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Rooting the Bigme B7

·5 mins·
Tech
Table of Contents

Bigme root
Wallpaper by @RennerBricks Check out their YouTube channel

Congrats on getting your new Bigme B7 - I’ve had mine for about 3 months now and it’s been quite solid. Compared with my previous tablet (an Onyx Boox Nova Pro), the screen isn’t quite as crisp, however gaining colour, a newer version of Android and now root access is a bigger improvement. That plus (optional) cellular - If I wanted to use it as a travel hotspot is pretty neat to have. If you’re yet to purchase one, for reference I paid about $320 AUD shipped in Jan 2026 from Aliexpress. At this price it is decent value, however I wouldn’t have purchased it if it was much more than this.

This article is more of a record of what I did to my Bigme B7 to gain root access in early 2026 - things may change by the time you’re reading this article, and it may be worth being cautious!

A big Credit to @ekalaitzis on Github who provided a great writeup this was based on.

Important Note - Modifying your device carries the risk of bricking it. Proceed with caution and at your own risk.

Steps
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Due to some driver issues on both MacOS and Windows, I ended up loading Ubuntu as a live OS, which makes the steps below easy to reproduce, in a clean environment.

1. Environment Setup
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Load a Live environment in “Try mode” on a x86 based machine (not apple silicon or Raspberry pi) and open a terminal to follow with the following commands. It should go without saying, only follow the below if you’re comfortable executing linux commands.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3 git libusb-1.0-0 python3-pip libfuse2

git clone https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient
cd mtkclient
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
pip3 install .

install USB rules for Ubuntu
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This step grants necessary permissions to access and communicate with USB devices (the Bigme B7).

sudo usermod -a -G plugdev $USER
sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER
sudo cp mtkclient/Setup/Linux/*.rules /etc/udev/rules.d
sudo udevadm control -R
sudo udevadm trigger

2. Extract boot files from B7
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The {location} is somewhere on your machine like . for the current directory or ~/Downloads for the Downloads folder. If you’re not familiar with how this works, it may be best to stop here and seek further assistance before proceeding.

mtk.py will extract the boot files for patching in the next steps. If the file is 0KB or similar, something may have gone wrong.

python3 mtk.py rl --skip userdata {location}
  1. Copy boot_a.bin and vbmeta_a.bin to a separate folder
  2. Rename them to original_boot_a.bin and original_vbmeta_a.bin to keep them distinct from what we’re working on

Upload your original_boot_a.bin and use the settings:

  • Keep Verity: OFF
    Keep Force Encrypt: ON
    Recovery Mode: OFF
    Patch Vbmeta Flag: ON
    Legacy SAR Device: OFF

If it’s successful, you’ll see a message like
Success: Worker terminated. Success: Download starting...

Then download and rename the file to patched_boot.img and move it the same folder.

Next, patch the vbmeta

python3 patch-vbmeta.py original_vbmeta_a.bin

3. Rooting Process
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⚠️ WARNING THIS STEP WILL ERASE YOUR DEVICE!

  1. Wipe the device:
python3 mtk.py e metadata,userdata,md_udc

Always make sure there are no errors after the commands

  1. OEM Unlock command:
python3 mtk.py da seccfg unlock
  1. Bootloader unlock:
python3 mtk.py da vbmeta 3
  1. Flash the patched boot images:
python3 mtk.py w boot_a patched_boot.img
python3 mtk.py w boot_b patched_boot.img
  1. Flash patched vbmeta:
python3 mtk.py w vbmeta_a patched_vbmeta.bin
python3 mtk.py w vbmeta_b patched_vbmeta.bin
  1. Finally, use this command to reboot:
python3 mtk.py reset

Your device will boot as if it’s the first time. Complete the initial setup process, install the Magisk APK, and verify root access works with a root checker app.

Magisk

Recovery Option
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If something goes wrong, you can restore your backup with commands like:

python3 mtk.py w boot_a {LocationYouSavedBackup}/boot_a.bin

Some things to do with root access
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Without saying, you should always be careful what you give root access on a machine. Make sure you trust the apps before installing.

Securing system, blocking unwanted behaviour
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Adaway

Root access can assist to give some added controls to your network settings when you do go online. Adaway is one example of an ad blocker that you can use to control network access to

appmanager

Appmanager is a great option too for ‘Freezing’ apps from running, which can also improve battery life. In my case,

Installing apps with Obtanium
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There are many flavours of app managers out there you can use in your new environment to install apps. Either directly via an APK, which you can send across with LocalSend or USB. I went with Obtanium, an app that downloads an open source app’s APK directly from Github. Other options can include the Aurora, F-Droid or the Play store.

Leave a comment below if you need a hand or get stuck at any steps!

Acknowledgement goes to @ekalaitzis on Github for testing on alternative Bigme devices first. Give them a star!

Full list of links#

Notes:

I noticed at times it looked like the device wouldn’t boot, but holding the power button and waiting for the bigme ‘block animation’ helped for it to power on.

I’ll update this section if anyone reaches out with any comments.
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Adam Kostarelas
Author
Adam Kostarelas
Tech & Cyber @ HumanAbility