Where to begin? Logic would dictate, the beginning.
I'll do my best to be brief with the backstory.
Months ago I ordered a Jide Ultratablet to use as my portable workhorse. At first things were peachy until a rather monumental lag began to manifest every 15-45 seconds. It made the device impossible to utilize in any productive fashion, so I contacted Jide and opened up a support ticket. After months (in no way an exaggeration) of barely responsive correspondence, during which I sent them a video to demonstrate the problem, they finally came back to me with an email containing a link to a compressed folder containing the Remix 2.0 images, and also a link to a rather vague and complicated tutorial on how to flash Remix 1.5 manually to a device. (In fact, I tried to include a link to the tutorial, but I am unable to since I haven't posted to the forum enough. I am happy to PM it or email it to anyone who might like to help) I can only assume I am meant to apply the same logic to the Remix 2.0 files they sent me. Seemed a bit dicey at first glance, but while I'm by no means an expert, I'm no slouch in this arena and I'm a very quick study.
Now, on to the proverbial meat and potatoes:
If you were able to contact me for a link to the tutorial in question, you will have undoubtedly seen that they indicate one should use ADB-Fastboot as a means to flash the recovery image. No real surprises there. I have ADB and Fastboot installed on my PC (Windows 10). I also have the ADB drivers installed and have confirmed the addition to my PATH. (eg: ;C:\ADB) I can also confirm that it is working fine since I am able to pull up a terminal and issue the ADB command and it gives me the usual wall of commands. The problem is that my device (Ultratablet) is not being seen by ADB. I have checked my USB drivers and they are all up to date and installed properly. My PC sees the device no problem and there is no indication of any sort of connection error. I've also tried different cables and ports. Yet, I can't access it via ADB and thus am unable to issue commands to my device such as "adb reboot bootloader" or "fastboot reboot-bootloader".
My next logical approach was to attempt forcing the device into fastboot mode using the hardware button combination, which is not listed specifically for the Ultratablet anywhere, I might add. (Power key + Volume up) It brings me to a boot options menu with the selections "Continue/Fastboot Protocol/Recovery Kernel/Reboot/Poweroff/Forced Recovery". Ateempting to select Fastboot Protocol causes the display to shut off for a moment, the device to vibrate once, and then the display to turn back on back at the same menu full of selections.
So, in summary, I am expected to flash the device using fastboot and yet I can't even get the device into fastboot mode, let alone issue commands from my PC terminal. As I highlighted near the beginning, teh Jide support team is incredibly unresponsive and not overly helpful. I have notified them of this same set of issues, but I don't expect to hear back in any expedient fashion and I thought one of the mighty members here on XDA might be able to help me come up with a next step in the meantime. I'd cerainly love to be able to use my shiny new tablet.
In any case, thank you for your time.
Kind regards.
Shaiden
Bump? Anyone? Still swinging in the breeze on this one. No word back from the manufacturer, as expected. =/
I have the same problem
Shaiden said:
Bump? Anyone? Still swinging in the breeze on this one. No word back from the manufacturer, as expected. =/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it's been 4 years but did you find any solution to this? I'm asking because I have the same problem. I decided to downgrade to Remix OS 1.5 in order to root (I have tried 5 rooting apps with no success) but my device refuses to enter fastboot protocol. The whole idea was since I can't find a way to root the damn thing in its current state maybe I can manage it with its older OS version. All this just to turn it to android root apps "testing ground" device. Oof.
** Unable to Flash Pipo N7 (4032 error) Fix **
** As usual, I’m not responsible to any FURTHER damage you might do to your tablet or yourself, by trying to manipulate the system’s ROM or Li-Ion batteries **
Background
I’ve seen a lot of people trying to flash a different ROM on these tablets and resulting with a bricked device. Ironically the ROM that bricks the device comes directly from Pipo. I’ve been in touch with Pipo engineering and they told me that the ROM posted in their website is exclusive for Android 6.0 devices, and currently there is no 7.0 ROM in their website.
