Hacking the Vega? Post your progress!

[Guest Paul]

Thought i'd start this topic (although mine hasn't arrived yet). B)

P

[Guest Paul]

Interesting... i've been looking at the update zip on myadventvega.co.uk (which is applied via the system menus) and it's not signed.

Hacking this thing will be extremely easy. B)

P

[Guest captainsensible]

Sweet!

[Guest deadite66]

wasn't too bothered about buying a tablet but this news makes me reconsider.

[Guest Paul]

Funtime!

Gonna dump the stock image and compare to 1.02 / 1.03, then we know if we really need to fully wipe or can do a differential update...

I predict much vega hackiness tomorrow!

P

[Guest 5c00ter]

This music to my eyes (ears?!?)

Any way of getting the 1.02 update applied via Linux/Ubuntu? (VirtualBox didn't cut it I'm afraid)

[Guest Paul]

Yeah, hopefully, It'd be nice to be able to apply using OSX too.

P

[Guest amarko5]

some interesting stuff possibly on this site (well to you devs anyhow) http://developer.nvidia.com/tegra/downloads

[Guest mcb00f]

I posted in the other thread but it is more relevant here.

The Viewsonic G Tablet shares the Tegra2 so the progress made by the XDA guys on that tablet may be relevant here. They have clockworkmod recovery, root, full market, and a number of other bug fixes.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=841

[Guest daniel.weck]

ROM for the Toshiba Folio:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=9323923

[Guest swarrans]

I'm afraid you experts are likely to get a rush of noobs like me who have just bought a Vega but have no experience of Android or hacking - however, you seem a friendly bunch so I'll risk a question or two!

1. Is there a single place (here?!) that a noob can read up on things like rooting etc - it looks like I "should" do it but the last thing I want to do is to brick my new toy!

2. Will someone (Paul) end up producing a single update that will add most of the things I'm likely to want (like the Apps Library) with instructions so that even I can put it on my device.

I guess the safest thing I can do (when I get my Vega tomorrow hopefully) is to run it completely stock until I understand what my questions even mean!

Thanks for your patience

Simon

[Guest Dogeron]

I'm afraid you experts are likely to get a rush of noobs like me who have just bought a Vega but have no experience of Android or hacking - however, you seem a friendly bunch so I'll risk a question or two!

1. Is there a single place (here?!) that a noob can read up on things like rooting etc - it looks like I "should" do it but the last thing I want to do is to brick my new toy!

2. Will someone (Paul) end up producing a single update that will add most of the things I'm likely to want (like the Apps Library) with instructions so that even I can put it on my device.

I guess the safest thing I can do (when I get my Vega tomorrow hopefully) is to run it completely stock until I understand what my questions even mean!

Thanks for your patience

Simon

Simon,

I've not found a single "Howto" thread as you describe.

The first step to truly owning the device you bought is obtaining root access and from their everything is possible. If you read back through the threads Paul has already achieved this.

Looking at the comments already posted by Paul, I think it unlikely that you will brick this device, though I would strongly advise you to wait until Paul produces a device specific Howto guide.

He is also likely (if you ask very nicely) to produce a video showing how easy it is/isn't.

For an example I would suggest you take a look at the Paul's first post in this San Francisco thread.. For information it took me precisely 3 hours from getting my San Francisco home to having it unlocked, rooted and loading a Modaco custom rom - and that was my first attempt at hacking anything.

Rest assured when tell you that these guys (and girls) are good.

Dog.

Edited November 24, 2010 by Dogeron

[Guest Grainsalt]

Fellow "Shadow" member here. I really look forward to getting this device and doing all magical the things you guys talk about, i wouldn't know a "sideload" from camel to be honest but sounds fun if there could possibly be a "howto" guide for us newbs. Pretty please with cherry's ontop?

[Guest SilentMobius]

Fellow "Shadow" member here. I really look forward to getting this device and doing all magical the things you guys talk about, i wouldn't know a "sideload" from camel to be honest but sounds fun if there could possibly be a "howto" guide for us newbs. Pretty please with cherry's ontop?

There really isn't one, just read all the threads, search around, and ask specific questions.

"Sideload" is just a colloquial term that means "install an application using non-standard means" E.G. If the _usual_ way to install an app on an Android device was through one of the many Market/App Store applications then copying the apk for the application over to the device's storage and installing by clicking on the apk in a file manager. That would be called "sideloading"

[Guest TylerDurdenK]

As far as rooting goes, this has alreaady been done. Just look at the thread entitled 'root'.

[Guest swarrans]

Simon,

I've not found a single "Howto" thread as you describe.

The first step to truly owning the device you bought is obtaining root access and from their everything is possible. If you read back through the threads Paul has already achieved this.

Looking at the comments already posted by Paul, I think it unlikely that you will brick this device, though I would strongly advise you to wait until Paul produces a device specific Howto guide.

He is also likely (if you ask very nicely) to produce a video showing how easy it is/isn't.

For an example I would suggest you take a look at the Paul's first post in this San Francisco thread.. For information it took me precisely 3 hours from getting my San Francisco home to having it unlocked, rooted and loading a Modaco custom rom - and that was my first attempt at hacking anything.

