Database Info

New OnePlus One Came Rooted With Adware

Brand New OnePlus One rooted and with adware etc
I am a very newbie to not all but many of the particular issues in this post so would be grateful of any newbie taylored advice.
Background:
==============
I purchased a Oneplus one recently, stocked and fulfilled by amazon with amazon returns policy but seller was a chineese company.
It was advertised as 100% Original Oneplus One New Cell Phone
The phone arraived and appeared to already be rooted
evidence:
Barclays App says it is rooted and won't run. It ran fine on my Nexus 4
I can connect via adb and set to su straight away
The phone appeared to have arrived with significant malware / adware with popups and auto launch ad in browser pages and bloteware / PUPS(?), and other issues. After a great deal of research checking notifications and trial and error I disabled the following, some via settings\apps some via adb, pm ... disable ...
2048 (com.digiplex.game)
App Manager (com.shyz.steward)
Browser (com.android.browser)
Caller ID (com.android.tools.callassistant)
Clean Master (com.cleanmaster.mguard)
Cool Browser (com.cool.coolbrowser)
DU Speed Booster (com.dianxinos.optimizer.duplay)
Magic Photo (cn.dotui.magicphoto)
Videos (com.haolianluo.video)
and disabled gestures due to torch issues
The phone now seems quite stable.
I installed MalwareBytes, however None of the items it identifies is it able to disable/uninstall I set it not to scan automatically but it continues to tell me I have not responded to its list of issues, but I have responded by selected them, but on selection it tries to uninstall them but fails.
I was able to disable one of them via adb because it provided the package name for that one but:
CallerID.apk (disabled in settings\apps)
coolbrowser.apk (disabled in settings\apps)
201507140923731g.apk
AppStore.apk
I do not know how to uninstall (or disable at least on 2 of them) and I do not know how to refer to them from package manager because I don't have the package name.
Key Questions:
================
I am familiar with much of software engineering and programming but not with mobile phone OS / disk / memory / file system, etc. I am having a lot of difficulty getting to grips with the vocabulary, definitions and terminology depending what you read.
- Some say OnePlus from factory comes with cyanogenmod but is not rooted
- So one wonders how my phone go to be rooted if the seller is a retailer
- Some say if the phone is rooted the warentee is invalidated. What do you think?
- WhatsApp says the phone has a custom rom and watsapp may not work properly with a custom rom
It is very difficult to get to the bottom of exactly what the difference is between a stock rom
and a custom rom. Some seem to be saying cyanogenmod is a custom rom, but then others say what
comes on the phone from the mobile manufacturer is a stock rom, eg HT Sense or in the case of
OnePlus, cyanogenmod! Is it only a custom rom if it is somehow NOT proven to be a
custom rom validated by the mobile manufacturer in factory (i.e. stock rom)?
- Some say having a custom rom invalidates warrantee, is this right?
- How do i prove that the rooting and the custom rom were not introduced by me?
- I have thought about factory reset, but I cannot manage to find anything that tells
me what this actually means and does, only how to do it.
- does a factory reset actually do what it suggests. I have read that factory reset does
not involve going to the manufacturers site and obtaining an appropriate image and flashing
it to the phone so I do not quite understand how else it could guarantee it
- If a factory reset will just make it like it was when I received it then that I do not want.
- Can I and ought I to flash a fresh image on the phone to get it like it WOULD HAVE been
had I bought it from OnePlus factory on invite and not through a mediator
- Finally. There is a notification "System Update is ready" . When I select this it appears
to download something (next version of cyanogenmod I guess though I don't recognise the version
number against any cyanogenmod versions) then it restarts and goes to a recovery app.
At this stage it is not completely intuitive what one should do and it seems to want you
to navigate to a location.
Now, I think I could probably figure this out with some reading but two things come to mind:
1) Presumably for a from factory OnePlus phone this kind of ambiguous unintuitive update
process would not be going on for people who just bought their phone and knew nothing
so it suggests the phone is in a different state to that. I also read you need root
already to install a (good) recovery app.
2) I am loath to do this update since it is not clear whether the update is this retailers
system update and will reintroduce all that I have disabled to create stability. Therefore
up to now I have always selected just do nothing and reboot. I favor stability over
features.
I am kind of inclined now I have managed to get it stable to just stick with it as it is and just use it without any further updates / resets / flashes and without returning it, but...
Sorry to ask all these questions. I would be grateful of any advice. Can be given with the assumption that I understand foundational general stuff ram, rom (though this word seems to be used differently to what I'm used to), flash, image, partition etc, but not that I actually know all about how the android/cyanogenmod platform is laid out and behaves as an installation.
Thank you.

Hi, All Oneplus One phones comes with CyanogenMod without rooted. One must Unlock bootloader and Flash custom recovery and Flash SuperSu to get root access.
Yours already says rooted means either you bought the used phone or refurbished. However even when a phone is refurbished OnePlus company locks it and make it unrooted.
OnePlus Phones warranty doesn't get over bu rooting. OnePlus actually supports rooting. Warranty becomes void when you do something blunder while flashing and your devices becomes dead aka bricked.
What I am suspecting is the chinese seller bought new OnePlus and Installed different ROM as the chinese OPO comes with ColorOS which doesn't have PlayStore. Now in the procedure they introduced unwanted Adwares which may be Intentional or Unintentional.
Now you have 2 options.
Either ask Amazon for a refund.
Or if the time is passed then I suggest you to start fresh. If you have already custom recovery installed then go ahead and install fresh stock CyanogenMod ROM from xda.
sent from Bacon (OnePlus One)

