- Title: P780 Android 4.4.2
- Listed: August, 2014
- Last modified: 01/27/2015 7:04 pm
- Version: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
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DESCRIPTION
Lenovo P780 ROW ROM Android 4.4.2, pre-rooted, with TWRP recovery
This is a signifiant upgrade to Lenovo P780 ROW, Android version 4.4.2 KitKat. The interface (launcher, lock screen) are similar to those found on VibeUI ROM, but with more available languages and without the China-specific apps installed.
This is a pre-rooted SPFlash format package, allowing you to install hassle-free the factory ROM. All user data stored within internal storage will be lost, make sure to backup your data before installing it. I only tested on P780 with 4GB, but it should work fine on 8GB ROW version too.
There are some zip files attached here, they also may contain standard android zip updates or updates from the factory, untouched.
The only differences between this ROM and the untouched 'ROW' (Rest of the World) official ROM are:
- recovery TWRP version 2.7 (the official recovery is also provided) is included
- this one is pre-rooted with clockworkmod superuser
The ROM will be updatable over-the-air, but TWRP recovery and/or root may be lost on future official OTA updates.
After the first boot, Security and Power Manager apps will ask for root privilege. They do work very well without having superuser privilege, it's safe to deny forever root acces for both of them.
How to install
Common prerequisites:
- Use lenovo backup and restore (or TWRP recovery) to do a backup of your data to SD Card (apps, contacts, messages, call logs), you will be able to restore them later with settings/backup and restore feature.
- connect the phone to PC, enable USB debugging, install Lenovo drivers if you didn't already, do a backup of your IMEIs with MTK Root & Tools app
- optional step – Install ADB drivers for the phone, use MTK Root & Tools to backup IMEI
- install SPFlash tools (version 3.x works fine) and the drivers for Mediatek VCom port
- Download the package, unzip it to a folder, open SPFlash tools, make sure you have the 'DA DL All with checksum' activated, click on 'Scatter file', select the file "MT6589_Android_scatter_emmc.txt", make sure all the records from the spflash window are ticked and have a file associated to them on 'location' column.
- power off the phone, make sure you have unchecked the 'Fast boot-up' (or similar) option on the phone
- connect the usb cable to the phone, click on 'Firmware upgrade', connect the other usb cable end to PC, wait for the green circle to appear.
- disconnect the phone, power it on, wait for a longer-than-usual startup
- deny root access requests for 'security' and 'power' apps
- optional – restore IMEI with MTK Root & Tools
Update
I added the P780-ROW-S221 package for spflash tools, having TWRP 2.7, root and busybox preinstalled. This can be used either as a full install package, no matter what ROM version you run now, or can be used to update existing phone without affecting user data, if your device currently is running P780-ROW-S220.
If you currently have ANY ROM and you want a 'clean' install, use the procedure above.
If you currently have P780-ROW-S220 and want to preserve existing data and downloaded apps, after loading the scatter file untick 'cache' and 'usrdata' partitions and then click on 'download' button on SPFlash tools instead of 'Firmware upgrade'.
Update 2014-12-07: P780_ROW_S226_140919_TO_P780_ROW_S227_141121_WCF9.zip
This is an incremental update from version S226, it can't be installed without having P780_ROW_S226 on device. Installing the factory update alone will not affect the existing modem firmware, but it will disable root. This incremental update can be installed as a zip update, no need for SPFlash.
To install it, download the zip to SD card (and ClockworkMod Superuser if you want root, you can take it from here), reboot to TWRP recovery (with Mobile Uncle Tools or 'adb reboot recovery' command), install BOTH zip files, then reboot. If you do not need root, then you can ignore references to superuser.
Update 2015-01-27: P780_ROW_S228
While this is an incremental update from version S227, I packed it in SPFlash format. This allows installation regardless of existing ROM. It has TWRP and root.
Users of P780_S22x can upgrade to S228 prserving existing data/settings by ticking only "ANDROID", "PRELOAD" and "UBOOT" within SPFLash screen and unselecting the other memory partitions.
What's new: updates to modem image (now at version P780.V24), slight changes to SystemUI and other telephony related updates.
Common post-update actions:
- use settings/backup and restore to bring back contacts/messages/call logs
- think twice before applying the OTA updates, you will likely lose root and/or custom recovery when using the official updates.
- hit the 5 stars button under 'Author rating' on this page and take into consideration to use the paypal button above to make a donation to me! This allows me to test more, to get more devices/roms and to post updates faster.
The baseband contained within this ROM is for ROW (rest of the world) hardware version of Lenovo P780, 2nd SIM will not work if you use it on non-ROW (for China) devices. If you're unsure if your device is ROW or China, look at the text on the battery. If the text it's mostly chinese, then you have the non-ROW hardware version of P780.
Known issues
- After loading the scatter file, SPFlash tools version 5 does not automatically populate the 'preload' segment, you will have to tick it and browse for the actual location of 'preload.img'. SPFlash version 3.x does not exhibit this behaviour
- If you forget to tick 'DA DL All with checksum', the phone will fail to boot, with a 'DL fail' message. Fortunately, the flash operation can be done once again. Just power the device off (pressing 'power' for about 10 seconds), disconnect the usb cable, start over the installation.
- the P780_ROW_S221 official update will restore factory recovery and may prevent superuser from working properly. To use root with S221, you have to download the S220 to S221 zip update above and the superuser zip to SDCard, reboot to recovery (with mobile uncle tools or ADB reboot recovery), go to 'update', apply the the update zip, do not reboot, apply as update the superuser zip, select reboot on recovery, answer 'do not fix root' if questioned. It's important to apply both zips at once. Power on the phone, with a root file manager rename /system/recover-from-boot.p to something different, such as 'recover-from-boot.bak', power off the phone, reflash the recovery from the first archive with spflash tools, make sure to uncheck all the partitions except 'recovery' and to have 'DA DL All with checksum' ticked.
Disclaimer
Manipulating ROM without proper knowledge may lead to undesired results, such as an unusable device. You agree that the resoponsibility if you lose data, or time repairing the device, belongs entirely to you.
※Please make a backup of your device before installing or updating ROM
Hi guys!
S226 package in SPFlash format is online.
To update your existing P780_S223_ROW, all you have to do is:
- use spflash to 'download' (not firmware upgrade!), put ckeckmarks at ANDROID, UBOOT and BOOT, download the images
- after restart, go to settings/apps/all, look for "Lenovo launcher', press 'clear data' and 'clear cache'. This step will wipe all launcher configuration
The procedure above may also work for updates from all S22x versions, but I didn't tested.
otherwise, the full SPFlash package can be used for full rom installation as usual.
I also added a modem image for chinese baseband, this will allow use of the 2nd SIM if the device hardware is non-ROW (china unicom), this must be put on /system/etc/firmware (after backing up the existing modem_1_3g_n.img, of course).
modem_1_3g_n.img must have mode 0644 (read/write for owner, read for group, read for others)
hey entreco !
what new features in S226 ?
I noticed subtle UI changes. Lenovo also says ‘security and performance improvements’
any bugs noticed?
None yet.
I have been searching for a solution to loss signal in my second sim ,, for 10 days , and just your file (baseband ) did the job nicely, ……Thanks very much
Welcome
i'm using s223 for now, how can i flash to the newest (S226 as im writing) without reset/factory default/clean installing?
Get this archive P780_ROW_S226_Rooted_SPFlash_TWRP and use SPFlash to "Download" uboot, boot and android (system), leave the other partitions unchecked. You may have to erase data for app named 'Lenovo launcher'.
HI enterco, I'm stuck at s123 after internal partition, how can I upgrade to 4.4.2 ? should I use the same steps as u explained in the post?
If you are running S1xx, grab the latest archive in spflash format (P780_ROW_S226_Rooted_SPFlash_TWRP when I write this comment) and do a 'firmware upgrade' with spflash tool. It is difficult to preserve apps/settings when updating from S1xx to S2xx, I guess you will have to reinstall apps and re-personalize.
Make sure you have a backup of the IMEIs/contacts stored elsewhere than internal phone storage.
Existing data on 'internal storage' will be deleted, after upgrade there will be only one 'data' partition 2.5GB in place of existing 'data' 1GB and 'internal storage' 1.5GB, you will have less complaints about 'insufficient storage' for apps.
Hi enterco, what is the difference between "Firmeware -> Upgrade" and "Download" in SPFLASH Tool? I am thinking to perform a clean install of S226 over my current S226 which was from S221 then S223 upgrade. Which button should I choose? I want everything from fresh and will re-install all other apps. Many Thanks.
I will try to explain how P780 ROM is organized.
Preloader is a device management firmware, taking care of powering on/charging when the device is turned off. Usually you do not have to deal with it unless you are forced to do a full firmware upgrade.
Uboot, Boot are the boot loader and boot logo. Those as require upgrade along with the rest of ROM.
PMT is a binary representation of the internal flat, stored on the flash itself. This has to contain the same information as the scatter file for a spflash tool firmware download to succeed. If the scatter differs from PMT, a firmware “upgrade” is required instead.
MBR, EBR1 and EBR2 contain DOS-like partition tables. The sizes of partitions in EBRs must match sizes of the memory counterparts. Playing with EBRs (and acatter) permit resizing of FAT, USRDATA, and Cache partition sizes.
Nvram contains device specific info, such as IMEI, serial number or alarms. This is not usually overwritten.
Android (system) is the effective application set installed on the device, mounted as “/system” when powered on. This is the pace where all system apps and firmware reside.
Recovery is an alternate kernel and mini-ui used for maintainable tasks.
Preload contains vendor-supplied apps, those get reinstalled after a “reset to factory”
Cache and Data (usrdata) are Partitions used to hold app-specific data and user data. Erasing those 2 bring the device to “uninitialized” state, as taken out of the box or as after a “reset to factory”.
Fat is the partition older ROW ROM used to provide the virtual sd card. Current VibeUI ROMs and ROW before S220 provide this partition, current ROW ROM no longer has it.
Bmtpool contains a bad memory blocks map, usually there is no need to touch it.
I explained before the difference between “firmware upgrade” and “firmware download”, a firmware “downlad” can’t succeed if there is a mismarch between contents of in-device PMT data and the contents of the scatter loaded by spflash. This is the only case where “upgrade” is required and you must rewrite (almost) all flash parts.
If the contents of PMT is similar to scatter, then you can upgrade only the relevant parts of the ROM. Those parts are: Uboot, system, boot. The others are optional. You can also “download” CACHE and USRDATA if you want to simulate a wipe/factory reset.
Now, it’s up to you whether you wipe it from settings, re-download uboot+android+bootimg+cache+usrdata, or rewrite without real need once again PRELOADER, PRELOADER and RECOVERY, as required by “upgrade”. imo, the last ones do not require rewrite, unless your ROM has a different layout.
Sorry for this ton of mis-spells, many of them were brought by the automatic correction
Possibly dumbest/smartest question of all: "P780_ROW_S226_Rooted_SPFlash_TWRP " + "Baseband P780.V101.2014/03/12 (CN)" = S226 for P780 with chinese baseband? Or shall we wait/refer to the "Older" ROM thread?
exactly. The 'older' thread will be updated in a couple of hours.
Please upload modem.img from latest P780_ROW_S226
Thanks
Done. If you install it, please take a screenshot with version infos and send me a PM with it.
plese someone guide me how to change baseband
You do one of the following:
-have a rooted device, copy the modem img file to /system/etc/firmware (with a root Explorer,after doing a backup of existing image), set mode 0644 on the copied file.
- use this pre-patched ROM https://www.needrom.com/downlo.....a-baseband-p780
You do know that:
- the baseband/hardware for non-row uses only 2100 MHz for 3-/wcdma?) no 900mhz
- row baseband on non-ROW hardware prevents SIM2 from functioning?
i can't paste the image file in: etc/firmware it said "you cannot paste here because the file system is read only"
I m using this rom : P780_ROW_S226_Rooted_SPFlash_TWRP ….. what to do
You have to use the 'root' option on your file browser. On ES File explorer it's at 'menu key' / 'Tools' / 'Root'. Of course, you have to grant root permission to the file explorer app you use.