Develop Bugs

[q]flash back to stock safely......

Is there or ever will be a way to flash back to stock safely witgout the possibility of softbrick device or having to do a hard factory reset just to get the phone to boot up successfully? I'm comming from xperia play and for xperia devices its so simple via flashtool or for my friend who had a SGS2 who wanted me to flash a custom rom on his phone and that's how I discovered ODIN. Basically what I'm trying to ask is will there or is there already a standard easy tool or something that will allow us to flash back to stock easy as 123?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010624
.KDZ method worked as easy as....well....like you say 123. There is another method using factory .tot images, which I have no tried.

Unlock bootloader -> custom recovery -> nand backup.
In case of emergency, loading into the recovery, restore nand backup.

[Q] Trying to restore to stock, won't boot.

I was attempting to restore to stock. Saw in a couple of threads that if you had an updated bootloader that the return to stock instructions could brick your phone. Decided to downgrade bootloader using Restore_Bootloader_XXBLFB.
Flashed from recover and got a black screen and nothing. Now phone won't boot.
How do I recover from this?

The phine is the ATT s3 i747?
What bootloader was on your phone before you downgraded? If you had the 4.3 or newer bootloader, downgrading the bootloader will brick the phone. Also, an incompatible bootloader/modem combination will also brick the phone.

Without being able to boot I don't remember. I would imagine it was 4.3 or newer. so no recovery at all possible?

If the phone is running 4.3, there is no know way to dowgrade the bootloader.
Sounds like you need to use a de-brick method: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2549068

Ok using a debrick img I am able to get it to boot using an sd card. Now I have to use Odin to re-write a correct boot image?

ehupp said:
Ok using a debrick img I am able to get it to boot using an sd card. Now I have to use Odin to re-write a correct boot image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to flash at least a bootloader and modem. Then, you can flash a custom recovery such as Philz or TWRP, and flash a custom ROM to at least get your phone up an running.

Having screwed up so royally so far what bootloader/modem should I use.
Second question, the instructions to use Odin to flash it aren't very clear. When I boot the phone with the sd card in I am able to access the internal memory for the phone via usb cable. Should I just load the bootloader/modem directly to that and not use the sd card?
Here is a screenshot from toolkit
http://imgur.com/DLQgAVu

Fixed it.
Thanks to people pointing me in the right direction I have restored it and saved my ass with my wife.
In case someone else has a problem like this and they are on a 4.4.2 build here is what I used.
I got the debrick img from here. First debrick at 128mb
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=15759
put this on an sd card with WinDiskImager
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/
That got me booted.
So I knew I was going in the right direction.
Downloaded Odin 3.09
Then flashed this bootloader/modem
I747UCUEMJB_2024954_REV04_user_low_ship.tar.rar
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56371606&postcount=639
unzipped it and loaded it via Odin.
Load completed. Phone rebooted.
Booted right to setup/homescreen.
Thanks for the points in the right direction folks.

I am not at home right now but you need to boot the phone into download mode, launch Odin, flash custom recovery, boot to recovery, flash modem and bootloader.
You can find the bootloader and modem zip in the general thread. You should flash mob modem and bootloader since that is what you had before downgrading.

Softbricked to download mode, unsure which versions are in my phone

I have a few specific questions at the bottom, but first, here's the long details:
I ran the custom ROM Hyperdrive RLS 16 (4.1.2) for years and loved it, but the past week I felt it was time to upgrade to a new ROM that was more up to date. I started to try out R3ARMED (4.4.2), did a full wipe in CWM and installed the zip files provided (the ROM and a d2att specific file).
Unfortunately, in my excitement I forgot to make sure that I had a 4.4 bootloader and modem, which seems to be rather essential for this particular ROM. The install failed and I thought I may have bricked the device, but I was able to update CWM and get back into recovery mode. This time, I got through the AROMA installer for the new ROM, but on reset I got stuck in a hard bootloop. It's pretty nasty--I can't use the key combination to reboot into recovery or download mode, and I only get as far as the opening "SAMSUNG" screen before the device blacks out. However, I can use a USB jig to force reboot into download mode--it's the only interface I can get with the phone at this point. ODIN recognizes the device, and when I use Heimdall and its drivers, I'm able to use those tools to interact with the phone. So I hope I'm not completely lost, but not being able to access CWM recovery mode definitely hurts.
Here's what I've tried so far to fix it:
- Without a USB jig, load recovery images onto a 16 GB SD card, insert into phone and power up (no successes, some images actually made it so the "SAMSUNG" screen no longer showed, others corrected this issue)
- Re-flash CWM with heimdall (failed)
- Used the Ultimate Android Toolkit to convert the CWM img into a tar that ODIN can flash, and tried to load it (failed)
I'm looking into trying to flash a full recovery onto the phone to see if that can fix it. But I have a few concerns:
1. I know that once my phone gets a 4.4 bootloader and modem, I can't go back to an earlier stock version.
2. I had an unsuccessful 4.1 -> 4.4 install attempt in the process of bricking updating my phone.
3. I have no idea if the install impacted the bootloader--so I don't know whether I can try a 4.3 stock flash or need to use some of the more recent phone dumps.
My first question is, as usual, what is the best route to take to recover this phone?
My second is, are there tools I can use for a phone in ODIN mode to check the version of the bootloader/modem, check on the integrity of the file system, etc. etc.?
I have a replacement phone on its way, but I view this as an excellent learning opportunity, and would love to hear some advice.

