In need of help asap please! - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S 4

Hey there.
To preface, I'm not new to flashing, just new to Samsung and Odin. (former CrackFlasher from the original D1 and Bionic/Razr days)
I got my S4 a couple months ago, rooted it and installed TWRP immediately and it had been running great ever since. I'm still on MDK and have not taken the ME7 update.
Got the bug again and decided to give Hyperdrive RL7 a shot. Downloaded it, rebooted into TWRP, flashed it, rebooted and let it sit for a few hours last night.
Opened it up this morning, everything worked GREAT! I know how these things work - new ROM, coming from stock, so I started from a clean slate and didn't use my TiBu backup to restore, I literally went and redownloaded every single app I use direct from Google Play Store.
I have to say the ROM was perfect - fast, smooth and awesome functionality and even some customization that gives previous Razr AOKP a run!
That's where the fun ends though - I rebooted the phone and ended up on the Samsung Unlocked with an unlocked padlock, and it wouldn't budge.
So, no problem, boot into TWRP, wipe and install Hyperdrive again.
NOPE. So I read that some people were having problems with TWRP, so I decided to give the older 2.5 version a try - Odin'd it to the phone and FAIL.
So someone else had mentioned they had luck with OUDHS. Odin'd it to the phone, but it wouldn't take it, so I found a download for OUDHS that's flashable from within "recovery" and flashed it from within TWRP, fully believing that's what it was meant for. THAT was a horrible idea that resulted in a boot that shows yellow text that states that there is software that isn't Verizon verified and to take my phone into the local Verizon store.
I had a feeling about flashing a new recovery from within a recovery, but I also thought it was pretty straightforward to flash back to stock... that's not been the case so far - the VRUAMDK_No Wipe file doesn't want to do anything because it's a .tar inside a .zip, opening the .zip in WinRAR, 7Zip and even WinZip doesn't open anything... so I can't even flash to stock.
Now I have NO recovery (no TWRP), and everything I've tried to push to the phone via Odin fails - with the exception of \SCH-I545_MD2_423399_Kernel.tar.tar which is what was used to root the phone to being with, and that only gets me back to the Samsung Custom unlocked padlock screen.
PLEASE HELP!
(thanks in advance for all input)
***EDIT:
I redownloaded the VRUAMDK_No flash 2 more times and got one that opened with WinRAR (still wouldn't open with 7z or WinZip, and after pushing it with Odin 4 times, the last time it finally went through.
I know a bad download was part of the first problem with not being able to open the original zip file to extract the md5 from within, but there was NO difference whatsoever in the 4 times I kept poking it with Odin when it finally took.
I successfully booted to stock, then rooted, then flashed TWRP 2.5, then installed Hyperdrive RLS8 successfully.
For anyone that's reading this that may have the same or similar problem, first try to download the ROM again and again (and again if necessary) - until you can open it with 7z or WinRAR, you don't have a valid, good download of it.
Second, keep poking it with Odin. It was my 4th try when it finally worked. --literally no changes in between, nothing changed at all, it just worked out of random on the 4th try.
/thread
Hope that helps someone. Glad I wasn't in more of a hurry!

Psychlone said:
Hey there.
To preface, I'm not new to flashing, just new to Samsung and Odin. (former CrackFlasher from the original D1 and Bionic/Razr days)
I got my S4 a couple months ago, rooted it and installed TWRP immediately and it had been running great ever since. I'm still on MDK and have not taken the ME7 update.
Got the bug again and decided to give Hyperdrive RL7 a shot. Downloaded it, rebooted into TWRP, flashed it, rebooted and let it sit for a few hours last night.
Opened it up this morning, everything worked GREAT! I know how these things work - new ROM, coming from stock, so I started from a clean slate and didn't use my TiBu backup to restore, I literally went and redownloaded every single app I use direct from Google Play Store.
I have to say the ROM was perfect - fast, smooth and awesome functionality and even some customization that gives previous Razr AOKP a run!
That's where the fun ends though - I rebooted the phone and ended up on the Samsung Unlocked with an unlocked padlock, and it wouldn't budge.
So, no problem, boot into TWRP, wipe and install Hyperdrive again.
NOPE. So I read that some people were having problems with TWRP, so I decided to give the older 2.5 version a try - Odin'd it to the phone and FAIL.
So someone else had mentioned they had luck with OUDHS. Odin'd it to the phone, but it wouldn't take it, so I found a download for OUDHS that's flashable from within "recovery" and flashed it from within TWRP, fully believing that's what it was meant for. THAT was a horrible idea that resulted in a boot that shows yellow text that states that there is software that isn't Verizon verified and to take my phone into the local Verizon store.
I had a feeling about flashing a new recovery from within a recovery, but I also thought it was pretty straightforward to flash back to stock... that's not been the case so far - the VRUAMDK_No Wipe file doesn't want to do anything because it's a .tar inside a .zip, opening the .zip in WinRAR, 7Zip and even WinZip doesn't open anything... so I can't even flash to stock.
Now I have NO recovery (no TWRP), and everything I've tried to push to the phone via Odin fails - with the exception of \SCH-I545_MD2_423399_Kernel.tar.tar which is what was used to root the phone to being with, and that only gets me back to the Samsung Custom unlocked padlock screen.
PLEASE HELP!
(thanks in advance for all input)
***EDIT:
I redownloaded the VRUAMDK_No flash 2 more times and got one that opened with WinRAR (still wouldn't open with 7z or WinZip, and after pushing it with Odin 4 times, the last time it finally went through.
I know a bad download was part of the first problem with not being able to open the original zip file to extract the md5 from within, but there was NO difference whatsoever in the 4 times I kept poking it with Odin when it finally took.
I successfully booted to stock, then rooted, then flashed TWRP 2.5, then installed Hyperdrive RLS8 successfully.
For anyone that's reading this that may have the same or similar problem, first try to download the ROM again and again (and again if necessary) - until you can open it with 7z or WinRAR, you don't have a valid, good download of it.
Second, keep poking it with Odin. It was my 4th try when it finally worked. --literally no changes in between, nothing changed at all, it just worked out of random on the 4th try.
/thread
Hope that helps someone. Glad I wasn't in more of a hurry!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hyperdrive for me was fast and good and all, but i found it to be a tad unstable, just like you experienced. Beans and Bonestock are very stable tho.

Related

Cant flash some roms

Let me start off by saying Im far from new to the rooting and roming game. Been through several phones. Never run into this issue.
Note 2 - i605
Team Win Recovery - Up to date
Clockwork Recovery - Up to date
MJ9 Radio from Zif
I am able to install CleanROM and Sophisticated. But when I attempt to install CM11, MeanBean, or Gummy the install fails. It attempts to unzip but always ends with failed. This occurs on both recoveries. I have even tried an alternative recovery. Nothing seems to get it done. Please someone help. Like to note I checked my external SD card for errors. It passed.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
General consensus seems to be that philz recovery is currently the recovery of choice for 4.3, id say give that a try
Note2.5
This same thing happened to me. I couldn't even install backups I had. I finally gave up, ODIN'd back to stock and reran casual, everything has been fine since. Even re-installing the same exact recovery.
Jiggabitties said:
This same thing happened to me. I couldn't even install backups I had. I finally gave up, ODIN'd back to stock and reran casual, everything has been fine since. Even re-installing the same exact recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im going to give that a shot. I think it may actually be the thing that sorts this all out. Not hat Phillz is not a good option. But that's the other recovery I already tried. Thinking that maybe the Casual I did was not smooth. As it did hang a couple times and was not as smooth as I would have liked. I am going to reply back when I do it to let everyone know how it turned out. Just in case someone else has the same issues.
:good:
So I odin stocked the phone. Perform casual. Much smoother this time. But still no dice. Still able to install only some roms.
Installable:
Sophisticated
CleanROM
Unable to Install:
CM 11
MeanBean ICE
MeanBean Reborn
Gummy
:crying:
Crotty.Josh said:
So I odin stocked the phone. Perform casual. Much smoother this time. But still no dice. Still able to install only some roms.
Installable:
Sophisticated
CleanROM
Unable to Install:
CM 11
MeanBean ICE
MeanBean Reborn
Gummy
:crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmm. Somewhere there's a step that's failing you (obviously). Maybe break down your process, from download to flash, and try to pinpoint where it's going wrong. In my experience the things that have caused an install to fail have been either an incompatible or outdated recovery, bad download (check the MD5), or borked system partition (which is when I Odin'd and re-casualed).
Had issues with CM11 until I ODIN'd back to stock LJB, unlocked bootloader/rooted, updated to latest TWRP 2.6.3.1 via ODIN, wiped all partitions included cache, data, dalvik, system, internal sdcard, external sdcard then adb push CM11 plus gapps and installed. Just make sure you can adb push before wiping everything along with checking file CRC and temporarily disable antivirus.
