Root ZTE U960 ROM Discussion

[DaniSP]

I tried the B10, B12 and B13 based ROMs,I tried even a turbosim clone, and I tried replacing the android radio and SIM related libs with the ones taken from the Gsmart from gigabyte, and other single SIM phones.

Using the libs from a single SIM phone, the second SIM became (unsurprisingly) inactive, but the first one wasn't fixed (worked with 64k only).

Dear The Solutor
I'm following this thread, like many other, I'm interested on the U960. Since you seem to have experience with different U960 ROMs, I hope you don't mind answering my questions:
- Does any of those ROMs provides multi-language support? Like seen at etotalk, by the way they sell it for US$99,99
- Are they stable enough?
- Which ROM you can say is the best one?

Your answer would help me to evaluate if I'd rather buy from etotalk (I asume that I will get support and multilanguage Rom), or buying from a taobao agent (about $120 cheaper but no support and chinese ROM)

Thank you, any comment would be appreciate.

 

[The Solutor]

Dear The Solutor
I'm following this thread, like many other, I'm interested on the U960. Since you seem to have experience with different U960 ROMs, I hope you don't mind answering my questions:
- Does any of those ROMs provides multi-language support? Like seen at etotalk, by the way they sell it for US$99,99

I don't know what they intend with multilingual, they sent me what they call 1.2 rom and is just a rom cleaned from Chinese apps ADW launcher preinstalled (which is more than enough for most users), I doubt they have a fully multilingual ROM available, but I could be wrong.

- Are they stable enough?

The ROMs are stable, with few minor glitches (B08, B10 and B12 have the TTS menu missing and not working for example) but this is true for any recently released phone, no matter if a cheap chinese clone or an iphone or a good brand phone.

- Which ROM you can say is the best one?

Right now I'm using a my own ROM, based on B13.

Your answer would help me to evaluate if I'd rather buy from etotalk (I asume that I will get support and multilanguage Rom), or buying from a taobao agent (about $120 cheaper but no support and chinese ROM)

I bought the phone in Italy because another user sold it (he was not too skilled with android things, so he was unable to root the phone and to install the market), the support from etotalk is average to say the best, they always start with a bunch of questions unrelated with the problem you have, with just one or two mail per day, so a lot of patience is needed if you have a problem bigger than normal.

In my case they started to seriously cooperate only when they realized I'm a well known user, and only when realized that fix that issue is more important for them than for me, frankly if you are reasonably skilled, the price delta is big enough, and you have a trusted taobao agent, is better to go with the latter.

 

[NeWbIe_vlc]

And to the people that have it with market, if you enter on your PC to the market, the U960 is regconized by the system or only can use the market from the phone.

Anyone try to buy on taobao?

I'm looking for on taobao with an intermediate.

Thank you.

 

[EmilF]

The first big improvement is present on the B13 rom, where the TTS management is fixed.

Hi The Solutor. Could you send a link to the version of the B13 ROM you are using? Is it from this forum?

 

[Muero]

I have B08 ROM. What differences between B08 and B13?

 

[The Solutor]

I have B08 ROM. What differences between B08 and B13?

Most visible are the different lockscreen and the battery percentage indication on the top bar, other than that, as already said the TTS functionality is not broken anymore.

 

[The Solutor]

Hi The Solutor. Could you send a link to the version of the B13 ROM you are using? Is it from this forum?

Yes it is.

I'm uploading my cleaned version right now, just wait a little for the link.

 

[The Solutor]

Ok.

"My" B13 rom is uploaded.

Download U960-B13-TS-v0.1.7z (part1)

Download U960-B13-TS-v0.1.7z (part2)

use 7zip or winrar to unpack it

It's password protected

The PW is

zte_u960

It has just the root and the market preinstalled.

I added the SE style launcher (you can use it optionally)

The standard locale is set to IT and the timezone is set to central Europe (just set your preference during the initial wizard, if you are living in a different nation/timezone)

The Chinese apps should be all removed, and the cracked SW is removed too (sorry )

In the 7z file is also present the recovery and the updated baseband (you can update it, but is not mandatory, nor suggested to newbies).

I added the nexus one animation, and replaced the absurd Chinese ringtones with something more standard and more international (Please check your ringtones/alert settings after the initial configuration).

Keep in mind that installing that ROM will wipe your phone, so backup your data and preferences with titanium backup before updating.

Keep also in mind that I don't have the time (and the will) to support that ROM, consider it a one time gift, but I don't want to be the unoffical ZTE support.

Thanks.

 

[The Solutor]

Already downloaded 22 times ?

Looks like there are a lot of silent users !

 

[EmilF]

Already downloaded 22 times ?

Looks like there are a lot of silent users !

Wow, that is allot of downloads i 45 minutes or so...

Have you updated your baseband to the included version? The file is named with "TD" but it works with WCDMA to?

 

[The Solutor]

Have you updated your baseband to the included version?

Yes I did because my problem with the 128k sims (problem not fixed anywhay)

 

[pongpoo]

"My" B13 rom is uploaded.

Thanks Solutor, my phone is currently in transit from etotalk so pumped for it to arrive, even paid for the speedy shipping.

pls tell me the B13 doesn't have the imitation fruitphone lockscreen!

 

[The Solutor]

pls tell me the B13 doesn't have the imitation fruitphone lockscreen!

It has a different lockscreen with a big, not sliding, button to unlock the phone and a smaller one to go straight to emergency call dialer (unusual on a recent phone, but very handy).

This is not a my mod, to be clear.

If you like something different you have dozens of options eg: widgetlocker, loockbot, and so on.

 

[EmilF]

Got my U960 last night, and have installed the B13 ROM on it. First impressions are good. Good screen, smooth performance and seems like good quality.

