BLU Life One X 2016

[rogersa2k]

My goal for this thread is to gather as much info for the BLU Life One X 2016.

Specs

• Screen: 5.2", 1080 x 1920 pixels, ~424 ppi, Gorilla Glass 3
• Memory: 2 GB RAM, 16 GB storage, microSD slot (up to 64GB)
• Camera: 13 MP rear, 5 MP front, LED flash front & rear, [email protected] video
• Battery: Li-Ion 2900 mAh
• Chipset: Mediatek MT6753
• CPU: Octa-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A53
• GPU: Mali-T720
• Model: L0070UU

Links & Other General Resources

• BLU Products
• Amazon: Black - White
• GSMArena
• BLU Products Development Team (Google+)
• L0070UU User Manual
• ClanGSM claim to have firmware files for our phone but it would cost $$$ to download: / mnt / data / ftp / Flashes / BLU / Life One X / L0070UU /

Similar Phones

• Wiko Fever (GSMArena)
• Micromax Canvas 5 (GSMArena)
• XOLO Black 1X (GSMArena)
• Elephone P8000 (CM12.1) and P6000 Pro
• Quantum Go 4G (PhoneMore)

 

[rogersa2k]

WARNING: *I* cannot be held responsible for anything *you* do to *your* phone!


Note: While I use a variety of operating systems on a regular basis everything here will be Windows 10 focused.

ADB & Fastboot
Before doing most things mentioned below you will need "adb" and "fastboot" installed. Two of your options are to install the Android SDK Tools or the Minimal ADB and Fastboot tool. If you are somewhat new to this I highly recommend the second one. Go here, download the latest version (1.3.1 as of this writing), and install it. When setup is complete you should have an icon for the Minimal ADB and Fastboot tool.

Note: I highly recommend you add "C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot" to your PATH variable in Windows. This way you can open a Command Prompt anywhere and use adb or fastboot.


Drivers
I recently setup a 5th gen Kindle Fire 7" tablet on my Windows 10 desktop. Because the BLU Life One X 2016 and the Kindle Fire are similar enough it just worked. To use the Amazon drivers you can find them on this page: https://developer.amazon.com/public...etting-up-your-kindle-fire-tablet-for-testing. The direct link is https://s3.amazonaws.com/android-sdk-manager/redist/kindle_fire_usb_driver.zip. Extract the zip file and then run KindleDrivers.exe.


Unlock Bootloader, Install Custom Recovery, and Install Root
Note #1: All credit for this guide goes to manos78's post for rooting the Wiko Fever!!! You can check it out here.
Note #2: I use Windows 10 on every PC I own. I assume Windows 7 and 8 should work just fine but cannot test that.
Note #3: The following assumes you have setup ADB and the proper drivers before beginning. I will try to detail that at a future time.
Note #4: Your phone will be completely erased. If there is anything you want to save do so beforehand.

1) Unlock Bootloader

1. Power on the phone and skip through all of the setup options
2. Go to Settings -> About device
3. Tap Build number five times to enable Developer options
4. Go to Settings -> Developer options
5. Enable OEM unlocking
6. Enable USB debugging
7. Plug the phone in to your PC and authorize it
8. Open a Command Prompt
9. Type adb reboot-bootloader
10. The phone should reboot and in a very tiny font at the bottom you should see => FASTBOOT mode
11. Type fastboot devices to verify that your PC sees it correctly
12. Type fastboot oem unlock
13. Press Volume Up to say Yes and wait for this to finish
14. Type fastboot getvar all and look for (bootloader) unlocked: yes
15. Type fastboot reboot
16. You should see your phone reboot a couple times as it erases the phone

2) Install Custom Recovery

Note #1: We will flash a version of CWM or TWRP that was built for a Wiko Fever as they appear to be fully compatible with the BLU Life One X 2016. Go to this thread and download the latest CWM (http://www.sendspace.com/file/4g87bj) or TWRP (http://www.sendspace.com/file/y4jel8). Extract the img file. Again, many thanks to manos78 for CWM and hanuma for TWRP!!!

1. Power on the phone
2. You can configure your phone now or just skip through all of the setup options and do that later
3. Go to Settings -> About device
4. Tap Build number five times to enable Developer options
5. Go to Settings -> Developer options
6. Enable OEM unlocking
7. Enable USB debugging
8. Plug the phone in to your PC and authorize it
9. Open a Command Prompt to wherever you extracted the .img file
10. Type adb reboot-bootloader
11. The phone should reboot and in a very tiny font at the bottom you should see => FASTBOOT mode
12. Type fastboot devices to verify that your PC sees it correctly
13. For CWM type fastboot flash recovery recovery-custom-wiko-fever.img or for TWRP type fastboot flash recovery TWRP_WikoFever_2.8.7.0.img
14. Type fastboot reboot
    
    Note: If your phone does not reboot then just hold the power button until it turns off. Hold the power button again until it turns back on.

3) Install Root

Note: While there are newer beta versions of the SuperSU app I am not sure if they will work properly on our stock rom. You can test one of those out and report back but I would recommend you do a full backup beforehand.

1. Download BETA-SuperSU-v2.52.zip and save it to the phone's internal memory or an inserted microSD card
2. Plug the phone in to your PC
3. Open a Command Prompt
4. Type adb reboot recovery
5. You should now be in CWM. Go to Install zip, find BETA-SuperSU-v2.52.zip, and install it
6. When it finishes go to Go Back -> Reboot Phone -> No
7. Once the phone boots up launch SuperSU and configure it as you like

Xposed

1. Download the latest version of Xposed for sdk22 and arm64 from here. As of this writing it is xposed-v79-sdk22-arm64.zip. Also download XposedInstaller_3.0_alpha4.apk and xposed-uninstaller-20150831-arm64.zip (just in case).
2. Reboot into CWM or TWRP and do a full backup
3. Install xposed-v79-sdk22-arm64.zip and then reboot
4. Cross your fingers and hopefully your phone will start properly. Mine rebooted like five times during the "Android is starting" step but finally finished.
5. Once your phone boots up install XposedInstaller_3.0_alpha4.apk

ViPER4Android

ViPER4Android adds audio effects to your Android device and is beloved by many. First we will install SELinuxModeChanger and then ViPER4Android. Special thanks to Tha Watcher for his original write-up here.

1) SELinuxModeChanger

1. Go to the SELinuxModeChanger page on F-Droid, download the latest version (3.2 as of this writing) or use this direct link, and save it to your Desktop
2. Launch Minimal ADB and Fastboot and type adb install %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\com.mrbimc.selinux_42.apk
3. On the phone you may see a prompt saying Installation Blocked. If so, click the little triangle and tap Install anyway (unsafe). If you see a failure just do it again and it should work.
4. Launch the SELinuxModeChanger app on your phone, grant it root permissions, and click Permissive

Note: If you have any issues with SELinuxModeChanger then head over to the XDA thread.

2) ViPER4Android

• Download the latest version in zip format from here and extract ViPER4Android_FX_A4.x.apk to your Desktop
• Launch Minimal ADB and Fastboot and type adb install %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\ViPER4Android_FX_A4.x.apk
• Launch the ViPER4Android app on your phone, click Yes when prompted, click Super Audio Quality, and then click OK
• Grant root access when prompted
• Click OK
• Reboot your phone

Note: Once your phone reboots you can start configuring ViPER4Android. I cannot really help much with that but feel free to look over the official XDA thread or their Settings Explained page on the official website.


Engineering Mode
Note: If I were you I would not change anything unless you absolutely know what you are doing!

I cannot seem to get the phone codes to work. You can install the MTK Engineering Mode app from the Google Play Store.

WARNING: *I* cannot be held responsible for anything *you* do to *your* phone!

 

[rogersa2k]

Frequently Asked Questions

WARNING: *I* cannot be held responsible for anything *you* do to *your* phone!


MTK Droid Tool


MTK SP Flash Tool

Latest Version: 5.1548.00.000


WARNING: *I* cannot be held responsible for anything *you* do to *your* phone!

 

[rogersa2k]

WARNING: *I* cannot be held responsible for anything *you* do to *your* phone!


Q: How can I tell if my model is the BLU Life One X 2016?
A: Go here and see if it is the same model.

Q: When I try to use adb root I get the following error: adbd cannot run as root in production builds
A: You can purchase and install [root] adbd Insecure by Chainfire. Once installed, launch the app, grant it root access, and then check Enable insecure adbd and Enable at boot

Q: How do I (re)mount /system as read-write?
A: Install [root] adbd Insecure as mentioned above, open a Command Prompt, type adb root, and then adb remount rw

Q: How can I disable the audio that plays when starting up or shutting down my phone?
A: Using a file explorer with root access, or an adb shell, delete or rename (with .bak at the end) /system/media/bootaudio.mp3 and /system/media/shutaudio.mp3 and then reboot your phone.


WARNING: *I* cannot be held responsible for anything *you* do to *your* phone!

 

[rogersa2k]

Reserved #4

 

[SCrid2000]

Have you tried porting the Elephone rom for the Blu? They both have a MT6753, so from what I understand from reading on XDA it might work. You might need to make changes suggested at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2701283.

 

[jmcneil919]

Has anyone been brave enough to try this yet?

---------- Post added at 02:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:12 AM ----------

I'm receiving my phone tomorrow so i might be the guinea pig...lol

 

[hottcakes]

Did this last night on my phone. Most difficult part for myself was finding the correct drivers as this is my first mediatek device. Ended up being my fifth attempt that had the correct set.
After I had the drivers it was extremely similar to a nexus process.

