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I just got a replacement MT4G, and need to return the defective unit to as close to stock as I can. Did my research on it and I think I have the steps down, but I just want to double check everything.
I planned on first downgrading the phone as shown here, following what travisjames posted. Then I would need to install VISIONary and restore the pre-update recovery here to replace Clockwork recovery, and finally follow the steps to turn S back on, is that right? Just want to make sure I've got this down, can I change recovery with temp root via VISIONary, or do I need permanent root? I'd be doing it via terminal, so temp root should be fine.
Need some help from the geniuses. And though it'll be clear I am not one of these geniuses, I wanted to mention this is my 5th Android phone and I've perma-rooted all of the others and flashed ROMs hundreds of times. I've also searched for a resolution to this with no luck. Lastly, I know some will argue this fits in General or Q&A, but this problem has been reported by a number of folks across phone lines without resolution and I think it is going to require real dev collaboration to solve and possibly help prevent this in the future, so I'm posting it in Dev.
Now, on to the problem....
Bought a MT4G yesterday and came home to root. Followed some of the great guides here to use Visionary R14 to get temproot and then "permaroot". I was getting S-OFF, but my root didn't seem to be lasting beyond reboot, maybe this was because I was showing 2.2 and not the 2.2.1 OTA update. So, I continued with the permaroot guide here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=834225 and all seemed to be going well. My root was surviving reboot and I had S-OFF, but the LAST STEP is to reboot again and check S-flag in HBOOT and that's where I went wrong. I'd left the PD15IMG file on the SD root and when it rebooted I guess I was holding the volume rocker up unintentionally, so it flashed this file without me being able to stop it. I rebooted and still showed S-OFF and 2.2.1, but now when I entered terminal emulator and type "su" I get an error about the user being unknown (doing a "ls su" in /system/bin shows su to be there, btw). Obviously the file screwed up root, and reverted my recovery from Clockworkmod to stock. From there I thought I'd reflash the OTA update.zip but I get an "invalid operation" error.
So I probably should have asked for help then, but I've been trying to follow downgrade guides and redo the root procedures but no joy, usually because they require root to initiate the downgrade (to flash a recovery and do a nandroid restore or to execute some steps of the script). I can get a # prompt when I run the rage scripts, but it appears to be losing root when I reboot. One attempt turned S-ON back on as well. My searching turned up a number of other users who have obviously had this problem with various android phones, and the only one to report successfully fixing flashed a non-root update.zip and did some sort of fixes to busybox.
In summary, I can't return the phone to T-mo because I bought it from an associate at work, and I appear to be stuck between root and non-root without any options that are clear to me to resolve the situation. I am somewhat familiar with adb, fastboot flashing, etc., so if someone can just help me fix su/busybox or somehow flash this back to stock so I can start over or something I would be HUGELY appreciative.
vettejock99 said:
Need some help from the geniuses. And though it'll be clear I am not one of these geniuses, I wanted to mention this is my 5th Android phone and I've perma-rooted all of the others and flashed ROMs hundreds of times. I've also searched for a resolution to this with no luck. Lastly, I know some will argue this fits in General or Q&A, but this problem has been reported by a number of folks across phone lines without resolution and I think it is going to require real dev collaboration to solve and possibly help prevent this in the future, so I'm posting it in Dev.
Now, on to the problem....
Bought a MT4G yesterday and came home to root. Followed some of the great guides here to use Visionary R14 to get temproot and then "permaroot". I was getting S-OFF, but my root didn't seem to be lasting beyond reboot, maybe this was because I was showing 2.2 and not the 2.2.1 OTA update. So, I continued with the permaroot guide here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=834225 and all seemed to be going well. My root was surviving reboot and I had S-OFF, but the LAST STEP is to reboot again and check S-flag in HBOOT and that's where I went wrong. I'd left the PD15IMG file on the SD root and when it rebooted I guess I was holding the volume rocker up unintentionally, so it flashed this file without me being able to stop it. I rebooted and still showed S-OFF and 2.2.1, but now when I entered terminal emulator and type "su" I get an error about the user being unknown (doing a "ls su" in /system/bin shows su to be there, btw). Obviously the file screwed up root, and reverted my recovery from Clockworkmod to stock. From there I thought I'd reflash the OTA update.zip but I get an "invalid operation" error.
So I probably should have asked for help then, but I've been trying to follow downgrade guides and redo the root procedures but no joy, usually because they require root to initiate the downgrade (to flash a recovery and do a nandroid restore or to execute some steps of the script). I can get a # prompt when I run the rage scripts, but it appears to be losing root when I reboot. One attempt turned S-ON back on as well. My searching turned up a number of other users who have obviously had this problem with various android phones, and the only one to report successfully fixing flashed a non-root update.zip and did some sort of fixes to busybox.
In summary, I can't return the phone to T-mo because I bought it from an associate at work, and I appear to be stuck between root and non-root without any options that are clear to me to resolve the situation. I am somewhat familiar with adb, fastboot flashing, etc., so if someone can just help me fix su/busybox or somehow flash this back to stock so I can start over or something I would be HUGELY appreciative.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the alternative method in my guide with rage instead of visionary and see if that helps. One thing is does is reinstall su and busybox. Also, make sure that you have deleted the PD15IMG.zip from your sdcard so that this doesn't happen again.
Hey! i had the same problem and all i had to do was re-flash the ROM and ive been fine ever since!
just either use the stock rom in the downgrading post, or flash one of the new ones i.e. icedglacier or Gorillas's. iceglaciers seems to be pretty functional right now gorillas is awesome just has a few kinks he's working on
vettejock99 said:
In summary, I can't return the phone to T-mo because I bought it from an associate at work, and I appear to be stuck between root and non-root without any options that are clear to me to resolve the situation. I am somewhat familiar with adb, fastboot flashing, etc., so if someone can just help me fix su/busybox or somehow flash this back to stock so I can start over or something I would be HUGELY appreciative.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try this (you should be s-off) and assuming you have busybox already installed.
run rage to get su in your terminal then run the following command in the terminal
busybox mount -o remount,rw /system
busybox chown 0 /system/bin/su
busybox chmod 4755 /system/su
install the superuser.apk if it's not already installed
make sure everything is working by opening a adb shell and typing "su" to verify.
use your phone normally and try rebooting after a few hours. hopefully the fs cache flushed and root is fixed permanently.
mrpanic7 said:
Hey! i had the same problem and all i had to do was re-flash the ROM and ive been fine ever since!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, first things first - guess I have to try to see if I can even get S-OFF again or if I've completely screwed myself.
Going to try the alt root method, but I think I have been and it wasn't working. So unless me being tired at 1am was the cause, I may need some more help. Thanks.
Okay, followed the s-off guide, and ran the busybox commands posted above, and I am back to S-OFF and now I get "permission denied" instead of "unknown user root". I think this is progress, but still can't flash because I don't have root. I noticed opening Superuser keeps FC'ing...
Please post questions in Q&A section.
just follow this guide here, which you are already familiar with. it's for temp root using rage. but since your phone has the eng hboot with s-off it should become permanent once the FS flushes out to disk (flash)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=797042
follow the guide for root and mainly to get the su files installed just in case your's didn't instal properly prior. when you are done just type "sync" multiple times in your terminal
wait a while an hour or so. then reboot to verify that it's permanent.
Same thing happened to me with the unknown root user. What finally fixed it for me, was redoing the adb commands that put those files on your device so you could use rage. Once it re put the files on my phone, I did the rage commands again and it worked
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Thanks, everyone! I am working again, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the help. I was THIS CLOSE to giving up on this phone.
Thanks again.
Mark
I cracked my screen and want to copy things to my computer but I cant get past the lock screen. How do I bypass it? btw I cant used adb because usb debugging isn't turned on and the phone isn't rooted.
Sorry man, you're screwed. There is no way to bypass lockscreen.apk and go to launcher.apk without actually unlocking (AFAIK, don't quote me on it). Most stuff gets backed up by the google servers by default.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
There is a method to do it with ADB, but not without: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1800799
If your bootloader is unlocked then you can install custom recovery and use command lines to back it up. But if its not, if you try to unlock it will wipe your entire device in the process.
If the data is valuable enough, ie naked pics, you could buy a new screen replacement.
Ok guys it looks like Jcase did it again he created an exploit that gets write protecton off for good or until an OTA. He states this will survive even an FXZ or factory data reset.
Here is what I did took about 15 min. go here ---->http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2551113 down load the exploit follow the instructions it's very easy the exploit does it all. I am not sure if I needed to do this or not but I did to be safe I used fastboot and put stock recovery back. Just take the recovery.img from the FXZ and open a command prompt type in this command------> fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
You must be in fastboot obviously it will flash recovery back and you lose WP off. You then run MotoWpNoMo and it bypasses WP protection for ever or until OTA from what I have read. Open a command prompt and type in this command------> adb shell getprop ro.boot.write_protect to check if write protection is disabled it will return a value of "0". No more having to boot into recovery to make system changes that require writer protection off this is true root. Great job Jcase!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and we have stock recovery back and I beleive that voodoo ota root keeper works on 4.2.2 so I think we will have a very easy time upgrading to 4.4 and not have to re-root this is just a theory at this point.
I just tweeted Jcase looks like he tested this method it was the rumrunner team (beaups and fuses) that created this exploit.
Why couldn't this come at the beginning of a weekend, instead of a week? Aaaarrrrrggghhhh!
fat-fingered and Maxx-ed out.
Einsteindks said:
Why couldn't this come at the beginning of a weekend, instead of a week? Aaaarrrrrggghhhh!
fat-fingered and Maxx-ed out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It actually did but I worked all weekend and was not able to try it until today but it is SUPER EASY TO DO.
The other plus to this is voodoo still protects root on 4.2.2 so since we have stock recovery back we SHOULD not guaranteed but should be able to download the update to our sdcard an install 4.4 through stock recovery and keep root. The only question is if we would need to run the exploit again to get write protection off. I don't know if it would survive the OTA but I am leaning on it not surviving. Not that it matters this works on 4,4 anyway.
Another quick way to see if WP is off is to uninstall then re-install SS recovery we could not do that before unless we booted in to recovery with WP off. I just tried it and it works great.
Worked perfect on my Mini. Just be patient and keep an eye on it for granting superuser permission and unlocks after reboots.
should i just wait for kitkat to come out? because i dont feel like refreshing everything and starting over lol.. since i went back to stock and not able to save data XD
bigv5150 said:
Ok guys it looks like Jcase did it again he created an exploit that gets write protecton off for good or until an OTA. He states this will survive even an FXZ or factory data reset.
Here is what I did took about 15 min. go here ---->http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2551113 down load the exploit follow the instructions it's very easy the exploit does it all. I am not sure if I needed to do this or not but I did to be safe I used fastboot and put stock recovery back. Just take the recovery.img from the FXZ and open a command prompt type in this command------> fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
You must be in fastboot obviously it will flash recovery back and you lose WP off. You then run MotoWpNoMo and it bypasses WP protection for ever or until OTA from what I have read. Open a command prompt and type in this command------> adb shell getprop ro.boot.write_protect to check if write protection is disabled it will return a value of "0". No more having to boot into recovery to make system changes that require writer protection off this is true root. Great job Jcase!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and we have stock recovery back and I beleive that voodoo ota root keeper works on 4.2.2 so I think we will have a very easy time upgrading to 4.4 and not have to re-root this is just a theory at this point.
I just tweeted Jcase looks like he tested this method it was the rumrunner team (beaups and fuses) that created this exploit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you mean i can keep the root by flash back the stock recovery.img ? so i can still receive the ota , and have the root after update ?
