Database Info

[Q] Enrcyption Support for ClockWorkMod Recovery

Hello,
i have just installed the official stock ICS 4.0.3 Rom to my Nexus S and everything was really fine... until i tried to root it. As someone who tries to take security seriously, i immediately encrypted the device using the tools provided by ics (works ok).
but unfortunatly it's now not possible anymore to mount /sdcard while in recovery, which makes rooting and installing updates impossible (or is there any other way? eg. fastboot?).
therefore my question: will clockworkmod recovery support ics encrypted devices in the (near) future? i know its gonna be a p.i.a. to type a password with only the volume buttons, but hey
i like the encryption and would like to keep it, but not beeing able to use recovery like before is a big drawback...
greetings
Georg

Same for me.
Hope to see encryption support in clockworkmod soon.
I bought Rom manager premium even if I never flash from rm just to support the developers... hope they will be able to get it sorted out

Op -- I'm interested in this for when my phone (EVO 3D) finally gets ICS. Will you post an update to this thread if you hear anything?
BTW, with TWRP getting touchscreen support, it can't be too much longer before CWM gets touchscreen since I think the guys in TWRP were going to start contributing to CWM, from what I've heard anyway. So that would solve the password typing problem.

Georg, thanks for asking this question as I've been wondering the same exact thing. Hopefully we'll get a good answer soon.

Alternatives for ClockworkMod Recovery
I encrypted my device (the Exchange account I added required it) n... now I cant do anything in recovery ... it wont mount the drive ... any suggestions for a replacement ...
thanks ...

mrosensweig said:
I encrypted my device (the Exchange account I added required it) n... now I cant do anything in recovery ... it wont mount the drive ... any suggestions for a replacement ...
thanks ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its because the way encryption works you have to boot and enter code, that's the whole point, no recovery can do it atm
Sent from my ice cream powered Nexus S

small update:
nothing new on the subject, but i didnt check out the new touch recovery (anyone tried it yet?).
in the mean time i went back to an unencrypted CM9...

I didn't read anything about encryption so did not upgraded to the touch recovery yet

you should lock the bootloader if someone is nagging you

jomir said:
small update:
nothing new on the subject, but i didnt check out the new touch recovery (anyone tried it yet?).
in the mean time i went back to an unencrypted CM9...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jomir, what was the procedure you used to get back to CM9? Is it possible to repartition, erasing the encrypted partitions so a new rom can be flashed? How?
Thx,
rmsilva

rmsilva123 said:
Jomir, what was the procedure you used to get back to CM9? Is it possible to repartition, erasing the encrypted partitions so a new rom can be flashed? How?
Thx,
rmsilva
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Restore a backup or do a clean install(format boot, system, cache and data)
Sent from my ice cream powered Nexus S

DarkhShadow said:
Restore a backup or do a clean install(format boot, system, cache and data)
Sent from my ice cream powered Nexus S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, DarkhShadow. The problem is that CWM can't wipe or format these partitions, since it can't mount /sdcard (which is encrypted). If I could only access the external sdcard from within CWM, I could just wipe everything and then install a new rom. But since it can't mount /sdcard, I can't access sd-ext. nvflash is not an option, since my TF101 is B90. Is there a way to either restore the stock recovery (overwrite CWM) or boot from the external SD so I can run a script such as "super wipe full" (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1245892)? Maybe there's a way to run the wipe script through adb? If I can just format the partitions (which is what the script does), then CWM would be able to mount /sdcard and, consequently, the external SD and I can flash a new rom (such as revolution HD 3.0.1).
Thanks,
rmsilva

Honestly idk then, try a factory reset on phone(ie booted up) and then maybe it will be unencrypted?
Sent from my ice cream powered Nexus S

