General info

This page will describe, how to install CM7 (Gingerbread) for gen7 and gen8 on your archos. It will also give some tips and tricks to get the most out of it. This page will be changing depending on new releases of the CM7 image.

So if there is a new release, always check back in here to see the changes.

NOTE: You must have completed first with success: setting up multiroot gen7 or setting up multiroot gen8

Installing Gingerbread image

NOTE: Releases are identified by animal names, the latest one now is Degu.

NOTE: Be sure to have the latest zImage and initramfs.cpio.gz flashed for Degu. See setting up multiroot gen7 or setting up multiroot gen8

NOTE: You will need to have the original firmware installed, we copy some libs and drivers from the original firmware. We can't include them, because of license issues. The image will not boot and hang on the openaos bootscreen when original firmware isn't installed.

This section will describe how you need to add the Gingerbread image file which can be downloaded from  gen7 or  gen8

Important change since Bull RC2: system and user data are on separate images now. You must download genX_data.img.tar.bz2, extract one of the images from there, rename it to data.img and put it to the root of your Archos internal memory. There are 3 images in the archive, 256MB, 512MB and 1GB. Choose the size you like. If you don't do this, 256MB image will be created, but first boot will take much longer.

Download:  gen7_data.img.tar.bz2 and  gen8_data.img.tar.bz2

  1. Connect your Archos to your PC with the USB cable.
  2. Go into recovery by holding down the "volume down" button and switch on your archos. Keep the button pressed until you see the white recovery menu. Goto (on gen8) "Recovery system" --> "Repair System" --> "Start USB MSC". Goto (on gen7) "Developer Edition Menu" --> "Access HDD using a PC". Your Archos internal memory will now be mounted on your PC. Note: On gen7 you may need the ext3 driver to access your archos on windows see setting up multiroot gen7
  3. Download the Gingerbread image file and copy it to the root of your Archos internal memory. No unpacking just copy it.
  4. Rename the file to "openaos-gingerbread.img.gz". Note: Be sure to use all small letters, just exactly as it is mentioned.
  5. Extract and copy data.img to the root of your Archos internal memory. This step is only needed if you want more then 256MB, 256MB data.img will be created at first boot if there isn't another data.img.
  6. Very Important: Safely umount/remove the archos from your PC.
  7. Press the power button on your Archos and select "Reboot" in the white recovery menu. Hold down again the Volume down while rebooting, so you can select SDE to boot.

Some things you need to know

  • If the openaos-gingerbread.img.gz is correctly named, it will add an entry to menu.lst which is called Gingerbread. So no need to adjust menu.lst.
  • If you for some stupid reason edited menu.lst and messed up, so it can't find the image file. Then you get a list of image files that are available from which you can choose. At the moment it will not list packed image files.

Booting Gingerbread the first time and install google apps

When you followed everything correctly you will now see the home screen of Gingerbread.

  1. First we will connect our wifi to be able to download gapps from  http://goo.im/gapps/gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip
  2. Now open the browser and look at the bookmarks. Click on the one starting with "Cyanogenmod". This will bring you to the page  http://goo.im/gapps/ with the latest google apps download.
  3. Download gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip
  4. After this just reboot your device. On reboot there is a script that will detect the zip file in download and install google apps.
  5. Once the device is started you will be prompted by the android wizard. Just complete it.
  6. Before starting the market configure system language. Make sure it's not default (Hd). Market crashes otherwise.
  7. If you are done, you can start the market.

Play videos on Gingerbread

The standard video player doesn't work yet. However there is a nice alternative which is "MX video player".

From the market install "MX Video Player" and "MX Video Player Codec (ARMv7)

For gen8 youtube app now works with hw accelerated video so will some mp4 and maybe other formats play on the standard video player.
Also on gen8 playing hw accelerated flash video in the browser should work on most pages.


FAQ about Gingerbread release

For gen7 specific

Question:

Answer:

For gen8 specific

Question: How can I boot directly into multiboot menu?

Answer: Yes there is a way to boot straight into the multiboot menu. Just remove android in the recovery menu. However then you won't be able to update stock firmware with OTA anymore. There maybe, will be a way in the future, by unpacking the original firmware like it is on gen7. We don't do that for now, because most people use windows and it is a real pain to support it then.

Question: I have an A32, but my buttons are much to big how to solve that?

Answer: Although A32 isn't officially supported by openaos gingerbread, changing the button size is very easy. Just edit /system/build.prop and change the following line. By uncommenting it and change the value to 100.

#ro.sf.lcd_density=195

to

ro.sf.lcd_density=100

Question: I have an A43, but my buttons and font are a bit too small how to solve that?

Answer: Changing the overall appearance of the interface is very easy. Just edit /system/build.prop and change the following line. By uncommenting it and change the value to 220 will give you almost the same results as on original firmware (thanks to julian67).

#ro.sf.lcd_density=195

to

ro.sf.lcd_density=220

For gen7 and gen8

Question: Where can I find known issues (tickets) for gingerbread?

Answer: Clicking on the following link will show you the Tickets overview

Question: How can I report new tickets for the gingerbread release?

Answer: Read this wiki entry first, it will explain it all. IssueTracking Note: Use component "Android 2.3" so the ticket will show up in Tickets overview

Question: How to know which release I am running?

Answer: Go to Settings --> About phone and look at the buildnumber for anoa release it should read "gen8-userdebug 2.3.5 GINGERBREAD eng.bubu.20110818"