So I was attempting to get 5.0 dev preview with root.
I flashed 4.5.3, rooted, had TWRP and SuperUser installed.
Stripped 5.0.2 dev preview of the images/ folder, and modified the updater-script to not look for those.
Flashed 5.0.2, rebooted into recovery. I installed root when TWRP asked.
I then used uboot-4.5.3 and replaced the images/ folder with the one from the 5.0.2 dev preview that I stripped out earlier.
I flashed the firmware from the dev preview and rebooted my device.
Now I only have a solid black screen that I can never get anything to happen. No Amazon logo, no recovery when holding Vol+ and Power, nothing. I issue fastboot and adb to wait for device connection and neither ever respond.
I fear that the new boot.img sees I have a non-standard recovery and just halts. I am not sure though as I have no output.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I was going to pop this thing open and connect my Arduino the UART port, to see if any log output would be helpful. Otherwise I"ll see if Amazon will honor a warranty for it.
emailer33 said:
...
I then used uboot-4.5.3 and replaced the images/ folder with the one from the 5.0.2 dev preview that I stripped out earlier.
I flashed the firmware from the dev preview and rebooted my device.
Now I only have a solid black screen that I can never get anything to happen. No Amazon logo, no recovery when holding Vol+ and Power, nothing. I issue fastboot and adb to wait for device connection and neither ever respond.
I fear that the new boot.img sees I have a non-standard recovery and just halts. I am not sure though as I have no output.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I was going to pop this thing open and connect my Arduino the UART port, to see if any log output would be helpful. Otherwise I"ll see if Amazon will honor a warranty for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, looks you've retraced the bricking steps from here (with a small variation on the theme):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-hd/general/lolipop-ota-capture-t3141810
If you don't see even white Amazon logo, my guess is that your flash for the new 5.0.2 TEE1/UBOOT did not go so well. The sequence for the boot is TEE1 -> UBOOT (white Amazon logo) -> boot.img (yellow Fire logo), alternatively, UBOOT -> recovery. There is also TEE2, but I am not sure how to boot that one. Note that 5.0.2 UBOOT will not boot TWRP recovery, at most one could do here is flash 5.0.2 Amazon recovery in the same go as TEE1/UBOOT. Then you could do factory reset, if this flash goes well.
I've tried to get MTK tools going, but no dice :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-hd/help/mtk-tools-people-hopeless-bricks-t3139784
Tell Amazon that an update made your Fire dark, and don't tell them that you actively participated in the process
At this point I think that Amazon should have provided more recovery options for people here to use, instead they now spend money on shipping bricked Fires back and forth. Sloppy programming, methinks ...
Sounds like I should've definitely flashed the stock recovery after flashing the 5.0.2 UBOOT. I will try my warranty options, thank you!
Edit: Amazon support is probably the most helpful and quickest tech support I have ever used. They're sending me a new one and I send the old one back in the shipping box.
I went through the same screw up. I'm guessing the only way to get TWRP to actually flash a stock recovery would to do an ADB sideload since it protects itself from getting overwritten.
siegesoldier said:
I went through the same screw up. I'm guessing the only way to get TWRP to actually flash a stock recovery would to do an ADB sideload since it protects itself from getting overwritten.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still wonder why your upgrade did not work. On paper it should have been fine, flash 5.0.2, install su/SuperSu, {clear /data}, flash uboot/tee1, and go boot into 5.0.2. Flashing Fire recovery was not necessary, other than to do a factory reset (clear /data). But, one could have cleared /data in TWRP before. Did TWRP screw up /system partition to an unrecoverable state? Or was it SuperSu flash that did not go well? Anyway, I hope people stop trying this, since so far it's been 2 bricks for 2 attempts ...
New Fire just arrived, so I'll probably stick to rooted 4.5.4 for now (5.0.2 was sooo pretty though).
The unit that arrived was version 4.1.1, pretty old, wonder if its easier to root.
emailer33 said:
New Fire just arrived, so I'll probably stick to rooted 4.5.4 for now (5.0.2 was sooo pretty though).
The unit that arrived was version 4.1.1, pretty old, wonder if its easier to root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, 4.1.1 was never offered for download!!! Try to get root, and copy the UBOOT, and TEE1 partition. Just in case.
bibikalka said:
Wow, 4.1.1 was never offered for download!!! Try to get root, and copy the UBOOT, and TEE1 partition. Just in case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Already have root on it, which mmcblk blocks should I copy?
emailer33 said:
Already have root on it, which mmcblk blocks should I copy?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The exercise is a bit academic, but what the heck ...
dd if=recovery.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p7 (PART 7)
For other partitions, see below.
[PART] 1: 00000100 00000040 'PRO_INFO'
[PART] 2: 00002000 00000800 'PMT'
[PART] 3: 00002800 00002800 'TEE1'
[PART] 4: 00002800 00005000 'TEE2'
[PART] 5: 00000400 00007800 'UBOOT'
[PART] 6: 00004000 00007C00 'boot'
[PART] 7: 00004000 0000BC00 'recovery'
[PART] 8: 00000800 0000FC00 'KB'
[PART] 9: 00000800 00010400 'DKB'
[PART] 10: 00000400 00010C00 'MISC'
[PART] 11: 00008000 00011000 'persisbackup'
[PART] 12: 00258000 00019000 'system'
[PART] 13: 001B8000 00271000 'cache'
[PART] 14: 018F3FDF 00429000 'userdata'
Academic or not, that should be posted to a sticky thread or a wiki. But I've backed up everything except cache and userdata, is there anywhere I can put it up? I will say zipped /system/ is 779MB.
emailer33 said:
Academic or not, that should be posted to a sticky thread or a wiki. But I've backed up everything except cache and userdata, is there anywhere I can put it up? I will say zipped /system/ is 779MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the only value would be in UBOOT and TEE1. You should try to boot with "Pwr Vol+" button hold, to see if it lets you into recovery (either Amazon's or TWRP). 4.5.1 and 4.5.2 would not do so, which causes bricks ... If it does not let you into recovery via these buttons, no value then ...
Related
Hey guys,
apart from my Un-Bricking-Thread I wanted to start a Thread dealing with how to prevent a brick in the first place.
