IMEI Issues - Ubuntu Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi thank you in advance to everyone before hand for your time and assistance.
So I am currently having this issue, I have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro, and I installed Ubuntu touch on it a long time ago, and I used to love it however, I realized that the project for that specific model was abandoned since there were no updates, even up to this date it has not received an OTA update and is currently sitting on version 2021/09/21, and despite my efforts to get Waydroid working properly I just managed to get it barely up and running, after seeing no updates, probably due to low demand or usage on that specific device, I gave up and decided to return the device to Android.
It bricked, somehow I managed to get it up and running once more, however on Android using the stock ROM MIUI baseband and IMEI showed as unknown, after looking for a way to restore the IMEI through software, it was possible but it required a backup of the NVRAM and NVDATA partitions, which I did not have access to from Android and sadly I did not back up before installing UT, and the only other solution I found on how to fix it, was through hardware modification which is beyond my level of skill, so I decided to install UT once more to see if it somehow UT had something to do with the IMEI missing on Android, to my surprise on UT the IMEI can be read just fine, it shows on my settings listed and somehow UT is able to communicate with the modem to connect to network through SIM, which makes me wonder if UT encrypts the NVRAM/NVDATA partition in a way that Android can not read it afterwards or just formats in a way that Android can not see it, and this is the reason why I am here.
I need some assistance with the following, in Android is possible to make a back up of the different partitions, and through a rooted device you can re-flash the parameters for the IMEI to restore it, so since UT can read these partitions and files, I need to know if I am able to extract the NVRAM.bin file through UT and the NVDATA.img partition, so that I can after flashing Android back, use this two specific partitions extracted from UT to restore the IMEI on Android. so how can I back up these partitions on UT? is this something even possible? and if possible would these files be compatible with Android?
if you read all the way to this point, I thank you for your time and any advice!
Regards,

having same issue, fortunately i have backup of nvram and nvdata

Related

[Q] How to make a FULL backup of Android phones?

