This lists the most dangerous common procedures to the least, in decending order.
They may be inaccurate, as I write this just to advocate how dangerous the first few are
0. PULLING OUT CABLES
- INSTANT BRICK WHEN DEVICES ARE DISCONNECTED WHILE FLASHING STUFF. DO NOT TOUCH DEVICE WHEN FLASHING.
1. KDZ Update.
- Super dangerous. Many people complain how they bricked their device. Data flows in real time from com to device, so a disconnection results in incomplete data. The only reason anyone should use KDZ is back in the old days when 2.2.1+ was known as unrootable, therefore it was (sort of) under warranty (as device is not rooted). However, now that Gingerbreak is here, don't use KDZ update unless you need to.
2. ROM Manager and Clockworkmod
- (no offence, with all the love in the world) Heard that this causes some problems.. such as device stuck in fastboot etc.. Use Amonra if you don't know what Clockworkmod offers. Fix is here
3. Flashing new ROM's
- Depends. the CM7 rom (yay) and the Gingerbread rom needs different procedures compared to the other roms, and if it isn't followed properly, results in a brick (usually fixable, but annoying). Ask if you get a brick, it is most likely fixable.
4. Flashing AmonRa recovery
- Tedious, but doable. May cause some frustration if there isn't any memory left on device (like my case lol). Reboot device before flashing.
5. Rooting
- Walk-in-the-park. Almost no risk. As always, don't pull out cables and crap.
I'd like to add:
Accidentally/unknowingly deleting stuff like the only launcher installed on a rooted phone.
Does clockworkmod uses fastboot and amonra doesn't?
Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
No,fastboot isn't a CWM problem,is a ROMManager prob.
How to exit fastboot:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=13813493
Related
I made a super stupid mistake yesterday. When I was getting all of the downloads together in preparation for flashing, I didn't notice that a link I'd followed lead me to the International forum, and now I've got a hard brick. I'm not quite sure why that's the case and I want to understand it more.
I've had a GTablet since day one so I'm familiar with the flashing process along with adb, but my experience yesterday has obviously lead me to want to be more cautious.
When I flashed the ROM from CWM it indicated that it was successful (and I'm sure from its point of view it was) but obviously the two phones have very different internals. I was under the impression that the ROM flash doesn't touch the bootloader, but obviously it did something that the phone didn't like. My best guess is that it screwed up the partition table for the emmc, but I'm concerned that that could irrevocably brick the phone. Does anyone have a technical explanation for what happened?
Second, while it was in CWM I may have had a chance of recovering, but once I rebooted it, it was over. No recovery, no download mode, no USB activity, just a brick. How can I be sure a future ROM flash is actually successful and the phone will still be able to boot properly? Is there a way of verifying other than rebooting and crossing your fingers? I don't really want to brick another one.
Yeah... MAKE SURE THE ROM IS FOR YOUR DEVICE BEFORE YOU FLASH IT!
Hi everyone,
It seems I messed up my Prime and I think I know why it happened. I'll first ask my question and then detail what I think happened at the end. I've been reading around the forums for the past few days and I think I'm experiencing brick number 3 as detailed in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1514088 I followed the link provided under option 3 which links to a thread about an Transformer Prime IRC channel: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1367016 I logged in into the IRC channel and someone greeted me by asking for the binaries...frankly, I've no idea what to do in that channel.
I was on the stock Asus Jellybean Rom. I used the Asus Unlock tool and installed TWRP via fastboot as explained in their website (installed the JB.blob). Everything worked fine. I then committed a mistake. I was going to perform a data wipe before installing the new ROM (latest CM nightly) but in retrospect I think that I only performed a factory reset. It was my first time using TWRP and when I got into the wipe menu I selected wipe but I recall that the button for wiping read "slide to perform factory reset". I thought that I was wiping the data on my device but I think that I got confused and only performed a factory reset. I didn't realize that at the time and proceeded to flash the new ROM. When I restarted the device it got stuck in the Asus/Nvida splash screen.
I'm able to go into the recovery menu. I've wiped data properly many times after this and flashed CM many times but the device won't get past that splash screen. I tried flashing the ROM via ADB but whenever I enter the command the terminal shows me a list of the actions that can be performed via ADB and nothing else happens.
I've tried looking around for a solution but I've been unable to find one. Should I install/flash a stock blob rom? The links above say it may do more harm than good and no longer advice users to do that but I haven't found any other alternative. There are many threads pertaining this issue but each case is slightly different and I haven't found one that applies to my situation.
I'm mad at myself because I've had flashed so many custom roms on other devices before and had never had any problems whatsoever that I got careless when flashing the Prime. I know this is completely my fault and I don't want to waste anyone's time on this. I just would like for someone to tell me exactly what to read or where to look so that I can try and fix this situation.
just in case...I just remembered that I didn't root before flashing...could that have been the problem?
I was checking out, once again, the options in TWRP and I did wipe the device correctly. I didn't mess up as I once thought. I can't understand why this happened.
Nearly the same problem for me, case n°3 and don't know what to do. I know have a very expensive black mirror...
FIXED
YES! I was able to fix it BUT I'd be careful before trying what I did. Basically, I did what forum members had advised not to do; I flashed the Asus stock rom via fastboot. As I said before I had read plenty about the various issues with the Transformer Prime. I noticed that some people were flashing the stock rom when confronted with my situation and exhorted others to do the same since they had luck with the procedure. After that, it seems plenty of people bricked their devices by following the same procedure. This caused various senior members in XDA to no longer advise others to try to fix their tablet with that method since it was causing more harm than good (see: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1514088)
Sadly, I had no other choice but to try that method. We were advised to go to the #Asus-Transformer IRC channel but, understandingly, there aren't many people participating in that channel (it's very old!. I was able to get assistance from a very helpful (as always) android geek but we couldn't get anything to work since I was having problems with ADB recognizing my device.
So, knowing full well the possible consequences of flashing a stock asus rom I decided to go for it. After all, the worst thing that could happen was to end with a hard bricked device and the soft brick I was experiencing wasn't as different as that (i.e. I couldn't use the device anyway). So I decided to play russian roulette and see what happened. Luckily the rom installed fine and I was able to boot past the, dreadful Asus/nvidia splashscreen! I was super lucky! Even though I'm back to the stock rom I'm happy because I can use my device once again! I really wanted to try out Cyanogen on my tablet but I will have to pass on that...I will never install a custom ROM again on my Prime
So, if anyone is feeling adventurous and has lost all hope then why not play russian roulette and check out what happens when you install the asus stock rom? I downloaded the asus image from here http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Eee+Pad+Transformer+Prime+TF201&os=32 and followed the instructions here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1680570 (just step three and four at the end since I already had a custom recovery installed). I had to unzip the download twice (it has a zip inside a zip) and copied the blob file into my fastboot directory (in the PC). I then renamed it to "update.blob" and flashed it.
Don't try it unless you are fully aware of the consequences!
Hi,
First, thanks to the few humble people who extended their assistance to fix this issue. If anyone arrogantly answers this thread, I'll hide your profile so I don't have to look at that trash. Some of y' have personal issues. This is why I didn't bother to post anything in the forum, and thankfully found elsewhere assistance. Please put your life in balance and find happiness.
--
This i9100 was a test phone, modified before other phones are modified from stock, or are further modified. So, since there was success with an LG-P990 earlier, the phone was selected to install Rom Manager app from the android Google Play Store. The app should be deleted from there. It damaged the existing CWM Recovery by asking to update CWM as soon as I ran the app. There are no red flags on the App store to not use it on an i9100; an incredibly-common phone, which makes the lack of any warnings whatsoever, more irresponsible. Although 'you have been warned' appears in several threads after-the-fact, those are not helpful.
Second, anyone getting to this level of modifying the phone, should have at least one nandroid backup. Every rooting guide seems to responsibly have guidance to do a nandroid backup, directly after rooting. And then a second one after the custom ROM is installed and all the apps and customizations are finished. In this case, it was with CM 10.1.3 Stable, and Dorimanx kernel 9.43. If there is no nandroid backup, it's an ordinary flash afterwards, and the phone will have to be set-up manually as if a new rom was flashed.
.. After rebooting from the 'Rom Manager' 'Update of CWM', the phone could boot normally, however, booting into recovery, it looked disabled. No option to restore or backup, etc. Just a simple menu and it looked... unhappy. All methods of fixing recovery failed.
Various methods were tried including flavours of ODIN. Flash recovery command from within Android Terminal also failed with (-1) error. Whatever that means... CWM-KitKatCompatible-i9100.tar and philz_touch_6.19.3-i9100.tar.md5 were some of the files used.
Finally, from IRC someone recommended extracting the recovery.img file from philz_touch_6.19.3-i9100.zip, copying recovery.img to the phone, and, opening an Android Terminal on the phone, running 'su' to get it into root mode, and issuing the following command:
dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p5
.. Quote: "from the guy who heads TWRP's recovery development, i9100 command would be"
and it worked. Only for the i9100; the /dev/block/... location I guess would be different on different models of phones. Someone else can comment.
And this did provide Philz Touch Recovery, fixing the recovery screen boot problem. However the phone would not boot normally anymore, either.
The nandroid backup was restored, and it was a success.
If you'd done even the tiniest bit of research (which was suggested to you months ago, and which you ignored), you would have found out Rom Manager on the S2 is a no-go (this isn't exactly a secret, and I'm understating this; it's actually common knowledge), and you would have avoided this entirely.
So you want a pat on the back for firstly ignoring good advice, secondly stuffing it up, and thirdly then having to go through a bunch of unnecessary crap to fix your phone eh ?
Guess what ? Given your idiocy a couple of months back, nobody gives a ****.
^^^^^^^^^
Thats your profile hidden then T
Don't use rom manager on any Sammy device.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Hey folks, just a minor problem on my device and hoping someone would help. I have the i9100t and installed the i9100t Israel jb rom. Installed speedmod kernal no issues but when I reboot the device it keeps coming up with a yellow triangle every time it starts up so I download triangle away but says "could not locate magic loader" not supported or something. Is there another program or something to get rid of this triangle cause it's kinda annoying, cheers.
It's really not safe to mess with the bootloader. You'll see this triangle during boot only, and for your own safety, don't touch this. (If any given app breaks your bootloader, you CANNOT recover this device. Download mode won't work. Here's a big, red warning in the first post about this.)
Dragoon Aethis said:
It's really not safe to mess with the bootloader. You'll see this triangle during boot only, and for your own safety, don't touch this. (If any given app breaks your bootloader, you CANNOT recover this device. Download mode won't work. Here's a big, red warning in the first post about this.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay thanks for the precaution. But I didn't mess with the bootloader, I just flashed speedrom kernel then the triangle appeared. I can live with it cause I only see it when the phone boots up but would be nice if I could get rid of it. Triangle away doesn't work cause I use the i9100t rom so was just wondering if there was an alternative.
The I9100T rom shouldn't be a reason for TA not working, there's nothing special in the rom that would prevent it from working; apart from very slight difference in power output of radio, the I9100 & I9100T are exactly the same phone, and the only difference firmware-wise (slight) is the modems (I had a I9100T on Voda for 2 yrs).
Have you asked in the TA thread on here ? (Search for it). Also, a few other ways you might be able to attack this, and bear in mind there is risk of turning your phone into a paperweight involved here (And frankly, for the sake of a warning triangle at boot, why risk it ? I mean, who honestly sits there staring at their phone as it boots ?):-
*You should be able to find the 'old' bootloader if you search for it, if you flash it, you'll be able to reset the flash counter & get rid of the triangle with a jig. However, this may render your current rom unbootable (bootloop), which you'd need to fix by flashing the 'new' bootloader (again, easily found by searching) and flashing a bootloader is the most risky flash you can do.
Not so much because the actual flashing of the bootloader is risky as such, there's no more risk so far as the flash itself is concerned. It's just that if the flash goes bad (which is a very small risk with every single flash), you won't be recovering it. It's not like flashing a wrong kernel that ends up in a bootloop which you fix by flashing the right kernel or a stock rom & you live happily ever after.
It will be a service centre or bin job.
*Maybe try flashing the 3 part stock rom linked to in Hopper8's 'Odin troubleshooting' thread stickied in General (this will wipe your phone), then flash a JB a stock rom for your carrier & try TA again ? May not make any difference, but if it means that much to you...
Again, given the hassles to do this, you seriously need to ask yourself is it worth it just to get rid of something you see for two seconds when the phone boots & is purely cosmetic. And also bear in mind using TA is not without risk, though 'complications' arising from its use are rather rare, they're not completely unheard of. My take on using TA has always been (across several devices) 'Try it once, if it works smoothly first time all good, if there's any drama whatsoever, don't risk it a second time, etc'.
MistahBungle said:
The I9100T rom shouldn't be a reason for TA not working, there's nothing special in the rom that would prevent it from working; apart from very slight difference in power output of radio, the I9100 & I9100T are exactly the same phone, and the only difference firmware-wise (slight) is the modems (I had a I9100T on Voda for 2 yrs).
Have you asked in the TA thread on here ? (Search for it). Also, a few other ways you might be able to attack this, and bear in mind there is risk of turning your phone into a paperweight involved here (And frankly, for the sake of a warning triangle at boot, why risk it ? I mean, who honestly sits there staring at their phone as it boots ?):-
*You should be able to find the 'old' bootloader if you search for it, if you flash it, you'll be able to reset the flash counter & get rid of the triangle with a jig. However, this may render your current rom unbootable (bootloop), which you'd need to fix by flashing the 'new' bootloader (again, easily found by searching) and flashing a bootloader is the most risky flash you can do.
Not so much because the actual flashing of the bootloader is risky as such, there's no more risk so far as the flash itself is concerned. It's just that if the flash goes bad (which is a very small risk with every single flash), you won't be recovering it. It's not like flashing a wrong kernel that ends up in a bootloop which you fix by flashing the right kernel or a stock rom & you live happily ever after.
It will be a service centre or bin job.
*Maybe try flashing the 3 part stock rom linked to in Hopper8's 'Odin troubleshooting' thread stickied in General (this will wipe your phone), then flash a JB a stock rom for your carrier & try TA again ? May not make any difference, but if it means that much to you...
Again, given the hassles to do this, you seriously need to ask yourself is it worth it just to get rid of something you see for two seconds when the phone boots & is purely cosmetic. And also bear in mind using TA is not without risk, though 'complications' arising from its use are rather rare, they're not completely unheard of. My take on using TA has always been (across several devices) 'Try it once, if it works smoothly first time all good, if there's any drama whatsoever, don't risk it a second time, etc'.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's very odd, mine was originally either Telstra or voda so it shouldn't make a difference. It's probably the updated firmware which isn't supported as yet by triangle away. Probably isn't worth the hassle by downgrading the firmware or downgrading the bootloader, which poses a minor risk of hard bricking.It's only for a second each boot and it isn't really too bothersome.
Hi there
I have a few questions and probably just need to be pointed in some right directions. Would be great if somebody could take the time.
I'm not a developer, but I consider myself quite experienced in modding, mainly CM. In fact, I do it for some other people as well, via an add on a classifieds-website. I don't take much money, but I learn a lot. And I stumble about problems about many different devices and rules I thought existed seem to wrong, sometimes. So I got these questions:
Q1: Please tell me briefly what I can find in which partitition on my phone. "Boot" contains the kernel, right? Does "data" contain just Apps and there data, or anything that I save on the internal storage (like music, movies...)?
Q2: I always thought that a Nandroid would be a 100% insurance for my phone. But recently I read about a device and it said something like "try not to restore stock Gingerbread from recovery if you had some higher version of CM installed, because it couldn't undo some changes that had been made within those". Why is that? Shouldn't a Nandroid be able to restore anything, no matter what? How do I know WHEN it can't restore anything other than from some tutorial?
Q3: I recently read about installing CM on the Xperia Z1 (https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_honami). Here it says: "On all 2011 model Sony devices, the kernel will not update when flashed in recovery, so the kernel must be updated via fastboot every time you flash a new build of CyanogenMod". Also they never actually used the recovery to flash anything, or at least not as often as usual. And the used the (****ing unreliable) adb backup method instead of a Nandroid. In total the customRecovery seemed pretty useless! Why is that? How can the recovery not be able to do what it usually does? And what would be a "new build"? Like from CM 12.1 to CM 13?
Q4: Do you thing that modding (especially adb, fastboot) would be better from a Linux distribution, since Android is based on Linux? Cause I had some major issues with adb backup. It showed all variaties of "Not Working" so far...
Q5: The recovery system is working all by itself, right? No kernel, no nothing. (Apart from the bootloader that starts it)
I would really appreciate some help!