Hi Abhinav_Rakesh,
Thank you so much for your response, I really appreciate your advice. I think I understood most of what you said, generally but I am still a bit unclear on some points:
Is there any way to tell if the phone is refurbished. I would rather it were new even if they have installed a different rom.
What do you mean by "time is passed" I have only had the phone a few days. I am in a quandary whether to return it or not, whether amazon will believe it was not me who rooted it and whether I will be able to get another one that is not just the same as this one anyway since you cannot get them direct from OnePlus any more.
I saw some kind of recovery screen over one reboot but did not do the install. How do I know if this is the "custom recovery" you describe, if it is not how do I obtain / get to "custom recover"?
Can you direct me to a script that shows me how to "install fresh stock CyanogenMod ROM from xda"? Will that completely blank out everything that the chineese company may have done on the phone, or might some stuff still be left behind? Is there a risk to that process, given that I at least have a fairly stable phone now? Will it include or do I have to get separately "PlayStore" so I can download my usual apps?
Thank you again, I really appreciate it?

i suggest you to start from fresh, since obviously your OPO is not in stock state and has been tampered with..
the (general) steps to make the OPO like new are as follows..
(1) connect it to a pc via usb cable
(2) in command prompt, issue "adb reboot bootloader" (and wait for it to boot into bootloader/fastboot mode)
(3) issue "fastboot oem unlock" (to unlock the bootloader.. all data will be wiped but the warranty is not voided)
(4) issue "fastboot flash recovery custom_recovery.img" (replace "custom_recovery.img" with the actual recovery file name)
(5) power off mobile and disconnect from pc
(6) press power button together with volume down button (to boot into custom recovery we just flashed)
(7) while in recovery, install rom image (which should be put in the internal storage beforehand)
(8) reboot to enjoy the reborn mobile
to be able the complete the above steps, you need to get some files in advance:
- adb.exe/fastboot.exe (which you should already have since you could do adb)
- custom recovery (TWRP suggested.. get the image for OPO, whose codename is bacon, at http://twrp.me/ ), and put it in your pc..
- stock or custom rom (the stock for OPO is cyanogenmod, and there is also a OnePlus provided OxygenOS rom.. go to respective sites to get a copy), and put it into the mobile's internal storage..
mind you that by doing so (the fastboot oem unlock step) all your mobile's data will be wiped..

@hardya Hi .. You can follow this link to restore your phone according to OnePlus Standards. This will remove all that chinese ads and all and will make it fresh.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2970390
sent from Bacon (OnePlus One)

