yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
My initial goal was to get a Gingerbread kernel that a) supports the Galaxy Ace (the Gravity SMART's more popular cousin) and b) actually compiles, but I didn't have much luck. The kernel I wanted to use was built against some long-deprecated kernel source that I couldn't dig up--and applying the diff against the Samsung stock source tree failed to compile.

So, I've gotten a copy of the source to the ICS kernel developed by Maclaw & others [still too newb to post links] for the Samsung Gio and Samsung Ace.

Next step: finding the stuff unique to the Gravity SMART.

Fun fact: The Gravity SMART was originally code named the Gravity Touch 2, and this is reflected in the source code where the model's config flag is named CONFIG_MACH_GT2 (as opposed to CONFIG_MACH_COOPER for the Ace).

My initial suspicions are proving to be pretty spot-on. Quite a few of the changes involve simply adding "|| defined(CONFIG_MACH_GT2)" into an existing chain that typically includes the CONFIG_MACH_COOPER or CONFIG_MACH_GIO. However, there are a number of notable exceptions. Thanks to the power of a recursive grep, I've got a list of files and I'm slowly but surely getting the changes ported over.

I have a ways to go before I get a compiling kernel, but there's still one big hurdle to jump after I get all the changes brought in: Wifi.

The stock kernel uses a kernel module, dhd.ko, which appears to be a Broadcom driver. However, I suspect it may be customized/proprietary because the kernel config flag (CONFIG_BROADCOM_WIFI) isn't used anywhere in the source tree. Both the ICS and FroYo kernel sources have code for -other- broadcom drivers, but there may be compatibility issues. I also found a Broadcom driver on googlesource which I suspect was Samsung's starting point for the aforementioned kernel module, but it doesn't come with any instructions for compiling it so I'm not quite sure what to do with it. I'll probably start by just trying to use the kernel's built-in driver and poach the firmware file from the googlesource package, and see what happens. :)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
OK, so a status update--

Using the list of files containing the CONFIG_MACH_GT2 tag as a guide, I went through and modified/ported the code as best seemed to make sense from the Samsung code into the ICS kernel.

Then began the fun of trying to compile the kernel.

The configuration routine wanted to eat my own CONFIG_MACH_GT2 flag, so I had to do a little more hacking to figure out how to modify the kernel configuration files to recognize it as a valid configuration option. For the benefit of others, I'll post the results of my research:

1) Edit arch/arm/tools/mach-types to add the machine type

2) Edit arch/arm/mach-msm/Kconfig to add the configuration option

3) run 'make distclean' to make sure that all the generated stuff gets regenerated properly.

Now it's recognizing the CONFIG_MACH_GT2 option, but one of the modules is failing to build. But, I'm too tired to tackle it right now so it will wait until another day.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
It compiles!

... which of course doesn't mean it actually works.. I haven't had a chance to test it yet. Fortunately I have the ODIN files to restore ifwhen something goes horribly wrong. :)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] UnknownGuy666:
Hoorah! Here's hoping it works! :) :cool:
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
Well, no dice. Stuck at "SAMSUNG" which, admittedly, is better than previous attempts at flashing a custom boot/recovery image (just got a blank screen on those attempts..)

In the process, though, I learned a few important things:

1) To flash any custom firmware, you need Odin 4.40 USA. Newer versions do not work.

2) How you make the .tar.md5 file matters! The files have to be added to the archive in the right order. I determined the order by extracting the stock firmware I acquired from samfirmware.com (using 'tar xvf') and then made sure that I added them in the same order when I created my version. If the files aren't in the correct order, Odin will crash when attempting to flash the phone.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BG64:
Thank you!

I have been waiting for so long for someone to start something with this phone. I will help in any way I can, if you would like. I am a bit of a newb, but I have done a few things with a Dell streak 7 and an Optimus One, as well as interop unlocking my LG Quantum (a windows phone, but w/e :p)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
I'm another step closer!

After the spectacular failure of my first attempts, I decided to try a smaller step--unpacking the stock boot image, making a useless change (putting "Hello, World!" at the top of /init.rc), packing it back up, and flashing it. When this also failed, I thought perhaps I was working against a locked bootloader.

After finding absolutely no information about the presence of a locked bootloader, and with similar phones not needing any special unlocking, I went a little more basic: what if I unpacked and repacked the boot.img without any changes? I did this, and I was surprised to find that the repacked file didn't match the original at all.

I did a little more research and playing around with mkbootimg, and successfully disassembled and re-assembled the original boot.img file (verified by comparing md5 checksums). I used the same settings to retry my "Hello World" test--and lo and behold, it WORKS! :D:D
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] UnknownGuy666:
Nicely done, I knew you could do it! :D
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BG64:
Awesome job! I can't wait to see how this works out! :D
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
Well, unfortunately, it hasn't. While I've been able to modify the contents of the ramdisk cpio, my kernels aren't booting. Or if they are, they're failing before anything useful happens.

Anyway, the trick to creating the boot.img and recovery.img:

The images are in the standard Android format, as documented here. In fact, the unpack-bootimg.pl from that page works brilliantly. However, to re-pack the image, it's best to use mkbootimg directly.

Let's say you've got your gzipped kernel named 'kernel.gz' and the gzipped cpio archive of your ramdisk named 'ramdisk.cpio.gz', and let's say you want your resulting image file to be named 'yourboot.img'. Then you'd use the following command:

mkbootimg --kernel kernel.gz --ramdisk ramdisk.cpio.gz --base 0x13600000 --pagesize 4096 -o yourboot.img
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
From further research, it appears that in order to boot a newer kernel than what shipped with it, the boot loaders need to be modified to accommodate it. The reason is that the access to the internal memory partitions is handled by a proprietary Samsung kernel module, which only exists for the kernel the phone shipped with. Even if I had the source for the Samsung module, the boot loader needs to support the newer version of the Samsung module.

So, what I'm going to try next is hacking the kernel to force it to report the same version as the phone expects, and see how spectacularly it fails well it works. ;)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
Well, fudging the kernel version in my 2.6.35.7 build didn't work, although just doing a straight compile of Samsung's kernel sources _did_ give me a booting kernel.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
Well, the result of my extensive research is thus: there's no hope of getting Gingerbread on this phone without Samsung creating an official release. Here's why, from what I've gathered:

The bootloader does not appear to be locked; however, it does provide some key services that Samsung's proprietary kernel modules use to provide access to the flash partitions on the phone, kind of like the BIOS in your PC. The bootloader expects a specific kernel version (more specifically--and I apologize if the terminology is wrong--a specific kernel ABI). Simply faking the kernel version is not enough--it has to have exactly the same driver interface and kernel entrypoints as it expects. So even though I tried compiling the 2.6.35 kernel with a fake version number, the ABI is still wrong so the phone doesn't boot.

Hacking the boot loader is waaay outside of my skillset, although I did successfully dump it from my wife's busted phone. Judging from the results of my research, it's not something anyone's actually attempted. And given that screwing up the bootloader will hard-brick the phone, I'm not in a mood to experiment.

So basically, since Samsung is the only one with the code for the bootloader and the RFS drivers, it's up to them to create a GB release. Once they actually do so, then possibilities open up quite a bit.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] UnknownGuy666:
Well you gave it your best shot so thank you! :) Maybe someone on here will come up with a way to get a non-Froyo version. Hell or even maybe if we're nice enough we'll get upcoming Jumping Jellybean available for this phone. :P
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BG64:
Thanks so much even for trying. I wish I could try and do something, but I would have no hope.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Darkshado:
My sister's likely getting a Galaxy Q tomorrow, so I'll be following dev work on this device a bit.

Skip the RFS format. It's a pain in the neck to work with, and pretty much every benchmark out there shows it's not as fast as ext4 anyway.

Edit: Got another idea: try using the GB RFS kernel modules from the Gio/Ace/Fit/Mini...

If you want to try converting to ext4, make sure you have RFS format dumps of the /data and /cache partitions you can dd back into place in order to restore to stock.

Consider contacting Phiexz (who's sort of left XDA, but should be reachable at his own forum), Delanoister, Maclaw and the rest of the GalaxyICS team. Hyriand too. What they've done for the Gio is nothing short of outstanding.

Good luck,

Darkshado
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Darkshado:
No ddms/logcat output, nothing?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
I've tried PMing Maclaw but I never got a response. However, I don't think there's anything more to do with getting Gingerbread onto the phone--from what I've found through experimentation and research, the boot loader refuses to boot a kernel newer than 2.6.32. I don't think it's a digital signature issue because my custom-compiled 2.6.32 kernels boot just fine. (they don't work quite right, but at least it boots).

The difference is that the Gio and Ace both have factory-released Gingerbread releases, and the GB update includes a new arm11boot partition (the boot loader). The Gravity Smart doesn't.

The phone has what I think is a JTAG port (it's actually externally available--look for a pinhole at the bottom of the phone), but I don't have either the equipment or expertise to use it to try to hack the boot loader.

Anyway, I've started a Dev thread in the other forum to better serve as a dumping ground for technical details and to catalog my development efforts here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1646984
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Darkshado:
One name comes to mind for bootloader dev stuff, as that is way beyond my current level: AdamOutler.

A bit of searching brings one question: does dmesg give any useful output?

http://bootloader.wikidot.com/linux:android:kmsg
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
Thanks for the link, it's a good article but I'm not having any luck figuring out how to use the MSM UART, or the USB port, to read kernel boot messages. And since my touchscreen driver is hanging before I can ADB into the phone, I'm kinda stuck. Any advice? The tty0 trick (dump to LCD) doesn't work at all.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
I'm still stuck in the same predicament. I have a PM into AdamOutler to see if I can get some help.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gblues:
Well, the good news is that I've figured out how to access the UART. There's a couple methods I can use, but I think I'm going to go with the JTAG method. I found the JTAG header and I know what the pinout is, so all that's left is actually constructing the JTAG cable.

Unfortunately, I lack parts and tools.

In my current financial status, it'll probably be several weeks before I can get parts & time to work on it (have annual training coming up in June). If someone with experience building JTAG cables wants to help, I can ship you my phone and e-mail/link you to the pinout and you can ship it back to me. Otherwise, it'll get done at the mercy of my budget. :)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Probie85:
Break in Samsung Smart(possibly)?

Okay, So I have been researching the ins and outs of this phone trying to remove the network lock. And to my suprise I found that there is a way to manually instal Gingerbread onto the phone. There will be no system updates since there is no Firmware. But I have also found a link to where people have beein installing firmwares in boot mode. Does anyone have an experimental phone to try this on?

It will not let me post links since I do not have 10 post yet. But you can google manual instal gingerbread and there is an android forum that provides the detail or you can Pm me and I will give you the links. I also have a link to fix the space issue with the phone. Let me know if you think we can do this.
[Epic 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lilajrestnom:
Are all app icons found in the framework-res.apk/drawable hdpi folder? Is there a certain name that all the icons are given because I can't seem to find the app icon in a couple apps... I'm not sure if I'm not looking right or there really not there.
[Epic 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] KennyG123:
No, they are usually in the apps themselves. For instance email.apk is in the drawable_hdpi as icon.png.
[Epic 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lilajrestnom:
Ohhh.. lol because I seemed to always know how to change the settings icon somehow and I remember changing the phone and contacts icons a while ago but for some reason forgot to check the apps themselves.. or maybe I did search in the app but couldn't find the exact name lol. Well thanks ill see if I have any problems.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] napster86:
Hey everyone,

I just recently bought my galaxy nexus and I am experiencing some problems with the camera. I've read on other threads about this problem with camera, but have yet to find an absolute resolution to fix it. I've cleared the camera's cache, data, reboot, unroot, reroot, set back to factory defaults/factory condition, installed other roms such as AOKP and ASOP Bugless Beast... Nothing is really working for me. On stock rom, from doing a couple power cycles I got back the camera ability but lost it, and then can't even get anywhere with current AOKP rom... what should I do? I bought this off of ebay new, from verizon online retailer... I'm in a sticky situation.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] digibucc:
do you think Windows 8 RT (ARM) could ever be ported successfully to the transformer, or even the prime or some other tablet?

i know it's not open source and that makes a HUUGE difference. so, what are the chances?

obviously it's a bit early to tell for sure, but how likely do you think?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] karlr30:
I doubt it since it gonna come preinstalled with hardware.

http://www.techspot.com/news/48217-windows-8-editions-revealed-two-retail-one-for-arm-one-for-enterprise.html

Even if you were able to copy it to another tablet you would not be able to update it. At least legally.

Our only hope is that ms would sell it alone.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Danzano:
Im wondering how restricted it will be because if it runs like standard windows someone using it on a tablet could run a backup and push out an image that people on android could use.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Taomyn:
I very much doubt it as the WinRT code won't be open sourced so it would have to be one hell of a reverse engineering job to get it ported.

It would be like trying to get iOS ported to our TFs
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Goatshocker:
I just hope splashtop or some other RDP software will have the ability to automaticly turn on all touch-features in win8 when you connect from your tablet.

Would make it a hell a lot easier to remote control your PC without keyboard and mouse.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jadesse:
If someone can figure out how to dump it then it is possible.

This is going back a few years & obviously Win8 whole different animal from WM6.5. I remember when it was announced that the beloved Dell Axim x51 was not going to be updated to WM6.5. Some of the devs did figure out how to make it happen. Going that route you do run into a whole host of legal issues.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] tekkitan:
In not sure why you would want to downgrade?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] CrazyPeter:
Possible, but what's the point? Windows 8 RT isn't proper Windows, it's not get any apps, and has that horrible Metro user interface.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] EncryptedApple:
I love the metro interface. It is just so simple and smart. I would also love to use Windows 8 with a touchscreen to enable all the touch features.

Also, I think of it this way... As some person said on this thread, it is not actually Windows 8, cause you cant get out of metro. And it is a really big issue. But I mean, it is like installing Linux on your TF. You would just install it, check it out for a little while, and then switch back for android. I wouldn't actually use Linux on the Transformer. On Linux you wouldn't actually use Word or Excel on your TF. And if you had windows, same thing... you probably wouldn't use Photoshop or After Effects because you just don't need to. If you are on a mobile device, obviously the OS has to be limited only on the features that are useful on a mobile device. Photoshop would burn your TF most probably, so I don't really see the use of using the classic Windows desktop with a Transformer.

P.S. The Metro UI freaking ROCKS!
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
I'm going to counter and say I can't stand metro ui. At all. If I got win8 (In love with 7 atm) I'd instantly switch to desktop mode and never look at metro again.

I really hope they release a generic arm version, I want windows on my tab. It'd allow me to do so much graphically and musically, but for now,

Ubuntu xD
[Eee Pad Transformer General] anarox:
Windows 8 has high hardware requirement, atleast prime is needed I think for it to work

B60 TF101 16gb WW version. Never rooted.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
Well, you can overclock the TF a considerable bit, my worry would be RAM usage, since Windows is a RAM hog. It's supposed to have lower Reqs than Windows 7, though.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] anarox:
the ram for this device is too low even for modified android and for browsing sites and watching flash video.

is ram not like the cheapest component?

B60 TF101 16gb WW version. Never rooted.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] mjlim:
I made a post in another thread stating why I think it's not going to happen.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] dragon_76:
Windows 8 on ARM is more about breaking away from the limitations Intel has in the mobile space. It has nothing to do with compatibility. Microsoft doesn't want to lose any more licenses of Windows to Apple with the iPad (MS makes more money on every Android phone than on Windows Phone).

ARM won't run the desktop. No one cares about Windows if they can't run their old apps. It's DOA.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] CrazyPeter:
Windows 8 is gonna flop bigger than all the other Microsoft failures like Xbox and kinect
[Eee Pad Transformer General] mcbyte_it:
"never say never"

look at the HTC HD2, a device that was shipped with WinMo 6.1, now it can run Windows Phone 7.5, Android (ICS included), Ubuntu, booting from NAND (with 2 different boot loaders written from scratch), with nearly full hardware support for everything.

When Asus releases WinRT tablets, they will reuse some of the hardware they use in Android tablets, so they will have the correct code compiled, and hackers will backport it to other tablets...
[Eee Pad Transformer General] tsunder3:
uhm wtf? xbox best selling game console worldwide? about 20 million kinects sold?

anyway... for win 8 I say we'll see and we'll know then.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jadesse:
Go back to doing what ever you were doing on your Mac or ipad!
[Eee Pad Transformer General] anarox:
Comon man we all know microsoft copied ipads angry birds when made xbox360!!

B60 TF101 16gb WW version. Never rooted.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] gkillerx:
Yeah you'll need to keep by android ;) You have no idea where you're talking about lol 1GB is more then enough to run win 8. It's more the chips that aren't supported by windows 8. If a dev would make these for win8 then, yes, technically you can run it. BUT since nvidia has a close source, this isn't going to happen.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Tucker1011:
Now that Surface RT is in the wild, has the topic of RT on Transformers been opened again?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jadesse:
Based on the lack of response, I would say no.
[Continuum Android Development] jaizero:
Stumbled across this and thought I'd share..

Go into the Dialer and enter *#83786633 then press the Home key Go back into the phone dialer and enter *#22745927 Now a box will come up asking for the SPC code. Enter 000000 Press the Hiddenmenu Enable radio button.

Now you can use these codes.

Shutdown

*#7594# This enables you to shut your phone off by long-pressing the power/lock key. No more pop-up confirmation. I have tested this and it works successfully. I've also discovered by doing this, it will disable the puzzle/glass unlock screen. Personally, having to push a button and slide the screen is redundant.

Enjoy
[Continuum Android Development] jaizero:
Whoah! I didnt know about all those other ones.. Nice job
[Continuum Android Development] KJW979:
Thanks to both of you, good to know, possibly may come in handy at one point or another.
[HD Mini General] ycbm:
as described above, my HTC HD Mini doesent boot anymore. After the HTC logo, the display remains just black and nothing happens. In the boot menu, I'm still there and says:

PB92100

SPL-1.06.0000

ENGID 0xF

PCBID 0x80

I have tried tried to install standart ROM many times. The installation is always succesfully. But there is no OS! its always the same problem! ithink i can´t write on the NAND. There is NO OS!

ROM install says:

from

Image version:

to

Image Version: 1.36.407.1

According to installation everything goes smoothly, but the phone has no OS, and therefore still does not boot!

It would please me very much if you could help me!

NO FORUM COULD HELP ME FOR NOW!

Sorry 4 my bad english :)
[HD Mini General] ycbm:
can noone help me??? i think thats the best xda forum ....
[HD Mini General] schlund:
what happens if you try hard reset ?
[HD Mini General] ycbm:
nothing. same problem.
[HD Mini General] osmarsilva:
Try From SD card

Try recover from sd card.

TUTORIAL:

DOWNLOAD ORIGINAL ROM

EXTRACT (with WinRAR) File RUU nbh ...

FORMAT sd card in FAT 32 (as does HD2 2GB SD Sandisk)

COPY FILE to SD CARD

RENAME FILE RUU: PHOTIMG.nbh

SD CARD TO PUT IN THE PHONE

TURN IN BOOTLOADER (volume down + POWER)

VIDEO TO FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.

ROM (EU ROM) TESTED ON MY PHONE 100%
[HD Mini General] bas.bas:
It's not cool to copy other people's things and publish as your own. So You bring yourself to the risk that someone might think you're very smart, and someone else that you are a thief. Link to other users post instead of copying it.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Deleted member 4555986:
Hello.

I just updated my unbranded uk galaxy s2 to ics. I tried to restore the backup i made using samsung kies but the restore failed. I only backed up memos, bookmarks and misc data. Any solution.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] atifsh:
try restoring just the bookmars and memos and skip other, not familaiar with kies though, but it might be restoring some system files and the error.

whatever you do do not restore data from Gb to ICS, its a headache