Drawing from the impressive work of CrashXXL in rooting our phones, jahrule in simplifying the process, and Sabissimo in developing a tutorial to bake in apps for those of us with locked bootloaders and write protected systems, I have with great effort arrived at this glorious day. I present to thee: Suicide Flash.
What is Suicide Flash? It is a collection of Bash scripts and other files which streamline and automate the process of using the Qualcomm emergency download mode (Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader) to write to the system partition on Moto phones using MSM8960 processors. It applies the method used to root these devices (see here, for example) to the task of arbitrary system modification. In other words: Suicide Flash makes it easy(ish) to modify system files for those of us who can't use traditional methods.
Code:
DISCLAIMER: This is obviously a dangerous tool. I mean, it
flashes your phone by bricking it first. Be smart. I shan't be held
responsible if your phone melts, explodes, loses all of its data,
or cheats on you with a hula dancer.
Who Can Use It?
Suicide Flash is for sure compatible with most Moto X variants. The testing has been done primarily with an XT1049, the Republic Wireless model, but has also included the XT1060 (Verizon) and should work on most/all of them. However, in theory any phone, or at least any Moto phone, using the MSM8960 chip could be compatible, such as the Droid Turbo. So to simplify:
XT1049 (Moto X Republic Wireless): Tested and working
XT1060 (Moto X Verizon): Tested and working
XT1058 (Moto X AT&T): Untested, highly likely to work
XT10XX (Any other Moto X): Untested, likely to work
Others: Untested, may work as long as they use MSM8960
How Do I Use It?
Suicide Flash (SF) consists of three main scripts: a flashing script, a package creation script, and a pushing script. Details:
suicideflash.sh: Flashes SF packages to the phone in bricked (QDLoader) mode
pkgmaker.sh: For developers. Creates SF packages from system images.
suicidepush.sh: Uses the SF system to "push" system files in an ADB-like way
To use these scripts, simply extract them to a place of your convenience. All scripts must be run from the root Suicide Flash folder. Do not run any of them from within the "scripts" folder. Also, while it may not strictly be necessary, it is best (if you are developer) to include any relevant system images in the root Suicide Flash folder, as well.
As an end user, you can download SF packages created by developers and flash them using the main Suicide Flash script. As a developer, you can pull system images and use them to create SF packages with the pkgmaker.sh script. Anyone can feel free to use the Suicide Push script to push files to their device. For more information, here are the help pages for each.
Suicide Flash:
Code:
Usage: suicideflash.sh PACKAGE
Flashes PACKAGE to the system parition of a Moto phone using Qualcomm
emergency download mode.
Options:
-h, --help displays this help message
-s, --skip skips all prompts and runs without user interaction
Created by the Nicene Nerd, whose blog at <http://www.thenicenenerd.com/> has
absolutely nothing to do with Android
Package Maker:
Code:
Usage: pkgmaker.sh [OPTION]... ORIGINALSYSTEM TARGETDEVICE REQUIREMENTS
SYSTEMOFFSET OUTPUTFILE
Creates a Suicide Flash package for writing to Moto phones via the emergency
Qualcomm download mode.
Arguments:
ORIGINALSYSTEM provides the original system image to be modded
TARGETDEVICE specifies the model of phone for the package to flash
REQUIREMENTS notes any important requirements for the phone state
prior to flashing
examples: "Stock", "Rooted", or "Rooted+Xposed"
SYSTEMOFFSET the address of the system partition on the target device
should be in hex format (i.e. 0x6420000 or 6420000)
can use value ADB to pull the offset over ABD
OUTPUTFILE the name of the Suicide Flash zip package to be created
Options:
-h, --help returns this help message
-m MODDEDSYSTEM specifies an existing modded system image
if not given, will mount original for modification
Created by the Nicene Nerd, whose blog at <http://www.thenicenenerd.com/> has
absolutely nothing to do with Android
Suicide Push:
Code:
Usage: suicidepush.sh LOCALFILE REMOTEFILE
Uses Suicide Flash to push LOCALFILE to a phone system at REMOTEFILE.
Created by the Nicene Nerd, whose blog at <http://www.thenicenenerd.com/> has
absolutely nothing to do with Android
What Do I Need to Use It?
A Linux installation
ADB
Fastboot
Rhino
Python
A package called python-serial
VirtualBox
ADB Insecure (if developing or using Suicide Push)
If you don't have some of these (except, obviously, the first one and the last one), you can run the included script install-tools.sh. It will automatically install anything you're missing.
Okay, Give Me Step-By-Step Instructions
For End Users:
Download the attached Suicide Flash zip
Extract the zip to a convenient folder and open a terminal window there
Go ahead and use sudo su
Run install-tools.sh
Download an SF package from a developer for your device
Flash the package with the command:
Code:
./suicideflash.sh DOWNLOADEDPACKAGE.zip
Profit!
For Developers:
Download the attached Suicide Flash zip
Extract the zip to a convenient folder and open a terminal window there
Go ahead and use sudo su
Run install-tools.sh
Pull a system image from your phone
Run pkgmaker.sh to create an SF package
Upload the package for the benefit of others
For Anyone, to Use Suicide Push
Download the attached Suicide Flash zip
Extract the zip to a convenient folder and open a terminal window there
Go ahead and use sudo su
Run install-tools.sh
Push files to your phone's system partition with this command:
Code:
./suicidepush.sh LOCAL_SOURCE /system/PUSH_DESTINATION
So, What Can I Do with It Right Now?
If you're a developer, you can get to work creating SF packages for your device. If you're just a plain ol' user, there's not much to be done until others chip in. I have uploaded one package as a sample and for the convenience of anyone looking to root their XT1049 and install Xposed. I will maintain a master list of uploaded packages as people make them.
XDA:DevDB Information
Suicide Flash for Moto, Tool/Utility for the Moto X
Contributors
Nicene Nerd, CrashXXL, Sabissimo
Version Information
Status: Testing
Created 2015-08-07
Last Updated 2015-08-07
Master Package List
XT1049: Republic Wireless Moto X
- root-xposed-xt1049-4.4.4.zip: Root and Xposed for XT1049. Requires stock 4.4.4 from SBF, not OTA.
- busybox-xt1049-rooted-xposed-4.4.4.zip: BusyBox for XT1049. Requires 4.4.4 rooted w/ Xposed.
XT1058: AT&T Moto X
- root-xt1058-4.4.4.zip: Root for XT1058 KitKat. Requires stock 4.4.4 from SBF, not OTA.
- xposed-xt1058-rooted-4.4.4.zip: Xposed for XT1058 KitKat. Requires rooted 4.4.4.
- root-xt1058-5.1.zip: Root for XT1058 Lollipop. Requires stock 5.1 from SBF, not OTA.
XT1060: Verizon Wireless Moto X
- root-xt1060-4.4.4.zip: Root for XT1060. Requires stock 4.4.4 from SBF, not OTA.
- xposed-xt1060-rooted-4.4.4.zip: Xposed for XT1060. Required rooted 4.4.4.
Changelogs:
08/07/2015 - v0.2
- suicideflash.sh: Increased wait period before giving error on not finding phone in emergency mode
- mountimg.sh: Fixed issue which would cause errors preventing images from mounting
- pkgmaker.sh: Added option to pull system image over ADB, improved error handling
Developer pkgmaker.sh Tutorial: Creating an Xposed Framework Package
Say you want to make a package that installs the Xposed framework, since that requires writing to /system. Here's how you would do it with Suicide Flash (assuming you have already rooted the phone):
Open a terminal window to your Suicide Flash root folder. Then sudo su.
Pull a system image. One way to do that:
Code:
adb root
adb shell dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /sdcard/originalsystem.img bs=1024
adb pull /sdcard/originalsystem.img
Run the pkgmaker script like this, assuming you're using a rooted XT1049 on 4.4.4, but you don't know the offset of the system partition, so you want to pull it via ADB. The script will be placed in output/xposed-flash-package.zip.
Code:
./pkgmaker.sh originalsystem.img XT1049 "Stock 4.4.4" ADB xposed-flash-package.zip
The script will pause when originalsystem.img is mounted for writing. As root, copy the Xposed app_process file (which you can extract from the APK if you need it) to "mnt-originalsystem.img/bin/app_process". Then press enter.
The script will continue executing, hopefully without errors.
Voila! Your package xposed-flash-package.zip is ready to upload and/or flash.
Finally!
The XT1049 has stumped me for a long time, but finally someone found a way!
Just a thought as I'm going into this, there's no mention of drivers for linux. Obviously this isn't to "user" level yet, and I wouldn't put myself too much beyond that, but it's a nice thing to include. I'll be trying it later, but are the drivers for USB/ADB the same as the emergency mode drivers? I'm kind of nervous to try because of the soft brick, and there doesn't appear to be any mention of how the flashed file that bricks it is put back. I'm assuming I can pull the original image before I flash the new one, but I'm not sure yet.
Also, if you have it tested and everything with Republic, I would appreciate a torrent or hosted file somewhere. If there isn't one before I finish, I'll post it.
---------- Post added at 09:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 PM ----------
Cindex said:
The XT1049 has stumped me for a long time, but finally someone found a way!
Just a thought as I'm going into this, there's no mention of drivers for linux. Obviously this isn't to "user" level yet, and I wouldn't put myself too much beyond that, but it's a nice thing to include. I'll be trying it later, but are the drivers for USB/ADB the same as the emergency mode drivers? I'm kind of nervous to try because of the soft brick, and there doesn't appear to be any mention of how the flashed file that bricks it is put back. I'm assuming I can pull the original image before I flash the new one, but I'm not sure yet.
Also, if you have it tested and everything with Republic, I would appreciate a torrent or hosted file somewhere. If there isn't one before I finish, I'll post it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the double post but I can't edit yet, just realized that the zip file there is all that's needed for Republic. I was going to post the ADB/USB driver setup link for linux, but I'm not allowed yet.
Cindex said:
The XT1049 has stumped me for a long time, but finally someone found a way!
Just a thought as I'm going into this, there's no mention of drivers for linux. Obviously this isn't to "user" level yet, and I wouldn't put myself too much beyond that, but it's a nice thing to include. I'll be trying it later, but are the drivers for USB/ADB the same as the emergency mode drivers? I'm kind of nervous to try because of the soft brick, and there doesn't appear to be any mention of how the flashed file that bricks it is put back. I'm assuming I can pull the original image before I flash the new one, but I'm not sure yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldn't need to do anything special for Linux drivers. It works straightforwardly as long as you have fastboot and ADB. The flashed file that creates the softbrick is included by the package maker script in every Suicide Flash package, so it is easy to unbrick. In fact, I can upload another package just for unbricking if you'd like.
Added a BusyBox package for XT1049, and added root and Xposed packages for XT1060.
Edit: also added root packages for XT1058 on both KitKat and Lollipop, plus Xposed for XT1058 KitKat.
Nicene Nerd said:
You shouldn't need to do anything special for Linux drivers. It works straightforwardly as long as you have fastboot and ADB. The flashed file that creates the softbrick is included by the package maker script in every Suicide Flash package, so it is easy to unbrick. In fact, I can upload another package just for unbricking if you'd like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's good to know, I looked around and couldn't find anything on the driver for the Qualcomm Emergency Download mode. I suppose not needing one would be why. Actually some kind of emergency package to unbrick might be good. Now that I see the script in there I don't have a problem, but someone might like it.
So now I'm wondering if I actually have to do a factory reset again, or if I can just flash the SBF file itself and not have to wipe. I'm not sure how big of a difference there is, because I did the factory restore recently and the OTA update was like 6MB or something. I wouldn't think there's be an issue flashing it rather than factory restore. Any ideas?
Also, if anyone knows a good way to do this with Virtualbox it would be a nice addition. I'm personally not going to bother since I already have a bootable Ubuntu USB, but it seems that most people would rather set up a VM with a small linux distro. If it had the tools baked in, it would make it an easy process.
Cindex said:
That's good to know, I looked around and couldn't find anything on the driver for the Qualcomm Emergency Download mode. I suppose not needing one would be why. Actually some kind of emergency package to unbrick might be good. Now that I see the script in there I don't have a problem, but someone might like it.
So now I'm wondering if I actually have to do a factory reset again, or if I can just flash the SBF file itself and not have to wipe. I'm not sure how big of a difference there is, because I did the factory restore recently and the OTA update was like 6MB or something. I wouldn't think there's be an issue flashing it rather than factory restore. Any ideas?
Also, if anyone knows a good way to do this with Virtualbox it would be a nice addition. I'm personally not going to bother since I already have a bootable Ubuntu USB, but it seems that most people would rather set up a VM with a small linux distro. If it had the tools baked in, it would make it an easy process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically, the only reason for the SBF is because when you install OTA updates, files may end up in slightly different positions depending on the circumstances. For this to work, you must start with an identical system partition to the one used for making the package. So all you need to really do is extract the system.img and flash it, if you wish. No data loss necessary.
Also, I'll look into a minimal VM. I thought about actually trying to make a Windows version of Suicide Flash. I'm not sure which I'll end up with.
So I tried this on my Ubuntu 12.04.5 last night, and it didn't recognize the device in fastboot. I'm going to try on Ubuntu 15.04 soon here. Another question for you though, which sdk do I use for XPosed? I don't seem to be able to figure it out searching all over. I would think 16, but maybe it's for Lollipop?
I think I'm going to get some of these with the OTA, it'll make it easier for the average Republic user once it's gotten going.
Cindex said:
So I tried this on my Ubuntu 12.04.5 last night, and it didn't recognize the device in fastboot. I'm going to try on Ubuntu 15.04 soon here. Another question for you though, which sdk do I use for XPosed? I don't seem to be able to figure it out searching all over. I would think 16, but maybe it's for Lollipop?
I think I'm going to get some of these with the OTA, it'll make it easier for the average Republic user once it's gotten going.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't answer your Xposed Lollipop question. I was wondering the same thing, but I ended up simply pulling the file from an existing Xposed installation. I suppose you could do the same and then diff the files to find out which is correct.
As for the OTA, that's not possible. Every time an OTA is installed, the files can end up in different places on the flash memory, and this utility requires knowing the exact locations for making changes. You'd have to make separate packages for every phone. Otherwise you'll end up with bootloops.
Has anyone tried using Suicide Push? It's slow, but I thought it would be the more celebrated part of this since it lets you do basically the same as an ADB push to the system partition. You could even install Xposed that way:
Code:
./suicidepush.sh local_app_process_file /system/bin/app_process
Nicene Nerd said:
Has anyone tried using Suicide Push? It's slow, but I thought it would be the more celebrated part of this since it lets you do basically the same as an ADB push to the system partition. You could even install Xposed that way:
Code:
./suicidepush.sh local_app_process_file /system/bin/app_process
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm still working on getting it to root. I was going to a few days ago, but my flash drive burned out. I'm going to try Ubuntu 14.04.3.
What linux distro did you use?
---------- Post added 14th August 2015 at 12:41 AM ---------- Previous post was 13th August 2015 at 11:47 PM ----------
Sorry to double post again, but I can't edit yet and have a few more things. I can't seem to be able to find a RW SBF file. I'm thinking restore from factory sounds like a good solution, but I don't know if that's the same thing.
How can I pull a system image if I'm not root? Without an SBF file, I need to package it for myself. Without root, I can't pull the system.img. I'm sure others on networks not covered yet would like to know also. Where did you get your system.img?
Also, if we can get this deep, and you can modify the bootloader, couldn't you just flash the old bootloader image and then the rest of the ROM? Then we could unlock the bootloader using older methods. We might have to flash block by block, but it should work?
Cindex said:
I'm still working on getting it to root. I was going to a few days ago, but my flash drive burned out. I'm going to try Ubuntu 14.04.3.
What linux distro did you use?
---------- Post added 14th August 2015 at 12:41 AM ---------- Previous post was 13th August 2015 at 11:47 PM ----------
Sorry to double post again, but I can't edit yet and have a few more things. I can't seem to be able to find a RW SBF file. I'm thinking restore from factory sounds like a good solution, but I don't know if that's the same thing.
How can I pull a system image if I'm not root? Without an SBF file, I need to package it for myself. Without root, I can't pull the system.img. I'm sure others on networks not covered yet would like to know also. Where did you get your system.img?
Also, if we can get this deep, and you can modify the bootloader, couldn't you just flash the old bootloader image and then the rest of the ROM? Then we could unlock the bootloader using older methods. We might have to flash block by block, but it should work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Ubuntu 14.04.
The RW 4.4.4 SBF can be found here or here. It does not appear possible to pull a system image without root. But even without permanent root, KingRoot can get you temp root long enough to pull a system image.
As for the bootloader, there's certainly a chance that this could be done. It's just so risky that I won't try it myself. If there was a single variable missed, it could easily mean hard-brick. But in theory, as far as I understand, it might work. The biggest obstacle might be partition changes. If you got the bootloader to get into fastboot mode, though, you could presumably fix that with an old SBF.
Flashing the olderer bootloader will not work (I have tried and confirmed it does not work). It is because the efuses verify the bootloader.
Wow! That's hell of a tool you've created here Awesome job! I haven't tried it myself yet, but, judging by source code, it should get the work done. More of a developer tool, ofc, but it's more then impressive Maaan, I wish there was a normal way to work with ext4 partitions to make it available on Windows))
Since you've made "push" version of it (and that's the most interesting part, longest though), the next step in future development should be doing the same with TWRP flashable zips. Some of them just put apk-s in system folder, some of them have shell scripts inside, I've yet to figure out the pattern But that would be awesome next step to this awesome project
download link not found )
theres a tool bar at top crash with download links next to discussions and screenshots
Sabissimo said:
Wow! That's hell of a tool you've created here Awesome job! I haven't tried it myself yet, but, judging by source code, it should get the work done. More of a developer tool, ofc, but it's more then impressive Maaan, I wish there was a normal way to work with ext4 partitions to make it available on Windows))
Since you've made "push" version of it (and that's the most interesting part, longest though), the next step in future development should be doing the same with TWRP flashable zips. Some of them just put apk-s in system folder, some of them have shell scripts inside, I've yet to figure out the pattern But that would be awesome next step to this awesome project
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've actually started work on a Windows version, but it's on back burner because school just started. Here's a hint, though: with OSFMount and Ext2Fsd, you can mount Moto system images (pulled from the phone, not SBF ones) as hard drives or removable disks. Suicide Flash for Windows will rely on them.
So what are the chances I could use this to pull a system.img, and actually go in and delete some apps out of my XT1058? I had some success but it pulled the image as a mbn and I'm hesitant to try flashing it.
lpjunior999 said:
So what are the chances I could use this to pull a system.img, and actually go in and delete some apps out of my XT1058? I had some success but it pulled the image as a mbn and I'm hesitant to try flashing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's what you'll want to do:
Create the system image on the phone with
Code:
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system of=/sdcard/oldsystem.img bs=1024
ADB pull or MTP copy the image to your PC.
Run pkgmaker.sh like so:
Code:
./pkgmaker.sh oldsystem.img XT1058 "My System" 4B000000 modded-system.zip
When prompted, you can delete apps as root from the mounted system image under mnt-oldsystem.img/app or mnt-oldsystem.img/priv-app
Continue and finish the script.
Flash with
Code:
./suicideflash.sh -s output/modded-system.zip
Related
I have been working on some boot/recovery ROM rebuilds for the Garmin/Asus Garminfone A50 (T-Mobile), as well as the scripts and instructions... I'm not sure where to host them.
I personally don't want to host them myself, and was wondering if there is a repository of sorts.
At the moment, I have the following:
* The tools necessary (dump_image & flash_image) to dump the firmware from the phone
* The scripts necessary to unpack/repack the boot/recovery ROM's (modified to support the Garminfone's different address layout). Linux based.
* Pre-built boot and recovery images that give permanent root and mount the system/data partitions as r/w by default.
* Instructions on how to do it yourself, complete with some tech info on the layut of the Garminfone boot/recovery images and how to verify before you flash it that it built properly.
* Instructions on how to flash the phone without risking bricking it, since there is no hardware key combo to get into recovery and a fastboot that's not fully implemented. The technique goes like:
- Verify with a hex editor that the proper addresses are in the header
- Flash the new boot image to recovery
- Reboot into recovery to make sure it boots the new boot image properly
- Flash the rooted recovery image to the recovery partition
- Reboot into recovery once more and verify that works
- Flash the tested boot image to the boot partition
- Reboot normally and have fun
That method works fairly well, and unless you target the wrong partition, and gives you a 99.9% success rate
I'm going to post what I can on the Wiki (as far as instructions go), but it would be nice if I had a place to put the tool set as well.
I'd rather not use one of the temporary sites like Mediafire or what not, since files on those sites have a tendency to disappear.
Please no PM's on having me send them the files directly. I don't have a heck of a lot of spare time and don't want to get into the habit of sending these out manually.
If you're against the typical file hosts and the files aren't too big you could try using dropbox or sugarsync and sharing the links.
Can I ask you a question? I have a Kyocera ZIO M6000 and have the openzio clockworkmod 2.5.1.1 port that only works with "fastboot boot openzio-recovery" and we have tried flashing to our recovery partition with no success. What will it take to break the tether and reboot recovery locally without fastboot?
Sent from my Zio using XDA App
merwin said:
I have been working on some boot/recovery ROM rebuilds for the Garmin/Asus Garminfone A50 (T-Mobile), as well as the scripts and instructions... I'm not sure where to host them.
I personally don't want to host them myself, and was wondering if there is a repository of sorts.
At the moment, I have the following:
* The tools necessary (dump_image & flash_image) to dump the firmware from the phone
* The scripts necessary to unpack/repack the boot/recovery ROM's (modified to support the Garminfone's different address layout). Linux based.
* Pre-built boot and recovery images that give permanent root and mount the system/data partitions as r/w by default.
* Instructions on how to do it yourself, complete with some tech info on the layut of the Garminfone boot/recovery images and how to verify before you flash it that it built properly.
* Instructions on how to flash the phone without risking bricking it, since there is no hardware key combo to get into recovery and a fastboot that's not fully implemented. The technique goes like:
- Verify with a hex editor that the proper addresses are in the header
- Flash the new boot image to recovery
- Reboot into recovery to make sure it boots the new boot image properly
- Flash the rooted recovery image to the recovery partition
- Reboot into recovery once more and verify that works
- Flash the tested boot image to the boot partition
- Reboot normally and have fun
That method works fairly well, and unless you target the wrong partition, and gives you a 99.9% success rate
I'm going to post what I can on the Wiki (as far as instructions go), but it would be nice if I had a place to put the tool set as well.
I'd rather not use one of the temporary sites like Mediafire or what not, since files on those sites have a tendency to disappear.
Please no PM's on having me send them the files directly. I don't have a heck of a lot of spare time and don't want to get into the habit of sending these out manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would also suggest dropbox or even id host them off my computer via ftp
Can your method work with Garminasus A10?
Merwin you still working on this?
Yeah, I am working on it still. I am still looking for a better place than dropbox or hosting off of someone's home PC...
As for the A10, if you can get me a dump of the boot and recovery images I can make one for that too... you will want to preferably use the dump_image utility to get the image and the flash_image utility to flash it.
I can probably attach those to a post with dump instructions. They're tiny.
Basically, you root your phone, copy the files to a certain location, type a couple commands to fix permissions on the executables, then run a command to dump the image.
Flashing back requires clearing the boot or recovery partition with a command and then using the flash_image command to flash it.
My method tests the new boot image first by flashing it to recovery first and rebooting into recovery to make sure the new image works. Then flash the modified recovery image to the recovery and make sure it is rooted (so you can get things up again if something does go wrong). Then you flash the new tested boot image to boot. If, for some reason, that fails, it should reboot automatically into recovery after a few boot failures. Never had to test that, since I pre-test all images I make.
hi merwin, we are a fans group of GA a10 and we trust a lot in your work! if you need any kind of help contact me! probably you are the first in the world who can flash a GA phone
Merwin, Im not completely sure which type of place your looking for if its not either ftp or online file sharing
Rapidshare
2shared
Filefront
4shared
Hi merwin,
I found this page, is that similar to your method? Hope you guys can find out something.
http://mygarminfone.blogspot.com/
afoster1003 said:
Merwin, Im not completely sure which type of place your looking for if its not either ftp or online file sharing
Rapidshare
2shared
Filefront
4shared
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You forget one widely used protocol. Good old http on a standard web server.
Those other sites annoy me greatly, between the amount of ads, having to wait to download and daily limits, and the fact that they are temporary unless I pay. I am against them on principle.
I figure if there is enough interest, someone will step up to host them, otherwise I will just provide scripts, instructions, and technical info for people to do it themselves.
slumpz said:
Hi merwin,
I found this page, is that similar to your method? Hope you guys can find out something.
http://mygarminfone.blogspot.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are my hero That blog has the missing pieces I need to keep going.
A couple of days ago I found some info on how to decompile the .update files which gives us the recovery image and system partition from any other phone that uses a similar format, like the Asus A10... providing a whole host of opportunities for the Asus phones that are still being maintained.
For instance, I grabbed the files from the Chinese A50 that has newer firmware.
With the info from the blog, I may be able to at least compile and integrate the newer kernel and wifi firmware (which is stored on the phone and loaded into memory at boot). The Chinese version does have newer wifi module firmware in it... whether it is compatible or not is another story.
On another note, has anyone successfully downloaded the open sources kernels from Asus? I have tried every method on their site and all but a couple of the kernel versions in the zip are corrupt. One from march extracts fine, so I may use that as a base to start with.
merwin said:
You are my hero That blog has the missing pieces I need to keep going.
A couple of days ago I found some info on how to decompile the .update files which gives us the recovery image and system partition from any other phone that uses a similar format, like the Asus A10... providing a whole host of opportunities for the Asus phones that are still being maintained.
For instance, I grabbed the files from the Chinese A50 that has newer firmware.
With the info from the blog, I may be able to at least compile and integrate the newer kernel and wifi firmware (which is stored on the phone and loaded into memory at boot). The Chinese version does have newer wifi module firmware in it... whether it is compatible or not is another story.
On another note, has anyone successfully downloaded the open sources kernels from Asus? I have tried every method on their site and all but a couple of the kernel versions in the zip are corrupt. One from march extracts fine, so I may use that as a base to start with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have, magically I might add. I downloaded the source for v.5.0.70 and managed to get it compiled. The resulting files can be found on on my blog, the one Slumpz posted(I can't post links yet, lol.)
The only problem is, I don't have much experience with anything linux. But, If you have any questions Merwin, email me, [email protected].
Here's a little how to, just check my blog, or google: How To: Build Garmin-Asus Kernel from Source.
am willing to giv a subdomain/storage ftp access on this domain for the good of the community if it helps any
Domain darkjester.net
Disk Usage 5.4 / 1500.0 MB
Bandwidth 100000 MB (100GB)
Home Root /home/a2931495
Apache ver. 2.2.13 (Unix)
PHP version 5.2.*
MySQL ver. 5.0.81-community
Activated On 2011-05-15 14:42
Status Active
Hello guys, are you still working on this.
I found out that A10 has a new firmware posted, which is versioned 5.2.7 instead of 5.0.x like the others. I wonder if there's any method to test this firmware on foreign A10 (non Chinese firmware)?
So, got an HTC Sensation 4G... meaning not much more work on the Garminfone for me.
Still trying to find time to compile everything that I have done into some semi-coherent document with the unlocked boot and recovery images. I still have the Garmin, so if someone manages a huge breakthrough then I may pick it up again. Really didn't want to get rid of the phone but there just isn't enough community development going on to make it worthwhile.
By the way, the Garminfone GPS blows every other phone away. The Sensation 4G is crap in comparison.
For now simply follow the instructions and use the provided file download from the link posted below
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48392009&postcount=1
I have personaly tested this method in full on My AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 ZOOM SM-C105AUCUAMJ2 (4.2.2 Jelly Bean)
although it should be safe to use on any AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 ZOOM running an android version prior to Kit-Kat
All Credit for this, "exellent completely safe", Root method goes to its creator k1mu
And please Know that it is only being shared with you via his explicit permission.
EDIT:
Q&A for [ROOT] Saferoot: Root for AT&T Galaxy S4 ZOOM SM-C105AUCUAMJ2_On 4.2.2 JB
Please if you are not on an AT&T Galaxy S4 ZOOM C-150a, Feel Free to Read
but Do not seek help,instruction, or any other type of advice by posting in this thread as it is hard enough to find information about a specific device when the said device does not have a dedicated forum. Thank You for your Understanding in this.
Instructions & Advice
If ?'s arise
and time allows I will add device specific instruction as well as any advice, Please bear with me. Same as above Q&A Link
Will this same method also work on the SM-C105AUCUAMJ2?
kbracing6 said:
Will this same method also work on the SM-C105AUCUAMJ2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most Definitely as this was the reason for my post
Hey @Phatboyj420, as far as converting a raw OTA file to Odin files, here's what I can tell you. The OTA file should be filename.cfg, i.e. a cfg file. Believe it or not, this can be manipulated like an archive (like zip or rar or tar) so open that cfg file in 7zip, WinRar, or whatever. You're going to want to extract the files like (I can't guarantee this a full list, just the ones I can remember) modem.bin, NON-HLOS.bin, boot.img, recovery.img, aboot.mbn, rpm.mbn, sbl1.mbn, sbl2.mbn, sbl3.mbn (you might not have all 3, idk), and tz.mbn. Again, there may be others you need, and/or not all the ones I just listed might be necessary, they're just the ones I remember dealing with before. Oh, you're going to need to make sure the system, cache, and persdata partitions are all packed into .img.ext4 files, idk if they're like that in the OTA cfg archive.
