yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] speculatrix:
So I've been too busy to visit xda for a few days and I missed out on all the fun!

I lost my TA partition on the first day I had my XZU when I unlocked bootloader having not read up properly, and what I've never had I've never missed. I don't use any of the Sony apps at all, except the launcher (which is similar enough to Nova to not be bothered).

I won't be flashing this XZUgpe rom as I need something for a stable driver, but I'll be following the discussion and offering advice if I can be useful.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] LordManhattan:
The system dump is posted here. DEVS ONLY. Again, thank you very much @sfagundes. We all love you :)
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Spectre51:
Track ID still works with unlocked boot loader last I checked. That issue was resolved a while ago with a track is update.

Sent from my Lumia 1020
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] b22ri22an:
got this from google today concerning the security tab force close and the crashing unistall bugs

Hi Brian,

Thank you for contacting Google, my name is Garrett, and I had the pleasure of talking to you yesterday.

The reason I was not able to send you an RMA yesterday because I had to escalate this issue.

I have received news of an update for the Sony Ultra Z that should fix the problem you were experiencing.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you, and you should see the update soon.

If you have anymore questions you can reply directly to this email or by calling Google 24/7 at 855-836-3987

Happy Holidays,

Garrett

Google Support
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Batman81:
I was told the same thing when I called today. No exact date, but they said they are working on it and it should be soon.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Phaze1585:
Ok cool. What are the differences between the Xperia Z Ultra and the Z Ultra GPe?
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] warfareonly:
Debloated and fast updates.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] speculatrix:
Please can you let us know...

are the partition sizes the same between the standard and the gpe variant?

how much free space is left by gpe?

thanks
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] krabappel2548:
Hey, if you want to try something to fix the existing issues pm me for hangouts. After work I can probably help you fix them ;)
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] virtualepiphany:
pm sent.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Sebring5:
If you come up with any fixed, please let everyone know. We all have the same issues.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Batman81:
Has anyone noticed if they can write to the external SD? I cant write to it, only read from it.

Anyone else, or is it just me doing something wrong? :confused:
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] jutley:
i was thinking if anyone with the gpe z ultra can kindly zip up all the original 4.4 wallpapers and post them here please.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] rockky:
I have a replacement GPE arriving tomorrow that apparently has the * security, * uninstall, and * Google Now Voice command fixes in place.

$700 for a refurbish.

QUOTE=Batman81;48497941]I was told the same thing when I called today. No exact date, but they said they are working on it and it should be soon.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] wrxdrunkie:
I ordered both the gpe ultra and the xperia zu and I must say the xperia version just seems sharper. YouTube videos look better and have more contrast. Text is sharper and cleaner. The ui as a whole looks much better on the xperia. No idea why but it is enough to sway me to go with the xperia model instead of the gpe.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] abuihsan:
so gpe version is an advantage for who love flashing as it means more freedom for customization. gpe will bring fast update :good:
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] rockky:
I have both and did a very careful comparison.

Text yeah... Xperia stands out more...screen is shaded a bit more but battery is way better on GPE and think this has something to do with it.

Pics, videos, graphics in general? No way. Gpe is at least equal in those areas. Speed significantly better w/Gpe also of course w/4.4.

QUOTE=wrxdrunkie;48527388]I ordered both the gpe ultra and the xperia zu and I must say the xperia version just seems sharper. YouTube videos look better and have more contrast. Text is sharper and cleaner. The ui as a whole looks much better on the xperia. No idea why but it is enough to sway me to go with the xperia model instead of the gpe.[/QUOTE]
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] wrxdrunkie:
[/QUOTE]

