[SOLVED] Every ROM I flash soft bricks device - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Any ideas why this could happen?
What I do everytime:
Flash XXLPB with ODIN 1.85, root with CF-Root v5.2 CWM, reboot, all fine.
Then I flash for ex. Carbon ROM Nighlty, GAPPS, reboot and it's stuck at triangle screen. Can't go to recovery, only download mode works.
I also tried "old" Carbon 1.8, and even other ROMS that worked like a charm some time ago.
All started when I tried yesterday to flash 4.3 Carbon nightly over 4.2.2 (1.8) Carbon w/o wiping...
Please help as for now I'm stuck with my 3310 xD

Back to stock via Odin/download mode (you don't really have another option), make sure you do a wipe/factory reset, try flashing the rom again.

I tried 4-5 times, and always the same is coming out! Is there any minimum requirement for flashing let's say 4.2.2? Shouldn't matter, right?

It shouldn't matter but we see cases on here all the time where for whatever reason, Odin flashes don't take on the first/second.....eighth (as an example), and for whatever reason, the ninth flash works. In other words, you need to persevere. Try different stock roms for your carrier (different Android versions, not just the recent ones - but don't use 4.0.4 in case you forget when you re-root your phone & do a wipe which will brick your phone). And keep trying. There's no easy fix for these situations unfortunately (search for Hopper8's 'Odin won't flash' thread, there's stuff in that thread you can try).

Actually the ODIN flash of the stock rom always works. But then I flash a rom through CWM and it bricks...
Is there a way to flash those roms with ODIN?

No. Almost all custom roms are CWM flashable.
OK...What I suggest you do is this...
*Clean install of stock with wipe/factory reset.
*Root your phone by flashing a custom kernel like PhilZ or Siyah (or Dorimanx).
*Do not flash a separate CWM or any other mod after you've rooted the phone.
*Read the first page of the thread devoted to the rom you want to flash very carefully. Flash the rom with CWM/follow the instructions to the letter (do not use Rom Manager or the CWM app from your homescreen; boot the phone into recovery & flash that way).
If you're seeing specific errors in CWM having done those steps (And do them again now even if you've done them previously), you need to tell us exactly what's going wrong in CWM. We're not mindreaders.
Edit - Your phone isn't bricked. Bricked phones don't boot. At all.

Thanks for the detailed answer.
Actually that's what I'm doing every time!
I'm trying to install 4.3 nightly build of carbon
I tried also stable build which was working well before...
There are no specific instructions, but I think it's pretty much standard:
1. Wipe Data/Factory Reset
2. Flash zip
3. Flash GAPPS
4. Wipe Dalvik Cache
5. Reboot
Thanks!
EDIT: After flashing the custom rom the phone doesn't boot, it gets stuck at kernel panic upload mode. Once I managed to get into CWM but there I couldn't perform any action, it was freezed.

Hi Again,
it looks like everything worked fine. Maybe I had a strange version, or the CWM was to old (5).
Now I could flash what I wanted and it's not stuck at boot anymore!
Thanks for the help!

Perseverance is a beautiful thing.

Related

Corrupted Clockworkmod?

