[GUIDE][9008][EDL|QDL][QUALCOMM ONLY] Unbrick via external sdcard (no QFIL!)

[james28909]

The OP states to use SALT for extracting for several reasons . You could try that first and if you still don't have those partitions there you can always flash any partition except cache system and userdata . But again use the SALT extracted image files for this.


Sent from my OnePlus 6T using XDA Labs

@steadfasterX ok i tried to extract with salt, but once it started to try to extract the .dz it gave me an "arb detect error". the file is "X210ULM10d_00_UCL_US_OP_0820.kdz" and the link to it is here.

also i have attached a log file as well. any insight would be very appreciated.

 

[steadfasterX]

ok, but let me say this though... i have the files from that extractor, but i also have a dump from lg up tool and used "select all". all of these files were dumped with "_COM9" appended to the file name. i removed all _COM9 from the filenames. would it be better to use salt or to use the dump from LGUP that i have?

SALT extracts in RAW so even with containing leading zeroes. This ensures a full write on the partition when flashing which is what I prefer while not 100% necessary.
SALT is also the only tool getting support until today which is one of the other reasons and ofc the extracted files will have no confusing IDs or offsets or whatever added.

anyways

use whatever works so eiter your lgup dump or the one from the windows extractor.
just ensure you flash any partition other then system, cache, userdata. then try again to boot.

@steadfasterX ok i tried to extract with salt, but once it started to try to extract the .dz it gave me an "arb detect error". the file is "X210ULM10d_00_UCL_US_OP_0820.kdz" and the link to it is here.

also i have attached a log file as well. any insight would be very appreciated.

there is an advanced menu in SALT -> debug log --> upload button.. so much easier anyways thx for your report I will take a look

.-

 

[james28909]

SALT extracts in RAW so even with containing leading zeroes. This ensures a full write on the partition when flashing which is what I prefer while not 100% necessary.
SALT is also the only tool getting support until today which is one of the other reasons and ofc the extracted files will have no confusing IDs or offsets or whatever added.

anyways

use whatever works so eiter your lgup dump or the one from the windows extractor.
just ensure you flash any partition other then system, cache, userdata. then try again to boot.



there is an advanced menu in SALT -> debug log --> upload button.. so much easier anyways thx for your report I will take a look

.-

i have flashed everything but those partitions (system, cache, userdata) and still no response from the phone at all. though yesterday i did notice an error in shell history i wasnt aware of until the last time i flashed. seems i am getting an i/o error after syncing the sdcard and removing it. upon re-inserting it i run the ls -la /dev/disk/by-partlabel/sdb and it tells me errors about sdb not found, but i can do dmesg and i am able to see the partitions and such. i am not sure how i missed this the other times but i am positive it has something to do with running fwul directly from the iso possibly. so what i am doing now is partitioning and installing full ubuntu and will try again. i will also install salt and all its dependencies for further testing if you find a work around/fix for my kdz because i would rather use this tbh .

one thing i am unsure of is, what specifically handles the phones ability to respond to button touches at boot? is that aboot or boot? is the boot file what is known as bootloader? i almost feel like i am going at this blindly some what haha. if i plug the usb in with the sdcard the phone is still dead and not even recognized in device manager. if i remove the battery while the sdcard and usb are in i get a battery screen with a question mark in the battery. if i remove the sdcard and plug up the usb cable is shows as "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008". im just wondering if the aboot or boot are "proper" OR since it had been flashed and bricked, if some hardware security feature has been tripped and not allowing it to boot anymore? i guess what i need to do is find a article on all the files that handle bootup and such because my phone is dead pretty much.

 

[steadfasterX]

[....] seems i am getting an i/o error after syncing the sdcard and removing it. upon re-inserting it i run the ls -la /dev/disk/by-partlabel/sdb and it tells me errors about sdb not found, but i can do dmesg and i am able to see the partitions and such.

sdb?? that is not a valid partition for your device (would be only valid if you have an UFS device which your isn't - AFAIK).
If you flash on sdb this will likely destroy a partition on your computer and not on the sdcard.
The other option is that the flashing of the GPT was not successful!

one thing i am unsure of is, what specifically handles the phones ability to respond to button touches at boot? is that aboot or boot? is the boot file what is known as bootloader? i almost feel like i am going at this blindly some what haha. if i plug the usb in with the sdcard the phone is still dead and not even recognized in device manager. if i remove the battery while the sdcard and usb are in i get a battery screen with a question mark in the battery. if i remove the sdcard and plug up the usb cable is shows as "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008". im just wondering if the aboot or boot are "proper" OR since it had been flashed and bricked, if some hardware security feature has been tripped and not allowing it to boot anymore? i guess what i need to do is find a article on all the files that handle bootup and such because my phone is dead pretty much.

