Hi,
Hope someone can help, about this problem. But I think all it's comes down to now is getting ADB access via Amon_RA recovery rom, as I've tried everything I can do... link to previous post here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=642468
I'm running Window 7 Pro x64, previously the ADB was working, but after setting up some ext partition option accidentaly, (I think that it's linked to that), i've tried all options I know of by trying to manually install the drivers and removing them completely etc...
Main points, I can still access recovery image, and also the bootloader. I've succesfully flashed custom roms etc... before. And phone does not boot to rom(that's because I think it didn't install correctly, not sure)
So, i'm sort of lost now, just wondering if any developers here would kindly help or put me out my misery!
re partition your ext(2/3 for Eris base rom) ext4 might not work on Eris.
if you still facing problem remove the swap & only remain the ext partition for A2SD.
edit: and please update to v1.6.2 for the recovery***
Thanks for you response but I can't do anything within the recovery image, some options keep saying please use adb to carry out the process, but I can't get adb to detect on the phone anymore. Also I can't update the latest recovery image, as i'd need adb access....
I can't see why this is happening... perhaps its the SD card that's messed up? I could repartiotion using linux using gparted or something, but I don't know how the Hero set's up the partion.
When I try to recover using nandroid I get messages like unable to mount E:SDCARD etc...
Any clues?
did you do a dalvik wipe? y not try remove the ext partition & try restore previous nandroid?
Hi
I've done a bit of searching but can't find anything too specific to what I'm trying to do. Basically we have 10 Android tablets, and I want to make them all standardised e.g. have the same Apps on, configured in the same way (e.g. enterprise wireless network added).
Now the thing is if anyone messes around with them I want a really easy way to restore them to the original config which I've done.
One way I thought was to configure one fully, install Titanium Backup on it, do a full backup of apps/system data etc, and put the backup onto an SD card. Then I already have the base ROM on an SD card so if theres any problems, I can just flash the ROM over it again, install TB, and restore all the data. Would this be suitable to do to duplicate the data onto 10 tablets, and also restore the data if required?
The other thing I looked into was customising a ROM myself, don't want to do anything too tricky it'll just be a case of removing all the preinstalled crap I don't want, preloading the Apps we do want, and if possible preloading the wireless key and getting rid of the first boot initial set up wizard.
PS I've looked at installing CWM and doing whole image backups, but supposedly the tablet isnt supported (its an Ainol Novo 7 Elf 2)
Any advice would be great, hopefully theres some fairly straight forward way of managing this
Thanks
One of the reasons I integrated a full blown GNU/Linux on my devices, was the need to run full and automated backups. If you are looking into the possibility making a custom ROM, this might be a solution for you as well. I'm using BackuPC to run backups nightly, backing them up as any other GNU/Linux machine (using tar over ssh).
See the link in my signature for more information about this.
kuisma said:
One of the reasons I integrated a full blown GNU/Linux on my devices, was the need to run full and automated backups. If you are looking into the possibility making a custom ROM, this might be a solution for you as well. I'm using BackuPC to run backups nightly, backing them up as any other GNU/Linux machine (using tar over ssh).
See the link in my signature for more information about this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Thanks for the reply, not too sure this would be the right option for us. I don't really need to take nightly backups, I just need to make a backup of a preconfigured image, and then put that image onto 10 other devices. Then I want to keep the original backup and have an easy way to restore it onto any devices which have been messed up. Sort of like image cloning for PCs, I want to prepare a base image, and then flash it over all the devices.
fro5tie said:
Hi
Thanks for the reply, not too sure this would be the right option for us. I don't really need to take nightly backups, I just need to make a backup of a preconfigured image, and then put that image onto 10 other devices. Then I want to keep the original backup and have an easy way to restore it onto any devices which have been messed up. Sort of like image cloning for PCs, I want to prepare a base image, and then flash it over all the devices.
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Click to collapse
Ok, I see. Compile the image to you likings (boot image and system partition), and then flash it using fastboot onto you devices.
Hi
Does anyone have any more thoughts on this?
I have experimented with Titanium Backup and this seems to work quite well. I have installed a ROM, and customised it e.g. installed the apps I need and configured the apps, wireless settings and home screens etc. Then I do a full apps + system backup in TB to my SD card.
Then the plan is, I can reflash the ROM onto the other device, install TB and then restore this backup. This saves my user state and wireless settings etc.
Only problems is when I flash the ROM, I have to go through all the initial set up again and also remove some preinstalled apps which I dont want. Any ways around this?
