Hi,
I think I've tried everything and was almost losing hope, but decided to ask for help before giving up.
I just bought an used defy, because I've had this phone before and I love it. But since it's still rocking Android Eclair 2.1 and the Google Play Store does not work, it's not very useful. So I wanted to upgrade it to Kitkat (CM, don't remember if it's 7 or 11) like I did to my previous phone.
First steps: what worked:
I've downloaded and installed Framaroot and 2ndInit (v2.3) without much issues. The problems started when I've tried to use ClockworkMod to flash an update.zip image. No matter what I did, I could make it mount the sdcard problem. I've tried with multiple sdcards, formatted the card using the phone itself, transfered the files with the card in the phone, but ClockwordMod could not mount it for anything.
I have read somewhere (maybe here) that ClockworkMod with Eclair had these kind of problems, and I would have to flash an SBF and upgrade it to Froyo before flashing anything else.
For that, I needed RSDLite, fine, did it with my other phone a few years ago. The problem is, I only have a MacBook and a PC with Windows 10 and no version of RSDLite would work with Windows 10, I've tried multiple compatibility settings with different versions of RSDLite and Motorola Drivers and nothing worked. When I was about to give up, I found out about sbf_flash utility for mac osx and linux (from here). I thought my problems were solved, but when trying to flash the sbf with my MacBook, the phone freezes and I get a "Waiting for phone" message on the screen. If I disconnect the cable, the phone instantly reboots and when it comes back to the bootloader, I get an error on the screen (attached). Again, tried with multiple variants of sbfs found on this page, with and without sudo, always with the exact same outcome. Maybe it could be an osx problem, but the only machine with linux that I have access is a raspberry-pi with ARM arch, and the sbf_flash linux binary is for intel platform and it doesn't work, so I can't test it on linux.
I have a feeling this phone was downgraded back to Eclair after being flashed to be sold, and now I can't manage to flash anything else to it.
Does anyone else has any idea about what else I could try?
Thank you all in advance, this community is amazing.
First of all,make sure you have the correct firmware
Not using mac...But i'd guess it might be solved with a flash in windows7 or xp,you can just use a vitual machine and delete it later.
I faced problem like this bcuz i connected to the front usb rather than the back one,so notice this.
Hope it would be helpful,it is great to see there is still someone using our beloved defy:laugh:
Related
Ok, I want to leave a message on here for future noobs like me with a Galaxy S
i9000 but it might work for others too.
My issue when flashing custom roms is that I have not been able to access my galaxy from my computer via usb since literally day 1 (when it did work once).
I spent a week trying to connect to Kies on multiple computers (vista and Windows 7). Tried via Android SDK, even tried hiemdall. I almost tried in ubuntu also but I never did get that working as I really don't know linux well enough. I've now given up...
So then I saw that you can do flashing all on the phone with the clockwork mod. With clockwork, my first rom flashed, well, like clockwork! But then I had some issues with lag and hang ups and reception and I decided to switch to another rom (seearms jl2 based rom - good stuff so far).
However this rom install went sideways... It said that it had installed ok but on reboot it stalled on the Galaxy I9000 screen and froze. Luckily I could still use the 3 button recovery to boot to clockworks but the hitch was that I HAD NO OTHER ROM to flash back to.
I had done a backup through clockworks but when I tried to restore it said the systems.img file was missing so it skipped it and the end result was the same freeze.
Normally everone says to reflash at this point with odin but that was not an option for me. So this is where I got lucky. The SeeARMs rom included Steam recovery module (though I thought it was the stock 3 button recovery menu for a while - I was panicking a little). I highly recommend seeing if you can get steam because it allows access to the External SD card for flashing which can be a lifesaver. Ahh, finally I could get the old rom on that, reflash it and go one with my life. My theory being that at least the issues would be aligned with the this rom and it worked.
So the lessons I learned:
1) Always have your new rom and your old rom on the interanal SD card in case of issues.
2) check your nandroid backup - even try testing it? - they don't always work perfectly with every device.
3)I highly recommend finding out if Steam or similar will work if you cannot access the USB connection and load things on when things go wrong.
Some tips I saw that also worked for me
1) flash a new kernel before you flash a new whole rom.
2) if things go sideways, try redownloading or retransferring the file to make sure there were no errors.
I did both and then reflashed (with my old rom Voodoo Doctor, SeeArms Rom and Darky's 8.1 rom on the card just to have options) and all was good!
