Fancy brick anyone?? has sliding keyboard.. - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

today i deodexed my /system/app/ and /system/framework/ successfully.
used root explorer to copy and paste the framework directory in place.
before i could do the same for the app directory - multiple errors resulting in a reboot to a bootloop
i have tried for a few hours now to create a update.zip with the odexed files to return to a working environment.. what i get on the screen is.. installing update.zip.. installation aborted... no errors or anything. (this is with the stock samsung recovery)
i do have a copy of the the original odexed files and the deodexed files.
clockwork recovery isnt supported for this phone yet so i can't go that route
i can't adb push the files because i need to grant adb superuser permissions from the phone.
so basically i have a nice fancy brick with a rotating droid animation on the screen.
the phone is a Samsung Gravity Smart SGH-T589
any suggestions?
btw - the firmware hasn't been released yet for this phone or i'd attempt a fix with odin.

Last I checked you may have to go a custom route to install a custom recovery. That step is always the weirdest, and it's never been the same for any of my phones. Especially if the phone isn't going to start up the conventional way...
Here are two places with more information that I found, maybe you didn't.
http://androidforums.com/samsung-gravity-smart/395877-yay-gravity-smart-forum.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=17354030

hey thanks guy
i actually started both those threads a while back =)
i'm making progress with my update.zip
got it to install finally but still bootlooping

Related

[Q] No ROMS, in ROM Manager

Hey first time posting, prior to unlocking the bootloader on my Photon 4g I had a bunch of ROM's listed in ROM Manager. After I got it unlocked I only see four options, Font Packs for Android 4.0, Cerberus, Superuser, Google Apps, ClockworkMod. Also, I cannot back up through ROM Manager either, it results in a white triangle with a yellow exclamation point. I am currently running stock Android 2.3.4 no ROM running. It worked perfect before I unlocked my Photon, any advice?
You sure the roms you saw were for the photon? If I had to take a blind guess id go with when rom manager was initially installed the device wasn't rooted, and the app was unable to determine which device you had and was showing roms for all phones. Now that you're rooted and the app has permission and can read the device fingerprint and is able to display the proper downloads.
KSmithInNY said:
You sure the roms you saw were for the photon? If I had to take a blind guess id go with when rom manager was initially installed the device wasn't rooted, and the app was unable to determine which device you had and was showing roms for all phones. Now that you're rooted and the app has permission and can read the device fingerprint and is able to display the proper downloads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's kind of what I was thinking, my phone was rooted prior to the unlock when I was viewing the roms. But I don't know much about all this since this is my first unlock. I do know some phones do not have a list in ROM Manager. Any ideas as to the backup issue?
You need to delete a file off your phone that installs stock recovery every time it boots. You can adb or use and explorer that can modify /system like root explorer, and delete install-recovery.sh from /system/etc
Once deleted power down into fastboot and reflash CWM or do it through rom manager. Either way you need to delete that file because it's forcing you back to stock recovery.
Good luck
KSmithInNY said:
You need to delete a file off your phone that installs stock recovery every time it boots. You can adb or use and explorer that can modify /system like root explorer, and delete install-recovery.sh from /system/etc
Once deleted power down into fastboot and reflash CWM or do it through rom manager. Either way you need to delete that file because it's forcing you back to stock recovery.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would explain a lot. I'll give that a shot. Thank you!
KSmithInNY said:
You need to delete a file off your phone that installs stock recovery every time it boots. You can adb or use and explorer that can modify /system like root explorer, and delete install-recovery.sh from /system/etc
Once deleted power down into fastboot and reflash CWM or do it through rom manager. Either way you need to delete that file because it's forcing you back to stock recovery.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would explain a lot, I'll give that a shot. Thank you!

[Q] Mounting trouble, bloatware removal only.