There must be something I'm missing. Why don't you install the device, walk through the setup, remove the bloatware you don't want and then dumps the disk partitions into images you flash the other devices with using fastboot? This way you'll get'em cloned, isn't it this you want..?
Of course there's still some tinkering needed once restored/cloned, such as giving them individual Google accounts etc, but you can easily fix this without re-running the setup wizard.
kuisma said:
There must be something I'm missing. Why don't you install the device, walk through the setup, remove the bloatware you don't want and then dumps the disk partitions into images you flash the other devices with using fastboot? This way you'll get'em cloned, isn't it this you want..?
Of course there's still some tinkering needed once restored/cloned, such as giving them individual Google accounts etc, but you can easily fix this without re-running the setup wizard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Yes that's what I want to do! How would I go about dumping the disk into an image and then flashing?
fro5tie said:
Hi
Yes that's what I want to do! How would I go about dumping the disk into an image and then flashing?
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Click to collapse
There are several methods. Some boot loaders (such as nvflash for tegra based devices) can actually read back the disk partitions to a computer via the USB port. You can also on the tablet read the raw mtd device with busybox/dd. I assume you've unlocked the bootloader and gain root access to the device, since this is a requirement for flashing them as well. A third alternative is using busybox/tar, and then recreate the filesystem image using mkyaffs (or if ext3/ext4 even easier, just loopback mount an image on you linux maching to unpack the tar archive to). Once you got the images (system and userdata partitions), you flash the devices with "fastboot flash system system.img" and "fastboot flash userdata data.img". I don't believe you'll need to tamper with the other partitions.
kuisma said:
There are several methods. Some boot loaders (such as nvflash for tegra based devices) can actually read back the disk partitions to a computer via the USB port. You can also on the tablet read the raw mtd device with busybox/dd. I assume you've unlocked the bootloader and gain root access to the device, since this is a requirement for flashing them as well. A third alternative is using busybox/tar, and then recreate the filesystem image using mkyaffs (or if ext3/ext4 even easier, just loopback mount an image on you linux maching to unpack the tar archive to). Once you got the images (system and userdata partitions), you flash the devices with "fastboot flash system system.img" and "fastboot flash userdata data.img". I don't believe you'll need to tamper with the other partitions.
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Click to collapse
Hi
Thanks for the quick reply, much appreciated.
Unfortunately you've lost me a bit here!
Yes the device is rooted, I dont have a linux machine though.
Any chance you'd be able to provide some more specific instructions? The device is a chinese tablet from manufacturer Ainol, the model is a Novo 7 Elf 2. Unfortunately there isn't much discussion on these online so specific help is hard to find!
fro5tie said:
Any chance you'd be able to provide some more specific instructions? The device is a chinese tablet from manufacturer Ainol, the model is a Novo 7 Elf 2. Unfortunately there isn't much discussion on these online so specific help is hard to find!
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Click to collapse
I can provide you specific answers to specific questions, but I have no experience of the tablet in question, so you'll have to do some digging yourself first. Make sure it supports fastboot, investigate what the proprietary bootloader is capable of, see how/if you can obtain an original image etc.
One maybe easier solution, especially if you plan to restore the tablets on a regular basis, is to only make a new boot image to reflash the devices with. The only modification done is that you change the /init.rc script to mount /data and /system from the SDcard instead of from the internal nand disk device.
Once this is done, you'll power up and run the installation wizard and everything on your master tablet. Then power it down, and clone the SDcard. This SDcard now contains everything, so you'll simply restore a device by replacing its SDcard with a copy of this master card. I guess it's easier to clone a SDcard than reflashing several internal partitions. Easier to make the master as well - you don't need to dd or tar them, they are already in "image" format. If you can get hold of the original firmware, this should be quite easy without the need to preserving data from the device itself.
fro5tie said:
Any chance you'd be able to provide some more specific instructions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Issue the commands "cat /proc/mtd" and "mount" on your device at command prompt (e.g. via "adb shell" or the "ConnectBot" terminal app). This shows you if the device allows you to copy the boot image from it. Paste in the output into this thread. If you believe the "clone the tablet via the SDcard" is a good solution for you, the process is in short terms something as below;
Copy the boot image to the sdcard:
# dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd2ro of=/mnt/sdcard/boot.img bs=2048 (device dependent of contents of /proc/mtd)
Remove the sdcard, insert into a computer, split the boot image info kernel + initramfs. Read http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack%2C_Edit%2C_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images for instructions about how to work with the boot.img file. I really recommend a GNU/Linux environment for this.
Then edit /init.rc replacing the "mount yaffs2 [email protected] /system" with "mount ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /system" for system and data (use p3 for data partition, the device name may be different on your tablet, see mount output).
Create an SDcard with three partitions: #1 vfat (standard), #2 and #3 ext3. Insert into you device and boot it up again.
# mount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /root
# cd /system
# tar cf - . | (cd /root ; tar xf - )
# umount /root
# mount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /root
# cd /data
# tar cf - . | (cd /root ; tar xf - )
# umount /root
This copies your partitions to the SDcard. Shutdown the tablet again.
Make a new boot.img using the instructions in the link above, using the edited init.rc script.
Now you can non-destrutive give this a try.
Place you tablet in fastboot mode (often vol-up (or vol-down) during power on).
$ fastboot devices
This vill verify the tablet is in fastboot mode. It should be listed. Then:
$ fastboot boot boot.img
Note here, only BOOT the tablet, do NOT use the "flash" keyword. This in case of the image isn't working, you'll just have to restart you tablet, and no harm's done.
Look around. Do a "mount" command. Everything works? Mount shows /data and /system from sdcard? Perfect. Now you can reflash it. Shutdown and flash:
$ fastboot flash boot boot.img
Now the device will use /data and /system from the SDcard every time. Customize your device, and then clone your SDcard and try it in tablet #2 you'll booting with your new boot.img and the cloned SDcard. Verify that #tablet #2 is a perfect clone of tablet #1. It is? Now you can flash the boot,img into all your tablets.
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But don't forget, there may be other solutions as well, maybe more suitable. This you'll have to investigate yourself.
And the usual disclaimer - you can probably not follow above by the letter. There sure is some obstacle you'll have to overcome, something non-standard, etc.
Also keep the original boot.img file for safekeeping in the case you want to restore the device's boot image some day.
Wow! Thanks for the info! This is really helpful, I need to set aside a bit of time to work through this and have a look. Thanks again its really appreciated, I'll be back with info once I've had chance to give it a go!
I certainly can't offer more detailed info than the fellow from Sweden who seems to really know his stuff...but what about making a nandroid backup of your fully configured reference tablet (I'm assuming all tablets are rooted). Ensure all your tabs have CWM recovery and copy your nandroid file to each one.
If any of your fleet get 'corrupted' you can simply restore the original, fully configured ROM.
In fact that sounds too obvious..likely I missed something about your scenario which precludes this option from consideration!
Good luck mate.
tweeny80 said:
I certainly can't offer more detailed info than the fellow from Sweden who seems to really know his stuff...but what about making a nandroid backup of your fully configured reference tablet (I'm assuming all tablets are rooted). Ensure all your tabs have CWM recovery and copy your nandroid file to each one.
If any of your fleet get 'corrupted' you can simply restore the original, fully configured ROM.
In fact that sounds too obvious..likely I missed something about your scenario which precludes this option from consideration!
Good luck mate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Yes that was my first thought as well, tablets are rooted yes but there is no CWM for the tablet. Its an obscure Chinese branded tablet.
Unless there is another way to do nandroid backups?
hmm tricky situation. Catch 22 ! From what I know, your best bet is to backup all possible things through Titanium Backup given that you don't have the use of Nandroid backups. You can include wifi settings, messages etc but it's modular & not systemic.
I did a quick google search with no luck - time to upgrade your fleet dude :-0
Best of luck.
Hi,
I need to recover deleted sms messages (from a Samsung Galaxy SIII I9300) and there is no backup of the mmssms.db database.
It's for a customer and I would like avoiding to root and to alter the operating system.
This mean that I would be very happy if the procedure could be as much "read only" as possible.
I'm however aware that I will have to write something to the phone, and I plan using the recovery partition for this.
After reading this much interesting thread http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/28296/full-backup-of-non-rooted-devices
my main hope is based on flashing ClockWorkMod (CWM) or TWRP to the recovery partition with Odin (or maybe Heimdall).
This seems a priori possible without root access. (see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2313072)
Afterwards, I would like to clone the whole DATA partition, in order to not only get the current "mmssms.db" file, but to also possibly find older versions of it through file carving.
The adb shell seems being a feature of CWM (source: http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/ClockworkMod_Recovery) but I'm not sure whether the adb shell resides on the recovery partition or on another one and if root privilege is required to apply commands like push or pull to exchange files between partitions and the sdcard.
Furthermore, I'm not sure if I could run commands like "dd" from recovery partition.
Something like having Busybox commands available also when starting the phone on the recovery partition.
Else, saving a Nandroid backup to the sdcard seems possible, but this sounds saving a directory structure and appears to me being not equal as cloning a partition (at low level). Hence, it would not be possible to carve dereferenced files from the Nandroid backup. Correct ?
TWRP also sounds interesting, as being able to backup only specific partitions like the "DATA" one.
But the fact that its navigation is based on the touch screen appears me being unsafe if the touch screen had to dysfunction in a later time.
I'm familiar to Linux but a newbie in Android-based smartphones.
Thank you very much for your help.
Hi,
I'm pretty interested in learning a bit about android, but for the moment i have this tablet that i have royally screwed up during my learning curve It's a PORTO 10.1 chinese tablet.
It would freeze up at the boot logo, but after some searchin, a forum member on the internet kindly sent me some .img files that he used to fix the same brand/model of tablet. They are flashed with the Rockchip tool. It's a RK3066 based tablet.
Prior to receiving the files i was trying other ROM's because it was becoming clear that there wasn't a full dump available for this tablet. None of them worked, and the tablet ended up being completely dead as a result. Being completely stupid once more, i formatted the tablet in the Rockchip tool, before realizing and learning that the ROMS don't come with .img files for partitions like userdata or cache etc? So any chances of recovery even if i did find a partial ROM, may have gone. Yes, i am an idiot Well you have to read a lot and make mistakes to learn, right? I've certainly learnt how to backup all of my partitions now in Rockchip tool since then!
Anyway the jist of it is, the tablet is 100%low level erased as far as i know. I've flashed the files that i was given from a guy on gsmforums, and the tablet turns on again, displays the manufacturer logo and then the android boot animation...but thats it. It gets stuck on the android logo animation.
The partitions i know have been flashed and should exist now are:
misc
boot
kernel
recovery
system
backup
The parameters of these partitions do match what they should be for this tablet. The one thing i did do before screwing the thing up was backup the parameter data. It's a shame i didn't backup anything else!
Obviously there are partitions i am missing, such as userdata, cache and maybe some more from what I've read. My main questions are these:
1. Will android hang like this at the logo if it cannot find/mount a userdata partition? or might i see a terminal/errors instead?
2. If i could get into Recovery (which i can't) does a factory reset just quick format the userdata partition, or would it obliterate it and recreate the partition over again and format it?
3. Are there any ways i may be able to recreate my missing partitions, assuming that it the reason why android is now stuck at the logo?
I did attempt to flash a copy of the cache and userdata partitions from another very similar tablet, but it didn't make any difference.
I know a little about what each partition is there for and what they do, i use a linux pc regularly although i am still working my way up from semi-newbie
Knowing how android should react to having no userdata/cache partitions might help me figure out what i need to do to fix this tablet? I am willing to read and learn if someone can tell me where to begin or give me some hints that might answer some of my questions.
Many thanks,
James.
Hello,
I am new to xda, but with what I would say a good understanding of computers in general, and good knowledge of c programming (if that matters)
I am structuring a guide for myself to be as foolproof as possible when attempting flashing my new phone. Please fill in any voids, comment, or answer questions if you can. This should prove useful to other users as well as it's not so model-specific.
1) It appears that the custom recovery of choice in most situations and for the time being is TWRP (correct?).
2) If I can get a backup of EVERY partition on my stock phone (as it came from the factory) using TWRP, could I conceivably restore ALL of them and be in a factory default setting? Excluding stuff like eFuse and similar mechanisms.
3) If the phone supports fastboot, unlocked bootloader and there is a compatible TWRP for it, would it be possible to boot the TWRP recovery through fastboot (without flashing that particular partition to phone), open a shell and take backups of all partitions on the phone? That should give us a file for each partition.
4) If one accomplishes step 3 successfully, in what scenarios would he/she NOT be able to bring the phone back to life after software bricking?
Minor questions:
a) "To have root" on a phone, is basically the same as having a root account on a BOOTED OS partition (like the admin accoun on a booted windows machine, or a root account on a linux machine)? If that's the case, booting a different partition (for example the recovery partition) could also give you root priviledges without affecting the booted partition, correct?
b) Why do some custom ROMs require a certain version of the stock/OEM rom to be installed PRIOR to flashing, since they are going to replace those partitions anyway?
c) How is Xiaomi's Anti Roll Back (ARB) feature implemented, if one restores all partitions to stock from step (3) ? There must be some other places of storing of information on the phone, besides internal memory, correct?