[MOD][TOOL] DUAL BOOT FOR ZTE BLADE/MODIFY-BOOT TOOL [14/08]

[Guest KonstaT]

What tool (user friendly) can i use on windows to edit boot.img ? Thanks.

None, windows file systems can't handle linux style symbolic links.

I've posted a user friendly boot.img kitchen for linux that's just perfect for this use. I'm sure you can use a ubuntu live-cd or similar.

http://www.modaco.co...ootimg-kitchen/

[Guest razzmataz1478]

What tool (user friendly) can i use on windows to edit boot.img ? Thanks.

Use virtual box, I use it to compile ROMs on.

[Guest android@sam]

Added tool for modifying boot.img

[Guest XMasterNinni]

@android@sam

If you release the source of the tool, I could join the project and I can help you a little with that.

Edited August 10, 2012 by XMasterNinni

[Guest vNa5h]

Yeah ..

how would s2e accept one from two partitions

???

[Guest gunapriyan]

Developer, Can you place a Video for Install (Step by Step)? Please. Thanks in advance.

[Guest Snap.IT]

???

Most (all?) mount scripts for S2E use /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 so that is the second primary partition on the SD-card.

You can, of course, just change that in the mount script is you want to use another partition. You can have a maximum number of four primary partitions.

I haven't looked at the scripts yet but i'm going to assume it mounts /system to /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 so the easiest way to use S2E would be to make four partitions (fat32 - ext3 for second rom - ext3 for second data and ext3 for S2E) and change the mount script in init.d to mount /sd-ext to /dev/block/mmcblk0p4

Edited August 10, 2012 by Snap.IT

[Guest KonstaT]

Download and unzip the tool to any directory.Here i will consider for the cygwin users, say c:\modify-boot.

Now,open the terminal or cygwin bash shell(for windows users) and mount the directory by typing:

​ cd c:\modify-boot and press enter.

...

Have you actually tested this that it works with cygwin? If you split boot.img and pack it back together without any modifications, bytesize of the new boot.img is different from the original image. From what I've read, it's because windows file system breaks symbolic links.

Now the tool will tell you to copy init.rc file.So copy the the correct version of init.rc (i have labelled them) to the /bootimg_(some nos will be here)/boot.img-ramdisk folder.Don't for forget to rename it to init before copying it!!

init.rc is not some blob that you can just copy from one ROM to another. I would highly oppose if someone was to use to that init.rc in Swedish Snow. init.rc is also different in CM7 and ZTE stock based ROMs.

Because it's matter of editing only few lines, you'll probably be able to change them using sed. This would also make it possible to automate the whole splitting/modding/packing process.

[Guest Snap.IT]

Avast is giving me a virus warning on the file mkbootfs.exe and moves it to quarantine.

Virus is win32:Kukacka.

Doesn't matter much to me since i won't be using windows for the actual procedure but it's something that you should remove ASAP.

[Guest phnha2003]

I put Swedish-Snow-RLS7 boot.img in bootimg_xxxxx... and get

Kernel found at offset 2048 in boot.img

Extracting kernel ...

Error: No zImage found!

Extracting ramdisk ...

Error: No ramdisk folder found!

Contents of bootimg_081212_120734:

total 0

what's happen

[Guest Sulthekk]

Avast is giving me a virus warning on the file mkbootfs.exe and moves it to quarantine.

Virus is win32:Kukacka.

Doesn't matter much to me since i won't be using windows for the actual procedure but it's something that you should remove ASAP.

Kukacka :D

[Guest android@sam]

I put Swedish-Snow-RLS7 boot.img in bootimg_xxxxx... and get

what's happen

Check the size of your boot.img.Have it been successfully unziped from the rom?

[Guest android@sam]

Update for tool coming soon.Thid version of the tool will adapt the whole rom for dual booting!!

[Guest Snap.IT]

Update for tool coming soon.Thid version of the tool will adapt the whole rom for dual booting!!

I was successful in installing both nand and SD-Roms but i had to change the updater script for CM10, you're missing a line to set permissions for su and since i'm using RA recovery i had to change the mount and format lines.

I also changed the nand rom's init scripts so that it will mount sd-ext to the fourth partition and finally i changed the RA recovery so that it understands that the fourth partition is SD-Ext when making backups/restoring backups.

Since most people don't use RA (but i kinda have to because it's the only recovery that actually works with ext4 and my gen3 device) i won't post it here without request.

[Guest android@sam]

I was successful in installing both nand and SD-Roms but i had to change the updater script for CM10, you're missing a line to set permissions for su and since i'm using RA recovery i had to change the mount and format lines.

I also changed the nand rom's init scripts so that it will mount sd-ext to the fourth partition and finally i changed the RA recovery so that it understands that the fourth partition is SD-Ext when making backups/restoring backups.

Since most people don't use RA (but i kinda have to because it's the only recovery that actually works with ext4 and my gen3 device) i won't post it here without request.

You are most welcome! !

[Guest Snap.IT]

You are most welcome! !

:)

I am extremely impressed with the speed, i've got an old 4GB that i'm testing this on and the speed is way over any expectations i had. :)

One tip is to use script-manager widgets for bootsd.sh (in the nand rom) and bootnand.sh (in the SD rom). That way rebooting into your other rom is as easy as clicking the shortcut on your homescreen.

[Guest vNa5h]

:)

I am extremely impressed with the speed, i've got an old 4GB that i'm testing this on and the speed is way over any expectations i had. :)

One tip is to use script-manager widgets for bootsd.sh (in the nand rom) and bootnand.sh (in the SD rom). That way rebooting into your other rom is as easy as clicking the shortcut on your homescreen.

still better ROM devs can include a option in power menu to reboot into the respective ROM

is there any way we can do it ourself

[Guest vNa5h]

WE have to decompile/recompile framework file

here a tutorial to add screenshot

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1692080

we can do it similarly

[Guest Snap.IT]

still better ROM devs can include a option in power menu to reboot into the respective ROM

is there any way we can do it ourself

Well, sure there is a way to do it (all it does is flash the boot.img from the ROM you want to boot to and reboot the phone) but a widget is just as easy.

There are bigger issues that need to be resolved before that.

When installing burstlams rom into nand and rebooting it will actually move the data from the sd data partition (second partition or mmcblk0p2) to the nand data. The reason for this is that S2E looks at the partition, sees the data, figures that it should be in /data (since the option to move it to sd-ext is not set) and moves it to /data.

I think the proper solution would be to leave the second partition for sd-ext and use mmcblk0p3 and mmcblk0p4 for /data and /system respectively. This also solves the problem with wiping/factory reset which will wipe the data partition for the SD-ROM since it mounts it as sd-ext.

I don't really know what happens when you swapon the /system partition though so that needs to be edited out of the init.d/swapon.80 of the burstlam ICS before installing it. :D

Edited August 13, 2012 by Snap.IT

[Guest iShubham]

I have a question...

Does this slow down the device? I mean my chinese blade is slow with any ROM...so putting 2 roms would be more slow or it wont affect speed?

[Guest Snap.IT]

I have a question...

Does this slow down the device? I mean my chinese blade is slow with any ROM...so putting 2 roms would be more slow or it wont affect speed?

It won't affect the *memory* (RAM) of the phone at all, all it does is that it allows you to install a second ROM onto external storage (SD-Card).

The way it does this is to change the updater-script that installs the rom (and other packages, like gapps) to install the second rom into the partitions you created on your sdcard (first partition (mmcblk0p2) is mounted as /data and second partition (mmcblk0p3) is mounted as /system). To make it work the init.rc of your boot.img is changed so that at boot it will mount the /system and /data to the partitions on your sdcard rather than on nand storage. You then shift between the roms by using the scripts which flash the boot partition with the respective kernel (bootsd.img to mount and boot your SD-ROM and boot.img to mount and boot your nand ROM). So when booting the nand rom it's as if you never made the procedure at all (except that you can't use mount2sd, S2E or any other solution that moves data to sd-ext), everything will work just like if you only had one ROM on your phone except for the part where you can run the script to boot another ROM of your choice now.

The second rom will be slower (since read/write speeds are slower on the external storage (SD-Card)) than the one installed into your nand (internal storage) but the one on the nand won't be affected at all.

So the answer to your question without the explanation is, no it won't slow your phone down.

[Guest android@sam]

Sorry guys.The upload isn't just working. I will post the update tomorrow.

[Guest Penmax]

Just thinking dont know anything about how android or booting is built but would it be possible to use the cache as a boot menu instead since its not used?

Edited August 13, 2012 by Penmax

[Guest Snap.IT]

Just thinking dont know anything about how android or booting is built but would it be possible to use the cache as a boot menu instead since its not used?

No.

The phone will boot whatever is in the boot partition, i explained how it works above.

[Guest Snap.IT]

I've got it setup just right at the moment. :D

I've got Swedish Snow on the SD-Card, partition 3 for data (one gig worth of storage, who needs S2E) and partition 4 for system. It took some tinkering with the init.rc and the update scripts (not just for SSRLS7 but for all the little things that i want installed along with it, like the dialer, Adreno libs and so on). This is my daily driver.

Then on the nand i have paranoid android with S2E (i need S2E) working as usual on partition 2. :)

It was a lot simpler just changing the partitions for the SD rom install than it would have been to change it for S2E (damn thing restores it at every boot).

If i could just mount a loop filesystem instead i wouldn't have to worry about partitioning and i could have as many as my sdcard can hold.

Edited August 14, 2012 by Snap.IT