[Q] How to flash a boot.img without fastboot? - AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III

Samsung apparently does not allow you to boot into the bootloader on their phones. I am trying to return to a different kernel I was using previously, which was contained in a nandroid backup. However, to my understanding, restoring a nandroid backup does not restore the kernel, and you have to extract the boot.img and flash that by itself.
What is the best way to go about doing this without fastboot?
Also, I don't suppose "restore boot" in nandroid advanced restore does this now, does it? Can't find anything on it online.

From what I recall, restoring the nandroid backup would restore the kernel. What recovery was used to create the nandroid?

audit13 said:
From what I recall, restoring the nandroid backup would restore the kernel. What recovery was used to create the nandroid?
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I used CWM. I read in several places (forums) that it didn't....Hm. I mean I have the boot.img from the backup, so I have the kernel right there. I suppose I could find some way to make it into a flashable zip, but I was just wanting to see if anyone knew a way around that.
But if you are confident that the backup would restore the kernel, do you know if I could restore just the kernel from advanced restore? It'd be fab if I could keep /data the same, but not a must I suppose.

I use TWRP on an HTC and just restored a nandroid backup. After restoring the backup, the previous kernel was restored too.
I don't have any devices at the moment that use CWM.
Not sure about just restoring the kernel. Any particular reason you just want to restore the kernel?

audit13 said:
I use TWRP on an HTC and just restored a nandroid backup. After restoring the backup, the previous kernel was restored too.
I don't have any devices at the moment that use CWM.
Not sure about just restoring the kernel. Any particular reason you just want to restore the kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started getting some problems after flashing a custom kernel and I want to revert to the previous one, the default CM one, to test if my problems are related to that kernel or not. I suppose I'll look into making the .img a flashable zip then, unless anyone else knows of a better way. I'm not familiar enough with Odin to know if you can flash a .img in it.
There's that "restore boot" option in the advanced restore menu on CWM. Do you have any idea what that restores? I want to naturally say that it probably restores the boot.img, but I have searched and searched and just cannot find anything online about what that actually restores.

Nandroid backups created with CWM need to be restored using CWM.
Sorry, not sure what the advanced options will do but you could try different ones.

Restoring boot in advanced nandroid restore restores the zimage and initrd.gz. The kernel. Thus, I suppose a full restore will restore the kernel. Perhaps there are exceptions for certain devices. Restoring boot got me where I needed.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using XDA Free mobile app

Related

How to backup and flash kernel

Hi,
I just flashed the new rmk gingerbread sense ROM to my Desire Z, and I'm thinking of trying the unity v3 kernel since it seems to have better battery life and performance from what I'm reading.
I've never flashed a kernel before. It seems like the flash process is identical to flashing a ROM? i.e. place the zip file in my sdcard, go to ROM manager and flash it there?
How do I backup the previous kernel though? Do I just do a backup via the ROM manager, which backs up everything, or do I backup just the existing kernel? Also, if I have the rmk ROM zip in my sdcard, if anything goes wrong with the kernel flash, can I just flash that zip in recovery boot? That way I don't have to backup anything.
Also, do I still need SetCPU to manage governors and clockspeeds? Not sure if anything has changed...
Thanks!
Do a full nandroid backup before flashing a new kernel. Nandroid backup will back-up the kernel and the entire ROM.
Flashing a kernel.zip is the same as flashing a ROM. Enter recovery, select "install .zip from SDcard" and proceed from there.
If the kernel causes problems or isn't working properly, revert to your previous nandroid backup.
Depending on the ROM and kernel combination, SetCPU may be required or advised, such as with a high OC kernel. Everyone has their own method to setting profiles, however.
Thanks.
I'm using rmk vision gingerbread sense 2.42. If I already have this downloaded ROM zip file in my sdcard, can I just flash back to this, rather than do a nandroid backup and restore to that? Does the nandroid backup keep my user settings?
Thanks.
goister said:
Thanks.
I'm using rmk vision gingerbread sense 2.42. If I already have this downloaded ROM zip file in my sdcard, can I just flash back to this, rather than do a nandroid backup and restore to that? Does the nandroid backup keep my user settings?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, don't just flash over it. You're best off simply using CWM to backup and restore. The nandroid backup makes a complete perfect copy of the state of your phone at that time, restoring to it makes it seem as though nothing has happened after that point.

Restoring CWM backup with TWRP, possible?

I made a backup of the stock ROM using CWM but had issues getting certain ROMs to work until I changed the recovery to TWRP. Is it possible to restore the backup made in CWM with TWRP?
I was planning on backing current ROM with TWRP, going back to CWM; restoring stock ROM, installing TWRP and recreating backup with TWRP but I'm just wondering if it's possible.
Thanks!
EDIT: I found the answer myself not 10 seconds after posting this. I hate it when that happens!! FYI, the answer is No.

