July -> August OTA update fails - Xiaomi Mi A1 Questions & Answers

I friend and his girlfriend both have identical Mi A1 (stock, unmodified, except bootloader unlocked).
Both always successfully OTA upgraded in the past (up to Oreo July Android security patch level V9.6.4.0).
Now both were presented with the August security patch level V9.6.5.0 OTA upgrade.
One of the devices upgraded successfully.
The other one downloaded upgrade successfully, but gets an error during install.
Style "something went wrong". My friend tried twice.
Does this ring any bell?
I can always try to help him with fastboot or twrp V9.6.5.0 stock zip or with V9.6.4.0 to V9.6.5.0 OTA zip
(all posted in other thread in MiA1 forum) .
But, I thought about asking for potential similar experiences here first.
Have a nice day.

Unmodified but did he ever boot twrp?

Be sure to check both partition A/B. For example, It is possible to have TWRP Recovery in Partition A and Stock recovery in Partition B.
Assuming current active partition is in Partition B, then while updating the OTA, it'll build the image in Partition A, then it'll reboot and try to flash via Recovery, but the Recovery is TWRP, and error is thrown.
For my case, my failed case is because I did not uninstall Magisk, be sure to uninstall Magisk

@myself379 and @.:Addicted:.
I thought about non stock recovery partition too (be it in A or B or both).
I once booted TWRP recovery-3.2.1-2-oreo.img over USB to make a TWRP backup. I did not allow TWRP to install itself, but maybe it did, one never knows there is a bug ... I will soon have opportunity to check next time my friend comes to visit me again with his device.
Keep you informed.

Dior DNA said:
@myself379 and @.:Addicted:.
I thought about non stock recovery partition too (be it in A or B or both).
I once booted TWRP recovery-3.2.1-2-oreo.img over USB to make a TWRP backup. I did not allow TWRP to install itself, but maybe it did, one never knows there is a bug ... I will soon have opportunity to check next time my friend comes to visit me again with his device.
Keep you informed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you booted twrp & mounted system rw & not read only, thqt may be the cause.
Reflash system & boot partition to both slot through fastboot.

.:Addicted:. said:
If you booted twrp & mounted system rw & not read only, thqt may be the cause.
Reflash system & boot partition to both slot through fastboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, I always ignore the system rw warning with TWRP.
Not sure though how that would influence stock recovery to not flash OTA, if, say, that system rw mount happened weeks ago in TWRP booted over USB from fastboot. Would TWRP have written something in system?
I can indeed flash system & boot partition through fastboot. I guess you mean: flash old system & boot partition right?
In the future, when booting TWRP over USB from fastboot, I will disallow system rw mount (which indeed is not needed just for taking TWRP backup),
Thanks for help.

Dior DNA said:
Correct, I always ignore the system rw warning with TWRP.
Not sure tough how that would influence stock recovery to not flash OTA, if, say, that system rw mount happened weeks ago in TWRP booted over USB from fastboot. Would TWRP have written something in system?
I can indeed flash system & boot partition through fastboot. I guess you mean: flash old system & boot partition right?
In the future, when booting TWRP over USB from fastboot, I will disallow system rw mount (which indeed is not needed just for taking TWRP backup),
Thanks for help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As soon as you mount system as R/W, OTA will fail. It doesn't matter if you write something to the partition or not.
Also first reconfigure TWRP and then reflash the stock system, as TWRP remembers its settings and next time you boot into TWRP, your system partition will be mounted as R/W and you are in the same situation again..

_mysiak_ said:
As soon as you mount system as R/W, OTA will fail. It doesn't matter if you write something to the partition or not.
Also first reconfigure TWRP and then reflash the stock system, as TWRP remembers its settings and next time you boot into TWRP, your system partition will be mounted as R/W and you are in the same situation again..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for reaction.
It must be my poor understanding or imagination .
I have never flashed TWRP : the recovery is stock, in fact everything is stock. I only booted device once via fastboot over USB in TWRP (to make a TWRP backup). If just during that TWRP boot system was mounted rw, how would that affect OTA update weeks, months or years later on an otherwise always stock device?

