FW Deconstruction/ADB Flashing Help - Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]

Hello all!
Preface: I am a mobile dev, not a firmware dev, so apologies in advance for any dumb questions.
I am looking for a how-to article, or some sort of documentation to get me heading in the right direction.
The company I work for produces a custom android device. The Hardware and the FW are outsourced currently. When we get a new FW version, we use a tool called Phoenix Suite to flash the device the new FW img file.
We want to get where we could script out flashing the FW for efficiency purposes. Would love to be able to plug a USB drive in and flash automatically. So I was tasked with seeing what we could do. I can get the device into ADB Fastboot, and I can flash the different partitions. But I discovered that the img file is a compiled version of all the different parts that ADB Fastboot is needing.
So another dev and myself dug in and we found a tool called imgRePacker ... this allowed us to deconstruct the FW into FEX files, and we have identified the boot/recovery and system fex files. We are still needing to identify the drivers, if they are even in a separate file, they may be in one of the 3 already identified. And then we need to know how to repackage them into individual images so we can use ADB Fastboot to flash the device via a script. And hopefully get the same result as when using Phoenix Suite, just with a script.
Once we get this working, we will then attempt to bring the FW creation in-house rather than outsourcing that part ... but that is down the road, step one is flashing.
Hardware specifications:
Chipset is Allwinner A40 Quad Core
I appreciate any and all help in moving forward!!

