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My Own Optimized ROM for G1 based on Cyanogen’s kernel

Sep 25

Posted by Krishnendu in My G1 - Android | No Comments

Hey, I created my Own ROM with selected application and Graphics and with many tweaks to make it faster based on Cyanogen’s kernel and Soulfire Roger Remix .

Please check attached screenshots  from my G1 :-)

Features:

=======

  • Built with Cyanogen’s kernel and “boot.img” (4.0.4)
    * UNIVERSAL! Runs on both Dream and Magic 32B
    * Does not require “DangerSPL”
    * Now identifies itself as either T-Mobile G1 or myTouch
    * Enhanced ramdisk which uses optimal mount options and smart startup
    * Includes E2FSProgs for checking and converting Ext filesystems
    * Apps2SD is automatic! All you need is a second partition (ext).
    * Includes script to upgrade to ext3
    * Supports ext2/ext3/ext4 for Apps2SD
    * Clean filesystem shutdown at poweroff/reboot, and fsck at boot (no FS corruption!)
    * Highly optimized kernel with many extra modules
    * Maximum CPU scaling frequency set to 528MHz with latency tweaks
    * Runs /system/sd/userinit.sh after A2SD setup and before starting the runtime for user scripts
    * Compcache 0.6 enabled by default (if no userinit is present)
    * Linux cgroups for better app prioritization
  • Optimized with JF build environment (us)
  • Updated busybox
  • Newest Google Maps app
  • “English – United States” comes up in locale
  • fix_permissions in bin (its called “fixperm” in this build)
  • rwsystem and rosystem in bin (so you dont have to type “busybox mount -o rw,remount /system” to modify something)
  • changed a font that was bout 2mb bigger than normal
  • added powertop, htop, and some other stuff
  • added Browser enhancements from loccy
  • added MMS enhancements from rgv151
  • added OpenOBEX commandline tools ported by Erin Yueh
  • added terminal
  • added spareparts
  • added ion’s libhtc_ril.so (for 3G icon instead of H, HD quality in youtube)
  • added launcher in portrait mode has 5 x 4 icons, in landscape mode it has 6×3 icons
  • added allow protected downloads
  • added reboot function that works
  • added haykuro’s apn list with updated apns
  • added man(ual) pages to bin (ex: man ls, man cp, etc.. in terminal to study busybox commands)
  • added voice search
  • removed all roger apps
  • removed Chinese ime
  • removed all foreign keyboard layouts
  • removed all but needed ringtones, alarms, notifications.
  • removed all but needed wallpapers.
  • fixed sms/mms issues (led’s/missing txt’s)
  • optimized all png’s to cut down on size
  • re-compressed most apk’s to cut down on size
  • Extra Clocks including Digital Clocks
  • Call Blocking
  • Swapiness 60
  • dgCut application inbuild for enhanced shourtcuts on home screen

If you need that ROM, please let me know so I will upload it for you. Yes, it is FAST :-D

Formatting your microSD card and make partitions including Swap

Sep 18

Posted by Krishnendu in My G1 - Android | No Comments

WARNING!!! this will reformat you entire microSD card!! So, take backup before proceeding with the steps.

You can use the recovery console by pressing Home + Power when powering up your G1.

If you have “Terminal Emulator” installed , you can also use that. We will make 32 MB swap here in these tutorial.

Example for 8GB card (this example plays it safe and will leave a small amount leftover regardless of the 8GB card)

Reboot and enter recovery
Enter console
#parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
#print (to verfiy we know what size card we are dealing with, the details should be straight forward)
rm 1
rm 2
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 7200
mkpartfs primary ext2 7200 7700
mkpartfs primary linux-swap 7700 7732

#print (to verify we have the 3 partitions)

Example for my 4GB card

#parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
#print (to verfiy we know what size card we are dealing with, the details should be straight forward)
rm 1
rm 2
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 3420
mkpartfs primary ext2 3420 3932
mkpartfs primary linux-swap 3932-3964

Example for a 2GB card playing it safe
#parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
#print (to verfiy we know what size card we are dealing with, the details should be straight forward)
rm 1
rm 2
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 1200
mkpartfs primary ext2 1200 1700
mkpartfs primary linux-swap 1700-1732

“End?” you need to place the last value for the linux swap eg.3964 for my 4GB card

#print (to verify we have the 3 partitions)

Next we need to “quit” parted and upgrade our ext2 partition to ext3

#upgrade_fs

Swap value is set to 30 currently, you can change this by modifying the “echo” value for swappiness using swapper application available in the Market for free.

Soon will publish more on G1. :-) Hold tight till then…..

Changing Google G1 keyboard layout to qwerty (US) to qwertz (UK)

Sep 17

Posted by Krishnendu in My G1 - Android | No Comments

android-developers

Next issue after updating my T-Mobile UK phone. Most ROMs are available for mainly US keyboard layout ( qwerty ), but unluckily my keyboard layout is UK ( qwertz )  – after updating, it started working funny. Whenever I am typing Z, it was printing Y and vice -versa . So, I started to check /system folder for the solution. The file with keyboard character type placed under /system/user/keychars/ and the name of the file is trout-keypad-v3.kcm.bin . So, searched and found that keyboard layout and then replaced the present file of USqwerty keypad with it to make it qwertz layout. Bydefault, /system folder is read-only. So, follow the procedure written below, before that copy keyboard layout file after downloading it from following URL

http://kewlshare.com/dl/33e5be5db589/UKkeypad.zip.html

1) Power of the mobile.

2) If you followed my previous post for rooting G1, you already have cyanogen recovery installed on your phone. So, press Home + Power to start your phone  in recovery mode.

3) Choose last option, “Go to Console”

4) type following

mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

cd /system/usr/keychars/

dd if=/sdcard/trout-keypad-v3.kcm.bin of=trout-keypad-v3.kcm.bin

reboot

And voila … you are done :-) keypad will work as it was before rooting/putting US roms in it.

More laterz buddies.

Next time will be with step-by-step tutorial to making partitions on your MicroSD card including swap, which is suggested by most ROMs for Google G1.

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Rooting my Google G1 / HTC Dream – T-Mobile UK Edition

Sep 17

Posted by Krishnendu in My G1 - Android | No Comments

g1-1

Guys, as I shared before – I ownz a G1 now, after many experiments I finally cracked it and got the root. 1st let me give you my mobile spec, I think it will be commonly same if you are buying in India.

My Google G1, it is made in Singapore, made for T-Mobile UK. So, details goes as follows.

Build : R9

( Leaving here the version for Radio and SPL – as you have to update it whenever rooting is done. )

Yep, here the step by step procedure now.

1st I tried to break it in common ways as defined by many forum,  but it failed for singapore made G1.

So, my procedure as follows.

If you have US-RC30/UK-RC8 or higher, you will first need to downgrade your phone to a previous version. (Skip these steps otherwise)

1) Format your phone’s microSD card to FAT32 mode from your computer.

Don’t have a card reader ? No issues, check following steps

  • Hook your phone up to your computer using a USB cable and then wait for the notification to show up in your title bar of your phone.
  • Click the notification, and then click “Mount”.
  • A new removable disk should show up on your computer. Right click it and select Format, and select FAT32 as the file system type.

2) Download and unzip the RC29 or RC7 image file. Copy the DREAIMG.nbh file to the microSD card. (RC29 for US, RC7 is for UK)

3) Turn the device power off.

4) Hold Camera button, and press Power button to entry bootloader mode. You should see a gray/white screen with instructions to flash your phone with the update on your SD card. If you don’t see that, make sure you followed the instructions properly.

5) As per the on-screen instructions, press the Power button to start upgrade procedure. DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO INTERRUPT THIS PROCESS.

6) After it is finished, perform the restart your phone.

But if after process number 5, there is no update screen – and giving a error like 00028002 not allow fast – then going to Rainbow mode and showing Serial0 – don’t panic – it happen same with my mobile too :-)

If it is showing that error – there is good chance that device made in Singapore. So you have to tweak your procedure for rooting. You need to make a gold image card.

For that – you need following

1) Download QMAT from – http://revskills.de/pages/download.html

2) Format your microSD card to FAT32.

3) If you have money / not confident technically then buy QMAT and follow process (a)-(g)  if you have a Windows Mobile phone with MicroSD slot, or follow process (A)-(Z) if you technically confident and don’t have a Windows Mobile with microSD slot.

(a) Connect your windows mobile with the microSD in it and start QMAT and select Hardware Forensics -> Generate HTC Goldcard

(b) Select Dream from the list of devices, Click “Get SD Card Serial from WINCE Device” and then “Save Goldcard Image to WINCE SD”.

(c) Then follow process from 2).

or

(A) Launch the Market App, Search for Terminal Emulator and install it.

(B) Launch Terminal Emulator.

(C) Enter the following:

cd /sys/class/mmc_host/mmc1:*

(where * should 1234. I’ve tried other SD cards including the Transcend 1GB came with the phone, might not work if listed like mmc1:001 or mmc1:002)

cat cid

(Write down the whole string Example: 02544d5107943247039c7d22bd002653)

(D) Start QMAT

(E) Click on Cyptoanalysis Tools > Crypto Toolbox

(F) Look way below, there is a text box (beside “Reverse String” button. Key in the cid number you’ve got earlier

Click on the “Reverse String” button, the result is reversed…
Example: 532600bd227d9c0347329407514d5402

(G) Copy the reversed cid

(H) Go to QMAT again http://revskills.de/pages/goldcard.html to generate your goldcard (this is free for G1 phone )

(I) Enter your email. For the CID, enter the reversed cid you’ve got earlier. However you need to replace the first 2 characters to 00.

Example: From “532600bd227d9c0347329407514d5402” to “002600bd227d9c0347329407514d5402”

(J) click Continue and you will receive the goldcard.img via your email.

(K) Go to your email, download the goldcard.img and save it to a directory first.
(L) Now, download HxD Hex Editor for this site

http://download.cnet.com/HxD-Hex-Editor/3000-2352-10891068.html?part=dl-HxDHexEdi&subj=uo&tag=button

(M) Install and launch HxD Hex Editor program
(N) Go to Extra tab > Open Disk. Under Physical disk, select Removable Disk (Must be your SD card), uncheck “Open as Readonly), click OK.
(O) Go to Extra again, Open Disk Image, open up goldcard.img which you’ve saved to a directory earlier.
Now, you should have two tabs, one is your removable disk, the other is goldcard.img. Press OK when prompted for “Sector Size” 512 (Hard disks/Floppy disks), click OK.
(P) Click on goldcard.img tab. Go to Edit tab > Select All, edit tab again > copy.
(Q) Click on the “removable disk” tab. Select offset 00000000 till offset 00000170, click on Edit tab and then Paste Write.
(R) Click on File > Save. You may exit this program

Now, do a test to see if your SD card is “compatible”

Disconnect the USB cable connected to your SD card, then plug it back again. Go to My Computer, you will see your SD card (E.g. “Removable Disk ( F:)” ), double click and see if you can access it. If it prompted you to format, then forget about this SD card, don’t think it will work. For lucky me, my 2 GB Sandisk micro SD card worked well.

(J) Now go back to process 2) and start rooting.

After process 6), your phone is rootable now. Start from next step to get the root.

Rooting your RC29/RC7 or lower phone:
On RC29/RC7 phones and lower, anything you type into your keyboard is also being run in a hidden console with root permissions. More information regarding that at the bottom of this post. But, to get root access, do the following:

Instructions:

1. Download recovery.img and copy it to your SD card (see the previous instructions on how to copy from your computer to your Phone’s SD card).
2. Download the Hard SPL and copy the zip file to the SD card.
3. All files must be on the root of your SD card.
4. Restart your phone. Wait for your phone to start up fully and show the home screen.
5. After your phone starts up, hit the enter key twice, type “telnetd” and press enter. (Yes, it will start up a contact search, don’t worry. Just type it.)
6. Download an Android “Telnet” application from the Market and connect to localhost.
7. If you connect successfully, you will have a root prompt “#”.
8. Type the following into Telnet (these commands will give you root access easier in the future):
* mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
* cd sdcard
* flash_image recovery recovery.img
* cat recovery.img > /system/recovery.img

Now you have root!

Next you need to update your Radio and SPL version to make it stable.

1. Check if you have a PVT or DVT board

a. Power off your phone and enter bootloader (Camera + Power)
b. Check look at the top and see if it says PVT of DVT

2. If you have a DVT board YOU CANNOT CONTINUE BECAUSE THIS WILL BRICK YOUR PHONE!

3. For all you luck PVT board people Download the following:

OTA Radio Update – HERE
Danger SPL – HERE

4. Rename ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip to Radio.zip. Rename spl-signed.zip to SPL.zip.

5. Place the 3 renamed files at the ROOT of your SD Card

6. Enter Recovery (Home + Power)

7. Scroll down and press on “Apply any zip from sd”

8. Press on Radio.zip

9. Let it install. Once done it will tell your to reboot to finish the update. Press on Reboot System now in the recovery menu.

10. It will reboot back to recovery. Once it does, Scroll down and press on “Apply any zip from sd”

11. Press on SPL.zip

12. Let it install. Once done it will tell your to reboot to finish the update. Press on Reboot System now in the recovery menu.

13. It will NOT reboot into recovery. Your phone will be stuck on the G1 screen. Once it gets there, reboot your phone by pressing Talk+Menu+Power and then hold the HOME button to enter back into recovery.

If your phone is a UK G1, your keyboard layout will be changed. When you will type Y – it will print Z, and vice versa – Fix for that on next post. More later guys, enjoy the power of Android….


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