Database Users

Rooting 32B Magic 'Perfect' SPL, whilst ensuring it can be returned to stock

First, thanks for taking the time to read this. I appreciate that these forums get a lot of frustrating posts with people asking questions that have already been answered, and it is not my intention to do that. I have been lurking on these forums for a while, and have read around quite a bit of information. However, I cannot find the exact answers I am after.
To start, I am now on my 2nd HTC Magic 32B (Voda UK), after I sent my initial phone off for repair. I was running Cyanogen Mod on this phone, and flashed this rom by fastbooting in to Cyanogen's Recovery and going from there.
I was careful to take a nandroid backup before I flashed, and as such, when the time came to said the phone off for repair, I was able to restore the backup and send it off with the stock firmware running.
Unfortunately, the phone I have now received has a 'perfect' SPL, HBOOT-1.33.0007, so I cannot flash a rom using the same method.
My primary concern through all of this, is finding a way to flash roms such that I can revert everything back to normal if the need arises.
I have read around 1-click rooting, so, my proposed method at the moment would be:
1) use Flashrec to boot into Cyanogen Recovery
2) Backup using nandroid
3) using adb shell to flash Cyanogen Recovery
4) use Cyanogen Recovery to flash rom
I should now be in a position where I can a) flash back to the original recovery if needed, using the backup from nandroid, and b) flash back to the original rom if needed, using the backup from nandroid.
Would this work as I hope?
I have read about having to 'downgrade' the SPL when wishing to restore a nandroid backup, but I did not need to previously. What are the circumstances where you do need to? - I would not want to do this, since I have no way of flashing the original SPL back. I presume there is no way to backup my SPL? so I could return to it if need be?
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I appreciate any help you may be able to give me.
Cheers.

I have a Rogers 32A that had a Perfect SPL (1.33.0010) on it and I got a rooted recovery ROM by using One Click Root. The Perfect SPL wasn't allowing me to fastboot at all (giving me a "no access" error or something). So instead I booted running the stock software, and used the one click root program to backup my ROM and then flash a recovery ROM (used the default Cyanogen Recovery 1.4). Then when I rebooted while holding down Power + Home, I came right into my rooted recovery ROM where I could install whatever .zip ROM I wanted (AFTER I BACKED UP WITH NANDROID, of course).
I didn't need to use ADB for anything, and I still ended up with root. So I guess I'm confused when you say you're going to use flashrec to boot into cyanogen recovery and then use adb shell to flash cyanogen recovery. I was under the impresion that flashrec FLASHES cyanogen recovery for you, eliminating the need to use ADB/Fastboot. Assumed "flashrec" stood for "Flash Recovery ROM".
My steps were:
1) Install/run flashrec
2) In FlashRec: Backup your current ROM
3) In FlashRec: Select a new recovery ROM to Flash (has Cyanogen's by default, can change to something on your SD Card)
4) In FlashRec: Flash the Recovery ROM
5) Exit FlashRec and reboot into Recovery Mode (Hold Home and Power)
6) You're done, you have a rooted phone. Go ahead and Nandroid a backup, wipe your data, and install a new ROM.

Thanks for your reply.
It is my understanding that flashrec does not flash the recovery rom, but just allows you to boot to it. (Similar to the fastboot boot filename.img command). I would guess that if you reboot your phone using home + power now, that it would boot to the standard recovery.
If it is the case that flashrec does flash the recovery image, then that would be handy, and presumably the backup could be restored using either nandroid or adb.
Thanks, this clarifies that my rooting procedure is along the right lines, however I am still concerned whether flashing everything back to normal will go as I expect.

Just booted into recovery, and its still CyanogenMod v1.4 + JF.
I'm trying to think if I did anything special during my rooting efforts. I don't think I did. I know that I flashrec'd twice. the First was with Amon_Ra's recovery console, and then I did it again a bit later with Cyanogen's. But I'm positive I was never able to successfully use adb's fastboot command due to my perfected SPL.
And you're right, I didn't address your concerns about unrooting at a later date. I assume that is what you're doing when you use flashrec to create a backup of the stock Recovery ROM, but i'm not positive.

