[Q] Root a ROM image before flashing it to tablet? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a new 8" W802C tablet from Pantel with ICS 4.0.3 on it - have tried all sorts of options to root it but no luck so far. I have been able to get the latest ROM image from the company - it's a zip file with lots of files and folders in it (a nandroid backup maybe?). Wondering if it is possible to modify the image to root it before i load it on to the tablet. would also like to:
- modify the boot animation
- install a custom recovery (i see a recovery file in the image)
- include some apps within the ROM
Would anyone know a place where i could get some pointers that are easy enough to understand for a noob?

Related

[Q] MTK6573 custom recovery and backups / Stock Boot, Recovery + Scatter included

Phone is a Star X19i
Now I'm looking at getting a system to allow me to back up the rom and re-flash if needed.
Post 4 has attachments of my boot, recovery and scatter files.
Old issue: (Solved)
Stupid thing I did I renamed the mtklockscreen.odex to mtklockscreen.odex1 just as a test in a half asleep phase to see if I would get the stock lockscreen loading.
Suffice to say the phone no longer boots.
Really don't think I can get into ADB and rename the file to get the phone booting again unless anyone knows a way.
Android was 2.3.6 and I asked the seller if it was possible to get the rom incase anything like happened which they didn't.
So anyone have any ideas?
I have attached the stock recovery and boot images made with cat and a scatter file I made to post 4.
As I have no idea about modifying these for hard root can anyone take a look?
I don't know the specifics of the phone, but if you can go into recovery mode maybe you can get adb working, or use a flashable zip to rename the file by installing it from recovery (just need to edit the zips' updater script)
dxppxd said:
I don't know the specifics of the phone, but if you can go into recovery mode maybe you can get adb working, or use a flashable zip to rename the file by installing it from recovery (just need to edit the zips' updater script)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got into built in Factory mode and can see the file I renamed through ADB and android commander but cannot rename it back due to not having hard root access.
I also have a copy of the boot and recovery partitions 5 and 6 respectively I made in the adb shell yesterday as I was half looking at getting hard root access.
ren mtklockscreen.odex1 mtklockscreen.odex
ren: permission denied
I read you can do a custom recovery with root using SP Tools still so can anyone help me do this?
I know about system root etc and stuff and have flashed roms before on other tablets and have been a PC I.T tech (wouldn't think it due to the stupid mistake) but this recovery and scatter files etc is kinda new to me.
I have a scatter file now I just made if anyone is interested in helping me.
Yes I have a MTK6573 but the scatter file came from the MT6516 Rom Studio which I read works the same for the 6573.
Attached is also my stock boot and recovery partitions I made with cat yesterday if there usable to anyone to help.
Well I got it working and fixed.
I had to go into adb shell and su and mount the file system as writable, as I have used linux before I didn't know about android and what needed to be done and permission locks etc.
The stock boot, recovery and scatter files will remain on this thread if anyone wants to help create or find a recovery which can allow me to create backups and flash custom roms.
I may be able to provide a dump of android 2.3.6 for those that want it once I'm provided with a backup solution as I have read a few people wanting this updated android rom.
This got too close to what I would like liked with bricking this phone.
And I'm not comfortable unless I have a rom backup of this.
Rooting Advice: For anyone with a MTK6573 on Android 2.3.6 trying to root but having issues with super one click make sure you only turn on USB debugging after Android has loaded and just before you plug the usb cable in to run super one click.
I have seen a few thread and posters here about not being able to root the phone and this is the cause that debug needs to be switched on right before you connect and try to root.
Original seller has agreed to send the firmware and flashing stuff on cd for me so I can upload it for you all.
This is a win for MTK6573 Star X19i owners as I'll have the updated 2.3.6 Gingerbread firmware to release for you all root modify etc in a week or so.
Be careful with ROM studio. I believe it is not compatible with MT6573.
You want to read this: http://bm-smartphone-reviews.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html
cybermaus said:
Be careful with ROM studio. I believe it is not compatible with MT6573.
You want to read this: http://bm-smartphone-reviews.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I read and did to get my scatter as I used cat then used the program linked in that thread to generate the scatter.

[Q] I broke it

Hi guys!
I was hoping one of you could help me.
Yesterday i modified a build.prop file on my NextBook EBM8000ND (Next800T) tablet, causing it to get stuck in a bootloop every time it's turned on. I've been searching the Internet all day long but it's hard to find support when you have a device which no one in the world uses . It was rooted but I did a factory reset hoping that it would fix it. It didn't and now it's also unrooted. I tried to make a custom update.zip with the backup of the original build.prop file but the stock recovery simply refuses to load any update file. It always stops at verification. I used 7zip with store option. I tried signing the zip, I even edited the updater script to only print some text on the screen but the recovery still wouldn't load it. I tried to find a way to install CWM using sdcard but with no luck. When i tried to use ADB in recovery the device says: "failed to open driver control: No such file or directory". It might be worth mentioning that I found my device's ROM online with boot.img and recovery.img files and a .tar file which contains the original system folder.
Is there any way to make the stock recovery (since installing CWM or TWRP seems impossible) read my update file? Or is there another way to fix this? I only need to replace that single file.
Hoping to get help soon.
Cheers!

[Q] Cube U27GT - Help with Rooting a Stock Rom and can we get a forum?

Dear Admins,
Could we get a forum setup for the Cube U27GT WiFi version? I dug around on the site a bit beforehand but didn't see one, I apologize if I missed it and please direct me there if I did.
I have this tablet and I am doing some initial basic firmware development for it and want a proper place to start putting threads.
Dear Dev Community,
I can't root this bloody thing... At least, not the rom itself. Let me explain...
I can flash the stock rom from Cube and that can be rooted using Kango Root. --Fine...
However, I can't figure out how to replicate this when I make my own rom.
Thus far, here is what I have attempted...
1. Setup dsixda's excellent kitchen on my Ubuntu workstation.
2. Unpack the rom, clean things up, manually put the boot image into the dsixda unpacked working rom folder, run dsixda's root functionality (which add SU binary to xbin and SuperSu apk file to app folder as well as do some things with the boot image file).
3. Rather than using repack with Dsixda (which makes an update.zip image which I can't use because the stock recovery environment on this device can't flash zip update files and I can't for the life of me figure out how to get and or make a working CWM or TWRP recovery image for this unit)...
4. What I do is I run commands in linux to unpack the stock rom to another directory and mount that directory, then clear out a bunch of folders and then manually copy in my files from dsixda's working folder, then repackage up my unpacked stock rom into a new system.img file.
5. Then copy my now modified boot image, system image, and also userdata image (I modify that as well as that is where most all of the chinese bloatware is loaded from) to my SP_Flash_Tool, generate new checksum.ini file and flash normally...
What I get as a result...
1. As long as I am really careful with how I copy files into my new image, the new system flashes okay (if I am not careful, after flash USB storage for some reason has a format error and the system will boot but can't mount USB storage and other odd issues ensue as a result).
2. Assuming everything flashes okay, and no issue with USB storage partition, I have SuperSU installed and when I go to use an app (ES File Explorer or Root Checker) that require's root, I do get the prompt. However none of the root functions actually work and Root Checker tells me I am not rooted.
That is as far as I have got. So as a result, I have a really nice, westernized, cleaned up rom but with no root.
Anyone have any ideas?
This is my first adventure into mod'ing MTK roms so I am sure I am doing all kinds of things wrong . I had a good bit of experience on Rockchip SoC's before this though.
Kind regards and thanks in advance!
Roman
Figured it out!
So I finally did the following rather hackish work-around...
1. Flash stock firmware...
2. Root with Kingo Root
3. Enabled ADB
4. Attach to PC and fire up MTK Droid Tools
5. Take a full backup
6. Modify the system image from the backup and make changes
7. Put that in new firmware flash package
8. Flash new firmware
YAY - Cleaned up rom, modified, with root!
Once I get it all packaged up and uploaded to mtkfirmware.com I will post a link for anyone that wants a cleaned up rom with root!
The only downfall of the above method is that it absolutely requires that the developer have a device on hand because you can't just root the stock image file (at least, I couldn't figure out how... - bleh...
Kind Regards,
Roman
Dear roman,
Thanks for your hard work.
I have a simple question (I think) and if you have the time to reply or -any other android guru- I would be thankful.
My later issue was with a U27GT cube tablet, but I have others, one for each kid, and this is more of general question.
I am reading this and other forums about how to flash tablets from PC. My question is:
Can the flashing process be done from a SD card?
Thanks a lot and regards,
Fernando
SKorea

Samsung GS5 CWM & boot animations (first week root)

It's my first time customizing an android phone after rooting it, and I have to say, there's a lot to learn. Samsung devices are made to read qmg files when it comes to boot animations, but I'm already making my own boot animations, and I have a lot of questions I hope this post isn't that long.
================================
1- after installing CWM can I UNINSTALL it using odin? Or is there any other way to do it without my computer?
================================
2- I know that you can't UNflash files, so when I flash a zip file (specifically bootanimations4U) what files should I back up? I'd rather back up only the files that will be replaced? Or is there an app to back up files from a certain folder and just bring them back if I want to bring back the normal animations?
================================
3- let's say that my device is rooted, it has CWM installed, and also, has the . zip enabler flashed already and in use. I'm planning to FORMAT my phone in a couple of weeks because I want to use it as if it's rooted with the whole storage available (I don't have storage problems I just want to do that) but my question is...
==========
-Q3: if my goal is just to delete my data and apps only, can I just use the factory reset from the settings? Do I need to do anything regarding CWM or the zip file I've flashed? Will CWM be deleted? Will I have to flash that .zip reader enabler (bootanimations 4u) again? What do I need to do if I needed to reset my phone without any problems?
================================
4- is there a file size limit for the bootanimations.zip files on Samsung devices (galaxy s5 android 6.0) and also the audio file size limit?
================================
5- what is the condition in which I have to flash the bootanimation4U.samsungani.zip file and not the other one?

How to flash only stock recovery? how to convert "recovery.img.lz4" to "recovery.tar"

How to flash only stock recovery? how to convert "recovery.img.lz4" to "recovery.tar"
Hi all,
I am fairly newb in installing custom ROMs, so apologies if Im misusing any terms. Some time ago I wanted to move a priv-app to system-app, without rooting. I managed to flash TWRP on my Samsung S8 G-950F, and from there moved private app to system app.
Now I would like to go back to the stock recovery img, but I don't know how or if it's even possible. The reason behind this is that my company is deploying Android Work Profile and it is detecting the custom ROM (I assume it is specifically detecting the custom recovery partition)
I tried to find the respective recovery.img for my current stock ROM, but was unable to find it. I can only find for older versions, and from what I read, you can't install older recovery with newer ROM
I can only find the full stock ROM, in .tar.md5 format. opening this with 7zip, I can see the recovery.img.lz4
How do I flash this without altering the OS partition?
Thank you in advance,
Rhaswar
@Rhaswar
Look inside here.
thank you @jwoegerbauer, I have seen this article and it mentions a file called recovery.tar
I don't have that, what I have is the recovery.img.lz4
Is there a conversion that can be done?
Thank you
@Rhaswar
Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfrMo1_Rgxc

Categories

Resources