Dior DNA said:
Thanks for reaction.
It must be my poor understanding or imagination .
I have never flashed TWRP : the recovery is stock, in fact everything is stock. I only booted device once via fastboot over USB in TWRP (to make a TWRP backup). If just during that TWRP boot system was mounted rw, how would that affect OTA update weeks, months or years later on an otherwise always stock device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mounting system as R/W will change some parameters, resulting in different hash than OTA update engine expects, hence it will abort the installation and show "installation error" message. User can easily verify if system was mounted, from terminal emulator with commands "sudo tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p25" for system_a and "sudo tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p26" for system_b. Look for "last mount time" - any recent date is "wrong". So even if you did not flash TWRP, but mounted system partition as R/W, your next OTA will fail and the only solution is to reflash stock system image. Once you're back to fully stock, consequent updates should not fail (at least not due to this reason).

_mysiak_ said:
Mounting system as R/W will change some parameters, resulting in different hash than OTA update engine expects, hence it will abort the installation and show "installation error" message. User can easily verify if system was mounted, from terminal emulator with commands "sudo tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p25" for system_a and "sudo tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p26" for system_b. Look for "last mount time" - any recent date is "wrong". So even if you did not flash TWRP, but mounted system partition as R/W, your next OTA will fail and the only solution is to reflash stock system image. Once you're back to fully stock, consequent updates should not fail (at least not due to this reason).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for explanation!.
OK one can figure out if system was ever mounted rw and fail. Fair enough.
Still a bit curious about which hash you talk, but probably some 'meta' hash.

Dior DNA said:
Thanks for explanation!.
OK one can figure out if system was ever mounted rw and fail. Fair enough.
Still a bit curious about which hash you talk, but probably some 'meta' hash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're really interested, I would advise checking OTA update engine's source code. I don't know such details (just too lazy to dig through source code myself)

_mysiak_ said:
If you're really interested, I would advise checking OTA update engine's source code. I don't know such details (just too lazy to dig through source code myself)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had already checked, of course, there are indeed meta hashes, that is where I got the word from, not that I understand it completely

Thanks all for help. My friend came by and:
I fastboot flashed F 9.6.4.0 system img onto a/b and then OTA to 9.6.5.0 went well..
I fastboot-ed into TWRP again (and made backup) but question to mount system rw was not asked.
I guess next OTA may fail again as I had not first reconfigured TWRP to disallow system rw (will do next time).
Have a nice day

