MultiROM for Lenovo K6 Power/Plus/Note

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Karthick Chandran

Senior Member
Mar 23, 2014
1,660
3,947
Chennai
http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FnPOXmb5.png

Introduction

MultiROM is one-of-a-kind multi-boot mod for K6 power. It can boot any Android ROM as well as other systems like Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Active, Bohdi Linux or WebOS port, once they are ported to our 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, daily prebuilt image files to install Ubuntu Touch 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
* Use for example Ubuntu Touch or Desktop alongside with Android, without the need of device formatting, once they are ported to the Moto X Play
* Boot from USB drive attached via OTG cable

Warning!
It _is_ dangerous. This whole thing is basically one giant hack - none of these systems are made with multibooting in mind. It is messing with boot sector and data partition. 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


1. Via MultiROM Manager app (We do not have Official Support, so this is not an option for us yet)
This is the easiest way to install everything MultiROM needs. Install the app and select MultiROM and recovery on the Install/Update card. If the Status card says Kernel: doesn't have kexec-hardboot patch! in red letters, you have to install also patched kernel (If you want to use Kexec) - either select one on the Install/Update card or get some 3rd-party kernel here on XDA. You are chosing kernel for your primary ROM, not any of your (future) secondary ROMs, so select the version accordingly.
Press "Install" on the Install/Update card to start the installation.

2. 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 3 parts you need to install:

  • Modified recovery (TWRP.img) - download the IMG file from second post and use fastboot, TWRP or Flashify app to flash it.
  • MultiROM (multirom.zip) - download the ZIP file from second post and flash it in recovery.
You current rom will not be erased by the installation.
​

Adding Roms
1. Android
Go to recovery, select Advanced -> MultiROM -> Add ROM. Select the ROM's zip file and confirm.
​

Using USB drive (not tested yet)
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 Ubuntu to 4Gb image on my pretty fast USB drive takes about 20 minutes.
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.
  • In some cases, you might need to flash patched kernel - get coresponding patched kernel version from second post and flash it to the secondary ROM sama way you flashed 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:
Device tree-https://github.com/karthick111/twrp/tree/karate
MultiROM - https://github.com/multirom-dev
 
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K

Karthick Chandran

Senior Member
Mar 23, 2014
1,660
3,947
Chennai
FAQ and other notes
Device encryption:
Encryption isn't supported right now. So decrypt your device before using this.
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.

What do the ROMs share?
All ROMs are separate, except /sdcard, which is shared between all Android ROMs.
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. 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.
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.

Can I flash secondary roms on Micro SD?
Yes but it's is very slow, internal storage is much better to flash secondary roms.
How do I flash Gapps in Secondary ROMs?
After AddRom and is done, go back and Click on the installed Secondary ROM, you will see one of the option to 'Flash Zip', click and install Gapps. Then you can reboot into secondary ROMs, do gapps installation before rebooting otherwise as usual need to deal with SetupWizard FC, at least thats what I observe in my device.
 
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T

Thomas_xxxxx

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
253
35
I installed secondary ROM to microSD card but when I boot, it only shows in internal section internal ROM and external section is always refreshing. In MultiROM recovery it says I have secondary ROM installed to microSD card. But how can I boot it if it is not shown?
 
dr.bathman

dr.bathman

Senior Member
Dec 11, 2015
941
663
Vadodara
Thomas_xxxxx said:
I installed secondary ROM to microSD card but when I boot, it only shows in internal section internal ROM and external section is always refreshing. In MultiROM recovery it says I have secondary ROM installed to microSD card. But how can I boot it if it is not shown?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It won't work in external sd card. That external spot is for USB & it'll be slow. Better use only internal slot.
 
R

raj2k8

Member
May 1, 2013
39
6
after installing zip mobile goes to download mode so i restore stock boot.img after that mobile boot up bt multi rom not working.any idea ?
 
T

Thomas_xxxxx

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
253
35
I have LineageOS 15.0 installed as primary ROM. Then in recovery I added OmniROM as secondary, I tried to boot it via multirom boot menu but then screen went black, LED diode was turned on even disconnecting mobile from PC and it keeped connecting/disconnecting to PC around. I cannot even see MultiROM boot menu and I was only able to boot to recovery and reflash LOS 15.0 to have my mobile working. Could it be caused by selecting OmniROM as secondary ROM? In past I tried Paranoid android and it worked without any problem. I thought my phone was bricked but fortunately I managed to fix that.
 
T

Thomas_xxxxx

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
253
35
Has anybody experienced problem with Xposed framework on secondary ROM? (7.1.2). It flashed xposed in recovery successfully but after opening Xposed installer, it crashed and display started to blick. Only hard restart helped.
 
nitesh9

nitesh9

Senior Member
Sep 30, 2015
234
214
Siliguri
www.osbusters.com
firemax13 said:
Then search it on google how to. Bro you can search but please search on google please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not a total noob (I know how to google). I searched on google and didn't found any relevant result.

Then I studied the the multirom uninstaller provided by devs of other devices and figured it out myself how to remove and restore the modified files manually.

However, it would have been easier if karthick had provided the uninstaller zip like other devs. (Would have been much helpful for newbies/noobs). :D
 
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    Karthick Chandran
    http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FnPOXmb5.png

    Introduction

    MultiROM is one-of-a-kind multi-boot mod for K6 power. It can boot any Android ROM as well as other systems like Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Active, Bohdi Linux or WebOS port, once they are ported to our 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, daily prebuilt image files to install Ubuntu Touch 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
    * Use for example Ubuntu Touch or Desktop alongside with Android, without the need of device formatting, once they are ported to the Moto X Play
    * Boot from USB drive attached via OTG cable

    Warning!
    It _is_ dangerous. This whole thing is basically one giant hack - none of these systems are made with multibooting in mind. It is messing with boot sector and data partition. 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


    1. Via MultiROM Manager app (We do not have Official Support, so this is not an option for us yet)
    This is the easiest way to install everything MultiROM needs. Install the app and select MultiROM and recovery on the Install/Update card. If the Status card says Kernel: doesn't have kexec-hardboot patch! in red letters, you have to install also patched kernel (If you want to use Kexec) - either select one on the Install/Update card or get some 3rd-party kernel here on XDA. You are chosing kernel for your primary ROM, not any of your (future) secondary ROMs, so select the version accordingly.
    Press "Install" on the Install/Update card to start the installation.

    2. 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 3 parts you need to install:

    • Modified recovery (TWRP.img) - download the IMG file from second post and use fastboot, TWRP or Flashify app to flash it.
    • MultiROM (multirom.zip) - download the ZIP file from second post and flash it in recovery.
    You current rom will not be erased by the installation.
    ​

    Adding Roms
    1. Android
    Go to recovery, select Advanced -> MultiROM -> Add ROM. Select the ROM's zip file and confirm.
    ​

    Using USB drive (not tested yet)
    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 Ubuntu to 4Gb image on my pretty fast USB drive takes about 20 minutes.
    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.
    • In some cases, you might need to flash patched kernel - get coresponding patched kernel version from second post and flash it to the secondary ROM sama way you flashed 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:
    Device tree-https://github.com/karthick111/twrp/tree/karate
    MultiROM - https://github.com/multirom-dev
    View
    3
    K
    Karthick Chandran
    Downloads

    Karate: https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=230440
    Karatep: https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=230445
    View
    3
    K
    Karthick Chandran
    FAQ and other notes
    Device encryption:
    Encryption isn't supported right now. So decrypt your device before using this.
    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.

    What do the ROMs share?
    All ROMs are separate, except /sdcard, which is shared between all Android ROMs.
    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. 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.
    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.

    Can I flash secondary roms on Micro SD?
    Yes but it's is very slow, internal storage is much better to flash secondary roms.
    How do I flash Gapps in Secondary ROMs?
    After AddRom and is done, go back and Click on the installed Secondary ROM, you will see one of the option to 'Flash Zip', click and install Gapps. Then you can reboot into secondary ROMs, do gapps installation before rebooting otherwise as usual need to deal with SetupWizard FC, at least thats what I observe in my device.
    View

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