Say hi to "CyanoBoot" -- a 2nd bootloader/w menu aka "ub2" - (WIP)

Search This thread

nook_lover

Senior Member
Dec 7, 2011
171
140
This is probably why it is not booting to CM7 using you're SDcard. You need to install Cyanoboot on the SDcard as well.

Edit: basicly all you have to do is swap flashing_boot.img that is currently on you're sdcard with the flashing_boot.img from cyanoboot. It needs to be placed in p1 of you're SDcard (same spot where CM7 flashing_boot.img resides) download it from the OP. The u-boot.bin and mlo that is included on the CM7 Sdcard you have made will be sufficient enough.

Ok. I am gonna try it tonight, but how the initial successfull booting of CM7 can be explained?
 

nerdyjim

Member
Oct 8, 2011
47
2
Long Island
Ok. I am gonna try it tonight, but how the initial successfull booting of CM7 can be explained?

I honestly have no idea. I know that to dual-boot using Cyanoboot with a SDcard version of CM7 you need to install Cyanoboot on the SDcard as well. Fattire posted the instructions in the CM9 thread I believe. It states to make sure you are using a SDversion of Cyanoboot on the CM7 bootable SDcard. Maybe a dev could explain you're question.
 

Thibor69

Senior Member
“CyanoBoot”
(aka a "second bootloader")
Quick Guide
by fattire
(@fat__tire on Twitter)

Alpha 0: "I don't have a NT" Edition​


SDCARD

(p1-vfat)/boot.img file (no offset/padding)
(p1-vfat)/recovery.img file (no offset/padding)
(p1-vfat)/altboot.img file (no offset/padding)

EMMC

(p4-/boot partition)<- CyanoBoot at byte 0, boot.img contents at 512.
(p3-/recovery partition)<- CyanoBoot at byte 0, recovery.img contents at 512.
(p6-vfat)/bootdata/altboot.img (no offset/padding, same as SDCard)

Any chance you could show me the commands to do this via adb ?
Personally I would like it to boot of SD since it checks there first.

I currently have U-Boot installed ... and running Stock 1.4.2 on eMMMC and CM7 on SD.

Just thought I would ask .....

Peace
 
Last edited:

Demetris

Recognized Developer
Aug 15, 2008
3,094
9,469
47
Limassol
Fattire:
When you flash an incompatible kernel with NT the cyanoboot menu dont let you do anything the N button is void and it boots straight into cwm.
Can anything be done to correct this?
Like a hardcoded N+power button mapping
We cant play with crossflashing kernels until this is fixed ;)
Thanks
 
Last edited:

i9o

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2008
52
6
OnePlus 10R / Ace
How can I remove cyanoboot?
I do not need anymore a double boot system and cannot find out how to uninstall this anyway useful loader.
Thanks
 

lavero.burgos

Senior Member
Mar 5, 2011
2,836
1,391
How can I remove cyanoboot?
I do not need anymore a double boot system and cannot find out how to uninstall this anyway useful loader.
Thanks

Hmm i dont know if you have it installed internal but i personally have used it in my sdcard if that is your case then all you need to do is format your sdcard.

~ Veronica
 

fattire

Inactive Recognized Developer
Oct 11, 2010
2,280
6,473
www.eff.org
Fattire:
When you flash an incompatible kernel with NT the cyanoboot menu dont let you do anything the N button is void and it boots straight into cwm.
Can anything be done to correct this?
Like a hardcoded N+power button mapping
We cant play with crossflashing kernels until this is fixed ;)
Thanks

Sorry I've been at Coachella the last few days so may have missed some messages, etc.

Can you explain what you mean that the "N" button is "void"? It should never be void-- it doesn't currently check whether there is a kernel there or not before looking for a held-down "N"/menu. so not sure what that means.
 

fattire

Inactive Recognized Developer
Oct 11, 2010
2,280
6,473
www.eff.org
How can I remove cyanoboot?
I do not need anymore a double boot system and cannot find out how to uninstall this anyway useful loader.
Thanks

I'm not sure why you'd uninstall it as you don't have to double-boot from it. You can just leave it as the default bootloader and it will work just as bauwks does (or as stock does). The menu and other features are add-ons to stock behavior, and it should continue to work with a stock installation.

