Development [ROM] PostmarketOS Linux boot on Xiaomi Pad 5 (nabu)

[Tryanks]

What kind of issues you had with your partitions? I have created a How TO thread that explains how to resize/re-partition the nabu storage
Resize internal storage on Xiaomi Pad 5 (nabu) and install PostmarketOS Preview

I recovered some memories of:
Specifically, I previously used the automation tool to install WOA just to experience the touch and battery drivers.
In order to break the partition limit of the device, the automation tool moved my splash partition from sda to sde.
In my sda space, the original splash location became unused space, and its partition number 21 was inherited by userdata.

I'm sorry that's all the clues I can provide, as I don't understand the above concept at all.

So this guide article of yours may not help me, I need at least a complete and initial partition table for reference and to resolve the redundant splash partition under sde.

 

[serdeliuk]

I recovered some memories of:
Specifically, I previously used the automation tool to install WOA just to experience the touch and battery drivers.
In order to break the partition limit of the device, the automation tool moved my splash partition from sda to sde.
In my sda space, the original splash location became unused space, and its partition number 21 was inherited by userdata.

I'm sorry that's all the clues I can provide, as I don't understand the above concept at all.

So this guide article of yours may not help me, I need at least a complete and initial partition table for reference and to resolve the redundant splash partition under sde.

Did you had a chance to look over there? At some point full initial patitions allocations are provided.

 

[khamai]

Hello!
Please tell me how you can run any other linux distribution?
I saw that ArchLinux was launched here.
If I understand correctly, then we need to unpack boot.img. Leave the zImage core. Edit the initrd to mount the rootfs of another linux distribution.
If so, can you share your initrd to launch arch?

 

[serdeliuk]

Hello!
Please tell me how you can run any other linux distribution?
I saw that ArchLinux was launched here.
If I understand correctly, then we need to unpack boot.img. Leave the zImage core. Edit the initrd to mount the rootfs of another linux distribution.
If so, can you share your initrd to launch arch?

In order to run another Linux distribution someone should port that distributions first, then make two images, boot.img and system.img at this stage, booting OSes on devices that are made for a single OS (Android) it is possible by replacing the Android boot.img with the one provided by the desired OS. With other words, for multiple OSes you may end with a bunch of system partitions, let say pmos-system,, arch-system, ubuntu-system, etc on your device, and a few boot.img files for each one, in your hand (sdcard) in order to boot arch-system you may need to chose the right boot.img and use fastboot to boot or flash that one.

At some point, a clever programmer will make a bootloader that will be able boot the system OSes directly, system.img usually contains the boot.img too so a boot loader will be able to boot directly from the system partition just selecting the right partition.

 

[khamai]

In order to run another Linux distribution someone should port that distributions first, then make two images, boot.img and system.img at this stage, booting OSes on devices that are made for a single OS (Android) it is possible by replacing the Android boot.img with the one provided by the desired OS. With other words, for multiple OSes you may end with a bunch of system partitions, let say pmos-system,, arch-system, ubuntu-system, etc on your device, and a few boot.img files for each one, in your hand (sdcard) in order to boot arch-system you may need to chose the right boot.img and use fastboot to boot or flash that one.

At some point, a clever programmer will make a bootloader that will be able boot the system OSes directly, system.img usually contains the boot.img too so a boot loader will be able to boot directly from the system partition just selecting the right partition.

I plan to use your kernel (from post #1).
If we have a working kernel, then in principle we can run any linux distribution further by creating rootfs, which is not a problem.
I think we need to deal with initrd.
There is also an experience of running grub on our device.

 

[serdeliuk]

I plan to use your kernel (from post #1).
If we have a working kernel, then in principle we can run any linux distribution further by creating rootfs, which is not a problem.
I think we need to deal with initrd.
There is also an experience of running grub on our device.

There are a few bootloaders that may work, you need to search for them.

In regards to the kernel is not enough alone, the kernel alone is useless without the kernel drivers, some of the drivers may be compiled in, others are on system partition, some may be included in initrd (ramdisk) you may need to properly study this reading a lot of docs, I suggest you to start with UBports docs, are the most complete and very well documented.

 

[olegaslav]

Hello!
What source code is the kernel for pmos built from?
What format is it compressed in? I need to rebuild the stock kernel so that it boots via grub!
Because the kernel from pmos is perfectly loaded through grub, and the stock kernel is not loaded! I would like to rebuild the stock android kernel so that it can be loaded via grub. Then we'll have a great dualboot!

 

[serdeliuk]

Hello!
What source code is the kernel for pmos built from?
What format is it compressed in? I need to rebuild the stock kernel so that it boots via grub!
Because the kernel from pmos is perfectly loaded through grub, and the stock kernel is not loaded! I would like to rebuild the stock android kernel so that it can be loaded via grub. Then we'll have a great dualboot!

The post #1 contain all the informations you need, if you download the patches from the GitHub you will find the default config too in that archive.

 

[olegaslav]

Tell me, what should I do to compile the kernel for android, so that it boots through grub (like the kernel for pmos)?

 

[serdeliuk]

Tell me, what should I do to compile the kernel for android, so that it boots through grub (like the kernel for pmos)?

I don't know, i didn't tested Grub, I suspect that you need to enable kernel compressions as well as dtb append, you may need to compare the pmos defconfig with the one extracted from your device (/proc/config.gz) and try to guess what is going on.

 

[olegaslav]

My device is Xiaomi Pad 5.
I think you know what his defconfig is.
And compression in what format should be? It's just that when I load via grub vmlinuz and initramfs, when loading pmos, the touchscreen does not work. And I can't boot via grub the second initramfs-extra! Because of this, I think the touchscreen does not work!

 

[serdeliuk]

My device is Xiaomi Pad 5.
I think you know what his defconfig is.
And compression in what format should be? It's just that when I load via grub vmlinuz and initramfs, when loading pmos, the touchscreen does not work. And I can't boot via grub the second initramfs-extra! Because of this, I think the touchscreen does not work!

This thread is not for Grub boot, you may want to open your own thread and ask your questions, maybe someone with more experience with Grub will help.

 

[olegaslav]

I'm more interested in how you collected the kernel !?
By analogy, I wanted to build a kernel for android on Pad 5!

 

[serdeliuk]

I'm more interested in how you collected the kernel !?
By analogy, I wanted to build a kernel for android on Pad 5!

As said I do not know how to help you with Grub, if does not boot can be for too many reasons, you may want to try to the already suggested mods/paths, if does not work then you may need to ask your questions elsewhere.

As a side note, I think the Android kernel is dependent on dtbo partition.

 

[serdeliuk]

Without being sarcastic I think you have a wrong idea about what is OpenSource and what is Code, my CODE is OpenSource and the source code of my work is public. I have published only my modifications, the rest is not mine.

OTHER people already take advantage of my OpenSource CODE and they already ported ArchLinux, based on my CODE.

As far as I can see your complain is about that I provide patches instead of regular kernel repo, I explained the reason already, I do not intend to maintain a kernel repo, please clone the official kernel repo, apply my patches and publish your own version if you think this is better.

If you do not know how to apply those patched you can ask this, it is easy, please see the following steps.

Create a temporary folder

mkdir -p ~/nabu-kernel

Change to that folder:

cd ~/nabu-kernel/

Download the official Linux kernel

wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.1.10.tar.xz

Download my patches

wget https://github.com/serdeliuk/xiaomi-nabu-sm8150-mainline/releases/download/6.1.10/xiaomi-nabu-sm8150-mainline.6.1.10.tar

Extract archives

tar -xf linux-6.1.10.tar.xz
tar -xf xiaomi-nabu-sm8150-mainline.6.1.10.tar

And apply patches

cd linux-6.1.10/
for p in $(ls -1 ../*.patch); do patch -p1 < $p ; done

Now, your folder linux-6.1.10 contain the patched kernel for Nabu, you can create your own GitHub repo and upload that folder and play around.

 

[khamai]

Without being sarcastic I think you have a wrong idea about what is OpenSource and what is Code, my CODE is OpenSource and the source code of my work is public. I have published only my modifications, the rest is not mine.

OTHER people already take advantage of my OpenSource CODE and they already ported ArchLinux, based on my CODE.

As far as I can see your complain is about that I provide patches instead of regular kernel repo, I explained the reason already, I do not intend to maintain a kernel repo, please clone the official kernel repo, apply my patches and publish your own version if you think this is better.

If you do not know how to apply those patched you can ask this, it is easy, please see the following steps.

Create a temporary folder

mkdir -p ~/nabu-kernel

Change to that folder:

cd ~/nabu-kernel/

Download the official Linux kernel

wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.1.10.tar.xz

Download my patches

wget https://github.com/serdeliuk/xiaomi-nabu-sm8150-mainline/releases/download/6.1.10/xiaomi-nabu-sm8150-mainline.6.1.10.tar

Extract archives

tar -xf linux-6.1.10.tar.xz
tar -xf xiaomi-nabu-sm8150-mainline.6.1.10.tar

And apply patches

cd linux-6.1.10/
for p in $(ls -1 ../*.patch); do patch -p1 < $p ; done

Now, your folder linux-6.1.10 contain the patched kernel for Nabu, you can create your own GitHub repo and upload that folder and play around.

Hello! Have you created patches based on the open source android kernel for our device?

 

[serdeliuk]

Hello! Have you created patches based on the open source android kernel for our device?

Indeed, I have ported android drivers from downstream/vendor kernel to linux kernel.

 

[khamai]

Indeed, I have ported android drivers from downstream/vendor kernel to linux kernel.

have you also used defconfig from the same source?

 

[serdeliuk]

have you also used defconfig from the same source?

My defconfig used for Linux kernel is provided in the patches archive, i have ported a few configs required by the drivers.

 

[alecxs]

Moderator announcement

This thread provides no kernel or ROM. I have deleted the GPL discussion as off-topic.

regards
alecxs
XDA moderator