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Rooting and updating your MotoActv is about to get significantly easier! No more waiting games for developers to update their ROMs or tools when Motorola pushes a new OTA; now you can do it yourself! I honestly have not seen these types of files ANYWHERE else, so I had to create these myself (with quite a bit of help from [mbm]). But enough blabbing, here are the files and how to use them:
(Note: all these methods assume we have full fastboot access! -- Which we still have at this point)
- Stock Images:
These are not just mere update.zips that you might be accustomed to elsewhere in Android. Nor are these mere fxzs that you might be accustomed to elsewhere with newer Motorola devices. They are in fact both and more. There are 3 main ways to flash these files onto your device, giving you options based on what OS you run and how comfortable you are flashing files to your device.
1) FXZ:
- Operating System: Windows
- Requires: RSD Lite with FXZ Support
- Instructions: Simply load up the file as any standard fxz (it is very straight-forward)
2) Recovery:
- Operating System: Anything that can mount your device
- Requires: The ability to get into recovery
- Instructions: Place the file on the sdcard, boot into recovery, flash as normal
- Note: Recovery does not wipe your device, it is suggested that you do so before flashing stock images
3) Fastboot:
- Operating System: Windows/Linux/Mac
- Instructions (Windows): Unpack the zip, run flash-all.bat (if it fails, run as administrator)
- Instructions (Linux/Mac): Unpack the zip, run flash-all.sh (it should already have proper permissions)
Miscellaneous Images:
These miscellaneous images are nothing you haven't seen before at this point, but their purposes are new, so they too require explanation.
1) AnyRoot:
AnyRoot is based on koush's AnyKernel in the sense that it unpacks and repacks the boot.img on the fly. However, as the name suggests, AnyKernel is meant for kernels, while AnyRoot, actually roots the device on the fly. This will work on any MotoActv device. It is flashed as a normal update.zip and everything is done in the background so you won't noticed much. However, for ease of access, the stock and rooted boot.img is exported to your sdcard in /sdcard/recovery/. Also note, that if you happen to flash AnyRoot over an already rooted device, nothing will happen as it has built-in error checking.
2) rebootRecovery:
rebootRecovery is another fxz type zip, the same as the stock and rooted images, except it can't be flashed in recovery (would be a little redundant don't you think?). This flashes a specially made misc.img by [mbm] that tells the device to reboot into recovery from boot. This means you can flash AnyRoot on any stock device.
How Tos / FAQs:
Now that you know what the files do, I can explain in short steps how to use these files to get what you want:
1) How to Return the Device to Stock?
- flash a stock image using any of the 3 methods
- you can now update via Motocast if you so wish
2) How to Root a Stock Device?
- update your device via Motocast to the latest version (suggested)
- place AnyRoot on your sdcard
- boot into fastboot, and flash rebootRecovery using either of the 2 methods
- flash AnyRoot in recovery
- reboot
3) How do I update my Rooted Device?
- flash a stock image using any of the 3 methods
- update your device via Motocast to the latest version
- place AnyRoot on your sdcard
- boot into fastboot, and flash rebootRecovery using either of the 2 methods
- flash AnyRoot in recovery
- reboot
Q: After using rebootRecovery I can't get out of recovery!?
A: You are using an old recovery that doesn't clear the 'reboot-recovery' command; use the newer recovery: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5849675/android/f100/CWMR5x_F100_recoveryB2.img
Q: What do these ROM offer over other custom ROMs?
A: Nothing, they are simply stock images, but you can upgrade with them.
Q: How much battery should I have when I flash?
A: Performing any kind of these flashes will drain at least 10% of your battery, I wouldn't suggest you flash below 60% ESPECIALLY IF YOU FLASH rebootRecovery!
Q: What happens if I flash a 16gb zip on my 8gb or visa-versa?
A: Don't freak, it will still boot, but it's not the best thing in the world to do, just go back and flash the correct model zip.
Q: Can I extract the images from your zips and flash them my own way?
A: yep (couldn't really think of anything else to say)
Q: I manually flashed the stock-boot.img from AnyRoot, and now I can't update. Why?!
A: The boot.imgs need to be truncated before they can be flashed to correctly work with Motorola's updates, just use the stock images.
Q: What's next?
A: HyprActv -- What's this?