I feel like i need to reanswer a some of your question even though some already have answered them. You seem very interested and it seems fair to clear up some things.
hardya said:
- Some say OnePlus from factory comes with cyanogenmod but is not rooted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a little misconception about what cyanogenmod is.
The offical Oneplus One comes preinstalled with CyanogenOS (or CM12S), which is derived from Cyanogenmod. It get's a bit complicated. Cyanogen is a company founded by the lead programmer of Cyanogenmod. CyanogenOS is a commercial product, that is licensed to phone manufactures.
Cyanogenmod is the codebase for CyanogenOS. CyanogenOS adds some functionalities that are not present in the community maintained Cyanogenmod. (e.g. a alternate dialing app, theme store, etc.)
The offical Oneplus One comes NON-rooted. You need to manually enable root.
Please keep in mind that it gets REALLY complicated from this point!
The Oneplus One debuted with CM11S (CyanogenOS, the commercial version of Cyanogenmod). Cyanogen (the company) promised users 2 years of support and updates for the owners on the Oneplus One. But Oneplus and Cyanogen had some major issues that resulted in ending the partnership.
Oneplus had to offer an alternative Android Firmware for their upcoming phone Oneplus Two. So they did another android version called OxygenOS. This was installed onto all Oneplus One phones from a certain date onward!
THIS is the OFFICAL Android Software Version for your Oneplus One!!!
See: https://oneplus.net/de/support/answer/how-can-i-download-oxygen-os
I would strongly recommend to install OxygenOS, as it is the easiest way of experience the phone as Oneplus intended it to be.
Most tutorials on here are a little bit older so they are offering guides which mention either CM11S, CM12S, Cyanogenmod or OxygenOS. (or if you are more familiar with other customroms, whatever you'd like to install! But this is something you should look into, when you are more familiar with what costumroms are and what they do! There are so many excellent guides on here, which i'd recommend you to read sometime!)
- So one wonders how my phone go to be rooted if the seller is a retailer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He rooted it either manually or used an android version (e.g. something downloaded off XDA or got one from some developer). Such versions are often called Customroms.
Also note, that there are no official retailers of Oneplus phones. They are officially offered from the website only. However, there are some shops in China, that offer Oneplus phones.
- Some say if the phone is rooted the warentee is invalidated. What do you think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most phone manufactures actually tell you that your warranty is void when rooting your phone.
Oneplus however is very, very supportive when it comes to rooting!
And of course installing other Android Versions and Roms!
See: https://oneplus.net/de/support/answer/will-rooting-or-unlocking-the-bootloader-void-my-warranty
- WhatsApp says the phone has a custom rom and watsapp may not work properly with a custom rom
It is very difficult to get to the bottom of exactly what the difference is between a stock rom
and a custom rom. Some seem to be saying cyanogenmod is a custom rom, but then others say what
comes on the phone from the mobile manufacturer is a stock rom, eg HT Sense or in the case of
OnePlus, cyanogenmod! Is it only a custom rom if it is somehow NOT proven to be a
custom rom validated by the mobile manufacturer in factory (i.e. stock rom)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cyanogenmod is indeed a custom rom. (or sometimes aftermarket firmware)
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyanogenMod
A stock rom is the firmware that is installed by the manufacturer. (in your case: CyanogenOS, called CM12S. the 12 stands for the version number of Cyanogenmod. 12 = Android 5, 13 will be Android 6. There was a CM11S version, when the phone debuted last year.). The S marks it as CyanogenOS, the commercial product. So CM12 would be the community maintained Cyanogenmod. CM12S the product by the company Cyanogen. As said before, it's a bit complicated, as the current OFFICIAL rom is OxygenOS
Your findings of software not present in the official stock Oneplus One rom (which is either CM12S or OxygenOS), suggests your software on the phone is actually a unofficial costum rom.
- Some say having a custom rom invalidates warrantee, is this right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See the answer to the rooting question. Almost all major phone manufactures void your warranty if you flash a custom rom. As it involves tampering with system files and most people are not very knowledgeable when it comes to "computery things". It's just a security measure, so that people won't sue the company when something bad happens (most likely deleting precious pictures, etc.)
Oneplus actually encourages people to try other roms. This made the Oneplus One a very popular phone for tinkerers and as you can see on this forum there are a lot of custom roms you can choose from.
- How do i prove that the rooting and the custom rom were not introduced by me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the seller was not so careful, there will be a notice, which can be read by software programs available here on XDA, that say how many times a custom rom was installed.
However, i think your main concern is, that you wouldn't be able to get support form Oneplus, because you think your warranty is not valid anymore. As said above, your concerns are not that problematic. Especially as you seem to be knowledgeable enough to actually fix things on your own!
- I have thought about factory reset, but I cannot manage to find anything that tells
me what this actually means and does, only how to do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A factory reset will delete all your apps and reset the system to the state"it came out of the factory". So when you start up your phone, you need to set it up again. Enter your name, configure your WiFi settings, install your favorite apps.
However. Your photos and your music files will not be deleted! Be careful though. Resetting your system will delete your app settings. I just want to point that out, because the first time a did a factory reset and reinstalled everything i thought i lost all my Whatsapp photos. They were there in the Picture folder, but weren't linked to the images in my chat window! This is a bit complicated, but can be solved quite easily, if you know what your doing (backing up your apps with certain programs, e.g. Titanium Backup).
- does a factory reset actually do what it suggests. I have read that factory reset does
not involve going to the manufacturers site and obtaining an appropriate image and flashing
it to the phone so I do not quite understand how else it could guarantee it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory reset is a internal function of your phone (to be precise of your phones recovery!)
However, as most people said and your suspected is: Your phone does not run the official factory image, provided by Oneplus (or Cynaogen).
The official software can be obtained from
https://oneplus.net/de/support/answer/how-can-i-download-oxygen-os
- If a factory reset will just make it like it was when I received it then that I do not want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it will most likely to what you fear. It depends on what the retailer did. Most costum roms include software in their phones, that will be installed again with a factory reset. If your seller did install the programs AFTER the phones original state (e.g installing it from an appstore or from the APK's (Androids Software Packages)) they won't be present!
- Can I and ought I to flash a fresh image on the phone to get it like it WOULD HAVE been
had I bought it from OnePlus factory on invite and not through a mediator
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely! I'd recommend you to flash a new image to your phone!
There are a lot of great programs here on XDA that offer easy and intuitive options of doing that, without even knowing anything about flashing programs! Try to take a look around and see what you can make of it.
I personally think they are great, but can be dangerous if you didn't read the proper instructions. I'm just saying, as they often delete EVERYTHING on your phone. So whatever you do to your phone, backup everything before!!!
But these simple programs are what you are looking for. They will install the firmware (Cyanogenmod or OxygenOS) that are bloatfree and as the Oneplus intended them to be.
- Finally. There is a notification "System Update is ready" . When I select this it appears
to download something (next version of cyanogenmod I guess though I don't recognise the version
number against any cyanogenmod versions) then it restarts and goes to a recovery app.
At this stage it is not completely intuitive what one should do and it seems to want you
to navigate to a location.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This further suggests, that your are not running an official version. The official update process is fully automated and doesn't need any user intervention! From your description it doesn't do anything and you are stuck in recovery, that is waiting for user input. This is not the case with proper official roms!
Now, I think I could probably figure this out with some reading but two things come to mind:
1) Presumably for a from factory OnePlus phone this kind of ambiguous unintuitive update
process would not be going on for people who just bought their phone and knew nothing
so it suggests the phone is in a different state to that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely correct! See above.
I also read you need root
already to install a (good) recovery app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do not need root to install a recovery. This is a bit complicated, as there are some misconceptions about what is what. You need to "unlock" your phone to install another recovery. This is not rooting, but is also restricted by many manufacturers. But as with rooting, Oneplus is offering support on unlocking your phone and there are lots of guides on how to do it.
2) I am loath to do this update since it is not clear whether the update is this retailers
system update and will reintroduce all that I have disabled to create stability. Therefore
up to now I have always selected just do nothing and reboot. I favor stability over
features.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wise decision.
I am kind of inclined now I have managed to get it stable to just stick with it as it is and just use it without any further updates / resets / flashes and without returning it, but...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would strongly recommend to NOT leave it this way! As you yourself found out, there are chances that there are programs on the phone, that are not to be supposed to be there. I'm not saying that there is spyware on your phone, but it is most likely that there could be malicious code running in the background of your phone. I would strongly recommend NOT to use apps, that need sensitive information of yourself!
Try to look for guides and tutorials here on XDA and just install CM12S, Cyanogenmod or even better OxygenOS, the official ROM from Oneplus! OxygenOS is not everyone's favorite choice, but that way you can be sure, that NOTHING fishy is going on on your phone!
There is an easy app available from the offical oneplus site!
https://oneplus.net/de/support/answer/how-can-i-download-oxygen-os
Or use the app that is mentioned in the post above! Will to the same thing!
Use the instructions on there and you are much safer on using your phone than you are in the present state!
BUT PLEASE, PLEASE DO A BACKUP OF YOUR DATA! I mean, your photos, contacts and everything important before doing anything to your phone. I'm just stressing that out, as so many people complain afterwards that they lost everything, etc.! Not just because the process they did was unsafe, but becaus the didn't properly read the instructions that tell people that they should make a backup, BEFORE tampering the system. It says factory RESET, so it should be clear, that everything will be reset!

I'd suggest you return it and get one through official channels. Official OnePlus devices can only be purchased through the OnePlus store.

I'd suggest you to read this story:
https://medium.com/@tuesdev/as-many...ve-a-oneplus-2-invite-ba20ac8606ae#.qgq3fhmn7

Ctuiku,
Sorry I wasn't able to respond sooner. I really do appreciate your very clear and detailed response and it's care to address each point very clearly and to make clear distinctions between similar things gives me significant confidence in its accuracy.
I must say I appreciate the significant amount of time you have taken and I do hope that at least some of your responses were cut and pasted from text you had already written else where.
I think I may have a number of minor follow up questions, but for now I shall digest your advice and decide on my plan of action.
Thank you again for being so helpful and understanding.
Andrew

I actually didn't read much of it and the comments, but I'd suggest you to unlock the bootloader, flash TWRP, take a backup, wipe everything(not the internal storage of course) , and perform a clean flash of CM13.0 by sultanxda. It's the smoothest and the most stable ROM out there.
Well, that was all in brief. You gotta read(and understand) and perform. It's fun, just like programming. Keep flashing!
~noob (you gotta start from somewhere)

Ctuiku
Thank you again for all your help. Sorry for the delay in responding been busy with other things and also since had some time to digest...
THIS is the OFFICAL Android Software Version for your Oneplus One!!!
See: <I am not allowed to include this link in quote>
I would strongly recommend to install OxygenOS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This link appears to be out of date
or even better OxygenOS, the official ROM from Oneplus! OxygenOS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My search and his post
_forums_oneplus_net_threads_mirrors-for-official-oxygen-os-roms-and-ota-updates.387615
suggests you cannot get the official OxygenOS ROM from Oneplus, doesn't this pose some risks using TP apps to download and flash OS ROM?
There is an easy app available from the offical oneplus site!
<I am not allowed to include this link in quote>
Or use the app that is mentioned in the post above! Will to the same thing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't this pose some risks using TP apps to download and flash OS ROM?
Also the official link
_account_onepluscontent_com_downloads_tools_oneplus-one-reflash_zip
appears to be out of date
I cannot seem to find a way to find an official location or to identify the genuineness of CM12S image or OxyGenOS image. Is there some kind of published standard hash of the file or something? How does it work?
a lot of what I read, like on the oneplus site or the way links are named seems to suggest that OxygenOS is just for OnePlus Two. I believe that OnePlus One moved to OxygenOS at some point, but I don't want to apply an OS version to a device that is under resourced. Is there a version of OxygenOS that the OnePlus One should not go beyond.
P.S. How do I get your XDA user name to appear as a link?

iamelton
Thank you so much for your advice I really do appreciate the time you took to help me. Sorry for the delay in responding. Difficult circumstances.
regarding your point (7)
(7) while in recovery, install rom image (which should be put in the internal storage beforehand)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- I wonder if you would mind indicating where beforehand in this list putting the rom image in the internal storage ought to occurr?
- Also, so sorry, but I wonder would you mind elaberating just a little on how to put the rom image in the internal storage?
Regarding the files, I am happy with adb.exe, fastboot.exe, TWRP.
However I understand that the genuineness of OxygenOS images are not provided by OnePlus, is this right?
_forums_oneplus_net_threads_mirrors-for-official-oxygen-os-roms-and-ota-updates_387615
How do confirm the genuineness of OxygenOS images?
Is it a kind of hierarchy of trust, i.e. n users use and recommend this location for the images.
Or is there some kind of standard hash for the images that is published on secure OnePlus site?
I have similar issue / understanding issue with CM12S
It would appear after roaming around forums etc that the official Cyanogen OS (not mod/custom) are located below here _builds_cyngn_com_ but the site itself seems to have no web pages I visit cyngn.com_get-cyanogen-os but can find no page with a list of rom images and their corresponding dates, attributes and inclusions etc.
I hear that some versions of CM12S do not support 64GB (as per my OPO) but I seem to have no clear certified single source way to know exactly the name/url of the CM12S I should get.
I am probably misunderstanding the philosophy behind things, but it seems if anyone can do anything with the source you would think that OnePlus would into the bargin also provide users (of which there will be a variety) a "sure fire" way to get their (grey market?) phone to (original) factory standard. They still apparently cover it for warentee, so...
Many thanks
P.S. How do I get your XDA user name to appear as a link?

Pixel bootloop after I apply custom and official ROM with TWRP

Hello everyone. I'm not proud of myself and I usually, my "google skills" are enough to get me out of trouble but this time it doesn't and this community is my last resort.
I bought a Pixel (not 2, not XL, the first Google Pixel) and soon enough, I wanted to root it. It's the second phone I root, the first one was my Nexus 6 (and before that I jailbreaked my iPhone 4).
Long story short. I'm stuck on a bootloop with 2 screens : 1st screen is the warning that tells your bootloader is unlocked (see img : i.imgur.com/OL2knAo.png )
2st screen is the Google logo (see img i.imgur.com/RpEsddD.png )
A few seconds later, it reboots and starts over.
I ended up here by following this 5 minutes video guide : youtube.com/watch?v=FcK4yIoror8
My problems started when I was done with step 4 (before I could install the Gapps step).
Then I looked around and found a guide I was able to follow step by step with no problem (source : youtube.com/watch?v=CqVhugWJidQ ). Unfortunately, the same issue remains. I get that bootloop.
I'm out of ressources. I don't understand what I did wrong. I follow steps very carefully. I read that my phone isn't bricked as long as I can access it via adb (which I can do). I can still use the adb sideload twrp*.img command and get in TWRP. I tried many images so far and none can get me inside the OS.. Here is the list of the roms I tried :
pa_sailfish-7.1.2-RELEASE-20170530-signed
pa_sailfish-7.2.1-RELEASE-20170720-signed
sailfish-nde63h-factory-43ba5f81
RR-O-v6.0.0-20180313-sailfish-Official
The first 3 gave me the bootloop I talked in previously while the Resurrection Remix (RR) at least gave me some sort of recovery mode as you can see here (i.imgur.com/QJ9mRxD.png) but I still can't get into my phone...
I also tried flash-all.bat and I still have that bootloop after this batch did its thing...
By the way, I see there are tons of Sailfish roms (for Google Pixel). Could it be that my Pixel can only take a specific one? I have no way of guessing if one rom is superior to the other. The only hint I have is the file name..
Also, odds are low but if you live near Montreal are feel like you can help me and do it yourself, I will gladly pay you for your work. Otherwise, I'm open to try anything suggested here that can get me out of this mess.
Thank you very much for your time!

Update 1 : well, I found an answer to my question on reddit.
I was able to restore everything by using the lastest factory image for Pixel 8.1.0 (OPM2.171019.029, Apr 2018). I tried many others before this one (they were earlier releases) with no success.
I have no idea why the lastest worked, but it did. It's a huge relief for me..
Now though, I would still like to root it.. But I am much more scared to try it until I find out what mistep I did... Any idea?
Thank you

If you're bootlooping, sometimes you might be on the wrong slot. Check TWRP to see if you're in Slot A or Slot B. I found in the past that after flashing something, it switches you to Slot B, so if you reboot into System, there's no system there to boot into...

Fairphone Brick Fastboot / ADB

Hi there,
I looked at a lot of places but I cannot find decent info. Or the Info I search .
So maybe someone can point me to, or may be this thread could be the one...
(And if I missed a post with the right answer, I apologise in front)
So lets face it, I bricked my Fairphone 2. Yep. Whoehoew. :highfive:
What did i do:
Flashed the latest twrp 3.2.2 recovery
Flashed Lineage os 15.1 with gapps pico and su addon
Playing around. Nice working phone. (it is my second, the first one was stolen )
I tried to encrypt my phone. But I encountered the camera reboot to recovery problem. so no encryption. (and really, this is an old bug...?)
Few days later I update lineage os. I just read about the flashlight on workaround. So I tried. And yep, it worked, straight to twrp.
But.
my guess is that now two things happen at the same time. a sort of postponed encrypting. And a non understanding update.
A least. I see the twrp logo. and that is it. If i reboot nothing happens. no os.
I can boot into adb and fastboot, at least, my macbook running high sierra shows the device with adb devices and fastboot devices.
If i am in fastboot, and try to overwrite twrp it stil reboots to twrp 3.2.2.0, so it seems to do nothing. (even an "update" to twrp-3.2.2-0-FP2 does nothing)
It looks like all is locked. My guess is that os wise usb debugging is off? Or that all is hanging an some corrupted mangle between code.
Is there a way to hard format the phone? Do I use software for that? Are I unaware of some "magic" fastboot commands?
Any help is highly appreciated
I also post this at the FF2 Community. But I will post back and forth whatever solution i find.
Cheers,
Vincent

victor-zorro said:
Hi there,
I looked at a lot of places but I cannot find decent info. Or the Info I search .
So maybe someone can point me to, or may be this thread could be the one...
(And if I missed a post with the right answer, I apologise in front)
So lets face it, I bricked my Fairphone 2. Yep. Whoehoew. :highfive:
What did i do:
Flashed the latest twrp 3.2.2 recovery
Flashed Lineage os 15.1 with gapps pico and su addon
Playing around. Nice working phone. (it is my second, the first one was stolen )
I tried to encrypt my phone. But I encountered the camera reboot to recovery problem. so no encryption. (and really, this is an old bug...?)
Few days later I update lineage os. I just read about the flashlight on workaround. So I tried. And yep, it worked, straight to twrp.
But.
my guess is that now two things happen at the same time. a sort of postponed encrypting. And a non understanding update.
A least. I see the twrp logo. and that is it. If i reboot nothing happens. no os.
I can boot into adb and fastboot, at least, my macbook running high sierra shows the device with adb devices and fastboot devices.
If i am in fastboot, and try to overwrite twrp it stil reboots to twrp 3.2.2.0, so it seems to do nothing. (even an "update" to twrp-3.2.2-0-FP2 does nothing)
It looks like all is locked. My guess is that os wise usb debugging is off? Or that all is hanging an some corrupted mangle between code.
Is there a way to hard format the phone? Do I use software for that? Are I unaware of some "magic" fastboot commands?
Any help is highly appreciated
I also post this at the FF2 Community. But I will post back and forth whatever solution i find.
Cheers,
Vincent
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try reflashing it with the factory original firmware using their own flashing tool.
Once you got it working with that, then you can try flashing it with whatever you want.
Till then, there just too many variables with custom ROM.

Proper OS cleanup of new OnePlu7 Pro

Hi Everyone,
Living in Japan, we have no official channel to purchase a OnePlus handset here.
Really wanted to get a OnePlus 7 Pro as I felt it is the best model on the market as of today.
Knowing that, I got mine on Amazon Japan from a HK online shop which had very good reputation.
Now, the problem is these phones always come already opened as they say they need to confirm operation before sending it.
I have been reading news and article about this where we see more third party companies flash their roms with malware/ransomeware already built in...
In these situation, the best way to clean the phone is to do a full re-install of the OS.
I did review a bunch of article on XDA and it seems that now, due to the A/B partition setup, we can't just use official OnePlus image to load from the fastboot easily.
We have to rely on community provided too and stock rom to be able to do so....
When I raised the question to OnePlus and Oneplus forums, they mentioned to me that installed the updated like here (Page: support.oneplus.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4312/~/oxygen-os-for-oneplus-7-pro)would do the trick using the local update function.
What I was directed to do is use the recovery boot to delete system settings/cache and everything data user and then, run the local update. Doing so, that would do it while not using community tools.
Here are my questions and which I would hope to get your experience:
1 Is the process I did really does use a brand new clean OS and do not rely/integrate part of the OS that came with the handset originally (that was the target).
2 Is there a way for me using OnePlus only provided tools and image to fully delete the phone and install the OS (maybe I am thinking this too much like a PC which I have more experience with...)
3 The OS looks fine and no strange apps shows up at all but how can I be sure nothing dodgy is running? Is there tools I could use to confirm this?
Sorry if I sound paranoid. Ideally, I understand the best thing to do was to buy directly from Oneplus and work a way to have it shipped to Japan but thought it would be interesting for me to learn more about android.
With previous Oneplus, it was easier as they were provided this type of official file for recovery but they stopped...
Thank you again for your time and hopping to learn more about how new android setup works.

Is the bootloader locked? Is Widevine (Netflix HD) certification still there? You can check these things to see if the phone has been tampered with.

brissoukun said:
Hi Everyone,
When I raised the question to OnePlus and Oneplus forums, they mentioned to me that installed the updated like here (Page: support.oneplus.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4312/~/oxygen-os-for-oneplus-7-pro)would do the trick using the local update function.
What I was directed to do is use the recovery boot to delete system settings/cache and everything data user and then, run the local update. Doing so, that would do it while not using community tools.
Here are my questions and which I would hope to get your experience:
1 Is the process I did really does use a brand new clean OS and do not rely/integrate part of the OS that came with the handset originally (that was the target).
2 Is there a way for me using OnePlus only provided tools and image to fully delete the phone and install the OS (maybe I am thinking this too much like a PC which I have more experience with...)
3 The OS looks fine and no strange apps shows up at all but how can I be sure nothing dodgy is running? Is there tools I could use to confirm this?
Thank you again for your time and hopping to learn more about how new android setup works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good questions. Before you start, check the model number of your device through Settings > About. I'm assuming it's the international/global/unlocked version (GM1917).
With regard to question 1, a full build downloaded from the link you provided should contain every part of the OS, and flashing it through local update should overwrite anything that was there before. Before flashing, I would perform a full data wipe through recovery like you mentioned.
Q2: There is an MSM tool that will completely flash a system image for the OP7 Pro. I don't think they're generally intended for public use but they always get leaked anyways. They write an image (in the case of OnePlus, a .ops file) to the phone using a PC and USB connection. Here is a link to a thread which contains the MSM tool:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-7-pro/how-to/guide-mega-unbrick-guide-hard-bricked-t3934659
Download the tool for the model of your phone (probably the international, firmware GM21AA), and extract its contents into a directory. In order for the tool to work, you need the OnePlus USB drivers installed on your PC. Plug the phone into your PC with it on, and enable USB file transfer. Open File Explorer and you should see a drive labeled "OnePlus drivers" or similar. Open it and run the driver setup executable file. You'll also need ADB to make your phone reboot into a mode that will allow the tool to perform its tasks. Here is a guide to installing ADB:
https://www.xda-developers.com/what-is-adb/
Once you've set that up, make sure the phone is plugged into the PC and the MSM tool is open. Make the phone boot into edl mode by typing
Code:
adb reboot edl
and once it says Connected next to a COM port in the tool, press start. Don't interrupt the process until it completes the download and the status message turns green. The phone should automatically reboot. This method is arguably more risky than using the local upgrade option, so do it at your own risk.
Q3: Make sure that OEM unlocking is turned off in developer settings and that the bootloader is locked (if the bootloader is unlocked, you'll see a yellow warning message after you power on the device from a power off state). Without an unlocked bootloader it would be pretty difficult to make any deep modifications to the device.

Hi @Zocker1304 and @TManchu,
Please let me thank you very much first for your kind and detailed reply, this is really welcome.
@Zocker1304:
I checked using the ADB/Fastboot connection that indeed, the Bootloader is locked so, that looks good.
Also installed (using a separate Google account) DRM Info app to confirm that the Widevine is properly installed and at L1 level which indeed again, looks good.
@TManchu
Thank you again for your very detailed reply! This was exactly what I needed as information.
I did already exactly as mentioned for the #1 so, it looks I should be good now with a proper rom from OnePlus (and did a full wipe in the Recovery boot mode)
For #2, I think I will skip that since as you rightly said, with #1, it should be fine so, prefer to keep with the recommended step.
For #3, we are covering what Zocker1304 mentioned too and I could confirm it.
My only concern about #3 was that you can actually relock the bootloader but (and please correct me If I am wrong), you can only do so if you are using stock OnePlus images (to date...seems like dev teams are working to have this changed? Bootloader locked with custom firmware?) which then means the image is safe.
I suppose the last item was my only open query for your thoughts but so far, the handset looks fine.
Thanks to you and the community, I have learned about the A/B partition scheme, msm tool, Fastboot/Recovery mode and Bootloader and ADB tools.
It is always good to learn more about the tech we use (especially phones, we have so many sensitive information stored into them today).
Not being careful could potentially means quite a lot of troubles down the road with Ransomeware/data leak tools.
Of course again, I could have simply purchased a JP phone from a brick and mortar shop next to my place and be fine with it. :silly:

brissoukun said:
.
For #3, we are covering what Zocker1304 mentioned too and I could confirm it.
My only concern about #3 was that you can actually relock the bootloader but (and please correct me If I am wrong), you can only do so if you are using stock OnePlus images (to date...seems like dev teams are working to have this changed? Bootloader locked with custom firmware?) which then means the image is safe.
I suppose the last item was my only open query for your thoughts but so far, the handset looks fine.
Thanks to you and the community, I have learned about the A/B partition scheme, msm tool, Fastboot/Recovery mode and Bootloader and ADB tools.
It is always good to learn more about the tech we use (especially phones, we have so many sensitive information stored into them today).
Not being careful could potentially means quite a lot of troubles down the road with Ransomeware/data leak tools.
Of course again, I could have simply purchased a JP phone from a brick and mortar shop next to my place and be fine with it. :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem! I’ve just done some reading and from what I understand, re-locking the bootloader on anything other than a completely stock ROM will result in a bricked phone. I believe this is due to the way Android handles data encryption. If what you’ve heard is true, being able to lock your bootloader on a custom ROM would be great for device security. However, should something go wrong with the ROM having a locked bootloader might make it more difficult to fix.

I know that there are ways to sign system and boot images so that you can lock the bootloader with them installed, but I think that would still show a warning though I'm not sure.
Anyways, if all the build dates and numbers in the system info are correct, the firmware should be stock and as long as the bootloader is locked too, I don't believe you can tamper with that.

Hi Gents,
Thank you very much for the answer to the thread and much appreciated.
Apologies for not getting back to you all earlier as yesterday was family day...haha!
Well, since things looked good on the OS and the build, I went ahead and started to use the phone properly setting up my accounts. It did give me some incentive to get all my sensitive accounts setup with 2FA so that in case I get hacked with my passwords in the future...they would still need the 2fa (using Google Authenticator).
I did check also all system apps/running process and didn't see anything shady.
Just for reference, here were the type of articles I was refering too for the OS being plagued with malware even out of the box:
Page_theverge.com/2019/6/6/18655755/google-android-malware-triada-ota-rom-ads-spam-oem (sorry gents, new account, cannot put links yet)
However here, it seems it is due to lax review from the maker to third party tools which were including malware...
To have the same level on the oneplus I bought from the HK shop, they would have needed access to OnePlus Dev team to inject the malware in official image (knowing anyway I have re-installed a new image from the local update).
Otherwise, I was reading on the web about the fact to relock the bootloader with a custom roam and there seems to have a lot of messages but not concrete steps. It seems it depends a lot on phone model and brand.
When you are checking
Page_gizmochina.com/2019/06/10/relock-bootloader-oneplus-7-pro/
This is where you can read at the end:
"The above method only works if OnePlus 7 Pro is running on stock recovery and stock firmware. The ability to relock devices running custom recovery is expected in the next few weeks. "
That was published last month so, not sure if they got this to work on the OnePlus 7 pro yet.
So that's it, I am now using my new device which looks to work great and hopefully, won't get any bugs down the road.
I appreciate you taking the time to get back to me and will continue to learn about android.:good:

How to sideload into OP 8T (KB05AA)? Help!

My current OxygenOS is the latest "12" version which after the OTA, OnePlus has strangely removed from their support site. It has some issues I don't like as well as many others who have posted on the OP Community board. The inactive partition is corrupted and I'm not sure what happened except I was rooted and tried to use Magisk protocol to keep root, but I got a bootloop afterwards. I changed the active slot to the old slot and got the new "12" version running. The inactive slot is corrupted and I get a Qualcom error message.
I want to go back to the previous ver "11" or LineageOS 18.1. However, I cannot get anything to allow me to sideload to the inactive partition or any partition. If I use adb while the phone is in normal operation, I get adb to show devices so I know I have a link. However, I cannot do adb sideload from the normal booted phone. So I have to reboot it to recovery where it looses it's connection to the adb command on the PC. It sees the phone but says it is unauthorized. It is a loop where adb works while phone is booted but not when I am in recovery. I have USB debugging set on and have revoked usb debugging and reset the whole scenario many times to see if different sequences might work so that I can do a sideload. Nothing has gotten me past this yet. I have even tried the Oxygen Updater app but OxygenOS system update won't let you install a prior version if you have the current one.
Any suggestions. Thanks

zzjea said:
My current OxygenOS is the latest "12" version which after the OTA, OnePlus has strangely removed from their support site. It has some issues I don't like as well as many others who have posted on the OP Community board. The inactive partition is corrupted and I'm not sure what happened except I was rooted and tried to use Magisk protocol to keep root, but I got a bootloop afterwards. I changed the active slot to the old slot and got the new "12" version running. The inactive slot is corrupted and I get a Qualcom error message.
I want to go back to the previous ver "11" or LineageOS 18.1. However, I cannot get anything to allow me to sideload to the inactive partition or any partition. If I use adb while the phone is in normal operation, I get adb to show devices so I know I have a link. However, I cannot do adb sideload from the normal booted phone. So I have to reboot it to recovery where it looses it's connection to the adb command on the PC. It sees the phone but says it is unauthorized. It is a loop where adb works while phone is booted but not when I am in recovery. I have USB debugging set on and have revoked usb debugging and reset the whole scenario many times to see if different sequences might work so that I can do a sideload. Nothing has gotten me past this yet. I have even tried the Oxygen Updater app but OxygenOS system update won't let you install a prior version if you have the current one.
Any suggestions. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried to sideload OOS 11 using Los recovery, but it doesn't work. And, since OOS recovery doesn't support sideloading I'd say that sideloading isn't an option.
However, using payload dumper and fastbootd may be an option. I would have tried this but I'm on 12 and there's no full install zip. But you're going back to 11 so this is a possibility.
But I wouldn't make these changes in the current working slot - don't break what's working.
I'm also not sure whether to use the OOS recovery for the fastbootd stuff or use one from a custom rom.
As you can gather, I've not done this. So you have to work out the details yourself and be prepared to be a guinea pig for the process.
If you do go down this path I'd be very interested in the outcome.
Of course, you could always use the MSM tool to go back to an older version.

Since there is no TWRP for OP8T and recovery is non-existent on it, how is anyone installing ROMs on this device. I have just jumped from my original purchase of OnePlus One that still works except for the power button (it is current with LineageOS 18.1 and rooted), to the OP8T over a month ago and a lot has changed since the OPO. I have looked up fastbootd but still don't understand the differences. Comments about installing ROMS are made all over this forum but most assume you know how to do it. I have gotten spoiled with TWRP on the OPO and can flash a new ROM in around a minute almost with my eyes closed. This is getting confusing. I successfully rooted this OP8T after I got it and that was a very touchy thing having to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it done. I was surprised that it worked after all the steps that were required. It used to be that there was info on how to do this kind of thing on this forum, but now it seems that most everyone thinks you should already know the basics. Well the basics are part of my problem right now. A and B slots are new to me and I think I understand that but have not seen an explanation of how that all works when loading ROMS. I have a working phone at the moment in the active slot, but the "other" slot is corrupted. I tried to duplicate the active slot to the inactive slot and of course I can't get adb to work.... Isn't anyone else having these issues? I will look into the MSM tool again.
If you know where the info is that I'm looking for is, please give me the links. Thanks

zzjea said:
Since there is no TWRP for OP8T and recovery is non-existent on it, how is anyone installing ROMs on this device. I have just jumped from my original purchase of OnePlus One that still works except for the power button (it is current with LineageOS 18.1 and rooted), to the OP8T over a month ago and a lot has changed since the OPO. I have looked up fastbootd but still don't understand the differences. Comments about installing ROMS are made all over this forum but most assume you know how to do it. I have gotten spoiled with TWRP on the OPO and can flash a new ROM in around a minute almost with my eyes closed. This is getting confusing. I successfully rooted this OP8T after I got it and that was a very touchy thing having to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it done. I was surprised that it worked after all the steps that were required. It used to be that there was info on how to do this kind of thing on this forum, but now it seems that most everyone thinks you should already know the basics. Well the basics are part of my problem right now. A and B slots are new to me and I think I understand that but have not seen an explanation of how that all works when loading ROMS. I have a working phone at the moment in the active slot, but the "other" slot is corrupted. I tried to duplicate the active slot to the inactive slot and of course I can't get adb to work.... Isn't anyone else having these issues? I will look into the MSM tool again.
If you know where the info is that I'm looking for is, please give me the links. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I presume that A and B slots are partitions
Code:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 1970-01-03 04:30 /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot_a -> /dev/block/sde11
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 1970-01-03 04:30 /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot_b -> /dev/block/sde35
So try using MSM tool to restore them or find a copy of that partition from a working phone and flash on yours.
Maybe this can help you as well.

zzjea said:
Since there is no TWRP for OP8T and recovery is non-existent on it, how is anyone installing ROMs on this device. I have just jumped from my original purchase of OnePlus One that still works except for the power button (it is current with LineageOS 18.1 and rooted), to the OP8T over a month ago and a lot has changed since the OPO. I have looked up fastbootd but still don't understand the differences. Comments about installing ROMS are made all over this forum but most assume you know how to do it. I have gotten spoiled with TWRP on the OPO and can flash a new ROM in around a minute almost with my eyes closed. This is getting confusing. I successfully rooted this OP8T after I got it and that was a very touchy thing having to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it done. I was surprised that it worked after all the steps that were required. It used to be that there was info on how to do this kind of thing on this forum, but now it seems that most everyone thinks you should already know the basics. Well the basics are part of my problem right now. A and B slots are new to me and I think I understand that but have not seen an explanation of how that all works when loading ROMS. I have a working phone at the moment in the active slot, but the "other" slot is corrupted. I tried to duplicate the active slot to the inactive slot and of course I can't get adb to work.... Isn't anyone else having these issues? I will look into the MSM tool again.
If you know where the info is that I'm looking for is, please give me the links. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's some information that I found helpful:
A/B (Seamless) System Updates | Android Open Source Project
source.android.com
Dynamic Partitions | Android Open Source Project
source.android.com
Implementing Dynamic Partitions | Android Open Source Project
source.android.com
Moving Fastboot to Userspace | Android Open Source Project
source.android.com
Here's a couple of ways to get one partition to look like another one:
1. The Los pre-installation instructions have instructions on how to sync the partitions. Note: it doesn't sync boot, dtbo, or vbmeta.
2. If you're rooted you can copy one partition to the other using
Code:
dd if=/dev/block/by-name/xxxx_(active-slot) of=/dev/block/by-name/xxxx_(inactive-slot)
For example:
Code:
dd if=/dev/block/by-name/boot_b of=/dev/block/by-name/boot_a
Note that you can find out which is the active slot using getprop ro.boot.slot_suffix
I've written a shell script based on the Los zip in 1. (see attachment) that will do all partitions - use at your own risk. Don't run it unless you understand what it's doing.