Best way to make an android device unbootable without leaving evidence - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Would going into 9008 and wiping the boot partitions suffice? I'm asking because I'm taking advantage of my warranty before it expires and already have approval for a new device for saying mine will not boot....not sure if they would do any digging.. The rep said they ship my new device before mine even gets there..

To erase boot partition
Code:
fastboot erase boot

Thank you sir, you dont think this would leave anything in the logs? or do they even go that far
jwoegerbauer said:
To erase boot partition
Code:
fastboot erase boot
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Click to collapse

Related

Your device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and may not work properly

Your device is corrupt. It can’t be
trusted and may not work properly.
Visit this link on another device:
go.co/ABH
Problem:
This is the ultimate warning, and you likely don’t want to see this message show up on your screen. Shall this appear, it would mean your device is not safe to use, not trusted and/r corrupted. The OS could still work, but there’s high chances you will encounter performance and security issues.
Consequence:
Before your device begins to start it will be shown:
Android system
There’s an internal problem with your device. Contact your manufacturer for details nexus 6p
Also:
The camera may be no longer properly work
Fixxed:
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-angler-angler-xx.xxx.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio radio-angler-angler-xx.xx.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
mfastboot flash system system.img
reboot bootloader
fastboot flash cache cache.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash vendor vendor.img
Important:
fastboot flashing lock_critical
Enjoy!
@tlip
A couple of notes. You should never advise anyone to flash the userdata.img, it'll result in the minimum commercially available storage size (32gb) being allocated to the device regardless of the actual storage size. So flashing userdata is only compatible with 32gb devices. The correct way to wipe/format the userdata is with this command:
Code:
fastboot format userdata
Also, bootloader reboots are only required after flashing the bootloader and the radio, so the sequence should be like this:
Code:
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-angler-angler-xx.xxx.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio radio-angler-angler-xx.xx.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash cache cache.img
fastboot flash vendor vendor.img
fastboot format userdata
fastboot reboot
And one more thing, you need to take more care when typing these instructions, you made a few errors, I'll highlight them:
Code:
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-angler-angler-xx.xxx.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio radio-angler-angler-xx.xx.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
[Color=red]m[/color]fastboot flash system system.img [Color=blue](extra m at beginning of command)[/color]
[Color=red]reboot bootloader[/color] [Color=blue](missing "fastboot" prefix, and hyphen between reboot and bootloader (fastboot reboot-bootloader))[/color]
fastboot flash cache cache.img
[Color=red]fastboot flash userdata userdata.img[/color] [color=blue](incorrect command as outlined above)[/color]
[Color=red]fastboot reboot-bootloader[/color] [Color=blue](unnecessary)[/color]
[Color=red]fastboot reboot-bootloader[/color] [Color=blue](another one?)[/color]
fastboot flash vendor vendor.img
I have that message when rebooting. Is this something I should be concerned about? My ignorance had me believing this was a standard screen for all unlocked bootloaders.
sandfreak said:
I have that message when rebooting. Is this something I should be concerned about? My ignorance had me believing this was a standard screen for all unlocked bootloaders.
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Click to collapse
Yes its a standard thing when you unlock b/l, I have it too. I think its just a security measure by Google. Relock b/l and the message should go.