(in other words, it will load the boot and system partition using a fallback technique to look at a 512 block (cyanoboot), 256 block (bauwks), and 0 block (stock) offset.)
 

Demetris

Recognized Developer
Aug 15, 2008
3,094
9,469
47
Limassol
The N button doesnt work.
It shows Cyanoboot screen and then load up cwm, pressing N button doesnt stop this.
And of my supprise also in cwm i couldnt mount sd card so i had to go into adb magic to mount media to mmcblk0p10 and then push cm9.zip and flash from there as i didnt have any rom on the internal.

Edit:
After flashing cm9 with correct boot.img all back to normal.

Edit 2:
Just for report.
After trying to flash Kindle fire kernel, my NT never reached cyanoboot bootloader, it showed N screen then bootloop.
So something needs fixing in Cyanoboot.
What i mean is, even with wrong kernel wouldn't be normal to pass cyanoboot loader and bootloop after trying to load from emmc.
Why kernel messes up bootloader? Weird! :)
 
Last edited:

fattire

Inactive Recognized Developer
Oct 11, 2010
2,280
6,473
www.eff.org
The N button doesnt work.
It shows Cyanoboot screen and then load up cwm, pressing N button doesnt stop this.
And of my supprise also in cwm i couldnt mount sd card so i had to go into adb magic to mount media to mmcblk0p10 and then push cm9.zip and flash from there as i didnt have any rom on the internal.

Edit:
After flashing cm9 with correct boot.img all back to normal.

Edit 2:
Just for report.
After trying to flash Kindle fire kernel, my NT never reached cyanoboot bootloader, it showed N screen then bootloop.
So something needs fixing in Cyanoboot.
What i mean is, even with wrong kernel wouldn't be normal to pass cyanoboot loader and bootloop after trying to load from emmc.
Why kernel messes up bootloader? Weird! :)

A few thoughts.

1. Cyanoboot is not meant to work on the kindle fire, and the kindle file kernel should not be used with the nook tablet. The only devices cyanoboot works with is 1. Nook Color 2. Nook Tablet, and there has been development on 3. The lenovo A1.
2. The kernel must be added to the boot.img (sd) or boot partition (emmc) in a very specific way. If you did not do it properly, you will not see past the "N" if you are booting from emmc. This is described in the OP in some detail.
3. It would not be normal to get past the cyanoboot loader if the kernel was not properly added to the boot image. Again, see the OP for how it should work. It would not be expected to do anything with a kindle fire kernel.
4. It's extremely hard to make an evaluation, especially without knowing exactly what you did to "flash" this kernel. What makes you think a kfire kernel would work? If you're interested in using an experimental 3.x kernel, see the 3.x kernel thread.
 

Demetris

Recognized Developer
Aug 15, 2008
3,094
9,469
47
Limassol
Thanks for the quick answer.
As I clear out ,cyanoboot behavior depend on the kernel. So the kernel must be cyanoboot-aware.
P.s
I knew kf wouldnt boot :) I was just testing if I can recover via cyanoboot if I flash a "almost compatible" kernel, let's say bionic 3 .
And if I could fastboot flash boot boot.img
But never reached there ;)

Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA
 
Last edited:

flamingsamurai

Senior Member
Nov 8, 2009
90
10
Having some trouble with Cyanoboot. I selected emmc recovery in the menu and now it is in a loop. It attempts to boot the recovery (Loading recovery from emmc...), then powers off and then reattempts to boot into recovery when it gets back into cyanoboot. It continues to loop, and doesn't cut out after 8 restarts.

I held the menu button to interrupt it and it won't respond at all. Also tried booting from SD but it boots straight into cyanoboot.

Any help would be great, thanks.
 

fattire

Inactive Recognized Developer
Oct 11, 2010
2,280
6,473
www.eff.org
Having some trouble with Cyanoboot. I selected emmc recovery in the menu and now it is in a loop. It attempts to boot the recovery (Loading recovery from emmc...), then powers off and then reattempts to boot into recovery when it gets back into cyanoboot. It continues to loop, and doesn't cut out after 8 restarts.

