How to Root the Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus (Windows)

[Renate]

Originally Posted by sleepyy

adb reboot bootloader
fastboot reboot fastboot

You're going around in circles a bit.
"adb reboot bootloader" brings you to the abl with fastboot and a blank screen
"adb reboot fastboot" brings you to recovery with fastbootd and a menu
"adb reboot edl" is what I mostly use these days.

The NoteAir2[Plus] uses the SDM662 chip. The Firehose loader is:
https://github.com/bkerler/Loaders/b...4665_FHPRG.bin

Edit: Oops, I meant 2.

[sleepyy]

Originally Posted by Renate

You're going around in circles a bit.
"adb reboot bootloader" brings you to the abl with fastboot and a blank screen
"adb reboot fastboot" brings you to recovery with fastbootd and a menu
"adb reboot edl" is what I mostly use these days.

The NoteAir3[Plus] uses the SDM662 chip. The Firehose loader is:
https://github.com/bkerler/Loaders/b...4665_FHPRG.bin

Thanks for your reply, I spent some more time lurking around (and finally read the documentation your EDL tool ) and got a (better) handle of things. I managed to flash my device without anything blowing up with the following commands (and for reference to anyone else stumbling upon this thread, the steps below replace Chitter's guide at section 'Flash the Patched Boot Image', Step 5):

adb reboot edl
edl.exe /l0014d0e100000000_d40eee56f3194665_FHPRG.bin

(Optional): For every LUN (which you can check with edl.exe /u /g), do a backup (possibly superfluous, but just to be safe). In my case, that was:
edl.exe /u0 /r u0.img
edl.exe /u1 /r u1.img
edl.exe /u2 /r u2.img
edl.exe /u3 /r u3.img
edl.exe /u4 /r u4.img
edl.exe /u4 /r u5.img

Then, the moment of truth:

edl.exe /u /w /pboot_a <you modified boot image>.img
edl.exe /z

[Renate]

Once you know what you're doing you can combine a few operations in a single line.
This can be helpful when reading or writing big chunks or the entire flash.
Putting the /z on the same line will cause it to reboot when done.
Then you can hear the disconnect and know that it's done when doing something else.

edl /lpoke5.bin /r backup.img /z

[Herschenglime]

Edit: In all my searching I somehow failed to go one page back in the thread and see what had changed with fastboot, oops.

When I get a chance, I'll try to translate the commands provided to the bkerler/edl utility and report back on how it went.

[Herschenglime]

Has anyone had luck rooting firmware version 3.5.4?

Since the last firmware update I got (v3.5 in November 2023), I've changed Linux distros and have lost my previous bkerler/edl install and working loader file . I've tried reinstalling and getting the loader again, but I'm unable to extract the boot img with the edl utility.

I'm wondering if I just messed something up with my new environment/edl install, or if the new firmware might have somehow changed the process of extracting boot images?

Any others' experiences would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

[Herschenglime]

It seems like my issues were with the loader I was supplying - I found the one I used before from a backup but even that didn't work.

However, everything just worked when I let edl figure out the loader by itself without me having to specify one. I was able to successfully send the boot.img to my device, patch it, and then send it back.

However, I seem to have run into the issue mentioned by Renate here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...6&postcount=21

It seems Onyx has kneecapped fastboot and I am not able to use it to make the Boox boot with the patched image. Has anyone figured out a workaround, or are these devices unrootable for now?

Thanks again!

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Herschenglime

It seems Onyx has kneecapped fastboot...

You can use an EDL client to write the modified boot image back.
Of if you already have a rooted normal system or a rooted and ADB enabled recovery you can use the dd command:

dd if=/cache/magisk_whatever.img of=/dev/block/by-name/recovery_a

Of course, check which slot you are on or flash both.

[Excelsidraw]

Hi all, happy holidays!
Recently got a Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus and been trying to get it so that the excalidraw on obsidian runs with less lag.
https://gist.github.com/calliecamero...8bd493380e3b7e
I have tried the pdf walkthrough and the walkthrough with Chalid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtpC9RYK0mw
Unfortunately the Image v3.3.3 (2023-03-29) Patched version from earlier in this forum caused the backlight to stop working on my tablet but got another one with 28.1 (28100) (one from the youtube video) working on magisk i think but I don't actually know if i have rooted correctly as I don't seem to be able to see the onyxconfig file in files app nor file manager + nor file commander so not sure if I went through the process correctly to be able to view the files.
I know some use AFWall+ post rooting so how would they know if afwall has root access?
If someone has an improved image file or pointers on finding if I can access the onyxconfig/eac_config file it would be appreciated. I can give more details like kernel version or build number if that helps but not terribly familiar with rooting.
Happy holidays!

[Excelsidraw]

Hi all, happy holidays.
I am trying to get obsidian excalidraw to work better over the holiday break and seen that I need to root the device to then edit the onyxconfig/eac_config file. https://gist.github.com/calliecamero...8bd493380e3b7e
I have tried both this youtube walkthrough (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtpC9RYK0mw) and the pdf walkthrough from this forum.
Unfortunately the 3.3.3 image patched seemed to cause issues with backlight and managed to get 28.1 (28100) working on magisk (from the youtube video) but neither of them seemed to allow me to see the onyxconfig file in the file app, file manager+ nor file commander.
I am probably doing something wrong but cant tell if I have rooted correctly, how would people tell if they rooted correctly with afwall+? If anyone has any suggestions with latest image or way forward it would be appreciated.
Happy holidays!

[dcarvil]

Originally Posted by Excelsidraw

Hi all, happy holidays.
I am trying to get obsidian excalidraw to work better over the holiday break and seen that I need to root the device to then edit the onyxconfig/eac_config file. https://gist.github.com/calliecamero...8bd493380e3b7e
I have tried both this youtube walkthrough (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtpC9RYK0mw) and the pdf walkthrough from this forum.
Unfortunately the 3.3.3 image patched seemed to cause issues with backlight and managed to get 28.1 (28100) working on magisk (from the youtube video) but neither of them seemed to allow me to see the onyxconfig file in the file app, file manager+ nor file commander.
I am probably doing something wrong but cant tell if I have rooted correctly, how would people tell if they rooted correctly with afwall+? If anyone has any suggestions with latest image or way forward it would be appreciated.
Happy holidays!

Open the Magisk app, then Superuser at the bottom. Make sure your file manager and file commander are turned on (button to the right). If they are not listed or not on, they will not have permissions to view the eac_config file

I don't know what you mean by "rooted correctly with afwall+". Rooting has nothing to do with afwall.

[Excelsidraw]

Originally Posted by dcarvil

Open the Magisk app, then Superuser at the bottom. Make sure your file manager and file commander are turned on (button to the right). If they are not listed or not on, they will not have permissions to view the eac_config file

I don't know what you mean by "rooted correctly with afwall+". Rooting has nothing to do with afwall.

Ah ok. I was trying to find out if I rooted correctly as saw afwall+ has superuser capabilities but wasnt sure what it meant but now I do.
I wasnt able to add file manager or commander to magisk as superusers as cant see option to add them from magisk or their app but I have managed to find "file manager for superusers" app that can be given superuser capacity so manage to see eac_config working and edit it!
Now I just have to find the spelling mistake I probably have made in adding the new code to eac_config so that handwriting shows up on obsidian excalidraw but that problem is probably for another forum as this forum is root related problems.
Massive thank you for your help and happy holidays!

[mmc_meneses]

Hi everyone,
I own a ony boox Note air 2 with latest FW 3.5.4

Which would be the adventatges of Rooting my device?

Thks everyone for such incredible work

[Renate]

Originally Posted by mmc_meneses

Hi everyone,
Which would be the advantages of Rooting my device?

They'd be different for different people:

• Some want to install a internet firewall
• Some want to just customize the host file
• Some want to disable/uninstall some stock software
• Some want to customize buttons on Bluetooth remotes
• Some want to adjust per-app Eink optimization en masse
• Some want to run custom services
• Some want to customize boot animation and sleep screens
• Some want to backup app data

[mmc_meneses]

Originally Posted by Renate

They'd be different for different people:

• Some want to install a internet firewall
• Some want to just customize the host file
• Some want to disable/uninstall some stock software
• Some want to customize buttons on Bluetooth remotes
• Some want to adjust per-app Eink optimization en masse
• Some want to run custom services
• Some want to customize boot animation and sleep screens
• Some want to backup app data

For the moment then I won't do it.
Any news about firmware update soon?

Thks and happy new year

[Renate]

Originally Posted by mmc_meneses

Any news about firmware update soon?

Besides the September update?

Model:  NoteAir2 (English)
Finger: Onyx/NoteAir2/NoteAir2:11/2024-09-10_19-03_3.5.4_fbdec6b69a/47378:user/release-keys
Link:   http://firmware-us.boox.com/1d618f957d28ebd0896cece40e8b1077/update.upx
Size:   1,796,337,779
MD5:    1d618f957d28ebd0896cece40e8b1077

And I forgot to mention my #1 reason, to get rid of the stupid non-standard system font.

Edit: Oh, you're on 3.5.4 already.