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Root Kernel Question

Koumajutsu

Android Expert
Aug 26, 2011
1,434
1,092
Needles, CA
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So, I see that people have said that the kernel for this phone wont compile. and me, being a noob too dumb to know better, thought I'd give it a try to see if maybe my test engineering experience could help find a solution.

Here is a screenshot of my results. It looks like it compiled. I have a zImage file and got no errors that I could see during the compile, just a metric buttload of warnings.

I'll also attach the zImage file in case someone is crazy enough to try it. I didn't change anything in any of the source files, just extracted the files from the tar.gz and followed the readme.

Please tell me I'm crazy and this doesn't work :)
 

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So, I see that people have said that the kernel for this phone wont compile. and me, being a noob too dumb to know better, thought I'd give it a try to see if maybe my test engineering experience could help find a solution.

Here is a screenshot of my results. It looks like it compiled. I have a zImage file and got no errors that I could see during the compile, just a metric buttload of warnings.

I'll also attach the zImage file in case someone is crazy enough to try it. I didn't change anything in any of the source files, just extracted the files from the tar.gz and followed the readme.

Please tell me I'm crazy and this doesn't work :)

well there are two kernel sources the ed13 which compiles with little or no errors, but does not boot

and ee14 that gives alot of errors during compile and does not boot

these images once compiled do not match the kernel zimage that is pulled from the phones boot.img, so samsung is leaving something out of the source

the compile kernel should match the kernel on the phone exactly, unless you change the config settings of the kernel source

hope that helps

I have been trying to compile a working kernel, but I am new to this, so i may just be screwing something up, but Shabby has had the same problems trying to make a kernel
 
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I see what i did, I was using the ED13 source.
I work with people that compile kernels for ARM based processors on a near daily basis. I think I have instructions from one of them on how to compile a kernel for an ARM7.
From what i was able to observe during my first attempt, the Prevail's processor is ARM based so it may be a similar setup.

Due to the holiday weekend, I don't get a chance to play again until Tuesday.

I'm a LabVIEW developer by trade, and more of a hardware guy outside of that, but sometimes when I test the waters outside my expertise, i get lucky :)
 
Upvote 0
I see what i did, I was using the ED13 source.
I work with people that compile kernels for ARM based processors on a near daily basis. I think I have instructions from one of them on how to compile a kernel for an ARM7.
From what i was able to observe during my first attempt, the Prevail's processor is ARM based so it may be a similar setup.

Due to the holiday weekend, I don't get a chance to play again until Tuesday.

I'm a LabVIEW developer by trade, and more of a hardware guy outside of that, but sometimes when I test the waters outside my expertise, i get lucky :)

i am messing with kernel stuff this weekend too, but I am not make too much progress


I think i might make some type of uart cable, i would like to see why the kernel is not booting, or what erros there are, i have no idea if this will work on this phone, but i got the idea from

232 - serial - USART - UART - xda-developers
 
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I noticed that a lot of the warnings were for functions that were not used anywhere. That's pretty normal for code meant for reuse. Optimization should be pulling that unused code out to save space.
What does scare me is the items that give the warning that a variable might be read before the value gets initialized. I'm so used to looking at vital safety systems that it raises a huge red flag for me
 
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i am messing with kernel stuff this weekend too, but I am not make too much progress


I think i might make some type of uart cable, i would like to see why the kernel is not booting, or what erros there are, i have no idea if this will work on this phone, but i got the idea from

232 - serial - USART - UART - xda-developers

That's pretty slick. It reminds me a lot of the tricks Logitech did to make the USB/PS2 mice. that little green adapter was just a straight through pin adapter and PS2 was pretty much signal level compatible with RS-232
 
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Well, the hacker in me couldn't leave well enough alone.
So I sat down and was reading the documentation that came with the source and after reading through kernel/Documentation/Changes I found that I didn't have many of the packages they say are required in my virtual Ubuntu install. So I found them all in the package manager and now it's installing 237 new packages!!!!
I'll try a clean after that.
What's the fastest way for me to learn how to disassemble boot.img so I can compare all of the mad science I perform to the real deal?
 
Upvote 0
Well, the hacker in me couldn't leave well enough alone.
So I sat down and was reading the documentation that came with the source and after reading through kernel/Documentation/Changes I found that I didn't have many of the packages they say are required in my virtual Ubuntu install. So I found them all in the package manager and now it's installing 237 new packages!!!!
I'll try a clean after that.
What's the fastest way for me to learn how to disassemble boot.img so I can compare all of the mad science I perform to the real deal?

which packages are you installing
 
Upvote 0
which packages are you installing

Shoot, I can't remember which exactly were missing.

o Gnu C 3.2 # gcc --version
o Gnu make 3.80 # make --version
o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
o e2fsprogs 1.41.4 # e2fsck -V
o jfsutils 1.1.3 # fsck.jfs -V
o reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 # reiserfsck -V 2>&1|grep reiserfsprogs
o xfsprogs 2.6.0 # xfs_db -V
o squashfs-tools 4.0 # mksquashfs -version
o btrfs-progs 0.18 # btrfsck
o pcmciautils 004 # pccardctl -V
o quota-tools 3.09 # quota -V
o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version
o isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
o nfs-utils 1.0.5 # showmount --version
o procps 3.2.0 # ps --version
o oprofile 0.9 # oprofiled --version
o udev 081 # udevinfo -V
o grub 0.93 # grub --version
o mcelog 0.6
o iptables 1.4.1 # iptables -V

I just went down this list in Ubuntu's package manager and flagged anything that was missing to install and accepted any dependencies. I think btrfs-progs I had to search for and iirc it was a part of btrfs-tools
 
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