Database Users

[Q] Evo stuck at load screen.

So, I'm a bit new around here and to rooting and flashing roms. I recently have been flashing rooms directly from rom manager. Everything was fine for weeks until I recentely tried flashing a rom by RVU. Now I'm stuck in the stock evo 4 g load screen and it keeps loading over and over. Any suggestions ? Is there away back into the boot loader ?

Turrubiates said:
So, I'm a bit new around here and to rooting and flashing roms. I recently have been flashing rooms directly from rom manager. Everything was fine for weeks until I recentely tried flashing a rom by RVU. Now I'm stuck in the stock evo 4 g load screen and it keeps loading over and over. Any suggestions ? Is there away back into the boot loader ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To get back to the bootloader, you'd need to pull the battery (won't hurt anything) and put it back in. Then hold the power button and volume down. That will get you to the bootloader
What do you mean you tried flashing a rom by RVU? I'm confused. RUU is rom utility update, or rom update utility, or something ike that. But if you ran an RUU it would put you back to completely stock.
If I were you, and in your situation, I'd pull the battery, boot to bootloader, and see if you can still get to your recovery. If you can, I'd try wiping everything then either restoring a nandroid backup if you have one, or a fresh install of a ROM. If you don't have recovery, post back and we'll see what needs to happen to get you back up again.

Well, the rom I flashed was created by team RVU....at least that's what it said. So, I made it as far as recovery. But by wipe you mean a wipe back to stock? I'm in as far as my clockwork mod recovery screen. Kinda lost now !!

Turrubiates said:
Well, the rom I flashed was created by team RVU....at least that's what it said. So, I made it as far as recovery. But by wipe you mean a wipe back to stock? I'm in as far as my clockwork mod recovery screen. Kinda lost now !!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay I gotchya now, although I don't think I've been informed of RVU before, I'll have to check it out. Anyways, thats good that you can still get to recovery. So you have never used it before? Just did everything from ROM manager before huh? I'm not familiar with clockwork recovery, as I use Amon, I'm trying to remember the little differences. First, you don't have any nandroid backups do you? Prob not if you're not familiar with clockwork and had never created a nandroid backup before! I'm not sure if backups made with ROM manager can be restored using CWM, doubtful though. So by wipe, I mean wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache, and wipe davlik cache. You will need to have a ROM on your sd card, so that you can install it from recovery. In order to wipe the dalvik cache using clockwork, i believe it is under the advanced section. Not sure though. Once you have everything wiped, and the ROM of your choice on the main directory of your sd card, choose 'flash zip from sd card' or 'install zip from sd card" or something to that nature, then find the ROM and flash it. If all goes well, you should be able to boot up after that. If you do indeed happen to have a nandroid backup, choose to restore that.

Yup, everything I've done has been through rom manager. Anywho, I peeked around inside some files. Inside my install zip from sd. I found a file labeled nandroid. Could that be the backup that your referring too ? If so, would i still have to wipe my phone ?

Turrubiates said:
Yup, everything I've done has been through rom manager. Anywho, I peeked around inside some files. Inside my install zip from sd. I found a file labeled nandroid. Could that be the backup that your referring too ? If so, would i still have to wipe my phone ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nandroid folder is for amon RA backups. Clockwork backups are in the clockwork/backup folder.
Have you backed up your previous install? If so wipe all factory reset then restore a backup. Otherwise wipe all and flash a new rom.
This is why you do research and learn how to properly use your phone and any custom recovery before you reach this step. This is why manufacturers have crappy warranty policies because people ruin their phones by being stupid.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Rem3Dy said:
Nandroid folder is for amon RA backups. Clockwork backups are in the clockwork/backup folder.
Have you backed up your previous install? If so wipe all factory reset then restore a backup. Otherwise wipe all and flash a new rom.
This is why you do research and learn how to properly use your phone and any custom recovery before you reach this step. This is why manufacturers have crappy warranty policies because people ruin their phones by being stupid.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank for lending a hand. Instead of trial and error, I simply started a thread. Oh, and thanks for reminding me I'm stupid!!!

