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Unlocked bootloader, custom kernels and downgrading


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#21 Demitri

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Posted 08 April 2013 - 06:55 PM

My last phone was an unlocked Rezound so I wanted to make sure before I did anything like that. I haven't had a moto since the Droid 2 and bootstrapped it for roms.

#22 rad5229

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Posted 08 April 2013 - 07:14 PM

Don't do that!! At this point we have no idea what will happen and it's a good possibility you will brick. After unlocking updates should be done with only with Dev produced files from someone here. Or just upgrading individual stuff like radio, Kernel etc..


I flashed the 4.1.2 firmware files in rsdlite after I was boot-loader unlocked. I edited the xml to flash twrp-recovery instead of moto-recovery automatically, and proceeded to flash supersu.zip. I am still boot-loader unlocked, rooted, and now on fresh 4.1.2. I can't say it wasn't risky but it seemed to work fine for me.
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#23 dru21281

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Posted 09 April 2013 - 05:51 AM

I don't think there is any way for moto to re-lock the phones once they are unlocked as of now. In the future they can try but I still think it will be nearly impossible to re-lock the xt926 once unlocked. So now that you unlock it's almost impossible to flash something or take an ota that will re-lock. Someone correct me if I am wrong. The only thing moto can do is prevent new phones from being unlocked with a future update.

Sent from my XT926 using Tapatalk 2



#24 Memnoch73

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Posted 09 April 2013 - 05:55 AM

I don't think there is any way for moto to re-lock the phones once they are unlocked as of now. In the future they can try but I still think it will be nearly impossible to re-lock the xt926 once unlocked. So now that you unlock it's almost impossible to flash something or take an ota that will re-lock. Someone correct me if I am wrong. The only thing moto can do is prevent new phones from being unlocked with a future update.

Sent from my XT926 using Tapatalk 2


As far as we know at this point I believe you are correct however our fear is that someone unlocked will take a Moto OTA and brick their phone.

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#25 ndarmitage

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Posted 09 April 2013 - 07:56 AM

I flashed the 4.1.2 firmware files in rsdlite after I was boot-loader unlocked. I edited the xml to flash twrp-recovery instead of moto-recovery automatically, and proceeded to flash supersu.zip. I am still boot-loader unlocked, rooted, and now on fresh 4.1.2. I can't say it wasn't risky but it seemed to work fine for me.


This sounds boss. Can you post a link or two showing the download sources for the supersu.zip and twrp that you used? What xml edits were required? Thanks!

#26 rad5229

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Posted 09 April 2013 - 04:51 PM

This sounds boss. Can you post a link or two showing the download sources for the supersu.zip and twrp that you used? What xml edits were required? Thanks!


Sure, You must have the boot-loader unlocked to do this

For the xml edit first you just need to remove the getvar commands; else it will fail every time. Once that is done take the twrprecovery.img out of the zip file at this

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and place it into the sbf files folder.

Once that is done open up the xml file and edit line 29 "<step operation="flash" partition="recovery" filename="recovery.img" MD5="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" />" change recovery.img to the name of your custom recovery (twrprecovery.img in this case).

Also note that you will need to remove the part that says "MD5="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"" as this will have changed as well. (I opted to remove it, you could probably change it if you had the MD5 value.)

I proceeded to flash in rsdlite using the edited xml. I placed the supersu.zip located in this forum

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to my sdcard.

Once rsdlite finishes doing its thing, just boot into your now custom recovery and flash the supersu.zip. Reboot and your rooted with custom recovery.

I am confident someone could write a batch/script to do all of this automatically possibly using adb sideload in twrp to flash su without ever putting the .zip on your phone, but seeing as I have absolutely zero programming skills we better leave that to someone more adept than I.

I take no responsibility for what you do to your phone, seeing as we are freshly unlocked and still have a lot to learn about what we can and cannot do, you run any possible risks this may involve. I am just lazy when it comes to flashing, the fewer steps the better imo.
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#27 RazrGreg

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Posted 09 April 2013 - 07:43 PM

As far as we know at this point I believe you are correct however our fear is that someone unlocked will take a Moto OTA and brick their phone.


Even if you brick couldnt you fastboot back to any previous build because of being unlocked? Soo worst you can do is soft brick and need to reflash.

#28 ndarmitage

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Posted 09 April 2013 - 08:03 PM

Sure, You must have the boot-loader unlocked to do this

For the xml edit first you just need to remove the getvar commands; else it will fail every time. Once that is done take the twrprecovery.img out of the zip file at this

Please Login or Register to see this Hidden Content

and place it into the sbf files folder.

Once that is done open up the xml file and edit line 29 "<step operation="flash" partition="recovery" filename="recovery.img" MD5="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" />" change recovery.img to the name of your custom recovery (twrprecovery.img in this case).

Also note that you will need to remove the part that says "MD5="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"" as this will have changed as well. (I opted to remove it, you could probably change it if you had the MD5 value.)

I proceeded to flash in rsdlite using the edited xml. I placed the supersu.zip located in this forum

Please Login or Register to see this Hidden Content

to my sdcard.

Once rsdlite finishes doing its thing, just boot into your now custom recovery and flash the supersu.zip. Reboot and your rooted with custom recovery.

I am confident someone could write a batch/script to do all of this automatically possibly using adb sideload in twrp to flash su without ever putting the .zip on your phone, but seeing as I have absolutely zero programming skills we better leave that to someone more adept than I.

I take no responsibility for what you do to your phone, seeing as we are freshly unlocked and still have a lot to learn about what we can and cannot do, you run any possible risks this may involve. I am just lazy when it comes to flashing, the fewer steps the better imo.


