Related
It seems that there are a lot of ROMs out there that are doing some funky stuff from the edify scripting in CWM and providing a poor user experience. This overall hurts the entire custom NookColor community and puts a bad taste in peoples mouths.
This post is to point out best practices when creating CWM flashable zips in a consistant way allowing the user to upgrade and migrate between roms in a predictable way.
Rule #1: Don't touch /data!
There are many reasons why you don't want to touch /data but the most important is to allow the user to be able to upgrade your rom without completely wiping your data.
If you want to bundle in an applications (first of all... don't but if you reaally think it is necessary) put it in /system/app as a system app.
Rule #2: Don't overwrite /boot/uRecRam and /boot/uRecImg!
ROM and CWM should be separate. Users should be able to use your rom with CWM or even the stock recovery if they wish to. Allow the user to choose what version of CWM they want to run and allow them to upgrade it independently of your rom.
This allows you to not re-release roms every time a new version of CWM is released.
Exceptions to the rule are update zip that are intended to install CWM (which is ok) or zips that will restore the entire system to stock.
Rule #3 Learn edify
Edify scripting is quite powerful. It saddens me to open up the updater-script of a rom and see it extracting a script and then executing the script.
Don't store your roms as .tars and require a script to extract them to the right locations, you should be doing this all from edify scripts.
Rule #4: Only touch /system and /boot/uImage and /boot/uRamdisk
All other files should be off-limit! This goes back to rule #1 and rule #2. A rom should consits of a kernel, a ramdisk to boot the system and /system files for running the rom!
Rule #5: NEVER EVER EVER modify partitions or wipe the EMMC completely!
I cannot stress this one enough. Use stock partition scheme for your rom. It may seem like a "waste" to you but this is what will make all our roms compatible with each other!
Also the Nookcolor stores NVRAM type information on /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 and factory restore information and a backup of p2 on /dev/block/mmcblk0p3.
If you wipe these directories in your update.zip you WILL BRICK THE USERS NC! It may work for you but they can never return to stock. Their serial number and mac addresses will be lost!
Just don't even think about doing anything with the partition map or these partitions!
Rule #6: When in doubt look at the CM update.zips
A good example of the rules above is portrayed in the CyanogenMod nightly roms for the NC. Look at the updater-script in META-INF/com/google/android and see how things are done.
If we all agree to follow these rules the NC users will get a better and more consistent experience and you will have more users for your rom.
For the users I will list the ROM that are compatible with the list above and list ROMs that don't follow these rules.
ROMs that follow proper packaging
These rom have been built properly according to the rules in the OP. I highly recommend testing any of these out.
Cyanogenmod Nightlies
phiremod nook V5.2
Nookie Froyo 0.6.8
(Utility Update.zip) Nook Color SDcard and emmc swap
ROMs that DON'T follow proper packaging
Use these roms at your own risk!
Flashable eMMC dual boot ROMs
Dual booting roms violates changing the the parition table! If you want to dual boot I would use a bootable SD. If you get a class 6 or higher SD card the performance difference should be pretty low. The perceived speed boost i believe is negligible.
Avoid this rom if you are new to Android or the NookColor. I would call this rom an "Advanced user" rom and not for new members of the community who are unfamiliar with Android, Linux, or the NookColor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HC v4 eMMC 2nd ed. - Flashable ZIP
This rom packaging is the poster child for how to do it wrong. They overwrite your /data for app customization. It uses an external script and tar files for extraction and overwrites all of /boot!
AVOID THIS ROM PACKAGE!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This looks very wise and in accord with general programming principles.
In the same area of discussion, can you talk about whether or not to clear cache while doing this same update process.
In fact, some explanation of /cache and Dalvik Cache and Market Cache might help to alleviate confusion, especially in regards to specifically what they are, and when one should clear them.
Sure, a "cache" is a piece of data that is frequently used, and so put in a more accessible place, but in typical confusing fashion, that general term is being used in a specific way in Android.
Thanks !
Nice. Good guidelines.
It would, in a perfect world, be nice if a standard CWM recovery would give a choice to either write to SD or EMMC. Then we would not have many of these more involved boot file and CW file edits and changes that are making things more complicated.
If everyone used CW to right to EMMC, this would be easy. But users like myself are running ROMs from SD and are always looking for a way to easily update and flash mods or ubdate ROMs to SD. Yes I use ADB, and other methods, but often I am traveling and away from my office or studio were my PC's are.
Any ideas on CWM to keep things more unified as the op suggests and be able to write to bootable SD cards?
Thanks for starting the discussion.
12
Good explanation/write-up, nemith. Not being a dev, but a user, it helps me to better understand which ROMs to use on my NC. I really liked HC EMMC, but did not realize that it would make it so I could never return back to stock (losing my S/N and such).
Also concur with ADude about cache....a good explanation would be helpful here. I only clear the cache/Dalvik when installing a new kernel. Not sure if even necessary? And, I clear AFTER installing, not before, so not sure if I am even doing that in the correct order. Setting the record straight would go a long way for us non-devs.
