[Xperia Z2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] zingo7:
Hey All!

Ill post a "little" thread how to bring new life back to your aging phone- respectively L50U.

Note.

This is for Advanced user

s- Novice users can and will brick their phones at one time. I

hard bricked

my phone 7x times!!! before i got all information how to do it!

History:

To those who don't know- L50u was specifically released to China Market only with Ferrari and Carbon covers. If you happened to be at launch in China you could have gotten a 50% off promotion deal of the price as in Europe this thing D6503 was around 900 euro at launch. 1 thing though- L50u at first was China(region) locked. The international ROM came long after that(afaik could be wrong)

Also as these phones are kinda* rare in Europe its mostly neglected in "posts" and "how to guides" here.

Kudos to [MENTION=5890737]Pitzmans[/MENTION] https://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2776842 for his post. That was one of the first threads i read when i got back home in Europe.

- - - - - - -

Unfortunately to access original D6503 Roms from Flashtool you have to convert your phone. The thread i followed back then- seems like it doesn't exist anymore. If there are other posts post below.

I'll tell you how to do that now:

We will use a hack found on Vietnamese site to convert (D6502,L50u,L50t,SO-03F) to D6503 Android 5.0.2 Lollipop

(https://congdongsony.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/root-sony-xperia-z2-d6503-android-5-0-2-lolipop/)

Basically its a custom ROM with integrated hack and other goodies. You can translate the page using chrome no problem.

After following the instructions there (semi-user friendly) the end result is a converted L50u with D6503 and up to 3G baseband.

If you are okey at this time and age with a working Lolipop and 1-3G capability- you are good to go!

- - - - - - -

However now you can use Xperia flashing tool to safely upgrade or downgrade to KitKat (4.4.2) or Marshmallow (6.0.1)

Note! Sony Companion will show L50u error upon its recovery- so forget about using it. In all other cases it will show D6503 genuine.

I would recommend

to downgrade to 4.4.2 as there are lots of root options.

Most popular is EasyRootTool v12.4. (https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=23991606952593374)

However if this is Launch phone you can use rootkitXperia_20140719 (https://gist.github.com/neneppy/7c0b2eac6085684bc33b2d9087d57627)

- no problems there.

After you have root you need dual recovery! Ive tried couple and maybe its the L50u but most success i had was with

Z2-lockeddualrecovery2.8.2-RELEASE.installer

for this phone it just works. (link below). I think it was rewritten specifically for L50u- found on Chinese site. Don't get European version as it may result in bootloop.

- - - - - - -

Now before Carbon there are some things you need to do:

* backup DRM keys using Backup TA (https://github.com/DevShaft/Backup-TA/releases) if you want them.

* unlock your bootloader via flashtool(follow instructions from sony) the bootloader must be unlocked otherwise it wont let you flash it.

* get Carbon (https://get.carbonrom.org/device-sirius.html)

* Extract boot.img from the zip file (you will need it so your phone understands what you are trying to do)

@ * get magisk as superSu wont work on 8.1 (https://xdaforums.com/apps/magisk/beta-magisk-v13-0-0980cb6-t3618589) in case you want root privileges.

* dont get twrp 3.2.1 yet as for this phone its a bootloop guaranteed. the 2.8.2 version is already in Z2-lockeddualrecovery (below)

* reinstall Z2-loceddualrecovery (http://m.weiyoou.com/share/6168212.html) - if its gone.

* get gapps Arm-8.1 ,I recommend the full package (https://opengapps.org/)

* get recovery deadman (https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=673791459329066004)

and sirius (https://mega.nz/#F!SYQxnRrb!ahC91yfNOmi8NVavJvuydw)

* !!! And finally

get your modem drivers!

Vietnamese version has 3G (above). Pitzmans may be too old.

You need Sony Xperia L50u BaseBand By Buyu.zip (made in China remember?)

(http://m.weiyoou.com/share/13293366.html) just scroll down and there they will be. This will enable 1 to 4G all baseband.

Put the zip files on your sd card(highly recommended), without an sd card twrp may crash and if you place them internally- something might get lost in process.

@ Note. Forget about 1 click rooters like Kingo/King/Root/Dr,fone etc. You only get headaches when you want to remove them. Most of the time its not possible the easy way and most of the time they have insufficient privilege sets.

- - - - - - -

Before we start follow this guide and create a PATH where your files are together with the extracted boot.img

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQN7db_SlzU) This will help you if you mess up your phone(brick it/bootloop etc) and need to re-reflash it to stock and start whole thing over.

Now follow this guide (http://www.teamandroid.com/2018/03/...eria-z2-carbonrom-6-1-oreo-custom-firmware/2/)

up to step 8

.

Step 9.

fastboot flash recovery-3.1.1-1-deadman.img

deadman will reboot your phone in recovery (like in the youtube above)

or

fastboot flash TWRP-Sirius.img

. If first dsn't work try the second.

Step 10. Once you are in twrp- click on Wipe ->

Advanced Wipe

and tick : System,Data, Dalvik, Cache -> Swipe!

Step 11. Flash CarbonRom zip.

Add More Zips

(don't reboot don't exit)

Step 12. Flash Sony Xperia L50u BaseBand By Buyu.zip (/../)

Step 13. Flash open_gapps-arm-8.1-full-20180602.zip (/../) (it takes a long long time don't worry)

Step 14. Flash Magisk-v16.4-Beta.zip

Now you can Wipe "cache/dalvik" or not and

reboot system

.

First boot

can take up to 10-15 min

- don't worry! Also you have to touch the image(ball) after this time!- or you will be staring at it all day! ;)

- - - - - - -

Congratulations!

You have now a working Sony Z2 Xperia on a Carbon ROM running Android 8.1 Oreo thus giving this phone more years!

On AnTuTu benchamark this phone now scores around 55k performance points (about 12k more then on Marshmallow 6.0.1 with ~43k)