Boox Note Air 2 Plus v4 update - boot stuck

[ptrpolar]

Hello everyone.

A few days ago I started an update (of a few Mb, I don't remember the exact version) of the firmware of my boox note air 2 plus (which I had already successfully updated to firmware v4 a few months ago). After a few minutes and several reboots, the tablet remained stuck on the black reboot screen.
Several minutes later I rebooted the tablet but the situation had not changed: it no longer started normally.

I then did a series of tests (which did not work):

- I downloaded the upx file, converted it into a zip file and tried to update by restarting the tablet in recovery mode (pressing the power button for a few seconds and then after 7 more seconds, clicking 5 times) and selecting update via ADB:

adb sideload update.zip

the command execution stopped at 47% returning the error

"Error applying update: 7 (ErrorCode: : kInstallDeviceOpenError)"
"E:Error in /sedeload/package.zip (status1)

- I extracted the archive with the various .img files from the payload.bin file contained in the zip file and tried to start/flash the abl, boot, dtbo, recovery, vbmeta, vbmeta_system and xbl images via fastboot but the situation did not change. The tablet is reintroduced as fastboot mode but it doesn't allow me to flash images;

- I tried to change the active slot (initially I could only do it from fastbootd and not from normal fastboot);

- subsequently (after changing slots a few times - in fastbootd) the tablet got stuck in a strange mode: white screen, boox written and blue LED on (or purple if the USB cable is connected). I can no longer access recovery via key combination and I can no longer change slots via fastboot;

- I tried to flash the images via edl (Renate's version): the files seem to be written and it doesn't give me errors but the situation doesn't change.

The "fastboot getvar all" command returns:

(bootloader) has-slot:modem:yes
(bootloader) has-slot:system:no
(bootloader) current-slot:b
(bootloader) has-slot:boot:yes
(bootloader) slot-retry-count:b:0
(bootloader) slot-unbootable:b:yes
(bootloader) slot-successful:b:no
(bootloader) slot-retry-count:a:2
(bootloader) slot-unbootable:a:no
(bootloader) slot-successful:a:no
(bootloader) slot-count:2
(bootloader) secure:no
(bootloader) serialno:369B908B
(bootloader) product:bengal
(bootloader) snapshot-update-status:none
(bootloader) is-userspace:no
(bootloader) max-download-size:804268032
(bootloader) kernel:uefi

In summary, so far the tablet:
- is stuck on boot on a white screen and boox written;
- doesn't go into adb mode;
- it only starts in fastboot (with limited commands);
- I can send it into edl mode.

Could someone help me please? I don't want to do a factory reset because I don't want to lose my personal data.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by ptrpolar

I don't want to do a factory reset because I don't want to lose my personal data.

Then you should proceed cautiously.

Incremental updates are fraught with danger and it's amazing that they ever work at all.
I recommend only doing incremental updates from a stock system using the in-system update procedure.
That is, parking a downloaded update.upx in /sdcard and kicking it.

Were you using:

Model:  NoteAir2 (English)
Finger: Onyx/NoteAir2/NoteAir2:11/2025-04-01_18-03_v4.0-rel_6d15a71551/49339:user/release-keys
Link:   http://firmware-us.boox.com/9bcffd5069a01c2f90b90a778e27b376/update.upx
Size:   1,842,921,370
MD5:    9bcffd5069a01c2f90b90a778e27b376

I would suggest trying my custom recovery and installing that again.

[ptrpolar]

I would suggest trying my custom recovery and installing that again.

I flashed your custom recovery with "edl /u /w /precovery_a yourrec.img" (the same for recovery_b) but at reeboot the tablet is in the same situation: blank screen with boox logo and connected only in fastboot mode; no adb.
I cannot reach the recovery menu on the tablet screen with button combination.

In this situation I don't know how to push the update.upx in the tablet and install it.

[Renate]

From fastboot can you "fastboot reboot recovery"?
Can you get back to EDL?

You can force it to recovery easily enough, but if recovery isn't working and EDL is difficult to get to you will be making more problems for yourself.

EDL cables seem to work with most Onyx nowadays.
EDL test points can be tricky to find.

If you have a backup of your xbl and you're careful you can also get to EDL by wiping that.
But as I said, some of this stuff could make your life more complicated.

Could you get to recovery before with buttons?

[ptrpolar]

From fastboot can you "fastboot reboot recovery"?

Yes, but this return the same situation with blank screen and boox logo; fastboot is connected

D:\02 - NoteAir2P>fastboot devices
369B908B fastboot

Can you get back to EDL?

Yes, with a special cable. It works

C:\Users\Asus\edl>edl /l0014d0e100000000_d40eee56f3194665_FHPRG.bin
Found EDL 9008, handshaking... version 2
HWID: 001740e100000000 (x3), JTAG: 001740e1, OEM: 0000, Model: 0000
Hash: d40eee56f3194665-574109a39267724a-e7944134cd53cb76-7e293d3c40497955-bc8a4519ff992b03-1fadc6355015ac87 (x3)
Sending 0014d0e100000000_d40eee56f3194665_FHPRG.bin 100% ok, starting... ok, waiting for Firehose... ok

I don't have backup of my previous xbl but I flashed a new xbl from update.zip extracted from update.upx

[ptrpolar]

at the moment I can't enter recovery via the button, but this has been the case for some time and even before Renate's recovery flash

[Renate]

Well, you can try living life dangerously.
Flash this to the misc partition using EDL or fastboot, then reboot.
You should be able to see ADB afterwards.

Don't flash the zip!
Extract and use the recovery one to go to recovery, empty to boot normally.

[ptrpolar]

Flashed using EDL: same result.

I'm sure the files were flashed correctly because I tested it by downloading the image from the tablet and checking it.

The tablet always returns to fastboot mode.

[ptrpolar]

Don't you think it could be related to the situation of slot A and B?
My active slot is B but it's also marked as unbootable and I cannot switch to slot A because the fastboot command doesn't work.

fastboot --set-active=a
Setting current slot to 'a' FAILED (remote: 'unknown command')
fastboot: error: Command failed

Here the partial result of "fastboot getvar all":

(bootloader) has-slot:modem:yes
(bootloader) has-slot:system:no
(bootloader) current-slot:b
(bootloader) has-slot:boot:yes
(bootloader) slot-retry-count:b:0
(bootloader) slot-unbootable:b:yes
(bootloader) slot-successful:b:no
(bootloader) slot-retry-count:a:2
(bootloader) slot-unbootable:a:no
(bootloader) slot-successful:a:no
(bootloader) slot-count:2
(bootloader) secure:no
(bootloader) serialno:369B908B
(bootloader) product:bengal
(bootloader) snapshot-update-status:none
(bootloader) is-userspace:no
(bootloader) max-download-size:804268032
(bootloader) kernel:uefi

[Renate]

Right now we're not too concerned with slots.
You can try as a test to flash the extracted stock recovery.
With misc set to reboot-recovery that should really work.

Normally if you can get to fastboot that means a bunch of stuff is working.
xbl, abl, rpm, cmnlib, cmnlib64...

[ptrpolar]

I already tried this but it doesn't work.

[Renate]

Maybe you have an incompatible abl loaded?
I believe that my NA2 recovery was already tested by somebody.
But if you can't even get the stock recovery to start that means a problem elsewhere.
When you had the LED come on that could have been a system panic with 900e.
Print the whole gpt and post it as a text file.

[ptrpolar]

Maybe you have an incompatible abl loaded?

Maybe; durng the first attempts I flashed abl.img extracted from payload.bin contained in the update.zip file obtained from update.upx.

Here attached (gpt.txt) there is return of "edl /u /g".

[Renate]

Another thought. They probably removed it, but try:

fastboot boot rec.img

That probably tells you "Remote: Unknown command".

I've never swapped slots manually. It would be a bunch of work.
I'd probably just write some more code for my gpt utility.
I'll look at the gpt.

[ptrpolar]

You are right

fastboot boot noteair2-rec.img
Sending 'boot.img' (48216 KB)                      OKAY [  1.561s]
Booting                                            FAILED (remote: 'unknown command')
fastboot: error: Command failed

The same with the boot.img (fastboot boot boot.img) extracted from update.zip