Friday, October 15, 2010

Rooting Spice MI-300

Warning:
The process of Rooting your phone may brick your device and may void the manufacturer warranty, I hereby advise readers to be sure about what they are doing and I am not liable for any damage caused to your phone in this process.



NOTE:

  • Before Starting the Rooting process, I assume that you have updated your Spice MI-300 with official Android release 2.1 from Spice, and necessary data backup is done(rooting will erase all your phone data - but not the SDCARD data).
  • There are two different flavors of Custom ROMs available at Boston Mania, you can choose the suitable flavor either FiretrapVanilla or FiretrapSuger. Following Rooting procedure uses FiretrapSuger.

Simplest Method to root your Android Spice MI-300:
  1. Download the zipped nb0(Custom ROM) file from this link.
  2. Unzip the downloaded .rar file(using WinRAR) and rename firetrapSugar.nb0 to firmware.nb0
  3. Copy firmware.nb0 to your phones SDCARD under root directory(not anywhere in any folder).
  4. Switch OFF the phone.
  5. Press and hold volume_up+camera buttons, while holding these two buttons, also press and hold Power button(next to 3.5mm audio jack) for about 15 Seconds.
  6. Phone will boot and stay in "Android system recovery mode".
  7. Using trackball, scroll down to "Download nb0 from sdcard" and push trackball to start updating firmware.
  8. Wait for the phone to update firmware this may take 2-3 minutes.
  9. After the update, phone will reboot with new splash screen "Android"


Now you will have shiny Android flavor "firetrapSuger" with root access and some inbuilt applications.... Go-on and buy/download some nice apps like SetCPU/RootExplorer/QuickSSHD/CacheCleaner/WebSharing/Astro/Skype


SetCPU is a Paid Application using which you can set the speed of your cpu between 122Mhz to 600Mhz(try finding some free app for CPU clock from android market)


TIPS for your Rooted MI-300:
  • When Root Applications are invoked, Permission for root access will prompt user to confirm for access, you can check "always allow" for the needed applications to avoid re-confirmation every time.
  • Turn your camera flash to a Torch using a widget SwitchPro available in firetrapSuger.
  • Instead of adb through USB, Install QuickSSHd to gain shell access through wi-fi of your phone.
  • Using QuickSSHd, you can copy files and folders to your phone over wi-fi using winScp.

After Rooting, I also advise you to take the backup of all data partitions of Flash memory, follow these steps and keep the backup files somewhere safe:
  1. Login to your phone using adb or ssh/putty(for this you need QuickSSHd on your phone)
  2. If you login using adb, do 'su' and check your phone for super user confirmation and allow the root access
  3. Now you will have root permission to read your mtd partitions, run the following 11 linux commands to take the backup of all NANDFlash partitions(brief summary of Flash partitions of your phone can be viewed using 'cat /proc/mtd' command)
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd0 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt0.boot
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd1 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt1.misc
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd2 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt2.splash
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd3 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt3.recovery
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd4 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt4.ftm
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd5 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt5.hidden
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd6 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt6.dgbmask
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd7 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt7.system
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd8 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt8.misc2
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd9 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt9.cache
  • cat /dev/mtd/mtd10 > /sdcard/bkup.mdt10.userdata
Though you may not need the backup all partitions, but boot and recovery partitions are important, you can copy all these files from SDCARD and keep them safe somewhere on your PC.

There is one last important note:
In case if you want to go back to the official release to claim the warranty from spice, just update rooted phone with 'Software Update Tool' provided by Spice and your phone will be back to normal as it was.


35 comments:

vibhor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
vibhor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
vibhor said...

Hey, great to see your blog dedicated to Spice MI 300.I was a little skeptical whether the boston mania mods will work on 2.1 upgrade.
Thanks to you, I will try these out now. Also, the manufacturer claims that the phone has HD video recording. I checked out a few sites which have hacks for nexus one(CyanogenMod version 5.0.8test3) for HD video recording. Any hopes of such a hack for our sweet MI 300?
Also, is the Firetrap Sugar mod better than the stock rom? battery usage etc..?
there seems to be a new rom on boston mania:CMLeclair Version 1.2;
which one is better?

SAHIL BURMAN said...

hey please post a method to unroot it also. so that users can make it back to its normal version when needed to claim for warranty.

dark complicated boy said...

my phone cannot enter recovery mode.someone please help me..

vikas said...

i can not unroot my phone back to android 2.1.
m getting the error that software image file does not match with the phone software ....what should i do somebody plz helpppppp........

vikas said...

and also how can i update my phone to firetrap 1.2 sugar or vanilla

Nick said...

Hi Albert,
I recently installed firetrap Sugar on my Spice Mi300.
I installed a couple of apps like set CPU.
When I try to enter recovery mode, the phone gets stuck at the first screen displaying android logo and "Enter recovery mode" text on top.
I think the problem might be with setCpu so I uninstalled the app and tried again. But faced same issue.
Please help.

Saurabh said...

Hey can u plz tell me that after installing SUGAR is pinch to zoom still supported

Aalok said...

FiretrapSuger 1.2 didn't work. freezes @startup

Aalok said...

just followed ur instructions, now devices freezes @startup showing android logo.

Anonymous said...

Videocon Zeus is Commtiva Z51 as Spice MI-300 is Commtiva Z71 manufactured by Foxconn.
Difference is that Zeus/Z51 has no trackball. I don't know whther same rom will work on both though!

Anonymous said...

hey guys .. m not able to pull up my wifi login access page.
i used dolphin HD, opera & stock browser too.when i start my wifi on my laptop in my office, n start browsing, then my browser asks for my username & password, but my phone doesnt ask for any of the credentials & thus m not able to browse anything...??? please help..

akhil said...

albert please cou,d you send me the recovery image? email akhil_kumar60@yahoo.com

Wahed Khan said...

I cannot enter the recovery mode, tried with volume up + Camera + Power option, it boots as normal. Can someone please help me out in this,please send a copy to khan.wahed@gmail.com

BudakKL said...

Hi, thanks for the post. I have updated my mi300 to Firetrap Sugar according your guide and so far no issue. However, its missing the APN setting. How do I reenter APN setting for the PC Tools app used for tethering via USB? I only have option for umts. Thank again.

Prashant Bhardwaj said...

i have trie dyour ROM it was done successfully. but when i restarted the phone its not booting. i have partitioned the sd card to try apps 2 sd before restarting. Now my phone is in infinite loop of restart. it starts and and again restarts and again. Please help..

vibhor said...

Restart your phone in recovery select "wipe data".. it should work..

Rob said...

Planning on getting one if-
Q- Does FM radio is available/enabled after custom ROM installation>

brunomsg said...

You can get the all updates for Z71 on my blog.
http://boston-mania.blogspot.com

PS: Rom 2.3 for Z71 and clones is coming

syawal said...

how i want install back official spice mi300 software...i using [Rom 2.3] Cyanogen MOD 7 RC0 for Z71 - Build 08/01/2011....plzzz help me....

Unknown said...

I installed Firestrap sugar on my Mi300 it went succesfull and my phone is really fast .I also revert back to Spice OS which they ahad provided from the Spice website .So i was able to revert back to orginal software which was provided form spice .

Thanks for albert

Plz help me on any new Operating .also how do i upgrade to cynogen OS etc ...

Varun Mehra said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Varun Mehra said...

Want to Install 2.2 or 2.3 Update on your spice MI 300


head On to

androidspice.blogspot.com

the official "unofficial blog "

Mighty Ghost said...

I has Spice MI-300, wanna ask something because I'm new in Android and Rooting.

1. what the different between sugar and vanilla?
2. what the differnet between firetrap TwoNights 2.2.1?
3. Can the firetrap TwoNights 2.2.1 installed in Spice MI-300?

firetrap TwoNights 2.2.1 link
http://boston-mania.blogspot.com/2011/01/rom-22-firetrap-twonights-221.html

Anonymous said...

We have many important steps missing here, first thing first spice mi300 2.1 update does not have a recovery mode, second the process flashes a custom rom and wipes the stock one so you loose the warranty.
I worked on a fool proof way to root my spice mi300, have stock OS backed up and running gingerbread on it.
Refer the link http://wahedkhan.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/root-z71spice-mi300-gingerbread-is-available-to-flash/ to root your phone.

vivek said...

I was able to root my Mi300. Thanks for detail process.

Now i am trying to unroot my phone back to android 2.1.
m getting the error that software image file does not match with the phone software.

Please guide.

apache said...

Hi,
thanks for the nice tutorial. I got some great knowledge in rooting android.
I recently got Spice 310 and it has 2.2 Froyo. I wanted to upgrade it to 2.3, cause I heard that 2.3 supports hindi language by default. But I couldn't find suitable ROM for MI-310, as I don't know the exact hardware for it and original manufacturer. Can you give me some hints on how to find these.
Thank you. Waiting for reply.

ashwin said...

sir,i took a backup from the rom manager once i flashed the clockwork mod.
now if i use your method for firetrap
would i be able to restore through the rom manager or would it lead to a problem?
your cooperation would be appreciated

Anonymous said...

i want to remove clockwork mod recovery and i want the stock recovery back.....how should i do that???

aasuran said...

hi i am rooted my spice mi-300. fine. but now i want to go bace to spice original eclair 2.1but if i try to do that the software updating tool tells an error message that the image is not matching....please help me

STREETMIX RECORDs said...

Hey Sir., Thanks For The post. I Rooted Ma spice Mi 300 after reading you blog. But Recently I came acrossa problem related to " Superuser Permission" , which i didnt tested just after rooting ma Android. But When i was recently trin to install Busybox n screen shot application on ma set it it pops up the SU request app. but it shows notthing in it , its just a black screen n after a while about 5 min. it shows that application is not responding n i hv to click for Force close option.
Can u Help.?
Thank you
tripathi_x@yahoo.com

Wells said...

and also how can i update my phone to firetrap 1.2 sugar or vanilla

Anonymous said...

Your listing are progressing with days dungeon it up guys.
learn how to root your android tablet and phone

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