[mod] [2011-03-22] TPT NAND Backup & Partition Tool - alpha3 [Gen1]

[Guest Schwinni]

in answer to your question, yes i was installing a few more apps on the system like gmail and google voice.

I can tell you what I did when I switched from the "normal" gapps installation to my gapp packages.

I had applied the mod before and Gmail, Maps, and so on were installed on /data.

Now, that my packages install on /system the space wasn't enough.

So, I applied the "return to stock" zip.

Then I installed CM7 and added the gapps to /system.

After that I applied the "nocache-10" zip.

This has to be done once, except you plan to add even more apps to /system.

[Guest wbaw]

cheers for the reply mate.

in answer to your question, yes i was installing a few more apps on the system like gmail and google voice.

so basically, i've been mislead by people who say that when you wipe everything and factory reset, these partitions disappear?

The partitions stay unless you do another TPT to change them or upgrade to Gen2, flashing a rom using clockwork can't affect your partition sizes.

[Guest hugobosslives]

I can tell you what I did when I switched from the "normal" gapps installation to my gapp packages.

I had applied the mod before and Gmail, Maps, and so on were installed on /data.

Now, that my packages install on /system the space wasn't enough.

So, I applied the "return to stock" zip.

Then I installed CM7 and added the gapps to /system.

After that I applied the "nocache-10" zip.

This has to be done once, except you plan to add even more apps to /system.

same situation here. and i will probs use the same method as you in future, cheers

The partitions stay unless you do another TPT to change them or upgrade to Gen2, flashing a rom using clockwork can't affect your partition sizes.

great this was exactly what i wanted to here.

btw: its an awesome mod so well done for creating it :)

[Guest wbaw]

Unfortunately it looks like upgrading this script for Gen2 phones might not be (easily) possible :)

Edited April 15, 2011 by wbaw

[Guest Schwinni]

Unfortunately it looks like upgrading this script for Gen2 phones might not be (easily) possible :)

What could I (or anybody else) do to help you?

Your resizing script is so brilliant. It has to live on - even when all users have upgraded to Gen 2!

[Guest wbaw]

What could I (or anybody else) do to help you?

Your resizing script is so brilliant. It has to live on - even when all users have upgraded to Gen 2!

Well, TPT mode is different on Gen2 phones, apparently it needs an image.bin file & nobody know what format that's supposed to be in - http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...-stuff-tpt-etc/

So unless we can find the format of that file & see if it allows the same kind of re-partitioning, the script is dead, pretty much.

It could possibly produce a files directory to be used with the windows based flashing method (like the gen1 -> gen2 upgrade), but that's adding a few fairly complex steps to the process for users, probably easier to just use fixed partition sizes. Also, I don't have a windows pc or gen2 phone to test it on.

[Guest hugobosslives]

yer feel free to ask us to test stuff or look over your scripts if you need help. this mod needs to be on gen2 when everyone goes across :)

are you not planning on an update to gen2 then?

Personally, I havn't 'upgraded' quite yet. But I plan to as soon as cm7 has a (gen2 only version) improvement that makes me wana switch (which probably won't be long)

[Guest curl66]

i successfuly done a TPT image of CM7 with this script. thanks for it.

the only thing i am missing is that in the TPT the recovery is missing.

how to add CWM to an existing TPT created by your script ?

got some friends they are not so experianced. they are still on JJ9 and i like to deliver them a TPT that installs CM7 and CWM. since they are 500km away from me this will be the easiest solution.

[Guest wbaw]

i successfuly done a TPT image of CM7 with this script. thanks for it.

the only thing i am missing is that in the TPT the recovery is missing.

how to add CWM to an existing TPT created by your script ?

got some friends they are not so experianced. they are still on JJ9 and i like to deliver them a TPT that installs CM7 and CWM. since they are 500km away from me this will be the easiest solution.

It's not a standard option because it's not needed to replace the recovery to change the partition sizes, that partition doesn't get changed.

However, I included a few other options ...

There are some more (mostly untested) options which you can set in META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script

On line 19 you should see this line...

run_program("/tmp/image/backup-script.sh", "fast", "nocache", "auto", "10");

The first option can be set to "fast", "full", or "nodata". fast is standard, it backs up boot system & userdata. full backs up the splash & recovery images too. nodata replaces userdata with a blank image.

It's not well tested, but if you change that line to something like this, it should do exactly what you're looking for ...

run_program("/tmp/image/backup-script.sh", "nodata", "nocache", "auto", "10");

That will create a TPT install with recovery.img boot.img splash.img system.img and a blank userdata.img Similar to a JJ9 image install.

You could recreate it manually by adding your favourite recovery.img to the image directory & copying the blank userdata.img out of this zip file.

