Alcatel OT-997D Root and Rom development

Guys, i have created a KANG for porting TWRP V2.4.1.0 that supports Alcatel /custpack & /mobile_info here...

Credits to Russian Master Shifu Javum for compiling it & Russian Master Shifu Michfood for the repack utils...

Don't forget to support Operation RMD...
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Hmm, since nobody try out, i've ported it to OT-997D, Credits to jman0 for his recovery.img...

Use this app here to install... ( root access required ) :good:

If it doesn't work pls let me know... :fingers-crossed:

Cheers...
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Added on Mar 20, 2013 - TWRP with sd-ext support

Definitely, all the problems come from how Alcatel developed the firmware and how non standard it is.

I've been researching the nandroid backup problem a bit further and I think I know what the problem is: Alcatel developed the phone with a very strange partition arrangement.

Besides including the custpack partition, unknown to other phones, the other partitions don't match what you can find on other MT6577 phones, so the clockworkmod porting scripts I used don't really work out of the box.

I have developed a shell script which can perform a CWMR compatible backup of all the partitions. Iin fact, it uses a little trick, storing the system and custpack partitions inside the same tar file (system.ext4.tar) in order to trick CWMR, but the recovery we currently have can't restore any backup created with my script.

The reason is that the partition table CWMR expects to find is the standard on 99% MT6577 based phones, so it's not suitable for our phone. I've been looking inside the backups created by our current CWMR and I've found that on the system.ext4.tar it actually backups the custpack partition, and what you find inside data.ext4.tar is not the data partition, but system.

That's because, for exampe, the system partition in our phone is stored where other MT6577 have the data partition.

I'll try to see whether I can change the partition information (it's on a file inside the recovery, called recovery.fstab) and compile a new CWMR which has the correct partition information. It would still be unable to backup or restore the custpack partition, but with the script I've just created, maybe we can make working backups, which could be later restoreable from CWMR.

I'll keep you posted. Wish me luck

ahmedamr80 said:

Guys,,

I wanted to root my OT 997D & to upgrade its ICS to JB,
I saw your thread but the issue is:

1- it has 81 pages which will take ages to read all of them
2- the first 3 or 4 pages are full of failures
3- the thread language is so technical & assumes all users are expert developers

so it would be very kind of you to clean this thread up or to brief the outcomes in a youtube tutorials with a step-by-step actions

thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

1. The interesting stuff regarding the JB Update is on about the last 10 pages.
2. Didn't read that
3. Well, I'm no expert developer

...but here's a short How-To on installing JB in 9 easy steps:

1. Root with framaroot 1.7.0
2. Install Mobileuncle MTK Tools
3. Download "TWRP for OT-997D.zip" and extract to SD-card.
4. Open Mobileuncle MTK Tools, choose "Recovery Update" and install the file, you extracted.
5. Download my 4.1.1 Backup from one of these locations and extract to SD-card
6. Shutdown your phone and start into TWRP by pressing Volume+ while powering on. Go to Backup, enable all boxes except "Skip MD5 generation" and slide to the right to backup your current ROM.
7. Go back to Wipe and do a Factory Reset
8. Go back to Restore, choose 997D4.1TWRPROOT and Swype to Restore
9. If you are successful, make an awesome youtube tutorial with step-by-step actions

I have just finished porting CWM recovery v6.0.1.2 to our beloved Alcatel OT-997D, thanks to the dsixda Kitchen and the scripts by Bruno Martins.

So far, I've tried the following things:

1) ROM backup: Perfect. There's one thing you should know prior to trying it. Since version 6, CWM Recovery offers two backup formats. One is "dup", which is the default, and the other one is the classic "tar" format. I don't know if the dup format works or not, since I've only tried tar, which is the one I knew from previous versions and phones. If you know something aboout CWM backups, you'll also notice one difference: In previous versions, the backup consisted of several files, such as "system.ext4.tar", "data.ext4.tar", etc. Now, it's almost the same. You get a "system.ext4.tar", but that looks like a dummy file, and the actual compressed tar file is now called "system.ext4.tar.a", and the same applies to data and cache. Boot and Recovery, as always, are backed up as .img files.

2) ROM Restore: Perfect again. Now, we can mess things up and still have no worries, since we have backups.

3) Installing zips. Perfect again. you can install unsigned zips.

4) Wipe battery stats. Success again.

5) Mount USB storage while on recovery. Once again, it's working.

This new version of CWMR has a lot more options than the previous ones, but the 5 above are the basics, and they work. I'll try the other ones when I have the time.

I have only managed to flash it using the latest version of Mobieluncle Tools, which I have just downloaded from Google Play Store. The one MTK Droid Tools installs during the rooting process can't flash a recovery on MT6577, only the latest version can. so be sure to download it and use just the latest version.

Anyway, I've flashed it several times, and sometimes it didn't seem to work, since I ended up on the stock recovery again. It looks like the unsuccessful flashes occurred when I had the phone connected to a pc via the usb cable. Then, I've tried the flash again with the phone disconnected from the usb, and it has worked.

In case you want to try it, it's not too risky, since our phone contains a script on /system, called "recovery-from-boot.p", which is responsible for replacing any custom recovery with the stock one, automatically on every boot. So, if you try my recovery, or any other one, and it doesn't work, you can revert to the stock recovery by just restarting the phone. Anyway, as I've read on other sites, it looks like that script is there only if your latest update was recieved via OTA update, and not the Onetouch update utility.

On the other hand, if you flash a custom recovery and want to keep it, you just have to rename or delete (I suggest you to rename it, to recover it in the future, if needed) the "recovery-from-boot.p" script, so you'll keep your custom recovery.

Anyway, I have both the CWM recovery and the stock recovery hosted on my Mediafire account. These are the links, in case you wanna give it a try:

CWM Recovery: http://www.mediafire.com/?v7wfjr6v1t7b0z5

Stock Recovery: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?z896dq8ezdwaua7

If you try it, report here if you succeed.

Finally, I've managed to create a script that can make backups compatible with CWMR. Last night I made a backup, wiped data on my phone and after rebooting it and effectively checking my data had been erased, I was able to restore my backup from recovery.

To keep this thread cleaner and put all the intructions for rooting, flashing CWMR, and performing usable backups, into the same place, I've just opened a new thread on the development section. Here's the link:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=35429358