what about getting the right drivers? where do I find the drivers for the xp3 and xp5? and what about firehose? I donāt need one? or does the one in the Verizon zip work?
This is only for the xp3800 and use this firehose posted by @flip. Not sure about drivers had them on my computer for awhile
not for rooting but if all you need is the ability of installing apps directly from the phone without needing adb then check this out!!
BTW just to give info I tried already both on Windows with QFIL and on Linux with Bkerler and they both clearly pointed that the firehose is not good both for the xp5800 AT&T and bp3800 Sprint. just putting this out there. and BTW Iām not extremely familiar when it comes to these stuff to say theleast but if I can help in any way someone that is and has ideas Iād love to. Iām dying to root mainly my xp5800 AT&T.
I donāt know why I didānt try this myself but I saw on XDA Forums someone poated the links he got when updating his Sonim xp5800 AT&T (yay!! my phone) and itās the update from an older Android to 8.1 which probably has some stuff. there are 3 folders and a lot of files. I donāt know where to start. if someone can give me some instructions Iāll take the time and do it. Iām looking if possible for the firehose file. I found with a simple search a nice few files ending in ā.mbn.pā. I donāt know what that is.
hereās the link to that post: https://xdaforums.com/t/sonim-xp5s-xp5800-bootloader-firmware-and-unlock-questions.4031009/post-90291738
The mbm file is the firehose
you mean mbn. there are many .mbn.p files. none are the full firehose. they are all different parts for the update. I just wonder if thereās anything useful at all with the zipās
Just realized all that was were ota updates. Like you said they wonāt contain the firehoseā¦
The reason I thought it might have something useful is cuz itās the update from an older Android version to 8.1 (at least officially). but I guess that doesnāt helpā¦ 
I mean if itās a full update, not incremental, you can have a look inside, but my guess would be that you wonāt find anything useful, just more of an understanding of how their checks work.
im trying to connect adb to my sonim and i enabled it dev options but when i connect a usb nothing happens it wont even show up on my computers file manager but if i turn off usb debugging then i shows in my computers file manager. any idea
Did you try adb devices?
Does ADB work for other devices?
There should also be an option on the phone to choose if when itās plugged in it should just charge or allow file access.
in addition to that, ensure usb mode is transfer files.
btw this doesnāt belong in this topic. I think thereās a topic for general sonim questions.
Update
I successfully rooted the xp3800 following @anonymousfliphones step by step.
I tried in the past and it bootlooped and I assumed it was because although it flashed it correctly, the locked bootloader didnāt allow it to boot with unsigned boot image. Still not sure how that logic is defeated (if anyone does, Iām really curious) but apparently the entire reason it failed for me itās cuz I patched with a different version of magisk than what he was using.
Iām too tired to write a guide, but in short, all you have to do is adb reboot edl and then use qfil or edl to flash patched boot.img. (edl w -- boot boot_magisk.img)
since the files are scattered around all over the forums I uploaded everything you need to a zip. It includes the firehose, stock boot image, magisk root patched boot_magisk.img, magisk app to install on the device and a script for those of you on Linux to automate the entire process.
For those on Windows, follow the guide by @anonymousfliphones. You can use the files provided in this zip. Youāll have to find the drivers yourself.
For those on Linux, you already know itāll be easier for you 
just gotta clone edl and pip install ./edl (or install it with your package manager if your distro has it - like the arch bros) and then just run run.sh as root.
The only possible possibility seems to be that the bootloader doesnāt ever actually verify the cryptographic signature even though it says itās locked which is extremely weird and isnāt in line with what seems to be a focus by sonim to make it hard to tamper with the deviceā¦
Anyway glad itās rooted. Bad part is Iām not using this phone for a nice while already and I doubt Iāll make too much goodies for it. Especially since my xp3 is ×”××£ ×××× but if anyone has ideas, maybe Iāll still make some stuffs for it
Iām using a Win11 computer in an attempt to root my XP3800. I am able to successfully boot to EDL mode. I have installed the QC driver and my device is recognized correctly in device manager. I have installed QPST to satisfy full dependencies for QFIL. I have also tried the standalone QFIL.
The guide by @anonymousfliphones is not working for me - stuck on step 1.
Step 1: Accessing EDL Mode and Backing Up Your Boot Partition
Power off your phone completely.
Press and hold both the Power and Volume Down buttons simultaneously.
While holding the buttons, connect your phone to your computer via the USB cable. Your phone should boot into Emergency Download (EDL) mode, which will be detected by QFIL.
Open the QFIL tool on your computer.
Navigate to the Tools menu and select Partition Manager.
In the Partition Manager window, locate and right-click on the boot partition.
When clicking on āPartition Managerā a window does not appear with the option to right click on the boot partition. Instead the program complains that I donāt have the programmer firehose loaded. Loading the path to the firehose and clicking on partition manager again still does not bring up a window that shows the boot partition but instead starts a process of ādownloading?ā from or communicating with the phone. Every time this process starts it fails with an error either about not finding the firehose file or that Sahara fails.
Iāve been trying for two days. Iāve also tried with the bkerler edl method from github but his python script fails to run on my PC.
I have considered just trying to patch a downloaded boot.img and flashing but my concern is that if I donāt extract the boot image from my phone then I will loose information unique to my phone such as mac address and end up with a clone or non-functional wifi, etc.
Can anyone help me with this?
In the zip I uploaded above, the stock boot is there in case you botch up.
The boot position has nothing unique to your device. Itās the same on every device and you wonāt lose any identifiers. Those stuff live in the other positions.
The zip includes the patched stock too (plus the magisk app used to do it - 24.0)
Install that magisk app and then adb reboot edl and continue from there.
I never used qfil so I canāt tell you how to use it. But if you can figure out how to successfully flash boot.img after loading in the firehose you should be good
Thanks! Iām able to use both windows and linux. How did you flash if not with QFIL? Did you use the bkerler edl from github?
Yes and no 
I used edl from GitHub but I did it on my Android device by connecting the xp38 with a c to c wireā¦ I had to modify some of the code to have it work on Android.
If you have Linux, edl should work perfectly. Is it making issues on Linux?
@anonymousfliphones do you remember the steps you took with qfil? (If yes, if you update your guide it would be a help)