Boot menu done!

Posted by planetbeing on under command line interface, candy thanks, boot menu, menu graphics, somee, eye candy, banging my head, working model, opti, bleeding edge, iboot, userland, gimp, grub, ibot, butt |


Well, that was quick. See, I can actually get things done pretty quickly when it doesn't consisting of banging my head against machine code until it starts making sense. When I actually have the drivers, things like this are easy.

You can use the Hold button to toggle between the menu items (and the option will be highlighted). You can choose the home button to select it. The "openiboot console" option takes you to the command-line interface similar to the one I demonstrated in the last post (you do have to be plugged in via USB and using the openiboot client to talk to it). The "iPhone OS" option chainloads a copy of iBoot stored in NOR under another identifier ('ibot' becomes openiboot and 'ibox' becomes the actual iBoot). I got that set up with a slightly modified version of the QuickPwn ramdisk, but in the future an installer made from a modified version of LogoMe can be run from userland to install openiboot. It's also possible to get openiboot to install openiboot (much like the way GRUB can do it); I'll probably work on that next.

So if anyone likes living on the bleeding edge, they could do that. =P

Most of the hard part was me failing at GIMP putting together the boot menu graphics. I appealed to you blog readers for graphics before, but basically no one responded. Now that there is a working model of what I sort of want, I hope there will be more of a response.

So, please please please redesign the boot menu for me. And possibly come up with a logo for the project we can stick on there. If you're good at this sort of thing, or know someone who is, please put them in touch. This stuff will obviously get a lot of attention in the future and we need nice eye-candy. Thanks!

Tagi: command line interface, candy thanks, boot menu, menu graphics, somee, eye candy, banging my head, working model, opti, bleeding edge, iboot, userland, gimp, grub, ibot, butt

Kernel 2.6.32 for your Nexus One

Posted by JonLech on under kernel 2, custom firmware, lger, bootloader, google, camera flash, locked down, nexus, bleeding edge, superuser, adb, trackball, scp, sd card, flashlight, ssh, sdk, debugging, ra, sim |

Unlike the locked down and user-hostile iPhone, the Google Nexus One is not SIM-locked (even when bought subsidized) and ships with a bootloader that can be unlocked to enable custom firmware flashing. More importantly, you can use the Nexus One to make calls that last longer than 10 seconds :)

The Nexus One ships with a 2.6.29 kernel but if you like living on the bleeding edge you can install your own kernel (e.g. the experimental 2.6.32 kernel). Below you’ll find an update image I built which includes a 2.6.32 kernel, su, scp and ssh.

Steps to unlock your Nexus One bootloader and install your own firmware:

  • Verify USB debugging is turned on in your Nexus One settings (Applications -> Development).
  • Install the Android SDK and fastboot.
  • Power off your Nexus One. Hold down the trackball and power the device back on.
  • Run ‘fastboot oem unlock’ and then follow the instructions on the device.
  • Download Amon_RA’s custom recovery image for the Nexus One.
  • Run ‘fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-nexus-v1.5.3.img’ and then reboot your Nexus One.
  • Copy nexus-2.6.32-root-signed.zip to your Nexus One SD-card and then run ‘adb reboot recovery’.
  • Once the device boots into Android system recovery, select “Flash zip from sdcard” and then nexus-2.6.32-root-signed.zip.

With root on your Nexus One, you can use apps such as n1torch (use your Nexus One camera flash as a flashlight).

Note that for security reasons you may want to replace the standard su with something like superuser.

Btw, my company, doubleTwist, is hiring engineers in San Francisco and Android experience is a plus. Perks include a doubleTwist engraved Nexus One :)


Tagi: kernel 2, custom firmware, lger, bootloader, google, camera flash, locked down, nexus, bleeding edge, superuser, adb, trackball, scp, sd card, flashlight, ssh, sdk, debugging, ra, sim
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