Greetings everyone!
New *registered* user here! I've been frantically sifting through post after post on the forums all night hoping to get some help with an issue I am having on my Vibrant.
Goal:
Remove some bloatware ONLY, not looking to install any ROMs or modify the phone too much...just clean some annoying apps and icons off.
Phone Information:
Model SGH-T959
Firmware 2.2
Baseband T959UVKB5
Kernel 2.6.32.9
Build FROYO.UVKB5
I currently have the latest version of Java, Android SDK, and SuperOneClick installed.
Install directory of AndroidSDK:
C:\AndroidSDK
My method of failure:
Open SuperOneClick, Click "Root"
Start, Run, "CMD"
cd c:\AndroidSDK\tools
adb shell
mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/st19/system
This is where it fails and I run into an endless loop of it telling me the proper usage of the "mount" command. I thought I had it at one point but when I typed: rm /system/AmazonMp3.apk all it did was tell me that it was a read-only file and that it couldn't be deleted.
Can someone help lead me in the right direction of what I am doing wrong? I rooted and removed all bloatware about a year ago but I just did an upgrade through MiniKies to the latest version of firmware and I can't seem to remember the process I went through that long ago to get it done right.
I apologize for possibly asking a question that has been asked numerous times but I just couldn't seem to get the wording right to get any helpful results in the search of the forums. Thank you so much for the time in reading this and the future help if any can be provided. Have a great night!!!
It looks like you are in the wrong directory. Open a command prompt in
C:\AndroidSDK\platform-tools
Open the platform tools folder. Click on a blank space > hold down the shift key > hit right click > select open command window here. Then enter the commands:
adb devices "to check if your device is connected. also make sure usb debugging is enabled on your phone.
adb remount
adb shell
su
mount -o remount,rw -t rfs /dev/stl5 /system
rm -r /system/app/[AppName].apk
If you want a list of all your /system/apps enter this command
cd /system/app
ls *.apk
This is much easier if you download rom toolbox from the market. All you do is go to /system/app and delete whatever bloatware you dont want.
BUT BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHEN DELETING SYSTEM APPS. ONLY DELETE WHAT YOU KNOW IS BLOATWARE OTHERWISE YOU WILL GET FC'S
good luck
Would I still need to follow the steps prior to that and use SuperOneClick to root the device or do I just skip that process and go straight to the cmd prompt?
Also, I followed a tutorial I found for installing the Android SDK that informed me to copy all the files from android-tools to the tools directory and use that instead but I don't know what the use in that is except for maybe a smaller directory name?
EDIT: I tried what you said with and with using SuperOneClick prior to the procedure and the cmd prompt displayed the following text:
*opened cmd promt in C:\AndroidSDK\tools (no files in platform-tools anymore)*
adb devices (it found my device connected)
adb remount (adb remount: no such file or directory exists)
The adb shell and su commands works fine BUT I still hit the endless loop of it trying to explain to me the "usage" of the mount command.
I will look into Rom toolbox as I'm trying to figure this out as well. Thank you.
I strongly recommend you download root explorer or some similar root browser app. Of course though your phone must be rooted. Just try rom toolbox. It has its own root browser within the app along with other useful features. This is probably the easiest way to uninstall the bloatware in your case since you are having issues with adb.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Thank you!
Okay, I have the suggested "rom toolbox" downloaded from the market and I will try to use that but SuperOneClick does not root the phone deep enough for rom toolbox to see the phone as rooted so...will the "updated.zip" method work for this instead?
I haven't tried it before but I am willing to give it a go if you think it's the best method. If this is the method you recommend, would you happen to have a link to the most recent or atleast most trusted updated.zip rooting method?
CScrivener said:
Thank you!
Okay, I have the suggested "rom toolbox" downloaded from the market and I will try to use that but SuperOneClick does not root the phone deep enough for rom toolbox to see the phone as rooted so...will the "updated.zip" method work for this instead?
I haven't tried it before but I am willing to give it a go if you think it's the best method. If this is the method you recommend, would you happen to have a link to the most recent or atleast most trusted updated.zip rooting method?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try rooting your phone using this toolbox.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=954509
If that does not work for you i will try and find the link to the "one click root program" i use all the time.
Here is an excellent guide to root.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=849028
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Here is the program i use. Just remember to have usb debugging enabled on your phone. It really cant get any easier than this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=739300
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
So I downloaded the one click program you suggested and the program itself seems to bee pretty straight forward.
I connected phone to computer with debugging on. Opened program and hit one click root. It started doing it's thing...phone rebooted and went into recovery. I started to follow instructions up until I got to where it said install packages. When I clicked it, the phone said installation failed no such file our directory exists.
The phone is looking for the updated.zip file but none exists in the one click folder. There is a root.zip and an unroot.zip...do I need to rename one of them to proceed???
