[HOW TO] Compile and Deploy a Kernel

[smarcDroid]

Hi tasinofan,

I've worked HOURS on getting fastboot working on Linux with the S9714. NO SUCCESS... I tried all the known stuff, that's written down well in the different forums. From creating udev-rules via the fastboot -i... stuff to the flock mechanism in Linux. The flock thing seemed to work one or two times, but it was pretty, pretty fragile. Lenovo did some own modification to the fastboot-portion, I think. ADB works fine. I still do all the fastboot stuff from Windows. It's a Windows 8 (x64). I use LeTools from Lenovo. The neccessary drivers are part of the package. I had to "tune" the ini-file of the driver a little bit. A line matching my Product-ID and Vendor-ID was missing. After fixing that installation was not a problem. Was the same for installation of the Medion driver. If you need more detailed instructions, let me know.

I'm not happy to say that, but Linux is not the right place to do it as far as I know. I hope there's a solution out there, that I haven't found until now. A guy out there in the internet figured out the way with flock. It deals with thread-locks inside the Linux kernel. Forgot his name... he did a lot of experiments on lenovo devices. It was a bash script containing arround 150 lines of code. Pretty complex in my opinion. Tried it any way but it was no adequate solution for me.

 

[tasinofan]

I still do all the fastboot stuff from Windows. It's a Windows 8 (x64). I use LeTools from Lenovo. The neccessary drivers are part of the package.

Good to hear I am not alone with fastboot issue on S9714. Unfortunately I only have Linux machines. I compared dd of LNX partition with boot.img, they are equal. Under normal operations LNX partition is not mounted. So I would perhaps dare to simply use dd instead of fastboot. In fact, maybe that's just what fastboot does. I have used dd to write recovery images on other devices without problem. But not (yet) for boot images. Note that I also have adb root shell access from recovery so I can repair bad image from there as well. Still, it is a somewhat uncommon practice to use dd for this sort of work so first need to assemble some courage.

 

[tasinofan]

...so first need to assemble some courage.

OK so I run own built arm-linux-gnueabi kernel now :

stock .config

root@android:# cat /proc/version
Linux version 3.1.10 (root@standby) (gcc version 4.7.4 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.7.4-2ubuntu1) ) #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Dec 3 21:19:07 CET 2014

I had put modules and boot.img on external sdcard, booted recovery and did following from adb shell :
--
mkdir -p /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/system
mkdir -p /mnt/sdcard
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/sdcard
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 /mnt/system
cd /mnt/sdcard/modules/test/
cp -p * /mnt/system/lib/modules/
chown root.root /mnt/system/lib/modules/*
chmod 644 /mnt/system/lib/modules/*
sync
cd /mnt/sdcard/kernels/test/
(some would first dd /dev/null to partition)
dd if=boot.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 bs=8192
sync
cd /
umount /mnt/sdcard
umount /mnt/system
rmdir /mnt/system
rmdir /mnt/sdcard
rmdir /mnt
exit
--
and reboot (keeping fingers crossed)

procedure probably not for the faint of heart
I do not take any responsability for brick

But it worked for me
(having no windows machine to use fastboot)

Next I hope it runs stable and then I want to try
arm-linux-gnueabihf gcc 4.9.1
to see if it boots and then also speeds up

actually, arm-linux-gnueabihf kernel runs fine too:

root@android:# cat /proc/version
Linux version 3.1.10 (root@standby) (gcc version 4.9.1 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.9.1-16ubuntu6) ) #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 5 02:19:20 CET 2014

it feels smooth but that's probably false self-esteem

 

[vampirefo.]

LMAO, Ubuntu/Linaro 4.9.1-16ubuntu6.

 

[Punkroku]

Hi I got my first tablet an a2109 bout a week ago. I got associates in comp sci and another in cad cam and can't afford tools. Anyways I was wondering if I can set up a Linux swap partition to speed up my lenovo. I have never compiled a kernel and I only have one project on github mpmm midi poison midi message modifier. Anyone know of a good kernel or ROM for me?

 

[vampirefo.]

Hi I got my first tablet an a2109 bout a week ago. I got associates in comp sci and another in cad cam and can't afford tools. Anyways I was wondering if I can set up a Linux swap partition to speed up my lenovo. I have never compiled a kernel and I only have one project on github mpmm midi poison midi message modifier. Anyone know of a good kernel or ROM for me?

Swap doesn't speed up a device, just adds virtual memory for paging to keep device from running out of real memory.
I don't know if stock kernel supports swap or not, I am sure there are apps in play store that will setup swap file or partition for you.

Sent from my BLU STUDIO 5.0 C using Tapatalk

 

[Punkroku]

The kernel Im using is 3.1.10 (A2109A_A411_03_12_121107) This is Cpu-z Dump http://valid.canardpc.com/a/42gw21

I did see an app on play store. I still haven't rooted my device because I have this old kernel I wanted to back it up first and unfortunately my computer is in storage so I am stuck borrowing my moms XP machine and I dont think there are lenovo USB drivers for win XP?

My tablet uses all the stock memory at idle almost 1gb. There was less than 20% percent available. I posted another thread about the stock partitioning.

Should I update from lenovo in the about section of settings?

 

[DBlake]

The kernel Im using is 3.1.10 (A2109A_A411_03_12_121107) This is Cpu-z Dump http://valid.canardpc.com/a/42gw21

I did see an app on play store. I still haven't rooted my device because I have this old kernel I wanted to back it up first and unfortunately my computer is in storage so I am stuck borrowing my moms XP machine and I dont think there are lenovo USB drivers for win XP?

My tablet uses all the stock memory at idle almost 1gb. There was less than 20% percent available. I posted another thread about the stock partitioning.

Should I update from lenovo in the about section of settings?

On Android, just because there's 20% "free" doesn't mean there's only that much "available". On Android, "free" memory is wasted memory. Android has very intelligent memory management. Task killers interrupt this, giving the illusion of speed.