Likebook Alita bricked after accidentally flashing Mars firmware..

[rvcjew]

You might want to ask them first. I mean that in the flashing software their should be a setting for this. But if do it wrong it might brick the device. As you have the firmware on it now try going into just the devices recovery menu and factory reset from there. I think normally you just boot with the pin held in without a usb cable. It should go to recovery and you pick options with the pin and hit power to accept them. If you have physical volume buttons then it might be those then power to confirm.

[FixMyAlita]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

You might want to ask them first. I mean that in the flashing software their should be a setting for this. But if do it wrong it might brick the device. As you have the firmware on it now try going into just the devices recovery menu and factory reset from there. I think normally you just boot with the pin held in without a usb cable. It should go to recovery and you pick options with the pin and hit power to accept them. If you have physical volume buttons then it might be those then power to confirm.

I did end up getting to the recovery menu with the pin held in and the power button, however I can't seem to change options, swiping, tapping, long presses and short presses of the pin don't work, when tapping or long pressing the power button it just reboots the device, seems like I've reached a dead end. I can apparently wipe it with fastboot, so I might give that a try next.

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by FixMyAlita

I did end up getting to the recovery menu with the pin held in and the power button, however I can't seem to change options, swiping, tapping, long presses and short presses of the pin don't work, when tapping or long pressing the power button it just reboots the device, seems like I've reached a dead end. I can apparently wipe it with fastboot, so I might give that a try next.

Touch screen won't work in recovery period. Is there a physical home button on the device, that might move the line down. Also when trying the pin your not holding the power button anymore right?

[bazz2004]

Apart from the on off button the Alita is touch screen operated.
I'm not at all comfortable with doing anything with my Alita but I can make a couple of observations.
When setting up an SD card you have to opt for internal or external storage and I made the wrong choice - internal. That meant the SD card was no longer accessible from file manager. Boyue did answer an email and said that I'd set it up incorrectly. In my ignorance I then wiped the SD card which at that point had parts of the OS on it. Total horror because it no longer worked properly. I did manage a factory reset but cannot remember any details.
Secondly, I much prefer a PC for everything apart from e-reading. I can connect the Alita to Windows 10 via a usb c cable. On the PC you can then see all the Alita files and folders. Maybe Boyue could supply an image for the Alita that you could then transfer and install on the Alita's internal memory?
Apologies if I'm posting complete drivel about this recovery possibility.

[FixMyAlita]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

Is there a physical home button on the device, that might move the line down. Also when trying the pin your not holding the power button anymore right?

There's an inoperable 'button' on the front that has no tactile feedback, normally it's the 'back' button and vibrates when you press it, unfortunately this isn't the case for me because of what I figure is the touch screen misalignment, but I suspect it's for navigating that menu when it doeswork, maybe another dead end. I'm releasing the power button as soon as I boot into recovery mode.

Originally Posted by bazz2004

Maybe Boyue could supply an image for the Alita that you could then transfer and install on the Alita's internal memory?
Apologies if I'm posting complete drivel about this recovery possibility.

Not at all, that's probably the logical thing to consider. I asked the technician I'm in contact with and they tell me because the firmware images they share don't contain "TP Firmware" (maybe this is code word for some other .img file they refuse to distribute), the flashing of a new system image won't overwrite whatever's happened to the touch screen variables, the reason this is an issue is that the Mars image I flashed apparently does contain this "TP Firmware" and so it was able to make changes to how the touch screen reacts to touch.. Which is painful.


Ihave an idea I'm going to run by a technician on their Facebook, in the AndroidTool/RKDevTool you can download the oem.img, vendor.img, etc. I think if I can get someone with an Alita to run RKDevTool and save theor 'default' copies of those files, I might be able to flash them onto my device and fix it, because if I'm not mistaken I think the firmware image is just for flashing a system.img, I'll ask.

[rvcjew]

Oh TP is touch panel I'm guessing. As that is above the screen. And edit: Yes if you fully wipe and then take someone's backup made by dev tool it will probably be fine. This is how we distributed the Mars and Ares firmwares for softbrick fixes. If they gave you a full dump though I don't know why it doesn't have all the drivers if it's for the Alita. That's odd. I'd ask them also if they know what should be the sequence your supposed to use to navigate the recovery menu normally.

[FixMyAlita]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

Oh TP is touch panel I'm guessing. As that is above the screen. And edit: Yes if you fully wipe and then take someone's backup made by dev tool it will probably be fine. This is how we distributed the Mars and Ares firmwares for softbrick fixes. If they gave you a full dump though I don't know why it doesn't have all the drivers if it's for the Alita. That's odd. I'd ask them also if they know what should be the sequence your supposed to use to navigate the recovery menu normally.

Wow! Yeah, I think Touch Panel Firmware must be what he means, that makes sense to me at least! And yeah it baffles me that they didn't include the TP Firmware but I suppose whatever development build they're giving me doesn't include these Touch Panel drivers to keep it lightweight enough for fast development, this is just speculation however. Yeah, I'll ask them about the recovery menu navigation too, I feel like it's the back button, but obviously mine's not cooperating right now. Maybe someone with an Alita would be able to confirm, perhaps bazz2004 if you're still monitoring this thread?

[bazz2004]

I forgot about the "button." It's not physical, hard to spot and is on the screen near the usb port. When I'm reading a book and touch it it just takes me out of the app, then when touched again it goes back another step - it's a back button of sorts. It doesn't vibrate or anything.

[FixMyAlita]

Originally Posted by bazz2004

I forgot about the "button." It's not physical, hard to spot and is on the screen near the usb port. When I'm reading a book and touch it it just takes me out of the app, then when touched again it goes back another step - it's a back button of sorts. It doesn't vibrate or anything.

Yeah I know of that one, if you get into recovery mode would you be able to see if it cycles through the options? If you're familiar with the Android Tool maybe a dump of your .img files? I don't think the system.img is necessary but it couldn't hurt either..

[bazz2004]

In User settings mine is set to Back button vibration off and Minimalist Display. There have been a couple of firmware updates. I thought there was an option for Factory reset or Recovery mode but its either gone or I can’t find it.
With a computer you have the BIOS which is very basic but it enables the hardware to communicate with the Windows OS. If the BIOS is corrupted or you have installed (flashed) the wrong version the PC can’t boot into Windows. Worst scenario is that the Alita firmware is like the BIOS. Whether or not you could sort that is questionable.
I’ve seriously curtailed my ambition with the Alita and just use it to read books with Librera. I wouldn’t dare do anything that might screw mine up so beyond looking for files on the device I’m not going to be much help to you.

[FixMyAlita]

Originally Posted by bazz2004

I’ve seriously curtailed my ambition with the Alita and just use it to read books with Librera. I wouldn’t dare do anything that might screw mine up so beyond looking for files on the device I’m not going to be much help to you.

That's perfectly reasonable, I guess I'll keep trying to get something out of the technician on Facebook while I wait for a good Samaritan to help me out.

[ilyats]

Originally Posted by FixMyAlita

There's an inoperable 'button' on the front that has no tactile feedback, normally it's the 'back' button and vibrates when you

On my Muses (which has no SD card slot and apparently no hole for pin) I can get into recovery menu by powering it off and then powering on while holding back button pressed. Then I can navigate between menu entries by short presses of either 'back' button or power button and select entry by long press.

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by bazz2004

In User settings mine is set to Back button vibration off and Minimalist Display. There have been a couple of firmware updates. I thought there was an option for Factory reset or Recovery mode but its either gone or I can’t find it.
With a computer you have the BIOS which is very basic but it enables the hardware to communicate with the Windows OS. If the BIOS is corrupted or you have installed (flashed) the wrong version the PC can’t boot into Windows. Worst scenario is that the Alita firmware is like the BIOS. Whether or not you could sort that is questionable.
I’ve seriously curtailed my ambition with the Alita and just use it to read books with Librera. I wouldn’t dare do anything that might screw mine up so beyond looking for files on the device I’m not going to be much help to you.

Basically it is like a BIOS that is on a ASUS motherboard with the USB flashback feature as an example. If you flash the wrong BIOS you only need a CPU in there and a usb stick on the back to have it reflash a good one. RK tool is the usb stick and the Bootloader (booting with usb/pin in it is bootloader access ,this might be it's version of download mode I forget) is the Flashback Mode.

Dumping your device would not take your user data partition only the system ones and would not flash to the device as it's a separate process. I'v used this tool to dump (NOT FLASH) all my boyue devices before any OTA updates as they don't always go as planned and Boyue didn't use to give out any firmware period. https://forum.xda-developers.com/gen...mware-t2915363 Then they would use the dump to flash the individual partitions in there own Alita with RKtool instead of a single packaged image like Boyue has given as shown here. http://www.hotmcu.com/wiki/Flashing_..._Rockchip_Tool

EDIT: @Waldy has also made a decent guide on how to use the tool and it was what I used in the beginning and it shows how when you create the backups it dumps the partitions then also makes a config file so in a restore you can just load this config file and RKtool will know where to flash what as long as the hierarchy stays the same.

Originally Posted by ilyats

On my Muses (which has no SD card slot and apparently no hole for pin) I can get into recovery menu by powering it off and then powering on while holding back button pressed. Then I can navigate between menu entries by short presses of either 'back' button or power button and select entry by long press.

Yeah different devices have different methods. Some do use the touch screen but normally its some kind of physical or soft button and the panel does not have a touch driver in recovery unless it's 3rd party like TWRP.

[raygj]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

Touch screen won't work in recovery period. Is there a physical home button on the device, that might move the line down. Also when trying the pin your not holding the power button anymore right?

try plugging in and unplugging a USB cable that is connected to your PC. this plug-in/unplug method is worth a try.
it's the only other possible physical option/action to change the menu line highlighted.

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by raygj

try plugging in and unplugging a USB cable that is connected to your PC. this plug-in/unplug method is worth a try.
it's the only other possible physical option/action to change the menu line highlighted.

I believe that will trigger it into download mode to make a flash or dump. Leaving recovery.