Need help rooting Ulefone Armor 18t (EDIT: managed to get it rooted)

[hitanshugaur]

I just received an Ulefone armor 18t and I'm trying to get the phone rooted through a magisk patched boot image. Whenever I attempt to flash the patched image, the phone always ends up bootlooping and gives me the 'android system may be corrupt' message. I've tried flashing an empty vbmeta in order to try to disable secure boot, but it still isn't working.
Does anyone have any other suggestions or have any ideas as to what could be causing my phone to not boot?

Posted this on reddit; just reposting this for more exposure

EDIT: I managed to root my phone by patching my boot.img with an older version of magisk (24.3) and then updating to v25 after.

so in this step, when you patched the image with 24.3 version, did you rename it to magisk_patched.img? Did you 'copy' or 'cut paste' it to the platform-tools folder?
After this step and updating the magisk to version 25, did you repatch the boot.img and renamed that one to magisk_patched.img and let it sit in the internal memory?

If you 'cut paste' the older version patch to platform-tools folder and let the newer version patch sit in the internal memory, did it create a bootloop issue?

This is where it is confusing.

In my phone the older version patched img file and newer version patched img file were named as magisk_patched_1vukl.img (older version patch) and magisk_patched_2500ihs.img (newer version patch)
What should I do? Should I rename magisk_patched_1vukl to magisk_patched.img and cut paste it in platform-tools folder and then rename the magisk_patched_2500ihs.img to magisk_patched.img and continue with the process ahead? I am apprehensive of the bootloop error due to 2 patched files being from different versions of the magisk.

Please help.

 

[hitanshugaur]

I just received an Ulefone armor 18t and I'm trying to get the phone rooted through a magisk patched boot image. Whenever I attempt to flash the patched image, the phone always ends up bootlooping and gives me the 'android system may be corrupt' message. I've tried flashing an empty vbmeta in order to try to disable secure boot, but it still isn't working.
Does anyone have any other suggestions or have any ideas as to what could be causing my phone to not boot?

Posted this on reddit; just reposting this for more exposure

EDIT: I managed to root my phone by patching my boot.img with an older version of magisk (24.3) and then updating to v25 after.

C:\Program Files\Android\platform-tools>fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img
Sending 'boot_b' (40960 KB) OKAY [ 0.976s]
Writing 'boot_b' FAILED (remote: 'not allowed in locked state')
fastboot: error: Command failed

This is the error I got... I am able to restart the phone normally.

 

[Generic123.]

C:\Program Files\Android\platform-tools>fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img
Sending 'boot_b' (40960 KB) OKAY [ 0.976s]
Writing 'boot_b' FAILED (remote: 'not allowed in locked state')
fastboot: error: Command failed

This is the error I got... I am able to restart the phone normally.

Did you unlock the bootloader yet? The error code seems to indicate that might've not been done yet.

 

[hitanshugaur]

I just received an Ulefone armor 18t and I'm trying to get the phone rooted through a magisk patched boot image. Whenever I attempt to flash the patched image, the phone always ends up bootlooping and gives me the 'android system may be corrupt' message. I've tried flashing an empty vbmeta in order to try to disable secure boot, but it still isn't working.
Does anyone have any other suggestions or have any ideas as to what could be causing my phone to not boot?

Posted this on reddit; just reposting this for more exposure

EDIT: I managed to root my phone by patching my boot.img with an older version of magisk (24.3) and then updating to v25 a

Did you unlock the bootloader yet? The error code seems to indicate that might've not been done yet.

Yeah, it wasn't unlocked. Unlocked it and the phone is now rooted. Thanks for your help man

How do I record the other party's voice over the call? The call recorder in this is just a mere 64kb one that too a non functional one.
Also, anyway to install a custom ROM in this?

 

[Generic123.]

Yeah, it wasn't unlocked. Unlocked it and the phone is now rooted. Thanks for your help man

How do I record the other party's voice over the call? The call recorder in this is just a mere 64kb one that too a non functional one.
Also, anyway to install a custom ROM in this?

Nice, glad you got it to work. I sold off the 18t a while ago so I no longer have the device. From what I recall thought, the only "ROMs" you could possibly use are probably GSIs (check the project treble XDA fourms for more info), but they never were able to boot on my device so you should stay with stock unfortunately.

For phone recording, you can look at this reddit post. I don't make many calls so I don't know much about call recording apps sorry.

 

[hitanshugaur]

Nice, glad you got it to work. I sold off the 18t a while ago so I no longer have the device. From what I recall thought, the only "ROMs" you could possibly use are probably GSIs (check the project treble XDA fourms for more info), but they never were able to boot on my device so you should stay with stock unfortunately.

For phone recording, you can look at this reddit post. I don't make many calls so I don't know much about call recording apps sorry.

Did you try installing any open source ROM? I'm fed up of this disabled call recording crap. I need call recording... Idk what to do...

 

[foamrotreturns]

Hello,
I am solved problem with upgrade. Now have problem with FLIR kamera. No have icon for start IR camera. I can't start it.I think that new upgrade no made for all ulefone model.
How is Foamrotreturns solved problem with FLIR camera?

Nope, I still haven't solved the FLIR camera problem, though it sounds like my problem isn't the same as yours. I can open the MyFLIR app and take IR photos and videos just fine. But the MSX feature (which uses the visible light camera to find all of the edges of the objects in the picture and overlays those edges on the image from the IR camera) is broken.

MSX mode requires both the IR and visible light cameras to agree with each other about how far away the objects in the photo are. If the IR camera thinks the object is 0.5 meters away, but the visible light camera thinks the object is 1.5 meters away, the outlines won't line up properly because one will be way bigger than the other. There's a feature called "Image Alignment Utility" in the MyFLIR app, and it's supposed to let you manually correct any discrepancy between the two cameras. When I first got my 18T, I played around with the FLIR camera, and the Image Alignment Utility worked just fine. I was able to adjust the distance discrepancy between the two cameras, and the outlines on all of the objects in the photo were lining up perfectly.

