yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] moctir:
Yeah mostly, according to this review it also has higher brightness and better WLAN speed:

Cubot King Kong Mini 2 Smartphone Review- Small outdoor phone without IP protection

Expert review of the Cubot King Kong Mini 2. Cubot wants to sell a handy outdoor cell phone here, which is also a well-equipped ruggedized cell phone for little money. The battery has a higher capacity, but the camera in the outdoor phone is still the same.

www.notebookcheck.net

I still just don't feel like that's worth the upgrade... but I am tempted!!
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] robrazil:
Did you try to do that ?

I asked the Cubot support team about upgrade the King Kong Mini 1 with the CUBOT_KINGKONGMINI2_A061C_V07_20201113.rar firmware but they are on Spring Festival holidays from Feb.6th to Feb.19th. I think that I will get some anwser about that after the day 19 only.

Until there, I already did download of KKM2 firmware.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] moctir:
Theoretically as it's the same processor and almost the same hardware it should work.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] robrazil:
I think so too but I will wait the Cubot support team answer me or someone that already did it to confirm. Then I will try to do the upgrade.

Thank you.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
I did try, via SPFTool and adb. Does not work. It does not load the system image (neither of them - there are two in the package). Gives some error message. Not surprising, as partitions are defined differently from what I have heard.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
I was tempted too but the NBC review disabused me of it. Apparently the gains in battery life are small (7% in their test), wlan is probably an issue of drivers (since the hw is the same), and my problem with the display was never maximum luminosity (550 nit is plenty), but rather minimum values (it's far too bright at night).

Now, if the latter changed dramatically I might be tempted too, but otherwise...
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] moctir:
Agreed, I use the Red Moon app on top of the Nigh Light to reduce the brightness at night. I don't think I've been in a situation yet where the maximum brightness hasn't been bright enough but I also live in Ireland so no idea if it's a problem elsewhere!

Surprising about the battery only improving it by that little, I wonder if you were using AOSP or LineageOS instead of stock whether you'd notice it more though. Either way, not enough of an upgrade, hopefully we'll get a KKM3 this November.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] kkm6761:
To compare battery performance it must be the same device with the same rom and the same settings. way too may variables.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
Why? Just compare the two devices as they come from the producer (i.e., with original, untouched ROMs). Which is what Notebookcheck did. It's a perfectly valid comparison. It does not mean results will not be different with the same custom ROM (maybe a larger gap), but it's stil a useful baseline.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
I have used both AOSP and LOS (which are the same with respect to luminosity and battery life, afaict). Probably if NBC had used one of these custom ROMs - esp. without gapps - the battery gap would have been larger. Still, it's surprisingly small for now, even for stock. Though future ROM upgrades by Cubot might change the figures. Then again, NBC tested KKM1 on an early ROM as well.

It's a disappointment Cubot did not use the opportunity to upgrade the KKM in more significant ways. Maybe a somewhat better CPU (like a P22 or A25), a bit more RAM, a better cam. We know from the Unihertz Jelly 2 (using the P60) that a better CPU is doable in an even more compact chassis.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
There is a new AndyYan LOS 18.1 version. Works great :)

Don't forget to re-edit ./init.environ.rc with a PATH including /sbin and delete su from xbin to make Magisk work!
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
Did anyone have problems with 5ghz wifi after switching to custom roms? In my case, 5ghz networks disappear after a while and, if connected to one, the phone disconnects.

This has been the same with all dozen different Q and R roms I have tried. Works on stock, though.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] kkm6761:
What is 5ghz wifi? For me the kingkong wifi always worked, but now I have changed place and the kingkong mini disconnects itself from wifi every time.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
The other frequency on which wifi is typically transmitted, besides the 2.4ghz band. It usually has higher bandwidth (and somewhat lower range).

This being said, I keep having problems with it on custom roms, and I have tried quite a few variants of Q and R.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] Fred_Hari:
I have the same problem: The front camera does not work, all the rest is well, even the bluetooth pairing.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
It seems that the problem is in the fact that there are different camera modules and that the patched boot.img for Magisk doesn't contain all. It is the only way I can explain why it works for some of our devices and others not.

