yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Kindle Fire Android Development] xolanir:
If you make the uboot change, will we need to reinstall everything, or is it a matter of installing the new bootloader and the rest happening automagically?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
Boot loader shouldn't affect anything else.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] xolanir:
K cool thx!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] siera_lion:
Great, will be waiting!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
ok, so

make omap4kc1_config && make

isn't playing nice with the source after I changed the boot order. Going to take longer than I thought. Should have made the alternate u-boot while it was fresh in my mind.

Edit:

yep, getting a lot of this

make[1]: arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc: Command not found

error in the terminal window. Time to research. I wonder if the updates ubuntu installed borked it.

Although

locate arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc
/opt/CodeSourcery/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc
/opt/CodeSourcery/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc-4.4.1
/opt/CodeSourcery/share/doc/arm-arm-none-linux-gnueabi/man/man1/arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc.1

does exist and should be in the path as I added it to the path in .bashrc

PATH=/opt/CodeSourcery/bin:"${PATH}"

I'm also seeing

/bin/sh: 1: arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc: not found
dirname: missing operand
Try `dirname --help' for more information.

which makes no sense as that exists unless codesourcery didn't get added to the path as I thought..... *puts on thinking cap*
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
that would be my thought too.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
I checked and it's in the $PATH variable. Sent you a PM.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
Saw that. I don't have that Ubuntu thumb anymore. I'm setting up one of my Funtoo systems to be able to compile it now.

Update: worked for me. Link removed.

md5 241234e6c4ac6f1cde1313fc1ed37569 u-boot-alt-first.bin

sha1 5aec40ba29dd4eabb67ef66a81910c700c17413b u-boot-alt-first.bin

Kinda funny, this build is 257720 bytes again.

Not to scare anyone, but my first build that I used for myself was 257720, this was never released.

Eld's build for himself was 257704, this is also apparently the one he released to the public.

My second build, because I could not find the first anymore, was 257712, this also was never released.

My 3rd build, first alt boot order build, is once again 257720.

Note 312: If you leave it alone with this version it will boot from the alt partition. If you select to boot from the alt partition it will boot from primary.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] jacewt:
hey smirkis will you update your kit to include both versions of the dual boot? I can't access my kindle through a computer any more so that would be really nice. A last favor to the kindle community :-)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
Thanks for posting. Must have been one of the updates that borked mine. Did you just swap 0 & 2 or something else? I may kill the VM and start from scratch. My skillz decoding n*x errors are null.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using one opposable thumb.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] siera_lion:
It seems it still does what it did before. Alternate rom is not first

EDIT: it seems i have an isue. If I do no press anything on the boot, i got into my jellybean, if i press 2 times, I got jellybean again, but if i press 4 times i get int kindle fire stock rom.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] RichMD:
Has anyone else tried this yet? Three-p-o, Was it just swapping the 0 and 2?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
Sorry been hell at work today. Yes I just swapped 0 and 2 as per someone elses comments about that being easier than my idea.

Let me look into it more and I'll post an update.

Update:

Ok, apparently its not as simple as changing the 0 and 2. If you want to modify it in the main.c it takes a lot more than that. So I did it an alternate way which only required 2 lines to be changed.

In include/configs/omap4kc1.h change

to

Link: alt-u-boot.bin

91a3d9159686594ecc5093dca9788272 alt-u-boot.bin

04a9a4c5bd46dcb3a0ae82f0684506626c20e206 alt-u-boot.bin

I apologize about earlier, I never actually tested the flash, just assumed the modification would work. I did test this one.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
At least yours compiled. Mine still throws 7-8 errors and it's the same VM I compiled the first one on. :banghead:

Sent from my Thunderbolt using one opposable thumb.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] smirkis:
I could, but in order to use dual boot, you need to redo your partition table lol. which, requires fastboot. so I honestly feel its safer, to use fastboot entirely.

fastboot flash bootloader alt-u-boot.bin

fastboot oem dualformat

fastboot reboot
[Kindle Fire Android Development] jacewt:
I could be wrong but I think the first post has zip files to flash for those commands. My kindle is not recognized by any system or OS. I don't have a way to fastboot.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] smirkis:
copied from OP

In order to use your device to dualboot, you're going to need to do a little bit of up-front configuration.

NOTE: Backup the data on your sdcard partition. It will be formatted during the setup procedure.

Get into fastboot somehow and execute fastboot oem dualformat

Reboot your device into recovery mode.

Use your recovery to format/wipe your sdcard partition. This varies between CWM and TWRP, but it will be in the "wipe" or "advanced" menus.

Download altrom-format-all.zip and flash it from recovery to properly format your secondary partition set.

Your device should be ready to flash an alternate ROM now.

all the zips do, are format alt partition to prepare for alt rom. without fastboot OEM dualformat the partitions won't be there to format, and flashing a alt rom will fail.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] jacewt:
Ok too bad. Thanks any way!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ratchetandclankf:
Final edit: my problems somehow solved themselves.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] RichMD:
Working great

Thanks to edarerathis, three-p-o, and ProfEngr for all their efforts. I used that 2nd version (alt is default) and it is working great. I have the latest Modaco ROM as the alt and it defaults to that which is easy for my family. I loaded the eye-candy JB rom to the primary partition and both are working great. This is just what I wanted and I appreciate the efforts. :good::D
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
Personally I want to see what improvements Eld makes on his merger and see his screens.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] :
I give up
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
Why?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] tobiascuypers:
would it be possible to swap out the bootloader into the one in the KFU files. so when i do install FIREFIREFIRE it installs this one?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] smirkis:
u could, but still need to manually do fastboot OEM dualformat some how. which isn't an option in kfu.

ask kfu Dev, to add this bootloader and, make an option to enable/disable dual boot partitions. THIS seems doable.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
Oi, sorry for how long my changes have been taking. I promise this isn't vaporware, I've just been hit with some unexpected stuff at work recently and by the time I get home I just want to unwind and then go to sleep. As much as I enjoy writing code, after 8-10 hours at work it's hard to motivate myself to go home and write more. The code parts should (I think) be done at this point, though, which leads into...

I do want to do something nicer, and I'm trying to figure out exactly how/what. Part of the problem is that it has to fit in the bootloader partition, so I did the original plain black/white because 1) it was easy and 2) it compresses very well, especially with RLE.

Having said that, I'm pretty terrible at graphic designs and the like, so I may end up doing something fairly simple. Instead of the standard logo that Hash used I may use some kind of slightly stylized "KF", which I think will also save some space.

Basically, it's harder for me to create the images than it is to write the code 'cause I'm kind of bad at it, heh...
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
Someone mentioned to me after I made mine that RLE is big, and that I should be using gzip to compress the images. The only issue with that is I'm not sure how that would impact the bootloader itself. As it stands there is only one screen I am missing in my rendition of the merged code, and that is the default boot screen. When you boot, it should show you a screen that says to press power to switch boot options, but because we needed a 4th menu option and there was insufficient space, I had to drop that one to add the other menu screen.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] Hag77:
Been really anxious to check out JB on the kindle.. but the wife likes her stock experience and has a ton of apps/books on there.. In you guys opinion is it too dangerous to nandroid her current setup, do all the formatting for the dual boot- then restore her nandroid to one of the partitions? (and I get the 2nd partition to play around w/ JB).. Anyone done that and if so did you take a similar route? I'm assuming that it has to be wiped initially to get the dual boot working.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] xolanir:
I'm interested in lending a hand graphics wise. What are you looking for as far as artwork is concerned, and what specs should the actual graphic be in order for it to fit your needs?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
My recommendation is to use the alternate first version, put modaco on the alternate and JB on the primary. There are no current JB builds that work on the alternate.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] smirkis:
maybe we need to repartition the boot loader size? if repartitioning needs to be done anyway, I don't see it being an issue.

perform new partition scheme

flash new larger bootloader

go into recovery and format alt partitions

flash alt rom

profit
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
Found solution to compile errors!!!

I was wondering about that myself. It would seem easy to do. Since we're already borking with the partition table anyway. I could afford to lose a few kB from /media. I know where the dualformat partition table info is in the source, just not feeling warm about trying to compile it. Specially after Ubuntu told me to take a flying eff at a rolling doughnut on the last attempt to compile u-boot. Still trying to sort that out. Still contemplating the nuclear option on that VM file; start from scratch :eek:

Edit:

Feeling Uber-dumb. $PATH in my user account had /opt/CodeSourcery/bin in it, but when I "su -" to compile the bin, it goes away. I must have done "export PATH=/opt/CodeSourcery/bin:$PATH" from CMD the first time I compiled. Got that fixed in "/root/.bashrc" as well now.

I now have (albeit untested) a compiled version of u-boot with the alternate ROM as default.

Eldarerathis: Why don't you just redo the partition table to add a few kB to the bootloader partition for the extra graphics? There's still over 3GB left in the /media partition.

Sure would be nice if TWRP supported the alt locations.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
LOL Prof. My next step was going to be having you do a which on the file. That may or may not have told us anything depending on if you were in su or not.

As for repartitioning the boot partition. The issue is a few KB worth of data. If we could somehow compress something down a little more it would fix the issue. I'm happy to live with what we have right now because I do NOT want to have to attempt to fix a partition table on someones borked fire because we require you to repartition it in order to use a bootloader.

There is an alternate option. But who knows if it would result in less code or not, or even how it could be done. The idea is this. Have a full screen image in the background, for example the 1.4a kindlefire logo. In the foreground in the bottom quarter of the screen have a separate image and have THAT be the one that changes depending on which boot mode etc. Instead of needing 6 or 7 full size images we would only need 2 or 3 and several smaller images that overlay on them depending on boot modes etc. That would save the current ~15KB required per image, of which I think we currently can only fit 6 due to the space available.

# ls -al board/omap4kc1/*.rle
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15948 Jul 19 22:27 board/omap4kc1/altboot.rle
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9280 Jul 19 22:27 board/omap4kc1/booting.rle
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13268 Jul 19 22:27 board/omap4kc1/initlogo.rle
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17484 Jul 19 22:27 board/omap4kc1/lowbattery.rle
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15948 Jul 19 22:27 board/omap4kc1/normalboot.rle
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15948 Jul 19 22:27 board/omap4kc1/recoveryboot.rle
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15948 Jul 19 22:27 board/omap4kc1/resetboot.rle

Currently the only one we cannot fit into the build is the init logo. If someone could make a full set of RLE's that would fit I would be happy to replace the ones I currently have in source and activate all the screens.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
Honestly, the current build I'm running looks almost identical to the 1.4a build with the exception of the extra options. I'm content with it as is, but to really tell the differences you speak of I'd need screenshots.

Agreed on troubleshooting a borked partition.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using one opposable thumb.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
Here are all the images. The only one that is missing from the build is the initlogo.

As you can tell from the screens, we have to replace that entire 1024x600 each time. With the exception of the lowbat, we could potentially use the same base kindlefire logo image and just replace the bottom quarter of the screen with the menu. IF we found a way to do that though, we could remake the lowbat one to also display its message in the bottom quarter and save even more room.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
Ah, now I get it.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using one opposable thumb.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
Yeah. 1.4a had the initlogo which told you to press the power button.

When I added the code Eld wrote to do the dual boot, that made it larger slightly.

When I modified the RLE images that bumped the size by about 2K per image. The originals were around 14.2K and the ones that I created are around 15.9K. In addition to that we needed an additional screen so 8K (2K * 4 changed screens) and 16kb for a new screen.

The BIN is 252K. Adding in the last screen, the initlogo, will push us over the 256K available to us in the boot partition. If we could get the primary image to be about 9K-15K and then the bottom quarter would only have to be like 400x600 which would mean the image for the menu options would only be say 2K-4K, that would not only leave us with plenty of room for additional features to be written, but give us room for more screens if needed. An alternative to having other images in the bottom quarter, would be to have the ability to overlay text on top of a base image. Then we could potentially put a timer countdown telling you how much time you have left for certain stages.

For example:

Have it output fastboot telling you you are in fastboot mode for x second or that you are in perma fastboot as a command was received ot a bootmode was set.

After fastboot give a 5 second countdown for user input to change boot modes.

And even tell you specifically which boot mode is being used. Currently we only have it switching to a screen that says "booting."

All of this is beyond my ability. Years ago in college I took VB. I have almost no other coding experience, I just fiddle with stuff or, like in this instance, merge 2 source trees together. No I just work in technical support.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] RichMD:
I can confirm this works well thanks to elarerathis, three-p-o, and Profengr
[Kindle Fire Android Development] :
Is anyone willing to modify KFU to implement this for dum dums like me?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] RichMD:
It doesn't seem like that will be as easy as you would hope. However, the current process is not as difficult as you might think. Have you ever loaded and installed Android SDK Starter Package and Fastboot on your computer? If you can do that and connect your kindle and see it connected via "Fastboot devices" (going by memory here) then I could list step by step after that.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] :
Gggg
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
I'm running win7 ultimate. Have had no problems with kfu or fastboot that I can think of right now. Doubt I could be much help troubleshooting though. I typically just fumble around until things work. Most of the time I have little idea of what fixed the issue. :(

Edit: just read on the kfu thread that spaces in the login name will cause the driver install to go tango uniform. Might check that if it's relevant.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
Things going ok in this arena I assume. No posts for several days now.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using one opposable thumb.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] xolanir:
Is there a way to increase the partition size of the default ROM space? I would like more room for the default ROM. Thx in advance for the help!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
There is a way, but its not easy and you can mess everything up. You would have to do it in fastboot or adb, I forget which.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] xolanir:
Is that the GNU parted method that eldarerathis created a how to guide for thread, and does it work the same?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
It does, but I had trouble getting those exact commands to work on mine. Took some workarounds.

The only other option is to take the source and locate the partition info and change the values. Then you'd have to compile it and hope your changes were valid.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using one opposable thumb.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] xolanir:
I've used GNU parted before by following that guide. I just wasn't sure if the rules are gonna be different since I'm dealing with two partitions.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
you are going to be dealing with more than just 2 I think, and then you are going to have to format them as ext4, which is not possible directly. have to format as ext2 and then upgrade.

I had done that all manually before.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] xolanir:
So do you have a set of instructions that are different or can I use eldararethis's?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
Do a search on my posts (I think that's possible). In one of the threads dealing with repartitioning the fire, someone helped me with a different command than the original. I'll look around for it when I get time, but you'll probably get there before me at this point in the day.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using one opposable thumb.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] xolanir:
Are you referring to this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by eldarerathis

Sure. This is the partition table that 'fastboot oem dualformat' creates:

Code:

> adb shell parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 print

Model: MMC M8G2FA (sd/mmc)

Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 7734MB

Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B

Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags

1 131kB 262kB 131kB xloader

2 262kB 524kB 262kB bootloader

3 524kB 11.0MB 10.5MB dfkernel

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 6233MB 3924MB fat32 media

13 6233MB 6245MB 11.5MB boot2

14 6245MB 6717MB 472MB ext4 system2

15 6717MB 6851MB 134MB ext4 cache2

16 6851MB 7690MB 839MB ext4 userdata2

I can confirm, with my own setup, that it does not matter on the sizes etc. just so long as you give yourself enough space. My mmcblk0 has 7818GB instead of the 7734GB eldarerathis has.

It is advisable that everyone sticks to the same partition numbers though so that we can make a standard alt image and not have 20 different versions of the roms because someone's boot2 is 14 and cache2 is 16 etc.

Stick with these partition numbers:

Code:

Boot2 = 13

system2 = 14

cache2 = 15

userdata2 = 16
[Kindle Fire Android Development] tobiascuypers:
is there a way to have jandycane as the normal boot, and stock (rooted) as the alternate boot?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
Yeah.. thats how I use it. I'm confused why this question is being asked.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
This one. Just remember I was working on a single-ROM bootloader. The partition numbers will probably be different.

You could also look here on Youtube for a relatively cheap way to get extra storage space on the Fire. It's not quite polished, but Chainfire's Stickmount or USB Host Controller were the 2 I tested on mine. Stickmount had issues mounting devices. Neither will yet mount NTFS last I checked.

---------- Post added at 10:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 AM ----------

MoDaCo Gr9 is also packaged as an alternate location ROM. I use it on mine. I only use the Amazon launcher though (w/ OTA Rootkeeper app). Never been on the other one while on that ROM.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] xolanir:
Thx brother!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] firered365:
Can anybody help me install this in Linux. I am having trouble with it.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] :
I have given up... is anyone kind enough to modify and upload a version of KFU that just sets this up with instructions out of the box? Myself and many others would be so greatful
[Kindle Fire Android Development] firered365:
Never mind. I just have a problem with the altrom-format-all zip. It gives me error: cannot open zip.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] three-p-o:
Redownload the copy from the web. works fine here.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] firered365:
Yupp. I found out that i was wasn't on Fastboot oem dualformat and kept giving me error.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] tobiascuypers:
The question was being asked, because i was doing some reading and i found out that people who tried to use fullstock rooted roms as secondary boot, it wouldnt let them sign into amazon. so i was just seeing if you can
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
No issues with MoDaCo. That's as close to stock-rooted as I've been since my first rom flash. No issues with anything on the Amazon launcher after you run OTA Rootkeeper. Heck, it even gave me the 30 days of prime when I first signed in.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using one opposable thumb.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ssmercurys:
Perhaps someone could shed some light on something im doing wrong.

When I go to flash the 2nd ROM. (Modaco alt) it keeps freezing during the install in TWRP.

I have wiped everything, followed the opening and I cannot get the 2nd rom to install, it just freezes every time.

Tried redownloading and checking MD5's all good.

Anything? Would love to have JB/Modaco combo :)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
Have you verified your kindle's partition table is configured for dual boot?

Did you flash the alt format .zip in twrp? I think that formats and sets proper type for the extra partitions.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using one opposable thumb.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ssmercurys:
I did but I just started over from the beginning again and tried to reformat with fastboot for dual and now it works good so maybe it didn't take first time. Working now :)

Thanks.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] ProfEngr:
Great. :thumbup:

Sent from my Thunderbolt using one opposable thumb.