Note Air 5c

[darkwill]

I'm interested in rooting and debloating this device. I didn't see any guides, but would appreciate any pointers and happy to do some ground work if needed.

[dcarvil]

Originally Posted by darkwill

I'm interested in rooting and debloating this device. I didn't see any guides, but would appreciate any pointers and happy to do some ground work if needed.

Is your bootloader unlocked? If not, does your fastboot have a "flashing unlock" command? Boox has been crippling fastboot lately, so old guides may not work.

See this thread for some of the issues: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=371138

Debloating can be done without root by simply disabling the unwanted packages. See this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=369169

These two threads were at the top of the list when you posted. You should do some reading before posting.

[darkwill]

I did! Thankfully ran into no issues using Renate's edl and following some of the guides. The loader for SM_BITRA works.

[darkwill]

Guess I spoke too soon. I dumped everything and but have ended in a bricked device after flashing magisk patched images to a and b slots. The steps from the Palma 2 pro thread for "un-bricking" don't work for Air 5C, or at least not for me.

Other things to note:
- Device does not go in Fastboot
- Windows recognizes as "Android" with an exclamation
- If the device is connected to any USB (charger or PC), then trying to reboot with power button held down results in both red and blue LEDs turn on (purple?).
- Trying to hold the power button after disconnecting USB results in blue LED but stuck with Boox logo.
- Holding power for extra long time results in screen and LED turning off, presumably power off mode with blank screen)

I'm going to try other ways to enter recovery but doesn't seem like there's any described for Air 5C yet, and Air 4C method doesn't work for me.

Hopefully this helps someone smarter than me, it's been almost a decade since I tried playing around with android rooting but I'll keep trying!

[Renate]

Did you flash with fastboot? Was that still there?
It probably didn't like your image.
You'll need to use EDL to reflash your stock boot image.
You're probably in EDL now, but I'm not sure what Windows device driver you have.

devmgmt.msc

Find your device > Properties > Details > Device Instance Path

[Kisuke-CZE]

If Note Air 5C is like Palma 2 Pro (which very likely, since they came out about same time), there is need to swap activeslot to other one, reboot, and then back to original - AFTER flashing back original unpatched boot partition.

You can probably do fastboot reboot command to force reboot. And then hold volume Up and Down on reboot to get into EDL mode to do that.

Unfortunately I do not know how to do that in Windows EDL. Try to look here where I run into issues.


About debloating. What bloatware is on Air 5C? On Palma there was in real NO bloatware except that AI thing. But I did disabled some packages on mine, cause I find some default apps unusable. But comparing to that any phone on the market, device has no real bloatware at all.

[darkwill]

Originally Posted by Renate

Did you flash with fastboot? Was that still there?
It probably didn't like your image.
You'll need to use EDL to reflash your stock boot image.
You're probably in EDL now, but I'm not sure what Windows device driver you have.

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping to do but Windows isn't recognizing it, I tried both edl and fastboot commands but doesn't respond (due to not having drivers?).

Originally Posted by Renate

devmgmt.msc

Find your device > Properties > Details > Device Instance Path

I get this with device instance

USB\VID_18D1&PID_D00D\6AB6B0

[darkwill]

Originally Posted by Kisuke-CZE

If Note Air 5C is like Palma 2 Pro (which very likely, since they came out about same time), there is need to swap activeslot to other one, reboot, and then back to original - AFTER flashing back original unpatched boot partition.

You can probably do fastboot reboot command to force reboot. And then hold volume Up and Down on reboot to get into EDL mode to do that.

Unfortunately I do not know how to do that in Windows EDL. Try to look here where I run into issues.


About debloating. What bloatware is on Air 5C? On Palma there was in real NO bloatware except that AI thing. But I did disabled some packages on mine, cause I find some default apps unusable. But comparing to that any phone on the market, device has no real bloatware at all.

Didn't seem like much but I want to keep it free from phoning home (too many cn server calls as shown by my pihole and network firewall even when sitting idle). I was hoping to root and put AFWall.

[darkwill]

The instance does seem like fastboot but somehow windows isn't recognizing it. I'll try to reinstall the drivers from Google's page.

USB\VID_18D1&PID_D00D

[Renate]

You're in fastboot.

[darkwill]

Originally Posted by Renate

You're in fastboot.

Yeah... I had to turn off driver enforcement and force add the PID to Google's driver and now I can connect. Not sure how I can get to edl from here though. The Vol UP + Down while keeping edl running in back doesn't do anything.

Any ideas?

[Kisuke-CZE]

Reboot (20sec holding power button, or fastboot reboot command) until screen flashes (or you get USB disconnect on computer if screen is unresponsive).
Then press and hold volume UP + DOWN for ~15 seconds? If screen is responsive you will be with boox logo on screen, so at first sight no change from fastboot. But device will be detected by EDL utility.

If on linux, there is easy way to see events on USB bus with dmesg -W. There is usblog utility at Renate's website for windows which does similar job.

[darkwill]

Thanks for mentioning the usblog, I was checking earlier with the enum utility, but this confirms the same thing which I have been seeing - my device always enters the fastboot and never 9008 EDL with all different versions of holding Power + Vol buttons, or individual buttons.

USBLog snapshot

I have ordered an EDL cable off Amazon, hoping that will force the device. I'm assuming any of these EDL/9008 cables work but let me know if I'm mistaken.

[Kisuke-CZE]

Yes, EDL cable will probably work. For my Palma it works.

Are you sure you tried to long hold of vol up + vol down when device reboots?

It is strange, that they do not have that button combination on Note series. But since I do not have Note Air I cannot say.

BTW, thanks for the tip on rooting Palma. I just did not noticed that on Github.

[darkwill]

Yeah I keep holding both down right after (as soon as USB disconnects) I issue fastboot reboot. The device boots back into fastboot even when I'm holding them down. Does it flip from fastboot to edl while holding down, or it goes to edl directly for you?