# Anyone trying to change the "Google" splash screen?



## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

Is there anyone trying to change the "Google" splash screen on phone boot up? At least so it's not just black and white anyway. Like changing it to the actual google colors. Something different. It's not that it bothers me, but I just like change.


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## nocoast (Oct 17, 2011)

i like mine


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

I kinda do too. I was just looking for a little change. I mean, we can change EVERYTHING else about this phone, but not that so far.


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## TRE_588 (Jun 6, 2011)

what are the official google colors?


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## esoomenona (Nov 2, 2011)

Agt Studly said:


> what are the official google colors?


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## CraigHwk (Dec 24, 2011)

I don't know anything about development, but I am wondering if it's some sort of hard coded thing that can't be changed. On HTC phones, the startup screen is white with the green HTC logo; was that ever changeable? I don't recall if it was.


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## NatemZ (Jun 13, 2011)

CraigHwk said:


> I don't know anything about development, but I am wondering if it's some sort of hard coded thing that can't be changed. On HTC phones, the startup screen is white with the green HTC logo; was that ever changeable? I don't recall if it was.


Yes it was. I have changed the startup image on bith my Moto DroidX and my HTC Thunderbolt. Patiently waiting for a Samsung hack for it


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

esoomenona said:


>


^^^ This on a black screen would be perfect for me. I'm hoping that someone finds a way to make it happen. I changed my boot logo almost weekly on my DX. Loved seeing something new once in a while.


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## 9wire (Aug 24, 2011)

I had a file of boot logo zips on my dx, kinda miss that.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## idkwhothatis123 (Aug 4, 2011)

You'll have to probably create a rgb585 img and do fastboot flash splash splash1.rgb585. Haven't tried but that's my guess.

Sent from my GalaxyNexus using Tapatalk


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

Wow kinda hard to believe that the phone has been out for two months now and this hasn't been done yet. Lol. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make/change this screen?


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## MisterEff (Jan 2, 2012)

I like the screen. Shows our Google support and that nice little unlock icon.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## bowtieduece (Aug 3, 2011)

esoomenona said:


>


This would be awesome


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## Tac (Oct 12, 2011)

If anything, I'd want to edit it to remove the unlocked icon, make it less obvious that the phone is unlocked/rooted.


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## Turdbogls (Jun 7, 2011)

i thought i read that it was in the Kernal somewhere. that could be completely wrong, but that is what i read.

however, i am actually pretty happy with how it looks now. i do think a simple black and white Nexus screen would be fitting though.


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## idkwhothatis123 (Aug 4, 2011)

cubsfan187 said:


> Wow kinda hard to believe that the phone has been out for two months now and this hasn't been done yet. Lol. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make/change this screen?


See my post. It may work. That's how I used to do it with the g1 and any HTC phone.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

Turdbogls said:


> i thought i read that it was in the Kernal somewhere. that could be completely wrong, but that is what i read.
> 
> however, i am actually pretty happy with how it looks now. i do think a simple black and white Nexus screen would be fitting though.


This happens way before a kernel is ever loaded.


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## mentose457 (Aug 26, 2011)

ERIFNOMI said:


> This happens way before a kernel is ever loaded.


Are you sure? I think that is how its done on the Fascinate.


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## DrPepperLives (Aug 2, 2011)

I would just like to get rid of that unlocked sign at the bottom. I like to be stealthy with my unlocked boot loader.









Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## droidrage729 (Jun 17, 2011)

DrPepperLives said:


> I would just like to get rid of that unlocked sign at the bottom. I like to be stealthy with my unlocked boot loader.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


true but then again anyone with half a brain will know your rooted when the boot screen lock is missing.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## idefiler6 (Sep 3, 2011)

If this was coded into the kernel then devices like the DX and D2 would not be able to change the logos as they did. Both devices have a locked bootloader and to date no one has been able to unlock it.


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## Schoat333 (Jun 14, 2011)

It doesn't really matter where its coded. We just need to find where the image is stored.


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

mentose457 said:


> Are you sure? I think that is how its done on the Fascinate.


I'm pretty sure...


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## Turdbogls (Jun 7, 2011)

droidrage729 said:


> If this was coded into the kernel then devices like the DX and D2 would not be able to change the logos as they did. Both devices have a locked bootloader and to date no one has been able to unlock it.


Not every android phone is the same....just because motos and HTC's didn't have it this way, doesn't mean the nexus (especially with a completely different software build) is the same way.


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

I've been digging through the files with root explorer and haven't come across anything yet.


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## geeksbsmrt (Jan 13, 2012)

Turdbogls said:


> Huh? a locked and un-rooted (read completely stock) nexus does not have the unlock icon, it only shows the google logo and thats it. i think that is what he is going after.


Actually, it does have a lock but it is closed not open.


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## Schoat333 (Jun 14, 2011)

cubsfan187 said:


> Actually, it does have a lock but it is closed not open.


I never saw a locked icon..... Mine had the google image only, until I unlocked the bootloader.


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## geeksbsmrt (Jan 13, 2012)

Schoat333 said:


> I never saw a locked icon..... Mine had the google image only, until I unlocked the bootloader.


You're right, my mistake. I guess I've been so used to seeing the unlock I couldn't remember.

Thanks!


