Porting CWM to the Edge

[vicinc]

went quiet here. I think the point in not necessary to create a cwm mode but a kind of recovery that we can access from android or from boot (either using a key press command or not) that will enable us to experiment than reflash a good image if we bork.

[nikkie]

Originally Posted by vicinc

went quiet here. I think the point in not necessary to create a cwm mode but a kind of recovery that we can access from android or from boot (either using a key press command or not) that will enable us to experiment than reflash a good image if we bork.

I've just been a bit busy - I have no intention of giving up.

[vicinc]

thanks

[pablob]

Originally Posted by nikkie

I just realized. This device already has a backup kernel. There's no need to port clockwork mod unless we really want - we really just need to hack the existing updater application to reflash with whatever we have. There's ALREADY an additional kernel available to run things, the maintenance kernel. So I think as a first step, tomorrow, I'm going to start looking through the source to find the updater code (if they open sourced that bit), and then see if we can just use that to see if we can hack that kernel into a clockwork style interface.

From my dissection of the Dingo update.zip file, it is not really a backup kernel, but a backup initrd (which has a more complete Linux system than the usually running one), but there is a chance I have missed something (I am new to Android, not to Linux-based systems).

My impression is that as long as the kernel image, u-boot, and the maintenance ramdisk are untouched it should always be possible to get into "flashing mode" and flash the golden update to fix things.

If u-boot gets borked, it is a SOL situation. If the kernel or maintenance ramdisk get borked, it might be possible to make u-boot load a kernel and/or ramdisk from SD. However, that might require building a u-boot that will work with the device and that seems way too complicated (at least to me) without sources (maybe the u-boot in the device allows that, that I don't know, u-boot is also new to me).

Is my appreciation correct? Do you have any other ideas?

By the way, I have no idea how the ClockWordMod recovery works, so maybe I am off-base... :-)

[pablob]

Originally Posted by nikkie

/bin/updater on the device is just a shell script?

I guess. When you look at the maintenance ramdisk, if the update command is given in the kernel command line, the init script searches for and unzips the update.zip file and finally passes control to the update.sh file from there.

I've read the Android system in the eDGe is non-standard, but it feels quite "linuxy", so it might be nicer (i.e. more hackable) than stock Android in that sense... :-)

[nikkie]

Hi folks, I have some ideas, but I'd like to chat a bit about them. I'm hanging out on irc.freenode.net in #mobileread-developers. If you're interested, come join me.

[vicinc]

the unit can be recovered via tftp if uboot is untouched. this is where i went.

[nikkie]

Originally Posted by vicinc

the unit can be recovered via tftp if uboot is untouched. this is where i went.

Right. But we're looking more to get a real android recovery partition going.

[vicinc]

would that touch the uboot?

[vicinc]

btw I tested the pablob golden ermine with the new partitioning is working flawlessly. updated to all mine and gapps, no probs.

[pablob]

Originally Posted by vicinc

btw I tested the pablob golden ermine with the new partitioning is working flawlessly. updated to all mine and gapps, no probs.

It's good to know it worked for someone else!

I have started to think that one of the most practical ways to do recovery would be to get u-boot to boot from the SD card, and make a SD-card-based recovery image.

Advantages:

• No need to change the mtd device mappings in the device.
• Robust, it would only stop working if u-boot stops working (it would not depend on the flaky NAND of these devices)
• As a side effect, implementation of this might also allow for booting alternate systems from SD.

Disadvantages:

• It would require an SD card (but most people use their Edge with one., so that won't be a problem).
• Requires that someone finds a way to enable SD booting from u-boot, which might not be hard or might requiring recompiling u-boot (which would make things quite hard, if not impossible).

It would be nice to have a framebuffer-enabled console for the system's kernel, that would make life easier as it would allow to use a shell-based script to manage recovery.

[vicinc]

I think you need to look at sheeva plug and developments for it. our device has similar board cpu and file system.
http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwoo...g/install.html
not sure if this works on ours:
setenv bootargs_console console=ttyS0,115200
setenv bootcmd_mmc 'mmc init; ext2load mmc 0:1 0x00800000 /uImage; ext2load mmc 0:1 0x01100000 /uInitrd'
setenv bootcmd 'setenv bootargs $(bootargs_console); run bootcmd_mmc; bootm 0x00800000 0x01100000'
saveenv

obviously different offsets. but you may get away from not changing the uboot?

[vicinc]

BTW I just notices after using your golden, than update to Allmine+Gapps I have apps missing from market like Dolphin, Dolphin Mini and much more others.
used to have them ok on old allmine from dingogolden>ermine>gapps update. not sure has to do with your update or something to do with a market.
but your setup seems very snappier and faster running 2 units with allmine one with yours partitioning and the other on standard, yours is faster really.

[Gerrye]

Where is the pablob golden ermine update located? Could you put up a link and update instructions? I couldn't find it using search.

Thanks,

Originally Posted by pablob

It's good to know it worked for someone else!

I have started to think that one of the most practical ways to do recovery would be to get u-boot to boot from the SD card, and make a SD-card-based recovery image.

Advantages:

• No need to change the mtd device mappings in the device.
• Robust, it would only stop working if u-boot stops working (it would not depend on the flaky NAND of these devices)
• As a side effect, implementation of this might also allow for booting alternate systems from SD.

Disadvantages:

• It would require an SD card (but most people use their Edge with one., so that won't be a problem).
• Requires that someone finds a way to enable SD booting from u-boot, which might not be hard or might requiring recompiling u-boot (which would make things quite hard, if not impossible).

It would be nice to have a framebuffer-enabled console for the system's kernel, that would make life easier as it would allow to use a shell-based script to manage recovery.

[pablob]

Originally Posted by Gerrye

Where is the pablob golden ermine update located? Could you put up a link and update instructions? I couldn't find it using search.

Thanks,

Look for the thread titled "Golden Ermine update".
It should have some recent activity.