Yet Another Root'd update.img available V0.28 for A7HT V1

[Himself]

NEW VERSION!

Version 0.28

Codename: Cletus YAR!

Some bug fixes for 0.27.

What's New:

• Market works as intended from 0.27
• Fixed init.sh again.. left off a let statement.
• Fixed format.sh script in boot.img and recovery.img, new busybox doesn't have mkfs.vfat, using mkdosfs instead.
• Includes mount.apk in system folder.

Download it here.
or here.

Version 0.27

Codename: SamJr YAR!

What's New:

• Made /system/fonts read write
• Fixed init.sh in boot.img, should help with flashing from one firmware to another.
• Minimalist Market.apk, just market this time.

Version History:

• 0.27 fixed bug in init.sh, replaced if with case, make fonts read write, added /.android/lib to the lib path, /.android/sbin is already there, you can override a binary or library by putting one with the same name in the path in front of it.

Download it here.


Version 0.26

Codename: SamIam YAR!

What's New:

• Ported YAR to new Archos base.
• Includes system modules for extra functionality. cifs, yaffs, lowmemorykiller, and aufs, thanks to X.
• Partition offsets and sizes are the same as stock, except for another partition for system2 taken from the user partition. I believe there are bad blocks in the A7HT or at least my tablet set from the factory, so when you move partitions around these badblocks are no longer accounted for by the system, leading to instability. Keeping things as similar as possible should help with this.
• System is still read write, but only partially writeable, bin and some system folders are left as read only, both for extra security and because I could only fit some much in the system2 partition. I am reusing the old userdata partition for system2, and moving userdata after system2 as a new partition. I considered adding more partitions but there would be disadvantages for 2M tablets and I had to hack vold as it is to get it off of mtdblock8, which is hard coded into it.
• Simpler implementation, just one boot partition.

Version History:

• 0.16 First run with just Archos and root, updated with new logos, included X's kernel modules
• 0.17 Put insmod aufs bits in init.rk28board.rc and set up /data/sysaufs for an overlay means of having system read write. Same partition setup as stock.
• 0.18 Fixed Market.apk code, removed pagecache out to /pagecache instead of /data/data, updated recovery scripts.
• 0.19 Used an initboot.img to format everything then boot into recovery to flash another boot partition. Userdata set to larger size than usual. Seemed stable.
• 0.20 Set partition offsets to KD0.21 offsets. Problems occured. Aufs was not working well. Tried to make system a regular ext3 partition again. Make the system partition overlap the backup partition to get more space and updated package-file to have backup contain nothing. Problems occurred, all partitions before cache are behind a wall, as you can see in dmesg output when you boot, you can't format them. Tried dd and flash_image to get around it, realised problem with factory set bad blocks or even new bad blocks can't be accounted for by flashing an ext3 image.
• 0.21 Tried to keep cramfs for system and tried splitting up system into the original offsets and sizes, using the backup partition for half of system. Idea was to have one referenced as cramfs to start and then mounted over with a ext3 partition. Didn't work.
• 0.22 Tried using [email protected] in init.rk28board.rc for lib, bin, app, etc, a bunch of img files to be mounted onto system points. You can create a bunch of loop devices but busybox seems to have a bug with releasing them, not a stable solution.
• 0.23 Thought I had something working with part of system being read write, and the rest cramfs, left half of system be rw and mounted the rest as ext3 within it using internal symbolic links, android decided to make system read only on it's own, with seemingly rw mounted bits underneath. Kinda useless.
• 0.24 Pointed the links outside of the cramfs partition to another mount point instead of trying to mount everything under /system. Working finally but with partition instabilities because I had the original userdata resized and it wasn't mapping correctly onto it's bad block list.
• 0.25 Moved system2 down the list one to replace userdata, moved userdata up one and made it's size such that the user partition would match what folks are using with KD0.21. Partition issues went away.
• 0.26 Experimented with various busybox implementations, decided to keep the Archos one they compiled for the firmware, cleaned up some duplication in sbin vs /system/bin, tested against Archos firmware for installation. Eliminated initboot.img since it was giving me grief with the cache partition due to recovery's size, and all it was doing for some formatting. Decided to release what I have.

Download it here.

* contains the Archos System folder with their pack in applications, a version of Market.apk for this release and update.img


Version 0.15

Codename: Skeeter YAR!

What's New:

• Added an extra partition for a read/write /system folder.
• Increased /data to 180MB.
• Separated Archos Apps out to the internal memory in folder Apps.
• wifi config file now referenced in /flash/wifi.
• Recovery image is more developed.
• Clock widget moved to initial screen.
• Wallpaper moves now.

Notes:

This firmware takes longer to flash, it formats all the partitions including /flash if it's needed, copies all the system files over to a new system2 partition.

You will first see Archos's logo then a red smoking gears logo, repeated again, just faster, followed by a grey smoking gears logo with system2 in the corner, then the normal smoking gears logo. This can take several minutes.

ADB logcat can be run at any time to see the progress being made as it boots. Since I am using a script instead of a binary I don't have a screen full of text to show on the tablet itself.

If you want to switch between the regular cramfs system and the ext3 system use setrecovery --system --reboot or --system2.

To remount /system read write just use mount -t ext3 -r -w -o remount /dev/block/mtdblock8.

test.sh in recovery is a front end for badblocks, just use test.sh cache to clear the partition to zero and check for bad blocks.

Similarly, mount.sh cache /cache, format.sh userdata, e2ck.sh userdata -y all look up the correct mtdblock partition.

Download it here.

Version History:

• 0.05 Moved clock and made wallpaper move, changed recovery logo to be shades of red
• 0.06 Added extra partition, tried various tricks with mount -o move to select new system partition.
• 0.07 Fixed issue with sdcard not being properly remounted after connecting with computer.
• 0.08 if /flash can't be mounted then format it and mount it, saves reflashing after formatting step.
• 0.09 Added --system2 and --system options to setrecovery functionality
• 0.10 updated recovery with device look up scripts for various functions.
• 0.11 updated init.sh to use new scripts to avoid hard coded refs to /dev/block/mtdblockX
• 0.12 Tested new offsets to match up with SirDom's 0.21.
• 0.13 Mkdir /flash/wifi /flash/wifi/sockets, edited server config path option, creates init config file if it doesn't exist.
• 0.14 Set up /flash/Apps and moved apk files. Created WakeLog.apk.
• 0.15 fixed issue with flashing from other roms due to recovery.img not being flashed immediately.

---------------------------8<-------------------------------------
Hi,

I just did up a firmware update for myself, that I thought I'd pass along, it's still a work in progress, but I like it. Basically, I had a look at Sir Dom's firmware and tried to figure out what it was doing, and did my own from scratch as far as I could follow along, with a minimalist approach to getting something functioning. The whole point for me was to have something done up that I understood the workings of so if something goes wrong when I am playing around, I have an idea of what it could be. :)

Version: 0.04

Codename: Fred YAR!


Features:

• Superuser mode enabled in boot.img and recovery.img, su binaries included. (aka MountNFS works so I can watch video's via NFS, I can enter recovery mode and do things like format a newly added partition, etc.)
• New boot images, all except the very first one, don't know if that can be changed.
• Latest versions of Appslib and Aldiko already included.
• Deezer, daily paper, global time and ebuddy removed.
• Location in browser now works for me, it didn't before.
• Recovery mode works. boot.img now goes into recovery mode on errors and stops instead of formatting and rebooting in a loop.
• File ownership sanity checks done for superuser/root.

Just so you know, there is no increased app space, and no google market in this version. I am testing stability for a read write system partition, and this is part of tracking down what is going on with partition changes in general and read write in particular.

Download it here.

Version history:

• 0.01 boot images in boot.img and system.img working and made pretty.
• 0.02 adb su working but not in android apps. All ownership set to root.root, lots of chown and chmod testing.
• 0.03 adb su working, su working in apps, permissions for sh set the same as su, but settings not being saved properly for wifi or calibration. All ownership set to user.user instead of root.root. browser location feature working suddenly.
• 0.04 only bin folders and make directories set to root.root, rc scripts as well. the rest set to user.user. su working. stable.

Have Fun! Feedback welcome.

Screenshots:



Titanium, andexplorer and shootme are not preinstalled.



If you wish to donate a few bucks , click here.

[lakehousetech]

Sounds like you've been busy! I'll give it a try tomorrow evening if I get a chance. Any reason you set version at 0.4? Is this built directly from Dom's code?

[Himself]

In a sense yes, I was looking through the image he did up, I took from it the chmod stuff for su, and I did a diff to see what else was changed to get where the wallpaper was located in system.img, that's about it. He has several files there modified from the original that I didn't use, could just be differences in permissions, or just resource changes, or simply looking through the apk files, part of the mess for google apps, dunno. The recovery bits I got from X over at slatedroid, but I had to port that over. He had a different adbd and some ril bits in the build.prop file that I didn't know the purpose of since it's not a phone, could be apad specific, it's not in the original Archos firmware. I started off from scratch with the original firmware in any event.

So, it's not a continuation of SirDom's firmware, the .4 doesn't mean anything, I was copying update.img over to a folder, each time I had something that looked like it would work, I would rename it update 01.img etc. :) That doesn't count the 20 or so times I flashed using SirDom's firmware when trying to create and change partitions. I must say, things are a lot easier once you don't change the partitions that exist, I had a lot of flashes where things would lock up or be unstable due to something wrong with the file system, a bunch of force closes from Google this or that. That is what I am trying to figure out now, just needed something I could work with, without extra issues clouding things.

[Shuman]

Dear Himself,

Veeery nice job! Thanks a lot for your effort. Please, next to the announcement, put installation instructions. Warnings about user data being lost are welcome as well.

Thanks!

[Alex1971]

Thanks.

I would like to test the first version with bigger App-Space :-)

I use sir Dom's 0.21 and like to install many apps. The original space was full in two hours....

so... are there chances that you increase the app-Space next time ??

[ViPaSoft]

Good work Himself,

I'll admit I don't understand a lot of this root.root or user.user or any of the su.anything, but probably 'cos I've never used linux or unix.

Only one question, what are the advantages of your image over sirdoms 0.2.1, either now or in the future.

Again, good work.

[map002]

Can I make a suggestion?

I'd consider restarting your versioning and renaming the FW to avoid confusion as other new FW branches might begin to pop up and Sir Dom might do another revision of his FWs in the future but go in a different direction.

Maybe this could be YAR 0.1? :D

Just my two cents.

Michael

[Himself]

Dear Himself,

Veeery nice job! Thanks a lot for your effort. Please, next to the announcement, put installation instructions. Warnings about user data being lost are welcome as well.

Thanks!

Hi,

Data wouldn't be lost if you have the same partitions as the original firmware, if you have SirDom's 0.21, then going back to the regular sizes will require reformatting and reflashing. Not sure why anybody would flash from SirDom's 0.21, except for curiosity. :)

Note: If you are flashing to a new update.img that has different partition sizes, you should probably do it from the sdcard, since having the update.img on a file system that is going to be destroyed is not a good idea.

So, instructions..

From Archos/Original partitions:

1. plug in tablet (into a usb port on your computer)
2. copy update.img over to sdcard mass storage
3. do safe remove/whatever it's called on your OS of choice.
4. unplug tablet
5. plug in power cord
6. press accept on the install dialogue
7. wait
8. calibrate screen as usual, hit all the buttons, reinstall your apps.

From Modified partitions:

9. plug in tablet to computer
10. format ARCHOS7 from Windows, Linux, MacOS see other thread.
11. copy update.img over, doesn't matter which one (usb storage or ARCHOS7)
12. press accept on the install dialogue
13. wait, etc.

Same deal as SirDom's firmware.

If you are changing partitions when installing this one, be sure you have adb working, if anything goes wrong, the tablet will be in recovery mode and you'll need it to proceed.

Cheers!

[Himself]

Can I make a suggestion?

I'd consider restarting your versioning and renaming the FW to avoid confusion as other new FW branches might begin to pop up and Sir Dom might do another revision of his FWs in the future but go in a different direction.

Maybe this could be YAR 0.1? :D

Just my two cents.

Michael

Hey,

Changed to .04, I'll call this version Fred. YAR 0.04, sure, doesn't matter to me. It's that one and not the other one, about all that matters at this point. :) I see what you are saying though, we have .1, .3, and .21 on the go from SirDom, so it could get confusing for non English/newbie folks.

[Himself]

Good work Himself,

I'll admit I don't understand a lot of this root.root or user.user or any of the su.anything, but probably 'cos I've never used linux or unix.

Only one question, what are the advantages of your image over sirdoms 0.2.1, either now or in the future.

Again, good work.

Hi,

There are no advantages, none, you are losing out on functionality. It might be handy in emergency situations, or for folks experimenting with the linux side of things. I like Aldiko so I have it included (1.2.10), so that's different. I might get something working with a read write filesystem, and different sized partitions, dunno. If I do then it is still on the geeky/linux side of the equation, hacking and such. General user features, not so much. It's basically stock Archos with root and some of the bundled apps gone, and there are some geeky add ons. SirDom will probably do another update and make it totally obsolete. :)

Cheers!

EDIT:

Quick run down on unix/linux and file attributes as I understand them, it's been a while:

All files in the linux filesystem have ownership and permission attributes, extra information stored along with the file, along with last modified date/time, last accessed date/time that you may be familiar with in Windows, etc. Who owns the file determines who can access it, and if it's an executable or script, the ownership controls what other files can be accessed by it. One security issue with linux is running something that is owned by root, whatever code is run can pretty much do anything, and whatever code is called by that program also runs as root, any files created inherit the program's permissions and ownership unless told not to.

Access permissions are read, write and execute, where execute can mean different things, for directories it means you can open them. These access modes are broken down into 3 sections, one for users, one for groups, and other. This is more about multi-user environments, where you have groups set up in /etc/group, faculty, students, etc. So if you have foo.rc, owned by bob of group faculty, and it's group permissions are rwx, you can edit the file and execute it. None of this really matters for Android since there is no /etc/users or /etc/group.

In the official Archos firmware, just about everything is owned by root with full user-group-other permissions, which is ok, since the file system is read only and ro.secure=1, which means you are not running as root and can't enable it, usually. When you change that, every program with ownership set to be root is running with elevated permissions, so you might has Settings saving a file that can only be accessed by another program with the same elevated permissions. So, you calibrate your screen only to find that you have to calibrate it again next boot because the file can't be read because it's owned by a user/group with higher clearance than the program running.

Bottom line, the permissions that might work when there is no root access allowed change once you enable root. It's like turning on your security system, before you could open and close your front door at will, now if you don't enter a code you get the cops showing up. :)

Hope that helps..

[oguie]

Good work Himself, been using it since yesterday and it feels great.

I am fan of mininal installations and the A7HT certainly feels faster with this than with knightdominion's or stock image (i am not trying to offend anyone, it just feels faster).

Keep the good work.

ALLEN: Do you think it already deserves to be pinned? Since I believe that Sir Dom has found another object of his devotion (I dont blame him, the A7HT feels like an unfinished gadget)

[AllenPapapetrou]

Aloha ogule and all,

I'm following this topic. Himself, I waiting to see where you and the group take it before I add it to the front page and/or sticky it.

I'm not interested in hacking the 7HT myself. I haven't installed any of the FWs from Himself or Sir Dom. However, once I see a screenshot from the 7HT posted on our forum then I'll flash to the FW which allowed the screenshot.

Allen

[ViPaSoft]

Perhaps it's me but what do you mean;- "However, once I see a screenshot from the 7HT posted on our forum"

[AllenPapapetrou]

I don't understand. Isn't that what I said?

Allen

[map002]

He's not interested in hacking the device in and of itself, but he will install a FW that would let him take screenshots, as many rooted FWs can do.

Michael

[map002]

Oops, he's here to explain it for himself. Didn't see you there, Allen! :D

Michael

[AllenPapapetrou]

Actually, Michael, I didn't get it from ViPaSoft's post. So, thanks for resaying what I mistakenly thought was obvious.

Ok ViPaSoft?

Alle

[Himself]

Hi Allen, see snapshot in first post, never thought of taking one. I used ShootMe from Appslib in audio mode, just ran my finger over the mic for half a second.

[Himself]

A few observations from using this update.img for a while now..

1. I haven't had to restart wifi after leaving it idle, set it and forget it pretty much.
2. Battery life during suspend is different, I know if I locked the tablet before and left it overnight then it would require recharging the next day, now it's hardly lost anything.

Maybe I'm just imagining things, I didn't change any code to cause that, just updated permissions. Anybody else notice this?

[AllenPapapetrou]

Aloha Himself,

Thanks for the screenshot. I've got an Archos A9 coming in today and an iPad next week. Free time shrinks. Once I get the A9 and iPad configured, I'll flash your firmware.

Thanks again!

Allen