Dumping ODIN? - Fascinate General

Hi, I've got a Mesmerize on US Cell, and I'm looking to root my phone. However I'm worried that I might mess something up and I'd like to have an ODIN backup. I haven't found one anywhere. Is there anyway I can dump a backup, and what parts are available to backup?
I found this
Code:
adb shell cat /dev/block/bml8 > /sdcard/recovery.bin
adb pull /sdcard/recovery.bin .
tar --format=ustar -cf recovery.tar recovery.bin
in another thread, but doesn't this just backup the recovery partition?
Thanks for the help.

Not an answer to your question, but here are my thoughts. I have yet to read about someone borking their galaxy S via just a root exploit. No files are overwritten in the process. That makes it rather trivial and very safe to undo. You can delete the 3-4 files you add to clear root, or just do a factory reset.
Once you root, Get your hands on rom manager w/ clockwork recovery (which is frankly even more intimidating) and do a [nandroid] backup with that. Copy it off to your hard disk for safe keeping. Thing saved my life!
At minimum, please try to avoid installing any roms without this backup, and ideally system and kernel tars for odin.
Then again, don't trust me. I am still green and have no idea what the climate is like for the mesmerize.
PS
I had the same exact concern when I got here 5 weeks ago, but I cracked after 2. I recently posted a short [, poorly done, unedited] video of what a manual root looks like with an explanation of what is happening, so you can see what you are getting into.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

http://androidforums.com/behold-2-all-things-root/54424-creating-custom-roms-backups-odin.html