[Guest wbaw]

yer feel free to ask us to test stuff or look over your scripts if you need help. this mod needs to be on gen2 when everyone goes across :)

It's not possible at the moment, I'd update it if I could, but we can't find a way to make TPT mode work on Gen2 phones & this script relies on that.

are you not planning on an update to gen2 then?

Correct, no plans for a Gen2 update for this, it's not realistically possible.

[Guest wbaw]

It's not possible at the moment, I'd update it if I could, but we can't find a way to make TPT mode work on Gen2 phones & this script relies on that.

Correct, no plans for a Gen2 update for this, it's not realistically possible.

I might change my mind on this ... I'm starting to think a gen2 upgrade TPT might be possible & It'd also leave the ability to do TPTs open for people that upgraded their Gen1 phones using that method. If it is possible to do that, then those that used the current method of gen2 upgrades & people that bought gen2 phones wont be able to use this script.

The problem is that the first person to test my theory could totally brick their phone & I'm not confident enough in it to try it myself, even though I think it should work (hopefully). I need someone with a Gen1 phone & no fear of breaking it beyond any possible repair, maybe a phone that is already a bit broken in some way (broken touch screen or something).

If it does work then I could adapt this script to do the Gen2 upgrade, phones upgraded in this way would still be able to downgrade back to Gen1 & this script would still work on these phones.

If you use the current method of upgrading to Gen2 with the windows flashing program, or if you buy a Gen2 phone, then I don't think this script is ever likely to work on your phone, unless there's a safe way found to go back to Gen1.

Edited April 16, 2011 by wbaw

[Guest hugobosslives]

Correct, no plans for a Gen2 update for this, it's not realistically possible.

what i more meant was: are you not planing to update (your phone) to gen2?

I might change my mind on this ... I'm starting to think a gen2 upgrade TPT might be possible & It'd also leave the ability to do TPTs open for people that upgraded their Gen1 phones using that method. If it is possible to do that, then those that used the current method of gen2 upgrades & people that bought gen2 phones wont be able to use this script.

The problem is that the first person to test my theory could totally brick their phone & I'm not confident enough in it to try it myself, even though I think it should work (hopefully). I need someone with a Gen1 phone & no fear of breaking it beyond any possible repair, maybe a phone that is already a bit broken in some way (broken touch screen or something).

If it does work then I could adapt this script to do the Gen2 upgrade, phones upgraded in this way would still be able to downgrade back to Gen1 & this script would still work on these phones.

If you use the current method of upgrading to Gen2 with the windows flashing program, or if you buy a Gen2 phone, then I don't think this script is ever likely to work on your phone, unless there's a safe way found to go back to Gen1.

yer i'm sure you'll be able to find some on with such a phone. start a thread or ask stevenharper etc

so you think you can create a 'reversable' gen2 update? people would love this. the cm7 thread was full of people moaning about not being able to revert to gen1 (if ever needed) a few days ago....

[Guest wbaw]

what i more meant was: are you not planing to update (your phone) to gen2?

Yeah, I'll update my phone sooner or later.

I'm just not totally sure this script can work with phones that have already been updated to Gen2, or were sold with Gen2, there are some technical difficulties there because the current Gen2 upgrade changes TPT mode to use a different & unfamiliar file format.

yer i'm sure you'll be able to find some on with such a phone. start a thread or ask stevenharper etc

so you think you can create a 'reversable' gen2 update? people would love this. the cm7 thread was full of people moaning about not being able to revert to gen1 (if ever needed) a few days ago....

It'll be a reversible gen2 update that doesn't disable tpt mode if it works. It'd also be possible to script the whole upgrade by adapting this script, and/or to create a Gen2 upgrade CM7 TPT install.

Edited April 16, 2011 by wbaw

[Guest hugobosslives]

well I think I speak for alot of people when I say;

+1

for this idea.

sounds awesome. keep at it man. and let us know of you need anything

[Guest isambard]

Yeah, I'll update my phone sooner or later.

I'm just not totally sure this script can work with phones that have already been updated to Gen2, or were sold with Gen2, there are some technical difficulties there because the current Gen2 upgrade changes TPT mode to use a different & unfamiliar file format.

It'll be a reversible gen2 update that doesn't disable tpt mode if it works. It'd also be possible to script the whole upgrade by adapting this script, and/or to create a Gen2 upgrade CM7 TPT install.

did you see my idea to put the TPT loader from Gen1 into the Gen2 upgrader? in theory, this should then allow us to use TPT in such Gen2 updated devices.

[Guest wbaw]

did you see my idea to put the TPT loader from Gen1 into the Gen2 upgrader? in theory, this should then allow us to use TPT in such Gen2 updated devices.

But, if you don't include the right files, then you're certain to brick it.

Problem is the file containing the tpt loader is critical to the whole thing, it's not just a tpt flash program it's a bootloader too & it needs a matching partition.mbn

If you get it wrong then your phone will be made totally useless with no way to fix it.