PS: the steam recovery knocked off the first letter of the file when executing for some reason so I had to make 2 copy's of each rom I wanted access to ie Darkysrom.zip and arkysrom.zip just look for that error when you are doing this.
Good post - hopefully it'll help someone out who's stuck.
Hopefully
I'd like to stick some of that in on the thread for your rom but I need put another 7 half relevent messages out there before I am worthy... I understand the rule but I'd rather only post where it is meaningful...
GF
I spent all day yesterday trying to fix my Epic with no progress and feeling a little sol.
Yesterday I decided I needed a new ROM/kernel because I was averaging only 4hrs of battery life with Supernova and wanted to try Nebula ROM with EXT4. I backed up everything on my laptop and did a Nandroid backup as well. I also have Titanium backup backed up on my pc. I always always back up. I started fresh by flashing to stock and starting over. I rooted with 1 click, flashed DK28, and where I believe I screwed up is I didn´t upgrade to Clockwork 3 (looking back I don´t know wtf I was thinking by proceeding the following way), instead I went to advanced, reboot recovery and ended up rebooting my system into 2.5.1.2. I rebooted my phone and all was good, powered off, 3 fingered and I still had 2.5.1.2 so like a dumbass I figured I was good to go ahead and flash Nebula. LOL so what happened? the Rom installed, I finished like I always do and when I went to boot up my phone I flashed into v2.5.1.0 and thats where my phone stays. If I try to do anything it gives me E: Can´t open/cache/recovery/log
I tried to restore of course and I get this message. I have tried to Odin back to stock but my phone will not connect to a pc.
Heres my situation. I live in a house with 6 computers that I have attempted to connect to with no luck, 5 of these have adb and the Android SDK, several drivers (including the Epics) installed and the C drives have literally no more space. The other pc has Windows 2000 so I wondered if it won´t install the drivers or pick up my phone because its so old??? My main laptop is running Ubuntu and Im not understanding how or even if I can Odin my phone on it, besides I think this laptop won´t connect to my Epic because of the USB port and I dont have a clue how to detect or fix that. My mom has a brand new PC with Windows 7 thats never had anything connected via USB yet that I thought was worth giving a shot at. I only have the stock USB cable though and I was wondering if I bought a new cable if it would be more likely that my phone would connect.
I am not very educated on Android or computers so I prob shouldn´t have done as much flashing as I have to begin with. If I understood file systems better I would prob figure it out.
Thanks for any help or advice. If I over looked the answer in front of my face I am sorry it is because I am retarded and don´t understand computer lingo.
Are you connecting the proper way to odin?
Step 1: open odin with phone Disconnected from PC (if you dont open it first it may not recognize your phone, so i hear)
Step 2: hold 1 on keypad and power on phone --> download mode
step 3: connect phone to PC
step 4: Flash rom
if odin still isnt recognized I would suggest taking out your microsd card and put it in another phone or a microsd card reader and put a basic dk28 rom/dl18 (maybe the acs one that includes modem) rom on there then put the sdcard back in your phone and flash that in clockworkmod and see if it'll boot (wide data/cache/dalvik before doing this)
Also search the forum i'm pretty sure theres an RFS formatter somewhere that'll format your /system/data/cache back to RFS, you probably need to do that before flashing back the other rom...
So, if I understand the OP correctly, you accidentally flashed an ext4 only rom on rfs with 2.5.1.0?
This thread had a flashable reRFS conversion, just in case you need it.
This thread has a cwm flashable di18 and modem.
Those should get you up and going again with cwm 2.5.1.0. If they don't, Odin is really the answer and I don't know what to tell you.
So I tried both of your ideas and I am so pist off. I am now stuck in download mode and cant get 7 freaken computers (one literally brand new with Windows 7, one with Vista, one with XP, 3 with Linux, 1 with 2000 out of being desperate with 5 different usb cords to connect. Clearly my phone is the problem because the sd reader can read my sd just fine and my mom, sister and gramps connect o the same computers just fine. Ive accepted that I am ****ed at this point. I have never got this phone to stay connected to a pc and I think I hate it.
It is starting to sound like it is time to head to a sprint store.
Erica8123 said:
I am now stuck in download mode and cant get 7 freaken computers (one literally brand new with Windows 7, one with Vista, one with XP, 3 with Linux, 1 with 2000 out of being desperate with 5 different usb cords to connect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried to just pull the battery out? Then, put it back in the phone and boot into CWM? Or pull the battery, then boot into recovery? I personally hate going to the Sprint store and I try every possible option before going.
If you can get another USB cable it will probably work. I use an evo cable. Also for future reference there are no custom kernels on dk28.