I am not making any claims in regards to battery or any other pros and cons between the two devices. I just know text, the ui, app launcher icon, keyboard, etc. All look sharper on the Xperia version, I noticed it right when I turned on my GPE. The whole UI looks slightly blurry. I watch a 4k youtube video on both devices and the Xperia version has much better detail, on mountains and grass the GPE kinda blends it all together, with the xperia version you can see the definition between shades of rock in the grand canyon or mountains and indivual blades of grass in the big fields.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] jutley:
I am not making any claims in regards to battery or any other pros and cons between the two devices. I just know text, the ui, app launcher icon, keyboard, etc. All look sharper on the Xperia version, I noticed it right when I turned on my GPE. The whole UI looks slightly blurry. I watch a 4k youtube video on both devices and the Xperia version has much better detail, on mountains and grass the GPE kinda blends it all together, with the xperia version you can see the definition between shades of rock in the grand canyon or mountains and individual blades of grass in the big fields.[/QUOTE]

What are you smoking? i want some too
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] fastest83:
Seems like you're smoking already... first of all, you're the only one with a Samsung avatar on a Sony forum.

And second, you can't quote for sh*t. LOL
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] wrxdrunkie:
I have no reason to lie about this. Why would I want to keep the more.expensive and bloated phone? All this experience has made me believe is that Sony might have some secret sauce, if you will, that they use on their xperia zu
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] jutley:
It was meant as a joke wasent trying to be rood hey looking at your avatar you look like you been smoking something for sure lol.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] LordManhattan:
Alright, every single person here smokes crack for breakfast. Can we move on now? :p
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] fastest83:
OH SH*T, YOU GOT ME!

*going hiding under the desk*
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Sebring5:
Moving on, the question as to which is which for what is interesting. I have both and will sell one. Which one? I'm using GPE now. Right now that is the one I intend to keep. Tomorrow, I might think differently.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] oldblue910:
Is anyone with a GPE Z Ultra getting a crash when you try and go into Settings | Security on your phone? What about when you attempt to uninstall an app? Does it do a UI reset?
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] gbohm:
It is known kalesi
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] rockky:
Those are documented....also "Google" voice commands on GNow don't work for some.

Waiting on an update.

I have a replacement (obviously a refurb) with these items fixed).

QUOTE=oldblue910;48544921]Is anyone with a GPE Z Ultra getting a crash when you try and go into Settings | Security on your phone? What about when you attempt to uninstall an app? Does it do a UI reset?[/QUOTE]
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] oldblue910:
Would someone who's experiencing the issue be willing to send me logcats so I can see what's causing it to crash?
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Sebring5:
Will thi help?
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] jerdog:
Two things to note...

1) The FOTAKernel partition is actually a full on recovery partition SEPARATE from the kernel. 'fastboot flash recovery <recovery.img file>' will work

2) There is an OTA being worked on and should be ready to roll out soon that will fix the security settings issue and the inability to uninstall apps. It is crashing due to keystore being borked.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] oldblue910:
No, I need someone to cause the issue to happen, then grab a bug report from developer options and send that to me.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Sebring5:
I accessed security settings which force closed and then generated a bug report which I emailed to the gmail account listed in your profile.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] gasolara2002:
Just got mine a few minutes ago and I too am plagued with the security bug. Overall the phone is cool.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] clubtech:
In addition the knows bugs, the stock gpe runs at at a none official density of 400 (Goole officially support only 320 and 480). Very odd.

This means you won't see all apps in the play store.

Stock Sony Rom runs at 320.

I changed it to 320 and now I can see all apps (you need to be rooted for that).
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] graffixnyc:
hmm I'm having an issue unlocking the bootloader.. I keep getting this error when I run fastboot oem unlock

FAILED (remote: Incorrect format for unlock data. Should be on the form "0x)
finished. total time: 0.003s

Anyone seen that before?

edit: Never mind.. you still have to request an unlock code from Sony to get the device unlocked..
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Bin4ry:
On Sony phones

"fastboot flash recovery" is normally not working! They dont give you access from fastboot to this partitcular parition, they have a own bootloader called s1boot which emulates the fastboot functionality. IF it is possible to flash recovery partition on the GPE edition of this phones needs to be tested and cannot be taken for granted ;)

Regards
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] jerdog:
Yeah Sony phones don't use fastboot that way to unlock, and you can't relock that way either.

Fastboot flash recovery normally doesn't work, you are correct. However Google demanded that they include a physical recovery partition separate from the kernel. It is FOTAKernel and according to Sony engineers fastboot flash recovery should work as aboot would translate the location. In this case we might have to do FOTAKernel instead as aboot might not work correctly.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Bin4ry:
Have you tested it? If yes really cool, just asking, because we have FOTAKernel and a recovery partition on Xerpia Version of this phone too, but we CANNOT access it from fastboot :D Thats the "problem" we have :D But sure i know that we have a slightly different s1boot implementation here which allows booting to recovery/fastboot by pressing volume key. So youMIGHT be correct :D I just want to be 100% sure ;)

Regards
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] jerdog:
I will try at some point today or [MENTION=3537886]graffixnyc[/MENTION] can
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] LordManhattan:
Arstechnica has reviewed the Z Ultra GPE :)
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] graffixnyc:
I flashed the one dees_troy gave me but it doesn't seem to be taking. If I boot back into Android and go into recovery I get stock recovery. Dees think's the stock recovery is getting rewritten. I did see an install recovery script in /etc. So I tried booting directly into recovery after flashing it. It just boots back into android if I select "recovery" mode from the bootloader menu. If I power off the device and try entering recovery with the key combo, it vibrates a few times and then restarts, Dees thinks it may be the image file. I haven't spoke to him since this morning
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] graffixnyc:
How did you manage to get root?
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] virtualepiphany:
1) Unlock the bootloader

2) Download the RevolutionKernel from the development thread. Download SuperSu1.8

3) Copy SuperSu to your phone.

4) "fastboot boot filename" of the RevolutionKernel file you downloaded. (do not fastboot flash!)

5) Hit Vol up for CWM or Vol down for TWRP when the led turns purple.

6) Install supersu.zip from cwm or twrp that is packaged with the revolution kernel.

7) Don't hold me responsible if your phone explodes. This was the process I used without issue. You may also want to read up about that TA partition, I did not back mine up. We do not know what the repercussions are at this time.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] graffixnyc:
Thanks, worked like a charm
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] LordManhattan:
Nice! I'll add this to my guide, and give your the credit of course :)
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] gasolara2002:
Hopefully this comes through for me. I'll keep it posted
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] pulser_g2:
Did you grab the URL from logcat?

I was going to do it, but the phone isn't "eligible" for the update. Sony have tried pushing it to me though, so we shall see :)
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] shaolin95:
So you got stock 4.3 rooted now using those steps?! Sweet! :laugh:
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] pulser_g2:
No. This thread is for the Google Play Edition, which is 4.4.{0,2}
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] shaolin95:
I must stop reading while at work on 3 chats! LOL
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] gasolara2002:
Tell me how to do it and I will try it. Mine says waiting to download. I am trying to see how to get it going
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] pulser_g2:
If you have your PC set up for adb, run "adb logcat > link.txt" in the command prompt. Then search it for "http", and you should find the OTA link.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] gasolara2002:
I don't have adb on my pc but I can get the files and put it on my pc in about 45 minutes
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] pulser_g2:
OK - I don't think you can grab the URL from the phone itself without root.

I am not sure if you can grab the zip file though - it ends up usually on the cache partition if I recall correctly.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] LordManhattan:
This will probably save you a couple of seconds.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] gasolara2002:
I think you are right
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] stiggy2012:
Can't you just download a terminal app from the play store and use logcat from there? :confused:

EDIT: No, you can't. Since 4.1 an app only gets to see it's own log messages.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] graffixnyc:
I posted a 4.4.2 system dump (with rooted system.img)

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=48584415&postcount=35
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] pulser_g2:
Nope - modern versions of Android prevent accessing log messages from other processes, as a security feature.

This means a rogue app on your phone can't access logs from other processes (which could reveal sensitive info)
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] baileyjr:
Im assuming you have but can you confirm if you have a full root mate? ie Xposed etc working.

Only reason I ask is because we have having issues with a similar rooting method for the 4.3 stock sony rom.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] gasolara2002:
Well when it could not get the URL but I did get the update. If I remember correctly the update file should be on the phone somewhere.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] oldblue910:
All you have to do to get the URL is enabled USB debugging in Developer Options, then choose Take Bug Report. It will then email a text file to your gmail account. Search that text file for ".zip" (without the quotes). Post the full URL. You do not need root to do any of this.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Gitaroo:
does GPE of Z Ultra has stamina mode?
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] LordManhattan:
Nay, it does not, so i don't know how the standby time is on it, but i can't imagine it being that much worse than stock running devices. Or?
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] ChillyChan:
Even if it doesn't, Snapdragon's Battery Guru does the same thing pretty well.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] virtualepiphany:
not using xposed but i know i have root. i used root file explorer and had read/write access to system permissions. i also replaced some stock apks.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] f2:
Just for clarification purposes. Is there a chance that in the end after a lot of sweat, tears and hard work we might could get a rom that will turn our Xperia Z Ultra into a Z Ultra Google Edition and from this moment on we would get the official OTA updates from Google, even if we have the European C6833?
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] baileyjr:
Im sure we will get a version of the ROM for the Xperia Z Ultra, Doomlord has aready ported it to the Z1. You won't get OTA's though.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] virtualepiphany:
No. Even when it's ported your deviceid is not in the databases as a gpe. You would need to sideload the updates going forward.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] LordManhattan:
We will get close, but not that close. It'll work and operate as a GPe device, but like sfagundessays, it won't be registred as a genuine GPe device, so we won't receive OTAs (but that's not a big deal).
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] graffixnyc:
Not fully true.. I have an HTC One which I converted over to GPE one. (I actually did the conversion process in the one forums) and you can get OTA's just fine. I'm not sure if they are doing anything differently for the sony GPE though.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] LordManhattan:
Interesting. We should take a look at that when the time comes.

Btw [MENTION=614742]Reb0rn[/MENTION] get to the FTF thread. Chainfire needs you again. I'm typing this here since i don't want to disrupt the current flow in that thread (since i have nothing to add)
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Reb0rn:
Done yet again :D
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] graffixnyc:
SD Card fix

If you guys haven't noticed you can't copy a file from internal sd to external sd (confirmed by me and one other) Well I figured it out.

I remember something about OTG not being able to read from external on apps like Tibu. I did something similar to get it to work on the ZU GPE.

If you are rooted you can copy this file to /etc/permissions/

I tested copying a file from internal to external and it worked fine after this change.

I did make a couple changes to the file, I'm not sure which did it but one of them did. I am attaching the file

Just rename from .xml.zip to .xml, back up exsiting file, copy new file and change permissions to match
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] oldblue910:
Can someone tell me the new bootloader version after the 4.4.2 update? Just reboot into bootloader mode and it should be displayed on screen.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Leechoonhwee:
I think some CDA change and build.prop changes is needed to "transform" the device to GPE and start receiving OTA.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] N10AP:
I`m wondering if the Sony Framework is included in this... So the new camera (from Z1) can work. This would be perfect then, as the GPE cam is...pants. It is in my SGS4 GPE anyway...
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] stiggy2012:
From what I understand from reading Bin4ry's posts:

You probably won't ever be able to flash an unedited GPe OTA to a non-GPE phone. The reason is because the s1boot partition uses different encryption keys on a GPe to a normal device. So if you were to flash a GPe OTA which included an update to the s1boot partition (such as the update to 4.2.2, for instance), it will hard brick your phone with no way back.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Leechoonhwee:
Well... if your boot partition is already GPE format, OTA would not be any problem.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Bin4ry:
This is WRONG! You confuse s1boot with boot, please DO NOT state anything like that. Such a statement MAY encourage some people to flash the OTA, and then their phone will be hardbricked.

Reason: s1boot has NOTHING to do with the bootpartition. It is the bootloader (also there is a s1 and a sbl but thats too much here now)!

So please people. Be careful what you say in such cases! We already have one dead device here, let's not make it more until we can assure a 100% safe way to convert the versions!

Regarsd
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] nintendolinky:
Do you think a day will come when we can do a safe conversion, if not do you think we will have a stable custom rom for the normal Ultra.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] LordManhattan:
My 8-ball says "Try again later".
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Bin4ry:
I cannot say now, but for sure you will get custom roms for GPE, this will not be a big problem. Also one could make a custom GPE rom for Xperia Z Ultra, i am only speaking of a REAL conversion between the devices ;)

Regards
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] gbohm:
Nah honestly I think that question is legit.... One could ask if a conversion is completely out of question or just a question of time. A developer could answer those extremes or something in between
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] nintendolinky:
Thats great mate, I'm getting a standard (Not GPE) Ultra tomorrow, and really would love to have stock Kitkat 4.4 on it, not bashing Sony's software but you cannot beat stock Android. Hopefully the issues you guys are having can be sorted quickly and we have either custom GPE roms for the original Ultra soon or a full conversion can be achieved.

I remember a few months back the HTC One was able to be converted to the GPE edition, I know its very different on Sony phones, but at least in the Android world it can be achieved.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Bin4ry:
I do not see any problems there. One can modify the "original" dump and remove the OTA functionality, then you could run the rom on a unlocked bootloader device within minutes, no big deal here. But as already told, the "interesting" part is the fast updates on regular base which are pushed out for GPE devices, so on long term we (or atleast me) want to find a solution for this problem, if possible. (no hard promises here)

Regards
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] nintendolinky:
Yeah im glad that is the goal. If there isn't any issue with getting the current "original" dump on the normal Ultra, hopefully someone will release the stock GPE rom for our phones, removing the "special partitions", to avoid hard brick and other huge issues. As already mentioned, a lot of people including me would love to have 4.4 on our phone, however what i have read is that there are a few issues with WiFi etc, is that still the case.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] pulser_g2:
The tough part with these OTA updates is that we don't know what a future one will contain.

Generally, Sony don't do OTA updates of bootloaders... This seems to be a fairly big change here. They might never do it again, or they might flash bootloader (and other special) partitions... We just can't be sure.

I doubt Sony would risk binary patching of the bootloaders, but I guess it is possible (if you can dump it to get a checksum, you can binary patch it). The problem is that you cannot *guarantee* they do the flash via a regular command in the updater-script; it could be done via "flashbootloader.sh" if they wanted...

I was thinking about a "crippled" recovery, which purposefully doesn't mount up any partitions other than the plain, normal ones, when it is triggered from the "install OTA" mechanism... Ideally the "workaround" would be entirely within the recovery image, so nothing changes in the ROM. Preventing those partitions from even appearing might help, or routing them to /dev/null (and being doubly, triply sure that has happened) might help?
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Leechoonhwee:
That's what I meant. Be it the bootloader or anything , it has to be 100% gpe before you can even dream of using it as a gpe device. I'm not advocating any ideas here. Chill. :D

I think many folks here will enjoy a cwm flash GPE rom and we just need a big red disclaimer telling them that OTA will brick your device.
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] Bin4ry:
Yes your are right. Sony really does not do s1boot updates through OTA, they just not allow versions which contain s1boot updates as OTA Update and force the users to use PCC/SUS/EMMA to upgrade.

The recovery does not mount the s1boot partition, would not even be possible, what you would need to do is copile a own Kernel for recovery, in this kernel disable the writing to the s1boot block-device and then pack it together with a recovery and flash to devices. This way one could ensure that the OTAs cannot upgrade the s1boot for sure (atleast until someone uses another recoery ;/ )

Another attempt: Modify the Rom to NOT download OTA from google. This way noone would get the OTA and need to get active themselves. Then we could grab the OTA zips, remove again OTA function inside the files if needed and release it for users. At all it would be even posible o bundle a own updater and pusj the updates to the converted devices.

Still: IF we cold be sure the s1bot updates will be made through recovery only we could make a script to strip out this parts of the updates automatically, this way we would not need to remove OTA function from running rom. But as you said already, it would be possible they change the way to write to the partition, then we would be screwed again :P

Regards
[Sony Xperia Z Ultra] graffixnyc:
have any of you guys experienced this?

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2576674