probably bricked my X23 trying to flash VollaOS properly

online78

Hello, yes I could do that.. but am not there yet. In this post Ruben explained, how he was able to fix a bricked Volla Phone X. https://rubencarneiro.github.io/rubencarneiro.io//Volla-phone-Repair/. I would like to go the similar route, but am not able to unzip spflashtool due to the fact that on the website is the wrong password to unzip the tool. And of course, I have to get the right files. Is anyone here able to help me out instead going to the Volla Phone Support?

online78

By the way, I send you here more Infos... maybe someone can help?

Beeing in Fastboot Menue I have following situation:

enter: fastboot flashing unlock - then I have to confirm that on the phone. when I do that it gives on my terminal (Linux PC) out: fastboot flashing unlock FAILED (remote: 'Prohibit unlock operation ') fastboot: error: Command failed.
On the Phone it shows: Failed to unlock the device! Will return to fastboot in 3s
enter: fastboot flashing unlock - then I have to confirm that on the phone. when I deny that it gives on my terminal (Linux PC) out: fastboot flashing unlock OKAY [ 4.945s] Finished. Total time: 4.946s
On the Phone it shows no Info
In the Fastboot Menue I can choose:
- Go Back
- Reboot
- Turn Off the Device

But I have something like two different loocking Fastboot menues:

When I push the red butten left and volume up it enters in Recovery Mode. There I have following I can choose:
- Boot recovery
- enter Fastboot menue
- normal Boot
When I enter Fastboot menue, I come into the Fastbootmenue with the description above.
When I do normal boot, the device begins an endless reboot cycle
When I do boot recovery I come into an other looking Menue

Boot Recovery Menue:

Here It shows following Info on top (which was not shown when I push the button volume up and the black butten below the volume down button): Version 12.1 (20240228) Active slot: b
Here I have following I can choose:
- Reboot system now
- apply update
- Factory reset: which I have already done hoping it would help - but did not
- advanced
Reboot System now means, that the device goes into an endless reboot cycle
Apply Update: there I can choose apply from ADB. When I do that the phone shows: Now send the package you want to apply to the device with "adb sideload <filename>"... - and I can cancle too. I did not fiddle arround with that option but think this would probably help?
When I cancle then on the phone it shows following: Install completed with status 3. Installation aborted.
When I go to advanced I have new options:
- Enter fastboot
- reboot to bootloader
- reboot to recovery
- view recovery logs
- power off

Second Fastboot Meue (entering from recovery Mode):

Infos show above which are not shown when I enter in fastboot menue with the button volume up and the black button below the volume down):
- product name - vidofnir
- Serial Nr - the number
- Secure boot - yes
I can choose in that fastboot menue:
- Reboot Systen mon
- enter Revocery
- reboot to bootloader
- power off
What I have also noticed, that in this fastboot menue ubport does recognize my phone right away.
This is not the same, when I enter the fastboot menue via volume up button and the black button below the volume down.
When I try to apply fastboot flashing unlock here, it does not give me on the phone the opportunity to confirm that. It gives right away out this error: fastboot flashing unlock FAILED (remote: 'Unrecognized command flashing unlock') fastboot: error: Command failed
On the phone is now text to see.

Some more Infos:

recovery Mode I enter with the red button left and Volume Up
direct fastboot menue I enter with the volume up button and the black button below the volume down (on the right side)
as I mentioned - do the both fastboot menue not act the same. The one I enter directly with the black button shows me a confirmation box on the phone when I enter fastboot flashing unlock. The one I enter over recovery mode does that not.

I hope this helps. For to know I would love just to have Installed Volla Phone OS 13 without any weired notice at startup of the phone. That would be very great.

Help would be very apreciated
Dom

online78

hello all
thanks to ruben carneiro I could sideload volla OS 13 and fix everything. He provided me with the right zip file for VollaOS. Now I do not have any weired message at boot. That's great.

My fault was indeed to lock fastboot with fastboot flashing lock. Very stupid.

If anyone needs some help, ruben is great, Also here I want to shout out a great Thank to Ruben.

Dom

rubencarneiro

@online78 Thank you for the positive feeadback

online78

@rubencarneiro : Your are welcome.

By the way as Info for all, that are seeking having VollaOS on their phone, even when it comes with ubuntu touch. I think now to sideload Volla OS is much easier, because when I did Install Volla OS with ubport I had the situation, that it loaded VollaOS12.1 and got an error message that the phone has been manipulated. It took me also quite some time to update to volla OS 13. I have seen in different posts in differen forums, that people normaly live with that. But I have now no error message at the beginning and as I have understood from Ruben, that the sideload way also flashes the boot partitions, so everything is fully conform for Volla OS and secure now.

If my thoughts are wrong, please correct me for the help for other Volla Phone Users. Thanks Dom

Simmonz

Replying to this because here we are a year later and I had the exact same thing happen to me. I had ordred a second X23 to mess around with and ordered it with Volla OS but it came with UT and am having the same errors as you. Two questions:

What is "sideloading" ? Is it a different way of saying dual booting ?
Any chance I can get those zip files off you in some way or form ?

Skrap3r

@rubencarneiro Any chance I can get the zip file? I got the same problem

Mario.CH

Hi @Skrap3r,

Are you looking for this zip file: 9.0-20201019-nightly-k63v2_64_bsp-signed.zip?

If not, look for another one, newly available at: https://ota.volla.tech/.

“All files were previously available at ota.volla.tech/builds/

Greetings
Mario

Skrap3r

Hi @Mario.CH,

Thank you for your reply.

I'm not sure if that's the right solution. I also have a Volla Phone X23 (vidofnir), and I think it's kind of soft-bricked.

Using the UBports Installer, I can successfully install Ubuntu Touch and SailfishOS. However, when I try to install VollaOS again, it fails with an error stating that it can't find the dpm partition. Afterwards, the device gets stuck in an endless reboot loop.

The files for "vidofnir" at https://ota.volla.tech/ don't seem to be the full firmware. I don't think sideloading those would help, since VollaOS isn't currently working.

I can still get into recovery and fastboot mode.

While SailfishOS was installed, I looked at the partitions, and all the necessary ones seemed to be there, including the _a / _b slots. Manually flashing all the VollaOS .img files to slot A seemed to work, but the OS won't boot even after hours of waiting.

I'm not sure if it's completely soft-bricked, since SailfishOS and Ubuntu Touch seem to work fine. I can't find an official scatter file for VollaOS in the firmware downloaded by the UBports Installer; otherwise, I would have just used the SP Flash Tool.

Do you have any ideas or tips on how to get VollaOS working again or to get the offical scatter file?
I also thought about writing the scatter file myself, but I am scared to completly destroy the phone this way.

Greetings, Skrap3r

Mario.CH

Hi @Skrap3r,

Unfortunately, I don't have a Volla device, but as long as you can access the Fastboot menu and also boot to recovery, I don't think all is lost.
But if you've never flashed back to the original OS or done a sideload, then I would seek help from the Volla forum, because you want to go back to Volla OS.

Greetings
Mario