Related

restoring from TWRP

hello all
i have ZTE AXON 7 U model.
i did bootloader unloock and instaled TWRP 3041 and did this "Once you booted to TWRP , Tap Mount and Check "Mount, System as Read-only", this is very important".
now im on the A2017UV1.1.0B15_systemstock_by_DrakenFX.zip. all works great.
in twrp when i do backup and want to restore it i get this massage: " cannot restore system--mounted read only".
how can i backup and restore in the wright way?
ty all
le011 said:
hello all
i have ZTE AXON 7 U model.
i did bootloader unloock and instaled TWRP 3041 and did this "Once you booted to TWRP , Tap Mount and Check "Mount, System as Read-only", this is very important".
now im on the A2017UV1.1.0B15_systemstock_by_DrakenFX.zip. all works great.
in twrp when i do backup and want to restore it i get this massage: " cannot restore system--mounted read only".
how can i backup and restore in the wright way?
ty all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Mount and Check "Mount, System as Read-only", this is very important".
What you have quoted is only to complete the installation Flash. Go ahead and uncheck 'Mount System Read-Only' for normal operation and you are ready to go!
amphi66 said:
"Mount and Check "Mount, System as Read-only", this is very important".
What you have quoted is only to complete the installation Flash. Go ahead and uncheck 'Mount System Read-Only' for normal operation and you are ready to go!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To for your replay.
When I unchecked the System read only and trying to restore the phone from the backup I made in Twrp the phone stucks after reboot on the screen that says the bootloader is unlocked and that's it.
le011 said:
To for your replay.
When I unchecked the System read only and trying to restore the phone from the backup I made in Twrp the phone stucks after reboot on the screen that says the bootloader is unlocked and that's it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should see that screen and the phone should continue to boot after 5 seconds.
To recap:
1. You stated all was fine in B15 after following the upgrade steps.
2. You made a TWRP backup (system, data & boot) of your new B15
3. When attempting to TWRP restore the B15 backup it could not as system was still mounted "read only"
4. You unchecked "read only" and then did the restore
5. Now system does not boot (hangs on bootloader unlocked warning screen)
If that is correct it sounds as if you have a bad or incomplete B15 backup or you are attempting to restore a B29 backup to a B15 bootstack.
amphi66 said:
You should see that screen and the phone should continue to boot after 5 seconds.
To recap:
1. You stated all was fine in B15 after following the upgrade steps.
2. You made a TWRP backup (system, data & boot) of your new B15
3. When attempting to TWRP restore the B15 backup it could not as system was still mounted "read only"
4. You unchecked "read only" and then did the restore
5. Now system does not boot (hangs on bootloader unlocked warning screen)
If that is correct it sounds as if you have a bad or incomplete B15 backup or you are attempting to restore a B29 backup to a B15 bootstack.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All correct.
After Im making backup, I'm wiping, and trying to restore the backup I just did.
No luck.
le011 said:
All correct.
After Im making backup, I'm wiping, and trying to restore the backup I just did.
No luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Confusing to me. How are you using phone after a bad restore?
What revision TWRP did you flash? Did you flash SU 2.79 after flashing ROM?
Perhaps someone w/ more knowledge can chime in, but sounds as if you are a candidate to begin again following the steps carefully
Goodluck
amphi66 said:
Confusing to me. How are you using phone after a bad restore?
What revision TWRP did you flash? Did you flash SU 2.79 after flashing ROM?
Perhaps someone w/ more knowledge can chime in, but sounds as if you are a candidate to begin again following the steps carefully
Goodluck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi
i have TWRP version 3041.
after i'm trying to restore and wont succeeded , i flash the rom again. the rom im flashing is : A2017UV1.1.0B15_systemstock_by_DrakenFX.
then the phone boot up and work great.
im not flashing supersu because i dont want root.
le011 said:
hi
i have TWRP version 3041.
after i'm trying to restore and wont succeeded , i flash the rom again. the rom im flashing is : A2017UV1.1.0B15_systemstock_by_DrakenFX.
then the phone boot up and work great.
im not flashing supersu because i dont want root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. How long are you waiting on the Bootloader unlocked warning screen?
Next time in TWRP look at the data partition and verify it is formatted as ext4 not f2fs. I might also download a different version of TWRP and reflash the IMG file from within TWRP. I reference @DrakenFX here as he may have the easy solution.
amphi66 said:
Interesting. How long are you waiting on the Bootloader unlocked warning screen?
Next time in TWRP look at the data partition and verify it is formatted as ext4 not f2fs. I might also download a different version of TWRP and reflash the IMG file from within TWRP. I reference @DrakenFX here as he may have the easy solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How i check in TWRP how the data partition formated?
I trayid the new version of TWRP 3100 and same thing.
after restoring the phone stuck on the Bootloader unlocked warning screen -last time i waited for 5 min before i
shut down whit power button.
le011 said:
hi
i have TWRP version 3041.
after i'm trying to restore and wont succeeded , i flash the rom again. the rom im flashing is : A2017UV1.1.0B15_systemstock_by_DrakenFX.
then the phone boot up and work great.
im not flashing supersu because i dont want root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
amphi66 said:
Interesting. How long are you waiting on the Bootloader unlocked warning screen?
Next time in TWRP look at the data partition and verify it is formatted as ext4 not f2fs. I might also download a different version of TWRP and reflash the IMG file from within TWRP. I reference @DrakenFX here as he may have the easy solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Easy fix, go back to TWRP,
* Wipe Data (if you are in different ROM a or version) - Dalvik- Cache
* Check MOUNT SYSTEM AS READ-ONLY
* Reflash B15 system
Happy reboot
If you Previously were using B15 , you may restore data only, other wise is a no go.
DrakenFX said:
Easy fix, go back to TWRP,
* Wipe Data - Dalvik- Cache
* Check MOUNT SYSTEM AS READ-ONLY
* Reflash B15 system
Happy rebokt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi
i did that for 3 tomes ending whit the same result :
the rom working great after clean instal...restoring from TWRP....ending whit stuck phone.
le011 said:
How i check in TWRP how the data partition formated?
I trayid the new version of TWRP 3100 and same thing.
after restoring the phone stuck on the Bootloader unlocked warning screen -last time i waited for 5 min before i
shut down whit power button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may not have seen this on another thread with a similar issue:
"did find something else out. Under [TWRP] settings, if I enabled the "Use rm -rf instead of formatting", then I can restore successfully."
Goodluck
amphi66 said:
You may not have seen this on another thread with a similar issue:
"did find something else out. Under [TWRP] settings, if I enabled the "Use rm -rf instead of formatting", then I can restore successfully."
Goodluck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK ty
i will try that and post if sucssed.

TWRP decrypt data after factory reset

So I recently factory reset my phone and flashed update.zip from official ZTE website because the phone had been stuck on the ZTE screen. The system flashed successfully and the phone is booting up fine. I haven't yet gone through the setup process because I was hoping to run
dd if=/dev/sda conv=sync,noerror bs=64K | split -b 2000m - <YOURSDCARD>/system_drive_backup.img.gz
while booted in the signed TWRP so that I can get a raw device image without encryption. But, when I flashed the signed TWRP and booted into it, TWRP asked me for a encryption password, which is weird because the phone has not been setup in anyway so there shouldn't be an encryption right? If there is, is there some obvious password that it can be? I've tried default_password but that didn't work.
I'm assuming if I do the dd command while in TWRP it will just dump an encrypted image which would be useless for data recovery. Any way to do dd of unencrypted image?
If I boot into system, setup the phone, run adb in usb debugging mode, and then say adb root, will this give me enough permissions to fire the dd command while booted into system? Would this produce an unencrypted image if successful? If not is there any known way to decrypt device dump images?
On a sidenote, is anyone aware of which partition is the user_data partition on the axon 7? When I do cat /proc/partitions the largest partition is sda so this is presumably flash memory but it is hard to figure out which is the user data partition. When I do ls -al, there is a sdcard directory and an external_sd directory. Presumably this means that the former is the directory for user_data. Can anyone confirm this?
Thanks in advance.
Which version of the bootloader are you running and which update.zip did you try to install? I've flashed the wrong /boot on different Android devices to find the system "encrypted." Best way for me to fix it has always been to ensure compatibility between /system and /boot.
I can neither confirm nor deny your assumptions later in the original post. Sorry.
PiArc said:
Which version of the bootloader are you running and which update.zip did you try to install? I've flashed the wrong /boot on different Android devices to find the system "encrypted." Best way for me to fix it has always been to ensure compatibility between /system and /boot.
I can neither confirm nor deny your assumptions later in the original post. Sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats no problem. I'm pretty sure I'm running stock Nougat version of everything. I downloaded the official B15 zip from the ZTE website and extracted the update.zip from that. Then flashed that to system. I never even touched my bootloader so that should still be stock B15 as well. Is there any way to check this compatibility?

Can't mount system as writable in TWRP (device or resource busy)

