Develop Bugs

[Q] Have I screwed up my phone?

I battery pulled out of CWM after getting into a wrong menu and not knowing how to get out of it. (mistake, I know)
Now it will either:
1) Get stuck at the boot animation
2) Boot to the main screen, lock up, and restart
I've wiped everything, data, dalvik, system, cache, to no avail.
Have I screwed it up beyond repair? I can get into the bootloader and into recovery, just not into anything else.
I *was* running AOKP b24 and Franco 18.4 if it makes any difference.
EDIT: I tried reflashing my ROMs, loading nandroids that I made in the past, all with the same result. Additionally, all nandroids crap out at the data restoring bit, saying "Error while restoring data!"

Just reflash the factory images in fastboot and start fresh.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

will give it a shot and report back. should I unroot, relock bootloader as well? and then re root ?

My guide (link in sig) has a post about restoring to stock in the "panic section" of the third post.
Edit:
Found the link.
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/13819-how-to-return-to-factory-state-unroot-and-relock/

No. Flashing the stock images will erase everything including root. Then just install Superuser via fastboot and cwm. You will be good to go.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

thanks guys, that did the trick.
Is it fair to say that any bootlooping issue, as long as you can get into fastboot, can be fixed by reverting back to stock? new to android so i had no idea if that was going to make any difference.

The "error while restoring data!" I've had too - I believe it points to a corrupted data partition. I experienced this twice after running the Modaco 4.0.2 ROM so I'm avoiding that one now.
The absolute minimal action that makes the device boot again, so far as I could tell, was to flash userdata.img from the stock ROM in fastboot. Factory reset in CWM didn't work. I used adb pull /sdcard ./sdcard to backup internal storage (and the nandroid backups I had on there!) because it gets erased.
I still don't know why it got corrupted in my case. Would welcome input from devs who know more.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

toasterr said:
thanks guys, that did the trick.
Is it fair to say that any bootlooping issue, as long as you can get into fastboot, can be fixed by reverting back to stock? new to android so i had no idea if that was going to make any difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing the stock images is essentially resetting the operating system, baseband and radio. This will remove any corruption you have made on the device so yes it will solve any bootlooping issue. Cheers.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

[Q] TWRP Recovery Will Not Flash or Restore

I really hate to start a new thread but I really can't find a reason/solution to this issue. It's just as the title says. I tried flashing the MIUI ROM just as any ROM and got a failed error. Then went to do my nandroid restore and it just hangs on the splash screen (boot screen). Anyway I thought there could be a bad download so I took out the SD and redownloaded synergy on my laptop, then put it back in the phone and nothing but the nandroid should let me restore. I even tried moving the files to the internal SD and nothing. The only thing I can think of is to Odin back to stock? Is it the same method as rooting? I'm sure I can find that out, but I'm just confused why it seems TWRP doesn't want to work. Thanks for any help, it's 4 a.m. here and I'm dog tired.

Are you on the latest TWRP?
If all else fails you could go back to stock and root again.

DarkManX4lf said:
Are you on the latest TWRP?
If all else fails you could go back to stock and root again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think so. Yeah, just didn't want to go throught it all, and didn't know why.

jtadak said:
I think so. Yeah, just didn't want to go throught it all, and didn't know why.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I just reflash recovery from the state I'm in, or do I still need to unroot? I've moved some of my files to the ext SD within recovery but some things won't move and I really don't want to wipe it.

jd14771 said:
Try wiping everything 3X, then go to the reboot menu, and reboot system, wipe both the cache and dalvik cache and try to restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean reboot recovery? I can't reboot system. Sorry, not trying to split hairs, just trying to be specific.

Odin back to stock seems like the best option.
Sent from a galaxy note 2 far far away...

are you able to flash a different rom, say a stock rom? It's possible you got a corrupted TWRP download.
Since they just released another update 2.4.3, you might want to try and download the zip file, wipe cashe and davick (may want to do it three times). Reboot back into TWRP 2.4.3 and see if it gives you some better luck.
I've had Nandroid backup that didn't work for whatever reason. I didn't test it prior to needing it, and got burned. It just wouldn't show up in the restore menu.
On a side note, what error did you get when you tried flashing MIUI?

