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Google’s Android build system only supports Linux (Ubuntu) and Mac OS. Examples below all use Ubuntu. The two most important tools from the Android SDK are «adb» and «fastboot». But «fastboot» is not available in the Linux distribution of the SDK. We will build it from the source.
For the Impatient
If you already know everything, you can find required steps for Nexus One in summary from this thread. But your mileage may vary.
Compiling Android Platform
Google uses Git to as the VCS for both Android and its own Linux kernel. Their source is published on Git web at http://android.git.kernel.org/.
Checking-out Source
laptop-2:~/myandroid$ ls kernel platform
$ cd platform $HOME repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git -b froyo
The branch name «froyo» can be found on the git web at:
Remote branch names can be found in the «heads» section on that web page.
This makes «~/myandroid/platform» the root of the platform source tree. We will use «platform» for short in the following examples.
Building
1. Set up the build environment from the root of the source tree as the following:
2. If building a phone-specific Android, then build adb first. Otherwise, skip to step six. But note that you can only build a generic Android if you skip device steps. If you flash a generic Android image to your phone, your phone will not even get a radio signal. Nor will you be able to use any buttons on the device. So skip this step only if you just want to play with the emulator.
At the root of the source tree:
3. Make adb available on the path.
$ export $HOME/myandroid/platform/out/host/linux-x86/bin:$PATH $ which adb $HOME/myandroid/platform/out/host/linux-x86/bin/adb
4. We need to extract device specific files from Nexus One. Connect the phone to the laptop using the USB cable. The phone needs to be powered on. If the phone has not been set to USB debugging. Set it at:
Settings —> Applications —> Development —> USB debugging Then check that adb can see the device.
/out/host/linux-x86/bin$ sudo ./adb devices [sudo] password for userone: * daemon not running. starting it now * * daemon started successfully * List of devices attached HTXXXXXXXXX device
5. Google Nexus One is HTC Passion. So we now run the Passion-specific extraction script under the «device/htc/passion» directory.
Note that the device files must be extracted from a Android device that matches to your build. Here we extract from a Nexus One with 2.2 update because we are going to build the Froyo branch of the code.
$ cd device/htc/passion /device/htc/passion$./extract-files.sh
Note that adb must be on the path in order for the extraction script to succeed. The extraction script will pull HTC proprietary files from the device and store them under «vendor/htc/passion».
/vendor/htc/passion/proprietary$ ls 01_qcomm_omx.cfg libEGL_adreno200.so libOmxVdec.so AdieHWCodecSetting.csv libGLESv1_CM_adreno200.so libOmxVidEnc.so akmd libGLESv2_adreno200.so libopencorehw.so AudioBTID.csv libgps.so libq3dtools_adreno200.so bcm4329.hcd libgsl.so libqcomm_omx.so default.acdb libhtc_acoustic.so libstagefrighthw.so default_att.acdb libhtc_ril.so mm-venc-omx-test default_france.acdb liblvmxipc.so parse_radio_log fw_bcm4329_apsta.bin libmm-omxcore.so vpimg fw_bcm4329.bin liboemcamera.so yamato_pfp.fw libcamera.so libOmxCore.so yamato_pm4.fw
6. Change back to the root of the source tree and use «lunch» to set up appropriate build environment variables.
$ lunch You're building on Linux Lunch menu. pick a combo: 1. generic-eng 2. simulator 3. full_dream-userdebug 4. full_passion-userdebug 5. full_sapphire-userdebug Which would you like? [generic-eng] 4
The «generic-eng» build option will allow you to build an Android that is not device specific. But then you can’t really use a generic Android image on a real phone because the generic image does not know how to use device-specific features such as buttons and camera. Nor can the generic image read radio signals. Therefore, the generic-eng build is only useful for emulator purpose. The main difference between generic-eng and userdebug is if the file system is read-write or read-only by default. We will select «full_passion-user-debug» here because we want to flash our images to the device.
7. Build the Android platform from the root of the source tree.
Note: When building «full_passion-userdebug» the first time, I hit a compiler error on «librpc.so not found» which caused references in HTC’s proprietary libgps to fail compiling. After googling a solution, I found the following workaround:
Do not run «make clean» when performing the two steps above. I have since checked out the froyo branch many times and have never encountered this problem again.
