yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
GUYS! I did it!

TL/DR: downloaded minimal sources for omni, used my pull from the recovery image to get device tree data, built twrp.

It boots. I get into the menu. It says I have no OS installed, probably because there's mount issues with stuff not being mounted properly etc.

Before anyone wants to try this out, I highly suggest you learn how to restore everything on your device by using SP Flash Tool and the latest ROM. Back up your IMEI etc etc, I am not going to be responsible for any issues you may face.

IF there's anyone daring enough, load it up.

get yourself into fastboot

Fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

or if you want to test it out without nuking stock recovery:

fastboot flash boot recovery.img

I do not think this is ready for use.

I just wanted to note that it was possible that this was done. I need to figure out the rest of the errors regarding the mount as to why this is the case.

EDIT: Mount issues are due to our phone having a "super" partition. This also contains system/product/vendor under "mapper" which wasn't noted in the recovery.fstab. I'm rebuilding it based on what I've seen on other users doing (Android 10 cubot x30 twrp.fstab notes this accordingly) - will see what the new build does.
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
FIXED I think!

ensure you have your patched boot.img or else it doesn't boot properly (you'll get twrp over and over again, but if you flash the patched boot.img you're back in your system)

Again, backup backup backup and ensure you know what you're doing.

Edit: I still can't wrap my head around android 10 and things mounting as read only file system, I don't know if I can fix it with mounts in recovery.fstab, but it looks like system and vendor can't be writted for now.

Also, if you attempt to flash magisk.zip in recovery, you are stuck in a boot loop since the vbmeta.img was not flashed as well.

I started to "back up" stuff to an external SD card (it mounts in TWRP, thankfully) but I didn't have it finish because I'm impatient.

still going to keep hacking away at it until I'm fed up.
[General Topics] careloads:
Nice work! I am not ready to try yet as this is my daily driver but excited to see some real dev here.

Thanks for the efforts!
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
Ah I wouldn't consider myself a dev, just like to tinker around with stuff. This is my first time building TWRP, unfortunately it came at the wrong level OS, back in 8-9 it seems it was much easier, but in 10 and up they're looking to mix things up. If only I can get the system to mount as RW that would be great!

I'll keep plugging away.
[General Topics] Franklyn1533:
Ola poderia disponibilizar os comandos pra windows 10 tentei dar root não obtive sucesso
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
So I'm not 100% sure how Android 10 boots, if it's reliant on boot.img or can boot directly with recovery as it has it's own fstab etc.. Maybe it does rely on boot.img overall, then based on what keypress you do, it loads the system or loads recovery.

I did open up boot.img and I see on the fstab there that it takes system, vendor and product and mounts them as read only, points to the files located in the super.img partition, so making them read-only prevents anyone from hacking into them. I'm going to start playing with the boot.img file to see if I can get them to read as rw, and ensure it boots. If my hunch is right, it will boot as rw on these mounted partitions, and recovery will have full access to them to do what is needed.
[General Topics] careloads:
While I have no dev experience, as a 30 year technician your logic seems sound. Hope you make a breakthru!
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
This is for anyone else out there running this device:

Do you find that the wifi disconnects randomly on this thing? I thought it was an android 10 issue, which may be.. The rest of the devices in my home do not have any issues with wifi, just this device. It was known that Android 10 had some wifi bugs and you should scale down your wifi to either use WPA-TKIP, or down to 2.4Ghz instead of 5Ghz. (even after doing so, it still sucked, random disconnects) My solution on this device is to use button mapper app from the play store, re-map the SOS button so a double click would toggle wifi off and on. For some it may not be an issue, but you do really see the difference in speed when you're on 2.4Ghz vs 5Ghz, vs mobile.. I'd rather be on the faster network and not use up my mobile data.

Part of the reason I wanted to build TWRP for this is that I wanted to see if a custom Android 11 ROM would work, or even if Lineage would be possible to build for this device. Considering the TWRP I built is functional to a point, I don't think it's possible to create a ROM to flash if it treats the super partition as read only and won't write data to it.

