WARNING - Possible LOCKED RK Loaders showing up!

[Finless]

This is an important warning until we know more!


Hello, I am noticing recently that "possible" new CLONE units for UG802, MK808, etc are appearing and I am also noticing many reports of people no longer being able to erase NAND or flash a ROM after flashing some other ROM.

I am seeing far too many posts about this recently to think these are all failed units. It's possible they are failed but this seems like a growing issue that concerns me.

I am speculating at this point but it appears we may have locked boot loaders possibly showing up! So my warning at this time until we know more is ALWAYS uncheck the loader in my flash tool and do not flash the loader. Leave your existing loader UNLESS you know for sure the ROM you are flashing is made for your specific unit!!!

If your using update.img and RKBatch tool 1.5, you cannot turn off flashing the loader so for now I would not flash any ROM using this update.img unless you know it was made for your device!

Bob

[900supersport]

Re: WARNING - Possible LOCKED RK Loaders showing up!

Take a look at my latest cube mini thread our cwm no longer work. Had to revert to stock recovery.

ROM with our cwm recovery works fine on my mini. I'm thinking the later boot loaders are incompatible with our cwm. I may experiment with my mini by moving onto the new boot loader.

[Bob_UK]

How to tell if a loader is locked? are GeekBuying MK808's OK?

I ordered a MK808 from geekbuying.com it should be here tomorrow is there any way to tell if this has a locked loader?

I was going to flash your 1.6 rom as soon as it arrived, but now I am scared to try it.

After reading this forum for the last week I really cant wait to try your rom Bob..

I hope you have some good news for us about this.

Thank you from another Bob

[900supersport]

Bob_UK if you do give it a go and it goes wrong I may be able to help. I've worked with Finless on a few things

[Sc0rp10]

if i leave the stock loader and flash the rest of the rom then would it have any impact on performance?

I recently bought an mk808 but while flashing the rom it got bricked. the process went smoothly but on reboot it showed a green android with a red triangle and exclamation mark. from my experience with phones, I can tell that it has something to do with boot loaders.

now I have had the device replaced with a new one and I want to be sure not to get in the same position after flashing.

[digiPixel]

Let me get this straight. Some of the fake devices don't allow a ROM to be flashed a second time?

[JayDee]

Good advice, thanks for the info.

but if the error occurs, should i not be able to go around it by shorting pins 8 and 9 on the nand, and then erase and flash as usual?

[Finless]

I do not fully know. We have had a few people now that after flashing do the MASK ROM by shorting the pins and it still will not flash. Again I am speculating on these that it is the loader but I am not sure. Maybe just failed NAND?

For tablets where people cannot take them apart as easily, we always warned NOT to flash another devices loader. This removed any issue about screwing it up. So I am simply recommending not to flash the loader just in case.

Bob

[MaVe_64]

Re: WARNING - Possible LOCKED RK Loaders showing up!

I do not fully know. We have had a few people now that after flashing do the MASK ROM by shorting the pins and it still will not flash. Again I am speculating on these that it is the loader but I am not sure. Maybe just failed NAND?

For tablets where people cannot take them apart as easily, we always warned NOT to flash another devices loader. This removed any issue about screwing it up. So I am simply recommending not to flash the loader just in case.

Bob

The brick seems to have happend after flashing the loader (RK30xxLoader(L)_V1.16.bin) for the 3rd time.
I had flashed the rom 2 times. After the 2nd flash the Mk808 seemed ok but in XBMC it froze all the time. So I decided to do a kernel only flash with your tool. This is what I can recall what I did:
Flashing the kernel alone didn't work so I selected the loader too. More errors, so I decided to erase Nand and selected everything and do a full flash. Since then I get "No Found 1th chip, Download IDB failed" and it only starts in maskrom mode.
If you want I can PM you the log of the whole procedure.

[MaVe_64]

Re: WARNING - Possible LOCKED RK Loaders showing up!

