Develop Bugs

Zenfone 2 issues in 2017

Hello,
I bought a Zenfone 2 in 2015 and have loved it ever since. Back then it was simple to root, unlock the bootloader, and neither required the other.
To root, just enable ADB and run this.
To unlock the bootloader, just download this from azus.
Now, buying a phone fresh, to remove all the bloat is becoming a challenge.
To root, you need an unlock the bootloader. To unlock the bootloader, you need to downgrade to an early 5.0 image.
So I downgrade, unlock the bootloader, and root. To get back on 6, I need to upgrade to a newer version of 5.0, so I do. Root gone, bootloader still unlocked, splash screen is normal. Fine, I root again.
Finally, after upgrading to 6.0 (using adb sideload) both root and the bootloader unlock are gone. So I have to start again, and either live with unbloated 5.0, or unrooted, bloated 6.0.
As far as I can tell the only way around this is downgrade to 5.0, unlock my bootloader, then flash a pre rooted unsigned system.img.
Sadly I cannot find a recent pre rooted unsigned system.img, and have no way of knowing how to create one. If someone could help me make one I would greatly appreciate it.
Am I doing this all wrong? Is there a better way?
Because now I have a phone that I'm either stuck with a buggy 5.0 or a bloated 6.0; and the original, two year old zenfone is stuck in the bootloader because I was experimenting with various tools from around here.
I am well aware that I could just nuke the old phone with xFSTK to get out, but I refuse to. I have no such problems nuking the new one though.
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated, the Zenfone 2 is still a great device and is fantastic value for money, so if I can sort out all this I will happily make a full, comprehensive guide with my new knowledge to replace the errors in the outdated one here, and to add far more comprehensive knowledge about unbricking:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/zenfone2/general/asus-zenfone-2-flashing-recovery-mode-t3096596
Thank you all for your time

assuming you are already on MM version ww4.21.10.233... if no update to this version and download the following tool..
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B72QQTXqZSRwTDNtU1N6OEdMdmM
reboot phone in fastboot mode. now extract the downloaded zip and double click unlock.bat phone will reboot 2 times. then you will get white screen and stuck there. when you see white screen. simply turn off mobile. reboot in fastboot mode with volume plus and power button. and run restore.bat from extracted zip.
now download twrp from official twrp website version 3.1.1.0. and flash it in fastboot mode. hope you know how to ( place twrp image in adb fastboot tool and open command windows in same folder reboot phone in fastboot mode and connect to pc. run the following command
fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.1.1-0-Z00A.img
then use volume button to find recovery mode and click power button to boot into twrp.
now download super su from following link use this version only as i have just tested it few minutes ago.
https://download.chainfire.eu/1114/SuperSU/SR1-SuperSU-v2.82-SR1-20170608224931.zip
place superuser zip on internal memory or sd card and click install in twrp and install super userzip. alternatively you can sideload supersu zip as well. then wipe cache and dalvik cache and reboot system. note phone may bootloop or restart 2,3 times. don't interrupt it. it will boot itself into system.
this is 100 percent safe way.
---------- Post added at 11:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:05 PM ----------
x86fanboy said:
Hello,
I bought a Zenfone 2 in 2015 and have loved it ever since. Back then it was simple to root, unlock the bootloader, and neither required the other.
To root, just enable ADB and run this.
To unlock the bootloader, just download this from azus.
Now, buying a phone fresh, to remove all the bloat is becoming a challenge.
To root, you need an unlock the bootloader. To unlock the bootloader, you need to downgrade to an early 5.0 image.
So I downgrade, unlock the bootloader, and root. To get back on 6, I need to upgrade to a newer version of 5.0, so I do. Root gone, bootloader still unlocked, splash screen is normal. Fine, I root again.
Finally, after upgrading to 6.0 (using adb sideload) both root and the bootloader unlock are gone. So I have to start again, and either live with unbloated 5.0, or unrooted, bloated 6.0.
As far as I can tell the only way around this is downgrade to 5.0, unlock my bootloader, then flash a pre rooted unsigned system.img.
Sadly I cannot find a recent pre rooted unsigned system.img, and have no way of knowing how to create one. If someone could help me make one I would greatly appreciate it.
Am I doing this all wrong? Is there a better way?
Because now I have a phone that I'm either stuck with a buggy 5.0 or a bloated 6.0; and the original, two year old zenfone is stuck in the bootloader because I was experimenting with various tools from around here.
I am well aware that I could just nuke the old phone with xFSTK to get out, but I refuse to. I have no such problems nuking the new one though.
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated, the Zenfone 2 is still a great device and is fantastic value for money, so if I can sort out all this I will happily make a full, comprehensive guide with my new knowledge to replace the errors in the outdated one here, and to add far more comprehensive knowledge about unbricking:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/zenfone2/general/asus-zenfone-2-flashing-recovery-mode-t3096596
Thank you all for your time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you state that you have an old device which you are unable to revive with xFSTK. what error do you get? put device on charge for 5,6 hours with original charger and use the following guide. use correct gp flag value use 4 zeros not 5
https://forum.xda-developers.com/zenfone2/help/thead-bricked-phone-updating-to-mm-tips-t3452785