So I the issue ended up being one of an interesting nature but not normal. When I download thw rom of choice to my phone I move it to my SD card. Making sure its out of the distruction path. As is normal practice. I am using Rom Toolbox root browser to make the move. Turns out that although it gave the impression it was moving the files, it did not always do so. So each time I copy a file from place to another I have to check that it was done in full and without flaws. Quite an interesting problem. As a move of that sort should not break files.
Crotty.Josh said:
So I the issue ended up being one of an interesting nature but not normal. When I download thw rom of choice to my phone I move it to my SD card. Making sure its out of the distruction path. As is normal practice. I am using Rom Toolbox root browser to make the move. Turns out that although it gave the impression it was moving the files, it did not always do so. So each time I copy a file from place to another I have to check that it was done in full and without flaws. Quite an interesting problem. As a move of that sort should not break files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's always something small it seems. Good practice is to download the ROM, get it to it's final destination then check the MD5. I always wait until I've moved it to the SD to check the MD5 just in case there was a bad transfer.

[Q] Rooted, but can't install custom recovery...

Ok, so I've rooted and put custom roms on numerous phones. I've been trying to put a custom recovery, twrp or cwm, whatever, on my wife's phone, but have got a wall. I know for sure, 100% that I am rooted. I tired to install twrp and cwm via their respective apps, ends up in either bootloop trying to boot into recovery (and FYI, the screen shows that a custom recovery is installed, just doesn't load into recovery and restarts). And tried both via Odin, but got the same result. Have never ran into this problem before with any of my phone's, all of the galaxy's and Galaxy Note's since the S2. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks homies!
Just to add, yes I made sure double checked, triple checked that I was installing the correct recovery for the phone model. Also, she has done all the ota updates that sprint has pushed as of last week (2/9/15).
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
Ok, so I've rooted and put custom roms on numerous phones. I've been trying to put a custom recovery, twrp or cwm, whatever, on my wife's phone, but have got a wall. I know for sure, 100% that I am rooted. I tired to install twrp and cwm via their respective apps, ends up in either bootloop trying to boot into recovery (and FYI, the screen shows that a custom recovery is installed, just doesn't load into recovery and restarts). And tried both via Odin, but got the same result. Have never ran into this problem before with any of my phone's, all of the galaxy's and Galaxy Note's since the S2. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks homies!
Just to add, yes I made sure double checked, triple checked that I was installing the correct recovery for the phone model. Also, she has done all the ota updates that sprint has pushed as of last week (2/9/15).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, from your post it looks like you have done this before. To be sure lets go through the motions one more time.
Your device is updated to 4.4.4 NK4 the latest KitKat version. It's rooted you have supersu icon and run a root checker. First download again ( in case you got a bad download ) a copy of Philz CWM version 6.48.4 here is the link https://goo.im/devs/philz_touch/CWM_Advanced_Edition/hlte/ use "phil'z_touch_6.48.6-hlte.tar.md5" . I like to use odin version v1.85 it's little older but very stable, here is a link https://mega.co.nz/#!oA5xzTAL!LXoVWB...ZlOMSWdRGVX6Uo now flash the .tar file with odin. Make sure you let device boot up on it's own back to the OS, do not pull the cable and boot the device yourself. Then try and boot into recovery.
If it bootloops again, I would backup all your data to the PC desktop, and then do a factory reset get back to bone stock ( that means when your in download mode it says Samsung Official status not custom ) so many times I have seen folks with an unrooted device where the bootloader still says custom and you end up with a dirty flash or worse. It may take a couple factory resets to get back to stock, it doesn't always take the first time. When I flash a custom rom and then decide to go back to stock, I flash the rom two or three times to make sure I'm bone stock.
If the factory reset doesn't work you may have to flash a new stock NK4 OS. Then root again and install the recovery. Here is my thread with all the info you need http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-3-sprint/general/samsung-note-3-rom-flashin-basics-t2896440 , Enjoy !!!
Thanks for taking the time to give me a detailed response. Sounds like I'm gonna have to wait till Wednesday or Thursday when im off work and have some time to do this, but yeah, I was thinking maybe just a factory reset, but I'll use your links and try it one more time first. I'll let ya know. Thanks again
Do you have another link to the older Odin (1.85).the link says the file isn't there... Thanks again
Never got to test it out, but she didn't really want a custom rom anyway, just the WiFi hotspot, and I finally found a method that works, big shout out to idone for his awesome app. If anyone else is looking for WiFi hotspot without root that sees this, check out his tread in the apps and themes, for this phone. Worked like a charm. Thanks again jimzweb1. Much appreciate the reply!
