Develop Bugs

[DEV/WIP] Kexecboot Bootloader for Galaxy Note 3 N900T - Boot Multiple Kernels

This is a development thread at the moment. I'm going to start working on porting the kexec-hardboot patches to the N900T (actually CyanogenMod hlte) kernel. With the kexec-hardboot patch applied, the kernel will be able to act as a second stage bootloader and boot other kernels. Combined with the kexecboot program, it can act as a second stage bootloader, allowing you to boot kernels from any storage device without flashing them. Ultimately the goal here is to dual-boot Android and non-Android Linux without having to re-flash kernels constantly. Like with my Note i717 port I will be focusing on kexec first, then getting Debian to boot on the device with the Freedreno graphics driver. The Note 3 is a very powerful ARM device and with Freedreno working it could play many of the 3D FOSS games.
Here is my modified kexecboot that I will be using:
https://github.com/CalcProgrammer1/kexecboot
Here is a video showing how it works on the Note i717 (it will work the same way on the Note 3):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtb-TSGumNo
My Note i717 thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1787856
Here is the kexec-hardboot porting guide I will be using:
https://github.com/Tasssadar/multirom/wiki/Porting-kexec-hardboot
For anyone inclined you could also get MultiROM working with this. I am not familiar with that framework but have used kexecboot many times on many devices in the past, so I am going with that.
EDIT 1: I've got the main patch applied and I've found some numbers for the addresses that I think might work. Everything compiles and I'm able to build a boot.img and flashable zip, but I'm sure it won't work in its current state. The Note 3 uses a DSI command-mode panel which is different than the Note 1's video-mode panel in that it doesn't continuously refresh (i.e. at 60Hz). Instead, screen updates must be forced manually by using an ioctl for the framebuffer device. There are several ways to handle this - I could add this ioctl into kexecboot any time it draws to the screen but this would only work for kexecboot. Alternatively I could write a background program that sits in a 60Hz waiting loop and calls the ioctl repeatedly, simulating a video-mode panel. I've talked to some other people on the #freedreno Freenode IRC channel and the refreshing background program has been done with some success on other devices (2013 Nexus 7) so I think I'll take this route first as it will hopefully let me get a framebuffer console up for debugging with.
EDIT 2: I found a way to make kexecboot refresh the screen. I call the FBIOPAN_DISPLAY ioctl in kexecboot's framebuffer refresh function and that makes the kexecboot GUI appear on screen. Now to figure out how to build a kernel and pack a boot.img.
EDIT 3: I figured out how to make boot images, it requires a device-tree supporting mkimage tool such as this: https://bitbucket.org/itsmikeramsay/mkbootimg/src I was able to build a boot.img with a precompiled kernel and my new ramdisk with kexecboot, it worked enough to show the kexecboot GUI. Now to build my modified kernel into the mix and create a kexec-bootable kernel for CM11.
EDIT 4: I might put the Note 3 kexec on hold for a bit as I clean up the Note 1 and TouchPad port of Debian. I ran into an issue on the Note 1 with Kexec where CM wouldn't mount the internal storage when booted via kexec-hardboot. I still need the Note 3 as my primary phone so I can't hack on it without a backup plan.
EDIT 5: The issue with storage not mounting appears to be related to having an ext-formatted SD card inserted (which is where I keep Debian). Booting without the card inserted works fine. Hopefully the same applies to the Note 3.
EDIT 6: I got the kexecboot kernel builder scripts for the Note 1 up on github now and released the first version of it, so I'm going to look into the Note 3 some more. I didn't realize that the Note 3 uses device tree until I messed with it earlier. I'm not sure if kexec needs to reserve a dtb image for the kernel or not, that could be a major roadblock if so as the patch I ported didn't take device tree into account. I'm not entirely sure how device tree and atags work but somehow they're related apparently, at least in terms of kexec.
EDIT 7: I think I have my build root mostly set up for Note 3. Initial test was a failure, though it did at least attempt to boot my new kernel rather than drop into download mode like my earlier attempts. I need to figure out what device tree stuff is required in order to boot a compiled kernel with the new mkboot tool and then enable fbconsole so I can see when the display changes.
EDIT 8: I think I figured out how to make a dt.img file now for the device tree stuff, but I've found that my ramdisk doesn't work on the stock CM11 kernel binary nor my custom compiled one. It did, however, work when patched into LeanKernel's boot.img (replacing the default ramdisk). This was the result of that: http://i.imgur.com/c2racE1.jpg I may try using the leankernel defconfig as a base instead of the CM11 defconfigs.
EDIT 9: Derp herp derp herp didn't look at the boot partition size...it's 11.0MB. My cm-based boot.img was 12.3MB. Of course that ain't gonna work.
EDIT 10: WOOT! Kernel has booted, xz compression is some wizard level magic, it shaved off like 3MB without changing anything else. Now to reapply the kexec-hardboot stuff and see how it fares.
EDIT 11: I spent some more time looking into kexec-hardboot on the Note 1 (as it's a ton easier to debug since it has a video-mode panel) and figured out how to properly reset it. The important code is in relocate_kernel.S, an assembly function that does the very last wrap-up stuff before rebooting. On the Note I was letting the watchdog timer kick the reset after hanging on an infinite loop, but the Note 3 doesn't seem to have this watchdog in place and will loop endlessly. The important thing to note from this is that relocate_kernel.S uses physical addressing. The Note had a pretty in-depth reboot procedure and it looks like the Note 3 may be a bit simpler. I'll be looking into this soon to see if I can get it rebooting correctly.
EDIT 12: I'm going to use USB serial for debugging instead of messing with the stupid fbconsole. To initialize the USB you need to set up the ID fields in /sys/class/android_usb/android0 and set functions to acm. Then use getty (part of busybox) to open a bash shell on the port with "getty -n -l bash 115200 ttyGS0 linux". Then use minicom or other terminal on PC to connect to the ttyACMx interface.
EDIT 13: I was able to get a working shell through USB and play around with kexec tools directly. It would not boot when I did kexec -e, whether or not I used hardboot or not. I may need to apply a patch to load dtb images for the kexec'd kernel.
EDIT 14: Looks like I'll need to build my own kexec-tools based off the newest release (v2.0.7) which has device tree image support. I'm still looking for a hardboot implementation that uses dtb images.
EDIT 15: I dug through the stack of calls up from machine_kexec to figure out why machine_kexec was never called. It appears that kernel_restart_prepare (kernel/kexec.c, line 1595) might be hanging and keeping the system awake instead of dropping through to machine_kexec() like it should. Since we're rebooting with hardboot anyways it should be reasonably safe to just forget a clean shutdown and cut straight to the machine_kexec() function. The bootloader will reinitialize the hardware anyways. This is hopefully almost the end, as I'm sure my reboot code is being called and it is successfully rebooting. It hasn't booted the new kernel yet but it could be an address issue.
EDIT 16: Something's happening...I think I may be right on the edge of getting it working but not quite there yet. I got it to lock up after rebooting which means that the redirection was successful (redirecting to the kexec kernel instead of the kexec-boot kernel) but the kexec kernel is crashed or something. Probably something to do with device tree. It might require a dt.img passed in or it might require the command line being set.
EDIT 17: I managed to get Tasssadar's MultiROM kexec-tools to build. I talked to XDA user flar2 who had done some work on the HTC One M8 and ran into a similar issue with device tree kernels not booting. He mentioned that there may be some custom device tree entries that aren't being picked up by kexec-tools and gave me a link to a repository to look at. For now, here's my kexec-tools branch based on Tasssadar's work with the fixed-up Makefiles that compile correctly: https://github.com/CalcProgrammer1/kexec-tools/tree/kexec-tools-2.0.2 I will look into this more this weekend or so.
EDIT 18: So the Note 3 kernel doesn't have last_kmsg (RAM console) enabled for some reason, or at least it isn't appearing despite being enabled in config. RAM console shows the dmesg (kernel log) of the previous kernel run so long as the reserved RAM area isn't erased. This is important as it allows viewing any logs left behind by failed-to-boot kexec'd kernels. I'm guessing both the host (kexecboot) and guest kernel will need RAM console to be working for any meaningful debugging. Samsung has all sorts of goofy debug stuff (SEC_DEBUG_) but the RAM console doesn't appear to be part of that.
EDIT 19: After a lot of printk's and a lot of failures I got last_kmsg support working! This means booting a last_kmsg supporting kernel and then rebooting into another last_kmsg supporting kernel will grant you a /proc/last_kmsg file that contains the previous boot's dmesg log. This will be incredibly helpful for kexec testing. For any other kernel devs who want this capability, you need to register a platform_device for ram_console using the start and end addresses already included for the persistent_ram ram_console registration. For some idiot reason it reserves the persistent RAM but it doesn't set up a ram_console device to use said RAM.
EDIT 20: New Tools! With the help of some users in the S4 forum, I have some new debugging tools available to better see what's going on with reboots. First is viewmem (http://blog.maurus.be/2011/01/23/samsung-i9000-irom-dump/) which dumps memory to stdout. The Note 3 kernel has sec_debug which logs boot messages from the bootloader and optionally kernel to address 0x10000008 in memory. Viewmem is able to read this log as well as inspect other memory locations to see if things are where they should be. The other debugging tool is a physical serial port, hidden on the USB data pins. Putting a 615K resistor between GND and the ID pin of the USB connector as well as shorting the VCC and GND pins causes the port to go into serial debug mode on reboot. The D+ and D- pins become TX and RX, and hooking up a 3.3V serial interface (PL2303 USB serial breakout in my case) you can dump bootloader and kernel messages to a PC running a serial console.

