[ Advanced ] Rooting Teracube One

William_Vidrine · February 15, 2020, 9:37pm

I did not have it in the same directory, but I specified the path relatively.

I will try another flash.

William_Vidrine · February 15, 2020, 10:09pm

I just tried to reflash, TWICE, using MinimalADB etc. It LOOKED successful, but then my desktop was still there after reboot. It did not perform a factory reset, and more importantly, Magisk still can’t be installed for root.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot devices
201909T1000735 fastboot

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot flash boot teracube_patched_boot_sw1.img
target reported max download size of 134217728 bytes
sending ‘boot’ (9469 KB)…
OKAY [ 0.437s]
writing ‘boot’…
OKAY [ 0.139s]
finished. total time: 0.581s

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot reboot
rebooting…

finished. total time: 0.007s

C :\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot devices
201909T1000735 fastboot

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot flash boot teracube_patched_boot_sw1.img
target reported max download size of 134217728 bytes
sending ‘boot’ (9469 KB)…
OKAY [ 0.438s]
writing ‘boot’…
OKAY [ 0.136s]
finished. total time: 0.579s

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot reboot
rebooting…

finished. total time: 0.005s

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>

L_Hamilton · February 15, 2020, 10:14pm

If you know it flashed correctly (see my cmd window above),
Did you click MagiskManager on GitHub?

If you clicked on just “Magisk” instead on the manager, try this:
Uninstall Magisk, first click uninstall in the app, then on the pop-up “Complete Uninstall”. Restart your phone.
Then go to GitHub for the highlighted app, install it, it will give you a message “Requires Additional Setup” click Ok, and the phone will reboot. Assuming IMG flashed properly in the earlier step you should have root.

William_Vidrine · February 15, 2020, 10:22pm

that is where I got it, but I don’t think I got that message upon install.

uninstall, reinstall, nothing about special access

William_Vidrine · February 15, 2020, 10:30pm

funny, the first TWO times that I reflashed did a reset, but not now

L_Hamilton · February 15, 2020, 10:36pm

Sorry, that’s about all I can think of. I did 4 and they all went real smoothly. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along and help. Later today or tomorrow I will try to get TeraCube’s unto XDA’s forums. They have a lot of very talented folks who could probably help.

William_Vidrine · February 15, 2020, 10:39pm

that will be great!
I am doing another factory reset and seeing if I can root it.

William_Vidrine · February 15, 2020, 10:58pm

apparently a fresh start, and SKIP everything, and flash and install Magisk Manager (which then installed Magisk) was the trick!!!

I note also that after this flash, the Magisk Manager safety check says “ctcProfile true” instead of false
seems to be rooted!! Now to install everything else again

Gatlin_Newhouse · February 19, 2020, 3:42pm

See if you can get your guide linked to by XDA dev mods: https://www.xda-developers.com/root/#others

Sharad · February 19, 2020, 8:11pm

Great idea. I don’t see a way to report a new device there. Anyone know how to get Teracube on that page?

Update : I’ve sent a PM to the user mentioned in that article.

William_Vidrine · February 20, 2020, 2:50am

I seem to have lost root with the beta update.
Would I normally need to re-root the phone after updates?

Is re-flashing the bootloader necessary?

Sharad · February 20, 2020, 3:52am

Bootloader stays unlocked if you had unlocked earlier.

We will provide a new patched boot image that will need to be flashed with the above sequence.

William_Vidrine · February 20, 2020, 3:57am

yes I still get the boot warning as if the bootloader is unlocked.

Looking forward to the new patched boot!
Hopefully the boot img won’t need to be changed very often in updates.

William_Vidrine · February 21, 2020, 10:11pm

Can we extract boot.img from the update zip, and patch the img file with Magisk via Magisk Manager (Install Magisk>Install>“Select and Patch a File”), and flash that img to regain root?

Sharad · February 22, 2020, 3:43am

Sure - that should work.

William_Vidrine · February 22, 2020, 4:20am

I have now tried using Magisk Manager to patch, and it boots, and Magisk Manager report both as installed.
However Titanium Backup now closes upon open every time.

not sure what is happening

caretoexplain · February 22, 2020, 5:59am

I think it would be a good idea for someone to make a video on how to root the device.

William_Vidrine · February 23, 2020, 9:47am

I seem to have root, but it causes an immediate crash of Titanium Backup, without it asking for permission to use SU even
Another root check program ask for access to SU and reported phone as rooted though.

William_Vidrine · February 23, 2020, 9:55am

I have a few questions regarding boot images, unlocked boot loader, and patched boot files:

The unlocked boot loader lets us flash a new patched boot img, right?
One is (I am) able to patch their own boot.img extracted from the recent update
the update IS ALSO ABLE to flash everyone’s phone with Teracube updated boot.img, including still boot-locked phones
Q: Is unlocking the bootloader only needed because the patched img files are not SIGNED by Teracube?
Q: Could signed patched img files be used to make it harder for programs to detect an unlocked/rooted system? (and remove the need for an unlocked bootloader?)

Sharad · February 24, 2020, 8:19pm

See my respons inline:

William_Vidrine:

The unlocked boot loader lets us flash a new patched boot img, right?

Yes. Bootloader has to be unlocked - otherwise phone will not boot (will keep bootlooping)

One is (I am) able to patch their own boot.img extracted from the recent update

the update IS ALSO ABLE to flash everyone’s phone with Teracube updated boot.img, including still boot-locked phones

Q: Is unlocking the bootloader only needed because the patched img files are not SIGNED by Teracube ?

You are correct. Android verified boot (AVB) requires all partitions to be signed so that it can detect any malware, etc. Unlocking the bootloader skips those checks.

Q: Could signed patched img files be used to make it harder for programs to detect an unlocked/rooted system? (and remove the need for an unlocked bootloader?)

Not sure on this but signing a rooted boot.img would not be considered a good idea in the security world. Installing a rooted boot.img is basically taking OS security in own hands.