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A2 Permanent Patching

I WILL NOT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU KILL OR DAMAGE YOUR PHONE. THIS IS ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
IF IT DOES HAPPEN, REFLASH YOUR PHONE'S MAIN/FS. HAPPY PATCHING.

Tools you will need

(all download links available at the end of the post with installation help)

• Aerix Unlocker (with a registered account)
• D-Ultimate Unlocker (no account needed)
• A2 Uploader (latest version or 19.09.2009+)
• A starting patch you want to use
• A Sony Ericsson A2 Phone CID 52
• CodeClaw CXC Patcher (v0.3+)
• Far Manager
• Den-Po's FAR CXC Patcher Plugin

IF YOUR PHONE IS CERTIFICATE BROWN PLEASE SKIP TO STEP 14.
IF YOUR PHONE IS CERTIFICATE RED PLEASE START FROM STEP 1.

FROM STEP 14 YOU CAN CHOOSE BETWEEN 3 DIFFERENT A2 PERMANENT PATCHING METHODS. ALL OF THEM INVOLVE USING A2 UPLOADER.
EITHER A2 UPLOADER, CODECLAW CXC PATCHER OR DEN_PO'S FAR CXC PATCHER PLUGIN. ALL OF THEM WORK.

1. Start Up Aerix & enter your registered acount details by pressing the "settings" button.
2. Press Unlock.
3. Remove your battery and reinsert it.
4. Connect holding 2+5 buttons down.
5. Wait for a while, but keep watching. This is where timing is of the essence!
6. As soon as it says "Restarting Phone" OR "Phone Restarts" in the log, etc. HIT ABORT!
7. Aerix will then stop immediately and give 3-4 error messages in the log. Your phone is now blue. But we need brown to patch. 
8. Now, open up D-Ultimate Unlocker.
9. Choose your phone, and tick Repair EROM/SEMCBOOT.
10. Set certificate to BROWN.

11. Select "No Lock Change".
12. Now connect your phone, holding 2+5 down once more.
13. Wait until the entire process finishes. Now your phone is brown and ready to patch. 

A2 Uploader Method - Easiest yet slowest.

14. Open up A2 Uploader.
15. Where it says "MISC" browse for the VKP patch you want.
16. Now where it says "E" click it and the patch should open up in notepad.
17. Add this line to the beginning of the patch.

;pAtChFiLe=/boot/phone_app.cxc

Make sure there are no gaps or spaces in this. This normally gives an "ACK" fs error.

18. Hit CTRL + S. Or save it. (This can be done before step 15.)
19. Now on A2 Uploader click "WRITE SCRIPT".
20. Connect your phone as usual, but this time hold down "c". If your phone's power button is "c" then connect with 2+5.
21. Wait. A2 Uploader takes a long time. Even with small patches. When a popup comes up click "NO". Wait some more.
22. After it says, "ELAPSED: xx secs." it has ended, and you can unplug your phone.

That's it! You have successfully patched your A2 CID 52 phone!
Now to keep patching you only need to start from step 14.

To reverse:

Patching

At step 21 click "YES" using exactly the same settings.

Certificate Conversion

Unlock using Aerix and let the process finish. Your phone should be back to RED.
And reupload phone_app.cxc

CodeClaw CXC Patcher Method - Not hard to understand, and faster than A2 Uploader.

14. Open up A2 Uploader.
15. Click "FileSystem Tool".
16. Connect your phone as usual, but this time hold down "c". If your phone's power button is "c" then connect with 2+5.
17. Wait. On the right you should see your phone's FS.
18. Double Click "/BOOT".
19. Now, right-click "phone_app.cxc" and click "Read". A2 Uploader will download your phone_app.cxc to a folder called "ph_out" which is located somewhere in the A2 Uploader program dir.
20. Click "SHUTDOWN FS MANAGER".
22. You do not need to repeat the last steps after completed once. As phone_app.cxc is saved on your computer.

21. Now time for some CodeClaw magic! Open up CXC Patcher.

22. On the left click "VKP LIST".
23. Click the "Add" button and browse to your patch.

24. The best thing about CXC Patcher is that multiple patching is available! To do this...

By clicking the "Add" button you can keep adding patches. They appear in the "VKP List". The program has a nifty feature of adding and removing them. You can also Edit them but this is not needed.

25. After you have decided what patches to apply in the "VKP List". On the left click, "Patch!". 
26. In the input box, browse for the "phone_app.cxc" you downloaded using A2 Uploader.
27. In the output box, browse to the place you want the patched "phone_app.cxc" to end up. (After patching).

28. To start patching, click "Patch VKP List". CXC Patcher is faster than A2 Uploader because we have already downloaded the "phone_app.cxc" manually. Whereas in the A2 Uploader method it is done automatically by adding a line into the patch.
This is not needed for CXC Patcher. 

29. After the bottom bar has reached 100% the patching is done.
30. Now reupload the phone_app.cxc that was outputted back to your phone's FS in "/BOOT".
31. This is obviously done using A2 Uploader.

To reverse:

One or more patches without removing all

Add the patches you want to remove into "VKP List".
And in the "Patch!" section tick the box "Reverse Patches".

All Patches

Re-upload your original "phone_app.cxc" using A2 Uploader.

Den_Po's FAR CXC Plugin Method - Hardest but fastest and best.