I doubt that you can keep your root and take the OTA. It caused a whoping lot of problems last time around, and I don't see it being any different when we take KitKat either. Best to flash a stock version of the ROM, then take the update. You may still keep write protection off.
fat-fingered and Maxx-ed out.
Einsteindks said:
I doubt that you can keep your root and take the OTA. It caused a whoping lot of problems last time around, and I don't see it being any different when we take KitKat either. Best to flash a stock version of the ROM, then take the update. You may still keep write protection off.
fat-fingered and Maxx-ed out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is not necessarily true. The issue with the last update was taking the ota with root still installed. Voodoo still works on 4.2.2 so if you protect root and then unroot with voodoo you should be able to take the update and then restore root after the update. I used voodoo on the last update and kept root what screwed me was I lost write protection off. When I tried to run pwnmymoto it saw I was already rooted and wouldn't run the exploit so I was stuck till I could fxz and run pwnmymoto again. That won't happen here since we have write protection off script now. So you use voodoo then restore root then run motowpnomo and you will have root and write off protection.
bigv5150 said:
That is not necessarily true. The issue with the last update was taking the ota with root still installed. Voodoo still works on 4.2.2 so if you protect root and then unroot with voodoo you should be able to take the update and then restore root after the update. I used voodoo on the last update and kept root what screwed me was I lost write protection off. When I tried to run pwnmymoto it saw I was already rooted and wouldn't run the exploit so I was stuck till I could fxz and run pwnmymoto again. That won't happen here since we have write protection off script now. So you use voodoo then restore root then run motowpnomo and you will have root and write off protection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
root vs running your phone without a recovery. 2 different things , wouldn't you say? root was maintained through the OTA without any steps to hide it. rooting your phone doesn't mess up system updates. running without a recovery does.
Ok, so I am right in that when root is in place, it causes problems during updates (due to recovery used for WP off mode. Prob'ly the reason for most noob problems.). I wasn't aware that voodoo still worked. I certainly would've used it last time! I'll try it next time. So, theoreticaly, having a clean root, run the WP script, flash the OE recovery back on, and, using voodoo, KK should take, as long as the factory ROM isn't altered? Ideally then, we should be able to restore root, and still have a WP off after KK? I'm guessing, to be on the safe side, safestrap should temporarily be uninstalled. Probably not necessary, but it couldn't hurt.
Edit: looks like voodoo wont work into 4.4, due to KK.
fat-fingered and Maxx-ed out.
mistermojorizin said:
root vs running your phone without a recovery. 2 different things , wouldn't you say? root was maintained through the OTA without any steps to hide it. rooting your phone doesn't mess up system updates. running without a recovery does.
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Click to collapse
I don't understand what you are trying to say we have full root now and stock recovery like any other android device. Taking an OTA root wont survive the reason why people boot looped had nothing to do with root as much as not having recovery. Once the OTA tried to install itself there was no recovery to install it hence the bootloop.
Einsteindks said:
Ok, so I am right in that when root is in place, it causes problems during updates (due to recovery used for WP off mode. Prob'ly the reason for most noob problems.). I wasn't aware that voodoo still worked. I certainly would've used it last time! I'll try it next time. So, theoreticaly, having a clean root, run the WP script, flash the OE recovery back on, and, using voodoo, KK should take, as long as the factory ROM isn't altered? Ideally then, we should be able to restore root, and still have a WP off after KK? I'm guessing, to be on the safe side, safestrap should temporarily be uninstalled. Probably not necessary, but it couldn't hurt.
Edit: looks like voodoo wont work into 4.4, due to KK.
fat-fingered and Maxx-ed out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct but most of us have probably altered the system in one way or another and will have to fxz for a clean system to take update.
Voodoo wont work on 4.4 it works for 4.2.2 but I see what you are saying it may not restore root once on 4.4. That I am unsure of since I don't believe any one has tried it. Worst case scenario it doesn't restore root and you have to re-root then install stock recovery then run motowpnomo. I can't see the harm in trying.
this is not a root tool correct just RW tool?
StankFiss said:
this is not a root tool correct just RW tool?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep
fat-fingered and Maxx-ed out.
bigv5150 said:
Ok guys it looks like Jcase did it again he created an exploit that gets write protecton off for good or until an OTA. He states this will survive even an FXZ or factory data reset.
Here is what I did took about 15 min. go here ---->http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2551113 down load the exploit follow the instructions it's very easy the exploit does it all. I am not sure if I needed to do this or not but I did to be safe I used fastboot and put stock recovery back. Just take the recovery.img from the FXZ and open a command prompt type in this command------> fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
You must be in fastboot obviously it will flash recovery back and you lose WP off. You then run MotoWpNoMo and it bypasses WP protection for ever or until OTA from what I have read. Open a command prompt and type in this command------> adb shell getprop ro.boot.write_protect to check if write protection is disabled it will return a value of "0". No more having to boot into recovery to make system changes that require writer protection off this is true root. Great job Jcase!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and we have stock recovery back and I beleive that voodoo ota root keeper works on 4.2.2 so I think we will have a very easy time upgrading to 4.4 and not have to re-root this is just a theory at this point.
I just tweeted Jcase looks like he tested this method it was the rumrunner team (beaups and fuses) that created this exploit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Am I the only one who noticed that this is totally missed credited? Jcase had nothing to do with this exploit. He is thanked for his contribution of root access that allows for it but that is all.
Sent from my XT1080 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
TheWhiteChallenger said:
Am I the only one who noticed that this is totally missed credited? Jcase had nothing to do with this exploit. He is thanked for his contribution of root access that allows for it but that is all.
Sent from my XT1080 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I guess so because everyone else knows how to read maybe you should read the WHOLE POST!!!!! is says at the end that "I just tweeted Jcase looks like he tested this method it was the rumrunner team (beaups and fuses) that created this exploit". I mean it's actually in your post where you quoted me "reading comprehension it's a wonderful thing".
Crud. Just tried this, and it says driver errors and some junk. I KNOW everything IS installed, I put stock recovery back first. Security things/firewall off, to. Any ideas?
Edit: scratch request...was starting in fastboot mode...oops.
fat-fingered and Maxx-ed out.
Einsteindks said:
Crud. Just tried this, and it says driver errors and some junk. I KNOW everything IS installed, I put stock recovery back first. Security things/firewall off, to. Any ideas?
Edit: scratch request...was starting in fastboot mode...oops.
fat-fingered and Maxx-ed out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol can't tell you how many times I have made that mistake. Also using the wrong USB port for rsd and it doesn't see my phone.
I'm getting confused reading all of the posts that seem to be more about upgrading and rooting than this actual exploit. But my question is this.... I am rooted through jcase's exploit ("pwnmymoto" i think it's called) and still on the original firmware (pre camera update) with no recovery. Can i run this permanent WP killer from where my phone is now? Or do i have to flash the stock recovery back first? Also, will this wipe data?
To be honest, it's been a while since i flashed anything and i'm not real comfortable with the FXZ process just yet. All of my other phones have been highly supported by the devs and i have always had a utility to do all of the work for me. I'm hoping this will be pretty easy. I just want to know what i'm getting into before i soft brick my phone and have to wait days to figure out how to fix it.
Im looking to root the phone but a lot of things say you need a custom loader,
I was wondering if the is a way to do so without deleting the files.
I stumbled across this Kingoroot app and was wondering if that works
If not, what is the best way to back up all my files? I tried using the ADB method, but I have 61gbs of files and the backup is around 3gb in size and I have files I do not want to loose
Thanks in advance
No, you cannot do this w/out wiping your phone. Just use axon7toolkit. It can also be used to make a full backup.
I don't think there's a way if you have your bootloader locked better option is to backup everything, wait i think u can root with your bootloader locked but i don't remember the post just look around the forums