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[Q] What exactly does ROM Manager's fake flash do?

Simple question that I can't find an answer to...
What exactly does ROM Manager's flash option do? If it's a fake flash where does it write the recovery program to and how does it get the phone to boot it? I don't see any kind of update zip on either the internal or external SD so it must have written it to one of the partitions on the block device, but which one and what did it replace?
The phone is a Wind Mobile G2X not a T-Mobile and stock recovery is nothing more than factory reset + reboot. As far as I can tell it's still there and I can still get into it with power+volume-down at boot, so that's not what ROM Manager replaced I guess.

yuma80 said:
Simple question that I can't find an answer to...
What exactly does ROM Manager's flash option do? If it's a fake flash where does it write the recovery program to and how does it get the phone to boot it? I don't see any kind of update zip on either the internal or external SD so it must have written it to one of the partitions on the block device, but which one and what did it replace?
The phone is a Wind Mobile G2X not a T-Mobile and stock recovery is nothing more than factory reset + reboot. As far as I can tell it's still there and I can still get into it with power+volume-down at boot, so that's not what ROM Manager replaced I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with ROM Manager is that it messes up the files when flashing a ROM or any file. It is more advised to use CMW Recovery.

yuma80 said:
Simple question that I can't find an answer to...
What exactly does ROM Manager's flash option do? If it's a fake flash where does it write the recovery program to and how does it get the phone to boot it? I don't see any kind of update zip on either the internal or external SD so it must have written it to one of the partitions on the block device, but which one and what did it replace?
The phone is a Wind Mobile G2X not a T-Mobile and stock recovery is nothing more than factory reset + reboot. As far as I can tell it's still there and I can still get into it with power+volume-down at boot, so that's not what ROM Manager replaced I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rom Manager should not be used on the G2x. If you flash a rom and something goes wrong and you can not boot you are dead in the water. Use Nvidia CWM instead.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1056847

Yes thanks. I understand that I shouldn't use ROM Manager, but I want to know what it does and why it doesn't work. For starters anybody know where it writes CWM to?
Worse comes to worse I'm just going to dump /dev/block/mmc* and look for strings or disassemble the apk or something...

yuma80 said:
Yes thanks. I understand that I shouldn't use ROM Manager, but I want to know what it does and why it doesn't work. For starters anybody know where it writes CWM to?
Worse comes to worse I'm just going to dump /dev/block/mmc* and look for strings or disassemble the apk or something...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've always been curious about the details of a 'fake flash' too.. please let us know if you figure out any details.

Rom manager has been around since the original Droid from Verizon. The fake flash you refer to isn't actually a fake flash. It actually flashes CWM recovery. It just doesn't work on this particular phone. I may be wrong on the exact details but the G2x partitions and drivers require the use of NVflAsh to install the CWM. However, there are many phones that once they have been rooted, the user can install Rom Manager and use the Flash Recovery option to install their CWM recovery. There are also times when a particular recovery version (ie.. 5.0.5. Or 4.6.3) works better than another on one particular phone. Rom manager allows users an easy way of flashing between those CWM versions by simply pushing the flash button.
So in summary of a long response... it is only called a fake flash because it looks like it worked on our phone , but in fact it does not. We have to use NVflash to flash our recovery.
If it looks like I'm remotely right ( which I think I am..) hit that thanks button. (Shameless request, I know)

From my understanding, the "fake flash" that ROM Manager does is that it doesn't actually flash CWM like NVFlash does (on the recovery partition) but still puts the CWM files on your SD card saying that you do have it installed (sdcard/clockworkmod) so when you try to flash/install a ROM, it can't put it anywhere. I don't think it will flash anything, but people mess up their devices by wiping data/system and such...
OR...
Maybe it does flash CWM to your device but it has the partition tables all messed up?
One or the other lol, it's just a guess for both options but I believe the first one is right.

I've wondered for a while why rom manager is included in roms for the g2x when it's not advised to use it
Sent from this

DorisTheHeavy said:
I've wondered for a while why rom manager is included in roms for the g2x when it's not advised to use it
Sent from this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To rename your nandroid backups .

buru898 said:
To rename your nandroid backups .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never thought about that. I was always unsure what flashing CWM with ROM Manager would do when it's already on my phone using NVFlash.

