Database Users

can't change TWRP 2.1.1 settings to stop official recovery from reinstalling

Hi all,
I have a Nexus 7, rooted, running stock 4.1.1 rom, and just installed TWRP 2.1.1
I have been reading this thread, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1779092 , however I cannot post on the thread due to being a new/low post count member.
I read that, and it does happen, that each time I reboot, the stock recovery reinstalls itself.
I attempted to follow this....
NOTE: The stock ROM may automatically replace TWRP with the stock recovery. To prevent the stock ROM from replacing TWRP, boot TWRP, go to the mount menu and mount system, press the home button, then press Advanced -> File Manager. Browse to /system and select the file named recovery-from-boot.p then choose to rename the file to recovery-from-boot.bak
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but it doesn't seem to work.
Firstly, when I go to the "Mount" menu, there is only 3 entries.....1 large button which says "Mount USB Storage", and 2 boxes which are selected with a cross in the box, "Unmount Data", and "Unmount Cache". If I do press Mount USB Storage I can only Unmount it to return to menu.
So regardless of that part, if I then go to the file manager, and browse to the system folder, the folder shows up empty, and the only thing showing is a Bin subfolder (also empty)
any ideas whats wrong?

Use the one-click root tool. Install TWRP via GooManager. Profit.
Sent from my Nexus 7

TheBiles said:
Use the one-click root tool. Install TWRP via GooManager. Profit.
Sent from my Nexus 7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi,
yeah I did use the tool, all is rooted fine. If you install TWRP from GooManager, and then press to reset to recovery, TWRP loads fine. Once you reboot again however, the stock roms overwriting the TWRP so it no longer works each time. The steps there were supposedly to stop this from happening, from within TWRP, however the options aren't even there. Sadly, I can't post in the TWRP thread due to having less than 10 posts

How r u booting into recovery? Do u power off then use button combo? I use quickboot from market. Its free and boots u into recovery without having to manually turn off the device. I had the same exact issue u drescribe when attempting to follow op instructions. I couldn't do it so I said what the hell, let me see if I boot into recovery using quickboot it overwrites. I was happy to discover that it didn't.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

Hi.
I booted into recovery directly from the GooManager option which restarts it into it for me. After a reboot though choosing the same option gives the official recovery I presume (android robot with chest open and exclamation mark)....until I tell it to install the OpenRecoveryScript again
I'm not familiar with Quickboot - take it its just a button to press to get it into recovery the same way as the GooManager option of "Reboot Recovery"?
I'm looking at this TeamEOS nightly build at the moment, toying with the idea of whether to stick with stock rom or flash their custom rom over it.....hard call as its still early days for the roms I think, but if spend ages again installing my apps, will have to do it again afresh when do eventually change the rom

Midnight Tboy said:
Hi.
I booted into recovery directly from the GooManager option which restarts it into it for me. After a reboot though choosing the same option gives the official recovery I presume (android robot with chest open and exclamation mark)....until I tell it to install the OpenRecoveryScript again
I'm not familiar with Quickboot - take it its just a button to press to get it into recovery the same way as the GooManager option of "Reboot Recovery"?
I'm looking at this TeamEOS nightly build at the moment, toying with the idea of whether to stick with stock rom or flash their custom rom over it.....hard call as its still early days for the roms I think, but if spend ages again installing my apps, will have to do it again afresh when do eventually change the rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes quickboot is as u describe. I know what u mean about starting to flash. It's a bit early for me considering conditions of the roms ( early stages). I am getting tempted tho...lol. won't be long I'm sure.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

pathtologos said:
Yes quickboot is as u describe. I know what u mean about starting to flash. It's a bit early for me considering conditions of the roms ( early stages). I am getting tempted tho...lol. won't be long I'm sure.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup....just installed Quick Boot (Reboot),
chose Recovery, and again its rebooting back to the original recovery instead of the TWRP.
Guess I'll have to flash to a custom rom to get around it if want it sorting now....or wait till I have the minimum post count to post on the main TWRP thread
Not end of the world to reinstall apps and games I guess when the custom roms are more mature, so long as I remember to use Titanium Backup to save my games progress

you need to rename the recovery-restore.sh file in /system/etc/ (I forget the name offhand - if you look at the filenames there you'll figure it out). It restores the stock recovery at every reboot unless deleted or renamed. Then flash your 3rd party recovery.

Hi,
thats the trouble.....I use the file manager in TWRP, and I can't see that file anywhere.
The TWRP page says to go to /system......but when I go there its empty, only one subfolder, /system/bin, which also shows up empty

Factory Reset wiped out the internal SD card! I thought it's not meant to happen?!

This is the first time I'm using a device that doesn't have an external SD card, but I've all along understood that the internal SD card does not get wiped when you do a factory reset, and I'm sure I read that again on another thread just the other day.
My N7 is rooted using Wug's toolkit, with CM10.2 and Bulletproof kernel.
Yesterday I decided to do a factory reset (under Settings, Backup & Reset, Factory Data Reset), but after I did it, all the stuff I had on the internal SD was gone, including my backup files, the ROMs I had transferred there, etc.
Surely this is not meant to be the case, is it??

internal sdcard used to be a different partition.
Now it is just a directory in your /data and the "sdcard" is an emulated sdcard.
I know stock ROM and stock recovery wipes /data and everything in it including the virtual sdcard.
TWRP recovery will only remove the /data user stuff, leaving the virtual sdcard alone.
Which recovery are you running?

sfhub said:
internal sdcard used to be a different partition.
Now it is just a directory in your /data and the "sdcard" is an emulated sdcard.
I know stock ROM and stock recovery wipes /data and everything in it including the virtual sdcard.
TWRP recovery will only remove the /data user stuff, leaving the virtual sdcard alone.
Which recovery are you running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that! (Thanks coming your way). Well, better to know now than later! The down side is that I lost my CWM backups and my Titanium Backup files, but the good thing is that I think I have a TWRP backup that's on my computer.
I'm using TWRP, but not really liking it, cos I cannot boot into recovery from the phone and have to keep relying on the Wug Toolkit. I've just downloaded CWM and will be switching to that.
So the moral of this story is that if we are to do a factory reset, we should do it via recovery, correct? I'm presuming CWM will also leave the virtual sd card alone, yeah?

Oh one more thing, I think I lost root after the factory reset!!
I checked my All Apps and SuperSu wasn't there anymore. Just rooted it again using Wug kit.

oohyeah said:
I'm using TWRP, but not really liking it, cos I cannot boot into recovery from the phone and have to keep relying on the Wug Toolkit. I've just downloaded CWM and will be switching to that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure what issue you are having with TWRP, but you can flash it to the recovery partition and boot to it automatically. If that's the only reason you don't like it, I'd work on fixing the install rather than jumping to another recovery.
oohyeah said:
So the moral of this story is that if we are to do a factory reset, we should do it via recovery, correct? I'm presuming CWM will also leave the virtual sd card alone, yeah?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would probably do it from recovery. I don't know what CWM does on this platform as I've only used it on other platforms.

What do you mean you can't boot into recovery with twrp? I'm using twrp and have no problem booting into recovery.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

geckocavemen said:
What do you mean you can't boot into recovery with twrp? I'm using twrp and have no problem booting into recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I try to boot into recovery, it ends up showing a dead android with the red triangle "!" sign. I remember doing some searches and it seemed like this was normal. I remember the reason was that the N7 would always rewrite the recovery or something. From your responses, I'm guessing it's not normal?
The only way I could get into recovery was using the Wug toolkit using USB debugging/ADB, which really sucked, cos if it bootlooped and I can't get into the system to turn on USB debugging, then I'm not sure what I would do (though I read there's some way around it or something). I had never encountered any such thing with all my many other devices which all run CWM.
So what's up with all that?

"su" enter' next line "reboot recovery" in the Android Terminal window should also boot your device into recovery

User_99 said:
"su" enter' next line "reboot recovery" in the Android Terminal window should also boot your device into recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will work fine. If you have no aversion to installing apps, Rom Toolbox Lite gives you power widgets you can put on your desktop then go to recovery with one touch. I use Quick Boot PRO, although the free version of that all may do recovery also. One might work for you until you want to play with mods.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

oohyeah said:
When I try to boot into recovery, it ends up showing a dead android with the red triangle "!" sign.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is stock recovery.
You need to get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh
You can get rid of it by hand, or just install SuperSU from TWRP. Then flash TWRP to the recovery partition.

Thank you everyone for your input!
I'm happily back on CWM right now. If I revert back to TWRP next time at least I'll know what to do!

oohyeah said:
Thank you everyone for your input!
I'm happily back on CWM right now. If I revert back to TWRP next time at least I'll know what to do!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
None of your blunders has anything to do with TWRP.

khaytsus said:
None of your blunders has anything to do with TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK let me get something straight.
Obviously, the factory resetting that wiped out all internal storage (the original point of the thread) has nothing to do with TWRP, and I never said it did. On this point though, I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to be more well known that a factory reset would do wipe out all your data (did several searches and only found 'confirmations' that your internal SD data would be left untouched), though I'm glad that I know it now.
The suggestions on different ways to boot into recovery were helpful, though I believe that I would still have encountered the dead android, or would I not have?
What's certainly still not clear to me though is regarding the problem of not being able to boot into recovery and getting the dead android with the exclamation/triangle. After the first few replies, I expected to hear that this was NOT meant to be the case and that I did something wrong in the process or whatever.
However, what I seemed to get was that this is the expected behavior, and what I needed to have done was to "get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh".
So let me ask these questions for clarification:
1. Is the dead android normal, given what I did/didn't do?
2. Is deleting /system/etc/install-recovery.sh part of the process of installing TWRP in order to be able to boot into recovery?
3. Would I also need to get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh if using CWM?
(so far it doesn't seem to. After installing CWM I'm not getting the dead android and I didn't delete the install-recovery.sh).
Thanks. And just to be clear, I hope no one takes it the wrong way that I'm bashing TWRP or anything, because I"m not. Just been a long time user of CWM and this is the first time using TWRP and encountering the dead android.

oohyeah said:
So let me ask these questions for clarification:
1. Is the dead android normal, given what I did/didn't do?
2. Is deleting /system/etc/install-recovery.sh part of the process of installing TWRP in order to be able to boot into recovery?
3. Would I also need to get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh if using CWM?
(so far it doesn't seem to. After installing CWM I'm not getting the dead android and I didn't delete the install-recovery.sh).
Thanks. And just to be clear, I hope no one takes it the wrong way that I'm bashing TWRP or anything, because I"m not. Just been a long time user of CWM and this is the first time using TWRP and encountering the dead android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dead android = stock recovery, so normal there.
When you flash a custom recovery on a stock ROM, there is a file, /system/etc/install-recovery.sh, or I actually prefer just renaming /system/recovery-from-boot.p, which will automatically verify your recovery image and restore it to stock if it doesn't match. So you must always remove this file, or the ROM will restore the stock recovery on boot.
TWRP makes it easy to remove either file by mounting /system in read-write mode and using its built-in file manager to remove it. You can do the same in CWM using adb.
As for point 3, yes, try to reboot into recovery again. If you didn't remove (either file), you'll find stock recovery again.