Related

Root Miphone

Hi everyone!
Got this Miphone A3 yesterday, and I been searching like a fool after information about this damn phone but it ain't a easy thing to find.
But hey, what do you expect from a cloned iphone
So here's my question:
Anyone sitting on a Miphone and have you done anything with it, most imporant for everything, ROOTED?
Phone info on the phone:
Model number:
A8
Where I bought it, it said A3 on the site (mobino1), same on the battery.
But instead of the iPhone Ui it has the Android Ui pretty sweet that it didnt have the iPhone Ui.
Firmware:
1.5
Don't have Android Market app, but everything looks like Android, also works to install . apk apps tried to install apps from 1.6+ but doesn't work.
Kernel:
2.6.25
Build number:
Linkworld Project .0002_A.1_01r_100129
Been looking for that build number for a while now, don't have any info at all on that one.
Hope some1 here has some info, would be a blessing for me!
EDIT:
I found my way into what i think is the recovery mode, came up a where is said enter flash mode put in usb cable, with red background. Then when i did that, the screen turn blue saying "Enter Flash mode, Begin to flash image..."
Been reading a lot, and i never came up with that kind of "bootloader" just saying that
hope some1 could give me some tips
hi, one of the stores provided firmware from A3, I do not know how fresh. ussd queries are unsuccessful, after ussd calls to hang up. In flash mode turns pressing the upper side volume buttons and switch.
depositfilescom/files/0po3pwcu6 - miphone A3 rom
thanks for that one!
flashed my phone, worked! but it wasnt the same version. this one was with the iphone ui (using ahome)
Model number:
A3
Build number: A3 Project.0001_18r_100411
Seems like my 3G connection does not work with this version. ussd, unsuccessful on this version too, same with previous version.
I was wondering, tried to open the one.bin (flash image) but cannot extract it. Any way to extract the image and try to reconfigure the build?
the phone using "tavor platform" flashing software, anyone know anything about tavor platform?
still trying 2 modify the rom I have, no luck so far.
I do also have this phone from mobino1...
how do you try to modify the firmware you have?
Regards,
xift
miphone a3
I too am with the same problem I have software for Tavor flashing but without success for updated the firmware is in a single bin file without being able to extract and modify
if anyone knows how do to then updated
xift said:
I do also have this phone from mobino1...
how do you try to modify the firmware you have?
Regards,
xift
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I been trying to extract the .bin file MagicIso can read the file using it "missing files" but can't read the files when extracted. Trying to find a program that could read the rom file, have you done anything to update the phone? Do you have a rom file, if so could you upload it pls?
tried to get the firmware from mobino1 but they just ignore mig those bastards.
Ernest25
miphone a3
I too am with the same problem I have software for Tavor flashing but without success for updated the firmware is in a single bin file without being able to extract and modify
if anyone knows how do to then updated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you want to flash your phone with the .bin file you already have or do you want to know how to update the phone to android 1.6+?
To flash your phone with tavor flashing software, you need to run the flash program in XP and press "volume up" and "power" on the phone to get to flash mode, then plug in the usb with the flash program open, and it automatically flash the phone.
About updating the phone to a newer version of android I have not a solution.
I been trying to, get info on the hardware so I could try to cook a own rom with at least android 2.0
Cheers
sorry i don't have the firmware as a rom file either...
and these mobino1 bastards ignore me too ^^
although they admitted they could contact the developers...
new firmware would be nice... or at least the current firmware.
I did not downgrade it yet and I think I won't do that.
Another problem could be that the bootloader only runs signed firmware image (just guessing).
I know how to flash I want is a newer room the problem these Chinese are not then updated dependent on us for a updated
(question) has a possibility to use, one firmware and change to a bin file to MiPhone a3
xift said:
sorry i don't have the firmware as a rom file either...
and these mobino1 bastards ignore me too ^^
although they admitted they could contact the developers...
new firmware would be nice... or at least the current firmware.
I did not downgrade it yet and I think I won't do that.
Another problem could be that the bootloader only runs signed firmware image (just guessing).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ernest25 said:
I know how to flash I want is a newer room the problem these Chinese are not then updated dependent on us for a updated
(question) has a possibility to use, one firmware and change to a bin file to MiPhone a3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If they just told me straight up, we just sell the phone, we don't have any contact what so ever with the manufacture or developers I would accept it. But this just pissed me off.
I've been asking around on other sites that sells the phone, waiting on answers from them. Hopefully they are more friendly.
Don't downgrade, that was a mistake for me (the rom file azat182 nicely posted).
I tried something yesterday, made a own .bin file with android 2.1 but the flash program wouldn't start with it (parse ini error) so I tricked the flash program that it would flash the one.bin (azat182) rom file.
