Looking for a workaroud in order to get rid of the N/A screen on a Moto G5 (cedric)

Didou · December 5, 2023, 8:09pm

Hello people,

_{In fist intention, I was going to revive this post but I changed my mind.}

As the delighted owner of a Moto G4 Play running on e/OS for almost a year and a half and also freshly new owner of a batch of Moto G5, I’m very interested in any comments from experienced users of this forum.

But my tech knowledge is maybe not enought to understand what to do with this peculiar comment.

Here is some context / background information :

Since I swiched to /e/, my Moto G4 Play has always boot on the “moto-logo powered by android” wich look like this :

I don’t remember the process I went through at that time (lack of documentation of what i did, this is a new habbit to me) but I also don’t rememberer having a hard time solving the N/A issue.

On my laptop desktop, the folder where I downloaded everything needed to boot the phone with /e/ is still there, untouched.

In this folder, there is a .zip named unlocked logo wich contain :

META-INF folder and logo.bin (939.6 ko, last modified 2013-08-13-11:38)
in the META-INF, there is :
a com folder, CERT.RSA (1.7ko, last modified 2008-02-29-07:33), CERT.SF (1.2ko, last modified 2008-02-29-07:33), MANIFEST.MF (1.1ko, last modified 2008-02-29-07:33)
Inside the com, there is only a google folder that contain only a android folder that contain:
update-binary (190.4ko, last modified 2011-01-15-17:13)
updater-script (151 octets/bit, last modified 2015-08-13-11:59)

My bet is that I found this file somewhere on the internets and renamed it, because I couldn’t find it again. My key word are probably not the best.

So now, I want to get something similar for the Moto G5 Cedric.

I’m asking for help and direction to where I should explore.

Thank you for reading,
any comment will be warmly welcome \o/

Tech-e1 · December 5, 2023, 8:49pm

It is possible but not advisible. It is highly likely the logo.bin file is responsible. A modified logo.bin, may do it. Heres where you get problems: Android Boot Flowand /e/ updates.

Youll likely have to teardown every /e/zip update to modd and reassemble. There likely will have to be a modded bootloader that skips the normal flow as well.

Didou · December 5, 2023, 9:33pm

Hello @Tech-e1 and thank you very much for your feedback !

Indeed, the logo.bin file is involved in the issue.
But since I first installed the e-1.1 on this harpia-device, i made all the /e/ updates without any problem.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no intention of making the moto G5 bootloader relock!

This is just a workaround to prevent the N/A screen from appearing on startup.

Please read the passages to which the links point, not just the previews

Tech-e1 · December 5, 2023, 11:19pm

Do you, by chance, have a copy of the modified logo.bin. Also could you record the G4 startup. Im surprised and entrigued.

Im not sure if youre “out of the woods” yet. the moto g4 is out of support. It may or may not be so easily exploited in an active G5.

I think there is hope to recover the steps. There is a way to get your current logo.bin over adb. Please see this.

Didou · December 6, 2023, 7:47am

Hello tech-e1,

the method you point request a rooted phone, mine is not.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, here is unlocked_logo.zip file from my laptop folder :
https://cloud.libreon.fr/s/KMjdwCwfCWbksie

For the recording request, I don’t know who to do this quickly, and my available time is limited, so I stick to my priority.

aibd · December 6, 2023, 8:07am

I wonder why you changed your mind ?

Changing the logo.bin seems the way to go … and there are quite a few informative links off that post.

Didou · December 6, 2023, 8:18am

Hello @aibd \o/

I thought reviving a 2 year old post was not a good practice … as experienced on other Discourse instances. But maybe this community has other practice …

Indeed, my post point to several good ressources, but I just don’t know how to use them.

Right now, i’m stuggling with an old window XP in order to run a .bat file

Learning is a continue process !

aibd · December 6, 2023, 9:32am

Would you like to share where it makes you struggle ? I can see how ffmpeg might present difficulties on XP, but is running that script the only way to go in order to make an “easy start” ?