Sorry, one more thing, it would be great to have a consistently updated bootable SD card with latest/greatest of CWR on it. I am still on 3.0.0.6 and I am not sure why??
Thanks!
~ Razir
Could have used this a few months ago.
Thank you.
Nemith, your thread is directed at devs. If you want to make sure people don't flash my HC v4 2nd edition, you might want to invite users to read this as well.
nemith said:
ROMs that DON'T follow proper packaging
Use these roms at your own risk!
Flashable eMMC dual boot ROMs
Dual booting roms violates changing the the parition table! If you want to dual boot I would use a bootable SD. If you get a class 6 or higher SD card the performance difference should be pretty low. The perceived speed boost i believe is negligible.
I would avoid dual booting roms if you can!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have this installed..... I am going to run the dual boot removal zip when I get home.
Am I screwed? Anthing I need to worry about?
12paq said:
Nice. Good guidelines.
It would, in a perfect world, be nice if a standard CWM recovery would give a choice to either write to SD or EMMC. Then we would not have many of these more involved boot file and CW file edits and changes that are making things more complicated.
12
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've thought of this. CWM would require a major rewrite to do this and the changes would never be sucked in.
Maybe one of these day's I will may my own CWM Kang that can do this, or better yet a desktop application that takes a update.zip and splits out a SD image!
cromanorn said:
I have this installed..... I am going to run the dual boot removal zip when I get home.
Am I screwed? Anthing I need to worry about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you are just in the "I am smart enough to use these roms without posting big "help me" posts on XDA.
These roms are not really harmful, but they should be avoided by people who don't understand the nook and how it works.
If you understand Android and how the NC is laid out then there should be minimal risk to using these roms. I just want to spell it out for people who are new to the NC or Android that these are "advanced" roms.
nemith said:
No you are just in the "I am smart enough to use these roms without posting big "help me" posts on XDA.
These roms are not really harmful, but they should be avoided by people who don't understand the nook and how it works.
If you understand Android and how the NC is laid out then there should be minimal risk to using these roms. I just want to spell it out for people who are new to the NC or Android that these are "advanced" roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANKS!!! I had the NC for about 4 days now and would hate to have messed it up in the long run. I have a Droid Incredible that has been flashed more times than I can remember. It would be nice if the warnings were incorporated into the OP of these roms. I read the entire thread before flashing and I may not have flashed if this warning was there. I like having the option of going back to Stock without repercussions.
edit: Just saw the update you put in your OP about advanced users. I don't consider myself advanced but I am not a beginner either.
nemith said:
I've thought of this. CWM would require a major rewrite to do this and the changes would never be sucked in.
Maybe one of these day's I will may my own CWM Kang that can do this, or better yet a desktop application that takes a update.zip and splits out a SD image!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. That would be very nice.
The Nook having SD boot priority really makes it versatile for testing, and quite recoverable. It also satisfies a unique situation where many users have a family device with Nook magazines and children's books not available on the Nook app, so many like myself are booting experiments and daily runners from SD and keeping the wife happy. LOL.
cromanorn said:
edit: Just saw the update you put in your OP about advanced users. I don't consider myself advanced but I am not a beginner either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you go digging at nookdevs.com and on your own NC you should be able to figure out what is safe and what is not.
nemith said:
Rule #6: When in doubt look at the CM update.zips
A good example of the rules above is portrayed in the CyanogenMod nightly roms for the NC. Look at the updater-script in META-INF/com/google/android and see how things are done.
If we all agree to follow these rules the NC users will get a better and more consistent experience and you will have more users for your rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the ironic thing is CM Roms don't fully follow Rule #3 since they have multiple scripts that run inside their packages during rom installation.
I'm not sure you are correct in saying that if you flash one of the HC emmc roms you can not revert back to stock. I know for a fact I have done both the dual boot, and HC emmc roms and reverted back to stock multiple times after doing so
I'm not saying you are wrong but I don't think i did anything to "advanced" to get back.
Quoted:
(I have this installed..... I am going to run the dual boot removal zip when I get home.
Am I screwed? Anthing I need to worry about?)
I had it installed and got back to stock no problem... i'm not sure what he is talking about.... i could be wrong though...
It was dualbooted CM7 and HC
went back to stock, registered with BN and all was well.
nooted it and then install HC on emmc
reverted back to stock to set up the ubuntu on NC
got bored of that and am back on HC on emmc
I went back to stock after both as well. Has anyone not been able to after using one of those two roms? I work at b&n and I had to spend time with the stock since they wanted me on the nook counter. I've been back and forth between all the roms more times then I can count.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
To the OP again i'm not trying to be rude, but could you respond to the last few commenter on this thread, it seems like my self a few others are having an experience that is quite different from what you described in your first post.
Could you help me understand why it hasn't been that difficult to get back from the roms that you specifically said can make it very hard to go back to stock from for us?
