[Shield Android TV Android Development] Downunder35m:
@ nanerasingh: Just follow the 3rd post, I changed it just for this ;)

Little update on the latest experiments:

First off my friend Whiteak found a nice pure Android release for the 7.2, so no TV stuff at all, just pure Android.

Once either of us has tried and tested it a link will follow.

Took a break from the firmware modding itself and instead tried Magisk again directly, here are the results of my tests:

As with other things I tried before Magisk seems to struggle with the new user rights system implementations.

No app is running as root or general anymore, only in its own userspace and with its own set of rights.

Like in a true and secure Linux no other user can modify files outside the group sid user is in.

Read access is handled slightly different for some system related things and still includes the old ways of getting rights.

So while Magisk, with preserving verity at least, is able to give us root rights, it is not able to give us write access to these areas.

And if Magisk can't give us these rights then the logical conclusion is that it failed to get these rights itself.

For real root either a new Magisk is required or a system that is fully cleaned from all checks and restrictions by default.

My current rom tests still seem to indicate that the new booloader (not the boot.img!!) is trying all it can to prevent this.

TWRP.....

I am able to get a modified TWRP working on 7.2, that is the only good part.

As with Magisk, TWRP fails to get write access to system, vendor and some unrequired partitions.

Even changing the ramdisk so everything is "unsecure" failed here.

The way I see it:

Some partitions, like system and vendor are encrypted.

The recovery is able to read and decrypt these s TWRP can create a backup.

But since the recover does not contain the private keys required to encrypt an image through the bootloader we end up with an unecrypted one.

The system boots, bootloader recognises the mismatch and stops.

And since it is a dead stop and not just some missing files all goes nuts on the screen.

Starting to run out of ideas here but the WWW is full of them...

Going back to the old booloader (not boot.img) is really not advised as it can result in a true hard brick in over 90% of cases.

My biggest evelopment concern right now is that my bootloader was patched by the small OTA update and then not replaced with the full one from the big update.

So I am not 100% sure if besides having the same version numbers they are both really identical.

Ether way, the pure Android release seems to indicate that even with 7.2 flashing a totally modified system and vendor partition will work.

Sadly it also involves a modified bootloader so a bit hrd to make a full set of comparisions in the code to figure it out from there.

Not good at kernel stuff, only firmware levels :(

In the next few days I will focus on the packing of the firmware for flashing.

Oreo and especially the TV versions are usually packed slightly different than nougat or before firmwares.

Although my tests sometimes show my mods boot up into the system I can not be 100% sure whether or not my mods or the packing algorithms are the cause of problems.

Found some update cooking tools, also some new ones but since they are for Linux I need to find a way to at least utilise them through Cygwin somehow.

Did I mention: not good with Linux either LOL

I am in contact with Kauststubh Patange, a really nice guy with great potential.

Can't wait for his new ADK release to try, hopefully it will make things a lot easier.