Edited April 17, 2011 by wbaw

[Guest curl66]

Yeah, I'll update my phone sooner or later.

I'm just not totally sure this script can work with phones that have already been updated to Gen2, or were sold with Gen2, there are some technical difficulties there because the current Gen2 upgrade changes TPT mode to use a different & unfamiliar file format.

It'll be a reversible gen2 update that doesn't disable tpt mode if it works. It'd also be possible to script the whole upgrade by adapting this script, and/or to create a Gen2 upgrade CM7 TPT install.

thanks. That is the thing. because current method to upgrade GEN1 to GEN2 for CM is not really usefull for the unexperiance user. a TPT that can do this all magically will be great!

anyway thanks for the advise, created a TPT image with recovery :)

[Guest Rotmann]

It'll be a reversible gen2 update that doesn't disable tpt mode if it works. It'd also be possible to script the whole upgrade by adapting this script, and/or to create a Gen2 upgrade CM7 TPT install.

That would be brilliant and many users would be thankful for that as a lot of people are skeptical about the current method. Don't want to sound impatient, I want to convert to Gen2, should I wait for your script, any new infos on a release? I also want to make a "How-To" for the German Blade community like I did with your TPT partition mod, but as I've said, I'd wait for your script as it's really flexible.

Edited April 18, 2011 by Rotmann

[Guest geegeethatsme]

because current method to upgrade GEN1 to GEN2 for CM is not really usefull for the unexperiance user

Wbaw's plans sound promising, and will assist those nervous about the upgrade process, but having done it myself it's not much more complicated than flashing a custom rom, so for those keen to press on, don't stress too much. The constituent parts are the same - getting the phone and PC talking, getting the right files onto the SD card, flashing through CWM, rebooting with some specific button presses, running an executable file, and so on. A thorough read of all related fora (not just the Gen1-Gen2 one but also all those linked in the topic) should set you up. I'm a Linux user so had to bone up on Windoze and sort out drivers etc. but took it slow and had the desired result. I didn't faff around with tweaking partitions but used the standard setup. I'd rather sacrifice a bit of space for what should be a more straightforward upgrade. And with whizzes like wbaw on the forum, I figured a partition tool for Gen2 might be a natural progression. :) Yes there are some scary episodes being recorded by other members and that's not good, but there looks to be reversion procedures for most circs. Carpe diem!

Oh, and I stayed with SS3 which I was already using and is in my view the best 2.2 rom yet - for my needs. The marginal extra functionality in CM7 is still outweighed by the nuisance factor of the outstanding issues with it. But once those get to a minimum level that I can accept I'm ready to switch.

Edited April 18, 2011 by geegeethatsme

[Guest wbaw]

That would be brilliant and many users would be thankful for that as a lot of people are skeptical about the current method. Don't want to sound impatient, I want to convert to Gen2, should I wait for your script, any new infos on a release? I also want to make a "How-To" for the German Blade community like I did with your TPT partition mod, but as I've said, I'd wait for your script as it's really flexible.

It needs somebody braver than me to test my theory on how to do it. I think it'll work, but there's also a chance it might not work & it might leave the tester's phone broken beyond repair.

I think that combining a gen1 partition.mbn with gen2 amss.mbn amsshd.mbn appsboot.mbn appsboothd.mbn partition_zte.mbn and a gen2 clockworkmod as boot.img in a TPT & flashing it to a gen1 phone should work to upgrade it to gen2, but I'm too scared to try it myself & don't want to take the blame for breaking somebody else's phone. It will almost certainly break your phone if you include a gen2 oemsbl.mbn so stay away from that & the other .mbn files.

Edited April 18, 2011 by wbaw

[Guest Rotmann]

I'd try it right now if I were in the UK because a replacement takes 1-2-3 days, that's bearable. but I live in Germany and bought the blades through a pal in the UK, that means if something goes wrong I'll have to ship it to UK and back, that's a shame.

EDIT: just thought at the pal in the UK, he could try that :) Could you PM me details&stuff? Thanks.

Edited April 18, 2011 by Rotmann

[Guest isambard]

It needs somebody braver than me to test my theory on how to do it. I think it'll work, but there's also a chance it might not work & it might leave the tester's phone broken beyond repair.

I think that combining a gen1 partition.mbn with gen2 amss.mbn amsshd.mbn appsboot.mbn appsboothd.mbn partition_zte.mbn and a gen2 clockworkmod as boot.img in a TPT & flashing it to a gen1 phone should work to upgrade it to gen2, but I'm too scared to try it myself & don't want to take the blame for breaking somebody else's phone. It will almost certainly break your phone if you include a gen2 oemsbl.mbn so stay away from that & the other .mbn files.

that was my thinking too, except first to try gen1 appsboot files (i'm assuming this is where the power-up combo for TPT decision-making is held) and then to retry with gen2 if gen1 doesn't work.

if not flashing the gen2 appsboot, then this should be a risk-free try since you can still TPT amss back if you want.

if someone has a gen2 -> gen1 conversion guide, i will convert my gen2 back to gen1 and then try do TPT it back to gen2.

