pro1x Pro1X - Stock Android OS (Build Number: v2.1.2_20220707)

[ducksoup 110]

My backup persist does have keys in it.  My persist flashed onto the device (for now) does have keys in it.  restorecon relabeled everything.  After a reboot, I still don't have attestation.  restoredon did fix the sensors though.

I've never touched the backup persist.  Even my read-only explorations of the image have been performed on a copy.

 

 

[Rob. S. 1,661]

All of this, despite being a completely different matter, reminds me a bit of an old Chinese 'Chuwi' x86 tablet/convertible that came with an Android + Windows dual boot setup which was so fragile that even just looking at the incredibly complex flash drive partitioning "from the outside" with a pendrive-booted Linux left the system in a state so that Android wouldn't start anymore. In the end I repartitioned the flash drive, the 64 MB of which had been too small to share it between Android and Windows anyway, and installed Linux Mint. Should have done that earlier...)

[sspiff 29]

10 hours ago, mosen said:

However, i understand correctly that you did alterations to all of your backups by copying into all of them at some point?

No,  I always made a copy and modified that copy. One of the originals was only ever copied,  while the other was mounted read only at some point to copy from the backup into the stock image in an attempt to put the keys on the stock image.

Regardless, I will try restorecon and see what happens 🤞

Edited August 20, 2022 by sspiff

[mosen 202]

1 hour ago, toast said:

Also, where can one get a legal copy of windows (like an .iso, I suppose) to run in the mentioned VM setup? What VM software is recommended (I am on Debian Sid)?

As a fellow linux user, i advise to use the edl.py method explained here.
Testers are using this method since month intensly. The windows QFIL instructions are a recent thing to make full reflash possible for windows users. Never tried the QFIL method myself. Always used edl.py as of yet and had no problems.

But mind to make backups before flashing anything.

[suicidal_orange 100]

1 hour ago, toast said:

I was just curious as to if there is any significant drawback to using this method instead of the official windows-method?

It takes longer to type or copy a command and it gives you the chance to do it wrong and both of these things are seen as "bad" when it comes to officially supporting something.  It's copying - either it works or it doesn't and both methods do so why would you want to mess around installing windows, drivers and reading licenses when you could just use a simple tool 🙂

[Rob. S. 1,661]

Regarding that guide...

 

... I've read somewhere else that QPST/QFIL doesn't work from a Windows VM within a Linux installation, either, as @Casey did suggest; or does someone have other information/experience?

 

[steeb 28]

Why not just use EDL in Linux? The same commands work well.

[brunoais 334]

8 hours ago, Rob. S. said:

Regarding that guide...

 

... I've read somewhere else that QPST/QFIL doesn't work from a Windows VM within a Linux installation, either, as @Casey did suggest; or does someone have other information/experience?

 

It probably was me.

However, edl.py does the required job for the commands that QFIL does in windows. It appears to be even more stable that QFUL too!

[EskeRahn 5,460]

11 hours ago, steeb said:

Why not just use EDL in Linux? The same commands work well.

well I guess that would require an additional variant of the guide, aimed at edl.

[steeb 28]

That's fair. You can get generic build instructions from the EDL GitHub page, then simply enter the equivalent commands into the terminal. I've had success in both macOS and Arch using this method.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

2 hours ago, steeb said:

That's fair. You can get generic build instructions from the EDL GitHub page, then simply enter the equivalent commands into the terminal. I've had success in both macOS and Arch using this method.

Sure it can be done, but someone has to make a variant of step by step guide for people not on Linux. So (almost) any Pro1X user can step back to the build they got it with.
We have to remember that some might also be using a pc from the fruit company.

So optimally a guide that step by step list what has to be done initially to get edl up on either Linux/Windows/Mac, and then a (almost?) common step by step guide on how to retrieve the persist the first time, and flash all the needed (including the saved persist)

I'm sure that if anyone would do the work to create such a guide, it could benefit many. I'm not sure if/when FxTec will do it, if we do not.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

3 hours ago, steeb said:

That's fair. You can get generic build instructions from the EDL GitHub page, then simply enter the equivalent commands into the terminal. I've had success in both macOS and Arch using this method.

...Also remember that to compile it requires the PC to be infected with phewton 🤢

[brunoais 334]

1 hour ago, EskeRahn said:

Sure it can be done, but someone has to make a variant of step by step guide for people not on Linux.

 

1 hour ago, EskeRahn said:

people not on Linux

Typo?

27 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

...Also remember that to compile it requires the PC to be infected with phewton 🤢

Compile what?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

7 minutes ago, brunoais said:

Typo?

Compile what?

No typo. The Guide we got for using edl for flashing the Pro1X is for Linux, if I remember right. The windows guide is using QFIL.

Compile edl

[brunoais 334]

4 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

The Guide we got for using edl for flashing the Pro1X is for Linux, if I remember right.

It works on all 3 major OS. It's made in python and with the different OS in mind.

There's the setup process for Linux, MacOS & Windows:

Nothing really changes in between them after doing the setup.

So, the guide done, although only tested on linux, also works on the other 2 major OSs.

7 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Compile edl

There's no separate compilation process. It's python. The compilation is just-in-time. There's an installation step in case the user wants the program to run globally but that's about it.

(Well... For windows there the "QC 9008 Serial Port driver" but that's about the same as the steps with QFill)

[steeb 28]

I made a quick and dirty guide for Linux & macOS. If something is egregiously wrong, please let me know. It includes instructions on backing up and restore persist as well as all user data. Many commands lifted from @mosen 's posts and from the Windows guide. 

flashing_pro1-x.pdf

[EskeRahn 5,460]

25 minutes ago, brunoais said:

It works on all 3 major OS. It's made in python and with the different OS in mind.

There's the setup process for Linux, MacOS & Windows:

Nothing really changes in between them after doing the setup.

So, the guide done, although only tested on linux, also works on the other 2 major OSs.

There's no separate compilation process. It's python. The compilation is just-in-time. There's an installation step in case the user wants the program to run globally but that's about it.

(Well... For windows there the "QC 9008 Serial Port driver" but that's about the same as the steps with QFill)

YIKES So you are saying that I can not limit Phewton to a (virtual) machine  to compile edl? Phewton actually have to infect the physical machine that is connected to the phone? ... Not a chance... But thanks anyway.

[brunoais 334]

2 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

YIKES So you are saying that I can not limit Phewton to a (virtual) machine  to compile edl? Phewton actually have to infect the physical machine that is connected to the phone? ... Not a chance... But thanks anyway.

Who or what is Phewton?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

1 minute ago, brunoais said:

Who or what is Phewton?

Python=Phewton

[brunoais 334]

1 minute ago, EskeRahn said:

Python=Phewton

I don't understand why you see python as something that infects but if you have a linux OS, you mostly don't have a choice any mainstream linux-based OS needs python to function.

If you are with windows, I don't understand how it's a problem to you. Maybe a bad past? Python is open-source (FOSS, even!) too...

You don't have to install python, even. You can just run a self-executing package and delete it after use without trace, if you prefer.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

1 minute ago, brunoais said:

I don't understand why you see python as something that infects but if you have a linux OS, you mostly don't have a choice any mainstream linux-based OS needs python to function.

If you are with windows, I don't understand how it's a problem to you. Maybe a bad past? Python is open-source (FOSS, even!) too...

You don't have to install python, even. You can just run a self-executing package and delete it after use without trace, if you prefer.

An ugly hack/workaround but something like py2exe, encapsulating all the junk might do the trick.

It is not that I see it as malware.

I'm pretty picky on what I install on my PC, and let us say that Puketon is not on my wish-list...

And the "without a trace" would -unfortunately- be a first for stuff under Windows.
Sure I could do backup and restore points, but that would be a bit excessive...

I had Docker and Python 3.9 on a previous machine installed about a year ago, never got fully rid of it. Though the culprit for the issues could have been Docker,

[Benni 183]

8 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

An ugly hack/workaround but something like py2exe, encapsulating all the junk might do the trick.

It is not that I see it as malware.

I'm pretty picky on what I install on my PC, and let us say that Puketon is not on my wish-list...

And the "without a trace" would -unfortunately- be a first for stuff under Windows.
Sure I could do backup and restore points, but that would be a bit excessive...

I had Docker and Python 3.9 on a previous machine installed about a year ago, never got fully rid of it. Though the culprit for the issues could have been Docker,

Can't you simply use the livedvd? - I assume the image can be put on a USB drive e.g. using Etcher.
https://github.com/bkerler/edl

 

Quote

 

Use LiveDVD (everything ready to go, based on Ubuntu):

User: user, Password:user (based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS)

Live DVD V4

 

 

Edited August 22, 2022 by Benni

[EskeRahn 5,460]

52 minutes ago, Benni said:

Can't you simply use the livedvd?
https://github.com/bkerler/edl

That could be a way to do it, yes, thanks.

I miss the feature of my old Lenovo x300 and its easy way to swap SSDs/disks where I would just have used a separate disk

[brunoais 334]

8 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

I had Docker and Python 3.9 on a previous machine installed about a year ago, never got fully rid of it.

Don't install python, then 😀. Just use the all-in-one package which you extract yourself.
Give this a try: https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-3106/ ->

You only extract files into a directory yourself. It's a zip. Python doesn't have any code to proliferate on its own.

8 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

I had Docker

On windows... That's a complete mess. They did an exellent job to try making it work but the linux VM management and the service they used to copy files around works more like a hack, IMO. Docker on linux is very fast, uses a tinny fraction (because no linux VM) of RAM unline in windows.

If this still doesn't convince you... Then I guess you not using python is a forever thing

[brunoais 334]

5 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

That could be a way to do it, yes, thanks.

I miss the feature of my old Lenovo x300 and its easy way to swap SSDs/disks where I would just have used a separate disk

Why not use a pen-drive and run from there?