Custom android for Sciphone N19?

sinman · Nov 1, 2009

Hello, I've a Sciphone N19 which uses android 1.5. I think it's a out of the box rooted device because i can see with adb shell:

Code:

# id
id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root)

I read about get recovery and boot image from HTC devices, but N19 reports different MTD info:

Code:

# cat /proc/mtd
cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00100000 00004000 "Bootloader"
mtd1: 00200000 00004000 "Kernel"
mtd2: 00100000 00004000 "initramfs"
mtd3: 03c00000 00004000 "system"
mtd4: 04000000 00004000 "userdata"

How easy or difficult is get Android 2.0 to this device?

I can provide all info that you request.

Thanks for answers and sorry for my english

Ace42 · Nov 1, 2009

sinman said:
Hello, I've a Sciphone N19 which uses android 1.5. I think it's a out of the box rooted device because i can see with adb shell:

Code:

# id id uid=0(root) gid=0(root)

I read about get recovery and boot image from HTC devices, but N19 reports different MTD info:

Code:

# cat /proc/mtd cat /proc/mtd dev: size erasesize name mtd0: 00100000 00004000 "Bootloader" mtd1: 00200000 00004000 "Kernel" mtd2: 00100000 00004000 "initramfs" mtd3: 03c00000 00004000 "system" mtd4: 04000000 00004000 "userdata"

How easy or difficult is get Android 2.0 to this device?

I can provide all info that you request.

Thanks for answers and sorry for my english

errr, im not familiar with that device but it doesnt sound like a htc soo...it might be hard for devs to help you out pal

crypysmoker · Nov 1, 2009

Wow..
Usualy Sci phones are Iphone clone based.
Now weve got Google phone clones lol.

It runs Android 1.5...
So if its updateable, start with the usual. Plus its a quad band so Im not sure about updating the radio.
But if its already running 1.6, then going to a new rom SHOULD be just like doing it on a Ny touch or G1.

axlastro · Nov 1, 2009

I'm not sure if you can install any updates on this device.
First - it has two sim cards, so if you try to apply a normal android build it probably won't work.
Second - it probably hasn't got a hard spl or a recovery mode of any kind, so chances are that you could brick it.
It's best if you could contact the manufactirer and ask if they are planning for any updates. I think it's the DSTL1 phone you are talking about, or is it the smaller one with 2 mp camera. I was very tempted by the n21 when I saw the price, but after I watched the reviews - not so much...
How much did you pay for this one, if it's not a secret?

sinman · Nov 1, 2009

yes, it's the smaller one, the N19. I tried to power on holding down different buttons, but nothing happens, so perhaps don't have bootloader or recovery mode

testing567 · Nov 1, 2009

If you have access to adb shell try typing "adb shell reboot recovery" and see what happens.
It should manually load up recovery mode regardless of shortcut key bindings.

testing567 · Nov 1, 2009

I almost forgot. There's also "adb shell reboot bootloader" For access to SPL mode.

sinman · Nov 1, 2009

Oh

It reboots normally .

jubeh · Nov 1, 2009

wow, for some reason, I want one.
It's only got 128 mb ram/rom, so I wonder about partitioning (I can't read what was posted), so could you run adb shell df?
I was reading about the phone, and apparently it's single sim, so it wouldn't be a problem.
I'm thinking that, if you have adb root access, you could probably do an on-handset port (though, again, I don't know that there'd be enough space for it on the device) by just deleting the framework, etc, and app folders, plus the libs that aren't specific to your device, and pushing the 1.6 equivalents back, but then again, the lack of 1.6 proprietary files for your device could be a problem. Maybe building 1.6 (or even waiting for 2.0) and making your own build around the 1.5 drivers could work, maybe

sinman · Nov 2, 2009

sorry i cannot provide you this info because i've not installed adb drivers in this PC at the moment.

With "on-handset port", do you mean i can overwrite system libs and files without flashing?

Actual N19 kernel is: 2.6.25
Build: N19-eng 1.5 CUPCAKE eng robinlaw.20090926.121057 test-keys

Build info i suppose is from sciphone engineer. Any way this afternoon i can provide build.prop, i think there are the hardware module names.

lbcoder · Nov 2, 2009

Except that it is *NOT A CLONE*.
It is a *genuine* android device.

If it is a clone of anything, it is a clone of a RIM 9500, since that is clearly what it is physically styled after.

crypysmoker said:
Wow..
Usualy Sci phones are Iphone clone based.
Now weve got Google phone clones lol.

It runs Android 1.5...
So if its updateable, start with the usual. Plus its a quad band so Im not sure about updating the radio.
But if its already running 1.6, then going to a new rom SHOULD be just like doing it on a Ny touch or G1.

sinman · Nov 2, 2009

jubeh said:
It's only got 128 mb ram/rom, so I wonder about partitioning (I can't read what was posted), so could you run adb shell df?

This is the output:

Code:

D:\Downloads\N19\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb shell df
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
/dev: 60800K total, 0K used, 60800K available (block size 4096)
/sqlite_stmt_journals: 4096K total, 0K used, 4096K available (block size 4096)
/system: 61440K total, 57252K used, 4188K available (block size 4096)
/data: 65536K total, 49788K used, 15748K available (block size 4096)
/sdcard: 994432K total, 131024K used, 863408K available (block size 16384)

And build.prop:

Code:

# begin build properties
# autogenerated by buildinfo.sh
ro.build.id=CUPCAKE
ro.build.display.id=N19-eng 1.5 CUPCAKE eng.robinlaw.20090926.121057 test-keys
ro.build.version.incremental=eng.robinlaw.20090926.121057
ro.build.version.sdk=3
ro.build.version.release=1.5
ro.build.date=Sat Sep 26 12:12:54 HKT 2009
ro.build.date.utc=1253938374
ro.build.type=eng
ro.build.user=robinlaw
ro.build.host=robinlaw-dell-laptop
ro.build.tags=test-keys
ro.product.model=N19 
ro.product.brand=SCIPHONE
ro.product.name=N19
ro.product.device=N19
ro.product.board=TA1
ro.product.manufacturer=Triones
ro.product.locale.language=en
ro.product.locale.region=US
ro.board.platform=
# ro.build.product is obsolete; use ro.product.device
ro.build.product=N19
# Do not try to parse ro.build.description or .fingerprint
ro.build.description=N19-eng 1.5 CUPCAKE eng.robinlaw.20090926.121057 test-keys
ro.build.fingerprint=SCIPHONE/N19/N19/TA1:1.5/CUPCAKE/eng.robinlaw.20090926.121057:eng/test-keys
# end build properties

# RIL Interface
rild.libpath=/system/lib/libreference-ril.so
rild.libargs=-d /dev/mux1

# WiFi Interface
wifi.interface=eth0
wifi.module_name=gspi2480
wifi.module_path=/system/etc/modules/wifi/gspi2480.ko

# Bluetooth Interface
#bluetooth.power_on=/sys/bus/platform/devices/neo1973-pm-bt.0/power_on

# GPS Interface
ro.kernel.android.gps=s3c2410_serial2

# GPRS Interface
ro.radio.use-ppp=yes

# LEDs (vibrator is an led device)
#led.red=gta02-aux:red
#led.green=gta02-power:orange
#led.blue=gta02-power:blue
#led.vibrator=neo1973:vibrator

# Backlights
backlight.lcd=/sys/class/backlight/toybox-bl
backlight.button=
backlight.keyboard=

# Headset switch
headset.switch.name=headset

# Use PacketVideo software codecs
pv.codecs.software=1



#
# ADDITIONAL_BUILD_PROPERTIES
#
ro.config.notification_sound=F1_New_SMS.ogg
ro.kernel.android.checkjni=1
ro.config.sync=yes
net.bt.name=Android
dalvik.vm.stack-trace-file=/data/anr/traces.txt

crzyruski · Nov 2, 2009

similar to the DSTL1 / N21 ?

Your device seems to be similar to the DSTL1 / N21
I recommend you check out my thread here.

sinman · Nov 2, 2009

Well, when i try to test Gmail, calendar and setupwizard into my N19 keys conf has changed for any reason, can anyone provide me original N19 files?

Code:

# pwd
pwd
/system/usr/keylayout
# ls -l
ls -l
-rw-r--r-- system   system       1699 2009-08-18 21:18 qwerty.kl
-rw-r--r-- system   system       2167 2009-09-23 05:25 keypad.kl
-rw-r--r-- system   system        210 2009-08-18 21:18 AVRCP.klr

Thanks

raptoro07 · Nov 2, 2009

Read the fine print on the Chinese clones. They usually say Non-android OS. This is a clone and not really android.

the_fish · Nov 2, 2009

raptoro07 said:
Read the fine print on the Chinese clones. They usually say Non-android OS. This is a clone and not really android.

why would someone copy android if it's open source already? and why would he be able to connect via adb then? why does it have a build.prop and same partition table formatting as any other android phone?

-----

anyways, are you sure it doesn't have recovery? no reboot recovery or something like that? guess it has been designed to only work via console on that device, since it would still be able to do OTA updates then. can't believe it has no recovery

jubeh · Nov 3, 2009

This IS an android device, you're probably thinking of the G2, which is a Nucleus OS device skinned to look like Android (hint: almost all chinese phones are Nucleus OS skinned).
The reason behind using another OS instead of Android, which is open source, is the cost of memory chips and pre-built boards. The boards that almost all chinese phones sport cost about $10 and have very little onboard memory and ram (last one I owned was an HTC diamond clone and had 48 MB storage and 32 MB RAM) and Android, even on a very shrinked down state, wouldn't fit or run properly (they seem to care about user experience more than Motorola does).
The device the OP has is a tad different, though. I've been reading and examining and it doesn't follow the traditional -recovery -boot -system -userdata and -cache partitioning that HTC devices use (and even the sciphone n21), instead, this device, dues to storage limitations (only 128 mb) seems to drop -recovery and -cache (cache is not necessary since it won't be receiving OTA updates, though I don't know how the other apps that use /cache would handle that) and also -boot and boot components (kernel and ramdisk) are mounted as mount points along with /system but both under the same partition (as oposed to having kernel and ramdisk be on the spl's -boot. This would have the advantage of /data having more access to more space in the rather skimpy confinements of the 128 MB nand, but then traditional flashing methods won't work, as the update wouldn't flash a -boot or -recovery, and instead flash a kernel, ramdisk, and a /system under the same partition and use different mount points (much, much like an emulator build does).
This makes the device more and more interesting to me. I might get one just for the sake of having one.

matths · Nov 3, 2009

Hello,

I'm really interested by this smartphone only because it's the cheapest smartphone with Android.
But I don't understand one thing: it seems that the user is root by default, Android is Open-Sources with Linux Kernel and this phone isn't locked I think. So why isn't it possible to upgrade Android? The latest stable release is the 2.0 and we can't use it? I don't use Android (yet) but it seems that it's a good OS.

@sinman: Is it really a good smartphone?

Thanks for your support.

sinman · Nov 3, 2009

Well, i resolved buttons issue, it seems when i push setupwizard and some google apps directly into /system/app the button functions change for some reason but config file doesn't. Now works normally and i can't google apps get to work, mainly because into setupwizard app i can't sign into google account i get the "can contact server SIM provider" problem

matths said:
@sinman: Is it really a good smartphone?

What do you want to ask?

Is it really a good smartphone?

or

Is it really a good smartphone for 135$?

For the first question i can answer NO. But for the second, oh! yes, baby. I like touching and haking devices, so i like much this smartphone. Touch-screen works very well, navigation works well, sound playing works well, and you have a lot of application that works on this device, in other words this phone is better than other normal phone, but you can't think it will be better than HTC or iPhone (+400$)

matths · Nov 3, 2009

Thanks for your answer

An I hope that it will be possible to upgrade Android to the latest stable release.

Custom android for Sciphone N19?

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