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E-fun Nextbook 8 Premium (Next8P) Modification

70K views 82 replies 23 participants last post by  reb-plano 
#1 ·
Hey folks... I've been tinkering with the Next8P for a couple of weeks now, and I've put together a modified firmware for it.
Next8P Modded Firmware w/ Flashing Tool and Instructions

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Modded in this release...

Temp Rooted - su and Superuser.apk provided
I'm still trying to figure out how to correctly unpack / re-pack the boot.img to set it up for a fully writable system.

Contacts.apk, ContactsProvider.apk, and GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk added from SDK 2.3.1 (working)

Gmail, Talk, and Voice Search added (working)

Google Market added (working)

Mount Manager added, and supporting modules added into /system/lib/modules
Make sure to grant it Superuser permissions!
Must add these modules within Mount Manager and it will load them (after a few tries, it's stubborn)
/system/lib/modules/cifs.ko
/system/lib/modules/slow-work.ko
/system/lib/modules/nls_utf8.ko
- if anyone has any suggestions on what scripts I can edit to just load these at boot, that'd be very helpful.


This will allow you to mount a CIFS (Windows) share on your device
I use Astro File Manager and MXVideo Player to stream movies from a Windows share. (Check the market, make sure to pick up the ARMv7 codec that goes with it. Works very nicely!)

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I'm working on a few tweaks for future releases, and hope to eventually get this into a fully writable system instead of being stuck with cramfs.
At some point I'll actually work on updating it so that it's a little "prettier" too...


- Paul
 
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#2 ·
Hi Paul,

sorry form my English


a this link Mediacom 810c you'll find a forum about the Mediacom Smartpad 810c. It's the same tablet of the NEXT8P.
There are several firmware you can try with additional features like full root, /system ext3fs

A question for you : Where have you found the next8p firmware to download ? In the official site there is no firmware to download. Where i can find the modules cif.ko etc. ?

bye !
 
#3 ·
I directly dumped the firmware from the tablet using rkdump (Google: rkdump rk2918) as the manufacturer was zero help in supplying a firmware image. As far as cifs.ko, etc... check out this link.

T760 cifs.ko etc modules

You need to load all three modules and Mount Manager for it to work correctly.

Thanks for the tip regarding the Mediacom 810c!
 
#5 ·
to unpack boot.img

1) rkrbboot.exe boot.img
2) gzip -d boot.img.gz
3) cpio -itF boot.img > filelist
4) cpio -i < boot.img

to pack boot.img

1) cpio -o -H newc < filelist > boot.img
2) gzip -n boot.img
3) addCrc32 boot.img boot_crc.img
4) del boot.img
5) move boot_crc.img boot.img
 
#6 ·
NEXT8P Custom ROM

I've linked my heavily customized ROM above... Instructions for installing:

1.) Connect the device to your PC with USB, hold down both volume buttons, and use a paperclip to press in the reset button on the back of the device. You may get a Windows prompt for installing drivers, if so, the ones you need are here: NEXT8P Drivers

2.) Extract the ROM and run the RK29update.exe application, make sure all of the checkboxes are checked except Backup, then press the "Formatta!!" button to format the device. Once complete (pop up window comes up), hit the "Aggiorna!" button to install the ROM.

Once you have the ROM installed, a couple things to note:
1.) It starts up in Italian, so open Android settings "Impostazioni" and go to the "Lingua e tastiera" setting, and change the "Seleziona lingua" to your preffered language.
2.) I've put a few wallpapers in /system/media that you can set full screen by going into Live Wallpapers and using the "Multipicture Live Wallpaper" set them to the screen.
3.) There are a few things (widgets) on the homescreen that don't work after initial boot, just remove them and add back whatever you want to the homescreen.

This ROM is extremely responsive, fully rooted, has Android Market, Gmail, and Root Explorer pre-installed.

Special thanks to the folks over at http://www.androidiani.com (pistoneone, gexking, Samhain, fintematic, jailstyle)for doing all the really hard work. All I've done is apply some decorative changes to the UI to suit it to my needs.