--- Already bricked your Prime? Read on here, maybe you can recover it ---
In the last days I learned quite a few things about the TFP, its CWM and how to work with it. I also hard bricked my Prime so I certainly know what I am talking about
Unfortunately ASUS didn't fully unlock our Bootloader. We still can't use NVFLASH for low level flashs.
This also means that we can't recover some things we could with NVFLASH access (like a broken bootloader).
So lets start with the things you better not do:
DON'T
Once you unlocked the prime and installed CWM, do NOT try to install a super blob from ASUS (that is a blob file from one of the 'full' updates from their site)
It seems that doing so totally bricks your Prime with no chance of recovery... (happened at least twice so far)
Don't flash kernels like you used to flash (with write_raw_image to /boot). This does not work on the Prime. More on how to do it later.
Don't rely on your newly created ROM to work, ALWAYS have a backup of a working ROM on your sdcard (or a zip of a working ROM)
Currently we can't mount the USB-Storage from inside CWM, so transferring files to the Prime while being in recovery is not as easy for many not so advanced users.
Always make sure you have all files you need before rebooting to recovery.
DO
Kernel flashing: There seem to be two methods on how to flash a new kernel. One is safer but needs a bit more work, and the other is rather unsafe but okay when you (or the ROM dev) know what needs to be done.
Flash your boot.img via fastboot. This is usually rather safe (as safe as fastboot can be) but needs you to have a working fastboot environment. Update: It seems kernel flashing via fastboot does not work at all. Fastboot doesn't give you an error but it doesn't update the kernel either...
Flash your kernel via the /staging partition. In order to use this method you first need to pack your boot.img into a blob file.
Then you need put the data from the blob file to the /staging partition.
Once you reboot the kernel gets automatically installed.
Please be aware that you can flash almost everything like this, even the bootloader.
So if you screw up packing the blob file, you could easily brick your Prime.
The advantage of this method is that the user doesn't need to do anything, but you really need to take care of what you are doing.
Also make sure that the /staging partition is ALWAYS unmounted before flashing anything to it. Otherwise this will result in a Brick 3.
Always make a backup of your current ROM before flashing anything else. As stated earlier, we currently have no access to the sdcard in recovery, so transferring files to Prime is not as easy in recovery mode.
So I hope I can find some more topics in the future, but for now that's it
Diamondback said:
DON'T
Once you unlocked the prime and installed CWM, do NOT try to install a super blob from ASUS (that is a blob file from one of the 'full' updates from their site) It seems that doing so totally bricks your Prime with no chance of recovery... (happened at least twice so far)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But but but how can I has update?! I want Update! RWAR!
Thanks, thanks, bump, and thanks again! Due to the current state of our device's development (especially with an early build of CWM), misinformation floating around, etc. this is invaluable! Now I know what "staging" is and what its use is. Well done - keep up the great work
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
mtotho said:
But but but how can I has update?! I want Update!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use custom ROMs. We currently don't really know if it ALWAYS bricks your Prime. We just know that two updates bricked two primes
I think nobody wants to try
Diamondback said:
Use custom ROMs. We currently don't really know if it ALWAYS bricks your Prime. We just know that two updated bricked two primes
I think nobody wants to try
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I am just kidding. I knoweth better plus I like custom roms (and I am very flash happy)
I won't be happy until we get some sort of nightly rom that I can flash daily
thanks diamondback this prob saved me lots of time and the almost $700 i have in my device+dock
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
Will be possible to use NVFLASH anytime? Have we to look for a dev or is Asus that must upgrade its apk?
Thanks Diamondback for making this. This needs to become a sticky immediately. To many people are blindly unlocking then get mad when they find out they can't do OTA updates. Or people installing CMW without even unlocking and blaming others issues on that when they found out device should've been unlocked first..lmfao
Unlock tool release=operation sabotage for those who don't know any better or ignorant or lazy to research first. QnA section had several people with semi or hard bricked primes. Primes are dying off left n right..lol
Diamondback said:
Unfortunately ASUS didn't fully unlock our Bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you download their software, run it to completely void your warranty (they've already denied support on one unrelated hardware issues that I know of), and you STILL don't have full access?
WTF!?!?!!?
Not being able to use NVFlash has completely put me off, for me NVFlash was the ultimate aim for unlocking the bootloader ... pretty **** !
(unhappy smiley)
Diamondback, I'm so sorry to hear that you bricked your Prime! Any luck getting unbricked yet?
Thank you so much for posting this invaluable guide. You are generous beyond words, to go to this effort to save other users from the lessons you had to learn the hard way. There aren't enough thanks in the world.
If we can at least ATM use fastboot that's a good thing. A good thing for fastboot is you can first do-
fastboot boot boot.img and it will boot the kernel the first time, basically so you can test it before it writes the .img
then you can fastboot flash boot.img to write the image. It'll work for now, sucks that any non-dev who just wants to flash a kernel has to set up fastboot
Edit- girluvsdroid- just saw you were in wilmington- me too.
This was very helpful.
BUMP!
Reading is fundamental! Lol I don't know how many times I've just glanced over post, just to get the newest firmware, and kernals, just to end up on the verg of a bricked device. Thanks.
What ?
So If I UnlockBootLoader
I cant OTA Anymore ? Seriously
AndyMclamb said:
What ?
So If I UnlockBootLoader
I cant OTA Anymore ? Seriously
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But why would you unlock if you were not going to install custom roms (that have the latest OTA built in) anyway?
Diamondback said:
Flash your boot.img via fastboot. This is usually rather safe (as safe as fastboot can be) but needs you to have a working fastboot environment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm.. Does not seem to work for me. Built a kernel, switched in fastboot mode. Then:
Code:
$ sudo ./fastboot -i 0x0b05 boot zImage blob.LNX-ramdisk.cpio.gz
creating boot image...
creating boot image - 4214784 bytes
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.748s]
booting...
FAILED (remote: ()
finished. total time: 0.749s
Prime displays: Failed to process command boot error(0x120000)
Any advice?
saturn_de said:
Hmm.. Does not seem to work for me. Built a kernel, switched in fastboot mode. Then:
Code:
$ sudo ./fastboot -i 0x0b05 boot zImage blob.LNX-ramdisk.cpio.gz
creating boot image...
creating boot image - 4214784 bytes
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.748s]
booting...
FAILED (remote: ()
finished. total time: 0.749s
Prime displays: Failed to process command boot error(0x120000)
Any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. fastboot boot does not work at all.And we also found out that kernel flashing via fastboot does not work either.
You have to flash your kernels via a custom made blob ;-)
Gesendet von meinem Desire HD mit Tapatalk
Prime Stuck in CWM boot loop hell.
I have a Prime that is stuck in a CWM Recovery boot loop.
Brick 1a
All thanks (sincerely) to Viperboy and his ViperMOD PrimeTime 4.5, I had my Prime rooted, boot loader unlocked and loaded with ClockworkMOD Recovery 5.5.0.4.
I used CWM to create a backup, wipe the data/factory, cache partition and Dalvik cache, rebooted the system (from CWM menu) just to verify that the unit was really wiped back to setup, powered down the unit, rebooted into CWM Recovery (using Power while holding Vol.Down, wait for small/white text, Vol.Up) and Restored using the previously created Backup.
I rebooted Android from CWM menu and my Prime was restored.
Everything was great, but not for long.
The next time that I booted into CWM recovery I selected “Reboot System Now”.
It went dark, displayed the ASUS splash screen, went dark and went back into CWM.
I am stuck in that loop.
I have tried all the suggested fixes I can find but all methods are useless because:
1. I can’t acquire an ADB connection because Windows doesn’t identify the bricked Prime correctly and won’t install the USB drivers. Device Manager sees “Full Android as Emulator”.
2. I can’t boot into the boot loader to use Fastboot because I never see the option to choose it. It boots or reboots directly into CWM after “Booting Recovery Kernel Image”, ever while holding the Vol.Down button.
I have repeatedly tried installing and uninstalling the drivers by installing and uninstalling the Asus Sync and Asus Android USB Drivers. I have repeatedly tried to install the drivers via the Device Manager. No good. I’ve installed and uninstalled Android SDK Tools repeatedly.
Is there a way out of this? I hope I'm not efed.
Thank you in advance for any help.
Temporalmind said:
I have a Prime that is stuck in a CWM Recovery boot loop.
Brick 1a
[..]
I apologize for the length of this post. I hope I’m not efed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please try to manually installing these drivers here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1426502
Adb should be working afterwards
Universal Naked Driver works great!
Ok, you saved me and my precious.
Your drivers were exactly what I needed.
After installing them in Device manager I was able to achieve a “ASUS Android Composite ADB Interface” connection.
Following the “How to Unbrick your Transformer Prime (or not)”, Option 1a and restoring I’m up and running.
Thank you!
Then, I deliberately caused the boot looping condition again to see if I could figure out how I got there.
There is an app that I think comes preinstalled on the Prime called ”Transformer Recovery Boot”. The icon is labeled "Recovery". This is the app that took me into the Brick 1a the first time and I duplicated it the next time I used it.
Then I was able to ADB my way back to civilization, again.
Thought I’d pass that on incase it helps to determine why the unlocked Prime seems to be so susceptible to bricking.
Again, Thank You!
I have a Nabi 2 tablet that I've rooted, installed TWRP, and flash the gapps and a few other tweaks to. It's about to go in for an RMA since the USB and charging ports are both broken. The problem in the USB port is that one of the pins got bent - I don't know how, it looks like the conductor somehow got peeled back off of the plastic. The point is, I have no USB access to the device.
In order to pass the inspection for the RMA, I need to have it stock I can flash the stock ROM by putting it on the SDCard in my laptop then transferring that to the device and flashing it through TWRP. The question I have, though, is whether I can flash the stock recovery with ADB access to it. Every thread I've been able to uncover so far about flashing a recovery requires ADB access to issue the "adb fastboot flash" command. Is there another way to do this?
If the ROM your going to return it with (stock) has the flash image binary then you can use a terminal emulator but I doubt this will work as most often stock ROMs don't. But maybe worth a shot
Otherwise depending on how the tablet and recovery are set up possibly flash the stock recovery through twrp
Would need to know a lot more about your tablet to say for sure how to do it
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Yes. Sometimes I have seen recovery-from-boot.p and install-recovery.sh restore it on first boot after you have restored stock ROM.
If not...
Copy a stock recovery.img to your external SDcard
After restoring your Nabi ROM.
Use TWRP "mount" tab and make sure external_sdcard is checked
Use TWRP "Terminal Command"
dd if=/external_sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/SOS
I forget when TWRP add terminal command, if you have an older version you'll have to update it first.(same idea as flashing stock, just get the 2.6.0.0 TWRP image and put on external SD) There are some other methods but I think this is easiest without a functioning USB
aicjofs, thanks!
It could just be my current sleep-deprived state, but this line confused me:
aicjofs said:
Yes. Sometimes I have seen recovery-from-boot.p and install-recovery.sh restore it on first boot after you have restored stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way my brain interpreted it says that once the stock ROM is restored, it will automatically restore the recovery on first boot.
I have some part of my brain screaming "NO!" though, so I'm not sure what you were trying to say there. Care to enlighten me?
oh, and I've got TWRP 2.2.2.1, and it does have a terminal emulator, but it's clunky at best.
Dan in SA said:
aicjofs, thanks!
It could just be my current sleep-deprived state, but this line confused me:
The way my brain interpreted it says that once the stock ROM is restored, it will automatically restore the recovery on first boot.
I have some part of my brain screaming "NO!" though, so I'm not sure what you were trying to say there. Care to enlighten me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes some have claimed it returned them to stock recovery. That file is only like 300kb though so it can't be the full image as the kernel alone is 4MB+. Maybe it's just the ramdisk, but its too large for that. I can't imagine it works but that's what people have claimed, probably shouldn't have said I have seen because I haven't personally seen it, just heard. I would do the method I talked about and dd the image from TWRP.
All can be recovered without USB port as long as you can boot either Android or TWRP just don't lose both at same time
Ok, thanks I'll try and get it charged tonight, and flash the stock ROM tomorrow and see what happens.
One more quick question - I don't have a recovery.img file. I have recovery.emmc.win and mmcblk0p1.img - they're both 8,192kb. I'm assuming I would either rename the first to recovery.img, or use the second and dd it into /dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/mmcblk0p1
Am I on the right track?
Dan in SA said:
Ok, thanks I'll try and get it charged tonight, and flash the stock ROM tomorrow and see what happens.
One more quick question - I don't have a recovery.img file. I have recovery.emmc.win and mmcblk0p1.img - they're both 8,192kb. I'm assuming I would either rename the first to recovery.img, or use the second and dd it into /dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/mmcblk0p1
Am I on the right track?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes on the first but No on second. The way you have it won't work but you are close. for dd the "if" = input file, and the "of" = output file. Both are your input file. recovery.emmc.win = mmcblk0p1.img and an image of recovery partition basically a different name for the same thing.(the same as boot.emmc.win = mmcblk0p2.img an image of boot partition) In this case the input is either of those 2 files, and the output is the recovery partition.
So you could use any of the following it's just changing the name of the input
dd if=/external_sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/SOS (if you renamed one of the two files to recovery.img)
dd if=/external_sdcard/recovery.emmc.win of=/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/SOS
dd if=/external_sdcard/mmcblk0p1.img of=/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/SOS
Just use the above...but to confuse you more you could be using mmcblk naming convention in the output file as you stated. Tegra renames the mmcblk block format, think of it as a symlink so you can call a single location 2 different names.
so /dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/SOS is the same as /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 and is the recovery partition itself
another example /dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/LNX is the same as /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 and is the boot partition
knowing that you could take the first example from above
dd if=/external_sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/SOS
and write it as
dd if=/external_sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1
and accomplish the same thing, so you were close just no "/platform/sdhci-tegra.3" Hopefully I didn't come across as offensive as I imagine you already know some of the above
I knew that (DUH! :cyclops: ) I told ya I was sleep deprived.
I'm going to flash it this afternoon and see what falls out.
Thanks bunches!
Ok, first step finally done.
Got the JmzNabi2Stock_OLD.zip loaded. Got the dreaded "turning wifi on" error, but skipped that step to move on. Currently waiting for "Please wait while your nabi device is being initialized. This might take a few minutes."
It has been at least 5 minutes, but to be honest this is going faster than the FC17 to FC19 upgrade I have going on on the system next to it. It's had a blank screen with the disk spinning since I started this about 30 minutes ago.
WooHoo! as I was typing that last para, the setup screen showed up. I'll go through som rudimentary things just to check and make sure this image isn't rooted, then I'll try to reload the stock recovery.
edit: crap, this wasn't the "stock" image. Now I need to head off and try to find that......
Whelp, that didn't work. One of the ROM flashes broke the recovery and lost root. Without ADB, I can't do anything more
Dan in SA said:
Whelp, that didn't work. One of the ROM flashes broke the recovery and lost root. Without ADB, I can't do anything more
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the recovery doesn't boot I doubt they will even look deeper then that and think you messed it up.
If you still want to attempt it you have to use an exploit to gain root again(Android still boots right?) Unfortunately most exploits are using ADB as a means to that end. ADB restore bug, elevating ADB shell to root via local.prop edit, for example. I would think the Android master key exploit would work on this device but the only good tool I have seen for it is Cydia Impactor. GUI that's compiled so its not easy to short cut and do locally without following the write up and manually doing everything(In short no one click that will work without USB). I think memdroid or something like that only worked up until 4.0.2 or something so I think Nabi is patched against it. It can be done I just don't know if you want to go to the effort. Should have used the Nabilab full stock ROM and stock recovery to restore as they are matched set.
aicjofs said:
Should have used the Nabilab full stock ROM and stock recovery to restore as they are matched set.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did, but when I booted that up after I loaded the ROM, SuperSU was installed implying that the image was rooted already.
Too late now, it's in the box going back to Nabi tomorrow.
Did my best to avoid having to ask for help, but looks like I've run out of ideas. I've got a 7840 that currently refuses to boot past the recovery screen, thanks (probably) to my own incompetence. Here's what happened along the way to this point:
First, probably important to note: my tablet is a Chinese-released 7840 running 5.0.2 Lollipop. The hardware is identical from what I can tell, but the software was definitely a bit tweaked as there were no Google services installed. (And sideloading any of the Google services always failed no matter how I went about it.) This is basically why I decided to start messing around with things.
Attempted to load the developer firmware. Wound up in the dreaded "Intel Inside" bootloop, but thanks to @xBIGREDDx and his unbrick.zip (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=60663442&postcount=2) I was able to return to normal booting. No matter how many times I attempted to flash the open source firmware, I always got stuck in the bootloop and had to flash the unbrick.zip to be able to do anything. No ability to exit the bootloop in order to reach the bootloader meant this was a big impasse.
I then decided to use the tethered CWM method to root the device for the purposes of giving sideloading the Play Store another try. That worked just fine and I was able to root my 7840 without a hitch. I then created a nandroid backup (which suspiciously didn't generate an MD5 file) in case I managed to really screw things up trying to sideload the Google Services.
That's when I thought wiping and recovering the 4.4.4 Kit Kat nandroid backup might be a good idea. This of course didn't work, so I wiped and restored my own 5.0.2 backup. However, at this point things wouldn't boot no matter what I did. I would see the boot screen with the Dell logo and the Lollipop-style ANDROID text, but after a couple of minutes everything would reboot and after a couple of tries the device would boot to recovery and just sit.
After fiddling around with trying different restore methods, I decided to see if I could flash the developer firmware to no avail. (Unable to write to OSIP, security error, etc.) Then I gave @anggusss's 5.0.1 OTA update.zip a try. (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=60632439&postcount=21) That gave me a different error:
"Can't install this package (Fri Apr 24 13:29:34 CST 2015) over newer build (Fri Apr 24 13:58:18 CST 2015)."
Frustrating to see that a build a half hour newer might be all I need. So, if any of you happen to have captured the 5.0.2 OTA build (or can help me tweak the 5.0.1 build to report itself as newer), would you mind giving me a hand? Would be most appreciative. I've written to Dell open-source support but don't expect to hear back for another week or so. It'd be nice to not be using the Venue as a paperweight for a week.
wirebook said:
No matter how many times I attempted to flash the open source firmware, I always got stuck in the bootloop and had to flash the unbrick.zip to be able to do anything. No ability to exit the bootloop in order to reach the bootloader meant this was a big impasse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of interest, how was the tablet booted when you flashed the unbrick.zip (did you volup + power or just regular boot?) ?
Going back to the open-source firmware won't help, because they 4.x to 5.x transition included a re-partitioning, and the bootloader in the 4.x firmware doesn't understand the new partition scheme.
