Likebook Alita bricked after accidentally flashing Mars firmware..

[raygj]

Quote:
Originally Posted by raygj View Post
try plugging in and unplugging a USB cable that is connected to your PC. this plug-in/unplug method is worth a try.
it's the only other possible physical option/action to change the menu line highlighted.


I believe that will trigger it into download mode to make a flash or dump. Leaving recovery.
End Quote...

RE: restore.pdf <https://mega.nz/#!yug3wKSS!WMb2ZAzcj...Tdw8ZU2l4F7hSM>
""Go to the Recovery menu on Likebook Mars:Turn off the book completely.
Hold reset button. Press Power Button for approx. 3 seconds.
Screen starts flickering - let go reset button.
We connect the LB Mars with a cord to the PC.
****At this point, the cursor will AUTOMATICALLY move down a step to “Reboot to
bootloader”****
but to activate that selection you have to "Press the Power button button."

I believe that the designers are using the usb port to automatically move down a line each time you plug in the usb port.otherwise how else can you scroll down to select another option?

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by raygj

Quote:
Originally Posted by raygj View Post
try plugging in and unplugging a USB cable that is connected to your PC. this plug-in/unplug method is worth a try.
it's the only other possible physical option/action to change the menu line highlighted.


I believe that will trigger it into download mode to make a flash or dump. Leaving recovery.
End Quote...

RE: restore.pdf <https://mega.nz/#!yug3wKSS!WMb2ZAzcj...Tdw8ZU2l4F7hSM>
""Go to the Recovery menu on Likebook Mars:Turn off the book completely.
Hold reset button. Press Power Button for approx. 3 seconds.
Screen starts flickering - let go reset button.
We connect the LB Mars with a cord to the PC.
****At this point, the cursor will AUTOMATICALLY move down a step to “Reboot to
bootloader”****
but to activate that selection you have to "Press the Power button button."

I believe that the designers are using the usb port to automatically move down a line each time you plug in the usb port.otherwise how else can you scroll down to select another option?

hmm, well worth a shot. Forgot you need to confirm and it doesn't just boot into it.

[FixMyAlita]

Originally Posted by raygj

try plugging in and unplugging a USB cable that is connected to your PC. this plug-in/unplug method is worth a try.
it's the only other possible physical option/action to change the menu line highlighted.

Hey, this method actually does cycle the menu items for my Alita in recovery mode and I've just successfully factory reset my device, unfortunately it hasn't done anything to the Touch Pad Firmware.. Dang.

Originally Posted by rvcjew

Dumping your device would not take your user data partition only the system ones and would not flash to the device as it's a separate process.

@Waldy has also made a decent guide on how to use the tool and it was what I used in the beginning and it shows how when you create the backups it dumps the partitions then also makes a config file so in a restore you can just load this config file and RKtool will know where to flash what as long as the hierarchy stays the same.

Hopefully this gives someone who's a little less sure about backing up their image files some encouragement, this is great, thank you, @Waldy!

[rvcjew]

Best of luck, maybe throw this gathered info to the dev and see what they say.

[raygj]

Originally Posted by FixMyAlita

Hey, this method actually does cycle the menu items for my Alita in recovery mode and I've just successfully factory reset my device, unfortunately it hasn't done anything to the Touch Pad Firmware.. Dang.


Hopefully this gives someone who's a little less sure about backing up their image files some encouragement, this is great, thank you, @Waldy!

OK if you can boot it up normal home screen.connect usb to usb cable to pc.see if you can use PC 's windows file manager to transfer files from windows PC C: drive to alita .
if you can transfer files.then on windows PC goto <https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=328516&highlight=alita+update>
and follow their instructions to download (Für Alita BYRead-V2.3.2-2020033113)
reboot
if it still doesn't run update file then
use the rescue mode to run the update process.
hope this works for you

[FixMyAlita]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

Best of luck, maybe throw this gathered info to the dev and see what they say.

Yep definitely, will tell you how it goes, but they're getting less patient with my requests now, I think a lot of what I'm asking is putting them out of their depth.

Originally Posted by raygj

goto<https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=328516&highlight=alita+update>
and follow their instructions to download (Für Alita BYRead-V2.3.2-2020033113)
reboot
if it still doesn't run update file then
use the rescue mode to run the update process.
hope this works for you

Hey raygj, thank you for your reply. I was able to successfully install that update using the recovery menu, unfortunately the Touch Pad Firmware remains unchanged. I think I'm going to have to get an AndroidTool dump.

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by FixMyAlita

Yep definitely, will tell you how it goes, but they're getting less patient with my requests now, I think a lot of what I'm asking is putting them out of their depth.



Hey raygj, thank you for your reply. I was able to successfully install that update using the recovery menu, unfortunately the Touch Pad Firmware remains unchanged. I think I'm going to have to get an AndroidTool dump.

As far as I can tell the mimas has the same screen touch hardware it's just not flush mount but its wacom digitizer ect is basically the same maybe you could take a dump of that firmware then flash your alita one over it but I was under the impression that using the single img file in RK tool will wipe the device then flash the img so It would probably wipe the whole thing then put on the firmware without touch firmware again. Can you use the screen at all, like to get into the file manger app, if so maybe they can get you an apk that will install the touch firmware. I guess you just have to wait at this point and see what the devs think. What a bummer.

[raygj]

Originally Posted by FixMyAlita

Hey raygj, thank you for your reply. I was able to successfully install that update using the recovery menu, unfortunately the Touch Pad Firmware remains unchanged. I think I'm going to have to get an AndroidTool dump.

if you cannot get a complete (.img file) copy of a working alita ,renamed as update.img , file from someone on the net then the
worst case scenario is that,when the Alita android 8.1 update is released,you will be able to install it to restore touch pad functionality. I've been thinking there has to be a reason that they released the likebook mars 8.1 update using the method of using the windows PC to do the chip programming ,with a update.img file, and NOT a normal WiFi update.zip file. Do you get any reaction at all if you touch the screen in many places?.If not then it means that it uses different chip hardware than the likebook mars.But if you do get a reaction, anywhere on screen, then it means that it only has a different touch matrix dimensions arrangement. possibly different number of capacitance sensors (different number of sensor rows and columns==because of larger physical screen size)
Hopefully IF it is only a different touch matrix arrangement ,then in the meantime,on a sheet of graph paper make a map of the Alita screen.(the mars screen consists of 1782×1448 pixel resolution (300 ppi)and the Alita screen consists of 1782×1448) and plot the your touch position and the screen reaction position.and use map to navigate the reader.

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by raygj

if you cannot get a complete (.img file) copy of a working alita ,renamed as update.img , file from someone on the net then the
worst case scenario is that,when the Alita android 8.1 update is released,you will be able to install it to restore touch pad functionality. I've been thinking there has to be a reason that they released the likebook mars 8.1 update using the method of using the windows PC to do the chip programming ,with a update.img file, and NOT a normal WiFi update.zip file. Do you get any reaction at all if you touch the screen in many places?.If not then it means that it uses different chip hardware than the likebook mars.But if you do get a reaction, anywhere on screen, then it means that it only has a different touch matrix dimensions arrangement. possibly different number of capacitance sensors (different number of sensor rows and columns==because of larger physical screen size)
Hopefully IF it is only a different touch matrix arrangement ,then in the meantime,on a sheet of graph paper make a map of the Alita screen.(the mars screen consists of 1782×1448 pixel resolution (300 ppi)and the Alita screen consists of 1782×1448) and plot the your touch position and the screen reaction position.and use map to navigate the reader.

That's thinking outside the box and I love it. This was why I recommended the mimas dumps. I have one of those but also don't want them bricking (I don't think it could but better to stay on the air of caution).

[FixMyAlita]

Originally Posted by raygj

I've been thinking there has to be a reason that they released the likebook mars 8.1 update using the method of using the windows PC to do the chip programming ,with a update.img file, and NOT a normal WiFi update.zip file. Do you get any reaction at all if you touch the screen in many places?.If not then it means that it uses different chip hardware than the likebook mars.But if you do get a reaction, anywhere on screen, then it means that it only has a different touch matrix dimensions arrangement. possibly different number of capacitance sensors (different number of sensor rows and columns==because of larger physical screen size)
Hopefully IF it is only a different touch matrix arrangement ,then in the meantime,on a sheet of graph paper make a map of the Alita screen.(the mars screen consists of 1782×1448 pixel resolution (300 ppi)and the Alita screen consists of 1782×1448) and plot the your touch position and the screen reaction position.and use map to navigate the reader.

This is a really smart idea, I do actually have a dump of some img files made with rkDumper that ottischwenk kindly donated to me, I'm having trouble flashing the images to my device however. I tried using AndroidTool and it only seems to download my images from my device, not upload his images to my device. In the PDF guide rvcjew links, they mention "RK_Android_Tool_2.3.9_bernado_mod", it sounds like this is a modded version of AndroidTool 2.3.9 that allows the user to restore a backup? I could be wrong though.

Originally Posted by rvcjew

As far as I can tell the mimas has the same screen touch hardware it's just not flush mount but its wacom digitizer ect is basically the same maybe you could take a dump of that firmware then flash your alita one over it
Can you use the screen at all, like to get into the file manger app, if so maybe they can get you an apk that will install the touch firmware. I guess you just have to wait at this point and see what the devs think. What a bummer.

I certainly can use the screen, it's just that wherever I tap is mapped to another part of the screen, it's consistent where if I tap a certain area of the screen it will always tap in the same different spot (e.g tapping the left side of the screen in a certain spot will always open up the little dropdown up the top right of the screen consistently). I got a dump of the Alita image files from a member called ottischwenk, I'm just having trouble flashing the dump to my device now.

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by FixMyAlita

This is a really smart idea, I do actually have a dump of some img files made with rkDumper that ottischwenk kindly donated to me, I'm having trouble flashing the images to my device however. I tried using AndroidTool and it only seems to download my images from my device, not upload his images to my device. In the PDF guide rvcjew links, they mention "RK_Android_Tool_2.3.9_bernado_mod", it sounds like this is a modded version of AndroidTool 2.3.9 that allows the user to restore a backup? I could be wrong though.



I certainly can use the screen, it's just that wherever I tap is mapped to another part of the screen, it's consistent where if I tap a certain area of the screen it will always tap in the same different spot (e.g tapping the left side of the screen in a certain spot will always open up the little dropdown up the top right of the screen consistently). I got a dump of the Alita image files from a member called ottischwenk, I'm just having trouble flashing the dump to my device now.

hmm, did they have a config file with the dump?

[FixMyAlita]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

hmm, did they have a config file with the dump?

Yup, they dumped all their image files excluding userdata and they included a couple config files also, I have a config_8.cfg and a config_16.cfg.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

hmm, did they have a config file with the dump?

Content of Output:
<DIR> Image
11.009 config_16.cfg
5.640 config_8.cfg
957 parameter

Content of Image:
117.440.512 backup.img
4.194.304 baseparamer.img
21.479.424 boot.img
134.217.728 cache.img
19.601.204 kernel.img
4.194.304 kpanic.img
16.777.216 metadata.img
4.194.304 misc.img
67.108.864 radical_update.img
24.805.376 recovery.img
425.176 resource.img
1.717.567.488 system.img
4.194.304 trust.img
4.194.304 uboot.img
4.194.304 wbf.img

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

hmm, did they have a config file with the dump?

Originally Posted by FixMyAlita

Yup, they dumped all their image files excluding userdata and they included a couple config files also, I have a config_8.cfg and a config_16.cfg.

You use config 16 as shown in the pdf. Does it not load the config or once it does it has no files to then load in the individual check marks? Can you take a screencap of the program and what it shows before you try to hit download? If on windows 7-10 just use the snipping tool.

EDIT: I have attached the modded flasher that I also have on hand that must have been with that full thing (I have like 6 versions of RKtool from a long time ago lol)

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Content of Output:
<DIR> Image
11.009 config_16.cfg
5.640 config_8.cfg
957 parameter

Content of Image:
117.440.512 backup.img
4.194.304 baseparamer.img
21.479.424 boot.img
134.217.728 cache.img
19.601.204 kernel.img
4.194.304 kpanic.img
16.777.216 metadata.img
4.194.304 misc.img
67.108.864 radical_update.img
24.805.376 recovery.img
425.176 resource.img
1.717.567.488 system.img
4.194.304 trust.img
4.194.304 uboot.img
4.194.304 wbf.img

Thanks for the info.

[FixMyAlita]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

You use config 16 as shown in the pdf. Does it not load the config or once it does it has no files to then load in the individual check marks? Can you take a screencap of the program and what it shows before you try to hit download? If on windows 7-10 just use the snipping tool.

EDIT: I have attached the modded flasher that I also have on hand that must have been with that full thing (I have like 6 versions of RKtool from a long time ago lol)

Nice thanks, that's really lucky, I couldn't find it even with some serious Googling. I'm currently using the tool you linked to restore the backup that ottischwenk shared, typically when I install a new system image or the like to the device, it tends to load very slowly on the first startup, I'm noticing this isn't the case when flashing these images, unfortunately there's no change with the Touch Pad Firmware, but the system image definitely changed, if there was a way to safely format and then flash, I'd do that.. I'm gonna try get into the system menu, maybe there's something in there I can change.