Stock Images (w/ md5sums):
8gb-NA: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5849675/android/f100/MA_1710_8GB_NA.zip (5e228bf56a67aced012c8cbb2d7f7c76)
16gb-NA: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5849675/android/f100/MA_1710_16GB_NA.zip (21b067dc629f7ccd18b43799d8d5fb17)
8gb-EU: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5849675/android/f100/MA_1710_8GB_EU.zip (5b79a46d87728303fc2c920eec71c2e8)
Miscellaneous Images (w/ md5sums:
AnyRoot: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5849675/android/f100/MA_AnyRoot.zip (2f867b006da42865ef861094db0eb6e6)
Reboot Recovery: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5849675/android/f100/MA_RebootRecovery.zip (1623c9c61462db9bb20b55bc8f1144aa)
Mirror (thanks Iownox!): http://www.androtransfer.com/?developer=lownox&folder=MotoACTV
This is Reserved.
I rooted and flashed in recovery (the stock 4.55.97 and the the rooted version 4.55.97) and I stay on 4.55.78 no matter what! The flashes go through successfully... But nothing has changed and the System version still says 4.55.78... But like I said, the flashes both completed! I did a factory reset... and the updater-script wipes system, so what could be my issue?
Moose8106 said:
I rooted and flashed in recovery (the stock 4.55.97 and the the rooted version 4.55.97) and I stay on 4.55.78 no matter what! The flashes go through successfully... But nothing has changed and the System version still says 4.55.78... But like I said, the flashes both completed! I did a factory reset... and the updater-script wipes system, so what could be my issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds like you flashed that old boot.img. Do you have the battery percentage in the status bar? According to TheEndGame7 that is another surefire way to tell if you are on 4.55.97, if you used any of the root tools, it's possible that they automatically flash the old boot.img.
CEnnis91 said:
It sounds like you flashed that old boot.img. Do you have the battery percentage in the status bar? According to TheEndGame7 that is another surefire way to tell if you are on 4.55.97, if you used any of the root tools, it's possible that they automatically flash the old boot.img.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I did flash the old boot.img (root tools :O ). I'll try flashing the modified boot img again. Thanks! I had no idea the root tool took me back to the old boot img
Moose8106 said:
I think I did flash the old boot.img (root tools :O ). I'll try flashing the modified boot img again. Thanks! I had no idea the root tool took me back to the old boot img
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, any and all tools that exist so far will need to be updated.
I wiped data / cache and used recovery (b) to install the rooted-4.55.97 zip and didn't have any luck either. I did not use the root tools to flash. Also wiped dalvik cache after and fastboot -w for fun.
innovatelife said:
I wiped data / cache and used recovery (b) to install the rooted-4.55.97 zip and didn't have any luck either. I did not use the root tools to flash. Also wiped dalvik cache after and fastboot -w for fun.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you end up doing any restore of some kind after you flashed?
Update
There are "new" instructions that might fix the issue where the rooted 4.55.97 appears to not flash. Simply wipe the boot.img image before you flash. And don't use the root tools until they are updated.
Also, if you have success, please post it. Usually "Thanks, it works" is annoying, but in this case where I don't have the device, I need to make sure this is working on some level.
I formated everything from recovery, now I got stuck with Moto logo with no animation when it starts, how to get out of this?
NA
Is there any mirrors for the download of these roms? the dropbox links are down
NORCALkID said:
Is there any mirrors for the download of these roms? the dropbox links are down
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They were pulled, they're not working. There has been some form of mis-communication when I did my testing. I am not working on these until I can get the device from utkanos. Check Update 2, in the initial post.
Success
CEnnis91
I was lucky the second time, first time I succeeded to upgrade to rooted 4.55.97 but for some reason I didn't get the battery percentage on the status bar but all other issues are OK and status indicated version number 4.55.97, I repeated flash from recovery but after wiping and remounting all folders, this time for stock 4.55.97
Now I'm on stock 4.55.97 with battery percent on status bar and syncing from my mac.
thanks CEnnis91
NA
I went into recovery>mounts, and didn't see any wipe for boot. I took a shot at system since I had already wiped cache and data. Didn't seem to help either. Tried 'fastboot erase boot" and re-flashed. No go. Couldn't start back up the device at all. Tried flashing the latest rooted image using "fastboot flash boot boot.img". No go.