Thanks, Khaytsus. I booted into recovery (long press power button, reboot menu, recovery), and it booted straight into CWM, like it always has with my other devices. (And to confirm, I have not even looked for the install-recovery.sh file, let alone removed or renamed it.)
So far it seems to me that TWRP requires removal of install-recovery.sh, whereas CWM does not, but this doesn't seem to be what you guys are telling me is supposed to be the case.

oohyeah said:
Thanks, Khaytsus. I booted into recovery (long press power button, reboot menu, recovery), and it booted straight into CWM, like it always has with my other devices. (And to confirm, I have not even looked for the install-recovery.sh file, let alone removed or renamed it.)
So far it seems to me that TWRP requires removal of install-recovery.sh, whereas CWM does not, but this doesn't seem to be what you guys are telling me is supposed to be the case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really depends on what ordering you do your actions in.
/system/etc/install-recovery.sh doesn't exist on a stock factory shipped system.
It only gets put in place after you install an OTA. If you do all your upgrades using the factory images, you'll never encounter it.
What it does is during your boot process, it will check to see if your recovery is different than what it expects (ie stock). If so, it will install stock recovery by taking the stock kernel and patching it.
If any of the following are true, it will not overwrite your recovery:
/system/etc/install-recovery.sh is missing (or modified to not run as the original file)
/system/recovery-from-boot.p is missing
you are not running the stock kernel
The most common way for install-recovery.sh to be missing is you always used factory images.
The most common way for install-recovery.sh to be modified to not do the original function is if you installed SuperSU. It will overwrite install-recovery.sh with its own.
So in all the back and forth, it is quite possible you got rid of install-recovery.sh or had it modified simply by installing root.
If you then subsequently installed custom recovery, it would stay in place.
Previously you were installing TWRP and flashing it onto the tablet, but upon booting into android, install-recovery.sh realized it wasn't stock recovery, and overwrote TWRP with stock recovery.
That is why whenever you rebooted, you got fallen android (which is stock recovery)
If the way you installed cwm is to use "fastboot flash recovery cwm.img" then the only reason it is around is because something else you did got rid of or modified install-recovery.sh. cwm would be no more immune to install-recovery.sh than twrp was.

oohyeah said:
Oh one more thing, I think I lost root after the factory reset!!
I checked my All Apps and SuperSu wasn't there anymore. Just rooted it again using Wug kit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to clarify, you didn't lose root. You just lost the supersu app, a root permission manager, because it was installed to your /data partition. The su binary was still in /system, all you would have had to do was install supersu from the market.

I'm not sure what else you were expecting from a "factory reset"

creaturemachine said:
I'm not sure what else you were expecting from a "factory reset"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you read the thread? He explained his reason for expectation quite well.
I just started up on a Nexus 4, and was also surprised to see this. Coming from a Galaxy S2, the "sdcard" being left intact was pretty convenient when flashing from ROM to ROM. Albeit, leading to some messiness. When did Nexus change to this behavior?

Skaziwu said:
I just started up on a Nexus 4, and was also surprised to see this. Coming from a Galaxy S2, the "sdcard" being left intact was pretty convenient when flashing from ROM to ROM. Albeit, leading to some messiness. When did Nexus change to this behavior?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depending on which level you are looking at, it didn't really change the behavior, but rather how your data is organized.
Factory reset has always wiped out /data.
On older devices, they put the /sdcard in a separate partition and formatted fat32.
These are the ones that were surviving a factory reset.
On newer devices, the internal /sdcard is starting to migrate onto a directory in /data and the "sdard" you see is "virtual". Since it is on /data, when you wipe data, the virtual sdcard is also wiped.
Some recoveries try to simulate the previous behavior by doing a "rm" of every directory except the virtual sdard when you choose to wipe, instead of the erase/format that Android is doing.
The advantage of keeping the sdcard as a directory under /data is you don't need to decide how much space to split between the sdcard and your /data. Also permissions on files are more flexible being in an ext4 filesystem. Finally since everything is emulated and accessed via MTP, you don't need to unmount the filesystem, so your PC can access it.
There are also cons with this approach, but that is what Google is going with.

GT-I9505 Constantly restarting

Hi all
Got an I9505 on O2 and since lollipop update it restarted a few times by itself. Now it keeps going into a loop where it will restart and the home screen loads, you can use it for about 20-30 seconds and it will reboot again!
Initially when I researched I though it was an app problem but couldn't find the culprit. Then I took it into the Samsung repair centre and they said it needed a clean flash by them. This didn't work and they fitted a new mother board and this still hasn't worked.
I can say that it has twice happened when the Wifi hasn't been working properly so I have turned it off but other than that I have no idea!
Also I have tried rebooting into safe mode but it still does it, aaarrrggghhhh!!!
Any ideas where I can go from here please?
P

Return to kitkat if you can. Otherwise use a custom rom. These would be my suggestions. Since Samsung's repair couldn't fix it, warranty should not be a problem anymore.

Thanks, I am more than willing to try a Custom ROM. Any recommendations? And how easy is it as never done before!

PJBXDA said:
Thanks, I am more than willing to try a Custom ROM. Any recommendations? And how easy is it as never done before!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's fairly easy. Depending on what S4 model you have. Some models have a locked bootloader and that makes the whole thing trickier.
This is what I did:
1) Root with CF-Auto-Root. Thread here.
2) Backup all my apps.
3) Install a custom recovery (TWRP). Download and instructions here.
4) Flash custom rom. Most roms have their own instructions.
You can skip 1 and 2 if you don't want to backup.
Installing a custom recovery can be done using Odin. I recommend TWRP since it's the only one I've used.
Lollipop GPE rom. I've used this rom and didn't have any issues. CM12 seems a bit faster, but the GPE was more stable and bug-free.

Thanks I tried to install the CM12 before you posted using the instructions there but it failed, I assume that it needs to be rooted.

PJBXDA said:
Thanks I tried to install the CM12 before you posted using the instructions there but it failed, I assume that it needs to be rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need a custom recovery to install any rom. It doesn't matter if it's rooted or not.
Get a custom recovery. Get all the necessary zip files (rom, gapps, etc). Place all the zip files on the external sd card. Boot into the custom recovery. Wipe /data, /cache and /dalvik-cache.
Go to Install (if on TWRP), go to the location where you saved the downloaded rom zip and select it. The swipe the slider to begin flashing. Afterwards flash the gapps zip. Reboot.
Also, don't use the recovery posted in the CM12 thread. It was specially made by the dev and will convert your file system to f2fs. What it basically means is that it will wipe your internal storage completely.

GDReaper said:
You need a custom recovery to install any rom. It doesn't matter if it's rooted or not.
Get a custom recovery. Get all the necessary zip files (rom, gapps, etc). Place all the zip files on the external sd card. Boot into the custom recovery. Wipe /data, /cache and /dalvik-cache.
Thanks, doing that now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

PJBXDA said:
GDReaper said:
You need a custom recovery to install any rom. It doesn't matter if it's rooted or not.
Get a custom recovery. Get all the necessary zip files (rom, gapps, etc). Place all the zip files on the external sd card. Boot into the custom recovery. Wipe /data, /cache and /dalvik-cache.
Thanks, doing that now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the CF-Root page it says to open Odin and click on the PDA button but I cannot find a PDA button!
Edit: It is the AP button on the newer version!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

GDReaper said:
You need a custom recovery to install any rom. It doesn't matter if it's rooted or not.
Get a custom recovery. Get all the necessary zip files (rom, gapps, etc). Place all the zip files on the external sd card. Boot into the custom recovery. Wipe /data, /cache and /dalvik-cache.
Go to Install (if on TWRP), go to the location where you saved the downloaded rom zip and select it. The swipe the slider to begin flashing. Afterwards flash the gapps zip. Reboot.
Also, don't use the recovery posted in the CM12 thread. It was specially made by the dev and will convert your file system to f2fs. What it basically means is that it will wipe your internal storage completely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say go to install, do you mean install update... in the recovery menu? I do not have an install from zip option

PJBXDA said:
When you say go to install, do you mean install update... in the recovery menu? I do not have an install from zip option
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't have a custom recovery installed. That is probably the stock recovery. You can't flash a rom using the stock recovery.
You absolutely need a custom recovery if you want to flash a custom rom.
Custom recoveries are: TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project), CWM (ClockworkMod Recovery) and PhilZ Touch Recovery. Either one should work. But you necessarily need one.

GDReaper said:
You don't have a custom recovery installed. That is probably the stock recovery. You can't flash a rom using the stock recovery.
You absolutely need a custom recovery if you want to flash a custom rom.
Custom recoveries are: TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project), CWM (ClockworkMod Recovery) and PhilZ Touch Recovery. Either one should work. But you necessarily need one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I have installed TWRP, then it asked me to install Busybox which I did. Tried to Install from Zip and it went back to the original recovery and now when I am trying to restart the phone I just get messages telling me things have stopped working (Google play, settings etc etc) and a black screen!
Currently factory resetting and will try again

PJBXDA said:
Thanks I have installed TWRP, then it asked me to install Busybox which I did. Tried to Install from Zip and it went back to the original recovery and now when I am trying to restart the phone I just get messages telling me things have stopped working (Google play, settings etc etc) and a black screen!
Currently factory resetting and will try again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Follow the link I gave you. They have several instrunctions on how to install TWRP. You can install TWRP with Odin too.
Here, There are 3 ways to install. Use Odin. It doesn't require root and should be the easier one. Just UNTICK auto-reboot in Odin before flashing. Once it's done, turn the phone off and use the key combo to get into TWRP recovery.

