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Root Public Mobile

smartmanvartan

smartmanvartan

Android Expert
That's right folks... We're gonna need a public mobile section for the N861... got mine early as I'm kind of testing just before it's release... phone won't hit the stores here in Canada for another two weeks or a month but I'm checking things out... :D

The N861 has officially been released for Public Mobile! If you Have the N861 with Public Mobile, welcome!

Wanna root and install recovery?

Here is the easiest way:

http://androidforums.com/warp-seque...ot-unroot-recovery-installer-gui-edition.html

Use the c++ tool junkie2100 made for us and make sure you have the DRIVERS installed and follow the instructions on his thread.


Here is the harder way(In case the above method fails...):

Download the DRIVERS, ADB+Fastboot. CWMT Installer and ROOT installer

Steps:

0- Plug your phone in to your computer and transfer the "N861_CWMT.zip and the "SU-Busybox-Installer.zip" to your sd card but switch the USB mode back to "Charge only" after.
0.5- On your phone, make sure "USB debugging" is enabled in the "Settings"->"Developer options" menu.
1- Install the drivers.
2- Extract the contents of the "N861_ADB_FASTBOOT_CWMT.rar" to the root of the main hard drive(c:\).
3- Open a command prompt(cmd) as administartor (right click and "open as administrator")
4- Type "cd c:\android sdk" and hit enter.
5- Type "adb reboot bootloader" and hit enter
6- At this point your computer should ask for a driver. If it doesn't, go into device manager and make sure you have a device called "Android fastboot interface". If you don't and you have a "unknown device", the driver is in the c:\android sdk\ folder.
7- In your command prompt, type "fastboot boot c:\n861cwmt.img" and hit enter.
8- At this point, your phone will boot into Clockworkmod touch recovery but it will not be written to the phone... We're almost done hang in there...
9- Go make a backup in "backup and restore". this backup will be your stock unroted rom.
10- Go to "Install from sd card"->"choose Zip from sdcard", select the N861_CWMT.zip file and confirm.
11- Select "choose zip from sdcard" again, select the "SU-Busybox-Installer.zip" and confirm.

Done! Now you have custom recovery, root and a completely unmodified backup of your phone! :)

Custom ROM with no name I'm working on:

Once You have CWMT, You can try THIS. Its a deodexed, rooted, tweaked version of our ROM with a very light system and ALL uptatable apps installed as data. This means you don't have unused apks in your system when a new update for an app comes. This also means you are free to unistall and and change apps you don't need or want. But keep in mind that even the launcher is installed as data so if you uninstall it, you don't have a launcher. So install the new launcher before removing the one included in the ROM(If you don't like it). The first boot takes about five minutes. It's only the first boot and it's because of all the data. The first time you use the phone, open the superuser app once. And the mms shortcut on the home screen doesn't work but the mms app is just fine... just make a new shortcut.

OC Kernel tst10 from Downthemachine tweaked for Public Mobile. this kermel has a issue with ram and has been suspended for now but if you want to try it, it still wields a 1.8 ghz maximum speed...


Useful information:

smartmanvartan said:
Ok so I used this modded WiFi tether for root users and used these settings:

device profile- Generic ICS/JB (wlan0)
setup method- Netd (master)
WIFI-driver reload- check!
Routing fix- check!
Preferred dns- getprop net.dns1(in terminal emulator)
Alternate dns- getprop net.dns2( || )
Disable Wake-lock- check!

All other check boxes unchecked (with the exception of WIFI encryption if you want it)

Let me know if it works on b11... :)

found the app HERE
Click to expand...

HERE is the stock recovery flashable zip.

HERE, (MIRROR) is the stock ICS_PMI_B06 Stock ROM. It installs only on the stock recovery.

