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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!
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
This is the first time I'm using a device that doesn't have an external SD card, but I've all along understood that the internal SD card does not get wiped when you do a factory reset, and I'm sure I read that again on another thread just the other day.
My N7 is rooted using Wug's toolkit, with CM10.2 and Bulletproof kernel.
Yesterday I decided to do a factory reset (under Settings, Backup & Reset, Factory Data Reset), but after I did it, all the stuff I had on the internal SD was gone, including my backup files, the ROMs I had transferred there, etc.
Surely this is not meant to be the case, is it??
internal sdcard used to be a different partition.
Now it is just a directory in your /data and the "sdcard" is an emulated sdcard.
I know stock ROM and stock recovery wipes /data and everything in it including the virtual sdcard.
TWRP recovery will only remove the /data user stuff, leaving the virtual sdcard alone.
Which recovery are you running?
sfhub said:
internal sdcard used to be a different partition.
Now it is just a directory in your /data and the "sdcard" is an emulated sdcard.
I know stock ROM and stock recovery wipes /data and everything in it including the virtual sdcard.
TWRP recovery will only remove the /data user stuff, leaving the virtual sdcard alone.
Which recovery are you running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that! (Thanks coming your way). Well, better to know now than later! The down side is that I lost my CWM backups and my Titanium Backup files, but the good thing is that I think I have a TWRP backup that's on my computer.
I'm using TWRP, but not really liking it, cos I cannot boot into recovery from the phone and have to keep relying on the Wug Toolkit. I've just downloaded CWM and will be switching to that.
So the moral of this story is that if we are to do a factory reset, we should do it via recovery, correct? I'm presuming CWM will also leave the virtual sd card alone, yeah?
Oh one more thing, I think I lost root after the factory reset!!
I checked my All Apps and SuperSu wasn't there anymore. Just rooted it again using Wug kit.
oohyeah said:
I'm using TWRP, but not really liking it, cos I cannot boot into recovery from the phone and have to keep relying on the Wug Toolkit. I've just downloaded CWM and will be switching to that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure what issue you are having with TWRP, but you can flash it to the recovery partition and boot to it automatically. If that's the only reason you don't like it, I'd work on fixing the install rather than jumping to another recovery.
oohyeah said:
So the moral of this story is that if we are to do a factory reset, we should do it via recovery, correct? I'm presuming CWM will also leave the virtual sd card alone, yeah?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would probably do it from recovery. I don't know what CWM does on this platform as I've only used it on other platforms.
What do you mean you can't boot into recovery with twrp? I'm using twrp and have no problem booting into recovery.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
geckocavemen said:
What do you mean you can't boot into recovery with twrp? I'm using twrp and have no problem booting into recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I try to boot into recovery, it ends up showing a dead android with the red triangle "!" sign. I remember doing some searches and it seemed like this was normal. I remember the reason was that the N7 would always rewrite the recovery or something. From your responses, I'm guessing it's not normal?
The only way I could get into recovery was using the Wug toolkit using USB debugging/ADB, which really sucked, cos if it bootlooped and I can't get into the system to turn on USB debugging, then I'm not sure what I would do (though I read there's some way around it or something). I had never encountered any such thing with all my many other devices which all run CWM.
So what's up with all that?
"su" enter' next line "reboot recovery" in the Android Terminal window should also boot your device into recovery
User_99 said:
"su" enter' next line "reboot recovery" in the Android Terminal window should also boot your device into recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will work fine. If you have no aversion to installing apps, Rom Toolbox Lite gives you power widgets you can put on your desktop then go to recovery with one touch. I use Quick Boot PRO, although the free version of that all may do recovery also. One might work for you until you want to play with mods.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
oohyeah said:
When I try to boot into recovery, it ends up showing a dead android with the red triangle "!" sign.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is stock recovery.
You need to get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh
You can get rid of it by hand, or just install SuperSU from TWRP. Then flash TWRP to the recovery partition.
Thank you everyone for your input!
I'm happily back on CWM right now. If I revert back to TWRP next time at least I'll know what to do!
oohyeah said:
Thank you everyone for your input!
I'm happily back on CWM right now. If I revert back to TWRP next time at least I'll know what to do!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
None of your blunders has anything to do with TWRP.
khaytsus said:
None of your blunders has anything to do with TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK let me get something straight.
Obviously, the factory resetting that wiped out all internal storage (the original point of the thread) has nothing to do with TWRP, and I never said it did. On this point though, I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to be more well known that a factory reset would do wipe out all your data (did several searches and only found 'confirmations' that your internal SD data would be left untouched), though I'm glad that I know it now.
