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[Q] Please help: I think I'm soft-bricked.

Well, okay, technically I'm not actually even totally sure what soft-bricked means, but while I can get to both a fastboot screen and into what appears to be CWM (orange recovery with more options than blue), my phone is hanging on the Google boot screen.
Here's what I did.
I have a rooted Nexus S that was running 2.3.3 stock. The OTA update notification came up today, so I allowed it. But then it seemed to hang for, like, half an hour.
So I pulled the battery and allowed it to reset. Which was fine, no biggie. I still had 2.3.3, but no longer had root. So I flashed the GRI40 superboot. Still fine. But I no longer had an update, and it was still 2.3.3.
So I flashed CWM and went to the 2.3.3 stock image. CWM downloaded said image, didn't seem to have any problems, and I clicked to wipe the cache and dalvik.
And now it won't boot beyond the Google screen. But like I said, I'm on fastboot screen now (unlocked) and seem to still have clockwork. Nothing else, though, and there's nothing on my sd card. I know, I know, the lack of back up is a noob mistake.
Help? I'd really just like to get to stock but rooted 2.3.4.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=947950
Use this i have got the same problem
that solved

prad1po said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=947950
Use this i have got the same problem
that solved
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A couple of the other threads by people with hard bricks (problem today?) mentioned Odin as problematic. It's okay to use?

Also, I have to admit, I see a lot of discussion of Odin in the forums, and have Googled it, but I don't actually know what it is or how to use it.

willentrekin said:
Also, I have to admit, I see a lot of discussion of Odin in the forums, and have Googled it, but I don't actually know what it is or how to use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odin is the Fkash program from samsung to flash the lhine first time
you have CWM? no need of odin!
reboot into cwm --> mounts & storage --> mount usb
search a the deoxed 2.3.4 rom and download it..
also search the forum for superuser binary to flash
then wipe system and cache
flash zip first the rom then superuser
reboot
have fun

Okay. Almost there, I think.
You're right about CWM. I got it mounted okay, and get a drive on my computer, into which I can copy a zip and then unmount. At which point I get:
Installing {whichever zip I try. So far, I've tried Nandroid Stock 2.3.4_rooted and 2.3.2 GRH78c}
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Installing update...
Installation aborted.
That's as far as I get right now. And I'm not touching anything. I wiped the data and cache. Do I have to further mount/unmount anything?

willentrekin said:
Okay. Almost there, I think.
You're right about CWM. I got it mounted okay, and get a drive on my computer, into which I can copy a zip and then unmount. At which point I get:
Installing {whichever zip I try. So far, I've tried Nandroid Stock 2.3.4_rooted and 2.3.2 GRH78c}
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Installing update...
Installation aborted.
That's as far as I get right now. And I'm not touching anything. I wiped the data and cache. Do I have to further mount/unmount anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wipe system too? :/
do you have the latest recovery?
maybe you have a nandroid backup anywhere?
else download one at the dev section i think are enough backups
copy one to /clockwork/backup/***DATE***
hope that fixes your problem :S
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

willentrekin said:
Well, okay, technically I'm not actually even totally sure what soft-bricked means, but while I can get to both a fastboot screen and into what appears to be CWM (orange recovery with more options than blue), my phone is hanging on the Google boot screen.
Here's what I did.
I have a rooted Nexus S that was running 2.3.3 stock. The OTA update notification came up today, so I allowed it. But then it seemed to hang for, like, half an hour.
So I pulled the battery and allowed it to reset. Which was fine, no biggie. I still had 2.3.3, but no longer had root. So I flashed the GRI40 superboot. Still fine. But I no longer had an update, and it was still 2.3.3.
So I flashed CWM and went to the 2.3.3 stock image. CWM downloaded said image, didn't seem to have any problems, and I clicked to wipe the cache and dalvik.
And now it won't boot beyond the Google screen. But like I said, I'm on fastboot screen now (unlocked) and seem to still have clockwork. Nothing else, though, and there's nothing on my sd card. I know, I know, the lack of back up is a noob mistake.
Help? I'd really just like to get to stock but rooted 2.3.4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just download the 2.3.4 (stock rooted) file on here...in the de section...
its a nandroid back up
then just put it in the clockworkdmod/ folder on your phone
reboot into recovery and restore it
viola!
thats what i did to get mine rooted...its way easier than trying to actually root it!
edit: yeah what the post above mine said...lol..didnt see that posted yet!

