Database Users

Need help extracting files from ETEN M600 ROM

Okay, so I've tried everything. PDOCREAD, DUMPROM, pget, grab_it, testdump.exe, FiziFetch. I need help with getting at all of the files and doing a complete ROM dump of the device. The only ROM Dump I have is the one that ETEN provides for upgrading the phone, I have attached that here. EUU.exe is the exe you run on the pc, and normally the rom file is called temp.dat, and it uses the other .exe which is compiled for windows ce to the phone to do the updating process.
Any help here would be greatly appreciated. In particular I want btagext.dll in the /Windows directory and full instructions on how to do it myself for other protected files.
The ROM can be obtained by going to updates.eten.ch and downloading the latest English ROM file for the M600. The direct link is here:
ftp://support.com:[email protected]/Download/Updates/M600/ENG/EUU_M600_WWE_R01_100_0171.EXE
To get the ROM file and the update file, goto your documents and settings/profile name/local settings/temp folder and clear out all the files.
Run the .exe you downloaded from above, and then look in the temp folder you just cleared. You should see a temp.dat which is the ROM file, EUU.exe which is the file that facilitates the transfer of the file to the ETEN M600 and another file USBDLUpdate_Console.exe which is a windows CE compiled file that facilitates the flashing process in some way.
Pdocread part of the itsutils is able to read see some of the information on my device:
pdocread –l lists the following:
122.19M FLASHDR
| 1.03M Part00
| 1.52M Part01
| 33.98M Part02
| 85.47M Part03
1.89G DSK1:
| 1.89G SD
STRG handles: a34cc21e
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
( 1.89G) e3b41b8a
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
( 85.47M) e3b4153e
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
( 33.98M) 83b41436
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
( 1.52M) a3b412be
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
( 1.03M)
However it is not able to do anything other then that. All attempts at trying to access those partitions or device (flashdr) fail with errors such as these (this is just a small list of commands command options i've tried):
C:\itsutils\build>pdocread -d DSK1
ERROR: ITTFFSGetInfo - The handle is invalid.
C:\itsutils\build>pdocread -d DSK1:
ERROR: ITLogDiskInfo - An exception occurred in the service when handling the co
ntrol request.
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
C:\itsutils\build>pdocread 0x0 0x200 foo.bin
0 partitions, 0 binary partitions
customerid=00000000 uniqueid= 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
CopyTFFSToFile(0x0, 0x200, foo.bin)
ERROR: ITReadDisk - An internal error occurred.
C:\itsutils\build>pdocread -o -p part03
ERROR: ITTFFSGetInfo: outbuf==NULL
WARNING: using default 512 bytes for sectorsize
C:\itsutils\build>pdocread -d FLASHDR -w
ERROR: ITTFFSGetInfo - The handle is invalid.

Re: Need help extracting files from ETEN M600 ROM will pay $
I don't think that you'll be able to get a working dump of btagext.dll or any other system DLL. It does not have relocation information.
temp.dat in eten upgrade is in some strange format, it seems that data blocks are mixed.
What is the result of testdump.exe? I've attached the WM5 build of this program.

Re: Need help extracting files from ETEN M600 ROM will pay $
I've tried that before. That just dumps some information that is in memory. You can see calendar information, contact information, etc. If you put in 128mb which is the ROM size, it says DUMP OK this time (it had filesys errors the time I tried it a couple weeks ago) See here:
http://www.eten-users.net/topic1085
Anyways, in the end it dumps a 64 meg file instead of the 128 you specified, which is just the stuff in memory the 64 megs of RAM that this thing is suppose to have. If you use romdump on that file it doesn't get to many files, just about 30 or so and none of them are very important (most you can get via windows explorer and activesync)
FB

Re: Need help extracting files from ETEN M600 ROM will pay $
why do you think that eten has 128Mb OS ROM? It has only 48Mb ROM, other is left to persistent storage. So these tools would never dump full 128Mb, only 64Mb max.
You should upload somewhere the output of testdump tool, so I can look at it. It should produce _correct_ ROM dump. You just cannot extract files from it correctly. "dumprom" is for older oses, and with "-5" switch it would extract only files from XIP section (about 20 files). Use my "viewimgfs" tool to get everything from IMGFS.

I looked in the control panel, you are right it appears that the system part takes up about 48 mb, with the rest of the 128mb as user storage. It's kind of wierd though that testdump would stop at 64mb, wouldn't it stop at 48mb instead? If not why is it not doing the full 128 mb.
I tried what you had suggested and unfortunately that doesn't work either. I dumped a 64mb image, and a 48mb image. viewimgfs.exe didn't work on those images. I tried prepimgfs on the 48mb one and it couldn't find imgfs start location. I tried it on the 64mb one and it found it but the resulting file was about 256kb with a 4kb "removed_data" file which is definately not right.
I tried it without first running prepareimgfs and it just says "unable to load compress .dll".
I can't send a rom dump of what I have yet as it contains all of my contacts and calender information in looking at the memory dump in a hex editor, I'll have to whip the device clean again and I can send one but that may take awhile, i've got a lot of stuff setup right now.
Any other suggestions?

I found another bit of information. I played around with MTTY, which I know is for HTC devices, just to see what it would do though I thought I would try. It connects to the bootloader, however you never get to a command prompt. It appears that i can send a command, but then it trys to just download a file (the updated ROM). So I'm not sure if anything else can be done with this, I was hoping I could do something like "d2s" but it appears that with MTTY that doesn't seem possible.
I'm wondering if there is some way to map a USB port to a COM port so I can use regular hyperterminal. Does anyone know how to do this as Hyperterminal only supports COM ports...

MTTY is identical to hyperterminal

Ahh okay, it must be that they haven't implemented a nice interface like HTC devices where you can issue all of those commands

Hi!
Until now can you dump it? I can help you dump....
PM me,OK?

Okay, so i've finally been able to get these files from Vijay, however I'm still running into issues as describe here:
http://www.eten-users.net/topic1500
Anyone have any information on how to reconstruct PE files?

Add Cities to Weather-Tab?

Hi, Weather Database Editor doesnt work with my Girlfriends Touch 3G (german).
Is there any Solution to manually add Cities?
Thanks. =)

Same problem here

Try this one..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2488224&postcount=73

Thanks but it does no show any cities...

yepp, seems that the database has another filename...
i try investigating this...

Ok, found the Database. =)
Its HH_0407_WeatherCities.xml (for German Users i think).
Bad news:
Its hidden/system/in rom
Any ideas how to rename it?
I copied it to the PC and edited the Cities in but i cant copy it back to the phone...

You can easily overwrite the file with resco explorer after disabling touchflo from the today screen but I have yet to find a way to copy the file to the pc. Could you share your xml please?

Ok I am getting nearer.
Disable touchflo
Copy HH_0407_WeatherCities.xml from the /windows folder to your pc.
Edit the xml to include your new city.
Copy it back to the phone into somewhere like "My Documents" then use resco explorer to move it to /windows and overwrite the original file.
Copy manil2d.exe from windows to your pc,
download XVI32 from http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm
download sign code from N2A's site http://weather.not2advanced.com/files/SignCode.zip
Open manila2d.exe in XVI32 and do a search for "weather.manila1.htc.com" ( make sure Unicode check box is checked )
You will see the update URL in unicode , which means that if you want to replace it , there has to be a hex 00 between every letter !
It needs to be changed to something like weather.not2advanced.com/htcweather/forecastdata.php?locCode=%s%s%s
save manila2d.exe and sign it using N2A's batch file
Copy it back to the phone into somewhere like "My Documents" then use resco explorer to move it to /windows and overwrite the original file.
Now I have the new city listed but when I update, all the temperatures = 0
I'm not sure what I have done wrong but I think the URL is wrong.
Any ideas?

Ok, the URL was different for me.
Done that but without the %s%s%s.
Still not working.
I can select the cities but i cant see them in the tab.
Update says that it cannot get updates for the selected city.

Hi Vibez
I reply here instead of the PM , so the others can read it aswell
I don't have a touch 3G so I cannot experiment for you , but 1 thing is sure ,
people had the same issue on the Diamond ( cities not updating after hex-edit ) when the hex-edit was not done 100% correctly ...
So 2 questions :
1) Did any of you try the reigistry hack from the diamond ?
In stock ROM, the URL used to update the weather is a specific Accuweather URL. WDE change it to point to N2A'website ( http://weather.not2advanced.com/ ).
Registry key=HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HTC\Manila
String value Name=Weather.ServerURLOverride
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2) when u tried patching , did the replacement weather string have EXACTLY the same length as the original ? On the diamond , it was an absolute no-go when the length was different
Open manila exe in XVI32 and do a search for "weather.manila1.htc.com" ( make sure Unicode check box is checked )
You will see the update URL in unicode , which means that if you want to replace it , there has to be a hex 00 between every letter !
I then replaced : http://weather.manila1.htc.com/widget/htc/forecast-data_v3.asp?locCode=%1s&?ac=TR2cra9U
with : http://weather.not2advanced.com/htcweather/forecastdata.php?locCode=%1s&ac=XDADevs1234
Those two lines have exactely the same length upto there ( That's why i added 1234 to the XDAdevs , thankfully that's ok with N2A's site ) so the rest of the URL ( &device=innovation etc.. ) can remain unchanged !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that fails to work , send me a copy of the manila app ( modded and original maybe so I can see what u did ) , I'll look at it , patch it & send it back for you to try ...
I can't promise anything of course , but I'm on holidays this week , so I've got a little time to spare ;-)
cheers,
Claude

Thanks for the info!
Unicode-Strings should be NULL-terminated to, so all i've done was to zero out the remaining chars.
I give it a try and answer here asap.
//edit:
Ok, works but Temps are at 0°C.
Seems that the XML-Format has been changed.
BTW: String used for Patching Mainila2D.exe was:
000D8858 68 00 74 00 74 00 70 00 3A 00 2F 00 2F 00 77 00 65 00 61 00 74 00 68 00 h.t.t.p.:././.w.e.a.t.h.
000D8870 65 00 72 00 2E 00 6E 00 6F 00 74 00 32 00 61 00 64 00 76 00 61 00 6E 00 e.r...n.o.t.2.a.d.v.a.n.
000D8888 63 00 65 00 64 00 2E 00 63 00 6F 00 6D 00 2F 00 68 00 74 00 63 00 77 00 c.e.d...c.o.m./.h.t.c.w.
000D88A0 65 00 61 00 74 00 68 00 65 00 72 00 2F 00 66 00 6F 00 72 00 65 00 63 00 e.a.t.h.e.r./.f.o.r.e.c.
000D88B8 61 00 73 00 74 00 64 00 61 00 74 00 61 00 2E 00 70 00 68 00 70 00 3F 00 a.s.t.d.a.t.a...p.h.p.?.
000D88D0 6C 00 6F 00 63 00 43 00 6F 00 64 00 65 00 3D 00 25 00 31 00 73 00 00 00 l.o.c.C.o.d.e.=.%.1.s...

Ahw F...!
Tested the original URL:
first, city in original database:
http://htc.accuweather.com/widget/htc/forecast-data.asp?ac=TR2cra9U&locCode=EUR|DE|GM011|AACHEN
second, city manually added:
http://htc.accuweather.com/widget/h...ac=TR2cra9U&locCode=EUR|DE|GM017|SCHMALKALDEN
second URL does NOT give any information back in the XML...
Seems that the database is also online and it trys to find the city there...
OK, tried the not2advanced URL, XML Format has changed heavily...
*sniff*

Garfield1970,
Thanks for helping out.
The registry trick did not work.
I did find a patched version of manila2d.exe from another rom that works perfect on our phone, but ideally I would like to see how to patch the original version that our phone ships with. The hex surrounding the URL string in our manilla2d.exe looks a little different. I'm not 100% there is enough room to fit the full N2A url in!
I will post all 3 versions later for you to play with.