I thought about starting a new thread about this device but why complicate things, so sorry @Daflow77 but you're attached to this now :)

I'll keep plugging away at TWRP and see what we can do, maybe if I do figure this out, try for a full ROM build and give that a shot.
[General Topics] roperp:
Hey friends, I really like where this thread is going. Initially, I found this thread because it's the only Bison thread out there. Intrigued by the recovery option but it sounds too buggy for the lay user (no programming experience for me). But it sounds like some real progress has been made.

I'm at the point where I need to install VCOM drivers because I don't think the phone is recognized by my computer in Fastboot mode. But finding trustworthy drivers seems hard; MTK doesnt have a direct download option so I'm rolling the dice with random third party sources.

From what I've read, it seems like as of Android 10 devices (and maybe even Android 9?) there is a new tech out there which doesn't require hardware-specific ROM builds, named GSI (generic system images): https://source.android.com/setup/build/gsi

And, it seems like there is starting to be some trial of this on the Umidigi Bison: {Mod edit: Link to paid services website removed. Oswald Boelcke, Senior Moderator}

There seems to be some lack of clarity, mostly on my part, as to which architecture build to choose, whether "arm" or "arm64" for example, and I can't yet make heads or tails of which download is right for pure AOSP: https://ci.android.com/builds/branches/aosp-android10-gsi/grid

And it seems less convoluted but still not clear which ROM version to pick here (although certainly for me I'd pick without GAPPS): https://sourceforge.net/projects/havoc-os/files/arm64-ab/

I did download Treble Checker from Google Play Store and confirm my device is Treble-ready and the other things mentioned, as well as to confirm my CPU architecture using CPU Info app. Treble checker mentions something about my system partition only being A, and I think thats pertinent, if not critical, to selecting the correct build to flash, and that's where I'm stuck.

I look forward to someone with more guts than I giving this GSI thing a try-could be a game-changer for ROM development!
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
I believe this is arm64. I thought about flashing gsi's but from a fastboot perspective it had no idea what the "system" partition was because it was a super partition. Definitely will look into your links and test it out as mine has been in a test/dev state, it's not user configured anymore (back to my razer phone 2 as my main) so I flash this thing like there's no tomorrow. :)

If I get it up and running, I will definitely share it out.

And yeah, this thread should be the only Umidigi Bison thread you'll need.
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
I dont' know about this site, if they actually tried this out.. I did this with stock everything, and in fastboot I get the same error, can't find system partition..

It's giving me a few ideas regarding TWRP rebuild, basically it needs to re-map so it has full access to "system" so I'm hoping I do end up with the correct process. I downloaded the Super GSI Installer zip, it appears to try and find the system image and it's broken there as well, although now I'm in TWRP I can modify the fstab and rebuild the recovery until I get this right.

I'll keep you posted.

edit: ok so here's some new developments.

Our devices are arm64 single partition, super.img

to flash the "system" part, you need to be in fastbootd - to get here, you need stock recovery, boot to that, then select the reboot fastboot vs reboot bootloader (I was wondering why that was, and now I know)

The "fastbootd" screen has a shorter menu from stock recovery, and the word "fastbootd" is in red and effectively blocked out by our front facing camera.

You can initiate rebooting into this fastbootd state only if you have the latest platform-tools installed on your machine, and you use that particular binary. In Ubuntu 20.04 I just ran sudo apt install fastboot, and it's not the latest that you need.

So let's pretend you have everything installed and working right, you go and do this (while on your pc via terminal or command prompt):

adb reboot bootloader

(this will get you to the old fastboot screen with the tiny one line at the bottom)

(with the up to date fastboot command)

fastboot reboot fastboot

(yeah that threw me.. if you don't have the latest, it will say it doesn't know "fastboot")

It should now show you "fastbootd", see attached screenshot.

from HERE, you can tinker with flashing/erasing system partition as it knows how to handle the super partition.

You're still on a terminal/command prompt, using the latest "fastboot" binary, you can now run

fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash system lineage-17.1-20210321-UNOFFICIAL-treble_a64_avS.img

then

fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

at least that's part of the instructions as per https://source.android.com/setup/build/gsi

I still can't get a lineage OS or other GSI to boot though.

But now we know it's possible to flash.

More work continues.
[General Topics] roperp:
Ok thats some sound progress. I like the element of getting into fastbootd. Sounds powerful. How did you find that out?

As for flashing via fastbootd, I noticed you were flashing vbmeta second, but source.android seems to instruct doing that first. Perhaps that is the shortcoming of the system flashes you tried. What were the errors you were getting trying to boot Lineage? Did you try vanilla AOSP, or the Havoc vanilla build?
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
Found out about fastbootd after researching how to flash system in a super.img file. I looked over some of the popular ones like phusson's treble rom and lineage. I will give it another try with the flash order and see.

Still no luck with TWRP. It's fully built, I can't get filesystem decrypted (it's one of the items noted in their faq that it may not work), it couldn't flash the system partition properly either.

Maybe more sleep and clarity to try again tomorrow.
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
That is amazing!!

Bashing my head over this and was just taking a break. I am glad you got this working properly. And thank you for taking the time to write it up.

I know my TWRP build does not get you fastbootd mode, it needs stock recovery every time. I am for sure going to give this one a shot and see what is working/not working with it. Kudos to you!
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
Btw, even phusson said a device that uses fastbootd would not be an a only device. Despite the fact that we only have an a partition. So the ab variant is the way to go I guess. This device build is weird.
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
On this one:

so I flashed those as well, using some deduction: "fastboot flash --disable-verity --disable-verification vbmeta_system vbmeta_system.img" and "fastboot flash --disable-verity --disable-verification vbmeta_vendor vbmeta_vendor.img

You reused the vbmeta img files from the stock rom to flash after flashing the vbmeta that clears everything?
[General Topics] roperp:
Yes, I think so.
[General Topics] roperp:
Plot thickens. Didn't have any audio on phone calls with Lineage 18.1; not sure if it's a build.prop thing as preliminary searching suggests, or a buggy build. Because Lineage 18.1 was sluggish/choppy on the phone to begin with, I decided to try Lineage 17.1 instead; flashing now. For what it's worth, I didn't reflash vbmeta, just erased system and flashed the new one. Didn't even have to delete logical partitions...
[General Topics] roperp:
Pretty quick and easy to re-flash the Lineage OS 17.1 a/b image (https://sourceforge.net/projects/andyyan-gsi/files/lineage-17.x/) and get the phone back up and running. Phone works, and the graphics are much snappier. Lineage 18.1 must take too many system resources for our simple-minded Umidigi.
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
Good thing I kept reading the thread, I was about to go with the latest 18, but I did hear others note it's not stable enough yet. So I'm doing what you did, going to 17 and seeing if it's any better.

What I would like to test out, as I have issues with Wifi, is to see if the device will stay connected to my home network with no issues, or if this is just strictly a problem with the hardware design.

Thanks again for posting and clarifying, I'm at the stage now on flashing 17 so yeah,. see you on the other side!
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
So flashing lineage 17.1 gsi worked. I don't know how well this would work for a device with stock recovery, I don't see how you would flash Gapps so the device was not completely set up with all my data. Camera that came with lineage is laggy, feels like opencam but not great at all.

Since I don't see a way to flashing Gapps, I am going to try phusson's latest vndklite aosp 11 and see.

The wifi did kick out a bit on this as well (17 is android 10?)

So yeah, going to validate and see if you need to reflash any of the vbmeta's when just dumping new system img file. Will wipe of course but I think what I was missing was the 3 vbmeta files to flash before dumping the system image in fastbootd. Who would have known, but at least we have something going. I wonder if there's anyone else out there with similar situations on their mediatek phones like us? Really wished someone with more knowledge on the partitions can explain why the 3 vbmeta's were required to flash, maybe it's just these devices that do it.

Thanks again, happy flashing!
[General Topics] derauer:
Here on latest Stock Rom. Rooted, Magisk 20.1 - no issues so far.

Viper4Android installed and working.

Nightshots with stock camera are very dark. So i use for this the app Manual Cam.

Awesome. Now finally same quality as with my umi s3 pro.

