Develop Bugs

EPIC FAIL: Is my phone a brick?

Here's the story, Please read. I don't think anything like this has happened to anybody else...
Running CM6.02, unrevoked forever (s-off)
Using my 8GB SDHC card from my old phone (It's about 2.5 yrs old)
Over the past few weeks the SD card will randomly go corrupt, I can't recover data and must format it.
SD card went corrupt again 2 days ago. This time it refuses to format. I tried formatting it in the phone, and 2 laptops, no go.
I ordered a new SDHC (class 6) from newegg and it's in the mail. I don't have any other SDHC cards to use.
In the meantime, today the phone was acting weird so I decided to reboot it. The phone gets to the CM6 boot animation andd gets 2/3 through it and then it loops over and over, never getting into android OS.
Did a battery pull, removed SDHC card completely and it still won't get past the CM6 boot animation.
OK... so I go into bootloader and perform a "CLEAR MEMORY" in hopes to get the phone to boot into CM6.
NOW the phone doesn't get past the lock screen, it just sits there forever.
Another battery pull.
Getting desperate and I go into clockworkmod and hit "clear data/cache" and it pops up lots of errors that it can't mount the internal volumes!!!
Is this a very bad sign, wtf have I done and is there anything I can do to get it to work without a SDHC card??

I have seen something like this before. Here is a useful link

I wouldn't be to worried about it at the moment. You might have a brick till you get a new sdcard, but once your new one comes in the mail you should be all set. If your still having issues after you get a new sdcard then you might have problems.

Is it possible to install any rom or the RUU without a SD card? I won't have that SD card for days......

For whatever reason now instead of showing the Dinc splash screen it goes straight to FASTBOOT. It looks like bootloader but has options:
BOOTLOADER
REBOOT
REBOOT BOOTLOADER
POWER DOWN
wth?

A friend let me borrow his SD card. I flashed a new rom on my phone through clockworkmod. Everything appeared to go fine, no errors. Reboot phone and it is still stuck on the HTC splash screen.
How do I rebuild the internal partitions through ADB using parted?

I was able to format 2 of the partitions and now I can atleast wipe data/factory reset without errors. When I wipe dalvik cache though I get an error:
Code:
E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p2
(file exists)
Dalvik cache wiped.
Loaded a rom (ruby) and it still doesn't get past the splash screen.
parted shows 3 partitions, I only formatted the first 2
Code:
print
Model: MMC HYNIX (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 8095MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 8192B 797MB 797MB primary
2 797MB 1007MB 210MB primary
3 1007MB 8095MB 7088MB primary fat32 lba
(parted)
Should I try formatting the third?

I fixed it, phones working now.

wouldn't you think it might be potentially useful to tell people what the problem was and how you fixed it, should somebody else run into the same issue?
just sayin...

cosmicjoke said:
wouldn't you think it might be potentially useful to tell people what the problem was and how you fixed it, should somebody else run into the same issue?
just sayin...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea but it seemed like a one sided conversation in here so obviously not too many ppl cared

I was glad to see that the Cyanogenmod link helped you.

Funny enough
Long time "researcher" here on xda, keeping up with trends and techniques. Took the plunge and tried some roms this week after deciding to root it and go figure I get stuck unable to mount that 3rd partition.
Would have been nice to know what you did to get it to work. Guess I'll continue the search of google. It's funny that most people have issues with the first two storage mounts - teacher's always said I took the path less traveled. Damn!

[Q] Borked Desire upgrade from official Froyo to Leedroid Gingerbread

Tonight I decided to try an upgrade on my rooted Desire with ClockwordMod installed. I originally had the official Froyo ROM and downloaded the latest Leedroid Gingerbread ROM to give it a go.
All was going swimmingly until on reboot it took far longer than the expected 20 minutes or so to boot.
I pulled the battery and now the phone is stuck in a reboot loop at the 'Leedroid Android' splash screen.
I get the impression something may have gone wrong with the ext3 alignment patch somehow as I can't mount my sdcard to either reflash the leedroid ROM or revert back to the official ROM.
The output of parted from a terminal window shows the following:
Code:
/sbin # parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 print
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 print
Model: SD 00000 (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 3942MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
2 10.8kB 3942MB 3942MB primary
So it looks like I've somehow lost my file system on my sdcard.
Anyone have any suggestions as to the quickest fix out of this?

Just realised this is in the wrong section... could a mod move please?

Try reformat the SD card with a 100% size FAT32 partition (use a card reader to do that, had this bug one time, i couldnt resize with the phone as a card reader). I recommend you this software (windows) : MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition
Search it on google. use this video if you dont know how to use it :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCV7Eu1pjWQ
Just create a partition FAT32, Primary, set the size, and a ext3, primary, set the leaving size (max 1.5gb) apply and wait
Once it's done, you can repart the SD card with FAT+ ext3
put files on your sd card.
I flashed the first time with the zip alignment patch, had the same bug than you, retried after full wipe without the patch, juste rom and reboot, and everything was ok.
so wipe and reflash
tell us if it works

Thanks! Before I wipe completely as a last resort, is there any alternative way of recovering what's on the SD card? Unfortunately the last backup I made of its contents is over a month old...

[Q] HTC Desire partially broken

Hello!
While trying to install S2E i managed to partially ruin the functionality of my phone. I have an HTC Desire (GSM) running Cyanogenmod 7.1 stable release. I have S-off, root and ClockworkMod Recovery v5.0.2.0.
(I wanted to install a new SD card. In the process I managed to loose all my previous SD card data and I only have a 2 months old back-up from when I was running a different android version, so that will not be very helpful at recuperating many things, but even without the old SD card my phone was still operating correctly besides being unable to run the apps installed on the card. I presume this issue is unrelated to my current problem.)
Here is how I've think I've broken the phone:
- I used Gparted to format a new 8 GB microSD card (class 6) with 1 GB ext4 partition and a FAT32 partition.
- I installed S2E and checked all the options for the OS to use the external storage on the SD card partition.
- It turned out that my partition was not correctly identified by the OS (probably the issue was with using the built-in card reader of the laptop and not a stand alone USB card reader).
- I booted into Recovery Mode and re-formated the SD card with 1 GB of ext3, 32 GB of Swap and the rest as fat.
- After the restart the boot process took a very long time. When the OS finally booted I practically had a fresh install with none of my old settings available (shortcuts, wallpaper, apps etc.). Even the apps stored on the local memory disappeared (S2E, ROM manager, gmail, market etc.) and my home button no longer works. I am unable to receive phone calls since the phone automatically rejects incoming calls. I see incoming calls in the call log and I can make outgoing calls.
I presumed the issue is with mounting the sd-ext partition, but even if I tried to manually mount it after boot I see no change.
I followed these guides to install parted and use 32fsck to see if the partitions are corrupt. I think I have no problems.
Here are the code reports of running parted:
Code:
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
GNU Parted 1.8.8.1.179-aef3
Using /dev/block/mmcblk0
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print
print
print
Model: SD 00000 (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 7965MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 6909MB 6909MB primary fat32 lba
2 6909MB 7933MB 1024MB primary ext3
3 7933MB 7965MB 32.0MB primary linux-swap(v1)
and e2fsck:
Code:
e2fsck /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
e2fsck 1.41.6 (30-May-2009)
sd-ext: clean, 1091/499712 files, 129331/999425 blocks
Here is my fstab as well:
Code:
/dev/block/mtdblock4 /cache yaffs2 rw
/dev/block/mtdblock5 /data yaffs2 rw
/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 rw
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard vfat rw
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /sd-ext ext3 rw
I presume that a fresh OS install will fix the issues. However I hope I can recover the settings stored on the ROM if I fix the sd-ext partition issue.
I will appreciate any suggestions you might have.
ps: adb push and fstab pull is working only when phone is in Recovery. If the CM7.1 is booted there is no fstab in /etc.

Had a similar issue sometime ago. Sorry to say couldn't fix it. In fact I would say the amount of time you spend trying to fix that issue will outway a fresh install.
If you can do a full backup still and save it to your pc you could do a fresh install and work on the issue without loss of phone functionality. Just my thoughts...

Thanks for your advice!
I ended up going for a fresh install with CM7.1 and S2E.
Thinks are ok now the only problem I have is that I don't see the 1 GB of available space reported correctly. Something like 152 MB is free and a negative value is reported as the used space. The CM option of using expanded internal storage is dimmed but I am not sure if that should be different.

mindcsrusher said:
Thanks for your advice!
I ended up going for a fresh install with CM7.1 and S2E.
Thinks are ok now the only problem I have is that I don't see the 1 GB of available space reported correctly. Something like 152 MB is free and a negative value is reported as the used space. The CM option of using expanded internal storage is dimmed but I am not sure if that should be different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. Glad you sorted the issue.
I know with a2sd using standard settings won't show the true size of the parition wont be reported. Something to do with the way it works. If it's working well and letting you install apps with no problems I wouldn't worry too much about

[Q] Error formatting /data! Error formatting /cache!