A good first start on this is: https://lineageos.org/engineering/Qualcomm-Firmware/
You will find yourself in the "2013-2016 Era"

.-

 

[james28909]

sdb?? that is not a valid partition for your device (would be only valid if you have an UFS device which your isn't - AFAIK).
If you flash on sdb this will likely destroy a partition on your computer and not on the sdcard.
The other option is that the flashing of the GPT was not successful!



A good first start on this is: https://lineageos.org/engineering/Qualcomm-Firmware/
You will find yourself in the "2013-2016 Era"

.-

i have tried everything. i successfully write and sync all data except those three files in the OP, ive also wrote and synced all files from my LGUP full dump which was from the official 10d kdz and i have wrote and synced all files from the official UCL region 10d kdz file itself, which is what it was on before i tried to install a prerooted firmware helping someone test.

there has to be some other file/s i am missing because when write and sync all files from the 10d nougat kdz, i instert the micro sd card and i plug up the phone to the usb cable. i dont get any response at all. but if i take the battery out with the usb and micro sd card in i get a battery screen that has a question mark. furthermore, i looked at the link you provided and see that at 2013-2016 era it says the power button loads PBL->SBL1 which then allows DL mode. i think somehow what was overwritten on my phone might have something to do with the power button loading PBL or PBL itself. is PBL apart of the KDZ? dd if=PrimaryGPT of=dev/sdb does not write a PBT partition so i guess as of right now i am screwed. i am downloading the latest oreo update and going to try to extract it with an extractor, it would be cool if SALT worked for it. if i can help get salt working for my firmwares in anyway please advise me on how to do so.

EDIT: TL;DR - i think something before SBL is not loading or is wrong. the phone was working great until i flashed the rom. i am not 100% sure that flashing a patched oreo img can affect pre SBL loading. if so, i have tried everything except the very latest official oreo kdz which i am downloading now.

 

[steadfasterX]

i have tried everything. i successfully write and sync all data except those three files in the OP, ive also wrote and synced all files from my LGUP full dump which was from the official 10d kdz and i have wrote and synced all files from the official UCL region 10d kdz file itself, which is what it was on before i tried to install a prerooted firmware helping someone test.

there has to be some other file/s i am missing because when write and sync all files from the 10d nougat kdz, i instert the micro sd card and i plug up the phone to the usb cable. i dont get any response at all. but if i take the battery out with the usb and micro sd card in i get a battery screen that has a question mark. furthermore, i looked at the link you provided and see that at 2013-2016 era it says the power button loads PBL->SBL1 which then allows DL mode. i think somehow what was overwritten on my phone might have something to do with the power button loading PBL or PBL itself. is PBL apart of the KDZ? dd if=PrimaryGPT of=dev/sdb does not write a PBT partition so i guess as of right now i am screwed. i am downloading the latest oreo update and going to try to extract it with an extractor, it would be cool if SALT worked for it. if i can help get salt working for my firmwares in anyway please advise me on how to do so.

EDIT: TL;DR - i think something before SBL is not loading or is wrong. the phone was working great until i flashed the rom. i am not 100% sure that flashing a patched oreo img can affect pre SBL loading. if so, i have tried everything except the very latest official oreo kdz which i am downloading now.

1. PBL is a read only (without special hardware and software) part and so cannot be flashed or screwed
2. It's all about ARB so the question is what was your ARB before taken the wrong flash which bricked it?
3. If it does not even vibrate when powering on with the sdcard in the GPT is not accepted so show the partition listing of your sdcard after you flashed the gpt on it
4. It's very hard to really brick a qcom device . There is usually qfil and ofc infinity or zbox and such which will work in 8 of 10 times but the sdcard should do as well

@steadfasterX ok i tried to extract with salt, but once it started to try to extract the .dz it gave me an "arb detect error". the file is "X210ULM10d_00_UCL_US_OP_0820.kdz" and the link to it is here.

also i have attached a log file as well. any insight would be very appreciated.

ok just tried here and I can extract that KDZ just fine with SALT.
The problem on your site is "/media/sf_dump/New folder/X210ULM10d_00_UCL_US_OP_0820.kdz" which contains a folder with a space within.
This has been fixed in the develop channel of SALT (see the SALT FAQ) since https://github.com/steadfasterX/SALT/commit/4b047b17adf623854b7affe76f7c633e500a172e but if you do not want to switch to develop you can simple use file and folder names without a space within and it should just work.



Sent from my OnePlus 6T using XDA Labs

 

[james28909]

1. PBL is a read only (without special hardware and software) part and so cannot be flashed or screwed
2. It's all about ARB so the question is what was your ARB before taken the wrong flash which bricked it?
3. If it does not even vibrate when powering on with the sdcard in the GPT is not accepted so show the partition listing of your sdcard after you flashed the gpt on it
4. It's very hard to really brick a qcom device . There is usually qfil and ofc infinity or zbox and such which will work in 8 of 10 times but the sdcard should do as well




ok just tried here and I can extract that KDZ just fine with SALT.
The problem on your site is "/media/sf_dump/New folder/X210ULM10d_00_UCL_US_OP_0820.kdz" which contains a folder with a space within.
This has been fixed in the develop channel of SALT (see the SALT FAQ) since https://github.com/steadfasterX/SALT/commit/4b047b17adf623854b7affe76f7c633e500a172e but if you do not want to switch to develop you can simple use file and folder names without a space within and it should just work.



Sent from my OnePlus 6T using XDA Labs

first off, i just want to thank you for taking the time to reply back to me, i know your probably busy doing other more important things.

as you already can tell i am pretty new to the whole cell phone flashing thing. i have plenty of experience with hardware flashing a ps3 and even have wrote my own tools for decrypting sony SCE files. the bad parts is, the test zip was from a site developer, i wont name any names, but the phone was flashed and it bricked and we tried a few different things to get it to boot to download mode without success. last night, i was so pissed that i deleted the developers test zip so i do not have it anymore, and the developer has ceased contact with me as well for some reason. EDIT: just found out that the sd card i had the developers test zip on is also trashed, i cant even get it to recognize in ubuntu or windows, so i cant get the devs firmware zip that way either.

the firmware that was on the phone itself before i flashed was nougat 10d. the zip i flashed it with was an oreo pre-rooted firmware, i am not positive what base release it was though, again if the developer would atleast message me and let me know what files his firmware flashed and what base firmware it was, then i would more than likely be in a better position.

I did go to the developer branch (from within SALT itself) and tried too, it still gave me the same error. i have done my fair share of programming and was about certain that the file path was the problem since it had a space in it, but i figured that you and your developers had encountered that and dealt with it already. that is the main reason i even said anything. EDIT2: i will def update my dev SALT and retry because i am having to go back and forth from windows to ubuntu over and over.

i am starting to think it is a partition related problem myself as well. when i write the partition table with "dd if=PrimaryGPT of=/dev/sdb" then "sync" then i "eject /dev/sdb" and unplug and replug it. when i am verifying the partition table with "ls -la /dev/disk/by-partlabel/sbl1" it only lists one partition, which is "../../sdb6". BUT if i send the command as "ls -la /dev/disk/by-partlabel" i see all the partitions. and also dmesg shows all the partitions. so i think you are correct that i am writing the gpt table incorrectly. should i be writing it to "/dev/sdb0"? i have not wrote system, cache or userdata to the sd card. i have tried to write boot to it though.

as for the GPT partition, it should be the same as 10d's PrimaryGPT partition data. everytime i have a failed attempt, i use dd to zero the drive with "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512 status=progress". then i start all the way over.

again, i want to thank you for responding with great information, everytime you reply to me i learn more about what i am trying to do. also if i can be any more clear or give any more information just let me know. one more thing i want to know is, does it matter the order in which i write to the sd card at all? seems that the order would not matter at all would it? any insight would be appreciated.


EDIT3: let me update this and let you know the complete process i went through.

1. started with official nougat 7.1.2 on my phone.
2. installed twrp and rooted originally with supersu (months ago)
3. noticed a new oreo update was available on lg website so i started searching best way to update.
4. ended up installing AR prerooted oreo, which is still available for download at android file host. it worked just fine, was rooted with magisk.
5. seen a developer (not the developer of AR i do not think?) was working on a new oreo based prerooted firmware for my specific device, and asked to test it.
6. flashed first zip and phone went into bootloop with something along the lines of it failing a check and it wont boot.
7.used lgup tool and installed 10d firmware in DL mode(was unaware that i needed to worry about any kind of arb etc), but this got my phone back booting and working though no more twrp AND OEM unlock was greyed out and said was already unlocked (dont know if this makes a difference or not?)
8. installed twrp on official 10d but noticed it was being zeroed on boot and had android bot with "no command" upon entering recovery. reflashing twrp from fastboot got twrp back but again after rebooting it went back to "no command" error.
9. after reinstall twrp, developer sends the next test file and i flash it while in twrp and phone is toast upon reboot. the end

i do not know what all was written to the device during the install of the last firmware, the developer will not contact me and tell me anything. i think it was for an aristo 2 plus, he said it was the same hardware, but evidentally something is different about them lol. to me it is pretty messed up to brick a device then go silent. i mean he did try to send me an image to try and fix it. i used win32image tool to write it to my sd card but it seemed it didnt work. i do still have this image, maybe it has the gpt data i need. and i realize it was a huge risk doing this, but for the developer to not even tell me the files that were updated or give me any information on the firmware i installed is just weird... one thing he said was "were going to convert your phone to another model and root it the convert it back. and that was the firmware that bricked it. and no word about any of it from the developer.

sorry for the long post. if i can remember anything ill update it though
also on ubuntu 18.04, i cannot launch SALT from desktop icon, i either have to open terminal on desktop and use "bash SALT.desktop" or i must go to the SALT folder on the desktop with terminal and run the executable or i have to go to usr/share/applications/SALT and THEN i can click the icon in /usr/share/applications/ and that will start.

 

[james28909]

sorry, mistake post

 

[steadfasterX]

as you already can tell i am pretty new to the whole cell phone flashing thing. i have plenty of experience with hardware flashing a ps3 and even have wrote my own tools for decrypting sony SCE files. the bad parts is, the test zip was from a site developer, i wont name any names, but the phone was flashed and it bricked and we tried a few different things to get it to boot to download mode without success. last night, i was so pissed that i deleted the developers test zip so i do not have it anymore, and the developer has ceased contact with me as well for some reason. EDIT: just found out that the sd card i had the developers test zip on is also trashed, i cant even get it to recognize in ubuntu or windows, so i cant get the devs firmware zip that way either.

THIS it the worst part of your journey. The fact that the "dev" is not responding AND you lost the file you flashed makes it impossible to find out (and therefore provide a fix) what has happened to your phone.

I did go to the developer branch (from within SALT itself) and tried too, it still gave me the same error.

When you switched as described in the SALT faq! to the development chan provide a new SALT log (advanced menu! -> debug log-> upload button)

i am starting to think it is a partition related problem myself as well. when i write the partition table with "dd if=PrimaryGPT of=/dev/sdb" then "sync" then i "eject /dev/sdb" and unplug and replug it. when i am verifying the partition table with "ls -la /dev/disk/by-partlabel/sbl1" it only lists one partition, which is "../../sdb6". BUT if i send the command as "ls -la /dev/disk/by-partlabel" i see all the partitions.

THIS is perfectly fine. partlabels are always a symlink to a real device. so the GPT get flashed fine.

one more thing i want to know is, does it matter the order in which i write to the sd card at all? seems that the order would not matter at all would it? any insight would be appreciated.

no that does not matter - at least when it comes to the partitions (only important thing is flashing the GPT first but you had done that successful )

EDIT3: let me update this and let you know the complete process i went through.
...
9. after reinstall twrp, developer sends the next test file and i flash it while in twrp and phone is toast upon reboot. the end

as said above: without that zip file of step 9.. impossible to say what had happened.

i do not know what all was written to the device during the install of the last firmware, the developer will not contact me and tell me anything. i think it was for an aristo 2 plus, he said it was the same hardware, but evidentally something is different about them lol.

Some so called "devs" are just ppl let other users doing risky things without warning them at least. I mean sometimes it can happen that you do not know what happens (I had such a thing shortly) and then hiding is absolutely bad . at least he should share that zip again.

to me it is pretty messed up to brick a device then go silent. i mean he did try to send me an image to try and fix it. i used win32image tool to write it to my sd card but it seemed it didnt work. i do still have this image, maybe it has the gpt data i need.

After reading through your little roman here I do not think it is GPT related. your GPT has been flashed fine because otherwise you wouldn't see anything in the partlabel path.
whats the size of your sdcard btw? and whats the siize of the internal flash storage of your device? the sdcard HAS TO be bigger then the internal storage otherwise the GPT and so all partitions get ignored which would also explain your issue.

So if you have a real fast sdcard and it is bigger then the internal storage it will only leave ARB as the issue IMHO.
IF it is an ARB issue you need to have a firmware which is 100% compatible with your phone model and it must have the same ARB level (which we do not know).
afaik your phone model has usually an ARB of 0 so you would not be able to flash a firmware of your real model again - as said IF it is an ARB issue. The only way fixing that one would be to find a variant of your model (usually all USA models make heavy use of ARBs) and trying those. but again I would do that ONLY when you know the flashed ARB level.

... and ofc first of all check sdcard speed and size

Note:
and thx being such informative . often ppl just write HELP this does not work and that's it. so keeping it up that way
just.. well maybe try to bundle all questions at the end when writing such long posts would make it easier to answer

.-

 

[james28909]

to answer your questions, it is a lg k8+ 2018 model. it has 16gb built in, 2gb of ram and has 8917 snapdragon 425 chipset. the micro sd card i have is a class 4 32gb and it says on the package it is 98MB/s which is only short bursts though, in all actuality i have only been able to write at 14-15mb/s effectively.

anyways... the funny part is, with the usb cable plugged in and no battery or sdcard installed i dont get anything on the screen.

if i put the sdcard in and leave out the battery... when i plug up the usb cable i get a battery image with a question mark inside the battery so it is showing signs of life some what, but buttons are non responsive and i think thats because i have the wrong file/s on the sdcard. apparently whatever file that handle that battery not found image.. are the proper file lol but i think that is the same file for all the firmwares i have tried because i noticed that usually that shows when i leave the battery out with sdcard and usb plugged in no mattery if i use 10c or 10d or oreo releases etc.

i already get the qualcomm 9008 in device manager as well without having to press any buttons. but device does not get recognized by programs like lg up anymore. once i got it to be recognized as "unknown" in lg up on COMxx. but every other thing i have tried i was scared to because i didnt think i had the right msm8917 for my particular device... i mean the phone was only 120 bucks when i bought it brand new. was a great phone though.

will the mbm8917 files for other models like xiaomi or lenovo work for this one as long as they were 8917? i mean it is the same chip set after all but maybe they are loaded with different asm code or something????

is there a way i can validate the partition data with the file to make sure it is not corrupted during the writing process somehow? that is one other thing i wondered about, and do not have another sd card that is big enough to use. i have one on the way from ebay though, a class 10 32gb one. i would have ordered a 64gb but my phone features specifically say only 32gb are supported on the website.

is there anything wrong with trying to write userdata/cache/system to the partitions? i mean what could go wrong if i tried? because i have wanted to try that as well but been fearful since you said dont try to.

how would i go about finding out if this model has arb? i mean i did flash ar prerooted oreo firmware and then soft bricked on test flash 1 and then installed official 10d nougat. wouldnt that remove any speculation of arb?

thanks for answering these questions because i am def learning more talking to you than reading random information from others. i have a better grasp on whats going on now and feel much more comfortable. i am positive it is just the wrong files on my sd card.

one other thing is, i was told before flashing the flash.zip that bricked me "were going to convert your phone over to a different model and then root it and convert it back." so i think it is possible that the files that were flashed( possibly boot, aboot, sbl1 etc maybe???) are from a different very similar cv1 device. so the question is, do you think i could possibly try to boot it with aristo 2 plus files on the sd card? if that worked i could then flash the correct files back to my phone (which would rebrick it) then add my models files to sd card and unbrick it and be back at square one. this is total speculation though but do you think there is a chance that would work possibly? like even a slight chance it MIGHT work and i will be downloading those files so quick lol...

again thanks for sticking with me. you are a true warrior

 

[steadfasterX]

to answer your questions, it is a lg k8+ 2018 model. it has 16gb built in, 2gb of ram and has 8917 snapdragon 425 chipset. the micro sd card i have is a class 4 32gb and it says on the package it is 98MB/s which is only short bursts though, in all actuality i have only been able to write at 14-15mb/s effectively.

ok so the size is not the issue here but the speed can. I totally forget about that one (sorry) and added it to the OP now:

4) Another important requirement for that external sdcard is: speed! If you want to ensure that you do not struggle ensure it is at least a class 10 card with UHS. It MIGHT work without UHS and it MIGHT work even on slower cards down to class 4 but when the storage is too slow the device rejects to boot from it as it ran into timeouts and so marking the sdcard as "not good enough" to boot from it.
Of course you can first try a lower speed sdcard but if you encounter issues here then it is likely related to the speed of the sdcard.

Still no guarantee that it will work then but I know at least that this is a valid possible issue when booting from the external sdcard.
but - reading through your newest post again and I do not think that this is necessarily your issue. it is 99% an ARB one.

anyways... the funny part is, with the usb cable plugged in and no battery or sdcard installed i dont get anything on the screen.

if i put the sdcard in and leave out the battery... when i plug up the usb cable i get a battery image with a question mark inside the battery so it is showing signs of life some what, but buttons are non responsive and i think thats because i have the wrong file/s on the sdcard. apparently whatever file that handle that battery not found image.. are the proper file lol but i think that is the same file for all the firmwares i have tried because i noticed that usually that shows when i leave the battery out with sdcard and usb plugged in no mattery if i use 10c or 10d or oreo releases etc.