As with a lot of small Chinese technology manufacturers, their company lacks of some organization, which has lead to these type of confusion. That’s some of the risk that one takes when buying these brands.
Problem
You try to roll back to Android 6.0 for whatever reason you want: stability, speed, or simply that was the only ROM available for you to recover from an error or troubleshooting your tablet.
After installing VCOM drivers (won’t even talk about this, the whole web has info on this), and flashing the 6.0 ROM via SP Flash Tools, the tablet is bricked.
Behaviour
The tablet won’t power up and there is no access to recovery, adb sideload, etc. The only response is under DEVICE MANAGER, the port appears and disappears.
The only way to make the port “stop” reconnecting, is to open SP Flash Tools and select a command (i.e. download, format, readback, etc.). Only by doing this you will be able to stablish a link with the tablet, which is expecting now to receive a Preloader.
If you try to flash the ROM again, you will now get a fat S_FT_enable_dram_fail (4032) error. All of this was done WITH THE NEGATIVE BATTERY LEAD UNSOLDERED.
Solution
Drivers
If you were able to brick it with the wrong ROM, then you don’t need to troubleshoot driver issues, sounds logic right? Drivers discarded.
Battery
The battery is soldered, you have two options. Open the tablet with a credit card-->>[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ucwSLCVOQ ] all along the side to unlock the clips, and then unsolder the negative lead (protect is with some tape or something while working), or just use the RESET switch on top.
ROM
Attached is the working ROM for the following PipoN7 product (latest that has been shipped since Dec 2017)
https://www.4shared.com/rar/Znmpc-q-gm/N7_OEM_70.html
Procedure
Unpack the ROM (verify the path is not too long, or else you might get an Error on SP Flash Tools)
Open SP Flash Tools, select the scatter file, verify ALL FILES are checked and press download
Connect the tablet, if the process doesn’t start, press the Tablet’s reset button on top
If the reset button doesn’t work, you need to unsolder the battery and try again
When finished close Flash Tools, disconnect and leave the tablet charging (when bricked the battery usually discharges). When connected you should see the battery icon, indicating charge
With this ROM also, we can probably have Custom Builds in the future, to make improvements to this great nifty little tablet.
Good Luck!
These tablets were sold with certain Vizio TVs in mid-2016 into 2017, primarily used for Smartcast to the TV.
They are now obsolete since Vizio released firmware for their TVs turning them into normal Smart TVs, requiring the owners of these TVs to get new remotes and the tablets stopped being useful for this function.
Here in 2019, one can buy these tablets, at the low price end, in working condition, for $25 (for the M series) to $40 (for the P series) shipped.
The specs are as follows:
XR6M10:
Snapdragon 410 1.2GHz quadcore APQ8016
2GB RAM
8GB Storage
1280x720 IPS display
802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0
2740mAh battery
MicroUSB for charging, Qi Charging built-in for bundled charge pad or any compatible charging solution
XR6P10:
Snapdragon 615 1.45GHz octocore APQ8039
2GB RAM
16GB Storage
1920x1080 IPS display
802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0
2740mAh battery
MicroUSB for charging, Qi Charging built-in for bundled charge pad or any compatible charging solution
Both tablets feature side-firing stereo speakers, a headphone jack, and NO cameras. The size of the tablet is comparable to the size of a Galaxy Note 9, give or take.
Both tablets came with Android 5.1.1, and OTA updates upgraded them to 6.0.1. There are ZERO available stock ROM files available for the tablets. I've tried sniffing the updater and they seem to go to a dead website.
The stock ROM is fairly clean, and only has the Vizio Smartcast app which needs disabling upon setting up. Aside from this, there is no other bloatware on the tablet to speak of after running a fine-tooth comb through the system apps. You get a clean and snappy tablet.