Edited April 18, 2011 by isambard

[Guest burstlam]

thought TPT seems convienient to change the layout

yet upgrading gen2 means upgrading the radio ...

so no matter the merthod we use, TPT or dfu communication with the phone,

writing these firmware files should bear the same risk of bricking it ? Right?

unless we could make it without touching the spl... nvm/ imei data

here I got the firmware file of Unicom Telecom version in China. the retail version is a Gen2 machine with 256mb system ram only. (512 mb for internal storage)

http://hotfile.com/dl/114965356/fa33fac/un...2files.zip.html

hope it would do something good.

Edited April 19, 2011 by burstlam

[Guest Rotmann]

that was my thinking too, except first to try gen1 appsboot files (i'm assuming this is where the power-up combo for TPT decision-making is held) and then to retry with gen2 if gen1 doesn't work.

if not flashing the gen2 appsboot, then this should be a risk-free try since you can still TPT amss back if you want.

if someone has a gen2 -> gen1 conversion guide, i will convert my gen2 back to gen1 and then try do TPT it back to gen2.

Flash mrradmir's zip from post 74 here. Your IMEI will be broken but according to kallt you'll be able to recover it easily:

Just keep a copy of you original Channel1.nvm and you should be able to recover. I lost my IMEI but was able to restore it by going back to Gen2 and injecting my Channel1.nvm at the right moment.

Some very interesting things I got from wbaw and they will surely help, sorry wbaw for posting this :) , but I find this is very helpful information and may help many users further:

I already had one failed attempt, it bricked my phone & I got my second replacement under warranty. Don't want to have to get another replacement, it'll look suspicious. It ended up a total brick, it booted, but i'd lost access to sdcard & the windows flasher kept failing at between 8 & 13%. My final attempt to fix it with the windows flasher resulted in a totally dead phone. I'm pretty sure it was the gen2 oemsbl.mbn mixed with gen1 partition.mbn that caused the problem, so I didn't include those, it should just be the essential parts needed for Gen2.

amss.mbn seems safe to mix generations with, somebody already did that, so the only untested bit is gen2 appsboot.mbn mixed with a gen1 oemsbl.mbn & partition.mbn - it should work, the partition sizes are the same between generations for amss & appsboot.

So, even more than the usual disclaimers, this hasn't been tried before & if it doesn't work then you might not be able to fix it, although this shouldn't overwrite/disable tpt mode (thats in oemsbl.mbn), so it should still be fixable. Reverting back to gen1 should be much easier & safer than with the current gen2, and it should fix it if things go wrong.

Links removed for security reasons, so that they don't get accidentally flashed - if you want them, ask wbaw for them

These should do the conversion with stock partition sizes & then boot into amon-ra recovery.

Did not get the UK pal tonight on the messenger, dammit. Hopefully tomorrow.

Edited April 19, 2011 by Rotmann

[Guest wbaw]

that was my thinking too, except first to try gen1 appsboot files (i'm assuming this is where the power-up combo for TPT decision-making is held) and then to retry with gen2 if gen1 doesn't work.

if not flashing the gen2 appsboot, then this should be a risk-free try since you can still TPT amss back if you want.

if someone has a gen2 -> gen1 conversion guide, i will convert my gen2 back to gen1 and then try do TPT it back to gen2.

appsboot is where the base address is set, amss is where the radio firmware is, so if we flash both, along with the other necessary files, it should work to upgrade all the parts of the firmware that a rom cares about. Just don't mess with oemsbl.mbn, that breaks it.

I think these mbn files in a tpt should work (no guarantees)...

gen1 partition.mbn

gen2 partition_zte.mbn appsboot.mbn appsboothd.mbn amss.mbn amsshd.mbn

TPT mode is blocked if partition.mbn doesn't match what's already on the phone, that's why an all gen2 tpt wont flash, so we need to use a gen1 partition.mbn otherwise it wont flash. oemsbl.mbn needs to match the partition.mbn too, so a mix of a gen1 partition.mbn & gen2 oemsbl.mbn kills your phone.

Then if that works, it should still be possible to do a full hungarian tpt with all gen1 files to revert back again (not possible on a true gen2 phone). TPT mode should still work as it would on Gen1, because that part would still be Gen1.

Shouldn't be any worries about losing the imei either. If it works for one person, then it should always work reliably for everybody, it's just the first person to try it needs to take a risk of killing their phone.

Edited April 19, 2011 by wbaw