The brick seems to have happend after flashing the loader (RK30xxLoader(L)_V1.16.bin) for the 3rd time.
I had flashed the rom 2 times. After the 2nd flash the Mk808 seemed ok but in XBMC it froze all the time. So I decided to do a kernel only flash with your tool. This is what I can recall what I did:
Flashing the kernel alone didn't work so I selected the loader too. More errors, so I decided to erase Nand and selected everything and do a full flash. Since then I get "No Found 1th chip, Download IDB failed" and it only starts in maskrom mode.
If you want I can PM you the log of the whole procedure.

Yaay! Good news! I never tried the pin 8+9 short method because I thought it only was for getting into mask mode. And mine started in mask mode. But I did the pin 8+9 short, applied USB, and in some way the nand reset himself, and flash worked! I have a working system again!
So everyone with bricked devices do the pin 8+9 short method. Make sure you are really making good contact, took me a couple of times till it worked.

I flashed the new stock ROM , I don't dare to flash finless 1.6 again before it's certain there's no locked loader danger.

[l0ur3nz0]

Any follow up on this?

Flashing other bootloader shouldn't cause it not boot? (mine worked so-so for a few days before getting into COMA)

What do you consider a CLONE?

I've bought mine through GE*KBUYING and, as I was told that these guys have direct (privileged?) contacts with the manufacturers it doesn't make much sense to be selling clones. but, hey, it's China, so...

The best option right now is to send it back to the seller? Or may we have a little hope, still?

[winky.fate]

Yaay! Good news! I never tried the pin 8+9 short method because I thought it only was for getting into mask mode. And mine started in mask mode. But I did the pin 8+9 short, applied USB, and in some way the nand reset himself, and flash worked! I have a working system again!
So everyone with bricked devices do the pin 8+9 short method. Make sure you are really making good contact, took me a couple of times till it worked.

I flashed the new stock ROM , I don't dare to flash finless 1.6 again before it's certain there's no locked loader danger.

Thank you for your good advice, but mine is still broken. Here's my story:

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?3134-NEW-iMito-MX1-2-Finless-ROM-1-5-Root-debloat-init-d-support&p=46247&viewfull=1#post46247

Since then I tried four different PC's, different cables (now I use an original Samsung one, hoping it has better quality) pin short method and even read elsewhere to be quick to press the flash button. Noting is working. But please don't stop giving advices.
I hope one day my UG007 will work again.

[smog]

I extracted all the images from the latest uhost2 firmware.IMG.

Is there any way to detect a locked boot loader BEFORE flashing it ?

The latest uhost2 firmware got the boot loader 1.11 but the stick seems fine with finless mk808b v1.5 boot loader 1.16

I really want to keep the possibility to flash something else in case Smallart drop the support.

[rd001]

Any news?

I am seeing far too many posts about this recently to think these are all failed units. It's possible they are failed but this seems like a growing issue that concerns me.

I am speculating at this point but it appears we may have locked boot loaders possibly showing up!

Any updates on locked bootloaders on RK rigs? Any solid info?

It would affect your own work. I was googling around and saw someone using your flasher for some other kernel (kzis) and using a modded X5 ROM image on a MK808. It was a Czech site, all in German.

http://androidforum.cz/minix-neo-x5-t35446.html#p477548

They had a video of the resulting MK808 in action: http://youtu.be/MWr-iEtnNEI
Anyway, your work seems to get around.

[Daytpn56]

Root Before Flashing

I understand that flashing most of current custom ROMs roots the device, however would rooting a minipc stick prior to flashing help at getting around a locked bootloader? From reading the procedures used to flash many Andriod tablets and smartphones it appears that most of the time the device is rooted prior to flashing it with a new ROM.

I have an MK808 on the way from CozySwan and I plan on rooting it according to the instructions on ArmTvTech and then flashing it with the Finless 1.6 ROM.

Any good reasons not to do it in this manner?

Am I accomplishing anything by prerooting before flashing it?

Does anyone have any experience with MK808s from CozySwan?