Customizing android image

I've just started to play with dual-booting android on M8 and thought I'd share some tip:

Add apps to the image
The mdroid.img is just a ext2 file system in a file. So the following command will allow you to add android packages files into the image. Note: all commands listed here have to be issued as root or sudo on a Linux machine.
* mkdir /mnt/mdroid
* mount -o loop mdroid.img /mnt/mdroid
* Then you can copy any .apk file to /mnt/mdroid/system/app
* umount
* transfer the new mdroid.img to /Disk on your M8
Worked for me OK. I installed a terminal app (the default one in the original image doesn't seem to allow input) and managed to issue some commands. Actually 'dmesg' command shows a lot of errors from I2C system. Not sure if this affect anything major.

Increase image size
You can prepare your own img file as well.
(Note: I have NOT tested the following but there is no reason it shouldn't work.)

* dd if=/dev/zero of=my.img count=4096 (replace with your size in blocks)
* mkfs.ext2 my.img
* mkdir /mnt/myimg && mount -o loop my.img /mnt/myimg
* Then copy everything from /mnt/mdroid/ over to /mnt/myimg
* umount /mnt/myimg
* Copy my.img to /Disk/mdroid.img on your M8.

Goodone Lang2!

I will try to document this with screens asap, many users will be glad with it. (or if you can document it be my guest ;-) )

Did you allready try to install someother apps aswell?
And are you been able to mount /disk from your installed terminal in android? This to use for example mp3´s/avi´s/.. ?

Hi evow04,

I've accidentally injured my left hand so can't do much typing here. By document did you mean word doc or wiki? I'd prefer keeping everything in a wiki but I did notice that there are a number of word doc around. I should be able to write a more detailed how-to after a few days. BTW, why is there 2 wikis?

I did try a few other apps and it's a bit of hit and miss. Some work (pTerminal, a paint app, etc), some does't (android file manager), and some say the trial is expired - the date on android is 2024 somehow. What's a bit interesting is that the paint app rotated the screen 90' when launched.

w.r.t disk, the 'mount' command did say that some mmc device is mounted on /mnt/disk but 'ls' replied with 'no such file or directory'. Do we know for sure the device name if it's recgonized?

And this only works on Linux operating systems? Not Windows?
I tried Pushing applications to android, but it didnt work. Is there a way to do this for windows? XP, Vista(sux), 7, idc but any?

I don't think it'll work under Windows. Easest is to create a virtual machine.

Hi lang2!

First of all; i hope your injuries get healed asap, i wish you the best!

You´re right about the "HowTo", this is information needed into a wiki instead of a .doc file, Good news is that there is been worked on.
I will send you a pm about that one

What's a bit interesting is that the paint app rotated the screen 90' when launched.

mm that is indeed interesting since this is a thing on the To-Do list

Is there a way to do this for windows?
//
Easest is to create a virtual machine.

indeed that´s freeware i thought see MS their site.
& if your pc isn´t that performant you could use Damn small linux?
(not sure if it would work with m8, but you could try?)

w.r.t disk, the 'mount' command did say that some mmc device is mounted on /mnt/disk but 'ls' replied with 'no such file or directory'. Do we know for sure the device name if it's recgonized?

Mm it could be that it refers to the .img file. (not even sure if under android we could easily mount ntfs/fat/32)

What happens if you type df -l?
Normally we should see an overview of all drives and their partitions?

@evow04

pm received. Will tried to add sth to the wiki in the coming days. I'll try a few things as well such as mounting the Disk partition. The problem is: there are too many things to do and too little free time.

thah, i can only agree :-)
i wish you the best ;-)

Added link to this post.

The same technique would work with the new system.img