Sent from my Evo Killer!!!
Hey, I just wanted to update.
I had tried several usb cables to connect btw including a new one I just bought. No luck. I had tried literally everything to fix my Epic and I was super pist during my last post lol. I finally had to cave and take the block walk (literally) down to Sprint and thank God I insured my phone. He was hella cool about it, just laughed and said he doesn't want to bother with it and replaced it. I am still trying to decide what I wanna do as rooting goes (besides getting rid of pretty much every app they put on there).
Thanks again everyone
I have been trying to root my Samsung Intercept from Virgin Mobile now for a couple of days.
For the record, I am doing this under Linux, I have access to a Windows Machine but it's not mine so I do this purely under Linux.
Here are the steps I took and what happened...
Followed the tutorial on using ADB under linux to root the phone.
I pushed the kernel I wanted to flash to the correct folder, /DATA/LOCAL/TMP and then also uploaded a recovery to the same folder.
I then attempted to ./KERNEL and after it ran it displayed some weird txt in the bottom, nothing that looked good and from what I can remember the txt sad something about the partition, and it just didn't look like a good root.
I then restarted the phone, the FIRST samsung logo shows up with their website address underneath it and it stays there forever! Well at least for 5-10mins and then it goes to a black screen, it does nothing from their, I've left it run overnight on that screen and no go.
NOW, the only thing I can think of to fix my phone. I can still access download mode, and I can still get into the default recovery.. note that I don't have a custom recovery installed, because with the Intercept you need to install a kernel before the recovery.. so I never got that far because my kernel install messed up.
Anyway I tried using the recovery to wipe all data, and also wipe partition cache, still nothing good or different has come from this.
Really hoping someone can point me in the right direction.. I downloaded a STOCK VM kernel that I found on the SDX forums but it just says that the file isn't verified or doesn't match up.. something like that. Either way I have found no good UPDATE.ZIP to help bring my phone back.
I have also tried using the SWUPGRADE method on my friends Windows XP SP3 computer and it just won't recognized my phone. I tried everything, picking new USB ports in the back, I tried unplugging and plugging the USB in and out at different times. All Windows tells me is that "The usb device is not recognized" so I don't know where to go with this.
I really hope someone can help, I only had the phone for 4-5 days and I don't think I have my receipt anymore, hopefully I can find it cause this isn't looking very good.
I'd perfer a way to fix this on Linux but I can use Windows if I have to.
Hopefully someone knows the answer.. I saw a guy on SDX who had the same problem but no one had a fix for him...
I bricked a brand new verizon galaxy tab! It isn't even mine. it's my brothers and he's going to be pissed if i can't fix it
here is what i did:
i rooted it using z4root from this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=833953
no problems.
then i downloaded sgs kernel flasher from the market and flashed this file http://gunsforgeeks.com/Tab/kernel/KhasMek.Voodoo.plus.CDMA.Tab.v4.OC.zImage
which i got from this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=941781
it auto re-booted when done and is now stuck on samsung logo forever! **** me! i can't reboot into recovery, but i can reboot into download mode.
only problem is i have an old mac ibook running osx 10.4 which is too old for hemidall and too mac for odin. for christs sake i can't even get bootcamp or parallels to work on that old of a mac so i can run windows and thus odin.
what can i do? i'd really like to fix this without having to ask my brother to use his newer mac that should let me run hemidall, cause if i bricked his tab he ain't gonna want me touching his computer.
any suggestions? pleeeeeeease
Get rid of your ****ty mac and get a windows based PC/laptop instead obviously, then flash using odin etc.
Also use the search function, there is an endless amount of topics on this exact issue so no need to create a new one just because you are scared your bro is gunna kick your arse.
Oh btw, your device isnt "bricked", I wish people would not use that term so loosely.
You're gonna have to beg, borrow, buy, or otherwise get yourself a machine that'll run Heimdall... don't think there's any other way around it...
Once you do that, do this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=967175
crisis averted
sorry ya'll. you'll have to excuse a noob. crisis has been averted. i borrowed a windows laptop and successfully restored to stock via hemidall. guess i have more reading to do before i attempt to flash a rom on this thing again. didn't think i was such a noob as i've never had such problems flashing all kinds of roms on my vibrant. different devices. chalk it up to a learning experience.
tkirkable said:
sorry ya'll. you'll have to excuse a noob. crisis has been averted. i borrowed a windows laptop and successfully restored to stock via hemidall. guess i have more reading to do before i attempt to flash a rom on this thing again. didn't think i was such a noob as i've never had such problems flashing all kinds of roms on my vibrant. different devices. chalk it up to a learning experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to hear you solved the problem. Just out of curiosity what happened when you tried to run Heimdall on your mac? Theoretically the universal binaries I redistribute should run on 10.4+ with any processors architecture supported by OS X (i.e. x86, AMD64 and PPC).
Heimdall requires osx 10.5?
Apparently. That's what it says when i try to open the .pkg file. it says this package type requires osx 10.5 I can run it in windows 7 though. I had to three times yesterday cause i kept soft bricking my device if that's the right way to put it. read read read. i must be missing something. I had clockworkmod recovery and ext. 4 for a second but then froze on the samsung logo at reboot again. had to heimdall my way back and lost it all. back to the drawing board
I started this thread: (https://forum.xda-developers.com/axon-7/help/help-loss-root-twrp-t3781054)
a while back and ended up never solving my issue, eventually giving up and living with an unrooted phone.
Anyhow I've been trying again to get to the bottom of the issue and after another day of fruitless research here I am hoping to bring it back to your attention.
Does anyone around here regularly use a mac to perform adb commands? I'd love to get some help trying to get fastboot working again.
Should I just give up and find a Windows computer to do this?
Thanks for reading
alajoy said:
I started this thread: (https://forum.xda-developers.com/axon-7/help/help-loss-root-twrp-t3781054)
a while back and ended up never solving my issue, eventually giving up and living with an unrooted phone.
Anyhow I've been trying again to get to the bottom of the issue and after another day of fruitless research here I am hoping to bring it back to your attention.
Does anyone around here regularly use a mac to perform adb commands? I'd love to get some help trying to get fastboot working again.
Should I just give up and find a Windows computer to do this?
Thanks for reading
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That guy was horribly wrong and sorry you had to live with an unrooted phone for so long. But in newer versions of Nougat (i think B32 or B35) they removed fastboot and you could not boot into it. I have a way of being able to install TWRP here without fastboot (assuming you're on an Oreo bootstack, otherwise you can do almost everything in that thread except use a TWRP for Nougat instead). I haven't tried this, but if you have stock recovery, try downgrading to Nougat B19 by using an official SD card update and using apply update from SD card in stock recovery. Haven't found an official SD card update for you but I've only done a little bit of searching.
edit: ive only found B19 Nougat full image , but here: https://mega.nz/#F!kYtRAJjJ!5tD1zPpo0nw2tJwhANA9pQ!tNsQhD5Y
download A2017U-7.1.1-B19-Full-326200B1901A2017UV1.1.0B19.zip and extract it and put update.zip in your sd card. boot into stock recovery and use apply update from sd card and select it. hopefully it works and it will downgrade
Teet1 said:
That guy was horribly wrong and sorry you had to live with an unrooted phone for so long. But in newer versions of Nougat (i think B32 or B35) they removed fastboot and you could not boot into it. I have a way of being able to install TWRP here without fastboot (assuming you're on an Oreo bootstack, otherwise you can do almost everything in that thread except use a TWRP for Nougat instead). I haven't tried this, but if you have stock recovery, try downgrading to Nougat B19 by using an official SD card update and using apply update from SD card in stock recovery. Haven't found an official SD card update for you but I've only done a little bit of searching.
edit: ive only found B19 Nougat full image , but here: https://mega.nz/#F!kYtRAJjJ!5tD1zPpo0nw2tJwhANA9pQ!tNsQhD5Y
download A2017U-7.1.1-B19-Full-326200B1901A2017UV1.1.0B19.zip and extract it and put update.zip in your sd card. boot into stock recovery and use apply update from sd card and select it. hopefully it works and it will downgrade
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for responding.
So I finally went out and bought an sd card yesterday to try this and I am having no luck.
I tried unzipping the file, but it just creates a duplicate zip file so I simply tried installing the whole package.
Wether I try and install via sd card or via sideload/adb I get the same "installation aborted" message.
This is so frustrating. All I want is to root again! I'm trying to get this phone to last me as long as I can before replacing it.
Doing this all on a Mac, fyi. Not sure if that changes things. Since we're not using EDL or Axon7toolkit I assumed it doesn't matter, but there is a lot that I don't know.
Thanks for any help that you're able to provide!
alajoy said:
Thank you so much for responding.
So I finally went out and bought an sd card yesterday to try this and I am having no luck.
I tried unzipping the file, but it just creates a duplicate zip file so I simply tried installing the whole package.
