IMEI issue and no signal

migue5862

Hi thank you in advance to everyone before hand for your time and assistance.

So I am currently having this issue, I have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro, and I installed Ubuntu touch on it a long time ago, and I used to love it however, I realized that the project for that specific model was abandoned since there were no updates, even up to this date it has not received an OTA update and is currently sitting on version 2021/09/21, and despite my efforts to get Waydroid working properly I just managed to get it barely up and running, thanks to TheKit btw, after seeing no updates, probably due to low demand or usage on that specific device, I gave up and decided to return the device to Android.

It bricked, somehow I managed to get it up and running once more, however on Android using the stock rom MIUI baseband and IMEI showed as unknown, after looking for a way to restore the IMEI through software, it was possible but it required a backup of the NVRAM and NVDATA partitions, which I did not have access to from Android and sadly I did not back up before installing UT, and the only other solution I found on how to fix it, was through hardware modification which is beyond my level of skill, so I decided to install UT once more to see if it somehow UT had something to do with the IMEI missing on Android, to my surprise on UT the IMEI can be read just fine, it shows on my settings listed and somehow UT is able to communicate with the modem to connect to network through SIM, which makes me wonder if UT encrypts the NVRAM/NVDATA partition in a way that Android can not read it afterwards or just formats in a way that Android can not see it, and this is the reason why I am here.
I need some assistance with the following, in Android is possible to make a back up of the different partitions, and through a rooted device you can re-flash the parameters for the IMEI to restore it, so since UT can read these partitions and files, I need to know if I am able to extract the NVRAM.bin file through UT and the NVDATA.img partition, so that I can after flashing Android back, use this two specific partitions extracted from UT to restore the IMEI on Android. so how can I back up these partitions on UT? is this something even possible? and if possible would these files be compatible with Android?

if you read all the way to this point, I thank you for your time and any advice!
Regards,

Lakotaubp

@migue5862 You could also try asking here https://t.me/ubports the main Telegram group.

Moem

@migue5862 said in IMEI issue and no signal:

I realized that the project for that specific model was abandoned since there were no updates, even up to this date it has not received an OTA update and is currently sitting on version 2021/09/21

That is surprising. The device page says it should have received OTA-24. I wonder what's going on here.

migue5862

@moem I am not really sure, I liked the OS a lot but yeah, lack of updates means that will continue having the same bugs that had since it was released, and I have been trying to solve some of them but I am not at a level of a developer so a lot of times it feels like just trying some random solution and praying, I would love to try the latest version, if it was possible to upgrade.

Lakotaubp

@migue5862 If you can back up all your stuff first and rerun it through the installer again as a clean install and go with the devel channel. I guess there is not much on there from what you say. From what I have seen going back to android does not cause any issues but I have not have a Xiaomi or tried one.

migue5862

Today I tried seeing if it was possible to go to OTA 24 through the RC channel, but it was not possible at all, the same problem shows version 2021-09-11 and when looking for updates just shows that is up to date, any idea if 20.04 will be available for this device?

Lakotaubp

@migue5862 When you go to System Settings, Updates, Update Settings (cog top right) what channel are you on?

migue5862

@lakotaubp It shows Stable despite chosing RC in the AppImage installer, I tried changing to a different channel, from the updates screen, but I only get a blank screen in channels available

migue5862

is it possible to download an image or a click package and update that way?

Lakotaubp

@migue5862 No UT does not work that way. If using recovery advanced options to reset the device and running it through the installer with all the wipe options ticked does not get it on to Devel (from where you can move using System Settings) I have no idea. If you did a clean reinstall from the installer you should be on the latest stable version (OTA24) but why nothing else works I do not know not having your phone.
If you get no other answers here use the link I gave above to the main UBports Telegram group for help. Or you may have to contact the device porter.

MrT10001

When you went back to Android, did you relock the bootloader? DO NOT do that on an Xiaomi phone. Also if you did go back to Android did you use the MiFlash tool?

migue5862

@mrt10001 So at the moment the only program available on Linux to flash Android on MTK devices is the SP Flash Tool and by using Fastboot with the Runner that comes in the official ROM, I tried both ways and with both of them I get the same behaviour.
After installing Android and opening a terminal from recovery using the mount command, it list the partitions available to the OS on Android and it lists all of the partitions except for partition 18 and partition 19 if I recall correctly, with partition 18 being the NVRAM partition, trying to use e2fsck -yf /dev/block/sdc18 will show a message saying that the partition is not a valid Ext4 partition or that it might be corrupted, that we would need to try e2fsck -b with a different superblock, if I install Ubuntu however and run list the partitions Ubuntu shows the partitions and it labels it properly, at first I thought that somehow I had erased the partition completely, but it is not the case since Ubuntu can read it, so it seems to be more of an issue with being locked or hidden from Android somehow.

About the bootloader I have not relocked it, since I followed the cloud procedure once the bootloader is unlocked it can not be locked once more, it even gets disabled on the Developer options.

I have been trying to look for anything unusual but the only other amiss thing I have found is that ls /etc/deviceinfo/devices shows the device listed as a Pine device, but I am not really sure if this is just a leftover from the original Image that was used to develop this version of the OS, because at least based on documentation on Ubports wiki the device should be listed a Begonia with a yml format, but instead I have a Pinetab.yml file

MrT10001

@migue5862 I think you have found your issue. Xiaomi devices are a pain in the rear for a) unlocking the bootloader and b) flashing back to stock. You have to (unfortunately) use a windows based machine, not Linux, and the MiFlash tool ensuring you do NOT relock the bootloader. The MiFlash tool will reset any partition issues generally, and you should keep the IMEI.

migue5862

@mrt10001 Thank you I will give it a try and hopefully works

MrT10001

@migue5862 I have done this a few times, download the correct stock rom, especially if you want to try UT again and flash with the MiFlash tool. At the bottom right corner is a little box that defaults to locking the bootloader. It is important that this is set to NOT lock the bootloader.

migue5862

@mrt10001 Thank you, for providing this info I have tried using the MiFlash under Windows 10 with the Android and MTK drivers, and Android was reinstalled, despite this the broadband and IMEI stays the same as blank and Android not having any access to these partitions, I guess I can only hope until the release of 20.04 and hope the Note 8 Pro gets ported over and it becomes available on the installer, since I could not find any other way to get updates.

But I appreciate the help thanks!

shindler25

@migue5862 hi,
I went though more or less this same process.

Unfortunately I don't know if there is a good solution to the IMEI issue. but I stopped looking into it because I did finally find the solution for the UT update (the device is actively supported and 16.04 OTA-25 and 20.04 dev are available). There are just an unfortunate pairing of bugs that causes it to be a real pain to setup the device.

I added my best shot at documenting the problem/solution on the issue on the begonia gitlab page

As far as the IMEI goes, my suspicion is that the UB ports installer version for the note 8 uses android 9 to get around the adb issues that the note has in halium 10, and from the interwebs there seemed to be some indication that the android 9 formatting doesn't line up with the android 10 (or 11) firmware. If this is true there could be the chance that after getting the note updated to a current version of UT you may be able to re-install miui without IMEI issues.