@doniks I managed to figure out a workaround, I had to pull the jessie version of libssl1.0.0 so I could force ADBd to run instead, for whatever reason, my debian rootfs never gets USB tethering up unless it's the debug bootmode option. I am actually working with a running debian root now, however I screwed up while building my system image and didn't have any vendor blobs for libhybris to work with I'm rebuilding my system image now and then I'm going to reinstall the halium rootfs with the new system image.

Before-posting Edit: Looks like I'm running into an issue where the build system isn't picking up my vendor tree even after popping MOB30X's binaries down in there as laid out in the LineageOS guides for setting this folder up, every system image I build continues to not contain the proprietary blobs... I can't tell if I'm doing something wrong, or if it's something else that I'm not doing first.

EDIT EDIT: WOO! Had to do some linking around libhybris-egl, but I was able to finally get test_hwcomposer to show the spiral! Working on getting wayland to start up (working on getting some VTs up so I can launch weston as a test)

EDIT: Weston starts as long as I specify fbdev-backend and use msm_fb_refresher to get it up and running, but it runs and it's snappy. I just can't get anything else wayland to work (gnome-shell --display-server, kwin_wayland, etc)

Due to some changes on ports.ubuntu.com (namely, the move of the vivid repository to old-releases), future users may find that creating containers in Libertine is broken (until Xenial comes along, then this fix isn't needed any longer).

The fix is trivial for the chroot backend, simply open /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/libertine/ChrootContainer.py and replace all mention of ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports with old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu and add old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu to the end of the debootstrap command in the same file (after the {}s)

This will patch libertine until UBports forks it and commits the fix to their repository. You will need your system image mounted read-write to make the change, to do this non-permanently, simply do sudo mount -o remount,rw / it will remount as read-only after a reboot with the changes intact.

Edit: I have added the general gist of the information (minus the exact fixes) to issue #302 of the ubports/ubuntu-touch issue tracker.

@mariogrip any information on what we Flo users would need to do to get it running, or do we still need the mainline kernel to be up and running under Halium properly first (I'm down to experiment!!)? I can attempt to whip up a custom kernel as long as I know what patches I'm applying to it! Kinda hoping it would be similar to arale and need the anbox drivers compiled in.

Nexus 7 LTE General Issues, Fixes and Workarounds

HUGE UPDATE, Please see the issue list for update

Why?

Because I have recently picked up a 'deb' and after using the Nexus 7 WiFi (flo) I was expecting a very similar experience, seeing as they're effectively the exact same device with a cellular modem and a sim slot added (all the way down to the baseband and bootloader, the deb uses Flo images and is even just an add-on to the flo device tree when compiling Android).

Unfortunately, that was not meant to be, immediately after installing ubPorts, I noticed the following issues and set out to either workaround them or fix them. It's been a very long process and I am a newbie to compiling an Android system image (i've done many a kernel, and application, but never the full Android), so progress is slow. This post will serve as a chronicle of the issues found, and any applicable fixes.

Issues:

1. Bluetooth doesn't function on the 'deb' image

UPDATE: This is indeed caused by the kernel image in use.
This issue is caused by two things, the kernel image that's shipped with the 'deb' installation, and a missing upstart unit in /etc/init for our device. This is easily fixed by compiling a kernel (or using a pre-built kernel) image for the 'flo' (Nexus 7 WiFi). Doing so actually appears to improve the stability and functionality of the device as a nice addition.

4. Camera is completely non-functional

UPDATE: I have finally been able to get logs, I'll upload them when I get a chance!

When I say non-functional, I mean anything that even requests access to the Camera crashes. I created a Nextcloud webapp on my device and it would only open if I deselected the Camera permission. This issue is the most perplexing out of all of these, second only to the external pointer rotation issue, as there are absolutely NO logs generated regarding the camera, or any application that attempts to access it.

5. Device does not power down or otherwise appear to reboot.

[NOTE]: I have invalidated this issue as it appears there are some slight minute differences between the Flo and Deb defconfigs that aren't represented in the current kernel trees, as building with the kernel configuration found in the ubPorts deb image's android rootfs yielded a kernel in which auto-rotation, slimport and reboot/power-down appear to function properly.

Observations

2. Both me and @doniks feel that it's extremely bizarre that the Flo runs perfectly, but it's sister device the Deb (LTE) runs so poorly. As they're the exact same device and system image with an added RIL, it should run exactly the same right?!
   • [4/27/2021]: so there are some differences between the Flo and Deb in terms of kernel configuration, I am still attempting to figure out what the difference exactly is though. For now I have patched my own deb/flo configs with the config that I found, and things are working almost as great as on the Flo (no camera though :crying_face: )

Now, onto the fixes and good stuff!

Kernel Modifications

NOTE: Please note that you can use this kernel image in both a Flo and a Deb, however it may not boot on the Flo due to initramfs differences. If you install the kernel image on a Flo, I recommend extracting the kernel itself using abootimg and using the initramfs you already have.

What works

• Bluetooth
• WiFi
• Mobile Connectivity (I do not have a SIM to test voice with, only data)
• Auto-Rotation
• Anbox (needs some extra work to get networking working properly on each reboot at this stage though)

What's been added

• Anbox backported drivers
• zRAM Kernel Module for creating a compressed swap space (this requires some extra effort to enable at this time)
• Linux 4.2 Backports repository (Bluetooth Driver, Anbox)

Download

Download Link: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqACoL07fxpWp8gGGF_GTmO8f-tCKw?e=xe4VUt
Kernel Source Tree: https://tonoxisisle.services/git/TononixOS/ubports_kernel_google_msm
(don't mind the repository convention, I was working on making my own personal distribution using ubPorts as a base)
Please pardon my git mess, more android repositories will appear as I attempt to work through these device trees and the compilation process.

Information

This kernel is a fork of ameyagokhale's lovely Anbox enabled kernel source tree and contains a couple extra additions:

• Working zRAM module. In my own experience, zRAM has helped make the system more reliable as I have experienced less application crashing due to low memory than previously. It also removes some strain on our NAND chips by moving swap into a compressed space in RAM instead of a swapfile on the data partition. As our device does not use zRAM under Android, this driver remains uninitialized at startup. You can either create an upstart unit to set up zRAM which then triggers the zram-touch unit, or you can do the following in a terminal:

  1. sudo zramctl -s <size> [Personally, I use 2G as the size]
  2. sudo start zram-touch which sets up ubPorts to use zRAM as it's swap, and dumps the SWAP.img image in /userdata, saving our NAND some write cycles.

• OverlayFS v13, this module is disabled and not compiled into my kernel images by default, if you want to play with this module, compile it yourself. I had originally pulled it in to provide rootfs overlay support for Anbox (allowing the installation of Google Apps and other System utilities), however Anbox crashed when creating the overlay. I find this extremely odd as I could create the same overlay by hand as root.

• Obviously Anbox support! YES! We have Anbox support now (courtesy of ameyagokhale)! To use it, install the kernel image and then open terminal, then run the following commands:

  • anbox-tool install
  • anbox-tool enable

  Anbox should start running and you should start seeing Android applications in the app drawer. Do note that applications do not rotate their orientation and thus must be used in their portrait orientation (as I understand it from reading issue tickets and the like, that is currently a limitation on the Mir port of Anbox that ubPorts is using). This is all very experimental.

FAQ and Notes

1. Anbox support on the Flo/Deb is still very experimental, you may run into the following:

   1. Applications do not rotate, and appear stretched and distorted when forced
   2. No networking on startup, this is due to anbox-bridge failing to create the bridge and enable it via iptables inside the container.
   3. Sometimes the container just plain out refuses to start.

2. We have Anbox which uses LXC, does this mean we can use the LXC-type Libertine Containers?

   No. For whatever reason, despite running Anbox's LXC container, and the Halium Android LXC container, Libertine runs into a namespace issue while creating it's container. Unfortunately, we are still very much a chroot-only device for the sake of Libertine.

3. I've downloaded your TonoKernel before for ubPorts 15.04, where are all the extra features like DoubleTap2Wake?

   I opted to leave those out of this kernel tree, as I'm working to stabilize and improve the device support as much as possible, I'd prefer to keep extra features out of it while that work progresses. I have given thought to re-introducing those features in the future as a separate download, but I hope to eventually get this modified kernel adopted by ubPorts for the deb as it fixes a couple issues (mainly bluetooth).

Wanna Help?

I'm not so great with the actual Android development side of things, it would be an immense help to try to get a Halium 7.1 system image (that boots into ubPorts mind you) made for the Deb/Flo devices. My efforts keep ending up with a broken system that refuses to boot.

Lastly! Keep an eye on this post, I will be updating it as I continue my research and development!

Changelog:

4/24/2021: Reformatted entire post to clean up the issue list and observations. As well as provide a clear structure for keeping this information on track.
4/27/2021: Removed kernel download link, it's getting replaced here in a couple hours.

Current Status

4/24/2021: Attempting to build Halium-7.1 based system image for the Flo as research, my Deb image refused to boot the container. I'm curious if the Flo image will fare the same.
4/25/2021: Installed a easily compiled deb image, Halium got to starting the init process and then... nothing, no screen change, no logs, just nothing.
4/27/2021: I didn't even NEED to recompile Android, I just needed a good kernel configuration file for the deb. Turns out the flo_defconfig is missing some options, merging /system/boot/config-3.4.0-4-flo with my normal defconfig file has yielded a kernel with a vastly superior experience to the previous one in use (either by ubPorts installer or my own link here). I am recompiling the kernel using the new kernel configuration and it should be available soon after I test it.
4/27/2021: Kernel problem fixed! Bluetooth works, Auto-rotation works, Slimport works properly! Updated post with new download link and removed old invalid issues.

Bluetooth can be done by remounting as rw and copying /etc/init/bluetooth-touch-flo.conf to /etc/init/bluetooth-touch-deb.conf after updating the kernel to a "flo"-based one, unfortunately copying the upstart unit alone isn't enough to make bluetooth start. (It might be worth me continuing my custom kernel project just for the deb)

I haven't tested Camera yet, I'll check that here in a little bit after I get my setup back up (I had flashed it as a Flo to see if that corrected the external display scaling, spoiler, it didn't.)

Edit: Camera doesn't work for me even with a Flo kernel, something deeper is involved in that issue, but I am attempting to compile an issue list and workaround/observation list over in https://forums.ubports.com/topic/6056/nexus-7-lte-general-bugs-problems

I think what's needed is to go through the entire codebase, find quirks and hacks for the Flo and make them also run for the Deb, as 99% of the hardware is exactly the same (the Flo only misses the LTE modem and Sim Slot) and even run the same bootloader/baseband images.

@joao-0 Ah, if you've already done the Flo installation, then open a terminal and do sudo start bluetooth-touch-flo

If you want this working on every boot:
sudo mount -o remount,rw /
sudo cp /etc/init/bluetooth-touch-flo.conf /etc/init/bluetooth-touch-deb.conf

This is because despite running a Flo kernel, the hardware still reports it's a deb, and the ubPorts image appears to be missing the upstart item for the deb, and is missing a redirect from bluetooth-touch to just use the flo version regardless.

Wonderful! @DanChapman Thank you very much for doing the pull request. I see that it was merged with the ubports libertine repo, so that's great!

@thomas-k8s Nah, you lose the native XMir windowing with that. I'm more partial to how we did it in the days before libertine's release back in 15.04 (still chroot, not libertine's proot which seems more restrictive, but using XMir with matchbox-window-manager to provide some semblance of window managment)

Nowadays, I'm looking into something similar, but using the Gentoo Prefix in place of the chroot, so it runs unprivileged. Obviously will generate a LOT of I/O so if anyone else goes this way, I highly recommend running the bootstrap as far as it will let you using an NFS root mounted into the home directory somewhere (mine is .local/system) and then copy it to device and finish the bootstrap using an NFS-mounted TMPDIR (because bootstrap will only let you go so far before portage tells you that it needs root permissions for some reason when bootstrapping straight to an NFS shared folder)

@joao-0 Apologies, wish I had a better way of helping you install it. If you've got my boot.img, and have TWRP on your device, you could always flash it that way.

Or you can boot to Fastboot/bootloader, and issue a
fastboot boot <path/to/boot.img> for temporary testing,
or
fastboot flash boot <path/to/boot.img for permanent installation
from a computer

@joao-0 Ah, if you've already done the Flo installation, then open a terminal and do sudo start bluetooth-touch-flo

If you want this working on every boot:
sudo mount -o remount,rw /
sudo cp /etc/init/bluetooth-touch-flo.conf /etc/init/bluetooth-touch-deb.conf

This is because despite running a Flo kernel, the hardware still reports it's a deb, and the ubPorts image appears to be missing the upstart item for the deb, and is missing a redirect from bluetooth-touch to just use the flo version regardless.

@joao-0 There is not, I do not put out video tutorials. If you really want to run the Flo software, run the UBports installer and then follow the instructions for if your device wasn't detected and select the Flo. Of course, this means you'll lose LTE connectivity as the Flo image does not support it, for that, you need to Frankenstein the device with a Deb image and Flo kernel.

Because of how sensitive that proceedure is, I advise against YouTube tutorials due to many possibilities, however I'll use the most prominent one from another homebrew scene as my reason why I do not do videos, over in the Nintendo3DS homebrew scene, a dude bricked people's consoles because he uploaded a "One Size Fits All" package with a video, containing device specific files that wouldn't work when put into another console.

If you want a decent Deb experience, download the boot.img in my OP, fastboot up TWRP, and then install the boot.img into the boot partition using it. Reboot. Done.

If you are wanting to use this kernel with a Flo product, simply do the same things. Both Nexus 7 models use the same kernel anyway.

@a8ksh4 By chance are you using any Slimport cables? I'd like to have someone test that Slimport is still functioning in the current Dev branch as it had stopped after an update for me despite using the same kernel, which had more or less fixed Slimport previously after switching over to using the Flo kernel config instead of the Deb kernel config.

As for Anbox, that's definitely not typical, I wonder if something has changed in how it's supposed to be installed since I wrote those instructions. As I was able to install it, but have a hard time getting it running consistently.

One problem I noticed is that there seems to be a lack of firewall rules that are added, where the script anbox-bridge is supposed to handle them. It doesn't seem to function right on our devices and if you make the anbox-bridge script return true, it should get you past "Job failed to start". There's an old Anbox issue ticket that applies here: https://github.com/anbox/anbox/issues/443 and is linked to the ubports Anbox ticket: https://github.com/ubports/anbox/issues/42 both are applicable because even if Anbox starts properly, the firewall isn't initialized properly and thus anbox has no internet functionality.

@Brianrh If it runs Android, can I have you install a terminal emulator and check: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/trying-to-recreate-entire-partition-table-for-nexus-7-2013-flo.3881263/post-78581593 , especially if you're on 17.1, pretty sure 17+ use the FloX packages which require the repartitioning.

If your results don't match up, then you may need to find the "back to stock partitioning" recovery package from the Flo forums over at XDA.

Not sure if Restock returns it to the stock partition layout or not, FloX was very recently introduced iirc.

Edit: Sorry, replied to the wrong user at first.

@thomas-k8s Nah, you lose the native XMir windowing with that. I'm more partial to how we did it in the days before libertine's release back in 15.04 (still chroot, not libertine's proot which seems more restrictive, but using XMir with matchbox-window-manager to provide some semblance of window managment)

Nowadays, I'm looking into something similar, but using the Gentoo Prefix in place of the chroot, so it runs unprivileged. Obviously will generate a LOT of I/O so if anyone else goes this way, I highly recommend running the bootstrap as far as it will let you using an NFS root mounted into the home directory somewhere (mine is .local/system) and then copy it to device and finish the bootstrap using an NFS-mounted TMPDIR (because bootstrap will only let you go so far before portage tells you that it needs root permissions for some reason when bootstrapping straight to an NFS shared folder)

@emphrath No problem, I've tried a lot of things that most people would find "useless" under ubPorts while working to make my trusty Nexus 7 a portable workstation. I've been tempted to add WINE to my setup again, but I don't want to deal with setting up an i386 chroot running on the device (since LXC doesn't function correctly for me, can't create LXC containers, oddly the Android container works fine).

In case I didn't mention it previously, yes, it requires qemu-user-static installed and you have to have an i386 chroot to install and run WINE/32.

@emphrath Actually due to something involving proot (the application that facilitates the unprivileged chroot), WINE (and QEMU) refuses to run with a segmentation fault.

Running WINE under XMir is relatively simple, though it does require the system image to be writable. You'd need a kernel with binfmt_misc support, install qemu-user-binfmt and wine:i386 from the winehq repo. Then you just need a XMir wrapper (I think libertine-xmir is one), a script to start it all, and a .desktop shortcut to point the --desktop_file_hint argument to.

I did a write-up on running applications with Xmir without Libertine under Vivid a while back over on XDA-Developers (found here under the "old method" heading), go crazy!

Personally, I'm working on compiling a Gentoo Prefix so that I don't have to make system image changes just to have applications outside a Libertine container.

@alan_g You are quite right about KVM being missing (iirc, it can be enabled in the kernel configuration for, at least to my knowledge, 3.4.0+), however QEMU Usermode emulation runs quite nicely. Obviously not helpful if someone wants to run a full guest OS, but it works well for say, running WINE-x86 under Ubuntu Touch as long as you have binfmt support enabled in the kernel.

@flohack cool, thanks for the reply anyway though!.I'm trying to recompile the Android system image as Halium-7.1 but my system.img is too small, so I'm waiting on it to transfer to my PC for resizing.

Hopefully my current list, observations and efforts eventually provide some help for us to bring the Deb up to par with Flo.