Can't get passed boot logo..

This isn't my very first time with flashing/rooting/etc. but I'm not that adept with it.
Got my S4 2 days ago but managed to get time today to work on it. I rooted successfully and everything was running perfect. I flashed over the newest Beanstalk ROM w/ gapps and it ran fine the first time it ran.
I can't get passed the Samsung Galaxy S4 boot logo every time I try to reboot the phone though...
If I wipe the cache/dalvik and reflash it still doesn't boot passed logo.
If I wipe the cache/dalvik and then wipe data (including the internal SD card, completely wiping it clean), flashing the ROM will work the first time it runs; once I reboot or just power it off then power it back on, stuck at Galaxy S4 logo... I let the ROM run first time through, input only what is needed to get to the home screen (google account/wifi setup/phone name/etc.), then I've tried rebooting it, shutting it down and powering it back up, letting everything update and waiting half an hour and restarting it... all have the same result, stuck at boot logo
I'm using TWRP, I have a recovery for stock but I don't want to use stock.
If anyone can help me out I'd appreciate it.

Try flashing a different compatible kernel.

ObrienDave said:
Try flashing a different compatible kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is EXACTLY what I was about to try... I'm literally reflashing the ROM fresh right now, going to put the kernel on the SD card, then reboot into recovery and wiping cache then flashing the kernel.
Will using a recovery that was made on a different kernel have any effect if I decide to use the recovery? I've heard bad things about flashing the wrong kernel (even though I know the one I'm about to use is the correct one) and really screwing stuff up if not done properly. I just want to make sure I don't screw anything up permanently.
Thanks.

Spazzzin said:
This is EXACTLY what I was about to try... I'm literally reflashing the ROM fresh right now, going to put the kernel on the SD card, then reboot into recovery and wiping cache then flashing the kernel.
Will using a recovery that was made on a different kernel have any effect if I decide to use the recovery? I've heard bad things about flashing the wrong kernel (even though I know the one I'm about to use is the correct one) and really screwing stuff up if not done properly. I just want to make sure I don't screw anything up permanently.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use twrp 2.5.0.2 because if your using 2.6 its bringing problems. Also report this to their thread for better help
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app

Since there are no recovery categories according to this page,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2303917
I don't see where it would matter. No guarantees though.
I do know it is ESSENTIAL to match the type (TW or AOSP) ROM and kernel to avoid major problems.
I also recommend TWRP 2.5.0.2
D/L TWRP from here:
http://techerrata.com/browse/twrp2/jfltespr

ObrienDave said:
Since there are no recovery categories according to this page,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2303917
I don't see where it would matter. No guarantees though.
I do know it is ESSENTIAL to match the type (TW or AOSP) ROM and kernel to avoid major problems.
I also recommend TWRP 2.5.0.2
D/L TWRP from here:
http://techerrata.com/browse/twrp2/jfltespr
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you go about installing TWRP? I used Goomanager and installed it from there when I was following the rooting guide

Spazzzin said:
How do you go about installing TWRP? I used Goomanager and installed it from there when I was following the rooting guide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing a different kernel didn't do anything, I still keep getting stuck at the boot logo :/

Spazzzin said:
How do you go about installing TWRP? I used Goomanager and installed it from there when I was following the rooting guide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just flash it by odin by the link provided above. Make sure to use the tar file v 2.5.0.2
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 09:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:19 PM ----------
Spazzzin said:
Flashing a different kernel didn't do anything, I still keep getting stuck at the boot logo :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By the way can you provide the steps and which files you flashing. Also redownload everything could be a bad download. Make sure to download them in computer and transfer them to your sd card
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app

I did a fresh install of the LiquidSmooth ROM and it's not hanging at boot logo whenever I reboot, and everything is working well. I suppose I'll stick with this for a while.
For my steps trying Beanstalk:
Boot into recovery (TWRP 2.6.0.0)
Factory reset;wipe cache/dalvik
Format Data
Factory reset;wipe cache/dalvik
Install ROM + Gapps
Wipe cache/dalvik
Reboot
I then tried doing that exact process, after letting it boot once I rebooted into recovery and flashed KT Kernel and wiped then rebooted and it hung at boot logo.
I did it again but I installed ROM + Gapps + Kernel then wiped then rebooted and it still hung at boot logo.
I'll download and prepare a new install of Beanstalk and give it another try tomorrow. I'll make sure to backup Liquid in case I want to switch back.
Thanks again for the help!

