Database Users

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Q] can't get my nandroid backup to work

Hey everyone,
So i have read through many of the post about using cmw and making a nandroid backup then recovering it.
I followed the directions to put the green cwm on my phone after getting into the green cmw i made a backup and started playing around on my phone. I then went into ROM manager and wanted to get back into green cmw from there I then got a error message about my signature. So again I flashed cwm via odin and got back into it that way. I don't understand why i can't get into it through rom manager and have to flash it everytime.
My next problem is that i wiped the data on my phone and went to use my nandroid recovery that I made it got through most of it but then would freeze while revcovering the data and would sit on something like b5ece2. After waiting for 30min I just pulled the battery, but my phone is still back to stock.
This is not the end of the world for me as I have Titanium backup and got all my apps back, but for some reason can't get my contacts back using google.
Any help is very much appriciated and I am sorry about how long this question became this is my first droid and my first root.

Looks to me like your lynchpin issue is you cannot get RM to launch ClockWork mod recovery.
Solving that is your best avenue for fixing other issues.
I couldn't help but notice that you never mentioned regular (blue) recovery. Did you somehow find a guide to put in the so-called permanent CWR? I would like to understand how you are getting into recovery, because doing it through Odin doesn't parse for me.
No promises, especially without fully understanding your situation, but here is what to do if I am assuming correctly.
Best guess solution:
1. Restore recovery in odin. Get the "Odin restore file for recovery" from this guide:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-782204.html
(a full stock restore odin should do this too, but you would have to root etc.)
2. Download CWMrecovery.tar patch ( http://goo.gl/HELdr ) from fallingup's guide, which is step two of:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=897889
3. Flash #1 then #2 as PDA in Odin. Boot. Open Rom Manager.
4. Click "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery". Click "Reboot into Recovery"
Swyped w/ XDA App. When in
doubt, mumble.

Thank you for getting back to me so quick. I will do that as soon as I get home from work and let you know if that fixes all the problems.

[Q] Help, solving this mystery? Bootloader/partitions?

Ok, where do I start. Here is my problem: Any of the leaked based rom get stuck at the black & white stripes (wich I flashed many time without problem) Let me explain the chain of event that got me that point.
Last week I installed the leak ( Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1 ) and rooted it and patched the bootloader with blackthunder's apx tool that also installed a modified version of thor's cwm that work with ICS bootloader. Everything worked fine but knowing that civato's flexreaper support the ics bootloader I decided to install it...R11 worked fine (even the b&w stripes at boot was gone...thx to the ics bootloader).
This is where it got crazy, while doing simple web browsing, i got a freeze that obliged me to force shutdown. On reboot, I got a bootloop at bootanim. Decided to flash FlexR11 over it to fix. During the flash I received an error about flexrom. Rebooted and the bootloop persisted. Then cwm started to be slow responding to navigation with volume rocker, so I decided to flash Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1 again wich didn't boot too. Cwm was still there but even more screwed, would not see any sdcard int or ext. I tried to apx push a recovery with blackthunder's tools with no success.
I finally got it back to life with TimmyDean's EUUs flashing a rooted 3.2.1. with HC bootloader. Now the only ICS rom I can install is thor's rom ..everything work fine. BUT any of the leaked based rom get stuck at the lines and even the leak itself after being installed get stuck at the acer logo...and cwm is still present where it should have been overwriten.
I think it may have something to do with flexrom (i guess thor don't use that partiton since it's for acer crapware)...but im not sure since 3.2.1 work with acer's stuff & all. Maybe the bootloader is corrupt in some way, but it was reinstalled by the EUUs tool anyway.
I tried to format everything including flexrom..tried both civato's kernel in case there are some bits of ics bootloader left... Im desesperate trying to understand what's wrong exactly and how to fix this.
Anyone have an idea? Thx in advance & sorry for my average english.

