Some useful tools for MTK Phones

[900supersport]

I thought I would list some of the tools I am using with my thl t11.

MTKDroidTools
Amongst other things this tool by rua1 at xda can build and flash clockwork recovery to your phone.

To take full advantage of this tool the phone must be rooted.

See http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2160490 for download and instructions from the rua1. ADB usb drivers are required to use MTKDroidTools, if you don't already have these there are downloads in the first few posts.

On starting MTKDroidTools connect your phone and wait for it to be recognised and the data on the left-hand side of the screen to be read as below.



The second tab has options for helping root the phone (you would need to be in CWM or TWRP recovery for this to work), make a CWM recovery and flash to the phone.



Across the bottom of the screen is a status for root, if the indicator is yellow then pressing root will attempt to get a root shell to the phone. You may have to grant root access from the phone.



Note that further options are available once root obtained. If you have this screen you can create a CWM and flash to the phone by first selecting 'use boot from phone' and then press then 'Recovery and Boot' button.

SPFlashTool
This is the standard tool for flashing MTK ROMs. Shown below is the download screen used to flash ROMs



In this case I've already selected a scatter file, the individual image files have been selected automatically.

MobileUncle.apk
Available on the play store, this apk is useful once your phone is rooted. You can backup/restore IMEI numbers, reboot to boot loader, recovery etc

[linuxslate.com]

Can anyone help me find a SP Flash Tool for Linux.

On the following link, for SP Flash Tool 3.1352, it says:

http://mtk2000.ucoz.ru/load/soft/soft_mtk/sp_flash_tool_v_3_1352_01_5_1352_200/5-1-0-164

Now it supports Win Xp 32bit and Ubuntu 10.4.

New Features/Enhancement:
1. Intial Pre-Release for Linux platform

But I do not see anything that looks like a Linux executable or package in the associated downloads.

Is there another official site for SP Flash Tool?

Has anybody really seen a Linux version?

I do not have a Windows computer.

[bluesmanuk]

I have been playing around with these tools to backup and restore my MTK phone but ran into some difficulties when it comes to backing up and restoring the phone in a complete fashion.

I first used MTKdroidtools 2.5.3 to create a backup, believing that when restoring, it would restore everything exactly as it was at a point in time.

After doing this, I had to play around with the phone because when making or receiving a call, whilst the recipient could hear me OK, they were very faint and the only way that I could hear them properly was to use the loudspeaker or plug in some headphones.

So after playing around and getting nowhere, I decided to use spflashtools to restore.

I noticed that both cache and usrdata were not selected, which indicated that they were not backed up.

This was confirmed when after the restore, I had to restore many apps and go through configurations to get the phone back just as it was before I backed it up.

I then discovered that an older version of MTKdroidtools (2.4.3) had an option to select cache and usrdata, which was removed in 2,5,3, so I used this instead.

All went well, so I decided to load up sptools and point at the scatter file to confirm that all would be as I expect.

Whilst cache and udrdata were there, preloader and uboot were not selected.

So unless I am missing something (which is quite possible) there does not seem to be a way to backup the entire phone and restore it back to exactly the same state again.

[cracktech]

MTk Droid Tool CWM generation

I had modified 3 ROMs so far for MTK Soc 2 for MTK 6582(Quads) and 1 for MTK6592(Octas) but I have never ever touch or even attempt to make CWM from MTKDroidTools since my fisrt attempt at using a "home made" CWM by another user did not backup and restore completely the firmware as "BLUESMANUK" says .
I would advise anybody who wants to use modified ROM using customs recovery to find one wwith TWRP recovery which has to be customised to each model and Android version (JB recovery cannot be safely used as KitKat recovery) Most firmware modders are using "home made" CWM and effecting the users backup and recovery process.
I only used modified ROM with TWRP recovery as it is cutomised to each individual model. I wouldnt touch touch an MTK device that doesnt have a variant of TWRP recovery as I need to to modify further the firmware(develop 100% AOSP firmware).
For your info I do only for LENOVO phones as it has better firmware than other Chinese (no matter how hyped up their advert is) but you dont see a lot of LENOVO phones in the US or EU because they have lots of Chinese bloatware but after removing these and mantaining the LENOVO specific apps (like LENOVO SuperCamera-SNAPiT! which is highly sought after even by SAMSUNG users). The phone can run rings around SAMSUNG or LG phones and at a much,much cheaper price (they are currently at no.4 ranking in terms of volume sales beating even LG. I am currently using an OCtaCore LENOVO 6inch phablet with TWRP and trying to perfect the Vibe1.5 Ui for LENOVO (Vibe Ui are only for KitKat ROM).
So you see the importance of using TWRP instead of "home made" CWM?

[900supersport]

In terms of backup I think the aim with mtkdroidtools is to backup the ROM.

I've had no issues with the cwm recovery as created by mtkdroidtools either on my phones, both 4.2.2 or my u65gt 4.4.2. I've also tried TWRP and carliv. All can work well.

[bluesmanuk]

Does TWRP give the option to backup everything outside of any external SD card?

What I found with CWM was that when using a rockchip tablet a while ago, I was using CWM under the impression that it was backing up everything, so when the day came to use it, I was rather shocked when I still had to re-install many apps and settings after a restore.

I'm still puzzled as to why preloader and uboot were not picked up from the scatter file settings.

[cracktech]

TWRP Recovery

Does TWRP give the option to backup everything outside of any external SD card?

What I found with CWM was that when using a rockchip tablet a while ago, I was using CWM under the impression that it was backing up everything, so when the day came to use it, I was rather shocked when I still had to re-install many apps and settings after a restore.

I'm still puzzled as to why preloader and uboot were not picked up from the scatter file settings.

I like to use TWRP coz it has better interface and none like the CWM (sometimes especially for phones it is critical to backup NVRAM or else there will be no IMEI, on the TWRP you can chose o backup or not to by ticking the boxes, CWM doesnt show you what it is backing up options) small lines and I dont recommend that to any newbies who download my ROMs, I only seek for TWRP recovery.
To answer whether TWRP can Backup/restore from anything outside the external sdcard, it depends on the versions version 2.7.x.x.x are more likely to be able to even backup to USB OTG (I am currently using this on my MTK6592 device) and about to release my customs AOSP ROM paired with this TWRP Rec. for the model I am doing and it is ported to be able to work on both 4.2.2 and 4.4.2 Android , normally the one that works on 4.2.2 will not do well on 4.4.2 (I had this first hand experience while modding this ROM which was updated to 4.4.2 and it doesnt backup and restore correctly (failed) from the 4.2.2 version.
There is another recent experience about 5 month ago( on RK 3188) back when we were told by our Forum admin not to use the 4.2.2 CWM recovery for the newly released 4.4.2 firmware we had to wait for about a month before the CWM was successfully ported over to 4.4 (by that time the Forum was busy advising users how to recover their backup/restore (which we told them that is not possible with the 4.2 version, luckily none bricked).
Unless some guy like this one had successfully made one which worked on both 4.2 and 4.4 flawlessly be extra careful when installing customs recovery , ask the firmware developer to provide the customs recovery that he used.

The other answer as to why your flashing doesnt flash preloader , maybe because it is not the original "signed" version, or if there is a file "checksum.xx" remove that (dont erase just move it out) and read within the first few lines of your scatter file for the name of the preloader , it should be the same with the one in the ROM folder (e.g >>" general: MTK_PLATFORM_CFG info:
- config_version: V1.1.1
platform: MT6582
project: lcsh82_wet_jb5 <<< the preloader name must be the same!!
storage: EMMC
boot_channel: MSDC_0
block_size: 0x20000"

This my two cents worth when moving stock recovery and substituting with customs recovery it will not flash unless the "checksum" file is removed from the ROM folder.

[bluesmanuk]

I like to use TWRP coz it has better interface and none like the CWM (sometimes especially for phones it is critical to backup NVRAM or else there will be no IMEI, on the TWRP you can chose o backup or not to by ticking the boxes, CWM doesnt show you what it is backing up options) small lines and I dont recommend that to any newbies who download my ROMs, I only seek for TWRP recovery.
To answer whether TWRP can Backup/restore from anything outside the external sdcard, it depends on the versions version 2.7.x.x.x are more likely to be able to even backup to USB OTG (I am currently using this on my MTK6592 device) and about to release my customs AOSP ROM paired with this TWRP Rec. for the model I am doing and it is ported to be able to work on both 4.2.2 and 4.4.2 Android , normally the one that works on 4.2.2 will not do well on 4.4.2 (I had this first hand experience while modding this ROM which was updated to 4.4.2 and it doesnt backup and restore correctly (failed) from the 4.2.2 version.
There is another recent experience about 5 month ago( on RK 3188) back when we were told by our Forum admin not to use the 4.2.2 CWM recovery for the newly released 4.4.2 firmware we had to wait for about a month before the CWM was successfully ported over to 4.4 (by that time the Forum was busy advising users how to recover their backup/restore (which we told them that is not possible with the 4.2 version, luckily none bricked).
Unless some guy like this one had successfully made one which worked on both 4.2 and 4.4 flawlessly be extra careful when installing customs recovery , ask the firmware developer to provide the customs recovery that he used.

