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Root [STATUS UPDATE 6/6/15, See OP] BUTTERNOOB Stock 4.4.4 v2

Masterchief87 said:
That one is your best bet. Just keep in mind that if the bootloader is locked down as hard as you are saying, your phone still might not work because of the fact that it came with a newer firmware. We are in uncharted territory here(as far as the zmax goes anyway). It is possible that the security check won't allow that ROM to boot because only the firmware that came on your phone and newer firmwares released after the one that came on your will pass the check.
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Okay, so that flashed, and removed TWRP, which I can tell because it's the stock recovery, however, same error....WTF?
 
9h0s7 said:
When attempting a fresh installation after the first boot you're prompted with a dialog box attempting to force the 194mb update and won't allow you to sign in to Google or get to the home screen.
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I tried installing again and just skipped setting up a google account altogether until the home screen had launched and it worked.
 
sean vreeland said:
Okay, so that flashed, and removed TWRP, which I can tell because it's the stock recovery, however, same error....WTF?
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Can you tell us what firmware version came on your phone so that others can be warned not to try to root that version due to the bootloader being locked down worse than before?
 
It looks like your phone must have had the new b33 update that T-Mobile rolled out at the beginning of this month. Judging by what happened to your phone it looks like this update locks the bootloader in a very devious way. You are able to root and install twrp, but once you do so, your phone will refuse to boot because it is not running the factory stock firmware. They could have just as easily write protected the recovery partition to prevent people from obtaining permanent root but instead they would rather implement a security check that will brick your phone if you do anything more than temp-root. The Zmax is my first and last ZTE device I will ever buy.
 

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Masterchief87 said:
It looks like your phone must have had the new b33 update that T-Mobile rolled out at the beginning of this month. Judging by what happened to your phone it looks like this update locks the bootloader in a very devious way. You are able to root and install twrp, but once you do so, your phone will refuse to boot because it is not running the factory stock firmware. They could have just as easily write protected the recovery partition to prevent people from obtaining permanent root but instead they would rather implement a security check that will brick your phone if you do anything more than temp-root. The Zmax is my first and last ZTE device I will ever buy.
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Seems kind of like a purposely asshole move by T-Mobile and ZTE. They didn't make it unrootable, but they made it so anything more than a root and maybea custom recovery will brick your phone. And, since the message of unofficial firmware displays, you'll be out of warranty
 
Masterchief87 said:
It looks like your phone must have had the new b33 update that T-Mobile rolled out at the beginning of this month. Judging by what happened to your phone it looks like this update locks the bootloader in a very devious way. You are able to root and install twrp, but once you do so, your phone will refuse to boot because it is not running the factory stock firmware. They could have just as easily write protected the recovery partition to prevent people from obtaining permanent root but instead they would rather implement a security check that will brick your phone if you do anything more than temp-root. The Zmax is my first and last ZTE device I will ever buy.
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Masterchief, shouldn't we be able to extract the bootloader from one of our phones (I think someone has already posted a download for it), and make it into a flashable zip so anyone on that updated rom can downgrade the bootloader to a lesser locked one?
 
Masterchief87 said:
Can you tell us what firmware version came on your phone so that others can be warned not to try to root that version due to the bootloader being locked down worse than before?
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I can't tell what firmware version it is because it wasn't my phone, and it's essentially "soft-bricked" now, with no way to un-do it. But yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking....this is pretty gnarly for ALL phones from ALL carriers....If this is true, well, might just change how we root ANY device.
 
Masterchief87 said:
It looks like your phone must have had the new b33 update that T-Mobile rolled out at the beginning of this month. Judging by what happened to your phone it looks like this update locks the bootloader in a very devious way. You are able to root and install twrp, but once you do so, your phone will refuse to boot because it is not running the factory stock firmware. They could have just as easily write protected the recovery partition to prevent people from obtaining permanent root but instead they would rather implement a security check that will brick your phone if you do anything more than temp-root. The Zmax is my first and last ZTE device I will ever buy.
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Yup, exactly. Crazy.
 
hammerdroid said:
Oh, ok. I did that. Just thought that was a different version of the installer. I have the apk from 5.1.1, i gotta change that out, right?
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Yes you need to uninstall the xposed installer apk for lollipop and then install xposed 2.6.1. If you are not using a switcher for system rw you can install the framework via twrp by doing what I show in these screenshots. After doing what is shown in the screenshots just reboot to twrp, flash the installer zip, and reboot system.
 

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Masterchief87 said:
Yes you need to uninstall the xposed installer apk for lollipop and then install xposed 2.6.1. If you are not using a switcher for system rw you can install the framework via twrp by doing what I show in these screenshots. After doing what is shown in the screenshots just reboot to twrp, flash the installer zip, and reboot system.
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Sweet, I appreciate it. Thanks for your time, man, I Know that took a few minutes.
 
hammerdroid said:
Sweet, I appreciate it. Thanks for your time, man, I Know that took a few minutes.
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It took me a few minutes a couple months ago lol I took those screenshots back in may or June. Ever since cm12.1 rc5 was made I haven't gone back to kk(except for when I had a zmax with the unrootable update, which I sold).
 
Masterchief87 said:
It took me a few minutes a couple months ago lol I took those screenshots back in may or June. Ever since cm12.1 rc5 was made I haven't gone back to kk(except for when I had a zmax with the unrootable update, which I sold).
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I was on lp/cm12.1 for a few weeks, all without ANY Google Apps, but it slowly got more and more buggy & battery draining. I wasn't adding new apps, can't figure what I was doing different, so I figured I'd try butternoob.
 
So I don't know if this is intentional or not but with WiFi on and WiFi calling on I show no signal strength from the carrier. With WiFi calling off or WiFi off in general I regain carrier strength. I don't recall my phone behaving in this manner before butternoob. Mostly a non issue but was just curious if this is normal behavior. The only thing I can think that this would affect is SMS or multi media messaging.
 
More info if needed that I forgot might be important is I'm on tmo zmax with bnV2 installed. Everything else works flawlessly (so far I'm only on day 2 of root and bn install) except some times scrolling web pages in chrome hangs up a bit and takes a second to scroll.
 
Masterchief87 said:
It looks like your phone must have had the new b33 update that T-Mobile rolled out at the beginning of this month. Judging by what happened to your phone it looks like this update locks the bootloader in a very devious way. You are able to root and install twrp, but once you do so, your phone will refuse to boot because it is not running the factory stock firmware. They could have just as easily write protected the recovery partition to prevent people from obtaining permanent root but instead they would rather implement a security check that will brick your phone if you do anything more than temp-root. The Zmax is my first and last ZTE device I will ever buy.
Click to expand...
Yeah they are starting to take things a little to far
 
Masterchief87 said:
It looks like your phone must have had the new b33 update that T-Mobile rolled out at the beginning of this month. Judging by what happened to your phone it looks like this update locks the bootloader in a very devious way. You are able to root and install twrp, but once you do so, your phone will refuse to boot because it is not running the factory stock firmware. They could have just as easily write protected the recovery partition to prevent people from obtaining permanent root but instead they would rather implement a security check that will brick your phone if you do anything more than temp-root. The Zmax is my first and last ZTE device I will ever buy.
Click to expand...

I'm feeling that..... ZTE seems to act like they can do without the away team market...
What's a kicker.. Is... The frickin stylo comes out not that much later for the same style deal... And I'm not kickin myself... I'm just kinda... Wth?
If I'd just stuck with the f6a little longer.... Lol..
But, I'm/we're lucky we got us and our DEV support... So it's not a bad phone...
Just sorta feels like it has a touch of communist idealism with it's control and supportive backup by is creator
 
I decided to switch to butternoob v2 with butter Kat kernel installed instead of using aicp with synthetic kernel.
I was getting annoyed with having to switch on and off the wifi every time I wanted to send a picture message and to receive one. I have the correct apn in for my atnt card and I trouble shooted every solution I could find and the only way to fix it is to go back to a kitkat rom.
The only thing that doesn't make this butternoob rom perfect for me is that my phone keeps downloading the ota update and it keeps asking me to install it in my notification.
I would just ignore it but with my luck i will end up accidentally clicking install while sliding my phone into my pocket or something.
Now usually any other time i would just use rom toolbox pro and use app manager and freeze the system update apk but on the zte zmax there is nothing there for me to freeze.
Does anybody know how to eliminate the system update notification and to stop the phone from trying to update?
I really love the custom roms and kernels created for me to use and I really don't want to end up going back to stock and flashing stock recovery just so I don't end up with a brick and just so I can send pictures while on wifi.
 
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