wow, no need to do all this... just use one of the available tool, my prefered one is this one:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/zenfone2/general/bl-unlock-ze551ml-toolkit-t3546293
very easy to use, to unlock, it will temporaly downgrade your boot to 5.0, unlock bootloader, then reflash boot 6.0.
Once there, just flash TWRP recovery and Magisk, from the tools.
I also had a locked ZF2 in MM 6.0 and using this tool it took less than 5 minutes to have an unlocked rooted phone, and I haven't wiped or lost anything.

Need help rooting device

Hi,
As the title says, I need help rooting a Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite device, that is updated to Android 9.
I tried rooting it, but the issues are:
1. It needs unlocking the device first, so I tried going to - //en(DOT)miui.com/unlock/.
There it wants me to connect my device to my Mi account in Setting > Developer Options > Mi Unlock Status. Thing is that this device is using one of the ROM versions, which doesn't have Mi Unlock Status.
2. This led me to try and update the ROM. Issue here is that doing so through the fastboot is not possible because the device needs to be unlocked, so I tried this - //en(DOT)miui.com/a-232.html
3. From there on, everything is fine until step 3. In android 9, they have decided to move the System Update to another table, which is fine but there are no longer 3 dots or an option to select a package. I tried looking for that without success.
4. Downgrading to Android 8 is not possible anymore, and I haven't really checked if I can do it with a locked phone.
Can someone help me find what I am missing here? There must be a way I can root the device.
Thank you!

developer options , unlock oem, boot to bootloader and type fastboot oem unlock, its that simple. All you nee to do after this is follow a tutorial for rooting with magisk.

My friend you were following the wrong guide. This is an Android One device you don't need the unlock procedure that the other MIUI device have to do.
As mentioned above the unlocking is straight forward, however the steps following can be a bit more confusing.
Basically there are different methods on how to actually gain root access, the most popular and recommended one would be using a framework/app called Magisk.
Download the magisk manager from the app store and more importantly check exactly your build number in your phone settings as you will need a patched boot.img file for exactly that build (here you can either download the patched boot from one of the thread here but its more safe to actually patch the original boot.img yourself).
However most of the stuff is written in this thread, it's only missing the updated boot files for Android Pie.
I recommend you to patch the boot from the official Rom files (for example for Pie 10.0.2.0 here and patch it via magisk manager yourself)

Thank you all. I managed to root it.
1. Not entirely sure how the unlock went but it was successful. I tried the fastboot oem unlock. I think that did it.
2. Got TWRP on the fastboot and installed Magisk
3. Root access was granted, data got wiped twice though, but the second part was my fault.

Rooting questions

Hey all, sorry in advance for the noob questions but I have rooted in a phone in forever...
I'm on May security patch and I think of trying to root because the phone became slow and I hope that maybe a custom ROM can help with ram management... saw a few guides but I'm not sure how updated they are and if they fit my version... I fear of bricking my phone
also can you please tell me ( in case you are rooted) which roms are you using/used and if you think they have better performance/other advantages over stock and any more tips, thanks!!