cant wait to give it a shot
this sounds amazing for the note 3

sounds like Ubuntu will be coming soon
Cant wait to dual boot AOSP and TW
I'm so proud to be the same t mobile person as you
I take off my hat and bow!
only if I had a bank account I would so donate to you
Just keep doing what your doing
And you will become famous a xda
I will so make this Thread a Newsworthy Thread!

Update 4
Im crying
Well best of luck

Definitely worth waiting for, we'll be here

Robbdreality said:
Definitely worth waiting for, we'll be here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1

I got framebuffer console working on the Note 1 a bit better last night, though it's still not great. I really need to get framebuffer console working on the Note 3 before anything because it makes debugging a whole lot easier. The super-high DPI might become a problem though, the text was already hard to read on the Note 1's 800p screen. This is what I'm looking forward to seeing on the Note 3: http://i.imgur.com/1kmKDOw.jpg

CalcProgrammer1 said:
I got framebuffer console working on the Note 1 a bit better last night, though it's still not great. I really need to get framebuffer console working on the Note 3 before anything because it makes debugging a whole lot easier. The super-high DPI might become a problem though, the text was already hard to read on the Note 1's 800p screen. This is what I'm looking forward to seeing on the Note 3: http://i.imgur.com/1kmKDOw.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same there But ubuntu
What linux is that one

Debian (testing). I chose it over Ubuntu because it works better in a chroot from within Android. Upstart (Ubuntu's init system) doesn't like chroot or running services from in a chroot as well. Ultimately the idea is to be able to use it both as a chroot within Android (to host ssh and samba and such while still being an Android phone) as well as a full blown reboot into Debian system for playing with the GPU and using hardware that Android normally locks. My TouchPad setup is exactly this, where the Debian rootfs is located within Android's data partition as /data/debian and the initramfs init script on my kernel bind-mounts that directory as the root directory before passing over to the Debian init. You could do the same with Ubuntu as well. The biggest issue is the kernel which you can put whatever distro you want on top of.

i wish you all the luck in the world hmm!?! No, ?!? I wish you all the luck in the whole cosmos! @CalcProgrammer1

update 10
im so happy

Agreed, love the progress

Update 11
Keep up the good work

USBhost said:
Update 11
Keep up the good work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1

This is really cool
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app

iakeco said:
This is really cool
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ii there

Update 14, rootin for you

Robbdreality said:
Update 14, rootin for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1

Robbdreality said:
Update 14, rootin for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just now root'in? You should've rooted a long time ago! Using Android without root is a nightmare!

CalcProgrammer1 said:
Just now root'in? You should've rooted a long time ago! Using Android without root is a nightmare!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will never get a device without root
The vary day that i got ny N7 i unlocked the bootloader and rooted it lol
But i think he meant something like im cheering for you

Nextbook Flexx 11 how to dual boot android and 8.1/10

ok! where to even start...
I like many got this 2in1 at wal-mart and I live it. unfortunately I like many am not yet familiar with the new UEFI bootloader bios SOC stuff
heres what I do know and please correct me if im wrong. also please tell me if this 2 in 1 is and can be flashed the same as the asus t100
ok the Flexx11 has a bayntrail-t CR quad core processor 1.33-1.83ghz model Z3735F the t100 is3740
11.6" screen ips touchscreen at 1366x768 res
Efun is the corp and yifang vers.NX1106.1.02.008\139
THE BIOS IS YFG0315009112
it is a 32bit EFI bootloader
the reason I mention all of this is I have tried several times to dualboot androoid and each time ruined the computer and had to return it and I simply no longer wish to return it and love it to much to get something else
the first try the time began to lag and was unfixable for some reason the second time i somehow lost the keys booting and formatted wrong or something and the tablet bricked it would remain black with keyboard lit and no button combo could get it back no boot at all.
I am currently using AMIDUOS to run android kitkat and I love it but from what I understand it isnt compatible with win10 and really still isnt the same as the full android being on the tablet although really really close and awesome
but honestly I have been doing this stuff for years and now with this new windows secure boot and system on a chip stuff im lost

ever get anywhere with this?

I'm curious as well.
It has to be possible. I say that because I recently owned a ChuWi dual-boot device with the same Baytrail processor and SOC.
I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to take a system dump from one of the chuwi dualboot devices and flash it to the nextbook.
Sent from my Ascend Mate 2 using XDA Free mobile app

I'm also interested in doing this. It appears that the Nextbook Ares has the same hardware (minus 1GB RAM) but has Android. I contacted Nextbook to see if I could get a copy of the Ares Android firmware but was denied. If someone with the Ares could upload a backup that would be helpful.

I was finally able to get this working using this method...
https://hitricks.com/guide-how-to-dual-boot-remix-os-with-windows-uefi-legacy
So far I was able to get it to boot from a partition on the main drive as a test. In the process of installing to a secondary partition on my sd card. We'll see how it goes.
I wasnt able to get the boot menu that he shows but after going through the steps I then had an Android OS boot option in the bios boot menu. Pretty awesome! Runs great. Tried running Dead Trigger 2 as a test with full graphics. Ran perfectly.

I just bought one of these yesterday, and it shipped with Windows 10 Home 32-bit. I'm trying to install the 64-bit version but it won't boot from USB. Turns out it doesn't support 64-bit OSes. Where can I find recovery images for this? I messed up and now I don't have audio or touchscreen drivers.

64 bit processor?
I just bought one of these yesterday, and it shipped with Windows 10 Home 32-bit. I'm trying to install the 64-bit version but it won't boot from USB. Turns out it doesn't support 64-bit OSes. Where can I find recovery images for this? I messed up and now I don't have audio or touchscreen drivers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright, I'm slightly confused now. Looking at system specs for mine it says it has an x64 based processor. Doesn't that mean it should be able to handle 64-bit OS? Even though it comes with 32-bit? If possible I would like to put 64-bit on it as well, but I'd like to be sure that that's not going to break it.