lowsum said:
Ok, where do I start. Here is my problem: Any of the leaked based rom get stuck at the black & white stripes (wich I flashed many time without problem) Let me explain the chain of event that got me that point.
Last week I installed the leak ( Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1 ) and rooted it and patched the bootloader with blackthunder's apx tool that also installed a modified version of thor's cwm that work with ICS bootloader. Everything worked fine but knowing that civato's flexreaper support the ics bootloader I decided to install it...R11 worked fine (even the b&w stripes at boot was gone...thx to the ics bootloader).
This is where it got crazy, while doing simple web browsing, i got a freeze that obliged me to force shutdown. On reboot, I got a bootloop at bootanim. Decided to flash FlexR11 over it to fix. During the flash I received an error about flexrom. Rebooted and the bootloop persisted. Then cwm started to be slow responding to navigation with volume rocker, so I decided to flash Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1 again wich didn't boot too. Cwm was still there but even more screwed, would not see any sdcard int or ext. I tried to apx push a recovery with blackthunder's tools with no success.
I finally got it back to life with TimmyDean's EUUs flashing a rooted 3.2.1. with HC bootloader. Now the only ICS rom I can install is thor's rom ..everything work fine. BUT any of the leaked based rom get stuck at the lines and even the leak itself after being installed get stuck at the acer logo...and cwm is still present where it should have been overwriten.
I think it may have something to do with flexrom (i guess thor don't use that partiton since it's for acer crapware)...but im not sure since 3.2.1 work with acer's stuff & all. Maybe the bootloader is corrupt in some way, but it was reinstalled by the EUUs tool anyway.
I tried to format everything including flexrom..tried both civato's kernel in case there are some bits of ics bootloader left... Im desesperate trying to understand what's wrong exactly and how to fix this.
Anyone have an idea? Thx in advance & sorry for my average english.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you have data leftover (either not a good enough wipe, or corrupted data)
Try this. Note that this will reformat your entire internal memory, but will ensure all remaining data is cleaned up and removed.
Before installing your rom;
1. Wipe User Data
2. Wipe Cache
3. Wipe DalviK
4. Wipe Battery Stats
go to Backup and Restore. Select "Toggle backup and restore of internal storage (/data/media). Enable this setting by selecting it. By default, it is disabled. Then proceed to the formatting steps. This will format the Entire Internal Memory when you proceed.
Select Go Back, Goto Mounts and Storage
1. Format System
2. Format Cache
3. Format Dalvik
4. Format Flexrom
This WILL format your entire internal memory, so if you have something important, you need to copy it out. Note that this should not effect things on the Ext SD Card.

Thanks for replying, yes I already done that, the problem persist. I wonder if it could be the bootloader, but like I said, other roms works, only the leak based have problem. Is there a way to "format" the bootloader? It should have been reset to HC when I applied 3.2.1 in apx... hmmm very strange!

lowsum said:
Thanks for replying, yes I already done that, the problem persist. I wonder if it could be the bootloader, but like I said, other roms works, only the leak based have problem. Is there a way to "format" the bootloader? It should have been reset to HC when I applied 3.2.1 in apx... hmmm very strange!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, more than likely it is indeed a bootloader issue. But you must understand, all these "leaked" ICS roms are what they are... BETA. And with each new leak, there's a different bootloader. So you have to pay attention to the instructions for the specific leak. Usually involves flashing a newer or older bootloader to match the rom.
Until Acer releases an "official" ICS Rom and source code for the 500/501, these issues are going to be around for awhile.
My choice, would be to run a 3.2.1 rom. Very few issues with some of the mildly modded ones. Then wait awhile, till the official ICS updates come out.
One good thing out of this, you learned some tricks on how to recovery from some "semi-bricks"

I think the leak may not be the source of the problem, I already installed 009 when it first appeared a couple of weeks ago, and restored with EUU without problem, but this time with 031 I rooted it with blackthunder's root tool and applied a modified bootloader and cwm recovery. Even if I restore 3.2.1 with timmydean's EUU package and hc bootloader, the leak base rom get stuck at the b&w lines (where it's looking for the bootloader or loading kernel). It make no sense to me that the leak is the source of the problem. Is there a diagnosis tool that can check my partition integrity? Still wonder...!

lowsum said:
I think the leak may not be the source of the problem, I already installed 009 when it first appeared a couple of weeks ago, and restored with EUU without problem, but this time with 031 I rooted it with blackthunder's root tool and applied a modified bootloader and cwm recovery. Even if I restore 3.2.1 with timmydean's EUU package and hc bootloader, the leak base rom get stuck at the b&w lines (where it's looking for the bootloader or loading kernel). It make no sense to me that the leak is the source of the problem. Is there a diagnosis tool that can check my partition integrity? Still wonder...!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, this is one of the reasons I decided not to mess any further with the ICS builds till a good official version comes out
I'm not aware of any tools to check partition integrity. Maybe there may be something in the main Android Dev forum.
RA Recovery has an option to check your partitions, but I believe it only gives a current status whether they are EXT3 or EXT4.

Moscow Desire said:
Well, this is one of the reasons I decided not to mess any further with the ICS builds till a good official version comes out
I'm not aware of any tools to check partition integrity. Maybe there may be something in the main Android Dev forum.
RA Recovery has an option to check your partitions, but I believe it only gives a current status whether they are EXT3 or EXT4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is possible to rebuild your partition structure from scratch (using SBK + bootloader + nvflash create command + bct + flash.cfg + system image + recovery image + boot image + probably some other things) but I'm not sure of anyone that has done this and I can't say I have myself. Using timmydean's method (with a, what looks like, leaked Acer A500 Flash Tool) should, in theory, wipe it clean and start again.
I created a flash bundle to reset back to version EUUs_SBK_Acer_A500_1.016.05_COM_GEN1 (it's on the forum I use which I got tempbanned for mentioning publicly ) but it's untested. I see no reason it shouldn't work, however.

I tried another way to restore my tab, this time flashing a leak based rom with RA recovery instead. This time i had a little different behavior, during flash process, formating flexrom froze for a while outputing this error: Random Offset : 0x188 ...the rest flashed normally. At first boot it froze after 2sec during bootanimation, before it froze at the black & white lines.
I think I may have a corrupted flexrom partition, so Im wondering, does the recovery*doing a quick format erasing only the first sectors? If so, is there any way to do a deep format?

[Q] Some help for a nub and ICS + Flashing ROM

Got ICS, OTA (download) installed that no problem, downloaded the acer usb drivers and used ICS Root (blackthund3r). Now i want to install LightSpeed 4.4 (i know theres a newer version) I renamed it update.zip and did the power button + V- button but it says invalid image.
Now im a bit confused cause all this android stuff is new to me, I have the acer recovery installed but im not sure what to do with it. Tried renaming it to recovery.img it says it is flashing but nothing happens.
Kinda lost at what to do or how to get this rom working.... if someone could point me in the right direction it would be sweet
Fox

foxorroxors said:
I renamed it update.zip and did the power button + V- button but it says invalid image.
Fox
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. That was pretty n00b of ya (that little trick only works on signed official roms, and even then, only ify-ify)
Check this thread. It has the tools you need.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1622425
You can skip the part about installing an ICS rom and rooting. You already did that. You need to do steps 1, 2, (partial 4) 5 or 6 basically.
Note after you rooted. Look at step 4 and delete the required file like it says, before going to steps 5 or 6. You have an option on which package to use. Personally, I like the exe package. But your choice.
This installs patched b-loader and CWM recovery so you can flash ICS only Roms.

Easy
As you've Acer Recovery why the difficult way ? Just choose "Download / Install Roms, tick Lightspeed 4.4 in the left column, hit download and then install.
(i've version 2.74)
Fast, easy and no problems. I flashed Flexreaper 14 (now replaced by Flexreaper ICS RF1) and i can recommend it, the Rom and the way of flashing it.

urbie47 said:
As you've Acer Recovery why the difficult way ? Just choose "Download / Install Roms, tick Lightspeed 4.4 in the left column, hit download and then install.
(i've version 2.74)
Fast, easy and no problems. I flashed Flexreaper 14 (now replaced by Flexreaper ICS RF1) and i can recommend it, the Rom and the way of flashing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Acer recovery is fine if it'll install the patched Bootloader.
However, it doesn't make a user get his UID number, which is essential in case something happens in the future. Without your UID, you're basically toasted Or you're in for the long haul in figuring out how to unbrick a tab.

help
I need help for boot loader.I tried to put ICS boot loader v3, I didn't success and now I can't put another rom(I have ICS for A500 but I use A501 and it doesn't work 3G modem).How I can put other rom?
Erasing cache before SD update...
SD update cmd recovery
--update_package=SDCARD:update.zip
Booting recovery kernel image
Recovery verified failed...

ores992 said:
I need help for boot loader.I tried to put ICS boot loader v3, I didn't success and now I can't put another rom(I have ICS for A500 but I use A501 and it doesn't work 3G modem).How I can put other rom?
Erasing cache before SD update...
SD update cmd recovery
--update_package=SDCARD:update.zip
Booting recovery kernel image
Recovery verified failed...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't run that update.zip like you did. You got the error message.
Can you still boot into the 500 Rom? If so, you need to install a CWM Recovery before you can flash custom Roms. Look at the link below for instructions for CWM installation.
If you can't boot into your System, then you will need to do everything again.
You should still have your UID number when you tried to NVFlash the ver3 bootloader (I hope you wrote that number down)
You need to probably re-install the ver3 bootloader again as your attempt to install an update.zip messed things up. You just can't do it that way. So go here;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1622425
Only this time, follow the instructions. You need to install CWM recovery. This is how to flash Roms, not putting update.zips on the SD card. And BTW, you should delete that update.zip from Your EXT SD Card. It will cause problems.
Also note, in those instructions, if you installed the FULL 500 ROM, you must delete a certain boot-p file before you install CWM Recovery. Or else it will delete it when you reboot the tab. Again, read the instructions.
The above steps install a 500 rom. The 500 DOES NOT have 3g like a 501. This is why you had no 3g. You have to install a 501 ICS Rom after, through CWM Recovery, and, currently, I have the only ICS Rom for the 501. And... it's a Beta release from Acer. But it works ok mostly.
Read the instructions, and understand exactly what you are doing. Also remember, with ver3 ICS Bootloader, YOU CANNOT INSTALL HC BASED ROMS without going back to an HC based bootloader. ICS Roms only. (unless you want to go back to stock).

Moscow Desire said:
You can't run that update.zip like you did. You got the error message.
Can you still boot into the 500 Rom? If so, you need to install a CWM Recovery before you can flash custom Roms. Look at the link below for instructions for CWM installation.
If you can't boot into your System, then you will need to do everything again.
You should still have your UID number when you tried to NVFlash the ver3 bootloader (I hope you wrote that number down)
You need to probably re-install the ver3 bootloader again as your attempt to install an update.zip messed things up. You just can't do it that way. So go here;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1622425
Only this time, follow the instructions. You need to install CWM recovery. This is how to flash Roms, not putting update.zips on the SD card. And BTW, you should delete that update.zip from Your EXT SD Card. It will cause problems.
Also note, in those instructions, if you installed the FULL 500 ROM, you must delete a certain boot-p file before you install CWM Recovery. Or else it will delete it when you reboot the tab. Again, read the instructions.
The above steps install a 500 rom. The 500 DOES NOT have 3g like a 501. This is why you had no 3g. You have to install a 501 ICS Rom after, through CWM Recovery, and, currently, I have the only ICS Rom for the 501. And... it's a Beta release from Acer. But it works ok mostly.
Read the instructions, and understand exactly what you are doing. Also remember, with ver3 ICS Bootloader, YOU CANNOT INSTALL HC BASED ROMS without going back to an HC based bootloader. ICS Roms only. (unless you want to go back to stock).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but that link is dead

ores992 said:
Thanks, but that link is dead
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, XDA did some cleaning up overnight. Try it now;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1622425
MD

stuck in recovery

i flashed the CWM update zip, booted into CWM, wiped, and now im trying to install the EOS rom
it goes smoothly and i get no errors, but it boots into CWM every single boot now.,,

Pushed the older 6006 cwm and flashed, no errors, still boots into 6010.. ?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=22897771
Found this thread. For transformer Prime but hopefully it fixes my issue. If this is a bad idea lmk.
If not, Will try around midnight when I get back home

Woops,
Found this too
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1781250

Did you flash the CWM.zip in TWRP? I ask because there was a known issue when flashing CWM from TWRP you would get stuck in a recovery loop. I had the same issue and had to flash the stock .img to get out of it. Good luck.

i flashed the CWM zip that was posted in the CWM thread, bout to try and get myself free..
::success.
booted into bootloader
flashed bootloader, restarted, booted into my rom...
rebooted back into bootloader
flashed recovery
wipe/flash normally

I'm in the same exact situation, Could you share with me how you got it to boot into bootloader? I've been trying for awhile now. As I'm stuck in CWM I'm thus far unable to use adb. I'm a total adb noob so there is probably something quite simple I'm missing. Thanks in advance for any help.

Vektor67 said:
I'm in the same exact situation, Could you share with me how you got it to boot into bootloader? I've been trying for awhile now. As I'm stuck in CWM I'm thus far unable to use adb. I'm a total adb noob so there is probably something quite simple I'm missing. Thanks in advance for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Press volume down when it boots (right before and while the Google logo shows up)

jamesst20 said:
Press volume down when it boots (right before and while the Google logo shows up)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, I've tried that many times. It's not working. I wish I had read this thread carefully and learned that it might be dangerous to flash cwm zip from TWRP, I had no idea.
The thing is is that it never really shuts down properly(thought I remembered a power off option on one of my epic 4g cwm) So when I press the power button while on the reboot system now option, that is what it does but back to recovery. I tried the volume button as you suggested as well as every other combination I could think of. :~(

Well in messing with drivers(uninstalling old drivers/devices installing universal naked driver) I had the nexus 7 q3 tool waiting for adb to enter fastboot and reflash TWRP so I could restore) and the tool suceeded in kicking me into fastboot(with an error in the toolkit) The toolkit stopped communicating though. I want to use the toolkit to reflash back to stock now that I'm in the bootloader screen.
I'm a bit nervous though, some warning about flashing asus stock blobs being a sure way to HardBrick. I think I'll wait until I get better information. I am on the bootloader screen, but I'm certain my bootloader as it sits is messed up from flashing CWM.
*Edit* Success!! I used this ; "[Guide] Returning to Stock and/or Unbricking your device"located here, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1781250 (not sure how to go about inserting a descriptive link sry :~( I'm now back to stock and ready to brick it again...umm, I mean, root and flash like there's no tomorrow. hehe Thanks for the input.:good::good: