Root [Merit] Unlocking the merit to avail then carrier unlocking

[bethnesbitt]

After weeks and weeks trying to figure out how to unlock the z990g, finally figured it out, you can see how here:

Elizabeth's Blogger Wikis: How to unbrick and unlock the ZTE Mert straighttalk/tracfone z990g to AT&T z990

Anyways, now that it is unlocked, I called verizon to find out about switching phones and they said that they did not support the phone because their MEID started with A and 5 0s, he said that a few times, hmm. Well now I am wondering, if anybody will accept it on their network.

My BF doesn't want to change his number, I remember a few months back trying to switch the phone to AT&T before unlocking and they said, nope not on their network per the IMEI. Well if I were to take an old AT&T phone, register that one then just put the sim card in the unlocked merit/avail would it still work?

 

[stayboogy]

so,

the image in part two WILL install on my ZTE Merit Z990G that was repartitioned.

the image in part one WILL NOT VERIFY and will always fail.



image two successfully unbricked my repartitioned device



so let me be the first to say thank you.

 

[bethnesbitt]

so,

the image in part two WILL install on my ZTE Merit Z990G that was repartitioned.

the image in part one WILL NOT VERIFY and will always fail.



image two successfully unbricked my repartitioned device



so let me be the first to say thank you.

Okay, cool glad i could help, i'll update those.

Just to make sure because i posted three, you mean step one failed?

 

[bethnesbitt]

Okay, cool glad i could help, i'll update those.

Just to make sure because i posted three, you mean step one failed?

I think I might know why, you mentioned before using the TPT flash working for you, your merit might already be an avail so the other files might not work on an already avail or converted avail. When I tried the second file the first time, it didn't work but worked after flashing the first.

I saved them as they worked though on my merit in that order. Funny thing is I went backwards building them, then went forwards to see if they worked.

 

[micallan_17]

Glad to see your post, we also have confirmed that tracfone will start unlocking phone early next year and we have tested official tracfone unlock codes for the merit and we were successful in unlocking a merit from tracfone. of course the instructions on your blog also do the job

 

[bethnesbitt]

I think I might know why, you mentioned before using the TPT flash working for you, your merit might already be an avail so the other files might not work on an already avail or converted avail. When I tried the second file the first time, it didn't work but worked after flashing the first.

I saved them as they worked though on my merit in that order. Funny thing is I went backwards building them, then went forwards to see if they worked.

Ya, i'm a dork posted them backwords, if you use the first file which is really the second it should work now.

 

[stayboogy]

mine's never been done with tpt before.

i've tried it several times in the past but it would always fail to verify just like your part one file did.

i have all three versions of the phone though... net10, straight talk (x2), and the att.

i acquired the att and net10 versions from ebay two years ago. neither of those will boot at all anymore and i never have really figured out why

 

[bethnesbitt]

mine's never been done with tpt before.

i've tried it several times in the past but it would always fail to verify just like your part one file did.

i have all three versions of the phone though... net10, straight talk (x2), and the att.

i acquired the att and net10 versions from ebay two years ago. neither of those will boot at all anymore and i never have really figured out why

I could never get the Avail_Tcard to work on the merit, always failed but after I made those files and did the TPT flash it worked. It took longer but I think that I need to upload that because I realized that when you build the image it doesn't add the cefs.bin for some reason. The full Avail_Tcard does have that cefs.bin and it works after flashing the second file, guess it wouldn't work until I built that image and semi converted it to an avail.

While I was fiddling a few times the phone wouldn't boot up either, even after removing the battery. So I took it, held the menu volume up and then plugged it into the usb port and it powered up, then did the tpt flash. Another time while doing the online update tool it did the same thing, shut down wouldn't power up. So I removed the cover and held a toothpick where the little hole near the battery is and while holding the toothpick in plugged it into the USB and it powered up, had to do that one a few times.

 

[bethnesbitt]

Glad to see your post, we also have confirmed that tracfone will start unlocking phone early next year and we have tested official tracfone unlock codes for the merit and we were successful in unlocking a merit from tracfone. of course the instructions on your blog also do the job

Ya, the codes will come in real handy.

What is nifty about this I realized is once you do it, you get FTM mode and you get download mode, something the merit didn't have. This actually makes the phone indestructible as an avail.

When I bricked it, built a scatter.txt file using the cat /proc/mtd that I did, actually found instructions for building one using that process,still had the file sitting on my computer. Couldn't get spflash to work though because once I plugged the phone into the pc it turned on, spflash tools only works when the phone is off or in offline, now it can get to offline.

 

[bethnesbitt]

This TPT flash could be a cool way to build a custom rom and just have people flash it to their phones, kinda like an all in one convert root method. When you build the image you can basically put any recovery, boot, system, splash in that you want.

Stayboogy, been thinking about those phones you have that won't boot. I have read in other forums that after people did a TPT flash the phone would not boot up no matter what they did. Just a thought, wondering if it's a glitch in the SW part of the boards that the latest AT&T Avail update fixes.

Once converted to the avail you can get the phone to go into download mode using qpst tools, a few times while doing that it got stuck and I had to keep playing with the buttons and reset switch next to the battery to get it to go on.

WHen I did the first try for the ZTE Online tool update, the phone shut down and wouldn't come on. That was the worst one, was when I had to take the toothpick, hold the reset and plug it into the USB port, finally went on. Was about to yell at
micallan_17 for pointing me to the tools

Thing is, once you do the update, your firmware is 19, when you flash a custom rom it downgrades it. What I was trying to do before giving up for the time being, but just might just try it again is finding a way to take that 32 update and making a full workable TPT flash that includes all the files.

When you flash that original Avail_Tcard you can see it doing a full update, it takes longer and does it completely different then from the ones I made. The one I made goes to 100% and when you think it's done it starts at 1% and finishes at 100% but the bar is all the way to the right, like it's done but it's not.

The older full image.bin goes to 100% then the bar starts at the beginning to the left and updates, probably the system, recovery etc...

 

[stayboogy]

This TPT flash could be a cool way to build a custom rom and just have people flash it to their phones, kinda like an all in one convert root method. When you build the image you can basically put any recovery, boot, system, splash in that you want.

Stayboogy, been thinking about those phones you have that won't boot. I have read in other forums that after people did a TPT flash the phone would not boot up no matter what they did. Just a thought, wondering if it's a glitch in the SW part of the boards that the latest AT&T Avail update fixes.

Once converted to the avail you can get the phone to go into download mode using qpst tools, a few times while doing that it got stuck and I had to keep playing with the buttons and reset switch next to the battery to get it to go on.

WHen I did the first try for the ZTE Online tool update, the phone shut down and wouldn't come on. That was the worst one, was when I had to take the toothpick, hold the reset and plug it into the USB port, finally went on. Was about to yell at
micallan_17 for pointing me to the tools

Thing is, once you do the update, your firmware is 19, when you flash a custom rom it downgrades it. What I was trying to do before giving up for the time being, but just might just try it again is finding a way to take that 32 update and making a full workable TPT flash that includes all the files.

When you flash that original Avail_Tcard you can see it doing a full update, it takes longer and does it completely different then from the ones I made. The one I made goes to 100% and when you think it's done it starts at 1% and finishes at 100% but the bar is all the way to the right, like it's done but it's not.

The older full image.bin goes to 100% then the bar starts at the beginning to the left and updates, probably the system, recovery etc...

are you referring to the update when looking at QPST or on the phone?

the first time it goes from 1% to 100% it is only verifying the image and the device; the next time it's actually installing. this is looking at the phone. i haven't once used QPST for anything in this regard.

i had extracted all the tpt's back when though. there's an extractor and generator tool at modaco. do a search and it'll come right up.

so where is the image.bin from that is in your part two rar??? was it the last ATT update file or one you created???

 

[bethnesbitt]

are you referring to the update when looking at QPST or on the phone?

the first time it goes from 1% to 100% it is only verifying the image and the device; the next time it's actually installing. this is looking at the phone. i haven't once used QPST for anything in this regard.

i had extracted all the tpt's back when though. there's an extractor and generator tool at modaco. do a search and it'll come right up.

so where is the image.bin from that is in your part two rar??? was it the last ATT update file or one you created???

I meant qpst can put the phone in download/offline mode. Good for fixing nvram. As merit it didn't work.

I used that same tool to extract the original and the rebuild. It just won't add the cefs.bin.

To get the merit to unlock as at&t avail, the appsboot.bin, and maybe the cefs are different on each phone.

The first one has the avail oembootloader nand images and partitions and amss bin files which is ftm mode. Second added the appsboot that's why the first didn't work but the second did, i accidentally posted them backwards.

The last is just the original avail card flash. It has the cefs. bin which that tool wouldn't add. That doc I posted about FTM and amss is what helped me get it to work on the merit. The actual firmware, system boot are close in likeness but the nvram, and board setting for sim locking are different.

They are somewhat like the merit but I think net10/straighttalk was so worried about unlocking that they asked zte to mess it up. Now zte won't have anything to do with it.

If you have ppl flash that first file and not the rest it might cause WiFi and data issues. Since it is an actual way to go from z990g to z990.

Actually I shouldn't say might, it probably could cause you can't use an att sim in a net10 and visa versa. If someone uses the first part and has net10 it might not work as net10 cause now it's a semi att once flashed.

They would then need to finish flashing then unlocking per that last method on my blog.

 

[stayboogy]

I meant qpst can put the phone in download/offline mode. Good for fixing nvram. As merit it didn't work.

I used that same tool to extract the original and the rebuild. It just won't add the cefs.bin.

To get the merit to unlock as at&t avail, the appsboot.bin, and maybe the cefs are different on each phone.

The first one has the avail oembootloader nand images and partitions and amss bin files which is ftm mode. Second added the appsboot that's why the first didn't work but the second did, i accidentally posted them backwards.

The last is just the original avail card flash. It has the cefs. bin which that tool wouldn't add. That doc I posted about FTM and amss is what helped me get it to work on the merit. The actual firmware, system boot are close in likeness but the nvram, and board setting for sim locking are different.

They are somewhat like the merit but I think net10/straighttalk was so worried about unlocking that they asked zte to mess it up. Now zte won't have anything to do with it.

If you have ppl flash that first file and not the rest it might cause WiFi and data issues. Since it is an actual way to go from z990g to z990.

Actually I shouldn't say might, it probably could cause you can't use an att sim in a net10 and visa versa. If someone uses the first part and has net10 it might not work as net10 cause now it's a semi att once flashed.

They would then need to finish flashing then unlocking per that last method on my blog.

i haven't diff'd the kernel configs to know for sure, but i'm going to say they use the exact same kernel, and i know for a fact that the init files are exactly the same from each device, just as most everything else on the system level--apart from the different apps in some net10 and all the att versions.

as well, i'm going to say that no one should have wifi issues as that's controlled by the kernel, driver, and system configuration. of course i'm not telling anyone to do anything anyway.

now, radio/modem for the actual phone is a different story and is not related to wifi at all.

 

[bethnesbitt]

i haven't diff'd the kernel configs to know for sure, but i'm going to say they use the exact same kernel, and i know for a fact that the init files are exactly the same from each device, just as most everything else on the system level--apart from the different apps in some net10 and all the att versions.

as well, i'm going to say that no one should have wifi issues as that's controlled by the kernel, driver, and system configuration. of course i'm not telling anyone to do anything anyway.

now, radio/modem for the actual phone is a different story and is not related to wifi at all.

Ya, that's true, the flash updates the board and nand partitons. You can actually do it with no recovery.

It can even be done with the 2 oembl and partition.bin files alone. The tpt flash has to have those 4 files. The amss.bin does fix board issues, which I believe the merit has plenty of. That's what I think happen to your other phones. Stuck in download mode from bad flashes. If you can get them up that could fix that.

Like you said, they are pretty close, yet net10 tracfone probably had ZTE f'ed,em up to control unlocking and did a bad job of it.

You could have someone using non att and see if it is okay.

 

[bethnesbitt]

Hey stayboogy

I was a little curious about what you said about your two phones not turning on.

Well I decided to update from scratch and see if mine got stuck again, sure enough it did. I opened up qpst to see if it saw the phone, there it is.

 

[bethnesbitt]

I really need to clean my monitor eh?

 

[guillermoriojas]

What can I do if i need to unlock ZTE midnight from NET10??

 

[bethnesbitt]

I'm not sure about that one. Did you look on madaco forum? They might have TPT flashes.

 

[wogeboy]

Yeah, I read the blog/info (good read) But it discounts if you have a stock zte Merit (net10).
Still trying to figure out how to get the merit unlocked .. may have to try and install cwm recovery, install a ROM (staboogy maybe) and then try the procedure on the blog to convert to AVAIL.