Thread by @Agent_Fabulous

Since, everyone has been tweeting about the #Note8ProBrick, thought I might add in my experience. Here's the rant of a frustrated Note 8 Pro developer. Please read. [1/15]
@manukumarjain @atytse @s_anuj @cmanmohan @Xiaomi @XiaomiIndia @RedmiIndia

#Note8Pro #RedmiNote8Pro #Redmi

So @xdadevelopers and @Xiaomi sent us the Redmi Note 8 Pro (begonia/begoniain) this November, for development. After the 7 day unlock period, things started moving quick. I managed to boot TWRP with a compiled kernel, and started writing the initial tree. [2/15]

All was great, I got a bootanimation even. Then at one point I had to change recovery, and somehow writing to the recovery partition from within recovery (dd/installing an img) bricked the device. Now, the device doesn't display a thing, lights up the LED on charger... [3/15]

And enables a serial connection if you hold volume up and plug in USB. Asking around, I learn that this is the device's EDL mode. A hard brick, just what I wanted. Alright, no big deal, it's a MediaTek device, I can simply use SP Flash Tools, right? Wrong. [4/15]

@MediaTek's SP Flash Tools detects the device and fails to flash. Turns out Xiaomi ships a modified version of SP Flash Tools with their MiFlashPro software suite. Alright, let's try that. Trying to download to the phone using this opens a login window for your Mi Account. [5/15]

Logging into my account, the window shows "Unauthorized for this operation" and fails the flash. Great. Searching around, it seems only service centers have authorized accounts. Turns out, there's also a giant market that unofficially unbricks devices. [6/15]

Normally, someone with an authorized account would TeamViewer into your system and authorize the flash. Other methods include a UFI box/dongle where you'd have "credits" which you spend to avail services like unbrick, unlock or remove FRP. They software would allow... [7/15]

loading a scatter, DA, etc for MTK or programmers + images for QCOM devices. Some Indian services charge between 300 and 600 rupees whereas other international services charge up to US$30 even! So, I decided to get the flash authorized once and unbrick my device. [8/15]

No no, it doesn't end here. Fast forward a few days and I'm bricked again. How, you may ask? Installing the stock ROM via fastboot. Lovely. I decided to try and reverse the flash process. The first unbrick left me with SP Flash logs. [9/15]

Now, the device's serial connection is BROM (MTK boot_rom). You can handshake and perform basic commands. One such command happens to be 0xe3. This is SLA, short for Serial Link Authorization Challenge. The device generates 16 bytes of random data that are sent to... [10/15]

Xiaomi servers. The server checks if your account has authorization and returns 256 bytes of data. If the data is correct, BROM continues. Else it traps itself in an infinite loop, until it times out due to no-command and tries to reboot. Without this, BROM rejects... [11/15]

DA (Download Agent/Programmer), and any jump-to commands. Now you might ask why don't I just go to a service center. Thing is, we didn't purchase the device, and without any proof of purchase, we cannot claim warranty. Also, in my case, the nearest service center... [12/15]

to my hostel is over 24kms away. What can Xiaomi do about this? I highly doubt a new modified version of SP Flash Tools will cut it. SLA is part of BROM which is not directly accessible. BROM and Preloader are loaded into ISRAM and not DRAM, and cannot be simply updated. [13/15]

The best they can do is remove the need of authorization to pass SLA in BROM. Though, I'd love to be proven wrong. Also it seems many users having an unlocked bootloader and no mods, bricked by simply receiving the MIUI 11 OTA update. [14/15]

All we can do is hope, and request @Xiaomi to help us out. With the current state of things, I doubt the device would see any active development. If you made it till here, thanks for hearing my rant :) You can find my shitty BROM script here: del.dog/v/xiaomi_mtk_b… [15/15]

I should also add in the fact that many service centers can't even differentiate a MTK Hard Brick and a dead motherboard. This guy bricked his device but had his motherboard replaced under warranty. In the long run, this is gonna hurt @Xiaomi in after-sales support.