Database Users

[Q] Installing CyanogenMod on Nexus S 4G?

I am a total noob and am having trouble installing CyanogenMod onto my Nexus S 4G. I barely rooted the darn thing, and I am using a guide that involves ROM Manager. It says I have to mount the SD card using ROM Manager, but I can't figure out how to. If there is a better way to install CyanogenMod, please tell me, because all the guides I have been finding are way too technical for me to understand, and I have been trying. Any help is appreciated.

Can you tell us which guide you are using and which step you are on? I think you must mean ClockworkMod not ROM Manager.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

If you already have clock work then all you have to do is drag and drop cyanogen into the root of your sd card. Then flash through clock work.

ht tp://ww w.redmondpie.com/install-cyanogenmod-7.1-gingerbread-rom-on-nexus-s-4g-how-to-tutorial/
That's the guide I was using, I got stuck on step 4.
Is the rom the .zip file I downloaded from the cyanogen site, or is it inside the folder?

The rom is the zip file. Boot into recovery and select choose zip from sd and navigate to it and install it.make sure to do a back up and wipe cache,dalvic and do a factory rest before flashing the rom
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

Paleryder said:
make sure to do a back up and wipe cache,dalvic and do a factory rest before flashing the rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you explain this part more? Is this the part of the guide that says "make a nandroid backup"?

1. Mount USB and drag and drop cm7 zip & Google apps into root of SD card.
2. Turn off nexus.
3. Boot into fastboot by holding volume up and then power button.
4. In fastboot go to recovery (power button is used as enter button, volume buttons represent up and down)
5. In recovery go to backup and restore and back up your current rom.
6. Go back and then wipe data factory reset and also wipe cache.
7. Go to advanced -> Wipe delvik cache.
8. Go back and then go to install zip from SD, find cm7 flash it, then flash Google apps. You can flash kernel right now if you want.
Hope this clears anything up
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

I got to your step 5, but when I choose Recovery, after showing the Google logo it briefly shows a box and an arrow coming out of the box and an Android logo, then the box changes to a triangle with an exclamation mark. It stayed like that so I just rebooted the phone.

seb0910 said:
I got to your step 5, but when I choose Recovery, after showing the Google logo it briefly shows a box and an arrow coming out of the box and an Android logo, then the box changes to a triangle with an exclamation mark. It stayed like that so I just rebooted the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That means you don't have Clockwork recovery installed. You need to download the latest Clockwork recovery image and place it in the tools folder of your Android SDK Folder(wherever you placed it). Then press shift and right click on the tools folder and select "open command prompt here". Then boot your phone into bootloader by pressing volume up and power button at the same time. Connect your phone to your computer via usb cable and in the command prompt you opened type: fastboot flash recovery name of recovery image here.img and press enter and you will see in the command prompt window it will say sending image. When it is done scroll down to recovery on your phone using the volume buttons and press power to enter. Your phone will reboot into Clockwork recovery and from there you can continue on the previous posts steps. Hope this helps. You can download the latest Clockwork by going to this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1078213 and clicking on the brown "CWM Recovery" under 'How to: Root the Nexus S 4G'.

well I'm pretty sure I do have clockwork because there's a folder on my phone that is called clockworkmod, and I did root the phone successfully at the very least, but I'll try putting a new one there.

seb0910 said:
well I'm pretty sure I do have clockwork because there's a folder on my phone that is called clockworkmod, and I did root the phone successfully at the very least, but I'll try putting a new one there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright here is a little run down on whats going on with your ns4g, you probably already flash clockworkmod on your nexus, but what samsung did was that it will try to revert back to the stock recovery. So what you have to do is flash Clockworkmod again to make it stick. Honestly it is good that it doesn't stick because then it would be easier to unroot the phone.
So now you have 2 different options on how to flash clockworkmod. 1) you can do it through fastboot but you have to have adb set up. I'm not sure what method you used to root your phone so i am just assuming.
2) you can download rom manager and flash clockwork through there. (Honestly i haven't done it through this method so i cant tell you of the pros or cons that are attributed with this).
NOTE: If you dont have super user yet it would be a prime time to flash it once you got CWM going.
For me, I only needed to flash clock work twice through fastboot in order to make it stick.
Good luck.

The guide I originally was using for this had me using rom manager, but it kept telling me I had to mount the SD card even though it was shown up in my computer.
If I were to flash clockwork again with adb setup, how would I do that? Sorry to be so asky, I just want this process to end correctly.

You have to set up adb if you don't have it already, go to ns4g development and go to vandam's thread that has all the list of rom's and rooting guides. Check out wolverines rooting guide, he goes indepth on how to set up adb. It make take awhile to set up but learning how to work in fastboot is essential in rooting the nexus.
Good luck
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

Well it was confusing and I almost asked for help again, but I finally got it flashed again and now cyanogen is working. I really appreciate the help and for pointing neon the right direction. As a final note, is there anything else I should know, like updating or something, just general knowledge (basically, "now what?")?

seb0910 said:
Well it was confusing and I almost asked for help again, but I finally got it flashed again and now cyanogen is working. I really appreciate the help and for pointing neon the right direction. As a final note, is there anything else I should know, like updating or something, just general knowledge (basically, "now what?")?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you get all the Google Apps installed too? That's the only "unusual" aspect of CyanogenMod.

