[MOD][08/03/2016] MultiROM v33x for Xperia Z [ABANDONED]

[Chippa_a]

Introduction

MultiROM is one-of-a-kind multi-boot mod. It can boot any Android ROM as well as other systems like Ubuntu Touch, once they are ported to that device. Besides booting from device's internal memory, MultiROM can boot from USB drive connected to the device via OTG cable. The main part of MultiROM is a boot manager, which appears every time your device starts and lets you choose ROM to boot. You can see how it looks on the left image below and in gallery. ROMs are installed and managed via modified TWRP recovery. You can use standard ZIP files to install secondary Android ROMs and MultiROM even has its own installer system, which can be used to ship other Linux-based systems.

Features:
* Multiboot any number of Android ROMs
* Restore nandroid backup as secondary ROM
* Boot from USB drive attached via OTG cable

You can also watch a video which shows it in action.​

Warning

It is dangerous. This whole thing is basically one giant hack - none of these systems are made with multibooting in mind. It is no longer messing with data partition or boot sector, but it is possible that something goes wrong and you will have to flash factory images again. Make backups. Always.​

Installation

Manual installation
Firstly, there are videos on youtube. If you want, just search for "MultiROM installation" on youtube and watch those, big thanks to all who made them. There is also an awesome article on Linux Journal.

MultiROM has 2 parts you need to install + one optional (deprecated) :

• MultiROM (multirom-YYYYMMDD-v33x-yuga.zip) - download the ZIP file from second post and flash it in recovery.
• Modified recovery (multirom-YYYYMMDD-recovery-yuga.zip) - download the ZIP file from second post and use a recovery to flash it into the FOTA partition
• DEPRECATED: Patched kernel - You can use those kernels on most Marshmallow and Lollipop based primary ROMs to add kexec boot support.
  Be aware that those patchers will be updated when possible after kernel sources updates
  Kexec support no longer required thanks to the no-kexec workaround by nkk71.
  For convenience reasons, I enabled the workaround by default if kexec is not found.

You current rom will not be erased by the installation.
Download links are in the second post.​

Adding ROMs

1. Android
Go to recovery, select Advanced -> MultiROM -> Add ROM. Select the ROM's zip file and confirm.

Recommended values are :

• Cache : Keep default value
• Data : Minimum 4000
• System : 1000 is enough for most installs

Using USB drive

During installation, recovery lets you select install location. Plug in the USB drive, wait a while and press "refresh" so that it shows partitions on the USB drive. You just select the location (extX, NTFS and FAT32 partitions are supported) and proceed with the installation.
If you wanna use other than default FAT32 partition, just format it in PC. If you don't know how/don't know where to find out how, you probably should not try installing MultiROM.
If you are installing to NTFS or FAT32 partition, recovery asks you to set image size for all the partitions - this cannot be easilly changed afterward, so choose carefully. FAT32 is limited to maximum of 4095MB per image - it is limitation of the filesystem, I can do nothing about that.
Installation to USB drives takes a bit longer, because the flash drive is (usually) slower and it needs to create the images, so installation of Android to 4Gb image on a pretty fast USB drive takes about 20 minutes maximum.
Enumerating USB drive can take a while in MultiROM menu, so when you press the "USB" button in MultiROM, wait a while (max. 30-45s) until it searches the USB drive. It does it by itself, no need to press something, just wait.​

Updating/changing ROMs

1. Primary ROM (Internal)

• Flash ROM's ZIP file as usual, do factory reset if needed (it won't erase secondary ROMs)
• Go to Advanced -> MultiROM in recovery and do Inject curr. boot sector.
• OPTIONAL: Reflash the kernel patcher to add kexec support

2. Secondary Android ROMs
If you want to change the ROM, delete it and add new one. To update ROM, follow these steps:

• Go to Advanced -> MultiROM -> List ROMs and select the ROM you want to update.
• Select "Flash ZIP" and flash ROM's ZIP file.

Explanation of recovery menus

Main menu
- Add ROM - add ROM to boot
- List ROMs - list installed ROMs and manage them
- Inject boot.img file - When you download for example kernel, which is distrubuted as whole boot.img (eg. franco kernel), you have to use this option on it, otherwise you would lose MultiROM.
- Inject curr. boot sector - Use this option if MultiROM does not show up on boot, for example after kernel installation.
- Settings - well, settings.

Manage ROM
- Rename, delete - I believe these are obvious
- Flash ZIP (only Android ROMs) - flash ZIP to the ROM, for example gapps
- Add/replace boot.img - replaces boot.img used by this ROM, this is more like developer option.
- Re-patch init - this is available only for ubuntu. Use it when ubuntu cannot find root partition, ie. after apt-get upgrade which changed the init script.​

Source code

MultiROM - https://github.com/XperiaMultiROM/multirom (branch master)
Modified TWRP- https://github.com/Tasssadar/Team-Win-Recovery-Project (branch android-6.0)​

MultiROM available for Yuga also thanks to :

- Tasssadar
- The XperiaMultiROM team
- The MultiROM HTC team
- Arvind7352
- nkk71
- AdrianDC​

XDA:DevDB Information
MultiROM for Xperia Z, Tool/Utility for the Sony Xperia Z

Contributors
@Chippa_a
Thread Source Code: http://xdaforums.com/xperia-sp/orig-development/mod-multirom-xperia-sp-t3351032

Version Information
Status: Abandoned

 

[Chippa_a]

Downloads

1. Main downloads
MultiROM: multirom-2016MMDD-v33x-yuga.zip
Modified recovery (based on TWRP 3): multirom-2016MMDD-recovery-fota-yuga.zip

2. Uninstaller
MultiROM uninstaller: Unavailable for Yuga due to the already considerable SONY ELF format port
Reflash a ROM or a boot.img without injection (or the v33x zip) to remove MultiROM bootimage from your device.
Then delete the "multirom..." folders from internal & external storages.
If you don't want MultiROM menus in recovery, re-flash a normal TWRP, but it is not needed,
those menus don't do anything if MultiROM is not installed.​

How to install for the first time

• Flash the 2 MultiROM zips as explained
• Reboot to the FOTA Recovery (Volume +)
• In MultiROM TWRP, Add a ROM, set everything properly
• Wait for the ROM to be installed (can take a while)
• In MultiROM screen, choose the ROM location
• For the concerned ROM, "Flash zip" for wished zips (GApps, SuperSU, Addons...)
• Read about the no-kexec workaround by nkk71 here : http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=64248526&postcount=4
• Reboot the phone

Changelog

MultiROM v33x - 03/08/2016
======================================
* Initial release with full SONY ELF port and dual ramdisk support

Recoveries :

03/08/2016
======================
* Initial Yuga release

Supported ROMs

[COLOR="Gray"][SIZE="2"]Actually should be OK on all available ROMs
But this is a confirmed list[/SIZE][/COLOR]

CyanogenMod 12.1 : OK (Primary & Second)
CyanogenMod 13.0 : OK (Primary & Second) 
ResurrectionRemix-MM: OK (Primary & Second)

SONY Stock 5.1.1: OK (Primary & Second)

 

[Chippa_a]

FAQ and other notes

About security
In order to make multi-booting possible, MultiROM has to sacrifice some security measures. Firstly, on secondary Android ROMs, /system is not mounted read-only. While there are other things preventing malicious software from messing with /system, this might potentialy make it easier for such software to attack that system.
Next, MultiROM doesn't work with /data encryption. Not many people who use custom ROMs also use encryption anyway, so that isn't much of a concern.

What do the ROMs share?
All ROMs are separate, except /sdcard, which is shared between all Android ROMs.

Why is my USB connection to computer not detected ?
Uncheck the "Enable ADB" option in MultiROM Settings.

How many ROMs can I have?/Where are the ROMs stored?
You can have as many ROMs as you can fit in your /sdcard. All the ROMs are stored in /sdcard/multirom/roms or on an USB drive./external SD card. This folder is unaccessible in Android, to prevent mediascanner from scanning it. You can either in recovery, or obtain root and go to /data/media/0/multirom/roms.

Can I have different versions of Android working alongside?
Yes.

MultiROM recovery says it's 2.8.4. Why isn't it updated to 2.8.4.*highernumber*?
It is, it just shows wrong version.

The menu with all the ROMs won't show up during boot, how to fix it?
Either re-flash the MultiROM zip or go to recovery, Advanced -> MultiROM -> Inject curr. boot sector.

The reason for this is that something rewrote your boot.img, which happens for example when you flash a kernel. MultiROM's boot menu is part of the boot image, so it has to be added into it again.

Something wrong happened, I lost something or it's really laggy
You have been warned about making backups & the fact this is more experimental than stable.
You alone will be responsible for loosing data or having an usable ROM when you really needed it.

Everyone in this thread will try to help you, but we can't do backups of your data ourselves.
Thanks for your understanding, remember to read the previous comments and please try to help each other.​

 

[codfx]

awesome work bro! Can't wait to test. Ill report you very soon! :good:

 

[Olivier]

Nice to see someone taking over. I'll close my thread.

Sent from my Sony Xperia Z3+ using XDA Labs

 

[itsnie]

Can i use latest zombie kernel for primary rom ? Zombie kernel have kexec hardboot support ..

 

[Chippa_a]

Can i use latest zombie kernel for primary rom ? Zombie kernel have kexec hardboot support ..

Please read OP again. Especially about "no-kexec workaround".

 

[sajjadz]

i installed both zip file.but recovery hasnt multirom option in andvanced!!!

 

[pggdt]

Thank you a lot, I'll try it later!

 

[mirsaeed.namdar]

The basketbuild site isn't working,they are doing recovery,
Would you please upload the files to another server?

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

 

[njvrensburg]

Does anyone know if there is multirom development on the xperia z5 e6653? I got it working on and of, but there are more breakdowns than anything else. This results in having to frequently reinstall the original boot.img and restart from scratch. Any help is appreciated. Thx

Sent from my E6653 using XDA-Developers mobile app

 

[KRISHNA JEYA KUMAR]

i have installed in xperia z and flash cm13 in sd card.. on multirom i have seleceted CM13 but still booting in to primary

---------- Post added at 08:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:44 AM ----------

multirom worked using ressurection remix and cm 14 thank u.....

 

[DastanShaikh]

I tried -
PureX Z Premium v3.0
X rom ( 5.1)
Xperia_Z_eXistenZ_Premium
ResurrectionRemix-N-v5.8.0
almost all stock based ,But non of them works and gives error during flashing..

Only
ResurrectionRemix-M-v5.7.4
Omni rom , are working fine ...
Any help how to use sony stock roms or others ?

 

[Haldi4803]

Why is my USB connection to computer not detected ?
Uncheck the "Enable ADB" option in MultiROM Settings.

Did not help... the setting is unchecked by default.
Charging on a Wallcharger works, pluging the phone to the computer doesn't show anywhing.
Falshing the Recovery only still worked fine, but after flashing the MultiROM zip the phone doesn't budge when connected to the Computer.

Syslog attached.

 

[MichaBit]

The MultiROM menu is not under Advanced such as v32 rather the icon upper right - pic 1.
RR N 7.1.1 as second Rom failed, ERROR 7 @ RR M 6.0.1 - pic 2.
My oldest backup Omnirom 4.4.4 as sec Rom was successfully - pic 3.

#Edit: Additional compatible secondary ROMs::
-XOSP M [6.0.1] [Unofficial] [Release 6] 6.3 [Revision 3] [2016/08/03]
-AOSP M [6.0.1] [FINAL] [OMS/Substratum] [Updated 31-10-2016]

 

[MichaBit]

The installation of Lineage 14.1 as sec also ends with Error 7.
Now the burning question arises: What is and why ERROR: 7?

 

[langeveld024]

The installation of Lineage 14.1 as sec also ends with Error 7.
Now the burning question arises: What is and why ERROR: 7?

You need newer twrp recovery for newer roms

 

[MichaBit]

You need newer twrp recovery for newer roms

There was und is always the newest One installed. :angel:

 

[langeveld024]

There was und is always the newest One installed. :angel:

Alright but error 7 ALWAYS means wrong recovery

 

[MichaBit]

Alright but error 7 ALWAYS means wrong recovery

Oh, Im currently desiring LEOs 3.1.1, so I will give Nailyk a drink.