Develop Bugs

[Q] Easiest way to get out of this boot loop?

Specs: I had Galaxy Nexus LTE 4.0.4 w/ unlocked bootloader and root access. I have the GN toolkit if that helps.
Cause: I used the Font Installer app to change system font. I now know that not all of the fonts are working properly and emailed the developer about it. However, I am currently stuck in a boot loop after changing to one of the fonts.
I would prefer to not lose everything and if I didn't care about that, then I would just go for it and I think that I could get it working again. But since it was just a font change, I thought it might be possible to fix it without going through all of that. I am hoping I can just change some system files or something and get it to boot then select a different .tff font that I know works. THANKS!
If I reload the 4.04 update.zip that I still can access, will that wipe everything/will I have to re-setup a bunch of things? Is it OK to clear cache partition and Dalvik Cache? Thank you.

Did you take a nandroid backup of this ROM at any point? If so, you could do an advanced restore of system only.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

cmstlist said:
Did you take a nandroid backup of this ROM at any point? If so, you could do an advanced restore of system only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, unfortunately I did not, but I will look into that once I am back up and running.
**EDIT: I have CWM Recovery v5.5.0.4 running now. Is it possible to do a backup at THIS point in time and then restore everything but system?

Druas said:
No, unfortunately I did not, but I will look into that once I am back up and running.
**EDIT: I have CWM Recovery v5.5.0.4 running now. Is it possible to do a backup at THIS point in time and then only restore system?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay. In that case, flashing the ROM's update.zip should work and shouldn't wipe your data. Best to take a nandroid backup first, just in case of trouble.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

cmstlist said:
Okay. In that case, flashing the ROM's update.zip should work and shouldn't wipe your data. Best to take a nandroid backup first, just in case of trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I made the backup first. When I try to load the update.zip though, it says, "assert failed: appy_patch_check("/system/fonts/Roboto-Regular.ttf" <then a whole BUNCH of numbers and letters which I can type out if they will actually be helpful> "E:Error in /sdcard/Download/update.zip (Status 7) Installation aborted."

Is that an incremental update.zip for upgrading? What you need is a zip containing the entire ROM.
Alternately use fastboot to flash system.img from the stock ROM if you were already using stock.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

cmstlist said:
Is that an incremental update.zip for upgrading? What you need is a zip containing the entire ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I used: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1481044 So I need to install 4.0.2 first? Unfortunately that is the only upgrade.zip I have on my phone and I don't know how to load new ones on there without booting into Android.
cmstlist said:
Alternately use fastboot to flash system.i mg from the stock ROM if you were already using stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What? Can you explain further? I was using stock 4.0.4

Druas said:
Yeah I used: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1481044 So I need to install 4.0.2 first? Unfortunately that is the only upgrade.zip I have on my phone and I don't know how to load new ones on there without booting into Android.
What? Can you explain further? I was using stock 4.0.4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can download another zip to your computer and use adb push to get it onto the GN's internal storage.
I don't have the CDMA version but here's what I am able to find. Check this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1481613
A completely stock 4.0.4 (aside from root, busybox, de-odex) from that thread is here:
http://dev-host.org/uMJ
So you download that to your computer and put it in the same folder as adb. Boot the phone into Clockwork Recovery and then plug it into your computer. (There are other guides to getting adb to work on your phone so I won't cover that here.) Run adb devices to make sure it sees your phone. In Clockwork you also have to go to mounts and storage and make sure /data is mounted.
Then:
adb push GalaxyNexusCDMA-4.0.4-StockRootedNoRadio.zip /sdcard/stock.zip
Subsequently in Clockwork, you will be able to find that stock.zip in the list of zips you can apply. After applying that zip, any damage caused by messing with the fonts should be reverted.
---- or ----
The alternative would be to download the factory 4.0.2 image from here:
https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz
Inside that archive is a system.img file which you can flash to the phone by fastboot over USB. Immediately afterwards, you would then boot into CWM and apply the incremental update.zip you already have on there. This will take you to stock 4.0.4 unrooted and hopefully bootable!

cmstlist said:
The alternative would be to download the factory 4.0.2 image from here:
Inside that archive is a system.img file which you can flash to the phone by fastboot over USB. Immediately afterwards, you would then boot into CWM and apply the incremental update.zip you already have on there. This will take you to stock 4.0.4 unrooted and hopefully bootable!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While your instructions were good, I tried some things on my own about 20 min before you made that post and screwed up and erased userdata. So, I cannot say for sure if it would have worked, but I bet it would have and I wish I had been more patient.

Sorry to hear. Is it bootable now at least?
The userdata erase problem is why I now have to remember in every phone recovery situation - adb pull the entire contents of internal storage from within CWM before doing anything risky.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Yeah the phone has booted, I just have to spend some time recovering what I can. I will hopefully make better backups for the future. At least I learned some stuff. I still can't believe this was all caused by changing a FONT in a program designed to change fonts.

Druas said:
Yeah the phone has booted, I just have to spend some time recovering what I can. I will hopefully make better backups for the future. At least I learned some stuff. I still can't believe this was all caused by changing a FONT in a program designed to change fonts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, well this font changer program edits the system partition of your phone, which makes it risky. In the future, the best course of action with any "risky" change is:
- Take a nandroid backup first.
- Copy the nandroid backup out of the phone (it's in a subfolder of clockworkmod on internal storage).
- If you are doing anything that leads you to fear that the whole internal storage could get blanked, copy all of that out of the phone too.
- Now if you can't boot, you can selectively restore the system partition or the whole thing to try and fix it.
- And now if your internal storage gets blanked, your backup is safe.

cmstlist said:
Right, well this font changer program edits the system partition of your phone, which makes it risky. In the future, the best course of action with any "risky" change is:
- Take a nandroid backup first.
- Copy the nandroid backup out of the phone (it's in a subfolder of clockworkmod on internal storage).
- If you are doing anything that leads you to fear that the whole internal storage could get blanked, copy all of that out of the phone too.
- Now if you can't boot, you can selectively restore the system partition or the whole thing to try and fix it.
- And now if your internal storage gets blanked, your backup is safe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I had no idea that there was a significant risk involved, otherwise I would have been more cautious. Some questions I have:
-With Titanium Backup, the only thing I need to be running batch backups of is all user apps + system data correct? And only restore apps not system data unless I am on the exact same ROM as before?
-Again with TB, is there stuff it consistently misses that I should backup manually?
-I always launched CWM Recovery through the GN toolkit using "6. Flash CWM Recovery, Standard." And sometimes I would select Recovery from the Fastboot menu and it would be back at the regular recovery. Is there a different way I should have been going about getting to the nandroid backup?
-I have now installed ROM Manager and hit "Flash CWM Recovery" and I have a nandroid backup when I reboot into recovery. Does this mean any time I choose Recovery from the Fastboot menu that it will boot into CWM Recovery?
Thanks again for all your help and advice!

Is my GN pooched?

I was just using my GN, I set it down and a few minutes later it started boot-looping. I should add that titanium backup is usually set to backup around this time, so I'm not sure if that messed anything up but...
I went into CWR, wiped the system and reflashed the bugless beast rom, but when it starts up, I can't get past the setup screen without it rebooting again - endlessly.
What next?
Sent from my HP Touchpad running ICS

You can try flashing another ROM. Or you can try fastboot flashing the stock images and starting over.

Is there any way to access the files on the internal storage? I understand that flashing the stock image will erase that data, but it's critical that I retrieve it.

EP2008 said:
Is there any way to access the files on the internal storage? I understand that flashing the stock image will erase that data, but it's critical that I retrieve it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If there are specific files you can use adb pull. Or if you can successfully get into CWR you could mount and xfer that way.

martonikaj said:
If there are specific files you can use adb pull. Or if you can successfully get into CWR you could mount and xfer that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll remember the cwr mounting trick, but for now I flashed stock 4.0.2 and rooted. I then copied my titanium backups from dropbox and I'm slowly restoring things.
I'd really like to know what happened to cause the boot loop and system corruption. It would have been rebooting all night if I wasn't nearby.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Need serious help resetting phone

Ok so I used to have a Samsung Captivate and knew how to root and flash ROMs, was pretty used to it.
I tried to do the same on my HOX, but ran into a bootloop and subsequently I think I've deleted everything on my phone. I used Hasoon2000's All in one kit and unlocked my bootloader, flashed TWRP v 2.3.3.0, but my problem arose after I tried to flash the kernel. It stayed in bootloop so I figured I'd back out and just restore back to the backup I made before flashing the kernel. However, after "successfully" restoring back I was still stuck in bootloop somehow. I know this isn't supposed to happen, it's supposed to restore back to the exact state of your phone at the time.
Anyways, I thought maybe I just needed to wipe things. I looked around and found a source that said to wipe cache, dalvik, factory reset, and system. Wipe those 4, but not external storage or android secure. So I wiped those 4 and I intended to try the backup again but it turns out that cleared everything on my phone. Now when I hit "restore" there is nothing to select. I also used to have a custom rom on the virtual sdcard, but that's gone too.
When in TWRP and I go into "install" the only thing in /sdcard is now TWRP. After looking around, it looks like my only option is to mount the phone to my computer via TWRP and somehow download the standard OS for my One X again. Also in the Mount menu it lists "mount system, mount data, mount cache, mount sd card" I can only check the first 3 options and when I do my computer asks me if I want to format it. I guess I can't mount the sd card because I deleted everything?
If anyone has the time to help me out that would be AMAZING. Right now I don't even care about being able to flash my custom ROM, I just want to get my phone back to functionality. I would love a conversation and would be willing to gmail chat if willing.
Also my phone is the ATT version, 2.20 (or I guess it was before I deleted everything).
Thank you in advance for any help.

