yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing now that I'm rebooting a lot to test stuff. I'm thinking I'm gonna tweak the timing to be 5 seconds for the initial delay and 2.5 or 3 seconds on each selection change.

Also, for the folks with some questions a few posts back:

Yes, you would be able to use a stock ROM as an alternate ROM. I packaged one up for this late Sunday and it worked fine based on my quick testing. As smirkis noted, it just needs to be packaged such that it will point to the right partitions. I simply chose to test with CM7 because I had KANG builds on my build machine already.

No, you wouldn't use the same kernel for both ROMs. The kernel is packed into the boot image, and this bootloader will allow you to select from two completely separate boot partitions (thus, two different boot images). Each ROM has its own kernel, data storage, system, and (for now at least) cache. The only shared component is the /sdcard partition.

Last thing, just as an update: Initial testing seems to indicate that the partition setup procedure doesn't work correctly on ClockworkMod. I'm not entirely sure why yet, but I'm working on it, and I'll hopefully have a fair amount of free time this weekend. TWRP seems to work pretty reliably, but I want it to work on both.

I also think that the safest option is going to require that you wipe your sdcard partition completely in order to setup the dualboot. It's inconvenient, I know, but I think two batch copy/paste jobs isn't too excessive to ask of people, right?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] da-pharoah:
Patiently awaiting updates for this.. I wouldn't mind trying to dual boot my Hellfire kindle! I had dual boot on my hd2 and that was pimp! Thanks for your hardwork here!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] CodenameDeadpool:
That's what I've been doing as well
[Kindle Fire Android Development] da-pharoah:
Ok so whats up I'm most likely going to do this. However a pregunta, I'm now using cwm. Since iv last read the whole thread before you put the binary backup... I believe I read cwm is being picky with this awesomeness, is that the case still? Just have to ask because I will go back to twrp if need be..
[Kindle Fire Android Development] smirkis:
the binary is just the bootloader, not the script to flash thru recovery. so you can flash this if you want and have choice of normal boot or recovery boot. but he pulled the script for now and i believe is trying to get it to work with cwm
[Kindle Fire Android Development] da-pharoah:
Ok cool wrong word to choose and think I understand. Lol...still new to github myself... but sweet.. so looks like twrp is the way for now. Thanks
[Kindle Fire Android Development] smirkis:
Sorry, twrp is a recovery. So is cwm(clock work mod).

This is a bootloader.

The script in question, was to repartition your sdcard for multiboot, by flashing a zip in recovery.

Its worked on twrp(recovery)

But, had issues with cwm(recovery)

So he's still working on it. Manually it worked fine, packaging it for the masses is always the hard part lol
[Kindle Fire Android Development] da-pharoah:
Um yea I understand what they are.. but in order to flash the script, its better to use twrp recovery versus cwm.. is what I was trying to get at...
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
Yeah, this is basically what happened. I'm actually attempting to circumvent CWM (or any recovery, really) for the partitioning part of it now.

I basically recompiled the bootloader to add a "fastboot oem dualformat" command so that the bootloader will handle creating a proper partition layout instead of the recovery. Then you can go back to a stock layout with "fastboot oem format" as you normally would. The only catch is that the dualformat layout doesn't create filesystems for the new partitions, but that's actually easily fixed with a recovery flashable zip that just runs a quick format on all of the partitions (so the process would be: "fastboot oem dualformat", reboot into recovery, flash a zip to format the alternate partitions, ???, profit!).

So far it seems to be working on CWM, so if it works on TWRP too I'll probably try to start up another round of testing this weekend.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] raiderep:
Any chance you want another tester?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
I don't want any puppies to die, but is there an update on your progress to this much wanted concept:-)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
I've got some testing in motion. Everything works on my own Fire in both ClockworkMod and TWRP, so I'm hoping I've got this nailed down for the most part. Ideally we'll have some broader testing results in the next couple of days. In the meantime I'll be kind of on hold code-wise to see how my latest changes shake out.

Incidentally, I don't have a Twitter account (because I think it's kind of stupid) and I don't really use Google+ much, but anyone who wants to keep up on progress is free to poke around my GitHub activity. You'll generally only see when I've committed or uploaded stuff, but it's the fastest way to keep track of what I'm working on, I suppose. Or keeping an eye on this thread. I'll try to keep popping back in here for regular-ish updates when I have them.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
thanks

thank you you are a true gent:D
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
Update: Yeesh, people are apparently watching this thread (or maybe just this board?) like hawks. I think I've got everyone I need for now. Thanks for the volunteers!

Initial testing of the current version is looking good, but I'd like a few more people to try it before I release everything to the general public (probably in a new thread eventually). If you'd be interested in testing please send me a PM. I ask that you have some experience with the following:

Using fastboot and ADB (please have both working on your PC already).

Navigating and using a custom recovery. Either TWRP or CWM are acceptable.

Free time and patience.

Since this is still "testing" the general disclaimers about bricking and so forth apply, although I think that such a situation is pretty unlikely as long as you are able to follow the instructions correctly. Also note that you will be asked to format your /sdcard partition during the process, so be prepared to backup everything on it (otherwise you will lose it).

I just need a few people, so it'll basically be first come, first served.

Thanks!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] raiderep:
I have been testing this for a week or two without any issues and it comes in real handy for testing roms and what not. Good example is the test rom Hashcode put out won't charge the battery yet so I just boot to cm7 for a charge and then back into the test rom to play with it. I have switched recoveries back and forth twice and still works fine. Very nice work here and a sign of good things to come. :thumbup:
[Kindle Fire Android Development] Regionativo:
Indeed, this is a very nice feature, been testing it for a couple of days and been back and forth between ROMs, also removed dualboot and flashed it again as part of the testing and it simply works. Awesome work eldarerathis!

However there are things I've found that are quite interesting, the most important has been that when flashing the latest version of Stock ROM on the alternate partitions it wouldn't be able to get access to the Kindle's Serial Number, hence being unable to register with Amazon, I'm trying to figure out where that information might be and if it would be at all possible to access it from the alternate partitions. One method I'm thinking might work is try to restore a backup from TWRP or CWM into the alt partition, however I don't yet know how to do that, might try to figure it out as well.

Another issue happens when flashing ICS ROMs on the alt partitions, there is a flickering square on the middle of the screen that is just annoying, it might very well be because of the standard ICS issues (maybe Hashcode's new kernel will solve it, however I've not been able to boot it on the regular partition, maybe I'll try to flash it to the alt partition), per eldarerathis' suggestion I'll try AOKP and report back if there is anything different.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
This one I can definitely confirm now, though I'm not sure what's causing it. I set up a CM9 KANG on my alternate partition set and got the weird flickering black square. What seems to happen is that certain frames aren't rendering to those pixels, so they show up black, but other frames render fine.

So, for example, if you have the lockscreen up, tapping the ring will make the little waves animate out from it, causing the flicker as the screen redraws. Sometimes the last frame will have the black square in it, so you end up with what appear to be dead pixels just sitting on the screen until you interact with it and force another redraw. Other times it will render the last frame properly after the flickering in the middle of the animation. :confused:
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
Hi

Sorry for the noobish request.

Iv,e been trying to edit cm9 from to install on altpartition.

Iv,e managed to get the kitchen up and running:-)

Unpacked and edited the ram disc files OK I think?

I got a bit lost editing the updater script I think.

I repacked it and signed it.

Tried to install and got a "aborted install"

Can someone please post a modified cm9 rom so I can unpack it and see where I went wrong:-)

Thanks

Steve

sent from my ever evolving kindle fire
[Kindle Fire Android Development] da-pharoah:
Also post your script here too.. that would help bro
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
thanks for reply here is the script link. don't laugh its my 1st attempt at anything like this:-) http://www.2shared.com/file/ECOsb5jq/updater-script-text-01.html

thanks again
[Kindle Fire Android Development] da-pharoah:
no judging here bro. Let me have a look. Also out of curiosity what does the last_log say?? Its located in /cache/recovery

edit:

dang it!!! work PC blocks that site... um can you upload it to your post? I can view/download stuff from xda posts.

edit again..

let me see if I can view it on the g2x... its a bit tricky at work today with the cellphone... we are almost super busy and the bosses are walking around stalking people to make sure we dont have our cell phones out... lol but i'll try for you.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
here is the link to the initomap file errors maybe in here too:-)http://www.2shared.com/file/biXnhVOX/initomap4430rc-cm9-text-2.html

if you wouldn,t mind taking a look:-)

---------- Post added at 09:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:02 PM ----------

sorry how do i upload to my post? (post???????)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] da-pharoah:
there is the paper clip icon up top of the post where you type plus there is the manage attachments link if you scroll down a bit.. best if your on a pc.. its a bit tricky to upload on a cell or hellfire kindle :D..
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
The paths don't look correct. For example, when you mount /system:

mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/platform/mmcb1kOp14", "/system");

The 'platform' part of the path needs to be removed, and the partition name should be mmcblk0p14, as in M-M-C-B-L-K (all letters) 0 (zero) P (letter) 14 (numbers):

mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/mmcblk0p14", "/system");

Your init.omap4430.rc file looks like it needs the same changes.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] raiderep:
Kitchen? Did I miss something?:confused:
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
gotcha (i think)

http://xdaforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=999639&stc=1&d=1334261927

&

http://xdaforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=999640&stc=1&d=1334261927

try that
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
sorry i'm learning. lol
[Kindle Fire Android Development] da-pharoah:
+1 to these findings/changes...
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
Iv'e tried again :-(

--Installing: /sdcard/love77cm9hell.zip

finding update package...

opening update package

installing update...

E:Error in /sdcard/love77cm9hell.zip

(status 6)

Install aborted
[Kindle Fire Android Development] da-pharoah:
ok upload your last_log here. its in /cache/recovery. lets have a look at that too.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
here's the files.

if you can help
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
sorry im using cwm how do i pull up log (cache/recovery)?

edit: last log i think

installing /sdcard/lovejoy77cm9hell.zip

finding update package...

I:update location: /sdcard/lovejoy77cm9hell.zip

opening update package...

installing update...

installing samsung updater extensions

line 286 col 45: syntax error, unexpected STRING, expecting $end

1 parse errors

E:Error in sdcard/love77cm9hell.zip

(status 6)

Install aborted.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] da-pharoah:
when you boot into android use a root file explorer and nav to the root of your phone's file system and you will see /cache then inside there is /recovery then inside there is last_log.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
see edit ^^^^^^above thats it. i presume its a little on the small size. which i also presume means its not booting very far.

thanks again
[Kindle Fire Android Development] Regionativo:
most likely is an error on the updater-script, as I was trying to flash Stock ROM on the alt partitions for some reason it kept throwing that error, I started fresh and it worked without a hitch (until I found Status 7) which apparently was due to a faulty update-binary

check your dev/block references, make sure they are written correctly and make sure they point to the right place (mmcblk0p14 for system, p15 for cache, p16 for data)

btw, if you manage to flash ICS on the alt partition let us know if you also see the annoying flickering little square on the upper portion of the screen.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
thanks for all your advice.

all ive been trying to do is get hellfires cm9 installed on my altpartition but

im giving up for now.:-( maybe devs will start making roms for dualboot:-)

its just to advanced for me right now. ill keep reading and playing.

if anyone has a cm9 rom already converted for dualboot then that would be handy to compare against.

im close but im not even sure if im doing everything else right ie. repacking etc.

thanks again and keep up the awesome work
[Kindle Fire Android Development] Regionativo:
I've got a buffet for you my friend :)

- Hellfire

- AOKP

- Energy

- Unofficial CM9

Which one do you want? I can post the zip or just the script, btw, I am not building them at all, simply modifying the updater script to load to the alt partitions.

I flashed Hashcode's latest test ROM but as with normal partitions the screen would never show a picture :(
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
hellfire cm9 please.

---------- Post added at 01:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 AM ----------

full zip and script if you don't mind id like to see where i was going wrong:-)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] raiderep:
Sorry to barge in but I was under the impression more mods were needed for the kernel as well? I would also like one if you wouldn't mind. The Hellfire cm7 is what I wanted to try and get going on second partition. All help appreciated...
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
yes ive done those mods already i think.

but couldn't get the script right.

in the op theres a link to his github there are the instructions although tooooooo hard for me right now. lol

edit: just checked and the link is not in the op,

sorry for bad info
[Kindle Fire Android Development] Regionativo:
I'll upload and post link later today.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] Regionativo:
File available http://www.mediafire.com/?5aljo4lbjnemsie

Check the updater-script, that is the only place I made the required changes to flash it on the alternate partitions.

I don't have any CM7 ROM (other than the one provided by eldarerathis) but the changes would be the same, I'll try to flash either Hell CM7 or another one.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
did you mention that you don't edit boot.img, only updater sctipt?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
Also would there be a reason wifi doesn,t work on the version you posted,

sent from my ever evolving kindle fire
[Kindle Fire Android Development] Regionativo:
Wifi was working fine as I recall, I removed the alt partitions as I am testing some other stuff but will try it again to see if there is anything different, did tou run de alt format zip from eldarerathis?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
yes tried that. also some thing wierd is happening:-)

ive altered the script on a hellcm7 rom but not altered the omap rc file because i must be repacking wrong or something?.

anyway i formatted partition then flashed the rom with only the script edited and your cm9 rom was back on there. but every time i boot between roms it has to load up google again. allso i had reinstalled cm7sd.zip in-between your cm9 and my modded cm7???
[Kindle Fire Android Development] anantshri:
hi All,

finally i have taken the bite and installed the boot loader.

Anyone able to get CM9 ROM's working on alternate partition.

without any issues.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
all good except normal ics stuff & theres a little black square on the screen most of the time this was reported a few pages back:-)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] anantshri:
I thought someone might have been able to get around it but was not sure coz talks about it just died out.

so finally dropped a note to see if someone got ahead.

looks like everything is still the same.

I have stock on primary no plans of changing it so thinking of playing with ICS on secondary. lets see how it goes with me.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] Regionativo:
I'm waiting for the new kernel to be more stable to give it a try on the alt partitions. Maybe then the little black square will go away
[Kindle Fire Android Development] anantshri:
rc file

hi All,

need a quick help in editing the boot.img

inside boot.img in ramdisk we have large number of rc files

i am sure we need to edit at least

init.omap4430.rc

do i need to edit any other rc file coz most of them have mounting instructions.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
No that's it in boot.img but changes needed in updater script as well,

Although I can't get it to work:-)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] anantshri:
updater script modified thats working fine coz i can see that my alternate partitions got filled with proper content.

boot.img modification was just in the init.omap4430.rc

but that's not working and hence i am stuck here.

EDIT

Update

update-script is working fine did proper formatting and copy of content on proper portions.

boot.img is at boot2 partition

my boot2 is at /dev/block/mmcblk0p13

however alternate boot option keeps at that point only no action as if i don't have alt boot partitions.

this is my partition layout

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 131kB 262kB 131kB xloader
2 262kB 524kB 262kB bootloader
3 524kB 11.0MB 10.5MB dkernel
4 11.0MB 212MB 201MB ext4 dfs
5 212MB 229MB 16.8MB recovery
6 229MB 296MB 67.1MB ext4 backup
7 296MB 307MB 10.5MB boot
8 307MB 312MB 5243kB ext4 splash
9 312MB 849MB 537MB ext4 system
10 849MB 2041MB 1192MB ext4 userdata
11 2041MB 2309MB 268MB ext4 cache
12 2309MB 4190MB 1881MB fat32 media msftres
13 4190MB 4201MB 11.0MB boot2
14 4201MB 4601MB 400MB ext4 system2
15 4601MB 5001MB 400MB ext4 userdata2
16 5001MB 5129MB 128MB ext4 cache2
17 5129MB 7129MB 2000MB ext2 tux
18 7129MB 7690MB 561MB ext2 spark

Note: Partition layout is wired for specific reason which i don't think is going to affect the work.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
I seem to have the same issue, I tried for 4 days to get hellscm7 to work and eventually gave up.

It all repacked OK, I signed the rom and everything, but still didn,'t work.

If you find the answer let me know.:-)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
At last I got it:-)

Hellscm7 dual booting.

I tried everything and could not get this to work,

I just changed the numbers ie. 9 to 14 for system (left all other text in line as was).

Don't know if it helped in any way but I also swapped back from cwm to twrp 2.0:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] anantshri:
you are refering to boot.img or update-script

please share your changes.

also if possible can you pm me what all changes you did and what package you used for boot.img repacking
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
Updated.scripr:-)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
I was missing the (emmc)? out, just copying and pasting whole lines of text.

It worked when I only modes the two 9's for 14s and near the end changed the 7 for 13:-)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] anantshri:
Thank a lot to lovejoy777 i finally got the dualbooting working

my mistake i was using wrong boot.img compiling command.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
For anyone following this, I just want to give a quick update:

This appears to be in a pretty much working state at the moment, but I have a few things I want to try to see if I can alleviate the weirdness on some ROMs (ICS and stock ones, basically). It's just a bunch of shots in the dark, basically, but who knows.

I'm going to be absolutely slammed at work this week because we're getting ready to ship a new software release on Friday, but I'm hoping to have some time this weekend if all goes well at work. If not then I'll drop in sometime next week to update and hopefully post a "release" thread for the general public shortly thereafter.

Thanks for your patience!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
This is working brill.

I don't think it works as well with cwm. Had all sorts of issues.

Then swapped to twrp 2.0 now all working great on all roms I've tried.

The black square has gone:-) :-) :-)

Don't know if it was cwm or older cm9's.

Thanks again

Steve
[Kindle Fire Android Development] anantshri:
I can also confirm black square is not shown with cm9_reloaded which i am using as a dualboot rom now.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] Techlyfe:
I've read all throughout the 3.0 kernel forum that people who were having issues flashing roms and also some who were dual booting with 3.0 kernel alleviated their issues by using twrp instead of cwm.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] lovejoy777:
yes cwm does seem to have issuse

i couldnt boot hashes cm93k's untill i installed twrp

ive got hashes no 3 on my 1 partition and reloaded 1.2 on 2nd partition:-)

all working very good

hope this helps