Using CWM 5.0.2.0, when I try to format /data, I get:
Error formatting /data!
When I try to format /cache, I get:
Error formatting /cache!
This all started because I decided to try Albinoman's AOSP 4.2 ROM. This is what happened:
1. Booted into CWM 5.0.2.0, made a nandroid backup of stock GB ROM.
2. Installed Albinoman's ROM using CWM, wiped /cache and /data.
3. Booted Albinoman's ROM, no problems. Decided I wanted to backup and restore some apps in the old ROM using Titanium Backup.
4. Restored nandroid backup of stock ROM. When it rebooted, all was well.
5. Used Titanium Backup to back up my apps.
6. Installed Albinoman's ROM again.
7. Cleared /data, it was fine. Cleared /cache. Stuck at "formatting" for half an hour.
8. Rebooted back to recovery and tried it again. Couldn't find E:.
9. Tried letting it boot. Stuck on the boot animation for 30-minutes.
10. Wipe everything and re-flash. Tried again. Still stuck on boot animation.
11. Manually unmount and tried to format /data and /cache, and I get the error messages.
I had installed Convert2Ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik.zip to the stock ROM about 4-months ago, not sure if that makes a difference or not.
When I search, it looks like the news is bad... most people that had this error gave up and believed it to be hardware NAND failure. Anything I can do to confirm or rule out NAND failure?
UPDATE: Managed to flash RUU, but results were interesting. It worked and it boots, home screen is blank (no HTC widgets), and apps I'd installed are still there. Clear Storage and Factory Reset does not get rid of them! I can manually uninstall apps, but when I reboot, they come back. I guess the /data must be stuck in some kind of read-only state.

GnatGoSplat said:
Using CWM 5.0.2.0, when I try to format /data, I get:
Error formatting /data!
When I try to format /cache, I get:
Error formatting /cache!
This all started because I decided to try Albinoman's AOSP 4.2 ROM. This is what happened:
1. Booted into CWM 5.0.2.0, made a nandroid backup of stock GB ROM.
2. Installed Albinoman's ROM using CWM, wiped /cache and /data.
3. Booted Albinoman's ROM, no problems. Decided I wanted to backup and restore some apps in the old ROM using Titanium Backup.
4. Restored nandroid backup of stock ROM. When it rebooted, all was well.
5. Used Titanium Backup to back up my apps.
6. Installed Albinoman's ROM again.
7. Cleared /data, it was fine. Cleared /cache. Stuck at "formatting" for half an hour.
8. Rebooted back to recovery and tried it again. Couldn't find E:.
9. Tried letting it boot. Stuck on the boot animation for 30-minutes.
10. Wipe everything and re-flash. Tried again. Still stuck on boot animation.
11. Manually unmount and tried to format /data and /cache, and I get the error messages.
I had installed Convert2Ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik.zip to the stock ROM about 4-months ago, not sure if that makes a difference or not.
When I search, it looks like the news is bad... most people that had this error gave up and believed it to be hardware NAND failure. Anything I can do to confirm or rule out NAND failure?
UPDATE: Managed to flash RUU, but results were interesting. It worked and it boots, home screen is blank (no HTC widgets), and apps I'd installed are still there. Clear Storage and Factory Reset does not get rid of them! I can manually uninstall apps, but when I reboot, they come back. I guess the /data must be stuck in some kind of read-only state.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you reflash the Convert2Ext4 mod after you flashed the new rom? See this thread and read the top part after 'IMPORTANT:' There is a link in there to the old thread as well with a lot of info.

I did try that, but my /data and /cache are still unable to be written to, wiped, or formatted.
e2fsck won't touch /data, it has a superblock error. It finds errors on /cache and appears to be fixing them, but when I re-run it, the same errors are still there.

GnatGoSplat said:
I did try that, but my /data and /cache are still unable to be written to, wiped, or formatted.
e2fsck won't touch /data, it has a superblock error. It finds errors on /cache and appears to be fixing them, but when I re-run it, the same errors are still there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you flashed the RUU, did you install an EXT4 compatible kernel or are you using the stock kernel? Maybe try restoring your working nandroid backup, then run the .zip to revert Convert2Ext4. Or even better, if you have a nandroid from before you installed the EXT4 mod.

DaggerDave said:
Since you flashed the RUU, did you install an EXT4 compatible kernel or are you using the stock kernel? Maybe try restoring your working nandroid backup, then run the .zip to revert Convert2Ext4. Or even better, if you have a nandroid from before you installed the EXT4 mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wiping /data and /cache are enough to revert the mod.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Uggh, definitely doesn't sound so good. Since the RUU won't work, I'd say check out this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2123966

Yep, my partitions are no longer EXT4. #1 is EXT3 and #2 is EXT2. I guess that means Convert2Ext4 is no longer in play and the problem is unrelated.
Here is my parted:
Code:
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 print
Model: MMC SEM08G (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 7944MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 8192B 797MB 797MB primary ext3
2 797MB 1007MB 210MB primary ext2
3 1007MB 7944MB 6937MB primary fat32 lba
Yeah, I read that thread and it didn't sound encouraging! I get pretty much the same errors.
Even rm 1 and rm 2 don't remove the partitions. It's like they're read-only. I'm using the parted from CWM 5.0.2.0. Should I use a different one?
Also when I try e2fsck on it:
Code:
~ # e2fsck -pf /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
e2fsck -pf /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1: recovering journal
e2fsck: unable to set superblock flags on /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
~ # e2fsck -pf /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
e2fsck -pf /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2: Unconnected directory inode 34817 (/???)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
(i.e., without -a or -p options)
~ # e2fsck -f /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
e2fsck -f /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
e2fsck 1.41.6 (30-May-2009)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Unconnected directory inode 34817 (/???)
Connect to /lost+found<y>? y
yes
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Inode 2 ref count is 2, should be 3. Fix<y>? yes
Inode 34817 ref count is 3, should be 2. Fix<y>? y
yes
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
Block bitmap differences: +274 +(449--510) +(645--701) -(139524--139541) -(139
85--139800)
Fix<y>? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #0 (7919, counted=7799).
Fix<y>? y
yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #17 (7934, counted=7929).
Fix<y>? yes
Free blocks count wrong (198324, counted=198199).
Fix<y>? y
yes
Free inodes count wrong for group #17 (2048, counted=2045).
Fix<y>? yes
Directories count wrong for group #17 (0, counted=1).
Fix<y>? y
yes
Free inodes count wrong (51189, counted=51186).
Fix<y>? yes
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2: 14/51200 files (14.3% non-contiguous), 6601/204800 blocks
When I tried it without the -p is when it looks above like it's fixing something, but it really didn't fix anything because it does the same thing when I try e2fsck again (as if it's read-only).
Is MMCBLK0 one physical NAND chip? If so, how come I can read/write/erase the /emmc with no problems? Isn't that just another partition on the same NAND disk?
If /data and /cache are really bad, is there any possible way to do an equivalent of a low-level format on the NAND and repartition?

Is booting CWM 5.0.2.0 and using adb shell supposed to have root privileges?
I can't modify the partition table using either parted or fdisk. I even tried zeroing the partitions using dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1, p2, and even the whole of mmcblk0, but nothing actually gets written.

Since it seems like the NAND is probably irreparably borked, can I approach this problem from a different angle?
Can I partition my sdcard with an ext3 and ext2 partition, and tell Android to use those as /data and /cache respectively?
What in Android maps /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 to /data and /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 to /cache, and can I change those to point to partitions on sdcard?
Or is that hard-coded into the kernel?

GnatGoSplat said:
Since it seems like the NAND is probably irreparably borked, can I approach this problem from a different angle?
Can I partition my sdcard with an ext3 and ext2 partition, and tell Android to use those as /data and /cache respectively?
What in Android maps /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 to /data and /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 to /cache, and can I change those to point to partitions on sdcard?
Or is that hard-coded into the kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is hard coded into the kernel. To get root in adbshell try typimg su. This seems to be happening to more and more people as these phones get up there in age.

GnatGoSplat said:
Since it seems like the NAND is probably irreparably borked, can I approach this problem from a different angle?
Can I partition my sdcard with an ext3 and ext2 partition, and tell Android to use those as /data and /cache respectively?
What in Android maps /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 to /data and /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 to /cache, and can I change those to point to partitions on sdcard?
Or is that hard-coded into the kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer is yes to both actually. Thrle boot.img would need to be customized. The best way is a flashable zip in recovery. Data and cache would need to be wiped manually ad recovery will not pick this up. Expect poorer performance though as SD cards tend to be slower than built in storage.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Thanks! So it sounds like the way to make this work is to compile a custom kernel? I don't know the first thing about it, but I think I could learn.
This is only in the kernel, so I could flash any 3rd party D-Inc ROM and just flash my customized kernel and it will see /data and /cache on the sdcard?
I could probably get one of those fast Class 10 cards if it turns out this is too slow, but I do recall changing vold.fstab once to fool Android into seeing /emmc as /sdcard and the /emmc (as /sdcard) didn't benchmark all that much faster than a real sdcard. I'm assuming /data and /cache are the same speed as /emmc since they're on the same mmcblk0 device, so I'm thinking maybe sdcard performance would be acceptable.
This actually sounds like it could be a better long-term solution than replacing the motherboard because no telling if a new motherboard will fail soon too.

The motherboard should be reliable. Emmc may die. Especially considering how old current dincs are.
I was talking about the boot.img which is not ROM independent and kernels aren't always either. Best idea is a flashable zip to modify the ram disk but I need the partition names if you decide to do it. I recommend keeping cache and data in the same order.
Also there would need to be a flashable wipe script to wipe data and cache.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. By motherboard failing, I was assuming NAND is soldered to the motherboard, and if that's the case, ruined NAND = ruined motherboard. I had thought maybe I could buy a DInc with smashed LCD and good motherboard and just swap into mine (because mine is MINT condition), but I thought if I do that, I could very well end up in the same place as I'm in now and using sdcard would be more of a guarantee I wouldn't have to worry about this again.
I think I understand, the boot.img and kernel aren't exactly the same thing, but the kernel is part of boot.img? Or is it only the RAMDisk that needs changed, or both? You mentioned partition names, are you offering to make these modifications for me?
By same order, do you mean because mmcblk0p1 is /data, mmcblk0p2 is /cache, and mmcblkp3 is /emmc, I should partition my sdcard the same way with data 1st, cache 2nd, and sdcard 3rd?
Should I partition it with the phone, PC, or does it matter? Should the sizes of the new /data and /cache be the same size as original, or is there any reason I should make them larger?
Could I wipe the new /data and /cache simply by booting into Recovery and using adb shell and format them?
Also, the commands I was issuing in adb shell were from booting into CWM Recovery. Is it possible that mode can't write because I didn't login as root using the su command? I hadn't thought that would be the problem seeing as how the RUU and Android itself can't write to /data and /cache and other people managed to fix partition problems without needing to run su.

GnatGoSplat said:
Sorry, I wasn't very clear. By motherboard failing, I was assuming NAND is soldered to the motherboard, and if that's the case, ruined NAND = ruined motherboard. I had thought maybe I could buy a DInc with smashed LCD and good motherboard and just swap into mine (because mine is MINT condition), but I thought if I do that, I could very well end up in the same place as I'm in now and using sdcard would be more of a guarantee I wouldn't have to worry about this again.
I think I understand, the boot.img and kernel aren't exactly the same thing, but the kernel is part of boot.img? Or is it only the RAMDisk that needs changed, or both? You mentioned partition names, are you offering to make these modifications for me?
By same order, do you mean because mmcblk0p1 is /data, mmcblk0p2 is /cache, and mmcblkp3 is /emmc, I should partition my sdcard the same way with data 1st, cache 2nd, and sdcard 3rd?
Should I partition it with the phone, PC, or does it matter? Should the sizes of the new /data and /cache be the same size as original, or is there any reason I should make them larger?
Could I wipe the new /data and /cache simply by booting into Recovery and using adb shell and format them?
Also, the commands I was issuing in adb shell were from booting into CWM Recovery. Is it possible that mode can't write because I didn't login as root using the su command? I hadn't thought that would be the problem seeing as how the RUU and Android itself can't write to /data and /cache and other people managed to fix partition problems without needing to run su.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The NAND is likely soldered to the motherboard, so you're right about that.
To answer your first question, yeah, the kernel is part of the boot.img. The other part is the RAMdisk which is the only thing that needs to be changed.
Partition it in the same order. Probably parted via adb shell. 100MB for cache and at least 750MB for data. Sizes don't matter too much but you want enough.
adb shell has root access automatically in recovery. The issue is hardware most likely so your proposed workaround may be the only option.
First plan of attack is to find the partition names which would be mmcblk1p1 and mmcblk1p1 if you partition the sdcard the same way as the ROM is partitioned. Ideally you need to be able to fix the partitions themselves. I'll try to give more info later.

I copied the partition sizes from mmcblk0, so here's what I have on my 16GB SD card:
Code:
Model: SD SA16G (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk1: 16.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 8192B 797MB 797MB primary ext2
2 797MB 1007MB 210MB primary ext2
3 1007MB 16.0GB 15.0GB primary fat32 lba
mmcblk1p1 for /data
mmcblk1p2 for /cache
mmcblk1p3 for /sdcard
Will that work? I couldn't get mmcblk1p1 to show up as ext3. I did use mke2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 to format it and I've read ext3 = ext2+journal, so I guess the fact it's not saying "ext3" under filesystem is okay?

GnatGoSplat said:
I copied the partition sizes from mmcblk0, so here's what I have on my 16GB SD card:
Code:
Model: SD SA16G (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk1: 16.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 8192B 797MB 797MB primary ext2
2 797MB 1007MB 210MB primary ext2
3 1007MB 16.0GB 15.0GB primary fat32 lba
mmcblk1p1 for /data
mmcblk1p2 for /cache
mmcblk1p3 for /sdcard
Will that work? I couldn't get mmcblk1p1 to show up as ext3. I did use mke2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 to format it and I've read ext3 = ext2+journal, so I guess the fact it's not saying "ext3" under filesystem is okay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You would be correct. Yes, that's fine.

Thanks, what should be my next steps?

GnatGoSplat said:
Thanks, what should be my next steps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to find time to make scripts that will modify the ramdisk, unless you can just extract it and make the changes yourself.

That would be great, I really appreciate all the help so far.
Do you think ramdisk is the only place a change will need to be made?
I was trying to see if I could figure out how to extract ramdisk from boot.img and found a perl script, but I haven't gotten around to playing with it.

Need Help Un-Softbricking Galaxy S2 T-Mobile Version (SGH-T989)

Complete Android newbie/dummy. Sophisticated Linux user.
Samsung Galaxy S2 T-Mobile version (SGH-T989). I think it's called "Hercules" -- it's the S2 without a home button. I previously installed CWM with Odin and rooted it by placing an su package on the sdcard. Didn't use the phone for a couple of years. Gave it to my wife after her phone was stolen. Seems to be stuck in the boot process. It boots to where I see "Samsung" logo, but the OS never comes up. Here's what I've done so far:
Reformatted the SD card on Linux using mkdosfs -F 32 -I /dev/sdf1. The SD card is 64GB, which is technically unsupported, but when the phone worked, it was able to use the SD card with no problems.
Installed a bootloader named TWRP 2.8.7.0. I can get into TWRP's environment, but not everything works as I expect it to.
Mount
The "Select Partitions to Mount" section is empty, which is unexpected since I have an FAT32 formatted SD card installed. Furthermore, when I press the "Mount USB Storage" button, I see the following error messages on the console:
E: Mount: Unable to find partition for path '/cache'
E: Mount: Unable to find storage partition to mount to USB
Install
At the top I see: "Storage: ( MB)", and underneath I see what looks to be a Unix filesystem. Obviously / is mounted (and I assume the partition is on the phone's internal memory), but the size isn't being detected by TWRP since the storage size is undefined. When I press "Storage" it asks me to select the storage, but the list is completely empty. Again, the SD card doesn't show up. Normally I'd "blame" my unsupported SD card size, but: a) it previously worked, and b) TWRP can't detect the storage size of the root partition, so something funny is happening.
Bootup
This might be the heart of the matter. When the phone boots into TWRP, there are some very ominous looking error messages:
E: Invalid block device on '/dev/block/mmcblk0p3
/boot
emmc defaults
defaults
', 'emmc', 72
E: Invalid block device on '/dev/block/mmcblk0p22
/recovery
emmc defaults
defaults
', 'emmc', 72
E: Invalid block device on '/dev/block/mmcblk0p24
/system
ext4 ro,errors=panic
wait
', 'ext4', 42
If this were a Linux system, I would suspect one of the following:
Perhaps /etc/fstab is referencing the wrong /dev/ files.
Perhaps the block device in question (e.g. hard drive) is failing.
Perhaps udev is not populating /dev/ properly.
As a last comment, when I poke around using TWRP's file manager, /boot is empty. The kernel should be in there, yes? OK, if so, then that's a very, very big problem. /recovery is empty. Interestingly, /system contains a single directory, /bin, which is empty. /sbin contains what you'd expect. /etc has an fstab, mtab, mke2fs.conf, and recovery.fstab.
Interestingly, /dev/block/mmcblk0p24, /dev/block/mmcblk0p24, and /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 all exist. This seems to indicate that udev is doing its job correctly (and I think also that /etc/fstab is ok). So maybe this is a hardware problem?
This is very strange because although I'm very comfortable with Linux, I'm feeling particularly helpless, and like I'm going around in circles.
Can some kind soul help me find my way?

I'm having the same type of problem with my E:\ not being mounted when I go into twrp. I can't even see a directory for me to run the wipe command on.
Will you try restoring back to Factory ROM ?

peterNYC said:
Complete Android newbie/dummy. Sophisticated Linux user.
Samsung Galaxy S2 T-Mobile version (SGH-T989). I think it's called "Hercules" -- it's the S2 without a home button. I previously installed CWM with Odin and rooted it by placing an su package on the sdcard. Didn't use the phone for a couple of years. Gave it to my wife after her phone was stolen. Seems to be stuck in the boot process. It boots to where I see "Samsung" logo, but the OS never comes up. Here's what I've done so far:
Reformatted the SD card on Linux using mkdosfs -F 32 -I /dev/sdf1. The SD card is 64GB, which is technically unsupported, but when the phone worked, it was able to use the SD card with no problems.
Installed a bootloader named TWRP 2.8.7.0. I can get into TWRP's environment, but not everything works as I expect it to.
Mount
The "Select Partitions to Mount" section is empty, which is unexpected since I have an FAT32 formatted SD card installed. Furthermore, when I press the "Mount USB Storage" button, I see the following error messages on the console:
E: Mount: Unable to find partition for path '/cache'
E: Mount: Unable to find storage partition to mount to USB
Install
At the top I see: "Storage: ( MB)", and underneath I see what looks to be a Unix filesystem. Obviously / is mounted (and I assume the partition is on the phone's internal memory), but the size isn't being detected by TWRP since the storage size is undefined. When I press "Storage" it asks me to select the storage, but the list is completely empty. Again, the SD card doesn't show up. Normally I'd "blame" my unsupported SD card size, but: a) it previously worked, and b) TWRP can't detect the storage size of the root partition, so something funny is happening.
Bootup
This might be the heart of the matter. When the phone boots into TWRP, there are some very ominous looking error messages:
E: Invalid block device on '/dev/block/mmcblk0p3
/boot
emmc defaults
defaults
', 'emmc', 72
E: Invalid block device on '/dev/block/mmcblk0p22
/recovery
emmc defaults
defaults
', 'emmc', 72
E: Invalid block device on '/dev/block/mmcblk0p24
/system
ext4 ro,errors=panic
wait
', 'ext4', 42
If this were a Linux system, I would suspect one of the following:
Perhaps /etc/fstab is referencing the wrong /dev/ files.
Perhaps the block device in question (e.g. hard drive) is failing.
Perhaps udev is not populating /dev/ properly.
As a last comment, when I poke around using TWRP's file manager, /boot is empty. The kernel should be in there, yes? OK, if so, then that's a very, very big problem. /recovery is empty. Interestingly, /system contains a single directory, /bin, which is empty. /sbin contains what you'd expect. /etc has an fstab, mtab, mke2fs.conf, and recovery.fstab.
Interestingly, /dev/block/mmcblk0p24, /dev/block/mmcblk0p24, and /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 all exist. This seems to indicate that udev is doing its job correctly (and I think also that /etc/fstab is ok). So maybe this is a hardware problem?
This is very strange because although I'm very comfortable with Linux, I'm feeling particularly helpless, and like I'm going around in circles.
Can some kind soul help me find my way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have root access ?

Anyone have a fix for this? I'm having the same issue with my SGS2X (hercules). Thanks

Odin back to stock or try a different recovery, might I suggest CWM

fattest said:
Anyone have a fix for this? I'm having the same issue with my SGS2X (hercules). Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best bet is to odin back to Stock, mine is a bit weird, I can't install JB via no method, always stuck at samsung logo, but ICS seems to go ok, you should try it.