Here's where it gets even hazier for me. So, I know from personal experience that you can take any of these files (I'll just use recovery.img for this example). In a linux terminal (I use Ubuntu for convenience's sake, my laptop has windows and ubuntu partitions) run this command:
Code:
tar -H ustar -c recovery.img > recovery.tar
So that's how you can take any one of those files I mentioned last paragraph and pack it into an Odin-flashable tar. I'm still a n00b when it comes to the linux terminal, so I can't really say the syntax for packing more than one at once.
So I guess I haven't really given you the complete process, but hopefully this is at least a decent starting point. Honestly I consider myself a hobbyist at best, not an expert. muniz_ri, who Devo7v mentioned earlier, did all the heavy work in this regard so he can probably help you much more, I just didn't want to volunteer him for the job
thisisapoorusernamechoice said:
Hey @Phatboyj420, as far as converting a raw OTA file to Odin files, here's what I can tell you. The OTA file should be filename.cfg, i.e. a cfg file. Believe it or not, this can be manipulated like an archive (like zip or rar or tar) so open that cfg file in 7zip, WinRar, or whatever. You're going to want to extract the files like (I can't guarantee this a full list, just the ones I can remember) modem.bin, NON-HLOS.bin, boot.img, recovery.img, aboot.mbn, rpm.mbn, sbl1.mbn, sbl2.mbn, sbl3.mbn (you might not have all 3, idk), and tz.mbn. Again, there may be others you need, and/or not all the ones I just listed might be necessary, they're just the ones I remember dealing with before. Oh, you're going to need to make sure the system, cache, and persdata partitions are all packed into .img.ext4 files, idk if they're like that in the OTA cfg archive.
Here's where it gets even hazier for me. So, I know from personal experience that you can take any of these files (I'll just use recovery.img for this example). In a linux terminal (I use Ubuntu for convenience's sake, my laptop has windows and ubuntu partitions) run this command:
Code:
tar -H ustar -c recovery.img > recovery.tar
So that's how you can take any one of those files I mentioned last paragraph and pack it into an Odin-flashable tar. I'm still a n00b when it comes to the linux terminal, so I can't really say the syntax for packing more than one at once.
So I guess I haven't really given you the complete process, but hopefully this is at least a decent starting point. Honestly I consider myself a hobbyist at best, not an expert. muniz_ri, who Devo7v mentioned earlier, did all the heavy work in this regard so he can probably help you much more, I just didn't want to volunteer him for the job
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks My guy,
This definately gives me a good jumping off point.
The phone shipped with JB-4.2.2 and I think there has been an AT&T OTA for KK so it would have to be a complete Firmware so thats good news.
I'm working on several projects at once so I don't know exactly when I'll get to this but when I do the first thing will be to verify whether the .img's for data/system/cache are img.ext4 or not and if not how to produce correctly.
Also I don't have a Linux Dev setup yet I'm running Windows On a 2011 Dell XPS-17_L702x with an intel 2720 quad core. So from your post I take it Ubuntu would be your suggestion for Linux Distro. and should I make a separate Linux Partition and run from it, or run from a VM-Box inside of windows? Which do you think would be most efficient?
Now that I think of it I'm going to start a dedicated thread for development discussion for this specific device. If I start the thread in the Development section for the general S$-ZOOM but title it specifically for the " AT&T-C105a_ZOOM " do you think the mods would want to move it to the general Q&A section?
" I would hope that, as it would pertain directly to the development of the specific device they would see fit to leave it in the development section.
Sorry for the randomness of my thoughts but I will link you to the thread when I get around to starting on it.
For now I'm going to get back to work on the S4_Active for My daughters B-day I intend to have it Rooted and rommed out for her. When I get that done I'll make my way back to this Project, and start the dedicated thread.
Thanks again,
" I look forward to future collaboration as it seem we share a similar Hobie at the least ",
Phatboyj
Unfortunately for the few lonely SM-C105a users still hanging on out there this does not appear to be a completely effective root. I get this in dmesg: <3>[ 2130.920856] c0 Restricted changing UID. PID = 11580(su) PPID = 11575(sh)
capt_planit said:
Unfortunately for the few lonely SM-C105a users still hanging on out there this does not appear to be a completely effective root. I get this in dmesg: <3>[ 2130.920856] c0 Restricted changing UID. PID = 11580(su) PPID = 11575(sh)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is your build # because this is a fully effective root method for the ATT SM-C105a running build# SM-C105AUCUAMJ2
Please elaborate on where your dmesg is coming from.
Is it from running Saferoot to obtain Root?
Or is it from some other function you are attempting after obtaining root?
@Phatboyj420 Great to see you here--when I'm sure your S4 Zoom is long gone. Yeah, that's my build and I should point out that I get that in dmesg only for certain operations in the system folder (trying to copy modules I think). No biggie, for day to day this method works fine. I'm more interested in whatever happened with that unbrick image you were trying to make from dd. Did you ever test it? Was it effective? My current efforts are focused on developing a reliable unbrick method for our phones. Rather than the complete image I think we may need to extract and flash the original bootloader in many cases. Can you provide any feedback on this?
capt_planit said:
@Phatboyj420 Great to see you here--when I'm sure your S4 Zoom is long gone. Yeah, that's my build and I should point out that I get that in dmesg only for certain operations in the system folder (trying to copy modules I think). No biggie, for day to day this method works fine. I'm more interested in whatever happened with that unbrick image you were trying to make from dd. Did you ever test it? Was it effective? My current efforts are focused on developing a reliable unbrick method for our phones. Rather than the complete image I think we may need to extract and flash the original bootloader in many cases. Can you provide any feedback on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@ capt_planit
while I have moved on from using my [email protected] S4-Zoom, I do still have it and the dd dumps of it the problem with providing said dumps publicly is that some "idiot would inevitably flash the complete dd.image to there phone giving them an exact clone of my phone explicitly the IMEI via EFS parition are my concerns.
That being said if I know that the dd.images were to be used in a proper manner, by say a knowledgeable Dev. I would gladly supply them to further /Kickoff Development,
It sounds as if we are of like mind but I found myself at a stand still and did not recieve any response from the plea in my Sig.
But rest assured if there is something I can do to assist I will.
as far as an unbrick.img for the Zoom c105a
I did make one but have had no reason to use it to know if it works or if the SD unbrick method even works for the Zoom like it does on the Galaxy S3 that the method was originally discovered on.
Even if it does work the SD-Unbrick method only gets you to a state where Download
mode works SO unless I am mistaken and you can access adb through Download Mode witch I'm pretty sure you cant, we would still be at a stand still as there is no stock firmware publicly available for our device " Ludacris I know " but true none the less.
Edit:
1 thing we need is the OTA update from JB to KitKat available for our device we need some one to extract it before updating then and only then might we be able to create an install-able firmware for our device.
if I'm not mistaken after you download the OTA update you should be able to find it in /cache/fota just zip the entire fota folder move it to your sd-card and make it available to me and we'll make it happen from there.
If you don't want to except the update just delete it at this point and reboot.
...
...
I think this user @awwar describes an inability to access download mode>here. In anycase, I think that thread would be a great place to post your unbrick. image. I think your dd image seems too small. But if you still have it, that is what @moomoo was asking for when he started that thread. I can't provide mine, except as separate img files. My understanding is that flashing an efs image won't provide a real IMEI. I think flashing some combination of boot, system, cache (I'm surprised this would be necessary) and recovery should get the operator some kind of system. But so far it doesn't seem to work that way. Your help getting some working phone flash would be greatly appreciated. I believe, BTW that the OTA is dead...
This version is Mac only sorry, will update for PC this week.
Directions:
1.) Download from https://www.dropbox.com/s/4zd9rz3akcr8zht/lollipop.zip?dl=0[1][1] to your desktop. (file size 124 mb), and extract it the zip.
2.) Open up terminal, and type navigate to the file via cd/Desktop/lollipop .That code only works if the extracted file is actually called lollipop and is in your desktop.
3.) Type sh runMe.sh into the terminal and just follow on screen instructions.
Short version of what it does: Used adb to unlock bootloader, Roots it, Copies over 5.0.1, Writes to cache, and reboots. Then optional install of TWRP recovery.
This code isn't specific to the G Watch, to make it work for your phone, just add two files...
Replace:
update.zip with your factory image of lolipop
LGGW-rootboot.img with temporary boot image for your device to give it root, can find this on forums like XDA TWRP (optional) custom recovery
Be sure to keep the file names the same, as that is what the script looks for! I'm too lazy now, but only 2 things need to be done to make it work for PC...
1.) Get the adb drivers and fastboot, and put it in the lollipop folder, make sure you keep the names the same as the ones in there now.
2.) On the script called runMe and called, everywhere it says ./fastboot or ./adb-mac, get rid of the ./ part, so it would just say fastboot or adbmac
works wirh 4.4W1?
solved, found ota to 4.4w.2
starbase64 said:
works wirh 4.4W1?
solved, found ota to 4.4w.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea! It upgrades any version, be i t 4.4 or 4.4.1
Oh, the irony, using android devices on a mac . Can't wait for the windows version though, thanks for your work, man
This worked like a charm for me! I was up and running within 5 minutes -- with no previous ADB experience in my life. I recommend anyone with a mac available to use this if you want to avoid all of the manual work. Thanks again, pal.
Any progress on PC version?
Hello dear community, how can I root Wiko Lenny 5?
I would be very grateful for any idea. Thank you in advance!
No TWRP recovery
deadlyassin said:
Hello dear community, how can I root Wiko Lenny 5?
I would be very grateful for any idea. Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, there is no TWRP recovery at moment for this model, only unlock bootloader. Look here github com/phhusson treble_experimentations wiki Wiko-Lenny5
ROM for Lenny5
Would you mind uploading your firmware for testing? or sending a link to it...
My model: W_K400
I need to install the Recovery TWRP? Or Custom Rom? Or LineageOS? Or Root?
All nothing? Well, i am waiting. Thanks for your answer!
Wiko Lenny 5
Hey Peeps
I did some research on the Lenny 5 as i got this phone a few weeks ago.
There is at the moment, and to my knowledge, no Lenny 5 stock firmware available. I contacted Wiko Germany, asking if there is any place i missed and they answered me in the sense of:
"at the moment there is no stock firmware available online, refer to de[dot]wikomobile[dot]com/maj.php?telephone=2270 where a stock firmware should be uploaded shortly."
Still they didn't upload the file yet, so there only patience will help, if anything at all.
Another possible way i wanted to raise attention to is the site www[dot]wikogeek[dot]com/ where under www[dot]wikogeek[dot]com/index.php?telephone=LENNY5 there is a source seemingly for the phone system, although i don't know, what partitions of the phone system, if not all, are contained in the source code. Following the included Instructions, and doing some further research, i managed to compile some sort of Image which might be the way to get working partition images for the phone. I couldn't examine the image contents using a few different image explorers, so i cannot even tell how to work with the image if its of use at all.
I thought, maybe some of the more experienced users of this board could maybe work with this information to get something like TWRP to work even without having the stock firmware images. As this is my only working phone and my experience is little, i will not do any changes to the phone partitions as long as im not sure the result is a) working, as expected (no recovery required), or b) completely recoverable (at least to factory state), but maybe others are more courageous and want to try.
Hope this helps getting this topic to the latest state. Sorry for the non-URLs, i made the account specifically to contribute to this topic and my post count is to low to post complete urls.
ivelischt said:
Hey Peeps
I did some research on the Lenny 5 as i got this phone a few weeks ago.
There is at the moment, and to my knowledge, no Lenny 5 stock firmware available. I contacted Wiko Germany, asking if there is any place i missed and they answered me in the sense of:
"at the moment there is no stock firmware available online, refer to de[dot]wikomobile[dot]com/maj.php?telephone=2270 where a stock firmware should be uploaded shortly."
Still they didn't upload the file yet, so there only patience will help, if anything at all.
Another possible way i wanted to raise attention to is the site www[dot]wikogeek[dot]com/ where under www[dot]wikogeek[dot]com/index.php?telephone=LENNY5 there is a source seemingly for the phone system, although i don't know, what partitions of the phone system, if not all, are contained in the source code. Following the included Instructions, and doing some further research, i managed to compile some sort of Image which might be the way to get working partition images for the phone. I couldn't examine the image contents using a few different image explorers, so i cannot even tell how to work with the image if its of use at all.
I thought, maybe some of the more experienced users of this board could maybe work with this information to get something like TWRP to work even without having the stock firmware images. As this is my only working phone and my experience is little, i will not do any changes to the phone partitions as long as im not sure the result is a) working, as expected (no recovery required), or b) completely recoverable (at least to factory state), but maybe others are more courageous and want to try.
Hope this helps getting this topic to the latest state. Sorry for the non-URLs, i made the account specifically to contribute to this topic and my post count is to low to post complete urls.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so Wiko Released the Firmware! Its a Windows software that downloads and flashes the ROM, and it makes a folder with stuff in it. Maybe experienced people can look into it and build TWRP?!! I would really love twrp but I don't have the experience :crying: . Hope developers see this
Matt 123456789 said:
Ok so Wiko Released the Firmware! Its a Windows software that downloads and flashes the ROM, and it makes a folder with stuff in it. Maybe experienced people can look into it and build TWRP?!! I would really love twrp but I don't have the experience :crying: . Hope developers see this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind adding a link to the firmware you've found?
edit: got it
Are you able to develop a TWRP?
Matt 123456789 said:
Are you able to develop a TWRP?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, sorry. I just didn't get at first what firmware you refered to (the link i posted in the first place).
As i stated above, i don't know for sure, if the wikogeek-source really contains all of the files required to build anymore than (if even) the bootloader.
More experienced people would need to take a look into it.
Best regards
Hey again there, folks
Im not a excessive internet user and i may be off the site for months in series. i cannot guarantee any form of support, but if i happen to stumble across this thread and see questions that i can answer, i will do my best to do so. i hope i can encourage others to engage in the treble community in making this solution public. treble is not my work and i have nothing to do with it. maybe there is also a way to get twrp-treble versions, but i don't know what are the technical limits of that. what i want to say: i will not be responsable for your tries to hack your phone. if i can help i will, but i'm no pro in all of this at all!!!
This guide is quite long, but take care to not make mistakes, as it is reduced to what you really *NEED* to make this root method work. ALWAYS REMEMBER TO READ THE FULL GUIDE AND COMPLETELY PREPARING YOUR WORKSTATION BEFORE DOING ANY OF THE STEPS BELOW!!!
After some idling i decided to take another look into Lenny 5 rooting and stumbled across a way to do it pretty straightforward, but first of all:
*THIS GUIDE ASSUMES BASIC KNOWLEDGE ABOUT COMPUTERS AND FLASHING SMARTPHONES. IT ALSO ASSUMES THAT YOU KNOW WHAT ADB, FASTBOOT, ROM, IMAGE, VIRTUAL MACHINE, WORKING WITH WINDOWS AND UNIX PATHS AND OPERATING SYSTEMS, ETC. MEAN AND ARE FAMILIAR WITH THEIR USAGE. I WILL NOT PUBLISH ANY FORM OF PREPARED IMAGES NOR ANYTHING TO SPEED UP THIS PROCESS, AS IT MAKES YOU AWARE OF THE RISKS IN IT. I UNDERSTAND THIS AS SOME SORT OF COMMUNITY EFFORT, WHERE I JUST PRESENT ONE WAY OF GETTING WHERE YOU WANT TO GO. IF YOU DON'T THINK YOU CAN APPLY TO ALL OF THE REQUIREMENTS IN THIS GUIDE, YOU SHOULD CONSIDER TAKING DISTANCE FROM USING THIS GUIDE FOR YOUR ROOTING BEHALF.
