yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[General Questions and Answers] wentaas:
I'm from Turkey but I can import if it's not here and I'll consider every price. I'm comfortable buying from rather unknown brands. I just want the best experience:

120Hz, OLED screen with nice colours that feels nice to touch

nice camera with stabilisation, nice zoom (not the crazy 100x stuff), 60fps video and photo preview at 1080p

waterproof against water drops like rain

speakers as good as possible!

and a CPU that will give me a smooth experience with scrolling etc

with a battery life that doesn't suck;

gaming is not a concern, fast charging, headphone jack or wireless charging are useless

But most importantly make it feel light and good in the hand please. I hate how my Redmi Note 8 Pro feels, it's heavy, ugly, cheap-feeling, and my hands keep sticking on its back. It feels like I'm lifting a phone more than holding it.

The S21 I've tested felt great though, my thumbs loved the aspect ratio too. S21 is great for everything, except for its OS... If it had stock Android, I'd buy it without a thought but I really don't like OEM flavours like OneUI, MIUI etc... Is a custom ROM on it perhaps a good idea?

Thanks for all the answers! I've had my eyes on Pixel, OnePlus, S21 but none of them feel quite perfect. I'm sure there's something I'll love! Thanks again in advance
[General Questions and Answers] Deleted member 1890170:
My recommendation: Google Pixel 5.
[General Questions and Answers] wentaas:
yes i love it but worse screen resolution and refresh rate, cpu, camera compared to s20 but idk if theres really no other choice it's a nice phone, what do you think about 4a vs 5? is it worth the huge price jump? what are the differences even

12% worse cpu, no water resistance, both really great cameras, but losing ultrawide, 20% less battery, and most importantly for me 60hz instead of 90.. altho i havent tested so idk if it matters. if it doesnt that much, i dont think it justifies the twice as much price unless theres something im missing
[Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Questions & Answers] dalitn:
HI,

Please I want to get combination files the note 10 plus n965f.

Thank you
[General Questions and Answers] asphaltpebbles:
I have a blu view one bl100db tracphone that I am tthat is frp locked cannot seem to bypass with any of the methods and cannot find the stock room anywhere
[General Questions and Answers] Deleted member 1890170:
To bypass / remove FRP-lock it's not required to re-flash phone's Stock ROM.

Hint: Add Tracphone Blu View 1 to this thread's title thus mainly owners of such device get addressed.
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Themes and Apps] smscott80:
Hello. I've backed up the SMS messages into a file and I disabled binary mode. The backup file looked like it was successful. When I viewed the file though, it looked like it was saved in binary format.

Regardless, I deleted one SMS message and then attempted to restore using the option that does NOT delete all messages before hand. I want to make sure the restore works before risk losing all (about 1100) the SMS messages.

Once I started the restore, it ran for 10 minutes and did not look like it was doing anything. My questions: does the option to restore without deleting all messages before hand actually work? How long can I expect a restore to take with the above options and roughly 1100 SMS messages? The most important thing I'm looking for is being able to view the SMS messages at a later date, not necessarily on the phone, which is why I tried the first backup without the binary option.

I also took another backup and saved it in binary format and tried to restore just the SMS messages from that file, but it ran for about 10 minutes and didn't appear to be doing anything either.

Thanks for all the help!
[General Questions and Answers] Deleted member 11482513:
So my Nokia 5 ask for an update but after updating the phone keep restarting endlessly, it will show the Android logo for a bit than it will restart , I can't enter safe-mode or recovery mode or anything but download-mode, so I tried to flash it using OST but since I haven't unlock the bootloader it will stuck at reflashing service bootloader and with no access to the system I can't un-lock the bootloader so what can I do ?
[General Questions and Answers] Deleted member 1890170:
Hint: Add Nokia 5 to this thread's title thus mainly owners of such device get addressed.
[General Questions and Answers] Deleted member 11482513:
thank u for the hint , so I installed the ADB-FASTBOOT that u mention but I don't know what to do after that, I'll be glad if u help me !
[General Questions and Answers] lmgnsa:
Is there any way to get root/custom recovery/custom roms on the A502DL or A501DL? If so, how?
[General Questions and Answers] lmgnsa:
Bump. I found some information, but unfortunately the instructions are not very clear. I assume lehmancurtis means to go to fastboot with the boot mode tool, and then flash the TWRP.img with adb. However, I am not sure if this is the right way to do things and I do not have adb drivers for the A501DL or A502DL.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
adb and fastboot include a generic Google driver and the VCOM driver installer for mtk includes what you'll need. Once in fastboot...

