Root [Recovery][CWM] ClockworkMod v6.0.3.7 (~WORKING!)

[cooldudezach]

Hello all! I, like many of you probably, picked this phone up on black friday for cheap. As a result, I now have a new playtoy! (I had the Kyocera Rise before this, did all I could to get CWM working on it. Locked down pretty tight, which is why I'm here now!)

First thing I did for this bad boy? Figure out how to properly build a working CWM image!

What doesn't work:
-Still need to figure out accessing internal and external sd cards
-'mount USB storage' doesn't throw errors, but nothing happens on my computer
-It has that annoying 1970 backup date bug. Not fixable as far as I'm aware.

What works:
-Everything else, supposedly

I have successfully performed backups and restores many times now, with no ill effects.



Now for the juicy details!

How do you go about installing this?
-Make sure you are rooted! (I may put together a guide for this, it was confusing as all get out. I ended up using that KINGO method or something)
-make sure you make a backup of your stock recovery just in case!

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p16 of=/sdcard/recovery.img

-I had to use this command (fastboot flash recovery does NOT work):

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p16
dd if=/path/to/cwm.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p16

If all goes well, you should be able to boot into recovery:
-from poweroff

Vol Down + Power

-from poweron (from computer)

adb reboot recovery

-from poweron (on device using terminal emulator)

reboot recovery

I've been debugging this a good bit the last few days, but this should be considered a beta build!

DISCLAIMER:
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR DEVICE IS PUT INTO AN UNUSABLE STATE AS A RESULT OF USING THIS RECOVERY!

MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS PRACTICE SAFE FLASHING METHODS!

Download link (for now I'm using my Box.com account)
https://app.box.com/s/7u7ll8t1ek3txbz52ghd

Edit:
Let me know if anything goes wrong, or if I need to change something!

Edit2:
Here are the repo's for those interested:
Device:
https://github.com/cooldudezach/android_device_zte_nex

Kernel
https://github.com/cooldudezach/android_kernel_zte_nex

And a manifest for you as well:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<manifest>
  <project name="cooldudezach/android_device_zte_nex" path="device/zte/nex" remote="github" revision="cm-10.1" />
  <project name="cooldudezach/android_kernel_zte_nex" path="kernel/zte/nex" remote="github" revision="cm-10.1" />
</manifest>

 

[cooldudezach]

And before you ask, I haven't been successful in getting CM10.1 to boot. (Sits on the picture of the android forever) Not sure why, really. I'm new to building CM, so help would be appreciated!

As I stated, it just sits on the picture of the startup android image. I do have limited adb access, so I can reboot the device but can't open the shell (get a file not found error, so I assume /system isn't mounting somehow)

 

[junkie2100]

do you have a github? id like to see the tree that built a bootable cwm. might be able to help

 

[cooldudezach]

do you have a github? id like to see the tree that built a bootable cwm. might be able to help

I *have* one, but I don't have the source up on it yet. I need to though. *goes to do said project*

CWM wasn't too difficult, biggest issue was getting the image to build properly. At first I was just swapping the ramdisk with abootimg.

 

[junkie2100]

i was attempting with the warp 4g. same basic phone just dual core, but no teat unit and the guy who was supposed to send me one is giving me the run around it seems. makes things difficult, and i cant keep uploading new test builds with nothing but a phone for internet...

 

[junkie2100]

to be quite honest i may have just used the wrong zimage lol. recovery goes in recovery, boot goes in boot. mix em up youre screwed

 

[junkie2100]

as far as cm goes though id recommend cm10. 10.1 has sd issues on most zte devices. renders the phone nearly unusable

 

[junkie2100]

take a look at my repo for the zte aurora. github.com/junkie2100 jellybean branch. the problem is most likely either ramdisk related or possivly something to do with necessary proprietary files. take a look at the device.mk or device-aurora.mk or whatever its named. and the proprietary-files.txt i think is the name of the other one. match those as close as you can without erroring out due to missing files and you should be able to at least get off andy(the green guy)

 

[cooldudezach]

as far as cm goes though id recommend cm10. 10.1 has sd issues on most zte devices. renders the phone nearly unusable

What about 10.2? (Curious mostly, I couldn't get CWM to boot properly. That was before I got the config set up how I needed it, however).

