[ROM] Karbonn Custom ST8 by fuser-invent

[fuser]

Karbonn Custom ST8 - v1.5 by fuser-invent
--- ROM Based on firmware DUMP of the Official Stock Firmware ---

WARNING: New Hardware in v2 of Karbonn Tabs!!!

It's been reported that there is a new version of the Karbonn ST8 and ST10; "on back left corner of tab it says 'ver2' after S/N."

People who have flashed TWRP to their tablets found that the touch screen does not work and they have been unable to flash the rooting zip package or custom ROM's. If you have version two of the tablet please do not attempt to flash anything. Anyone with a new and untouched version that can do a dump of the partions should post them here. We particularly need the boot.img and recovery.img but all the partitions would be helpful in the long run.

EDIT: There are multiple versions of these tablets now and the Custom and Stock Plus ROM's only work for Version 1. Flashing them to a Version 2 or newer tablet will brick the device. - To find out which version you have, download this app, go to the System tab and choose Mounting Points. If you have an EXT4 formatted tablet then you have a version 2, if you have a UBIFS formatted tablet then you have a version 1. There are no custom ROM's for version 2 and you can not root with the "crystal root" zip or flash any recovery that doesn't specifically say it is for a version 2 tablet.

What is this ROM?

This is a totally stripped down version of the Official Stock Firmware. It is the best port of my Ainol ROM Crystal Clear that I could do without having an official Stock Firmware Release.

Development of this ROM started when ankitdaruler asked me for help making some mods/tweaks on his device. At first I helped build the Karbonn Stock Plus ROM's for the ST8 & ST10, which were just slightly modified firmware from firmware DUMP's I had received. The idea was to help people who had "soft" bricked their device and it worked! From there I started on the Crystal Clear port, tweaking some parameters for the Karbonn devices and improving overall performance and responsiveness on the tablets. This ROM is essentially a repack/kang/hybrid or whatever you want to call it. The core of ROM is the official firmware but I have ported over a lot of fixes/tweaks/mods from my Ainol ROM's.

I am not a real developer, just an amateur who learns very quickly. I used to know C++ pretty well about 14 years ago when I was a teenager but have subsequently forgotten almost all of it and I haven't done much coding since with the exception of some website maintenance. With that in mind and the fact that the purpose of this ROM is to keep things light and smooth and mostly bug free, know that I'm not going to add a lot of things back in that I've taken out.

Thank You

Thanks to Soulflier, Christian Troy and Fards for all their hard work and getting me started. I wouldn't have been able to make my edits and changes without looking at their work or using their scripts to sign/unpack/re-pack/decompile/compile stuff.

Thanks to ankitdaruler for troubleshoot and beta testing.

Also thanks to everyone in the community who has found and posted fixes/mods/tweaks in the forums and have made a donation.

The current Karbonn Custom ROM team is:

If you'd like to join the team please send me a PM.

• fuser-invent - Development & Beta Testing
• ankitdaruler - ST10 Beta Testing

I hope you end up enjoying the speed, usability and versatility of this ROM. Please take a minute to leave a comment or hit the thank you button and let me know how you like it.

Before you flash...

Please read everything and don't ask questions that are already answered in these posts unless you are absolutely stuck. Every question that is asked that is already answered here just takes more time away from actual firmware development and improving this ROM.

All the usually warnings about not being responsible for what you do with your device and what my ROM might do to your device apply.

1. Use the TWRP recovery made by ozadroid. Anything you flash must be flashed from TWRP. Just extract the recovery file from the zip and place it on your external SD card to boot into TWRP instead of the stock recovery.
2. Flash the Karbonn Custom ROM package first.
3. Flash the Additional Apps package if you want to.
4. Flash the SD card switcher if you want to.
5. Reboot - The first boot can take a minute or two so be patient.

Download Links

You can access the folder with all the ROM files directly here.

TWRP by ozadroid is located here. - For some reason it says "no mirrors" so at ozadroid's request, please do not re-post the TWRP's anywhere, give him credit and link back to his XDA page.

XDA Forums Karbonn page by ankitdaruler - Not so much a download page. This is where it all started.

Below are explanations of the zip files.

Karbonn Custom ST8 ROM

The ROM package now also contains a light version of the Google Apps package. The full version that works with CM10 will also work with this ROM.

SD Card Swap Zips

You can use your external card as your internal card or swap it back to normal. This replaces the vold.stab file that tells the tablet where to mount the sd cards. They are labeled as Crystal Clear zips but will work with your tablets.

Christian Troy's - Internal Memory Format Zip and Factory Reset Zip

The internal memory format zip will format your NAND, so use it at your own risk. The Factory Reset Zip acts like the stock wipe data / factory reset option. Since you have no official stock firmware release and no way of unbricking your device, I would only use these zips as an absolute last resort and only if you know the risks and know what you are doing. They are totally untested on your tablet.

Additional Apps Package

Installs to data/app for easy uninstall or market update. Some apps aren't on the market because they are modded or XDA editions. You can find the latest additional apps package in this folder.

karbonn_ST8_factoryreset.zip

If you did something wrong, like flash TWRP to your boot.img partition instead of your recovery partition or flashed a ROM that wasn't made for your tablet and now have a boot loop, then this zip might help. I replaces the boot / bootloader / recovery partitions with the official stock ones from the ROM dumps I was sent. You need to flash this zip from TWRP if you are going to use it.


Credit where credit is due

This ROM is rooted by SuperSU v1.25

Although this ROM does not actually contain any of the these packages, it does contain init.d scripting ideas from the following:

• CrossBreeder-Entropy Lag Reduce/DNS Speedup
  
• Seeder Entropy Generator
  
• RPEngine™2

If If you install and enjoy this ROM, please consider a donation, even if it is small it will help!
I will use the donations to pay the monthly file hosting fees and other development costs.

 

[fuser]

Screen Shots






Features and To-Do List

Karbonn Custom ROM

Edits to the build.prop

• Gameloft Compatibility for most games
• Screen Response and Sensitivity Tweaks
• Performance Tweaks
• Wifi Tweaks
• Google Nexus 7 Fingerprint
• Default United States, EST time zone and English
• Hide Android Debug Icon and ADB enabled by default
• Video & JPEG Quality Tweaks

Init.d Scripts

• Performance2 Governor Tweaks
• Battery Life Tweaks
• Internal SD Card Speed Tweaks
• Overall Performance Tweaks

Features

• TWRP compatible
• True Tablet UI
• Rooted with SuperSU
• Installed Light Google Apps Package
• Removed Bloatware
• Gameloft License Check Fix
• Added In Terminal, Flash Player, YouTube, Skype and Netflix
• Deodoxed Apps and Framework
• Added init.d script support
• Added data/app/ capability
• Made typing on the keyboard not suck so bad
• Improve scrolling and touch sensitivity
• Set-up Wizard & Extended Language Packs
• ZipAlign
• InternalSD <-> microSD switch
• Custom Boot Animation and Default Wallpaper
• Mic Volume Mod/Fix
• Improved picture and video quality
• Battery Percentage Display
• Extended Power Menu

 

[fuser]

Bug Reports

- Freezing/lag when in the apps section of system settings - Segmentation Fault. Use an app like titanium backup to move apps to SD for now.

User Submitted Mods/Tweaks/Zips

- Any cool user submitted content will be posted here.

Some 3G Dongles Kill WiFi
-Thanks to gybemark for figuring this out.

When you plug in the dongle, it adds a row to the 'secure' table in /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db with:

name='wifi_country_code'
value='gb'

If you use sqlite3 to delete this row (which isn't there at all by default in my stock ROM) the Wifi works again.

Getting unsupported 3G Dongles to work

A lot of people have reported success with the PPP Widget app.

Directory Bind for Internal -> External SD Card
- Thanks to tigger-gg for the suggestion

Go to the official page on the XDA forums for more info.

Tigger-gg suggests the DirectoryBind_0.2.0k.apk

 

[fuser]

The ST8 Custom ROM file is being uploaded right now. The ST10 version was beta tested by ankitdaruler and confirmed to be working on his device but there are currently no beta testers for the ST8. That means you are flashing it at your own risk. If you decide to try it and every goes fine, please report back. If anything goes wrong you can either flash the ST8 Stock+ ROM v1.2 or the ST8 Custom v1.0.1 ROM which are both confirmed to be working. I will start a new thread soon for the Stock+ ROM but it's really just a slightly modified ROM Dump for people to use in case they soft brick their tablets. The Gameloft License Loop fix may not be working, report back.

 

[Saurabh_Joshi]

Hi fuser.

I have successfully flashed TWRP and ur latest custom ROM for ST8. Everything is nice so far.
Only thing i notice until now is i cannot clear multiple notification from notification tray in this new tablet ui. I need to manually clear them one by one. The all clear button doesn't seams to work.
Any idea about this?
Rest is pretty good for me, i will let u know if i find more bugs in your ROM.
Thanks a million buddy.

 

[fuser]

@ Saurabh_Joshi - I think I've had one other person on Crystal Clear with this problem, where the button was there but they couldn't press it. I had another user report that their button was missing entirely. I've never been able to reproduce the problem on any of the tablets and these were the only two people with the issue, so I'm unsure of why it has happened. I can only suggest maybe doing a complete factory reset and re-installing the ROM. You can also choose to return to the PhoneUI by deleting the build.prop line "ro.ui.tabletui=true" or just putting a "#" sign in front of it.

 

[Saurabh_Joshi]

Well thanks a lot. I will try your suggestion. But i love the tablet UI so i can manage with this small glitch. As i can clear the notification one by one. The button is there to clear and it works some time. So i can manage thanks again.

 

[fuser]

One thing I've found with my tablets is that for buttons like that which are small, it is better to press with the pad of your finger and not your fingertip. Just a thought.

 

[fuser]

Karbonn Custom ST8 - v1.3 by fuser-invent
--- ROM Based on firmware DUMP of the Official Stock Firmware ---

Change Log

Karbonn Custom v1.3

• Updated SuperSU Root Package.
• Added Stock Launcher as Nova Launcher alternative.
• Temporarily removed some init.d scripts until I have more time to test them on the Hero (similar tablet).
• May or may not have fixed Wifi? Let me know since I don't have this tablet.
• Fixed battery percentage mod on the SystemUI.apk
• Minor build.prop changes

Also, I added the karbonn_batterymod_test.zip to the official MediaFire folder. It should work with all Stock ROM's but is now baked into the Custom ROM.

-----

The firmware takes a little while to upload, so if its not in the MediaFire folder yet, it will be soon enough, be patient and enjoy!

 

[Saurabh_Joshi]

Thanks a lot. I will test it out soon downloading now. One question what is the best way to flash it?
Like in TWRP>>Wipe what all should be wiped ? Should i wipe the system partition? Please tell me the corrects steps mate.

 

[fuser]

In general I would just flash the ROM, wipe dalvik and cache, then flash the ROM and wipe dalvick and cache again. Then reboot. Only if you are upgrading from the previous version though. If you aren't and you are coming from the Stock ROM, you might want to do a factory reset from the stock recovery, then boot into TWRP and do the ROM flash and dalvik/cache wipe twice, just to be safe.

 

[Saurabh_Joshi]

Thanks again for your suggestions. But so you don't recommend wiping the system? As i am planning to flash your custom ROM for ST8 1.3 tonight. What exactly ROM does while flashing? Does it wipe system itself? I just want to know i hope you don't mind my silly question bro. Thanks a ton for all your hard work mate.

 

[Saurabh_Joshi]

One thing I've found with my tablets is that for buttons like that which are small, it is better to press with the pad of your finger and not your fingertip. Just a thought.

Thanks i guess it's more like a touch issue then a bug. So i will get back on this after flashing your v1.3.

 

[fuser]

Thanks again for your suggestions. But so you don't recommend wiping the system? As i am planning to flash your custom ROM for ST8 1.3 tonight. What exactly ROM does while flashing? Does it wipe system itself? I just want to know i hope you don't mind my silly question bro. Thanks a ton for all your hard work mate.

I'm sorry but I don't actually own this tablet. Here is what ankitdaruler suggests, he's the only current beta tester:

&#8226;Install TWRP recovery
&#8226;Boot into TWRP
&#8226;Copy the .zip over to your SD card
&#8226;Factory reset your tablet
&#8226;Flash the zip
&#8226;If you want to switch SD with Internal, flash crystal_clear_v1.5_sd_switch.zip
&#8226;Reboot System Now

There is an "aniol_factory_reset.zip" that you can use to do the factory reset in TWRP, but I guess from his instructions it seems like you can do it with the TWRP button as well? The only addition to his method that I would suggest is to wipe dalvik and cache like I said in the previous post. At the moment, I would say that wiping "system" might be too risky since there is no unbrick method for this tablet and no official stock firmware package released.

My Custom ROM flashes a customized "system" folder, adds a "data/app" folder and sets all the correct permissions. There is no boot.img or bootloader.img available so it doesn't flash any other partitions. I hope that answers your question well enough.

 

[Saurabh_Joshi]

Yes it answers all my questions. Thanks a million. I would like to add one of friend just flashed your stock ROM plus on his st8 buy wiping system and his tab is working fine then later I flashed your custom ROM 1.3 on to his tab. Following your steps in earlier post. That is working too. I will flash it on my tab now. Will get back to you soon for any issues. Thanks again.