[Honor 7 Android Development] m_esser:
Hello,

Due to the fact that my Honor 7 is broken now and a repair is to expensive I had to make the decision to stop further development regarding H7cROM (with a tear in my eye) => EOL !

this is my first custom ROM that I am publishing here. It's called H7cROM (Honor 7 configurable ROM) and 0.13b(eta) is the current version.

Please take the time to read the whole post so that you get an impression about H7cROM.

Background / Intention

Currently there are several very good custom ROMs avaiable for the H7 device (e. g. H7T by T-Ryder, Yoda-ROM by Ryrzy, MoDaCo-ROM by PaulOBrien, MM+D by WBT). All authors have spend a lot of time and brain work into their ROMs so that I have to be reverent looking to their ROMs.

In order to avoid any kind of misunderstanding I have to emphasize in advance that I don't want to critisize the ROM cookers - it's exactly the opposite because I could take a lot of ideas and approaches and all ROM variants were a great inspiration for me. Because of that I have to say THANK YOU.

But unfortunately all those ROM variants have one weakness and that's the "take it or leave it" attitude. With each of those ROMs the user gets a firmware with a fixed mixture of apps, patches and settings. Only Yoda-ROM and MM+D have some options to choose - but in my opinion that's only a very small number of intervention points.

Approach / Description

H7cROM's approach is to give the users the chance to decide for a wider bunch of options whether to install it or not. Thus Aroma installer is used to provide an interface for the users choices so that you can configure your system more individually.

Unfortunately Aroma installer only supports flashable zip file up to a size of 2GB. Thus I had to devide the installation process into two phases (2 zip files):

Phase 1 (H7cROM-Phase1-B371.zip)

which offers several menus to install and customize a very slimmed version of Honors B371 firmware.

Phase 2 (H7cROM-Phase2-yyyymmdd.zip)

which offers menus with a wide bunch of apps that can be installed in "batch mode" (usually much faster than using Playstore).

Short description of phase 1 (H7cROM-Phase1-B371.zip)

During phase 1 you can install a slim version of the stock firmware B371 that includes busybox already but several apps were deleted in advance. At the beginning the user can decide

which kernel shall be installed (Standard, MoDaCo, Yoda)

to execute a factory reset or to delete caches

how to configure the partitions /recovery and /recovery2 (stock or TWRP)

to root the device

to deactivate the Honor theme engine

to activate several hidden and other options (network speed, 4G menu etc.)

to install system enhancements (init.d support, HTC Beats Audio, Dolby Atmos FX, Vidper4Android)

to prepare the device for flashing Xposed

Furthermore a lot of preinstalled apps can be deleted so that you can decide how your device setup will look like.

To get a better feeling for H7cROM I have attached a flashable dummy zip file for phase 1. This file will definitively install nothing - you can only see the options.

Short description of phase 2 (H7cROM-Phase2-2016mmdd.zip)

During the second phase you can select approximately 100 apps to be installed. Depending on the number of apps that you are selecting this installation process is much faster than using playstore. You select from the following categories:

File managers

Browsers

Honor / Huawei specific apps

Communication apps

Office apps

Launcher

Multimedia apps

Infrared remote control

Navigation

Google Play

Standard Android apps

Root related tools

other tools and useful apps

printer service plugins

Keyboard

Games

To get a better feeling for H7cROM I have attached a flashable dummy zip file for phase 2 as well. Again, this file will definitively install nothing - you can only see the options.

Requirements:

Honor 7 PLK-L01 with

stock firmware PLK-L01C432B370 or PLK-L01C432B371

unlocked bootloader

TWRP 3.0.2

external SD card

Installation:

make a complete backup (Nandroid)

copy both flashable files to your SD card

install TWRP if not done (

please

deactivate it's screensaver to avoid side effects with Aroma Installer)

Run zip file for the first phase (H7cROM-Phase1-B371.zip) using TWRP (when doing it the first time it is strongly recommended to choose factory reset)

Reboot system

In order to avoid heat issues during the second phase please give your device the chance to cool down

Reboot to TWRP

Run the zip file for the second phase (H7cROM-Phase2-jjjjmmtt.zip)

Reboot (depending on the number of installed apps that can take several minutes - please be patient!)

Screenshots

... are unfortunately not availabe because I wasn't able to make screenshots of Aroma Installer menus by now.

Please test the attached dummy zip files to gain a better feeling and understanding of the approach for H7cROM.

Downloads

The flashable zip files for both phases can be downloaded <here>

general comments (please consider the content):

The flashable zip files are still in an early beta phase! I am publishing it here in order to get further hints and comments from the community to improve the ROM ... but please be aware that beta means that it is not perfect

The phase 1 zip file contains a complete (slimmed) firmware, the corresponding configuration files and several additional enhancements and tweaks

Rooting is done by using Chainfire's zip files; due to some limitations of the stock kernel there are two ways of rooting:

Stock kernel:

The combination of the stock kernel and the Chainfire's update-supersu-v2.76.zip is leading to a bootloop - thus I am using update-supersu-v2.62.zip if stock kernel is installed

MoDaCo kernel and Yoda kernel:

For both kernel variants Chainfire's update-supersu-v2.76.zip is used for rooting

If you decide to root your device during the H7cROM installation the corresponding zip file will be stored in folder /h7cROM on your SD card

The same happens with the Xposed related zip file if you decide that the phone shall be prepared for Xposed - this way not only the Xposed installer will be installed but you will also have the corresponding flashable zip file accessable.

Furthermore H7cROM will generate backups (dumps) of several partitons and store it in folder /H7cROM as well if you run the installation on a device with firmware version B370.

Needless to say: there is no warranty at all for H7cROM

You are using it on your own risk

I don't take responsibility for any kind of hardware problems and/or software issues

Due to very limited spare time I am only able to provide an absolut minimum of support

Publishing H7cROM here does not mean that I promise to continue the ROM for a specific period of time

For German native speakers this ROM is also available on android-hilfe.de.

Beta forever (or banana software that matures on users side)

Why this headline? That's easy to explain. Due to the big number of potential option combinations I am not able to test all combinations. Assuming there would only be 16 combinations to test and each test would take only 5 minutes that would mean that I would have to test 2^16 = 65.526 configurations with a duration of 5 minutes. That would lead to an overall testing time of 227 days ... unrealistic.

Credits:

I would like to say "THANK YOU VERY MUCH" to the following people (in alphabetical order):

[MENTION=402300]amarullz[/MENTION] (Aroma Installer)

[MENTION=5627933]androidexpert35[/MENTION] (HTC Beats Audio mod)

[MENTION=631273]Chainfire[/MENTION] (SuperSU and the corresponding flashable zip files)

[MENTION=7279707]Demeth[/MENTION] (increasing the maximum volume of Honor 7)

[MENTION=5391886]DigiGoon[/MENTION] (DigiKernal v1.0)

[MENTION=4210629]inside!out[/MENTION] (Dual recovery for Honor 7)

[MENTION=6142732]non-toxic[/MENTION] (Hint how to hide the nav bar)

[MENTION=220328]paulobrien[/MENTION] (TWRP 3.0.2 for Honor 7, MoDaCo-ROM, MoDaCo Kernel, Stockify ...)

[MENTION=5300098]Speedo.thc[/MENTION] (MM+D EMUI ROM)

[MENTION=5258659]revo89[/MENTION] (Xposed framework and Xposed installer)

[MENTION=1328606]Ryrzy[/MENTION] (Yoda-ROM and Yoda-Kernel)

[MENTION=3705546]t-ryder[/MENTION] on t-ryder.de (H7T-ROM, H7T theme, the H7cROM logo and a lot of hints for my ROM)

[MENTION=473875]Toldo[/MENTION] (Camera Mod)

[MENTION=5826642]walter4991[/MENTION] (Honor 7 multi windows option)

[MENTION=3562083]wanam[/MENTION] (Adaption of Xposed for Honors EMUI)

[MENTION=981278]worstenbrood[/MENTION] (Dolby Atmos FX)

[MENTION=3901724]zhuhang[/MENTION] (Viper4Android)

and of course to all software engineers and modders who are providing their hard work for free.

Known issues:

The problem that the app Designs does not support downloading themes on some devices is currently not fixed

Unfortunately it might happen that the Aroma Installer stops execution without a visible reason. This happens quite seldom (~3-5%). In that case please repeat the installation process.

During the installation process the H7 device is getting quite hot ... because of that you should not run both phases directly one after the other - give your device the chance to cool down a bit before installing phase 2; as far as I know TWRP will stop execution when the device gets to hot.