If you boot with the vol. down key held, do you get into fastboot mode? If you can, then you should be able to flash a system image and boot image. I have those pulled from my device; I can post them for you to try later tonight.
anggusss said:
Out of interest, how was the tablet booted when you flashed the unbrick.zip (did you volup + power or just regular boot?) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never gotten vol. up + power to do anything, is that normal? Only vol. down + power, and that'll get me into fastboot mode.
xBIGREDDx said:
Going back to the open-source firmware won't help, because they 4.x to 5.x transition included a re-partitioning, and the bootloader in the 4.x firmware doesn't understand the new partition scheme.
If you boot with the vol. down key held, do you get into fastboot mode? If you can, then you should be able to flash a system image and boot image. I have those pulled from my device; I can post them for you to try later tonight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, well this sounds like it's my problem, then. If you can get those images to me to try I'd be most appreciative! Should be able to give it a shot as I'm still able to get into fastboot.
wirebook said:
Ah, well this sounds like it's my problem, then. If you can get those images to me to try I'd be most appreciative! Should be able to give it a shot as I'm still able to get into fastboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
system.img
This is inside a .zip file because I don't know how to get only the important bits, so I got the whole /system partition. Just unzip then 'fastboot flash system system.img'
boot.img
This is straight from the OTA zip.
You will be pre-rooted. Let me know if this goes well. :good:
xBIGREDDx said:
system.img
This is inside a .zip file because I don't know how to get only the important bits, so I got the whole /system partition. Just unzip then 'fastboot flash system system.img'
boot.img
This is straight from the OTA zip.
You will be pre-rooted. Let me know if this goes well. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for those! Flashed both boot and system, though the system gave me some sort of error on my machine ("Invalid sparse file format at header magi") and then continued to flash something ("sending sparse 'system'"). I saw the red text of some sort of error on the tablet but wasn't able to read it fast enough. The system flash did seem a bit suspiciously fast, though...
Anyway, now waiting to see if anything boots. Been sitting on the Dell/Powered By Android screen for a couple of minutes, though, so if nothing else it looks like I've at least found myself in a new place. Will try reflashing if no improvement and then get back with results!
Sorry if this is considered spamming my own thread, but didn't seem right to just edit my earlier post.
Couldn't get the system image to flash. First got the error about needing to flash as a sparse system, which seemed to be fine. But when the device tried to write the sparse chunk to the partition, it threw an error. ("remote: flash_cmds error!") Thought this might've been a bug of my particular version of adb/fastboot, but updating or trying a different version didn't work any better. In fact, things got worse as I can't even run fastboot on my machine (Windows) anymore without the program crashing on me.
Jumped over onto my Mac and things seemed to be going better, but no progress was made. Still threw that error whenever it came time to write that first sparse chunk. Might my partition table be totally out of whack? (If so, how do I go about fixing it without easy access to an adb shell?)
In other news, I realized the back of the tab has "Venue 8 784001" engraved on it, so there might be hardware / bootloader changes that I can't beat...
Well, I'm not 100% sure it's going to be able to flash the system.img correctly, I thought I could just pull it from my device and it would flash fine, but apparently not. It would be interesting to see what your partition table looks like, but I don't know of a way to get that without having a root shell.
If you have a hex editor or know how to use dd, try chopping off like 200 MB from the end of the image (I think it's all zeroes for at least that much) and see if it flashes then.
If you don't know how to do that, I could upload a modified image for you.
xBIGREDDx said:
Well, I'm not 100% sure it's going to be able to flash the system.img correctly, I thought I could just pull it from my device and it would flash fine, but apparently not. It would be interesting to see what your partition table looks like, but I don't know of a way to get that without having a root shell.
If you have a hex editor or know how to use dd, try chopping off like 200 MB from the end of the image (I think it's all zeroes for at least that much) and see if it flashes then.
If you don't know how to do that, I could upload a modified image for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wirebook said:
Sorry if this is considered spamming my own thread, but didn't seem right to just edit my earlier post.
Couldn't get the system image to flash. First got the error about needing to flash as a sparse system, which seemed to be fine. But when the device tried to write the sparse chunk to the partition, it threw an error. ("remote: flash_cmds error!") Thought this might've been a bug of my particular version of adb/fastboot, but updating or trying a different version didn't work any better. In fact, things got worse as I can't even run fastboot on my machine (Windows) anymore without the program crashing on me.
Jumped over onto my Mac and things seemed to be going better, but no progress was made. Still threw that error whenever it came time to write that first sparse chunk. Might my partition table be totally out of whack? (If so, how do I go about fixing it without easy access to an adb shell?)
In other news, I realized the back of the tab has "Venue 8 784001" engraved on it, so there might be hardware / bootloader changes that I can't beat...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you dump an image is raw.ext4 it has to be converted to sparse image format for android 5.0.2
social-design-concepts said:
When you dump an image is raw.ext4 it has to be converted to sparse image format for android 5.0.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I found the source for img2simg but it won't do me much good... you wouldn't happen to have a pre-built tool handy would you?
xBIGREDDx said:
Well I found the source for img2simg but it won't do me much good... you wouldn't happen to have a pre-built tool handy would you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the image you passed me already employed some kind of compression on it, as I was getting errors about an invalid sparse data header or something like that. (The size on the disk was also less than the reported image size.) Unfortunately I'm unable to mount or convert it on any of my machines so I'm a bit useless.
Thanks everyone for all the help you've been, by the way!
wirebook said:
I think the image you passed me already employed some kind of compression on it, as I was getting errors about an invalid sparse data header or something like that. (The size on the disk was also less than the reported image size.) Unfortunately I'm unable to mount or convert it on any of my machines so I'm a bit useless.
Thanks everyone for all the help you've been, by the way!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's just a dump straight from my system partition. I don't have my tablet with me so I'm not certain on file paths but essentially I did:
dd if=/dev/block/by-name/system of=/storage/sdcard1/system.img
So it's a raw dump of the system partition, whatever happened to be in there.
I think the fastboot command tries to sparse things on its own, but fails?
If you want to try re-partitioning (could be dangerous, could be harmless), try these commands with the partition file from the OTA package:
EDIT: For anyone else coming along, don't do this, it didn't work out well for wirebrook. /EDIT
Code:
fastboot oem start_partitioning
fastboot flash /tmp/partition.tbl kk2lp_partition.tbl
fastboot oem partition /tmp/partition.tbl
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase cache
fastboot oem stop_partitioning
You may also want to erase data while you're in there.
xBIGREDDx said:
It's just a dump straight from my system partition. I don't have my tablet with me so I'm not certain on file paths but essentially I did:
dd if=/dev/block/by-name/system of=/storage/sdcard1/system.img
So it's a raw dump of the system partition, whatever happened to be in there.
I think the fastboot command tries to sparse things on its own, but fails?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That must be what's happening. I'll fiddle with things a bit more later on. It's a bummer there aren't any custom ROMs I could simply flash as an alternative to getting stock up and running...
xBIGREDDx said:
Well I found the source for img2simg but it won't do me much good... you wouldn't happen to have a pre-built tool handy would you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
xBIGREDDx said:
It's just a dump straight from my system partition. I don't have my tablet with me so I'm not certain on file paths but essentially I did:
dd if=/dev/block/by-name/system of=/storage/sdcard1/system.img
So it's a raw dump of the system partition, whatever happened to be in there.
I think the fastboot command tries to sparse things on its own, but fails?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's looking for the sparse magic header that's not there I can when I get home you could also try to use 7zip to compress it to a .gz but I believe Intel stopped support for that format in 4.4.4.
I'm at work I have it at home if your on Linux and want to convert it.
social-design-concepts said:
It's looking for the sparse magic header that's not there I can when I get home you could also try to use 7zip to compress it to a .gz but I believe Intel stopped support for that format in 4.4.4.
I'm at work I have it at home if your on Linux and want to convert it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure this'll be useful for me any more because... (see below)
xBIGREDDx said:
If you want to try re-partitioning (could be dangerous, could be harmless), try these commands with the partition file from the OTA package:
Code:
fastboot oem start_partitioning
fastboot flash /tmp/partition.tbl kk2lp_partition.tbl
fastboot oem partition /tmp/partition.tbl
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase cache
fastboot oem stop_partitioning
You may also want to erase data while you're in there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gave this a shot and partitioning seemed to work just fine. Flashing the OTA boot.img worked just fine, and attempting to flash your system.img once again threw an error at me. Thought I'd perform a reboot at this point (bad idea!) to see what I was working with and then I found myself with @anggusss' USB screen. (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=60675581&postcount=5) Probably should've tried flashing a something else just to see if that did anything.
Guessing I've now got a brick, because I'm no longer able to get it to register with Fastboot. I can, however, flash the open-source firmware and the unbrick.zip firmware, which reacts exactly like when @anggusss did it. We'll have to see if Dell ever gets back to my original query for help, otherwise might have to look into contacting Dell for a replacement.
You might have better luck, just using one of the tethered TWRP recoveries, If someone with a working system backups up system via TWRP recovery and shares it you could use the TWRP recovery to restore it.
I have Linux version tethered TWRP up and SDC has Windows version of tethered TWRP up.
Linux version
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/linux-version-twrp-2-8-6-0-tethered-t3123075
Windows Version
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/intel-android-devices-root-temp-cwm-t2975096
vampirefo said:
You might have better luck, just using one of the tethered TWRP recoveries, If someone with a working system backups up system via TWRP recovery and shares it you could use the TWRP recovery to restore it.
I have Linux version tethered TWRP up and SDC has Windows version of tethered TWRP up.
Linux version
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/linux-version-twrp-2-8-6-0-tethered-t3123075
Windows Version
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/intel-android-devices-root-temp-cwm-t2975096
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the thought, but if I can't get into Fastboot mode (or get the computer to recognize the device as being in Fastboot mode)... kinda unable to use it.
wirebook said:
Gave this a shot and partitioning seemed to work just fine. Flashing the OTA boot.img worked just fine, and attempting to flash your system.img once again threw an error at me. Thought I'd perform a reboot at this point (bad idea!) to see what I was working with and then I found myself with @anggusss' USB screen. (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=60675581&postcount=5) Probably should've tried flashing a something else just to see if that did anything.
Guessing I've now got a brick, because I'm no longer able to get it to register with Fastboot. I can, however, flash the open-source firmware and the unbrick.zip firmware, which reacts exactly like when @anggusss did it. We'll have to see if Dell ever gets back to my original query for help, otherwise might have to look into contacting Dell for a replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh man, sad to hear, I've done that successfully in the past, they must have changed something in the process. I check just about every day for an update to the dev. firmware. Last time around it took them just over two months from release, so maybe, end of June?
xBIGREDDx said:
Oh man, sad to hear, I've done that successfully in the past, they must have changed something in the process. I check just about every day for an update to the dev. firmware. Last time around it took them just over two months from release, so maybe, end of June?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fingers shall stay crossed till the end of the month, then! Contacted Dell Support and- just as I predicted- they don't want to help out. Something about being unable to do anything at all for Dell products purchased outside of their support areas (US and Canada). What a joy of a phone call that was...
An internet search landed me on guides for unbricking the Asus Zenfone displaying a similar USB symbol. They used the xFSTK Downloader to flash a set of files which then gave them renewed access to the bootloader (and thus fastboot). Played around with the xFSTK-Downloader and Manufacturing Flash Tool apps and can see the 7840 and even flash the (open-source and unbrick.zip) firmware, however I'm at a loss for what I might use for the Operating System flash files. Anybody have any thoughts?
Feel like I'm so close to getting this thing unbricked. If I could just figure out where to find the .bin "OS Image" that the tool wants...
Edit: Would also need the droidboot binary. FIngers crossed for Dell to release all of this soon...
I got an LG G3 that came packaged with 35B (5.1.1), and nothing seemed to be working to get TWRP installed. I couldn't use LG Flash Tools to downgrade using the "TOT" method, because it'd stop with an "no ks version" error. I finally found something that works, and I'm now running AICP (nice ROM) with TWRP installed!
The trick is to follow these instructions (make sure you use VS985 components for our Verizon LG G3s, not D855):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g3/help/help-secure-boot-error-trying-to-boot-t3054977
Overwrite aboot.img (12B version) & recovery (TWRP image) using dd commands via an adb shell, after rooting with KingRoot, while Android is running. I then used adb commands to reboot into recovery, and volia! I was in! I had AICP on my internal card, and the 12b bootstack, which I flashed in that order.
After seeing AICP successfully boot, I went back and flashed the 35B bootstack. Success!
Stock images (aboot 12B etc.): http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-lg-g3/general/reference-stock-img-files-t2966958
Bootstacks: http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-lg-g3/development/xdabbeb-s-vs980-2-0-0-t3231279
KingRoot: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/one-click-root-tool-android-2-x-5-0-t3107461
Great news for you and others. Thanks for sharing!
Well, i tried to follow this step by step and I ended up with a black screen after reboot. My G3 would power up, blue and green led's would flash like normal, I could hear the sounds being made by pressing the power button and touching the screen just like everything went as planned except for a black screen. My PC still recognized my device when Android was running and it was still detected when I entered download mode. I could see the device driver installation window popup on my PC and I could see my G3 in my Device Manager as well. I am a little unsure about what went wrong but I am doing my research to see if I can solve this problem. The good thing about the whole situation, I was able to use LG FLashTools 2014 to KDZ back to 35B which is what I was running at the beginning of this process. The software flash just finished and so did "Android is starting" so I will set this thing back up and try again once I find out what went wrong and why I received the black screen afterwards. If anyone can provide any input as to what my have happened or if there was something I missed I would appreciate it.
fast69mopar said:
Well, i tried to follow this step by step and I ended up with a black screen after reboot. My G3 would power up, blue and green led's would flash like normal, I could hear the sounds being made by pressing the power button and touching the screen just like everything went as planned except for a black screen. My PC still recognized my device when Android was running and it was still detected when I entered download mode. I could see the device driver installation window popup on my PC and I could see my G3 in my Device Manager as well. I am a little unsure about what went wrong but I am doing my research to see if I can solve this problem. The good thing about the whole situation, I was able to use LG FLashTools 2014 to KDZ back to 35B which is what I was running at the beginning of this process. The software flash just finished and so did "Android is starting" so I will set this thing back up and try again once I find out what went wrong and why I received the black screen afterwards. If anyone can provide any input as to what my have happened or if there was something I missed I would appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weird... this is what I did (nothing more):
1) Pick a ROM I wanted to use. I went with AICP nightly for VS985 (MM 6.0.1). Put that ROM zip to be flashed by TWRP on your internal memory.
2) Put the 12B bootstack on internal memory.
3) Put the 12B aboot.img & latest TWRP img on internal memory.
4) Root with KingRoot
5) Open up an "adb shell" and use "su" to get a root shell.
6) Use dd commands (like in the original post's link) to zero, flash aboot & the recovery image to their proper partitions.
7) Use "adb reboot recovery" to boot into TWRP
8) Factory reset
9) Flash ROM (AICP etc.)
10) Flash 12B bootstack (not 100% sure needed, but whatever)
11) Wipe cache/dalvik (not 100% sure needed, but whatever)
12) Reboot & profit!
After seeing successful boot, I did go back into TWRP & flash the 35B bootstack, just to have the latest stuff that still does work.
I *did* have one oddity where my screen went black, but NOTHING was responsive (not even the LED). Phone just appeared completely dead -- no response to anything. I pulled the battery, and it booted up fine. Hasn't happened again...
It was weird indeed. I flashed the 35B KDZ to return to stock after the screen went black. I was already on the stock 35B OTA that I received back in October. I was already rooted with Kingroot and had already removed Kingroot with SuperUser in its place. Was that something that was different between us maybe? Were you on the stock 35B, unrooted, before you started the process? Like I said, I was already rooted. Don't know if it makes a difference or not. Since I was able to flash back to stock after the mishap I will be trying it again here shortly when I get back in from of my Laptop. I am fully stock right now and my software status is official. I will do the process over again starting with a fresh template. I'll edit my post with an update after I'm finished. Thanks for the response and for the guide.
fast69mopar said:
It was weird indeed. I flashed the 35B KDZ to return to stock after the screen went black. I was already on the stock 35B OTA that I received back in October. I was already rooted with Kingroot and had already removed Kingroot with SuperUser in its place. Was that something that was different between us maybe? Were you on the stock 35B, unrooted, before you started the process? Like I said, I was already rooted. Don't know if it makes a difference or not. Since I was able to flash back to stock after the mishap I will be trying it again here shortly when I get back in from of my Laptop. I am fully stock right now and my software status is official. I will do the process over again starting with a fresh template. I'll edit my post with an update after I'm finished. Thanks for the response and for the guide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was on a "fresh", unrooted flash of the 35B KDZ after some previous failed attempts to get TWRP installed. Then, I started my steps listed above. I didn't swap out KingRoot to SuperSU (since I knew it'd just be overwritten when AICP gets installed). Just needed root to flash aboot & recovery.
What command did you run to flash the twrp img, in the other link with the commands of says he used flashify but you used terminal to flash yours. Thanks.
It works.
New here, also with VS985 35b. LG Flash tool kept giving me failed previous flash on every attempt to downgrade to 10b. Saw this and using the same aboot.img and bootstack.zip that you used, I used terminal emulator to update and it worked first time. I just had to remember to use VS985 components including twrp. Everything is now running, and am so thankful. My first G3, previously rooting and playing with Samsung S4. Again, thank you for your incredible work.
jimtom1948 said:
New here, also with VS985 35b. LG Flash tool kept giving me failed previous flash on every attempt to downgrade to 10b. Saw this and using the same aboot.img and bootstack.zip that you used, I used terminal emulator to update and it worked first time. I just had to remember to use VS985 components including twrp. Everything is now running, and am so thankful. My first G3, previously rooting and playing with Samsung S4. Again, thank you for your incredible work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mind giving m the exact commands you used and the order you did everything in? Got a little confused going from thread to thread to get everything downloaded. Think I read too much.lol confused myself
Evohog
1) Started on this site and downloaded:
Stock image (aboot.img 12b)
bootstack (12b) down the page in downloads.
This is important because the instruction page is for D855 and you need VS985 aboot and bootstack. This was what initially confused me.
2) I then went to the page that says follow these instructions.
Here I downloaded oversharpening fix flashable zip and a twrp recovery for VS985.
You will want to substitute VS985 aboot and bootstack for the D855 in his writeup.
3) I followed the rest of his tutorial, very carefully typing the commands into terminal emulator. (I haven't got my linux machine ready for adb yet.
4. Shut down the phone. rebooted into recovery (You can use flashify settings to reboot into recovery, or the buttons on back of the phone after shutdown.
5. It worked, I was in twrp. Flashed the oversharpening and the 12b bootstack.
Hope this helps.
jimtom1948 said:
1) Started on this site and downloaded:
Stock image (aboot.img 12b)
bootstack (12b) down the page in downloads.
This is important because the instruction page is for D855 and you need VS985 aboot and bootstack. This was what initially confused me.
2) I then went to the page that says follow these instructions.
Here I downloaded oversharpening fix flashable zip and a twrp recovery for VS985.
You will want to substitute VS985 aboot and bootstack for the D855 in his writeup.
3) I followed the rest of his tutorial, very carefully typing the commands into terminal emulator. (I haven't got my linux machine ready for adb yet.
4. Shut down the phone. rebooted into recovery (You can use flashify settings to reboot into recovery, or the buttons on back of the phone after shutdown.
5. It worked, I was in twrp. Flashed the oversharpening and the 12b bootstack.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One last question, where in the commands it says "block/name/a boot" so I enter vs985 where it says name or do I enter name. I'm so rusty,it's been a couple years since I've even rooted anything. Thanks again for the hand holding.
Evohog
If you are talking about the commands that you type into the terminal emulator, you enter them just as they are written, except for what is in quotes. Don't change them. Good Luck.
Hey guys, Tried this and now im hard bricked. Could anyone give me a hand? I have everything posted here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-lg-g3/help/kdz-restore-t3315170/post65328929#post65328929
johnny567
I was successful twice with this method. The third time, it bricked so hard I couldn't even get into download mode. After a ton of reading, I found a recommendation in
verizon-lg-g3/general/restore-verizon-to-stock-t2827878/page24 no. 236 by jhtrades 1 at the bottom of his recommendation (ALT METHOD #2).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-lg-g3/general/how-to-hardbrick-guide-using-test-t3276928. I followed along starting with step 6, no wire, and somehow got the phone back to a version of verizon with a problem in the bootloader. At least, I was able to get into download mode and did a KDZ to 10b. After that everything was back on track.
I am not absolutely sure if this will work for you, or exactly sure what I did, but it's the best I can come up with. All I remember at the time, was it seemed complicated. Good luck and hope you get it back and working.
jimtom1948 said:
I was successful twice with this method. The third time, it bricked so hard I couldn't even get into download mode. After a ton of reading, I found a recommendation in
verizon-lg-g3/general/restore-verizon-to-stock-t2827878/page24 no. 236 by jhtrades 1 at the bottom of his recommendation (ALT METHOD #2).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-lg-g3/general/how-to-hardbrick-guide-using-test-t3276928. I followed along starting with step 6, no wire, and somehow got the phone back to a version of verizon with a problem in the bootloader. At least, I was able to get into download mode and did a KDZ to 10b. After that everything was back on track.
I am not absolutely sure if this will work for you, or exactly sure what I did, but it's the best I can come up with. All I remember at the time, was it seemed complicated. Good luck and hope you get it back and working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesnt seem to be working for me. It is pulling up as the Qualcomm 9008 and i have tried with and without wire. It keeps failing and I end up with the error "No response from the device. Check PMIC first and if still boot problem replace AP." I noticed that I have a vs985k. Do you think that could contribute to the failure?
My phone is stuck in a TWRP bootloop, meaning it doesn't boot to Android but it goes back to TWRP (It actually happened with the phone being in my pocket). I've tried restoring different backups, but none of them have any effect booting back to normal. I'm travelling at the moment so I don't have access to my computer to attempt restoring using SP Flash Tools. Any one have any ideas?
David C.
mantarkus said:
My phone is stuck in a TWRP bootloop, meaning it doesn't boot to Android but it goes back to TWRP (It actually happened with the phone being in my pocket). I've tried restoring different backups, but none of them have any effect booting back to normal. I'm travelling at the moment so I don't have access to my computer to attempt restoring using SP Flash Tools. Any one have any ideas?
David C.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possibly it was from an ota update. And twrp is failing to do ota. But the command to install ota is not cleared, so it keeps trying.
If that is the case , then the solution from other mtk based devices I have had , is to clear the /misc partiton
Can be done from terminal in twrp.
I added the option to wipe /misc partition in the ported twrp I am working on. but have not tested that out.
In your case because you cannot boot to system, you cannot download it and try. So need to use first option and clear /misc with dd commands in the terminal window.
Do you want or need instruction on doing that?
If that is the problem this line of code entered into the twrp terminal window should fix it
Code:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/platform/bootdevice/by-name/para count=1 bs=32
mrmazak said:
Possibly it was from an ota update. And twrp is failing to do ota. But the command to install ota is not cleared, so it keeps trying.
If that is the case , then the solution from other mtk based devices I have had , is to clear the /misc partiton......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude you are a life saver, I used the command line, rebooted and BAM!! back to normal. I checked the Update section and it did have one update pending, I deleted it just in case. Like I said I'm traveling for work and this left me incommunicado. Thanks again, let me know if I can buy you a drink or a cup of coffee ?
mantarkus said:
Dude you are a life saver, I used the command line, rebooted and BAM!! back to normal. I checked the Update section and it did have one update pending, I deleted it just in case. Like I said I'm traveling for work and this left me incommunicado. Thanks again, let me know if I can buy you a drink or a cup of coffee
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, best to remove the update app, or block it at least. because it will keep trying to do its update.
@mantarkus
I made a simple twrp flash install package that disables the ota apk by renaming it. This will prevent that type of problem in future. Of course You will not be able to automaticly chec for OTA, but as you found out, that would cause bootloop anyway.
look at thread here for file
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=79644458&postcount=3
mrmazak said:
@mantarkus
I made a simple twrp flash install package that disables the ota apk by renaming it. This will prevent that type of problem in future. Of course You will not be able to automaticly chec for OTA, but as you found out, that would cause bootloop anyway.
look at thread here for file
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=79644458&postcount=3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, thanks!!
I suppose the process to update safely is flashing the new ROM via SP flash tools and root as before, right?
David C.
David C.
can you explain exactly step by step on what should be done i have same issue Thank you so much
Thanks!
Just wanted to say thanks for identifying this and posting the fix