Lenovo P780 ROM version P780_ROW_S220_140722, pre-rooted, with TWRP recovery
This is a signifiant upgrade to Lenovo P780 ROW, Android version 4.4.2 KitKat. The interface (launcer, lock screen) are similar to those found on VibeUI ROM, but with more available languages and without the China-specific apps installed.
This is a pre-rooted SPFlash format package, allowing you to install hassle-free the factory ROM. All user data stored within internal storage will be lost, make sure to backup your data before installing it. I only tested on P780 with 4GB, but it should work fine on 8GB ROW version too.
The only differences between this ROM and the untouched 'ROW' (Rest of the World) official ROM are:
- recovery TWRP version 2.7 (the official recovery is also provided) is included
- this one is pre-rooted with clockworkmod superuser
The ROM will be updatable over-the-air, but TWRP recovery may be lost on future official OTA updates.
After the first boot, Security and Power Manager apps will ask for root privilege. They do work very well without having superuser privilege, it's safe to deny forever root acces for both of them.
How to install
- optional step – Install ADB drivers for the phone, use MTK Root & Tools to backup IMEI
- install SPFlash tools (version 3.x works fine) and the drivers for Mediatek VCom port
- Download the package, unzip it to a folder, open SPFlash tools, make sure you have the 'DA DL All with checksum' activated, click on 'Scatter file', select the file "MT6589_Android_scatter_emmc.txt", make sure all the records from the spflash window are ticked and have a file associated to them on 'location' column.
- power off the phone, make sure you have unchecked the 'Fast boot-up' (or similar) option on the phone
- connect the usb cable to the phone, click on 'Firmware upgrade', connect the other usb cable end to PC, wait for the green circle to appear.
- disconnect the phone, power it on, wait for a longer-than-usual startup
- deny root access requests for 'security' and 'power' apps
- optional – restore IMEI with MTK Root & Tools
The baseband contained within this ROM is for ROW (rest of the world) hardware version of Lenovo P780, 2nd SIM will not work if you use it on non-ROW (for China) devices. If you're unsure if your device is ROW or China, look at the text on the battery. If the text it's mostly chinese, then you have the non-ROW hardware version of P780.
Known issues
- After loading the scatter file, SPFlash tools version 5 does not automatically populate the 'preload' segment, you will have to tick it and browse for the actual location of 'preload.img'. SPFlash version 3.x does not exhibit this behaviour
- If you forget to tick 'DA DL All with checksum', the phone will fail to boot, with a 'DL fail' message. Fortunately, the flash operation can be done once again. Just power the device off (pressing 'power' for about 10 seconds), disconnect the usb cable, start over the installation.
- the P780_ROW_S221 official update will restore factory recovery and may prevent superuser from working properly. To use root with S221, you have to download the S220 to S221 zip update above and the superuser zip to SDCard, reboot to recovery (with mobile uncle tools or ADB reboot recovery), go to 'update', apply the the update zip, do not reboot, apply as update the superuser zip, select reboot on recovery, answer 'do not fix root' if questioned. It's important to apply both zips at once. Power on the phone, with a root file manager rename /system/recover-from-boot.p to something different, such as 'recover-from-boot.bak', power off the phone, reflash the recovery from the first archive with spflash tools, make sure to uncheck all the partitions except 'recovery' and to have 'DA DL All with checksum' ticked.
Disclaimer
Manipulating ROM without proper knowledge may lead to undesired results, such as an unusable device. You agree that the resoponsibility if you lose data, or time repairing the device, belongs entirely to you.