what u see there is just a picture from a special partition which will be read even when your ARB checks failing for the regular boot. again I bet my complete house that your issue is an ARB one.
so yea you are using the wrong files but not bc nougat or oreo or such - its the ARB kicking in. The fact you can see that pic just means that the partition which contains that image gets read fine. It does not tell u the files are valid for booting.

i already get the qualcomm 9008 in device manager as well without having to press any buttons. but device does not get recognized by programs like lg up anymore. once i got it to be recognized as "unknown" in lg up on COMxx. but every other thing i have tried i was scared to because i didnt think i had the right msm8917 for my particular device... i mean the phone was only 120 bucks when i bought it brand new. was a great phone though.

the QDL mode can (as said) not be read / write by the standard tools. you would need QFIL (or a box like medusa, infinity, octoplus ,...) for that and a matching and valid firehose for your cpu SoC. I don't know if that exists for your model though. and as said this alone will not fix qFuses which cannot be reverted (so ARB) and you would still need to know what your ARB state is to know what the correct files are which you need to flash.

will the mbm8917 files for other models like xiaomi or lenovo work for this one as long as they were 8917? i mean it is the same chip set after all but maybe they are loaded with different asm code or something????

HELL NO! - as said - even between model variants of the same base model it might not work. This has nothing to do with the ARB this time but with signature validation. a device has one ore more Certificate Authorities (CA) which it trusts for. Lenovo will only boot firmware by lenovo and even more only that ones for the specific model. same for LG. on the G4 i.e. we have 11 model variants and some of them accepts other firmwares from other devices and some not (e.g g4 h818 can flash g4 h815 firmware but not from g4 ls991 or g4 h810). That is due to the fact that not every device has the same CA installed (on the READ-ONLY part of the device). so no don't even think about it..

is there a way i can validate the partition data with the file to make sure it is not corrupted during the writing process somehow? that is one other thing i wondered about, and do not have another sd card that is big enough to use. i have one on the way from ebay though, a class 10 32gb one. i would have ordered a 64gb but my phone features specifically say only 32gb are supported on the website.

Well that is HARD as long as you do not use SALT to extract your KDZ. SALT extracts the image files RAW and that means it will ensure everything is 100% as it should be. Extracing with other tools leads to smaller image files but then there is no (easy) way to validate flashing.
When you extract your files with SALT (again I do not saw any debug log from the advanced menu while you are on the SALT develop channel) then you CAN validate flashing by using md5sum on both the file and the flashed partlable path.

is there anything wrong with trying to write userdata/cache/system to the partitions? i mean what could go wrong if i tried? because i have wanted to try that as well but been fearful since you said dont try to.

it will be ignored by the sdcard boot
it costs time to flash

That's all. You can not damage anything if you flash those though so you can try if you like.

how would i go about finding out if this model has arb? i mean i did flash ar prerooted oreo firmware and then soft bricked on test flash 1 and then installed official 10d nougat. wouldnt that remove any speculation of arb?

well I answered very carefully and dedicated to your process because all steps up to and including 8 does not matter. why? because you were always able to recover and boot afterwards.
that means no ARB fuse has been blown and so all was fine. You could have done billions of flashing like that without any harm. The ONLY relevant part here is step 9 (don't get me wrong it was correct to write down the whole process though) as that one is the step where the bad thing happened.
you have to be able to BOOT your device to find out the ARB. it is a qfuse which can be read by SALT but for this the device must be able to boot to download mode (or android )

i am positive it is just the wrong files on my sd card.

as said - yes but not what you are still referring to. the only reason why valid files are not allowing you to boot is ARB. I cannot say it often enough it seems

one other thing is, i was told before flashing the flash.zip that bricked me "were going to convert your phone over to a different model and then root it and convert it back."

and BAM and that added the ,99 of my 99,99% assumption that it blown a qFuse on yours. if he would at least said WHICH model..

so i think it is possible that the files that were flashed( possibly boot, aboot, sbl1 etc maybe???) are from a different very similar cv1 device. so the question is, do you think i could possibly try to boot it with aristo 2 plus files on the sd card? if that worked i could then flash the correct files back to my phone (which would rebrick it) then add my models files to sd card and unbrick it and be back at square one. this is total speculation though but do you think there is a chance that would work possibly? like even a slight chance it MIGHT work and i will be downloading those files so quick lol...

Aristo is not LG. Read above the thing about signing Certificate Authorities and abandon that idea. REALLY you can make things even MORE WORSE when flashing those. why? bc you can increase the ARB level even higher or - if it is the 0,01 % chance that it is NOT the ARB flashing firmwares with an ARB will increase the ARB.

IF you REALLY want to go that way and have nothing to loose (so fully accepting never getting the device back to a whatever working state) then you need first of all luck.
LG K8+ (2018) is also known as LG K8 Plus (2018), LG LM-X210UKM, LG X210ULM. So maybe you find a kdz with an ARB level higher then 0 (SALT will tell you when opening the KDZ). I would start with level 1 if you have the choice. you cannot go back to lower versions so..

If there are no firmwares with an ARB >0 then your only chance is to find a compatible other firmware (HAS TO be a LG one) from the same time of your released phone model or maybe a bit sooner or later but having an ARB level of 1.

The chance of getting that back to a working state that way will require a LOT of work and a LOT of time for downloading KDZs to find a proper one plus if you found one flashing it. The best of all: your chance that it then let you boot that one due to the signature checking is around 10% if not lower. Dunno if you think that's worth it. You can at least increase your chances if we would know which files he send to you but .. yea.

.-

 

[james28909]

@steadfasterX wow you are like an information database haha. thanks again.

ok, i had come to the conclusion, as well, that it is an arb issue and/or sig check verification failure. the ps3's were notorious for that and sig checks had to be patched out to allow booting of modified firmwares. since pbl sig checks sbl which checks aboop etc. i read a nice writeup - here.

also, i have went back through all of my message history and i have a little change to the flowchart of what happened/was installed. nougat 7.1.2(from factory) - > AR prerooted oreo (which worked great) -> test zip specially made for me LG k8+ oreo prerooted (made security checks fail and phone said it wasnt going to boot, was in a bootloop) -> 10d official kdz from lg website (installed using lgup, and then made a complete backup) -> TecsA2rootedOreoROMV5.zip (which hard bricked it and is still in hard brick state)

also the developer has been back in contact with me and has tried his best to help me. i want to make sure to set the story straight on that. so i rescind my statements earlier about that person (still naming no names) they seem like a good person and i am positive that they did not mean for this to happen. so much gratitude for the person atleast getting back in contact with me and trying to help.

so the last firmware that were install was TecsA2rootedOreoROMV5.zip

thanks for all your help this far into it. also, i did get on the development channel but it also have me an arb error. when i swap back over to ubuntu later this evening i will most def upload a log because i were still having issues. but i think it is my system because i cannot start SALT by double clicking the desktop icon that was made. instead i have to open terminal and type "sudo bash ./SAALT.desktop and then it works. so i am not positive if it is a pkexec issue or what, but after i do that it /seems/ to work and the gui pops up and i am able to use it, just not successfully.

again, thanks for the help this far. if i could get this SALT past the ARB error then i can go a little further and hope to find the right files i need.

EDIT: just checked ARB for the last 2 firmwares ive installed ( TecsA2rootedOreoROMV5.zip and official UCL 10d firmware/kdz) and both have "ARB00+0" (copy paste from searching in HxD) and i used this page to figure out where it was located in the kdz file - https://www.mylgphones.com/how-to-identify-qfuse-anti-rollback-version-of-lg-kdz-firmware.html. so i am beginning to think it is indeed NOT an ARB issue. in the latest kdz for my phone UCL 21a (oreo) i cant even find an 'ARB0' and only find 'ARB1' at offset 0x70B71605 in the middle of what looks to be compiled or encrypted data.

EDIT2: reinstalled SALT, same error with dev version installed. say version is 3.22.11 at the top of SALT. all i did was downloaded from the git repo and rerun the install file with sudo. it did not copy the icon automatically and said it could NOT find the desktop as well. the first time i did it, it copied the shortcut to SALT just fine. and like mentioned a few posts back, i have to open tewrminal and start salt with " sudo bash SALT.desktop"

EDIT3: also, i am pretty sure the aristo 2 line of cell phones are made by LG. the phones (aristo 2 and k8 are more or less the same (cv1) devices)

EDIT4: i am now convinced it is a signature check failing. am doing more research. all firmwares i have tried, even the aristo 2 pre rooted firmware was arb0

EDIT5: after further investigation, i have disassembled the phone and have found out the model on the motherboard/main board is 'X210VPP' which is an LG Zone 4 main board. looks like it is a verizon phone at the root of it. sadly after downloading and writing the partition and data from "X210VPP10d_01_0705.kdz", it does the exact same thing, shows battery when usb and sd card is plugged in with battery out. and in order to get it to show as "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008" in device manager, i have to remove the sd card then plug it up via usb. also, i have upgraded to a class 10 32gb UHS-1 sandisk sd card. the funny thing is, the class 4 card has faster write speeds with dd. go figure. i also want to reiterate, i have went back and checked every firmware i have installed and all read ARB0. so, in theory, the qfuse for ARB should not be blown. which leads me to thinking the problem has to be a signature verification error.

EDIT6: (and will be my last edit)
I found a thread from a few years back where you were having trouble reinstalling/reusing dumps from your device. i seen in that thread there was another method to get it to load into fastboot or download, i tried without success. you were having problems just as i am. i have tried every fiurmware at the lg website, i have tried the x210vpp firmware, and i have tried using my dump from lgup on the sd card as well. all arb's that have been, or attempted to, installed have all been ARB0. there is no questioning that. i have triple checked every aboot and all are ARB0. there is somethign else going on here. the device is a us cellular lmx210ulm, but has a motherboard/main board from a verizon X120VPP. so i am sure there is some frankenstein softweare to go along with this hardware. i will likely never get it back to booting.

do you have, by chance, any other tricks you could share? like any that are not mentioned?

 

[steadfasterX]

@steadfasterX wow you are like an information database haha. thanks again.
.......

so the last firmware that were install was TecsA2rootedOreoROMV5.zip

Found that file and checked it. ARB 0. So your issue is different ..

EDIT2: reinstalled SALT, same error with dev version installed. say version is 3.22.11 at the top of SALT.

Share the log. No log no fix. Here it works perfectly ..

EDIT4: i am now convinced it is a signature check failing. am doing more research. all firmwares i have tried, even the aristo 2 pre rooted firmware was arb0
.....
i have went back and checked every firmware i have installed and all read ARB0. so, in theory, the qfuse for ARB should not be blown. which leads me to thinking the problem has to be a signature verification error.

Hm ... That makes no sense tbh.. Don't get me wrong I believe you but...

1. The fact you were able to flash kdzs before (which replace the bootloader stack) means: no special Frankenstein stack
2. You don't had flashed a higher ARB bootloader stack which means it should work by flashing a kdz
3. You can boot a sdcard flashed with ARB 0 so it is not an ARB issue and it should allow getting a working state which it doesn't

do you have, by chance, any other tricks you could share? like any that are not mentioned?

Well next week yes. We can do a remote session and connect my box with your device over the internet. That should work as it is now proven to be not an ARB issue.



Sent from my OnePlus 6T using XDA Labs

 

[james28909]

awesome. just let me know when you are ready, or hopefully we can setup a time. any help is very much appreciated, is there anything i need to do to allow the remote connection on my end?

 

[steadfasterX]

awesome. just let me know when you are ready, or hopefully we can setup a time. any help is very much appreciated, is there anything i need to do to allow the remote connection on my end?

Nope. I will share the software needed and the rest is done by team viewer . So install that one already and yea all we will do will happen on windows btw.

Best will be to use IRC then . For this re-read the OP as I have added a support / IRC topic at the end.

I will be online next week from Tuesday to Friday between 9 am and 5 pm (UTC+1) so feel free to join the IRC whenever it fits for you.



Sent from my OnePlus 6T using XDA Labs

 

[james28909]

Nope. I will share the software needed and the rest is done by team viewer . So install that one already and yea all we will do will happen on windows btw.

Best will be to use IRC then . For this re-read the OP as I have added a support / IRC topic at the end.

I will be online next week from Tuesday to Friday between 9 am and 5 pm (UTC+1) so feel free to join the IRC whenever it fits for you.



Sent from my OnePlus 6T using XDA Labs

will do. thanks again, for everything

 

[Zanaxx]

hello brothers i wish you could help me
i have a poco f1 that is completely dead (hard hard hard brick) it doesn't go to fastboot or recovery . it just n edl mod all time . i have a nand backup twrp too but my phone do not turn on as a fastboot or recovery to restore it . i read your guide and its make me really happy . now i know there's a way to back a life my phone . if you assist me and explain it for me how to do this to my xiaomi poco f1 too . i will appreciate you allllllllll my life

 

[steadfasterX]

hello brothers i wish you could help me
i have a poco f1 that is completely dead (hard hard hard brick) it doesn't go to fastboot or recovery . it just n edl mod all time . i have a nand backup twrp too but my phone do not turn on as a fastboot or recovery to restore it . i read your guide and its make me really happy . now i know there's a way to back a life my phone . if you assist me and explain it for me how to do this to my xiaomi poco f1 too . i will appreciate you allllllllll my life

It's all explained in the OP how to do it.



Sent from my OnePlus 6T using XDA Labs

 

[Zanaxx]

It's all explained in the OP how to do it.

but non of these files are for poco f1 pleaseee help me

Sent from my OnePlus 6T using XDA Labs

but non of these files are for poco f1 pleaseee help me

 

[dr.pythagora]

Will this method work for reviving Moto X Play (XT1563), dead after OTA update?
This phone has a Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 chipset.
Thanks.