The problem:
There's no stock ROM file available, neither for Android 5.1.1 or for 6.0.1. Vizio does not have any sort of download for either on their site, nor did in the past. The updater checked a third-party website affiliated with Vizio to manage the tablet's updates, as it does with their TVs. Since the website is inert, it can be safely said that Vizio is no longer interested in their existence at all, especially since the warranty on every single one of these tablets is now up.
The tablet seems it can have the bootloader unlocked, the developer options has the toggle for that, but there's no way to get into fastboot. Holding VOL UP+DOWN+POWER at boot or sending the "adb reboot bootloader" command sends it into a "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008" mode under USB. This, from what I understand, is behavior persistent with the locked bootloader, but I have no idea of how to get it out of this and just into fastboot. Stock recovery does not have a fastboot option either.
The desires list:
Have someone that knows the intricacies of the MSM8916 platform and the APQ8016/APQ8039 get their hands on these tablets
Get a ROM dump of both tablets in stock form so people with bricked tablets can flash them with it
Get Root (Patch level on the 6.0.1 stock ROM is from October 2016, shouldn't be hard)
Get the bootloader unlocked, somehow, and if not, figure a way to get something like Safestrap running on it if the out-of-the-box kernel allows for it
Custom ROMs? LineageOS would be sweet, especially with some of the tablet-specific fixes that have dropped in the past couple months overall.
so I ask: is there any interest in the freeing of these super cheap tablets? The price to spec ratio is not bad (once again, I got my 6M10 for $25 shipped, and the seller has like 7 more as of the time of this writing), and it doesn't seem like it would be all too hard to unlock the bootloader and get it rooted (at least, from my perspective, that of a novice in this specific hardware field). There are plenty of these in the wild in the hands of people that bought the TVs and plenty in the hands that bought them from ebay when the tablets became obsolete.
This link contains screenshots of CPU-Z and the About Tablet settings section from the tablet, uploaded to imgur. If anyone needs more information on this tablet that needs an app or adb command, I can make this happen.
Board Pic of the XR6M10, XR6P10 should be the same inside:
(click for larger image)
Update: I have temp root.
I have temp root!-the latest kingroot (NOT Kingoroot) APK seemed to have done the trick. I was able to fire up adaway and get the hosts file set up with adblocks to keep the thing safer.
The root is still temporary so it goes away after a reboot. The rooting process involves it doing the root process once, then rebooting, then failing, then you reboot once more, and then retry rooting from the app. From here, 80% of the time, it works and you're able to get temporary root for that boot session.
Once you're done with anything you need root for, you should reboot and then uninstall Kingroot, which you then need to deactivate the device administrator priveleges for, before it will allow you to cleanly uninstall it.
I also made a huge discovery that may turn out better for anyone that can help getting this thing properly rooted and the bootloader unlocked... it seems the file manager included in the stock ROM is v3.0.0 from Cyanogenmod 12.1.
This makes me think that the ROM creator either used that since it was opensource and readily available than come up with their own solution, or that this ROM has some cyanogenmod roots.
I also found this post from another Q&A thread in this section:
TheDrive said:
This device have made by Chinese/Indian company Borqs. The code name Bennu-M. Platform is Qualcomm APQ8016 (MSM8916 w/o modem). There should work standard method to bring EDL mode. Hold Vol+ and Vol- at power on (press power). Then connect to the PC. Thus device will stay look dead, however should be detected as Qualcomm QDLoader 9008 on the PC side. This is the factory described method.
You can flash factory firmware from this mode using external bootloader (programmer) for MSM8916 firehose protocol. This procedure is described in the thousands of manuals around the net. Qualcomm tools like QPST or QFIL can be used as good as many 3rd party utils to flash and manage any another available way. Many professional 'box' tools should support this device too but only as 'generic' msm8916 (if applicable).
However I can't find the firmware package for this device anywhere. You should ask and require the manufacturer/distributor to publish firmware, the source code and all the corresponding matherials to be able to flash and rebuild firmware from sources in any manner you want without any limitations as required by GNU/GPL free open source software licenses this firmware is obligated to.