You have an i747 or i747m?
Do you see anything about warranty bit in download mode?

On the positive side, flashing the R3ARMED rom would not have changed your bootloader and modem. If you were on 4.1.2 before the flash, you should still be on 4.1.2 bootloader and modem.
There is at least one MJB_MJB Odin flashable stock ROM with active download links, it is for the i747. If you have the i747 and not the i747M you could try it.
If you have the i747M there are Odin packages for all of the stock ROMs at sammobile.com. Or, you could extract the system.img from the i747 ROM and flash it with Heimdall. BUT only if you are careful to avoid all of the files pertaining to bootloaders, radios, etc. (*.mbn, non-HLOS.bin, etc.) This route may not be for the faint of heart, but I promise I am not the only one to have done so. I didn't do so until I read of others having done this.

dawgdoc said:
On the positive side, flashing the R3ARMED rom would not have changed your bootloader and modem. If you were on 4.1.2 before the flash, you should still be on 4.1.2 bootloader and modem.
There is at least one MJB_MJB Odin flashable stock ROM with active download links, it is for the i747. If you have the i747 and not the i747M you could try it.
If you have the i747M there are Odin packages for all of the stock ROMs at sammobile.com. Or, you could extract the system.img from the i747 ROM and flash it with Heimdall. BUT only if you are careful to avoid all of the files pertaining to bootloaders, radios, etc. (*.mbn, non-HLOS.bin, etc.) This route may not be for the faint of heart, but I promise I am not the only one to have done so. I didn't do so until I read of others having done this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a regular i747, not i747M. Thanks for the advice... you've given me a few things to try now! Will report back later with results.

Mate Se Back to Factory stock?

I'm rooted with frp unlocked and so on with oreo. I need to go all the way back to out of the box stock setup to download the latest updates. I'm on oreo and have a ton of reading but I need to be guided into a set of instructions to get this restore done.
Please help.
Thx!

Via magisk uninstaller, uninstall and your boot will be fine
Also, you can flash stock boot and recovery to be on full stock

Will this allow me to relock and do ota updates? Basically I need to be able to use the factory recovery partition incase of failure. Currently due to the unlocked phone the use of the recovery bricks the phone. And where can I get these stock recovery partitions at?

Doesn't matter if your BL is locked or unlocked. As long as you have stock recovery and stock boot, you will be able to install OTA

Can you e plain a bit more detail? Thx! How the process should go

What are the commands for stock boot and recovery images through the recovery screen. The white screen that shows bootloader and frp status.... And possible link to those specific files would be great.

Erecovery? How to reflash?

Return to stock?

Cant seem to figure out how to relock the bootloader AND flash the stock firmware for my G988B.
I have all the files, but when I start ODIN, it seems to just freeze (no progress bar on phone, no changes in ODIN). I have a tried flashing BL,AP,CP,CSC with the unlocked bootloader and with the bootloader relocked via the bootmenu. The phone still boots into the stock rom when the bootloader is unlocked, but I want to ensure that it updates hence, the relock.
thoughts?

Is there a stock vbmeta i need to flash in ODIN after relocking (via the hold VOL+ menu boot option) and before flashing the stock firmware?

So now I am trying to flash anything, and its failing with
SECURE CHECK FAIL : (PIT)