Since our phones have a dual partition in it. I think it flashes to the internal 1 gig memory so then loading another rom writes over it.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

OK, I finally had some time to do some poking around. Some of this is guess-work since I was too lazy to verify 100% exactly what it does when you specify that you're running a G2X.
Anyway, in it's settings DB it says this phone's recovery partition is read-only, and there's no flash command set, so I guess it doesn't try to flash it directly. It looks like it's relying on the Google stock recovery image to do the flashing instead, so it downloads a recovery-update.zip to the SD card and writes a script to /cache/recovery and reboots the phone into recovery mode. Google stock recovery would execute the script in /cache/recovery, which says to apply recovery-update.zip, but the actual stock recovery on the phone is either not Google stock, or has been modified; it doesn't bother to execute scripts, it just does a factory-reset (clear /cache, /data, etc) so that's why it doesn't work.
Meanwhile, ROM Manager writes to it's DB that it just flashed CWM version X.Y.Z and happily displays that every time it runs, even though that's not true.
I used NVFlash and moved on with my life.

[Q] Odin can't flash stock, boot hangs at logo

Good morning...
Right now, my phone (Galaxy S III on Verizon) will not boot past the "Galaxy S III" logo. Odin will not flash a stock Jelly Bean ROM from StockRoms.net. It gets stuck on the first .img, boot.img. I am downloading a new stock ROM right now and will try a full wipe.
Being silly and ambitious, I do not have a nandroid before it wouldn't boot. On Monday (two days ago) I rooted it. I flashed the VRALEC boot chain, rebooted, flashed ClockworkMod recovery, and installed the SuperSU bootloader and root patch through recovery. I rebooted, allowing CWM to disable the automatic re-flashing of the recovery. With my newly rooted phone, I jumped at trying to install Google Wallet. I went with the route of using Wallet Installer as found on the app store. And, being silly, I checked all three OS options (JB, ICS, and one other). After authorizing the superuser request, my phone almost immediately shut off. I think I made a nandroid through CWM after that, but not one that would run.
I thought it was going to be just build.prop having issues, so I went on a wild quest trying to find a working one online and get it on the device. I worked it into the updater script of my SuperSU patch. Nonetheless, nothing there fixed it. I've tried a bunch of things, including (get this) extracting the stock system.img.ext4 image, mounting it, tarring the device, creating an MD5 for it, and wrapping it up like a nandroid to "restore" with CWM.
I'm thinking I'm going to try and wipe the entire device, maybe leave /recovery, and flash a new I-535 ROM with Odin, see if that works. I don't know if it will. Any advice?
My flash counter is at about 5 after many attempts to get back to something that will boot, so warranty is not an option. Not that they've ever been a whole lot of help anyways.

Sounds like you can still enter recovery. If so adb push a custom ROM to your phone to flash.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

What I have done in the past when flashing a completely stock unrooted ROM through Odin is remove the battery, replace it, boot to stock recovery, and do a factory reset plus wipe cache! This will make my phone boot every time, because flashing a stock makes it boot loop!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

joaquinla1 said:
What I have done in the past when flashing a completely stock unrooted ROM through Odin is remove the battery, replace it, boot to stock recovery, and do a factory reset plus wipe cache! This will make my phone boot every time, because flashing a stock makes it boot loop!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone has CWM recovery on it, but I don't see any reason CWM's factory reset and cache wipe would be any different. I'll give it a shot.
mentose457 said:
Sounds like you can still enter recovery. If so adb push a custom ROM to your phone to flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may try this if I can't upload one through Odin after a complete wipe, like above. Also, I've only used adb push to upload individual files. How would I use it to push a ROM?
Thanks for all your help. The ROM I'm going to try and flash now is the official stock from stockroms.net. I can't post the link as I'm new but it's I535BLK_nowipe.zip. I'll keep this updated.

sworld said:
I may try this if I can't upload one through Odin after a complete wipe, like above. Also, I've only used adb push to upload individual files. How would I use it to push a ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you download a ROM, say Beans 11, it will be a zip file. Push that single file to the internal storage. Do not unzip it. Then boot into recovery and flash the zip.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

mentose457 said:
When you download a ROM, say Beans 11, it will be a zip file. Push that single file to the internal storage. Do not unzip it. Then boot into recovery and flash the zip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes more sense.
UPDATE: I "factory reset" the data partition and formatted /system and /cache through ClockworkMod. Turned it off, flashed VRALEC through Odin, rebooted, flashed the stock ROM, and then CWM. I'm restoring my nandroid of /data right now, and I'm awaiting an OTA firmware update to bring it up to the latest VZW JB. Then I'll root.. finally.

The thing with Odin is that after you reset you have to do a factory reset through stock recovery to finish the process. Otherwise you will get stuck in a boot loop like you did.
Sent from my GeeEssThree

z06mike said:
The thing with Odin is that after you reset you have to do a factory reset through stock recovery to finish the process. Otherwise you will get stuck in a boot loop like you did.
Sent from my GeeEssThree
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? I've only odined once on the s3 and didn't have to wipe. On the fascinate and an older version of Odin after the flash before it booted it would automatically wipe.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

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So, the phone is functioning now. Of course, I am running a slightly older version and once I connect to a solid Wi-Fi network I'll request the newest update again.
However, I did already try to download the software update from Verizon, and it seemed to work fine. It rebooted into recovery and CWM seemed to handle it okay, although it claimed the signature was bad. It installed though, rebooted, and updated some app databases. And then, it said the update failed with "Code 401."
Right now I'm not too worried. Hopefully I can apply the update properly soon. It is worth noting that simply using CWM "advanced restore" on only the /data partition, without exactly matching the ROM build, has seemed to leave it hanging at the "4G LTE" logo.
Thanks for all of your help!

The phone will not install a Verizon update with a custom recovery installed.

Need stock recovery image for "bricked" A700

I've got an A700 that appears semi bricked. I can use fastboot to install a recover, and then use the recovery to install, say, OmniROM, but then I get freespace errors on the data partition when trying to install GAPPS, but otherwise OmniROM boots and runs seemingly fine. Wanting to start over from scratch so I can have Google Apps access, I try to install the stock ROM from Acer's site via the update.zip file, but TWRP and CWM both error out with an Error 7 (product name mismatch), so I edit the update script and remove the first line/product name check and get an Error 6 (Unsure why)...
My next course of action was to flash the stock recovery, so I could then hopefully flash the stock ROM, but I can't seem to find a live link. Can anyone help, or suggest another course of action?
Thanks

Did you look here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/iconia-a700-a510/general/tools-firmware-collection-tools-t3002768 ?

Shreps said:
Did you look here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/iconia-a700-a510/general/tools-firmware-collection-tools-t3002768 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but I don't see any stock recovery files in there. Am I missing it? Also, all the stock files I do see are EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), I'm pretty sure I would need the PA (Pan America) files since it was purchased in the US? Not sure if there's a difference

Bricked from BMM

Hello all,
I need some help with this old Atrix 2. It's been sitting in a drawer for a while, and I haven't touched it for like a year at least. Apparently back then I had dual-booted stock and another ROM using BMM (Bootmenu Manager). Well now I need to use it and I thought the best thing to do would be fastboot flash the stock ROM, so I did that from the bootloader and it didn't change anything. So I went into BMM and deleted the second ROM (in slot 3), then did a factory reset on the stock ROM through fastboot.
Now I can't get any slots to work besides stock, and the stock ROM has zero bytes available for user data. meaning I can't install the BMM app to remove BMM.
When trying to use another slot, I can create the virtual partitions, but after a reboot it can't find them anymore...
From recovery I can't even mount /data. I'm not sure how to fix this.

You should flash the stock ROM using RSD.
Maybe you will need some resources and basic guide here

PhoenixNghi said:
You should flash the stock ROM using RSD.
Maybe you will need some resources and basic guide here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Downloading the file now, will let you know how it goes. Sorry for the late reply.

[HELP THREAD] cm-13 on gt-p5100

Hello guys,
I installed cm-13 successfully and it was operating fine until yesterday. Today I tried to install a theme or something and it hung. So i just felt like doing a factory reset and I did it through my cwm recovery. But before that i made a backup, then i did the reset, then i did the restore...ever since then i havent been able to open the OS...it gets stuck on the samsung GALAXY Tab2 10.1 screen. I can however access the cwm recovery. I did infact try to unzip the cm-13 that i had previously used, and it doesnt work...
Please help guys!
I am pretty new to this and i feel like i cant figure out what to do next.

Is there a way to maybe restart the whole process, like get rid of the cm-13 that is already installed and redo the whole thing again?
Kindly help guys, i was really enjoying the cm experience and i messed it up :/

killermara said:
Is there a way to maybe restart the whole process, like get rid of the cm-13 that is already installed and redo the whole thing again?
Kindly help guys, i was really enjoying the cm experience and i messed it up :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you did a backup before factory reset, then you restored the same data after reset. this hardly changed anything. the reason it didn't boot, is that The problem lies at the system partition, you should wipe system partition, data partition as well and flash the same cm-13 zip again along with gapps, if you had.
now let the system start. it should boot up with a clean installation. you can then try to advance restore and chose only data partition.
later just switch to twrp recovery by Android-Andi

HELP!
billysam said:
you did a backup before factory reset, then you restored the same data after reset. this hardly changed anything. the reason it didn't boot, is that The problem lies at the system partition, you should wipe system partition, data partition as well and flash the same cm-13 zip again along with gapps, if you had.
now let the system start. it should boot up with a clean installation. you can then try to advance restore and chose only data partition.
later just switch to twrp recovery by Android-Andi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, actually I did exactly that, i wiped system partition and all of that...then i did try with cwm, and it didnt work, what is happening is that i select the option to flash the ROM, then the screen goes blank for a second and comes back to the home screen of the cwm recovery. So basically i selected the zip and nothing happened! I then tried flashing using twrp and the problem now was that there was the "no md5 file found" message and the installation would not stop, it would go on for too long, like some sort of loop. I then switched back to cwm and tried again and it still doesnt seem to work...kindly advice on what to do next

killermara said:
Hello, actually I did exactly that, i wiped system partition and all of that...then i did try with cwm, and it didnt work, what is happening is that i select the option to flash the ROM, then the screen goes blank for a second and comes back to the home screen of the cwm recovery. So basically i selected the zip and nothing happened! I then tried flashing using twrp and the problem now was that there was the "no md5 file found" message and the installation would not stop, it would go on for too long, like some sort of loop. I then switched back to cwm and tried again and it still doesnt seem to work...kindly advice on what to do next
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first thing check if you have updated to last official stock jellybean rom prior to cm13 upgrade.
this thread will help you to update your bootloader to jb from ics. if you have a jb bootloader already. you can skip this.
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2642005
next thing you should get twrp 3.0.2.8
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=48848&sort_by=date&sort_dir=DESC
after wiping, restart recovery, then flash the Rom zip
it takes time with the new CM13 builds to complete installation. some earlier twrp recoveries had issues(3.0.0.1 and 0.2, not sure right now, try latest only). cwm is not supported and twrp is the only preferred recovery by the Rom developers to flash the newer roms.
remember p5100 tab is called espresso3g now, since development has been unified. you need files marked as espresso3g for your p5100.
I don't which files are you using, development has changed so confirm the files that you're using are for unified builds and not device specific.

billysam said:
first thing check if you have updated to last official stock jellybean rom prior to cm13 upgrade.
this thread will help you to update your bootloader to jb from ics. if you have a jb bootloader already. you can skip this.
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2642005
next thing you should get twrp 3.0.2.8
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=48848&sort_by=date&sort_dir=DESC
after wiping, restart recovery, then flash the Rom zip
it takes time with the new CM13 builds to complete installation. some earlier twrp recoveries had issues(3.0.0.1 and 0.2, not sure right now, try latest only). cwm is not supported and twrp is the only preferred recovery by the Rom developers to flash the newer roms.
remember p5100 tab is called espresso3g now, since development has been unified. you need files marked as espresso3g for your p5100.
I don't which files are you using, development has changed so confirm the files that you're using are for unified builds and not device specific.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I followed all the steps that you suggested, and the thread suggested.
I installed custom recovery, then I updated the bootloader.
Then i flashed the new twrp, which is alot more easier to operated compared to the cwm .
then i wiped , restarted recovery, then flashed the rom,
the exact same thing that was previously happening with the cwm happened : I tapped on the rom, then a blank screen appeared and it went back to the main menu of the twrp...
The ROM i am using is: cm-13.0-20160220-1347-UNOFFICIAL-p5100.zip
i also tried using the ROM i got from get.cm : cm-11-20160822-NIGHTLY-p5100.zip
Okay so i played a slow mo video to see what the screen says before it goes back to the welcome screen:
Updating partition details. . .
. . . done
Full SElinux support is present.
MTP Enabled
Then after this pops up, it goes back to the main menu of the twrp.
What if i just reinstall the stock OS then do the whole process of getting cyanogenmod again from rooting onwards?
Kindly assist!!

killermara said:
I followed all the steps that you suggested, and the thread suggested.
I installed custom recovery, then I updated the bootloader.
Then i flashed the new twrp, which is alot more easier to operated compared to the cwm .
then i wiped , restarted recovery, then flashed the rom,
the exact same thing that was previously happening with the cwm happened : I tapped on the rom, then a blank screen appeared and it went back to the main menu of the twrp...
The ROM i am using is: cm-13.0-20160220-1347-UNOFFICIAL-p5100.zip
i also tried using the ROM i got from get.cm : cm-11-20160822-NIGHTLY-p5100.zip
Okay so i played a slow mo video to see what the screen says before it goes back to the welcome screen:
Updating partition details. . .
. . . done
Full SElinux support is present.
MTP Enabled
Then after this pops up, it goes back to the main menu of the twrp.
What if i just reinstall the stock OS then do the whole process of getting cyanogenmod again from rooting onwards?
Kindly assist!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OKAY! So i have had some progress in the situation i got myself into! Now i just changed the sd card and tried to flash the ROM, so it didnt successfully flash, it says:
Zip file is corrupt!
Error installing zip file ..*the directory of the ROM*
This doesnt make sense though because i used the exact same ROM earlier and it worked, i used it for a whole day and it was fine...

killermara said:
OKAY! So i have had some progress in the situation i got myself into! Now i just changed the sd card and tried to flash the ROM, so it didnt successfully flash, it says:
Zip file is corrupt!
Error installing zip file ..*the directory of the ROM*
This doesnt make sense though because i used the exact same ROM earlier and it worked, i used it for a whole day and it was fine...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do what @billysam said.
dont use device specific stuff. the latest twrp will only work with unified builds. for your device you need espresso3g builds.
you will find the latest roms on android-andis github site http://andi34.github.io/index.html

killermara said:
OKAY! So i have had some progress in the situation i got myself into! Now i just changed the sd card and tried to flash the ROM, so it didnt successfully flash, it says:
Zip file is corrupt!
Error installing zip file ..*the directory of the ROM*
This doesnt make sense though because i used the exact same ROM earlier and it worked, i used it for a whole day and it was fine...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're using device specific Rom build, cm13.0 unofficial p5100, the latest twrp recovery you have, is a unfied espresso3g one.
latest roms, are build upon espresso3g for p5100,p3100 and espressowifi for p5110,p5113 p3113.
use latest cm13 rom zip, marked espresso3g.
there are device specific roms and recovery, which developers have stopped working on, your issue is because of this. get unified recovery and rom.

billysam said:
you're using device specific Rom build, cm13.0 unofficial p5100, the latest twrp recovery you have, is a unfied espresso3g one.
latest roms, are build upon espresso3g for p5100,p3100 and espressowifi for p5110,p5113 p3113.
use latest cm13 rom zip, marked espresso3g.
there are device specific roms and recovery, which developers have stopped working on, your issue is because of this. get unified recovery and rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea i thought so too, thats why i downloaded the cm-13.0-20161117-NIGHTLY-espresso3g.zip, then i wiped and tried to flash this rom, this also gave me the same error,
i also noticed that before the lines
Zip file is corrupt
there was:
Checking for MD5 file. . .
Skipping MD5 check: no MD5 file found.

killermara said:
Yea i thought so too, thats why i downloaded the cm-13.0-20161117-NIGHTLY-espresso3g.zip, then i wiped and tried to flash this rom, this also gave me the same error,
i also noticed that before the lines
Zip file is corrupt
there was:
Checking for MD5 file. . .
Skipping MD5 check: no MD5 file found.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe the zip got corrupted, checked your pc with anti-virus? are you downloading the zip file from androidfilehost of android-andi? or some other source? checked your sd card as well?