The funny thing is that stock recovery on an encrypted phone can write to the disk, but only from a warm reboot (perhaps the kernel stays resident?).
When I say write to disk I say apply the leaked OTA update, 4.0.4 for the VZ Gnex. And correct me if I am wrong, it's writing and mounting the disk, no?
Anyhow, this is done from stock recovery which is open source. So you ask yourself, why can't Koush support mounting the disk from a warm recovery state reboot? Maybe he doesn't know this?
DarkhShadow said:
Its because the way encryption works you have to boot and enter code, that's the whole point, no recovery can do it atm
Sent from my ice cream powered Nexus S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

rmsilva123 said:
Jomir, what was the procedure you used to get back to CM9? Is it possible to repartition, erasing the encrypted partitions so a new rom can be flashed? How?
Thx,
rmsilva
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did a factory reset (from the settings menu), installed recovery per adb/fastboot and installed cm9 from sdcard in recovery.

Use tmpfs to install a new ROM in crypted system
Hello Everyone
To flash a new ROM you can do as follows:
boot in Recovery
format cache partition
from your PC use adb to mount /sdcard as tmpfs:
adb shell mount -t tmpfs none /sdcard​
put your ROM on the (fake) sdcard
adb push <your rom> /sdcard​
use the recovery to flesh the ROM as usual
This worked form me.
Sorry to be late...

What about a nandroid backup or restore? How big is /cache?
orcruin said:
Hello Everyone
To flash a new ROM you can do as follows:
boot in Recovery
format cache partition
from your PC use adb to mount /sdcard as tmpfs:
adb shell mount -t tmpfs none /sdcard​
put your ROM on the (fake) sdcard
adb push <your rom> /sdcard​
use the recovery to flesh the ROM as usual
This worked form me.
Sorry to be late...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Sorry I didn't try with a nandroid backup but I think it is too big to fit the device memory...
You can backup data inside the sd partiton (phone up and running, just to don't lose data...), boot into recovery, format sdcard partition, mount it, put the backup in the sdcard and after install the nandroid backup...
I think that it could work but I am not sure. If after formatting the sdcard you can mount it, the task is done. You can put the backup on it using adb push and flash using recovery.
If you try please give me some news.
Regards

orcruin said:
Hello Everyone
To flash a new ROM you can do as follows:
boot in Recovery
format cache partition
from your PC use adb to mount /sdcard as tmpfs:
adb shell mount -t tmpfs none /sdcard​
put your ROM on the (fake) sdcard
adb push <your rom> /sdcard​
use the recovery to flesh the ROM as usual
This worked form me.
Sorry to be late...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm kind of a noob when it comes to adb. What is that process doing exactly? How big is the fake sdcard? I want to make sure I understand all the implications before I dive in. Of course I need HTC to release a ICS ROM first. ;-)

thx1200 said:
I'm kind of a noob when it comes to adb. What is that process doing exactly? How big is the fake sdcard? I want to make sure I understand all the implications before I dive in. Of course I need HTC to release a ICS ROM first. ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First it formats the cache partition. Then mount the /sdcard so that you can access it from your pc. After you mount the /sdcard, you can put your rom zip into it. After the zip has been transferred into /sdcard, you can flash the zip as usual.
Since nexus s doesn't have sdcard slot, it mounts the internal storage as '/sdcard' to treat it like a sdcard, thus 'fake' sdcard. The 'fake' sdcard is around 13GB.

Stupidly encrypted my Nexus S, how would I go about removing this encryption?

From what I read you need to unroot the phone but I can not find a guide about this. I do not need to remove the encryption right now but I would like to remove it soon so I can flash a new rom.

maybe this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=21755219&postcount=11

sean1984 said:
maybe this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=21755219&postcount=11
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That guide is for the Galaxy Nexus. I will look it over later and see if I could possibly use it. At first glance it looks like I can't.

