Basically what the title says, Back in September 12, 2021, at 4 AM I had woken up out of nowhere and I thought I'd wanted to give that engineering firmware of my lavender a try, but then I did something bad, after digging in what the issue was and why my phone wasn't booting and was stuck in the splash screen (fastboot wasn't working either), I found out that there was a firmware OEM security certificate mismatch between the UEFI Bootloader (XBL.ELF) and the "Application Bootloader" which in android's case is "Kernel Flinger" (abl.elf), the mismatch between the certificates causes the phone to not load abl.elf and it ends up getting stuck at the splash screen and does nothing.
TL;DR my phone's hard bricked and won't boot up, fastboot won't work either.
I tried to unbrick it through the "Emergency Download Mode", also known as EDL Mode, but to no avail, I keep getting the exact same error I did before the battery this phone originally came from had died.
The error is "TARGET SAID: ERROR: Only nop and sig tag can be received before authentication."
I believe I'm getting stuck at xiaomi's authentication thing but I've tried everything, flashing stock ROM, flashing engineering ROM, trying the patched firehose that was available since a long time, trying the patched firehose that was in xiaomiengs, nothing.
Before the battery had died though, if I remember correctly, when I hadn't connected the battery to the phone and turned in on in a long time, after replugging everything and turning it on, the phone would power on it's battery LED and after getting it in EDL, instead of getting an EDL Authentication error, I was getting some weird write error and it would stop, after resetting the phone back, I'd get the same write error, I'm going to retest the thing where it'd get a write error and get past the EDL auth, but I'll have to wait.
I hope you all can give me some tips on how I can unbrick it and hopefully salvage this phone, then I can have it next to my Poco X3 NFC which I got 1 month ago and 23 days ago.
Oh and also if you were wondering why I was trying to flash the engineering firmware again through EDL even though it supposedly hard bricked my phone, that's not the case at all, what actually hard bricked it was that I had flashed MIUI 10's abl.elf (Application Bootloader/Kernel Flinger) and after rebooting, it didn't boot.
I'll admit that it was very dumb of me to flash just one firmware image out of all of them, but I should mention that I did it out of being afraid over the fact that flashing the engineering firmware might've caused my device to be stuck with it until I flashed the stock/production firmware through EDL Mode, now, I know I could've flashed it through fastboot but there was another problem with fastboot and it was that it would not flash anything due to a "image size mismatch error".
What were my findings after all? Well, Lavender (AKA Redmi Note 7) seems to have encryption stuff built right into it's bootloader which was what forced me to factory reset the device (Wipe out the data partition or "userdata"), I forgot to test whether disabling encryption wouldn't cause the entire encryption to not work (It does the same in stock/production firmware).
Another thing I also found out was that the UEFI Bootloader of the engineering firmware build is that it seemed to not have OEM certificates setup properly so it allowed the booting of MIUI 12.5's Kernel Flinger binary (abl.elf), one thing that confuses me is the fact that it wouldn't boot MIUI 10's Kernel Flinger binary (abl.elf).
Okay, update here, I've been messing around, getting help from some people in Telegram and I've managed to get past EDL Auth, unfortunately for me, it says "Failed to open the SDCC Device slot 0 partition" when attempting to flash.
I tried through Qualcomm's Product Configuration Assistant Tool and I got that error, I tried through QFIL, same error, I tried through Mi Flash and various different versions, still same error.
Does anyone have any idea what the error could mean? I hope it doesn't mean that my phone's eMMC isn't dead, because from what I remember it isn't.
Related
i shut down my device by tapping power off. then removed sim card and sd card after screen went black. but when i tried to power on, it doesnt respond.. i tried holding the power button for 10s, it gives me a black screen and vibrates and instantly closes again.. so i cant boot into recovery, i cant boot to fastboot, and its unreadable on pc, it doesnt charge, no bootlogo, nothing. just bricked..
.
i dont know why, but it just bricked by itself.. i've been using mokee 9 date of 1/1/2020 thats the last update i installed, with add on su and everything was working perfectly and even if i reboot multiple times..
bootloader was unlocked so xiaomi centers wont help me..
how is it possible to make it boot again? i mean like wtf even happened? i did nothing.. i didnt flash anything and system was READ ONLY before powering off.. all i did was remove sim and sd cards... even after flashing mokee updates yesterday, it booted normally and idk what's going on..
any help?