I guess the fastest way to get your phone working again is using RUU file, you ll find how to do it here (method 2) or here
It stayed in bootloop so I figured I'd back out and just restore back to the backup I made before flashing the kernel. However, after "successfully" restoring back I was still stuck in bootloop somehow. I know this isn't supposed to happen, it's supposed to restore back to the exact state of your phone at the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Restoring backup doesnt restore kernel ( boot.img ), you have to flash it manually with fastboot.

Dude. U think htc offers same freedom as Samsung . U are WRONG. If u flash a rom or restore a backup. U also need to flash boot.img separately from pc. Use fastboot flash boot boot.img. i assume you know the basics. Htc don't have s-off , so writing to nand protected system storage is restricted. If u read a little you might have got this. This will solve boot loop prob
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Fixed
Thanks Yasounet. I managed to flash viper in the end.

All back ups gone, wish this had a SD card

OK, so I'm used to phones with external SD cards where backing up was very easy. With the GN its a pain in the ass. After flashing a rom and factory resetting it, CWM can not find my back ups. I can see them with root explorer on the "sdcard" but CWM doesn't. I tried dragging them to /data/media/, but cwm doesn't see them.
I saved the back up to my pc before resetting as well. Where can I put it so CWM sees it?
I have the same problem with Titanium Back up. I backed up all apps and data, but after the wipe they were gone. I saved the back up on my PC but now I don't see a titanium backup folder to drag them too.
I realize this question has been asked before but all my research points me to dead ends.
Any help would be appreciated.
edit: was able to to drag an old backup to CWM, tried to restore and it failed. Phone is now stuck at Google logo :/. Factory resetting it again did not help.

update your CWM.

Zepius said:
update your CWM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't matter, I flashed back to stock and rerooted. How can I avoid this in the future. It seems that if I wipe data I lose my back ups. How can I save my back ups in the future?

Zepius said:
update your CWM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.....

If you just put your backup in data/media/ then CWM might not see it. Mine are in data/media/clockworkmod/backup/

This is why I use TWRP now.
I've had a bad CWM backup/restore operation fail. I think the dev of CWM is losing the ball and TWRP is starting to become the better recovery solution now.

deleted

akira02rex said:
This is why I use TWRP now.
I've had a bad CWM backup/restore operation fail. I think the dev of CWM is losing the ball and TWRP is starting to become the better recovery solution now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never once had any errors or failed operations or issues of any kind since using CWM Recovery. Even with my old phone (which was not technically CWM, but based on it). Its hard for me to blame CWM and say that those issues are NOT user error.

If you go from a 4.1.X ROM to a 4.2.X ROM then you will have this problem because it changes the file structure that android uses. Same would occur on TWR. You just need to move the files to the correct location after the fact.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

pyroemaniac said:
If you go from a 4.1.X ROM to a 4.2.X ROM then you will have this problem because it changes the file structure that android uses. Same would occur on TWR. You just need to move the files to the correct location after the fact.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem is that I tried moving the backup from the old location to the new. When I tried to restore, it failed and never was able to boot past the google logo. I had to unroot and flash back to stock. A great feature that I wish CWM had would be to direct it to where we keep the backup and just restore from there. Since the change from 4.1 to 4.2 I have read many people having similar issues.

Do you have cwm making a md5 for your backup? If not hat is the only time I've had trouble restoring. I've switched from 4.2 to 4.1 and vice versa multiple times without problems.
Also are you using cwm touch or non touch?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Also, like others have said, make sure you are using the latest CWM. You can easily get it by downloading ROM manager and selecting "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery". It will also tell you what version you have and what version is the latest.

Thanks for the help. I'm also having problems with titanium back up. I copied the backup folder before the wipe, I dragged the files back to the titanium back up folder but TB doesn't recognize the back ups.

spillner said:
Thanks for the help. I'm also having problems with titanium back up. I copied the backup folder before the wipe, I dragged the files back to the titanium back up folder but TB doesn't recognize the back ups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Titanium Backup, select menu then preferences. Scroll down and select backup folder location. Tap the "detect" button then whole device. It should find it.