Hi everyone,
Just got my new G6, after much pain I managed to unlock the bootloader, install TWRP (v3.2.1.0) and to root it with SuperSU (stable release 2.82).
For now I'll keep the stock rom but I wanted to make a backup in case something went wrong with other tweaking I might do and I couldn't because TWRP couldn't "mount /system (device or resource busy)".
So I went into the mount menu and tried checking system but it just won't. I can mount it as read only but I can't mount it as writable.
If it's of any importance, I couldn't get magisk to install to root the phone and had to use SuperSU instead.
I could do the backup while mounting system as read only but I feel like it might be an issue in the future (for custom roms or even restoring the backup maybe ?) if I can't fix this issue.
So does anyone how to get TWRP to mount system as writable ? Thank you
Elvenstar said:
Hi everyone,
Just got my new G6, after much pain I managed to unlock the bootloader, install TWRP (v3.2.1.0) and to root it with SuperSU (stable release 2.82).
For now I'll keep the stock rom but I wanted to make a backup in case something went wrong with other tweaking I might do and I couldn't because TWRP couldn't "mount /system (device or resource busy)".
So I went into the mount menu and tried checking system but it just won't. I can mount it as read only but I can't mount it as writable.
If it's of any importance, I couldn't get magisk to install to root the phone and had to use SuperSU instead.
I could do the backup while mounting system as read only but I feel like it might be an issue in the future (for custom roms or even restoring the backup maybe ?) if I can't fix this issue.
So does anyone how to get TWRP to mount system as writable ? Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you formatted data trough the dedicated option in TWRP? Format, not wipe, where you have to put "yes".
Anyway you can try with Melina's TWRP which solves many problems of the official one: https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g6/development/recovery-twrp-3-2-1-unofficial-fixes-t3722199
Killua96 said:
Have you formatted data trough the dedicated option in TWRP? Format, not wipe, where you have to put "yes".
Anyway you can try with Melina's TWRP which solves many problems of the official one: https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g6/development/recovery-twrp-3-2-1-unofficial-fixes-t3722199
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did try it once after the magisk install failed and I assumed it was because of that issue but I haven't tried yet with superSU correctly installed. Should I immediately try the backup after formatting or boot the phone once before ?
The issue I have with Melina's TWRP is that it's not compatible with fulmics and if I were to install any custom rom I think it would be that one (to keep stock camera mostly)
Elvenstar said:
I did try it once after the magisk install failed and I assumed it was because of that issue but I haven't tried yet with superSU correctly installed. Should I immediately try the backup after formatting or boot the phone once before ?
The issue I have with Melina's TWRP is that it's not compatible with fulmics and if I were to install any custom rom I think it would be that one (to keep stock camera mostly)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Format data, reboot recovery, and try to install magisk or mount system.
For Melina's TWRP it has NO problems with Fulmics, Zefie said that "officially" is not compatible because two users said that they have problems with that TWRP only with fulmics, i can assure you that with last version of both Melina's TWRP and Fulmics i never had problems like those two users, anyway you can try to use Melina's TWRP and if you have any problems just flash back the official twrp.
Killua96 said:
Format data, reboot recovery, and try to install magisk or mount system.
For Melina's TWRP it has NO problems with Fulmics, Zefie said that "officially" is not compatible because two users said that they have problems with that TWRP only with fulmics, i can assure you that with last version of both Melina's TWRP and Fulmics i never had problems like those two users, anyway you can try to use Melina's TWRP and if you have any problems just flash back the official twrp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright so it's been a rough ride.
I formatted data, reboot TWRP and then indeed I was able to mount system as writable.
I then did my backup, which said it was successful and the only error it showed then was "unable to unmount /system"
I flashed magisk and rebooted into the normal system and the phone of course was back to factory settings and asked me my google account. Except that when I tried logging in it always showed me an error along the lines of "google play services keeps crashing". (making it impossible to get through the installation part of the system)
I'm not sure why that happened. I had frozen some apps but that shouldn't have been saved since I formatted data right ? and the phone was working perfectly fine before that.
But anyway I didn't really know what to do at that point so I just jumped the gun and downloaded and flashed fulmics.
It worked fine but only with supersu. For some reason magisk just doesn't want to get installed at all.
The rom itself worked fine but I had no root access by choosing magisk in the aroma installer so I wiped again and installed it again with supersu which works.
I also flashed xposed which is also working as intended.
So I'm all set for now I think.
Maybe when I need to wipe again I'll figure out why magisk doesn't work but for now I'm satisfied.
In any case, thank you for your help

