Database Users

Acer A200 - BRICKED, cannot mount /data /sdcard

I did something stupid. Got an A200 that could not get OTA 4.0.3, so I managed to get it updated manually. However, I then proceeded to try to root it using the "SimpleRoot" scripts on Acertabletforum, and at this point, the thing is bricked. In Recovery, I cannot get anything to mount. /SDCard, /data, etc
Bootloader is Unlocked
I tried with some different Recoveries with slightly different results:
1) Hbwelch CWM v5.5.0.4 (the one that comes with SimpleTool) - All mounting attempts fail
2) nics-TWRP_stable (twrp v 2.1.4) - Seems to be able to mount System and Cache, but not DATA or SDCARD (Internal or External)
3) thor v 5.5.0x (thor2002ro rev1.7) - errors mounting data, sdcard and /mnt/sdcard. Is able to mount system, cache, flexrom and flex.
Any idea how to fix it? I am afraid that if I try to return the tablet where I bought it as it is now, it will get rejected. (even though the damn thing was supposed to be ICS upgradable in the first place, but wasn't... long story)
Thanks
Jerry

I finally got the tablet working again. Was very close to sending it back. Got bits and pieces of info from various other posts on this forum and on acertabletforum. For the sake of anyone else that may find this thread, here are a few things that were wrong, and how to fix them
(I cannot post outside links, so just google the file names when relevant)
1) /SDCard would not mount. Solution - PARTITION the SD card. NOTE: The card worked on a PC, and even on that tablet when Android was fully booted. However it would NOT mount in recovery until I explicitly partitioned it. Doing a FORMAT on the PC does NOT count. I had to partition it within Recovery.
NOTE: This may also be why people are unable to get the update.zip thing working.
2) /Data would not mount - I have no idea how this got screwed up, but the solution was:
* Connect the tablet to the PC in RECOVERY. At this point, ADB should work. If not, check the drivers on the PC - I had to manually specify the Acer ADB Composite driver.
* Open a Command prompt window
* Start ADB shell by typing:
ADB SHELL
* Now execute the following:
mke2fs -j -b 4096 /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index -C 1 /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
e2fsck -fy /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
After this is done your file system on /data will be fixed. (solution posted by spoupard on XDA-Developers.com)
3) Putting it all together:
* Flashed the BOOT partition with Honeycomb 3.2.1_boot.img
* Flashed the RECOVERY partition with nics-TWRP_stable.img
* At this point, I noticed that the Bootloader was once again LOCKED. So, start into FASTBOOT mode and execute the following from the command prompt again:
fastboot oem unlock
* Re-Start in Recovery and select MOUNT and make sure that everything is mounted. If /SDCARD or /DATA refuse to mount, fix that issue first (step 2 above)
* Now I select to INSTALL Acer_AV041_A200_1.037.00_PA_CUS1.zip
Upon reboot, I noticed that it said "Updating Bootloader", then got the Acer screen and locked up. I restarted again into Recovery and again selected the option to install INSTALL Acer_AV041_A200_1.037.00_PA_CUS1.zip and reboot. This time it restarted, indicated that it has a new version of bootloader (previously was 3.1.3) and proceeded to boot up into Android 4.0.3. At that point, I think my neighbors heard me scream YES!, considering I spent 2 days on this
I hope I got all the steps. Most of it is from memory and some notes, since I did not want to experiment and go through this hell again.
Jerry

Great info but you might want to add fixed to the title. For the time being doesn't look like I will be rooting till these issues are sorted out. I am see too many people saying they are bricking with this root method.

FIXED - Acer A200 - BRICKED, cannot mount /data /sdcard
agapecs said:
Great info but you might want to add fixed to the title. For the time being doesn't look like I will be rooting till these issues are sorted out. I am see too many people saying they are bricking with this root method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't see a way to edit the title. As for rooting, note that after all was said and done, I am still not rooted. I just managed to get updated to 4.0.3, which should have been done OTA anyway. I may try again now that I am a bit more confident that I can get it back to working state, but will do a full backup in ADB first. Too much of a pain in the *** to have to reconfigure everything again once the OS is installed.

I cannot get the device to connect to my PC at all, or get the correct driver selected. Any tips?

crazyjimbo said:
I cannot get the device to connect to my PC at all, or get the correct driver selected. Any tips?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what state is the tablet in when you try to connect? Fastboot, Recovery, or fully booted up and operating?
What do you see in the device manager when the tablet is connected?

ext3 oder ext4?
1) /SDCard would not mount. Solution - PARTITION the SD card. NOTE: The card worked on a PC, and even on that tablet when Android was fully booted. However it would NOT mount in recovery until I explicitly partitioned it. Doing a FORMAT on the PC does NOT count. I had to partition it within Recovery.
Try to do this with twrp v.2.1.4: do I use ext3 or ext4 for the Partition? And which size needs the ext Partition?
Thanx
teacherHH

teacherhh said:
Try to do this with twrp v.2.1.4: do I use ext3 or ext4 for the Partition? And which size needs the ext Partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't think it matters. I picked the defaults.

mke2fs -j -b 4096 /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
Thanx j_medved for yor reply!
So I did and just faced the next problem: I can conect my Tablet to the PC and can finde it with adb devices and can start the shell with adb shell.
But then when I start: mke2fs -j -b 4096 /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
nothing seems to happen....waited about 30 minutes....
in the next turn I get the reply, that mmcblk0p8 is allready in use....next turn again: nothing seems to happen....
any ideas? .-(
teacherhh

teacherhh,
If I remember correctly, that command should finish pretty quick. You may want to try leaving it for a bit longer, but it seems that you may have something else wrong. I am not that familiar with this area. Haven't dealt with Linux much. Sorry.

Okay. Thanx anyway!
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

again mke2fs
Once again j_medved...
did it look likes this, wenn you run mke2fs ?
Regards,
teacherhh

teacherhh said:
Once again j_medved...
did it look likes this, wenn you run mke2fs ?
Regards,
teacherhh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't remember what it was for me (was a month ago ) , but another couple users that ran it had the following:
Code:
~ # mke2fs -j -b 4096 /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
mke2fs -j -b 4096 /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
mke2fs 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
Warning: 256-byte inodes not usable on older systems
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
1831424 inodes, 7311872 blocks
365593 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=0
224 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8176 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000
Writing inode tables: 52/224
Couple users that were hosed, were stuck at this point. Did not see any indication of resolution for those users

Driver Problems
Hi Guys,
I've the same problem. I can't wipe the Data, so I've found this instruction. unfortunenately will my PC not found my Tab. I've installed the drivers many times, but it will not work. Can anybody help, how to install? btw. fastboot is working, but not adb.
I'm using an Samsung Netbook with Win 7. THe PC's trying to install drivers, altough they are already installed, but can'T find any drivers.
If you need more informations, just let me know.

@Benninator,
If you look in Windows 7 Device Manager, does the device show up there OK? Or does it show up as unrecognized device, or as some device code with a yellow triangle and exclamation on it? Or not at all?

Yes, their is a yellow triangle. I've tried to install the driver manually, but with no success. In my driverlist were the Acer driver not listed. furthermore I've tried to configure the usb-adb.ini with also no success. I have absolutly no idea what I can do.

In device manager, and does it show up as a200 or unknown device?
Is the device I am recovery at the time?
And also, and which recovery?

Tab is missing recovery and won't boot in to android
FASTBOOT WORKS BUT I GET THIS MESSAGE EVERY TIME I TRY TO FLASH RECOVERY.IMG says unknown partiton 'C:\James\Downloads\recovery.img'
error: cannot determine image filename for 'C:\James\Downloads\recovery.img'
Please help me

jram0421 said:
FASTBOOT WORKS BUT I GET THIS MESSAGE EVERY TIME I TRY TO FLASH RECOVERY.IMG says unknown partiton 'C:\James\Downloads\recovery.img'
error: cannot determine image filename for 'C:\James\Downloads\recovery.img'
Please help me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you may be mistyping the command. What is the exact command that you are typing in that gets you this error?

cant get adb drivers installed in my pc
adb driver seems not to work at all when i try to boot my tablet on cwd when i boon on fastboot only fastboot recognice my device and when i let my acer a200 try to boot itself it gets stuck on acer screen whit this on top ( bootloader version 0.03.06-ics ) but windows recognice it but fails when installing the mtp usb drivers.
what can i do to get adb working so i can fix my mount issues so i can install my room again ?
hope you can help me tnks

[GUIDE][Noob-Friendly][adb] How to avoid Superbrick // How to revive your bricked Tab

HOW TO AVOID BRICKING YOUR TAB
The best advice I can give to people who haven't bricked their tab (already?^^) : DO NOT EVER WIPE ANYTHING WHILE RUNNING STOCK 7.7 ROMS
Here is what to do in order to flash a custom rom safely when coming from stock :
- Flash the latest cwm with ODIN
- Do NOT wipe anything
- Flash the custom rom of your choice
- Reboot recovery
- Wipe what you need to wipe
- Re-flash the custom rom
- flash the gapps or whatever
- Reboot, done.
Ok guys, I'm seeing more and more people bricking their 7.7 and, being one of the unlucky owners of a bricked p6810, I understand how stressful and annoying it can be.
I've been reviving my tab like a hundred times using this technique, as you'll most likely have to re-do that whole process everytime you wanna flash something.
There are two ways of reviving from superbrick I know of :
- The first is to flash a PIT file with ODIN that will repartition your tab for you.
I will not cover this method as hg42 already wrote a very detailed tutorial about this. This tutorial is about Galaxy Note but you can appIy it to our 7.7 and you'll find PITs for P6800 there. I will soon make pits for P6810 using the scripts provided in hg42's guide.
- The second way is to repartition your tab manually through adb. This is the method I'll try to teach you here.
Let's first be very clear :
- This won't get your tab back in its former state
- Your internal storage will shrink by a lot
- All your data will be lost
- No guarantee it works for you
- You'll most likely have to do that every time you flash
- Your tab might rebrick itself after some days, so you'll have to do this again, get used to it.
- If you can get Samsung to repair your tab then go ahead
- I'm not responsible for any further damage made to your tab
- You need a computer for this tutorial
Ok, you read the above carefully ? You are ok with it ? then let's begin !
Using the Android Debugging Bridge (adb) to revive your tab
Setting up your environment
Prior to anything, you need to download and install the android sdk, I won't cover the installation here, it's explained on developer.android.com and there are plenty of guides on how to get adb and the sdk on xda.
Make sure you install the platform-tools in the sdk manager.
Ok now I assume you got the sdk installed, so let's move on to the serious things.
1) How to open an adb shell ?
First, you're going to need the latest ClockWorkMod Recovery (a.k.a CWM), download and instructions on locerra's thread here
Then boot your tab in recovery (Maintain power+volume up buttons) and plug it into your computer via usb.
Then do the following :
a- On Windows
Navigate to the directory where you installed the sdk, and open the folder called "platform-tools" (e.g : go to C:\android-sdk\platform-tools if your sdk is installed in C:\android-sdk)
Press shift and do a right clic on an empty space in the folder, then select "open a command prompt here" (or something like that).
b- On Linux
Open a terminal window (ctrl+T)
Let's assume you put the sdk in a folder called "android-sdk", located at the root of your home folder (~/android-sdk).
Then you have to enter this in the terminal :
Code:
cd ~/android-sdk/platform-tools
So now, all the rest of the commands you'll have to enter are the same on windows and linux, as the adb shell will actually be running in your tablet.
2) Meet a new friend, he's called parted.
First, we are going to use parted to take a look at our partitions and their file systems, and eventually replace the corrupt partitions with clean, freshly created ones.
Then, you'll meet your other very good friend with a barbarian name : e2fsck (e2 stands for ext2, and fsck for file system check. Not that barbarian finally is it ?). He will check your filesystems and fix the possible errors they got.
Ok now we've made the presentations, let's go !
First make sure you read the following :
In the code boxes of this tutorial, there are symbols at each line start, DO NOT COPY IT with the rest of the command ! :
-the "$" represents your bash shell or command prompt
-the "#" represents the adb shell
-the"(parted)" represents the (parted) shell
-Each end of line means "press Enter".
-The partitions numbers are not the same on p6810 and p6800 (please report to this reference), so there will be two code boxes in the examples, one for p6810 and one for p6800, it's indicated in bold red but make sure you don't mix it up, that could screw your tab even more.
Ok here we go !
Issue the following in your terminal/command prompt :
Code:
$ adb shell
# parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
(parted) print
The output should look like this :
>>> P6810 <<<
Code:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 4194kB 25.2MB 21.0MB ext4 EFS
2 25.2MB 26.5MB 1311kB SBL1
3 27.3MB 28.6MB 1311kB SBL2
4 29.4MB 37.7MB 8389kB PARAM
5 37.7MB 46.1MB 8389kB KERNEL
6 46.1MB 54.5MB 8389kB RECOVERY
7 54.5MB 264MB 209MB ext4 CACHE
8 264MB 1137MB 872MB ext4 FACTORYFS
9 1137MB 15.3GB 4163MB ext2 DATAFS
10 15.3GB 15.7GB 470MB ext4 HIDDEN
11 15.7GB 15.8GB 8389kB FOTA
>>> P6800 <<<
The start/end values are wrong, please give me your p6800 output so I can update this.
Code:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 4194kB 25.2MB 21.0MB ext4 EFS
2 25.2MB 26.5MB 1311kB SBL1
3 27.3MB 28.6MB 1311kB SBL2
4 29.4MB 37.7MB 8389kB PARAM
5 37.7MB 46.1MB 8389kB KERNEL
6 46.1MB 54.5MB 8389kB RECOVERY
7 54.5MB 264MB 209MB ext4 CACHE
8 3054MB 3926MB 872MB ext4 MODEM/RADIO (not sure as I don't own this model)
9 264MB 1137MB 872MB ext4 FACTORYFS
10 1137MB 15.3GB 4163MB ext2 DATAFS
11 15.7GB 15.8GB 8389kB HIDDEN
12 15.8GB 15.9GB 8389kB FOTA
The superbrick MMC_CAP_ERASE bug that affects our tab apparently only corrupts the /system and /data partitions (sometimes, /cache can also get corrupt in the process, I cover this in the last part of this guide, "extra cases").
Your emmc chip on which resides those /data & /system partitions is corrupt at some places.
To give you an example, think of it as a chain of dashes :
Code:
-----------------------------------------------------
This dash chain is divided in two parts (our /system and /data partitions), I'll symbolize their length with "[]" for /system and "()" for /data :
Code:
[----------](-------------------------------------------)
So that's how it was on your tab before brick, but now it's bricked some blocks (the dashes "-" here) are corrupt. I'll symbolize them with "?" :
Code:
[--??--???-](--???-?-----------????-----------??-?--??--)
Now you figure the workaround don't you ? We need to move our /system & /data partitions to places that are clean, at the cost of reducing their sizes :
Code:
--??--???---???-?[-----------]????(-----------)??-?--??--
We will strive to give /system its original size, or something close to it, while we can sacrifice more of the /data partition.
Ok, enough theory, let's move on to practice.
Here, in parted, /system = FACTORYFS and /data = DATAFS
We are going to remove the /data partition first, so we have some space to work on.
Enter the following :
>>> P6810 <<<
Code:
(parted) rm 9
>>> P6800 <<<
Code:
(parted) rm 10
Now please refer to the output of (parted) print you had earlier, just scroll up a little in your terminal window. See those Start/End values ? Well check the end value of your DATAFS partition and remember it.
Here's an example for P6810 :
Code:
9 *START -->*1137MB 15.3GB*<-- END* 4163MB ext2 DATAFS
So now comes the boring part. We are going to try to make a new clean /data partition.
Seems easy but the problem is :
- if you try to make it too big, it'll get stuck and return an I/O error.
- if some blocks are corrupt between the start/end values you'll enter it will get stuck and return an I/O error.
In both cases you'll have to reboot recovery and re-enter this in your terminal :
Code:
# adb shell
# parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
So this is long and boring to find the right place and the right size. Don't be greedy on the size, as long as you get at least 150-200mb it's cool, you'll be able to expand that later.
First you're gonna try to put the original end value (15300 in the p6810 example up there) as the new end value. So for the same example, if you wanna try to make a 500mb /data partition, you're gonna use 14800 as start value and 15300 as end value.
Ok let's go (this is still an example for p6810, for the p6800 owners, use your own (parted) print results) :
Code:
(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 14800 15300
It will output something like this :
Code:
writing per-group metadata : XX %
Here there are two options :
- You were lucky, it will complete up to 100% and return "(parted)", which case you just have to enter the following :
>>> P6810 <<<
Code:
name 9 DATAFS
>>> P6800 <<<
Code:
name 10 DATAFS
- You were not lucky, it got stuck before reaching 100%, which case you have to reboot your recovery, re-enter parted and try again with a smaller start/end gap, or reducing the end value, you got about 14gb of space to try to make your partition, so it's sure you can find somewhere to put your small partition, just requires some blind testing.
Just remember to try to put your /data partition quite close to the end (original end value), so you still have some space to find somewhere to put your /system partition.
So now we'll assume you managed to have mkpartfs complete till 100%
Type this to see your updated partition table :
Code:
(parted) print
Now we're going to repeat last step with the /system partition.
Issue this :
>>> P6810 <<<
Code:
rm 8
>>> P6800 <<<
Code:
rm 9
The /system partition is much more important than /data, so you want to try to have its size remaining the same (872mb).
At first, you can try to re-make the /system partition with the same start/end values. It's not likely to work but it's worth trying.
Here's an example on P6810:
(again, if you're on P6800, then use your own start/end values for the 9th partition (FACTORYFS), you get them by typing print in parted).
Code:
(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 264 1137
Same thing here, if it doesn't complete, then reboot recovery, type :
Code:
$ adb shell
# parted/dev/block/mmcblk0
And repeat this step until you find somewhere it works : (where YYY - XXX = 872)
Code:
(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 XXX YYY
Remember to limit your research between FACTORYFS original start value (264 for P6810) and the new DATAFS start value you made, so you keep the order of the partitions.
Once you found the right place (where "writing per-group metadata" completes till 100%), type this :
>>> P6810 <<<
Code:
name 8 FACTORYFS
>>> P6800 <<<
Code:
name 9 FACTORYFS
The hardest part is done, if you type this you should get a full table of partition, make sure no number is missing or disordered (1,2,3,4,etc...).
Code:
(parted) print
3) Meet another good friend : e2fsck
Now we've done our fresh and clean partitions, you must be thinking we're done, but we're not ^^
In fact the two partitions we made are using ext2 filesystem, but the /system partition's filesystem should be ext4 (like it was at the beginning).
There are two ways of converting an ext2 filesystem to ext4 that I know of :
- Simply formatting /system in cwm recovery will convert the filesystem to ext4. To do this, just head to "mounts & storages" and select "format /system".
If it gets stuck while formatting, reboot your recovery by pressing the power+volume-up buttons for about 15 seconds, and head to the next part, you have to do something before you can try to format it again.
- Or issuing this in terminal :
>>> P6810 <<<
Code:
# tune2fs –O dir_index,uninit_bg,has_journal /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
>>> P6800 <<<
Code:
# tune2fs –O dir_index,uninit_bg,has_journal /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
To make sure either of the two ways worked do this :
Code:
# parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
(parted) print
And look if FACTORYFS shows ext4.
If it does, reboot recovery, then on to next part. If it doesn't, then still reboot recovery and head to next part, after which I'll redirect you here to try again.
Now we are going to use e2fsck to check our new partitions for errors, but not only, it also fixes some erros and it will even for example create lost & found in /data
So let's go, we'll begin with /system. If you're still in the (parted) shell, use ctrl+c and type "adb shell", then issue the following :
>>> P6810 <<<
Code:
e2fsck -yfDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
>>> P6800 <<<
Code:
e2fsck -yfDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
This might take long, or not, this might get stuck, or not. Either way reboot recovery if it gets stuck or whatever, but do it again till it finishes properly.
This is what my /system e2fsck final output looks like (p6810) :
Code:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p8: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/block/mmcblk0p8: 2636/53312 files (1.2% non-contiguous), 101948/212890 blocks
If you got 0.0% or like less than 5% in "(X.X% non-contiguous)" this is a good sign.
Now reboot recovery and let's do the same for /data :
>>> P6810 <<<
Code:
# e2fsck -yfDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
>>> P6800 <<<
Code:
# e2fsck -yfDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p10
Same thing here, if it gets stuck then reboot recovery and do it again.
Here you should get 0.0% non contiguous. If you don't, in cwm do wipe data/factory reset, then reboot recovery and do this e2fsck again.
Ok now you got both clean e2fsck, (if you still have an ext2 FACTORYFS then now is the time to go back to try converting ext2 to ext4 again)
Make sure the e2fsck still are clean by doing this (it should be quick this time) :
>>> P6810 <<<
Code:
# e2fsck -cy /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
# e2fsck -cy /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
>>> P6800 <<<
Code:
# e2fsck -cy /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
# e2fsck -cy /dev/block/mmcblk0p10
Now you should be nearly good to go ! :laugh:
Download the cm9/cm10-based rom you want, make sure you check known issues and that you like this rom because everytime you'll want to flash a rom it's likely you'll have to do the whole e2fsck part again, or even sometimes the whole guide.
Now reboot in recovery and flash the rom. Two options :
- it flashes, then reboot, pray and be patient, if it takes more than 15 minutes to boot first time, then reboot it again, do this a few times if it doesn't boot, it might eventually do. If it doesn't, then reboot recovery and redo the e2fsck command for both /data and /system, let it fix things if it has to, then reboot again. Anyway it should have booted by now.
- flashing gets stuck : make sure you waited at least 5 minutes then reboot recovery---> wipe data/factory reset---> wipe dalvik cache---> reboot recovery---> adb shell and redo the e2fsck on both /data and /system, then try flashing again.
DO NOT FLASH THE GAPPS NOW, that will screw all you just done ! If you need the gapps then head to the following section of this guide.
4) Installing the gapps
If you flash the gapps after flashing the rom you'll be screwed, you'll have to redo the e2fsck part and maybe even the parted, and I know you don't want to.
So the workaround is to add the gapps to the cm-based rom you downloaded.
It's easy, just follow me :
Open the zipped rom you downloaded with 7zip or WinRar (Windows), or with Archive Manager or else (Ubuntu). Do not extract it, we'll modify the zip directly.
Do the same with the gapps, so you have both archive side to side.
In the rom, you have boot.img, and two folders : "META-INF" and "system". We will modify things in "system" folder ONLY. Open "system" folder.
In the gapps we will only use things from the "system" and "optional" folders.
The rest is pretty easy to figure out. In the gapps's "system" and "optional" folders you have folders which have the same name as some folders in "system" of the rom.
Just copy/replace everything that is in those folders of the gapps to the corresponding folders of the rom. Don't forget to do that with both "system" AND "optional" folders of the gapps.
When it's done just close the freshly modified rom, copy it to your tab's external sdcard and flash it.
If you don't have an external sdcard, then reboot recovery, copy the rom to the "platform-tools" folder of your android-sdk and rename it rom.zip.
Then return to your terminal and do the following :
Code:
$ adb push rom.zip /sdcard
It will now be in your internal sdcard (remember you shrinked it earlier so make sure the rom doesn't take all the space).
5) Expanding your internal storage
I don't recommend you do this the first time you follow this guide.
It might screw your /data partition so you have to do the whole process I describe in this guide again.
Anyway if you wanna try, this allowed me to earn a few extra gigs (never managed to get back more than 4gb and boot).
Here's what to do :
>>> P6810 <<<
Code:
$ adb shell
# parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
(parted) resize 9
>>> P6800 <<<
Code:
$ adb shell
# parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
(parted) resize 10
This will output something like :
Code:
Start ?
End ?
writing per-group metadata : XX %
You can only move the end value in fact, trying to change the start value will return an error. Try doing this to earn like 250mb at a time so it doesn't get stuck. Good luck.
6) Extra cases
If when booting in recovery, the recovery says something like "can't read /cache/recovery/last-log, Read-Only file system" then your /cache partition is corrupt.
Then you'll need to recreate it with parted. /cache is quite small (209mb) so it should be easy to have "writing per-group metadata" finishing.
Here are the commands to remove and recreate /cache with parted (it's the same on both models) :
Code:
$ adb shell
# parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
(parted) print
(parted) rm 7
(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 XX YY (where YY - XX = 209 and YY < FACTORYFS start value)

