Database Users

Preventing 4g RSA key loss

I think this should be stickied or at least put somewhere so people see it.
In order to prevent from losing rsa keys make sure that you use amonra recovery. DO NOT use clockwork. Clockwork does NOT save your wimax.img file which contains the keys. If for some reason you lose your keys and have only clockwork backup then you WILL NEVER be able to get the keys back.
I repeat, when making backups, use amonra, do not use clockwork.
I like clockwork as a recovery tool, but it doesn't back up rsa keys.

harsh man, openly bashing on koush. well, it could save people 200 bucks, so i'm all for it. ISTEN TO THIS GUY, OR IT CAN H APPEN TO YOU!

i dont see how that is "bashing" on koush. but that is a good idea, using amon ra 1.8 ensures your rsa keys are safe.

What's an easy way to find out if I've lost mine? When I first got my Evo, I remember making a backup with Clockwork, then getting rid of Clockwork for Amon, then flashing some RUU to get my phone back to stock and starting over with Amon again...
Now I only get 4G with my original backup, but nothing else. Does this mean anything?

ImmortalLuD said:
What's an easy way to find out if I've lost mine? When I first got my Evo, I remember making a backup with Clockwork, then getting rid of Clockwork for Amon, then flashing some RUU to get my phone back to stock and starting over with Amon again...
Now I only get 4G with my original backup, but nothing else. Does this mean anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9012651&postcount=5987

Thanks. Looks like my keys are still valid, just doesn't work in any ROM other than stock.
Oh well.

ImmortalLuD said:
Thanks. Looks like my keys are still valid, just doesn't work in any ROM other than stock.
Oh well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you flashing aosp roms? try flashing fresh and see if it works on that.

clockwork to amonRA if unrEVOked
I used unrEVOked to root my EVO, so I have clockwork. I was wondering if I can switch to AmonRA? (I believe this is what I used on my HERO, and it worked great). I have had a couple problems with Clockwork already. I thought I saw that AmonRA was not compatible if rooted with unrEVOked, can anyone confirm otherwise?

bretweb24 said:
I used unrEVOked to root my EVO, so I have clockwork. I was wondering if I can switch to AmonRA? (I believe this is what I used on my HERO, and it worked great). I have had a couple problems with Clockwork already. I thought I saw that AmonRA was not compatible if rooted with unrEVOked, can anyone confirm otherwise?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea you can switch. I did it right from the clockwork app.
Still 8pening from my supersonic on the xda app.

i dont understand what all the fuss was about? wasnt the only way to corrupt the keys was to flash a wimax update? or unrevoked 2 or something borked some phones.

Last-Chance said:
are you flashing aosp roms? try flashing fresh and see if it works on that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used every ROM out there. I'm using MIUI right now, so no biggie, but I go back to Sense ROM's quite often.
All it does, is constantly scan for a signal. It basically sticks on that setting. I tried deleting the wimax file under /data/misc/wimax, and let it recreate itself, but nothing works.

DomSim said:
i dont understand what all the fuss was about? wasnt the only way to corrupt the keys was to flash a wimax update? or unrevoked 2 or something borked some phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no. you can lose them by flashing aosp roms and some kernels as well.

Last-Chance said:
no. you can lose them by flashing aosp roms and some kernels as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think. Flashing roms and kernels don't touch the wimax partition.
gave up on 8pening from my supersonic on the xda app.

bump.....yes, it can happen and if you didn't use Amon's recovery and put the nandroid files onto your computer...you are SOL....and have to return the phone for a replacement. I got my replacement phone, backed up WiMax files onto computer and then did Amon's. It does back up your WiMax settings and you can then flash any type of rom you want and just go back to your original nandroid if something goes wrong. Not sure why this is not listed on a higher priority except a lot of people don't have 4G coverage yet so they don't care.

wish I would have done that before losing my RSA keys..
I am 120 days into my contract, and did NOT buy the Sprint monthly insurance plan, so the only way to get a replacement phone, is to restore to factory, unroot, ship the phone to HTC, they inspect it/repair it/replace it..
I would be without a phone for weeks, so this is not an option..
Next time, I will use amonra to back up the wimax partition..