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
Never got to test it out, but she didn't really want a custom rom anyway, just the WiFi hotspot, and I finally found a method that works, big shout out to idone for his awesome app. If anyone else is looking for WiFi hotspot without root that sees this, check out his tread in the apps and themes, for this phone. Worked like a charm. Thanks again jimzweb1. Much appreciate the reply!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, Ya idone is the man when it comes to enabling the mobile hotspot be careful what you click with app. I will correct that link. Thanks
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
Ok, so I've rooted and put custom roms on numerous phones. I've been trying to put a custom recovery, twrp or cwm, whatever, on my wife's phone, but have got a wall. I know for sure, 100% that I am rooted. I tired to install twrp and cwm via their respective apps, ends up in either bootloop trying to boot into recovery (and FYI, the screen shows that a custom recovery is installed, just doesn't load into recovery and restarts). And tried both via Odin, but got the same result. Have never ran into this problem before with any of my phone's, all of the galaxy's and Galaxy Note's since the S2. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks homies!
Just to add, yes I made sure double checked, triple checked that I was installing the correct recovery for the phone model. Also, she has done all the ota updates that sprint has pushed as of last week (2/9/15).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the problem Knox security is getting harder flash engineering boot loader again then try rashr in app store to flash philz

Stuck at Sprint Screen; have details on what I did.

Hi, Followed all the amazing walk through like normal. Not sure what 4.x.x.x I was on, never really check to be honest.
First time this phone has been rooted. (I rooted because I was having problems with the phone, last phone I rooted and was able to fix the problems).
1. Used the download file and instructions by qking...
2. Same with TWRP
3. It rebooted, somehow it screwed up MicroSD card, would no longer read it. Then it rebooted again..
4. Stuck on Sprint screen for last couple hours.
I tried to get back into TWRP and do a factory clean and reset, when it rebooted it, sat at the Sprint Screen for hour or so. Then I searched and a few other people just had to use odin and redo it again and worked fine.
So I did odin again relfashed the file and at reboot it is stuck on Yellow Sprint screen..
That is where im stuck at now is Sprint Screen, thanks in advance!
Swaintan said:
Hi, Followed all the amazing walk through like normal. Not sure what 4.x.x.x I was on, never really check to be honest.
First time this phone has been rooted. (I rooted because I was having problems with the phone, last phone I rooted and was able to fix the problems).
1. Used the download file and instructions by qking...
2. Same with TWRP
3. It rebooted, somehow it screwed up MicroSD card, would no longer read it. Then it rebooted again..
4. Stuck on Sprint screen for last couple hours.
I tried to get back into TWRP and do a factory clean and reset, when it rebooted it, sat at the Sprint Screen for hour or so. Then I searched and a few other people just had to use odin and redo it again and worked fine.
So I did odin again relfashed the file and at reboot it is stuck on Yellow Sprint screen..
That is where im stuck at now is Sprint Screen, thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK first pull battery, now reinsert bat and hold the power, home, and volume down buttons at the same time, then press the volume up button to get into download mode. Don't bother trying to get back to TWRP your past that. While in download mode check the status of the device. Is it Official or custom? Let me know the status.
Now lets flash a fresh stock OS with Odin, to save me a lot of typing go here. http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-3-sprint/general/samsung-note-3-rom-flashin-basics-t2896440
Download the version of odin you want both work fine. Download the version of the KK OS you want to flash, I like NK4. You can follow the steps on my thread listed above to flash an OS with one EXCEPTION!!!
EVEN IF THE DEVICE BOOTS UP AFTER YOU FLASH THE OS THE FIRST TIME, ONCE YOU GET PAST THE SET UP FOR FIRST TIME USE WHICH ( STARTS ABOUT 3-5 MIN AFTER THE SAMSUNG LOGO SCREEN BY THE WAY BE PATIENT ) POWER DOWN THE DEVICE GET BACK INTO DOWNLOAD MODE AND ODIN FLASH THE OS AGAIN !!!
This should get you back to bone stock OS. Once it boots up and get passed first time use set up. Now your ready to root, the way I root is first grab a copy of SuperSU ( latest version is fine its on my thread ) with your PC copy and paste it on the SD card. Next power down completely and boot into download mode, Odin flash a custom recovery TWRP is a good one. The device should boot up after the recovery is flashed on its own, don't try boot up the device yourself to soon, give the recovery a chance to flash completely. Now completely power down the device, hold the power, home, and volume up buttons and boot into recovery. Then flash the SuperSu zip then reboot device you should be off and running . . . .
