yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
Well, it might be an unlocked bootloader... :P

Yeah, you guessed it right. It's an unlocked bootloader. That's all I'm saying until it's proven safe.

I just checked- the last kernel source was for .17 unless I didn't look properly. It would probably be fine but if any kernel changes occurred it might not play well with a different 5.0 ROM or a 5.1 ROM.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] lambdadroid:
Is the bootloader basically completely replaced with a custom one like Android-IA's kernelflinger like I started to do a few months back?

The kernel source for .33 is at http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/EeePAD/ME176C/kernal_V12_10_1_33.zip

Keep in mind the downloads offered at the US page of ASUS are different then on the international download page. The kernel sources, as well as most of the firmware packages are all available at https://www.asus.com/Tablets/ASUS_MeMO_Pad_7_ME176C/HelpDesk_Download/
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
It's a similar approach, yes. The difference is that we're booting a bootloader that is taken from another tablet that's unlocked.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] lambdadroid:
Ah I see, that's a great idea. Best of luck, can't wait to see this fully working. :)
[MeMO Pad 7 General] ratboy3124:
First I would like to thank [MENTION=5479482]jerbear294[/MENTION] for posting up the Nandroid. My tablet has run like garbage for a while and after flashing the system.img lost my external SD. Tablet just refused to see it. So I went back and flashed boot and system also. Everything works and the tablet runs fantastic! Don't know if I screwed something up in the past and this fixed it or what, but it runs so much better now. Now the 2nd thing. I can't get root to stick. It looks like it roots just fine and says it is successful, but once it boots up there is no root. I also tried installing SuperSU from the market on top of it with no luck. Any ideas?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] lambdadroid:
How did you root it?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] ratboy3124:
Originally when I first got the tablet I used RootZenFone, but have since just flashed SuperSU through TWRP on every update/wipe. That is what I tried this time around. Flashing it through TWRP, but this is the first time I have upgraded using a Nandroid and flashing boot.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Penguineh:
It was only a matter of time with the ability to modify the boot order for somebody to make a custom bootloader :).

Sounds EPIC Jerbear! I've got programming skills and would be willing to make a build of CyanogenMod, ill keep you posted. (I guess I am building it then...). Downloading the huge amount of files is going to take some time.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
Feel free to, my computer doesn't really cut it for ROM development. Core 2 Quad and 4 gigs of RAM is decent, but building a ROM still takes HOURS with all 4 cores being used.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Penguineh:
OK, I downloaded the source to compile CyanogenMod 12.1, lets have a crack at this...
[MeMO Pad 7 General] MaDDaWg836:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzV0xTW6JHHyQktqR2NzNlI1Z1U/view?usp=sharing

run the root.bat in the folder.

you're welcome xD
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Penguineh:
Ahh, the joys of compiling complex programs (not!)..

I have extracted boot.img, recovery.img, as well as mapped the partition scheme of the tablet and am ready to start test-compiling a build of cyanogen, but it gives me a stupid "case insensitive file systems are not supported error".. I have a way to fix it, It will just take time and it is late right now. Last time I used a case-sensitve file system, some apps bit me in the back since they were coded poorly.. (Adobe, I am looking at you) and required serious hackage to work.

Jerbear, you aren't ready to release the bootloader hack, but am I able to somehow flash my build to a usb stick to boot off and test it from the boot order menu? Regardless, I am not in any rush to do some crazy flashing to my device until I am sure that I can access a untethered recovery. Is the modded bootloader able to load from a bootable usb without using the BIOS/UEFI level crazyness, or is that totally out of the ballpark? I really need to get a powered usb hub, I have a otg cable though..
[MeMO Pad 7 General] bnzgl:
Installing issue

Accidentally i wipe android using twrp so i am trying to install android x86 or linux entering uefi selecting installation nothing coming except for black screen
[MeMO Pad 7 General] lambdadroid:
Just install the stock installation from the full firmware package again..?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] bnzgl:
I wiped bootloader, recovery everyting related with android only uefi menu is opening how can i install stock firmware
[MeMO Pad 7 General] lambdadroid:
So you can't even get into TWRP anymore?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] bnzgl:
You are god damn right:crying:
[MeMO Pad 7 General] lambdadroid:
So when you're booting the device, do you get directly into the UEFI menu? You'll need a powered USB otg hub to be able to navigate there and boot from a linux distribution for example. Although, depending on how much you wiped, there may be no way back if you even wiped the device-specific partitions.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] bnzgl:
yes i directly get in to uefi and trying to boot from linux but i navigate the installation bu after select install or try only seems ablack screen
[MeMO Pad 7 General] xristos2:
Just a question. I am using the tablet with mx player to see h265 videos. But suddenly yesterday the encoding was awful and the images was cracking all the time. A restart fixed the problem until some hours later where a restart needed to see the videos. Any idea why it's happening? I'm at . 24 rooted and xposed
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Mis012:
Once you get to linux (there was some android/windows switch which may cause your problem) ask for a dd'd bite copy of whole emmc (dev/block/mmcblk0), then dd the image again to mmcblk0 :) Should work ;)

For the cayenogenmod if you will make a fat partition intstead of boot.img and put kernel+initrd here, we can boot it with grub2 uefi edition ;)
[MeMO Pad 7 General] lambdadroid:
Could you be a little bit more specific what you did to wipe it and what exactly you wiped? Have you wiped the whole storage or just some partitions like the bootloader, system, etc.?

This post may help you (the temporary way is probably most interesting for you):

Keep in mind the internal storage also contains device-specific factory partitions with the WiFi mac address and the serial number, so copying this from an other device would be probably a bad idea. I doubt everyone would want to share these partitions as that could cause other issues in the future.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Mis012:
Of course you can save your non-wiped partitions and revert them back to place after using emmc image. But if you don't have any partitions remaining, what can you do? Don't know how hard it is to change serial number, and mac adress change is not that big deal. Anyways the volunteer should be warned, that's a good point.

And for everyone, if you are worried about this, maybe save your emmc image somewhere, so you can help yourself.

Feel free to post ideas what may go wrong, and more importantly, how can we make sure it won't cause problems.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] vesko2000:
Has anyone succeeded in installing and run Windows 10 with a powered USB hub? I'll try it, most likely after a few days as I'm out of town.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] sizzlinbeef:
If you want to get a taste for Windows 10, grab the 64-bit Win10 installation media from MS Technet and then create a Windows to Go usb drive using Rufus. Use the aforementioned usb hub approach to get into UEFI at boot, change your boot drive to the WTG flash drive, and save your changes and restart. Win10 to Go will boot, and you get a very minimal set of drivers installed. You can then install the 64-bit Intel graphics drivers......and that's about it. No matter how many different tablets with similar hardware I sourced 64-bit drivers from, none seemed to take. The chipset/SOC drivers for the Asus T100TAM gets a few unknown devices resolved, but adds no additional functionality. No audio, no wifi, no bluetooth. Trying to install the 64-bit driver for the BCM4321 results in a bluescreen scenario.

So you can at least get an idea of what W10 will be like functionally, without wiping your android OS.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] lambdadroid:
I'm pretty sure the ME176C has the BCM43362 which will probably not work with that driver. I just did a quick Google and it doesn't seem there is actually a Windows driver for it. I've managed to get it properly working on Linux (the driver is inbuilt in kernel 3.14+), however.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] sizzlinbeef:
That would explain it. Would you mind sharing which distro and what commands you used to get wifi up and running in linux?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] lambdadroid:
Sure, I can try to remember as good as possible (I did that several months ago). I've used Arch Linux simply because it has the latest kernel version, however according to the drivers page, the chip should be supported in any 3.14+ kernel. (So for example, Xubuntu/Lubuntu 15.10 should also work.)

Next, make sure that you have the linux firmwares installed. I guess on most/all distributions this is installed by default, on Arch Linux, make sure you have the linux-firmware package installed.

While the chip should be already recognized at this point, the next step is a bit more difficult. You still need some kind of NVRAM configuration file for the driver to work properly - it took me a while to find it. You can get it from your Android installation at /system/etc/nvram.txt or simply get it from the full firmware package at http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/EeePAD/ME176C/UL-K013-WW-12.10.1.33-user.zip (same directory).

Then you need to copy this file somewhere to /lib/firmware/brcm. I'm not sure about the exact file name, in doubt the kernel log will tell you (check it with dmesg, there should be an error somewhere telling you this file is missing). In this folder there should be already a file like brcmfmac43362-sdio.bin if you've properly installed the linux-firmware package. You need to copy your nvram.txt to this folder with the name brcmfmac43362-sdio.txt.

After doing this and restarting the wifi chip should be properly working and available as network interface.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] sizzlinbeef:
Outstanding. Worked like a charm on Ubuntu 15.10.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] ratboy3124:
Your link is not working, but if it is the same root.bat I am thinking of, I have tried with no luck. Root just will not stick.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] MaDDaWg836:
https://mega.nz/#!w0gUnQ4Q!4YoZaXf2uj4KC2qx7kkpDcIhG-8AueNPJG5MAMfRibs

how about you try it first before you say that. ive used this root for all 3 lollipop updates on this device.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] spookmeister101:
I had the same problem, I would install supersu and it would say root successful, but after reboot, the root wouldn't be there. This update fixed that, I was able to root just fine. I haven't figured out how to quote an old post yet, but you should be able to figure it out :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shagon94

You're talking about rooting it? I'm desperate to get this thing rooted, asus put (and I've counted) 28 of their applications that work in the background.

I am talking about updating to the newer firmware that ASUS recently released.

Rooting is straightforward using adb and a tethered reboot thingamabob. I got root back right after doing the update, not a problem.

I have attached the edited updater-script (just the first line removed), and you can download the whole zipfile if you want from:

https://www.mediafire.com/?4czcrww466px2qe

Just update using that zip file and you will be up to the latest ASUS firmware for this device (you need to be on Lollipop already, I believe, for it to work).

Thanks,

sutekh137

Attached Files

updater-script.txt - [Click for QR Code] (11.8 KB, 60 views)

Last edited by sutekh137; 13th October 2015 at 05:12 PM.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] vesko2000:
Could someone please tell me what UEFI BIOS settings is he/she using to boot from a USB flash drive? I found the OS Selection option, choose Windows 8.X but I still can't seem to be able to boot the USB flashed with Rufus and Windows 10 RTM x86.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] sizzlinbeef:
I've never had to toggle the windows 8.x switch. Try using the windows x64 image. I don't think you can UEFI boot x86/32-bit images. The USB stick/drive won't show as a potential boot device.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] vesko2000:
Ok, thanks. And what settings did you use in Rufus?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] sizzlinbeef:
After you select the iso, you should get a 'windows to go' option. I chose that and went with the defaults that it chose for me afterwards.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] artpopboy:
hey guys, i wiped my tab with twrp recovery, i stucked on asus boot logo, i can start on bootloader menu:

how can i fix it? how to install stock firmware? thanks
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
It's good that you can boot into the bootloader- you have hope.

Download the latest firmware file from ASUS's website, and flash it through temporary TWRP. It should get your device back up and running.

Alternatively you can use the Nandroid that I posted a while back of the latest Lollipop update.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] artpopboy:
please tell how i can run temporary TWRP with bootloader menu? where i can find the TWRP and your nandroid files? i need to fix this device today, i will give as a present to my girlfriend hehe
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
Temporary TWRP can be found here.

My Nandroid is here.

Make a small backup in temporary TWRP (one of the small partitions, like recovery or boot) and then replace the generated backup files with my Nandroid. Then hit Restore. System Image should get your tablet up and running.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] phonephreak32:
If I upgrade OEM OTA updates to the latest version will I still be able to root?

Currently it is running ww-3.1.23.124.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Mis012:
He is appearently on .17 so he should probably flash it first. And someone said xposed doesn't work on .33, it may not be the only bad thing. On the other hand, resolving possible bootloop after xposed module install is similar to this problem resolving and you should know what to do. But after solving this problem, he will know what to do and may want to install xposed, which is not possible on .33 according to the person who wrote it here. On another hand, xposed framework install on lollipop has to be done by manualy flashing it with cwm/twrp, but again after solving this problem he may be able to do it without problems as cwm/twrp launching is needed in both situations.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] artpopboy:
thank you, i will try, hope it works well ;)
[MeMO Pad 7 General] artpopboy:
Working like a charm! Thanks again ;)
[MeMO Pad 7 General] ratboy3124:
Yep, that's the one. Still a no go.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Ruben Craveiro:
can u help me? i downloaded the nandroid, and made a nandroid boot backup, and then i deleted the files from the boot nandroid, and replaced them with your nandroid, and it showed up to restore, i pressed restore, and now it formatted /system/ and then it gave an error... what should i do>? (error somehting about "E:extractTarFork() process ended with error=255) ///// nevermind, the file didnt fully extracted, its working now,thanks
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Ruben Craveiro:
i have a big problem after installing your nandroid, i cant root anymore, i tried running supersu.zip in temp recovery it says it installed but it doesnt, i also tried to run the root zenfone kit (the one that runs root.bat) and doesnt work either how do i root it?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
Strange, I rooted fine on this Nandroid.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] spookmeister101:
See my post about 5 back. I had the same problem.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Ruben Craveiro:
is it maybe because software updated but not bootloader? the software is in WW but bootloader is in JP (i downloaded .33 JP version by mistake)
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Mis012:
How can you know which version is the bootloader?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Ruben Craveiro:
i think i mean droidboot, when i access the droidboot theres the name, variant, and then the version, which is version of bootloader/droidboot idk, and then theres the version of the android itself. its soething ive noticed, if the droidboot/bootloader version isnt the same as android version, the camera wont start, it wont be able to root device either.

//////// something else /////////

and now im actually creating a stock based rom, ive deleted some app, added a few other, changed launchers, and now im going to try to install the .zip

/// done flashing ///

it booted after needing to install same .zip 3 times, after booting i added my google acc, and configured everything and then the launcher booted normally (google now launcher, default), ive deleted all asus apps (only zenui services and systemui is added, but systemui is themed)
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
How's battery life?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Ruben Craveiro:
good

---------- Post added at 11:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:22 PM ----------

im guessing that the way to install this "rom" will be needed the usb of otg hub? if yes, i hope that theres a time that it wont be needed, because i dont want to buy it. lol
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
Not a ROM, but a bootloader unlock exploit.

An easy way to deploy it is needed though (expect it soonish)
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Ruben Craveiro:
ok, good, can u help me with something? since i updated to JP .33 ive been unable to fully downgrade bootloader to .17 and android version aswell, it keeps on the same bootloader, but the android version goes to .17 but i cant access camera or root the device because bootloader and android version are different.. do u know how to downgrade? (ive downgraded once WW .33 to WW .17, and bootloader also downgraded) each time i install .17 again, it installs but with a little error saying it cant error: "flash_partition failed

E:Error executing updater binary in zip 'sdcard/k013-ww-17.zip' error flashing zip '/sdcard/k013-ww.17.zip'"
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Mis012:
I know of a super-easy efi binary execution without powered otg, just either replace the efilinux.efi original bootloader, install rEFInd according to my tutorial and use it to load the binary, or make a nvram entry and set it for next boot only to test it. Anything can be done with a sh script made by me or you or anyone else, and put in folder with efibootmgr64 and other possible dependency files.

And other thing, while looking around in some system scripts I found a script which started the DEMO mode, and it mounted APD partition to APD folder in the root of filesystem (APD=AsusProductDemo). So I mounted it manualy, copied the contents to a folder on /sdcard/ and cleaned the partition. So if we can make it fat32 we have second ESP, but 300MB instead of 33MB.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
The original efilinux.efi is being replaced- what I meant is a method to replace it (and install permanent TWRP- recoveries are kinda important) that's noobproof. Got one now though. Almost ready.

Try removing the lines that flash the UEFI from the .17 script.

Doing that can be dangerous though, so here's a little disclaimer:

If you try to do that and your device breaks, I'm not responsible.

We're talking about the UEFI here. If that breaks you're going to have to take it to ASUS for an RMA.

Almost every, if not all, other software components can be fixed. Recoveries can be replaced, we can reflash droidboot if we wanted to, heck, even a bootloader brick can be recovered from... but it's all because of the UEFI. If that breaks you'll have nothing else to lean on unless you find another way to flash the UEFI, and even then you'd have to open up the tablet and do it manually. If you still want to try it, go ahead. Just know the risks before you do it. You should be fine, though, if you make sure you remove all the lines that flash the UEFI, but I'm leaving this disclaimer here, just to make sure.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Ruben Craveiro:
well thats good news (about the recovery), and about the bootloader, i found the link for the WW .33 im going to flash it now, i already edited the updater script to delete the device info check. so ill see it it worked.

thanks anyway. // if you can reflash the bootloader, can you lets say, flash the kitkat bootloader and reinstall kitkat? downgrading?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
Alright. If you get stuck on the ASUS screen the Nandroid will bring it back to life.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Ruben Craveiro:
how long will u take to be able to install the recovery? i hope really soon :3

---------- Post added at 01:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:30 PM ----------

i dont like using the nandroid evry much simply because if you have the bootloader version in .17 and the nandroid version is .33 it would go to .33 and leave bootloader in .17 which would make impossible to root or use the camera

---------- Post added at 01:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:32 PM ----------

just flashed the zip everything worked well, it updated bootloader from jp to WW, and the android version aswell :3, now i can get back to stock based rom
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Mis012:
Ok, but I wonder, why to search for android bootloader when you can split boot.img to kernel and initramfs an theoreticaly boot them wit grub? (unless invalid magic number error will cross your path again)
[MeMO Pad 7 General] social-design-concepts:
That's easy the default uefi boot mode is Android not Windows 8.x . Android boot mode and Windows 8.x boot mode have different certificate formats Android boot mode can't boot traditionally signed efi apps and Windows 8.x boot mode can't boot isu (Android boot mode) signed efi apps. On some device (probably most) the default boot mode is Android and not Windows 8.x . on some device under complete battery drain (think your CMOS battery died) the boot mode would change back to default Android boot mode.

Under this condition if bootx64.efi had been replaced with a traditional efi app the device would then fail to boot rendering the device unbootable until the end user switch the boot mode back to Windows 8.x mode or replaced bootx64.efi with one compatible with Android boot mode.

To further complicated things on some devices the USB controller isn't initialized until the os boots. Leaving the end user no way to access the uefi setup to switch the boot mode.

Also maintains a traditional Android image format eliminating the need for custom installers and recoveries.
[MeMO Pad 7 General] Mis012:
I don't know how it's on your side, but without powered hub, and even visiting the Aptio Setup Utility, I have been able to boot rEFInd, grub 2.00, and even kali linux 2 live cd kernel (which has stuck on some mounting error and unsuccesfull try to fall back to busybox.

But with ubuntu kernels, I am getting invalid magic number error. I have searched the internet but it was never that someone was completely unable to boot live cd (and if they were almost on the same situation as me, it solved by itself) But that is most likely a ubuntu problem.

I have not tried with android kernel but I am sure it is not based on ubuntu, so if it is really ubuntu-related problem that may not be an issue.

It may be that Windows mode is actually secure boot enable, but named like this for as weird reason as OEMs continue to use word BIOS inside their UEFI setup utilities?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
While you all are waiting for the unlock to release (and for a good reason, because in its current iteration you can't boot to fastboot at startup with the volume keys, kind of important) [MENTION=4419114]rovo89[/MENTION] has fixed the bug causing Xposed to bootloop for us, so those of you who are on the latest firmware, flash version 78 on the device and you'll have those sweet sweet mods back. Maybe Amplify can fix the battery drain (I sure hope so)
[MeMO Pad 7 General] daspex:
will the unlock work on devices with kitkat installed or is it for lolipop?
[MeMO Pad 7 General] jerbear294:
I don't think so.