Thank you so much for all the help so far, I feel like I'm so close but just not there yet. You have been an incredible help!
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA
CScrivener said:
The phone is looking for the updated.zip file but none exists in the one click folder. There is a root.zip and an unroot.zip...do I need to rename one of them to proceed???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way (Stock) Recovery works is if you are not "Install from SD" then it will look for the file labeled Update.zip. So you can rename only the Root.zip to Update.zip and make sure that is the only thing on your internal SD labeled that or with .zip Put the unroot.zip in a folder for now. Then try again.
Alright, will give that a try when I get home. I thought I read that the program copied the update.zip file to the phone during it's process so I didn't want to do anything to work against that. I will rename one of the files, copy it to the phone and give the one click root another shot. Thank you!
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA
CScrivener said:
Alright, will give that a try when I get home. I thought I read that the program copied the update.zip file to the phone during it's process so I didn't want to do anything to work against that. I will rename one of the files, copy it to the phone and give the one click root another shot. Thank you!
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no need to rename anything. The program does it all for you. Play close attention to the first screen (green one) if it says update.zip copied successfully it will then reboot your phone to stock recovery. Once you are in stock recovery all you do is click reinstall packages. Keep clicking reinstall packages even if it reboots the first time. To prove my point mount your phone to your pc and check to see if the update.zip is copied onto the root of your into storage. If not well copy the update.zip from the last guide i suggested from above.
Also check to see if the superuser app is installed on your phone. The program also installs that along with the update.zip. If you have superuser then go to the market download rom manager so you could download CWM.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Alright, so I tried it again once I got home. Didn't work BUT I did see that update.zip was installed into my phone. The sig verification failed, which means I need to change recovery versions to the one that skips sig verification correct?
I'll go search the forums for that since I remember seeing that a little while ago but that is the correct path I need to take at this point in time am I right?
Thank you so much! Big big help!
You can pull the CWR from my signature. Same as before. Put it on your internal labeled update.zip, boot into recovery and and scroll down to Reinstall Packages. Hit it. It will cycle and probably come back to stock recovery. Hit Reinstall Packages again and the stock recovery will go from blue to green (CWR).
Side note, probably from there you will be able to install the Superuser update.zip. Just go to Install from SD card and find it and hit it. The reboot. Might not but the CWR instructions above shoudl work for you.
Well I changed the recovery version using the file from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=833423 and then used the OneClickRoot and was able to get the update installed (I think). The phone booted up normally, I noticed that SU Permissions was installed so I figure I am rooted correct? WRONG. Rom toolbox says I am not. Is there another way to verify? Should I reinstall Rom toolbox incase it's just bugging out on me?
So I tried using Rom Manager too. Looks as tho SU is not installed correctly, will have to try again I guess.
Cannot install CWR, tried and the recovery text stays blue even after 14 times of reinstalling packages...
This phone will be sent flying across the room sometime tonight I'm guessing. About to erase the entire thing and try starting from scratch again. (Start from Eclair and work my way up maybe)
If you are willing to start from Eclair it would be soooo much easier that all this stuff.
Odin to stock, flash CWR from my signature, go from blue to green and then flash Fishman's Bionix and you are good to go. Simple and way easier than all this mess. Just download Fish's and put it on you SD card somewhere you'll remember. Once in green recovery just scroll to that ROM and flash it per OP.
We've just been trying to Root you since on your OP you said you didn't want to flash a custom ROM.
Well...I'm still trying to avoid flashing Roms (I've upgraded through MiniKies and that's it).
I've only been trying to root just to clean bloatware off but it seems that I must be lacking the technical skills to follow instrcutions properly....nothing is cooperating and even after following all steps nothing wants to work like it should.
Grrrr! One last try to get CWR working before I lose my mind and need to take a break/walk away for a bit.
Ok, so I'm currently back to stock Eclair (ew!!) and about to boot to recovery to install CWR. Wish me luck on that one....
Wooo, CWR up and running! Now I just have to work on a flash maybe or whatever steps were suggested next...I might try the ROM you suggested.
The ROM gets placed on external sdcard and installed from within CWR correct?
Do most ROMs remove bloatware and useless apps?
Yes and are pre-Rooted. Put the ROM.zip on either card. I have a folder that I use. Boot into recovery and get green recovery back. Go to install from SD, find the ROM and flash it per the OP instructions.
Bloat free, pre-Rooted and usually has Voodoo so you can get Voodoo Sound from the market and have a sonic ear-gasm.
Just wanted to say thanks for all the help! I installed the suggested ROM last night and I am very happy with the results thus far. It was alot easier than I thought it would be. Flashing a ROM was MUCH more simpler than the root only decision. Thank you again!

