I have an A501 with 3.01 (Acer_A501_1.037.03_PA_ATT) The OTA update downloaded but I did not install it yet as I don't want to lose root. I can't find the update but I would like to back up the file if possible. I tried doing a file search but with one of the file manager apps but it got into a loop on a recursive symlink.
Some questions:
1. Where do I find the update (it is not in the cache directory)
2. Is there a good file explorer that can deal with recursion
- or do I have a corrupt file system?
Here's an example:
/sys/dev/block/7:0/bdi/subsystem/7:0/subsystem/7:0/subsystem/7:0/subsystem etc
Found It
Just in case you didnt find it, I used root explorer and it was in the cache folder long numbers.zip
There is a process to use it to update your tab.. I however forgot all of the steps..
i know you have to decrypt it. pull the update.zip out remove the boot loader.blob file.. This is not intended to be instructions just a guide as to what you can look for to find the information to do so .
Sorry i could not find the tread explaining this..
These are the steps explaining you how to create a custom firmware based on the SmartQ firmware releases.
Warning : Creating a firmware and changing the files may cause your device to stop working, I won't be held responsible for any damage caused by this.
Creating a firmware file is actually very easy, not much is involved and nothing more than some basic software is required to create the files. If you don't understand the steps below than maybe you shouldn't fiddle around with this and wait for other members to create these.
There is nothing explained here about the flashing itself, as I will create a seperate How-To about that with pictures explaining the steps of the recovery.
Also there is nothing explained about kernel building itself, I have no clue how to do that and I'll leave that up to SmartQ.
Use the instructions below to make your own Firmware file with the software you want in it and make all configuration changes you want.
1. If you haven't already download the latest official firmware from SmartQ.
2. Extract the zip file. You then have 2 files, a Chinese .txt file with the release notes. And a file called "SmartQT15".
3. Rename the file "SmartQT15" to "SmartQT15.zip". Accept any warning about making the file useless, as in fact you are making it useful.
4. Extract the zip file. Then you end up with 4 new folders :
"boot" - This will be the files required for booting the OS. And possibly the recovery.
"data" - The user apps and data are in this folder.
"META-INF" - The certificate SmartQ used is in this folder and also the update script that manages the update process.
"system" - The actual Android OS.Stay clear of the boot folder, unless you are 100% sure about what you are doing, this may cause a bricked device without the possibility to reflash.
Add apps to the app subfolder in the data folder. Make sure if you do add apps to set the permissions in the update script file and make changes accordingly. The data-extra.tar file is extracted during the update process.
In the "META-INF\com\google\android" folder you can find the updater-script file, you can edit this with Notepad++. This file tells the CWM based recovery what to do and in this file the permissions are set for apps. Also is it required to edit this if you want to create a pre-rooted firmware.
Be carefull what to change in the system folder it can cause your OS not to boot, but it should be no problem to revert back to another build that did work previously as you didn't touch the boot folder and the recovery should work normally.
Once you have made all the changes you wanted to do. You follow the steps back.
5. zip the 4 folders backup using Winzip or WinRAR, whatever suits you best (You can use compression, I tried out Fast, Normal, Good compression in WinRAR and the firmware flashed without problems). Make sure you have the 4 folders in the "root" of your zip file. Use for filename "SmartQT15.zip"
6. Rename the "SmartQT15.zip" file to "SmartQT15" and accept any warning again about changing the extension of your file.
You have now created a flashable firmware file for the SmartQ Ten3 T15.
Copy his file to the root of an empty microSD card and follow my How-To about flashing Custom Firmwares.
Don't use the guide to flash original SmartQ firmwares as this won't work, by changing the firmware package you break the firmware signature and the recovery will check for this during flashing.
Signature checking can be disabled though in the recovery as I will explain in the new How-To.
If you have any questions feel free to post below and I'll do my best to answer them, all the above is based on my experience and from what I could find out on the Internet.
Hello, I would like to know how I could extract backed up TWRP data on my computer? maybe because the data was large TWRP split it into two files : data.ext4.win000 and data.ext4.win001 (sizes 1.5 and 1.2 GB)
How I got there:
I've been using XenonHD rom for quite a while, and this rom uses koush's superuser app.
I noticed there was a newer version on the market so I installed it; however it appears the one used by the rom developer was modified and therefore had a different package name: I ended up with two superuser apps, one of them asking to update the binaries, which I did.
After that the phone got stuck and rebooted two or three times before being stuck indefinitely at 'updating app' message right after the bootanimation. I tried:
- to wipe dalvik cache but it was still stuck;
- I reflashed the rom + gapps but it was still stuck;
- then I went to the /data/app/ folder (via TWRP) and deleted the superuser app i installed from market, as well as the corresponding data in /data/data, wiped cache and dalvik again: still the same...
-the I decided to make a backup via TWRP : one of the whole system, and one of Data partition only;
- then I realised I couldn't transfer it to my computer in TWRP, so I finally made a factory reset, re-flashed the rom+gapps, and then (it worked) copied my backup to the computer
now; how can I retrieve the data of my apps only, as I guess it is the system data that is messed up?
