Develop Bugs

Rooting the Captivate Glide (SGH-I927)

Note - Sorry everyone; I've been so busy with work the past few days, and it doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon. I'll try to check in as much as possible.
This thread is mainly for rooting development / techniques and updates on the SGH-I927[R]; If you're looking for the latest (detailed) instructions, please see CarpeNoctem's guide here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1378082
If you want to participate in ongoing rooting/dev work, keep reading!
----
Success! The SGH-I927R was rooted on Dec 5, after a great team effort. We finally have the powerful device the Captivate Glide was meant to be! Special thanks to:
ardatdat, boog, CarpeNoctem, and everyone that helped keep this thread alive.
You've now got a couple options. If you don't mind the annoying little yellow triangle on boot-up (I think it looks kinda hackerish ), you can simply flash my insecure STOCK Rogers boot image (ro.secure = 0), attached to this message. I've never tested this against an AT&T ROM, so if you do, please report back how it goes!
Simply load this .tar up in the PDA section (same as procedure below), flash, and you should be able to adb in as root. Then, install your mode 6755 su binary into /system/xbin, and superuser.apk.
Note that you can always flash back to the stock kernel (also attached), when you're done rooting your device. This will restore the normal boot logo.
Alternatively, here are two pre-rooted ROMs:
Rogers Canada (SGH-I927R): https://rapidshare.com/files/1741701072/SGH-I927RUXKJ5_STOCK_ROOTED.tar.bz2
AT&T (SGH-I927): https://rapidshare.com/files/3058304268/I927UCKI3_STOCK_ROOTED.tar.bz2
1. Unpack the tarball, which will dump out a single tar file.
2. Put phone into download mode.
3. Launch ODIN, and select the file from the PDA flash option.
4. Don't touch anything else!
5. Flash the image.
Now, this goes without saying, but:
This is highly experimental! It could permanently brick your device! It worked for me, but I cannot accept any responsibility if something goes wrong!
At this point, it seems kernels and roms are interchangeable. I highly recommend the Rogers kernel, as it's not infected with CarrierIQ.
PS - Thank you Rogers, for doing the right thing!

The CL652095 is part of their build number, and modules from a different build won't work if that 'version magic' doesn't match.
So, if you try to build a kernel from other source (and the initramfs from your kernel) you will need to
Code:
export LOCALVERSION="-I927RUXKJ5-CL652095"
that way it will load the prebuilt modules properly.
But, if you can pull the zimage from the phone, it might be easier to just unpack, add su (or cwm, then you could flash root from cwm) and repack.

boog said:
The CL652095 is part of their build number, and modules from a different build won't work if that 'version magic' doesn't match.
So, if you try to build a kernel from other source (and the initramfs from your kernel) you will need to
Code:
export LOCALVERSION="-I927RUXKJ5-CL652095"
that way it will load the prebuilt modules properly.
But, if you can pull the zimage from the phone, it might be easier to just unpack, add su (or cwm, then you could flash root from cwm) and repack.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, assuming they're only using that to stamp the kernel and not to reflect their own (critical) patchset they've applied to the stock source.
I sent yet another request to Samsung support, and they're playing dumb. Their support guys claim to "not have the source" and be "not affiliated with the Samsung open source release center" (no joke).
I also filled out a request on their web form on the OSRC; I'll see what they say.
Honestly if there were a way to extract the kernel, we'd be golden. Unfortunately all mmcblk* devices are 007 masked or worse. Wonder if these devices have some undocumented "upload" mode.
Does anyone know if kies is able to force-recover a device with the emergency firmware recovery utility? Does the recovery mode use the main kernel that gets flashed by ODIN, or some separate kernel? ie. if I flash a bad kernel, is it lights out, or will recovery mode still work?

I know adam has been able to use UART to root devices and pull software.
Im pretty sure you need some hardware. But if anyone can find a way its adam.

Well, I'll be damned!
I made a request to the Samsung Open Source Release Center for the source, and they delivered!
I'm downloading right now and will report back shortly!
If anyone else is interested in checking it out, here's the link they gave me:
https://opensource.samsung.com/reception/receptionSub.do?method=downLoad&attach_id=1842
Go Samsung!

I'm not trying to make too much of a tangent but with an upgrade due in a few months I've been considering this device. would you recommend it? If the hardware is worthy I will definitely root& rom and contribute to the community when I have the time.
How would you compare it to to original captivate?

BigArea said:
I'm not trying to make too much of a tangent but with an upgrade due in a few months I've been considering this device. would you recommend it? If the hardware is worthy I will definitely root& rom and contribute to the community when I have the time.
How would you compare it to to original captivate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, my only issue is the lack of rootability (which hopefully will be solved soon).
Now, I'm coming from a 2+ year old n900, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I have to say that the phone itself is spectacular. If it wasn't, I'd have returned it the day I realized it couldn't be easily rooted. It was good enough to make me hold out.
The display is gorgeous, form factor perfect, keyboard is decent enough (not as good as the n900's, but it was way above average), and the performance is, for me, mind blowing.

