CM9 Kernel works on Stock ICS roms! [Kernel][GPL]

[Guest PaulMilbank]

Just as a fun test, I just pulled the zimage (kernel image) from CM9 and it seems to work on stock roms. I am currently trying it out on Cyda's latest stock plus and it seems really smooth and fast with everything working ok. Will upload the boot.image in a bit, but if you want to try it, just use dxsida android kitchen or similar to pull the cm9 zimage and put it into the boot.img of your favourite stock rom. Seems to work great, but I have only tested it for less than 30 mins so far.

Paul

*EDIT*

Get it here:

update-kernel-308G300_test.zip

http://www.mediafire...bflssflvs9bpb9y

This is in the 952 boot.img from stock+.

It is using a couple of my previous kernel changes and a few new commits from the jellybean kernel. All code is on github here:

https://github.com/P...815/commits/ics

It is mostly Dazzozo and Fagulhas's kernel now. Was just interesting to see that even with all the changes it is still compatible with stock.

I have set it up like I had it before with 300mhz min, sio and smartass2.

So if anyone is after a more optimised kernel for stock, we have an excellent source to play with still.

Thanks to:

Dazzozo

Fagulhas

Edited December 21, 2012 by PaulMilbank

[Guest TangerineTractor]

nice one. I've got a nice can backup of stock+, I'll give our a try now.

[Guest Cyda]

Sounds promising, Paul. If it works out well I might get it added to Stock+ by default.

[Guest PaulMilbank]

Seems good so far, been running it for the morning and everything works as expected.

[Guest Dazzozo]

Does Wi-Fi work? If everything is okay in the display area then that's the only other grey area.

[Guest PaulMilbank]

Wifi is perfect and display seems good so far. Have not tested bluetooth, gps or tethering yet, but everything else looks peachy.

[Guest unaszplodrmann]

Tried this myself a while back. WiFi doesn't work, of course. I was going to use Daz's kernel if I built a minimal ROM based on stock for people to load onto phones for less technically minded friends and family... I ditched the idea when I realised just how many unresolvable problems Huawei ROMs still have.

[Guest unaszplodrmann]

Wifi is perfect and display seems good so far. Have not tested bluetooth, gps or tethering yet, but everything else looks peachy.

Really? I fired it up with B952 and it didn't work out the box, so to speak. I remember that I didn't try a stock initrd image, though...

Edited December 22, 2012 by unaszplodrmann

[Guest PaulMilbank]

Really? I fired it up with B952 and it didn't work out the box, so to speak. I remember that I didn't try a stock initrd image, though...

Really really. I built a new kernel off the cyanogenmod-u8815-defconfig with a couple of minor changes which you can see on my github. I took the resulting zimage and put it into the stock+ boot.img using android kitchen. Then I zipped up the stock+ rom in android kitchen and flashed it after a full wipe. Took a long time to first boot, but all worked fine. Wifi has not had a hiccup so far and everything seems to be working.

I have not tested the zip in the first post but it does pretty much the same thing. It just flashes a new boot.img which is made up of the stock+ boot.img and a new cm9 based kernel.

Edited December 22, 2012 by PaulMilbank

[Guest TangerineTractor]

Did a clean stock+ then applied the kernel... served ok, but no noticeable improvement to existing stock+ ... then I lost Wi-Fi, had to forget and reconfigure the connection...

[Guest PaulMilbank]

good to know, I have never used stock plus before, so was quite surprised at the smoothness of it with this kernel. Did wifi keep going after you reconfigured it?

[Guest fr0do]

I can't get that download link to work :(

[Guest TangerineTractor]

good to know, I have never used stock plus before, so was quite surprised at the smoothness of it with this kernel. Did wifi keep going after you reconfigured it?

didn't keep it on for long after that... switched back to cm10, quick and now running perfectly after resolving a couple of show stoppers for me. to be fair, there's not much to choose between stock+ and cm 10 in terms of performance.

