[Gen8 Android Development] msticninja:
I made this to tide myself over until $auron can finish UrukDroid 0.6. This is a combination of the stock Archos 2.1.04 firmware, Ardatdat's Overclocked Kernel, and a manual EXT4 Conversion. It is permanently rooted and includes SuperUser. My main reason for making it was to enable read/write access to the filesystem, which rooting DOES NOT do on the stock Archos firmware, as the squashfs will still be mounted read only by /etc/mountpoints. Also, EXT4 is much faster than the compressed squashfs Archos uses. Quadrant gives ~2200 with the data partition converted to EXT4 as well, ~1800 without conversion. I have already updated Busybox to a fully compiled version, 1.16, another thing Archos decided to "secure" despite the supposed Open Source status. I have NOT edited the .hosts file to block ads, as I believe the app developers deserve to make some money, you'd be amazed how little they make, but you can do it yourself without Archangel scripts now, as the filesystem will be read/write again.

I designed it on an A101it, but it should work on any Gen8 with internal flash storage. A70H users, I can't remember your block allocations, it may work fine, but I'll need someone to post the storage layout of /dev/block/ to be sure.

For the power users, here's a quick install outline: First, make a second partition on your storage/sdcard in EXT4, extract the rootfs.tar.gz to it, and flash the appropriate initramfs and zimage. Pretty easy.

For the rest of you(probably most of you):

There is only one short step in Linux, which is setting up an EXT4 partition on your Internal Storage or your SD Card. You must make it as a second partition, not 1st, 3rd, or anything else. This means you can still use it as a storage device as well as running Android. I find it incredibly simple, and can be done in less than 3 minutes, but I will be relying on you guys to tell me what you don't understand, and I will update the instructions as needed.

This can be run off the SD Card or the Internal Storage, both versions are included in the download. It will use the existing data partition if you already have the SDE installed and 2.1.04 firmware. Otherwise, you will need to flash the SDE, which erases your data, so please use Titanium Backup first if necessary.

Step 1:

Download my files:http://www.multiupload.com/HR6SRRR8P8

And install the SDE from Archos: http://www.archos.com/support/download/firm_dev/firmware_archos_android_gen8.aos.

Step 2: Boot into stock Android and connect to a Linux PC. If you do not have Linux, download Tuxboot and use it to create a GParted Live Disk:http://gparted.sourceforge.net/liveusb.php

Step 3:

Mount your Internal Storage/SD Card from the Archos. It should now show up in GParted on the Linux PC, make sure you have the correct device selected, it should be called Archos A101T(make note of the location, e.g. /dev/sdb). Resize your existing partition with GParted, leaving about 300MB at the end of the Internal Storage/SD Card. Make a new partition in the empty space, and select ext4 as filesystem. Apply Changes. Now open a terminal, elevate yourself to root by typing

sudo -s

and format the new partition by typing

mkfs.ext4 -O ^huge_file /dev/sdb2

Substitute "sdb" for whatever your device location was in GParted. The "2" on the end of "sdb" denotes that it is the second partition. Do NOT format "sdb1" or any other "sd"s. Mount the new partition by opening Nautilus or any other file manager and double clicking on the "300MB Filesystem" entry on the left. Untar the rootfs.tar.gz from my files with the Archive Manager, it works just like winzip or winrar, into the root of the new partition. Eject the device from Linux, then reboot into the Developer Menu by holding vol- or vol+ while booting.

Step 4:

Flash the initramfs.cpio.gz and the zimage from my files. Use the files from the "internal" folder if you are running from Internal Storage, or the files from "sdcard" if you are running from the SD Card.

Step 5:

Use the Dev Menu to boot into Developer Edition. Let me know about any bugs. :) After I removed the Android Boot option from the Dev Menu, I had a few strange loops of the Archos animation while booting, but it did boot, and function, just fine.

Thanks go to Ardatdat for the kernel, Archos for the crappy "securing" of the squashfs, and $auron for motivating me to get back into development.