[Development] How to unpack & repack boot.img or recovery.img in Windows

[hovatek]

This is a step-by-step guide on how to use carliv image kitchen to unpack & repack boot.img or recovery.img. It will come in handy for those who wish to port a custom recovery

Requirements

• Download Carliv Image Kitchen depending on your PC's architecture (32 or 64 Bit)
  
• Windows PC
  

Steps to unpack and repack a recovery image (recovery.img) and boot image (boot.img)

Follow the steps below to use Carliv Image Kitchen in unpacking & repacking recovery or boot

How to unpack boot.img

1. Extract the CarlivImage Kitchen zip file into a folder on the PC
   
   
   
   
2. Copy the boot.img into the boot-resources folder
   
   
   
   
3. Go back to the root folder and double-click carliv.bat
   
   
   
   
4. Type b then press Enter
   
   
   
   
5. Type 1 then press Enter
   
   
   
   
6. Type 1 then press Enter
   
   
   
   
7. Wait till unpacking is done then press Enter
   
   
   
   
8. You should find the unpacked boot.img in the boot folder
   
   
   

How to repack boot.img

1. Go back to Carliv Image Kitchen, type 2 then press Enter
   
   
   
   
2. Wait till repacking is done then press Enter
   
   
   
   
3. You should find the repacked boot image in the output folder. You can rename it to boot
   
   
   

How to unpack recovery.img

1. Copy the recovery.img into the recovery-resources folder
   
   
   
   
2. Go back to the root folder and double-click carliv.bat
   
   
   
   
3. Type r then press Enter
   
   
   
   
4. Type 1 then press Enter
   
   
   
   
5. Type 1 then press Enter
   
   
   
   
6. Wait till unpacking is done then press Enter
   
   
   
   
7. You should see the unpacked recovery.img in the recovery folder
   
   
   

How to repack recovery.img

1. Go back to Carliv Image Kitchen, type 2 then press Enter
   
   
   
   
2. Wait till repacking is done then press Enter
   
   
   
   
3. You should see the repacked recovery image in the output folder. You can rename it to recovery
   
   
   

Important Notice

• Ensure to name the file appropriately i.e as either boot.img or recovery.img
  
• This will work for -verified.img files, just remove the -verified portion from the file name
  
• You might encounter an error unpacking signed images i.e boot-sign.img or recovery-sign.img. For such images, you first need to unsign before unpacking
  
• For images in .bin format, simply rename the extension from .bin to .img
  

[SuomiPelaajaa]

Hi, i have problem, i'm trying unpack Huawei Honor 8 (FRD-L19) boot.img, when i try unpack i just get 

Your image: boot.img

Create the boot folder.


 Android boot magic not found.
Compression used: ~1
~1file-ramdisk-compress"

Unpacking the ramdisk....

The system cannot find the batch label specified - ~1
Press any key to continue . . .

please help.

[hovatek]

Hi, i have problem, i'm trying unpack Huawei Honor 8 (FRD-L19) boot.img, when i try unpack i just get 

Your image: boot.img

Create the boot folder.


 Android boot magic not found.
Compression used: ~1
~1file-ramdisk-compress"

Unpacking the ramdisk....

The system cannot find the batch label specified - ~1
Press any key to continue . . .

please help.

It seems your boot is signed. Unsign using https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-21005.html

[abdisohad]

hi, i have problem to unpack recovery files

i get this when try unpack

"/recovery.img-ramdisk.gz: cpio: license/openaes: Cannot change mode to rwxr-xr-x: Permission denied"

what should i do next?

[X3non]

hi, i have problem to unpack recovery files

i get this when try unpack

"/recovery.img-ramdisk.gz:     cpio: license/openaes: Cannot change mode to rwxr-xr-x: Permission denied"

what should i do next?

create a new thread so we'll focus on this
see https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-514.html for how to create a thread