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Table of Contents
| Confirmed versions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variant | A202KC | A203KC | A204KC | KY-42C | KY-43C |
| Confirmed working | 1.000AL 1.010AL 1.031AL 1.050AL 1.060AL 1.070AL | 1.060AN | 1.050PO | 1.041GC 1.060GC 1.080GC | |
| Confirmed not working | 1.090AN | 1.090GC | |||
The 1.090 updates on the A202KC, A204KC, and KY-43C most likely also block rooting, but this has not yet been confirmed. A way of bypassing this has been found, but not yet documented on this wiki. Join our Discord if you would like the details.
Introduction
Prerequisites:
- Having read, and understood the warning at the beginning of the page.
The rooting process will require a tool called MTKClient, which will facilitate dumping images from the phone, unlocking the bootloader, and flashing the patched images back onto the device.
MTKClient is unfortunately not easily usable on platforms other than Linux, and even on Linux it can be a hassle to set up. Due to this, we have created a Live USB environment with the tool preinstalled and ready to use.
The rest of this page is a step by step guide for the rooting process.
Rooting
1: Downloading Magisk
You will need to install Magisk onto the device.
Install from F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.topjohnwu.magisk/ Install from the Magisk GitHub: https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases
2: Setting up MTKClient
It is highly recommended that you use the NixOS live boot as it removes the hassle of setting up MTKClient.
Live boot (Recommended)
The live boot has a dedicated page for setting up and preparing your PC for the live boot. You can find it here: NixOS live boot.
Manual Install (Not Recommended)
The wiki does not go through the process of installing MTKClient manually at this time.
If you would like to install MTKClient manually for any reason then feel free to reach out on our Discord for assistance. You can find the install steps on the MTKClient GitHub but they are very outdated: https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient#installation.
The rest of this guide, as well as the command syntax will differ from using the manually installed version. You can use this guide as reference however while paying close attention to the differences on the MTKClient official usage guide: https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient/blob/4ee021531144e7aadff63479bb5c4a44b721131e/README-USAGE.md
3: Dumping the images
In the live boot open the terminal icon on the taskbar:
In the terminal run the following command:
sudo mtk r boot,vbmeta boot.img,vbmeta.img
The terminal should start a repeating message that says “waiting for handshake”. At this point, turn off your phone completely, and plug it into your computer using a USB cable that supports data transfer.
If successful you will find the files “vbmeta.bin” and “boot.bin” in your home folder. The home folder is accessible through opening “Files” in the taskbar, which should automatically put you in the correct folder. It will be the one with the house icon.
In the terminal again, type in and run:
sudo mtk reset
This will reboot the phone and you can now unplug the device.
4: Backing up the images
If something goes wrong during the rooting process these images will be instrumental to reviving the phone. The live boot is impermanent and the dumped files will be lost forever once you exit it.
Because of this it is important to backup these files through some method. Here are some recommended options:
Use a spare USB flash drive/SD card
Plug in another USB capable device, and using the file explorer move the files onto the device, and safely eject the drive.
Using your phone's internal storage
After rebooting your phone, reconnect the USB and accept the “Allow MTP” prompt (if you dismiss it just re-plug the phone again). On the PC you will find the phone in the file explorer.