EDIT: the phone's hard disk IC was damaged. I went to a tech guy and he changed it but then the motherboard broke entirely after flashing the qcn file for imei. Device out of warranty of course because of the damn bootloader. Thank you xiaomi for the great phone that only lasted one month before dying completely.
attempt 2
in attempt 1 i tried force reboot as mentioned, didnt work
attempt 2 : i tried force reboot while plugged to pc, this showed up
attempt 3
i tried to flash a new firmware, but device unreadable. must be on fastboot mode for mi flasher to be able to read it. im starting to lose hope.. the device is new though it makes me sad
on some topic of a bricked phone online, someone mentioned that he should try EDL mode, by cmd command FASTBOOT OEM EDL
so i tried it many times until it said successful. but still didnt fix anything, because it didnt actually boot into EDL mode, had to open my device physically and use test points. so attempt 4 failed
does this mean fastboot works?
after attempt 4, it said successful so if fastboot works like that then i can flash stock boot.img or something.. right? which image should i start with
forum
boody shaban said:
on some topic of a bricked phone online, someone mentioned that he should try EDL mode, by cmd command FASTBOOT OEM EDL
so i tried it many times until it said successful. but still didnt fix anything. so attempt 4 failed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is the forum of the bricked phone similar to mine, except that i didnt try any flash like him it just happened randomly
https://c.mi.com/thread-2334646-1-0.html
attempt 5
attempt 5 failed, i tried flashing whole firmware one by one, i started with vbmeta, then recovery but it failed. idk what to do
notice
i have noticed that it only flashes small img files, if its 100kb or more it will fail. maybe due to device restart because the only way to make it read in fastboot mode is to force restart multiple times until it flashes. what to do now?
attempt 6
so according to this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJoIiLE_w3w
he installed a driver (name in attachment) then refreshed on mi flash so his device became readable on mi flasher
i tried that but it didnt work.
final attempt.. out of hope
found the possible solution. its called a deep flash cable, i will just go to any tech guy and ask him for help.
see attachment for info.
boody shaban said:
found the possible solution. its called a deep flash cable, i will just go to any tech guy and ask him for help.
see attachment for info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In order to enter test point / EDL / 9008 mode, you have to physically open your device and connect two points on the phone's board. Search on YouTube for Redmi 7a EDL. If you get to EDL mode, you can flash original stock firmware via MiFlash.
Reason for brick
cg730620 said:
In order to enter test point / EDL / 9008 mode, you have to physically open your device and connect two points on the phone's board. Search on YouTube for Redmi 7a EDL. If you get to EDL mode, you can flash original stock firmware via MiFlash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I hate tearing up my device so I took it to a professional. He failed to open ADL but he did the 9008. Now he waits some kind of credit. Not sure if for the app to work or for the bootloader to unlock, although it was already unlocked but maybe somehow got locked..
Any way, expected reason for brick is either latest magisk module, or kernel tweaks..
I gave the device to a professional, but he also failed to flash it even with test point. He said he was searching for a file.. I dont remember its name, something like IMOH..
Now I need to know any possible reason that might brick my phone again to avoid it
cg730620
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cg730620 said:
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The app he used was called ultimate multi tools
test point attempt failed
i did the test point, booted to 9008 mode but still nothing.
i think i know why the phone got bricked by itself, it got ARB stands for AUTOROLLBACK
read more about it here https://mi-globe.com/unbrick-your-xiaomi-phone-without-authorized-mi-account/
bootloader got automatically locked again.
Never lock the bootloader if:
- your phone was delivered Chinese version and you flashed Global firmware
- your phone was delivered Global version and you flashed Chinese firmware
- you changed system, vendor, boot or recovery partition
- you installed a custom or modified stock rom
ARB isn't an issue with this phone I suppose. Because I was on 11.0.5 and rolled back to 10.2.5 without problems.
Have you tried MiFlash Pro?
See here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/redmi-7a/how-to/miflash-pro-t4030809
---------- Post added at 04:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:38 AM ----------
boody shaban said:
i did the test point, booted to 9008 mode but still nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems that error is related to your computer. Reinstall drivers and MiFlash.
QDLoader Drivers:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/0jfq2r7adylnltu/QDLoader_HS-USB_Driver.zip/file
ADB driver:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/qskct06xyx1iivs/ADB%2Bdriver%2Bv1.17%2Blite.zip/file
MiFlash:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/bdjugf3zx7037yl/MiFlash2018-5-28-0.zip/file
Read about a similar problem here:
https://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/mi5-bricked-i-bricked-my-new-mi5-with-miui8.32439/
cg730620 said:
Never lock the bootloader if:
- your phone was delivered Chinese version and you flashed Global firmware
- your phone was delivered Global version and you flashed Chinese firmware
- you changed system, vendor, boot or recovery partition
- you installed a custom or modified stock rom
ARB isn't an issue with this phone I suppose. Because I was on 11.0.5 and rolled back to 10.2.5 without problems.
