[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] viliam.pucik:
Allview P6 Quad (Romania) is a dual SIM phone based on MTK6589 chipset running Android 4.1.2. It is actually a clone of Gionee Dream D1 / GN878 (China) also know as Fly IQ444 Quattro / Diamond 2 (Russia) or Walton Primo X1 (India).

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1. Setup

All the below described activities such as backing up, flashing and rooting require the PC is able to recognize and communicate with the phone. In case of Windows this is achieved by installing Gionee MTK USB driver, see Software section. Backing up and rooting also require USB debugging enabled on the phone via System settings -> Developer options -> USB debugging:

2. Backing Up

It is highly advised to create an initial ROM backup by MTK Droid Tools before doing any phone modifications.

Make sure Gionee MTK USB driver has been installed and the phone is powered up with USB debugging enabled and connected to the PC.

Run MTKdroidTools.exe.

In case the phone has not been rooted yet then press ROOT button and after an access to the phone is successfully obtained the application automatically offers initial backup option. Otherwise press Backup button in root, backup and recovery tab to start the backup manually.

After couple of minutes backup files are placed into backup directory.

3. Flashing

Restoring a custom, stock or any ROM for MTK based devices can be done by SP Flash Tool, see Software section. The tools works in two modes:

Download: A little bit misleading name as it actually does ROM upload. For partial or complete ROM flashing of the same Android version. Useful for restoring the base system, user settings, boot logos or installing an alternative recovery (CWM or TWRP) image.

Firmware Upgrade: For complete ROM flashing when fixing a completely bricked device or doing Android upgrading or downgrading using stock ROM or one of cloned phone ROMs.

A ROM consists of the following files. Only some of them should be selected for download mode flashing.

RELOADER, UBOOT, SECRO: Device and Android version dependent files. Should NOT be selected for download mode flashing as it may brick the device.

MBR, EBR1, EBR2: Disk layout information.

LOGO: Startup logo and battery charging animation.

BOOT: Linux kernel and initial RAM disk partition.

RECOVERY: Recovery kernel and initial RAM disk partition.

SYSTEM: System files and factory applications.

CACHE: Cache of mostly used applications.

USERDATA: User settings and non-factory applications, usually downloaded from Google Play Store.

Stock ROM contains only empty CACHE and USERDATA partitions, selecting them will actually clean the cache and user data.

3.1. Flashing - Download Mode

Make sure Gionee MTK USB driver has been installed and the phone is powered DOWN and NOT connected to the PC.

Run Flash_tool.exe.

Enable Options -> USB Mode.

Open File -> Open Scatter-loading File and select MT6589_Android_scatter_emmc_PMT.txt.

Select only the necessary ROM files that should be restored.

Press Download button.

Then connect the powered down phone to the PC.

The tool should automatically detect the phone presence and start firmware flashing.

After couple of seconds a green circle is displayed after the process successfully ends.

3.2. Flashing - Firmware Upgrade Mode

Make sure Gionee MTK USB driver has been installed and the phone is powered DOWN and NOT connected to the PC.

Run Flash_tool.exe.

Enable Options -> USB Mode.

Open File -> Open Scatter-loading File and select MT6589_Android_scatter_emmc.txt.

Select all ROM files for restoration. In case some of them are missing then double click on them and select corresponding files from disk:

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Press Firmware Upgrade button.

Then press and hold VOLUME UP phone button and connect the powered down phone to the PC.

The tool should automatically detect the phone presence and start firmware flashing. VOLUME UP button can be released.

After couple of minutes a green circle is displayed after the process successfully ends.

3.3. Flashing - Firmware Upgrade Mode - MIUI ROM

There is MIUI ROM (alternative Android distribution with beautiful, iOS like user interface) attached in Software section containing all bits and pieces to easy upgrading process from the default Allview Android 4.1 firmware. The ROM integrates:

Android 4.2.x ready bootloader and partition layout taken from hardware compatible Walton Primo X1 ROM (http://www.waltonforum.com/index.php/topic,3590.0.html).

Original Allview boot logo.

Helpful deepak2111's TWRP recovery image.

Excellent RickyGoldsmith's MIUI port for hardware compatible Gionee Dream D1 / GN878 phone.

Valuable stas2z's OTA patches up to MIUI v3.12.15. The latest v3.12.21 patch was not integrated deliberatively as it causes screen locks during the initial setup wizard screen when the phone is firstly started from factory mode. The patch can be applied separately without any issues after the initial setup wizard is completed.

Small modifications of /system/build.prop to enable software keys (qemu.hw.mainkeys=0), preselect English language mutation (instead of Russian), preselect Central European Time zone (instead of Moscow) and change phone model name to Allview P6 Quad (instead of GiONEE Dream D1).

ROM should be flashed using SP Flash Tool running in Firmware Upgrade mode following the steps described in previous section.

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4. Rooting

Rooting a phone is enabling root (administrator, superuser) access to the device useful in cases where modifying of protected system files and applications is required. For example this allows Mobile Uncle application to tweak various settings of MTK based devices or allows AdAway application to block advertisement sites.

Android by default does not expose root access so a special exploit for particular Android version needs to be used which achieves user privilege escalation and places su binary and one of superuser management applications such as Superuser (open source) or SuperSU on the device. One of popular exploits which can be used for Android 4.1 is Motochopper, see Software section.

Make sure Gionee MTK USB driver has been installed and the phone is power up with USB debugging enabled and connected to the PC.

Run run.bat (Windows) or run.sh (Linux) to start the rooting.

The phone reboots automatically after the process successfully ends.

5. Booting

The phone supports three booting modes:

Normal: Simply by pressing POWER button the device boots into Android.

Recovery: Pressing and holding POWER and VOLUME UP buttons for a while enters recovery boot mode enabling backing up and restoring of user settings and cache wiping.

Factory: Pressing and holding POWER and VOLUME DOWN buttons for a while enters factory boot mode used mainly for running various hardware tests but can be used to recover from "touchscreen not responding" issue.

Long pressing of POWER button acts as a reset and powers down the device gracefully.

6. Theming

The phone comes with several theme skins which change the look of vendor applications such as Phone, Contacts, Messaging, Clock, Calendar, Calculator and others. Theme skins are are ZIP archives with *.gnz suffix located directly in /system/app or in SD card's Theme directory.

To create or modify a theme skin simply download and extract one of vendor provided theme skins. A theme skin archive can optimally contain various application launcher icons, icon backgrounds (located in /others/bottom), mapping files and mandatory since.properties file, which can be empty, and language.properties file which specifies name of the skin and various applications skin properties. In case application specific skin property is missing then system skin property value is used instead. Its value as as well as application skin property value can be one of the followings:

0: Transparent background.

1: White background.

2: Dark background.

There are two custom theme skins linked in Software section: Minimal and Black. Both of them set dark applications skin, do not use any custom application launcher icons or icon backgrounds effectively restoring native applications look. The first skin restores the default phone background, the second one sets a plain black wallpaper.

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7. GPS

Refresh outdated AGPS (Assisted GPS) caching files and enable EPO (Extended Prediction Orbit) cache to speed up GPS TTFF (Time to First Fix):

Make sure the phone has been rooted and is connected to the Internet.

Install a root file manager such as Root Browser application or use adb shell to remove the following files:

/data/misc/ARC.BIN

/data/misc/BEE.BIN

/data/misc/mtkgps.dat

Install and launch Mobile Uncle application.

Enable EPO via Engineer Mode -> Engineer Mode ( MTK ) -> Location -> Location Based Service -> EPO -> Enable EPO.

Then press EPO button or optionally enable Auto Download option to initiate download of the latest EPO file.

Navigate back to YGPS section as this will initiate AGP cache refreshment.

After couple of seconds a satellite map should display and location fix should arrive:

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At this point connection to Internet can be disabled as all AGPS and EPO caches have been warmed up and GPS can function on its own.

8. Software

Allview P6 Quad v4.1.2 (Stock ROM): https://uloz.to/!oVeS7IwrCs0Q/allview-p6-quad-v4-1-2-7z

Allview P6 Quad v4.2.1 MIUI v3.12.15 (MIUI ROM): https://uloz.to/!vRFSHqeT7xRM/allview-p6-quad-v4-2-1-miui-v3-12-15-7z

Gionee MTK USB Driver v1.1.0: https://uloz.to/!bDsAmGY4e8rt/gionee-mtk-usb-driver-v1-1-0-7z

MTK Droid Tools v2.5.2: https://uloz.to/!lBzdWafNaqrO/mtk-droid-tools-v2-5-2-7z

SP Flash Tool v3.1328.0.183: https://uloz.to/!k1PLxuxxO5Nw/sp-flash-tool-v3-1328-0-183-7z

Motochopper v1.1: https://uloz.to/!TQbjhwG78urq/motochopper-v1-1-7z

Minimal Theme Skin: https://uloz.to/!PgPos84bvGe4/minimal-gnz

Black Theme Skin: https://uloz.to/!TwG31rax67mW/black-gnz