Wether I try and install via sd card or via sideload/adb I get the same "installation aborted" message.
This is so frustrating. All I want is to root again! I'm trying to get this phone to last me as long as I can before replacing it.
Doing this all on a Mac, fyi. Not sure if that changes things. Since we're not using EDL or Axon7toolkit I assumed it doesn't matter, but there is a lot that I don't know.
Thanks for any help that you're able to provide!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's saying that error then it's probably not letting you downgrade.
Also this might be slightly more difficult since you're in a Mac. Can you get access to a windows machine at all? This is why I hate macs
Teet1 said:
If it's saying that error then it's probably not letting you downgrade.
Also this might be slightly more difficult since you're in a Mac. Can you get access to a windows machine at all? This is why I hate macs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what would be the reason that it wouldn't let me downgrade?
I've always used a mac and always managed to find an answer. Sure, toolkits don't work, but using fastboot and adb and doing it that way always has. Now suddenly no fastboot and I'm screwed... I don't really have access to a windows pc.
I just find it hard to believe that it's simply not possible on a mac.
alajoy said:
So what would be the reason that it wouldn't let me downgrade?
I've always used a mac and always managed to find an answer. Sure, toolkits don't work, but using fastboot and adb and doing it that way always has. Now suddenly no fastboot and I'm screwed... I don't really have access to a windows pc.
I just find it hard to believe that it's simply not possible on a mac.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah fastboot screen was removed in newer versions. But that's at a software level of the phone. On your computer, the adb and fastboot commands are universal. It's usable on Mac, Linux and windows. The tools used for the phone like miflash or axon7tool are made for windows though and you kinda need those to fix bricked phones. There's a way to force push the twrp image into the recovery partition via adb but I don't know what the name of the recovery partition is
@alajoy: You can give yourself access to a fake Windows on your Mac. It's called a virtual machine. VirtualBox is one free software that can do this. Pretty easy to use, you install a virtualized Windows that you can boot into. Then you can run all Windows-based tools out there. It's also easy to share a USB port with the VM. Then flashing tools can access it. I run Linux as my main OS on a Sager gaming laptop, this is how I flash my A7 and Samsung phones. It just works, and reliably. I do also have a real Windows 10 installed on a partition on the same PC, but that is only for gaming and I never, ever allow it to connect to the Internet.
@Teet1: The literal name of the recovery partition is exactly that, recovery. And that is what most Android devices call it, regardless of manufacturer. It doesn't matter whether it is TWRP or ZTE stock recovery, the name is the same. It can be accessed via the paths:
/dev/block/platform/soc/624000.ufshc/by-name/recovery
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/recovery
/dev/block/sde14
On other devices the path may be different (but the 2nd example above will work for most), but the name is usually the same.
AnonVendetta said:
@alajoy: You can give yourself access to a fake Windows on your Mac. It's called a virtual machine. VirtualBox is one free software that can do this. Pretty easy to use, you install a virtualized Windows that you can boot into. Then you can run all Windows-based tools out there. It's also easy to share a USB port with the VM. Then flashing tools can access it. I run Linux as my main OS on a Sager gaming laptop, this is how I flash my A7 and Samsung phones. It just works, and reliably. I do also have a real Windows 10 installed on a partition on the same PC, but that is only for gaming and I never, ever allow it to connect to the Internet.
@Teet1: The literal name of the recovery partition is exactly that, recovery. And that is what most Android devices call it, regardless of manufacturer. It doesn't matter whether it is TWRP or ZTE stock recovery, the name is the same. It can be accessed via the paths:
/dev/block/platform/soc/624000.ufshc/by-name/recovery
/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/recovery
/dev/block/sde14
On other devices the path may be different (but the 2nd example above will work for most), but the name is usually the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By name i meant the path, are you sure that's the path for our device? I tried that once and it was not that. Either way he is able to do it
@Teet1: Yeah, I'm sure, but not on all 3 paths. /dev/sde14 may be correct or not, depending on firmware/boot stack that is installed (or the presence of a vendor partition, which might change the paths). But the other 2 should be as I listed.
Just open a root file manager and see for yourself. I use Total Commander, which also shows symbolic links (the one with "bootdevice" in the path is really just a symlink to 624000.ufshc). Getting the recovery path from the example with "bootdevice" in the name should also work on almost any device running Android, and will generally point to the recovery partition. You can see the paths in TWRP too, but TWRP doesn't show symlink (but you should be able to see them if you use the right commands in any terminal, like TWRP's terminal).