BigArea said:
I'm not trying to make too much of a tangent but with an upgrade due in a few months I've been considering this device. would you recommend it? If the hardware is worthy I will definitely root& rom and contribute to the community when I have the time.
How would you compare it to to original captivate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
slide-out keyboard, stock gingerbread, front-facing camera... in line for an official ICS upgrade (maybe????)... dual core CPU... faster HSPA+ downloads...

Ok, I successfully built a kernel for our device! Time to roll the dice.
...fires up ODIN...
Wish me luck!
Does anyone know offhand how to make a kernel insecure?

Try telling it that it needs to lose some weight. That should make it really insecure.

lol rof ! +10
I am going to request from the moderator to create a captivate glide dev subforum and Q&A.

Well, that got ugly.
ODIN failed to flash the new kernel, giving this error:
Code:
...
<ID:0/006> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/006> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/006> zImage
<ID:0/006> NAND Write Start!!
<ID:0/006>
<ID:0/006> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)
Now it's complaining I need to do a firmware recovery. Ugh.
I hope this is reversible.
Any ODIN experts monitoring this thread?
Also, does anyone know how to use KIES to perform an emergency recovery? The device isn't showing up in the list.
EDIT
Ok, this is bizarre. Out of desperation, I booted into 3e recovery mode, rebooted, and suddenly my device came back to life. Running fine. As if nothing happened. I checked the kernel timestamp (from /proc/version) and it's still the stock kernel, so the NAND update failed. I guess it must have flagged a failure, and that flag was reset by recovery mode!

lambgx02 said:
Ok, I successfully built a kernel for our device! Time to roll the dice.
...fires up ODIN...
Wish me luck!
Does anyone know offhand how to make a kernel insecure?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you build a kernel without the source being released??

jmtheiss said:
Try telling it that it needs to lose some weight. That should make it really insecure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LMAO....+1

CarpeNoctem said:
How did you build a kernel without the source being released??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
see post #5

lambgx02 said:
Well, that got ugly.
ODIN failed to flash the new kernel, giving this error:
Code:
...
<ID:0/006> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/006> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/006> zImage
<ID:0/006> NAND Write Start!!
<ID:0/006>
<ID:0/006> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)
Now it's complaining I need to do a firmware recovery. Ugh.
I hope this is reversible.
Any ODIN experts monitoring this thread?
Also, does anyone know how to use KIES to perform an emergency recovery? The device isn't showing up in the list.
EDIT
Ok, this is bizarre. Out of desperation, I booted into 3e recovery mode, rebooted, and suddenly my device came back to life. Running fine. As if nothing happened. I checked the kernel timestamp (from /proc/version) and it's still the stock kernel, so the NAND update failed. I guess it must have flagged a failure, and that flag was reset by recovery mode!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had issues with samsung's source. We have been playing with their kh2 source, and I get builds that seem to build successfully, but never boot. Had a few that wouldn't flash (using heimdall), for some mysterious reason that seem similar to what you got.
I would say you still need a backup zimage before trying to flash an unknown kernel. You could be stuck with a non booting phone without it.

Did anybody tried this kernel, same tegra2 same os and version: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1348857
when I compare the source from samsung there are some difference (ATT reference in the i927 one) but they are 99.99% similar

hi .. everyone here. I am the kernel developer for i9103.
Firstly, I do not get the Captivate Glide. But, could I do anything for the GLIDE? If I try to compile a kernel, I could not test in using my machine.
And I think you all know how to use Odin3 thru PDA to flash ROM & kernels?

ardatdat said:
hi .. everyone here. I am the kernel developer for i9103.
Firstly, I do not get the Captivate Glide. But, could I do anything for the GLIDE? If I try to compile a kernel, I could not test in using my machine.
And I think you all know how to use Odin3 thru PDA to flash ROM & kernels?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly if you can compile the kernel with root and CWM that would be HEAVEN!!
I install your other kernel (curiosity I had to try) and bricked my phone

Also, do anyone get the original kernel (boot.img) for that phone? It will help me and be the most important part to have the compiled kernel working on the phone.
So, please, if anyone get the boot.img, please keep it, upload it and tell me. Thanks.

Not able to go back to stock ROM - Samsung Galaxy S2

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch - SPH-D710
Carrier: Sprint
Odin version: Odin3-v1.85
Stock image name: HOME_SPH-D710_EK02_CL704398_user.tar
I've tried to use the instructions & stock image posted here and encountered a problem.
When I run Oden, it just sits there at the point where it tries to establish a connection.
I've seen it get a few steps further, and then stall at trying to push an image to the phone.
This is as far as it gets:
<ID:0/004> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/004> boot.bin
<ID:0/004> NAND Write Start!!
<ID:0/004> Sbl.bin
<ID:0/004> zImage
<ID:0/004> factoryfs.img
Then it just sits there. I'm now currently in a bricked state, so I'm extremely open to suggestions

Just realized that this probably should have been posted in the Q&A. Sorry!

Take the battery out, the external SD card (if you have one insert), get a different micro USB cord, then try odin again.
Its usually just the new/different USB cord that does the trick.
If not, try re-downloading the tar, you might have got a bad download.

Close Odin from the red box in the corner then disconnect and pull battery. Put it back and try to go back into download mode. If your phone has any signs of life, it can be saved. I also always Odin with at least 60% battery just to be safe. Also, what Broded said may be the case. It could be a bad download of the tar. It seems like its hanging at the beginning which is much better than hanging in the middle or end
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

That one doesn't use an md5 checksum to protect against file corruption. It does have one, but for some reason the file got renamed so it doesn't get used.
If you use the one from my signature, it will not start flashing unless the file contents are verified to be in the proper condition.

Take their advice and redownload the tar file. Get The one that has the .md5 at the end. This will make sure the file is nit corrupted
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

Thanks everyone for the replies. I was kind of worried that I'd come back to a bunch of links to the you are a noob video
So I followed the suggestions in this thread including:
I pulled the SD card
The EK02 ROM listed on sfhub's sig w/ MD5.
Switched USB cables & ports on the computer.
Odin still seems to get stuck in the same "SetupConnection.." spot.
From the logs:
<ID:0/006> Added!!
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> SPH-D710.EK02_CL704398_ROM_PDA.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/006> Odin v.3 engine (ID:6)..
<ID:0/006> File analysis..
<ID:0/006> SetupConnection..
I think next I will try this on another PC. Maybe a fresh slate will help. Does anyone have any other suggestions? How long should it sit at the SetupConnection.. part?
I had a pretty full battery when I started this, but have been tinkering for a while and I'm getting a bit nervious that it's running low. Is there any way to try charge given stock equipment?

Good news! The phone is un-bricked.
Swapping out the PC that was running Odin seemed to to the trick. Funny thing is.. I used pretty much all the same things.
Odin 1.85
Original USB Cable
MD5 checked ROM
Anyway, thanks again for everyone's help. Now that I know I can get back from a bricked state, I can with confidence go try out some new ROMs.

Great news.
BTW earlier you were using ODIN to flash the EK02 Modem, Kernel, and ROM.
In your most recent log, you were flashing the EK02 ROM only.
Mentioning it in case that wasn't intentional.

sfhub said:
BTW earlier you were using ODIN to flash the EK02 Modem, Kernel, and ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It actually was not intentional. Thanks for bringing that up.
And actually since I've restored back to factory, it seems as if I'm have a lot of problems with reception. Think that may be the cause?
Does order matter about what goes on first?

The order doesn't really matter as much as whether the combination you are ending up with will work well with each other.

Here's where things got a bit more interesting for me. I used odin to re-flash the rom, kernal, and modem. Still had crappy signal. I can basically only roam. That's not normal for me.
I figured I'd try the oneclick method in sfhub's sig. This time I'll let it wipe my user data. Fresh start to the phone. No custom apps, not rooted.. But still the same problem.
I called Sprint to check out what's the deal with roaming on my plan.
I dial *2 and get the following message:
"We're sorry, use of this feature is not currently available. Please call cricket customer support at 611"
Cricket? Why is this configured to call cricket? Isn't this supposed to be a sprint ROM?

schlapppy said:
Here's where things got a bit more interesting for me. I used odin to re-flash the rom, kernal, and modem. Still had crappy signal. I can basically only roam. That's not normal for me.
I figured I'd try the oneclick method in sfhub's sig. This time I'll let it wipe my user data. Fresh start to the phone. No custom apps, not rooted.. But still the same problem.
I called Sprint to check out what's the deal with roaming on my plan.
I dial *2 and get the following message:
"We're sorry, use of this feature is not currently available. Please call cricket customer support at 611"
Cricket? Why is this configured to call cricket? Isn't this supposed to be a sprint ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*2 doesn't always work when you are roaming.
*If* you can get on a Sprint native network, the first thing I would try is "Update Profile" and "Update PRL" from menu->settings->about phone->system updates
If that doesn't work, I would try a ##786# reset from the dialer. I figure you don't have that much user data to save right now and probably stuff is backed up. You'll need your MSL, so in adb shell type "getprop ril.MSL" It *IS* case sensitive. If you try to do it in android terminal, the swype keyboard may auto-capitalize "I" in "rIl" and it isn't ovious it did so on the small screen.
##786# will reset your NVRAM and Sprint login info and cause the phone to reprovision.
Now be forewarned, that if you actually have a tower down and that is why you are on cricket, then your phone will *NOT* be able to reprovision. It needs to be on a Sprint native network to reprovision using the automated OTA method. Provisioning voice by hand is ok, but data is a little more annoying.
Anyway, I wouldn't spend too much time trying to figure out if this is a ROM issue. If it was, there would likely be far more complaints. It could easily be Sprint doing maintenance work on some towers near you.
If you are not getting on the Sprint network it is some sort of tower, signal, or provisioning issue. Now if you couldn't get on any cell network, even cricket, then that might be something on your phone.

sfhub, you a rock star. Thanks for your help. All is good now, and I'm back up with full signal.

