Are you unsure about rooting? - Galaxy Note II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I was too, until yesterday.
Why was I unsure?
Because I was afraid of loosing warranty of such an awsome and expensive phone.
What was the reason that I rooted it anyways?
I wanted to flash the latest stock ROM from Germany to my Austrian phone via Odin and so I had to make a full wipe.
Then I thought that I wouldn't root it if I didn't do it now, because i hate to backup and restore everything.
If you stay at stock ROM and keep the stock recovery, I think you won't loose your warranty if anything happens to the phone.
If you flash a custom kernel, you have to set Triange Away to reset the flash counter on each boot (only if your kernel supports it).
I read a lot about it and decided to root it with CF Auto Root (Step 1 in that post), because it keeps the stock recovery.
AFAIK the kernel of the CWM recovery isn't SDS proove. And Nandroid Backups are not that important for me, because I don't plan to change the ROM often.
I also have read a lot about custom kernels. They unleash the full power of android!
So after reading the latest change log entries and lots of posts in the Perseus Kernel Thread, I decided to flash this kernel using Odin.
After wiping dalvik cache with Andromizer (since I don't have CWM) and wiping battery stats using Battery Calibration Free (since I don't have CWM), I felt like Alice in Wonderland!
MY PHONE WAS FAST AS HELL!
Then I found a new app called STweaks and I couldn't stop to grin.
All I thought was: Why didn't I do this earlier????
So if you are unsure about rooting your phone, I hope this article helped you and you begin rooting your phone now.

muena90 said:
If you stay at stock ROM, keep the stock recovery and set Triange Away to reset the flash counter on each boot I think you won't loose your warranty if anything happens to the phone. (Please correct me if I am wrong)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are having stock recovery and kernel, no need to set reset countr at every boot, you need it just once then you can uninstall Triangle away.
You need to reset counter on every boot only if you have custom recovery/Kernel.
Again you need to have support in your custom kernel to use this option(reset counter at every boot)

dr.ketan said:
If you are having stock recovery and kernel, no need to set reset countr at every boot, you need it just once then you can uninstall Triangle away.
You need to reset counter on every boot only if you have custom recovery/Kernel.
Again you need to have support in your custom kernel to use this option(reset counter at every boot)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I just updated my post.

As a techie who knows he's unlikely to end up bricking it (and accepts that if I do it's probably my fault for doing something stupid) I'll not be intimidated by Samsung not to root, just like I wasn't intimidated by HTC, and I'm sure it's probably not me (but rather, non-techies) who they're trying to intimidate.
Besides, from what I was reading you just have to put it back to stock to get your warranty back. But even if a fault developed that bricked it (and not of my own doing, but I'd never overclock or anything anyway and am unlikely to do anything stupid), as I'm in the UK and we have a lot of consumer rights, I'd just keep parroting the Sale of Goods Act at them and possibly threatening a small claims court until they got the message
It's like rooting any other Android phone: naturally they won't help you with it, and I can see where they're coming from in that they won't do warranty returns if a non-technical person tries it and screws it up and then claims that it's faulty. That's what they mean - not genuine hardware faults, but being asked to cover a bad flash. So basically: only do it if you're confident, and it's at your own risk if you don't have a clue what you're doing. But it's quite difficult (if not impossible?) to permanently brick to the point where you can't even get to ODIN download mode, it's just that a lot of people think "won't boot into a working OS" means "bricked" and throw the towel in. (Personally I think it's difficult to even "brick" the OS as long as you take your time and read the instructions properly). That's where you can get unstuck as there's nothing actually wrong with the phone's hardware you just don't know what you're doing and that's where they're within their rights to say "no" to helping you out with a free unbricking or replacement. Even within consumer laws.
There's less reason to be put off than with a HTC phone, as the bootloader isn't locked so you don't have to go through the tedium of a full wipe and having to download all your apps again.
I do find that people who develop tools and tutorials tend to overcomplicate it with paragraphs of instructions and complex UIs full of a billion functions and tabs. Here's how I do it in Arch Linux:
Install Heimdall.https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/heimdall/
Get CWM Recovery: http://www.clockworkmod.com/rommanager
Download the touch version for Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (HSPA+)
Get CWM-SuperSU: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538053
Copy it to the SD storage.
To copy to SD storage if MTP isn't working in Arch:
Code:
sudo pacman -S libmtp
mtp-detect
mtp-connect
mtp-sendfile UPDATE-SuperSU-vx.xx.zip UPDATE-SuperSU-vx.xx.zip
Plug phone into PC
Turn it off
Hold down Volume DOWN, home and power until download mode screen appears. Press volume up to accept flash mode warning.
sudo heimdall flash --no-reboot --recovery recovery-clockwork-touch-x.x.x.x-n7100.bin
This should work, if not try a different USB port, try re-entering download mode etc.
While still at the download mode screen (if you reboot completely it'll re-flash recovery to stock) hold Volume UP, home and power until the Samsung logo repeats itself then let go, eventually CWM Recovery will appear.
Install zip from SD card
Select the CWM SuperSU zip
Reboot
That's it!
Nothing more complicated than that. In Windows you just basically use ODIN to do the same thing, but this is one of those occasions where things are actually easier to do in Linux than Windows.
Edit: Obviously you follow the above at your own risk and should learn how everything works - I'm just sharing my own notes to show how easy it can be.

