[Guide] Unbrick Your Sprint S3 ..... (and maybe others) - Sprint Samsung Galaxy S III

Just Realized Im in wrong thread .and don't know how to fix hopefully I will be moved to Q and A
This is just to help out people who may have had a hard time getting other guides to work like I had
I dont have original thread so i will give you my rough draft and will update when possible.
All steps work.
My working image link is at bottom of post
Here is were I made the mistake
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1745865
These are the 2 files
1.Galaxy-S-fre3-2.51.zip
2.Galaxy-S-fre3-MD4FirmwareModemAIO.zip
flashed first and wamo no andro
Ya my bad shouldnt have flashed firmware but i did and payed the price.
Heres my specs.
Android Ver:
4.3
Baseband Ver:
L710VPUCMK3
Build:
JSS15JL710VPUCMK3
Hardware Ver:
L710.14
haha, so im a knuklehead.
I thought i lost my device (this is still a bad-ass phone, almost too nice to be in a roofers pouch and getten torn up. But it takes really nice pictures of my custom work, and takes em fast so i can get back to work.
I lost 12 hours for stupid mistake,
Not to mention the last device i bricked was my first (Hero) and thought was my last.
The only life left in the device, was red light, when battery removed (when battery was placed in during charge, red light went out in 5 to 10 sec.)
When battery was in unit, no lights at all.
I noticed when usb cable attached to ubuntu, was some kind of Qualcomm Device _DLMODE or somthing.
I will edit this post when i find it again, but anyway that led to nothing.
My first attempts were made following this guide:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2369125
I couldnt figure out by reading the threads if how I was to format the fat32 partition default 8 or 4 or 1Mg
I couldnt understand why we would have to try to write the image over and over...Why it wouldnt write it right the first time.
I had a hard time trying to write the image file ..debrick_sph_l710.img to sdcard using my v-box..
(Virtual-Box under windows 8 with Ubuntu 13.10 installed ....Android-Kernel-Build ready ).
After trying all the different ways and different images, I said screw it i give up.
.........Till after dinner
wife made a roasted chicken not gonna be late.
Finally I made my own image from my wifes phone, because we bought them at the same time.
One problem hers isnt rooted and she wasnt about to let me touch it.............
Solution: I bought her a galaxy4 for 49.00 /w upgrade, now i have 2 galaxy 3's. But only one works.:/
That was a pain rooting because she always excepts the firmware upgrades when they come over air.
Couldnt get the "seLinux seAndroid" thing so i just went back to 4.1 for now so that i could adb.
Heres What Did It...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2345860
HERES HOW I DID IT
To extract a de-brick image from your phone (an UnBricked Phone) do in an adb shell:
If you know the partition use:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/HomefixSprint_S3_L710.img bs=1048576 count=70
If not use:
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modem of=/sdcard/HomefixSprint_S3_L710.img bs=1048576 count=70
MY TERMINAL SHOWS:
C:\Users\dad>adb shell
[email protected]:/ # busybox dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/HomefixSprint_S3_L710.img bs=1048576 count=70
0 of=/sdcard/HomefixSprint_S3_L710.img bs=1048576 count=70 <
70+0 records in
70+0 records out
73400320 bytes (70.0MB) copied, 4.578239 seconds, 15.3MB/s
Take that image, copy it to your cygwin directory and write it to an unformatted 16mb sdcard using cygwin:
TO GET THE SDCARD READY:
get EaseUS Partition Master Free Edition-Free For Home Users
and find the sdcard, its about 14.82GB, if u have more than 1 your on your own.
Select that one, and delete all partitions.
Then, New partition, select fat32, and then finish by applying the operations.
IN CYGWIN:
Get sdcard info:
cat /proc/partitions
MY TERMINAL SHOWS:
[email protected] ~
$ cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
8 0 976762584 sda
8 1 976759808 sda1
8 16 117220824 sdb
8 17 358400 sdb1
8 18 116859904 sdb2
8 32 976762584 sdc
8 33 976759808 sdc1
8 48 244198584 sdd
8 49 244196001 sdd1
8 64 976762584 sde
8 65 976657408 sde1
8 80 976762584 sdf
8 81 976760001 sdf1
8 96 976762584 sdg
8 97 976760001 sdg1
8 112 976075776 sdh
8 113 976074752 sdh1
8 128 15558144 sdi
8 129 15558110 sdi1
[email protected] ~
$ ls
debrick_sph_l710.img
[email protected] ~
$ dd if=HomefixSprint_s3_L710.img of=/dev/sdi
143360+0 records in
143360+0 records out
73400320 bytes (73 MB) copied, 338.771 s, 217 kB/s
I DID WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO:
Put battery in
Connect usb cable
Insert sdcard
Vol-up/Home and Power
I felt the vibration no more than a second after pressing power (along with vol_dwn and home key pressed and held)
As you can imagine, my adrenilin was pumpped to the point of feeling like i smoked a pack of camel ciggirettes, AGAIN, as i try to boot the phone.
I knew i was out of the woods after I saw the samsung logo.
It Skipped past download.
I was able to boot right into my desktop, however there were no signal bars.
and the Baseband ver: was unknown.
I powered down the phone (man that was hard to do) but i did.
Tried to get into download mode but failed at first, recovery failed also.
Finally got to download then i was good.
NOTES:
After I revived the phone I had nothing too loose because now I had 2 S3's, so I played a bit.
Its fun to brick your phone on purpose haha
:The debrick_sph_l710.img or the Debrick_Sprint_S3_L710_4.3.img did not work for me
:I did not need the class 10, class 4 worked too
:I did not need cable attached
:It didnt Matter wich order i put battery, sdcard, usb-cord to boot
:I did not format card
nly took 1 try to write working image each time ( didnt take several attemts) I wrote and tested 3 different images.
:Upon booting It seems to be the same each time ,couple three four sec (out of a few times playing it may have taken 10sec to boot on one occasion).
:I think the issues with ubuntu was,the sdcard was not ejecting properly and corrupting the image.
:If you have a sucssesful write to sdcard, it may not show up in file explorer until you pull out card reader and re-insert it... then it will show up in file explorer as a folder called "image" with bunch of files or somthing in it, then you know it wrote ok.
:for some reason after i haha... BRICKED MY SG3 ON PURPOSE....Oh my GOD....Im SHOT, booted to my homemade image, i was able to boot into recovery as well as Download.
:Not for nothen I tried to:
dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/recovery
dd if=/sdcard/boot.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/boot
dd if=/sdcard/modem.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modem
(Remember i was able to boot to system, so adb worked)
Did not work, however it may have worked if i used the syntax...mmcblk0 and such.
My Image Link: http://rooferdave.com/Downloads/sprintsg3.html

Will your image work if placed on a formated sd card or do I need to do the partion step then copy

Related

[GUIDE] How to make a Goldcard on Mac/Linux - short version

Hi everyone, I've seen several guides around on how to make a Goldcard, and some were overly complicated, some were just wrong, most of them required pesky windows tools, hex editors etc etc so I'll try to make this one as short and functional as possible.
