[Xoom Android Development] realjumy:
Hello everyone.

You should know that time ago Motorola decided to stop updating our Xoom, but we showed (and we are still showing) them that our tablet is still alive and kicking.

Let me update this with the last news (a big win, indeed) from [MENTION=470268]bigrushdog[/MENTION]:

IMPORTANT: It should be harmless for your Xoom, but you need to do it at your own risk. Nobody will give you any kind of warranty and we will be not guilty if your Xoom bricks, dies, loses the data, gets cursed, your cow starts to give bitter milk or if it unchains a thermonuclear war.

Q&A

Q: OK to understand this right, now we have a new recovery and boot. Which ROM do we use? The same as before? And BigPart [MENTION=2383306]dreamcwli[/MENTION] MyWingray 4.3 is only for wingray?

A: Yes, we have new recovery and boot. For this recovery and boot you need to use the new BigPart roms. If you are not using BigPart roms, you will need to install old recovery and boot and format everything again. And yes, it seems like [MENTION=2383306]dreamcwli[/MENTION] MyWingray 4.3 is only for wingray at the moment, but brd published a version of the last EOS4 stable with the new kernel working for BigPart.

Q: Does this new space mean we can start using full blown GApps Instead of the scaled down versions we had been previously?

(I understand there may be NEON ramifications causing a NO Answer here)

A: You can use the GApps that you prefer. Now we have space enough, but scaled down versions might be slightly faster as it uses less resources (I guess).

Q: Seems like a good time to ask and reveal my limited understanding of why user space is formatted vfat. I'm a linux fan who dislikes being limited to 4096 Mb when creating a linux.img. A yes or no answer will suffice. As long as the devs are pushing the limits, can the user space (sdcard) be formatted ext2, 3 or 4?

A: I think that that is something to implement in the kernel. I think that it is easy to do and our bakers eventually will implement it.

Q: Can cm10.2 be flashed instead of an eos4 rom after the repartition?

A: You need to replace BOOT.img in the CM zip with the BigPart compatible with your Xoom, and if the kernel is compatible with CM it will work.

Q: I'm on stingray_cdma.....unless i can flash a wingray rom and boot.img after the repart?

A: No idea, but it's safer to use roms build for your device. Take a look to the previous question.

Q: im on stingray and i tried using cm10.1 as my rom and it didnt get to the bootanimation so i tried eos 3 and it works well. couldnt get eos 4 to download from goo.im

A: brd published some EOS4 working with BigPart (see http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=47005701&postcount=1 )

Q: I am asking again to understand this right, now we have a new recovery and boot.

Which ROM do we use? The same as before? Do we have to change the boot IMG in the ROM with the big part one?

And BigPart [MENTION=2383306]dreamcwli[/MENTION] MyWingray 4.3 is only for wingray or it can be used with everest as well? And what is its difference with the other big part in the kernel?

A: Use only BigPart roms. You will need to change the boot.img from the rom if the rom is not compatible with BigParts, but if the rom is not compatible with the new kernel, it is useless... MyWingray is compatible with Everest but you will not have 3G, I guess... But I'm not sure.

Q: That's great. [MENTION=470268]bigrushdog[/MENTION] [MENTION=697814]realjumy[/MENTION] Is there a way to get the radios for everest and stingray on a separate zip?

A: The rom must be cooked with the radios...

Q: I wanna ask you because i have my xoom forma two years, and laste time i format it and give me error with dev block mmblck or something else and i think that i could have my internal storage corrupt.. If i install your 4.3 image modded, and then the repartition, Will it works fine?? Thanks and sorry me

A: No idea.

Q: Followed the instructions for the re-partitioning. Everything worked except the Xoom cannot see the external sd card in recovery. I have re-formated it as fat32 and tried another card. When I view the files in the PC they are there. Any ideas?

A: Something something went wrong... Copy the data from the SD to your PC, format SD and put back data. Let's see if that works...

Q: How can we identify which ROMs are for the new partition layout? Just assume everything 4.3 and later? It would be nice if we added [BigPart] to the thread title to make them more easily identifiable.

A: Only roms with BigPart in their name can be used with the new layout.

Q: I was under the impression that we could use old roms provided we replaced the boot.img in the zip with the NEW BIGPART boot.img for our unit? (Only after repartitioning has been completed) Is that wrong and we need to wait for a particular build?

A: Not all the roms are compatibles with the boot.img method (kernel method). You will need to try to be sure. EOS4 and Dream's have proper versions. If you want to use, for example, CM you will need to:

option 1.- Build it yourself patching the kernel

option 2.- Use CM and try to use a different kernel

option 3.- Ask to the CM maintainer to release BigPartition versions.

There is a lot of 4.2.2 projects running, some 4.3 and if we are successful, MAYBE we will be able to port 4.4 to our devices. One of the main problems (but not the only one) is the internal storage structure of the tablet. It seems that is not too hard to solve, as in other devices (mainly Samsung) is common to change it.

The aim of this project is to compare how the internal partitions are setted up in order to change them and have more room for system and apps. This will improve all the ROMS (4.1, 4.2.*, 4.4). [MENTION=470268]bigrushdog[/MENTION] is doing a big effort to change it but we need more data from all models to compare and be sure that we don't break anything.

It will take up to 3 hours (depends on the model) but is something that can work while you are sleeping or not using the tablet. With the data provided by you, we can compare and choose the best changes.

IMPORTANT: It should be harmless for your Xoom, but you need to do it at your own risk. Nobody will give you any kind of warranty and we will be not guilty if your Xoom bricks, dies, loses the data, gets cursed, makes your cow begin to give bitter milk or if it unchains a thermonuclear war.

IMPORTANT: It should be harmless for your PC, but you need to do it at your own risk. Nobody will give you any kind of warranty and we will be not guilty if your PC bricks, dies, gets cursed, loses the data, makes your cow begin to give bitter milk or if it unchains a thermonuclear war.

What are you going to do:

You are going to do a 1:1 copy of your internal storage into your PC. Then, we will detect the partitions and where begins and ends each one. Nothing else. We will compare the different versions and in the future a tool will be released to make the changes.

What you will need:

Linux (maybe you can use a Live DVD / USB?). It should be a way to do this process under Windows. If you know how to do it, please, share the info.

33GB of disk space in your computer, anywhere.

Android SDK working (that means that if you plug your tablet turned on and run

./adb devices

in the folder "platform-tools" of your SDK will provide a serial number): http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

3 hours (can be done while sleeping, not using the tablet, etc) if you have a 32GB Xoom.

Rooted Xoom.

Before you begin:

DO A NANDROID BACKUP!!!!!

READ EVERYTHING AND ASK IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND SOMETHING

Step by step:

Full charge your tablet (or keep it connected to AC?) and turn it on WITHOUT SDCARD.

If your Android SDK is not installed or working properly, fix it now: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Install the dependencies. For Ubuntu / LinuxMint / Debian:

apt-get install testdisk netcat pv extundelete testdisk

Activate USB Debug on your device (in order to connect with adb). You can find it under Settings > Developer options.

Plug your tablet (it must be on) and run

./adb devices

in the folder "platform-tools" of your SDK. If you don't get as a result a serial number, STOP. Something is wrong with your SDK. Please, fix it to continue.

Open a terminal on your computer, go to the Android SDK directory's subdirectory sdk/platform-tools (where adb is located).

We will setup a forward port to be able to download the data to our PC:

./adb forward tcp:5555 tcp:5555

Now we will connect to the tablet

./adb shell

Maybe you need to grant permission to do it. Take a look to your tablet's screen.

We become superuser:

su

Grant permanent permissions when asked. You can revoke the permissions later if you want.

With this we will transfer the data to the port that we set previously:

/system/xbin/busybox nc -l -p 5555 -e /system/xbin/busybox dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0

DON'T CLOSE THAT TERMINAL. An now OPEN A NEW ONE IN THE PC.

Go again to the folder "platform-tools" of your SDK and let's collect the data:

./adb forward tcp:5555 tcp:5555

nc 127.0.0.1 5555 | pv -i 0.5 > mmcblk0.raw

If you want to save the file in a different place/partition, change what is after ">". For example, if I want to save the file in my home folder, I will write /home/jumy/mmcblk0.raw. If you are not sure or don't know how to do it, don't change it.

You will to wait up to 3 hours until it finish.

When the transfer is finished, run this in the folder where the dump is located (if you changed nothing, it is located in the older "platform-tools" of your SDK):

testdisk mmcblk0.raw

First restore the GPT partition table. Select mmcblk0.raw in the TestDisk interface and choose Proceed.

Choose EFI GPT.

Then select Analyse.

Choose Quick Search.

The search will return a table that you should copy and paste in this thread.

Now you can exit and remove the dumped file (mmcblk0.raw).

Please, when you provide the data, tell us which model, storage size, ROM name and version and indicate if it is the Hong Kong model.

Info collected from http://www.df.lth.se/~jokke/androidfilerecovery/ --> Visit it if you want some screenshots.