The Jellybean official update for boost doesn't work properly without the jb partitions but those don't work for us unless you are able to flash the public prl but even then no mms or roaming. If you flashed the jb partitions, HERE are the stock ones for your phone as they are not backed up by CWMT. I'm working on getting Jellybean for us, I want it too. :p
 
Do the Boost ZTE Warp ROMS work on your Public Mobile ZTE Warp? Do you have service?
 
i remember on the og warp when we flashed smart mobiles roms on the boost and only thing we really lost was mms, but we were able to tether native with the phone
 
SuperR said:
Do the Boost ZTE Warp ROMS work on your Public Mobile ZTE Warp? Do you have service?
Click to expand...

Well in the case of the N860, the firmware and bootloader where different and that caused a scaling issue on the Public N860 using a Boost rom. the processor would run at max regardless of governor settings. Our N861 has been issued with ICS but it seems to be a revision of the Warp sequent as I found a Boost mobile license agreement in the sytem\etc\custom_config\app\settings\ folder.
 
have you tried our cwm? It's kinda risky, but if it works we can certainly at the very least get some ICS ROMS going for you. One problem i can see with JB is that our partitions just got changed with the update. There could be consequences if you flash our JB partitions and they are wrong.

Can you do the following in a terminal emulator on your device?
Code: 
cat /proc/partitions

adb shell will work as well if you have that setup
 
http://androidforums.com/warp-seque...ot-unroot-recovery-installer-gui-edition.html

Well I used this and i got root and cwm touch recovery. the root doesn't seem to be full tho... I'm still playing around with it ill try that command and we'll compare partitions...

[HIGH]Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200]
(c) 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Android SDK>adb shell
shell@android:/ $ cat /proc/partitions
cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name

179 0 3817472 mmcblk0
179 1 8192 mmcblk0p1
179 2 8192 mmcblk0p2
179 3 8192 mmcblk0p3
179 4 1 mmcblk0p4
179 5 8192 mmcblk0p5
179 6 8192 mmcblk0p6
179 7 8192 mmcblk0p7
179 8 8192 mmcblk0p8
179 9 32768 mmcblk0p9
179 10 32768 mmcblk0p10
179 11 8192 mmcblk0p11
179 12 16384 mmcblk0p12
179 13 16384 mmcblk0p13
179 14 8192 mmcblk0p14
179 15 516096 mmcblk0p15
179 16 57344 mmcblk0p16
179 17 8192 mmcblk0p17
179 18 311296 mmcblk0p18
179 19 2734080 mmcblk0p19
179 32 31074304 mmcblk1
179 33 31070208 mmcblk1p1
shell@android:/ $[/HIGH]
 
Cool looks like all the important partitions are at least the same size. If you want to be adventurous, you could try flashing our b09 roms as is and see where it gets you. As long as you have a fully functional cwm you can't really go wrong. If you want to be brave you could try flashing our JB partitions and our b11 roms. You could even try flashing our b11 roms without flashing the partitions first and see what happens. We get strange behavior without the new partitions but you may not.

edit: if you are going to flash our jb partitions i would suggest you back yours up first. You can do this in adb by issuing the following commands:
Code: 
adb shell
su
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 of=/sdcard/mmcblk0p1
Repeat for partitions 2,8,9,11
 
SuperR said:
Cool looks like all the important partitions are at least the same size. If you want to be adventurous, you could try flashing our b09 roms as is and see where it gets you. As long as you have a fully functional cwm you can't really go wrong. If you want to be brave you could try flashing our JB partitions and our b11 roms. You could even try flashing our b11 roms without flashing the partitions first and see what happens. We get strange behavior without the new partitions but you may not.

edit: if you are going to flash our jb partitions i would suggest you back yours up first. You can do this in adb by issuing the following commands:
Code: 
adb shell
su
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 of=/sdcard/mmcblk0p1
Repeat for partitions 2,8,9,11
Click to expand...

What exactly do the new partitions consist of and can someone still run ICS after on the new partitions?
 
i am not sure if anyone has tried running ics with jb partitions, but if you back yours up they can be restored in case things go wrong. We don't really know what is in the new partitions, we just know we need them for b11 to function properly on our device.

jb will boot and run fine without them but the screen flickers a bluish color and is not tolerable for extended periods of time. If i were you i would flash one of the custom b11 roms without the partitions to see what happens lol
 
So from what I gather the jb partitons are bootloader and firmware. do you guys know anything about these files:
osbl.mbn
adsp.mbn
dbl.mbn
EMMCBOOT.MBN
amss.mbn

these are the bootloader radio and firmware files. these files on the og warp are different between the Public mobile and boost mobile versions... and they have the same addresses on the N860 ... Does anyone already have a list of which partitions are what on the N861 yet?

EDIT: Also I would greatly appreciate getting a B09 version of the mmcblk0p1,mmcblk0p2,mmcblk0p8 and mmcblk0p11 partitions.. :)
 
Out of pure curiosity, if you go to About Phone, what is your SW Version?

edit: our ICS was B07 and B09. Our JB is B11.
 
cool now i got something to try... I'm gonna flash the b09 partitions/firmware and I'm gonna fool the boost mobile warp sequent online upgrading tool into thinking i need an update and I'm gonna try and pull the update package from tmp and see if i can get the files in raw form... that will tell me quite a bit :)
 
we have the ota package already i will grab a link hang on

edit: can't find it lol still looking

edit2: Here is the official B11 OTA update

FYI, this is an update package, not a full rom. Only patches to existing files. It is the direct OTA they shipped all of us file name unchanged

edit3: If you are looking for a full unmodied b11 stock rom with all the files intact we have that too

edit4: and here is a full unmodified b09 stock rom
 
Well I tried a few things last night... Tried the superom b11 and had the flickering screen issue so i made a adb backup of my partitions and flashed the jb system prep but then i couldn't connect to My service provider so i tried making a hybrid jb system prep with the PMI amss.mbn(mmcblk0p9)and that bricked my phone... so I'm out for now but I'll be back :)
 
well, first of all how are you sure that is the right partition? secondly did you try to use the one you pulled off your phone in the first place or one for the warp kuz that will instantly brick your phone... take the one you pulled in the first place and put it back on there, flash one partition at a time till you figure out which ones make b11 work and which ones make the other carrier work. and NEVER flash ANYTHING from a different model
 
junkie2100 said:
well, first of all how are you sure that is the right partition? secondly did you try to use the one you pulled off your phone in the first place or one for the warp kuz that will instantly brick your phone... take the one you pulled in the first place and put it back on there, flash one partition at a time till you figure out which ones make b11 work and which ones make the other carrier work. and NEVER flash ANYTHING from a different model
Click to expand...

how i am sure, I looked at the update script in the b11 ota package to get my bearings on what partitions are what. in my experience with zte devices the amss.mbn is the radio and in both the N860 and N861 they are in mmcblk0p9. I backed up my partitions with adb prior to flashing the system prep for jb the first time around and used my mmcblk0p9 from my PMI N861 in my hybrid test but it did not fair well... probably because the radio was from api 15 and the bootloader was for api 16... I'm aware of how you should proceed with devices but if your not prepared to risk sometimes... This hybrid firmware is something i did for the N860 as well... On the N860 you need a Boost mobile bootloader to run a boost mobile rom ( along with a couple apks)... but the amss has to remain or else you can't connect to your network(thats where the prl is)... so i had Made a little project called Unification Portal which allows you to run a boost mobile rom on a public mobile phone using the Boost bootloader and the public radio as well as some public mobile apks... It's not new territory for me but it just didn't work out the way I planned...
 
Bummer. At least our cwm works for your device so you can get some custom ICS roms together. I assume a JB update will arrive shortly for your device as it is obviously very close to ours and such little effort would be required by them.
 
You could also try going back to your ICS partitions and try our b09 roms and our cm10-10.1 based roms.
 
are you SURE that is how the partitions are set up? kuz i just looked something up that i could swear said the radio was partition 8 not 9 on the warp, and the warps partition map could be completely different for all we know we never decoded the info to see what was up. and as far as the prl thing, cant you just pull the prl with qpst or cdma workshop then push it back after flashing?
 
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