Develop Bugs

[Q] What information from Nandroid is stored in 'boot'?

After successfully S-Off'ing my desire I had problems booting the phone after restoring my nandroid backup. A full restore would result in bootloops.
I originally thought this was because the custom Oxygen table I had applied was too small, but on trying others, I had the same result.
In recovery, under advance restore options, I only restored the following elements of the nandroid backup:
sd-ext
system
data
cache
I didn't restore 'boot'.
This prevented the boot-loops and I seem to have my phone functioning as before with nothing missing...
So, my question is, what data was in 'boot' and did I need it?!
If anyone cares to tell me why the full nandroid caused these issues, then please do!
Finally, if the above is answered, I assume I'm ok to flash the custom Oxygen hboot and restore all again other than 'boot'? Users were checking the 'size' of their nandroid backups, but I could work out how to do this?
Thanks in advance.

Data stored in '/boot' is used help in the process of loading the Android OS when you turn on your phone. The '/boot' partition is used to set up all the other partitions (i.e. /data, /cache, /system...). S-OFF just suspends a security feature and puts a new S-OFFed bootloader(this is not in /boot). You have to do a FULL WIPE after performing the S-OFF before doing the full restore.
If you flashed the custom Oxygen HBOOT, then you have to install a new ROM that will fit inside the '/data' or '/system' partition (can't remember which one exactly...I think it's /system). Restoring your previous ROM will cause problems as it may not be able to fit in.
As for checking the size of the nandroid backups, connect the phone to a PC and mount it as the USB Drive. Go into the SD card and under your recovery folder (which will be named as 'ClockworkMod' or to the one you are using) you'll be able to find all your backups. Check their properties....

Appreciate the info, thank you. I think I only flashed a new ROM after my nandroid restore failed... I'll have another go and install fresh ROM straight after the custom hboot.
Thanks again.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA Premium App

No worries...

This was extremely valuable info. It restored back to the Backup with out a hitch. Thanks alot. Dude you Rock! Very clever!

[Q] Can't mount /data

I have a problem, and I'm dealing with it since this saturday. I really need my phone this evening so I really want help. My phone has since saturday a bootloop with every rom. Today I found out that it could have something in common with a error in the recoveryscreen which says it can't mount /data. CWM and the stock recovery both have this problem. Can please anyone help me? I'm really confused, because I have tried everything.
//I've discovered that the problem is that the /data partition is crashed. Is is possible to recreate the internal partition table?

install a stock rom then re-install cwm 5.0.2.7

Msulviu said:
install a stock rom then re-install cwm 5.0.2.7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done that already a few times.

Try flashing an ext4 converter, or re dd'ing an empty RFS format partition into place.

Already done. When I try to use ext4formatter in CWM it doesn't give an error, but when I try to do the data reset I will get an error again because it can't mount (and unmount) /data.
//And how do you add a RFS partition on the phone? Or do you mean on the SD?

Factory reset?
Have you tried doing a factory reset with Kies?

be_born said:
Have you tried doing a factory reset with Kies?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for trying to help, but your answer is stupid. It's impossible to go to Kies without a (working) rom...

I think I just found something interesting to know. I tried again to install Cyanogenmod 7.2 (ported by Phiexz) and in the Aroma installer I looked at the System Info. Almost everything looks fine, but this is not good I think:
Data Size : -1MB
Free : -1MB
(/mnt/sdcard) : -1MB
Free : -1MB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are those partitions crashed? And how do I resize or reformat them back?

Which ext4 converter did you use?
Phiexz's if I remember correctly, uses the formatting tools included in the recovery. Mine has its own, separate binaries.
To reflash an RFS partition into place, you could use the dd command (carefully). Here's an empty RFS formated /data partition.
Or reflash back to the stock recovery and use that to format the partitions back to RFS.
Extract to your SD card and use the following command:
dd if=/sdcard/data.rfs of=/dev/block/stl13 bs=4096
Good luck,
Darkshado

Darkshado said:
Which ext4 converter did you use?
Phiexz's if I remember correctly, uses the formatting tools included in the recovery. Mine has its own, separate binaries.
To reflash an RFS partition into place, you could use the dd command (carefully). Here's an empty RFS formated /data partition.
Extract to your SD card and use the following command:
dd if=/sdcard/data.rfs of=/dev/block/stl13 bs=4096
Good luck,
Darkshado
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did use Phiexz's first yes. But I can't install yours. And where do I have to use dd commands? :$

What do you mean by "can't install mine"? Is there an error message or you're not sure how to do it?
If so, just apply it from the SD card like any other update.
The dd command has to be input through ADB shell while in recovery. So get ADB working if you haven't already.

Darkshado said:
What do you mean by "can't install mine"? Is there an error message or you're not sure how to do it?
If so, just apply it from the SD card like any other update.
The dd command has to be input through ADB shell while in recovery. So get ADB working if you haven't already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did know how to install a zip, but I tried 2 times and I think both were a bad download. Now I'm installing your Ext4 Converter.
// YOUR EXT4 CONVERTER WORKED!!! After a week without a phone it finally worked! Thank you so much!

Glad to hear that!
I had a similar problem of being unable to mount /system after installing a CM9 beta (can't remember which) and ended up solving it like that.

Hey guys i have a question relating to this dscussion. I have my gio running CM9 and i recently used BML5 to find my phone's unlock code. I have a nandroid backup of Rooted stock ROM, and when i tried to flash back to it, it said "Could format dev/block/stl13". I have the CWM 5.0.2.7 with RFS and EXT4 support, so it should work. What is the problem?

That's the thing; the exact behavior of those RFS+ext4 CWM builds when changing from one type to the other hasn't been very well documented.
I'm not sure they can format back to RFS properly.
You could always try that empty RFS partition set and attempt a restore afterwards.

What can i do if dd says, that it can't open '/dev/block/stl13': Invalid argument? I placed the data.rfs to the root directory of sdcard. Am I doing something wrong?

Can't mount /data
Hello, I have a bricked phone, and no idea why, and so far I'm unable to fix it. I've been waiting for an RMA so I can send it back to GSM Nation to evaluate and hopefully fix. My problem started when Samsung support told me to do a factory reset of my Samsung Galaxy S3, and it rebooted, then said it could not find or mount /data or anything therein. I have Not, repeat NOT, rooted my phone, it had the stock Android 4.3 OS and updates from T-mobile. The tech at the Samsung Experience Shop in the Best Buy store could not reflash it, when Kies tries to talk to the phone in Side Load mode it freezes or something, nothing happens. I downloaded ODIN 3 on Dad's win XP laptop, and in ODIN download mode the computer sees it as a new device with no driver to make it talk to it, and the drivers I've downloaded simply will not install. The installers die as soon as they run having done nothing. I am using my Samsung Chromebook to write this and have no Linux machine to work with. I am at a loss. Can you help me? Maybe I could re-install android using a microSD card?

I have the solution for data partition crash or any other partition
please do it with your responsibility but your phone is alreay bricked so it doesn't matter
hi every one i 've been through this problem for a long time and just yesterday hamdo lilah i discovered the solution it is by repartitioning your partitions with a pit file . i tried this method with samsung galaxy fit and it works even the pit file is for samsung .all you have to do is open odin included in the package then select pit file included then click start and there you go 'even if it doesn't show PASS ' after that just flash a stock rom ' or maybe any rom ' and that's it you are ready to go . i uploded the package on gulfup cause i have no account in mediafire enjoy if you face any problem just contact me or add a replay
gulfup.com/?rP8hfs

Restoring Symlink/Symbolic Links

Hi all,
In flashing CM10 roms, something seems to have happened to the symbolic links on my phone. Right now, while I can restore nandroid backups, flashing a new rom will return a status 7 error with the note: "symlink: some symlinks failed". This doesn't seem to be a typical status 7 issue that can be repaired by editing the update-script file, but rather something that has to do with the way the phone mounts the internal virtual sdcard.
Does anyone have any advice on how I may be able to restore this?
Thanks in advance.

[Q]E:format_volume: make_extf4fs failed on /dev/block/stl13

Hi guys,
Newbie to the forum and android just need a bit of help as im pretty stuck at the moment and i dont know whats gone wrong.
I wanted to install Jelly Bread v5.0 or something other that the restricted phone carrier os on my phone when i got it (i wont mention just incase) so heres what i did.
rooted the phone using an update.zip from on this forum somewhere.
installed: signed_cwm-5.0.2.7-flashablezip-ext4only.zip
then installed: Jelly Bread v5.0
was ok for a while and working but then i wanted to play with other ROMS (in this case i now wanted to try cm-10.1.4-GT-S5660-gio++.zip)
I enter recovery, wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache, wipe dalvik cache, wipe batt stats
Then install cm-10.1.4-GT-S5660-gio++.zip
Then it hung for 35mins at loading blue circle screen.
I then took battery out and enter recovery, and attempt to wipe data/fatory reset and it says:
--Wiping data...
Formatting /data...
E:format_volume: make_extf4fs failed on /dev/block/stl13
Formatting /Cache...
Formatting /sd-ext...
E:format_volume: make_extf4fs failed on /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
Formatting /sdcard/ .android secure...
Data wipe complete
Also i cant wipe dalvik cache it just does nothing blinks 1 second then back to menu.
From here (silly me i forgot to backup) ive tried to flash a few stock roms but still getting boot loops and the same above errors.
Is there any way i can format and write /data and /sd-ext?
Anyone know what i can do to fix this please?
Thanks for any help in advance.

