Update 09/19/20: I have made a thread with custom ROMs and instructions how to install them, located here Update 09/09/22: @neutronscott Who has done the important work to hack this phone has a wiki with all the important information about this phone. His work can be found HERE , Update 09/01/22: Thanks to @neutronscott we now have the ability to install apps! Original Post: Does anyone have this phone? It looks different than the Alcatel My Flip 2 and the TCL My Flip2. According to Tracfones website it runs Android 11 and has more storage and ram than the My Flip. Is it the same thing or actually a new phone? Tips about this phone: Enable ADB: *#*#DEBUG#*#* ( *#*#33284#*#* ) Disable Apps with adb: Browser: adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 org.chromium.chrome Texting: adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.android.mms Secret Codes: Launcher list all apps: *#*#217703#*#* Barometer Calibration: *#*#1013#*#* Carrier Choose: *#*#22384#*#* Testing Settings *#*#73884647#*#* Enable APN editing: *#*#9663223#*#*

Very interesting. Doesn't look like Kaios, so I am assuming it's android. There is only a picture of the homescreen I not sure. I may get it, amazon $20 https://www.amazon.com/TracFone-Flip-Prepaid-Phone-Locked/dp/B09X7F2GCG I'm just scared it'll be super slow b/c it's alcatel

Biden2020prez Same thoughts. Although the Alcatel flip V which was Android for Verizon was significantly better than the KaiOs devices with the same hardware.

This may be a stupid question, but how can it be Alcatel and TCL?

I am very tempted to buy it... Im assuming I'll buy one. For the record, out of stock on tracfone, in stock on Amazon, and also in stock on total wireless for more expensive

I bought one. Will post back once I receive it and go through it...

I wonder if it would have this issue appsphoarflip (maybe someone can teach me how to properly quote)

Biden2020prez I dont think so. Its supposed to be running an AOSP Android 11 not Android Go.

darth From that post I can't tell what @appsphoarflip said Either: The schok is android 11 go, and all android 11 doesn't include the necessary apis. Or: The schok is android 11 go, and android 11 go doesn't include etc.

Alcatel TCL Flip 2 (T408DL)

neutronscott

EnriqueMcquade Are you guys still working on the custom recovery?

I was hoping to quickly enable adb in the recovery img but not really sure what to do with this:

C:\Users\m\Downloads\mtk>adb shell
adbd F 09-03 18:47:05   311   311 shell_service.cpp:380] Could not set SELinux context for subprocess
libc: Fatal signal 6 (SIGABRT), code -1 (SI_QUEUE) in tid 311 (adbd), pid 311 (adbd)

darth

Has anyone tried [Login to see the link] to make system rw?

neutronscott

darth I read through the instructions and that doesn't seem to address the problem with these partitions. This removed the "shared_blocks" feature, which we don't have:

Gflip6_TF:/data/local/tmp # tune2fs -l /dev/block/dm-2 | grep -e vol -e feat
Filesystem volume name:   /
Filesystem features:      ext_attr dir_index filetype extent sparse_super large_file huge_file uninit_bg dir_nlink extra_isize

Biden2020prez

I think [Login to see the link] might be the solution. Unfortunately, i cant try myself.

Flippy

shadowmyst Ok so a bit irrelevant but their naming scheme is terrible!!

Biden2020prez

What would happen if you uninstalled browser and installed A new app with the same package name. Would the app be replaced with browser on a reboot?

neutronscott

Biden2020prez I may have said before but after all my trials and errors I do believe the only ways to write to system are:

signed ota package loaded by recovery
custom recovery
flashing super from fastboot or sp tools
replace the code that sets the partitions as read only (mmc definitely won't let you disable it without a reboot and then you must still stop it from being enabled)

Problems I've had with each:

haven't tried making an ota package. Doesn't look fun and would still need to replace the verification keys in recovery.img.
I can't get adbd to run from recovery. Don't really know enough to port existing custom recovery like twrp.
this would take a lot of work to make a particular modification and rather solve this such that you all can make your own edits easily. But if the only thing everyone wants is chromium removed this is an option.
I can't find out where the emmc is set read-only to remove from the boot kernel. There is code in the OT_4058W kernel source but the partition names don't match up so I don't think that's what does it. I also tried using the recovery kernel in boot.img and nothing seemed different about it.

The MTK guys were smart in using the emmc's built in write protection! I think logically the best place to concentrate on is custom recovery. It should not be so difficult to fix this SELinux policy issue but for some reason my recovery images don't always boot even with somewhat small changes..

May have to force myself to take a break though. My chores are piling up here. 🙂

Biden2020prez

neutronscott we also want to remove fm Radio and maybe hotspot. Depending on the circumstances we may want to also add system apps or make other modifications. We are certainly very grateful for all you've done thus far and sorry its preventing you from getting things done. I wish i could do things myself rather than telling other people to try them, Unfortunately i can't.

Biden2020prez

I have been looking at many pages on xda and stack overflow and i see many pages that look similar to our issue, but can you post a link with the exact situation we have?
neutronscott

neutronscott

Biden2020prez we also want to remove fm Radio and maybe hotspot.

Did one of these versions have an FmRadio App? Can I get a copy? I do see fm radio driver.

neutronscott

OK I got lazy (or smart?) and patched the lk partition. It has the code that enables the power-on write protection from sec1-super. I changed it to sec1-tee2 and shrunk it. Then I decided I wanted boot writable, and I put sec1-lk2 and it must not have that name in the table because it just lost the entire 2nd write protection but whatever.

