Onyx Boox Kon-Tiki 2 (Nova3 platform) - apps

[mergen3107]

Or maybe it is Magisk which I updated from 23.0 to 24.3. The app itself and then I patched the boot.img with this new Magisk as well. Can problem be with Magisk? I should try to revert to 23.0 then maybe...

[Renate]

Fastboot disconnecting is strange.
If it didn't want to do it, it should just return an error.

[mergen3107]

OK, I got stuck.
SSH from Magisk stopped working. Then I tried to downgrade Magisk. Uninstalled 24.3 and installed 23.0. Then patched and flashed boot.img. After that problems started to only accumulate: SSH did not install at all from the zip archive.

Then I went to edl and flashed boot, recovery and system from my very first fill edl backup.

NOW, the device boots, but this mode is super weird. AFWall does not even try to work (no notification at the top), Developer options say "Developer options are not available for this user".

I have com.onyx disabled, so I can't get adb.

fastboot started working, it shows it flashed the boot.img, but nothing actually changes. I flashed both stock and patched img.
"fastboot reboot edl", "fastboot reboot-edl" or "fastboot oem edl" are not available.

I can only get into Receovery mode: from shutdown device, press and hold the home button and connect the cable to charger/device. Wiping cache there didn't help.

How can I get into edl by the means of hardware? I think I managed to get into edl before, when I tried to setup edl. Just don't remember how...

The only way left is to wipe everything from Recovery. Then install everything again, I guess...

[Renate]

Oh, your recovery doesn't have ADB? I might be able to make you one, but I'm working on something else right now.

I stuck a magnetic reed switch in my Poke3 so that I could always get to EDL. That's covered in some post somewhere. (It really helped when I was testing my Windows EDL software as I could reboot to a fresh EDL in under 3 seconds.)

If you have your device open there are EDL test points. It's usually just too much of a hassle to open the case.

[mergen3107]

@Renate
Thank you for your support!

Yes, my recovery has no adb. You once suggested me how to add it, but it doesn’t even boot, let alone flash the new recovery, skips to usual boot. Maybe I should try again?

I suspect that the new upx updates severely messed up with vendor partitions, there are files like vendor.patch, etc

I’ll try to flash vendor via fastboot now.

[Renate]

Every update usually has some changes to /vendor. I think that a truly broken /vendor will prevent anything from booting. Both /vendor and /system have dm-verity. I'm not clear on where the hash keys are. Apparently the updates from Onyx are becoming incremental (vs full and unconditional).

The Poke3 is showing on the site as ONYX/Poke3/Poke3:10/2021-12-01_13-38_3.2_33b1305/4170:user/dev-keys (i.e. 3.2), so no new update for me yet.

[mergen3107]

OK, so I was able to get into edl.
Not sure how exactly, I kept holding power and home buttons and watched the LED. edl is when the LED switches from purple to OFF while connected to the PC. everything else is when LED is blue.
Also, Windows 10's Device Manager will show new device QUSB under USB Bulk Devices.

I dumped ALL partitions except /data from the initial backup - no luck! It still boots into this weird mode without developer options.

Is there an option to write firmware update from the edl?

[Renate]

Well, /data has a ton of configurable stuff in it.

[mergen3107]

Hooray! Some news.

I entered bootloader mode through Recovery, then just booted into my patched boot.img from the latest update (which was done with Magisk 24.3, but my app right now is Magisk 23.0). Developer options are still not there, HOWEVE, root functions work! I should be able to run pm enable commands now For this, I can either use my overkill Termux or use one of the preset button in Total Commander which enables adb.

[mergen3107]

So I enabled com.onyx and onyxotaservice, update twice with upx files and flashed boot image again.
All seems good, however:
1) Developer options were still inaccessible. I had to create new user with pm, switch to it and back with am command, and it did the trick.
2) Gestures are not working! Neither bottom swipes nor side swipes (new in 3.1 to control light and warmth).
3) I copied over Magisk modules from backup (because I deleted Magisk once in the process). However, modules don't work most probably due to permissions.
4) Due to (3), SSH still doesn't work, now it doesn't even want to connect. Before it was just rejected key.

[Renate]

settings put global adb_enabled 1

[mergen3107]

Yes, also:

settings put global development_settings_enabled 1;
settings put global adb_enabled 1;
echo "mtp,adb" > /data/property/persist.sys.usb.config

So I put permissions 777 to some modules' executables, seems to work (for now). Looking up how to restore them properly

[Renate]

Is the semicolon like an accessorizing accent on your plate? ;p

[mergen3107]

Ah, sorry, that's the input for total commander not three lines of the shell.

I still can't figure out how to restore gestures

[mergen3107]

Among other findings:
Top notification window's Home button now WORKS, but the multitasking one stopper working xD
Under Guest user, trying to save gestures in com.onyx and using them causes Android System UI (app) to crash.