Glad it's working out for you.

If I may ask here; how do I know if a certain kernel is compatible with a ROM? I know to match the version (4.2, 4.3. etc,) and base (AOSP/ TW) but is there anything else specific that I need to watch out for that could cause problems with flashing a kernel on a ROM?

Spazzzin said:
If I may ask here; how do I know if a certain kernel is compatible with a ROM? I know to match the version (4.2, 4.3. etc,) and base (AOSP/ TW) but is there anything else specific that I need to watch out for that could cause problems with flashing a kernel on a ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really unless the rom dev for some reason doesn't recommend using a certain one. Kernels will act differently for everyone even on the same device with the same rom. Just need to flash them and find out which one works the best for you (battery life, overheating, smoothness, etc).
Always have a backup handy just in case something doesn't work right.

[Q] I guess I bricked my phone. Can't restore via ODIN. Options? -Solved-

Alright so here's what I did, and how I got to my current situation and what the situation is.
What I did:
Had CM10.2 working fine on my rom. Recovery was TWRP (latest). Decided to flash PAC 4.3 cause I really like that rom. Flashed PAC 4.3. Worked fine, decided I wanted to restore titanium backups. Read in a few places that I needed to flash the SuperSU zip from chainfire. Downloaded the latest version from him and flashed in TWRP. TWRP took a -really- long time to flash the zip. After it finished I restarted the phone Wouldn't get past the samsung screen. Uhhh okay no problem.
I still have access to TWRP right? Yup, Still do. Do a full wipe and flash PAC 4.3 and Gapps. Flash is taking forever again. PAC gives no information at all (none of the usual ASCII artwork or anything). GApps loads the installer script but I get a can not mount /data and can not mount /system error.... Oh ****. Now I'm worried.
Download the PDA file from the sticky in the general section. (I337UCUAMDB_I337ATTAMDB_I337UCUAMDB_HOME.tar.md5) Pop the phone into download mode, and flash the PDA file via odin. Great, everything's going well. It flashes System, Flashes recovery, and everything else. Get a message saying All threads completed, Succeeded 1/failed 0. Awesome Right? No....
Phone restarts, goes into the stock recovery screen while something happens and restarts again. Now the phone's stuck on the samsung screen again. I can still access download mode and still access recovery (stock). When I access stock recovery it says "failed to mount /data (stale NFS file handle).... can't mount /data (stale NFS file handle)... E: failed to mount /data (stale NFS file handle).
Now what?... What can I do to fix this?
**EDIT**: Just did format on /data on stock recovery and it seems to have booted... False alert guys. Soft bricked, but nothing else.