- Paul

P.S. As usual, I hold no responsibility for any issues that may crop up from using this custom ROM. Works just fine on 4 out of 4 of my devices, but you never know...
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
Some confusing issues w/ External SD on this mod, and I'm not quite sure how to fix them...

From init.rc (in boot.img - pulled only sections that seem relevant)

Code:
<br />
# setup the global environment<br />
    export PATH /sbin:/vendor/bin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:/system/xbin<br />
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH /vendor/lib:/system/lib<br />
    export ANDROID_BOOTLOGO 1<br />
    export ANDROID_ROOT /system<br />
    export ANDROID_ASSETS /system/app<br />
    export ANDROID_DATA /data<br />
    export EXTERNAL_STORAGE /mnt/sdcard/external_sd<br />
    export FLASH_STORAGE /mnt/sdcard<br />
    export ASEC_MOUNTPOINT /mnt/asec<br />
    export LOOP_MOUNTPOINT /mnt/obb<br />
    export HOST_STORAGE_DIRECTORY /mnt/udisk<br />
    export BOOTCLASSPATH /system/framework/core.jar:/system/framework/bouncycastle.jar:/system/framework/ext.jar:/system/framework/framework.jar:/system/framework/android.policy.jar:/system/framework/services.jar:/system/framework/core-junit.jar<br />
<br />
# create mountpoints<br />
    mkdir /mnt 0775 root system<br />
    mkdir /mnt/sdcard 0000 system system<br />
    mkdir /mnt/udisk 0000 system system<br />
<br />
# Backwards Compat - XXX: Going away in G*<br />
    symlink /mnt/sdcard/external_sd /sdcard<br />
    symlink /mnt/sdcard /flash<br />
    symlink /mnt/udisk /udisk<br />
-------------------------------------------------

I think it has to do somewhat w/ how the symlinks are set up, but I'm not sure if changing them would cause any issues.

Basically, if the External SD is inserted BEFORE boot, then all is fine. BUT... if inserted after boot, or if unmounted / remounted because of connection to PC or any other reason, the External SD never seems to mount correctly again. (i.e. not accessible from Root Explorer).

For now I'm not using the External SD, but I'd like to as I bought several 4GB cards to store ebooks on for the kids.

Any of you gurus out there have any suggestions?
 
#10 ·
I followed the steps and so far so good. One thing I did find a little confusing about the instructions was "make sure all of the checkboxes are checked except Backup" as there were 3 tabs of checkboxes. I just did the ones on the main tab and all seemed to go ok. Thank you so much for sharing your efforts with us all. I'm so glad to have the android marked working on my tablet
 
#11 ·
Great job on your custom mod. Really good to have root and Market running.

One problem I have is that Camera.apk keeps FC-ing, even after multiple factory resets. Would really appreciate it if you could check logcat below and see what's going wrong ...

Code:
I/ActivityManager(   92): Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] flg=0x10200000<br />
cmp=com.android.camera/.Camera } from pid 275<br />
I/ActivityManager(   92): Start proc com.android.camera for activity com.android.camera/.Camera: pid=1094 uid=10042 gids={1006, 10<br />
15}<br />
W/dalvikvm( 1094): Exception Ljava/lang/NullPointerException; thrown while initializing Lcom/android/camera/CameraSettings;<br />
D/AndroidRuntime( 1094): Shutting down VM<br />
W/dalvikvm( 1094): threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x40015560)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094): FATAL EXCEPTION: main<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094): java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at com.android.camera.Camera.onCreate(Camera.java:961)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1586)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1638)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1500(ActivityThread.java:117)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:928)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:3647)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:839)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:597)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094): Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        at com.android.camera.CameraSettings.<clinit>(CameraSettings.java:63)<br />
E/AndroidRuntime( 1094):        ... 14 more<br />
W/ActivityManager(   92):   Force finishing activity com.android.camera/.Camera<br />
D/dalvikvm(   92): GC_CONCURRENT freed 1003K, 56% free 4717K/10567K, external 2515K/2799K, paused 4ms+5ms<br />
W/ActivityManager(   92): Activity pause timeout for HistoryRecord{40557740 com.android.camera/.Camera}<br />
I/Process ( 1094): Sending signal. PID: 1094 SIG: 9<br />
W/InputManagerService(   92): Window already focused, ignoring focus gain of: com.android.internal.view.IInputMethodClient$Stub$Pr<br />
oxy@4068eb88<br />
D/dalvikvm(   92): GC_CONCURRENT freed 1138K, 56% free 4689K/10567K, external 2268K/2799K, paused 6ms+8ms<br />
I/ActivityManager(   92): Process com.android.camera (pid 1094) has died.
Thanks a whole bunch, and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
 
