Unable to Install ANY custom roms onto my m919 - T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 4

I am a frequent experience Android user and have been flashing Roms since like forever.
Owning gs4 been nice installing Roms all the time however recently when I went to install new gpe ROM (new kernel seemed prime to have) coming from HDrom rls20 I downloaded currupt zip. When I tried installing currupt zip (not knowing yet it was currupt) it gave me red errors not allowing me to proceed.. Then, I turned off device got fresh dload and made sure md5 sum was legit and it was tried again of course first factory data reset with advanced system wipe the ROM proceeded to aroma installer this time.. Attempting to install I chose all my settings and it went to progress bar to install and skipped any system extraction and went straight to Apks.. Batch completed and I hadn't a ROM installed for it took it 5seconds.. I have had this problem in the past before and I sold it they returned it (didn't like condition) and bingo I was able to install Roms again (this was way back in the day with this same gs4) I'm assuming system partition not mounting because also when I tried installing that currupt file it was saying in red unable to mount system and stuff. Luckily I downloaded NK2 firmware (took 8hs) and am fine on stock but I'm hoping someone has a clue to point me in right direction.. I saw forum of somebody with similar issue their fix was pushing zip via computer adb commands then installing. I'll have to give it a try but sticking to stock for a bit. BTW this happens with every ROM just skips system files in fact cyanogenmod just hhung at installation wouldn't fail or complete. I used TWRP LATEST. Please help developers I'm sure this ones a no brainer for y'all. Except seems like issue only I've encountered for this isn't a popular thing at all on google.

SOLVED
Thanks to somebody in gs3 forums all i had to do was push adb the rom and wow it worked installed system YAY IM HAAPPPYY

Stoowyguy said:
Thanks to somebody in gs3 forums all i had to do was push adb the rom and wow it worked installed system YAY IM HAAPPPYY
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does it mean to "push adb" a phone's rom? Doesn't Odin automatically flash the selected rom?

Related

[Q] No ROMs taking, keep getting no MD5 message, phone close to bricked.

I apologize in advance if any of this makes you roll your eyes at my stupidity.
Good Afternoon
I have an ATT samsung galaxy s3, Because of the glitches with 4.3 I was experiencing I decided to install custom software on my phone. So I looked up guides and got everything I needed. I did manage to get root access, and verified with super user. I also installed TWRP and CWM because each kept giving me errors when I tried to install CM 11 onto my phone. I tried CWM first, and when that didn't work I tried TWRP. It says there was no MD5 information found when I try to install any mod. how ever I have used the md5 file checker program and the MD5 matches up to what was listed in this one for example.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2518998
Download:
CM 11.0 Unofficial Beta 7 for d2tmo and d2att
MD5: ef93957db1e6704f23f9015231a82826
So the MD5 matches, yet when I try to install it keeps giving me errors. I also tried other versions of CM that I found on here via links. Right now my phone has no OS as another guide I read some where also said to wipe system data (sorry if that was stupid, I was just following a guideline) And even more stupid, no I don't have a backup because in my naivety and stupidity I didn't think I'd need one as it seemed so simple from all the guides and videos I'd seen.
Yesterday a friend of mine knowledgeable with tech stuff took one of the original stock Image ROMs I'd downloaded and using linux and some program he managed to do some crazy stuff I can't even describe on here. All I saw was a lot of typing of command lines and it got my phone working again, how ever it wasn't exactly the stock image I guess because the phone would not make or receive calls/texts.
Since my phone was powering on again and the android OS was loading I figured I could connect it to my computer and use KIES to download the official latest update so my phone would be back on the legit software. But trying to do that...well broke my phone again. So I'm at a loss now of what to do. Right now I can still get to download mode on my phone, but when I try to get into recovery mode I get an error that "firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in KIES & try again." Which I've tried, and every time I try it gives me an error message.So I'm at a loss of what to do next.
So I'd like to get a working OS on my phone asap so I can get calls and texts.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And being new I'm sorry if I broke any taboos or did not give some information that is typically given when describing a problem.
gvazquez82 said:
I apologize in advance if any of this makes you roll your eyes at my stupidity.
Good Afternoon
I have an ATT samsung galaxy s3, Because of the glitches with 4.3 I was experiencing I decided to install custom software on my phone. So I looked up guides and got everything I needed. I did manage to get root access, and verified with super user. I also installed TWRP and CWM because each kept giving me errors when I tried to install CM 11 onto my phone. I tried CWM first, and when that didn't work I tried TWRP. It says there was no MD5 information found when I try to install any mod. how ever I have used the md5 file checker program and the MD5 matches up to what was listed in this one for example.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2518998
Download:
CM 11.0 Unofficial Beta 7 for d2tmo and d2att
MD5: ef93957db1e6704f23f9015231a82826
So the MD5 matches, yet when I try to install it keeps giving me errors. I also tried other versions of CM that I found on here via links. Right now my phone has no OS as another guide I read some where also said to wipe system data (sorry if that was stupid, I was just following a guideline) And even more stupid, no I don't have a backup because in my naivety and stupidity I didn't think I'd need one as it seemed so simple from all the guides and videos I'd seen.
Yesterday a friend of mine knowledgeable with tech stuff took one of the original stock Image ROMs I'd downloaded and using linux and some program he managed to do some crazy stuff I can't even describe on here. All I saw was a lot of typing of command lines and it got my phone working again, how ever it wasn't exactly the stock image I guess because the phone would not make or receive calls/texts.
Since my phone was powering on again and the android OS was loading I figured I could connect it to my computer and use KIES to download the official latest update so my phone would be back on the legit software. But trying to do that...well broke my phone again. So I'm at a loss now of what to do. Right now I can still get to download mode on my phone, but when I try to get into recovery mode I get an error that "firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in KIES & try again." Which I've tried, and every time I try it gives me an error message.So I'm at a loss of what to do next.
So I'd like to get a working OS on my phone asap so I can get calls and texts.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And being new I'm sorry if I broke any taboos or did not give some information that is typically given when describing a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same error happened to me yesterday and spent the whole day figuring it out. get into download mode. boot up ODIN and reflash your preferred custom recovery. after that, i couldn't find anything else to restore my phone with so i installed 4.3 leaked from here. doesn't matter which one you select. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2498233. place it on your sd card and head into recovery mode, wipe data/factory reset and cache. head to install zip from sd card and select the 4.3 zip you downloaded. reboot system and it should work. the at&t boot screen takes a while so be patient
MrHaPpY66 said:
same error happened to me yesterday and spent the whole day figuring it out. get into download mode. boot up ODIN and reflash your preferred custom recovery. after that, i couldn't find anything else to restore my phone with so i installed 4.3 leaked from here. doesn't matter which one you select. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2498233. place it on your sd card and head into recovery mode, wipe data/factory reset and cache. head to install zip from sd card and select the 4.3 zip you downloaded. reboot system and it should work. the at&t boot screen takes a while so be patient
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all thank you for trying to help me, I hope you are having a good Thanks Giving.
I used the thread you linked to, and downloaded the version with out knox. I followed the instructions
transferred ROM and flashed kernel file to SD card
used odin to flash TWRP,
used twrp to flash rom and kernel file.
and it takes the file thankfully, there's only one issue. My phone can't make or receive calls/texts. Is yours able to?
I messed up and was playing with things That I had no business playing with and decided that I should do a restore of a backup (TWRP) I made as soon as I rooted the 4.3 OTA. well it has soft bricked my phone. it was a TWRP 4.3 Nandroid and has me messed up a little.
so far I tried My nandroid (no dice now a soft brick) cleared cache and dalvik, It was booting as far as the white at&t spinning thing,
Factory reset same on booting,
Tried a format of the internal sd this is where it gets sketchy it now goes as far as the second samsung screen(the one that says Samsung GALAXY S III)
4.3 OTA .zip (no dice TWRP wont flash it) same on the booting 2nd samsung boot screen
Tried the files in the link above and got a Hard brick
Used the debricking .IMG file and got TWRP and download mode back
Any suggestions?
Looks like I might need a JTAG/RIFF BOX for this one. If nothing else I spent many Hours of darkness discovering the darkness of android 4.3
If I get recovered from this and with a different rom like 4.1.2 I will be happy. the 4.3 OTA was very stable but I did miss wifi tether and the whole hardbrick thing was kind of a bummer. it would be real nice to have an ODIN file to fix this (AHEM samsung) or atleast perhaps stopped the progression of it to a hard brick.
New update
I got my phone booting up again however there is a catch. That unbrick.img file on my 16GB sd card is still required to boot the phone and I have no cell service what so ever. Tried to check apn settings because at home I sometimes get poor service and I run net10 so I was going to fix my apn and it says insert sim??? the sim is properly inserted???
Next Update
the bootloader I flashed apparently flashed to the external sd card? I flashed another one and it is booting from the internal sd. I had to flash a different modem the one in the bootloader/modem file I flashed from the link above didnt take? I got most everything sorted out, but im getting tired, it has been an all night adventure. its 08:23 est now
sorry for the delay in updating this I had to get some rest.
theramsey3 said:
I messed up and was playing with things That I had no business playing with and decided that I should do a restore of a backup (TWRP) I made as soon as I rooted the 4.3 OTA. well it has soft bricked my phone. it was a TWRP 4.3 Nandroid and has me messed up a little.
so far I tried My nandroid (no dice now a soft brick) cleared cache and dalvik, It was booting as far as the white at&t spinning thing,
Factory reset same on booting,
Tried a format of the internal sd this is where it gets sketchy it now goes as far as the second samsung screen(the one that says Samsung GALAXY S III)
4.3 OTA .zip (no dice TWRP wont flash it) same on the booting 2nd samsung boot screen
Tried the files in the link above and got a Hard brick
Used the debricking .IMG file and got TWRP and download mode back
Any suggestions?
Looks like I might need a JTAG/RIFF BOX for this one. If nothing else I spent many Hours of darkness discovering the darkness of android 4.3
If I get recovered from this and with a different rom like 4.1.2 I will be happy. the 4.3 OTA was very stable but I did miss wifi tether and the whole hardbrick thing was kind of a bummer. it would be real nice to have an ODIN file to fix this (AHEM samsung) or atleast perhaps stopped the progression of it to a hard brick.
New update
I got my phone booting up again however there is a catch. That unbrick.img file on my 16GB sd card is still required to boot the phone and I have no cell service what so ever. Tried to check apn settings because at home I sometimes get poor service and I run net10 so I was going to fix my apn and it says insert sim??? the sim is properly inserted???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go into Settings, About Phone, Status and check to see if your IMEI and Serial Number are present. If you only lost your IMEI there's a guide on how to inject it back (I'm not sure where the guide is). However if you've lost your serial number and don't have a Nandroid that can restore it I don't know what to do.
spongdangly said:
Go into Settings, About Phone, Status and check to see if your IMEI and Serial Number are present. If you only lost your IMEI there's a guide on how to inject it back (I'm not sure where the guide is). However if you've lost your serial number and don't have a Nandroid that can restore it I don't know what to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?
gvazquez82 said:
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.
theramsey3 said:
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will give that a shot, but what's an APN, sorry. And how do I create one, and is it needed for me to do so?
gvazquez82 said:
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should be, I'm working right now so I don't have time to fine the guide on how to inject your IMEI. If I remember correctly it involves using QPST. If you have an old (or any) working Nandroid backup that should fix the problem.
FYI, make sure you don't use the guide for the international S3 as it has different hardware and folder structure/contents.
As for the APN, it should automatically fill itself in since it reads it off the SIM Card (I might be wrong).
theramsey3 said:
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it and it work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
67 texts just came in. Sir, I thank you oh so kindly. You have made this gloomy rainy day oh so joyous.
No problem. Glad I could help you.
The real credit should go to -Mr.X-, loserskater and anyone else(no disrespect there were alot of files) whose stuff I tried to flash lastnight thank you all in the dev community who contribute.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
So I guess the next question, do I try again to install kit kat on my phone.
I've already made bucks of my existing working phone haha....but I'd still like to have kitkat in place. I believe the issue of my phone not reading MD5 confirmations would still be in place, does anyone know how to remedy that situation?
At the same time I'm more than happy to leave my phone as is.
gvazquez82 said:
So I guess the next question, do I try again to install kit kat on my phone.
I've already made bucks of my existing working phone haha....but I'd still like to have kitkat in place. I believe the issue of my phone not reading MD5 confirmations would still be in place, does anyone know how to remedy that situation?
At the same time I'm more than happy to leave my phone as is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure you can turn off MD5 checks in TWRP. Probably in CWM too. Sorry if this has been mentioned. Didn't have time to read the whole thread. Just skimmed through.
2nd, there is a major difference between an IMEI that reads 0 and an IMEI that shows unknown. If it shows an unknown simply reflash your ROM and modem and you will be good to go. Sometimes a reboot is all you need. If your IMEI is showing a 0 on the other hand its gone and will require that it be injected back in which is a messy situation that usually results in tour phone being stuck on EDGE.
3rd, as someone mentioned on the previous page, restoring a working nandroid will NOT reinject your IMEI if it shows up as 0. No amount of flashing anything will get it to come back. Not even stock. It needs to be reinjected manually.
flexfulton said:
Pretty sure you can turn off MD5 checks in TWRP. Probably in CWM too. Sorry if this has been mentioned. Didn't have time to read the whole thread. Just skimmed through.
2nd, there is a major difference between an IMEI that reads 0 and an IMEI that shows unknown. If it shows an unknown simply reflash your ROM and modem and you will be good to go. Sometimes a reboot is all you need. If your IMEI is showing a 0 on the other hand its gone and will require that it be injected back in which is a messy situation that usually results in tour phone being stuck on EDGE.
3rd, as someone mentioned on the previous page, restoring a working nandroid will NOT reinject your IMEI if it shows up as 0. No amount of flashing anything will get it to come back. Not even stock. It needs to be reinjected manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you know of a good stable kit kat like ROM I could use for the s3? And any speculation as to why the ROMs werent taking for me?

[Q] CyanogenMod not getiing installed. SuperSU Crashing.

Hello All,
I am a beginner to all this stuff. I wanted to root my phone after seeing OnePlus One running on CyanogenMod. So, first I tried to directly install the Mod using the softwares downloaded from Cyanogen's website. But the software gave the error "Unsupported Firmware". Then I researched a bit on manually installing the mod. I followed the instructions.
- First I rooted my phone with Odin 3.09v
- Installed ROM Manger on my phone (Meanwhile the SuperSU app kept on crashing)
- Somehow I managed to install ClockworkMod (What I did was downloaded SuperSU apk, installed it again. It started working and then, not losing the chance I installed ClockworkMod).
- Then I tried to install CyanogenMod through ROM Manager
- My phone re-booted and then gave a error "Can't install package on incompatible data".
- I'm having the latest snapshot version on CyanogenMod.
- Then I left the things as it is. No rooting, unrooting, etc.
- So, now I tried to take backup of my current ROM, in case something happens at least I'll be having something with me to recover
- I used ROM Manager to take backup. But it gave the error "Can't create the image"
So, now I'm stuck between middle of nowhere. Please help me out to reach to some point.
svikramajit said:
Hello All,
I am a beginner to all this stuff. I wanted to root my phone after seeing OnePlus One running on CyanogenMod. So, first I tried to directly install the Mod using the softwares downloaded from Cyanogen's website. But the software gave the error "Unsupported Firmware". Then I researched a bit on manually installing the mod. I followed the instructions.
- First I rooted my phone with Odin 3.09v
- Installed ROM Manger on my phone (Meanwhile the SuperSU app kept on crashing)
- Somehow I managed to install ClockworkMod (What I did was downloaded SuperSU apk, installed it again. It started working and then, not losing the chance I installed ClockworkMod).
- Then I tried to install CyanogenMod through ROM Manager
- My phone re-booted and then gave a error "Can't install package on incompatible data".
- I'm having the latest snapshot version on CyanogenMod.
- Then I left the things as it is. No rooting, unrooting, etc.
- So, now I tried to take backup of my current ROM, in case something happens at least I'll be having something with me to recover
- I used ROM Manager to take backup. But it gave the error "Can't create the image"
So, now I'm stuck between middle of nowhere. Please help me out to reach to some point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, first I think your SuperSu is not working properly. Open the Supersu app to see if it needs to update binaries. If it continues to crash, go into recovery manually (not using rom manager) and flash the latest SuperSu. Wipe Cache, go to advanced and Wipe Dalvik. Reboot. Your phone will say "android is upgrading" for a bit. Once it's booted up, go back into the supersu app and see if it needs to update binaries, if so- let it update, if not- move on. Here's a link to download SuperSu 2.02
Go back into recovery manually and select backup and restore-> backup to sdcard (or sdcard1, external sd, is my preference) This will start the backup process.
Once that is done, you need to find the CyanogenMod file specific to your phone, then you can enter recovery and flash it.
If you have trouble entering recovery, you can flash a new one via recovery or with odin.
Hello absinthesummer,
I followed every instruction you told. Now I'm done till creating backup. The problem now I'm facing is this 'Status 7' error. It says "Can't install package on incompatible data.....". Now what to do?
Status 7 is a very specific error. It means your recovery is out of date. Get the absolute newest you can find and try again. This is good news though, you've got progress!
---------- Post added at 11:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:46 AM ----------
Edit: flash the latest recovery you can find via Odin. You probably won't be able to do it in recovery while you're getting the status 7 error.
absinthesummer said:
Status 7 is a very specific error. It means your recovery is out of date. Get the absolute newest you can find and try again. This is good news though, you've got progress!
---------- Post added at 11:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:46 AM ----------
Edit: flash the latest recovery you can find via Odin. You probably won't be able to do it in recovery while you're getting the status 7 error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I've got the latest recovery. But I figured out the problem. It was with the package I downloaded. The CM 11 M9 version was giving errors. I researched and tried few fixes, but still it didn't work.
The fixes I tried :-
1. Deleting some coding lines from the updater-script file. But this fix gave the status 6 error.
2. Changing the updater-script file format to UNIX format. Then again it gave the status 7 error.
So, what I did, when I had no more brain to fix it, I downloaded the CM 11 M6 version and tried installing it. And VOILA! It worked. Then I updated it to M9 version through phone. Now it's working. Though it has some bugs. And some features are missing too that I wanted badly.
svikramajit said:
No, I've got the latest recovery. But I figured out the problem. It was with the package I downloaded. The CM 11 M9 version was giving errors. I researched and tried few fixes, but still it didn't work.
The fixes I tried :-
1. Deleting some coding lines from the updater-script file. But this fix gave the status 6 error.
2. Changing the updater-script file format to UNIX format. Then again it gave the status 7 error.
So, what I did, when I had no more brain to fix it, I downloaded the CM 11 M6 version and tried installing it. And VOILA! It worked. Then I updated it to M9 version through phone. Now it's working. Though it has some bugs. And some features are missing too that I wanted badly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome! I'm glad you got it working. You can also try comparing the two files to see what's different, or maybe swap the updater script. Maybe you'll be able to get the one you wanted working with a little modification
absinthesummer said:
Awesome! I'm glad you got it working. You can also try comparing the two files to see what's different, or maybe swap the updater script. Maybe you'll be able to get the one you wanted working with a little modification
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks to you. You too helped me in working it out!
But, I have some more questions
Question 1 : If I flash stock ROM on my rooted phone, will I receive the new updates? If yes, will I be able to install them via Kies on my phone without getting into any trouble?
Question 2 : If I install stock ROM of any other phone, say Galaxy S5, will it work on my phone properly without any problems? If yes, will I receive the updates for that too and able to install them via Kies? If no, is there any way to install it? Cause I have seen people using S5 ROM on Note 2.
First question the answer is yes. As long as you have the stock recovery and stock kernel (along with the stock rom) you will receive ota updates. You can use ota root keeper (an app) to keep root during an ota update. There are many people who choose to stay fully stock but root to get rid of bloatware & stuff. However, if you want to get ota, I recommend freezing the bloatware instead of uninstalling, because an ota usually replaces old bloatware with new bloatware and can sometimes abort the ota if those apps are missing... but keep on mind this is not always the case, only certain devices.
Second question, no you cannot. Roms from other devices have to be ported to be compatible. But if you look in the development forums, you can find many roms that are basically stock but have specific features from other roms, along with the system ui (ie S5, note 3, & so forth). These rom devs have ported either parts/features or full on roms to be compatible on our device. They are excellent! I recommend reading up them and if you see some you like, try them out!
absinthesummer said:
First question the answer is yes. As long as you have the stock recovery and stock kernel (along with the stock rom) you will receive ota updates. You can use ota root keeper (an app) to keep root during an ota update. There are many people who choose to stay fully stock but root to get rid of bloatware & stuff. However, if you want to get ota, I recommend freezing the bloatware instead of uninstalling, because an ota usually replaces old bloatware with new bloatware and can sometimes abort the ota if those apps are missing... but keep on mind this is not always the case, only certain devices.
Second question, no you cannot. Roms from other devices have to be ported to be compatible. But if you look in the development forums, you can find many roms that are basically stock but have specific features from other roms, along with the system ui (ie S5, note 3, & so forth). These rom devs have ported either parts/features or full on roms to be compatible on our device. They are excellent! I recommend reading up them and if you see some you like, try them out!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- Stock Recovery
- Stock Kernel
- OTA Root Keeper
- Bloatware
Well, to be honest, just right now I learned these new terms but know nothing about them. Can you please give me a brief description for these four terms so that when I do advanced search on them, I'd have a idea in my mind about what these are. It will make it easy for me to understand the advance things.
And I'm looking for S5 ROM for my phone. Let's see what I get.
One more question. I made a backup of my rooted stock ROM via latest ClockwordMod, manually. Now, if I reset the binary counter using Triangle Away and then wipe Cache and Dalvik and then flash my stock ROM which is located on my memory card and then after flashing I use SuperSU to unroot and then a factory reset (I don't know the method of factory reseting cause I'm confused. Whether to do it manually, like going into recovery mode or just from the phone settings. So please tell me this also.), will my phone be unrooted totally?
And sorry for bugging you so much. I hate to do that, but I don't want to take risk with my phone. So I am just collecting information. I hope so many queries are not a problem for you.
Ok...
You already know what a rom is. A kernel is a lower-level base. It controls the hardware. So when you do something on the interface, in the rom, it tells the hardware how to react. (Ie if you're playing music it tells which speakers to play and how loudly). The kernel controls almost everything you can't see, it relates to performance. Most stock kernels can be limiting as they underclock the cpu by a certain percentage. Because of this, people seek out custom kernels to max out their device's potential. Louder speakers, faster cpu, better graphics, etc. This is all stuff the kernel can optimize... but because you can change so many factors there is a risk of instability if you push your device too hard (max performance) or limit it too much (max battery saving).
Recovery is exactly what it sounds like. When you boot your device the very first screen that pops up is the bootloader. It's giving you time to boot in 3 different modes. The first mode, by doing nothing, is a normal boot into the rom/OS. The second mode, which you get to by one button combination, takes you to recovery. The stock recovery is very limited. It gives you the option to factory restore, wipe cache, update, or boot normally. Stock recovery only exists for emergencies, if your phone fails to boot normally. We have custom recoveries so we can do more stuff, flash custom roms and tinker with things. The third mode is download mode/Odin mode. This is the bootloader interface itself. It's the last resort for recovery if your recovery has been damaged or corrupted. It allows you to connect to Odin or kies and perform an emergency recovery of the device. If you damage your bootloader, your device is completely bricked.
So the order of operation is this:
Lowest level- bootloader
Second level- recovery
Third level- kernel
Fourth level- rom
Bloatware is all the pre-installed apps that your carrier adds to your phone. Most people don't use it, don't like it, and don't want it. That why we root. Without root we basically are just guest users of the device. With root we become the administrators of the device. Until you root, your carrier has admin rights over your phone (to use windows terms).
When you receive an ota update, your carrier can make it to where the update won't proceed if their pre-installed apps have been removed (although this isn't always the case). Additionally, the update package itself checks the integrity of the device. It checks recovery, kernel, and rom. If any have been altered, it will not proceed because it could cause conflict and potentially brick your device. That's why those things have to be stock.
Ota root keeper is simply an app that backs up your superuser rights before an update and restores them after its done.
You should be able to find plenty of roms with S5 features. I'm using one that makes my device fully like an S5 (my device even thinks it is an S5 and every app identifies it as such) I can think of at least 2 others as well. There's plenty to choose from, and if you see a rom you like but it's mudding a particular feature, you can probably find that feature as a stand-alone installation in the forum's themes & apps section. Just about every feature of S5, S4, and note 3 has been ported to this device, so look around!
Also, for future reference, if someone helps you on the forum, hit the thanks button instead of saying it. I don't mind either way, but some people get annoyed and will stop helping them if they don't hit that button lol. It's silly, but it's part of "forum decorum"
---------- Post added at 12:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:44 AM ----------
svikramajit said:
One more question. I made a backup of my rooted stock ROM via latest ClockwordMod, manually. Now, if I reset the binary counter using Triangle Away and then wipe Cache and Dalvik and then flash my stock ROM which is located on my memory card and then after flashing I use SuperSU to unroot and then a factory reset (I don't know the method of factory reseting cause I'm confused. Whether to do it manually, like going into recovery mode or just from the phone settings. So please tell me this also.), will my phone be unrooted totally?
And sorry for bugging you so much. I hate to do that, but I don't want to take risk with my phone. So I am just collecting information. I hope so many queries are not a problem for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're fine, I don't mind answering your questions. Yes, you can unroot fully in the way you just mentioned but you don't even have to go through all the trouble of factory reset. Just unroot in the app. The app can be uninstalled afterwards via the play store.
You can factory reset either way, the same commands are given no matter which way you go about it. But it can be more efficient to do it from recovery because when you do it from the rom it has to create a wipe script for when it reboots, and it has to shut down the rom first. If you do it from recovery it doesn't have to anything, the rom isn't running and it can execute the wipe command immediately. (The wipe command is wipe /data /cache etc)
Thanks again for all that great info!
Questions : Is there no way to fix the Bootloader if it gets damaged by chance? And which S5 ROM are you using?
svikramajit said:
Thanks again for all that great info!
Questions : Is there no way to fix the Bootloader if it gets damaged by chance? And which S5 ROM are you using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you damage the bootloader it's a hard brick and you would have to send it in for jtag services (this is a low level emmc chip flash service) The bootloader won't get damaged unless you do something to corrupt it. If you ever feel the need to flash a new bootloader, do it via Odin, never recovery! If you remember that you should be fine.
svikramajit said:
Thanks again for all that great info!
Questions : Is there no way to fix the Bootloader if it gets damaged by chance? And which S5 ROM are you using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant to tell you I'm using DN3 rom. It has an aroma installer that lets you choose whether you want an S5 ui, a note 3 ui or a mixed ui. Choosing S5 ui & S5 build prop allows your device to work with S5 apps & it looks just like an S5. It's not the only rom out there, but it's beautiful, fast, and stable & the team works hard on it.
absinthesummer said:
I meant to tell you I'm using DN3 rom. It has an aroma installer that lets you choose whether you want an S5 ui, a note 3 ui or a mixed ui. Choosing S5 ui & S5 build prop allows your device to work with S5 apps & it looks just like an S5. It's not the only rom out there, but it's beautiful, fast, and stable & the team works hard on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey absinthesummer!
I tried to unroot my phone with the method I told you. But in the restore option, I am stuck at 'Checking MD5 Sums..'. What to do now?
MD5 checking takes forever! You have to wait it out. Most recoveries offer a way to turn it off. You shouldn't have to factory reset though, just click unroot in the super su app and then uninstall the app from the play store.
absinthesummer said:
MD5 checking takes forever! You have to wait it out. Most recoveries offer a way to turn it off. You shouldn't have to factory reset though, just click unroot in the super su app and then uninstall the app from the play store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I waited and the system was restored. But I got an error on 'Restoring Data'. I rebooted the phone and now it's showing glowing Samsung logo from like 3-4 minutes.
I've seen that before. Can you get back into recovery? You may have to flash stock in Odin, flash recovery and then do the Restore again. Data got messed up.
absinthesummer said:
I've seen that before. Can you get back into recovery? You may have to flash stock in Odin, flash recovery and then do the Restore again. Data got messed up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try removing the battery now. Let's see what happens.
Ok if you can get into recovery, do a fresh flash and then try to restore again. And see if it offers a way to turn off MD5 checking. That's why I use philz or twrp, they offer that and move much faster through MD5 check by default.
---------- Post added at 11:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 AM ----------
If you still fail on data, flash stock in Odin, flash custom recovery, then you should be able to enter recovery and have a successful restore.

[Q] Loading ROM's

Good Morning,
I've searched through the forums and so far haven't had any luck. I apologize if this is a topic that's been covered to death, which it likely has, but I haven't found a solution to my particular problem.
Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1.
I was having problems with TouchWiz crashing, usually 2 to 3 times per day. Sometimes it would lock up the unit, requiring me to reboot. Sometimes it would just come back after 5 or so minutes. Whatever the case, I decided, since I was already interested, that I would try to root the device, clear up some memory, maybe even flash a new ROM to take care of the issue.
First, I successfully rooted the device, no problem. Surprisingly easy, actually, following steps from this website.
I loaded SuperSU, Titanium Backup, Greenify - but still had (more rare) instances of TouchWiz crashing, and even the entire unit rebooting itself occasionally. So, I decided to take a stab at Cyanogenmod 11.
After attempting to load Cyanogenmod using Heimdall and Odin, and having issues I'll add, I finally realized that (theoretically) I could just use ROM Manager to load the file. Cool! So I loaded the zip file for CM11 onto the top level of my SD Card, created a recovery, and attempted to load the new ROM. The first problem I had was that the unit wouldn't just load the ROM like I expected, but it put me into recovery mode. I suspect that's not right, but I attempted to go ahead and use the menu picks to load the ROM anyway. I wiped data/factory reset, them wiped cache partition. Then, I selected "apply update from external storage". I selected the zip file for CM11, which was right where I left it, hit select, and had the following problem.
I got the following errors, two times, in red text (with other yellow text messages surrounding);
E:footer is wrong
E:signature verification failed
So...what do I need to do here, folks? Worst case scenario, obviously, I just keep using TouchWiz, as I haven't managed to brick my device yet, and I would still be able to utilize root access apps. But I have to be close, aren't I? Does anyone have the patience to help out a guy who only knows enough to be dangerous?
You need to use custom recovery to flash custom ROMs. It sounds like you are trying to use stock recovery.
redpoint73 said:
You need to use custom recovery to flash custom ROMs. It sounds like you are trying to use stock recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I decided to give TWRP recovery a shot, and was getting an error on the CM11 zip file. I re-copied over the zip file, tried again, and that did the trick. I guess I either had a bad zip file, the wrong recovery, or both.
Thanks!
Robb
Sometimes I had problems flashing zips from external storage, appeared as corrupted, never a problem when zip was in internal storage . Did you try that?
thdervenis said:
Sometimes I had problems flashing zips from external storage, appeared as corrupted, never a problem when zip was in internal storage . Did you try that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I did not try that, as simply recopying the zip file onto the SD card did the trick.
I spent all evening playing with the settings, trying out themes, setting up my apps - and my unit didn't crash one time. Pretty slick!
Now I just need to learn how to use Titanium Backup to store settings so I can play with different ROM's.

[Solved] Issues activating SGS3 SPH-L710 on Sprint with Custom ROM + lots of problems

Hello all!
This is my first foray into the world of custom Android systems, and I'm having a hell of a time with it... if somebody would be able to help me out, I would greatly appreciate it.
First off, the situation:
I am on Sprint, and I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 (SPH-L710) from Sprint to use as a backup phone, I used it for a while on Stock, then deactivated it so I could give it to my wife. First though, I wanted to put a custom ROM on it, and experiment/play around a bit and see what this world of options could do for me. Long story short, I ended up flashing an AICP ROM, and everything seemed to go smoothly, but when I went to activate the phone on my account again and it would not work no matter what I tried (details below). I figured maybe I could activate on the stock setup then just restore my custom setup, so I tried to revert to my stock ROM backup and I couldn't do anything because I was constantly getting messages that various programs had closed... Then I tried to wipe and restore my custom ROM backup and I get stuck in a boot loop... so I tried to flash a stock recovery and I get stuck in a boot loop... I'm out of ideas here, and now I'm stuck with a phone I can't use or do anything with, and I can't activate.
Details:
The initial rooting/install process seemed to work ok, and was fairly straightforward. I followed various guides on http://galaxys3root.com/ to get my phone rooted and backed up (Don't recall which ones now, but I've read through so much by now I don't know if it matters...).
My phone:
Samsung Galaxy S3 (Sprint) SPH-L710
Modem: L710SPRDNJ2
My Desktop:
Debian Linux
Here's the steps I performed:
Rebooted phone in Odin mode
Downloaded CWM S3 Sprint Recovery from the http://galaxys3root.com/ website (can't find the link any more)
Flashed the CWM recovery using Heimdall then rebooted phone into CWM
Installed SuperSU through CWM, then rebooted
Checked that the phone was rooted successfully (it was), then ran Titanium Backup on the whole device to my SD card, then copied the backup files to my desktop computer
Rebooted into CWM, and performed a backup through CWM, then rebooted and copied the CWM backup to my desktop.
Downloaded AICP Rom for my phone from here: http://downloadandroidrom.com/file/GalaxyS3Sprint/roms/AICP/aicp_d2spr_lp-10.0-RELEASE-20150707.zip, put it on my SD card, then installed it through CWM and rebooted
At this point, I was happy with how everything was working, so I did some minor theme customizations then made another backup through CWM, and copied it to my computer, but I did NOT run Titanium this time...
After all of this, I tried to go ahead and activate it through the Sprint web service. This process failed continuously with an unhelpful error message of "Sorry, this device can't be activated right now". I then got on Chat to see if they could activate it manually, and then the problems began. They did their thing activating the phone, but when I booted up I got no data connectivity, and couldn't make calls, and the SIM was not changing over to the new number. I was on the chat with them for over an hour trying to get the situation resolved, but that finally ended when they started asking me to punch in ## codes, because I discovered that none of them worked on my custom ROM. Some quick research told me that this was non-trivial to get around so I had them switch everything back and I started researching the issue.
I found this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1626638&highlight=sph-l710 that looked like it would let me do what I needed from the custom ROM, but I couldn't tell if it would fix my problem for sure, so I figured "I'll just restore my stock setup from that backup I took, activate it and update, then start over". This is when things got really frustrating...
First I rebooted into CWM, went to 'backup/restore', and restored my stock backup
Rebooted, and as soon as I got past the lock screen, I get inundated with messages of various apps being closed unexpectedly.
I researched a bit, discovered the issue may be caused by stale dalvik cache, so I rebooted into CWM, cleared the dalvik cache, formatted the /cache partition, then tried to restore the stock backup again, but this time I get stuck in a boot loop.
I then rebooted into CWM, tried to restore the backup of my AICP ROM, only to be stuck in a boot loop as well.
Trying to get into any usable system, I rebooted to CWM, cleared dalvik cache, then formatted /cache, /data, and /system just to be sure, and re-flashed the base AICP ROM I started with. This worked fine, and before long I had stock AICP back
Since I still couldn't get the phone to activate in the custom ROM, and my backups are apparently completely useless, I rebooted into CWM, wiped dalvik, /cache, /data, and /system again and tried to install a different stock ROM I found in the XDA forums (here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3-sprint/development/stock-rom-4-4-2-t3010642) only to be greeted by another bootloop
At this point I've spent well over 24 man-hours trying to get this to work, reading, researching, flashing, etc all to no avail. Nothing I do seems to work, and it seems like every article, tutorial, or forum thread I read either has nothing to do with my device, is too old, or doesn't describe my problem.
I'm at wits end, and am so frustrated I'm ready to just give up and smash this device and buy a new one... My questions to the community are as follows:
I know I screwed up on a couple of things, but in my initial research of doing this there was no indication that these were even things I needed to watch out for... Is there any more organized sources of information for doing this sort of thing?
Does anybody else out there use Sprint on a custom ROM, and if so how you you pull this off
Where else have I screwed up, and how can I fix this situation? (My end goal is still to get the S3 onto Sprint with a custom ROM)
What can I do differently next time? I would like to figure this out and do it to other phones and devices I have, but if it's this much trouble every time, I just don't have the time to mess with it.
Thank you in advance, and I appreciate any information that the community can provide.
This sounds like a CWM problem to me. If I were you, I'd boot the phone into Odin Mode and flash TWRP ( www.twrp.me ) then try flashing the latest aicp nightly downloaded from the official site ( www.aicp-rom.com ). Check the md5sums on everything! Then maybe try flashing a touchwiz ROM and activating your phone. Remember that you need to wipe the internal storage when you go between KitKat and lollipop.
I'm fairly certain you have to do activation with the stock Touchwiz roms -- once the phone is activated you can flash a custom.
You should go into recovery and wipe everything (System/data/etc) EXCEPT for the External SD Card
Power off - pull the battery for a few - power on directly into download mode
Odin NJ2 back onto the phone and reboot and activate it (skip through most of the setup since you'll flash a custom after)
Once you know it's activated and working under the stock Touchwiz, then again power off and Odin TWRP recovery
Then you can go back into recovery, wipe everything except External SD, and flash the custom rom back on.
Looks like swapping CWM for TWRP did the trick.
Flashed TWRP no problems, and put CleanBean on there to get the phone activated. Still wouldn't work automatically over the Sprint website, but I got on chat with them and they fixed me right up. Downloading a fresh copy of AICP now...
Is it worth it to keep the CWM backups I made earlier, or should I just go ahead and flush them? I figured just get rid of them since restoring them wasn't working anyway, but I figured I would ask.
Now to move all the data over to the new phone. Thanks so much for your help guys!
afarris01 said:
Looks like swapping CWM for TWRP did the trick.
Flashed TWRP no problems, and put CleanBean on there to get the phone activated. Still wouldn't work automatically over the Sprint website, but I got on chat with them and they fixed me right up. Downloading a fresh copy of AICP now...
Is it worth it to keep the CWM backups I made earlier, or should I just go ahead and flush them? I figured just get rid of them since restoring them wasn't working anyway, but I figured I would ask.
Now to move all the data over to the new phone. Thanks so much for your help guys!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get rid of them. TWRP can't restore CWM even if the backup is good

Soft Bricked LG G3, trying to get LineageOS on it. (Success!)

I was needing a new phone and saw a Linus Tech Tips video where he took an LG G3 and put LineageOS on it. So I thought I'd try it out for myself following his guidelines at https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1058206-lg-g3-lineageos-tutorial/
I bought an LG G3 D851 (T-Mobile version) off EBay for this. It's my first Android phone (yes, experimenting on my first Android Phone), I've always used Windows phones. This is what I've done to the LG G3 so far:
I reverted back to KitKat. Everything seemed to have gone just fine.
Then I downloaded the the Full Purple Drake Root and ran that after I figured out that .gz files are a compressed file and that can be decompressed. Everything seemed to have worked fine.
Then I downloaded the TWRP app on the phone and tried to backup the recovery via the TWRP app, which I'm not sure if it worked correctly. But anyhow.
Now that I'm writing this I see I missed this step:
number seven: Select the TWRP file we copied over earlier in the app, flash it to recovery, and then reboot to recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I just didn't understand what was meant by flashing it over and has just copied it to the phone's memory which I later wiped.
Well then I went into TWRP recovery and tried to do a recovery backup, which it seemed to do just fine. I rebooted and tried copying it over to the computer, which seems to not have worked. I just have an empty folder on my computer as we speak.
Then back in the TWRP recovery, I selected Wipe>Advanced Wipe, and select Dalvik, Cache, Data, Internal Storage, and System – then swipe to wipe.
Then I downloaded the latest version and nightly of LineageOS zip file and the Opengapps zip file but then had a hard time figuring how to get them to the phone.
I figured out that I could stick them on an SD card and slip it into the LG G3 that I'm working on and could see the files from the TWRP recovery menu.
So I tried to install the LIneageOS zip file several times and it didn't work. I'm guessing it's because I forgot to flash a certain file to TWRP recovery and am not sure how to do that, especially now with the phone only booting into recovery mode with the TWRP menu since it's wiped clean and will just display the LG logo and turn the LED different colors if I try to normal boot the phone.
Well I still want to try to fix the phone and go for LineageOS. I spent nearly all night working on it so I may give it a rest for a few days. But any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Now that I think about it, I didn't do what I mentioned ok #4 above about flashing the TWRP recovery because TWRP recovery was installed with the full Purple Drake root. However, the Linus Tech Tips instructions point to them rooting the phone with the lite version of Purple Drake (root only) and then flashing the newest version of TWRP recovery. So I wonder if my problem has to do with my having the latest version of TWRP recovery on my phone.
Ok. So I think I'm making progress, although that's just a feeling I have since I'm not suite what I'm really doing.
Anyhow the error code was something like "Unknown Error, Error Executing Updater Binary in Zip, Zip is for LG G3 D851, this phone is...(blank)". So I found an article in DroidThunder.com talking about this very problem. It suggested unzipping the rom on my computer and looking for the updater-script file and erasing some lines that apparently only have to do with verification. Then re-zip and retry.
Now I'm getting a "No MD5 file" message followed by an "Error flashing zip" message.
Edit: After reading this I take it I have an older version of TWRP, that is, v2.7.1.0, whereas the newet versio (for this phone?) is apparently 3.3.1-0. That seems to have an effect on this. I wonder if it's possibly to flash a newer version of TWRP onto this bricked phone. Anyhow, I'll have to look into that later. It's time to call it a day.
So recently I've been focusing on these two threads:
[GUIDE] LG G3 D851 Unbrick Qualcomm 9008 Fully Working... Unbrickable D851! by Omar-Avelar
And:
[GUIDE][FIX][DISCUSSION] LG G3 Hard Brick Recovery by l33tlinuxh4x0r
But I can't get either of them to work. I guess the only other thing would be to try to find a ROM, preferably the original KitKat that came with the phone, and hope and pray that I can get TWRP recovery v2.7 to install it.
I have the original as a tot file. But as far as I understand, I need a zip file that's set up for TWRP recovery.
Anyhow, trying to get this phone running hasn't been easy and has made other problems. Now every time I turn on my Surface 3 I have to go through BitLocker authentication. Hopefully turning bcd Test Signing off will stop that. But I'm getting to the point that I'm feeling like giving up.
Well that's it. Last night I found a zip file for the original Marshmallow ROM for my G3. I got it onto the SD card, went into TWRP recovery, saw it install, restarted and...
Now it's hard bricked. I cannot even get into TWRP recovery. The screen won't show a thing. I tried several times to get it into any mode possible, normal boot, TWRP recovery boot, download mode, and that jumping the pins trick, and I can't get it to where I can do something with the phone.
So I'm giving up on all this rooting, custom recoveries and custom ROM stuff. It all seems like a good idea, and I'd love to be a part of it all. But I take it this isn't for me. So I give up.
Thanks to all who have worked on this and have made the helpful forums about these phones! Maybe if I were more competent I would have figured it out.
Well, I said I was giving up. But maybe not. I did give up trying to recover the phone from being bricked and sent it out to a JTAG shop. For about $40 the phone is supposedly fixed and on it's way back.
But when it's back, do I just leave it alone this time, or should I try to get Lineage OS back on it again? Well, this is something that I haven't made my mind up yet. I see where I had made several mistakes when I first tried to get LineageOS on it. Maybe I know enough now that it won't happen again. But at the same time there's no guarantee that I won't me it up again, and have to pay some $40 again to have it unbricked.
SUCCESS!!!
So I got my phone back with stock Marshmallow working. Then I carefully went through every step on the Linus Tech Tips site, including installing the latest version of TWRP, and the next thing I know I'm running LineageOS 16 on my phone!
This is great! It's my first Android Phone and I've got it setup just about perfect! The only thing I kind of miss is Wi-Fi calling. But that didn't work so well on the Alcatel Window's phones I had anyway. But I got all the apps and most of the music I need installed and am ready to go! I also have two batteries, and the original isn't too bad, so I might carry that around as a backup until I'm sure how much battery I'll be using.
I'll be coming back and thanking all the ones who's posts and work have helped me individually. But if you read this and are one of those who have worked on TWRP, LineageOS and anything else that has helped me, Thank You!

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