Installing Custom ROM on Cubot KingKong Mini

[birdibird]

Can I install Magisk without installing first TWRP?

yes

 

[s_licciardello]

Hi, I made a Telegram group for tips and modding for Cubot KingKong Mini: @cubotmini

Someone have king mini 2?

 

[highbiker]

Hi,
I have got the Cubot King Kong Mini 2 and I can confirm that exchanging the system to LOS17.1 is possible too.
I did nearly the same as mekkadisu did (#39) for KKM1, but had to do a

fastboot reboot fastboot

before flashing the system.



This is what I did:
1.) Flash the newer OS for King Kong Mini 2 from King Kong's site using the instructions and flash tool already there (quoted from #39).

2.) Enable developer options by tapping the build number in Settings -> About Phone 7 times, Enable USB Debugging and Allow Bootloader Unlock from developer options (quoted from #39).

3.) (quoted from #39)

adb reboot bootloader

4.) once in bootloader mode (quoted from #39)

fastboot flashing unlock

5.) Then confirm unlock on the phone (quoted from #39)

6.) Note the locaton of the vbmeta.img, boot.img and recovery.img files from the stock ROM (quoted from #39)

fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

7.) Now I did not flash the system directly, but rebooted to fastboot

fastboot reboot fastboot

8.) After device is in real fastboot mode (the screen is different to that of bootloader fastboot mode)

fastboot flash system SYSTEM.img

I used the lineage-17.1-20210114-UNOFFICIAL-treble_a64_bvS.img.xz



Why did I do the "fastboot reboot fastboot":
without rebooting to fastboot but direclty flashing the system, I got this error:

fastboot flash system lineage-17.1-20210114-UNOFFICIAL-treble_a64_bvS.img
Sending sparse 'system' 1/10 (131068 KB)           OKAY [  4.898s]
Writing 'system'                                   FAILED (remote: 'This partition doesn't exist')
fastboot: error: Command failed

After rebooting to fastboot it worked:

fastboot flash system lineage-17.1-20210114-UNOFFICIAL-treble_a64_bvS.img
Resizing 'system'                                  OKAY [  0.004s]
Sending sparse 'system' 1/5 (262140 KB)            OKAY [ 19.088s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [  4.061s]
Sending sparse 'system' 2/5 (262140 KB)            OKAY [ 19.596s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [  4.036s]
Sending sparse 'system' 3/5 (262140 KB)            OKAY [ 19.943s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [  4.048s]
Sending sparse 'system' 4/5 (262140 KB)            OKAY [ 20.290s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [  3.721s]
Sending sparse 'system' 5/5 (177556 KB)            OKAY [ 13.090s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [  2.879s]
Finished. Total time: 110.773s

I'm not an expert in flashing mobile devices, so I don't know, why I had to to that. I would be very happy if an expert could reply and maybe give me a hint as to what the problem was.

 

[birdibird]

Hi,
I have got the Cubot King Kong Mini 2 and I can confirm that exchanging the system to LOS17.1 is possible too.

Great, well done!
Why did you choose 17.1 and not 18.1? In my experience it runs better.

 

[highbiker]

Great, well done!
Why did you choose 17.1 and not 18.1? In my experience it runs better.

LOS18.1 is also flashable to the KKM2. LOS17.1 was my first test. I think I will stay on LS18.1.

I was not able to install TWRP on KKM2. Maybe the original firmwares (KKM vs KKM2) are too different or I'm doing something wrong, but i face the same problem as landsome (see #155). I tried it multiple times using fastboot and SP_Flashtools, but neither worked. Always got bootloops enforcing reflashing of stock firmware via SP_Flashtools.
I used the TWRP from post #33.

My unsuccessful attempts were:

1.) via fastboot. Instead of flashing stock recovery (see 6.) in my post above #163), I flashed recovery_TWRP.img.
2.) via fastboot after "fastboot reboot fastboot" (see 7.) in my post above #163) I got this error

fastboot flash recovery recovery_TWRP.img
Sending 'recovery' (20056 KB)                      OKAY [  1.211s]
Writing 'recovery'                                 FAILED (remote: 'No such file or directory')
fastboot: error: Command failed

3.) flash via SP_FlashTools I used the following settings:

recovery_TWRP.img from post #33.
lk-modified.img: patched lk.img to avoid Orange State (Is working when flashed via fastboot)
vbmeta.img: I tried both, one from post #33 and the original one from stock firmware.

Does anyone have any hint what I might have done wrong? If not, that could indicate that TWRP is currently not working on the KKM2.

 

[landsome]

LOS18.1 is also flashable to the KKM2. LOS17.1 was my first test. I think I will stay on LS18.1.

