[HOWTO] Installing the unlocked bootloader and fixing broken recovery in leaked ICS

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Some of us used the flash-stock-then-flash-CWM method of installing the ICS leak, but were left without a working recovery. The method below allows you to unlock the bootloader and install a custom CWM.

This method may or may not work for you. I take NO CREDIT for making this happen, I'm just writing a quick howto. Thanks to strra for making it convenient.


Typically, attempting to boot into Recovery would generate an error that recovery image was not verified (something along those lines).

Thanks for all the devs who made this possible - you guys are amazing. Donate to them if you can, they deserve it.

I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU TURN YOUR A500 INTO A PAPERWEIGHT.
If you don't feel comfortable with this possibility, stop here.

Install the A500 drivers from Acer on PC (from Acer's site).

Install and launch Android terminal app on tablet. Run the following command:

dmesg>/mnt/external_sd/dmesg.txt

Open up dmesg.txt and look for androidboot.serialno. That is your CPUID. In my case, the serial number reported by the OS, on the box, in the MicroSD slot was NOT my cpuid.

Use Vache's site to convert that number into your SBK (four long hex values).

Extract all of the required files (batch.rar and nvflash) from strra's post into c:\nvflash.

Open up a Windows command prompt (cmd.exe) and then `cd c:\nvflash`.
Launch `run.bat`, but don't enter your SBK yet.

Power down the tablet.

Use a paper clip and hold down the Reset button. Do not release it. Hold down power for 3 secs and then release it. After another second, remove the paper clip. Your Windows PC should then detect your device and install the APX driver. You should then have an APX USB device installed. If you do not have an APX USB device listed in your system tray, you cannot proceed.

Go back to the Windows command prompt and enter your SBK. Once you enter it, the process should begin. If you receive a USB write error, your SBK is incorrect.

Once the process begins, the Windows command prompt will read "Press any key when your A500 is in bootloader mode". Do not continue until the tablet is in Download Mode.

Once the tablet reads "download mode" (something along those lines), you are in bootloader mode. You can proceed and it will begin formatting the various partitions and installing the recovery.

Once the process completes, it should say PASS. You can then power off the tablet and power it back on again.

Make sure your tablet boots.
Power the tablet down and attempt to launch CWM via Power+VolDown.

PROTIP
Remount /system rw:

su
mount -o remount,rw -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /system

Worked perfectly! Thanks!

yaw

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worker for me too... thanks to all for this work!

good write-up

also, another protip:
if you right click the title bar of the command prompt, you can go to edit>paste to copy/paste the SBK... should make things a little easier

@strra:

You don't happen to know the location of the apk's for `Acer Media` and `Weather`, do you?

I'd like to add them to the following list of bloat that can go (another PROTIP) once you remount /system rw.

Under /system/app, rename:

3DPhotoBrowser-apk
AcerNidus-apk
Clearfi-apk
aupeo-apk

Problem with recovery

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When it launches download mode, it says entering download mode in acer boot screen and it stays like that. How much time should I wait until it enters download mode? Or is that download mode? When it shows PASS message then under appears a red text saying LNX image not certified or something like that, why? Please help me. Thanks.

Now my tablet boots with a white text on it saying custom bootloader. But i don't have recovery mode.

Originally Posted by Luescoff

Now my tablet boots with a white text on it saying custom bootloader. But i don't have recovery mode.

Install new recovery with fastboot. Boot into Android normally and connect it to PC with Android SDK (you need working adb and fastboot commands).

Check if adb sees your device:

adb devices

Boot into bootloader:

adb reboot bootloader

If you haven't been in bootloader mode before you might need to install fastboot drivers (from ACER Drivers for example).

Check if fastboot sees your device:

fastboot devices

My a500 didn't return its ID so fastboot is showing a device with "?" instead of ID. It is ok.

Install new recovery (here it is in recovery.img file, change it to yours):

fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot reboot

When device will be booting just hold Volume Down like always to get into recovery.

You can also test and boot recovery.img directly from PC with fastboot:

fastboot boot recovery.img

You can test with fastboot boot command as it doesn't overwrite anything in device's flash. It downloads boot image (like recovery.img or boot.img into RAM and runs it from there).

Originally Posted by jm77

@strra:

You don't happen to know the location of the apk's for `Acer Media` and `Weather`, do you?

I'd like to add them to the following list of bloat that can go (another PROTIP) once you remount /system rw.

Under /system/app, rename:

3DPhotoBrowser-apk
AcerNidus-apk
Clearfi-apk
aupeo-apk

You can also add social Jogger
Link to facebook .
and all the links to there so called book shelf apps like link to games link to media .there are 4 of them They Hog resources even if you NEVER use them.I forget all there names and im on Vachs rom he has removed them all.

@jm77: Maybe could you split the DL link (batch.rar) and add the link to the OP of the orig. thread for downloading the bootloader binary (so when I update it people get the updated version directly)?

Originally Posted by jm77

@strra:

You don't happen to know the location of the apk's for `Acer Media` and `Weather`, do you?

.......

Acer hid them in flexrom/app this time around!