Volla Phone 22 (volla-mimameid)

Features
Flashing	Works
USB Networking	Works
Internal storage
SD card
Battery	Broken
Screen	Partial
Touchscreen	Broken
Multimedia
3D Acceleration	Broken
Audio	Broken
Camera	Broken
Camera Flash
Connectivity
WiFi	Broken
Bluetooth	Broken
GPS	Broken
NFC	Partial
Modem
Calls	Broken
SMS	Broken
Mobile data	Broken
Miscellaneous
FDE
USB OTG	Broken
Sensors
Accelerometer	Broken
Magnetometer	Broken
Ambient Light	Broken
Proximity	Broken
Hall Effect	Broken
Haptics

Volla Phone 22
	; Booted early mainline kernel v6.1-rc5 with Sxmo!
Manufacturer	Volla
Name	Phone 22
Codename	volla-mimameid
Released	2022
Type	handset
Hardware
Chipset	MediaTek Helio G85 (MT6769Z)
CPU	Octa-core (2x Cortex-A75 @ 2.0 GHz + 6x Cortex-A55 1.8 GHz)
GPU	ARM Mali-G52 MC2 (Bifrost, v7) @ 1.0 GHz
Display	1080x2340 6,3"
Storage	128 GB eMMC 5.1, microSDXC slot
Memory	4 GB LPDDR4X
Architecture	aarch64
Software
Original software	Android
Original version	11
Extended version	13
Optional software	Ubuntu Touch
FOSS bootloader	no
postmarketOS
Category	testing
Pre-built images	no
Mainline	yes
postmarketOS kernel	6.1_rc5
Unixbench Whet/Dhry score	4318.3

How to enter flash mode

Fastboot: Power on the device with both Power and Volume Up buttons held down. Then select Fastboot by pressing Volume Up and confirm with Volume Down.
Recovery: Do the same as for Fastboot, but select the Recovery option in the menu instead.
MediaTek Preloader: The preloader triggers automatically everytime the phone turns on or reboots.

Installation

Follow the usual flashing guide via pmbootstrap.

NOTE: fastboot booting is broken on this device, so e.g. pmbootstrap flasher boot won't work and as such kernels will always have to be flashed to the boot partition of the device.

Mainline kernel

There is some early mainline support being worked on for the MT6768/MT6769Z chipset; see the MediaTek Helio G85 SoC page and Hacking for more details.

Please note that as eMMC internal storage access isn't yet working you'll have to Netboot a postmarketOS rootfs over USB RNDIS!

As pmbootstrap flasher flash_dtbo is a pre-requisite to booting mainline please backup your existing dtbo partition contents to be able to boot downstream kernels/recovery images again with e.g. mtk r dtbo_a dtbo_a-backup.img & mtk r dtbo_b dtbo_b-backup.img using mtkclient!

NOTE: Currently earlyfb only works on the original non-multiboot-capable lk bootloader, regular simplefb still works though assuming kernel doesn't panic super early ;)

Patches of interest

RT9471 I2C 3A battery charger: https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-pm/cover/1664549409-4280-1-git-send-email-u0084500@gmail.com/

Partition layout

volla-mimameid:~# fdisk -l -o Device,Start,End,Sectors,Size,Name /dev/mmcblk0

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 116.5 GiB, 125074145280 bytes, 244285440 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

Device              Start       End   Sectors   Size Name
/dev/mmcblk0p1         64      6207      6144     3M proinfo
/dev/mmcblk0p2       6208      7231      1024   512K misc
/dev/mmcblk0p3       7232      8255      1024   512K para
/dev/mmcblk0p4       8256     49215     40960    20M expdb
/dev/mmcblk0p5      49216     51263      2048     1M frp
/dev/mmcblk0p6      51264     67647     16384     8M vbmeta_a
/dev/mmcblk0p7      67648     84031     16384     8M vbmeta_system_a
/dev/mmcblk0p8      84032    100415     16384     8M vbmeta_vendor_a
/dev/mmcblk0p9     100416    116799     16384     8M vbmeta_b
/dev/mmcblk0p10    116800    133183     16384     8M vbmeta_system_b
/dev/mmcblk0p11    133184    149567     16384     8M vbmeta_vendor_b
/dev/mmcblk0p12    149568    195855     46288  22.6M md_udc
/dev/mmcblk0p13    195856    261391     65536    32M metadata
/dev/mmcblk0p14    261392    326927     65536    32M nvcfg
/dev/mmcblk0p15    326928    457999    131072    64M nvdata
/dev/mmcblk0p16    458000    556303     98304    48M persist
/dev/mmcblk0p17    556304    572687     16384     8M protect1
/dev/mmcblk0p18    572688    589823     17136   8.4M protect2
/dev/mmcblk0p19    589824    606207     16384     8M seccfg
/dev/mmcblk0p20    606208    868351    262144   128M md1img_a
/dev/mmcblk0p21    868352    870399      2048     1M spmfw_a
/dev/mmcblk0p22    870400    882687     12288     6M scp_a
/dev/mmcblk0p23    882688    884735      2048     1M sspm_a
/dev/mmcblk0p24    884736    917503     32768    16M gz_a
/dev/mmcblk0p25    917504    921599      4096     2M lk_a
/dev/mmcblk0p26    921600    987135     65536    32M boot_a
/dev/mmcblk0p27    987136   1118207    131072    64M vendor_boot_a
/dev/mmcblk0p28   1118208   1134591     16384     8M dtbo_a
/dev/mmcblk0p29   1134592   1146879     12288     6M tee_a
/dev/mmcblk0p30   1146880   1150975      4096     2M sec1
/dev/mmcblk0p31   1150976   1204223     53248    26M boot_para
/dev/mmcblk0p32   1204224   1335295    131072    64M nvram
/dev/mmcblk0p33   1335296   1359871     24576    12M logo
/dev/mmcblk0p34   1359872   1622015    262144   128M md1img_b
/dev/mmcblk0p35   1622016   1624063      2048     1M spmfw_b
/dev/mmcblk0p36   1624064   1636351     12288     6M scp_b
/dev/mmcblk0p37   1636352   1638399      2048     1M sspm_b
/dev/mmcblk0p38   1638400   1671167     32768    16M gz_b
/dev/mmcblk0p39   1671168   1675263      4096     2M lk_b
/dev/mmcblk0p40   1675264   1740799     65536    32M boot_b
/dev/mmcblk0p41   1740800   1871871    131072    64M vendor_boot_b
/dev/mmcblk0p42   1871872   1888255     16384     8M dtbo_b
/dev/mmcblk0p43   1888256   1900543     12288     6M tee_b
/dev/mmcblk0p44   1900544  18677759  16777216     8G super
/dev/mmcblk0p45  18677760 244164543 225486784 107.5G userdata
/dev/mmcblk0p46 244164544 244252607     88064    43M otp
/dev/mmcblk0p47 244252608 244285375     32768    16M flashinfo

Community Info

postmarketOS users that own the device

Cvbnm90i
Deathmist (Notes: Working on mainlining)