I attempted to make an odin flashable tarball by dd'ing modem.bin and NON-HLOS.bin, and followed rwilco12's tutorial to package the images into the tar.md5. Unfortunately, when I flashed with odin, it failed due to security check failure of apnhlos (also failed using heimdall - error during protocol initiation).
It seems @Unknownforce, experienced this issue before, but unfortunately I couldn't find the solution he came up with anywhere.
Can someone point me in the right direction? I am very much a beginner and have no experience or expertise in this area, I just wanted to take the initiative to make a flashable NG2 tar and give back to the community a little.
mxmr said:
I attempted to make an odin flashable tarball by dd'ing modem.bin and NON-HLOS.bin, and followed rwilco12's tutorial to package the images into the tar.md5. Unfortunately, when I flashed with odin, it failed due to security check failure of apnhlos (also failed using heimdall - error during protocol initiation).
It seems @Unknownforce, experienced this issue before, but unfortunately I couldn't find the solution he came up with anywhere.
Can someone point me in the right direction? I am very much a beginner and have no experience or expertise in this area, I just wanted to take the initiative to make a flashable NG2 tar and give back to the community a little.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you make a dd copy of a partition, theres padding at the end in the form of trailing zeroes. In order for you to successfully make a Odin flashable partition without getting the secure check fail message, you must strip the trailing zeroes using a hex editor. You can see an example of this in my thread here where I talk about doing this to aboot.
Surge1223 said:
When you make a dd copy of a partition, theres padding at the end in the form of trailing zeroes. In order for you to successfully make a Odin flashable partition without getting the secure check fail message, you must strip the trailing zeroes using a hex editor. You can see an example of this in my thread here where I talk about doing this to aboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome thank you for the reply. I will look into this further I appreciate it.
Edit: Thanks again surge, I was able to get it working :good:
Related
Hi guys.
My phone has been having major signal issues, no signal or emergency calls only next to an exact same phone that has no problem. Talking to my provider, it appears to be the phone and I need to send it back for repair. Problem is, I have a different firmware on there. I obviously need to get it back to the stock optus rom it came with. I know computers and stuff, but im a bit lost in this area. I've done a lot of searching on here but can't seem to find a specific resolve to this issue.
I'll try and sum it up.
Currently running Litening Rom 5, which i flashed with odin. I found on here the link for the original optus branded rom (GT-I9100_OPS_I9100XWKE7_I9100XXKE4_I9100OPSKE4) but after downloading it I'm more lost. The 7zip file had the following files in it:
boot.bin, cache.img, factoryfs.img, hidden.img, modem.bin, param.lfs, sbl.bin and zimage.
I have no idea what to do with these. I've also read that CWM is another possible way to do all this. My rom has it so that might be possible. I'm not fussed about keeping any files, I was gonna do a factory reset before I send it away anyway. I wanna completely wipe my phone and get it back to exactly how it was, so when optus look at it, its how they sent it to me, especially with no yellow triangle on boot.
What should I do with these files? The other option I have is if I can get the rom dumped off a friends optus phone and simply put it onto mine. I know 2 friends with them, can I plug their phone into my PC and use the dump button in odin, or will I get the same files?
Other question I have are:
1) Will Optus know what version of the firmware came on the phone (XXKE7 or whatever) and therefore realise a possible older version is on there, causing suspicion?
2) Is it possible that custom firmwares can screw up my reception? Friends are running stock and they have no issue, though saying that, its still not as good signal as a Nokia.
If you've read this far, thank you very much, I really appreciate it. I'm just so lost, freaking out a bit, going a bit insane with the phone constantly not having signal and just low on time to sort it out. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
Hi.
First off, if you're already down to the .bin and .img files, you extracted too much.
The archive you downloaded should contain a .tar file - DO NOT extract this one! You need the .tar as .tar.
Then download an App called "Odin" (likely to be found in the very same thread where you found the firmware) and use that one to flash the .tar onto the phone.
Instructions for that are also in the thread where you found the firmware.
That should already solve most of your hazzle.
If I'm not mistaken, flashing your phone's kernel would case
Cause the binary flash counter to clock. And the phone does keep a record of how many custom kernels you have been through. So I would say if they wanted to know, they would be able to find out.
In that case, spend the 5 to 10 bucks on eBay for the USB jig that resets the counter.
I have one too, "works nicely" is an understatement
HellcatDroid:
The one file I downloaded was a 7zip compressed exe. When I extracted that, I got the listed files, there was never a .tar file.