I'm currently on HM on emmc and if i did something fancy to get back the last time i restores i'd like to know if i need to do it again.
(edit) I bring this back up only because I saw this thread referenced again recently, which means it is having an effect on peoples work so i'm just trying to understand it.
[Edit] It was the SD card's fault. It seemingly worked fine in the laptop and it mounted fine in CW Recovery, but as soon as I used a different SD card I could flash zips again.
So, now I'm playing with phiremod v6 and loving the Nook again.
I believe I just bricked my Nook through use of the dual boot script.
I can only boot from SD into CW but not a single zip can be applied to the internal storage. Not even the "reverse dual boot" zip will run. They all error out.
I believe this is due to unexpected partitioning.
I even formatted boot, system and cache and still it will not restore any Roms.
So now I'm hoping to access the Nook through USB and repartition the internal storage manually. But before I do that, I need to learn about ADB and what the correct settings are.
jlt220 said:
To the OP again i'm not trying to be rude, but could you respond to the last few commenter on this thread, it seems like my self a few others are having an experience that is quite different from what you described in your first post.
Could you help me understand why it hasn't been that difficult to get back from the roms that you specifically said can make it very hard to go back to stock from for us?
I'm currently on HM on emmc and if i did something fancy to get back the last time i restores i'd like to know if i need to do it again.
(edit) I bring this back up only because I saw this thread referenced again recently, which means it is having an effect on peoples work so i'm just trying to understand it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think Nemith was saying that the existing dual boot installer is going to prevent you from returning to stock. He singled it out as a "ROM" that modifies the partition table, which can be a dangerous thing to do. There is information stored in the /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 and /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 partitions that is specific to each device and required by the B&N software. This information can't be rebuilt easily if lost.
The dual boot install and removal tools (in their current versions) appear to leave these partitions in tact. They are modifying the partition table though, so they're not recommended for novice users. You were able to install and uninstall it with no problems, so you're clearly not one .
The other point is that future versions of the dual boot (doubtful since it has a good dev) or other similar style "ROMs" may not be so careful with your 0p2 and 0p3 partitions.
I'm sure there is an article or thread somewhere that outlines things like what is stored to the 2gb miniSD, what goes on the 16gb, if there is a built in memory chip and what is on that.
If anybody can point to one, I would be very appreciative.
I'd also like a link to a definitive explanation of what happens during the different types of recoveries. What is the difference between using zip files and pkg files, for example. How come some zip updates only make small changes but others can completely rewrite the phone and brick it?
What does it take to do the equivalent of formatting your computer and starting completely over with a fresh phone? I mean cleaning everything out.
What is it about this phone that a full nandroid backup will successfully bring back the phone one day and fail miserably the next?
I want to really understand this phone, because I am not going back to a smaller screen so it looks like I'm stuck with it for a while because there just doesn't appear to be a mad rush of manufacturers releasing 5 inch phones.
mid_life_crisis said:
I'm sure there is an article or thread somewhere that outlines things like what is stored to the 2gb miniSD, what goes on the 16gb, if there is a built in memory chip and what is on that.
If anybody can point to one, I would be very appreciative.
I'd also like a link to a definitive explanation of what happens during the different types of recoveries. What is the difference between using zip files and pkg files, for example. How come some zip updates only make small changes but others can completely rewrite the phone and brick it?
What does it take to do the equivalent of formatting your computer and starting completely over with a fresh phone? I mean cleaning everything out.
What is it about this phone that a full nandroid backup will successfully bring back the phone one day and fail miserably the next?
I want to really understand this phone, because I am not going back to a smaller screen so it looks like I'm stuck with it for a while because there just doesn't appear to be a mad rush of manufacturers releasing 5 inch phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are many out there, too many to list as a matter of fact... if you just use the Search function you will find all your answers. I hate to sound rude but this is just the type of thing the search is meant for. There are several guides that outline all you want to know, but I point them out to you, you won't be any the wiser by just clicking on them. The jargon you have to go through to get to the meat of your questions will teach you everything you need to know along the way.
I've tried searching. The problem is choosing words that get usable results without also getting a ton of useless ones to wade through.
mid_life_crisis said:
I'm sure there is an article or thread somewhere that outlines things like what is stored to the 2gb miniSD, what goes on the 16gb, if there is a built in memory chip and what is on that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no single article where you can get all of this info. Best general resource is the XDA Wiki on the Streak.
For more info on the workings of the inner SD Card see this thread at MoDaCo.
mid_life_crisis said:
I'd also like a link to a definitive explanation of what happens during the different types of recoveries. What is the difference between using zip files and pkg files, for example. How come some zip updates only make small changes but others can completely rewrite the phone and brick it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The stock recovery will install .pkg files (update.pkg or OTA upgrades). These are a full replacement for the software on your phone. When installing as an update.pkg file it is best to use the recovery for the version you are installing.
