Dell Streak 5 and General Information About Android OS and Rooting and Security

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Dell Streak 5
Streak 05
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Specification
Manufacturer: Dell File:Dell-icon.png
Release Date: Jun. 2010
Operating System: Android File:Android-icon.jpg
Dimensions: 79.1 x 152.9 x 9.98 mm
Weight: 220g
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250
Display: 5" WVGA 800x480 LCD
Networks: All Models: GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900
AWS Model: UMTS900, UMTS1700, UMTS2100
EU Model: UMTS900, UMTS2100
US Model: UMTS850, UMTS1900, UMTS2100
Wifi: 802.11 b/g 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth: 2.0 + EDR
NFC: No
GPS: Yes
Video out: HDMI via Dock
Camera: 5 MP LED flash
Secondary Camera: VGA
Internal Memory: 512 MB RAM, 512 MB NAND, 2 GB Internal SD
Memory Card: microSD, microSDHC
Battery: 1530 mAh
Additional Features: Dell 30 Pin Connector


?

  • Baseband?

Flashing the Device

  • Batt Charged - Device shutting off in the middle of a flash could brick device
  • Install Drivers and ADB Interface
  • Install Streakmod
fastboot -i 0x413c flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot -i 0x413x reboot
  • Flash 407 Recovery - (Gingerbread ROM)
  • Flash 407 ROM
  • Flash Custom GB ROM
  • Unlock Bootloader? - (Stock Android Only?)
  • Root your phone
  • Install Custom Recovery
  • Install/Flash Custom ROM
    • App: ROM Manager
    • Through Custom Recovery


Notes

Sources for Dell Streak 5 ROM and Recovery Images

System Architecture

Kernel and Android Version

Android Versions(Google)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history):

  • Android beta
  • Android 1.0
  • Android 1.1
  • Android 1.5 Cupcake - based on Linux kernel 2.6.27
  • Android 1.6 Donut - based on Linux kernel 2.6.29
  • Android 2.0/2.1 Eclair - based on Linux kernel 2.6.29
  • Android 2.2.x Froyo - based on Linux kernel 2.6.32
  • Android 2.3.x Gingerbread - Based on Linux kernel 2.6.35
  • Android 3.x Honeycomb - The first tablet-only Android update – was released, based on Linux kernel 2.6.36
  • Android 4.0.x Ice Cream Sandwich - Works with Phones, based on Linux kernel 3.0.1
  • Android 4.1.x Jelly Bean - Based on Linux kernel 3.1.10, Jelly Bean is an incremental update with the primary aim of improving the user interface, both in terms of functionality and performance.


SELinux ROM

Dell Streak 5 Kernel ROM Information

DSC

Originally Dell Streak Club kernel was renamed Dell Streak Community.


Streakdroid - DJ Steve ROM

Gingerstreak

CM7

No official release for Cyanogenmod 7 for the Dell Streak but other releases use it as part of there base.

MIUI

From the website: MIUI is one of the most popular Android ROMs in the world. It is based on Android 2.3 and 4.0, featuring better experience and richer themes. MIUI is updated every Friday based on the feedback from its users.

Baseband

  • Stock ROMs include baseband updates in them.

AMSS

DSP

  • The DSP is a "Digital Signal Processor" -- a highly customized processor designed to perform signal manipulation calculations at high speed.

Button LED Notifications

Bootloader

In literal terms, bootloader is code that is executed before any Operating System starts to run. With a locked bootloader on Android devices, it is virtually impossible to flash a Custom ROM and forced attempts void warranty as well as usually end up in bricks. Therefore, the first step is to always unlock the bootloader.

HowTo Edit Bootimages

NAND Flashing

Recovery Images

Recovery Images are just like the recovery partitions on a computer. They contain software that one can boot instead of the ROM OS. All android device ship with recovery partitions/images

The stock device has a recovery mode/software. You hit sequence of keys and it loads the software which allows you to flash the phone from a menu off the SD Card. The mods/recovery agents may also enable additional features. For example: Backup of the phone through a reboot, sequence of buttons, right to the SD card. (nandroid). They could let you install apps, themes, roms, etc before the device boots. Generally they use zip files. You can wipe lower level parts of the device, wipe caches, and mount abd share (via usb) filesystems/block devices.