GDReaper said:
Follow the link I gave you. They have several instrunctions on how to install TWRP. You can install TWRP with Odin too.
Here, There are 3 ways to install. Use Odin. It doesn't require root and should be the easier one. Just UNTICK auto-reboot in Odin before flashing. Once it's done, turn the phone off and use the key combo to get into TWRP recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I am in, got through to the TWRP recovery and flashed the files but now I have a blue face with a pulsing white light behind it and have had for about 10 minutes. Any idea what is happening please?

PJBXDA said:
I think I am in, got through to the TWRP recovery and flashed the files but now I have a blue face with a pulsing white light behind it and have had for about 10 minutes. Any idea what is happening please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess that's the CM12 logo. First boot after flashing always takes some time because the rom is configuring stuff.
If you still don't get into android, turn off the device and turn it on again. If you've done everything correctly there is no reason why it shouldn't boot.

GDReaper said:
I guess that's the CM12 logo. First boot after flashing always takes some time because the rom is configuring stuff.
If you still don't get into android, turn off the device and turn it on again. If you've done everything correctly there is no reason why it shouldn't boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is their logo but it seems to be taking forever, any idea how long a first boot should take?

PJBXDA said:
It is their logo but it seems to be taking forever, any idea how long a first boot should take?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It shouldn't take that long. For me it always took under 5 minutes. Tell me exactly what you did.

GDReaper said:
It shouldn't take that long. For me it always took under 5 minutes. Tell me exactly what you did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did as you said, in the end I tried flashing the other GPE ROM and that has worked but I do not really like it. Trying the Cynogen again by downloading direct to the SD card and not copying it over. I want to say a very big thank you GDReaper for all your help, it is and has been very much appreciated.

PJBXDA said:
Did as you said, in the end I tried flashing the other GPE ROM and that has worked but I do not really like it. Trying the Cynogen again by downloading direct to the SD card and not copying it over. I want to say a very big thank you GDReaper for all your help, it is and has been very much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. You could try a different build. Or you could try a CM12 based rom. SaberMod worked fine for me. And it's the closest to the actual CM12 you can get.

GDReaper said:
No problem. You could try a different build. Or you could try a CM12 based rom. SaberMod worked fine for me. And it's the closest to the actual CM12 you can get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers, I have CM12 up and running now. Downloaded the files straight to the SD card and they worked. Seems OK but might try others, how do I go about trying SaberMod, do I need to flash that? Sorry to keep asking what are no doubt pretty obvious questions but I'm pretty new to this!
Want to get rid of the google search box for starters!

PJBXDA said:
Cheers, I have CM12 up and running now. Downloaded the files straight to the SD card and they worked. Seems OK but might try others, how do I go about trying SaberMod, do I need to flash that? Sorry to keep asking what are no doubt pretty obvious questions but I'm pretty new to this!
Want to get rid of the google search box for starters!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SaberMod is a rom. SaberMod CM12.1.
They are very similar. The difference is how they tackle optimizations.
Yes, you will have to flash it. But you can also stick with normal CM12 if you don't have any issues.
The google search box from the home screen or the recents?
You can change the launcher to get rid of it from the home screen.
To remove it from the recents there is an option somewhere in the settings.

Probably soft bricked my OP5, is this fixable?

Dear XDA,
I screwed up... I think my device is now soft bricked.... :crying:
It all started good on a sunny saturday. I thought this was a good day to try another custom rom. Namely Codename Phoenix.
My device was already rooted so i started with upgrading my TWRP to the latest Blu_Spark TWRP 3.2.1. After flashing the recovery i continued with the ROM. It all went downhill from there....
The install finished and i booted my device. Knowing this could take a while i got into the shower thinking it would finish when i got back. But when i got back it was still booting. Knowing the first boot can take a while so I let it be. After an hour or so it was still stuck on the google logo and the weather and my mood changed for the worse.
I figured something in the process went wrong and tried to boot into recovery. That worked so I thought 'Cool, let's fix it there'. But the recovery was encrypted so i couldn't get to my data. Normally you put in your pincode and it decrypts your phone. This was not the case.... I couldn't put in my pincode so decrypting was out of the question.
Luckily ADB was still working so I downloaded the original Oxygen OS rom and tried to side-load it... This got stuck on 47% for no reason at all. Phone had 100% battery and didn't time-out..
I was really confused, but I let the device do it's thing and maybe things would work out... I was wrong. Everything was worse. Because i tried installing the original firmware it removed the custom recovery....
So now i have a device with no OS and I can't get into recovery. Luckily there is a unbrick tool for OnePlus 5. Following those steps i got stuck on the part that it does not show in my device-manager.
Currently i'm really grumpy and have no idea how to fix this.
I humbly ask for advice. Is this solvable or do i have a wasted OnePlus 5?
Thanks in advance,
Lennard

can you reboot to bootloader?
if yes, you can flash original or custom recovery...

