Getting Custom Kernels Running on the Droid X

[TWong1200]

This is awesome news. Whenever you need beta testers, count me in!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[LexusBrian400]

Good to hear! I'm glad this is still alive.

 

[fpatano]

Well I looked at what everyone did with kexec and the thing about getting the drivers running is that they're two different kernels which need two different drivers. Really though I'm not worried about that as much--someone else will figure it out as I have never written a driver in my life. My job right now is just getting a stable way to get a kernel running. kexec(8) can do it and has done it with every kernel update on my computers for the past six months. The thing about my approach is that its extendable with a config file that will load the new module that works with the new kernel (modprobe ftw). The current system works-ish in the sdk emulator except that the module is quite crashy. Radio works with the hack on the emulator. The issue is that we need to get motorola's drivers running on other kernels.

So to sum it up: kexec works its just a driver compatability issue.

Sent from my DROIDX

I wish I knew how to write drivers... Ill see if I can learn it...

 

[drewden123]

Have you guys heard of the user DZO over at xda? DZO is a genius with a PhD in computer science. He's the one that pioneered Android on the HTC Vogue (a WinMo phone) and made it possible for all the other winmo htc's to get android (a la HD2, etc). he rewrote all the drivers and such to work with those phones and I'm sure he is smart enough to do this. However, he lives in new zealand i believe and therefore cannot really get an X. Hopefully something can work out with this though...

 

[Webst3r]

Yeah pretty much. That stuff is brutal to do and I really don't know if we can find someone willing. We can even have someone write a compatability layer.

Sent from my DROIDX

I know this sounds crazy, but planetbeing, and iPhone developer ported Android to the iPhone (duh!), and he's written several divers for the project. He has a lot of experience with the kernel (That I've read). You may also want to join #droidlife on freenode and see if you can get a hold of birdman, he has been involved in many projects around the android community. And one more person, that I think would be the best to talk to and the most obtainable is Sebastian Kramer at C skills. He's an amazing Linux hacker.

If you need anymore info join:
#droidlife (freenode) or #androidchat (freenode), I'm Webst3r in there, feel free to PM me.

 

[MrDonBonJovi]

All I can say is good luck and any work you do is greatly appreciated by all!

 

[Lithoss]

With the possibility of another motorola ota update coming soon, I figured this minor piece of info might help. Someone mentioned a while ago that when motorola sends out these updates that the bootloader temporarily unlocks from being in engineering mode or something. I don't know much about cracking but I remember some people discussing the possibility of exploiting that hole. Whether its a feasible thing to do I have no clue, but maybe it'll toss some kind of hints out there.

this

If the moto updates have the ability to change the bootloader and update the kernel, surely they must contain some useful info for us. there's got to be a key buried in there somewhere that unlocks the bootloader.

someone really needs to tear into these updates. i really wish i knew what i was doing so i could. maybe one of these days ill learn the android OS workings enough to be useful...

 

[aliasxerog]

Ideally I would like to see a cracked bootloader. My boot flowchart is pretty complex and the big thing slowing me down right now is the kexec kernel module and getting all the different parts of dxinit (that's what I named the project btw) running and debugged. I'm also making it as source portable as I can so maybe other guys can use it to get kernels running on all phones. Also the source code to the standard init it pretty dirty and weeding through it all is nasty. I've been throwing around the idea or porting gentoo's openrc to android because it supports most of the stuff I need out of the box and I already work on that so I know the code damn well. Give me some feedback on what you think about my last idea and if you can help I'm always looking for it.

Cheers,
Matthew Veety

 

[Boblank]

It's really nice to hear that the locked bootloader is still being worked on. The knowledge and time being put in is greatly appreciate. I would love to contribute, unfortunately I have no knowledge of linux kernels. Just wanted to say thanks and good luck.

 

[pierced_droid]

I thought koush has a fix for the bootloader?? He selling it in the market for 2.00

Sent from my etcha-sketch

 

[sephtin]

I thought koush has a fix for the bootloader?? He selling it in the market for 2.00

Sent from my etcha-sketch

Koush found a way to hijack into the boot process to load a custom recovery.
Little bit different...

 

[fpatano]

I thought koush has a fix for the bootloader?? He selling it in the market for 2.00

Sent from my etcha-sketch

Koush found a way to hijack into the boot process to load a custom recovery.
Little bit different...

Koushs Bootstrapper allows access to /system at the boot process which allows you to run custom code at boot, but you still cannot load a custom ROM or Kernel. The custom ROMs you see available are customizing the appearance and apps available in the various folders in /system, it does not allow for the ROM to be overwritten. What this fine gentlemen is attempting to do is to allow a custom Kernel to be booted during the boot process so we could install CyanogenMod for instance.

dancedroid

 

[ferraritmnt]

ready to sbf

count me among the willing

I wish I knew enough about anything to help. Good luck

 

[andylulzyou]

This would be awesome.. the fact the Motorola locked this is ridiculous. The whole reason Android managed to grow so fast and that Motorola is even relevant right now is that they exploited the fact that Apple held 100% control over their device and they put out a product that the users had control of.


Hypocrites.

 

[ferraritmnt]

This would be awesome.. the fact the Motorola locked this is ridiculous. The whole reason Android managed to grow so fast and that Motorola is even relevant right now is that they exploited the fact that Apple held 100% control over their device and they put out a product that the users had control of.


Hypocrites.

Well but Motorola will tell you that they are open and leaving the user a choice because it's only 90% closed off instead of 100%.