New Bootloader that (potentially) fixes "3G reboot" issue released

[Guest Fagulhas]

4 reboots today, i installed the patch last night, happened in the usual areeas...dazz , isn't a way to extract the bootloader from a phone that doesn't reboots and install on the other phones?

No. Here's the deal folks. Starting with ICS, Huawei locked all bootloaders, meaning the only way for us to install a custom recovery & rom was to use the gingerbread bootloaders that are NOT locked.

The most common used gingerbread bootloader was from a "really old build", maybe even from the B888 days. This one is from B895, the last official version of a gingerbread rom for most carriers.

And before anyone says, no its not optimal to use a old bootloader, but its what we have and the only way to do it so far. We already asked Huawei to add our model to the unlock bootloader page at http://www.huaweidev...ethod=preUnlock

Also bear in mind that these issues MAY not be related to the bootloader, tho as shown from a few users, it can help.

Edited February 6, 2013 by Fagulhas

[Guest dalyer]

Also bear in mind that these issues MAY not be related to the bootloader, tho as shown from a few users, it can help.

Thanks Fagulhas - can you comment on why a different bootloader might be expected to mitigate or elimiate this 3g reboot problem? I assumed that a bootloader "just" did some basic hardware init before handing over to the "main" system firmware (e.g. ROM + kernel etc.)? Or does it actually do ALL of the low level hardware init so that perhaps the new bootloader does some init that the older one does not and which impacts the 3G functionality? (I'm sure that I could have phrased all that more concisely but hopefully the question is clear! :D )

Edited February 6, 2013 by dalyer

[Guest vhristenco]

From what I see, the script used to unlock the bootloader writes (with dd) two images to /dev/block/mmcblk0p9 and mmcblk0p14.

Couldn't we just read these blocks from a phone with stock ICS rom and use them to "re-lock" the bootloader after installing a custom rom?

I can't test this right now as I just downgraded to GB, but in theory... could it work?

Edited February 6, 2013 by vhristenco

[Guest Fagulhas]

Thanks Fagulhas - can you comment on why a different bootloader might be expected to mitigate or elimiate this 3g reboot problem? I assumed that a bootloader "just" did some basic hardware init before handing over to the "main" system firmware (e.g. ROM + kernel etc.)? Or does it actually do ALL of the low level hardware init so that perhaps the new bootloader does some init that the older one does not and which impacts the 3G functionality? (I'm sure that I could have phrased all that more concisely but hopefully the question is clear! :D )

The boot loader ultimately has to:

• Bring the kernel (and all the kernel needs to bootstrap) into memory
  
• Provide the kernel with the information it needs to work correctly
  
• Switch to an environment that the kernel will like
  
• Transfer control to the kernel
  

On the x86, the boot loader runs in Real Mode. Consequently it has easy access to BIOS resources and functions. Therefore it's a good place to perform memory map detection, detection of available video modes, loading of additional files, etc. The boot loader will collect this information and present it in a way the kernel will be able to understand.

From - http://wiki.osdev.org/Bootloader

[Guest Fagulhas]

From what I see, the script used to unlock the bootloader writes (with dd) two images to /dev/block/mmcblk0p9 and mmcblk0p14.

Couldn't we just read these blocks from a phone with stock ICS rom and use them to "re-lock" the bootloader after installing a custom rom?

I can't test this right now as I just downgraded to GB, but in theory... could it work?

No because the bootloader runs every single time you start the phone and if you re-lock it, you will soft-brick it and get "signature verification failure".

[Guest dalyer]

The boot loader ultimately has to:

• Bring the kernel (and all the kernel needs to bootstrap) into memory
  
• Provide the kernel with the information it needs to work correctly
  
• Switch to an environment that the kernel will like
  
• Transfer control to the kernel
  

On the x86, the boot loader runs in Real Mode. Consequently it has easy access to BIOS resources and functions. Therefore it's a good place to perform memory map detection, detection of available video modes, loading of additional files, etc. The boot loader will collect this information and present it in a way the kernel will be able to understand.

From - http://wiki.osdev.org/Bootloader

Maybe I wasn't clear in my question. What I was curious about is what exactly is the difference between this bootloader and the previous one that might be expected to improve or solve the 3g reboot problem? Or is it not possible to say because these are only available in binary/image form? So the speculation was that a later bootloader might simply be "better" in terms of what initialization it does especially with regard to 3g functionality or something?

Hope that's clearer and sorry to be bothering you will all the questions but just trying to learn/understand...! :blush:

[Guest Fagulhas]

Maybe I wasn't clear in my question. What I was curious about is what exactly is the difference between this bootloader and the previous one that might be expected to improve or solve the 3g reboot problem? Or is it not possible to say because these are only available in binary/image form? So the speculation was that a later bootloader might simply be "better" in terms of what initialization it does especially with regard to 3g functionality or something?

Hope that's clearer and sorry to be bothering you will all the questions but just trying to learn/understand...! :blush:

Yeah its clear and also yes, all we can get is the complete image and we are not able to read it. We can hex edit it and see a few things and from a quick diff we can see several differences tho we cannot tell what they actually affect us.

[Guest fuddman]

Doh! Just had a reboot whilst phone was in car cradle!

First one since Sunday night. Definitely less frequent now though.

[Guest dalyer]

Yeah its clear and also yes, all we can get is the complete image and we are not able to read it. We can hex edit it and see a few things and from a quick diff we can see several differences tho we cannot tell what they actually affect us.

OK - thanks.