---------- Post added at 09:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 AM ----------
[/COLOR]
len.asdf said:
Dear XDA,
I screwed up... I think my device is now soft bricked.... :crying:
It all started good on a sunny saturday. I thought this was a good day to try another custom rom. Namely Codename Phoenix.
My device was already rooted so i started with upgrading my TWRP to the latest Blu_Spark TWRP 3.2.1. After flashing the recovery i continued with the ROM. It all went downhill from there....
The install finished and i booted my device. Knowing this could take a while i got into the shower thinking it would finish when i got back. But when i got back it was still booting. Knowing the first boot can take a while so I let it be. After an hour or so it was still stuck on the google logo and the weather and my mood changed for the worse.
I figured something in the process went wrong and tried to boot into recovery. That worked so I thought 'Cool, let's fix it there'. But the recovery was encrypted so i couldn't get to my data. Normally you put in your pincode and it decrypts your phone. This was not the case.... I couldn't put in my pincode so decrypting was out of the question.
Luckily ADB was still working so I downloaded the original Oxygen OS rom and tried to side-load it... This got stuck on 47% for no reason at all. Phone had 100% battery and didn't time-out..
I was really confused, but I let the device do it's thing and maybe things would work out... I was wrong. Everything was worse. Because i tried installing the original firmware it removed the custom recovery....
So now i have a device with no OS and I can't get into recovery. Luckily there is a unbrick tool for OnePlus 5. Following those steps i got stuck on the part that it does not show in my device-manager.
Currently i'm really grumpy and have no idea how to fix this.
I humbly ask for advice. Is this solvable or do i have a wasted OnePlus 5?
Thanks in advance,
Lennard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't worry! Your device is safe. At most, you'll be required to wipe your data.
Try using the official twrp recovery here:
https://twrp.me/oneplus/oneplus5.html
If this doesn't work, let me know.

canteo said:
can you reboot to bootloader?
if yes, you can flash original or custom recovery...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can go into fastboot and managed to install TWRP with the comment below!
Zohair.ul.hasan said:
---------- Post added at 09:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 AM ----------
[/COLOR]
Don't worry! Your device is safe. At most, you'll be required to wipe your data.
Try using the official twrp recovery here:
https://twrp.me/oneplus/oneplus5.html
If this doesn't work, let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for these words! That's a big relieve
With your link I managed to install TWRP through fastboot. So now i have a custom recovery. The current problem is that my data is encrypted and I cannot decrypt it. There is no option to fill in a password since there is no OS that requires a password. So it's sort of a neverending cycle . Although fastboot, recovery and sideload should work now.
The thing is, previously I tried installing the original firmware and that failed at 47%. So i'm not sure what to do now.
I tried installing 'codeworkx universal twrp 3.2.1-0 recovery' since he seems to have fixed the encrypt issue. But when I tried sideloading the file it says "Zip file is corrupt!". So no succes there yet.
To be precise, this is the threat for Codeworkx Universal TWRP : https://forum.xda-developers.com/on...overy-twrp-3-2-1-0-oreo-oxygenos-5-0-t3725723
And i downloaded and tried installing: twrp-3.2.1-0-universal-codeworkx-cheeseburger.img
I was thinking about downloading the latest Codename Phoenix ROM, but when I try to download the latest release the file is name "Codename-Phoenix-NOS-8.1-oneplus5t-20180303.zip". That implies it's only for the 5t and not for the 5. So that could be my original problem? That i downloaded the wrong ROM?
That aside.
Should I try to get the download link for CNP and download the latest release for the OP5 and install that.
Or
Should i try to install the original firmware. Reset everything and start over from the beginning (unlocking, rooting, etc..)
Thanks again for all the help

len.asdf said:
I can go into fastboot and managed to install TWRP with the comment below!
Thanks for these words! That's a big relieve
With your link I managed to install TWRP through fastboot. So now i have a custom recovery. The current problem is that my data is encrypted and I cannot decrypt it. There is no option to fill in a password since there is no OS that requires a password. So it's sort of a neverending cycle . Although fastboot, recovery and sideload should work now.
The thing is, previously I tried installing the original firmware and that failed at 47%. So i'm not sure what to do now.
I tried installing 'codeworkx universal twrp 3.2.1-0 recovery' since he seems to have fixed the encrypt issue. But when I tried sideloading the file it says "Zip file is corrupt!". So no succes there yet.
To be precise, this is the threat for Codeworkx Universal TWRP : https://forum.xda-developers.com/on...overy-twrp-3-2-1-0-oreo-oxygenos-5-0-t3725723
And i downloaded and tried installing: twrp-3.2.1-0-universal-codeworkx-cheeseburger.img
I was thinking about downloading the latest Codename Phoenix ROM, but when I try to download the latest release the file is name "Codename-Phoenix-NOS-8.1-oneplus5t-20180303.zip". That implies it's only for the 5t and not for the 5. So that could be my original problem? That i downloaded the wrong ROM?
That aside.
Should I try to get the download link for CNP and download the latest release for the OP5 and install that.
Or
Should i try to install the original firmware. Reset everything and start over from the beginning (unlocking, rooting, etc..)
Thanks again for all the help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice to hear that!
To be clear, does the TWRP decrypt you data? When you click install in TWRP, is it a bunch of randomly named files?
I think you should go ahead with installing CNP, you shouldn't have any problems with it now that you've got the correct version.
Good luck!