GeneticJulia said:
Alright, I'm slightly confused now. Looking at system specs for mine it says it has an x64 based processor. Doesn't that mean it should be able to handle 64-bit OS? Even though it comes with 32-bit? If possible I would like to put 64-bit on it as well, but I'd like to be sure that that's not going to break it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It just won't boot the USB. At all. Unless it's 32-bit.

rowdyrocket said:
I was finally able to get this working using this method...
https://hitricks.com/guide-how-to-dual-boot-remix-os-with-windows-uefi-legacy
So far I was able to get it to boot from a partition on the main drive as a test. In the process of installing to a secondary partition on my sd card. We'll see how it goes.
I wasnt able to get the boot menu that he shows but after going through the steps I then had an Android OS boot option in the bios boot menu. Pretty awesome! Runs great. Tried running Dead Trigger 2 as a test with full graphics. Ran perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm loving Remix OS on here with dual boot. Having some issues though and I really want this to work.
Main and I mean main issue is no sound at all, no rotation is next in line and Bluetooth isn't working. Everything else works great.
This is so awesome its like Android lollipop with windows desktop functionality. Now if I can get the bugs fixed I will be in android hog heaven.
GREAT FIND BRO!!!!! EXACTLY what I was looking for maybe even better than.
for those interested here is the XDA section for all things REMIX OS
http://forum.xda-developers.com/remix
By the way for those who may want to know I installed dual boot onto the hard drive it went with no issues.Here's some tips for flexx 11
1. I used a partition manager such as easy partition manager to partition the C: drive regardless of what the tutorial said. Couldn't use windows disk management. I deleted the recovery for an extra 5 gigs (make a backup if you do) I used about 19 gigs from the C: drive and made an E: NTFS.
2.Also do not use the remix files from that tutorial use the ones here from the main site http://www.jide.com/remixos-for-pc they are newer and the ones from the other post where incomplete. Also the newer ones on the site now include OTA updating which is totally awesome.
3. I'm hoping this will help someone..... After I was all finished I expected it to dual boot as any other dual boot restart and then i would see options for the OS's not the case here I got stuck on this I was using easy BCD and trying all sorts of stuff, once I looked at the tut a little closer I realized you don't need any of that. Once your all done do a restart and it will go back to windows as usual. Now go to settings, then recovery, then advanced startup and choose from devices I think its the second option on the left list. There you will find Android OS click that and it will take you to your dual boot options. Sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. But believe me once you know this your better off.
And that's all I've got please and I mean please post here with any fixes especially for sound and if you have questions I will try to help.
Thanks
PS: I AM GETTING OCASIONAL LOCK UPS, MEANING THE OS FREEZES AND I HAVE TO RESTART BY HOLDING POWER.

Im not sure if this is good news or not...
Using the methos outlined I was not able to get audio bluetooth autorotate and other things to work but after a bit of digging I found out that remix os has an image specifically for nextbook baaytrail (Our PC) here: http://www.jide.com/remixos/devices
click other upper left.....
I cannot find instructions to install this though and using the other install instructions from here fail because the only part of the file to replace is the system image.
I also attempted the other install methods and easy BCD does not work for this PC
So if anyone can help to install this file specifically for our computer as well as verify that it works and what works and how you installed would be great

OK this is really cool I have made headway sort of.
I have installed kit kat android-x86-4.4-r3.img using the Androidx86-Installv24-5800.exe installer and i have rotation, root and it works pretty good for the most part wifi works great so far no bluetooth, it freezes during shut down and the major issue as in most cases is the sound. Im not sure about the camera now that I think about but i will check and report back here.
I really want the sound working on this and I woud be bigtime happy this forum could be solved as far as im concerned
From what I understand there is a bug with baytrail and linux where the spp port is pointed automatically to the usb or something. but for the life of me after weeks of scouring the internet cannot find a laymens guide to a simple fix for this. I'm really not even sure there is one because I'm yet find a rock solid confirmation of a solution

Update: camera doesn't work either
So far the 4.4.3 port is the best. I just can't seem to find any help whatsoever so its looking like so close yet so far away. Its a pure shame that audio and a few other major bugs are the only things in the way of this being a fully working and easy dual boot method.

I have bought a nextbook flexx10 but am unable to install remix OS. I have followed all the steps highlighted before.
1. partitioned the drive with gparted to make a 10G NTFS drive
2. downloaded android x86 5.1.1 iso and remix iso from jide website.
3. used android installer and android 5.1.1 iso to install the image
4. used 7zip to uncompress the remix iso
5. then copied over the 4 necessary files from remix to the drive to the android drive
6. copied over grub.cfg
Now, I do see the entry for androidOS but when I select that, I just get a message at the center of my screen that says "AndroidOS boot failed" and a blue OK button in DOS like font. thats it.. I am interested in knowing if any additional BIOS settings needs to be tweaked.
furthermore, I have tried installing android x86 6.0 by formating the same partition as ext4. All proceeded well and i got to the last screen that said "Run android-x86 now" or reboot. I removed the USB and was able to get into android. (some missing functionality). But when i reboot into windows and try to boot into androis, I get the same message of Andoid boot failed..
Thus I need to know if there's some BIOS settings related to permissions or sorts that i'm missing.
thanks

murlig123 said:
I have bought a nextbook flexx10 but am unable to install remix OS. I have followed all the steps highlighted before.
1. partitioned the drive with gparted to make a 10G NTFS drive
2. downloaded android x86 5.1.1 iso and remix iso from jide website.
3. used android installer and android 5.1.1 iso to install the image
4. used 7zip to uncompress the remix iso
5. then copied over the 4 necessary files from remix to the drive to the android drive
6. copied over grub.cfg
Now, I do see the entry for androidOS but when I select that, I just get a message at the center of my screen that says "AndroidOS boot failed" and a blue OK button in DOS like font. thats it.. I am interested in knowing if any additional BIOS settings needs to be tweaked.
furthermore, I have tried installing android x86 6.0 by formating the same partition as ext4. All proceeded well and i got to the last screen that said "Run android-x86 now" or reboot. I removed the USB and was able to get into android. (some missing functionality). But when i reboot into windows and try to boot into androis, I get the same message of Andoid boot failed..
Thus I need to know if there's some BIOS settings related to permissions or sorts that i'm missing.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the late reply, use the installer and create a separate drive using C: like a D: or E: and get android 4.4 the .IMG that should work for you and the installer should do everything for you.
So use the uefi android installer after you partition a drive to load android 4.4 the uefi IMG
Its just going to piss you off though because there's no audio and seemingly no way to fix it, which is a crying shame ��
P.S. typically secure boot is off in the bios on this machine, but if by any chance you turned it on or the newer ones come that way make sure it is off or this will not work.

UEFI Settings
So I can get to a menu with 6 icons (2 rows and 3 columns) by running the "shutdown.exe /r /o" command and then going to Troubleshoot>Advanced Options>UEFI Firmware Settings and clicking restart. The problem is that when I get to this menu the touchscreen and keyboard do not work, and I can only move the highlighter up and down, not left and right. Hopefully one you guys have figured this out. I contacted the Nextbook support desk and they were no help at all.

korycooper said:
So I can get to a menu with 6 icons (2 rows and 3 columns) by running the "shutdown.exe /r /o" command and then going to Troubleshoot>Advanced Options>UEFI Firmware Settings and clicking restart. The problem is that when I get to this menu the touchscreen and keyboard do not work, and I can only move the highlighter up and down, not left and right. Hopefully one you guys have figured this out. I contacted the Nextbook support desk and they were no help at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay. So I was able to test this one of my co workers Nextbook and it seems like its a problem with mine.