Yep I got the Google apps.

Congrats dude its good you got it all working, BTW when ever you switch roms like from CM7 to miui you always have to wipe data, cache, and delvik cache. Delvik cache is in the advanced tab of CWM. If your just up updating from different versions of the same rom, you just need to wipe cache and delvik cache. That's about it, the hard part is done, enjoy flashing.

chewbz said:
Congrats dude its good you got it all working, BTW when ever you switch roms like from CM7 to miui you always have to wipe data, cache, and delvik cache. Delvik cache is in the advanced tab of CWM. If your just up updating from different versions of the same rom, you just need to wipe cache and delvik cache. That's about it, the hard part is done, enjoy flashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually if you are updating from different versions of the same rom, you don't need to wipe anything, you just flash it.

Solved:I guess I'm stuck in boot loop....now what?

Ok guys..... newbie here .... literally I'm new to Boot unlocking, root, Flashing etc.
Anyway I have followed this forum for so long that I decided to take plunge yesterday and get my hands dirty.
Here is what I did:
Unlock bootloader, root and install recovery on my Atrix 4G. Atrix was @ 2.3.4 and 4.5.91 during unlocking & root.
Rebooted the phone and everything seems to be in place. Atrix loaded like the way I bought it 7 months back. No problem until now.
Also created a restore folder on my external SD. Worked fine and was successful in creating backup with time stamp
Now here are my steps and subsequent issues that I'm facing:
1. Downloaded CM9 zip file from this thread(http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1500535) along with Gapps to my external SD
2.Entered recovery mode during bootup and tried to flash CM9 and Gapps. Flashing seem to have gone well and completed (note I did not do clear data, clear cache or clear dalvik cache under advanced options being a newbie)
3. Reboot the phone and can only see red Moto logo and unlocked on top. Left for about 5 minutes and nothing happened.
4.Did a battery pull and entered recovery mode. wiped data, cache & cleared dalvik cache
5.Went to Install zip from sdcard option and tried to reflash CM9. Flashing seems to have gone well and completed
6. Reboot phone and again can only see Moto Red logo with unlock on top and nothing more.
7.Battery pull followed by recovery. But This time I tried to restore from my external SD. also wiped data, cache & dalvik cache
8.Restore took about 3 minutes and completed.
9.Reboot the phone. Now the phone boots and goes to Rethink possible screen and get sstuck.
10. Left it for 1 hr....nothing.
11.tried steps 7-9 again and still stuck in "Rethink possible" screen during boot.
What did I do wrong? Did I soft brick the phone? I can still enter recovery mode and read my internal and external SD and can see all files. i hope I didn't brick my phone doing this. If I did, I would regret!
Here are my options:
1.Try a stable ROM like CM7 and see what happens. I didn't want to do too much damage so haven't tried this option yet.
2.I know there is a way to hide 'unlock' during boot up (if someone can point to it obviously). Hide the 'unlock' and return the phone to ATT and tell them that phone would not boot after 2.3.6 update and get a refurbished one
Please let me know what your thoughts are. I'm currently crapping on my pants
Edit: I just tried Newtrino rom and stuck @ Moto screen which says unlock.
Edit 3/4/2012: Please go to the last post for the solution. Tenfar's CWM is old and cannot deal with latest ROMs. Use ROMRACERS latest CWM or touch based Koush's CWM for future ROM flashing.
Old CWMs will give you sleepless nights!

Ok tried restore again after wiping data, cache & dalvik cache.
Now after reboot, My Moto Logo screen says unlock and just starts flashing.
I can still get into recovery......
can someone please help me......

What you can do is: install a "stable" ROM of Gingerbread:
--Go in recovery, put a .zip of the ROM on your sdcard (with your computer), and after wiping data, install it .zip.
--Or you install a new ROM with fastboot
Anyway, be careful with your battery, because if it is empty, with no ROM on your phone, it'll be crap!

vsg005 said:
What you can do is: install a "stable" ROM of Gingerbread:
--Go in recovery, put a .zip of the ROM on your sdcard (with your computer), and after wiping data, install it .zip.
--Or you install a new ROM with fastboot
Anyway, be careful with your battery, because if it is empty, with no ROM on your phone, it'll be crap!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you for your response. However I tried that already Nutrino GB ROM. Again, I would go to 'M' screen which says unlocked and its stuck there for ever.
I used tenfar's CWM. Not sure if I need to use any other CWM. Also since my phone doesn't boot, I'm not sure how I can install any other CWM

