[RECOVERY][TWRP][UPDATE] TWRP 3.3.0 for Maze Alpha 4G (updated)

[dreambo]

Hi folks,

Today it's a great day for me : I have successfully patched the kernel to have a 100% working TWRP 3.2.1 for our Maze Alpha 4G.
I have port a Jemmini build for Bluboo S1 and I have patch the kernel to have a working touch panel

I have followed this Thead

For the Maze Alpha 6G version, you can test it and tell me please.

How to flash:
I Fastboot method (must unlock device) :
1- Reboot your phone in bootloader mode : adb reboot bootloader or phone off, press and hold at the same time POWER and Vol+ buttons
2- Connect your phone to your computer with adb/fastboot already installed
3- Unlock your bootloader : fastboot oem unlock (it will erase you data, only data)
4- Flash the recovery : fastboot flash recovery recovery_maze_alpha_4G_twrp-321.img

II SPFlashTool method (no need to unlock device) :
1- Download latest version of SPFlashTools.
2- Execute it and load the provided scatter (the recovery image must be in the same folder as the scatter and must be renamed to recovery.img) then press "Dowbload" button
3a- windows SPFlashTools users : phone off, press VOL+ and connect it to your PC (running SPFlashTool and waiting for phone connetion)
3b- linux SPFlashTools users : phone off and connected to PC , press VOL+ and POWER while your PC is running SPFlashTool (with sudo) and waiting for phone connetion.

Update : you can found here the latest version: TWRP 3.3.0 for MAze Alpha 4Ghttps://github.com/dreambo/android_device_maze_alpha/releases/tag/3.3.0

have a nice day.

 

[super_sonic]

Works great on Maze alpha 4G. Thanks.
But I forgot to save original recovery...

 

[dreambo]

Works great on Maze alpha 4G. Thanks.
But I forgot to save original recovery...

You can get the original recovery from the stock rom designed for SPFlashTool, provided here

 

[super_sonic]

You can get the original recovery from the stock rom designed for SPFlashTool, provided here

Thanks. Can you share stock recovery.img, if you have it? I have recovery-verified.img from V05 but I don't know if there is a new update and if size is correct: 11,54MB. Your TWRP recovery has got a size of 14.24MB...

 

[lukesan]

Can you make a small procedure on how to install it? Will help many nOOb's out.
And people need to report back issues and successes !!!! Again I see many questions and people with issues that we seniors try to help out with that end up in no more response which to me is not done and not helping others.
I have a 6GB version that I could test on but at the moment I am using it for other stuff and I can't risk bricking it this week.
Would finally love to start some stuff happening on this phone.

 

[lukesan]

Ok in the process of doing so on my 6GB/64GB version.

edit : congratz I now have a 'phone' that can only go into TWRP . Should have never ever done this!
Says no OS installed ... really nice

Edit 2: after hours wasted was able to get your zipped rom on the Maze but I got no boot with that TWRP, so flashed recovery-verified.img from the 6GB rom from Alpha I had downloaded ... It would then start up but show 4GB out of 6GB. No good but at least all the rest seemed to work. All other effort to get it going back with the proper kernel etc resulted in frustration.

So now to flash the official rom back via their tool... that one got me really frustrated and was completely my fault that I couldn't figure it out. But you know angry, frustrated, must get it back to work, can do this ... After all these years of toying with phones we are so used to pressing 'power and vol+ or vol-' together to make something work. Now in the end I re-read the manual again and saw that you only have to push vol+ and NOT vol+ and power together or it wont go in the mode it should go to make it flash!!
In case this happens : The best advice I can give to people is to download the proper MTK drivers. Search for vcom drivers for MTK and you will find.
Print out the instructions and mark every step you do to the letter. The flashing itself only takes like 3 or 4 minutes

 

[frumac96]

Ok in the process of doing so on my 6GB/64GB version.

edit : congratz I now have a 'phone' that can only go into TWRP . Should have never ever done this!
Says no OS installed ... really nice

Edit 2: after hours wasted was able to get your zipped rom on the Maze but I got no boot with that TWRP, so flashed recovery-verified.img from the 6GB rom from Alpha I had downloaded ... It would then start up but show 4GB out of 6GB. No good but at least all the rest seemed to work. All other effort to get it going back with the proper kernel etc resulted in frustration.

