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Rooting iRulu Chinese Phone

bethnesbitt

bethnesbitt

Member
Just bought have a, semi, rooted iRulu from the company. I am able to use ADB and pull files, just unable to pull or install busybox. Fastboot works, but can't figure out how to unlock the bootloader. Did some trolling around in the phone and on Irulu's Website, this is the tablet I bought, also, downloaded this file which almost matches my devices specifications. Was wondering if anybody was interested in taking a look.

The goal is to unlock the tablet so that I can push the vold.fstab back after editing, want to swap my internal storage with either the internal hard-drive or the SDCARD. Am only able to move selected files to SDCARD after downloading from Google play, anyways, google play apps do not always install directly to the SDCARD, even though I selected to install there. If it lets me move them to the SDCARD, it can be done after installing.

Also another little twirk is the time, seems that it is out of sync, for example, when playing on-line games that work with FaceBook, even though the person made their move following my move within five minutes, it shows they played an hour ago. Not a game issue because my other devices show the correct time, just happens on this tablet.

Also, here is what I see when running ADB and Fastboot commands, it's not rocket science, so I believe this phone is root-able. It isn't as if anything is kept private, and with a device number like that, how encrypted can the root directory be?

[HIGH]List of devices attached
0123456789ABCDEF device[/HIGH] <--really?

It's a MT65xx chip, same that ZTE uses, so the vold.fstab match almost exactly, only thing is there are three, as you can see from the attached.

vold.fstab
vold.fstab.nand
vold.fstab.fat.nand

Wanted to see what would happend, so I rebooted into <code>adb reboot bootloader</code> and tried flashing a custom recovery, gave me an error about being the wrong type. Good thing it didn't work :P. The recovery menu is almost like CM, has adb sideload, etc...
 

Attachments

Did some more trolling around and pulled the below attached files, fstab and build.prop Now here is the complete list of my emmc@ in the main directory:

emmc@android
emmc@cache
emmc@ebr1
emmc@fat
emmc@protect_f
emmc@protect_s
emmc@usrdata

Was wondering if those could somehow be mounted to obtain superuser access.
 

Attachments

bethnesbitt said:
Did some more trolling around and pulled the below attached files, fstab and build.prop Now here is the complete list of my emmc@ in the main directory:

emmc@android
emmc@cache
emmc@ebr1
emmc@fat
emmc@protect_f
emmc@protect_s
emmc@usrdata

Was wondering if those could somehow be mounted to obtain superuser access.
Click to expand...

Did it, thanks to Framaroot, yes, now have superuser access, is so awesome. Downloaded every version, 1.9.1 was the one that worked for me. Next, to get it to completely working correctly, still some su issues pushing files, install Clockworkmod Superuser from the Play store ontop of the SuperSU that Framaroot installed.

Tried swapping my internal with my sdcard, caused my internal phone storage to delete and lost my su privilidges. Had to reroot with framaroot and clockworkmod superuser in order put my vold.fstab back the way it was. Really do not want to install a custom recovery, would rather just swap my drives to extended my external memory. Hoping somebody can give me some pointers?
 
Figured out that I did not need two superuser apps installed on phone. The Chainfire su binary did not agree with my phone but clockwork mods worked just fine. When flashing the phone with framaroot it puts chainfire's superuser app on the phone but not as a system app.

After figuring out that it could to be converted to a system app under settings, removed everything, reflashed with framaroot 1.9.3, worked just fine but still issues with the su binary not allowing me certain super user prividlegs, grabbed the Clockwork mod superuser from the play store, installed that, updated the binary. Next had to convert chainfire superuser to a system app, glad that option was right under settings when opening up chainfire. Than I was able to uninstall chainfire now that clockworkmod's superuser and binary was installed. Now superuser works flawlessly.

Happen to come across online nandroid in play store, gave it a shot and glad I did. Let me backup my tablet as a CWM and TWRP recovery, except, can't figure out how to flash it now. Phone is really particular, which is nice, all that much harder to brick. Anyways, was so impressed with the online nandroid backup, paid the 99cents to use the online backup, for support. Know I could easily just send my backup to google drive manually, but what the heck, the more money they make the better chance of more android devices being exploited.
 
My first brick, LOL

Thank you again for the online nandroid backup. Used MTKDroidTools according to this FAQ on XDA Developers and was able to install a CWM custom made recovery, that is MTK Droid tools makes one compatible with your phone, now I can try different things with flashing the rom. This method also works as well BTW. Turns out the framaroot 1.9.3 works, just didn't realize it at first.

After the soft brick, because I had the nandroid backup on my PC, was able to mount my phone as USB, copy the backup and do a recovery, phew. Talk about being lucky, if it didn't work my BF who bought me the phone would have been soooooooooo.... mad.

Figured out about the mount, know exactly what needs to be down to extend the inernal memory. Turns out on this device that fstab that I posted above needs to be edited, just can't get it to save, so back to MTKDroid tools to see if I can somehow edit it and reflash it back to my phone. Not sure though if that will work or if the way iRulu set up the phone where the first boot tells the fstab to go the way it wants, will find out soon enough. Also, there is a factory.init.rc instead, what a mess.
 
Mega Optimus said:
wow what carrier are you using?
Click to expand...

The tablet is carrier unlocked, have to actually write my own imei number. What's kinda cool also is that it has GSM and CDMA support. Not sure if I should:

A. order a sim card from probably boost moble
B. setup CDMA, call boost mobile, ask them for a compatible imei number
C. snag an IMEI number off one of my old android phones to see if i could actually switch the service over.

For example, I have a old ZTE merit z990g from straighttalk. If i took that imei number, wrote the ST APN to the new tablet, would it be straight talk?

So than if that worked, what if I deleted the NVRAM from the ZTE and wrote a new IMEI number using my bf's imei from his phone, would this carrier unlock it?

Has anybody ever tried that?

Found out that I have to modify the EBR1 to expand the internal memory, now just need to figure out how to do it on a 6572 since it only has a EBR1 and MBR, no EBR2. I know it can be done, downloaded a hack for the 6589 to see how they did it, only had the EBR1 in the zip, no EBR2 or MBR.
 
bethnesbitt said:
Figured it out, it's actually easy to root and increase the space on these MTK6572, extremely easy, easier then the ones that use a MBR, EBR1 & EBR2. Working with just the one EBR1 makes it easier. Amazed that nobody figured this out sooner, wrote the directions on my blog:

Elizabeth's Blogger Wikis: Tutorial: How to increase partition on MediaTek Tablets MTK6572, MTK6577 and others
Click to expand...

Somebody asked me to help partition their mtk6572. Had their scatter file, made me start thinking, what would editing the scatter do? Had to brick a few times till figured out the math.

Well, editing the scatter to match the ebr repartition makes a big difference. My tab runs faster then it did before the editing of the ebr mod. Also, apps that didn't notify me before and after the mod work now.

Here is the new post:

http://elizabethswikis.blogspot.com/2014/09/tutorial-2-increase-mtk6572.html?m=1
 
smartmanvartan said:
what build number do you have? is this a kt07?
Click to expand...

Mine it the mbk72 wet. Chip is mtk6572. Tested on other 6572 and it works. Right now trying to fix the blocks.

adb shell
Cat /proc/dumchar_info

The ebr mod doesn't change that. Believe that the fix is in lk.bin or preloader.bin.
 
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