Masterguy said:
thank you for your response. However I tried that already Nutrino GB ROM. Again, I would go to 'M' screen which says unlocked and its stuck there for ever.
I used tenfar's CWM. Not sure if I need to use any other CWM. Also since my phone doesn't boot, I'm not sure how I can install any other CWM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't worry, soft bricks are easy to recover on the Atrix thanks to us being able to access fastboot.
For flashing a new recovery:
While your phone is off, press Volume Up + Power to power up, then release when a menu appears on your screen and navigate with volume down until you see Fastboot, select it with the volume up key.
Get the necessary files for fastboot, place them all in a folder called "moto" in your C: drive, and type in the following in a cmd window (assuming you're using windows and that the recovery image is called recovery.img):
C:/Moto> fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
C:/Moto> fastboot -w
C:/Moto> fastboot reboot
Now access your recovery wipe dalvik cache, cache, factory reset and then flash a new ROM. It SHOULD boot without issues. I personally use Koush's Clockworkmod Touch, also remember that Neutrino tends to get "stuck" sometimes after the first attempt to boot and requires a battery pull and then you try to boot again. (It takes a while)

littleemp said:
Don't worry, soft bricks are easy to recover on the Atrix thanks to us being able to access fastboot.
For flashing a new recovery:
While your phone is off, press Volume Up + Power to power up, then release when a menu appears on your screen and navigate with volume down until you see Fastboot, select it with the volume up key.
Get the necessary files for fastboot, place them all in a folder called "moto" in your C: drive, and type in the following in a cmd window (assuming you're using windows and that the recovery image is called recovery.img):
C:/Moto> fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
C:/Moto> fastboot -w
C:/Moto> fastboot reboot
Now access your recovery wipe dalvik cache, cache, factory reset and then flash a new ROM. It SHOULD boot without issues. I personally use Koush's Clockworkmod Touch, also remember that Neutrino tends to get "stuck" sometimes after the first attempt to boot and requires a battery pull and then you try to boot again. (It takes a while)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many people also seem to have suggested RACEROM CWM. Which one would you suggest? I'm so nervous about all this now. Just have this butterfly in my stomach

flash the latest recovery and wipe everything in recovery and flash neutrino again. It should work after that. try neutrino 2.2 though. 2.5 still has it's kinks.

1st off, relax. It's difficult to brick your phone from this point Just don't get any bright ideas with .sbfs lol.
As others have said, make sure you're on latest recovery.
Question: are you installing from internal or external SD? Internal is recommended for flashing most ROMs.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

Masterguy said:
Many people also seem to have suggested RACEROM CWM. Which one would you suggest? I'm so nervous about all this now. Just have this butterfly in my stomach
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As someone else said, the ONLY thing you should NEVER do is flash an .sbf or go through an OTA update, that's a surefire way to hard brick your phone. From this point on it's VERY DIFFICULT to completely brick your phone using software only.
RomRacer's CWM is based I think on v5.0.2.7? Koush's latest recovery is v5.8.1.5. I honestly couldn't name any tangible differences other than the touch interface, which is the reason I use it in the first place. (I hate mashing volume keys like a madman) It really doesn't matter which CWM you use, but when I soft bricked my phone I recovered with CWM Touch.
I would recharge your battery to 100% before trying to recover it, as that is one less headache to worry about, but if your phone starts saying 'Battery is too low to flash', do not panic, you only need a USB cable you don't mind sacrificing (doesn't have to be new). I will go into detail in case you actually need to do this.
Just make sure you use the fastboot -w command and wipe EVERYTHING through CWM before trying to flash anything else.

Solved:boot loop issue
littleemp said:
As someone else said, the ONLY thing you should NEVER do is flash an .sbf or go through an OTA update, that's a surefire way to hard brick your phone. From this point on it's VERY DIFFICULT to completely brick your phone using software only.
RomRacer's CWM is based I think on v5.0.2.7? Koush's latest recovery is v5.8.1.5. I honestly couldn't name any tangible differences other than the touch interface, which is the reason I use it in the first place. (I hate mashing volume keys like a madman) It really doesn't matter which CWM you use, but when I soft bricked my phone I recovered with CWM Touch.
I would recharge your battery to 100% before trying to recover it, as that is one less headache to worry about, but if your phone starts saying 'Battery is too low to flash', do not panic, you only need a USB cable you don't mind sacrificing (doesn't have to be new). I will go into detail in case you actually need to do this.
Just make sure you use the fastboot -w command and wipe EVERYTHING through CWM before trying to flash anything else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I was able to fix my boot up issue using ROMRACERS CWM. I didn't use any command prompt or anything. I just downloaded zip file from this thread, entered recovery mode -->Install Zip from SD card --> Chose ROMRACERS zip --> it automatically flashed the recovery and I then rebooted recovery under advanced options.
After that Wiped data,cache & Dalvik Cache and proceeded to install CM9 and it booted up up flawlessly.
I'm kind of surprised that tenfar didn't add a not to use his CWM as the latest ROMs use latest ext format.
That seems to be issue. However, I'm pleased with your guidance and final output. Thanks a lot dude.