DISCLAIMER: By using this method to Root your Lenny 5 you will lose all WARRANTY, DATA ON THE PHONE, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RETURN TO STOCK FIRMWARE as Wiko still did not share their SFW installer and i did not dig deeper into Source compilation. And LAST BUT VERY IMPORTANT: I DO NOT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE ON YOUR PHONE. WHATEVER YOU DO IS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! READ ALL OF THE TEXT AS THERE MIGHT BE CRUCIAL INFORMATION IN IT, WHICH I DIDN'T ESPECIALLY HIGHLIGHT. Allthough i will do my best.
DO NOT ATTEMPT ANY FLASHING UNTIL YOU GOT YOUR WORKING FIRMWARE IMAGE AT STEP 3 (3. Flashing the new Image to the Device). EXPERIENCED USERS MAY WANT TO FLASH A UNTOUCHED TREBLE IMAGE, WHICH IS ALSO POSSIBLE. YOU SHOULD ONLY EVER REFLASH YOUR DEVICE WHEN YOU ARE ABSOULTELY SURE ABOUT WHAT YOU DO AND THE (POSSIBLE) CONSEQUENCES OF WHAT YOU DO, INCLUDING, SOFT-/HARDBRICK, PERMANENT DAMAGE, AND OTHER NASTY STUFF. YOU TAKE FULL RESPONSABILITY FOR ANY OF THE STEPS YOU DO, ESPECIALLY BEYOND STEP 3!!!
I REPEAT: YOUR LENNY5 DOES NOT NEED TO BE CONNECTED OR EVEN TOUCHED TO YOUR COMPUTER AT ALL UNTIL STEP 3 (3. Flashing the new Image to the Device)!!!*
!!!READ THE BUGS LIST AND HELP OTHERS BY REPORTING OTHER BUGS YOU'VE FOUND IN THIS THREAD. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING HERE, BEFORE COMPLETELY MESSING UP WITH YOUR PHONES STORAGE!!! SO YOU BETTER READ THE WHOLE THREAD BEFORE TRYING ANYTHING
There is no Root-only method i know, SO BE AWARE, you are completely rearranging your Lenny 5 Firmware, which is the reason for complete data loss. Wiko DENIES ALL RESPONSABILITY when you unlock your bootloader, according to "phhusson", which is the reason you will lose all warranty.
Known bugs until now:
- On dual SIM handys, if you tell the handy to let you choose the sim card for each call, it will hang after choosing the Sim. The call will not happen. This is a Treble issue. To work around this, select the SIM you want to use in the preferences prior to making the call.
- It seems that after installing a newer Version of the AOSP image provided by phhusson, it is impossible to downgrade to an earlier version of the ROM. This might also be a bug in my device from tampering around with it. But it causes me to be unable to flash any other version than the newest one. If i do so, my device is stuck in a bootloop and i need to reset and reflash it via adb and fastboot. Maybe others can confirm/disregard this behaviour.
- This guide does not solve updating your phone, maybe i can deliver a solution to that at a later point. Until then, you will be urged to reflash your system each time an update is deployed.
- The configuration in this guide is gapps-less, although you might choose a treble-image, that's got them installed. I did not yet manage to install the opengapps-package seperately, as theres yet no solution to custom recovery (that i'm aware of) and i did not (yet) find out how to include it via the kitchen.
-many apps will require you to have at least basic gapps installed. you could compile treble aosp with the amount of google apps you need or use the gapps-img instead.
I will try to give an exact sequence of what to do to Root your Lenny 5 device, but some experimentation afterwards might be needed to get your best experience. Note that, depending on version and "bloating" of your new Firmware, you may experience more or less strong performance breakdowns. Be careful not to overload it, your Lenny 5's hardware is... lets say... not the best out there
Table of Contents:
0. Before starting
1. Preparing your Workstation
1.1.1 Get your copy of lubuntu 18+ (19 is recommended, the version of lubuntu i used in the whole process was 19.04)
1.1.2 Install Oracle Virtual Box
1.1.3 Install lubuntu 18+
1.1.4 Install openjdk-8+ (8 is recommended, i use that version, too)
1.1.5 Install python
1.2.1 Install samba
1.2.2 Configure samba
1.2.3 Connect to sambashare
1.3.1 A few words about handling file permissions in Linux
1.4.1 Get your copy of SuperR's Kitchen (what we do can be done in the Free version)
1.4.2 Install SuperR's Kitchen
2. Preparing your SuperR installation for your Custom AOSP Rom
2.1 Find out which Treble image you need
2.2 Copy and Extract your Treble image
2.3 Editing the contents (Rooting, etc.) of the Treble image
2.4 Repacking the Treble image
3. Flashing the new Image to the Device
4. Final words
0. Before starting
PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THESE STEPS BEFORE STARTING THE PROCESS!! There's a few things to say before starting to do this. I will use this section to note that.
ad 1.:
- If you are using (L)ubuntu 18+ or the corresponding Debian distributions, and already have OpenJDK-8(+)(-JRE) installed, you should be able to move straight to SuperR's kitchen installation. If the kitchen complains about missing OpenJDK, try installing OpenJDK-8(+)-JDK as well.
ad 1.1.1:
- I recommend placing a "Workfolder" somewhere on your host system, so you have all the corresponding data in one place. This helps accelerate the process a lot. In the rest of the document, i will always assume, that you have a workfolder and use it for all the files.
ad 1.1.3:
- i use 25GB for my virtual disk as i only unpack compiled ROMS (as for this guide). if you plan to use the VM for compiling sources, you should be well above 75 to 100GB as the source trees are HUGE.
ad 1.2.1:
- We will also create a workfolder on the virtual system, but this one we will take care of in the main tutorial steps.
- To make samba work, we need to make sure that VirtualBox connects to your Network as required. To do so, on the VirtualBox top menubar, Click on Devices -> Network -> Network Settings...
In the Drop-Down "Attached to:" choose "Bridged Adapter". Make sure that the "Name" Drop-Down shows the name of your physical LAN-Adapter. This way your Virtual Machine will obtain an IP from your local network router instead of NATing with your Host Machine as router. Click Okay. You can check the Network Mode change by using
Code:
ip a
in the terminal. If you want to make sure it changed the mode, restart your virtual machine and reopen the terminal by using CTRL+ALT+T again.
ad 2.1. the wiki-guide on Lenny 5 says "tested on v18". i had v18 installed on my system, but at some point it denied function. i don't know if this is a downgrade-issue or something else, but if you want to stick with it and are able to install it, feel free. but be aware that it does not contain the most recent security patches. i instead stick to AOSP8.1_v32 at the time of writing this guide.
ad 3. i assume that you have already installed adb. otherwise you can get it here in the forums or the specific wiko version from here. (WikoGeek Website) Just click on the download link.
it is important that you learn, that ~/android/... means the same as \\<yourvirtualdeviceip\androshare, if you closely follow this guide, especially the network and samba configuration.
1. Preparing your workstation
To prepare your workstation you must get a Debianesque Linux Environment running, as Windows (and Mac) User, the easiest way to get to this, is to install a Virtual Machine. For the sake of freelyness (is this even a word? ) we'll stick with Oracle's VirtualBox. This seems to be a lot of work, but it took me less than 2 hours to be completely ready to tamper with my image files. So lets begin.
Users on the correct systems ((L)ubuntu/Debian with Java 8 and python installed) can skip to 1.2.1
1.1.1 Get your copy of lubuntu 18+
Go to https://lubuntu.net/ and download lubuntu 18 if your pc hardware is 32-bit only, or lubuntu 19 for 64-bit hardware. You can do this by clicking the corresponding blue buttons on the main page or, if this doesn't apply anymore, find them in the Download section under the "previous lubuntu releases". Download the Image file and store it in your Workfolder
1.1.2 Install Oracle VirtualBox
From now on, all the steps mentioned will be either on the host-machine or the virtual machine i will clearly mark this out to avoid misunderstandings. Users already on correct systems will have to work-around these conceptions a little bit, but all in all the process should be the same for every workstation.
To install Virtual Box on the host-machine, get the installer for your host-system-architecture from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. Follow the On-Screen-Instructions for the Installer to Setup VirtualBox for you. (I had it installed already, so i don't know the exact order of it. But maybe some of the users testing this out could come up with a quick "tutorial" for this step.) Most of the settings should be standard values.
After finishing the installation (and restarting?) you should now be able to Open the VirtualBox Manager via Desktop or Start Menu (whatever your host-OS offers, we will be sticking to Windows as host).
1.1.3 Install lubuntu 18+
In VirtualBox on your host-machine, create a "New" machine by clicking the button on the top left of the manager. As the name, choose how you want to memorize your virtual machine for later usage.
Use "Linux" as Type and "Ubuntu (32-bit/64-bit, choose appropriately)" as Version.
Your memory doesn't necessarily need to be gigantic. Still, i reserved 4GB of RAM for mine, and would recommend at least 2GB.
Check the radio button to "Create a virtual hard disk now" and click on "Create"
In the next dialog choose the Location for your VHD to be stored. The storage location should have around 25 GB of free space (read on section 0. for additional notes about storage space).
Choose your VHD size, i used 25GB to have some reserve, just in case. Click on Create. Choose your newly created virtual machine and select start from the top shortcut bar.
VirtualBox will come up with a new window and in it a dialog, asking for a installation medium for your new virtual machine. Click on the button to "Choose a virtual optical disk file..." and choose your previously stored Lubuntu disk image to mount as start-up disk. Click on Start, wait, then choose your Language. I recommend using english, so its easier to follow the tutorial, but this is up to you.
After that, you will be allowed to "Start Lubuntu" which we choose our virtual machine to do. The startup should be quite fast, from my experience. As soon as you get presented with your new (yet non-persistent) virtual desktop click on the icon to "Install Lubuntu xx.xx"
Soon the Lubuntu installer will come up, asking for the Language to be used. We'll keep American English (again, your choice) for now and click Next.
Choose your timezone and Region and click next. Choose your corresponding keyboard Layout, make sure it's the right one and click Next. In the next dialog step choose "Erase disk", leave the rest be and click Next.
On the next page, i recommend keeping it simple, as this is just a virtual machine, which ever only runs when you decide to extract and repack images. Enter "your" name, choose a login name, give the virtual machine a simple, locally-unique network name and choose a password for elevated rights operations. Remember, keep it simple, it will ease your work. I recommend to "Log in automatically without asking for the password" but i leave it to you to decide that. Click Next.
In the summary, check if you are okay with the Settings you entered, then click on Install.
Confirm the warning dialog with Install now.
Now it's all about Linux magic happening to create for you a persistent operating system on your virtual hard disk.
As the Installer asks you to Restart, do so by clicking on Done. Let the virtual machine reboot. When asked to do so, remove the installation medium (VirtualBox automatically does this for you, the options for this are under the main menu "Devices -> Optical Drives") and press ENTER.
After starting up, (and entering your password, if you didn't check the autologin checkbox), you are presented with your Desktop. On your keyboard press CTRL + SHIFT + T to open a terminal.
On a normal machine you should always keep your firewall on and setup. you can easily setup ufw for samba, but as we just crank around at a virtual machine (ideally behind a NAT-Router), it will be easier to just turn off the firewall alltogether by using
Code:
sudo ufw disable
in the terminal window (when asked for a password, enter your virtual machine user's password and press ENTER. at UNIX-like terminals it is normal that the password you enter will not be shown. don't worry, it's typing, just hiding. it will tell you after pressing ENTER, if its the right one or not.)
1.1.4 Install openjdk-8+
To install JDK on Lubuntu we use the built-in software installer. The following commands will update the system and install openjdk-8-jre
Code:
sudo apt update
you will be asked to enter your account password, enter password and confirm with ENTER
Code:
sudo apt dist-upgrade
confirm by typing "Y" into your keyboard and press ENTER.
This process will take a while, depending on your hardware and internet connection.
Code:
sudo apt install openjdk-8-jre
when asked, if you accept the changes to be made, type "Y" again and press ENTER.
this chain updates the virtual system packages and installs openjdk-8.
To check whether OpenJDK 8 JRE is installed, use the command
Code:
java --version
the output should be something like:
Code:
openjdk version "[B]1.8.0_222[/B]"
the bold part is the important, as it tells you that you have version 1.8.x, which is OpenJDK 8
Code:
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build [B]1.8.0_222[/B]...
shows that the JRE version on your virtual machine is the same as the major openjdk version which is good.
1.1.5 Install python
To install python, use
Code:
sudo apt install python
this will install the required packages and configure them.
1.2.1 Install samba
To move files between your virtual machine and your host machine, the easiest way to do so is to use samba. It is easy to configure and fulfills our needs. To install samba enter
Code:
sudo apt install samba
into the terminal on your virtual machine and press ENTER. If asked, confirm changes with Y and ENTER.
1.2.2 Configure samba
We will configure samba in a way, so we don't need to "sudo" all of the time to use superr's kitchen, but instead use it as our autologin user. For this we will enter the following in our terminal (make sure that you didn't elevate ["sudo -i"] your terminal session, otherwise use exit, to return to unelevated session)
Code:
mkdir ~/android
chown -R [B]<yourusername>[/B]:[B]<yourusername>[/B] ~/android
cd ~/android
(the term "~/android" basically is a synonyme for "/home/<yourusername>/android; the ~ marks the path as inside your users /home/... directory)
this creates a folder called android in your virtual machine users home directory and changes the bash-path into it.
enter
Code:
sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
to the terminal and press enter. this will open a console text editor with the samba configuration file. use PgDn or the Down-Arrow-Key to reach the end of the file and then append the following "code"
for <yourusername> use the username you selected during your virtual machine installation. its visible in the terminal before the ":" sign in the format
Code:
[B]username[/B]@[U]virtual[/U]machinename: ~$
Code:
[androshare]
comment = Android Share
path = /home/[B]<yourusername>[/B]/android
browseable = yes
read only = no
public = yes
create mask = 0644
directory mask = 0755
force user = [B]<yourusername>[/B]
save the changes by pressing CTRL + O on the keyboard and confirm with the ENTER key.
you can use the bash-command
Code:
testparm
and push ENTER to see your role configuration, and if you have made any mistakes in entering the configuration data.
to restart samba and make the share available enter
Code:
sudo service smbd restart
into the terminal and press ENTER.
sometimes the kitchen needs elevation for some tasks and will then write files that belong to the user "root". the easiest way to work around that is to sporadically use and memorize for later usage
Code:
sudo chown -R [B]<yourusername>[/B]:[B]<yourusername>[/B] ~/android
this will set file ownership to your user and thus allows you and shared samba-instances (as they are forced to run as your user) to regain read-write access to the respective files.
if you struggle with this, try asking in a new post (or maybe someone asked already?), maybe i or others can help you.
now you should be able to connect to your samba share.
1.2.3 Connect to sambashare
to connect to your newly created samba share, on your windows host machine use WIN + R or Startmenu -> Run... and enter \\<yourdeviceip>\androshare and press ENTER.
for other ways to connect to samba shares according to your host operating system, i must ask you to check google. this guide is long already, anyways. but its easily possible on any system (win,macos,linux,...)
to find your device ip, on the virtual machine enter the following into the terminal
Code:
ip a
you need to find the address obtained by your router. you normally find it under something like
Code:
1: lo:
...
inet 127.0.0.1/8 ...
2: enp0sX
...
inet [B]192.168.x.x[/B]
...
the bold part is important, while the upper address "127.0.0.1" is your local loopback address and not what we are looking for.
on your host machine enter the bold ip at <yourdeviceip> like this
Code:
\\[B]192.168.x.x[/B]\androshare
and press ENTER. this should open your Sambashare
1.3 A few words about handling file permissions in Linux
Sometimes SuperR's kitchen may create or modify files that are owned by root user, which prohibits you from changing these files without elevating via sudo. This is easily corrected by again using
Code:
chown -R [B]<yourusername>[/B]:[B]<yourusername>[/B] ~/android
if there are still files you can't access you can maybe fix it with
Code:
sudo chmod a+rwx ~/android/<fileyoucantmodify>
1.4.1 Get your copy of SuperR's Kitchen
SuperR's kitchen can be obtained at The Official SuperR's Kitchen Thread. Get the latest version. I use 1.2.1.1.
Download it to your host machine and put it into your host workfolder. from there, copy it to your \\virtualmachine\androshare directory.
1.4.2 Install SuperR's Kitchen
to install superr's kitchen, we need to unzip it. on the virtual host, type
Code:
cd ~/android
unzip [B]SuperRs-Kitchen_Linux-64_v1.2.1.1.zip[/B]
press ENTER and the archive should extract. if it did not extract, and instead throws an error about the package "unzip" beeing unknown to the system, use
Code:
sudo apt install unzip
to easily solve this problem, and repeat the upper step.
you can confirm that that unpacking was successfull by entering
Code:
ls -l ~/android/
into your terminal. the result should show at least a folder called "tools" and a file called "superr".
after confirming the correct extraction, use
Code:
rm [B]SuperRs-Kitchen_Linux-64_v1.2.1.1.zip[/B]
to delete the ZIP-File
replace the bold part with your SuperRs Kitchen ZIP-File Name.
Your ~/android directory should now contain 3 Elements, namely "README.md, superr" and a directory called "tools".
If everything went fine, you should now be able to start the kitchen by typing
Code:
./superr
into the terminal and pressing ENTER. if you are beeing told that you don't have permission to run this file as an executable, use
Code:
chmod ug+x ./superr
and repeat the above step. If everything worked, you should be asked to select your Language (english_srk.py). To choose it, type 1 on the keyboard.
The Kitchen will now ask you to download tools it needs to work properly. Allow it to do so by typing "Y" on the keyboard.
If everything went well, you should now be asked to enter your new Project name which identifies the folder, in which you will later store, modify and receive files. We will take care of that in the next step. This means, the Preparation process is over and you can now start using SuperR's Kitchen for your needs.
STEP 2 AND ON IN SECOND POST (CHARACTER LIMIT)
[CFW][W_K400][TREBLE] CFW and ROOT, MOSTLY-VANILLA
PART 2 OF THE POST, START WITH PART 1!!!!
2. Preparing your SuperR installation for your Custom AOSP Rom
In the Project Name we enter something identifying. Keep in mind that you may want to add multiple roms on this installation, so you should make it something rather unique. This process corresponds somewhat to Step 2.1, so you can read this one already to find out a good notation for your new project. I have already chosen my Treble image and will call mine
Code:
Enter new project name ...
lenny5_aosp8.1_vanilla_su_v32
2.1 Find out which Treble image you need
As you see in the last step, i selected a Version 8.1 "Oreo" image, where Vanilla tells you that theres no gapps at all and the suffix su means that it contains a rooted system. But later more about this. Also i chose v32 from the treble_experimentations releases.
To find your treble image, you need to have some information. First of all, read the information on this link. (phhusson's github wiki for Wiko Lenny 5)
Some informations here are important. First of all the flashing sequence, which will get important to us in a later step
Code:
Enable adb and oem unlock in developer options
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flashing unlock
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot flash system your_gsi_path
fastboot reboot
as well as his testing notice
Code:
Flashed using Phh-Treble v18 - arm
as you can read in the Before starting section, there is a bug i could not resolve concerning installing older version ROMS, which could spontaneously start to apply to your device. i cannot "downgrade" my device, because it bootloops.
to select your image of choice, go to this site. (phhusson's treble image release site). to find v18, you will need to scroll down and go a few pages back in history.
some things to consider:
- lenny5 doesn't seem to be able to run AOSP9, so i'd recommend you stick with AOSP8.1
- there are lineageos compilations which might be interesting for some people. (i cannot tell if the root process for lineageos massively differs, as i don't use that one)
we will stick with AOSP8.1 in this guide.
first of all, you must decide if you want to stick with the go apps, install the stock gapps or go vanilla (no gapps at all). i will stick with vanilla. (note that some versions do not have the go version, others do)
then you will want to ask yourself if you want to root your phone, which we assume here to be yes.
as vanilla, like in our case, is not available with preinstalled su, we will stick with the nosu version. (which is a bit of a "hoax", as in fact this version already is rooted, you just have no way of controlling it, yet. we will take care of that in a later step.)
for our wiko lenny 5 we must choose the arm-aonly architecture. also i choose to stick with v32, the newest version per guide release date.
in my decision case, this leaves us with the following ROM:
https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/releases/tag/v32
Code:
system-arm-aonly-vanilla-nosu.img.xz
we will stick with that. if you want to use another rom, you must modify your choice. the overall process stays more or less the same. CONSIDER: It's proves easier to install some missing APK's etc. to your gapps-less system than removing unwanted gapps from your gapps-prebloated system.
click on the link and download the image file.
CONSIDER: Some of the images are in raw flashable format (the older ones), and have the extension *.img . For newer versions, the images are packed and CANNOT BE DIRECTLY FLASHED. these files are namely the ones with the extension *.img.xz
if your file has an extension that differs from *.img i strongly recommend you to use 7zip to extract the contained *.img file. 7-zip handles them all, which makes it the perfect standalone (de-)archiver on your computer. and no, i'm not getting paid by them for the advertising, it's just great and opensource.
now, if you didn't already, enter the name identifying your rom into the kitchen and confirm with ENTER.
to allow smb to write to your new project folder, reuse the command
Code:
sudo chown -R ~/android
by quitting superr (using the q key) or opening a second terminal (the easier way, in the original CTRL + ALT + T terminal on lubuntu, just doubleclick the top Tab-Bar off any other tabs and a new terminal tab will open) in which you execute this command.
now store the image file to your host workfolder and from there, copy it to your virtual workfolder's project folder (~/android/superr_<yourprojectname>/).
rename your system-arm-aonly-....img to just system.img for the kitchen to recognize it.
2.2 Extract your Treble image
To extract your Image file, on your virtual machines terminal, superr's kitchen should be running in the Main Menu.
if by any means you have stopped it, open a terminal with CTRL + ALT + T and enter
Code:
cd ~/android
./superr
press enter to execute and superr should launch. when asked for a project to load, choose the project you just created by pressing the correspondant cipher on the keyboard.
in the kitchen main menu, push cipher 4 on your keyboard to extract your obtained IMG-File. if asked, select your system.img by pressing the correspondant key and confirm the extraction with the "Y" key. wait for the process to finish. if asked, enter your virtual machine's user password. the kitchen sometimes needs to elevate some of it's processes during the extraction.
for the name of the zip, when asked, just enter "system_new". this is not so important, just dont simply call it "system", as this might confuse you under some circumstances and in the worst case overwrite your stock system.img.
for the perm type, select set_metadata by typing the "1" key on your keyboard, and you should be back in the main menu.
now your system image is unpacked into your virtual machine workfolder (~/android/<yourprojectfoldername>/system/)
2.3 Editing the contents (Rooting, etc.) of the Treble image
The editing in this guide's usecase is quite simple. We will want the following features and packages preinstalled:
- Root, of course
- including Root Management App
- BusyBox
- FDroid
- ...
you can add to this list to your hearts delight. The above will be my initial setup.
First we need to get the Root files.
These are found here
from this thread, get phh's-superuser.zip (the topmost file)
aswell as the phh's SuperUser apk file (top-second)
if you are having issues with the superuser implementation, try the bottommost element called phh's-superuser-aonly.zip instead of phh's-superuser.zip. this should normaly not be required.
copy both, the .zip and the .apk to your host workfolder.
now unpack the .zip to your host workfolder, which should create a folder "system" with 3 subfolders "bin,etc,xbin" in it.
copy this "system" folder to your virtual workfolder and into your project, so it integrates with the existing "system" folder on the virtual machine. if it asks you to overwrite, just allow it.
your virtual workfolder's project folder should now contain the following 3 files:
Code:
system/bin/phh-su
system/etc/init/su.rc
system/xbin/su
amongst the other system files.
Now download FDroid from here (the F-Droid site was temporarily down at the time of writing this guide)
Download the FDroid APK and store it in your host machine's workfolder.
After that, download the BusyBox APK from here
https://www.appsapk.com/busybox-app/
or a source you thrust more. There is a official busybox source, but i did not check which binary i must use for the Lenny 5, so i stick with the simplest method.
Download the BusyBox APK and store it in your host machine's workfolder.
Now copy the FDroid, BusyBox, and previously downloaded phh_s_SuperUser APK's from the host's workfolder to your virtual machine's project folder ~/android/<yourprojectfolder>/system/app/ (or \\<<yourvirtualmachineip\androshare\<yourprojectfolder>\system\app, respectively) to include them in your new ROM.
Thats basically all of the magic done. Your ~/android/<yourprojectfolder> should now contain the following 6 Elements
Code:
system/bin/phh-su
system/etc/init/su.rc
system/xbin/su
app/FDroid.apk
app/BusyBox.apk
app/phh_s_SuperUser_vX.X.X.X.apk
amongst the other elements from the Treble ROM.
move the APK app/FDroid.apk to a new Folder like this: app/FDroid/FDroid.apk
move the APK app/BusyBox.apk to a new Folder like this: app/BusyBox/BusyBox.apk
move the APK app/phh_s_SuperUser_vX.X.X.X.apk to a new Folder like this: app/phh/phh_s_SuperUser_vX.X.X.X.apk
as everything is sorted into folders, right?!
now we're done with modifying our treble image. lets repack it.
2.4 Repacking the Treble image
on your virtual machine terminal, with the kitchen open, go to the main menu if required and select "ROM Tools Menu" with the "8" key. You can check the "Root Menu" by pressing the "3" Key.
The Root/Unroot ROM should read (CURRENT: xbin/su) with Busybox and su.d "Disabled", which is okay, as BusyBox is not recognized, but there. If you want to utilize su.d, you must know yourself, how to do that properly. i don't know if it works as it should when done in the kitchen.
go back to the "ROM Tools Menu" with the "4" key and go to the "Build Menu" with the "7" key. Choose the option to "Build EXT4 img" by the key "2" and after the quick process finishes, in the menu "Which EXT4 img would you like to build?" select "system" by pressing the corresponding key, then select "sparse" by pressing the "2" key. for the file size, select the option to "Assume file size from project folder" by pressing the correspondent key and confirm the warning about this being BETA. Then wait for the process to finish.
The kitchen should say "system_new.img has been created in <yourprojectname>".
Now copy the newly created system_new.img from your virtual machine project directory to your host machine workfolder and we're done with editing and repacking the Image.
STEP 3 AND ON IN THIRD POST (CHARACTER LIMIT)
About TWRP and other stuff...
PART 3 OF THE GUIDE, START WITH PART 1!!!
3. Flashing the new Image to the Device
AT THIS POINT YOU SHOULD HAVE ALL YOUR DATA BACKUPED AND MAKE REALLY SURE FOR A LAST TIME, THAT YOU ACCEPT TO VOID YOUR WARRANTY AND TAKE ABSOLUTELY EVERY RISK TO YOURSELF FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES THAT COULD ARISE OF WHAT HAPPENS WITH YOUR DEVICE AT ANY TIME AFTER FOLLOWING THIS GUIDE.
The flashing process is simple. Enable Debug mode in your Phones Settings (Enable Developer Mode by taping the Build-Number several times Google: "Android Enable Developer Mode" - i really hope you know that after coming so far through this guide!!!.
When Developer Mode is activated, Go to Settings->Development Menu and activate the USB Debug Slider.
You must unlock the bootloader, at this point you must have generic adb or wiko specific adb installed, you can download it from here or get more information in section 0. "Before starting". The installation process is straightforward, possibly a restart of your host machine is required to get it running.
After installing ADB, you open the command line of your host machine and switch to your host machine workfolder by entering
Code:
cd <yourworkfolderpath>
and executing with ENTER.
use
Code:
dir
to make sure, that you are indeed in your workfolder.
when your phone is in usb debug mode, you can then reboot it into bootloader by entering
Code:
adb reboot bootloader
into your host machine command line. NOW THE DANGEROUS PART BEGINS, SO BE AWARE!!! WHEN UNLOCKING THE BOOTLOADER, YOUR LENNY5 WILL COMPLETELY WIPE ALL OF YOUR DATA AND RESET TO FACTORY SETUP!!!
by using the following commands in your command line you will unlock your bootloader, wipe your data and cache partitions including ALL PERSONAL DATA and flash your newly created ROM to the device.
Code:
fastboot flashing unlock
fastboot oem unlock
unlocks the boot loader. reenabling the debug mode (because of the factory reset) and/or rebooting the device may be required to reconnect to adb.
after that and making sure that you want to take the risk of flashing your new image, enter
Code:
fastboot flash system <yourhostworkfolderpath>\system_new.img
fastboot -w
fastboot reboot
the first command flashes your new image file, the second wipes your data and cache additionally, to make sure theres no residues there, which could mess with the first startup. after that we reboot the phone with the third command. after some loading, and a warning about the bootloader beeing unlocked, you should be greeted by AOSP's standard launcher with superuser, fdroid and busybox preinstalled.
4. Final words
After all it prove to be a quite long process, if you don't have any kitchen presetup. If the kitchen is ready, it's a thing of downloading, modifying and reflashing the device. but be careful. there's always a risk of bricking your device.
I will try to keep this guide up and running but memorize my Thread starting words.
If you think my RED BLOCKS are excessive - i'm sorry, but i care for your LENNY, too.
If you read this and are able to comply with all the steps in the guide, you are ready to flash your phone!