I was not able to install TWRP on KKM2. Maybe the original firmwares (KKM vs KKM2) are too different or I'm doing something wrong, but i face the same problem as landsome (see #155). I tried it multiple times using fastboot and SP_Flashtools, but neither worked. Always got bootloops enforcing reflashing of stock firmware via SP_Flashtools.
I used the TWRP from post #33.

My unsuccessful attempts were:

1.) via fastboot. Instead of flashing stock recovery (see 6.) in my post above #163), I flashed recovery_TWRP.img.
2.) via fastboot after "fastboot reboot fastboot" (see 7.) in my post above #163) I got this error

fastboot flash recovery recovery_TWRP.img
Sending 'recovery' (20056 KB)                      OKAY [  1.211s]
Writing 'recovery'                                 FAILED (remote: 'No such file or directory')
fastboot: error: Command failed

3.) flash via SP_FlashTools I used the following settings:
View attachment 5213069
recovery_TWRP.img from post #33.
lk-modified.img: patched lk.img to avoid Orange State (Is working when flashed via fastboot)
vbmeta.img: I tried both, one from post #33 and the original one from stock firmware.

Does anyone have any hint what I might have done wrong? If not, that could indicate that TWRP is currently not working on the KKM2.

My only guess is that flashing TWRP may not work after having previously done all the other stuff (vbmeta, new OS). It does not make much sense, but given that I have given it almost two dozen tries in every single combination, I am at a loss.

 

[birdibird]

My only guess is that flashing TWRP may not work after having previously done all the other stuff (vbmeta, new OS). It does not make much sense, but given that I have given it almost two dozen tries in every single combination, I am at a loss.

Did you try to start again: flash the original Cubot rom and then TWRP?

 

[landsome]

Did you try to start again: flash the original Cubot rom and then TWRP?

About half a dozen times. Why half a dozen? Tried with SPF and alternatively fastboot, with and without the rest of the files in the ROOT folder in post #33. Always the bootloop and having to flash AOSP/LOS via fastboot to get out of it. Then back to stock ROM etc.

One thing I did not do, but I don't think I have it in me to try again, is check out some of the older stock ROMs (always tried with the latest).

 

[sawasLT]

Hello , am kinda new here and i want to instal Los to kkm2 but am getting always stuck on
=>Fastboot mode...
and i can not chane nothing , i can not fid the device via
Fastboot devices
or adb devices , i deed to hold power button for 15s
then i can start again with the adb reboot bootloader and after that move am stuck again in the bleck screen on my phone with just
=>fastboot mode...
and i can not do nothing , can some one help

 

[highbiker]

Hello , am kinda new here and i want to instal Los to kkm2 but am getting always stuck on
=>Fastboot mode...
and i can not chane nothing , i can not fid the device via
Fastboot devices
or adb devices , i deed to hold power button for 15s
then i can start again with the adb reboot bootloader and after that move am stuck again in the bleck screen on my phone with just
=>fastboot mode...
and i can not do nothing , can some one help

Hi,
it could be a driver issue. Make sure you have installed the correct drivers (see Post #122).
If this was not the problem, make sure your fastboot is of the actual version. Yout can get the actual verison from here:
https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools

 

[sawasLT]

Hi,
it could be a driver issue. Make sure you have installed the correct drivers (see Post #122).
If this was not the problem, make sure your fastboot is of the actual version. Yout can get the actual verison from here:
https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools

thx for the answer , i updated the drivers and downloaded and used the actual fastboot version but am stil getting the same
looking thru powershell it says

step1
\platform-tools> adb devices
List of devices attached
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
KKMN2201127005290 device

step2
\platform-tools> adb reboot bootloader
\platform-tools>

then it is not showing nothing more ..
the phone is schowing after reboot

=>fastboot mode ... ( on the bottom left corner )
nothing more

Device maniger says:
-adroid phone
-android adb interface

 

[highbiker]

=>fastboot mode ... ( on the bottom left corner )
nothing more

Until here everything is fine. My phone just says "fastboot mode ..." in the bottom left too, after issuing adb reboot bootloader

now your computer should list the device after issuing

fastboot devices

if not, windows is not recognizing the phone correctly, I think.

