Upgrading your ZTE Open to Firefox 1.1 or 1.2 (fastboot enabled)

FoxLove

If you are a ZTE Open owner, you may have already upgraded to Firefox OS 1.1 following the instructions from our previous post. If so, you probably realized that the latest build from ZTE had a problem: fastboot wasn’t enabled anymore. For those of you who didn’t upgrade because of that, ZTE has put a new build of 1.1 with fastboot enabled on their site.

Depending on the version of the phone you purchased, you need either the US or the UK (European) version of the build. Download the files from the ZTE support site by clicking the “Downloads” tab on one of these pages: US version or UK version. The zip file you’ll download will also contain documentation for the upgrade, or you can follow our earlier instructions.

Upgrading to Firefox 1.2

We are pleased to announce that ZTE has also made available a version of Firefox OS 1.2. If you want to upgrade to it, you’ll first need to install the version of 1.1 that has fastboot enabled (or be on an older version of the OS with fastboot enabled). Next, you need to verify that you can establish a connection with the phone via USB. This post describes how to configure Windows, Linux and Mac machines for a USB connection (something you’ll want to do anyway if you are pushing apps to your phone during development).

Finally, you’ll need to have have fastboot from the Android Developer Toolkit installed on your desktop machine. It is not necessary to install the entire toolkit. adb and fastboot are found in the /platform-tools/ folder. They can be copied to /usr/bin of your Linux or Mac OS X machine, or copied to another folder as long as that folder is added to your $PATH.

After your phone and your desktop computer are properly configured, connect your phone to your computer via USB cable and try to restart your device with this command from the console (in Windows, open a command prompt window):

fastboot reboot

If your phone reboots itself, you are good to go for the upgrade. Download the appropriate version of the build from the Dropbox account ZTE has set up: US version or UK version. For Windows users, you can also download special instructions, and an upgrade tool to help you to install the new version easily. In this post, however, I provide steps for all operating systems–Linux, OS X, and Windows–without relying on the special tool.

Once you have the file, extract the contents, and open a console. Note that those steps will erase your personal data, so be sure to make a backup first. Then navigate to the folder where the files are. Still in the console, type this command:

adb reboot bootloader

Wait for your phone to reboot, and while it is rebooting, execute those commands:

fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot erase cache
fastboot reboot

The software version you see after upgrading

If everything went well, your phone should reboot at this point. You’ll find that this version of 1.2 from ZTE includes many test applications, which you can remove if you like.

Congratulations, your phone is now running Firefox OS 1.2! You will benefit from all the bug fixes, new features for users, and new features for developers of the latest released build of Firefox OS.

If you have any questions related to the upgrade, I invite you to submit them on our StackOverflow Q&A. You’ll benefit from the expertise of thousands of people, including our Technical Evangelist team.

2014-02-05 Updates

We updated the process as some users had booting issues after upgrading to 1.2. Some users also reported us being able to execute the command, even if the fastboot test (fastboot restart) wasn’t working: I can’t confirm, but please try, and let us know if it’s working.

As a Senior Technical Evangelist at Mozilla, Fred shares his passion about the Open Web, and help developers be successful with Firefox OS. Experienced speaker, t-shirts wearer, long-time blogger, passionate hugger, and HTML5 lover, Fred lives in Montréal, and speak Frenglish. Always conscious about the importance of unicorns, and gnomes, you can read about these topics, and other thoughts at outofcomfortzone.net.

124 comments

Sourav Lahoti

Today I flashed my Developer Preview phone Keon to B2G 1.3 . It has undergone commendable changes from UI to functionality.

January 30th, 2014 at 10:47
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Unfortunately, Firefox OS 1.3 built isn’t available yet for the ZTE Open.
  
  January 30th, 2014 at 11:29
Gregorio Espadas

The Movistar Mexico version of ZTE FirefoxOS 1.2 hasn’t arrive yet

Link: http://www.ztedevices.com/support/smart_phone/5dcf7c60-4358-44ce-96ba-02c3fb79b626.html?type=software

:-(

January 30th, 2014 at 11:26
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Thanks for the information Gregorio, we’ll check with ZTE.
  
  January 30th, 2014 at 11:30
2. marek
  
  The same for Movistar Spain :-(
  Does somebody knows whether Movistar Spain version of ZTE Open is the same as UK EBay one? I have some doubts, but maybe…
  
  January 30th, 2014 at 14:34
  1. Frédéric Harper
    
    I’m not sure about the version, but we asked ZTE to check for those devices. I’ll keep you posted once I hear from them.
    
    January 31st, 2014 at 07:42
elav

There’s something I do not understand. If for ZTE image was uploaded by ZTE itself Why not put it on the official website? Once you install this image Can I go back to version 1.1 if everything goes wrong?