I'd suggest you to use a custom kernel (Like Butterfly kernel) for better ram management and faster experience you won't really need root for that unless you want to tweak and customize kernel settings.
And about custom ROMs, I prefer LOS and Pixel Experience.

Rooting isn't going to make your phone faster in a significant way, as @C302 said, you could install a custom kernel, but I'm not experiencing any problems with the stock one, you may want to flash a clean installation of android, but if you want to root anyway there are plenty of guides on how to in here, but to simplify things, you need to unlock the bootloader and download a patched_boot.img that corresponds with the May update, that can also be easily found here, after that you reboot into the bootloader and use the comand "fastboot boot patched_boot.img", it will take a while but after it boots you will find the Magisk Manager app, open it and choose Install-->Direct Install even if it says that Magisk is installed, after it finishes, reboot your phone and you should be good to go. I am myself running RR OS so I haven't tried this method but at least in April security update you could install Magisk by flashing the zip file in TWRP (you need to install TWRP via fastboot) with decrypted storage, not sure if it can be done now.

ZTE Blade A7 Prime bootloader unlocking / rooting / temp-rooting issues

I've been trying to get the root prompt on the ZTE Blade A7 Prime (Visible version; MediaTek MT6761 A22 Quadcore processor) since the past couple of weeks and have researched down all the possible known and/or related methods discussed in forums here and failed each one of them, due to the following 2 fundamental reasons:
Failure reasons:
1. ZTE Blade A7 Prime has the 'unlock' command(s) removed from the fastboot, viz., 'fastboot oem [unlock | unlock-go | unlock_critical]' are not even implemented and the 'fastboot flashing [unlock | unlock_critical]' commands have been removed. So all the permanent rooting methods, including the Magisk App, fail.
2. There was a firmware auto-upgrade around 2021JUN01 by ZTE. This was the first one since the last upgrade back in ~2020JAN/FEB, when the bootloader-locked 'mtk-su' bootless root method was supposedly working (I had not tried it then). Now its broken and I am getting the following error right at the launch of the 'mtk-su -v' command:
" armv71 machine
Failed critical init step 1 "
The following methods of getting a root prompt DO NOT work anymore:
A. Magisk App method:
Releases · topjohnwu/Magisk
The Magic Mask for Android. Contribute to topjohnwu/Magisk development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
This method requires an unlocked bootloader and that is NOT possible due to 1. above.
B. bootloader locked 'mtk-su' bootless root method:
Amazing Temp Root for MediaTek ARMv8 [2020-08-24]
Software root method for MediaTek MT67xx, MT816x, and MT817x! So it's no big secret that not too long ago, I found a way to achieve temporary root on MediaTek chipsets. No preinstalled root solution or device unlock was needed. The tool I...
forum.xda-developers.com
AND
Amazing Temp Root for MediaTek ARMv8 [2020-08-24]
Software root method for MediaTek MT67xx, MT816x, and MT817x! So it's no big secret that not too long ago, I found a way to achieve temporary root on MediaTek chipsets. No preinstalled root solution or device unlock was needed. The tool I...
forum.xda-developers.com
Both these above procedures FAIL because of the failure mentioned in 2. above.
C. The mtk-su easy App method.
ZTE Blade 10 prime root possible?
Is it possible to root the blade 10 prime? I couldn't find a suitable forum thread for it, so sorry if this is the wrong place. If it's the wrong place, is there somewhere I should post this question instead?
forum.xda-developers.com
OR
GitHub - JunioJsv/mtk-easy-su: Get bootless root access with few clicks.
Get bootless root access with few clicks. Contribute to JunioJsv/mtk-easy-su development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
This method also fails due to 2. above as its just a wrapper around the 'mtk-su' B. method above.
If anyone knows how to get the root prompt, or even the bootloader unlocked by any method whatsoever, please enlighten.

