How to Install Custom Recovery and Root the Onda Allwinner A31 V971

The Onda Allwinner A31 is not a device to be taken lightly.  While the name may be unfamiliar to many, the device is on par with most well-known tablets available currently and features a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU with 2GB RAM, 16GB of onboard storage and an 8-inch touchscreen IPS display.  Sadly though, it comes loaded with Android 4.1.1 firmware and with its specs, the device should be able to run the latest version of Android (4.3 as of this writing) without a hitch.  The only way currently to do this is via custom ROMs and for that, it needs to be rooted and have a custom recovery installed.  That is exactly what this guide will help you do and hopefully you should see some custom ROMs pop up very soon.

I.  Before You Begin

1.  Charge your device to 75% or more before you proceed.

2.  Back up anything you feel is important before you start.

3.  This procedure is designed to work with Windows 7/8 PCs only.

II.  Necessary Downloads

1.  ROOT_Limpieza_Logo_V3.zip [Download link available in this post]

2.  Onda v971-v972 recovery.zip [Download link available in this post]

3.  Android.zip [ADB files that are required for the procedure[

III.  Rooting the Allwinner A31

1.  Connect your device to your PC using a compatible microUSB cable and copy the ROOT_Limpieza_Logo_V3.zip file to you SD card.

2.  Open up the app drawer and tap on the Update app to open it.

3.  Navigate to ROOT_Limpieza_Logo_V3.zip, select it, and then tap on Update.

4.  Your device should flash the file automatically and reboot on its own.

You should now be completely rooted!

IV.  Installing Custom Recovery (ClockworkMod Recovery)

1.  Extract Android.zip to a folder on your desktop.

2.  Extract Onda v971-v972 recovery.zip to a folder on your desktop.

3.  Hold the Shift key and right-click on the Android folder, and click on the Open command window here to start a command prompt window.

4.  Enable USB Debugging on your device by going to Settings > Development options and ticking the USB debugging checkbox.

5.  Connect your device to your PC and let any drivers that are being installed to finish.

6.  Copy the three files from the extracted Onda v971-v972 recovery folder [install-recovery.sh, reboot-recovery.sh, recovery.img] to your device’s SD card (Do not put them into any subfolders, just drop them on to the main folder of your SD card).

6.  Type in the following commands in the command prompt window:

adb shell

su

busybox sh /sdcard/install-recovery.sh

 

5.  Reboot your device.

Your device now has ClockworkMod Recovery installed and you should be able to flash any compatible custom ROMs through it.  To boot into recovery, press and hold the Home and the Power buttons for 30 seconds to 1 minute when the device is off.

V.  Flashing a Custom ROM

Use our guide on how to flash a custom ROM if you are unfamiliar with this.

If this procedure helped you please thank/donate to the original developers here.