This might be beneficial for us Flexx 11 users. It's a full port of Remix 2.0 to the Ares 8 with everything working except the camera rotation issue. Very promising. I've heard the hardware is similar. Working on attempting to install on mine. Anyone else tried it?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/remix/supported-devices/port-remix-os-2-0-nextbook-ares-8-t3498015

Hey guys,
NextBook Flexx 11, 64Gb, NXW116QC264, Windows 10
I'm really interested in trying to install Remix OS in Dual boot. However, in my trials, I goofed up my tablet. I found an image, but it turned out to be a Windows 8.1 image, and it wiped everything from my tablet. I had originally had Windows 10 on it.
Could someone perhaps be able to send me the recovery partition of their Nextbook; as long as they had Win10 installed. Maybe if I dump a Win10 recovery partition, I can do a repair on it and restore Win10 to the system.
I can't find the stock/factory rom for the Win10 version of the Flexx.
Thanks in advance,
Kori

KorishanTalshin said:
Hey guys,
NextBook Flexx 11, 64Gb, NXW116QC264, Windows 10
I'm really interested in trying to install Remix OS in Dual boot. However, in my trials, I goofed up my tablet. I found an image, but it turned out to be a Windows 8.1 image, and it wiped everything from my tablet. I had originally had Windows 10 on it.
Could someone perhaps be able to send me the recovery partition of their Nextbook; as long as they had Win10 installed. Maybe if I dump a Win10 recovery partition, I can do a repair on it and restore Win10 to the system.
I can't find the stock/factory rom for the Win10 version of the Flexx.
Thanks in advance,
Kori
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to be clear...(and this goes for everyone wondering in the future) it was windows 10, from the factory??? Last i checked
they only shipped with windows 8.1 or android, depending on the model...If not and you put windows 10 on there, back when it was free, you just use the media creation tool from Microsoft to update windows 8.1 to Windows 10 (after restoring windows 8.1)... it can do this because most tablets have unchangeable hardware, so no cd key is required...it's like how your md5 hash verifies your downloaded files, Windows provides Microsoft with your hardwares md5 hash signature and if it is in the list, then it activates the pc/tablet... but, it only works if you got it free, not if you bought it... if you bought win10 then you will need your cd-key when you re-install, while the other steps are same as above... just note, that for the free upgrade there was NO cd-key, therefore in that instance, if it asked you for a key, you would leave it blank, which you can do in any case, and add your key in from Windows if needed...
And... as for the others having sound issues in Android, I read something about a reason for that having to do with something called an... 'audio stack', I think it was??? Not 100% sure what it meant, but basically, it is designed so the audio hardware only works in windows, I think... (so they can make more money, by making you buy the android tablet separately...)
hope this helps someone who stumbles upon this thread...

Wiebenor said:
Just to be clear...(and this goes for everyone wondering in the future) it was windows 10, from the factory??? Last i checked
they only shipped with windows 8.1 or android, depending on the model...If not and you put windows 10 on there, back when it was free, you just use the media creation tool from Microsoft to update windows 8.1 to Windows 10 (after restoring windows 8.1)... it can do this because most tablets have unchangeable hardware, so no cd key is required...it's like how your md5 hash verifies your downloaded files, Windows provides Microsoft with your hardwares md5 hash signature and if it is in the list, then it activates the pc/tablet... but, it only works if you got it free, not if you bought it... if you bought win10 then you will need your cd-key when you re-install, while the other steps are same as above... just note, that for the free upgrade there was NO cd-key, therefore in that instance, if it asked you for a key, you would leave it blank, which you can do in any case, and add your key in from Windows if needed...
And... as for the others having sound issues in Android, I read something about a reason for that having to do with something called an... 'audio stack', I think it was??? Not 100% sure what it meant, but basically, it is designed so the audio hardware only works in windows, I think... (so they can make more money, by making you buy the android tablet separately...)
hope this helps someone who stumbles upon this thread...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I realize this is a dead thread, but I had to chime in... I bought my NextBook Flexx 11 from Walmart 3 or 4 years ago and it shipped with Windows 10 Home, not Windows 8.1... However, IMHO, Windows 10 is a resource hog on this little device. I'm currently looking in to installing Linux...

[RECOVERY] TWRP 2.8.6.0 for Shield TV (all variants)

I was going to wait for this device to be added to devdb to make a release thread, but that's being delayed, if it'll ever happen. So, I'm making this thread as a placeholder. No big fancy text, just a known problem list and the release. If you're looking for this, you probably know what to do with it. Everything should work from flashing to backup and restore from all external media. If it doesn't, please report it.
KNOWN PROBLEMS:
1. This is a multirom edition of twrp, but there's no multirom support yet.
2. My wireless keyboard / mouse combo (an old Logitech MX something or another) fails to initialize the mouse on boot. I have to unplug and replug the USB receiver for the mouse to work. My wired mouse doesn't do this. I'm curious if anyone else sees a similar problem or if there's something weird with my hardware.
SOURCE:
device (branch cm-12.1-mrom)
kernel
vendor
CURRENT RELEASE:
For Android M:
twrp-20160222-UNOFFICIAL-foster.img
Known Issue: This release does not work on 4K displays. It boots to a black screen. Please use a 1080p display for TWRP until this is fixed.
For Android L:
twrp-multirom-20151112-UNOFFICIAL-foster.img
OLD RELEASES:
twrp-multirom-20150630-UNOFFICIAL-foster.img
twrp-multirom-20150624-UNOFFICIAL-foster.img
twrp-multirom-20150613-UNOFFICIAL-foster.img

MultiRom will be a must have on this device.
I really appreciate your work, and reading the various thread on xda I found out that you're one of the best developers for Nvidia Shield devices.
Without people like you we would all be locked in a large digital cage.
Compliments

Thanks Steel01!

I'm starting to slowly look at what I can disable in the kernel to shrink it down enough to fit in the recovery partition. Unfortunately, my first two ideas, network and sound, can't be unilaterally removed due to the android USB gadget (used for adb) depending on them. I've got it down to 26 MB, but iI dont know if it still boots. I'll try a few more things and hopefully have something working in the next couple days. I'm also hoping Tasssadar merges the 2.8.7.0 changes soon, the resize functionality will be useful (in testing I somehow shrunk my user data partition to 11 GB and had to reformat it get the full 4?? GB back).

Or it could be quicker than I thought. Todays test was successful. It's small enough to barely fit in the partition and appears to work correct. The link is in the OP. The next update to the multirom TWRP will probably make it too big again and I'll have to rip some more stuff out...

I want to install twrp recovery on my 16gb Shield, but i have no need for multirom. Is there an option to bypass the boot option or should I wait for a standard TWRP?
You didn't take much of a break before going back at it again. Thanks for your dedication!

Well, I'm not going back at it fully yet. Next week and a half will likely be pretty busy. I'm just doing a piece here and there.
This TWRP has multirom support, but does not require it or even set it up by default. In fact, to enable multirom, you have to install a separate zip (which I haven't released because it doesn't work). So no, you won't see any extra boot screens with this.
A standard TWRP build should be simple to make with the sources I've linked in the OP. I haven't released one here (or on any device I support) because I don't want to support it directly (basically, I'm supporting what I use myself). If no one else makes one, I might make a one time build for those that want it.

Hi Steel01, thanks for your efforts. I am a rookie at best at this, however, I managed to get this installed to my 16 gb shield tv, all appears to work fine, except I am unable to pair the shield remote, the shield game controller paired fine, but not the remote, just curious is this is expected, or maybe something wrong on my end. Also, If I wanted to load another rom at some point, is it as simple as booting to the twrp screen and selecting install? Hope that doesn't sound like a dumb question, I'm just a little unsure of that exact process. thanks

Remote controller fix
cdsn99 said:
Hi Steel01, thanks for your efforts. I am a rookie at best at this, however, I managed to get this installed to my 16 gb shield tv, all appears to work fine, except I am unable to pair the shield remote, the shield game controller paired fine, but not the remote, just curious is this is expected, or maybe something wrong on my end. Also, If I wanted to load another rom at some point, is it as simple as booting to the twrp screen and selecting install? Hope that doesn't sound like a dumb question, I'm just a little unsure of that exact process. thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do not worry and follow these simple steps to fix your remote controller problem:
This is quite normal after a system reset or wipe.
If the remote did not connect:
If the microphone symbol is not flashing, hold down the back and home buttons at the same time until it flashes (3 seconds).
If the microphone symbol does not flash after holding for 3 seconds, charge the remote and try again.
To charge the remote, connect it to one of the USB ports on the back of your SHIELD with the included USB cable or connect it to another USB power source.
---------- Post added at 06:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:01 AM ----------
cdsn99 said:
Hi Steel01, . Also, If I wanted to load another rom at some point, is it as simple as booting to the twrp screen and selecting install? Hope that doesn't sound like a dumb question, I'm just a little unsure of that exact process. thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes with TWRP it is very easy to flash a new rom, it is also recommended to use the recovery roms for updating your system.
Instead of running the OTO updates because this will undo your Root modification and reinstall the original recovery partition.
Download the correct firmware from this forum from the nvidia developers network, place it on a SD card boot to recovery and flash.
As a final suggestion have a look at the Flashify utllity (not compatible yet) or similar from the appstore, that a simple front end for flashing & backing up boot and recovery partitions. And it will enable you to boot to recovery in one click.
I have TWRP running on my Shield Portable / Shield Tablet without any problems.
Enjoy