Try rebooting recovery when you are in recovery already once before flashing/restoring anything anything.

mexiking713 said:
Odin back to stock seems like the best option.
Sent from a galaxy note 2 far far away...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's what I did. I'm just bummed I had to wipe storage. Oh well, it's inevedible... I dig that sig though, with phone line up.

lovekeiiy said:
are you able to flash a different rom, say a stock rom? It's possible you got a corrupted TWRP download.
Since they just released another update 2.4.3, you might want to try and download the zip file, wipe cashe and davick (may want to do it three times). Reboot back into TWRP 2.4.3 and see if it gives you some better luck.
I've had Nandroid backup that didn't work for whatever reason. I didn't test it prior to needing it, and got burned. It just wouldn't show up in the restore menu.
On a side note, what error did you get when you tried flashing MIUI?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried multiple ROMs, but not a stock one. Hmm, I was on 2.3.2.3. I did'nt get a special error, just said a red message saying failed.

Evo_Shift said:
Try rebooting recovery when you are in recovery already once before flashing/restoring anything anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried that. Did'nt work.

jd14771 said:
no, i meant reboot system, the recovery will warm you that there is no os installed but go fourth with it, it will turn off and reboot back to recovery. at that point in time, wipe cashe/dalvik cache and try to install.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I was'nt sure. I just went back to stock. I just wanted to know what exactly was going on and why.

The only thing different on my phone is I got a 32 gig SD card. I transfed some of my files a couple days before doing anything of this. That's the only thing I can think of. Even after root/unroot it STILL won't do my nandroid restore. I had so much time and work into the apps I set up, games, ect. Really freakin sucks. I even went into the the TWRP backup folder and made sure the backup files were there before doing anything. I never even got to flash many ROMs, I kinda just stayed on Jellybomb.

I had the uTorrent app installed and I noticed that it changed a lot of files with the "u" in front that the uTorrent app has. Anyone know why that is?
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app

This is what it did to a lot of my files. But not the ones I tried to flash.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app

GNex stuck in boot loop since 4.3 flash

Few hours before this post I flashed a rooted version of android 4.3 from the thread by "Carlos_Manuel". However, following that the supersu was not working I flashed the supersu binaries over the ROM from TWRP. Since then, it is stuck in boot loop at the Google Logo. Tried flashing PA, Sourcery, CM but nothing seems to work. What should I do?

Flash the official Google image: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2376687

check dreams rom thread and see my post there
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Fix it by flashing factory images! do a full wipe, you can get imprtant stuff from your Nexus by using adb pull commands!
Users was blaming me when they screwed their Nexus with the root files!
I can successfully even flash old root files and no bootloops but ofc. root wont work if using those old root files.

OP, did you factory reset between ROM flashes?

beekay201 said:
OP, did you factory reset between ROM flashes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pulling files then flashing 4.2.2 stock image to start fresh

NyPlaya513 said:
Ok, I am paranoid and want to be sure about this. I am in the same boat as the OP. I have a 32gb toro on twrp 2.5. I am under the impression that flashing the stock images will flash my sdcard partition and I want to pull some files if that is the case. Is there anyway to pull the files or am I stuck and need to start fresh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You cant use the stock images they are for gsm not toro/cdma, have to use a custom zip only one is that light speed one in development right now I am waiting for muzzys but, full wipe, flash rom, gapps, supersu.

NeoMagus said:
You cant use the stock images they are for gsm not toro/cdma, have to use a custom zip only one is that light speed one in development right now I am waiting for muzzys but, full wipe, flash rom, gapps, supersu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nvm pulling files

If you tried wiping just cache/dalvik after the flash I dont know there may be another way to get it to boot or not but yeah the factory image will start it over fresh and get you out of it

NeoMagus said:
If you tried wiping just cache/dalvik after the flash I dont know there may be another way to get it to boot or not but yeah the factory image will start it over fresh and get you out of it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nvm got the toolkit to pull files via adb for me on my parallels

agent47er said:
Few hours before this post I flashed a rooted version of android 4.3 from the thread by "Carlos_Manuel". However, following that the supersu was not working I flashed the supersu binaries over the ROM from TWRP. Since then, it is stuck in boot loop at the Google Logo. Tried flashing PA, Sourcery, CM but nothing seems to work. What should I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"just wipe data" in recovery after flashing, solve bootloop issue

dexviajiboy said:
"just wipe data" in recovery after flashing, solve bootloop issue
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for your help.. but I ended up flashing factory image of 4.3 which fixed the problem. Also I wnted to ask if you know of any 4.3 kernels that have implemented high performance audio mod. So far I have tried Faux and Hybrid but both dont have it.