Taken from:
http://www.ryebrye.com/blog/2009/08/16/android-rooting-in-1-click-in-progress/
EVERY TIME YOU REBOOT YOUR PHONE INTO NORMAL ANDROID IT UNDOES WHAT YOU JUST DID. Every time android boots, it reflashes the recovery partition with the default one from a file stored in your phone. For safety reasons, we are not replacing this file – just flashing the partition directly. So if you boot to recovery mode, then boot back into your normal mode, and then boot back into recovery mode – you will see a triangle with an exclamation point and only 3 options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I'm not sure what's going on.
Thanks for your input. I think I'm nearing enough confidence to go ahead and give this a try. Probably tomorrow.

Hi ParanoiaPersonified - can you post an update when you flash? I also have a new Voda Magic with the same SPL as yourself.....I got the OTA upgrade to Donut yesterday which I may have been silly about accepting.
I wasn't too impressed with the speed improvements in Donut and now want to flash something built by one of the XDA chefs, but am having problems rooting with the traditional methods - even 1 click doesn't seem to work....
Cheers.

It is my understanding that one-click-root only works on 1.5, and the exploit that it uses is patched in 1.6. I think you may need to use the 'gold card' method, radita.
I've realised that my handset has a fault (the scrollwheel does not work when scrolling to the right), so I will be unfortunately waiting for a replacement handset before taking any of the steps mentioned above.
Hopefully the replacement does come with 1.6 pre-installed!

"Gold card" method looks a little more involved....guess I don't have a choice though.
Thanks.

Rooted with hboot 1.49 S-ON?

I had Leak 2.1v3 on my phone, and following the XDA thread, I've successfully rooted my Eris using the stock 8gb card. Twice. I re did the root thinking I corrupted the RUU file, or something else during the initial root. I have Amon recovery installed and accessible at will.
I have full access to my phone with adb shell with SU access, but I'm unable to boot into any custom rom. So far I've tried Evil Eris 3.0 and Aloysius. They install without errors, but on reboot the phone to access the rom, the phone will freeze or loop. I've tried waiting over 20 minutes with the HTC boot screen flashing about every 15 seconds after installing Aloysius.
I'm still showing hboot 1.49.0000 S-ON. Is this what is stopping me from booting a custom rom? Or am I missing something that will change the security status to off?
Suggestions? What am I missing?
Thanks

Ok, looks like I got somewhere, I managed to install the grdlock beta rom. Not sure why the other roms wouldn't install tho. They all came from the same source. hboot is still 1.49.0000 S-ON tho.

NAA_Silent said:
Ok, looks like I got somewhere, I managed to install the grdlock beta rom. Not sure why the other roms wouldn't install tho. They all came from the same source. hboot is still 1.49.0000 S-ON tho.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The new rooting method ("Incredible/Slide") does not currently replace the S-ON bootloader, so phones rooted this way will not have 1.49.2000 S-OFF on them.
As for your troubles, you need to Wipe /data (FR) in Amon_RA recovery before you install a new ROM. Amon_RA does not enforce wiping of the /system and /data partitions before a new rom is loaded from the SD card, so you probably ended up with a mixture of old ROM and new ROM in a couple of places. (The dev can pre-clean those partitions in the update-script, but I'm not sure if that happens for the ROMs you mentioned.)
Always a good idea to wipe before a new ROM install (not necessary for a Nandroid restore, though, because it does a wipe itself).
bftb0

I thought I'd wiped those caches within Amon recovery. Good to know that I'm not going insane with the 1.49 S-ON tho! I couldn't find anything anywhere to let me know the S-ON was normal. After I get everything up and running with the grdlock rom, I'll back it up and try one of the other roms, being darn sure to wipe everything Amons will let me wipe first. Thanks for the info!

It appears that the rom files that I was using were corrupt. Without the md5 info for those files I had no way of checking. I went to a different site and downloaded Aloysius 12, and it's up and running just fine now
Thanks for the nudges in the right direction!

Getting back to stock

Hello all, Im new to the X coming for an N1. I wanted to try a new Rom but im am not sure how to get back to stock if I needed.
Steps I have taken so far. Rooted and Installed Clockwork Recovery.
Now what? Do i just make a nandroid backup?
Is it best to use ROM Manager or just installed of the SD card using Clockwork Recovery.
Thanks Mike

you can follow the instructions at www.rootzwiki.com for using the SBF 2.2 to return to stock.

Can you reverse flashing a recovery image?

Hi Guys,
I'm a little new to all this so please bear with me..
Just rooted my MT4g and want to make a nandroid backup before i do anything. However i see that i need to use CWM to flash a custom recovery image in order to make the backup.
Is there anyway to reverse that recovery image back to stock? Incase i need to revert the phone completely back to stock...
Thanks.

Sorry, i think i found it!
I'm guessing this is it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=843289
Please close this thread if that's it.. sorry for spamming.

If you completed the root process then you already have CwM recovery. Just use Rom Manager to make a backup. If you have to revert back to stock the process will reinstall the stock recovery img for you.
shortskoolbus said:
Hi Guys,
I'm a little new to all this so please bear with me..
Just rooted my MT4g and want to make a nandroid backup before i do anything. However i see that i need to use CWM to flash a custom recovery image in order to make the backup.
Is there anyway to reverse that recovery image back to stock? Incase i need to revert the phone completely back to stock...
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Hmm okay. I did successfully root the device and I was following this write up to backup the phone using nandroid which says i need to flash a custom recovery ROM.
I just tried to backup current ROM and it gives me a message saying i must flash CwM recovery first and gives me an option to install it. But i'm guessing it's possible to restore that from the link in my second post?

You can use clockwork to restore your factory rom, but if you want to revert your recovery back to stock you will need to fastboot flash the stock recovery back on. This is assuming you have first flashed the stock rom which will leave you without clockwork rom manager installed. There's a few unroot guides that will help you if you need to send your phone back to tmo. I would suggest becoming familiar with ADB and Fastboot. That knowledge will give you more options in a pinch.
Swyped on my rooted MyTouch4G

Thanks much!
Yes i am doing a lot of reading right now, but wanted to make sure all the files i needed were out there for the MT4G already. Looks like the factory recovery is out there and it can be flashed back so i'm not to worried.

shortskoolbus said:
Thanks much!
Yes i am doing a lot of reading right now, but wanted to make sure all the files i needed were out there for the MT4G already. Looks like the factory recovery is out there and it can be flashed back so i'm not to worried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes all the files are out there that you would need to pretty much do whatever needed. Check out the links in my sig for some good things.

[Q] Stock Rom with the S off

I was wondering if theres a stock rom zip file out there. I dont wanna take the s off or do a nano restore. That would work and still get OTa's.

There is a safe nandroid restore of a clean stock install in the dev section. It will not turn S on. Go to the dev section, it is in a sticky called "resource bible". The link is called "stock nandroid restore". Download the file from the links op and use it to perform a nandroid restore. You will then have a blank slate with S on.
Sent from my HTC Glacier

hmmm gonna try it
but i was looking for a zip rom thats stock. then going thew the whole nano restore. i Did a nano restore before and it didnt do anything. it Just went to the mytouch screen. then stayed there. I then put the S back on and then did a nano restore and it worked. But i was wondering if theres anyone with a zip stock version. like that i can zip different roms and if i dont like em. i can always go back directly to stock. with out going threw the process of visionary and terminal em.

Sir0 said:
but i was looking for a zip rom thats stock. then going thew the whole nano restore. i Did a nano restore before and it didnt do anything. it Just went to the mytouch screen. then stayed there. I then put the S back on and then did a nano restore and it worked. But i was wondering if theres anyone with a zip stock version. like that i can zip different roms and if i dont like em. i can always go back directly to stock. with out going threw the process of visionary and terminal em.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The restore I referred to will not break root and will allow you to flash roms. They're is a zip restore in the same section but that one does revert your bootloader so it essentially breaks root. The nand restore won't break root. The reason you were stuck at the loading screen is probably due to the version of clockwork recovery you have installed. You either need version 2.0.5.2 or the newest version 3.0.0.6 for the nandroid to work. Clockwork recovery v3.0.0.6 will let you flash between froyo and gingerbread roms so I suggest using that one. I'll bet you're on v3.0.0.2 or 3.0.0.5. Those versions won't boot froyo roms or nand restores.
Sent from my HTC Glacier