… but you have extracted a copy of your existing logo.bin ? I do not think that method would require a rooted phone just allow Developer options > Rooted debugging ?

… but is this “history” or from “unknown source” ??

Have you already learned how to open logo.bin ? Do you have access to Linux ? Sorry to ask so many questions

Didou · December 6, 2023, 10:36am

HEllo, and thank you very much for all your question : it mean you are trying to understand from where i’m talking, and thus trying to help me

Of course !

This is a dual boot eepc (Samsung NC10 CPU N270 @ 1.6GHtz, 2G RAM, 160 G SDD) with XP and Ubuntu. it is the first laptop I switched to linux OS.
The windows part has a C: and a D: hard-drive partition, all together with the linux partition, on this modest drive.
I installed perl in a folder in D:,
I tried to install FFmpeg in the same folder but the drive was full, couldn’t end the install.
I’m now transferring the folder to C:
EDIT: here is the output of the command :

C:\motorun>compress.bat
INPUT file name (example.bmp):ac6d5344d58ebd8a407685cd050bb411.bmp
'ffmpeg' n'est pas reconnu en tant que commande interne
ou externe, un programme exécutable ou un fichier de commandes.
'perl' n'est pas reconnu en tant que commande interne
ou externe, un programme exécutable ou un fichier de commandes.
Impossible de trouver C:\motorun\temp.raw
Le fichier spécifié est introuvable.
Appuyez sur une touche pour continuer...

Sorry, my system is set in french language. Can you read it ?

I don’t know, this is just my firt step, my firt try.

No, not yet. Should I ?

I will try this
EDIT : tried, don’t find (Android 11)

Both ! But my understanding is that it worked for my Moto G4 Play.

Not yet.

I do.

aibd · December 6, 2023, 12:18pm

I believe it is just asking for an Input file.

Try the command

C:\motorun>decompress.bat logo.bin

Didou · December 6, 2023, 2:19pm

Ok my feedback wasn’t clear enough.

Here are some more explanations :

C:\motorun>compress.bat is the commande I launched.
it replyed
INPUT file name (example.bmp):
So i typed ac6d5344d58ebd8a407685cd050bb411.bmp wich is the name of a suitable image (720*1080 pixels)
the output of the command, let say the answer of the machine, was :
'ffmpeg' n'est pas reconnu en tant que commande interne ou externe, un programme exécutable ou un fichier de commandes. 'perl' n'est pas reconnu en tant que commande interne ou externe, un programme exécutable ou un fichier de commandes. Impossible de trouver C:\motorun\temp.raw Le fichier spécifié est introuvable. Appuyez sur une touche pour continuer...

deepL translate it to :
ffmpeg’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, an executable program or a command file.
perl’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, an executable program or a command file.
Unable to find C:\motorun\temp.raw
The specified file cannot be found.
Press any key to continue…

I will try the command you propose after my nap …
see ya later !

EDIT : ٩(ˊ〇ˋ*)

so here is the output :

C:\motorun>decompress.bat logo.bin
‘perl’ n’est pas reconnu en tant que commande interne
ou externe, un programme exécutable ou un fichier de commandes.
‘ffmpeg’ n’est pas reconnu en tant que commande interne
ou externe, un programme exécutable ou un fichier de commandes.
Impossible de trouver C:\motorun\temp.raw
Appuyez sur une touche pour continuer…

same cause, same consequences

Didou · December 6, 2023, 4:39pm

I’m actually trying to follow directive from the previously shared link to carock’s comment #140 on XDA post

it say :

You’ll need to install perl and ffmpeg and add them to your path for this to work properly

Am I misunderstanding this ? My path is C:\motorun

aibd · December 6, 2023, 5:05pm

May be not much help, other than to identify if this is a $PATH issue, in general, regarding perl, if you type

perl -v

and the terminal responds with the version you know that perl is available to you.

https://www.perl.org/

Regarding ffmpeg, I found this https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/398963-How-do-you-install-FFMPEG-on-Windows-XP-or-Windows-10 which explains partly how this might be used.