Josti-Band said:
Do not worry and follow these simple steps to fix your remote controller problem:
This is quite normal after a system reset or wipe.
If the remote did not connect:
If the microphone symbol is not flashing, hold down the back and home buttons at the same time until it flashes (3 seconds).
If the microphone symbol does not flash after holding for 3 seconds, charge the remote and try again.
To charge the remote, connect it to one of the USB ports on the back of your SHIELD with the included USB cable or connect it to another USB power source.
---------- Post added at 06:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:01 AM ----------
Yes with TWRP it is very easy to flash a new rom, it is also recommended to use the recovery roms for updating your system.
Instead of running the OTO updates because this will undo your Root modification and reinstall the original recovery partition.
Download the correct firmware from this forum from the nvidia developers network, place it on a SD card boot to recovery and flash.
As a final suggestion have a look at the Flashify utllity (not compatible yet) or similar from the appstore, that a simple front end for flashing & backing up boot and recovery partitions. And it will enable you to boot to recovery in one click.
I have TWRP running on my Shield Portable / Shield Tablet without any problems.
Enjoy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Josti-Band , that fixed my remote, I appreciate it greatly. Thanks also for the info on flashing, I'm still have one more question, when I flashed the img file from this thread TWRP, did I change the rom or just the recovery? It seems like the rom is the original that was on the shield tv, If rom was not changed do you or anyone else have a recommendation. Thanks again for the assistance.

cdsn99 said:
Thanks Josti-Band , that fixed my remote, I appreciate it greatly. Thanks also for the info on flashing, I'm still have one more question, when I flashed the img file from this thread TWRP, did I change the rom or just the recovery? It seems like the rom is the original that was on the shield tv, If rom was not changed do you or anyone else have a recommendation. Thanks again for the assistance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No Problem, Your Shield TV has basically 3 partitions (to keep it simple)
1) Boot
2) Recovery
3) OS/Data (Rom)
With the steps you have followed
a) you unlocked your 1) bootloader, to enable the installation of unsigned packages to make this possible your personal data was erased/wiped from the 3) OS/Data partition.
b) Then you applied a new TWRP image to the recovery partition an replacing the old one.
So your 3) OS/Data (Rom) is still the original one you only wiped the personal data clean when unlocking the bootloader, this also the partition you will write your updated recovery images to. And stay updated.

I have TWRP running on my Shield Portable / Shield Tablet without any problems.
Enjoy[/QUOTE]
Josti-Band said:
No Problem, Your Shield TV has basically 3 partitions (to keep it simple)
1) Boot
2) Recovery
3) OS/Data (Rom)
With the steps you have followed
a) you unlocked your 1) bootloader, to enable the installation of unsigned packages to make this possible your personal data was erased/wiped from the 3) OS/Data partition.
b) Then you applied a new TWRP image to the recovery partition an replacing the old one.
So your 3) OS/Data (Rom) is still the original one you only wiped the personal data clean when unlocking the bootloader, this also the partition you will write your updated recovery images to. And stay updated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, that makes better sense, I will try and load a rom and gapps and see how it goes. thanks again for the assistance

Steel01 said:
2. My wireless keyboard / mouse combo (an old Logitech MX something or another) fails to initialize the mouse on boot. I have to unplug and replug the USB receiver for the mouse to work. My wired mouse doesn't do this. I'm curious if anyone else sees a similar problem or if there's something weird with my hardware.
Hi Steel01 , I have a logitech k400r wireless keyboard and mouse, it seemed to work ok, except was very laggy, had to wait for it a few seconds each time I went to move the mouse, and sometimes mouse would freeze.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have edited and deleted the orginal text from this post,and moved it to it's own thread. I realized I was beginning to hijack steels thread, I couldn't find a way to just delete the whole post, sorry.

Tassadar merged TWRP 2.8.7.0 into his multirom twrp fork today. So I ran new builds for everything I support. Unfortunately, I have not been able to test this device (TV's been busy all night), so YMMV. The other builds came off fine, so I don't see why this one should have any problems the last build didn't. Of interest in this build is the partition resize feature. So if someone does something weird like I did and ends up with an 11 GB data partition on the pro, it'll be *much* easier and quicker to fix now. Build is in the OP.

Steel01 said:
Tassadar merged TWRP 2.8.7.0 into his multirom twrp fork today. So I ran new builds for everything I support. Unfortunately, I have not been able to test this device (TV's been busy all night), so YMMV. The other builds came off fine, so I don't see why this one should have any problems the last build didn't. Of interest in this build is the partition resize feature. So if someone does something weird like I did and ends up with an 11 GB data partition on the pro, it'll be *much* easier and quicker to fix now. Build is in the OP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about the kexec-hardboot patch ? Do you have already tried it ?
The others binary for multirom execution are the same for all arm64 devices like the nexus 9 or we need a specific build for shield ? I never played with multirom stuff. There are specific problems to solve ? In case i can help you with experiments if you don't have much time.
P.S.
I tried your patch for the framework and all others new Nvidia binary + resigned private apk like blakepairing and others. But this year Nvidia added many others things to the framework. You can see by yourself with dex2jar.
It's a shame that for a stupid controller there are all this bloatware inside the firmware. Very bad behaviour, that a so big company not publish drivers for an hardware that we have bought. Fortunately we can use also better wireless controllers. But this fact really remove 10000 points from Nvidia as good company.

I've worked very little on the multirom side of things. The kernel repo has a mrom branch with a kexec patch, which still boots to stock. However, there's something getting triggered in the multirom init program that is skipping the boot screen. I haven't tried to track that down yet.
The controller part is off-topic, but there isn't really anywhere else to discuss it yet. Maybe I'll open a CM thread for discussion and put not working in bold at the top. Anyways, the framework patches work with the blakepairing shipped with the Shield TV, that's what I ship with my portable and tablet builds. But you have to deodex and stuff the class file back in the apk. Or easier, use the one in my vendor repo and just resign it. That should at least run. On a side note, the underlying technologies are all open source. WiFi Direct, wps, hid, etc. It just a standard USB hid controller with a WiFi chip and USB sound card. It's driven by an xmega (iirc) as well, those are all pretty open. It's obfuscation atm that stops me from completely reimplementing the pairing open source.

Steel01 said:
I've worked very little on the multirom side of things. The kernel repo has a mrom branch with a kexec patch, which still boots to stock. However, there's something getting triggered in the multirom init program that is skipping the boot screen. I haven't tried to track that down yet.
The controller part is off-topic, but there isn't really anywhere else to discuss it yet. Maybe I'll open a CM thread for discussion and put not working in bold at the top. Anyways, the framework patches work with the blakepairing shipped with the Shield TV, that's what I ship with my portable and tablet builds. But you have to deodex and stuff the class file back in the apk. Or easier, use the one in my vendor repo and just resign it. That should at least run. On a side note, the underlying technologies are all open source. WiFi Direct, wps, hid, etc. It just a standard USB hid controller with a WiFi chip and USB sound card. It's driven by an xmega (iirc) as well, those are all pretty open. It's obfuscation atm that stops me from completely reimplementing the pairing open source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Already tried all. deodexed and resigned stock stuff, also used your framework patch and your (resigned) apks . not work in shield console. as i write above in shield console there are others proprietary things in the framework. Tested also with your wpa_supplicant and hostapd but the result does not change.
In any way i will retry
We can discuss in a separate thread. sorry for off-topic. can be useful also for others developers