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

If it is packaged in the bootloader, then its most likely someone with a lot of coding experience would have to tackle correct?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## NatemZ (Jun 13, 2011)

cubsfan187 said:


> If it is packaged in the bootloader, then its most likely someone with a lot of coding experience would have to tackle correct?
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


Yeah you will not be able to locate the image. It's gonna require someone that understands that stuff to dig it out. You won't be able to locate it with Root Explorer









That image is buried deep within the bowels of the almighty GNex.


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## PatHoge (Jun 7, 2011)

I asked bigxie/Fabolous a while back and he said he thought it was in the boot.img, but I don't even know how to open/look at that file.


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## runandhide05 (Sep 20, 2011)

so, with much nerviousness becasue we as of yet dont know what fastboot flash splash1 splash.565 will do, i did create, and attempt to flash, but it failed for partition error


```
<br />
C:\Users\zach\Desktop\platform-tools>fastboot flash splash1 splash.565<br />
sending 'splash1' (300 KB)...<br />
OKAY [  0.038s]<br />
writing 'splash1'...<br />
FAILED (remote: Unknown Partition)<br />
finished. total time: 0.047s<br />
C:\Users\zach\Desktop\platform-tools><br />
```
Edit: update
Ive now tried with imanges in both the res of out screen and the older res of 320/480.
both still fail for the same reason as above


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## poontab (Jun 7, 2011)

runandhide05 said:


> so, with much nerviousness becasue we as of yet dont know what fastboot flash splash1 splash.565 will do, i did create, and attempt to flash, but it failed for partition error
> 
> 
> ```
> ...


Where are you seeing a splash1 partition? All I see is boot, cache, dgs, efs, metadata, misc, param, radio, recovery, sbl, system, userdata, & xloader.


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## idkwhothatis123 (Aug 4, 2011)

poontab said:


> Where are you seeing a splash1 partition? All I see is boot, cache, dgs, efs, metadata, misc, param, radio, recovery, sbl, system, userdata, & xloader.


No where. Just an old method that I thought of.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## times_infinity (Aug 6, 2011)

poontab said:


> Where are you seeing a splash1 partition? All I see is boot, cache, dgs, efs, metadata, misc, param, radio, recovery, sbl, system, userdata, & xloader.


Its probably in the param partition. In the Galaxy S series phones the boot splash was a .jpg or a .png in that partition.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## runandhide05 (Sep 20, 2011)

poontab said:


> Where are you seeing a splash1 partition? All I see is boot, cache, dgs, efs, metadata, misc, param, radio, recovery, sbl, system, userdata, & xloader.


 what the other guy said, nowhere but it was a method used, so tried and reported back

i unpacked the boot.img and did not find anything in there relitive to the splash screen, however if anyone is dying for a mod...thats where the battery charning icon while power is off is located boot.img-remdisk/res/images/charger then the icons in there


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## runandhide05 (Sep 20, 2011)

nevermind


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## poontab (Jun 7, 2011)

runandhide05 said:


> how can i go about pulling the info off a particaual partition? basically like adb pull /system
> i have looked and looked, thought id ask real quick
> 
> nevermind


dd it


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

runandhide05 said:


> what the other guy said, nowhere but it was a method used, so tried and reported back
> 
> i unpacked the boot.img and did not find anything in there relitive to the splash screen, however if anyone is dying for a mod...thats where the battery charning icon while power is off is located boot.img-remdisk/res/images/charger then the icons in there


Nice. I never charge my phone off but I did turn my phone off while charging yesterday and saw that screen. Kinda neat.


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## runandhide05 (Sep 20, 2011)

Well I was able to pull all the partitions, working on how to decompress the .img of each... and should find something...just having issues trying to pull the .imgs apart

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## Mexiken (Jul 23, 2011)

mentose457 said:


> Are you sure? I think that is how its done on the Fascinate.


You are probably referring to the boot animation, not the splash screen, 2 separate animals. The kernel needed to support boot animations in zip as the stock Samsung was in qmg or some Sammy proprietary file.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## mentose457 (Aug 26, 2011)

Mexiken said:


> You are probably referring to the boot animation, not the splash screen, 2 separate animals. The kernel needed to support boot animations in zip as the stock Samsung was in qmg or some Sammy proprietary file.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


I guess I thought it was part of the kernel because when flashing the glitch kernel it changed.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus


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## guod2002 (Nov 25, 2011)

What if you were in recovery, started a log at and then rebooted system from recovery, wonder if it would show what was going on and if you can see where its loading the splash screen from.

Edit: Doesn't work, logcat automatically stops when phone reboots out of recovery


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## times_infinity (Aug 6, 2011)

mentose457 said:


> I guess I thought it was part of the kernel because when flashing the glitch kernel it changed.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus


For the the older SGS phones that were converted to MTD yes, the boot splash went from the SAMSUNG one to the one that was in the kernel. But the stock SAMSUNG boot splash was an image that was in the param.lfs partition.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

What is being used to decompile the boot.img? What program? I'll have time to check into it today (well before the wife's bday dinner anyway) and don't know what to use to pull apart that file.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## runandhide05 (Sep 20, 2011)

cubsfan187 said:


> What is being used to decompile the boot.img? What program? I'll have time to check into it today (well before the wife's bday dinner anyway) and don't know what to use to pull apart that file.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


 unyaffs
or kitchen or a few other programs... but its not in there

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

I wonder where that image is kept then. Hopefully someone can find it and we can start changing that too on this phone.


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## runandhide05 (Sep 20, 2011)

cubsfan187 said:


> I wonder where that image is kept then. Hopefully someone can find it and we can start changing that too on this phone.


I have every img of each partition. If anyone wants them I can upload, only problem I'm having is that I can't decompile any img other than boot cache system.

Here's the two I have on DB right now 
Param.img
http://db.tt/B6aJEIac
Sbl.img
http://db.tt/cWptLPQS
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## Anton2009 (Jan 24, 2012)

Sorry for bumping an old topic, but I'm really interested in this, and hope someone can make it work! I know you could change the splash screen on the original Motorola Droid using RSD Lite, but I have not idea how to go about it using a sammy phone.


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## Nitrogenus (Dec 22, 2011)

I am surprised I just noticed this topic myself. I too have been wanting to change my splash screen. I really like the idea from OP of using the colored Google logo in place of the b&w one.


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## MonsterAndroid (Dec 1, 2011)

Same here. I been looking for a way to do this also. It would be neat to have a Samsung & Google image. Or even a stand alone Samsung one.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## Mikefrostlpn (Jun 7, 2011)

Would be nice to have a google splash without the unlock for Verizon verification purposes

Sent from my GT-P7510 using RootzWiki


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## JBirdVegas (Jun 11, 2011)

OK maybe some other dev can come and correct me but with all the other android devices I've had they all had a partition and they all named it something different but the process to change the image meant removing the byte codes in hex at the end of the image file then completely reversing the hex file then using fast boot to flash the new file and it is a pain.

I did it once... nice to show off but a pain to maintain. That being said there IS CODE THAT SAYS LOOK HERE FOR THIS. Idk where it is but is simply MUST exist.

My 2¢


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

I thought this topic had long since been lost. Glad to see people still interested in it. Now to find the right dev to like the idea and run with it. I wish it was as easy as decompliling the boot.img and changing something in there. That does seem let the most logical place for it. But runandhide said its not there. I'm shocked no one has found this yet.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## Jubakuba (Sep 8, 2011)

Also interested.
Posting for the sake of noticing this thread when it was posted...
But never saying anything.
We need more users to chime in =]


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

Way back when I first started this thread, I had talked to Fransico Franco about see if it was in the boot.img and if he could do anything with it inside the kernel. That resulted in him making a boot ani. I don't think anyone has really looked since then. At least not reported anyway. I don't think it's in the kernel because we would have never been able to change it on the DX then. Does anyone remember where that file was located (to change) on that phone? I know they are 2 COMPLETELY different phones, but maybe it will give us a clue as to where the image is stored and a way to change it.


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## Jubakuba (Sep 8, 2011)

cubsfan187 said:


> Way back when I first started this thread, I had talked to Fransico Franco about see if it was in the boot.img and if he could do anything with it inside the kernel. That resulted in him making a boot ani. I don't think anyone has really looked since then. At least not reported anyway. I don't think it's in the kernel because we would have never been able to change it on the DX then. Does anyone remember where that file was located (to change) on that phone? I know they are 2 COMPLETELY different phones, but maybe it will give us a clue as to where the image is stored and a way to change it.


One sec.
Have my X by my side with the Splash.zip I always flash.


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## blackadept (Jun 13, 2011)

It varies by phone and manufacturer somewhat. While location is usually similar or even the same the changing it part differs. Motorola made it easy with simple edits and hex where as Samsung and HTC usually make it more of a PITA (I know that is not the case across the board, just saying for the most part they are). To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar to the fascinate where somebody had to reverse engineer and hack the param Odin files, then hex edit the new pic to exact size of the actual splash, rename and adb push the new one (or insert into an Odin or ram disk/kernel).


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

It does seem like it's going to be a pain of a process. Maybe that's why no one has tried yet.


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## deltaechoe (Jul 20, 2011)

The splash screen is buried in the bootloader, so it won't be particularly easy to change. So yes you would have to hex edit some critical files which can be dangerous

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## NatemZ (Jun 13, 2011)

deltaechoe said:


> The splash screen is buried in the bootloader, so it won't be particularly easy to change. So yes you would have to hex edit some critical files which can be dangerous
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


Dangerous! All the more reason someone will get it hacked 

It took a long time before the DX had this mod. Might end up being like that for this device. Someone will figure it out. I have faith!


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## mmtoman (Jun 25, 2011)

I'd really love this!

I'd throw a couple bucks at whoever gets it working too!!


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## GTvert90 (Jun 6, 2011)

Maybe Google made it hard so people don't remove the unlocked icon? Has it been changed on the Nexus S? Colored Google would be cool.. What would be badass but I'm sure impossible is if the Google on our phone matched the Google on the website.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## nolsen311 (Nov 2, 2011)

Removing the unlocked icon is as easy as "fastboot OEM lock". From what I understand, once you relock the phone it won't appear. You also won't be able to flash new roms at will. It might be handy once a stable CM9 is out.

--Nate

I've done this on every HTC phone I've ever had and it's not that difficult to do on a Linux/Unix box.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## AppleisCrapple (Mar 8, 2012)

this is a neat idea.... subscribed!


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

The google splash screen has its own partition on android. It should be possible to change doing something like http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1356202

EDIT: nevermind. obviously won't work


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## Mustang302LX (Jun 28, 2011)

GTvert90 said:


> Maybe Google made it hard so people don't remove the unlocked icon? Has it been changed on the Nexus S? Colored Google would be cool.. What would be badass but I'm sure impossible is if the Google on our phone matched the Google on the website.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


Colored textured Google would be sweet!!


