Develop Bugs

Why don't my boot.img files boot?

Ok so I customized a boot.img (init.rc file) and repacked it using mkbootfs and mkbootimg. For the life of me, I can't get these boot imgs to boot. Any ideas why? The same exact stuff worked fine on my Hero.

chuckhriczko said:
Ok so I customized a boot.img (init.rc file) and repacked it using mkbootfs and mkbootimg. For the life of me, I can't get these boot imgs to boot. Any ideas why? The same exact stuff worked fine on my Hero.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well some more detail would be really helpful in troubleshooting. hopefully you're able to get something ... im still new to the style HTC uses for their kernels.
is the kernel booting and not loading the init.rc properly (possible adb output?) or is the kernel not even loading properly? how far along with the boot screens do you get?

are you using --cmdline and --base?

Good call. I should probably post the commands I used. lol
Ok so I did change my init.rc but for testing purposes I just unpacked the stock boot.img and immediately repacked it. the commands are as follows:
Code:
$ mkbootfs boot.img-ramdisk | gzip > ramdisk-boot
$ mkbootimg --kernel boot.img-kernel --ramdisk ramdisk-boot --cmdline "no_console_suspend=1 console=null" -o newBoot.img --base 0x19200000
Then generates a boot.img file successfully but it still does not boot. Any ideas?
Edit: And of course I renamed newBoot.img to boot.img and included it in an update.zip which all flashed with no errors. Just never gets past the first HTC Evo 4G boot screen

chuckhriczko said:
Edit: And of course I renamed newBoot.img to boot.img and included it in an update.zip which all flashed with no errors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im still beginning in building boot.img files for HTC android phones. my experience is with building a straight zImage kernel file with an initramfs compiled into the zImage kernel file for a Samsung android phone.
hopefully somebody can comment with some better insight, on mkbootfs, etc as I'm also very curious what the best command is for our EVO.
my only comment is a side note to the flashing process and hopefully this method will speed up testing for you and everybody else. i wrote the commands ROM and recovery/normal android mode independent. this is how i would quickly test kernels on my samsung android based phone, assuming it works the same on HTC?
adb push boot.img /sdcard/boot.img
adb push flash_image /sdcard/flash_image (only have to do once)
cat /sdcard/flash_image > /data/flash_image (only have to do once)
chmod 755 /data/flash_image (only have to do once)
/data/flash_image boot /sdcard/boot.img
reboot the phone to test ... hopefully that simplifies the kernel testing process!
thanks for posting up all your detail, its insightful and helpful!

--base 0x20000000 <~ change to
btw moving thread to q&a

toastcfh said:
--base 0x20000000 <~ change to
btw moving thread to q&a
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worked perfectly. Thanks Toast.

[Q] UnPacking&Packing&Repacking Boot/Recovery.img?

Can anyone give me a tutorial specifically to the Samsung Galaxy Gio (5660m) on how to UnPack, Pack and Repack the boot.img and or recovery.img (<-- mostly this)and then back to the IMG File(RePack)?
I know when you create a repack (to IMG) command you include a BASE, PAGESIZE(maybe), cmdline, kernel, ramdisk, and -o repackedboot.img
This is why it must be specifically to Gio (in my case 5660M) becasue of the base and cmdline (I think! I'm not sure) BECAUSE when i made a custom recovery.img based on Clockworkmod (I replaced GIO.rle with the stock recovery to make the CWM boot show its 5660M) my phone wouldn't boot up!
So I flash stock rom (Odin) again LOL and now I want to be safer this time.
Thanks for reading! I need help! Here is my code that made my non-bootable recovery.img:
*NOTE: I use CYGWIN on Windows
Code:
Repack to IMG
./mkbootimg --cmdline 'no_console_suspend=1 console=null' --kernel recovery.img-kernel --ramdisk ramdisk-new.gz -o recovery-new.img

Editing Huawei Ascend P1 (U9200) boot.img

I'm trying to make insecure boot.img for U9200 for my firmware version (V100R001C185B104). Unpacking original boot.img and ramdisk goes OK. After making changes to defult.prop I do the following:
mkbootfs ./ramdisk | gzip > ramdisk-new.gz
mkbootimg --kernel boot.img-kernel --ramdisk ramdisk-new.gz --base 0x80000000 --cmdline "console=ttyGS2,115200n8 mem=1G vmalloc=768M omap_wdt.timer_margin=30 mmcparts=mmcblk015(splash)" --board omap4 -o tools/flash/boot.img
New boot.img is successfuly created but doesn't boot (fastboot boot boot.img). What am I doing wrong?
I've got parameters using bootimg.exe and I think they are OK. There's nothing about them on the net
EDIT:
I made it using other mkbootimg.exe. This one accept more input parameters. This time I use bootimg.exe for upacking bootimg and unpacking and packing ramdisk. I did:
>bootimg.exe --unpack-bootimg
>bootimg.exe --unpack-ramdisk
Do changes at default.prop.
>bootimg.exe --repack-ramdisk
>mkdir flash\
>mkbootimg --kernel kernel --ramdisk ramdisk.cpio.gz --cmdline "console=ttyGS2,115200n8 mem=1G vmalloc=768M omap_wdt.timer_margin=30 mmcparts=mmcblk015(splash)" --board omap4 --base 0x80000000 --pagesize 2048 -o flash\boot.img
Reboot to bootloader:
>adb reboot bootloader
Test if you have good drivers installed:
>fastboot devices
If OK, test your new boot.img without flashing it:
>fastboot boot boot.img
If device boots and you want to have this image permanant flash it with:
>fastboot flash boot.img.
I've attached the tools that worked for me. I'm coplete noob in Android cooking, this is my first steps. There are lot about editing boot.img on the internet but nothing about my device so I decided to start a new topic if someone is also interested in.

also cracking my U9500. Have you done with your problems?
i use bootimg.exe to unpack & repack the img file, using same parameters and nothing modified to the extracted files,
but,
the new & old boot.img(should be same) are not same using binary compare.
according to a file that describes how boot.img is structured, i found that some key parameters are different in these two img file.
I don't know why ....
so if you have succeeded, PLZ tell me ..
contact me qq 6777711 if you're Chinese. or mail me: 6777711 AT qq.com

Nice one. I'll take a look at this aswell.

[dev]How to Un/Re/Pack a Boot.blob and unyaff a boot.img

Technically i have to give credit to scott crossler
www.scottsroms.com
for showing me the method
and then i came upon turges
faq
Thanks Turge and Scott and whomever created these blobpacktools
but since i keep getting pms
and im sure you do to
scott
Here are the steps for repacking the boot.img. Some involve running the commands via cygwin, others involve running them via the Windows Command Prompt.
The instructions for installing cygwin, extracting and repacking the boot.img were found here: http://www.freeyourandroid.com/guide...ot-img-windows
Once you have setup cygwin, extract the attached files in a folder under your "home" folder in cygwin.
Also unzip blob tools into the same folder as your boot.blob
1.
Code:
copy boot.blob to the same folder and run the following via
the Windows Command Prompt to extract the boot.img from the boot.blob:
BlobUnpack.exe boot.blob
ren boot.blob.LNX boot.img
which will create boot.img
2.
Code:
From the cygwin bash terminal window,
switch to the same folder and run the following
to extract the ramdisk from the boot.img:
./extractboot boot.img
You now have an out/ramdisk folder
that contains the files you want to edit.
3.
Code:
Once done, repack the ramdisk and kernel into boot_new.img
with the following command (via cygwin once again):
./packboot
4.
Code:
then from the Command Prompt repack boot_new.img
into boot2.blob using the following:
blobpack -s boot2.blob LNX boot_new.img
5.
Code:
You can now flash the boot.blob to the staging
partition via a command in updater-script:
Code:
package_extract_file("/boot.blob", "/dev/block/mmcblk0p4");
or by using adb while in recovery/android:
Code:
dd if=/sdcard/boot2.blob of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p4