Zohair.ul.hasan said:
Nice to hear that!
To be clear, does the TWRP decrypt you data? When you click install in TWRP, is it a bunch of randomly named files?
I think you should go ahead with installing CNP, you shouldn't have any problems with it now that you've got the correct version.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it's a bunch of random file names. Like "2TAjnCI8CpHDL38Oh684DuTSgaO".
Alright, i'll let you know if I succeed. Thanks for the help

len.asdf said:
Yeah it's a bunch of random file names. Like "2TAjnCI8CpHDL38Oh684DuTSgaO".
Alright, i'll let you know if I succeed. Thanks for the help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait! Staying encrypted is a bunch of trouble. I recommend u to follow these steps:
Go to recovery
Select wipe
Select advanced wipe
Clear dalvik and cache
Go back
Select wipe
Click "Format Data"
Type in yes
Go back
Select wipe
Swipe to factory reset
Reboot recovery
Transfer the ROM from PC to phone
Install it

Zohair.ul.hasan said:
Wait! Staying encrypted is a bunch of trouble. I recommend u to follow these steps:
Go to recovery
Select wipe
Select advanced wipe
Clear dalvik and cache
Go back
Select wipe
Click "Format Data"
Type in yes
Go back
Select wipe
Swipe to factory reset
Reboot recovery
Transfer the ROM from PC to phone
Install it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha thanks! Just in time. Was still downloading the latest CNP .

Whew! Update me after flashing.

Zohair.ul.hasan said:
Whew! Update me after flashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, the installation should be a succes. But when i tried to reboot and start up the OS / System it just reboots into TWRP.... ? It's sort of boot looping into recovery.
I tried installing a couple of times with and without wiping dalvik/cache/system.
Could the install file not be complete?
On a side note, my data is not encrypted

len.asdf said:
Hmm, the installation should be a succes. But when i tried to reboot and start up the OS / System it just reboots into TWRP.... ? It's sort of boot looping into recovery.
I tried installing a couple of times with and without wiping dalvik/cache/system.
Could the install file not be complete?
On a side note, my data is not encrypted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you factory reset by going into wipe>swipe to factory reset?
If not then do that and flash it

Zohair.ul.hasan said:
Did you factory reset by going into wipe>swipe to factory reset?
If not then do that and flash it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YES! It work. Many thanks

len.asdf said:
YES! It work. Many thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Congrats! Please like my replies if you don't mind

Zohair.ul.hasan said:
Congrats! Please like my replies if you don't mind
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But of course! Already did that. But i'm not sure if it shows or not. Tried clicking multiple times on the thanks button but it doesn't highlight. It should do that right?

len.asdf said:
But of course! Already did that. But i'm not sure if it shows or not. Tried clicking multiple times on the thanks button but it doesn't highlight. It should do that right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it should but that's okay

Zohair.ul.hasan said:
Yes it should but that's okay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
installed the xda app and there I could give you a 'thanks'

SM-J510FN Dual Sim Stuck in TWRP recovery mode

Can anyone help, I rooted my phone last year and installed TWRP as part of the process, I did a backup at the time which I have on my SD card
the phone is stuck in the TWRP recovery mode, I can restore from my backup and it goes through fine but then goes back into recovery mode.
This all started when I tried to reset the phone back to factory defaults. I guess I wiped everything. Has anyone got any ideas how to get out of this.
I am not too familiar with TWRP, if anyone could point me in the right direction with a simple step by step guide it would be most appreciated.

RMEROY said:
Can anyone help, I rooted my phone last year and installed TWRP as part of the process, I did a backup at the time which I have on my SD card
the phone is stuck in the TWRP recovery mode, I can restore from my backup and it goes through fine but then goes back into recovery mode.
This all started when I tried to reset the phone back to factory defaults. I guess I wiped everything. Has anyone got any ideas how to get out of this.
I am not too familiar with TWRP, if anyone could point me in the right direction with a simple step by step guide it would be most appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download a rom
Put it on your sd card
Put a sd card inside your phone
Then flash your rom

SM-J510FN
amirizad_7436 said:
Download a rom
Put it on your sd card
Put a sd card inside your phone
Then flash your rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did try that, I found a ROM j510fnxxs2aq14_j510fndbt2aq14_dbt.zip with size of 1,379,794Kb
when I tried to install it I get a failure could not find META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary in the zip file
Error installing zip file /external_sd/j510fnxxs2aq14_j510fndbt2aq14_dbt.zip
Which is why I asked for a bit more detailed advice on my problem. If you could point me in the direction of a suitable
ROM for my device which will work I would appreciate it.

RMEROY said:
I did try that, I found a ROM j510fnxxs2aq14_j510fndbt2aq14_dbt.zip with size of 1,379,794Kb
when I tried to install it I get a failure could not find META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary in the zip file
Error installing zip file /external_sd/j510fnxxs2aq14_j510fndbt2aq14_dbt.zip
Which is why I asked for a bit more detailed advice on my problem. If you could point me in the direction of a suitable
ROM for my device which will work I would appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was it stock rom??!!
You should install custom rom man first

amirizad_7436 said:
Was it stock rom??!!
You should install custom rom man first
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried several custom roms non of which work. What I don't understand is why when I restore from my one and only backup
it all goes through ok the size is 6036MB it reports restoring 7 partitions
then restoring boot then restoring data, at the end of it I get restore ok then it goes back to the TWRP recovery screen.

RMEROY said:
I have tried several custom roms non of which work. What I don't understand is why when I restore from my one and only backup
it all goes through ok the size is 6036MB it reports restoring 7 partitions
then restoring boot then restoring data, at the end of it I get restore ok then it goes back to the TWRP recovery screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is your stock rom android 5 by any chance?

I don't know what my stock rom is, I can't access anything on my phone apart from the TWRP recovery screen
I do have another SM-J510FN which was bought at the same time which hasn't been rooted running Android 7.1.1
I don't know if that would help to determine what the stock rom is.

RMEROY said:
I don't know what my stock rom is, I can't access anything on my phone apart from the TWRP recovery screen
I do have another SM-J510FN which was bought at the same time which hasn't been rooted running Android 7.1.1
I don't know if that would help to determine what the stock rom is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I misread the thread I thought it was 2015 model.
So what exactly did you do? Step by step.
Did you wipe anything in twrp?

RMEROY said:
I don't know what my stock rom is, I can't access anything on my phone apart from the TWRP recovery screen
I do have another SM-J510FN which was bought at the same time which hasn't been rooted running Android 7.1.1
I don't know if that would help to determine what the stock rom is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went into the TWRP recovery mode then to Wipe hoping to do a factory reset, that went through ok and came back into the TWRP recovery mode
I then tried Advanced wipe and ticked all the boxes except micro SD card. Nothing could get me out of the recovery mode so then I tried a restore from
an old backup and that seemed to go through ok, but it still came back to the recovery mode.

If it was me, I would remove the back cover and via TWRP menu turn off phone.
As soon as the screen goes black, remove battery.
Insert battery and power on and see what happens.
Have you tried that? Or how do you turn it off?

Tab_Triggerhappy said:
If it was me, I would remove the back cover and via TWRP menu turn off phone.
As soon as the screen goes black, remove battery.
Insert battery and power on and see what happens.
Have you tried that? Or how do you turn it off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many times

Okay... when screen goes black have you tried to quickly start pressing the key combination to enter download mode?
For my J500 it's Volume down + Home key + Power (keep pressing until download screen appears) should be same for J510.
If you can enter download you have the option to use Odin and flash either a stock ROM or a newer Recovery.
If you want, you could:
Advance wipe, everything except SD card and OTG Usb. (How much was backed up? Did you tick all boxes?)
Format Data
Restore backup from SD card again
Advance wipe, tick only 2 boxes, Dalvik + Cache
Restart
Report back
Oh, and just to clarify... when you manually go to Restart in TWRP, no matter what option you choose, the phone restarts into TWRP again?
Bare with me, I'm trying to understand and help.

Thats the problem, I can't get out of the TWRP recovery mode so am not able to use Odin, I presume when I did my original backup
I didn't tick all the boxes because it goes through a recovery with no problem I presume the boot sector is missing.
From the TWRP recovery mode I am able to go to install and select a previously downloaded file but then it fails.
I have searched for a suitable ROM to download but am struggling to find one for my phone

Ok, what TWRP version do you have?

Tab_Triggerhappy said:
Ok, what TWRP version do you have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3.0.2-0

RMEROY said:
3.0.2-0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can update your TWRP with a newer version from here:
https://twrp.me/samsung/j5xnlte.html
(Carefully check that I linked to your model!)
.img is what you want to put in your phone. BUT... I haven't done this myself, so it's your call.
In TWRP you choose to install img and locate the file on your SD card.
My thought is that your TWRP is too old for the ROMs you have tried... (anyone please correct me if I'm wrong).

RMEROY said:
Thats the problem, I can't get out of the TWRP recovery mode so am not able to use Odin, I presume when I did my original backup
I didn't tick all the boxes because it goes through a recovery with no problem I presume the boot sector is missing.
From the TWRP recovery mode I am able to go to install and select a previously downloaded file but then it fails.
I have searched for a suitable ROM to download but am struggling to find one for my phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man it's not a problem what custom rom you downloaded
Juat install it to system cames up then install stock rom via odin
Why you wasting your time??!!

I have the TWRP image file 3.4.0-0 which partition should I be flashing it to Boot or Recovery?
I would hate kill it after getting this far.
in reply to amirizad_7436 I don't understand, I can't install a stock rom via Odin as I can't get out of the TWRP recovery mode.

RMEROY said:
I have the TWRP image file 3.4.0-0 which partition should I be flashing it to Boot or Recovery?
I would hate kill it after getting this far.
in reply to amirizad_7436 I don't understand, I can't install a stock rom via Odin as I can't get out of the TWRP recovery mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can. There is an option to reboot download mode from twrp (might be reboot bootloader)
That will put the device into download mode and you can flash with Odin.
Alternatively you could go to advanced wipe and wipe everything like you already did and then just flash a custom ROM. You wiped everything you said and then tried to reboot. That's why it went to twrp because you wiped system, there is no system to boot anymore.

garylawwd said:
You can. There is an option to reboot download mode from twrp (might be reboot bootloader)
That will put the device into download mode and you can flash with Odin.
Alternatively you could go to advanced wipe and wipe everything like you already did and then just flash a custom ROM. You wiped everything you said and then tried to reboot. That's why it went to twrp because you wiped system, there is no system to boot anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that worked, I updated the version of TWRP and then installed a ROM that I downloaded "resurrectionremix-5.8.4-20190821"
and all seems to be working, both sims are recognised and operational all I need now is to get my head around the UI apart from that everything seems
good. Thank you everybody who helped me through this. I almost got to the point of binning an otherwise good phone.
Once again a big thankyou to everyone.