January 30th, 2014 at 11:46
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Elav, I don’t know why they used Dropbox, but I’m happy we have their official Firefox OS 1.2 build to upgrade our ZTE Open. As for downgrading to 1.1, you can do it, but keep in mind that will erase your data.
  
  January 30th, 2014 at 12:08
  1. elav
    
    Well, I’m not worried about losing my data always happens when updating with the web versions of ZTE. : D
    
    January 30th, 2014 at 12:17
    1. Frédéric Harper
      
      Perfect, but if you want to backup at least your contacts, you can use Contacts2XML, and XML2Contacts applications from the marketplace, to backup/restore your contacts without pictures.
      
      January 30th, 2014 at 12:36
      1. elav
        
        One last thing .. Have you tried this method personally and that everything works out well?
        
        January 31st, 2014 at 13:19
      2. elav
        
        BTW. I have root access on my ZTE Open, when he managed to do it since version 1.0 FirefoxOS. Will I lose root with this installation?
        
        January 31st, 2014 at 13:41
    2. Luke
      
      It does seem a bit unnerving that finally in 1.2, there is ability to save your contacts to SIM? That’s something a 10 year old Nokia could do.
      
      I hope Firefox continues to add features to compete well with the other platforms. Good to see companies supporting upgrades to the handset, unlike Android :)
      
      January 30th, 2014 at 20:26
      1. Frédéric Harper
        
        Thanks for the cheers Luke! As for the development of the OS, there are many features to add on the consumers’s side, but also on the developers’ one, so we need to prioritize: Firefox OS is still a really new platform.
        
        January 31st, 2014 at 07:46
    3. Frédéric Harper
      
      Elav, I always test before doing a blog post, so yes, I upgraded my ZTE Open US using the process listed in this article.
      
      February 5th, 2014 at 11:34
Daniel Brierton

Is there another mirror for these downloads? I tried updating to 1.1 before but the download always died, resulting in a corrupted zip.

January 30th, 2014 at 11:59
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Daniel, this is the only site where to download the files, sorry about that. You can try again later as for now there are probably many people trying to do the same thing.
  
  January 30th, 2014 at 12:02
Daniel Brierton

You can ignore my previous comment, I should’ve read the post first. I’m guessing that’s why they’re on Dropbox.

January 30th, 2014 at 12:01
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  These are two different build: the one on the ZTE site is 1.1 with fastboot enabled as the previous version on their site was disabling fastboot. The dropbox link is for 1.2, and you can install this version only if your phone is fastboot enabled.
  
  January 30th, 2014 at 12:03
K Everets

The link location for the “US version” of 1.1 is incorrect. It’s currently: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/01/upgrading-your-zte-open-to-firefox-1-1-or-1-2-fastboot-enabled/www.ztedevices.com/support/smart_phone/b5a2981a-1714-4ac7-89e1-630e93e220f8.html

The reader has to manually chop the hacks.mozilla.org part to get to the http://www.ztedevices.com part.

January 30th, 2014 at 13:32
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Thanks, I fixed the link in the post.
  
  January 30th, 2014 at 13:34
  1. K Everets
    
    Great, thanks!
    
    January 30th, 2014 at 13:37
K Everets

Also, I can’t get fastboot to work with the version available at that “US version” link. I used “OPEN(American Standard) SD card upgrading instruction & software package(ebay)-237620B0669OPEN_US_DEV_FFOS_V1.1.0B02(for V1.0)” since this particular device was on V1.0.

“adb devices” finds it as a “roamer2”, but “fastboot devices” shows nothing, and a “fastboot restart” stalls at “waiting for device”

January 30th, 2014 at 13:35
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Everest, can you try to upgrade to 1.2 with the instructions above, and let me know the result? If anything goes wrong, you can always revert to 1.1.
  
  January 31st, 2014 at 08:13
  1. Kon
    
    I’ve got the same issue, the problem is – we can’t use the instructions above cause they require fastboot, but it doesn’t seem to work.
    
    adb devices does work, but fastboot devices outputs an empty string.
    
    I also applied the 1.1 update for US version from ZTE.
    
    February 1st, 2014 at 17:09
    1. Frédéric Harper
      
      Kon, did you upgrade with the latest 1.1, the one in this post? The previous version on ZTE site was not fastboot enabled.
      
