Onyx Boox Poke 3 (Soft) Brick by deleting Email App

[DogilD]

Well seems like I at least partly bricked my new Onyx Boox 3.I rooted it via magisk, installed AFWall+ to not let it communicating anymore and all worked fine till that point.
Then I uninstalled the Boox Email app. (wanted to get rid of some bloatware).

After I rebooted my device it is now in stuck on the Onyx Logo Screen. I
cannot access adb but can access it via

fastboot devices

and

fastboot boot magisk_patched-2400_XYZ.img

seems to do something (rebooting, 3 times flashing screen) but still stays in fastboot loop. Is there some way to flash the Update.upx or a original rom file (dont have one though) on it or someway to recover it, of course stupid me has no backup.

Thank you in advance and sorry for being stupid enough to brick my new device.

PS: I also was not able so far to get into recovery mode. and my device came without the onyx case... so I guess that might be a problem, since I read that you need the case closing to actually do something in recovery mode.

[Renate]

Lots of angles here.
Inserting and removing the USB cable counts as opening and closing the cover.
You can also try some magnets.

If you're in a bootloop, it's just because Android is pissed at you.
I haven't got to the bottom of it all, but you're better off modifying system using Magisk (i.e. make your own "module", i.e. writing a module.prop and sticking some files in your own "scratch" module.)

If you're in a bootloop and it's screeching, do a "stop" to stop the Android subsystem. You can get to fastboot with "reboot bootloader". I've got a not-ready-for-primetime recovery for Poke3.

[DogilD]

Originally Posted by Renate

Lots of angles here.
Inserting and removing the USB cable counts as opening and closing the cover.
You can also try some magnets.

first of all, thank you for that information. that might be helpful.

Originally Posted by Renate

If you're in a bootloop, it's just because Android is pissed at you.
I haven't got to the bottom of it all, but you're better off modifying system using Magisk (i.e. make your own "module", i.e. writing a module.prop and sticking some files in your own "scratch" module.)

I don't know how to make own modules... Trying to read into it right now but not sure how it would help, since I don't have access to files from my device. (If I understand it correctly you want me to make a module which includes the boox email app?)

Originally Posted by Renate

If you're in a bootloop and it's screeching, do a "stop" to stop the Android subsystem. You can get to fastboot with "reboot bootloader". I've got a not-ready-for-primetime recovery for Poke3.

I think it is noot a bootloop... no screeching or anything...but except onyx screen I cannot see anyhing...
- I can turn off the device (looong press of the on/off (so that there is no light at the on/off button),
- I can turn on the device, the screen flashes 3 times and then stays at onyx logo and nothing happening except that the button light ist blue. (in that situation I cannot even go to fastboot reboot menu... and can only turn it off
- If I put an USB cable in while it's turned off, it boots into fastboot mode (it is shown via fastboot devices when connected to PC)

Could I try to flash update.zip?

fastboot update update.zip

I don't wanna make it worse than it is already.

I sadly don't have a recovery file. Only have the update.upx and the decrypted version of it aka "update.zip" which has the boot.img inside and system.new.dat.br etc...

[Renate]

I didn't mean literally screeching, just wailing and gnashing of teeth and lots of logcat.

Hmm, I've never tried an update using fastboot update.
I'm not sure if it prints out nicely, how it handles things that need to be mounted, etc.
I kind of like doing manual updates from a recovery where I can see what's going on.
If someone has done a fastboot update and liked it, please mention it.

This is the basic procedure for any Android: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...5&postcount=32
First you need to get to a working recovery with ADB.

[DogilD]

Originally Posted by Renate

I didn't mean literally screeching, just wailing and gnashing of teeth and lots of logcat.

hmmm doesn't sound like it but not sure

Originally Posted by Renate

Hmm, I've never tried an update using fastboot update.
I'm not sure if it prints out nicely, how it handles things that need to be mounted, etc.
I kind of like doing manual updates from a recovery where I can see what's going on.
If someone has done a fastboot update and liked it, please mention it.

Don't know anyone doing it just saw that this function seems to exist. So I will not try this

Originally Posted by Renate

This is the basic procedure for any Android: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...5&postcount=32
First you need to get to a working recovery with ADB.

I did look at your post there... but I think I do it wrong because I cannot mount anything I think... at least it says that -t is a wrong function.

[Renate]

There are some systems that you can't fastboot boot because the command line processing is broken. The Poke3 is not one of them. You can safely fastboot boot instead of flash/boot.

I'm not sure what you mean with "can't mount" unless you copy/paste the interaction. You are trying over a rooted ADB connection? I don't know who/what you are typing to.

You need a recovery with ADB.

Edit: Oh, you have your PM's turned off?

[DogilD]

Originally Posted by Renate

There are some systems that you can't fastboot boot because the command line processing is broken. The Poke3 is not one of them. You can safely fastboot boot instead of flash/boot.

Yes, I can use the command for the fastboot boot, but since I don't have a recovery file. only the update.zip for 3.2 , which does not include the recovery image. trying to do a reboot with fastboot does nothing except bringing me back to the onyx logo screen.

Originally Posted by Renate

I'm not sure what you mean with "can't mount" unless you copy/paste the interaction. You are trying over a rooted ADB connection? I don't know who/what you are typing to.

The issue is, that I cannot access ADB. I can only access up to fastboot.

Originally Posted by Renate

You need a recovery with ADB.

sadly I don't undestand, how to make a recovery with ADB, if I cannot boot into ADB. When I deleted the Onyx Email App and rebooted the Ebook-Reader, I lost access to ADB.

Originally Posted by Renate

Edit: Oh, you have your PM's turned off?

Not turned off, but it seems to be policy at this forum that new members like me, cannot use PM's until some time is passed and a certain amount of posts is posted by that new user... and well I am a new user here. So I guess I cannot send/receive PM's yet. (double checked, and PM's are turned on, but I still cannot use it *yet*)

[Renate]

Oh, I guess that if we keep on talking you'll have the requisite posts and then I can PM you? ;p

[Renate]

Bump. Have you given up on this?

[DogilD]

Did not give up on this yet...
I had a very rough work week though so was quite busy.

Sadly I just can't find a solution right now for getting the Poke 3 to work now. Since I live in South Korea it is also not so easy to find someone with a Poke 3 here because almost all people use Ridi Books. So it is still only fastboot possible so far. I guess I have to find a way to get a recovery file somehow and that I only can get if I have a working poke 3.

[Renate]

My apologies. Somehow I missed your response.

Edit: Check your messages.

[Renate]

Ok, so now you have a recovery, just fastboot boot it. That gets your foot in the door. If you have a decrypted update you can install it manually. See the link in Post #4.

[Renate]

So, it seems there are a few wrinkles.
I don't know if it was before, but now the /data partition is encrypted.
We don't want/need access to any "secret" data on that partition, but it's the only partition big enough to hold an update.

# mount -t ext4  /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata /data
mount: '/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata'->'/data': Invalid argument

(Note: we don't need the "su" command because we're already su and that command does not exist anyway.)

I'm looking into this...

Edit: If you're ok with wiping your data we can do that. That will work.
Do you have a Type C OTG adapter? We could use a flash drive, but you'd have to use some automated process.

[mergen3107]

@Renate
Would it be viable to dump /system via edl, add the missing apk in there from update.upx, and write the partition back? I am not sure if the modified /system will boot...

[Renate]

Not really. The problem is getting the whole /system partition to be exactly as it was.

On my Poke3 the fstab is /vendor/etc/fstab.qcom and includes:

/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/system  /  ext4  ro,barrier=1,discard  wait,verify

The "verify" means to use dm-verity to ensure that no part of /system has been modified.
We could modify that, but /vendor is also verified earlier on and its "fstab equivalent" is in the device tree:

vendor {
	compatible = "android,vendor";
	dev = "/dev/block/platform/soc/c0c4000.sdhci/by-name/vendor";
	type = "ext4";
	mnt_flags = "ro,barrier=1,discard";
	fsmgr_flags = "wait,verify";
	status = "ok";
};

Yes, we can work around all of this but it will make problems when we get incremental updates from Onyx.

Two solutions:
1) Use Magisk and don't touch /vendor or /system
2) Make backup copies of /vendor and /system, modify what you like, when it comes time for an update restore the stock backups, update and remod.

Also: There is no reason to delete an app; simply pm disable the package or component if you have root.