Factory Restore Tool

[devyl 9]

maybe the partition table needs a reset? *just thinking*

[tdm 2,322]

12 minutes ago, devyl said:

maybe the partition table needs a reset? *just thinking*

The package contains everything. Literally everything, on the device flash, except a couple items like the factory radio tuning and such. It even writes the GPTs (six of them, one for each logical disk that Android sees).

 

You can try the full package when I post it, but this seems to be a more fundamental problem. How did your device get bricked?

 

[devyl 9]

i formated /dev/sdb (the whole one, not sdb1) within the sailfish os settings application in storage because i though it was the sd card (that wasn't mounted). nothing more or less. 😞

Edited December 30, 2019 by devyl

[tdm 2,322]

Just now, devyl said:

i formated /dev/sdb (the whole one, not sdb1) within the sailfish os settings application in storage. nothing more or less. 😞

Okay that helps. Let me investigate a bit and see what is on /dev/sdb. Let's hope no radio configuration lives there.

 

[devyl 9]

mister_magister thinks it contains the slot b bootloader

[tdm 2,322]

Okay ... according to the device I have here ...

 

root@QX1000:/ # ls -l /dev/block/by-name/ | grep sdb                                               
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 1970-02-09 03:12 xbl_a -> /dev/block/sdb1
root@QX1000:/ # 

 

So /dev/sdb contains xbl_a and nothing else.  This is the second stage boot loader for slot a.  So you did not overwrite anything that cannot be easily replaced.

 

But xbl_a should have been flashed by the package that I sent to you, and that should have allowed you to get to the "upper" boot loader ("abl", or fastboot).  Can you confirm that you saw the progress bar advancing slowly(ish) and below the bar it showed various partitions that it was flashing, eg. "flashing xbl.elf to xbl_a"?

 

 

EDIT: The partition tables are flashed last.  I assume you waited until it was done to reboot the device...

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by tdm

[devyl 9]

yes, progress bar advancing slowly and below the bar it showed various partition writing messages (but nothing with xbl... something link abl.elf).

 

edit: it never reboots really.. the tool says it is save to remove the phone. i do nothing, wait... but nothing is shown on the screen. if i replug it, the device gets detected again.

Edited December 30, 2019 by devyl

[tdm 2,322]

3 hours ago, devyl said:

yes, progress bar advancing slowly and below the bar it showed various partition writing messages (but nothing with xbl... something link abl.elf).

 

edit: it never reboots really.. the tool says it is save to remove the phone. i do nothing, wait... but nothing is shown on the screen. if i replug it, the device gets detected again.

 

Well, I am looking at the programming files and it shows that it's writing both xbl_a and xbl_b from xbl.elf.  So that part should be good.

 

The files themselves should be good, I have flashed my device with these bits on multiple occasions.

 

So I am a bit confused why this isn't getting you to the bootloader.  You should at least get a splash screen no matter whether you hold the volume key or not.

 

I've updated the full firmware package on my website to use the older, working programmer.  The new md5 starts with 6b0... You can try downloading that instead of the smaller test package to see if it works any better for you.  But I don't see why it should, unless I messed something up.  Which is entirely possible.

 

[devyl 9]

The Flashing works, but the devices still doesn't make a real reboot - it just stays in EDL-Mode (or something like that; it just gets detected again in the flash tool). Is there any way to reset the state of the device?

Edited December 31, 2019 by devyl

[tdm 2,322]

27 minutes ago, devyl said:

The Flashing works, but the devices still doesn't make a real reboot - it just stays in EDL-Mode (or something like that; it just gets detected again in the flash tool). Is there any way to reset the state of the device?

Hard reboot is done by holding the power button down for about 10 to 15 seconds. But I suspect that won't work either.

 

I can make a package for the 20191203 build, perhaps that might work?

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by tdm

[devyl 9]

yeah maybe this build could work, but my device shipped with an earlier build (not the 12-03 one)...

[tdm 2,322]

@devyl I have added the 2019-12-03 package.  You can try it to see if it works.

 

[devyl 9]

1 minute ago, tdm said:

@devyl I have added the 2019-12-03 package.  You can try it to see if it works.

 

Sorry i can't. i returned the device to the shop...

[Polaris 423]

6 hours ago, devyl said:

Sorry i can't. i returned the device to the shop...

Wait, what?!?  What shop?  Where you bought it?  As in you returned it and are done with it for good, or is this just temporary?  I hope it's temporary as @tdm was/is working diligently to get this corrected for you, and the solution might very well help everyone.

@tdm I have been watching and reading this issue with interest, as always thanks for all your support!

[tdm 2,322]

20 hours ago, Polaris said:

Wait, what?!?  What shop?  Where you bought it?  As in you returned it and are done with it for good, or is this just temporary?  I hope it's temporary as @tdm was/is working diligently to get this corrected for you, and the solution might very well help everyone.

@tdm I have been watching and reading this issue with interest, as always thanks for all your support!