Nandroid restore Problem

Hello to all,
I have Arc with ICS .587 installed and rooted, CWM is Also installed. Whenever i try to restore my Backup i end up in bootloop, sometines its restored but somethings are not working like no service, some widgets are Gone, cant get into Phone settings as the setting button is completly gone from phone.
Please can good Samaritan help me
Thanking All in Advance
Do you Wipe Data/Factory Reset/Cache etc before restore?
did you changed kernel?
if you chanege the name of the backup, things will not work.
gabimx said:
did you changed kernel?
if you chanege the name of the backup, things will not work.
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Click to collapse
yes....not change the name of backup...
moreover if you have flashed a zip and it didn't go fine....there is a possibility that the istallation have spoiled the backup or file of kernel...(for all I know it happened to me in this way)
Yes Guys i do make a full wipe before restore, and after making a backup i transfer it to pc for Safe storage, so whenever i need it i transfer it back to cloclworkmod folder
centi50 said:
Yes Guys i do make a full wipe before restore, and after making a backup i transfer it to pc for Safe storage, so whenever i need it i transfer it back to cloclworkmod folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If u flash custom kernel, u need to also flash wifi modules before rebooting after restore...
I dont Flash custom Kernel, everything is stock, by the way My Arc is Bootlocked so customs kernels
While you make backup does cwm show any errors? have you checked the log ? Does the restore process complete without errors ? And do you fix permissions and mount system /data etc before restoring ?
nikufellow said:
While you make backup does cwm show any errors? have you checked the log ? Does the restore process complete without errors ? And do you fix permissions and mount system /data etc before restoring ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Backup Completes without Error, and no i do not Fix permission or Mount System/Data before restore.
centi50 said:
Backup Completes without Error, and no i do not Fix permission or Mount System/Data before restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then do it ! and try again .
This is what is happening to me. Lets say am Running on GB Rom e.g X-Gamer, now i want to try lets say Optimax Rom, i backup my Current ROM which is X-Gamer, then i try to restore it to see if its works, and i find that it works. so Flash ICS Original Sony ROM and root it. in the end i Have Sony Stock ROM.587 and CWM installed. So far am ok.
Now i Install ICS based ROM like Optimax or JellySandwhich. Everything goes Fine, so i Backup That ROM too and keep a copy on my Laptop. Now i decide to go to my old backup of X-Gamer, i Boot to recovery do a full wipe + i mount data/system and fix permission as i have CWM 5.5.0.4. which has permission option in it. i continue to restore my X-Gamer Backup. After Finnishing of course without error. i reboot the phone and Bam!!. Bootloop.
I reflash GB.42 with Flashtool, root it and install CWM. Boot to recovery and try to restore my X-Gamer backup, and WOLA!! it's restored.
same with ICS Backup. Reflash Stcok Rom root it and restore the ICS backup i made, and it works.
As i know i may be wrong (am a noob) The backup is a snapshot of the rom, so regardless of what rom someone is running when he restores the Backup, he should be back to that ROM in the backup and not to reflash first the corresponding Stock ROM in order for the Backup to work.
Please somebody help and shade some light
Have you used the same recovery all the time? Switching recoveries can "sometimes" not flash backups properly. Either that or it didn't back it up properly in the first place. TBH there's not much we can can do. The backup is corrupted and for that it is causing bootloops and braking things. All I can suggest to you is to reinstall a fresh install of the ROM and then try an advanced restore of your applications and data just not the Boot.img or the system.img
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Jessie-James said:
Have you used the same recovery all the time? Switching recoveries can "sometimes" not flash backups properly. Either that or it didn't back it up properly in the first place. TBH there's not much we can can do. The backup is corrupted and for that it is causing bootloops and braking things. All I can suggest to you is to reinstall a fresh install of the ROM and then try an advanced restore of your applications and data just not the Boot.img or the system.img
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried to use same recovery, but same result. restoring backup across different ROM does not work for me it seems. I have to have a working corresponding rom as the backup am trying to Resotre. for example if i want to restore my backup of GB ROM, i have to have a working GB Rom already on Phone. I Can't restore an ICS Rom while my Phone is On GB and vice verser.
centi50 said:
Please somebody help and shade some light
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Click to collapse
Flashing an ftf also flashes the kernel, so restoring a GB backup when you originally installed ICS or vice versa will give you issues as CWM doesn't backup your kernel.
XperienceD said:
Flashing an ftf also flashes the kernel, so restoring a GB backup when you originally installed ICS or vice versa will give you issues as CWM doesn't backup your kernel.
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Thanks XperienceD for Clarifying. now i undersatnd. Just wanted to ask is it possible to flash A GB Sock Kernel on an ICS ROM or vice versa, then using the backup to restore thru CWM, as this will save time than to reflash the ftf, root it and install CWM just only to restore your backup.
centi50 said:
as this will save time than to reflash the ftf, root it and install CWM just only to restore your backup.
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Click to collapse
This is why it's better to unlock your BL, then it's just a flash of a kernel then restoring your backup.

