posted by r3wDy

On my m8, i already made a ext2 partition for android (can see it under linux )

I presume you adapted this whilest running a kernel on m8 or?
Would be interested to know how you did it.

Originally Posted by r3wDy

and i could try to install andoid there. But i just dont know how :D

r3wdy, maybe this could help? See the part where they copy over the data to the memory card.

Posting an image with sd mount would give life back to android!
Please post it! I would like to install android and play a video for instance.
Can we also install apps?

I´m sure that if lang2 shares his package that can do this, the android topic gets flooded again :-)

to add ethernet through usb support?

quote of myself, about the ethernet/ip over usb, looked it up again we would need usbnet but hat needs a kernel recompile.
I found a more easier way, but not sure if it would work:

Code:

Yes, you can use the USB to browse the web...

You need to do three things to enable the internet.


1. First make sure that network forwarding is working on the computer
that the phone is connected to.

2. Add the default route to the phone:

Code: Select all
    route add default gw 192.168.0.200 dev usb0


3. Add the dns for proper name resolution

Code: Select all
    setprop net.dns1 192.168.0.200



You should be able to ping the computer the phone is connected to:

Code: Select all
    ping 192.168.0.200


You should also be able to ping IP addresses outside of that subnet if
the route has been set up properly.

The route can be verified by:

Code: Select all
    cat /proc/net/route

---

Maybe one could try (myself not running dualboot atm). Would be usefull if installing apps would work to connect to the android market to install apps/games.

I'm uploading what I have right now to mediafire. Will post link when it finishes. There are two files: xip.bin and system.img. xip.bin is a dualboot image with the latest 9.6.12 meizu firmware. To use:
1. upgrade with the xip.bin
2. copy the system.img to /Disk
3. reboot into mdroid.

As I said, it doesn't do much really although the system does know there is external media.

Please DO NOT RC this yet. Given that there are some interest towards this, I might spend a bit time to see if I can go any further.

@LVL: yes you can install apps. There are two ways to do this:
1. install Android SDK and use 'adb push'
2. insert apps into the system.img file. See my other post http://www.meizume.com/modding-devel...oid-image.html.

Actually does someone know the version of Android used in banxian's image? 1.5, 1.6?

@r3wdy
How did you partition your M8? Did you create a p6 after p5? If this is safe to do, it might be the easiest solution.

As soon as I can access the wiki page, I'll post more detailed instruction as to how to build such a image: zImage basically, system.img is just the prebuilt system.img from Android SDK bundled up in ext2 format.

It's been fun and educational hacking the M8 so far. So long as the fun continues, I'll keep poking around.

OK. The upload failed after about 2 hours.
It'll have to be tomorrow.

just took a parition tool and created one (in windows).
Had to do last evening, will upload kernel and rootfs this evening (i hope)

Here are the links:
system.zip
xip-dualboot.zip
Have fun!

Originally Posted by lang2

Actually does someone know the version of Android used in banxian's image? 1.5, 1.6?

system.img is just the prebuilt system.img from Android SDK bundled up in ext2 format.

It´s android cupcake, so meaning it is android 1.5 :-)
When you would have a look in the porting topic you will find in my last post some clou´s i got from bill on how to create an android 2.1 package with kernel 27 ( also from bill) & What do you exact mean with bundled up? cause i would like to try the image from 2.1 :P

Please DO NOT RC this yet.

In my opninion any major update is an RC class worth ;-)
but maybe you´re right. adding a real partition where android img can be installed, then running android 2.1 in dualboot would be more interesting since it is not a workaround on a workaround..?

I might spend a bit time to see if I can go any further.

please do! It is nice to see that there is a bit progress again :-)

I'll post more detailed instruction as to how to

thanks, how more it is document the better it will become to maintain all this when new android versions or other get released :-)

just took a parition tool and created one (in windows).

So did you partition it on the end or the beginning and what fs did you use?

edit : lang2, did you change the loader + img? I mean do i need to update them both to be usefull?

The xip.bin I uploaded contain the bootloader, which is same as error: I didn't change it. The system.img is not the same as mdroid.img from banxian though. It's not the complete image as the init part is now an initramfs. Also it's 1.6

I did it at the end. i just resized the parition (smaller 250mb i think) and created an et2 there. was no big deal at all.
So the kernel should have a small initramfs and then it should mount the filesystem on this parition.

For the usb ethernet: bills kernel has this support already included. i just used it

Also it's 1.6

woopsie, why isn´t it worth to be called an rc :P
It´s one version newer :D

I added your links to the wiki and first post of the porting topic as a bugfix release, this for keeping track on it:-)

I did it at the end. i just resized the parition

cool might try it this weekend!

For the usb ethernet: bills kernel has this support already included. i just used it

err.. what? :D did the browser work? Or didn´t you test it yet? :-)

edit:
really dumb question; creating a new partition where i would dump the .img would still boot android ? (i would think not but ..)
edit 2:
back on the serial cable, i read on page 25 that banxian suspected the serial pinout on FE & SE should be the same, i´m rereading it all to make sure.

Originally Posted by evow04

really dumb question; creating a new partition where i would dump the .img would still boot android ? (i would think not but ..)
.

Short answer to your question. No . If you want to try 2.1, you need to convert the system.img in the SDK (which is yaffs2) into ext2 image and overwrite the one I uploaded. Should work

So here is little howto for building dual-boot compatible kernel (and Android
image).

The way it worked with banxian's image is:
- mdroid.img has the compete android tree.
- kernel boots a minimal into busybox system, which
+ mount Disk partition
+ mount Disk/mdroid.img to newroot
+ chroot to newroot

As a result, the Disk which was accessible on the old root are gone. So the idea
of my work is to avoid choort/switchroot. Here is how:

You need:
- an installation of android sdk (1.6 in my case)
- busybox (1.15.2)
- toolchain (arm-none-linux-gnueabi available from CodeSourcery)
- unyaffs from unyaffs - Project Hosting on Google Code

1. Create kernel zImage with initramfs
- Unpack ramdisk.img from SDK/platforms/android-1.6/images/ramdisk.img. It's a
gzipped cpio image to somewhere. E.g. rd
- compile busybox as a static ARM binary. Install locally under the rd
directory under rd/_bin
- cd rd
- mv init init.real
- create an init shell script looks like the following
- Modify init.rc to
- remove the /sdcard stuff
- remove mounting of /system and /data
- make zImage
2. Prepare system.img
- unyaffs system.img
- dd if=/dev/zero of=newsystem.img count=20000 (the size maybe wrong)
- mkfs.ext2 newsystem.img
- mount newsystem.img /mnt/system
- copy the content of system.img to /mnt/system
- umount /mnt/system
3. Create dualboot xip.bin with the above initramfs and stock xip.bin of your
choice. Take the existing TinyLoader.exe.
4. Copy newsystem.img to /Disk
5. Upgrade and reboot. That's it.

I'll update wiki with link to this post.

thanks, that was very usefull!
I will add a page in the wiki to add this info on to it if you´d like?

Originally Posted by evow04

thanks, that was very usefull!
I will add a page in the wiki to add this info on to it if you´d like?

Of course.

Done, just need to take some time to clean it up so it looks more nice:P

Added link to init script on wiki.