The suggestions on different ways to boot into recovery were helpful, though I believe that I would still have encountered the dead android, or would I not have?
What's certainly still not clear to me though is regarding the problem of not being able to boot into recovery and getting the dead android with the exclamation/triangle. After the first few replies, I expected to hear that this was NOT meant to be the case and that I did something wrong in the process or whatever.
However, what I seemed to get was that this is the expected behavior, and what I needed to have done was to "get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh".
So let me ask these questions for clarification:
1. Is the dead android normal, given what I did/didn't do?
2. Is deleting /system/etc/install-recovery.sh part of the process of installing TWRP in order to be able to boot into recovery?
3. Would I also need to get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh if using CWM?
(so far it doesn't seem to. After installing CWM I'm not getting the dead android and I didn't delete the install-recovery.sh).
Thanks. And just to be clear, I hope no one takes it the wrong way that I'm bashing TWRP or anything, because I"m not. Just been a long time user of CWM and this is the first time using TWRP and encountering the dead android.
oohyeah said:
So let me ask these questions for clarification:
1. Is the dead android normal, given what I did/didn't do?
2. Is deleting /system/etc/install-recovery.sh part of the process of installing TWRP in order to be able to boot into recovery?
3. Would I also need to get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh if using CWM?
(so far it doesn't seem to. After installing CWM I'm not getting the dead android and I didn't delete the install-recovery.sh).
Thanks. And just to be clear, I hope no one takes it the wrong way that I'm bashing TWRP or anything, because I"m not. Just been a long time user of CWM and this is the first time using TWRP and encountering the dead android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dead android = stock recovery, so normal there.
When you flash a custom recovery on a stock ROM, there is a file, /system/etc/install-recovery.sh, or I actually prefer just renaming /system/recovery-from-boot.p, which will automatically verify your recovery image and restore it to stock if it doesn't match. So you must always remove this file, or the ROM will restore the stock recovery on boot.
TWRP makes it easy to remove either file by mounting /system in read-write mode and using its built-in file manager to remove it. You can do the same in CWM using adb.
As for point 3, yes, try to reboot into recovery again. If you didn't remove (either file), you'll find stock recovery again.
Thanks, Khaytsus. I booted into recovery (long press power button, reboot menu, recovery), and it booted straight into CWM, like it always has with my other devices. (And to confirm, I have not even looked for the install-recovery.sh file, let alone removed or renamed it.)
So far it seems to me that TWRP requires removal of install-recovery.sh, whereas CWM does not, but this doesn't seem to be what you guys are telling me is supposed to be the case.
oohyeah said:
Thanks, Khaytsus. I booted into recovery (long press power button, reboot menu, recovery), and it booted straight into CWM, like it always has with my other devices. (And to confirm, I have not even looked for the install-recovery.sh file, let alone removed or renamed it.)
So far it seems to me that TWRP requires removal of install-recovery.sh, whereas CWM does not, but this doesn't seem to be what you guys are telling me is supposed to be the case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really depends on what ordering you do your actions in.
/system/etc/install-recovery.sh doesn't exist on a stock factory shipped system.
It only gets put in place after you install an OTA. If you do all your upgrades using the factory images, you'll never encounter it.
What it does is during your boot process, it will check to see if your recovery is different than what it expects (ie stock). If so, it will install stock recovery by taking the stock kernel and patching it.
If any of the following are true, it will not overwrite your recovery:
/system/etc/install-recovery.sh is missing (or modified to not run as the original file)
/system/recovery-from-boot.p is missing
you are not running the stock kernel
The most common way for install-recovery.sh to be missing is you always used factory images.
The most common way for install-recovery.sh to be modified to not do the original function is if you installed SuperSU. It will overwrite install-recovery.sh with its own.
So in all the back and forth, it is quite possible you got rid of install-recovery.sh or had it modified simply by installing root.
If you then subsequently installed custom recovery, it would stay in place.
Previously you were installing TWRP and flashing it onto the tablet, but upon booting into android, install-recovery.sh realized it wasn't stock recovery, and overwrote TWRP with stock recovery.
That is why whenever you rebooted, you got fallen android (which is stock recovery)
If the way you installed cwm is to use "fastboot flash recovery cwm.img" then the only reason it is around is because something else you did got rid of or modified install-recovery.sh. cwm would be no more immune to install-recovery.sh than twrp was.
oohyeah said:
Oh one more thing, I think I lost root after the factory reset!!