Masterguy said:
Thanks I was able to fix my boot up issue using ROMRACERS CWM. I didn't use any command prompt or anything. I just downloaded zip file from this thread, entered recovery mode -->Install Zip from SD card --> Chose ROMRACERS zip --> it automatically flashed the recovery and I then rebooted recovery under advanced options.
After that Wiped data,cache & Dalvik Cache and proceeded to install CM9 and it booted up up flawlessly.
I'm kind of surprised that tenfar didn't add a not to use his CWM as the latest ROMs use latest ext format.
That seems to be issue. However, I'm pleased with your guidance and final output. Thanks a lot dude.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you sooo much. I was having this exact problem. I did what you suggested and my phone works. Thanks!

Flashing Rom always ends in boot loop?

I have had my N7 for a week now, and have unlocked and rooted it. I flashed the jr5 rom and it worked ok, but i decided I wanted to try the pure AOSP rom, so I did a data/cache/dalvik wipe and flashed the rom. It proceeded to boot and freeze at the Google screen. I rebooted into recovery, and attempted to restore from my backup (failed), flash the jr5 rom (failed), and reflash the AOSP rom (failed). I then decided to follow the instructions on ROOTZwiki and restore back to stock (although still unlocked). I restored to the factory image, and attempted to flash the CM10 AOKP rom, and was again met with the frozen Google screen. I made sure to wipe data and both caches each time i tried to flash a rom, but I always end up stuck at the Google screen. What could be causing this? I would really like to know if anyone has any idea, because I fully plan on running the full version of CM10 when it is released.

By wipe Data you did factory reset in cwm? And what version of cwm are you using?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app

redmonke255 said:
By wipe Data you did factory reset in cwm? And what version of cwm are you using?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes i did a factory data reset each time. I am currently running v5.8.0.2 of cwm

could that be the problem? that my cwm is just outdated already?

No that shouldn't be causing your problems, although I would recommend flashing TWRP recovery through goo manager.
I would first download a ROM on your computer and check the MD5. Then mount your nexus over USB and copy the new ROM over to the nexus sdcard directory and while its connected use your computer to check the MD5 on your ROM while its on the device. Then wipe data, cache, dalvic cache and system. Then install the ROM and Gapps and reboot. Make sure its only the to, and not a desperate kernel or anything for right now. When you reboot give it 10 minutes or so the first boots are often way long.
If that doesn't do it copy the stuff on your SD card over to your computer and then format the SD card.
To install TWRP, install goo manager from the play store, when you open the app just press menu, you don't need to browse for files or anything. Just press menu and then choose Install OpenRecoveryScript and when its done reboot or reboot to recovery, can't remember which did the trick, and it may take a couple of times.
Also remember that booting through boot loader to recovery requires the USB cord to be connected to a computer to avoid the Google screen looping.
Hope some of this was helpful.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

CharliesTheMan said:
No that shouldn't be causing your problems, although I would recommend flashing TWRP recovery through goo manager.
I would first download a ROM on your computer and check the MD5. Then mount your nexus over USB and copy the new ROM over to the nexus sdcard directory and while its connected use your computer to check the MD5 on your ROM while its on the device. Then wipe data, cache, dalvic cache and system. Then install the ROM and Gapps and reboot. Make sure its only the to, and not a desperate kernel or anything for right now. When you reboot give it 10 minutes or so the first boots are often way long.
If that doesn't do it copy the stuff on your SD card over to your computer and then format the SD card.
To install TWRP, install goo manager from the play store, when you open the app just press menu, you don't need to browse for files or anything. Just press menu and then choose Install OpenRecoveryScript and when its done reboot or reboot to recovery, can't remember which did the trick, and it may take a couple of times.
Also remember that booting through boot loader to recovery requires the USB cord to be connected to a computer to avoid the Google screen looping.
Hope some of this was helpful.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for taking the time to help me. Before I do the goo-manager/twrp install, are there any inherent advantages or disadvantages of using twrp as opposed to cwm? Also, I hadn't thought to check md5s after moving the roms, so I will be doing that from now on.

Twrp works just fine.
In your recovery, can you mount and unmount all your partitions without any errors?
Sent from my Nexus 7

am I finally doing it right?
I flashed EOS rom from a clean system and it worked fine. Decided to have gapps and installed via twrp. This would give me boot loop into recovery no matter wat combination of cache clearing etc used. So finally I did the counter intuitive and installed gapps zip followed by ROM zip. This seems to have worked though it seems backwards to me. Is this the correct procedure?

crache said:
am I finally doing it right?
I flashed EOS rom from a clean system and it worked fine. Decided to have gapps and installed via twrp. This would give me boot loop into recovery no matter wat combination of cache clearing etc used. So finally I did the counter intuitive and installed gapps zip followed by ROM zip. This seems to have worked though it seems backwards to me. Is this the correct procedure?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no. did the rom already come with gapps? the rom would wipe out whatever gapps you did flash before the rom.

simms22 said:
no. did the rom already come with gapps? the rom would wipe out whatever gapps you did flash before the rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't like Twrp not being able to boot into recovery from holding the buttons, especially running into these loops during installs. Had the sameresults with cwm though.Now I am having this boot loop with TeamEOS as well as Skanky (neither package gapps) I however only loop if installing gapps after the rom or wiping caches.
If caches and system are wiped, gapps installed, then the rom I get a functioning system.Can anyone shed some light on what trigers specific loops or how to review tje errors / panics?

I'm reviving this thread since I have a similar issue. I am using TWRP. I have no problem performing a wipe (I do a factory reset, plus dalvik cache wipe), or flashing a new ROM (I've tried SGT7 and PA2.11). I can boot into the ROM fine. Once I try to flash Gapps, I get stuck in a boot loop that ends up going back to recovery. I've tried different combinations of operations, with different versions of gapps, but nothing works. I've tried:
gapps-jb-20120719-signed
gapps-jb-20120726-signed
both from goo.im, MD5 checked, without success. I'm stuck using SGT7, because that one includes Google account, and Play Store, so that can get me going... Only thing, I haven't wiped the data partition, because that's a bigger hassle. Do you guys have any clues as to what I should try next?

spked said:
I'm reviving this thread since I have a similar issue. I am using TWRP. I have no problem performing a wipe (I do a factory reset, plus dalvik cache wipe), or flashing a new ROM (I've tried SGT7 and PA2.11). I can boot into the ROM fine. Once I try to flash Gapps, I get stuck in a boot loop that ends up going back to recovery. I've tried different combinations of operations, with different versions of gapps, but nothing works. I've tried:
gapps-jb-20120719-signed
gapps-jb-20120726-signed
both from goo.im, MD5 checked, without success. I'm stuck using SGT7, because that one includes Google account, and Play Store, so that can get me going... Only thing, I haven't wiped the data partition, because that's a bigger hassle. Do you guys have any clues as to what I should try next?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you flash the rom and gapps and then reboot, or flash the rom, reboot, then flash gapps?

Did anybody get out of their bootloop? I flashed paranoid droid with twrp and I didn't select "signature verification" or "md5 check" as I read before hand on another forum that it wasn't needed and to actually not tick "signature"....so now I'm in a bootloop, volume buttons and power does get me in to a few selections, "reboot", "power off" and "recovery". When I select recovery it just takes me to the black screen with "Google" on it. No idea how to get out of this loop....I'm researching now but I am not understanding much....I'm so use to Samsung devices, getting out of bootloop with those are a piece of cake, this I'm clueless and helpless on. So does anybody have a way for me to either reflash the rom or get me to where I can go back to stock? I used wugfresh to root. Thanks.

dirtyhamster73 said:
Did anybody get out of their bootloop? I flashed paranoid droid with twrp and I didn't select "signature verification" or "md5 check" as I read before hand on another forum that it wasn't needed and to actually not tick "signature"....so now I'm in a bootloop, volume buttons and power does get me in to a few selections, "reboot", "power off" and "recovery". When I select recovery it just takes me to the black screen with "Google" on it. No idea how to get out of this loop....I'm researching now but I am not understanding much....I'm so use to Samsung devices, getting out of bootloop with those are a piece of cake, this I'm clueless and helpless on. So does anybody have a way for me to either reflash the rom or get me to where I can go back to stock? I used wugfresh to root. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you get to bootloader?

If your using an older version of cwm it will boot loop and or cuase bad flashes with new builds
Upgrade cwm or just use twrp
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Jordanooo said:
Can you get to bootloader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I finally got in, so I'm all set. Thanks! I have no idea why I was having a hard time...twrp wouldn't pop up once I was in boot loader. I must of tried like 20 times. Anyway....I'm in and I just reflashed and it was fine.
---------- Post added at 05:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:40 PM ----------
armyboy11b said:
If your using an older version of cwm it will boot loop and or cuase bad flashes with new builds
Upgrade cwm or just use twrp
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using twrp...for whatever reason I couldn't get it to pop up to reflash. But I'm good now. Thanks!

[Q] All methods of factory/hard reset seem to work, but then boots into old system

I'm having the weirdest problem and I'm wondering whether it is hardware or software. I have searched everywhere and only found one person with a similar situation and he had already sent it back for repair before anyone responded with things for him to try.
My 16gb Nexus 7 is rooted/unlocked using the Nexus Root Toolkit and at the latest OTA version. It had been working fine for months. Suddenly one day I had serious problems (which I can discuss if anyone cares, but I don't think the original problems are relevant at this point.) I gave up troubleshooting and decided to do a factory reset. But no matter what method I do, the next time I boot the device it comes back into my same buggy system and nothing was wiped or reset at all. All of these methods appear to work and give the normal messages you would expect, but then nothing changed. It's like the Flash ram is somehow set to read-only so attempts to write to it are failing.
What I have tried:
Settings Factory Data Reset and press the Erase Everything button. The tablet pauses a while, then shuts down and reboots. The old system comes back.
I go into recovery mode, choose function wipe data/factory reset, scroll down to Yes to confirm it. A bunch of progress messages show on the screen that the partitions are being formatted. I boot afterwards and the old system comes back.
I follow all the steps in articles like this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1907796
Every fastboot command completes normally with progress messages showing that it worked. I reboot and the old system comes back.
Here is another clue: The fastboot oem lock command completes normally, but nothing changes. The padlock icon at the next boot is still open.
That's why I say that the tablet is acting as though the Flash memory is set to read-only somehow because nothing ever changes. Is it possible that this is a hardware problem, or is there something else I can do in software?

Bump One for OP
hope your problem gets solved...

I go into recovery mode, choose function wipe data/factory reset, scroll down to Yes to confirm it. A bunch of progress messages show on the screen that the partitions are being formatted. I boot afterwards and the old system comes back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. If you wipe this way and then do not install another rom, then the old system will just reload.
2. Which recovery are you using TWRP or CWM? Maybe try an alternative recovery?
3. Go into recovery/mounts and storage/ then select format system and then install another rom such as stock and see what happens..

killall said:
1. If you wipe this way and then do not install another rom, then the old system will just reload.
2. Which recovery are you using TWRP or CWM? Maybe try an alternative recovery?
3. Go into recovery/mounts and storage/ then select format system and then install another rom such as stock and see what happens..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I guess my wording was ambiguous. When I said that the old system comes back, I didn't mean only that the old OS comes back, but that EVERYTHING comes back immediately including all my apps, settings, wallpaper, widgets, everything looks like it always did. I don't get the first-time screens inviting me to log in, or anything like that. The system boots completely normally as though I hadn't used those methods of wiping the user data.
Also one of the things I tried was loading a new system using fastboot commands and the new system seemed to get loaded OK. But I reboot and the buggy system is back and my user data has not been wiped.
2. I'm not sure what you mean and will research that later this evening. For now, I can tell you that I used the Nexus Root Toolkit and I am using whatever it installed.
3. I'm not sure what you mean, but will research that and if I can figure it out, I will try it this evening.
Is it a clue that the command "fastboot oem lock" seems to work, but the lock status doesn't change?

What I am trying to say (very badly) is the system on your phone will hold all your settings along with the OS. When you factory reset/wipe data, it will clear everything out....but, if you then reboot the phone, it will have to reload the old OS as it has nothing to load otherwise. This will include all your previous apps and settings.
When you have wiped all your data, you need to install another 'system/rom' to allow the phone to boot it. Or as I said, it will just reboot the old one.
Try looking for a rooted stock rom in a zip file like this one and put it on your sd card. When you have entered recovery and wiped data/factory reset, then select install from sd card, find the zip and select. The recovery will then flash it and when you reboot, you should be at the setup pages.
Using the Nexus toolkit and ADB is challenging at the best of times. Maybe it is easier if you just use the recovery method as explained above.

killall said:
What I am trying to say (very badly) is the system on your phone will hold all your settings along with the OS. When you factory reset/wipe data, it will clear everything out....but, if you then reboot the phone, it will have to reload the old OS as it has nothing to load otherwise. This will include all your previous apps and settings.
When you have wiped all your data, you need to install another 'system/rom' to allow the phone to boot it. Or as I said, it will just reboot the old one.
Try looking for a rooted stock rom in a zip file like this one and put it on your sd card. When you have entered recovery and wiped data/factory reset, then select install from sd card, find the zip and select. The recovery will then flash it and when you reboot, you should be at the setup pages.
Using the Nexus toolkit and ADB is challenging at the best of times. Maybe it is easier if you just use the recovery method as explained above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I go into the recovery mode at boot time, the menu says I am using "Android system recovery <3e>"
According to all documentation I have seen, erasing the user partition is all I should need to do to wipe out all of my data, and this works perfectly on a different tablet that I have. I really shouldn't need to do anything else, which is why my situation is so strange.
The Nexus 7 doesn't have an SD card slot so I can't do the things you are saying that involve installing things from sd. Maybe there is a way to do the same thing via the portion of Flash that simulates an sd card, but the recovery menus don't have any way to do that, at least not that I can find.

I saw that you are rooted then I assumed you were using a custom recovery like Clockworkmod or TWRP.
When I wrote SD I meant the internal storage, sorry for the confusion.
I would be flashing a recovery again, it seems to be causing the problem. You can do this through Nexus tools.

killall said:
I saw that you are rooted then I assumed you were using a custom recovery like Clockworkmod or TWRP.
When I wrote SD I meant the internal storage, sorry for the confusion.
I would be flashing a recovery again, it seems to be causing the problem. You can do this through Nexus tools.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say to use "Nexus tools", do you mean the the tools that are part of the Nexus Root Toolkit? I did use those tools to format and rebuild the recovery partition, and it didn't help at all.
If you mean tools that I need to install as apps within Android, that isn't possible at the moment because the tablet is so unstable that when I reboot, I get all my old stuff for a few seconds so I know nothing changed, and then it reboots before I have a chance to do anything.
If you mean that I should mount the Android flash ram as a folder on my PC, I only seem to be able to do that for the few seconds that the system is booted and then the folder drops off. The only mode where I can keep the tablet powered on and stable is the boot menu and the recovery menu. Is there a way to mount the drive at that time?

Phonetrips said:
When you say to use "Nexus tools", do you mean the the tools that are part of the Nexus Root Toolkit? I did use those tools to format and rebuild the recovery partition, and it didn't help at all.
If you mean tools that I need to install as apps within Android, that isn't possible at the moment because the tablet is so unstable that when I reboot, I get all my old stuff for a few seconds so I know nothing changed, and then it reboots before I have a chance to do anything.
If you mean that I should mount the Android flash ram as a folder on my PC, I only seem to be able to do that for the few seconds that the system is booted and then the folder drops off. The only mode where I can keep the tablet powered on and stable is the boot menu and the recovery menu. Is there a way to mount the drive at that time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fast boot a custom recovery. Fastboot recovery c:/path/recovery.IMG
Path being whatever path you have to the recovery you chose to download. Then wipe data/factory reset, maybe wipe cache and dalvik since you're there. Then reboot, see what happens. Still buggy, download another ROM, there are stock-ish ones out there, or you can choose cm or AOKP
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

VonEsch said:
Fast boot a custom recovery. Fastboot recovery c:/path/recovery.IMG
Path being whatever path you have to the recovery you chose to download. Then wipe data/factory reset, maybe wipe cache and dalvik since you're there. Then reboot, see what happens. Still buggy, download another ROM, there are stock-ish ones out there, or you can choose cm or AOKP
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Iv'e done all that and nothing changes whatsoever. The problem isn't that I have a buggy Android system, but rather that all commands to format and erase that system are ignored.

Actually I was wrong, I never did load a recovery image like you said, although I did at one point use one that the Nexus Root Toolkit installed.
So I found a recovery image, downloaded it, and did this:
fastboot flash recovery openrecovery-twrp-2.3.3.0-grouper.img
But nothing changes, partly because maybe I don't know what to do with this thing that I just loaded. If I use the menu to go into recovery mode, I get the normal recovery menu I have always gotten.

Phonetrips said:
Actually I was wrong, I never did load a recovery image like you said, although I did at one point use one that the Nexus Root Toolkit installed.
So I found a recovery image, downloaded it, and did this:
fastboot flash recovery openrecovery-twrp-2.3.3.0-grouper.img
But nothing changes, partly because maybe I don't know what to do with this thing that I just loaded. If I use the menu to go into recovery mode, I get the normal recovery menu I have always gotten.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash the cwm one, maybe that will work?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Phonetrips said:
Iv'e done all that and nothing changes whatsoever. The problem isn't that I have a buggy Android system, but rather that all commands to format and erase that system are ignored.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VonEsch said:
Flash the cwm one, maybe that will work?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before I try a different one, can you please tell me what is supposed to happen after I give that fastboot command to flash the recovery image, Should the tablet go into that recovery manager immediately, or do I need to do something first to make it show up?
I went ahead and found/downloaded the cwm one. The same thing happened: I don't see it running and if I go into recovery mode I get the normal recovery, not this one.

killall said:
What I am trying to say (very badly) is the system on your phone will hold all your settings along with the OS. When you factory reset/wipe data, it will clear everything out....but, if you then reboot the phone, it will have to reload the old OS as it has nothing to load otherwise. This will include all your previous apps and settings.
When you have wiped all your data, you need to install another 'system/rom' to allow the phone to boot it. Or as I said, it will just reboot the old one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but this is completely wrong. When you do a factory reset, it wipes /data and /cache, which doesn't affect the OS at all because the OS resides on the /system partition. When you do a factory reset and reboot, you will run into the initial setup screen for whatever ROM you have installed. No user data/apps will be present.
Phonetrips said:
Before I try a different one, can you please tell me what is supposed to happen after I give that fastboot command to flash the recovery image, Should the tablet go into that recovery manager immediately, or do I need to do something first to make it show up?
I went ahead and found/downloaded the cwm one. The same thing happened: I don't see it running and if I go into recovery mode I get the normal recovery, not this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This seems really screwy. I'd say either your device is defective, or... Well I don't really know what else it could be. The fact that fastboot commands fail is a good indicator that something is screwed up. Have you tried wiping things through fastboot? It may be worth a shot, just know how to flash a ROM through it when you're done. I'm talking "fastboot erase -----" where ---- is replaced by system, data, or whatever. Just DO NOT erase the bootloader. Boot, however, is fine.
If all of this fails, it would seem that the device memory is defective.
About your recovery question, it will only go into recovery when you tell it to either from bootloader or ADB. And stock Android will try to remove CWM, so first time you need to go to recovery straight from the bootloader and let it make itself permanent when it asks.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

