Sony Xperia E Dual (sony-nanhu)
 Sony Xperia E Dual | |
| Manufacturer | Sony |
|---|---|
| Name | Xperia E Dual |
| Codename | sony-nanhu |
| Released | 2013 |
| Hardware | |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 (MSM7227A) |
| CPU | 1.0 GHz Cortex-A5 |
| GPU | Adreno 200 |
| Display | 320x480 IPS |
| Storage | 4 GB |
| Memory | 512 MB |
| Architecture | armv7 |
| Software | |
| Original software | Android |
| Original version | 4.0.4 (Linux 3.0.1) |
| postmarketOS | |
| Category | testing |
| Pre-built images | no |
Contributors
- Nicknack
What works
- Compiling the kernel
What does not work
- Flashing, there are problems with Sony's boot image format
The built kernel boots with a black screen and no further sign of acitivity. Fastboot flashes without errors but flash offsets are probably wrong. Only known working kernels have a different ELF file format.
Boot image format
There is one tool avaiable for unpacking Sony's ELF boot format into the normal ANDROID format:
libbootimg
Sadly, even unpacking and repacking a working prebuilt kernel doesn't seem to work.
I had more luck with mkelf.py script from Sony. You can loosely follow the tutorial here. This time unpacking a working kernel elf image and repacking it with mkefl.py worked. Needed to change only a few bits with vbindiff. Now we only need to find a working set of offsets and image parts to do the same with a custom kernel!
Here are some links describing the problem with Sony's boot format:
- https://github.com/chenxiaolong/DualBootPatcher/issues/181
- https://github.com/Tasssadar/libbootimg/pull/2/commits/8986984b5d618be0b753e55d6b9d9d1744bc4094
- https://books.google.de/books?id=2qo6AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA313&lpg=PA313&dq=sony+boot.img+format&source=bl&ots=0mtMMle9eZ&sig=adCVtfarXK9cticvd5qqYA6g39Y&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjgp5mfx5XVAhUHWRQKHWSeDZcQ6AEIQzAB#v=onepage&q&f=false
Next possible steps
- Try booting pmOS with a prebuilt kernel.
- Try repacking built kernel into ELF format
- UART debugging?