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[Noob friendly] Basics about the G2 (bootloader, rom, etc.)

Some basics - About bootloader, kernel, recovery, rom, /system and some other partitions.
There are many noobs out there and sometimes even I am one. Two days ago @Closed Force asked me, where I know my stuff from and why things are like they are... So I finally decided to write this little guide about how Android devices basically work and what are the special things about our G2.
If you find wrong facts or any other mistakes (grammatical, language, contentwise), please bear with me. That's how I read it in the forums. And of course not everything written on XDA is correct. So please tell me by PM, or by posting in this thread if you have additions, corrections or any other concerns about this OP.
Where I got to know all this stuff? Reading, reading, reading. I first started modding my old HTC desire like 4 years ago. Since then and even before I'm reading. Mainly here on XDA but also on some german forums and wikis. It might have taken me easily 200 hours or more. So the only way to learn for a newbie (and everyone else too) is reading.
Personally I own a D802 variant. I know about some things that were different in details for the US variants, but things should be right as they are.
Finally thanks to
@d00lz for some extra research/additions and a quick read through.
@Art Vanderlay for some additions.
So let's get started:
When you press the power button, your device will load the Bootloader. The Bootloader afterwards wil load either the Recovery Image (recovery.img), the Kernel (boot.img) or the Download Mode Bootloader (laf.img), depending on the keys you press. At the moment there are three different bootloaders; The Jellybean one, the KitKat one, and the new Lollipop one. Not one of these Bootloaders can be unlocked yet, so there are workarounds which allow us to boot custom ROMs (specifically Kernels, but more about that later) and custom Recoverys. At the beginning there was the Jellybean Bootloader. The Developers (sorry, I don't know which ones) found out how to get around the locked Bootloader pretty early. They called this workaround Loki. It's intergrated into nearly every ROM except the ones which require the KitKat Bootloader (but that's usually not the reason they don't support the JellyBean one). Anyways, soon the KitKat update came and so did the new KitKat Bootloader. Sadly, LG patched the Loki exploit with this new update. However, the Developers found a new way to get the Bootloader booting files which weren't signed by LG. They called this workaround Bump. Bump basically imitates the LG signature so the bootloader thinks this file was really signed by LG. Obviously this workaround works with the JellyBean Bootloader too. In the Lollipop Bootloader this exploit has been closed and no one knows how to get around the new Bootloader, yet. In conclusion to Bootloaders, as long you have a working Bootloader, your device is not dead. You can usually recover it in some way.
The G2 has about 30 partitions (for a more detailed explanation, look here, thanks @d00lz). Each partition has its own purpose. One of them is the Recovery partition. Imagine: A Recovery partiton and a working Bootloader are everything you need to keep your phone working. It's kind of an Operating System in itself, completely independent from Android or anything else stored on your Mobile. The great thing about the Recovery partition is that it's so small that it can be run directly in the RAM. This means it's capable of modifing EVERY goddamn partition on your Mobile, including the Bootloader and the Recovery partition itself (means you can flash a new recovery.zip in your current recovery). Attention: if you are using the Recovery with a 4.4 KitKat Bootloader, it needs to be a Bumped Recovery. If it isn't bumped the Bootloader realizes that the Recovery is not genuine and generates a "Secure Boot Error".
Same thing goes for the Kernel. The Kernel is located in your /boot partition (found gzipped inside your boot.img) and is loaded by the Bootloader when you only press the Power Button and you let your Mobile boot normally. This is the reason why your Kernel also needs to be Bumped if you want to get your system booting on a KitKat Bootloader. When 4.4 KitKat came out, most Developers switched over to using LG's 4.4 KitKat sources for their projects. After a while it was realized that 4.2 JellyBean sources were a lot more reliable for AOSP baed ROMs. This is why most AOSP ROMs use the 4.2 JellyBean Bootloader and the 4.2 JellyBean Kernel sources while Stock based ROMs use the 4.4 KiKat Bootloader and 4.4 KitKat Kernel. There are different Kernels for AOSP ROMs and for Stock based ROMs. This is because Stock Kernels support some ROM functionalities that AOSP ROMs don't have, for example; Knock Code. (Note: Knock Code isn't open source, which is also another big reason why it isn't available for AOSP ROMs.) So there are huge differences between Stock and AOSP based ROMs/Kernels. The Kernel (without factoring in the AOSP and Stock issue) can be switch at anytime you want.
Now about the /data partition... All your personal stuff, including Apps, System Settings, App Data and so on will be stored there. The reason why you should clear it every time you change the ROM is that there are many variables set by the ROM you are coming from. Your current ROM may have some tweaks the new one doesn't have which means the new ROM doesn't know how to handle them which leads to crashes and instability.
Now let's get to the ROM... Having a 4.2 JellyBean Bootloader and a 4.2 JellyBean Kernel doesn't mean the top layer has to be 4.2 too. Most of the AOSP based ROMs are based on Googles KitKat or Lollipop sources. And this is true KitKat or Lollipop, with all its functionalities. Those huge version differences cause some problems in development. No wonder some things do not work properly today, but it's still the best working combination at the moment. It's kind of a wonder how it works as it is, but let's be happy with it. I'm very curious how AOSP ROMs with Lollipop Kernel sources will work. Your ROM and your entire existing Operating System is found in the /system partition. This is why it's the main partition which is modified while flashing. Which partitions will be modified and (how) is written in the updater-script file of the file you're going to flash. Theoretically, running a updater-script of a ROM which changes the Bootloader (/aboot partition) can brick your device. That's also the reason why you should only flash stuff made for your device only!
As already said an updaterscript can modify every partition through the recovery. All ROMs bring their own kernel, so you basically don't have to care about it, except you want to use a non-bumped ROM (with kernel) together with the KitKat bootloader.
Finally something about the baseband/modem (these terms are interchangeable). I noticed that the Developers or rather the Original Posters sometimes don't know which baseband the user should use with the ROM. In earlier days the wrong baseband could make the ROM bootloop. Today most ROMs work with most basebands. It's obviously best if you stay on the one you currently are on and just flash another one if something doesn't work (auto-rotation for example). The baseband can be flashed at any time and is on it's own partition.
Okay Download Mode time. It's part of the laf partition (laf.img). This partition is used by LG and it's PC software to recover the phone and bring it back to Stock. It's a partition in itself, but not completely independent of the Bootloader. It's because of this that you can of course have a fully working Bootloader, but a dead Download Mode. This means you will not be able to flash a .KDZ/.TOT file the next time you are in big trouble! ^^
Okay to wrap up I should mention the EFS partition. The EFS partition stores your device's IMEI (and the serial number as far as I know) of your device. NEVER wipe it. With a empty EFS partition you can use your mobile as a brick, ok maybe you can use it as a media tablet, but that's it (WiFi still works, @Art Vanderlay tested; see below).
Again: if you got questions/additions/correction or see a mistake, post below, or PM me, I'll edit this post...

reserved

Great post. A thread like this should be the first thread you read as soon as you enter the LGG2 sub forum.
Expect a private message soon.
Also, reserved for possible future additions .

d00lz said:
Great post. A thread like this should be the first thread you read as soon as you enter the LGG2 sub forum.
Expect a private message soon.
Also, reserved for possible future additions .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And you could modify your signature now^^

Sunandroid said:
And you could modify your signature now^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice write up Sunny. You can credit Dan Rosenburg for creating loki. I can also confirm that wifi still works without modemst1 and modemst2 aka efs. My phone suffers for this thread.

@Sunandroid
Perfect! This was all I was looking for. Now I finnaly understand how my G2 works and I'll most likely not need to ask more "noob questions" in this matter.
But I would like to ask some questions because I've left with doubts after reading the OP.
As long as I have /recovery/ and /aboot/ working, I can recover my device exclusively with software. Is this right?
I've concluded that you need /aboot/ to be able to enter in /recovery/ and with recovery you can mess up with any other partition.´
How can I tell if /modem/ found here is compatible with my device? Are all /modem/ partitions the same in the same models? For example, I'm from Portugal so I have a Portuguese D802 LG G2 (if I type its IMEI in a site, it recognizes it as portuguese). If I flash a German D802 modem or English or even American, considering that they are all from D802 would they work flawlessly with my device?
Why does /modem/ cause auto-rotation to work? What exactly is /modem/?
I have a backup of all the partitions in my laptop (made via TWRP). But what happens if I accidentaly lose my /efs/ partition? Can I flash another phone's /efs/?

Rayaxe said:
@Sunandroid
Perfect! This was all I was looking for. Now I finnaly understand how my G2 works and I'll most likely not need to ask more "noob questions" in this matter.
But I would like to ask some questions because I've left with doubts after reading the OP.
As long as I have /recovery/ and /aboot/ working, I can recover my device exclusively with software. Is this right?
I've concluded that you need /aboot/ to be able to enter in /recovery/ and with recovery you can mess up with any other partition.´
How can I tell if /modem/ found here is compatible with my device? Are all /modem/ partitions the same in the same models? For example, I'm from Portugal so I have a Portuguese D802 LG G2 (if I type its IMEI in a site, it recognizes it as portuguese). If I flash a German D802 modem or English or even American, considering that they are all from D802 would they work flawlessly with my device?
Why does /modem/ cause auto-rotation to work? What exactly is /modem/?
I have a backup of all the partitions in my laptop (made via TWRP). But what happens if I accidentaly lose my /efs/ partition? Can I flash another phone's /efs/?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad I could help you this way...
about /aboot and /recovery: yes you are right. It is even better, if you have an intact laf too. That's the download mode. But as long the other two work, you can fix the laf partition easily. But if you get into the situation, that only those two are working, better don't flash a bootloader (=/aboot). If it's the wrong one your device is bricked.
Aboot is the key to your device. Everything else is fixable. At least with a little bit of knowledge and time. But better don't try it out.
No, the modems are not all the same. There are (sometimes depending on the branding) extremely small differences between the basebands/modems. I personally never had the problem, that I couldn't get any connection at all. But that's not fatal. Just flash another one and try again if it works. Btw: I once made a test in some german forums with different KK basebands. I'm not sure anymore, but the differences were minimal and I think killed my connection totally.
If you loose your efs stuff, your device is a brick with extended functionalities. The IMEI and some other data stored in the efs partition is worldwide unique. So you can't just pick the one of another phone (except the other G2 is bricked or whatever). You need the IMEI for general network connection. So it will still boot up, but you won't be able to text or call anyone with this phone.

Okay ^^
So this is a full backup of all the needed partitions right? http://prntscr.com/76edu4
Should I convert these files to something like .img to be able to flash in the phone just in case I get something that disables my TWRP access?

Rayaxe said:
Okay ^^
So this is a full backup of all the needed partitions right? http://prntscr.com/76edu4
Should I convert these files to something like .img to be able to flash in the phone just in case I get something that disables my TWRP access?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I guess so. As long as you ticked everything when you backed up (with blastagators TWRP!; the official one doesn't allow to backup the efs stuff), this should be fine.
Well you could. But tbh I have no idea how to convert those files into .img files. But it isn't necessary anyways: It's unlikely that you loose the efs data on your phone unless you brick it somehow. If the phone stays recoverable, The first thing you are going to do is: flashing bootloader, laf and boot.img. Then you will go back to stock through the download mode. Once you've done this it's an easy one to install twrp again and restore the efs backup. No one is gonna flash ~32 partitions by hand. There are "easier" and more usefull ways to recover the device.
Oh and btw: no backup contains the bootloader, laf and boot (recovery developer don't implement this for some reasons). But this doesn't matter. The only thing you really need is the efs backup (which partitions exactly you can see here). Everything else isn't unique and can be extracted out of kdz files and restored this way.
Edit: the two partitions mentioned here are

Sunandroid said:
Okay Download Mode time. It's part of the laf partition (laf.img). This partition is used by LG and it's PC software to recover the phone and bring it back to Stock. It's a partition in itself, but not completely independent of the Bootloader. It's because of this that you can of course have a fully working Bootloader, but a dead Download Mode. This means you will not be able to flash a .KDZ/.TOT file the next time you are in big trouble! ^^
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Click to collapse
My PC doesn't install any driver when my phone is on download mode,
On recovery mode (twrp) i have MTP access but on download mode i'm not having any access,
does that mean my download mode is dead?

GoPogoOreo! said:
My PC doesn't install any driver when my phone is on download mode,
On recovery mode (twrp) i have MTP access but on download mode i'm not having any access,
does that mean my download mode is dead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has nothing to do with this thread here. The issue is different. But I have no clue what it might be... If I can elaborate a maybe working answer I'm gonna answer you in the noob thread.

Sunandroid said:
This has nothing to do with this thread here. The issue is different. But I have no clue what it might be... If I can elaborate a maybe working answer I'm gonna answer you in the noob thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh btw i tried your (noob friendly) no download mode, no recovery mode ..... using slax,
when i typed ls /dev/sd* it's only showed my PC (only one sda) and there is no sdb, not even one
Weirdly i can access TWRP, but i can't make any custom rom boot,
Man this is frustating

I have a phone, G2 D802 Int., which probably has a corrupt EFS partition. I guess the owner broke it flashing incompatible things into it. As a result of the corruption, ESN/IMEI is lost. It shows null. But very interestingly, the EFS partition mustn't have been wiped because by chance of a boot among a hundred, it shows up the ESN. If by chance you come across to ESN, everything operates normally. And if you reboot the phone, ESN is gone again..
I managed to make recovery work again, by upgrading the phone to lollipop. (It was another time I came across ESN.) But no download mode, USB is never identified (unkonwn usb device), USB modes cannot be changed, unless by chance you come across, USB debugging is no more either.
I was thinking to backup some necessary partitions from a working phone of the same variant, but since it's "unknown device", I cannot query it as a disk. Neither it works in Ubuntu. ls /dev/sd* doesn't show the phone. It even doesn't show the working phone.
Any idea about how I can fix the corrupted EFS partition?

pisisler said:
I have a phone, G2 D802 Int., which probably has a corrupt EFS partition. I guess the owner broke it flashing incompatible things into it. As a result of the corruption, ESN/IMEI is lost. It shows null. But very interestingly, the EFS partition mustn't have been wiped because by chance of a boot among a hundred, it shows up the ESN. If by chance you come across to ESN, everything operates normally. And if you reboot the phone, ESN is gone again..
I managed to make recovery work again, by upgrading the phone to lollipop. (It was another time I came across ESN.) But no download mode, USB is never identified (unkonwn usb device), USB modes cannot be changed, unless by chance you come across, USB debugging is no more either.
I was thinking to backup some necessary partitions from a working phone of the same variant, but since it's "unknown device", I cannot query it as a disk. Neither it works in Ubuntu. ls /dev/sd* doesn't show the phone. It even doesn't show the working phone.
Any idea about how I can fix the corrupted EFS partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I luckily never had to try it, but scroll down a bit over here: http://www.droidviews.com/how-to-backup-and-restore-lost-imei-on-lg-g2/
I wish you luck!

Sunandroid said:
I luckily never had to try it, but scroll down a bit over here: http://www.droidviews.com/how-to-backup-and-restore-lost-imei-on-lg-g2/
I wish you luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I know that, but since I cannot take the device to USB debugging mode, it's not the first step I could take. "USB device descriptor is failed", this is what I get when I plug the phone.

pisisler said:
Yes I know that, but since I cannot take the device to USB debugging mode, it's not the first step I could take. "USB device descriptor is failed", this is what I get when I plug the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what is the current state of your phone? You have twrp installed. Can you push stuff through adb when you are in the recovery (this is pretty important, since we maybe can fix the download mode this way)? Does it boot into android?

@Sunandroid, device operates normally except the voice call & data, since these depend on IMEI. The phone boots normally, and everything is working, only the IMEI shows as "null". Additionaly, cannot enter to download mode, no recovery installed, original recovery is working, which is used to do a factory reset only. No USB debugging, it says "USB device descriptor failed". Thus no adb.

pisisler said:
@Sunandroid, device operates normally except the voice call & data, since these depend on IMEI. The phone boots normally, and everything is working, only the IMEI shows as "null". Additionaly, cannot enter to download mode, no recovery installed, original recovery is working, which is used to do a factory reset only. No USB debugging, it says "USB device descriptor failed". Thus no adb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I've read about this issue (device descriptor...) just now, it is not software but hardware related.

I've heard of people solving that issue but I couldn't manage to do. Gave the phone to my customer back after 4 days. Importer service put the phone out of warranty and offered him a motherboard replacement for 75 $ and it's pretty fair I think. After all it comes funny when he says he's gonna file a case about returning the phone and take his money back. Well, it's up to him to end up with nothing in hands after months of waiting for a case.
Shortly, this file has been closed without a reasonable solution.
Thanks for your effort @Sunandroid.

pisisler said:
I've heard of people solving that issue but I couldn't manage to do. Gave the phone to my customer back after 4 days. Importer service put the phone out of warranty and offered him a motherboard replacement for 75 $ and it's pretty fair I think. After all it comes funny when he says he's gonna file a case about returning the phone and take his money back. Well, it's up to him to end up with nothing in hands after months of waiting for a case.
Shortly, this file has been closed without a reasonable solution.
Thanks for your effort @Sunandroid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to hear that. Hitting the thanks button doesn't hurt.

Convert Canadian 6045i to US 6045i with all updates (performance, stagefright, etc).

Be very careful doing this, you could brick your phone if you aren't - you have been warned.​
Okay, so, us Idol 3 users in Canada are stuck waiting for Alcatel to have any updates blessed by our cell carrier (Bell/Virgin, Telus/Koodo) before we're "allowed" to get them. And as we all know, Canadian cell carriers aren't exactly prompt about this sort of thing. So what's an enterprising XDA user to do, then? Why, convert your device to a US model, of course!
Step 1: Install TWRP
That can be done with this thread here, courtesy of @DallasCZ
Step 2: Download the latest US firmware
That can be done by downloading this file here, courtesy of @famewolf
Step 3: Flashing
Okay, so first, BACK UP YOUR EXISTING FIRMWARE. Take a system image, or nandroid, as your choice may be. Be sure to back up the boot partition as well, in case you ever want to go back to stock Canadian firmware! Then, do the following:
Decompress the US firmware
Copy the decompressed 1970-01-22--16-43-23_LRX22G_release-keys folder into your TWRP/Backups/XXXXX/ folder on your External SD card or USB-OTG storage, where XXXXX is your device ID assigned by TWRP when you backed up your existing firmware - it is also the same as your device ID if you type 'adb devices' with your phone hooked up with USB debugging enabled for adb commands.
Wipe everything *but* External SD and USB-OTG in TWRP. (This entire wipe may not be needed, but as @KashRaman pointed out, if you don't at least wipe cache, you could have issues after flashing the new firmware)
DO NOT REBOOT - go back, and select Restore in TWRP. Pick the US firmware backup.
Flash *both* the boot and system image.
Reboot System. If your phone does the same as mine, it will seem to get stuck on the 'Alcatel/Smart Move' animation. Hold power until the phone turns off, then turn it back on. It should quickly go to 'Upgrading Android'.
You're done! Set up your device, and feel free to install SuperSU, remove bloatware (AVG? Ugh), etc.
I didn't even need to add APN info for Virgin Mobile, it already set up the Bell Canada APN - worked right away out of the box.
One comment to note - I do not know that a Canadian device converted to a US one can get OTA updates, as I believe Alcatel uses some sort of IMEI identification to see what OTA ought to be passed to a device, but I'm unable to confirm this. Of course, I'm personally fine with just manually updating when need be, but that's up to you to decide if you are as well.
AS ALWAYS, BE CAREFUL, DO THIS PROCESS AT YOUR OWN RISK
Don't forget to thank @DallasCZ and @famewolf for their posts/uploads making this possible!​

To save you some pain you can more thank likely flash the system image and boot without wiping your /data.....if for some reason you ran into issues you'd still be able to go into factory recovery and do a reset which deletes data.
Also to anyone who actually uses AVG the pro version is free on amazon appstore today only.
Also you don't have to INSTALL twrp...you can opt to only boot into it using the instructions in the system image thread if you prefer to keep stock recovery.
If I had to bet I'd say you'll get the USA notifications but we will find out on next update.

famewolf said:
To save you some pain you can more thank likely flash the system image and boot without wiping your /data.....if for some reason you ran into issues you'd still be able to go into factory recovery and do a reset which deletes data.
...
Also you don't have to INSTALL twrp...you can opt to only boot into it using the instructions in the system image thread if you prefer to keep stock recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally correct on the TWRP thing, though I prefer it to stock recovery, and updates work just fine with TWRP as well.
As for the not wiping - again, correct, I just come from the 'do a total wipe' school of flashing things, to avoid any possible weirdness

purple.epod said:
Be very careful doing this, you could brick your phone if you aren't - you have been warned.​
Okay, so, us Idol 3 users in Canada are stuck waiting for Alcatel to have any updates blessed by our cell carrier (Bell/Virgin, Telus/Koodo) before we're "allowed" to get them. And as we all know, Canadian cell carriers aren't exactly prompt about this sort of thing. So what's an enterprising XDA user to do, then? Why, convert your device to a US model, of course!
Step 1: Install TWRP
That can be done with this thread here, courtesy of @DallasCZ
Step 2: Download the latest US firmware
That can be done by downloading this file here, courtesy of @famewolf
Step 3: Flashing
Okay, so first, BACK UP YOUR EXISTING FIRMWARE. Take a system image, or nandroid, as your choice may be. Be sure to back up the boot partition as well, in case you ever want to go back to stock Canadian firmware! Then, do the following:
Decompress the US firmware
Copy the decompressed 1970-01-22--16-43-23_LRX22G_release-keys folder into your TWRP/Backups/XXXXX/ folder on your External SD card or USB-OTG storage, where XXXXX is your device ID assigned by TWRP when you backed up your existing firmware.
Wipe everything *but* External SD and USB-OTG in TWRP. (This entire wipe may not be needed, but as @KashRaman pointed out, if you don't at least wipe cache, you could have issues after flashing the new firmware)
DO NOT REBOOT - go back, and select Restore in TWRP. Pick the US firmware backup.
Flash *both* the boot and system image.
Reboot System. If your phone does the same as mine, it will seem to get stuck on the 'Alcatel/Smart Move' animation. Hold power until the phone turns off, then turn it back on. It should quickly go to 'Upgrading Android'.
You're done! Set up your device, and feel free to install SuperSU, remove bloatware (AVG? Ugh), etc.
I didn't even need to add APN info for Virgin Mobile, it already set up the Bell Canada APN - worked right away out of the box.
One comment to note - I do not know that a Canadian device converted to a US one can get OTA updates, as I believe Alcatel uses some sort of IMEI identification to see what OTA ought to be passed to a device, but I'm unable to confirm this. Of course, I'm personally fine with just manually updating when need be, but that's up to you to decide if you are as well.
AS ALWAYS, BE CAREFUL, DO THIS PROCESS AT YOUR OWN RISK
Don't forget to thank @DallasCZ and @famewolf for their posts/uploads making this possible!​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When restoring the UE40 firmware the first time you go into system update checker you need to delete the existing UE40 update as it kept it around...you should then be able to check updates as normal.