Okay. Followed guidance. Still hanging but maybe getting closer.
I made a backup of the borked system, and then went into the clockwork folder and created a new folder within the backups. I unzipped the 2.3.4root ROM and renamed the folder to almost the same name as the borked system. I then tried to restore that.
I got an MD5 fail? I'm not sure what that means.
Maybe I should replace all the files in the legit-made backup with the files from 2.3.4?

Awesome! I got it! I went and got Axura's 2.3.3 stock/rooted and installed that from the zip. I don't know why the other two aborted, but this one worked. So it looks like I've got rooted stock 2.3.3 again!
I'm not so sure I'm going to try for 2.3.4 now.
Thanks for the help!

Rooted i9023, some help needed please!

Ok guys so I have managed to root my i9023 and flash clockwork recovery which was all good, I set about flashing some new roms via rom manager, again, all good.
So now I settle on this cm7 based rom which I love, used anim mod to get some nice transitions, then I used font changer.
All was good, then I decided that the font I was using was a bit ott so I decided to change it again, upon reboot it starts boot looping, bollocks !!!
So I try to get into clockwork recovery, and it seems to have gone back to the stock bootloader, grrrrr
I re flash clockwork, wipe / clear etc... then flash the rom again, but it would not flash, so I went to my backup of stock n flashed that, all good.
I then install rom manager again and flash the rom I liked again, this time no problem, but when it loads up the home button and search button are not working
So i decide on a factory reset, I select wipe everything including sd just to be sure but it comes up "error null"???
So now I wipe the sd manually and then do the reset and it works, ok, I re load everything on from scratch and all is good, but when I installed rom manager it says that clockwork recovery IS NOT installed again
Can anyone here work out from my ramblings WTF is going on???
I dont get why the font changer all of a sudden caused a boot loop, as I had changed font about 15 times with it without issue, also why clockwork recovery will not stick anymore after a reboot, when before it did and I have not changed a thing!
Cheers!!!

Rename install-recovery.sh in system/etc to something else, flash cwm recovery again, this time it'll stick until you install a stock rom again.
Rom manager is causing more problems than it's saving time, hence I don't use it.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Thanks for the reply, can you go into detail on what exactly I need to do to get clockwork to stick? I still hold noob status!
Thanks!
Also rom manager seems fine, I flashed loads of roms with it with no issue, I also rebooted a few time at least between flashes so I dont get why clockwork suddenly decided to jump ship.
It was the font changer that f&%ked it all up for me, or anim mod (which I wont touch now even tho I miss the wicked transitions).

When using Font Changer, it's better to do a reboot manually instead of selecting Reboot from within the program. That sometimes cause me a boot loop too. But after turning the phone off / on a.k.a. "reboot manually", the phone boots fine.
To elaborate what rentaric said, use Root Explorer and go to /system/etc/, there should be a file named install-recovery.sh. This file is responsible for flashing the stock recovery every time the phone boots. If you rename it to something else e.g. install-recovery.sh.bak then CWM will stick on reboot.

Thanks, but when I get into the /system/etc/ there is not file called install-recovery.sh.
The only .sh in there is init.goldfish.sh
Any ideas???

bump...............

