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Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: August 20, 2024, 01:56:19 am »
Great, glad that worked out for you. Yeah, this stuff isn't really that tough once you get some familiarity and confidence. 
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2
Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: August 19, 2024, 06:49:20 am »
A couple of thoughts...
First of all, the images at the beginning of this thread are at this point very old. I would caution you against flashing a very old boot image unless you're confident it matches the version of Android currently installed on your device. If it does not match, you may end up with an unbootable device. I haven't used my Astro Slide in quite a while, so I do not know if the OS was ever updated in a way that would render the images in this thread unusable. Caveat emptor. Perhaps someone more up to date can comment.
Second, you are flashing to boot_a. Do you know for a fact that your device is trying to boot off the A partition and not the B partition? From the factory, boot_a is the boot partition, but if there's been an OS update in the meantime, it may have flipped over to boot_b for boot partition. If you use "fastboot flash boot ...", rather than boot_a or boot_b, it will always end up flashing the current boot partition, whichever one it is.
However, please revisit the first point. If you have indeed had an OS update that moved your boot partition to boot_b, and you flashed an out-of-date image to boot_a, you may have accidentally saved yourself by not overwriting the bootable image with an unbootable one.
First of all, the images at the beginning of this thread are at this point very old. I would caution you against flashing a very old boot image unless you're confident it matches the version of Android currently installed on your device. If it does not match, you may end up with an unbootable device. I haven't used my Astro Slide in quite a while, so I do not know if the OS was ever updated in a way that would render the images in this thread unusable. Caveat emptor. Perhaps someone more up to date can comment.
Second, you are flashing to boot_a. Do you know for a fact that your device is trying to boot off the A partition and not the B partition? From the factory, boot_a is the boot partition, but if there's been an OS update in the meantime, it may have flipped over to boot_b for boot partition. If you use "fastboot flash boot ...", rather than boot_a or boot_b, it will always end up flashing the current boot partition, whichever one it is.
However, please revisit the first point. If you have indeed had an OS update that moved your boot partition to boot_b, and you flashed an out-of-date image to boot_a, you may have accidentally saved yourself by not overwriting the bootable image with an unbootable one.
3
Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: Car Mount *** Brand New ***
« on: January 17, 2023, 06:10:53 am »
My car has centre console cupholders, so I bought one of these: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B09WYMPPBH
Works great, rock solid, and can hold the Astro Slide just fine in both open and closed configurations (although I do have to remove it to switch between the two).
Works great, rock solid, and can hold the Astro Slide just fine in both open and closed configurations (although I do have to remove it to switch between the two).
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Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: January 06, 2023, 10:06:10 am »
I was unable to get mtkclient to work on Mac. I don't know if it was a problem with my mtkclient install or with the Astro, but I gave up and installed it on a Linux machine and it worked perfectly there.
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Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: December 28, 2022, 11:17:30 am »some apps here in Brazil don' t work if you install Magisk, even if the phone is not rooted. For example : Bank apps, flying companies apps, insurance companies ( auto, life, etc )
Have you used the "Hide the Magisk app" feature in Magisk settings? I've seen some apps that look for the app by name, and if you just let Magisk rename itself, problem solved.
6
Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: December 28, 2022, 11:03:24 am »
There is no officially approved way (or, really, any sign of any support whatsoever from PC, but I digress...), but the images and procedures in this thread should work fine, as long as you are comfortable with what you're doing. I've been running mine rooted for several months now, with no problems.
Regarding your bank app, have you tested it with the newest Magisk, using the new DenyList feature? That should be generally much better about allowing picky apps to run, since they are put into a context where the phone actually is not rooted. While I haven't tried a broad range of apps, and almost certainly not your bank, I've yet to find an app that complains about root with DenyList.
Regarding your bank app, have you tested it with the newest Magisk, using the new DenyList feature? That should be generally much better about allowing picky apps to run, since they are put into a context where the phone actually is not rooted. While I haven't tried a broad range of apps, and almost certainly not your bank, I've yet to find an app that complains about root with DenyList.
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Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: October 03, 2022, 08:19:45 am »mtkclient looks handy. What were the commands you used?
Almost exactly what's on the mtkclient github page:
Code: [Select]
mtk r boot_a,vbmeta_a boot.img,vbmeta.imgThe only difference there is using boot_a and vbmeta_a in place of boot and vbmeta. Although as it turns out, the vbmeta partition didn't need to be touched, so saving a backup was less important (although it never hurts).
Once the boot.img was extracted, I put it back onto the device with adb and then patched it with Magisk. Ignore the stuff on github about the mtk-specific Magisk. The official Magisk works fine.
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Also, I'm curious - how did you locate it?
It's pretty easy to find the header of the boot.img by searching for the right magic string indicating an Android boot image. Then the length of the partition I determined based on some output from SP Flash Tool, which I've long since forgotten. But I'm guessing that I got the length wrong, hence the initial failure.
I didn't know at the time that mtktool existed. It's definitely the better approach here.
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Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: October 03, 2022, 08:12:19 am »
At the moment I've got no reason to run anything other than stock Android. Although once there's a good, working Linux distro, I'd probably consider the switch.
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Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: October 02, 2022, 03:45:54 pm »
Okay, I finally got around to using mtktool, and can verify it does work. I don't know what failed about my original brute force approach, but mtktool extracts the boot.img fine, and once it's patched via Magisk and flashed back via fastboot, the Astro Slide is rooted. No modification was required to the vbmeta partition. I simply flashed the patched boot.img onto boot_a via fastboot.
First post updated with good images.
First post updated with good images.
10
Astro Slide - Hardware / Car mount
« on: October 02, 2022, 01:39:32 pm »
Has anyone got any recommendations for a car mount for the Astro Slide? Definitely would like to be able to use it with the keyboard open. Being able to use it also closed is a bonus.
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Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: September 15, 2022, 03:11:37 pm »That's what I did - I flashed boot. I can probably share a root boot image if anyone wants it. I see no harm in that. It's the scatter file I can't share yet.
Yes, I'd like that. I just now got around to installing mtkclient, but I've been very pressed for time recently and haven't had a chance to actually *use* it yet. Would be nice to have a rooted image and save the time.
12
Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: August 12, 2022, 01:30:08 am »
Interesting, Dom. As you had no trouble booting a patched image, I am wondering what's causing my own Magisk-patched image fail to boot. It's obviously the correct unpatched image, since writing it back out to boot_a returns the device to bootability.
This stuff would certainly be easier if PC would post the factory firmware and scatterfile to their support site.
This stuff would certainly be easier if PC would post the factory firmware and scatterfile to their support site.
13
Astro Slide - Android / Re: Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: August 11, 2022, 12:05:32 am »
Okay, I decided to go ahead and give it a go, and unfortunately flashing the above patched image to boot_a does not work. (Maybe some signature verification needs to be disabled?) Flashing the unpatched image back onto boot_a results in a properly booting Astro Slide once again, so I do believe the images are probably fine, and the Astro is just refusing to boot the patched one.
14
Astro Slide - Android / Rooting the Astro Slide
« on: August 03, 2022, 04:03:06 am »
Long story short: I'm not there yet. Don't get too excited. This now works. 
I finally got my Astro Slide (US keyboard, EU plug), and I've started poking around with what it's going to take to root it. Unfortunately Planet Computers have not yet released a firmware, rooted or otherwise, so this work involves a little brute force.
The bootloader can be unlocked via the standard approach of enabling developer mode, enabling OEM unlock, enabling USB debugging, "adb reboot bootloader", then "fastboot flashing unlock" (note as always that the last of these commands will delete all your data).
We don't have a scatter file for this device, and the existing approaches for generating a scatter file don't seem to work, as this SoC isn't recognised by the normal tools, so instead I took the brute force approach of dumping the entire ROM via SP Flash Tool and then using a hex editor to find the boot image.
Once I pulled the boot image out of the ROM, I fed it to Magisk v25.2, which does recognise it as a boot image and appears to successfully patch it. However, this is where I have decided to stop working, as I am willing to admit I'm in over my head, and I'd rather not render my brand new device unbootable.
I have attempted to boot this image via fastboot, but that fails with the following error:
After this error, the Astro Slide reboots normally, not rooted.
I suspect that flashing this image to the boot partition would work, but I do not currently have the cojones to attempt it.
I have attached the stock and patched images to this post, in case someone who is more comfortable than I am with Android booting wishes to give it a shot. But I make no promises whatsoever that either of these images is actually good, so caveat emptor.
Looking forward to seeing some action in this thread from people who know more than I do!
Edit: My original images didn't work. Don't know why. I was able to use mtktool referenced later in this thread to extract boot.img and patched it via Magisk and it works fine, producing a rooted Astro Slide. The attached boot.img can be flashed to boot_a via fastboot. Use at your own risk of course.
I finally got my Astro Slide (US keyboard, EU plug), and I've started poking around with what it's going to take to root it. Unfortunately Planet Computers have not yet released a firmware, rooted or otherwise, so this work involves a little brute force.
The bootloader can be unlocked via the standard approach of enabling developer mode, enabling OEM unlock, enabling USB debugging, "adb reboot bootloader", then "fastboot flashing unlock" (note as always that the last of these commands will delete all your data).
We don't have a scatter file for this device, and the existing approaches for generating a scatter file don't seem to work, as this SoC isn't recognised by the normal tools, so instead I took the brute force approach of dumping the entire ROM via SP Flash Tool and then using a hex editor to find the boot image.
Once I pulled the boot image out of the ROM, I fed it to Magisk v25.2, which does recognise it as a boot image and appears to successfully patch it. However, this is where I have decided to stop working, as I am willing to admit I'm in over my head, and I'd rather not render my brand new device unbootable.
I have attempted to boot this image via fastboot, but that fails with the following error:
Code: [Select]
% fastboot boot astro_magisk_patched.img
Sending 'boot.img' (19128 KB) OKAY [ 0.500s]
Booting ERROR: usb_read failed with status e00002ed
FAILED (Status read failed (No such file or directory))
fastboot: error: Command failed
After this error, the Astro Slide reboots normally, not rooted.
I suspect that flashing this image to the boot partition would work, but I do not currently have the cojones to attempt it.
I have attached the stock and patched images to this post, in case someone who is more comfortable than I am with Android booting wishes to give it a shot. But I make no promises whatsoever that either of these images is actually good, so caveat emptor.
Looking forward to seeing some action in this thread from people who know more than I do!
Edit: My original images didn't work. Don't know why. I was able to use mtktool referenced later in this thread to extract boot.img and patched it via Magisk and it works fine, producing a rooted Astro Slide. The attached boot.img can be flashed to boot_a via fastboot. Use at your own risk of course.
15
Cosmo Communicator - Android / Still on V19 & can't update Magisk via Magisk Mgr (20.3 to 20.4)...
« on: April 28, 2020, 07:04:06 am »Quote from: 360North
Guessing either we are the only 2 Users experiencing this issue, or nobody else out there cares to comment on it.
I also have the same problem. Just wanted to give others an opportunity to post a solution, instead of just posting a "me too". I haven't had the time to look into solving the problem myself yet.
Quote
So much for help and guidance on here. ¯\_(?)_/¯
Now, now...