[Guest dalyer]

Has anybody ever collected any log info (logcat and/or kmsg) for one of these 3g reboots? Is that feasible - e.g. can it just be collected after the reboot or would it have to be logged in realtime? Would it help to pinpoint the problem?

[Guest Pain_Deluxe]

After 2 Days on two ROMs NO reboots anymore:)

Hail Dazz and to all others.

[Guest grabster]

No reboots today.

Hope it lasts.

[Guest klezkk]

Meh... Still rebooting. Anyway, ima use the b952 update.app and unlock from scratch to double-check.

[Guest ivan.arandjelovic]

Meh... Still rebooting. Anyway, ima use the b952 update.app and unlock from scratch to double-check.

I already did that ... don't waste your time :)

[Guest Feahnor]

I'm getting this error. How can i fix it?

I'm using CM9 R8 and i have enabled root for adb and apps.

[Guest dalyer]

Seems to be lots of info and maybe solutions for that error message if you Google...

[Guest Feahnor]

Solved by uninstalling Bluestacks.

[Guest scdswd]

I have not had any reboots. My journey: B894 -> B935 -> root+unlock+CWM -> MariDroi 4

I did test today. Wifi, BT, GPS and data on. I moved, used Navigator, some calls, some games. Battery is now 71% and NO RESET ! (how I know it?- installed boot logger and I have PIN on simcard- so it would appear).

Do I have a different bootloader or what?

Edited February 7, 2013 by scdswd

[Guest backside]

Please, don't waste your time!

I check the scripts, and first I do a copy of my current bootloader:

# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 of=./bootloader.img

# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p14 of=./oemsbl.img

After these commands I check both files with the one in the ZIP posted on this thread: result? Files are IDENTICAL!

If the problems with 3G reboots (In my case, I really need to change to 2G to avoid them!) is related with the bootloader, we need to open the ICS (and not de GB) version!

Regards.

[Guest dalyer]

Note: I have edited my post below after the fact in the light of later comments particularly from Dazzozo just so that people are not confused by some of the original stuff that I posted.

As mentioned earlier (and on the IRC transcripts) a request has gone into Huawei to provide an unlocked ICS bootloader. I guess it's a matter of wait and see. I'm sure that one of the guys here will let us know if/when they provide it?

It seemed to be going so well for me but one reboot this morning on the way to work and two more this afternoon - one after another - while sitting (relatively :)) still eating lunch... :(

I'll leave 3G on for a bit longer to test further but if the "new" bootloader is actually identical to the "old" bootloader then any "improvements" must be placebo! (Deleted - backside presumably already had the relevant bootloader installed so that's why the new and old were the same but that will not be the case for everybody depending on what unlocked bootloader they installed).

:) And so far nobody has been able to provide a reasonable hypothesis as to why the bootloader might be relevant in this context in the first place... (Edit - presumably because the bootloader is a binary image with not much insight into what it does in detail - but there seems to be some correlation between using the later GB [unlocked] bootloader and a reduction in 3g reboots compared to the older unlocked GB bootloader. If/when Huawei unlock the ICS bootloader that is the best available).

Ultimately I will be toggling to 2G anyway to save battery. But thanks to those who have been trying to improve this situation. :)

Edit: oops - smiley overload above! :o

Edited February 8, 2013 by dalyer

[Guest sssingletrack]

Please, don't waste your time!

I check the scripts, and first I do a copy of my current bootloader:

# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 of=./bootloader.img

# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p14 of=./oemsbl.img

After these commands I check both files with the one in the ZIP posted on this thread: result? Files are IDENTICAL!

If the problems with 3G reboots (In my case, I really need to change to 2G to avoid them!) is related with the bootloader, we need to open the ICS (and not de GB) version!

Regards.

I don't think Daz would release something that's exactly the same as the original. I guess the file has to be the same md5 as the phone would pick up on a different md5 for a boot loader? I might be wrong.

[Guest dalyer]

After these commands I check both files with the one in the ZIP posted on this thread: result? Files are IDENTICAL!

You mean MD5s are the same?

Edit: post crossed with sssingletrack's.

Edited February 7, 2013 by dalyer

[Guest vibracopilu]

Please, don't waste your time!

I check the scripts, and first I do a copy of my current bootloader:

# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 of=./bootloader.img

# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p14 of=./oemsbl.img

After these commands I check both files with the one in the ZIP posted on this thread: result? Files are IDENTICAL!

If the problems with 3G reboots (In my case, I really need to change to 2G to avoid them!) is related with the bootloader, we need to open the ICS (and not de GB) version!

Regards.

Don't be rude man, Daz is not just any noob! Reboots are now less often than before.

[Guest kosac]

ok so after few days of testing.. 2 phones whith cm10.. both restarting on 3G.. when i move with car restarts more times then walking.. maybe problem is when swithing to another BTS?

[Guest fr0do]

Please, don't waste your time!

I check the scripts, and first I do a copy of my current bootloader:

# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 of=./bootloader.img

# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p14 of=./oemsbl.img

After these commands I check both files with the one in the ZIP posted on this thread: result? Files are IDENTICAL!

If the problems with 3G reboots (In my case, I really need to change to 2G to avoid them!) is related with the bootloader, we need to open the ICS (and not de GB) version!

Regards.

If you read above you will see why. The bootloader is the latest GB one. If you already had that, then, well yes, the files will be the same.

Not everyone is on the same bootloader. It's not worthwhile if you have installed the last GB release to have it.

Edited February 8, 2013 by fr0do