[Q] MTK6573 custom recovery and backups / Stock Boot, Recovery + Scatter included

Phone is a Star X19i
Now I'm looking at getting a system to allow me to back up the rom and re-flash if needed.
Post 4 has attachments of my boot, recovery and scatter files.
Old issue: (Solved)
Stupid thing I did I renamed the mtklockscreen.odex to mtklockscreen.odex1 just as a test in a half asleep phase to see if I would get the stock lockscreen loading.
Suffice to say the phone no longer boots.
Really don't think I can get into ADB and rename the file to get the phone booting again unless anyone knows a way.
Android was 2.3.6 and I asked the seller if it was possible to get the rom incase anything like happened which they didn't.
So anyone have any ideas?
I have attached the stock recovery and boot images made with cat and a scatter file I made to post 4.
As I have no idea about modifying these for hard root can anyone take a look?
I don't know the specifics of the phone, but if you can go into recovery mode maybe you can get adb working, or use a flashable zip to rename the file by installing it from recovery (just need to edit the zips' updater script)
dxppxd said:
I don't know the specifics of the phone, but if you can go into recovery mode maybe you can get adb working, or use a flashable zip to rename the file by installing it from recovery (just need to edit the zips' updater script)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got into built in Factory mode and can see the file I renamed through ADB and android commander but cannot rename it back due to not having hard root access.
I also have a copy of the boot and recovery partitions 5 and 6 respectively I made in the adb shell yesterday as I was half looking at getting hard root access.
ren mtklockscreen.odex1 mtklockscreen.odex
ren: permission denied
I read you can do a custom recovery with root using SP Tools still so can anyone help me do this?
I know about system root etc and stuff and have flashed roms before on other tablets and have been a PC I.T tech (wouldn't think it due to the stupid mistake) but this recovery and scatter files etc is kinda new to me.
I have a scatter file now I just made if anyone is interested in helping me.
Yes I have a MTK6573 but the scatter file came from the MT6516 Rom Studio which I read works the same for the 6573.
Attached is also my stock boot and recovery partitions I made with cat yesterday if there usable to anyone to help.
Well I got it working and fixed.
I had to go into adb shell and su and mount the file system as writable, as I have used linux before I didn't know about android and what needed to be done and permission locks etc.
The stock boot, recovery and scatter files will remain on this thread if anyone wants to help create or find a recovery which can allow me to create backups and flash custom roms.
I may be able to provide a dump of android 2.3.6 for those that want it once I'm provided with a backup solution as I have read a few people wanting this updated android rom.
This got too close to what I would like liked with bricking this phone.
And I'm not comfortable unless I have a rom backup of this.
Rooting Advice: For anyone with a MTK6573 on Android 2.3.6 trying to root but having issues with super one click make sure you only turn on USB debugging after Android has loaded and just before you plug the usb cable in to run super one click.
I have seen a few thread and posters here about not being able to root the phone and this is the cause that debug needs to be switched on right before you connect and try to root.
Original seller has agreed to send the firmware and flashing stuff on cd for me so I can upload it for you all.
This is a win for MTK6573 Star X19i owners as I'll have the updated 2.3.6 Gingerbread firmware to release for you all root modify etc in a week or so.
Be careful with ROM studio. I believe it is not compatible with MT6573.
You want to read this: http://bm-smartphone-reviews.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html
cybermaus said:
Be careful with ROM studio. I believe it is not compatible with MT6573.
You want to read this: http://bm-smartphone-reviews.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I read and did to get my scatter as I used cat then used the program linked in that thread to generate the scatter.

[Q] Cube U27GT - Help with Rooting a Stock Rom and can we get a forum?

Dear Admins,
Could we get a forum setup for the Cube U27GT WiFi version? I dug around on the site a bit beforehand but didn't see one, I apologize if I missed it and please direct me there if I did.
I have this tablet and I am doing some initial basic firmware development for it and want a proper place to start putting threads.
Dear Dev Community,
I can't root this bloody thing... At least, not the rom itself. Let me explain...
I can flash the stock rom from Cube and that can be rooted using Kango Root. --Fine...
However, I can't figure out how to replicate this when I make my own rom.
Thus far, here is what I have attempted...
1. Setup dsixda's excellent kitchen on my Ubuntu workstation.
2. Unpack the rom, clean things up, manually put the boot image into the dsixda unpacked working rom folder, run dsixda's root functionality (which add SU binary to xbin and SuperSu apk file to app folder as well as do some things with the boot image file).
3. Rather than using repack with Dsixda (which makes an update.zip image which I can't use because the stock recovery environment on this device can't flash zip update files and I can't for the life of me figure out how to get and or make a working CWM or TWRP recovery image for this unit)...
4. What I do is I run commands in linux to unpack the stock rom to another directory and mount that directory, then clear out a bunch of folders and then manually copy in my files from dsixda's working folder, then repackage up my unpacked stock rom into a new system.img file.
5. Then copy my now modified boot image, system image, and also userdata image (I modify that as well as that is where most all of the chinese bloatware is loaded from) to my SP_Flash_Tool, generate new checksum.ini file and flash normally...
What I get as a result...
1. As long as I am really careful with how I copy files into my new image, the new system flashes okay (if I am not careful, after flash USB storage for some reason has a format error and the system will boot but can't mount USB storage and other odd issues ensue as a result).
2. Assuming everything flashes okay, and no issue with USB storage partition, I have SuperSU installed and when I go to use an app (ES File Explorer or Root Checker) that require's root, I do get the prompt. However none of the root functions actually work and Root Checker tells me I am not rooted.
That is as far as I have got. So as a result, I have a really nice, westernized, cleaned up rom but with no root.
Anyone have any ideas?
This is my first adventure into mod'ing MTK roms so I am sure I am doing all kinds of things wrong . I had a good bit of experience on Rockchip SoC's before this though.
Kind regards and thanks in advance!
Roman
Figured it out!
So I finally did the following rather hackish work-around...
1. Flash stock firmware...
2. Root with Kingo Root
3. Enabled ADB
4. Attach to PC and fire up MTK Droid Tools
5. Take a full backup
6. Modify the system image from the backup and make changes
7. Put that in new firmware flash package
8. Flash new firmware
YAY - Cleaned up rom, modified, with root!
Once I get it all packaged up and uploaded to mtkfirmware.com I will post a link for anyone that wants a cleaned up rom with root!
The only downfall of the above method is that it absolutely requires that the developer have a device on hand because you can't just root the stock image file (at least, I couldn't figure out how... - bleh...
Kind Regards,
Roman
Dear roman,
Thanks for your hard work.
I have a simple question (I think) and if you have the time to reply or -any other android guru- I would be thankful.
My later issue was with a U27GT cube tablet, but I have others, one for each kid, and this is more of general question.
I am reading this and other forums about how to flash tablets from PC. My question is:
Can the flashing process be done from a SD card?
Thanks a lot and regards,
Fernando
SKorea

Flashing Issues | Will not pass Android Logo on XtreStolite ROM

Flashing Issues | Will not pass Android Logo
I have have the T-Mobile version of the S5 and it is currently running XtreStolite rom on lollipop. I have been messing around with the SystemUI and framework apks. (getting them to work every now and again)
However, I was searching around and tried to push the apk files through adb at first, instead of a complete reflash with the modified apks inside, with no luck. Adb says that the files were successfully sent but are not there and no changes are made. I then stumbled across a method using a flashable zip that is supposed to just replace the files I need.
I n doing so, after reboot the phone just sits at the Android Logo on powerup, them I have to reflash or restore my recovery. My question is this: Is there a method that allows me to setup a flashable zip with the system/priv-app/systemui/systemui.apk so that it will only replace those files and not the whole system folder itself?
There may be some more information that I am leaving out, sorry I have not slept all night and I am about to go to class.
Thanks in advance, if I have posted incorrectly, please advise.
RockyCaballero said:
I have have the T-Mobile version of the S5 and it is currently running XtreStolite rom on lollipop. I have been messing around with the SystemUI and framework apks. (getting them to work every now and again)
However, I was searching around and tried to push the apk files through adb at first, instead of a complete reflash with the modified apks inside, with no luck. Adb says that the files were successfully sent but are not there and no changes are made. I then stumbled across a method using a flashable zip that is supposed to just replace the files I need.
I n doing so, after reboot the phone just sits at the Android Logo on powerup, them I have to reflash or restore my recovery. My question is this: Is there a method that allows me to setup a flashable zip with the system/priv-app/systemui/systemui.apk so that it will only replace those files and not the whole system folder itself?
There may be some more information that I am leaving out, sorry I have not slept all night and I am about to go to class.
Thanks in advance, if I have posted incorrectly, please advise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here download this https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24052804347782219
Extract and Add whatever directories/folders you want inside the system folder and flash. The script just extracts the system folder as a whole so as long as you make the correct folders, file names, directories etc it'll flash everything to the right spot.
Delete the jar file out of system/framework/ tho since it's a 5.1.1 jar file I did
Much obliged sir, worked perfectly. I'm sure it was the coding. [emoji2]

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