Hi community,
Feel free to redirect me if I'm on the wrong group.
I own an TCL-built Alcatel OneTouch 6015X Fire E phone. It comes preloaded with
FXOS 1.3. Alcatel has released the source code [1], although it doesn't seem to
match the installed binaries and provides no build configuration. Additionally
the closed binary blobs aren't provided. FXOS 2.0 is delivered as FOTA by a
specific German carrier's release channel but I don't think the source code has
been released. BTW, who did the port to FXOS 2.0? TCL or the German carrier?
License-wise, will/should the source code be released as for FXOS 1.3?
All in all, I would like to play with custom builds of FXOS, including my owns.
But before breaking everything, I would like to first backup the original FXOS
partitions and this is where problems begin.
With FXOS 1.3 loaded on the eMMC, I'm unable to boot TWRP recovery (to gain
root access) from fastboot to back up the original FXOS 1.3 partitions. The
phone kept stuck at the Alcatel splash screen and no more answer to adb nor
fastboot. Unlocking the bootloader didn't help. However, flashing the TWRP
recovery image to /recovery did the trick. Except that /recovery is no more the
original one so I can't make a backup of FXOS 1.3 /recovery. To work around
this, I also made a backup copy of the whole eMMC using dd on Linux (HDD Raw
Copy on Windows is also helpful). The strange thing is that if I restore this
backup copy to the eMMC, the phone kept stuck in download mode at the end of
the restoration process: the screen is black (no Alcatel splash screen), the
phone is detected as Qualcomm USB Storage and isn't recognized by adb nor
fastboot. The only solution is to repair the phone using Alcatel's Mobile
Upgrade Q software (takes _literally_ hours).
How do FXOS relate to this? Well, FXOS 2.0 behaves differently. Indeed, I've no
problem restoring a FXOS 2.0 backup copy (still made with dd or HDD Raw Copy)
to the eMMC. The phone reboots correctly at the end of the restoration process.
I've also no problem booting TWRP recovery from fastboot to back up the FXOS
2.0 partitions, without needing to first flash it to /recovery as with FXOS
1.3. It's also noteworthy that with eMMC loaded with FXOS 2.0, Alcatel's Mobile
Upgrade Q no more works (the phone is disconnected from USB right after the
phone information is retrieved). And putting it in download mode is nearly
impossible.
So, are these different behaviours between FXOS 1.3 and 2.0 related to FXOS
itself or related to the phone's firmware/bootloader/something else? Are other
6015X owners experiencing the same issues? What other options do I have to make
working backups of the original FXOS 1.3 partitions: direct extract from the dd
image using the correct offset and byte count?
Thanks,
Émeric
[1] http://sourceforge.net/projects/alcatel/files/OT_FF_6015X_20150403.tar.xz
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