Hello! I have a little experience using computers from late 1995 Year, and from year 2000 I am using also Linux from time to time, and very rare but it was a delight freeBSD. I have no experience on Android and MacOs.
Now, I all my family (father, mother, girlfriend and I) changed the phones on Android which is Linux based, but for ARM processors.
Anyway, I have played a little with Android 4 x86 on my laptop.
Please considering that I am new in the Android sutff.
From, my point of view, a Android Smartphone is just a little computer like an raspberry pi / pandaboard / beagle board.
So, a mini computer with an Arm processor running a very small and tiny operating system max 8 Gb, when on my gentoo install I had been using about 30-40 Gb. I know, the size can be affected by the compiling flags but anyway. Please corecct me if I am wrong.
Now, on all my system I had, from my experience I did 2 Backups, like this:
My laptop is backed-up on the External Hardisk number 1, and the External Hardisk number 1 is backed-up on the External Hardisk number 2.
So, as it is a good practice to have a backup handy, I keep 2 backups in 2 different location in case of hardware failure / water flood etc. Some of the files I need are backed up in the cloud, on the internet.
I use to make IMAGES of the Operating System partition, and of the mbr , and of the partition table, with software like Acronis True Image, Paragon, DriveImage XML, Norton Ghost, Clone Zilla.
When I had to do data recovery I did an Acronis "sector-by-sector" approach image of the hardisk, and I recovered files from that image.
Can you guys please introduce me please on the android field?
I assume that maybe I will need to get root on one or two phones, and one phone need's to be unlocked from the carrier.
Before doing this I would like to make a full backup of the phones.
1) How can I make a FULL backup of the android phones? In this moment my mother phone is a samsung galaxy mini2 Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 s6500 and mine is Sony Xperia L
2)
a) If I will "unlock" the phone from the carrier (locked on orange, but i wish to use also Vodafone, I tim, I wind, moviestar, o2 etc)
b) If I will "root" the phone to gain administrator acces on it
After step A) and B) if I will restore the original backup, the phone will be "locked" back to Orange, and "un-rooted", or it will be "unlocked" and "un-rooted"?
3) Instead of having an hardisk like computer have, I guess the smartphone is using an "usb-stick/sd-card/ssdhdd"-like memory for storage of the operating system, so how can I see the partition table, the mbr, on the device?
Thank you in advance!​
In my experience the best backup apps available require root. So I would recommend unlocking and rooting the phone first, get all the apps you wish to use installed, then use clockworkmod recovery to make a backup. This backup will include everything including the current unlocked rooted status, and can be restored using the same software. I also reccomend titanium backup for app backups, which includes user defined settings for each app. There are free and paid versions of each and both work equally well. Both apps, Titanium Backup Root, and Clockwork Manager are available for install from the play store.
Thank you for your feedback, but I wish to backup before unlocking, I will root the phone only as a last resort.
It could be possible to need the phone locked up, if there will be warranty problems.
I am currently reading about Odin, next will be CWM and TWRP, as I am not familiar with those "tools" and I don't know for what are they used for.
As I learned by now, with odin I can go back to an old firmware. But first I need to learn how to back it up in this state, locked, and un-rooted.
After I have read, read, read, and read again a lot of posts, blogs, forums, it seems that If I wish to backup the Stock Rom, I need to do root on the device. But if I will "root" the device, make backup, change rom, then recover the stock rom from backup (which is in the rooted stage), can I UN-ROOT it again?
Yes. Most phones have unroot options available. Alternatively, flashing stock rom to a rooted phone using odin etc will be in unrooted state. Stock firmware will also return the bootloader and recovery( which is what cwm and twrp are btw) to stck as well.
Sent from my SM-T210R using xda app-developers app
doctortonic said:
After I have read, read, read, and read again a lot of posts, blogs, forums, it seems that If I wish to backup the Stock Rom, I need to do root on the device. But if I will "root" the device, make backup, change rom, then recover the stock rom from backup (which is in the rooted stage), can I UN-ROOT it again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know which phone(s) you have, but let's say you root your phone. You can then install ClockworkMod Recovery which allows you to flash custom ROMs and make full NAND backups (backups of the entire system partition), i.e you can backup whole ROMs. If you're on a custom ROM and you want to go back to a previous ROM, then just restore your NAND backup from Recovery and voila! Your phone will look and behave exactly like it did before you flashed the other ROM, and all SMS', phone records and apps will be there. Sure, it'll still be rooted, but simply open SuperSU (if that's the root app you'll be using), go to settings and tap "un-root". Done.
So..
- Make a typical backup of stuff, like moving important things to your computer etc. since accidents happen.
- Root and install Recovery
- Make a NAND backup in Recovery
- Flash a custom ROM if you want to
When you want to go back to stock:
- Boot into Recovery
- Restore your NAND backup
- Reboot and you're done
- Un-root if you'd like to
Tip: Store your NAND backup on your SD card and not on the internal storage in case you ever do a complete wipe of the internal storage or something happens to your phone and you lose your backup.
Note: Be sure to quote this post if you want a reply from me. I'm not usually in the Q&A section, and i'll be notified by Tapatalk on my phone when you quote this post. That way i'll see your reply, and i can then reply faster again.
I tried to root the phone with some software found in this forum ( SuperOneClick ) but did not worked.
I tooked the phone to a service and Unlocked the phone from the carrier network.
I asked if the phone will be rooted after the unlock, and they told:
PhoneService: "No, but do you wish to be rooted?"
Me:"How is better and safe, rooted or unrooted?"
PhoneService: "You have the advantage for example that you can move the aplications to card, but is safe to have the phone unrooted"
Me: "If it is possible please root the phone"
PhoneService: "oky, give us 30 minutes"
After 30 minutes (I took a walking), they unlocked the phone but said that rooting the phone will take more time, so I not rooted the phone.
As the phone dosen't need neccesary to be rooted, as I have no aplication in it which require this (there is only 2 apps, Opera browser and Copy To Sim / Import contact to Sim), and I don't desire to install more apps on it as only my mother is using it, I will leave the phone unrooted.
I wished only to have a Backup of the rom, just in case something will go wrong, to restore the phone back to the warrany service if there is this need, but as long the phone can be locked be back again, there is no such need to root it.
Guys, thank you very much for the input, really appreciated!
How about a adb backup? Using adb tools. Try search on Google for it. If I remember correctly, root is not needed.

Possible to get files back from an encrypted i9100 partition?

I made a bit of a rookie oversight when flashing a ROM today, the device was encrypted and I forgot to grab the files off the device first.
Unfortunately, the MD5sum for the backup I made gave me a mismatch, and once I got around that issue I found that, for some reason, my old password couldn't be used to unlock the device any more.
Here's what I know so far:
The device was fine when I rooted it, as I loaded it up to backup some other data some backups.
I installed CWM, made a backup, and flashed Paranoid Android 4.4 RC2, where I then noticed that the internal memory couldn't be located properly by apps, as it was still encrypted. So this is the stage that something went wrong, perhaps when making the backup?
After spending many hours attempting to go back to my backup (sorting out the MD5 problem), I can't get back past the encryption login to grab my files. I haven't been able to find a way to mount the partition (SDCard0) either.
So, after all the reading I've done, it appears I'm stuck with reinstalling the stock ROM for the device through Odin, and losing the encrypted data in the process.
Before I do that, does anyone know of a way to access these files on a I9100 (as I know what the password should be), perhaps through ADB, or attempting to install part of the stock firmware and decrypting the drive again? It's 3am and I'm all out of ideas.

[Q] Best way to backup and use system from device to emulated device?

So while i know how to normally backup and restore phones or apps through any number of different applications or recovery software. I had an issue today where i need to backup the state of the phone as it is now, and thrn modify or test with it on an emulated device (if possible, i was thinking my laptop runninng aosp android via some form of emulation.)
Is this possible? What is the difficulty of it?
What i would be taking the device backup from is a nexus 5 with lollipop, and then from there using that as a base, figure out what is going on with the software.
i had that same problem .. and i found a way to backup bootloader and recovery partitions, and i applied it to all partitions and it worked
http://www.theandroidhow.com/2014/05/how-to-make-backup-stock-boot-recovery.html
i had a trouble using flashtool, till i realized the flashtool version itself wasnt good
so i recommend
SP Flash Tool v3.1328.0.183: https://doc-14-c4-docs.googleuserco...8341683716159190/0B_r6upjBMmyGWWpSZHRmTHJLa0k
you will also need
mtkdroid : http://www.mediafire.com/download/w55w2j3l18nt1ws/Mtk_Droid_Tool_v2.5.3.rar
the method in the 1st link is illustrated for bootloader and recovery partition, i used it to backup all partition includidng system(android partition) and other partition i have no idea what are they, i just dont like to lose a useless digit
NOTICE: i didnt try it in restoring , but i think it works like bakcup/restore process of pc HDD

[QUESTION] Recovering files using emulator and TWRP/FlashFire backup?

[I apologize if this is the wrong place for this thread, or if this question has already been asked. I am new here and have not been able to find the an answer after my own research.]
I have recently lost my Nexus 5X to the bootloop problem that has been going around.
I have a two month old complete (including all partitions I could) TWRP backup. I also managed to get a complete FireFlash backup right before the phone started its bootloop. Seeing as I'm thinking of upgrading phones and would not like to buy another 5X, nor do I have access to another 5X, these are somewhat useless (as far as I know). I was wondering if one of the backups could be flashed to an android emulator / virtual machine in order to allow me to pull more data off the device. My thought process is that if you could emulate the hardware and partition set-up, then the emulation should be able to flash and boot the recovery, allowing me to have a digital copy of my phone and get everything I want off of it.
If this is not possible, what are my other options to make use of these backups?
One more!
How can I restore TWRP backup to some kind of emulator to work with it as with physical device? I found TWRP recovery for Android Emulator but it seems very limited so idk what will happen why I'll try to restore backup but for sure I'll give it a try... If someone know how exactly I can do that - will be much appreciated for any advice. Thanks.

A proper way to create complete backup?

Hello, maybe someone could point me in the right direction, just trying to make a complete backup of my phone ( samsung galaxy S22), so I could back everything up when needed, I have tried the 'titanium backup' and 'swift backup' tools so far, but they only back up the .apks, and my google login credentials are lost..
Really kind of lost browsing through some 11 year old topics about 'nandroid' and 'ClockWorkMod', do people use these tools today?
Thank you
no way. use samsung smart switch and cross fingers
I don't know Samsung from a hole in the ground.
If your device has Qualcomm EDL (and open Firehose loader) you could make a full raw backup of the entire flash.
That's not really helpful if you want to grab a single file but it means that you can restore your device to a snapshot.
@Renate restoring snapshot is not possible after factory reset, as the encryption key is not in userspace and therefore not in backup.
afaik there is no samsung signed firehose programmer leaked for SM8450 (and probably never will) and that device is also shipped with Exynos 2200.
aIecxs said:
Restoring snapshot is not possible after factory reset, as the encryption key is not in userspace and therefore not in backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's a good reason not to factory reset!
So, where is the encryption key stored?
get some coffee and read about tee...
encrypted file encryption keys are stored in files metadata, but DEK required for decrypting keys is random generated and securely deleted from TEE keystore on factory reset. I don't know exactly what triggers that deleteKey (it's another OS) but it can survive simple formatting userdata.
aIecxs said:
get some coffee and read about tee...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I did have my second coffee already and I know about as much about TEE as I want (which is little).
My point being, if you make a full flash backup, then do whatever, then restore the complete flash, how is that not going to get you back wherever you were?
There are tons of ELF and data partitions used by TEE, TZ.
But are you telling me there is some state built into a device that is neither OTP or flash?
right, it's not in flash storage emmc/ufs.
Appreciate te replies!
Is there any other popular android device which would support the earlier mentioned flashing method?
Thanks!!
aIecxs said:
right, it's not in flash storage emmc/ufs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd still like to know exactly where that is.
There are enough partitions called keymaster and other stuff.
Well, ok, but if you don't use factory reset a full flash backup is the best way to get you back to where you were.
actually, it IS in flash storage, but you won't see it
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replay_Protected_Memory_Block
Note: for all devices running old (FDE) full disk encryption, the static hardware master key is used directly, and the encrypted DEK is stored in crypto-footer (userspace) therefore restoring full raw backup was always possible.
Google and Samsung devices in general used to lack raw access. However, things have changed with Samsung started shipping MediaTek SoCs on their low-/mid-range lines.
But if you're looking for full backup solution, don't use any DRM related or banking apps and don't care about losing warranty and Samsung Knox, rooting and removing encryption is possible so you could just use TWRP or Swift Backup.
aIecxs said:
actually, it IS in flash storage, but you won't see it
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replay_Protected_Memory_Block
Note: for all devices running old (FDE) full disk encryption, the static hardware master key is used directly, and the encrypted DEK is stored in crypto-footer (userspace) therefore restoring full raw backup was always possible.
Google and Samsung devices in general used to lack raw access. However, things have changed with Samsung started shipping MediaTek SoCs on their low-/mid-range lines.
But if you're looking for full backup solution, don't use any DRM related or banking apps and don't care about losing warranty and Samsung Knox, rooting and removing encryption is possible so you could just use TWRP or Swift Backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, that's the thing, as a matter of fact I already have tried using swift backup tool, but all google accounts are lost when backing up, and the apps that have used google to log in ( like play store, google maps etc ) are also losing the connected account.
Any suggestions on how to transfer the google accounts as well?
Thanks again!
actually Swift Backup should work. it looks like some extended Google One fork with optional root features. google account is required for it to work, not sure what problems you are facing?
aIecxs said:
actually Swift Backup should work. it looks like some extended Google One fork with optional root features. google account is required for it to work, not sure what problems you are facing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The main issue for me was that it doesn't back up my google signed in accounts.
After reading for one more day I stumbled upon one of your very interesting posts on this thread - https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/android-12-and-nandroid-backup.4420185/
Here you explain how it's possible to pull out the 'nandroid' image from the phone to the computer which is exactly what I was looking for, but couldn't express clearly.
That's 100% the functionality I am looking for
- Ability to pull out the exact state of the phone to a file on the computer
- Put it back in if things go south, and all my files are exactly as they were at that point.
1) From your experience, do you think it would be possible to achieve this on a Samsung phone?
2) As far as I understood, after doing a 'factory reset' I would no longer be able to put the old 'nandroid' image back, because of the encryption?
Thank you for your time!
P.s I would be happy to pay for a consultation on this topic from you or someone who has managed to do this.
I also would like to see a full nandroid backup solution tool similar to how Windows System image backup works - a full 1:1 flash image with all files and settings intact of an android device.
Renate said:
I don't know Samsung from a hole in the ground.
If your device has Qualcomm EDL (and open Firehose loader) you could make a full raw backup of the entire flash.
That's not really helpful if you want to grab a single file but it means that you can restore your device to a snapshot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do I do this @Renate with my one plus pro 9 phone? I have the MSM tool, how do I dump a full system image?
immortalwon said:
How do I do this with my one plus pro 9 phone? I have the MSM tool, how do I dump a full system image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know.
I've been trying to get down to brass tacks what's the difference between this MSM Tool and a generic EDL client.
I don't know about its authorization and phone-home-ness.
I'm not even sure if with VIP you can transfer complete device images.
OTOH, VIP is built into many loaders but not used.
I don't have a OnePlus. I'd need a USB capture to say anything intelligent.
I know on my Android 10 ereader I can simply (with my EDL client):
Code:
C:\>edl /r /s0 /c0 mybackup.img
That's for eMMC. For UFS you'd probably need six files.
Renate said:
I don't know.
I've been trying to get down to brass tacks what's the difference between this MSM Tool and a generic EDL client.
I don't know about its authorization and phone-home-ness.
I'm not even sure if with VIP you can transfer complete device images.
OTOH, VIP is built into many loaders but not used.
I don't have a OnePlus. I'd need a USB capture to say anything intelligent.
I know on my Android 10 ereader I can simply (with my EDL client):
Code:
C:\>edl /r /s0 /c0 mybackup.img
That's for eMMC. For UFS you'd probably need six files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found a way to do a full image readback using the msm tool, which downloads everything firmware related to my pc on the main C:/ drive. The question is, if I ever need to in the future, how do we use the restore function of the msm tool to restore these backups?
EDIT: I don't think it was a full image backup after all because the backups in total are 13gb, while my device is using a lot more storage then that.
@myndeswx what you have linked in post #14 is exactly what Migrate does. It creates tarball archives of apps of decrypted /data partition during runtime. Restoring will work after factory reset because it's a backup of plain files. However, it's far from complete, it is not atomic, still security critical apps using android keystore cannot restored, and it requires rooted device (with all its disadvantages)
For Samsung phones there is currently a hack to gain temporary access to /data with system privileges (uid 1000) floating around (haven't tried)
***LOCKED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE*** System Shell Exploit - ALL Samsung Mobile Devices NO BL UNLOCK REQUIRED.
***MODERATOR ANNOUNCEMENT: THREAD CLOSED*** @K0mraid3 you are hereby required to provide proper credit in your OP as follows: Link the assigned CVE for this exploit as it mentions the author's blog and GitHub, OR Link the original research repo...
forum.xda-developers.com
hallo i have S22 exynos S908B
- Magisk 26.1
- Encrypted
- S-health working
- Health connect working
- Bank apps working
- Galaxy Watch 4 working
i extracted Titanium Baclups and see there is only installation apk because data in Android/data is encrypted so Titanium backup can't see it and not advise about not backupped data.
Android/data is accessible only by mtp/usb by pc.
So what option i have for backup?
by twrp can i baclup partitions with dd command? After can i restore it without factory reset? (can't factory reset because cause encryption keys lost)
Any working way for bakup?

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