update
Hi guys,
Just an update.. have tried several stock ROMS via ODIN always flashing CWM and flashing custom ROMS but nothing with flash and reformat the /dev/stl13 block. im always getting this error and i believe its causing my boot loop issues.
I found this thread via google:
forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/6433-solved-messed-up-partitions-on-internal-storage/
is there anybody on here that could guide me through using ADB shell to rebuild/reformat the /dev/stl13 block?
I dont feel confident enough to do it. (Have already installed shell on my laptop though)
This is driving me crazy trying to fix. My first android ROM flash gone wrong
(i got it working fine with Jellybread but wanted to try something else)
Any help appreciated.
Cheers
Richie

Got your PM, but this sort of discussion is best kept in public.
Be careful with that HTC-related thread, it's a different device, with a different set of tools and likely a different partitioning method.
Back to basics: have you tried flashing back to stock with Odin and formatting your /data and /cache partitions with the Samsung stock recovery?

AFAIK CWM5 is for Gingerbread (2.3.x). For anything above (CM10.1 is Jelly Bean 4.2.2), you need CWM6.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1894456

Darkshado said:
Got your PM, but this sort of discussion is best kept in public.
Be careful with that HTC-related thread, it's a different device, with a different set of tools and likely a different partitioning method.
Back to basics: have you tried flashing back to stock with Odin and formatting your /data and /cache partitions with the Samsung stock recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey dude,
Thanks for the reply.
I have tried flashing back to stock (latest from samfirmware) and it still wont let me mount data.
Although its giving me my orignial load screen (my carrier) but still boot loops.
Ive tried look for another stock ROM i can use but alot of the links are down/broke or withdrawn etc.
I note with stock recovery i just can't mount data but after i install CWM 5.0.2.7 ext4 only it cannot format ext to block stl13.
Could this possibly mean that my internal memory has failed or it just needs to be repartitioned?
Will continue to look for another stock rom that can hopefully fix the problem.

You don't care about the errors failing to mount in the stock recovery. It's expected since it isn't set to work with an ext4 partition.
Just run the format operations from the stock recovery.
Most "stock" ROMs released here were made to run on ext4 since performance was that much better and most CWMs built also run ext4, unless explicitly stated to run RFS.
I can't think of any tools to repartition the Gio, otherwise we would have been all over it back in the day to solve the /system space shortage.

Harakhti said:
AFAIK CWM5 is for Gingerbread (2.3.x). For anything above (CM10.1 is Jelly Bean 4.2.2), you need CWM6.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1894456
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you suggest to flash stock via Odin?
And then correct me if im wrong but to get to CM10,1 i go in this order after a stock flash:
1. Install CWM 6.0.3.2
2. run ext formatter
3. install ROM (in this case CM10.1??
Cheers for any help in advance.
Im quite new to Android.. but not new to flashing etc (BIOS, PSP's other devices etc) but this is my first android phone and i didnt like the Phone Carrier custom ROM and network lock. So attempted to try something else. Got Jellybread running fine but decided to have a look around. And now im phone less (well not really using my old nokia n97) but it is sooo painful! lol

I don't think my initial reply could have been much clearer. If you've been flashing these so called "stock" ROMs with CWM, they weren't entirely, completely stock.
1 - Flash original, unmodified Samsung ROM with Odin.
2 - Boot to recovery
3 - Clear user data (or however they named the format operations, I forget)
4 - Reboot
Only if those steps did not work then do we have to start poking around more.
Sent from my SGH-T889V using xda app-developers app

Darkshado said:
I don't think my initial reply could have been much clearer. If you've been flashing these so called "stock" ROMs with CWM, they weren't entirely, completely stock.
1 - Flash original, unmodified Samsung ROM with Odin.
2 - Boot to recovery
3 - Clear user data (or however they named the format operations, I forget)
4 - Reboot
Only if those steps did not work then do we have to start poking around more.
Sent from my SGH-T889V using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry man i had not read your reply before my previous post.
As stated in my previous post, I have flashed 2 stock ROM's from samfirmware via Odin and it passes.
On one of the ROMS (an NZ ROM) it gives me the error: E:format_Volume: rfs format failed on /dev/stl13
On the other ROM (The Aus ROM) it gives me the error: Unable to mount /data
On both im getting boot loop.

If the stock recovery refuses to format the /data and /cache partitions, I'm afraid you'll have to consider warranty service.
Otherwise, try dd'ing the RFS images I've already posted into place, but I'm not sure that this'll work.

Darkshado said:
If the stock recovery refuses to format the /data and /cache partitions, I'm afraid you'll have to consider warranty service.
Otherwise, try dd'ing the RFS images I've already posted into place, but I'm not sure that this'll work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It formats the /cache partitions just not the /data as it cant mount it.
Warranty service? I will have to pay? as i have bought the phone 2nd hand and i dont think its under warranty.
I did see the other post and have downloaded "Samsung GT-S5660M Galaxy Gio - RFS format data and cache partition images to dd back into place"
But i cannot find the post again with the directions. Also when pushing these images from the SD card am i meant to be in stock recovery or RFS CWM?
Cheers Darkshado for all the help so far.

I had the explanation right below that download link here and a more detailed one here.

hmm doesn't look good eh?

Darkshado said:
I had the explanation right below that download link here and a more detailed one here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could it possibly be a physical hardware failure?

Could be, or some unusual partition table corruption. Problem is, I'm not even sure how the partition table is defined on the phone or if we can alter it...
Try the df command, it should give a listing of partitions on the phone.
Also try ls -l /dev/block/ to list all block devices and see what's there.
Maybe, just maybe parted as well? But by this point your odds aren't in your favor.
Good luck,
Darkshado

you can install a rom after downloading and flashing ext4 formatter.zip

Darkshado said:
Could be, or some unusual partition table corruption. Problem is, I'm not even sure how the partition table is defined on the phone or if we can alter it...
Try the df command, it should give a listing of partitions on the phone.
Also try ls -l /dev/block/ to list all block devices and see what's there.
Maybe, just maybe parted as well? But by this point your odds aren't in your favor.
Good luck,
Darkshado
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have been extremely busy with other projects and work lately and haven't had net the past week (so painful!)
but otherwise latest results are attached. Can you make anything of it? Does this look normal?
Cheers again.
Richie

Looks normal at first glance, though I don't have a Gio to compare with.
You could try and dig into how these phones are partitioned exactly and go from there, but you'll probably be on your own since most people who were interested in early MSM7227 devices have moved on.
Unless the underlying memory is defective, it's possible your only option left at this point is to try a JTAG repair.
However, depending on how much you'd be charged for such an operation locally, and taking into consideration the value of your typical used Gio (I've seen them go for 50$CAD in local classifieds)... You're probably better off cutting your losses and getting another phone.
Good luck,
Darkshado
Sent from my SGH-T889V using xda app-developers app

Missing 'system' partition

Hi developers,
I think I have a missing system partition somehow...when I try to backup my data through TWRP, it comes up with this message.
_______________________________________________
Unable to find partition for path '/system'
Unable to locate '/system' partition for backup calculations.
Unable to locate '/boot' partition for backup calculations.
...
Can not create '/data/media/0/TWRP' folder
(Permission denied).
Failed to make backup folder.
_______________________________________________
Also, when I go to Wipe > Advanced Wipe, There is no system partition to wipe.
I think I may have done something ludicrous and screwed up.
Could anyone help me recover my system partition?

pausethegame said:
Hi developers,
I think I have a missing system partition somehow...when I try to backup my data through TWRP, it comes up with this message.
_______________________________________________
Unable to find partition for path '/system'
Unable to locate '/system' partition for backup calculations.
Unable to locate '/boot' partition for backup calculations.
...
Can not create '/data/media/0/TWRP' folder
(Permission denied).
Failed to make backup folder.
_______________________________________________
Also, when I go to Wipe > Advanced Wipe, There is no system partition to wipe.
I think I may have done something ludicrous and screwed up.
Could anyone help me recover my system partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you may be using a bad twrp.
There should be no /boot partition
And is phone is working there is definitely a /system partition.
Not being able to create a backup folder on /data is probably expected because of encryption.

mrmazak said:
I think you may be using a bad twrp.
There should be no /boot partition
And is phone is working there is definitely a /system partition.
Not being able to create a backup folder on /data is probably expected because of encryption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ohhh okay, that would make sense. I used the one by Sudeep (https://forum.xda-developers.com/honor-7x/development/oreo-twrp-complete-backup-t3764500).
Maybe that one is outdated?

pausethegame said:
Ohhh okay, that would make sense. I used the one by Sudeep (https://forum.xda-developers.com/honor-7x/development/oreo-twrp-complete-backup-t3764500).
Maybe that one is outdated?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The one labeled twrp_complete , I thought was a good working version. The image_mount one was not mounting system , if I recall.
In that same thread near the last page there is a post recommending a different recovery and a link to it. Try that version.