yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
I have been on good terms with the OSS guy so far, can you tell me exactly what release your phone says it is? This is the Motorola version number for your phone.

Settings -> About -> System Version

---------- Post added at 11:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 AM ----------

I have requested the Electrify sources at https://sourceforge.net/motorola/discussion/opensource_feedback/thread/4e81a11c/

If you choose to chime in, please be respectful. :) Gopi has actually been at least talking to us on reasonable terms.
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
Heres a screenie,

---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:44 AM ----------

I looked at other posts kn there, and they (moto people) always come up with excuses. Then never replh again.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
They're getting better. I was sent there by individuals who can ensure that, at the very least, specific requests are fulfilled. They're also considering releases of the 'unreleased' sources, which is more then they've commented in the past.
[Motorola Photon 4G] LightingZ:
So anyone with vermagic: 2.6.32.9-00012-gadd9752 SMP cannot have the Kexec work?
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
Not at this current time.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
tdhite, as the magic string is pretty much pulled from include/linux/vermagic.h so you could prob locally just modify the .h, recompile that module, and let the Electrify users try loading the resulting module.

I have the requests in for the Electrify kernel, however that may take at least a week to actually have them published.
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
This is what I got from my request from moto:
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
Do you have a copy of what you sent to them? I would like to convey the sorts of interactions to give the left hand some information on what the right hand is doing.

The best person to deal with at this time is Gopi, on the sourceforge motorola open source pages. He's the guy that seems to be able to get some balls rolling.
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
May have come off a little rude...

I'll pastebin it.

If you read it start from the bottom.

http://pastebin.com/pPDr3RFK
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
It's all good. You came off as a little frustrated.

Gopie has responded as well:

https://sourceforge.net/motorola/discussion/opensource_feedback/thread/4e81a11c/?limit=25
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
I just saw that before you posted, was going to thank you for that.

Good work on that! lol
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
He took it one step further. Their actually going to train the support staff on how to deal with OSS requests.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
Can't hurt to try. :) Gopi will get us the sources for the Electrify, however he believes that they may be virtually identical to the original Photon 4G's kernel.

On the other hand, since this works on the Photon, we can just move forward with a pretty good degree of confidence that one we can compile the Electrify kernel, they'll be all set as well.

Are you going to create a dev thread?
[Motorola Photon 4G] shallmrt:
I been keeping an eye on this everyday and can't wait till we see this in a development thread. Tdhite if you and everyone involved gets our phones working again I'm going to name my 1st born after you. I hope your name is Steve and I hope you don't mine hes already 11. Sounds like you guys are real close and Thank you for not giving up.
[Motorola Photon 4G] tdhite:
Coming up, but I wanted to check in sources that build, at a minimum, so waited until I could get the kexec-tools built. So now I'll check those in to a git repo, and start the thread (look for it tomorrow).

As for kexec-tools -- the first run ....

wait for it ....

uh ..... uh ...... oooohhhhh

# ./kexec

[1] Segmentation fault (core dumped) ./kexec

:eek: Oh well, just means we have work to do, but at least it builds (finally).

Dev thread tomorrow, folks. Don't hold your breath, we have lots left, like a working procfs and whatnot. We have a start, though.
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
Nice to see it builds, good luck getting it to work. We all thank you for all the hard work you've done so far, and I hope this become reality one day.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
I just had a silly idea.

In the short term, as 'phase one'. Hear me out, this is a cockamamie idea, that I haven't thought out, but might work while we get the ability to boot a new kernel.

Since we now know we can introduce kernel modules into the current signed kernel safely, what if the kernel module could launch a new proces whose sole job it would be to dismount everything, remount root from a different init image, and then send a restart signal to init? Init would then reread init.rc, which is now brandy spanking new.

"In kernel land, no one can hear init scream..."
[Motorola Photon 4G] Slender Troll:
To someone who has no clue what any of those terms mean, that actually sounds like a really good idea...
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
Of course, now that I've read the actual sources for 2nd-init, it does this sort of thing. I was unaware that the Android init does NOT seem to support restart, as the typical Linux init would.

