Can anyone advise how one would go about fixing the S3's internal partition tables? I believe I need to flash someone else's table?
Help!
Some context:
I've been having this issue where my S3 runs into a symlink failure/Status 7 error whenever I try to flash a Jelly Bean rom, ie. CM10/PA/Jellybro. This occurred despite me having the latest 5.8.4.7. CWM, wiped and reformatted EVERYTHING, etc. I posted a sample of where the recovery error log shows the flashing processes failing here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=30287780&postcount=302
Lots of XDA member offered advice with no avail. I remember one member mentioned something about partition tables, so I dug a little deeper. I noticed that the error log also contained error messages about missing directories and my sd-ext not mounting, which is strange since I can access my external sdcard under /mnt/extsdcard directory, and the two directory names aren't matching. So I downloaded an partition table app and saw the following:
http://imgur.com/6r4Vo
Basically, it looks like my partition tables are somehow corrupted and my sdcard and external SD is being mounted for use, but somehow...incorrectly. I'm thinking this is the likely culprit.
What was the app you ran to get that? And what rom were you running when you took that screenshot?
You said its happening when you try to flash jellybean. Do you have any problems with cm9, or stock?
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DocHoliday77 said:
What was the app you ran to get that? And what rom were you running when you took that screenshot?
You said its happening when you try to flash jellybean. Do you have any problems with cm9, or stock?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
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I ran this app called partition table.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5jbHMucGFydGl0aW9uIl0.
Oy, I missed the reviews where people are saying that this returns bogus info.
Anyways, here's the situation with what I could/could not flash
-Could not flash CM10/ParanoidA/Jellybro/one other ICS rom that I couldn't think of
-COULD flash CM9, as well as restore nandroid backup of older redrum stripped stock (which is what I ran this off of)
-Tried to flash from CWM/TWRP, neither worked
Back to the partition table, even though that app may be malfunctioning, there were still lines in the recovery error log that indicated that the loader was trying to access /sd-ext, when the external SD in my CWM is displayed as /external_sd. Also, it was trying to reference, edit, and delete from non-existent sources, which seems to indicate that these instructions are being misdirected. If this sounds like another error, I'm all ears.
Well, that is an odd problem! If stock based and other roms flash and run normally, I seriously doubt it'll be a partition related problem. While in cwm recovery, in mounts and storage did you check to make sure your sd was mounted? I may be wrong but I seem to remember some had problems with it correctly recognizing the external sd. In twrp there should be an option just above the slider to use either internal or external.
Sounds like its a problem more with your recovery to me. Try downloading goo.im from play store and use that to install the latest twrp recovery.
If that doesn't work the only other thing I can think to try is to apply the FULL latest update from samsung, UVALH I believe. Install using kies and I think it will rewrite the whole system to pure stock. You will have to reroot, but its definately worth trying before messing with the partitions. If you do that, use goo.im to reinstall twrp and give it a go again.
If I think of anything else to try ill let you know but for now that's the best I can think of.
Just to be sure what model phone do you have? T999, T999V, i9300?
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DocHoliday77 said:
Well, that is an odd problem! If stock based and other roms flash and run normally, I seriously doubt it'll be a partition related problem. While in cwm recovery, in mounts and storage did you check to make sure your sd was mounted? I may be wrong but I seem to remember some had problems with it correctly recognizing the external sd. In twrp there should be an option just above the slider to use either internal or external.
Sounds like its a problem more with your recovery to me. Try downloading goo.im from play store and use that to install the latest twrp recovery.
If that doesn't work the only other thing I can think to try is to apply the FULL latest update from samsung, UVALH I believe. Install using kies and I think it will rewrite the whole system to pure stock. You will have to reroot, but its definately worth trying before messing with the partitions. If you do that, use goo.im to reinstall twrp and give it a go again.
If I think of anything else to try ill let you know but for now that's the best I can think of.
Just to be sure what model phone do you have? T999, T999V, i9300?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
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I'm on the T999, T-Mobile.
To your question I've tried TWRP and CWM and neither works. The external SD cards were mounted in recovery during my attempts. I've actually tried using an earlier version of CWM to flash directly from the external SD card, to the exact same results.
