[Android Software Development] shadow460:
B1 Classic rooting.

If you got hold of one of these, you're in for a rough ride. If it's got the latest update, version 25, you have your work cut out for you. The best way to get hold of the ROM is from Bob Greenberg with RFinder support. RFinder has an official and an unofficial Facebook group and a Zoom channel. Bob is proactive in contacting people who post with issues in either of those groups. He has a number of beta roms available as well as beta RFinder software. Serious, go sign up and ask.

If you're NOT on 25 or you'd care to chat via Zoom, things are a lot easier.

I started with a B1 classic from a silent key That operator was part of a Jeep club out of Oregon and for whatever reason they sold off his B1 Classic as part of the estate.. That's a term of respect for a ham operator who has passed on. Obviously if the person had a startup PIN on the device, it soft bricks when hey pass on unless someone knows it. You also have the FRP lock to deal with, however, this operator had either logged out of Google before he passed or never logged in.

Here's what I did:

To remove the startup lock, shut the unit off and remove the battery. Cherge the battery it its cradle (the B1 Classic will not charge via USB). Reinstall the battery, press and hold "Power" and Volume down, release them after a few seconds. This gets you to recovery. Factory reset the radiophone from here.

Once the B1 restarts, head over to RFinder.wiki and get the latest RFinder ham apk. Install it, go into settings, and Advanced Support. If you're not on version 25, you'll get a notice to update an an option to download a ROM. Do both, and save the ROM file whe n you're finished.

Unzip the ROM file and locate the boot.img and the scatter.txt. You know what to do with the boot imagw: get it onto a device that has the Magisk apk, rooted or not, and patch it. Put it back into the folder with the unzipped ROM file.

Shut down the B1 Classic and remove the battery. Unplug the USB cable from your PC.

Next grab a scatter file for a stock MTK 6763. Go through it and the scatter file from RFinder, match up the start points of all the partitions and as man of the sizes as you can. You'll need to delete one of the partitions in the stock file and do all of your edits on the *stock* MTK file, not the RFinder one. Chenge the "is download" value on ALL partitions except the Preloader and the Boot to FALSE. Save that in the unzipped ROM folder.

Now grab SP Flash tools. The B1's bootloader can be unlocked, but it's difficult and I happen to like my data. Open SP Flash tools (unzip, find flashtool.exe and double click it). Hit "browse" and go to the unzipped ROM folder, then click on your scatter file. If everything went well, you should have only two lines showing on the download screen: Preloader and Boot.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE YOU TO MODIFY THE PRELOADER! Uncheck that option. You have to have the line populated or SP Flash Tools will throw an error, but you MUST UNCHECK IT. If the two lines don't populate, find the respective images in the unzipped rom. Click the empty line, then find the image and click that. Ensure the Boot line is checked, preloader unchecked, double check your work, then hit "download".

Grab the B1, plug the loose USB cable into it. Press and hold Volume Up and Volume Down while you plug the other end of the USB cable into your computer where SP Flash Tools is waiting. You do not need a battery. SP flash Tools will connect to the B1, the progress bar will turn RED, then it will verify your work and attempt to download your changes to the B1. If that's successful, the bar will turn yellow. When it's finished, it'll notify you of the results.

DO NOT FORMAT ANYTHING IF IT ASKS YOU TO. That's an error which needs addressed, so fix it and try again.

Unplug the cable, attach the battery, and boot the B1. You will not need to reinstall anything save for an SU manager (Magisk is fine) and a root checker.

Keep in mind that we didn't touch the bootloader, it is still LOCKED. I was all over it trying to unlock it to no avail, and I didn't care to dig out my old Toughbook for Ubuntu. Not everyone has an old Toughbook with Ubuntu on it anyway, you may be on Windoze.

I strongly suspect this method will work for future updates to the other B1 models as well, and since we're not fooling around with the bootloader, no data will be lost. Runbo puts out quit a few ROM updates for their stuff (yes, Runbo) so those who own the newer devices will be re rooting a time or two.

E81 owners: if these methods work, please let us know! Or if you flashed a B1 to an E81 or vice vera, let us know how that went.