yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[General Topics] dkannegi:
If anyone ever has a non-working camera (e,g, switch to the selfie cam causes a hard lock and reboot), one needs to reset Dalvik/Cache to get it back. The camera fault was bad enough to make most conferencing apps fail because of the hard crash. A TWRP build should really be made official for these phones since the stock Ulefone EEA firmware is garbage for managing its own affairs during app provisioning (i.e. loading WebEx/MS Teams/Whatsapp, etc) - I just took the phone apart and back together most likely for nothing (did a connector reseat - which didn't fix it, so took the risk and put below Russian TWRP onboard). I heard Ulefone has terrible warranty service for Canada so am happy I didn't have to go down that route.

Unofficial TWRP flash directions can be found here: https://unofficialtwrp.com/unofficial-twrp-3-6-0-root-ulefone-armor-13/

The actual image is here [Edit: Attached a Magisk patched TWRP one here]:

360 armor 13

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

Ensure phone is confirmed rooted with Magisk first (because this TWRP is unknown). It cannot be booted via flashboot boot commands, it must be flashed to the boot partition (which has the recovery along with it) and then the phone restarted to recovery via ADB.

On first boot the TWRP will have to be switched from Russian to desired language, also Magisk will have to be re-patched in since this involves a bootloader flash. Thankfully it DOES work and was how I reset Dalvik/Cache as a test getting my cameras to work again (was about to go full factory reset).

I still find it funny many years later that Android still hasn't sorted out how to handle corrupt camera dalvik/cache data or give the user a non-root option to do a dalvik/cache wipe without TWRP.

And yes I still pass SafetyNet (BASIC mode) and MS Corporate Portal InTune with this setup + Magisk APK hide + Universal Safetynet fix + Magisk's Zygist denylist.
[General Topics] lvphaa:
This is the easiest way to root an Android 11 device. Thanks. I bricked my phone trying to patch services.jar for microG.

Has anybody successfully installed microG?
[General Topics] snowfirebeast:
Edit I figure it out I will add what I did.

hi i know this is a little dated, and ivent done this since g2 days but i was having a bit of an issue.

/adb reboot bootloader brings phone to black screen that says fastboot at bottom. tho the next steps dont work. it also has pc making the disconnect sound every 15 seconds or so

(this is because after in fastboot it is showing up as a new device. Go to device manager and reinstall drivers. Check for fastboot devices and it should be there now.) Just follow rest of the guide and you will be up and running!)

i then did reboot recovery and it had an option to boot into fastboot mode. that puts a big red FASTBOOTD on top then gives me a menu underneath on phone, my options are.

reboot: this reboots phone to normal,

enter recovery; takes me to previous screen.

reboot to bootloader; takes me to black screen that says fastboot inbottom corner and it again doesnt show up in list of devices

one thing that may or may not be an issue is every time i plug in usb i have to manually enable file transfer. idk if adb requires that or not. always allow for usb debugging is enabled.

sorry for bad grammar im not very good at typing
[General Topics] dkannegi:
Small warning to all (not at all related to the root), somehow I got a soft brick out of the following: served this phone a EXFAT formatted SD Card (it refused, reformatted to fat32), powered it down, using a PC: deleted partitions on the SD Card, inserted the blank card in the phone, powered it on == a soft brick. Removal of card or reformatting it doesn't solve the brick. This is the first phone were I will say: if you are going to mess with an external SD Card, back it up fully before doing so (in no way in hell should I have ever gotten a brick from changing out the SD Card when all change outs were done with the phone powered down). Still fault finding this POS (backing up my data with TWRP then issuing a wipe). I can confirm the internal storage chip is functioning via TWRP and I reflashed Super (messing with that often yields a brick).

Also I get a weird Chinese menu when powered on with vol down + power held (I suspect it is a very dangerous debug menu). Recovery and bootloader modes still work as normal.
[General Topics] nr0000000:
VERY nice work!!!

Worked for me under Linux with platform-tools_r33.0.1-linux and your vbmeta_null.img file because I don't have mine, but after analysis we can do it ourself with an hex editor, we only replace with 'double-zeros' after the string "avbtool 1.0.0" to the end of the file. All done!

Thank you very much guy!
[General Topics] MerkerBenson:
Hello!

Following your well-made guide I rooted my new Power Armor 13, but I have the camera issue.

However I am not sure about how to do the fix you have here.

Do I just flash the image you attached to the post with the commands:

fastboot flash bootEEA_TWRP_magisk234.img

fastboot boot bootEEA_TWRP_magisk234.img

and that's it?

Thanks in advance
[General Topics] bandario:
Root instructions are fine. These TWRP instructions are convoluted as hell and quite risky.

I can verify that the TWRP provided works on the Power Armor 13, but use extreme caution - I came very close to a permanent soft brick.

There are two types of fastboot mode, one with the red fastbootd logo, one without.

If someone more knowledgeable than myself can translate these TWRP instructions to clear, logical steps in plain English it would be for the greater good.

Could not get no-verity-opt-encrypt to flash in the end, maybe because I'm not on the EU version.
[General Topics] MerkerBenson:
What do you mean you came very close to a permanent soft brick? what happened? did you use the instructions on the TWRP site? Because I don't get much out of them.

Any other way to reset Dalvik cache other than TWRP? Does Clockwork mod work? I searched their site but I get no clear confirmation that I can or can't use it with Powe Armor 13.

Did anyone try this out(it has option to delete the cache partition):

How To Use ClockworkMod Recovery On Android

If you’re planning to install any kind of custom ROMs or custom kernels on your Android device, you’re going to need a custom recovery to do it. A custom recovery like ClockworkMod recovery can help you flash various custom files on your device. The recovery first needs to be flashed on your...

www.online-tech-tips.com
[General Topics] bandario:
I would not attempt to install clockwork recovery unless you have found a version built for this device.

I mean that the instructions on unofficial TWRP site do not make any sense and are incorrect.

You can muddle your way through but instructions overall are terrible - wrong info for getting into fastboot, wrong fastbootD mode, false claim that you can boot directly to recovery image. It's all just wrong.

Thankfully denis9rafael's original instructions are gold and he is spot on that even from a soft brick, this device can be brought back from the dead using SP_MDT and factory firmware.

Overall I've found the Power Armor 13 very forgiving in terms of modifications or failure thereof. Unless my camera craps out, I've no reason to mess with TWRP again - we don't have any custom roms.

I found that with this TWRP installed, there was a fair chance that on any given reboot, the device could end up in a bootloop.

EG this afternoon - I'd had everything set up for a week, just using the device as normal. Vo_wifi crapped out so I gave it a reboot...it **** the bed.

I suspect we may need to modify these instructions to specifically flash the modified boot image to both boot_a and boot_b but I could be wrong.

For my own use case, I need root in order to flash magisk module to enable apt-x support. I'll keep you posted if the random bootloop happens again without TWRP in the mix. I have now flashed magisk_modified boot to both boot_a and boot_b.

We could really use a good dev in here. I'd be happy to chip in some funds to get a decent rom and proper TWRP build support.

Thanks again to Denis9rafael for the OP - I wouldn't have bought the phone without it.

It's a heavy lump, but it's quite amazing for my needs.

EDIT: For anyone who wants or needs apt-x support. This magisk module did the trick for me, dude is an absolute legend.

Releases · multiwirth/aptx-HD-magisk

A magisk module to add aptx(HD) libs to android oreo up to R - multiwirth/aptx-HD-magisk

github.com
[General Topics] MerkerBenson:
REEDIT:

Ok finally got it to work

The steps for EU version of Ulefone Power armor 13:

1. Root the phone the same way as original thread

2. If the camera issue appears then download the bootEEA_TWRP_magisk234.img from the post.

3. Rename the image to recovery.img

4. Connect phone to computer and boot to fastboot(if it doesn't get detected, reinstall the drivers with it connected and if that doesn't work update the drivers via windows update).

5. type:

fastboot flash boot recovery.img

fastboot boot recovery.img.

6. If it fails to boot and is stuck at "USB transmission OK", then reboot phone via power button, and then use Flashify app to boot to recovery.

7. Change language to english (the way to do it here:

)

8. Go to "wipe" menu in TWRP and click on advanced and check only Dalvik/Art cache.

9. After wipe reset phone and voila
[General Topics] bandario:
Any chance we can get a non-EU copy of boot_TWRP_Magisk from someone? I suspect this is why I had trouble.
[General Topics] MerkerBenson:
I think only the author of the thread can do this effectively.

However, it should be possible to do it using a virtual machine with the Ulefone android image, no? Because basically all you need to do is simulate a rooted phone then patch the TWRP.
[General Topics] bandario:
I've already got root - I did just that with the boot.img for non-eu version firmware.

I'm pretty sure that the boot_TWRP file posted is EU version specific.
[General Topics] MerkerBenson:
I meant if there is any way to create that patched file for non-EU version using a VM of the non-EU firmware
[General Topics] bandario:
It's all good. There is a wealth of information available in the 4pda thread for this device as well as a well-baked decrypted and rooted version of the latest non-eu rom made by Kotfucius which can be flashed with SP Flash tool. There really is zero need for TWRP anymore unless you need a way to clear dalvik/cache.

I'm also pleased to report that I tested a variety of GSI roms using his instructions too.

My favourite is OctaviOS.

Unfortunately I was not able to get bluetooth audio to work properly, and IMS registration fails so VoWifi and VoLTE are not possible at present using the GSI images in spite of extended customisation and compatibility options in the OctaviOS settings for both.

Battery life under all of the Android 12 GSIs that I tested was extremely good. They feel very light weight compared to the stock rom - even though there's not a HEAP of bloat in the stock rom, these AOSP/Lineage base roms still perform better. Just a shame there's several major features unsupported.

Anyway, I'm back to the stock rom now (rooted and decrypted) and I'm very happy with the device. I thought the size and weight of the thing were going to bother me, but I didn't charge for 6 days last week and still had 30% battery. The advantages OUTWEIGH the disadvantages for me.

I have also found that the RAM X-Grip universal holder for 7"-8" tablets will hold this device in a vehicle, so that is pretty much all of my issues sorted now.

Any new visitors to this thread, don't be afraid to play around with customisation. Say what you like about Ulefone, but they have made these devices quite difficult to kill.

Even when I thought I had soft bricked the device several times, the way that they've configured the hardware to be able to enter download mode even from a bootloop means that you can generally manage to flash the stock firmware with the multiport download tool or SP Flash tool.

If your device is in a bootloop, you can hold volume down/power with the cable plugged in and it will shake it out of it and start downloading the firmware.

Ulefone's instructions are pretty bad Chinglish - google translate this link is much clearer.

SmartPhone Multi-port download tool - инструкция по прошивке — База данных устройств - DeviceDB.XYZ

devicedb.xyz

Anyway, enjoy the device.
[General Topics] MerkerBenson:
error
[General Topics] MerkerBenson:
Glad to hear you got everything working!

And thanks a lot for the rest of the advice, especially the RAM X-Grip universal holder, I was in a dilemma regarding how to use the phone in the car....I think I can get it through amazon.

Yes, shame about the lack of custom ROMs, but I also got it mainly for the battery. Even the BV9500Pro is not enough for me now(mainly because of stock ROM being too drainy on the bat).

Enjoy your phone as well!
[General Topics] dkannegi:
Edit: The first method of root where vbmeta.img is hexxed out only partially prevents verity from blocking the boot process and leaves the phone in a potentially risky state (worse than flashing that bootleg TWRP). Depending on what you do rooted , you may end up tripping Verity unless you reflash all three vbmeta images (vbmeta, vbmeta system, vbmeta vendor) with the --disable-verity --disable-verification flags using fastboot. Even lightly rooted (where I followed the OP's post and did nothing else beyond Magisk) resulted in a verity lockout caused by certain apps - format of data was the way out. Run avbctl get-verity in a root shell to check its status, with the hex out only verity is still very much alive on slot A, doing the fastboot with all three STOCK vbmeta disables verity fully.

Still working on trying to knock out internal storage encryption and being able to mod anything in super on device (such as a build.prop tweak).

If you are rooted and use any Microsoft office 365 app tied to work - you MUST kill verity or a reboot to a bootloop (until userdata is formatted) awaits randomly.

... rest of hte original post below.

Just came back here to say the TWRP I mentioned before

Do not leave the TWRP I linked earlier in the thread loaded on the phone long term, especially if you set a lockscreen code/pattern/password - the phone uses encrypted storage and this TWRP upon trying to ACCESS it WILL hose your phone's userdata (not sure why, but things 100% break upon reboot). The only way out is with the stock recovery (can be the magisk patched version) and using that recovery doing a full factory reset. Also - don't update to magisk 25.1 using the inline patcher, that also will cause a soft brick, grab the bootloader file, and update that to 25.1 by using a patch a file method.

Now as I use TWRP to make userdata partition backups (because sorry - nothing matches it) and I am sure some lurkers also do. If a lockscreen code is set, it MUST be removed (change to 'Swipe' which is the phone's out of the box default mode)), then TWRP flashed on using fastboot, do what you need to do, go back to fastboot and reflash the stock, upon reboot in then restore your lock code.

Long story short - the TWRP I found can fix that camera issue (thankfully it only happens once), and it is capable of making good userdata backups... but, because it wasn't properly setup for this phone it comes with a dangerous amount of risk. Don't use it whatsoever in a 'production' environment (be ready for a full factory reset) - don't even use it to flash ZIPs - stick to Magisk modules. IF someone was able to fix the issues with it (especially encrypted internal storage handling) then it could be made a bit less dangerous.
[General Topics] dkannegi:
Any module or modded vold for adding ExFat support for inserted MicroSD cards?
[General Topics] oindividuo:
Regarding clearing cache/dalvik, can it be done via a terminal emulator after acquiring root (i.e. `rm -rf /data/dalvik-cache/*`) or do I really need TWRP for that?
[General Topics] oindividuo:
It was not enough, TWRP must be doing something else besides clearing the partition.

I followed the unofficial TWRP guide above and all is fine now. Camera works and so does the fingerprint sensor
[General Topics] dkannegi:
Thanks for the ram mount suggestion - they are a VERY good car mounting solution for this phone ( and absolutely worth their cost). I bought mine off Amazon, model RAMHOLUN8BU at the following link or search ASIN B006OQQ27E in Amazon. It does come with the silicone tether, however the mount cradle itself holds the phone sufficiently at the corners even over rough roads (phone must not be encased such as the optional belt clip). I bought also an extension link and windshield suction mount from the same Amazon merchant - all held up very nicely over rough dirt roads at high speed in a loaded up minivan (Canadian rural highways).

Ram small tablet mount:

Ram Mount Universal X-Grip II Tablet Holder with 1-Inch Ball for Small Tablets Including iPad mini (RAMHOLUN8BU) : Amazon.ca: Electronics

Ram Mount Universal X-Grip II Tablet Holder with 1-Inch Ball for Small Tablets Including iPad mini (RAMHOLUN8BU) : Amazon.ca: Electronics

www.amazon.ca

Ram double ball extension with windshield mount:

RAM MOUNTS RAM-B-166U Double Ball Twist-Lock Suction Cup Mount : Amazon.ca: Automotive

RAM MOUNTS RAM-B-166U Double Ball Twist-Lock Suction Cup Mount : Amazon.ca: Automotive

www.amazon.ca

Note: Amazon US did offer better prices but those SKUs were unavailable to Canadian customers - links above are specifically the best Canadian priced options with Prime shipping for my case.
[General Topics] sc.actual:
Interesting, which version of OctaviOS did you flash? There isn't a Ulefone ROM.
[General Topics] bandario:
The point of a Generic System Image is that it's generic.

Generic System Image (GSI) list

Notes about tinkering with Android Project Treble. Contribute to phhusson/treble_experimentations development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I tried heaps of them, they all worked. No VoLTE/VoWifi as I said though, and a hand full of other bits and pieces not working properly.

Battery life is truly nuts however.
[General Topics] sc.actual:
Well that makes sense. The fact there's multiple versions threw me. 👍
[General Topics] bandario:
The only thing that matters is using the correct architecture and system structure (a/b/ab from memory)

The different versions/ filenames are different Configs of that rom eg vdnklite has system r/w.

Various Gapps Configs indicated in the name etc
[General Topics] denis9rafael:
Updated the instructions and files to now have TWRP and Magisk in the boot image as well.
[General Topics] Mephisto01:
Hi @denis9rafael ,

I welcome the info, that we have now TWRP available for this device and hopefully we can get rid of this annoying camera problem.

But I am not an expert, and the phone is in active use for work and personal use too, so I didn't want to take any chance to mess things up.

I have rooted my phone with the help of your original description.

What must I do to get TWRP on my phone and didn't lose anything or get into bootloop or brick the device?

I have read in the post #50, that TWRP should not be left on the phone. Just do what we need to do with it and than uninstall it, because it can mess thing.

Do you know about this, that it is true?

Thnks you in advance!
[General Topics] oindividuo:
Like @bandario reported, today after a few weeks of use my device entered a bootloop because of leaving TWRP installed. What exactly is the solution for this? Can I just flash the image with magisk but without TWRP or will that delete my data? If so, how can I recover the most data from this state? I'm interested specifically in my signal backup in internal storage, but ideally as much as possible.

I still haven't tried to input my passcode in TWRP
[General Topics] bandario:
I can't help you recover your device, it is encrypted.

It's become extremely difficult to log in to 4pda recently as I can't solve the captcha in Russian. There is a workaround here: https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/how-to-bypass-4pda-captchas/

You need to be logged in to access the files in many threads.

Kotfucius has now released an updated firmware with fully working TWRP 3.6.2_11 (made by Lopestom) which is also available independently as a flashable Magisk module.

Kotfucius firmware has a fully decrypted data partition and now comes with magisk 25.2 baked in, duraspeed fixed and TWRP so at least this won't happen to you again.

All the best.

Mod edit: 4pda link removed due to warez related site.
[General Topics] denis9rafael:
Hi,

I do not. For all my phones I have tried to get TWRP if available. Removing it means reflashing the stock boot image and you will also have to reinstall all your programs and loose the data. So you would need to backup everything.

However, if you do not know how to properly use it, you can easily brick your device.
[General Topics] denis9rafael:
You will need to reflash your boot.img and loose data. The first thing you should do when installing TWRP is take a backup of your system. If TWRP you is giving you issues, root only your system. TWRP is not necessary for most users. Root via Magisk is the most stable method.
[General Topics] dkannegi:
Thanks for the find - hate 4PDA especially given the current situation with Ukraine, but them crazies do come up with good mods. I wouldn't flash that Russian Kotfucius modded stock V3 firmware on a EEA version - they are using a non EU version. I even extracted the TWRP.img it had and paired it with the EEA bootloader - was way worse than the OP's version. Taking only the super.img from that Russian firmware and flashing it on an already rooted, de-verity'd and updated V2 EEA stock works well with the TWRP linked in the OP's post. OP's TWRP works even with a lock screen set with Kotfucius's V3 super, build.prop can be hot editted and saved, and that stupid hardware backed encryption is gone (bootloop problem over it failing should be now gone). My V2 firmware's /data TWRP backup worked fine when restored.

Downside: cannot flash stock OEM super.img otherwise encryption will strike back.

TWRP backup of /data plus a manual backup of internal storage will get one back and running in quick order.
[General Topics] J_9:
Hi all !

First, thank you for the tutorial

I managed to get my bootloader unlocked

(from the device recovery fastboot mode, not from the boot bootloader)

But now when trying to flash the vbmeta fil I get this message :

Command done :

fastboot flash vbmeta ~/Téléchargements/vbmeta_null.img

Response :

< waiting for any device >

Sending 'vbmeta' (4 KB) OKAY [ 0.001s]

Writing 'vbmeta' FAILED (remote: 'No such file or directory')

Any idea ?

Regards and thanks for any suggestion ...

JJ
[General Topics] J_9:
Hello again,

read somewhere that this is due to the phone being in fastbootd , not bootloader.

So went to bootloader but sadly, at this moment the fastboot devices command sees nothing.

If anyone has a possible solution ...

Actually, seems to be due to usb cable and port.

On an other port (not a blue one) and with another cable than the ulefone red one, worked as intended ...

Also, renamed to final partition name (ie : magisk_patched-25200_Rkbtf.img to boot.img)

Many thanks again for the material and knowledge you shared here !

Regards

JJ
[General Topics] OGUST.luck:
Hello everyone. I don't know if I'm at the eight place but I also don't know what else to do. I'm not a developer, just simple user and I have very big issue with my Ulefone Armor 13... It just stoped working. I'll add a screenshot. Please someone help me with it! Tell me what can I do to save my data! And why I get this issue? Is it virus? Thank you so much!
[General Topics] denis9rafael:
Hi, I just checked your screenshot. Can you please provide us with more details? What did you try to do before getting this? I am no programmer either. Can you flash the stock firmware via SPFlashtool?