Related

[Q] current rooting/2.3 instructions

As the thread title states, I'm looking for info on the steps to root my stock MT4g, and install the new ROM that's floating around. I'm pretty technically capable, but the info I've found looks slightly dated. When I was active in the iPhone jailbreak scene, using old directions could brick a phone pretty easy, or prevent future jailbreaking. I haven't kept up with this scene enough to be able to know what's dated and what isn't.
This is my current plan, please correct it if I'm missing anything or have it wrong.
(based on wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=TMobile_myTouch_4G:_Full_Update_Guide)
I've got ADB going
I need a backup solution for app data right? What's my best option here?
Once backed up, I plan to install busybox, Superuser package & Temporary Root package via ADB
Use gfree to make that root permanent
Install ClockworkMod recovery
Reboot into recovery, and install faux123's ROM
Does that sound correct, and did I skip anything? Any input at all is welcome, I'd like to stand tall on the backs of giants.
There are two popular methods floating around
You can either use the Root.sh method [ Found Here ]
Or the ./gfree method [ Found here ]
Either method will work perfectly. I've used both and can say with confidence they work.
The Cyanogen method can be goofy at times. I've see alot of people say they cannot get it working for them. I'd rock one of the two above. You shouldn't have a problem either way.
Thanks a ton for the info, I'll go at it this evening. As far as backup process, I do the temporary root, use ASTRO to make a zip? Most of the data on my phone lives at google, but I'm wondering the best way to retain apps, or should I just make a list and reinstall from the store after flashing?
lars.oakland said:
Thanks a ton for the info, I'll go at it this evening. As far as backup process, I do the temporary root, use ASTRO to make a zip? Most of the data on my phone lives at google, but I'm wondering the best way to retain apps, or should I just make a list and reinstall from the store after flashing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For backing up apps and data, use titanium backup. for backing up your whole phone, use the backup feature in clockworkmod recovery after you've flashed it via rom manager after permarooting.
lars.oakland said:
Thanks a ton for the info, I'll go at it this evening. As far as backup process, I do the temporary root, use ASTRO to make a zip? Most of the data on my phone lives at google, but I'm wondering the best way to retain apps, or should I just make a list and reinstall from the store after flashing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best way to back up your Data and Applications is like mentioned above is Titanium Backup. The free version will work well but i recommend the paid one.
as far as a snap shot of the entire ROM incase you want to go back to it. reboot into recovery > backup/restore > backup. And it will do the rest.
Well I made it halfway there, but didn't nail the whole thing. I've got permanent root access (yay) now, and was able to make backups via Titanium. I then rebooted the phone into "recovery" using the ROM Manager from Clockwork. First boot had a red exclamation mark, I unplugged the handset from the USB and tried a second time. After that, I was greeted with the Orange and black interface, and selected "restore to factory". I then started searching for the cache clearing, which changed verbage between 3.x and 4.x releases of Clockwork. After exploring the menus a little, the phone reboots itself from this screen. My blood-pressure goes up, and I worry my toy just became a b-word. Not all was lost though, and the phone happily booted into the stock t-mobile welcome wizard.
I still have superUser installed, and still have root (S=OFF I guess?). I install ROM Manager again, and do the "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" (which now shows both current and latest recovery as ClockworkMod 3.0.2.4). When I choose Reboot into Recovery however, it reboots back to the MyTouch 4G logo screen (non-animated one), and hangs. After some reading I tried to force recovery boot via ADB, which produced the same result as the soft reset from ROM Manager. After that I tried doing it the manual way with holding the volume button, which launched me into what I believe is a stock recovery console (white with colored options, uses vol +/- and power to navigate). Choosing "recovery" from that screen *also* produces the white logo screen hang.
So my question now is, in it's current state; how can I get to the Clockwork recovery again? From there I bet installing the image will be easy street, but I believe I'm stuck for now.
Side-note: the phone functions fine on regular boots and pure vanilla mode; I just don't want to stop here when I'm pretty close to my 2.3 goal
Well good news and bad news. I was able to get Clockwork going by reverting it to 3.0.0.5 and just using that version. Was able to install ROMs, tested a few. Phone started freezing after/during installing packages. Started the clear cache/install ROM process, ran into this:
Code:
Flashing Kernal ...
assert failed: write_raw_image("/tmp/boot.img","boot")
E:Error in /sdcard/download/virtuous_fusion-glacier-rom-v1.0.9.zip
(Status 7)
Installation aborted
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=14389074
Totally stuck at boot screen, but able to get into Clockwork. All ROM zips off the sdcard produce this or an invalid zip error.
Other guy smight tell you what a status 7 might be, but with the flurry of flashing youre doing, you may have gotten some corruption on your sd
try formatting your sd card in the pc, or use another one so you dont have to back everything up on this one. put one rom zip on the root and see if that helps
also, i would make super sure you wiped/factory resetted every possible data/cache in CWM before flashing the zip
lastly, i would md5 test the download to make sure it matches the web page. Plus, after it's transferred to the cleanly-formetted sd, check it again either thru adb, or do the trans on the pc using an sdcard reader and check it once it's on the sdcard, then pop it into back your phone.
good luck
Thanks a ton for the uber fast reply. When I format on the PC, what format do I use, or is there a specific tool to properly format it for the phone?
When I'm wiping /data it's taking forever and I get the following message back:
Code:
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/log
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/log
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/log/last_log
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/log/last_log
Don't have an adapter at the office today for the sdcard, but I guess I can just grab a new one at lunch? All it would need is a fresh format then the .zip of the ROM in question at the root?
Looks like your partitions are corrupted. Flash PD15IMG to restore the phone to stock, and progress from there.
When you format the SD card, just format it regularly in the PC.
Jack_R1 said:
Looks like your partitions are corrupted. Flash PD15IMG to restore the phone to stock, and progress from there.
When you format the SD card, just format it regularly in the PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I use the same PD15IMG.zip i did to start, flash it using Clockwork, then start the root > rom process over? I think that it currently tells me it can't find that zip anymore on the white screen pre console, is that expected? I just xfer it to the sdcard prior to fixing?
Yes, that's the right procedure. Move it to the card and start from scratch. Beware not to use the newer Panache/MT4G Gingerbread RUU, otherwise you'll be left with no way to root, or at least harder way.
Ok, so I didn't have a PD15IMG.zip to begin with, I see this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1059347
and that's proper that I'm flashing the radio itself for this process? Which of those images do I want to grab? I always like to double check when I read warnings that are pretty specific about bricking the device
No! You're flashing a stock recovery image called a pd15img.zip
The radio does not do a restore to stock, the reason you're confused is that in order to flash a radio for those who nmwish to do that, you rename it to the same name as the recovery zip, but it's really just a radio. It just happens to be the filename that the system looks for to restore. Look for the thread posted by either jjackson or football. That's the full image, just over 300 megabytes, or that neighborhood.
acsi007 said:
No! You're flashing a stock recovery image called a pd15img.zip
The radio does not do a restore to stock, the reason you're confused is that in order to flash a radio for those who nmwish to do that, you rename it to the same name as the recovery zip, but it's really just a radio. It just happens to be the filename that the system looks for to restore. Look for the thread posted by either jjackson or football. That's the full image, just over 300 megabytes, or that neighborhood.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jesus, glad I asked before getting in there.
So I was going to offer you a beer sometime, I think I owe you a few rounds at this point...
Edit: this one right http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=924923 ?
Yup. Read the whole thread. Also look for football,s thread. There are a couple of mentions of undoing gfree first then doing the pd15img. I think jjackson tries to automate those two steps, and football thread just gives you a january-dated pd15img. I can't remember if you rooted gfree or not. Read read read. This is an important step but hundreds have gone back to stock this way without a hitch. That is if you have a good emmc, you have a better chance of avoiding problems...
acsi007 said:
Yup. Read the whole thread. Also look for football,s thread. There are a couple of mentions of undoing gfree first then doing the pd15img. I think jjackson tries to automate those two steps, and football thread just gives you a january-dated pd15img. I can't remember if you rooted gfree or not. Read read read. This is an important step but hundreds have gone back to stock this way without a hitch. That is if you have a good emmc, you have a better chance of avoiding problems...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I rooted gfree originally, and think I may be in the bad place
Fail-PU errors running the update from pd15img. Do I have any options at this point? I bought the phone from Wirefly.com, and since I can't get a recovery image going, I may be fuct here on a return eh?
looks like i'm moving to: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=14487111#post14487111
Good luck Lars. Let us know that they did and if you had to pay.

