• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

[Verizon] 4.2 Photosphere Camera for Verizon 4.1

D

dhworph

Android Enthusiast
Maybe I am late to the game, but if you want the 4.2 photosphere camera on your stock Gnex while you patiently wait for the official 4.2+ OTA, here you go...

Here is the original thread where I get the info from: Jelly Bean 4.2 Camera.

I found these instructions to work for me. Credits to Windfrenzy.

I had some problems and discovered that the zip file wasn't zipaligned, and others in the thread simply couldn't get it to work. But I have it working fine now. The only bug I have is that photos in teh gallery appear out of order.

===
Instructions:
1. Make a nandroid (and save it on your computer, at least thats what I always do)
2. install zip with custom recovery
3. reboot
4. Enjoy the new camera
===
Alternative Instructions:
1. Use a root file browser with your system folder mounted as writable and go to /system/lib/ and rename libjni_mosaic.so to libjni_mosaic.so-bak
2. Extract the three lib files from the zip and place them in /system/lib/
3. Change the permissions of those 3 lib files to -rw-r--r--
4. Go to /system/app/ and rename GalleryGoogle.apk, GalleryGoogle.odex, GmsCore.apk, and GmsCore.odex to GalleryGoogle.apk-bak, GalleryGoogle.odex-bak, GmsCore.apk-bak, and GmsCore.odex-bak
5. Extract GalleryGoogle.apk and GmsCore.apk from the zip and place them in /system/app/
6. Change the permissions of the freshly extracted GalleryGoogle.apk and GmsCore.apk to -rw-r--r--
7. Reboot and enjoy
(8.) You may need to wipe Dalvik cache from recovery, and possibly cache as well. And you will get the "android is upgrading... optimizing apps" thing on boot.
===

Original flashable zip is in the OP. I found that to not be zipalaigned, whether it really wasn't or it was some error of my own, here is a zipaligned flashable camera zip in this post. ***Flash at your own risk! And backup, backup, backup!!!

You can read all about the trials and tribulations of myself and others in the linked thread, but long story short, I ended up having to do a factory reset (from stock android settings menu) to get my camera to come back after playing with kernels and some other internal settings, which I don't think were related to this camera. A nandroid was not able to restore this camera... weird, something funny in my data or cache, that a factory reset fixed.

Credits to dmmarck and mariusox!
 
Good info. However I was able to install it just fine with my Sourcery 3.2 ROM in their Sourcery tools app. I have the "4.2Camera.zip" file that worked flawlessly for me.

That said, what I mean is that once I get over the finicky driver situation, I can pull the "4.2Camera.zip" from my sdcard and put it up in my collection linked in my sig.
 
Ya, I'm on Sourcery now, but this zip works on stock 4.1.1 verizon. I wonder if it would work if one just pulled the camera files from a 4.2 lte rom and put it on stock 4.1... or are they just the exact same files that are in this zip?
 
I am pretty sure the 4.2camera.zip will work on any 4.1.x ROM, but I also think it includes moire than just the camera as my gallery has changed a bit too.

Like I said, I have the file on my phone, but can't get the MTP drivers to install for the life of me to pull it off and check it out/post it.
 
Ah i see, is good for any 4.1 ROM, but is specific to the vzw version i think. I think the camera and gallery are one in the same app: GalleryGoogle.apk. i think the gmscore.apk is Google play services.
 
dhworph said:
Ah i see, is good for any 4.1 ROM, but is specific to the vzw version i think. I think the camera and gallery are one in the same app: GalleryGoogle.apk. i think the gmscore.apk is Google play services.
Click to expand...

Yes, now that I finally got part of my driver issue solved and was able to pull the "4.2Camera.zip" file from my phone; the main file is "GalleryGoogle.apk". I don't know why one would need to mess with or worry about "gmscore.apk", it is not part of the hack, nor included within the file I will link. My new gallery will display the 'sphere' pictures (and all my other pictures) just fine and in order. If you have some problems with the gallery, it may be due to modding the gmscore.apk?

Since this is posted in the VZW ATR Section, I would of course suggest that it is specific to the VZW GNex.

So for what it's worth, I pulled and placed the flashable zip file here:

http://ted.servepics.com/gnex/4.2Camera.zip

And looking at the updater-script file, it removes "Gallery2.apk" just like the instructions in the link you posted here suggest doing:

Jelly Bean 4.2 Camera - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com

The only thing is that also within the 'updater-script' file, the whole thing is 'Sourcery' branded so as far as credits for this mod, there may be a gray area that I will not go into.

As far as whether the file I posted is zip aligned or not, my brief research into zip aligning has made me see that it can be a good thing but can also cause the file to not work sometimes, so I take an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to that.

Finally, I guess I can say that if anyone comes along later (the readers) and wants to try this mod, make sure you follow the flashing instructions in the OP of this thread:
Code: 
Instructions:
1. [B]Make a nandroid [/B]<snip>
2. install zip with custom recovery
3. reboot
4. Enjoy the new camera
but the link to the file is much easier found right here in this post rather than the 'follow the link' trail. No offense meant about that dhworph.
 
teddyearp said:
... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to that.
Click to expand...

Good policy! However I tend to mess with things that I shouldn't mess with... lol I even odexed the 4.2 camera on my phone (and it did still work!).

teddyearp said:
...but the link to the file is much easier found right here in this post rather than the 'follow the link' trail. No offense meant about that dhworph.
Click to expand...

The original modders from the thread I linked didn't want people re-posting it as they wanted to track the downloads.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom