ROM Development help

[Guest redshift13]

Hey guys,

can anyone point me in the right direction for starting ROM development...

I have seen http://theunlockr.co...up-the-kitchen/

is it the same procedure..?

Links and tips on where to start off will be really helpful...

vache..?? davidevinavil..??lens_flare..??anyone else who is experienced in this area..??

Thanks,Looking forward to your replies...

Also, I can code well and very familiar with linux.. :)

PS: i have googled enough with unsatisfactory results..just letting you know.. :)

Edited July 20, 2011 by redshift13

[Guest davidevinavil]

Hi, first you have to look deep into custom rom..

All rom has the same folder structure..

A rom is essentially a zip file signed with a java tool named signapk..

Download this and put into your home directory. Hope you are using linux because all this tools are for linux.

You need also sun-java6-jdk installed..

To give that folder you can made a nandroid backup of acer stock rom and copy into pc..

You'll use only system.img and boot.img

To extract system.img use unyaffs

Put system.img keeped from nandroid backup into unyaffs folder and type this

your_home:~/unyaffs$ ./unyaffs system.img

This will extract system folder into unyaffs folder..

Now you can choose wich apk delete or add or edit

Look also at buil.prop. For beginning you can use original build.prop

After yours editing you have to create a zip file named like you want your new rom.

Then open this empty zip and put those folder: system, META-INF, boot.img

You can use META-INF folder picked-up from mine last Ginger_dmd rom, but pay attenction to delete CERT.RSA, CERT.SF, MANIFEST.MF

If you leave those files sign wont't work

For boot.img use mine, I don't know if will work that picked directly from nandroid backup :/

Look also at updater-script into META-INF/com/google/android/

This is the file that recovery use to flash rom, set permission and create symbolic link..

Please try to understand well updater-script.

To have superuser you have to add su, busybox and Superuser.apk

So keep Superuser.apk from mine rom and put into system/app/ folder and su and busybox into system/xbin/ folder

Really busybox isn't need by superuser, but it's used by updater-script so you must have it

Now you are ready to sign your zip file with a command like this

your_home:~/sign$ java -jar SignApk\\signapk.jar SignApk\\testkey.x509.pem SignApk\\testkey.pk8 ~/sign/your_rom.zip ~/sign/signed/your_rom.zip

Look into /sign/signed folder and you'll find yours new rom ready to flash :)

Note that you can add/delete all stuff to a normal folder and after put into zip file, or add/delete directly into zip file

Obviously you can try editing mine rom to understand the signing process and to see if it works :)

After that try wich you want and good luck :)

Hope this help you and anyone that want to play with custom rom :)

Edited July 20, 2011 by davidevinavil

[Guest davidevinavil]

To edit boot.img you have to unpack it, made edit and repack

Use this tool (mkbootimg was compiled by Vache so any credits goes to him)

Put boot.img into same folder you put unpack-bootimg.pl an mkbootimg

Run those command

./unpack-bootimg.pl boot.img this will unpack kernel and ramdisk

Enter into boot.img-ramdisk folder with

cd boot.img-ramdisk

Look into that folder and made your edit.

You can also leave it as it

After that type this

find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip > ../newramdisk.cpio.gz (this command will keep all files and folder into boot.img-ramdisk folder and put into newramdisk.cpio.gz file)

cd ..

./mkbootimg --cmdline 'console=null' --kernel boot.img-kernel.gz --ramdisk newramdisk.cpio.gz -o newboot.img

newboot.img is boot that you'll put into your custom rom

Remember to rename it into boot.img or you must edit updater-script

Edited July 20, 2011 by davidevinavil

[Guest redshift13]

Wonderful.!!thanks a lot buddy..will be looking into it now..

will post if i have any doubts on how to do things.. :)

[Guest hfbvm]

ALl the links are down. Also how do i open the bun file?