Changelog:

Version 0.13b(eta):

+ added support for USB OTG devices (if attached) to store backup and zip files there as well (phase 1)

± replaced Viper4Android with the corresponding material design version (phase 1)

± using supersu.zip version 2.78 instead of version 2.76 (phase 1)

- deleted SuperSu as optional app (phase 2)

± updated all apps (phase 1 and phase 2)

Version 0.12b(eta):

± DigiKernel updated to v1.1 - now with init.d support - Thx to [MENTION=5391886]DigiGoon[/MENTION] (phase 1)

± language files for Aroma Installer updated and partly restructured (phase 2)

± updated all apps (phase 1 and phase 2)

Version 0.11b(eta):

- reduced the number of updated partitions to a minimum (phase 1)

+ added DigiKernel as a further kernel option - Thanks to [MENTION=5391886]DigiGoon[/MENTION] (phase 1)

+ updated all apps (phase 1 and phase 2)

Version 0.10b(eta):

+ added option to keep recovery configuration as it is (phase 1)

+ added option to delete Huawei clock and weather widget (phase 1)

+ added Calendar+Planner (phase 2)

+ added Sony XPeria Digital Clock Weather widget (phase 2)

+ added Devexpert Weather Clock widget (phase 2)

+ added Transparent Clock Weather widget(phase 2)

± moved Google Calculator to phase 1

± moved Google Calendar to phase 1

± moved Google DeskClock to phase 1

± moved Google Messenger to phase 1

± moved Google Photos to phase 1

± changed menus for the above mentioned Google apps so that you can decide whether the corresponding Huawei app shall be replaced, both apps shall be installed or none of the alternatives (phase 1)

± moved True Phone dialer to phase2

± moved ZenUI dialer and contacts to phase2

± moved CleverDialer to phase2

± moved Drupe dialer to phase2

± moved Fleksy keyboard to phase2

± moved Swiftkey to phase2

Version 0.9b(eta):

± Updated theme H7T to version 4 - Thx to T-Ryder (phase 1)

± Menus regarding kernel and recovery restructured (phase 1)

+ Added TWRP 3.0.2-rc3 as further recovery option (phase 1)

+ Added selection of emojis (One / iOS / N) (phase 1)

± Updated all apps per 2016-08-14 (phase 1 and phase 2)

Version 0.8b(eta):

+ added some dialer apps as additional options (True Phone, ZenUI Phone + Contacts, CleverDialer, DrupeDialer) (phase 1)

+ added Fleksy Keyboard as an option (phase 1)

± moved installation of printer service plugins to phase 2

+ added Canon and Brother printer service plugins as options (phase 2)

+ added the apps Timed Toggles and Fontster to phase 2

± improved installation speed by code optimization (phase 1 and phase 2)

± apps updated (2016-08-13) (phase 1 and phase 2)

Version 0.7b(eta):

+ added some options to delete preinstalled apps (phase 1)

± Huawei Backup transformed from system app to user app (phase 1 and phase 2)

± apps updated (2016-08-08) (phase 1 and phase 2)

Version 0.6b(eta):

+ adopted menu for kernel and recovery selection in order to ensure that a factory reset will only be default when H7cROM wasn't installed before (phase 1)

+ for encrypted /data partition a factory reset was made mandatory

+ added app magnifier (Phase 2)

± deletion of Google playstore and Google mobile services during update process elimated (phase 1)

± Code changes to improve installation process (phase 1 and phase 2)

± several text related changes (phase 1 and phase 2)

± apps updated (2016-08-05) (phase 1 and phase 2)

- unused code deleted (e. g. for native call recorder which is not part of the distribution anymore) (phase 1 and phase 2)

Version 0.5b(eta):

+ option to increase wifi polling intervall (thx T-Ryder)

+ option to enhance number of apps "secured" regarding power management

+ option to disable Huawei disc on Window PCs (thx T-Ryder)

+ inserted a message after the core installation with the appropriate handling when the stock kernel was selected in combination with root

± apps updated (2016-08-01)

- Reboot by Aroma Installer deactivated to ensure that log files will be stored on sd card

Version 0.4b(eta):

+ theme H7T theme made by T-Ryder for the H7T-ROM (t-ryder.de)

+ theme SpectrumPure theme made by PaulOBrien (modaco.com)

+ ACR - call recorder (phase 2)

± some GUI aspects (phase 1)

± xposed zip file to version v86 arm64

± when updating from B370 to B371 more partition backups will be stored on sd card

- native call recorder tweak (phase 1)

Version 0.3b(eta):

± Correction regarding Aroma color themes

+ included VMall again which wasn't included in 0.2b accidentally

Version 0.2b(eta):

This is the first published version:

There are no changes - everything is new ;)

Version 0.1b(eta):

First internal unpublished version

Best regards

m_esser