Just ordered, what to do first?

[woody1]

I just ordered a Mediapad M3 8.4 and I should receive it in a couple of days. I plan to update it to whatever is the latest firmware, add TWRP and also root it. Are there any first steps or gotcha's I should be aware of? For example, should I root first or apply updates first? The reason I ask is that I've had some devices that could be rooted in one version but could not be rooted after updating the bootloader.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[gnirtS]

Firstly check what hardware oem location the tablet has as this effects it. To root or change that you need to get the bootloader unlocked. This is done via a code request website on the Huawei site. After that you can go TWRP, backup and so on.

Check the oeminfo/country ID and flash the appropriate rom for that if you want. If you want to change region, the partition oem files are online and can be done via twrp command line.

 

[woody1]

Thanks, that's what I needed to know!

 

[woody1]

Just for the sake of other people who may just be starting out with this tablet, it turns out that it does matter whether you update first or unlock first. You will not be able to get a bootloader unlock code from the Huawei website after you upgrade to EMUI 5.0, so if you plan to root your tablet, make sure you unlock the bootloader before you upgrade. Otherwise, you will have to downgrade to an earlier version.

 

[adibadi]

Just for the sake of other people who may just be starting out with this tablet, it turns out that it does matter whether you update first or unlock first. You will not be able to get a bootloader unlock code from the Huawei website after you upgrade to EMUI 5.0, so if you plan to root your tablet, make sure you unlock the bootloader before you upgrade. Otherwise, you will have to downgrade to an earlier version.

I upgraded first and still got a code. I have the LTE version. In order to get the code, I had to choose "phone" and not "tablet". It could be that with wifi-only version it won't work because you can't provide the IMEI.

Here are some notes from my experience with starting out on my new BTV-DL09 (4G version, bought in Europe):

1) I upgraded the brand new tablet to EMUI 5.0. At the end of the upgrade, I got an error message. But after reboot it seemed to work fine. Bluetooth does not work with EMUI 5.0 but I don't need Bluetooth on it.
2) I unlocked the bootloader. Had to choose "phone" on the Huawei site to get the code because there was no matching tablet with EMUI 5.
3) Installed Magisk 14 using twrp.
4) Systemless hosts doesn't work in Magisk because /system/etc/hosts is a symlink to /vendor/etc/hosts
5) remounted /system as rw, deleted /system/etc/hosts, copied /vendor/etc/hosts to /system/etc/hosts, remounted at ro
6) disabled magisk systemless hosts, re-enabled it, installed adblock hosts module, everything has worked since then.
7) changed dpi to 360 or so. 350 was nice because it made it look exactly like my Galaxy Tab S, but unfortunately the settings app didn't display the left side anymore. So I have larger icons now, but things still run in tablet mode.

If there is ever any update coming for this, I hope it will work if I undo my /system modification (put the symlink back)

I have to say, so far I'm very satisfied with this tablet! It runs super smooth, has great battery life, display, and the speakers sound great. Out of the box it's barely usable and very frustrating to use - I would not really recommend it to anyone if they don't plan on rooting it.

EDIT: just read I can get bluetooth working by upgrading first to B010 then B303, so I guess I gotta start all over again Thanks @30adi for that post: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=73470572&postcount=380

 

[fallen_13]

2) I unlocked the bootloader. Had to choose "phone" on the Huawei site to get the code because there was no matching tablet with EMUI 5.

It has been a while since i did unlocking. But is there a phone model to use when choosing "phone"?

 

[adibadi]

It has been a while since i did unlocking. But is there a phone model to use when choosing "phone"?

If you choose "Since EMUI 5.0" you have the following options:

Smartphone (not possible to change this)
Product Serial number
Product IMEI or MEID
Product ID

If you choose "Before EMUI 5.0" you have these options:
Smartphone (can change to Tablet 3G or to Tablet wifi)
Product Model
Product Serial number
Product IMEI or MEID
Product ID


So you don't need to provide the product model when choosing "since EMUI 5.0", but I'm not sure if they will accept one with no IMEI, as in the wifi-only tablet case.

 

[fallen_13]

If you choose "Since EMUI 5.0" you have the following options:

Smartphone (not possible to change this)
Product Serial number
Product IMEI or MEID
Product ID

If you choose "Before EMUI 5.0" you have these options:
Smartphone (can change to Tablet 3G or to Tablet wifi)
Product Model
Product Serial number
Product IMEI or MEID
Product ID

So you don't need to provide the product model when choosing "since EMUI 5.0", but I'm not sure if they will accept one with no IMEI, as in the wifi-only tablet case.

Ah ok. I unlocked mine back before EMUI 5 was released. So i had to choose the "Product model" for Mediapad M3. Didn't know that the generic "smartphone" would just do for unlocking EMUI5. That's very helpful and does away with the need to do downgrading. Thank you.

