So you might remember this (https://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=1692.msg47272).
My device was (and still is...) completely unknown to the outside world and i had only found one working custom recovery out there.
But i really wanted to have at least a custom recovery working on my phone.
I later found tools called mkboot and split_bootimg that would allow me to split the boot image and build it from scratch again.
Turns out they were very useful and i could figure out how to use the working custom recovery plus my recovery from my device and build something that works on my device.
More details in my github repository :
https://github.com/gameblabla/carrefour_smart_5_4g_cwm (https://github.com/gameblabla/carrefour_smart_5_4g_cwm)
If you actually own such a device, grab the recovery image file here :
https://github.com/gameblabla/carrefour_smart_5_4g_cwm/releases (https://github.com/gameblabla/carrefour_smart_5_4g_cwm/releases)
So what's next ? Well a few wishes :
- Try first to flash a custom ROM for Kitkat from another similar device
- Find a working kernel from another device, complete with touchscreen support
- Eventually have something on something newer than Android Kitkat.
If you have anything to say, please do tell. I'm quite unfamiliar with Android custom rom dev and what are the good practices.
I never heard of this device but your situation reminded me store brand softwares and device produced for one specific retail store chain in particular (for example, softwares made by Staples, such as the CD case desing kit) in a small part of the world. Those are by far the worst when it comes to documentation for the reasons you stated about popularity.
Well, i broke my phone while trying to overwrite my system partition and i was dumb enough to recover my original recovery before doing that.
So i can't actually restore it... Silly me
I'm thinking of buying those Wilyfox phones since the company is under bankruptcy now and their phones are cheap... and they support Cyanogen too.
Maybe i'll get fastboot to work again, in that case i may not have to buy it. However, i'm tired of having to deal with crappy voice calling anyway and low 4G signal...
(These happened the first time i used them btw)