Manually update
At the end of your post, you say that you update manually.. where do you get your update ?

Manually update
At the end of your post, you say that you update manually.. where do you get your update ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean that when the next update comes out, if I can't use the OTA update, I'll wait for someone to upload it here, and then I'll manually apply it. If you follow the directions in my post, you'll be totally up-to-date as of August 15th, 2015 - I'm referring to the next update, whenever that may be.

Thanks for the guide!
Was able to update my Canadian idol 3 without installing twrp
Just fastbooted into it and did a backup of my old CDN setup and restored with the file above the whole update process took about 15min
If **** hits the fan I can still restore back to the original CDN ROM with twrp and my backup.
Dt2w works every time now and chrome scrolling is vastly improved definately worth updating. I may flash back to Canadian system image when they finally release it

To anyone on stock Canadian firmware please post once an OTA is available (and what carrier you are on)

anyone else have lost LTE and get bad network speeds after converting? I had 60mbps with canadian firmware and now i get around 5mbps and lots of network drops.

jpfk said:
anyone else have lost LTE and get bad network speeds after converting? I had 60mbps with canadian firmware and now i get around 5mbps and lots of network drops.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not in canada but I would think if more folks were experiencing issues like that they would have mentioned them here already. Did you do a factory reset and start clean or did you keep your previous data around after changing firmware? In this case I'd really recommend starting clean with the exception of using tools like Titanium Backup to backup all your user apps+ their data (or you can use Helium if you don't have root).

famewolf said:
I'm not in canada but I would think if more folks were experiencing issues like that they would have mentioned them here already. Did you do a factory reset and start clean or did you keep your previous data around after changing firmware? In this case I'd really recommend starting clean with the exception of using tools like Titanium Backup to backup all your user apps+ their data (or you can use Helium if you don't have root).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had cleared the cache and did a factory reset only after i confirmed the flash of the US firmware was ok. (i have a really bad SD card which keeps unmounting and didnt want to risk being stuck with a non-functional device). In addition to the network problems i also still had the performance issues everyone mentionned was fixed in latest update. I just did a complete wipe and flashed the US again, now the performance is much much better but i still get only H+ with about 7mbps instead of LTE. But the good thing is the drops seems to have stopped.

jpfk said:
I had cleared the cache and did a factory reset only after i confirmed the flash of the US firmware was ok. (i have a really bad SD card which keeps unmounting and didnt want to risk being stuck with a non-functional device). In addition to the network problems i also still had the performance issues everyone mentionned was fixed in latest update. I just did a complete wipe and flashed the US again, now the performance is much much better but i still get only H+ with about 7mbps instead of LTE. But the good thing is the drops seems to have stopped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you probably tried this but... check that the APN didn't get changed/reset from when lte was working.

That was actually the problem, i did not realize it was a different APN for LTE so it looked normal when I first checked. Thank you very much

Has anyone gotten the Canadian stagefright update pushed to their phone yet?

doesn't work for me!
purple.epod said:
Be very careful doing this, you could brick your phone if you aren't - you have been warned.​
Okay, so, us Idol 3 users in Canada are stuck waiting for Alcatel to have any updates blessed by our cell carrier (Bell/Virgin, Telus/Koodo) before we're "allowed" to get them. And as we all know, Canadian cell carriers aren't exactly prompt about this sort of thing. So what's an enterprising XDA user to do, then? Why, convert your device to a US model, of course!
Step 1: Install TWRP
That can be done with this thread here, courtesy of @DallasCZ
Step 2: Download the latest US firmware
That can be done by downloading this file here, courtesy of @famewolf
Step 3: Flashing
Okay, so first, BACK UP YOUR EXISTING FIRMWARE. Take a system image, or nandroid, as your choice may be. Be sure to back up the boot partition as well, in case you ever want to go back to stock Canadian firmware! Then, do the following:
Decompress the US firmware
Copy the decompressed 1970-01-22--16-43-23_LRX22G_release-keys folder into your TWRP/Backups/XXXXX/ folder on your External SD card or USB-OTG storage, where XXXXX is your device ID assigned by TWRP when you backed up your existing firmware - it is also the same as your device ID if you type 'adb devices' with your phone hooked up with USB debugging enabled for adb commands.
Wipe everything *but* External SD and USB-OTG in TWRP. (This entire wipe may not be needed, but as @KashRaman pointed out, if you don't at least wipe cache, you could have issues after flashing the new firmware)
DO NOT REBOOT - go back, and select Restore in TWRP. Pick the US firmware backup.
Flash *both* the boot and system image.
Reboot System. If your phone does the same as mine, it will seem to get stuck on the 'Alcatel/Smart Move' animation. Hold power until the phone turns off, then turn it back on. It should quickly go to 'Upgrading Android'.
You're done! Set up your device, and feel free to install SuperSU, remove bloatware (AVG? Ugh), etc.
I didn't even need to add APN info for Virgin Mobile, it already set up the Bell Canada APN - worked right away out of the box.
One comment to note - I do not know that a Canadian device converted to a US one can get OTA updates, as I believe Alcatel uses some sort of IMEI identification to see what OTA ought to be passed to a device, but I'm unable to confirm this. Of course, I'm personally fine with just manually updating when need be, but that's up to you to decide if you are as well.
AS ALWAYS, BE CAREFUL, DO THIS PROCESS AT YOUR OWN RISK
Don't forget to thank @DallasCZ and @famewolf for their posts/uploads making this possible!​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i downloaded the zip restore file for my phone (Model: 6045Y(Europe) Firmware: 5.0.2-010 06) from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/idol...dates-t3163745
I also have the twrp-2.8.7.0-idol3 installed on my phone.
I also followed this thread
to find the way to install that ROM, without success. i also installed the root from the zip file in the twrp, but again without success!! but when i open from the twrp the directory TWRP/Backups/XXXXX/ and i copy the .win and the .win.md5 files the phone doesn't see the when i click restore

i downloaded the zip restore file for my phone (Model: 6045Y(Europe) Firmware: 5.0.2-010 06) from this thread
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This guide is for converting a Canadian 6045i to a US 6045i - both are identical models with simply slightly different software. It won't work with a European 'Y' model like you said you have.

punkal said:
i downloaded the zip restore file for my phone (Model: 6045Y(Europe) Firmware: 5.0.2-010 06) from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/idol...dates-t3163745
I also have the twrp-2.8.7.0-idol3 installed on my phone.
I also followed this thread
to find the way to install that ROM, without success. i also installed the root from the zip file in the twrp, but again without success!! but when i open from the twrp the directory TWRP/Backups/XXXXX/ and i copy the .win and the .win.md5 files the phone doesn't see the when i click restore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Step 1) Make a backup on the device so it creates the directory path you need.
Step 2) Take the time datestamp folder from the backup you have and put it in the folder that has the other time datestamp folders. It's not a complicated process. Installing the "root" from the zip file does you no good because the time datestamp folders need to be under a folder with your device id (ie what shows up when you do adb devices).
While the restore process IS the same your questions should be asked in the system image thread if you don't have a 6045i.
According to @petrov.0 it's better for you to install the official 10 06 update (or his modified one in the system image thread) as it updates files in SEVERAL partitions other than system and boot. Again discussion needs to be there.
Apologies to @purple.epod. This will hopefully redirect folks back to the system image thread. I have a line that states to follow your restore tutorial but use their own backup but did not intend for them to be asking questions HERE.

purple.epod said:
This guide is for converting a Canadian 6045i to a US 6045i - both are identical models with simply slightly different software. It won't work with a European 'Y' model like you said you have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now i understand why it doesn't work. And where can i find the rom for my as i have everything wiped? do you know i only found ROM Arde-Dev-Team-v1_5.0.2 but it doesn't work!
---------- Post added at 11:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 AM ----------
famewolf said:
Step 1) Make a backup on the device so it creates the directory path you need.
Apologies to @purple.epod. This will hopefully redirect folks back to the system image thread. I have a line that states to follow your restore tutorial but use their own backup but did not intend for them to be asking questions HERE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately i can bakup anything as i have wiped everything on the phone!:crying:
I know i'm really stupid, but i do that as it was a step as a process of installing a new ROM as mine was corrupted!:crying:

punkal said:
Now i understand why it doesn't work. And where can i find the rom for my as i have everything wiped? do you know i only found ROM Arde-Dev-Team-v1_5.0.2 but it doesn't work!
---------- Post added at 11:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 AM ----------
Unfortunately i can bakup anything as i have wiped everything on the phone!:crying:
I know i'm really stupid, but i do that as it was a step as a process of installing a new ROM as mine was corrupted!:crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why are you posting this HERE when even the message you quoted states questions should be asked in the system image thread?

famewolf said:
Why are you posting this HERE when even the message you quoted states questions should be asked in the system image thread?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really sorry!
i've been taken by terror and panic.!

[SOLVED] Phone reboots to recovery, even after TWRP restore?

*I flashed a CM12.1 nightly on top of one that was a couple days old, and the new one had all kinds of force closes. This was through CM's internal update function, which sets a recovery script and reboots into recovery to install it (which BTW failed).
So I went into TWRP and flashed the backup I made not a couple hours earlier. But now I have kind of a bootloop. Most of the time, the LG logo shows up, then it just reboots back into recovery. One time it got stuck on the logo, and I was able to see it with ADB but it told me init.sh was missing when I tried to adb shell into it.
I have three backups I tried restoring, which had /boot, /recovery, /system and /data, plus I wiped the Dalvik cache and /cache, but nothing I've tried will kick this thing loose. I've even tried formatting it back to EXT4 from F2FS, and erasing and recreating the partitions in fastboot. It seems like there's a flag somewhere telling it to reboot into recovery, but I can't find anything pertinent online. I'm really at a loss as to how to fix it, and out of ideas now.

Have you tried using the lg support tool to bring the phone back to stock?

audit13 said:
Have you tried using the lg support tool to bring the phone back to stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I was going to edit the OP to say I've also now tried to flash back to stock, using the 20a KDZ and the LG Flash Tool 2014. When it gets to the point where it's actually about to flash, it says "USB is not connected". I have all the latest drivers, and have tried different cords, to no avail. It has been transferring files while connected in TWRP, so I'm not sure what that's about.

What about using the lg support tool to flash stock?

LG Mobile Support Tool is what LG Flash Tool calls to actually flash the ROM (otherwise you have to depend on what LGMST decides to download). It saw the phone the last time I used it, but wouldn't show LP 5.0.2 as being an available update, even though it had been released.
This thread has the instructions I've been working off of, which was posted around the time the ROM was released. It "should" work, it just doesn't. If I'm not mistaken, there may be another tool you can use, but I haven't been able to find it.
There's one other way I suppose I could go about this, but it would be delicate. I could push all the individual IMG files from a ZIP archive I have of the KDZ, but I don't know what all the partition names are, and there are like 10 of them, including laf, aboot, etc. For example, the /data partition is actually named "userdata" when you use fastboot flash.

I didn't know about the difference between the LGMST and Flash Tool.
All I know is that the LGMST was able to download the correct LP ROM for my phone, install it, and get me back to stock after I screwed things up when trying to get root.

i have same problems , here is my solutions
- use SKR tool -> 4 .fix utility -> 5.unbrick ,
if u want go back to stock, try use TOT file to go back JB
cant use kdz way

Dễ.Thương said:
i have same problems , here is my solutions
- use SKR tool -> 4 .fix utility -> 5.unbrick ,
if u want go back to stock, try use TOT file to go back JB
cant use kdz way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+Thanks, I have never even heard of that. But I'll give it a try. By any chance were you using F2FS?
Though I am not sure, but I'm leaning towards some kind of hardware failure -- this is a refurbished phone, so there's no telling what it's been through inside. T-Mobile sent another one overnight, which I should have in a few hours, but I still need to clean up this one if it has to go back.

audit13 said:
I didn't know about the difference between the LGMST and Flash Tool.
All I know is that the LGMST was able to download the correct LP ROM for my phone, install it, and get me back to stock after I screwed things up when trying to get root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine told me I had the latest version, which is peculiar. Was your phone rooted at the time? Because I could understand it refusing in that case: I ran into a soft-brick on a D800 because of an OTA once. Otherwise, I'm not sure why one would work, and the other wouldn't.

voxluna said:
+Thanks, I have never even heard of that. But I'll give it a try. By any chance were you using F2FS?
Though I am not sure, but I'm leaning towards some kind of hardware failure -- this is a refurbished phone, so there's no telling what it's been through inside. T-Mobile sent another one overnight, which I should have in a few hours, but I still need to clean up this one if it has to go back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont use f2fs , just use SKR tool with luck but i think u need flash a stock rom first

Dễ.Thương said:
i dont use f2fs , just use SKR tool with luck but i think u need flash a stock rom first
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason I ask is that I had a debate in another thread about using F2FS instead of EXT4 for the filesystem. Most people suggested it's buggy and causes problems, so I wondered if that's what happened here.

When I used lgmst, my phone was giving me boot certification errors. I played around some more with it and then it would only go to download mode.
I connect the phone in download mode and the program downloaded and installed the latest LP rom for my 802 from UAE.

audit13 said:
When I used lgmst, my phone was giving me boot certification errors. I played around some more with it and then it would only go to download mode.
I connect the phone in download mode and the program downloaded and installed the latest LP rom for my 802 from UAE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If u can boot your phone ,try to use Tot file , lg flash tool doesnt work anymore

LGMST fixed my 802 so there was no need for a tot file.

audit13 said:
When I used lgmst, my phone was giving me boot certification errors. I played around some more with it and then it would only go to download mode.
I connect the phone in download mode and the program downloaded and installed the latest LP rom for my 802 from UAE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish I had a D802 -- it's ubiquitous, and thus has more support on XDA, I think. I'm not sure why T-Mobile chose to have a customized model. Same goes for AT&T, since they both use the same frequencies... and I don't know what the hell Verizon was thinking with those hideous buttons. The only differences I see between most of them is the SAR.

I am not sure that all g2 phones support the same frequencies. My 802 will not connect to LTE in Canada.

audit13 said:
I am not sure that all g2 phones support the same frequencies. My 802 will not connect to LTE in Canada.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, they don't, especially Verizon and Sprint being entirely incompatible because of CDMA. I looked it up just now, and while there are several variations of your phone, it actually looks like it has a lot less frequencies than the T-Mobile device. I was under the impression it was the other way around, but I dunno exactly -- yours is supposed to be a D803 up there. It depends on the carrier/region, and which LTE bands they're using. It may be that you get LTE somewhere else eventually.
I don't know why the hell they don't just make the phone with all the bands you expect to encounter on a continent, but I'm sure it has to do with lock-in. Because the SoC should already have that stuff baked in.

I actually have an 802 (International version, unlocked) that I bought off a guy on Kijiji. It was an incredibly cheap price because it had some scratches on the screen which are not very noticeable. Once I applied a tempered glass screen protector, you could only see the scratches from an oblique angle. The guy even included an official LG flip case which wakes and sleeps the phone This phone even has a stock LP ROM.

I love the glass protectors! That gel adhesive just melts on the screen and leaves not a single bubble. And yeah, it gets into scratches and improves them, too. I'll never use film ones again. I've personally never broken a screen, but Gorilla Glass can be scratched under the right conditions. Hey, as long as it's working for you, cheap is always good. HSPA+ isn't anything to sneeze about either -- I've had some amazing speeds on T-Mobile with it, for years now. It's a great fallback for LTE.

Okay, I managed to recover the original phone!
Something in my previous build was triggering the boot loop into recovery. This happened when the CyanogenMod updater tried to flash a new nightly, so there's a possibility it set a flag that kept it looping. But it's also possible Xposed went haywire somehow, and/or a module did. I'm not really sure why it decided to fail like this, when I had been using it without issue.
All my backups did the same thing, yet those builds ran okay when I backed them up. And I don't know why I could see the COM41 port, but not use it -- the drivers were perfect, I went to a lot of trouble to uninstall and replace them. That meant no LGFlashTool, and manual restoration (ye olde commande line).
So, what I did was use fastboot to flash every partition I could get my hands on, not just the ones you can format in TWRP. I used the 20c files from here. You basically do:
fastboot erase aboot
fastboot flash aboot.img
fastboot erase laf
fastboot flash laf.img​...etc. Then you format the /system partition, and flash a Cyanogenmod nightly into there. I also flashed the /data partition, but left /data/media alone, which saves the internal storage. Then I erased and flashed /recovery just for good measure.
This is a somewhat specific fix, but maybe if someone else comes across it, it can help.

Can i flash this H910PR10j_00_1205 firmware to my AT&T H910?

Can i flash this H910PR10j_00_1205 firmware to my AT&T H910? Will it work?

ssgsunny said:
Can i flash this H910PR10j_00_1205 firmware to my AT&T H910? Will it work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We need a link to actually see the file.

me2151 said:
We need a link to actually see the file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://lg-firmwares.com/lg-h910pr-firmwares/#more-4385

What is it for?

Wouldnt recommend unless you want to test risk it. Its a kdz so format is right but its not for the us region.

This is a nice way to brick.
Cross-flashing radios, and/or bootloaders = GG

me2151 said:
Wouldnt recommend unless you want to test risk it. Its a kdz so format is right but its not for the us region.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it and now I am on a island by myself. I got service, made a phone call and got text. It run through about every service possible and then dropped them all!!! It was such a kick in the ballz. Come swim with me the water great!

h910pr
i can confirm i have flashed the h910pr rom to my att h910 and it worked fine for me. stuck on the claro software but its actually better than atts lol. maybe someone could work on this firmware version since we have a kdz of it.

@predheadtx I don't suppose you checked to see if someone was asleep at the wheel and left fastboot oem unlock wide open?

Not sure.
runningnak3d said:
@predheadtx I don't suppose you checked to see if someone was asleep at the wheel and left fastboot oem unlock wide open?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was originally on the h910 att firmware, then used dirty santa to open the bootloader and root. I found a rom that i really like and ran fast as heck, but it wouldn't sync with my watch. I tried a factory reset with led me to a twrp boot loop and nothing i did would get me out of it. so i tried to reflash twrp and it led me to a bricked phone that wouldn't power on past the boot loader unlocked notification. After tons of research and a little tweaking to a few things i got lgup to recognize my phone and flash the h910pr kdz to my phone. if anyone needs i can make a zip of the tools i used and post it somewhere.
edit- uploading to mega right now. will post a link in a little bit to a zip with my lgup folder configured exactly as it needed. install lgup2016 and the lg drivers then copy the lgup from this zip over the lgup folder in your programfiles(x86). essentially all you really need here is the lgup_common.dll which is actually just the h918.dll with the name changed. i had read the fccid's on the h910,h910pr and the h918 were the same, which meant by a measurable standard they are the same hardware. so i took the assumption the dlls would be compatable. by pure blind luck with the folder layout as shown in the zip and the kdz included as well it took. i was a little worried because i had read someone tried this and could not get carrier service. i thought id at least make the phone usable in case a fix was found.my phone reports itself as an h910pr now but is connected to the att network with no issues, text, talk and web all work fine as well as att services.

I had checked a while back and saw that the h910 and h918 had the same FCC ID, which, as you stated, means they have to be the same hardware. I am using my h910 on T-Mobile, so now that I know (if it fails for some reason) that I can flash the h910pr KDZ, I am going to try the h918.
Sorry that you almost had a brick, but thanks so much for verifying that this works.

hi to everyone concerned, i have begun monitoring this thread;
https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/help/lg-v20-h910-kdz-t3612524/page2#post72599368
please direct any inquiry's to my experience there. there is also a link and directions there to restore any bricked lgh910 to the h910pr version, as well as development on using the h915 and h918 firmware.

LG G4 H812 (Canadian) Intermittently No Service

I found a used LG G4 that was locked to Koodo for a friend of mine. I researched to make sure that it supports the AWS 1700/2100 band since my friend is on Eastlink (similar to Freedom Mobile). At first everything worked fine, but now he is getting intermittent disconnections from the network where it says "no service." I had him choose the option without LTE, and at first he got service again, but then he didn't get mobile data, and the connection randomly dropped anyway (for calls and texts).
I had him open the service menu via *#*#4636#*#* to turn off the radio, but as soon as he goes to "Phone Information," he gets the message "This application does not work on this device." So Koodo blocked the menu. Wonderful.
At this point, I'm really not sure what to do. Has anyone had similar issues? I've rooted and installed custom ROMs on my own phones several times before. Would installing a custom ROM help? Or maybe just flashing another modem file?
If anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated. I was trying to help my friend save some money. His old phone was 8 years old and was a cheapo that was laggy from the start. I recommended a "higher end" used phone rather than another cheapo. He's running a business and has 9 kids, so... I would really like to get this working for him.
Edit:
Problem is solved. My friend is no longer experiencing intermittent "no service'" or anything. Here is what I did:
1. Followed these instructions to unlock the bootloader.
2. Flash stock Nougat zip (instructions also say "After that and while still in TWRP: Choose Reboot -> RECOVERY ! This should ensure TWRP will not be overwritten on Android boot")
3. Flash Nougat modem zip
4. Flash my model's baseband (again; was already done during bootloader unlock)
I realize now that I might have not needed to unlock bootloader at all, and could have used LG Up (new) to flash a kdz. But oh well, it's all done, and now my friend has Nougat (the Canadian variant abandoned updates before Nougat).

threehappypenguins said:
I found a used LG G4 that was locked to Koodo for a friend of mine. I researched to make sure that it supports the AWS 1700/2100 band since my friend is on Eastlink (similar to Freedom Mobile). At first everything worked fine, but now he is getting intermittent disconnections from the network where it says "no service." I had him choose the option without LTE, and at first he got service again, but then he didn't get mobile data, and the connection randomly dropped anyway (for calls and texts).
I had him open the service menu via *#*#4636#*#* to turn off the radio, but as soon as he goes to "Phone Information," he gets the message "This application does not work on this device." So Koodo blocked the menu. Wonderful.
At this point, I'm really not sure what to do. Has anyone had similar issues? I've rooted and installed custom ROMs on my own phones several times before. Would installing a custom ROM help? Or maybe just flashing another modem file?
If anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated. I was trying to help my friend save some money. His old phone was 8 years old and was a cheapo that was laggy from the start. I recommended a "higher end" used phone rather than another cheapo. He's running a business and has 9 kids, so... I would really like to get this working for him.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming he's carrier unlocked, if he's using an old sim card from a previous carrier, he should purchase a new sim card from his current carrier.
If he hasn't already tried this, suggest he do a network reset: Settings > Backup & reset > Network settings reset.
If no go, his alternatives are to (assuming he's not bootloader unlocked): try a factory reset; next, re-flash his appropriate kdz in LGUP-NEW. He should backup his userdata first.
If bootloader unlocked (UsU) he could re-flash his modem.bin or modem.img file from a SALT extract of his appropriate kdz.

sdembiske said:
Assuming he's carrier unlocked, if he's using an old sim card from a previous carrier, he should purchase a new sim card from his current carrier.
If he hasn't already tried this, suggest he do a network reset: Settings > Backup & reset > Network settings reset.
If no go, his alternatives are to (assuming he's not bootloader unlocked): try a factory reset; next, re-flash his appropriate kdz in LGUP-NEW. He should backup his userdata first.
If bootloader unlocked (UsU) he could re-flash his modem.bin or modem.img file from a SALT extract of his appropriate kdz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've already done a factory reset of the phone. Is a network reset necessary, or would the factory reset cover that? His bootloader is not unlocked... yet. I will attempt re-flashing his kdz and/or just the modem if the network reset at this point is unnecessary. I'm looking at lg-firmwares.com and don't see Koodo on that list (the phone was originally put out by Koodo), so I assume Telus (Koodo's parent network) would be a safe one to use (MM)?

I found a bigger list here. I found the link in this guide.

threehappypenguins said:
I've already done a factory reset of the phone. Is a network reset necessary, or would the factory reset cover that? His bootloader is not unlocked... yet. I will attempt re-flashing his kdz and/or just the modem if the network reset at this point is unnecessary. I'm looking at lg-firmwares.com and don't see Koodo on that list (the phone was originally put out by Koodo), so I assume Telus (Koodo's parent network) would be a safe one to use (MM)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Network reset is your first & best option. Re-flashing the kdz is your last option.
Use this site for the kdz download and scroll down to and use this Telus kdz ( H81220z_00_0327.kdz: it does work on Koodo as well): https://lg-firmwares.com/lg-h812-firmwares/firmwares/
Refer to this link for flashing with LGUP-NEW: https://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/lgup-install-kdz-mm-lp-t3249803
As a 'Senior Member" you should know that it is an XDA courtesy to use the Thanks button - you should have learned to use it by now - bottom right of the post

sdembiske said:
Assuming he's carrier unlocked, if he's using an old sim card from a previous carrier, he should purchase a new sim card from his current carrier.
If he hasn't already tried this, suggest he do a network reset: Settings > Backup & reset > Network settings reset.
If no go, his alternatives are to (assuming he's not bootloader unlocked): try a factory reset; next, re-flash his appropriate kdz in LGUP-NEW. He should backup his userdata first.
If bootloader unlocked (UsU) he could re-flash his modem.bin or modem.img file from a SALT extract of his appropriate kdz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sdembiske said:
Network reset is your first & best option. Re-flashing the kdz is your last option.
Use this site for the kdz download and scroll down to and use this Telus kdz ( H81220z_00_0327.kdz: it does work on Koodo as well): https://lg-firmwares.com/lg-h812-firmwares/firmwares/
Refer to this link for flashing with LGUP-NEW: https://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/lgup-install-kdz-mm-lp-t3249803
As a 'Senior Member" you should know that it is an XDA courtesy to use the Thanks button - you should have learned to use it by now - bottom right of the post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I am getting him to do a Network settings reset right now. I'll wait and see if that resolves the issue. If it doesn't I will attempt flashing.
I do have a question about the bootloader. You said that it is required to be unlocked. But I read that on the H812 you can't unlock the bootloader. So how does that work? Can I just flash a Marshmallow kdz onto the existing MM OS? I see that his current software version is H81220z. I thought that since there is no root (and no bootloader unlock?) for MM, that I have to downgrade to Lollipop (as explained in these instructions). I thought an unlocked bootloader is always a prerequisite?

Aha! I searched and searched and eventually found this key post. It points to this thread here about (kind of, sort of) unlocking the bootloader and also recommends a backup with SALT.

threehappypenguins said:
Aha! I searched and searched and eventually found this key post. It points to this thread here about (kind of, sort of) unlocking the bootloader and also recommends a backup with SALT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, quite a number of us now have unlocked our bootloader, thanks to the unwavering steadfastness of @steadfasterX, author of the UsU unlock method.
Ensure you do upgrade to the latest Telus 1220z MM kdz (even though he is on it already), I linked first with LGUP-NEW to see if the network connection is restored and then do a SALT backup as recommended before unlocking. It is very important you read the OP in the USU unlock thread thoroughly, making sure you understand it complete;y, to avoid easily avoidable screw-ups. You should make sure your friend understands the process and risks as well before proceeding.
steadfasterX has also prepared custom roms for our unlocked H812's and I can recommend both the ASOCP N and the Lineageos O roms for your H812, if your friend doesn't rely on any LG stock proprietary apps, otherwise you can flash him a special stock Nougat LG rom (all available in the Downloads section in the UsU thread).

sdembiske said:
Yes, quite a number of us now have unlocked our bootloader, thanks to the unwavering steadfastness of @steadfasterX, author of the UsU unlock method.
Ensure you do upgrade to the latest Telus 1220z MM kdz (even though he is on it already), I linked first with LGUP-NEW to see if the network connection is restored and then do a SALT backup as recommended before unlocking. It is very important you read the OP in the USU unlock thread thoroughly, making sure you understand it complete;y, to avoid easily avoidable screw-ups. You should make sure your friend understands the process and risks as well before proceeding.
steadfasterX has also prepared custom roms for our unlocked H812's and I can recommend both the ASOCP N and the Lineageos O roms for your H812, if your friend doesn't rely on any LG stock proprietary apps, otherwise you can flash him a special stock Nougat LG rom (all available in the Downloads section in the UsU thread).
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My friend's phone says that it's MM and software version is H81220z, so he should be good there.
I'm interested in Lineage Oreo, and I'm a little confused about the instructions, if you don't mind enlightening me. So first off, I understand that UsU is required first. In the UsU instructions, it says:
Flash the baseband package now: <model>_UsU_baseband_flash-in-twrp.zip
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But in the Lineage O instructions, it says:
If you have ever flashed the UsU baseband package: Clean flash the modem partition from your backup in TWRP.
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So I assume that I'm supposed to just skip flashing the baseband in the UsU instructions? What about installing SuperSU afterwards? Is flashing that new baseband required?
I guess what I'm wondering is, should I flash the baseband, like in UsU instructions, then revert back to the original baseband, like in the Lineage O instructions, or should I just skip flashing the baseband in the first place?

threehappypenguins said:
My friend's phone says that it's MM and software version is H81220z, so he should be good there.
I'm interested in Lineage Oreo, and I'm a little confused about the instructions, if you don't mind enlightening me. So first off, I understand that UsU is required first. In the UsU instructions, it says:
But in the Lineage O instructions, it says:
So I assume that I'm supposed to just skip flashing the baseband in the UsU instructions? What about installing SuperSU afterwards? Is flashing that new baseband required?
I guess what I'm wondering is, should I flash the baseband, like in UsU instructions, then revert back to the original baseband, like in the Lineage O instructions, or should I just skip flashing the baseband in the first place?
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The reason you should re-flash the same kdz, is to see if it gets the network connectivity issue solved before proceeding with anything else as you may find the problem still exists.
If you are planning to go the the LG Nougat stock rom, the baseband should be flashed. If you're going to the H812 Lineage O rom, just flash the modem.bin file from the SALT backup you do - you can always flash the baseband later if there is a problem and it is needed. Flash SuperSu after.
You're still forgetting the Thanks button, eh ... ? Hint: It's a good habit to get into when receiving help from other members.

