Database Users

[Q] Trouble installing custom recovery after obtaining root

Hey guys, I've run into an issue while attempting to flash a custom rom to my i337. First off, I was successfully able to obtain root and have verified that I have su privileges. My issue is happening when I try to install any type of boot loader. I've tried the following methods to install a bootloader:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2314494 (step 3- both methods)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2297033
using odin to flash .img recoveries using this conversion method http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2281287
Whenever I install any recovery and I try to boot into it, I boot into odin/download mode. After this happens I am unable to boot into the stock rom (or any rom for that matter) until I use this (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2360859) method to restore my current rom.
Additionally, I have been unable to perform a factory or soft restore since I've had this issue. I can't boot into recovery so I can't do a hard reset, but every time I attempt to restore within the android OS, I boot into odin mode....
It's become quite frustrating and I'm unsure of where to go next.
Additionally, additionally, I do believe that I have the MF3 update installed. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty confident I do.
I just got this phone a few weeks ago and I'm still learning the ropes here... so forgive me for my lack of knowledge on the subject
Thanks in advance for any input

If you have mf3 you can not flash roms or put on a custom recovery. In fact you'll lucky you haven't bricked your phone. Don't try any more until an exploit is found.
Edit, in the mean time, do some more reading and research. You need to know a lot more before you are ready to flash anything if the devs find away to put a custom recovery on.

I just don't understand why people that don't even have a basic concept of how their phone works would do something to it that could (and probably will) turn it into an expensive brick? Is it really to difficult to do a little reading first? It's forum rules, it's common sense, and it can save you a lot of time and trouble. I'm not trying to bust the OP's balls, but if you don't take a little time to be responsible for your own actions (searching and reading and reading some more), you get what you deserve. Being "new" is never an excuse, it's just more reason to do some reading. Everyone, don't touch your phone until you learn about what it is you are doing to it first!
Good luck to the OP, I hope you decide to read (at least) the pinned threads in the General section (and hopefully a lot more) before you do anything else to your phone.

Sad but true
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

TWRP not mount /system

I am unable at the moment with TWRP to mount my /system partition, which therefore has lead me not to have the ability to flash a custom ROM, but also at the same time I am ROMless, I have access to Recovery, at the moment, I'm attempting to sideload a Stock Rooted zip of my AT&T G2 ROM. However, I believe it won't have any progress, but I'm attempting anything at the moment in order to get my phone running.
Currently stuck on TWRP flashing a ROM and stuck on "Formatting" once again.
Any help would be appreciated. Quite frankly, I am scared out of my wit that I have bricked my phone, however there is some hope left in me with the fact that I have Recovery still running.

Kenchi* said:
I am unable at the moment with TWRP to mount my /system partition, which therefore has lead me not to have the ability to flash a custom ROM, but also at the same time I am ROMless, I have access to Recovery, at the moment, I'm attempting to sideload a Stock Rooted zip of my AT&T G2 ROM. However, I believe it won't have any progress, but I'm attempting anything at the moment in order to get my phone running.
Currently stuck on TWRP flashing a ROM and stuck on "Formatting" once again.
Any help would be appreciated. Quite frankly, I am scared out of my wit that I have bricked my phone, however there is some hope left in me with the fact that I have Recovery still running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im having the same issue too

Kenchi* said:
I am unable at the moment with TWRP to mount my /system partition, which therefore has lead me not to have the ability to flash a custom ROM, but also at the same time I am ROMless, I have access to Recovery, at the moment, I'm attempting to sideload a Stock Rooted zip of my AT&T G2 ROM. However, I believe it won't have any progress, but I'm attempting anything at the moment in order to get my phone running.
Currently stuck on TWRP flashing a ROM and stuck on "Formatting" once again.
Any help would be appreciated. Quite frankly, I am scared out of my wit that I have bricked my phone, however there is some hope left in me with the fact that I have Recovery still running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2451696

I finally solved the issue, miraculously, nothing was working so I just left the phone to continuing formatting for an hour so, came back, and it seemed to have done it, I installed Custom ROM, and it booted up normally, I'm not sure what triggered the phone to accept the system mount, but I am sure as hell happy it did. I was worried I was going to have a bricked device on my hands.
Hold strong, just allow the phone to continue doing what it needs to do I guess. Leave TWRP in all STOCK settings, I tried to modify multiple settings based on Devs saying to get a faster formatting to enable RM-F but I have no clue why and what didn't work.
Anyhow, problem resolved!
On another note, I would never use the recommended method from Droid_<3er as they would completely brick your phone unless you're specifically in the situation listed in that thread. As you would put your phone into a state where you lose both access to Recovery and ROM access, rendering your phone to a piece of plastic and metal. But it's definitely worth mentioning, I just had to do some research on the method cause I had the same thinking as well.

I can confirm by using normal make_ext4fs while formatting /system is the best way to avoid this. Was afraid of having a 5.2 inch brick, but thankfully, disabling the quick way to format has fixed it and allowed /system to be remounted.
I think (<-- that's the disclaimer) that it's OK to use the fast formatting method for Dalvik Cache and Cache, but not for System.

in my opinion it's best to use rm -rf /system aka delete_recursive("/system"); than formatting

I'm having the same issue, and I'd be willing to try this one. How would I do this?

I have the same issue with CWM and now got over to twrp with the same outcome.
Right here I see solutions that worked so far, but it seems like this was rather accidentially.
I want to try some of these, but in the thread posted above
"Try this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2451696"
it says "Do it the wrong way and your phone might get nuked"
unfortunately it doesn't say what the commands in there mean...
Can anybody be of assistence which method will properly work without nuking the phone?
I have the MOTO G 2014 (2nd Gen)
It is an updated bootloader
i got the latest twrp
and some titan roms.
only stock rom will work so far,
custom roms will result in a bootloop.

[Q] Accidentally killed stock recovery

Hello everyone! I'm brand new to the forums so if I am breaking any rule or regulation, just give me a heads up. So, some basic information about my predicament.
- own a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 from Verizon.
- I use t-mobile network. Works great with no problems.
- phone was successfully rooted via towel root.
I was looking to get cynagenmod on the phone so I started looking up guides and such. Only thing I wasn't aware of was that carrier branded versions can't have their recovery flashed. That said, I used flashify and the clockwork apk. The app did its job, killed the stock recovery, but couldn't load the new one. Now the phone says error, no recovery when trying to access it during boot.
It should be said that the phone still boots and works normally but I really want to get the recovery working so I can at least try again the right way to get cynagenmod working.
My question is, is it possible to get my hands on the stock recovery for my phone and just flash it back to how it was? Basically, how do I fix this problem I put myself in. Of course, I didn't make backups. During the whole process, I figured "if I follow this tutorial word for word, why bother with backups?" look how wrong I was
Any help would be sincerely appreciated. I'm posting this from my replacement phone, not my note 3.

Want to restore my phone to factory but afraid of bricking given circumstances

Android Version: 4.4.2
Rom: XXUGNG2-SHOstock-i-v8.1
Bootloader: I337UCUAMDL
Recovery: TWRP 2.5.0.2
I've been installing Custom ROMs for a while on this phone and the previous phones I've had (Nexus One, Galaxy Skyrocket.) My S4 hasn't had issues installing them until more developers adopted Aurora Installers and now any ROMs that use them won't work. My phone goes into a boot loop and I need to restore my previous Nandroid backup. I thought that my TWRP might be the cause, but it looks like nowadays the only way to update TWRP is through the GOO Manager. Unfortunately for whatever reason that doesn't work properly and I can't figure out how to get it in any other way. So for a while I had this older ROM installed but now that we're well into Lollipop I decided to try another ROM (GOLDENEYE|XXUHOD7 LOLLiPOP TW|5.1.15), but again it had Aurora and failed, and this time it looks like it messed up my bootloader because now I have the unlock icon whenever I turn on my phone (I don't care much about that because my phone is well outside of warranty at this point, but I'd prefer it be removed)
So I was considering just using ODIN to revert all the way back and starting from scratch, but it looks like my phone will be bricked. So basically I'm at a standstill because I obviously don't want to brick my phone, but at the same time I'm not satisfied with my current ROM since it's quite long in the tooth and isn't even Lollipop based. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
TIA

