[Huawei MediaPad X2] dfsteen:
Root attempt

Just a heads-up to the group that I downloaded the latest update from the huawei site here:

http://www.emui.com/plugin.php?id=hwdownload&mod=detail&mid=134

Extracted it, using the perl script found here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2315547

pulled out the system partition, un-sparsed it, and inserted the various su binaries and libraries. I then put it all back together, and re-sparse'd it, and flashed it to the system partition of the phone. The flashing was successful (so that's a good thing), but the phone went into a boot loop. Just to be sure, I did a factory reset ( with the power unplugged, hold down volume+ and power on, then release power when the "honor" message appears), but that did not resolve the loop. So after a (very tense) few hours, I reflashed the original unmodified systems partition and everything worked again.

It looks like we will need to do a bit more than just insert the binaries. It's also possible, that the phone looks for an "su" binary and does something with it if it finds it, and that the files installed were not functional for some reason. I think the next step will be to create a system image with a random extra file in it to see where the issue was.

Either way, now that I know I can recover easily from problems with this, I'm willing to try out a few more experiments. That's all for tonight though. Full commands for the process I did were:

<unlock your bootloader - instructions here: http://cn.club.vmall.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=3945542 - google translate is your friend :) )

<download huawei firmware rar file>

<install and build ext4_utils from here: https://github.com/YuLaw/ext4-utils.git - just run make)

#> unrar x GEM-703L_EMUI 3.0_android5.0_V100R001C233B009.rar

#> cd dload

#> perl split_update.pl

( output/unknown_file.19 is the system image )

#> simg2img output/unknown_file.19 system.img

#> mount -o loop system.img /mnt/test

(put in the su files for arm64)

(generate our new sparse image)

#> sudo /usr/bin/make_ext4fs -s -l 2621440K -a system system.rooted.sparse.img /mnt/test/

( the size 2621440K above can be pulled from the mediapads /proc/partitions, or you can get it by "tune2fs -l unkown_file.19" and then doing (( Block Count * Block Size )/1024) )

( put the meadipad into fastboot mode - with the power off hold the volume- button and plug in the usb cable)

#> ./fastboot flash system system.rooted.sparse.img

Restart once thats done, and that's it.

A few *IMPORTANT* notes

1) If you are using linux in vmware, you cannot do these commands from within a shared volume on the virtual machine. The sparse file is not properly created, and will not flash. This took me a while to figure out.

2) to fix boot loops just do "./fastboot flash system unknown_file.19" and restart. This reverts back to the original system.

3) THIS IS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!

4) I found that I can't run more than one command per connection using fastboot. So just unplug and replug the usb in between fastboot commands (NOT while your flasthing!)

5) make sure the version of the software you are flashing matches the version that is on your phone!

Thats it so far. Good progress I think.