I messed around trying to get the device to boot back up for a while, but it won't even charge right. Only charges long enough to kick off the Motorola 'M', and that is it. On attempts at loading fastboot, I just keep getting an error saying that the battery is low. I know I can only blame myself for this. No fastboot access and no adb access. All attempts at resetting the device have failed.
Before I attempted all of this, my battery was full. Unfortunately, wouldn't charge anymore even plugged into the wall. Any ideas?
Hopefully nobody else makes my mistake.
Man I can't wait till this is perfect, you guys are fricken awesome. I raped your thanks buttons op lol
MoPhoACTV Initiative
Will be working on this tonight. I just found out how to make the flash script clear cache and dalvik for you, pre-install. That'll probably save some headache, but it works only in edify format. Not sure what the stock recovery uses...
Anyways, I'm home!
ClearD said:
Will be working on this tonight. I just found out how to make the flash script clear cache and dalvik for you, pre-install. That'll probably save some headache, but it works only in edify format. Not sure what the stock recovery uses...
Anyways, I'm home!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All recoveries will now use edify, amend is old and depreciated, you will only find that on old devices.
Corrupt Kernel...
innovatelife said:
I went into recovery>mounts, and didn't see any wipe for boot. I took a shot at system since I had already wiped cache and data. Didn't seem to help either. Tried 'fastboot erase boot" and re-flashed. No go. Couldn't start back up the device at all. Tried flashing the latest rooted image using "fastboot flash boot boot.img". No go.
I messed around trying to get the device to boot back up for a while, but it won't even charge right. Only charges long enough to kick off the Motorola 'M', and that is it. On attempts at loading fastboot, I just keep getting an error saying that the battery is low. I know I can only blame myself for this. No fastboot access and no adb access. All attempts at resetting the device have failed.
Before I attempted all of this, my battery was full. Unfortunately, wouldn't charge anymore even plugged into the wall. Any ideas?
Hopefully nobody else makes my mistake.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a classical case of a corrupt Kernel. Not that the images are corrupt, but somewhere along your update, your boot.img did not install the kernel properly and now you have a broken power manager within kernel.
What I would do is the following:
Hook your watch to the charger and let the M sign show up.
Even if it hangs on the M, leave your watch hooked over night.
Try downloading an older image and use fastboot to erase everything and then flash everything back again. This should return your watch to a working state again.
You may then choose to customize it as you see fit.
Root tool > "return to stock"
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA-funded carrier pigeons
simx said:
CEnnis91
I was lucky the second time, first time I succeeded to upgrade to rooted 4.55.97 but for some reason I didn't get the battery percentage on the status bar but all other issues are OK and status indicated version number 4.55.97, I repeated flash from recovery but after wiping and remounting all folders, this time for stock 4.55.97
Now I'm on stock 4.55.97 with battery percent on status bar and syncing from my mac.
thanks CEnnis91
NA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm about to try this.. but it's making me think... Do you think the updater-script doesn't correctly format system? Think about it... our devices say 4.55.97 (mine changed to that after a reboot or two), and we only had partial features... sounds like something isn't wiping correctly.
I am having problems installing the 4.4.2 update via OTA. I am on rooted 4.4 android KRT16S build.
I have rooted.
I have installed xposed framework.
I have installed twrp recovery.
OTA update stucks on twrp and nothing happens.
I have tried the following things :
1) Uninstalled xposed framework and tried installing 4.4.2
2) flashed the zip instead of OTA, twrp says failed.
3) enabled survival mode in superuser app.
4) I have also tried flashing KRT16S first which installs successfully on twrp and then 4.4.2 which again fails.
My point is starting this thread is to know exactly what to do when an OTA updates comes so that you can successfully update to the latest android version and also retain your data back.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
OTAs are meant only for 100% stock.
The fact that they can occasionally be installed on a non-stock ROM (or when using a non-stock recovery) is purely happenstance - not evidence that anyone should have an expectation of a similar success on a device with arbitrary modifications.
It really is just that simple.
Which means, no matter what, I'll have to start from scratch again? Install 4.4 images with data wipe and then install 4.4.2 via OTA or flashable zip, followed by all customization and data restore by TB??
Only solution?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
There is no need for a wipe, you can also install boot.img and system.img by fastboot and root your device again afterwards. In that case you will keep your data.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
neo1691 said:
Which means, no matter what, I'll have to start from scratch again? Install 4.4 images with data wipe and then install 4.4.2 via OTA or flashable zip, followed by all customization and data restore by TB??