One thing you might try here, and another here.

dvandam said:
Android Version: 4.4.2
Rom: XXUGNG2-SHOstock-i-v8.1
Bootloader: I337UCUAMDL
Recovery: TWRP 2.5.0.2
I've been installing Custom ROMs for a while on this phone and the previous phones I've had (Nexus One, Galaxy Skyrocket.) My S4 hasn't had issues installing them until more developers adopted Aurora Installers and now any ROMs that use them won't work. My phone goes into a boot loop and I need to restore my previous Nandroid backup. I thought that my TWRP might be the cause, but it looks like nowadays the only way to update TWRP is through the GOO Manager. Unfortunately for whatever reason that doesn't work properly and I can't figure out how to get it in any other way. So for a while I had this older ROM installed but now that we're well into Lollipop I decided to try another ROM (GOLDENEYE|XXUHOD7 LOLLiPOP TW|5.1.15), but again it had Aurora and failed, and this time it looks like it messed up my bootloader because now I have the unlock icon whenever I turn on my phone (I don't care much about that because my phone is well outside of warranty at this point, but I'd prefer it be removed)
So I was considering just using ODIN to revert all the way back and starting from scratch, but it looks like my phone will be bricked. So basically I'm at a standstill because I obviously don't want to brick my phone, but at the same time I'm not satisfied with my current ROM since it's quite long in the tooth and isn't even Lollipop based. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are flashable zips of TWRP floating around to update and the TWRP thread in our section says to use the TWRP Manager app on the Play Store. As far as using ODIN, you won't be bricked. The unlock icon shows up when it detects the system files aren't stock/root is in place. Your bootloader should still be in tact, and if you can still boot into recovery that confirms it. Either way, you just need to use a different method to update TWRP and you should be fine.

Well I feel like a f-ing nimrod..
I failed to mention in my description that when I first tried to install, not only did I get the Unlock icon, but I got the "Software not authorized by AT&T..." error message that prevented me from doing anything. However, I thought this was related to my phone being carrier locked. I found out later that my phone was unlocked a while ago so that wasn't it. Had I looked more closely at the error I would have seen that it was a Kernel error. Turns out I had to install a LOKI'd Kernel. Not exactly sure why, but that was the only one that worked. Now the new ROM is installed and I'm restoring my apps now.
If nothing else, I got my TWRP updated finally, so I like to think this wasn't all for naught. Thanks for the insight anyways. This was easier than doing an ODIN back and forth.

This is because you're on the MDL bootloader. You need to search the forums for your phone in regard to the MDL bootloader and loki'd ROMs. When you see the "software not authorized. .." message, it just means you need to flash a loki'd kernel for your device. Search for Jeeboo's Recovery and Kernel and you should be right a rain. Good luck.
Edit: I was half awake when I tried to answer your question, and somehow missed that you had discovered the loki'd kernel already. The reason for this is because the MDL bootloader is susceptible to the loki exploit, which for all intents and purposes is the equivalent of unlocking the bootloader. I've been using Jeeboo's recovery for a year or so and never had an issue with any ROM I tried. The kernel cones in handy for those that need a loki'd kernel. There's a ton of easy to find info in the forums to help you get a better understanding of the MDL and how loki applies to it.

Pulling User Data in Recovery from a Galaxy S7 w/ Stock Everything

My phone suddenly had a momentary display malfunction (some of the text on the screen just turned into garbled pixels) and then entered into a boot loop. I didn't make any changes or updates to the phone recently. It no longer boots normally - just the Samsung logo and some of the Verizon logo animation, then it reboots and starts again. How do I pull my user data off (photos mainly) before trying a factory reset? The phone is totally stock. I haven't unlocked it, rooted it, or installed any custom recovery/ROM/bootloader/whatever. (I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about because I don't, haha.) The touchscreen is fully functional. I'm sure this has been covered here before, but I haven't found anything that totally explains how to do this in this particular situation, so I'd really appreciate any help anyone can provide.
The only time I can get the phone to show up under adb devices is when I boot it in recovery mode and select "Apply update from ADB". But it says "sideload" next to it in adb devices, and the push, pull, and shell commands return errors. I've read that this is normal. Wiping the cache partition didn't solve the boot loop problem.
If it helps, this is what the top of the recovery screen displays:
Android Recovery
Verizon/heroqltevzw/heroqltevzw
8.0.0/R16NW/G930VVRSBCTC1
user/release-keys
I'm no Android expert, clearly. I've heard it mentioned that I need to install a custom recovery in order for this to be possible. To be clear, I want to make sure I don't erase the user data before I have a chance to pull it off the phone. These are the questions that I still have after reading information elsewhere (some of which I'm just asking out of an abundance of caution):
Is it correct that I need to install a custom recovery before I can pull this data off the phone?
Do I need to have it unlocked/rooted/anything else in order to be able to install a custom recovery? Or is there anything else I should do before installing it?
Which custom recovery should I install?
Do I need a custom ROM, if that's a different thing?
Do I need a custom...bootloader, if that's also a different thing?
Should I use Odin or Samsung Smart Switch to install the custom recovery?
(Extra credit: Does it sound from my description of how the boot loop started that this phone has hardware problems and should be replaced ASAP?)
Thank you so much for any help you can provide! Any extra information beyond my questions will be very much appreciated, too, of course. You guys never cease to impress.

You have a B version bootloader like me, and so far no root/custom recovery has been made for our versions of bootloaders. If I were you, I would check if you had maybe like a previous backup, and if Google made an automatic backup of your apps and photos? If you didn't use a 3rd party backup, and if you don't want to wait, you might lose some files. I also think you might be able to flash a certain part of stock firmware to get your phone to boot again, but I'm not sure
Also, if you don't care about files that can't be get through automatic backups, might as well flash a whole stock firmware, which as far as I know, may be the easiest way to get out of one.
Please correct me if I'm wrong
Also to answer your bullet points:
1. I'm not sure if you need a custom recovery, but from my experience from a Verizon s5, that's probably a yes.
2. Since this is Verizon, you would need to unlock your bootloader in order to install a custom recovery, which in where I posted my first reply, the B version of the bootloader is still locked down without any known way to unlock it. You and me are stuck with this, as I also have the B version.
3. If the heavens line up and you somehow unlock the bootloader, try to flash a recovery Called TWRP under the name "Herolqte" (that's what I think). If that doesn't work, try to find one that works with the phone on XDA. If neither of those show up try to use another custom recovery like CWM.
4. If your trying to recover data on a phone, flashing a custom ROM is probably the last thing you want to do. A custom ROM is a modified version of Android, which may mean you'll have to format your device anyways so this is probably not what you want (even though it would be nice :[ )
5. As in post 2, all you would need to get a custom recovery is to unlock the bootloader. I'm not even sure if you CAN get a custom bootloader, as Odin won't even let me flash a stock bootloader to my phone that is the same exact Version >:[
6. You would need to use Odin if you were trying to flash something to your phone. Smart switch I think WOULD let you back up your device, but you would need to be on the home screen on your phone, which in turn, would probably need you to be out of that bootloop.
7. This is probably a software issue. If you don't care to much about the idea, try flashing some parts of a stock firmware. I was personally in a boot loop 2 days ago, but I flash a stock modem file (I think that was the second file slot from the bottom in Oden) and that got me out, but for some reason wiped my phone clean, and I'm not sure why.
Anyways. Goodluck in recovering your data. Also I'm not sure if a factory reset would even fix a boot loop

yaas

yaas