I'll try the Samsung update; my hope is that it also provides a partition refresh. It is indeed a unique problem!
Its the best thing I can think of, so hope it fixes everything. If it is a corrupt partition it should rewrite it, so lets hope!
One other thing, what version of twrp were you using? 2.2.1.1 is the latest for our phone. I think there's an older unofficial one out there and even though it would say the sd was mounted, you would have to go into the backup section and look at available space to confirm that. There were also problems with the touch cwm recovery...
I think the way the gs3 handles the sdcard is part of the problem with those though.
Anyway, good luck! Let me know how it goes!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
DocHoliday77 said:
Its the best thing I can think of, so hope it fixes everything. If it is a corrupt partition it should rewrite it, so lets hope!
One other thing, what version of twrp were you using? 2.2.1.1 is the latest for our phone. I think there's an older unofficial one out there and even though it would say the sd was mounted, you would have to go into the backup section and look at available space to confirm that. There were also problems with the touch cwm recovery...
I think the way the gs3 handles the sdcard is part of the problem with those though.
Anyway, good luck! Let me know how it goes!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
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TWRP didn't work and neither did flashing the new Samsung update.
I'm absolutely baffled at this point. I can't find what the hell are causing these symlink errors anywhere.
Sorry I don't have any other ideas. Just to be sure though, did you flash the rooted rom, or use kies or odin to install the update directly from samsung?
Actually, one or two more ideas, though I wouldn't expect much at this point.
You could try using odin to reflash the original shipped version....you never know.
Or
Go into the updater-script and wherever it tries to use /sd-ext, change it to /external_sd, or whatever your error log says its looking for.
Definately ask another dev if its worth trying before doing that!
You may want to examine what is happening with any simlinks in there as well. Unfortunately Im probably not the best person to troubleshoot that stuff. But if you want to attach a copy of your logfile ill be glad to take a look.
Sorry I haven't been better help for you.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
DocHoliday77 said:
Sorry I don't have any other ideas. Just to be sure though, did you flash the rooted rom, or use kies or odin to install the update directly from samsung?
Actually, one or two more ideas, though I wouldn't expect much at this point.
You could try using odin to reflash the original shipped version....you never know.
Or
Go into the updater-script and wherever it tries to use /sd-ext, change it to /external_sd, or whatever your error log says its looking for.
Definately ask another dev if its worth trying before doing that!
You may want to examine what is happening with any simlinks in there as well. Unfortunately Im probably not the best person to troubleshoot that stuff. But if you want to attach a copy of your logfile ill be glad to take a look.
Sorry I haven't been better help for you.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
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No I'm more than appreciative, believe me.
I've attached some log files from various attempts. There are some common error lines, including various referencing missing directories and such.
W:Unable to get recovery.fstab info for /datadata during fstab generation!
W:Unable to get recovery.fstab info for /emmc during fstab generation!
W:Unable to get recovery.fstab info for /sd-ext during fstab generation!
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Cool, just got home so ill take a look at these in a bit.
In the meantime there's a new rom, Speed Rom which you may want to try. A few min ago I saw the dev had posted that it is in fact based on cm10.
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DocHoliday77 said:
Cool, just got home so ill take a look at these in a bit.
In the meantime there's a new rom, Speed Rom which you may want to try. A few min ago I saw the dev had posted that it is in fact based on cm10.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
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Hey, I actually fixed it; It turns out I had to reflash a stock insecure kernel, reboot into recovery, AND force a signature check to get it to work. It's strange, because the first flash had some issues and upon trying to reflash it I had to repeat the whole kernel flash process all over again or else it ran into the same symlink error.
I had tried flashing other kernels before but still had errors; it took be sitting down and flashing every kernel for the phone I could find, paired with a ODIN stock flash, to get it to work. I'm still not sure why this phone seems to have this sensitivity about it.
Anyways, thanks for your help; I'm going to post this around in case anyone else has this issue.
Awesome! Great work figuring that out!
(And props for changing the title!)
I'm still a little confused as to why symlinks were failing, but in the end as long as there's a resolution Im thinking it'll be ok!
After getting it to install again have you tried installing anything from recovery? Just curious if its a problem you will have to dance around on future flashes, or if this seems to have solved it altogether.
Either way, excellent job! I love solutions!
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DocHoliday77 said:
Awesome! Great work figuring that out!
(And props for changing the title!)
I'm still a little confused as to why symlinks were failing, but in the end as long as there's a resolution Im thinking it'll be ok!
After getting it to install again have you tried installing anything from recovery? Just curious if its a problem you will have to dance around on future flashes, or if this seems to have solved it altogether.
Either way, excellent job! I love solutions!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
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I just can't tell. And it's also worth noting that that failure occurred with different kernels.
I'm going to flash more JB roms as they come along but I'll have backups ready this time. Ostensibly, now that I have a base down I should be able to get around similar errors with a little elbow grease, as opposed to days of OCD-driven anguish. But you'll note that I already ran into the error right after successfully flashed it the first time. I still feel like there's some setting or another that needs to be adjusted in the background. But for now, at least I can sleep.
Cheers and thanks for the help and suggestions mate. :good:
Rest well! You deserve it after all that!
And id be keeping multiple nandroid backups laying around!
Anyway, I've only had a chance to glance at those logs you posted. Now that things have calmed down ill look at em more closely in case anything jumps out at me. I think you are probably right that there is still some issue in there somewhere. I don't know about you but I hate that feeling!
But at least that sense of urgency is diminished!
Ill let you know if I find anything a little later.
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DocHoliday77 said:
Rest well! You deserve it after all that!
And id be keeping multiple nandroid backups laying around!
Anyway, I've only had a chance to glance at those logs you posted. Now that things have calmed down ill look at em more closely in case anything jumps out at me. I think you are probably right that there is still some issue in there somewhere. I don't know about you but I hate that feeling!
But at least that sense of urgency is diminished!
Ill let you know if I find anything a little later.
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I just tried to flash the latest 8/20 CM10 with all of the aforementioned precautions and it failed a couple of times, even reflashing the 8/18 rom from last night didn't work. It seems like after several tries it just...clicked? And it then did flash.
I wonder if it's a bad sector in my internal memory?
Ugh, I would hope not. How long have you had the phone? If you can it may be worth thinking about trying to exchange for another.
Bad memory can cause all sorts of crazy problems. If it were me I might not want to risk waiting to see how it goes.
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I have similar issues. If I flash speed rom or any cm10, I get the error. Also if I flash wicked v2 it won't boot, this is a rom based on stock4.0.4. My question is where did you find the signature verification? I have stock recovery 3e I believe, but don't see that option.
Btw, all other roms flash and run fine, including aokp, wicked v1, xquisite, and everything else.
You'll have to have a custom recovery installed.
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feckmu said:
I have similar issues. If I flash speed rom or any cm10, I get the error. Also if I flash wicked v2 it won't boot, this is a rom based on stock4.0.4. My question is where did you find the signature verification? I have stock recovery 3e I believe, but don't see that option.
Btw, all other roms flash and run fine, including aokp, wicked v1, xquisite, and everything else.
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DocHoliday77 said:
You'll have to have a custom recovery installed.
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Right, you'll want CWM or (I think) TWRP. CWM definitely has it; you should be able to flash it from rom manager if nothing else.
Meh, looks like I'm right back where i started, symlink failures up the wazoo again.
Need to find way to flash roms in ODIN, if that's even possible.
So can someone help me with these problem I'm having.
This has been tested on two epics and the results are pretty much the same but I can't seem to understand whyyy.
Ever since FC09 TW ROMs I've always had these problems. I would wipe everything 3x and I would install the ROM and I would have something broken, either music, video, or pictures. This issue has been on different ROMs and different epics. Everytime I install a ROM one of those 3 has to be broken.
I flashed thunderhawk on my phone and videos always fc'ed no mattter what player I used.
I flashed it on my cuzins phone and music was a problem for him. No music players would work
I flashed TPR and I lost video once again.
I flashed stock deodexed on my cuzins phone and video broke for him.
I flashed mortify rom on my cuzins phone and gallery FC'es.
And when I say something breaks it literally will not work whatsoever. No matter what app I download or what I wipe or how I install it, it just will not work.
What am I doing wrong here? This problem is only on TW ROMs.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda app-developers app
Odin back to FC09. Test these features on stock rom. IF they work, then flash CWM and then a select rom. Test again. Make a backup in CWM.
Odin again, test features again. Flash CWM and select rom. Test again. Make backup in CWM.... rinse repeat.
Once you do that, you should have working backups of each rom to work from.
Since videos, music and pix are on your sd card I suspect your card is failing.
nikon120 said:
Odin back to FC09. Test these features on stock rom. IF they work, then flash CWM and then a select rom. Test again. Make a backup in CWM.
Odin again, test features again. Flash CWM and select rom. Test again. Make backup in CWM.... rinse repeat.
Once you do that, you should have working backups of each rom to work from.
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I could try that when I get some time.
kennyglass123 said:
Since videos, music and pix are on your sd card I suspect your card is failing.
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And this may be a reason but I don't think that both of our sd cards are messed up. Unless it has to do with flashing roms and switching sd cards since I have most the roms on my memory card and I flash them and remove the memory card.
I'm gonna try the odin test to see what happens.
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lilajrestnom said:
I could try that when I get some time.
And this may be a reason but I don't think that both of our sd cards are messed up. Unless it has to do with flashing roms and switching sd cards since I have most the roms on my memory card and I flash them and remove the memory card.
I'm gonna try the odin test to see what happens.
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Do you swap the correct card back before booting the ROM for the first time and did you make sure there isn't a .nomedia file in any of the directories giving you trouble?
kennyglass123 said:
Do you swap the correct card back before booting the ROM for the first time and did you make sure there isn't a .nomedia file in any of the directories giving you trouble?
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I flashed a lot of times so I'm not sure which memory card was in the phone at its first boot, but it most likely would be the wrong one.
And yes, there isn't no .nomedia file in any of those.
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Just a little side off-topic quuestion cuz I don't feel like making a new thread. Is there any file explorers that let's me go into data/apps and delete things without having root?
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lilajrestnom said:
Just a little side off-topic quuestion cuz I don't feel like making a new thread. Is there any file explorers that let's me go into data/apps and delete things without having root?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda app-developers app
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No. Without root you cannot make system writeable.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
Just tried updating my moms phone with an official stock build with an update from the Sammy website and it has effectively destroyed her internal storage. She has no SDcard and we can't figure out why the internal sdcard will no longer mount. Can anyone help me?
Shes gonna be pissed she lost all her photos from her trip
Try going to the Rwilco12 repository and downloading the latest GB27 restore. Flash that and it should fix the issue. What happened sounds like your phone didn't set up the partitions properly. You more than likely didn't lose any data. It's just that the partition is messed up and cant be seen.
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graydiggy said:
Try going to the Rwilco12 repository and downloading the latest GB27 restore. Flash that and it should fix the issue. What happened sounds like your phone didn't set up the partitions properly. You more than likely didn't lose any data. It's just that the partition is messed up and cant be seen.
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yeah I ended up flashing back to 4.0.4 but it wouldn't boot so I flashed GB27 NODATA back over. It fixed my issue, but now all the files are gone. Im looking to root now and maybe recover if possible. We'll see
Look for a data recovery app. Your data should still be there. As long as it isn't over written, it should be recoverable.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Yeah, gave that a shot and it was all done. But everything works now, so mom should be happy. Now time to hack and hopefully not break my phone
Flowed from my Galaxy Note 2.
Ok, so this is probably a stupid question, but the last time I tried to do a factory reset on my phone and install and format a new sd card I ended up soft bricking my phone and I don't want that to happen again because I don't have a computer at my house. But...if I'm running stock JB 4.1.2 flashed thru odin, rooted, and I have TWRP installed can I change sd cards without a problem? Or, are there files on my current sd card that the phone needs to read the recovery or root or whatever? Thanks.
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Danyelle39 said:
Ok, so this is probably a stupid question, but the last time I tried to do a factory reset on my phone and install and format a new sd card I ended up soft bricking my phone and I don't want that to happen again because I don't have a computer at my house. But...if I'm running stock JB 4.1.2 flashed thru odin, rooted, and I have TWRP installed can I change sd cards without a problem? Or, are there files on my current sd card that the phone needs to read the recovery or root or whatever? Thanks.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
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I may be wrong but I'd say you need your SD card with your recovery on it to be in your phone.. I've never really tried removing the SD card.. Good question tho.
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Thanks! That's exactly what I was thinking but I needed a second opinion. I am wanting to switch sd cards bc I've got way too many pictures on it and I really don't have time to borrow someone's computer and sit down and go thru what I to keep, then organize them all and put them on disc....so I was hoping to just start fresh on a new card for now, but it doesn't look like it's gonna be that easy. So, would I have to put the new sd card in my phone then flash the recovery via odin? Or would I have to reflash the stock Rom or what? Any suggestions?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Just turn your phone off and switch SD cards. Nothing should happen to your recovery.
What about super user
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I tried that and it soft bricked my phone.
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Danyelle39 said:
I tried that and it soft bricked my phone.
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I don't know what to tell you. I have no problem switching SD cards. Did it earlier today.
My guess would be to make sure to have either twrp or what ever recovery you use on the new SD card you want to use.
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Pajar0913 said:
My guess would be to make sure to have either twrp or what ever recovery you use on the new SD card you want to use.
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When you flash a recovery it is installed to your phones internal memory. Not to the external SD card.
OK so here is a deal, today i flashed my first 4.2 rom tried the latest MiBox 4.2 and first had problems in the rom itself. did a clean flash and now any of songs are showing up along with 0 images and videos? i gotta say my first aosp rom experience on my note 2 has SUCKED so far so i just want to go back to TW 4.1 on the asap. what do i need todo in order to go back to TW safe?? please help have a messed up rom with no way out.
What happened is that all your photos and documents are stored on a different partition. They're still there they just need moved over... Or just save everything on your extSD card.
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Skripka said:
What happened is that all your photos and documents are stored on a different partition. They're still there they just need moved over... Or just save everything on your extSD card.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 4
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how can i return to TW 4.1?
chuko303 said:
how can i return to TW 4.1?
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Just flash back to Twiz. All your stuff is still there where it was and will be when you flash back, it is just locked in a partition that is not accessible inside AOSP ROMs. Move your stuff over to your external SD card, and then enjoy AOSP. The different partitions is due to a changing of naming convention between TWiz 4.1 and AOSP 4.2 etc. Ofc, it depends on how "clean" you flashed and whether you fully wiped the /data/media partition-which shouldn't be wiped unless you tell TWRP to.
There's a flashable zip file somewhere to move stuff between the AOSP and TWiz partitions automagically. I never use it. Putting everything on the extSD is simpler.
Skripka said:
Just flash back to Twiz. All your stuff is still there where it was and will be when you flash back, it is just locked in a partition that is not accessible inside AOSP ROMs. Move your stuff over to your external SD card, and then enjoy AOSP. The different partitions is due to a changing of naming convention between TWiz 4.1 and AOSP 4.2 etc.
There's a flashable zip file somewhere to move stuff between the AOSP and TWiz partitions automagically. I never use it. Putting everything on the extSD is simpler.
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I heard that something can happen and you can loose everything. I would rather flash that zip your talking about but I have no clue
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chuko303 said:
I heard that something can happen and you can loose everything. I would rather flash that zip your talking about but I have no clue
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That "something" only happens if you have an external SD card that is *not* formatted FAT32...which odds are unless you did something out of your way really special-your card is FAT32.
Skripka said:
That "something" only happens if you have an external SD card that is *not* formatted FAT32...which odds are unless you did something out of your way really special-your card is FAT32.
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I have a 32gb. Don't only 64 GB need to be formated to FAT32?
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Found the downgrade zip. Now just charging phone before I flash labrats then the zip after then boot I should be fine.
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