Also I'd grab a cheap otg adapter... And a 32gig min flash drive to backup to. I have mine run overnight (otg w/charging port) it's basically like having external just deciding when you need it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

pyroemaniac said:
If you go from a 4.1.X ROM to a 4.2.X ROM then you will have this problem because it changes the file structure that android uses. Same would occur on TWR. You just need to move the files to the correct location after the fact.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
an up to date version of CWM or TWRP will 'move' (actually rename with the new path) your file system for you so you don't have to do it manually - that's why peeps keep on telling you to update your recovery...

help!
spillner said:
Problem is that I tried moving the backup from the old location to the new. When I tried to restore, it failed and never was able to boot past the google logo. I had to unroot and flash back to stock. A great feature that I wish CWM had would be to direct it to where we keep the backup and just restore from there. Since the change from 4.1 to 4.2 I have read many people having similar issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same exact problem. When I try to move the backup to the main sdcard directory (a 3 gig file) it fails halfway through. No matter if I use adb push or windows/mtp to copy/paste the file.
Any ideas? Please help, I just want to restore my old rom with all my data. I dont care about 4.2 if I dont have my data.
EDIT:
I FIXED IT! This is how I did it. I had backed up my SD card (including clockwork backups) to my computer using adb pull. So I used clockworkmod recovery to format the SD card and /data/media. Then I started up the phone. I used windows to copy the backups to the phone. Now when I went to clockwork and tried to use the restore backup, it worked correctly. I'm now back to my old phone

I have a solution
spillner said:
OK, so I'm used to phones with external SD cards where backing up was very easy. With the GN its a pain in the ass. After flashing a rom and factory resetting it, CWM can not find my back ups. I can see them with root explorer on the "sdcard" but CWM doesn't. I tried dragging them to /data/media/, but cwm doesn't see them.
I saved the back up to my pc before resetting as well. Where can I put it so CWM sees it?
I have the same problem with Titanium Back up. I backed up all apps and data, but after the wipe they were gone. I saved the back up on my PC but now I don't see a titanium backup folder to drag them too.
I realize this question has been asked before but all my research points me to dead ends.
Any help would be appreciated.
edit: was able to to drag an old backup to CWM, tried to restore and it failed. Phone is now stuck at Google logo :/. Factory resetting it again did not help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was able to solve this problem. Check my post (above this) and the edit! Goodluck!

Reviving this thread
I am reviving this thread because I would like to know if there is any way to preserve CWM backups and Titanium Backup files when wiping data for a new ROM install.
Is it possible to create a symlink using terminal and link to a static directory which could be protected from wiping data? This is granted the shell permits symlinks.
Thoughts?

[SPH-L710] CWM image.zip backup got phone stuck in Samsung Logo Loop

Hi,
I rooted my phone today using Chainfire's Autoroot. After doing this, I installed CWM on my phone, specifically, CWM Touch 6.0.4.3. After this, I created an image.zip backup of the phone and its data. I then, in order to test it, loaded the image.zip. It said that it was successful, but when it rebooted, it got stuck at the samsung logo. I have tried using to boot into recovery to mess around with CWM, but it does not allow me to boot into recovery. I can boot into download mode however, and reinstalled CWM in the hopes that I would be able to access it, to no avail. I also tried rerooting the phone using CF Autoroot in the hopes that it might do something, however little a chance that may have been. I know that I can flash a stock rom, but I am trying to preserve as much information and data on my phone as possible. Should I attempt to flash a stock rom, reinstall CWM and try to reload the image.zip? Or is there some other route I should take?
Thank you for your time,
Dan

MLS_Dumpster said:
Hi,
I rooted my phone today using Chainfire's Autoroot. After doing this, I installed CWM on my phone, specifically, CWM Touch 6.0.4.3. After this, I created an image.zip backup of the phone and its data. I then, in order to test it, loaded the image.zip. It said that it was successful, but when it rebooted, it got stuck at the samsung logo. I have tried using to boot into recovery to mess around with CWM, but it does not allow me to boot into recovery. I can boot into download mode however, and reinstalled CWM in the hopes that I would be able to access it, to no avail. I also tried rerooting the phone using CF Autoroot in the hopes that it might do something, however little a chance that may have been. I know that I can flash a stock rom, but I am trying to preserve as much information and data on my phone as possible. Should I attempt to flash a stock rom, reinstall CWM and try to reload the image.zip? Or is there some other route I should take?
Thank you for your time,
Dan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try wiping cache and dalvik and reboot

How would I go about doing this? I do not have access to recovery mode. Is there a program I can install to do this? Or can I accomplish this through ODIN? I know how to flash stuff using ODIN but not much else.

MLS_Dumpster said:
How would I go about doing this? I do not have access to recovery mode. Is there a program I can install to do this? Or can I accomplish this through ODIN? I know how to flash stuff using ODIN but not much else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With your phone off, press and hold power home and volume up until you see the little blue text at the top then release, will put you in recovery to wipe cache and dalvik

mattzeller said:
With your phone off, press and hold power home and volume up until you see the little blue text at the top then release, will put you in recovery to wipe cache and dalvik
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I accessed the recovery menu using your instructions, and wiped the cache partition. I tried to reboot and I have the same issue. What should I try next? I now have access to that menu if that opens up any possibilities. I am by no means an expert, but it appears as though this is a booting issue. I checked, through the recovery menu, and found all my data still on my phone, which is a good sign, but also leads me to believe that the main issue seems to pertain to the booting process.
Thanks again for your time.

MLS_Dumpster said:
I accessed the recovery menu using your instructions, and wiped the cache partition. I tried to reboot and I have the same issue. What should I try next? I now have access to that menu if that opens up any possibilities. I am by no means an expert, but it appears as though this is a booting issue. I checked, through the recovery menu, and found all my data still on my phone, which is a good sign, but also leads me to believe that the main issue seems to pertain to the booting process.
Thanks again for your time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest hooking it to your computer, backing up any data you want to keep, do a factory reset

mattzeller said:
I would suggest hooking it to your computer, backing up any data you want to keep, do a factory reset
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whenever I try to hook up my phone to the computer, it doesn't show up on my computer unless the phone is fully booted. How would I go about hooking it up?

MLS_Dumpster said:
Whenever I try to hook up my phone to the computer, it doesn't show up on my computer unless the phone is fully booted. How would I go about hooking it up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Philz, but somewhere you should see something about mounting USB, once you do that you can back up pictures and files and whatnot

mattzeller said:
I use Philz, but somewhere you should see something about mounting USB, once you do that you can back up pictures and files and whatnot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We just had a breakthrough; we were able to flash PhilZ touch onto the phone. We mounted the USB, and we were able to access the external sd card, but we still do not have access to the internal sd or boot. Theoretically, because we were able to flash PhilZ, this means the phone still has root access, and therefore, the data is still there. Now we have PhilZ working, would it be possible to make a backup of the data from the internal SD? I am looking in the menu and it gives me the option to backup to sdcard or sdcard1. How should I proceed? Is this the best option?
Thanks!

MLS_Dumpster said:
We just had a breakthrough; we were able to flash PhilZ touch onto the phone. We mounted the USB, and we were able to access the external sd card, but we still do not have access to the internal sd or boot. Theoretically, because we were able to flash PhilZ, this means the phone still has root access, and therefore, the data is still there. Now we have PhilZ working, would it be possible to make a backup of the data from the internal SD? I am looking in the menu and it gives me the option to backup to sdcard or sdcard1. How should I proceed? Is this the best option?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can make a nandroid from there, so a backup to sdcard1. What exactly are you trying to save?

mattzeller said:
Yes, you can make a nandroid from there, so a backup to sdcard1. What exactly are you trying to save?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As much as possible, most importantly my contacts, and messages. We are backing up to sd card 1 now. Correct me if I am wrong, but our course of action now would be to take the backup and either a. restore it, or b. factory reset, root phone, install philZ again, and restore then, correct? I just want to be very clear with my options before proceeding with either.
Thanks again dude!

MLS_Dumpster said:
As much as possible, most importantly my contacts, and messages. We are backing up to sd card 1 now. Correct me if I am wrong, but our course of action now would be to take the backup and either a. restore it, or b. factory reset, root phone, install philZ again, and restore then, correct? I just want to be very clear with my options before proceeding with either.
Thanks again dude!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Contacts are backed up by Google, if you are having a booting problem, backing up and restoring will not fix it. Philz does not need to be re-flashed. If you are currently on stock, reflash a stock ROM without wiping internal storage, go in backup your messages with something like Titanium Backup.

mattzeller said:
Contacts are backed up by Google, if you are having a booting problem, backing up and restoring will not fix it. Philz does not need to be re-flashed. If you are currently on stock, reflash a stock ROM without wiping internal storage, go in backup your messages with something like Titanium Backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand now what it is we need to do. In the search of a usable stock ROM, we hear it is impossible to flash 4.4.2 without losing all the data on internal storage. Is this true? Is there a way around this? If there isn't a way around it, I understand, but it would just be very inconvenient. How should we approach this?
Thanks again!