FIRST THING FIRST, THIS IS DANGEROUS. DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Myself and one other person have successfully done this. If you have success as well, please post here. What you DO NOT want to flash, and is the cause of bricks is motoboot.img that is older than what you have now. Just dont mess with it.
What you can do, is flash gpt.bin to get the partition tables re-partitioned to get you back to be able to flash roms from CWM, TWRP, Philz, etc.
That being said, this is my PERSONAL experience, and am only sharing because it got me out of GPE lollipop hell, and I was terrified of the bricks, like everyone else. I will attempt to be more clear in my OP.
I have an XT1034 that I converted to GPE to flash 5.0 Lollipop OTA and it gave me the new bootloader 41.18. I couldnt get to CM12 due to Status 7, and I could only flash 4.4.4 stock, lollipop stock, or CM11, any flashing to CM12 always gave errors about Status 7. Others have reported not being able to wipe /data or /system or mount either in any recovery. The problem is the updated partition table and here is the solution:
IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THIS DIRECTION YOU WILL HARD BRICK. DO NOT RUN THE BATCH FILE IN THE DOWNLOAD. IT CONTAINS 4.4.2 motoboot.img and YOU WILL BRICK. ONLY RUN THE COMMANDS LISTED BELOW!!!
ALSO DO NOT use an older gpt.bin, it must be 4.4.2 or newer!! Use the link below to get a 4.4.2 XT1034 stock rom.)
I flashed a 4.4.2 GPT.bin from this: US_retail_XT1034_KXB20.9-1.8-1.4_CFC.xml.zip (http://motofirmware.com/files/getdow...-14-cfcxmlzip/)
If you want to try the same thing, you can extract gpt.bin from the zip and run this: (ONLY!!)
Code:
fastboot flash partition gpt.bin
then download philz here: http://fs1.d-h.st/download/00145/DEw...8.7-falcon.img
rename to philz.img
fastboot flash recovery philz.img
Hold vol - and power, to reboot into recovery, then
format /system
format /data
Download the latest nightlies and gapps and push them like this:
adb push cm-10-10-1000.zip /data/media/0
Reboot into recovery, and flash cm12 and gapps.
Marcus Lemonis!
I thought it had been established flashing the KitKat Partiton Table (gpt.bin) was the cause of downgrade hard-bricking.
It would appear the 4.4.4 Partition Table is specifically the cause.
People have been hard-bricking (now have to wait for full firmware images to fix) - because they flashed the 4.4.2 image and then applied the 4.4.4 OTA Update.
Perhaps you should mention that in OP.
I don't think a gpt.bin "4.4.2 or newer" is wise advice. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
lost101 said:
I thought it had been established flashing the KitKat Partiton Table (gpt.bin) was the cause of downgrade hard-bricking.
It would appear the 4.4.4 Partition Table is specifically the cause.
People have been hard-bricking (now have to wait for full firmware images to fix) - because they flashed the 4.4.2 image and then applied the 4.4.4 OTA Update.
Perhaps you should mention that in OP.
I don't think a gpt.bin "4.4.2 or newer" is wise advice. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is possible to flash 4.4.4 gpt bin, bit it's not possible to OTA update to 4.4.4 from 4.4.2.
andogeek10 said:
It is possible to flash 4.4.4 gpt bin, bit it's not possible to OTA update to 4.4.4 from 4.4.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.
It's the same if you want come back from GPe to Retail Motorola STOCK, you need change GPe-partitions to Motorola-Partitions. There are some differents between both partitions:
GPE
Code:
'cache' -> 560,00 Mb
'system' -> 840,00 Mb
Motorola
Code:
'cache' -> 662,13 Mb
'system' -> 976,00 Mb
There is a partition with 2,28 Mb: In GPe is called 'metadata'; and in Motorola is Called 'padA'.
And there is a partition en GPE with 6,13 Mb called 'padC', but in Motorola didn't exists.
Any way, if you downgrade from LP, you don't must flash BL (motoboot.img), or you'll have a pretty brick.
updated op, I shouldnt have tried to walk anyone through that last night, i couldnt even understand my own english, apologies.
I just don't understand why peoples push 4.4.2 into phones when there is "safer" 4.4.4 that works perfectly and you must be retarded to brick phone when flashing 4.4.4 and doing anything after it. I will say for sure that 80% of hard bricks are caused by 4.4.2 android and updating to 4.4.4(which makes no sense at all) or doing anything after 4.4.2. Just. Stop. Doing. That.
Flash everything from last KITKAT except motoboot and everything will be fine.
how can I know my current bootloader version ?
P.s : ok sorry got it... it is in the bootloader mode (41.13)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3002572
Tell me where to find the 4.4.4 stock xt1034 and I'll link it. My process works. No bricks. Sbf.droid developers is down, send me the 4.4.4 and I'll link it. It is not 4.4.2 causing bricks, it is 4.3!
Sent from my Moto G using XDA Free mobile app
The link is not able to be verified where that gpt.bin came from, that's why I linked the whole stock ROM and not just gpt.bin
Again, try it if you like, and if you don't, don't!
Sent from my Moto G using XDA Free mobile app
I am not suggesting that people flash the whole way back to 4. 4.2. I'm only saying that people need to flash the partition tables from 4.4.2 so then you can install recovery and move on to CM. Re read the op I tell you NOT to flash that rom, but to only update gpt.bin
Sent from my Moto G using XDA Free mobile app
Xt1032?
Do you think this will work for an XT1032 converted to GPE? I have been unable to flash any sort of custom recovery as of yet like it keeps on disappearing when I reboot the device and becoming stock recovery.
Fuchsie said:
Do you think this will work for an XT1032 converted to GPE? I have been unable to flash any sort of custom recovery as of yet like it keeps on disappearing when I reboot the device and becoming stock recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you flashing recovery from fastboot? If you use fastboot, try flashing the recovery and using the button combo to boot into recovery from fastboot.
Do you have the 41.18 bootloader?
I have an 8 GB Telus xt1032 that I converted to GPE. While on GPE 4.4.4, I mistakenly allowed the 5.01 OTA update to install. Needless to say, it hung at the boot screen and I could do nothing.
I booted back into bootloader and noticed that my bootloader was now 41.18. I downloaded the stock Telus 4.4.4 ROM and manually flashed everything except motoboot.img (this is the bootloader image and is older than 41.18) and the phone booted without issue. I then installed TWRP and can flash pretty much any custom ROM.
I've heard it's possible to flash CM12 over Lollipop 5.0.2 official firmware. It was from 3 sources that peoples did it without problems
brainscollector said:
I've heard it's possible to flash CM12 over Lollipop 5.0.2 official firmware. It was from 3 sources that peoples did it without problems
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is possible but not on the GPE firmware. There are differences in the /system partition size and the update script doesn't expect this and hence the flashing fails.
audit13 said:
Are you flashing recovery from fastboot? If you use fastboot, try flashing the recovery and using the button combo to boot into recovery from fastboot.
Do you have the 41.18 bootloader?
I have an 8 GB Telus xt1032 that I converted to GPE. While on GPE 4.4.4, I mistakenly allowed the 5.01 OTA update to install. Needless to say, it hung at the boot screen and I could do nothing.
I booted back into bootloader and noticed that my bootloader was now 41.18. I downloaded the stock Telus 4.4.4 ROM and manually flashed everything except motoboot.img (this is the bootloader image and is older than 41.18) and the phone booted without issue. I then installed TWRP and can flash pretty much any custom ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No no I have the 41.18 bootloader as it's a full conversion.
To get around the boot screen hanging I fastboot flashed a gpt.bin. Cheers for the advice though
d33dvb said:
FIRST THING FIRST, THIS IS DANGEROUS. DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Myself and one other person have successfully done this. If you have success as well, please post here. <snip>
Marcus Lemonis!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally!
It worked for me: UK Stock KK to GPE KK to GPE LP, on bootloader 41.18 and unable to flash CM12.
It didn't work exactly as you described, it only worked when I did teh following: flash stock v4.4.4 gbt.bin, reboot, flash philz, reboot to recovery, format system (unable to mount it otherwise), flash twrp, convert data from f2fs to ext4 (unable to mount it otherwise), format data, then install CM12, pagapps, and SU.
Thanks!
Does this downgrade the bootloader to 41.13? I'm on retail 4.4.4 with bootloader 41.18, tried flashing gpt.bin from 4.4.4 and it booted straight to bootloader with the message "fastboot reason: utag flash fail configured as fastboot", then I fixed it by flashing all the other files (except motoboot of course) However I'm still on 41.18..
I just want to get rid permanently of the ripple efect every time you reboot.
Motoboot.img is the bootloader file. Once on the 41.18 bootloader, you cannot flash an older bootloader.
The best method imo to flash custom ROMs on the 41.18 boot-loader is:
1) Flash the official Moto 5.0.2 firmwares for your respective devices
2) Flash the OFFICIAL TWRP 2.8.5.0
3) Wipe everything except internal storage. The first wipe will fail and the phone will reboot. Reboot again into the recovery and perform the wipe again. It will work this time.
4) Flash the ROM zip now.
PS: ADB sideload works for me but not MTP.
Everything was fine until I flashed CM13 unofficial.
Now, my bootloader is updated to 6.0 (COJ5 something or COH4), I can't revert to something prior to that: odin fails at sboot.bin NAND write start fail.
-While this issue has occured to many others than me, I'm the only one who can't even boot into CM13 or AOSP based ROMs, even after pushing different variants of ROMs several times through ADB, bootloops are still persistent.
-Any other 5.1.1 Official ROM that's not COJ5 or COH4 fails to flash at odin. COJ5/COH4 ROMS flash succesfully, but the phone doesn't boot past the samsung text.
-I have tried flashing various COH4 ROMS along with their AP,BL,CSC etc, everything flashes succesfully apart from the bootloader file, and after that it's the same samsung text brick. I couldn't find the PIT files (bootloader csc n such) for COJ5..
Is there a place I can find a backed up EFS partion ?file? and restore it myself? Would this get me out of the****hole i'm currently in?
What can I do about this...
Nortabun said:
Everything was fine until I flashed CM13 unofficial.
Now, my bootloader is updated to 6.0 (COJ5 something or COH4), I can't revert to something prior to that: odin fails at sboot.bin NAND write start fail.
-While this issue has occured to many others than me, I'm the only one who can't even boot into CM13 or AOSP based ROMs, even after pushing different variants of ROMs several times through ADB, bootloops are still persistent.
-Any other 5.1.1 Official ROM that's not COJ5 or COH4 fails to flash at odin. COJ5/COH4 ROMS flash succesfully, but the phone doesn't boot past the samsung text.
-I have tried flashing various COH4 ROMS along with their AP,BL,CSC etc, everything flashes succesfully apart from the bootloader file, and after that it's the same samsung text brick. I couldn't find the PIT files (bootloader csc n such) for COJ5..
Is there a place I can find a backed up EFS partion ?file? and restore it myself? Would this get me out of the****hole i'm currently in?
What can I do about this...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, this may help you http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/help/fix-note4-exynos-n910c-bootloop-problem-t3312161
mangui said:
Hi, this may help you http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/help/fix-note4-exynos-n910c-bootloop-problem-t3312161
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea i came across this, but there was one tiny problem
how on earth am i supposed to root, get busybox, and apply usb debugging on my phone while it has no functional ROM?
and how on earth am i supposed to transfer a backup from my ROMless phone?
Do you have a pit file for repartition
If so, access twrp , wipe everything including your internal storage. Then boot into download mode.
In the computer, load the pit file and your stock coj5 into Odin 3.10 , tick "repartition" and "Nand Erase All"then click start.
Back to your phone - which now should be boot looping - access the stock recovery and wipe. Root - try using a different root method like chainfire's Odin autoroot - then twrp ur phone. Flash cm13 then start running the steps I threaded ( [fix] note 4 exynos bootloop problem ...... )
PM me for what you get
Sent from my HTC Desire 820s dual sim using Tapatalk
So I wanted to root my phone. Everything worked. Then I decided to factory reset my phone. Phone kept going in recovery mode. I wipe all (system,data,cache,dalvik) and tried to install stock rom from firmware center using RSDlite , but I couldn't. I keep getting "Failed flashing process. 3/23 flash partition "gpt.bin" "
I guess this because the stock rom is potentially downgrading the phone as there was a security update to the phone last month.
Other things I tried :
Wiped everything, tried custom rom (LineageOS) - Kept getting stuck in bootloader.
Please help
When you flash a custom rom, do you try to boot to system from the recovery? If so, boot into the bootloader right away from the recovery and select "qcom" and press the power button. This is what I have to do.
Try flashing another boot.img with a custom rom
Finally working
So, basically the problem was that the stock rom wouldn't install as my phone had been updated.
so whenever I tried to flash the stock rom using RSDlite it would fail at gpt.bin (which was the first operation).
Solution was to extract the xml.zip and edit the xml files to remove the operations that would flash gpt.bin .
Luckily the other files flashed successfully.
kuchbhinet said:
So, basically the problem was that the stock rom wouldn't install as my phone had been updated.
so whenever I tried to flash the stock rom using RSDlite it would fail at gpt.bin (which was the first operation).
Solution was to extract the xml.zip and edit the xml files to remove the operations that would flash gpt.bin .
Luckily the other files flashed successfully.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how do we do that to have it skip flashing gpt.bin? i tried erasing the line that said flash gpt but it still gives the same error
alexcass4 said:
how do we do that to have it skip flashing gpt.bin? i tried erasing the line that said flash gpt but it still gives the same error
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just use the updated firmware.
i have yureka running 5.1.1 lollipop. i installed custom recovery in it twrp. i flashed lineage 14.1 officially released on its website. after 2-3 days the phone automatically started to restart and then stuck on boot loop. after then when i again flashed the custom rom it started and worked fine . a few days back again the same thing happened but after flashing custom rom nothing happened , the phone even did not start. so i considered flashing stock firmware on it i.e 4.4 kitkat or 5.0.1 lollipop. but after flashing it the problem was same.
please help
saalimsam said:
i have yureka running 5.1.1 lollipop. i installed custom recovery in it twrp. i flashed lineage 14.1 officially released on its website. after 2-3 days the phone automatically started to restart and then stuck on boot loop. after then when i again flashed the custom rom it started and worked fine . a few days back again the same thing happened but after flashing custom rom nothing happened , the phone even did not start. so i considered flashing stock firmware on it i.e 4.4 kitkat or 5.0.1 lollipop. but after flashing it the problem was same.
please help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
fastboot -i 0x1ebf erase cache
fastboot -i 0x1ebf erase userdata
Sent from my AO5510 using Tapatalk
Rajendran Rasa said:
fastboot -i 0x1ebf erase cache
fastboot -i 0x1ebf erase userdata
Sent from my AO5510 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even after doing this nothing happened still the problem is same
try this
saalimsam said:
i have yureka running 5.1.1 lollipop. i installed custom recovery in it twrp. i flashed lineage 14.1 officially released on its website. after 2-3 days the phone automatically started to restart and then stuck on boot loop. after then when i again flashed the custom rom it started and worked fine . a few days back again the same thing happened but after flashing custom rom nothing happened , the phone even did not start. so i considered flashing stock firmware on it i.e 4.4 kitkat or 5.0.1 lollipop. but after flashing it the problem was same.
please help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the problem with your battery, Please try another battery and use for 3-4 days.
nakz_08 said:
I think the problem with your battery, Please try another battery and use for 3-4 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no buddy nothing happened
Here are my questions about firmwares
Are firmware important to flash before flashing the rom?
I have latest version that i got from OTA MIUI 10
I am thinking to either install ArrowOS or Liquid Remix on my phone both says they need Latest firmware and i have no idea what they really mean please help
Thanks is advance
Vijay G said:
Here are my questions about firmwares
Are firmware important to flash before flashing the rom?
I have latest version that i got from OTA MIUI 10
I am thinking to either install ArrowOS or Liquid Remix on my phone both says they need Latest firmware and i have no idea what they really mean please help
Thanks is advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firmware is 50mb zip file . the files are taken from fastboot rom and zip is made.
These files updates ur hidden partition like modem, bootloader, firmware of cam, audio, wifi, blueooth.
U dont need to flash firmware with every rom. It is flashed only once and stored permanantly in those partition. Format and wipe doesnt erase it.
Flash Only if u r officially unlocked bootloader by official method.
Flash only global file. Other one is china.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xiaomi-firmware-updater/files/Stable/V10/kenzo/
Black_Stark said:
Firmware is 50mb zip file . the files are taken from fastboot rom and zip is made.
These files updates ur hidden partition like modem, bootloader, firmware of cam, audio, wifi, blueooth.
U dont need to flash firmware with every rom. It is flashed only once and stored permanantly in those partition. Format and wipe doesnt erase it.
Flash Only if u r officially unlocked bootloader by official method.
Flash only global file. Other one is china.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xiaomi-firmware-updater/files/Stable/V10/kenzo/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for replying again
Is it required to flash this firmware before flashing arrowOS?
Vijay G said:
Thank you very much for replying again
Is it required to flash this firmware before flashing arrowOS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No rules. U can flash firmware any time . Its stored in hidden permanent partition.
Roms , gapps and kernels are flashed in system ,data , cache and dalvik and boot partition. Which can be erased or formatted using factory reset command or format command.