But then when I was trying to root the phone, I got stuck in a bootloop and had to re-flash the "factory" ROM using SPTools. That solved my bootloop problem, but now the distance slider in the Image Alignment Utility doesn't do anything. It moves back and forth, but the outlines don't move at all. Something is definitely different between the "factory" ROM that Ulefone provides on Google Drive and the ROM that shipped installed on the phone, because both the FLIR camera alignment bug and the red "未写入google key 和tee key" watermark on the screen thing that I mentioned earlier are present in all of the 18T ROMs Ulefone has published on their Google Drive to date, but not in the ROM that comes installed on the 18T from the factory.

Something is definitely hinky here, I just don't have enough spare time right now to get to the bottom of it. But I'm not giving up, and I'll post back here when I have more information.

 

[hitanshugaur]

Did you try installing any open source ROM? I'm fed up of this disabled call recording crap. I need call recording... Idk what to do...

Nothing worked. This is just a better battery. Nothing else. I'll probably sell it off too. Xiaomi is the best. It has everything in it and no need to root plus fits budget too. This just a joke of a phone

 

[hitanshugaur]

Nice, glad you got it to work. I sold off the 18t a while ago so I no longer have the device. From what I recall thought, the only "ROMs" you could possibly use are probably GSIs (check the project treble XDA fourms for more info), but they never were able to boot on my device so you should stay with stock unfortunately.

For phone recording, you can look at this reddit post. I don't make many calls so I don't know much about call recording apps sorry.

Hi man,
I'm trying to lock the bootloader but I'm unable to. When I lock it, the device in fastboot mode displays a message that I need to download official rom and install that one and then it gets stuck in the bootloop.
Nothing can be done with this device, this is just a useless device. I want to lock bootloader and unroot and sell it off. Any idea on how to unroot phone, lock bootloader and then flash the official ROM?

 

[Generic123.]

I would try using SP flash tool (I think that's what it was called). The flash tool requires a scatter file, which you get from ulefones stock firmware. Download the stock firmware from ulefone, unpack it, then take the scatter file from the firmware (should be a txt file) and insert into SP flash tool. Turn off your 18t, plug it into your PC and then you should be able to flash the stock firmware. I will warn you , The SP flash tool likes to spit out your scatter file as invalid; I would just try different versions of SP flash tool until you find one that works (make sure not to get any viruses of course).

EDIT: if you want to lock the bootloader, UNINSTALL MAGISK FIRST, then just do the same steps as unlocking the bootloader, but replace the word "unlock" with "lock".

Hi man,
I'm trying to lock the bootloader but I'm unable to. When I unlock it, the device in fastboot mode displays a message that I need to download official rom and install that one and then it gets stuck in the bootloop.
Nothing can be done with this device, this is just a useless device. I want to lock bootloader and unroot and sell it off. Any idea on how to unroot phone, lock bootloader and then flash the official ROM?

 

[hitanshugaur]

I would try using SP flash tool (I think that's what it was called). The flash tool requires a scatter file, which you get from ulefones stock firmware. Download the stock firmware from ulefone, unpack it, then take the scatter file from the firmware (should be a txt file) and insert into SP flash tool. Turn off your 18t, plug it into your PC and then you should be able to flash the stock firmware. I will warn you , The SP flash tool likes to spit out your scatter file as invalid; I would just try different versions of SP flash tool until you find one that works (make sure not to get any viruses of course).

EDIT: if you want to lock the bootloader, UNINSTALL MAGISK FIRST, then just do the same steps as unlocking the bootloader, but replace the word "unlock" with "lock".

Thanks for point that out bro
Corrected it. Thanks for the directions. Will try today.

 

[Harlock1978]

The problem was that I couldn't even get to fastboot. The device was softbricked. I had to use SP Flash Tool to get it back into a condition where I could even use fastboot at all.

Which version of SP Flash Tool do you use because I always get an error message when I try to lad the the scatter file of the ROM on the ulefone site

 

[foamrotreturns]

Which version of SP Flash Tool do you use because I always get an error message when I try to lad the the scatter file of the ROM on the ulefone site

I'm using MediaTek SP Flash Tool v5.2216.00

Two other things:

1. I should reiterate that I've only been able to successfully flash this phone using a PC running Windows 7. All of my attempts on Windows 10 failed. So if you're having trouble, you might want to try running Windows 7 in a VM or find an old laptop lying around and use that.
2. It looks like Ulefone quietly uploaded an updated Non-EU firmware version into their Google Drive share on March 2nd, but didn't update the support page on their website to match. I'm not sure what to make of that, but I'm downloading it now, and I'll be giving it a shot as soon as I have some free time, hopefully this weekend.

 

[Harlock1978]

After some attempt I was able to update and revive my Telephone even on Windows 10.

The telephone enter a booloop after flashing an empty vbmeta

 

[hitanshugaur]

I'm using MediaTek SP Flash Tool v5.2216.00

View attachment 5870719


Two other things:

1. I should reiterate that I've only been able to successfully flash this phone using a PC running Windows 7. All of my attempts on Windows 10 failed. So if you're having trouble, you might want to try running Windows 7 in a VM or find an old laptop lying around and use that.
2. It looks like Ulefone quietly uploaded an updated Non-EU firmware version into their Google Drive share on March 2nd, but didn't update the support page on their website to match. I'm not sure what to make of that, but I'm downloading it now, and I'll be giving it a shot as soon as I have some free time, hopefully this weekend.

Any luck with that one? Any tips on the procedure to flash that one?