Everyone who have the device working or software dead, can try to dump the current firmware and data, stored on the internal eMMC memory module in part(s) or in whole image using free QTools project utilities and suitable external bootloader with ability to dump eMMC, not only to flash as many factory supplied programmers do. There are programmer(s) for MSM8916 available in the project repo. Read and understand manuals carefully before trying anything!
There is definitely another ways to root, dump, flash, manage the device in any manner YOU WANT, not only the way you are "allowed" to use your own device by manufacturer/distributor. FTA!
You can root the device then dump all the multiple partition images manually (dd if=/dev/block/mmbblk0...... of=/sdcard/......) or using built custom recovery like CWM/TWRP for your device. Please note, kernel sources are important but not mandatory to build e.g. CWM. You can build one using CWM image from the similar device and the kernel (boot/recovery) image binaries from your device. There are good manuals and image repacking utils available around like e.g. AndImgTool.
There are the way to produce factory image from the eMMC/partitions dump(s). Use utils like R-Studio to dump particular partition images from the eMMC dump (it's like whole HDD or UFD image with all the sectors raw, one by one, w/o any modifications/compression/etc) Manuals / utils are avavailable to make e.g. sparse and xml scripts set which is flashable by the programmer in the EDL mode (i.e. from any damaged state, because EDL is built in to the PBL and masked to the internal CPU ROM, thus can not be damaged in any manner, except firing the CPU up).
You can also flash partition images from the more common Fastboot mode, unless eMMC GPT and bootloaders (SBL/RPM/TZ/ABoot) stay intact (logo showed). You can't dump from fastboot, which is common due to the (foolish) 'safety' requirements. It's security by obscurity and is definitely not for your favor, but for the corps control over you and force to send valuable private data to foreign clouds.
Please share eMMC full and/or partitions dumps using reliable 'neverending' file cloud/hosting since there is no factory firmware available yet (ever). I do not own this device and never seen being overseas, so I can't share.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This gives a little bit more information but seems to be more waffle than helpful. Still need someone, or some individuals, that can get one of these devices into their hands and work on a way to get the bootloader unlocked, the eMMC dumped, and ROMs going.
Update file?
I THINK I have the update file for 6.0.1. I did a packet sniff on a 5.1.1 tablet using a mitm packet sniffer and I ran the system updater, and was able to get this URL:
http://updatev.vo.llnwd.net/v1/idownload/64821.bin
The filesize is 570MB or so, and it looks like it might be the real deal. since it's a .bin file and 7zip can't read it, I won't be able to see what it really is without going over to the box that has a copy of universal extractor installed.
I'll be doing this momentarily and editing this post once I figure out what the contents are or if it's even readable to that extent. Knowing vizio, it could very well be encrypted and need decrypting by the updater application.
Update: it seems to be encrypted. oh joy.
Update 2: I got together with a friend on discord and we successfully decompiled the updater app to a point.
This MEGA link contains all the files thus far and a copy of the tablet's /system/framework folder for decompiling purposes.
However, it doesn't seem we're getting anywhere. the file is still encrypted and I still can't figure out what's needed to decrypt it. Hopefully someone with more knowledge on this can lend a hand.
Sudosftw said:
I THINK I have the update file for 6.0.1. I did a packet sniff on a 5.1.1 tablet using a mitm packet sniffer and I ran the system updater, and was able to get this URL:
http://updatev.vo.llnwd.net/v1/idownload/64821.bin
The filesize is 570MB or so, and it looks like it might be the real deal. since it's a .bin file and 7zip can't read it, I won't be able to see what it really is without going over to the box that has a copy of universal extractor installed.
I'll be doing this momentarily and editing this post once I figure out what the contents are or if it's even readable to that extent. Knowing vizio, it could very well be encrypted and need decrypting by the updater application.
Update: it seems to be encrypted. oh joy.
Update 2: I got together with a friend on discord and we successfully decompiled the updater app to a point.
This MEGA link contains all the files thus far and a copy of the tablet's /system/framework folder for decompiling purposes.
However, it doesn't seem we're getting anywhere. the file is still encrypted and I still can't figure out what's needed to decrypt it. Hopefully someone with more knowledge on this can lend a hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just out of curiosity, with the temp root, have you tried using dd to get the recovery image off? If we can do that, we might be able to work on getting a custom recovery built.
Qiangong2 said:
Just out of curiosity, with the temp root, have you tried using dd to get the recovery image off? If we can do that, we might be able to work on getting a custom recovery built.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not possible to get a proper recovery image from within the system files so far as I know, but my take so far has been that there is no proper way to get that at this time without decrypting that file grabbed from the update server. I'd do it on a 5.x ROM since that will get me permaroot, but the issue is getting and keeping root on a 6.x ROM.
Although encrypted (so far as I can tell) the image linked above is the real deal, and I've given all I can to get it decrypted. A proper exploit to take care of this tablet's vulnerabilities and get temp root (on 6.x) that isn't kingo is what is really needed at this point so to not hinder going around the system with crudware and shady background apps, shouldn't be hard since the security patch level for the 6.x ROM is 2016-10-01.
Even if the ROM is extracted or a recovery image found, custom recovery won't be possible until the bootloader is unlocked, and this isn't doable until someone figures out how the qualcomm qdloader9008 stuff works with this specific tablet. Fastboot is unreachable and I'm almost sure I'm doing something wrong.
I'll get temp root and see about dd'ing stuff later on. What exactly would be needed for me to dd off? Whole disk and then go through it elsewhere? I could definitely see if rsync exists and dd over rsync to another box.
Sudosftw said:
It's not possible to get a proper recovery image from within the system files so far as I know, but my take so far has been that there is no proper way to get that at this time without decrypting that file grabbed from the update server. I'd do it on a 5.x ROM since that will get me permaroot, but the issue is getting and keeping root on a 6.x ROM.
Although encrypted (so far as I can tell) the image linked above is the real deal, and I've given all I can to get it decrypted. A proper exploit to take care of this tablet's vulnerabilities and get temp root (on 6.x) that isn't kingo is what is really needed at this point so to not hinder going around the system with crudware and shady background apps, shouldn't be hard since the security patch level for the 6.x ROM is 2016-10-01.
Even if the ROM is extracted or a recovery image found, custom recovery won't be possible until the bootloader is unlocked, and this isn't doable until someone figures out how the qualcomm qdloader9008 stuff works with this specific tablet. Fastboot is unreachable and I'm almost sure I'm doing something wrong.
I'll get temp root and see about dd'ing stuff later on. What exactly would be needed for me to dd off? Whole disk and then go through it elsewhere? I could definitely see if rsync exists and dd over rsync to another box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found this today: https://forum.xda-developers.com/axon-7/development/edl-emergency-dl-mode-twrp-unlock-t3553514
The miflash tool seems promising (it works with nearly any device)
For the dd stuff, you can usually figure out the partitions easily with the fstab file in /. However, getting a raw dump is always useful.
Really, the big 3 would be the recovery.img, the boot.img, and the system.img. We can work from there
Qiangong2 said:
I found this today: https://forum.xda-developers.com/axon-7/development/edl-emergency-dl-mode-twrp-unlock-t3553514
The miflash tool seems promising (it works with nearly any device)
For the dd stuff, you can usually figure out the partitions easily with the fstab file in /. However, getting a raw dump is always useful.
Really, the big 3 would be the recovery.img, the boot.img, and the system.img. We can work from there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had that installed whilst trying to figure the image out and the qdloader stuff, it doesn't do anything for this tablet sadly :/
Sudosftw said:
I've had that installed whilst trying to figure the image out and the qdloader stuff, it doesn't do anything for this tablet sadly :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm. Which tablet do you have? The M or the P?
