What have I just downloaded from ZTE's site

[Guest Indiant]

You mean first time before the latest (hypothetically perfect) version, or with it for first try?

Anyway, imo you don't have to restore the stock state, not even if you are in CM, (which as far as I know doesn't contain the system update option from SD), just put the image folder on your SD, turn off the phone, than turn it on with holding the minus volume button (that's the bootloader mode if I'm correct).

I mean that was my first try.

Put the image folder on your SD, turn off the phone, than turn it on with holding the plus volume button and Menu button and power button.

[Guest Amphoras]

I mean that was my first try.

Put the image folder on your SD, turn off the phone, than turn it on with holding the plus volume button and Menu button and power button.

Yeah that should be all you need to do. There shouldn't be any need to return to stock anything before using a TPT. Are you using one of the ones I made or one you made yourself?

Would it be possible for you to write a guide on how to edit partition_zte.mbn and appsboot.mbn or even a software to edit them?

I like the 2nd idea :)

@Amphoras: If you tell me how to do it I'll gladly make a program for this or even help you make one.

I just managed to work out how to write the mbn files properly from an app, so if I can get a way to push ztepack into /system/bin then it should be possible to do it all from the phone. I will post a guide on editing the partitions as well after work.

Thank you, I was just asking for it because we have some problems with the Hungarian Skates, the display is a bit insensitive sometimes, especially on the bottom above the buttons - dunno if anyone met this issue here, at least I haven't red about it in modaco -, so I hoped that the new FW may fix this, as Froyo fixed the gradient and RAM problems with Blade.

Once I mentioned, someone could clear me up about the FWs exist for Skate? I was searching the ZTE site, but found only the Hungarian one from 11/17, and the UK version, but if I'm right, that's not even for Skate, but for the MC, and a bit old from 09/13. So these 2 are we have right now?

About the new thread for partitioning is a great idea, maybe more people would find us with a targeted topic title. There's also a hungarian guy who's dealing with the new FW and layouts lately - but having some issues, I thought you might figuring something out together.

I, on my own part can not contribute presently, cause I'm lack of the device and competence, but very excited about the innovations in this early stage of the publish (we just had our Skates last week from HU T-mobile), so thank you again.

Have you tried with a different rom? Touchscreen problems, and other things like that are more likely to be affected by the rom you are using than the lower level stuff which is the only difference in the TPTs.

[Guest atillaahun]

I mean that was my first try.

Put the image folder on your SD, turn off the phone, than turn it on with holding the plus volume button and Menu button and power button.

The plus button, Right. I always mix them up. Though it works for me without pressing the menu.

Have you tried with a different rom? Touchscreen problems, and other things like that are more likely to be affected by the rom you are using than the lower level stuff which is the only difference in the TPTs.

Sure I have, it's the same with the stock Rom CM, and Bluemonte as well. But I'm not the only one with this. Not a serious issue anyway, just mentioned.

[Guest Amphoras]

Short Guide to editing partitions

First you need to get a TPT image.bin and extract the files from it. There are a couple of tools on the forums that you can use to do this. Once you've done that, to change the partitions you need to edit partition_zte.mbn and appsboot.mbn.

To edit them, you need a hex editor. Once you open up partition_zte.mbn, depending on the hex editor you use, you might see a section that shows 0:RECOVERY some spaces then some funny characters. Then 0:BOOT some more spaces and funny characters, and so on with splash, misc, cache, system, userdata, oem and persist. If you don't see this, then this is the ASCII representation of the hex codes you should see as well. If you look more closely at hex side for the bits after the partition names, you'll notice that they are all in the form xxxx0000xxxx. This represents the offset, then the size. Both the offset and the size are reversed, so if you see CC0100002800 then the offset it 0x1CC and the size is 0x028. To get the sizes in mb, you just convert the hex size to decimal then divide by 8.

When you change the partitions, you just need to remember that if you add space to one, you need to take it from another. You can change the sizes of cache, system, userdata and probably oem as well (its fine to do so on Blade) without anything bad happening. If you change the offset of the splash partition, you need to edit something else hidden in appsboot.mbn and I don't know where, so I don't recommend doing that. If you change the size of a partition, you need to make sure the following offsets match up.

So once you've change all the sizes and made sure all the offsets match up, you just save partition_zte.mbn and open appsboot.mbn. If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll see a section exactly like the stuff in partition_zte.mbn. All you have to do now is make the exact same changes and save it. Once you're done, you can rebuild the TPT into the image.bin form using the same tool as for unpacking it. Just remember that if you've made a backup on one layout, it may not fit in your new layout.

I know its a bit vague at some parts, but that's intentional. You can break your phone if you do something wrong (probably still recoverable, but still), so it's better if you have to think about what you're doing rather than rushing in.

Edited November 20, 2011 by Amphoras

[Guest D3abL3]

Short Guide to editing partitions

First you need to get a TPT image.bin and extract the files from it. There are a couple of tools on the forums that you can use to do this. Once you've done that, to change the partitions you need to edit partition_zte.mbn and appsboot.mbn.

To edit them, you need a hex editor. Once you open up partition_zte.mbn, depending on the hex editor you use, you might see a section that shows 0:RECOVERY some spaces then some funny characters. Then 0:BOOT some more spaces and funny characters, and so on with splash, misc, cache, system, userdata, oem and persist. If you don't see this, then this is the ASCII representation of the hex codes you should see as well. If you look more closely at hex side for the bits after the partition names, you'll notice that they are all in the form xxxx0000xxxx. This represents the offset, then the size. Both the offset and the size are reversed, so if you see CC0100002800 then the offset it 0x1CC and the size is 0x028. To get the sizes in mb, you just convert the hex size to decimal then divide by 8.

When you change the partitions, you just need to remember that if you add space to one, you need to take it from another. You can change the sizes of cache, system, userdata and probably oem as well (its fine to do so on Blade) without anything bad happening. If you change the offset of the splash partition, you need to edit something else hidden in appsboot.mbn and I don't know where, so I don't recommend doing that. If you change the size of a partition, you need to make sure the following offsets match up.

So once you've change all the sizes and made sure all the offsets match up, you just save partition_zte.mbn and open appsboot.mbn. If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll see a section exactly like the stuff in partition_zte.mbn. All you have to do now is make the exact same changes and save it. Once you're done, you can rebuild the TPT into the image.bin form using the same tool as for unpacking it. Just remember that if you've made a backup on one layout, it may not fit in your new layout.

I know its a bit vague at some parts, but that's intentional. You can break your phone if you do something wrong (probably still recoverable, but still), so it's better if you have to think about what you're doing rather than rushing in.

I seriously advice not to any newbie to try this!!!

If you mess up the partitions your phone won't get bricked but you need a hell of work to fix it, so I ask you to please don't try this......

I say this because I already messed up the partitions in mine once and was a hell of work to fix it :D

Thanks Amphoras for this "vague" guide :P

P.S.: Here's a table to convert HEX to DECIMAL...

And a calculator.

Let's take Amphoras's example: CC 01 00 00 28 00, here you must count 4 characters each side, so we'll forget those 4 zeros in the middle. But what we need is the last 4 characters, so we'll have 28 00.

Now let's switch their positions 28 00 and we'll get 00 28.

Let's make 4 columns from 3 to 0.

| Column 3 | Column 2 | Column 1 | Column 0 |

And now we'll place each number in 00 28 to each column.

| Column 3 | Column 2 | Column 1 | Column 0 |

|----0----|-----0----|----2-----|----8----|

In the next step we should convert each hex to its corresponding decimal, but the numbers will look the same as you can see from the table attached to this post.

In the following step we multiply the each decimal for 16 elevated to the corresponding column number.

| Column 3 | Column 2 | Column 1 | Column 0 |

|-----0-----|-----0-----|-----2-----|-----8-----|

|-----0-----|-----0-----|-----2-----|-----8-----|

| 0*(16^3) | 0*(16^2) | 2*(16^1) | 8*(16^0) |

Now we write down the results and add them all together.

| Column 3 | Column 2 | Column 1 | Column 0 |

|-----0----|-----0----|----2-----|----8-----|

|-----0----|-----0----|----2-----|----8-----|

| 0*(16^3) | 0*(16^2)| 2*(16^1)| 8*(16^0) |

|-----0----|----0-----|---32----|-----8----| The total here is 40

Now we divide 40 by 8 and we get the size in MB.

40 / 8 = 5 MB

How to do the inverse? MB to HEX? Easy!

Take the result from before: 5 MB

Multiply those 5 by 8: 5 * 8 = 40

Now let's divide 40 for 16 and the remainder is our first hex.

40 / 16 = 2,5 let's keep number 2(we remove the decimal houses) in our head and multitply 0,5 for 16. This will get our remainder: 0,5 * 16 = 8

2 / 16 = 0,125 same thing has before but now we keep number 0 in head and use 0,125: 0,125 * 16 = 2

0 / 16 = 0 so the remainder will be 0

We do the above process untill the remainder is less than 1.

Sow we have 82 0, but we need 4 characters so we add zeros(0) to complete it and we get 82 00.

Now we need to reverse each pair so we get the hex we need 28 00

Now let's say 150MB.

That's 150*8 = 1200

1200/16 = 75 | 0*16 = 0

75/16 = 4,6875 | 0.6875*16 = 11 which will be B

4/16 = 0,25 | 0,25*16 = 4

0/16 = 0 | 0*16 = 0

0B 40

This 0B 40 needs to be reversed.

We will reverse each pair, not the whole 4 characters. So in the end we'll have the hex B0 04.

Happy Math! :)

Edited November 21, 2011 by D3abL3

[Guest atillaahun]

I seriously advice not to any newbie to try this!!!

If you mess up the partitions your phone won't get bricked but you need a hell of work to fix it, so I ask you to please don't try this......

I say this because I already messed up the partitions in mine once and was a hell of work to fix it :D

How much did you screw it up? I'm just curious what restoring methods you know to de-half-bricking a Skate. :)

[Guest D3abL3]

How much did you screw it up? I'm just curious what restoring methods you know to de-half-bricking a Skate. :)

I screwed it up at a point of not enough space for recovery, then there was not enough space for system so the ROM was gone...so I couldn't flash stock recovery to get FTM and repartition through FTM mode, nor to flash a new ROM...

But there is a key combination that boots your phone straight away in TPT flash... <_<

Anyway, if you feel confortable to move in Android environment, flashing reflashing, editing bla bla bla, then this should be a piece of cake, but if you're not then please don't adventure.

Edited November 21, 2011 by D3abL3

[Guest xiaoyaoswim]

Short Guide to editing partitions

First you need to get a TPT image.bin and extract the files from it. There are a couple of tools on the forums that you can use to do this. Once you've done that, to change the partitions you need to edit partition_zte.mbn and appsboot.mbn.

To edit them, you need a hex editor. Once you open up partition_zte.mbn, depending on the hex editor you use, you might see a section that shows 0:RECOVERY some spaces then some funny characters. Then 0:BOOT some more spaces and funny characters, and so on with splash, misc, cache, system, userdata, oem and persist. If you don't see this, then this is the ASCII representation of the hex codes you should see as well. If you look more closely at hex side for the bits after the partition names, you'll notice that they are all in the form xxxx0000xxxx. This represents the offset, then the size. Both the offset and the size are reversed, so if you see CC0100002800 then the offset it 0x1CC and the size is 0x028. To get the sizes in mb, you just convert the hex size to decimal then divide by 8.