Only solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are possibly 8 or 10 different ways to go about this:
[A] Don't worry about minor OTA updates - recently they don't seem to be very compelling.
Dirty-restore only the system and boot images from a Nandroid backup of the near-factory ROM corresponding to the same base ROM you are using. You DO make nandroid backups before you start modifying things, don't you?
[C] Use a well-supported dev ROM and wait for the dev to update the ROM to the new release base. Then, just dirty-flash the ROM (if the dev says that is OK). (Obviously, dirty-flashing is not a good idea between ROMs that are wildly different in origin.)
[D]* Treat it like you would any other ROM install. Launcher configuration backup, TiBu Backup, Nandroid Backup, (custom recovery) "factory reset", new ROM install, (root kit install if needed), TiBu restore, Launcher configuration restore.
[E] Attempt OTA install, inspect failures in /cache/recovery/recovery.log, hand-revert files back to factory**. Rinse and repeat.
[F] Pick apart the OTA installer and repackage your own version of the OTA zip to remove the parts that cause failure - both the individual checks and the corresponding file patch operations.
[G] Find a "flashable stock" ROM that matches the same base version as your current ROM and dirty-flash it. Obviously this nukes any of your customizations. Also note that if that the dev did something like "zipalign" or odexing/deodexing of the stock ROM, it is unlikely that the OTA will succeed - even though the ROM is close to identical in function to the factory ROM, the files have been diddled and so the OTA will fail.
[H] If you think the near-stock mods you have made are "minor", you could attempt a "dirty flash" of just the "system.img" and "boot.img" files from the factory images. This would mean avoiding the use of "fastboot erase" of anything and attempting a "fastboot -w update my-custom-image-nakasi-XXXX.zip" where your custom .zip file only has the boot.img and system.img files in it (remove recovery.img, userdata.img from the .zip archive and also check the "android-info.txt" file to see that it is consistent). I have not personally tried this; if you are going to try it, I would back up your entire device as a safety precaution.
* The Google factory image install instructions show a complete wipe of the userdata partition; this is fundamentally different than most ROM installs (potentially requiring hours of waiting on backup/restores of the "sdcard" area).
** Obviously, you need a source of factory original files. Yet another reason to make nandroid backups before beginning ANY customizations. You can dig them out of nandroid backups - for instance, TWRP ".win" files are just tarballs. Or get familiar with simg2img (or here), loopback mounts, and so forth. You can find older versions of Google factory images on oldblue910's site http://www.randomphantasmagoria.com/
OTA Installation Notes:
[size=+1]1 - OTA installation is a PATCHING process.[/size]
[size=+1]2 - OTA preliminary checks are STOP-ON-FIRST-FAIL.[/size]
[size=+1]3 - OTA installs are ALL OR NOTHING.[/size]
1) The patching process for any individual file that will be updated is like this:
[prior factory file] + [OTA patch file] ===>>> [replacement file]
From the above diagram, it is apparent that "replacement file" needs both the original (factory) file plus the OTA-delivered patching file. The patching process cannot succeed unless an exact version of the original file - down to the very last byte - is present on on the device and in it's original location. The reason things are done this way is that the patch (.p) files are typically much smaller than the originals - so it saves the carriers bandwidth to roll out updates this way to lots of customers. The OTAs do not contain replacement files! They only contain patching (.p) files! Even "blob" files such as boot images are updated this way (so, generally, having a custom kernel will also cause an OTA fail).
2 & 3) The OTAs are quite conservative in their checking; they don't do something like this:
check file1... patch file1... check file2... patch file2... ...
but rather do this:
check file1... check file2... ... check fileN... patch file1... patch file2... ... patch fileN
If any of the checks fail, the process stops immediately without running any further checks This is a good thing - if it didn't happen this way, the OTA could get partially through and then fail - and then it would be impossible to repeat the OTA because all the successfully patched files would no longer be the original versions; and you would have a ROM in a screwed up (inconsistent) state.
So, in light of those above observations, it is apparent that:
- usually it is safe to attempt an OTA install on a modified ROM. If any file (to be modified) is missing or altered, a preliminary file check (SHA-1 hash computation) will fail and nothing will be modified. It is a good thing that the OTA install process is conservative this way.