Probably just best to backup all your data (Titanium backup for apps, copy all SDCard contents to your PC) then go intor recovery:
factory/data reset
format /system
format /boot
Flash FULL OTA for your phone

I also stupidly encrypted my phone without realizing that I cannot undo it later on. Now most of my apps force closes very often especially the games that I have installed before encryption.
The phone also heats up very quickly at times. Not sure if it's related to this or not.
I'm just hoping that the next OTA update to either 4.04 or 4.05 would solve these issues. If not, then I'll have to do the whole factory reset thing

Harbb said:
Probably just best to backup all your data (Titanium backup for apps, copy all SDCard contents to your PC) then go intor recovery:
factory/data reset
format /system
format /boot
Flash FULL OTA for your phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to say that this worked for me. The one thing I would like to add though is that you will still need to mount the usb storage and format before you are allowed to copy files to the sd card.

Wiping encrypted /sdcard
Luckily, Clockwork can still make the USB interface available. If you're on Windows, you can format the "Removable Disk" device that appears when you use the USB mount option in "mounts and storage" in Clockwork. It only needs a quick format.
Once you're done with that, go back to Clockwork and wipe it. You should be good.

How to format encrypted /data in CWM

Here's the scenario: say you try out encryption on a ROM, either because your employer makes you or because you want the extra security. What happens when you can root your phone, like we can (easily) with the S3, and you want to flash a different ROM? The problem you will find yourself in very quickly is that you cannot do a successful wipe. You can't format an encrypted /data in CWM or any other recovery. If you cannot format /data, you can't flash a ROM - it fails, because /data is encrypted, and it cannot proceed. It turns out none of the recoveries can format an encrypted /data. You also cannot reverse encryption once you've done it. You're stuck, all because you flipped the switch on encryption.
I found myself in this problem as others have in many other forums (like this one for the GNex) (and another one, more detailed).
I also tried, admittedly somewhat out of desperation, the soft-brick instructions here. That didn't work because Nand Erase All fails. You can flash on top, and luckily you can use your same password to decrypt your /data (which I did) but you're still not going to have a clean ROM. Dirty flashes = lots of problems down the road.
I finally found a simple way to do this and wanted to save anyone else the trouble of digging. You can do it using CWM and adb and a few commands. Credit goes Shawn Webb's blog and utkanos on FreeNode's irc at #cyanogenmod.
Here is how to do this on our Verizon S3:
In CWM, wipe cache
adb shell
mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p15
mount /data
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/media
If adb doesn't work in CWM, reboot recovery. You might need to create /data/media after mounting /data in order to do the last step, which I opted not to do. I hope this saves someone else a few hours of frustration, and I also hope that someday one of our recoveries can handle formatting encrypted data. Until then... I'm just not using encryption, period. There already is a lot of documentation against it, and this is one more reason in my book.

Thanks for this. I fell into the same scenario yesterday but after reading a lot of helpful posts from people like yourself I have managed to solve the issue. Basically I found two ways of doing it, one is as you have suggested and the other is by just replacing the custom recovery with the stock recovery. The SGS3 toolkit available on XDA made the 2nd option just slightly simpler for me and by spending less than 10 mins (excluding time for backups and downloads) the issue was resolved.
Just to share this option to save others from the headache of looking for a solution:
1) Get the toolkit
2) Install drivers as recommended and follow instructions to choose the build, or closest build, for your S3
3) Restore stock recovery with toolkit via ODIN (follow instructions)
4) After rebooting, go into Android and reset to factory settings, this would bring you to the stock recovery and wipe
5) Restore custom recovery with toolkit via ODIN (follow instructions)
6) Restore your system (luckily for me I had a nandroid backup before I encrypted)
Note: I did "lose" my internal sdcard files (pictures/documents). But I backed that up on my external sdcard before starting the process. My sdcard was not encrypted.

kitleon said:
Thanks for this. I fell into the same scenario yesterday but after reading a lot of helpful posts from people like yourself I have managed to solve the issue. Basically I found two ways of doing it, one is as you have suggested and the other is by just replacing the custom recovery with the stock recovery. The SGS3 toolkit available on XDA made the 2nd option just slightly simpler for me and by spending less than 10 mins (excluding time for backups and downloads) the issue was resolved.
Just to share this option to save others from the headache of looking for a solution:
1) Get the toolkit
2) Install drivers as recommended and follow instructions to choose the build, or closest build, for your S3
3) Restore stock recovery with toolkit via ODIN (follow instructions)
4) After rebooting, go into Android and reset to factory settings, this would bring you to the stock recovery and wipe
5) Restore custom recovery with toolkit via ODIN (follow instructions)
6) Restore your system (luckily for me I had a nandroid backup before I encrypted)
Note: I did "lose" my internal sdcard files (pictures/documents). But I backed that up on my external sdcard before starting the process. My sdcard was not encrypted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just saved my month. Drop me a message if I can get you a beer via paypal for this.
Cheers!

THANKS!
olm3ca said:
Here's the scenario: say you try out encryption on a ROM, either because your employer makes you or because you want the extra security. What happens when you can root your phone, like we can (easily) with the S3, and you want to flash a different ROM? The problem you will find yourself in very quickly is that you cannot do a successful wipe. You can't format an encrypted /data in CWM or any other recovery. If you cannot format /data, you can't flash a ROM - it fails, because /data is encrypted, and it cannot proceed. It turns out none of the recoveries can format an encrypted /data. You also cannot reverse encryption once you've done it. You're stuck, all because you flipped the switch on encryption.
I found myself in this problem as others have in many other forums (like this one for the GNex) (and another one, more detailed).
I also tried, admittedly somewhat out of desperation, the soft-brick instructions here. That didn't work because Nand Erase All fails. You can flash on top, and luckily you can use your same password to decrypt your /data (which I did) but you're still not going to have a clean ROM. Dirty flashes = lots of problems down the road.
I finally found a simple way to do this and wanted to save anyone else the trouble of digging. You can do it using CWM and adb and a few commands. Credit goes Shawn Webb's blog and utkanos on FreeNode's irc at #cyanogenmod.
Here is how to do this on our Verizon S3:
In CWM, wipe cache
adb shell
mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p15
mount /data
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/media
If adb doesn't work in CWM, reboot recovery. You might need to create /data/media after mounting /data in order to do the last step, which I opted not to do. I hope this saves someone else a few hours of frustration, and I also hope that someday one of our recoveries can handle formatting encrypted data. Until then... I'm just not using encryption, period. There already is a lot of documentation against it, and this is one more reason in my book.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to say thanks very much for this. I'd tried the method of reloading the stock ROM as described by a previous poster, but this way worked.
I did run into a small issue I was wondering if you could shed some light on. When I entered "mount /data", I got the following:
Code:
~ # mount /data
mount: mounting /dev/block/mmcblk0p37 on /data failed: Invalid argument
I bullied ahead and entered the last line "mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/media" and got this:
Code:
~ # mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/media
mount: mounting /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 on /data/media failed: No such file or directory
However after doing this, I was able to perform a complete wipe of /data using CWM and load a new ROM without issue.
I'd curious to know what might be causing these Invald argument responses.
My Device: HTC One (GSM)
Thanks again! :laugh:

olm3ca said:
Here is how to do this on our Verizon S3:
In CWM, wipe cache
adb shell
mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p15
mount /data
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/media
If adb doesn't work in CWM, reboot recovery. You might need to create /data/media after mounting /data in order to do the last step, which I opted not to do. I hope this saves someone else a few hours of frustration, and I also hope that someday one of our recoveries can handle formatting encrypted data. Until then... I'm just not using encryption, period. There already is a lot of documentation against it, and this is one more reason in my book.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm trying to follow your instructions but fail at finding out my mount points.
Sorry for the noob question, but who do I find out what the mount points of internal and external SD card are on my device (Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini International 4G)? I found this post
stackoverflow. /questions/6824463/how-to-get-all-the-mount-point-information-for-android-device
which seems to include the answer but I don't know what tool / software they use. I'm no programmer.
My phone is encrypted and doesn't turn on, it doesn't accept my password saying it's wrong, though I know it's correct. OS is Cyanogenmod 10.1 stable. Booting into CWM v6.0.3.7 is possible though.
I appreciate everyone's help.
Stephan

To CM13 users. DO NOT USE ENCRYPTION. details and fix if you've already done inside

just fyi. cm13 has no option to decrypt once you've encrypted it, twrp cannot mount encrypted drives (atleast most of the time i've heard a few say it can that's why i tried it but 2.8.7.0 doesn't even ask for a password or try to decrypt in my case)
so pretty much once you encrypt your stuck with the rom you have unless you have this magical twrp that asks for decrypt password.
also to make things worse, twrp can't format and cm13 changes the sdcard path so although it sees the external sd it can't flash files from it (atleast on g3)
so the only way to fix is to boot into android, backup your internal storage to sdcard or computer
reboot into twrp run a manual format on /data/ from terminal command, then reboot, copy your twrp backup to internal sd, go back to recovery and flash backup, then copy internal sdcard files back to internal drive (from sd or computer backup)
the command to format is the following
mke2fs -T ext4 /dev/block/mmcblkXpXX (NOTE: REPLACE THE XpXX with the proper values for your device) you can find these values by asking in your device forums, or downloading a partition info app that will tell you and i'm sorry i can't remember the one i used, but this is the best way to be sure because even diff device variants sometimes have diff partition tables based on phone provider.
*edit* just for personal peace of mind i remind everyone that every device is diff and i cannot guarantee positive results but this 100% worked for me everything is back to normal.

I did this a few months back and ended up flashing factory images via adb and starting all over again which sucked

Very useful information. :good:

TWRP v3.0.0 can use the adopted storage device (encrypted SD card) now.

Seems it's been fixed because I am successfully using cm13 with twrp 3.0, albeit with visible performance loss.

I just want to say thanks a lot for this. I can once again mount my /data partition.

0 mb in TWRP internal storage

I searched for an answer and noticed it's a common issue. I am trying to flash a kernel on to my already flashed rom. I was wondering if there is a more current fix. More importantly, how can this be avoided in the future. Thank you guys!

Its caused by a bug/error with either the filesystem or encryption.
Did you wipe data after flashing the new ROM? Data from stock usually doesn't work with custom ROMs.
Do you have a PIN/password on Android?
Are you using the latest build of TWRP?
Press the menu button at the bottom of the screen in TWRP and post what the error message is in the red text.

It's caused by no root access

djhulk2 said:
It's caused by no root access
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something is probably wrong with the data partition. TWRP should always have root access.
Try in TWRP:
Wipe > Format Data > Slide to format
This will erase the data partition, so backup everything to a PC in Android first if needed. It should allow TWRP to mount /data again.

KemikalElite said:
Something is probably wrong with the data partition. TWRP should always have root access.
Try in TWRP:
Wipe > Format Data > Slide to format
This will erase the data partition, so backup everything to a PC in Android first if needed. It should allow TWRP to mount /data again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've debated on doing this. I'm not worried about losing pictures texts etc as they're backed up.
I read that it essentially leaves the device with no OS. If that's wrong please let me know!

I have found that if I choose Slot A and reboot system it reboots me in to TWRP. If I choose Slot B it runs the OS like normal (except I still have issues using Facebook and it's services).
The ROM works and I can perform all the custom mods on it. I just want to flash a kernel and the problem persists. 0 mb in storage.
It's trial and error at this point. Fail fast fail forward. I have another phone I can use but I love the OnePlus. Any help will be appreciated!

https://andi34.github.io/faq/faq_twrp.html
I'm not willing to risk it until I know how to get the custom ROM on to the storage to flash it.

Yes formating by typing in yes will wipe it all,everything including pictures, with no rom on it at all. If u choose to do that, don't close twrp. Instead you should be able mount after wards, once mounted transfer the magisk zip, twrp, and your custom rom(has to be 1.5gb not 200mb through magisk). Flash magesik, install ram disk twrp, install rom. That was a method I've done before but if u want to keep everything there is other way
fastboot boot twrp.img, that command boots twrp if u have it or don't, installing to ram disk makes it permant...this boot command is just a one time thing each time. It's what I do when new firmware update, I loose root but I regain it each time

Never heard of formating data removing the OS, that would be if you wipe the system and normal wipe is like a factory data reset and therefore will not wipe your phone of the OS

djhulk2 said:
Yes formating by typing in yes will wipe it all,everything including pictures, with no rom on it at all. If u choose to do that, don't close twrp. Instead you should be able mount after wards, once mounted transfer the magisk zip, twrp, and your custom rom(has to be 1.5gb not 200mb through magisk). Flash magesik, install ram disk twrp, install rom. That was a method I've done before but if u want to keep everything there is other way
fastboot boot twrp.img, that command boots twrp if u have it or don't, installing to ram disk makes it permant...this boot command is just a one time thing each time. It's what I do when new firmware update, I loose root but I regain it each time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I attempted to format. It said
"failed to mount /data (device or resource busy)
"unable to mount storage"

Try this in recovery, sometimes its known to work.
Wipe > Advanced Wipe > Check Data and press Repair or Change File System > Change File System > Change it to EXT2.
Repeat the same process selecting Ext4
Wipe > Advanced Wipe > Check Data and press Repair or Change File System > Change File System > Change it to back to EXT4.
Try formatting data after this.

drey4211 said:
I attempted to format. It said
"failed to mount /data (device or resource busy)
"unable to mount storage"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you dont care about the data on the phone I would just do 1 of 2 things. 1st I would reflash twrp on to you phone if that doesn't work then I would just grab the fastboot ROM and just flash your phone back to full stock reroot and install twrp from scratch. I would not try to start repairing partitions. I wouldn't want to worry about screwing up the EFS partition

Well in an update, I formatted the
Storage and now I'm stuck in bootloader screen. It's unlocked but I'm having a hard time flashing a ROM through adb.

I use the twrp version 3.3.1-2
Best would be to just use fast command to boot it
But it should be under wipe/format data/then type in yes

That was what I was trying to have you avoid. If your can boot to fastboot download the fastboot ROM I told you to and run the flash-all.bat file. If your on 9.5.8 make sure you use the fastboot ROM of the same version. Do not flash azip of a different version firmware like 9.5.7.

It happens to me any time I'm in twrp and flash a rom then reflash twrp. It doesn't matter if I flash Magisk or not the issue always happens. What I do is use a USB C flash drive and plug it in when I want to flash/backup a rom. This way I can always access it. After flashing any rom then booting I'm always able to access my internal storage again. It seems like a bug in twrp.
The strange part is when this bug happens your files are encrypted in a 0 folder but you can still copy from your PC to your internal storage while in twrp.

I essentially soft bricked my device. Called OnePlus and they got me up and running. That's awesome that they have that service!

Are you removing all security? Pattern, pin and fingerprints? Are you decrypted? Never had an issue with flashing a ROM causing these issues which is why I'm asking. Something you've done at some point is causing this

I'm not sure what that was. Ironically enough I am now stuck in TWRP boot loop. Hopefully I can figure this out otherwise I have to call oneplus again.
I will admit I may not know everything but it's trial and error. I don't have anyone to really teach me this so I try to read the forums and learn. You guys have been great!

ajsmsg78 said:
It happens to me any time I'm in twrp and flash a rom then reflash twrp. It doesn't matter if I flash Magisk or not the issue always happens. What I do is use a USB C flash drive and plug it in when I want to flash/backup a rom. This way I can always access it. After flashing any rom then booting I'm always able to access my internal storage again. It seems like a bug in twrp.
The strange part is when this bug happens your files are encrypted in a 0 folder but you can still copy from your PC to your internal storage while in twrp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've the same issue.. did you find a fix? So annoying