Database Users

Flash recovery image Droid Eris How To

First of all thanks to Amon_RA for this. I had no part in creating this. I am just providing a how to flash it. There may be an eaiser way but this is what worked for me.
First let me say I am on a Mac. If you are on windows the adb commands should work fine but I can't say how to get adb working for you.
1. download flash_image Here Link updated 3/17/10
2. Open the terminal and copy and paste the following commands.
adb shell [hit enter]
su [hit enter]
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system [hit enter]
3. In a new terminal window (don't close the original one).
adb push flash_image /system/bin [hit enter]
exit [hit enter]
4. Now in the original terminal window
chmod 755 /system/bin/flash_image [hit enter]
5. Now exit all termainl windows and reboot your phone.
6. Download Amon_AR's recovery Here.
7. Mount your phones sd card and drop recovery-RA-eris-v1.6.2.img on to it and eject your phone.
8. Open the Terminal and copy and paste the following commands with the phone connected to your computer.
8. adb shell [hit enter]
9. su [hit enter]
10. flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery-RA-eris-v1.6.2.img
11. To get into recovery turn off you phone and hold the Volume Up + Power until it boots into recovery.
That's it.
I made an automator script the help all of you having problems getting adb working. Make sure you have the android sdk downloaded and named android-sdk Put it in your home folder and then run this script. Let me know how it works for you.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage you may do to your phone. I am only providing instructions on what worked for me. This is very beta. Good luck. Enjoy the nandroid goodness.

First link is Dead...........
ooopps Srry my bad, Its up.

You should mention that the chmod command is in the original terminal window. Also, you could do it in one window if you put:
adb remount
adb push bla /bla/bla
at the begining of everything.
adb push flash_image to /system/bin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think there's a "to" in that command either. lol

testing567 said:
You should mention that the chmod command is in the original terminal window. Also, you could do it in one window if you put:
adb remount
adb push bla /bla/bla
at the begining of everything.
I don't think there's a "to" in that command either. lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I don't think the "to" is going to work either. I made the corrections.

Just a quick question. What does this boot too. Im new to all this phone stuff. I did the upgrade to 2.1 leaked so just been searching the forum here each day to see if a solution has come about. i just noticed v.1.6.2 in there so was curious as to what this will do.

Will this put the regular android on it or keep it the same, sorry just kinda getting started with android

coupla questions -
For northmendo:
Is the reboot in the middle of this even necessary? ( flash_image won't work right if /system is still mounted rw ?)
For testing567:
Do all the adb shell commands run as root against the 2.1_root install ... or maybe the above could be simplified even more by just running "adb root" first?
For Austinjs0102 (not a question)
This process only applies (at the moment) to phones with "2.1_root" - there isn't a path at present to go from "2.1_leak" to a rooted phone. Assuming that a way to roll back (or get root) for "2.1_leak" eventually is found, then the answer to your question is this: it is a process to apply a custom recovery partition to the phone that include tools that will allow you to perform complete phone backups and restore operations. This can be critical for devs who are experimenting with writing boot or system partitions to their phones - if something goes wrong with their experiments, they can "boot" their phone into recovery mode and restore back to a working configuration. To reiterate, though: this only applies to phones that are already rooted.
bftb0

Thanks a bunch that helps clear up info.
hopefully the hard working dev's here find a 2.1 leaked fix for us early people, if not then i may need to lose the phone lol.

Austinjs0102 said:
Just a quick question. What does this boot too. Im new to all this phone stuff. I did the upgrade to 2.1 leaked so just been searching the forum here each day to see if a solution has come about. i just noticed v.1.6.2 in there so was curious as to what this will do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in same boat as you...

Let me start off by saying that I'm not a phone dev. I've done software development for many years, but never messed with the phone.
Can someone explain why we can't just load the 1.5 rooted PB001IMG.ZIP file over our 2.1 leaked handset? Is it a matter of the version number being lower? If so, since the 1.5 is rooted, couldn't someone just up the version number to whatever the 2.1 leak is plus one? Then, once it's loaded, write a little app to drop the number back where it should be?
TIA for the education.
Doc

DocTauri said:
Let me start off by saying that I'm not a phone dev. I've done software development for many years, but never messed with the phone.
Can someone explain why we can't just load the 1.5 rooted PB001IMG.ZIP file over our 2.1 leaked handset? Is it a matter of the version number being lower? If so, since the 1.5 is rooted, couldn't someone just up the version number to whatever the 2.1 leak is plus one? Then, once it's loaded, write a little app to drop the number back where it should be?
TIA for the education.
Doc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(I suppose I shouldn't respond, 'cuz DocTauri is jacking northmendo's thread. Sorry north!)
Doc,
I understand exactly what you are getting at... and also think I can explain why it's not easy.
First - what has been discovered so far was not a "root break-in", but rather an engineering ROM with root "built in". It is cryptographically signed so that a production phone will recognize the .zip file as a valid ROM. That first validation step has nothing to do with version numbers.
If the "SPL" on an unrooted phone was doing something as simple as looking at a couple of bytes in the initial file downloaded to the phone, then yes - doing what you suggest would work... just patch a few bytes using a hex editor. Unfortunately, the phone SPL is quite sophisiticated: it verifies the crypto signature on the entire zip file first, unpacks that zip, and then examines the contents of an individual file within the zip archive (and possibly even unpacks one of the YAFFS image files and then looks in a file within the YAFFS image) to read version numbers.
That means that the fundamental issue is the cryptographic signature on the .zip file. If you do anything which breaks step #1, step #2 (version # checks) are never reached. Certainly an individual file could be byte-patched, and then images and zip files could be re-assembled... but you would have no way to sign the zip with HTC's private key. Or you could even attempt to byte-patch the zip file - but then that would break the crypto signature. Either way, the crypto signature on the zip file is no longer valid.
If you have HTC's private RSA key, let us know!
bftb0

bftb0 said:
coupla questions -
For northmendo:
Is the reboot in the middle of this even necessary? ( flash_image won't work right if /system is still mounted rw ?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I added the reboot because. All I would get is out of memory errors. The reboot fixed that.
e.g.
mtd: read error at 0x001e0000 (Out of memory)
mtd: read error at 0x00200000 (Out of memory)
mtd: read error at 0x00220000 (Out of memory)
mtd: read error at 0x00240000 (Out of memory)

northmendo -
That first link (that you corrected) now points to the recovery image, not "flash_image".
Note that the "flash_image" executable which Amon_RA originally included with his first recovery (.zip) is identical to the /system/bin/flash_image binary which ships on the Eris with 1.5 (1.17.605.1); the md5sum signature (of both of those files) is:
16559f2c27d08ff1ddfcaca05fbf10fb flash_image
That's also the same md5 signature as the "flash_image" file which was posted to dl.dropbox.
I don't have 2.1_root installed on my phone, but if the same binary is already on the phone after installing the 2.1_root ROM, there's no need to include those steps in your instructions. It is also possible that even if the "2.1_root" version of /system/bin/flash_image is different, it would also work.
Note that the only reason I bring it up is that your instructions might be (a) unnecessary, and (b) are encouraging folks to overwrite a binary that is already on the phone. No harm (but unneeded) if it is the same, and unknown harm if it is different.
Also (while I'm at it)
901167f6b5541b488c8e0404bceb0631 recovery-RA-eris-v1.6.2.img ***
It appears to me ( reading between the lines here ) that Amon_RA is trying to improve his v1.6.2 recovery - folks might want to keep an eye on that thread.
An alternative and quicker method than all of this is what zifnab06 suggested here. It's only two lines long, after all.
bftb0
[Edit]***Wow, my post was obsolete the moment I posted it - don't know how I missed Amon_RA's announcement post. Note that there appears to be several versions of "v1.6.2" floating around now - make sure to check his post if you want the most recent.

bftb0 said:
It appears to me ( reading between the lines here ) that Amon_RA is trying to improve his v1.6.2 recovery - folks might want to keep an eye on that thread.
An alternative and quicker method than all of this is what zifnab06 suggested here. It's only two lines long, after all.
bftb0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will keep the link updated to the newest version here. Also I tried the quicker method without success. I will try it again when I get home from work.
Thanks

bftb0 said:
(I suppose I shouldn't respond, 'cuz DocTauri is jacking northmendo's thread. Sorry north!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, didn't mean to. Understood on the explaination. I didn't realize it was a different rom image, I thought the key had been broken, allowing someone to resign a modified image.
Thanks!
Doc

I used this method and it was all really easy until I got to the end. It just says usage and then sits their and does nothing. I unplugged it and went into recovery and see the android dude and a yellow traiangle and exclamation point. Did I forget something? Is their an alternative way to flashing this?

sdk issues for flashing recovery...
Hey guys,
Im a noob but here's whats going on, Ive downloaded sdk extracted it to my c drive, ive downloaded all the required packages reccomended in the forum, Ive up dated my driver and still my machine doesnt recognize my phone...
Ive also extracted the recovery image to my tools directory and added the the path in enviromentals...
So at this point Im stuck as to how to get my pc (xp) phone and sdk in sync in order to get this recovery image working...So any advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Chris

Spencer_Moore said:
I used this method and it was all really easy until I got to the end. It just says usage and then sits their and does nothing. I unplugged it and went into recovery and see the android dude and a yellow traiangle and exclamation point. Did I forget something? Is their an alternative way to flashing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try this.
If you have your phone pluged in and type in to the terminal
adb reboot recovery [hit enter]
After you phone reboots it should come up with text options to do back-ups and restores. Do you get any of that?

Anyone know the key combo to get into recovery without adb?

having issues getting adb
got the command prompts working in xp, however while trying the methods here in the forum i am getting adb not foud errors. Any suggestions?

[Q] how can re-root the offical update?

hi.. after following the instructions on how to downgrade my phone, and obtain root, i have, and after i had my foryo rooted, i downloaded RUU_Vision_Gingerbread_S_HTC_WWE_2.42.405.2 because my original intent was to have a rooted gingerbread and it didn't make much sense to have roms provided by htc itself.
but now i see i don't have root, so oops, i guess i was wrong.
so do i have to go though the whole kaka procedure again, and then find a custom rom, because my end game, is to have as close as possible a rooted gingerbread as close as possible to the original HTC rom. where can i get one?
oh, and what's the difference between the asia and wwe? does any of them handle hebrew bidi writing correctly (without applying the patch?)

I think there is a way to root gingerbread, or you have to downgrade. At either rate, you want to get to a place where you can flash your own ROM. Having clockworkmod installed would be just fine.
Then you would take the stock gingerbread, extract and unzip it, add Superuser and su, make the boot insecure, repack it for flashing, flash via CWM, and presto- rooted stock gingerbread. If you want to build in hebrew bidi writing, you can add that too.
There might be a few rooted stock gingerbread roms out there, but it seems that the trend is toward cooked up versions, rather than stock.

AFAIK i don't there's a way to root gingerbreak, it's un-rootable, that's why i downgraded in the first place. i think i can do it again, question is:
where do i find the stock gingerbread rom? is it in the RUU exe? if so, how get it out from there, without installing it
second, how on earth would i do all the things you said (add su,make boot insecure,repack,flash cwm).
is there a guide out there for all there above?

I think there is a some software for windows that will allow you to extract the rom from the RUU. I don't use windows, so I don't know anything about it. I've seen some posts about it, so I can say it seems to involve using the RUU to almost install the ROM, but at the last minute, just stop and the ROM will be extracted into one of the temp directories. You just use the RUU to extract the rom, not install it.
As far as all those other steps, I think all the information is scattered about xda.
Here's some information about the insecure boot image. It's for the transformer, but it's essentially the same thing, except for the blob parts. You'll have to use something like splitbootimg or bootunpack, and mkbootimg (search for them) instead of blobunpack.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1193737
This might be more helpful:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1100189
As for the other parts, you can use some of the other updates and zip files as a guide to figure out how to unpack, mod them, and repack them. I think there might be a rom kitchen script that will do this too, but I can't speak to that either.
Sorry if this sounds so complex- it's not that bad once you've done it once. I have a rooted stock GB that I made this way from the GB update, but it's the US version. Let me know when you have the WWE version extracted.

ok, let's take it one step at a time, (maybe we'll make a guide out of it
i activated the but i never continued instead i used process explorer to find out which files it's holds, so i got the temp directory and extracted rom.zip a 260 mg file (containing various img files)
now what?
btw is this relavent? http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack,_Edit,_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images
yea, i've seen it is, but one issue is that where do i get the cpio and makebootfs, (if i need to compile stuff, this is where i stop, i allready downloaded the perl scripts, as well as GZIP

ok, so far so good.
That link is exactly what you need. You can use that info to unpack the boot.img and make it insecure "ro.secure=0" by editing the default.prop file in the ramdisk.
I think some of the links to the tools might not work, but these will work instead - https://github.com/AndroidRoot/BootTools
Use the guides to mod and then repack the ramdisk
put the kernel and the modded ramdisk back together with makebootimg. There might be some specific command lines and kernel addresses- the hdrboot tool will show you want they should be from the original boot.img
Also, could you upload the zip file or PM me a link? This would be a perfect project for a guide.

ok wait, which tools am i missing? i have a windows machine (ultimate 7 64 bit) and the boottools needs to be compiled, (i don't have developer studio installed just eclipse)
so far i have the following tools:
repack-bootimg.pl
unpack-bootimg.pl
split-bootimg.pl
cpio for windows
gzip
what zip file?
(i'm going to sleep now as i'm in israel,i will "boot" in 6 hrs, luckily i have a vacation tommorow, so i hope we'll have time to finish this.

I think you might need gunzip to extract the ramdisk. unzip might work, but I'm not sure with Windows.
The zip is the rom.zip which has the rom.

I seem to recall there being at least 2 rooted stock ROMs in the dev forum. I think the one I've used was posted by either suilmagic (may be siulmagic), or rmk40. Xboarder56 posted one some time ago, but he started stripping things out that I used, like QuickOffice. If nothing else, this finally drove me to use Titanium backup...
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

Yeah, I guess a search would take some of the fun out of it....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1169004

actually i DID google "rooted stock rom desire z"
but i could find anything for sure, that's why i posted this, is this rom appear in the developer list of roms linked in the downgrade wiki? because i couldn't find it there either, would be nice if it was added.

No worries- I didn't actually search for it- I just paged through some of the dev sections.
I think you'll have flash it using CWM recovery.

great, i'm assuming CWM is Clockwork something?

Yup- look for the 3.x version. There was a 5.x, but i think it has some issues.

ok, so now, i must re-downgrade, root,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/ClockworkMod_Recovery
get rom manager, and ah... wait, what's the update.zip? is that actual image i need to place on the sdcard?