fastboot oem unlock-go

Follow the instructions on your device to unlock the bootloader. Then boot to system and reboot to fastboot with bootmode tool. Once in fastboot...

fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot oem reboot-recovery

Then it should boot to TWRP. Be sure to format data f2fs to remove encryption so you can mount data.

And you will need to install Magisk from recovery to have root and keep. OEM recovery from replacing TWRP.
[General Questions and Answers] lmgnsa:
Just to confirm:

To prevent the OEM recovery from replacing TWRP, I have to flash Magisk.

If I flashed a gsi, would this problem still be present?

edit: if I wanted to flash a gsi, would I be able to flash "A" only roms, "AB" only roms, or A/AB roms?

edit2: @lehmancurtis plz help me 🥺
[General Questions and Answers] fliproc:
@lehmancurtis : How do you get the a502dl into fastboot mode? I have tried everything that I can think of, and nothing works! Thank you for all of your help, m8!
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
Use a tool that controls bootmode. Mtk-mode-selector
[General Questions and Answers] sj78:
Please help, it says "waiting port" forever
[General Questions and Answers] fliproc:
Thanks for the reply! I tried this tool, along with adb commands, etc., and I just can't even get fastboot. This would be an AWESOME phone, if not for this dumb crap!! The phone I had before this one is a Z717VL, and it sucks as well. They are both Tracfone phones that were given to me by my wife. I think I'll just get a Galaxy S8 or so and just root it instead. All other phones that I had on Verizon in the past have been super easy... just a One-Click-Root. Thanks everyone for your time and help!
[General Questions and Answers] sj78:
Are you sure the method you thought of works? The bootmode tool you linked cannot get the A501DL to fastboot mode, it just says "waiting port" forever.
[General Questions and Answers] sj78:
@lehmancurtis I feel like you might be lying about whether or not your method works, as the boot mode tool does not work. @lmgnsa did it work for you?
[General Questions and Answers] williamhancock328`:
I got it to work by loading the boot mode tool, selecting fastboot, and plugging the phone in when it is turned off while holding volume down.

Then you can unlock the bootloader.
[General Questions and Answers] sj78:
I cannot get to fastboot even if I follow these steps... @williamhancock328` @lehmancurtis

It still says "waiting port" forever.
[General Questions and Answers] mickeybeats:
Make sure to install the MTK VCOM drivers first, the android drivers from google or samsung will not work!

Mediatek USB VCOM Drivers (all MTK devices).zip | by www.foldertips.com for Utilities

Download GApps, Roms, Kernels, Themes, Firmware, and more. Free file hosting for all Android developers.

androidfilehost.com

I was able to bootloader unlock my Alcatel 3T 8, even being on tmobile using the boot selector tool
[General Questions and Answers] sj78:
I have already installed the MTK VCOM drivers multiple times, I don't know why it still doesn't work.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
T
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
It sometime takes a few tries to get the phone and tool to do what its supposed to, but if you get the waiting message start over until the program reboots the device. It will work, it's just not a perfect process.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
You need to modify a few files. It's almost just like the 5059 devices and you can look up the 5041c thread to see what needs edited. Use the fstab.mt6739 from the 5041c.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
Here's the tool. I think some of the links to it got messed up. Make sure you turn on developer options and check that oem unlock is ticked as well as adb usb options. Once in fastboot, issue the following

fastboot oem unlock-go

Follow the instructions on the device. Then boot into system and complete setup so that you can turn on developer options again since your device was just reset. Boot to fastboot once again and issue these.

fastboot flash recovery ./recovery.img

fastboot oem reboot-recovery

That should be the custom recovery you just installed. It will be replace on reboot if steps are not taken. I was in the process of working this issue when my beat up a501dl succumbed to its varied and multiple impact injuries. If I can find the time to repair it I will finish where I left off, but in the mean time I will help as much as I can.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
Regular drivers are built into the phone but you may need vcom drivers. I'm going to attempt to repair mine enough to reset and flash again. I'll probably have to nav my screen via commands, but I will attempt to capture the process and show you.
[General Questions and Answers] Hitti2:
I've got a A501DL, I enabled usb debugging and oem unlock, seems like the A501DL in fastboot does not talk with the pc, i've installed so many driver things its crazy butat fastboot when typing fastboot reboot bootloader, it reboots the phone but it skips fastboot and turns on to my home screen, I used volume up and power, I get in fast boot butthe device isnt being detected by windows 10 64 bit. Also in fast boot there is only

reboot system now

wipe data/factory reset

wipe cache partition

power off

im going nut that fastboot isnt working with this device.
[General Questions and Answers] Hitti2:
C:\platform-tools>fastboot oem unlock-go

< waiting for any device >
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
Fastboot is hidden from conventional methods, but since it is a mtk device you should be able to use the mtk-boot-mode tool to reboot to fastboot. That is how I was able to access fastboot. The tool is a bit hit and miss and sometime you have to run it a few times to get it to work. I've built a few custom recoveries for the 502 and was able to use them before my display broke the rest of the way lol. The 501 is a very similar device. Mtk-su should give you a temp root (unless you have received the patch). If you are able to get anywhere with it, post the boot and recovery images and I'll build a custom recovery for it. Also, I can pack the other changes you will need to keep the stock ROM from replacing the recovery
[General Questions and Answers] Hitti2:
I thought there is a twrp for this device, i downloaded it and was planing to flash.

Where can i download this mtk boot mode tool?
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
I put a link to the tool in my Alcatel idol 5 thread. The recovery is for the 502 which is very similar but the kernels are slightly different. But it wouldn't take me very long at all to compile one specifically for the 501 once I have the boot.img
[General Questions and Answers] samuel1003:
I spent about 3 hours trying to enter Bootloader mode, i was unable to enter using mtk boot selector, or adb to bootloader
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
I may have a solution if you know how to use adb. Are you using Windows or Linux? Have you checked to see if mtk-su gives you root?
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
I don't know why I asked about which OS. The tool only works on Windows. Also when you tried the tool did your phone reboot? If so were you holding vol(-)?
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
Follow the readme file and you should be able to access fastboot mode as long as mtk-su works on your device. Same goes for the 502.
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
I have the tcl a1 (a501dl) and I tried using mtk-su but I get this error

Failed critical init step 4
UID: 2000 cap: 0000000000 selinux: enforcing

Not sure why I'm getting that error

I tried using the mtk-bootmode took but it didn't seem to work not sure what I did wrong there I tried rebooting and pressing volume down when rebooting or turning phone off and holding volume down and then plugging phone in but all of that didn't seem to work since the tool got stuck on "Waiting port" when trying to enter fastboot

I wasn't sure how to install the vcom drivers so I installed them from here and used the automatic installation.

The phone has a security patch level of February 5, 2020 so not sure why mtk-su doesn't work.

I did look at device manager and noticed a mediatek preloader thing appearing for a few seconds during boot.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
You have the patched version on your device. I'm not sure if we have a work around for this device yet or not. You would need to be able to flash the older stock ROM. Well, the lk binary is usually the only thing that needs to be downgraded.
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
I looked but wasn't able to find any stock firmware for this phone. Has the mtk bootmode tool been patched or was I using it wrong?
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
The tool hasn't been patched but I didn't create it so I am not sure what it uses in order to write to the misc partition in order to call for the device to boot into fastboot mode. My guess is that it used mtk-su or something very similar in order to gain the required permissions. Alcatel patched the lk binary disabling the exploit. That being said, it is possible that the patch also killed the tool. I don't know this for sure but the timing fits. I'll dig a bit deeper to see if I can verify this though.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
Install Sugar_MTK. I just checked and a501 is supported. Follow the instructions in the Alcatel Tetra guide for using sugar to replace your lk binary. Use the lk from the zip I posted earlier in this thread.
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
How do you login to sugar mtk I tried the login info I found online but it didn't work I tried Username: SUBRECella and Password: Rampasbt12!
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
There are a handful of different packages of Sugar floating around. Some of them are duds lol. I will try to share the exact one I have once I'm able to access my machine.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
Right credentials wrong exe.
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
This is a screenshot of the error I'm getting https://gyazo.com/77940c6dc66ba36d24bf9a289babd225

If I paste in a username and password that's different from those credentials which you said were correct, I get this error instead https://gyazo.com/b9f5f3dc407b360fcdfb52e24a4a838d

I got sugar from here and downloaded the newest version
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
I've never seen either of those errors. But, I have a message when I start mine that says forbidden version lol. I'll get it linked asap.
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
I did also try a few different versions and even tried following some youtube tutorials but none of them seem to have worked to let me login to sugar. I tried sugar in a virtual machine as well but that didn't let me get past login either.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
New link Sugar_MTK.
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
It says I don’t have access
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
Let me see if I have multiple versions. Maybe a bad copy.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
I do have multiple so I'll figure out what's up and change the link.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
I changed the link let me know if this one does better.
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
Still not working, here's a screenshot of the error on google drive https://gyazo.com/018b33ee29ddcd7d680ded6a49180ecd
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
Ah ok let me fix that lol. Check it now. You should be able to get it now.

,
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
I tried the first version and I get an error, here's the screenshot of it https://gyazo.com/5d7885694829ef53716ebdae24a16f5d

I tried the other version which you changed the link to and wow it works, I'm really surprised. Thank you so much idk how it works lol.
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
One thing though, is I can't seem to find the tcl a501dl in the list but I'll look again tomorrow
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
I looked but I can't seem to find the a501dl in sugar, not sure if I'm missing something. I tried flashing a different model to see if that would work, I tried the alcatel tetra thing but it wouldn't flash and said something about com port in use and I restarted and tried installing vcom drivers again but same issue.
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
Good thing it didn't flash the wrong ROM lol. The kernel would more than likely fry the digitizer at the least. With sugar you sometimes have to clear old devices stored as COM ports in device manager. Also, since the battery is considered non-removable, you have to be sure the phone is powered down. Go through the process of starting the flash before you plug the device to the computer. I've not checked the drop down menu for the a501dl, but it did have other files used to pull in the ROM for flashing. Not sure why they did one and not the other, but I am going to take a closer look. More to follow after I check it out.
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
ok, a501dl has a removable battery btw so I think you are confusing it with another model. When I started the process in sugar the phone stayed with the screen black and there was the mediatek vcom port in device manager
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
I was thinking about the a502dl that the battery doesn't come out of. Sorry about that. Is the a501 in the list of options in the drop down menu?
[General Questions and Answers] 0000.0000.00:
I’m not 100% sure here but I think the a501 might be referring to the Alcatel a501 which exists and is completely different from the tcl a501dl. The image sugar shows for the a501 doesn’t match the tcl a501dl but matches the Alcatel a501.
[General Questions and Answers] luridphantom:
not too late for a bump

use this to unlock bootloader and flash custom recoveries: https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient
[General Questions and Answers] :
BootLoader UNLOCKED folks, You can use mtkclient. I will release custom recovery and custom stock if anyone wants it

twrp device tree made, twrp built and it works
[General Questions and Answers] luridphantom:
can you share twrp? will flash it to my a501dls first
[General Questions and Answers] luridphantom:
i can flash it but adb sideloading, sdcard and usb otg mounting dont work. it also can't mount data due to the encryption
[General Questions and Answers] :
ya, it has a few fstab issues I need to fix for mounting external sd and usb-otg. I'm working on Custom Stock now that kills encryption and other security to get ready for GSI Roms

Testing Custom Stock Rom now
[General Questions and Answers] luridphantom:
sweet, i got a few a501dls to test it out once youre ready
[General Questions and Answers] :
not going good, I'm getting secureboot failure and nothing boots but twrp. mtkclient doesn't write vendor or system. Nor dumps system. Confused, bootloader says unlocked, unsure how to proceed

Update: Somehow booting again and got rid of encryption in the process
[General Questions and Answers] luridphantom:
nice, looks like youre making good progress, was gonna ask if you had flashed an empty vbmeta
[General Questions and Answers] :
there is no vbmeta on this device. if you would like to continue helping me test stuff, please contact me on Telegram since it's live and much quicker to post test stuff and talk easier.
[General Questions and Answers] Oswald Boelcke:
@PizzaG

As an exemption from the last bullet of rule no. 5 of the XDA Forum Rules, we grant only developers the privilege to share references to their social media in their own development threads. These conditions obviously don't apply to your post, you or this thread. For this reason the reference to Telegram has been removed. Please refrain from sharing of social media links or attempts to drag members to them in future. Thanks for your cooperation!

Regards

Oswald Boelcke

Senior Moderator
[General Questions and Answers] :
:poop:(y):poop:

as a side note, to my recollection, there is no dev in this thread doing anything with this device except me, so I fail to see how your quote to rule 5 pertains to this thread. Seems to me this is just a random thread about a random device. What you are essentially doing is cutting off everyone from test releases and general info about this device in favor of forcing people to stay on your site. I get it but I feel that goes against the whole dev community. But that's fine anyways, it is not worth my time to try and fight XDA mods over outdated rules and regulations and sharing my time and energy, I'm scrapping this project... My personal dev routine is to hop on XDA and see what's available for a device, I contact all threads related and drop some info and a link to my TG group. Once I get a tester I usually put out several test releases/bug fixes and then at that point, I will go ahead and make my own xda post for said device with mostly tested releases. I honestly can't be bothered with the slow trickle of info and chat that you find with a forum as my personal time is important to me and I don't have alot of it to sit around waiting for responses and feedback and such. Again, I understand you XDA Mods are trying to keep people on your site but I seriously can't relate and at what point does this not become Bullying?
[General Questions and Answers] lehmancurtis:
I built for this one a while back and I think everything works. I will post asap.
[General Questions and Answers] Figlet:
I have one that's almost functional, it boots if I 'reboot to bootloader', but I locked up the normal boot process by trying factory reset from settings instead of twrp, so now force boots to recovery.

Does anyone know which file to delete in order to stop the factory reset when invoked from settings menu? I've googled it and can't find anything, but I know there's a file that either needs to be modified or deleted and it will no longer try to boot to recovery/factory-reset

Thanks!
[General Questions and Answers] luridphantom:
$ adb shell
:/ $ su
:/ # mount -o rw,remount /
:/ # cd system/
:/system # mv recovery-from-boot.p recovery-from-boot.p.bak
:/system # mount -o ro,remount /
[General Questions and Answers] Figlet:
Yes, I had already tried that, to no avail. Also, I flashed the lk image found in the a501dl.zip package, and now I might be bricked pretty hard, but I'll use mtk-tools and see if I can restore the factory lk.img, if anyone has it, or if lk2.img is the same kind of like the old bootloader backup partitions
[General Questions and Answers] luridphantom:
there is an lk2 you can backup and restore to your lk partition