Nextbook 7 Premium

[DocHoppy]

Finless reposting message sent earlier per your request.

Before that.

Here is a link to current working non system rw version of rom I have been working with.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1410862&page=4

Now onto the issue at hand making the /system ext3 and rw.

Ok so quick recap. system.img file is converted. boot.img file has been edited. If I leave the Parameter file alone, it hangs at the nextbook logo. if I try adjusting out the offsets, the files in rk29xx tools flash ok, tablet reboots goes into recovery and halts with an error that it could not format data.

System.img file in Cramfs 160329KB
System.img file in ext3 250000KB

I have tried cleaning up the system.img file to shrink it down to see if that was the issue. Making the /system rw is the last thing I need to do, to make the image complete, or rather more to what I am wanting
to accomplish.

Any thoughts would be help full.

I have a working rooted rom now with the /system still cramfs and RO, with working market, calendars etc, wanting to take it to the next step, about ready to pull my hair out! :P

[Finless]

OK so cool. 2 things that need to be done to get ti to stop hanging on the boot.

1) Make sure your repacked boot.img that the first 4 bytes say KRNL not PARM
2) You will HAVE to flash the unit using the RKAndroid tool 1.29 Because of the structure changes you cant just make a update.img and copy over to SD.

OK re: the parameter file.
1) Don't edit in a windows text editor! If it turns on word wrap when you save the file it wont boot! The parameter line with size and offset values is all one big long line!

2) Finally because you have made system so much larger what is happening is your are stepping over something. What you do is move the system values to the end of the file before (user)

Here is my paramater file. I had the same issue as you until I moved things around

CMDLINE: console=ttyS1,115200n8n androidboot.console=ttyS1 init=/init initrd=0x62000000,0x500000 mtdparts=rk29xxnand:0x00002000@0x00002000(misc),0x 00004000@0x00004000(kernel),0x00002000@0x00008000( boot),0x00004000@0x0000A000(recovery),0x00082000@0 x0000E000(backup),0x0003a000@0x00090000(cache),0x0 0200000@0x000ca000(userdata),0x00002000@0x002ca000 (kpanic),0x00080000@0x002cc000(system),-@0x0034c000(user)

As you can see system is moved to the end right before (user).

You can probably use my values here just fine for your Nextbook.

Let me know how it goes,
Bob

[DocHoppy]

OK so cool. 2 things that need to be done to get ti to stop hanging on the boot.

1) Make sure your repacked boot.img that the first 4 bytes say KRNL not PARM
2) You will HAVE to flash the unit using the RKAndroid tool 1.29 Because of the structure changes you cant just make a update.img and copy over to SD.

OK re: the parameter file.
1) Don't edit in a windows text editor! If it turns on word wrap when you save the file it wont boot! The parameter line with size and offset values is all one big long line!

2) Finally because you have made system so much larger what is happening is your are stepping over something. What you do is move the system values to the end of the file before (user)

Here is my paramater file. I had the same issue as you until I moved things around

CMDLINE: console=ttyS1,115200n8n androidboot.console=ttyS1 init=/init initrd=0x62000000,0x500000 mtdparts=rk29xxnand:0x00002000@0x00002000(misc),0x 00004000@0x00004000(kernel),0x00002000@0x00008000( boot),0x00004000@0x0000A000(recovery),0x00082000@0 x0000E000(backup),0x0003a000@0x00090000(cache),0x0 0200000@0x000ca000(userdata),0x00002000@0x002ca000 (kpanic),0x00080000@0x002cc000(system),-@0x0034c000(user)

As you can see system is moved to the end right before (user).

You can probably use my values here just fine for your Nextbook.

Let me know how it goes,
Bob

Thanks fore the tip. Bob. I will give rearranging the Parameter file a go. in regards to the boot.img, when I repack it, it packs with the KRNL not parm. Wendal replied to a question I had and pointed me to a completely different tool set. I have been able to create an update.img and flash with a modified and repacked boot.img, as long as system is still cramfs. I would only get the hang up when booting with the ext3 system changes.

Thanks again.

[Finless]

Yes and that is what I am saying. When you change to ext3 you will find you can create a update.img fine BUT YOU CANNOT just put it on the SD card and reboot and update. It will flash it but you will hang every time. This is because the recovery system is not made to handle the new setup period. The reason is the recovery system for that kind of update does note erase the IDB (Image Deffinition Block) and because it does not the new larger /system writes over top of other IMGs.

However you can use the RKbatch tool to flash the update.img and that will work because it erases IDB. I prefer to use the RKAndroid tool as you can flash each IMG and not have to make a update.img. FYI using that is great for troubleshoot flashes. You can flash just say boot.img and nothing else. Or system.img and nothing else. Great for testing. This is how I found out update.img would not work by a copy to the sdcard. When I flashed each IMG my ROM worked and then I found my issues with size etc in the parameter file.

Bob

[DocHoppy]

Yes and that is what I am saying. When you change to ext3 you will find you can create a update.img fine BUT YOU CANNOT just put it on the SD card and reboot and update. It will flash it but you will hang every time. This is because the recovery system is not made to handle the new setup period. The reason is the recovery system for that kind of update does note erase the IDB (Image Deffinition Block) and because it does not the new larger /system writes over top of other IMGs.

