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Tue, 16 Nov 2021
Android - compiling and sideloading it onto an Android device
In 2008, Google came out with a phone with a free and open source operating system, which ran on the showcase G1 phone. I soon began to learn how to program applications for Android.
That the operating system was free and open source, and that I could theoretically compile the Android operating system on my computer and sideload it onto a phone was a very exciting prospect for me. Nonetheless, due to lack of time, as well as various roadblocks (including ignorance about how to do it), I never actually sideloaded Android onto an Android device, I always used the Android OS installed by the manufacturer.
In July of last year I took another stab at it. Over three weekends I dove into the subject. I learned a little about boot unlocking, fastboot, and LineageOS. I bought a Samsung tablet, primarily so as to sideload onto it as there seemed to be a bootable image of it, and I could buy it at Best Buy. But then I learned that Samsung did not use Android fastboot like most Android devices, it used something called Odin. After three weekends I became busy with other things and put the whole thing off.
Work entered a slack period and I had some time off, so I decided to make another go at it. Android's source code is made available via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), but they don't provide a lot of support to non-vendors, and compiling straight off of Google is daunting for someone without much experience with this. There are third-party projects, based mostly on Android, which help people load an Android-like system on their Android devices. They provide a little more hand-holding, and support for random people compiling Android source code and sideloading it onto devices. LineageOS is one of the most popular of these, so I decided to use LineageOS.
Last year I got stuck with an Android device I couldn't sideload to, so this time around, I wanted to make sure I got one that I could sideload onto. I wanted one officially supported by LineageOS, not one I would have to futz with to install with LineageOS. I also wanted one I could buy at Best Buy or the like. Having both of these conditions as true is difficult, as it takes a while for an Android device to be officially supported by LineageOS, yet Best Buy tends to sell newer Android devices. By the time a device is officially supported by LineageOS, Best Buy is often not selling it any more.
As Samsung did not use the standard fastboot, Samsung was off my list. Also, I wanted a device officially supported by LineageOS, but that was still being manufactured. With that in mind, there were very few tablets that could be used. The ones theoretically available looked a little difficult to get a hold of in the time I had. Most of what was available were phones. I would have preferred a tablet at this point, but phones were most of what was available, so a phone it would be.
Most of what was non-Samsung, and that had LineageOS official support, and which I could pick up at nearby Best Buy's were Motorola phones. Including a $149 Moto G Play at a Best Buy outlet. I drove there and was there when it opened on a Saturday. I asked a woman for the Moto G Play. She could not find it in the rack. I then asked for two other Motorola discount phones. She could not find them either, nor in the back. The next best thing was a discount Motorola Edge 5G phone at another Best Buy. I drove there and they had it and I bought it. Box price was $700 but I got a couple of hundred off.
So I turned on the device, then turned on developer options. Then I allowed USB debugging and OEM unlocking for the phone.
I am using a desktop running Ubuntu 21.10. I add myself to the plugdev group on my Ubuntu 21.10 desktop and add some udev rules. I get a response for "fastboot devices", and "getvar version" works when the phone is in the recovery mode. Now I want to unlock the phone. I try on my Ubuntu 21.10 desktop to do "fastboot oem get_unlock_data" but it does not go. So I boot up a Macbook and I follow the instructions to do it on the Macbook and I get the unlock data. I then send the data to Motorola on the web and they send a key back when I agree to void the warranty. So I enter the key and now the phone is unlocked.
Speed is the key here, and unlocking works on the Macbook but not the desktop, so I just proceeded with it on the Macbook instead of investigating. I probably won't unlock this device again, but if I unlock another one I can look into it more. I now turn off the Macbook and boot up my laptop running Ubuntu 21.04 and work off of it. I may have been able to have gotten the oem data and unlocked the phone from my System76 Ubuntu 21.04 laptop, but I did not try.
So on my System76 Ubuntu 21.04 laptop I download the LineageOS Edge (racer) recovery image, copy partitions zip, and the latest LineageOS nightly build for racer (Moto Edge). I fastboot flash the recovery image onto the Edge. I turn the phone on and off and - I see the new recovery screen. I then sideload the copy partitions zip. I then sideload the LineageOS nightly build. I go back to reboot system on the recovery screen. LineageOS boots! I set it up. Cool. Wifi works. Camera works. I turned USB debugging on in settings and shell in on ADB. It works. Cool!
OK next step - I want to compile LineageOS myself. I install the suggested packages on my Ubuntu 21.10 (similar to AOSP suggested packages). I follow the instructions, then do a "repo sync" which says it will take a while - and it takes a few hours.
So the repo synced. Now I specify I am building for the Moto Edge (racer). In terms of doing this simply and step-by-step, I probably missed an overall step here, and that would be to compile LineageOS for a standard AVD/emulator, without worries of firmware, unlocking and so forth. I could have seen if I could compile the Android OS for an Android emulator, and then dealt with specific hardware. I could have done that before buying the Motorola Edge.
So my build fails. Ubuntu 21.10 was released fairly recently, and it uses glibc 2.34, which this racer/Edge branch of LineageOS (and AOSP?) may have trouble with.
So I start the build process over on my laptop running Ubuntu 21.04. The Edge (river) had payload based OTAs in its A/B partitioning system, and I extract them. So i keep going and on my laptop - LineageOS does compile. My build of the recovery image seems to have problems, so I flash the stock one I downloaded. But the LineageOS image I built on my laptop and sideloaded does go on successfully. I can even go to my settings build number and see the build. So I built my own Android OS and sideloaded it onto the phone. Yay!
So that was enough progress for the down time that I had. Next steps - turning the phone on with T-Mobile (Sprint) if they do that. That would cost money though. I extracted proprietary blobs from the phone, so putting Google services back on might be something I do, if it is allowed. Figuring out if my Ubuntu laptop or desktop can unlock Motorola phones (did not try with the laptop). Modifying things in the build source code and reloading the operating system. Seeing if this can build on the 21.10 desktop. If not directly, then building with a 21.04 KVM on the 21.10 desktop initially. Building not just the OS image but the recovery image.
Also, a look at the Linux drivers and such for the parts of the phone (camera, screen, microphone, speaker etc.) is interesting, but as I am still so unfamiliar with all of this, that might be overreaching. Doing it with my desktop might be easier, but things like these Android devices are where the bleeding edge is.
Any how, I finally got to build and sideload the Android operating system with the LineageOS modifications. The LineageOS instructions say "It's pretty satisfying to boot into a fresh operating system you baked at home :)" and that's kind of how I feel.