- this explains why sometimes OTAs succeed on lightly modified stock ROMs: it just happens that whatever files the device owner/user fooled with are not in the group of files to be patched by the OTA. But that's no guarantee for the next OTA that comes down the pike, nor the one after that....
- if there are several file checks that are going to fail as a result of user modification, when the OTA runs, you will only be shown the error for the first file that fails - instead of a list of all files which are screwed up. That means that if you thought you were going to hand-patch things, you might have to iterate the process (OTA-fail... hand-patch... OTA-fail... hand-patch...) several times. If you were going to go down that road, the amount of effort needed to get things back to an OTA-friendly state might be quite significant. The only alternative to avoiding this is to inspect the "updater-script" that the OTA uses, and manually go through every file mentioned in the OTA and compute the SHA1 hashes yourself (using the program "sha1sum"). At least then you would know ahead of time which files/blobs are going to cause a failure.
- Note that the the SHA-1 checksums require that the files be identical to the factory originals down to the very last bit and byte. If you used a "flashable factory image" where the dev decided to do something like "zipalign" the .apk files, or add or remove .odex files, an OTA isn't going to work correctly. The files don't just need to be identical in function, they need to be identical down to the last bit and byte.
So now you can see why you observe lazy rooters perpetually returning to this forum asking, "can anybody get me a copy of file such-and-such from version XYZ of the stock ROM?". They are trying to hand-revert their existing ROM so that an OTA will succeed. And the fact that they are asking that question means that they failed to make a (nandroid) backup of their near-factory ROM. If they had done that, they would have the file(s) in question, and -morover- they would also have the option of running a TiBu backup & nandroid backup, restoring the original (factory/near-factory) ROM, taking the OTA, repairing root, and restoring TiBu backups... and then re-applying their customizations. But failing to take a nandroid backup means that they have NEITHER
Well, hand-reverting a ROM so an OTA will succeed may not be "starting from scratch", but it could be quite a bit of effort, yes? You have to undo things by hand to get back to "close enough" to factory state so that you can get the OTA to work. And usually the OTA stomps on permissions of /system/{x}bin/su so that re-rooting is necessary (or else you involve yourself with some dumb "root saver app" ahead of time). And then re-apply the customizations that intersected the OTA causing its' failure(s). All of that takes time. Less time than biting the bullet and just making backups? Hard to say. But one approach paints you into a corner, and the other provides maximum repair/restore flexibility.
I get it that backups take time, and performing TiBu backup/restores takes time too. And if you don't use a launcher that allows configuration saves/restores, even more time wasted there re-configuring things to "the way they were". But really, there's no excuse for not making Nandroid backups - and copying them off the tablet for safe keeping. You can always delete them later if you don't use them.
whew. i'm done.
bftb0 said:
There are possibly 8 or 10 different ways to go about this:
Dirty-restore only the system and boot images from a Nandroid backup of the near-factory ROM corresponding to the same base ROM you are using. You DO make nandroid backups before you start modifying things, don't you?
[/0QUOTE]
Thanks for the awesome reply. I appreciate the time you spent in giving me such a concise and precise reply to my question.
So I have the nandroid backup ->
1) I will flash 4.4, with full wipe and update to 4.4.2
2) Flash twrp and root.
3) Restore my data from my old nandroid backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
neo1691 said:
So I have the nandroid backup ->
1) I will flash 4.4, with full wipe and update to 4.4.2
2) Flash twrp and root.
3) Restore my data from my old nandroid backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm. By that do you mean a nandroid restore of /data only on top of a fresh (full wipe) install and OTA update? That's a bit unusual - if any changes occurred in the total count or naming of pre-installed system .apks, that could lead to UID mismatch problems. Also, sometimes OTAs do removal/cleanup of things in /data ... you ought to look in the updater-script (OTA .zip file META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script) to see if any of that is going on. That's why both AnDiSa and I suggested methods that leave the data in place during the OTA update.
I guess what I am saying is that what you are proposing *might* succeed but it's a little bit nonstandard. (It prevents the OTA process from cleaning anything up in /data. Admittedly, that's a little unusual, but I think I have observed it in the past.)
Whatever you do, take a full Nandroid of where you are now; if things get screwed up you can always go back to your current setup and try a different approach.