How do you guys backup your wimax partition?... I don't understand this.
Plus, if you lose your keys, is it ever possible to get on a 4G network? I can still get 4G with my original backup, (this backup took place after I did a full restore and install AMON). But I still cannot get this thing to work in any other Sense ROM. I'm running out of time to return the phone within' my 30 days, I just don't know if there's anything left for me to do. It still says I have my key!

ImmortalLuD said:
How do you guys backup your wimax partition?... I don't understand this.
Plus, if you lose your keys, is it ever possible to get on a 4G network? I can still get 4G with my original backup, (this backup took place after I did a full restore and install AMON). But I still cannot get this thing to work in any other Sense ROM. I'm running out of time to return the phone within' my 30 days, I just don't know if there's anything left for me to do. It still says I have my key!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
amon 1.8 backs up your wimax keys. No keys no 4g. There are ways of fixing it if you do lose your keys but it would require you getting a wimax backup from another phone and putting it on your phone and hacking the wimax mac to match it. This would leave the phone you got the keys from unable to get on 4G.

Well I'm passing the command "grep RSA /dev/mtd/mtd0"... I just don't know if this tells everything. Is there any other way to find out if my 4G should be working or not? Any other commands or files I should be looking at?

ImmortalLuD said:
Well I'm passing the command "grep RSA /dev/mtd/mtd0"... I just don't know if this tells everything. Is there any other way to find out if my 4G should be working or not? Any other commands or files I should be looking at?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not see a post of whether you checked your mac address or not. Make sure your mac address for wimax under hardware information matches the mac address under the battery. If it doesn't you would need to change the mac address back or warranty phone. My mac address got hosed and I brought to Sprint for warranty replacement. Had a new one in 2 days.

did anyone who had their phone over 90 days, and did NOT have Sprint Insurance have any luck taking their phone back for this problem?
I was told that since I have had the phone for 4 months, I had to send it back to HTC to be repaired/replaced..

Can we use Rom Manager on this phone?

Hey, I have been loving the permanent root (thanks everybody) and while I have just been getting rid of Sprint's crap, I was wondering if Rom Manager works yet?

Rom manager requires clockwork for anykind of backup/restore and our clockwork recovery is not an official version. While you can download the program it doesn't do much good until they update it to work with shift.
And this should probably be in the General section.

This isn't a general post though. It is a post regarding Android Development.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Moved to general Unless you can ask yourself, "what am I developing/guiding users to do" and come up with an answer, it probably will be moved

On my Shift, I've loaded the recovery image they reference in the guide and did a backup with that - seemed to run just fine. Does it not backup/restore properly?

buddwm said:
On my Shift, I've loaded the recovery image they reference in the guide and did a backup with that - seemed to run just fine. Does it not backup/restore properly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't back up the wimax.img and your phone is hosed if it gets lost/broken/etc.

But you can lose your ability to be able to connect to Wimax (4g). There is an app called wimax key checker that can tell you what they key is incase it ever messed up. Many people have done clockwork and not lost they're wimax keys. Just use the app and save it somewhere and dont worry about it until it happens.

If you are talking about the app by Joeykrim then it doesn't actually back them up, just checks if they are there. There are instructions on how to backthem up manually (to sd card) before the recovery flashing instructions in the development area.

Updated Radios

I flashed a new Radio, WiMAX, PRI & NV...the combo pack from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=715485&highlight=radio
My 4G no longer works. On that thread they say to update your profile if 4G is not working, which I did, and it still isn't. It will say that it is connecting to sprint, but then disconnects. This process repeats and never connects to 4G.
Next I tried flashing the earlier radio and wimax, but still no luck. Can anyone help me out??? Thank you.

First make sure your WIMAX keys are intact. You can install wimax checker from the market. It may be called something else, if you do a search it will come up.
If they are in tact, then flash the wimax update only, not the combo.
If they are not intact, then I hope you have a backup.
Edit: If you are attempting to connect, your keys should be fine. Did you change any WIMAX settings through ##3282#? If you had made changes before you updated, they might have been reset. I have to lower my dB level to be able to connect.

It says sorry your WiMAX RSA key is missing. So I need to restore one of my backup roms then?

Make sure you actually have 4G coverage too.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

Yes I have 4g coverage.

irl5fan said:
It says sorry your WiMAX RSA key is missing. So I need to restore one of my backup roms then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you will need to restore your wimax keys from a previous backup

Restored a previous backup and ran the key checker (still can't find them). So does this mean I have to get a new phone to get 4g back? Or does anyone have any tricks up their sleeve?

Is that the only backup you have?
Have you ever saved wimax when doing a nand?
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

I have proably 4 different roms i've backed up since april. I have never specifically backed up WiMAX on its own (not sure I even know how?). So unless I did it mistakinly, I don't think so.

irl5fan said:
Restored a previous backup and ran the key checker (still can't find them). So does this mean I have to get a new phone to get 4g back? Or does anyone have any tricks up their sleeve?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install Terminal.
Launch the app.
Type in su
Press enter.
Type in wimax_mtd
Press enter.
You should get a series of of what looks like random data. Hopefully it doesn't state version error or it hangs. Afterwards, update your profile (make sure you disconnect your WIFI connection beforehand).

irl5fan said:
I have proably 4 different roms i've backed up since april. I have never specifically backed up WiMAX on its own (not sure I even know how?). So unless I did it mistakinly, I don't think so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What recovery are you using? You should be able to look at the nandroid files to see if the Wimax partition is included there. If you have never backed up the Wimax partition then there will be no way to get your keys back.
If you used Clockworkmod or Amon_RA you are looking for a backup that includes a wimax.img or wimax.xxxxxxxx.img (where xxxxxxx is some sort of identifier).
If you used twrp then it will be wimax.win.
the first thing that I did when I rooted my phone was to make a backup of the wimax partition and save it in several places so I would always be able to recover it if something went wrong.

the first thing that I did when I rooted my phone was to make a backup of the wimax partition and save it in several places so I would always be able to recover it if something went wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Highly recommend uploading it to your dropbox account

For real. I have mine saved in a few places, and i don't even get 4G here

[Q] Please help, S4 Complete Backup (Nandroid) tool/ dicerctions needed

Hey everyone, I'm new to android game, I've been cracking iPhones since 1st gen, decided to challenge myself. I have an S4, rooted, but no CWM installed. I want to save the recovery so if any issues ever occur, I can just flash it and have it covered under warranty, and also to be ble to return to stock wen I sell the phone.
Is there a tool i can use to make a nandroid backup? On my Nexus 7, There is an all-in-one tool and I can make a nandroid straight from my PC. Is there anything similar for the s4? If not, how to I make a nandroid backup? thank you everyone for your help, I appreciate it

Odin back to stock if you ever need to.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

Dimon1990 said:
Hey everyone, I'm new to android game, I've been cracking iPhones since 1st gen, decided to challenge myself. I have an S4, rooted, but no CWM installed. I want to save the recovery so if any issues ever occur, I can just flash it and have it covered under warranty, and also to be ble to return to stock wen I sell the phone.
Is there a tool i can use to make a nandroid backup? On my Nexus 7, There is an all-in-one tool and I can make a nandroid straight from my PC. Is there anything similar for the s4? If not, how to I make a nandroid backup? thank you everyone for your help, I appreciate it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not entirely sure it's possible to do a nandroid backup without first having a custom recovery. However, it is "always" possible to use the Odin method to return to stock (including stock recovery). Personally, I installed TWRP and immediately did a full nandroid (including system, boot, cache, etc...) and I've frequently found myself restoring pieces of it as I manage to screw up different things. I did return my recovery back to stock once by using the "dd" method to flash the stock recovery.img onto the correct emmc block. There's instructions how to do this exactly on the TWRP homepage (make sure you get the correct phone - block numbers are different for different devices) - but instead of re-flashing TWRP, I pulled the recovery.img from the giant Odin image available here on XDA.
It may also be possible to use "dd" to pull a copy of your existing recovery image as well, but I've never tried it.