Have you tried MiFlash Pro?
See here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/redmi-7a/how-to/miflash-pro-t4030809
---------- Post added at 04:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:38 AM ----------
It seems that error is related to your computer. Reinstall drivers and MiFlash.
QDLoader Drivers:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/0jfq2r7adylnltu/QDLoader_HS-USB_Driver.zip/file
ADB driver:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/qskct06xyx1iivs/ADB%2Bdriver%2Bv1.17%2Blite.zip/file
MiFlash:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/bdjugf3zx7037yl/MiFlash2018-5-28-0.zip/file
Read about a similar problem here:
https://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/mi5-bricked-i-bricked-my-new-mi5-with-miui8.32439/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but im sure i have all drivers installed in fact i used mi flash more than once and it worked perfectly fine, and i swear i didnt try to lock it or anything, what happened is, mokee auto updates installed add on magisk and it was the latest version so i think this might have bricked it. idk..
ok i downloed all the drivers and reinstalled them, same error : "library not registered"
So, basically I will make this short as possible
Due to some problems I had to sell my G6 Plus (Brazilian -8 model) but it was on a custom rom, and did the most dumb thing that I could do: Reflashing pure stock and locking it, I've used the LMSA tool then relocked in Fastboot, the thing is some files were corrupt and when locked, it doesn't boot up anymore, as i still had hope for it, I tried to LSMA again, but it doesnt recognize anymore, as the lock flag is now "Flashing_Locked", flashing manually via Fastboot gives a error related to the lock flag (also LSMA resets the device, so using my unlock key asks to enable OEM Unlock at settings, a impossible thing when OS is broken) , then searched for some solutions, first it was booting a Boot.img file from the last stock, which was the flashed one, it bootloops, then tried something on the recovery that works, but is the stock one and pretty limited, so the logical thing to do is flashing a OTA file, but only works for old versions that requires one version before the target one, so its a no go. The last thing i tried to do is booting TWRP, but it gets stuck on a red warning that indicates that system is corrupt. Then the last hope was EDL Mode, and thats the point where i want to go, i've bought a EDL Cable that's basically a green and black wire thing used on most Qualcomm based Redmi/Xiaomi devices, but it automatically boots to fastboot, so I need help to get EDL Test Points for this device, im with access to the board, i just need the right Pads to short-circuit it and blankflash it, so i can finally get it to work like normal again.
Schematics (for people who understands): https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=4349826312261726244
Any help is important, I'm sorry for some typos, english isnt my main language considering i didnt use translate
and please don't come with instructions like "have you tried LSMA?, try booting up the device and select oem unlock" because its clear that it doesnt work.
Let me describe my issue in detail. In running call, suddenly device hang up and not starting up. So I tried below options to get it working but didn’t get luck.
So obviously, boot loader is locked as it done suddenly. So I cannot access developer menu options.
From the boot loader menu, I tried to wipe up data but it didn’t worked as it shows an error message like “…Failed to load bcb message and fsync error. …”. Tried an wait for almost one day but not worked.
After spending lots of time on web, I get to know the if boot loader is locked then only EDL mode will work to flash.
So I opened my phone and switched to EDL mode and tried to flash.
In a first iteration, I got many errors like ACK error, Hello packed not found error. But In some of the threads I got it like install M Flash Beta version to do that. (disconnect from internet just before flash)
I tried couple of firmware like ,
tissot_images_V10.0.24.0.PDHMIXM_9.0
tissot_images_7.8.23_7.1
With the both firmware, I get success message in flash after 7-8 minutes.
But phone remain in same condition.
Please read complete situation and please suggest if other than this can work. I appreciate your time and comment. Thanks.
Same situation here.
From my experience MiFlash Beta doesn't do anything, it shows a progress but it is probably not actually writing data to phone memory.
While I've seen some contradictory claims that you can flash through EDL without an authorized Xiaomi account on Mi A1, I don't think those claims are valid.
Please keep updating this thread, whether you find a solution or not. At least we can filter out non working suggestions.
I am also interested in this problem, I have the same situation
So im gonna start off by saying that im just some dumb 18 year old and have never actually posted to ask for help, only reading other peoples situations to try to figure out my own.
but introductions aside im just gonna jump in to everything wrong with my oneplus 8 pro (global)
I was on the OOS 12 beta for a while, ive been way too lazy to change it back since ive been occupied by other stuff.
I was using magisk and decided to do some fun shenanigans with it.
I get into bootloop after flying to close to the sun with modules - a common occurrence.
so I try to switch to a custom rom since I was gonna reset anyway.
I download CR droid's recovery and main rom, went into fastboot and flashed the recovery.
I notced that whenever my phone was plugged into the computer, the options would rapidly switch on fastboot's end
when I tried to boot to recovery after flashing, it would only return to fastboot
confused I thought that maybe the recovery was bad and try another rom, no dice
i submit defeat and go to msm tool to fix the issues
I get that "Sahara communication failed" error so I hold down the volume up + power for 13 seconds before trying again.
it flashed smoothly
after getting sad at all the bloatware that was on oxygen OS after a full reset, I get the motivation to try using a custom rom again, this time using a different rom.
same weird fastboot behavior
I was unable to go into recovery
I then tried downloading stock firmware to flash it manually
fixed nothing
I delete the boot and recovery partitions and flash them again, still no dice
I even make a partion called fart, before remembering that I do not know the partition structure of android so i Ctrl+C out before it makes the partition
I go back to msm tool again in shame
"Unknown Target Device"
I reinstalled drivers
switched computers and cables
changed the source of my drivers
nothing fixed this error
and every time I would try to do anything it would go directly back to fastboot.
I try reflashing partitions in this broken fastboot mode and it would only flash if I unplugged, selected reboot bootloader, and plugged it back in
I would then try to fastboot boot into TWRP or other recoveries i downloaded
they would shut off the phone
I remember a/b partitions exist so I switch over between them and try to flash stock OOS again
after more fiddling and nothing working, I noticed some more weird traits of fastboot
twrp did boot directly after switching my main slot, not specific which one just if the slot was changed.
the "this device has an unlooked bootloader" message did not appear
only on slot a would the oneplus logo show up on boot
again every option I would click would take me right back to fastboot.
I wait a day for the phone to die so I could use EDL that way, at this point the twrp method randomly stopped working so I couldn't go into edl that way.
"Unknown Target Device Param Preload"
and like I know Param Preload is a common error but nowhere could I find information on the unknown target device part.
the phone still vibrates if I hold the power and vol+
it just vibrates in a loop as if it keeps rebooting, probably fastboot just selecting the start key over and over when I hold it down.
vol- and power do nothing, and did nothing for the entirety of this story.
is there any chance of saving my poor instantnoodle professional?
## edit for people googling this
the problem I was having was that I didn't set the "target" button on the MSM tool correctly, so make sure its set to O2 or your appropriate reigon
1. Stop fastboot flashing with A12 or if you are on A12.
2. Read this: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...ro-8t-9r-with-oxygenos-12-coloros-12.4426167/
3. Rescue your phone using this: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...l-to-restore-your-device-to-oxygenos.4084953/
4. Stay on OOS11 (Most custom roms INCLUDING A12 custom roms require OOS11 anyway.)
5. There is not much bloat on a OOS11 rom IMO but you can always use a debloater.
xtcislove said:
1. Stop fastboot flashing with A12 or if you are on A12.
2. Read this: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...ro-8t-9r-with-oxygenos-12-coloros-12.4426167/
3. Rescue your phone using this: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...l-to-restore-your-device-to-oxygenos.4084953/
4. Stay on OOS11 (Most custom roms INCLUDING A12 custom roms require OOS11 anyway.)
5. There is not much bloat on a OOS11 rom IMO but you can always use a debloater.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I should clear on what i have tried. since I have read both articles before I made this post (i scanned through them again once you sent them tho)
Ive tried...
The unbricking Msm qualcomm 9008 tool
ive used it a ton in the past
ive switched copmputers, cables, and the qualcomm driver, as well as reset the phone several times
also yeah im not touching oos12 after this with a 9 foot pole, but is there a way of knowing wether I can save it or if its too late and the motherboard has been fried.
NatunaSushi said:
Maybe I should clear on what i have tried. since I have read both articles before I made this post (i scanned through them again once you sent them tho)
Ive tried...
The unbricking Msm qualcomm 9008 tool
ive used it a ton in the past
ive switched copmputers, cables, and the qualcomm driver, as well as reset the phone several times
also yeah im not touching oos12 after this with a 9 foot pole, but is there a way of knowing wether I can save it or if its too late and the motherboard has been fried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay i guess this is another situation here. You are not bricked like the other peoplke as far as i can see because there devices are completly bricked. No connection to pc or vibrating at all.