Thanks man! Nice instructions. Nice to know that the supersu.zip file works to root our phones with no changes. I like this approach because it seems very clean!

#29 razzrmaxx

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 02:35 AM

I hope devs could work on the domestic gsm unlock hack too... so we can take our phones to any company

#30 Demitri

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Posted 17 April 2013 - 06:16 PM

Memnoch, I got froggy earilier today and installed the OTA update.  It didn't brick per se, but it did cause the phone to hang at the boot animation.  So I'm not really sure what happened.  Thankfully I made a Nandroid last Friday.



#31 Memnoch73

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Posted 17 April 2013 - 06:30 PM

Memnoch, I got froggy earilier today and installed the OTA update.  It didn't brick per se, but it did cause the phone to hang at the boot animation.  So I'm not really sure what happened.  Thankfully I made a Nandroid last Friday.

 

Well it's good to know you did not perma-brick. I assume you are still unlocked? Good thing you had a backup although I assume fastbooting back to stock would have worked too.

 

Thanks for the info. And don't do that again.  :p


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#32 Brian

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Posted 19 August 2013 - 12:06 PM

OK, I know that there hasn't been any movement on this thread for awhile, but I gots a question...my bootloader is unlocked...and all of a sudden there is an OTA...eveyone says not to take the OTA, because that will patch the unlocked bootloader and you will be locked again, with no relief in sight...????Am I understanding this right or is my limited knowledge of this stuff getting in the way of clarity?



#33 Memnoch73

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Posted 19 August 2013 - 12:56 PM

OK, I know that there hasn't been any movement on this thread for awhile, but I gots a question...my bootloader is unlocked...and all of a sudden there is an OTA...eveyone says not to take the OTA, because that will patch the unlocked bootloader and you will be locked again, with no relief in sight...????Am I understanding this right or is my limited knowledge of this stuff getting in the way of clarity?

 

You're fine to take the update. It cannot re-lock your bootloader. You will lose root but you can load TWRP recovery again and it will restore root. Note you need Moto recovery to install the update.


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#34 dfa1

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Posted 24 August 2013 - 03:47 AM

OK, I know that there hasn't been any movement on this thread for awhile, but I gots a question...my bootloader is unlocked...and all of a sudden there is an OTA...eveyone says not to take the OTA, because that will patch the unlocked bootloader and you will be locked again, with no relief in sight...????Am I understanding this right or is my limited knowledge of this stuff getting in the way of clarity?

 

You're fine to take the update. It cannot re-lock your bootloader. You will lose root but you can load TWRP recovery again and it will restore root. Note you need Moto recovery to install the update.


Not total noob, but certainly not as experienced as many here.  
 
I have a Stock 4.1.2 ROOTED (No TWRP etc. Recovery) Maxx HD S/W: 9.16.9 that I'm holding off on unlocking.  I know the latest July OTA Update S/W; 9.20.1 radio and maintenance update is lurking, so I've protected root with "Rootkeeper", frozen "Updater" app and "Motorola Services" app with Rom Toolbox because I'm uncertain of possible repercussions post July OTA Update based on a few reports I've read on other forums.
 
I have no interest in flashing custom roms so I can live w/o update if necessary, but would welcome a possible JB 4.2 upgrade is that were to ever happen...not holding breath.
 
Has anyone with a Rooted and Unlocked Maxx HD XT926 experienced any issues after taking latest July OTA?


#35 livinginkaos

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Posted 24 August 2013 - 09:46 AM

The new update only does four things.

1. Updates the radios.
2. Updates the boot.img
3. Updates the tz "trusted zone"
4. The two above block the root exploit as well as the bootloader exploit.

There is a workaround for root, but not the bootloader. If you take the update as is you will lose the option to unlock.



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#36 dfa1

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Posted 24 August 2013 - 01:49 PM

Thank you for reply.  My concerns with OTA are based on a couple other members from other forum recently posted issues after July update and were virgin stock rooted and unlocked.  Here are their posts:

 

1) "It was a little laggy before the update, I think mainly because of the radio and poor reception. After the update it got much better (I've had it updated for around a month). Then all off a sudden two days ago it got really laggy and yesterday it was freezing frequently"

 

2) "Lots of Google services has stopped messages. And the text message notification is still buggy. Also ram usage is running a little higher than usual. And there's these extra things running that weren't before the update.  It's just really strange. Some days the phone runs fine. I should mention the Google services has stopped messages happen when using navigation"

 

I'm confused and curious...

 

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#37 shiva10

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Posted 25 May 2014 - 02:49 AM

Dear sir/madam, I am new to this forum. I purchased a new tablet Datawind Ubislate 9ci. It is a 9 inch no-bluetooth tablet.
Details:
*.Android 4.1.1
*.Rock chip RK2928
*.KERNEL linux version 3.0.36 i was trying to install CWM through mobile odin and ROM manager but my tablet was not supported so i downloaded build.prop editor from google play and changed it to some other cwm recognizable model viz. Samsung, nexus etc. When i was doing the above mentioned procedure, suddenly my tablet is coming up to bootloading and hanging there only and not opening
i went to recovery and tried to do wipe data factory reset but failed to get opened after boot android system recovery(3e) has the following options
1)reboot system now
2)apply update from ADB
3)apply update from external storage
4)update rkimage from external storage
6)wipe data factory reset
7)wipe cache partition
8)recovery system from back up
i tried to do wipe data factory reset 2-3 times but still hanging at boot
i had not made any back up before this bootloop and also tried hard reset by pressing needle at the back please somebody help me to get rid of this problem thank you




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