Important/Urgent: Who has a STOCK Verizon tab 7.7 (SCH-i815)

I need help! I need a stock, unmodified recovery partition image.
Anyone here with a vzw tab who DOES NOT yet have CWM installed?.
PLEASE contact me.
Thanks!
electron73 said:
I need help! I need a stock, unmodified recovery partition image.
Anyone here with a vzw tab who DOES NOT yet have CWM installed?.
PLEASE contact me.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have one that hasn't been moded but have no idea how to get you what you want. PM me if you know how to download and send to you and I'll do my best to help.
I'll check my laptop at home tonight. I believe I kept my heimdall backup before flashing cwm
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
Just checked, mightve deleted it. Sorry man
aximtreo said:
I have one that hasn't been moded but have no idea how to get you what you want. PM me if you know how to download and send to you and I'll do my best to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh that would be awesome! Are you rooted? Let me find the commands in the meantime, I read somewhere it's a simple one command in terminal to extract the recovery partition into a file on sd card...
WHAT AN ORDEAL !!!!
But in the end: SUCCESS!
I managed to get my tab updated with the Verizon OTA update.
The problem is definitely CWM !!! A rude awakening is in store for everyone with the P6800 CWM installed, because it a) fails to verify the checksum of OTA files correctly on the i815, b) it thinks the tablet is a P6800, so the OTA file fails to run if it assert checks for "SCH-i815" hardware AND lastly c) modem updates don't work because the device /dev/cdma_update doesn't exist, so the modem.bin firmware_update call fails !!!
In short, I had to fumble the OTA file apart and do the update manually in two runs:
First file, kick the checksum, hardware check and modem update out, then manually run the ZIP through CWM. The zip subsequently (LUCKILY) updated the stock recovery and overwrote CWM with a new fresh stock recovery.
Second file had everything kicked out BUT the modem udpate and LTE patch, so with the STOCK recovery this file ran through just fine, updated the modem and then applied the LTE delta patch.
Phew!!!
Of course I had to manually restore root after the update, had backed up with voodoo, auto restore failed, so terminal and hacking it was...
Now I have the tab running on clean stock FD01, baseband and LTE FD01, rooted and stock recovery.
No more CWM, no more "hacking" with the ROM until some dev finally releases a "correct" CWM and at least ANY factory ODIN image is available to bring the tab back to stock if needed!!!
Kinda sick of the non-support for this tab. So much going on for the Galaxy Note and pretty much every other device. I'm starting to regret having bought this "special" Verizon version
Awesome find and great to know for whenever ics does come out. Could you please post the recovery img you got?
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
OK after getting so many responses I decided to just post everything here in hopes that it will help others, too:
All files are here:
http://www.mywo.org:88/XDA/sch-i815/index.php
Step by step procedure to update the Verizon Tab from ..FA02 to ..FD01 build IF YOU ARE stuck with CWM installed on your tab and the original OTA fails with errors:
Upload the SCH-I815_FA02c_To_FD01.1.zip to the INTERNAL(!) SD card. This is important because CWM contains a bug that will only allow you to install from ZIPs stored on the INTERNAL SD storage.
Upload the SCH-I815_FA02c_To_FD01.2.zip to the EXTERNAL(!) (micro SD) card. This is important, because after the factory recovery is restored, it will correctly (and only) look for ZIPs on the EXTERNAL card.
Best way just copy both files to both locations
Fire up CWM and do "install from ZIP" and select SCH-I815_FA02c_To_FD01.1.zip
It should run (takes a while) and eventually tell you all is done. BOOT the tab. It should boot fine but in system it will show the new Android build FD01 but the baseband (radio) will still be the "old" one.
Now press and hold power and vol up again until you see the default Samsung recovery menu. Choose install from ZIP and select SCH-I815_FA02c_To_FD01.2.zip. This will now upgrade the baseband only. When done, reboot and enjoy being back on the "factory upgrade path" with the tab.
I hope someone more savvy than me can "fix" CWM to work properly with VZW tabs (accept the checksum, not fail the check for "SCH-i815" and provide the correct /dev file links for radio upgrades). Until then, I recommend just leaving the tab as-is and not tinkering with the ROM. Not that there is any custom ROM available anyway :-(
I also pulled the NEW factory recovery image FD01_recovery.img with the following command:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p6 of=/sdcard/FD01_recovery.img bs=4096
So in case anyone with a botched recovery wants to restore factory (Samsung 3e) recovery. This was actually the reason I had to go through all this... There is NO factory recovery image ANYWHERE to be found. I can't believe that I should be the first one ever to post one?? Anyway, hope it will help
I'm still quite new here, so I do really appreciate every click on that "thanks" button
P.S. for tinkerers and devs I also uploaded the original, untouched OTA file (0559c0e4e08e.update_SCH-I815_FA02c_To_FD01.bin) as it came from Samsung or Verizon or whatever and ended up in the /cache partition.