It looks like the two most popular are:

  • Clockwork Mod
  • StreakMod


Multirecovery Flasher

A system utility that will flash clockwork or streakmod to the Dell Streak 5. It also does basebands.

nandroid

nandroid saves:

  • /boot (the kernel)
  • /recovery (whatever recovery was used to make nandroid)
  • /system (the bulk of the rom)
  • /data (userdata)
  • /firstboot (device data)
  • /cache (self explanitory)
  • .android_source - apps2sd information/apps stored on /sdcard

Notes

Notes

Cache2Cache

Summary: Moves Dalvik cache to actual cache partition on internal memory which really should be faster then a SD card. Espically a Class 2 SD card. Apps run faster. A user reports that a class 6 card was faster then his internal and users state that class 10 is just the cats meow and beats everything out of the water. I would run my own speed tests.

Plagirism: Your phone has three partitions, system, data, and cache. The default setup was to put the Dalvik cache in the data partition leaving the cache partition pretty much empty. (This must mean internal phone partitions) Zach found a way to move the Dalvik cache from the data partition to the cache partition freeing up space in the data partition for more apps and data. I think originally these phones would end up with about 90 megs of free space in data upon first boot. By moving the Dalvik cache to the cache partition I think most phones end up with about 150 megs in the data partition upon first boot. I am currently sitting about about 100 megs free in the data partition on xtrSENSE using cache2cache. I don't know off hand how many apps I have.

Notes

Dalvik Cache

Dalvik cache is a program cache area for the program dalvik. Dalvik is a java based virtual machine that is the bases for running your programs (the ones that have the .apk extension). In order to make access times faster (because there's not JIT (just in time) compiler installed by default), the dalvik-cache is the result of dalvik doing a optimization of the running program.

SD-EXT/Apps2EXT

It looks like you can create a ext2 partition which allows you to move more of an applicant to an SD card.

Partition Layout

Internal:

  • /boot
    • its the boot partition. Bootloader, kernel, and ramdisk. Lots of warnings that if you wipe you should install one before rebooting phone or you will brick it. (perm?) Would the device be accessable via adb? ROMs can have /boot partitions in them.
  • /system
    • Contains OS and pre installed applications (ROM)
  • /recovery
    • Devices recovery, clockwork, streakmod. The recovery partition.
  • /data
    • Apps, settings, contacts, etc. Factory reset wipes this partition.
  • /cache
    • Application cache
  • /misc
    • Contains low level settings. Carrier ID, Region ID, USB Settings, hardware,

SDCard:

  • /sdcard
    • Usually that external SD card that you pop into your device. Sometimes the device has an internal SD card that is mounted as such and the external SD card is mounted as /sdcard/sd or /sdcard2. Where you store your stuff. Documents. Stuff. Apps store settings here sometimes.
  • /sd-ext
    • This is a custom partition created by the user that can be utilized by an app or ROM that moves applications to the linux ext partition. You can have many many apps if you do this. It is basically an additional partition on your SD card that acts as the /data partition when used with certain ROMs that have special features called APP2SD+ or data2ext enabled.

If you make one: Custom EXT partition?

Do not forget about SD card.

Device Structure

Location breakdown: 

   NAND: <everything on the partition layout above, including the below>
       /system
       /firstboot
       boot.img
       recovery.img
       amss.mbn
       appsboot.mbn
       dbl.mbn
       dsp1.mbn
       fsbl.mbn
       osbl.mbn
       DT.img
   The innerSD
       /data
       /cache
   Modem storage (lock state)
   Device unique data (IMEI and Service tag)
   RTC (the clock)


Notes

Security

  • Google sandboxes applications. They must request permissions to access parts of the phone.
    • Interapplication communication may bypass this
  • Applications can access images!?!?
  • Applications have ability to report location of WIFI access points, build databases containing the physical locations of hundreds of millions of such access points



Apps found in Travels

  • Droidwall - iptables frontend
  • Cache cleaner NG - Cleans cache at will and on a schedule - Has been reported to clear some errors from bad updates and things.
  • S2E(simple2ext) - moves and configures applications to use a custom ext partition (works with cyanogenmod7 and cyanogenmod9)
  • TaintDroid - An academic research-funded project, can, in some cases, detect when personal information is being sent from applications to remote servers

Need to be compiled into kernel

Notes

Hardware Repair/Teardown

Inner SD Card

Tools

General Terminology

  • Softbank ROMS - they merely patch existing files instead of wiping and reinstalling everything like normal ROMS.
  • Fastboot - Fastboot is an executable that runs on your PC and communicates with your Streak. Fastboot commands are typed into a command window (remember the DOS command line?). Before you do anything else get fastboot mode working. You must be able to get your Streak connected to your PC in fastboot mode to mode.
  • OTA - Over The Air

Notes

Forum Post

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