[Q] Is flashing an update.zip the same as installing a zip? - Atrix 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a couple questions about CWM and backups:
Is there a difference between flashing update.zip and installing a zip from the sdcard in CWM?
Also, let's say I make a change to boot.img and system.img and something goes wrong. Instead of flashing the backups of those two images from my computer to my phone using fastboot, can I just place them both in a zip file and install it from CWM? Would I need to include any other files?
How come a nandroid backup makes a system.ext4.tar and not a system.img? How do I turn that into a system.img?
How come I need unyaffs to read cache, data, and system.img files? I thought the filesystem was ext4 and not YAFFS?

Flashing an update.zip looks for a file on the root of your sd called that and flashes it. Installing a zip let's you choose.
You need to put a few more files into the zip. An update script and binary
Update to romracers recovery and you can do an advanced restore just using certain parts of a nandroid.
That recovery also makes.. Img files rather than tars
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marko! said:
Flashing an update.zip looks for a file on the root of your sd called that and flashes it. Installing a zip let's you choose.
You need to put a few more files into the zip. An update script and binary
Update to romracers recovery and you can do an advanced restore just using certain parts of a nandroid.
That recovery also makes.. Img files rather than tars
sent from my Atrix via XDA premium
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So I found some links about the update-script and I'll be reading those shortly, but after skimming them I didn't see any mention of the binary. Is the binary an executable version of the same script or something else? Any links?
So what your saying is I could just skip the update.zip stuff, extract the images from the zip, and use advanced restore to flash each image? Obviously more work but it's good to know if these two processes are equivalent.
Actually, I just made a recovery using romracer's CWM and boot and recovery are .img files while cache, data, and system are ext4.tar files. pds is .ext3.tar and .android_secure is .vfat.tar. So do you really get system files as .img files? And if so, what's wrong with my CWM? If not, the original question holds: why doesn't CWM make an image of each partition, and instead use a tar? For compression? How would I make this a flashable .img file?
And also the last question about ext4 and YAFFS is still there. Thanks.

Most of those I'm really not sure. The update binary is the same for every zip. Just grab it from a rom or theme
I would go with the cwm zips. Way easier once you get them working.
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gsingh2011 said:
Actually, I just made a recovery using romracer's CWM and boot and recovery are .img files while cache, data, and system are ext4.tar files. pds is .ext3.tar and .android_secure is .vfat.tar. So do you really get system files as .img files? And if so, what's wrong with my CWM? If not, the original question holds: why doesn't CWM make an image of each partition, and instead use a tar? For compression? How would I make this a flashable .img file?
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I was just looking at this too. My old recoveries from before atrix4.1 was released were all .img files and the post atrix4.1 backups are .ext3.tar (except for boot.img and recovery.img). I'm on a stock deodexed GB ROM, so I don't have any ext4 partitions. I think he changed this with the newest update so CWM can recognize the ext type and mount them appropriately.
This post should hopefully clarify a bit more than I can. I'm relatively new to all this so I'm still learning different aspects of modding. I'm guessing you have some ext4's because you're running one of the newer custom ROM's?

Related

Question regardibg CWM recovery mod

I have a basic question about the CWM recovery mod using fastboot. I just loaded the updated .img file with no problems. All works great! My question is do I have to delete the first .img file? Can we just keep loading updated. Img files using fastboot without ever deleting the old files? Won't it take up more space?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Everytime you flash a new img file to the phone, it overwrites the "img file" on the phone. So no, you don't need to delete the older one. Hope that explains it.

[Q] Converting a .zip ROM into .tar to flash with Odin

I was asking if there's any way to convert a .zip ROM into a .tar ROM to flash with Odin..
The reason why I'm asking this is because I'm unable to flash any ROM via CWM recovery. I can only flash ROMs via Odin. Please see this for further information to my problem.
I'm particularly fond of the MIUI ROM, but there's no Odin version of that.. and CWM doesn't work for me
Have you got usb debugging enabled on your phone?
Thaw.Bytes said:
Have you got usb debugging enabled on your phone?
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Yeah, always ._.
This is the installation instructions from adys miui rom which i usually use...not sure if you do this already but this usually works for me (wipe cache n devlik aswell)
1. Copy Zip to SDCard.k
2. Reboot to Recovery.
3. Wipe data/factory Reset.
4. Wipe /system from Mounts and Storage.
5. Install *your Rom* zip from SDCard.
6. Reboot (First boot may take time due to alot of init.d scripting)
Convert ZIP to TAR
Thaw.Bytes said:
This is the installation instructions from adys miui rom which i usually use...not sure if you do this already but this usually works for me (wipe cache n devlik aswell)
1. Copy Zip to SDCard.k
2. Reboot to Recovery.
3. Wipe data/factory Reset.
4. Wipe /system from Mounts and Storage.
5. Install *your Rom* zip from SDCard.
6. Reboot (First boot may take time due to alot of init.d scripting)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ArcConvert is a free portable tool for Windows that allows you to convert many different types of archives to known formats.
tuesmonhero said:
ArcConvert is a free portable tool for Windows that allows you to convert many different types of archives to known formats.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it, converted a kernel .zip file to.tar for Note 2 and it blue-screened Win7 during .tar installation. No damage to PC or phone, but DAYUM!
Justin Demoude said:
Tried it, converted a kernel .zip file to.tar for Note 2 and it blue-screened Win7 during .tar installation. No damage to PC or phone, but DAYUM!
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Click to collapse
I don't think direct conversion like that will ever work, just ask the related developer to generate a tar file for you, ask one of the most helpful devs like salesale(NeatRom creator) or the dev of RevoltRom.
Sent from my GT-P6200 using xda app-developers app
I want to convert .tar rom to .zip flashable file
tariq2kn said:
I want to convert .tar rom to .zip flashable file
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Why?
You'd need to write a script that specifies what files get flashed to where & create your own flashable zip. Or you could swap the files from the tar into an existing CWM flashable I guess; not sure if this will work tho, the script may be specific to those particular files & might not work with different ones (I'm not au fait with these scripts, hence not being sure). I personally wouldn't try this tho, just flash the tar in Odin already.
The last sentence says it all
MistahBungle said:
You'd need to write a script that specifies what files get flashed to where & create your own flashable zip. Or you could swap the files from the tar into an existing CWM flashable I guess; not sure if this will work tho, the script may be specific to those particular files & might not work with different ones (I'm not au fait with these scripts, hence not being sure). I personally wouldn't try this tho, just flash the tar in Odin already.
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Could you make a .zip(without rom) for xwlss .tar rom file so that I can flash through recovery without the pc odin.
tariq2kn said:
I want to convert .tar rom to .zip flashable file
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That's easy (well can cause catastrophe if handled without proper knowledge) just use android kitchen.
Edit :Seriously though must be very careful, I used it to deodex JB firmware for my tab 7 plus (it doesn't have any proper developer support so had to do it manually) and I had a plethora of minor bug's popping up, insignificant but annoying nonetheless, quite frankly must be ready to spend hours for proper tweaking and understanding framework to build a good flashable zip, I didn't have the patience nor the time.
Sent from my GT-P6200 using xda app-developers app
Could I make one for you ? Absolutely not.
I don't sit around all day doing nothing just waiting for n00bs to give me stuff to do for them. If you really want to make one, you'll work out how to do it for yourself. Or you won't *shrugs*
tariq2kn said:
Could you make a .zip(without rom) for xwlss .tar rom file so that I can flash through recovery without the pc odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how to convert rom files from .zip to odin flashable .tar.md5
I am really in need of help to save a bootlogo stuck bricked Galaxy S5 SM G900F ...i need to flash a new rom ... I need to convert ".zip" Rom to "Odin" usable ".tar.md5" ....faaaaaast...
H E L P !!! :confused :silly:
I need that piece of info as well got to convert a zip Rom to tar to flash via Odin. Not too comfortable with flashing through zip files.
I also need to convert a flashable zip file tar file
oqaab said:
I need that piece of info as well got to convert a zip Rom to tar to flash via Odin. Not too comfortable with flashing through zip files.
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Brothers. i also need a program that converts a flashable zip file into a tar file, so that it could be installed via odin.
thanks
add me to the list that need to convert the zip to tar
Donnie Sins said:
Why?
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To build his custom stock rom ?

[Q] Tool that will install roms using a pc?

Does anybody know of a tool that will install roms using a computer? I just want to be able to use a computer program to install roms without messing around with the phone.
I haven't had much luck with "adb shell recovery --update_package=/sdcard/rom.zip".
Or does anybody know of a way to convert the updater-script files in flashable zips into Windows batch files?
To convert zips into a flashable zip.. You will have to make some edit in "Meta-inf" folder
Brady_4love said:
To convert zips into a flashable zip.. You will have to make some edit in "Meta-inf" folder
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I'm not looking for flashable zips though. I want to be able to install roms without scrolling around with the volume buttons in recovery. Such as a tool that could take a flashable zip, look at the update-script and then push all the files directly to /system and the other correct partitions via adb.
Well That Would Be Great But Recovery Flashing Isn't Hard And Why Can't You Flash A ROM Using Recovery?
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[Q] Anyone have directions for creating a personal odin tar?

I have been doing a lot of restoring, it would be nice to just be able to push the flash rather than geting an os installed, installing a recovery and then recovering.
I saw something for another samsung device and it involved dd'ing files and then putting them into a tar. but i suspect the /dev/xxxxxx files would be a different name on the GT10.1?
Thanks
Rob
I've tried opening a tar file before, in it was all .img files eg. system.img, boot.img and so on. So my guess is you have to create the .img files, tar them up and flash via Odin.
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eushaun99 said:
I've tried opening a tar file before, in it was all .img files eg. system.img, boot.img and so on. So my guess is you have to create the .img files, tar them up and flash via Odin.
Sent from my GT-P7500 using XDA Premium HD app
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Right, but they are dumps of the /dev/system|recovery|... file systems from using dd to get a binary image, they are not the files like in a zip. which is why, if my reading is correct, zips actually get processed (extracted and moved) and the files in the odin.tar are binary dumps and they just get splatted back out into the file system like a Norton Gost restore. The trick is knowing which /dev/xxxx/ systems to pickup. I found a link right before leaving for work that seems to suggest if I get rooted and busybody on, I should be able to run an fdsik -l and get a list of the partitions.
I just got the stupid tablet back to stock ICS 4.04 this morning after running updates last night, so I hope to have some time play today.

Help with nandroid backup

I've nandroid backup of my stock rom. and i want to make cwm flashable zip using kitchen. What file should I copy in the working folder of kitchen?
I only copied system and boot.img file. Should i copy anything else?
These are the files
boot.img
cache.ext4
data.ext4
nandroid.md5
recovery.txt
system.ext4
uboot.img
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mrtaim3 said:
I've nandroid backup of my stock rom. and i want to make cwm flashable zip using kitchen. What file should I copy in the working folder of kitchen?
I only copied system and boot.img file. Should i copy anything else?
These are the files
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Click to collapse
The steps can vary somewhat depending on the device. I'm assuming it's some sort of a Chinese device, most likely a tablet, with the uboot file... What's wrong with just having the nandroid? It's not like you can't share that with others if you're needing to.
es0tericcha0s said:
The steps can vary somewhat depending on the device. I'm assuming it's some sort of a Chinese device, most likely a tablet, with the uboot file... What's wrong with just having the nandroid? It's not like you can't share that with others if you're needing to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not about sharing. I've just bricket my phone. But i had a nandroid backup. I restored it but nothing happened. So i made a cwm flashable zip using kitchen and included only system.ext4 file and boot.img file. and i stuck at boot loop. I think i'm doing something wrong. i just wanted to ask if uboot.img is essential for cwm flashable zip?
mrtaim3 said:
Its not about sharing. I've just bricket my phone. But i had a nandroid backup. I restored it but nothing happened. So i made a cwm flashable zip using kitchen and included only system.ext4 file and boot.img file. and i stuck at boot loop. I think i'm doing something wrong. i just wanted to ask if uboot.img is essential for cwm flashable zip?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if a nandroid didn't work, then not likely that making a flashable CWM zip with the same files would make any difference. You might just need to flash the stock firmware and start over.

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