[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bbkr:
Hi

I've just bought Snopow M8 Android 4.2.1: www.snopow.com/product_view.php?pgid=phone&id=21&fsid=1&tpl=phone_view1 and I'd like to share some knowledge about this phone:

1.

Rooting can be done as described on http://droidchina.com/forum/Thread-How-To-Root-MTK6589-Tutorial - it worked flawlessly on Mac OS X.

(if you are afraid of running unknown software on sudo use ADB from official android SDK)

2.

OTA update is broken. I've debugged the issue and it connects to nonexistent URL:

I/SystemUpdate/HttpManager( 2881): doPost, url = mota*mediatek*com/fota/download/login.php, mCookies = null
D/FrameworkListener( 126): dispatchCommand data = (getaddrinfo mota.mediatek.com ^ 1024 0 1 0)
D/libc-netbsd( 126): getaddrinfo: mota.mediatek.com NO result from proxy
D/libc-netbsd( 126): res_queryN name = mota.mediatek.com, class = 1, type = 1
D/libc-netbsd( 126): res_queryN name = mota.mediatek.com., class = 1, type = 1
D/libc-netbsd( 2881): getaddrinfo: mota.mediatek.com NO result from proxy
D/libc-netbsd( 2881): res_queryN name = mota.mediatek.com, class = 1, type = 1
D/libc-netbsd( 2881): res_queryN name = mota.mediatek.com., class = 1, type = 1
I/System.out( 2881): [CDS][DNS]Unable to resolve host "mota.mediatek.com": No address associated with hostname
W/System.err( 2881): java.net.UnknownHostException: Unable to resolve host "mota.mediatek.com": No address associated with hostname

The solution was to root the phone, download Hosts Editor app from http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.treb.hosts and add

IP: 218.249.47.103
hosts: mota.mediatek.com

entry. Which resolves to "ota.mediatek.com" by the way :)

3.

NFC won't start up. When clicked in settings option gets stuck in greyed mode. ADB output:

D/NFCJNI ( 810): Start Initialization
D/pn544_libhardware( 810): nfc_open:
E/NFC-HCI ( 810): Could not open /system/vendor/firmware/libpn544_fw.so
E/NfcService( 810): Watchdog fired: name=enableInternal threadId=51 timeout=90000
E/NFCJNI ( 810): emergency_recovery: NFC stack dead-locked
E/NFCJNI ( 810): emergency_recovery: NFC stack dead-locked
E/NFCJNI ( 810): emergency_recovery: NFC stack dead-locked
E/NFCJNI ( 810): emergency_recovery: NFC stack dead-locked
E/NFCJNI ( 810): emergency_recovery: NFC stack dead-locked

I haven't found the solution. Anyone encountered similar issue? Google / forum searching did not reveal any useful information about it except the fact that it comes from Nfc.apk.

4.

ClockWork Recovery Mod can be installed using:

ADB drivers - http://adbdriver.com/downloads/

MTK Droid Tools - http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2160490

I've followed instructions on http://phtechbook.blogspot.com/2014...cwm-recovery-any-mediatek-android-device.html

I was using Windows XP in VirtualBox on Mac OS X (remember to activate phone USB device in virtual machine menu if you are using the same method).

5.

Internal store can be swapped with SD card by changing two lines in /system/etc/vold.fstab from:

dev_mount sdcard /storage/sdcard0 emmc@fat /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.0 /devices/platform/mtk-msdc.0/mmc_host
dev_mount sdcard2 /storage/sdcard1 auto /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.1 /devices/platform/mtk-msdc.1/mmc_host

to

dev_mount sdcard /storage/sdcard1 emmc@fat /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.0 /devices/platform/mtk-msdc.0/mmc_host
dev_mount sdcard2 /storage/sdcard0 auto /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.1 /devices/platform/mtk-msdc.1/mmc_host

and rebooting. Do it on clean phone or do factory wipe in recovery mode after this swap because otherwise it will mess up already installed apps.

Now it will be possible to install big and extremely dumb apps (such as Need For Speed: Most Wanted) that cannot simply store its bulky data on external SD for unknown reasons...

6.

Phone is vulnerable to SMS "=" exploit and still lacks OTA update.

7.

Stock ROM is available on http://www.needrom.com/mobile/snopow-m8/ . I haven't tried it.