agent47er said:
thanks for your help.. but I ended up flashing factory image of 4.3 which fixed the problem. Also I wnted to ask if you know of any 4.3 kernels that have implemented high performance audio mod. So far I have tried Faux and Hybrid but both dont have it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont think there's any kernel for now, give it some time and you'll get one

[Q] phone installs PA3.96a fine but gets stuck upon rebooting

I installed paranoidandroid 3.96a today and I had some errors before I was able to install it so I ended up formatting the data and then clearing the caches.
I flashed PA. Then I flashed the latest google apps. Then I flashed PA again and rebooted. My phone loaded fine and I was able to install everything I want.
Then if I reboot my phone it get stuck on the splash screen and cannot load. If I go into TWRP 2.5.0.0 recovery it asks me for a password (I have not yet a password although I recently bought this phone used on swappa so I've contacted the seller to ask if he set a password). If I push cancel at the password screen then I can get into TWRP but if I go to wipe the dalvik cache it say sit "failed." The test printed to the console is:
Updating partition details...
E: Failed to wipe dalvik
Updating partition details...
I also cannot browse the internal memory of my phone. There is no folder named "android" or similar.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to try to update TWRP to the latest version. After that I'm out of ideas

Try the latest twrp like you said. Then you can also try cwm. Before you csn browse your file system in recovery, you have to mount system.
Id try another factory reset and reboot though. If thst doesnt help try another kernel. If youre still stuck, idin flash back to full stock with the root66 firmware, then start over clean from there.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

how long do you let the phone sit after rebooting? I'm currently on the same rom and noticed it takes longer than usual to reboot the device. it's seems like it takes just as long to reboot the phone as it does to boot up the phone right after flashing the rom.
try letting the phone sit for 5-10 mins and see if it boots up. it's kind of ridiculous it takes that long to reboot a phone, but then again the rom is in alpha. I might try reflashing the rom to see if this still happens.
Just posted in the ROM thread to see if anyone else has the same issue.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

DocHoliday77 said:
Try the latest twrp like you said. Then you can also try cwm. Before you csn browse your file system in recovery, you have to mount system.
Id try another factory reset and reboot though. If thst doesnt help try another kernel. If youre still stuck, idin flash back to full stock with the root66 firmware, then start over clean from there.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried installing PA again and then upgrading TWRP to 2.6.0.0 but it still said that it had 2.5.0.0. Then I installed CM10.1 and used that to upgrade to TWRP 2.6.0.0 which worked. I then tried installing PA3.96a again with the same results.
I think that the problem is with TWRP not recognizing android 4.3 installs correctly because I have the same problem with CM10.2 that I had with PA3.96a.
I don't think the problem is that I'm not waiting long enough because after the first restart (i.e. I flash it and restart loading the ROM fine--then when I restart it for the first time it gets stuck). When I go into TWRP after it hangs the first thing it does is ask me for my password. I don't have a password. I think that something is happening to the system partition after install that makes TWRP unable to read it on this phone. Also it says that 0 MB have been used on my phone ram so I think the problem is with TWRP not being able to read the system partition in 4.3 correctly.
Has anyone gotten android 4.3 working on the t-mobile s3 yet?
Edit: And I can't restore from a nandroid backup (unless I put it on my SD card because the phone cannot read from the system partition).

Did you try mounting /system in recovery?
I would seriously consider Odin flashing stock root66 firmware before anything else at this point. Maybe something is corrupted in one of the underlying partitions.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

DocHoliday77 said:
Did you try mounting /system in recovery?
I would seriously consider Odin flashing stock root66 firmware before anything else at this point. Maybe something is corrupted in one of the underlying partitions.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I did. If I mount it I still couldn't see /android or any other folders. I could also not clear the dalvik cache or do a factory reset.
Okay that's the consensus. I'll try restoring to stock sometime this weekend and see how that goes.

I just reverted back to stock using Odin. Reset the counter to be safe and then used odin to load a rooted stock. Then I installed goo manager and had it install TWRP 2.6.0.0.
Success! I can install and 4.3. Something must have been funky with the previous rooting job or something. Who knows. Thanks!