THANK YOU!
Electron,
You sir, are a BOSS! Thank you so very much for doing the work, and sharing it. You just made things one hell of a lot easier on me, and anyone else that follows.
Regards,
-Rob
Also want to say thanks. You rock, dude. I wouldn't have known how to revert **** on my own.
Also, I feel like we need a sticky or something for sch-i815 owners to go to for device specific stuffs, especially since there is little knowledge/info out for this device.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
hmm i only ever installed ROM manager ... but i did root it ... problem is ... now i don't have a CWM recovery to flash the file ... any ideas?
phigmeta said:
hmm i only ever installed ROM manager ... but i did root it ... problem is ... now i don't have a CWM recovery to flash the file ... any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're in luck! You don't need to go through the whole ordeal because you do NOT have CWM! You can just update the regular intended way. Go into settings, about phone and then click check for system updates. If it presents you the OTA update, just do it the regular way.
My complicated "hack" is only necessary if you DO HAVE CWM installed.
Im sorry I did not explain well what my issue is.
I do not have CWM installed, however i did delete a few appilcations using titanium backup. This causes updates to not take. I would really like to just take it back to factory and start over (this time with less stupidity on my part)
I of course would assume that once its at factory i can then install updates again.
Right now when i try i get the "!" droid sign and a reboot
phigmeta said:
Im sorry I did not explain well what my issue is.
I do not have CWM installed, however i did delete a few appilcations using titanium backup. This causes updates to not take. I would really like to just take it back to factory and start over (this time with less stupidity on my part)
I of course would assume that once its at factory i can then install updates again.
Right now when i try i get the "!" droid sign and a reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey
OK unless someone can tell us how to "make" an ODIN flashable ROM for you, here is what I would do (and please don't get scared because it sounds a bit convoluted).
First, you need to be rooted. This is obviously the case.
IMPORTANT since you don't have CWM installed yet, SAVE your factory restore.img before proceeding, this saves you a lot of hassle later!
Open the android terminal, type su (accept the prompt) and then type (or copy/paste)
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p6 of=/mnt/sdcard/factory_recovery.img bs=4096
Check that you have a "factory_recovery.img" file on your sd card now it should be about 8M big.
Now you're safe to install CWM from the forum, look for the other thread(s) where this is being discussed and follow the instructions for the P6800 "international" version with 3G. CWM Thread here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1613638&highlight=cwm&page=3
Then (thanks to nicduim!) there is a full factory (rooted) CWM image floating around on the forums here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1613638&page=6
Which I used to restore my tab to "almost factory" with the missing bloat apps back in place.
I have a copy on my server here: http://ww.mywo.org:88/XDA/sch-i815/ it's the "2012-05-06.22.48.58.ZIP"
unzip that and put the contents on your INTERNAL SD card in the folder clockwordmod. So on your internal SD you should have /clockworkmod/2012-05-06.22.48.58 and inside there the files boot.img, recovery.img etc.
Use CWM recovery to restore this backup. If you never used CWM before. Press power button and volume up and hold both until you see the menu screen with text. You can go up/down with the volume buttons (go slow, it's very laggy) and with the power button you "select" an option. Select the "restore from backup" option and point it to the only folder being offered, the 2012-05-06.22.48.58.
The restore takes a while, then reboot the tab. Now you're back to stock! Last thing you need to do is get rid of CWM again because in the end it's still a bit buggy and will prevent the OTA update from running properly.
Since you luckily have a backup of the factory recovery in form of that factory_recovery.img file, just install and open terminal again, type su and then type (or copy)
dd if=/mnt/sdcard/factory_recovery.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p6 bs=4096
This overwrites CWM with your original Samsung Android recovery.
Now you just reboot as usual, connect to the internet and wait until the popup message shows up that a system update is ready, accept it and enjoy
If you don't want to wait for the automatic OTA, you can also stop before killing CWM and use my convoluted 2-step manual update which will get you to the exact same condition as the official OTA.
Hope all this makes sense
I was already on stock FD01 when I tried installing CWM for the P6800 that's floating around here somewhere. Odin said it was a success, but it looks like it didn't take. I've done it a few times, but still ended up w/ the stock recovery. However, after reading through your thread, I do not see a /dev/cdma_update in my I815 either. Is it possible that my attempt to install CWM (although unsuccessful) wiped out this file, among others?
Right now, I'm still at stock FD01 (rooted) and everything seems to be working. When I tried doing an OTA update, it just tells me that I have the latest update and no newer update is available.
One other thing, if I have to, I only have the stock recovery right now since CWM didn't take, can I simply flash both zip's using the Samsung stock recovery to put everything back in stock?
SCH-I815_FA02c_To_FD01.1.zip
SCH-I815_FA02c_To_FD01.2.zip
AlpineMan said:
I was already on stock FD01 when I tried installing CWM for the P6800 that's floating around here somewhere. Odin said it was a success, but it looks like it didn't take. I've done it a few times, but still ended up w/ the stock recovery. However, after reading through your thread, I do not see a /dev/cdma_update in my I815 either. Is it possible that my attempt to install CWM (although unsuccessful) wiped out this file, among others?
Right now, I'm still at stock FD01 (rooted) and everything seems to be working. When I tried doing an OTA update, it just tells me that I have the latest update and no newer update is available.
One other thing, if I have to, I only have the stock recovery right now since CWM didn't take, can I simply flash both zip's using the Samsung stock recovery to put everything back in stock?
SCH-I815_FA02c_To_FD01.1.zip
SCH-I815_FA02c_To_FD01.2.zip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wait, so you are saying that in "About device" your Android is 3.2
Baseband i815.04 V.FD01 I815FD01
and your Build number is already at HTJ85B.I815FD01.SCH-I815.I815FD01 ?
That would mean you are already updated. In this case, it should be pretty easy to fix your problem. Which apps did you delete with Titanium? I can back them up from my system and make them available for you. All you'd need to do is drop the backup files into your Titanium backups folder and then fire up titanium and restore them!
The /dev/cdma_update node is only required WITHIN CWM recovery, so that is nothing for you to worry about. The zip files above won't help you because they are incremental updates requiring your system to be at FA02, not FD01 !
Yes... I'm already in the latest update. I already backed up the bloatware using Titanium Backup before uninstalling. So I just need to restore them back in order to receive and apply OTA updates in the future?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Xparent ICS Blue Tapatalk 2
Please Help
Hi. I'm rooted and removed all sorts of bloatware with Titanium. I did this a long time ago and did not back anything up because I'm used to running hardware with custom ROMs available, and not relying on OTA updates.
Since there aren't any custom ROMs for the i815, I'd like to get ready for the upcoming ICS update. To do so, I want to get FD01 loaded onto my device, but I can't update because I've apparently removed too much of the required bloatware.
Does anyone know WHAT pieces of bloatware I'd need to reinstall in order for the OTA update to apply? I'd assume I can restore them and then apply the update and re-root.
If anyone can help pinpoint what missing APKs might help, I'll give them a shot. And, to the extent I figure anything out, I'll repost here in the hopes that it helps someone else.
electron,
Your instructions worked ... thank you so much
@jkrell... the failed attempt at installing the update should return an error message(s). You just have to read through them until you find the culprit(s). Apparently I uninstalled a few odexed files that were needed. I couldn't update until i hunted them down and restored them.
I guess we all jumped at the opportunity to install the cwm recovery image, that we didn't even think about cmda updates....ooops. So far i had to do a complete factory restore after the update. I was getting soft bricked to the point where I had no choice. Good thing I sent all titanium backups to actual sd card, i was able to salvage 97% f my data..... with the exception of a few downloads i forgot to move.
Gamecih doesn't work anymore (either version). No more automative data hacks I'm not sure what's going on. I uninstalled adfree..used titanium backup to uninstall both versions and reinstalled both several times. Oh well.
It really sucks not having nandroid backups but it's not worth the trouble of having to do this everytime an OTA modem update gets pushed to my tab. Needless to say, I won't be odining the cwm based recovery image again.
I'm with the O.P. I wish i hadn't wasted my money on this tab. No true cwm for this tab, so no dev will ever waste thier time with this tab. The sch i815 will soon be forgotten about and some other tablet will be all the hype before summer ends....that's just how it is. 21 months left on my contract.... [email protected]#k my life. Lol
Thanks Smitty.
When I try to update, I just see the "!" logo and then the device reboots. Is there a log file somewhere I can look at to see what the errors are?
I hear ya on the gloom and doom, but this device has only been out for just over 3 months now. I'd expect a recovery and some custom ROMs to come eventually. I doubt I'll go the custom ROM route unless CyanogenMod is supported, because I have no complaints about the tablet's performance thus far. It's speedy, smooth and the battery lasts forever.
In my book, this is a great tablet and I'm satisfied with the purchase.

CASUAL soft-brick MF3 rescued...

So, I was at work today, and a customer came and asked if I can recover her deleted picture on her GS4 I337. I thought, OK, I've never played with S4, this is a good chance. So I took the phone and started mess around with it.
As Usual, before any recovery, you need to do a 1:1 backup of the device. so I was thinking, android's file system is basically ext4, if I could install a busybox, I can then make a clone of the internal storage with dd or whatever; before I can install busybox, I need to root the phone.
so without carefully reading I just downloaded kingo android root I found in GS4 forum. and it worked out pretty well.
then, maybe because I haven't had any breakfast, or something....my mind wasn't thinking stuff right.....I told myself that I need to find a busybox flashable and flash it into the phone. so I found the busybox flashable zip. but for obvious reason the stock recovery didn't take it lol. at that point I was like, ok let's try something else....because I need a custom recovery to flash anything other than stock auth ....
and I found CASUAL....again, without reading the manual, I just plugged in the phone and clicked go...
after CASUAL finished its job, it reboot the phone, and I found myself in deep****.....
the phone is stocked in download/odin mode.....
I was scared ****less...after search and read like a crazy, I found out that 1, there's no custom recovery for MF3 and, 2, CASUAL doesn't work for MF3 phones (before soft-brick I don't even know what's MF3 lol)...and, 3, people with similar issue sent their phone over to a ebay seller who offers jtag unbricking service for $30...
after reading CASUAL log, I noticed that CASUAL didn't successfully flash the recovery(of course) but it just went ahead with the progress anyways...so, I think there's something wrong with the boot env or bootstrap it mess up to cause the phone not able to boot up.
so I thought, if I can find the stock rom and flash boot.img, maybe it will unbrick the phone.
because it was a HUGE responsibility, it's not my own phone. it's a customer's, and may or may not contain life and death information in there that was probably why the owner was willing to pay for recovery service at the first place... and I mess it up for her...it was so much pressure.....
thank god it was not the end of my life....
I downloaded and extracted I337UCUAMDL_I337ATTAMDL_ATT.zip, and tried to flash the boot.img with Heimdall .
heimdall flash --BOOT boot.img
heimdall failed with a message like "there's no partition name boot" or something, BUT it DID successfully update the PIT, and rebooted the phone. Magically, the phone came back alive. PIT corrected the partition problem so phone will boot normally??? I was SO HAPPY!!!!
I stopped there and put the phone aside, I don't wanna touch it anymore LOL
I actually posted a small guide about how to get it back up and working again, but you nuked her recovery. She'll have to get it fixed at a Samsung experience shop. They do it for free.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk 5
If only I found your guide at my 3-hour panichour lol
I am not sure if the stock recovery is still there. do you think technically I can use heimdall flash --RECOVERY recovery.img to reflash the recovery if it was nuked?
crumpz said:
If only I found your guide at my 3-hour panichour lol
I am not sure if the stock recovery is still there. do you think technically I can use heimdall flash --RECOVERY recovery.img to reflash the recovery if it was nuked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been posted in many threads about manually putting the phone into ODIN (download) mode and then manually cancelling out to usually boot the phone. However, as mentioned, the stock recovery probably no longer works. It seems to me, and you mentioned it a couple of times yourself that your biggest issue is not reading about what it is you are doing. Hopefully, you learned a lesson about that.

[Q] Could I (and should I) copy a stock ROM backup and flash it to a new Note 3?

So I just dropped my Note 3 of 2 weeks on the floor (with a case on it) and although the glass isn't cracked, the LCD and digitizer is definitely junk since its all warped in color and mostly black. Thank the gods I have insurance.
I have it Rooted and Safestrap installed and luckily made a backup before I installed Xposed when all was still well. I'm familar with Clockworkmod and flashing that way but new to Safestrap. What is the best way to get my new phone back to how the dropped one was like? Not sure of what files to copy onto my PC and back onto the new phone once I get a new one. Would it make a difference if the backup is from another phone?
My main concern is getting all my username and passwords out of the OI Safe app so it's the main reason for wanting to flash my old backup to the new phone. Other than that I'm not to worried about the rest of the phone since it's fairly new and didn't have it long enough for lots of pics and getting it set up the way I really wanted it.
Thanks
That should work with the following big caveat: if you were on the MJ7 kernel (or earlier), and the new phone is on MJE, restoring the full nandroid backup probably won't work at all and is not adviseable. (Remember that Safestrap "ROM"s do not replace the stock kernel).
If the two phones are from the identical release, then what I would do is the following:
- Root and install SafeStrap as usual.
- Immediately make a Nandroid of the Stock Slot using Safestrap. Get it copied off the phone someplace safe (and named in a way that you can remember it) too.
- Make a second slot in Safestrap and restore the backup from the previous phone to this alternate/second slot.
( Note if you were using a ton of the userdata partition on the old phone you will need to right-size the 2nd slot when you create it. Of course, if you were a data-pig on the old phone and there is no room for a sufficiently-large 2nd slot, then this method of rescue is not available to you. In this case you could restore the original nandroid backup directly to the stock slot - only if you were 100% positive of the same kernel release being used on both phones - but if something goes wrong here you might be making a trip to Odin to re-flash stock and then going through the rooting process all over again ).
- You can use it this way for a little while if you like to see if things are working, or rescue critical data from individual apps, or perhaps make TiBu backups of individual apps (that can be later restored into a different ROM). If things seem to be going swimmingly, you can certainly repeat this process, restoring to the stock slot and then destroying the alternate/second slot.
Note that there are other means of rescue of individual apps which do not require a full restore; this is because the Nandroid backups are (concatenated) "tar" archives, and with sufficient command-line knowledge, you could manually splice into place the appropriate folders from /data/data/*, /data/app/*, and /data/lib/* for individual market apps you wanted to rescue from the old backups. Essentially you are doing the same thing that TiBu does, but manually using adb with the phone in Safestrap recovery mode and the command line.
I'm not going to document this, as it is too tedious to do so - either you already have the working knowledge to do this or you don't. The only tricky part to it is getting the user/group ownership of the files correct. (The easiest way to do this is to install the app from the market, then record the owner/group information it used for the new install of the app, restore the /data/data/* files into the correct place, and then as root "chown" them to the correct user ID... either that or run the "Fix Permissions" script of the recovery).
good luck
I am about 99% sure it was on MJE, I remeber checking it before rooting and following the newest root method available for the newest kernel among other things such as installing Safestrap and Xposed framework.
I unfortunately don't have any experience using Odin or adb, which is something I should know how to do seeing I'm always tinkering with all the phones I get. I'm pretty good with figuring things out when someone points me in the right direction such as you did by searching and following guides here on xda so I thank you for that! I'll try your idea of rescuing the individual app such as TiBu would do using adb. Or even restoring the ROM into a second slot, grabbing the data I need, then get rid of that rom.
And for anyone else reading this...it's never too early to use TiBu or any other backup app for all your important data. Never expected my brand new phone to break after only 2 weeks of owning it but lesson learned.
Thanks a lot for the help, I'll let you know how things go once my new phone arrives.