Qiangong2 said:
Hmmm. Which tablet do you have? The M or the P?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is the M. the P was out of my price range ($40 shipped over $25 shipped) when I was looking at them, but now the Ms are going for around 25 bucks but 15 shipping from another seller, bringing the price up to 40 bucks where the P was. ended up buying the other Ms from the one seller and gave them out to family members because I was so impressed... but I really should have set some money aside for one of the Ps as well and didn't.
Sudosftw said:
this is the M. the P was out of my price range ($40 shipped over $25 shipped) when I was looking at them, but now the Ms are going for around 25 bucks but 15 shipping from another seller, bringing the price up to 40 bucks where the P was. ended up buying the other Ms from the one seller and gave them out to family members because I was so impressed... but I really should have set some money aside for one of the Ps as well and didn't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay. You said miflash doesn't do anything, does the device show up in the application and not function? Or does it not show up at all?
Qiangong2 said:
Okay. You said miflash doesn't do anything, does the device show up in the application and not function? Or does it not show up at all?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just doesn't show up at all. and yet installing the qualcomm qdloader drivers says it's connected in device manager, so something's up. tried on two different boxes, different cables, no dice.
Sudosftw said:
just doesn't show up at all. and yet installing the qualcomm qdloader drivers says it's connected in device manager, so something's up. tried on two different boxes, different cables, no dice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm. That's unusual. Are you running it in win 7 compatibility mode?
It would be nice to see community roms for these devices. I have the XR6P. If you need any info from this device, just tell me what to do.
I'm very interested in this as I have one of these tablets that I would like to use in my vehicle as a display for my piggyback ECU tuner. It doesn't currently support USB OTG, but I read that if I can gain root access I can add the file to give it USB Host functionality. Can anyone confirm this? I have tried several apps to get it rooted including Kingroot as you were able to get a temp root with that. Unfortunately Kingroot, as all the others I have tried, won't even install on the tablet. Again, I'm only looking to get this thing to be OTG capable. If anyone here has any suggestions, I would be very grateful! Thanks all!
I just bought an M remote to replace my broken P remote. My P remote had Android 6. My M remote has Android 5, and the OTA updater says there's no update. Any way to get Android 6 on this?
I have factory firmware for Bennu P and Bennu M , but take some time to upload the file.
ALANCHONG said:
I have factory firmware for Bennu P and Bennu M , but take some time to upload the file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey. You can lay out the firmware for XR6M10
XR6M10 and XR6P10 firmware
konog said:
Hey. You can lay out the firmware for XR6M10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mega Link: mega.nz/#F!n65kVYIT!PKH8A1WoD_Nc4DU_-9dbiQ
ALANCHONG said:
Mega Link: mega.nz/#F!n65kVYIT!PKH8A1WoD_Nc4DU_-9dbiQ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All the time, an error pops up at 12 seconds
Flash fail (-4002)
Log:
21:59:03.576 Arrival: \\?\USB#VID_05C6&PID_9008#5&13a74b18&0&11#{86e0d1e0-8089-11d0-9ce4-08003e301f73}
21:59:03.591 Thread '_PortDownloadThread' started
21:59:04.610 Get Port ...
21:59:04.610 _GetDevicePortName (0): COM5
21:59:04.630 _ComPort: COM5
21:59:04.640 Get Port (0)
21:59:04.650 Flash ...