Here is what was write protected before:

Write Protect Groups 36-321 (Blocks 589824-5275647), Power-on Write Protection
  22          589824          593919   2.0 MiB     0700  sec1
  23          593920          594943   512.0 KiB   0700  efuse
  24          594944          726015   64.0 MiB    0700  md1img
  25          726016          758783   16.0 MiB    0700  md1dsp
  26          758784          760831   1024.0 KiB  0700  spmfw
  27          760832          762879   1024.0 KiB  0700  mcupmfw
  28          762880          795647   16.0 MiB    0700  gz1
  29          795648          828415   16.0 MiB    0700  gz2
  30          828416          832511   2.0 MiB     0700  lk
  31          832512          836607   2.0 MiB     0700  lk2
  32          836608          885759   24.0 MiB    0700  boot
  33          885760         1016831   64.0 MiB    0700  vendor_boot
  34         1016832         1033215   8.0 MiB     0700  logo
  35         1033216         1049599   8.0 MiB     0700  dtbo
  36         1049600         1051647   1024.0 KiB  0700  vbmeta
  37         1051648         1053695   1024.0 KiB  0700  vbmeta_system
  38         1053696         1055743   1024.0 KiB  0700  vbmeta_vendor
  39         1055744         1061887   3.0 MiB     0700  tee1
  40         1061888         1081343   9.5 MiB     0700  tee2
  41         1081344         5275647   2.0 GiB     0700  super

Gflip6_TF:/data/local/tmp # ./mmc writeprotect user get /dev/block/mmcblk0
Write Protect Group size in blocks/bytes: 16384/8388608
Write Protect Groups 0-1 (Blocks 0-32767), Power-on Write Protection
Write Protect Groups 2-924 (Blocks 32768-15155199), No Write Protection
Write Protect Groups 925-925 (Blocks 15155200-15171583), Permanent Write Protection
Write Protect Groups 926-931 (Blocks 15171584-15269887), No Write Protection

EDIT: File removed. Just use /vendor/bin/write_protect 0

flashboot flash lk lk-neutron.img
mount -o rw,remount /
rm -rf /system/app/Chromium
reboot. see if it's gone.

Biden2020prez

neutronscott you mean we should try?

darth

neutronscott not working for me. I flash your lk image, reboot, adb shell, su, mount, rm, reboot and Chromium is still there. What am I doing wrong?

0x7

neutronscott
Hi I'm new to this:

/vendor/bin/write_protect 0

where do I run this from?
Thanks!

techy

Hi again. Thanks to [Login to see the link], I now have my keys back. However, I'm still in the same place where I started. I still can't change the keys. Seems like I can't write to system.
I suspect it may have something to do with

neutronscott flashboot flash lk lk-neutron.img
mount -o rw,remount /
rm -rf /system/app/Chromium
reboot. see if it's gone.

but I can't figure out how to run those commands.

neutronscott

Biden2020prez I already tried it and it works. My browser is gone after reboot. The system_root partition now shows 96M free to add other things.

WE DID IT. I'M DONE! hah

Biden2020prez

Woah. Neutronscott should Get another honored member badge. We never could have done this without you!
now we just remove what we want and pull super?

neutronscott

Biden2020prez now we just remove what we want and pull super?

That should suffice.

lgexalter1 This guy is genius!

Eh if that were the case I'd have got recovery to work instead of just blowing open the doors.

I briefly looked at Launcherv3 and it looks like it tests if the app exists on system partition. Not going to mess with that now but hopefully just putting things in system makes it show up there. I did find this setting settings put global all_app_layout_type=1 to change the Launcher to a list.

Biden2020prez the user still wont have write permissions because he modified lk not super correct?

If you don't flash lk, the user won't have write access.. until they flash it. If you want to distribute super without Magisk there may be some AVB things to disable yourself that Magisk does.

Biden2020prez

lgexalter1 putting it mildly lol. For a custom firmware, the user still wont have write permissions because he modified lk not super correct?

i guess now we make a firmware without browser, I think Apps4flip admin May have a good idea for app integration. I may be able to get a semi functional cursor going, Ill post details when i have them.

Biden2020prez

neutronscott settings display menu layout

Biden2020prez

neutronscott Eh if that were the case I'd have got recovery to work instead of just blowing open the doors

i know your so dumb. Anyone could have done that.. 🙂

that was very very sarcastic in case someone didn't realize

neutronscott

Biden2020prez settings display menu layout

Yep I am such dumb. I was trying anything in the code to see if it bypass any check but it's hard coded. Haven't actually played with many settings on the phone yet so didn't know 🤣

Biden2020prez

lgexalter1 that's sad. Does button mapper also only support those keys?
even if it does we can probably map a long press to toggle voice access, But it would be very disappointing if most keys cannot be mapped.
how about mouse? I know it doesn't work, but does it recognize the star key?

neutronscott

darth not working for me. I flash your lk image, reboot, adb shell, su, mount, rm, reboot and Chromium is still there. What am I doing wrong?

I'm not sure. Here is the mmc utility I was using: [Login to see the link]
Does it show only groups 0-1 as power-on write protection?

Gflip6_TF:/data/local/tmp # ./mmc writeprotect user get /dev/block/mmcblk0
Write Protect Group size in blocks/bytes: 16384/8388608
Write Protect Groups 0-1 (Blocks 0-32767), Power-on Write Protection
Write Protect Groups 2-924 (Blocks 32768-15155199), No Write Protection
Write Protect Groups 925-925 (Blocks 15155200-15171583), Permanent Write Protection
Write Protect Groups 926-931 (Blocks 15171584-15269887), No Write Protection

darth

Hi1 Did you enable rw for system with /vendor/bin/write_protect 0?
If you did and you are still facing issues then you wont be the first: Hi1 darth ZTEGuy chaimzalman It works itself out eventually.

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