[Possibly bricked] "Failed to mount /data" & no internal storage

Hello everyone!
I have a P9 lite VNS-L31 running 7.0.1. on EMUI 5.0.2..
However during a factory wipe, it stopped booting correctly and I can't get passed from neither bootloader nor recovery.
I have TWRP Revolution v.260317 (TWRP 3.1.0-0) installed and my main problem is that for some reason the phone says that I have no internal storage whatsoever and if I try to wipe the /data partition it fails to mount it (error: Failed to mount /data (Invalid argument)).
I tried any of the methods in videos titled "how to fix unable to mount /data" (sorry, I cannot post links :/ ) but with no luck.
I can't seem to repair nor resize nor change file system of the /data partition. When trying to repair data using e2fsck it gives out the message:
" /sbin/e2fsck -fp process ended with ERROR: 16"
Any ideas?
I can use recovery and fastboot if necessary.
Regards
flash this twrp ;
https://forum.xda-developers.com/huawei-p9lite/development/twrp-t3588356
give me a thanks if it works
Exiatron00 said:
flash this twrp ;
https://forum.xda-developers.com/huawei-p9lite/development/twrp-t3588356
give me a thanks if it works
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, more or less, but I managed to solve it!
I found out that the reason why it said there was 0mb of internal storage was because the bootloader that was previously unlocked turned itself locked, that's why it couldn't mount the /data partition. I just used SKR Tool to unlock the bootloader and after that yes, I installed that version of TWRP that you linked.
I also found out that the Revolution TWRP installed in the eRecovery partition (/recovery2 ?) instead of the normal recovery partition. What image is supposed to be installed in that partition?
That is the second recovery partition (another recovery) aka huaweis last ditch attempt to fix a broken phone. There's no actually problem if u don't have it-as most of the time (in my experience) its utter garbage, but there's no harm in flashing it if u want.
U can extract it from ur update.app file using huawei update extractor.
Exiatron00 said:
That is the second recovery partition (another recovery) aka huaweis last ditch attempt to fix a broken phone. There's no actually problem if u don't have it-as most of the time (in my experience) its utter garbage, but there's no harm in flashing it if u want.
U can extract it from ur update.app file using huawei update extractor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I tried to install the RECOVERY2.img that I extracted from the UPDATE.app and it didn't work so I just didn't bother and installed the TWRP again.
But at least everything is solved!
Thanks