 

[jmcneil919]

Do you have a link to the drivers

Sent from my 6045X using Tapatalk

 

[hottcakes]

I must inform you that I am still running good ol' Windows 7 so there's that.
All credit on my end comes from [Tutorial] Flash/Root/update elephone P8000 by vetkak and the first step with the link. Its not a real link, but a copy and past of the mega.co link had the proper drivers.
If you're on Windows 10 there is a separate thread out there somewhere with instructions for that.

 

[jmcneil919]

OK thanks

Sent from my 6045X using Tapatalk

 

[hottcakes]

I feel like it needs mention that after flashing the recovery (I used the TWRP flavor) that after the fastboot command you need to immediately power off the phone, instead of rebooting, then do the volume up + power button press to get to the custom recovery.

 

[hottcakes]

Have you tried porting the Elephone rom for the Blu? They both have a MT6753, so from what I understand from reading on XDA it might work. You might need to make changes suggested at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2701283.

Unfortunately the guy that was bringing up the elephone p8000 has sold it and subsequently not be supporting it any longer. I'm happy enough there is custom recovery options and root. An AOSP ROM would be nice, but naturally the custom gestures would be lost.

 

[Tha Watcher]

Has anyone been brave enough to try this yet?

I did but from the original Wiko Fever thread instructions. I did this a couple of weeks before he actually posted this thread and I made my own instructions that I think are clearer and more concise than the Wiko thread; however, rogersa2k's guide is pretty thorough and easy to understand besides the following correction....

The fastboot reboot after flashing the custom recovery doesn't yield the same results, because when I did that it did NOT work! I corrected it by help from a comment by member yrude (and as hottcakes mentions above) and made my own instructions with the addition of adding the installation for Viper4Android. But I hesitate to post it on XDA as I don't want to step on any toes. However, I did post it on Google+, Amazon and GSMarena. If people want this alternate guide and notify me to post it, then I will. Otherwise, I'll keep it off XDA.

 

[clu1688]

I must inform you that I am still running good ol' Windows 7 so there's that.
All credit on my end comes from [Tutorial] Flash/Root/update elephone P8000 by vetkak and the first step with the link. Its not a real link, but a copy and past of the mega.co link had the proper drivers.
If you're on Windows 10 there is a separate thread out there somewhere with instructions for that.

I was trying to using the link to download the driver, but the mega site asked for "decryption key" before I can download. Is there a key available to share? Thanks,

 

[clu1688]

I did but from the original Wiko Fever thread instructions. I did this a couple of weeks before he actually posted this thread and I made my own instructions that I think are clearer and more concise than the Wiko thread; however, rogersa2k's guide is pretty thorough and easy to understand besides the following correction....

The fastboot reboot after flashing the custom recovery doesn't yield the same results, because when I did that it did NOT work! I corrected it by help from a comment by member yrude (and as hottcakes mentions above) and made my own instructions with the addition of adding the installation for Viper4Android. But I hesitate to post it on XDA as I don't want to step on any toes. However, I did post it on Google+, Amazon and GSMarena. If people want this alternate guide and notify me to post it, then I will. Otherwise, I'll keep it off XDA.

Pls post yours here. I saw your Amazon comment and tried to follow it. Everything seemed to work till I run "fastboot oem unlock" then the PC just displays "Waiting for device response...." and my BLOX never showed any response on screen. I suspected that I did not have the driver for this particular type cellphone device. Thanks,

 

[Tha Watcher]

Pls post yours here. I saw your Amazon comment and tried to follow it. Everything seemed to work till I run "fastboot oem unlock" then the PC just displays "Waiting for device response...." and my BLOX never showed any response on screen. I suspected that I did not have the driver for this particular type cellphone device. Thanks,

I appreciate that but the only way I'd post it in this thread is if the OP says it's fine. I do not like hijacking or taking over other people's threads.

It sounds like ADB is actually not loaded or working on your computer or otherwise you wouldn't get that message. I could be wrong, though. To test to see if it is indeed working and drivers are properly loaded, what does it respond when you type: adb devices

 

[rogersa2k]

Have you tried porting the Elephone rom for the Blu?...

Not yet, but I do plan to try to start with that. It's nice that Elephone released the source code for the P8000 so that could help as well. If I ever get to this I will need lots of help.

 

[rogersa2k]

Has anyone been brave enough to try this yet?

Everything that *I* post in the OP will be something that I tested on my own device first unless I specifically mention otherwise.

 

[rogersa2k]

I feel like it needs mention that after flashing the recovery (I used the TWRP flavor) that after the fastboot command you need to immediately power off the phone, instead of rebooting, then do the volume up + power button press to get to the custom recovery.

I will add a note about that but some of us had issues so I chose the alternate method that has worked for me the first time every time.