Pipo M7pro - Cyanogenmod 11 (Android 4.4.4) porting

[Marwin]

Thank you for continuing to work on the development of this device

I don't have "developer skills" but I own a 3G-version of the PiPO M7 Pro (if you need me to check something like the 3G functionality).

[sikke]

thanks.

will try it now

[stevejc]

Thank you for continuing to work on the development of this device

I don't have "developer skills" but I own a 3G-version of the PiPO M7 Pro (if you need me to check something).

Yes, for example 3G

[rrileypm]

I flashed it.

Boots and runs fine.

Wifi works!!!!
Bluetooth pairs with an external speaker, but doesn't play media...so no audio.
Doesn't play videos
Doesn't play music
Camera works
How do you reboot to TWRP to install Gapps?

When you get this thing more polished, I can root and add reboot app...etc.

Good work, so far!!!!!!

[stevejc]

I flashed it.

Boots and runs fine.

Wifi works!!!!
Bluetooth pairs with an external speaker, but doesn't play media...so no audio.
Doesn't play videos
Doesn't play music
Camera works
How do you reboot to TWRP to install Gapps?

When you get this thing more polished, I can root and add reboot app...etc.

Good work, so far!!!!!!

There is a Advanced menu option to boot in recovery : Go to Developper Options and Advanced reboot

I have got Music on mine : in fact it plays flac files correctly but no mp3 !

[raxy]

On my side,
have prepared another clean linux install on another machine and a dedicated 40GB hdd;
for now, waiting for a repo sync with vanilla CM11 tree to end (this time without filling any FS )

will keep you informed,

after one night of repo syncing the CM11.0 tree,
(optimized with -c and -j as said here : http://xda-university.com/as-a-devel...po-tips-tricks)
sync is now done (I've seen here and then a few error 404 I hope they will not break my house later)


used filesystem space sofar, by the repo, is around 20GB.

time now to handle to deal with your own repo fishpepper...

wish me good luck !

[fishpepper]

ok this is what i found out yesterday:
system/lib/hw/bluetooth.default.so uses a different api (at least structs from hardware/bluetooth.h) than cyanogenmod. Therefore the cyanogenmod Bluetooth.apk calls invalid memory locations.
My first try was trying to guess the struct positions by looking at plain aosp bluetooth.h which did not work out (what a surprise, lol).

Can we somehow modify the stock rom system/app/Bluetooth.apk to get loaded? It has to be signed which can be done with:

java -jar out/host/common/obj/JAVA_LIBRARIES/signapk_intermediates/javalib.jar  ./build/target/product/security/platform.x509.pem ./build/target/product/security/platform.pk8 /tmp/Bluetooth.apk_pipo /tmp/Bluetooth.apk

But it fails to load due to some uid.bluetooth mismatch?! Maybe we have to modify the AndroidManifest.xml to match cm11 build info?

So my question for the experienced rom modders here: What does it take to make a system APK (4.4.2) that needs android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL (which in turn needs a signed apk) to run on android 4.4.4 ?? Is that possible?

regards

[raxy]

@fishpepper,

according to some info, like here http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?9413-pipo-m7pro-wifi-disconnections-definitive-hardware-fix#8
and also in other locations on the Net,
there is a combo chipset for BT+wifi+gps in the m7pro we have,
its reference is AP6476,
maybe that could give some clue ?
I think handling this chip is going to be specific in pipo sources.

By the way, I thought BT was handled in a standard way on all linuxes : www.bluez.org ,
It's a pity CM and AOSP could diverge on BT management.

[fishpepper]

Yes, its a AP6476 (sometimes also called RK901). I loads the 2076b1 firmware blob which seems to be correct (as written in http://wenku.baidu.com/view/f78408b1...203d82576.html).
AP6476 = WIFI+BT4.0+FM+GPS --> BCM40181+2076 (source: http://www.matchstick.tv/developers/...-V30-FINAL.pdf)


So right now i have four possible ways:
a) use bluetooth.default.so from pipo and modify the cm Bluetooth sources to call the correct memory locations of this shared library (probably doable, but a lot of guessing)
b) patch the cm broadcom bluetooth stack to include the gps functions (for which i do not have source code :-\ )
c) use all bluetooth stuff from the rom and get cm somehow to accept the Bluetooth.apk (sigature issue, see post before)
d) use the cm broadcom/bt stuff and get working wifi and bt

Google/android changed the bt stack some time ago from bluez to broadcom specific stuff (was btle related i guess)

[raxy]

OpTion d seems ,for me, the best solution.

[fishpepper]

but d) is without gps and without radio (whoever needs that)
but i don't give up that early

I just (more or less) finished to code (a)...
But the thing is a bit more complex. As there is also a FM receiver (radio) the Bluetooth.apk from pipo includes also FM Radio stuff (yeah.. great to have a Bluetooth app handle bt,gps+fm radio :-X).

Right now i am trying to get my stuff to compile/link/run.
I took the cm11 Bluetooth sources, modified the JNI native calls to link against the pipo bluetooth.default.so (which uses more or less aosp functionality + some strange addons).
I assume the pipo bluetooth.default.so uses aosp 4.4.x jni calls, at lest the strings in the libbluetooth_jni.so match >95% to the aosp function names.

Then i noticed that i missed JNI callbacks for the fm radio stuff, so i extracted the com.broadcom.fm stuff from the pipo Bluetooth.apk and repacked it as a lib.
It really sucks that a build after make clean takes 2 hours... Otherwise i would be much further.
Just calling brunch m7pro does not always rebuild all stuff when i do modifications to build files etc.

so right now there are no things for you to build...

[raxy]

Great to see all of your efforts to overcome all these hurdles, you are impressive and go so deep into the android ground
You have done other cm porting for a device without OEM source before this one ?

FM radio on this pipo tablet was never heard of !
Because not advertised by pipo and Nobody has ever complained nor asked for it only a few know the capability is in the silicon inside.
We have never seen any GUI for FM radio in the past on this tablet. If you can make it work, that would be fine but GPS and BT are much more needed.

2hours for a rebuild seems not that bad, but yes , progress is slowed down by the PC,
I wonder if some ramdisk could not speed up the process,
Depends on resources you have at hands.

Keep up the good work , simon !

[fishpepper]

Hi!

Well i tried to port cm10 to my Teclast p76h. But i could not finish it because mine (which i bought used) had nand defects and i were missing cruical system files...
But i have an embedded and programming background, so i kind of know how the internal stuff works (but i still struggle with the android specifics). My build finished tonight without compile errors, i can test the code today in the evening.

[fishpepper]

ok, seems like i managed to build a Bluetooth.apk that includes gps (and probably fm radio) support.

Seems like bt gatt support is broken, but if i am correct this is bluetooth 4.0 related (not sure if the original supports that).

Ok, now for the gpas status:
i get the gps socket, glgps is starting and adb logcat|grep -i gps shows some activity.
However i did not get a fix during my first tests...


build instructions:

1) insert this into .repo/local_manifests/m7pro.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<manifest>
<project path="device/pipo/m7pro" name="fishpepper/android_device_pipo_m7pro" remote="github" revision="master"/>
<remove-project name="CyanogenMod/android_packages_apps_Bluetooth" />
<project path="packages/apps/Bluetooth" name="fishpepper/android_packages_apps_Bluetooth" remote="github" revision="master"/>
</manifest>

2) make clean
3) brunch m7pro

If someone could test it that would be nice. My pipo had a really bad gps quality when i tested it with the stock rom weeks ago. My Nexus showed >20 sats, the pipo 1...

[stevejc]

Hi, trying to adapt to M8HD, it compiles but for the moment doesn't boot

I think it's due to boot.img format of last ROM of Pipo M8HD.

Stay tune ...