I had no idea about the kernel flash counter, but it sounds like it could be an issue. I saw those USB jigs, but though they were just a way to get into downloading mode if you'd somehow screwed up the normal way. Is that all they do, or much more?
TroyX87 said:
HellcatDroid:
The one file I downloaded was a 7zip compressed exe. When I extracted that, I got the listed files, there was never a .tar file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're doing it wrong.
Intratech said:
You're doing it wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know what would be awesome? If you explained why. I have no idea why I'm doing it wrong. Did I download the wrong file? (didn't have many options). Or would it be better to get a dump from a friends phone that has the desired rom/kernel?
How do I know why you're doing it wrong? The files are self extracting, all you need to do is double click it and point to when you want the included tarball extracted. You will then have a single tarball which includes everything in a single package. This has all been covered in the tutorial.
The file was a compressed exe, I dont think loading it on as a rom would have worked. Though when I extracted that (self extracting exe), I ended up with all the seperate files, there was never a .tar.
Is it safe to simply put those files into a .tar file with winrar? Is that all it is? Or will I risk bricking my phone? I had a look in the tutorials but couldn't see anything about it.
Thanks
TroyX87 said:
The file was a compressed exe, I dont think loading it on as a rom would have worked. Though when I extracted that (self extracting exe), I ended up with all the seperate files, there was never a .tar.
Is it safe to simply put those files into a .tar file with winrar? Is that all it is? Or will I risk bricking my phone? I had a look in the tutorials but couldn't see anything about it.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you get the file from? Optus firmwares are in the carrier branded firmware thread in the dev forum so you can download a copy from there.
I grabbed the exe from your other thread, it had 5 different links and only 1 worked at the time.
But you know the worst part? I just figured it out. The exe extracted a .tar file, but in my rushing and stressed-ness, i didn't realise that was the one, it was a winrar file so i just thought it was compressed or something, like a zip.
My bad. I wont be flashing just yet, gonna replace my sim card first. I got used to the idea of wiping my phone and starting again, but now I realised how annoying that would be. Bought a USB jig too, just in case.
Appreciate your help, sorrying for being a n00b!
I've compiled the stock firmware for the Developer edition of the Galaxy S4. Specifically the 1545OYUAMDK variant that shares similarities to our beloved MDK. I got the partitions from users who had made backups prior to gaining root and/or other means to have the least modified version of the stock firmware. As far as the bootloader goes, I have the entire firmware and I edited the partitions to account for the padded zeroes and offsets. Below is a table of partitions, the green are those that I or dev edition owners were able to successfully flash with Heimdall/Odin and are signed, the red are ones that I am unable to flash probably because I incorrectly edited them to be consistent with the sha1 checksums of partitions verifying it immediately before or after or haven’t been tested by someone with a dev device.
I should note that I only tested this on a stock root ME7 build, therefore some partitions that I couldn't flash, the Dev edition of the Gs4 might be able to. I did confirm that users on OYUAMDK were able to flash certain parts of the firmware but no one has tried to completely go back to stock. As expected, I could flash all but recovery, boot, and aboot, djrbliss mentions that the difference between consumer and dev builds comes down to how aboot checks boot and recovery in his blog...so my findings are consistent with his research. I confirmed that the partitions that I did flash were actually flashed because I compared the hexdump of the files before and after (since the file sizes are mostly the same after cutting out the padded zeroes and other indicators). If you have a developer device and you absolutely need to flash stock firmware, this is probably as close as you will get, but more work needs to be done to refine this. Note, take precautionary measures and especially be careful when flashing aboot. Feel free to criticize these, and let me know if any changes need to be made. Use at your own risk and remember this is somewhat a work in progress.
Edit: One user on a dev build brick claims to have flashed aboot.mbn successfully. Status changed to yellow! (Need one more confirmation before I feel confident to give it the green light, pun intended)
Instructions:
Note that this is more meant for a emergency rather than convenience, also the purpose of this post was both to help the owners of development edition gs4 and to make the process better in the future, this can brick your device
If you do decide to dance with the devil, post your findings. The file is in tar.md5.gz format so odin will extract it to a tar.md5 for you or you can just flash it in heimdall. I have left the firmware.xml and pit file in the tar, you can remove them and edit them as needed.
Using Odin: Odin doesn’t play well with this. I’ve had varied results. Use Heimdall. But if you insist..have the latest Samsung drivers, try Odin versions 3.07+, make sure to run as administrator and select/click PDA then select the tar.md5.gz file. Also make sure that only "Auto Reboot" and "F. Reset Time" are checked before finally clicking start.