Based on a review of 2nd-init, however, I believe that it is entirely possible to use it as another vector.
[Motorola Photon 4G] tdhite:
How funny is that? I was playing withthe idea last night. I'm trying to kill the init process tree, mount / as rw, write a new /init.rc , them start init again. All from a modified vpnclient.ko. Doesn't work quite yet but its fun to screw around with it.

Sure hung the phone a lot LOL.
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
I could see this working for stock hybrid roms...

Unless i have the wrong idea of init, does it load the kernel?
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
Hrm.. Look at http://and-developers.com/2ndinit

It does this in an 'interesting' and devious way. I've never actually used ptrace, but after looking at what it can do, man, that's awefully dirty... Like, in humans, that'd be immoral dirty.

It's kind of doing to the init process what kexec does to the kernel.
[Motorola Photon 4G] tdhite:
The kernel loads init. One can dictate which init, via kernel parameters, but the kernel is in control.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
init is the one and only process the kernel starts. When init exits, the system assumes something bad has happened.

It is basically the 'Ok, we've got a kernel. Now, lets actually DO something' exe.

---------- Post added at 04:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:01 PM ----------

And our use of kexec is 'unique' in that the module being loaded occurs *after* the kernel has already started init.
[Motorola Photon 4G] tdhite:
The Dev thread is up: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2114984

Time to work, folks -- nickman gets credit for requesting this thing (and I make sure it lives in infamy in the initial post).
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
Could you possibly ask Gopi about the status of the electrify sources, I'd do it but i'm afraid most of what I say comes out sounding like i'm pissed off. (Maybe my lack of sense of time passed, just checked and it's only been one day...)

I'd appreciate it!

I'm also thinking that Gopi is like a woods teacher, says he'll help you in a minute but you have to keep reminding him because hes busy helping other people.
[Motorola Photon 4G] tdhite:
The world belongs to the bold. lol. Never forget that.

I will see what I can do up to filing suit for specific enforcement of their license obligations. You can do that, as you are a beneficiary of that license, though I am not. Just fyi.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
Gopi has sent the request the software for group, which is actually a asigns a developer, who then reviews the development branches which are going to be released, and ensures that we as users can actually compile and use the sources. they're actually doing a very good job in organizing the releases so that we can actually use them.

I will send him an email to see if you can get some kind of estimate. 1 of the things that I think people have miss understood, is that the software group inside of Motorola in the past hasn't been as organize are coordinated as it is becoming now. part of that means that they have to clean things up.

the good news is all new product releases are including this kind of thing moving forward, as opposed in the past we're coordination of the release of the open source software was done as the software was requested. in the future this will no longer happen, streamlining the process of us getting availability of the source.

and yes I now have direct access via email, which may help a bit.

I'm actually going to suggest that xda create a forum specifically to coordinate request for source releases. I think a few individuals contacting individual companies in a coordinated manner will make things so much easier in the future.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
Motorola has confirmed that they have requested the electrify sources be posted by the end of the week.
[Motorola Photon 4G] Slender Troll:
What about the Photon sources? Or are they already out?
[Motorola Photon 4G] InsanePostman:
well dude best of luck to you seriously. like i said earlier. i'm definitely not a dev at all nor do i have any knowledge of reading hex or files like that. but if you need some help testing sh*t let me know. i'm willing to put this phone at risk for the greater good.
[Motorola Photon 4G] matt51:
Has anyone looked into modding Safestrap for the Photon?
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
Possible.. we might look at locked roms with kernel mods
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
My safestrap is fine. How would we mod it?
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
It's not official but it IS stock. Let me open it up
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
I posted this link in the Android developers. And someone told me that CG42.SMG was the reason we were locked.

Perhaps we could find the file from an unlockable version of the software and inject it?
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
If we could at least work around the bootloader... I still wonder how the s

DROID X2 is able to have JB on it with just bootstrap?...
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
Does anyone have a spare photon?
[Motorola Photon 4G] LightingZ:
Glad to see activity ! , i wan't help but i don't have time (Im a java developer) .
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
Anyone can help. Just test what ever we release and let us know if it works:D
[Motorola Photon 4G] R2DeeTard:
Loving this! Hope you guys nip this in the bud. Oh and if you could somehow come across drivers for ics, that would be great.
[Motorola Photon 4G] WiredAnim:
I have a Photon running 2.3.5 that is locked and I'm willing to flash whatever to it. I want to try and help get this bad boy unlocked!!! Until then my development is halted.... erg....

PS my end goal is to get it running on US GSM so I can't test CDMA... Just wanted to add that XD
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
Thanks for the help! All of you guys! Super appreciation!
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
Guys, look around in your phone folders with a root browser and see if anyone can find CG42.smg. Thats the booger that locks us
[Motorola Photon 4G] tdhite:
Not the one we need. Mof put a locked ROM for use with bootstrap out there. We want the one you load with RSD. I can't seem to find it anywhere, but Mof has to have one, right? To have created the slim deblur?
[Motorola Photon 4G] anthony062991:
What I saw somewhere online is that you need to extract the sbf to get to the smg files then edit with hex editor. When I get home I will take a look at it..
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
Alright. I can't find the sbf
[Motorola Photon 4G] tdhite:
Ok, but anyone who had not yet upgraded should be able to download it, just not install it, no? That's how I installed mine, but I admit I never hunted down the SBF on my phone at the time.
[Motorola Photon 4G] nickman529:
Yes that's right. If anyone was on 2.3.4 they could provide us with the sbf file
[Motorola Photon 4G] anthony062991:
what about the SBF from this post to unbrick our device? That should work because everyone is able to flash this to unbrick our device. (Sprint and USC) Maybe we can find a way to dodify the smg to flash to our device to unlock it some how? idk? I'm not really a dev, but I know a little bit. When I get back home I can see how to extract the SBF and maybe compare it to an unlocked SBF or something?

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1798145

Edit:

This should have some more info on unpacking SBF files.

Check out the Sticky's in these threads:

http://modmymobile.com/forums/402-general-motorola-android/

This program is for windows, but I'm not on windows so I can't test it:

This also extracts the SBF:

http://tinyurl.com/audsvul

Here is a more usefull guide for the Defy and Defy+ forums about downgrading SBF and editing them as well:

Has anyone tried to use this method of downgrading for our phone?

DOWNGRADE

If you come from Android 2.1 and never flashed Android 2.2 you can use the fixed sbf-files method. With this method you will have a option to downgrade to you personal stock Android 2.1 via direct sbf flash.

- First download nandroid backup and normal sbf file of you favourite rom.

- build your own fixed sbf:

- depack sbf-file with MotoAndroidDepacker and delete cg31.smg and cg39.smg

- repack sbf-file (MotoAndroidDepacker)

- install nadroid backup

- flash repacked sbf-file (this one without cg31/cg39)

Source:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=966537
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
Photons source are already out.
[Motorola Photon 4G] tdhite:
All relevant photon sources already were published. I will all links to the dev thread.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
UPDATE! Electrify kernel sources have been released.
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
I was just gonna say this lol. Glad it happend so fast.
[Motorola Photon 4G] krrishvaid:
So what does that mean.... Is that a good news......

