yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android General] bencinilife:
OK now I am trying to do it all over again so I can share photos and all I'm getting now is what images show. Also attached fastboot screen shot. Ones in fastboot nothing happens or works. Says waiting for device I have even tried unlocking bootloader still doesn't change anything. Adb says can't on locked devices
[Android General] bencinilife:
This is what I get now Idk wtf. Grrr
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Okay, hang tight. I'll read over what you sent and get right back to you. By the way I didn't see any images.

I think your issue is most certainly driver related. In my instructions there is a section titled "INSTALLING USB DEVICE DRIVERS." Start with Step 5 and follow the steps. Rooting Guide
[Android General] bencinilife:
I think the pro

Okay, hang tight. I'll read over what you sent and get right back to you. By the way I didn't see any images.

I think your issue is most certainly driver related. In my instructions there is a section titled "INSTALLING USB DEVICE DRIVERS." Start with Step 5 and follow the steps. Rooting Guide

I think I know the problem my laptop isn't installing drivers or files. Says error in locating files / temp.... 15 sec mini adb isn't install tried several times. I hate windows 10 plus
[Android General] bencinilife:
I've also learned that it is missing components in the bootlegger But regardless I can't seem to even Flash the image file to firmware
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
What is missing components? Post a photo of the manufacturer's label on the rear of your tablet.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Ok so you're trying to flash firmware. We need to take our discussion over to that thread, and I'll try to get you through the process.

https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-firmw...firmware-restoration-upgrading-guide.4412585/

Just make a post in that thread and I'll reply.
[Android General] SamuEDL:
Hello, I have recently compiled a TWRP for Scepter 8 (CF) based on the Scepter8_tablet_v13_20221212 kernel. I don't know if it will work, since I don't have the tablet. But if you want to try.

Download: - Not Working-

Source Code: https://github.com/SamuEDL/android_device_qlink_Scepter_8_Tablet

Edit: The installation is the same as when installing the boot.img to root the tablet https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-root-qlink-scepter-8-bootloader-unlocking-rooting-guide.4410341/
[Android General] bencinilife:
So I am trying to use USB pro flash tool and when I load the sdcard and power on it does nothing till I take it out. I put the sdcard in a reader and view it on my s22 ultra it shows all the files
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
So you're using the PhoenixCard utility. Ok, of the four flash tools I have outlined in the OP, which ones have you tried?
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
This is excellent news @SamuEDL. By compile, do you mean you built it from source? I don't have that variant or I would definitely test. How did you manage to procure the kernel source code? Wow, I'm really hyped now that things are finally getting off the ground in terms of development for this tablet.
[Android General] SamuEDL:
Use the prebuilt kernel. In this case, from the firm Scepter8_tablet_v13_20221212.

Tell me what firmware you use, I have tried to compile a TWRP. But I can't confirm that it works.;)
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Sure. I have the Gen 2 MD variant. Firmware build Scepter8_Tablet_v01_,20220915 based on Android 12 (Go Edition).
[Android General] SamuEDL:
Ok, I'm going to put it to compile, in a few hours I should have it. Let's hope the compilation doesn't fail and works well.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Splendid. Did you have many errors on your previous compile?
[Android General] SamuEDL:
Here you have the TWRP.;)

-Not Working-

Source: https://github.com/SamuEDL/android_device_qlink_Scepter8
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
I will try this in just a few. I'm assuming it flashes exactly like a standard boot image, correct?
[Android General] SamuEDL:
In principle yes.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
I'm caught in a boot loop with it right now, but I am going to tinker around with it some shortly. I cannot successfully boot the TWRP image from fastboot mode due to a data buffer error. I'm going to convert the raw image to a sparse image and try again.
[Android General] SamuEDL:
I will continue investigating. Since it's my first time doing something for a device running android 11/12. I'll take a look at what you say.

Since I'm busy with my tablet right now.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
I really appreciate your contributions on this @SamuEDL.
[Android General] bencinilife:
Unfort

Here you have the TWRP.￼

https://github.com/SamuEDL/Action-Recovery-builder/releases/download/4276074275/boot.img

Source: https://github.com/SamuEDL/android_device_qlink_ScepUnfortunately I'm still trying to get this stock firmware flashed
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
So you've never been able to flash a factory image either using any of the proprietary flash tools?

I think I can boot the TWRP mage via fastboot now. I converted the 64.0 MB raw image file size down to 40.89 MB by converting to a sparse image. This should fix the data buffer error.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Okay. I'm walking through each and every step by flashing my own device. I'll try to pin down what we are missing here, so hopefully we can get you restored to a factory state.
[Android General] bencinilife:
Awesome
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Okay. I just used PhoenixUSB Pro to flash my device with the Scepter8_Tablet_v01_20220915 firmware package on a fresh Windows 11 install.

Without installing Allwinner device drivers or any other USB drivers, it flashed first time with no issues. These were my exact steps and observations:​

I installed PhoenixUSB Pro v4.0.0 and ran the program as administrator;​

I clicked the Image icon in the upper-left of the interface and selected my firmware img file.​

Next I clicked on the Start icon, at which time the large red X indicator in the upper-right of the screen changed to a large green ✓, which is the prompt to connect the device to the PC;​

I connected one end of my data sync cable to my PC, but not yet to my tablet. (It should be noted that I used a USB 2.0 port.) On my tablet I pressed and held the Volume Down key while connecting the micro USB end of the cable to my tablet;​

While continuing to hold Volume Down, I pressed my Power key about twice a second repeatedly until the green ✓ again turned into a red X. My flash tool interface displayed my Serial #, Flash State status, and flashing progress in the first box (Device1 box);​

​

After about 4 minutes, PhoenixUSB Pro prompted that the flash was complete.​

My Windows Device Manager recognizes my device in FEL mode as reflected by the following photo:

​

I have read on several Sunxi forums that USB 3.0/3.1 ports cause adverse issues when using PhoenoxUSB Pro and other Allwinner proprietary flash tools. USB 2.0 is always the preferred port.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
@bencinilife try these steps and a USB 2.0 port and let me know what happens.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
See. I knew this was something simple. Good catch. The download links in the firmware guide are incorrectly embedded. I will fix those now and link you the correct image.

Okay @bencinilife here is the v01_20220915 image directly from my cloud storage server.

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com

I will get those links correctly embedded in the downloads section now. Good catch on your part. I hope we have figured this out now.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
@bencinilife I just fixed the mismatched embedding in the firmware download links. In other words, what happened is that I sent you the link from what was listed at the v01_20220915 firmware image in the downloads section. However, as you pointed out, the embedded link was mismatched to the wrong firmware image. Every firmware link has now been re-embedded and double checked for accuracy.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
That's exactly why the firmware would not initiate the flashing process. The image I linked you previously -- unbeknownst to me at the time -- was actually for the CF variant. The flash tools will not permit a mismatched firmware flash. I'd be willing to wager it will work now. Just follow those steps I outlined to the letter.
[Android General] bencinilife:
It worked

With that firmware right off the bat.

Right I did aswI'm like come on hahahell
[Android General] bencinilife:
Now should I just go with the original post or try the new boot image ?
[Android General] bencinilife:
This is the screen shot of process and I'm right back into manual bootloader menu everything passed.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Okay so now you want to achieve root, correct? Oh, nevermind...it appears that you already have.
[Android General] bencinilife:
But now I'm stuck yet again ugh here is my screen shots
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Okay hold tight a moment. I'll get you straightened up
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Okay @bencinilife can you still get into fastboot mode?
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Okay no biggie. Go ahead and flash the firmware again. I will outline some short instructions with a shortcut to rooting while you do that.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
@bencinilife on rooting, once you restore your firmware, follow these steps:​

Download this patched boot.img file. It already has dm-verity/AVB disabled. Save this image in your ADB & fastboot folder like usual;​

Boot into legacy fastboot mode (the same fastboot mode you've been using), connect your tablet to your PC with a data sync cable, and open a command window in your ADB/fastboot directory;​

Execute these two commands:​

fastboot flash boot patched_boot.img
fastboot reboot

That's it. Upon reboot you'll be rooted with Magisk v25.2. Just open the Magisk app, grant permissions, and follow any prompts to complete the root setup. Your device may be rebooted by Magisk to finalize the process.​
[Android General] bencinilife:
WI'll no thank you
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Glad you got it rooted mate. You pay attention to detail and follow instructions well.

Something to keep in mind on these newer Android devices that use the dynamic partition scheme: mounting /system as r/w can be really tricky or even downright impossible by the typical means. This doesn't mean that you aren't rooted correctly or that something isn't working right. It's just how things work on Android 10 and newer. Here's a good discussion on GitHub on the subject, from the developer of Magisk. https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/issues/3589
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Well, the Scepter 8 is Treble supported, meaning there are custom GSI ROMs that already work on the device. I've tried a LineageOS 19.1 build that was pretty stable.
[Android General] bencinilife:
Hate to bother you but I'm having trouble flashing the twrp image I got from this thread. And even LineageOS
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
The TWRP image is not ready for installation as of yet. There are still some things to iron out on it first.

On the LineageOS, or any other GSI custom ROM, there is a rather meticulous procedure that must be followed for installation. I'll get you some links to get you in the right direction.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
@bencinilife if you're thinking of trying a GSI custom ROM, familiarize yourself with the subject matter of Project Treble. Here is a link to the XDA Treble forums. Before considering the installation of a GSI ROM on your tablet, study, study, then study some more. https://xdaforums.com/c/project-treble.7259/

Installing GSI ROMs for Treble supported devices is not a simple task by any means. And you're never a bother @bencinilife. I'm here to help when I can.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Ladies & gentlemen, I have it on good authority that the Gen 3 Scepter 8 is presently under development. It appears that it will ship with the Allwinner-A133, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, with the full version of Android 13 preinstalled. The tentative release date is June, 2023.
[Android General] SamuEDL:
With 3GB of ram it can be interesting, a pity that in Europe they don't offer it. By the way, they didn't tell you anything about the source code, right?
[Android General] Alkuam:
Please share your thoughts. I'm curious what applications more experienced people can come up with for this thing, considering how crippled its specs are.
[Android General] Gborg3:
I noticed upon receiving it that its specifications are not a whole lot different than what my decade old HP TouchPad has. If we can open this thing up in a software/firmware kind of way, who knows what kind of ridiculous ideas may work great on it. I finally noticed the MicroSD card slot and it does work to expand internal memory. That increase in space makes me wonder if a swap file/partition is possible to help the 1Gb ram. A clean Lineage build with swap and this Scepter 8 may be usable as more than just an ereader.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
The Scepter 8 has stock configuration for 512 MB zRAM swap. Once root is attained, it should be practical to increase the zRAM to 1024 MB. Another tweak that will increase performance is modifying the Out-of-Memory (OOM) or Low Memory Killer (LMK) presets within the kernel to an aggressive level. Again, root will be needed, but I'm in hopes that we will have source code in just a few more days.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
I know...it goes along with the old adage of "always save your work." And everytime I don't, with no exceptions, I come to regret it later.
[Android General] Persuasion89:
dang, I just got mine like 4 days ago and it wasn't greyed out for me. try factory resetting and skipping everything in the setup and just don't connect it to wifi and see if it's still like that
[Android General] zefie:
Mine required wifi, it was greyed out and said "Connect to internet" under it.

Connecting to wifi (wpa1 because it couldn't handle my WPA2/3 mixed mode env, with logcat errors) allowed the slider to be set to on, but it still denies "fastboot oem unlock" and claims "fastboot flashing unlock" is an unknown command.

fwiw mine shipped with the June 2021 patch

It would seem Hot Pocket Pepper did not really do too much to it and we are just fighting standard Android and Allwinner securities.

It would also seem based on the logcat logs that this device was intended to have a celluar radio for use with QLink, as there are a few references to RADIO_NOT_AVAILABLE and CarrierSettings. So consider that the device was likely rushed, and we may be able to find some exploits.

I think more money went into the branding of this device than the hardware, they even put QLink branding on the internal battery, something a typical user should never see (the back cover pries off easily as you'd expect for a cheap tablet, start at the large rim between the screen and buttons)

Finally, while its not much here is the fstab in case someone is crazy enough to try to get some other sun50i kernel booting https://pastebin.com/4K2y32MA
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
By any chance, have you tried using:

fastboot flashing unlock_critical

Worth a try anyway. Yes you are 100% correct that this device was originally slated to have a baseband radio and RF front-end modules for 4G-LTE support -- by way of a GSM SIM slot. That's what the US government paid QLink for, as the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB), as it was called at the time, was an initiative with its sole objective aimed towards assisting low-income households in staying connected to broadband internet service during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as assistance with purchasing certain mobile devices which could aide in keeping the household connected to broadband internet service.

During the early morning hours of July 9, 2921, QLink Wireless corporate headquarters in Dania Beach, Florida, was raided by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the US Postal Inspection Police, the Internal Revenue Service, and officers with the Broward County Sheriff's Department. Several computers and large boxes were seized by the authorities, presumed to be full of financial records and other corporate documents. Here is a link to a news article on the incident. https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/06/09/federal-agents-raid-broward-wireless-business/

In is widely believed that QLink Wireless was paid federal EBB funds amounting to $160 for each QLink Scepter 8 tablet shipped to an eligible recipient. Now, all of us here familial with the Scepter 8 know full well the manufacturing cost within a ballpark estimate: it's a $10 to $20 Chinese tablet in terms of its cost to manufacture. The FCC Lifeline program paid QLink so much money per tablet under an apparent contractual agreement that the tablet include integrated cellular support. While the details of the investigation have been rather hush-hush so far, my guess is that people will be going to prison for fraud before it's over with. The QLink Scepter 8 has to be the first-ever device branded by a mobile carrier that is WiFi only.
[Android General] Gborg3:
The fact that Qlink is also asking people to pay them $10 for the tablet is astounding. The phone they give you is nearly incapable of even answering phone calls. They are a useless company. At least this is one more unique tablet to have in the collection.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
I totally agree. The suits at QLink have stuffed their pockets with millions in government aide money, only to send junk to benefit recipients. Plus, they have capped their maximum download speeds on 4G-LTE at 2.0 Mbps using a reverse tunnelling parameter in their "upgraded" SIM cards. Although the government is compensating QLink to provide subscribers unlimited data per the EBB, many users have reported a complete data disconnect once they use 29 GB in a one month cycle. This is despite the fact that the unlimited plan is called the "Always On" unlimited plan. I have figured out how to bypass QLink's hotspot block and I'm writing a guide here on XDA as we speak. If anybody needs the info, I'll post a link to my guide here.
[Android General] Gborg3:
Since I am using one of their sims that would be awesome.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
I'll have it posted sometime today. I'll share the link to the thread here.
[Android General] zefie:
For what its worth when I signed up for the EBB I did see the threat of a $10 co-pay but they sent the tablet without requesting any money, and they do not have any of my payment methods on file. I have yet to log into QLink to see if they say I owe them $10. I just mysteriously had a package, directly from Amazon, with a return address of "Wireless Fulfillment"

I mostly use the QLink sim in a free T-Mobile Testdrive hotspot. I hope they don't shut down.

I am able to get 20mbit down, 10mbit up on the "QLink" APN with the T-mobile Hotspot (over usb, because the wifi on the Tmo hotspot is crap). Though because of geological reasons, I have to mount the hotspot in a window. It has been "good enough" for a failover when my main ISP fails, or during a power outage. It is also worth nothing that they never sent me their "upgraded" SIM, so I am on whatever pre-EBB SIM they had, which looks like a generic TMo MNVO SIM.

That said I can tell they are the bottom of the barrel on the MVNO reseller list.

Mint Mobile has higher priority on TMo towers.

As for the hotspot, I am not sure. It works great in an actual hotspot but when I did tethering on my phone it would report online but be unusable. There are a few APNs that work besides just "QLink", such as "wholesale", but that APN is throttled even more from my experience.

As for the 29gb thing, isn't that a TMobile limitation implied on all MVNOs?

As for the FBI raid, at least QLink is willing to give me something. My local ISP (not a megacorp) offers EBB/ACP but never replied when I inquired about it. AT&T acted like I was the scum of the earth when I inquired about their EBB program. It seems no one wants to actually do it correctly.

Update Edit: I was able to unlock. You cannot use the "fastbootd" in recovery, you have to boot with VolUp+Power until you get the "Open Android" screen, then it will accept it.

PS > fastboot flashing unlock_critical
FAILED (remote: 'fastboot oem operation fail: unknown cmd')
fastboot: error: Command failed
PS > fastboot flashing unlock
FAILED (remote: 'fastboot oem operation fail: unknown cmd')
fastboot: error: Command failed
PS > fastboot oem unlock
OKAY [ 2.224s]
Finished. Total time: 2.225s

Also, regarding the lost flash tool, do you remember anything about it? The program name? Filename? etc. I would like to check my old DVD archives to see if I have anything.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Yeah I've had good results with a hotspot box too. Thanks for sharing your findings. Where I live I'm not quite hitting 20 Mbps on the download, but an average of at least 16Mbps down and 7 Mbps up. A person sold me their SIM and plan about a year ago and I've been tinkering with it ever since.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
It's was the Allwinner Livesuite hack tool. It was a dev edition tool with support for most Allwinner chipsets. The link was here on XDA. The thread is accessible but the link is now dead. Myself and a dozen others have combed the internet for mirrors to the tool. I recall that now on fastboot. Plain old fastboot oem unlock and it's the manner you boot into fastboot. We will need to get a tutorial posted for the procedure. That one will throw a lot of people off.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
By the way, great job experimenting around and getting the bootloader unlocked. I would never have remembered that. Do you want to write up a guide on unlocking the bootloader?
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Bypassing data sharing restrictions on QLink Wireless.

https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-tool-...hotspot-tethering-on-q-link-wireless.4399269/

I have one method outlined as of now. I am adding a Windows 10/11 method as well later tonight.
[Android General] Alkuam:
Are those features supposed to be locked?

Is there any reason they would be unlocked on my phone but not others?
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
What features? Do you mean mobile hotspot and tethering? They are disabled per network protocols. The latest upgraded SIM cards sent out by QLink made a couple of significant changes to the network config, the biggest being the MNC value in the APN changing from 260 to 240. (This was actually a network change made by T-Mobile, which directly affects QLink and other MVNOs). This, in conjunction with SIM embedded port forwarding, prevents standard data sharing on mobile hotspot or tethering.
[Android General] Alkuam:
Oh, mobile data, my bad. I was probably doing it through the wifi.

The buggers cut off my mobile data at 4 GB, sometimes sooner. I pretty much never use it.
[Android General] Viva La Android R.I.P.:
Per the EBB, now called the ACP, your data should be unlimited. But that depends on whether you applied for EBB and if the application was approved.