[Q] Kernel update/modification

[Megalith27]

I finally decided to ask a question that's been bugging me for a few days now, with all android development going around in a very impressive pace.

Now I am completly new to kernel concept so don't me too harsh if I said something wrong.

The question: Isn't there really a way to modify/update our kernel since we have locked bootloader?

As far as I understood, most of us are running ICS UI on top of GB kernel (even some on top of Froyo kernel) but this does not give us the advantage of running ICS on it full force and take full advantage of your harware.

I know Endless7 had a method to downgrade kernel, and I thought may be there can be a similar way to upgrade it.

With JB just around the corner, that would be a great improvement IMHO for our device.

 

[Caesarivs]

I finally decided to ask a question that's been bugging me for a few days now, with all android development going around in a very impressive pace.

Now I am completly new to kernel concept so don't me too harsh if I said something wrong.

The question: Isn't there really a way to modify/update our kernel since we have locked bootloader?

As far as I understood, most of us are running ICS UI on top of GB kernel (even some on top of Froyo kernel) but this does not give us the advantage of running ICS on it full force and take full advantage of your harware.

I know Endless7 had a method to downgrade kernel, and I thought may be there can be a similar way to upgrade it.

With JB just around the corner, that would be a great improvement IMHO for our device.

I'm no expert but I think this has to be done by motorola, since the kernel is the one responsible for the hardware management, and given the bootloader is locked we can't put custom kernels in our phone

 

[Megalith27]

I'm no expert but I think this has to be done by motorola, since the kernel is the one responsible for the hardware management, and given the bootloader is locked we can't put custom kernels in our phone

Thanks for the reply. I do realize that and as Moto stated clearly that MS2 will not see official ICS there is not hope to get it from Moto.
But I thought maybe it can be ported from other device, or some modules, which share same CPU.

I am pretty sure our devs have looked into this but since we even got HWA working lol anything is possible these days.

 

[AragornPE]

There is a new bootloader hijacker called kexec which allows loading custom kernels. Hashcode is doing it for the Droid 3, and if I'm not wrong, it's designed specially for Motorola Phones with locked bootloaders. But you have to implement new drivers for video and such, so it's a lot of work.

Sent from my XT860 using xda app-developers app

 

[Ashareth]

elleypo Ière

Thanks for the reply. I do realize that and as Moto stated clearly that MS2 will not see official ICS there is not hope to get it from Moto.
But I thought maybe it can be ported from other device, or some modules, which share same CPU.

I am pretty sure our devs have looked into this but since we even got HWA working lol anything is possible these days.

The problem is that it's not *only* a "same cpu" problem, it's the whole hardware solution.... camera, sound, gpu, and so on.

It's one of the reasons the dev on MS2 is so "slow", with the locked bootloader, non support from Motorola, the multiple versions (Droid2/Droid2 Global, MS2 EU/CH/NA and so on), getting the hardware to work (specially with newer android like ICS/JB is/was a pain, and most of the work was done "porting" those from the Defy/Atrix and so on who have, somewhat, partially the same hardware and can be adapted.

On top of that, changing the kernel as already said would mean to find a security flaw/hole in the bootloader that could be exploited for that.

(the downgrade solution was patched/fixed with the latest european, and now Latin America bootloader/kernel upgrades if i remember well, hence why most europeans who upgraded to the latest OTA don't really have a working CM7, since it requires to flash fixed sbf and other things to make it work (a patched recovery partition i think)).


But really, having the dev (forgot his name, danthingyabak ) getting full HW acceleration, and a working ICS port and pretty much everything working now, while LA and China starts getting remotely the same versions, we might see more develeoppement coming, since it's no longer "region specific" devs. Maybe even one day Droid 2/Droid 2 Global and MS will share the same developpements, who knows (or, maybe by Miracle, now that Google owns Motorola, maybe one day we will see unlocked bootloaders for all phone yeah i'm dreaming ).

 

[Megalith27]

What about us now?!

http://androidcommunity.com/motorola-finally-unlocking-bootloaders-for-real-this-time-20120726/

 

[xenusr]

I hope it's true!

PS. But if it's not about us again, we hope that this method will work even be

 

[Megalith27]

I hope it's true!

PS. But if it's not about us again, we hope that this method will work even be

I think that thing was just a false alarm...or early celebration...

Sent from my MotoA953

 

[Megalith27]

Looks like we're finally getting there
http://androidcommunity.com/motorol...live-finally-can-unlock-bootloaders-20120817/