[SOLVED] Soft boot-loop/brick on Eken GC10X Tablet - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Greetings!
First, this message will be rather long, for which I apologize. I am providing headings that allow whomever is interested to skip to whatever is relevant to them.
About the device:
It is one of two Eken GC10X tablets, purchased from Micro Center a while back dirt cheap. The second one is 6000 miles away in Europe. . . .
It is currently running Android 4.2.2
Its firmware revision is v2.0patch1
Its kernel version is 3.4.39+, dated Friday, October 18th, 2013, at 18:11:40 CST
Its build number is wing_k70-eng 4.2.2 JDQ39 20131028 test-keys
It comes pre-rooted by default. All that needs to be done is to install a terminal program and pay attention to certain paths.
About me:
I have been messing with computers, programming, and operating systems since the time of "wood burning computers"
I know my hosts file from my fstab, I have run various flavors of both Linux and Windows in both client and server configurations, and I know that both man pages and a good search engine Are Your Friends. (which is how I came to be here!)
Issue:
Since this Eken tablet comes with a bare minimum of internal memory, I was researching ways to mitigate this. I found an article that mentioned a workaround:
Copy everything in root to a large external SD card
Transpose the settings for the internal and external memory in the /etc/vold.fstab file
Save and Reboot
The result of this is a tablet that - regardless of the presence or absence of any external SD card - always boots as if it had never been booted before, (returns to "first-boot / out-of-box" setup). Any installed apps are gone and the "internal" memory - which is about 1-2 gigs - shows absolutely full. In addition to all that, I cannot do anything with the ADB port since it requires setting the "USB Debugging" flag, which gets reset on reboot. (i.e. The ADB interface is not available.
Examining the vold.fstab shows that the original setup of that file has been returned after I did a nuke-and-reboot.
I can reboot and re-install a terminal program and advanced file manager. (X-plore is my favorite)
I see three possible solutions:
Find the reason why it's booting like this and fix it.
Find a compatible firmware release for this tablet and re-flash it - if possible - from an external SD card.[/INDENT]
Do some kind of "nandroid" backup from the other Eken GC10X tablet I have and copy it to this one. Unfortunately it's 6000 miles away and I won't be able to get to it until sometime after January 2019. In addition, I cannot access the device via the ADB port.
Research I have done:
gsmhosting's allwinner forums
This site claims to have a (ahem!), "modified" version of the firmware, which I have downloaded.
The androidmtk site
This site has the "PhoenixCard" software which alleges that it can be used to create external SD card images of firmware files that can:
Install firmware from the SD card to the device.
Allow you to run the firmware from the SD card to verify it. It should be noted that MalwareBytes flags the updater.exe file because it attempts to download from a known Trojan site. Renaming the extension, (exe.bad), solves that problem.
I have not tried re-flashing any firmware version, though I have tried running the firmware from SD, which doesn't work.
Can someone help me with suggestions on how to return this tablet to normal?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

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Solution:
I guess it's "umpteenth time's the charm!" :highfive:
Having done considerable research, (with everything pointing to an issue with the busybox file being in the wrong place), I decided to revisit this, did a little more digging and ultimately found a solution.
Since nothing irritates me more than someone posting "I fixed it!" without telling everyone else HOW they fixed it, here are the steps I used to solve this problem.
Please be careful. You will be mucking around with your tablet's/phone's root file system in ways that can be fatal if you're not paying attention. It's not that difficult but you DO have to PAY ATTENTION to what you're doing.
TO-DO:
Instead of copying the busybox file, it should really be a symlink to /sbin/busybox.
If anyone figures out a way to create a symlink in Android that actually works, I'd like to know.
Here it is:
Pre-requisites:
The device MUST be rooted for this to work. I cannot help you with advice on how to root individual devices. This Eken tablet comes rooted by default.
Download off-line from Android Archives, (using a different system), an early version of X-plore, which is an excellent file manager.
Load X-plore onto a thumb-drive or a micro-SD card, (I used a micro-SD), and then install the SD card / thumb drive into the tablet you're trying to fix.
Steps to solve the problem:
First, go to Settings => Security and enable "unknown sources"
Open your device's file manager
Find the copy of X-plore you downloaded, and tap it to begin the off-line installation process.
Once it installs, open it and go to the "configuration" menu. This is within the three-dot menu drop-down in the upper right-hand corner.
Select:
* (near the top) Show hidden files => select the check-box. (optional)
* Root Access => Superuser + mount writable (this allows you to change permissions to permit writing the root filesystem)
* (scroll down) Dark mode => select the check-box. (this is a personal preference; IMHO it makes it easier to read.)
* Exit configuration by using the "back" button or back arrow in the upper left corner.
* You should now see two columns representing two views of the device's file-system.
On the left side, open the "Root" filesystem, also labeled with a "/"
Scroll down and find the "/sbin" folder and open it by tapping on it.
* You may, or may not, see several folders and files. You are looking for the file "busybox"
* If you don't see it there, you may have to "find" it using the magnifying glass icon in the center row of icons.
* Open the "find" dialog and replace the "*.*" with "busybox" and then select "OK".
* (assuming you found it), tap at the right-hand edge of the row with the file-name to "select" it - a big check-mark will appear there.
Go to the right-hand side list now. Find and open:
* Root (/) like you did before.
* system
* bin
* At the top of that column, you should see a folder icon, followed by "/system/bin"
Look to see if there is a file named "busybox" there. (In my case, it was missing - which is the problem)
(assuming it's missing)
Collapse the "bin" folder by tapping on it - it might take a couple of taps.
Touch-and-hold the "bin" folder until a long list appears. Scroll down to the bottom of that list and select "permissions"
Within the permissions dialog, there are three columns: Read, Write, and Execute.
* There should be three selected boxes under "Read".
* There should be ONE selected box, the top one, under "Write"
* There should be three selected boxes under "Execute"
* Directly below the last box under "Read", the box labeled "Recursive" should NOT be selected.
* To the far right of "Recursive" should be a note that reads "Mode: 755"
Under the heading "Write", select the other two boxes so that all three are selected. The word "Mode" should now be followed by "777" Close the permissions dialog by selecting "OK".
Verify the following:
* The arrow at the top of the center column is pointing to the right. If it is not pointing to the right, tap it until it points toward the right-hand column.
* The file "busybox" on the left-hand pane has a check-mark next to it and no other files are selected.
* The "bin" folder on the right-hand side has been collapsed and is selected by being a darker black with NO check-mark.
* The top of that column shows the folder icon and "/system/bin" as the selected path.
Copy the "busybox" file into the /system/bin folder by doing the following:
* Tap the "copy" icon in the center column - it will look like two pieces of paper stacked together.
* Verify that the dialog that opens:
* Just below the top right it says "busybox" (the file you're copying)
* Under that, "Copy to"
* Under that, a folder icon and then "/system/bin".
* Under that, the selection "Move mode (delete source files) is NOT selected!
* Tap "OK" to copy the file to /system/bin. Once the copy is done, the dialog will close.
Tap "bin" on the right hand side to open it if it does not open by itself.
Verify that "busybox" appears in both the left and right hand panes.
Press and hold the "busybox" file until the list dialog re-appears.
* Select "permissions".
* Verify that all three "Read" permissions are set, only the top "Write" permission is set, and all three "Execute" permissions are set. (You may have to clear the bottom two "Write" check-boxes.)
* Verify the "Mode" is set to "755"
* Close the permissions dialog by tapping "OK"
Collapse the "bin" folder by tapping on it.
Long-press the "bin" folder, select "permissions", and set the permissions of the bin folder to "755" the way you did for the busybox file above.
Return to the "Configuration" menu by following the steps at the beginning and select "Superuser" or "Normal User" instead of "Superuser + mount writable" to prevent accidental changes in the future.
At this point, you should be able to close and re-open X-plore and verify that "busybox" actually exists within /system/bin. If it does, you can reboot and your should be good to go.
If it's not there, re-trace the steps I listed above, paying particular attention to the "Superuser" setting in "configuration" and the various file permissions.
If you're still having trouble, post a reply below and I will try to provide what help I can.
Thanks for your patience and I hope this helps others who were puzzling with this as long as I was.