The patched boot.img is much smaller than the original one.

I'll try to find out who patched it and how. Maybe we can get different patched boot.img, so it works for everyone.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] robrazil:
Well... the Cubot support answered me.

In the first time, they said:

"We dont have plans to upgrade KKM1 to android 10.

So sorry for all inconvenience."

So, I replied that I definitely I will had given up of Cubot brand because they were despising their KKM1 customers, and didn't make sense cannot install android 10 of the KKM2 in the KKM1 if the only hardware difference between them is battery greater capacity for KKM2, and I was going to install custom ROMs...

Today, they answered me again but now with some hope for KKM1 customers that want an official Cubot android 10 running fine, like in the KKM2:

"Thanks for your kind suggestion and so sorry for all inconvenience.

This problem has been reported to the engineering department.

We are trying to solve this problem."

Would be very nice to can install the android 10 from KKM2 in the KKM1 and have it running with no problems on the KKM1.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] Vuche:
Hello to all,

I have had the KKmini1 for a few months now (bought 11.11 on Aliexpress official Cubot store), just to test it as it's so cheap.

I tried the installation of the Android 10 firmware of KKmini2 a few weeks back. Of course I did first NVRAM Backup through SPFlashTool and full KK mini 1 original installed ROM backup though TWRP before upgrading, as you need to install Android 10 doing "Format all + Download" because it uses another partitioning as KKm1 Android 9 system, which will wipe everything on your KKmini1, including IMEI !

So here are the mixed results:

Basically everything works except you get the error "Goggle key" and something else "missing" displayed in red on the screen all the time. No way (that I know) to get rid of it and no way to restore NVRAM from the backup I made. So no IMEI numbers showing up. I think anyway it's not enough to backup/restore NVRAM to be able to have IMEI and everything back working, even when I reflashed original latest stock KKmini1 ROM. If I remember good, I had to go through TWRP reinstall process, and then from there format or erase data/system partition (not sure if it was needed since I already reflashed Android 9...). After that I did a full recovery from my TWRP original ROM backup. Good that I had done that backup! Then I had evething up and running back again, with latest stock Cubot KK mini 1 firmware.

So theoretically they could provide almost the same Andoid 10 (or even 11?) Firmware for the KKmini1 as they did for the KKmini2, it's only matter of willingness from Cubot! And they might even be nice enough to sell the upgraded battery..!

Let's see if they follow this thread and make us a nice easter present!

If anyone is willing to try and has more skills than me with Andoid developement, feel free to try, but don't forget to backup with TWRP and SPFlashTools! And please let us know if you managed to go further than me and provide us with some solution, it would be so great to have a KK mini 1.2 !
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] h4lik:
Thank you guys for your manuals.

I installed phhusson AOSP 11.0 v303 (system-roar-arm32_binder64-ab-gapps.img.xz) without any problems, but now I have constant notifications about play protect certificate failure on my device and I can't add my google account.

Whad should I do now? :)

Edit - allright, system changed. Lineage 18.1 works, but without Gapps (same error as @sawasLT had). Maybe the battery will have a better, longer life. 😛

Edit2 - does anyone have any idea what this "com.sagatest" is?
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] fasser:
Hi,

After my year-old KKM1 stopped booting for some reason (which looked suspiciously like programmed obsolescence), I got a new KKM2.

I've been able to unlock and flash it following highbiker's instructions (thanks a lot). My results so far are:

Both LineageOS 17.1 and 18.1 are installable and seem fully working. Didn't test 17.1 in depth, but at least with 18.1 (20210317) the only issue I had was during a hands-free call when the phone kept using the front loudspeaker instead of the back one. Not sure if this should be blamed on the ROM or on my phone's setup at that time.

Can't install TWRP, OpenGapps nor MindTheGapps in either 17.1 nor 18.1, which means no Google account access. Flashing TWRP still allows a normal boot, but recovery just won't work. As for GApps, stock recovery refuses to install any of the zips because of an invalid signature.

AOSP 11 (v303) is also installable and *almost* fully working. Althoug this ROM includes Gapps, unfortunately it also includes a nasty problem with local echo during calls, so sadly I had to uninstall it as the phone was unusable. This problem is not present in stock nor LineageOS, so I can blame it only on AOSP or its default audio settings. If anyone has got AOSP 11 working without this issue or has managed to solve it, I'd appreciate the help.

Hadn't tested battery life in depth, but so far it looks the same as KKM1 or at most a little bit improved, with an estimated 30 hours or so of light use.

To summarize, although the phone is flashable and it'll probable be a good idea to do it sooner rather than later, neither LineageOS (because of lack of Gapps) nor AOSP (because of that echo problem) look as fully viable alternatives to stock at the time, at least for me, so I guess I'll stay with stock until there are any changes in either front.

-----------------------------------

UPDATE 14/4/2021: After a couple more tests I've found 18.1 is not (yet) fully functional:

18.1-20210411 suffers from the same echo problem as AOSP v303 and v304. I guess that should be expected as probably development of one depends on the other.

Reinstalling 18.1-20210317 over 20210411 and factory reseting removes the echo problem but doesn't fully work either. Now when calling from the phone the audio just doesn't work at all on your side: you can't even hear the dialtone or anything that the other side is saying, and the other side doesn't get any audio. Oddly enough, receiving calls works OK both ways.

On the other hand, 17.1-20210412 does work correctly, the only missing piece is GApps.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
I am using on my KKM2 CAOS Android 11 with MicroG which functions fully for me, apps can use GCM if you want and the notifications work as they should. Gapps are not needed because of that. Also Magisk works flawless.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] fasser:
Could you post which version of CAOS and MicroG are you using? I believe the audio problems could be common to LineageOS/AOSP, and maybe CAOS as well.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
latest CAOS (a64-bvZ) and latest MicroG via Magisk
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] fasser:
Just tested the latest CAOS 11 release (R v303-210403) and had the same echo problem. I Also tested latest 10.0 versions of CAOS (201029) and AOSP (222) and both worked fine.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] Anjiro:
Latest phhusson AOSP release seems to fix the in-call echos!
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
I had also the echo problem. Downgraded to the 25 march version of CAOS and the problem disappeared.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
Upgraded to the 17 April 305 version of CAOS. No echo problems anymore.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] fasser:
AOSP 305 solves the echo problem with the phone's internal mic/speaker, but is still there if using a bluetooth headset.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
hmm, yes, never checked, but now I tested it with the car, and indeed there is still an echo. (setting is on mtk)

Another annoying thing: the recents button is not working. Anyone has that too?
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] fasser:
If you're refering to the "Recents" pane inside the phone app, that works fine for me. But remember I'm on AOSP, could be something limited to CAOS if they're using a customized phone app.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
I mean the recent apps screen, showing through the right soft button.

It was working on a previous CAOS GSI. It might be a bug in the 17 April version. I will try the 19 April version now.

edit: solved with the 19 April version

But: I did something really stupid. I thought the fastboot -w parameter in conjunction with flashing the system image would only wipe the system image, but it did also wipe my data. :cry:

Let´s see what I can recover....
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
Awful. Sorry...
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
Strangely, I have never had this problem with kkm1 with any the many gsi roms that I tried. Neither with the speaker, nor with BT.

(I have it with the Atom L, however.)
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] fasser:
I know this is not the thread for this, but sadly I guess this will be my best option:

KKM2 just died on me. 99% sure it isn't related at all with CAOS/AOSP/whatever, so none of you should worry (at least not much - see below).

The phone just stopped booting overnight. It was running AOSP 306 with no issues aside from the bluetooth echo problem, and I hadn't flashed anything nor did anything outside of a normal, everyday use for a week or two. Definitely did nothing to mess with the system at low level, but the thing just doesn't boot anymore. When connected to a computer the system recognizes the USB device but can't access it via fastboot nor adb.

I tried flashing back to OEM with SP flash tools but doesn't work either. I know my setup shoud work (SP version, OEM rom and drivers), as it has worked a few times back when I started testing non-OEM ROMs.

What I'm doing is:

1 - The phone's battery is disconnected

2 - Open SP, load OEM scatter file and press "download"

3 - I hold vol-up and connect to USB

4 - Windows recognizes the device as "Mediatek USB port (COMx)"

5 - SP recognizes the device, downloads DA and tries to reboot the phone in META mode

6 - The phone reboots. Windows detects the USB disconnection and a new connection, but instead of detecting a "Mediatek Preloader USB VCOM" detects again the "Mediatek USB port", this time with a warning signal on the device manager.

7 - After a few seconds the phone timeouts and goes back to step 6 in an infinite loop.

8 - SP never detects the expected flashable device and times out.

My guess is that somehow the preloader got damaged. If that's the case, it may point to a defective or low-quality hardware component.

I've searched for unbricking guides but all I can find leads me to that "standard" SP flash procedure, I have no clue as to how to force the USB preloader back.

I'd appreciate any help to revive this phone. Aside from the fact that I bought it only two months ago, It really was working great with AOSP, the only missing piece for me aside from that BT-echo problem was TWRP.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
Did you try with just connecting USB?
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
Exactly. This is how it works on my kkm and other mtk devices.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
Has anyone found a way around high power consumption by phone calls? On my new KKM1 a 60-70 min call eats up around 22-25% of the battery.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] gmlai:
Hi, I have got a kkm2 smartphone. I like it for being small but not its firmware implementation.

On stock rom (i.e. CUBOT_KINGKONG MINI2_A061C_V07_20201113) I have a problem with Whatsapp not receiving messages after a while in background.

Recently I intalled AOSP 306 and have some drivers incompatibility, for instance proximity sensor not working.

Do you know any workaround to get Whatsapp working as it should on stock rom?
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] fasser:
Yes, the behaviour is the same. I've tried on different computers and under Win10 and 7, and the problem is always the same.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] snoopy29:
Hi all,

Just purchased a kkm2. Can I ask;

1. How stable is tethering?

2. Does the FM radio work (as no headphone socket) and what about on LOS?

3. is the front at least rainproof? the intention is to use on a cycle for navigation
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
I switched from AOSP (previously I was on LOS) to LIR. Great ROM, but (a) phone call battery drain is much worse (from 25% per hour to 60%); (b) deep sleep is (again, as on LOS, in fact) very erratic - works sometimes, fails most of the time. Back to AOSP for me (KKM1).
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] Nerve29:
Hi gmlai, I had the same problem withD

the stock ROM. It is caused by the app "DuraSpeed", which kills background apps. Go to settings and search for "duraspeed", open the app, now either activate any app you want to allow to run in the background or de-activate Duraspeed altogether.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] snoopy29:
Quick review from a new user (KKM2).

Exceptional value. Camera is subpar as expected but I was surprised to see additional sealing around the rear plate so it looks to be designed to be waterproof, if not certified. Excellent screen and brilliant size. Superb build quality. Someone mentioned tethering causes phone to overheat, I'm seeing no significant heat. Apps are all integrated with google services, disabling is almost impossible due to the level of notifications.

I'm now using lineage-17.1-20210512. It was not so clear following the first post, you'll want the google platform-tools as the adb & fastboot ones provided with linux distros don't contain custom bootloader code. Also one other step was missing which led to a bootloop - after finishing issue fastboot -w to wipe the userdata and cache. Then it boots!

Also - the TWRP and lk-patch don't work.

Edit -

I now end up on a bootloop on the Cubot screen, I have drained the battery but plugging in the USB-C fires up the white screen again. Volume up + power won't get it into fastboot mode. Seems to be bricked. :(

In taking it apart I found there is a cheap sticker gasket, this could have been a proper gasket as used on some other models and then it would retain waterproofness. The battery on v2 is a different connector so the mainboard is different. Overall I can't see any means for water to enter other than the USB port at the bottom, it's an impressive bit of engineering.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] fasser:
That's what happened to my KKM1, and quite similar to KKM2 but in this case it doesn't even load the Cubot screen. I never flashed KKM1 out of stock, so I can only blame that to a faulty hardware; my guess is that the emmc has failed and corrupted the preloader, so KKM1 can't properly load the boot code and KKM2 can't even run the preloader.

In my case KKM1 doesn't even advertise itself over USB so there's nothing I can do with it. If your KKM2's USB is still functional I'd try a factory reset with SP Flash tools and the stock ROM.

I agree with you that these phones are quite well designed, but they also seem to have cut costs a little too much in component quality.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] snoopy29:
No USB, the only thing I could think off is a USB fastboot cable but I don't know if such a thing exists for USB-C. I googled but had no joy. I don't recall touching the boot.img which I believe is responsible for fastboot so it also looks like a hardware fault.

I'm searching and searhcing for an alternative to this phone but can only really find xcover 5, which is still too big.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
No problems here with on CAOS 308 on my kkm2
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] snoopy29:
My second Mini 2 has arrived. I'm currently struggling to find a ROM that fits general use. Only CAOS doesn't have SU built in for banking apps, the others do and due to super partition it's impossible to delete it, which conflicts with Magisk.

This looks promising for rewriting the partitions in r/w, https://xdaforums.com/t/tool-win-li...titions-rw-in-super-partition.4120963/page-15

However I get a ELF error. I thought the A64 was able to run 64 bit but I guess now. Why did Cubot release it with a 32 bit OS? I tried using arm64 image but no boot.

sh: ./superrepack: not executable: 64-bit ELF file
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] snoopy29:
Hi again,

Can somebody with a v1 phone run cpuinfo and report back? On v2 the cpu is reporting as a 32 bit armv7 which doesn't match the SoC. 64 bit binaries do not run.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
Same on v1. But that is why we use the arm32 binder64 versions of custom roms.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] snoopy29:
Yes but it's wrong for the CPU and 64 bit binaries don't run. The Mediatek chip inside is supposed to be a armv8. armv7 is 32 bit only. I'm wondering if (it sounds unplausable) the Mediatek chip is fake.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] landsome:
I think they are simply using a 32bit kernel and firmware. No major difference with 3gb ram. Other companies do that. Motorola did so with several G series phones based on a53 cpus.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] snoopy29:
So perhaps the armv7 statement isn't read from the CPU but a determination. Oh well.

On another side I've been trying to recompile Lineage without su since on KKM2 it is impossible to mount /system without loosing changes on reboot. According to AndyYun his builds (pre v300 lineage 11 or vlite) do not use EXT4_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_SHARED_BLOCKS, so it has to be someplace else mounting the /system with this option (boot, super etc).

I have the first KKM2 on a warranty claim and will probably go for a KKM1 as a replacement.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] fasser:
I'm not sure if you're referring to /proc/cpuinfo but if you are, according to this thread, that isn't reliable, so my guess is that what you're actually seeing are the kernel's compilation flags instead of the real hardware capabilities. As per why you can't load a full 64bit image maybe the preloader/bootloader need to have that support compiled in and Cubot/Mediatek just didn't include those.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] birdibird:
I am on the kkm2 with CAOS 11 and Magisk. I used Magisk hide for a banking app and that worked. So what is exactly your problem @snoopy29 ?
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] snoopy29:
If you're using CAOS 11 I figure it's the version without su built in. The issue with the lineage builds is AndyYan won't build them without it. Magisk complains when su exists and as explained ^^ it's impossible to mount / and make changes and not lose them on reboot.
[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] fasser:
After a few weeks trying to revive both KKM1 and 2 without any advance and, given that there isn't anything equivalent to this form factor, I finally decided to get another KKM1.

So far so good. Flashed CAOS 11 v308_gapps on top of latest stock and everything is working fine, including BT audio.