[Ga Gu]

Hi, it's me again. My phone is Meizu M5 Note (M1621).
This time the preloader partition is changed because I tried to flash another version of official firmware while trying to unlock the bootloader.
If I try to download the preloader using SP Flash Tool, it shows error STATUS_SEC_DL_FORBIDDEN (0xc0020004).
So then I tried using the Write Memory feature suggested in my first thread. But it shows another error STATUS_SEC_WRITE_DATA_NOT_ALLOWED (OxC002000C).

What to do now?

Now my phone can't even boot into fastboot.

There's no vibration or anything showing on the screen, no matter I long press the power button or press both the power button and volume down.

[X3non]

Hi, it's me again. My phone is Meizu M5 Note (M1621).
This time the preloader partition is changed because I tried to flash another version of official firmware while trying to unlock the bootloader.

does this mean that you were able to successfully flash preloader from this official firmware?

If I try to download the preloader using SP Flash Tool, it shows error STATUS_SEC_DL_FORBIDDEN (0xc0020004).

which preloader are you referring to here?

[Ga Gu]

does this mean that you were able to successfully flash preloader from this official firmware?

So here's what happened.
Before the last step of that tutorial to unlock bootloader, I can only boot into recovery, which is expected as per the tutorial.
And the last step is to find an official firmware (any version, said by the tutorial) to flash via recovery.
So I followed the tutorial and flashed the firmware.
At first I flashed the official firmware with the same version (flyme 6.7.7.1) as my backup. Did not succeed.
So then I tried official firmware of another version (flyme 7.0.1.0). And this time the preloader is changed, because the preloader file in the official firmware is different.

But now I can't go into recovery. I don't know how I can modify preloader now.

which preloader are you referring to here?

After he phone was bricked, I restored almost all partitions to what I backed up before I made my first thread in this forum.
And I'm trying to restore the preloader of my first backup, which is of the official firmware version 6.7.7.1.

[hovatek]

After he phone was bricked, I restored almost all partitions to what I backed up before I made my first thread in this forum.
And I'm trying to restore the preloader of my first backup, which is of the official firmware version 6.7.7.1.

1. Are you able to do a readback of any partition?
2. What's the outcome of Format all + Download
3. Have you tried flashing the same v7 rom that bricked the phone to see if you get the same error?

[Ga Gu]

Thanks for the reply.
Here's some update, and I'm really confused about what is going on.

1. Are you able to do a readback of any partition?

Yes. In fact, I just did a readback of all partitions (except userdata), and did a comparison to my full backup.
Among all the 35 partitions listed in the scatter file, 6 partitions are changed:

1. preloader
   
2. rstinfo
   
3. md1img
   
4. md1dsp
   
5. boot
   
6. flashinfo
   

I was confused because I thought I had restored most of them (rstinfo, md1img, md1dsp, boot) yesterday.

Anyway, then I tried to restore those 4 partitions again.

I have discussed the content of flashinfo in my previous post, it probably doesn't matter. So i'm not flashing it.

The strange thing happens. When I tried to download those 4 partitions (rstinfo, md1img, md1dsp, boot), the download seemed successful.
But then I readback again to check, they were not changed at all. In other words, the download operation didn't actually take place.

The above operations are done with SP Flash Tool v5.1632, which came with the bootloader unlocking tutorial, and is what I mostly used.
Using this version, I will meet error STATUS_SEC_DL_FORBIDDEN only if I try to flash preloader, as I said in the start of this thread.

However, If I use a newer version (v5.1936) of SP Flash Tool, trying to download any partition (I have tried preloader, recovery, rstinfo, userdata) will result the same error (STATUS_SEC_DL_FORBIDDEN).
I have successfully restored userdata with this version of SP Flash Tool previously.
No idea why it is not working now.

I'm very confused now.
After I flashed official firmware 7.0.1.0 via recovery and failed to boot, I started to restore backup using the old version (v5.1632) SP Flash Tool.
At least some partitions must have been successfully restored, because flashing the new version of official firmware must have changed the system partition, and now the system partition is identical to the backup.

2. What's the outcome of Format all + Download

What if I format a partition and I can't write data again?
What if it goes wrong?
Am I guaranteed to be able to write any data into any partition?
Write memory feature has failed so far.

3. Have you tried flashing the same v7 rom that bricked the phone to see if you get the same error?

Just tried. The same error.

[Ga Gu]

2. What's the outcome of Format all + Download

What if I format a partition and I can't write data again?
What if it goes wrong?
Am I guaranteed to be able to write any data into any partition?
Write memory feature has failed so far.

I just read this article, and I'm afraid that it's not safe to format partitions:

3. Do not format a Secure Boot MTK device: If you’re lucky enough to get a DA file for your model then the last thing you’ll want to do is Format. Once you do, the DA file that once worked will stop working, causing tools to request for an Authentication file.

[hovatek]

What if I format a partition and I can't write data again?
What if it goes wrong?
Am I guaranteed to be able to write any data into any partition?
Write memory feature has failed so far.

I just read this article, and I'm afraid that it's not safe to format partitions:

3. Do not format a Secure Boot MTK device: If you’re lucky enough to get a DA file for your model then the last thing you’ll want to do is Format. Once you do, the DA file that once worked will stop working, causing tools to request for an Authentication file.

This is a valid concern. While in most cases, a format should be avoided; in some situations, its the way to go so far you know what you're doing. The Auth bypass tweak knocks out the need for an auth file.

You could try the v7 rom using download only.

[Ga Gu]

How do I deal with the file file_contexts.bin? Do I ignore it?

This is a valid concern. While in most cases, a format should be avoided; in some situations, its the way to go so far you know what you're doing. The Auth bypass tweak knocks out the need for an auth file.

You could try the v7 rom using download only.

It sounds a good idea to try flashing v7 rom using download only.
I'll try that before I read about the Auth bypass tweak.

But I have some question with flashing stock rom of this phone.
The scatter file's format is unusual and can't be recognized by SPFT, so I have to choose manually which partitions to flash.

But how do I deal with the file file_contexts.bin? Do I ignore it?
It's not shown which files to flash and which not to flash in the tutorials about how to flash stock rom using SPFT.
And I can't get useful information about file_contexts.bin through google searches.

Here's the content of the official rom:

Code:

size        file name
0           system.patch.dat
1           type.txt
606         scatter.txt
78634       system.transfer.list
171236      preloader_mz6755_66_n.bin
176800      trustzone.bin
200912      md1arm7.img
218260      file_contexts.bin
511200      lk.bin
1006720     md1dsp.img
4532592     md3rom.img
10513280    boot.img
18592544    md1rom.img
2131632128  system.new.dat

I assume the 4 files smaller than preloader_mz6755_66_n.bin can be ignored.
I can find a corresponding partition for any other file except file_contexts.bin.
I uploaded a screenshot of the content of the official rom. See the attachment of this post.

Here's the scatter file in the official rom:

Code:

preloader 0x0
pgpt 0x0
recovery 0x8000
para 0x2008000
custom 0x2088000
expdb 0x22088000
frp 0x22a88000
ppl 0x22b88000
nvdata 0x22bc8000
proinfo 0x24bc8000
rstinfo 0x252c8000
metadata 0x266c8000
protect1 0x286c8000
protect2 0x28ec8000
seccfg 0x29800000
oemkeystore 0x2a000000
md1img 0x2a800000
md1dsp 0x2c000000
md1arm7 0x2c400000
md3img 0x2c700000
nvram 0x2cc00000
lk 0x2d100000
lk2 0x2d200000
boot 0x2d300000
logo 0x2e300000
tee1 0x2eb00000
tee2 0x2f000000
secro 0x2f500000
keystore 0x2fb00000
devinfo 0x30800000
system 0x31000000
cache 0xd1000000
userdata 0xec000000
flashinfo 0xFFFF0080
sgpt 0xFFFF0000

[X3non]

But I have some question with flashing stock rom of this phone.
The scatter file's format is unusual and can't be recognized by SPFT, so I have to choose manually which partitions to flash.

this is because the firmware is an OTA firmware meant to be flashed in stock recovery not spft, so the scatter file won't work in spft
ofc you can use an spft scatter file along with the files within this firmware, like the scatter file you previously used to fix this device before

But how do I deal with the file file_contexts.bin? Do I ignore it?

file_context is meant to be used to convert system.new.dat to system.img (format that can be used in spft)
you can use mtk extractor tool (preferably) @ [ Login / Register to download free] OR the guide @ https://www.hovatek.com/forum/thread-15855.html