      February 5th, 2014 at 11:36
    2. asdf3
      
      same problem here
      
      February 13th, 2014 at 21:59
  2. Jeff Johnson
    
    Previously updated my Open to the OPEN_US_DEV_FFOS_V1.1.0B01 that was on the ZTE site. Today I used the link above to install ZTE’s OPEN_US_DEV_FFOS_V1.1.0B02, which should allow fastboot. With that seeming success, I installed the handset device driver on a Win7 platform, turned on remote debugging and got the FFOS simulator 4.0 tool in Firefox 26 to connect to my Open (“Device Connected”), but am mystified as to where this “console” is supposed to be. I obviously missed something important. Installed Android Developer Toolkit, updated the packages and manually ran adb and fastboot from /sdk/platform-tools/ in the Win7 GUI. Also installed the ADB Helper 0.2.1. I ran into trouble again when app-manager refused to acknowledge the existence of my device. After a few attempted fixes and work arounds, I instead downloaded the NandDL_firefox.exe “special upgrade tool” alternative, which readily showed the “ZTE Handset Diagnostic” message and thought I had achieved my purpose, but alas, when I selected the path to P752D04_DEV_US_20131212_v1.2.7z and clicked on the equivalent of “Start”, I got an error labelled “Partition_ZTE.MBN”. I was forced to leave my Open on vers 1.1.0B02 for the day.
    
    February 1st, 2014 at 19:37
    1. Akmal Irfan
      
      Try to unzip it and make sure to download both NandDL_firefox.exe and nandprg7x27A.bin
      
      February 2nd, 2014 at 17:00
      1. Frédéric Harper
        
        Jeff, let us know if it’s working by using the tool as the bin file. When I say console, on Windows, it’s a command line (command prompt window). I updated the post to be clearer.
        
        February 5th, 2014 at 11:39
      2. Jeff Johnson
        
        Frederic/Akmal – Thanks. I changed tactics and took the high road by abandoning my Win7 platform and switching to my Fedora 20 Linux platform, and things went much better. Hit a snag with the “fastboot reboot” command because fastboot wasn’t showing any device connected, even though adb was showing the device. In fact, “adb reboot bootloader” worked fine even though fastboot showed no device. During that adb reboot process I ran “fastboot devices” and it showed no device. When I type “fastboot reboot” or “fastboot flash “, it simply showed “waiting for device”. On a second attempt (maybe the third), perhaps because of lucky timing, the fastboot devices command showed a device during the adb reboot bootloader command execution. Spurred by that success, I went on to flash the four .img files and clean the cache. All worked correctly. Settings now shows “Boot2Gecko 1.2.0.0-prerelease” and I can’t pull down the notification panel. So I think I’m now where I wanted to be. Sort of …
        
        February 7th, 2014 at 12:45
  3. Kon
    
    Sorry, the update worked for me this time.
    
    Not sure if I’ve done anything differently, but Gerry Ferdinandus is right – you need to do adb reboot bootloader (don’t forget to enable remote debugging on the phone) before you call any of the fastboot functions
    
    Otherwise fastboot will keep waiting for device forever.
    
    The 1.2 is much snappier then previous versions, although between home screen is harder now. (Not to mention the annoying notification panel bug)
    Great to see the system is under rapid development.
    
    February 3rd, 2014 at 14:57
    1. Frédéric Harper
      
      Awesome, I’ll test the sequence of commands proposed by Gerry.
      
      February 5th, 2014 at 11:42
  4. K Everets
    
    After doing an “adb reboot bootloader”, while the device appears to be stuck on the logo screen (Firefox logo with words “Firefox OS”), then I can successfully do a “fastboot devices” (no sudo/root needed).
    
    fastboot would not work in either the device directly, or while in the Recovery screens. Only in the state where the logo is showing after “adb reboot bootloader”.
    
    A note: the above instructions say to test fastboot with “fastboot restart” but that’s not a valid fastboot command. It later lists the correct “fastboot reboot”.
    
    February 5th, 2014 at 13:58
    1. Frédéric Harper
      
      Everets, since you had the rebooting issue, can you try the updated procedure in the post?
      
      February 5th, 2014 at 14:06
      1. K Everets
        
        The updated procedure works now.
        
        Just noticed that the “fastboot reboot” suggestion comes before the “adb reboot bootloader”. It should come after, and a better test is probably “fastboot devices” where it should show “ROAMER2 fastboot” if it’s working correctly.
        
        Also, there’s an erroneous “;” at the end of “fastboot flash userdata userdata.img;” that should probably be removed.
        
        Thanks for updating the procedure!
        
        February 5th, 2014 at 14:10
Juan Eladio

Hi, did you know if the people who bought a ZTE Open in a specific market (like Spain or Latin America) can use one of the both downloads, or there are issues (somebody said in a comment in another place he can’t stablish Spanish as language)? Thanks.

January 30th, 2014 at 18:20
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Juan, we are working with ZTE to get builds for those devices, and I’ll keep you posted on this blog as soon as I have something.
  
  January 31st, 2014 at 07:49
kaie

I have exactly the same problem as K Everest, but with a UK device. Have upgraded to V1.1.0B02 (for 1.1).
udev is configured

January 30th, 2014 at 18:26
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Kaie, I’m trying to investigate with Everest, but you can check my reply to him, and try it too.
  