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

After doing some poking around, it looks like it's most likely it's done in the same way that it's done with the Nexus S and the GS2 where it doesn't exactly render it as an image (at least not from opening an image file). Done in the kernel/boot.img as already mentioned from others in the thread 

Something similar to this, but within the proper driver folder for the galaxy nexus kernel. It's going to be done differently as it's a different gpu, but something like that.

Probably /drivers/video/omap2/omapfb/omapfb-main.c as a guess


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## NatemZ (Jun 13, 2011)

yarly said:


> After doing some poking around, it looks like it's most likely it's done in the same way that it's done with the Nexus S and the GS2 where it doesn't exactly render it as an image (at least not from opening an image file). Done in the kernel/boot.img as already mentioned from others in the thread
> 
> Something similar to this, but within the proper driver folder for the galaxy nexus kernel. It's going to be done differently as it's a different gpu, but something like that.
> 
> Probably /drivers/video/omap2/omapfb/omapfb-main.c as a guess


 I say you should crack it and be the hero


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

I don't know if i'll find it, but I do think it's in the kernel somewhere. The framebuffer is supposedly a S6E8AA0 MIPI made by samsung and not what I thought (omap). Some of the various framebuffers that are not likely used do deal with the boot image, but haven't found anything useful for the Nexus so far.


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## LancerEVA06 (Oct 27, 2011)

idkwhothatis123 said:


> You'll have to probably create a rgb585 img and do fastboot flash splash splash1.rgb585. Haven't tried but that's my guess.
> 
> That is for HTC. The Samsung Nexus line is locked with the black and white. Meaning there is no unlocked partition for boot logo.
> Sent from my GalaxyNexus using Tapatalk


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## jellybellys (Apr 3, 2012)

As far as I know, the splash1 partition is only on HTC phones. If there is one, it probably doesn't use htc's standard nb format either.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Besides it supposedly having MIPI based framebuffer and after looking at the various files for that, the MIPI related kernel code looks like it pulls from some of the various frame buffer files for MSM, which do have some code dealing with the boot splash image. Nothing concrete though still. Compiling and testing would probably work the best.


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## wyattyoss (Aug 28, 2011)

In the one hour before I unlocked that I had the phone, I'm pretty sure there was nothing there.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Edit: oh my goodness..tapatalk showed page three as the latest so I ended up replying to one of those posts, but I believe it would be easier to simply figure out how to change the boot image than to search for and delete the lock icon


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## davey11 (Jul 14, 2011)

I used to change the splash screen on my fascinate alot. Really wish we could do that on this phone.
Here is a link to the thread for the fascinate.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=956349&highlight=bootanimation
Was kind of an involved process, but hope this can help some dev gain some insight for our phone.
The gn is probably a whole different animal and this may be way off base, but hey they both made by samsung.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

davey11 said:


> I used to change the splash screen on my fascinate alot. Really wish we could do that on this phone.
> Here is a link to the thread for the fascinate.
> http://forum.xda-dev...t=bootanimation
> Was kind of an involved process, but hope this can help some dev gain some insight for our phone.
> The gn is probably a whole different animal and this may be way off base, but hey they both made by samsung.


I tried doing a data dump earlier of the partition that param.lfs sits on and then opened it on my pc in a hex editor. The file is nearly empty (as in 99.9% 0s) and no sign of any images that would be embedded.

Also for anyone that didn't try boot.img (the ramdisk), there are images in there, but only ones that deal with the battery charging when the phone is powered off.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Good news everyone







. I decided to quit fooling around with hacking the images through the kernel and searched through the bootloader and pulled out the images from in it. Had to extract them by parsing through the hexidecimal in bootloader.img as I have no idea what filesystem the bootloader is formatted in, but it's none that linux wants to mount.

In case anyone was wondering what images are in the bootloader, i ripped them out and attached them to my post.

EDIT: I figured out the offsets for the google logo and inserted a colored logo to it instead (see attached jpg). However, I don't think I want to flash it really. Not sure if it will freak out when it sees the bootloader.img* is slightly larger now and modified. I think it will work, though I'm just not confident enough to have a paperweight for a phone after and would rather not be blamed if someone else bricked theirs. Kind of bittersweet, but oh well.

*Yes, that's bootloader.img as in "OMG, it didn't flash right in fastboot and now my phone won't turn on period." Not to be confused with boot.img (the kernel) as someone will probably misread and say it.


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## NatemZ (Jun 13, 2011)

yarly said:


> Good news everyone
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Haha, we need a brave soul to try it out. Good work yarly.


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## moosc (Jun 15, 2011)

Was going to ask where is P3 he was the key on moto phones. I see the xoom has a app that let's u change splash screen. And yes I'm shocked that 6months and no one has it figured out

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2


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## moosc (Jun 15, 2011)

Was going to ask where is P3 he was the key on moto phones. I see the xoom has a app that let's u change splash screen. And yes I'm shocked that 6months and no one has it figured out

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2


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## iNate71 (Dec 28, 2011)

yarly said:


> Good news everyone
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That image looks bad ass. I'd be willing to give it a shot as long as there is a way to fix it. As I'm sure anyone would be willing.

Sloppily typed from my Tab


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## ajp (Dec 14, 2011)

iNate71 said:


> That image looks bad ass. I'd be willing to give it a shot as long as there is a way to fix it. As I'm sure anyone would be willing.
> 
> Sloppily typed from my Tab


lol pretty much

I wish I knew more about the system specifics and processes as a whole....well, time to do some research....


