How to make your custom Android ROM – The Prerequisites (part 1)

First of all, this is an experiment tutorial explaining how i complete compilation of Android source on a gentoo. The purpose of this serie of article is to provide a step-by-step way to create your own custom ROM for android.

I own a HTC Magic 32B (Google branded) so the tests i will perform is intended to work on this specific platform.

As you know, it can be risky to modify your Android ROM with a custom one. You’re warn ! I am not responsible of possible deterioration of your terminal !

So, let’s begin !

Part 1 – The Prerequisites (for Gentoo)

You may read the Official documentation located here : http://source.android.com/download.

Let’s start with dependencies installation,

emerge git gnupg
emerge "<dev-java/sun-jdk-1.6"
emerge flex bison gperf libsdl esound wxGTK
emerge zip unzip curl zlib readline

Android does not compile with JDK-1.6 so we have merged a JDK-1.5, let’s configure your system to use it.

eselect java-vm list
  [1]   sun-jdk-1.5
  [2]   sun-jdk-1.6  system-vm
eselect java-vm set user sun-jdk-1.5

or

eselect java-vm set user 1

Now you need to refresh your environment :

sudo env-update && source /etc/profile

Environment is now ready let’s try to compile android system : How To make your custom Android ROM – Compiling the system (part 2)