SM-T280 I've made a huge mistake

I installed TWRP and tried to flash SuperSU according to the guide by ashyx here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3475381
So, from what I can tell by reading this thread: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-a/help/samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-mount-data-t3544561, the problem is that my device was encrypted. I tried restoring the full image that I made using TWRP, before trying to flash the boot. Stuck on Samsung logo now. I should have seen this coming when I was getting "failed to mount /data" errors.
So I suppose I need to flash that zip https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24591000424951049, but I thought I better ask specifically about my device and situation before blindly flashing yet another zip.
What steps do I need to take now?
thanx
update :: it sounds like my last resort option is to flash the stock ROM (can I do this in Odin?)
BUT I noticed that SuperSU saved a "stock_boot_*.img.gz" file, which I copied to SD root and also to my PC. Now I imagine that if I flash this, I might be able to regain access to the OS... that would be the best at this time. Then I can do more research and try root again later.
Is this true, and how should I flash the stock_root file?
I absolutely love doing research and answering my own questions! no sarcasm. after reading a whole bunch of general info about the Android system, partitions, boot process, TWRP... I forged ahead with 90% confidence, unpacking the "stock_boot_*.img.gz" and feeling for a way to flash it with TWRP... and more importantly, with 99.9% confidence that it won't wreck anything if I try.
So next time, I will first decrypt the system before trying to root, and pay attention to the log output, and only proceed when confident that I know what's happening next... this is all basic IT procedure. I should know this! Guess I was in a rush to get root. Still in a rush in a way tho.... want to recover deleted photos and can't do it without root. Anybody know if Android device encryption is proper full-disk? Like if the empty space will be decrypted just the same?
trefrog said:
I absolutely love doing research and answering my own questions! no sarcasm. after reading a whole bunch of general info about the Android system, partitions, boot process, TWRP... I forged ahead with 90% confidence, unpacking the "stock_boot_*.img.gz" and feeling for a way to flash it with TWRP... and more importantly, with 99.9% confidence that it won't wreck anything if I try.
So next time, I will first decrypt the system before trying to root, and pay attention to the log output, and only proceed when confident that I know what's happening next... this is all basic IT procedure. I should know this! Guess I was in a rush to get root. Still in a rush in a way tho.... want to recover deleted photos and can't do it without root. Anybody know if Android device encryption is proper full-disk? Like if the empty space will be decrypted just the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't really decrypt it, it does a full format using either no encryption or new encryption. I'm sorry, but the files are gone. To answer your question though, I believe the encryption is full-disk.
Going forward, check out TitaniumMediaSync. You can mirror your internal storage to a computer via FTP, so when these things happen (and they do happen), you won't lose anything. I'm sorry you lost your files in this.
actually I didn't lose my files! I was able to restore the backed up boot partition that twrp made and tucked into a folder.
happy af :laugh:
... so are you saying that the decrypt function in the Android settings just wipes everything? Then why is it even there, if it's basically a factory reset?
hmm associated with Titanium Backup? I have a license for that, and as soon as I root this, I'll be installing it. Currently, all my important stuff (just photos), are backed up to my PC via QuicPic's cloud backup feature.
I think i have found myself in the same situation as you. I dont have any files or data to lose. managed to do first step in using odin to install twrp. tried to follow additional steps of installing super su, then padded boot. now the tablet wont load past the first screen. I can still get into twrp. how can i get this fixed, rooted and a custom image installed? any help in the right direction would be appreciated.
find that "stock_boot_*.img.gz" using the twrp file browser thing. copy it to the root of your SD for safe keeping (even if the SD is encrypted, it seems that it does so only at the file level, rather than partition/disk level, so it will be written unencrypted). if ur plugged to PC, you can copy it across for even safer keeping
then... I don't recall how I found it, but it's in twrp. a way to flash that file. worked for me, because as far as I made it, only the boot partition was affected

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