When you change the partitions, you just need to remember that if you add space to one, you need to take it from another. You can change the sizes of cache, system, userdata and probably oem as well (its fine to do so on Blade) without anything bad happening. If you change the offset of the splash partition, you need to edit something else hidden in appsboot.mbn and I don't know where, so I don't recommend doing that. If you change the size of a partition, you need to make sure the following offsets match up.

So once you've change all the sizes and made sure all the offsets match up, you just save partition_zte.mbn and open appsboot.mbn. If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll see a section exactly like the stuff in partition_zte.mbn. All you have to do now is make the exact same changes and save it. Once you're done, you can rebuild the TPT into the image.bin form using the same tool as for unpacking it. Just remember that if you've made a backup on one layout, it may not fit in your new layout.

I know its a bit vague at some parts, but that's intentional. You can break your phone if you do something wrong (probably still recoverable, but still), so it's better if you have to think about what you're doing rather than rushing in.

Thanks very much for the excellent guide!

One more question, what are the minimum components of a image.bin to repartition via TPT? I guess only partition.mbn, partition_zte.mbn, appsboothd.mbn, appsboot.mbn are necessary? If I don't change the sizes of recovery and boot partitions and don't include recovery.img and boot.img into an image.bin, will my previous partitions of recovery and boot preserve after TPT?

[Guest atillaahun]

I screwed it up at a point of not enough space for recovery, then there was not enough space for system so the ROM was gone...so I couldn't flash stock recovery to get FTM and repartition through FTM mode, nor to flash a new ROM...

But there is a key combination that boots your phone straight away in TPT flash... <_<

Anyway, if you feel confortable to move in Android environment, flashing reflashing, editing bla bla bla, then this should be a piece of cake, but if you're not then please don't adventure.

And that combination would be the +volume + menu + power? And what if the phone doesn't even react to that? That's a full-brick?

[Guest D3abL3]

And that combination would be the +volume + menu + power? And what if the phone doesn't even react to that? That's a full-brick?

Yes.

Firstly you should try to turn you phone on normally and plug it in USB to PC and see if PC detects it, if it detects then your phone is recoverable. If it doesn't detect then try the remaining combinations, if still your PC doesn't detect it and your phone doesn't react then yes is a full brick.

[Guest Amphoras]

Thanks very much for the excellent guide!

One more question, what are the minimum components of a image.bin to repartition via TPT? I guess only partition.mbn, partition_zte.mbn, appsboothd.mbn, appsboot.mbn are necessary? If I don't change the sizes of recovery and boot partitions and don't include recovery.img and boot.img into an image.bin, will my previous partitions of recovery and boot preserve after TPT?

Yeah if you just want to change partitions, then you only need partition.mbn (TPT won't start without this), partition_zte.mbn and appsboot.mbn (with the new layout in both) and appsboothd.mbn (flashing appsboot will fail without this, it will just hang and fail to boot afterwards. You can recover by flashing a working TPT). If you haven't changed the size and you don't include an image for that partition, it should remain as it was before. You can also flash a specific partition in this way, eg. if you make a TPT with partition.mbn, partition_zte.mbn and recovery.img, then the only effect will be to flash the recovery image (you need both partition_zte.mbn and appsboot.mbn to change partition sizes).

[Guest xiaoyaoswim]

Yeah if you just want to change partitions, then you only need partition.mbn (TPT won't start without this), partition_zte.mbn and appsboot.mbn (with the new layout in both) and appsboothd.mbn (flashing appsboot will fail without this, it will just hang and fail to boot afterwards. You can recover by flashing a working TPT). If you haven't changed the size and you don't include an image for that partition, it should remain as it was before. You can also flash a specific partition in this way, eg. if you make a TPT with partition.mbn, partition_zte.mbn and recovery.img, then the only effect will be to flash the recovery image (you need both partition_zte.mbn and appsboot.mbn to change partition sizes).

Thank you for the explanation. Now I have a better understanding on TPT