As I don’t use Windows I cannot add more on $PATH, sorry, but I got many hits on a search.

Didou · December 6, 2023, 5:51pm

It give me the same output.

I think I missed something in the install process of perl …

Thank you for all the feedback, I will continue to look for solutions and keep you informed of my progress here !

Didou · December 6, 2023, 11:05pm

Indeed, copying folder from D: to C: wasn’t enough. I had to install perl again.

And now, perl is working.
This is FFmpeg that is still broken.

My XP laptop is a 32bit machine, I will have to compile the FFmpeg code for it.

The other laptop is ubuntu, it has bash but I have to install docker on it.

Edit :
INFO: Your CPU does not support KVM extensions KVM acceleration can NOT be used

Ho boy, this is a VERY long journey !

Enough for today.
tomorrow morning, sun will shine !

smu44 · December 7, 2023, 7:01am

You may try it on a free cloud Windows VM, for example: https://www.cloudbik.com/resources/blog/create-windows-virtual-machine-azure/

Also, there is a ffmpeg for Ubuntu and the .bat file is very simple so you may be able to translate commands to bash. As usual, Internet is very helpful for that, for example https://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/dosbatch.html.
Perl script should run as-is on Linux.

Didou · December 7, 2023, 7:21am

A big Hello for @smu44 \o/

I bet we could have this conversation in french, sylvain

thank you for the

idea, clever indeed !
I just don’t know where to begin at with …

I tried to interpret the bat file on my linux machine with help of wine, but it failed.

Here are the result / output of the commands :


didou@L-indispensable-HP-Pavilion-dv5-Notebook-PC:~$ wine cmd
Microsoft Windows 6.1.7601

Z:\home\didou>cd Z:\Bureau\MotoG5Cedric\motorun
Chemin introuvable.
# mauvaise syntaxe de commande ! on recommence

Z:\home\didou>cd Z:\home\didou\Bureau\MotoG5Cedric\motorun
# là ça marche.
Z:\home\didou\Bureau\MotoG5Cedric\motorun>compress.bat
INPUT file name (example.bmp):ac6d5344d58ebd8a407685cd050bb411.bmp
Ne reconnaît pas « ffmpeg -i ac6d5344d58ebd8a407685cd050bb411.bmp -f rawvideo -s 720x1280 -pix_fmt bgr24 temp.raw » comme commande interne ou externe, ou fichier de commandes.
Ne reconnaît pas « perl compress.pl » comme commande interne ou externe, ou fichier de commandes.
temp.raw : fichier non trouvé
Fichier introuvable.

Fichier introuvable.

Appuyez sur une touche pour continuer...

J’en conclue qu’en l’état, wine ne sais pas aller chercher le ffmpeg et le perl de ubuntu…

ooops !
english version :
my conclusion it that, at that point, wine isn’t able to use ffmpeg and perl installed on the linux side …

Didou · December 7, 2023, 2:43pm

Found a ready made zip file here. The structure is similar to the

So this is worth a try on the cheapest of my batch of Moto G5

smu44 · December 8, 2023, 6:21am

Yes, but please keep it in english for community

My idea was more to understand what the Windows script does, and to find Bash commands to replace.

Just follow the blog post, entry point is https://azure.microsoft.com/fr-fr/free/.
I think this is the best solution, as the knowledge you will acquire could be reused later for other goals and purposes

Didou · December 8, 2023, 7:04am

Hello sylvain,

for the sake of the community, we will continue in English, meilleur !

Right now, i’m on my way to compiling ffmpeg for 32 bit windows system using docker.

First time compiling here, I’m proud to achieve this

I agree !