Of course I tried to restore the Data backup in twrp and it got stuck again the same way....
any help greatly appreciated!
You could try appextractor on the play store
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
forvrknight said:
You could try appextractor on the play store
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It didn't work for me...
I finally got my data back by this tricky procedure (there might be an easier way but google+xda was not my friend on this one, I tried ext2explore and ext4explore, linux_reader, Andoird_ICS_JB_ext4_unpacker and maybe some more without success)
I renamed the two files:
data.ext4.win000 renamed as data.ext4.tar.001
data.ext4.win001 renamed as data.ext4.tar.002
Unzipping the first one with 7zip recreates a .tar archive named data.ext4.tar, which is not really a tar archive (extracting it will only give a very few files, for me it only included the image files of my custom bootanimation)
On this file I used AccessData FTK Imager, which would recognise the 'evidence' as a tar file and would allow you to export the data, however this is only the data contained originally in the first file (data.ext4.win000) (although the reconstructed archive was the right size, for me 2.7GB, the part extracted by this software was only 1.5GB)
To recover the second part, simply rename the second file (initially data.ext4.win001) into data.7z and then extract. (this does not work with the first file, all you would get is again a very few files, for me it looked like the content of a single apk file)
All you have to do now is to merge the two data folders and voilà
I could then retrieve my sms mms messages by retrieving the file smsmms.db (and eventually smsmms.db-journal) located in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases, and putting them on the phone in the same folder
I could also retrieve my phone call logs by retrieving the files contacts2.db (and eventually contacts2.db-journal) located in /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases, and putting them on the phone in the same folder
Hope it helps someone someday
For some reason replacing the data folder of a particular app does not always work, I have to investigate a bit or maybe start fresh with a new rom and try again
asim0 said:
It didn't work for me...
I finally got my data back by this tricky procedure (there might be an easier way but google+xda was not my friend on this one, I tried ext2explore and ext4explore, linux_reader, Andoird_ICS_JB_ext4_unpacker and maybe some more without success)
I renamed the two files:
data.ext4.win000 renamed as data.ext4.tar.001
data.ext4.win001 renamed as data.ext4.tar.002
Unzipping the first one with 7zip recreates a .tar archive named data.ext4.tar, which is not really a tar archive (extracting it will only give a very few files, for me it only included the image files of my custom bootanimation)
On this file I used AccessData FTK Imager, which would recognise the 'evidence' as a tar file and would allow you to export the data, however this is only the data contained originally in the first file (data.ext4.win000) (although the reconstructed archive was the right size, for me 2.7GB, the part extracted by this software was only 1.5GB)
To recover the second part, simply rename the second file (initially data.ext4.win001) into data.7z and then extract. (this does not work with the first file, all you would get is again a very few files, for me it looked like the content of a single apk file)
All you have to do now is to merge the two data folders and voilà
I could then retrieve my sms mms messages by retrieving the file smsmms.db (and eventually smsmms.db-journal) located in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases, and putting them on the phone in the same folder
I could also retrieve my phone call logs by retrieving the files contacts2.db (and eventually contacts2.db-journal) located in /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases, and putting them on the phone in the same folder
Hope it helps someone someday
For some reason replacing the data folder of a particular app does not always work, I have to investigate a bit or maybe start fresh with a new rom and try again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It actually helped me, thanks a lot!
Two Questions
asim0 said:
On this file I used AccessData FTK Imager,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a 4.6 Gigs professional software. If TWRP can read this type of file there must be a smaller tool available for this.
Can you please let me know of any other toll which would do the same?
asim0 said:
All you have to do now is to merge the two data folders and voilà
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the 2nd file do we need to follow the same procedure like 'evidence' and stuff?
Thanks, I am desperate to read some information from TWRP backup and cannot wait 6 days while the 4.6 Gigs of ISO will download.
pi_yush said:
This is a 4.6 Gigs professional software. If TWRP can read this type of file there must be a smaller tool available for this.
Can you please let me know of any other toll which would do the same?
For the 2nd file do we need to follow the same procedure like 'evidence' and stuff?
Thanks, I am desperate to read some information from TWRP backup and cannot wait 6 days while the 4.6 Gigs of ISO will download.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These files (at least the ones produced by TWRP2 on my phone) are just standard gzipped tar archives. The tar command has supported this format for at least 20 years. You can extract with a command like this:
Code:
tar xvfz data.ext4.win000
tar xvfz data.ext4.win001
number_thirty_two said:
These files (at least the ones produced by TWRP2 on my phone) are just standard gzipped tar archives. The tar command has supported this format for at least 20 years. You can extract with a command like this:
Code:
tar xvfz data.ext4.win000
tar xvfz data.ext4.win001
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks number_thirty_two, I copyed thes to a folder I named untar in my home folder of CYGWIN, and extracted my system files perfectly
C:\cygwin\home\carl\untar\
system.ext4.win000
system.ext4.win001
tar xvfz system.ext4.win000
tar xvfz system.ext4.win001
Apologies for resurrecting this, but does anyone know how to extract them if they were compressed as .comp files?
asim0 said:
It didn't work for me...
I finally got my data back by this tricky procedure (there might be an easier way but google+xda was not my friend on this one, I tried ext2explore and ext4explore, linux_reader, Andoird_ICS_JB_ext4_unpacker and maybe some more without success)
I renamed the two files:
data.ext4.win000 renamed as data.ext4.tar.001
data.ext4.win001 renamed as data.ext4.tar.002
Unzipping the first one with 7zip recreates a .tar archive named data.ext4.tar, which is not really a tar archive (extracting it will only give a very few files, for me it only included the image files of my custom bootanimation)
On this file I used AccessData FTK Imager, which would recognise the 'evidence' as a tar file and would allow you to export the data, however this is only the data contained originally in the first file (data.ext4.win000) (although the reconstructed archive was the right size, for me 2.7GB, the part extracted by this software was only 1.5GB)
To recover the second part, simply rename the second file (initially data.ext4.win001) into data.7z and then extract. (this does not work with the first file, all you would get is again a very few files, for me it looked like the content of a single apk file)
All you have to do now is to merge the two data folders and voil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have absolutely no background knowledge of anything in a smartphone so bear with me. My device is rooted though.
Ok you know how Samsung Galaxy S4 came with all those stock apps? I want to be able to delete all of them.
With some simple google searches I found this link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2307355
I attempted some of these steps but I have absolutely, not even the slightest how to complete those steps that person has outlined.
Here are the steps:
Download the zip file "TrulyClean_v1.6_MEDIUM_SBROWSER" extract it.
1. Use the default script or edit the script after your taste. (see "hidden "tutorial above!)
2. Copy recovery.zip to phone.
3a. For best experience - do a full wipe, install a custom rom and then flash TrulyClean.zip.
3b. Script only removes apps in /system, so you have to uninstall any updated apps manually.
4. Flash in recovery (I use PhilZ Touch) & run script after every time you flash a new rom.
5. Enjoy and tell me what you think!
So I downloaded the zip file and extracted it, there were two files into: META-INF and busybox.
Ok so I put them in a folder on the desktop called recovery.
On step 2 I zip the folder I created, so now it's called recovery.zip
On step 3 I don't know anything beyond that, are there step by step tutorials with pictures that illustrate these steps?
michaelli1991 said:
Ok you know how Samsung Galaxy S4 came with all those stock apps? I want to be able to delete all of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
This is ROMCleaner - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2348256
It is a simple zip which you flash in recovery and also comes with a ROMCleaner_user.txt which you serves as the list of apps you want to delete.
Very easy to edit and use.
Also,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2507931
This is a great ready-to-flash script you can try if you are a little unsure of editing your own custom list.
michaelli1991 said:
I have absolutely no background knowledge of anything in a smartphone so bear with me. My device is rooted though.
Ok you know how Samsung Galaxy S4 came with all those stock apps? I want to be able to delete all of them.
With some simple google searches I found this link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2307355
I attempted some of these steps but I have absolutely, not even the slightest how to complete those steps that person has outlined.
Here are the steps:
Download the zip file "TrulyClean_v1.6_MEDIUM_SBROWSER" extract it.
1. Use the default script or edit the script after your taste. (see "hidden "tutorial above!)
2. Copy recovery.zip to phone.
3a. For best experience - do a full wipe, install a custom rom and then flash TrulyClean.zip.
3b. Script only removes apps in /system, so you have to uninstall any updated apps manually.
4. Flash in recovery (I use PhilZ Touch) & run script after every time you flash a new rom.
5. Enjoy and tell me what you think!
So I downloaded the zip file and extracted it, there were two files into: META-INF and busybox.
Ok so I put them in a folder on the desktop called recovery.
On step 2 I zip the folder I created, so now it's called recovery.zip
On step 3 I don't know anything beyond that, are there step by step tutorials with pictures that illustrate these steps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi.
U do not need to extract the two files.
U only do this if u want to remove any system apps u don't want to remove in the update script.
Just copy the zip file in yr sdcard and flash in recovery.
That's it.
Cheers.
Wait, if your rooted. Why not just buy (yes buy, it's worth it) Titanium Backup or Rom Manager Pro and freeze, backup, and uninstall the apps you want removed. And then you have a good end user friendly GUI to work with.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I am trying to edit ROM with EFT Dongle and I added Google Play Store in ROM.
This ROM has LZ4 Compression files, so i extract them all and repack into .tar file as they were.
1. I download OpenGapps for Android Oreo 8.1.0 as per my device "arm" and unzip it.
2. I Edit "System.img.ext4" with EFT Dongle.
3. I Move every app to system/app, priv-app to priv-app and permissions to permissions
4. Now i Repack ROM and Flash it.
5. ROM Flashed Successfully and My phone get boot loop error.
Please Help me here what i am missing?
Note: It's my first time to Edit any ROM I tried alot of pack & repack tools but they didn't work for me. so i tried EFT Dongle to edit ROM.