So now to flash the official rom back via their tool... that one got me really frustrated and was completely my fault that I couldn't figure it out. But you know angry, frustrated, must get it back to work, can do this ... After all these years of toying with phones we are so used to pressing 'power and vol+ or vol-' together to make something work. Now in the end I re-read the manual again and saw that you only have to push vol+ and NOT vol+ and power together or it wont go in the mode it should go to make it flash!!
In case this happens : The best advice I can give to people is to download the proper MTK drivers. Search for vcom drivers for MTK and you will find.
Print out the instructions and mark every step you do to the letter. The flashing itself only takes like 3 or 4 minutes

Haha I did the same exact thing..and managed to get it working after flashing it with the spflash tool but the trick is if you have Windows 10 latest version you won't be able to do this..at least I couldn't because of driver incompatibility so in my case:
1 I installed Windows 7 and installed mtk drivers for spflash tool
2.booted into twrp
2.1 if you can't boot into twrp or it doesn't turn on you can still try this
3.Start sp flash tool and download the zip the one(in case of trouble)that the moderator published
4. Load the scatter file and make sure that all of the files and the scatter are in the same folder.
5.click download and leave it like that
6.plug in your phone in fastboot if you can't try one of the following
6.1 just plug it in turned off and monitor spflash tool status
6.2 plug it in holding volume up key (just volume not power)
6.3 in twrp go to boot and boot into bootloader
And the tool should do the rest
If all else fails check the drivers one more time
After all that if you are feeling adventurous flash twrp one more time and do not factory reset through twrp ! Because that was the problem in my case and after you unlock bootloader boot your phone and go through the setup without setting the password because twrp will be locked.
Good luck.

 

[lukesan]

Haha I did the same exact thing..and managed to get it working after flashing it with the spflash tool but the trick is if you have Windows 10 latest version you won't be able to do this..at least I couldn't because of driver incompatibility so in my case:
1 I installed Windows 7 and installed mtk drivers for spflash tool
2.booted into twrp
2.1 if you can't boot into twrp or it doesn't turn on you can still try this
3.Start sp flash tool and download the zip the one(in case of trouble)that the moderator published
4. Load the scatter file and make sure that all of the files and the scatter are in the same folder.
5.click download and leave it like that
6.plug in your phone in fastboot if you can't try one of the following
6.1 just plug it in turned off and monitor spflash tool status
6.2 plug it in holding volume up key (just volume not power)
6.3 in twrp go to boot and boot into bootloader
And the tool should do the rest
If all else fails check the drivers one more time
After all that if you are feeling adventurous flash twrp one more time and do not factory reset through twrp ! Because that was the problem in my case and after you unlock bootloader boot your phone and go through the setup without setting the password because twrp will be locked.
Good luck.

Wait a sec., missing a couple of things here.
1) Do you have a 6GB ?
2) In case you have a 6GB did you manage to get it working, rooted and all?

Your point 6) well I flashed mine on the latest 64bit win10 ... but.... if the phone is off and you connect the usb cable my phone tried to boot up either in twrp with no com port. Also booting it in bootloader doesn't make the comport visible so you can't flash.
The only way to make mine visible for the flashtool was to press vol+ and then connect the usb cable.

Btw I am glad someone finally responds and spreads information. A very good post! Your first 'thanks' well deserved!
I wonder where the guys are that I was trying to help. Did they throw their phones away or something? Sharing is caring I thought.

I want to root mine to alter the camera settings and the media xml file. I find it strange that our sensor, which is the same as in my wife's Xiaomi's, takes seriously bad pictures.

 

[frumac96]

Wait a sec., missing a couple of things here.
1) Do you have a 6GB ?
2) In case you have a 6GB did you manage to get it working, rooted and all?

Your point 6) well I flashed mine on the latest 64bit win10 ... but.... if the phone is off and you connect the usb cable my phone tried to boot up either in twrp with no com port. Also booting it in bootloader doesn't make the comport visible so you can't flash.
The only way to make mine visible for the flashtool was to press vol+ and then connect the usb cable.

Btw I am glad someone finally responds and spreads information. A very good post! Your first 'thanks' well deserved!
I wonder where the guys are that I was trying to help. Did they throw their phones away or something? Sharing is caring I thought.

I want to root mine to alter the camera settings and the media xml file. I find it strange that our sensor, which is the same as in my wife's Xiaomi's, takes seriously bad pictures.

Sorry forgot to mention I have a 4 GB version but since maze is not providing the roms on their website any further development will be limited..thank God for dreambo he is the only guy doing any work here and like you said nobody is responding to any questions asked..shame really because maze is a great phone with a terrible camera..which drivers did you use on Windows 10? because I tried a hundred of them and non of them recognize my phone..and in adb I can run the command fastboot reboot bootloader but after reboot none of the commands are working .
And yes I did manage to install twrp and root using magisk and I to hope that all those other guys didn't brick their phones

 

[lukesan]

Sorry forgot to mention I have a 4 GB version but since maze is not providing the roms on their website any further development will be limited..thank God for dreambo he is the only guy doing any work here and like you said nobody is responding to any questions asked..shame really because maze is a great phone with a terrible camera..which drivers did you use on Windows 10? because I tried a hundred of them and non of them recognize my phone..and in adb I can run the command fastboot reboot bootloader but after reboot none of the commands are working .
And yes I did manage to install twrp and root using magisk and I to hope that all those other guys didn't brick their phones

This is the filename I used on Windows 10 VCOM Drivers (All MTK Devices & All Windows OS version).zip I think I downloaded it from XDA somewhere.
Also something you must know https://www.howtogeek.com/167723/ho...8.1-so-that-you-can-install-unsigned-drivers/
Another thing I experienced is that one USB connector is not the other one on a pc. Always connect it to the ones directly on the main board next to the other device outputs like audio etc. and preferably not go through ones that have been extended via a cable like the ones on top of the casing or so. Also a must have application is usbdeview.
Well should be easy to get it going if you can boot it into 'fastboot' then you can try as much as you want to. But djeeeeezzzz the letters are very small when you boot it with a power+volume up . Also check that volume up will toggle between 'fastboot', 'recovery' and 'normal start' and volume minus will select it, not the power button which would be more logical to me.

I might have another go at trying to get it working on my 6GB but it involves having a lot of time and knowing that I will get frustrated. Installing all apps and settings is also a time consuming thing. Once you have TWRP on it it all becomes easy to backup. So many things to test or try.
Maybe dreambo has an idea on how to get mine up to a 6GB one as it is probably only indicated in the kernel.

Anyway I will continue to write down my progress.

 

[lukesan]

Ok more frustration. Done multiple things to try to get this running. It's good to know that the original rom is easy to install again after practice.

Take 1: Try to install clean 6GB rom and immediately install TWRP.
Results: Dreambo forgot 1 step and that is to allow OEM unlock in the developer options. If you do the adb command to unlock press volume up and it will unlock (very hard to see, very small letters on the display in bootloader mode)
Well TWRP starts but immediately I get a message 'mount decrypt data password' which I tried a couple of things but no go. Also googled... different solutions but always ending in a bootloop to TWRP
A possible solution that I read was to create a startup pin .... no go 'pin not valid'

Take 2: Take all the rom files and change the scatter file with the one dreambo provided.... Thought it was successful but ended up with the same Chinese recovery. Trying to figure out why since the filename was correct like indicated in the scatter file. Came to the conclusion that the original file was/is called recovery-verified.img and not recovery.img. Really really strange this one as in the original scatter file it also points to recovery.img. So this one I will have to investigate. Renaming the TWRP file to recovery-verified.img lead to a error during the initial scan of the flashtool.

So moral of the story is that I am back on square 1 and lost 2 hours today (plus putting all apps and settings back) today.

 

[CYberdog11]

I get a bit lost, is this TWRP method only working with the 6GB or also with the 4GB version?

 

[dreambo]

I get a bit lost, is this TWRP method only working with the 6GB or also with the 4GB version?

There is no fundamental difference between 6G and 4G version.
It must works in boat versions.

If you have issues with SPFlashTool try this (no need to install any drivers on Windows 10) :
Put the preloader.bin (found in the rom package designed for SPFlashTool) in the same folder as the recovery.img without checking it the list of partitions (only recovery must be checked) and click on Download to flash the recovery, as usual.

Perhaps SPFlashTool cannot read by himself the preloader in the EMMC, and we must provide it.

The linux version of SPFlashTool not works at this moment, I do not know why

 

[CYberdog11]

With the SPflashtool I always get the error:

ERROR:STATUS_DA_HASH_MISMATCH (0xC0070004)

HINT

 

[pja1985430]

With the SPflashtool I always get the error:

ERROR:STATUS_DA_HASH_MISMATCH (0xC0070004)

HINT

From another thread:

google translate
Hello
I had the same problem, (error BROM ERROR: STATUS_DA_HASH_MISMATCH)
what I did: I use Windows 7 System
1- clear all drivers for smartphones with "usbdeview-2-17"
2- install Drivers "Drivers_Auto_Installer_v1.1236.00"
3- install "PdaNetA4170"
4- use "SP_Flash_Tool_v5.1708_Win" to flash the rom. first flash the preloader alone and then flash the others.
the problem was the bad installation of the drivers, after that everything went well for me.
try it can work for you too.
the mentioned software is easy to find on google

 

[lukesan]

There is no fundamental difference between 6G and 4G version.
It must works in boat versions.

If you have issues with SPFlashTool try this (no need to install any drivers on Windows 10) :
Put the preloader.bin (found in the rom package designed for SPFlashTool) in the same folder as the recovery.img without checking it the list of partitions (only recovery must be checked) and click on Download to flash the recovery, as usual.

Perhaps SPFlashTool cannot read by himself the preloader in the EMMC, and we must provide it.

The linux version of SPFlashTool not works at this moment, I do not know why

If there is no difference between the 4GB and 6GB then why did I literally spend days on trying this and documenting what happened?

 

[dreambo]

If there is no difference between the 4GB and 6GB then why did I literally spend days on trying this and documenting what happened?

Do you have the 2 versions of the phone and do you have notice any difference of the flashing procedure ?

 

[lukesan]

Do you have the 2 versions of the phone and do you have notice any difference of the flashing procedure ?

I only have the 6GB version of the Maze Alpha. But you wrote that the procedure should work for both versions. I think I wrote down what happened with mine if I installed TWRP.
I tried both the 'regular' flashing and then the full rom install with the trick to put the files in the directory and rename but both ended up as I've written in my previous post.

 

[dreambo]

I only have the 6GB version of the Maze Alpha. But you wrote that the procedure should work for both versions. I think I wrote down what happened with mine if I installed TWRP.
I tried both the 'regular' flashing and then the full rom install with the trick to put the files in the directory and rename but both ended up as I've written in my previous post.

From times to times, I notice trouble with flashing using SPFlashTools.
First (when I post my first post relating of the root) I use the linux version : no issues it works perfect, no need of any drivers!
Actually, no way to have it working on linux, why I do not know!

I have tried Windows 10 and I notice that we have to provide the preloader to have it working, as I write in my post.

In theory, and only in theory, the SPFlashTool must works the same manner in any phone with a Mediatek SOC.

But in reality, we have notice that with exactly the same phone the flashing procedure works for some users and not for others!

SPFlashTool is a very capricious software, there is no warranty to have it 100% working in any platform, even with the same OS.

 

[lukesan]

From times to times, I notice trouble with flashing using SPFlashTools.
First (when I post my first post relating of the root) I use the linux version : no issues it works perfect, no need of any drivers!
Actually, no way to have it working on linux, why I do not know!

I have tried Windows 10 and I notice that we have to provide the preloader to have it working, as I write in my post.

In theory, and only in theory, the SPFlashTool must works the same manner in any phone with a Mediatek SOC.

But in reality, we have notice that with exactly the same phone the flashing procedure works for some users and not for others!

SPFlashTool is a very capricious software, there is no warranty to have it 100% working in any platform, even with the same OS.

The thing is that I have no issue with flashing the software as I can perfectly flash the original rom. The problem is that when flashing the TWRP file, in both options by the way, so also via method 1, I get a boot loop.