Hello,

Theres no Samsung Galaxy A14 5G forum to post this in since it's somewhat a new phone. I have the SM-A146U One UI 5.0 Android 13, baseband ver A146USQU1AVL2

Kernel version 4.19.191-25583387-abA146USQU1AVL2 #1 Sun Dec 4 16:04 KST 2022

SE Enforcing SEPF_SM-A146U_12_0001
Sun Dec 4 16:15:21 2022

Service Provider Software Version SAOMC_SM-A146U_OYN_CHA_13_0011 CHA/CHA/CHA

Security Software Version
ASKS v5.8 release 20221121
ADP v3.0 release 20191001
SMR Nov-2022 Release 1
Android Security Patch level
November 1st 2022

Is there a root avaliable for this phone & has anyone sucessfully done it?

Camilo Gil said:

Another thing that I knew by experimentation was, that even on Brom mode, the device won't let downgrade its firmware. I tried with an earlier samsung firmware, turned into scatter firmware; and sp flash tool showed me this warning: "status_sec_violate_anti_rollback 0xc0020021" that supposedly means that the device is rejecting the loaded firmware by being an old one.

We can downgrade with unlock tool.

And another thing that i'm suspecting is that sp flash tool, at least until the latest 5 version (5.2228 version, i guess), doesn't support correctly UFS memories, so, if that is true, it couldn't read and locate correctly the physical addresses for the different partitions and by that reason is showing me constantly the warning: "status_partiton_not_found 0xc0040006". I guess that maybe is that, because when you load an EMMC scatter in SPFT, in the row named "region", will appear the corresponding memory región of the file to flash. But when you load the A146U scatter, which is for a UFS memory, the mentioned row is blank. So I guess if SPFT can't "know" where to flash every file, it will show the mentioned warning. It's just a supposition.
The fact is that beyond that, i don't know how to override that phenomena. I think that probably by using the latest SPFT versión (currently v6.2228) could surpass that, but I don't know how to generate an XML scatter. I tried by generating an XML on the "normal" SPFT (loading the "normal" scatter into it, and selecting file>export console mode XML) but it didn't work.

mvikrant97 said:

We can downgrade with unlock tool.

Hmm, and ¿is there a free way to downgrade it?

Camilo Gil said:

Hmm, and ¿is there a free way to downgrade it?

No it can be done using unlock tool.

Do you have the Samsung A14 5G?

Can you please help us in getting the dump of the firmware?

I have one but I got its scatter firmware by using android utility (you can generate one too. You just need to have Odin firmware to load it on this program), but it seems not to be very useful (i couldn´t unbrick my phone with it. Sp flash tool while using the created scatter, kept showing me this warning "status_partiton_not_found 0xc0040006", and I haven't could surpass that issue.)

Camilo Gil said:

I have one but I got its scatter firmware by using android utility (you can generate one too. You just need to have Odin firmware to load it on this program), but it seems not to be very useful (i couldn´t unbrick my phone with it. Sp flash tool while using the created scatter, kept showing me this warning "status_partiton_not_found 0xc0040006", and I haven't could surpass that issue.)

I already have the scatter firmware. I need the dump from a working phone though

mvikrant97 said:

I already have the scatter firmware. I need the dump from a working phone though

Oh, that's the problem, at least to me. I didn't know how to dump the firmware of this phone, so i bricked without having such thing. Would be good to know is someone has it and share it.

Camilo Gil said:

Oh, that's the problem, at least to me. I didn't know how to dump the firmware of this phone, so i bricked without having such thing. Would be good to know is someone has it and share it.

How did you ended up bricking it?

mvikrant97 said:

How did you ended up bricking it?

Firstly, the only what i need was to network unlock it. This phone was sent to me as a gift from a relative in usa. And i didn't know how was the process of unlocking a phone, I though that it was something easy, or better said... free... what a silly i was. So trying to find any "free" way to unlock it, was how I ended up bricking it.
I must clear this phone is not stolen, i mean, its imei appears as clean; but my relative said me that trashed the t-mobile buy bill for the phone, so I can't unlock it for free by using a phone carrier here in my country (here in my country, just with a proof of the legal origin of the phone, any phone carrier, can unlock any phone for free... at least in theory). Any other ways to unlock it, they cost, and i don't have money (this is latam... you know... hehehe).
So, if i could bring back to life this phone, it will return to its initial status, i mean alive but locked. At least on that condition i could sell it.

I know the original topic here, was if is there root available for this phone model, and I finished changing the topic to "¿how to unbrick this phone?" hehehe. My phone is still dead or in comma or whatever, but investigating, i found this topic here on this page https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...or-galaxy-a14-5g-mediatek-2023-05-21.4587805/ that assures to have a functional TWRP for this model. I haven't asked to the topic author, but I suppose that if he could make an installable TWRP, is because he could override this phone's locked bootloader (in fact, he made a patched vbmeta for flashing. I don't know if i'm right, but I guess to understant what that file is something related to a locked bootloader), and if with this is possible to flash a TWRP, I think is also possible to install a magisk root. I don't know, it's just guessings. I would test it, but my phone is dead, so if anyone wants to give it a try and can; please tell us the result if successful.

Camilo Gil said:

I know the original topic here, was if is there root available for this phone model, and I finished changing the topic to "¿how to unbrick this phone?" hehehe. My phone is still dead or in comma or whatever, but investigating, i found this topic here on this page https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...or-galaxy-a14-5g-mediatek-2023-05-21.4587805/ that assures to have a functional TWRP for this model. I haven't asked to the topic author, but I suppose that if he could make an installable TWRP, is because he could override this phone's locked bootloader (in fact, he made a patched vbmeta for flashing. I don't know if i'm right, but I guess to understant what that file is something related to a locked bootloader), and if with this is possible to flash a TWRP, I think is also possible to install a magisk root. I don't know, it's just guessings. I would test it, but my phone is dead, so if anyone wants to give it a try and can; please tell us the result if successful.

Click to expand...

Perhaps you can try doing a scatter back up yourself ? To see what you have on the phone still ? I pulled most of what was on mine off however it didn’t make sense the sizes of the partitions were way differnt than those from the firmware downloaded

xXx yYy said:

If Android's Linux kernel is version 5.10+ you can try to root device's Android at your own via

GitHub - tiann/KernelSU: A Kernel based root solution for Android

A Kernel based root solution for Android. Contribute to tiann/KernelSU development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Click to expand...

Wait, for real? I'm an ID-10-T...

exnfox said:

Perhaps you can try doing a scatter back up yourself ? To see what you have on the phone still ? I pulled most of what was on mine off however it didn’t make sense the sizes of the partitions were way differnt than those from the firmware downloaded

How do you flash a phone that will not accept your firmware? Our Phones are locked because of these flarkin douch-bag companies because "THEY NEED MONEY!"

TheWhiteTyger said:

How do you flash a phone that will not accept your firmware? Our Phones are locked because of these flarkin douch-bag companies because "THEY NEED MONEY!"

Let's see how long this will last...

Camilo Gil said:

Firstly, the only what i need was to network unlock it. This phone was sent to me as a gift from a relative in usa. And i didn't know how was the process of unlocking a phone, I though that it was something easy, or better said... free... what a silly i was. So trying to find any "free" way to unlock it, was how I ended up bricking it.
I must clear this phone is not stolen, i mean, its imei appears as clean; but my relative said me that trashed the t-mobile buy bill for the phone, so I can't unlock it for free by using a phone carrier here in my country (here in my country, just with a proof of the legal origin of the phone, any phone carrier, can unlock any phone for free... at least in theory). Any other ways to unlock it, they cost, and i don't have money (this is latam... you know... hehehe).
So, if i could bring back to life this phone, it will return to its initial status, i mean alive but locked. At least on that condition i could sell it.

Click to expand...

I feel your pain, dude...

TheWhiteTyger said:

I feel your pain, dude...

NOT A WORM! I heard this translation, and my bad... Bro-heim?

Well it was fixed . Now have trouble getting back to brom lol

I've had all the same problems. Then i realized i can easily get in and out of the black screen.

Using the latest 5 version of SP Flash Tool, i'm able to flash just the preloader. Version 5.22 The rest of the rom will fail. But, then i use mtkclient to flash partitions

Use the app mentioned earlier in this thread to unpack your phones md5 files. This will produce a scatter file. Open it and rename 6853 to 6833 and change title of it as well.

I think you need to create the preloader. You will have an img file. You can get it from boot1, preloader.img or gpt file i think. It will be the preloader9092aa.bin (not exact but something like that).

Ok. So, you have scatter. You have preloader. I've attached the DA file.

Using the (as i call it) unpack app, select the first option disable auth. You should get a 2 stage process and if your drivers are in order, a success message.

Sp flash tool will now work, sort of. Only your preloader will download. After, you can use it with mtkclient to restore a back up.

If anyone needs a back up, i have one for A146W and A146U1

For frp, use mtkclient and erase frp, persist, persistent, userdata and metadata.

Just be careful. I'm not sure if it was messing with protect or nv partitions, but i have no baseband or imei. Been a little busy recently so i've not been able to restore that.

Hope this helps.

Oh! If you have an extra hdd or laptop kicking around, i HIGHLY SUGGEST taking advantage of the iso provided on the mtkclient github page.
I used rufus and mbr. Many are using a modern bios and that's why i suggested an extra machine or hdd swap. The iso installs to mbr (easiest way i found) disk and legacy bios.
This will get you mtkclient plus other tools that does not require internet. It's excellent. You can do live usb, but for speed and storage i suggest install. Just open mtkclient, phone off, plug, and it'll connect and the gui works.

Oh... if you are installing the mtkclient iso to hdd, you just need one partition with mount point / and auto install grub.