Does anyone know of a way to revert back to stock using a Mac? I've searched the forums and google but have not found anything helpful. thanks

Use heimdall.

Let me try again since im kind of new. Does anyone know of a step by step to revert back to stock on a mac computer? Thanks everyone.

So I restarted my phone today and it wont go past the "android" logo before shutting off. If anyone is interested in helping me out on a mac, I would be willing to donate to you via paypal. I've just decided I would rather get my phone back to stock. I originally rooted via heimdall and I can currently get into CWM. Thanks guys

fredygonz said:
Let me try again since im kind of new. Does anyone know of a step by step to revert back to stock on a mac computer? Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do what sfhub said...get Heimdall. I haven't used it myself but those with Macs have had much success with it
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

Thanks John. I have heimdall. But I can't figure out how to root it back to stock using heimdall.

[Q] Phone boot loops, can get into Odin mode but Odin stalls

Hi all, I’m having some trouble with my SGS2. I’ve searched for the better part of several days and read a lot of threads with similar but slightly different issues and I haven’t seen any definite solutions so I want to ask the experts before I do something stupid. Sorry for the long post but I want to include as many details as I can so no one has to use their crystal ball to figure out what is going on.
The other day my Sprint (really it is through Ting but it is branded as Sprint) SGS2 would not wake up from sleep after charging all night. It was running a GB27 rooted, full restore stock ROM I flashed through Odin (downloaded via rwilco’s very nice site). The flashing was done over a month ago and I didn’t have any troubles until this. Pressing and holding the power button did nothing, so I removed the battery to restart the phone. It was stuck in a boot loop at the “Samsung Galaxy S2” boot screen. Removed the battery for over an hour, tried again, same thing. I can boot into Odin download mode by using power+vol down. I don’t have CWM so I can’t try any other recovery options.
I tried using Odin to reflash the same ROM--GB27, rooted, full restore. This is Odin v1.81 one-click from rwilco’s site. I made sure all Kies processes were killed and started the reflash process and it got stuck trying to write cache.img. I left it for well over an hour and it never progressed past this point. Usually I’d see the blue progress bar on the phone during the flash process but it never appeared. This is the log from odin:
Code:
<ID:0/003> Added!!
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/003> Odin v.3 engine (ID:3)..
<ID:0/003> File analysis..
<ID:0/003> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/003> Initialzation..
<ID:0/003> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/003> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/003> boot.bin
<ID:0/003> cache.img
The log stopped here and after an hour, I unplugged the phone. I can still get to odin download mode, but instead of the “Samsung Galaxy SII” boot screen, I just get the “Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies & try again.” I gather that a flag is set during the flash process, then is removed once the flash process completes successfully. Tried to flash again many times with different USB cable/port etc, but no luck.
The next step, I read through the FAQ on this forum and decided to try flashing EL29 via odin one-click (downloaded from here: http://www.rwilco12.com/downloads.p...-D710)/Stock ROMs/GB/EL29/Full Restore/Rooted). This used Odin v1.85. I left all options as the default and selected the PDA file but got these messages:
Code:
<ID:0/003> Added!!
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> SPH-D710.EL29_CL852097_ROOTED_PDA.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/003> Odin v.3 engine (ID:3)..
<ID:0/003> File analysis..
<ID:0/003> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/003> Initialzation..
<ID:0/003> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/003> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/003> recovery.bin
<ID:0/003> NAND Write Start!!
However, it never seems to progress from here even after an hour. I never see any blue progress bar. Also tried again using different USB cable and port, but no luck.
My phone isn’t viewable from Kies.
I’m at a loss for what to do next. I’d try to flash more versions, but I don’t know enough about this emmc bug and don’t want to trigger it. Reading around, I see suggestions about repartitioning and flashing PIT files, but this seems risky. I am also looking if there is any danger flashing from jellybean to non-jellybean builds.
I read about flashing just the kernel, modem and ROM separately but which files should I use? I also read about flashing a CWM kernel so I can get into recovery mode but I’m still not certain which files I should be using. I will also admit I don’t know how to flash only a kernel through odin. It looks like you use the PDA box like what I did above, but I thought that was for full ROMs? Do you use the PDA box for both kernels and ROMs?
I did find this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2289007 which is very similar to my issue, but I’m not sure if I messed something up by trying to reflash the same ROM.
What should I try next?
Sorry for the simple questions but I want to learn! Thanks for the help!

Very interesting. Seems like there is some nastiness going around with jellybean and our phones. The emmc bug was initially ICS, don't know if it carried over, but due to the high number of phones crashing, there must be some form of corruption going on.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

noobtoob said:
Very interesting. Seems like there is some nastiness going around with jellybean and our phones. The emmc bug was initially ICS, don't know if it carried over, but due to the high number of phones crashing, there must be some form of corruption going on.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. The fact that it happens unprovoked is particularly worrisome.