Flash cwm rec and either stock or custom rom.
Stock rom incl the .sh you want.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I've read on these forums that using Clockwork on the I9023 is a no-go. Serves up incompatible ROMs, etc.
BTW, I'm looking to root my I9023. Can the OP please point me to the method he used.

athani said:
I've read on these forums that using Clockwork on the I9023 is a no-go. Serves up incompatible ROMs, etc.
BTW, I'm looking to root my I9023. Can the OP please point me to the method he used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LINK: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1007782
Please read the whole thread, if I had it would have saved me half a night scratching my head...lol

rentaric said:
Flash cwm rec and either stock or custom rom.
Stock rom incl the .sh you want.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have a custom rom installed, supercm7, but the install-recovery.sh. that I have been told is causing the problem of clockwork disappearing is not in the /system/etc/ folder, so I am asking if there is anything else that could be causing me to have to re flash clockwork via my pc every time I want to change rom?
I will tell you exactly what happens.
1. I go into rom manager
2. download a rom and choose flash rom from sd card
3. it asked if I want to wipe etc, i select yes
4. phone re boots and I get ! with an android
5. I pull the battery, hold volume up n power and boot / connect to my pc
6. re flash clockwork via SDK
7.the phone then load the new rom on its own
Before it would just flash the rom without me having to install clockwork again.

install-recovery.sh is only there if you're using a stock android rom.
"so I am asking if there is anything else that could be causing me to have to re flash clockwork via my pc every time I want to change rom?"
ROM Manager.
It's not a reliable working tool for ME as I'm changing ROMs/kernels on a regular basis and it might not work reliable the one time you need it.

Thanks for that, I may just sack rom manager then.
Its a shame as I flashed several roms with it without issue.
Oh well, loving this supercm7 so gonna stick with it untill an update comes out.
Many thanks to all who have replied, clicking the thanks buttons now!

I had the same problem but i installed a previus recovery and works fine formeforme
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

Twrp boot loop

This happened before but I can't remember how I fixed it.
1. Flashed TWRP (over codename if that helps)
2. it bootlooped back to recovery instead of starting the system
3. tried flashing another rom/ didn't work
4. finished season 2 of the walking dead
5. reflashed TWRP didn't help (TWRP flashing failed even tho it was the same file I used to get TWRP in the first place)
6. Took the battery out but that didn't help either
I really don't want to odin or use one click any ideas??

lonoguge said:
This happened before but I can't remember how I fixed it.
1. Flashed TWRP (over codename if that helps)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you get twrp?
lonoguge said:
2. it bootlooped back to recovery instead of starting the system
3. tried flashing another rom/ didn't work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is "another rom"?
lonoguge said:
4. finished season 2 of the walking dead
5. reflashed TWRP didn't help (TWRP flashing failed even tho it was the same file I used to get TWRP in the first place)
6. Took the battery out but that didn't help either
I really don't want to odin or use one click any ideas??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Meh, lets start with the first two...
To stop the reboot to recovery, you must flash eollie's oneclick with bootloaders (so flash it twice, second time flash bootloaders) and go back to mtd.

bhundven said:
Where did you get twrp?
What is "another rom"?
Meh, lets start with the first two...
To stop the reboot to recovery, you must flash eollie's oneclick with bootloaders (so flash it twice, second time flash bootloaders) and go back to mtd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got it from what I thought was the official XDA TWRP thread but I'm not sure if it was official or not
at first I tried reinstalling codename but now I'm trying Beam (Tuk edition) and it seems to be working

TWRP Major Boot Loop
hey guys, im new here and i desperately need help with my phone!
the other day i was flashing a rom on my samsung galaxy s 4g. Things were turning out fine, until i had some complications on my phone.. so, i removed the rom. when i rebooted my phone, it went directly into the team win recovery project boot loop and every time i try to reboot my phone, it goes into the twrp. I also can't wipe anything and i can't delete anything! Does anybody know how I can solve this or is my phone basically bricked

more details would be helpful..
As in what rom, or what kernel.... etc... and make sure you have the corret phone.