Right on! Good to hear you got it running good!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

same thing
so i basically have the same thing but with mine i installed hyperdrive rom and flashing the stock rom like you said doesnt work and doesnt get rid of hyperdrive so it just has the hyperdrive boot screen and i cant get to my internal memory ect. like him please help i cant have ruined my phone by the way im a noob so please be specific and give me links thanks

Did you install stock with Odin?
I installed stock with Odin. I then installed a rooted stock and used that to reroot my phone by installing goo manager to install twrp 2.6.0.0.
Let me know if you want me to get the links for you. I got them on xda from googling
Edit: Found it. I used this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1900345.
Downloading the stock took about an hour so I would go ahead and just use odin to install the rooted stock. After you install your phone will reboot and then it will hang on a screen with Samsung on it (or at least it did for me). You then restart your phone and go into recovery and do a factory reset. Then install goo manager and reinstall the recovery by clicking on the options/settings button and selecting "Install OpenRecoveryScript." Then you can download whatever ROM you want to install. Reboot and go into recovery and you can install it.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

links please
bmdubs said:
Did you install stock with Odin?
I installed stock with Odin. I then installed a rooted stock and used that to reroot my phone by installing goo manager to install twrp 2.6.0.0.
Let me know if you want me to get the links for you. I got them on xda from googling
Edit: Found it. I used this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1900345.
Downloading the stock took about an hour so I would go ahead and just use odin to install the rooted stock. After you install your phone will reboot and then it will hang on a screen with Samsung on it (or at least it did for me). You then restart your phone and go into recovery and do a factory reset. Then install goo manager and reinstall the recovery by clicking on the options/settings button and selecting "Install OpenRecoveryScript." Then you can download whatever ROM you want to install. Reboot and go into recovery and you can install it.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that would be awesome if you could i want to make sure i do the same downloads as you its so nice knowing im not the only one. im so screwed if i cant fix this

imfukked said:
that would be awesome if you could i want to make sure i do the same downloads as you its so nice knowing im not the only one. im so screwed if i cant fix this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check your flash counter and if it's anything over 0 run Triangle Away to set it back to 0.
Then follow the directions in the stickied thread for directions on how to revert back to stock. I installed the latest t-mobile ROM from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1771687
Just make sure you get the T-mobile versions

bmdubs said:
Check your flash counter and if it's anything over 0 run Triangle Away to set it back to 0.
Then follow the directions in the stickied thread for directions on how to revert back to stock. I installed the latest t-mobile ROM from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1771687
Just make sure you get the T-mobile versions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Triangle Away only after you have stock kernel and stock recovery back on your phone. Otherwise it wont do you any good.
Odin flash the root66 firmware, triangle away, then full unroot from the supersu app.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

DocHoliday77 said:
Triangle Away only after you have stock kernel and stock recovery back on your phone. Otherwise it wont do you any good.
Odin flash the root66 firmware, triangle away, then full unroot from the supersu app.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how do i check my triangle and triangle away it ohh and my odin doesnt have pda it has bl ap cp csc

imfukked said:
how do i check my triangle and triangle away it ohh and my odin doesnt have pda it has bl ap cp csc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reboot your phone and instead of pushing volume up to put it into recovery mode push volume down to bring it into download mode. This is also what you use to revert to stock via odin.

IT WORKED
HOLY **** IT WORKED I HAVENT HAD MY PHONE FOR A WEEK I THOUGHT I WAS SOO SCREWED YOU SAVED MY ASS THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

My understanding is that it's actually kind for of hard to brick your phone from doing software modifications. It is possible but I think only if you really screw something up. Like powering down while installing a recovery or something.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

Unplugging in the midst of a firmware flash, and flashing the wrong models firmware are the easiest ways people hard brick.
If you can get download mode and recovery to boot it can be fixed most of the time.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

Yeah what happened with me is I downloaded hyperdrive to my internal and this was my first time and I didn't install cwm or anything like that so I did the factory reset and cleared cashe but then I relized there's no way to clear your dalvik and or launch hyperdrive so I tryed booting my phone and it got stuck on the samsung logo everytime so I used odin to put cwm on my phone and I couldn't access my internal or clear dalvik so I used an external and used my old galaxy s2 to download hyperdrive on to the external and then launched it on my s3 and it installed great it let me choose everything but when I went to launch the phone it got stuck on the hyperdrive boot animation so I tryed like 10 stock roms none of them worked it wouldn't get rid of the hyperdrive boot animation iether so then I was sher the link you gave me wasn't going to work but unlike the other odin ones I did it took time instead of only taking half a second and it worked
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

GNEX frozen at JB startup animation (multicolored X)

Hi, hope my exact issue wasn't discussed after page 10 of the help & troubleshoot forum, anyway my rooted, unlocked cwm recovery stock 4.2 yakju (if I remember well) Samsung GNEX started to behave strangely slower then usual less then a week ago, then a couple of days later I woke up after night battery recharge to the boot up animation which never gave way to the operating system starting up.
After the first moment of despair I tried reading something here and with the use of adb I was able to first see the device and, after backing up via recovery, to pull the files from the phone (backup included). Problem is the 0 folder is very light for all the data and apps that I had, and inside the DCIM folder there's nothing, no trace of the 1k+ picture I shot in the past couple years, only an igc file which should have been in another folder. But strangely enough the backup weights almost 6GB which is consistent with what was inside prior to the crash.
Before attempting the backup I fiddled with recovery and tried to wipe cache, dalvik and fixing permissions, with no apparent results.
So now I'm undecided whether to take the phone to a samsung job centre which will surely wipe all data and possibly find out I have a corrupt memory or partition table, which renders many files and folders unavailable to be adb pulled or to wipe data/restore factory by myself hopying, fingers crossed, that the backup actually saved all my files and that could be restored without hassle. I actually had hoped that, like for the desktop environment, there was the possibility to awake my phone with a linux live or whatever to check if all files were present and downloadable before actually restoring the phone.
Thanks for your interest and help.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Pbk0TslYN6cm1wWWZydVM2V0k/edit?usp=sharing

Have you tried dirty flashing your rom?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Free mobile app

This is probably what I was thinking to do in the last sentence, I just have no idea how this could be done. Are there any videos explaining a dirty flash for gnex out there? Thanks for your help
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using XDA Free mobile app

berniefranz said:
This is probably what I was thinking to do in the last sentence, I just have no idea how this could be done. Are there any videos explaining a dirty flash for gnex out there? Thanks for your help
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its really easy. Just wipe cache and dalvik cache and then flash your rom (the same rom that is on the phone) again. Reboot.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Free mobile app

As far as I remember there is no identifiable rom files inside my GNEX memory, or wait, it seems I do already have a 6c7ff815e7762f651ad6f8c74e5cb281093f1e0b.signed-yakju-JWR66V-from-JDQ39.6c7ff815 zip in my download folder. So I need to clean cache and dalvik then install from zip. Do you know if this system wipes everything and I need to restore everything applying my hopefully working backup, or if it keeps all the files?
I'll try it tomorrow with fingers crossed.
Thanks again
mrgnex said:
Its really easy. Just wipe cache and dalvik cache and then flash your rom (the same rom that is on the phone) again. Reboot.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

berniefranz said:
As far as I remember there is no identifiable rom files inside my GNEX memory, or wait, it seems I do already have a 6c7ff815e7762f651ad6f8c74e5cb281093f1e0b.signed-yakju-JWR66V-from-JDQ39.6c7ff815 zip in my download folder. So I need to clean cache and dalvik then install from zip. Do you know if this system wipes everything and I need to restore everything applying my hopefully working backup, or if it keeps all the files?
I'll try it tomorrow with fingers crossed.
Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dirty flashing wont wipe any data. Only cache (which is only helpful with some speed). Cache will rebuild. If thats your rom. Dirty flash it. If it isnt. Adb push the right rom.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Free mobile app

Then I don't think the mentioned file is the my rom but a rom update I wanted to push myself but never did. Now, I'm definitely sure it was already JB, but which flavour? 4.2 JOP40C, 4.2.1 JOP40D or 4.2.2 JDQ39? I guess it should have been the last one, if I intended to update from JDQ to JWR (according to the file name), and I'm quite sure it was Jakju but just can't remember for sure. Is there a way via recovery or adb to check which was my rom? Or should I just close my eyes and download and flash JDQ39?
Again, thanks
mrgnex said:
Dirty flashing wont wipe any data. Only cache (which is only helpful with some speed). Cache will rebuild. If thats your rom. Dirty flash it. If it isnt. Adb push the right rom.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

berniefranz said:
Then I don't think the mentioned file is the my rom but a rom update I wanted to push myself but never did. Now, I'm definitely sure it was already JB, but which flavour? 4.2 JOP40C, 4.2.1 JOP40D or 4.2.2 JDQ39? I guess it should have been the last one, if I intended to update from JDQ to JWR (according to the file name), and I'm quite sure it was Jakju but just can't remember for sure. Is there a way via recovery or adb to check which was my rom? Or should I just close my eyes and download and flash JDQ39?
Again, thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that TWRP default names a nandroid as the ROM build name/number and date. Don't know what cwm does for that as its been ages since I used it. You could install twrp and see what that tells you as the name of backup maybe to try and grab current ROM info.
Or using the file manager in recovery(twrp has one dunno about cwm) and see if you can look at the build.prop in /system which will have all relevant ROM information. If you can use adb in recovery try pulling /system/build.prop and looking at it. Right near top will be ROM build and info

Thanks, CWM doesn't have a file manager, but adb did actually pull the build prop id=JOP40D, so I'll go back to download the correct ROM and try to flash it..
ashclepdia said:
I know that TWRP default names a nandroid as the ROM build name/number and date. Don't know what cwm does for that as its been ages since I used it. You could install twrp and see what that tells you as the name of backup maybe to try and grab current ROM info.
Or using the file manager in recovery(twrp has one dunno about cwm) and see if you can look at the build.prop in /system which will have all relevant ROM information. If you can use adb in recovery try pulling /system/build.prop and looking at it. Right near top will be ROM build and info
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

small update, I managed to download the correct rom and I tried to adb push the .tar to the device (twice and attempting a third to /sdcard/ /sdcard/clockworkmod/ and now /sdcard/0/Download/) but still haven't been able to spot the uploaded file to choose for dirty flash. adb shows the file as uploaded , but again no sign of it with CWM Recovery. should I try to install TWRP recovery? with the nexus toolkit there is a function to flash a rom, but it says it will wipe the device first, so it's really not the option I was looking for. Another strange behaviour of CWM Recovery, or maybe my phone, inside mounts and storage menu, mount sdcard seems to be not working as it never changes to unmount after you click it. I think my memory went berserk and that's the reason why the phone rebooted and never woke up again. Maybe I'll take to the nearest job center to ascertain the damage...
thanks for all your help
berniefranz said:
Thanks, CWM doesn't have a file manager, but adb did actually pull the build prop id=JOP40D, so I'll go back to download the correct ROM and try to flash it..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

installed TWRP and was able to see to rom.tar uploaded via adb in the download folder, but wasn't able to use to flash as probably both recovery wants .zip and not .tar, so I'll now untar and zip the stock rom and upload it again...
small steps...

had a md5 check fail during flash, so still no good news. I was surfing a bit when noticed that developers.google.com doesn't have a factory image for 4.2.1 jop40d but only for 4.1.2 jzo54k. Does this mean I should flash 4.1.2 and then update, or try directly for the 4.2.1 which I can't find (a working one)?

went back to CWM but installation failed as well as TWRP, so I guess my last option is to take it to a samsung job center to check whether I have a corrupted memory or else... ANyway thanks everybody for your support..
berniefranz said:
had a md5 check fail during flash, so still no good news. I was surfing a bit when noticed that developers.google.com doesn't have a factory image for 4.2.1 jop40d but only for 4.1.2 jzo54k. Does this mean I should flash 4.1.2 and then update, or try directly for the 4.2.1 which I can't find (a working one)?
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Had to take it to the job center where, it was downgraded to 4.0.4 (have still to check which flavour) fixed something and Wiped everything. When I side about he post mortem backup and the intention to try a restore from there I was give an are you kidding look, it could crash again... sigh.
Anyway thanks everyone that spent some time to try and explain a noob how to try to solve this issue.. Now I've got a new galaxy nexus, so after a little grievance I'll start reading on how to flash a nice rom...
berniefranz said:
went back to CWM but installation failed as well as TWRP, so I guess my last option is to take it to a samsung job center to check whether I have a corrupted memory or else... ANyway thanks everybody for your support..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse