[Q] system files missing - General Questions and Answers

I have a Spreadtrum based S930 phone.
It's on a boot-loop and the only thing working is the recovery mode. (While I was playing around with it, I noticed that it had a fastboot partition but, I never found a way to access it - only has 4 buttons: POWER, UPVOL, DWNVOL, and HOME.)
I tried to install an app in ZIP but, I got an error saying that it wasn't verified so I tried to manually install it by unpacking it directly into the folders. After doing so, it still didn't work AND the equalizer app that I installed began not to work either. I then tried to manually uninstall it by deleting the files. It didn't work (or at least my equalizer app still didn't work) so, I tried to restore it to the way it was. I deleted the BIN, ETC, and LIB folders and was replacing them with the ones I originally had before the installation but the phone suddenly rebooted. Hence, now it's on a boot-loop.
I can still go into recovery-mode but I can't use adb shell commands because it says that it can't find it (/SYSTEM/BIN/SH). I tried to push it but I get an error saying that I don't have access/permissions for it.
Before it happened, I was able to extract a boot.img but I can't get it in because...
...I don't have access to fastboot and adb shell options.
...I tried creating my own ROM but I get signing issues.
The only thing that seems to work is the push and pull adb commands (remount, logcat, and bugreport gives me an error) and anything I push doesn't stay there when the phone reboots. In recovery-mode, the phone only stays on for about 10 minutes before it restarts.
I've tried pulling some files. The RES folder seems to be intact. BIN and ETC still have some files in them but, the SYSTEM files are completely gone.
Any input would be very much appreciated.
To do list:
- figure out a way to do boot using the SD card
- install a new kernel
Hindrances:
- phone does not even recharge the battery; it simply enters the boot-loop mode
I'm obviously an android noob but I can follow directions and think of a way to piece things up from different sources. I just need someone to point me in the right direction.
...or is this a hopeless case?!

Related

[Q] Flash Google Apps on bSquare MDP 8660

Hi,
I tried finding a better place to post this, but there are no device forums for the bSquare MDP 8660 probably because its not that common and its a 'development phone'.
I'm using one of these devices in the lab I'm working in and I wanted to see if I could flash Google Apps on it since it comes without any of them (Market, Maps, Gmail, etc.).
Since it has an unlocked bootloader, can I just flash Google Apps (from Cyanogen's website) to it the same way you do it when installing the Cyanogen ROM? Are these files device independent? Or would this be an almost sure way of bricking the phone?
Device website: bsquare.com/snapdragon-mobile-development-platform.aspx
OS: Android 2.3.4
I would really appreciate any guidance/suggestions. Thanks!
gjain89 said:
Hi,
I tried finding a better place to post this, but there are no device forums for the bSquare MDP 8660 probably because its not that common and its a 'development phone'.
I'm using one of these devices in the lab I'm working in and I wanted to see if I could flash Google Apps on it since it comes without any of them (Market, Maps, Gmail, etc.).
Since it has an unlocked bootloader, can I just flash Google Apps (from Cyanogen's website) to it the same way you do it when installing the Cyanogen ROM? Are these files device independent? Or would this be an almost sure way of bricking the phone?
Device website: bsquare.com/snapdragon-mobile-development-platform.aspx
OS: Android 2.3.4
I would really appreciate any guidance/suggestions. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most probably yes.
Well here's my advice. Follow at your own risk. It might not probably brick it but there's always the slight risk of stuff going awry.
1) Make a Flash backup.
2) See if you have the system/app folder intact.
3) Flash the Google Market(yes, only the market.)
4) Install whatever the apps you want from the Market.
All Google apps except Market and Talk can be downloaded from the Market. You can of course flash the whole gapps update but downloading this way gives you some peace of mind and chances of avoiding any possible incompatible apps. (Like Voice Search which may not work properly on all ROMs. But, if it's AOSP, all Google apps would work and should work. )
Most of the Google apps would be device independent since most of them would use the Android API and not the native platform.
Flashing custom recovery - didn't work
Thanks for the guidelines.
I tried flashing ClockworkMod recovery so that I could make a backup of the phone, but every time I boot into recovery it shows a blank screen now. ADB doesn't recognize the device either. I tried Amon Ra's recovery and the phone is doing the same thing.
Before flashing any of the custom recoveries, the phone would just show the triangle when booting into recovery. It did show up on ADB though.
Would you have any suggestions on how I should continue? In case its of any use, I do have a package that I downloaded from the manufacturer's website that contains the original boot, recovery, and system images (along with some other files).
gjain89 said:
Thanks for the guidelines.
I tried flashing ClockworkMod recovery so that I could make a backup of the phone, but every time I boot into recovery it shows a blank screen now. ADB doesn't recognize the device either. I tried Amon Ra's recovery and the phone is doing the same thing.
Before flashing any of the custom recoveries, the phone would just show the triangle when booting into recovery. It did show up on ADB though.
Would you have any suggestions on how I should continue? In case its of any use, I do have a package that I downloaded from the manufacturer's website that contains the original boot, recovery, and system images (along with some other files).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I told earlier, I'm not so familiar with the device.
If ADB is not working in recovery, it could either mean that the USB drivers(the drivers in the device, not PC) are corrupted or that the recovery is incompatible.
If CWM recovery you used is 100% compatible with your device(ie other people are using it without issues), it means that you must reflash all your files to factory and then flash a fresh copy of recovery. Simply, you must start it from scratch.
If you have no idea of the compatibility of CWM with your device,
1) Check and see if ADB/fastboot is working well with your device in other modes(boot, system). You can perform a simple file transfer and check the checksum of the original copy and copy on your device to ensure integrity.
2) If ADB/fastboot works well in all other modes but fails only in recovery, flash stock recovery(only recovery) and see if adb is working well. You can do the same thing as before. If adb/fastboot works well in stock recovery but fails in CWM recovery, it probably means CWM is not fully compatible with your device.
If CWM works well, go ahead and make a backup and proceed to flashing market. But, if like I said in 2), if CWM is not fully compatible with your device, proceed with caution.
As an an alternative, if you are going through all these ONLY to get the market, you can extract the market update and push the relevant files to the correct paths in the device using ADB in recovery or bootloader mode.
Installing only the Market app
Hi Nibras,
Sorry for not replying back to you. My college classes got started and I couldn't spend much time on this project.
I liked the idea of just extracting the Market app and installing that (since that is all I really need).
Do you think I could just use the procedure outlined below, even though I won't be doing it on Honeycomb:
Installing Android Market over your freshly installed HoneyComb will require a different approach than just installing an APK.
Make sure you have ADB up and running, and your device recognized. Refer to our guides on what is ADB and how to install it, and how to enable ADB USB drivers for NVIDIA Tegra and Tegra 2 based devices.
Download this version of the Market (2.2.11).
Download GoogleServicesFramework.apk.
Place the files in any folder on your computer and open a Command Prompt window, browsing to that folder.
Enter these commands in the Command Prompt window:
Code:
adb shell mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 /system
adb push Vending.apk system/app/Vending.apk
adb push GoogleServicesFramework.apk system/app/GoogleServicesFramework.apk
adb shell
cd system/app
chmod 6755 Vending.apk
chmod 6755 GoogleServicesFramework.apk
exit
adb reboot
Now go to apps, open the market and sign in. If the Market won’t open at first, reboot and try again and it should work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gjain89 said:
Hi Nibras,
Sorry for not replying back to you. My college classes got started and I couldn't spend much time on this project.
I liked the idea of just extracting the Market app and installing that (since that is all I really need).
Do you think I could just use the procedure outlined below, even though I won't be doing it on Honeycomb:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That should work I guess. But, flashing via recovery is just a one step process. =)
Update.zip also does just the above process, I guess. It just saves us a couple of steps. Also, if you make a recovery backup, if anything goes wrong(say boot loop or force close of system at boot), you can revert very easily since recovery is independent of all the other data on phone.
And, I guess you might have to push Talk.apk too. I'm not sure about it though. Some people complained that removing Talk.apk broke the Market authentication.
If you want to push Talk.apk, get the apk file and,
Type adb push Talk.apk system/app/Talk.apk after adb push GoogleServicesFramework.apk system/app/GoogleServicesFramework.apk
Also, type, chmod 6755 Talk.apk after chmod 6755 GoogleServicesFramework.apk.
Btw, you can also ignore Android Market altogether and use Amazon App Store as well as GetJar.com. They both offer install-able Market apps. Of course, they don't have a collection as large as Android Market.
@gjain89:
Did you ever try pushing the Market files to the MDP? If so, then did it work? I have one of these and I'm in a similar position.
Thanks
I have one of these...
I used adb to push the files. However the system partition barely has any room for more apps. so apps larger than 2MB won't install, unless you obtain the APK from a secondary source.
Refer to this thread for more information: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1400737
And this one: https://developer.qualcomm.com/forum/qdevnet-forums/general-discussion/6864
Plus, many apps force close.
Enjoy!
PS: Let's try to stick together, we might be able to fix some of these problems. Maybe someone could build a custom rom.

Phone won't finish boot process, need urgent help

Alright so looks like I did something completely stupid and now my phone won't finish the boot process. I was looking at some remappings for the recent key to the menu option and from a post in the development section I found a thread in the International One X development forum that had re-odexed files so that the recent key stayed as the recent key and holding the home button became the menu key. Since they were re-odexed and I had root access I figured I would just manually replace them on my phone with Root Explorer...bad idea. The files were:
System/Framework/android.policy.odex
System/Usr/keylayout/qwerty.kl
After I moved them and reset permissions I rebooted my phone and now it goes through the first couple of boot animations but gets stuck on screen that displays beats audio at the bottom.
I really need to know what to do to fix this. When I plug my phone into my computer it recognizes it as a new \drive, but I don't have access to any of it (still says I need to mount). I also have the android SDk and adb installed if thats of any help. I would really like to not lose any data so hopefully thats possible.
Please help me with this if you have any knowledge of what to do.
Just one little quick update. Even though my computer won't let me access my One X as a drive, when I use command prompt and adb to check for adb devices my One X is listed.
Run the at&t ruu exe file, located in the Dev section.
tanman21 said:
Run the at&t ruu exe file, located in the Dev section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright I'm downloading that now.
In the meantime, how do I get root access with adb/give it permission to overwrite read only files? I pulled the two files that caused this messed and pulled my backups, but when I push them back to the phone it tells me I can't because their read only. I'd rather do it this way since I will be changing only the files that caused the problem.
EDIT: Is the RUU really going to delete all the information on my device? If thats the case I would really appreciate figuring out how to get adb to push my backuped files to the /system directory instead
ErikWithNoC said:
Alright I'm downloading that now.
In the meantime, how do I get root access with adb/give it permission to overwrite read only files? I pulled the two files that caused this messed and pulled my backups, but when I push them back to the phone it tells me I can't because their read only. I'd rather do it this way since I will be changing only the files that caused the problem.
EDIT: Is the RUU really going to delete all the information on my device? If thats the case I would really appreciate figuring out how to get adb to push my backuped files to the /system directory instead
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the RUU returns your phone to factory (but doesn't touch your personal files)
EDIT: Also, just pulling this off the top of my head so take it with a grain of salt...
adb devices
adb shell
su
*grant the su request on your device*
adb push <from> <to>
stnguyen09 said:
Yeah, the RUU returns your phone to factory (but doesn't touch your personal files)
EDIT: Also, just pulling this off the top of my head so take it with a grain of salt...
adb devices
adb shell
su
*grant the su request on your device*
adb push <from> <to>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your comment. I used the RUU and it kept my personal data so its not a big lose. Had to reinstall a few apps, but for most of them (games at least) my saved data was still there.
I tried a lot using adb and just couldn't get it to work. I don't the phone got far enough through the boot process for root access to be allowed. I was able to run the one click root tool while it was in its stuck boot phase, but it still wouldn't give me permission to modify the /system portion of the phone to be read/write.
All in all though this was a great learning experience. Prior to this happening I knew nothing about adb and now I know commands for pulling, pushing, remounting, shell commands, and other things. I also learned how to fix a softbrick (first one) and what RUU is.

My Huawei y520-u22 \data partition is read only

It's my sister's phone and I don't know What she did exactly all she said that she tried to install candy crush from google play and then the problem begun each time the mobile reboots after 5-8 seconds I get a ton of stopped working notifications mainly about google apps like "error com.google.process.gapps has stopped" which repeatedly appear each time I press OK and a ton of other stopped working errors like weather,settings and anything I try to open. No matter what I do uninstall any app, change settings, change wallpaper after reboot everything revert back I tried to wipe/factory reset but no dice, I tried to flash the stock rom using SP flash tool and flashed the rom successfully but nothing changed the same apps the same wallpaper I am not talking about the default apps and wallpaper no I am talking about the apps that my sister installed before like Facebook, whats app etc...
I thought about flashing a custom rom and picked one but it required custom recovery which in turn required root access I tried several programs like kingroot, oneclickroot through PC but didn't work then I tried to flash CWM recovery through SP flash tool following the instructions I found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61359133&postcount=4 and again the recovery was flashed successfully but when I tried to go to recovery I found the stock recovery instead I tried to flash the recovery using Fastboot but Fastboot came up with this error:
"FAILED (remote: partition 'recovery' not support flash)" which when I looked around turn out to be an error related to locked bootloaders but as far as I know the bootloader on Huawei y520-u22 is unlocked but wanted to make sure so I tried this command "fastboot oem device-info" but it gave me ... as in processing and nothing for a very long time until I gave up and closed the cmd. I then tried to boot into safe mode after pressing the power button then tabbing the shutdown option and selecting boot into safe mode but the phone rebooted into normal mode as usual.
and now I am out of options what should I do ?
Edit: eventually I found that my problem like this guy http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=895628 was that the \data partition is read only but I can't fix it the way he did since he used advanced partitioning in clockworkmod recovery but I can't flash it or any other custom recoveries.
mostafa_0017 said:
It's my sister's phone and I don't know What she did exactly all she said that she tried to install candy crush from google play and then the problem begun each time the mobile reboots after 5-8 seconds I get a ton of stopped working notifications mainly about google apps like "error com.google.process.gapps has stopped" which repeatedly appear each time I press OK and a ton of other stopped working errors like weather,settings and anything I try to open. No matter what I do uninstall any app, change settings, change wallpaper after reboot everything revert back I tried to wipe/factory reset but no dice, I tried to flash the stock rom using SP flash tool and flashed the rom successfully but nothing changed the same apps the same wallpaper I am not talking about the default apps and wallpaper no I am talking about the apps that my sister installed before like Facebook, whats app etc...
I thought about flashing a custom rom and picked one but it required custom recovery which in turn required root access I tried several programs like kingroot, oneclickroot through PC but didn't work then I tried to flash CWM recovery through SP flash tool following the instructions I found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61359133&postcount=4 and again the recovery was flashed successfully but when I tried to go to recovery I found the stock recovery instead I tried to flash the recovery using Fastboot but Fastboot came up with this error:
"FAILED (remote: partition 'recovery' not support flash)" which when I looked around turn out to be an error related to locked bootloaders but as far as I know the bootloader on Huawei y520-u22 is unlocked but wanted to make sure so I tried this command "fastboot oem device-info" but it gave me ... as in processing and nothing for a very long time until I gave up and closed the cmd. I then tried to boot into safe mode after pressing the power button then tabbing the shutdown option and selecting boot into safe mode but the phone rebooted into normal mode as usual.
and now I am out of options what should I do ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm...
First, tell her to quit using Facebook app, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and other social media and texting apps. I know she just HAS to keep up with all her friends and the latest gossip but her device can't handle all those system demanding apps, they are literal HELL on mid-low end devices. They all constantly run scanning for updates and notifications, CONSTANTLY. They are notorious for making devices act crazy, especially when you have more than one of them.
For Facebook, its best to bookmark the Facebook page in mobile browser then create a shortcut for that bookmark on her homescreen, then it has to be set so that it loads the desktop site for Facebook, then she can view her Facebook messages, if it isn't set to load desktop site it will request she install messenger but she won't need to if she uses the desktop site to view messages. Then she can set her Facebook notifications to go to her gmail account, then in gmail app she needs to make sure it is set to receive notifications for gmail, then when she gets messages or activity on Facebook she will get a gmail notification in her status bar letting her know to check Facebook, then she can open the bookmark to view it. That is just as convenient as having the two apps but without all the strain on the device, also takes less space on internal and has less junk running in the background eating mobile data and draining battery.
As for her texting apps such as WhatsApp, Kik, Snapchat, etc., she needs to pick 1 or at the most 2 of them and leave the others alone, her device will run much faster and smoother.
You can try booting to recovery and wipe cache partition(not factory reset).
As for fastboot and SP flashtool not working, do you have USB debugging enabled in developer options on the device?
well thanks for your reply your advice about phone usage is great but wouldn't matter If I can't revive this phone anyway yes I tried both to wipe cache partition and wipe data and yes I enabled USB debugging but in case of SP flash tool all i need to do is have the proper drivers shutdown the phone click download in SP then connect the phone using USB cable then the red bar would fill up then another yellow one then a big green OK tick and nothing would change in the phone and for Fastboot all I need to do is shutdown then power + volume up then select fastboot then connect the phone then open cmd and type fastboot devices it would show the device Id then use the command fastboot flash recovery recovery-cwm-y520.img then I get the error "FAILED (remote: partition 'recovery' not support flash)" interestingly I got my hands on a normally working similar set which I tried several things on it like *#*#7378423#*#* It accepted the code but didn't do/show me anything just like my broken set then having the set in Fasboot mode I tried "fastboot oem device-info" which yielded nothing but ... just like my broken set other things I tried on my broken set I tried following this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=38337401&postcount=5 using "Mtk_Droid_Tool_v2.5.3" to create CWM recovery for my phone and got the error
error :no find kernelgz
error: no split boot image
then I tried to use easy magic Philz touch installer which eventually asked for root access on the phone
but I can't since I tried every root method and didn't work.
I even made a logcat if it would help I could attach it
mostafa_0017 said:
well thanks for your reply your advice about phone usage is great but wouldn't matter If I can't revive this phone anyway yes I enabled USB debugging but in case of SP flash tool all i need to do is have the proper drivers shutdown the phone click download in SP then connect the phone using USB cable then the red bar would fill up then another yellow one then a big green OK tick and nothing would change in the phone and for Fastboot all I need to do is shutdown then power + volume up then select fastboot then connect the phone then open cmd and type fastboot devices it would show the device Id then use the command fastboot flash recovery recovery-cwm-y520.img then I get the error "FAILED (remote: partition 'recovery' not support flash)" interestingly I got my hands on a normally working similar set which I tried several things on it like *#*#7378423#*#* It accepted the code but didn't do/show me anything just like my broken set then having the set in Fasboot mode I tried "fastboot oem device-info" which yielded nothing but ... just like my broken set other things I tried on my broken set I tried following this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=38337401&postcount=5 using "Mtk_Droid_Tool_v2.5.3" to create CWM recovery for my phone and got the error
error :no find kernelgz
error: no split boot image
then I tried to use easy magic Philz touch installer which eventually asked for root access on the phone
but I can't since I tried every root method and didn't work.
I even made a logcat if it would help I could attach it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The advice does more than help, its actually the REAL solution to the problem. If you get it fixed and she's still using all that crap it'll just cause issues again, I'm sure you don't want to have to go through all of this a second time, right?
Droidriven said:
The advice does more than help, its actually the REAL solution to the problem. If you get it fixed and she's still using all that crap it'll just cause issues again, I'm sure you don't want to have to go through all of this a second time, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
God no of course not I will till her to keep her apps in check and use as minimum social apps as possible but right now that won't help me revive this phone :crying:
mostafa_0017 said:
God no of course not I will till here to keep here apps in check and use as minimum social apps as possible but right now that won't help me revive this phone :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get how installing a game caused this, I believe there has to be more to the story somewhere, somehow.
Besides, with some of the steps you've taken, you've probably created other issues than it started with. Whatever you do, don't format the device in SP flashtool, you'll probably lose IMEI if you do that.
Droidriven said:
I don't get how installing a game caused this, I believe there has to be more to the story somewhere, somehow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
me too man me too I didn't believe it at all installing an app won't do all of this but at one point when I was rebooting I got this suspicious message which I took a couple of bad quality pictures for it here http://imgur.com/a/RIGqD
actually I have grown very confident dealing with the phone that no matter what I do It wouldn't matter since it will come back just as always and now I didn't create any other issues since no matter what I hit a dead end the device revert back no matter what I do, Do you feel me I am starting to go insane I am pretty sure even If I tried to brick this device on purpose I won't be able to.
mostafa_0017 said:
me too man me too I didn't believe it at all installing an app won't do all of this but at one point when I was rebooting I got this suspicious message which I took a couple of bad quality pictures for it here http://imgur.com/a/RIGqD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your pic keeps directing me to the imgur app to view it, I'm not installing the app just to view it, why not just upload the pic as an attachment to your post and it will display in your post instead.
Sorry old habits die hard I used to talk in this one forum before and their rules forbid to upload images or anything actually as attachments except in extreme cases here they are
hmmmm strange can't find the attachment button guess I will just post direct links hope they work
http://i.imgur.com/OrSWbzE.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EcmrDlI.jpg
mostafa_0017 said:
Sorry old habits die hard I used to talk in this one forum before and their rules forbid to upload images or anything actually as attachments except in extreme cases here they are
hmmmm strange can't find the attachment button guess I will just post direct links hope they work
http://i.imgur.com/OrSWbzE.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EcmrDlI.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When did you say it displayed that? That looks fishy, the grammar is a little off as if whoever made that didn't quite know the language, kinda like the way grammar isn't quite right like some of the questionable Chinese apps known to be malware.
If you're using a browser you have to select "go advanced" under the box you reply in, then you'll see "manage attachments"
If you're using an app you should see a paperclip symbol or a pic thumbnail.
Droidriven said:
When did you say it displayed that? That looks fishy, the grammar is a little off as if whoever made that didn't quite know the language, kinda like the way grammar isn't quite right like some of the questionable Chinese apps known to be malware.
If you're using a browser you have to select "go advanced" under the box you reply in, then you'll see "manage attachments"
If you're using an app you should see a paperclip symbol or a pic thumbnail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah thanks found it and it displayed this only one time when I was rebooting after doing various things and I never saw it again and yeah the grammar felt really strange when I googled its content I only found a couple of Spanish forums talking about this but couldn't get any information about the source of this message and that's why I thought about the logcat in the first place.
the same problem
hi i have the same probleme with my huawei y520 u22 i can do nothing just start up the phone i got the message and i can do nothing when i try to unistall any app the phone restart and go back to the same situation wipe cache and wipe data nothing change flashing 1000000000000000000 roms nothing change any one can tell me there the problem is
as i think the flash memory is the problem its blocked in write and read.
any solution plz
I read this and just think, what the hell... i can not understand why "/data" is write protected. Just some thoughts running through my head:
- phone is not rooted and completely stock, but factory reset not working!? in this case ask for warranty and send it back to seller!
- if no warranty, ask Huawei for support. don't tell much, just claim factory reset is not working.
- ask any mobile repair shop, they have special hardware like Octoplus Box and can do factory reset.
- if possible - make a "backup user data" with Android system recovery, you may restore it on working phone, later.
- if you have read-access to "/cache/recovery" look for file "last_log" and copy to sdcard. "/proc/emmc" and "/proc/partitions" are another useful files. keep this in case you have to manually create the scatter file.
- you can use MediaTek SP Flash Tool Readback function in download mode to make a ROM backup dump. for readback you need to install VCOM Drivers, then first click Read back, then connect the phone to PC while switched off and insert battery. MTK Droid Tools will then help to segment the partitions from it. or readback every partition separately with scatter file. the most important files are "nvram.bin", "preloader.bin", "boot.img", "recovery.img".
- if phone is locked, ask Huawei for unlock code (not sure if this works on broken phone). there are different kinds of S-ON some will lock only bootloader, some lock all partitions, too.
http://www.modaco.com/forums/topic/362724-official-code-request-to-unlock-the-bootloader-final-post
- try fastboot mode factory reset (not sure if working, just googled this stuff i found).
http://www.hardresetandroid.com/hard-reset/huawei-hr/huawei-ascend-y520-hard-reset-code-format-solution
- once you have unlocked the phone, do factory reset. phone should boot now. its hardly imaginable that "/system" is damaged because of never rooted the phone.
- if still not working, you should now be able to flash custom recovery, too. be careful, select tested binary for your special phone model only! flash in fastboot mode. avoid flashing with SP Flash Tool as long as you not absolute sure that scatter file is 100% correct (MTK Droid Tools may give you wrong scatter files for devices > 4 GB!)
- from custom recovery, you should able to root the phone via adb root method or install the "supersu.zip"
- once you have root, you can mount data partition read-write from adb shell (in recovery mode) and format or delete it. of course the custom recovery has a wipe data option, too.
- installing aroma file manager zip is another way to browse and modify everything in recovery mode. you can copy files from similar phone into "/system" folder, if phone still not working properly.
- don't restore a full backup from similar phone (especially NVRAM folder), this may clone IMEIs and WiFi MAC address.
- you can install a stock rom zip from custom recovery instead, and use my script bckp2cwm.zip to convert the user data backup into cwm format and restore "/data" folder only (converting script requires linux pc).
- delete suspicious apps from "/data/app" + "/data/dalvik-cache" + "/data/data" (every app has three entries with similar name). do it in recovery mode with aroma file manager, or on linux pc from backup file during converting (at this point where script is waiting for user input).
- search and read for "unbrick guides" on forum.xda-developers.com, as long as it is not a physical damage (Vol keys not working, emmc wearing out, etc) there must be a solution to get this phone working
- if no warranty, ask Huawei for support. don't tell much, just claim factory reset is not working.
yeaah I don't think they would respond with any helpful answer and would probably tell me to send my phone to the nearest service center.
- ask any mobile repair shop, they have special hardware like Octoplus Box and can do factory reset.
That's what I settled for eventually and I already sent it to my sister and told her to visit any mobile repair shop that has boxes like miracle box and such.
- you can use MediaTek SP Flash Tool Readback function in download mode to make a ROM backup dump. for readback you need to install VCOM Drivers, then first click Read back, then connect the phone to PC while switched off and insert battery. MTK Droid Tools will then help to segment the partitions from it. or readback every partition separately with scatter file. the most important files are "nvram.bin", "preloader.bin", "boot.img", "recovery.img".
done that already but what I got in the end didn't help me to fix the phone note that I don't care about the phone's content sure I care about the IMEI but the phone is not affected by any write attempts so I am not so worried.
- if phone is locked, ask Huawei for unlock code (not sure if this works on broken phone). there are different kinds of S-ON some will lock only bootloader, some lock all partitions, too.
I searched online and in threads talking about custom roms and recoveries for this phone and not a single one of them mentioned anything about the bootloader being locked.
- try fastboot mode factory reset (not sure if working, just googled this stuff i found).
haven't tried that but will try it ASAP since I don't have the phone right now.
One last note the phone boots normally but as I described in my later posts I can't edit anything without it reverting back after restart like changing the wallpaper or uninstalling an app.
And anyway thank you for your respond.
did you try to get (temporary) root access?
aIecxs said:
did you try to get (temporary) root access?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure of What you mean but I think I tried and failed you can tell me What you mean exactly and I will tell you If I tried .
Edit: Alright I googled it and turn out to be temporary root for locked bootloader devices no special procedure just the same procedure as in permanent root but will lose root as soon I reboot again I tried a lot of rooting methods including kingoroot and 360root.
Not sure, too.. installing kingoroot.apk and root the phone may give root access until reboot (can't remember if rooting requires a reboot)?
Brainstorming. Lets come from other side. When you intend to write a malware - how would you realize this setting?
one thing is remount /data partition read-only, but is this really enough? what happen if /data is not writeable anymore - apps should crash or give errors on write cycle, didnt they?
but you claim phone is changeable until reboot. so we need the possibility to let them write in some other memory without noting that it storage has changed.
another way is copying /data to any hidden storage, and restore it on each reboot, but this should be time consuming, didnt it? and where can this amount of data be stored? sdcard? cache partition?
besides this, guess the malware needs root access to modify /data. or is it imagineable to change it without root access? lets find a conception to understand whats going on
No reboot is fast and not time consuming and I am always working on the phone without the SD card and about apps sometimes uninstallation is complete and the app disappear to show again after reboot and sometimes the phone restart upon uninstallation of an app

Recovering files from a boot looped Pixel 4a

Recently updated my Pixel 4a and have run into an issue that causes a strange boot loop to a screen that states "Cannot load Android system. Your Data may be corrupt." and prompts to either factory data reset or try booting again. What's strange is that when attempting to boot it again, it is able to load into the device and I have normal access to the phone for about 30-60 seconds before it restarts and prompts a factory reset again.
My main issue is that I need to backup/upload about 900 photos to google photos that were not saved. So far the phone has been rebooting, connecting to wifi and uploading about 0-3 items to google photos per boot until it restarts. Eventually I may be able to secure all my photos this way but I want to know if there is a more efficient method to do this.
Things to know:
Bootloader is locked (can't unlock due to wipe) -> cannot use custom recovery/ flash twrp
USB debugging is enabled and I have sideloaded the latest OTA (sunfish) via ADB sideload in recovery mode but the boot loop has not resolved.
I can successfully use ADB pull /sdcard/DCIM/Camera for only up to 60 seconds until it force restarts. When I attempt to pull again on the next boot, it will pull the same files because it is copying and not moving them.
Does anyone have a solution to this rather than to just factory reset or continuously rebooting? It is frustrating because I still have access to the phone's files but only for about less than a minute. I have scavenged reddit threads, forums, and google for some way to do this but to no avail. (Also is there a way to use the stock recovery's "mount /system" option?)
It's not very elegant, but I could totally imagine a script that listed the files and then copied a few at a time, waiting for the phone to reboot before continuing...
I have a python script that uses adb to "sync" a directory on the phone with a directory on the PC, but it's doing a push, not a pull.
a1291762 said:
I have a python script that uses adb to "sync" a directory on the phone with a directory on the PC, but it's doing a push, not a pull.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I modified my script a bit to pull instead of pushing, it's ... awfully rough (eg. you have to manually create a Camera directory to store the files it copies) but it seemed to work in principle. It might be enough for you, or it might serve as a base for a better solution. No doubt it'll need a few mods anyway, especially if you're on Windows (in which case ls won't work).
You might also try booting into safe mode, in case that stops the phone from rebooting? https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-enter-safe-mode-android-801476/
a1291762 said:
I modified my script a bit to pull instead of pushing, it's ... awfully rough (eg. you have to manually create a Camera directory to store the files it copies) but it seemed to work in principle. It might be enough for you, or it might serve as a base for a better solution. No doubt it'll need a few mods anyway, especially if you're on Windows (in which case ls won't work).
You might also try booting into safe mode, in case that stops the phone from rebooting? https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-enter-safe-mode-android-801476/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the reply! I am on Windows and I am not too script savvy out of writing a few simple AHK actions so I am not entirely sure how to proceed with what you have there.
Booting into safe mode did not work unfortunately. Seems the time until restart was the same as well.
Expressionize said:
Thank you for the reply! I am on Windows and I am not too script savvy out of writing a few simple AHK actions so I am not entirely sure how to proceed with what you have there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do have a windows PC for gaming so I'll fire it up and see if I can make it work there.
a1291762 said:
I do have a windows PC for gaming so I'll fire it up and see if I can make it work there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was able to brute force the process and finally made my way through the photos. There was one lucky boot that allowed normal access for about 3 minutes and that was enough time for adb pull to completely grab what I needed. I appreciate your time and help.
I guess it still doesn't solve the issue if someone else runs into my similar situation though, but it seems like a rare enough problem.
Expressionize said:
I was able to brute force the process and finally made my way through the photos. There was one lucky boot that allowed normal access for about 3 minutes and that was enough time for adb pull to completely grab what I needed. I appreciate your time and help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries. I'm glad you got your photos.
I had to go out, but I got back and literally just finished updating the script so it runs on Windows and is a bit smarter (eg. waiting for the phone to come back when it goes away). I'll attach it here in the event someone else finds it useful
There's a few variables at the top to configure it. It needs python and adb but shouldn't need anything else.
python3 fetch_files.txt
It's got a .txt extension instead of the more typical .py because XDA won't let me upload a .py file.

Question Getting past gesture pattern

So long story short. Dumbass me decided to change my swipe pattern on my Samsung S22 Ultra while jetlagged on holiday. I usually use my fingerprint and seems every 72 hours one would need to confirm with the swipe pattern. So no I'm locked out and having to wait 2 days for the next retry. I don't want to reset as I have a ton of photos on it I've not yet backed up and will probably end in divorce if I loose them.
Things I've tried:
1. Swearing, blaming my own stupidity while promising the miss I will get the photos back.
2. Tried to install TWRP via ODIN3 so that I can remove the gesture.key via the file manager that should let me log in again.
Got blocked my OEM during bootloader
Still blocked even after trying the two butting plug plugging in the cable, then pressing up to enable oem
3. Tried loading TWRP via ADB
Kept on saying invalid signature.
4. Tried via Fasboot to load TWRP but I can not seem to boot my phone into fastboot.
5. Tried to inall AROMA Filemanager (0.2 after compling it)
Got the same error in adb with signature not correct.
6. All the "apps" out there is just a money grab that ends up wiping your phone .
7. Also found strange tutorials where you have to enter a ton of USSD codes to "unlock your phone, but I'm sure this is a scam somehow.
Things want to try, but probably will be blocked somewhere along the line:
1. Try writing a script to remove the gesture.key
Zip the script via Zipme / Flashable zip creator (have not worked with these before)
Loading the script with adb sideload (since sideload is the only option (all other adb commands is blocked))
If this does not work try making the script into a rom (Not even sure if this is possible)
Load the rom and hopefully it will run to delete the gesture.key file
When all else fails:
Start looking for a good divorce lawyer.
Any assistance would really be helpful. I've been on this for about 48 straight now and I'm starting to make stupid mistakes. Also sorry for duplicate posting.
If you are syncing your photos to Onedrive using Gallery, to Samsung Cloud, or to Google Photos, then those images are backed up. They will resync after resetting the phone.

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