[Q] [HELP] Odin/TWRP Flash successful, BUT not changing anything after reboot

TLDR : I Cannot MODIFY ANYTHING IN SYSTEM or USERDATA(i.e. internal storage) partitions. Files Deleted via twrp in System/internal storage comeback after reboot and new files added from computer vanish after reboot. Also NOW, different flashes are successful through both methods via -
1. twrp recovery-(Boot/recovery/CustomROMs flashes) and
2. ODIN-(boot/recovery/Stock ROM flashes)
but again dont change anything after reboot (previously both methods worked, so no issue with twrp or odin according to me). So, Whole storage (System+Internal Storage) is intact after Reboot as it is. Now I feel it has something to do with magisk. I can see exact file names both in internal storage and /system and do delete, move, rename i.e. any operations in twrp so i guess storage is not encrypted. I can boot into system for hardly 10-15 seconds after that it bootloops again, so i cannot do anything there. Only options to me is twrp recovery or odin, both are not helping for now.
--------------------------------- DETAILED EXPLANATION : ------------------------------------
[PROBLEM 1] DELETION:
Anything deleted via TWRP recovery in system partition or "EVEN in sdcard, i.e. internal storage" deletes successfully in twrp, without any error but comes back in the same state after the reboot. When i delete error causing file or folder via TWRP file manager, it gets deleted, and if you check again it's not there wherever it was present, but just after reboot every file and folder comes back to previous state like if nothing was done. This is true for any file present in any of the partitions. Newly inserted file in internal storage vanishes after reboot, and deleted file comes back after reboot - true for any partition. Status quo maintained !!
[PROBLEM 2] FLASHING:
To solve above problem, i thought it might be an issue with Magisk or the new twrp recovery, so i tried flashing Magisk Uninstaller zip in twrp, which again flashes successfully, SECONDLY- tried zackptg-(dmverity,forceencrypt Disabler) zip file, that also flashes successfully(i thought might be an issue of dmverity or encryption), and THIRD thing i tried flashing older twrp version recovery, that also flashes successfully but after reboot same currently installed twrp boots, not the newly "successfully flashed" older version. So i cannot change twrp-(tried both recovery.img flash in (1) twrp itself and (2) also through ODIN) - both returns flash successful and pass(in Green). FOURTH, tried dirty flash both (1) other ROM and (2) SAME ROM on top of current ROM- everything returns successful but after reboot boots the current erroneous ROM that i want to change. FIFTH, tried Clean Flashing i.e. wiped everything (selected 1. dalvik cache, 2. data, 3. cache, 4. system, 5. Internal Storage in wipe section) and also tried Factory RESET and FORMAT DATA option and after all this flashed Custom ROM zip file only (no gapps or magisk flash), but every wipe operation returns successful and ROM flash also successful, but when reboot into system again that bootlooping erroneous ROM that was present before all of these "successfully done" operations.
[PROBLEM 3] ODIN FLASH:
As all above failed, i thought flashing STOCK ROM through ODIN is my last resort. I did (1) Stock recovery flash through Odin- it was green pass (successful), but when booted returned that same twrp recovery not stock recovery. Tried (2) flashing Stock BOOT.img flash through ODIN, again it was successful but actual boot resulted the same Magisk Patched Boot.img. Third (3) tried flashing whole STOCK FIRMWARE - Official latest Stock firmware that was extracted from Samsung Smart Switch, with default options turned on in Odin, flash was again green-pass(successful) but auto reboot after successful flash through ODIN resulted same old erroneous ROM booting up like a VAMPIRE (I'm not dead, I'm Alive!!)... Fourth (4) tried flashing Stock Firmwave of step 3 with NAND ERASE and RE-PARTITION options turned on by inserting pit file to do BANG BANG, nuking my phone with these options that many people on internet advise not to use, screenshot attached below( it took 42 minutes to complete ), again using these options nand erase and re-partition also resulted successful(green-pass) and resulting that same untouched state as it was before.. Boots into twrp recovery not the stock rom or stock recovery with that same old erroneous ROM present in system with data partition intact. (Tried using different ODIN versions, different USB ports on my laptop, different non-official firmwares(but these non-official firmwares of SM-G530H resulted in some errors in ODIN, i.e. it was not green pass like that of official firmware, but resulted RED FAIL.))
[PROBLEM 4] SYSTEM_ROOT Created:
This i saw for the first time i guess, in my phone, and maybe the cause of this whole problem. Now my root directory in twrp '/ ' contains /system_root along with /system, /data, /cache. One more thing /system_root contains system folder ,i.e. /system_root/system results same things as /system . When checked in twrp>wipe section> Repair system> There System Mount Point is shown as : /system_root instead of previously used to be "/system" normal directory when /system_root was not present at all.
Another thing /system_root contains files like default.prop , init files, sepolicy which are also present in root directory ' / ' . This whole /system_root should not have existed at all when /system exists. Maybe /system_root or the init files or other thing present inside /system_root are preventing all the changes - deletion , flashing changes etc. described in this post and maybe this folder was created by step(3) flashing procedure below , i.e. due to magisk. Also formatting system in twrp>wipe>system returns successful msg but nothing is deleted when checked in twrp file manager or twrp>Backup (system partition backup size shows 1456 mb even after formating)
[OTHER THINGS I TRIED] to solve this -
- Deleting twrp folder to make it to default state, again it's successfull deleted but doesn't loads default configuration after reboot due to PROBLEM 1 above as deletion reverts back after reboot
- Fixing contexts in twrp
- reboot disemmcwp
- mount -o remount,rw /system commands in twrp terminal (again to mention every command that is possible to enter runs without any error, hence successful but problem persists even after that )
- flashing stock boot.img and recovery.img (both successful no changes observed after reboot, but after stock boot or recovery.img flash, if you flash magisk uninstaller zip it still says "magisk patched image detected", and next thing written after it is " ! (Exclamation mark) Boot image backup unavailable" , then "Restoring ramdisk with internal backup" again magisk uninstaller also returns successful. after reboot again runing uninstaller detects magisk again. and boots twrp only instead of stock recovery