Aou said:
I'm not entirely sure it's possible to do a nandroid backup without first having a custom recovery. However, it is "always" possible to use the Odin method to return to stock (including stock recovery). Personally, I installed TWRP and immediately did a full nandroid (including system, boot, cache, etc...) and I've frequently found myself restoring pieces of it as I manage to screw up different things. I did return my recovery back to stock once by using the "dd" method to flash the stock recovery.img onto the correct emmc block. There's instructions how to do this exactly on the TWRP homepage (make sure you get the correct phone - block numbers are different for different devices) - but instead of re-flashing TWRP, I pulled the recovery.img from the giant Odin image available here on XDA.
It may also be possible to use "dd" to pull a copy of your existing recovery image as well, but I've never tried it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! I'll be installing TWRP today, what is Odin if I can ask? I've never heard of any of it from Nexus 7.
Also, If i do a titanium backup, can I easily restore apps with setting and save games while I'm running CM10.1?

Dimon1990 said:
Thank you! I'll be installing TWRP today, what is Odin if I can ask? I've never heard of any of it from Nexus 7.
Also, If i do a titanium backup, can I easily restore apps with setting and save games while I'm running CM10.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You better find out what odin is because it's the only way you'll be installing twrp. And don't count on tibu restoring all your apps seamlessly. Never reinstall system apps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

jd1639 said:
You better find out what odin is because it's the only way you'll be installing twrp. And don't count on tibu restoring all your apps seamlessly. Never reinstall system apps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed TWRP through GooManager. I looked up ODIN and got general info, hopefully I won't get stuck, but I'm sure I'll find my way around. Thank you so much for your help! I figured that sys apps will just be for stock, but i have a MC4 save that i don't want to lose ::cyclops: it looks like it's CM10.1 time for me!

Dimon1990 said:
Thank you! I'll be installing TWRP today, what is Odin if I can ask? I've never heard of any of it from Nexus 7.
Also, If i do a titanium backup, can I easily restore apps with setting and save games while I'm running CM10.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's the thread that explains how to return to stock using Odin. Be prepared for a large download.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2261573
In short, "Odin Mode" is the download mode that's built-in to just about every modern Samsung device, beginning as far back as the Captivate, afaik. Each device has a button combination to enter "download mode" or "odin mode". This special mode sometimes requires specific drivers to connect to your PC. Flashing stock firmware using this method is common, but with an unlocked bootloader, it could be used to flash about anything. It's like a secondary recovery in a sense. It's harder to destroy download mode, but still possible if you mess up the bootloader somehow.
For our device the easiest methods to get to download mode are:
- Hold down the power button until the device force-resets itself. The moment the device turns black, release the power button and begin holding down the Vol-Down button. The device with vibrate once as usual, but then you'll see a screen that you've never seen before (begins with "Warning!!").
- Using any shell, such as ADB Shell or a terminal emulator, give the command "reboot download". This may require root privileges, I'm not sure.
- There's apps for this - haven't tried them yet.
As for Titanium backup - I love this program and have purchased Pro (totally worth it). As others have said, it's a bad idea to backup/restore System apps. Only do so with extreme caution. It is possible to restore only the data from system apps, but again do so with caution.
While Google does its own job at re-installing apps after a factory reset (if you allow it to), it usually doesn't backup data for each app. I have a couple authenticator apps that I backup this way, and it works great for this. I've also managed to keep my copy of Angry Birds Samsung Edition from my Infuse. Other applications that have since disappeared from Google Play are still backed up and get migrated to each new device I purchase.
And for that matter, with almost every User application, you can easily back it up (with data) and restore it on a completely different ROM. When changing major android versions, you sometimes will find apps force-closing on you, requiring that you wipe their data... but I haven't had that problem in a long time.
You'll see some other things that you can backup, like SMS, Access Points, Bluetooth Pairings, etc. .... I recommend only restoring these with caution - especially cross-ROM or cross-device.
Okay, I'm done being long-winded. Good luck, have fun.

Good write up
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

Aou said:
Here's the thread that explains how to return to stock using Odin. Be prepared for a large download.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2261573
Thank you so much!
In short, "Odin Mode" is the download mode that's built-in to just about every modern Samsung device, beginning as far back as the Captivate, afaik. Each device has a button combination to enter "download mode" or "odin mode". This special mode sometimes requires specific drivers to connect to your PC. Flashing stock firmware using this method is common, but with an unlocked bootloader, it could be used to flash about anything. It's like a secondary recovery in a sense. It's harder to destroy download mode, but still possible if you mess up the bootloader somehow.
For our device the easiest methods to get to download mode are:
- Hold down the power button until the device force-resets itself. The moment the device turns black, release the power button and begin holding down the Vol-Down button. The device with vibrate once as usual, but then you'll see a screen that you've never seen before (begins with "Warning!!").
- Using any shell, such as ADB Shell or a terminal emulator, give the command "reboot download". This may require root privileges, I'm not sure.
- There's apps for this - haven't tried them yet.
As for Titanium backup - I love this program and have purchased Pro (totally worth it). As others have said, it's a bad idea to backup/restore System apps. Only do so with extreme caution. It is possible to restore only the data from system apps, but again do so with caution.
While Google does its own job at re-installing apps after a factory reset (if you allow it to), it usually doesn't backup data for each app. I have a couple authenticator apps that I backup this way, and it works great for this. I've also managed to keep my copy of Angry Birds Samsung Edition from my Infuse. Other applications that have since disappeared from Google Play are still backed up and get migrated to each new device I purchase.
And for that matter, with almost every User application, you can easily back it up (with data) and restore it on a completely different ROM. When changing major android versions, you sometimes will find apps force-closing on you, requiring that you wipe their data... but I haven't had that problem in a long time.
You'll see some other things that you can backup, like SMS, Access Points, Bluetooth Pairings, etc. .... I recommend only restoring these with caution - especially cross-ROM or cross-device.
Okay, I'm done being long-winded. Good luck, have fun.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much!

Broken digitalizer, trying to backup data.

Hello guys, I've been sitting in front of computer this last 3 hours trying to figure out how to recover data from my S4, GT-i9505.
I'm using CyanogenMod 11 o 12, it's Android Lollipop, TWRP recovery, don't know if rooted. The digitalizer is dead, black screen, no touch input at all and it's pattern locked, but I think I managed to change to a password with Google Device Manager.
Now the things I've already tried and didn't work:
- Connected the mobile via USB. It shows up on My Computer, Samsung Kies etc, but nothing appears.
- Kies recognizes it, but just loops on Conecting...
- ADB doesn't even recognize it as a device, but my LG G4 does. I do remember enabling debug USB on S4, but I can't confirm.
- I have gone through the install and reinstall USB drivers hell, tried with Samsung alone, ADB alone and with both at the same time, nothing.
- Tried to access data with recovery and download modes. You never know.
After all of this, the only thing that comes to my mind is trying to use another recovery wich hopefully doesn't wipe the phone so I can dump data to the SD card with Volume buttons.
Do you guys can throw to me some knowledge or other ideas? I would be very grateful.
Little PS: I tried to post some screenshots, but new account and anti-spam happens :/

You mean using another recovery.
Bootloaders and recoveries are different things.
You could use CWM, which operates with the hardware buttons.

GDReaper said:
You mean using another recovery.
Bootloaders and recoveries are different things.
You could use CWM, which operates with the hardware buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, sorry. I was just fed up and took a little rest after this post. Do you think that might work? Using another recovery for backup without wiping any data?

Ranzar said:
Yes, sorry. I was just fed up and took a little rest after this post. Do you think that might work? Using another recovery for backup without wiping any data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Changing recoveries doesn't require wiping data.
The problem afterwards would be extracting said data from the backup.