I checked my All Apps and SuperSu wasn't there anymore. Just rooted it again using Wug kit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to clarify, you didn't lose root. You just lost the supersu app, a root permission manager, because it was installed to your /data partition. The su binary was still in /system, all you would have had to do was install supersu from the market.
I'm not sure what else you were expecting from a "factory reset"
creaturemachine said:
I'm not sure what else you were expecting from a "factory reset"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you read the thread? He explained his reason for expectation quite well.
I just started up on a Nexus 4, and was also surprised to see this. Coming from a Galaxy S2, the "sdcard" being left intact was pretty convenient when flashing from ROM to ROM. Albeit, leading to some messiness. When did Nexus change to this behavior?
Skaziwu said:
I just started up on a Nexus 4, and was also surprised to see this. Coming from a Galaxy S2, the "sdcard" being left intact was pretty convenient when flashing from ROM to ROM. Albeit, leading to some messiness. When did Nexus change to this behavior?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depending on which level you are looking at, it didn't really change the behavior, but rather how your data is organized.
Factory reset has always wiped out /data.
On older devices, they put the /sdcard in a separate partition and formatted fat32.
These are the ones that were surviving a factory reset.
On newer devices, the internal /sdcard is starting to migrate onto a directory in /data and the "sdard" you see is "virtual". Since it is on /data, when you wipe data, the virtual sdcard is also wiped.
Some recoveries try to simulate the previous behavior by doing a "rm" of every directory except the virtual sdard when you choose to wipe, instead of the erase/format that Android is doing.
The advantage of keeping the sdcard as a directory under /data is you don't need to decide how much space to split between the sdcard and your /data. Also permissions on files are more flexible being in an ext4 filesystem. Finally since everything is emulated and accessed via MTP, you don't need to unmount the filesystem, so your PC can access it.
There are also cons with this approach, but that is what Google is going with.
Hey guys, I was running 4.3.x for a while with the loki twrp solution and all was well, after many attempts to flash 4.4 I finally decided to ditch twrp and go to CWM, that went without a hitch and brought me into the latest nightly of CM, yet I wanted a fresh install (No accounts, no pictures media etc etc) so I tried to do factory reset from within the OS and it wouldn't let me. so I then went into recovery and tried to format things from there...
Since then I have been unable to get past the spinning CyanogenMod boot screen and though adb sees there is a device, it is telling me it is "unauthorized". Of course since I can't get into the OS the RSA confirmation thing can't come up and I can't select any system preferences. Before I went messing around in recovery formatting things ADB was working flawlessly.
Any ideas on where to go from here?
Thanks guys,
Lokin
HellaBester said:
Hey guys, I was running 4.3.x for a while with the loki twrp solution and all was well, after many attempts to flash 4.4 I finally decided to ditch twrp and go to CWM, that went without a hitch and brought me into the latest nightly of CM, yet I wanted a fresh install (No accounts, no pictures media etc etc) so I tried to do factory reset from within the OS and it wouldn't let me. so I then went into recovery and tried to format things from there...
Since then I have been unable to get past the spinning CyanogenMod boot screen and though adb sees there is a device, it is telling me it is "unauthorized". Of course since I can't get into the OS the RSA confirmation thing can't come up and I can't select any system preferences. Before I went messing around in recovery formatting things ADB was working flawlessly.
Any ideas on where to go from here?
Thanks guys,
Lokin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had an issue with my adb, it was out dated. I updated the sdk system, and it detected the lg g2, this could possibly help you.
osugsxr said:
I had an issue with my adb, it was out dated. I updated the sdk system, and it detected the lg g2, this could possibly help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I considered that but no everything is up to date. It seems more like the RSA auth fingerprint is not being recognized. Plus it does recognize the phone, it just tells me it is unauthorized.
Get back into Recovery mode and use ADB from there
votinh said:
Get back into Recovery mode and use ADB from there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do I get into recovery without being able to "adb reboot recovery"?
unomicu how
Bump. Anything guys? Really struggling here....
Can you get in recovery using button combination?
votinh said:
Can you get in recovery using button combination?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, doesn't seem like it. Though I can get into download mode no problem.
Alright guys, since it seems like not many people out there know whats going on with me I'll dow what i can to keep an update.
Finally got back into Recovery using this super convenient little trick I did not know existed.