The other answer as to why your flashing doesnt flash preloader , maybe because it is not the original "signed" version, or if there is a file "checksum.xx" remove that (dont erase just move it out) and read within the first few lines of your scatter file for the name of the preloader , it should be the same with the one in the ROM folder (e.g >>" general: MTK_PLATFORM_CFG info:
- config_version: V1.1.1
platform: MT6582
project: lcsh82_wet_jb5 <<< the preloader name must be the same!!
storage: EMMC
boot_channel: MSDC_0
block_size: 0x20000"

This my two cents worth when moving stock recovery and substituting with customs recovery it will not flash unless the "checksum" file is removed from the ROM folder.

Thanks for the tips.

There is no checksum file in any of my current backups.

There is however a large difference in the contents of two scatter files.

When using MtkDroidTools v2.5.3, which doesn't give me the option to backup userdata.img, the scatter file is:

################################################## ################################################## ########
#
# General Setting
#
################################################## ################################################## ########
- general: MTK_PLATFORM_CFG
info:
- config_version: V1.1.1
platform: MT6582
project: MTDTtest
storage: EMMC
boot_channel: MSDC_0
block_size: 0x20000
################################################## ################################################## ########
#
# Layout Setting
#
################################################## ################################################## ########
- partition_index: SYS0
partition_name: PRELOADER
file_name: preloader.bin
is_download: true
type: SV5_BL_BIN
linear_start_addr: 0x0
physical_start_addr: 0x0
partition_size: 0xC00000
region: EMMC_BOOT_1
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: BOOTLOADERS
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS1
partition_name: MBR
file_name: MBR
is_download: true
type: NORMAL_ROM
linear_start_addr: 0xC00000
physical_start_addr: 0x0
partition_size: 0x80000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS2
partition_name: EBR1
file_name: EBR1
is_download: true
type: NORMAL_ROM
linear_start_addr: 0xC80000
physical_start_addr: 0x80000
partition_size: 0x80000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS3
partition_name: PRO_INFO
file_name: NONE
is_download: false
type: NONE
linear_start_addr: 0xD00000
physical_start_addr: 0x100000
partition_size: 0x300000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: PROTECTED
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS4
partition_name: NVRAM
file_name: NONE
is_download: false
type: NONE
linear_start_addr: 0x1000000
physical_start_addr: 0x400000
partition_size: 0x500000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: BINREGION
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS5
partition_name: PROTECT_F
file_name: NONE
is_download: false
type: NONE
linear_start_addr: 0x1500000
physical_start_addr: 0x900000
partition_size: 0xA00000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: PROTECTED
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS6
partition_name: PROTECT_S
file_name: NONE
is_download: false
type: NONE
linear_start_addr: 0x1F00000
physical_start_addr: 0x1300000
partition_size: 0xA00000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: PROTECTED
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS7
partition_name: SECCFG
file_name: NONE
is_download: false
type: NONE
linear_start_addr: 0x2900000
physical_start_addr: 0x1D00000
partition_size: 0x20000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: INVISIBLE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS8
partition_name: UBOOT
file_name: lk.bin
is_download: true
type: NORMAL_ROM
linear_start_addr: 0x2920000
physical_start_addr: 0x1D20000
partition_size: 0x60000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS9
partition_name: BOOTIMG
file_name: boot.img
is_download: true
type: NORMAL_ROM
linear_start_addr: 0x2980000
physical_start_addr: 0x1D80000
partition_size: 0x600000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS10
partition_name: RECOVERY
file_name: recovery.img
is_download: true
type: NORMAL_ROM
linear_start_addr: 0x2F80000
physical_start_addr: 0x2380000
partition_size: 0x600000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS11
partition_name: SEC_RO
file_name: secro.img
is_download: true
type: NORMAL_ROM
linear_start_addr: 0x3580000
physical_start_addr: 0x2980000
partition_size: 0x600000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS12
partition_name: MISC
file_name: NONE
is_download: false
type: NONE
linear_start_addr: 0x3B80000
physical_start_addr: 0x2F80000
partition_size: 0x80000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: INVISIBLE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS13
partition_name: LOGO
file_name: logo.bin
is_download: true
type: NORMAL_ROM
linear_start_addr: 0x3C00000
physical_start_addr: 0x3000000
partition_size: 0x300000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS14
partition_name: EBR2
file_name: EBR2
is_download: true
type: NORMAL_ROM
linear_start_addr: 0x3F00000
physical_start_addr: 0x3300000
partition_size: 0x80000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS15
partition_name: EXPDB
file_name: NONE
is_download: false
type: NONE
linear_start_addr: 0x3F80000
physical_start_addr: 0x3380000
partition_size: 0xA00000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: INVISIBLE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS16
partition_name: ANDROID
file_name: system.img
is_download: true
type: YAFFS_IMG
linear_start_addr: 0x4980000
physical_start_addr: 0x3D80000
partition_size: 0x2BC00000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS17
partition_name: CACHE
file_name: cache.img
is_download: true
type: YAFFS_IMG
linear_start_addr: 0x30580000
physical_start_addr: 0x2F980000
partition_size: 0x7E00000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS18
partition_name: USRDATA
file_name: data.img
is_download: true
type: YAFFS_IMG
linear_start_addr: 0x38380000
physical_start_addr: 0x37780000
partition_size: 0x40000000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: UPDATE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS19
partition_name: FAT
file_name: NONE
is_download: false
type: NONE
linear_start_addr: 0x78380000
physical_start_addr: 0x77780000
partition_size: 0x72D80000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: true
is_reserved: false
operation_type: INVISIBLE
reserve: 0x00
- partition_index: SYS20
partition_name: BMTPOOL
file_name: NONE
is_download: false
type: NONE
linear_start_addr: 0xFFFF00A8
physical_start_addr: 0xFFFF00A8
partition_size: 0x1500000
region: EMMC_USER
storage: HW_STORAGE_EMMC
boundary_check: false
is_reserved: true
operation_type: RESERVED
reserve: 0x00






When using MtkDroidTools v2.4.3, which does give me the option to backup userdata.img, the scatter file is far smaller:

PRELOADER 0x0{}MBR 0xc00000{}EBR1 0xc80000{}__NODL_PRO_INFO 0xd00000{}__NODL_NVRAM x1000000{}__NODL_PROTECT_F 0x1500000{}__NODL_PROTECT_S 0x1f00000{}__NODL_SECCFG x2900000{}UBOOT 0x2920000{}BOOTIMG 0x2980000{}RECOVERY 0x2f80000{}SEC_RO 0x3580000{}__NODL_MISC 0x3b80000{}LOGO 0x3c00000{}EBR2 0x3f00000{}__NODL_EXPDB 0x3f80000{}ANDROID 0x4980000{}CACHE 0x30580000{}USRDATA 0x38380000{}__NODL_FAT x78380000{}__NODL_BMTPOOL 0xffff00a8{}


Gives me something to investigate further though.

[cracktech]

WoW! Never seen a sctter file that big!

When using MtkDroidTools v2.4.3, which does give me the option to backup userdata.img, the scatter file is far smaller:

PRELOADER 0x0{}MBR 0xc00000{}EBR1 0xc80000{}__NODL_PRO_INFO 0xd00000{}__NODL_NVRAM x1000000{}__NODL_PROTECT_F 0x1500000{}__NODL_PROTECT_S 0x1f00000{}__NODL_SECCFG x2900000{}UBOOT 0x2920000{}BOOTIMG 0x2980000{}RECOVERY 0x2f80000{}SEC_RO 0x3580000{}__NODL_MISC 0x3b80000{}LOGO 0x3c00000{}EBR2 0x3f00000{}__NODL_EXPDB 0x3f80000{}ANDROID 0x4980000{}CACHE 0x30580000{}USRDATA 0x38380000{}__NODL_FAT x78380000{}__NODL_BMTPOOL 0xffff00a8{}


Gives me something to investigate further though.[/QUOTE]


I have never see a scatter that big! Yeah you'd better get EXPERT advise on this the scatter seems to be very complex it should be as in the second portion only maybe with a few extra lines only.
Sorry cant help you here coz I have been porting the MTK ROM to use only customs recovery easier to customised it only takes a few hours at most to extract from OTA and make it into a TWRP/CWM flashable version, the rest is adding and subtracting apps and driver files. I only use SpFlashTool to flash the original factory ROm and then extracting it out to make it into flashable zipsin the early versions and then substituting files with OTA updates zips that is captured.

[bluesmanuk]

I think that I may have found the answer.

When looking through all the backup files and comparing them to those contained in the original ROM's that I have flashed, I noticed that none of the backups contain the preloader file, so I coped the relevant one for the current ROM and when running sptools, it does at least fill in all the required parameter boxes.

I just have to try to restore and see what happens.