Here is the first part, im working on the rest now.
Current Binary: Custom
System Status: Custom
Swaintan said:
Here is the first part, im working on the rest now.
Current Binary: Custom
System Status: Custom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok cool, remember that everything has to fit. Meaning depending on what OS you run i.e. KitKat, Lollipop etc everything should updated to match.
Example : If you run KK NC5 OS then Philz CWM recovery 6.9.12 and later works. TWRP 2.8.3.0 or later works.
If you run Lollipop OC5 then Philz CWM recovery 6.48.4 works. ( link is broken I have a copy if you need it ) TWRP 2.8.6.0 or later works.
As for SuperSU you could go all the way back to v 1.94 and still root the binarys will update automatically. The latest (stable ) version is 2.46 from chainfire.
TY Ill keep you updated, file is taking a long time to download, still sitting at 1 hr to finish up download. Once its downloaded ill continue with the rest of the steps and post updates.
Not been very happy with sprint lately, latest update to my Wifes note 2 screwed her phone way up, only way to fix it was root it. So as soon as I saw mine doing the same thing I hurried to root it, but looks like it was to late. Hopefully this fixes it all, I really do appreciate it.
Swaintan said:
Hi, Followed all the amazing walk through like normal. Not sure what 4.x.x.x I was on, never really check to be honest.
First time this phone has been rooted. (I rooted because I was having problems with the phone, last phone I rooted and was able to fix the problems).
1. Used the download file and instructions by qking...
2. Same with TWRP
3. It rebooted, somehow it screwed up MicroSD card, would no longer read it. Then it rebooted again..
4. Stuck on Sprint screen for last couple hours.
I tried to get back into TWRP and do a factory clean and reset, when it rebooted it, sat at the Sprint Screen for hour or so. Then I searched and a few other people just had to use odin and redo it again and worked fine.
So I did odin again relfashed the file and at reboot it is stuck on Yellow Sprint screen..
That is where im stuck at now is Sprint Screen, thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot to say why you flash twice, when the device is corrupted or bootloops. 9 times out of 10 its because something was left behind from the previous OS or something didn't flash in from the new OS. Flashing twice I found through ( trial and error pulling my hair out ) solves this problem.
When I get done with a flashaholic binge and need to get back to a daily user, I always flash back to Stock OS twice, install recovery, and root. Then install a custom OS if want run one this way you always start clean. This way if something doesn't work or stops working you right where to start looking for the problem.
---------- Post added at 07:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:55 AM ----------
Swaintan said:
TY Ill keep you updated, file is taking a long time to download, still sitting at 1 hr to finish up download. Once its downloaded ill continue with the rest of the steps and post updates.
Not been very happy with sprint lately, latest update to my Wifes note 2 screwed her phone way up, only way to fix it was root it. So as soon as I saw mine doing the same thing I hurried to root it, but looks like it was to late. Hopefully this fixes it all, I really do appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya I agree rooting stops the updates. Usually I read up on the update first to see what problems it may be causing. Then decide to unroot and take it, I still run my 4.4.4 NK4 deoexed no knox debloated OS just not a fan of Lollipop to many problems with it, besides there's no themes for it.
You are awesome! Followed your directions and links inside your siggy. So this is where I sit;
I installed (from your siggy)
-SPRINT KK 4.4.4 N900PVPUDNK4
Stock rom : DEODEXED, NO KNOX, and DEBLOATED ( #2 )
Busybox / Zipaligned
Rooted / Superuser
No Knox ( Disabled / Removed )
Volume Mod / 300+ Fonts ( Thanks DevilDog512 )
Custom Kernel ****
-SU 2.46 (it auto updated when I installed)
-TWRP Manager 8.0.1.8
-Recovery TWRP 2.8.7.0
Now I have to start redoing apps etc.. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Edit: Add: Now should be safe to install Wicked Green Theme and get all family n friends to send contact info... that part will be harder then what you had me do, TY again!
Swaintan said:
You are awesome! Followed your directions and links inside your siggy. So this is where I sit;
I installed (from your siggy)
-SPRINT KK 4.4.4 N900PVPUDNK4
Stock rom : DEODEXED, NO KNOX, and DEBLOATED ( #2 )
Busybox / Zipaligned
Rooted / Superuser
No Knox ( Disabled / Removed )
Volume Mod / 300+ Fonts ( Thanks DevilDog512 )
Custom Kernel ****
-SU 2.46 (it auto updated when I installed)
-TWRP Manager 8.0.1.8
-Recovery TWRP 2.8.7.0
Now I have to start redoing apps etc.. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Edit: Add: Now should be safe to install Wicked Green Theme and get all family n friends to send contact info... that part will be harder then what you had me do, TY again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, what stock version KK OS did you flash twice before installed my deodexed 4.4.4 NK4 ?
Not sure, i know i followed each one, so it took me to a site where I had to download it specifically for my phone. My dl history says file name was N900PVPUDNK4_SPR it was the bone stock md5, did that one twice.
Swaintan said:
Not sure, i know i followed each one, so it took me to a site where I had to download it specifically for my phone. My dl history says file name was N900PVPUDNK4_SPR it was the bone stock md5, did that one twice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, that will work fine.

Installed bootloader without rooting, now phone won't boot, can get into recovery

Here's what I did with a new T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S5:
- Started phone in download mode (started it with Volume Down, Home, and Power buttons) and connected it to computer.
- Started Odin3v185, saw yellow COM box.
- Clicked PDA button and selected philz_touch_6.26.2-klte.tar.md5 file.
- Clicked Start button, flashing went fine, phone reset and everything was cool, still with stock ROM. I was able to boot into Philz recovery to verify that flashing worked.
- As part of my goal of installing XtreStoLite ROM 2.2 (Lollipop), the following steps were to install the modem and bootloader for that ROM.
- Started phone in download mode and connected it to computer.
- Started Odin3.09, saw blue COM box.
- Clicked BL button, and selected G900T-LP-UVU1DOB1-BOOTLOADER.tar.md5.
- Clicked CP button, and selected G900T-LP-UVU1DOB1-MODEM.tar.md5.
- Clicked Start to flash. Phone reset, but it froze at the Samsung logo.
I gave it about a half hour just to make sure it wasn't just taking it's time with this first boot after the update, but it stayed at the Samsung logo. Only way to turn it off was to remove the battery. I'm still able to boot into Philz, so I figured a way to fix it might be to just go ahead and install the ROM. So I selected the "install from zip" option and installed XtreStoLite_ROM_v2.2_LP_XXU1BOD3.zip. Now the startup logo is a bit different, but it still stays frozen at the logo. I know from previous times installing this ROM that it does usually take awhile (maybe 5 minutes) on the first boot after installing, but I let it sit again for about 30 minutes with no luck.
The only thing I can see that I did differently this time, which I know realize was dumb, was skipping the step after flashing Philz where I boot into it and install UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.37.zip to root the device. I thought that I'd be able to install the bootloader, modem, and ROM and end up with a rooted OS, but I'm guessing that rooting is separate from those things, and they can't succeed until the phone has been rooted.
So... what can I do now? I'm trying to install the stock ROM (G900T_TMB_G900TUVU1CNK2_G900TTMB1CNK2_original.zip), but Philz gives me a "installation aborted" error before it even starts, with no other error messages. I also suspect I should install the original kitkat bootloader+modem, but I'm not sure where to find those (searching yields a lot of different results).
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
The bootloop must be related to the bootloader/modem you've flashed. SU will allow root access once booted, but it won't prevent the system from booting if you skip it. Are you simply trying to root? FWIW, I'd recommend skipping Lollipop altogether, Marshmallow is night and day better than Lollipop. Flash the complete factory image of one of the Marshmallow releases, then flash your recovery and install SU. There are a couple of good, debloated Marshmallow roms available.
I was able to get out of the situation by flashing a stock ROM from here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/tmo.../compilation-s5-g900t-stock-firmware-t3042400
I first flashed the stock modem and bootloader, though I'm not sure that was required because I think they're included in the ROM itself.
Used the latest 4.4.2 ROM and NK2 bootloader+modem, just because I'm pretty sure it was 4.4.2 that was on the phone when I got it.
Retried my procedure, this time rooting + disabling KNOX before flashing the Lollipop bootloader+modem from the ROM's install instructions, but I still ran into the same "freeze at boot" problem. I don't know what could be the issue, as I've done this exact procedure with two previous S5s. Not really looking to check out Marshmallow ROMs, just because I'm short on time these days, and after trying out a handful over the years, the XtreStoLite is by far the best for me.... really the perfect combo of stock Android with some of the improvements offered by TouchWiz, with all the tweaks to fix annoying "features" that I want fixed (for example, the removal of that damn "are you sure you want to increase the volume? It could damage your hearing" warning when you connect headphones and try to turn up the volume). Also, just stable and fast, compared to most/all the others I've tried.
Sounds to me as if you need stock Marshmallow with a custom recovery and Exposed. Mine is fast as hell, extremely frugal on battery, and Exposed has got rid of all the annoying TW "features", like the volume warning you mention (also, expanded notifications on lockscreen, battery full notification gone, circle battery, etc, etc). There are also alternatives to stock that are good, I tried one a couple of weeks ago that I think I'm probably going to go back to. Lollipop is horrible after using KitKat, Marshmallow brings back the KitKat experience but with dramatically improved battery life. You'll also get some Stagefright improvements.
Sorry for the delayed response, been too busy to deal with this for a couple weeks. How exactly do I get a stock Marshmallow with custom recovery and Exposed? Don't I already have the custom recovery covered with Philz? What Marshmallow ROM would you recommend? Thanks for the feedback!
Just download & Odin the latest complete image, GPI1, then Odin recovery (since Philz doesn't work, try TWRP, it works for me), then flash SU & Exposed. Takes about 15 minutes, although the download may take longer. Not sure if anyone has posted the link, but you can get it from sammobile, albeit slowly.
invisiblewave said:
Just download & Odin the latest complete image, GPI1, then Odin recovery (since Philz doesn't work, try TWRP, it works for me), then flash SU & Exposed. Takes about 15 minutes, although the download may take longer. Not sure if anyone has posted the link, but you can get it from sammobile, albeit slowly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you deodex GPI1 before exposed?
invisiblewave said:
Just download & Odin the latest complete image, GPI1, then Odin recovery (since Philz doesn't work, try TWRP, it works for me), then flash SU & Exposed. Takes about 15 minutes, although the download may take longer. Not sure if anyone has posted the link, but you can get it from sammobile, albeit slowly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does this thread have the info I need for installing Xposed (I'm assuming "Exposed" and "Xposed" are the same thing)?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3034811
Just install a .zip from TWRP, then install the .apk to manage installed modules?
I have "UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.37.zip". Is that sufficient for SU?
Well dammit, I've now spent multiple hours I didn't have trying to get *ANY* ROM other than the stock KitKat one to work. Was just about to give up after trying one last time with XtreStoLite, this time using KToonsez kernel instead of stock. Restarted and it was taking forever to boot, so I assumed it was frozen and was about to pull the battery and call it a night, when it actually made it into the OS! So perhaps there's something going on with the phone that won't let it boot with any stock kernel, other than 4.4.2. Bummer, because I was starting to get excited about trying Marshmallow.
It's because you have KitKat firmware. You just need to flash the entire MM package first.
What is the MM package, if it's not
G900T-(GPI1)-Bootloader.tar
G900T-(GPI1)-Modem-NonHLOS.tar
G900TUVS1GPI1_G900TTMB1GPI1_G900TUVS1GPI1_HOME.tar.md5
?
You don't need to flash the bootloader & modem separately. If you download the complete firmware, that's all you need to flash, it has all the necessary partitions in it. Just flash that, see if it works, then flash the recovery, etc.
I already tried G900TUVS1GPI1_G900TTMB1GPI1_G900TUVS1GPI1_HOME.tar.md5, both with and without the bootloader+modem packages.
I didn't see any mention of you having tried it in your earlier post. You should be able to flash just that package under AP (All Partitions, I assume), and it should install all the partitions it finds inside the tar. My guess is that Odin isn't completing correctly. What does it say in the log on the left? I had to use Odin 9, 10 wouldn't work on my setup for some reason, nor could I get it to work on XP, only on Windoze 8.

My story of almost bricked into rooted, unlocked bootloader, and custom rom

I thought you guys might find this amusing, and hopefully it will help some people that get into a similar situation as myself. First, a little background - I rooted and installed Alliance Rom years ago back before the bootloader was unlocked. This worked amazing for me for a long time but I've recently had some weird issues with my phone so I decided to do a factory reset.
I went into settings, clicked factory reset, and then my phone got into a boot loop on recovery. I remember from before I had to do a regular boot then click recovery at the prompt instead of doing the factory recovery so I did that.
Instead of doing a normal wipe, I wanted to wipe everything on my phone and start from scratch so I did the full wipe (in what I think was TWRP or safestrap or whatever). When I went to reboot my phone it had a message like "are you sure? there's no OS installed" and I clicked ok. Well now I couldn't get the phone to boot into anything except download mode so at least I can use Odin.