The build artifacts are located under the out subdirectory.
$ ls out casecheck.txt CaseCheck.txt debug host target tmp versions_checked.mk
Compiling Linux Kernel for ARM
I used Git instead of Google’s repo for kernel building.
1. Clone the MSM family of the kernel tree from the Android Git to a working directory. As of July 2010, all HTC Android phones use Qualcomm’s MSM family of the CDMA/GSM/UMTS chipsets. Nexus One is no exception.
userone@userone-laptop-2:~/myandroid/kernel$ git clone git://android.git.kernel.org/kernel/msm.git .
2. Check out the latest 2.6.32 kernel branch for Nexus One.
userone@userone-laptop-2:~/myandroid/kernel$ git checkout --track -b userone-msm-2.6.32-nexusonec remotes/origin/android-msm-2.6.32-nexusonec
When the check out is done, you can use git to verify the branch info.
userone@userone-laptop-2:~/myandroid/kernel$ git branch -a android-msm-2.6.27 userone-msm-2.6.32 * userone-msm-2.6.32-nexusonec remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/android-msm-2.6.27 remotes/origin/android-msm-2.6.25 remotes/origin/android-msm-2.6.27 remotes/origin/android-msm-2.6.29 remotes/origin/android-msm-2.6.29-donut remotes/origin/android-msm-2.6.29-nexusone remotes/origin/android-msm-2.6.32 remotes/origin/android-msm-2.6.32-nexusonec remotes/origin/android-msm-htc-2.6.25 remotes/origin/android-msm8k-2.6.29 remotes/origin/msm-2.6.25
Building
1. Setup the build environment using the «build/envsetup.sh» script as shown in the platform build. This sets up important cross compiling environment variables for ARM build.
2. Set up environment variables for cross compiling.
$ export ARCH=arm $ CROSS_COMPILE=arm-eabi-
3. Pull the kernel configuration from the device and then build the source. This step is the same for building a kernel for Android emulator.
$ adb pull /proc/config.gz $ gunzip config.gz $ mv config .config $ make
$ ls arch/arm/boot bootp compressed Image install.sh Makefile zImage
4. Change to root of the Android platform tree and build the new Android with the new kernel.
$ rm -rf out $ make -j4 TARGET_PREBUILT_KERNEL=$HOME/myandroid/kernel/arch/arm/boot/zImage
Flash Android Image to the Device
Warning!! Flashing images will erase all your user data on the phone!
Warning!! Attempting this at your own Risk!! Your phone will be bricked!!
Warning!! Always have factory images handy so you can recover in case of bricked phones!
An unlocked bootloader allows flashing custom images to an Anroid Phone. Android Dev Phone 1 and 2 ship with unlocked bootloaders. But the bootloader on Nexus One needs to be unlocked first.
Both adb and fastboot can write files to the device. I use fastboot for flashing images:
Unlock the Bootloader in Nexus One
# Reboot phone into fastboot: Power off device and hold down trackball while powering back on. (The fastboot screen is the one with the Androids on skateboards) # Open a command prompt and navigate to your Android SDK tools folder. # Type ‘fastboot devices‘ to make sure your phone is recognized. # Type ‘fastboot oem unlock‘ to unlock the bootloader. # Use volume keys to navigate to yes and press the power button to confirm.
Flash Android Images to Nexus One
We now flash android images that we just built to the device.
$ sudo $HOME/myandroid/platform/out/host/linux-x86/bin/fastboot -p passion -w flashall [sudo] password for userone: < waiting for device >-------------------------------------------- Bootloader Version. 0.33.0012 Baseband Version. 4.06.00.12_7 Serial Number. HTXXXXXXXXX -------------------------------------------- checking mid. OKAY [ 0.003s] checking product. OKAY [ 0.009s] checking version-bootloader. OKAY [ 0.002s] checking version-microp. OKAY [ 0.004s] checking version-baseband. OKAY [ 0.012s] sending 'boot' (2336 KB). OKAY [ 0.366s] writing 'boot'. OKAY [ 0.917s] sending 'recovery' (2562 KB). OKAY [ 0.405s] writing 'recovery'. OKAY [ 1.048s] sending 'system' (75301 KB). OKAY [ 10.943s] writing 'system'. OKAY [ 25.634s] erasing 'userdata'. FAILED (remote: not allowed) finished. total time: 39.418s
The error about failing to erase userdata is because we selected user build (i.e. «userdebug») when building android. We can flash it manually:
$ sudo $HOME/myandroid/platform/out/host/linux-x86/bin/fastboot flash userdata $HOME/myandroid/platform/out/target/product/passion/userdata.img sending 'userdata' (2 KB). OKAY [ 0.022s] writing 'userdata'. OKAY [ 4.872s] finished. total time: 4.894s
Restore Nexus One to Factory Settings
1. Download HTC Nexus One images from HTC Dev Center. HTC currently only provides Android 2.1 images for Nexus One. You can use your Google account to get the official 2.2 OTA update after restoring the phone to factory images.
