Good evening everyone -
I'm running into some issues with my LRA version of the M8. I am/was rooted and running TWRP fine until I decided to revert back to the stock recovery so I could install the latest OTA that was released to me. Like an idiot I never backed up my stock OTA before flashing TWRP so I extracted the firmware.zip from the OTA download, relocked my bootloader, then used fastboot to flash firmware.zip. All seemed to go well until I rebooted, I'm now stuck at the HTC splash screen and can get no further. Things I've done:
- tried booting into recovery, got red triangle w/red exclamation mark
- unlocked bootloader and installed TWRP, can get into recovery now at least
- tried factory reset
- wiped cache, no luck
Unfortunately the LRA M8 isn't very common it appears so I'm unable to find a stock ROM to try and reinstall. I'm hoping someone might be able to help me get started back up without the need for my stock RUU or nandroid backup. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, please let me know what other info I could provide to help out. Thanks in advance.
promsos said:
Good evening everyone -
I'm running into some issues with my LRA version of the M8. I am/was rooted and running TWRP fine until I decided to revert back to the stock recovery so I could install the latest OTA that was released to me. Like an idiot I never backed up my stock OTA before flashing TWRP so I extracted the firmware.zip from the OTA download, relocked my bootloader, then used fastboot to flash firmware.zip. All seemed to go well until I rebooted, I'm now stuck at the HTC splash screen and can get no further. Things I've done:
- tried booting into recovery, got red triangle w/red exclamation mark
- unlocked bootloader and installed TWRP, can get into recovery now at least
- tried factory reset
- wiped cache, no luck
Unfortunately the LRA M8 isn't very common it appears so I'm unable to find a stock ROM to try and reinstall. I'm hoping someone might be able to help me get started back up without the need for my stock RUU or nandroid backup. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, please let me know what other info I could provide to help out. Thanks in advance.
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Did your firmware.zip have a boot*.img in it? You probably need the old version of the boot.img to match the old software. You might want to find on of the old Verizon RUUs and extract the boot.img from there and try flashing that in fastboot. Message me if the Verizon boot doesn't work for you, I might have some other ideas. I'd say be careful, but you're already in trouble.
Edit: You could also do a nandroid backup and try a custom ROM to get it functional in the short term.
I did eventually grab a nandroid backup and loaded Viper Rom on it, although it's a bit quirky - probably because the LRA version of the phone is slightly different than the stock Verizon version. That being said, the firmware.zip that I loaded did have a boot.img file in it so I'm guessing that's the issue. Do you think the boot.img from a Verizon RUU would work considering my phone is not the same exact version as the Verizon one? Or another way to ask it I guess is if there's really any harm in me restoring my nandroid and loading a standard Verizon boot.img? I'd think it can't render my phone any more useless than it was previously, just wasn't sure how locked in the boot.img file was to the specific model\OS that's on the phone. The whole LRA phone thing is really a kick in the pants.
promsos said:
I did eventually grab a nandroid backup and loaded Viper Rom on it, although it's a bit quirky - probably because the LRA version of the phone is slightly different than the stock Verizon version. That being said, the firmware.zip that I loaded did have a boot.img file in it so I'm guessing that's the issue. Do you think the boot.img from a Verizon RUU would work considering my phone is not the same exact version as the Verizon one? Or another way to ask it I guess is if there's really any harm in me restoring my nandroid and loading a standard Verizon boot.img? I'd think it can't render my phone any more useless than it was previously, just wasn't sure how locked in the boot.img file was to the specific model\OS that's on the phone. The whole LRA phone thing is really a kick in the pants.
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The boot.img from an older Verizon RUU would probably work, but you might have to try a couple to get the right one. The boot.img is directly tied to the ROM version that is installed, and is often called the kernel and tells the system how to boot the ROM.
Make sure you do a backup of your working Viper before restoring the stock one and trying to flash a boot.img.
I don't understand why you re locked the boot loader and flashed a firmware zip just to revert to stock recovery? All you had to do was pull the stock recovery from the firmware.zip in the OTA then flash it via fast boot. Then go ahead and flash the OTA.
You need to now find and flash a compatible boot.img. Just keep trying different ones until it boots.
