Official factory images from Nokia Mobile come in the .nb0 format. An nb0 file can be flashed to Nokia phones using the OST LA tool. It was all good till Nougat releases, but starting with Oreo, the firmware images were changed. Nokia factory images on Android Oreo require newer versions of OST. Unfortunately, it is not possible to crack the newer versions of OST (such as 6.1.2) for use without authentication.
OST LA 6.0.4 errors out when trying to flash Oreo factory images. The program throws this error – “The software version of the updater is out of date. Please upgrade the updater and try again”. So, it is necessary to unpack/extract the nb0 package to make changes to the firmware. Then you can use OST 6.0.4 to flash Oreo firmware after the edits.
Make Oreo or Pie firmware compatible with OST 6.0.4
To get started, you need to unpack the firmware to get access to the files. Then you need to make changes to a file which makes the package compatible with older versions of OST.
- Install Notepad ++ or any other text editor. Windows Notepad (before October update) is not preferred.
- Unpack the nb0 file using nb0 tools.
- Open the unpacked folder and look for a file ending with the .mlf extension.
It will be named like [nb0-package-name].mlf. For example – C1N-0430-0-00CN-B05.mlf
- Open the mlf file in Notepad++ (or whichever text editor you like) and alter the following 3 values. Do not make any other changes to the .mlf file.
INITOPTION = 0x20000 INITDLTYPE = 0x60 SECURITY_VER = 0x0001
- Save the file to the same unpacked folder, overwriting the exiting file.
- Now open OST 6.0.4, click on browse and select this edited mlf file.
You will notice that OST no longer throws any error with the versions. You can now connect the phone in download mode and start flashing. Do remember that your bootloader should be unlocked.