#12 ·
Unfortunately,most of the work that I've done to the device was cosmetic. The core work done to the device was done by the folks over at androidiani.com You might have to use Google translate as the site is in Italian, but you may have better luck asking there. I haven't had similar issues on any of the four devices that I've been using for testing.

Wish that I had a better answer...
 
#13 ·
What you've done is already more than what anyone could ask for. Guess I'll just have to live w/o camera. But another thing is that with your latest mod (based on Mediacom), I get sleep of death, i.e. can't wake up after screen goes to sleep. Have reverted back to your original mod (based on Nextbook), and all is well. I've modified the parameter to allow 600MB of space for data, so I have all I need, besides the camera, that is.

One request, though ... how do I go back to original stock Nextbook image? Thanks again for everything.
 
#14 ·
This has been a terrific help, devmonkey! thank you for the info.

@drey1234: How did you modify the amount of data space available? I have a faulty SD slot, so need to try get better use of the available internal storage.

Can anyone offer advice on how to remove any of the installed apps, like SlideMe, or to update apps like Android market?
 
#16 ·
The second ROM I posted uses ext4 instead of cramfs and you can edit items in /system.
In regards to sleep of death... I haven't seen this with my devices after using the ext4 version.

I am taking a step back from tinkering with the devices for a bit. My kids have them now and are enjoying their use.
I'm hoping for a 4.0 / ICS ROM at some point, but that will take someone far more knowledgeable than me to crank that out...
 
#18 ·
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#20 ·
OK, so I "borrowed" one of the kid's tablets cause I got bored...


FYI - I claim zero credit for this, I'm just passing it along.

There is a Cyanogenmod 7.2 port I found here (source link, ROM post, ROM download):
https://github.com/octathorp/Kepler_CM7
http://www.forotablets.com/showthread.php/2936-CyanogenMod-7.2-para-bq-Kepler
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GXEXOESY

At boot, be sure to select the second option that comes up to go to the homescreen. ("com.android.provision.DefaultActivity")
You can change the default language (from Spanish) by hitting menu, selecting "Ajustes" then going to "Idioma y teclado" and selecting your preferred language.
Fully rooted. Market works and updates to the newer, prettier Market after launching it the first time.
3D works nicely (tried it with "Cordy")
2D works OK ("Super Stickman Golf" did NOT work, "Angry Birds" worked beautifully)

I'm playing with it a bit, and it runs pretty well, but...

1.) Camera doesn't work - You can make it work if you know your way around ADB - delete old Camera.apk from /system/app and replace with this: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9ODZI9PF - This might also fix some of your other camera issues on my earlier ROM. Haven't tested it on them yet.
2.) If device sleeps it doesn't wake up via the power button (currently I would set the screen timeout to 30 minutes, not ideal... trying to figure this one out)
3.) Battery stats don't work (i.e. battery icon doesn't work). HOWEVER, if you install a battery widget, the widget will work perfectly fine.
4.) Obviously the Phone app doesn't work (this isn't a phone)

#2 is the one that really pisses me off, lol... It's the only thing that would keep me from using this as the ideal ROM for this device. It's that good.
 
#21 ·
Oh, and don't short-press the power button to sleep the device. It sleeps and you can't wake it back up.
You CAN reboot the device one of two ways if this happens. Plug in the USB and it will power on, or use a paperclip and press in the reset button for about 5 seconds, then power on like usual.