2. Unzip images to a directory.
userone@userone-laptop-2:~/Downloads/nexusone$ ls android-info.txt NexusOne_ERE36B_TMOUS.zip system.img boot.img recovery.img userdata.img
3. Flash all images to the device using fastboot.
This is the method I used to restore my Nexus One to factory settings.
$ sudo $HOME/myandroid/platform/out/host/linux-x86/bin/fastboot flash boot ./boot.img $ sudo $HOME/myandroid/platform/out/host/linux-x86/bin/fastboot flash recovery ./recovery.img $ sudo $HOME/myandroid/platform/out/host/linux-x86/bin/fastboot flash system ./system.img $ sudo $HOME/myandroid/platform/out/host/linux-x86/bin/fastboot flash userdata ./userdata.img
I did not use «fastboot -w flashall» and «fastboot update [some].zip» because they complained about missing files.
Tips
$ adb push .zip /sdcard/update.zip
- Boot into the Nexus One recovery console.
- Test kernel boot without flashing. Very useful in determining if a new kernel image can boot.
$ sudo fastboot boot arc/arm/boot/zImage
References
- Getting Anroid Source
- Android Build System
- Building AOSP for the Nexus One
- Compile Android kernel from the source
- Fedora ARM/HowToQemu
- Kernel Hackers’ Guide to git
- HTC Android Dev Phone 1
- Video: How to Unlock and Root a Nexus One
- HTC Kernel Source and Binaries
- Motorola Kernel Source
- How to: Rooting your Nexus One — a definitive guide to what’s involved
- Android Fastboot
- MSM/QSD Android Enablement Project
- Android Boot Process from Power-on
- How to Build the LINUX KERNEL for the ANDROID EMULATOR (Eclair version)
- Download and Build the Google Android
- Anroid Porting on Real Target
- OpenBinder
- Technote android-2.6.31-001: How to regenerate bionic/libc/common/kernel headers for linux kernel v2.6.31
- How to dump boot message without adb
Install Ubuntu on your Nexus One
If you’re someone who likes to tinker with your phones, or just someone who just likes to test your geek muscle, then you may be happy to hear that you can now install Ubuntu onto your rooted Nexus One!
With Ubuntu on your Nexus One, you can run native Ubuntu/Linux applications right from your device. Some may not feel the need to do this since not everyone needs to have a full Linux box in their pocket, but I’m sure there are quite a few people who’d like to be able to do this simply because they can. The instructions are very straight forward, and if you have any familiarity with Linux or a terminal, you should have no problem accomplishing the task. It can take a while to get Ubuntu up and running on your N1, but if you really want to see this in action, you’ll be rewarded for your patience.
Something we see with Ubuntu on the Nexus One that we didn’t see on the HD2 Android/Ubuntu port is that the Nexus One allows you to zoom in to your desktop. This is likely because the Nexus One method uses a VNC viewer, and from the looks of it, the HD2 did not. The resolution of Ubuntu is also sized up a bit to look a little better on the Nexus One, since the OS relies on a mouse. After everything is setup, you can use all the pre installed Ubuntu applications that come bundled with the OS to your heart’s content. There’s something about having not one, but two operating systems in your pocket – one of which is a full-fledged desktop OS.
Anyone interested in giving this a try? If I get my hands on another Nexus One anytime soon, I’ll be sure to give this a go. Until then, I’ll let you guys try it out and leave the details below!
How-to video below, and all necessary files can be found at the Via link below: