FIXED-Newer ver of EC25 Modems, FOSS FW upgr breaks funct- repair FW and IMEI rebuild

[biketool]

(The fix for disfunctional but flashable after firmware load in newer EC25 modems PPP and maybe newer PPs is described here https://themodemdistro.com/efs_recovery )

The process for installing the firmware on my old pinephone was pretty easy; download, unzip, and run flashall then follow instructions to flash the NON-HLOS.ubi 
https://github.com/the-modem-distro/pine...LASHING.md
I never encountered any problems.

I got a replacement upgrading to PPpro; mostly the same modem (uses nano vs micro-SIM); the behavior after flashing is very different.  
After running flashall utility and the NON-HLOS.ubi(ADSP) successfully the modem reboots but has the slash through the signal-bars symbol and no longer works for telephony and GPS though shows as a quectel modem on lsusb.  I managed to spend a few evening hours a few weeks ago flashing between the upgraded firmware and the stock quectel_eg25_recovery and firehose flashing utility, and every ADSP found on the git; I gave up and let the PPpro sit until the next day with the battery out.  For no reason I know of the modem was working at bootup of the PPpro where it had not the night before.

After having modem audio problems likely related to Mobian unstable updates I tried flashing the modem to a different more stable ADSP thinking it was the full shutdown vs hot-rebooting(no full shutdown/power-down for modem) that was my previous problem.  

As I am sure others have experienced this problem.
What is the best way to debug a 'stuck' modem that does partly boot, can be flashed, but will not connect to the network or give a GPS ttyusb interface beyond trying flashing the stock firmware?  Once fixed I will try to document it as best I can for the wiki.

[biketool]

in modemmager.log I get this over and over

Code:

mobian ModemManager[907]: <wrn> [modem4] couldn't enable interface: 'Couldn't set operating mode: QMI protocol error (52): 'DeviceNotReady

both when flashed with quectel_eg25_recovery or pinephone_modem_sdk

followed the instructions in https://github.com/the-modem-distro/pine...ot-anymore

for some reason when I try to get into EDL mode for the firehose flash utility from quectel_eg25_recovery

Code:

sudo mmcli -m any --command="AT+ADBON"

I get back

Code:

error: command failed: 'GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.ModemManager1.Error.Core.Unauthorized: Operation only allowed in debug mode'

but I can run the flashall tool successfully from the quectel_eg25_recovery git

Code:

root@mobian:/home/mobianpro/quectel_eg25_recovery# ./flashstock
Sending AT+QFASTBOOT...
Sending OEM STAY in case the custom bootloader is installed
< waiting for any device >
OKAY [  0.002s]
Finished. Total time: 0.002s
Waiting to settle...
Start flashing!
Warning: skip copying aboot image avb footer (aboot partition size: 0, aboot image size: 477916).
Sending 'aboot' (466 KB)                           OKAY [  0.027s]
Writing 'aboot'                                    OKAY [  0.174s]
Finished. Total time: 0.224s
Sending 'boot' (6066 KB)                           OKAY [  0.297s]
Writing 'boot'                                     OKAY [  2.016s]
Finished. Total time: 2.332s
Sending 'recovery' (6066 KB)                       OKAY [  0.301s]
Writing 'recovery'                                 OKAY [  2.017s]
Finished. Total time: 2.339s
Warning: skip copying system image avb footer (system partition size: 0, system image size: 58327040).
Sending 'system' (56960 KB)                        OKAY [  3.114s]
Writing 'system'                                   OKAY [ 19.429s]
Finished. Total time: 22.566s
Warning: skip copying recoveryfs image avb footer (recoveryfs partition size: 0, recoveryfs image size: 10092544).
Sending 'recoveryfs' (9856 KB)                     OKAY [  0.513s]
Writing 'recoveryfs'                               OKAY [  3.415s]
Finished. Total time: 3.954s
Warning: skip copying modem image avb footer (modem partition size: 0, modem image size: 41025536).
Sending 'modem' (40064 KB)                         OKAY [  2.014s]
Writing 'modem'                                    OKAY [ 13.620s]
Finished. Total time: 15.658s
Rebooting                                          OKAY [  0.004s]
Finished. Total time: 0.055s
Done!

just a reminder that the modem problem started when I flashed an ADSP image onto the PPpro modem.
It is pretty rough having to fall back to a dumb nokia for communication, I am sure that I am missing a simple step somewhere here.

---

It didn't fix the issue, still no phone network connect, but was able to run firehouse from the quectel_eg25_recovery git like this

Code:

git clone https://github.com/Biktorgj/quectel_eg25_recovery
cd quectel_eg25_recovery
sudo su
<password prompt>
./qfirehose -f ./

I think I have a possible pinephone offer, so I will have something until I fix my PPpro, I guess I will have to use this again https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...ght=update

[biketool]

It looks like this might be a new hardware issue covered here,
https://themodemdistro.com/efs_recovery
lets see
______________________________
I am currently letitng the modem sit since there is mention of some automatic process to intentionally break and then fix the modem firmware and IMEI

I will archive the description and steps here, I would appreciate comments on a next step as the modem has not reappeared as I have edited this
__________________________________
Recovery of the EFS area

So, you're probably here because your modem suddenly stopped booting after a failed firmware ugrade or downgrade.

Long story short: something changed in the way Quectel builds their images and it seems like if you got a new board and attempt to flash an older image version the modem will stop being able to read its own EFS area and end up in offline mode with no IMEI.

How do we fix this?

With a bit of patience and a recovery package

    1. Download this: EFS Recovery package https://themodemdistro.com/packs/efs_recovery.tar.gz
    2. Enter fastboot
    3. If you're already running the custom firmware, run fastboot oem stay (I had to use echo -ne "AT+QFASTBOOT\r" > /dev/ttyUSB2 to get fastboot)
    4. Unpack the tar gz (tar -xvf efs_recovery.tar.gz )
    5. Flash the custom bootloader and boot it: fastboot flash aboot appsboot.mbn && fastboot reboot && fastboot oem stay
    6. Flash the placeholder sys_rev image: fastboot flash sys_rev sys_rev.bin
    7. Rebuild your IMEI: fastboot oem fix_imei 12345678901234 (where 12345678901234 is the IMEI as shown in the RF shield on the back of the phone)
    8. Tell the modem to boot again: fastboot continue

This will overwrite your sys_rev partition with a purposedly broken one, to which we'll write a new IMEI, calculate its CRC, and flash to the EFS area. This should allow the modem to go back to previous stock version you want too
____________________________________________________
I am going to try to shut down, remove battery, and then restart(with battery in)
my next step will be to try to load the custom firmware or maybe the OEM, we will see
_______________________________________________________
Scotty:"Damage repaired Captain! engines online."
Adama:"get us out of here, FTL jump!"
Chewbacca:"Woof! Woof!<ship jumps to lightspeed>"

That did it....
If anyone wants to point me to where I can delete stuck MMSs it would be appreciated, not a big deal, alternatively how to configure MMS.
if anyone points me to the command(I have been using it) I would like to report the currently running firmware v but for now I am going to take a break now that I have a working Mobian PPP.

[DarciFoxe]

I wanted to follow up with this since I am currently dealing with the same issue. Were you able to flash a custom firmware? Or did you have to stick with the default one?

[biketool]

I wanted to follow up with this since I am currently dealing with the same issue. Were you able to flash a custom firmware? Or did you have to stick with the default one?

Yes, I am now running the latest 8.0 flashall and ADSP Version 01.003.01.003 from https://github.com/the-modem-distro/pine...LASHING.md
I think you have to run the ADB/fastboot commands as root (sudo su) so you get a real root shell and not just sudo <command>, sudo didn't ever work for me especially ADB even if I chmod permissions of the ttyUSB.