 

[adibadi]

EDIT: just read I can get bluetooth working by upgrading first to B010 then B303, so I guess I gotta start all over again

So after downgrading back to Marshmallow, I got an update message which sent me back to B303 with an OTA, and bluetooth works now. I didn't have to go to B010 then to B303.

I'm not sure what was up with my original version which came preloaded on the tablet, but it didn't show this update - it told me that I was on on the latest version. The update screen appeared at first boot even before I could sign in to gmail. It's called OTA-BTV-DL09C100B009_B303

 

[woody1]

OK, I have the wifi only tablet, so maybe the unlock will work with the LTE version, but not with wifi-only after an upgrade to EMUI 5.0. Has anybody been successful in unlocking a wifi-only tablet which was already on EMUI 5.0? (BTW, Bluetooth works fine for me on Android 7.)

 

[ScruffMcG]

So your recommendation is to Unlock bootloader before upgrade? Does the OTA upgrade work afterward or can you do it through TWRP?

 

[woody1]

So your recommendation is to Unlock bootloader before upgrade? Does the OTA upgrade work afterward or can you do it through TWRP?

From what other people have said, the OTA will work while rooted, but I haven't tried it myself yet.

 

[ScruffMcG]

Didn't you say you upgrade to 7.0? Or did you re-lock bootloader to do that (or just stay on stock bootloader?). Just ordered so I have a couple days to figure the process out, but want to make sure I don't upgrade if I will be losing the ability to root afterward.

 

[woody1]

Didn't you say you upgrade to 7.0? Or did you re-lock bootloader to do that (or just stay on stock bootloader?). Just ordered so I have a couple days to figure the process out, but want to make sure I don't upgrade if I will be losing the ability to root afterward.

Ok, here's what happened to me:

I upgraded to EMUI 5.0/Android 7. Then, I went to the Huawei website to get the bootloader code. I was not able to get the bootloader code, because it appears that the website is not properly set up to give a bootloader unlock code for a tablet with EMUI 5.0 or greater, at least not for the wifi-only version. I'm guessing this is just a problem with the website not being updated to support the latest version.

So far, I'm trying to figure out if there's an option to get the bootloader code without downgrading first. If I can't find another way, I will downgrade, then get the bootloader code, then upgrade back to Android 7. As far as I know, there is not a problem upgrading after you've unlocked the bootloader, but I haven't personally gotten to that point.

 

[adibadi]

Ok, here's what happened to me:

I upgraded to EMUI 5.0/Android 7. Then, I went to the Huawei website to get the bootloader code. I was not able to get the bootloader code, because it appears that the website is not properly set up to give a bootloader unlock code for a tablet with EMUI 5.0 or greater, at least not for the wifi-only version. I'm guessing this is just a problem with the website not being updated to support the latest version.

So far, I'm trying to figure out if there's an option to get the bootloader code without downgrading first. If I can't find another way, I will downgrade, then get the bootloader code, then upgrade back to Android 7. As far as I know, there is not a problem upgrading after you've unlocked the bootloader, but I haven't personally gotten to that point.

I thought that the unlock code isn't tied to the emui version, but to the hardware, but I could be wrong. Is the requested data for 4.x wifi-only not available in your 5.0 emui?

 

[woody1]

I thought that the unlock code isn't tied to the emui version, but to the hardware, but I could be wrong. Is the requested data for 4.x wifi-only not available in your 5.0 emui?

No the data is all available. The problem is that the Huawei website is not set up to provide a code for a wifi-only tablet that's on EMUI 5.0. It appears to be purely a problem with the website, not an issue with the code itself.

 

[adibadi]

No the data is all available. The problem is that the Huawei website is not set up to provide a code for a wifi-only tablet that's on EMUI 5.0. It appears to be purely a problem with the website, not an issue with the code itself.

What I meant was to just select emui 4 on the website.

 

[woody1]

Yes, it seems like that should work, but when I put in my data, I get a message saying that something is incorrect. Now that you mention it, I don't know how Huawei could know which version is installed. I wonder if the Product Number changes when you upgrade the EMUI version? Maybe that's the problem. Does anybody know about that?

 

[adibadi]

Yes, it seems like that should work, but when I put in my data, I get a message saying that something is incorrect. Now that you mention it, I don't know how Huawei could know which version is installed. I wonder if the Product Number changes when you upgrade the EMUI version? Maybe that's the problem. Does anybody know about that?

Not sure if it's the same thing, but I had to try a few times until the captcha worked, that thing was impossible to read. The error message said nothing about captcha, everything else was actually correct but it told me to check my serial numbers and stuff.

 

[woody1]

Not sure if it's the same thing, but I had to try a few times until the captcha worked, that thing was impossible to read. The error message said nothing about captcha, everything else was actually correct but it told me to check my serial numbers and stuff.

If I put in a bad capcha, I get a message saying the capcha is wrong. If I put in the right capcha, I get a message saying "check your information" or something like that. Looks like the problem is not the capcha, but something else.