[HOW TO] Rooting Unlocking and De-Branding your ZTE Crescent [Updated Now Complete]

[Guest fr0do]

You did right

Do this: Alternate recovery by Amphora

Or this: Beggin’s guide

[Guest turbinator]

does anyone have the crescent.zip file?

The download link doesn't seem to be working.

Thanks

[Guest Dazzozo]

Deposit Files has gone the same way as Megaupload, it seems.

If people give me links to things I'll mirror them at crescent.thebronasium.com.

[Guest turbinator]

Thanks, hope someone still has the file lurking about :)

[Guest gabriwinter]

If I was promoted I'd fix this forum up, but yeah. Flibble doesn't come around these parts no more :P

+1

[Guest Tim Ngwena]

Hi guys. Just used this guide to unlock and instol CWM 5.0.2

Worked for me. Bought my San Fran 2 Today.

[Guest brownian]

This post can be deleted, I've read, understood, and attempted to summarise a couple of posts down from this.

Edited June 20, 2012 by brownian

[Guest brownian]

fr0d0 is saying QPST restore failed when he did not tick the "Allow ESN mismatch" box. Bouncer5 thought it bizarre. I may have missed something but I was getting the restore perfect 'till about 99% when the phone rebooted and Win7 tried reinstalling it, at this point QPST failed me with Errors: "Could not Communicate in Diagnostic Mode". My wifi has its unique MAC back again so it's good. Just need to try and get back into CWM again so I can clear the caches before I apply update.zip this time.

Would installing CWM remove access to FTM?

Edited June 19, 2012 by brownian

[Guest Dazzozo]

fr0d0 is saying QPST restore failed when he did not tick the "Allow ESN mismatch" box. Bouncer5 thought it bizarre. I may have missed something but I was getting the restore perfect 'till about 99% when the phone rebooted and Win7 tried reinstalling it, at this point QPST failed me with Errors: "Could not Communicate in Diagnostic Mode". My wifi has its unique MAC back again so it's good. Just need to try and get back into CWM again so I can clear the caches before I apply update.zip this time.

Would installing CWM remove access to FTM?

If you install it to the recovery partition, yes. If you wanted to lose your access to Android temporarily (until you flash something in CWM) you could flash CWM to the boot partition.

[Guest BLu3HaZe]

How do we flash the boot partition and how to replace boot partition/bootloader if CWM is flashed to it?

Slightly different from last time, hope you can bear with me Daz

[Guest Dazzozo]

How do we flash the boot partition and how to replace boot partition/bootloader if CWM is flashed to it?

Slightly different from last time, hope you can bear with me Daz

fastboot, and you just flash something from CWM to replace it.

boot partition =/= bootloader

[Guest brownian]

How do we flash the boot partition and how to replace boot partition/bootloader if CWM is flashed to it?

Slightly different from last time, hope you can bear with me Daz

I could not Win7x64 to recognise my device:

adb-windows reboot bootloader

Hangs the command prompt waiting for the device, which also hangs the little green droid. I discovered the driver for when the phone is running is not the same as that for when the phone is in this state. I didn't know where I would find such a driver so I abandoned that approach and instead went to http://www.modaco.com/topic/350343-alternative-way-to-flash-recovery/ and that worked fine despite the huge warnings it comes with. Vivacity's capacitive buttons are inactive in that particular CWM (for the Vivacity no less) but 3 times round the menu I am invited to use the power button to select with.

[Guest brownian]

Here's my up to date guide to try and keep the knowledge in one place. Apart from the entire history of this thread, much of this is based on the information (and files, especially the Vivacity_Unlock file :) ) at http://www.getandroi...acity-for-free/ which came highly recommended (in this thread), particularly because the (eg Bouncer5's) links to unlock.zip for the Vivacity are dead here on Modaco (one link persisted but it was 29Mband I never verified (remembered) its source or author) hence let new users skip this 22 page how-to and get going faster.

1. Using a stock ROM, eg, new out of the box, with a good charge:
   
2. Write down MAC for wifi (and BT), optional, unused.
   
3. Install drivers (driver.rar) so phone is detected, essential, Windows is stoopid.
   
4. You may be informed of a COM port when you next connect your phone, if so use this one in step (9).
   
5. Get a ROM, for your ZTE Crescent, Fish N Chips comes tailored to either TMV or OSFII, others require special kernels (see eg, Bouncer5's post).
   
6. Get that ROM onto SD's root, rename it update.zip.
   
7. Install QPST (I use 2.7 build 366).
   
8. Reboot into FTM mode (hold power and vol- until "FTM" appears).
   
9. Run "Windows:StartMenu->QPST->QPST Configuration”. Port tab. Click “Add New Port”. Some say the left box displays COM5, I had COM4 before installing ZTE USB driver and additionally COM24 after. Use the port the ZTE USB driver gives you. Close “QPST Configuration”.
   
10. Run "Windows:StartMenu->QPST->Software Download".
    
11. Choose Backup tab, select destination, click Start button, ensure 100% and file: DEADD00D_*.qcn is present (eg 153kb).
    
12. Extract Unlock_Vivacity (or similar) and run download.exe.
    
13. If you get an error pop-up about "arm**" not present/working you need to check (ie repeat) driver installation.
    
14. Otherwise download.exe will present the option to unlock your device. START. Takes about 2 minutes, phone will restart. Ensure this window displays "PASS", then close it.
    
15. Run "Windows:StartMenu->QPST->Software Download" as in step (10).
    
16. Choose Restore tab, select your DEADD00D_*.qcn file from step (11). Ensure COM port used in step (9) is showing then click the Start button.
    
