[MOD][08/03/2016] MultiROM v33x for Xperia ZL [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-odin.zip) - download the ZIP file from second post and flash it in recovery.
• Modified recovery (multirom-YYYYMMDD-recovery-odin.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 Odin also thanks to :

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

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

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

Version Information
Status: Abandoned

 

[Chippa_a]

Downloads

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

2. Uninstaller
MultiROM uninstaller: Unavailable for Odin 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://forum.xda-developers.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 Odin 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.​

 

[Krunal]

Hi mate I'm interested to try this mod. I'm currently on Xperia ZL c6502 10.7.A.0.222 stock rooted with unlocked bootloader and xz dual recovery. Is it enough to try this or any thing more stuff I need before I can start?

 

[anagramgenius]

@Chippa_a, about keeping stock ROM 5.1.1 as primary, AFAIK if the recovery is flashed to fota partition, the device doesn't boot into recovery. Then how can it be used in stock ROM?
EDIT: Oops, didnt see the changelog.