This is the exact type issue I tried moving and helping the other day. I an now at quite a loss. We could have you just try and Odin flash a kernel. Yes, you would just use the PDA button to select your .tar file. Put a ROM in your SD card, and clean/flash this way, but that proved unsuccessful least time as well.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

noobtoob said:
This is the exact type issue I tried moving and helping the other day. I an now at quite a loss. We could have you just try and Odin flash a kernel. Yes, you would just use the PDA button to select your .tar file. Put a ROM in your SD card, and clean/flash this way, but that proved unsuccessful least time as well.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I did find your post here on a similar thread and it was what made me post this... I wasn't sure if I could salvage it before getting to the point where I couldn't get into odin mode.
So you think flashing EL26 with CWM recovery would be my best option? I'm curious if when I tried to flash EL29 it didn't do anything since the previous flash had stalled... so maybe I avoided the scenario mentioned in your post above. From the log it still looks like it flashed recovery.bin though, so I don't know.

tanminivan said:
Thanks. I did find your post here on a similar thread and it was what made me post this... I wasn't sure if I could salvage it before getting to the point where I couldn't get into odin mode.
So you think flashing EL26 with CWM recovery would be my best option? I'm curious if when I tried to flash EL29 it didn't do anything since the previous flash had stalled... so maybe I avoided the scenario mentioned in your post above. From the log it still looks like it flashed recovery.bin though, so I don't know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, at this point I don't know. I see this happening a lot now. I have been flashing exclusively through mobile Odin and roms that I had on my SD card except the other day when I tried the pit and tar files from that post. Seems more and more people are running into bricking all of a sudden a lot right now. I think sprint or Samsung need to get involved and do some phone replacement. I would take a poll and see how many people have bricked using just a stock ROM. It could have something to do with the hardware version of something in your phones. I am not anywhere smart enough to figure that stuff out, I can just offer advice and test things I know (or knew) to be safe ATM.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Are you able to flash a one-click ICS or GB ROM? Specifically FL24. My phone didn't like GB27 either (thankfully no bricking). I was able to flash EL26 with CWM by using the one-click twice. The first flash never seemed to work the first time, even though it said it was successful. Flashed several AOSP ROMs from there without issue.

bigj231 said:
Are you able to flash a one-click ICS or GB ROM? Specifically FL24. My phone didn't like GB27 either (thankfully no bricking). I was able to flash EL26 with CWM by using the one-click twice. The first flash never seemed to work the first time, even though it said it was successful. Flashed several AOSP ROMs from there without issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing with one-click twice? Wouldn't that be a double-click?
I've tried using Odin non-one-click to flash EL26 w/ CWM but Odin just stalls at "NAND Write Start." But interestingly, it is incrementing the flash counter and "current binary" now reads "custom" where before it read "Samsung Official." So at least it's doing something. Time to search on how to get past these stalled flashes... from this thread it doesn't look particularly promising...

Just to provide an update to anyone who comes across this thread and has the same issue. I tried pretty much everything I could think of. I tried flashing all of the odin one-clicks I could get a hold of (GB/ICS/JB). I tried flashing tars. I tried flashing just kernels (GB/ICS/JB). I tried all kinds of recovery kernels, EL26 CWM etc. Of course I used all different versions of odin, different computers, different cables, different USB ports, etc.
I read the repartitioning thread (well at least quite a bit before people started asking the same questions over and over again). I downloaded the 92 different PIT files for the E4GT and tried flashing all of the different kinds of pit files... ones that moved the system partition, ones that moved data, ones that moved factoryFS, ones that shrank the UMS partition. Of each of those I tried different shift amounts...1GB, 3GB, 8GB, etc. I tried flashing with "repartition" unchecked (not sure what it really would do but it was suggested somewhere so I tried it).
Nothing worked. It'd always stall trying to write to the device. For flashing PIT files odin would start with "SET PARTITION" and just hang for over an hour and never progress. Still very strange that I could get into odin and usually on each attempted flash it would increase the flash counter. And strange as well that I was running rooted stock and this seemed to happen on its own.
The best I can figure is I'm really unlucky and have some bad blocks in memory at just the wrong spot to prevent the flashing process from completing.

Thanks for the update tan. Someone else has this very same issue. Looks like as of now there's no solution. That really sucks.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

jdsingle76 said:
Thanks for the update tan. Someone else has this very same issue. Looks like as of now there's no solution. That really sucks.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
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I woke up this morning with the same issue. My phone was fine when I put it on the charger last night. This morning it was off, when I turned it on just samsung logo boot loop. I could not boot to recovery. I've tried to Odin a new recovery and a once-click full ROM. Odin stalls at recovery.bin either way.

wraith404 said:
I woke up this morning with the same issue. My phone was fine when I put it on the charger last night. This morning it was off, when I turned it on just samsung logo boot loop. I could not boot to recovery. I've tried to Odin a new recovery and a once-click full ROM. Odin stalls at recovery.bin either way.
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Sorry to hear you have the same issue. You may read up on repartitioning and try that---you might have better luck than I did.

tanminivan said:
Sorry to hear you have the same issue. You may read up on repartitioning and try that---you might have better luck than I did.
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Click to collapse
I couldn't perform any of the standard repartitioning methods because recovery was not accessible (couldn't run the bad sector scan), nor was Odin working with any sort of TAR. I also reviewed the various PIT files, but based on your review of the same 100 odd files I was reviewing and finding that none of them seemed to relocate recovery addresses (we are stalling on recovery not sys or user), I threw in the towel and took it into a local Sprint repair store. The tech confirmed the issue, he was unable to factory flash it at all. His diagnosis was "something is seriously corrupted", but was very nice about it. He didn't even mention my dozen or so flash count showing in odin mode from my recovery attempts. Oh, and I told him flat out that I had tried to recover it via odin. I had the Insurion coverage, (drop/break/wet), not full TEP, but they were still able to order a replacement for $53. If you have TEP it might be a no charge replacement. He also noted aside that hes seen this a couple other times lately, not to read to much into that but it may be that the lemon memory modules Samsung pawned off on this device might be starting to just up and die instead of waiting to be overwritten wrong. I only say that because I haven't flashed a thing in months by Odin or recovery, and when mine died it was (or should have been) sleeping.
Thanks for the posts, they saved me the frustration of further investigating the PIT files, and got me into the repair shop quickly. I have a 5 day wait for the replacement, and my pregnant wife is due any time. I can't afford to be without a phone for long. I could have procrastinated for days without finding this research.
I'm up for upgrade in just like 2 weeks now, and this has me wondering if I should even chance another Samsung product. The HTC One is looking better and better, even though I'm not sure I can part with having an SD card and replaceable battery. Time to start looking around to see if the SG3 and Note2 have had all these EMMC issues. I want the SG4 but not if this is a running problem.

Note 2 doesnt.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

wraith404 said:
Thanks for the posts, they saved me the frustration of further investigating the PIT files, and got me into the repair shop quickly. I have a 5 day wait for the replacement, and my pregnant wife is due any time. I can't afford to be without a phone for long. I could have procrastinated for days without finding this research.
I'm up for upgrade in just like 2 weeks now, and this has me wondering if I should even chance another Samsung product. The HTC One is looking better and better, even though I'm not sure I can part with having an SD card and replaceable battery. Time to start looking around to see if the SG3 and Note2 have had all these EMMC issues. I want the SG4 but not if this is a running problem.
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Thank you, not a problem. Congrats on your upcoming baby!
Unfortunately I'm with Ting, so not am I only out of warranty and official repair options, but the full $500 unsubsidized cost of the phone as well. I'm optimistic, however. I purchased a Sprint SGS2 with a broken screen on ebay for around $50 and swapped the motherboard. Unfortunately it turns out the ESN had been flashed to another carrier so I'm trying to figure out how to flash it back...
I have the same feelings on whether my next phone will be a Samsung device as well. I guess time will tell how good the S4 is.

[Q] HELP! Soft Bricked T889 Note 2 missing pit file

here is my situation:
my phone was rooted, i unrooted it then realized i forgot to remove the custom boot animation file i had for the phone so i attempted to reroot (followed a stupid youtube video) but accidentally used the wrong root file for my phone. using odin, it failed and i tried rebooting the phone but it says to connect to kies and try to restore it, but it didn't work. then i had a friend look at it (they rooted the phone for me to begin with) and they said my phone was missing the pit file and nothing she did worked. she said it kept on mapping? i'm not too familiar with it but she says my phone was soft bricked. i was hoping maybe someone has some knowledge on how to help me fix my situation? thanks!
youtube video i followed....
How to Root your Samsung Galaxy Note 2
this is a log from odin below
<ID:0/005> Added!!
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> root66_TMO_T889UVBMD1.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/005> Odin v.3 engine (ID:5)..
<ID:0/005> File analysis..
<ID:0/005> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/005> Can't open the serial(COM) port.
<ID:0/005> Added!!
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

Look up Skips Note 2 Tool Kit, install it, run it and your but will be saved! And all automatically! Definitely the best tool I ever saw. Doesn't matter what you are missing or how you screwed up. It's like Prego. It's in there. Then after you OMG I'm cured, imagine what the pro version can do. Believe me, best 10$ I ever spent. I won't even wish you good luck. Just get it and follow the bouncing ball. Cya
Sent from my SGH-T889 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

darkmanmd said:
Look up Skips Note 2 Tool Kit, install it, run it and your but will be saved! And all automatically! Definitely the best tool I ever saw. Doesn't matter what you are missing or how you screwed up. It's like Prego. It's in there. Then after you OMG I'm cured, imagine what the pro version can do. Believe me, best 10$ I ever spent. I won't even wish you good luck. Just get it and follow the bouncing ball. Cya
Sent from my SGH-T889 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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Click to collapse
Guy with 5 posts selling software and promising miraculous results...
Sounds legit.
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement

My Note 2 Has Space Herpes
Coug76 said:
Guy with 5 posts selling software and promising miraculous results...
Sounds legit.
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not selling just suggesting a solution that worked for me..... and crediting where credit is due Mr. Cougar. I was pants down six ways from Sunday and found out that Kies wasn't worth a hoot. Crap, I'm knocked :=/ I just knew I had just crash tested and burned....my very first phone. God bless twrp, I erased and formatted the WHOLE tamale. (Note to self: Maybe smart phones are a bit beyond the parameters of my engineering envelop. :-/ Self, you still have those Hawaiian Punch cans and some cat gut layin around? That concept was right up your alley pal)..but I do digress...
After a good cry, I remembered Skips Magic Note 2 Toolkit.
Heck it was already trashed what else could go wrong. I sucked one in and fired Skips up. Crossed my toes, answered two Q's; had to guess on the third and for gods sakes, Coug... May I call ya Coug? Cool. I pushed the red button. The next thing I know we drop into low. Drivers are loading, the phone squatted down, my computer started smoking and making odd noises. Blink....automatic download factory reset mode happened, three different backups; CWM, TWRP and Philz whipped by and auto installed. The phone started blinking, the room turned black, I stood up so I could stand back.
Then it went Plink, auto reboot, flashed into umm I dunno, maybe fast boot mode..(breathe). Odin popped open and sucked in some file. Things went green after a while, the phone spun around; rebooted again....and then, there it was, Samsung singing that same old Song!!!
Just call me Lazarus dude! It was back and downloading updates by air. And better news yet, I was none the worse for the wear! No Spoof..well perhaps a bit of embellishment here and there..but not that much I swear! The thing's not a toolkit it's AhhhLIVE..and fortunately, so is my phone.....go figure....
Mr. Cougar, that's my story and I'm holding tight to it. There was a bit more. Since it was so neat the first time around, I got cocky and bit it again :=/ However, I regrouped and turned Pro (lmao) But rather than tax you further, I'll save that rubbish for later..
Mr. Cougar, I know that you know how inexperienced I am and how awestruck...nah you can't know but I truly am as I watch and read with great fascination as XDA morphs science fiction into science fact every day. I must tell you Sir, this place really is a treasure!
Plus Bonus! You gave me a grin without knowing...on second thought, you probably did ) Mayhaps I shall return the favor some day....and yes I am still befuddled...but happily so.
Thanks for the shout Mr. Cougar.
dm out~

Thanks for the laugh. I needed that this morning.
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement

I can only go on download mode on my note 2 and i've tried to use the toolkit but it only works through ADB.Do you have any other suggestions? Also i've tried to use odin but i get the missing pit errror message.

I'm interested in knowing how to use the toolkit also
Androidfan253 said:
I can only go on download mode on my note 2 and i've tried to use the toolkit but it only works through ADB.Do you have any other suggestions? Also i've tried to use odin but i get the missing pit errror message.
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Click to collapse
I've tried the full version on my softbricked t889 and it did not work. Neither does Odin. Everything I've read says my phone is a softbrick because it can go into download mode but that's all it does. My phone doesn't loop and stuff like others it has these white noise and colored lines all across it when i boot it regular. Please someone help mmy phone has been broke since the beginning of this year.

This looks like a hardware issue(possibly emmc) but you can always try different versions of ODIN's, a different USB cable or verify USB drivers on your system.

Can't Flash to Stock. Memory Error.

Hi again guys. Been a while. As everyone always says on here, I apologize if this has already been covered, but I looked around and couldn't find a resolution.
T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy s4 (obviously). SGH-M919
Android version 4.2.2 I believe. It wasn't updated to kit-kat or anything current bc I rooted it the day I bought it 2 years ago.
The problem was created when I was attempting to move apps from internal memory to my sdcard.
The best method I found online used an app called FolderMount.
When I opened the app it stated that a patch was necessary in order for it to work...which "succeeded"....to brick my phone.
Once I exited the app, my phone didn't recognize any files that were saved or have the ability to open any Samsung or Google apps whatsoever. They all criticaled. Even Gallery wouldn't load. Also, Swiftkey no longer found language packs/had the ability to download new packs.
My Computer recognized the device still, but it only showed a few MB of storage and an empty SD card.
I tried restoring to factory conditions 3x. It removed everything, but still failed to recognized the internal memory and still wouldn't run the google/samsung apps.
At that point I tried to flash back to stock with Odin. Which I had done initially 2 years ago when I was rooting phone.
Now I'm stuck at an error screen that reads : Firmware upgrade encountered and issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies & try again.
I tried Kies. The Kies 3.0 doesn't support the Galaxy S4 and the old version won't connect with my device. I was going to attempt their emergency firmware recovery wizard.
Please keep in mind that I have googled/youtubed every option I could find and have had no success. I'm not just a person who put 30 seconds of research into this and then decided to complain on a forum without putting some time into fixing this issue.
I'm stuck and have no idea what to do at this point. It's hard to find a solution for a phone that is virtually considered old tech/obsolete.
Any help is appreciated. I have spent the entire day on this and am pretty depressed about it. My only optimism is that I know some people on this forum know what they are talking about The workweek is approaching and I need to have my phone operational.
Thanks!
-Garrett

Have you tried contacting the Foldermount developers for any help or feedback?
What folders where you moving?
Can you get to settings and try a factory reset?
Pp.

I have not contacted the developers (as the problem happened this morning) and I couldn't use my phone to even find them. I guess I could look them up on my PC. And no I can't go to settings. I can't get to any different screen other than the error message that I have. I turn my phone on and it immediately goes to this: http://postimg.org/image/8he6jagx3/
That's literally the ONLY screen I can access. I can't get to the download boot screen or safe mode with the button shortcuts. No idea what to do, bc the phone isn't broken...It's not a hardware issue. It's a firmware problem that a lot of ppl have had, but I can't find a solution that actually works. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open to try anything
Here is a link to the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devasque.fmount&hl=en
(Obvious....but I would recommend that no one try it out, or you might end up where I am.)
EDIT: I posted a review to the developers. Several people had the exact same problem. I will post their reviews below:
Athanasios Mamarelis March 24, 2015
Fail After patching and reboot my phone stopped woking...is there any way to unpatch?
Tomasz A. Kawecki
Serious problem with in-app purchase. I bought it a few version ago. Now, it says it cannot connect to G.Play so no premium features are available. Asked dev to repair it. No answer.
idris oulmane January 3, 2015
Horrible Application I'll give it -00 I setup this horrible application on my S4 and when I reboot it it stuck on the Samsung splash screen logo, My galaxy S4 won't start, I tried all the solutions I found on the web but nothing work, even factory reset!, Thank you for this ****ing application.
Akram Hossain Rana February 10, 2015
Its change my internal storage path After installing this **** its remove all of my data under internal storage , and change my internal storage path now my internal storage show 0kb size. realy sucks.
Tanvir Shahriar February 21, 2015
bricked my sd card I don't why I lost my all file from sd..
Faizan Zafar
DO NOT DOWNLOAD!!! It deleted some important files in sdcard and did not do what it was made for.
Does this shed any light on a potential solution?
By the way, here is a post about FolderMount from this site: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2192122
That's actually how I found it initially.

Suspect that some important system ui files got moved from folders that should not had been messed with.
While on firmware update screen try connecting with Odin running, it should show up in Odin, flash stock firmware.
Make sure you have a current Odin like 3.07 or higher.
Pp.

PanchoPlanet said:
Suspect that some important system ui files got moved from folders that should not had been messed with.
While on firmware update screen try connecting with Odin running, it should show up in Odin, flash stock firmware.
Make sure you have a current Odin like 3.07 or higher.
Pp.
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That is what I've been trying to do since that error screen popped up.
I'm using Odin 3.07. If I can't get the phone into Download Mode it won't work.
It fails every time I've tried. I don't even have an idea as for what to try next.

InsomniacoreDSPS said:
That is what I've been trying to do since that error screen popped up.
I'm using Odin 3.07. If I can't get the phone into Download Mode it won't work.
It fails every time I've tried. I don't even have an idea as for what to try next.[/QUOTE
May sound stupid but did you try to power the device off completly then hold vol down then plug into computer. With Odin running of course. Also try Odin 3.09, prolly won't make a differnece but its the one ive been using and it can't hurt at this point. Good luck.
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Click to collapse

lordodin912 said:
InsomniacoreDSPS said:
That is what I've been trying to do since that error screen popped up.
I'm using Odin 3.07. If I can't get the phone into Download Mode it won't work.
It fails every time I've tried. I don't even have an idea as for what to try next.[/QUOTE
May sound stupid but did you try to power the device off completly then hold vol down then plug into computer. With Odin running of course. Also try Odin 3.09, prolly won't make a differnece but its the one ive been using and it can't hurt at this point. Good luck.
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Click to collapse
I cannot believe it. Thank you so much...I'm not out of the woods yet, but that successfully got me into download mode. Odin still fails to flash...hmmm. Are there some settings to tweak or something? Any chance at a solution?
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> M919UVUFNK2_M919TMBFNK2_M919UVUFNK2_HOME.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 0)
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InsomniacoreDSPS said:
lordodin912 said:
I cannot believe it. Thank you so much...I'm not out of the woods yet, but that successfully got me into download mode. Odin still fails to flash...hmmm. Are there some settings to tweak or something? Any chance at a solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mabey since your computer recognizes the device in download you could (google) manually "ADB/fastboot?" push system boot bootloader etc. Or try to Odin/adb a custom recovery then DL a 4.4.2 or newer custom/modded stock ROM and flash away. Just make sure you have proper modem etc.
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