If you long press the power button, it will bring up the power menu as expected.
 
#22 ·
Hi all!
Happy New Year!

OK, time again for an updated release...
This one is based on Samhain's release: SamDroid v1.13

Here is my modification (mostly GUI / cosmetic tweaks): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G2JEA9AJ

Changes made to Samhain's release:
1.) cifs.ko / slow-work.ko / nls_utf8.ko are in /system/lib/modules and can be loaded using MountManager app from the market. This will let you mount CIFS / SMB shares to the device.
2.) Honeycomb-like launcher (similar to my earlier mod) and updated GUI icons. (I like this look, personally, but you can change it to any Launcher you want...)

You'll need to change the system language to English like my earlier release and remove any non-working items from the main launcher screen.
Again, I'd recommend Multipicture-Live-Wallpaper from the market to set any wallpapers you want.

Sleep of death issues seem to be fixed, and the camera works (Camera app works, but Skype and Fring don't work yet...).
You can also grab Adobe Flash 11 from the market and it'll work correctly.

This release boots MUCH faster, and is even more responsive than before.

As a side note, if you're looking for a fun game to play on this, try "Super Stickman Golf" from the market. Tried it the other day and it's REALLY addictive.

- devmonkey
 
#23 ·
HI Devmonkey,
Thanks alot for the sharing.
I've got a eFun Nextbook P8 last week but was really disappointed with the original firmware.
Until i chanced on your post.

I've just re-flashed with your latest ROM and must say it look more like Android device now.
And will be looking forward to more (if available in future).
Otherwise, the current one is good enough.

Thanks once again for sharing.

happy new year!
Gloo
 
#24 ·
Managed to get hold of another Next8P and used rkdump to get stock images, including kernel and recovery. Did a custom zip using stock kernel & recovery but boot and system from latest Fintadroid 2.6.1 ... and camera now works! Seems the latest Next8Ps (mine has mfg date Nov 2011) may be using a different type of camera, and thus need different drivers in the kernel.

For those who want to try, I've uploaded my custom zip to next8p_finta-2.6.1.zip - 132.6 MB
 
#25 ·
Hi Drey1234,
i have the camera working decently with Devmonkey's version.

However the battery run flat rather fast.
the statistics suggested the bulk of the consumption is from 'cell standby'.
i suspect its the phone radio sw trying hard to locate signal.
Airplane mode logically should handle this situation so i'm still trying it out.

As for the Finatic2.61, how do you find it so far?
in term of battery and 'smoothness' of operation?

And really appreciate all of you sharing the Rom.
It make us clueless folks finding new meaning in un-optimised hw


gloo
 
#26 ·
For the phone radio... the simplest way of fixing that is deleting the Phone.apk and TelephonyProvider.apk from /system/app... I would recommend doing so using ADB, or you can use Root Explorer to do so. You will likely have to force a reboot because you'll start getting repetitive force closes once you do, but it won't hurt anything. Once you reboot, all is well.

- devmonkey
 
#30 ·
Hi devmonkey i need your help badly. I've tried to install andriod market using the method found in Xda-developer and after installed, not able to reboot my next8p..tried using paperclip to reset but no respond. I am a IT dummy and passed the device to an IT friend and he asked for the OS..is there anyway to turn on the device again?? Pls help..
 
#31 ·
Batifan -
So first, the good news. Your device is not bricked. It's VERY difficult to brick one of these.

To fix this, and get market, root and all the other goodies working...

Download this file: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A778Z5HR
Unpack it, and follow the instructions: "Instructions_Firmware_Update.txt"
That should get you back up and running.

---

Oh, and to those of you interested, this is a minor modification of the firmware I posted earlier. It adds cifs.ko slow-work.ko and nls_utf8.ko to boot.img and should load them at boot (you can now use Cifsmanager instead of Mount Manager to connect to Windows shares). It also changes the default language / keymap to US English.
 
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