- repair, resize system partition in twrp>wipe section results Twrp error 1 (might be due to that /system_root folder that contains now /system which is also present in ' / ' root
- Changing "system partition" file-system with all 6 options returns successful but filesystem stays ext4 only when checked again.
WHAT IS WORKING-
Odin is working. - i once flashed my first twrp recovery on this device through the same version
TWRP is working - Although this is new twrp version 3.6.1_9-0 that i flashed just few time before all this catastrophe happened (maybe it might be the cause or it may be magisk)
Current Configuration:
Device: Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
Model: SM-G530H (fortuna3g)
ROM: [STABLE][10] LineageOS 17.1 GO by DarkDroidDev from xda
GApps: Customised OpenGapps package (this caused erroneous bootlooping ROM) - i can boot into ROM but it is very lagging, and reboots again after some time, ranging from 10-20 seconds to max 3 minutes. Launcher is not working. And Keyboard is crashing. I can go into settings to change something but change doesn't persists after reboot
Magisk: Magisk 23.0
What was my FLASH PROCEDURES before this happened-
- Cleaned dalvikcache, data, cache, system
- After this, Data and Cache showed 0mb in Backup option in twrp, system showed 2mb containing only usr folder, boot showed 13mb
- (1) Cleaned Flashed above ROM
- (2) Customized OpenGapps flash
- (3) Magisk Patched Boot.img flash - - (not magisk.zip installer, its magisk-patched-boot.img flash through twrp only)
- (4) Dalvik Cache Wipe
- Booted into System.
I was actually testing the customised OpenGapps package,
Before this flashed customised package 10-20 times. i was editing, flashing, seeing the changes... > then again editing, flashing. So this was not the first time.
If any error occured, like launcher not working, i again booted into twrp wiped system data or deleted particular launcher file in twrp, all worked, changes were successful then i again continued my testing.. editing packages > flashing > seeing the changes by booting into actual rom.
But this whole case happened during the iteration of my testing when i introduced Gboard apk, downloaded from Play Store from fortuna3g(this device), into the Custom Gapps Package.
So, the cause of all this according to my knowledge where i doubt maybe one of the following-
(1) - That Keyboard apk installation as system app (most probably permissions problem, as apk was fine as tested before on this device and resulted in keyboard related folders created in that /system/usr folder which always contained only one folder, but only this time contained this keyboard related stuff there)
(2) - That magisk-patched-boot.img flashing procedure, step(3) above, just after openGapps flash "without booting into system first" - this was done first time in my testing iterations, so might be incorrect procedure
(3) - Due to step (3), issue might be related to magisk related stuff - dm-verity, Force encryption
(4) - Creation of /system_root folder in root directory '/ ' maybe due to step (3), there used to be only /system there before
(5) - Hardware Problem, maybe that's why all those successful twrp and ODIN flashes not doing anything
Please suggest something that i have not tried and could solve this PROBLEM of NOT BEING ABLE TO CHANGE ANYTHING ON SYSTEM or USERDATA partition.
I know people here know a lot more than me, and can help me with their valuable suggestions and solutions, if any.
Thanks.
I found one xda thread almost with same issue as mine titled -
[Q] Weirdest problem - flashing anythin thru ODIN does not change anything in my S4​But no working solution there also
LinhBT said:
Need to know exactly if it's Snap or not. If it is, then there're 2 options you can try.
1. Ask some one have the same device model as you, do a ROM dump ( you can google for more detail ). Once you got that, I can share with you the tool needed for restore your device from that dump.
2. Try find your device's Factory Images ( similar to Fastboot ROM, but a little different ), and an authenticated prog of your SoC ( this I can share too if you choose this option ) then boot your device into EDL mode by using fastboot2EDL script ( on Git, you can google too ) then use QFIL ( one tool in QPST Tools by Qualcomm ) and force flash the images into the device.
So far as my experience and understanding, there're only these 2 solutions to fix your device ( if it's Snap powered ).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi mate, My phone is Snapdragon powered..
My problem is almost similar.. But not exactly.. After almost 2 months I am not able to find a solution.. But after this period of researching and googling about things related to my problem.. I feel now, either any one of the following is the cause of problem:
1. Emmc is stuck or locked in read-only mode (Can move files from pc , delete already present files anywhere in any directory, but all changes vanish after reboot... all file and directory structure remain intact- moved files from pc gets deleted.. and deleted files which were already present come back after reboot )
2. Corrupted /data and /cache partition, as e2fsck in twrp terminal results shows "filesystem still has errors" and "e2fsck: unable to set superblock flags on /dev/block/mmcblk0p** ) in both these file system (I think they are preventing flashing procedures- Odin stock firmware flashes and twrp custom ROM flashes both are successful, but after reboot no changes can be seen... - Even Recovery.img and boot.img flashes don't seem to work even both are shown successfully flashed in twrp) After reboot current version twrp boots again instead of newly flashed different version recovery.img ... same with boot.img even after running magisk uninstaller zip files.. running uninstall.zip 2nd or 3rd time also shows magisk patched image detected in log which should be removed in 1st iteration itself..
3. Might be magisk is preventing these changes to be made.. or It might be the /System_root creation as mountpoint for system partition which used to be previously /system normally. This might be the superblock creation which not used to be there. You can see my attachments in my thread to see my directory structure of system_root and my download mode picture
My Samsung's twrp and Download Mode seems to be working but no changes made by them even after successful operations by both.
Can you suggest anything @LinhBT ?

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