Same problem with t959p
Looks like I'm not alone.......here's my story
the other day I wanted to switch from a stock rom to a custom, so I flashed redux 1.3 which was actually a froyo rom, and it started draining my batt like crazy so I flashed another rom on top of the froyo rom not realizing what I was doing and somehow messed it up cuz now it will only boot into recovery.
Now just to be clear I know this was my fault, I know I should have odin'd back to stock first, but I wasn't thinking at the time.....Ohh and just so you know I've flashed this sucker hundreds of times and was always able to get out of any mess I got in.
So here is the situation as it stands now, 3 button combo to enter download does not work. I can only get it into download with the jig I made. the problem is even in download mode none of my pc's will detect the device as a Samsung composite device, so odin will not see it. I've installed every possible 32 n 64 bit driver I could find including reinstalling kies. Kies wont even see it. I've tried flashing a few roms that I know worked and still it just boots into recovery. Now one thing I'll tell you is that depending on which rom I flash I can get recovery to switch from cwm to twrp. right now I left it with cwm 6.x.
what I need is a cwm flashable stock telus t959p rom complete with bootloaders or at the very least a cwm flashable zip file containing the bootloaders to see if I can recover the phone.
ohh and if your thinking about telling me to google search for the answer then don't bother.......I've spent the last 4 days reading posts and going to different websites and repositories trying to find something that would help me and so far nothing has.
the only thing that might work as a last resort is pushing the bootloaders as per one of raver's or whitehawks posts but it's a little more complicated for me as I would have to set up a laptop with Linux as I don't think i'll be able to pull it off with any of my windows pc's, win7 and win 8 only.
so if anyone has the files I need or can make them please let me know....or if you think you have another solution I could try i'm all ears err eyes.
thanks
Jedi

Have you tried heimdall one-clicks? Maybe it's showing up as gadget or something like that. I've had luck using zadig and heimdall to bring it back from the brink of death.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1358498

EDIT
Woops replied to the wrong thread .
Nothing to see here, move along

Would like to revive a slightly dead thread.
I upgraded to a Galaxy S3 and no longer use my SGS4G for daily use. I had AOKP and disliked it, FC's and didn't like the feel. I have been trying to install a new rom ( old rom, VH Black Ed. ). Every time It loads into TWRP I have the ability to select the zip, install, it says complete, but reboots right back to TWRP menu. I've tried flashing CWM and it will install, flash the rom, reboot, and right back to this TWRP B.S... what am I doing wrong? I want to continue to use this SGS4g for music and internet duties.
How can I install CWM and have it stay even after a reboot? This TWRP is starting to me off

Did you happen to one click to stock before you went ham at the recovery?
Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 4

6.0.3.2 CWM/ No Custom Icon!

So I was messing around with my phone and I discovered that you can get CWM 6.0.3.2 Recovery installed, No Custom Icon at bootup, and run a custom rom with custom kernel. Maybe this is all covered somewhere but I have not had that combination of things working all at once. I first screwed up my phone as I was going to a fresh install of Omega Rom 5.0 (GT-i9505) from OUDHS Recovery . I was about to flash the custom kernel before booting up, but I hit reboot by mistake. I ended up with that dreaded AT&T warning of detected custom software with the yellow triangle and red lettering saying kernel problem. Anyhow,I couldnt get back into recovery so the only thing I could do was flash with Odin the stock rom and start over. Once I was back to stock, I used Motochopper to root, installed SuperSU, updated the binary and then removed the superuser from application manager, not when SuperSU said it detected another superuser app. Then I tried like crazy to get back into stock recovery but for some reason it just never would go. At this point I really only wanted to get back into recovery in order to restore my Nandroid backup of Omega 5.0 I had previously done a couple days ago. Well needless to say I couldn't get any recovery to work for some reason, so I said Eff it and downloaded Rom Manager from the Play Store. It says that the S4 AT&T device was supported and that there was a recovery available. CWM Touch 6.0.3.2 (jfltetmo). So I picked it and allowed it to get installed. I Used Rom Manger to reboot the phone into recovery. Yay! 6.0.3.2 CWM Recovery. Now, here I did have some bugs trying to get to my files. Some stuff just wouldnt do anything when selected. Im not sure but it does appear that my internal sd card may have been wiped out from flashing the stock rom. I could not use the Recovery to restore files or flash files at this time. I reboot back into the phone, used stock File Manager and went to my external card where I found my Nadroid backup of Omega. I copied it from external Sd card to internal. Then I booted back into Recovery with Rom Manager and hit Restore. This time it saw my backup and allowed me to restore it. I reboot and am now back in Omega 5.0.
Bottom line, I have Omega 5.0 (GT-i9505) on my SGH-i337 AT&T phone with Ktoonsez kernel, CWM 6.0.3.2 recovery, and No "Custom" with the padlock at bootup. The reason I thought this was special was that my understanding was that you could get rid of the custom icon doing what I did, however if you installed a recovery that the icon would come back.
Not sure if problems will arise from this, but pretty cool so far. FYI this is just my excerpt of what I did that got me to this stage, **I am in no way responsible for what happens to your phone if you try to duplicate this**

