[FAQ] Technical Definitions (Update: 09/11/2010)

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harm007

Senior Member
Jun 18, 2011
169
45
Thanks a lot : very helpfull.

I propose :

REVOLUTIONARY
Revolutionary is a utility (from AlphaRev and unrevoked) , which allows you to "s-off" your phone (you can flash other hboot) and update the recovery tool.
 
Nov 16, 2010
36
1
Thanks for this post, very useful. I would like to see the section on 'kernal' expanded to explain what it actually does for our phones and why we can update it independently of the ROM. Is the kernal like a set of hardware drivers for the components in our phones?
 

aisPanais

Member
Jun 18, 2011
14
0
Good info thanx!


Suggestion for useful expansion:

Explain step-by-step where each of the above comes into play when the phone is turned on, and where each is stored and how/when they are accessed and altered.

eg.

  1. When I turn on my phone the first thing that works is the HBOOT? And this is the same as saying "bootloader"? Where is this stored and how can it be changed?
  2. Then the bootloader looks for the ROM? Is the ROM the same as the file we download in order to update the phone, or is that file somehow uncompressed/compiled when it is installed on the phone? Where is it stored? In what modes and how can it be accessed/altered?

Pretty much what I mean is the hierarchical order of the terms explained in this post, and the different storage media on the device (flash, nvram, internal storage...), what each serves, and when they are accessed.


Also, what parts are "locked" from the manufacturer, what's locked by the operator, how can they be changed?


Thanx for all your hard work already put in this post.
 
Last edited:

cdeaton

Member
Dec 21, 2010
11
1
Another suggestion: explaining situations for these terms. For example, with HBOOT, it would be nice to tell how to access what a phone has.
I also agree that Data++ should be added to the list.
 

MIMi King

Senior Member
Mar 19, 2011
100
252
Los Angeles
To all those who want to know what is Data++/CM7r2/Stock/Sense,...

Your phone has got an internal memory of 576mb.. then actually as you might know there are some partitions in your phone(system,data,cache), just as the partitions we have in computers. as described in the first post, there is something called Hboot. if I expand it , it will be Hboot partition table..Hboots tell the phone that how much space has System partition got, how much Data has got and how much Cache has got from the internal 576mb.. Getting back to business Data++/Cm7r2/Stock/Sense/Fatsys/... are Hboot partition tables.. you flash them based on your need. like if your rom needs a lot space on system partition then you have to flash Fatsys . Or if it doesn't require much space you flash Cm7r2 or data++ which dedicates more space to data for your user data like apps,messages, ...more info here : http://www.alpharev.nl

And about A2SD, it stands for Apps to SD.. They are some scripts out there that let you put some of your user data into you sdcard if your phone has ran out of internal memory.( usual when using fatsys or other hboots which dedicate a lot of space to system partition)..
How ever A2SD is a little old these days. You can try other scripts listed here :

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=25782354&postcount=3

Hope that everything is clear. the concept is really easy to understand but you have you test it yourself to see the difference.
 

zisoft

Senior Member
May 4, 2012
50
5
www.zisoft.de
Many thanks for the explanations, things are getting clearer now...

How can I find out what partition table my phone currently has?
Pressing Volume- and power gives me the following info:

BRAVO PVT1 SHIP S-OFF
HBOOT-6.93.1002

I got the phone from my son, don't know what he has flashed in the past. Now I want to understand those things for myself... :)
 

MIMi King

Senior Member
Mar 19, 2011
100
252
Los Angeles
If it writes nothing about the hboot then you have stock.. if you want to flash another hboot , then first go to recovery, do a backup, then full wipe , then flash another hboot.. If you don't do the full wipe before flashing, then it may cause errors with some recoveries like 4ext being crashed right after loading. so be sure to do the full wipe..
 
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alucarpd86

Member
May 25, 2012
12
1
Milan
hi all,

nice post :)

i need to know what means bsod.
i can guess that is an acronym of Black screen of death, but i'm not sure about :confused:

thanks in advice
 

keen91

Member
Jul 22, 2010
8
0
Bar
hi all,

nice post :)

i need to know what means bsod.
i can guess that is an acronym of Black screen of death, but i'm not sure about :confused:

thanks in advice

Actually originally it's blue screen of death, the one that ms windows has. On this forum it is used as a short for any kind of hangups when you have to pull out the battery to bring your phone back to life. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 

jsp_1983

Member
Jun 29, 2010
19
0
Samsung Galaxy A40
I'd like to know what R5 is - I'm guessing it's a bootloader, but from the few mentions of it that I've seen, it looks like it's installed differently to RA or CM7. What's special about it?
 

SilverRanger

Member
Oct 21, 2011
24
1
Thanks, would be nice if you can add all the different "arrangement" (don't know the right word here) e.g. A2SD, D2E etc
 
Feb 9, 2012
13
4
Many thanks for the explanations, things are getting clearer now...

How can I find out what partition table my phone currently has?
Pressing Volume- and power gives me the following info:

BRAVO PVT1 SHIP S-OFF
HBOOT-6.93.1002

I got the phone from my son, don't know what he has flashed in the past. Now I want to understand those things for myself... :)

The best method is to check partition sizes with "df" command. Via adb, or on the phone using any kind of terminal app.
Just look:

Code:
root@android:/ # df -h|grep mtd                                                
/dev/block/mtdblock3    250.0M    247.1M      2.9M  99% /system
/dev/block/mtdblock5    147.6M     36.3M    111.3M  25% /data
/dev/block/mtdblock4     40.0M      1.1M     38.9M   3% /cache

There's a nice table on Alpharev's homepage which shows what are partition sizes for all popular hboots. From there you can see mine is definitely STOCK :)
 

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    CIFS
    Common Internet File System, Mounts SMB shares as Local folders
    http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/CIFS/CIFS-TR-1p00_FINAL.pdf

    UTF8
    Is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8

    EXT3
    Linux file system
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext3

    EXT4
    Linux file system (it has good performance)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext4

    TUN
    TUN is virtual network kernel driver and is virtual interface for OpenVPN
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TUN/TAP

    CFQ
    Completely Fair Queuing, is an I/O scheduler for the Linux kernel
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFQ

    OTA
    Over-the-air programming,methods of distributing new software updates to cellphones or provisioning handsets with the necessary settings with which to access services such as WAP or MMS. Some phones with this capability are labeled as being "OTA capable."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-air_programming

    OJ
    Optical Joistick, is a «trackpad» of htc desire
    http://www.itechnews.net/wp-content...Sense-and-a-new-look-buttons-and-trackpad.jpg

    ROM
    Is a firmware of phone, include kernel + os + apps and more.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmware

    RADIO
    Is a software part of firmware (rom), this manage the phone network (3G/2G) for calls and internet connections. Each radio has features that make the consumer less appropriate according to the telephone operator (orange / vodafone / wind / plus), which uses a different frequency, if a particular radio set is better for some frequencies, for example -75 dBm and 19asu (drawer -> setting -> battery -> network) with certain radio I have a better battery performance compared to other operating frequencies higher.If you have «branded phones», you have at default better radio that «not branded phones» becouse ruu of «branded phone» have different radio of «stock ruu» for wwe.
    All radio here ---> http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=687464

    GOLDCARD
    A Gold card is a special SD card which when inserted into your device allows you to flash RUU files with a different CID to your own device (for flashing not verified data files)
    http://segmentnext.com/2010/04/28/how-to-create-gold-card-to-flash-android-ruu-files/

    Kernel (by sakara)
    The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel

    GSM/CDMA (by System of a pWne!^)
    GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communication. CDMA is Code Division Multi Access. Your phone can only be of one type to access your mobile network. If your are having a SIM-Card, you have a GSM Phone (Even when it supports WCDMA, Wide Code Division Multi Access, also named 3G). A CDMA Phone uses no SIM card but an internal code of the phone to access the mobile network.
    //Note: This should be extended a bit

    RUU (by System of a pWne!^)
    Rom upgrade utility, used for flashing ROMs to a device.

    HBOOT (by System of a pWne!^))
    The bootloader of your android device

    ADB (by System of a pWne!^)
    Android Debug utility, shipped with the SDK. It can be used to push files to your device or connect to the phone's shell with a computer it is connected to.

    RIL (by System of a pWne!^)
    Radio interface layer. This is a layer between the Radio and the ROM. It communicates with the hardware over the Radio and supplies an interface for the ROM so it can use the hardware. This is similar to a driver.
    Whenever you flash a new Radio, you should also consider flashing the corresponding RIL for it. This makes sure, the Radio is getting adressed correctly.

    ROOT (by System of a pWne!^)
    In linux systems, root is the superuser which is allowed to do anything in the OS. Rooting your phone means, you gain full access to the OS.

    UNREVOKED (by System of a pWne!^)
    UnRevoked is a utility, which allows rooting your phone.

    RECOVERY MODE (by System of a pWne!^)
    While being in recover mode, you can modify specific parts of your device. This mode is only accessible from the HBOOT bootloader, so Android is not booted up yet. There do exist several recovery images you can flash. By default, the HTC Recovery is installed which is basically useless but for HTC. But you can flash e.g. ClockworkMod or AmonRa Recovery.

    S-OFF/S-ON (by System of a pWne!^)
    Security-ON/OFF. Making your device S-OFF means, you are able to write to the /system partition of your device while Android is booted up. With S-ON devices, you can only write and modify files on the /system partition in recovery mode.

    ALPHAREV (by System of a pWne!^)
    AlphaRev is a utility, which allows setting your GSM Desire to S-OFF.

    De-Branding (by !PANDA)
    Removing network specific ROM, any network apps, and logo animation at start up. Just to clorify, a Branded phone has all the things that I have mentioned above.

    Flashing a ROM (by !PANDA)
    This is where you install a new ROM (Firmware) whether it is a custom ROM or a hTc stock ROM.

    Custom ROM (by !PANDA)
    A Custom ROM is a ROM that has been modified by any developer. This can make your device faster, have longer battery life and better looks (edited themes etc).

    FASTBOOT (by !PANDA)
    A protocol used to update the flash file system in Android devices from a host over USB. It allows flashing of unsigned partition images.

    Under/Over-Clocking (by !PANDA)
    This is where you Under?over-Clock your processor, Over-Clocking uses more of your battery but delivers better performance. Under-Clocking is useful for battery saving. For that you need root and an app from the Android Market, SetCPU.
    1
    If it writes nothing about the hboot then you have stock.. if you want to flash another hboot , then first go to recovery, do a backup, then full wipe , then flash another hboot.. If you don't do the full wipe before flashing, then it may cause errors with some recoveries like 4ext being crashed right after loading. so be sure to do the full wipe..
    1
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