14. Open up A2 Uploader.
15. Click "FileSystem Tool".
16. Connect your phone as usual, but this time hold down "c". If your phone's power button is "c" then connect with 2+5.
17. Wait. On the right you should see your phone's FS.
18. Double Click "/BOOT".
19. Now, right-click "phone_app.cxc" and click "Read". A2 Uploader will download your phone_app.cxc to a folder called "ph_out" which is located somewhere in the A2 Uploader program dir.
20. Click "SHUTDOWN FS MANAGER".
22. You do not need to repeat the last steps after completed once. As phone_app.cxc is saved on your computer.

23. Now for some of that legendary software by Den_Po! Open up FAR Manager.

24. On the left side browse to where your downloaded "phone_app.cxc" is located.
25. On the right side browse to where your patch(es) is/are located.
26. Now, on the left open "phone_app.cxc" by double clicking it.
27. Just for the purposes of understanding, on the left you now have an open "phone_app.cxc" ready to be patched. (Just like the list feature in the CodeClaw method).
28. On the right click on the patch you want to use. And hit F5 on your keyboard. Then it will ask for confirmation and just click "copy" that comes up in the grey box.

29. The patch is written to your .cxc ready to be patched. (Again just like the list feature in the CodeClaw method).
30. You can also add more patches again before patching. (Multiple patching).
31. Now to apply the patches. On the left above all the patches you have copied, there should be a "..." (which refer's to the parent folder).

32. Double click on this.
33. A dialog box should pop up and should say "saving" with a loading bar. This is when the patches are all applied.
34. Wait until this is done and you should be taken back to where you opened "phone_app.cxc" from.

35. Your "phone_app.cxc" is now patched, and ready for re-uploading!
36. Now reupload the phone_app.cxc that was outputted back to your phone's FS in "/BOOT".
37. This is obviously done using A2 Uploader.

To reverse:

One or more patches without removing all

Open the "phone_app.cxc" like in step 26 and delete any of the patches in the list and click "..." to save.

All Patches

Re-upload your original "phone_app.cxc" using A2 Uploader.

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Advantages between different methods

A2 Uploader => Automatically download's and uploads everything for you. Although this makes the patching process very slow and doesn't usually allow multiple patching. + adding the extra line to the patch can be a nightmare.

CodeClaw CXC Patcher => Very fast patching. Multiple patching makes life a whole lot easier (if you're brave enough  ). Although, you have to download & upload everything manually using A2 Uploader. But, you don't have to add any extra lines to the patch(es)

Den_po's FAR CXC Patch Plugin => The fastest method of A2 patching known. Period. Supports multiple patching and there is no patching line needed to be added to patches. Although, you have to download & upload everything using A2 Uploader.

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TUT ChangeLog

22/09/2009: Tutorial Posted
05/10/2009: Codeclaw CXC Patcher Method (after BETA stage)
07/10/2009: Den_po's FAR CXC Patcher Plugin Method
14/11/2009: Known Errors/Issues & How to fix them.
26/11/2009: ALL Screenshots & Formatting

TUTORIAL COMPLETED
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Hope it helps. Any questions feel free to ask. There's lots of experts to help.

Help Topics:

A2 Uploader - http://forums.se-nse.net/index.php?showtopic=35439&hl=
A2 "Permapatching" Thread - http://forums.se-nse.net/index.php?showtopic=43997&hl=
SE Patches Forum - http://forums.se-nse.net/index.php?showforum=102
CXC Patcher Support Thread - http://forums.se-nse.net/index.php?showtopic=44071&hl=
Den_po's FAR CXC Patcher Plugin Support Thread - http://forums.se-nse.net/index.php?showtopic=44233&hl=

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Downloads

A2 Uploader and Cert Conversion Tools

CodeClaw CXC Patcher Thread with Download link

Far Manager

Den_Po's FAR CXC Patcher Plugin Thread with Download Link

Installation Guide

Den_Po's FAR CXC Patcher Plugin Installation Instructions

Okay this is really simple.

1. Download Far Manager 2.0 Stable from the page in the 3rd link above.
2. Download the attachment in the first post in the page of the 4th link above.
3. Now extract everything you downloaded as the Far Manager which is in .7z format using WinRAR to a nice little place that you can easily access on your computer.
4. Now extract the file called "farcxcplugin.dll" IN THE 2.0 FOLDER to the folder called "Plugins" which is in the Far Manager folder you just extracted in step 3.
5. Now making sure that "farcxc plugin.dll" is located in "/FAR/Plugins". You can now start using FAR.

Any questions then feel free to ask in the help topic for this software.

D - Ultimate Unlocker

A n00b could do this. I don't even know why I'm explaining this. 

In the first link above extract the D-Ultimate Unlocker folder and double-click the installation .exe file. This will install D-Ultimate Unlocker ready for use.

Known Issues & Errors; And How to Fix Them.

Aerix Battery Drain

Issue:
After using Aerix's nifty trick to change the certificate from RED to BROWN. Unfortunately it causes a bug in the phone's firmware that drains the battery much quicker than usual. We finally have a FREE fix!

Fix:
Download the latest version of D-Ultimate Unlocker (5.01+). Install it and run. Choose your phone in the left top corner. Now tick Repair EROM and on Lock change select "No Lock Change". And on certificate change select "No Certificate Change". Connect your phone with 2-5 held down. After the process is finished dis-connect your phone and re-insert battery. Finito!

That's it. I think that everyone can easily use everything else. Hope this all helps.

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Credits:
Jinx13 for discovering the cert conversion method! Good on ya'!
the_laser for A2 Uploader..
Everyone that took part in the development of Aerix and D-Ultimate Unlocker!
CodeClaw for CXC Patcher. <3
Den_po for the check sum calculator & Far Plugin.
MASVA for FAR and D-Ultimate screenshots

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TUTORIAL 2009/10 © KAOSBLADE & SE DESIGN