Anyone able to root the Boox Page?

[Renate]

Originally Posted by theCrow

How does updating work after rooting?

It depends. Probably ok since the boot image is not patched incrementally (I believe) even on incremental updates.
If the update is 1.5 GB it's ok. If it's 300 MB, probably ok, but you should check.

[theCrow]

Originally Posted by Renate

It depends. Probably ok since the boot image is not patched incrementally (I believe) even on incremental updates.
If the update is 1.5 GB it's ok. If it's 300 MB, probably ok, but you should check.

Thank you. Do both the patched boot.img and vbmeta need to be flashed after every update?

[Renate]

Originally Posted by theCrow

Do both the patched boot.img and vbmeta need to be flashed after every update?

Edit: I misunderstood your question. If you use Magisk you should patch the new boot.img and flash it.

They probably should be, why not? Although it's unlikely that the changes break anything. OTOH, unlike the earlier Onyx, the newer ones have a ton more loadable kernel modules and if something doesn't agree it will break things:

Poke3:/ # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
wlan                 8294400  0

Poke5P:/ $ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
wlan                 8204288  0
machine_dlkm          110592  0
rouleur_slave_dlkm     16384  0
rouleur_dlkm           77824  2 machine_dlkm
pm2250_spmi_dlkm       16384  1 rouleur_dlkm
wcd937x_slave_dlkm     16384  0
wcd937x_dlkm           86016  1 machine_dlkm
mbhc_dlkm              40960  2 rouleur_dlkm,wcd937x_dlkm
tx_macro_dlkm         106496  0
rx_macro_dlkm          94208  0
va_macro_dlkm          98304  0
bolero_cdc_dlkm        57344  5 machine_dlkm,tx_macro_dlkm,rx_macro_dlkm,va_macro_dlkm
wsa881x_analog_dlkm    36864  0
wcd9xxx_dlkm           40960  13 rouleur_dlkm,wcd937x_dlkm
wcd_core_dlkm          28672  7 machine_dlkm,rouleur_dlkm,wcd937x_dlkm,tx_macro_dlkm,rx_macro_dlkm,va_macro_dlkm,wsa881x_analog_dlkm
stub_dlkm              16384  1
swr_ctrl_dlkm          49152  3 tx_macro_dlkm,rx_macro_dlkm,va_macro_dlkm
swr_dlkm               24576  5 rouleur_slave_dlkm,rouleur_dlkm,wcd937x_slave_dlkm,wcd937x_dlkm,swr_ctrl_dlkm
pinctrl_lpi_dlkm       20480  6
usf_dlkm               45056  0
native_dlkm           135168  0
platform_dlkm        1953792  39 native_dlkm
q6_dlkm               864256  11 machine_dlkm,va_macro_dlkm,bolero_cdc_dlkm,wcd9xxx_dlkm,swr_ctrl_dlkm,pinctrl_lpi_dlkm,usf_dlkm,native_dlkm,platform_dlkm
adsp_loader_dlkm       16384  0
apr_dlkm              229376  4 usf_dlkm,platform_dlkm,q6_dlkm,adsp_loader_dlkm
snd_event_dlkm         16384  5 machine_dlkm,bolero_cdc_dlkm,pinctrl_lpi_dlkm,q6_dlkm,apr_dlkm
q6_notifier_dlkm       16384  2 pinctrl_lpi_dlkm,apr_dlkm
q6_pdr_dlkm            16384  1 q6_notifier_dlkm

[Jolly]

Btw, anyone know how to get digital wellbeing working with app time restrictions, or other good ways to limit use time on our boox?

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Jolly

Btw, anyone know how to get digital wellbeing working with app time restrictions, or other good ways to limit use time on our boox?

How do you mean that?
I've already got a restriction on my Poke5 that I can't read more than 1440 minutes per day.

[Jolly]

Where are you going to set up the restriction?

[theCrow]

Originally Posted by Jolly

Where are you going to set up the restriction?

That's 24 hours in minutes...

[Intergalactic]

Hi. Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but I recently bought a Boox Page because it was the only rootable one available in my country, but I'm stuck at the fastboot-flashing part of the "Rooting the Poke5" guide. It can send the .img file ("Sending 'vbmeta_a'" or boot.img) but the writing part just fails and gives me this message "FAILED (remote: 'Unrecognized command flash')"

Any Ideas? (Also, I'm using linux, but if I have to use a Windows-only tool I'll look for laptop that runs it)

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Intergalactic

'Unrecognized command flash'

In recent times the abl has been chopped down to not support useful commands.
Currently that is not too big a problem because we have EDL.
With Linux you're stuck with the Python EDL client.
If you like you can try my Windows EDL client in my sig.

[Intergalactic]

First of all, thanks for answering in this old thread. Second of all, If I wanted to do these same final steps with EDL (I assume that is the one that says "EDL – a utility for interfacing with Qualcomm processors in EDL mode"), that is:

fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta_a vbmeta.img (I think this one's optional)
fastboot flash boot_a magisk_patched-12345678.img
fastboot reboot

How should I go about doing that with EDL?

[Renate]

I believe that vbmeta is checked inside init.
Since magisk uses a modified init it doesn't check.
I've never bothered.
You can just flash a disabled vbmeta if it becomes an issue.

edl /lpoke6.bin
edl /w /pboot_a magisk12345678.img
edl /z

(Command syntax is for my EDL client.)

[Intergalactic]

Thank you. But in my case, what would the "edl /lpoke6.bin" command be? My boox model is the boox page.

Do I have to use a edl-equivalent command to "adb devices" to verify that my Boox is getting correctly registered to the computer?

Also (I hope) last question, any way to do like a backup or something in case something goes wrong?

(Sorry for all these questions, I don't like nagging someone nor asking someone to "hold my hands" throughout the whole process)

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Intergalactic

Thank you. But in my case, what would the "edl /lpoke6.bin" command be? My boox model is the boox page.

Both the Page and the Go6 use the same Qualcomm SM6115 processor.
Having owned the Poke3 and Poke5 when the Go6 came along with "Poke6" written internally on the PCB I've always thought of it as the "Poke6".
Ok, this makes some confusion because there is a Chinese model called the "Poke6" now but it has the same hardware as the Go6.
The Firehose loader that you can use off my site (whether Python or Windows EDL client) is one that I have modified and is called "poke6.bin".
You can of course rename it "page.bin".

Originally Posted by Intergalactic

Do I have to use a edl-equivalent command to "adb devices" to verify that my Boox is getting correctly registered to the computer?

Any EDL client will tell you if something is connected.

Originally Posted by Intergalactic

Also (I hope) last question, any way to do like a backup or something in case something goes wrong?

After you load the Firehose loader you can:

edl /r big-honking-backup.img

That's 32 GB, not as bad as some newer devices.
Never factory reset or fastboot wipe as that will delete your keys and invalidate the userdata in your backup, despite not touching the data there.

[Intergalactic]

Wow, you're quick and insightful. Thank you again. And thanks for the warning, I never try to do something that's not recommended by documentation or someone except that I'd be willing to end up with a brick.