Weltherrscher said:
Ahw F...!
Tested the original URL:
first, city in original database:
http://htc.accuweather.com/widget/htc/forecast-data.asp?ac=TR2cra9U&locCode=EUR|DE|GM011|AACHEN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok
second, city manually added:
http://htc.accuweather.com/widget/h...ac=TR2cra9U&locCode=EUR|DE|GM017|SCHMALKALDEN
second URL does NOT give any information back in the XML...
Seems that the database is also online and it trys to find the city there...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's normal as that city is unknown to the HTC Server
OK, tried the not2advanced URL, XML Format has changed heavily...
*sniff*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed , I just compared the XML Outputs for Aachen from HTC & N2A , they changed the format .... But if you ask N2A very very nicely and if he has some time to spare , he might eventually adapt a version of his script to reflect the other XML format
You can clearly see the differences between the following two outputs :
http://weather.not2advanced.com/htc...hp?locCode=EUR|DE|GM011|AACHEN&ac=XDADevs1234
is the Diamond compatible format
http://htc.accuweather.com/widget/htc/forecast-data.asp?ac=TR2cra9U&locCode=EUR|DE|GM011|AACHEN
is the format the touch 3g seems to need ....
I'll crosspost the URL's to N2A's main thread so he can maybe have a look
Claude

Just for info the XML format that ships with our ROM works fine with N2A.
To me it seems N2A provides extra elements which I assume is for compatibility with HTC home.
So no need as far as I can tell to ask him to change anything.
Unless i'm getting confused in what you are saying?

vibez said:
Just for info the XML format that ships with our ROM works fine with N2A.
To me it seems N2A provides extra elements which I assume is for compatibility with HTC home.
So no need as far as I can tell to ask him to change anything.
Unless i'm getting confused in what you are saying?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure that the N2A output works for you ?
Because if you look at the XML's , what your device expects is to see includes blocks titled :
Today
Tonight
Tomorrow
and then the following weekdays
whereas on my Diamond it's just current and the different Weekdays being reported
Claude

I'm 100% sure it works with this version of manila2d.exe that i'm using. Now it may be that this version I have uses the old format.
We don't have
Today
Tonight
Tomorrow
we just have current temp, and hi, lo for each day

You mean using the patched manila from the other rom that you mentionned earlier ?
Might be that the format switch has happened between differen Rom versions ?
Claude

Garfield1970 said:
You mean using the patched manila from the other rom that you mentionned earlier ?
Might be that the format switch has happened between differen Rom versions ?
Claude
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it could be that. Although the end result is the same. The original version only showed Current and hi/lo temps

Ok i've attached the files
Manila2D_original.exe
This is the original unpatched file
Manila2D_original_patched_not_working.exe
This the original file I tried to patch without success
Manila2D_patched_ok.exe
This is the patched file from another rom that works ok.

Bricked or dead?

I recently just re-flashed the rom on my elf, it got to 100% and windows said it completed. I now try to turn the phone on and nothing happens? the battery isnt dead either, help please

tjeaton said:
I recently just re-flashed the rom on my elf, it got to 100% and windows said it completed. I now try to turn the phone on and nothing happens? the battery isnt dead either, help please
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm, not sure if this helps (coz i arrived at it through a different process). but my device couldn't be turned on. no light even as charger was plugged in. but i did the "hold Camera button and poke the reset hole" then i got into boot into bootloader

please help
my htc touch p3452 is dead becoz i flash but something is wrong and then it was dead now it will on on bootloder mode(red,green,blue) here is my detail please tell ,me what to do
it show..
IPL 3.07.0002
SPL 3.07.0000
DEVICE ID= ELF010050
CID= DOPOD001
45 4C 46 30 31 30 30 35 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ELF010050.......
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
44 4F 50 4F 44 30 30 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 DOPOD001........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..............
i also tryed to flash "DID-ELF010050_CID-DOPOD001_ROM-2.20.721.2B" but is not flashed it gave "error 270 update error" something please tell me where is the problem and how to solve please guys

You have to cid unlock first before flashing any rom...

vicky.9871 said:
my htc touch p3452 is dead becoz i flash but something is wrong and then it was dead now it will on on bootloder mode(red,green,blue) here is my detail please tell ,me what to do
it show..
IPL 3.07.0002
SPL 3.07.0000
DEVICE ID= ELF010050
CID= DOPOD001
45 4C 46 30 31 30 30 35 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ELF010050.......
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
44 4F 50 4F 44 30 30 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 DOPOD001........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..............
i also tryed to flash "DID-ELF010050_CID-DOPOD001_ROM-2.20.721.2B" but is not flashed it gave "error 270 update error" something please tell me where is the problem and how to solve please guys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok.. maybe you should try this.. hope it helps..

tito12 said:
You have to cid unlock first before flashing any rom...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup by the prob its showin, the CID is definitely locked, so 1st unlock the CID & then flash the ROM of your choice..!!!
Do remember also upgrade the "IPL & HSPL"..!!!
Njoy the FLASHING..!!!

thankyou but tell me
how to downgrade or upgrade my ips and spl my device already in bootloder mode please tell me

to upgrade your SPL (or flash HardSPL) u first need to have your device "alive" again as flashing the HardSPL is done by using ActiveSync.. I would suggest you try a hard reset (by holding the Call & End buttons and reseting with the stylus).. if that didn't work and you still can't load into WinMo interface.. then you might want to try the method I mentioned above..
hope this helps..

Ok just some info about the phone:
I already CID unlocked it, so that couldnt have been the problem as i was running onyx rom
I have tried getting into the three colours screen and still nothing happens, the battery isn't dead
Led used to turn on when it was charging now it doesn't :/
On button doesn't seem to make the device do anything either

tjeaton said:
Ok just some info about the phone:
I already CID unlocked it, so that couldnt have been the problem as i was running onyx rom
I have tried getting into the three colours screen and still nothing happens, the battery isn't dead
Led used to turn on when it was charging now it doesn't :/
On button doesn't seem to make the device do anything either
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you flash an original or shipped ROM?? sometimes that causes problems when used with HardSPL..

Yeah it was an original backup of the factory rom that was already on it, is their anyway of actually recovering my phone to a normal state again, at least the tri color or even led's when charging

tjeaton said:
Yeah it was an original backup of the factory rom that was already on it, is their anyway of actually recovering my phone to a normal state again, at least the tri color or even led's when charging
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
srry man.. but I can't help you.. flashing an original ROM over HardSPL can brick your phone.. and I don't want to disappoint you but I don't know how to recover it.. still I'm a not a pro.. :S:S

anyone else out there on xda can help, it would be great if you could thanks for the help so far people

i'm no sure that u have a software problem but if it is, then your only hope is jtag.
check this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=602233
too bad there is no more information anywhere, but at least those jtags are easy to solder!
g00d luck!

btw, have you tried the voodoo reset posted by aonellbicho in the jtag thread? any luck with it?
I've never seen it before, and u will probably need as many hands as Shiva has to do it...

guess i can give it a go, what else could go wrong lol

yeah the voodoo reset doesn't work, i think its a fake its pretty hard to press all of those things at once

what is leeco key

What is this key? It was found by navigating to*#*#4636#*#*

Interesting find I too wonder what it is
Sent from my LEX727 using Tapatalk

HewettBR said:
What is this key?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've no idea yet what it's used for, but I can tell you where it is stored:
The full key is stored in the partition "letvconfig":
Code:
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/letvconfig
While the total size of the partition is 524288 bytes (= exactly 512K) only the first 32 bytes seem to contain this LeKey and the remaining 524256 bytes are all zero.
When you are root you can easily dump this partition via adb shell:
Code:
# dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/letvconfig of=/sdcard/letvconfig.img bs=512
And display the content with hexdump (or any other hex-editor):
Code:
# hexdump -C /sdcard/letvconfig.img
00000000 62 35 .......................................... |b5a4xxxxxxxxxxxx|
00000010 ....................................... 33 33 36 |xxxxxxxxxxxxc336|
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
(Note that I replaced my actual code with "........" and "xxxxx" here as I don't want to post it in public.)

androcheck said:
I've no idea yet what it's used for, but I can tell you where it is stored:
The full key is stored in the partition "letvconfig":
Code:
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/letvconfig
While the total size of the partition is 524288 bytes (= exactly 512K) only the first 32 bytes seem to contain this LeKey and the remaining 524256 bytes are all zero.
When you are root you can easily dump this partition via adb shell:
Code:
# dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/letvconfig of=/sdcard/letvconfig.img bs=512
And display the content with hexdump (or any other hex-editor):
Code:
# hexdump -C /sdcard/letvconfig.img
00000000 62 35 .......................................... |b5a4xxxxxxxxxxxx|
00000010 ....................................... 33 33 36 |xxxxxxxxxxxxc336|
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
(Note that I replaced my actual code with "........" and "xxxxx" here as I don't want to post it in public.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this key used to play with bootloader?
I am having a le Pro 3 AI and i am unable to save my unlock settings on bootloader / use baseband with unlocked bootloader. But what i do find is their bootloader has a fastboot command.
fastboot oem key
may be that can give us more access.May be , just assuming , this key can provide access to more features?

prateekkej said:
Is this key used to play with bootloader?
fastboot oem key
may be that can give us more access.May be , just assuming , this key can provide access to more features?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great idea, I also think that this key can be useful.
I'm also having AI, so if you'll find a way to use a key with our device to make some profitable unlock, please update me to.

VS995 - Error using Uppercut - Cannot decide device boot mode. set Unknown Mode

I recently acquired a Verizon-branded LG V20 (VS995) and I my eventual goal is to put TWRP and LineageOS on it like my last phone. The first step is to downgrade it to a vulnerable stock image using UPPERCUT. However, I'm finding that LGUP is unable to begin to perform the flash.
My setup/procedure is as such:
1. Fresh Windows 7 x64 installation in Virtualbox 5.2.16 on Arch Linux
1a. USB filter setup so that USB 1004:633a is always passed through to Windows 7
2. Installed drivers: LGMobileDriver_WHQL_Ver_4.2.0.exe
3. Installed LGUP 1.14: LGUP_Store_Frame_Ver_1_14_3.msi
4. Insert battery into LG V20 VS995
5. Insert USB into computer
6. Hold VOLUP while inserting USB-C into V20
7. Wait as "download mode" message appears and then changes to "Firmware Update" screen.
8. Wait for Windows to install all drivers, ensuring devmgmt.msc shows COM port
9. Launch UPPERCUT v1.0.0.0, granting admin permissions
10. Wait for LGUP to launch, initialize, and show a VS9951CA device
11. Select the December 2016 KDZ: VS99512A_06_1114_ARB00.kdz
12. Select UPGRADE and hit Start
After waiting for the 15 second initialization period, LGUP displays the error "Cannot decide device boot mode. set Unknown". If left in this state for several minutes, LGUP will eventually bring up a dialog saying "Error: 0x2000, Port open error (COMX)". LGUP sometimes says it is on a step which I have not transcribed correctly but resembles "_prepareAndDL" before showing the "Cannot decide device boot mode. set Unknown" error, but I've only seen this step once or twice.
SHA1 sums of the files I'm using:
eac54e3e0cfe6e8d7cd395e245170e13de4fcd67 lgmobiledriver_whql_ver_4.2.0.exe
f7b41f77047698bc8e030dddf4ef6fbdb5c3af41 lgup_store_frame_ver_1_14_3.msi
46c9a349d62287d81c94ce7148233c0922604273 uppercut_1.0.0.0.zip
3104b93b7243e3274932b2c56b8383cdecf7ede3 vs99512a_06_1114_arb00.kdz
Is UPPERCUT still the recommended tool to flash stock firmware for this model? Should I be installing it via fastboot instead (if so, is there a thread to follow)? Is the 1CA update no longer downgradable?
--------------------
I tried to use the patched LGUP tool instead of UPPERCUT to see if that helped at all. I did not try to flash the KDZ, but rather just tried to DUMP the existing partitions. I ran into the same error as the post title again.
Procedure:
0. In the LGUP program files directory:
1. Copy the original LGUP.exe to LGUP.original.exe
2. Copy the patched LGUP.exe into it's place
3. Copy in the 'model/common' directory from the patched LGUP zip
4. Steps 4->8 from above
9. Launch patched LGUP (no UPPERCUT)
10. Same as above
11. Select DUMP, hit start, select dump location
SHA1 sum of additional files:
242640ddb023308b9a103e0a767f27511c9a2db0 lgup_v20dll_patched.zip

I captured a trace of the USB communication with wireshark. I used the LG LAF protocol plugin (can't post links yet: github com/Lekensteyn/lglaf/blob/master/lglaf.lua) and it didn't find any USB frames that matched the protocol. I'm no USB wire protocol expert, but it looks like the phone is sending a response:
Code:
0000 1b 00 10 b0 62 03 80 fa ff ff 00 00 00 00 09 00 ...°b..úÿÿ......
0010 01 02 00 01 00 83 03 97 00 00 00 ef a0 00 00 00 ...........ï*...
0020 00 00 56 53 39 39 35 00 00 00 00 00 56 53 39 39 ..VS995.....VS99
0030 35 31 43 41 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 51CA............
0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 33 35 39 39 36 ...........35996
0050 38 30 37 32 39 39 39 30 37 36 00 00 00 00 00 60 8072999076.....`
0060 1e 41 6e 64 72 6f 69 64 00 00 00 37 2e 30 00 00 .Android...7.0..
0070 00 00 00 00 00 3X 3X 3X 3X 3X 3X 3X 3X 3X X9 00 .....XXXXXXXXXX.
0080 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0090 00 00 00 00 00 00 31 63 6f 6d 6d 6f 6e 00 00 00 ......1common...
00a0 56 5a 57 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 7d 5d VZW1..........}]
00b0 86 7e .~
There were five such frames, all essentially identical less a byte or two. I suspect if I had let the capture go they would have continued to arrive at an interval. So it's possible the LGUP tool just is not recognizing the ping that the phone is sending?

Install the VirtualBox extension pack and set your USB config for that VM to 2.0 or 3.1, and you should be good.
1CA is definitely downgradable. This is a USB communication problem.
-- Brian

I re-confirmed that I had the guest extensions installed (VM has no nic and all files were transferred in via shared folders, which requires guest extensions). But it turns out I did have the USB bus set to USB 2.0. After setting that to USB 3.0 and installing the Intel USB3 drivers for Windows, LGUP started the download without issue. This is still the patched LGUP (no UPPERCUT) and using the UPGRADE option with the KDZ mentioned in the OP. Oddly enough, it did not clear my data, as it asked for my encryption passphrase when it rebooted. It did successfully downgrade me, so I just did a factory reset to clear my old data and apps. As a reminder, the LG out-of-the-box experience starts checking for OTA updates as soon as the phone starts up, so remove your SIM before you start.
1. Remove SIM
2. Do one of the following:
CLI:
Code:
vboxmanage modifyvm $vmname --usbehci off && vboxmanage modifyvm $vmname --usbxhci on
UI: Right click VM > Settings > USB > USB 3.0 (XHCI) Controller