[Miscellaneous Android Development] uhuru-meditation:
Device Model: B15Q (EU) 2 x SIM

CM Version:13.0.1

Recovery Image: TWRP 3.0.2.0 (for b15q)

Gapps: A-GAPPS_6.1_020916_arm

Hi all,

thanks to Ajit Guraya from Team Roger That (mtkroms.com), The Cyanogenmod team, XDA crowd who did put their raw original and backup files online and Vinzenz Hersche for his diligent recompiling of CM 13 for MTK and also his guide and "how-to" to be found on http://piratepad.net/b15q I would like to report that I have fully working B15Q European model with 2 SIM in Cyanogenmod 13.1 with G-apps (A-GAPPS_6.1_020916_arm).

So far, as I am in testing mode, I must say it all just works, with really few obligatory minor issues.

Phone is really responsive, it has a root, GPS shows no issues except it is sometimes rather erratic, but it can be due to old driver, BT also works OK.

WI-FI is stable, calls and SMS from SIM 1 work good. SIM 2 also works well, no issues there and Tweakker app is not needed or so it seems.

Sound quality is overall really improved. Much louder and clearer are calls, sounds and music.

Buttons on B15Q work, but with the lost functionality of LED on/off with the middle button, however it does turn the camera on - and after pressing it few times or a long-pressed action it hangs the camera making it inaccessible to the camera app, but I find it as a rare minor issue that I can live with. Sometimes on a rare occasions it seems as SMS come a bit later, also as notifications on missed calls, but that can also be on the mobile provider's side. I have noticed a few spontaneous reboots into SIM locking PIN while plugging/unplugging in USB cable, but it could be that I have maybe pressed button or something. I had that issue rarely with the latest 1.032 firmware too.

There is no FM radio app and that bothers me sometimes since there is a FM chip on board and why not use it, but I do hope that it might be included in the next release. While wanting to integrate SD in the system I got messages that my SD is not really good and it is slow and might affect overall performance. This might or might not be true, so I just mounted it as an external storage.

I am not so sure about this 3.4.67 kernel as it is old and I hope that it will not affect security that much.

Google Apps do install properly, they appear in this version light and they do not bloat the system, as one can choose what to install and also uninstall.

System takes somewhat more RAM, but to overall features and a lot better performance, to me, that doesn't matter.

Installing apps takes a bit longer then before and one has to be careful not to exceed installing too much apps as then the B15Q is quickly clogged.

I am running Linux 64-bit and SP Flash Tool (linux-64) that works really good also with USB 3.0 meaning one doesn't need to insert the battery while flushing.

Basically it was easy to do:

Backup - just for the sanity of it.

Then one re flashes the whole phone with scatter-file and hidden scatter file using original raw partitions.

Under RECOVERY partition one uploads TWRP.img (there is b14q version for it). Boot into TWRP.

Beforehand move to internal SD card CM.zip, Gapps.zip and Superuser.zip. Advanced wipe data and system.

Install CM, Gapps and Superuser without rebooting. When done wipe Dalvik and cache and reboot. That was it.

It took me less time to do this upgrade instead of going to my local shop to buy a new phone.

I also took liberty to edit and note down things I found useful on: http://piratepad.net/b15q

So, please, read there about two possible solutions on installing CM and TWRP - on a working B15Q or a "bricked" B15Q. Pirate pad is lately very often down so I have noticed.

I must say I am really happy with this upgrade. So far it does really feel like having a new phone.

B15Q is really good piece of hardware (lacking compass sensor!) and it is more then capable of running CM 13 smoothly.

Well, sort of :)