Downloaded Stock Rom, Installed Magisk 20.1,

patched the boot.img,

flashed vbmeta.img, patched boot.img and the recovery from #22,

flashed magisk in recovery mode,

installed magisk as app.
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
Viper4Android installed via magisk mod? Sorry I haven't done this in a while. And the Manual Cam, any chance for the play store link?

Thanks!
[General Topics] derauer:
Viper? This way :

Viper4Android for Android Pie 9.0 installation guide.

Mixed with this.

How to Install ViPER4Android on Android 11/Android 10 Q (Alternate Method)

Not working without the magisk module 2.7.1.

You definitely need an App called "the selinux switch"

If completele reboot, you allways need to start this app and set to permissive.

Otherwise, driver not working.

Playstore for cam: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lensesdev.manual.camera.professional&gl=DE

Found nothing better.
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
Thanks again! I will definitely take a look.
[General Topics] CentralVAHere:
Hello everyone. Hey; WHAT THE HECK do I need to do to disable Wireless Emergency Alerts??? Any menu to disable them is greyed out. How friggin' annoying!

I have rooted two Android phones before but I just don't feel comfortable with the instructions I see to root the Bison. I reckon it needs to be rooted to delete the WEA service???

Thanks in advance!
[General Topics] grantaliftback:
CentralVAHere,​

disable:

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.mediatek.cellbroadcastreceiver

or delete:

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.mediatek.cellbroadcastreceiver

;)
[General Topics] Lourenc0:
Hello. I have the Bison, we have any better ROM available?
[General Topics] CentralVAHere:
Package com.mediatek.cellbroadcastreceiver new state: disabled-user

Does this look like the correct response when executing the disable command above?

***Actually the app says it's disabled! Thank you so much!!!!
[General Topics] lovedayrel:
Im tock on fastboot mode when i type on adb reboot bootloader and the pc cant detect my phone but when im on the fastbootd the pc detected my phone but cant proceed got some msg error ...pls help me how to unlock bootloader
[General Topics] lovedayrel:
Can someone make a video tutorial for unlocking and rooting this phone?so confusing about the fastboot and fastbootd when im on fastboot cant send any command and in the fastbootd command "fastboot oem unlock" and "fastboot flashing unlock" got msg saying some error
[General Topics] abonides:
From what I have researched... No TWRP will be available. Only root option is Majisk.
[General Topics] lovedayrel:
How to unlock bootloader with fastbootd?
[General Topics] Dayrel:
pls help me how to unlock bootloader
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
Not sure if anyone is seeing this, I have a wireless update available 20210405

106.35 MB

woo hoo

Minor bug fixes

Edit: first reboot, big red text overlay saying "the software version is incorrect please download the correct software".. Persistent after a wipe. This package no bueno.
[General Topics] CentralVAHere:
This is good news, thanks. Personally I'm going to wait to hear if this includes a security update. Otherwise it's bound to screw something up and I've got mine running great.
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
Yeah, hang tight. The red overlay text that won't go away is annoying, even after wipe it's stil there.

I flashed back to the stock software I got and will try another OTA to see if I can get the file, and to valdiate if it happens again.

Already emailed Umidigi about this. Their main guy in the forum doesn't even have this version of the OS listed, so something must be up.

Just a final check on metrics, security patch still says September 5, 2020. Not much else for security.
[General Topics] CentralVAHere:
Crap. I had "automatic updates" enabled and I woke up this morning with an updated phone. It ALWAYS screws up my APN settings so had to redo that. Anyway, it's acting just fine. I find it suspicious though that a Chinese company has an "update" for my phone when they can't even put together a security update. I'm going to go look for any added programs.

Let's keep up on this update and see if we notice any changes.
[General Topics] Panzerchrist:
Today i received ota update 20210405 also.... and bonus red message on the screen. sometimes reboot of my phone.

technical support offered to do a factory reset, if this is not enough, then rewrite the complete system software

and sent a link to the old stock firmware.

not good news for me.

i hope i can find here the best solution to this problem.
[General Topics] CentralVAHere:
Yeah thankfully I got my update overnight and all is well thus far. Stuff like this really makes me want to shy away from Umidigi altogether going forward.
[General Topics] careloads:
In "Developer options" you can disable "Automatic System Updates" and maybe stop this from happening until a solution is found.

Hopeful to have a custom a more active dev scene here.
[General Topics] Kenlider18:
Hello guys, im in mexico, but i cant record my calls, ive used several apps but none of them worked, i can only hear my voice, android version is 10

any sugestion? im not a root.
[General Topics] Franklyn1533:
unofficial twrp 3.4.0 (PBRP) Root Umidigi Bison - unofficial twrp

Download unofficial twrp PBRP Root Umidigi Bison, user who own Umidigi Bison can root it by following the below Instructions

unofficialtwrp.com

Ja testei fiz o root instalei a recovery personalizada mais não funcionou fica travada na recovery root deu certo
[General Topics] careloads:
English please.
[General Topics] careloads:
Sorry for dual post, just got updated even though I had Automatic System Updates turned off.
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
so for my phone, as far as I know, it's Bison_1, the OG Bison with the P60 chip.

Meanwhile, they added 2 new sections in the umidigi forums, for Bison 2021 edition (6GB and 8GB respectively)

Going with the OG software for the longest time, no issues. This recent update to this device, issue.

However, decided to grab the latest software for the 2021 edition 6GB version (same P60 chip).. flashed and installed with no issue. No red text overlay.

ANDROID 11!!!!

yeah. It's there. It works. I still have wonky wifi issues though.

I don't know if it fixes for everyone else, believe me I tried the OTA update method (going to the earliest available for BISON_1) and it still fails with the red text overlay.

If you have a problem, you may have a device that takes the Bison 2021 edition of software.

@CentralVAHere I'm curious to see what version is running on yours. Mine states:

UMIDIGI_BISON.6R_V1.0_20210510_20210510-1935
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
I already tested it, I installed the root, installed the custom recovery but it didn't work it gets stuck in the recovery root it worked

I don't quite get the full meaning, after installing everything it's stuck in recovery, but root it works?
[General Topics] careloads:
This is me with the update installed and no obvious changes.

UMIDIGI_BISON_V1.0_20210405
[General Topics] CentralVAHere:
You've got the Bison 2021. I doubt the original Bison will ever get 11. August 2020 the Bison was Umidigi's flagship phone. Now there are two newer Bison and the original has not even received a security patch.
[General Topics] djvinniev77:
I guess I lucked out.. for the longest time though, their original Bison software works to flash/install as I've done so many times trying to get twrp etc working.

Unfortunately there's no additional markings to validate what's what, and that they both use the same chipset, doesn't help.
[General Topics] JoeEU:
Hello,

I am considering buying a Bison.

Will only take it if there is a safe and proven method to get root access and thus more control over it (I realized my former cheap Chinese phones were compromised in the system SW and leaking data).

Can someone confirm it's possible to root the Bison with only basic IT knowledge?

Many thanks.

Joe
[General Topics] careloads:
I was hoping that by now we would have a solid process and maybe even a custom ROM. Read back. It looks like some have had success rooting but I am not a dev so like you, I need the whole package layed out for me.

I will say that the phone has performed well however. Battery life is good. I delete or disable everything I can. It has passed the dropped into the bath tub test :) I ordered a soft case that took 6 weeks to arrive. Wife thinks it's too heavy, I think it is solid.
[General Topics] 0Nefas0:
my english is bad so an apology

I think I understand that you have the bison 2020 and did you flash the new android 11 update that came out for the bison 2021?

if so, did you flash it through the pc or manually from the device

and you have not had problems with the device?
[General Topics] jfe55:
I have the Bison 2021. Came with 11 from the factory. A few days later I received an OTA update that apparently only reinstalled Zello and made it unremovable. Anyone else annoyed as hell by this? More important, anyone know how to remove this crapware?
[General Topics] JoeEU:
I should receive my Bison soon.

Found a detailed description to get root access here: https://www.getdroidtips.com/root-umidigi-bison/

It's mentioned that OTA updates will not work afterwards. Maybe not a bad thing 😬
[General Topics] Allosenas_UW:
{Mod edit}

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

Let's be open to everything.

Greetings to xda.