Also you can just lock it with fastboot flashing lock, no need for the critical step unless you unlocked the b/l in the same way. Critical is only if you want to flash a custom bootloader, I believe.
EDIT: This info only applies for "Bootloader MAY BE Corrupt" and not "IS Corrupt". Different situation from the OP
Thanked @Heisenberg
Please OP, you give instructions that you expect people to follow and if they type in the wrong info could be fatal...
Seriously, this thread needs closed asap. All the above info( besides Heisenberg) is careless in itself, let alone posting it for others. Stop....just stop. Smh
Heisenberg said:
@tlip
A couple of notes. You should never advise anyone to flash the userdata.img, it'll result in the minimum commercially available storage size (32gb) being allocated to the device regardless of the actual storage size. So flashing userdata is only compatible with 32gb devices. The correct way to wipe/format the userdata is with this command:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have for sure made this mistake before... One lesson learned the hard way
Dissmeister said:
Yes its a standard thing when you unlock b/l, I have it too. I think its just a security measure by Google. Relock b/l and the message should go.
Also you can just lock it with fastboot flashing lock, no need for the critical step unless you unlocked the b/l in the same way. Critical is only if you want to flash a custom bootloader, I believe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression that it was a bad idea to re-lock the BL after flashing. Something about not being able to flash stock images anymore? Whats the official word on this?
CNLiberal said:
I was under the impression that it was a bad idea to re-lock the BL after flashing. Something about not being able to flash stock images anymore? Whats the official word on this?
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Click to collapse
That's exactly right, locking the bootloader means you can't flash anything to the device.
CNLiberal said:
I was under the impression that it was a bad idea to re-lock the BL after flashing. Something about not being able to flash stock images anymore? Whats the official word on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your post made me google this and I did find some people who did have issues like that, though they mention they cant unlock again. If this is what you're talking about, I'd say its a device specific issue; technically as far as Nexus (or correct flashing protocol) is concerned, you should be able to unlock and re-lock as you see fit. As Heisenberg mentioned, you cant flash anything on a locked b/l in the first place.
Personally I've never seen a reason to relock b/l after unlock but it depends on your circumstances.
Dissmeister said:
Yes its a standard thing when you unlock b/l, I have it too. I think its just a security measure by Google. Relock b/l and the message should go.
Also you can just lock it with fastboot flashing lock, no need for the critical step unless you unlocked the b/l in the same way. Critical is only if you want to flash a custom bootloader, I believe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually if it says your bootloader may be corrupt which is normal. If it says your bootloader is corrupt that's bad. It can say Two different things. He said the second one
dontbeweakvato said:
Actually if it says your bootloader may be corrupt which is normal. If it says your bootloader is corrupt that's bad. It can say Two different things. He said the second one
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Click to collapse
That is one hell of a silly mistake. You're right, I apologize for not seeing that earlier. Will fix my previous reply so others dont get the wrong info from it. Thanks for that :good:
Dissmeister said:
Your post made me google this and I did find some people who did have issues like that, though they mention they cant unlock again. If this is what you're talking about, I'd say its a device specific issue; technically as far as Nexus (or correct flashing protocol) is concerned, you should be able to unlock and re-lock as you see fit. As Heisenberg mentioned, you cant flash anything on a locked b/l in the first place.