  January 31st, 2014 at 08:14
Milan Josipovic

Hey guys :-),
can u explain to me how to upgrade my Alcatel FFOS
from 1.1 to 1.2 or higher?
I am noob so I need step-by-step instructiones.
Sorry if I posted question at the wrong place,
please be free to redirect me.

All the best & tnx in advance

January 30th, 2014 at 20:36
al3xa

Too bad there’s no rom for Alcatel OTF. Yesterday Alcatel announced that they will not release upgrade to 1.2, but go straight to 1.3. I know that Telenor was working on 1.2, but no updates were released by them either. Which sucks. OTF is a nice li’l machine, and I really want to see an update. I know I’m speaking in the name of hundreds. :/

January 30th, 2014 at 21:25
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Milan & Al3xa: I’ll check with Alcatel, but I didn’t see any build for 1.2 yet. I’ll keep you posted.
  
  January 31st, 2014 at 07:52
  1. tuxor
    
    Maybe this helps, though it’s nothing official, of course: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2628130
    
    January 31st, 2014 at 15:59
Mister_W

Hi there,

ZTE sent me the same dropbox link a couple of weeks ago, which I shared here:
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/12/upgrading-your-zte-open-to-firefox-os-1-1/comment-page-1/#comment-2157053

Notice how the instructions, added a few days ago, were an afterthought!

I was on the brink of returning the phone after fastboot was broken, but now it’s lovely having access to 1.2, which can be downgraded too.

One thing I did notice using 1.2 was the top, pull-down notification bar is very difficult to ‘grab hold of’. Anyone else finding this?

January 31st, 2014 at 09:02
1. Luca F.
  
  The top notification bar doesn’t work at all for me… Disappointed.
  
  February 1st, 2014 at 11:05
2. jotaass
  
  Yes, I can’t grab it at all!
  
  February 1st, 2014 at 12:30
3. Nghi Tran
  
  Yeah, I’m getting frustrated with the notification bar issue :( I found that flashing only gaia and gecko against v1.1B06 more stable than flashing all the image in this rom
  
  February 1st, 2014 at 22:35
4. Akmal Irfan
  
  I still don’t manage to pull down the notification bar. Is it possible?
  
  February 2nd, 2014 at 16:56
  1. Frédéric Harper
    
    The notification bar issue is a bug that has been fixed, but ZTE created a build with an older version. Again, I’m working with ZTE so they can provide us a newer one. At that time, I’m sorry to say that we have to either wait, or downgrade to 1.1 if this problem really annoy you.
    
    February 5th, 2014 at 11:56
    1. Tolokoban
      
      This bug is more than just annoying: we can’t do any upgrade, nor read at incoming messages, nor disabling wifi, and so on…
      
      Is it dangerous to git clone the B2G 1.2, build a system.img and to flash it? Will I get a conflict with the current ZTE build?
      
      February 5th, 2014 at 12:47
      1. Frédéric Harper
        
        I know, I asked ZTE to work on a new build that would fix this issue: too bad I didn’t catch that bug before doing this post. You can try it; worst case you’ll be able to downgrade to 1.1 if something goes wrong. Some documentation about the process can be found at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Building_and_installing_Firefox_OS .
        
        February 5th, 2014 at 14:08
Michael Niemann

I’m following the instructions, but for some reason I can’t get the “fastboot restart.” All I get is a message . I know it’s connected properly since “adb devices” get me the correct answer “roamer2 device”.

What am I doing wrong?

January 31st, 2014 at 13:28
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Hi Michael, you aren’t the only one having this issue. I wasn’t able to reproduce it, but I’m investigating the problem.
  
  January 31st, 2014 at 13:30
  1. Michael Niemann
    
    Maybe this will help. If not, please ignore.
    
    I just went ahead and entered “adb reboot bootloader” and the phone rebooted. The I entered “fastboot flash boot boot.img” and this response:
    
    sending ‘boot’ (4600 KB)…
    OKAY [ 0.456s]
    writing ‘boot’…
    ERROR: usb_read failed with status e00002ed
    FAILED (status read failed (Invalid argument))
    finished. total time: 0.761s
    
    All this is on a Mac OSX10.9.1.
    
    January 31st, 2014 at 14:34
    1. Frédéric Harper
      
      I’m trying to get my hands on someone at ZTE to help us with those problems, as I can’t reproduce them. Sorry about that, but I hope to have something for you soon.
      
      February 5th, 2014 at 12:01
DonJ

If fastboot is enabled will it appear as an option on the recovery screen or can it only be verified as working by installing the ADT platform tools?

January 31st, 2014 at 17:49
DonJ

how can I know if fastboot is working? Will it show up in the recovery screen after restarting the phone or do I have to install the ADT platform tools to verify it is enabled?

January 31st, 2014 at 17:52
donz

How can I tell if fastboot is enabled? Is it listed on the recovery screen?

