This is a copy+paste from a reply I wrote in the Q&A section of the CloudyG2 3.1 rom.
"Alright, so since yesterday, I have been trying to find out how to install this rom in the correct way. I asked in the original thread of the rom (before I knew there was a Q&A). I was on CloudyG2 2.2. I am using LS980 Spring Variant. My question was, do I need to TOT back to ZVE and update to ZVG and root and install CloudyG2 3.1 that way, or could I just stay on 2.2 and go into recovery, wipe data and everything, then flash the LP bootstack and install the rom and hotfix. One person replied, "Yes". I asked to what was he referring, tot or just wipe everything from 2.2 and flash it. Then somebody else said to tot. So today when I got home, I decided to tot to zve.
After I got to ZVE, I updated to ZVG, successfully. I rooted, AutoRec. All was well. Then I went into recovery, wiped data, system, cache, dalvik. Then I flashed CloudyG2 3.1, flashed dorimanx 2.9, then flashed the LS980 hotfix. I rebooted my phone and it stayed on the LG Logo for about 5 minutes without anything happening, no boot animation, so I assumed something went wrong. I reboot into recovery and wiped everything again and flashed the LP bootstack (I read somewhere in the oringal post that people were saying to do this.) after that, I flashed the 3.1 rom, then flashed dorimanx, then flashed the hotfix, then rebooted. Immediately after I rebooted, it flashed the LG logo then went straight to a black screen, like many others are getting. So I assumed it had to do with having the LP bootstack. I also read that needed to be on Kitkat modem. So the change I made this time was I rebooted into recovery, wiped all, then flashed the kitkat modem this time and not the bootstack, then flashed the 3.1, hotfix and rebooted. Same thign happened again, showed the LG logo for a second, then went to a black screen.
At this point, I am not sure what is going on. So I decided to try to tot to zve again. Only, when I go into download mode, I get security error. I am still able to go into recovery, however, that is all I can do. I know people keep saying read the OP, and I, like many others have read the OP and perhaps do not clearly understand it. And I have tried to ask around, but it seems people are getting bashed for not understanding the OP or how exactly to flash this rom.
Could one of you kind people please give detailed instructions on how to go about getting this rom to boot on the LS980 variant?
And could somebody help me with my specific issue, not being able to get into download mode now and not being able to boot up a rom. Like I said, I can still get into recovery and flash things. But all I have tried, I mentioned earlier in this post, none of it works, any suggestions?
So, I came across this thread, which seems to be a fix for my phone. (Unless someone here knows an easier way?) http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2582142
"You must use the img files that correspond to the ROM you have installed before getting the problem to avoid breaking your phone. The link above is for 10b_EUR_16G firmware version. So don't use those files if your firmware version was not that one. Instead you should look for img files corresponding to the current version installed in your phone. If you don't know what version you've installed then don't use this method because you will break your phone. "
It says I must use the img files for the rom I have installed before getting the problem. Could somebody elaborate please? I had stock ZVG, then flashed cloudyg2 3.1, that is when my phone messed up. Then I tried ultrapop (stock ls980 LP rom)."
Hi, so here's the background. I got my Moto X Pure Edition back when Motorola was selling it on their website, I used MotoMaker and everything. I had the phone for a few months and I decided to unlock the bootloader, with success. Afterwards, I couldn't get the 6.0 update, my phone would restart with failing to update after downloading the OTA. I now know why that was happening, but didn't know then.
Two Days Ago: I had my Moto XPE sitting in a drawer and wanted to try to rescue it. I found the stock factory image for Marshmallow on Moto's dev website and found a guide to restore it back to factory, still with an unlocked bootloader, but that was fine. I knew 7.0 came out for it and found the OTA zip online and attempted to flash it with the stock recovery, it didn't work and I know why. It had something to do with the bootloader version or something.
Yesterday: I did some research and I ended up flashing TWRP twrp-3.2.3-1-clark.img for my recovery. I've had previous experience with TWRP and thought it would be a good fit. After doing that, I did some looking around for ROMs that would get me up to 7.0. I found one called crDroid and it worked very well. It was very smooth. I went to bed last night with that on the phone and made a backup of it.
Today: While on my way to work this morning, I looked up Oreo roms, and I found an unofficial version of LineageOS and flashed that. Everything went well, it booted up fine but it was very slow. I powered off the phone (to save battery) for a few hours and decided that I wanted to go back to the previous ROM, crDroid. Before I restored, I wanted to wipe everything. When I went to wipe, TWRP ended up crashing. I had looked away from my phone before it crashed, so I thought it just rebooted. I went to restore from my backup and it crashed again. I did some Googling and tried different version of TWRP for the XPE, but every I try to wipe or restore or flash, it keeps crashing. One post said to "Fix Contexts", and now when I go to do a regular wipe (not advanced), the phone vibrates for about 7 seconds and then crashes TWRP.
Can anything be done to save the phone, or am I dead in the water here? At what point did I go wrong? My main device is a OP6T so I'm not too worried if this can't be resurrected, but I would like to try. I know this was a long post, but I wanted to be as detailed as possible. Thanks in advance for the help and thanks for reading.
You can restore it to stock through fastboot, I made a post with a mfastboot folder and it has a command prompt in the folder and you can launch that and should work if you have the xt1575, or try the custom recovery from the twrp website or the nuclearom post on here
LGAGaming said:
You can restore it to stock through fastboot, I made a post with a mfastboot folder and it has a command prompt in the folder and you can launch that and should work if you have the xt1575, or try the custom recovery from the twrp website or the nuclearom post on here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that after I wrote this post and I forgot to update that I did that. Thanks!
Side note: I'm new to the forums, where do I find the threads that I'm subscribed to? I've looked for a "subscribed" or "my subscriptions" link, but haven't had luck.
New video guide below
VIDEO GUIDE
1. *VERY IMPORTANT* We need to back up your broken persist.img and store it in a safe place. PC preferred. We will need this later. Do not leave the backup on the device as the next step will wipe the device.
*IF YOU LOOSE THIS PERSIST.IMG BEFORE WE MODIFY IT WITH A CALIBRATION, YOU LOOSE ALL CHANCE OF FIXING THIS YOURSELF*
*IT HOLDS IMPORTANT FP CALIBRATION DATA THAT WE WILL BE OVERWRIGHTING IN THE NEXT FEW STEPS*
Note: This requires root
Type this into terminal or ADB shell with root privileges.
Code:
dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/persist of=/sdcard/persist.img
Backup the partition to another device. Preferably a PC as you may need one in the later steps.
2. Next we have to restore our OS to an earlier OOS. (10.5.4 is what I used and recomended)
Use the MSMTool to restore your device to 10.5.4.Note: You will loose your unlocked bootloader and will be required to unlock your bootloader once more.
Guide and Source for MSMTool
MSMTool 10.5.4 Download
3. Next step is to unlock the built in 'Factory Mode' I have a guide on how to do this below.
[GUIDE] Unlock Factory Mode *root*
4. Now we need to perform a FP calibration. We want to fail.
Enter Factory Mode as shown in the previous guide. (*#801# in the stock dialer)
Swipe over to "Device Debugging"
Select "Finger print test"
Select "Finger print calibration test(Pure White - 90% Blue)
Select "Start Test"
Keep on going through the tests (You must hold an object or your finger over sensor on all BUT THE BLACK RUBBER TEST of these test for it to work!)
The test will fail and this is what we want. There should be a lot of red lines, if you only have one or two try again.
5. We need to extract the the old broken persist.img
NOTE: It is important that we extract the backed up persist.img as it has been unmodified by our recent calibration. This persist.img although broken still has all our working calibrations on it including Finger Print calibrations.
The way I did this is by opening it extracting it via 7-ZIP on my PC
Once extracted move the 'DATA' folder and the 'ENGINEERMODE' folder to the root of your sdcard.
6. Download a root explorer. I highly recommend 'Solid Explorer' from the Play Store.
Open 'DATA' folder and delete 'gf_persist.so'
Select the 'DATA' and 'ENGINEERMODE' folders you just put on the device and place them at /mnt/vendor/persist/
It should ask you if you want to keep the old or new files. Select to keep the new.
Reboot.
7. If you followed all my steps correctly this you should be able to go into settings and add your fingerprints.
Why does this work?
Good question... I think what is happening is something in the persist partition breaks which causes the device to think that the sensor is not calibrated when in fact it still is.
When we start and fail a new calibration this fixes whatever was broken in our partition. But now we have a failed calibration.
So what we do is take the files from our backed up persist partition and move over all the necessary files that have our original calibration. But now our partition has the part of it that wasn't working fixed.
I spent a good many days working on this fix (1-2 hundred hours or so). I hope you can be respectful if you have issues. Please kindly ask below and I'll do my best to help.
Thanks worked on.my TMobile OnePlus.
I can confirm working on OOS 1.5.6 too. I downgraded from 10.5.9 with downgrade rom, which restores OOS to 10.5.6, and followed your guide and it worked as a charm. The only problem is that i cannot lock back the bootloader, cause it breaks FP again. Did you maybe try to lock it to try? Nice work man.
T-Mobile OnePlus 8 here. Stock firmware, orginally had my bootloader unlocked, rooted with TWRP and Magisk, backed up modem, converted to international firmware (10.5.7), lost signal, had to restore modem, ota'd to 10.5.9, unlocked bootloader again, rooted, etc. All while having a working FP the whole time. Ended up flashing EdXposed via Magisk, broke SafetyNet, etc, did a factory reset on TWRP (3.4.0-1 test), wiped data, rebooted recovery, rebooted system, booted back to TWRP. Installed Magisk to see if it'll boot with root, same thing. MSM'd back to T-Mobile firmware, then converted to international again. After the conversion was done and I unlocked bootloader and rebooted to system, my FP was broken. Ended up MSM'ing back to T-Mobile stock to see if it would work again, nothing.
TL;DR does this method only work if I had a working FP to begin with like it did stock out of the box?
TheKnux said:
T-Mobile OnePlus 8 here. Stock firmware, orginally had my bootloader unlocked, rooted with TWRP and Magisk, backed up modem, converted to international firmware (10.5.7), lost signal, had to restore modem, ota'd to 10.5.9, unlocked bootloader again, rooted, etc. All while having a working FP the whole time. Ended up flashing EdXposed via Magisk, broke SafetyNet, etc, did a factory reset on TWRP (3.4.0-1 test), wiped data, rebooted recovery, rebooted system, booted back to TWRP. Installed Magisk to see if it'll boot with root, same thing. MSM'd back to T-Mobile firmware, then converted to international again. After the conversion was done and I unlocked bootloader and rebooted to system, my FP was broken. Ended up MSM'ing back to T-Mobile stock to see if it would work again, nothing.
TL;DR does this method only work if I had a working FP to begin with like it did stock out of the box?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just follow the guide, you'll have it working. You just have to backup your current persist
dzontra83 said:
Just follow the guide, you'll have it working. You just have to backup your current persist
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So back it up even though it's broken? I'm on T-Mobile stock again, locked BL. Should I unlock, root, then pull persist and back it up?
TheKnux said:
So back it up even though it's broken? I'm on T-Mobile stock again, locked BL. Should I unlock, root, then pull persist and back it up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly, a T-Mobile user confirmed guide to work, check 2nd post
While on 10.5.7, unlocked bootloader, I flash TWRP, then reboot, and it boots back to TWRP. When I flash Magisk 20.4 zip in TWRP, it goes to boot, then enters CrashDump Mode. When I try and use the flash-all to downgrade to 10.5.4, I get a bunch of fastboot "cannot flash critical partitions" errors, it fails, and goes back to CrashDump Mode. What am I doing wrong? Also, is it really necessary to downgrade to an earlier version of OOS to use Engineering Mode or can I use 10.5.7?
TheKnux said:
While on 10.5.7, unlocked bootloader, I flash TWRP, then reboot, and it boots back to TWRP. When I flash Magisk 20.4 zip in TWRP, it goes to boot, then enters CrashDump Mode. When I try and use the flash-all to downgrade to 10.5.4, I get a bunch of fastboot "cannot flash critical partitions" errors, it fails, and goes back to CrashDump Mode. What am I doing wrong? Also, is it really necessary to downgrade to an earlier version of OOS to use Engineering Mode or can I use 10.5.7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you unlock bootloader, only boot into TWRP, then install magisk, i thin it Is still recommend to only boot into TWRP, not to flash it.
dzontra83 said:
When you unlock bootloader, only boot into TWRP, then install magisk, i thin it Is still recommend to only boot into TWRP, not to flash it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much, that worked! New problem, what do I do since I can't downgrade to an earlier OOS (10.5.4)?
Performing the test on T-Mobile 10.5.7, when performing the test, nothing is failing after pressing start test. Its all passing, what should I do?
When trying to downgrade using the 10.5.4 MSM Tool. it gives an error of "Unsupported Target TMO" and "param preload" and fails.
TheKnux said:
Thank you so much, that worked! New problem, what do I do since I can't downgrade to an earlier OOS (10.5.4)?
Performing the test on T-Mobile 10.5.7, when performing the test, nothing is failing after pressing start test. Its all passing, what should I do?
When trying to downgrade using the 10.5.4 MSM Tool. it gives an error of "Unsupported Target TMO" and "param preload" and fails.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you follow the instructions in test exactly? In second test you must't press the sensor.
Can help you with TMobile model, I have international one.
I figured it out. I was just being a dumbass I guess. Has anyone noticed the fingerprint sensor not being able to read that well compared to before it was broken? It seems like it fails a lot more before it succeeds. Unless now that it's working, we can perform the calibration again and it'll work better?
TheKnux said:
I figured it out. I was just being a dumbass I guess. Has anyone noticed the fingerprint sensor not being able to read that well compared to before it was broken? It seems like it fails a lot more before it succeeds. Unless now that it's working, we can perform the calibration again and it'll work better?
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Don't know about that, mine works just fine
So I think I messed up, I ended up performing the calibration again, while it was already working, and now it says "fingerprint hardware not present" any suggestions on how to fix? I performed the instructions in the guide (again) and nothing worked. When the error pops up, if I press back, the error message goes away and the FP icon is there. When I tap on it, it lights up white but doesn't vibrate or register anything. I already used the MSM tool to go back to Tmobile stock, then used the fastboot ROM to go to Global 10.5.7, followed the guide again, still nothing.
TheKnux said:
So I think I messed up, I ended up performing the calibration again, while it was already working, and now it says "fingerprint hardware not present" any suggestions on how to fix? I performed the instructions in the guide (again) and nothing worked. When the error pops up, if I press back, the error message goes away and the FP icon is there. When I tap on it, it lights up white but doesn't vibrate or register anything. I already used the MSM tool to go back to Tmobile stock, then used the fastboot ROM to go to Global 10.5.7, followed the guide again, still nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The initial backup of the persist.img should do the trick, if you repeat the process once again, it should work
dzontra83 said:
The initial backup of the persist.img should do the trick, if you repeat the process once again, it should work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that, multiple times. Still not working. Is it possible for someone to upload their persist.img so I can try it or is it device specific? Granted, I pulled my initial persist.img from stock rooted Tmobile ROM AFTER I broke it even though it worked before (long story). I wasn't able to downgrade to 10.5.4 because when I tried using the MSM tool, it gave me a TMO device error and I couldn't use a fastboot ROM to go to 10.5.4 cause it kept entering CrashDump mode every time it tried rebooting to fastboot to finish the flash process .
TheKnux said:
I tried that, multiple times. Still not working. Is it possible for someone to upload their persist.img so I can try it or is it device specific? Granted, I pulled my initial persist.img from stock rooted Tmobile ROM AFTER I broke it even though it worked before (long story). I wasn't able to downgrade to 10.5.4 because when I tried using the MSM tool, it gave me a TMO device error and I couldn't use a fastboot ROM to go to 10.5.4 cause it kept entering CrashDump mode every time it tried rebooting to fastboot to finish the flash process .
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Click to collapse
Your cannot use someone else's persist, you must't use yours.
dzontra83 said:
Your cannot use someone else's persist, you must't use yours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about someone else's DATA and ENGINEERINGMODE folders? I've tried everything. Even recalibrating multiple times. It's not giving me a bunch of errors like it did before, just one error. The last error is FAIL! OPERATION_STEP_GET_KB_CALIBRATION TEST FAIL:GF_ERROR_GENERIC
Just wondering, what is the point of downgrading to an earlier OOS? If I was able to do it on the Tmobile firmware with success, is there an importance in downgrading?
Thank you so very very much!!! I have a T-Mobile 7T Pro 5G McLaren which hasn't had a working fp in almost 2 months. I hadn't made a backup of persist before the fp broke, so I thought I was completely screwed. Luckily, I did make a backup of persist before trying to use the fp calibration tool myself without any luck shortly after it broke (basically just clicking stuff and guessing lol). Found this thread and I had my FP scanner working again perfectly in less than 15 minutes!!!! Thank you soooo much for all the hours and effort you put into figuring this out!!!!!!!
Didn't have to run the msm tool to revert to older version of OOS and lose all my data either!!
Just one question and it's just for my curiosity. Why do we delete "gf_persist.so" from our original persist.img before copying/pasting into /persist partition after "calibration"? Is gf_persist.so not a file containing part of the original calibration? Is that the file which is being fixed by running the hidden calibration commands?
If anyone can help me, it would be much appreciated. https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-8/help/broken-persist-img-problems-t4129587