For those of you that don't think you need to read this - you are wrong! I have flashed 100's of ROM's with no issue until the end of last week.
MODERATORS PLEASE STICKY THIS IN A PLACE WHERE EVERYDAY USERS THAT FLASH ROMS WILL SEE IT
I uneventfully flashed a ROM (not important which one because I don't think it has anything to do with particular ROM) and all went well. I went to bed with a working phone and the somehow a reboot happened and awoke with a phone with no signal. The error was saying that there was no SIM card and / or No Network Available.
I finally used HC-kTool app on the Market (used latest version) to Restore an efs.tar file and my phone started working but I had a generic / fake IMEI number -- 004999010640000
If you have backed up your /EFS folder on the root of your phone then all is well. The easiest way is to use Hellcat's HC-kTool to back up your EFS and save a copy on your sdcard and your PC and that way you will not have to go through my misery.
However if you have not BACKED UP your EFS files then you will have issues like I did
Ok so here is what I can tell based on my experience:
Look for any files or folders on your sdcard that have EFS in the name. You might get lucky and look in the /EFS folder on your phone. If the nv_data.bin file has been corrupted the .nv_data.bin.bak might still be OK. If that is the case you may be able to follow this guide: http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f606/samsung-android-repair-efs-imei-repair-without-box-1348192/
What won't work is any sort of simple copying nv_data.bin from the sdcard to the /EFS folder using Root Explorer - I spent almost an entire weekend trying this.
If your /EFS folder .bak file has been corrupted then in my case I found a folder on my sdcard named EFS_BACKUP that I assume that Clockworkmod has created during some of my ROM flashes (somebody correct me if I'm wrong because otherwise I have no idea how it got there).
In the EFS_BACKUP folder I have a number of files form different dates (I assume of flashes) labelled efs_xxdate.tar.gz
btw you can use these or any .gz file when using HC_kTool tool simply by renaming the file (long press with Root Explorer) to just a .tar file (delete the .gz). HC_kTool uses a file named efs.tar on the root of the sdcard to restore.
In my case I had to extract one of these files by long pressing in Root Explorer and choicing extract. I then went to the extracted folder on the sdcard (using Root Explorer) and found a folder named efs_xxdate and within that a folder named EFS
... again don't get mislead -- simply copying and pasting that file or any other to the root /EFS folder will not work!!
I noticed that there were multiple files in the extracted/efs_xxdate/efs folder but the dates were different. The nv_data.bin and the nv_dat.bin.md5 files were dated the same as the date of the folder BUT the .nv_data.bak file was dated Dec31, 2010
Here's how I restored that file:
1) I extracted the .tar.gz file as above
2) Went to sdcard\extracted\efsxxdate\efs folder and copied the older dated .nv_data.bak to the root of the sdcard using Root Explorer (long press, copy, then paste)
3) Then renamed the .nv_data.bak file to nv_data.bin on the root of the sdcard
3) Then followed these instructions from line 14 on in this post .. http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f606/samsung-android-repair-efs-imei-repair-without-box-1348192/
14 = at command prompt [ C:\adbtools\ ], type adb shell
15 = type su
16 = type cp /sdcard/nv_data.bin
17 = type rm -rf /efs/nv_data.bin.md5
18 = type exit & exit
19 = REBOOT YOUR PHONE
I'm not sure why this works but EVERY combination of copying and pasting nv_data.bin , .bak, or entire EFS folders suing Root Explorer does NOT work but this above technique did work for me ! Somehow having the .md5 file recreated is the key ??
I hope this helps someone.
BACKUP YOUR EFS -- Hellcat's HC_kTool seems to work great
Thank the DEVELOPERS
Already been highlighted a few times
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1068193&highlight=efs
Can you please clarify....I always keep a weekly copy of clock work mod backed up. Is this not enough? A lille confused about the need for efs backup...
Sent from my SGS2
Thx for this post. Anyway, i got stuck at 17, it says "-rf: not found". What does that mean? Am i unable to mount efs?
Nice post. Not happened to me *yet* but you never know.
Here is the direct link to Hellcats K-tool
Backing mine up now
jcrompton said:
However if you have not BACKED UP your EFS files then you will have issues like I did
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Click to collapse
You had the EFS image file already, all you had to do was rename the file then use ktool and you were done within seconds..
You probably could've done it via pm as I don't think it was a good idea to try any suggestion that was thrown at you in public forum...
btw, this is original development section.. someone move it to general please..
s2d4 said:
You had the EFS image file already, all you had to do was rename the file then use ktool and you were done within seconds..
You probably could've done it via pm as I don't think it was a good idea to try any suggestion that was thrown at you in public forum...
btw, this is original development section.. someone move it to general please..
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Click to collapse
Actually i don't understand how he made it: ktool doesn't use a tar file like posted, but an img file, and you can only find tar.gz files in the backup folder. How do you get an img file out of those?
s2d4 said:
someone move it to general please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorted
Used K-Tool since the method mentioned via terminal never worked..
stylez said:
Sorted
Used K-Tool since the method mentioned via terminal never worked..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good for you
But what did you do exactly? How did you obtain the img file for ktool to flash it? I only have the tar backups from the Efs_ backup folder...
s2d4 said:
You had the EFS image file already, all you had to do was rename the file then use ktool and you were done within seconds..
You probably could've done it via pm as I don't think it was a good idea to try any suggestion that was thrown at you in public forum...
btw, this is original development section.. someone move it to general please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not have a new efs image file
All the files I had had been corrupted
I spent four days PMing all the big wigs re this. It's not as simple as you think unless you familiarize yourself with EFS backup BEFORE you need it!
Clockwork mod and nandroid backups do not alter the efs folder when a backup is restored! It must be backed up separately
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
vnvman said:
Good for you
But what did you do exactly? How did you obtain the img file for ktool to flash it? I only have the tar backups from the Efs_ backup folder...
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Click to collapse
I did not have an image file either. Look above at my post where I describe how to do it from step number 1 forward
I didn't use the tool to fix it
I just suggested getting the tool and learning how to use it
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
jcrompton said:
I didn't use the tool to fix it
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Click to collapse
Just to make the whole thread clear, is your IMEI now the original IMEI or the default U1 IMEI of 0049...?
Hmm..in the end i fixed this by flashing the efs from the official kh3 firmware through odin (clear efs checked). Now my imei changed to a generic one but i don't really care: i have my baseband back and the phone works. I just hope the FBI or something isn't after me now.
vnvman said:
Hmm..in the end i fixed this by flashing the efs from the official kh3 firmware through odin (clear efs checked). Now my imei changed to a generic one but i don't really care: i have my baseband back and the phone works. I just hope the FBI or something isn't after me now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have an EFS_BACKUP folder on your sdcard? And if so do you have any compressed files with older (mine was dated Dec31 2010) .nv_data.bak files?
If you do then that's what I ultimately used to restore my IMEI (not the generic one)
jcrompton said:
Do you have an EFS_BACKUP folder on your sdcard? And if so do you have any compressed files with older (mine was dated Dec31 2010) .nv_data.bak files?
If you do then that's what I ultimately used to restore my IMEI (not the generic one)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, i'll try that right away.
vnvman said:
Actually i don't understand how he made it: ktool doesn't use a tar file like posted, but an img file, and you can only find tar.gz files in the backup folder. How do you get an img file out of those?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kTool does both, raw .IMG dump and filebased .tar.gz backup.
Does K-Tool work with CF-Root kernel?
HellcatDroid said:
kTool does both, raw .IMG dump and filebased .tar.gz backup.
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Wtf, i got answered by Hellcat himself!
Thanks, i didn't notice that option, i would have gone much less nuts if i knew it, stupid me
nfribeiro said:
Does K-Tool work with CF-Root kernel?
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Click to collapse
Yes, should work fine.
Should you find any missbehavings or issues though, please let me know and they shall be fixed
vnvman said:
Wtf, i got answered by Hellcat himself!
Thanks, i didn't notice that option, i would have gone much less nuts if i knew it, stupid me
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Click to collapse
lol xD
Well, but not necessarily stupid, the first few versions indeed only made the raw .IMG dump and the button still only says "backup to /sdcard/efs.img" (yeah, I should really change that text )
But since some 1.2x build it makes the .tar as well and when you hit the restore button it asks if you want to restore the .IMG or the .tar
Haha yeah right, i never hit restore because i didn't have an img dumped to the sd so i thought i had nothing to restore there
How do I delete the above mods without having to restore to an older backup or flash a new ROM?
I am well versed with the android system and if you tell me to shell rm or delete using root explorer I can... Also I figured out that a few files were replaced while flashing these mods... so any help would be appreciated....
What u can do is unzip the files and see where they are being placed and then delete from root explorer. If any files are being replaced, unzip ur flashable rom and pull the original files and then place in directories, overwriting the modified fikes
QuantumFoam said:
What u can do is unzip the files and see where they are being placed and then delete from root explorer. If any files are being replaced, unzip ur flashable rom and pull the original files and then place in directories, overwriting the modified fikes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I'll do that and let u know how it gos
Edit: Everything went ok Thanks!
Sent from my Htc One V using Tapatalk
I'm a new developer and have applied all my tweaks and edits via root explorer so far. is there a way to change a CWM backup into a flashable rom file for other users to flash? I searched around a bit, but couldn't seem to find anything about it.
Goto this thread here
follow all the setup to install cygwin & kitchen
once it's all setup you can plug your phone in and create a rom
follow the guide (second method) for creating the rom system files by extracting the system folders from your phone (rom you are using)
you can then turn it into a flashable rom zip
I think you just basically extract the CWM backup, then repackage them in 1 zip file (except for the androidsecure backup).
9steele9 said:
I'm a new developer and have applied all my tweaks and edits via root explorer so far. is there a way to change a CWM backup into a flashable rom file for other users to flash? I searched around a bit, but couldn't seem to find anything about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YOU CAN USE THE CWM BACKUP IN KITCHEN YO MAKE A CUSTOM ROM.BUT YOU CAN'T ABLE TO USE THE BACKUP FILE DIRECTLY AS A CUSTOM ROM.
OTHER HAND YOU CAN MAKE ALSO THIS BACKUP AS A DEODEXED STOCK ROM BY DEODEXING THIS BACKUP FILES.
YOU CAN FIND KICHEN GUIDE HERE-http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1801690
YOU CAN FIND DEODEXING GUIDE HERE-http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2230337
PRESS THANKS IF I HAVE A BIT SUCCESS TO HELPING YOU.....:thumbsup:
Hmm thats how i make roms that i dont post here though....
In tthe cwm backup u have system.rfs.tar
Extract it using 7zip
U get system.img or u might get a system folder....
Extract the img file using Magic Iso
Open magic iso
In menu..
File>open
Select ur system.img
On the left side pane right click on the disk icon and click extract.select ur destination
Once the files are all extracted copy all of them in a folder named "system"
Now get a meta-inf folder from a custom rom and zip
Meta-Inf and system folder together
U have ur rom...
Ill create a video tutorial for this tomorrow as many people ask this question in different threads of devices....
Sent from my GT-S5360 using xda app-developers app
So my favorite boot animation by far is the one that comes with NucleaRom, but I need to use a different rom. Could someone point me in a direction to extract the bootanimation from a certain rom and flash it on my current system? Was surprised to not find a guide to help me already.
A2017U
Lots of ba threads in theme forum.
lafester said:
Lots of ba threads in theme forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read through them. Not what I'm looking for
Amer532 said:
extract the bootanimation from a certain rom and flash it on my current system?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Amer532 ... Use a root empowered File Manager to go to /system/media and there you will find the current "bootanimation.zip" file. Copy it to a folder on your external sdcard then when you load your new rom, again go to /system/media and replace the existing file "bootanimation.zip" with the one you previously saved to your ext sdcard. That should do the trick. I should stress that the A2017U is a finiky device so I don't take any responsibility for anything that goes wrong. :fingers-crossed:
metpolds said:
@Amer532 ... Use a root empowered File Manager to go to /system/media and there you will find the current "bootanimation.zip" file. Copy it to a folder on your external sdcard then when you load your new rom, again go to /system/media and replace the existing file "bootanimation.zip" with the one you previously saved to your ext sdcard. That should do the trick. I should stress that the A2017U is a finiky device so I don't take any responsibility for anything that goes wrong. :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thank you now I understand that the rom has to be installed to get to that "bootanimation.zip". Thanks for clearing that up for me XD
Hey all, I've looked all over an can't find the answer to this... I have a NAND backup I made using TWRP, however, I had the problem many have had with getting errors when trying to restore it. So I thought I'd try a different way by creating a TWRP flashable file from the NAND files. I have taken the files from the backup and extracted them using CYGWIN. I read a thread here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2746044
But I'm stuck on a couple of things... First, the part about using the META-INF folder from another ROM... I've checked the files in in the META-INF folder and notice that the updater-script is what loads the files and directories. But none of the META-INF files I have found matches my backup files.
The files I want to flash are the complete system folder, complete data folder and the boot.img file. Is it possibly to flash these with TWRP without the META-INF folder/files? If I have to use the META-INF how do I make sure all the files and folders are flashed?
Would it be better to create an ODIN flashable file and just use Odin to do the flash? If so should I put the system and data folders into one file and then use the boot.img (or would I put the boot.img finle into a tar) in the Bootloader spot in Odin?
Thanks in advance.