Rooting UART method - multiple login prompts

[hannesdonel]

Are you already using Valetudo?

Yes, for a long time

Your questions

My old Roborock S5 (with Valetudo) gets replaced. While trying to root my new Xiaomi X10+ (bought April 2024 via Xiaomi Store), I run into following behavior:

Reproduction:

1. Wire up robot with PBC breakout an start logging with sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200, ixoff
2. Power on robot, logging is visible, root password changed log appears
3. Wait until logging stops and insert USB stick, apply OTG jumper
4. Get presented to three (it's always three!) lines saying p2114_release login
5. Type root, hit enter
6. Now it sometimes asks for my password, sometimes again presents to p2029_release login and then freezes
7. If asked for password type password, hit enter
8. Then two things can happen: It asks again for password and then freezes or says Login incorrect and freezes
9. No matter what happened before it prompts two times Login Timeout after 60 seconds

Password creation

1. Serial Number is confirmed from Xiaomi and has following format: 41717/BF*******08582
2. Password is created with echo -n "41717/BF*******08582" | md5sum | base64

USB flashing

1. fdisk /dev/sdX and format it like this:

• Type o to create a new empty DOS partition table
• Type n to create a new partition
• Choose primary partition by typing p
• Use the entire disk for partition
• Type w to write changes.

2. mkfs.fat -F 32 -S 4096 /dev/sdX
3. dd if=path/to/image/dreame_uart_root.img of=/dev/sdX && sync
4. dreame_uart_root.img provided in Valetudo docs is used
5. I tried two different sticks

I'm thankful for every experience, hint and help what to do.

[vivia]

Check the two following things:

1. Make sure your USB drive has only one partition. In order to be sure, delete all partitions, leave the USB drive completely blank, and then flash the dreame_uart_root.img from the Valetudo docs.
2. Double-check the solderings on the PCB side, especially those related to the USB drive. Make sure that it doesn't disconnect and reconnect.

[hannesdonel]

Thank you very much. Your comment actually send me back to carefully review my USB stick. Solution was do explicitly format it as MBR before flashing it.

[csutakbalazs]

@hannesdonel I have been struggling for hours with the same issue (except there were always two prompts for me), even though I triple-checked, that the pendrive was formatted as MBR. Following your advice, I deleted all partitions, explicitly reformatted it as MBR, reflashed the image, and everything worked seamlessly afterward. Thank you so much for returning and leaving this comment here!