Messages

1

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide

« on: October 03, 2022, 08:27:49 am »

Almost exactly what's on the mtkclient github page:

Code: [Select]

mtk r boot_a,vbmeta_a boot.img,vbmeta.img
The only difference there is using boot_a and vbmeta_a in place of boot and vbmeta.  Although as it turns out, the vbmeta partition didn't need to be touched, so saving a backup was less important (although it never hurts).

Once the boot.img was extracted, I put it back onto the device with adb and then patched it with Magisk.  Ignore the stuff on github about the mtk-specific Magisk.  The official Magisk works fine.

Sweet; thanks! It should be super easy to do that for any OTAs then. It'll be nice not to have to use SP Flash Tool - that thing is kinda dodgy, haha.

I didn't know at the time that mtktool existed.  It's definitely the better approach here.

For sure!

It's pretty easy to find the header of the boot.img by searching for the right magic string indicating an Android boot image.  Then the length of the partition I determined based on some output from SP Flash Tool, which I've long since forgotten.  But I'm guessing that I got the length wrong, hence the initial failure.

Ah, fair enough. I thought you might have found out how the partitions are delimited in whatever partition table is used 😛

2

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide

« on: October 03, 2022, 08:13:31 am »

Nicely done! 👏

mtkclient looks handy. What were the commands you used?

instead I took the brute force approach of dumping the entire ROM via SP Flash Tool and then using a hex editor to find the boot image.

Also, I'm curious  - how did you locate it?

I don't have my Astro yet, but I'm following along with great interest as I want to be able to root straight away to be able to migrate from my Cosmo 😁

3

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Re: Battery replacement experience

« on: January 15, 2022, 10:02:44 pm »

No worries, Ian; will do.

Hey again Zarhan I don't know why the eBay seller's made country-specific listings, of which it doesn't look like Finland is an option. In the hunting I did before, the only other place I found that's selling it was Canadian Batteries, but they only ship to US/Canada. Their price with postage to Ontario (as an example) is CA $69.21 = AU $76.49. I'd suggest messaging both the eBay seller and Canadian Batteries to see if they could accommodate you. Otherwise, you could always use a mail forwarding service. I wonder if using them with direct shipping or with a forwarding service would have worked out slightly cheaper than the Australia eBay listing...

4

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Re: Rooting the Cosmo Communicator

« on: January 15, 2022, 09:47:12 am »

Boot images for v25 (I guess Planet skipped v24):

- boot-v25-stock.img
- boot-v25-magisk.img

This is very late, haha - I've only just gotten around to updating. I'm finally also about to try repartitioning for Linux

5

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Re: Teardown guide for battery and CoDi replacement.

« on: January 14, 2022, 10:06:04 pm »

Thanks for posting this guide! I had to make use of it last night to replace my Cosmo's ballooned battery with the one from my Gemini. The information that they both use the same battery is much appreciated.

I just wanted to add that I found it very difficult to pry the battery and metal plate apart - the adhesive is very strong. I tried using a heat gun (for the first time), but struggled to get much loosening happening. I'm sure there's better tools for doing so, but I ended up using a thin and sharp splinter of wood to poke into the gap I was prying open to gradually cut the stretched adhesive. After I finally got it apart (thankfully without puncturing the battery!), the metal was a bit bent in the middle, and the wings were folded in. After I bent it all back, pulled off the adhesive strips, and rubbed off the adhesive residue, it went back into the phone fine.

I have ordered this 3rd-party battery just in case. The one linked by jakfish above is no longer available.

Cheers

6

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Battery replacement experience

« on: January 14, 2022, 09:52:23 pm »

Hey folks,

I thought I'd share details of my recent experience trying to get a Cosmo battery replacement.

The battery in my Cosmo Communicator started to noticeably balloon, as of a few weeks ago. It was only slight, but the lid no longer completely closed (about 2mm gap), and the middle of the backplate was raised in the middle (about 1mm).

I emailed Planet to ask if they'd be able to send me a replacement battery. I really didn't want to part with my device, especially for an indefinite period of time, given I rely on it and how screwed up the international shipping network is right now. So I was preferring to install the new battery myself (or take it to a repair shop here in Melbourne, Australia).

I take it that it's not under warranty anymore (if it ever was, having backed it on Indiegogo).

Sadly, they said it was prohibited to ship the battery only, and needed me to send them the Cosmo. They'd install the battery for £75.00 plus £20.00 P&P. Surely posting a device containing a damaged battery is far less safe than sending an intact battery on its own, safely encased? And I thought the restrictions only applied to airmail anyway? I said I was happy to wait for surface mail (sea shipment) if necessary.

They responded saying the company needs to follow the rules governing shipping batteries; and that if I could find a suitable carrier to pick it up from them in London, they could do that. I spent a couple of hours researching last night, and could not find anything suitable for a reasonable price that would not leave Planet liable for potential mispackaging. I had no idea how arduous shipping is from the UK/EU!

Thanks to this teardown guide thread, I discovered that the Cosmo and my now-unused Gemini use the same battery (SXX600). I disassembled both and installed the battery from the Gemini; I'll see if there's enough life left in it.

The 3rd-party battery linked from there is no longer available; I have ordered this one just in case the one from my Gemini is not good enough. Whilst still expensive, this is significantly cheaper than sending my Gemini to Planet for a new battery (3rd-party battery = AU $94.66 = £49.93. As opposed to: £42.72 sending to them + their £75.00 & £20.00 P&P = £137.72 = AU $261.11!)

I highly recommend that Planet Computers set up the ability to have batteries be sent from elsewhere (the factory in China maybe) where the restrictions are less.

Hopefully this information is helpful for others As these devices age, I'm sure more and more people will be in need of new batteries!

It is so satisfying to have my Cosmo able to snugly snap shut again!

7

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Rooting the Cosmo Communicator

« on: July 09, 2020, 08:38:39 am »

Boot images for v23:

- boot-v23-stock.img: https://mega.nz/file/Yls1nBIZ#EmKsTeq_RL-FM...0Eont4py0F5kFgc
- boot-v23-magisk.img: https://mega.nz/file/E99n1bZC#oZtgWinlygLqT...rD06MiHhGFE7H78

8

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Compiling Cosmo Android kernel

« on: June 27, 2020, 05:19:00 am »

Thanks. I'd seen that repo, but assumed it to be Linux-specific and hadn't realised it had an android branch. That looks to have been updated more recently than the dguidipc repo: 2020-04-26 vs 2020-02-13
https://github.com/gemian/cosmo-linux-kerne...commits/android

On Telegram, Zopin suggested https://www.mygnu.de/2020/02/exfat-support-...o-communicator/
I should have a proper read through that

I haven't compiled a normal Linux kernel before. Maybe I should start there =P

9

Cosmo Communicator - Android / [HOWTO] Quickly refresh broken App Bar icons

« on: June 26, 2020, 10:45:26 pm »

Ever since I first got my Cosmo, I frequently see broken app icons in Planet's App Bar. I believe this happens when an app is updated (by the Google Play Store).

I noticed that I could refresh the icons by killing and restarting the App Bar app. I put together a Tasker task that does this, so I could have an icon on my home screen which quickly resolves this for me. Many months later, Planet still haven't fixed the issue, so I thought I should probably share my workaround here.

To install it on your Cosmo:

Install Tasker, then click here from your Cosmo to easily install the task. Accept adding the task, then (importantly) press Back a couple of times to properly exit out of Tasker. Then add Tasker's Task Shortcut widget to your home screen (however you do that on whichever launcher app you're using - probably by long-pressing on an empty space), and select the 'Restart app bar' task.

Here's how it looks on mine:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/kZkT3Mh.png\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]

10

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Compiling Cosmo Android kernel

« on: June 26, 2020, 08:04:00 pm »

Anyone know how to compile the Cosmo Android kernel? I'd like to have a go at fixing keyboard debounce (pressing a key generating multiple of the character).
Is this repo even the source from the latest OTA? https://github.com/dguidipc/cosmo-android-kernel
It doesn't look like there are any public forks yet, which is not encouraging =\
I see there are Linux kernel compilation instructions here, but I doubt it's the same: https://github.com/gemian/gemian/wiki/KernelCompilation
I've also asked this in the Telegram group: https://t.me/GeminiPDA/26704 I'll collect any gathered info here in this OESF thread

11

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Rooting the Cosmo Communicator

« on: June 26, 2020, 04:31:51 am »

Thanks for the images, but a question: From where do you acquire the scatterfile (or rather, how do you generate it)?

Sure. I suppose I didn't describe that well earlier in the thread.

Back when I first worked out the process to root, I used this 'Wwr MTK tool' on Windows to generate a scatterfile that's compatible with SP Flash Tool. It has a great deal of functionality, but can be confusing. iirc, not having root, I had to follow the convoluted process documented there to do something like first generate a partial scatterfile, then use that to readback the whole device from SP Flash Tool as one image, then get Wwr to analyse that and generate the full scatterfile. Just follow the steps there. Or, I suspect that by starting from a rooted device, you'd be able to use a different function of Wwr to read the partition layout directly from the device to generate the scatterfile.

Let us know how you go! =)

Second, when you use spflashtool to extract the boot partition, how do you remove padding from the end of the image (the actual boot image does not fill the entire partition)?

Haha, good question; I don't know how to do that yet. There is a function in Wwr for that, iirc, but the free version startup wait time is too annoying to bother. I think Wwr is just wrapping an open source partition editing binary for that though, so I suspect you could Google for like 'linux strip empty space from partition image'.

12

Cosmo Communicator - CoDi / CODI update

« on: June 24, 2020, 11:33:12 am »

In my first CoDI flashing attempt, the resources phase passed, but it failed in the firmware phase. I suspect that now using the manual install method to install just the firmware file will work and take less time than running the whole standard update process from the start for each attempt. As I write this post, I can see it's proceeding significantly faster than the resources phase - like 1% per second. And wo-oah! It worked

Note the below part of the linked instructions, which was required for me - selecting either image file from the Downloads section of the file selector view caused the CoDI Assistant to instantly crash.

On the file selector view, you might have to tap on the "Show Internal storage" option under the more option icon on the top right of the screen (the icon with the 3 round dots).

I would expand on this to say you need to then select Internal Storage from the drawer and browse to the file from there. I know there are a number of file access APIs in Android, and my guess is this method passes the file back to the app using a different mechanism.

13

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Rooting the Cosmo Communicator

« on: June 24, 2020, 10:29:42 am »

I've uncharacteristically been unrooted for a while (not using the Cosmo much recently I guess, due to the rona!), and had meant to get Magisk going again since the last update, but never quite got around to it. I've just finished the update now from v19 to v22, so it's been a good excuse to contribute the latest boot images again.

So here are the latest boot images =)

- boot-v22-stock.img: https://mega.nz/file/5w1TgKiQ#fwko3-fXJ1U8O...-SbgIUGUNj3Cgac
- boot-v22-magisk.img: https://mega.nz/file/14tjyQRQ#hvDW6EwCXGdZo...IkLeMogzPwbhpA8

I'm on Linux on a new computer, and just got SP Flash Tool readback working on Arch Linux for the first time, iirc. Reminder/note to self:

With SP Flash Tool v5.2020 for Linux:

Code: [Select]

$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/20-mm-blacklist-mtk.rules    
ATTRS{idVendor}=="0e8d", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="6000", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"

$ sudo udevadm control --reload

$ sudo ./flash_tool
Then according to the scatterfile, readback from 0x21700000 for length 0x2000000 (This is the original location for the boot partition as I have not yet tried installing Linux on my Cosmo).

14

Cosmo Communicator - CoDi / Just a picture of the subpixels...

« on: March 27, 2020, 07:21:48 am »

That subpixel array looks like it's a PenTile-like RGBW display - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile_matrix_family
I'd thought the CoDi imagery looked spotty, but hadn't realised it was this. Damn, I hate PenTile. Thank god it's not on the main screen!

15

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Update available - v20 - 26th March 2020

« on: March 27, 2020, 07:03:47 am »

Have they removed the update, or do they roll out updates gradually? It's not coming up for me. I'm on Cosmo-9.0-Planet-01182020-V19