Nice guide...dude. Thanks for sharing

i being running e2fsck -yfDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 on my p6800 since yesterday this time. till now still show error reading block *******<attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read> while getting next indoe from scan. ignore error? yes
force rewrite? yes
question now is should i let it keep running or change to e2fsck -fDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 ?? hmm

Josvaz said:
i being running e2fsck -yfDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 on my p6800 since yesterday this time. till now still show error reading block *******<attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read> while getting next indoe from scan. ignore error? yes
force rewrite? yes
question now is should i let it keep running or change to e2fsck -fDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 ?? hmm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure but this "attempt to read block resulted in short-read" error remembers me of my own brick, I think it's the error you get when you can't mount /data in recovery's mounts & storages.
Try to mount /data and if recovery can't mount it, then u need to recreate your /data partition with parted, like it's explained in this guide.
e2fsck alone won't fix it if it's not mountable.
Just talking from my own experience, but there might be other ways.

two questions:
1) i read something about having to back up the /efs partition? as it contains your bluetooth mac id and your emei number before flashing any alternative pit file
2) when i try to start the android SDK installer it says "Java SE Development Kit (JDK) no found. </br> Error: Failed to find Java version for 'C:\Windows\system32\java.exe,' blah blah blah"--is it because i tried to install the jdk 64-bit?
---EDIT--- solved the installation problem. setting up android SDK now...

aletheus said:
two questions:
1) i read something about having to back up the /efs partition? as it contains your bluetooth mac id and your emei number before flashing any alternative pit file
2) when i try to start the android SDK installer it says "Java SE Development Kit (JDK) no found. </br> Error: Failed to find Java version for 'C:\Windows\system32\java.exe,' blah blah blah"--is it because i tried to install the jdk 64-bit?
---EDIT--- solved the installation problem. setting up android SDK now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well yeah you can backup your efs but if you follow exactly this guide there's no way you can mess up your efs, as it's the first partition and we only deal with partitons 8 to 10.
Not sure but this "attempt to read block resulted in short-read" error remembers me of my own brick, I think it's the error you get when you can't mount /data in recovery's mounts & storages.
Try to mount /data and if recovery can't mount it, then u need to recreate your /data partition with parted, like it's explained in this guide.
e2fsck alone won't fix it if it's not mountable.
Just talking from my own experience, but there might be other ways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess e2fsck won't run if the partition you check isn't mountable.
But you're right that e2fsck can't fix everything, the method I describe is drastic but it works.
So Josvaz, if after running e2fsck - try any options you want, won't harm (but add -y so it answers yes to all and you can go have a coffee) - you see more than 2 or 3% in " XX.XX% non contiguous" then remove your partition and recreate it using parted's mkpartfs, and re-run e2fsck, it should now be clean (0.0% non contiguous) and you can flash on it and boot your tab if your /system is clean (or close to) too.
Good luck.

Androguide.fr said:
- The first is to flash a PIT file with ODIN that will repartition your tab for you.
I will not cover this method as hg42 already wrote a very detailed tutorial about this. This tutorial is about Galaxy Note but you can appIy it to our 7.7 and you'll find PITs for P6800 there. I will soon make pits for P6810 using the scripts provided in hg42's guide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but if i use this method, do i need to back up the /efs partition? i guess, i need the experience with abd, and its certainly not going to hurt anything if i do, and didn't need to. so i'll try that and see if i get a response in the mean time.
hg42 said:
You should be able to flash any stock ROM from samfirmware (click on n7000 under "models"), I would recommend the one you had before the brick and and before any stock ICS, else you risk a brick again!.
Note: I think the standard recovery doesn't give you enough format options (a guess, I am running cm9).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is this possibly a way to avoid having to go through this process every few days or so?

aletheus said:
but if i use this method, do i need to back up the /efs partition? i guess, i need the experience with abd, and its certainly not going to hurt anything if i do, and didn't need to. so i'll try that and see if i get a response in the mean time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeag for the PIT method, backing up your efs is wise, although the PITs won't mess with it normally. But yeah, can't hurt to back it up.
You don't need no experience with adb to flash a PIT, just know how to use odin, download the pit for your particular model (eg : p6800 16gb) put it in odin's "PIT" slot (the first slot), make sure repartion IS ticked, click start and let it flash.

giving up lol .. any thing i need to do before i send to samsung ? like original pit, rom etc? anyone have original pit file ?

Josvaz said:
giving up lol .. any thing i need to do before i send to samsung ? like original pit, rom etc? anyone have original pit file ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't give up, follow the guide step by step, I assure you that you can get your tab finally booting if you do.

Androguide.fr said:
Yeag for the PIT method, backing up your efs is wise, although the PITs won't mess with it normally. But yeah, can't hurt to back it up.
You don't need no experience with adb to flash a PIT, just know how to use odin, download the pit for your particular model (eg : p6800 16gb) put it in odin's "PIT" slot (the first slot), make sure repartion IS ticked, click start and let it flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
okay, but i need adb to back up /efs i think.

aletheus said:
okay, but i need adb to back up /efs i think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good for you xda recognized developer lyriquidperfection made a tool to backup and restore your efs on samsung devices, head to this thread : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1308546

hee i wanna quit cos i cant save more than half the space, manage 3.82GB left~

Androguide.fr said:
Yeag for the PIT method, backing up your efs is wise, although the PITs won't mess with it normally. But yeah, can't hurt to back it up.
You don't need no experience with adb to flash a PIT, just know how to use odin, download the pit for your particular model (eg : p6800 16gb) put it in odin's "PIT" slot (the first slot), make sure repartion IS ticked, click start and let it flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the efs back up, is that used from within adb, or flashed as part of a recovery or? in other words, how do i use it?

aletheus said:
the efs back up, is that used from within adb, or flashed as part of a recovery or? in other words, how do i use it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not done from adb, some apps allow you to backup/restore it (eg : Voodoo Sim Unlock for sgs3), check out the thread I linked earlier.

The best advice I can give to people who haven't bricked their tab (already?^^) : DO NOT EVER WIPE ANYTHING WHILE RUNNING STOCK 7.7 ROMS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even on stock honeycomb ?????
am going to get a p6800 3g tomorrow, please don't scare me lol

sos_sifou said:
even on stock honeycomb ?????
am going to get a p6800 3g tomorrow, please don't scare me lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah whether hc or ics, for some reason, samsung devs thought it was a good idea to include mmc_cap erase a.k.a superbrick bug in their kernels.
Anyway I doubt you'd love to stay on y
touchwiz hc, which the most laggy experience I ever had.

sos_sifou said:
even on stock honeycomb ?????
am going to get a p6800 3g tomorrow, please don't scare me lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it wont be a problem in honeycomb...
but its a big problem in ICS

Anyway I doubt you'd love to stay on y
touchwiz hc, which the most laggy experience I ever had.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah I don't think that i will keep using hc for long, but consider that most isc roms are pipi-caca (wifi issues and battery drain) Ill wait for some stable builds (just like overcome on my beloved "sold" GTP1000).
I think that dedraks made a new kernel which is without the brick bug ? is it safe to use with hc ??
and thanks for the great work you're doing on the new galaxy tab 7.7 (merci beaucoup !)

so i have not figured out how to get a working pit file flashed. there are so many, and i VAGUELY understand his numbering system, so i figured i'd start with the smallest available space first, because that one would be the most likely to account for any bad blocks. i tried nearly ALL of them. now i'm trying to test to see whether adb is able to access ANYTHING-- (tab is booting into recovery and download, and adb detects the device from windows) however, what i'm getting is "/sbin/sh: parted: not found" is that saying that parted cant be found or that parted cant find the reference block? researching this now.
so obviously, i've had to sit down and warm up to your NOOB GUIDE!!! its very clear, i just havent done this level of anything with android, tho what better way to learn than sink or swim? problem is, i'm an artist, and pretty broke.... my computer fried months and months ago, and i just decided i'd rather spend my extra cash on the gTab 7.7 cus is the largest affordable sAMOLED to date, and well, a 30% expansion of the standard color model really appealed to me, so the only thing i have to work on is my super bricked tab!!! a friend of mine is lending me her laptop while she's at work, and i'd like to try to fix it this evening.... ughh....
if anybody can help me figure out my way through this tutorial, i'll be researching why 'parted' isn't working.
THANKS!!!
---UPDATE
okay, so for some reason, i can't seem to push files from adb to the device. from what i've read, i have to manually install parted to sbin, (or there's a flashable kit available also) but i can't figure out how to get it to pick up the file (its in the folder with ADB.exe, so i shouldn't need to reference the path for the copy location, right?)
now i'm looking up general "ADB device navigation and testing"
---ugghhh....

Lost A LOT of storage after installing a new rom

Hi everyone, this is my first thread
I recently rooted my 16gb WiFi only nexus 7. After installing 3 different roms (touchwiz, cyanogenmod 10, and xenon HD) I didn't like touch wiz or cyanogenmod, and I'm currently running xenon HD. However, when I opened my storage today, of said I had 3.6gb remaining. I thought it may have been all the apps, so I factory reset it, reset the partition, and deleted all data via recovery mode. That gave me about 1 more gigabyte. I opened ES file explorer and deleted everything there. I still have only 4.6 gigabytes usable. Anyone else have this issue?
Thanks
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Well, I deleted some old backups and now I have 7.5 gb of storage, which should do for now. But I still have that 6 GB leftover, anyone know whats wrong?
Thanks
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

OK. Now I mucked around in the mounting/unmounting stuff, and now it won't boot. It's stuck at the Google screen. Someone help please???
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app[/QUOTE]

You are not the only person who has experienced this.
Bottom line is you need to rebuild the /data filesystem, which necessitates getting everything off of it including any nandroid backups plus anything worth saving in /sdcard
Either the "format data" option in TWRP, or using fastboot.
Code:
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot format userdata
I've had the latter create short file systems - and also not create short file systems.
Whatever causes this it seems to depend on prior state in the filesystem, even though I don't think things should behave this way. I've also had TWRP's "Format data" menu option create new, empty, & corrupted ext4 file systems. Ugh - I hope your luck is better than mine.
Note that you can run "df -k /data" in the recovery (after you have created the new filesystem by either method) to find out how big it is; better to check things are OK right away, rather than after you've put effort into restoring things or flashing ROMs.
Long boring thread, but related.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2184486
good luck
Edit: no point in restoring the wedged /data backup. I hope you have earlier backups.

bftb0 said:
You are not the only person who has experienced this.
Bottom line is you need to rebuild the /data filesystem, which necessitates getting everything off of it including any nandroid backups plus anything worth saving in /sdcard
Either the "format data" option in TWRP, or using fastboot.
Code:
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot format userdata
I've had the latter create short file systems - and also not create short file systems.
Whatever causes this it seems to depend on prior state in the filesystem, even though I don't think things should behave this way. I've also had TWRP's "Format data" menu option create new, empty, & corrupted ext4 file systems. Ugh - I hope your luck is better than mine.
Note that you can run "df -k /data" in the recovery (after you have created the new filesystem by either method) to find out how big it is; better to check things are OK right away, rather than after you've put effort into restoring things or flashing ROMs.
Long boring thread, but related.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2184486
good luck
Edit: no point in restoring the wedged /data backup. I hope you have earlier backups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I basically have nothing I need on my tablet, so I'm fine deleting everything on it, if that's what you mean. I'll try, but thanks:good:

nicetaco said:
I basically have nothing I need on my tablet, so I'm fine deleting everything on it, if that's what you mean. I'll try, but thanks:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, is that for getting back the storage or actually letting it boot up? Because right now the storage is the least of my concerns.

What I described is for getting back lost space (by recreating from scratch the ext4 filesystem in the userdata partition).
As it doesn't touch either the boot partition or the system partition, your tablet should certainly be able to boot. If you don't do a restore of /data from a backup, the result will be like a factory reset of whatever rom you had on the tablet.
Just make sure to check the size of the data partition before you start re-customizing or restoring data from backups to make sure that you got the full size of the partition.

bftb0 said:
What I described is for getting back lost space (by recreating from scratch the ext4 filesystem in the userdata partition).
As it doesn't touch either the boot partition or the system partition, your tablet should certainly be able to boot. If you don't do a restore of /data from a backup, the result will be like a factory reset of whatever rom you had on the tablet.
Just make sure to check the size of the data partition before you start re-customizing or restoring data from backups to make sure that you got the full size of the partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ughhh its still not turning on...

nicetaco said:
Ughhh its still not turning on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please re-read this quote from your 2nd thread in this fiasco.
Nico_60 said:
How do you want to know what's happening to your device if don't tell us which commands you have done exactly with fastboot and why ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you screwed around with your system partition and it wouldn't boot before, then with a freshly formated and empty /data filesystem, of course it still will not boot. The instructions I provided in this thread only involved the userdata partition!
But you didn't say "I did such and such and it still hangs during the initial boot phase where the X logo is flashing on the screen"; instead you said:
"Ughhh its still not turning on".
WTF? Has your problem now morphed into a dead battery problem, or is the language you are using just incredibly imprecise?
Anyway, Flash a new ROM using the custom recovery. Any ROM - you pick. Maybe not that Xenon ROM or whatever it is called. See if the new ROM boots. And then immediately after it boots, check to see what size the /data partition is.
And if you come back into this thread anymore please be specific about what you are attempting and exactly what symptoms you are observing.
good luck

bftb0 said:
Please re-read this quote from your 2nd thread in this fiasco.
If you screwed around with your system partition and it wouldn't boot before, then with a freshly formated and empty /data filesystem, of course it still will not boot. The instructions I provided in this thread only involved the userdata partition!
But you didn't say "I did such and such and it still hangs during the initial boot phase where the X logo is flashing on the screen"; instead you said:
"Ughhh its still not turning on".
WTF? Has your problem now morphed into a dead battery problem, or is the language you are using just incredibly imprecise?
Anyway, Flash a new ROM using the custom recovery. Any ROM - you pick. Maybe not that Xenon ROM or whatever it is called. See if the new ROM boots. And then immediately after it boots, check to see what size the /data partition is.
And if you come back into this thread anymore please be specific about what you are attempting and exactly what symptoms you are observing.
good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. I tried to install a new rom, but I can't because I have USB debugging off, which I can't turn on

bftb0 said:
You are not the only person who has experienced this.
Bottom line is you need to rebuild the /data filesystem, which necessitates getting everything off of it including any nandroid backups plus anything worth saving in /sdcard
Either the "format data" option in TWRP, or using fastboot.
Code:
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot format userdata
I've had the latter create short file systems - and also not create short file systems.
Whatever causes this it seems to depend on prior state in the filesystem, even though I don't think things should behave this way. I've also had TWRP's "Format data" menu option create new, empty, & corrupted ext4 file systems. Ugh - I hope your luck is better than mine.
Note that you can run "df -k /data" in the recovery (after you have created the new filesystem by either method) to find out how big it is; better to check things are OK right away, rather than after you've put effort into restoring things or flashing ROMs.
Long boring thread, but related.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2184486
good luck
Edit: no point in restoring the wedged /data backup. I hope you have earlier backups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, bftb0!
I was looking around for this after I discovered my lack of space. I read about it before, but couldn't dig up the post. Thanks for informing us! Enjoy the thanks!

nicetaco said:
OK. I tried to install a new rom, but I can't because I have USB debugging off, which I can't turn on
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADB is available in the custom recovery... so long as you have the right drivers installed on your PC. And that is NOT controlled by some setting in the most recent ROM that you flashed - it is always running in the custom recovery.
One of the quirks about ADB in the recovery with the Nexus7 is that it claims a different USB address than "ADB Composite Interface" that the regular OS does. This might mean that ADB works correctly with the regular OS booted, but not when the custom recovery is booted, depending on what drivers you have installed. Yes, you need yet another driver installed even though they are both "ADB" connections. But that is a Windows driver issue, not a problem with the N7.
You can also use an OTG cable and a USB drive with TWRP if that is easier. Put your ROM on the memory stick and then use TWRP's "external memory". To be most compatible, make sure the USB stick is formatted in a FAT format. (I don't know if TWRP can handle NTFS).
upichie said:
Thank you, bftb0!
I was looking around for this after I discovered my lack of space. I read about it before, but couldn't dig up the post. Thanks for informing us! Enjoy the thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if I can I trade them in for some coupons or something

@bftb0, I was not able to use adb while in TWRP but i found THIS and it was the solution, what do you think about this "fix"?

bftb0 said:
ADB is available in the custom recovery... so long as you have the right drivers installed on your PC. And that is NOT controlled by some setting in the most recent ROM that you flashed - it is always running in the custom recovery.
One of the quirks about ADB in the recovery with the Nexus7 is that it claims a different USB address than "ADB Composite Interface" that the regular OS does. This might mean that ADB works correctly with the regular OS booted, but not when the custom recovery is booted, depending on what drivers you have installed. Yes, you need yet another driver installed even though they are both "ADB" connections. But that is a Windows driver issue, not a problem with the N7.
You can also use an OTG cable and a USB drive with TWRP if that is easier. Put your ROM on the memory stick and then use TWRP's "external memory". To be most compatible, make sure the USB stick is formatted in a FAT format. (I don't know if TWRP can handle NTFS).
I wonder if I can I trade them in for some coupons or something
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Holy crap I forgot about the OTG cables. Thanks, I'll try it!

nicetaco said:
Holy crap I forgot about the OTG cables. Thanks, I'll try it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much. That did it.
First problem fixed through XDA developers
Enjoy my thanks

Nico_60 said:
@bftb0, I was not able to use adb while in TWRP but i found THIS and it was the solution, what do you think about this "fix"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ADB daemon - "adbd" is definitely sitting there running inside the custom recovery. Even if you can't communicate with it because of a lack of a driver, you should nevertheless be able to see it as an unknown device in the PC's device manager.
I have done the same hack - hand editing the .INF file - with both the Google SDK drivers and the Asus drivers, and in both cases it worked fine (one driver for everything: ADB in the OS, ADB in TWRP/CWM, and fastboot with the bootloader).
I have also used the Google SDK driver without modification plus the XDA Universal Naked driver. That means using the Google driver for fastboot and ADB when the OS is booted, and the XUN driver for custom recoveries only.
At the present time the ONLY driver I have installed is a hacked version of the Asus drivers.
Win 7 complains about signing when doing this (for the Asus drivers for sure, I can't remember if the Google driver is signed or not).
As I mentioned, Win 7 Pro x64. I suppose the whole "violated signing" might make life even more difficult with Win 8 though.

bftb0, did you personally experience the problem of losing space on the internal memory? I tried your advice, but it didn't work. I'm on PAC(man) ROM. I booted into TWRP, did the data wipe (not factory reset, the full wipe that wipes the everything) but I still only have 13 gb available (on my 32 gb Nexus 7). I rebooted into TWRP and did a factory reset AND wipe data, but I am still missing half of my internal memory.
Do you need to do this on the stock ROM for it to work? Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

upichie said:
bftb0, did you personally experience the problem of losing space on the internal memory? I tried your advice, but it didn't work. I'm on PAC(man) ROM. I booted into TWRP, did the data wipe (not factory reset, the full wipe that wipes the everything) but I still only have 13 gb available (on my 32 gb Nexus 7). I rebooted into TWRP and did a factory reset AND wipe data, but I am still missing half of my internal memory.
Do you need to do this on the stock ROM for it to work? Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it really did happen to me.
After it happened I took the trouble to download 4 different versions of TWRP (2.4.1.0-2.4.4.0), and I re-created the ext4 filesystem with:
- each of the different versions of TWRP and
- fastboot format userdata
after each, I did a "e2fsck -f -n <block-device>" on the (unmounted) userdata partition to see that they were clean, and I also dumped the output of "tune2fs -l <block-device>" to a file for comparison. Other than things that I would expect to be different (e.g. partition UUID identifier strings and timestamps), I noticed no differences. And also, I couldn't reproduce the problem for the life of me.
Above you mention full "data wipe". In TWRP (v2.4.1.0), this is presented as a separate button in the "Wipe" sub-menu where it (the last button in the first column) is labeled "Format Data". I suppose this is what you mean, but thought I would be explicit to avoid any confusion. (The "factory reset" procedure in the two custom recoveries - both CWM and TWRP - can not possibly re-create the ext4 filesystem in /data, as the /data/media/0 SD card files are in there. But the "Format Data" button does destroy & recreate the whole filesystem).
If you press on this button and at the same time capture the output of the "ps" command, you will see that TWRP recovery invokes the /sbin/make_ext4fs in the following way
Code:
make_ext4fs -l -32768 /dev/block/mmcblk0p<PARTNUM>
(CWM probably uses a different external command as it does not seem to have a "make_ext4fs" command in it's ramdisk. Probably mke2fs with ext4 options on the command line)
Anyways, I can't say I have my finger on exactly how to resolve the problem as I can not re-created it. But it did happen to me.
One thing you can try rather than using TWRP's "make_ext4fs" command (underneath that button "Format Data") is to reboot into the bootloader from TWRP, and do the file system formatting in fastboot instead of TWRP, as in:
Code:
fastboot format userdata
(noobs: caution, this is a full userdata wipe)
and then bop back into the recovery and check things with "tune2fs" report
Code:
tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p<PARTNUM>
My 32G N7 shows a total block count of 7503608 (x 4k/block = 29.3 GiB) doing this.
As I mentioned before, it's a good idea to check to see you have the right size before you start restoring stuff to avoid wasting time. You can do it above with "tune2fs -l", or because TWRP seems to want to mount /data and /sdcard when it boots, just run
adb shell df -k /data
to get a report of total and used size.
Sorry this isn't more definiitve. I would have spent more time looking at this, but it is tedious as you need to unload the whole d*mn SD card in order to experiment. Thank goodness my 30GB partition only has about 10Gigs of stuff on it.
good luck

bftb0 said:
Yes, it really did happen to me.
After it happened I took the trouble to download 4 different versions of TWRP (2.4.1.0-2.4.4.0), and I re-created the ext4 filesystem with:
- each of the different versions of TWRP and
- fastboot format userdata
after each, I did a "e2fsck -f -n <block-device>" on the (unmounted) userdata partition to see that they were clean, and I also dumped the output of "tune2fs -l <block-device>" to a file for comparison. Other than things that I would expect to be different (e.g. partition UUID identifier strings and timestamps), I noticed no differences. And also, I couldn't reproduce the problem for the life of me.
Above you mention full "data wipe". In TWRP (v2.4.1.0), this is presented as a separate button in the "Wipe" sub-menu where it (the last button in the first column) is labeled "Format Data". I suppose this is what you mean, but thought I would be explicit to avoid any confusion. (The "factory reset" procedure in the two custom recoveries - both CWM and TWRP - can not possibly re-create the ext4 filesystem in /data, as the /data/media/0 SD card files are in there. But the "Format Data" button does destroy & recreate the whole filesystem).
If you press on this button and at the same time capture the output of the "ps" command, you will see that TWRP recovery invokes the /sbin/make_ext4fs in the following way
Code:
make_ext4fs -l -32768 /dev/block/mmcblk0p<PARTNUM>
(CWM probably uses a different external command as it does not seem to have a "make_ext4fs" command in it's ramdisk. Probably mke2fs with ext4 options on the command line)
Anyways, I can't say I have my finger on exactly how to resolve the problem as I can not re-created it. But it did happen to me.
One thing you can try rather than using TWRP's "make_ext4fs" command (underneath that button "Format Data") is to reboot into the bootloader from TWRP, and do the file system formatting in fastboot instead of TWRP, as in:
Code:
fastboot format userdata
(noobs: caution, this is a full userdata wipe)
and then bop back into the recovery and check things with "tune2fs" report
Code:
tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p<PARTNUM>
My 32G N7 shows a total block count of 7503608 (x 4k/block = 29.3 GiB) doing this.
As I mentioned before, it's a good idea to check to see you have the right size before you start restoring stuff to avoid wasting time. You can do it above with "tune2fs -l", or because TWRP seems to want to mount /data and /sdcard when it boots, just run
adb shell df -k /data
to get a report of total and used size.
Sorry this isn't more definiitve. I would have spent more time looking at this, but it is tedious as you need to unload the whole d*mn SD card in order to experiment. Thank goodness my 30GB partition only has about 10Gigs of stuff on it.
good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.
I'm a total command prompt beginner here, so could you explain where I'm doing the fastboot format command? In a terminal on the device? Using adb on my windows machine? I tried all that I could think of, but none of it worked. No form of wiping the device (yes, via "format data" in TWRP) seems to work. I'm still missing half of my storage.
EDIT: Okay, so I ran the command--I had to have the device in the bootloader, duh. Unfortunately, it still did not work. When recreating the file system, it said there was a total of ~3.5 million blocks--half what I saw reported in the other thread. Not surprising, since I'm missing half of my storage. How come this is working for other people but not me? I tried doing both at the same time, but to no avail. This is getting stupid.

upichie said:
EDIT: Okay, so I ran the command--I had to have the device in the bootloader, duh. Unfortunately, it still did not work. When recreating the file system, it said there was a total of ~3.5 million blocks--half what I saw reported in the other thread. Not surprising, since I'm missing half of my storage. How come this is working for other people but not me? I tried doing both at the same time, but to no avail. This is getting stupid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Arrgh. Did you do the "fastboot erase userdata" first?
Here's what the fastboot format looked like on my device when I did this last (3/13):
Code:
$ fastboot erase userdata
******** Did you mean to fastboot format this partition?
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 4.974s]
finished. total time: 4.979s
$ fastboot format userdata
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 4.454s]
formatting 'userdata' partition...
Creating filesystem with parameters:
Size: 30734811136
Block size: 4096
Blocks per group: 32768
Inodes per group: 8192
Inode size: 256
Journal blocks: 32768
Label:
Blocks: 7503616
Block groups: 229
Reserved block group size: 1024
Created filesystem with 11/1875968 inodes and 161774/7503616 blocks
sending 'userdata' (139197 KB)...
writing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 33.733s]
finished. total time: 38.194s
As I said, I was unable to reproduce the problem even though I tried. But it almost seems like the creation of the new filesystem is inferring something from somewhere (but where?) about the userdata partition size which is incorrect. Almost like it happens because of something it sees in the prior filesystem (which is being destroyed). So it becomes irreproducible unless you can recreate the same starting condition.
There's other mysterious crap going on here too. See the output above? The part where it says "sending 'userdata' (139197 KB)" ? It will say this no matter where you run the command from, and there is no 139 MB "userdata.img" file in the folder it runs from!!! 139 MB? For a filesystem which is empty when you mount it?
I don't know. Here's one more thing to try, though. In addition to doing the "erase" & "format" commands, perhaps you could actually flash the userdata image from the stock ROM
Code:
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot format userdata
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
and then when you boot to the custom recovery, perform a "factory reset" - or try doing the "Format Data" thing in TWRP after (or before?) the above steps.
If none of this works, I suppose you could try the equivalent sorts of things with CWM and see if you get a different result.
You don't need to permanently install CWM with a hard flash - you can just soft-boot it for a single session:
Code:
fastboot boot recovery-clockwork-touch-6.0.2.3-grouper.img
Sorry this is so vague, but you know how it goes - you stumble into a problem, start fooling around until it gets fixed - and because you weren't really expecting the problem in the first place, you haven't written down the exact conditions and steps. Like I said, I tried to re-create the problem a variety of ways - but failed at that effort.
good luck

[Q] TWRP Use rm -fr instead of formatting?

Inside of the current team winn recovery settings there is an option to "Use rm -rf instead of formatting" sorry if this is a noob question but ive searched the web and can find the answer so I thought this would be a good place to ask...what does this option do and when should it be used?

rm -rf is remove (delete) files and directories and sub-directories recursively.
http://www.computerhope.com/unix/urm.htm
Format is well . . . format the partition, creating a new partition ready for new files to be written to it.
That I can't help you with is why one would be preferably over the other.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

I have switched to using the "rm -rf" option exclusively on TWRP 2.4.1.0 rather than letting it automatically run "make_ext4fs" on my system partition prior to restoring a nandroid backup or installing a new ROM.
I did this after discovering that my /system (ext4) filesystem was frequently corrupted immediately after the formatting which occurs during the flashing of a new ROM. The only way I could get back to a clean (no e2fsck errors) filesystem was to perform a
Code:
fastboot format system
It's rather bizarre, and I am not sure why it happens. Yet it does. I think, but am not 100% sure that this problem persists even in 2.5.0.0.
I would recommend setting this option to use "rm -rf" rather than the default.

Weird Problem
bftb0 said:
I have switched to using the "rm -rf" option exclusively on TWRP 2.4.1.0 rather than letting it automatically run "make_ext4fs" on my system partition prior to restoring a nandroid backup or installing a new ROM.
I did this after discovering that my /system (ext4) filesystem was frequently corrupted immediately after the formatting which occurs during the flashing of a new ROM. The only way I could get back to a clean (no e2fsck errors) filesystem was to perform a
Code:
fastboot format system
It's rather bizarre, and I am not sure why it happens. Yet it does. I think, but am not 100% sure that this problem persists even in 2.5.0.0.
I would recommend setting this option to use "rm -rf" rather than the default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Recently i encountered a problem. My phone started rebooting as soon as i booted into os and for arounf 45 seconds. Then i triend to factory wipe, system (twrp 2.6.3.2) and restarted system and to my surprise the same os and same problem persists. Whatever action i take in twrp and its not affecting the os. 4.2.2 slimkat. I'm trying everything i can and no luck. Can someone please help?
---------- Post added at 11:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:59 PM ----------
bftb0 said:
I have switched to using the "rm -rf" option exclusively on TWRP 2.4.1.0 rather than letting it automatically run "make_ext4fs" on my system partition prior to restoring a nandroid backup or installing a new ROM.
I did this after discovering that my /system (ext4) filesystem was frequently corrupted immediately after the formatting which occurs during the flashing of a new ROM. The only way I could get back to a clean (no e2fsck errors) filesystem was to perform a
Code:
fastboot format system
It's rather bizarre, and I am not sure why it happens. Yet it does. I think, but am not 100% sure that this problem persists even in 2.5.0.0.
I would recommend setting this option to use "rm -rf" rather than the default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even after switching to rm -rf, i formatted data and everything (atleast i think i did), and when i clicked restart system, it said no os installed and i booted anyway, guess what? that same os same problem same apps. Nothing is happening. Can you elaborate how to do fastboot format system?

harshagp said:
Even after switching to rm -rf, i formatted data and everything (atleast i think i did), and when i clicked restart system, it said no os installed and i booted anyway, guess what? that same os same problem same apps. Nothing is happening. Can you elaborate how to do fastboot format system?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhhhh ... before I write yet another novel...
- Do you have a grouper (WiFi only) or tilapia (WiFi+Cell) 2012 Nexus 7?
- What version of bootloader is on your device?
- Do you have fastboot working between your PC and the tablet?
(If fastboot is properly set up, if you put the N7 in bootloader mode, attach it to the PC via USB, and type "fastboot devices" at a command prompt on the PC, it will print out the device ID of your N7.)
Note that when you "wipe" with "rm -rf", the filesystem needs to be healthy. Changing to this method of wiping will not fix a corrupted filesystem. I made the switch after re-creating a healthy filesystem to avoid corruption problems. (That was many versions of TWRP ago, though)

Apart from the quoted link I can't find any web page that shows the syntax of the rm command allowing recursive deletion without a directory name.
This page has a nice warning about rm -rf * http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-linux-unix-delete-remove-file/

Problem
bftb0 said:
Uhhhh ... before I write yet another novel...
- Do you have a grouper (WiFi only) or tilapia (WiFi+Cell) 2012 Nexus 7?
- What version of bootloader is on your device?
- Do you have fastboot working between your PC and the tablet?
(If fastboot is properly set up, if you put the N7 in bootloader mode, attach it to the PC via USB, and type "fastboot devices" at a command prompt on the PC, it will print out the device ID of your N7.)
Note that when you "wipe" with "rm -rf", the filesystem needs to be healthy. Changing to this method of wiping will not fix a corrupted filesystem. I made the switch after re-creating a healthy filesystem to avoid corruption problems. (That was many versions of TWRP ago, though)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, i didn't notice it before. I have galaxy nexus maguro gsm. Bootloader version PRIMELA03. I think Everything is corrupt, but i can access bootloader, recovery, even os for a few seconds. I tried that command, it says done but no change. What do i need to do to start afresh, get my phone working properly!

@harshagp
I have no experience with that device (you are in the wrong forum), so anything I might say is pure speculation. You should ask your question in the correct forum.

[SOLVED] Restore decrypted nandroid backup of FBE

Tried restoring a nandroid backup of the data partition with twrp.
also copied the /data/media partition back from an external copy.
when booting up the phone immediately reboots back into twrp with an error message:
Android Rescue Party...
The reported problem is:
'--reason=set_policy_failed_:/data/vendor'
the vendor partition seems to be intact and i do have a backup of it taken at the same time as the data backup, restoring it doesn't yield results..
i'm wondering if FBE is throwing it off, as the backup was taken when the phone was decrypted (within twrp) however the data on the partitions is referencing some sort of encryption key?

you may also exhibit the following error upon bootup of a restored nandroid backup.
immediately after booting, the phone reboots back into recovery.
viewing the log in twrp will show:
Android Rescue Party...
The reported problem is:
'--reason=set_policy_failed_:/data/bootchart'
1. the solution to this is editing fstab.​​under twrp or other recovery​mount /vendor from the mount icon.​​in twrp: Advanced > File Manager > /vendor/etc/fstab.qcom​select edit file under userdata, find where it says fileencryption=ice​rename fileencryption to encryptable.​​Original​
Code:
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata /data ext4 noatime,nosuid,nodev,barrier=1,noauto_da_alloc,discard wait,check,fileencryption=ice,quota,reservedsize=512M
​​Modified​
Code:
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata /data ext4 noatime,nosuid,nodev,barrier=1,noauto_da_alloc,discard wait,check,encryptable=ice,quota,reservedsize=512M
​save file.​
2. next delete the following directories:​
/data/unencrypted
/data/misc/vold/user_keys
3. Lastly delete any of the existing files from /data/system/ :​
locksettings.db
Gatekeeper.password.key
gatekeeper.pattern.key
locksettings.db-shm
locksettings.db-wal
recoverablekeystore.db
password.key
pattern.key
4. Reboot and re-encrypt​​
At this point rebooting from recovery will result in a running and successfully recovery backup.
one thing to note is the data and data/media partitions are at this point unencrypted
TRYING TO REINCRYPT NOW WILL FAIL to reencrypt got to settings > security > re set your pin or password for the phone
(optional) then select encryption and there will be an orange button to encrypt device.
the encryption process will take quite a while as it will reencrypt your entire phone.
The above doesn't work as it's trying to accomplish FDE, and the fstab line for encryptable=ice, isn't compatible with this.
i could not find an fstab string to follow the same option but for FBE.
​

Thanks for sharing, nice guide to disable forced FBE encryption! I think this applies to Android 12+ in general, not just OnePlus devices.
I ended up with the same problem on my Mi 10 Ultra with MIUI 13 after a /data partition restore and it was a real pain to solve ("set_policy_failed:..." rescue party error for different directories). It's strange though why it fails to set the fscrypt policy for existing directories with no policy, correct permissions and SELinux context...
(Btw: whether a fscrypt policy is applied to a directory ("is this directory encrypted?") can be checked with fscryptpolicyget in terminal.)
Unfortunately, this didn't directly solve my TWRP backup restore problem and I still had to do a manual restore, but now I can at least disable FBE and it's always nice to have actual control over the device you paid money for (you should really have control by default, but oh well...)
(Some of) the troubleshooting I did:
Like I mentioned, I first thought the issue might be with the SE linux context, so I tried running restorecon, but this didn't help - I eventually found that in init.rc, restorecon is usually already automatically run during each boot for directories under /data/... so running it manually makes no difference.
To edit /vendor/etc/fstab.qcom (or /system) on my device, I had to first disable the shared blocks EXT4 optional feature. I followed this nice guide to unpack/repack super.img. But this is missing the step for disabling shared blocks: when I tried to mount any of the unpacked images (e.g. vendor.img) as R/W, it failed with the useless generic error:
wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then dmesg gave me another clue, but at the same time was still cryptic and not immediately helpful:
EXT4-fs (loop*): couldn't mount RDWR because of unsupported optional features (4000)`.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I guess 4000 is the code for shared blocks and you can disable these with e2fsck -E unshare_blocks <your .img file or loop device> (and probably need a filesystem check with e2fsck -yf <file>). Again very annoying that these numerical feature codes are not mentioned anywhere in the e2fsck manual pages for example.
Anyway, I was finally able to either:
1. mount vendor.img on my PC (mount -o loop vendor.img /mnt/vendor) and edit the /mnt/vendor/etc/fstab.qcom right there before repacking the .img and flashing the new edited super.img to my device
or
2. just repacking the vendor.img with shared blocks disabled and size increased (resize2fs vendor.img <new size>) and flashing the new super.img without other modifications - this way /vendor can also be mounted as r/w in Android and changes made later (mount -o remount,rw /vendor).
The worst part is that in the end, even with decryption disabled and the keys deleted, the device still wouldn't boot after a /data restore from TWRP (and after multiple days spent on debugging )... I still had to manually extract the TWRP backup and move directories/files individually - thankfully no issues with app/ or data/ - I think the problem was with some files in either system/ or misc/, but idk for sure. I just manually went through and kept only what seemed important (saved wifi APs, BT devices, SMSs etc, but not saved accounts). And after this it finally booted with all my apps and (most of) my settings!
(Btw2: a TWRP/nandroid backup is apparently just a bunch of separate tar.gz files, not a split archive, so you can just extract them with for file in ../data.f2fs.win*; do echo "extracting $file..."; busybox tar -xzf $file; done)