How to install firmware using flashtool. SP Flash Tool: flashing Android devices based on Mediatek processors. Preparing to flash your smartphone using FlashTool

FlashTool - 5.1844.00.000 - FlashTool program is designed to work with Chinese phones. The program provides the ability to read and write full numbers into phones, as well as format


  • Genre: Firmware software
  • Activation: free, not required
  • English language

Firmware MT67**

Please note that smartphones/tablets with 67** chipsets must be flashed with a flash drive with at least version v5.1444.00.000


[*] USB debugging [*]

Don't forget to enable USB debugging!

###-> Instructions for flashing via Flashtool Changing computer settings -> General -> Special boot options -> Reboot now.
When shutting down, click Diagnostics -> Advanced options -> Boot options -> Restart.
Then a menu will appear, in it select “Disable mandatory driver signature verification.

Disabling signature verification on win8.1 is done like this:

Win+I -> Settings -> Change computer settings -> Update and recovery -> Recovery -> Restart now.
When shutting down, click Diagnostics -> Advanced options -> Boot options -> Restart.
After a menu appears, press F7 and wait for the computer to restart.
Next, install the drivers according to the instructions.

When you connect your phone to the computer, you see that your device appears in the “Android Composite ABD Interface” section with a yellow triangle icon, you indicate to the device the path to the driver file, but the device manager insists that everything is fine with the drivers and does not want to update them , then you need to edit the file where you need to register PID\VID, so, you need to first find out this data from your computer. Right-click on the device with the yellow triangle, properties, device ID. There will be 2 lines. These lines need to be duplicated in the driver file. You will then need to re-specify the path to this driver.

Example:

android_winusb.inf - make changes in this file


%SingleAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0C01
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0C01&REV_0255

vid\pid may change, enter your values

p.s: this is SP Flash Tool - for flashing Chinese devices and more. But don't confuse it with Flashtool for Sony Xperia.

Important information

Please note, if you have MT6575 and MT6577: You only need to flash the preloader and dsp_bl if the brick is lifted! In all other standard updates and flashings, DO NOT check these boxes in the SP Flash Tool and DO NOT enable formatting (then you won’t be able to do anything at home and will take it to the service center). Mindlessly flashing these partitions is a useless and very risky exercise, especially on MT6575 and MT6577.
Try not to flash the preloader file unless absolutely necessary and DO NOT enable formatting (for everyone else)

Copy the folder with the flasher and firmware to the root of the system disk and work from it (don’t create additional problems for yourself)

In different batches of Chinese phones, hardware components are changed that cannot work correctly with firmware for similar devices from the previous batch. The most interesting thing is that they often do not even indicate that this is a different revision. What is this for? And besides, always do a full rom-backup before flashing the firmware.



  • MT6573/MT6513/MT6575/MT6515/MT6577/MT6517

  • MT6589/MT6572/MT6570/MT6582/MT8135/MT6592/MT6571

  • MT8127/MT6595/MT6752/MT2601/MT8173/MT6795/MT6798/MT6799

  • MT6735/MT6535M/MT6753/MT8163/MT8590/MT6580/MT6757D/MT8167

  • MT6755/MT6797/MT6737T/MT6737M/MT6750/MT6757​/MT6757/MT0690



The previous version 5.1804.00.000 was updated to the current one as of 08/05/2018 - 5.1828.01.000
Before this, this version was updated 5.1708.00.000
Version 5.1640.00.000 updated to 5.1708.00.000


The file scat 26.27.28.29 for FlashTool.txt is in the archive
Support customer parameter feature which download customized binary in CBR region.
Support WINBOND OTP function
1) There are four security register banks(OTP) in WINBOND flash. The bank0 is Reserved by Winbond for future use. We only use bank1~bank3. One banks size is 0x100. User could directly use 0x0 to 0x300 address that the flashtool driver will direct these address from bank1 to bank3
2) The WINBOND flash unique feature is the security register banks are not One-Time-Program. That could be erase by specific command. In order to prevent format these regions, user must use "Lock" these regions in order to prevent data changed in security banks.
Bug fixes:
Fix the bug about Create CBR fail caused from bad block management method
Enhancements:
MMAA support 4 flash ID comparison.
Memory support:
Add new serial flash: SF_N25W064A11EF640F, SF_MX25U12835FZNI_10G and SF_MX25L12835EMI_10G.
Note: SV5 Platform: MT6251, MT6276. SV3 platform: other chips

Very often, new firmware is released for smartphones that expand its functionality and stability. Unfortunately, not all of them are installed independently. In this article, we will look in detail at the method of installing Firmware yourself using Flashtool on your device.

And so let's start, first let's try to figure out what firmware is and what it is intended for. Firmware or firmware is the basic software part of a smart device, which provides complete control of all basic and advanced functions of the smartphone. In another way, we can say that this is the digital “heart” of the device.

Why is it necessary to update the firmware?

Since we figured out that this is a basic software package, when you update it to the latest version you will receive:
1) Get rid of errors and “bugs”;
2) Speed ​​up the operation of the device;
3) Addition and appearance of new software features.

As you can see, using the latest version of firmware, you can only benefit.

Preparing to flash your smartphone using FlashTool

The very first thing you need to check is the condition of the battery. Be sure to make sure that its charge is high enough and is at least 50%.
Also remember, if you do all the actions yourself, and not in a service center, then the fear and risk for the device rests with you.
For those who use Windows7 64-bit, before installing the drivers, you need to set ..Flashtool\drivers\Flashtool-drivers.exe compatibility with Windows Vista in the properties, and check the box to run the application as an administrator.

Detailed instructions for flashing smartphone firmware

1. Download the FlashTool program (for Windows systems);
2. Launch FlashTool and click on the button with the lightning icon;

3. Then you need to select Flashmod and click Ok;


4. Make a backup copy of your data (for example using Titanium Backup Pro);
5. On the left side of the window that appears, select the firmware; if you want to save all the data, then on the right side you need to uncheck three checkboxes from Wipe. If you want to speed up the process, uncheck No final verification (but it’s better not to do this);


6. Now turn off the smartphone, wait 30 seconds and hold down the volume button. After this, the program itself should install the drivers and initialize your smartphone.
7. Then the flashing process will begin, after which the message “Flashing finished” will appear. This is all the firmware process has been successfully completed.
8. Reload the smart and rejoice :)

Video application on how to flash with the FlashTool smart program

This instruction is primarily intended for owners of Xperia X, Xperia Z5, Xperia XZ and other smartphones who, for some reason, were unable to update their devices to Android 7.0 Nougat via PC Companion or over the air. This happens if the purchased device was originally intended for a specific cellular operator. Then you can wait for the update for many months until the operator’s service deigns to distribute the update to “its” clients.

Secondly, the instructions will be needed by those people who, for some reason, did not like Android 7.0 Nougat, its design, functionality, or so on. Using FlashTool, you can easily roll back to the old firmware based on Android 6.0.2 Marshmallow.

WARNING!

When you start flashing your Xperia smartphone or tablet via FlashTool, remember that responsibility for all actions taken lies solely with YOU. Understand the issue thoroughly before installing the firmware.

If, as a result of imprudent actions, instead of an updated Xperia device you receive a brick, then you should not blame the site. All responsibility lies entirely with YOU.

When installing firmware via FlashTool, the warranty is not lost and does not affect service in any way.

How to flash a Sony Xperia device with new firmware. Simple step-by-step instructions for installing firmware via FlashTool

First you need to prepare the device:

  1. Enable USB debugging. Go to Settings > Options for developers (if there is no option, go to the “About phone” section and click on the “Build number” item several times), find the line “USB debugging” and check the box.
  2. Go to Settings > Security and enable Unknown Sources mode.
  3. Your Xperia device must have all the drivers required specifically for your model installed. It is best to simply install the PC Companion program on your computer and synchronize them with each other.

Where to get Xperia firmware for installation via FlashTool

There are two options:

First. You can download from a special page on the website; it contains the vast majority of ready-made firmware images for Xperia devices in .ftf format. It is in this form that the firmware is installed via FlashTool.

Second. Download the firmware yourself using the XperiaFirm utility, and then convert the downloaded files into an ftf image for subsequent flashing.

Obtaining firmware via XperiFirm

This is just a super application, the developers of which we shake hands with.


Creating an FTF image of Xperia firmware using FlashTool

  1. You need to download and install Flashtool (0.9.23.0) (follow the link).
  2. After installation, launch the program. To do this, go to its installation folder in “C:\Flashtool” and click on the FlashTool.exe file. If an error occurs, clear the contents of the “C:\Flashtool\firmwares” folder.
  3. After opening FlashTool, go to the Tools > Bundles > Create tab, as shown in the screenshot.
  4. In the new window, click on the small button with 3 dots in the “Select source folder” line and select the folder with the previously downloaded firmware.

  5. You will see that all files are uploaded to the “folder list” field. Next, double-click on the hidden line “Devices” and select your Xperia device model.

  6. In the “Branding” and “Version” lines, insert the values ​​that you needed to remember earlier when downloading the firmware.

  7. Select ALL files (don't forget to check) in the “folder list” field and click on the right arrow button. This will transfer all files to the "Firmware content" field. Next, click the “Create” button and the firmware compilation process will begin.

  8. After completing the procedure for creating an FTF firmware image, a special inscription will appear (see screenshot). The finished firmware in .ftf format should appear in the folder “C:\Users\Nickname of your computer\.flashTool\firmwares\”.


Installing firmware on Xperia devices using FlashTool

So, you already have ready-made firmware in FTF format, which you downloaded ready-made or created yourself. All that remains is to install it on your Xperia device.


Now you can disconnect the USB cable from the device and turn it on. This completes the process of installing the firmware using FlashTool. Congratulation! 🙂

After we have downloaded everything we need, we can, for example, create an Android folder in the root of some folder and organize the unpacked contents of the archives into folders, i.e. drivers in the Drivers folder, Platform Tools in a separate folder, SP Flash Tool in a separate folder, MTK Droid Tools also in a separate one.

Next, enable Developer Mode on your device and activate USB debugging. Those. First, go to Settings -> About phone (About device) and click several times (5-7) on the “Build number” until a message appears stating that Developer Mode is activated. Next, go to the Settings menu -> For developers and check the box for “USB debugging”:

After that, we connect the device to the PC and install the ADB drivers (that is, either by running AdbDriverInstaller.exe from the archive, or by opening the device manager and manually specifying the path to the drivers in the Android ADB driver x64 folder for an unknown device). The result should look like this (Device Manager):

The Android ADB Interface device in the device manager confirms that we are ready for the next step.

We wait until the device is detected in it and click the “Block Map” button:

Then click the “Create scatter file” button and save the resulting file (for me it was called MT6582_Android_scatter.txt) to disk. At this point, the preparation stage is completed and you can proceed directly to reading the data.

Open the resulting file in Notepad++ or Word (note that regular notepad will not work) and find the line partition_name: CACHE in it:

And remember what is written in the linear_start_addr column, in this case it is 0x3E900000.

We disconnect the phone from the PC and turn it off, i.e. hold the power off button and select “Power off” in the menu, you can also disconnect and insert the battery. Next, launch the SP Flash Tool and go to the Readback tab. Next, click the Add button. As a result, one row will appear in the table:

We click on it, we are asked to select a location to save the ROM_0 file, select the folder in which we want to save it and on the next screen in the Length field we enter the number we remembered earlier (linear_start_addr):

The end result should be something like this:

Then we connect the switched off phone (!) to the PC. At this point, it is advisable to open the device manager. For now, we don’t press any buttons in the SP Flash Tool on this screen!

At the moment of connection, an unknown MT65xx PreLoader device will be detected and the OS will prompt you to install drivers for it. The picture below clearly shows this. It’s better to open the device manager immediately before connecting the phone in order to “catch” the moment the MT65xx PreLoader appears. If the device appears and the OS does not offer to automatically install drivers, then this must be done manually by right-clicking on the MT65xx PreLoader device.

Select “Search for drivers on this computer” and indicate the folder in which the unpacked contents of the mtk_xp_vista_7_8_x32_x64.zip archive are located (i.e. by this point you should unpack the archive somewhere). After the drivers are successfully installed, the picture in the device manager should change to this:

If the drivers are installed, you can proceed to the next step. Please note that when you connect the phone, the Preloader USB VCOM Port may appear for only a few seconds - this is normal, our task at this stage is to install the phone drivers so that it is detected exactly as the Preloader USB VCOM Port, and not the unknown MT65xx PreLoader device. If you suddenly did not have time to install the drivers, and the phone turned on, take out the battery, disconnect the phone, insert the battery, connect the phone and repeat the procedure.

Once we are sure that the drivers are installed, we disconnect the phone from the PC. We turn it off, in the open SP Flash Tool we press the Readback button and connect the turned off phone to the PC. After this, we will go through the process of reading the firmware from the phone:

Many people write about the difficulties that arise precisely at this step. I'll try to explain in a little more detail. After you press the Readback button, SP Flash Tool goes into standby mode for the phone to connect, i.e. It is assumed that before this you managed to catch the moment when your switched off phone is identified as MT65xx PreLoader and installed drivers on it so that Preloader USB VCOM Port appears in the COM ports. If suddenly for some reason the SP Flash Tool wrote an error, or the phone did not have time to connect, the following method can help (everything described is only true if you installed the drivers correctly and when you connect the phone, Preloader USB VCOM Port appears): disconnect the phone from the PC, remove the battery, press the Readback button, connect the phone with the battery removed. In the SP Flash Tool there will be a red bar (Download), during this time we quickly insert the battery back, if we have time, then a blue Readback bar will appear with percentages, as in the picture:

We are waiting for the process to complete. Creating a backup can take 10-15 minutes. Just look at the running percentages and don’t touch anything 😉 At the end of the reading procedure, you will see the message Readback Ok:

While we are doing Backup, it’s time to explain what a scatter file is and what the ROM_0 file is, which we will receive as an output. The phone's memory is a regular EMMC Flash, which is divided into specific sections. A Scatter file is a section description file (for example, Scatter has sections PRELOADER, RECOVERY, LOGO, ANDROID, etc.). The purpose of the partitions is different, for example, Recovery contains the recovery image, logo contains the logo used when loading the system, Android contains the system image, etc. The ROM_0 file that we get as an output is essentially a continuous dump of EMMC Flash in one file. But in order to use the resulting firmware backup, for example, to restore another similar device, we will still need to split it into partitions. Here I will describe several ways to do this. The first and most common is through MTK Droid Tools. Let's say we already have a ROM_0 file made using the SP Flash Tool.

Turn on the power of the device (phone) and let it boot, after which we launch MTK Droid Tools again (USB debugging mode on the phone must, of course, be turned on, and ADB drivers installed on the PC), go to the root, backup, recovery tab and click the “Create backup from ROM_ flash drive” button:

We select the ROM_0 we obtained in the previous step and in the log window we see something like the following:

— Save folder on the computer: E:\Android\MtkDroidTools\backups\KINGSING_S1_141117_ForFlashtoolFromReadBack_150512-005322\
— scatter is saved in the file:
E:\Work\Megaphone Login Plus\MtkDroidTools\backups\KINGSING_S1_141117_ForFlashtoolFromReadBack_150512-005322\MT6582_Android_scatter.txtcopying completed
- preloader.bin ... copied ... cut OK
- MBR...copied
- EBR1...copied
- pro_info ...copied
- nvram.bin...copied
- protect_f ...copied
— protect_s ...copied
-seccfg...copied
- uboot.bin...copied
- boot.img ...copied
…

Well, etc. Now in the save folder, for me it is E:\Android\MtkDroidTools\backups\ we have a folder with a complete backup of our firmware, divided into sections (i.e., each section in a separate file):

This completes the process of creating Backup firmware. If you just wanted to find out how to make backup firmware using the SP Flash Tool and you succeeded, you don’t have to read further.

For advanced

What to do if MTK Droid Tools does not “see” the phone? Or is it impossible to create a scatter file or split the resulting ROM_0 file into sections? How to get a partition map and is it possible to “cut” the ROM_0 file manually? There is such a possibility. To get a partition map on MTK 65xx you need to give a command in the ADB console - i.e. run adb shell in the console and type this command there:

If suddenly the phone is not visible through ADB for some reason (in this case, I advise you to read the ADB manual, there may be a problem with the VEN_ID of the device and you just need to register it in %USERPROFILE%\.android\adb_usb.ini, then the same command can be given in the phone itself by installing Terminal Emulator for Android from Google Play:

As you can see, the result is exactly the same and the linear_start_address of the cache section can be taken from here. Yes, by the way, in new devices, for example based on MTK 6752, such as Beeline Pro, ZTE Q Lux, etc. The partition map can be obtained using cat /proc/partinfo. MTK Droid Tools does not work with these devices at all.

We now have a method for obtaining the start address of the cache section, which is needed to obtain ROM_0 using the SP Flash Tool. We also know the addresses (offsets) and sizes of each partition. Those. To “cut” ROM_0 into partitions, we don’t need to use MTK Droid Tools. This can be done manually in any Hex editor that supports the function of selecting and saving a block to a file (I use the console HIEW). Well, as an example, let’s “cut out” the Recovery partition from the resulting ROM_0 file.

We know (from scatter or from dumchar_info) its linear_start_addr: 0x4180000 and partition_size: 0x1000000. Open ROM_0 in HIEW and go to 0x4180000. Those. in the console we make hiew32 ROM_0, then press F5 and enter the address of the beginning of the partition - 4180000:

As you can see from 4180000 we have the ANDROID! signature, which tells us that we are on the right track 😉 The end of partition address is calculated as linear_start_addr+partition_size-1 = 0x517FFFF in our case. We press in HIEW * (the asterisk on the additional keyboard) to start selecting the block (if we move the arrows up / down / right / left, we see how the block begins to be highlighted in color) and either go down to 0x517FFFF, or do it through F5:

And we finish selecting the block, again using the “gray” * (on the additional keyboard). After that, press F2 - Put block (saving the block to a file):

And we have the recovery section written down. In the same way, you can cut any other partition from ROM_0. As you understand, we don’t need MTK Droid Tool at all.

To simplify the procedure, you can also write a script / program that will do this automatically for all sections, but to be honest, I don’t have enough time for this, and this task does not arise very often, so HIEW is quite enough for these purposes .

p.s. That's all for now... the post turned out to be a “draft version”, because... I wrote it in a hurry, maybe I’ll add to it later if there are any unclear points. And of course, as always, I will respond to your comments and questions...

p.p.s. As they managed to correct me a little, /proc/dumchar_info does not contain linear_start_addr from the scatter, but physical_start_addr. Those. in the example given for the recovery partition we have:

linear_start_addr: 0x4180000
physical_start_addr: 0x2D80000
partition_size: 0x1000000

And in /proc/dumchar_info we see exactly physical_start_addr in the StartAddr column. But if we look at the size of the first partition (preloader), it becomes clear how to convert physical_start_addr to linear_start_addr; if you add 0x1400000 to 0x2D80000 (this is exactly the size of the preloader), then you get 0x4180000.

How to flash using Flashtool?




For modern phones and smartphones, new, updated software versions are released quite often. To make your phone as functional as possible, all you have to do is flash it yourself.

Let's look at how to flash a phone using FlashTool.

You will need

  • FlashTool program. You can download it, for example, from the Firmware website.
  • Drivers for phone. You can download it either on the manufacturer’s official website or on the forums of a specific model.
  • Firmware. It can also be downloaded from the forum of your phone model.
  • Cable for connecting your phone to the USB port of your computer. As a rule, it comes with the phone.

Step-by-step instructions for the firmware process via Flashtool

  1. First, check your phone's battery charge level. It must be at least 50%.
  2. Check whether drivers for your phone are already installed or require installation. For this:
    • Open Device Manager.
    • Connect your switched off phone via USB.
    • If the driver is not installed, a new unknown device will appear (or the phone model will be written) with a yellow triangle.
    • To install the driver, right-click on this device and select "Update Drivers".
    • Next, select “Search for drivers on this computer”, “Select a driver from the list of already installed ones”, “Install from disk” and select the downloaded driver file.
    • Disconnect your phone from your computer.
  3. Launch FlashTool from the folder where you downloaded it.
  4. In the program window that opens:
    • select scatter-loading file: open the folder with the downloaded firmware and select it.
    • Check the DA DL All with check sum box.
    • Click firmware-upgrade.
  5. Connect your phone
  6. Wait for the firmware to complete and disconnect the phone from the computer.

Now that you have installed the new firmware, you can turn on the phone and check the results. The first boot of the phone can take up to 10 minutes, so don’t immediately think that nothing is working and reboot the phone.