When installing an OTA update the recovery that preceded the one you are installing should work if your are 'upgrading' to a ROM from the same region, the checks that are done during an OTA update will prevent a phone from one region using an OTA update from another region. The advantage to using the OTA update process is that you retain your apps and settings. OTA updates are done by downloading the file to your phone and then tapping the DL notification in the notification bar.
A custom recovery (use StreakMod recovery) will write .zip files. These files can be a theme like a new notification bar or a ROM like StreakDroid or SimpleStreak. Custom recoveries are able to write a subset of the phones software. Most custom ROMS are not a full replacement for the the phones software, which is why they may include directions to flash a certain baseband or other additional files.
mid_life_crisis said:
What does it take to do the equivalent of formatting your computer and starting completely over with a fresh phone? I mean cleaning everything out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Installing a stock rom with a stock recovery from recovery mode will do this. Since a stock ROM is the whole software package this will also make sure that the baseband and amss.nbn files are all in sync (same version). Doing this or a factory reset formats the internal SD Card.
mid_life_crisis said:
What is it about this phone that a full nandroid backup will successfully bring back the phone one day and fail miserably the next?
I want to really understand this phone, because I am not going back to a smaller screen so it looks like I'm stuck with it for a while because there just doesn't appear to be a mad rush of manufacturers releasing 5 inch phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never had a nandroid backup fail. I use StreakMod recovery.
If you check out the links in my signature you may find more answers.
Posts like that last make me really pissed off that I can only click "Thanks" once per post.
Modding your Streak - where to start expands on my answer posted here.
can som one tell me how i can dual boot my photon4g
lucky.79 said:
can som one tell me how i can dual boot my photon4g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't, yet.
This uses a method called 2ndinit myself and peetr_ have been looking into using this option.
mof9336 said:
This uses a method called 2ndinit myself and peetr_ have been looking into using this option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so we can have one androidOS in the internal storage and another android OS in the external storage?? that's really really cool! Would photon 4g be the first phone to have more than 1 OS installed?
rituel said:
so we can have one androidOS in the internal storage and another android OS in the external storage?? that's really really cool! Would photon 4g be the first phone to have more than 1 OS installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check my post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1652411
I have used suggestions from Atrix thread and they worked fine. I have tried two or three times and each time I got some issues. I was copying stock 2.3.4 ROM onto SD card. One time USB ports were not working - no charging, no connection to computer with the cable. Next time there was problem with Play Market. I have tried different steps to reset its settings to no avail. It was giving error related to storage unavailability while downloading anything. I have removed Play Market completely, then somehow install it back, but the issue was not resolved. Now I think maybe it's a permissions issue.
Also device was really slow while running OS on sd-card (I have 32GB Transcend Class 10). It's fun to try but I don't see any practical use for it.
bloodhound_ said:
Check my post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1652411
I have used suggestions from Atrix thread and they worked fine. I have tried two or three times and each time I got some issues. I was copying stock 2.3.4 ROM onto SD card. One time USB ports were not working - no charging, no connection to computer with the cable. Next time there was problem with Play Market. I have tried different steps to reset its settings to no avail. It was giving error related to storage unavailability while downloading anything. I have removed Play Market completely, then somehow install it back, but the issue was not resolved. Now I think maybe it's a permissions issue.
Also device was really slow while running OS on sd-card (I have 32GB Transcend Class 10). It's fun to try but I don't see any practical use for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey can you write a detailed guide with instructions on how you got dual boot working on photon 4g please !? I cant afford to make mistakes and bork my phone >.>
And like you said as long as i can charge my phone and connect to my computer with one of the operating system its not a problem. But having dual boot will be really helpfull means I can check out more than one Rom simultaneously.
rituel said:
hey can you write a detailed guide with instructions on how you got dual boot working on photon 4g please !? I cant afford to make mistakes and bork my phone >.>
And like you said as long as i can charge my phone and connect to my computer with one of the operating system its not a problem. But having dual boot will be really helpfull means I can check out more than one Rom simultaneously.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The instructions I followed from Atrix page are very detailed. Link is here
It takes time to have a thread where most of the common questions answered. I think it is useless effort to start similar topic here, in addition - I don't have necessary time, knowledge and wish for this.
Anyway, if you do something wrong - you should always have full backup - then you risk nothing. Remember that if you got soft-bricked and recovery doesn't work, you can always use RSD lite to load stock 198_7 ROM, unlock, write new recovery and restore from initial backup.
The only difference between Atrix and Photon, (relative to this task) that you should keep in mind is the partition sizes. Partition table by LAKSHMAN in Play Market (or any other partition tool) can show you your partition sizes. I didn't guess to use these tools when I followed the instructions. Add up some 10 GB to each partition, just in case. When you partition your SD card, you should create partitions of the following size:
system - 420 MiB (stock ROM system partition size 408 MiB)
cache - 645 MiB (my current cache size on stock ROM is 610 MiB)
data - 2.6 MiB
I would also recommend to use script manager to launch scripts that will replace boot image from one to another. In other words, it will control where you will boot next time.
