[MOD] MultiROM for Xperia T/TX/V

[AdrianDC]

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-device.zip) - download the ZIP file from second post and flash it in recovery.
• Modified recovery (multirom-YYYYMMDD-recovery-fota-device.zip) - download the ZIP file from second post and use a recovery
  to flash it into the FOTA partition (see TWRP 3 thread for more informations).
• DEPRECATED: Patched kernel - 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.

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/AdrianDC/multirom_core (branch master)
Modified TWRP - https://github.com/multirom-dev/Team-Win-Recovery-Project (branch master)
Device Tree (T) - https://github.com/XperiaMultiROM/android_device_sony_mint (branch master)
Device Tree (TX) - https://github.com/XperiaMultiROM/android_device_sony_hayabusa (branch master)
Device Tree (V) - https://github.com/XperiaMultiROM/android_device_sony_tsubasa (branch master)​

MultiROM available for T/TX/V also thanks to :

- [MENTION]Tasssadar[/MENTION]
- The XperiaMultiROM team
- The MultiROM HTC team
- [MENTION]nkk71[/MENTION]​

XDA:DevDB Information
MultiROM for Xperia T/TX/V, Tool/Utility for the Sony Xperia T

Contributors
Adrian DC
Source Code: http://xdaforums.com/google-nexus-5/orig-development/mod-multirom-v24-t2571011


Version Information
Status: Stable

Created 2016-09-24
Last Updated 2019-08-06

 

[AdrianDC]

Reserved

Downloads

1. Main downloads

Xperia T (Mint): https://mega.nz/#F!y5snUaZR!itfmvEA1r-NYuchTpUvjww
Xperia TX (Hayabusa): https://mega.nz/#F!7ps2AJLJ!63TZEsAVHqioA8RZhC8Vaw
Xperia V (Tsubasa): https://mega.nz/#F!2hdkADAQ!KfWI2j98Mb_cttW_Prx22A
Downloads mirror : https://basketbuild.com/devs/AdrianDC

MultiROM: multirom-2017MMDD-v33x-device.zip
Modified recovery (based on TWRP 3): multirom-2017MMDD-recovery-fota-device.zip

OPTIONAL: MultiROM installed as a secondary "ROM": multirom-2016MMDD-recovery-secondary-device.zip
Mostly meant to be used for Stock ROMs users and devs. Only use as secondary ROM to flash.​

2. Uninstaller

MultiROM uninstaller: Unavailable 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...)
• Reboot the phone

Changelog

MultiROM v33x - TWRP 3.2.1 - 21/01/2018
=========================================
* Merged TWRP 3.2.1 updates into MultiROM TWRP
* Improvements for Android 8.1 support
* Improvements [URL="https://www.xda-developers.com/rest-in-peace-xda-recognized-developer-nkk71-has-passed-away/"]made with nkk71, RIP[/URL] >> [URL=https://www.xda-developers.com/rest-in-peace-xda-recognized-developer-nkk71-has-passed-away/#comment-3719128510]Comment[/URL]

MultiROM v33x - TWRP 3.1.1 - 01/11/2017
=========================================
* Improvements for Android 8.0 support
* Improvements for SDCardFS support
* Improvements from secondary ROMs handling
* Changes on the boot UI's Android ROM icons

MultiROM v33x - TWRP 3.1.1 - 07/06/2017
=========================================
* New implementation to handle external boot
   on Ext4 / F2FS MicroSD or USB Drive in order
   to allow access to the external storage for media,
   through the storage 'external_multirom' path

MultiROM v33x - TWRP 3.1.1 - 17/05/2017
=========================================
* Include all recent improvements from TWRP 3.1.1

MultiROM v33x - TWRP 3.1.0 - 03/05/2017
=========================================
* Upstream updates from recovery and sources
* Fix for the offline charger detection mode

MultiROM v33x - TWRP 3.1.0 - 12/03/2017
=========================================
* Include all recent improvements from TWRP 3.1.0

MultiROM v33x - TWRP 3.0.3 - 05/03/2017
=========================================
* Built in a clean new tree of Android 7.1.1 (replaces 6.0)
* Multiple fixes to support 7.1 changes
* Include all recent improvements from TWRP 3.0.3
* Fix the 7.1 busybox cpio corruption, needed for MultiROM

MultiROM v33x - 18/12/2016
======================================
* Minor improvements of MultiROM
* Improved versioning with header showing build date
* libbootimg changes from my recent updates

MultiROM v33x - 17/10/2016
======================================
* Improve autobooting to external ROM (MicroSD / USB)

MultiROM v33x - 23/09/2016
======================================
* Initial hayabusa/mint/tsubasa public release

Recent ROMs tested so far :

LineageOS 14.1 : OK (Primary & Second)
AOSP 7.1 : OK (Primary & Second)

CyanogenMod 14.0 : OK (Primary & Second)
CyanogenMod 13.0 : OK (Primary & Second)

AOSP-OMS Marshmallow : OK (Primary & Second)

Sony 4.3 based ROMs : Normally OK (Primary & Second)

Warning : If using old ROMs as secondary, primary ROM
should not have F2FS filesystems for Data and Cache

Other ROMs : To confirm & report here

 

[AdrianDC]

Reserved

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.​

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.​

The installation fails with "trampoline not found -1"
Often the issue appears because the ROM zip has a nested zip for rooting methods.
Best solution is to remove the root zip from the ROM and flash it separately later.​

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.
​

Current local manifest of the MultiROM build

<!-- https://github.com/AdrianDC/multirom_development_sony -->

 

[dzadzev]

Thank you

 

[nhicko95]

It will affect our userdata partition?

 

[Yos19]

great for TX, thank you very much..

 

[AdrianDC]

New release - 18/12/2016.

 

[AdrianDC]

New release on 5th March 2017.
Built inside my 7.1 tree, updated TWRP 3.0.3, and fixes related to 7.1.

 

[nhicko95]

New release on 5th March 2017.
Built inside my 7.1 tree, updated TWRP 3.0.3, and fixes related to 7.1.

thanks flash it later

 

[AdrianDC]

New release on 3rd May 2017.
Includes the fix to properly detect offline charger when MultiROM boot UI is installed.

 

[AdrianDC]

New special release of MultiROM from 20170607.

Implements something I wished to fix for at least 10 months on MultiROM:
External storage (MicroSD or USB Drive) using Ext4 or F2FS file systems are
now finally accessible from the Android userspace once booted from them,
by means of a special new storage folder called 'external_multirom' that serves
as a bridge between the external storage and Android.

You can therefore once again use the external MicroSD with Ext4 and store music, data, ...,
without Android blocking access to it with "Corrupted storage" notifications.

Why use Ext4 / F2FS MicroSD in the first place ? With MultiROM, these allow us
to install secondary ROMs directly on the MicroSD without setting space sizes / limits,
therefore directly on the drive instead of independent disk images as done for vFAT / FAT32.
The storage space is unlimited / shared between all installs and are faster to create / run / use.

All technical details about the issue and the implementation can be seen here : https://github.com/AdrianDC/multirom_core/commit/0acfa4c53429a7fcf7c2c573b857f2ae69ca5b5a

 

[kolomalo]

AWESOME

 

[AdrianDC]

MultiROM v33x - TWRP 3.2.1 - 21/01/2018
=========================================
* Merged TWRP 3.2.1 updates into MultiROM TWRP
* Improvements for Android 8.1 support
* Improvements made with nkk71, RIP >> Comment