sdembiske said:
The reason you should re-flash the same kdz, is to see if it gets the network connectivity issue solved before proceeding with anything else as you may find the problem still exists.
If you are planning to go the the LG Nougat stock rom, the baseband should be flashed. If you're going to the H812 Lineage O rom, just flash the modem.bin file from the SALT backup you do - you can always flash the baseband later if there is a problem and it is needed. Flash SuperSu after.
You're still forgetting the Thanks button, eh ... ? Hint: It's a good habit to get into when receiving help from other members.
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Well, I successfully unlocked the bootloader using UsU. I flashed the the baseband package, because I figure I will first re-flash the same kdz. I also decided I will flash stock Nougat because I figure it will be more stable for my friend. Unfortunately, I only got as far as flashing the baseband package and SuperSU.zip. When I try to boot into the OS, it just hangs on the "LG Life's Good" logo forever. Should I go ahead and flash the MM kdz using LG Up new anyway? I already tried a factory reset, and it didn't make a difference.

threehappypenguins said:
Well, I successfully unlocked the bootloader using UsU. I flashed the the baseband package, because I figure I will first re-flash the same kdz. I also decided I will flash stock Nougat because I figure it will be more stable for my friend. Unfortunately, I only got as far as flashing the baseband package and SuperSU.zip. When I try to boot into the OS, it just hangs on the "LG Life's Good" logo forever. Should I go ahead and flash the MM kdz using LG Up new anyway? I already tried a factory reset, and it didn't make a difference.
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If you want to hard brick your friend's phone and possibly lose a friend, sure, ignore the UsU thread OP warnings ... i.e., DO NOT flash with LGUP-NEW now that the phone is unlocked. If you're going to the stock Nougat, flash the N modem from the UsU thread. If that doesn't work, flash the MM modem from a SALT extraction of a clean Telus H81220z kdz.
Suggest you read the OP in the UsU thread fully, i.e., all of it including the FAQ's and make sure you understand it all this time.

I finally figured out why I'm so confused. Original, when you said this:
sdembiske said:
If no go, his alternatives are to (assuming he's not bootloader unlocked): try a factory reset; next, re-flash his appropriate kdz in LGUP-NEW.
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I misread. I thought you said "assuming he's bootloader unlocked." So I kept thinking that in order to do ANYTHING (flash the kdz), his bootloader had to be unlocked.
I read the OP over and over, and didn't see the part about never kdz flashing with LGUp, coupled with my misunderstanding that I had to be bootloader unlocked in order to flash with lgup. But I finally found what you're talking about in the FAQ.
You can't! At least for the KDZ flashing part: not yet.
SALT will allow flashing of KDZ files with the upcoming version 4.0 but until then do not flash with lgup and do not use the LG Android internal updater --> You WILL 100% brick your device.
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I realize all this is a risk to my friend's phone, it's just that I was the one who talked him into buy a used decent phone, rather than buying a new cheapo crappy phone. I just wish I didn't misread what you had said and tried flashing with LGUp *before* I bootloader unlocked.
It's been a long week.
P.S. - I wouldn't lose him as a friend over this. He is very technologically challenged, and keeps thanking me over and over for helping him with all his previous phones, for giving his wife one of our used old phones (she previously had no phone), for helping set up his network with a Tomato firmware router and OpenDNS so he can know what in the world his kids are doing online and have control over the network, etc. So if I bricked his phone, I would just buy another one used for him. He wouldn't care. He just needs a half decent, inexpensive phone to run his small business. Right now, he's just using his old phone for the time being. It's a MotoE that he's had for the last 8 years and he says, "I need to upgrade." Lol

I searched and searched for the Nougat modem (at this point, I might as well upgrade to Nougat), and this is what I found. Is this correct? Or is there another version that I need because that one isn't compatible with my phone? I also assume that the modem zip is flashable via TWRP? I see the "META-INF" folder.
This is the stock Nougat I was going to flash (with TWRP? It looks like a flashable zip). My ARB is 0. My GPT compatibility is H811.
I see in the N stock that there is already a modem.bin file. So should I first flash the stock N zip, and THEN flash the separate N modem? Also, the instructions say:
16) I just wanna flash Nougat STOCK. Are there any worry free UsU downloads for it available?
Sure: here
After flashing ensure you flash your model baseband package!
After that and while still in TWRP: Choose Reboot -> RECOVERY ! This should ensure TWRP will not be overwritten on Android boot
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So, in summary:
1. Flash stock Nougat zip
2. Flash Nougat modem zip
3. Flash my model's baseband (again)?
And if none of that works:
flash the MM modem from a SALT extraction of a clean Telus H81220z kdz
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?

threehappypenguins said:
I searched and searched for the Nougat modem (at this point, I might as well upgrade to Nougat), and this is what I found. Is this correct? Or is there another version that I need because that one isn't compatible with my phone? I also assume that the modem zip is flashable via TWRP? I see the "META-INF" folder.
This is the stock Nougat I was going to flash (with TWRP? It looks like a flashable zip). My ARB is 0. My GPT compatibility is H811.
I see in the N stock that there is already a modem.bin file. So should I first flash the stock N zip, and THEN flash the separate N modem? Also, the instructions say:
So, in summary:
1. Flash stock Nougat zip
2. Flash Nougat modem zip
3. Flash my model's baseband (again)?
And if none of that works:
?
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Yes. Refer to FAQ #22 in the UsU thread and the Stock N report by @grantdb.

The reason why you get intermittent service because the phone you found had been blacklisted by the original owner

deltadiesel said:
The reason why you get intermittent service because the phone you found had been blacklisted by the original owner
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It was locked to Koodo, and the original owner told me that. I called Koodo, gave the IMEI, and they gave me the Network unlock code. If it was blacklisted, wouldn't Koodo have said something?

sdembiske said:
Yes. Refer to FAQ #22 in the UsU thread and the Stock N report by @grantdb.
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I flashed stock Nougat, then Nougat modem, then the H812 baseband, then rebooted directly back to TWRP. Then I booted up the phone and it was in Spanish. So I changed that to English. Then I had rebooted the phone again (adding a SIM card for testing), and it was in Spanish again, so I changed it back to English. Then I rebooted the phone again, and it was in Russian, so I changed it back to English, and also deleted all the extra keyboards which included Spanish and Russian (at least, it looked like it was Russian). Rebooted the phone a couple more times, and it stays in English.
So far, everything is working.
Thanks again for your help! Will report back if the intermittent issue comes back, or if everything continues to work well, in case anybody with the same issue is looking for a fix.
On another note, out of curiosity, I tried *#*#4636#*#* on the Phone's dial pad to open the service menu, and noticed that Phone Information is still blocked. Just curious... is that a ROM thing? Or a baseband/modem thing?

threehappypenguins said:
I flashed stock Nougat, then Nougat modem, then the H812 baseband, then rebooted directly back to TWRP. Then I booted up the phone and it was in Spanish. So I changed that to English. Then I had rebooted the phone again (adding a SIM card for testing), and it was in Spanish again, so I changed it back to English. Then I rebooted the phone again, and it was in Russian, so I changed it back to English, and also deleted all the extra keyboards which included Spanish and Russian (at least, it looked like it was Russian). Rebooted the phone a couple more times, and it stays in English.
So far, everything is working.
Thanks again for your help! Will report back if the intermittent issue comes back, or if everything continues to work well, in case anybody with the same issue is looking for a fix.
On another note, out of curiosity, I tried *#*#4636#*#* on the Phone's dial pad to open the service menu, and noticed that Phone Information is still blocked. Just curious... is that a ROM thing? Or a baseband/modem thing?
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Not sure about the language issue as I haven't used the stock N rom but if it continues to hold, no problem. Make sure you do a TWRP backup when you have it where you want it.
The 'secret' menu accessed from the dial pad hasn't worked for me in AOSCP N or Lineage O so it may be a rom thing. *#546368#*812# is the dial pad code that should be tried in any event.

I just wanted to report that my friend no longer has any more issues with no service. Everything is working well. I will edit my first post to state that the problem is solved and what I did.