korockinout13 said:
Sorry, but this is completely wrong. When you do a factory reset, it wipes /data and /cache, which doesn't affect the OS at all because the OS resides on the /system partition. When you do a factory reset and reboot, you will run into the initial setup screen for whatever ROM you have installed. No user data/apps will be present.
Yes, this is what is supposed to happen, but on my machine when I do all those things, there is absolutely no change and the system continues to boot exactly as it was.
This seems really screwy. I'd say either your device is defective, or... Well I don't really know what else it could be. The fact that fastboot commands fail is a good indicator that something is screwed up. Have you tried wiping things through fastboot? It may be worth a shot, just know how to flash a ROM through it when you're done. I'm talking "fastboot erase -----" where ---- is replaced by system, data, or whatever. Just DO NOT erase the bootloader. Boot, however, is fine.
If all of this fails, it would seem that the device memory is defective.
About your recovery question, it will only go into recovery when you tell it to either from bootloader or ADB. And stock Android will try to remove CWM, so first time you need to go to recovery straight from the bootloader and let it make itself permanent when it asks.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used fastboot erase ---- and fastboot format --- for system and everything else. Whether or not I flash new code to those partitions, all of this is ignored and the system continues to boot as it always has, with all my stuff.
After flashing the alternate recovery images, absolutely nothing changes when I choose Recovery Mode from the fastboot menu.

I talked to Google Play support and they sending out a replacement one. They never asked whether I had ever unlocked or rooted it and I didn't volunteer anything, just told them the symptoms I am having. But I have to send the old one back after I receive the new one, and there is a chance they won't accept if for warranty service when they see it,

Phonetrips said:
I talked to Google Play support and they sending out a replacement one. They never asked whether I had ever unlocked or rooted it and I didn't volunteer anything, just told them the symptoms I am having. But I have to send the old one back after I receive the new one, and there is a chance they won't accept if for warranty service when they see it,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is true, since you can't change anything, they will probably know you voided the warranty. The only thing you could do is brick it permanently by erasing the bootloader... Not sure if that would work/help.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Cyanogen-11 stuck while booting (yes, I googled)

Hi, everybody!
I am stuck with the problem, I cannot solve, and cannot google.
I saw a lot of similar, but none of the directions helped me to fix my phone.
I've got my Nexus 4 which was a great phone until I updated it to 4.3, some of the screen portions became senseless on some applications (starting from SMS, to some game apps).
I was suggested to downgrade or change ROM, which I am trying to figure out right now.
I've rooted my phone with SuperSU-v1.85 and installed Clockwork-6.0.4.3.
Once I've done it, I was trying to load an images of cm-11 and gapps-4.4 with
adb push
it finished all operations in cmd, however, I got
E: Can't mount /sdcard
Thus, I've tried to install all zips from sideload and my cmd.
I didn't touch kernel.
Once I've done this, I tried to reboot, but Cyanogen stuck, running circles.
I've tried to do factory reset, clear cache and dalvik, however none of those worked.
I also have been doing this with a more stable release (cm-10.2.0), but I got same thing.

bagelisnotaname said:
Hi, everybody!
I am stuck with the problem, I cannot solve, and cannot google.
I saw a lot of similar, but none of the directions helped me to fix my phone.
I've got my Nexus 4 which was a great phone until I updated it to 4.3, some of the screen portions became senseless on some applications (starting from SMS, to some game apps).
I was suggested to downgrade or change ROM, which I am trying to figure out right now.
I've rooted my phone with SuperSU-v1.85 and installed Clockwork-6.0.4.3.
Once I've done it, I was trying to load an images of cm-11 and gapps-4.4 with
adb push
it finished all operations in cmd, however, I got
E: Can't mount /sdcard
Thus, I've tried to install all zips from sideload and my cmd.
I didn't touch kernel.
Once I've done this, I tried to reboot, but Cyanogen stuck, running circles.
I've tried to do factory reset, clear cache and dalvik, however none of those worked.
I also have been doing this with a more stable release (cm-10.2.0), but I got same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try another rom besides CM.

scream4cheese said:
Try another rom besides CM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried MIUI.
Same thing.
Did I brick it?

scream4cheese said:
Try another rom besides CM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried stock ROM 4.2.2, flashed it with flashall.bat, stupidly, it works.
However, what is the problem with the custom ROMs?
Do I do something wrong?
ps. screen is still unresponsive in some areas.

Maybe you'll have better luck with TWRP 2.6.3.3.

audit13 said:
Maybe you'll have better luck with TWRP 2.6.3.3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried it.
Didn't work out with MIUI.

Just put the files directly onto the phone either by downloading them on it or transferring normally over USB.
Reboot into recovery
From here you got options but to make it simple do a full wipe. A full wipe is deleting everything but your internal storage. That includes / system /data and everything else your recovery shows but the internal storage. Then just flash the ROM zip and gapps zips from your internal storage after the wipe and reboot
If you delete your internal storage you will wipe out the zips you just put there. Along with your media. Pictures music and whatever else is on there
Wiping your data will wipe your apps. So if you want, back them up with something like titanium backup prior. They will still be there after you flash the custom rom as long as you don't wipe your internal storage.