Twrp and Titanium backup question

First I'm wondering why with almost half the files i want to flash with twrp make it crash and reboot? Using the latest version. Flashed it from zip. I'm stumped. I end up flashing cwm to flash what i want then flash back to twrp. I would just use cwm because I'm more familiar with it but its not making my backups right for some reason.
Also was wondering being that alot of the apps I have uninstalled on tb are for my stock ROM which I have a backup of, can I delete them from my tb? So i don't have what feels like a thousand apps scroll to get what I want? Or will that mess something up? Most i will never use but i don't want to ruin my backup
Thanx
zombielion said:
First I'm wondering why with almost half the files i want to flash with twrp make it crash and reboot? Using the latest version. Flashed it from zip. I'm stumped. I end up flashing cwm to flash what i want then flash back to twrp. I would just use cwm because I'm more familiar with it but its not making my backups right for some reason.
Also was wondering being that alot of the apps I have uninstalled on tb are for my stock ROM which I have a backup of, can I delete them from my tb? So i don't have what feels like a thousand apps scroll to get what I want? Or will that mess something up? Most i will never use but i don't want to ruin my backup
Thanx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What version of TWRP are you using?
Also, I don't see any problem in deleting old stock backups from TB, as long as you have a nandroid backup of your stock ROM. Even if you do delete something, and don't have a nandroid, you can always flash back to stock.
Alternatively, you can use the search function in TB to avoid having to scroll through the really long list.
MeetMyBackhand said:
What version of TWRP are you using?
Also, I don't see any problem in deleting old stock backups from TB, as long as you have a nandroid backup of your stock ROM. Even if you do delete something, and don't have a nandroid, you can always flash back to stock.
Alternatively, you can use the search function in TB to avoid having to scroll through the really long list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on twrp 2.3.3.0 but i was having the problem on 2.2.2.0 the zips seem fine they flash in cwm it just makes it a hassle to go through all that trouble.
zombielion said:
I'm on twrp 2.3.3.0 but i was having the problem on 2.2.2.0 the zips seem fine they flash in cwm it just makes it a hassle to go through all that trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have both cwm and twrp in flashable zips could i be not flashing it right or something. I do it the way i do everything else and never have problems? I'm getting used to twrp and the backups work for me where cwm doesn't since first backup just the reboot is such a pain. Should i go to stock and start all over could it be I've messed singing up alone the way? I can't find a postof anyone having the same problem

[Q] Nandroid (Agat) backup/restore problems

So... I flashed AGAT_Recovery tREC_v0.2.2 and was intending to restore a "nandroid" backup from before I wiped my phone. First of course I made a backup (just Stock Rooted ROM I used to flash the recovery partition). I then tried to restore the previous image of my custom ROM and the restore failed. Investigated and found that the filenames in the nandroid backup folder were named differently from previous nandroid backups I had taken:
system.ext4.tar (0 bytes)
system.ext4.tar.a (large)
data.ext4.tar (0 bytes)
data.ext4.tar.a (large)
I'm not sure how the backup format changed as I don't recall updating the recovery partition, I'm wondering if some ROM I installed did this for me (if so thanks a lot). Looks like this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2194171
So trying to be clever, I deleted the 0 byte files and renamed all of the stupid .a files to the original (I had no .b, .c files etc.) Then I did a restore.
The restore completed successfully but com.android.Phone was crashing on startup repeatedly, the launcher wasn't working properly and basically the image wasn't usable.
I then decided that it wasn't worth all the trouble and I would just restore to the backup I had taken of the Stock Rooted ROM immediately prior to this whole mess starting (using AGAT_Recovery tREC_v0.2.2). The restore completed successfully but the O/S didn't boot at all (it just showed a black screen after POST of the Samsung logo).
For now I've reflashed stock using ODIN.
So basically my question is: why is this so complicated? Am I missing something here? Is AGAT_Recovery 0.2.2 not a good choice for a recovery partition?
Is the recovery you are trying to restore the sane recovery you are currently running.
I've gotten stuck by being in a different version of the same recovery and it just didn't work. I had to be in the same recovery in order to do a restore.
Just a thought
Bt is right. You should always use the same cwm to restore that you used on the backup. And the latest Agat recovery is essentially bugfree, which is 0.3.5. So I would use that. And it's not difficult, at all . Just takes a few "oh craps" to get it down pat!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
thanks
jdsingle76 said:
Bt is right. You should always use the same cwm to restore that you used on the backup. And the latest Agat recovery is essentially bugfree, which is 0.3.5. So I would use that. And it's not difficult, at all . Just takes a few "oh craps" to get it down pat!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspect part of the reason I couldn't restore the one backup image was because I wasn't using the same version, or perhaps even product. Doesn't explain why the older version of Agat couldn't restore its own backup though. I'll try the newer version out. Thanks!
It's too bad the utilities don't write out some metadata about the format used, what product/version did the backup, etc.
philipdl71 said:
I suspect part of the reason I couldn't restore the one backup image was because I wasn't using the same version, or perhaps even product. Doesn't explain why the older version of Agat couldn't restore its own backup though. I'll try the newer version out. Thanks!
It's too bad the utilities don't write out some metadata about the format used, what product/version did the backup, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was an earlier kernel that probably still had bugs. Could have been a bad backup. It happens. The latest kernel will do solid backups/restores and serve as a very dependable dd. Good luck.
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