This is my first time posting.
I am a noob, but I am trying to get beyond that. I have flashed kernels and ROMS to my GT-I9100, with success. The other day, I was going to flash a new ROM, and I tried to make a Clockworkmod backup of my current ROM...while the phone was charging. Is this a major blunder?
The reason that I ask is that CWM crashed in the middle of the backup, and now I can't enter CWM recovery and the phone doesn't boot properly. I just get stuck in a bootloop. I can get into download mode. I used Pistachio's post about how to fix a soft-bricked GS2 to flash back to stock thru Odin. Then I used CF-ROOT to re-root the phone. After that, everything works fine, and I can get to Android recovery mode. Then when I try to flash a ROM, Titanium Backup must be restoring the previous version of ROM Manager, and I get stuck in the same bootloop when trying to get into CWM recovery.
Is Clockworkmod corrupted? Did the recovery partition get corrupted? Should I flash back to stock, delete ROM Manager, then re-install it? Should I bite the bullet and delete my Titanium Backup folder, then re-install everything from scratch? Should I flash back to stock with Pistachio's .PIT file and tick RE-PARTITION?
I looked for an answer specific to this problem, and cannot find the exact same scenario in any other threads. There are similar problems, but I think that I have a CWM app or recovery partition problem, or I may have a NAND rw corruption. I don't think that it is a NAND rw corruption though, because I can flash different kernels and ROMs.
I have been using Resurrection Remix versions 2.2, 2.4.1, and 2.5.3.
I have been using Siyah 3.3.2 kernel.
Please help, and excuse my noobness if I am beating a dead horse with this question.
Sounds like Rom Manager borked CWM/CWRecovery, which it seems to do on SGS2 quite a lot.
Most of the scenario you outlined in para.3 of your post (back to stock, delete ROM Manager) sounds like a good WTG, but do not reinstall it.
If you're going to use a kernel which has CWM/CWRecovery (like Siyah), do not use Rom Manager at all. Uninstall it & keep it that way. CWM/Recovery can do pretty much everything Rom Manager can, and you're playing with fire having both on the phone. Eventually Rom Manager will bork CWM again if you use it.
In the first instance, go back to stock, re-root your phone & reinstall the rom/kernel you're wanting to use. If Rom Manager is installed by default, uninstall it before you do anything else. With a bit of luck, you shouldn't have to do anything else (like messing around with PIT's which you also mentioned in para.3). If you batch restore your apps with TI, make sure you don't restore Rom Manager.
Thanks for the speedy reply.
I will try what you have suggested, but how do I flash the .zip file from my phone without ROM Manager? Do I have to do it through Odin?
Yep, that's right. Get an Odin flashable rom from Intratech's thread (search for it on here). If links in that thread don't work, search here or Samfirmware.
Edit - And once you've got your phone back up & running the way you want, use CWRecovery to do all your flashing.
My apologies, I should have been more specific. I want to flash the RR 2.5.3.zip. Should I still download it to the PC, then flash through Odin, or can I use Android recovery to do it through the phone?
OK. Let's rewind a bit.
What state is your phone in right now ?
I am flashed back to stock, and about to use CF-ROOT.
OK. Root the phone, CWM/Recovery will be installed by default. Once the phone is rooted, reboot into CWRecovery, flash your RR zip & you should be GTG. Just remove Rom Manager if it's installed as part of that process before you do anything else (including backing up). If you're going to restore a backup, again, uninstall Rom Manager immediately after you restore.
OK, after I flash CF-ROOT, I will re-install Titanium Backup, and delete ROM Manager to be safe before proceeding. Then I will flash the ROM.zip and test CW recovery and reboot again. I will reply after doing so.
Thanks
ARRRGH!
After flashing CF-ROOT I cannot get to the splash screen upon reboot. I made sure that I ticked USB debugging before flashing the kernel. I can still get into download mode and CWRecovery, so I flashed back to stock, and tried again to no avail. I tried flashing the RR 2.5.3.zip, in CWRecovery, and it flashed. I get to the splash screen but no further. I feel like a terrible noob now, because yesterday I had the phone flashed to stock and rooted no problem. Is there something that I am missing? I made sure that I used the proper CF-ROOT kernel.
So you're getting bootloop when you flash RR ? Have you tried booting into recovery & doing a wipe/factory reset ?
I believe that I am fixed.
I restored a Nandroid backup of my stock ICS from right after my original rooting, and the phone booted fine. I did a wipe/factory reset and wiped cache. Then I flashed RR 2.5.3. The phone rebooted fine again. I IMMEDIATELY uninstalled ROM Manager and made sure it was out of Titanium Backup as well. I have rebooted several times, normal, download, and CWRecovery, and everything works as it should. I think that I am getting over my noobness.
I WILL NEVER INSTALL ROM MANAGER AGAIN...DOWN WITH ROM MANAGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Except for the Little Alex icon, that's still pretty cool.
A thousand thanks for your help. At least I was on the right track when I first asked for help. I was pretty sure it was a problem with ROM Manager, because when it crashed, it started this whole mess. I'll be sure to press the THANKS button for your help, and I'm going to thank Pistachio for his thread as well.
Not n00bness, stuff happens sometimes ;-) You weren't the first person to get tripped up by Rom Manager (I did not long after I got my phone), and you won't be the last.
Yep you had a fair idea of what might have caused it, and your detailed OP certainly made it a lot easier to work out WTF was causing the problems.
No probs. Glad you got it sorted ;-)

[Q] S2G Flashing Custom ROM Not Possible!

Hey guys
I'm trying to flash my S II I9100G with cMIUI, which doesn't work. The phone gets stuck during booting right after the installation. I've been messing around with this problem for a couple of hours by now, been googling a lot and yet I have not found a solution.
What I did in order to flash the ROM:
1) I installed the latest German stock ROM (ICS) using Odin.
2) I followed this tutorial (root using SU-BB-Installer.zip and flash CWM recovery kernel 6.0.1.2 via kTool): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2065581 So far everything works fine. I have root access now.
3) Downloaded the cMIUI 2.10.19 zip from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1804619
4) When I tried to flash cMIUI from Recovery and toogle signature verification "on", it told me "signature verification failed". I ignored that message and installed it anyway.
5) Installation ran smoothly. After finishing it, the phone wanted to reboot. It now got stuck in the booting screen. I can not get the ROM booted.
I don't think it's cMIUI-caused, because I tried to flash a clean CM10 and still had the same problem (even though it didn't fail signature verification). Here are some more things I tried:
- installed clean stock ROM via Odin, again. Then followed all above steps exactly as described above, except for using Odin for flashing CWM Recovery instead of kTool
- again, clean stock ROM. After rooting, I then tried to install cMIUI via ROM Manager v5.5.2.3. Unfortunately, ROM Manager doesn't identify CWM recovery and keeps asking me to install the Recovery-System with ROM Manager. When I try that, there apparently "is no official CWM Recovery available" for my model. So, ROM Manager is no option
As described in the following thread, I can not use the ClockworkMod Recovery 6.0.1.2 kernel on aosp based ROMs like cMIUI and CM: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1631934 So that probably is the cause of my problem. Can you tell me what kernel I can use, instead? Or is there another way to flash that ROM? Via Odin, for example...
Thanks for your help in advance. Very much appreciated!!
Regards,
Daniel
What Codeworkx is saying in that thread is, that you cannot use that kernel when you are already on a aosp based rom. So you can use that recovery.
Something you didn't mention, did you do a full wipe from within the recovery? If you didn't do that, then thats probably the source of your problems.
1. Flash a stock rom true Odin.
2. Flash the recovery (you don't need to root your rom after)
3. Wipe system/factory reset
4. Wipe cache.
5. Download the rom again to make sure you the download went well.
6. Toggle signature verification off.
7. Flash Miui
8. Reboot and wait.
Lennyz1988 said:
What Codeworkx is saying in that thread is, that you cannot use that kernel when you are already on a aosp based rom. So you can use that recovery.
Something you didn't mention, did you do a full wipe from within the recovery? If you didn't do that, then thats probably the source of your problems.
1. Flash a stock rom true Odin.
2. Flash the recovery (you don't need to root your rom after)
3. Wipe system/factory reset
4. Wipe cache.
5. Download the rom again to make sure you the download went well.
6. Toggle signature verification off.
7. Flash Miui
8. Reboot and wait.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much! Wiping helped. :good: Why didn't I try that before :silly:
Awesome, now I can finally enjoy cMIUI. It's really great! (except for crashing galery/camera app when starting cam from lock screen. but who cares )
Thanks dude! :highfive:

[HELP] Attempted installing paranoid, resulted in always booting to CWM instead.

I tried following this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1580070
"INSTRUCTIONS" part:
* RECOVERY: FACTORY RESET IF YOU WERE USING ANOTHER ROM!
* RECOVERY: Install Rom: Download
* RECOVERY: Install Gapps, ALWAYS-EVEN FOR UPDATES: Download (find the latest one that carries the "jb" tag)
* RECOVERY: Wipe Cache Partition
* RECOVERY: Wipe Dalvik Cache
* Reboot and enjoy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did all the above, never forgot any of the 3 wipes/resets that were necessary.
used this rom file:
http://goo.im/devs/paranoidandroid/roms/i9100g
(latest one)
for my Galaxy Samsung S II GT-i9100g.
I had CWM and also had a rooted android 2.3.
first boot it showed me the normal samsung boot screen, for 45 minutes....
so I restarted and the phone gave me the same behaviour..
so I removed the battery to turn off the phone, and attempted to reinstall the whole thing, going through this process again from scratch
not forgetting any of the wipes etc...
now every time I boot it, it leads me to CWM instead of the normal boot screen and the expected paranoid rom eventually...
I followed this path because CM 10 failed me because upgrading from 2.3 to 4.x requires going through something that is called "stock" or as I think it actually is - google's /manufacturer's original firmware/rom production line thingy
and after that it needs me to re-enable root on that stock rom all over again. And only then I may attempt to install CM10...
so I picked paranoid instead, because in it's instructions is showed me no such constraint. heck it can't give me that constraint because there is no "stock" of android 3.x for smartphones
but then this issue happened... so I need your help.
I found similar search results but couldn't figure out their solutions or how whatever triggered that same problem (which isn't mentioned in those threads) is related to what I did to my phone... (so that I will not repeat the same mistake)
your help is much appreciated as I need it so so much!
Huh?
Just flash a stock ROM, get back on your feet and go CM or paranoid.
Sent from the little guy
gastonw said:
Huh?
Just flash a stock ROM, get back on your feet and go CM or paranoid.
Sent from the little guy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
by "flash"ing you mean the option "install from a zip file" in CWM in recovery mod?
if I have some rom, the only way for me to install another would always be by going through that middle step of also installing a 'stock' rom as well?
there is no way around it?
installing a 'stock' rom, wouldn't it make me loose my root I have on the phone and force me to root it all over again before I can continue install anything at all?
thats the reason I wanted to try out the paranoid way of doing this instead of the CM10, because I have no interest in rooting my already rooted phone and I hoped that paranoid does not need me to go to stock first....
Couple of things:
Stock: why, when in trouble, we suggest stock?
Stock is the original state of the phone.
Samsung write it for our device to work flawless, so, by flashing stock we can check if our device is fully functional.
Imagine you flash a custom ROM and you lose IMEI, you go "wtf?" right?
In order to check if your EFS folder is f&#cked up, you flash stock and check if your IMEI is still there.
We can always use stock to take a long breath "phew, we're fine" after a f*&k up.
You can flash stock via CWM (zip file), Odin (tar file, md5) and mobile Odin (tar, zip and md5).
CWM: custom recovery, you can get it by flashing a custom kernel or by flashing it via stock Recovery (generally comes with BusyBox and SuperUser app, which gives you Root).
Odin: Just download any version and follow directions.
Mobile Odin: Well, this is a hell of an app, you need Root to run it.
It does all that Odin does, plus it roots your ROM (only stock ROMs) while it's flashing it, all by itself. Costs 5 bucks, but it's damned worthwhile.
Wanna know the best scenario?
You get M.O Pro, you get a nandroid back up online app, you get CWM zip files (sitting on your SD).
With that line up, you can flash whatecer the hell you want and you will ALWAYS have root.
Sent from the little guy
some questions
ONE QUICK IMPORTANT QUESTION BEFORE THE REST:
If I use mobile odin, will I be able to use it to install stock rom and also root it at the same time?
SECOND IMPORTANT QUESTION:
you said I could flash whatever I want and still have root, but my problem was not 'not having root', it was not having the flash process complete successfully... how do I attack that?
THIRD IMPORTANT... info... :
My "BUILD" version is "GINGERBREAD.XXKL5", isn't that a 'stock' one?
If you don't have a lot of time,
then the rest of this post is not as important as the 2 questions above...
gastonw said:
Couple of things:
Stock: why, when in trouble, we suggest stock?
Stock is the original state of the phone.
Samsung write it for our device to work flawless, so, by flashing stock we can check if our device is fully functional.
Imagine you flash a custom ROM and you lose IMEI, you go "wtf?" right?
In order to check if your EFS folder is f&#cked up, you flash stock and check if your IMEI is still there.
We can always use stock to take a long breath "phew, we're fine" after a f*&k up.
You can flash stock via CWM (zip file), Odin (tar file, md5) and mobile Odin (tar, zip and md5).
CWM: custom recovery, you can get it by flashing a custom kernel or by flashing it via stock Recovery (generally comes with BusyBox and SuperUser app, which gives you Root).
Odin: Just download any version and follow directions.
Mobile Odin: Well, this is a hell of an app, you need Root to run it.
It does all that Odin does, plus it roots your ROM (only stock ROMs) while it's flashing it, all by itself. Costs 5 bucks, but it's damned worthwhile.
Wanna know the best scenario?
You get M.O Pro, you get a nandroid back up online app, you get CWM zip files (sitting on your SD).
With that line up, you can flash whatecer the hell you want and you will ALWAYS have root.
Sent from the little guy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the saddest part is that I couldn't figure out most of what you just said
what is 'nandroid'? 'flashing'? do you mean like dd in linux? copying to the entire flash storage device?
'IMEI'? huh..? O_O
at the moment I was able to 'get back on my feet', I restored everything back to normal with manual copying of important parts of the CWM corrupted backup from this week, and old stuff for a CWM backup made few months ago.
now that I am at a 'normal' state.. I want to install paranoid or CM10 on my GT-I9100g.
which one of those 2 does not force me going through installing stock?
I have this fear of installing stock that it will take away my root and that I will have to use adb from command line to re-enable root afterwards, which I have bad experience with.
I need to know a few things before I attempt to install stock via CWM,
will installing stock disable my root? will installing stock disable my ability to load recovery boot menu CWM?
is 'root' an attribute or state that belongs to the running rom itself after boot has been completed and to that only?
or does it also belong to the state the device is at while in the recovery boot menu CWM ?
I tried messing around with ADB in the past to see if I could root devices via that way but it wasn't very successful so thats why I'm afraid of having to attempt it again.
bumpitybump
even though a year later, I would still love some replies
resurrecting my motivation to do this once again.
copy paste from my other post;
before flashing, you will need these;
-stock rom (get it from Sammobile, sign in and select your country and phone model)
-blazing kernel for recovery (search in XDA)
-custom rom (CM, PA, Supernexus...your choice)
-backup your data
-GApps (get the latest one)
-you must know what are you doing and dont flame/blame other member if something wrong
how to flash;
-make sure you are on latest stock rom (mine is JellyBean 4.1.2), if not like the OP, flash the latest stock rom using Odin;
*reboot your phone in Download Mode
*open Odin and in PDA option select your stock rom and then Start
*if done it will display Done and disconnect your phone, it will boot up
*if bootloop, reboot into Recovery Mode, and then wipe data and cache, and then reboot normally
-after updating your phone to latest stock rom, copy your custom rom, GApps, and Blazing kernel into external SD card, then reboot into Recovery Mode
-choose "apply update from external storage" and choose Blazing kernel, wait for it to finish update
-reboot normally, and then reboot back to Recovery Mode. this time you will notice that your recovery is different from the previous one
-select install zip > choose from external storage/sdcard 1 > and then choose your custom rom. then wait for it to finish update
-repeat the above step to install GApps, and after that reboot normally
-if bootloop, reboot back to Recovery Mode and then wipe data, cache and dalvik and then reboot
-done, now you are running on custom rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and about the root, i believe that almost all custom rom rooted

[Q] ClockworkMod-Recovery 6.0.2.9 - latest?

Hi, I'm a new to rooting, but long time jailbreaker, and man this is way harder than I thought!
I think I'm on the right track, I've uploaded Rom (Super Nexus 3.0 i9100 ect), CWM-SuperSU v0.97 and Google apps (gapps-jb-20130813 ect)
But, I've unfortunately had a couple of failed attempts, originally coming from 4.1.2, I'm now back to 'stock' 4.0.3 and can't update, so I'm going to try again.
So I wanted to know, using Odin, is 6.0.2.9 the latest version of ClockwordMod and/or for the Galaxy S II (if it matters?) I've already got it on there, but I've also got a Siyah on there too, so just want to do another flash to a CWM.
And yes, no quarms about completely wiping the phone, I've backed up all the music, pics, call logs, ect, so just want to learn how to root to the latest version of android, and this version looks great.
Mm it's really not harder than you thought. You're over complicating things.
2 current options :
Have you flashed & are currently running siyah? If so, then boot into recovery and flash supernexus & gapps. Done.
Not currently running siyah? Flash siyah via Odin in download mode. Reboot then into recovery and flash your rom and gapps. Simple. Rooted and new rom.
As far as using CWM on its own (ie just flashing the recovery) it'll only be temporary. Every reboot it will reset to stock recovery. Hence why you need to flash siyah to keep the permanent recovery & be able to flash a new rom.
Sent from a galaxy far, far away
Hopper8 said:
Mm it's really not harder than you thought. You're over complicating things.
2 current options :
Have you flashed & are currently running siyah? If so, then boot into recovery and flash supernexus & gapps. Done.
Not currently running siyah? Flash siyah via Odin in download mode. Reboot then into recovery and flash your rom and gapps. Simple. Rooted and new rom.
As far as using CWM on its own (ie just flashing the recovery) it'll only be temporary. Every reboot it will reset to stock recovery. Hence why you need to flash siyah to keep the permanent recovery & be able to flash a new rom.
Sent from a galaxy far, far away
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Hopper,
I decided to use CWM 6.0.2.9 (so now there are three kernals, 2 CWMs and 1 Siyah, wish I knew how to clear them out).
First time I tried to use Super Nexus 3.0, it looked ok, but wouldn't reboot, but then I just re-installed eveything again (both times CWM), and now I've rebooted twice no problems? I think I read somewhere that it had to be done twice, I have no idea why that would be.
Oh yeah, but now I need to get Swype back on there, forgot it was a Samsung exclusive, I'll see how I go from the Google Play, but I'm guessing I could get a custom .apk from the internet anyway.

[Q] help struck at samsung logo with a caution symbol

i'm on "I9100XWLST_I9100ODDLSE_INU" 4.1.2 india official firmware
i tried flashing "GT-I9100_JB_ClockworkMod-Recovery_6.0.2.9" recovery and flashed it successfully.
after reboot it went into recovery but my phone doesn't boot up like normal and struck at samsung logo with a caution symbol.
tried installing slimbean final build but still the same....
can any body help me to install recovery and slimbean
thnx
Do a factory reset in recovery mode, if you have no recovery mode or the reset doesn't fix the bootloop, get a stock rom from Samfirmware & flash it with Odin following the instruction in thread stickied near the top of Q&A to get a clean slate. Then...
Pro tip 1: Read the instructions for what you were trying to do thoroughly & understand exactly what you need to do this time, the issues you're seeing are almost always caused by not doing something that's required, flashing a wrong file, etc.
Pro tip 2: If you flash CWRecovery independently, it will only persist till the next reboot because recovery is baked into the kernel. I recommend you root your phone by flashing a custom kernel, this will give you permanent CWRecovery & you can flash whatever rom/kernel you want from there. The thread I referred to above also has a very simple root method which involves flashing a custom kernel.
I dont think the kernel supports the Roms you tried.. find a compatible one..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

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