Cloudane said:
As a techie who knows he's unlikely to end up bricking it (and accepts that if I do it's probably my fault for doing something stupid) I'll not be intimidated by Samsung not to root, just like I wasn't intimidated by HTC, and I'm sure it's probably not me (but rather, non-techies) who they're trying to intimidate.
Besides, from what I was reading you just have to put it back to stock to get your warranty back. But even if a fault developed that bricked it (and not of my own doing, but I'd never overclock or anything anyway and am unlikely to do anything stupid), as I'm in the UK and we have a lot of consumer rights, I'd just keep parroting the Sale of Goods Act at them and possibly threatening a small claims court until they got the message
It's like rooting any other Android phone: naturally they won't help you with it, and I can see where they're coming from in that they won't do warranty returns if a non-technical person tries it and screws it up and then claims that it's faulty. That's what they mean - not genuine hardware faults, but being asked to cover a bad flash. So basically: only do it if you're confident, and it's at your own risk if you don't have a clue what you're doing. But it's quite difficult (if not impossible?) to permanently brick to the point where you can't even get to ODIN download mode, it's just that a lot of people think "won't boot into a working OS" means "bricked" and throw the towel in. (Personally I think it's difficult to even "brick" the OS as long as you take your time and read the instructions properly). That's where you can get unstuck as there's nothing actually wrong with the phone's hardware you just don't know what you're doing and that's where they're within their rights to say "no" to helping you out with a free unbricking or replacement. Even within consumer laws.
There's less reason to be put off than with a HTC phone, as the bootloader isn't locked so you don't have to go through the tedium of a full wipe and having to download all your apps again.
I do find that people who develop tools and tutorials tend to overcomplicate it with paragraphs of instructions and complex UIs full of a billion functions and tabs. Here's how I do it in Arch Linux:
Install Heimdall.https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/heimdall/
Get CWM Recovery: http://www.clockworkmod.com/rommanager
Download the touch version for Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (HSPA+)
Get CWM-SuperSU: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538053
Copy it to the SD storage.
To copy to SD storage if MTP isn't working in Arch:
Code:
sudo pacman -S libmtp
mtp-detect
mtp-connect
mtp-sendfile UPDATE-SuperSU-vx.xx.zip UPDATE-SuperSU-vx.xx.zip
Plug phone into PC
Turn it off
Hold down Volume DOWN, home and power until download mode screen appears. Press volume up to accept flash mode warning.
sudo heimdall flash --no-reboot --recovery recovery-clockwork-touch-x.x.x.x-n7100.bin
This should work, if not try a different USB port, try re-entering download mode etc.
While still at the download mode screen (if you reboot completely it'll re-flash recovery to stock) hold Volume UP, home and power until the Samsung logo repeats itself then let go, eventually CWM Recovery will appear.
Install zip from SD card
Select the CWM SuperSU zip
Reboot
That's it!
Nothing more complicated than that. In Windows you just basically use ODIN to do the same thing, but this is one of those occasions where things are actually easier to do in Linux than Windows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fully confirm!
It's more likely that your phone dies because it decides to take a round in the washing machine (like my last one) than you brick it.
I first thought about providing a fool-proove step by step manual how to root your Note 2 and flash a custom kernel.
But then I thought that if anyone wants to root his phone, he should read into it himself, so he knows what he's doing.

Rooting is easy when you understand ehat you are doing. When my brother bought his Kindle Fire I discover the wonderful world of Android so I came up with an idea, root my brother's Kindle, my brother let me do it because as we live in South America the Kindle not longer have guarantee, so I plug the tablet to my PC and began the process. I was so nervous that I committed a lot of mistakes that result in the Kindle bricking twice. At the third try I made it and we began installing ROMs and Kernels, the I bought the little Galaxy Y. That phone was the most modified think I ever see. I installed like 20 custom ROMs, Kernels Scripts and anything I found in XDA. Then my father see my affection to Android and borrow me the Galaxy Note II so in a big step I remember how great was rooting benefits and thats why I rooted the phone, now my other brother is buying a Nexus 4 and we just can't stop talking about root benefits.
Thats a long story
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk HD

Related

Brick or not to brick

Hi!
(sorry for my bad english)
Sorry if this is not correct place to put this question.
I'm new to Desire and come from an old G1. Searching this forum for unlock+root my Desire, I noticed the USB brick problem.
I'm very confused about this, because there is a fix for the brick. So, I think that is not a real problem if I brick the phone, because the fix.
But, what are the risk for brick my phone ? For the unlock, for the root, for the ROM upgrade ?
If a fix was discovered, what unlock+root method is correct to not brick the phone ?
USB bricks are not related to this operations ?
I'm just want to operator unlock the phone, got root so I can use Titanum Backup to restore my previuosly apps+data (not settings) from my old G1.
It's possible to got root and stay on the stock ROM ? If not, what custom ROM is best ??
Thanks to all.
As far as i know you can't exactly tell what the reason is for bricking.
I have flashed my phone over 50+ times without a brick, and after that managed to brick it, fix it and brick it again the next day.
It is a gamble to see if it bricks or not, but you can fix it.
There are no 100% safe methods that i can tell.
There are "sort of" stock roms that have build in root functionality that you can download from xda. But the official HTC releases do not give you the option to fully use "root" designed programs.
What custom rom is best depens on the user. Just browse through the custom roms and try one out. If you don't like it you can always flash another one ^.^
For a Stock ROM with root head over to MoDaCo and sign up to their forum, you can get a stock ROM (as in everything is as it is now) but with root access - OR you can bake your own ROMs and take out apps you don't use (but you need to be on a pay subscription for that)
Failing that, there are a few ROMs kocking about on here so take a look around
The new fixed recovery will prevent you from getting a usb brick in theroy
JD
What fixed recovery?
I managed to a brick twice with AMdesireRecovery, or is there a better one out now except for the pc-less version that is released today?
In taking about the pc less version, no pc equals no usb brick! What more do you want? Lollol, a gold plated recovery perhaps? Lol
JD
JupiterDroid said:
In taking about the pc less version, no pc equals no usb brick! What more do you want? Lollol, a gold plated recovery perhaps? Lol
JD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what i understand USB brick is caused by the Recovery files being written to somewhere it shouldn't have, putting it in to debugging mode (or something) which in turn disabled USB... this is why it is USB brick, NOT because using USB caused it!!
So theoretically, running the recovery from Sd-card only removes the need to use USB to push the Recovery files... But does not get rid of the issue of the recovery files being written to somewhere they shouldn't...
No where in the PC Less Recovery thread does Paul or Koush say that it will prevent USB Bricks or anything of the sort... They just state that the have recovery running from an Sd-card.
viper_campbell said:
From what i understand USB brick is caused by the Recovery files being written to somewhere it shouldn't have, putting it in to debugging mode (or something) which in turn disabled USB... this is why it is USB brick, NOT because using USB caused it!!
So theoretically, running the recovery from Sd-card only removes the need to use USB to push the Recovery files... But does not get rid of the issue of the recovery files being written to somewhere they shouldn't...
No where in the PC Less Recovery thread does Paul or Koush say that it will prevent USB Bricks or anything of the sort... They just state that the have recovery running from an Sd-card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They wont say it untill they know for sure, but i think this recovery will not cause usb bricks. Im sure the recovery will be wrote to a different place than it was before using this method, or may even stay on the sdcard altogether... Im not sure how this process works but it very much looks like this will make usb bricks a thing of the past
Well i hope so anyway, lets hope no more usb bricks,
as its horrible to resolve, easier now, but horrible
JD))

HELP! Trying to figure out how to unbrick my Galaxy Nexus.

So today I was minding my own business, riding the subway and listening to some music when my Galaxy Nexus decides to reboot itself. After this, it gets into a reboot loop (never getting past the Google logo).
I tried restarting the phone into fastboot mode and using the recovery option, but I end up getting the icon of the android on its back, chest plate open and a red exclamation triangle thing coming out of it. I assume this is bad
A little back story... this is the GSM/Euro Galaxy Nexus. I've been using it for close to 6 months most likely and have never rooted/unlocked it. In actuality, I don't think I've ever done anything with it out of the ordinary (like I have in the past with other android devices). In fact, I don't know if I ever even plugged it into my PC via USB before (thus no drivers, may have never set it to USB debugging enabled).
Is there anything I can do here? I tried looking at a few options (Such as the WugFresh Galaxy Nexus Root Toolkit, which has a Stock resetting option), but since I never enabled USB debugging and installed drivers before the phone decided to go and brick itself, I don't know if I'm actually stuck...
What do you think? Is there an option I have not yet considered? Or am I going to try and convince Samsung to honor my warranty or something?
Moved to Q&A, please pay attention next time where you are opening a new discussion
When you see the android on its back you have to hold vol. up + power to enter the options.
There you can wipe data and reboot to see if it will boot up again.
If that doesn't work you can try flashing the stock images. Those will require you setting up fastboot on your computer. There are many guides on how to do all of that.
Good luck.
If you can get into Fastboot mode just fine, then hook it up to your computer and flash the stock images. It'll revert you back to stock fresh and you can go from there.
We also need to teach people how to debug at basic level at least. If we just teach them how to solve it without caring about what went wrong... they've got the phone might as well learn a few things more.
And yea, i know most couldn't care less. Also, this is no brick - this word very much starts to annoy me when it is incorrectly used and that seems to be getting typical around here. Most likely wiping data/factory reset from stock recovery will allow op to boot up again.
i had the same happening to me under stock. after quite some time it went into a bootloop out of the blue.
this:
bk201doesntexist said:
Most likely wiping data/factory reset from stock recovery will allow op to boot up again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
solved it. my data was gone, but at least the phone worked.
then i decided to root and use a custom rom and it never ever happened again.
bk201doesntexist said:
We also need to teach people how to debug at basic level at least. If we just teach them how to solve it without caring about what went wrong... they've got the phone might as well learn a few things more.
And yea, i know most couldn't care less. Also, this is no brick - this word very much starts to annoy me when it is incorrectly used and that seems to be getting typical around here. Most likely wiping data/factory reset from stock recovery will allow op to boot up again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure we do but as long as :
1. people start threads that suggest they bricked their phone and
2. all they had to do is Google some around to discover that what they see is a stock recovery and
3. discover what they can do to solve their problems (like most of us do to solve our problems)
I think they couldn't care less about debugging... How sad as it may be.
If you discover problems with a device that is sold as much as the GN it is highly unlikely that you were the first to have that problem. If you are: just post away.

[Q] Need help / Advice possible Brick :D

So, hey guys, i've used this site a lot in the past, but now i need some help / advice, so i've registered. The following isn't going to be pretty but i'll explain it as best as i can.... infact, i can paste the email i sent to Sony asking for advice, it was this morning, i don't know if they operate or care
Hello people at Sony, my stupid head appears to have bricked my Xperia Arc S Android phone, it was still under warranty until i decided to unlock the bootloader, then i was having trouble restoring it back to stock android, this resulted in me trying to lock the bootloader. But alas, nothing now happens except a lonely green light flashing every so often, if i hold down menu, a blue light appears, which is charming, but then it dissipates and im left lonely again. With just a bricked phone and little dignity.
What are my options, by rules, it's void of warranty, can it be fixed? Can i pay for it to be fixed? Will my Natwest Insurance cover it on the grounds of Accidental damage (My stupidity) and Breakdown due to electrical fault, that being, no electrical softwareness is been transitorized.
I decided to go custom due to the wait for the Xperia update for my phone, out of the 273 S-I variant versions of the Arc S, 246 have gotten the update, but not mine, months had gone by, day turned to night, night turned to day, and i got desperate, i decided to root... for the first time. (And now last)
What i did learn, apart from technology will rise up and defeat us all, is JellyBean works very well to some degree on this phone, HOWEVER, the lack of Flash player caused bad results when playing content, im not sure what piece of code on the JellyBean CM10/Paranoid Android release was rendering it, but if you can get past the lack of flash for this and render images in its mobile bravia engineness then it will work a treat, and i mean it, it really did run well, obviously it was customness, but i digress...
Can anything be done? I do so love my Arc S, and just so you know, if it can't be repaired and I have to change phones, it will still wear the brand logo... Sony Ericsson... and if its your newer phones, that lack Eric's Son, i shall scribe his name proudly across the top with a sharp implement with pride. (With the care of an Adult, or someone equally minded)
Thank you lovely people over at Sony.
Stuart Herrington
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, basically it doesnt boot, apart from it does vibrate with button holds and the LED flashes. I tried flashing it with flashtool and stock ROM, but flashtool came back saying it needed unknown sources and debugging mode activated, which makes me think, it could be salvagable and not bricked, however how can i change those settings if i can't get into the phone itself, is there a bypass?
On a side note, i can Hold Menu, plug the phone into my computer and it goes into blue light mode, i cant remember the term for this
but its what i was using for flashboot, you reckon i could flashboot out of this? I was trying so many different methods to try and custom rom my phone that everything got confusing, which was best to use etc, and on another note the phone never booted when i tried to relock it, so im unaware if it finished, it didnt boot at all, and this is the point im at now.
Fortunately i picked up a Xperia U for £135, second hand, actually cheaper than my Arc S second hand, crazy really, but you can see why with the size difference and a couple of small spec differences.
Any help would be appreciated. This isn't obviously the best situation but i'm wondering if anyone has encountered this stupid mistake i've cast upon myself XD
Thanks in advance.
Wait...
I've checked the fastboot status of my phone using Flashtools, and it says my phone needs to be rooted first... hmmm it was rooted, maybe it got undone with the bootloader thing, i guess i can try but i can't access the phone to debugg or allow unknown sources.
Hi Stu15,
The fact that you can boot holding down the menu button is good.
You can probably flash a custom kernel onto your phone this way using the following command.
Code:
fastboot flash boot boot.img
If you have a rom that you want to use, then it usually comes with a custom kernel (called boot.img most of the time) inside the rom's zip file.
Most custom kernels have CWM recovery built-in, and here's the trick to enter recovery -
After you turn on the phone, wait for the hardware keys to light up.
Just in case you miss this, the coloured led will light up purple at the same time
When this happens, press (and release) the "volume down" button once or twice.
Then you should see CWM recovery in a few seconds.
So what you do is copy the rom to your sd card (just plug the card into your computer to do this).
Then flash the custom kernel that came with the rom.
Then boot into CWM and flash the rom (you should clear the cache and the dalvik cache before flashing the rom).
If you don't have a preferred rom, then have a look at this thread - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1653188
It has lotd of helpful links, near the bottom of the 1st post are a few roms you can try.
I hope that you come right.
Take care,
Hotfingers
Thanks for the info, ive tried this and apparently my phone isnt rooted anymore, it must've locked itself why i tried to undo the rom install, my recovery wasnt working so i was left with little choice. I can try and root the phone but i dont think it will be possible without accessing debugging mode, which is in the phone.. doh
im going to try adb commands to try and work something, then insurance claim. woop :/ lol
[EDIT] IM BACK, im in lol, i managed to find the command to unlock the bootloader, so now im back into CWM, the problem is the recovery doesnt work, so im reinstalling the original package, go into the phone, usb debugging and unknown sources, then i will flash it with stock ROM, should work. best work, i dont know why i did this in the first place... guess i had to learn XD
stu15 said:
Thanks for the info, ive tried this and apparently my phone isnt rooted anymore, it must've locked itself why i tried to undo the rom install, my recovery wasnt working so i was left with little choice. I can try and root the phone but i dont think it will be possible without accessing debugging mode, which is in the phone.. doh
im going to try adb commands to try and work something, then insurance claim. woop :/ lol
[EDIT] IM BACK, im in lol, i managed to find the command to unlock the bootloader, so now im back into CWM, the problem is the recovery doesnt work, so im reinstalling the original package, go into the phone, usb debugging and unknown sources, then i will flash it with stock ROM, should work. best work, i dont know why i did this in the first place... guess i had to learn XD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cool, well done. :good:

[Q] borked /system

I'm a total newb at hacking on my device, and my device wont start. I've got a bone stock t889, never been rooted or tampered with. for the last month or so when i reboot the device, i'm greeted with something about my UUID's being messed up (please forgive my lack of proper terminology here, i can't remember exactly and thats what my memory serves) and to proceed with caution. So i click the "I'm feeling lucky button" and continue on with normal use. Things were'nt totally right, apps wouldnt work and would randomly shut off. I let the device die one night. it got stuck and wouldnt reboot - hangs on the "Samsung Note 2" screen. If i plug in the charger it hangs on the image of the drained battery (wont show the battery with a little bit of green).
Now really getting to the point ... Just for poking around's sake i gave it the 3 finger salute and brought up recovery - which worked. It however speaks of system errors. Here what i see verbatim `E:failed to mount /system (Invalid arguments)`. It also says something about `# Manual Mode #` and then some more failed to mount (same as before).
So, can someone shed some light on whats going on? I did a factory reset/cache reset if that matters. Ultimately id like to just wipe everything and a newer os on it like 5.0.
So my second question is, with my device in this jacked up state, can/how would i go about flashing everything?
Like i said, im new to all this and have googled around on lunch breaks and have come across all kinds of stuff on rooting the device / copying files to it first then going into recovery ... / using odin to just do it / < enter x amount of articels on the subject >. I'm not totally sure where which way to turn.
Thanks for any help!
i would say try to odin it back to stock 4.3 with the factory image available on sammobile.com. read up before you do it though. theres plenty of walkthroughs for it
thanks, but im still on 4.3. i've done nothing to the device. i'm gathering intel before doing something.
initial post was long winded, togonna boil it down:
- can i recover from an error such as "E:failed to load /system (invalid arguments)" ?
- can i recover my device if and only if its booting only into recovery.
i know its a possibility, but i dont want to permabrick this thing if i can help it.
thats why you odin it back to stock. it'll put it or should put it back to the way it was when you took it out the box
tmobile hasn't released 4.4.2 for our note 2's yet let alone 5.0, which is why i said 4.3
sounds to me like a hardware issue which odin won't fix but worth A shot to get it working.
other then that i don't know what to tell ya.
ok understood re the versions.
im on a mac, so i dont have odin. i tried jodin3/heimdal, but given the state of my device i can't connect to it. adb wont detect. however, if i putthe device into "apply update from adb" or "apply update from external storage" i can get adb to _see_ the device.
idk, so far no good.
@overdrive, what makes you think this is a hardware issue?
based on original post. system sounds borked to me. almost sounds like internal storage space could be having problems reading. i could be wrong though
you don't have access to a pc? borrow a neighbors long enuff to run odin, put your device in download mode and connect it. let odin find it and load the md5 file and start it. see if it has any problems when restoreing system partition. it'll tell you. if it works fine then your device is fine and will boot right up when it's done.

[Q] Need help fixing my Gnex

Hi,
it is the second time my Gnex went into endless reboot loop sessions.
It will boot, load crash after few seconds and reboot again.
I had it unlocked in the store i bought it, and had stock rom (Not sure about the version).
Tried to do factory reset from fastboot, from recovery, and from android. Also tried to flash custom boot loader, Nothing works.
Although fastboot writes it successfuly completed the action so does the factory reset. The phone will work for few seconds but no more.
Also tried using WugFresh, for factory reset and for Flash Stock + unroot in soft-break status
I have no ideas what to do next,
Please help.
Mike
Hi Mike, I think more information is required.
- What action did you take immediately prior to having your phone get stuck in the bootloop? Were you trying to install a Custom Recovery or ROM?
- You mention that this is the second time this has happened. Do you know what caused it to bootloop the first time, and if yes what fixed it?
- When your Gnex is in Fastboot/Bootloader mode, and using a tool like Minimal ADB and Fastboot on your computer, does the tool recognize the Device ID after using the fastboot devices command?
You may also want to read through this thread.
AvidPhisherman said:
Hi Mike, I think more information is required.
- What action did you take immediately prior to having your phone get stuck in the bootloop? Were you trying to install a Custom Recovery or ROM?
- You mention that this is the second time this has happened. Do you know what caused it to bootloop the first time, and if yes what fixed it?
- When your Gnex is in Fastboot/Bootloader mode, and using a tool like Minimal ADB and Fastboot on your computer, does the tool recognize the Device ID after using the fastboot devices command?
You may also want to read through this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi thanks for the reply, i am a simple user, prior to the bootloop i was using whatsapp, actually the android crashes few seconds after getting a whatsaap message (i recieve notification and it goes down). Previous time also i didn't do anything special. i never installed custom recovery or roms... previous time it was fixed by a lab the phone was on warranty.
And yes the tool recognize the device.
So your device receives a WhatsApp message/notification, restarts, and then gets stuck in a bootloop?
That is very strange, as personally I've only ever encountered bootloops after bad ROM flashes (usually after I accidentally skipped a step somewhere during the process). Bootloops usually don't happen to regular users who are just using their phone purchased as-is from a store/carrier.
If you can get it to boot back into Android, try uninstalling WhatsApp and see if that helps. Hopefully it's still under warranty, as you may have to take it back to the store and have them look at it.
AvidPhisherman said:
So your device receives a WhatsApp message/notification, restarts, and then gets stuck in a bootloop?
That is very strange, as personally I've only ever encountered bootloops after bad ROM flashes (usually after I accidentally skipped a step somewhere during the process). Bootloops usually don't happen to regular users who are just using their phone purchased as-is from a store/carrier.
If you can get it to boot back into Android, try uninstalling WhatsApp and see if that helps. Hopefully it's still under warranty, as you may have to take it back to the store and have them look at it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried to uninstall whatsapp but it crashes before i manage to do so.
even managed to access memory via TWRP and delete whatsaap manually but somehow it appears again after restart.
Something is terribly wrong
Have you tried using Odin to repartition and restore to stock? Could be a corrupted partition. Check out this guide
nthnlee said:
Have you tried using Odin to repartition and restore to stock? Could be a corrupted partition. Check out this guide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why???
Just use fastboot, Odin is evil. Nexus aren't Touchwiz crap phones.
beekay201 said:
Why???
Just use fastboot, Odin is evil. Nexus aren't Touchwiz crap phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When fastboot didn't work. i had to try something else. But, odin didn't work either.
mishkap said:
When fastboot didn't work. i had to try something else. But, odin didn't work either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's see then. Be prepared to spend at least 30min reading, and re-reading, until you actually feel comfortable in what you're doing/typing in. If you're not sure about the technical terms and what lies behind them, read this thread's #1 First Post.
What's your device variant? maguro? toro? toroplus? This will tell which factory image you need to flash.
You need to flash latest factory image, which is (for maguro variant) Android Build 4.3 (JWR66Y). Read #1 First Post on this thread. And I mean, READ IT! Do not do anything else to your device until you do.
After you flash the factory image, that first boot will take a while to reach Android. Chill out. Go get yourself a drink. Take your time. It should have booted into Android already when you get back. It should be fine, but if not, you need to enable USB debugging under Settings > Developer Options, to check the system log.
If after 15min, it still has booted yet, pull the battery out, wait a few secs, put it back in.
Use the 3bc (3-button combo) to reach fastboot mode again. Flash a custom recovery. That's done by downloading the latest TWRP or CWM (i'll leave that choice up to you, be mindful that you might wanna try them both in the future), and running on the host (the PC):
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recovery_filename_here.img
Don't reboot the device. Use the volume keys to "Reboot to recovery" straight from fastboot. After a few seconds, you should be seeing the custom recovery you've flashed with the fastboot command above.
Now comes the part where ADB is required. I hope you've already read the answers to questions "Where do I get the driver for my PC?" and "Why do I need to install the driver twice?". If not, read them now. Also, read "What is ADB?". TIP: When a custom recovery is actually running on the device, ADB mode is already active by default, so when hooking up to the pc the device will show as an ADB interface, so installing the driver (if needed/not done yet) is piece of cake.
After you get ADB to recognize your device (like, you see your device's SN on the output of command `adb devices`).. You need to copy a custom ROM to your device, and flash it. That will get you, most likely than not, Android's USB debugging by default (read answer to "What is an insecure boot image?" on the first link), and that will allow you to see the system log, WHILE Android is booting up. Why do we wanna do this? Cos we want to see if any errors show up, something that may tell us what's failing.
When choosing a ROM from the Android Development section, ask around in the thread if the ROM has USB debugging enabled by default.
Read "What are the ADB commands?" in the thread I first linked to. You'll need to learn at least `adb push` for now.
Once you get the ROM in your /sdcard/ or whatever folder you like, disconnect the USB cable, wipe data/factory reset, then install zip from sdcard (that zip you pushed before).. Forget about gapps for now.
Connect the usb cable, reboot, and once you see padlock screen go away, start trying to run `adb devices`. Do you see your SN in the output? Once you see it, good, it already connected to adb on the device. Run `adb logcat` and try to look out for errors. Logcat is the system log.
To know how to grab that output to a text file so that you can share it with us.. Google it, my fingers hurt.
Thanks beekay201,
As a matter a fact. shortly before you posted this answer i gave up and gave my phone to a local lab.
But unfortunately they were useless and didn't manage to do anything claiming they don't have spares for my phone, tried to explain that it is not a hardware issue, but all in vain .
Anyway, ill go over your instructions and ill update the results soon.

Categories

Resources