Monday, January 26, 2009

JFv1.41, with Multi-Touch Browser!

JFv1.41 is out!
found via: xda
This version contains... *drumroll* multi-touch support! Thanks to lukehutch, zinx and ryebrye, this build allows android applications to receive multi-touch events. The built-in browser now supports multi-touch zooming! It also includes an "Auto-Rotate" setting that you can enable, to allow it to change screen orientation, based on the orientation of the phone. You can turn on auto-rotate in the browser settings (it's off by default).


See lukehutch's blog post for more information about the new multi-touch support, as well as a few other demo multi-touch apps he created that you can try out after installing JFv1.4. He also mentions a few issues that are present in browser, that you might run into while playing with zoom.

Other changes of note for JFv1.41 include:
  • a console in recovery mode. You can press alt+x to exit out of the recovery program and go directly to a console.
  • the ADP1 build is now based on the ADP1.1 firmware. See this thread for information about the changes in ADP1.1
  • the ADP1 build now includes .odex files for all of the system apks and jars. This means that you will have more space available in /data for all of your apps and caches, although less space available in /system
  • busybox's vi should now save files correctly, instead of saving them as blank files

One thing that I would like to point out about the ADP1.1 build is that it allows you to skip the initial google registration. This will make registering over wifi painless. You just click the "skip registration" button in the registration app, enable wifi in settings, then open the registration app again by trying to access one of the google apps (gmail, market, etc.), and then you can register over wifi.


Downloads:


ADP1.1: (md5: 48c421bf95f29bcc409bf1560927f1c7)
http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://jf.odiness.com/v1.41/JFv1.41_ADP1.1.zip
http://andblogs.net/2009/01/jesusfre...mages-are-out/


RC30: (md5: 0cecb7c89cc4a5b7f8501e79fb66df40)
http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://jf.odiness.com/v1.41/JFv1.41_RC30.zip
http://andblogs.net/2009/01/jesusfre...mages-are-out/


RC8: (md5: 72135da62839758de0cb2acd49d84850)
http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://jf.odiness.com/v1.41/JFv1.41_RC8.zip
http://andblogs.net/2009/01/jesusfre...mages-are-out/

JFv1.41 can be installed in the usual way. Save the zip file to your sdcard named update.zip, boot into recovery mode (home + power), and then press alt+s. If you are switch between versions, e.g. from RC30 to ADP1, you must also do a wipe in recovery mode (alt+w). This will clear all your data/settings/apps, and you will have to re-register once it boots back up. If you are staying on the same build, i.e. from JFv1.31 RC30 to JFv1.41 RC30, then you shouldn't have to do a wipe.

NOTE: If you are on the stock ADP1 image, you will need to upgrade to JFv1.31, then boot normally at least once, before upgrading to JFv1.41, to keep from having to perform a wipe. If you try to go from stock ADP1 -> JFv1.41 directly, you will have to do a wipe.

NOTE: If you end up with 2 Superuser whitelist apps in the app menu, you can uninstall one of them in Settings->Applications->Manage Applications. There will only be 1 that is uninstallable, so don't worry about uninstalling the wrong one.


Note: To install these updates, you need to have a recovery image that uses test keys. If any of the following are true, you most likely have a recovery image that uses test keys
  • you have installed my modified recovery image in the past
  • you have an ADP1
  • you currently have one of my modified firmwares installed



If this is your first time installing one of my firmwares, you may be interested in the other changes that have been made in previous versions, which are included in this version. Some of the notable features include:
  • Many more commands are available to use on the terminal. busybox is included, to provide standard commands like cp, grep, less, more, vi, sed, cp.. etc.
  • A secure way to get root access, through Koush's superuser application. To get root, open up terminal emulator and type su. A new window will open asking if you want to allow root access. Click "Yes" or "Always", and it will go back to the terminal emulator, and you'll have root access
  • A number of useful kernel modules that you can use. For example, ext2, cifs, and a host of others
  • A full phone backup utility. Boot into recovery mode with home+power, and then press alt+b to perform a backup. It stores the backup as .img files in a subfolder of the nandroid folder of your sdcard. To restore the backup, you have to have the engineering spl or hardspl installed, and then flash the images with the fastboot utility
  • ota updates are disabled. This is to prevent t-mobile from automatically updating your phone with a new update that removes your root access.
  • some applications that are missing on RC8 (the uk version) have been added. For example, the voice dialer and the amazon mp3 store.
  • when you connect to the phone using adb, you have root access

I've attached a full changelog vs the official builds for each version.


