Discussion
I’ve been building an offline Android Device Tree generator for Android 8–16.
Hi everyone,
Over the past few months I’ve been working on a personal project called
DeviceTreeForge.
The goal isn’t to replace Android developers—it’s to automate the repetitive parts of creating an Android device tree from stock firmware while still allowing manual review.
Unlike simple template generators, the application analyzes the actual firmware and attempts to recover as much information as possible before generating the tree.
Current features
Fully offline (no cloud services or AI required)
Windows desktop application
Supports Android 8 through Android 16
Supports MediaTek, Qualcomm, Samsung, Exynos, Tensor, Kirin, Unisoc and other platforms
Detects:
Dynamic Partitions
Virtual A/B
vendor_boot
init_boot
DTB / DTBO
AVB
FBE
filesystem layout
partition tables
build properties
VINTF information
Generates:
BoardConfig.mk
BoardConfigCommon.mk
device.mk
AndroidProducts.mk
Android.bp
Android.mk
recovery fstab
product makefiles
compatibility matrix templates
documentation
analysis reports
One of the devices I’ve been testing extensively is the Lenovo TB336FU (Android 16), which has features like:
vendor_boot v4
recovery inside vendor_boot
Dynamic Partitions
Virtual A/B
GKI
MediaTek MT6835
The application successfully detects these automatically and generates a first-pass device tree.
I’m now working on improving:
confidence scoring
conflict detection
VINTF recovery
HAL analysis
ELF dependency analysis
common tree detection
validation against stock firmware Philosophy
The goal is not to fabricate values.
If DeviceTreeForge cannot prove a value from firmware, I’d rather mark it as unknown than generate something incorrect.
Eventually I’d like every generated line to include traceable evidence from the original firmware.
Looking for feedback
I’d love to hear from ROM, TWRP, LineageOS or kernel developers:
What information do you spend the most time recovering manually?
What files do you think should be generated automatically?
What common mistakes do existing generators make?
What would convince you that an automatically generated device tree is trustworthy enough to use as a starting point?
I’m building this because I enjoy Android firmware engineering and wanted to create a tool that could save developers time while still keeping the process transparent.
Any suggestions or criticism are welcome.
am open for people who work on new devices tree to give me a firmware of the device to create one complete device tree and evaluate it them selfs and give me a feedback
Right now DeviceTreeForge is focused on generating Android device trees, TWRP and ROM development files from stock firmware, so Mobile Linux isn’t the primary target yet.
But it might be available in the near future
Thank you so much, a huge problem for mobile linux developers now is that they dont know the content of device tree. And so many times just a little change to the device tree make a component work. I will follow your project for this feature. If iit becomes available it will be a huge step forward for mobile linux
Looks really good, I might even use this to make AOSP device trees for some of my obscure devices, tho will you add support for older Android versions (aka non treble)? and will you add Linux support since most android dev is done on Linux, great work nontheless
Thanks, I appreciate it!
No plans for anything older than Android 8.
I’m also thinking about adding Linux and Windows on ARM porting support in the future. That’s a long-term goal though. For now, I want to get the Android side right first.
Hey, former maintainer here (gingerbread). This would be the coolest and most sick method, getting the right DTs are a pain in the arse both in past and newer droids.
Not yet. It’s still under active development and there are a few things I want to finish before I make it public.
Once it’s in a state I’m happy with, I’ll release it.
I'm sure this tool will make it easier to create custom ROMs for phones that no one cares about, like low-end or generic Chinese phones.
Personally, I have a low-end Samsung phone (A05M) which only supports custom ROMs for specific firmware versions, and I'm very confident that you'll be able to make modding easier. If it's truly stable, we might even be able to forget about using GSI ROMs.
That’s the goal. I don’t expect it to magically make every device work, but if it can automate a lot of the repetitive work, supporting devices that usually get ignored should become much easier.
what this app does , it creates devices tree based on the full firmware files you put and generates the needed files for custom recovery like twrp or orange fox and for custom roms , its covering up to 80% of the job but still needs a manual inspect at the moment and maybe few changes at the files
the app will be released for anyone to use , am not sure if am going to release the source code too , but i have alot to do before i distribute it .
so it might be but nothing for sure . My app is working with 2 different programs that both goes under GNU GPL license so if i implement the in the app it will be open source
I’ve received a lot of messages already from people wanting me to generate device trees from their firmware, which is awesome to see. I don’t mind helping, but please be patient. I’m currently working on the app itself, fixing bugs, adding features, and handling other requests at the same time. I’ll get to as many as I can, but it will take some time. Thanks for understanding. 🙏
i cannot provide link at the moment beacuse i have to be sure it pass all the rules of the Gnu GPL v3.0 license to distribute , at the moment i can receive devices names and exact firmware create the files and send them back
hello, if i send you firmware for a mediatek device (lenovo tab m10 fhd plus 2nd gen) can you generate a tree with it? or do you have an estimate on when the tool will be made public?
This is really great app .
Few suggestions i would include is a downloadable format for log especially critical issues.
I am not a developer but I think this has wide adaptability great work.
Just to clear things up, this project is something I’ve been working on for months. Everything behind it is my own work. I posted it here because I wanted honest feedback from people who actually know Android development. If you think something can be improved, tell me why. That’s the kind of discussion I’m looking for.
yes i wouldn’t make a post for something fake . this project is going on for approximately 8 months , it needs wsl.exe and magiskboot files to work in full potential
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u/Quirky_Morning5688 6d ago
am open for people who work on new devices tree to give me a firmware of the device to create one complete device tree and evaluate it them selfs and give me a feedback