17. If unsuccessful then select “Allow Phone/File ESN mismatch” checkbox and repeat. Note: This info is sketchy I have not tried it despite being nominally unsuccessful (99% followed by reboot of phone and QPST error message. WiFi MAC was still restored though) I was left in CWM which I don’t imagine would make a good starting point to repeat the restore from (use FTM but then you may struggle getting CWM back (as I did once I had flashed my new ROM)).
    
18. Congratulations your phone is now unlocked and you are back in the safe hands of CWM. Choose a new ROM, I don’t think you can revert to the ROM you started with anymore but must instead load any appropriate zipped one (update.zip etc which may be the stock starting ROM). Beyond the scope of this post...
    

[Guest fiskbulle]

Hi everyone,

I got my ZTE Blade II today. You can read about the phone here; http://www.theverge.com/products/blade-ii/5277#product-specs

My phone is locked, and i wish to have it unlocked so i can use my SIM card with it. So i'm wondering if this procedure works for my phone, and what should i go after? SFII or Vivacity files?

[Guest brownian]

If you install it to the recovery partition, yes. If you wanted to lose your access to Android temporarily (until you flash something in CWM) you could flash CWM to the boot partition.

What are the dangers of doing it the http://www.modaco.com/topic/350343-alternative-way-to-flash-recovery/page__st__20 way? I've done it and it seems to be on there for good so now I can use different ROMs but I would have preferred to have gone the traditional install route for three reasons:

1) I still recall when TPT was highly experimental.

2) I dislike not having the power button select my choice immediately.

3) I've incurred even more (than the ones already levelled by Bouncer5 at the start of this post) warnings that make me uncomfortable.

I've not seen partitions on my device nor do I understand TPT at all. Could you please offer enlightenment?

[Guest JohanOchRis]

I have been working for quite a while to figure out what ROM I should use for my phone and I just cannot figure it out so I hope that someone can help me. I have bought a ZTE Blade 2 in Sweden.

The phone is called "Blade II" and I am a bit nervous of using the wrong ROM and bricking it - can anyone either point me to where I can read about this in detail or do I dare to just try any ROM for TMV or OSFII?????

Thanks a lot for any help!

[Guest fr0do]

I have been working for quite a while to figure out what ROM I should use for my phone and I just cannot figure it out so I hope that someone can help me. I have bought a ZTE Blade 2 in Sweden.

The phone is called "Blade II" and I am a bit nervous of using the wrong ROM and bricking it - can anyone either point me to where I can read about this in detail or do I dare to just try any ROM for TMV or OSFII?????

Thanks a lot for any help!

Can you give us pictures and specs Johan?

I don't think the crescent is the same.

[Guest JohanOchRis]

Can you give us pictures and specs Johan?

I don't think the crescent is the same.

Sure - Here is a picture http://www.prylparadiset.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/zte-blade-2.jpg

The specs can be found at http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=985257 (again, sorry about the language but you can probably figure things out anyway)

Thanks! Here it'll be night now for a while, so replies will show up tomorrow...

[Guest Dazzozo]

fiskbulle and JohanOchRis, these are Blade II's, a totally different device to the Crescent. The fact it is ARMv7 compared to the Crescent's ARMv6 should've instantly thrown you.

You will not find anything here for your devices.

[Guest fiskbulle]

fiskbulle and JohanOchRis, these are Blade II's, a totally different device to the Crescent. The fact it is ARMv7 compared to the Crescent's ARMv6 should've instantly thrown you.

You will not find anything here for your devices.

Thanks for making that clear, however there's some threads here that mention "Blade 2" in their subjects, does this mean it works for the actual Blade2 or SF2? Because SF2 is NOT Blade2.. It's abit confusing when people refering SF2 as Blade2. Sorry for going slightly offtopic with this question, but i rather ask here now when we're on the subject than asking in every thread that mentions Blade2.

Thanks.

[Guest Dazzozo]

The Crescent is referred to internally as "Blade2". Its bootloader board name is "blade2". Basically, ZTE released two phones in the Blade2 namespace. Quite annoying, but here we are. More recent things (since the discovery of the actual Blade II) typically advertise themselves as "for the ZTE Crescent" now, and its only the older things that still have "Blade 2" in the title (such as CWM).

Edited June 29, 2012 by Dazzozo

[Guest andromaniac]

Hi newb(ish) here have used this to root my san fran 2 and install stock rom. Very pleased - no orange rubbish, and I love android without any manufacturer - specific "improvements". However there was a touchscreen issue which I have just resolved by installing the kernal for sf2. But this has not fixed the downloading problem I have - google play wont download any app bigger than about 1m, which is VERY annoying. And no it isn't because I have too many apps installed - I have 210mb internal storage free, and over 6 gb on my 8gb sd card. When I try to download something it pops up with a message box saying "Error while downloading. There is insufficient space on the device." Also recently MP3 Downloader said that there was an "Error while downloading" whenever I try to download something. What is wrong??? Is there a cache somewhere that needs clearing, or is there something wrong with the rom? Here is info on the TPT I used if it helps: 160MB system, 2MB cache, 278MB data. Any ideas? Do I need to use a different TPT that makes the cache bigger? Help?

[Guest BLu3HaZe]

Well its somewhat obvious that when your /cache partition is only 2MB, as any downloading apks are saved there before installing, you're having that issue. IMO, the stock partition layout is perfectly fine when coupled with A2SD, which is why I never use TPTs.

Yes, use another TPT with a reasonably sized cache, and problem solved.

[Guest andromaniac]

Thanks thought that was the problem but didn't want to resize the repartitions unnecessarily. Would donate if I had any money...

[Guest lxrable]

.

Edited July 10, 2012 by lxrable