Regarding battery life, I am now on 80% and had it fully charged this morning at 06:30. That is pretty good.

 

[Am2am]

to all owners of ZTE U960.

on my model USSD commands on SIM1 not working

for example for checking the balance *102# and SIM1 call
then it returns
CONNECTON PROBLEM OR INVALID MMI CODE
on SIM2 working ok
i try to switch the SIM places
the same situation SIM1 can not accept USSD
SIM2 can

who have similar problem ? and any way to solve it ?>

 

[The Solutor]

to all owners of ZTE U960.

on my model USSD commands on SIM1 not working

for example for checking the balance *102# and SIM1 call
then it returns
CONNECTON PROBLEM OR INVALID MMI CODE
on SIM2 working ok
i try to switch the SIM places
the same situation SIM1 can not accept USSD
SIM2 can

who have similar problem ?

Yes I can confirm. Same problem here.

To be precise the USSD command is accepted and sent, but the reply is not interpreted correctly, so I can (blindly) manage my sim, but you can't check your billing.

Problems with USSD codes and STK are common on phones where the GSM is a second class citizen.

For example my droid 2 global (cdma/gsm) has the same problem with the stock rom, the droid 3 (also cdma/gsm) had the USSD codes working but the STK not enabled.

and any way to solve it ?

Looking at the rom (because the problem with 128K SIMs) I can say that the SIM2 is managed mostly like on other monosim Android phones, while the SIM1 is managed mostly by the baseband SW and interfaced to Android trough the proprietary libzteril.so.

Even the network naming is different.

Vodafone Italy Is interpreted as "Vodafone IT" on SIM 1 and as "Vodafone Omnitel NV" or "Vodafone Omnitel NV 3G" on SIM2.

The first name is embedded on the baseband, the second one comes from an android library.

So is not that easy to do something unless you are the super hacker who understand the machine code better than his national language.

 

[Muero]

Ok.

"My" B13 rom is uploaded.

Download U960-B13-TS-v0.1.7z (part1)

Download U960-B13-TS-v0.1.7z (part2)

use 7zip or winrar to unpack it

It's password protected

The PW is

zte_u960

It has just the root and the market preinstalled.

I added the SE style launcher (you can use it optionally)

The standard locale is set to IT and the timezone is set to central Europe (just set your preference during the initial wizard, if you are living in a different nation/timezone)

The Chinese apps should be all removed, and the cracked SW is removed too (sorry )

In the 7z file is also present the recovery and the updated baseband (you can update it, but is not mandatory, nor suggested to newbies).

I added the nexus one animation, and replaced the absurd Chinese ringtones with something more standard and more international (Please check your ringtones/alert settings after the initial configuration).

Keep in mind that installing that ROM will wipe your phone, so backup your data and preferences with titanium backup before updating.

Keep also in mind that I don't have the time (and the will) to support that ROM, consider it a one time gift, but I don't want to be the unoffical ZTE support.

Thanks.

I installed this firmware. It's amazing, thank you! But I have one issue - cannot send sms from simcard that is installed to SIM1

 

[The Solutor]

I installed this firmware. It's amazing, thank you! But I have one issue - cannot send sms from simcard that is installed to SIM1

I have no problems with SMS, check if your message center number setting is correct.

It should be automagically configured as in most modern phones, but maibe something goes wrong with some specific SIMs.

 

[Muero]

I have no problems with SMS, check if your message center number setting is correct.

It should be automagically configured as in most modern phones, but maibe something goes wrong with some specific SIMs.

I didn't work with Android before. If you tell me how to do that, it would be great
By the way, how can I install additional languages to system? For example Russian

 

[Muero]

Almost forgot to ask. After installing your firmware on my phone, sim2 doesn't work with 3G network anymore. Only GSM
How to fix it?

 

[Am2am]

Almost forgot to ask. After installing your firmware on my phone, sim2 doesn't work with 3G network anymore. Only GSM
How to fix it?

try *983*02#

and for sim 1 *983*01#

 

[Muero]

Did you buy this phone from etotalk? Because I want to buy one to try. Does this phone have problems on the sim2? I asked etotalk today, and they said there is no problem, but only Italy network vodafone is not working normally. I am using T-mobile. Will cause any connection problems?

Yes, I bought my phone in etotalk store.
As it was written on previous pages. That phone has some problems with 128k simcards. Additionally all problems that I have should be because of errors in ROM. With etotalk rom v1.3 I didn't have any problems with sending sms via sim1 or sim2. Only on v1.4 this issue persists.
Right now I'm waiting an answer from etotalk support. Really hope that will receive it quickly.

 

[Muero]

try *983*02#

and for sim 1 *983*01#

Still cannot understand differences between GSM Preferred and GSM Only.
Can someone explain it to me please?

 

[Am2am]

Still cannot understand differences between GSM Preferred and GSM Only.
Can someone explain it to me please?

You'd better choose WCDMA preferred for SIM2

For SIM1 better to choose GSM only , in that case phone will not try to connect TDSCDMA and not spend battery resource

GSM preferred - will use GSM as priority
GSM only - will use only GSM , no other standard will be tried to connect (in case of support, of course)

 

[The Solutor]

I didn't work with Android before. If you tell me how to do that, it would be great

It's on SMS settings, like on any pone built on the latest decade.

By the way, how can I install additional languages to system? For example Russian

No you can't unless you build an entirely new version of android, this is what happen on any AOSP ROMs and on Cyanogens.

But because there are a lot of proprietary pieces of code on any Android phone, it's not an easy matter, especially on not so standard phones like the dual standard or dual sim phones.

BTW you can use the language setting app (which is already included on that rom) to set the russian locale, and to have a good part of the system in russian.