However you can use the RKbatch tool to flash the update.img and that will work because it erases IDB. I prefer to use the RKAndroid tool as you can flash each IMG and not have to make a update.img. FYI using that is great for troubleshoot flashes. You can flash just say boot.img and nothing else. Or system.img and nothing else. Great for testing. This is how I found out update.img would not work by a copy to the sdcard. When I flashed each IMG my ROM worked and then I found my issues with size etc in the parameter file.

Bob

I wonder if after a successfull build, if I can create a working update.img from a dump from the device. I will have to test that later.

[Finless]

No I tried that also. Doesn't work even dumping it. It still won't boot copying to the sd card. Again it is the update recovery system that can't handle the new format. If you look in the rom you will see the 3 different scripts. I even tried messing with the update-script. No go.

Bob

[Sowa]

Hi Doc.
I'm sorry for my english - Google translator.

1.I also modified the ROM for ARNOVA 8G2 with ext3 fs and created update.img
This image should flash only Rk29BatchTools with button "Restore".
This leads to a pre-formatting the flashat a low level, and it works fine.

2.So as I've modified ROM for Chinese android(2.3.4)-phone STAR A5000 which has /system in yaffs2, which is in contrast to the cramfs can be RW and also not take much space on the flash. Maybe we should throw at in that direction.

Wendal replied to a question I had and pointed me to a completely different tool set

Which set of tools?

[Finless]

I looked into YAFFS and we would need to have it compiled for our processor and in the /bin directory just like ext3 is today.

Doc how is your ROM going now? Let me know if you want me to take a crack at it?

Bob

[Finless]

So Doc.... any progress? Need any help?

Fill us in on your progress please

Bob

[DocHoppy]

Sorry for the delay. Progress I think.....It doesn't hang at boot logo, but is in a boot loop. :P

Below is the line from Parameter file. Any thoughts?


CMDLINE: console=ttyS1,115200n8n androidboot.console=ttyS1 init=/init initrd=0x62000000,0x500000 mtdparts=rk29xxnand:0x00002000@0x00002000(misc),0x 00004000@0x00004000(kernel),0x00002000@0x00008000( boot),0x00004000@0x0000A000(recovery),0x00082000@0 x0000E000(backup),0x0003a000@0x00090000(cache),0x0 0100000@0x000ca000(userdata),0x00002000@0x001ca000 (kpanic),0x0D1F6000@0x001cc000(system),-@0x0d3c2000(user)

[Finless]

Well it appears you have a working boot.img. The problem now maybe how you setup system.img. Are you getting almost to the home screen when it reboots? And when it reboots how deep is the reboot? All the way back to the begining like you powered it off or is it a semi boot of the kernel?

Tell you what, when I get home today I will download the manufacturers ROM and give it a go myself.

Bob

[DocHoppy]

Well it appears you have a working boot.img. The problem now maybe how you setup system.img. Are you getting almost to the home screen when it reboots? And when it reboots how deep is the reboot? All the way back to the begining like you powered it off or is it a semi boot of the kernel?

Tell you what, when I get home today I will download the manufacturers ROM and give it a go myself.

Bob

it is absolutely the system image. Your rooting of the original rom boots fine, So I swapped the system.img file and reflashed. it boots to second next book logo then reboots. So I was close, :P Just need to look at the system.img file.

I am thinking Something got wacked when I converted it to ext3.

[Finless]

Hi Doc... Glad to see you back

COOL! So my ROM work then! I am going to make a V1.3 with full market install. Thanks for letting me know it works.

OK so for helping you with your own cooking... By the way since you are a memeber here we can set you up with a special account and you can upload your ROM MODs here for free and post and share them with others.. Let me know if you want to get involved with doing that?

OK back to helping you with your own cooking...
Yes you must pay CLOSE attantion to settings (formatting) of the ext3 file system. Additionally are you in Ubuntu? chmod, and other commands will not work properly without the sudo command. This is now why I script everything and not do all the steps from the command line. Use bash and script it!

Final tip, when you copy from the mounted cramfs to the exts mounted system, us the -r option with the copy command! Then apply the chmod commands with sudo.

Hope this helps and please feel free to ask me questions. Making people be able to cook ROMs is what it is all about

Bob

[DocHoppy]

Eureka! System.img file exactly was what was causing the problem. A little testing and I found the sweetspot for the system.img size wise. That was what was causing my issue all along! when I converted to ext3 originally, i was using count=250000. This time I started playing with the size adjusting up slowly from count=20000, copying files (normally at count=20000 I would get an error for not enough space!)Sweet spot was 230000! All files copied. moved the system.img file over with your boot.img and Parameter and Successfull boot, (Will have to make a new boot animation file....) DocHoppy Rom v2.1 boot anim....right into desk top!

Finless if you don't mind, I am going to look at the further changes you made to boot.img etc.

[DocHoppy]

Oh also, since I was able to get the system.img to work from original rom, Full working market :P