Personally I've never seen a reason to relock b/l after unlock but it depends on your circumstances.
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The way I understood it, after I re-lock then need to unlock again, the phone will force a wipe. The old app Unlock Bootloder would lock and unlock in Android. You wouldn't have to reboot. I guess the developer believes that the new 6P can't perform this same function due to the nature of new locking/unlocking.
Hi Heisenberg,
as being rather new to the topic of unlocking and stuff that means, that I have to follow this (your) sequence for not running into that issue?
Does this hold true also for already having this problem, though?
Cheers, Rovaine
Rovaine said:
Hi Heisenberg,
as being rather new to the topic of unlocking and stuff that means, that I have to follow this (your) sequence for not running into that issue?
Does this hold true also for already having this problem, though?
Cheers, Rovaine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This "guide" is very poorly written, don't follow the instructions here. If you need instructions you can visit my guide here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/guides-how-to-guides-beginners-t3206928
As long as you're careful and follow my instructions properly you shouldn't haven't this problem.
Heisenberg said:
This "guide" is very poorly written, don't follow the instructions here. If you need instructions you can visit my guide here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/guides-how-to-guides-beginners-t3206928
As long as you're careful and follow my instructions properly you shouldn't haven't this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I've tried to follow your guide to the point, but did -obviously- something wrong, hence this issue.
You've got any advice for starting all over -propperly- for getting rid of this issue?
I had this issue too after having "dirty flashed" Android 6.0.1 over Android 6.0.
I flashed system.img and boot.img, as usual through fastboot and never had any problems on "older" devices.
On my Nexus 6P I got this error too and the camera did not work. Having checked the logs I found the error.
You need to flash vendor.img too in order to fix it. You don´t have to relock your bootloader.
Gorgtech said:
I had this issue too after having "dirty flashed" Android 6.0.1 over Android 6.0.
I flashed system.img and boot.img, as usual through fastboot and never had any problems on "older" devices.
On my Nexus 6P I got this error too and the camera did not work. Having checked the logs I found the error.
You need to flash vendor.img too in order to fix it. You don´t have to relock your bootloader.
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Click to collapse
Just for getting it straight...
Initial situation:
Rooted device, latest Cyanoge installed, showing the described issue
How to solve:
Get angler-xxxxxx-factory-xxxxxxxx, unzip ...
"fastboot flash vendor C:\angler\images\vendor.img"
Gratulation issue solved?
Or do I have to get back to a certain state, like factory image fully restored or alike, of my device?
Exactly, you need the latest Factory Image for the Nexus 6P. Extract all content and only flash the vendor.img through fastboot.
Rovaine said:
Just for getting it straight...
Initial situation:
Rooted device, latest Cyanoge installed, showing the described issue
How to solve:
Get angler-xxxxxx-factory-xxxxxxxx, unzip ...
"fastboot flash vendor C:\angler\images\vendor.img"
Gratulation issue solved?
Or do I have to get back to a certain state, like factory image fully restored or alike, of my device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rovaine said:
Actually, I've tried to follow your guide to the point, but did -obviously- something wrong, hence this issue.
You've got any advice for starting all over -propperly- for getting rid of this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash the factory images, instructions are in my guide.

Where exactly does the fastboot reside inside the flash on phone?

I had did a wrong boot.img flash and now fastboot is gone. I just want to verify that fastboot was actually located somewhere inside the boot.img.
Side notes..... I have a phone now that doesnt power on cuz the preloader is cooked by flashing that boot.img. If you try to charge the phone ,the battery charging icon does not show so that means I hard bricked phone.
lextacy said:
I had did a wrong boot.img flash and now fastboot is gone. I just want to verify that fastboot was actually located somewhere inside the boot.img.
Side notes..... I have a phone now that doesnt power on cuz the preloader is cooked by flashing that boot.img. If you try to charge the phone ,the battery charging icon does not show so that means I hard bricked phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fastboot doesn't actually reside on the phone it is a communication protocol used to flash the specific partitions of the phones layout. Specifically fastboot itself is just a binary (.bin on OS X and Linux and .exe on windows) used to communicate with the fastboot protocol. Correct me if I'm wrong but what I'm guessing what you did is you meant to flash a boot.img to the boot partition and instead you flashed that to the bootloader/preloader partition erasing the bootloader. There is a flag when the bootloader is complied that allows the bootloader to have support for fastboot. Your best bet is to to try and find a factory image for your phone to try and re-flash the stock bootloader through fastboot. A second option is find a friend who has the same phone model as you and that is rooted, then dump there bootloader using terminal emulator or a similar app, transfer it to your computer and then flash it using fastboot. If you have any more questions or just want some more clarification on what I said feel free to ask more then happy to help !
shimp208 said:
Fastboot doesn't actually reside on the phone it is a communication protocol used to flash the specific partitions of the phones layout. Specifically fastboot itself is just a binary (.bin on OS X and Linux and .exe on windows) used to communicate with the fastboot protocol. Correct me if I'm wrong but what I'm guessing what you did is you meant to flash a boot.img to the boot partition and instead you flashed that to the bootloader/preloader partition erasing the bootloader. There is a flag when the bootloader is complied that allows the bootloader to have support for fastboot. Your best bet is to to try and find a factory image for your phone to try and re-flash the stock bootloader through fastboot. A second option is find a friend who has the same phone model as you and that is rooted, then dump there bootloader using terminal emulator or a similar app, transfer it to your computer and then flash it using fastboot. If you have any more questions or just want some more clarification on what I said feel free to ask more then happy to help !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good info here , I did not know that fastboot was outside the android environments. The command I ran was "fastboot flash boot boot.img" if that makes sence. This was on a chinese smartphone that has a chinese only text bootloader. So no other friends will have this phone where I can grab an image from. I ordered a new phone (surprise , surprise right? ) haha , BUT I would still like to get this brick working for learning purposes and root practice.
lextacy said:
Good info here , I did not know that fastboot was outside the android environments. The command I ran was "fastboot flash boot boot.img" if that makes sence. This was on a chinese smartphone that has a chinese only text bootloader. So no other friends will have this phone where I can grab an image from. I ordered a new phone (surprise , surprise right? ) haha , BUT I would still like to get this brick working for learning purposes and root practice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad I could help you out ! It must be a bad boot image then that you flashed, but that shouldn't prevent you from accessing the bootloader. When you get your new phone and root it you should be able to pull that stock boot image and then get your old phone working again. As always any questions let me know !
So fastboot doesn't reside in the phone?
I understand that it's a protocol, but how does the phone know to act like a server for the PC fastboot client?
Where does the phone load the protocol rules from?
Can fastboot mode run even without any partition on the phone?
If so the phone would be virtually unbrickable.
I'm just trying to understand.
JackSlaterIV said:
So fastboot doesn't reside in the phone?
I understand that it's a protocol, but how does the phone know to act like a server for the PC fastboot client?
Where does the phone load the protocol rules from?
Can fastboot mode run even without any partition on the phone?
If so the phone would be virtually unbrickable.
I'm just trying to understand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps the best way to understand how fastboot works is to take a look at it's source code found here https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/master/fastboot/fastboot_protocol.txt and the general fastboot code here https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/master/fastboot. Let me know if you still have questions.
shimp208 said:
Perhaps the best way to understand how fastboot works is to take a look at it's source code found here https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/master/fastboot/fastboot_protocol.txt and the general fastboot code here https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/master/fastboot. Let me know if you still have questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I saw but there is no answer there.

I've relocked my wileyfox swift 2 and now i can't boot my phone anymore

I had been flashing custom roms and other files like SuperSU which all went to plan and I decided I was happy with my rom so I decided to disable OEM unlocking to get rid of the startup message. It didn't work so I went into adb and entered
Code:
fastboot oem lock
but I forgot to enable oem unlocking in developer settings and now I have a hard-bricked phone without any recovery or system, only fastboot. I don't have enough money to get it fixed for me so I'll have to do it myself but I don't know how.
You are not alone, I'm in the same situation, no system, no recovery, only fastboot with locked bootloader and nobody is willing to repair it.
AxorPL said:
You are not alone, I'm in the same situation, no system, no recovery, only fastboot with locked bootloader and nobody is willing to repair it.
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Click to collapse
Well I've just sent it to a reparation centre and i'm gonna wait :fingers-crossed:
ALamX_14 said:
Well I've just sent it to a reparation centre and i'm gonna wait :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you have any joy?

Corrupted Phone with TWRP, facing IMEI/OEM ID Issue, trying to fix

Hey Guys,
I got a few LG G5 h850 and was thinking to create and maintain a "Master-ROM" (LOS14.1, Magisk 17.2 ...) with a" Mother Device" so I can back it up with NanDroid/by TWRP and TiBackup, and flash it to all Children devices after.
While trying to restore the TWRP Backup to the first phone, I was an idiot and marked all partitions. Guess I should have left out some:
After restoring the Backup and Booting I get the "Your device is corrupted" Error.
With a Fastboot Linux Host machine I tried flashing TWRP again, but the device is locked against flashing..
The first unlocked bootloader is locked again:
When I tried to flash the unlock.bin again, I discovered that the IMEI of the "Mother-ROM Device" got implemented,
causing a difference in IMEI vs. OEM ID, causing the unlock.bin not to work.
I ****ed up.
I researched and tried "$ fastboot oem writeimei 123456789012347" with Linux ADB shell, but that command is only for a modified fastboot libary.
1. Question:
Well - anybody have any idea how to write the original IMEI into the device again, so I can fastboot flash unlock, fastboot flash recovery it again?
In the meantime I will try if the LGs website will generate me another unlock.bin with the "wrong" IMEI and correct OEM ID,
so I might be able to unlock it again - and than change the IMEI maybe again for the correct one, and unlock it again with the "correct" unlock.bin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LGs Website is smart enaugh. Nope...
2. Question:
So, if I am allowed to ask in here aswell while I do my research: How to skip my IMEI Issue in the next time? I guess not "restoring" the Mothers-EFS Partition to a Childrens Device should be it - or is the information located in another Partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. I bricked a second device. Have tried not to Flash Recovery and EFS. Seems like it´s located on Misc or Boot or something like this ...
Damn it.
Anybody knows something more precise?
Thanks

Question Brick after deleting everything in slot b

I just got the phone and couldn't resist the temptation to start the shenanigans. I actually flashed an image into both slots and wanted to delete the duplicate image in slot b.
My thinking was that since modem_b was empty before I flashed anything to it, then I probably could safely erase everything with the suffix _b right?
No, and now my phone is bricked. I should also mention that I forgot to set the active slot back to "a" so that was probably a contributing cause.
However when I look at how fastboot flashes the bootloader, I notice that it only touches the partitions with _b. So does that mean that my _a bootloader is intact?\
In the future, I'll only erase the partitions that the factory rom actually rewrites. And I am not touching the bootloader anymore, unless we get an msmtool equivalent for the Tensor chip. Speaking of which, I noticed that when the bricked phone is connected to my computer, it shows up as a serial device.
I am in the process of filing a claim with Google so I still have a few days to figure this out.
Is there something wrong with the how to guides in the Pixel 6 threads?
No, it was just me screwing around with the partitions. I did successfully root the phone previously.
How did you manage to wipe the bootloader partition? "dd" command? Pretty hard core if that was the case.
I rooted the phone and rooted the shell. So when I went to adb shell, I was able to cat /dev/block/bootdevice to see all the partition names.
From then on I just used the fastboot erase command.
In the back of my head, I though that fastboot unlock_critical being disabled would save me from doing stupid things but in retrospect it was probably only to prevent overwriting the bootloader.
I see. Amazing to think that Google would allow erasing the bootloader with a simple fastboot command.
And yet the bootloader on the other slot remains intact. With no way to enter fastboot to switch slots, it seems a replacement is the only option.
Be careful what you tell them if you go for a RMA
In the Pixel 6 Pro forum there is an unbricking guide which uses the exynos dead recovery to start flashboot and then using it to reflash the bootloader. If as you said the phone shows up as com port there should be hope.
Kickbub said:
I rooted the phone and rooted the shell. So when I went to adb shell, I was able to cat /dev/block/bootdevice to see all the partition names.
From then on I just used the fastboot erase command.
In the back of my head, I though that fastboot unlock_critical being disabled would save me from doing stupid things but in retrospect it was probably only to prevent overwriting the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The unlock_critical command is automatically executed when you unlock the bootloader with the standard command. It's been that way since midway through the Pixel 2 XL lifespan.
Google should be able to make you whole.
Which command do you use, i type cat /dev/block/bootdevice in su mode
it only come out cat: /dev/block/bootdevice: Is a directory.
after knew the partition just use fastboot erase (directory) to wipe it?

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