Lastly the rundown is like this
if you want to take a ota blob
and extract the contents for a raw base
and a raw kernel
1
take the ota and extract the blob file and place
in your folder with blobtools
2. then run
Code:
blobunpack.exe blob
Which now creates
Blob.APP =System.img (can be renamed system.img and unyaffed in the kitchen)or straight cygwin
Blob.sos=Recovery Img
Blob.Ebt=Bootloader information
Blob.Lnx=kernel (can also just be renamed boot.img and unyaffed in kitchen)
Blob.pt=Partition info
so to repack lets say your custom remade image
and your custom kernel
and a recovery of your choice
run
Code:
blobpack.exe -s blob lnx boot.img sos twrp.blob app system.img
then simply take the blob replace in the ota file
and flash in recovery
and it should flash a rom packed as a blob

Hi!
...also you can flash the new boot.blob via fastboot mode
>fastboot-i 0x0B05 flash boot boot.blob
:good:

Call me stupid, but what does repacking the boot.img do? I never pm'ed you, but what would we gain from this. a lil lost

unpacking a boot.img allows you to take a stock already built kernel
and make specific changes to the ramdisk
more specifically
default.prop
can make kernel insecure
debuggable
bootanimation enabled
blah blah blah
and init.rc
but also
cardhu
and goldfish.rc
and init.trace
and init.usb
then repacked and good to flash

seanzscreams said:
Lastly the rundown is like this
if you want to take a ota blob
and extract the contents for a raw base
and a raw kernel
1
take the ota and extract the blob file and place
in your folder with blobtools
2. then run
Code:
blobunpack.exe blob
Which now creates
Blob.APP =System.img (can be renamed system.img and unyaffed in the kitchen)or straight cygwin
Blob.sos=Recovery Img
Blob.Ebt=Bootloader information
Blob.Lnx=kernel (can also just be renamed boot.img and unyaffed in kitchen)
Blob.pt=Partition info
so to repack lets say your custom remade image
and your custom kernel
and a recovery of your choice
run
Code:
blobpack.exe -s blob lnx boot.img sos twrp.blob app system.img
then simply take the blob replace in the ota file
and flash in recovery
and it should flash a rom packed as a blob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
For a linux (Ubuntu) machine you can easily unpack blob.APP
> sudo mkdir mnt
> sudo mount -o loop blob.APP mnt
- now in your mnt directory , you will have /system ! :good:

Hi,
My TF300tl can't unlock bootloader. so can I use this way to pack custom ROM ( cm11, liplop...) as official ROM to flash for my tablet ?

konnichiwa said:
Hi,
My TF300tl can't unlock bootloader. so can I use this way to pack custom ROM ( cm11, liplop...) as official ROM to flash for my tablet ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't think so, as the ROM would have to be signed to be official

Repack Stock Firmware with Android 10 for Odin

I am trying to de-bload/modify the original stock firmware and flash it to my phone using odin without installing TWRP. I have already successfully flashed Magisks this way. However, all the guides I found on modifying the system.img seem to be outdated and do not work anymore.
Here is my current workflow (all on Debian 10)
Code:
tar xvf AP_*.tar.md5 #from original stock rom package or magisk_patched_*.tar) into sub-directory
lz4 -d system.img.lz4
simg2img system.img system.raw.img #either the Debian version or fresh compile from https://github.com/anestisb/android-simg2img
mkdir sys
sudo mount -t ext4 -o loop system.raw.img sys/
# Do a bunch of changes in the mounted image e.g. delete Samsung bloatware
sudo umount sys/
img2simg system.raw.img system.img
lz4 -B6 --content-size system.img system.img.lz4
tar --owner=1000 --group=1000 -H ustar -cvf AP_modified.tar *
md5sum -t AP_modified.tar >> AP_modified.tar
mv AP_modified.tar AP_modified.tar.md5
Unfortunately, the resulting file does not work because odin hangs or odin finishes and the phone is stuck in a boot loop. Anybody knows what I am missing here. Bootloader is unlocked, as I said, I could successfully flash the modified AP_* from magisk.