It's a wall of text, and i don't know if it's straight forward for all users, but it's the only way i could come up with, to root the LENNY5 phone, so it's worth it all the while, right?
I hope it helps some of you to get their Phones Unlocked and Unleashed.
Best regards
ivelischt
---------- Post added at 09:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:37 PM ----------
if you find errors and mistakes in the guide, you are welcome to notice me and all the others by leaving a post in this thread.
Please ignore my posting titles, as they do not fit anymore, since i had to split from 2 to 3 posts to fit all of the text.
Okay some more words from my side concerning TWRP etc.
1. as far as i can tell, with the wikogeeks source you can indeed compile TWRP, but i'm not deep enough into it to try it.
2. with the procedure in the description above i now have a fully rooted phone
3. i am able to dump (mostly) any partition on my device (boot, recovery, system). so i have boot.img, recovery.img tested working. of course i was unable to dump my old system as it was not rooted. but i can dump my new system.img and it is also tested working, i reflashed all of the images to find it out.
4. if someone here in the forums thinks, that, with this information, you are able to port TWRP, i think we all would be glad,
because
5. i tampered around with various twrp roms. with the Jerry 3 ROM, which is out in the Net (DuckDuckGo-Search: w_k300 twrp), i thought i'd come to a point, as these are "sister-devices". in fact i had twrp running after loading the split-files (zKernel, etc...) from stock recovery to twrp recovery using the kitchen. but the screen isn't working. i need to "swipe for modifications", but i can't. as far as i can tell, it's just the touchscreen irresponsive. maybe this is something quickly fixed, maybe not.
so, i don't know if it's legal for me to share these sources here in the board but if anyone wants to test around on these write a on pm. just ask me and i will do what i can.
on my system, at the moment i have:
- stock boot.img
- stock recovery.img
- aosp8.1 system.img i use on my lenny
- semi-functional Jerry3-TWRP-Port, with the display unfunctional
let me know if you can do something with this stuff.
best regards
Matt 123456789 said:
Ok so Wiko Released the Firmware! Its a Windows software that downloads and flashes the ROM, and it makes a folder with stuff in it. Maybe experienced people can look into it and build TWRP?!! I would really love twrp but I don't have the experience :crying: . Hope developers see this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Matt! Sorry, i completely misunderstood what you were talking about. Thats my fault
To clarify, there IS an actual Update package, just not under the various xx.wikomobile.com subdomains, but via world.wikomobile.com, using the IMEI number, you can infact get an Update.zip. I saw that really just now... The most recent update hides at https://support.wikomobile.com/maj/Lenny5_OPE_V34.zip
I don't know if this helps porting TWRP, as i'm actually experimenting with compiling it from source, for lenny 5 specifically. but to no success until this point. but whilst experimenting around, you can at the very least use it to flash to stock if required.
The update.zip contains the following:
- SPFlashTool
- MT6580 Scatterer-File
- boot-sign.img
- cache-sign.img
- lk-sign.img
- misc2-sign.img
- odmdtbo-sign.img
- recovery-sign.img
- secro-sign.img
- system.img
- tee-sign.img
- userdata-sign.img
- vendor-sign.img
- preloader_k400.bin
- as well as tons of other files
i think the stock system image is raw. to flash it you must either use the SPFlashTool or convert it to sparse format by other means...
best regards
edit: it seems, that lenny5 runs well with AOSP9, at least i upgraded my device today and it runs.
also, if you decide to install treble images by the guide above, using gapps, you will have to register your device here. (Android Device Registration)
their guide on getting the android_id may be a bit strange, i needed to progress as follows:
Code:
adb root
adb shell
inside shell type:
Code:
su <-- work as root
cd /data/data/com.google.android.gsf/databases/
sqlite3 gservices.db
this will start sqlite3 command line.
inside the sqlite3 command line enter
Code:
select * from main where name = "android_id"; <-- don't forget the semicolon!
after pressing enter, the output should be something like
Code:
android_id|[B]1234567890123456789[/B] <-- this code will be different on your device.
on the Android Device Registration page, you enter the bold part of the output and press Register. enter
Code:
.exit <-- to leave sqlite
exit <-- to leave su mode
exit <-- to leave shell
it will take a few minutes until your google services start to work properly without flooding your notifications.
you should now be able to use your gapps.
ivelischt said:
Please ignore my posting titles, as they do not fit anymore, since i had to split from 2 to 3 posts to fit all of the text.
Okay some more words from my side concerning TWRP etc.
1. as far as i can tell, with the wikogeeks source you can indeed compile TWRP, but i'm not deep enough into it to try it.
2. with the procedure in the description above i now have a fully rooted phone
3. i am able to dump (mostly) any partition on my device (boot, recovery, system). so i have boot.img, recovery.img tested working. of course i was unable to dump my old system as it was not rooted. but i can dump my new system.img and it is also tested working, i reflashed all of the images to find it out.
4. if someone here in the forums thinks, that, with this information, you are able to port TWRP, i think we all would be glad,
because
5. i tampered around with various twrp roms. with the Jerry 3 ROM, which is out in the Net (DuckDuckGo-Search: w_k300 twrp), i thought i'd come to a point, as these are "sister-devices". in fact i had twrp running after loading the split-files (zKernel, etc...) from stock recovery to twrp recovery using the kitchen. but the screen isn't working. i need to "swipe for modifications", but i can't. as far as i can tell, it's just the touchscreen irresponsive. maybe this is something quickly fixed, maybe not.
so, i don't know if it's legal for me to share these sources here in the board but if anyone wants to test around on these write a on pm. just ask me and i will do what i can.
on my system, at the moment i have:
- stock boot.img
- stock recovery.img
- aosp8.1 system.img i use on my lenny
- semi-functional Jerry3-TWRP-Port, with the display unfunctional
let me know if you can do something with this stuff.
best regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same with the display here, can't get it to work. I read that display touch malfunction is about kernel diferences, but I don't know how to modify it.
Hanthonious said:
Same with the display here, can't get it to work. I read that display touch malfunction is about kernel diferences, but I don't know how to modify it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, i then tried all the possible configurations of the following:
TWRP versions:
- self-compiled TWRP
- TWRP for some random FullHD-MTK6580 with more or less same specs as lenny 5
- K300 TWRP
kernel versions:
- twrp k300 kernel
- stock k400 kernel
- self-compiled k400 kernel
which makes quite some possible combinations. as far as i can recall, the most sucessful was the untouched k300 twrp with its k300 kernel, which managed to boot up but with the touchscreen not working.
i then tried the k300 twrp with stock and self-compiled k400 kernel, but both failed. i even tampered with the kernel adress to fit it to k400 and tried out multiple "tricks" i stumbled upon when searching the internet. but the phone always just hangs a few seconds, then boots into "normal" mode or stock recovery.
i cannot fully rule out whether its caused by me implementing the kernel in a wrong way (for me this is the most probable reason ) or if it's because SuperR's kitchen (thanks go out!) has some kind of mess while reintegrating the changed kernel, as i did all of these combine-and-retry kind of rom porting experiments with his product. maybe i am just using the tool in a wrong way.
i also compiled a stock kernel from wikogeek sources, then used that to compile twrp sources into a recovery.img, including the self-built kernel, which both, after some tinkering, built without any issue, but then also, this image just hangs for a few seconds and shows the same behavior as stated above.
whatever it is, i cannot identify it. this has two main reasons:
- first and most important: what i know is through learning-by-doing, which means, i have no degree in coding or anything. from my perspective, i feel a bit proud already, being able to compile aosp or lineage from source, even with a lot of help by those creating these mostly ready-for-use sources. :victory: learning-by-doing implicates my second point: time investment.
- i cannot afford to spend most of my time with digging into android development. and also often, i just don't have any delight in it and do other things.
also, my main purpose was to get a rooted system (with a custom rom on it), which i managed, so most of the time i spend on android stuff at the moment, is to update my build and distribute the updated images in time when security patches arrive.
short said: if twrp for k400 comes, it would be nice, but it's none of my main objectives at the moment to get this to work.
best regards
WARNING - THESE TOOLS WRITE TO THE DEVICE PARTITIONS DIRECTLY
If you don't know what that means...
THIS CAN REALLY SCREW UP YOUR ---
I HAVE ONLY TESTED THESE ON THE A2020U (NON-5G) - I CANNOT SAY THEY ARE SAFE ON ANY OTHER VERSION OF THE PHONE (YET)(If you want to test it on a specific model you own, send a PM or post and I can tell you to run a few (safe) things from these tools to make them compatible your phone.)
See my next post down for some more "beginner friendly" general tips and tricks for this phone, including some fixes for common problems and a quick guide for installing Magisk!
If you can't afford to brick your phone, these tools aren't made for you.
There aren't really any protections from doing damage. I made them for myself because doing them on a command line constantly is a pain. I'm just sharing them for two reasons:
1) So myself or other people have tools available to make it easier when advising someone on how to fix their phone.
2) For tinkerers who are okay taking the risk that they'll mess something up.
Thanks to @djkuz / @Unjustified Dev for the EDL tool. These scripts really just expand the use of fh_loader commands in that tool. If you are able to read C++ and want to understand fh_loader I suggest searching on google, the source code is available and from that you can better understand what the tool does / what the command line options do. Feel free to ask here too, I'll do my best to share what I know.
Anyway - below I'll go into plenty of detail of what each "tool" does and some helpful information about using them.
I write in a kind of permanent verbose mode, so if you're impatient and need a TL;DR for these... tough. =)
CURRENT VERSION: Version 1.1d
Changelog:
Version 1.1d:
- Fixed reset scripts
Version 1.1c:
- Fixed a typo in backup_GPT ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Version 1.1b:
- Fixed errors in GPT_Tools - apparently these existed since v1.0 DO NOT USE PREVIOUS VERSIONS
- Removed the v1.1a download (use 1.1b)
Version 1.1a:
- Added script to find the COM port automatically
- Updated all scripts to use the COM port in the file COMPort (created by the above script)
- Added the missing AB Partition manipulation files (accidentally left out of v1.0)
- Added script to run the phone reset EDL command
- Fixed all the filename inconsistency in the XML files - HOPEFULLY. Please post any errors you find. Unfortunately this will make this version incompatible with v1.0 backups without some work - either rename your backup files to match the new format or use the old XML files included.
-- Especially fixed the XML typo of "uefi_sec.mbn" being backed up from both A and B to the same file (overwriting the A copy with B during an ALL backup).
- Added support for installing firmware packages created for this tool. Put them in the Firmware_Package_Restore directory and use the scripts included with them.
Basic Instructions:
1) Download zip (See attachment at the bottom, or here - Download from AndroidFileHost)
2) Unpack zip
3) Move folder to the root directory, or inside any chain of directories that do NOT have spaces in any of the names
4) Right-click on scripts and select "Run with Powershell" to run
5) If running scripts fails due to permissions, see these instructions: https://superuser.com/questions/106360/how-to-enable-execution-of-powershell-scripts
Make a "Complete Backup" (minus userdata):
1) Run Load Programmer
2) Run "backup_all"
3) Check the backup directory and verify the files were backed up and sizes make sense - a full backup should be 10,387,202,048 bytes / 39 files for the critical files and 1,626,697,728 bytes / 64 files for the non-critical (Don't include the port_trace log file when checking size)
Note: You will see a lot of "warnings" before the files begin to download, the program checking if the files already exist.
How to Use These Tools:
Important:
When the scripts run there will be a lot of information dumped to the console. It's not necessary to read all of that BUT - IF YOU DO NOT SEE THE ASCII ART "DONE" AT THE END of running any of these scripts it is likely the script encountered a serious issue. "WARNING" art is normal for some scripts, but "ERROR" means something went wrong.
None of these find the COM port automatically. It is possible (the EDL tool does) but it's just extra work I'm not paid to do =P
You will need to edit each program and change the variable at the top (usually $COMPort = "6") to whatever port number your phone shows up on.
Sorry that's inconvenient, but it should just be once per script - my port number never changes so it wasn't worth implementing automatic port finding.
This is no longer needed after v1.1a.
1. Load Programmer
This is a simple but extremely important tool! You need to run this before running anything else. This script will open a window that runs a command to open a connection to the phone (when it is in EDL / "9008" mode). The window will stay open until you close it. When working on backups I often need to re-connect the programmer, so this makes that easy - just alt-tab to it and hit enter. If you look at the script, it's fairly straightforward - just read the instructions on the screen after running it. The "secret sauce" for this is really the firehose protocol for our chipset that Unjustified Dev provided in the EDL tool.
2. Backup / Restore:
backup_all: This will backup everything on the phone EXCEPT for the huge userdata partition. It will create a backup in two directories, which I'll explain.."critical" / "non-critical": You can see that I have scripts to run these two "types" of backups. Non-critical DOES NOT MEAN NOT IMPORTANT. It means that it is not critical TO ME to back up those files EVERY time I do a backup, because they rarely change. They're EXTREMELY important to have at least one backup of for your phone. The "critical" backup files are files that change often, although some of them are extreme non-critical (cache for example). Use a different name than "critical" if you like, but the point is that only with BOTH backups run (which is what backup_all does) will you have a complete backup.restore_all: This will restore a full (both critical and non-critical) backup set. The backup files have to be in the "restore_critical" and "restore_non-critical" directories respectively. If you didn't make the backup you're trying to restore with this tool CHECK THE FILENAMES, e.g. if you used Unjustified's EDL tool you have to rename the "abl.elf" file his backup generates to "abl_a.elf" for mine. I put _a and _b on every partition that has an a/b version because I got tired of getting them confused. Of course you can always install a backup to either slot.Files moved to the "restore_" directories won't be changed at all by the restore process so you can cut/paste the files from your backup into the directory instead of copying them.
3. A/B Partition Manipulation
These are no more complicated than the backup/restore tools. But they are written to make manipulations of the A/B partitions easier.My main use for these is when I know I have a good, working ROM setup on slot A, I run A2B copy. Then no matter which slot I end up booting I'm sure it will work. (That is, if you have a working, booting slot, copying all the files from that slot to the other slot using this tool will make both slots the same.)Backup/Copy:run_AB-partition-backup: As it says, it will backup both the A/B partition files - WARNING this is NOT a full backup of the phone.run_AB-partition-swap: This will backup all the A/B partition files, then it will write the B files to A and A to B, effectively swapping the partitions and leaving you with a backup in case it screwed up. This backup is ONLY OF THE A/B FILES.. NOT the whole device!run_A2B-partition-copy (and run_B2A-partition-copy): These will do a backup of both A/B partition files, then write the A partition onto the B partition (A2B) or vice versa (B2A), effectively mirroring that partition.
Write/Restore:All the restore scripts try to find their files in the "restore_Partitions" directory - place the files from one of the backups to be restored there.restore_AB-partition-backup: Restore a backup of both the A and B partition files.restore_A-partition-backup (and B): Restore just the backup of one partition to the same partition it was taken from (A to A and B to B).restore_A2B-partition-backup (and B2A): These write from one partition backup to the other partition as the name suggests.
