How to manually update SYNET7LP/SYTABEX7 to Android 2.2 "Froyo"

[st0ne]

Just in case no one has tried yet... I flashed my EX7 with the "11.2.1.5.2.0_beta3_1.ius" file. I just tried to do an OTA update and got an error. That made me wonder.... so I shut it down and did the 3 finger salute. It asked for the key press to recover. I did, then it did. Wiped it clean to a fresh flash of the 11.2.1.5.2.0_beta3_1.ius file.
That is a good sign. we need to look for that part of the code to isolate. Then go back and see if we can pull the update part of the stock install to include in later patch works.
I don't think I will take advantage of the return & replace offer they are giving. But I will root and ADB the stock Tab and pull everything out of the file structure and start going over it to see if we can come up with a way to "un-yaff" the file. or what ever.
cfrocket was the one to find the SD card boot wrapper PRG... I am thinking he will find the PRG to de-compile these files. (no pressure)

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[st0ne]

OK let me rephrase that.... BEFORE I did the recovery I got an error when trying to OTA update... but I did it again AFTER the wipe and it's D/l'n now... fingers crossed...

[st0ne]

Well it downloaded ok. and it went through the steps of updating... but nothing changed from the flash of the "11.2.1.5.2.0_beta3_1.ius" file.
Gotta look for the update code from an LP7 to see if it can be re packed to push to an EX7.

[giveen]

We have to figure out how the *.ius file is created, or "wrapped" by infotm so we can pull it apart, modify things, then put it back together for flashing. The IUW tool has an advanced burn option where you use individual files for each type of partition, but it will take some trial and error to get an image file properly packaged in in the right format since we don't have any to start with.

A starting place may to be create an image form one of the mtd's on the device, make some modifications on the device, then try flashing the image back and see if it wipes out the changes.

Unfortunatley I've copied each mtd into an img file off the device (DG2.02 firmware) but cannot figure out how to unpack any of them except the boot partition. The system partition appears to be a yaffs2 file system but the normal unyaffs tools don't work. I even recompiled the kernel on an ubuntu install with a patch to enable yaffs2 file system support, but still cannot even mount the img to a loopback partition. Something's unique about these files and I don't know my way around hex too much...

I wrote to my contact within DG and asked if he could give us a clue on how to extract .ius files.

[mrkavanagh]

I upgrade my ex7 using step 4a. I have not rooted it yet, because I can not find androot for froyo. I am on a school trip with my son so i have had tons of time to mess with froyo on EX7 Things that I have noticed: PROS: Long battery life. I watched iron man 2, side installed several apps include android optimizer. Touch screen response and accuracy has increased including being able to actually use your finger. Sleepmode works now. Proccessing performance has increased. CONS: Back button does not show correctly when in portrait mode. OTHER: I am curious how i might be able to start the bluetooth proccess after i plugin in my bt dongle.

I also have noticed that wifi keeps turning off, but that might be because i am connected through someones mifi.

I might buy a couple more of these.

BtW where can i directly download androot apk to root this

Sent from my p7901a using Android Tablet Forum

[usagi111]

I've done all the steps of for the USB Mode method, the driver loads, the "Dv." turns green, but when I click burn...A word (something japanese or chinese) comes up under the "status" column and it stays at "0%"...then the tablet starts up. I've uninstalled the driver, rebooted, and tried again, and again, nothing...any thoughts

[st0ne]

I would say when all else fails... try it after a clean wipe...

[usagi111]

It doesn't mention starting from either a clean wipe or a ugly hacked device in the instructions...has anyone successfully done this while having Android Market on their tablet? I understand that I would LOSE it on Froyo 2.2 and I'm willing to take the risk, but I need to make sure that the process would work if I do a Clean Wipe, I would hate to do the Ugly Hack all over again. and BTW, Kudos for doing all this, you guys ROCK!!!!

[bigwooly]

okay pieces of info on extracting uboot, kernel, etc from an ius.

1st you have to use a hex editor to search for gzip headers

Use a hex editor to search for gzip headers (0x270519). That way, you will find the compressed ramdisk.cpio image and system.img. E.g. dd if=<thefile.ius> bs=<the offset of the gzip header> skip=1 | gzip -cd - > imagefile

If gzip produces the file and only warns about garbage at the end, you've found the proper location!

If found:

You can create ramdisk image like this:


Code:
{ cat uboot_header ; dd if=file.ius bs=<offset> skip=1 | gzip -cd - | gzip ; } > ramdisk.img
The uboot_header is the first 64 bytes from the ramdisk.img of older firmwares, you can grab it from there (again, dd!)

And system.img:


Code:
dd if=file.ius bs=<offset> skip=1 | gzip -cd - > system.img
uImage (kernel + u-boot header) is a little trickier. You have to search in the hex editor for 0x27051956, and then look if you see a Linux kernel version following it in the next 128 or so bytes. I'm not sure how to tell exactly how many bytes the uImage in the .ius file is though, but you can look at the supplied burn tool to see how many KB it reports the kernel to be. Round that up and use that as size to extract. So if it returns 2600.5 KB:


Code:
dd if=file.ius bs=1 seek=<offset> count=$((2601* 1024)) of=uImage
A few extra bytes in the uImage won't hurt.

I'll have a go at it later if no one has beat me to it

Source

In the rom dev thread I have explained how to extract the ramdisk, kernel and system images from the .ius file. I'll move it to here:

I'll have a go at it later if no one has beat me to it

uImage:


dd if=WWE10B_Android_393477-v9full.ius bs=1 skip=260096 count=2681856 of=uImage


ramdisk.img:


{ dd if=WWE10B_Android_393477-v9full.ius bs=1 skip=503296 count=64 ; dd if=WWE10B_Android_393477-v9full.ius bs=503360 skip=1 | gzip -cd - |gzip ; } > ramdisk.img


system.img (gzip header = 0x1f8b08, got it wrong before):


dd if=WWE10B_Android_393477-v9full.ius bs=3352128 skip=1 | gzip -cd - > system.img


You can use these images directly in burntool, though I think you have to flash U0 before they will actually work. Without doing that, I'm seeing the old boot image (green screen) somehow.

source

This is important to me because if i can learn how to get the system out i may be able to manually insert a touchscreen calibration file and be able to use my tablet for dev work without a working touch screen. It's important for everyone else because if we know how to extract it we can actually start building custom roms etc.

[st0ne]

And I think, from what I have seen and read, that it might not be necessary to build a rom from the ground up.
If we can extract the IMG files.. and replace them... couldn't we say Pull the old "Mt device" explorer with the FTP connection from the DG2.02 and then inject it into the new Froyo 2.2 to replace the "My Pad" explorer? Or for any other apk that the system uses as default?

Just a thought.