Note that Windows 7 is going mad about SD card with several partitions - sometimes you can see a single ntfs partition, sometimes it shows the ext3 partition, offering to reformat it.
bloodhound_ said:
The instructions I followed from Atrix page are very detailed. Link is here
It takes time to have a thread where most of the common questions answered. I think it is useless effort to start similar topic here, in addition - I don't have necessary time, knowledge and wish for this.
Anyway, if you do something wrong - you should always have full backup - then you risk nothing. Remember that if you got soft-bricked and recovery doesn't work, you can always use RSD lite to load stock 198_7 ROM, unlock, write new recovery and restore from initial backup.
The only difference between Atrix and Photon, (relative to this task) that you should keep in mind is the partition sizes. Partition table by LAKSHMAN in Play Market (or any other partition tool) can show you your partition sizes. I didn't guess to use these tools when I followed the instructions. Add up some 10 GB to each partition, just in case. When you partition your SD card, you should create partitions of the following size:
system - 420 GB (stock ROM system partition size 408 GB)
cache - 645 GB (my current cache size on stock ROM is 610 GB)
data - 2.6 GB
I would also recommend to use script manager to launch scripts that will replace boot image from one to another. In other words, it will control where you will boot next time.
Note that Windows 7 is going mad about SD card with several partitions - sometimes you can see a single ntfs partition, sometimes it shows the ext3 partition, offering to reformat it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@PosterBoy : is this GB really?????? Man give some space to breathe..... lol
amitranjan said:
@PosterBoy : is this GB really?????? Man give some space to breathe..... lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no im sure he miss typed he meant MB like he says in his post in the other thread. ok thanks man ill play around with it a bit so you're sure the phone wont be hard bricked right? I'm a very careful person I'm pretty confident I wont make mistakes all i want to know is everything every instruction given there is detailed enough and that nothing is omitted from it(meaning i dont have to do anything different except the partition sizes you mentioned here)
rituel said:
no im sure he miss typed he meant MB like he says in his post in the other thread. ok thanks man ill play around with it a bit so you're sure the phone wont be hard bricked right? I'm a very careful person I'm pretty confident I wont make mistakes all i want to know is everything every instruction given there is detailed enough and that nothing is omitted from it(meaning i dont have to do anything different except the partition sizes you mentioned here)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, everything else from that topic applies. Be careful when you use dd. If you specify wrong drive names you might be in trouble (this will require loading sbf with RSD lite to fix partitions, I guess).
The longest part is to extract boot.img, edit the configuration file there and pack the whole thing back to andorid .img format. It requires you to install Android SDK with some tools that might not work straight away.
I am a noob and I am not a developer or even really great at programming or PC's in general.
I've managed to mess up my phone and have been looking all over the web for how to fix it and I am at a loss.
I decided to register and ask for help. Please be patient and understanding if I ask a lot of questions or don't understand things you accept as basic, understood or common. I looked through existing threads for help and couldn't find the answer I needed. Many thanks in advance for the help. Readers digest of the issue below.
Samsung Galaxy S 4G. T-Mobile. T959V5B5-Custom.
I tried the non-mandatory firmware update from T-mobile and it wrecked the functionality of my phone. I tried to go back with a couple new Rom versions and think I more or less ended up with three roms installed on my internal storage which has given me basically no space which was never an issue for me before. I have used a disk viewer to verify there is unmounted data that is taking up space but I can't figure out how to get to it through the phone or my pc to delete it. I assume if I do this that the empty space will be absorbed and fix the internal storage issue.
Again, thank you for taking the time to read and respond. I love my phone and just want it working right again.
JBMFT said:
I am a noob and I am not a developer or even really great at programming or PC's in general.
I've managed to mess up my phone and have been looking all over the web for how to fix it and I am at a loss.
I decided to register and ask for help. Please be patient and understanding if I ask a lot of questions or don't understand things you accept as basic, understood or common. I looked through existing threads for help and couldn't find the answer I needed. Many thanks in advance for the help. Readers digest of the issue below.
Samsung Galaxy S 4G. T-Mobile. T959V5B5-Custom.
I tried the non-mandatory firmware update from T-mobile and it wrecked the functionality of my phone. I tried to go back with a couple new Rom versions and think I more or less ended up with three roms installed on my internal storage which has given me basically no space which was never an issue for me before. I have used a disk viewer to verify there is unmounted data that is taking up space but I can't figure out how to get to it through the phone or my pc to delete it. I assume if I do this that the empty space will be absorbed and fix the internal storage issue.
Again, thank you for taking the time to read and respond. I love my phone and just want it working right again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The course of action I would recommend at this point is using a tool called Odin to re-flash the stock ROM to your phone. I would recommend taking a look at this guide for the step-by-step procedure on how to do this. Let me know if you still have questions .
shimp208 said:
The course of action I would recommend at this point is using a tool called Odin to re-flash the stock ROM to your phone. I would recommend taking a look at this guide for the step-by-step procedure on how to do this. Let me know if you still have questions .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey! Big thanks for the reply. Here come the questions...
I used Odin to put the other OS versions on the phone so I am familiar with the software though its been several months. I also still have the ROM that I flashed to phone. I am curious though that if it didn't wipe the previous partitions last time, what would keep it from doing the same thing this time and really messing me up? Or did I click or not click something in Odin or use the wrong option and doing it differently this time would fix the problem?
I located the files on the phone and have verified they are not mounted and looked at their size using DiskInfo. They are located at "/dev/block". Do you know what this is or why they are there? I can delete them using ES File Explorer with SuperUser. Is it ok to delete these and would I get the benefit of increased storage by doing so? I played around with moving them to the SD card and didn't see an increase in my internal storage but was afraid that a reboot after doing to might be bad.
Can you tell I am a little gun shy?
Here are the names of the files, the set starting with t starts at 0 and goes to 12 and the other 1 to 12.
tsfr0-tfsr12
bml1-bml12
Thanks again!
JBMFT said:
Hey! Big thanks for the reply. Here come the questions...
I used Odin to put the other OS versions on the phone so I am familiar with the software though its been several months. I also still have the ROM that I flashed to phone. I am curious though that if it didn't wipe the previous partitions last time, what would keep it from doing the same thing this time and really messing me up? Or did I click or not click something in Odin or use the wrong option and doing it differently this time would fix the problem?
I located the files on the phone and have verified they are not mounted and looked at their size using DiskInfo. They are located at "/dev/block". Do you know what this is or why they are there? I can delete them using ES File Explorer with SuperUser. Is it ok to delete these and would I get the benefit of increased storage by doing so? I played around with moving them to the SD card and didn't see an increase in my internal storage but was afraid that a reboot after doing to might be bad.
Can you tell I am a little gun shy?
Here are the names of the files, the set starting with t starts at 0 and goes to 12 and the other 1 to 12.
tsfr0-tfsr12
bml1-bml12
Thanks again!
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Click to collapse
Using Odin to re-flash the stock ROM will automatically setup the right configuration for. Do Not delete the files in /dev/block these are critical to the phones operation and part of the phones normal partitioning and operation as previously stated deleting these will cause a lot of problems if you delete them. If you really want to free up some internal storage space I would recommend deleting the carrier pre-installed bloatware, before you delete any bloatware makesure to backup the apps you deleted with Titanium Backup or a similar backup or flash Clockworkmod Recovery or Team Win Recovery Project and make a Nandroid Backup which is a complete backup of your phone. And don't worry about being gun shy we are all beginners at some point the only real way to become an expert if practice, practice, practice .
So I am working on the Heimdall One-Click.
Handshaking with loke, got no response. FML.
Help.
Edited: Apparently a low battery is not your friend...
after a little reading around on the net I tried a different one and BAM.
Back to stock. We'll see how this goes.
Being rooted with superuser had me spoiled...so much bloatware.
So I got given a lenovo tab the other day, i'm completely new to tablets and android software but it didn't take me long to fill up the native storage and this is where the program loophole began.
I had a few micro 32gb sdcards sitting around, so I did a speed check on them and put in the fastest one in the lenovo tab, after installing a good few programs which states they move programs to sdcards, which they do to a degree but nothing was better than the already built in move app to sdcard. I then found out about that to be able to take advantage of the sdcard fully, you need a rooted device.
This is where I found kingroot, which I then installed and started to use, after finishing up installing the standard health programs (antivirus, malware scanners etc), which flagged kinguser. After doing a bit of research about this program, I decided that I didn't feel safe using it, so I was looking around for alternatives.
I then found out, the program didn't like to be uninstalled so I started to use supersume pro, which did a good job removing kingroot but it didn't install super su as stated.
I am now in the process off trying to install twrp (which is proving to be more difficult than any other stage of this process), so i can then install super su, so i can use folder mount (this turned out to be the best program of them all imo), which in turn will allow me to use my sdcard.
This is where I am stuck, I have installed the drivers to pc, installed minimal adb and fastboot, also I have installed android studio. I have been able to use fastboot from the pc to send commands too the tablet but the bit that's confusing me is, how to tell the fastboot tablet to pull the twrp file from the sdcard ?
Or is there a vast simpler way of doing what I am trying to do, in the safest possible way.
tldr: What is the 'safest' way to root my tab for a newbie so i can use the sdcard fully at my discretion without being sent into a program loophole. Apologies for any bad grammar, it was never my strong point.
Nevermind, I managed to do it after 5 painstakingly days with hardly any sleep to rectify this issue, although I nearly bricked it in the process by installing the wrong twrp file but thankfully with all the info on this website, I have managed to undo all the problems and re root successfully and 'safely' using twrp and supersu zip as guided in another topic on this forum. So thanks to all developers and users, my tablet is now spyware and adware free for the most part.
ComatosedUser said:
Nevermind, I managed to do it after 5 painstakingly days with hardly any sleep to rectify this issue, although I nearly bricked it in the process by installing the wrong twrp file but thankfully with all the info on this website, I have managed to undo all the problems and re root successfully and 'safely' using twrp and supersu zip as guided in another topic on this forum. So thanks to all developers and users, my tablet is now spyware and adware free for the most part.
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Can you provide a few more details? I'm trying to do the same thing here but didn't manage yet... Also didn't find any rooted roms yet. Help highly appreciated
.acy said:
Can you provide a few more details? I'm trying to do the same thing here but didn't manage yet... Also didn't find any rooted roms yet. Help highly appreciated
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Click to collapse
Hello... I do not know of your experience with android devices... But it probably will not help looking for "rooted roms"
Try googling "tb3-710f custom rom" or "tb3-710f stock rom" or "tb3-710f firmware".
If you are successful in finding firmware/rom then look for a guide to root. I myself have some experience, I will also see if I can assist you with more information through pm' s.
---------- Post added at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:09 PM ----------
.acy said:
Can you provide a few more details? I'm trying to do the same thing here but didn't manage yet... Also didn't find any rooted roms yet. Help highly appreciated
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Click to collapse
Actually... take a look at https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/tb3-710i-tb3-710f-rom-stock-rom-lenovo-t3437810. @PhatBmt009 seems to have a collection of everything you might need to root in regards to your device. I did not go through the whole thread though to see if the process is explained.
Please take a look by yourself and hit PhatBmt009's thanks button if you find the information helpful.
Good luck!!! :good:
r&xp said:
Hello... I do not know of your experience with android devices... But it probably will not help looking for "rooted roms"
Try googling "tb3-710f custom rom" or "tb3-710f stock rom" or "tb3-710f firmware".
If you are successful in finding firmware/rom then look for a guide to root. I myself have some experience, I will also see if I can assist you with more information through pm' s.
---------- Post added at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:09 PM ----------
Actually... take a look at https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/tb3-710i-tb3-710f-rom-stock-rom-lenovo-t3437810. @PhatBmt009 seems to have a collection of everything you might need to root in regards to your device. I did not go through the whole thread though to see if the process is explained.
Please take a look by yourself and hit PhatBmt009's thanks button if you find the information helpful.
Good luck!!! :good:
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Click to collapse
That is great advice, once you know for a fact you have the original firmware for you're device and learn how to use adb or fastboot, then you can start to play around a bit with some of the software. I probably went through about 50 websites absorbing as much info as I can and the rest comes with trial and error with a big fear off bricking the device and the only thing you can do to really brick it, is by corrupting the data to a point of not turning on, which is why I was learning on a cheap tab like the tb3, which is a great tab for the price.
In the end for me it was just a case off installing twrp, theres 3 variants here https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=80021 so massive props to Tzul, which then allowed me install supersu zip to root the device, how safe supersu is, I have no idea yet but so far its way safer than kinguser or one click root from what I have read.
Well now I am stuck and need professional advice, Last night, I don't remember what I was trying to do but in twrp I selected wipe davlik cache and wipe data (without knowing what it fully does, like a true noob mistake), this process took so long I fell asleep. I woke up this morning and the device was hanging on the boot screen. I did manage to take the battery out and reboot back into twrp mode which is enabling me to go back into the twrp menu and also fastboot if needed. So what can I do from here to reboot back into normal or do i need to flash the firmware ?. I don't mind losing all my data and starting from scratch but would be better if i didn't need to do that ofc, so any advice or help would be most welcome lol.
ComatosedUser said:
Well now I am stuck and need professional advice, Last night, I don't remember what I was trying to do but in twrp I selected wipe davlik cache and wipe data (without knowing what it fully does, like a true noob mistake), this process took so long I fell asleep. I woke up this morning and the device was hanging on the boot screen. I did manage to take the battery out and reboot back into twrp mode which is enabling me to go back into the twrp menu and also fastboot if needed. So what can I do from here to reboot back into normal or do i need to flash the firmware ?. I don't mind losing all my data and starting from scratch but would be better if i didn't need to do that ofc, so any advice or help would be most welcome lol.
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Click to collapse
Ooops... Anyway...
Did you at any point allow TWRP to make modifications to the system?? I found that when I did that on my device it totally destroyed partition structures and went into infinite boot loops.
Also while i was trying to fix any issues (pretty much like you right now though TWRP) I noticed that when I tried to flash either supersu or twrp again or something else, I was getting a ton of red system messages not being able to mount partitions.
If that is your case, unfortunately, you might need to re-flash...
You might want to also check here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/lenovo-tab-3-8-tb3-850f-unbrick-root-t3598727
After applying these steps, both superuser and TWRP have had no issues with anything!!! (fingers crossed, until today that is... )
Keep us informed, especially if you find a way to actually overcome this without flashing stock and doing everything from the beginning.
Good luck for now! :good:
Thanks I wish I saw you're thread before, it would have saved me a lot of time early on but, oh boy what a day I have had with this device today, I am not sure what I did to fix it but i basically did the same steps again to wipe the cache and clear the data within twrp then rebooted. What I didn't realize was in the process of disconnecting the battery, the case snapped off part of the sdcard (so to all noobs like me, MAKE SURE TO TAKE SDCARD OUT BEFORE TAKING CASE OFF) which in turn caused a short somewhere, the device started to get really warm and twrp was showing the cpu getting to 53c, I quickly dc the battery again and pulled the sdcard, I went and got a replacement card
After a succesful reboot, the device booted up as normal so a big phew there, now a lot of the apps/games that was previously installed and linked to the sdcard are having some difficulty re downloading and installing with a few errors, some have been succesful but now i'm wondering if a full wipe will be in order here ? as the internal storage is still showing only 1gb free but I also want to keep twrp and supersu.
The original thought process was using the least amount of internal storage as possible since I have a hi speed 64gb sdcard and some games apps was still taking up a lot off the 8gb internal space, as some didn't like a full link via apps2sd with the internal data but with the ones that was succesfull didn't have any noticable slow load times. I would like to keep the dalvik cache of all programs on the internal storage if this helps with speed ? or does that not matter.
ComatosedUser said:
The original thought process was using the least amount of internal storage as possible since I have a hi speed 64gb sdcard and some games apps was still taking up a lot off the 8gb internal space, as some didn't like a full link via apps2sd with the internal data but with the ones that was succesfull didn't have any noticable slow load times. I would like to keep the dalvik cache of all programs on the internal storage if this helps with speed ? or does that not matter.
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Click to collapse
Congrads on reviving the device!:good::good:
Out of the 8 Gigs, how much space does the whole system occupy? Did you try to remove bloatware? Did you use any similar app to root uninstaller to get rid of unwanted/ unused apps?
To my limited understanding it would require some extended knowledge in programming to re-assign partitions (ie cache) or making other than default partitions actually become the default partitions for any purpose.
Anyway... I can understand how 8Gigs internal storage can be limited... You can try:
1. Since you have custom recovery installed, 1st and most essential step is to make full backup of EVERYTHING! Just enter TWRP hit backup and choose EVERYTHING in the options of what to backup. This will most probably not destroy the communication between external SD and system (in regards to installed apps) the next time you might need a recovery (as long as you will not make changes to the SD card in the meanwhile).
Make the backup file to an external SD. I personally use a 16GB micro SD only for backing up purposes!!!
2. After you have everything in backup, install a program similar to root essentials or root uninstaller and try to get rid of anything you do not use. This might give the system some space to "breathe"...
Let me know. I got rid of a whole bunch of stuff out of my tb3-850f tablet and the system now 'rocks' (not to mention the extended battery life...)
You can even uninstall default apps like any default system picture viewer (that consumes space in your system) and install QuickPic from the/and to the SD card. Same with video player. Uninstall system video player and install something in the likes of MX Player from/and to the ext. SD. You can make a whole bunch of tweaks and uninstalling depending on your needs. I have even uninstalled most of Lenovo related apps.
Let me know how it goes. For some reason I think you are quite experienced and perhaps you knew all these already!?! Anyhow, let me know if I can be of more help.
This whole website has been a great help and helped me learn the process again, I do have extensive knowledge in hardware and overclocking, I'm just not so good with code, html is best i can do lol. Back in the day (almost 20 years), I dabbled a bit in unbricking (bricking) and flashing old phones, the process is fairly similar, it's just a few more programs but getting the right programs and the 'right firmware' is key here.
That's a good idea to get another sd card to save backups on and root essentials sounds like a worthy program to download. As with partition sizes and what data is stored where, is still a learning process for me atm, theres so much clutter aka bloatware, i'm not sure which is safe to uninstall, I will do a thread search to see.
I may start a new thread for this as this topic is solved now but I am also looking to get a rom or app so I can start to fine tweak the power and cpu/gpu usage but so far nothing I have noticed for the tb3 ***
If any mods come across this thread can turn it to solved, pls thanks I can't edit the header.
ComatosedUser said:
Well now I am stuck and need professional advice, Last night, I don't remember what I was trying to do but in twrp I selected wipe davlik cache and wipe data (without knowing what it fully does, like a true noob mistake), this process took so long I fell asleep. I woke up this morning and the device was hanging on the boot screen. I did manage to take the battery out and reboot back into twrp mode which is enabling me to go back into the twrp menu and also fastboot if needed. So what can I do from here to reboot back into normal or do i need to flash the firmware ?. I don't mind losing all my data and starting from scratch but would be better if i didn't need to do that ofc, so any advice or help would be most welcome lol.
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Just factory reset because u never wipe Calvin cache remember that