Though now I am unable to mount anything at all from recovery "E:Can't mount /cache.. etc"
HellaBester said:
Alright guys, since it seems like not many people out there know whats going on with me I'll dow what i can to keep an update.
Finally got back into Recovery using this super convenient little trick I did not know existed.
Though now I am unable to mount anything at all from recovery "E:Can't mount /cache.. etc"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never been able to mount anything using the recovery. Not sure if it because of the LG phone or of my recovery. But I've tried different ones (CWM, TWRP, Philz Touch), none was able to mount my phone from recovery. Your best bet right now is to flash the files from a OTG cable and flash drive. Also when you said you formatted the phone from the recovery, did you format the system partition as well? TWRP has that option so I assume CWM has it as well
super114 said:
I've never been able to mount anything using the recovery. Not sure if it because of the LG phone or of my recovery. But I've tried different ones (CWM, TWRP, Philz Touch), none was able to mount my phone from recovery. Your best bet right now is to flash the files from a OTG cable and flash drive. Also when you said you formatted the phone from the recovery, did you format the system partition as well? TWRP has that option so I assume CWM has it as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heyoo, just in the last hour or so I've got it all fixed!
I did a full system, data and cache format om CWM after that there was no OS or amnything of the sort, then I was able to mount the SD and adb push cm11 + gapps-kk to the sdcard, I flashed those two zips restarted, failed, then i did a system reset (resets everything but the OS) and I popped out in CM11 with a perfectly fresh install. got all that setup and am golden now ::
Congratz
Check the .android folder
My problem started when I tried to connect another phone which happened to be the same type of phone as the previous one. Not sure if that's actually related, but my working hypothesis is that ADB gets confused in this scenario. I tried everything listed here and in many other places, and nothing seemed to work. Finally, I did this:
1. Rename .android folder in your user directory (~/username/.android on Mac OSX) to .android_bak (for safe keeping).
2. Restart the adb daemon: "adb kill-server" followed by "adb start-server"
After that, I got the authentication confirmation on the phone (don't forget that part, of course) and all was well.
These steps merely recreate the .android folder and get rid of any authentication credentials you already have. Note of course that this will impact all other phones you may be connecting.
Ok I am sure I did this before without any problem, but this time, through TWRP on the NRTK, I installed Magisk, no problems, and then went back to install the SU with the zip file in TWRP again and then on the reboot it freezes on the Google startup screen.
I didnt even want to install the SU zip, but when I ran SU after Magisk installed after reboot, SU gave an error, so I decided to install SU from TWRP.
Did I do something wrong there, so I dont repeat the same error next time?
And how do I get out of this locked state?
I've tried wiping all cache to factory reset without deleting internal storage data... I am hoping I dont have to delete and wipe everything and start all over. I did not have a chance to eve install TiB yet.
Dathaeus said:
Ok I am sure I did this before without any problem, but this time, through TWRP on the NRTK, I installed Magisk, no problems, and then went back to install the SU with the zip file in TWRP again and then on the reboot it freezes on the Google startup screen.
I didnt even want to install the SU zip, but when I ran SU after Magisk installed after reboot, SU gave an error, so I decided to install SU from TWRP.
Did I do something wrong there, so I dont repeat the same error next time?
And how do I get out of this locked state?
I've tried wiping all cache to factory reset without deleting internal storage data... I am hoping I dont have to delete and wipe everything and start all over. I did not have a chance to eve install TiB yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash the stock boot.img from the image/rom you were using before this and reboot. You will have to re-root (properly) afterwards, but your phone should boot up. If you use Magisk, you don't need SU, and vice versa. Use only one method to root.
v12xke said:
Flash the stock boot.img from the image/rom you were using before this and reboot. You will have to re-root (properly) afterwards, but your phone should boot up. If you use Magisk, you don't need SU, and vice versa. Use only one method to root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm ya I prob should have posted that SU error message instead of what I did, douche move.
But how do I flash the boot.img... I have an original copy of it on my PC... can I somehow while in TWRP on the phone connect to my PC via cable and run commands from my PC in CMD and execute that old boot.img flash? Or is there a location in the stock Nexus already I can use? Because there is no file in the root drive after I did the soft wipe.
P.S. Everything I have done so far has not deleted my whole storage, yet.... not sure if that is necessary at this point bec it seems reflashing the boot.img wipes absolutely everything again? If I have to it is what it is... just painful when this happens before I could get TiB running... unless my Nandroid backup file I have will restore and work after I do this?