I held the menu button to interrupt it and it won't respond at all. Also tried booting from SD but it boots straight into cyanoboot.

Any help would be great, thanks.

If it's attempting to boot into recovery with every boot, this is due to an uncleared instruction in the /bootdata/bcb file that was NOT set by cyanoboot (it does not do this) and is not being cleared with every boot-- if you tried to boot into recovery from the reboot menu and do not have a valid recovery to boot into (and thus clear this instruction), this can happen...

Do you have a valid recovery image or other bootable SD? If you can boot into it, or any other valid image (boot off SD), this command from the shell should clear the bcb instruction:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/bootdata/BCB bs=1 count=1088
 

mik_os

Retired Recognized Developer
Apr 13, 2010
746
1,830
Poltava
I think I know how to fix this (or at least how to activate menu again), but how to pack u-boot into that flash_image.img file? Found this, will try to make something usefull.
 
Last edited:

Top Liked Posts

  • There are no posts matching your filters.
  • 56
    Say hi to "CyanoBoot" -- a 2nd bootloader/w menu aka "ub2" - (WIP)

    “CyanoBoot”
    (aka a "second bootloader")
    Quick Guide
    by fattire
    (@fat__tire on Twitter)

    Alpha 0: "I don't have a NT" Edition​

    jFMQO13t3Gbub.jpg

    (Thanks to indirect for the image.)

    What is CyanoBoot?

    CyanoBoot (working title) is a “second bootloader” in early development, which is based on the open-source “u-boot” project, as further customized by BN & Bauwks. It is similar to the bootloader provided by Bauwks but has additional enhancements to make booting unsigned partitions easier and to generally enhance the booting experience on the Nook Tablet (aka “acclaim”) device.

    CyanoBoot is intended for use with the forthcoming CyanogenMod 9, but it can also be used to boot CM7 or Ubuntu Linux or even the stock firmware (provided of course you are not legally or contractually bound from doing so. I haven’t read or agreed to any BN user agreements, so can’t speak to this.)

    CyanoBoot includes an on-screen menu system, the ability to boot into three basic modes (normal, recovery, and “altboot”), configuration options, fastboot, and more.

    The same version of CyanoBoot should start from both SD card and emmc (although it must be packaged and installed differently for each.) It should work on both the 1gb and 512mb RAM models. NOTE: It has been reported that some devices may require a USB cable to be plugged in to boot from SD Card. If true, this issue is not understood and is not addressed, nor is it likely to be.

    NOTICE: CYANOBOOT (WORKING TITLE) IS HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE USED BY NON-DEVELOPERS AND/OR THOSE UNWILLING TO ACCEPT FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY UNTOWARD CONSEQUENCES OF USING (OR ATTEMPTING TO USE) THE SOFTWARE. ALL SUCH ACTIVITY MUST OCCUR *ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK* AND YOU ACCEPT ALL CONSEQUENCES FOR DOING SO. THE USE OR ATTEMPTED USE MAY HAVE UNINTENDED RESULTS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA, DAMAGE TO HARDWARE, AND/OR EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA. CYANOBOOT IS NOT ENDORSED, AFFILIATED, SPONSORED, NOR ASSOCIATED WITH THE "DAS U-BOOT" PROJECT, GOOGLE, BARNES AND NOBLE LLC, TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, DENX., NOR ANY OF THEIR PARTNERS, OWNERS, EMPLOYERS, AFFILIATES, CLIENTS, SUBCONTRACTORS, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, ADMINSTRATORS, INFORMATION PROVIDERS, ETC. EXCEPT INSOFAR AS THEY HAVE PROVIDED AND LICENSED SOURCE CODE TO BE FURTHER MODIFIED AND DISTRIBUTED. SEE THE RELEVANT GNU PUBLIC LICENSE FOR LICENSING DETAILS AND OTHER DISCLAIMERS. THIS SOFTWARE IS OBVIOUSLY INTENDED FOR USE ONLY BY THOSE WHO ARE AUTHORIZED TO DO SO.

    Whew!


    LIST OF THINGS


    • Started with “UB1” (aka u-boot, “first boot”) source code
    • Includes changes to support new 512MB model
    • Includes Bauwks’ repairs to fix “locked bootloader” malware
    • Many duplicate UB1 functions removed
    • One-build-boots-all (emmc or SD card, custom OS or stock)
    • Boot device indicator (top-left corner)
    • Bootcount indicator (top-left corner)
    • On-screen feedback to let you know what it’s loading.
    • Console-based boot menu
    • Support for key-combo shortcuts for menu/recovery
    • Alternate “Altboot” multiboot support allows 2nd OS.
    • Emmc setting for default boot profile (normal/altboot)
    • Emmc setting for default boot device (emmc or sd)
    • Emmc setting for automatic bootcount clearing
    • Boot fallback for stock firmware (0 bytes + sec. header)
    • Boot fallback for bauwks’ uboot (256 bytes)
    • Numerous visual enhancements
    • Unused bulky images removed (smaller file)
    • FASTBOOT support (w/menu selection)
    • On-screen build timestamp so you know version
    • Perhaps much more, or maybe not

    There are likely bugs all over the place, but this is how it's supposed to work:


    Key Shortcuts

    Hold down home (“n”) key for the menu.

    Hold down home (“n”) + “power” to have UB1 start recovery. If UB2 is also installed, it should respect this key combo and continue to load recovery.

    The default behavior if no keys are pressed is to boot “normally”-- if booting from emmc, the boot partition (p4) from emmc will be booted. If booting from SD the boot.img on SD file will be booted.


    The Boot Menu

    Use the Home (“n”) key to navigate through the menu options. You can select an option with the power key.

    The option you choose will override any other configuration you have made.

    NOTE: Just so you don’t ask-- the reason the home and power keys are used to navigate through the menu rather than the volume up and down keys is due to a required driver not being included with u-boot 1. While the home and power keys use a very simple “gpio” method to detect if they are pressed, the volume keys are more like keyboard keys and thus are more difficult to detect. (The Nook Color bootloader, in contrast, did have the appropriate driver, so volume key detection was possible.)


    Boot Indicators

    Since you can boot from either SD or EMMC, it may be difficult to ascertain which version you are starting from.

    Never again. You can now see whether you have loaded CyanoBoot from EMMC or SD by lookin at the top left corner:

    E” -> CyanoBoot is starting from emmc
    S” -> CyanoBoot is starting from SDCard

    The # that follows this indicator is the current “bootcount”. After 8 unsuccessful boots or so, stock behavior is to run recovery with a reflash instruction. See below for instructions on clearing the bootcount at every boot automatically.


    Fastboot (used for development)

    For those familiar with “fastboot”, you can select the fastboot option from the CyanoBoot menu to go into fastboot mode. You can then (hopefully) flash to the boot or recovery partitions via USB cable using a command such as:

    $ fastboot flash boot boot.img


    Installation (SD Card boot)

    (If you are preparing your own SD card for booting, you should be aware that for OMAP devices such as the acclaim, the SDcard must be formatted using a very specific configuration, which is detailed elsewhere.)

    For SD Card, CyanoBoot is packaged inside a “flashing_boot.img” file to be placed in the first vfat partition of the SD-card along with the signed “mlo” and “u-boot.bin” files from the 1.4.2 update.zip.

    (I'm told the mlo file may be called called MLO_es2.3_BN in the BN update.zip and should be renamed to “mlo”.)

    Next, the boot (“boot.img”), recovery (“recovery.img”) and/or alternate boot (“altboot.img”) image files may optionally be placed in this partition.


    Installation (EMMC boot)

    To boot from emmc, the “flashing_boot_emmc.img” file, which contains a packaged version of CyanoBoot, should be put at byte 0 of the third partition (recovery) and ALSO at byte 0 of the fourth partition (boot). Then, the boot/recovery partitions must be shifted “to the right” (to make room for Cyanoboot) so that it starts 512Kb in from the start of the file. Use a padding of zeros so that the boot image contents begin exactly at 512Kb.

    The boot and recovery partitions are expected to use this offset. For the alternate boot from emmc, the “altboot.img” may be the identical file used in an SD-boot, placed into the /bootdata vfat partition without any offset.

    NOTE: Again, use the flashing_boot_emmc.img file for emmc boot partitions, *not* flashing_boot.img, which is for SD card boot.


    Offset Info

    Again, when used on the emmc, CyanoBoot must be placed at byte 0, at both the boot and recovery partitions. The “actual” boot.img and recovery.img that would normally be at byte 0 of those partitions should be moved so that it starts 512Kb in.

    Always use this offset in recovery (p3) and boot (p4) partitions. In other words, put CyanoBoot at offset 0 and then pad with zeros, then put the normal boot.img or recovery.img at offset 512.)

    On SD Card, the “boot.img” and “recovery.img” files should have no padding or offset or anything. Use as normal. This is similar to how “uImage” and “uRamdisk” files are used on the NookColor, only use a single file for both with a header in front.


    Installation Summary

    One more time. Here are the locations for the boot images:

    SDCARD

    (p1-vfat)/boot.img file (no offset/padding)
    (p1-vfat)/recovery.img file (no offset/padding)
    (p1-vfat)/altboot.img file (no offset/padding)

    EMMC

    (p4-/boot partition)<- CyanoBoot at byte 0, boot.img contents at 512.
    (p3-/recovery partition)<- CyanoBoot at byte 0, recovery.img contents at 512.
    (p6-vfat)/bootdata/altboot.img (no offset/padding, same as SDCard)


    Configuration

    You can control the "default boot" behavior (ie, what happens when you don’t hold down any keys). If you are a developer that does not want to constantly clear the bootcnt, you can also cause CyanoBoot to clear the bootcount automatically at every boot. To do this, three configuration files may be added to /bootdata (partition 6) on the emmc.

    CONFIG #1: BOOT DEVICE

    This will cause CyanoBoot to always boot from the emmc boot partition rather than SD. In this way, you can boot “through” a bootable SD card to whatever is on the emmc.

    To Make Default Always Boot To EMMC

    $ echo -n “1” > /bootdata/u-boot.device

    CONFIG #2: ALTBOOT

    Aside from the normal boot and recovery boot, a third boot option is available, called “altboot” (alternate boot). This is a kernel/ramdisk pair that can be used for a third firmware, an overclocked kernel, or whatever you like. If you choose the “altboot” as a default and it does not exist, your boot will fail.

    As discussed above, the altboot.img file goes in the following location:

    SDCard: file on p1 called “altboot.img” (no special padding or offset)

    EMMC: file at /bootdata/altboot.img (no special padding or offset)

    To Make Default Always Boot to “altboot”

    echo -n “1” > /bootdata/u-boot.altboot

    CONFIG #3: CLEAR BOOTCOUNT -- You can automatically zero out the bootcount with every boot. To set this:

    To Make Default Automatically Clear BootCount

    echo -n “1” > /bootdata/u-boot.clearbc

    NOTE: A version of “Nook Tablet Tweaks” is planned to automate the above options much as Nook Color Tweaks does for the encore device in CM7.


    Thanks/Credits

    Thanks to chrmhoffman, nemith, xindirect, Celtic, and loglud for testing, as I don’t have a device and have never actually run this. Thanks to j4mm3r for the first encore menu code. It was pretty much rewritten for acclaim, but the first menu was invaluable in showing me how to add the code for the console. Thx to pokey9000 for stuff that helped get fastboot working.

    Also thanks to BN as well as all the talented u-boot developers at Denx and elsewhere for the GPL’d code upon which this was based.

    http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot is where you can find the main u-boot project.

    Also, a huge thanks to Bauwks for his code contribution as well as for making this possible in the first place!

    Remember, this is all experimental. I'll try to update this post if there's something that needs to be updated.

    (source)

    If you have an issue, be sure to mention the timestamp at the bottom so everyone knows which version you're using. There will be bugs.
    11
    Okay...

    Wrong. I know what I'm talking about.

    Really? You're really going to double-down on this?

    ROMs don't overwrite bootloaders in my experience.

    Glad you qualified it with "in my experience". Your limited experience obviously doesn't include the Nook Color, which does replace uboot. And your experience clearly doesn't including careful reading of threads relating to the Nook Tablet's locked bootloader, otherwise you'd understand why the second bootloader is necessary. You'd understand that is does NOT replace the original stock bootloader, but suppliments it in a way that is absolutely necessary.

    I've flashed custom bootloaders via ADB, but I've NEVER seen a ROM (at least for my device) actually include a bootloader.

    So none out of all the your device(s) had to deal with a locked bootloader. So?

    It's just not necessary. Once you've rooted your device and installed CWM recovery (or an equivalent), you just flash the ROM's zip file.

    A lot of "devs" have a reputation for delivering the smackdown on people who drop into a forum throwing around attitude without knowing what they're talking about.. and believe me, I'm trying hard really to be polite and not condescend here... So yeah, I get it- you've installed CWM on a device or two and you think you understand the process. But not every device is the same. I'm about to jump on a plane, so I'll try to make this as simple as I can:

    Unlike many devices that work exactly how you describe (root, install a recovery, and flash the rom), the Nook Tablet has extra security-- a design flaw from Barnes and Noble-- that has to be fixed/circumvented. That is, there is a signed booting process where once the power turns on, the pre-bootloader (aka "x-loader" aka "mlo") will not run unless it is signed by Barnes and Noble, and contains a digital signature that can be verified as authentic. The pre-bootloader then loads the bootloader (u-boot) which also has a digital signature which is checked. The bootloader and pre-bootloader can not be replaced-- the hardware will not run unsigned or improperly signed files. The signed bootloader (u-boot, remember), then loads the boot.img (or recovery.img) file which ALSO has a digitial signature that is ALSO signed by barnes and noble. (If you are booting from SD card, there is a FAT file called flashing_boot.img that works the same way).

    So there is a boot chain: hardware->mlo->uboot->kernel/ramdisk (aka boot.img/recovery.img) and every step of it is signed. If you replace any of these parts with a custom version, the boot stops.

    Without going into technical detail, CyanoBoot implements Bauwks' fix for this. The technical detalis as far as implementation go are in the first post, which you should read. The menu stuff is just extra.

    Crap. Plane is leaving.

    So you're saying that with CWM recovery installed on the device, I can't install a ROM via the typical zip file method? This is a complete surprise.

    Surprise! (You can of course flash via the typical zip menu as the zip will install everything for you. The second bootloader is part of boot.img/system.img/flashing_boot.img, but this is described in detail in my previous posts and in the original post which you claim to have read, so you know this already)

    See this article: http://raywaldo.com/2012/09/root-for-nook-tablet-1-4-3/ and jump to the section "Flash Jelly Bean Android 4.1.1". Looks like you can flash a ROM here via the way I've always done it.
    I
    I did read it. Clearly you didn't read my post completely. You may have read the words, but you don't seem to have actually thought about my questions...

    Yeah, I guess you're right and I don't know what I'm talking about. You put me in my place and shut me down.

    I have learned a lot here. You have learned nothing.

    Damn. Gotta shut off electronic devices.
    10
    https://github.com/Rebell/acclaim_cyanoboot/commit/33228462ece75fe8274f76ad368c333130c02174
    Added some more things I just remind:
    Added primitive VOLUP/VOLDOWN driver.
    Ported .img detection from Encore - unavailable booting modes are greyed out, EMMC normal and EMMC recovery are always ON.
    Added battery level & board rev info. Enabling battery charging in case of level < 30 - doesn't seem to work on my board (FIXME).
    Lowered brightness to drain less battery power.
    Turned off BN board charging procedure.
    Change default booting source from Encore - still untested/unfinished.
    Added OMAP4 IRQ header just in case.
    Added Bauwks image generation script.

    Please check it out.
    8
    Commited patch. Together with fix for fastboot screen corruption during loading big files (moved framebuffer far away from it).
    Binaries are already in ics and jb branch. :)
    6
    Thanks meghd00t. Guess something with loading is broken so it cant handle 0x200 offset. We don't need it for now anyway I guess.

    Oh yes. List of expected files it's looking for is of course:
    /emmc/altboot.img
    /sdcard/boot.img
    /sdcard/recovery.img
    /sdcard/altboot.img