Wow....This is the longest post ever..
Is it a perm fix, all the other methods have failed..sooner or later.
Also, I have seen the yellow triangle numerous times, all you had to do was get into recovery and flash your kernel back.
I know you said you tried, did it also remove recovery completely?

Lol, yeah its long. Though so far I have reboot 6 times, shut it off and swapped out the battery and SD card. Still no custom icon.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

TheAxman said:
Wow....This is the longest post ever..
Is it a perm fix, all the other methods have failed..sooner or later.
Also, I have seen the yellow triangle numerous times, all you had to do was get into recovery and flash your kernel back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was my problem, I couldnt get recovery to work, I would see the blue writing in the upper left, then the phone would reboot again .
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

If you install any of the custom recoveries OUDHS (CWM), TWRP, or CWM correctly, you shouldn't have "custom" anything showing. You have to make sure you use the correct Super user app and make sure the binaries are up to date.

Call me crazy, but I still find it endearing to have the "Custom" status pop-up. It's like a status symbol in and of itself.

Well the biggest thing I wanted was a recovery that didn't label my backups as December 1979, lol
Sent from my GT-I9505 converted SGH-I337

Check out this thread - we know exactly what's causing the "custom" status. It's just a matter of dealing with it.

If you want CWM that has everything (including the kitchen sink), you might want to check this out...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2322682

This is the absolute best recovery I have seen so far. The developer is deserving of a donation. -- Well, all you guys are.
Anyway, I just wanted to remind anyone who uses it on their S4 that it is NOT auto-loki. If you flash non-loki roms with it, you will have to flash loki-doki.zip immediately after flashing the rom -- with the exception of lokified roms, of course.
Don't forget. =)
A lot of you guys need to start putting donation buttons in your signatures.
scott14719 said:
If you want CWM that has everything (including the kitchen sink), you might want to check this out...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2322682
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] Confused as to what to do next: un-bricked, but recovery is still a garbled mess

So I rooted my brother's infuse 4G because it was slow as sin and needed A. a data/cache wipe and B, I wanted to give him Jellybean
I followed all the instructions I could; rooted, installed the modded 3e (or thought I did), got a CWM installed afterwards, and then set about installing first CM9 (as the Jellybean ROM post says I should) followed by the actual ROM and its Gapps. Well, I installed CM9 (although it seemed to take all of 30 seconds, rather fast...) when I tried to wipe data/factory reset, CWM froze. I rebooted and from then on I had it softbricked. Stuck booting at the samsung logo, and when I tried to return to the recovery, the recovery was a garbled mess that looked like a scrambled TV channel. I used Heimdall and did the one-click reset to stock, and here I am. The phone boots to stock just fine, but my recovery is still completely boned.
Do I re-root? How do I install CWM again without being able to install 3e? (can't install 3e without a working recovery in the first place, after all..)
One anomaly of note - when I was going about all this, booting the phone into recovery always got me 3e, even after installing CWM. I had to manually install CWM by using an update.zip and "reinstall packages" every time I wanted to use CWM. ROM manager would boot me to CWM, but it took several reboots and a flashable CWM zip before I could even get CWM installed in the first place - ROM manager refused to do it the easy way.
What did I do wrong, and more importantly, how do I get back on track? What do I do to put a fixed recovery back on this thing? Odin? ADB?
Today was the first time I ever used Heimdall, I've been a fair weather flasher since the beginning, I've never had to ADB or Odin.

It sounds like you didn't install cwm recovery properly, but I'm not sure I've never ran into this problem before. If you go here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1524081 and carefully read over the first and second post you should end up with gb and red cwm recovery. The way I've done it was to put the phone in dl mode and flash the first package (the stock gingerbread att rom). After it is installed and booted up, I then power it off and go back into dl mode. Then flash the second package, which is just the kernel and red cwm recovery, (be patient because it takes awhile). Once that is done then go into recovery and wipe data/factory reset, wipe dalvik cache, wipe system, and install cm9. I think it only installs the kernel and recovery the first installation after formatting and creating the partitions, but after its done you have to go through the menus and tell it to reboot. After it reboots it will be stuck at the cyanogenmod galaxy s logo, so you will have to go into recovery once more. When you're there you should have blue cwm (only continue if you do) and install jb, without actually having to install the full cm9. When you navigate to which ever jb rom you want to install, a prompt will appear stating that there is incompatible partition layout and to confirm installation you will have to reselect the jb zip again to install. It will flash pretty quick because at this point its doing the same thing as when you went from gb to cm9 and only installs the kernel, recovery, and reformat/creates the partitions, (I think). It will reboot on its own but it will take you back into recovery. At this point all you have to do is navigate to the same jb zip you want to install and flash it, followed by gapps, and then reboot system. This process has worked for me but I highly recommend reading and following the instructions given in the post above.

Use goo.I'm app. Also you need to flash GB bootloaders in Odin . is recovery all colorful? If you see recovery fine just get goo app on play store and install a recovery
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk

I would go the ODIN route, I have bricked so many times because i try to make the impossible possible. Just search for a already rooted pda,mdr file. I skipped the cm9 part idk if that would make things better or not but as my post says im a risk-taker

One thing I'd like to point out, flashing to ICS from GB requires 2 flashes. First flash sets the new partitions. You reboot and pull the battery, then boot back into recovery and reflash with the gapps.
That was the first problem I saw, and now commenting while on the Nexus I can't see the OP so that's all I'll comment on.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

UnhoIy said:
One thing I'd like to point out, flashing to ICS from GB requires 2 flashes. First flash sets the new partitions. You reboot and pull the battery, then boot back into recovery and reflash with the gapps.
That was the first problem I saw, and now commenting while on the Nexus I can't see the OP so that's all I'll comment on.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but if don't have any problems i'm good right or should i go back and do it

MajorLeagueROM said:
but if don't have any problems i'm good right or should i go back and do it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never skipped ICS and gone straight to JB like you, that's risk I've yet taken. I guess if you've had no problem then you're good, but I've gone back to stock and to JB at least 12 times now and used the same process every time without a hitch. In the case of OPs problem, I would just go back to stock and try again. Although I always go back to 2.2 stock...
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app

UnhoIy said:
I've never skipped ICS and gone straight to JB like you, that's risk I've yet taken. I guess if you've had no problem then you're good, but I've gone back to stock and to JB at least 12 times now and used the same process every time without a hitch. In the case of OPs problem, I would just go back to stock and try again. Although I always go back to 2.2 stock...
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll just do it tonight then maybe my phone will run better, i thought i'd be a waste of time. thanks for the info

MajorLeagueROM said:
I'll just do it tonight then maybe my phone will run better, i thought i'd be a waste of time. thanks for the info
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lucky me, I get to go back to stock tonight for soft-bricking for the first time having this phone. It's what I get for trying to port a ROM with only a nights worth of research.
Oh well.

UnhoIy said:
Lucky me, I get to go back to stock tonight for soft-bricking for the first time having this phone. It's what I get for trying to port a ROM with only a nights worth of research.
Oh well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol it happens to the best of us