[Guest PaulMilbank]

I can't get that download link to work :(

works for me, but I can upload elsewhere if there are still problems.

didn't keep it on for long after that... switched back to cm10, quick and now running perfectly after resolving a couple of show stoppers for me. to be fair, there's not much to choose between stock+ and cm 10 in terms of performance.

Fair enough, think a lot of people will be in the same boat. CM10 is so close now. Hopefully we see a lot more jellybean based roms soon.

[Guest unaszplodrmann]

Really really. I built a new kernel off the cyanogenmod-u8815-defconfig with a couple of minor changes which you can see on my github. I took the resulting zimage and put it into the stock+ boot.img using android kitchen. Then I zipped up the stock+ rom in android kitchen and flashed it after a full wipe. Took a long time to first boot, but all worked fine. Wifi has not had a hiccup so far and everything seems to be working.

I have not tested the zip in the first post but it does pretty much the same thing. It just flashes a new boot.img which is made up of the stock+ boot.img and a new cm9 based kernel.

Ah, you did it properly ;) I literally dd'd the boot image from R5. Dirty, but I was just curious about the 'baseline' performance. As I said, I gave up rooting around in the Huawei ROMs because they're just not worth the effort. I'm not going to start learning to work with decompiled Java just to fix one ROM... There are potential workarounds for Huawei's horrible mountpoint hacks, but they'd still require a reboot. Its a shame for all those G300 owning non-nerds who want a simple OS, that just works, but hey Huawei are never going to provide anything close. Everyne is better off looking to CM instead. ;)

[Guest thejaimes111]

HWA is present? :o

[Guest unaszplodrmann]

HWA is present? :o

HWA is present in all kernels, Huawei and CM alike. The "HWA" you're referring to, aka hardware accelerated 2D UI is not a kernel side issue.

[Guest thejaimes111]

HWA is present in all kernels, Huawei and CM alike. The "HWA" you're referring to, aka hardware accelerated 2D UI is not a kernel side issue.

ummm, ok :)

[Guest Dazzozo]

HWA is present? :o

...

What? That has nothing to do with the kernel.

[Guest fr0do]

Smokin! :D

Edited December 22, 2012 by fr0do

[Guest PaulMilbank]

Anyone know how to test HWA is active? I see the build.prop lists:

debug.composition.7x27A.type=mdp

and 

debug.sf.hw=1

in Cyda's stock+ so is this enough for HWA, or is there more to it than that?

[Guest Dazzozo]

Strictly speaking:

debug.composition.7x27A.type=mdp

[/CODE]


doesn't actually do anything. Its value is used in a composition type script. The value is set as debug.composition.type too (based on the platform - debug.composition.*plat*.type), which is what actually controls the display HAL.


debug.sf.hw=1 doesn't do anything either. Its value is default anyway. Gotta love a bit of placebo though.


You're getting confused between MDP composition and hardware accelerated UI. I'm fairly sure the latter will never fully exist on stock ROMs.

[Guest Cyda]

Anyone know how to test HWA is active? I see the build.prop lists:

debug.composition.7x27A.type=mdp

and

debug.sf.hw=1

in Cyda's stock+ so is this enough for HWA, or is there more to it than that?

For the record, these are not values I have set. They are there by default in all stock Huawei roms.

[Guest PaulMilbank]

@cyda Mmm, just looked at b936 build.prop and it is the same. @Dazzozo yeah, thought composition type controlled whether ui was handled by gpu, cpu or dynamically. Still more to learn!

[Guest unaszplodrmann]

For the record, these are not values I have set. They are there by default in all stock Huawei roms.

Aye... They set it for 7x25A in the same build.props; they love to recycle, I guess. Half the parameters sets in the build.prop actually do nothing and some are declared repeatedly... worra joke

Paul, maybe you could try setting hwui.render_dirty_regions. Hopefully it'll work at least where hwa in actually present in the UI.