Modified kernel image to use 4 cores on Android Wear 2.0

[boorce.com]

Watch shutdown with new kernel : Cause is kernel, not battery.

Hello everybody,

I've juste bougth an good old W110 (LG G Watch R...) yesterday. I've tested it all the afternoon. Good battery life, good perfs.
It was on AW 1.5.
After charging, I upgraded it to AW2.0. All the application and watch faces were keeped. Still working.
Performances were still correct, but when I tried some advanced wear 2 functions (playstore, etc.) It slowed down... OK.

So, this morning I've upgraded the kernel for the "2-boot.img" one.

First, OEM unlock. OK.
Then simple boot (fastboot boot 2-boot.img)... bootloop... (Or boot too long for me ).
So i've flashed the kernel. OK, it booted (on the craddle). I started to resync the watch with my nexus phone. So I take the watch out off the craddle an started the process....
And the watch shuted down !

I boot it again, immediate shutdown...

1st conclusion :
The battery is GOOD. It have been tested and It worked fine.
So the modified kernel killed the watch !!
Conclusion : For some watchs don't use it !!!

OK. So why ? It is strange... But... I have a backup of the AW 2.0 original kernel !
So I flashed it back...

And the watch ressurected !

So 1st conclusion is confirmed : The cause is in the kernel !

OK... so why it failed ? Battery ? I don't think so.

As failure arrives when we take the watch out of the craddle, taking logcat may be difficulte...

Correction can be taken is some direction : Thermal shutown ? Is the watch not getting too hot ? And when in the craddle the security disabled ,or the temp when the shutdown occure not the same ?
Is there any "watchdog" configured in the kernel that must be disabled ?

For people wanting to "revive" theire watch here is a link to the original working kernel :

https://forum.xda-developers.com/g-watch-r/development/fastboot-zip-factory-images-t3405311

Look for NXG47C boot image.

 

[ianrobbie]

Just wanted to jump in and say "thanks!".

I installed the 4 core kernel (my watch is recharged every night anyway so no battery concerns) and the difference it has made is nothing short of remarkable.

No more two/three second waits for menus to open or gestures to register and everything is nice and snappy again.

Thanks very much!

 

[Pawelss]

Hello everybody,

I've juste bougth an good old W110 (LG G Watch R...) yesterday. I've tested it all the afternoon. Good battery life, good perfs.
It was on AW 1.5.
After charging, I upgraded it to AW2.0. All the application and watch faces were keeped. Still working.
Performances were still correct, but when I tried some advanced wear 2 functions (playstore, etc.) It slowed down... OK.

So, this morning I've upgraded the kernel for the "2-boot.img" one.

First, OEM unlock. OK.
Then simple boot (fastboot boot 2-boot.img)... bootloop... (Or boot too long for me ).
So i've flashed the kernel. OK, it booted (on the craddle). I started to resync the watch with my nexus phone. So I take the watch out off the craddle an started the process....
And the watch shuted down !

I boot it again, immediate shutdown...

1st conclusion :
The battery is GOOD. It have been tested and It worked fine.
So the modified kernel killed the watch !!
Conclusion : For some watchs don't use it !!!

OK. So why ? It is strange... But... I have a backup of the AW 2.0 original kernel !
So I flashed it back...

And the watch ressurected !

So 1st conclusion is confirmed : The cause is in the kernel !

OK... so why it failed ? Battery ? I don't think so.

As failure arrives when we take the watch out of the craddle, taking logcat may be difficulte...

Correction can be taken is some direction : Thermal shutown ? Is the watch not getting too hot ? And when in the craddle the security disabled ,or the temp when the shutdown occure not the same ?
Is there any "watchdog" configured in the kernel that must be disabled ?

For people wanting to "revive" theire watch here is a link to the original working kernel :

https://forum.xda-developers.com/g-watch-r/development/fastboot-zip-factory-images-t3405311

Look for NXG47C boot image.

hi,

I'd eliminate thermal issues, I've been using the dual-core kernel for a while now (since the day I replied for the first time in this thread) and I can confirm that the watch does NOT get warm during any type of use. The battery life has been slightly improved in my case, the watch lasts exactly 48 hours of normal use (its 2 years old). Perhaps there is more than 1 hardware version or something? maybe a different battery manufacturer and that could cause the shutdown? I'm no expert but I think we should be able to see it in fastboot?

here's a picture of my devices fastoot menu:

it says rev_10
I assume thats version 1.0 so go ahead and confirm that yours match too.


edit:
as for your 2-core bootloop, I gotta say that it took like 10 - 15 minutes to boot.

 

[nicogri]

This mod changed my watch (not my life ^^)

It was slow and barelly dead with AW2 and now it is as snappy as my Huawei Watch !!!

I don't understand why LG is not putting this simple modification in all the watches ?

Question is : should I flash original boot image to perform OTA update or can I go for it right away ?

---------- Post added at 19:27 ---------- Previous post was at 18:40 ----------

OK so auto reply to myself ^^

Flashed original boot just to be sure and then OTA which took arround 15 minutes (check reboot flash reboot)

Now watch looks snappy and working fast.

How to check if LG didn't finally change governor or cores numbers ?

I will wait to know what settings are in the new image (if new) berfore reflashing 2 cores version

By the way here its new build number

Android Wear 2.0.0.156099718
Android OS 7.1.1
Security patch level 1 may 2017
Build NXH19X

Edit :

c:\adb>adb shell
lenok:/ $ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu?/online
1
0
0
0
lenok:/ $

Going back to 2 cores version

Edit 2 : OK seems like going back to 2 cores was not a good idea at all...