---------- Post added at 10:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:42 AM ----------

Will that help...... What does it mean.......
[Motorola Photon 4G] LexLuger82:
Yikes
[Motorola Photon 4G] mquezada21:
Has anyone ever tried just completly formating the photon (2.3.5) and just pushing all partition images from that of 2.3.4? Esentially cloning 2.3.4 .I was trying that the other day using fastboot however I was using the images created by nandroid so Im not sure how good those were and I'm not that great with commands as I used to be. I mest up and only sent the bootloader image and bricked my phone. I was too lazy to try again after I unbricked it. In my mind that would therotically work as the reason why we can't downgrade is because of that file somewhere that doesn't allow us. Which already mentioned it can't be replaced. However if the partition was fully wiped wouldn't that allow us to flash the files found in 2.3.4 that way the phone believes its 2.3.4 and then sbf stock 2.3.4 to gives us a clean slate? Im willing to give this another shot if someone can help me come up the proper way of formating and flashing as well as any other available options not just fastboot.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
How did you manage to flash the bootloader at all? The bootloader won't allow you to flash an unsigned bootloader, hence, chicken or egg.
[Motorola Photon 4G] Lightsword1942:
Read here for why you can't flash older bootloaders.
[Motorola Photon 4G] Wiicked08:
So is it possible to actually do something about this bootloader that can't be flashed? IF so how? And i would like to be part of this, dont know much though.
[Motorola Photon 4G] krrishvaid:
Welll...no offense...but........ I guess the developers working on unlocking the bootloader with those tricky kexec are not that careless to not even have tried the thing you mention here..... Or are they:rolleyes:
[Motorola Photon 4G] Lightsword1942:
kexec is a bypass, it will allow us to run custom kernels with a locked bootloader

We've already tried and failed flashing the bootloaders, but if you have any ideas how we might be able to let us know.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
The only thing I'm not sure anyone ever tried with the sunfires is to flash using nvflash and a factory cable. But that assumes you can get the device SBK, which I believe nvflash uses to encrypt its communications.
[Motorola Photon 4G] Lightsword1942:
I ordered one of those cables a few days ago, think I might try and see if it will do anything, probably won't since we don't have the SBK though. Did see this though, but not sure if it will work. In theory we should be able to extract the SBK since it uses symmetric encryption but it is probably pretty difficult.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
I don't believe that will ever work. The processor allows you to write the SBK, but never, evereverever read it.

The SBK is used by the hardware encryption, so no code ever sees it.
[Motorola Photon 4G] surfrock66:
I have a Moto Photon 4G, fully updated to 2.4.5, rooted, not unlocked of course.

Can we get a dummy-summary as to the status of this thing? As an example of said dummy, I read 40 pages of thread and can't tell if the project is stuck, or paused, or what people are currently waiting on.
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
As of right now, tdhite has gotten kexec_load.ko witch is kexec as a module to build and load properly on the phonton 4g and electrify.

FYI: Kexec is a linux tool that allows for loading kernels, and then restarting into the kernel.

He's currently working on kexec-tools, witch should allow us to load a custom kernel, and if we get a custom kernel then we can have custom roms.

He's also working on 2nd-init. 2nd-init hijacks the current init and allows for custom init.d's to be loaded since the locked bootloader wants only moto signed init's.

With 2nd-init we would be able to load roms from the sdcard.

Heres a more current thread started by tdhite: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2114984

I'd check in every few days to see if he's made any progress.
[Motorola Photon 4G] Lightsword1942:
Well, by in theory I mean it is something that is technically in our hardware, much unlike asymmetric encryption in which it would be impossible to get the private key needed. Wonder if anyone has ever opened up a chip like this to manually pull keys before.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
I don't have the hard proof right this second, but the exact memory that they are reading, in the Tegra documentation, says that you can *never* read it.

Not that it's not worth a run to see if it happens to not do what the specification states. :p
[Motorola Photon 4G] mquezada21:
I dont exactly remember everything I did or the order in which I did things, I was messing with my phone for over 4 hours doing random stuff. I first somehow managed to format the boot partition and then I atempted to flash boot.img off of one of my old nandroid backups with a stock unlocked 2.3.4 sprint rom.I was using moto-fastboot probably the commands flash boot boot.img or something like that. I then dont remember what exactly I did after but I know I reboted at one point and got the Falied to boot 3 error code on power up. So I just unbricked it and called it a night. Haven't messed with it anymore but what I was attempting to do was to clone the files found on my 2.3.4. I dont see why it wouldnt work if figured out how to do it properly. I mean if it was as simple as go to my computer and then f, g, h or what ever drive yea it would have been done a long time ago. But I know its not as easy as that and Im not familiar with ways to acces the internal phone files. And thats where I asked for help.

Not at all offended as it has to work, the problem is how? I mean this might sound dumb but when the phone was programed at factory there was no 2.3.5 to downgrade to 2.3.4. They were able to install 2.3.4 because they were starting fresh from a clean slate. Now if you have 2.3.5 of course you can't downgrade everyone knows that because even if forced to many files could become corrupt which would create problems. Hence a completely formated 'phones storage medium' (Im completely unaware of the correct term for whatever chip holds everything) shouldn't give us a problem and allow us to write all the files needed for a working 2.3.4 and even if not fully functional as long as the the core files are able to be transfered RSD Lite should allow us to flash one of the 2.3.4 SBF files to gives us a fresh "out box" working photon that we can then just follow the normal unlocking procedures.

Tell me I'm wrong but explain to my why? I't not a linux person I don't understand most of it as I have not given it much work, and I don't program phones, or a developer. However I have been fixing PCs for over 6 years and to me this problem in its most basic form is just sotware that can be wiped and new can be installed. Would I need special software to access what I need? I find that very likely
[Motorola Photon 4G] Lightsword1942:
Yeah, I've seen that documentation before, all I'm saying is that the SBK does technically reside in memory somewhere on the chip, very much unlike the private keys for normal signing of images.

I don't know why you are trying to flash the 2.3.4 boot.img on a locked 2.3.5 bootloader, that will not work since it breaks the chain of trust, all you did was make your phone temporarily non-bootable. Anyways the reason we can't just format the memory to downgrade is because of the fuse in which the values can't be lowered(necessary in order to flash 2.3.4 bootloader), take a look at that write up for what we know about the bootloader so far and why it is so difficult to downgrade.
[Motorola Photon 4G] mquezada21:
I really just did it to see what would happen and I understand the matter with the "fuse". However if there was no fuse then it would all be possible. Like stated before I am not completely aware of all the options available to get into the actual phones software but what I am saying is there has to be a way to completely wipe everything including that fuse.
[Motorola Photon 4G] InsanePostman:
no.. there is no way to bypass the fuse.
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
It's a real fuse, on the chip itself. think of a blown fuse in your car. :)
[Motorola Photon 4G] sub2k1:
Can I break out my soldering iron and replace this fuse?
[Motorola Photon 4G] twaffle:
No. These fuses are on the chip itself. The way these chips work is, there is a small resister, which normally is passed a smaller amount of current to see if it is there. When they wish to 'program' this fuse, they pass, say, three times the normal current, which actually does burn it out.

From that point forward, it appears to no longer be connected.

This isn't *exactly* how it works, but it's the general idea.
[Motorola Photon 4G] phatninja55:
I recall reading back that someone said to try a factory style cable, well I just got one today an am going to try an downgrade using it.

I'll post back in a bit to tell you if it failed or worked.

It failed. =(
[Motorola Photon 4G] Lightsword1942:
I have a factory cable, but without the SBK nvflash won't work. I assume you are talking about attempting a downgrade with RSD lite but I don't think there is much chance of getting that to work. I have not tested a downgrade myself though as all my photons have never been above update 198_7. What we really need is a low level hardware expert who might be able to find a way of extracting the SBK from the chip, which should in theory be possible since it uses symmetric encryption.
[Motorola Photon 4G] MarcquisDale:
Flashing through rsd lite doesn't work ive tried all three sbf files from 2.3.4 and also tried a couple of engineered sbf files they always end the same
[Motorola Photon 4G] MarcquisDale:
Anyone have a stock boot.img they can share