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Root and Bootloader discussion


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Guest PaulOBrien
Posted

From what I hear Kingo root works on the device... the bootloader may be locked which limits our options for recovery etc. at the moment.

Starting this topic to discuss the options! :)

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Guest Frankish
Posted

Just to weigh in from discussion elsewhere so far kingo root definitely works. Bootloader is locked and no commands except for help work in bootloader. Not even reboot as far as I have heard. Chance of getting a BL unlock through Vodafone? I'd say zero. It wouldn't benefit them whatsoever.

Guest Edu PT
Posted

Longo root works, replace it with SuperSu and then unistall kingo root as described on several ZTE S6 foruns also works.

Guest PaulOBrien
Posted

I've been thinking about this. Although the lack of bootloader functionality is a pain, maybe we should count our blessings and it might not be a massive issue.

We have root (at least for now) and we can go straight into recovery from the device being off. I might build a TWRP image and try flashing it to the recovery partition using DD. If that works, then we're in a pretty good place. Of course, if it checksums the images the device might be bricked but... ;)

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Guest Frankish
Posted

Not a bad idea if you're OK with potentially bricking it!? Surely it will checksum the image though don't most devices?

Guest Andrei221
Posted

Root works with kingo root - i even installed supersu from the market after. 

But the real thing which i would like would be Cyanogenmod :(

Guest PaulOBrien
Posted

I think we'll need at the very least kernel source for that and ideally an unlocked bootloader.

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Guest icecosta
Posted

I guys, i got my self one ultra 6 and i will be very happy if you guys manager to work something out . Good luck

Guest Andrei221
Posted

Do you think that we can unlock the bootloader?OR are there any possibilities to flash a custom rom  with it locked ?

Guest PaulOBrien
Posted

Bootloader unlock seems likely, not sure about other options yet...

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Guest NegativeOne
Posted

When you say it seems unlikely do you mean its likely that you will be able to unlock the bootloader are you hopeful that Vodafone will unlock it. I can't see the latter happening to be honest 

Guest Frankish
Posted

From experience paul has the knowledge and the can do attitude to find a way to unlock the bootloader. Vodafone never would.

Guest PaulOBrien
Posted

I think we'll have to deal with a locked bootloader sadly. I don't see it likely we'll be able to unlock it ourselves..

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Guest Frankish
Posted

Does kernel source serve much purpose without an unlocked bootloader? It's not the worse thing in the world as root let's us make minor tweaks. And the device is what it is. A great budget phone that will probably never see an official update.

Guest BigD18t
Posted

I dont know much about unlocking the boot loader and what not, but could it not be done like the old X10 which could not be unlocked, but had a way to add a custom recovery and flash rom's from that ? 

Guest Frankish
Posted

I doubt it. I mentioned that on xda but ive not heard or any other devices having that really.

Guest Andrei221
Posted

I think that once a bootloader can be unlocked by somebody, it can also be unlocked someway or another. we just need to find out how

Guest KonstaT
Posted

I checked and it seems that Vodafone Smart Ultra/ZTE Blade S6 variants have 256 bytes long footer in the boot/recovery images. This is mostly likely the signing key that the bootloader could possibly check. Without trying, it's impossible to say if ZTE has only crippled the bootloader not to accept any fastboot commands or if it also checks integrity of the images it's booting.

Guest PaulOBrien
Posted

Going to buy myself a Su6 and flash a modified recovery image to find out. Fortune favours the brave and all that...?

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Guest KonstaT
Posted

Going to buy myself a Su6 and flash a modified recovery image to find out. Fortune favours the brave and all that...?

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Shouldn't be any harm in trying. :) In worst case scenario it just won't boot the recovery. You can still restore the stock recovery image afterwards.

Guest PaulOBrien
Posted (edited)

GOOD NEWS!

I repacked the stock recovery to see if that works first and I also created a modified version (with ro.secure set off) to try afterwards. Both the repacked stock and the modified recovery boot fine (flashed via root / DD).

I see no reason we couldn't have TWRP on the Su6...

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Edited by PaulOBrien
Guest Frankish
Posted

That's absolutely sexual. So we will still have a locked bootloader which sort of protects us in a way. What does it mean as far as development goes though? Custom recovery. Kernel source. Hmm.

Guest PaulOBrien
Posted

As long as we can still root devices, (i.e. ZTE / Vodafone don't patch the root loophole), then I don't see that it particularly limits us in any way. It means if you totally cock up boot image AND recovery you can't save yourself via the bootloader, but that's easily avoided by not flashing both at the same time.

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