Thanks a lot for all your invaluable inputs. Too much for me to work on now. I'll report what happens.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
I am ready to do a dirty wipe. But I am not able to find the boot.img and system.img in the zip of KRT16O.
It is the 4.4 base.
It has a folder called patch which contains boot.img.p , but no system.img
There should be Bootloader.IMG and another tgz. If you extract this tgz you will find boot.img, system.img, data.img.
Be careful to not mix up bootloader.img and boot.img.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 04:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:58 PM ----------
... one question: are you sure you have the Google Factory Image?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
You were right, I was looking in the wrong file,
So extracted the real factory image and there was another zip in that which contained the respective files!! Lets see what I can do now!
Solved!!
Okay. I am now on 4.4.2!! Cheers!!
But dirty flashing didn't worked for me!
I flashed the system.img and boot.img from 4.4 base, and then tried flashing 4.4.1. It worked. But flashing 4.4.2 zip failed just like before.
So after that I took a backup of my sd card and did a full flash of 4.4 base. (KRTO) and then updated to 4.4.2>flashed twrp>waited for OTA>installed OTA from twrp. Worked like a charm.
Now the challenge lies in restoring the data back completely. I have a nandroid backup and TiBu. Guess I will be usin TiBu!!
This thread will be an excellent guide for people facing me problem update OTA over rooted stock rom!
Thanks everyone for their help and support!! Cheers
@neo1691
happy holidays indeed!
The nice thing about nandroids is that you can jump back and forth between two ROMs if necessary.
For instance, suppose you forgot to do TiBu in the prior ROM - no problem! Just make a nandroid of the current (new) ROM, restore the prior Nandroid, do the TiBu backup, restore the (new) ROM nandroid, and then perform the TiBu restores. Easy-peasy.
Backups are awesome. Make 'em often - you can always toss them after a while if you aren't going to use them.
Cheers.. Thanks again everyone
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
I am sorry if this is a dupe of other threads but I couldn't find a complete answer to my problem anywhere else.
I have a nexus 7 (2012), on stock 4.4.2, unlocked bootloader (i think, unlocked padlock on startup).
I want to root. I gather this will not wipe? (or will it?) and what tool should i use? I already have N7 toolkit and android sdk, so i can use that most easily, otherwise any other program needed is fine. I want to use stock bootloader and stock rom and ensure ota updates will occur. (i understand i may lose root through ota updates, but i assume i can just reroot as i have unlocked the bootloader?)
Thanks
Since your tab has already gone through the bootloader unlocking process, there is neither a need nor a requirement to wipe the device.
And since you want to stay as close to Stock as possible, you can even "root" without ever flashing a recovery: you just soft-boot a recovery image rather than flashing one. That is - "fastboot boot (...etc)" instead of "fastboot flash (...etc)". That allows you to use a custom recovery every once in a while while leaving a stock recovery on the tablet. That preserves maximum compatibility with future OTAs.*
And with that soft-booted recovery, immediately take a Nandroid backup including the Stock recovery (which is still on the tablet because you soft-booted the recovery you are using). In the same session, use "adb pull" to get a copy of your 100% pure-stock Nandroid backup off the tablet. (Make sure you name it clearly so you will know exactly what it is 12 or 24 months later)
Finally, use a flashable .zip installer package for SuperSU to "flash root".
After an OTA, you can just reinstall root by soft-booting a custom recovery and using the same (or updated) flashable .zip installer method for reinstalling SuperSU. And just like above, capture a new 100% pure-stock Nandroid backup (including the new stock recovery) *before* re-rooting.
This strategy allows you to roll back to any version of stock you please at any time in the future.
good luck
* flashaholics prefer to have a recovery hard-flashed on their device so they can flash things on a whim, wherever they are. The approach here is a bit more restrictive as you have to have a PC handy in order to soft-boot a recovery in order to do any flashing. I would say that the biggest limitation of this approach is that it tends to reduce the number of Nandroid backups of your ROM personalization.
Backup are a good thing. You can always throw them away later, but you can't create a missing one that is urgently needed.
Does anyone have or know where to get a stock recovery image for the BTV-W09?
When I flashed the US "003" update manually through the dload folder method, my TWRP was replaced by the stock recovery. I have left it there, and since flashed TWRP to recovery2. The update failed, but I ended up with stock recovery and the tablet no longer rooted. I would try that first. If that doesn't work for you and if you are on the US version "002" firmware let me know and I should be able to send you a backup of my recovery partition bit if you need the eRecovery from the recovery2 partition, I will be unable to help you.
I am on the US version “003”, I updated before flashing TWRP and rooting. TWRP was flashed recovery not recovery2. No worries though, Im sure someone will post a recovery as rooted people will be needing to flash OTA updates soon.
If you are on "003", try updating the unzipped "Update.Zip" from the dload file. I found a copy of the update.zip on my internal SD in directory called HwOUC. If you can't find it, I still have my file. The Update will most likely fail, but that should give you the standard recovery back. then I suggest you flash TWRP to Recovery2. TWRP actually is easier to access from Recovery2 becuase all you have to do is hold the volume up key down for a few seconds from the unlocked bootloader screen to boot into TWRP. Once you have TWRP re-installed you can then just flash the super user zip file to regain your root.
I am not sure if it is because I now have unlocked the bootloader, have recovery2 with TWRP or updated the file to enable the 5Ghz modem , but even with having the standard recovery partition back my system did not pass the altered system check and allow me to flash the OTA. I am not quite experienced enough to try and use Flashfire to force the update, since there is a warning about Huawei devices being easy to hard brick. Hopefully someone who has updated and then rooted will post an .img file of the updated system partition so it can be flashed with TWRP (at least I think that is what those of us who have already rooted will need to do).
I looked for the update.zip but it doesn’t exist anywhere. These updates are usually removed after the update completes successfully. Plus I’ve done a factory reset since updating, which may have deleted it. I wanted to see if enabling the 5GHz radio would stick after the reset (it did). The 5GHz radio hack was really my only reason to root. I didn’t alter my system partition with TWRP, so I may still be able to take an OTA update if I had the factory recovery. Ive stopped rooting all of my non Nexus devices. Since Google releases almost monthly security updates which usually unroots anyway it’s just too much hassle to keep root. If you want to post the update.zip somewhere I could give it a try, if not that’s cool. Im sure a factory image will be available at some point.
I have posted the Update.zip file to the following location:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ug1pe2w38ddkxm9/update.zip
Let me know how things go.
Coming from a Nexus 7 I'm use to many of the img files you flash for restoring.
Using update extractor I now see many of those files (003 update) and some I have no idea about or how to flash them.
BOOT.img - OK
CRC.img - ?
CURVER.img - ?
EFI.img - I know what EFI is just never flashed it on an Android device.
FASTBOOT - OK
FW_HIFI.img - ?
FW_LPM3.img - ?
RECOVERY.img - OK
SENSORHUB.img - ?
SHA256RSA.img - No what it is normally but never flashed.
TEEOS.img - ?
TRUSTFIRMWARE.img - Interesting, but have no idea. - ?
VERLIST.img - ?
XLOADER.img - ?
Like many of us I'm in the same boat. Unlocked, Flashed recovery and rooted and cannot install update 003.
I've flashed the recovery.img from update 03. I've done a factory reset a few times. Odd enough it maintains 5Ghz wifi after doing a reset. I'm stumped and not sure of so many of the other .img files. Might one of them help me get the update to pass if I flash it. That or we wait for a full release and not an OTA to grab all the files we need. Really think I need system.img to make it work but the update doesn't include it.
Thanks johe for providing the 003 update.zip. I may try flashing the recovery.img this weekend. Ill let you know how it goes.
Jmjm003, I believe the issue with updating with the OTA is due to changes detected in the system partition after rooting/unlocking. Im not sure of a way around this other than flashing the full system partition, and we don’t have the factory ROM available yet. Im also new to Huawei devices and their partition structure so hopefully the development community will grow around this device and provide better solutions. I also can confirm the 5GHz stayed enabled after a factory reset, the question remains would it hold after an OTA update.
I just bought the Honor 8 and immediately unlocked and rooted it via Magik. Of course not long after that, I get a notification that there is an update available. You obviously cannot update the phone by simply pressing the "update" button since we have a non-stock recovery. I did a fair amount of research to find out how I could get the update and I wanted to share what I found. All of this information is out there already, but generally speaking it is spread out in many different threads. Hopefully these directions can help someone else.....
First, the usual disclosures.....
Code:
I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards,
thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please
do some research if you have any concerns about features included in this GUIDE
before flashing it! YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if
you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you.