Here are the updated Build Environments for JFv1.41. These can be used to create an update identical to JFv1.41, or to create one modified to suit your tastes/preferences. You can find more info about the build environments over at my v1.31 post

ADP1.1: (md5: bacc58302e0b239d66c7bcc8db6c434b)
http://jf.odiness.com/v1.41/JFv1.41_...ronment.tar.gz
http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://andblogs.net/2009/01/jesusfre...mages-are-out/

RC30: (md5: d5664c2324cf7d556613796dbff16a49)
http://jf.odiness.com/v1.41/JFv1.41_...ronment.tar.gz
http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://andblogs.net/2009/01/jesusfre...mages-are-out/

RC8: (md5: de2d0d34adbb4015ee3aa5e4e7ca3c07)
http://jf.odiness.com/v1.41/JFv1.41_...ronment.tar.gz
http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://andblogs.net/2009/01/jesusfre...mages-are-out/


EDIT: uploaded new JFv1.41 images, which fix an issue where busybox's modprobe couldn't load modules. Also fixed is an issue in the ADP1.1 build where the superuser app was crashing.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

JF1.3.1 RC30, RC8, and ADP1 Firmware for your G1

JesusFreke from xda developers has just released is famous custom firmware for the Android G1:
Here is the topic quoted from the forums:

Update (01-03-09)
v1.31 is out! This is a minor bugfix release to fix a few issues that had cropped up in v1.3.

The changes from v1.3 include:
  • Fixed the nandroid backup so that it works on sdcards with a raw fat32 filesystem (with no partition)
  • Added the telnetd binary from RC28
  • Fixed an issue with SuperUser where it was displaying the wrong processes in the su request popup
  • SuperUser should allow root to use su without displaying the popup (though there's not much point.. )
  • Added /system/modules and /system/xbin to fstab in normal and recovery mode
  • Minor fix for the update-script, so the progress bar acts more sanely


I have the usual RC30 and RC8 versions, and new for v1.3 is an ADP1 version.

ADP1: (md5: 96b2abd9a1da2852bc33b2052ea51b2a)

http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://www.gotontheinter.net/content/new-images-jf (at bottom of page)

RC30: (md5: 0f2e6a4244410e00028db55b4fbf808c)
http://jf.nyquil.org/v1.31/JFv1.31_RC30.zip
http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://www.gotontheinter.net/content/new-images-jf (at bottom of page)

RC8: (md5: e008bbe1d93abd0c2e5e6218f012f20d)

http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://www.gotontheinter.net/content/new-images-jf (at bottom of page)


These updates are installed the normal way. Save them to your sdcard named update.zip, boot into recovery mode (home + power), and then press alt+l and alt+s. If you are switch between versions, e.g. from RC30 to ADP1, then it's usually a good idea to perform a wipe. You can try booting up without a wipe, but if it doesn't boot, or you get strange errors once it boots up, go back into recovery and perform a wipe (alt+w)

Note: To install these updates, you need to have a recovery image that uses test keys. If any of the following are true, you most likely have a recovery image that uses test keys
- you have installed my modified recovery image in the past
- you have an ADP1
- you currently have one of my modified firmwares installed



What's new?

The coolest new functionality in v1.3 is a new backup utility that allows you to perform a backup directly from recovery mode with alt+B. This is done using infernix's and brainaid's nandroid script, which they kindly modified to work in recovery mode. Let them know what you think . The backups are stored in a subfolder in the nandroid folder on your sdcard. To restore them, you have to copy them to your computer, and then flash them with the fastboot tool (sorry, no integrated restore yet).

If you get errors when making a backup, first make sure you have enough free space on the sdcard. it needs around 85-90mb. If you have enough space, then try reformatting the sdcard (fat32 is your best bet).

Other changes of note include
  • This version includes a new busybox binary that I compiled against uclibc, making it much smaller (1.8mb vs 700kb).
  • All busybox applets are linked at /system/xbin/bb, which is also in the path. So there are many more standard unix commands available in the terminal.
  • Many more modules and binaries are included in /system/xbin and /system/modules. They were also optimized for size, so even though there are more modules and binaries, they actually take up much less space than they did on v1.2
  • I added the terminal emulator application to /system/app. (don't worry, it won't, or at least shouldn't , cause any problems if you already have it installed)
  • got rid of the normal su binary, in favor of koush's su and SuperUser application. See details here
  • when you boot up into recovery, it will automatically show the text. You can press alt+L to turn off the text and ogle the background. (did I mention there's a new background? shhh. it's a secret )
  • fixed the annoying uptime bug, where the uptime is shown incorrectly in the settings
  • added /data/local/bin to the path. Feel free to add your own binaries/scripts here.
  • includes the /dev/mtd/mtd6 and /dev/mtd/mtd6ro devices, which allow access to the entire flash chip (other than certain restricted areas used by the radio)
  • new "ro.modversion" property, that is set to "JFv1.3". The intent of this property is so you can know you are running a modified version, as well as identify which version
  • added a modified /system/etc/security/cacerts.bks file, which contains additional certificates for cacert.org (courtesy of Disconnect)
  • added a /system/etc/resolv.conf file with the 4.2.2 family of DNS servers, to allow busybox's ping, wget, etc. to resolve host names

See the attached change logs for a complete list of changes with respect to the corresponding "official" firmware.



---------------
Update (01-03-09): Updated the links to point to the v1.31 versions

In addition to the updates themselves, I am also releasing a build environment that can use to build each update from scratch. You can use these to easily make your own custom updates. It includes some utilities that were built from git source. The binaries are for 32bit x86 linux. If you want to run it on a different platform, you're on your own.

NOTE: You don't need these to use my update. Just download one of the updates from above and install it. The build environments are only if you want to make your own customized update.

The general idea of the build environment is that it extracts the original files from the official update (or from my original ADP1 update), and then copies over anything from the various ModifiedFiles folders, then packages it all back up into a ready-to-be-applied update.zip. It does this for the boot image, recovery image and system folder. You can also specify files to delete in the various OriginalFilesToDelete.mk files.

Consider anything new that I created for the build environments (the makefiles, etc.) to be in the public domain. Everything else retains its original license of course.

Instructions:
- extract the build environment into a folder
- download the official update that the update is based on, and put it in the root of the build environment. (note: use my original ADP1 update for the ADP1 build environment. available on this page)
- run make as root. yes, it has to be with root, because the binaries in the 2 cramfs images should be owned by root. (note: I plan on using fakeroot in the future, to workaround the need to be root)
- after make finishes, assuming there are no errors, the update should be in Workspace/update.zip.

Download the build environments here:

ADP1: (md5: 2d116b334515d4d702776b9d74d2e658)
http://jf.nyquil.org/v1.31/JFv1.31AD...ronment.tar.gz
http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://www.gotontheinter.net/content/new-images-jf (at bottom of page)

RC30: (md5: 29ced6e7601bac47252e51e5ac4f0ca4)

http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://www.gotontheinter.net/content/new-images-jf (at bottom of page)

RC8: (md5: b26f3cd244da9b8662766db69734000e)
http://jf.nyquil.org/v1.31/JFv1.31RC...ronment.tar.gz
http://android-dls.com/forum/index.p...rb_v=viewtopic
http://www.gotontheinter.net/content/new-images-jf (at bottom of page)
Attached Files
File Type: txt ChangeLog-RC30.txt (7.2 KB, 157 views)
File Type: txt ChangeLog-RC8.txt (7.5 KB, 34 views)
File Type: txt ChangeLog-ADP1.txt (7.3 KB, 125 views)

Howto Root Your Android G1 with RC8 firmware!

It has been prophesized for weeks now, but it is finally here. A rollback method for RC8 users who want root. This method is a full device flash that will roll you back to RC7 which still has the root bug. After doing this you can then follow the instructions on Rooting Android and then Keeping Root to get yourself up to RC8 modified version that lets you keep root.

Files

You will need the .nbh file to perform this. It can be downloaded here: RC7NBH.zip (download on your pc) or DREAIMG.nbh (download on your G1)


Mirrors for the .zip file: koushikduttas site or Megaupload

Installing

Instructions from Disconnects site (gotontheinter.net):

  1. Format the SD card to FAT32 mode (this is sometimes needed. image not always found if other files are on the sd card)
  2. Copy image file DREAMIMG.nbh to the SD card
  3. Turn the device power off and insert SD card
  4. Hold Camera button, and press Power button to entry Boot loader mode
  5. Press Power button to start upgrade procedure
  6. After finish, perform the soft reset to reboot.

When you are done, do not forget to follow the steps Rooting Android and then Keeping Root

Root Your Android G1 with RC30 firmware!

It has been prophesized for weeks now, but it is finally here. A rollback method for RC30 users who want root. This method is a full device flash that will roll you back to RC29 which still has the root bug. After doing this you can then follow the instructions on Rooting Android and then Keeping Root to get yourself up to RC30 modified version that lets you keep root.

Files

You will need the .nbh file to perform this. It can be downloaded here: RC29NBH.zip (download on your pc) or DREAIMG.nbh (download on your G1)

MD5 Checksum: 53840b90a0fe1bfab19fab8ef8fb9724 DREAIMG.nbh

Mirrors

Please use a mirror first if you can (users downloading on the G1 should use the above links).

Mirrors for the .zip file: Megaupload falcon4ever.pcsx2.net or koushikduttas site or RapidShare

Installing

Instructions from Disconnects site (gotontheinter.net):

  1. Format the SD card to FAT32 mode (this is sometimes needed. image not always found if other files are on the sd card)
  2. Copy image file DREAMIMG.nbh to the SD card
  3. Turn the device power off and insert SD card
  4. Hold Camera button, and press Power button to entry Boot loader mode
  5. Press Power button to start upgrade procedure
  6. After finish, perform the soft reset to reboot.

When you are done, do not forget to follow the steps Rooting Android and then Keeping Root