Using Heimdall: Load the package using frontend running as root. If you use Heimdall in the command line, then you probably already know what you're doing.
RECOMBINATION_I545OYUAMDK_562219_STOCK_RESTORE.tar.md5
MD5:b238ac352255f3b26593dffa6d7aa72f
Download
Download Mirror
Size: File/Partition:
2597816 RECOMBINATION_I545OYUAMDK_562219_STOCK_RESTORE.tar.md5
8 SGR.pit
2518320 system.img.ext4
9000 NON-HLOS.bin
9488 recovery.img
208 tz.mbn
1200 aboot.mbn
50856 modem.bin
268 sbl3.mbn
152 rpm.mbn
96 sbl1.mbn
4 firmware.xml
8072 boot.img
152 sbl2.mbn
Before I get asked "What happens when people on MDK or ME7 try to flash this"?
I'll tell you my results, from numerous flashes in odin/heimdall. My baseband and build type are both now OYUAMDK as shown below and my phone doesn't show a custom screen nor does my phone think its modified. However this doesn't change the fact that we cannot downgrade to a older kernel. This will not unlock your device if you're on MDK or ME7 and flashing this carries a high risk of bricking your device. When flashing the stock MDK restore, ME7 users usually get a "SW REV. CHECK FAIL: FUSED: 3, Binary: 1" message, however with flashing this on ME7 users will receive a "SECURE CHECK FAIL: aboot" message instead either way its a fail.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
**
Changelog
10/14/2013 - Initial release
10/19/2013 - Confirmed boot.img and recovery.img flash succesfully - status changed to green
11/09/2013 - User claims to have flashed aboot.mbn succesfully on dev build - status changed to yellow!
Awesome Surge! Now somebody with a Dev ed device on me7 like sound-mind should try it and see if they could restore their device to developer...
Sent from my SCH-I545 Dev Edition using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I am new to Heimdall. I am running it on a Windows 8 64 bit machine. Heimdall does not see the tar.md5.gz file....it seems to be looking for a tar.gz file. What am I doing wrong or what do I need to do. Thanks. This is a great resource to have,
Skeetch79 said:
I am new to Heimdall. I am running it on a Windows 8 64 bit machine. Heimdall does not see the tar.md5.gz file....it seems to be looking for a tar.gz file. What am I doing wrong or what do I need to do. Thanks. This is a great resource to have,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download 7-zip or winrar. Then extract the tar.md5.gz so it leave you with just a tar.md5. Then either:
1. Rename it to a tar, extract the files, and customize the package you want to flash using heimdall then heimdall will make a tar.gz for you
or
2. Rename the tar.md5 to tar, then using 7-zip in the right click menu or from the 7zip file manager menu select "add to archive" and under archive format select gzip.
Alternatively you can use the tar.md5 with odin, but I highly suggest using heimdall instead. I've had odin flash the file for me, but more often then not it fails for this particular odin tar.
Great! Thanks!
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
Extraordinary progress and dedication and effort. Thank you so much!
So the file includes everything a stock Dev ed official Odin image would right? The red partitions are there even though you could not manage to flash them..
Sent from my SCH-I545 Dev Edition using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Roland_D said:
So the file includes everything a stock Dev ed official Odin image would right? The red partitions are there even though you could not manage to flash them..
Sent from my SCH-I545 Dev Edition using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes the red partitions are still there. But as to whether it includes everything? Technically no, the cache.img.ext4, persdata.img.ext4, and hidden.img.ext4 arent there yet. Im going to have to look more into hidden.img.ext4 because Id include it but. As far as cache.img.ext4 and persdata.img.ext4 I haven't come across a clean copy of either yet. I thought about just usings MDK's but ill look into it more before I include any more partitions.
Upon opening Heimdall I notice that I have the options to Load Package, Flash and Utilities but "Create Package" is greyed out. How does that become enabled?
Skeetch79 said:
Upon opening Heimdall I notice that I have the options to Load Package, Flash and Utilities but "Create Package" is greyed out. How does that become enabled?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't used Heimdall in Windows but in linux you have to go to utilities, click detect device, then select save as and save the .pit file. Im not sure if the Windows version of Heimdall has a command line either but if it does you could also type the equivalent of this:
sudo heimdall download-pit --output dev-SCH1545.pit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then go to the Flash tab and under pit click browse and open the pit file you just downloaded. Then click add-->select a partition name-->click browse and navigate the the selected partition file-->Then click add. Now you should be able to use the Create Package option.