 

I'd like to expand on this a bit.

 

If you screw up your device then you are responsible for fixing it.  Returning the device to the retailer is bad for several reasons: (1) you screwed up and you are making someone else eat the cost of your mistake which is not cool. (2) the retailer has less incentive to stock the device (and any non-mainstream device generally) because they are seen as less reliable and thus less profitable. (3) the reputation of FxTec suffers.

 

So resist the temptation to take the device back and claim that it "just stopped working".  Not only is it untruthful, we have a unique tool here that can restore your device to a factory clean state.  The vast majority of people will never have this type of tool for their devices.

 

Consider yourself fortunate and don't screw it up for everyone.

 

[Soapbox mode off]

 

[VaZso 1,998]

13 minutes ago, tdm said:

If you screw up your device then you are responsible for fixing it.

I agree. The situation is not seemed to be unfixable or really hard to be fixable.

Sending back for guarantee is not a good decision.

Maybe selling the device is or to find a service person who has more patience or skills to do the well-described steps.
...but doing this while somebody is trying to help and definitively not stuck somewhere is also not a good decision...

[tdm 2,322]

Oh, and just so everyone knows...

 

This tool and the linked factory packages are meant to do a "normal" factory restore. It does not, by design, reset every single bit that the factory programs. For example, it will not reset the frp partition which contains the boot loader lock flag and the Android factory reset allowed flag. Nor will it reset the radio parameters. Etc.

 

I wrote this tool and I have full access to the underlying capabilities of the programmer. If a normal factory reset does not work, I can generate packages to read and write every single bit on the flash chip.

 

With EDL, you quite literally cannot brick or otherwise break this device in a way that cannot be fixed.

 

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by tdm

[Polaris 423]

5 hours ago, tdm said:

If you screw up your device then you are responsible for fixing it.

...we have a unique tool here that can restore your device to a factory clean state.  The vast majority of people will never have this type of tool for their devices.

Agreed and agreed!  Having a tool like this is a huge plus and something worthy of much gratitude.

 

4 hours ago, tdm said:

With EDL, you quite literally cannot brick or otherwise break this device in a way that cannot be fixed.

Fantastic!  What a bonus!

Edited January 2, 2020 by Polaris

[netman 1,424]

5 hours ago, tdm said:

With EDL, you quite literally cannot brick or otherwise break this device in a way that cannot be fixed.

About that... Can we always get into EDL mode without disassembling the device and if not, how deep do we have to dig in trainwreck scenarios? Or do you just need a special cable in such cases?

[tdm 2,322]

15 minutes ago, netman said:

About that... Can we always get into EDL mode without disassembling the device and if not, how deep do we have to dig in trainwreck scenarios? Or do you just need a special cable in such cases?

My web page answers that, mostly. There are situations where the device must be disassembled to enter EDL, but they are exceedingly rare. Almost always either the PBL will fail to load XBL and panic to EDL (this is what devyl 's device did), or XBL will load and check for the data short on the USB connector that the EDL cable provides.

 

So really you only need to disassemble the device if XBL is functional enough for PBL to load but not functional enough to make it to the USB check.

 

 

[netman 1,424]

4 minutes ago, tdm said:

My web page answers that, mostly. There are situations where the device must be disassembled to enter EDL, but they are exceedingly rare. Almost always either the PBL will fail to load XBL and panic to EDL (this is what devyl 's device did), or XBL will load and check for the data short on the USB connector that the EDL cable provides.

 

So really you only need to disassemble the device if XBL is functional enough for PBL to load but not functional enough to make it to the USB check.

This is pretty awesome :-).

[Craig 1,435]

On 12/30/2019 at 11:04 AM, tdm said:

@devyl @Craig here is a package that has the "old" programmer that works with my prototype phone.  I've excluded system, vendor, and userdata partitions from the package to make it smaller (77mb vs 1.5gb).  Please let me know if it works.  If it succeeds, you should be able to get to the bootloader and then flash system and vendor using fastboot.

 

QX1000_user_20191028_oldfirehose_base.qfp

 

 

The link is dead, at least for me. 

[tdm 2,322]

3 hours ago, Craig said:

The link is dead, at least for me. 

Yes the old firehose was verified to work. I updated the main package. Please download a fresh copy and it should work.

 

[Polaris 423]

4 hours ago, tdm said:

Yes the old firehose was verified to work. I updated the main package. Please download a fresh copy and it should work.

The file permissions aren't set for us to be able to see/download the file.  The only visible files are two .html files.

[tdm 2,322]

4 hours ago, Polaris said:

The file permissions aren't set for us to be able to see/download the file.  The only visible files are two .html files.

 

I'm a bit confused.  I just downloaded the 20191028 file successfully.

 

The index links to the LineageOS page and the Factory Restore page.  But if you followed the link in the OP of this thread you should land on the Factory Restore page directly.  The links for all the restore files are there and should be working.