Rest assured when tell you that these guys (and girls) are good.

Dog.

Many thanks Dog - great review Paul did of the San Francisco there.

I'll wait for Paul's How To for the Vega!....

Simon

[Guest Paul]

Alrighty, it showed up in ADB on my Mac with no tweaking which is handy! Weirdly ADB drops when the device goes in 'standby'.

Already permarooted with VISIONary, i've dumped the stock MTD partitions to the SDcard, except for /system, which weirdly won't dump. I've tar-gz'd that instead.

I'm gonna have a poke around then flash the 1.02 update, dump again and do a file comparison with stock to see if the full-flash is really necessary to fix the launcher or if it's just a file or two.

[Guest Paul]

Downloaded and successfully extracted the image from the Tegra Developer Zone last night - http://tegradeveloper.nvidia.com/tegra/downloads.

This seems to be updated pretty frequently, so there may well be bits we can use in there.

[Guest Paul]

Good news, the .exe software update on the myadventvega site is just a self extracting ZIP, so there's no need for me to even flash it to do a 'difference'. B)

[Guest Paul]

Device mountpoints:

rootfs / rootfs ro,relatime 0 0

tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755 0 0

devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0

proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0

sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0

none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0

tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0

none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0

/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 ro,relatime 0 0

/dev/block/mtdblock6 /data yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime 0 0

/dev/block/mtdblock4 /cache yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime 0 0

/dev/block/mtdblock0 /misc yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime 0 0

/dev/block/vold/179:25 /mnt/sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,

llow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0

/dev/block/vold/179:25 /mnt/secure/asec vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,

llow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0

tmpfs /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs ro,relatime,size=0k,mode=000 0 0[/code]

[Guest Paul]

Device RAM:

  Mem:	   447852	   260556	   187296			0		 1656

 Swap:			0			0			0

Total:	   447852	   260556	   187296[/code]

[Guest Paul]

OK, analysis...

Shipped ROM:

ro.build.display.id=harmony-eng 2.2 FRF91 20101025.183652 test-keys

ro.build.date.utc=1288003816[/code]




1.02 update:



[code]ro.build.display.id=harmony 2.2 FRF91 20101025.183652

ro.build.date.utc=1288003816

NVidia Tegra online image:

ro.build.display.id=harmony-eng 2.2 FRF91 20101105.183900 test-keys

ro.build.date.utc=1288985738[/code]


So... the Nvidia online image is newer (we may be able to pull some parts from that at a later date), but intriguingly, the build date for the 1.02 is the same as shipping!


Now to do a DeltaWalker difference analysis to see what the ACTUAL changes are! B)

[Guest daniel.weck]

Yaffs2, ideal for NAND flash. Why didn't Samsung use this instead of their so-called RFS (Robust File System) ? B)

No need for proprietary filesystem.

Device mountpoints:

rootfs / rootfs ro,relatime 0 0

tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755 0 0

devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0

proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0

sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0

none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0

tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0

none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0

/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 ro,relatime 0 0

/dev/block/mtdblock6 /data yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime 0 0

/dev/block/mtdblock4 /cache yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime 0 0

/dev/block/mtdblock0 /misc yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime 0 0

/dev/block/vold/179:25 /mnt/sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,

llow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0

/dev/block/vold/179:25 /mnt/secure/asec vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,

llow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0

tmpfs /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs ro,relatime,size=0k,mode=000 0 0

Edited November 24, 2010 by daniel.weck

[Guest SilentMobius]

Alrighty, it showed up in ADB on my Mac with no tweaking which is handy! Weirdly ADB drops when the device goes in 'standby'.

Folio 100 was the same Paul, I'm guessing the lack of 3g means the Tegra2 uses a much deeper standby level, morelike hibernate. The folio had trouble comming out of hibernate, sometimes taking up to 5 sec. No sign of that on the Vega I hope?

[Guest Paul]

Changes in 1.02...

Changed / Updated

/system/build.prop

/system/app/Browser.apk

/system/app/Email.apk

/system/app/Phone.apk

/system/app/Settings.apk

/system/app/SetupWizard.apk

/system/app/iLauncher2.apk

/system/bin/nvrm_daemon

/system/etc/Dix/TabletCompanion.msi

/system/etc/notice.html.gz

/system/etc/shuttle_ins.sh

/system/framework/*.jar (except core / ext)

/system/lib/wlan/ar6000.ko

/system/lib/wlan_ar6002/ar6000.ko[/code]


[b]Removed[/b]



[code]/system/app/SpeechRecorder.apk

/system/bin/cp

/system/bin/cut

Added

/system/etc/bluez/bluecore6.psr

/system/etc/shuttle_priv/libflashplayer_froyo_gles2_20101019_v10.1.95.18_signed.apk [b][color=red](!)[/color][/b][/code]

Intriguing huh?


So 1.02 is definitely a worthy update, with updates to a number of apps, an updated wireless driver (could signify an updated kernel) and the intriguing 'Shuttle' flash APK. Hmmm... those pics we saw of it with Shuttle branding appear to be real!