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

No brave souls stepping forward yet???







Not sure I could YET either. This is great news that the img file was found. The bootloader was the last place I even thought about looking for it.


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## lostnuke (Jul 15, 2011)

I think the implications of a paper weight have overcome the joy of this little gem.

Hopefully someone will step up.

:crawls back under my rock:

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus


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## davey11 (Jul 14, 2011)

We need a rich dude with 3 or 4 gns lying around.
Someone start up a brick phone fund for some cash to lessen the blow.


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

Really wanna keep this closer to the top of the page now. This way someone may see it and give it a shot.


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## rexdog1888 (Aug 2, 2011)

Out of curiosity, how likely do y'all think it is that it won't work and will brick the phone. I'm not gonna hold you to it or anything if it ends up bricking I'm just wondering what the likelihood of it working is

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## rexdog1888 (Aug 2, 2011)

Double post


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## rexdog1888 (Aug 2, 2011)

Wow triple post


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## calripkenturner (Feb 9, 2012)

I'll do it. Give me about an hour or two when I get home

Edit: But I'll need yarlys bootloader.img to do it

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5


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## lostnuke (Jul 15, 2011)

calripkenturner said:


> I'll do it. Give me about an hour or two when I get home
> 
> Edit: But I'll need yarlys bootloader.img to do it
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5


Good man!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus


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## Beamer9408 (Aug 15, 2011)

Can we not fastboot boot bootloader.img
As opposed to fastboot flash? Not sure if you can do that with bootloader or not.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## Melon Bread (Nov 29, 2011)

CraigHwk said:


> I don't know anything about development, but I am wondering if it's some sort of hard coded thing that can't be changed. On HTC phones, the startup screen is white with the green HTC logo; was that ever changeable? I don't recall if it was.


I know you could on the HTC Glacier.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

iNate71 said:


> I'll do it. Give me about an hour or two when I get home
> 
> Edit: But I'll need yarlys bootloader.img to do it
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5


If you really really want to, I can send it to you as long as you're aware of the small risk involved. The only changes to it though are it's just a bit larger than the normal one (not even a KB larger though) and the images were just inserted in the same place as the originals via a hex editor. I'll post up the difference in a bit to show how it changed. Most likely if it doesnt like it, it's not going to let it flash to begin with from doing something like a checksum check on it and it not passing and just bitching instead of bricking.

There also has to be a way to mount the bootloader locally in linux somehow. I just can't figure out the format of it yet (I figured out the jpegs were there by looking for the header/footer of each [since they follow a standard format] and nothing from searching yields results as every search ends up someone thinking they're talking about "boot.img" and not "bootloader.img"

I still think there's a better way to do it without hacking through the bootloader, but just have not found it yet.


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## calripkenturner (Feb 9, 2012)

Alright if you wanna send it I'll flash it

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

calripkenturner said:


> Alright if you wanna send it I'll flash it
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


Are you going to be around in an hour or two? I have to run out for a bit and I wanted to post up the differences as well beforehand just to make things transparent as possible, but that will only take a few mins to do.


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## jellybellys (Apr 3, 2012)

yarly said:


> There also has to be a way to mount the bootloader locally in linux somehow. I just can't figure out the format of it yet (I figured out the jpegs were there by looking for the header/footer of each [since they follow a standard format] and nothing from searching yields results as every search ends up someone thinking they're talking about "boot.img" and not "bootloader.img"
> 
> I still think there's a better way to do it without hacking through the bootloader, but just have not found it yet.


Tried mounting it in every way possible, haven't tried un-yaffsing it yet, or simg2img yet.


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## calripkenturner (Feb 9, 2012)

yarly said:


> Are you going to be around in an hour or two? I have to run out for a bit and I wanted to post up the differences as well beforehand just to make things transparent as possible, but that will only take a few mins to do.


Yeah I'll be here

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

jellybellys said:


> Tried mounting it in every way possible, haven't tried un-yaffsing it yet, or simg2img yet.


Tried those last night. I think it's packed in some sort of zipped format, but I haven't figured it out yet.


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## blaineevans (Jul 11, 2011)

The suspense is killing me!

(Also wanted to suggest a private transfer, posting a link will only lead to disaster if things go south.)

If this had been posted 2 days ago I'd have done it. Phone met water for the first time, and after 24 hours everything but the camera worked. Was gonna file a claim when it decided to, well start working again.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Oh I had no intentions of posting the link without knowing it works. Someone would be bound to do what they shouldn't do yet 

If it does work, an application can be made to make it easier, because as it is right now. I pull out the images from the img and then edit them and then insert them back in with a hex editor. It's not exactly the most optimal way for most that would want to try doing it.

If anyone wants to try to pull out the images themselves for fun or curiosity, this is the little bash script I wrote to do it.

http://pastie.org/private/dske4wutjg4puopleuiha

Basically just looks for the file signature for jpgs and then looks for the termination sequence and grabs all the bits in between those and puts it into a file for each jpg.


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## NatemZ (Jun 13, 2011)

Really exciting to see this moving forward. I have faith that it will work.


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## mentose457 (Aug 26, 2011)

blaineevans said:


> The suspense is killing me!
> 
> (Also wanted to suggest a private transfer, posting a link will only lead to disaster if things go south.)
> 
> ...


Me too. I check this thread every five minutes or so.

I haz no sig


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

I sent it out to him and emphasized the fact that although I verified the JPGs were inserted correctly into the bootloader.img, there are still things none us exactly know from how the bootloader works since it's proprietary and that it may not like it. If he's worried at all or has second thoughts, I made it clear it was totally okay to back out and not do it as it's out of my hands if something goes wrong at this point and his choice to flash it.

File sizes are only slightly bigger than they were before though. However, it will probably reject it if so and not let it flash. I think it will work, but bootloaders and bios systems always make me nervous 

We'll find out in a bit one way or the other.

I have to respect him for being crazier or braver than myself though. I can't live without my phone for a few days and deal with paying the insurance deductible over a boot image logo change.

When it works, I still don't recommend most people editing the bootloader.img until there's an application to insert them. It's not exactly the easiest thing thing to do if you're not comfortable with dealing with hexidecimal and binary files as you have to be very careful where you paste things and make sure to insert into the file and not overwrite so it doesn't eat into the data that comes after the image area if the new image is larger.


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

So how long ago did the guy say he was gonna try it? Should we assume he's not coming back yet? Lol

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

No idea. I spoke to him like 60mins ago and sent it not long before my last post. I rechecked the img a few times after doing it for version 4.0.4's bootloader and then wrote up a summary of what to do and a disclaimer doing what I could to make sure he was aware of the risks.

Flashing it only takes 3-5 mins at the most, but I dont know when he was going to try it or if he knows I sent it yet.


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## calripkenturner (Feb 9, 2012)

I'm still here haha the MD5sum wasn't matching so I sent yarly a pm letting him know


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## mentose457 (Aug 26, 2011)

You still going to flash this tonight?


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## calripkenturner (Feb 9, 2012)

Just tried. I got a write failure but it didn't brick me.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Bootloader is doing a verification of the file before it flashes. I think it can be worked around by dealing with updating the area it uses for that, but probably not going to happen tonight.

calripkenturner is still the man though for trying it.


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## lostnuke (Jul 15, 2011)

well. thanks for trying at least.


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## calripkenturner (Feb 9, 2012)

No problem I'll try it again next time.


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## mentose457 (Aug 26, 2011)

Yep, thanks for trying.


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

calripkenturner said:


> Just tried. I got a write failure but it didn't brick me.


Well that (for now anyway) is a good thing. Hopefully you guys can figure out a way to get this idea to work and it can be implemented into roms or a stand alone script that can be used like the DX days as well, Thanks for putting your phone at risk and trying for the rest of us!

EDIT: Here's a stupid thought. Has anyone thought about just asking Google/Samsung where the image is kept or how to change it? Being open source and the bootloader being unlockable, maybe they would say something about it.


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## iNate71 (Dec 28, 2011)

cubsfan187 said:


> Well that (for now anyway) is a good thing. Hopefully you guys can figure out a way to get this idea to work and it can be implemented into roms or a stand alone script that can be used like the DX days as well, Thanks for putting your phone at risk and trying for the rest of us!
> 
> EDIT: Here's a stupid thought. Has anyone thought about just asking Google/Samsung where the image is kept or how to change it? Being open source and the bootloader being unlockable, maybe they would say something about it.


I was thinking the same thing.

Sloppily typed from my Tab


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

Maybe that would be too easy...lol. Who knows what they would say about it.


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

I figured it would get a write error. I would've tried it, my nexus officially took a drop that it couldn't handle and the screen cracked in the weirdest of ways. It has like a bubble in the bottom part that's thicker.

Anyways, I have to make an insurance claim on it so if this gets figured out before I do I'll try it.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

throwbot said:


> I figured it would get a write error. I would've tried it, my nexus officially took a drop that it couldn't handle and the screen cracked in the weirdest of ways. It has like a bubble in the bottom part that's thicker.
> 
> Anyways, I have to make an insurance claim on it so if this gets figured out before I do I'll try it.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


Hopefully someone finds out more with this and you can be a brave soul and try it.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6


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## SSMayNV (May 2, 2012)

Sending email to google & samsung now


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## kornesque (Dec 28, 2011)

I JUST saw this thread. I probably went through 3 bags of popcorn reading all the threads, and the dramatic climax. My first thought when the flash failed was, "Balls.", but I'm really just glad your phone didn't brick.

SO I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks to both y'all for doing your part. *thumbs up*


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## ajp (Dec 14, 2011)

We've gotta figure this out. I came from an X, which should be way more difficult, and we got it working on that.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

I would say ask on freenode at #android-dev, but it's rare that an actual Google employed Android developer is actually there nowadays (besides it mainly being for application development). Someone that uses twitter or google circles could ask Jean-Baptiste Queru (his twitter) (his google+) for some information and relay it back to me. I don't use twitter or circles myself.

Just ask him where (what files and or what functions) in the Android kernel for the Nexus would you need modify in order to load a custom boot screen to modify the google boot splash. You could also ask him how to unpack and mount the bootloader in linux, but they may be less likely to answer that and I don't think it's the best way to do it anyways.


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

ajp said:


> We've gotta figure this out. I came from an X, which should be way more difficult, and we got it working on that.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


I came from the x also and that's why I asked a out this months ago. Crossing my fingers either Google or Sammy will help the devs (or the brave at least) figure it out.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6


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## mentose457 (Aug 26, 2011)

BUMP. Is anyone still working on this?


