Vegacomb, Moddedstock Installation Guide

[will765]

Thanks to SkipSkovhugger for his time and effort in putting together these instructions for installing Vegacomb and Moddedstock on the Advent Vega. Of couse, don't forget to thank TeamNewCo and TeamVillain!

Disclaimer
Before you update, you MUST be running the new moddedstock base as this increases the /system partition size to make VegaComb BETA 1.7 fit. IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS THE INSTALL WILL NOT WORK CORRECTLY AND YOU WILL SOFTBRICK YOUR VEGA!

Intro:

This will guide you thought the VegaComb installation process. It’s based on a stock Advent Vega running the official Advent 2.2 firmware, and a Windows 7 based computer.
What you need:

Software:

ModdedStock firmware: Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!
VegaComb (Look in the Tabletroms forum / Advent Tablets / Vega / Vega ROM Development section for the latest releases)
AUDI MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service
VegaTools VT4setup.exe

Hardware:

Advent Vega
USB-A to USB-A cable (included with the Vega)

Drivers:

The first thing you’ll have to do is getting the Vega recognized by your system. For this you will need the correct ADB drivers.
Download AUDI and VegaTools from the links above, and make sure that USB debugging is enabled on the Vega.
To do this, go to Settings->Applications->Development, and turn on USB debugging.
You’ll get a prompt, asking you if you really want to turn on debugging, as it’s intended for development purposes only.
Press OK to allow USB debugging, and shut down your Vega.
Launch VegaTools v4, and go to the Extras tab.
Click on the Start USBDeview in the Historic Tools group.


Once USBDeview opens, find and uninstall all nVidia devices (Right Click->Uninstall Selected Devices).
Choose Yes, when prompted to uninstall the devices.




Boot into recovery:

To do this, make sure it’s connected via USB to your computer and completely turned off! Then do the following sequence:
Hold the Back button for 2 seconds, then the Back AND Power buttons for 2 seconds and finally only the Back button for 2 more seconds.
Your Vega should now boot into recovery (you can see the backlight turning on, but nothing comes up on screen) and Windows will find a new unknown device called APX, but it won’t have any drivers for it yet.


Then start AUDI by Right clicking, and choosing Run as Administrator (the program will not start unless it’s being run with elevated privileges).


Once AUDI has started, choose the “I want to install the Advent “stock ROM” using recovery” option.
The red box at the bottom should now say
“The recovery driver is NOT correctly installed. Proceed to step 3”
Press the Next step button.


With the Step 3 options now available, let’s quickly run through the options.
Part A gives me an unhandled exception, but its main purpose is to make a restore point.
You can do this manually, by right clicking Computer and choosing Properties.
Press the System Protection option in the left-hand pane. And finally, pressing the Create button on the System Protection tab.

Part B is actually what we did in AUDI earlier, but might cause the computer to reboot.

So proceed to press the “Part C: Install correct driver” button, and in the prompt choose “Just get on with it. Do it for me!” and click the Do it button.

Windows will not tell you it’s not a signed driver, and ask you if you want to install them anyway. And of course you’ll want to do this.
Once it’s done, you will get a confirmation popup. Just press OK, to close it.


Your drivers are now installed, and AUDI will have a big green box at the bottom, instead of a red one.
This means that the drivers are installed, and the Vega is recognized by Windows.

Installing ModdedStock:

Now you’re ready to install the ModdedStock firmware, with the revised partitioning scheme, that lets you run VegaComb.
If you haven’t downloaded it yet, do so now from this link (URL).
Once you’ve got it downloaded, just run the VegaModdedStock_v1.10_v2.exe file as Administrator.


The program will now extract its content, and start a command prompt with nvflash, which will start sending the ModdedStock ROM to your Vega.


Your Vega will power on its screen, and will show “Entering nvflash recovery mode / nv3p server”
Once nvflash is done, it will ask you to Press a key to continue which will just close the Command Prompt window.
You can now safely turn your Vega on. Once it is booted up, you can go into Settings->About Device and see that the Build number now reads “Advent Vega Stock 1.10 MODDED – newbe5”
Congratulations, you’ve got the ModdedStock ROM installed, and are ready for the next step VegaComb.
You can continue using this ROM, as your everyday OS on the Vega if you’d like to.
Installing VegaComb
Now we will install VegaComb. This is done through ClockWorkMod Recovery. If you’ve tried flashing an Android phone, you will be familiar with this.
You might have noticed that you have a few new Apps installed. If you open the App list, you’ll see Superuser (as it’s a rooted ROM), Taskmanager, iFileManager and Recovery.
The Recovery app is the interesting one, as it lets you boot into ClockWorkMod Recovery, where we will flash to VegaComb.
So proceed to download VegaComb if you haven’t done so already. And place it in the root of your SD card.

Once that’s done, open the Apps list, and press the Recovery app.
That will reboot your Vega, and make it enter ClockWorkMod Recovery (CWM).
If you haven’t used CWM before, the controls are pretty simple. You go up and down, with the Volume rocker buttons. Enter a menu with the Power Button, and go back with the Back button.

If you jumped the gun, and pressed the Recovery App, before placing the VegaComb-BETA1.7.zip file on the SD card. Don’t worry, go into the Mounts and storage menu and choose Mount USB storage.
Your computer will now have a Removable Disk available.
You can now do a NANDROID backup from CWM. It is recommended that you do this.
So navigate to the Backup and restore menu. Choose Backup and let CWM do its thing.
This backup, will be placed on your SD Card!
I’d recommend backing that up to your computer as well, but do NOT rename the generated file. As the NANDROID backup process generated an MD5 checksum. If you rename the file, one it’s on your computer. You won’t be able to use it as a restore image.

Flashing VegaComb:

Now that you’ve copied the VegaComb .zip file to the SD card, and made a Nandroid backup. It’s time to do the final steps to flash VegaComb.

• First, choose “wipe data/factory reset” and navigate down to the “Yes – delete all user data” option, and press the Power button.
• Then choose “wipe cache partition” and navigate down to the “Yes – delete all user data” option, and press the Power button.
• Next, choose “advanced” and then “Wipe Dalvik Cache” and navigate down to the “Yes – delete all user data” option, and press the Power button.
• Now press the Back button, to return to the main menu of CWM. Navigate to “install zip from sdcard”
• Then choose “toggle signature verification” to make sure it’s Disabled!
• Now select the “choose zip from sdcard” option
• Select the VegaComb .zip file (the name obviously changes with whatever version you're flashing) from the menu, and navigate down to the “Yes – delete all user data” option, and press the Power button.

You are now flashing VegaComb to your Vega!
Once that’s done, the screen will read Install from sdcard complete.
You can now use the Back button to return to the main menu of CWM, and choose the “reboot system now” option.
That’s it. Your Vega will now boot into VegaComb, and present you with the home screen.

By the way, all credit for this guide goes to SkipSkovhugger, who created it. Please don't thank me, instead thank him(he has posts right below).

[kinobe]

Fantastic guide. Cheers.

I find that gettings into recovery mode easier if I hold the buttons for 1 second, not 2. Like this:
Back : count "0" - "1"
Back+Power : count "0" - "1"
Back : count "0" - "1"

I guess a lot of people count 1 - 2 instead, but either way it's 1 second not 2. Hope this helps - I've struggled for ages counting 0 - 1 - 2 and getting nowhere

Edit: I've actually experimented a lot more on this see post #8 below ...

[SkipSkovhugger]

Hey Kinobe, thanks mate, glad you like it
I actually didn't have any problems booting it into recovery, using 2 seconds (and I don't just count fast :P).
I've just tried with one second, as you suggested and indeed, it works just as well.

Bill, I've uploaded the pictures to my Photobucket account.
I don't know if you'll want to give me moderation powers in this sub-forum. Or just the URL's to the pictures, so you can insert them yourself.

Let me know, so we can finish the guide

[docck]

Very good work!
Everything is clear and precise. If you do not mind, I'll translate it into Russian for Russian-speaking forum posting on (of course, with reference to the real author and a link to the original text).

[SkipSkovhugger]

docck, I don't mind at all. If anything, just wait a bit and the guide will have pictures aswell.
As long as credit and a link here is given

[newbe5]

Thanks for the work! Stickied!