This is very interesting, please continue with this work! Would be great to get the remote working on other ROMs.
Thanks!
Steel01 said:
I've worked very little on the multirom side of things. The kernel repo has a mrom branch with a kexec patch, which still boots to stock. However, there's something getting triggered in the multirom init program that is skipping the boot screen. I haven't tried to track that down yet.
The controller part is off-topic, but there isn't really anywhere else to discuss it yet. Maybe I'll open a CM thread for discussion and put not working in bold at the top. Anyways, the framework patches work with the blakepairing shipped with the Shield TV, that's what I ship with my portable and tablet builds. But you have to deodex and stuff the class file back in the apk. Or easier, use the one in my vendor repo and just resign it. That should at least run. On a side note, the underlying technologies are all open source. WiFi Direct, wps, hid, etc. It just a standard USB hid controller with a WiFi chip and USB sound card. It's driven by an xmega (iirc) as well, those are all pretty open. It's obfuscation atm that stops me from completely reimplementing the pairing open source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Steel01 said:
I
KNOWN PROBLEMS:
1. This is a multirom edition of twrp, but there's no multirom support yet.
2. My wireless keyboard / mouse combo (an old Logitech MX something or another) fails to initialize the mouse on boot. I have to unplug and replug the USB receiver for the mouse to work. My wired mouse doesn't do this. I'm curious if anyone else sees a similar problem or if there's something weird with my hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a logitech K830 keyboard with trackpad and have exactly the same issue as you. I have to unplug and replug the usb receiver before it will work with the recovery.
The recovery itself is working great for me. I can access my external usb hd from the file manager, and I did a TWRP backup to the external usb drive last night :good: Ive sideloaded this app to boot straight into the recovery from the TV.. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gt.reboot.utility

Has anyone installed an ARM Linux distro like Arch Linux ARM...

...onto this device? It's the perfect size for an ARM laptop and Arch Linux is a great Linux distro too. I'm helping some devs port/get running natively Arch Linux ARM on the semi-ancient/underrated HP TouchPad from 2011. If it could run natively on this tablet, then I'd highly consider getting it to play with it on it.

I'm looking to do this also, I just rooted my pixel and tried "Linux Deploy" but it failed at "mounting /dev/loop0", looks like the stock kernel doesn't support mounting loop devices so this will be impossible until we get a new kernel.
edit: /dev/loop0 exists so I don't know why mounting fails...
Sent from my Pixel C using Tapatalk

So I've finally got it to install Ubuntu! Here's the steps I took to get it to install successfully:
First mount the system partition as read/write and generate /etc/mtab by accessing the shell and switching to the root account and typing mount -o remount,rw /system; cat /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab
Then install Meefik's (the guy that created LinuxDeploy) version of BusyBox (Stericon's version apparently doesn't have the ar command)
In LinuxDeploy's settings, change the BusyBox Directory to /data/data/ru.meefik.busybox/files/bin and hit Update Environment
After that, go into the preferences and select Ubuntu, then whatever version you want, and ARM64 instead of ARMHF and hit Install and let it finish. If it screws up and you need to re-attempt the installation process make sure to delete /etc/mtab and regenerate it, otherwise LinuxDeploy will think the /sdcard/linux.img file is already mounted, fail and won't tell you why. This kept screwing me up for a while also.

it's interesting that your ubuntu is arm64 and not armhf. i can't understand how that would work. i have a nvidia tx1 which runs armhf ubuntu 14.04 so i would have guessed that the pixel would be the same. i guess i need to read into linuxdeploy a bit and see what that is about.

It's ARM64 because the Tegra X1 is a 64 bit processor ARMHF will work too. All it does it create a chroot easily, a little difficult to look deep into it because a large amount of it is done using a binary he created.

brando56894 said:
So I've finally got it to install Ubuntu! Here's the steps I took to get it to install successfully:
First mount the system partition as read/write and generate /etc/mtab by accessing the shell and switching to the root account and typing mount -o remount,rw /system; cat /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab
Then install Meefik's (the guy that created LinuxDeploy) version of BusyBox (Stericon's version apparently doesn't have the ar command)
In LinuxDeploy's settings, change the BusyBox Directory to /data/data/ru.meefik.busybox/files/bin and hit Update Environment
After that, go into the preferences and select Ubuntu, then whatever version you want, and ARM64 instead of ARMHF and hit Install and let it finish. If it screws up and you need to re-attempt the installation process make sure to delete /etc/mtab and regenerate it, otherwise LinuxDeploy will think the /sdcard/linux.img file is already mounted, fail and won't tell you why. This kept screwing me up for a while also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is everything working out so far? I'm tempted to pop the screen off mine when it shows up to flip a switch for some chrome os fun (if I can figure out a way to do it gracefully) but might also just roll with ubuntu. Really interested in hearing how your experience has been... Thanks for sharing.

Youre welcome! I did it just for the hell of it, haven't really used it much since I got it working. A native install would be much better, I plan on seeing if I can get it to connect to a local X server, VNC works but Ive always found it to be odd when controlling the cursor. I always install Linux on my Android devices just because I can, once I have it working I'm like "now what can I use it for?" and I always come to the same conclusion, pretty much all the stuff I want to do in Linux I can do in Android lol Also since I've been at my parents all week since I've figured this out I don't have my Bluetooth keyboard which has a trackpad, which would make navigation far easier than controlling the cursor with the touchscreen. Since I have it working now with LXDE I may try to install KDE on it and then install virt-manager as an easy GUI way for me to control my KVMs since doing it via SSH is kind of a pain in the a$$ and the only Android app just allows you to start and stop your domains.
If you are actually ballsy enough to pop the screen off and flip the dev switch on yours you'd probably be praised far and wide since no one has done it yet hahaha
Sent from my Pixel C using Tapatalk

brando56894 said:
Youre welcome! I did it just for the hell of it, haven't really used it much since I got it working. A native install would be much better, I plan on seeing if I can get it to connect to a local X server, VNC works but Ive always found it to be odd when controlling the cursor. I always install Linux on my Android devices just because I can, once I have it working I'm like "now what can I use it for?" and I always come to the same conclusion, pretty much all the stuff I want to do in Linux I can do in Android lol Also since I've been at my parents all week since I've figured this out I don't have my Bluetooth keyboard which has a trackpad, which would make navigation far easier than controlling the cursor with the touchscreen. Since I have it working now with LXDE I may try to install KDE on it and then install virt-manager as an easy GUI way for me to control my KVMs since doing it via SSH is kind of a pain in the a$$ and the only Android app just allows you to start and stop your domains.
If you are actually ballsy enough to pop the screen off and flip the dev switch on yours you'd probably be praised far and wide since no one has done it yet hahaha
Sent from my Pixel C using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've only seen one paywalled teardown so far in some brief searching to give any hints / clues. After seeing cheep5k8's posts my interest has peaked and I am digging your posts as well. I need to run through the chromium os git and doc stuffs first before I fire up my heat gun and spudgers though...

Hi !
Me too i'm interessed on a linux instalation for my "ryu"
...Pretty interessed on ubuntu touch : the Pixel C seems to be the perfect item for the distro to combine tablet and pc in one.
Sadly i'm not a developper, but i hope somebody will think like me ^^

will this work with ARM64 Fedora GNU/Linux? or are there special instructions for that?

I have been working on this, please see http://forum.xda-developers.com/pix...ux-pixel-c-running-ubuntu-xenial-lxc-t3410655 if you want to run ubuntu xenial on pixel C

kxra said:
will this work with ARM64 Fedora GNU/Linux? or are there special instructions for that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was just using whatever distros were provided by Linux Deploy, half of them don't work anyway, for example Arch. I was only successful with Ubuntu IIRC.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

For those who are interested :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B8unHrbZK4
Weston and XWayland are running quite well on Pixel C (without acceleration until now)
I will try to publish something quite soon (there are still stabilities issues)