4. GPT Tools
These are some basic tools to directly interact with the partition tables - these are not going to be of any use to 99% of people, so just ignore them if you don't know what they do.run_fixGPT: This issues the --fixgpt command to each of the LUNs. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. As I understand it, this will use the onboard device configuration information from each LUN (e.g. logical size) and try to rebuild the GPTs. It's similar to running patch XMLs, it can clean up flashing messes. It isn't magic and won't fix everything.Rarely will anyone need it unless they've been messing around with the flash tools recklessly... I certainly don't know anyone who would do something that dumb backup_GPT: Backup all of the header and footer (main/backup) GPTs for all the partitions (lun 0-5). I am not aware of whether any other models of the phone have more LUNs, so be careful if you're using this on a non A2020U phone.restore_GPT: Simply write an entire GPT backup set (both main and backup 0-5) onto the phone. The backups must be in the restore_GPT folder. This DOES NOT BACKUP before it runs so make sure you did your backup.
6. Set Bootable Partition:
Alright this one is important for everyone. There are two scripts here - one for slot A and one for slot B. These just run a simple command, but they will fix a common problem I (and probably others) have - when the ROM active-slot information does NOT match the partition (hard drive) bootable flag, the phone will bootloop EVEN THOUGH EVERYTHING IS GOOD.So when you flash an EDL backup (depending on which files you flash, I believe this happens because of either the bootloader or the GPT files) there is a chance the backup you're flashing was originally from a different slot than the one you're restoring it to. The config thinks it should be on slot A while the hardware thinks slot B should be booting.This will result in a fast ~3 second bootloop as the two disagree and reset.This tool changes which partition is expecting to boot - "1" for slot A and "2" for slot B.This does NOT change the active slot - the phone will continue to boot the same slot it's trying to boot. You just need to make the partition that it is trying to boot has a bootable flag.AFAIK there is no way to change the active slot (the one XBL (I think) is trying to boot), except through fastboot or when the phone fails to load the OS 8 times in a row (note - if it fail to load the OS - if the phone bootloops before "boot" is called it won't ever switch slots on its own).This was a common cause of fast bootloops for me before I figured this fix out.
It does no harm to try this as you can always switch again. If neither one works for you, then it's something wrong with the files you're flashing. If you know which slot the phone is trying to boot (the one it was on last), run the script that matches that slot.
7. Write "Unlocked" Bootloader and FRP:
Just like the original EDL tool, these very simply overwrite your existing (probably stock) bootloader (abl) files with the fastboot enabled version, and/or your FRP with the "unlocked" flag on (see description below). This will allow you to enter the bootloader menu (Vol+/- on booting) and use fastboot to unlock the bootloader.backup_FRP-and-bootloaders: As it says, this will make backups of both the FRP file and current bootloader files (ABLs).run_all: Literally just runs both of the below scripts *shrug*write_UD-bootloader: This automatically backs up both your existing A/B bootloaders before overwriting them (BOTH) with the unlocked/fastboot bootloader.WARNING - an unfortunate fact is that if you're using the stock ROM and you have this bootloader installed, it borks the USB mode so it's stuck in charge only. There's a way to fix it temporarily, I'll post it in my "tips" thread, but you have to do it every time you boot, very annoying. I can't fix it permanently because I don't know how the bootloader file was built!WARNING 2 - Android 10 will NOT BOOT with this bootloader installed. You can still install it, trying to boot will bootloop, but you can get into the bootloader menu and use fastboot - but there are no recoveries I know of that work with Android 10 right now, so there's very limited use to having fastboot right now. Hopefully we can get a port of TWRP 3.4 going for this phone..write_unlock-frp: This is also in the EDL tool, but maybe poorly explained - the FRP file holds the flag you change in the OS Developer Options to designate "allow bootloader unlock". If you FORGOT to switch that flag on and unlock, as I understand it, you get bootlooped. This can fix that for you without having to go through all the work of undoing that mess.WARNING - I have only tested this with a brand new factory reset OS WITHOUT any fingerprint/code set. It may not work if you set one. I warn against using this if you are not ready to lose your data. It's convenient if you just forgot, but if you set a pattern/fingerprint security and encrypted the filesystem overwriting the FRP might remove your ability to decrypt which would force you to factory reset. Again, I haven't tested it for that so it may work, but be careful.If you already screwed up and ran this to set the flag - the script runs a quick backup of your old FRP just in case. So you can try to restore that FRP and pray lol)
8. Specific Files:
This is just a generic program to backup/write(restore) "specific files".I include a "Reference.XML" which has a full <program> line for every partition you might want to write/read on the phone. To use this, you need to copy the lines from the reference XML into "rawprogram-specific-files.xml" for the files you want to read/write.As an example I already set up "rawprogram-specific-files.xml" with the two lines for "abl_a" and "abl_b" in it. So the script will backup or restore those files (provided you put the abl's you want to restore in the restore_files directory).I personally use this template a lot - I have one for ABLs, one for AOPs, one for BOOTs, and so on. If you are trying to fix a specific file(s) it's convenient.
9. Userdata Backup:
I put this last because, to be honest, I'm not sure how good of an idea including this even is.VERY IMPORTANT - DO NOT USE THIS USERDATA TOOL IF YOUR PHONE IS NOT THE 256GB VERSION!!!!!I will need someone with the 128GB version to send me their GPT files if they want me to make an XML that works for them. Because the userdata size for SURE depends on your phone version.Also, I wrote a script that breaks up the file into download slices (and can be written back to the phone in slices, of course) - one, to see if I could do it and if it would work (it does)... and two, so that in the horrible case that something goes wrong during the... nearly 2hrs of transfer time, for my 256gb image ... that I can at least not have to start all over. If something happens, you should be able to remove the entries in the XML for what you already have and start again.Finally - is it even worth doing? Is backing up the userdata even useful?I don't know yet.For an unecrypted pre-A10 phone I do know it works to fully flash ALL the files on the phone + the userdata all at the same time to return the phone to the exact "state" it was backed up in - all the apps and settings and everything, exactly as they were.But A10 is encryption enabled always, and it uses file encryption which sounds even worse for this idea.. and I don't know if the crypto keys change and when. So flashing an entire encrypted partition might just leave you unable to decrypt all, some, or none and you lose everything.OR it might just work - you throw the whole image on there and the decrypt key is the same, boom, easy backup.If anyone tries it, let me know how it goes (or doesn't). I'll update with any results I find.Update 1: I have confirmed that for the 256gb A2020U backing up the full phone and userdata allows you to restore the phone to that exact state. Doesn't matter if it's encrypted, password set or not, etc. If you backup the entire userdata image and reflash it that is where the phone will be. In most cases you also need all the other partitions too, but if they have not changed they don't have to be reflashed. (I confirmed going from encrypted with password -> encrypted with no password -> back up encrypted with password.. This is on Android 10 with its more complicated encryption).Another nice thing to note - of course the image of the phone will be the size of the partition (ie. 256gb for mine, 128gb for others). But if your phone storage is largely empty, you compress the backup using something like 7z once the image has been backed up. It won't take up so much space then. How much less? My 256gb image compressed is 4.5gb. lol.... it makes sense, the phone is new and there's basically no information on the userdata. Many of the pieces of my userdata backup have the same exacty hashes - meaning they are literally just all 0's... 260gb of zeros. Unfortunately you can't get away with just backing up part of the image as data could be anywhere. And over time as the sectors get written to, it will get more difficult to compress.Anyway, if anyone has a 128GB version they want to donate to science (kidding - I just need backups of the GPT) I can make the XML file to use for backing those up too.
Extra Note: All the programs automatically build a log of the console window, so if something goes by too fast just check the log. The fh_loader also creates a log and dumps it somewhat randomly about... lol.. the filename is port_trace.txt. This tends to get deleted and overwritten easily so if you want to keep it, move it when the script finishes,. it does often contain more information than the console shows - it can be useful understanding what's going on.
Extra Note 2: You'll notice a script "Create Hash List" in practically every directory. That's to strongly hint that using that script is super useful. All the files backed up through these tools, by definition, have the exact same size. If you hash your files though, you can tell if they have changed at all. This is extremely useful in troubleshooting problems.
How to install an EDL firmware package:
Note: This tool is specifically made for the firmware packages I posted. It won't work with any other package (although it can, with a little work).
1. Install the EDL tools
2. Run a backup of your phone! Even if it isn't booting.
3. Download a firmware package from this thread: [ROM][STOCK] Stock Firmware Packages (For Expanded EDL Tools)
4. Unpack the firmware archive into the tool directory "Firmware_Package_Restore"
5. Put phone in EDL mode and run Load Programmer
6. Run whichever "Write Firmware vX to Y.ps1" you want (X = firmware version, Y = A or B partition) (If you don't know which partition is currently booting, just install both.)
7. Wait for the install to finish ("done"), then reset the phone with either the power button or the reset tool
8. You might see a few bootloops and then the phone ask you to do a factory reset / system wipe.
9. Done.
PLEASE POST IN THE FIRMWARE THREAD _NOT HERE_ IF YOU RUN INTO ANY ISSUES!
Enjoy!
Also, while I'm here... some other helpful notes for this phone:
-------------------------------
General Information:
As of right now there are a lot of working options for Android 9 and quickly expanding thanks to work @Unjustified Dev did and work @rafyvitto is continuing to do! Check out some of his sGSI ROMs, lots of options!
Thanks to Unjustified LOS 16 is available for Android 9 also, and is the base install for most ROMs. See his threads for that. I may write up an install guide here that's a little more in depth than his.. not today though.
Upgrading to Android 10 with the bootloader unlocked is possible but requires a workaround:
You must unlock on Android 9 then use recovery to side-load the Android 10 update available from ZTE USA (HERE).
This will remove the fastboot enabled bootloader and requires a complete system wipe.
You will retain bootloader unlock.
Once you have updated to A10 you can run OTA updates to get up to the latest version.
Downsides to A10 include - NO RECOVERY (yet), NO CUSTOM ROMs (yet), and if you flash the fastboot enabled bootloader you CAN use fastboot, but you cannot boot- the phone will be in a bootloop until you restore the stock A10 bootloader.
-------------------------------
Resetting the phone manually:
In EDL Loop - Hold power for 20 seconds
In EDL Not-Looped - Hold power for 5 seconds
In System (booted after ZTE logo) - Hold power for 10 seconds
----------------------------------
Entering Modes:
All of these start by using reset above, THEN the button(s) below - in all except one case (EDL), when the phone resets it will vibrate and then show the blue ZTE logo.
When you feel the vibration you want to immediately release the power button and press the mode buttons.
This can be confusing and tricky - most people say "hold power + button" - that is incorrect. Most cases if you hold any button other than power the phone will not finish resetting until you release that button.
What you want to do is right before or as the phone vibrates, then you hold the button. Once the ZTE screen is up it is probably too late if you missed it. So hold power for your reset and be ready to push the button you want when you feel the vibration.
The one exception - EDL mode. For EDL mode you can (and must) hold the key combo just before/during the restart.
Recovery Mode: Vol+ Button
Factory Test Mode: Vol- Button
Bootloader/Fastboot Mode: Vol+/- Button (both) when phone is NOT plugged into USB (if you are too early pressing the combo, even with the USB unplugged, you will get EDL mode)
Emergency Download Mode: Vol+/- Button (both) when phone IS plugged into USB
--------------------------------
EDL Flash Errors (esp. when EDL looped):
There is NO indication the phone is even ON when you are EDL stuck/looped. Other than when you plug into the computer with the right drivers it shows up as a 9008 device (9008 mode is EDL for Qualcomm).
Even when you can see the phone on your computer, it can often "freeze" in EDL if it is left idle for too long (not connected to and being used by a Sahara programmer).
If you try the EDL tool or another flash tool and they give you errors related to the Sahara programmer not loading or no "hello", do this:
Reset the phone - use a clock to count if you need, has to be accurate since there's no indication of when it resets. Press down Vol+/- and the power button, count to 20sec, then release JUST the power button. Keep holding both of the volumes for another 5 sec, then release them. That will get you back into a fresh EDL. You can watch your Device Manager to see the phone disconnect as an indicator when to let go of the power button. If you mess up the timing, wait a bit before trying again so the phone isn't in the middle of rebooting.
Easiest way to tell if you're in EDL is to watch the Device Manager while you do it. Otherwise there is just a lot of guess work, since there's no logo or vibration when you get it right, phone just appears off.
--------------------------------
USB Mode Stuck After Unlocking:
Something about the fastboot/"unlocked" bootloader causes the USB mode when you boot in the OS to be stuck on "Charge Only" mode.
Luckily I found @meow sir 's comment tucked away in this thread, and he knew a way to fix it (thanks!):
1. Open the phone dialer
2. Dial in "*#*#DEBUG#*#*" (debug = 33284)
(Sometimes takes a little bit to open, but a debugger menu will open)
3. Select the 2nd option for USB
4. Pick the only option - this will unset some strange "testing" mode and you can use MPT again.
Unfortunately this fix doesn't stick, you have to do it every time unless you switch back to the stock ABL. =(
--------------------------------
Installing Magisk, Quick Guide:
- You must have your bootloader unlocked already! This works on both A9 and A10.
1. Use this tool to create a full backup! (backup_all)
2. Go into the "critical" directory created by the backup and find the files for boot_a.img and boot_b.img - rename them to boot_a_bak.img and boot_b_bak.img and keep that window open, need them in a second
2. Boot into the OS. Download the Magisk Manager APK from HERE
3. Copy the APK and both of those boot files to your phone, open a file manager and install the APK
4. Open Magisk Manager and click on "Install" for Magisk (upper right)
5. Select "Patch Boot ROM" (or whatever it says.. something like that..)
6. Navigate to boot_a_bak.img and patch it.
7. Go to your Downloads directory (where Magisk dumps the patched file) and rename it to boot_a_magisk
8. Go back to Magisk and repeat those steps for boot_b
9. Copy the two patched Magisk boot files to your computer, into the folder with your "critical" files backup.
10. Rename the Magisk files to "boot_a.img" and "boot_b.img"
11. Move all the files from the "Backup\backup_all-critical-(...)" directory to the "Restore\restore_critical" directory in my tools
12. Finally, reboot into EDL.. almost there!
13. Run "restore_all-critical" (don't forget to run Load Programmer first..)
14. It will restore all you files, kinda a waste of time - if you know how to use the "Specific Files" tool this is a perfect time to use it to flash JUST the boot files. But anyway - this will get it done.
15. When done flashing, reboot the phone and open Magisk Manager to confirm it is installed!
The Magisk team recommend you DO NOT FLASH your stock boot files back to uninstall it, instead they say you should run their uninstaller.zip. However, I am not sure how to uninstall it if you're on A10 since we don't have a recovery that can flash zips? (Unless the stock recovery works for that, I don't think it would..)
I suspect (but have not tried) that on our phone flashing the boot files back over Magisk will not really be a problem since the recovery and ramdisk are all wrapped up into the boot image. But I don't recommend trying it if you value your data! Fair warning.
---------------------------
Alright that's everything. Good luck!
This will be useful for a lot of folks on here, thanks for taking the time to look for a work around.
rafyvitto said:
This will be useful for a lot of folks on here, thanks for taking the time to look for a work around.
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Click to collapse
Glad to be helpful! Usually I lurk the forums getting information I need to unlock/root/etc lol.. but I saw I actually could contribute something to this forum so hopefully it encourages people to get interested in this phone. It's looking pretty sweet now that I'm not spending days fighting with bootloops!
Indeed,on the note of attracting more users. im going to be releasing something for the pixel lovers very soon ?
Thanks Bob!
I'm on A10 with unlocked bootloader. I made all EDL tool backups when on A9 but these were done before correcting the typos as suggested. So I am not confident of successfully flashing back to A9 (preference).
Therefore I will likely flash the magisk-patched boot files to attempt root and report my experience...
Sent from my ZTE A2020U Pro using Tapatalk
big thx, glad to see some life to this almost dev-dead device
Hey thanks for the post. I'm thinking about buying the phone but have a quick question. Can I update to the latest version of Android 9 before unlocking or will the OTA be Android 10. How would I go about updating to the latest version version of Android 9 and not go to Android 10. Can I download the Android 9 OTA from somewhere and flash that one? Thanks in advance for the help!
Crackass said:
Hey thanks for the post. I'm thinking about buying the phone but have a quick question. Can I update to the latest version of Android 9 before unlocking or will the OTA be Android 10. How would I go about updating to the latest version version of Android 9 and not go to Android 10. Can I download the Android 9 OTA from somewhere and flash that one? Thanks in advance for the help!
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Click to collapse
:good: I think your question borderlines on needing its own thread in the Q&A section but I'll answer you anyway...
Currently as long as you are on A9 when you get the phone you can just do OTA updates from firmware version 1.10 to 1.11 to 1.13 (not sure what android security update that is), after 1.13 it goes to A10.
There is an A10 firmware available from ZTE to SD card sideload. Once installed it has to be updated to the latest A10 via a couple OTA updates.
Going directly from A9 to A10 via OTA goes directly to the latest version.
You cannot flash the A9 OTA... because flashing an OTA is an oxymoron... but I guess you mean can you download the A9 firmware and flash them. The answer is... maybe. ZTE does not offer official downloads any A9 firmware for A2002U (USA version), only A10.
They do offer A9 firmware for A2020G (european) and I think other foreign versions (RU, CN). These cannot be interchanged, if you have the US or EU or CN phone you need to use that firmware... from what I have read. I could be wrong, I don't have those phones.
But there is an unofficial stock A9 firmware for the A2020U here on the forums, uploaded by @rafyvitto . That will get you to.. I forget.. 1.11? That can be flashed using the original EDL tool or, with a little modification, the EDL tools in this thread.
Additionally.. if I ever get around to it... I plan to upload all three A9 firmware packages for the US version which can be flashed with the EDL tools in this thread. Not sure if it's really necessary, but I have them.. it's just a matter of figuring out hosting them and spending the time to upload them.
bobthenormal said:
:good: I think your question borderlines on needing its own thread in the Q&A section but I'll answer you anyway...
Currently as long as you are on A9 when you get the phone you can just do OTA updates from firmware version 1.10 to 1.11 to 1.13 (not sure what android security update that is), after 1.13 it goes to A10.
There is an A10 firmware available from ZTE to SD card sideload. Once installed it has to be updated to the latest A10 via a couple OTA updates.
Going directly from A9 to A10 via OTA goes directly to the latest version.
You cannot flash the A9 OTA... because flashing an OTA is an oxymoron... but I guess you mean can you download the A9 firmware and flash them. The answer is... maybe. ZTE does not offer official downloads any A9 firmware for A2002U (USA version), only A10.
They do offer A9 firmware for A2020G (european) and I think other foreign versions (RU, CN). These cannot be interchanged, if you have the US or EU or CN phone you need to use that firmware... from what I have read. I could be wrong, I don't have those phones.
But there is an unofficial stock A9 firmware for the A2020U here on the forums, uploaded by @rafyvitto . That will get you to.. I forget.. 1.11? That can be flashed using the original EDL tool or, with a little modification, the EDL tools in this thread.
Additionally.. if I ever get around to it... I plan to upload all three A9 firmware packages for the US version which can be flashed with the EDL tools in this thread. Not sure if it's really necessary, but I have them.. it's just a matter of figuring out hosting them and spending the time to upload them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to chime in, interchanging firmware between each model is possible, you would only need to reflash your model/nonhos/tz partitions to the ones of your variant to have working ril/fod fp/sensors.
Ok Bob I gave it a go and successfully rooted my A2020U running stock A10 v2.09. This is my experience...
Firstly, my A2020U could not connect so I used the @Unjustified Dev Tool ("original tool") to easily determine my com port (i.e. 3). I edited the your scripts accordingly (using Notepad++) and got connected.
I'd rather not fiddle with the hardware buttons to change modes so I used the CLI to "adb reboot edl" to get into EDL mode.
I executed the backup_all.ps1 script.
It echoed several "warnings" indicating that it could not find files. However, the created backup folders did in fact include those files.
I noted that none of the "A" slot files include the "_a" postfix; the "B" slot files did include "_b".
Now I needed to transfer those boot files to my device by first rebooting my device and connecting via MTP.
I noted that the original tool offered a reboot menu option (but sadly only after executing a successful operation). So, not wanting to fiddle, I used the original tool to backup my boot files, then used the menu option to reboot; On my device I then manually selected it to connect via MTP.
After transferring the "boot.img" and "boot_b.img" files to my device, and installing Magisk Manager. I patched them and transferred them back to my PC.
To "flash" (restore) the patched files I decided to cut 'n' paste the two lines regarding them from your Reference.xml file into your rawprogram-specific-files.xml file, replacing your example lines.
I executed your run_write-files.ps1 script and it completed successfully.
Not wanting to fiddle again with the hardware buttons (just so that I can get the reboot option), I backed up the patched files using the original tool and rebooted. Now my device is successfully rooted.
Thank you!
Additional notes and suggestions:
1. Can you please investigate the "false" warnings? See my (redacted) log file attached;
2. It would be great if you could create/duplicate a script within your expanded tool set (or main program) to determine and set the appropriate COMPort (and teach us non-coders the actual commands);
3. Would you also consider investigating and including a reboot device script? (It looks like the original tool calls reset.xml);
4. Note that, at the time of reporting this, the latest versions for the Manager and Magsk are 8.02 (307) and 21.0 (21000) respectively, and that I had to switch the update channel to "beta" for the patched files to pass SafetyNet;
5. Because rooting is a likely use of your tool I am attaching my modified rawprogram-specific-files.xml file which targets the boot files for convenience.
bobthenormal said:
...
Additionally.. if I ever get around to it... I plan to upload all three A9 firmware packages for the US version which can be flashed with the EDL tools in this thread....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this can help me get my A10 device to a state where I can install a custom recovery and cutom ROMs, I would appreciate it!
eKeith said:
Ok Bob I gave it a go and successfully rooted my A2020U running stock A10 v2.09. This is my experience...
Firstly, my A2020U could not connect so I used the @Unjustified Dev Tool ("original tool") to easily determine my com port (i.e. 3). I edited the your scripts accordingly (using Notepad++) and got connected.
I'd rather not fiddle with the hardware buttons to change modes so I used the CLI to "adb reboot edl" to get into EDL mode.
I executed the backup_all.ps1 script.
It echoed several "warnings" indicating that it could not find files. However, the created backup folders did in fact include those files.
I noted that none of the "A" slot files include the "_a" postfix; the "B" slot files did include "_b".
Now I needed to transfer those boot files to my device by first rebooting my device and connecting via MTP.
I noted that the original tool offered a reboot menu option (but sadly only after executing a successful operation). So, not wanting to fiddle, I used the original tool to backup my boot files, then used the menu option to reboot; On my device I then manually selected it to connect via MTP.
After transferring the "boot.img" and "boot_b.img" files to my device, and installing Magisk Manager. I patched them and transferred them back to my PC.
To "flash" (restore) the patched files I decided to cut 'n' paste the two lines regarding them from your Reference.xml file into your rawprogram-specific-files.xml file, replacing your example lines.
I executed your run_write-files.ps1 script and it completed successfully.
Not wanting to fiddle again with the hardware buttons (just so that I can get the reboot option), I backed up the patched files using the original tool and rebooted. Now my device is successfully rooted.
Thank you!
Additional notes and suggestions:
1. Can you please investigate the "false" warnings? See my (redacted) log file attached;
2. It would be great if you could create/duplicate a script within your expanded tool set (or main program) to determine and set the appropriate COMPort (and teach us non-coders the actual commands);
3. Would you also consider investigating and including a reboot device script? (It looks like the original tool calls reset.xml);
4. Note that, at the time of reporting this, the latest versions for the Manager and Magsk are 8.02 (307) and 21.0 (21000) respectively, and that I had to switch the update channel to "beta" for the patched files to pass SafetyNet;
5. Because rooting is a likely use of your tool I am attaching my modified rawprogram-specific-files.xml file which targets the boot files for convenience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice! :good:
For the questions..
0. Thanks for the heads up on filenames! I completely missed that the _a files don't have the labels... As you probably noticed all the files are backed up correctly still (no missing/overwritten files), but I removed the _a from all the A slot files. That was my original "fix", so I guess I started building this package before I got annoyed by not having the _a/_b consistency. I'll update the correct XML file and upload it as a new version.
1. Don't worry about those! They're part of using the fh_loader interface. Warnings are usually just fine, ERRORS are bad. I'll add a note to the post when I get a chance so people don't get scared by that.
It's only when you do a backup the program is really only designed in the "writing" sense, for backups you literally run an identical XML to writing but you send a flag that reverses the process. So it weirdly checks if the files it is going to copy (which of course don't exist) exist, and it throws the standard warning, but then it just creates them (of course).
I can't turn those off without lowering the verbosity setting for that tool. I decided to leave it set to high because if someone has a problem and they post their log file (like so!) it's very useful to troubleshoot.
2. I'll think about it / try. Not very hard to program but a little time consuming.
I'll throw a copy of lsusb.exe in the next version. Windows port of the linux command. People can simply run that on a command prompt and it will list all the active COM ports/devices. If you're not familiar with it - you can also find out by clicking on the windows start bar or pressing the windows key and typing in "Device Manager". In the hardware list there is a category for COM ports where it lists them.
3. Yeah that's very easy I'll put one in the next version as well.
4. Helpful to know. Interesting that you needed beta to pass... I didn't think to mention I use the canary builds (not really recommended... the current one crashes when I try to hide Magisk Manager lol)
5. Thanks! Maybe I should make a directory specific to boot backup/write... but I do think anyone not comfortable doing the change you did might not want to be flashing their boot files anyway haha.. things to consider I guess.
As for getting you back from A10, definitely. I'll figure out how to upload them to one of those file sharing sites in a week or two.
In the mean time, with a backup from this tool you're safe (as far as bricking goes, you'll have to system wipe) to try rafy's EDL backup to revert to A9. I'll find the actual post... I should have been less lazy and linked it in my post lol... HERE - rafyvitto's EDL.
If flashing his backup doesn't boot right away try the tool I included to fix the bootable partition. If it still doesn't work after that (maybe mention here what happened) then just restore your backup.
Do you have the 128gb phone by chance?
Thanks much, especially for your detailed clarifications and convenient link!
I have the 8/256GB (P855A03_NA) model.
PS
I want to spend more time on ensuring I have a complete device backup before nuking with another EDL; will dedicate some time this week...
Sent from my ZTE A2020U Pro using Tapatalk
eKeith said:
Thanks much, especially for your detailed clarifications and convenient link!
I have the 8/256GB (P855A03_NA) model.
PS
I want to spend more time on ensuring I have a complete device backup before nuking with another EDL; will dedicate some time this week...
Sent from my ZTE A2020U Pro using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Oh nice, with the 256gb model you're good to use the userdata backup program too. Sounds ideal for you since, like me, you want a really bulletproof backup. If you run a full backup and then run the userdata backup you literally have a "phone state" so you can return your phone back to exactly where it was, not have to wipe system or anything.
Of course I'd hate to be wrong so as usual, do at your own risk! Lol. But I am using that method and it has worked great. The downside being over an hour of waiting for the userdata to download or upload... and having to store 256gb (for long term storage you can compress it down to literally a few gb).
I've been kinda busy, but working on getting some of those things from my last post done hopefully this week.
bobthenormal said:
Oh nice, with the 256gb model you're good to use the userdata backup program too. Sounds ideal for you since, like me, you want a really bulletproof backup. If you run a full backup and then run the userdata backup you literally have a "phone state" so you can return your phone back to exactly where it was, not have to wipe system or anything.
Of course I'd hate to be wrong so as usual, do at your own risk! Lol. But I am using that method and it has worked great. The downside being over an hour of waiting for the userdata to download or upload... and having to store 256gb (for long term storage you can compress it down to literally a few gb).
I've been kinda busy, but working on getting some of those things from my last post done hopefully this week.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's great to know! Your user data backup option has simplified my life.
I will wait for your next revision to do a full backup plus user data before nuking.
I am looking forward to moving on from ZTE's A10 to one of Ray's ROMs...
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
Updated to 1.1a - kind of had to rush on some things so keep an eye out for mistakes, especially in the XML files, and let me know if you find any.
Should have an 1.09 (A9) firmware package up "Soon(TM)", just have to make the xml files then upload the file somewhere.
EDIT: Already needed to update to 1.1b - I found that the GPT_Tools had a big error that probably was there since 1.0 and no one noticed! Backups of the GPT should now actually work...
Thank you @bobthenormal !
Looking forward to your A9 EDL backup...
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
eKeith said:
Thank you @bobthenormal !
Looking forward to your A9 EDL backup...
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
It's up -- see the new thread.
I didn't have time to test it so make sure you backup but I'm 99,99% sure it will work. I tested it several times in the past, but to make the firmware package I took out all the (I hope) unnecessary files.
There's one thing I'm not sure of - whether you'll need to use the Fix Bootable tool after installing it. IF you need to, then I believe you will have to install it to partition B and then run fix bootable B. (The 1.10 backup was taken originally from the B partition).
If you find that it works without having to do that, let me know... it may not be necessary if wherever that bootable flag is stored didn't get included in the firmware package.
bobthenormal said:
It's up -- see the new thread.
I didn't have time to test it so make sure you backup but I'm 99,99% sure it will work. I tested it several times in the past, but to make the firmware package I took out all the (I hope) unnecessary files.
There's one thing I'm not sure of - whether you'll need to use the Fix Bootable tool after installing it. IF you need to, then I believe you will have to install it to partition B and then run fix bootable B. (The 1.10 backup was taken originally from the B partition).
If you find that it works without having to do that, let me know... it may not be necessary if wherever that bootable flag is stored didn't get included in the firmware package.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you @bobthenormal !
I should be able to give it a go this weekend and inform...
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