[ROM+KERNEL+TWRP][Ticwatch Pro(Catfish)(Catshark-4G)]+[Ticwatch C2(Skipjack)[9Aug20]
- Thread starter janjan
- Start date
I'm having issues with boot loops for a couple hours now. I had the latest stock update and decided to root the watch and install the custom rom.
I have followed the directions multiple times but still no luck. The device seems to boot to TWRP after about 5-7 minutes of trying to load the rom. I formatted and installed the vendor image using the window.bat and than installed the rom located in mega for the 4g USA variant and would try to boot. I also tried booting after installing magisk and busybox and still no luck! Am I missing something? Any info is much appreciated! Thank you!
I have followed the directions multiple times but still no luck. The device seems to boot to TWRP after about 5-7 minutes of trying to load the rom. I formatted and installed the vendor image using the window.bat and than installed the rom located in mega for the 4g USA variant and would try to boot. I also tried booting after installing magisk and busybox and still no luck! Am I missing something? Any info is much appreciated! Thank you!
So I'm giving an update on my own post! It seems I have got stock back in the watch and relocked the bootloader so google pay works. Everything is working as it should, however having the custom firmware installed is still of interest and I will be pursuing this further! I must be missing something or performing a wrong step some how. I did manage to get stock up and running on the first boot attempt! Wish it was that easy with the custom!
Pic below show root privileges, bootloader is unlocked of course!
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Here is another update, I have managed to get the custom firmware to load on the first boot attempt after flashing it after the vendor image. I narrowed it down to the kernel that was preventing the boot up. The solution to get the custom os to boot was by flashing the stock kernel (boot.img). I know it's maybe not even worth it to use the watch that way because of no superior battery savings will be implemented, but at least everything is working and no bloatware. I even got busybox and magisk installed, also Gpay is working on its own without the fix on the OP! To get the magisk apk sideloaded you must press enter on CMD after the command while the watch is booting up otherwise it does not install using the stock kernel, and magisk manager would not install it through Wear OS either. I don't know if this information is useful to anyone, I just thought to share it! I will continue to further troubleshoot and may eventually get the efficient kernel installed! Any info is much appreciated on helping me do so! Thank you!
So here is my conclusion based on my experience of course! I'm pretty sure no one from this forum has had a successful install of the custom kernel provided for the TicWatch 4G/Lte USA variant! I have tried all the kernels on the mega site, even the ones not coded for this variant and all seem to not boot. The only one that does boot the custom firmware is the stock kernel (boot.img)!!! However, I have successfully installed busybox, Magisk and TWRP, and have obtained root with GPay working great! No fix for Gpay was even necessary, it works without any issues what so ever!
If anyone knows of anyone that has the custom kernel working on the TicWatch 4G/Lte USA variant, please send a link to there post stating they have! I highly doubt that it has been done! I appreciate any info on this matter and have a great day! Thank you!!
If anyone knows of anyone that has the custom kernel working on the TicWatch 4G/Lte USA variant, please send a link to there post stating they have! I highly doubt that it has been done! I appreciate any info on this matter and have a great day! Thank you!!
Did you try a factory format and download another copy of the update.zip, it could have been corrupt! Also you may have installed the wrong rom, just recheck it. The rom may also have been mislabeled. I suggest to find another source with the rom you need as well!
I have checked, double checked, and triple checked and still no luck. I cannot find TWRP made specifically for this watch, and I cannot install the factory images using the TWRP recovery that's floating around this forum (it works with the watch, but the product info does not match this watch, so when installing the factory images, it throws an error).
I attached the one that worked for me when flashing the stock images! Hope this helps you out! Actually, to install the stock.img files should be done with fastboot not Twrp! You have to get the watch in bootloader mode, than use command prompt and run the command fastboot devices, and see if it picks up your device! Than flash each img file to the corresponding partition!
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Hi Everyone, I just tried to flash my Ticwatch Pro, I flashed twrp.img and rom for July but I cannot find BusyBox. (Link is broken); my phone is stuck on bootloop. Please help.
Flash stock boot .img, I was bootlooped and the stock boot helped! I dont think busybox helps with boot loops but with root it does!
I've just got a TicWatch Pro 3 (rubyfish) and I'm going to have a crack at porting TWRP/building a custom kernel. Here's my XDA thread: https://xdaforums.com/t/ticwatch-pro-3-development.4312327/
@janjan, do you have anything to help/warn about before I get into it?
Also, do you know how the whole OTA process works? You've uploaded zips - how did you obtain them? Will unlocking the bootloader and/or installing Magisk stop OTA updates?
@janjan, do you have anything to help/warn about before I get into it?
Also, do you know how the whole OTA process works? You've uploaded zips - how did you obtain them? Will unlocking the bootloader and/or installing Magisk stop OTA updates?
I would like to help but unfortunately i don't own the device yet. OTA doesn't work anymore if u flash anything or any zip on the device/watch. You need to have a working TWRP first. I will try to build a TWRP tomorrow. I will let u know if there is something.
Thanks for the input. When you say OTA doesn't work if you flash anything, what exactly is stopping it? If I unlock the bootloader and boot TWRP without flashing it, will that break OTA?
It looks like someone else built TWRP, though it's untested and no sources are provided. It's been posted on my thread.
Almost sounds like it has a reserve.img similar to my OnePlus 7T Pro 5G. Once that breaks you cannot OTA until it's repaired. It's only available to when the device is reset and before the user data is written.
I did the same thing after trying all kinds of kernels.
Can't find any alternative kernels for the LTE that work.
No idea about gpay though , don't know that app
Happy to know I'm not the only one who does things like that ,to try get things to work lol
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Thank you very much. You saved my ticwatch from a brick.Here the link
-
84-[Ticwatch Pro 4G/LTE (EU) (Catshark)-PWDD.190617.059]-[30-5-2020]
- [Ticwatch Pro 2020 (Catfish-Ext)-PMP2.191203.001]-[22-6-2020]
- [Ticwatch Pro (Catfish)-PWDD.190617.074]-[09-8-2020]
#############################
- [Ticwatch Pro 4G/LTE (USA) (Catshark)-PWDD.190617.032]-[DISCONTINUED]-
-[Ticwatch C2 (Skipjack)-PWDS.190618.001.B4]-[DISCONTINUED]
-[Ticwatch E2 (Tunny)-PWDS.190618.001.B3]-[DISCONTINUED]
#############################
Code:****Disclaimer**** [COLOR="Red"][B]WARNING: IMPROPER FLASHING MAY POTENTIALLY BRICK YOUR DEVICE. SO PLEASE PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. ME OR ANY OTHER DEVELOPER MENTIONED IN THIS POST WILL ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS. I accepts no responsibility for any damage to your device. Please read the instructions and notes before flashing anything[/B][/COLOR]
IF YOU LIKE MY WORK AND WANT TO BUY ME A COFFEE
DONATE-ME-HERE
###################
REQUIREMENTS
###################
- Ticwatch Pro, Ticwatch Pro 4G, Ticwatch Pro 2020 Ticwatch C2 and Ticwatch E2 ONLY INTERNATIONAL VERSION. It may also work on Chinese version too but I haven't test it personally.
- An unlock bootloader, working driver and working adb/fastboot
- You can download ADB/FASTBOOT from here Download: ADB/FASTBOOT
- Custom recovery TWRP- (Se download section below)
###################
HOW TO FLASH- STEPS
###################
(FOLLOW EITHER THE INSTRUCTIONS FROM MEGA FOLDER OR THE STEPS BELOW)
- Download the latest ROM, latest vendor, latest Magisk and busybox - (Everything are include in the MEGA folder)
- Attach your watch to your PC and enable USB Debugging from settings menu. Ensure adb/fastboot is working. Please Google and see "how to enable debugging from settings menu".
- Extract the vendor folder and go inside the folder (Here you will find vendor.img and twrp.img + other files)
(You have to flash the vendor image and format userdata and cache)
- Boot your watch into fastboot/bootloader mode by applying the following code.
Code:- adb devices - adb reboot bootloader - fastboot flash vendor vendor.img - fastboot format userdata OR fastboot erase userdata - fastboot format cache OR fastboot erase cache - fastboot boot NAME-OF-THE-TWRP.img (Se the name of the twrp.img)
- Now move the ROM, Magisk and busybox to your watch.
- Flash the ROM and reboot. If you prefer root then
- Flash busybox and finally Magisk (IMPORTANT flash ROM, then Busybox and Magisk in this order)
NOTE
- When rebooting your watch, IF a Prompt come up and asking about installing twrp bla.bla then un-mark both lines/ then click on DO Not Install
- Let your device boot up, then connect your watch to your phone and finish the initial setting
- Open Magisk Manager and go to settings and set Automatic Response to Grant, Uncheck updates and Superuser notifications to None
- Reboot and enjoy
###################
ROM AND KERNEL FEATURES-
See latest changelog here
###################
DOWNLOAD
[DECRYPTION KEY]
OPTIONAL
TO INSTALL KERNEL CONTROL APP WEAR OS
Code:- Download the KernelAudiutor4Wear.apk from above link and move it to your adb folder. - adb devices - adb install KernelAudiutor4Wear.apk
MAGISK/BUSYBOX/APP-KERNEL-CONTROL
DOWNLOAD LATEST MAGISK FROM HERE
DOWNLOAD LATEST BUSYBOX FROM HERE
KERNEL CONTROL APP WEAR OS
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BACK TO STOCK ROM
See Mega folder for Stock images
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Source/GitHub
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-Source
-Source
-Source
###################
IF YOU LIKE MY WORK AND WANT TO BUY ME A COFFEE
DONATE-ME-HERE
###################
Special thanks to:
If you can, donate and respect all the devs and enjoy
@Maxr1998 Big thanks for giving me knowledge and your great work for Asus Zenwatch_3 and your great github guide.
@topjohnwu for his great effort (Magisk)Thank you so much
@SuperR.R for the great kitchen
@YashdSaraf for the busybox (I edit a bit to make it work for Ticwatch-pro)
Sultan Al Sawaf for his patch
Mobvoi, Google and Qualcomm for providing us the kernel source.
Please always support devs and others (soon).21Performance Tips
Final Update
Janjan has already included in the new rom all of these changes. So no need to keep reading this post.
I'll leave it here in case it helps someone with other type for smartwatch.
Great job @janjan keep it going.
------------------- Original Post -------------------------
Here are my two cents on performance on this device.
The Problem
Like in many android devices one of the main issues ( i learned this with old phones ) is the RAM and Swap.
While switching apps or opening new ones the following events happen (please remember this is a linux based OS so all of this assumptions are based on Linux experience)
1. App open request happens
2. Os checks if app is running if it is is switches to it
2.a If app is in RAM it loads it from there
2.b if its not it loads it from the swap to the RAM and then loads it from there (less expensive than reopening the app)
3. If app is not running it start it (running all the initialization procedures that can be very expensive in some apps) and gets the app to RAM
Now, if at any point of that process the RAM is full, the OS will dump another app to Swap. If the swap is full the OS will dump another (least used app) completely out of the system stopping it and therefore having to reopen it entirely later on (expensive process).
Ok. Now that this is clear lets see the Ticwatch.
The available RAM is less than 512Mb. After the system boots and all the Google services, google play, keyboard services, assistant, etc are loaded we end up with less than 100Mb available. Enough to open two apps. One of them being the launcher, "wearable.app". After this the thing start swapping. Right?.....Wrong!!!
See, there is no swap on the device. therefore opening any app will force another one out of the system completely stopping it and having to restart it later on (EXPENSIVE for CPU and Battery). This includes the wearable app. Your watchface.
One of the apps really capable of doing this is Google Play since it just LOVES RAM. It will kick everythinbg out of RAM pretty much, including your watchface. And since it runs background processes (like app updating) the OS will find hard to kick Google Play out of RAM as well.
I will not post more examples and reasons why Swap is important. But I will post the solution
The solution
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK
Creating a swap file will allow us to extend the maximum amount of available RAM. We are aware that RAM disk is slow, and should be avoided at all cost, but in this case it is quite beneficial. Here is how to enable it
1. Have the custom ROM installed
2. Have the latest kernel installed
3. Have developer options enabled
4. Have busybox and magisk installed
Run the following commands on your computer
adb devices (device should show up there if properly connected)
adb shell
su (approve access on device itself)
fallocate -l 256M /sbin/.magisk/mirror/data/swapfile
mkswap /sbin/.magisk/mirror/data/swapfile
swapon /sbin/.magisk/mirror/data/swapfile
sysctl vm.swappiness=60
Now, some notes
1. The 256Mb is a (so far) arbitrary number I came up with. Over monitoring it closely it seems that 256Mb is enough. Change this to your liking. You can check the amount of used swap by running the command top while in adb shell
2. The selected swappinesss is the default for a desktop computer, it may require tweaking but so far seems ok.
3. Updating apps with the play store still uses a LOT of CPU, but is way more responsive now and I would recommend updating apps only when you are not going to need the watch or while charging.
4. Use this alongside kernel auditor and ondemand governor with 4 cores enabled and 1.2Ghz as max cpu frequency.
5. After reboot swap will be lost and you will have to set it up again. Please note that I did it this way since i'm still testing this.
6. Your device may have a reduces SD life and could be detrimental if the manufacturer used a low grade chip
The Result
Well. Apps NEVER get relaunched.
1. They never get stopped in the first place in order to make space for other apps
2. They switch WAY faster since they are either in RAM or in SWAP
3. First launch of any app is faster since other apps don't need to be stopped first
4. Finally the TicWatch Pro is a useful device. I no longer think that getting a Google Authenticator code will be faster if i just use my phone.
I hope this helps you all.
I'm available to answer your questions on European (i'm awake) times.
---------- Post added at 06:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:27 PM ----------
I recorded a video to show the snappiness of the device now.
Note about the video. Some apps where previously opened (therefore where on RAM or the new shinny SWAP)
other apps like the flashlight, weather and Magisk, where not. but you can see that after opening them they reopen (switch back) pretty much instantly.
During the video the Swap usage was 140Mb.
Link to video - Please remove spaces since XDA does not allow me to post links XD:
https ://youtu.be/UVk4JLqC8Do
One of the main things I realized is that after launching the google assistant (hold main button 1 sec) I can actually relaunch it 100 times after that (including app witching) and still get my response to (turn on the lights in the house, or how is the weather in less than 1 sec)
This is a must try
------------------------------------------------------ Update 1 -----------------------------------------------------------
After testing, using swap seems to affect battery usage on a rate of about 10% drain (depends on your usage).
The main reason could be the fact that now we are using the storage a lot more, and using the storage means that this chip will consume more power.
my watch have been running now for 2 days (with 1 battery charge in between) and I had not performance issues. I was able to work with notifications, receive phone calls, use the assistant, google fit, etc.
------------------------------------------------------ Update 2 -----------------------------------------------------------
I realized that after having every app running and not having to boot them again the device battery is actually well improved. I'm doing 36-48h now.
Also realized that finally the Google assistant is useful. Responsive and helpful
I reduced the amount of cache to 256Mb and updated the script. Seems to be enough for a custom watchface Google fit, assistant, calendar, weather, hr monitor and Google play to run at the same time.
Do not try (as I did), to run 1Gb of swap. You will never get to use it and since you need to allocate all the space at once you cannot install more apps. The device will become unresponsive and and connection fails at this point for a reason. Causing weird connection and disconnections
------------------------------------------------------ Update 3 -----------------------------------------------------------
How to make it persistent after reboot
Here is small script in oder to make the swap permanent
I did not find a way to use the fstab or the init.rc since none of them seem to be available in Android
It seems that is available in some devices but not on other. But, since we also need Magisk for the actual swap we can also use it to run the script using the handy service.d folder
Script (save to a remount_swap.sh file in your pc, you can do this with a text editor, just make sure that you don't accidentally have a .txt at the end)
#!/system/bin/sh
sleep 10
sysctl vm.swappiness=60
swapon /sbin/.magisk/mirror/data/swapfile
How to copy the script
adb push <path_to_your_script>\remount_swap.sh /storage/emulated/0/
adb shell
su
cd /storage/emulated/0/
mv remount_swap.sh /sbin/.magisk/img/.core/service.d/
cd /sbin/.magisk/img/.core/service.d/
chmod +x remount_swap.sh
adb reboot20Hello there..
First of all I am apologize for the delay. I am still experimenting and trying different settings with the new ROM and kernel. So far so good.... Kernel and ROM, both are almost ready, But I am still working with a script in order to create and use zram as a swap space/ virtual memory. It is the best combination of RAM and disk space. It seems it doesn't use the CPU all the time...which means doesn't reduce the battery. I tried different settings of zram and swap and end up with this..balance with CPU usage and battery. It boost the speed and gives more memory and good battery..Almost 3 days of battery..(ofc depends how much u use the watch)
The scripts is also done now...I am happy with that. I also implement init.d in the ROM in order to use the script automatically. It is also possible to just flash the script in TWRP. I just need to clean up and take sometime to upload the ROM.
I would also like to thanks those who have donated me. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much for your donation.
I am also start working with Ticwatch C2 and Ticwatch Pro 4G. New ROM and kernel for both devices are coming too.14Hi all.
This is perfect way to get Gpay on your watch. Tested by TicWatch Pro
Go to https://sqlite.org/download.html and download sqlite-tools-win32-x86-3280000.zip
Unzip and use sqlite3.exe
You have to got ADB files
Let's go
0. Commands start to execute from cmd, so that adb and sqlite3 was visible from there (put in the desired directory, or run with the full path)
1. Enable Developer on watch (click on the build number in about watch")
2. Enable adb debugging
3. Open cmd On PC (adb folder with adb files)
4. Execute
You should see an invitation with "$"Code:adb shell
5. Executeconfirm on the clock. If suddenly not confirmed, and left Permission denied, find in Magisk Manager and confirm manually.Code:su
6. Executecopy the database to where the file can be easily copied to the PCCode:cp /data/data/com.google.android.gms/databases/dg.db /mnt/sdcard
7. Open an additional cmd window (in ADB folder)
ExecuteThe database will be copied to the PC in the current directoryCode:adb pull /mnt/sdcard/dg.db
8. In the same terminal window run
you will be prompted with ">"Code:sqlite3.exe dg.db
9. ExecuteChange the value of the 3rd column ("c") to 0 if the first ("a") starts with attestCode:update main set c = 0 where a like 'attest%';
10. Exit sqlite (press Ctrl-D)
11. Push the file back on the clock12. Select the first open window with "adb shell"Code:adb push dg.db /mnt/sdcard13. Changing access rulesCode:cp /mnt/sdcard /data/data/com.google.android.gms/databases/dg.dbGo to Gpay on your watch and add your credit cardCode:chmod 440 /data/data/com.google.android.gms/databases/dg.db12
Download : TWRP For Catshark 4G/LTE
Source Device Tree: Device Tree For Building TWRP
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How to get the Gpay back...
1-https://pastebin.com/HKV7cj7H
2-https://xdaforums.com/smartwatch/other-smartwatches/rom-kernel-t3821013/page172
3-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKxGfNxRjo4&t=320s
4-https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=79637148&postcount=1720
Be aware for this in future....19 April 2020
https://mobile.twitter.com/topjohnwu/status/1245956080779198464
