Alcatel Go Flip 3 (by T-Mobile) or Alcatel SMARTFLIP (by AT&T) comes with the most updated KaiOS 2.5.1, becoming the first KaiOS phone sold in the United States supporting WhatsApp, Google Assistant and more recent APIs. The name differ according to the telephone operator (4052R, 4052C, 4052W, 4052Z...) but they are practically always the same phone.
As it was possible to see in its predecessor Alcatel OT-4044, different variants may undergo different modifications, which can more or less complicate the work for a developer, thus leading him to different approach choices.
This phone is Qualcomm-based.
¶ Rooting Procedure
It is possible to modify the firmware to gain root access on this phone through the following procedure. This requires a working EDL loader as described elsewhere on BananaHackers. This procedure has been tested on the 4052R (AT&T) and 4052C (Cricket) variants.
The EDL firehose programmer file is found here: https://github.com/programmer-collection/alcatel/blob/master/Gflip3_ATT/Gflip3_ATT_NPRG.mbn
The very first thing you should do is take a FULL backup of your phone, of the following partitions via EDL: boot, cache, misc, recovery, splash, system, userdata. This has the added benefit of testing your EDL environment to make sure it works.
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Unpack the boot.img partition image you just created as part of your backup procedure with this Android Boot Image Editor Tool: https://github.com/cfig/Android_boot_image_editor
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In the file default.prop, change the following lines:
- ro.secure=1 --> ro.secure=0
- ro.debuggable=1 --> ro.debuggable=0
- security.perf_harden=1 --> security.perf_harden=0
- ro.adb.secure=1 --> ro.adb.secure=0
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In the file init.rc, comment out the line "setprop selinux.reload_policy 1".
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In the file init.qcom.early_boot.sh, add to the end of the file on a new line: "setenforce 0".
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In the file boot.json, add to the end of the "cmdline" line: " androidboot.selinux=permissive enforcing=0".
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Replace the file sbin/adbd with the following file, ensuring it has executable permissions: https://gitlab.com/suborg/8k-boot-patcher/-/blob/master/adbd
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Repack the image with Android Boot Image Editor and load it onto the phone with EDL.
Reboot and enable debugging with w2d.bananahackers.net or debug code * # * #33284# * # *. You should now have a root shell when doing "adb shell"!
ADB debugging is enabled using the code * # * #33284# *# * and thanks to the contribution of dhruvkar (from Reddit), it was possible to get all the secret codes:
- * # * #33284# * # * - enables just adb
- * 133 # - Generic Failure
- ##3424# - pulled up a menu for diag port and serial port
- * #33# - call barring (service is disabled)
- * #43# - call waiting (enabled for "Voice")
- * #07# - More Information in settings
- * #2886#- Gflip3 ATT MMI Test
- * # * #28865625# * # * - Device Unlock code
- * # * #825364# * # * - Power Save Mode
- ##4382# - Required Monthly Test | Exercise Alert | CMSP Alert
- * #06# - IMEI and SVN
- * #2886# - Software Version
- * #3228# - internal versions of boot, system, recover, modem, bootloader
- * #16# - SAR Information
- * # * #123321# * # * - DM Configuration
- * #4636# - System Information
- * #7810# - Wireless Emergency Alerts
- ##66236# - Edit DMAcc
- ##6343# - MEID
- * #8378269# - Testbox tools
- * # * #2637643# * # * - Testbox Tools
- * # * #0574# * # * - nothing
- * # * #3646633# * # * - LTE | GSM | WCDMA | Automatic
- ###232# - Call Duration
Thanks to dhruvkar on Reddit for this list
¶ Difference between the various American Alcatels
Alcatel Go Flip 3 / SMARTFLIP was released on September 2019, and it is just the successful experiment of a long series of prototypes marketed under various telephone operators in the United States and which marked the birth and experimentation of KaiOS, on July 2017, with Alcatel OT-4044 and Alcatel A405DL, even before it spread to India with Jio Phone and immediately after the failure of the Mozilla's Firefox OS project, wich is the open source base of KaiOS:
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Alcatel OT-4044 (also known as Alcatel Go Flip 2 or Alcatel Cingular Flip 2) runs KaiOS 1.0.
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Alcatel A405DL (also known as Alcatel MyFlip, by Tracfone) runs KaiOS 2.5.
In some videos of the OSReview YouTube channel is possible to have a direct comparison between Firefox OS and KaiOS, in addition of course to the difference between the 1.0 and 2.5 versions of the latter:
[KaiOS 1.0 versus Firefox OS]
Only some models of the Alcatel OT-4044 series (including Alcatel Cingular Flip 2) are enabled for debugging, while other variants of the same series are blocked just like Alcatel A405DL MyFlip and the newer SMARTFLIP / Go Flip 3.
It therefore appears that by default all new KaiOS phones sold in the United States are always and irreparably blocked by the manufacturer, just like the Doro 7050, depriving aspiring US developers of the opportunity to participate in the experimentation and learn how the KaiOS ecosystem works.
To find out more about Alcatel Go / Cingular Flip 2, go to the page dedicated to the OT-4044 series: Alcatel OT-4044