January 31st, 2014 at 18:03
Gerry Ferdinandus

In my experience you must first do
adb reboot bootloader
and then the fastboot command:
fastboot devices
fastboot flash ….
etc.

Starting with fastboot will just not connect.
more info:
https://sites.google.com/site/zteopenfirmware/fastboot

FYI this ZTE 1.2 firmware is from date git: 2013-11-14
with this irritating bug:
‘unable to grab down the status bar’
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=937101
Which is already been fix.

February 1st, 2014 at 20:24
Roland

I followed the instructions and everything seemed to go okay, but on rebooting my phone went to a blue screen with a firefox with animated tail, and nothing else happens. Is it possible to revert to 1.1? How do I do this?

February 2nd, 2014 at 05:15
1. jezra
  
  I am experiencing the same issue
  
  February 5th, 2014 at 11:55
2. Frédéric Harper
  
  Roland, you can downgrade to 1.1 but following the instructions at the beginning of this post: they will point you to the right build, and a previous post I wrote with the instructions to install 1.1.
  
  February 5th, 2014 at 12:03
3. Frédéric Harper
  
  Roland, it seems that you don’t have the choice to run this command “fastboot flash userdata userdata.img” to erase the user data. I updated the post with this new procedure.
  
  February 5th, 2014 at 13:35
Tolokoban

I tried tu upgrade from a Linux Ubuntu 64 bits.
I had the same problem as Everets and Kaie : fastboot seemed not to work.
I just uses the command in superuser mode like this to solve the problem :
adb reboot bootloader
sudo fastboot flash boot boot.img

And I put sudo in front of all fastboot images.

But after the “sudo fastboot reboot” I got a worst issue: the fox is burning from half an our and nothing else is going on. I will remove the battery for I can’t no more stop the burning animation…

February 2nd, 2014 at 12:17
Tolokoban

I tried again and this time the process succeded!
But with this new version, I can’t grab down the notification panel… :-(

February 2nd, 2014 at 14:04
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Tolokoban, I’m happy to see that the upgrade succeeds. Do you know what you did differently? As for the notification bar, please see previous comments.
  
  February 5th, 2014 at 12:18
  1. Tolokoban
    
    The difference was that I crash my user data in the second attempt.
    The first time, I skiped the following command:
    fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
    
    February 5th, 2014 at 12:40
Aras

I am trying to install the 1.1 official images following your previous post. When I select the image (both EU and US) I get this error:
E: signature verification failed Installation aborted.
Any idea what I need to do to get passed this? Looking at the pdf document that comes with the image, it looks like I also need an update.zip file in the root of the SD card. Is that true? What is that file and where can I get it? I’d appreciate any other help, my zte has been stuck on 1.0 for far too long.

February 2nd, 2014 at 18:59
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Aras, my guess would be to download again the image as maybe something has been corrupted during the process.
  
  February 5th, 2014 at 12:22
Roland

I can confirm that Gerry Ferdinandus’ method worked for me. I repeated the process and now the phone works fine, it seems much snappier than with version 1.1 (apart from experiencing the annoying status bar issue).

February 3rd, 2014 at 02:50
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Roland, happy that it worked well!
  
  February 5th, 2014 at 12:23
ThePeach

I’m stuck with the Moviestart Spain version, donated to me by a friend of mine.

It would be great if someone could please post a howto on how to reflash it with the mozilla-supported rom.

February 3rd, 2014 at 08:49
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  ThePeach, ZTE didn’t provide a build version for this device yet, and they are doing making the build for their device. I’ll keep you up-to-date once I’ll get more information from them about this device.
  
  February 5th, 2014 at 12:24
  1. ThePeach
    
    Thanks a lot for your reply Frédéric. It would be great being able to move to a more/officially supported version of the ROM for the ZTE Open.
    
    February 5th, 2014 at 12:33
Benjamin Kerensa

I get E: Failed to load keys

February 3rd, 2014 at 18:37
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Benjamin can you try again with the updated process in the post, please, and let me know if you still have a problem.
  
  February 5th, 2014 at 14:10
jezra

The update didn’t work for me without clobbering the user data. Running the following script did the trick for me:
#!/bin/sh
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot erase cache
fastboot reboot

February 5th, 2014 at 12:03
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Jezra, it seems that you don’t have the choice to run this command “fastboot flash userdata userdata.img” to erase the user data or your phone will be stock at the Firefox OS logo on rebooting. Thanks for the information, I updated the post with this new procedure.
  
  February 5th, 2014 at 13:36
Frédéric Harper

All, I updated the post with new information on the process, please try again, and let me know if you still have any issues.

February 5th, 2014 at 14:03
Luke

Is this version of Firefox OS able to use Firefox addons like Adblock, Console, etc.?

February 5th, 2014 at 23:49
1. Mister_W
  
  Luke, you’ve got me thinking. Adblock simply adds entries to the hosts file, am I right? Although beyond me, I’d imagine there’s a straightforward way of doing this in Firefox OS.
  
  Frédéric, I appreciate my reply is off topic, but I submitted it to demonstrate Firefox OS’s potential. For every ZTE frustration I feel, there are ten thumbs up for Firefox OS.
  
  February 6th, 2014 at 03:22
Pavi

The new instructions worked perfectly for my ZTE open UK version running 1.1 firmware B2 .

Actually I tried these instructions before and it didnt work as fastboot is unable to recognise the device . I am not sure why there is still suggestion of fastboot reboot as a requirement ?
“If your phone reboots itself, you are good to go for the upgrade.” Thats a qrong statement for me :(

Only “adb reboot bootloader” would reboot my phone . And once the phone reboots all fastboot commands would work. Hence I was able to succesfully upgrade to 1.2

PS: I <3 the new lockscreen, thanks for fixing it , the previous one was too irritating . I also like the test apps and now I can use the new firefox app manager !!

February 6th, 2014 at 06:05
elav

Following the steps provided in this guide I managed to seamlessly upgrade my ZTE. I must say that everything works pretty well, although small errors are seen in GAIA. I just hope that ZTE launches an update like this for version 1.2 to correct what notifications. In fact, the notifications work, just have to find the exact spot where you put your finger, because apparently the touch pad designed for it is very small. But almost at the edge of the screen to deploy them is achieved.

I put the steps (in Spanish) here: http://www.desdefirefoxos.net/howto-instalar-firefoxos-1-2-en-el-zte-open-ebay-mediante-fastboot/

February 6th, 2014 at 07:14
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Elav, glad you were able to update your ZTE Open. As for the notification bar, thanks for sharing your trick.
  
  February 6th, 2014 at 08:30
  1. elav
    
    You’re welcome! A pleasure to share. I just hope that ZTE launch another “unofficial” update with these corrections.
    
    Ah, as extra information: I did not lose root access ;)
    
    February 6th, 2014 at 09:25
    1. Maurizio RTOSkit
      
      @elav, In pro using 1.2, you should add that since versión 1.2, you can debug live from Firefox browser
      
      February 7th, 2014 at 13:53
      1. elav
        
        Yes :D
        
        February 10th, 2014 at 06:50
Ivan

Hi, I’ve got clockwork mode installed into recovery partition. Is there any way not to modify it?

I’ve tried flashing everything except recovery partition and got phone constantly rebooting after showing loading screen for some time.

It’s pretty dangerous to remove clockwork mode right now. As any new build can potentially brick my phone.

February 6th, 2014 at 13:49
Praveen

I have installed 1.3 pre release on my ZTE Open. Is there a way I can keep my SMS/Text Messages if I flash 1.2? Can I skip flashing userdata.img? Would it be compatible?

February 7th, 2014 at 01:40
9825

After trying to flash 1.2 my phone is stuck in a boot loop. I can get to recovery, but I can’t get to fastboot or get adb to see the phone.

Is there a way to get adb or fastboot to see the phone from within the recovery? I used to have clockworkmod recovery, I feel stupid that I flashed the recovery that came with the 1.2 download.

February 7th, 2014 at 02:38
1. Ivan
  
  That’s what I’m talking about in previous comment.
  
  February 7th, 2014 at 05:26
  1. naugtur
    
    I had the same problem.
    I downgraded to 1.1 flashing the image via sdcard (previous article) and tried again.
    Before you try the 1.2 instructions make sure you run
    adb reboot bootloader
    and it stops on Firefox OS loading screen
    fastboot devices
    should show the device then.
    
    That’s it. Redoing the 1.2 instructions fixed it for me.
    
    February 23rd, 2014 at 14:06
Jack Guo

These upgrades are ONLY work for ZTE OPEN eBay phones (purchased at ZTE eBay stores). They don’t work on phones, which was aquired from other sources.

February 7th, 2014 at 22:36
Etem

Notification Bar:
1. Go to firefox web browser ( or any program when u can rotate screen to horizontal postion and notification bar is up)
2. Rotate ur phone to horizontal postion
3. And now try to slide down notification from top ( try to put ur finger as close to top of screen as possible )
http://i.imgur.com/XCu3Rth.png

February 10th, 2014 at 03:37
1. Akmal Irfan
  
  It works! Thanks!
  
  February 11th, 2014 at 05:28
Jeff Johnson

After several days with the ZTE 1.2.0 prelease, I’m really pleased with the improvements. Yes, the notification panel bug is a nuisance, but I can work around that, especially knowing it’s already been fixed. 1.2.0 is noticeably more responsive and zippy. The lock screen is more friendly, the spell checker seems to have gotten smarter. In general, very nice improvements and additions, and I’m looking forward to future updates. Two anomalies I have noted that I haven’t seen anyone comment on yet, so perhaps it’s just me. The soft keyboard always shows caps, even when it’s not in caps mode. It works perfect, just doesn’t show the correct mode. The second item is that when hitting the top button to turn the screen on, sometimes the Home key at the bottom lights, but the screen does not. Toggling the power key to standby and back to “on” clears the problem. Am I alone in these two observations?

February 11th, 2014 at 09:19
Félim Whiteley

@Jeff I’ve noticed the keyboard one myself… makes typing in Wifi keys… fun!

Not noticed the home key lighting up… will keep an eye out for it.

February 11th, 2014 at 16:58
>8[

this caused the boot loop for me. I suggest that you do not follow these instructions (use this rom)

February 13th, 2014 at 01:48
Jeff Johnson

This may seem off-topic for an article on upgrading the ZTE Open to v1.2, but I think not. The same audience that’s experimenting with the new tools, techniques, upgrades of Firefox OS using adb, fastboot, Firefox simulator, etc, is the same crew that’s mulling over whether or not they want to tackle writing an app for Firefox OS. So, I pored over Markus Greve’s nice little example app named “Demo”, downloaded and unpackaged his “package.zip” example file to my local drive, updated the manifest.webapp file location path to the location on my local drive, used the Firefox browser App Manager’s “Add Packaged App” feature to load the “Demo” app from my hard drive into App Manager. It validated. Cool. Then I pushed it to my connected ZTE Open, and it installed. Way Cool. So here is a simple example with it’s raw HTML5 code that I can digest, and I already see how to load it into the phone as a real app. I like this. I’m now reading through Andre Garzia’s excellent tutorial on writing apps. Good stuff! There’s a lot of help out there for those who want to write an app.

February 13th, 2014 at 12:27
asdfsa

I got 1.2 working. I had every problem listed above. I will post my experience on reddit: How I got 1.2 working on ZTE Open

February 14th, 2014 at 00:11
kazhik

Geolocation API doesn’t work on 1.2. Test app “Geoloc” on home screen shows nothing after “Starting watchPosition”. Does anybody know how to fix this, or workaround?

February 14th, 2014 at 14:37
1. Jeff Johnson
  
  kazhik – My experience is the same. I tried 3 different apps that use geolocation features and none seem to have the locating function working, even though Geolocation is turned on in the settings. I assume this feature is a work in progress. We’ll see in future releases.
  
  February 18th, 2014 at 07:30
Everton

I used this tutorial to upgrade my ZTE OPEN the UK, and when it rebooted got the flashing screen, then added the files from version 1.1 again and when rebooted it did not care anymore. No sign of life. The battery was at 94% load. Anyone know tells me how I can help this situation?

February 16th, 2014 at 17:53
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Everton, not sure what the issue is right now: the phone isn’t booting anymore?
  
  February 17th, 2014 at 09:02
Reece

I have followed your instructions and currently have 1.2 running on my ZTE Open EU standard phone. I am however downgrading to 1.1 because of the notifications bar not working correctly in this build of 1.2. Something that has not been said yet, as far as I know however, is that it IS possible to reach the notifications menu but you have to tap carefully between the battery bar and the first number of the date. This is however still un-reliable.

I really hope ZTE release the official 1.2 soon, I LOVE the features it implements but can’t stand this buggy build.

February 17th, 2014 at 14:37
1. Frédéric Harper
  
  Reece, we are in contact with ZTE, and we also expect that they’ll release a new 1.2 build soon.
  
  February 18th, 2014 at 09:13
Reece

If that is true, please feel free to make my day and make a blog post about it like this one when it is released! ^_^

February 18th, 2014 at 14:13
Vladimir Sinotov

Hello!
Question: In version 1.2 FFOS for ZTE open included Russian language and Russian keyboard?

February 21st, 2014 at 06:21
Eric Shepherd

After following these instructions, my ZTE Open (bought from ZTE’s eBay US store) is repeatedly rebooting itself, over and over. I see the “Firefox OS” logo screen for about 20 seconds, then it reboots again.

February 23rd, 2014 at 15:25
Pavi

Two important bugs :

* GPS is broken, nothing could get the GPS working on 1.2 while it worked great on 1.1
* Loqui IM cant connect to whatsapp , posted it in the loqui issue tracker where I was told that 1.2 is not an official release by ZTE. Even loqui worked great on 1.1

Other than that I am more than happy with the music2 app and the ability to connect to app-manager and test latest builds of apps.

February 23rd, 2014 at 17:41
Reece

I need to discipline myself and not come back to this every day just to see if they have released the new build haha… I am far too excited for some of the new features!

February 24th, 2014 at 09:39
PhiloPolyMath

I have a ZTE Open purchased from ebay that is in a constant reboot loop after trying to flash 1.2 onto the phone. No matter which build I download from ZTE, whether it be 1.0.0B02 or 1.1.0B06, I get the same signature verification failed error message when I try to update the phone back to factory version. I’ve spent about 5 hours on this tonight, any help would be appreciated.

February 24th, 2014 at 23:10
Reece

If the name of the ZIP you have put on your SD Card consists of only numbers, extract it and you will find a zip and a pdf inside. Then put the zip file that is inside the zip file (Inception) on your SD card and install it. I hope this helps.

February 25th, 2014 at 03:09
PhiloPolyMath

I appreciate the help, however, that’s what I’ve been doing. I put the extracted zip file onto the sd card, the sd card is recognized by the phone, I select it to upgrade using the zip file and the verification fails every time. No matter which version of FFOS that I use. I’ve even tried editing the first three lines of code in the updater-script as per others recommendations and all that does is speed up how fast it rejects the update with the same verification error.

February 25th, 2014 at 06:46
1. Gerry
  
  The 3 line removal trick is only working if you are using the not official clockworkmod recovery program. For some unknown reason your default recovery does not accept the official ZTE firmware.zip
  What you can try is to extract the recovery.img from the official V1.1.0B06.zip and boot the phone from it and then install the offical untouch V1.1.0B06.zip.
  More info:
  https://sites.google.com/site/zteopenfirmware/alternative-boot-method
  
  February 25th, 2014 at 16:25
  1. PhiloPolyMath
    
    Thanks, but I’m afraid this step won’t work either. However, maybe you can correct me or have another suggestion. Here is the issue:
    
    I can’t connect my phone to the computer to flash any recovery files over. After doing so to upgrade my phone to 1.2 from ZTE the phone is in a boot loop. Even if I put in a command adb wait-for-device it just sits there rebooting over and over. So I don’t think I can use the tips on that website since I can’t get my phone to connect because of the boot loop. I would love for you to correct me, though.
    
    February 26th, 2014 at 08:04
    1. Gerry
      
      I am out of ideas.
      
      The new SD card for my ZTE gave verify error when I try for the first time to use recovery. But it is fix after a quick format (fat 32). I assume your SD card have work without issue in recovery mode for updating the factory 1.0 to upgrade V1.1.0B06.zip before flashing to 1.2
      
      February 26th, 2014 at 15:24
      1. PhiloPolyMath
        
        This is probably where I messed up. I’ve never tried to root a phone before and when I went to the MDN website about the zte open the first entry was about upgrading to v1.2. No mention of upgrading to 1.1 first. Plus, the website said that phones made after a certain date had fastboot enabled so I figured I was good to directly upgrade to 1.2 via the instructions linked on the website. Seems I was wrong. Thanks for your help. I will try the reformatting thing and give it a try too.
        
        February 26th, 2014 at 15:36
      2. PhiloPolyMath
        
        Another slight update. I reformatted a completely different card to make sure I eliminated any issues that could be with the sd card. I put both available zip files on the card. One to upgrade to 1.1 from 1.0 and the other to upgrade from 1.1. With the version for 1.0 I get a failed signature error. With the 1.1 version I get:
        
        assert failed: getprop_new(“ro.build.display.id”) == OPEN_US_DEV_FFOS_”
        E:Error in /tmp/sideload/package.zip
        (Status 7)
        
        February 26th, 2014 at 18:32
      3. PhiloPolyMath
        
        Final update. I was finally able to find a signed zip file that would load onto my phone. Thanks for your help. Here is the link that allowed me to complete it. I’m back at 1.0 but at least I’m somewhere.
        
        https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/976414?page=3
        
        Also, here is link to signed zip file that worked for me. Just erase data to factory before restarting.
        https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0BxLNwNKfKhUyeExFd2hid3lDTEU&export=download
        
        February 26th, 2014 at 20:37
Reece

In that case I am unsure of what to do, but I hope you find a way to fix your problem! If you can, try to re-download the update from ZTE again. Remember that ZTE phone’s only install ZTE updates.

February 25th, 2014 at 07:14
Chad

I’m waiting for my new Open and am assuming it will have 1.0 on it. Can I update to 1.2 or do I have to update to 1.1 first?

February 26th, 2014 at 00:11
PhiloPolyMath

If anyone is having problems with their phone, please visit the links I’ve provided earlier. Also, it seems that even though I purchased a ZTE Open from the US Ebay store, I received a version that only recognizes firmware from the European Standard. If you are receiving signature verification errors or errors that say something like Status 7 when upgrading from the sd card through the recovery menu, try to upgrade using the European Standard firmware for v1.0. This worked for me when nothing else would. This could have worked from the beginning without me having to download an unofficial zip file to bring me back to v1.0 when I bricked my phone, but I’m not sure about that.

February 27th, 2014 at 12:07

Comments are closed for this article.

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Upgrading your ZTE Open to Firefox 1.1 or 1.2 (fastboot enabled)

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