Move your M96 to Booxtor's firmwares and/or Unbrick and rooting

[kuskro]

Well, Booxtor (credits to him) published on this post a way to move from other versions to his versions for M96. So, as many people wanted the last Booxtor's stable firmware, I leave this thread for them.

Change your M96 to Booxtor's Edition:

1. Switch off your device (press and hold power on button for 10 sec).
2. Download adb package here: M96_adb.7z (the drivers for adb are included, please install it and reboot your PC before any other step) and MFG tool here: M96_2014-09-30_21-42_1.6.4_7efa90c_user.7z and unzip it to your PC.
3. Make sure USB debugging mode of your M96 is On (Apps->Settings-> Developer options->USB Debugging should be checked) and connect your device to the PC
4. Ignore the question about using your device as USB storage.
5. Go to the adb folder with unziped files and start Command Prompt
6. At the command line type: adb reboot download (enter). Your device should change into download mode now
8. Start MFG Tools from unzipped folder. You should be able to see an HID conform device in list of connected devices. Press Start and wait for installation procedure has been processed.

Et voilà!!!

Now you can update to Booxtor updates. Follow this thread to tweak and enhance your device. The last stable version was released in 2014-10-13. Let me remind you that now you can update through recovery: you have to turn off your M96, hold pressed "back button" while you press "power button" and keep both pressed for a while, that let you enter in recovery mode, then apply a "wipe data/factory reset" and afterwards "apply update from external storage", be patient because it takes time.

Important for M96M (Credits to LightWaljer): Let me remind you that if you have a M96M (version without audio output), there is one thing that should be done before flashing. When you unzip the package with MGF tool, go to the folder " /Profiles/MX6SL Linux Update/OS Firmware/files/pcba_test " and open the file "hwinfo" (it can be done with Notepad, e.g.). You should see the text

WIFI:1
IR:0
TP:1
AUDIO:1
LIGHT:0
RESOLUTION:HD
RAM:512
BLUETOOTH:1

Change the string with AUDIO to "AUDIO:0", then do flashing as described above. Otherwise you will not pass the board test or somethig like that in MFG tool.

Rooting method:

I've modified the root process for our T68 (also works on M96) to install SuperSU instead of Superuser. Follow the instructions on this file: root.7z

This root method works properly at least over Booxtor's firmware on T68 and M96.

The only thing important is to have installed on Windows the last ADB driver, it is incluided on my package: root.7z. Inside of this package you have an installer for the official Google USB Driver (our device use the Nexus One driver for ADB).

[mffolledo]

Dear kuskro.
M96_2014-09-30_21-42_1.6.4_7efa90c_user.zip file seems to be unavailable. Could you please check that, and if it's so, upload it again?
I've got a very bricked M96, and I'm quite un dispair by now.
Thanks un advance.

[kuskro]

Originally Posted by mffolledo

Dear kuskro.
M96_2014-09-30_21-42_1.6.4_7efa90c_user.zip file seems to be unavailable. Could you please check that, and if it's so, upload it again?
I've got a very bricked M96, and I'm quite un dispair by now.
Thanks un advance.

Done, tried again.

Best.

[mffolledo]

kuskro.
Thanks a lot!
I could download all the files once you uploaded them again.
At first it seemed it wouldn't worked, because it didn't recognize the device, but I ran the MFG tool anyway, and my M96 came back to life!
I couldn't thank you enough. You totally saved me.

[kuskro]

Originally Posted by mffolledo

kuskro.
Thanks a lot!
I could download all the files once you uploaded them again.
At first it seemed it wouldn't worked, because it didn't recognize the device, but I ran the MFG tool anyway, and my M96 came back to life!
I couldn't thank you enough. You totally saved me.

Don't mention it, man. I'm glad to help.

Best.

[half binary]

I tried to install the booxtor version with the provided adb tool, but it would just say:

---Quote---
error: device not found
---End Quote---
I downloaded and extracted the adb package and MFG tool as decribed above. Put the M96 (arstech version) into debug usb mode, connect it to the PC, and in an command line launch

---Quote---
adb reboot download
---End Quote---
Did I missed a step? The PC does not mount the device as an external drive, should it do it? Only Android ADB Interface is visible on the "eject hardware" button.

Did someone had the same experience?
************

[pugs466]

Originally Posted by half binary

I tried to install the booxtor version with the provided adb tool, but it would just say:

---Quote---
error: device not found
---End Quote---
I downloaded and extracted the adb package and MFG tool as decribed above. Put the M96 (arstech version) into debug usb mode, connect it to the PC, and in an command line launch

---Quote---
adb reboot download
---End Quote---
Did I missed a step? The PC does not mount the device as an external drive, should it do it? Only Android ADB Interface is visible on the "eject hardware" button.

Did someone had the same experience?
************

I had the same problem. I used the command line for the ADB it said it was successful and then I went to MFG tool and it showed no drives so I went to apps and tap upper right corner and clicked on manage and made sure the USB debugging is checked mark which it wasn't. After that went back to Mfg tool and this time my M96 was recognize and smooth sailing after that. USB cord if move just a bit seems to disconnect easily so make sure the cord is connected tightly.

[vribeiro]

I had the same problem installing the Booxtor's version (got the "error: device not found") and was unable to correctly detect the device. I used the adb driver that can also be found in the PhoenixSuit (I used it to flash linux distros on the cubieboard - http://dl.cubieboard.org/software/to...xSuit1.0.7.rar), after the PhonixSuite installation, you can follow the instructions on this guide successfully. Note: this worked for the onyx-boox.com store version, and for me, I cannot guarantee that it will work on everybody's device.

[japinder]

Hats off to kusro for all the hard work.

Jp

[kuskro]

Thanks a lot. All credits go to Booxtor and LightWaljer. I've just modified the rooting method.

Best.

[vribeiro]

Is there any way to revert to the Arta Tech (M96 Universe) firmware? This would be useful to use the warranty.

[nknouf]

Okay, it looks like I've really screwed up my Arta Tech M96. I've flashed ROMs before on other Android devices, so I'm not sure what's going on here.

Here are the two problems I'm having, the second being fatal:

* Many of my Windows systems have not been detecting my M96, even when following the information posted above. This has happened even on Windows systems that have not had any other ADB drivers installed. (That is, when I try and use ADB to show the devices attached, or use MfgTool2, it doesn't recognize the device. And yes, USB debugging is enabled.) The only system that was able to recognize my M96 was a Windows 7 instance in my virtual machine on an OS X host. Which leads me to my main problem:
* I was able to get MfgTool2 to recognize my M96 when running it from the previously mentioned virtual machine. I hit Start, but unfortunately the process never completed successfully, even after 5 or so attempts. This caused my M96 to be stuck in a continual reboot loop where it never boots properly, but always dumps me into recovery. So I thought I'd try to apply the update.zip provided above. Unfortunately that fails as well with an assertion error: assert failed: file_getprop("/tmp/android-info.txt", "oard") == getprop("ro.product.board"); E: Error in /tmp/sideload/package.zip; (Status 7)

So now I have a completely non-functional M96. Any suggestions of how to recover it?

[nknouf]

Okay, I was able to get back to scratch by using the firmware on this page (041be89): https://onyx-boox.com/support/firmware-android/

But now it appears that I'm back to square one, as when I try and apply Booxtor's update, I get the same assertion error as before. Is the use of MFG tool required in order to move to Booxtor's ROM?

[nknouf]

Final update: went back to my virtual machine (since it's the only one that recognizes my M96). MfgTool was successful this time (not sure why it failed 5 times before, but successfully completed the first time this time around). I wrote the Booxtor update.zip to my sd card, rebooted into recovery, and the update applied successfully. Strange that it didn't work properly the first time, as it had me worried there for a bit.

One question that is perhaps addressed elsewhere in the forum: what's the best way to root Booxtor's ROM?

Nevermind; I saw that you provided info about rooting in the first post. Been one of those afternoons...thanks for the materials!

[japinder]

For me, the only root method which works on my M96 for all versions till now has been TowelRoot v1.

Jp