Defy - A 2016 Experience

Since this Defy Forum is getting a bit old, I thought I'd give my recent experience with my defy. This is quite a lengthy thread but there is so much information on this forum that it becomes confusing so thought I'd share my experience so you can cut through a lot of the information. I've had my defy for over 5 years with the stock froyo 2.2.2 and its served me well until recently its beginning to bug me with how laggy it is. Also I wasn't sure if the battery was running out a faster than it used to.
The first thing I thought I'd do is do a factory reset which I successfully did however when I went to put back on some of the apps that I had before such as Runkeeper, Telstra 24/7 and RSA Security token, none of them were compatible with my old phone. I was able to find old versions of some of the apps but not Telstra 24/7 which I use to recharge. At this point I decided on installing a custom rom which I'd done before on other devices. If it didn't work out then phones with the same specs were selling for $29 at a local supermarket so no real damage if I get it wrong.
The first thing was to root the phone which I found something called Superoneclick. I had to turn off my antivirus on my PC use it as there are some files that appear corrupt but doing some searching gave me confidence it was just an overzealous AVG and appeared safe.
Once this was done it was a matter of picking a Rom which I went for CM11 Kit Kat it seemed ok but not heaps better. The thing was I'd now picked up a real battery problem. I tried various Calibration apps to no avail. My battery was experiencing quite large drops of 20% ie it would go from 89% to 50% and then later from about 35% to 20%. It would then stay on 1% for quite some time.
Thinking this was due to the ROM, I tried several ROMs but they all had the same problem. Eventually i found a thread on the battery problem and although I didn't change all the permissions as advised I did so some of the other stuff to no avail.
At this stage I thought my main issue was now the battery and thought I'd read someone that perhaps a stock based rom might sort it out. I installed MS4Ginger which was really smooth however was still a bit laggy at times. Also I noticed that it wasn't able to support various apps being Android 2.3. After a bit more reading, my minimum requirement was Jellybean 4.1 and I'd read that the more recent the ROM the more RAM intensive so I decided to try ROMs with my minimum requirement ie 4.1
I'm not a fan particularly the way the Cyanogen type rom look so was looking for something with a different look and feel. The main ones were:-
Miui based ones (Wiui, Jiui) which I quite liked however lag was still there and the occasional sudden reboot. Battery problem still there.
Xperia ROM which was also nice but also did a sudden reboot then stuck in a bootloop.
There was still lag which I couldn't really understand.
Last Rom I tried was Motor Gun Ice 4.1, it still had the Cyanogen look about it but seemed to run pretty smooth. One thing I had to do was change the Baseband to Telstra in the 'Advanced' section of settings. This made the phone and internet connection work faster.
At this point I ordered a new battery. While I was waiting for that to arrive I read that Facebook app is really bad at taking up RAM. In found another app called Facebook lite and uninstalled the standard Facebook app. All of a sudden Lag Fixed.
This got me searching other 'Lite' apps. Now for web browsing i use Opera Mini and the launcher I now use is Holo Launcher. I also tried to find a replacement for Messenger but no luck and its not been an issue.
So now my phone is running better than ever. Web searching is fast and apps are running well, not that I use my phone for much more than a phone.
A few days later my new battery arrived and comparing to the old one, it appeared that the old one had a slight bulge. I charged the new one right up, discharged and charged again and now no more battery drops.
One last tweak I wanted was to try change the status bar icons. I found Xposed Installer and was able to change the icon colours to white but not the icon pictures. Good enough for me.
So now I'm very happy with my 5 year old defy, took a bit of trial and error but got there in the end. So in a nutshell: -
- If your battery is dropping upon installation of a Rom, likely need a new battery.
- If you phone is lagging, look what is taking all the Ram and look for a lite option or uninstall. Facebook is bad for that.
Note that there are many old links to roms and other mods so finding things that work was at times a challenge but here's the process that I found worked for me and works if bricked as well, which I did a couple of times.
If Bricked or to get back to stock
Download RSD Lite
Install drivers for the phone
Download an SBF for your region, I used Telstra with 2.2.2
To install custom rom
Install and use Superoneclick to root (may need to turn off antivirus)
Install 2ndinit.apk then run it. May need to reboot phone first
Download the Rom and Gapps and put on SD card of phone
Get into custom recovery
Wipe Data and Cache
Install Rom and Gapps
Wipe Cache and Dalvik Cache (for all but one Rom, I forget which one, read instructions)
Reboot and enjoy.

the gun rom link is down, where you downloaded it?

That was one of the few that worked. I accessed from the defy wiki page then I think downloaded from the XDA thread.
Yep, there some links in the last post of the MG ROM thread. Post #222.

Good someone still use defy. I give up after digitizer gone mad. Time run over this device... Uuuh, just if it had 1 gb ram and dual core...

Good to hear that someone else still have this cute little thing. I have too, as my second device. The ROMs I tried on this device! Man, it's countless. I had dropped it on all the different terrains you can think of, yet it's still fully healthy (save the jack and usb covers - they are loose now) without a single crack. I didn't have any covers or screen guards. It stayed true to its name. I will never regret spending money to buy this, it is one of Moto's legendary devices. I think I'm drunk, but it feels good to say all this. I'll keep this device forever with me - a product from a time when smartphones weren't made in an oven, but carefully and delicately cooked up.

Digitizer gone mad me too, the upper line is not working, but it is a good phone, for kids.
Which seller you order the battery?
Can you suggest ROMs to watch videos on Kodi, or Youtube?
I liked this phone, this is the best size phone, what i ever had.
Why the companys not make phone like this size, one hand controlled, with 2GB/32GB, and quad cpu??
Now i have Samsung S4 mini, and it is big for me

Battery was off eBay, can't remember seller but was Australian selling genuine batteries.
Just try all the roms possible, that's part of the fun
Sent from my SM-T210 using Tapatalk

I've been wanting to play around w/ my old defy again. This thread may have got the ball rolling. What do you all use as your daily driver? I've got a xperia z3 compact, but want a new phone. unfortunately, I think my best bet is to just get another z3 compact cheap and save it as a backup?

Hi tronjojo, I was still using my Defy until recently I found an old 4 year old Samsung Galaxy SII of my wife's. The problem for her was that it was switching off all the time so she got an S5. I've now flashed various roms and fixed the random reboot issue. The only thing I wish it has is the notification LED.
Sent from my SM-T210 using Tapatalk

I bougnt a Defy + battery on my Defy Red Lens, made my own BL7 fixed SBF and nandroid with 720p patch which made it a Defy Plus, then I rooted it and repartitioned to install CM11 and has made it very usable in 2016.

Make that Defy in 2018
I'm still using a Defy, since 2011. The battery still lasts longer than that in my wife's new Sony Experia X Compact, about as long as in my daughter's Xiaomi Redmi 4X. I will probably have to move to another device somewhere in 2018 as one of the more important apps - the Swedish BankID app - will cease support for Android 4.4 but that is more or less the only reason. For the rest the thing still does what it did 7 years ago so were it not for this I'd keep on using it until it gave up from sheer old age or electron migration or whatnot.

Make that Defy in 2020
I've recently tried if my Defy+ could learn some new tricks and I thought I'd share my findings.
CM11 build
I tried to build CM11 from Quarx repository, but it seems that many of its dependencies no longer exist and whole project is no longer buildable.
3.0 kernel
This one builds fine, however I was unable to boot it - there's one frame or random pixels followed by a reboot. I checked many branches and put the output into most probable directories. I wish there were any instructions as to what actually do with a built kernel. TWRP zips found here didn't work either. Anyone?
SD card size
Defy supposedly shouldn't work with SD cards larger than 32GB. But did anyone try bigger cards? My Defy mounts 256GB cards without any problems.
Debian on chroot
I set up a Debian environment with debootstrap. Unfortunately outdated kernel puts a limit on a Debian version that could be run. For 2.6.32.9 it is Debian Jessie.
With XServer XSDL it is possible to run a full graphical environment.
2.6.32.9 kernel modules
I also succeeded with building kernel modules for the old kernel. These are mostly filesystem modules and cryptographic ciphers. Now I could use whole Debian Jessie repository (49GB) locally from a squashfs filesystem.
Another nice feature is encryption with dm-crypt/LUKS.
I uploaded modules that insmod loads without any error.
CA certificates
These should be updated with system updates, but we won't have new CM/Lineage/stock releases anymore, so I did it by hand. If you want to try it for yourself, remount /system as writable, remove contents of /system/etc/security/cacerts/ (they could be expired) and copy certificates from the archive. Certificates are same as Debian's ca-certificates version 20200601.
Mirror
I also uploaded tools and images - self contained with instructions to go back and forth between stock and CM11, because many links here are spread across many threads or simply dead. Kernel modules and certificates are for CM11. I didn't try them with anything else.
I can't post a link to these files, because this is my first post. Search for ybea in Motorola Defy section at AndroidFileHost.

Another 2020 Defy warrior
ybea said:
3.0 kernel
This one builds fine, however I was unable to boot it - there's one frame or random pixels followed by a reboot. I checked many branches and put the output into most probable directories. I wish there were any instructions as to what actually do with a built kernel. TWRP zips found here didn't work either. Anyone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello! Did you check on /bootstrap/bootstrap/binary and other folders? There seem to be a zImage (and the recovery one).
I tried to flash and boot the ROM at http://blechdose-live.de/download/kernel/3.0.x/:
Tried flashing from TWRP 2.8: failed.
Extracted the update-binary, copied it to /tmp and executed it from ADB shell (/tmp/update-binary 3 0 /sdcard/cm11-blah.zip) and flashed with some things, mostly partition related errors. After rebooting, it stays on black screen (turned on), ADB available but unauthorised (just look on Github how to enable ADB from recovery to solve that) and that's all; the ROM doesn't work. I'll try debugging this to check if I can do something.
ybea said:
CM11 build
I tried to build CM11 from Quarx repository, but it seems that many of its dependencies no longer exist and whole project is no longer buildable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a sad thing, this year even quarx2k.ru became offline...

MaicoLinuX said:
Hello! Did you check on /bootstrap/bootstrap/binary and other folders?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Files extracted from 20131213 version did not work for me. I tried swapping /bootstrap/ (and /system/bootstrap/) zImages, binaries, edited cmdline, anything I could think of. Always with the same outcome - black screen.
Flashing in TWRP (v2.6.3.0) initially also failed. Fix_TWRP_and_boot_kernel3.0_v2.zip (on AndroidFileHost) makes it succeed. It is 3.0.8 kernel. It froze during the boot, restarted and finished eventually.

ybea said:
Files extracted from 20131213 version did not work for me. I tried swapping /bootstrap/ (and /system/bootstrap/) zImages, binaries, edited cmdline, anything I could think of. Always with the same outcome - black screen.
Yeah, it did the same for me. Did you read the logcat while device was in that screen? I saw something crashing there (can't remember), anyway that's not so useful if you need a whole new ROM just for the new kernel version. Maybe modules are causing problems?
Pretty offtopic, did you try the OTG function? I can't get it to work, most people say it should work out of the box but I wasn't able to use my USB mouse. Didn't check dmesg, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

MaicoLinuX said:
ybea said:
Always with the same outcome - black screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you read the logcat while device was in that screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How could I? Android isn't running yet. It it Linux that either fails to load or silently panics. That is my understanding anyway.
The right thing to do would be to check how cm11 build compiles the kernel and the 2nd-init (or whatever it is), but I am not knowledgeable enough, nor keen enough to do that.
OTG is buggy, but usable. If it doesn't work, unplug and plug it again. It is quite normal for my defy to recognize a device on a second or third attempt. No problems with mice, keyboards, flash drives, usb hubs. On the picture in the previous post you can see it with a wireless keyboard+touchpad. If I remember correctly, the driver is set to output 200mAh max. Maybe you mouse draws more (rather unlikely for a mouse). It works for me with cm11-20161124. Also, I think the port outputs 5V even after a device is disconnected, so it unnecessary drains power, but I am not so sure about it.
dmesg should definitely log any new device. Even if android stays quiet. If there's silence, perhaps your cable may of wrong type. USB A to USB micro varies with resistancy across two pins. I don't remember the details. If it is OTG cable, then it should work.
Or simply you have dirty socket/plug pins.

ybea said:
How could I? Android isn't running yet. It it Linux that either fails to load or silently panics. That is my understanding anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK 2ndInit keeps adbd running so you can take a logcat/dmesg from there, also faced the same issue while flashing CM10.2 OTG kernel on CM11 (what was I thinking?) and from there was able to see that something was crashing.
ybea said:
The right thing to do would be to check how cm11 build compiles the kernel and the 2nd-init (or whatever it is), but I am not knowledgeable enough, nor keen enough to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, I think just taking some time to understand the 2ndInit boot process is enough, anyway when I get some free time I'll check about this all.
About OTG things, now will install CM11 3.0 kernel and see how it works (I expect some unstability) but don't really need to use the Defy, it's just there for experiments
Anyway, my main goal now is to install Debian natively (on /data partition because of the size) and get X running. As you said, the 2.6.32 kernel puts the limit at Jessie, but that's not a problem as it's still mantained IIRC. I'm using a prebuilt rootfs but it keeps throwing Segmentation Fault whenever I try to chroot there, don't know what happens with this.
I'm doing the same on other 2 phones (Galaxy Y and Pocket Plus, ARMv6 and v7 respectively) but one doesn't boot my compiled kernels (?) and the other complains about the buggy framebuffer driver (thanks Samsung/Broadcom). I went pretty offtopic...
PD: tried to flash some JB Ice Gun Edition v2.02 from CWM and after reboot the phone just is stuck on boot splash, but WIUI runs fine. Maybe the JB IGE BootMenu is broken or something like that.

MaicoLinuX said:
About OTG things, now will install CM11 3.0 kernel and see how it works (I expect some unstability)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't have any luck with flashing zips with only the kernel. This 20131213 rom is the only way i know of. But frankly, there's more instability then stability in it. For example only home and power buttons work. OTG also non functional.
MaicoLinuX said:
As you said, the 2.6.32 kernel puts the limit at Jessie, but that's not a problem as it's still mantained IIRC. I'm using a prebuilt rootfs but it keeps throwing Segmentation Fault whenever I try to chroot there, don't know what happens with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jessie is no longer maintained. It stopped being oldstable about a month ago. AFAIK it changes little - apt continues to work; unless your applications have dependencies to newer libc, they should at least compile.
I build Debian root with debootstrap. On host machine:
Code:
debootstrap --arch armhf --foreign stable /debian http://http.debian.net/debian
Then mounting on Defy:
Code:
# Mount an sd card partition
mount -o remount,rw /
mkdir -p /debian
mount -o remount,ro /
mount -t ext3 -o noatime,suid,exec /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /debian
mkdir -p /dev/shm
mount -t tmpfs -o rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec none /dev/shm
mount -t proc proc /debian/proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /debian/sys
mount -o bind /dev /debian/dev
mount -o bind /dev/pts /debian/dev/pts
mount -o bind /dev/socket /debian/dev/socket
mount -o bind /dev/shm /debian/dev/shm
Then debootstrap second stage:
Code:
LD_PRELOAD= TMPDIR= PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin HOME=/root SHELL=/bin/bash /system/bin/chroot /debian /debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage
Done. To login:
Code:
chroot /debian /bin/su -
Don't chroot into bash. It will leak Android's shell environment into Debian's.
Android has its own groups and users. To make Debian adapt:
Code:
dpkg -i android-permissions_0.2_all.deb
Edit /etc/group, so that it contains:
Code:
inet:x:3003:root,_apt
net_raw:x:3004:root
Edit /etc/passwd/:
Code:
-_apt:x:104:65534::/nonexistent:/bin/false
+_apt:x:0:65534::/nonexistent:/bin/false
Edit /etc/adduser.conf:
Code:
-LAST_SYSTEM_UID=999
+LAST_SYSTEM_UID=99900
-LAST_SYSTEM_GID=999
+LAST_SYSTEM_GID=99900
-FIRST_UID=5000
+FIRST_UID=500000
-LAST_UID=8999
+LAST_UID=899900
-FIRST_GID=5000
+FIRST_GID=500000
-LAST_GID=8999
+LAST_GID=899900
Then:
Code:
apt-get update
apt-get install dialog
apt-get install locales
dpkg-reconfigure locales
apt-get install less man
If apt can't resolve hostnames select a nameserver in /etc/resolv.conf.
This how I setup Debian on chroot. Some of these steps may be unnecessary - they got accumuated over the years and I don't fully remember reasoning behind them. Debian inside /data/ should work too. I can imagine there would be problems with permissions on fat32 /sdcard, but /data/ is ext3.