Did you try a factory reset in stock recovery?
Sent from my SGH-M919G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Blaze9 said:
Alright so here's what I did, and how I got to my current situation and what the situation is.
What I did:
Had CM10.2 working fine on my rom. Recovery was TWRP (latest). Decided to flash PAC 4.3 cause I really like that rom. Flashed PAC 4.3. Worked fine, decided I wanted to restore titanium backups. Read in a few places that I needed to flash the SuperSU zip from chainfire. Downloaded the latest version from him and flashed in TWRP. TWRP took a -really- long time to flash the zip. After it finished I restarted the phone Wouldn't get past the samsung screen. Uhhh okay no problem.
I still have access to TWRP right? Yup, Still do. Do a full wipe and flash PAC 4.3 and Gapps. Flash is taking forever again. PAC gives no information at all (none of the usual ASCII artwork or anything). GApps loads the installer script but I get a can not mount /data and can not mount /system error.... Oh ****. Now I'm worried.
Download the PDA file from the sticky in the general section. (I337UCUAMDB_I337ATTAMDB_I337UCUAMDB_HOME.tar.md5) Pop the phone into download mode, and flash the PDA file via odin. Great, everything's going well. It flashes System, Flashes recovery, and everything else. Get a message saying All threads completed, Succeeded 1/failed 0. Awesome Right? No....
Phone restarts, goes into the stock recovery screen while something happens and restarts again. Now the phone's stuck on the samsung screen again. I can still access download mode and still access recovery (stock). When I access stock recovery it says "failed to mount /data (stale NFS file handle).... can't mount /data (stale NFS file handle)... E: failed to mount /data (stale NFS file handle).
Now what?... What can I do to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try factory restore / reset in recovery?

Sorry, I forgot to update. The second I posted this I tried to go into the recovery and do a stock wipe. it worked. Thanks for the tip regardless!
I wonder why stock recovery was able to fix it, but TWRP wasn't? I did /data wipes on both recoveries...

goobieracing said:
Did you try a factory reset in stock recovery? Or maybe try odining the pit file also that somewhere on the forum. Maybe your partitions got corrupt flashing some how.
Sent from my SGH-M919G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odining the PIT file is a bad idea. At best, it will not work, at worst, it will cause a hard brick
A. Regardless of what anyone has said or what ODIN reports, there is no evidence that the PIT files that are pulled from AT&T phones work on any other device than the one it was originally pulled from. Signing issues are to blame.
and
B. Messing with PIT files can hard brick a phone that was only soft bricked. PIT files (when they work) must be accompanied by a firmware files or else no data will be on the phone.
---------- Post added at 02:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:50 AM ----------
Blaze9 said:
Sorry, I forgot to update. The second I posted this I tried to go into the recovery and do a stock wipe. it worked. Thanks for the tip regardless!
I wonder why stock recovery was able to fix it, but TWRP wasn't? I did /data wipes on both recoveries...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds like to me you need to do a lot more reading and learning before you do anything else. It has been a well known fact, and widely discussed in the AT&T S4 forums that a factory reset needs to be done after flashing firmware in ODIN in order for the previous data to be wiped from the phone and for it to boot up again.

goobieracing said:
Did you try a factory reset in stock recovery?
Sent from my SGH-M919G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
scott14719 said:
Did you try factory restore / reset in recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
scott14719 said:
Odining the PIT file is a bad idea. At best, it will not work, at worst, it will cause a hard brick
A. Regardless of what anyone has said or what ODIN reports, there is no evidence that the PIT files that are pulled from AT&T phones work on any other device than the one it was originally pulled from. Signing issues are to blame.
and
B. Messing with PIT files can hard brick a phone that was only soft bricked. PIT files (when they work) must be accompanied by a firmware files or else no data will be on the phone.
---------- Post added at 02:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:50 AM ----------
It sounds like to me you need to do a lot more reading and learning before you do anything else. It has been a well known fact, and widely discussed in the AT&T S4 forums that a factory reset needs to be done after flashing firmware in ODIN in order for the previous data to be wiped from the phone and for it to boot up again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I never had to use ODIN on the S4 before. Didn't know that. On my S2 I didn't have to wipe after flashing via ODIN.
Good to know, anyway. Thanks.

Blaze9 said:
Sorry, I forgot to update. The second I posted this I tried to go into the recovery and do a stock wipe. it worked. Thanks for the tip regardless!
I wonder why stock recovery was able to fix it, but TWRP wasn't? I did /data wipes on both recoveries...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to do a stock reset recovery the other day for something like this. Probably just left over files from previous stopping it from booting.
scott14719 said:
Odining the PIT file is a bad idea. At best, it will not work, at worst, it will cause a hard brick
A. Regardless of what anyone has said or what ODIN reports, there is no evidence that the PIT files that are pulled from AT&T phones work on any other device than the one it was originally pulled from. Signing issues are to blame.
and
B. Messing with PIT files can hard brick a phone that was only soft bricked. PIT files (when they work) must be accompanied by a firmware files or else no data will be on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I learned something new today. Back in the infuse 4g days whenever I'd odined back to stock I always used the pit. I was under the influence that set everything up the way it came stock. Hope to see some of your work coming to sthe s4. Maybe you help the sense port going on in the international thread lol. Not trying to add work to ur day but I OK know if u, jt, and entropy can bring ICS to a out dated phone u might have the skills to ad your 2 cent.
Sent from my SGH-M919G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
---------- Post added at 02:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:01 AM ----------
Blaze9 said:
Ah, I never had to use ODIN on the S4 before. Didn't know that. On my S2 I didn't have to wipe after flashing via ODIN.
Good to know, anyway. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to Odin to stock the first time two days agao but mine booted and I only had stock recovery. When it started up the ROM everything was crashing and that's what fixed it. Glad you fixed it though.
Sent from my SGH-M919G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Pretty much got the same problem. Seems that somehow my device encrypted itself and since I didn't know...I don't have a password to give it. So I got a encrypted device that can't be decrypted, thus, I can't format, install, wipe, etc. Not sure if you got the same, but mine is about the same symptoms.
But is it ok to flash "I337UCUAMDB_I337ATTAMDB_I337UCUAMDB_HOME.tar.md5" on mine? Kinda confused with all this MDL, MDB, and MF3 stuff. Mine was an MDL. So is flashing MDB stock ok anyway? Or should I find the stock for MDL?
EDIT: Just flashed MDL stock anyway. Worked fine and now I'm starting from scratch. No more problems so far. I might stay away from TWRP for a bit now though. Surprised there isn't a guide or warning for this problem though.

gerard0986 said:
Pretty much got the same problem. Seems that somehow my device encrypted itself and since I didn't know...I don't have a password to give it. So I got a encrypted device that can't be decrypted, thus, I can't format, install, wipe, etc. Not sure if you got the same, but mine is about the same symptoms.
But is it ok to flash "I337UCUAMDB_I337ATTAMDB_I337UCUAMDB_HOME.tar.md5" on mine? Kinda confused with all this MDL, MDB, and MF3 stuff. Mine was an MDL. So is flashing MDB stock ok anyway? Or should I find the stock for MDL?
EDIT: Just flashed MDL stock anyway. Worked fine and now I'm starting from scratch. No more problems so far. I might stay away from TWRP for a bit now though. Surprised there isn't a guide or warning for this problem though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The PW TWRP asks for? IT's just TWRP, if I remember correctly.

Factory Reset wiped out the internal SD card! I thought it's not meant to happen?!

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.

CM13 wiped my internal storage!

I saw the cm website had a new cm13 nightly for angler, so I decided to try it out, so I downloaded it and gapps, and rebooted into twrp, then I wiped everything besides for internal storage and then I proceeded to Install cm, it took a few minutes, and then when it was done I rebooted. The first sign of something weird was that after the regular your device can't be checked for corruption message it went black and then said that my device is corrupt in red letters, then it started the cm boot animation, I waited about 5 minutes and nothing happened so I rebooted into recovery and it asked me for an encryption password... My device was not previously encrypted and I didn't require a password to Install cm, so I tried wiping everything besides for internal storage, and then I was about to flash again, but non of my files were there so I had nothing to flash.... So I rebooted into my bootloader and fastbooted stock and now I'm on stock, but all my files and backups are gone. I guess that's why it's good to have an external sd, because that never got wiped by installing a rom before, and if I would have one, I would have all my pictures, music, and app backups. But now I have to start from scratch all because I tried a new build cyanogen mod

This is your fault not CM. You said you were on a rom that was unencrypted. CM roms default to encrypt so that is how you lost your data. You should have done research before you installed as CM with the start of LP ships encrypted.

CM ROMs usually encrypt the data partition which may explain your loss?

coldconfession13 said:
This is your fault not CM. You said you were on a rom that was unencrypted. CM roms default to encrypt so that is how you lost your data. You should have done research before you installed as CM with the start of LP ships encrypted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if I'm unencrypted and I Install an encrypted rom I lose the data partition?

Yes, you would have had to flash cm13 then a kernel that supports unencrypted storage then boot

coldconfession13 said:
Yes, you would have had to flash cm13 then a kernel that supports unencrypted storage then boot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I always flashed elementalX after flashing any roms but Its for aosp... I never had a nexus before and I guess I didn't know enough about encryption.

Yea it's one of those trial and error kind of deals. It sucks. That corruption error is because you need to flash the vendor.img file in fastboot. I believe we have a twrp one available as well but that link is buried in the chroma rom thread.
---------- Post added at 10:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:01 AM ----------
https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=24269982086996393
You can flash that in twrp to get that corruption. But that could be the unlocked bootloader message which nobody has found to get rid of yet

coldconfession13 said:
Yea it's one of those trial and error kind of deals. It sucks. That corruption error is because you need to flash the vendor.img file in fastboot. I believe we have a twrp one available as well but that link is buried in the chroma rom thread.
---------- Post added at 10:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:01 AM ----------
https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=24269982086996393
You can flash that in twrp to get that corruption. But that could be the unlocked bootloader message which nobody has found to get rid of yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So its different than the stock vendor.img that come with the factory build?
I saw two messages one about that it can't check for corruption and that I always see, and another that my device is corrupted and that was a first.

I think that second one is also kernel related. I remember Leankernel saying the corruption and then he fixed it and now its just the bootloader one.

coldconfession13 said:
I think that second one is also kernel related. I remember Leankernel saying the corruption and then he fixed it and now its just the bootloader one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I mean is that I had already flashed the vendor.img that came with the mdb08m build using fastboot

Then I believe you are experiencing that kernel error. They have to change some settings in the default kernel in cm13 to get rid of that error. If you flash leankernel it should get rid of that one.

aryehzev said:
.....[cut] So I rebooted into my bootloader and fastbooted stock and now I'm on stock, but all my files and backups are gone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you used the flash-all helper script to reinstall stock, it will wipe all internal storage (if you look at the script contents, that's what the "-w" does).
I know it's a bit late now but I'd recommend always copying backups off the device when making major changes.

sam3000 said:
If you used the flash-all helper script to reinstall stock, it will wipe all internal storage (if you look at the script contents, that's what the "-w" does).
I know it's a bit late now but I'd recommend always copying backups off the device when making major changes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not use flashall I flash everything individually. (system,boot,cache,vendor)

Guys I'm a liitle late to the party on this convo but I'm in a similar but different situation. I installed the latest temasek 11/29 ROM. Was previously on purenexus. After installing the ROM and gapps I restarted the system and got a message that my phone can't be trusted. The phone then went on to encrypt itself. Booted fine so I just wanted to see if I could still access twrp and if all my internal storage was OK. Good on both accounts. So my question is do I have to decrypt before switching ROMs say back to purenex or can I boot to recovery and just wipe cache,dalvik, sys and data and flash whatever rom I want?
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

jeff5347 said:
Guys I'm a liitle late to the party on this convo but I'm in a similar but different situation. I installed the latest temasek 11/29 ROM. Was previously on purenexus. After installing the ROM and gapps I restarted the system and got a message that my phone can't be trusted. The phone then went on to encrypt itself. Booted fine so I just wanted to see if I could still access twrp and if all my internal storage was OK. Good on both accounts. So my question is do I have to decrypt before switching ROMs say back to purenex or can I boot to recovery and just wipe cache,dalvik, sys and data and flash whatever rom I want?
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you never have to unencrypt

How are you guys even booting? I keep getting stuck at the Google logo on reboot.

akellar said:
No you never have to unencrypt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That I didn't know.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk