Solution to Moto G (2013) Tearing with Lollipop Bootloader (41.19) and Android KitKat

tal.aloni · Jul 11, 2016

After upgrading my bootloader to Lollipop (41.18 / 41.19), I had decided to revert back the kernel / system to Android 4.4.4, this combination introduced an horizontal line going from the top of the screen to the bottom (a.k.a. tearing).

After hours of investigation, I realized that the following Motorola patch updates the Lollipop kernel to match the changes made to the bootloader:
https://github.com/MotorolaMobilityLLC/kernel-msm/commit/0d868145ddd71389c1df8b875aea2c5cee2b1cb3

if you apply the same patch to kernel version 4.4.4, it will solve the tearing issue with the Lollipop bootloader

attached a build of the GPE-4.4.4 kernel that includes the fix (based on kernel-msm-kitkat-4.4.4-KTU84P.M003)

p.s. The only part in the kernel that is changed is the device tree.

juancmb · Jul 29, 2014 41 13 0

You can build a boot.img for Retail US 4.4.4?
Thanks!

tal.aloni · Jul 11, 2016

juancmb said:
You can build a boot.img for Retail US 4.4.4?
Thanks!

attached, based on KXB21.14-L1.61.

juancmb · Jul 1, 2016 at 1:27 PM

tal.aloni said:
attached, based on KXB21.14-L1.61.

Oh, thank you!

motogextreme · Jul 2, 2016 1 0 0

It is possible to build a boot.img with the patch for Retail US 4.4.2 KXB20.9-1.10-1.24-1.1? I've been trying to compile it myself but I have not achieved yet, I'm noob with this.
Sorry and thank you.

tal.aloni · Nov 27, 2016

motogextreme said:
It is possible to build a boot.img with the patch for Retail US 4.4.2 KXB20.9-1.10-1.24-1.1? I've been trying to compile it myself but I have not achieved yet, I'm noob with this.
Sorry and thank you.

I was not able to find the source code for this specific version, in any case, I won't be able to provide a build for every kernel out there,
I'm using BuilduntuVM.
You'll need NDK r10d and a few additional prerequisites:

Code:

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full
7z x android-ndk-r10d-linux-x86.bin

Code:

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential kernel-package libncurses5-dev bzip2
sudo apt-get install lzop

Steps:
1. Apply the attached patches.

Code:

patch -p1 < ../build_fix.patch
patch -p1 < ../tearing_fix_for_lollipop_bootloader.patch

2. Build the kernel.

Code:

export CROSS_COMPILE=/home/yourusername/NDK/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.6/prebuilt/linux-x86/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-
export ARCH=arm
make clean
make mrproper
make msm8226_defconfig
make menuconfig
make -j3

3. Build the device tree using dtbTool

Code:

../dtbTool/dtbTool -p scripts/dtc/ -o arch/arm/boot/dt.img arch/arm/boot/

4. Use Android Image Kitchen to unpack boot.img and replace "boot.img-dtb" with the one you built (dt.img), and then repack boot.img, use "repackimg.bat --original" to keep the original ramdisk.
5. Flash the resulting boot.img to your Moto G.

cgrs · Jul 2, 2016

tal.aloni said:
I was not able to find the source code for this specific version, in any case, I won't be able to provide a build for every kernel out there,
I'm using BuilduntuVM.
You'll need NDK r10d and a few additional prerequisites:

Code:

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full 7z x android-ndk-r10d-linux-x86.bin

Code:

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential kernel-package libncurses5-dev bzip2 sudo apt-get install lzop

Steps:
1. Apply the attached patches.

Code:

patch -p1 < ../build_fix.patch patch -p1 < ../tearing_fix_for_lollipop_bootloader.patch

2. Build the kernel.

Code:

export CROSS_COMPILE=/home/yourusername/NDK/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.6/prebuilt/linux-x86/bin/arm-linux-androideabi- export ARCH=arm make clean make mrproper make msm8226_defconfig make menuconfig make -j3

3. Build the device tree using dtbTool

Code:

../dtbTool/dtbTool -p scripts/dtc/ -o arch/arm/boot/dt.img arch/arm/boot/

4. Use Android Image Kitchen to unpack boot.img and replace "boot.img-dtb" with the one you built (dt.img), and then repack boot.img.
5. Flash the resulting boot.img to your Moto G.

So this will build every kitkat kernel fixed?
I'll need it for non-GPE version (KXB21.14-L1.40). If you provided a more extense tutorial, it'd be great

PS: As you can see, I'm a noob on Android Dev ?

tal.aloni · Jul 11, 2016

if you need a different version, first you go to https://github.com/MotorolaMobilityLLC/kernel-msm/releases and locate the kernel source code for the version you require, then you build it per my instructions (google for more detailed instructions).

cgrs,
attached a build of the KXB21.14-L1.40 kernel including the fix.
p.s. you don't have to quote my whole post.

Vermillion96 · Jan 12, 2016 21 3 0

Is there any way to make it work for Peregrine (XT1040)?

tal.aloni · Jul 3, 2016 at 4:33 PM

You can see that the same patch was applied to the Peregrine tree, so the solution should be the same.

miami_ · Jul 10, 2016

tal.aloni said:
...
cgrs,
attached a build of the KXB21.14-L1.40 kernel including the fix.
p.s. you don't have to quote my whole post.

Unfortunately after flashing your boot.img for 'KXB21.14-L1.40' on my stock KK Ver. 'XT1032_RETAIL-GB_4.4.4_KXB21.14-L1.40_36_cid7' I loose all cellular & wifi services on my phone.
Is there something wrong with my flashing method?

Code:

mfastboot flash boot boot.img
mfastboot flash modem NON-HLOS.bin
mfastboot erase modemst1
mfastboot erase modemst2
mfastboot flash fsg fsg.mbn

After reverting back to the original kernel everything is back to normal.

I also noticed there is ~2MB file size difference between the original and your boot.img files

Original => 10MB
Patched => 8MB
Is this normal?

Would it be possible to patch my boot.img? I dumped my linux partition on my PC, setting up a build environment will cost me many hours.

Thank you very much!

# Attached : my original boot.img from XT1032_RETAIL-GB_4.4.4_KXB21.14-L1.40_36_cid7

tal.aloni · Nov 27, 2016

apparently there's a bug in Android Image Kitchen v2.4, and it's enough to unpack and repack boot.img to cause the wifi issue you encountered.

I've updated the original posts with proper images.
Thanks for reporting the issue.

Edit:
The bug is in mkbootfs, the program responsible to recompress the ramdisk, that's an optional step that can be skipped with "repackimg.bat --original" (which will leave the original ramdisk as is), we don't need to modify the ramdisk anyway.

Fernando Morea · Jul 11, 2016 at 12:02 PM

Wow! so would be possible to make a cm11 build with kernel fixed! A lot of compliment to @tal.aloni ! no more screen flickering in stock kk! I have flashed your first boot.img in stock rom, and works good!!!

miami_ · May 13, 2010 7 1 0

tal.aloni said:
apparently there's a bug in Android Image Kitchen v2.4, and it's enough to unpack and repack boot.img to cause the wifi issue you encountered.

I've updated the original posts with proper images.
Thanks for reporting the issue.

No problem! No more tearing now and WiFi is working as expected.

Thanks for patching!

Cheers,
miami_

pradeeppk · Jul 13, 2016 at 5:45 PM

Can you please make a kernel for xt1033 Indian version.

tal.aloni · May 12, 2014 46 95 0

pradeeppk said:
Can you please make a kernel for xt1033 Indian version.

I don't have an XT1033 to test, why don't you do it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=67571375&postcount=6

lost101 · Jul 15, 2016 at 5:20 PM

I believe XT1032 and XT1033 (and possibly all Falcon variants) use the same Kernel.

emkorial · Aug 2, 2019 at 7:38 PM

lost101 said:
I believe XT1032 and XT1033 (and possibly all Falcon variants) use the same Kernel.

I installed your Android 6.0 Rom (deviant version) and started getting the scrolling line issue. How do I fix that?

Solution to Moto G (2013) Tearing with Lollipop Bootloader (41.19) and Android KitKat

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