I’ve successfully ported ClockworkMod recovery (CWM) to QMobile Noir A8–now you can enjoy the benefits of having a custom recovery which can make full Nandroid backups i.e backup your ROM and data. It can then be used later to restore your phone to working condition, in case something goes wrong while flashing custom ROMs/kernels.
I had to first extract the stock ROM, recovery and boot partition of QMobile Noir A8. Then, made this particular CWM version 6.0.1.2 from stock Noir A8 recovery and a CWM for V970 MT6577 using Android Kitchen. Thanks to yuweng from XDA-Developers for providing the porting plugin, and bgcngm for V970 recovery!
Although you can backup your Noir A8 ROM using this CWM, for getting the stock ROM .img file, stock recovery etc., I’ll post the procedure later.
Steps To Install ClockWorkMod Recovery On QMobile Noir A8:
Warning: Do not perform the procedure if you have no idea why you’re doing this. Doing something wrong can brick your phone, so please make sure you follow it exactly. If something goes wrong, I will not responsible for it.
Your phone must already be rooted! Check this thread to root your device first.
1) Download this file. Extract all files somewhere, e.g., D:\noir. You will get 3 folders – “MT6577 USB VCOM drivers”, “recovery_files” and “SP_Flash_Tool_v3.1224.01”.
2) Installation of VCOM driver: Even if you have already installed VCOM drivers, install these as well as they’re a must. Run InstallDriver.exe to install. Then, turn off your phone, connect with USB cable and drivers will get installed automatically.
3) Open SP_Flash_Tool folder and run Flash_tool.exe. Click on scatter-loading button, navigate to recovery_files folder which you extracted earlier and select “MT6577_Android_scatter_emmc.txt”. Click OK and ignore if any errors come up.
4) Make sure only recovery is checked! All other entries must be unchecked. Your SP Flash Tool should look something like this:
5)Turn off your device. Remove the battery and reinsert after few seconds. Do not turn on the device yet.
6)Click the Download button in Smart Phone Flash Tool. Now connect your Noir A8 while still in off state.
7)It will be detected in SP Flash tool, a red bar will progress to 100%. Then it will ask to connect cable in 12 seconds but DO NOT remove the cable or do anything. Just let the timer finish, it will again show progress bar and at the end you will get a small window with green circle.
That means the recovery was successfully flashed ! Congrats, you did the job! 😛
In Case Of Errors When You Press Download & Connect Phone:
If you’re getting errors like BROM DL_ALL failed, then follow this procedure, which will flash recovery to all MTK phones without SP Flash Tool:
- Download the script from here and extract.
- Three recoveries are pre-included. Rename the one for your phone to recovery.img.
- Set phone to USB Debugging mode from developer options and connect to PC, or start it in recovery mode.
- Then run the file named flashit.bat.
If any errors occur like phone not detected, your ADB drivers are not installed. So, install MT6577 / MT6575 drivers properly.
Few things:
- To go in the recovery mode of Noir A8, hold down volume up and power button. Release when the logo appears.
- For backup, you should have at least 1GB free on SD card. Go to backups/restore and make a backup. You should get the folder clockworkmod on your SD card with 2 sub folders in it, backup and blobs.
- I have tried the backup and so far, it successfully makes the backup. Haven’t tried the restore functionality yet so please either wait for confirmation OR you can try to test the restore functionality on your own and report here. 🙂
- UPDATE: Restore works too as per user reports. So, this is a fully functional recovery for Noir A8! 🙂