My device manager also lists the device as
Android Phone -> Android ADB Interface

At first I also had the problem that my KKM2 was not found via "fastboot devices" in windows.
You have two options now, both are working for me:
1.) Using windows.
2.) Using linux

1.) Windows
I dont know which driver package solved it, but i installed many. Here is a (I hope complete) list of drivers I installed:

• MTK USB driver v.1.0.8
• minimal_adb_fastboot_v1.4.3 (There are also drivers included. but be sure to use the current version of fastboot for flashing)
• WIN8 driver from cubot website (terminated with two failures)
• MediaTek_Preloader_USB_VCOM_Drivers_Setup_Signed

2.) Linux
If you are familiar with linux, you can try that (linux via virtual box and KKM2 over USB-3.0-Controller (xHCI) is sufficient, I also did that with my KKM2)

in linux you can install fastboot and adb via:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb
sudo apt-get install android-tools-fastboot

linux recognized my kkm2 directly after installing both. So I think additional drivers are also installed by these packages.

but sadly the fastboot version installed by android-tools-fastboot is too old for issuing

fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

so you have to update fastboot to the latest version by using

mkdir ~/Android && cd ~/Android
wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-linux.zip && unzip platform-tools-latest-linux.zip
echo "alias adb='~/Android/platform-tools/adb'" >> ~/.bash_aliases && source ~/.bash_aliases
echo "alias fastboot='~/Android/platform-tools/fastboot'" >> ~/.bash_aliases && source ~/.bash_aliases

after that you should be able to do the flashing

But maybe others have have found easier ways. Maybe directly via SP_FlashTool? I didn't found a way to flash the LOS System directly via SP_FlashTool, because the SP_FlashTool does not list a "system" entry (see post #165). Does anybody have a hint here?

 

[sawasLT]

Until here everything is fine. My phone just says "fastboot mode ..." in the bottom left too, after issuing adb reboot bootloader

now your computer should list the device after issuing

fastboot devices

if not, windows is not recognizing the phone correctly, I think.

My device manager also lists the device as
Android Phone -> Android ADB Interface

At first I also had the problem that my KKM2 was not found via "fastboot devices" in windows.
You have two options now, both are working for me:
1.) Using windows.
2.) Using linux

1.) Windows
I dont know which driver package solved it, but i installed many. Here is a (I hope complete) list of drivers I installed:

• MTK USB driver v.1.0.8
• minimal_adb_fastboot_v1.4.3 (There are also drivers included. but be sure to use the current version of fastboot for flashing)
• WIN8 driver from cubot website (terminated with two failures)
• MediaTek_Preloader_USB_VCOM_Drivers_Setup_Signed

2.) Linux
If you are familiar with linux, you can try that (linux via virtual box and KKM2 over USB-3.0-Controller (xHCI) is sufficient, I also did that with my KKM2)

in linux you can install fastboot and adb via:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb
sudo apt-get install android-tools-fastboot

linux recognized my kkm2 directly after installing both. So I think additional drivers are also installed by these packages.

but sadly the fastboot version installed by android-tools-fastboot is too old for issuing

fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

so you have to update fastboot to the latest version by using

mkdir ~/Android && cd ~/Android
wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-linux.zip && unzip platform-tools-latest-linux.zip
echo "alias adb='~/Android/platform-tools/adb'" >> ~/.bash_aliases && source ~/.bash_aliases
echo "alias fastboot='~/Android/platform-tools/fastboot'" >> ~/.bash_aliases && source ~/.bash_aliases

after that you should be able to do the flashing

But maybe others have have found easier ways. Maybe directly via SP_FlashTool? I didn't found a way to flash the LOS System directly via SP_FlashTool, because the SP_FlashTool does not list a "system" entry (see post #165). Does anybody have a hint here?

thx , the answer war after instaling everithing ... the instalation from " minimal_adb_fastboot_v1.4.3 "
finally found the fastboot device , lets see now gonna try to instal /Los

 

[sawasLT]

Hi,
I have got the Cubot King Kong Mini 2 and I can confirm that exchanging the system to LOS17.1 is possible too.
I did nearly the same as mekkadisu did (#39) for KKM1, but had to do a

fastboot reboot fastboot

before flashing the system.



This is what I did:
1.) Flash the newer OS for King Kong Mini 2 from King Kong's site using the instructions and flash tool already there (quoted from #39).

2.) Enable developer options by tapping the build number in Settings -> About Phone 7 times, Enable USB Debugging and Allow Bootloader Unlock from developer options (quoted from #39).

3.) (quoted from #39)

adb reboot bootloader

4.) once in bootloader mode (quoted from #39)

fastboot flashing unlock

5.) Then confirm unlock on the phone (quoted from #39)

6.) Note the locaton of the vbmeta.img, boot.img and recovery.img files from the stock ROM (quoted from #39)

fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

7.) Now I did not flash the system directly, but rebooted to fastboot

fastboot reboot fastboot

8.) After device is in real fastboot mode (the screen is different to that of bootloader fastboot mode)

fastboot flash system SYSTEM.img

I used the lineage-17.1-20210114-UNOFFICIAL-treble_a64_bvS.img.xz



Why did I do the "fastboot reboot fastboot":
without rebooting to fastboot but direclty flashing the system, I got this error:

fastboot flash system lineage-17.1-20210114-UNOFFICIAL-treble_a64_bvS.img
Sending sparse 'system' 1/10 (131068 KB)           OKAY [  4.898s]
Writing 'system'                                   FAILED (remote: 'This partition doesn't exist')
fastboot: error: Command failed

After rebooting to fastboot it worked:

fastboot flash system lineage-17.1-20210114-UNOFFICIAL-treble_a64_bvS.img
Resizing 'system'                                  OKAY [  0.004s]
Sending sparse 'system' 1/5 (262140 KB)            OKAY [ 19.088s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [  4.061s]
Sending sparse 'system' 2/5 (262140 KB)            OKAY [ 19.596s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [  4.036s]
Sending sparse 'system' 3/5 (262140 KB)            OKAY [ 19.943s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [  4.048s]
Sending sparse 'system' 4/5 (262140 KB)            OKAY [ 20.290s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [  3.721s]
Sending sparse 'system' 5/5 (177556 KB)            OKAY [ 13.090s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [  2.879s]
Finished. Total time: 110.773s

I'm not an expert in flashing mobile devices, so I don't know, why I had to to that. I would be very happy if an expert could reply and maybe give me a hint as to what the problem was.

hallo ,
am getting the error

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot flash system lineage-17.1.img
target reported max download size of 134217728 bytes
sending sparse 'system' 1/10 (131068 KB)...
OKAY [ 5.053s]
writing 'system' 1/10...
FAILED (remote: This partition doesn't exist)
finished. total time: 5.063s

i try to do a " fastboot reboot fastboot "

but am geting .

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot reboot fastboot
fastboot: usage: unknown reboot target fastboot

em i stupid and old or am doing something wrong ?

am using the vbmeta boot and recovery from the original rom from the cubot website

 

[highbiker]

hallo ,
am getting the error

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot flash system lineage-17.1.img
target reported max download size of 134217728 bytes
sending sparse 'system' 1/10 (131068 KB)...
OKAY [ 5.053s]
writing 'system' 1/10...
FAILED (remote: This partition doesn't exist)
finished. total time: 5.063s

thats exactly the error I got and thats why I had to do the fastboot reboot fastboot

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot reboot fastboot

indicates that you are using the fastboot from Minimal ADB, but thats not the actual version. You need the actual fastboot version from here: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools

fastboot --version should print

fastboot version 30.0.5-6877874

 

[sawasLT]

thats exactly the error I got and thats why I had to do the fastboot reboot fastboot


indicates that you are using the fastboot from Minimal ADB, but thats not the actual version. You need the actual fastboot version from here: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools

fastboot --version should print

fastboot version 30.0.5-6877874

thx , i managet to instal Los 17.1

now am getting a loat of app stop working and stuf on camera and recorder and sutch
i wanna try to add gapps via adb side loader , hope it will work , thil now guys thx for the help your amazing , last time i was playng around with phones was as i jailbreaked my 3gs to pineapple

 

[sawasLT]

now am again with a problem , o downloaded the open_gapps-arm64-10.0-tvmini-20210206.zip
so am in android recovery , going to apply update from adb
in cmd ,

adb sideload open_gapps-arm64-10.0-tvmini-20210206.zip

and am gething the error on my phone screen
E:signature vertification filed
E:error: 21

instal from adb completed with status2.
instalation aborted.
E:fota installation aborted
E:: no such file or directory
E:Fota instalation aborted
E:: bad file descriptor

cmd shows

adb sideload open_gapps-arm64-10.0-tvmini-20210206.zip
serving: 'open_gapps-arm64-10.0-tvmini-20210206.zip' (~47%) adb: failed to read command: No error

sorry if am naggy

 

[kkm6761]

A long time, sorry. I am away right now. Don't have anything with me. I'll make a sticky with the main files. There is a TWRP file that does not work. So anyone managed to have both root with magisk and TWRP?



How is KingKong Mini 2 doing with 1000mAh extra battery?

 

[highbiker]

now am again with a problem , o downloaded the open_gapps-arm64-10.0-tvmini-20210206.zip
so am in android recovery , going to apply update from adb

Good to hear that LOS is running
I dont use gapps, so I just can give a guess.

The LOS for KKM2 is a 32-bit System with 64-bit binder. You could try arm gapps (32-bit) instead of arm64.

 

[highbiker]

How is KingKong Mini 2 doing with 1000mAh extra battery?

My KKM2 is still on the first battery charge, my experiences are therefore a bit vague. But with a bit of Wi-Fi usage, few GPS-tests, permanently connected via LTE during the day and in flight mode at night, the battery life is about 3 days.