[PROJECT] T-Mobile/Bell (T-MoBell) C6606/C6616 topic

I'll start with how this began, a family friend brought me a taco'd Xperia Z1, I knew nothing about the Xperia devices. I was asked to recover photos and videos. After I was able to get the logicboard to boot with USB and back everything up for them, as payment, they gave me the taco'd phone.

Now, being a Samsung user, I was thinking Galaxy S, S2, S3, etc. No, for some reason Sony felt that the Xperia Z1 means it's the second model lol.

Long story short, I needed a C6906 donor phone, and ended up buying a C6606 because I didn't look into it further, my bad.
The cheapest one I found was a bad ESN C6606 which is (T-Mobile) that was on eBay.

I live in Canada and I didn't realize my mistake until I got the phone and noticed it was much smaller.

So, to try and make the best of things, this is my project for getting a bad ESN T-Mobile C6606 working on Bell in Canada.

To start, some of you may know, others may not, banned ESN's do NOT transfer betweens countries yet, a US carrier with identical radios (T-Mobile/AT&T) will work in Canada as long as its unlocked.

First thing I did was look into unlocking codes, went to SafeUnlockCode, I think it was around Canadian after exchange rate. Six days later, got my code, typed it in, worked like a champ, Bell SIM reads and it would make calls and send SMS but no Data, so I checked the network info, no APN settings, entered the Bell APN settings, gave it a reboot, works perfect, like nothing happened.

T-Mobile for whatever reason is the only carrier who is still on firmware 10.4.C.0.814 which is Android 4.3

Bell received 10.5.A.0.230 (4.4.2) and 10.5.1.A.0.292 (4.4.4)

So, naturally, I want to update this to KitKat for no other reason then to have it up to date, but I like the fact that this phone is branded T-Mobile, gives it the hipster appeal that no one else here has one lol.

This is where I backup the T-Mobile boot and shut down animations and sounds from /system/media

It's now time to start the upgrade, I used XperiFirm to download the C6616 4.4.2 and 4.4.4 firmware, made sure to unchecked the box that asks to unpack files (because FlashTool requires them to be packed)

Next was opening FlashTool, I had to make a FTF bundle from the 4.4.4 Bell files. After that was done, I did the exact same process but only for the 4.4.4 kernel, and then again for the 4.4.2 kernel (this is for rooting)

After 4.4.4 booted for the first time, set it up, checked it out, now it needs root to swap the T-Mobile animations and sounfs back, so back to FlashTool.
Because of an issue with the 292 kernel, it wont allow root, so I flashed the 4.4.2 kernel that was made earlier, after first boot, WiFi is broken but mobile data still works so first I went to settings and then security, enabled unknown sources, and then on chrome I searched towelroot, and downloading the apk by clicking the red icon in the middle, used towelroot, now have root.

Back to computer, plug in USB, open FlashTool, now says I have root, now flashing the 4.4.4 kernel that was made and once that finished, rebooted phone, everything works perfect. Now download ES file manager from Play Store, copied T-Mobile files from earlier back into system/media and rebooted again. Everything works, all back to normal, looks like T-Mobile both on and off.

I now have a C6606 with Bad ESN from T-Mobile running Android 4.4.4 from Bell and rooted with 292 kernel.

That's my story, I hope some of you got some information needed for flashing, making ftf files, rooting, using other C660X firmwares, unlocking, or just info on bad ESN phones.

I'll update this later with all the images, links, and make it pretty with BBCode so its not as primitive.

I'm currently at work using the Xperia Z from this project.