[ROM] ZTE Visible R2 Stock firmware

EDIT: This guide is outdated - see this thread for up-to-date instructions.

Guide: Getting TWRP on the Visible R2
Disclaimer: this is a work-in-progress and things will probably go wrong. I take no responsibility for bricked phones, lost data, etc. By following this guide you acknowledge the risks that these steps entail. Your warranty is probably void. Always make a backup of your files first.

What you need:
prog_emmc_firehose8917.mbn (included in b10 firmware or attached a few posts below; not included in b12)
A stock firmware package
TWRP built for the R2
ADB (Linux users can install it through their package manager)
Windows users will also need to install QFIL and the drivers from the first post before starting.

Instructions
For Windows and Linux:
0) Unzip the TWRP zip to an easily-accessible (and preferably empty) directory. You can discard the META-INF folder - it's only useful for flashing TWRP from inside TWRP.

1) Open up the firmware build you downloaded from the first post. All you'll need at the moment is the prog_emmc_firehose_8917.mbn, but it wouldn't hurt to keep the stock files handy. Place the firehose in the same folder as the TWRP image and its XML files.

2)Open ADB (or a terminal window) on your PC and enable USB debugging on your phone. Reboot the phone into EDL mode via adb:

For Windows:
3) Download and set up QFIL as described in the first post. Open QFIL.
4) Select Flat Build, press the Select Programmer button, then navigate to the TWRP folder and select the prog_emmc_firehose_8917.mbn.
5) Press the Load XML button, selecting rawprogram_recovery.xml first, then patch0.xml.
6) If QFIL prompts you to select an available port, do so with the Select Port button. Unless you have another phone connected in diagnostics or EDL mode, there should only be one option available.
7) Click the download button and wait for it to finish. If there's some sort of error, post it here so someone can help sort it out. Otherwise, reboot your phone when the download finishes.

For Linux users:
3) Download qdl. If your distro supports Snap packages, this is pretty painless.

Code:

sudo snap install qdl

The snap version doesn't seem to work, sorry.
3a) If your distro doesn't have snap support, compiling qdl is also simple enough:

4) ModemManager might be running on your machine, which will likely cause qdl to hang at 'Waiting for EDL device'. Stop the service for now; you can restart it later if you need to.
5) Navigate to the folder where the image, firehose, and XML files are stored. If qdl is installed properly, one command is all you need to flash your device:
6) That's it! If everything goes as expected, the device should reboot in a minute or two.


Now that TWRP is installed (successfully, hopefully), you should be able to boot into it by holding the Vol Up key while starting/rebooting the phone, or over adb by sending the 'adb reboot recovery' command. From here, you can backup and restore as you please, flash zip files, and enter a root shell for modifying files on system partitions.

Note that on startup, TWRP might freeze for a minute as it tries to decrypt the data partition. TWRP doesn't know the encryption password for this device and will not be able to mount or back up an encrypted data partition. If you want to disable forced encryption, download this and follow the steps below, but keep in mind that the partition will stay encrypted until it's wiped.


If ADB or MTP don't work properly in recovery, press Mount and toggle the Disable MTP button. This seems to happen on boots where TWRP tried and failed to decrypt data.

If your phone starts bootlooping, boot into TWRP and boot to system from the button there. This seems to happen every once in a while when modifying system partitions, and honestly I'm not sure what the cause is. If all else fails, restore the stock boot.img.

Here is the stock firmware including the firehose needed to flash it

B10 Firmware
Here

B12 Firmware
Here

ZPI file for ZTE SalesMultiDL tool
Here
Here is a step by step guide on how to flash the stock rom with QFIL and by extension any image.

1. Download and install the Qualcomm drivers from here
2. Download the firmware from above
3. Extract the firmware to a folder that you can easily access them from like your desktop
4. Download and install QPST from here
5. Open the QFIL application (Find it in your start menu)
6. In the "Select Build Type" field select Flat Build
7. In the "Select Programmer" field navigate to the folder you extracted the firmware and support files to and select the prog_emmc_firehose_8917.mbn file
8. Select the "Load XML" button and navigate to the folder you extracted the firmware and support files to and select the rawprogram0.xml and then the patch0.xml when prompted.
9. Plug in your tablet
10. Run the following adb command "adb reboot edl" (Now the screen should be blank but the led light should be red)
11. If the text at the top of the QFIL application says "No Port Available" click the "Select Port..." option and pick your device. If your device isn't showing up there you didn't install the drivers properly.
12. Click the Download Button to begin flashing your device

So for anyone who wants root, Magisk works fine up to 16.7 from about a year ago. Just flash it through TWRP, but be warned that it'll probably corrupt /data on install and force you to factory reset; you can wipe or format /data from TWRP. Even when it installs properly, it might reboot once right before hitting the home or setup screen, so don't freak out.

Newer versions of Magisk (17.0 and higher, from what I've tested) will cause endless boot loops. I suspect it's something similar to the ZTE Axon 7, where the stock kernel requires patching to work with newer versions of Magisk, so I guess that's something else to work on.

Here is the Stock wallpapers in case anyone wants them
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=1395089523397903558

Now we're getting somewhere.