2/28 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/500
 

I've made a custom rootfs where more buttons are working and the home button works the way I like, and I figured I'd share it in case anyone else likes things the same way as me.

At the moment this works for the Rhod210, Rhod400 and Rhod500.

This rootfs has the home button/end button setup that XDAndroid originally had, which in my opinion made a lot more sense. Power both powers on and goes to home, while end call both ends call and powers off. This is in contrast to the current XDAndroid setup, where by default you've got no home button, and you have to muck around in Spare Parts to make end call take you home, and most importantly you lose the key Android feature of easy multi-tasking because you can no longer hold the home button to switch between tasks.

This is an altered version of the base XDAndroid rootfs. To install it, all you have to do is copy mine over your current rootfs.img.

Summary of changes from default rootfs:

• Power: Power on / Home
• Power Long Press: Switch between recent programs
• End Call: Power off / End call
• End Call Long Press: Android power menu
• Rear Mute: Call mute (works on both speaker and non-speaker calls)
• Envelope (Mailbox on Rhod500) on the keyboard: @
• Fn-C on the keyboard: ^C (Ctrl-Break is useful for terminal emulators)
• SMS/MMS (Star on Rhod500, not present on Rhod210) on the keyboard: Search (thanks to F22 for the idea)
• Symbol on the keyboard (above comma on Rhod210 & Rhod400) brings up Android symbol menu (thanks to F22 for the tip)
• Ctrl on the keyboard on Rhod210 only is DPad Center, which most Android apps that use Ctrl such as terminal emulators understand as Ctrl (thanks to F22 for the tip)
• Fn-Space on the keyboard: tab (useful for ssh clients)
• No buttons other than Power and sliding open the keyboard will wake the phone (thanks to MassStash for the idea)

Having a search button on the keyboard is really cool, because that's also the Android shortcut button.

You can customize app shortcuts under Settings => Application => Quick Launch, but here are the default shortcuts:

• Search + b: Browser
• Search + c: Contacts
• Search + e: Email
• Search + g: Gmail
• Search + l: Calendar
• Search + m: Maps
• Search + p: Music
• Search + s: Messaging

Changelog:
2/28:
Added a second rootfs (20110224-3dd92b8) for GBX that enables screen rotation
2/10:
Updated base rootfs.img to 20110210-2cb7ec0, which includes a fix for a memory leak
2/9:
Updated base rootfs.img to include system server bug fix
1/31:
Added tab
1/30:
Added Rhod210 support
1/28:
Fixes for Rhod500
1/27:
Added Rhod500 support
1/25:
Symbol key above comma now works
Moved ctrl-break to fn-C
1/23:
Original version

There are two rootfs images attached, one for GBX users, and one for everyone else.

Re: Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod400
 

Great Job!

Thank you for sharing!

Re: Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod400
 

:headbang: nice work :headbang:

Re: Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod400
 

thanks for this...i was hoping that this would come back because I liked how I was able to see my recent programs and with between them.....great work man thnx :)

Re: Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod400
 

I do hope you keep up with this. Awsome idea. Does this work with tiad8's builds AND frx04? You've been thanked.

Re: Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod400
 

Yes, it should work with any current build including tiad8's I believe. I do plan on maintaining this going forward. Thanks for the support!

Re: 1/25 Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod40
 

I updated my rootfs and updated the download link.

Changelog:
1/25:
Symbol key above comma now works
Moved ctrl-break to fn-C

Don't know what I was thinking with that fn-Envelope for ^C thing, fn-C makes so much more sense.

The Android symbol page that comes up when you press symbol is shockingly poor. It has so few symbols to choose from it's almost useless. Still, I'm a sucker for perfectionism, so one more key working the way it should is one more key working the way it should! :mrgreen:

Re: 1/25 Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod40
 

Okay this might be an ignorant post, but I have a RHOD500 and using the latest Tiad's compliation of Froyo. I tried this rootfs and my top button above the screen when held doesn't bring up the recent app list. Am I just simply missing that this won't work on a Verizon RodiumW? Thanks! If I could get this to work I'd be thrilled, but nice work anyways if it's just for RHOD400.

Re: 1/25 Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod40
 

As stated in my post, this only works at the moment on the Rhod400, but if people are interested, I could add Rhod500 support when I have time.

Is this an accurate image of your keyboard?
http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/...uch_pro2_3.jpg

Re: 1/25 Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod40
 

Yep, that is the exact keyboard I have. The other differences to note is that on the Verizon Touch Pro 2: the end call key is also the power button. Top button is just screen off/sleep in Windows Mobile.

I was actually totally okay with the original XAndroid button configuration: top button (Home and recent apps) and call end key also just being the power key.

Thanks for the help!

Re: 1/25 Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod40
 

Okay, I have a test version for a Rhod500 user to try.

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

I need someone to tell me if all the keys are functioning as expected. Buttons to try are:

• Power on/home
• Power off/End call
• Rear mute for in call muting
• SYM for opening the symbols page
• Mailbox for @
• Star for search
• Nothing wakes other than the power on button and sliding open the keyboard

Re: 1/25 Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod40
 

This is awesome! It is working on my Verizon TP2 just as I would have hoped for.

The most important functions work perfectly:

End call = ends call and I got it set in Spare parts for sleep
Top button = Home, Recent (held), and wake

Not as important to me, but just wanted to let you know what they are doing:
SYM = @
Mail = Search
Star = nothing
Rear mute = works as intended

Just incredible, thanks!

Re: 1/25 Custom rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home button for Rhod40
 

Thanks for the feedback, I think I got the SYM, Mail, and Star keyboard keys fixed. If you or another Rhod500 user could test that'd be cool:
MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

Oh and by the way, you shouldn't have to set end call to do anything in Spare Parts. Default works perfectly to sleep.

Hey, this sounds pretty cool. Can you do a setup for rhod210? In addition to the envelope key and SYM key, can you make the Ctrl key work as Ctrl?

Sent from my FROYO X using Tapatalk

Re: 1/28 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home CDMA TP2 ONLY
 

Here you go, I added rhod210 compatibility!
test version

Here's how I set it up:

• Power and home and end call are setup like on the others, and power is the only button that will wake the phone
• Be sure to check that rear mute for in call muting works, since the official keymap file was setup a little different for this one for the Rhod210
• Envelope for @
• SYM above comma opens the symbols page
• Ctrl is set to pressing the center button in the dpad (which we don't have on our TP2's). Android apps that use Ctrl such as terminal emulators generally interpret this as Ctrl. In a way, I think this might be better as a search button, since the hotkeys with the keyboard are pretty sweet. But since it's labeled Ctrl and you asked for Ctrl you got Ctrl.

Be sure to let me know if everything is working as it should!

Re: 1/30 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Ok, Ctrl works (terrific!), and Envelope works for @. Alt-Sym doesn't bring up the symbol menu for me. (But I've only tried in Connectbot, not Terminal, dunno if they would behave differently.)

That is, Alt-comma is where "Sym" is, for me it just gives a comma. And not sure if it's worth anything, but Alt-period is "SMS" for me - is it worth mapping this to Search like the other keyboards?

Re: 1/30 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

That's pretty puzzling to me. Can you bring up a regular Android app that has a text box, like Search, and try and press Alt-comma to bring up Sym? I double checked and it's already set to that.

Unfortunately, due to the way Google wrote Android, it's not possible to set Search to an Alt-'something else' key. It's either on its own keyboard key or nothing.

I assume everything else worked fine like home right?

Re: 1/30 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

manekineko great work man

works perfectly on my rhod400

Thanks

Re: 1/30 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Nice work manekineko. Anyway to create a tab key? As you know, the tab key is good for navigating web forms and is good if you use the terminal app to complete filename/directory name under Linux.

Re: 1/30 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Good idea! Uploaded a new version and added tab as fn-space for all supported devices.
Download

Unfortunately, this is less useful than I had hoped. Android keyboards don't have a tab key, so Android apps are too stupid to know what to do with it. Browser will actually type in a tab in a form instead of moving to the next field. Auto-complete doesn't work in terminal emulator.

I think if you use SSH though, it should work there. Let me know if it does or doesn't. That and maybe document editing ended up being the only thing it's really useful for I think.

Re: 1/30 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Yep, everything else was great. And yeah, in a text box, Sym worked. Thanks.

Shell Feature: Auto-Complete
 

Auto-complete, as well as command line editing and history are shell dependent. If you change your shell in the terminal emulator, assuming you have another installed, they will work. If you have titanium backup installed, you probably already have busybox's ash and don't even realize it. In that case you just need to tell the terminal emulator to use it. Typing sh at the shell prompt followed by enter works if ash is installed. To permanently make ash your default shell you can change /system/bin/shell to /bin/shell under the Command line option in the preferences menu of the terminal emulator app. If you don't have ash or another sufficiently robust shell installed (there is an android version of bash floating around on xda too), then you'll have to download one.

Re: 1/30 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Yowza, great tip, works like a charm! I don't even know how I was typing commands in the terminal emulator before without tab auto-complete! \\:D/

Re: 1/31 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

This is great added functionality. Any chance of moddiing one of the kernels that has camera access? Thank you again.

Re: 1/31 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Thanks for the compliment!

I'm not involved in any kernel development so far, so probably not. What is it you'd like to see one of those kernels do?

XDAndroid work is basically in 3 parts:
1. Kernel coding development. This gets hardware working, and so is the most critical type of development at this stage, since we have so much hardware that isn't working right. This is the zImage and the module.
2. System coding development. This gets Android working right on top of hardware that is already working right, which is also very important. This is the system.ext2/rootfs.img.
3. High level system work. This is what people in WinMo refer to as cooking by the chefs, taking pre-existing stuff, and tweaking configurations and files (in system.ext2 or rootfs.img) and packaging it up without coding anything new. This is all that I've done so far.

The 3 parts are fairly independent from each other. So you can take my modified rootfs, and it works with any kernel you like, for example the camera-enabled test kernel.

Re: 1/31 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Thanks for the explanation. So I should be able to use one of the testing kernels without messing up the work you've done on the keys then, right?

Re: 1/31 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Yep, my rootfs is compatible with any kernel.

Re: 2/9 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/5
 

Updated rootfs that incorporates the latest changes that fix the system server bug! Hooray!

Re: 2/9 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/5
 

Thanks, going to try it.

Re: 2/9 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/5
 

this works great, but i had to go and set my end key to sleep in spare parts. could this be caused since i already had spare parts set to home before and just loaded the rootfs file and booted with that configuration? aside from that great work


my only request would be copy and paste as key shortcuts, but thats just cause i have it set like that in winmo, tab is nice to have for ssh though

Re: 2/9 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/5
 

Yup, your previous mapping should be the cause of that.

Unfortunately, Android is actually quite limited in the functions that can be mapped to keys, and copy and paste aren't in there. You can take a look at all possible key functions (with the exception of the special symbol key which was a trick that F22 taught me) here:
KeyEvent | Android Developers

Re: 2/10 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Updated to the latest XDAndroid base rootfs (20110210-2cb7ec0), which includes a fix for a memory leak.

Re: 2/10 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Thanks for the tab key. :)

Re: 2/10 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Love it. Any way (without major changes) to map the end key to home and app switcher and the power button to power/end call? Just seems easier for me to hit the call end button with my thumb to close/switch apps seeing as how much I use that versus shutting the phone off and ending calls. Just curious! Like I said, I love it, thanks a ton.

Re: 2/10 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Yup, try F22's rootfs, which works the way you describe:
New Rhodium Key Maps & Layouts - Latest Rootfs (Feb 13th, 2011) - xda-developers

Thanks a bunch..I'll thank when I'm at a laptop! Just what I needed

Sent from my MSM using Tapatalk

Re: 2/10 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Hey manekineko, I'm going to try to play around with your rootfs and remap some button keys... for the most part I like it a lot but for whatever reason, I always press the End button to go to the home screen... I'm going to see if I can remap the sleep function back to the power button. What file(s) in rootfs.img contains the settings? Gonna mount the rootfs.img under my Ubuntu and play around with it. Thanks!

Re: 2/10 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Look under init.etc/keymaps for the files that correspond to your device. All of the files follow a certain pattern. For example, for the rhod400, these files are:
rhod400_navi_pad.kl: The name is a misnomer, this file contains layouts for the hard buttons handled by gpio.
rhod400_microp-keypad.kl: This file contains layouts for everything else, which are handled by the microp.
rhod400_microp-keypad.kcm: This file contains mappings that define what keyboard keycodes can be used by the keyboard. This one will not take effect until it is compiled into rhod400_microp-keypad.kcm.bin by the program kcm which is normally compiled as part of the AOSP. I've attached a copy compiled for 32-bit Linux in case you don't want to download and compile all of AOSP for this.

Re: 2/10 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Thanks a lot!!! Are one of the guys that ACL invited to cook up some NAND stuff? I would have love to help out but I'm just way too darn busy. :(

Re: 2/10 patched rootfs: More working keyboard keys and classic home for Rhod210/400/
 

Happy to help. I assume you meant to include a "you" in that question? :mrgreen:

The answer to that is nope, unfortunately. I'd love to take the time to delve deeper into Android in the future, but I'm pretty busy too, and at the moment, I just don't know enough to add anything useful by making my own build.

I mainly try and help every now and then by finding issues present in the main XDAndroid build and kicking back solutions if I can find them.