1) Make a NANDroid backup using TWRP: if the new update locks the phone, you will need this backup to restore data after unlocking it
2) Unroot your phone: honestly I did not do this step myself because I simply didn't think about it. The update process worked for me without unrooting but I am also using Magik which doesn't alter the system files. To ensure success I would definitely recommend you unroot. You will have to reroot the phone after the update regardless if you unrooted or not, so you aren't saving any steps by keeping root at this point. If you have used a different root method besides Magik, you must unroot prior to attempting an upgrade.
3) Obtain stock recovery.img file: the update won't work with TWRP as your recovery, so we need to flash the original Huawei recovery to replace TWRP. If you already have a copy of the stock recovery skip to step 4. If you are like me you don't have a copy of the stock recovery image on hand and we will need to extract it from the stock ROM image. Using a computer (not your phone) download the stock ROM image for your device. This website seems to have a list of recent versions and it is where I downloaded the L14 B389 version that I used.
Download the Huawei Update Extractor software and unzip the folder on the computer. Open the HuaweiUpdateExtractor app and use the software to extract the "Recovery.img" file. Here is a Youtube video showing how to do this. Please note, although the video shows several files being extracted you only need to extract the "Recovery.img" file for our use. Move the stock recovery image to your ADB folder so you can flash it in step 4.
4) Flash the stock recovery image: use the stock recovery file and flash it to recovery using the same instructions as you used to flash TWRP in the first place. If you need a refresher, look at section 2 (parts 1-5) of the first post in this thread. Just make sure you substite the name of the stock recovery image instead of the TWRP.img
5) Reboot into system
6) Install Update: go to the Settings - System Update menu on your phone. In the upper right corner, click on the three dots and it will bring up a menu where you can choose "Download latest full update". Click on this. This will start the update process by downloading the full ROM and not just the smaller update package. For me the package size was approaching 2gb, so make sure you are ready to handle that size transfer. After the download is complete, start the update process. I was nervous at first, but everything went fine. If for some reason the update fails, I would reboot and try again. I did have one failure, but I cannot explain if it was a bad download, or something I did wrong (like not unrooting the phone prior to attempting the update). It worked fine the second attempt.
7) Reboot: the phone will reboot and you should check the status to make sure you are on the latest version.
8) Flash TWRP recovery: I read where people said full updates would lock your phone and you would have to start from scratch unlocking it (and therefore wiping all data). This was not the case for me and this update using this method. I was simply able to flash TWRP again. You should be a rock star at flashing recoveries by now so get to it and flash TWRP again. If your phone is locked, then read the note at the bottom of this post.
9) Reboot into system
10) Flash Magik zip: reboot into recovery and flash Magik zip to get SuperSU.
11) Install Magik modules: reboot into system. Reinstall any Magik modules you use as they don't get carried over from the previous installation.
12) Enjoy your updated phone
If for some reason the full update did lock the phone, then you will need to unlock it again before you can flash TWRP. You have already done this before, so use whatever method was successful for you. Obviously this will fully wipe your phone. After flashing TWRP and Magik, I would make a backup of that raw "stock" image just in case this next step doesn't work. After making the backup, you can try to restore just the data partition of the NANDroid backup you made in step 1 (click restore in TWRP, select the backup made in step 1 but deselect everything except the "data" partition before starting the restore process.) I have never done this, but I have read it will recover all your data (apps, etc) without affecting the system partition and therefore it won't mess up the upgrade. I would not recommend doing this if going from Marshmallow to Nugget or Nugget to Oreo however. In those cases, it is better to simple start fresh and redownload all of your apps.
Thank you for this thread.
Hello sic,
I am having the same issue with my Huawei GR-5 2017 and like you, I have my fair share of researching for weeks now and I was really happy to stumble on this thread.
Before I start with the process, I have a few questions for you. I hope you could help me (even though this thread is half a year ago).
Can you elaborate steps 1 and 2 or could you provide me a link on how to do those?
I got xposed installed im on emui 8 i also tried flashfire but it only turns the phone off.. Ist it eneugh to uninstall xposed? And can i get the recovery img from fullota? And must i restore images in magisk? I will try it without xposed installed. And a theory: is the information abaut bootloader unlock stored in a partition like oeminfo? If it is we could restore oeminfo.