MultiROM for Nexus 7 - interest survey

Tasssadar · Nov 7, 2012

UPDATE: released - http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2011403

Hi,
I am recognized developer here on XDA, and my "main" creation is multi-boot solution for LG Optimus One, MultiROM: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1304656.
The thread is kinda chaotic, so let me explain: the main ROM is in internal memory of the phone, while the other ROM(s) are on the ext partition of the sd-card. ROM on sd-card are installed via modified recovery, you just select the ZIP file and it is installed to the sd-card. During boot, a simple boot manager appears, which allows you to choose which ROM to boot (see attachments).

I've recently got my very own Nexus 7, one of the only like 2k which arrived to Czech Republic so far, so the question is following:
Do you think that it is worth it to port MultiROM to Nexus 7?

There are of course some differences between N7 and Optimus One, mainly the lack of sd-card, I can imagine having multiple ROMs in internal memory and/or booting from USB flash drive, though.

Another thing is that there are other systems than Android available on N7, I believe(?). MultiROM would need some work to support those, because the boot manager runs after the kernel is loaded, so it cannot change it, unless some workaround is used, maybe reflashing the kernel after selection of the ROM and then silent reboot, or kexec (anybody has it running on N7?).

So, what do you think?

nphil · Nov 7, 2012

I would be very interested in this, especially if you can dualboot between Ubuntu/ChromeOS and Android.

Räph96 · Nov 7, 2012

+1

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

daveheart14 · Nov 7, 2012

We have the same question on the French forum???? : http://forum.frandroid.com/topic/125722-dualboot-sur-nexus-7/

davidstech11 · Nov 7, 2012

I would say “no". But then again, I doubt a lot of people would comment just to say no like me. I would think most who comment here would say yes.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

smirkis · Nov 7, 2012

i was just sitting back talking with sblood86 about this, if you create multirom support, cannibalopentouch can be properly ported to support multiboot.

i would find this very useful when ubuntu comes around to being more stable and usable. bouncing between ubuntu and jellybean would be awesome. especially for us 32gb users!

luckylui · Nov 7, 2012

+1

#Galaxy Nexus HSPA+

Sharpen3d · Nov 8, 2012

I gotta be honest, this seems like a great idea and could be very fun, but that seems to be the limit: fun. I personally don't feel there's enough development on the N7 to warrant the need to toggle between builds for more than a novelty sake.
That being said, I would like to see this come to fruition for the hope that it inspires more development on the N7. You got my vote, good luck!

smirkis · Nov 8, 2012

Sharpen3d said:
I gotta be honest, this seems like a great idea and could be very fun, but that seems to be the limit: fun. I personally don't feel there's enough development on the N7 to warrant the need to toggle between builds for more than a novelty sake.
That being said, I would like to see this come to fruition for the hope that it inspires more development on the N7. You got my vote, good luck!

it is fun, development and testing is fun. being able to flash new roms to try them out and not have to keep backing up/wiping/restoring would be great. having bone stock on one partition and super custom aokp or whatever on the other would also be great. a lot of custom add ons leads to new oem features n the long run.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

dinesh690 · Nov 8, 2012

Sounds very interesting would love to see this on the nexus 7

Sent from my LT18i

yonkye · Nov 8, 2012

+1
Dual boot android/ubuntu

rebel1699 · Nov 8, 2012

I think dual boot would be extremely useful, especially if it could be made to boot to a rom on otg devices. Ext hdds, thumbdrives, etc.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

Alejandrissimo · Nov 8, 2012

Shut up and take my nexus

Haha yeah I love dual boot on my s3, it will be pretty awesome to have it on the n7.

Don't forget the OTG charging patch.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

aLPaSLaN07 · Nov 8, 2012

I'd say "why not?"

brando56894 · Nov 8, 2012

I'd give this a go, as another user stated it would be pretty nice to not have to backup, flash, restore to try out a new rom and then if you don't like it restore. This would probably only be useful for people that have 32 GB (like me, i have a ton of games installed and still have about 20 GB free

) and possibly those with 16 GBs. I remember I tried a multi-boot manager on my Incredible about a year ago and it didn't work that well, but then again that was about 2 years ago.

Multi-booting Android, ChromeOS and Ubuntu via this would be EPIC

erica_renee · Nov 8, 2012

+1 more..

Would be awesome to have a rom that you could play with and not Bork your device every time . For rom Developers and moders this could be a invaluable tool..
Would love to have total stock experience and still be able to use the bleeding edge rom development features...

Please please .

Tasssadar · Nov 8, 2012

Okay, so the main reason seems to be dual-booting ubuntu. That looks cool to me, and should be possible from what I can tell. But there is one problem - it would require kexec, and it does not work for me. It just freezes the device.

I just enabled kexec in kernel (CONFIG_KEXEC=y) and tried some kexec binaries for other devices, and the one from debian, but result is the same, just freeze (or nothing happens on the screen, adb or anything for a long time). /proc/last_kmesg looks like this:

Code:

[  187.155128] CFG80211-ERROR) wl_cfg80211_disconnect : Reason 3
[  187.163564] cpu_up(2)+
[  187.165085] CPU2: Booted secondary processor
[  187.165742] cpu_up(2)-
[  187.170464] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: CN
[  187.173526] Switched to NOHz mode on CPU #2
[  187.173858] wl_android_wifi_off in
[  187.174192] Wake32 for irq=340
[  187.174332] Disabling wake32
[  187.174407] gpio bank wake found: wake32 for irq=67
[  187.174481] Disabling wake32
[  187.174670] wifi_set_power = 0
[  187.174807] Powering off wifi
[  187.475191] =========== WLAN placed in RESET ========
[  187.479449] max77663-rtc max77663-rtc.0: rtc_shutdown: clean alarm
[  187.479692] wl_android_priv_cmd: Ignore private cmd "BTCOEXMODE 2" - iface wlan0 is down
[  187.482678] dhd_prot_ioctl : bus is down. we have nothing to do
[  187.482765] dhd_aoe_hostip_clr failed code -1
[  187.482899] dhd_prot_ioctl : bus is down. we have nothing to do
[  187.482972] dhd_aoe_arp_clr failed code 1
[  187.509574] smb347_shutdown+
[  187.511945] smb347_shutdown-
[  187.512152] Starting new kernel
[  187.512239] Bye!

Problem is, I have no idea how to debug what is wrong. Anybody tried kexec on N7? Or am I just doing something wrong with the parametrs, I did this:

Code:

kexec -l ./zImage --initrd=./boot.img-ramdisk.cpio.gz --command-line="$(cat /proc/cmdline)"
kexec -e

jcgtreize · Nov 9, 2012

If we are already talking about a vote (one more), mine is definitely positive. I want to keep my Android Devices on genuine Google Rom:angel:, but I really want to try alternative Rom at the same time, or even install a linux distribution, so ...

crackcaffeine · Nov 9, 2012

Would it be possible to boot from USB?

It would be absolutely amazing to have the ability to boot USB if an image is detected. 8/16/32 is IMO pretty limited if the goal is to have multiple functional boots.

Ubuntu + Kaos Droid + Stock (as backup) would be amazing.

slo2lah · Nov 9, 2012

MultiROM for Nexus 7 - interest survey

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