Since you used MSM tool before it should work IMO. Does your pc regonize the phone? Did you tried to switch usb ports? Did you tried other versions of msm tool(eu, older verions, etc)?
Please make sure to follow all MSM instructions closely.
xtcislove said:
Okay i guess this is another situation here. You are not bricked like the other peoplke as far as i can see because there devices are completly bricked. No connection to pc or vibrating at all.
Since you used MSM tool before it should work IMO. Does your pc regonize the phone? Did you tried to switch usb ports? Did you tried other versions of msm tool(eu, older verions, etc)?
Please make sure to follow all MSM instructions closely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after a week of fiddling I DID figure out the issue
unsupported Target unknown was refering to the fact that I had the MSM tool set to Target mode, which I assume tries to set the region according to what the current device has. After selecting that to O2 for the global models, the flash worked fine. I ended up coming across some C stock of a google pixel 3a and will try messing with that so I dont have to go a while without calls or texts. Glad to know I learned some bit of responsibility from this excursion.
Hello everyone,
I have a very peculiar problem with getting my Essential Phone to work again. It was lying around for roughly two years as I switched to another phone. Seeing as one of my relatives needs a new phone and has really low requirements I thought I could try to set it up again. I downloaded the official drivers again (Version 1.0.0 I think) as well as the last official release of fastboot images (February 2020).
Before I switched to a new Phone I had the Essential running with Lineage OS and remember wiping it with fastboot -w after I got the new device.
Now when I try to flash anything the device won't respond. It shows up when fastboot devices is used in the bootloader, but all fastboot commands get no answer whatsoever. I then switched from the official fastboot drivers to the latest android drivers which then gave me the sending x to y message when I try to flash anything, but nothing actually happens.
Interestingly enough, I can reboot to bootloader just fine and the Lineage Recovery is still accessible eventhough it shows an:
E: Failed to bind mount /mnt/staging/emulated/media/0 on storage/emulated: No such file or directory
on the bottom which leads me to believe that my device partitions may be corrupted outside of the recovery partition and the phone is bricked. In recovery adb commands can be used and I can reboot to bootloader for example.
When trying to sideload via the "Appy Update" function of the Lineage Recovery, I get an:
Error applying update: 26 (ErrorCode::kDownloadMetadataSignatureMismatch))
everytime. I tried different methods and Roms but nothing worked so far.
Can anyone help me with regards to bypassing signature verification entirely or point me in the direction of another solution?
Thanks for reading, I hope you have a nice day!
McMeth said:
Hello everyone,
I have a very peculiar problem with getting my Essential Phone to work again. It was lying around for roughly two years as I switched to another phone. Seeing as one of my relatives needs a new phone and has really low requirements I thought I could try to set it up again. I downloaded the official drivers again (Version 1.0.0 I think) as well as the last official release of fastboot images (February 2020).
Before I switched to a new Phone I had the Essential running with Lineage OS and remember wiping it with fastboot -w after I got the new device.
Now when I try to flash anything the device won't respond. It shows up when fastboot devices is used in the bootloader, but all fastboot commands get no answer whatsoever. I then switched from the official fastboot drivers to the latest android drivers which then gave me the sending x to y message when I try to flash anything, but nothing actually happens.
Interestingly enough, I can reboot to bootloader just fine and the Lineage Recovery is still accessible eventhough it shows an:
E: Failed to bind mount /mnt/staging/emulated/media/0 on storage/emulated: No such file or directory
on the bottom which leads me to believe that my device partitions may be corrupted outside of the recovery partition and the phone is bricked. In recovery adb commands can be used and I can reboot to bootloader for example.
When trying to sideload via the "Appy Update" function of the Lineage Recovery, I get an:
Error applying update: 26 (ErrorCode::kDownloadMetadataSignatureMismatch))
everytime. I tried different methods and Roms but nothing worked so far.
Can anyone help me with regards to bypassing signature verification entirely or point me in the direction of another solution?
Thanks for reading, I hope you have a nice day!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been reading around a little, it seems like it could be a recovery issue? try the official lineage recovery if you're not already. If you can get fastboot working at all try to reflash the stock rom and go from there.
I had a similar problem. Use a windows computer with the essential drivers (you can download from reddit) and use the official cable
DO NOT use the cable supplied with the Essential phone for data transfer, it is likely to brick your phone. Use a high quality one from a reputable manufacturer!