Now I am bootlooping so maybe boot image was tied up to the update more than I think.

Now I think I need to wait with my watch sutdown until new files are released for new OTA.

Or flash back complete previous firmware through ADB and wait

Edit3 : I think that @boorce.com had the same issue (3 posts ago)

Maybe his watch updated directly to latest AW2 and he faces incompatibility...

As I don't know how much time I need to wait for OP (or some other guy) to got the update and then dump boot.img and then patch it or so I am gonna try to flash back previous AW2

That is what appens when you flash and flash and flash and never make backups

 

[apexhugger]

I have been using both the 2 core and 4 core versions and it's great. It has made my watch usable again. AW 2.0 ground my GWR to a halt, google assistant took a long time to load, incoming phone calls would just display a blank screen so I couldn't tell who was calling. Now these functions happen almost instantly.

Not all that much difference for me between 2 and 4 cores in terms of battery life. But the 4 cores is a little faster.

Can someone tell me how to backup the stock kernel or can upload the stock kernel for me to download. Right now I have to upload the modified kernel everytime I reboot the GWR.

Thanks!

 

[nicogri]

Maybe you only use the fastboot boot command instead of fastboot flash command...

Envoyé de mon Nexus 6P en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[pablotiss]

I will try to modify new boot image as many people is requesting so, but I still haven't received my OTA and I will need a link to the zip file in order to get it to my computer, will try once I get it

 

[nicogri]

Thanks pablotiss.

I am checking here and on reddit for the first person to give the OTA link.

This way I can extract boot image too

Anyway thanks for your work for community

PS : You should add a big red line on top of your original post telling people not to use your boot image if they receive the update

 

[Ambious]

I will try to modify new boot image as many people is requesting so, but I still haven't received my OTA and I will need a link to the zip file in order to get it to my computer, will try once I get it

Found it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gx6ho97bv4qv6am/update.zip?dl=1

 

[Aerandir14]

I flashed this kernel around 2 weeks ago and this morning I got the OTA notification on my watch. Tried to install, it rebooted but it seems like it didn't do the update (I'm still on March security patch).
I flash the original boot.img around 8h ago, did a factory reset, re-locked the bootloader but still no update notification...
Is there a reason for this?

EDIT: I flashed the stock boot.img, recovery.img and system.img via fastboot and I got the OTA straight!

Envoyé de mon XT1635-02 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[nicogri]

Found it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gx6ho97bv4qv6am/update.zip?dl=1

Thanks man that's the stuff

I flashed it on recovery... got a xfer 1.16x message on adb but I saw boot.img patched just before.

Watch booted good so I am up to date and on 1 core.
@tampitzel you can use this file to get your watch up and running !

 

[pablotiss]

I'm currently facing a problem with OTA zip, the new zip is an incremental update, what means it only has part of the boot image (the changed ones), thus I cannot use it to directly flash to a device. I also have the previous boot.img, applying the patch to the new image should give the new one, while I don't know how can I apply it to a file, I have tried using the command that android recovery uses to flash it through the Android shell, but it only works for partitions, not files.
Any ideas will be welcome

 

[nicogri]

I think easiest way is to dump a full updated boot.img after the update using adb.

But need to be root to do so

 

[ianrobbie]

Hi all. Just a quick question. I recently reset my watch and now, after setting it all up again, it's prompting that an OTA update is available?

I have the 4 core kernel flashed and was wondering if I update will I need to re flash?

 

[Discotetak]

Before I flashed the custom recovery and rooted the watch, I was able to flash the different versions of this kernel using the Windroid Toolkit v3.1 - I tried the 1 and 2 core versions and settled on 1 core. Now, after I flashed the TWRP recovery and rooted it, I'm no longer able to flash the 2 core kernel - I don't get an error, but when I check the number of active cores in AIDA64, only the 1st one is active. What I am doing wrong?

Thank you!

Actually, nevermind - I managed to flash it from the TWRP recovery

 

[N3CR0M4NC3R]

Got the notification here of the update here on my watch too,
just seems like a security hotfix with a few optimisations for single core usage..

im still on the 4 core kernel and won't be updating until it works with the newer update, thanks for all your ongoing work!

 

[apexhugger]

My watch updated to 7.1.1 (AW 2.0.0.156099718), Bootloader LENOKZ22B, Build ID NXH19X, Incremental 4010769, Kernel Version 3.10.40-g17dadfc and the modified kernel is no longer booting. Just gets stuck in a boot loop with the watch getting very hot. Looking forward to a new modified kernel as the GWR is still slow.

 

[mieszk3]

After restoring an original boot image and update to the newest firmware version (NXH19X) I can tell that there is a difference in watch's work. Now it works a lot better then the first AW2.0 version.

 

[Pawelss]

After restoring an original boot image and update to the newest firmware version (NXH19X) I can tell that there is a difference in watch's work. Now it works a lot better then the first AW2.0 version.

does it work better or as good as the dual/quad core kernels? I remember that the original AW2.0 slowed down after a few hours of regular usage.

if it's still not as good then I'm not gonna bother with LGs updates and just sit on the modified kernel.

 

[mieszk3]

Works better, almost like 2 cores kernel.

Wysłane z mojego Nexus 5X przy użyciu Tapatalka