Surge1223 said:
Yes the red partitions are still there. But as to whether it includes everything? Technically no, the cache.img.ext4, persdata.img.ext4, and hidden.img.ext4 arent there yet. Im going to have to look more into hidden.img.ext4 because Id include it but. As far as cache.img.ext4 and persdata.img.ext4 I haven't come across a clean copy of either yet. I thought about just usings MDK's but ill look into it more before I include any more partitions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Dev edition has no modifications, not sure if that helps or not. I'm willing to post what you need as long as it doesn't contain any personal info.
I'm unable to download due to dropbox temp disabled
equake said:
I'm unable to download due to dropbox temp disabled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah im in the process of changing file hosts, ill put up a temp mirrror though
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
This is a great resource and compilation for Dev S4 owners. Have you made anymore progress with this or found anything more? Thanks again for all your hard work and dedication
Well I haven't heard from anyone regarding where heimdall is failing. I also haven't confirmed if people on Dev s4s that took the ME7 update were able to downgrade back to OYUAMDK or not. So far the radio and kernel along with sbl1-3, rpm and tz have been proven to work. I know recovery should work, as I'm able to take it apart successfully, and the build.prop says OYUAMDK. I'm hoping aboot works, aboot is the partition I'm waiting for results on.
Sent from my TouchPad using xda app-developers app
I thought
I was pretty much stock with root (stock recovery and boot images from Bait-Fish and yourself in the other thread) but I constantly had the custom and open lock icon screen when booting the phone. I was reluctant to load ROMS at this point without any sort of safety net (I did make a nandroid early on in case) - even though it is a developer phone and that is what you are supposed to do
I wanted to try the package you put together so I played it safe and just created a Heimdall package to flash the Boot and Recovery only. Flashing went great and now when I boot the phone I get the Samsung S4 boot screen along with the word "official" under about phone->status in the system settings. (if flashing boot and recovery did not work then i would have went as far as flashing the system.img.ext4 - so now I don't have to)
As I said, I flashed both the boot and recovery images posted by Bait-Fish and yourself in the other thread and stayed on a custom status but somehow these boot and recovery images did the trick.
Thanks again.
If you need me to test anything out please let me know.
It would be nice though if the S4 Developer Phone could received OTA's and/or have KIES recognize the phone. Being on MDK we are two builds behind the consumer version with no official way to upgrade and catch up. could I flash the consumer ME7 or MI1 build without worrying about locking the bootloader and my dev phone? If so, then could I always ODIN or Heimdall back down to MDK if I wanted to?
Edit: the recovery and boot images I downloaded from bait-fish were identical in size... does that make sense or should they be different?
Skeetch79 said:
I thought
I was pretty much stock with root (stock recovery and boot images from Bait-Fish and yourself in the other thread) but I constantly had the custom and open lock icon screen when booting the phone. I was reluctant to load ROMS at this point without any sort of safety net (I did make a nandroid early on in case) - even though it is a developer phone and that is what you are supposed to do
I wanted to try the package you put together so I played it safe and just created a Heimdall package to flash the Boot and Recovery only. Flashing went great and now when I boot the phone I get the Samsung S4 boot screen along with the word "official" under about phone->status in the system settings. (if flashing boot and recovery did not work then i would have went as far as flashing the system.img.ext4 - so now I don't have to)
As I said, I flashed both the boot and recovery images posted by Bait-Fish and yourself in the other thread and stayed on a custom status but somehow these boot and recovery images did the trick.
Thanks again.
If you need me to test anything out please let me know.
It would be nice though if the S4 Developer Phone could received OTA's and/or have KIES recognize the phone. Being on MDK we are two builds behind the consumer version with no official way to upgrade and catch up. could I flash the consumer ME7 or MI1 build without worrying about locking the bootloader and my dev phone? If so, then could I always ODIN or Heimdall back down to MDK if I wanted to?
Edit: the recovery and boot images I downloaded from bait-fish were identical in size... does that make sense or should they be different?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can think of no circumstances where I would want my Dev Edition S4 to receive OTA Downloads. I want to avoid those. That is why I bought a developer device to start with. When the Devs have had a chance to see the updates features and incorporate them into new ROM releases that is soon enough for me. If indeed the OTA could be had without locking down the bootloader, I still would not want to accept it. So much goodness in custom roms. I don't consider myself behind at all if I wait for the latest updates to be incorporated into the Roms.
But TEHO, I guess.
Sent from my Hyperdriven Dev Edition Vzw SCH-I545 with KT kernel using Tapatalk 4
wtherrell said:
I can think of no circumstances where I would want my Dev Edition S4 to receive OTA Downloads. I want to avoid those. That is why I bought a developer device to start with. When the Devs have had a chance to see the updates features and incorporate them into new ROM releases that is soon enough for me. If indeed the OTA could be had without locking down the bootloader, I still would not want to accept it. So much goodness in custom roms. I don't consider myself behind at all if I wait for the latest updates to be incorporated into the Roms.
But TEHO, I guess.
Sent from my Hyperdriven Dev Edition Vzw SCH-I545 with KT kernel using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear you! What ROMS are you running and usually how do you go about installing them? (i.e. install custom recovery then flash the ROM as a zip?) I am pretty new to having a developer device and navigating around it. Does Hashcode's SafeStrap work for our dev device? if so, which version? Sorry I am asking so many questions, I am still a n00b, still green, getting my feet wet, I want to make the right decisions and do the right things without royally screwing anything up.
Skeetch79 said:
I hear you! What ROMS are you running and usually how do you go about installing them? (i.e. install custom recovery then flash the ROM as a zip?) I am pretty new to having a developer device and navigating around it. Does Hashcode's SafeStrap work for our dev device? if so, which version? Sorry I am asking so many questions, I am still a n00b, still green, getting my feet wet, I want to make the right decisions and do the right things without royally screwing anything up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In regards to your question about installing ME7 or MI1 I would highly advise against it. We're currently trying to see if someone who already took the ME7 update on their dev phone is willing to test and see if this package will take them back to OYUAMDK, specifically if it will allow them to flash an older aboot. It does not work on consumer ME7 devices, but until we have confirmation from someone who is already on an ME7 build on their dev device, id hold off. As far as custom recovery...I believe you guys have the ability of using loki and/or just regular non loki'd twrp and cwm right? Id use those before I would use Safestrap at this point; more compatibility. Also if you wanted to be on the latest build why not install a ME7 rom? VRUAME7 stock root deodex is already up. I was working on the MI1 stock root deodex rom, but got side tracked lol. Its pretty much done, just cant get wifi to work all time yet. Oh and about the recovery and boot imgs and different sizes, they should be identical the only difference is I trimmed the padded areas, basically the same as you would get from an official Odin image.
Hi guys n girls,
I am sort of new to the Ace section here. I am doing a re-vamp of my mum's phone and said I would spruce it up a little. Shame there is no decent CM 9 versions that I can get working because of lack of RAM....the only one listed (no disrespect to the dev - thanks for making it available on such a low spec device!) but it doesn't work with my Optus GT S5830V (5830I) for some reason?
Anyway to my point, I have downloaded several versions of the stock firmware from Sammobile. The odd thing is that I cannot extract that firmware at all. Every archive program I have sees it as either being not an archive; corrupt or fails to extract it? So I am unable to make my own 4 part Odin recovery package. Making my own will save time; at the moment I have to flash the 4 part Odin (return to stock) package, then reboot into download mode again and then flash the stock firmware?
3 things I noted.
1). The device is not detected by the so called Odin specific for Ace and variants that uses an Ops type PIT file? The device is plugged in and all drivers upto date....it' just plain doesn't see it? It is however detected and flashable (albeit without an .ops file) using the 4 part package on Odin 3.07 made for my Galaxy S3?
2). I am unable to get any detection with EFS pro and it returns no PIT file?
3). All attempts to extract the stock Optus firmware package fail. I have removed the .MD5 file extension (only needed for preserving file naming conventions anyway - i.e. If you rename any .tar.md5 firmware package, in order to be able to flash it you need only to remove the .md5 from the end and leaving it as .tar and the firmware will flash without error. I digress.....What does someone suggest for me to being able to make my own firmware package based on stock?
First off, wrong section.
Jarmezrocks said:
Shame there is no decent CM 9 versions that I can get working because of lack of RAM....the only one listed (no disrespect to the dev - thanks for making it available on such a low spec device!) but it doesn't work with my Optus GT S5830V (5830I) for some reason?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) We don't have a stable CM9 because our devs don't have the source code for all the drivers, not lack of RAM.
2) Have you formatted your system's partitions to the EXT4 filesystem? CM requires an EXT4 filesystem to operate.
Jarmezrocks said:
Anyway to my point, I have downloaded several versions of the stock firmware from Sammobile. The odd thing is that I cannot extract that firmware at all. Every archive program I have sees it as either being not an archive; corrupt or fails to extract it? So I am unable to make my own 4 part Odin recovery package. Making my own will save time; at the moment I have to flash the 4 part Odin (return to stock) package, then reboot into download mode again and then flash the stock firmware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jarmezrocks said:
3). All attempts to extract the stock Optus firmware package fail. I have removed the .MD5 file extension (only needed for preserving file naming conventions anyway - i.e. If you rename any .tar.md5 firmware package, in order to be able to flash it you need only to remove the .md5 from the end and leaving it as .tar and the firmware will flash without error. I digress.....What does someone suggest for me to being able to make my own firmware package based on stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The tar.md5 file has to split into the PDA, CSC, Modem and PIT files using Odinatrix. Search for it.
Jarmezrocks said:
3 things I noted.
1). The device is not detected by the so called Odin specific for Ace and variants that uses an Ops type PIT file? The device is plugged in and all drivers upto date....it' just plain doesn't see it? It is however detected and flashable (albeit without an .ops file) using the 4 part package on Odin 3.07 made for my Galaxy S3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Odin specific for Ace you stated above might be for GT-S5830. For the variants running the Broadcom BCM21553 the Odin version to use is v1.84. Odin v3.07 is more like a universal Odin that works on most devices.
Jarmezrocks said:
2). I am unable to get any detection with EFS pro and it returns no PIT file?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about this.
NightRaven49 said:
First off, wrong section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why? I was not actually asking for support as such, just sharing what I learnt/noticed.
NightRaven49 said:
1) We don't have a stable CM9 because our devs don't have the source code for all the drivers, not lack of RAM.
2) Have you formatted your system's partitions to the EXT4 filesystem? CM requires an EXT4 filesystem to operate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I am aware of that. I actually did attempt to flash the CM9 developer package several times all without result.
I tried many methods, firstly the conventional method and then several other unconventional methods. I first flashed CWM recovery 6.0.0.x (something around there) and that was ok but it could not detect the partitions....naturally I was on the standard firmware!
So I then flashed Thunder kernel which allowed recovery to see and mount all the partitions as well as prepare for a CM firmware flash. As I knew that CM required EXT4 I was prepared and flashed Rio's Ext4-RFS conversion script via Aroma in recovery. This worked very well. Only issue was that in doing so it corrupts the system partition and then I am unable to mount it anymore to flash CM.
Returning to stock or even attempting a nandroid restore from this point forward was fruitless as you can imagine. I tried several other combinations before retiring the idea. These included full system wipe after flashing CWM recovery (I figured maybe having data on the partitions its self could be interferring with the EXT conversion scripts? Everything seemed fine and ran correctly as expected only no system mounting.
I tried another method of flashing a ROM that included a kernel with it based on CM7 in the hopes that migrating to CM9 would be easier; this was not the case.
I picked a CM7 ROM that had a conversion script built in for BML to MTD. After returning to stock base via Odin I proceeded to flash recovery 6.0.0.x again, then I immediately flashed CM7 in the hope that I would kill two birds with 1 stone and have CM do its conversion on the fly as well as install (alleviating the need for mounting system after migrating to Ext4). This ROM installed without fault. All was well until I rebooted expecting to boot into CM7....this wasn't the case, I received bootloops like crazy. Naturally I booted into recovery (the ROM had downgraded me to version 5.x CWM recovery - that is fine anyway); I proceeded by clearing the caches and performing a factory reset (note This usually a good thing to do anyway regardless if you came from a clean reset factory firmware or not).
After doing this and rebooting the device reboots continuously as it did prior. I again decided to re-install the same zip as I am aware with changing to CM on many other devices it can sometimes require flashing 2-3 (and sometimes even 4) times for a firmware update to stick. Again still no response and forever bootloops. I decided at this point that if I was to waste the time and effort in Odin'ing back to stock AND THEN flashing my standard firmware that I should try another CM ROM.
I had CM9 available and even though half hour prior I was unable to mount the the system partition, I thought maybe that CM7 had been flashed first so if CM9 can see and mount partitions (like it should have originally) then I could flash CM9 in a hope that it might wipe out what ever was causing all the issues with bootloops.
CM9 installed correctly, however again I could not boot the device at all! I had read a post from a forum member's guide saying that if I got some of these issues that I should flash back to base and try it again. I did this another 3-4,5 times at least, various combinations of wiping base firmware, not wiping base firmware, wiping CM7; not wiping CM7......Always the end result = bootloops.
As you can imagine it was rather annoying if I was returning to base firmware (if I wanted to be stock carrier branded again I needed to flash twice, once to return to stock and again to flash Optus firmware.