21:59:09.668 _Connect (0)
21:59:09.668 Downloading flash programmer: C:\_qcMUP\v8016-SIGNED-VIZIO-user-IMAGES\v8016-SIGNED-VIZIO-user-IMAGES\prog_emmc_firehose_8916.mbn
21:59:14.669 Failed to read the command from the opened port
21:59:14.669 _FlashProgrammer (-4002)
21:59:15.700 Flash (-4002)
21:59:15.700 Flash fail (-4002)
21:59:15.731 Download ended: -4002
21:59:15.763 Thread '_PortDownloadThread' ended
konog said:
All the time, an error pops up at 12 seconds
Flash fail (-4002)
Log:
21:59:03.576 Arrival: \\?\USB#VID_05C6&PID_9008#5&13a74b18&0&11#{86e0d1e0-8089-11d0-9ce4-08003e301f73}
21:59:03.591 Thread '_PortDownloadThread' started
21:59:04.610 Get Port ...
21:59:04.610 _GetDevicePortName (0): COM5
21:59:04.630 _ComPort: COM5
21:59:04.640 Get Port (0)
21:59:04.650 Flash ...
21:59:09.668 _Connect (0)
21:59:09.668 Downloading flash programmer: C:\_qcMUP\v8016-SIGNED-VIZIO-user-IMAGES\v8016-SIGNED-VIZIO-user-IMAGES\prog_emmc_firehose_8916.mbn
21:59:14.669 Failed to read the command from the opened port
21:59:14.669 _FlashProgrammer (-4002)
21:59:15.700 Flash (-4002)
21:59:15.700 Flash fail (-4002)
21:59:15.731 Download ended: -4002
21:59:15.763 Thread '_PortDownloadThread' ended
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please check if the driver is installed
Hi all,
Came by a Blackview BV6600 from someone who gave up on it - shipped saying that the device was 'corrupt and couldn't be trusted'. Went back and forth with their crappy customer service and gave up, sold it to me for cheap. It seems like a decently rugged phone but it does have a lot of bloatware and according to some threads on here about the mfgr I don't know if I trust them too much.
I'd like to wipe this phone, and I'm finding it difficult to locate a generic 'How to' for flashing a new OS to a phone. Disclosure; this is the first time I've done something like this. My experience is with computers, I know phones are a different beast and the user has much less freedom due to specifics of the hardware. If I say anything based on incorrect assumptions please correct me.
Again, what I would like to do is akin to installing Linux on what was a Windows box. I'd like to ****can as much weird chinese bloatware as possible (upto and including the entire OS) and replace it with some basic clean open source software. It seems like LineageOS does not have a version for Blackview phones, nor does it have a generic image. I notice that the Android open source project has 'Generic System Images' https://source.android.com/setup/build/gsi#flashing-gsis which sounds like what I want but references a vbmeta.img file which itself, as far as I can tell searching the forums, is likely manufacturer dependent, maybe phone dependent.
Anyway, I'm taking all the steps I see across enough sites to suggest they are platform-independent and won't brick my phone. Been following this video
since it's relatively recent and addresses my specific manufacturer.
So far I have:
Got developer permissions (go to Settings-About Phone, click build number repetitively)
in Settings-System turned on OEM unlocking and USB debugging
Figured out how to put this phone model in fastboot mode (hold volume up during restart)
Installed ADB and Fastboot (Linux), pinged the phone with "adb devices" and checked it's partitioning with " 'adb shell' <enter> 'getprop ro.build.ab_update' " no output, so that suggests 'A only'.
Next step seems to be:
oem unlock using fastboot. I seem to be having trouble here. In fastboot mode connected via USB, I can't detect the device. "Waiting for any device". 'adb devices' gives no response. No idea why. Phone screen looks exactly like in the video, hooked to USB that did return output for USB devices in normal boot mode.
Once I get over this dumb hump, I think I'll need to find a version of TWRP that will work on my device, install TWRP.
At this point I'm even more at sea: Most places suggest Magisk, but I've also seen explainers to wipe the old OS and install LineageOS.
If anyone has advice on what to do from here, specifically the near-term issue of not being able to find my phone via USB debugging while in fastboot mode, please let me know. But of course, long term I'm gonna need to know how to shovel this **** the phone came with out of storage and replace with a clean install so that is welcome as well.
bump