Database Users

[Solved] Cannot recover MJA system image

Hello,
This is will be my first XDA post ever since I always fix the most "brickiest" problems with all the Android based devices I have ever owned but not this time.
My Galaxy S4 has been updated to the latest MJA OTA (with successful CF root) and I have attempted to re-mod the hotspot service but this caused the annoying knox message to show. When attempting to restore the JAR and ODEX files, I think I have either overwritten the files in the incorrect order (ODEX -> JAR) and the phone rebooted as FX was trying to do that. So services.odex got corrupted and it was time for my to ODIN flash the MDC full stock rom as that USED to be my solution until Samsung's brand new knox protected bootloader. ODIN is not an option for me now, since the bootloader will prevent me flashing things like the pit, aboot and probably most of the other files inside the tarball. I can flash custom recovery and the MDC kernel successfully and that's about it. With custom recovery I have flashed rooted MF8 for the base operating system, and they applied the rooted MJA rom on top. The phone shows the S4 branding but then it reboots; It cannot boot into the operating system. I do not know the condition of the flash counter atm since I cannot check that in TriangleAway but it will stay "Official" under download mode, I think. I also do not know the versions of the firmware installed either in case something from MDC tar had an succession in replace some of the partitions. I am pretty sure the kernel however is still at MDC while I managed to install the system image of the MJA stock rom.
So my question is, what can I do bring back the working MJA stock rom image (/system and kernel) using TWRP recovery? Else I will have to go to Sprint and saying that the update from OTA has bricked my phone and that I have no idea how phones work.
Thank you.

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Sorry, I forgot to add that I know that once you have MJA flashed, you cannot downgrade back unless of course someone figured out how to disable all the bootloader security but I really do not see that happening.

Fixed my own problem. Downloaded the official MJA stock tar.md5 rom from sammobile and flashed it, and managed to restore all my data using Titanium backup. This thread can be now closed.

[Q] N900W8 (Rogers) Back to Stock Issue [RESOLVED]

I had an interesting issue I thought I'd share with folks in case they run into it. I have an N900W8 on the Rogers network. I used CF Auto-root to root, installed Philz recovery through Odin (3.07). I backed up the stock OS using Philz, then installed CM11 M5. I played for a couple of days, and then decided I wanted to head back to stock. I'm probably going to sell the phone soon so I wanted to make sure everything was clean. I restored the stock ROM, and when Philz warned that the stock ROM would likely overwrite recovery, I let it. I booted into my previous stock ROM and all was good. I checked software update and it said "your system has been modified". Shoot. I boot back out into download mode and see System and Firmware are set to Custom. All stock 0s everywhere else though, Knox hadn't been tripped. I was about to flash a stock firmware through Odin and I thought.. I wonder if I could use Kies? Sure enough, I fired up Kies 3 and did a Firmware Upgrade and Installation and 10 minutes later I had a stock phone. System and Firmware back to Official Samsung! All I did was boot the phone up in my restored stock ROM, plugged it in, ran Kies 3 and said "Firmware Upgrade and Installation" done.
Hope that might be helpful to someone!

[Q] sgh-i337 post OTA update

I have a sgh-i337, I tried to format my rom and threw everything at it but the kitchen sink but could not get it cleared. Then I looked around and found out about the write protect issue on the bootloader from at&t and verizon. (chattr +i /boot/system.tar.md5) It's not difficult to figure out what they did.
Needless to say I am softbricked right now with all the user data deleted. I did back up in kies but it is asking me for a number I never saw.
Is there a patch for fixing the at&t immutable bit on the bootloader?
Is there a download that will help me launch my phonetop?
We know the bootloader and system files are just fine... :silly:

The boot loader is still locked. The stock kernel and recovery cannot be replaced.
The link to stock firmware is available in http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2616221
You can use Odin to flash the stock firmware. You can flash the same or newer version only.

Bricked - possible misuse of Flashfire

Using Flashfire, I installed the zipped file UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.99r4.zip on my Verizon G900V, which is a towelroot rooted Lollipop. My phone ultimately rebooted, but goes no further than the initial screen. It will not fully reboot, it is not recognized via USB by my PC, it cannot be turned off except by removing the battery, and seems totally bricked. I obviously can’t even odin. I have no other data, such as build, etc., about it since it is no longer accessible. What can I do now? Any help will be most appreciated!

Everhopefull said:
Using Flashfire, I installed the zipped file UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.99r4.zip on my Verizon G900V, which is a towelroot rooted Lollipop. My phone ultimately rebooted, but goes no further than the initial screen. It will not fully reboot, it is not recognized via USB by my PC, it cannot be turned off except by removing the battery, and seems totally bricked. I obviously can’t even odin. I have no other data, such as build, etc., about it since it is no longer accessible. What can I do now? Any help will be most appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is not totally bricked :victory:
You are just softbricked. First, did you have safestrap installed?
If you don't care about any of the internal data and just want the OS fixed, just put it in download mode (Power+Home+VolDown) then Vol Up to confirm, and get the .tar of the stock image. Flash it with Odin- bam done.
Be warned, because you were towelrooted this would ultimately flash the latest LOCKED bootloader- so to stay on your UNLOCKED bootloader you need to find a tar with NO bootloader (there is a PB1 no bootloader stock tar)
If you had safestrap- all you have to do is flash the NK2 kernel and it will boot into safestrap- allowing for recovery of internal data and flashing of a new ROM.

If he's on any of the Firmwares below OD5, he can safely Odin back to NCG and start from scratch using Towelroot. All of our bootloaders are locked no matter which firmware version you're on. It's the versions OE1 and up that are more locked down from rooting

smokerbond said:
That is not totally bricked :victory:
You are just softbricked. First, did you have safestrap installed?
If you don't care about any of the internal data and just want the OS fixed, just put it in download mode (Power+Home+VolDown) then Vol Up to confirm, and get the .tar of the stock image. Flash it with Odin- bam done.
Be warned, because you were towelrooted this would ultimately flash the latest LOCKED bootloader- so to stay on your UNLOCKED bootloader you need to find a tar with NO bootloader (there is a PB1 no bootloader stock tar)
If you had safestrap- all you have to do is flash the NK2 kernel and it will boot into safestrap- allowing for recovery of internal data and flashing of a new ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many thanks, Smokerbond. I do wish I had waited for your reply, but, as usual, I was impatient (and somewhat concerned). I found part of what you knew elsewhere, downloaded from Sammobile, and flashed. Unfortunately, as you noted, that didn’t keep root. My question now is, can I start over? I flashed G900VVRU1BOA8-G900VVZW1BOA8 which, of course, is filled with bloatware. I have all my files I used originally, but no instructions and, as we say at my age, (77), I have slept since then.

You can Odin flash the PB1.tar with no bootloader, then use @jrkruse root method. That is the simplest way. You can also Odin back to NCG and use Towelroot, but it makes it a PITA with enabling advanced calling.
---------- Post added at 01:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 PM ----------
Also, I'm not familiar with that SuperSU version. That is probably what caused the bootloop. I'm currently running SuperSU 2.71 on my S5 and it works great, but you can go with the latest stable version if you prefer.

Shouldn't be trying to flash SuperSU from 2014. Here's the latest version once you get everything up and running again.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am now up and running, using Chainfire's SU 2.65. Since I was familiar with the path, I did go back to NCG and use towelroot, but since I have no need for the advanced calling (with which I was not familiar), I am happy with my setup.

stock firmware cant remove hero2lte recovery

Hello!
Im sending my device for varranty (pink line) so i wanted to clear my phone and flash back everything to stock.
after all (i tried both odin and kies3) also i extracted and flashed recovery.img made into .tar. i still see the info on Android Recovery
samsung/hero2ltexx/hero2lte6.0.1./MMB29K/G935FXXU1BPLB
apart of knox trip its obviously a trace of root beign done and obviously theres some system modification still present on device.
What else can i do to get rid of that info?

I'm having the same issue!!
kartonick said:
Hello!
Im sending my device for varranty (pink line) so i wanted to clear my phone and flash back everything to stock.
after all (i tried both odin and kies3) also i extracted and flashed recovery.img made into .tar. i still see the info on Android Recovery
samsung/hero2ltexx/hero2lte6.0.1./MMB29K/G935FXXU1BPLB
apart of knox trip its obviously a trace of root beign done and obviously theres some system modification still present on device.
What else can i do to get rid of that info?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used a German ROM when rooted and now back to stock using my country's (Netherlands) provided STOCK ROM from sammobile but phone is still showing the German buildnumber along with the hero3ltexx build fingerprint. I hope someone answers us with a solution for this!