[DEV] Using Project Treble to boot generic AOSP Image

[PhantomGamers]

According to Project Treble lead Iliyan Malchev,

Malchev says that Treble standardizes Android hardware support to such a degree that generic Android builds compiled from AOSP can boot and run on every Treble device. In fact, these “raw AOSP” builds are what will be used for some of the CTS testing Google requires all Android OEMs to pass in order to license the Google apps—it’s not just that things should work, they are required to work.

Now that there's an Oreo beta for the Essential Phone that supports Treble, perhaps this can be used to further development on the device.
/u/foremi on Reddit confirmed that simply flashing a Pixel 2 system and boot image to the device is not enough, as it fails to boot, so the question is what constitutes a generic AOSP build?

I don't have Linux installed right now or I'd build it myself, but I suspect that building it with the simple target device of "generic" might be what Malchev is referring to.

If any devs would like to test this theory or give their input as to how they think this actually works I think it'd be incredibly useful for not just Essential phone development, but Android development as a whole.

EDIT: @phhusson confirms that the target device should be aosp_arm64_ab

 

[phhusson]

FWIW "generic AOSP build" is really what it says it is.
I have access to the "Google certification generic AOSP build" (that's weirdly not public, I don't know why), so I gave it a try. (Edit: So if the ROM was Treble-certified, it would work)

I get the Android bootanimation, but that's all (I have to say that's still a big step forward compared to other Android versions

Looking at the logs, I see a loop of crash because of: /vendor/bin/hw/vendor.essential.hardware.sidecar@1.0-service
Which I guess is the HAL for the accessories, but that doesn't seem to be the reason for the crash

The reason of the crash, seem to be this:
11-15 12:59:04.491 5331 5331 F MediaProfiles: frameworks/av/media/libmedia/MediaProfiles.cpp:329 CHECK(quality != -1) failed.
in CAF, frameworks/av/media/libmedia/MediaProfiles.cpp we see vendor-specific (i.e. not in AOSP) quality attributes, like "vga"
And it is defined by Essential's framework (in vendor/etc/media_profiles_V1_0.xml)
Considering there are media_profiles xml files, I'd guess that _V1_0 is supposed to only contain AOSP-capable qualities


Edit2: The fingerprint of "certification generic AOSP", is Android/aosp_arm64_ab/generic_arm64_ab:8.0.0/OTR1.171023.001/4412360:userdebug/test-keys
So my guess to build this is that lunch aosp_arm64_ab && make should work

Edit3: the generated fingerprint is too long to build, needs to do make BUILD_NUMBER=4412360

Edit4: To make the situation more clear:
- NO, current ROM is NOT Treble capable
- BUT, almost everything is available for that. Every HAL is using "hwbinder" which is the basis, and most work needed for Treble

Also, I've seen some reddit comment mentioning boot.img.
Current version of Treble only concerns system.img, and NOT boot.img!
Future version are supposed to have generic boot.img as well, but that's not to be expected before at the very least Android P.

 

[PhantomGamers]

Edit2: The fingerprint of "certification generic AOSP", is Android/aosp_arm64_ab/generic_arm64_ab:8.0.0/OTR1.171023.001/4412360:userdebug/test-keys
So my guess to build this is that lunch aosp_arm64_ab && make should work

I was gonna link to the aosp_arm64 make file but it said it was specifically for the emulator so I wasn't sure, that's good to know though.

Also, I've seen some reddit comment mentioning boot.img.
Current version of Treble only concerns system.img, and NOT boot.img!
Future version are supposed to have generic boot.img as well, but that's not to be expected before at the very least Android P.

Thanks for this, I suspected such but couldn't find a clear answer from Google on the matter so I suggested trying the boot.img as well just in case.

Now, someone has to test this on a different Treble device such as the Pixel or Pixel 2. I'm thinking MAYBE because the Oreo build for essential is just a beta its treble implementation isn't finished and hasn't passed Google's CTS requirements to boot the generic aosp image. Perhaps this will change in the final build.

For what it's worth I only have a LG V20 right now which currently doesn't support Treble, so I'm pretty useless as far as testing anything goes, but if this is figured out it'll greatly influence what device I go with when I eventually upgrade.

 

[phhusson]

Now, someone has to test this on a different Treble device such as the Pixel or Pixel 2.

Yup. I feel like Treble deserves its own "device" section in XDA
I'm afraid I'm working on something that other people already did on other devices...

I'm thinking MAYBE because the Oreo build for essential is just a beta its treble implementation isn't finished and hasn't passed Google's CTS requirements to boot the generic aosp image. Perhaps this will change in the final build.

That's my guess as well.

 

[MishaalRahman]

Interesting stuff. Excited to hear updates on this. PM me if you make a breakthrough and want a feature

 

[PhantomGamers]

Interesting stuff. Excited to hear updates on this. PM me if you make a breakthrough and want a feature

There's not much I can do on my end sadly, without a Treble capable device, but if anyone is interested in trying this on another device with a mainline Treble-enabled Oreo build I'd install Linux and post the build up so just let me know

 

[MishaalRahman]

There's not much I can do on my end sadly, without a Treble capable device, but if anyone is interested in trying this on another device with a mainline Treble-enabled Oreo build I'd install Linux and post the build up so just let me know

Google Pixel/Pixel 2 will do, yes?

 

[PhantomGamers]

Google Pixel/Pixel 2 will do, yes?

Yeah they should be fine

 

[MishaalRahman]

Yeah they should be fine

Alright, I'll find you some testers

 

[PhantomGamers]

Alright, I'll find you some testers

Here's the system image if you find anyone, it's a straight fresh build of aosp branch 8.0.0r34

If it doesn't work it's possible that I messed the build up, but it should be fine.

 

[PhantomGamers]

Can someone running the Oreo beta post their results running this app?

If the beta isn't CTS compliant, we should know.

 

[TheDethEgineer]

Can someone running the Oreo beta post their results running this app?

If the beta isn't CTS compliant, we should know.

Hero you go

 

[PhantomGamers]

Hero you go

Thanks a lot!

This is interesting... according to Malchev, CTS testing REQUIRES a device to boot a generic AOSP image, and yet the Oreo build is CTS certified and doesn't boot the AOSP image...

 

[phhusson]

Thanks a lot!

This is interesting... according to Malchev, CTS testing REQUIRES a device to boot a generic AOSP image, and yet the Oreo build is CTS certified and doesn't boot the AOSP image...

That's true only for new devices, not for devices upgrading for nougat to oreo.
I wasn't aware there was an AMA yesterday... Too bad we could have asked.

 

[MishaalRahman]

Tester with OG Pixel XL says it gives invalid zip file format error when trying to flash in TWRP

 

[PresidentMcCain]

Tester with OG Pixel XL says it gives invalid zip file format error when trying to flash in TWRP

How about flashing the system image directly from a Pixel 2 XL?

 

[PhantomGamers]

Tester with OG Pixel XL says it gives invalid zip file format error when trying to flash in TWRP

It's not a TWRP flashable zip, you have to extract the system.img from the zip and flash it with fastboot in the bootloader.

Also as @PresidentMcCain said, seeing the results of flashing a pixel 2 xl system image would be interesting too.

Oh and make sure the tester's OG pixel is already running Oreo before trying. Just adding that in case they didn't upgrade yet.

 

[MishaalRahman]

It's not a TWRP flashable zip, you have to extract the system.img from the zip and flash it with fastboot in the bootloader.

Also as @PresidentMcCain said, seeing the results of flashing a pixel 2 xl system image would be interesting too.

Oh and make sure the tester's OG pixel is already running Oreo before trying. Just adding that in case they didn't upgrade yet.

Ah, I see.

Do you happen to know the exact command? I'm not that familiar with A/B partition devices and how that changes fastboot commands.

 

[PhantomGamers]

Ah, I see.

Do you happen to know the exact command? I'm not that familiar with A/B partition devices and how that changes fastboot commands.

I believe it should work as normal
fastboot flash system system.img

EDIT: Apparently with the A/B partitions you'd do fastboot flash system_b system_other.img to flash the b partition, but the aosp build didn't include a system_other.img so I'm assuming perhaps it's not necessary

 

[MishaalRahman]

So far I still can't find anyone willing to flash this on their Pixel haha. People are really hesitant to flash stuff on the Pixel it seems. Times are not like they used to be =\