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

I was thinking the same thing. Wonder if anyone asked Google yet. If not I will tomorrow.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

yarly said:


> I would say ask on freenode at #android-dev, but it's rare that an actual Google employed Android developer is actually there nowadays (besides it mainly being for application development). Someone that uses twitter or google circles could ask Jean-Baptiste Queru (his twitter) (his google+) for some information and relay it back to me. I don't use twitter or circles myself.
> 
> Just ask him where (what files and or what functions) in the Android kernel for the Nexus would you need modify in order to load a custom boot screen to modify the google boot splash. You could also ask him how to unpack and mount the bootloader in linux, but they may be less likely to answer that and I don't think it's the best way to do it anyways.


I sent him a message on Twitter this morning. We'll see if I can get a reply about this.


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

Well I heard back on this. He said its in the bootloader and that its part of the code he doesn't have access too. So unless some awesome dev and brave flashing souls team up, it looks like we may not be able to change it out. Sad day when teams can change it on a locked bootloader phone but not an open one.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## miketoasty (Jun 10, 2011)

cubsfan187 said:


> Well I heard back on this. He said its in the bootloader and that its part of the code he doesn't have access too. So unless some awesome dev and brave flashing souls team up, it looks like we may not be able to change it out. Sad day when teams can change it on a locked bootloader phone but not an open one.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


Not really a sad day, it's just stored in a different location on the X than on our Galaxy Nexus.


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## alatedseraph (Jan 23, 2012)

well on the locked one they didnt bother making it hard to change cause it was locked, this was able to be unlocked so google wanted to make sure they were still given some credit and therefore made it tougher to change.


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## miketoasty (Jun 10, 2011)

alatedseraph said:


> well on the locked one they didnt bother making it hard to change cause it was locked, this was able to be unlocked so google wanted to make sure they were still given some credit and therefore made it tougher to change.


I don't think that's true... at all. It was just placed in a different place on the two different phones, don't think there is anything more than this behind it.


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## Schoat333 (Jun 14, 2011)

miketoasty said:


> I don't think that's true... at all. It was just placed in a different place on the two different phones, don't think there is anything more than this behind it.


It probably has to do with the ability to unlock the boot loader, and the unlock icon that shows up when you do.


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## ajp (Dec 14, 2011)

Schoat333 said:


> It probably has to do with the ability to unlock the boot loader, and the unlock icon that shows up when you do.


Maybe googles way of making it a little more difficult to mask an unlocked phone as a locked phone.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## miketoasty (Jun 10, 2011)

Schoat333 said:


> It probably has to do with the ability to unlock the boot loader, and the unlock icon that shows up when you do.


That actually makes a lot of sense, could possibly bork the unlocking procedure if you try to place a different image in this location.


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

ajp said:


> Maybe googles way of making it a little more difficult to mask an unlocked phone as a locked phone.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


I think that is entirely the case here. Hopefully no one gives up on trying to change it out though. Maybe next we should ask Google or Samsung...? Maybe one or the other will be inclined to explain how to do it or why it's not possible.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Bootloader is some sort of u-boot image I believe, but haven't figured out how you can reverse it back into files or mount it yet. Filesystem would be JFFS2 if that's the case though.

EDIT: it's not using that, it's most likely using samsung's proprietary file system RFS (robust file system).


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

Well I'm making an insurance claim for my broken screen, if anybody has any idea where to start looking to swap out the images I'm willing to flash away! Would love to see this work, but I can't hold out forever to make my claim. The screen isn't broken too had tho so I could hang in for at least a week or so if someone is willing to keep working on this.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

Sweet. We got our brave souled flasher. Now we just need the dev to start doing what they do best. "Fingers crossed"

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## blaineevans (Jul 11, 2011)

I'm in generally the same boat of that shirtless man. Haha. Gonna need to send in for a replacement due to water damage (everything but the camera survived). Let us know!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

I go back and look at it a little bit here and there, but nothing new to report on it. I find it interesting to figure out, but it's not something I'm spending every waking hour on my computer doing. If anyone else wants to try their hand, I'm open to questions and helping out.

I tried working with RFS a little, but it's mainly a pain to deal with on linux. Many of the older sammy phones have modules compiled in for it already and you could maybe mount it there easily if someone has a galaxy s2, charge or galaxy s and wants to try I can walk you through trying to mount it.


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## jellybellys (Apr 3, 2012)

Did some googling about RFS on linux if this helps. You've probably already tried it








http://wiki.samygo.tv/index.php5/RFS_file_system_support_for_linux


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Yeah, thanks, I saw that the other night. I appreciate the searching for things anyways though.

Compiling and patching the kernel just to maybe if we're lucky, change the splash screen is way beyond the time I would want to spend on it, lol. It may not even be RFS, it's just an educated guess based on it being built by Samsung and not ext4 as well as eliminating other things. Older sammy phones have the support already baked into their kernels though depending on the kernel being used.


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

Well hell, we tried I guess. It would've been awesome trying to get it to work. Not to mention, ive yet to find anything that will brick this phone out of commission, I thought this would be there first thing with the ability to but I guess we'll never know.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## Jubakuba (Sep 8, 2011)

throwbot said:


> Well hell, we tried I guess. It would've been awesome trying to get it to work. Not to mention, ive yet to find anything that will brick this phone out of commission, I thought this would be there first thing with the ability to but I guess we'll never know.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


Flashing a bad .pit file with ODIN.


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

With the amount of devs that love being told they can't do something and proving it wrong, I think (maybe) it'll still happen.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

I didnt hear anything back from anyone, but doesn't someone out there know someone with an older sammy phone? Like a Charge or Galaxy S?


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## blaineevans (Jul 11, 2011)

yarly said:


> I didnt hear anything back from anyone, but doesn't someone out there know someone with an older sammy phone? Like a Charge or Galaxy S?


Wish I did. Would like to get this going.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

dude my girlfriend has my old droid charge. Do you need me to pull something from it?

And I forgot about Odin, using Odin incorrectly can def brick a phone, I'm sure a nexus is no different.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

yarly said:


> I didnt hear anything back from anyone, but doesn't someone out there know someone with an older sammy phone? Like a Charge or Galaxy S?


My brother used to have the charge but traded it for the bionic. No one else I know has one. Sorry.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

throwbot said:


> dude my girlfriend has my old droid charge. Do you need me to pull something from it?
> 
> And I forgot about Odin, using Odin incorrectly can def brick a phone, I'm sure a nexus is no different.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


No need to pull anything. Do need to have root (probably needed, but maybe not) and a ROM for it that's somewhat closer to stock and make sure it has the RFS modules in it. Then I can give you some commands to try to mount the nexus bootloader on it and see if it's RFS using the terminal or adb shell. Won't screw anything up.

basically going to do something like

adb push bootloader.img /sdcard/
su
mkdir /sdcard/bootloader
mount -t rfs -o loop /sdcard/bootloader.img /sdcard/bootloader/

then see if it mounts. sdcard might not work for mounting since it has a real sdcard, but if it doesn't then mount it to /data/local/tmp/bootloader instead.

If the image mounts, then we'll have access to the files in it.


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

OK I rooted it, but I haven't flashed any roms yet. Tweak stock is one for the charge that looks pretty close to stock, should I throw it on there?

Edit: never mind i see what you're trying to do here. So it should be fine stock, yeah? And once its mounted I can leave it that way, right? I wanna kinda make sure I know what I'm doing here with phone in case I need to take anything back. btw, pretty sure I read somewhere that the nexus uses ext4. I know for a fact the charge uses rfs BC they have that "voodoo lag fix" that changes the file system to ext4.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

yarly said:


> No need to pull anything. Do need to have root (probably needed, but maybe not) and a ROM for it that's somewhat closer to stock and make sure it has the RFS modules in it. Then I can give you some commands to try to mount the nexus bootloader on it and see if it's RFS using the terminal or adb shell. Won't screw anything up.
> 
> basically going to do something like
> 
> ...


Okay actually wait a second I am lost, lol. So am I trying to mount the nexus bootloader onto the charge? I have the primekk15 bootloader (4.0.2) on my computer and the newer primela16 or whatever the other one is (4.0.4) on my nexus. The one on my comp is named bootloader-toro-primekk15.img so am I gonna need to change the name, or change it in the command?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## iwasaperson (Sep 4, 2011)

Fails to mount. The image isn't a block, it is an img. This was on a Charge.


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

Progress...I like it. I wish I had the spare Charge of my brothers. Can't get him to drop it off with me to try this.


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## vdubsky (Jul 16, 2011)

I like it and actually would like it as a wallpaper 

From a Galaxy Nexus far far away...


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

iwasaperson said:


> Fails to mount. The image isn't a block, it is an img. This was on a Charge.


You don't mount it like you do a system image. You mount it like you would an image file on any other linux distro (i.e. with a loop)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_device

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/mounting-img-files-328503/

mount -t rfs -o loop bootloader.img /mount-directory-for-bootloader-image/


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## throwbot (Jan 2, 2012)

Logo me, the app by Ezekiel. Why have I not heard of this yet? Has anybody tried it? It says that's its tested and works on the stock boot loader and the 4.0.4 boot loader on the galaxy nexus. I'm wondering how "custom" you can go with the images but I'm not gonna spend the bread until I hear from someone who has tried it with good results. I'm at the pool right now I might try it later.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## guod2002 (Nov 25, 2011)

throwbot said:


> Logo me, the app by Ezekiel. Why have I not heard of this yet? Has anybody tried it? It says that's its tested and works on the stock boot loader and the 4.0.4 boot loader on the galaxy nexus. I'm wondering how "custom" you can go with the images but I'm not gonna spend the bread until I hear from someone who has tried it with good results. I'm at the pool right now I might try it later.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


Worked for me, changed mine to a colored Google image and changed the lock/unlock icon to the chrome logo

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## nexgeezus (Apr 5, 2012)

throwbot said:


> Logo me, the app by Ezekiel. Why have I not heard of this yet? Has anybody tried it? It says that's its tested and works on the stock boot loader and the 4.0.4 boot loader on the galaxy nexus. I'm wondering how "custom" you can go with the images but I'm not gonna spend the bread until I hear from someone who has tried it with good results. I'm at the pool right now I might try it later.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


Works great for me too had both images changed in seconds with the app.

Liquid is where I stay........


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## ms0chez (Jun 23, 2011)

guod2002 said:


> Worked for me, changed mine to a colored Google image and changed the lock/unlock icon to the chrome logo
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


There's a whole thread about on xda with logo images and lock images that people are making. Its pretty cool. I have it and loving it. I rebooted my phone about 6 times today just to see it lol.


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## NatemZ (Jun 13, 2011)

No need for this thread anymore I guess.

http://rootzwiki.com/topic/27229-app-logo-me/

Thread closed


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