[Closed] Universal SystemRW / SuperRW feat. MakeRW / ro2rw (read-only-2-read/write super partition converter)

[lebigmac]

What's debug mode?
The log files should be in the script folder in /data/local/tmp/

I know an easy way to restore your system if you've got a backup. You do have a backup right?
Check your PM

 

[Kurtsu]

Thanks for your hard work!

I am waiting the timer end to unlock my Xiaomi device but very eager to try your script. Does your script mean i can use root required apps without magisk's modules?

 

[james28909]

Thanks for your hard work!

I am waiting the timer end to unlock my Xiaomi device but very eager to try your script. Does your script mean i can use root required apps without magisk's modules?

Yes, this is exactly what this does. It makes your system rw and I think it sticks even after reboot. Guess youll have to test and find out right?

 

[drdani335]

Hi @drdani335 it looks like you reached the end of the script. Feel free to send me your log files so I can see what exactly happened.
You are aware that there is a new stallion in town right?
I think my script require 1 final update to improve compatibility with more devices and then it should be finished and I can finally put it on the shelf

after a few tests I was able to write to system partition while in twrp and using adb shell. but the device went on a boot loop afterwards. i tried flashing vbmeta.img, disabling verity and verification, wiping data and cache, i even uninstalled magisk in twrp using magisk uninstaller but it wouldn't boot to system. at the end i flashed stock boot.img and recovery.img but it still doesn't boot up. it just keeps trying to boot, shows the logo for a few minutes, but goes back to recovery. is there anything i can do without flashing the whole rom ?

regarding the "new stallion" you mentioned, i checked and apparently the author has deleted the attachments and asked everyone not to use it since it has some serious bugs.

 

[lebigmac]

Thanks for your hard work!

I am waiting the timer end to unlock my Xiaomi device but very eager to try your script. Does your script mean i can use root required apps without magisk's modules?

Hi @Kurtsu thanks for your interest in this project.
Once you've got full r/w access to your device you should be able to push your own custom su binary to your system and you can root your device that way.

after a few tests I was able to write to system partition while in twrp and using adb shell. but the device went on a boot loop afterwards. i tried flashing vbmeta.img, disabling verity and verification, wiping data and cache, i even uninstalled magisk in twrp using magisk uninstaller but it wouldn't boot to system. at the end i flashed stock boot.img and recovery.img but it still doesn't boot up. it just keeps trying to boot, shows the logo for a few minutes, but goes back to recovery. is there anything i can do without flashing the whole rom ?

regarding the "new stallion" you mentioned, i checked and apparently the author has deleted the attachments and asked everyone not to use it since it has some serious bugs.

Hi @drdani335 Please send me all log files in script folder if you want me to investigate the issue.

The script worked and you can mount system as r/w in recovery but now you have a bootloop issue?
What did you change in system? Even the smallest change to init.rc, default.prop or other system files can be enough to cause bootloop...

Did you use the latest v1.24 ? In your screenshot it says v1.22

If you can't fix the bootloop from recovery simply flash original super again and try again with v1.24
fastboot flash super super.img

In next version of the script I will try to implement a feature that automatically creates log file.

 

[saginesht]

Working on my POCO X2 Device with super partition using v1.24....
Working on MIUI 12 global stable ANDROID 11 and Latest Xiaomi.eu beta roms...

 

[Rezrex]

Suggestion.
Remove the reboot to system and replace with exit. I updated my phone and after updating I rebooted to twrp and flashed the zip. Process completed without error but left my data partition encrypted/unmountable. Had to format data (i had a backup) in twrp to be able to boot the os. Not sure what caused it to happen, definitely something with my twrp. I did find however removing reboot system from the script and running the exit command in twrp terminal prevents this from occuring. Exit from the script afaik does not.

 

[lebigmac]

I will remove automatic reboot in next version. @Francescohub also suggested this. Thanks for feedback.

EDIT: new v1.26 uploaded to first post
Not much has changed since last version. I added automatic logging capability. Now log will automatically be saved to /data/local/tmp/makesysrw_1.26/mylog.txt
Automatic reboot has been disabled
code was cleaned up a little bit

I have not yet figured out why some folks get error 255 when flashing zip in recovery?
Also have not yet fully understood why script works on some A/B devices but others not.
If you've got A/B device and script fails with lpmake error try this workaround discovered by @harpreet.s

And @uvzen has discovered that you can only use custom size up to a certain point with the size parameter.
For example size=100 works great with Xiaomi devices to give 100MB extra space to each embedded partition but as soon as you use size=1024 or greater this will likely cause lpmake error at the end because the files simply won't fit into the super partition anymore.
For some Oppo devices even size=100 is too much! In next version I will change this to size=50 by default

 

[crazyrootless]

I'm able to mount System/Media with RW priveleges using Root Explorer so this script works on Poco F2 Pro with the latest update. (MIUI 12.2.5.0 RJKEUXM Stable EU ROM).

Thanks @lebigmac

 

[Christos2714]

makeSystemRW v1.26
automated bash script by lebigmac for Android 10 and above​

Creation date: February 2021
Updated: April 2021

Requirements:

• STOCK Android 10 or newer (custom ROM should already be read-write!)
• Custom recovery is recommended but no longer required in latest version
• at least 20 GB free space on phone for dumping data

Description:

A script for all Android power users that wish to make their read-only Android 10+ system read-write-able again to remove bloatware and make more thorough customizations to their device.​

In a nutshell this is what the script is doing:

• dumps your existing super OR your system / product / vendor partitions depending on whether or not you have super partition
• extracts embedded read-only partitions (system, vendor, product...) from super if applicable
• makes these partitions read-write-able
• joins everything back together to new super.img OR NOT depending on whether or not you have super partition
• flashes read-write-able images back to device using the super fast Kolibass technique (only in recovery mode)

User data is not affected.

Installation:

Installation of the script has never been this easy!​

Download the flashable zip below, do NOT enable zip signature verification and simply install it in your custom recovery (WORKS IN BOTH TWRP AND ORANGEFOX!)​

The installer binary will auto-detect whether or not your device has a super partition and launch the script accordingly with the proper command line arguments.​

Flashable zip custom usage:

You can set these custom installation arguments in the included config.ini file.​

Simply extract the flashable.zip and modify the makesysrw_*VERSION*/config.ini file and make your adjustments. Then compress the makesysrw_*VERSION* and META-INF folders again as a new .zip and install it.​

​

First line of config.ini contains the script arguments for those WITHOUT super partition.​

By default this line is completely empty (no space).​

​

Second line of config.ini contains the script arguments for those WITH super partition.​

For example if you already dumped your super_original and want to skip that process next time you install the .zip then put this in line #2 of config.ini :​

 in=./files/super/super_original.bin size=100

​

Remember if you decide to use custom arguments in config.ini then the first character should always be an empty space. If no arguments are used such as by default in line #1 (no super) then the line should be completely empty, no space, nothing.​

Script usage:

If you've got no super partition then simply call the script with no arguments from the shell.​

If you've got a super partition I would recommend using the optional size=100 parameter as well to give some extra free space (in MB) to each partition.​

The script can be run both inside custom recovery and inside Android operating system. If you run it in Android you will need to fastboot flash the patched images manually!​

​

Optional arguments: (replace x with your custom value)

• in=x : *THIS IS IGNORED IF YOU HAVE NO SUPER PARTITION*
  With this flag you can specify an existing super image as input and skip the entire dumping of the super image process. Here you can use the super_original.bin which you dumped earlier with makesysrw or the official unsparsed super.img from your downloaded firmware. (unsparse with simg2img)
  If omitted, makesysrw will dump super image from phone to ./files/super/super_original.bin
  (path is relative to the script)
• out=x : *THIS IS IGNORED IF YOU HAVE NO SUPER PARTITION*
  With this argument you can specify the output path of the new patched super file.
  If omitted, default output value is ./files/super/super_fixed.bin
• size=x : *ONLY RECOMMENDED IF YOU HAVE SUPER PARTITION*
  With this parameter you can specify the extra free space (in megabytes) that will be added to each partition.
  If omitted, default extra size is 0 (shrink to minimum)

Examples:

# Run this command *IF YOU HAVE NO SUPER PARTITION*
./makesysrw.sh

# Run this command if you're first time user *AND YOU HAVE SUPER PARTITION*
# Specify the extra free space in megabytes for each partition:
./makesysrw.sh size=100

# Plug an existing super image into the script like this *ONLY IF YOU HAVE SUPER PARTITION*
./makesysrw.sh in=./files/super/super_original.bin size=100

# Specify both the input file as well as the output destination *ONLY IF YOU HAVE SUPER PARTITION*
./makesysrw.sh in=./files/super/super_original.bin out=./custom/path/super_fixed.bin size=100

To check whether or not you've got a super partition on your device you can run this command:

adb shell "ls -Alg /dev/block/by-name | grep 'super'"

Troubleshooting:

If you get error 255 when trying to install flashable zip then try to install it manually.​

Make sure the script folder was correctly extracted to:​

/data/local/tmp/makesysrw_*VERSION*​

If you can't run the script try making the file executable like this: chmod +x ./makesysrw.sh​

If you still can't get it to work run which sh in your shell and replace the shebang in the first line of the script with the output of that command. Don't remove the first two #! symbols though. Then save the file and try again.​

Make sure you have full read write access to the /data/local/tmp directory and that the containing files are not encrypted in custom recovery!​

NOTE:

I did not come up with all this by myself. After searching for a solution for countless days without success, going even as far as learning hex editing - I coincidentally came across a couple of very interesting threads burried deep inside the new forum interface where this method has been described by various enthousiasts (links can be found in the credits section below). So I take absolutely no credit for the underlying core mechanisms of the script. I'm only the amateur who put it all together into a compact script so that everybody can enjoy an Android system that's read-write-able again. Just like it used to be in Android 9 or earlier. Before this annoying 'shared_blocks feature' was implemented.​

Credits:

Huge thanks to @Kolibass for allowing me to use his partition tools for Android. Without your tools this script would not work on the Android platform! This genius also showed me how to flash a 8GB file to my partition in just under 30 seconds! Much faster than fastboot! I still can't believe it!​

Big thanks to @Brepro1 for allowing me to basically copy his awesome tutorial and make it into a script. Without your tutorial guiding me I couldn't have created this script.​

Thanks @AndyYan your great tutorial also helped me a lot for automating the script especially the lpdump part.​

Also big thanks @munjeni for allowing me to use his superunpack V1 tool in the previous version. It helped me to understand how these super images work.​

Thanks @bynarie for making available his otatools package! A part of it was bundled with the previous version which helped me to create this version.​

More thanks @gabrielfrias for his helpful comment​

Thanks @YOisuPU and of course @topjohnwu for discovering the 'shared_blocks feature'​

Disclaimer:

This is open source software and is provided as is without any kind of warranty or support whatsoever. By using and viewing this software you agree to the following terms:​

Under no circumstances shall the author be held responsible for any damages or negative consequences that may arrise from the (inappropriate) use of this software.​

All responsibility and liability lies with the end-user. You hereby agree not to abuse this software for illegal purposes. Use this software at your own risk!​

Please feel free to improve this script as you see fit (as long as you don't add anything malicious).
And make sure to post your feedback, suggestions and improvements in the official thread right here.
If you decide to use my work in your project please send me a message and include a link to this official thread in your project. Thank you.

Download v1.26
current status: experimental
Please click my like button below if you like my work! Thanks!

Confirmed working on these devices :
Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro joyeuse - Android 10
Xiaomi Mi 10 T Lite - Android 11
Xiaomi Mi 10 T lite - Android 11 - TWRP
Xiaomi Mi 10 - Android 11
Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite - Android 11 - OrangeFox
Xiaomi Redmi 9T - Android 11 - TWRP

Asus Rog Phone 3 - Android 10 - TWRP
OnePlus Nord - Android 11 - A/B slots - script v1.24
​

God bless you!
Works like a charm on Doogee S96Pro android 10.
After makong super.img rw I have to put stock recovery and do a factory reset. After that put TWRP again. If I dont do that han I get a TWRP loop.
Thanks again!!!
Keep up the good work!!!

 

[-CALIBAN666-]

This is great work and awesome,works perfect on my Redmi 9 with Miui 12,thanx for your work itakes the life more easy lol.Cheers!!!!

 

[m3nty]

Error! Failed to create super_fixed.img file

Moto g stylus Android 10

Screenshot from twrp:

 

[Lathi]

This has worked on Poco x3 but when I unroot or unroot it doesn't work I change services.jar on the system, and services.jar changes to original

 

[NoRue]

This is NOT WORKING for the MOTOROLA phone, specifically the MOTO ONE 5G ACE. The script did not unlock the partitions as they separated in lpmake. I looked at the files on Windows and Linux, and they are all as they were before. Why this is only working on the Xiaomi and the One Plus is beyond me. Anybody got this working on LG, Sony, Moto, Samsung?

Yes！SONY can't use it !
Device : Xperia 1 Mark II

 

[thatguyreese86]

Confirmed working on my moto g power (sofia) XT2041-4ss (Super Partition)

Confirmed working on my moto g7 (river) XT1961-1 (No Super)

Nice work!! Keep it up

 

[mrsergey]

PS C:\adb> adb shell "ls -Alg /dev/block/by-name | grep 'super'"
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root 16 1970-02-02 16:40 super -> /dev/block/sda23

POCO X3 pro, doesn't work

 

[Simich007]

excellent, i did it and it finally finished with a message saying Congratulations...
but when it reboots the system partition is still read-only. the twrp and magisk are in place and i have su but "mount -o rw,remount /" says it's read-only and the partition can't be written. i've tried it multiple times with the same result. what should i do ?

Similar story I have, everything goes successfully, but after downloading to the system any file manager with rut access can't change system, vendor, product. Tried to stitch created super_fixed.bin as an image through adb, everything has passed successfully, but there is no result. Ulefone armor x7pro, 10 android.

 

[lebigmac]

Yes！SONY can't use it !
Device : Xperia 1 Mark II

PS C:\adb> adb shell "ls -Alg /dev/block/by-name | grep 'super'"
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root 16 1970-02-02 16:40 super -> /dev/block/sda23

POCO X3 pro, doesn't work

Hi. Please give more info about your specific error and share your log files thank you.

Similar story I have, everything goes successfully, but after downloading to the system any file manager with rut access can't change system, vendor, product. Tried to stitch created super_fixed.bin as an image through adb, everything has passed successfully, but there is no result.

Thanks for the log files. That's weird.
Your log looks pretty good to me.
Try unpacking super_fixed.bin with lpunpack

adb shell
cd /data/local/tmp/makesysrw_1.27
./tools/bin/lpunpack ./files/super/super_fixed.bin

and see if you can mount it as read write in linux. If you don't have linux installed simply boot into a ubuntu live installation disk

adb pull /data/local/tmp/makesysrw_1.27/files/super/system.img
sudo su
mkdir /mnt/dir
mount -t ext4 -o loop,rw ./system.img /mnt/dir

 

[f1^ter]

Hello dear! Android 11, Sony xperia 1 Mark II. Here is the log, what is the problem, a fix file is not created? My log files. If you need to provide something-let me know!

 

[Simich007]

Unfortunately, I'm not very much in this. Here's a link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xkvqOs7vPC5uTWgY9qSZhK57o3dpJgH2/view?usp=drivesdk