I'm frantically searching google to try and find ways to install some sort of recovery so I could load AllianceRom again since I still had the zip file for it. Eureka, I found TWRP for my phone! I tried to flash TWRP through Odin but that doesn't work because my bootloader wasn't unlocked.... I remember this from last time ... all of the places I found online to install any sort of recovery required the phone to be booted into android.
So I'm clicking around and someone has a recovery randomly posted in a thread so I install it thinking, what the hell, what's the worst that could go wrong. So I install it through Odin and boot into normal recovery and I get this message saying my phone has been tampered with and to go to a verizon store immediately! Oops... upon further investigation (looking at the download screen), I tripped the knox flag... oh well, it's not like my phone is in warranty anymore (I got it on release day).
I search around looking for what I should do next and I found a thread that talked about being on complete stock, rooting, then unlocking the bootloader. I download all the files I need (newest firmware here - https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/galaxy-note3/SM-N900V/ and thread here - https://forum.xda-developers.com/ve...guide-ob6-of1-root-bootloader-unlock-t3439010) to go back to stock and flash in Odin. Actually I didn't download from sammobile.com because it was downloading too slow so I just googled the file name and found it somewhere else faster, go figure.
Everything seems to be going ok then all of a sudden FAIL in Odin... Ahhh what the heck do I do now? Try again obviously! Second try works woo hoo! Phone start booting up, things are looking good!!! hooray!! But wait... it's taking forever to start and it's stuck on the Verizon logo... uh oh... taking way too long to boot up so I pull the battery and try again. Boots right in saying that android is upgrading so I think I'm finally in the home stretch here.
I try to run the ArabicToolApp for Root but I installed the latest firmware which isn't supported DAMN IT! Downloaded the correct firmware (OB6!), flashed in Odin, same problem before where it was stuck on the red verizon screen, pulled battery, rebooted, finally time to get root!
Phone finally boots into OS and I get a popup "unfortunatley com.google.process.gapps has stopped" great... and it keeps coming up over and over again after I hit ok... just my luck! Reboot again to see if that fixes the issue. Seems weird that I didn't have to go through all the initial setup stuff I did on the other version I installed... hmm... or maybe it was because I pulled the battery on the red verizon screen? Whatever. I somehow manage to get to options to do a factory reset and I let the verizon screen stay on a while this time. I'll go take my contacts out and give my wife some love while I wait
Come back and the phone is at the setup wizard, this is good news. Enabled USB debugging, installed root, done! Thank god!
Next I want to unlock the bootloader. I follow the steps here which aren't very clear (I'm guessing on purpose for novice computer users) - https://forum.xda-developers.com/ve...l/official-note-3-verizon-bootloader-t3359370
1. I installed eMMC from the play store to make sure my CID started with a 15, it does so I know I'm good to use the hack.
2. I installed both files in the unlock kit (adb and driver setup)
3. Fired up adb, navigated to where I had unlock_n3, and ran through the first part of the code once, reboot my phone, checked that the CID was the developer CID, and then ran the second part of the code three times before it worked
I verified the bootloader was installed correctly by trying to install TWRP through Odin, which worked!
I'm going to try out Jasmine Rom since it's a popular one that is on 5.0. My SD card only showed 30 megs free or something like that, so I formatted it from within android and copied the zip file over and installed the Rom through TWRP. Rom installed just fine, so I did one last factory reset which worked great and I think I'm finally good to go!
If you have any questions or run into any issues feel free to reply here and I'll try to help as much as I can.
Glad it worked out for you in the end.
From making a few mistakes I know that sinking feeling "oh no, what have I done?"
FWIW, the bootloader unlock method (in principle) works from nearly ANY ROM which is rooted - so, you would have saved yourself a bunch of time if you had started with that before you wiped the Alliance ROM. So long as you have root and a CID value that starts with 0x15, you just need root privileges - no need to return to stock and re-root.
(The "in principle" part is that there were several bugs in the "safety checks" portion of the unlocker binary that were sensitive to the OS revision, so you might have to search through the unlock thread to find a version of the unlock binary that is compatible with whatever rooted ROM is on the phone when the unlocking is attempted.)
good luck
PS The AryaMod ROM (w/ phantomOne kernel) is pretty solid - Marshmallow w/ S-Pen apps, too! As with any other dev ROM, there are a few sharp edges, but mostly everything works (except NFC).
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