First off, I apologize for not posting this in a hardware-specific thread; it seems that one doesn't exist for my particular model phone.
I recently purchased a Motorola XT500 retail in China. I already knew that the Google apps would for the most part be entirely missing (except for Maps), but I wasn't aware of how difficult it would be to locate and flash a custom rom for it.
I have one-click rooted the phone, and installed Rom Manager. Unfortunately, I cannot install Clockworkmod Recovery through Rom Manager, so I attempted to flash it using both adb shell via PC and using terminal emulator via the phone--no dice. I was able to push "flash_image" to the system/bin, and that was enough to flash Clockworkmod, but when I went into reboot recovery, it rebooted to stock recovery and not Clockworkmod recovery.
In light of this, I tried installing "update.img" through reboot recovery (I had downloaded a motorola opensource update), but it cannot verify electronic signature.
Prior to posting here, I have researched independently for several days, and I'm not sure what else I can try. Also, it seems this issue is exacerbated by the fact that there is very little discussion happening on the Motorola XT500 (except for on some Chinese forums, and they are doing little more than I am; i.e. bickering).
If anybody has any ideas, or would like some more specific details regarding the processes I've attempted, I would be very grateful for your time. I find it very frustrating that I don't have access to some of the core features that distinguish the Android platform, and this problem has become like an itch I can't scratch.
Thanks in advance to all.
Related
Let me preface this all first that:
A.) I am sorry if this is the wrong forum. I cannot seem to determine what other forum it would fit in. I have seen a few similar threads here, I figured it's a starting point.
B.) If this is NOT the right forum, or if there is a different support forum for Clockworkmod, I am tickled if anyone points me there. (I checked their site, no forum I could find.
C.) I have googled and searched about this problem with a variety of different syntax and it has netted me zero results.
Alright, the issue... I have a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant SGH-T959. It is running Android 2.2 Froyo. I am trying to boot it into the Clockworkmod Recovery tool, and regardless what I try, it puts me to the Samsung Recovery which does not contain the appropriate options. Before starting this endeavor, I backed up all my my pertinent data, and did a factory restore, setting the phone back to it's original settings and applications.
I have done the following:
Unlocked the phone with the carrier
Rooted the phone with SuperOneClick v1.9.5 from shortfuse.org Successfully.
Installed Clockwordmod via the Play Store (latest version, up to date).
Flashed ClockworkMod Recovery to the latest version for the Vibrant: v2.5.1.2
I have verified that Clockworkmod has superuser rights.
No matter what I do, the phone only appears to boot into the default Samsung Recovery menu. Regardless of whether I hold both volume buttons and power to boot, or select "Boot into recovery mode" from the ClockworkMod app. Even if I select the option to "Backup Current Rom", it will allow me to name it, and then put me into the Samsung Recovery boot.
I am really unsure where to go from here at all.
If this is the wrong forum, I apologize for time spent, but hopefully someone will have an answer or point me in the right direction.
I may or may not have found my answer. I altered some of my search syntax a bit. Another similar problem. I will see if following the linked guide fixes my issue and reply back here.
My friend gave me his bricked Xoom, which I accepted as a challenge, because I've been rooting and flashing my phones for years, but after 10+ hours of searching in the last couple weeks, I have been unable to locate coherent information on how to un-brick a Xoom that has had its internal storage wiped. My friend was trying to do a thorough wipe, and he succeeded in that, if nothing else.
My first obstacle was finding a driver, because Motorola Device Manager wants nothing to do with the Xoom, and whenever I finally found a link to a driver, it was at developer.motorola.com, and there apparently is no such domain, because every link takes me straight to motorola.com/us/home, where all that's waiting for me is the bloody Moto Device Manager.
The only post I found that seemed like it was aiming at where I want to get is at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317986, but I ran into problems that weren't foreseen by the author, and I haven't been able to find anything pertinent that doesn't direct me to developer.motorola.com again.
The Xoom has TWRP v.2.6.3.0(runandhide05 edition) for a recovery; and I'm aware that there is a 3.3 version, but I'm nervous about flashing a recovery update when there is no OS on the tablet. It was running EOS 4.2.2 I think, before the bricking.
According to the guide I found, I put TWRP into adb sideload and was able to get my PC to communicate by installing a universal adb driver from https://github.com/koush/UniversalAdbDriver, so in my system Device Manager, the Xoom is listed as a GOOGLE GALAXY NEXUS ADB INTERFACE.
When TWRP is in adb sideload, I can interface with the Xoom via cmd.exe, but when I try to push a ROM, I keep getting an error on TWRP:
Code:
file_getprop:failed to stat "/system/build.prop" no such file or directory
...whatever that means. Another thing that kind of worries me is that when I type adb devices, it shows my device as 1234567890ABCDEF, which doesn't seem right.
I have yet to try fastboot, because I don't know what .img files I need to flash, and I don't think blind flashing is going to make things any better.
I think I have all the pieces, SDK and JDK are installed and updated, and I have the stock rom (HWI69.zip). I reckon if I can get the stock 3.x OS running, I'll have a jumping-off point, and be good to go; the process from there is well-documented.
Can anyone give me a nudge in the right direction, please?
~Fake
Status 7 errors
Those are usually caused by either a not-so-compatible recovery image. Some TWRP versions have issues with certain ROMs. I had this happen to me with my Asus TF300, ended up trying a few different TWRP versions before I found one that worked right.
The other cause is an invalid ROM image, if you open the ROM.zip file on your PC, does it look ok, did you check its MD5sum???
Were you able to wipe the Xoom from TWRP without error???
-Mike
When I got it, it had been wiped completely, so I presume that twrp wiped okay.
Not sure about the MD5sum, just that twrp didn't find one during the adb installation. Do you think flashing cwm might help?.
I got it worked out, opened up the HWI69.zip stock image and fastboot flashed the individual .img files, and it booted right up. Thanks!
Long story short:
How do i get my current working android device to revive an identical soft-bricked device. More challenging than you think: there is no boot menu accessible in the devices. Which means the only other choice is to use a usb connection to a PC to perform all tasks, i.e. create a rom system image backup of the working device, then use that to restore the system onto the soft-bricked one.
So is there a way to revive the s/bricked device with a rom image of the working twin?
The long story:
After using the super-sume app, my device got softbricked. Phones of my type are uncommon and are therefore not worked on by the android hacker community as much as flagship devices are. And little is known or discovered about them. So after doing more research, i've sadly come to know that there are other users here and there, having suffered the same problem as I. But enough about that.
As far as i've read and come to understand, i would need to re-flash the firmware to bring it back from it's softbrick issue easiest/safest way.
Though am not sure how the android platform would work. With PCs, i could restore a messed up system from a cloned image. What i need to confirm is if the firmware is separate from the OS (roms i believe) the same way device drivers are separate from the windows OS on PCs.
So am not sure if flashing firmware is enough and would need to stock rom too. Or is the rom considered both firmware and OS all in one?
I mentioned "restore from a clone image backup" because I have another, exact same model of my softbricked device, that functions still properly.
So i wonder if there is a way that i could use my working device to revive the soft-bricked one. In the sense that i would need to make a system image copy of my working one, to restore onto the s/bricked one.
What the problem looks like when starting the phone:
As for the softbrick appearance, the phone boots into the LG logo screen and is frozen there. It doesn't quite look like it's boot looping since the screen Never fades to black quickly just to come right back. It's just frozen there. This recovery mode screen is the only other thing i can get to besides the frozen LG screen: https://wcrates.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/lg-g3-recover-mode.jpg
I've come to learn (but may need correction on) that Tracfone devices are deliberately handicapped in a way i've never seen before. That is, their devices have no other boot type of menu besides the Recovery Menu (found before os begins boot) that is basically a factory reset. It just deletes all user data and resets system settings so that the phone works like it would at first when right out of the box. For the s/bricked device, that screen can be accessed, though executing that just resorts to the frozen boot screen again. If there is a boot menu to backup/restore from, clear cache, install from zip and what not, then please enlighten me. Because as i've tried everything, the tracfone-devices have nothing compared to non-tracfone-devices
So in order to install an updated rom, i may need to get into a type of system boot menu from where i would be able to select the option to install a rom or update it and what not. To some degree i assume that connecting the device through USB to a computer, one may do the same rom installation action through the PC, but it's in cases like these where i would need the help of and expert's first hand experience with such things or ways.
I don't mind if you want to leave a link to some tutorial some other guy has made that may closely related to (if not exactly) to help solve this issue. But i do prefer to get into contact with someone who i can report to with how the solution process is progressing. Mostly because me being a noob at this point of my android experience, but am confident since i've done this with pc's a lot.
I'm still trying to figure out what most of the android community speaks of when it comes to methods of backing up their stock roms and what kinds of software on PC or apps on the device are needed to accomplish a worthy backup. I do realize i'd need ADB and what other LG device compatible PC software out there. Here is a link where i think firmware files can be found, but since it's all in Chinese, i'm not sure how reliable the site is/can be. It's been about a month since i contacted some of their users. At this point it seems like they're no hope:
http://mobile.gaodi.net/Firmware-669539-1-1.html
I hope that i can find success so that i can post it up to help others who are in the same situation as me, and also for the many more who may yet fall into this situation.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Device: LG l21g (aka lgl21g) Destiny (model) by TracFone
Android: 5.0.1
I'm fed up with people on this forum. I keep trying to engage people in a discussion, a conversation to explain some things to me and No one seems willing. It's like there are No Rooting gurus that can answer my simple questions. On a forum full of Android developers, I'm very disappointed, I thought i'd get tons of help. If you read this, Please consider staying to have a discussion/conversation with me.
Preface to The Discussion:
I have used both Android and Linux in the past, I know what Super User is, I use it in Zorin 12 Linux and own a rooted (kingroot) android tablet. I am trying to get information on rooting my Figo Atrium phone by trying to understand Rooting better in general. perhaps this discussion will make since to you and together you can help me find a way to root my phone - But I Must have a back and forth or I'll never understand this. - I know there are many exploits to root a phone used by tools like kingroot. I know these exploits are many and varied depending on your phone's CPU architecture, and software and not all root tools with work with my device. . I know the bootloader has to be unlocked and one must have USB Debugging enabled in Developer Options. I know some phone manufacturers make tools that help you root your phone (MTK Droid Tools) So far, none of these tools can root my phone.
Let's Start The Discussion Here:
I was able to not root but my Upgrade my phone from Lollipop to Marshmallow. I did this using SP Flash Tool and these instructions (which were badly translated and which as you can see by the comments in the video, I had to correct due to bad translation) See this video and comments by me to understand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEIJM2YjNzE - I used SP Flash Tool and a Rom Figo provided. After I figured out the botched instructions, I was able to upgrade my device with no problems.
Question 1: Isn't this essentially the same process that is used for Rooting? It proves my bootloader is unlocked and the phone does have the ability to flash a new Rom. <- Based on That, doesn't it seem to you that my phone would be in fact Rootable?
If you think so, tell me why, if you think Not, tell me why.
Question 2: If you think So, then: Someone suggested to me that using a tool like Magisk or SuperSU may be able to root my device. Does this seem likely to you based on what I've told you so far? No one in the SuperSU sub forum can answer this question.
If you think No, then we'll discuss this more. I'll wait for your replies. Thank you.
Rooting is, simply said, placing a 'su' binary in the system folder. SU means switch user, when you give that command you're instructing Android to give you root user privileage. OEM's don't want that to happen so they won't include it in their ROMs. Tools like supersu are made to copy that 'su' file to the system partition. There are a lot of ways to explain this, I'm just giving you something quick and easy to understand.
Now regarding your questions;
1) Flashing anything requires the bootloader to be unlocked on most phones. BUT MTK phones don't. (Except some HTC phones). SP Flash Tool can flash any partition without needing to unlock. It's dangerous security wise, but this means its also easier to root.
Infact all MTK phones are rootable. So don't worry about that.
2) How to root? The best way to root is with supersu. (You can also try magisk if you want to use Android Pay).
You need a custom recovery like TWRP first.
I found one here which is for your same CPU. https://www.needrom.com/download/twrp-recovery-13/
^I am just giving you a link to recovery which uses the same CPU so It may or may not work. PLEASE take a backup of your original recovery before doing anything.
Now download SuperSU zip file from here https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/supersu/download/zip/SuperSU-v2.82-201705271822.zip
Don't open it, just keep it in your sd card.
Flash the recovery using SP Flash Tool (check only the recovery box and select this file). Now unplug the phone and press Volume Up+Power Button to boot into recovery.
Then if it says swipe to allow modifications, swipe.
Now goto Install->Select the Supersu.zip file you downloaded->Swipe and reboot.
That's it! You're rooted!
Thanks.. again, you've answered things others couldn't. Much appreciated.
You say, " You need a custom recovery like TWRP first.
I found one here which is for your same CPU. https://www.needrom.com/download/twrp-recovery-13/
^I am just giving you a link to recovery which uses the same CPU so It may or may not work. PLEASE take a backup of your original recovery before doing anything."
Lets say Twrp doesn't work. What is this for, just to re-flash your original rom in case twrp fails at making a backup? ( I assume the tool makes your installed rom flashable in case the root doesn't work and you need to revert back to your original system) I have the SP Tool and the Rom for Marshmallow that works with my device from Figo. Can I use that if Twrp fails - or am I not understanding what twrp is used for? Just checking before I start this. Otherwise, I'll try to follow your instructions to the letter and see what happens.
Still Looking ?
STILL Looking? IF so, a few thoughts .... It is a nice phone for the price. The newer version eventually coming out looks even nicer, and for now, it is still my backup phone to my Figo Gravity. Discovered Figos when I got totally fed up with BLU phones.
ONE - If you have upgraded your Atrium to Marshmallow, as I did, none of the rooting methods that worked on Lollipop will work, so forget about them.
TWO - Down in Developer Settings you need to make sure OEM unlocking is allowed.
THREE - ASSUMING you have a TWRP build that will work, it is pretty simple. Take the ROM image that FIGO sent you and replace the "recovery.img" file with the TWRP (re-name it recovery.img and save the old one as recovery.old JUST IN CASE) file. It will be much larger than the factory ROM recovery image and that's fine. The scatter table, if you read hex addresses, provides for enough space to do this. Flash ONLY the recovery (TWRP) image, and be sure to DOWNLOAD ONLY with the SP FLASH tool. If uncertain, DO NOT PROCEED. It can be a real pain in the arse to re-do things if you accidentally format or upgrade things you didn't mean to. ASSUMING that worked, you can boot into TWRP by holding down the power / volume buttons (I assume you are familiar with this sequence).
FOUR - it is entirely possible that the next time you boot the thing normally, TWRP will be blown away. Happened to me a few times. There is some setting down in the boot image that causes this and I will have to dig up my notes to see exactly what the heck it was. It required taking apart the boot image - I used Carliv - fixing the one setting, and then re-packing and re-flashing it, BUT, you can ALWAYS keep replacing the TWRP image as needed. Inconvenient, but better than a sharp stick in the eye.
FIVE - when booted into TWRP, you should be able to flash SU, which will give you root, and it should STAY rooted after that unless and until you uninstall SU. FLASHIFY is STRONGLY recommended as a VERY useful app for rooted devices. TWRP, if you are unfamiliar with it, is SO MUCH MORE than just a recovery replacement. Handiest whole device backup there is. Has saved my bacon on several devices through numerous acts of personal stupidity. :crying:
SIX - IF ALL ELSE FAILS, you can ALWAYS revert to the factory image ROM. Just DOWNLOAD ONLY rather than Upgrade and DO NOT Format.
Hi all, a few months ago i had a perfectly running rooted TF101 with stock asus firmware. It has CWM recovery v6.0.1.3 and i had the CWM app installed.
somewhere along the timeline i decided it was a good idea to backup the whole thing using the CWM app just in case anything funny happens. Now don't ask me how or why it went the way it did, but the CWM app seemingly performed its backup, there was a disclaimer warning somewhere about possibly losing root access, to which i think i said "yes", the device rebooted and my entire image was gone - only left with CWM recovery mode.
I have been trying to reflash it with stock recovery image, but the SD card won't mount. I am also unsure whether i still have root access or not.
in terms of connectivity, all i was able to get back was ADB access, which i was able to search xda and find threads such as these to try and fake an sdcard then reflash
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=911228
I've tried katkiss image and stock image but everytime i get a status 7 error or an error 21
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/help/zip-file-signature-verification-error-t3561054
https://www.**********.com/fix-status-7-error-while-installing-ota-update-or-roms/
I'm not exactly an ADB crackhead and I'm not able to get past it so i've searched some more and found on xda again threads on using EasyFlasher, I've followed the instructions but can't get the APX drivers installed on windows 10.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1688012
basically, at this stage i've read many articles, many posts, none have worked because links are outdated or instructions are outdated and mostly i'd rather stop trying all i am finding without really understanding before i brick this device for good out of ignorance.
sure it's old but it was functioning properly and was being used actively by my kids. if i can get it back to life, that'd be nice.
has someone experienced (and fixed) something similar or feel can contribute to unbricking my device?
Thanks guys.
I'm a noob myself, but I managed to get the APX driver installed on Win 10 (just now) by following the directions at how to geek dot com. I used "Option two: Use an Advanced Boot Option."
Good luck!