boot image too large

[3DSmitty]

Ok I have a new problem now. When trying to flash my newly created msm8916 boot image I am getting this error:
Sending 'boot' (23886 KB) OKAY [ 0.849s]
Writing 'boot' FAILED (remote: 'size too large')

I noticed the other msm8916 boot images are around 13348 KB. How can I make the boot image smaller?

[3DSmitty]

I have postmarketOS running on the device now and I had to use this method to make the boot image smaller:

https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Pmbootstrap/Troubleshooting#Generated_boot/kernel_image_too_large_for_boot_partition

Is there a way to do the same here?

[lunnobanks]

Keep me informed what solution you get, I'll try to port a Motorola G4 Play and T350 tablet. Here the boot.img got 20mb as well and I got this error

[3DSmitty]

@lunnobanks I am trying to port a G4 Play as well as a couple other devices. If @umeiko would just share one of the msm8916 kernel config files I bet I can get it small enough. I think what is happening is when kernel is built it is add a lot of extra stuff that's not needed but I am not sure what needs to be included and what can be left out.

[lunnobanks]

@lunnobanks I am trying to port a G4 Play as well as a couple other devices. If @umeiko would just share one of the msm8916 kernel config files I bet I can get it small enough. I think what is happening is when kernel is built it is add a lot of extra stuff that's not needed but I am not sure what needs to be included and what can be left out.

It's that I think about compile kernel too, and now that Xiaomi turned of their unlock servers, we need to go to other vendors. Xiaomi is not viable anymore since we cannot unlock bootloaders anymore.

[lunnobanks]

@lunnobanks I am trying to port a G4 Play as well as a couple other devices. If @umeiko would just share one of the msm8916 kernel config files I bet I can get it small enough. I think what is happening is when kernel is built it is add a lot of extra stuff that's not needed but I am not sure what needs to be included and what can be left out.

Did you find a solution for Motorola Harpia boot too large? I'm getting one of this tomorrow, and I'll try to port. I already complied everything, but boot.img got 20mb.

[3DSmitty]

@lunnobanks I am trying to port a G4 Play as well as a couple other devices. If @umeiko would just share one of the msm8916 kernel config files I bet I can get it small enough. I think what is happening is when kernel is built it is add a lot of extra stuff that's not needed but I am not sure what needs to be included and what can be left out.

Did you find a solution for Motorola Harpia boot too large? I'm getting one of this tomorrow, and I'll try to port. I already complied everything, but boot.img got 20mb.

Yes I am past that part. So I am using the postmarketos aarch64 config (https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/tree/master/device/community/linux-postmarketos-qcom-msm8916) to build the kernel. You have to turn off EFI so it will create the Image.gz.

Boot options

CONFIG_CMDLINE=""`

CONFIG_EFI is not set

end of Boot options

And I just removed a bunch of the sensor drivers and sound to get it down to 16,216,064 bytes which will flash. My problem now is I get no graphics or serial console so I don't know if it is booting or not... I am not sure why, I copied over all the firmware drivers but maybe I am missing something? It does boot postmarketos just fine so I am kind of stumped at the moment.

[3DSmitty]

So in the config I just found:

CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_BOE is not set
CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_TIANMA is not set

for some reason it does not come up in menuconfig??? So I enabled those and am building again now.

CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_BOE=y
CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_TIANMA=y

Well, boot is still small enough to flash but still no display or serial port, I am stumped at this point....

[lunnobanks]

Could you tell me whats steps did you do?

[3DSmitty]

Could you tell me whats steps did you do?

Not sure what you mean, I followed the porting guide with these changes:

download kernel config from postmarketos (https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/tree/master/device/community/linux-postmarketos-qcom-msm8916)

You want to git clone https://github.com/msm8916-mainline/linux --depth 1
not
git clone https://github.com/msm8953-mainline/linux --depth 1

In Step 2 building the kernel in menuconfig:
under boot options disable EFI
in device drivers disable sound and any sensors (except temp sensors)
this should make it small enough to flash
save and exit

manually edit the .config file and enable:
CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_BOE=y
CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_TIANMA=y
save and exit

then your ready to run ./full_compile.sh

Step 5 create a new folder in LinuxKernels name msm8916 and copy your firmware drivers there. What i did and I'm not sure if this is correct but I on another VM machine running Alpine I built postmarketos for the device using pmbootstrap. Chroot into the build image and copy the all the files in /lib/firmware. Once you have the firmware files go back to the Ubuntu machine and paste them in the msm8916 folder. Then you can:

sudo cp -r ../msm8916/firmware/* /mnt/chroot/lib/firmware/

Then complete the rest of the steps.

Once you got your boot.img and rootfs.img copy them to Klipperos_msm8916 folder on windows machine and run flash_klipper_os.bat

Hope that helps.

[lunnobanks]

Ok, thanks. I'll try to do it as soon I get the phone (maybe tomorrow), and T350 tablet too.

[lunnobanks]

Could you tell me whats steps did you do?

Not sure what you mean, I followed the porting guide with these changes:

download kernel config from postmarketos (https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/tree/master/device/community/linux-postmarketos-qcom-msm8916)

You want to git clone https://github.com/msm8916-mainline/linux --depth 1 not git clone https://github.com/msm8953-mainline/linux --depth 1

In Step 2 building the kernel in menuconfig: under boot options disable EFI in device drivers disable sound and any sensors (except temp sensors) this should make it small enough to flash save and exit

manually edit the .config file and enable: CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_BOE=y CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_TIANMA=y save and exit

then your ready to run ./full_compile.sh

Step 5 create a new folder in LinuxKernels name msm8916 and copy your firmware drivers there. What i did and I'm not sure if this is correct but I on another VM machine running Alpine I built postmarketos for the device using pmbootstrap. Chroot into the build image and copy the all the files in /lib/firmware. Once you have the firmware files go back to the Ubuntu machine and paste them in the msm8916 folder. Then you can:

sudo cp -r ../msm8916/firmware/* /mnt/chroot/lib/firmware/

Then complete the rest of the steps.

Once you got your boot.img and rootfs.img copy them to Klipperos_msm8916 folder on windows machine and run flash_klipper_os.bat

Hope that helps.

Tried to follow steps, but boot.img got more than 30mb, I don't know what I did wrong. Folow the right steps.

[3DSmitty]

@lunnobanks not sure you can also disable any USB wifi drivers as I doubt your going to need them. My boot image is only 16mb.

[lunnobanks]

So in the config I just found:

CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_BOE is not set CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_TIANMA is not set

for some reason it does not come up in menuconfig??? So I enabled those and am building again now.

CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_BOE=y CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_TIANMA=y

Well, boot is still small enough to flash but still no display or serial port, I am stumped at this point....

I think you cans solve display problem changing to 8916 mainline and not using postmarketos?

Like in this tuotorial: https://lithiumee.xlog.app/redmi2

[3DSmitty]

So in the config I just found:
CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_BOE is not set CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_TIANMA is not set
for some reason it does not come up in menuconfig??? So I enabled those and am building again now.
CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_BOE=y CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_MOTOROLA_ALI_TIANMA=y
Well, boot is still small enough to flash but still no display or serial port, I am stumped at this point....

I think you cans solve display problem changing to 8916 mainline and not using postmarketos?

Like in this tuotorial: https://lithiumee.xlog.app/redmi2

That is an amazing article, that is exactly what we need!

[3DSmitty]

Also in the postmarketos wiki page for the G4 Play it has where the RX TX pins are for serial console. I think that would really help getting this device working if it had serial console.