That wiki seems kinda old- I don't think the stock recovery will flash the update.zip
This is more up to date and specific for the G2/DZ:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/HTC_Vision#Rooting_the_Vision_.28G2.2FDZ.29_and_DHD

yea i've read that one (that's how i rooted in the first place.
isn't there a way to short ciruit this somehow and instead of pc10img have the update itself installed ? or is it because it's a an OTA, i have to do the whole thing?
looking at the image, i think i'm missing someting it looks like i can somehow use the scripts inside the image when i get temp_root (meaning i won't have to update the original image. am i wrong?

ok i've gone through the motions over and over, finally rooted it, have rom manager, clicked flash recovery, copied the zip file for rom i wanted to the root of sdcard, selected it rom manager, rebooted, now i selected apply update from sdcard,
now i see the hat signal and nothing happens, (i also selected backup rom and wipe cache and data)
i also noticed that i have install zip from sdcard, but i didnt' select it, how long should it take?
ok i FINALLY managed to install (it actually i pressed power button again and immdietly returned the cwm main menu, from then on, i chose reboot, i think it's moved on.
problem is, some things looked odd, for example the phone bar on the buttom, looks distorted, when i click on the application list i can only see half the list (meaning half the screen shows the list although i can scroll up and down the buttom half remains blank..
never mind it's ok now after re-boot..
btw i tried creating a batch file like so:
adb shell cat /dev/msm_rotator
rem expected output
rem /dev/msm_rotator: invalid length
pause
rem temp_root
rem adb push fre3vo /data/local/tmp
rem adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/fre3vo
rem adb shell /data/local/tmp/fre3vo -debug -start FAA90000 -end FFFFFFFF
echo wait for device to reconnect
pause
adb push misc_version /data/local/tmp/misc_version
adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/misc_version
adb shell /data/local/tmp/misc_version -s 1.00.000.0
adb shell sync
adb shell dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p17 bs=1 skip=160 count=10
rem expected output is:
rem 1.00.000.010+0 records in
rem 10+0 records out
rem 10 bytes transferred in 0.001 secs (10000 bytes/sec)
pause
rem downgrade
rem wget http://www59.multiupload.com:81/fil...118187CA1236F3BA6767A7/1.34.405.5_PC10IMG.zip
adb push 1.34.405.5_PC10IMG.zip /sdcard/PC10IMG.zip
adb reboot bootloader
but it didn't workout so much, don't know why it said something about it couldn't write recovery img file

Umm if you already rooted via the xda wiki then you should've had a bootloader that was engineering s-off right? Just saying because you could've flashed a custom rooted rom through bootloader and not had to re-root, that is unless the ruu applied an updated bootloader with s-on. Maybe boot into bootloader and see if the top line says PVT ENG S-OFF, worth a look anyway, could save you some headache
Sent from my Bulletproof G2

actually i'm haveing another headache a couple actually, for some reason, during the restore, it failed to download google maps among the gailion apps i downloaded, now i can't download no matter, i tried installing it manually, and it worked, but i can't see in the market.
the market on the web site says the application is not compatible.
also when i tried using anysoft keyboard and use the hebrew fonts, even though it installed i still couldn't get the keyboard.
right not i have no idea what's the state of my phone.

Root without PC (boot loader already unlocked)

Hey
So I WAS rooted until KitKat update and now I'm not. Wasn't a problem as I wasn't doing things that needed root access for a while, but I need to now.
Only issue is that I don't have access to any PC/laptop right now.
Is there a way I can root/gain superuser without a PC? I could have sworn I did this once before but it eludes me now.
Bootloader is already unlocked
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Xiorell said:
Hey
So I WAS rooted until KitKat update and now I'm not. Wasn't a problem as I wasn't doing things that needed root access for a while, but I need to now.
Only issue is that I don't have access to any PC/laptop right now.
Is there a way I can root/gain superuser without a PC? I could have sworn I did this once before but it eludes me now.
Bootloader is already unlocked
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Framaroot? Dunno if it works with KitKat but u could try it out.
Merry Christmas!
Smack that thanks button If I helped!
Always make a nandroid backup before trying anything risky.
I do respond to questions (most) via PM.
Sent from my fabulous N7105 powered by Illusion ROM and Plasma Kernel.
Sent from dat small country called Singapore.
P.S. Quote my post for replies ASAP.

If you still have a custom recovery installed, download SuperSU from http://download.chainfire.eu/supersu and flash it in recovery.

farmerbb said:
If you still have a custom recovery installed, download SuperSU from http://download.chainfire.eu/supersu and flash it in recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How the heck are u getting custom recovery without root?
Smack that thanks button If I helped!
Always make a nandroid backup before trying anything risky.
I do respond to questions (most) via PM.
Sent from my fabulous N7105 powered by Illusion ROM and Plasma Kernel.
Sent from dat small country called Singapore.
P.S. Quote my post for replies ASAP.

Irwenzhao said:
How the heck are u getting custom recovery without root?
Smack that thanks button If I helped!
Always make a nandroid backup before trying anything risky.
I do respond to questions (most) via PM.
Sent from my fabulous N7105 powered by Illusion ROM and Plasma Kernel.
Sent from dat small country called Singapore.
P.S. Quote my post for replies ASAP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
custom recovery can be installed without root too... after going to recovery it gives option to root

IF you do not have a custom recovery installed and you have no access to fastboot then you need to find a root exploit to run under the installed OS which gives you a privilege escalation.
If I was aware of one, I would say so, but I really haven't been looking around. Seems like it might be easier to "borrow" a PC to get the job done.
One of the curiosities of working with devices like the Nexus series is that because they are so easily unlocked & flashed using sanctioned vendor methods, there are few N7 devs/hackers that concern themselves with "rooting" the factory ROM. Why bother, right?
So, when there is a widespread linux kernel exploit or generic Android exploit, the Nexus series owners get the benefit of devs developing working exploits for other devices, but not usually until then.
BTW, if you can "borrow" a friend's machine, you don't need to screw it up installing the SDK and a bunch of drivers - you can simply put the linux version of fastboot (plus your "flashables") onto a thumbdrive, boot that PC into a linux "live CD" distro, and run fastboot from linux. No drivers needed; just run fastboot as the "root" user. Hopefully it's not a UEFI-only BIOS.
That sidesteps having to muck someone else's Win-doze box up. You just borrow their hardware, not their operating system. Just mount the USB key, copy the fastboot executable someplace ( /tmp ?), chmod 755 it) and run it as root.* A lot of those "live" CDs (e.g. Ubuntu) have a file explorer on the desktop that allow you to mount different media devices it detects (including USB sticks, etc), so you don't really need to be much of linux wizard to use this approach.
good luck
* some time ago, it seemed that you may have needed to make sure to also grab supporting link-libraries along with the linux fastboot executable, as it is dynamically linked. I remember doing this in the past, e.g.
assuming you have "fastboot" executable, it's supporting libs and your custom recovery image on the root folder of a USB key:
Code:
$ sudo /bin/bash
# mkdir /tmp/foo
# cp /mnt/usbstorage/* /tmp/foo
# chmod 755 /tmp/foo/fastboot
# export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/tmp/foo:/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
# cd /tmp/foo
# ./fastboot devices
# ./fastboot flash recovery ./custom-recovery-image.img
I just checked fastboot on my Ubuntu 12.04 VM, and
Code:
$ objdump -x `which fastboot` | grep NEEDED
NEEDED libstdc++.so.6
NEEDED libm.so.6
NEEDED libgcc_s.so.1
NEEDED libc.so.6
all of those libs are included in various places in the distro, so even though the fastboot binary is dynamically linked, you don't need to provide the dynamic link libraries (or use LD_LIBRARY_PATH) in that case.

Failed EFS restore

Ok, I'm officially in trouble. I have a SM-G900F rooted with towelroot, SuperSu and BusyBox installed. I tried flashing with Mobile Odin Pro the latest NG2 firmware to keep root and not trip Knox. It failed twice (or three times), both times I was able to restore the original firmware with desktop Odin (http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/help/mobile-odin-pro-4-20-issues-t2834671).
Then something strange happened: I noticed that on 4G I had only data but no signal bars (http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/help/help-4g-data-signal-bars-t2837031). Then I had problems connecting to Wifi and a message appeared telling me I am in "Factory Mode" and some things are limited.
It was clear that my EFS partition is corrupted. I installed Root Explorer and there is nothing in my EFS folder (still I can use the phone in 2G/3G/4G for data and 2G/3G for calls but no Wifi).
I have 2 backups for EFS: one is made using Samsung Tools (http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/development/efs-samsung-tool-universal-support-t2602325) and it's an efs.img file, the other is made using some EFS backup tool and it's just a copy of exactly what was in EFS folder (a few folders and files). I tried using Samsung Tools to restore the backup but no luck. When I restart the phone, EFS folder is still empty.
I rebooted in recovery mode and it said "failed to mount /efs". That's probably why Samsung Tools can't do it's job but I'm not sure. At this moment I'm not sure of anything. I think that someone with some knowledge (knowledge that unfortunately I'm missing) can help me fix this.
I really need for some help, so any ideas are welcomed.
Thank's,
Mihai Raducan

..

fffft said:
No TWRP backup, huh? How did I know that was going to be the case? 10 demerits. Okay, you seem to have been on the right track in recognizing that your EFS partition was unmounted and therefore inaccessible in recovery mode.. but you didn't mount it? You didn't give us much detail to work with, but assuming that you have a custom recovery like TWRP, you could go to the advanced /mount menu and check the mount EFS partition. Or if you don't have that option for some reason, mount it yourself e.g.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's only stock recovery, no TWRP or CWM.
I didn't mount the EFS partition before because I didn't know how. I'll follow your guide and report back.
Regarding the exact copy of EFS (efs.img): It's done with Samsung Tools but never had a chance to test it, so... I don't know. But let's take it one at a time. First problem: mount efs partition.
PS: My Windows laptop is playing tricks on me so it's going to take a while to reinstall Windows, adb, etc. But I'll be back.
Thank's.

..

Ok, I installed Adb, phone is recognized.
The first line of code
Code:
# ls -al /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name
gave me a list with the location of efs (and more). EFS is at dev/block/mmcblk0p12.
The second line of code
Code:
# /sbin/mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p12 /efs
gives me : tmp-mksh: /sbin/mount: not found
Am I missing something?

is img of /efs partition enough for restore?
here, it says, that we need to have 3 partitions for full restore..??..: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2737448
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 of=/mnt/sdcard/efs.img.ext4
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p13 of=/mnt/sdcard/modemst1.bin
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p14 of=/mnt/sdcard/modemst2.bin
but Samsung tool only makes efs.img..??.. who is right who is wrong?

..

fffft said:
Personally, if an EFS backup program made an image (.img} file and it was the same size as your EFS partition I'm sure that it was an exact copy and try writing it back. It's unlikely to make anything worse. But don't blame me if it somehow goes wrong. I'm just describing an option of last resort and commenting on what I would do with my own phone.
You can check the size of your EFS partition with the cat command (EFS should be partition 12)
Code:
$ su
# cat /proc/partitions
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I checked the size of my efs.img and the size of the partition with the command you gave me. They are both 14MB but on a closer look, adb shows 14336 and Windows reports 14680kb. So I don't know....
fffft said:
You're using ADB instead of a terminal emulator app which is a new variable. There are a lot of ADB variants around and I have no idea what your command interpreter (mksh) or you have done with the shell environment.. which may require syntax adjustments.
Not found implies that the /system partition isn't mounted. But it could also be an ADB syntax quirk, path or symlink error, a typo or.. well, could be a lot of things. Perhaps try the syntax below. Or run the command from a terminal emulator instead of ADB shell.
Code:
$ su
# adb shell mount /system
# adb shell mount /efs
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed Android Terminal Emulator and Shell Terminal Emulator (PlayStore) but I got the same thing. What's strange is that in both of them when I run the command "adb devices" they both give me nothing while in adb shell on desktop I get a number (as it should).
I understand that the syntax is for a specific terminal emulator. Tell me please what is that terminal emulator (that you know syntax is correct) so I can try with that one.

..

fffft said:
Try this terminal emulator app.
If you have continued difficulties, you should describe step by step what you are doing. In exhaustive detail or as close as you can get to that. Then someone in the forum will have a good basis to see where you are going astray. Or alternately where I made a typo or whatever the impediment turns out to be.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is one the apps I tried with.
I'm describing step by step what I do. What I start with: SM-G900F rooted with towelroot, stock recovery, SuperSU and BusyBox installed, Knox 0x0.
I download and install https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androidterm.
Using this app:
Code:
su
and it changes to [email protected]:/#
I enter:
Code:
# ls -al /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name
and it gives me a list with paths to different things. EFS apears to be at /dev/block/mmcblk0p12
I enter
Code:
# /sbin/mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p12 /efs
and it says: "tmp-mksh: /sbin/mount: not found"
When I try
Code:
adb devices
it gives me no number.
I attached a file where you can see what I did.
One more thing: when I enter (stock) recovery, every time it says "Installing system update" for about 20 seconds and then enters recovery where it says "failed to mount/efs : invalid argument". The CSC part is apparently ok.

..

It doesn't work. From ADB it says "mkdir failed for /efs, File already exists".
And from terminal emulator, (with busybox) it asks for an argument (pic atached).
Is there any way of using Odin to fix this, because it seems that nothing works.

fffft said:
Who is right about what? You didn't give much of a context for your question. The OP said that his EFS was corrupt, so we have been talking about EFS which is self contained in partition 12 or exported as efs.img.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i thought there could be more to the problem, not just /efs partition, since he said it was clear to him, and not beeing 100% fact..

..

Thank's for your time. I'm flashing now the original firmware (so I can start fresh) and I'll document every step I take. I'll report back.

Ok, I tried flashing the original firmware (ANE2) and this time I can't even get pass the Samsung authentication screen (the first time you boot your phone and asks for language, Google account, etc), It asks me for the Samsung account and password that this phone was registered with) and it tries for a couple of minutes to verify the credentials (on data network) then it fails saying it is a network error.
I tried wipe cache/factory reset (from recovery) and reinstall a different firmware. Same thing. It seems now it's really messed up.

As mentioned earlier, we did not expect a firmware image to fix your EFS. And the EFS is critical to normal phone operation.
The purpose of stock firmware is so that your phone is stable, reduce variables that might interfere and facilitate fixing your EFS. So I'm not why you apparently expected it to be an outright fix in and of itself?
Having installed the stock firmware should help you achieve your remaining goals. Now you need to decide if you are going to install a custom recovery or not. A custom recovery will increment your Knox flag if it isn't already. That affects very little, but it's your decision. It may affect the private mode feature or warranty claims, however many carriers don't care about Knox and E.U. legislation bars Samsung from invalidating a warranty unless they can demonstrate that root damaged your phone.
Whether or not you install a custom recovery, you will want to try writing your 14 MB EFS backup image to your phone. I believe that you'd find it easier to do so with a custom recovery. But it can be done with a stock one too, you will just have to deal with a bit more syntax in the latter case.
.

fffft said:
As mentioned earlier, we did not expect a firmware image to fix your EFS. And the EFS is critical to normal phone operation.
The purpose of stock firmware is so that your phone is stable, reduce variables that might interfere and facilitate fixing your EFS. So I'm not why you apparently expected it to be an outright fix in and of itself?
Having installed the stock firmware should help you achieve your remaining goals. Now you need to decide if you are going to install a custom recovery or not. A custom recovery will increment your Knox flag if it isn't already. That affects very little, but it's your decision. It may affect the private mode feature or warranty claims, however many carriers don't care about Knox and E.U. legislation bars Samsung from invalidating a warranty unless they can demonstrate that root damaged your phone.
Whether or not you install a custom recovery, you will want to try writing your 14 MB EFS backup image to your phone. I believe that you'd find it easier to do so with a custom recovery. But it can be done with a stock one too, you will just have to deal with a bit more syntax in the latter case.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't expect to fix the problem, I wanted a fresh start so I can try again the adb/terminal emulator commands. But what I didn't expect was not being able to, basically, start the phone. When you first start a new phone (or after a factory reset) it asks you language, Wifi, Google account and, in my case, for a Samsung account that this phone was paired with.
If I try to connect to a Wifi network the phone reboots itself. If not, it tries via data connection. Google credentials are ok but when it tries to verify Samsung credentials it gets stuck saying that it's a network problem and it doesn't go futher. So I get stuck at this point, between booting and actually being able to use the phone. I can't install anything, I can't receive or make phone calls (like before). I can't go to USB debugging so ADB doesn't see the phone.
I don't want to install a custom recovery because my Knox is 0x0 and my warranty is intact. I live in EU but in this case, it's clear that root access is what got me in trouble and brought the phone in this state. Actually not root access got me in trouble, but what I did with root access

raducanmihai said:
I didn't expect to fix the problem, I wanted a fresh start so I can try again the adb/terminal emulator commands. But what I didn't expect was not being able to, basically, start the phone. When you first start a new phone (or after a factory reset) it asks you language, Wifi, Google account and, in my case, for a Samsung account that this phone was paired with.
If I try to connect to a Wifi network the phone reboots itself. If not, it tries via data connection. Google credentials are ok but when it tries to verify Samsung credentials it gets stuck saying that it's a network problem and it doesn't go futher. So I get stuck at this point, between booting and actually being able to use the phone. I can't install anything, I can't receive or make phone calls (like before). I can't go to USB debugging so ADB doesn't see the phone.
I don't want to install a custom recovery because my Knox is 0x0 and my warranty is intact. I live in EU but in this case, it's clear that root access is what got me in trouble and brought the phone in this state. Actually not root access got me in trouble, but what I did with root access
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only way to get your phone to work again and gain access to networks/wifi is by installing a new motherboard if you can`t restore the old EFS folder somehow.
Next time try this method to backup and restore your EFS folder http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2737448 if you are rooted.

raducanmihai said:
I didn't expect to fix the problem, I wanted a fresh start
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry that you found it a surprise.. but if reinstalling the stock firmware eliminated your phones problems, that would make it a solution, whereas it's a stepping stone. I did try to explain this earlier, where I told you that installing the firmware would not fix your EFS. And the EFS is essential to normal phone operation.
Regardless of the surprise, you are now on a better footing to finish fixing your phone. But for clarity, your problem started when your EFS got corrupted somehow. And your EFS needs to be restored before the problem will be resolved.
On the positive side, you appear to have a EFS backup, even if the backup app won't easily restore it to you phone. If you stick with it.. you just have some minor hurdles remaining - syntax or whatever - in getting your 14 MB EFS backup restored (written) to your EFS partition.
If you want that done painlessly, then pack a case of beer and your phone into a box and ship it to me. And I'll return it fixed. As it seems unlikely that you'd do that though.. then try to provide as much info as you can here and someone will try to help you finish fixing your phone in this thread.
.

Root Achieved Samsung Galaxy S8 T-mobile Snapdragon

https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s8/development/samsung-galaxy-s8-root-snapdragon-t3659305

see next post

STF_TimelessGoD said:
The announcement you have all been waiting for is finally here!
SamPWND
the world's first U.S. Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ root!
Disclaimer
There are quite a few steps involved in achieving the desired root, but it is all straightforward if you follow the directions!! We will be here to assist with the rooting process only! The reason i say that is due to the fact of all that the ENG system.img contains, you can nuke your phone to oblivion if you aren't careful, hence this next part... Anything and everything done with the ENG system.img and root after root is achieved is on YOU, and the team and I will NOT be held RESPONSIBLE! Don't blame us for your experimenting! Root works, and won't mess your device up that is what we are here for, any further research/testing is all on the USER!!
After a long 4 months, we have finally achieved our main objective! Countless hours have been put into this process, as well as much lost sleep; so we could be here, at this point releasing root to you, the community! However before we get to that point there are some people need to be thanked, whom without; none of this would have been possible!
The Crew
@elliwigy
@Harry44
@akiraO1
@BotsOne
@GSMCHEN
First off i would like to apologize about the delay i planned on having this uploaded shortly after @elliwigy made his thread, however my internet was not being the greatest and i was having issues uploading the needed files. Now after all day it is finally done and i am here to present to you the community, ROOT for the USA Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ This thread will be focused on the regular S8 variant, the S8+ thread can be found here Root Samsung Galaxy S8+ Now without further ado, we shall begin!!!
Description
Samsung won this one for us! We flash 4 ENG Odin files, then the way we achieve root is by executing an su binary that they so graciously provided us within the ENG systems xbin. Afterwards we run a script that pushes the rest of what we need in and installs superSU to the system. At that point root is done, however it is not the most stable/smooth. The next process is optional, but recommended. We will be taking a stock system.img.ext4 from a firmware of your choice either U or U1, a supersu.zip(that will be provided) which installs root to the system. They are then flashed in flashfire, resulting in a stock rooted rom.
Requirements
--4 Firmware Files(provided by us)--
--Odin Prince Cosmey and Regular--
--systemroot.zip(provided by us)--
--SuperSU.zip(provided by us)--
--PC with ADB--
--Full stock firmware, either G950U or G950U1(just in case need to flash stock, as well as for system.img.ext4 and cache.img.ext4)--
--Full combo firmware(for whatever reason... we may need you to have it to fix issues you are having)--
Procedure
[CENTER
Download the SamPWND_S8_4File_Firm, the SamPWND_S8.zip, and the systemroot.zip
Download Odin Prince Comsy and Normal Odin
Extract SamPWND_S8_Firm to your desired destination (desktop works), then open Odin Prince Comsy, and place the files in their respective slot (BL --> BL, AP --> AP, CP--> CP, CSC--> CSC)
In Odin, go to options and select, Auto Reboot, Re-Partition, F. Reset Time, Nand Erase All, and Phone Bootloader Update (This will wipe the device)
Put Samsung Galaxy S8 into Download mode (Power + Volume Down + Bixby) A warning screen will come up warning you about flashing a custom os, to continue press Volume Up.
Press Start in Odin (Flashing will begin, this can take up to 10 min)
When complete device will reboot into recovery mode, at this point just select reboot system now.
Complete the Setup, and accept device RSA Keys, to authorize adb (if popup is not there already, or you have dismissed it; please disconnect and reconnect phone, then accept)
Now take the systemroot.zip dowloaded in step one, and extract it to your adb install directory (usually C:adb)
Navigate to adb directory and CTRL + Shift + Right Click, select open cmd window here
Once you have cmd open and the extracted systemroot folder in your adb directory, we can begin.
Type: adb push systemroot /data/local/tmp/systemroot
When that completes type: adb shell
Once in the shell type: chmod -R 0777 /data/local/tmp
This next one is tricky, type: setsid su (the output will look like this: dreamqltesq:/ $ /system/bin/sh: No controlling tty: open /dev/tty: No such device or address
/system/bin/sh: warning: won't have full job control), you will then be in a very unstable root shell
In order for this shell to become stable you must type exit, it will then drop you into a stable root shell, however this will probably take a few tries as most commands sent to the unstable shell are returned as gibberish. The shell itself will continue to change from standard user to root user, upon a press of the enter key. This will continue until exit is successfully ran and you are dropped into the stable shell (Note: Since the shell is changing from user to root after each command the exit command must be executed will the shell is root, otherwise instead of dropping to a root shell, you will drop to a user shell and have to begin with setsid su again)
Once a stable root shell is achieved you will type: echo /data/local/tmp/systemroot/remount2.sh > /sys/kernel/uevent_helper (this will remount system and rootfs as r/w)
Wait 10 sec and type: mount (confirm that system is mounted as r/w)
Now we will execute the script, type: sh /data/local/tmp/systemroot/root.sh (there will be some errors displayed back to you in adb, don't worry about them everything is going accordingly)
When the script is done running your device will reboot, and at this point you are done. However, although root has been achieved it is not the smoothest/most stable, but we have a remedy for that as well!
Part Two
With your device still connected to the computer** Take the SamPWND_S8.zip downloaded from step one, and either put it on your device's internal storage or sdcard
Take your stock firmware of choice, and extract it to your desktop. From this you will take the system.img.ext4 and either put it on your device's inter storage or sdcard
Download flashfire from the Play Store
Open flashfire and grant root permissions (this must be done with airplane mode enabled), exit flashfire
Open SuperSU, go to settings, scroll to the bottom, and enable pro features. Reopen SuperSU, select flashfire, and force user ROOT
Open flashfire again, and select flash firmware package (choose system.img.ext4)
Select flash ZIP or OTA (choose SamPWND_G950U.zip) Under options for the zip make sure to select mount /system read/write!!
Select wipe and make sure the top 3 options are selected, press the check in the right hand corner
This next step is very important! There is a specific order that these are supposed to be in, from top to bottom: WIPE --> Flash Firmware Package --> Flash ZIP or OTA. If your order is not this, hold down on wipe like it is an app and drag it to the top of the list. Make sure it is in that order before pressing the flash button!
Select EverRoot from main screen and under options disable inject SuperSU
Press the lightning bolt to begin flashing, and wait for your device to reboot
Congratulations you now have a very smooth/fast/stable stock rom, with root. Enjoy!!
Thank you for your continuous support over the past few months, all the work put into this root method/Rom project was done for you guys, so that you could experience the best device of 2017 (so far), how you want it! With your own customization's and endless freedom! We truly hope that you enjoy our work, and remember donations help in the process!
The developers that have worked on this project over these past few months, did so while living their lives; attending work,
etc, as well as without pay. Those who pledged a bounty thank you, we hope that you are true to your words and pay your pledge, to do so please visit the bounty thread! All others if you benefited from this in anyway and want to show your appreciation, all the team members have a donation email on their profile, we love to see the support![/CENTER]
XDA:DevDB Information
SamPWND, ROM for the Samsung Galaxy S8
Contributors
STF_TimelessGoD
ROM OS Version: 7.x Nougat
ROM Kernel: Linux 4.x
Version Information
Status: Stable
Current Stable Version: 1.0
Stable Release Date: 2017-08-19
Current Beta Version: N/A
Created 2017-08-20
Last Updated 2017-08-19
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give it a try

Please do not duplicate threads.
THREAD CLOSED
rinnycoop121 said:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s8/development/samsung-galaxy-s8-root-snapdragon-t3659305
Click to expand...
Click to collapse