 

[cooldudezach]

Added the repo's to the main post.

 

[junkie2100]

10.2 will probably give even more issues. cant be certain of course since its a newer chipset, but cm10 is the only one ive ever gotten to work right when dealing with an ics+ based zte. gb devices can be done it seems but thats old stuff

 

[junkie2100]

also cm10.2+ changed cwm. so even that wont mount sd right without a hack. i know where to find the hack if necessary but its not the beat option

 

[junkie2100]

whered you find the kernel source? i coupd never get it from zte kuz their site blows

 

[junkie2100]

well, the fstab is all wrong... i guarantee its not yaffs2

 

[junkie2100]

use android kitchen to unpack the stock recovery and use the fstab info from there

 

[cooldudezach]

whered you find the kernel source? i coupd never get it from zte kuz their site blows

Not on their (usa) site. Found it via google searching, it was in some press update or something.

Aha! Found it.
Bulletin
Towards the bottom of the list, where it says N800(ZTE Nex). That's us.

 

[junkie2100]

yea thats where i get source but it usually gives a not found error in chinese lol

 

[cooldudezach]

yea thats where i get source but it usually gives a not found error in chinese lol

It took me some time to get the source put together. Linux didn't like the multipart zip thing they did.

For reference, this is the actual page with the source on it:
Service Bulletins Detail

 

[junkie2100]

but yea, fix the fstab, thats the first order of business. also not sure if 8630 is supported by cm10.x or adreno 300 series

 

[cooldudezach]

but yea, fix the fstab, thats the first order of business. also not sure if 8630 is supported by cm10.x or adreno 300 series

huh? Not sure what you mean exactly. I still am unsure what the phone actually has inside. ZTE reports it has an 8630, but CPU-Z says it's an 8930. Either way, it does have the adreno 305.

 

[junkie2100]

8930 = 2x 8630s
cm10 was only set up for old kraits though. 8960 chips. so most cms built for 8930 devices use 8960 for that value. though im not even sure it matters lol. just throwin it out there as something to think about and tinker with

 

[cooldudezach]

8930 = 2x 8630s
cm10 was only set up for old kraits though. 8960 chips. so most cms built for 8930 devices use 8960 for that value. though im not even sure it matters lol. just throwin it out there as something to think about and tinker with

Ah, that makes sense. Where would I find this information in the wild? I assumed it was something along those lines, I just couldn't find it. 8960 it is then. Maybe that will fix the segfaulting when trying to boot TWRP? Who knows.

Edit:
Was bored so I installed CpuIdentifier and AnTuTu, and they too both identified the CPU as an 8930.

 

[junkie2100]

set it to 8960, it triggers certain things youll need and is still krait. but yea are you using yaffs2 anywhere in the cm fstab? kuz that would cause a serious issue, and youll need to tweak the .rc files in your ramdisk as well as use certain proprietary files from stock for it to ever boot up. also cm10.1+ has a graphical incompatibility with older ztes. another reason i recommended cm10. and you may want to go with adreno 200/205 in the boardconfig as well. thats all i can think of right now

 

[cooldudezach]

set it to 8960, it triggers certain things youll need and is still krait. but yea are you using yaffs2 anywhere in the cm fstab? kuz that would cause a serious issue, and youll need to tweak the .rc files in your ramdisk as well as use certain proprietary files from stock for it to ever boot up. also cm10.1+ has a graphical incompatibility with older ztes. another reason i recommended cm10. and you may want to go with adreno 200/205 in the boardconfig as well. thats all i can think of right now

No yaffs2 here, all emmc and ext4. (vfat for the sdcard) I'll try 200/205 and try to build it.

Edit:
Any idea why TWRP segfaults at boot? I don't even get the curtain, it just reboots itself every 5 seconds. (not the device, the script or whatever. I can stay hooked up to it in adb just fine, which is how I pulled the log to see that)

 

[junkie2100]

well, i just google the hell out of things lol. it takes time though and can be very difficult to find obscure info