Dathaeus said:
Hmmm ya I prob should have posted that SU error message instead of what I did, douche move.
But how do I flash the boot.img... I have an original copy of it on my PC... can I somehow while in TWRP on the phone connect to my PC via cable and run commands from my PC in CMD and execute that old boot.img flash? Or is there a location in the stock Nexus already I can use? Because there is no file in the root drive after I did the soft wipe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While in TWRP you have MTP (file transfer) so you can add files to your device. Transfer the boot.img over to your device via MTP and then use TWRP to flash. Just be sure to select flash IMAGE rather than ZIP. Lesson here is when you get back up and running, install fastboot/adb and make sure it is working well and communicating with your PC. Then you can learn how to use it. This would take literally 5 seconds to flash via fastboot (device in bootloader mode).
---------- Post added at 01:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:26 PM ----------
Dathaeus said:
P.S. Everything I have done so far has not deleted my whole storage, yet.... not sure if that is necessary at this point bec it seems reflashing the boot.img wipes absolutely everything again? If I have to it is what it is... just painful when this happens before I could get TiB running... unless my Nandroid backup file I have will restore and work after I do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NO, flashing boot.img will not delete any of your files. It will only write to the boot partition. If using fastboot the command is fastboot flash boot boot.img
v12xke said:
While in TWRP you have MTP (file transfer) so you can add files to your device. Transfer the boot.img over to your device via MTP and then use TWRP to flash. Just be sure to select flash IMAGE rather than ZIP. Lesson here is when you get back up and running, install fastboot/adb and make sure it is working well and communicating with your PC. Then you can learn how to use it. This would take literally 5 seconds to flash via fastboot (device in bootloader mode).
NO, flashing boot.img will not delete any of your files. It will only write to the boot partition. If using fastboot the command is fastboot flash boot boot.img
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep I actually had those platform files already, and yes the MTP was active there, I just never tried that before so didnt know it was even a possibility or the right way.
So I tried via flashing my very old boot.img and also the one from
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/stock-modified-boot-img-regular-root-t3306684
via TWRP "Install" via image install (not zip) and to the "boot partition"
and no change, same stuck on Google logo screen.
I tried the fastboot command from CMD and it says
< waiting for any device >
and doesnt do anything. I had it on the default TWRP menu screen.... I waited over 20 min although I know it shouldnt take near that long, just in case.
My bootloader is unlocked BTW, I dont want to assume anything here.
You need help getting the latest fastboot/adb binaries working on your PC. So many tutorials on how to do this. Ugh.
Dathaeus said:
Yep I actually had those platform files already, and yes the MTP was active there, I just never tried that before so didnt know it was even a possibility or the right way.
So I tried via flashing my very old boot.img and also the one from
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/stock-modified-boot-img-regular-root-t3306684
via TWRP "Install" via image install (not zip) and to the "boot partition"
and no change, same stuck on Google logo screen.
I tried the fastboot command from CMD and it says
< waiting for any device >
and doesnt do anything. I had it on the default TWRP menu screen.... I waited over 20 min although I know it shouldnt take near that long, just in case.
My bootloader is unlocked BTW, I dont want to assume anything here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which OS security patch were you running? Flash the system (to the system partition in TWRP) and boot images (again) from the 6P factory image of the same name:
https://developers.google.com/android/images?hl=en
See if this helps.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
v12xke said:
You need help getting the latest fastboot/adb binaries working on your PC. So many tutorials on how to do this. Ugh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what you mean... I JUST did all that when I redid my phone completely back to factory etc etc.... just few weeks ago and then again on my new replacement. But just to be sure, I downloaded all those files again today and it didnt make any difference.
Still stuck on the
< waiting for any device >
I have to be missing some other step or something else is wrong here.
FYI not sure if this matters but when phone boots to recovery there's a red error message
"Unable to mount storage"
but it loads to TWRP fine anyways.
SlimSnoopOS said:
Which OS security patch were you running? Flash the system (to the system partition in TWRP) and boot images (again) from the 6P factory image of the same name:
https://developers.google.com/android/images?hl=en
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep thats what I been doing.....
So the CMD command still doesnt work, which I think is weird in itself... and when I try to install from recovery, it goes through the whole process, both boot.img and system.img, but then it freezes on the Google logo again, so no change.
Sorry I am not sure what security patch, I just got this used from eBay, and one thing, not sure if this means anything, it says its a beta version or something and that message came up all the time when I rebooted when the phone was working.
Do I need to suck it up and redo the whole phone again........ :/