Overall I was unable to get any firmware booting besides that which was provided as an Odin package AKA stock firmware. If I flashed a custom recovery over stock firmware I was unable to boot again. Oddly enough I found a standalone version of CWM recovery version 5 that was not CM specific and I performed a backup as it was able to see the stock partitions without throwing errors.
I then opted to do a conversion to EXT4 again and hoped that I could just restore my nandroid backup of the stock partitions like recommended in may of the guides for Galaxy Ace.
Unfortunately again I was unable to boot and the partitions become unmountable leading to yet again flashing back to base unbranded, then flashing stock carrier branded firmware (this has the correct modem for the carrier and region).
At this point I retired the idea of custom firmware. I will later root the device and just leave it on 2.3.7 and do internal/external SDcard swap and flash a theme and maybe a few compatible APKs from newer stock firmwares (at least ICS) to achieve the functionality I was hoping to have by flashing and using ICS. I found the best and most simplest way of achieving this was through Moto-Chopper Root method and adb, most of the documented ways of achieving root on the Ace don't work for the S5830V for some reason. So I will stick with what works.
NightRaven49 said:
The tar.md5 file has to split into the PDA, CSC, Modem and PIT files using Odinatrix. Search for it.
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Thanks for the tip. :good: I have downloaded this ready now, so I will investigate how this goes? It looks very similar to a application I already use TAR.MD5_PACKAGER however I see it has an option for extracting from .tar.md5 files that have malformed header information. So that sounds like it should do the trick!:fingers-crossed: Do you think that this is maybe intensional as a means of stopping people like us from building custom firmware packages?
I mean the .tar.md5 package flashes perfectly as it should do which is very surprising seeming .md5 signature is very easily broken when you rename the file and you have not even opened it. That was what lead me to flashing it in the first place, I mean I figured that if the .tar.md5 was so corrupt as I believed it was, then the worst that can happen will be Odin will spit an error message and not proceed i.e. it won't even attempt to flash the said firmware!
Myself if I download any firmware that doesn't flash and fails due to md5 error, I immediately open it up and inspect it and unless it was extremely difficult to obtain (I have waited close to 30 hours once for an old firmware package to download from the only source I could find - but regardless if it was damaged or not I only wanted the old bootloader so I could integrate it into a new firmware package so the passing md5 was relatively unimportant), I would just re-download it again.
The fact that ALL of these packages for S5830I are like this (regardless of what browser or means I downloaded the package) and the fact that they DO in fact flash like normal packages, and the phone returns to 100% factory condition; tells me that this does look like a means of discouraging custom firmware developers? hmmm
NightRaven49 said:
The Odin specific for Ace you stated above might be for GT-S5830. For the variants running the Broadcom BCM21553 the Odin version to use is v1.84. Odin v3.07 is more like a universal Odin that works on most devices.
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The device is actually a S5830V...the V devices are relatively undocumented, but they are essentially just the same as the more common i/M variants. I did my homework first with this, and I can most certainly attest that it is NOT the S5830. I wouldn't attempt flashing S5830 firmware, also S5830i firmware boots and functions as normal and has signal albeit not so strong when the modem is not for our carrier and/or region, but function none the less.
NightRaven49 said:
I don't know about this.
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Well give the fact that I had performed so many download of firmware that I initially believed to be corrupt I was unable to extract the PIT (or in the case of the generic Ace OPS file) from the firmwares.
Being the fact that there was little known about the S5830V I was unsure if to proceed of not? There are few reports on the device and most of them were of owners bricking their device, only 1 report I know of where a V owner claimed he flashed S5830i firmware without a hitch, again he was not from Australia where I am from, so I was flying blind and scared I was going to brick the device.
At the very least if I had a PIT file I could analyse it and could manually make image backup of the EFS/IMEI partition straight after rooting the phone. I have looked already at scripts that scan the whole emmc and I hit a snag when the kernel I am using is not insecure i.e. adb cannot run as root. I have root and confirmed with root checker app but terminal emulator and/or command line are unable to obtain root
Anyway to shed some light for you EFS Pro is a means of doing this that works on most Samsung devices....just not the Ace as far as I can tell.
Yes I am already aware that there is Galaxy Toolbox and I had actually gone ahead and done all that already,but an incident more recently where I had a device I was repairing with a wiped IMEI and it actually refused to boot. This becomes a hassle when restoring the IMEI cause in order to have Galaxy Toolbox you need to be booted and rooted. I wasted a whole day repairing the IMEI. So pretty much the message here is what good is Galaxy Toolbox to me restoring the IMEI if it can't boot? NONE!
I contacted the developer weeks ago and explained my situation and he is still yet to respond. I explained that I had a V variant of the Ace and wanted to ensure I had all bases covered. I requested information on how I could open the IMEI manually outside of the Galaxy Toolbox in the case that it would not boot (as this was how I restored the other device last week and it worked), unfortunately I am still yet to hear a response form him? Slack.
When I obtain this information I will share it here on XDA in the hopes that people in Australia with this variant will search and find some info on it. This is also why I am making this post here so detailed for folks like me who have been searching fruitlessly for answers.
My thoughts are that maybe there is something still not 100% the same between the i and the V because all custom firmwares I tried made for the S5830i never worked?
There is maybe an issue with how they are scripting their installs that is causing issues, but it is worrying enough that flashing so far has lead to partitions becoming corrupted very easily. I have had this before with my own phone more recently because a dev made a simple mistake in an updater script that called an explicit partition by mounting point ID and not by a more generic mounting point like "/system", "system" which lead to lost IMEI and bricked phone.
I am not blaming the dev though because it is easy to assume that a even though the mounting was non-specific for my device and the partition being called was not actually the EFS, it should not have corrupted my EFS....but that is not true, so a discovery was made and a lesson learned from all this. I managed to revive my device and it lived to fight another day, but simple mistakes made in ignorance or lack of information can still be costly mistakes. Need I say more.
I will report back when I have got a proper partition map for the S5830V and all will be happy days
I don't feel like quoting anymore, but I do spot some anomalies.
1) ...we don't have CWM 6.0.0.x. Are you sure you used the 5830i CWM, not the 5830?
2) I was referring to some other version of Odin when you said the Odin version specific to Ace. Which version were you using then?
3) I don't see how rio's multi-formatter can render the system partitions unmountable. In that case try lopicl.00's EXT4 formatter. Go search for it. After formatting flash Biel's Specific Basic kernel.
also you were asking a question, so naturally this should be in Q&A.
....... create an ODIN flash file from .img files........ I know there are numerous threads regarding this topic but having never done it before I'd think a little help would be wise (for the actual process).
Too this end, I've zipped up three files; system.img recovery.img and boot.img. They are for a Samsung device and are known good files. I can not fastboot flash them; my fast boot is broken (don't ask). However, Odin connects perfectly to my PC (with the device in download mode, of course .
If someone could either do the actual conversion, or point me to a procedure that ACTUALLY works, I'd be most appreciative. I'd upload the files here, but they're too big. If you want to try and help me do this, I could easily email the zip file to you, however.
BTW, I'm able to examine the contents of system.img with ex2explore.exe, but not the other two files. I assume they are not the same format??
And, yes (if it makes any difference) my boot loader is unlocked. Thanks, everyone.
Boowho??
So when I tried flashing a combination file it sent back a failed status, & said reasoning was because of something pertaining to the Re Partition.. (not sure on exact phrase at this moment ) but with the help of google I found that its basically saying my pit file is not being recognized. So im trying to find out if anyone knows where I can Download a Pit file for Samsung Galaxy A102USQS4ASK4 or if someone can direct me with step by step instructions on how to create my own Pit file ?
Also I am not rooted so the extraction method wobt work. And I want to flash a combination file so I can find phantom OEM so I can then unlock bootloader and root.
Ps. The whole goal behind all of this is to recover some of my deleted text messages and photos. Any other options on how PLEASE let me know @amirizad_7436 I'm tagging you because you were such a big help last time
Thanks ahead of time, Rayne
srayne1355 said:
So when I tried flashing a combination file it sent back a failed status, & said reasoning was because of something pertaining to the Re Partition.. (not sure on exact phrase at this moment ) but with the help of google I found that its basically saying my pit file is not being recognized. So im trying to find out if anyone knows where I can Download a Pit file for Samsung Galaxy A102USQS4ASK4 or if someone can direct me with step by step instructions on how to create my own Pit file ?
Also I am not rooted so the extraction method wobt work. And I want to flash a combination file so I can find phantom OEM so I can then unlock bootloader and root.
Ps. The whole goal behind all of this is to recover some of my deleted text messages and photos. Any other options on how PLEASE let me know @amirizad_7436 I'm tagging you because you were such a big help last time
Thanks ahead of time, Rayne
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Ah sh*it,here we go again
Would you pm me at telegram?
My I'd is same as here
MOD ACTION:
Thread closed as duplicate. Follow the original HERE