After it opened I replaced the .bin file with mine. Everything seems to work fine, did every step it should like, root system etc finished 100% when I tried to turn the phone on I couldn't, maybe it didn't know were the power "button" source came from.
The android source was made for an other phone, so I wasn't surprised.
Plugged the usb back in, and luckily the phone connected somehow with the computer so I flash it with the (azat182) rom and I'm back at square -1
but now I think, if I could find out the hardware/drivers on this damn phone it would work to cook a own rom using that method.
Cheers
Oh hey, someone else with one of these phones. I've been messing with mine for a while, started out with the A8 rom (from fastcardtech), and have flashed the A3 rom to the device. I've noticed that the gps works a lot better in the A3 rom than the A8, so it's not much of a downgrade, imo. Recently I've made some headway with an android 2.1 port to the device.
Anyway, this device isn't hard to root. If you adb into it, you can get root from the device by remounting /system as RW and pushing a fixed su binary to /system/bin, or wherever it goes, it's been a while
The MTD partitioning in the Miphone's rom is a big giant mess. The rom is split into 25 partitions, the kernel isn't in boot.img like it's supposed to be, neither are the kernel parameters.
The bootloader is dumb, it doesn't check for signed images. The A3 image and A8 image are both engineering builds.
wow you seem to know a lot about it...
does 3g work for you in the a3 rom? also gps doesn't work for me in a8... so a3 could be a possibility if 3g worked.
how did you adb your phone? I could not connect... the driver just didn't show a phone. although I changed the vendor ids etc...
could you write a short tutorial of some sort? would be nice!
if you are root, couldn't you make a backup of your firmware?
is there a downloadable a8 rom at fastcardtech?
regards, xift
I haven't been able to get 3g working, just edge. I don't think the 3g will work in the US, as none of the carriers will work with just wcdma2100, but I'm no expert on the subject. I've had reasonably good luck with the gps with an app called Maverick, but I don't have a data plan currently, so no agps. With gps alone, it takes about a minute or so in an open area to acquire a lock.
For ADB, there's a driver in the android sdk, but don't bother with it. Instead, the phone's going to show up as a rndis/ethernet gadget. For windows, drivers for this can be found at webos-internals.org/wiki/USBnet_networking_setup, just the .inf is all you'll need; MacOS and Linux will just see the ethernet gadget. Once that's installed, the phone will show up on the PC side as a network interface that will need an IP address; I've been using 169.254.231.10 and subnet 255.255.255.0. Once your network interface is configured, you should be able to run adb connect 169.254.231.168:5555, assuming you've got your android sdk tool set up already. From there, you can adb shell in and poke around. Once you get an adb shell, you'll have a root prompt, but to get 'rooted' so that other android apps can make use of it, you'll want to run adb remount to remount /system as RW, then copy a working version of su over to the phone. I think superuser whitelist comes with one.
I don't usually go to that much trouble, as I end up cycling between the A3 firmware and my Eclair build a lot, and the A3 rom is jacked up to where it's a pain to get a terminal emulator running on it. Adb from my desktop seems to get the most mileage.
Fastcardtech didn't have any useful information about recovery firmware that they had, a release date for an android 2.1 rom, information on the manufacturer, anything.
Wow thanks a lot... I tried with the sdk driver.
port 5555 seemed blocked there although it was obviously responding (took much longer than other ports). Thanks for your help - I'll try that one.
Could you upload your eclaire build?
I don't have much time at the moment because of my bachelor's thesis. But I'd like to see that and maybe I could help a bit. Although I do not have any experience with mobile devices etc.
You may need to mess with the usb debugging option. After flashing to the a3 rom, it's enabled. I remember it being the same between the a8 and a3 roms.
At some point, yeah, I'll my eclair build up. I'd like to at least get bluetooth, gsm and wifi going again before I do. I don't have a rom that you'd be able to flash currently; more like a big pile of build scripts, and install scripts for the android system and ramdisk.
yeah I understand that. You could open a google code project or something.
nice to know that there is somebody working on this.
usb debugging is enabled by default. I'll just have to try again.
thanks for your help so far.
file inf
I not have disk only cd and dvd when I will install the drive without the disk says no drive found I save the file as usbnet-pre.inf
if anyone can help me pls
well I also had problems installing the driver in windows ...
It always said something like "No driver found at that location".
You could try on linux though... It worked like a charm for me.
I'm root now
@nsigma is there anything I could provide you from the a8 image?
xift said:
well I also had problems installing the driver in windows ...
It always said something like "No driver found at that location".
You could try on linux though... It worked like a charm for me.
I'm root now
@nsigma is there anything I could provide you from the a8 image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
linux complicated for me but thank you I hope good news from you about how root this bastard mobile
I have the A3 if you're interested I can pass to you

