Unlocking Bootloader/ Magisk Attempt

[daicaothu]

There is a new update today but i could not update my Duo despite i tried many times even reboot the phone.

 

[bggold]

There is a new update today but i could not update my Duo despite i tried many times even reboot the phone.

You might have to do it through recovery and adb sideload it. There is a link on the firmware page of ms on how to do it.

I have not tried yet but will update this thread once I do.

 

[daicaothu]

I had no luck to find the update link on MS. If you have the link and instruction please share!
Thanks

 

[s.supreet]

My device seems to be missing even the September update and the system still shows its up to date. how can we force an update ?
also unable to find a place from where i could download the firmware.
Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[LocBox]

A tip, whenever you restart the phone and it bootloops.. hold the volume up button to break the loop. Hold it for around 8 seconds at the windows logo, you may be sent to recovery once or twice, but you will break the loop at some point. I figured this out over the weekend.

 

[s.supreet]

I have a strange issue with my device.
Firstly it did not receive even the sept update and is still running security patches from May.

When i try to download the recoveryimage aswell, it says , not available for the device.
Not sure why is that ?
Can anyone help with this please.

And also if the recovery image is common and can be shared, it will be a big help.
Can anyone also upload the update file , which i can use to update it for me

MAGISK FULL GUIDE (APK for install and other mods coming soon!)

The bootloader unlock is pretty similar to any other phone.
Go to settings>about> click on build number until developer options are enabled. Go back and select system>Developer Options. Make sure to enable OEM unlocking.
(On PC) "adb reboot bootloader", "fastboot flashing unlock_critical", use volume to select unlock. THIS WILL ERASE ALL CONTENT ON YOUR DEVICE.

IF YOU DONT WANT TO DO THIS FROM SCRATCH, SKIP TO PART 2
Go to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surfacerecoveryimage
Select Surface Duo from the drop down
Enter your serial number and download the file
Extract the firmware .zip
Extract the Payload file
Moved bootloader to root
Installed Magisk Manager apk and patched bootloader image
Attempted to flash which resulted in "cannot write to partition_b"

PART 2:
download the patched magisk_boot.img from here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-7NWj8_jFH8AtpTTpXITOv1eh-wo7xlz/view?usp=sharing
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot boot magisk_patched.img

PART 3 - All right, lets make it permanent!
Place magisk_patched.img on your sd root

adb shell
su
cd /dev/block/by-name/
chmod 777 boot_a
chmod 777 boot_b

DEV=$(ls /dev/block/by-name/boot_b); echo $DEV
dd of=$DEV if=/sdcard/magisk_patched.img
DEV=$(ls /dev/block/by-name/boot_a); echo $DEV
dd of=$DEV if=/sdcard/magisk_patched.img

Reboot and we are good!
I am working on an app to streamline the process as well as provide additional mods and addons to the device. I hope to have something for you guys by the end of the week.
I do plan on streaming some of this stuff (twitch.tv/goingh0st), and am working on a section of my discord for the same thing (World of Gh0st)

https://www.patreon.com/GoinGh0st

Thank you for your support and I cant wait to get more stuff to you guys!

 

[LocBox]

hey, if i want to unroot and return to stock for a moment, how can i? i keep getting status 5 in adb and it doesn't see the device.

 

[LocBox]

Fixed

hey, if i want to unroot and return to stock for a moment, how can i? i keep getting status 5 in adb and it doesn't see the device.

nevermind, i learned about payload dumper. i figured it out and now im back on stock with the update..im figuring the same method will work with the October boot image...who cares to try it out ?

 

[LocBox]

Nothing I do will let it update... I reset and factory reset, the update still won't install. Just an error message. I only flashed the stock boot img to return back but I guess that didn't help..

 

[dj.est86]

Img files

Whenever i click the link on part 2, it gives me the magisk_patched.img. Not the magisk_boot.img. Anyone has the link for the magisk_boot.img?

 

[LocBox]

it appears my recovery has been changed to ATT recovery, i have unlocked. i think this is what my issue is. how do i get back the unlocked recovery img?

 

[Ntech02]

...

---------- Post added at 03:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:56 PM ----------

There is a new update today but i could not update my Duo despite i tried many times even reboot the phone.

It's because it's only for the unlocked variants that come straight from Microsoft. The att versions still have to wait

 

[daicaothu]

Mine is unlocked version and I am using it with Bell Canada right now.

...

---------- Post added at 03:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:56 PM ----------



It's because it's only for the unlocked variants that come straight from Microsoft. The att versions still have to wait

 

[arcanemagick]

On my unlocked (not AT&T) phone, I restored the original boot.img and successfully applied the October update.
However, I lost root because:

1. I failed to capture the OTA URL and acquire the OTA zip for patching
2. the update resets permissions on boot partitions so it cannot be read via adb shell w/o root
3. using fastboot to boot the old magisk_patched.img results in the touch screen not working
   (meaning I'm stuck at lock screen and cannot grant USB debug or super user)

But I'm happily using the updated phone without root for now.

---------- Post added at 04:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:46 PM ----------

On my unlocked (not AT&T) phone, I restored the original boot.img and successfully applied the October update.
However, I lost root...

Never mind!
Last time I had checked Microsoft's recovery download, it was still the original (2020.812.86). However, I checked today and they have updated it (2020.910.72). So, I was able to extract and patch the new boot.img and now have root again.

 

[ghostENVY]

Can you post the newly patched boot.img?:good:

On my unlocked (not AT&T) phone, I restored the original boot.img and successfully applied the October update.
However, I lost root because:

1. I failed to capture the OTA URL and acquire the OTA zip for patching
2. the update resets permissions on boot partitions so it cannot be read via adb shell w/o root
3. using fastboot to boot the old magisk_patched.img results in the touch screen not working
   (meaning I'm stuck at lock screen and cannot grant USB debug or super user)

But I'm happily using the updated phone without root for now.

---------- Post added at 04:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:46 PM ----------



Never mind!
Last time I had checked Microsoft's recovery download, it was still the original (2020.812.86). However, I checked today and they have updated it (2020.910.72). So, I was able to extract and patch the new boot.img and now have root again.

 

[arcanemagick]

Can you post the newly patched boot.img?:good:

Original: boot_2020.910.72.img (96 MB; SHA-1: C9D455AAE1DBD5F85E66BB65711D91F8BEA694E7)
Patched: magisk_patched_2020.910.72.img (57 MB; SHA-1: 1D5B332CF7595E4FEEF44DC5B4626F6852DBA2CE)

No promises on keeping these links available of course.

 

[r4961]

I've been trying to ride out the unrooted stock stuff on the unlocked version until Android 11 at least. Problem is I need to hide a few apps.

Since non-MS phones are able to w/Microsoft Launcher, I thought it'd be a given that we'd be able to do it as well. No option to do so as far as I see.

I'd like to ask what is the safest way, then, to gain root access w/this device, but still get the automatic updates?

 

[daicaothu]

Now I could not boot into recovery mode, no matters how I tried, with volume down and power buttons, or with magisk app, or use adb.

Any one could help please?

 

[AndroidFileHost]

Great work. I got it rooted and running perfectly on my unlocked (non At&T) surface running the latest update. Thanks for figuring this out.

---------- Post added at 03:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:59 PM ----------

Original: boot_2020.910.72.img (96 MB; SHA-1: C9D455AAE1DBD5F85E66BB65711D91F8BEA694E7)
Patched: magisk_patched_2020.910.72.img (57 MB; SHA-1: 1D5B332CF7595E4FEEF44DC5B4626F6852DBA2CE)

No promises on keeping these links available of course.

That magisk patch imaged worked perfectly thank you.

---------- Post added at 04:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:59 PM ----------

Now I could not boot into recovery mode, no matters how I tried, with volume down and power buttons, or with magisk app, or use adb.

Any one could help please?

This worked for me

After your Surface Duo is powered off, press and hold the Volume down button, then press and release the Power button. Continue to hold down the Volume down button.
After a menu appears, release the Volume down button.
Press and release the Volume down button to change the menu. The menu you want to appear is Recovery mode.
Press and release the Power button to select Recovery mode.
On the screen that shows a small robot lying down, press and hold the Power button, then press and release the Volume up button. Release the Power button.
On the Android Recovery screen, press and release the Volume up or Volume down button to change the menu.
Select Apply update from ADB, then press and release the Power button.
Plug the USB cable into both your Surface Duo and your Windows 10 PC.

Once in recovery (after the robot) you can also choose reboot to bootloader if you didn't want to do the apply update from adb.

 

[AndroidFileHost]

Anyone got a copy of the stock recovery.img that I can grab? Thanks