I'm making a little progress here, thanks for the help. I downloaded a 4.4.3 Verizon kernel, loaded that (after restoring the old nandroid backup) and I'm able to boot, whew... I'm having two issues now, 1) my wireless won't turn on for some reason and 2) I tried installing the 4.4.4 OTA update my carrier released (downloaded via 4G) and it won't apply - I was hoping successfully applying this OTA would fix the wireless issue. Looking at my software version it looks like I'm actually running 4.4.2, could that cause both of these issues? I'm trying to locate a 4.4.2 kernel to load but figured I'd toss out the question in the meantime.
Ashyx - I wish I had a better answer to why I temporarily relocked the boot loader and flashed firmware.zip other than desperation (trying to get that darn OTA). It was a while ago I flashed the firmware.zip file but I thought that when I initially extracted the recovery from the zip file and flashed it I could no longer boot into a recovery, maybe I'm making that up though - I can hardly remember last week lol. I'm an IT guy, so I'm not completely clueless, but I'm far from proficient with mobile technologies, as I'm sure you gathered already.
Anyways, I'd appreciate any insight, in the mean time I'm going to keep hunting for a 4.4.2 kernel to try on this thing. Thanks again to all.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2723159
Try the zips from here, they should have a boot.img for 4.4.2.
Sent from my One M8 using XDA Free mobile app
Ok, I think I'm back up and running. I was able to find a 4.4.2 boot.img that allowed me to once again use my wireless. After getting the wireless working I had to find valid versions of flashlight.apk and calculator.apk to put in data/preload and the OTA finally took....success at last. I really appreciate the help durgis, I'll be grabbing a nandroid of my now working phone right away so I don't run into issues in the future. Again, thank you for the help, very much appreciated.
I suspect that we are on the same carrier, LRA__001. I've been fighting a similar problem to yours. The only custom rom I've been able to install is Cyanogenmod. It's good, but the battery life is horrible for me. Also, I can't get MMS or 4G to work. Everything other rom I've tried won't boot up for me. Any chance that you could provide a link to your nandroid backup? I'm looking to get back to a more stock rom that I can get OTA updates on. Thanks.
rook79 said:
I suspect that we are on the same carrier, LRA__001. I've been fighting a similar problem to yours. The only custom rom I've been able to install is Cyanogenmod. It's good, but the battery life is horrible for me. Also, I can't get MMS or 4G to work. Everything other rom I've tried won't boot up for me. Any chance that you could provide a link to your nandroid backup? I'm looking to get back to a more stock rom that I can get OTA updates on. Thanks.
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Hey rook, I do have the same CID, are you on Cellcom out of Wisconsin? I didn't grab a bare bones nandroid, but i can do a backup, uninstall my apps and do one, or rebuild mine from my unbootable one now that I have everything i need. If you want to try a different ROM you could try Viper, it worked decent for me, just a few quirks when i bounced from wireless to 3G for some reason.
I am with Cellcom. My problems started with the recent OTA update. The update wouldn't take, because of the flashlight.apk. I decided it was time to root this phone anyway and try some custom roms. I've done it with my other HTC phones in the past with no problems. Unlocked the bootloader, loaded TWRP and did a backup. Didn't check where the backup was being put and ended up saving it to internal. Put on a new ROM and wiped my backup. Cyanogenmod 11 is the only ROM that I've had success with. Every other rom that I have tried so far will not complete the initial boot. I suspect that I'm missing something stupid, or it has something to do with the OTA update not completing. Are you running Viper, or did you get the Cellcom OTA update to work?
I was running Viper for a while but now have my phone reverted to stock with the 4.4.4 OTA applied. If you want a nandroid of stock Cellcom 4.4.4 I can work on one for you, it may take a couple days to get it but I should be able to get one.
That would be awesome. I've been looking for a stock Rom for a while now. As you know those are nearly impossible to find. Not having a stock nandroid backup or the OTA update zip kind of put me in a SOL position. Thanks for your help.
Finally got around to this, try the download below, it's the stock 4.4.4 ROM and also the stock recovery (for future OTA updates). Let me know if it works out for you. I also have the 4.4.4 OTA updated if needed.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/thd0z8l2zlprt3r/One M8 LRA 4.4.4 Stock.zip?dl=0
That worked awesome. Thanks!!!
Hi Guys, (@rook79 , @promsos)
i have the same model and running into similar problem, i was also not able to flash any other rom than SkyDragon, wanted to be able to flash other roms but no luck, i thought its the firmware that wont let me install so i went for S-Off and flashed one of the firmware from verizon, since there was not much help for this specific model and everyone was referring it as a variant from verizon, i did flash one and my problem started, my phone had no signals after flashing the firmware and was still not able to flash any other ROM, i flashed couple of more firmwares and radios to get my network working but no luck, and i got a new problem that the phone keeps rebooting after a couple of minutes it loads into system.
then somebody helped me with the stock firmware 4.4.4 from here and nandroid from this thread, firmware was still verizon, i managed to restore it but still the same reboot issue and no signals, but i was able to download OTA which wont install, everytime i try to install it, it goes to stock recovery with a progress bar 1% filled and then stuck into boot loop and after n number of attempts it boots into system, where again it reboots after a couple of minutes.
extracted the firmware from OTA and manually flashed it and tried to install OTA but still same, i tried to reboot into stock recovery but every time i do that, it goes to black screen and then keep rebooting, i am not able to get to that red triangle screen.
help less clueless trying to find complete RUU for it (not sure if thats going to help)
my partition table has 2 vzw partitions as well because i flashed dottat's RUU for verizon.
can you guys help me with that?
my phone is m8_wlv CID: LRA_001 MID: 0P6B20000
s-off, and i am on a GSM network (not US).
promsos said:
Finally got around to this, try the download below, it's the stock 4.4.4 ROM and also the stock recovery (for future OTA updates). Let me know if it works out for you. I also have the 4.4.4 OTA updated if needed.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/thd0z8l2zlprt3r/One M8 LRA 4.4.4 Stock.zip?dl=0
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I'll appreciate if you share the 4.4.4 OTA, I really need it now.
hoang555 said:
I'll appreciate if you share the 4.4.4 OTA, I really need it now.
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is this what you are looking for? https://www.dropbox.com/s/2oozc291kwe5l9r/OTA_M8_WL_L50_SENSE60_MR_LRA_US_4.21.512.4-3.31.512.2_release_426215.zip?dl=0
hoang555 said:
I'll appreciate if you share the 4.4.4 OTA, I really need it now.
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Hi
Do you still have that LRA version?? I need some help
Hi, first of all I want to say that I am relatively new to android and therefore only have a basic understanding of everything. My desire EYE is currently on 4.4.4 rooted and have been having problems upgrading it to 5.0, I know I have to unroot and return to stock in order to be able to flash the stock recovery and be able to then flash lollipop on there. Problem is whenever I flash one of the stock 4.4.4's found on here superuser installer is still there (even when I tell to TWRP to not install it) and when I got to the bootloader is still says that the software is Modified so am still unable to flash the stock recovery and get lollipop.
Can anybody help shed some light on this problem and possibly help me fix it?
Hi there,
I have found I was able to update using the procedure written in this topic. Could you see if that helps you?
LaPaca said:
Hi there,
I have found I was able to update using the procedure written in this topic. Could you see if that helps you?
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Thanks for your reply but have already tried this and when I tried booting into the recovery menu it gave me the red triangle because I have modified system partition, and all my efforts so far to change it to official have so far been unsuccessful
In fact tried it again and it worked this time, however when I try and download the update on my phone a message pop's up saying my phone can't be updated because the software is modified and not official HTC firmware
Hello,
I'm a noob but usually try to fix this kind of issues on my own, looking at the boards, following tutorials, learning, but this time I think I'm not able to find a solution on my own so I'm asking for advice here.
Some time ago I installed cyanogenmod 10.1 on my Note 2 LTE and was happy with it for some month, than last week I tried to upgrade to cm12.1 It worked but there where some issues and bugs, mainly I wasn't able to swap internal/external sd cards.
So I decided to go back to latest available stock rom 4.4.2 from sammobile.
Here is where the problem starts. The stock 4.4.2 resulter in a bootloop, tried cache/dalvik/factory reset, flash again, whipe again.. nothing.
The phone is not able to get past the white label "Samsung Note 2 gt-n7105" screen. It goes black than the white label again and again.
It doesn't even get to the Samsung animated logo.
Ok bottloop, no problem, try to flash again something else.
I tried different Custom roms, different kernels, different flashing methods. I can flash anything with no problem but every time a get a bootloop.
During the various attempts knox fired, but I don't care. I don't know if this could be the cause.
Actually the only firmware that works is the original oldest STOCK 4.1.2, every other stock firmware past that or any custom rom is bootlooping the same way. To fix I only can reinstall stock 4.1.2 with odin.
I really need any advice or hint.
At the moment my goal is to get at least to stock 4.3 but I cant.........
Thanks!
When you first bought your phone, did it come with Knox?
ErnestChia said:
When you first bought your phone, did it come with Knox?
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nope it doesn't existed before, but now I can see it when I boot in download mode "knox warranty void:1"
Try to get the latest firmware available via kies ,that worked for me
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2088809/[URL]
From what you've described, I think the Stock ROM 4.4.2 from Sammobile contained a bootloader update. So when you flashed this ROM, it updated your bootloader from the non-Knox version to the Knox version.
I am very unfamiliar with the technical details of Knox, but I think the new Knox bootloader is causing your bootloop problem.
However, I don't know why 4.1.2 works when everything else doesn't work!
Can you check the Stock ROM 4.4.2, and see whether it really contains a bootloader update?
mysuperdonghae said:
Try to get the latest firmware available via kies ,that worked for me
http://forum.xda-developers.com/sho...can flash cm10, 11 and 12 with no issue too..
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misthero said:
I think so, there is a boot.im, anyway I also discovered that I can flash cm10, 11 and 12 with no issue too..
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Since a boot.img is present, it means that it would flash your boot partition. So now we know for sure that when you attempted to flash the Stock ROM 4.4.2, your bootloader was changed to the Knox version.
So the lesson here is: before you flash anything via ODIN, always check to see if there is a bootloader update. Usually you don't want to be changing the bootloader on your phone.
***
So now there are 2 possible ways to reach your goal:
1) Keep your new bootloader and see whether you can get Stock 4.3 or Stock 4.4.2 running on your phone
2) Try to restore your old bootloader
As I said earlier, I'm not familiar with the technical details of Knox, so I'm not sure how to get Stock 4.3 or Stock 4.4.2 running on your phone when your Knox indicator is already 0x1. You need someone else to help you.
And you can only restore your old bootloader if you happen to have made a copy of your boot partition before you flashed the Stock ROM 4.4.2. Even if you did have a copy of your original boot partition, I'm not confident with helping you to restore your old bootloader. You need someone else to help you in this case too.
Conclusion: I don't think I can help you to solve your problem I'm sorry. Hopefully someone else who is more of a pro than me will come along to help you out.
Good luck!
So I recently purchased a brand new HTC M8 & the first thing I did was install TWRP & Custom Oreo ROM. However, I was not very impressed as two of the things I was looking forward to took a major hit - audio quality & battery drain on certain camera based apps. However, while most devices are very easy to return to stock ( I have experience with Samsung, OnePlus etc.) I cannot find a definitive guide that can help me restore to the last marshmallow update with stock firmware & recovery. Every online tutorial I try seems to work halfway and then the files wont flash etc.
Does anyone have a proper surefire way of bringing it back to stock. I would appreciate it alot.
Also its M8n (Euro Unlocked Version) it came with S-Off from the factory. It had Kitkat on it when I wiped it.
Thankyou
First of all, if you made a TWRP backup of your stock ROM (before flashing custom ROM); then you can just restore that to get back to the stock ROM. If you didn't make a TWRP backup, then you should have. This is a fundamental best practice when modding these devices. I find it surprising that so many folks skip doing this. For that matter, do not do anything to your phone without beforehand knowing how to reverse it (go back to stock).
Luckily, there is a collection of stock TWRP backups which you can use, plus a very well written guide: https://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/help/tutorial-how-to-stock-stock-twrp-t3086860
Flashing custom ROM doesn't touch firmware, so that hasn't changed from stock firmware (Kitkat?). If you want to update firmware, the above linked thread has that as well.
On the note of firmware, you should not have been running an Oreo custom ROM with kitkat firmware (if that is what you did). It may or may not explain some of the issues you had. I'm actually surprised you were able to flash an Oreo ROM at all, with KK firmware.
As far as stock recovery, the link I gave also has the necessary files and instructions on how to restore stock recovery. But honestly, I don't feel it is value added to do so. The only reason to have stock recovery is for updates, and this phone is long done (years) with updates. And TWRP gives you a lot more flexibility to recover, backup, etc.
Alternately, your version may have RUU. This is a HTC specific tool you can use that to restore to full stock, including ROM, firmware, stock recovery - every single partition restored to stock (will also wipe all data on the phone). But I would need the exact phone info, in order to tell you which RUU (if your M8 version has one - not all do). If you want to go that route, do fastboot getvar all, and post the results (delete IMEI and serial number before posting).