[Q] How and where to start modifying/customizing roms

Hello, first of all this is my first post, so im gonna introduce myself first,
I am a freelance web designer/developer and understands logical programming. Anyways i am basically new to android, and i want to learn how to edit/modify/customize stock roms. so first i want to learn extract these stock roms. I am currently on the starting phase and i only have some ideas about the terms / programs that is used in this forums. Basically, i am running a windows machine, OS is windows 7.
I find it hard to fix some bugs i encounter in my android which lead me to the goal of learning.
So for the device that i will use as a scapegoat for my learning venture, i am using a Skyworth x7010 tablet which have no more support, i think and not a very well known model, infact i cant seem to find any forums dedicated to the tablet itself.
I am technically knowledgable in computer hardware and windows OS, also i am able to write different type of websites in php, (forums, E-Commerce, social networking/networking website, company web based panels, etc.). As of now I am currently working alone in every web aspect of bagongpleion.com and bagongpleion.net.
So far this is what i have done, and done to the tablet. I have no backup as of now.
1. I have already bricked one, just made it perma bricked then returned for warranty, the staffs decided to mark it as defective motherboard (No response from anything including recovery mode and bootloader mode) ~ Bricked it while trying to flash cwm for rk30 device.
2. device is running a JB 4.1.1 for the android version, and kernel 3.0.36+ ([email protected] #48)
3. I have already started learning adb, well for the most part, i had used it in the past for unlocking devices that got locked out screen patterns, and rooting.
4. The Device has a rk3188 1.6ghz max quad (Box says 1.8 though), mali400mp(Quad), 2GB ddr3 ram, 8gb internal storage, partitioned in 2, nand and internal.
5. I have the usb drivers for adb and rktool, android sdk, currently downloading and installing cygwin but the download is so long, i am forced to close/pause it.
6. I have already rooted the device, and modified the applications, and removed some apps that is not required. I deleted the files in the /system/app thru adb. I also had edited the Build.prop already, Changed the heapsize to the best performance (I am comparing the performance with CPU Identifier and Passmark. ) Stability is tested with simultaenous apps (High end games, browser, root apps, benchmark). I also edited the pixel density and reduced it by 1 to make the resolution exactly 1280 x 800.
7, One bug i found is that it cant play NBA 2k13, I had almost tried every solution i can find in the internet, Used different version, i even copied the data and apk from a device that can play it. The game force closes automatically after the Black screen (Original apk) or muzhiwan or apkmania.com loading screen at the start. This is also one of the reasons why i wanted to edit/modify the device.
What i wanted to do.
-Backup Original Firmware/rom/img (i dont know which and what is the correct term)...
-upgrade jellybean to 4.2 if possible, or 4.3
-Tweak more the device to bring out the full potential of it,
-remove and clean the apps and everything, leaving only the necessary files and apps.
-learn more how much i can modify it.
NOTE: I am not asking for the people in this forum to spoonfeed me, i just wanted to know how and where to start, what to do, some keywords for searching, and the limitations that i have in my venture.
-i am a gambler and will take the risk to learn android much more )
Thank you
First of all, congrats that you are more of a researcher. That's a good thing because in the internet, answers to every questions are available. You just need to do the right search in the right way. :good:
Games not working on a device maybe because of various reasons such as the developer has made it limited to work on certain devices or processor architecture etc. If Play Store link shows not supported, then it needs more research and modifications to make it work, which is like 50-50.
And, as a learner you are good to start with XDA-University. It has countless tutorials in that section.
Good Luck and welcome to XDA!
thank you for the link and reply, i am actually suited best in researching, i learned every bit and pieces i know in building websites, programming web apps and system with php, even overclocking and advanced troubleshooting in researching the internet, anyways i have another question to ask,
what is nandroid?
is it an android device with nand storage? (I.E. Nand - internet - external - usb storage)
thank you again
th3f33 said:
what is nandroid?
is it an android device with nand storage? (I.E. Nand - internet - external - usb storage)
thank you again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nandroid is referred to as Nandroid Backup (Backup being taken of ROMs) in ClockWorkMod recovery (Custom Recovery) for the most part.
coolsandie said:
Nandroid is referred to as Nandroid Backup (Backup being taken of ROMs) in ClockWorkMod recovery (Custom Recovery) for the most part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i see, thank you again, as of now, i am still downloading cygwin packages, do you have an idea how big is the total file size of it?
and another thing, I have used romdump, and got the following..
boot.img (13mb+)
checksum.md5(265b)
config.gz
recovery.img(32mb)
systeminfo.gz(1.76kb)
system.tar(385MB)
how can these files help me and can i use them for backup?
th3f33 said:
i see, thank you again, as of now, i am still downloading cygwin packages, do you have an idea how big is the total file size of it?
and another thing, I have used romdump, and got the following..
boot.img (13mb+)
checksum.md5(265b)
config.gz
recovery.img(32mb)
systeminfo.gz(1.76kb)
system.tar(385MB)
how can these files help me and can i use them for backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, no idea about Cygwin.
boot.img is your Kernel, and its needed for modifying the kernel. config.gz is the configuration of your device, and its also used for kernel building. recovery.img is your recovery. system.tar is your system partition which contains all files related to ROM. Yes, you can use these as a backup, as actually you'll get these when you take a nandroid backup in CWM recovery.
coolsandie said:
Sorry, no idea about Cygwin.
boot.img is your Kernel, and its needed for modifying the kernel. config.gz is the configuration of your device, and its also used for kernel building. recovery.img is your recovery. system.tar is your system partition which contains all files related to ROM. Yes, you can use these as a backup, as actually you'll get these when you take a nandroid backup in CWM recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
basically, the system.img is the one that is mounted on /system right? and it contains all files related to rom, does it mean that the ROM is like the OS? if i am not mistaken, i had already edited the apps and build.prop in the /system before i had made the system.img. But i have pulled the whole /system folder before i deleted the apps thru adb.
now the recovery.img is the one that have the android with red triangle exclamation point on vol+ power (android system recovery 3e, this is stock right) ? this is what i need to use if i fail on flashing a custom recovery? is that right?
how important is the config.gz?
boot.img is the kernel, should i stay away from the kernel for the time being? or is it better to check the boot.img first?
am i lacking any file for backup or is this enough for backup?
i have installed rom manager but it says it unsupported device. does it mean that i cannot install CWM?
i think i can flash custom rom with rkbatchtool, i had tried it before (custom rom for a different type) and it ended up bricking the device
as of now, i have tried flashing the generic cwm for rockchip which ended in a black screen recovery,
i also tried flashing my recovery.img but it doesnt work, it get flash but nothing works
it is still working fine as of now except that it doesnt have a recovery!
i think i had corrupted the recovery partition, cause i used a 1.35 rk flash tool and the memory address was set for rk3066 which is 0x0010000 (i think) and mine was 0x0020000.....

Any luck flashing Vphone S8?

Hi,
Has anyone had any luck flashing the Vphone S8?
(cannot post link to pic as I don't have enough posts)
I have cracked it open and it uses a mediatek MT6261DA.
I am interested in modding some aspects of this phone (and more learn along the way).
However, I don't have much experience on flashing these device. If worked on some embedded processor like PowerPC etc.
After reading some posts here, I was trying the first steps which was reading back the data from the device via SP flash tools.
I have been looking for some scatter files but none seem to be working.
Every time I try to pass a scatter file get the error: STATUS_SCATTER_FILE_INVALID.
Any Idea?
BTW, I'm using a linux (ubuntu based distro). Also, SP flash tools version -->v5.1884
Cheers

General Instructions On How To Reinstall Moto E6 Play(bali) Original/Factory Firmware

OK, so you messed up your device real bad trying to do something and it needs a full flash of the original firmware. Well, lucky you I am here to help you in your journey back to your device's roots, the good old days where everything worked just as it should.
Now, I am gonna be very honest with you about some stuff:
- This is my first XDA post and I really wish it were better formatted;
- English is not my first language, so I really hope this is understandable to everyone; (feel free to correct me)
- I have 0 responsability for whatever you do to your device, so if you f*ck your device up so bad it doesn't even turns on anymore, its not my fault.
!!!!!!! IMPORTANT !!!!!!!
The firmware provided here works ONLY for MOTO E6 PLAY, it WONT WORK with ANY variation. DONT try to install it in any device other than the bali, and if you do, DO NOT BLAME YOUR DEVICE LOSS IN ANYBODY BUT YOURSELF.
Well, that said, the procedure:
Edit:
Apparently, the Bali itself comes in more than one version (not impressive, a detail I definitely should have paid more attention to). There are the
XT2029-1, XT2029-2 and XT2029-3. In the device's configuration app, under System, in Regulatory Information, you can find which one is yours.
First, download the file correspondent to your version from here: https://motostockrom.com/?s=XT2029
Notice that the files that appear for download first aren't the most recent ones. To be certain that you downloaded the most recent build to your version, check it in the ZIP's filename, e.g.: Motorola_Moto_E6_Play_XT2029-3_MT6739_POA29.550-81_2003_20200311_9.0.zip (date is in the YYYY/MM/DD format)
From now on, I'll be making a lot of references to the downloaded file's directory structure. To mitigate any possibility of confusion, I'll be referencing the root of the directory as / and any sub-folder as /Folder/
After that, extract the files from the ZIP. Looking inside /, you'll find the firmware files under /Firmware/ and links to pretty much all you need to flash the original firmware, bootloader, recovery, and even instructions to recover the device's IMEI.
Our device has a MediaTek chipset, so SP Flash Tool is almost the sole thing that is needed to recover a soft broken device (Only problem would be if the devices scatter file weren't available, but fortunately this isn't the case).
Inside the /Driver/ folder, you'll see links to necessary drivers for the computer to correctly identify the device. Follow the links, download and install the drivers.
Refer to the /SP Flash Tool/ directory. Follow the link inside it, download the latest version of the tool for your computer's OS (Windows/Linux);
Now refer to the How To Flash link in /, be it the (Tutorial) or (Video) one, which suits you better. Follow the instructions very carefully and thoroughly and you shouldn't have any major issues flashing the firmware. After the flash is done and the device reboots, congratulations! You've made it! :victory::highfive:
DISCLAIMER:
I like to give credit where its due. Inside /, you'll find a credits file. That website isn't mine, and the development of the file and the tutorial was completely made by them, so all the credits go to the proper owners of the website. I am just sharing it here for the benefit of the community.
Well, if you have any questions, feel free to post a response. I am no Android OS developer myself (though I do develop some other stuff - Java and Python mainly - and am a OS administration and troubleshooting geek, Android is still very shady and very out of my league for me), but I'll be happy to help with anything I can.
Happy Hacking!

[QUESTION][ROM][AOSP] Has anyone tried building this?

I've got an XQ-AS72 and have been trying to build an AOSP rom based on instructions from Sony Developer.
The first go-round, I couldn't find the proper "vendor image" a.k.a. software binaries a.k.a. "oem partition" from the site, and I ended up flashing oem (a/b) with the UNSINned version of oem_X-FLASH-CUST-2389.sin that came with the 58.1.A.3.87 firmware that I downloaded with XperiFirm, along with the output of the build. No boot.
I then tried flashing a few different things to the oem partition (among them a couple of official images from other phones from this page (CAUTION! DO NOT USE!!)), which didn't work because of, I guess among other things, a kernel version mismatch (binaries built for 4.14, I built against 4.19). Stupid, stupid me
I ended up having to put the phone in FLASH MODE and using Xperia Companion to do a system restore after multiple failed attempts at re-flashing partitions in fastboot, which gave me 58.1.A.5.55. I was able to get the thing booted. Using NewFalsher with the last known good firmware I had downloaded didn't help me in this case.
I have now re-unlocked the bootloader, cleaned my local repo structure, found the proper binaries from the proper page and am awaiting the long slog of the build process.
So, my question is: has anyone successfully built AOSP for this device before? Is there a lot of fenaggling that needs to be done? Or can the build be run against the files as they come down from the repos?
One thing that worries me, going through the manifest XMLs, is that the build target doesn't distinguish between the different variants, only giving one target (the AS52 variant with a smaller onboard mmc). Is there a need to manually create a new device .mk file and modify other .mk or .xml files to get a proper build?
TL;DR have you successfully built AOSP for the Xperia EDO platform, and do you have any tips to share?

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