Goldcards are used to circumvent CID (Customer ID) check when flashing RUUs. So, without it, you can flash only RUUs for your carrier. With it, you can flash any RUU. Not as good as S-OFF, you still cannot flash individual RUU components like radio etc, only whole RUU, but still a step towards freedom.
Prerequisites:
- Your phone, with SD card you plan to make Goldcard of inside, fully booted, ADB debugging enabled, connected to your Linux/Mac box via USB
- Working adb binary for your Linux/Mac (get it from appropriate Android SDK for your OS) or Terminal app on your phone.
1) Get your SD card CID
Enter your phone's shell with adb (or use terminal app on your phone, whatever)
adb shell
Navigate to /sys folder containing your CID (path can be slightly different in your device, but look around a bit and you'll find it, can't be that hard)
cd /sys/class/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:0001
Get your CID by reading "cid" file
cat cid
1b534d303030303010749634be00c9a4
This is your CID, write it down
2) Transform your CID
First, split your CID in 2-digit groups
1b 53 4d 30 30 30 30 30 10 74 96 34 be 00 c9 a4
Reverse their order
a4 c9 00 be 34 96 74 10 30 30 30 30 30 4d 53 1b
Replace first group with 00
00 c9 00 be 34 96 74 10 30 30 30 30 30 4d 53 1b
Put them together again
00c900be3496741030303030304d531b
That's your transformed CID.
3) Generate goldcard image file
Go to
http://psas.revskills.de/?q=goldcard
Enter your transformed CID, make sure that Goldcard type is set to Android, fill captcha, and click on "Download Goldcard!", you should get goldcard.img file with length of 384 bytes
4) Flash image on your SD card
Put your SD card in card reader on your Mac/Linux box
Make sure it has only 1 partition and format it to Fat32 (won't explain how to do this, this is not Your OS for Dummies)
Don't mount your partition anywhere. Gnome/KDE/Mac OS X will auto-mount, so make sure it's umnounted.
Find out which device in /dev is your SD card using dmesg, mount or something. On Linux it's probably /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc etc. On Mac, /dev/disk1, /dev/disk2 etc. Important thing, look for device that corresponds to your whole SD card, not partition on it (not /dev/sdb1p1 or /dev/disk1s1 for example)
Use "dd" command to flash your goldcard image to your SD card. Triple check that you're targeting the right device in /dev or you will be sorry.
Linux:
dd if=goldcard.img of=/dev/sdb bs=512
Path to device can vary and use sudo if you're not root.
Mac:
sudo dd if=goldcard.img of=/dev/disk1 bs=512
Path to device can vary.
5) Profit
That's it, your SD card is now a Goldcard
Credits to many people around the Internet who provided various bits of this procedure.
Or you could use SimpleGoldCard Tool to do the CID crap.
Nevertheless, good tutorial, keep it up.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2
I'm looking for some way to generate goldcard.img offline, without using http://psas.revskills.de/?q=goldcard ... After all, site may disapear and render this process impossible... People mention some Perl script?
dulemars said:
I'm looking for some way to generate goldcard.img offline, without using http://psas.revskills.de/?q=goldcard ... After all, site may disapear and render this process impossible... People mention some Perl script?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup, it disappeared
speculatrix said:
yup, it disappeared
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
found a replacement
http://huygens.hoxnet.com/goldcard.html

[Expert Guide] Debrick SSG3

I figured Id start another thread so no one has to search and read thru all other threads for help like I had to.
I had to write this because i thought other guides were incomplete, and frankly they didnt work.
I will try to update and make things easier to read and use spellchecker when time permits.
and add in-between steps that i left out because i have no dam time. Thats why i call it expert guide-you need some knowledge of doing this.
This is just to help out someone who has had a hard time with other guides
It is not a step by step
Knowledge of cygwin and adb is expected.
Learn it, and how to setup, using google and xda like the rest of us.
I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY OF BRICKING YOUR PHONE ANY MORE THAN IT IS.
Here is were I made the mistake:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1745865
These are the 2 files
1.Galaxy-S-fre3-2.51.zip
2.Galaxy-S-fre3-MD4FirmwareModemAIO.zip
First of all I ALWAYS CHECK MDMSUMS
The second zip was flashed first, and wamo no andro
Heres my specs.
Android Ver:
4.3
Baseband Ver:
L710VPUCMK3
Build:
JSS15JL710VPUCMK3
Hardware Ver:
L710.14
Im guessing it bricked my phone because I flashed the Galaxy-S-fre3-MD4FirmwareModemAIO.zip before the actual rom itself "Galaxy-S-fre3-2.51.zip"
Obviosly I should have done it the other way around, well im only hu............ngry. haha, so im a knuklehead.
I refuse to go to that particular site to read the first post and see if there is some sort of DONT FLASH OUT OF ORDER OR RISK LOOSING A LIMB, warning posted.
I thought i lost my device (this is still a bad-ass phone, almost too nice to be in a roofers pouch and getten toren up. But it takes really nice pictures of my custom work, and takes em fast so i can get back to work.
I lost 12 hours for stupid mistake, (im sure someone will say thats the business, of course thats why we do it.)
Not to mention the last device i bricked was my first (Hero) and thought was my last.
When you play the Rom Game you may get Ram'd
I will post this to that fre3 site, however unless the OP makes note of this others will be in the same mess.
The only life left in the device, was red light, when battery removed (when battery was placed in during charge, red light went out in 5 to 10 sec.)
When battery was in unit, no lights at all.
I noticed when usb cable attached to ubuntu, oh **** i forgot what and how i saw it but it was some kind of Qualcomm Device _DLMODE or somthing.
I will edit this post when i find it again, but anyway that led to nothing.
My first attempts were made following this guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2369125
I couldnt figure out by reading the threads if how I was to format the fat32 partition default 8 or 4 or 1Mg
I couldnt understand why we would have to try to write the image over and over...Why it wouldnt write it right the first time.
I had a hard time trying to write the image file ..debrick_sph_l710.img to sdcard using my v-box..
(Virtual-Box under windows 8 with Ubuntu 13.10 installed ....Android-Kernel-Build ready ).
After trying all the different ways and different images, I said screw it i give up.
.........Till after dinner
wife made a roasted chicken not gonna be late.
Finally I made my own image from my wifes phone, because we bought them at the same time.
One problem hers isnt rooted and she wasnt about to let me touch it.............
Solution: I bought her a galaxy4 for 49.00 /w upgrade, now i have 2 galaxy 3's. But only one works.:/
That was a pain rooting because she always excepts the firmware upgrades when they come over air.
Couldnt get the "seLinux seAndroid" thing so i just went back to 4.1 for now so that i could adb.
Heres What Did It...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2345860
HERES HOW I DID IT
To extract a de-brick image from your phone (an UnBricked Phone) do in an adb shell:
If you know the partition use:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/HomefixSprint_S3_L710.img bs=1048576 count=70
If not use:
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modem of=/sdcard/HomefixSprint_S3_L710.img bs=1048576 count=70
MY TERMINAL SHOWS:
C:\Users\dad>adb shell
[email protected]:/ # busybox dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/HomefixSprint_S3_L710.img bs=1048576 count=70
0 of=/sdcard/HomefixSprint_S3_L710.img bs=1048576 count=70 <
70+0 records in
70+0 records out
73400320 bytes (70.0MB) copied, 4.578239 seconds, 15.3MB/s
Take that image, copy it to your cygwin directory and write it to an unformatted 16mb sdcard using cygwin:
TO GET THE SDCARD READY:
get EaseUS Partition Master Free Edition-Free For Home Users
and find the sdcard, its about 14.82GB, if u have more than 1 your on your own.
Select that one, and delete all partitions.
Then, New partition, select fat32, and then finish by applying the operations.
DO NOT FORMAT
IN CYGWIN:
Get sdcard info:
cat /proc/partitions
MY TERMINAL SHOWS:
[email protected] ~
$ cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
8 0 976762584 sda
8 1 976759808 sda1
8 16 117220824 sdb
8 17 358400 sdb1
8 18 116859904 sdb2
8 32 976762584 sdc
8 33 976759808 sdc1
8 48 244198584 sdd
8 49 244196001 sdd1
8 64 976762584 sde
8 65 976657408 sde1
8 80 976762584 sdf
8 81 976760001 sdf1
8 96 976762584 sdg
8 97 976760001 sdg1
8 112 976075776 sdh
8 113 976074752 sdh1
8 128 15558144 sdi
8 129 15558110 sdi1
[email protected] ~
$ ls
debrick_sph_l710.img HomefixSprint_S3_L710.img kitchen
[email protected] ~
$ dd if=HomefixSprint_s3_L710.img of=/dev/sdi
143360+0 records in
143360+0 records out
73400320 bytes (73 MB) copied, 338.771 s, 217 kB/s
I DID WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO:
Put battery in
Connect usb cable
Insert sdcard
Vol-up/Home and Power
I felt the vibration no more than a second after pressing power (along with vol_dwn and home key pressed and held)
As you can imagine, my adrenilin was pumpped to the point of feeling like i smoked a pack of camel ciggirettes, AGAIN, as i try to boot the phone.
I knew i was out of the woods after I saw the samsung logo.
It Skipped past download.
I was able to boot right into my desktop, however there were no signal bars.
and the Baseband ver: was unknown.
I powered down the phone (man that was hard to do) but i did.
Tried to get into download mode but failed at first, recovery failed also.
Finally got to download then i was good.
NOTES:
After I revived the phone I had nothing too loose because now I had 2 S3's, so I played a bit.
Its fun to brick your phone on purpose haha
I fed this PIECE OF S#!+ Galaxy-S-fre3-MD4FirmwareModemAIO.zip to my phone the first time and i lost 12 hrs plus the time write this.
:The debrick_sph_l710.img or the Debrick_Sprint_S3_L710_4.3.img did not work for me
:I did not need the class 10, class 4 worked too
:did not need cable attached
:did not Matter wich order i put battery, sdcard, usb-cord to boot
:did not format card
nly took 1 try to write working image each time ( didnt take several attemts) I wrote and tested 3 different images.
:Upon booting It seems to be the same each time ,couple three four sec (out of a few times playing it may have taken 10sec to boot on one occasion).
:I think the issues with ubuntu was,the sdcard was not ejecting properly and corrupting the image.
:If you have a sucssesful write to sdcard, it may not show up in file explorer until you pull out card reader and re-insert it... then it will show up in file explorer as a folder called "image" with bunch of files or somthing in it, then you know it wrote ok.
:for some reason after i haha... BRICKED MY SG3 ON PURPOSE....Oh my GOD....Im SHOT, booted to my homemade image, i was able to boot into recovery as well as Download.
:Not for nothen I tried to:
dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/recovery
dd if=/sdcard/boot.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/boot
dd if=/sdcard/modem.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modem
(Remember i was able to boot to system, so adb worked)
Did not work, however it may have worked if i used the syntax...mmcblk0 and such.
Questions:
Why is my debrick.img smaller than others on this site
Why my image works for my device and no others will work
Are all phones with these snapdragon cpu's have the ability to "sdcard boot"
Why do we spend endless hours with our phones and forget we have a family.
MY FILE:................ http://rooferdave.com/Downloads/sprintsg3.html
Like I replied to you in the other thread, the problem with what you did is that you flashed MD4 firmware while on the MK3 bootloader. It has nothing to do with the ROM.
At the time the MD4 rom was posted, MK3 had not even come out. So anger at the lack of a warning in that thread is misguided.
Further, there are multiple places where you could have found information on this.
1) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2541343
2) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2637424
I did the EXACT same thing as you did and bricked my S3 this morning.
I've attempted your fix but I am really all over the place.
Is there any way your guide could be simplified/condensed for someone like me?
I can get Ubuntu to run on another machine. I have a 16GB Micro SD. But I am not sure at all on the following things...
a) which file I am supposed to flash to the micro sd card
b) once I open Ubuntu/linux how to find that file by navigating to my Windows installation.
If you don't have time...thanks anyway for your guide..I'm sure I'll get there eventually.
CNexus said:
Like I replied to you in the other thread, the problem with what you did is that you flashed MD4 firmware while on the MK3 bootloader. It has nothing to do with the ROM.
At the time the MD4 rom was posted, MK3 had not even come out. So anger at the lack of a warning in that thread is misguided.
Further, there are multiple places where you could have found information on this.
1) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2541343
2) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2637424
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No reason why op didnt take the extra step and warning us this can happen, I would.
My time is very limited lately, and dont have the time to read thru all fourms.
As far as my residual anger, left over from wasting my time, unbricking my phone. Oh well
Like I said I would have placed a warning for half-noobs like myself to prevent this. OTHERS DO!
And not for nutten I still dont see any warning up it up.
edderspcs said:
I did the EXACT same thing as you did and bricked my S3 this morning.
I've attempted your fix but I am really all over the place.
Is there any way your guide could be simplified/condensed for someone like me?
I can get Ubuntu to run on another machine. I have a 16GB Micro SD. But I am not sure at all on the following things...
a) which file I am supposed to flash to the micro sd card
b) once I open Ubuntu/linux how to find that file by navigating to my Windows installation.
If you don't have time...thanks anyway for your guide..I'm sure I'll get there eventually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I really dont i wasted it unbricking my phone
Look on the bright side, you have a really good shot of unbricking your phone.
wasnt long ago this kind of thing would be impossible.
Good Luck
Homefix said:
Sorry I really dont i wasted it unbricking my phone
Look on the bright side, you have a really good shot of unbricking your phone.
wasnt long ago this kind of thing would be impossible.
Good Luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually got it. I got some help on Cygwin in the other thread and trial and error from there. Your debrick file was the one that finally worked. Thanks.
Homefix said:
No reason why op didnt take the extra step and warning us this can happen, I would.
My time is very limited lately, and dont have the time to read thru all fourms.
As far as my residual anger, left over from wasting my time, unbricking my phone. Oh well
Like I said I would have placed a warning for half-noobs like myself to prevent this. OTHERS DO!
And not for nutten I still dont see any warning up it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The biggest thing that sticks out here is the word READ. You say you don't have time to read the forums, but yet you find the time to search a thread that has not been update since July 2013 in the OP (Last edited by freeza; 31st July 2013 at 12:36 AM.). And yes Noobs will be Noobs, But not all Noobs don't take the time to read before flashing stuff to there phone.
This was the one that worked!!! Thanks!
Question
Where you asay Connect usb cable was it plugged into power or your computer ?
WOW! is all I can really say.
Well that and Freeza! Really!
Freeza, BTW has 9,465 thanks on XDA. oh, I would also add that heaven help us if dev has to start putting warnings on that state "you may have problems with any future upgrades that samsung/sprint may put out in the coming years".
I guess I could say even more. Just won't...
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

THBK1-10 thread: extend, root, hack !

Hello,
I'm the proud owner of an hybrid monster, called THBK1-10.
This is basically an affordable tablet, running both Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2.
10.1 display, running x86 Atom 4cores, 2Gb RAM, 32Gb eMMC, USB host enabled. It is shipped with an external keyboard/touchpad (no port, no battery, no extended storage on it). More informations: http://www.thomsoncomputing.eu/dualboot.html
Windows 8 comes in x86 flavor...
The boot process let you choose Windows or Android.
There is no play store. My main goal actually is:
- (ok) rooting Android part
- (ok) installing Play Store
- (ok) increasing space
- (nok) installing a recovery (CWM/TWRP) allowing you to flash non-signed updates
- (nok) running Linux from an external USB drive
Partition layout: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=54095052&postcount=8
Rooting / play store guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=55513404&postcount=23
Known clones: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=54282229&postcount=10
Increasing space with external SD: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=54914759&postcount=17
Timezone issue Android/Windows: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=54945950&postcount=19
BIOS default (SlateDroid): http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/106594-thbk110-default-bios-values/
Have fun !
I know there are EXT2 drivers for Windows, and EXT3 is just EXT2 + Journaling (the journaling is an important feature, but it's not part of the security model). However, I'm not sure if any of those drivers can modify file permissions. Alternatively, one could of course hex-edit the Android partition and try to tweak the file permissions that way, but that would require much more understanding of the EXT filesystem than I have. The source code is all open, though...
Thank you. Here is what i did:
a) trying to handle EXT3 fs from Windows
-> with Ext2Fsd, i have accesses to all the partitions, including /system and /data, but unfortunatly, permissions are not correct
-> i trying with other tool (Explore2Fs) not luck
-> ltools seems to provide a lattr util that could do it, but i'm unable to see the files (certainly because of the GPT partition
b) trying to use VirtualBox with raw disk access for handling, with a linux guest, permissions:
-> up to partition 7, this seems correct
-> from partition 8 (/system), i can mount it in RO but it crashes in RW
c) trying to boot to any linux supporting EFI32 and GPT
-> thanks to paperwastage, i could achieve it (thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2500078 )
-> i have strange troubles: the system only detect mmcblk0 to mmcblk7, and is throwing an error (error -110 + unknow command)
-> both, in clonezilla and ubuntu
d) tryed to use so android local tricks to force change mode, but once, i'm stuck with no eXecute flag. I dig around the local.prop or any stuff that would help me to achieve this goal. The recovery is not available (nor i found it) and the only thing i can do is factory reset.
It really seems only Windows got the proper drivers for this eMMC. This could explain why i had hard time to dump it (and, actually, i would not try to restore b/c i'm not sure everything is backuped correctly and don't want to brick my tablet), and why i could only write from Windows and why it cuts at partition7 (i have at least 12 partitions. NTFS windows main is the #11 iirc)
What i could try actually:
-> double check with newer ubuntu (when i started "install to disk", it seems it could detect the whole disk, have to look again)
-> double check with local THBK install (copy 3 apks bundled with the tablet, but perhaps a command script is available to be executed ?)
-> double check with virtual box & raw disk acces (i focused on /system, but perhaps /data is ok ?)
-> recompile Ext2Fsd to have different default properties
-> dig the hardware to see if a real recovery boot is not available, or change the recovery to something more usefull than factory reset
Thank you if you have more and more ideas
Quick notes:
- THBK1 does NOT connect to PC/MAC
- THBK1 does NOT have USB Debug activated. The micro-usb is aimed to put a (normal) cable, not an OTG one nor a charging cable. You can reach ADB only over Wireless.
-> Currently trying TowelRoot with different parameters, but for now not successfull. Basically this is a 4.2.2 kernel so i could expect a low resistance at exploits, it worths to be tested
Good news, i was able to boot from an USB stick (with EFI), and while the MMC is not accessible, i found a trick to change permissions.
I have now full R/W support on EXT3 partition.
But sadly SU is not enough to gain root accesses.... damn.
Anyone able to find doc or explain how root access is triggered ?
I found an update, and i'm now able to flash the whole system partition. Sadly, i could not flash another update.zip, so i guess this is signed (and sadly it is).
I have also tryed z4root, towelRoot exploits, not working.
Basically i could somehow bypass the sign system in applying myself the content of the update.zip (as long as it deals with /data and /system files & perms). I'll try that for at least google apps.
edit: ok i have now play store and the whole google suite is working after a big playstore update (talkback, vocal syntgetisis and so on). Only google+ is FCing but it should only be a matter of installation. I should remove it and reinstall it from the market.
Only thing missing is root
Status on Android forum side: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/hacking-thbk1-10-getting-root-t2804631/post53896017
As today, the tablet is now rooted. It works flawlessly.
Next step is the handling of recovery to flash non-signed zip files. It would ease the process of installing GAPPS or rooting the tablet.
But i'll take a break before
TODO list, from top to crazy:
- recovery
- test and deploy various system tweaker sur as Xposed framework
- bugfix vibrator (only working when you hit Windows button, not in apps)
- new rom, new kernel
Here is the actual partition layout:
Code:
Model: MMC BIWIN (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 30.9GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 269MB 268MB fat16 ANDROID!bootloader boot, hidden, legacy_boot
2 269MB 337MB 67.1MB ANDROID!panic
3 337MB 873MB 537MB ext4 ANDROID!factory
4 873MB 2484MB 1611MB ANDROID!fake
5 2484MB 2618MB 134MB ext4 ANDROID!config
6 2618MB 4229MB 1611MB ext4 ANDROID!cache
7 4229MB 5303MB 1074MB ext4 ANDROID!logs
8 5303MB 7450MB 2147MB ext4 ANDROID!system
9 7450MB 11.7GB 4295MB ext4 ANDROID!data
10 11.7GB 11.7GB 1049kB ANDROID!misc
11 11.7GB 11.8GB 33.6MB ANDROID!boot
12 11.8GB 11.9GB 134MB ANDROID!recovery
13 11.9GB 11.9GB 33.6MB ANDROID!droidboot
14 11.9GB 12.3GB 315MB ntfs Basic data partition diag
15 12.3GB 12.5GB 273MB fat32 EFI system partition boot
16 12.5GB 12.7GB 134MB Microsoft reserved partition msftres
17 12.7GB 30.9GB 18.3GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata
I'm not able to read the partition w/o filesystem (2, 4, 10, 11, 12, 13).
I tryed with yaffs2, but i'm not able to see them (and since it is not MTD...)
I'm working on dd image of the 32Gb MMC.
In example, hexdump of partition 12 shows it is a kernel. Certainly the recovery kernel directly flash, i should dig this.
Guide: installing Google Apps and Rooting the tablet
THIS POST IS DEPRECATED. See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=55513404&postcount=23
:good: /!\ Please click thanks or offer me a coffee with donate if it was usefull for you /!\ :good:
This is rather technical, but i can help if you are stuck. Thank you for your comments.
Here is how you could install Google App suite to the THBK1-10 and certainly many ones based on Inside H2O bios, board name: CARD_B (see above for detailled specs)
Basically, to install some stuff, the concept is to get rid of all the caveats (special MMC drivers, EFI 32 bits with GPT, etc...) through actual Windows 8.1 installation. Everything takes place through classic Windows desktop. For convenience, personnally worked with TeamViewer, doing this with the dock/touchpad is pain in the ass. You can void your warranty and break the android part of your tablet, so operate carefully, i'm not responsible of what you do !
This leads to 3 phases:
a) accessing EXT4 Android partitions
b) transfer files from Windows to Android
c) change permissions
a) Accessing EXT4. I used coLinux to access and handle Android EXT4 partitions:
- download and install coLinux http://sourceforge.net/projects/colinux/files/latest/download?source=files. At the 'Choose components' screen, uncheck 'Root filesystem image Download', and accept everything (including TAP drivers)
- download and unzip Debian Squeeze image in coLinux folder (c:\program files\colinux). Warning, this leads to a 2Gb file, ensure you have proper space. You could unzip it in your external SDcard, but you would have to change the path to rootfs and swap in above squeeze.conf
http://sourceforge.net/projects/col... 6.0 Squeeze/Debian-6.0.1-squeeze.7z/download
- test it: click on the squeeze.bat file into c:\program files\colinux (if you have an error co-slirp, simply close colinux and restart it). Once you have the 'debian login:' prompt simply type root then enter. You are now under coLinux.
First, install your local keyboard (if needed)
Code:
apt-get update
apt-get install console-setup locales console-data
In case you miss the point for the keyboard:
(choose select keyboard from full list / pc azerty or whatever...)
Code:
dpkg-reconfigure console-data
- you should now update your /etc/apt/sources.list file:
Code:
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
- fill with the following lines (remove all before)
Code:
deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
- update your apt repository:
Code:
apt-get update
- you would like to sync the clock from Linux with Windows: edit /etc/default/rcS and change UTC=yes to UTC=no
Code:
nano /etc/default/rcS
You can exit coLinux, we have things to tweak now.You can then download the attached Squeeze.conf, and put it into your colinux folder, replacing the old. Remember, if you have changed the path for rootfs and swap, you must change them to reflect your current installation.
Squeeze.conf:
Code:
kernel=vmlinux
cobd0="c:\program files\coLinux\rootfs_2gb.img"
cobd1="c:\program files\coLinux\\swap_128mb.img"
cofs0="C:\share"
cobd8=\Device\HarddiskVolume8
root=/dev/cobd0 ro
initrd=initrd.gz
mem=256
eth0=slirp
b) transfer files from Windows to coLinux
We would create a share folder at the root of C:\.
You must have C:\share folder.
- Create a directory in /mnt
Code:
mkdir /mnt/win
- then mount the folder into your coLinux
Code:
mount -t cofs cofs0 /mnt/win
FOLLOW THE ABOVE ONLY FOR GAPPS:
- You must now download the google apps files. The operation is done under Windows:
download Android 4.2.2 ones: http://goo.im/gapps/gapps-jb-20130812-signed.zip and extract all the file into C:\share
This folder must contains the whole gapps (you 'll see folders named: system, META-INF, optional...).
You must directly DELETE 3 files and 1 folder:
file system\app\GooglePlus.apk
file system\app\LatinImeDictionary.apk
file system\lib\libjni_latinime.so
fodler system\tts
If everything is ok, browsing /mnt/win/ from coLinux (not windows)
Code:
ls /mnt/win
should show the share directory content (META-INF,system,optional,...).
FOLLOW THIS ONLY IF ROOT:
- You must now copy su binary to your tablet: download attached files, unzip, copy it to your windows desktop shared folder
Nota: this file is extracted from Koush' superuser APK. This is the x86 su binary. Feel free to replace with newest version if available or if you fear something
FOLLOW THIS IF ROOT & GAPPS
c) access to Android partition
- create a system folder in /mnt
Code:
mkdir /mnt/system
- mount android to system
Code:
mount /dev/cobd8 /mnt/system
- check you are ok with
Code:
ls /mnt/system
You must see app, bin, usr, etc .... folders.
*** at this point, /mnt/system contains ALL your android system. NO MISTAKE ! ***
FOLLOW THIS ONLY IF GAPPS
- part 1: removing files. Browse to /mnt/system/app and CAREFULLY delete the 8 files (some could be missing, don't bother):
Code:
cd /mnt/system/app
rm Provider.apk
rm Provider.odex
rm QuickSearchBox.apk
rm QuickSearchBox.odex
rm SetupWizard.apk
rm SetupWizard.odex
- part2: copy. Copy the files from Windows to Android - it could take up to 2 minutes -
Code:
cp -rp /mnt/win/system/* /mnt/system
- then fix the permissions:
Code:
chmod -R 755 /mnt/system/addon.d
chmod 755 /mnt/system/app/*
sync
At this point, this is over. You can exit from colinux, reboot to Android, and come back to windows uninstalling coLinux, if anything is ok
The whole GAPPS are installed. Enjoy !
FOLLOW THIS ONLY IF ROOT
- copy attached x86 su binary to android
Code:
cp -p /mnt/win/su /mnt/system/bin
- then fix the permissions:
Code:
chmod 755 /mnt/system/bin/su
chmod u+s /mnt/system/bin/su
ln -s /mnt/system/bin/su /mnt/system/xbin/su
sync
At this point, this is over. Reboot, you can now download and install superuser https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=superuser&fdid=com.koushikdutta.superuser
Your tablet is now rooted. Enjoy !
Know clones (feel free to help):
- Danew i1012 dual boot (strictly identical to Thbk1)
- VOYO A1 (Windows 8 only).
- Cube U100GT (Windows 8 only)
Certainly clones:
- Ramos i10 pro (dual boot)
- Pipo W1 / Work W1 (Windows 8 only)
- ColorFly i106 (Windows 8 only)
- Toshiba WT8-AT01G (Windows 8 only)
Graveen said:
Know clones (feel free to help):
- Danew i1012 dual boot (strictly identical to Thbk1)
- VOYO A1 (Windows 8 only).
- Cube U100GT (Windows 8 only)
Certainly clones:
- Ramos i10 pro (dual boot)
- Pipo W1 / Work W1 (Windows 8 only)
- ColorFly i106 (Windows 8 only)
- Toshiba WT8-AT01G (Windows 8 only)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering getting a voyo a1 or a pipo w2. But 99% of my interest in windows 8 tablets is running old windows games on them. What's your experience with win 8 and older games for windows? Touchscreen make anything unplayable? Thinking old command and conquer or Warcraft 1-3 etc. With some RPG thrown in.
I hate the idea of being limited to just windows, but I'm hesitant to spend too much on what might not work like I hope.
StridAst said:
Considering getting a voyo a1 or a pipo w2. But 99% of my interest in windows 8 tablets is running old windows games on them. What's your experience with win 8 and older games for windows? Touchscreen make anything unplayable? Thinking old command and conquer or Warcraft 1-3 etc. With some RPG thrown in.
I hate the idea of being limited to just windows, but I'm hesitant to spend too much on what might not work like I hope.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly,i installed Steam and played some to test. But, alas, it is not successfull. If you can wire a BT pad, let's say it is ok, but else, generally, the touchpad is not suitable, really.
Of course some point'n clic games should work nicely. But except theses, you 'll be forced to add keyboard/mouse. Or, as i mentionned, a bluetooth gamepad, with some keyboard mapping, such as XPadder, could work fine.
Graveen said:
Honestly,i installed Steam and played some to test. But, alas, it is not successfull. If you can wire a BT pad, let's say it is ok, but else, generally, the touchpad is not suitable, really.
Of course some point'n clic games should work nicely. But except theses, you 'll be forced to add keyboard/mouse. Or, as i mentionned, a bluetooth gamepad, with some keyboard mapping, such as XPadder, could work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So basicly, the hardware ran things OK, but the interface sucks, oh well. Probably not worth the headaches of dealing with windows again. I'd imagine it's a real PITA to fix things if it gets a virus.
StridAst said:
So basicly, the hardware ran things OK, but the interface sucks, oh well. Probably not worth the headaches of dealing with windows again. I'd imagine it's a real PITA to fix things if it gets a virus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like a windows. The 'dock' is allowing light computer use, and Office 2013 home is shipped for free with the tablet. But yeah, Windows legacy is the key when dealing with windows
Hey mate,
I have one of these - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390900023783?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
are you implying that I should be able to get it to dual boot Windows and Android following your guide?
Thanks
Karl
Hello Karl,
Yes it should be possible if strictly identical.
Increase data space with Link2SD
You can dedicate a part of external SD to increase /data size. Link2SD is ok for this, and will, in the free version, allows you to move APK to external partition.
Your tablet MUST be rooted !
1) ensure you have a FAT32 partition (primary, 1st position)
2) ensure you have an EXT2 or EXT4 partition (primary, 2nd position)
3) install Link2SD https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.buak.Link2SD
You can now use Link2SD which 'll create links and move your APKs to your new EXT partition.
Personnaly, i have a 32Gb SD with 24Gb FAT + 8Gb EXT4 partition.
Increase data space with Link2SD : Good news !!! You are the Boss. THNK1-10 is available at Carrefour (an another good news)
Time is changing between windows and Android
You can simply set timezone to GMT+0 and disable network time.
On Debian, you set UTC to YES, but need to seek where it takes place in Android.
bu3304 said:
Increase data space with Link2SD : Good news !!! You are the Boss. THNK1-10 is available at Carrefour (an another good news)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
carrefour or conforama.
thomson carrefour and /danew in conforama.
even saw on internet that MSI is also having this tablet and just sticking there logo on it. atleast looked like this tablet.
---------- Post added at 12:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:01 AM ----------
hum. i think i will go for the new asus transformer book t100 with atom z3775 processor.
i like the battery life of the asus.
but prefer the acer switch 10 in terms of look and the magnetic dock
but yeah choice of 11 hours of battery or 8. makes a difference
and the new 3775 or 3745. cpu

[Q] a little help here

I have a sm-t210r tab and ever since I've updated it to 4.4.2 it gives me so many bugs after I've install a new ROM for example nolekat and i know for a fact that it's not the ROM because I've install the same ROM on my little sister's tab and she has no bugs her tab is not updated. So my question is if there is any way to remove the new bootloader or to downgrade?
Please anyone? Its driving me crazy to see my little sister's tab running so nice and mine keeps unfortunately stopping apps at random and even random reboots it sucks.
kgalv419 said:
Please anyone? Its driving me crazy to see my little sister's tab running so nice and mine keeps unfortunately stopping apps at random and even random reboots it sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to update your recovery to its latest version. I recomend philz touch!
That's what I'm using bro
i have installed philz touch, so how do we downgrade bootloader?
That's all i want to know too? I know someone can figure it out
from my post in note 10 forum
kgalv419 said:
I have a sm-t210r tab and ever since I've updated it to 4.4.2 it gives me so many bugs after I've install a new ROM for example nolekat and i know for a fact that it's not the ROM because I've install the same ROM on my little sister's tab and she has no bugs her tab is not updated. So my question is if there is any way to remove the new bootloader or to downgrade?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
stewart30 said:
i have installed philz touch, so how do we downgrade bootloader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this has worked on gt-p5210, gt-n8013 so it stands to reason it should work on the t210
keep in mind these instructions are in the specifics for the gt-n8013, adjust accordingly.
okay,
a while back i helped a user with a similar problem. this was my approach HOWEVER, the following conditions
must be met first.
1 you are able to boot into recovery and maintain normal operation including adb root shell access
2 you are able to charge your tab from a powered off state, mostly to see if you charging animation shows.
that means your kernel is intact-ish
3 you can boot into odin mode.
assuming the partion layouts for your respective devices match the red highlighted sections of this output from parted.
Code:
[email protected]:/ # parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
GNU Parted 1.8.8.1.179-aef3
Using /dev/block/mmcblk0
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print all
print all
Model: MMC MAG2GA (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 15.8GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
[COLOR="Red"] 1 4194kB 8389kB 4194kB BOTA0
2 8389kB 12.6MB 4194kB BOTA1
3 12.6MB 33.6MB 21.0MB ext4 EFS
4 33.6MB 41.9MB 8389kB PARAM[/COLOR]
5 41.9MB 50.3MB 8389kB BOOT
6 50.3MB 58.7MB 8389kB RECOVERY
7 58.7MB 92.3MB 33.6MB RADIO
8 92.3MB 931MB 839MB ext4 CACHE
9 931MB 2399MB 1468MB ext4 SYSTEM
10 2399MB 2923MB 524MB ext4 HIDDEN
11 2923MB 2932MB 8389kB OTA
12 2932MB 15.8GB 12.8GB ext4 USERDATA
(parted)
AND provided you can get someone competent with access to the respective models to open a root shell
on device or through adb and run the following command,
Code:
[COLOR="Red"]dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/fix.img bs=1 count=35221668[/COLOR]
AND zip the output fix.img and post it, again for the respective devices.
THEN you can through adb in recovery mode
adb push fix.img /sdcard/
or
adb push fix.img /sdcard
or
adb push fix.img /data/media/0/
or
adb push fix.img /data/media/0
edit-or pack it for recovery flashable
you can then navigate TO the directory you pushed the image to and execute the following
dd if=fix.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0
the above approach worked for me in helping another user with a like device.
you assume the same risk you took previously to achieve the state your device is in now.
NOTE- count=35221668 is a hair under the actual end of /efs . you may need to adjust through param and into boot maybe
half way , but then you can just reflash kernel or then do a proper odin flash of stock. the fix.img will NOT be odin flashable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
m
kgalv419; you can pull the original from your sister's tab if it's t210r , just don't screw it up.
Thanks a lot bro will get to work on it now and let u know how it went thanks again
i have one last question bro, i successfully got the fix.img from my sister's tab and turn it into a flash-able zip. Should i use odin to flash the official 4.1.2 then flash the zip via recovery? or flash the zip first then use odin?
kgalv419 said:
i have one last question bro, i successfully got the fix.img from my sister's tab and turn it into a flash-able zip. Should i use odin to flash the official 4.1.2 then flash the zip via recovery? or flash the zip first then use odin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for my note 10 and for the tab 3 10
flash the fix first - provided you're absolutely certain you got it right.
then flash the rom though, i don't think you should any of the above for a tab
that doesn't really need a rescue. Just triple check every step before you perform it
and be deliberate and not impulsive. Good luck.
m
Thanks a lot moon
What exactly does the fix.img do moon?
kgalv419 said:
What exactly does the fix.img do moon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
k,
hey,
sorry to take so long in getting back to you,
please re-read my post in this thread about the procedure carefully, just to get your head in the game.
now, the reason for this approach to restoring original bootloader is because if you try to write the bootloader
via the dd command directly in normal operation and recovery the tab kicks back and reboots and in that
scenario you stand a VERY good chance of hard-brick, dead, done.
pulling/dumping from /dev/mmcblk0 for X=amount in MB has the same effect as a cloning procedure and seems to work
well, i have done this on my gt-n8013 and coached another user through the process for the gt-p5210 using the data i pulled
from my own tab and packeged for recovery flash. I am saying you should consider not doing this for a tab that isn't
soft-bricked to a degree that would make this exercise necessary. You may just need to use a different rom instead.
m
keep in mind you will need to re-flash a rom afterward. NOT and odin firmware but an appropriate xda recovery flashable
rom for your device.

TOLTESPR / SM-N910P hard brick trials and solution (mmc_read failed)

Greets all,
Apologies in advance for the longer post.
TLDR: Writing the debrick-n910p.img image to SDcard using Windows (10 x86_64) for me caused my hard bricked SM-N910P / Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to endlessly boot-loop (displaying BOOT RECOVERY MODE / CHECK BOOT PARTITIONS.. / COPY FROM T-FLASH.. / BOOT RECOVERY / WRITE 188416 sectors / REBOOT). I found my solution for this issue to be that as long as I wrote the debrick-n910p.img image in Windows (10 x86_64), then booted into Linux and wiped the GPT data structures on the SDcard only to convert the SDcard to basic MBR (+DOS compatible flag), then created & formatted a single 32GB partition as FAT32, then and only then, write the debrick-n910p.img image file to the SDcard in this way, I was able to save my hard-bricked phone flawlessly!
I ran into the "mmc_read failed" issue that many posters to this site have experienced. I wanted to add the solution that worked for me along with the issues I ran into, as a reference for myself if I ever need it again in the future, and to pass on the information in the event others may find it helpful.
In all my trials and research I never found a point-by-point / exact instructions for the SM-N910P / Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note 4, nor anyone running into the same issue(s) that I did. that's what this post is => links to others solutions, my experience, and my solution for a hard-bricked SM-N910P / Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note 4.
SCENARIO: After ~6months of owning my phone I bought from craigslist it started experiencing random lagging, then random reboots, and ultimately the phone failed to boot into the OS one day. So I booted up TWRP, did a full-wipe and fresh OS load. after the OS flash (like I've done a million times, nothing different/strange) the device was set to reboot, then the screen went dark, and never came back on. just poof. it would flat-out not boot again; no LED during charging, nothing would happen when attempting to power on the phone, or any attempt to try booting recovery (Home+Vol-Up+Power) or to Odin/Kies download-mode (Home+Vol-Down+Power). To me the phone was dead, I considered it the "true brick". Yet, I wondered at the most curious thing that would happen when I connected the phone to my computer via the microUSB cable without the battery; I would hear the "new device attached" Windows chime, and Device Manager would list a new "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008" device. otherwise, the phone remained dark, and completely void of any life.
At this point I started researching to purchase a replacement cellphone when a website caught my eye with the title "Qualcomm Snapdragon Unbrick Guide, Snapdragon’s are UNBRICKABLE".
I skimmed over the text, and began thinking it possible to revive my (broken?) phone - I just desired a straight-forward HOWTO describing the procedure how I could resurrect my phone, and I figured I would be on my way.
In the end, I found some promising posts, and the very SM-N910P debrick image itself (see below for links), but never found a step-by-step for my exact model of phone.
N910P Debrick Image + Useful Links
Mega Link to the N910P debrick image (128MB)
Samsung N910P Galaxy Note 4 Sprint USA Repair Firmware (N910PVPU4COG5_SPT4COG5_Sprint_USA_v5.1.1_Repair_Firmware.zip)
Win32DiskImager (Project Homepage) (v0.9 binary)
dd for windows
Galaxy Note 4 Unbrick/Debrick.img for N910G/F/T/W8 [unbrick] [unbrick image]
[*]- Inside, a reference For N910P refer this thread​
Galaxy Note 4 N910T FIXED HARD BRICKED
SM-N910P (US-Sprint) debrick.img
All instructions seemed to state I needed a 16GB or larger SDcard, so I went out and purchased a brand new 128GB MicroSDXC card, specifically Samsung MicroSDXC EVO Memory Card w/ Adapter 128GB (2017 Model) - Model: MB-MP128G / Model Code: MB-MP128GA/AM
The gist of all the reports on how to fix my issue was to write the N910P debrick image to a micro SDcard and magically the phone would come back to life. And so, I did just that. In my case using Windows 10 x86_64 - using the suggested applications to write the image to the SDcard: Win32DiskImager and/or dd for windows, then popping the SDcard into the "dead" phone, attaching the battery to the phone and pushing power - or one of the 3 finger salutes (recovery/download-mode) - then the magic would happen, the screen would show the following text:
Code:
BOOT RECOVERY MODE
CHECK BOOT PARTITIONS..
COPY FROM T-FLASH..
BOOT RECOVERY
WRITE 188416 sectors
REBOOT
But, unfortunately for me, that is all it would do, I would keep seeing that text over and over... If I let the "COPY FROM T-FLASH.." appear then press one of the 3 finger salutes (recovery -or- download-mode), the phone would just reboot before it displayed the rest, and continue back in it's loop:
Code:
BOOT RECOVERY MODE
CHECK BOOT PARTITIONS..
COPY FROM T-FLASH..
BOOT RECOVERY
WRITE 188416 sectors
REBOOT
This just kept occurring over, and over with infinite reboots. Yet, ALL the documentation said it would ultimately boot into download-mode, I just had to "put it in the freezer to let the phone cool" (never mind that the phone wasn't hot AT ALL) for an hour or something similar?? All my searching found nobody else with this issue (at least no one reporting it). So I am reporting it and also reporting how I fixed my sorry state of affairs.
As I noted above, I was using Windows 10 x86_64 as the OS and Win32DiskImager, as well as dd for windows, to write the debrick image to the SDcard up to this point. This was my process:
:: Windows 10 ::
place SDCARD in drive
format the SDCARD (drive d:/f:, whichever) through Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) via RIGHT-CLICK on drive -> Format ...
capacity 119GB / Filesystem: exFAT / Allocation Size: drop-down = Default Allocatio-- n Size
CHECK Quick Format
click Start button
click OK
click OK when finished
click Close button
in Windows Explorer (explorer.exe), RIGHT-CLICK on SDCARD drive -> Eject
eject SDCARD from computer
- EITHER Win32DiskImager OR dd for windows, only do 1.
:: Win32DiskImager ::
run Win32DiskImager as Administrator
DEVICE = drive of the SDCARD (D:/F:, whichever)
IMAGE FILE = click FOLDER icon, select "debrick-n910p.img"
click WRITE button
click OK
at Write Successful = click OK
more then likely (win10) a ****-ton of Explorer screens pop up, with errors like "You need to format the disk in Drive ? before you can use it" pops up
IGNORE ALL THIS, ALT-F4 to close ALL the pop-ups and errors
OR just REBOOT, as at this point we are done
Shutdown Windows (10) -> REBOOT
:: dd for windows ::
open "cmd" as Administrator
dd --list
dd if=debrick-n910p.img of=\\.\Volume{3fde94fa-d22d-11e7-b791-806e6f6e6963} bs=1M
Once the debrick-n910p.img file is finished being written to the SDcard, 27 partitions (what appears to be mostly duplicate) will show up and all drive letters will get filled, being displayed as mostly unreadable, that is just the nature of what the debrick image is.
My Solution to this situation was as follows:
:: LINUX ::
boot linux from USB -or- CD (I booted a handy USB stick with Qubes OS v4-rc3, choose Troubleshooting -> Rescue a Qubes System)
upon boot, choose "3" to be dropped to shell
mount windows folder that holds the debrick N910P image = mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sysimage
place SDCARD in drive
fdisk -l << make sure your SDcard shows up (/dev/mmcblk0) is there
cgdisk /dev/mmcblk0
delete ALL paritions (using "d" on each highlighted partition)
"New"
Fist sector = hit ENTER (choose default = 2048 for me)
Size in sectors = 32G
Hex code = 0700 (Microsoft basic data)
Partition name = hit ENTER
"Write"
type "yes"
"Quit"
gdisk /dev/mmcblk0
should display = "Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT"
"x" (extra functionality (experts only))
"z" (zap (destroy) GPT data structures and exit)
"Y" (Yes to continue)
"N" (blank out MBR)
fdisk /dev/mmcblk0
"p" (print parition table)
"c" (toggle dos compatibility flag)
should show DOS COMPATABILITY FLAG SET (DEPRICATED)
"d" (delete partition)
MAKE SURE NO PARTITIONS EXIST!
"n" (new partition)
"p" (primary)
hit ENTER (default = "1")
hit ENTER (first sector, my default was 63)
"+32G" (last sector, this creates 32GB partition)
"a" (toggle bootable flag, should show "the bootable flag on partition 1 is enabled now")
"t" (partition type)
"c" (W95 FAT32 (LBA))
"w" (write table to disk and exit)
Format the new partition, FAT32
mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/mmcblk0p1
Goto the folder containing the debrick N910P image
cd /mnt/sysimage/Users/$USER/Downloads/SM-N910P-trltespr
dd if=debrick-n910p.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M
sync
Eject sdcard and place in your Note 4 phone
This time, when I put the battery in the phone, I got the same text as before:
Code:
BOOT RECOVERY MODE
CHECK BOOT PARTITIONS..
COPY FROM T-FLASH..
BOOT RECOVERY
WRITE 188416 sectors
REBOOT
And then, it did a REAL reboot, and went directly to download-mode!
I tested this multiple times - as long as I wrote the debrick image in Win10, and then erased the SDcard and formatted it as Fat32 without using GPT just a basic MBR, and wrote the debrick image that way in linux it worked flawlessly!
let it boot, then do it's reboot
should be able to go into RECOVERY = Home+Vol-Down+Power !!!
:: Boot Windows ::
unzip "N910PVPU4COG5_SPT4COG5_Sprint_USA_v5.1.1_Repair_Firmware.zip"
run Odin3 3.09
click PIT button -> select "TRLTE_USA_SPR.pit" -> click OPEN
click AP button -> select "ALL_SPT_N910PVPU4COG5_N910PSPT4COG5_CL5303209_QB5691107_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar.md5" -> click OPEN
phone should be in DOWNLOAD mode (home+vol-down+power -> UP to continue) and connected via microUSB, Odin3 should be detecting it with a BLUE ID:COM lit up on top-left
click START button in Odin3
when finished it will reboot, and all should be well
- One last note, about the "mmc read fail" error, I took this gentleman's advice:
As a side note....
IF YOU HAVE THE MMC READ FAIL MESSAGE!!!
Which consists of Random Reboots, Heating Issues when theirs hardly no apps on, or even Lag or Glitchyness.
The Temp FiX that I've been using everyday and haven't had these issues since was downloading this app
WakeLock Manager and setting to PARTIAL LOCK! on Level 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And am currently running Wake Lock - PowerManager from Google Play as suggested, just to be safe - and so far, I have not YET had to deal with that horrid business again (so far, fingers crossed).
And there ye have it, that is my story, my tribulations, and my fix. Thank you to all who came before me, and for everyone's good advice = Good luck to all, and have a great rest of 2017.
XORr0 said:
[*]mount windows folder that holds the debrick N910P image = mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sysimage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi man, thank you for the post, but can´t mount the sysimage
Help me please!!!
Mega Link a la imagen de debrick N910P ( 128MB )
the files are not there if it is not too much trouble to provide me with the: confusing files: confusing

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