Author: chris

A “friend” of mine asked me if I could fix his HP Touchpad. It was stuck in an endless bootloop after he had tried to flash an Android r,om. He didn’t provide me any detalis regarding what he had done and what tools he used to flash android , moboot (bootloader for dual booting webos and android) and various other things. Moboot presented me 5 different options at the first boot-up:

• Boot Web-OS
• Boot Android
• Boot WebOS Recovery
• Boot TWRP-Recovery

WebOS and TWRP-Recovery were the only working options. Everything else resulted in a bootloop.

In situations where the previously applied procedures are unknown it’s always the best to start from scratch. That meant:

1. restore the touchpad to its original state (WebOS only)
2. install twrp-recovery and moboot
3. flash android

First road-block: restoring the touchpad

Trying to restore the Touchpad with WebOSDoctor always falied at 8%. It turns out that the usb-storage somehow got completely corrupted. Source

In order to restore the usb storage completely (in case the sdcard cannot be mounted as the underlying lvm has been destroyed) the physical volume needs to be recreated

Preqrequisites

• Novacom
• Novaterm
• Recovery image
• WebOS Doctor v.3.0.0
• WebOS Doctor v.3.0.5 (optional)

Initial Setup

1. Install Novacom driver and extract novaterm to novacom’s install folder
2. Open a command prompt and navigate to your Palm, Inc folder (usually \Program Flies\Palm, Inc)
3. Move the recovery uImage to the Palm, Inc folder.
4. Boot your Touchpad into recovery (Power + Volume Up from power off)
5. In that command prompt, run

   novacom boot mem:// < nova-installer-image-topaz.uImage

6. Once running, the HP logo will appear on the touchpad. Now you should be able to connect to the touchpad with novaterm
   
7. A prompt starting with:

   root@webOS device

   should appear

8. Run the following commands in ORDER
   (!Important!: they are case sensitive)

    #completely erase the lvm and recreate the physical volumes
   
   dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk0p14 bs=1024 count=1000
   lvm.static pvcreate /dev/mmcblk0p14
   
   #For 32GB Touchpads only
   
   lvm.static vgscan --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgremove store
   lvm.static vgscan --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgcreate -s 8M store /dev/mmcblk0p14
   lvm.static vgscan --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 71 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 0 -n root store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 8 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 1 -n var store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 2 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 2 -n update store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 3 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 3 -n log store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 32 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 4 -n mojodb store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 17 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 5 -n filecache store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 3523 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 6 -n media store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 64 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 7 -n swap store
   lvm.static vgscan --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure
   mkdosfs -f 1 -s 64 /dev/store/media
   
   #For 16GB Touchpads only
   
   lvm.static vgscan --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgremove store
   lvm.static vgscan --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgcreate -s 8M store /dev/mmcblk0p14
   lvm.static vgscan --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 71 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 0 -n root store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 8 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 1 -n var store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 2 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 2 -n update store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 3 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 3 -n log store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 32 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 4 -n mojodb store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 17 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 5 -n filecache store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 1618 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 6 -n media store
   lvm.static lvcreate -l 64 -i 1 -M y --major 254 --minor 7 -n swap store
   lvm.static vgscan --ignorelockingfailure
   lvm.static vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure
   mkdosfs -f 1 -s 64 /dev/store/media 
   
   

9. When done, reboot the Touchpad into recovery (Power + Center/Home until the screen is off, then Power + Volume UP)
10. Run WebOS Doctor 3.0.0 (this is to ensure a repartioning and no other version will work at this point)

Optional steps to upgrade to WebOS 3.0.5

11. When WebOS Doctor is complete, hold down Power + Center, and when the screen turns off, immediately hold power and Volume up to reboot into recovery again
12. As soon as the USB icon appears again, run WebOS Doctor 3.0.5
13. WebOS Doctor will automatically reboot your Device and after a while the following screen should appear (remark: the first boot-up can take quite a while)

Flashing Multi-Boot Loader & Android

Preparing the files

1. Download the following CM-10 Package: Cyanogenmod 10 Jelly Bean (CM10-2013/04/18) cminstall package and extract it
2. Attach the HP Touchpad with your PC with the usb cable and place it into MTP – Mode
3. Transfer the extracted “cminstall” folder into the internal storage (e.g. /sdcard/cminstall) of your HP Touchpad
   Make sure that the folder is called cminstall

Installation

1. As soon as the files are on the HP Touchpad, reboot the Touchpad into WebOS Recovery (USB – Mode)
   First disconnect the usb cable from PC (windows: green icon to eject the external drive)
   In WebOS reboot the device:
   –> Settings –> Device Info –> Reset Options –> Restart
2. As soon as the screen goes dark: Hold down the volume up button until you enter the WebOS Recovery mode (in case you miss it, reboot and try again)
   

On your PC:

3. Open a command prompt and change to the “Palm Inc.” directory in “Program Files”

   cd "c:\Program Files\Palm. Inc\"
   

4. Start the acmeinstaller to install cm10:

   novacom.exe boot mem:// 

5. While Cyanogenmod is istalling you will see lines of text scrolling on the HP Touchpad informing you about the current operation the installer is performing.
   Once this is completed the Touchpad will automatically reboot and you will be greeted by the moboot bootloader menu and Cyanogenmod will automatically boot for the first time.
   
   Remark: to switch between WebOS and Android, reboot the device and press volume up button as soon as the moboot screen appears (to interrupt the automatic timeout) and select the OS you would like to boot.