pity you didn't use flashify or some partition backup software to save your phone firmware before it auto upgraded. then you'd be able to use sp flash tool to revert back to the rootable build
the bootloader isn't unlockable so the above is probably the only way you're getting root back if you can ask someone to provide the stock firmware and scatter file for you

luridphantom said:
pity you didn't use flashify or some partition backup software to save your phone firmware before it auto upgraded. then you'd be able to use sp flash tool to revert back to the rootable build
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't flashify require root access to save the phone's firmware? I read a bit now about flashify and that's what I figure it implies/requires. I never had root access. I only tried to get it in 2021JUN and realized that I was late to the game by just about a month.
BTW, any chance the 'mtx-su' rooting script would be updated to root this new firmware update?
luridphantom said:
the bootloader isn't unlockable so the above is probably the only way you're getting root back if you can ask someone to provide the stock firmware and scatter file for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please care to give some pointers as to how to get the prior stock firmware and the "scatter file" and the procedure to downgrade?
TIA.

vla-511411 said:
Doesn't flashify require root access to save the phone's firmware? I read a bit now about flashify and that's what I figure it implies/requires. I never had root access. I only tried to get it in 2021JUN and realized that I was late to the game by just about a month.
BTW, any chance the 'mtx-su' rooting script would be updated to root this new firmware update?
Could you please care to give some pointers as to how to get the prior stock firmware and the "scatter file" and the procedure to downgrade?
TIA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea, the idea is to backup with flashify once you had a temp root with mtk-su if you were able to get it before. i've done it with some old alcatels to save their fw in case i ever had a forced update
no mtk-su update because the exploit has been patched long ago
you won't be able to get it unless someone else has the prior stock firmware. there's this method of dumping old fw without root that i haven't tried yet
How to use SP Flash tool to backup Mediatek firmware
Update: I suggest you use Wwr tool + SP flash tool for the dump instead of SP Flash tool alone as you can proceed without first having the scatter file and using MTK Droid Tools (which is now outdated
forum.hovatek.com

I'll give that 'wwr-tool + SP flash tool' method a try and comment back.
BTW, my ZTE phone is running Android 9 and hence has the partition A/B architecture. So, is it possible to that the *other* partition, viz., the currently non-active partition still has the older boot and system images?

i would just dump your entire rom and take out the partitions you need with the scatter file. that file gives you a mapping of where every partition is
without an unlocked bootloader id be very careful flashing partitions anywhere even with sp flash tool

Appreciate your responses.
I don't exactly know what you mean by a "scatter file" but I do have the text o/p of the /dev/block/.../by-name directory (I'm very comfortable with Linux, I just don't know Android), if that's what is that scatter file for. Else, please detail how to get that. FWIW, I have read up and understand (to the extent needed) what the 2-partition slot A and B are about. If there're tutes or references about how/what all set of stock images I need to save out from my phone, please detail.
Ofcourse, I'll be very careful with flashing things with the locked bootloader. The only intent of mine is to extract the boot.img for patching via Magisk (which does not need a unlocked bootloader) and get the root prompt. So, again, my interest in 'mtk-su' or any other temp-root methods is just to extract that boot.img kernel image for Magisk.
I'm not yet able to use that SP flash tool method and will give details once I figure out that I'm not doing some basic wrong.

Anybody got a guide for how to root Pixel C?

I have a stock Pixel C with the latest original Google updates that were last available before Google stopped supporting it, and now I want to install the lineage os microg. I searched online for guides on how to root the Pixel C but am still confused. Anybody have a guide or tips on how to get started? I found this guide about how to unlock bootloader https://clickitornot.com/how-to-unlock-bootloader-on-any-google-pixel-device/, but not sure what else to do and what guides are outdated that might brick my device.

Yes, I am also searching. I got the bootloader unlocked, but now I don't know what to do.
I used Linux Mint for unlocking.
I need help to get twrp and the new rom on the device.
Please help me!

use ADB comand , flash twrp recovery for pixel c and then reboot to twrp recovery ,then flash Magisk zip by twrp finish .