Develop Bugs

[Help] Problem Rooting using the No-PC Method

Hey Guys,
Before I ramble on about my problems, I would like to thank all the amazing devs that work night an day to make our phones awesome. I have been reading these forums for a couple of weeks and have seen how helpful everyone in these forums are to us noobs.
I'm not new to Rooting (Rooted my G1 a while back and Jailbroke a 1st Gen iPhone way way back lol), but this is my first time Rooting my 3G Slide, which I have had since they were first launched.
I am attempting the No-PC Method described here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=896148
I have been trying since last night with no success. I have followed the process step by step, to the T, and continue to encounter the same error every time I try.
I succesfully flash the ESPRIMG.zip and then go to Recovery to apply the "update.zip" file so I can go into Clockwork Recovery, however instead of going into Clockwork Recovery it just gives me the following error:
E:failed to verify whole-file signature
I have searched the forums and none of the responses and solutions have been helpful as almost all of them are users who have already flashed a ROM on their phones as opposed to the Stock one, and a lot of them seem to be prior to this new AndRoot method.
Also, I am using this method as I do not have a USB cable for my phone or a PC for that matter, and havent really researched any Mac mathods of Flashing a Custom ROM to the phone.
Any help would be mucho appreciated!

i think you have to have the update.zip file in the root of your sd card

I reformatted the SD Card and only placed the necessary files in the root of the card. There is nothing else in the card at the moment except for the update.zip file, ROM, gapps, and radio updates. I have no idea why i keep ketting this error, from all the research I've done, this should be working, but clearly there is something I'm doing wrong :-/

yixmal said:
I reformatted the SD Card and only placed the necessary files in the root of the card. There is nothing else in the card at the moment except for the update.zip file, ROM, gapps, and radio updates. I have no idea why i keep ketting this error, from all the research I've done, this should be working, but clearly there is something I'm doing wrong :-/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, that's not good if that's all you have there. i was working with someone over at the tmobile forums who was getting the same error (http://forums.t-mobile.com/t5/myTouch-3G-Slide/Easy-root-unroot-Froyo-for-all/td-p/649239/page/6) and it turned out they had the downloaded files in a different folder, and moving them to the root made it work... you may want to try using the files you need from this link instead: http://richard.gluga.com/2010/08/complete-guide-to-rooting-and-hacking.html

I'm a newbie to the whole programming side of computers, familar with using one though. I am going through the steps of the no pc rooting, and I read through step 6 and I thought it was confusing it says...
Install And Run Root Explorer then Copy and paste flash_img and mtd0.img to /data/local on android device multi-select copy then rm r/w in program in upper left on data local folder. I am confused with the rm r/w section there, I haven't gone through the steps, just want to have a general idea before I get in there and screw something up.

Yeah, that ones a lil tricky apparently. Root explorer can be found in the market for ~$4, but if you click the link for the tmobile forum, we found that another app (free) works just as good.

I managed to make it work last night. I'm pretty sure I kept downloading the incorrect ESPRIMG.zip file from several sites. I think I was getting the original stock ROM as opposed to the Engineering Build.
Anyways, mine's working now.
As for the step 6 on the instructions. It basically means that after you paste the files you need to go back to the android system (the folder where you can see everything thats on the android) and at the very top of the window you will see a button that says "R/W" next to something like "Mount as R/O". You just need to hit that button so you can write to the folders, then go back to /data/local and long press "Image_flasher" click on permissions and make sure everything is checked, then repeat on "mtd0.img" file.
I know its a long explanation for such a small step but I try to be as detailed as i can. Hope it helped.

Get
update.zip
Put iton ur SD card
and a ROM.zip that you like n the SD card as well..
see if that works

yixmal said:
I managed to make it work last night. I'm pretty sure I kept downloading the incorrect ESPRIMG.zip file from several sites. I think I was getting the original stock ROM as opposed to the Engineering Build.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^ This
I just went through the same thing - I had restored my phone back to stock and then went to re-root it. I have 2 copies of ESPRIMG, file sizes as follows:
The one that was giving me problems: 145,045,641 bytes
The one that ended up working: 143,701,302 bytes
Once I used the slightly smaller ESPRIMG the process worked perfectly. When using the other one I was getting the same error as the OP.

[Q] alpharev and Leedroid question.

Are there any tutorials out there that walk you thru the process step by step? I understand the buring iso image and booting from disk, but i dont understand the partition thing.
which partition would be good for leedroid (best performance / most app space) ?
Also, when flashing leedroid (or any other rom), do you flash the radio in the same manner as the rom itself? (SD card .zip)
Sorry. im trying to read as much as i can, but its mostly words, which doesnt help a noob like myself.
thanks

You will boot from the disc that you burnt the ISO to and follow all the instructions. That will give you s-off once it's all done and it should boot into whatever set-up you had before.
To flash a new partition table you will need to use ABD. You will to flash the new table and then re-install your ROM or recover a NANDroid backup. If you restore a back up though, make sure it will fit in the new partition sizes.

So if i download the latest leedroid "With .MD5", is the .MD5 the partition for the internal memory?

Sike-1 said:
So if i download the latest leedroid "With .MD5", is the .MD5 the partition for the internal memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is MD5?
MD5 stands for ‘Message Digest algorithm 5′, and for most applications, MD5 represents something like a digital fingerprint so that you can be sure a file is exactly the same whether it is stored here, there, or anywhere. It’s a very effective way ensure a digital signature and file integrity.
So why use MD5?
If you’ve ever downloaded a large file, you probably want to be sure that the file wasn’t corrupted in the process. This is particularly true with things like disk images, where using a corrupt ISO to install software can lead to disaster (I once used a corrupted ISO file to attempt a Linux install, bad idea). Using the MD5 Hash, you can be sure that the file you have on your machine is digitally identical to the original file from the source. Many sources of large files will offer an MD5 Hash to compare your file to so that you can be sure the file has transferred completely and without any molestation.

Awesome. Thanks a bunch man

using another phone's backup

I played with the OEMName reg settings as posted here to tinker with the other oem apps, and it stopped all my applications from working, I had to hard reset to get any apps to function again. Luckily, I had saved my 7008 backup files and I used the method posted [url="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1060103&highlight=backup+file+locations+zune]here[/url] to revert my locked 7392 Focus to the 7008 backup. I had saved the backup. These are some observations:
- When I updated to 7390 and created the backup, my phone was already unlocked and prevent unlock was done, when I restored my backup, the unlock was preserved
- the unlock retained through my subsequent update to 7392 (expected, but nice to know)
- The sideloaded apps on the phone at the time of the 7008 backup also installed with the backup
Even with my phone on the pin lock, as soon as I connected it to the PC, Zune opened and synced and prompted for the update. Is this new bahavior?
I was able move the saved backup files into the Windows Phone Update folder after the phone was connected and synced.
Once I was back to 7008, I hard reset the phone and updated again without setting up my Live Account info to create a "pure" 7008 backup for the purpose of posting here for others to tinker with.
If there is interest, i will post the files when I get home.

That backup could be very handy to have around! Please post it!

Backup is for one phone only, not all around. I know, you can change the DeviceId, but it will fail when you try to restore to another phone. I guess a backup is useless for others.
The best backup is the firmware itself.

I do believe this will work. There are two .xml files in the restore point. Each of these has a deviceID field. I believe that if you change these fields to your own unique device id number and wait until after the phone is connected to zune to replace the files, you may be able to use someone else's backup files on your phone.
Also, I reverted my phone to 7008, but once there, I was unable to get the chevron unlock to work. I'm not sure why this is or what I did wrong.
Later tonight, I will try to restore my wife's phone using my restore point as a proof of concept

Proof of Concept failed...
this is what I did...
1. First, I located the existing backup files on my computer.
C:\Users\#USER#\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update
In this location, there is a folder with a long name that looks like this:
B12da62f - d8d2d122 – 81d60512 - 6aaa3f12
This folder holds your restore files. This number is your unique device ID number.
2. I copied this folder and its contents to a safe place in case I needed it later. I have made it a practice to make a backup copy of all my backups so I can restore to any point. Restoring your own backups definitely works. I’ve done this several times with many old and new backups. See this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1060103&highlight=backup+file+locations+zune for details on how
3. Next, I got a backup file that didn’t belong to my phone and I edited the .xml files
- in the properties folder, you’ll find properties.xml
- I opened this file using notepad and change the #’s in the DeviceUrlId field to my unique device ID number
<DeviceUrlId>zune-tuner://windowsphone/XXXXXXXX%20-%20XXXXXXXX%20-%20XXXXXXXX%20-%20XXXXXXXX</DeviceUrlId>
- in RestorePoint\5372F2DE-F333-4717-9CB8-1846BE19900E\Data there is Manifest.xml
- I alsoopened this file using notepad and change the X’s in the DeviceId field to my unique device ID number
<DeviceId>XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX</DeviceId>
4. I connected my Focus to the computer and opened and waited for Zune to open
- waited for it to finish syncing
- left my Focus connected and Zune open.
5. Then I replaced the authentic backup files with the edited files from the other phone.
- Opened the backup file location on your computer from step 1
- Delete the existing Properties and RestorePoint folders
- Copied the Properties and RestorePoint folders from step 3 into this folder
6. I returned to Zune, went into Settings, then go to Update
- Wait for Zune to finish looking for an update
- It indicated that I had a restore point
- I selected to restore and followed the prompts
- All appears to be going well
7. On Step 3: Restoring Backup, the phone restarts, the and the Backup fails
- It spits out error code 801812E0
- I can't find anything on this code anywhere
At the beginning of step 3 it must be checking something in one of the other files?
IDK...
I do think this could work if we knew what Zune was checking that gives it the fail.

A quick look at the data files suggests to me that they may be encrypted. This would make sense, since otherwise you could overwrite the OS at a very low level by modifying your backup and then "restoring" it.
I bet the encryption key is stored in the device somehow, though.

GoodDayToDie said:
A quick look at the data files suggests to me that they may be encrypted. This would make sense, since otherwise you could overwrite the OS at a very low level by modifying your backup and then "restoring" it.
I bet the encryption key is stored in the device somehow, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they are encrypted and sighed against your imei and CID from the sd card.
and it could be that it is sighed online when you are downloading the update (but I don't know that for sure)
but the main problem is that you can't use another his backup because the activation email adress is stored in the backup.
and it is way to complicated to get that out because it is stored on to many parts of the backup.
so if there was a way to hack the encryption you could only use it on your own phone.

ceesheim said:
they are encrypted and sighed against your imei and CID from the sd card.
and it could be that it is sighed online when you are downloading the update (but I don't know that for sure)
but the main problem is that you can't use another his backup because the activation email adress is stored in the backup.
and it is way to to get that out because it is stored on to many parts of the backup.
so if there was a way to hack the encryption you could only use it on your own phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think the email has anything to do with it.
I have tried all variables of restore files to phones with live activation set up and not set up.
With the false restore files, it fails the same regardless.
With restore files from the phone, it works the same, regardless of what live account is activated on the phone or in the restore.
Sent from my Focus using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

As I mentioned, it is not the way we can walk. One phone, one backup, another phone, another and so on. Sad but true.

well, FWIW, here are the 7008 backup files...
7008_Backup.zip
the file is 515 MB.
There is no Live account associated with the backup and I've already replaced the device ID info in the two xml files with X's

munkeyphyst said:
well, FWIW, here are the 7008 backup files...
7008_Backup.zip
the file is 515 MB.
There is no Live account associated with the backup and I've already replaced the device ID info in the two xml files with X's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would've spared you some time, I did it before you and it's not working. As ceesheim said, they are tied to hardware.
I'm looking now to patch Zune to bypass that.

Thanks, I didn't see that. I hope the "clean" 7008 restore files are of use.

Is there the possibility to extract specific files ie those related to SMS and use them in another backup?

efjay said:
Is there the possibility to extract specific files ie those related to SMS and use them in another backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not at the moment, as the backup files are encrypted. Different people (myself too) are working on various approaches, to try to access or unpack the rom files (from backups).

EnderPsp said:
Not at the moment, as the backup files are encrypted. Different people (myself too) are working on various approaches, to try to access or unpack the rom files (from backups).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.

I wrote something about this topic overhere.

EnderPsp said:
It would've spared you some time, I did it before you and it's not working. As ceesheim said, they are tied to hardware.
I'm looking now to patch Zune to bypass that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it isn't zune that check it but the ULDR that validates it , so it doesn't bring you anywhere to patch ZUNE I think.

7008_Backup.zip
7008_Backup.zip multiuplood link please

ranya said:
7008_Backup.zip multiuplood link please
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no way (yet) to use another phone's backup so a link would not help you.

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but maybe all we would need to do is change the activeid and the folder, that goes 8-4-4-4-12 with random numbers. Is there another 7008 backup to compare that number with? maybe all you need is the activeid for your phone, if phones have seperate active ids.

So confused with storage/backups

Please help me out here.
I can never find backups.
I recently realized the theres a "0" folder in every single "0" folder
And each one goes back in time a little, Which is where all of my older backups we're.
But when I make one now!
There's no backup folder.
Or anything within the TWRP folder but a weird file named TWRPS.something or something.
I deleted the 0 folder and it hasn't came back... I kinda figured it would.
I need a make a backup!!!!!
I've spent hours and hours and hours and hours setting up Paranoid Android.
YOU ALL KNOW how many per app color possibilities there are and how long it takes to make every single thing match.

Can someone please explain how the phone handles and places backups and why I can't seem to make one currently...

1. Use CWM, a lot easier IMO
2. Make sure you're using the LATEST version (6.0.2.3)
3. In 4.2.x, Google introduced the multi-user feature to Android (mainly for tablets). The first user is '0', second is '1', etc. As phones only use one user all data is moved to '0'. However, CWM still stores backups in the root (like it did in 4.1.x) so they are only visible in CWM UNLESS you use a root explorer (e.g. ES) to view the root directory and then you can find them in /data/media/clockworkmod. From there, you can delete/move them onto your '0' folder and then copy them to your PC to save space

EddyOS said:
1. Use CWM, a lot easier IMO
2. Make sure you're using the LATEST version (6.0.2.3)
3. In 4.2.x, Google introduced the multi-user feature to Android (mainly for tablets). The first user is '0', second is '1', etc. As phones only use one user all data is moved to '0'. However, CWM still stores backups in the root (like it did in 4.1.x) so they are only visible in CWM UNLESS you use a root explorer (e.g. ES) to view the root directory and then you can find them in /data/media/clockworkmod. From there, you can delete/move them onto your '0' folder and then copy them to your PC to save space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I guess I will switch to CWM I flashed it on a friends phone last night and it's a lot better than it was
2 years ago or so lol.

As long as your on the most current version of CWM or TWRP (loads better IMO) it fixed the nesting issues...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

0dBu said:
As long as your on the most current version of CWM or TWRP (loads better IMO) it fixed the nesting issues...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what you mean by nesting but I have TWRP and evrytime I make a backup now it's not in the TWRP folder.

Nesting is the creation of 0 folders ie /0/0/0/0/0 etc. Updated recoveries prevent this so your backups will be in /0/twrp/ and not /0/0/twrp after flashing new rom
Bloods thicker than water

namtombout said:
Nesting is the creation of 0 folders ie /0/0/0/0/0 etc. Updated recoveries prevent this so your backups will be in /0/twrp/ and not /0/0/twrp after flashing new rom
Bloods thicker than water
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay That makes sense, I switched over to CWM and I'm on the newest version.
I read someone that backups are no longer accessable from other apps or a PC, So I can't drag em' to my laptop for safe keepings.
I see it on my phone... But once I plug up to the laptop I can't find anything.
Edit: never mind I looked up a little and saw the very detailed post by the Recognized Contributor.

Okay so I'm using the newest CWM, Along with the newest ROM manager.
apparently the only way to get my backups to my pc is to ADB pull them (not too educated in which)
Or use this backup download server which is SLOW!!!!!!!!!!!
It's still trying to recognize it, Hasn't even started downloading yet.
Anyone know a better way?
Usually I'm not so bent on having a backup on my pc but that's when I actually had a SD card.
Now that it's internal I don't trust it one bit, Google made the storage a damn maze with this 0 folder and the legacy folder and all that crap.

Root App Folder Permissions and Navigation

Guys, I'm having a tough time deleting a file or two that were recently installed in the root's /product folder and I guess I don't understand what I am doing wrong, or what security is in place to prevent me from doing this. I would greatly appreciate any help or suggestions here. I cannot change permissions to make the folder recursively rw. I first started with Root Explorer and Solid Explorer. Both are capable of changing permissions but failed saying it was a "system folder". I used terminal to setenforce to 0, and tried with su from terminal and could not manually change folder permissions using chmod either. I thought maybe TWRP would be the answer, so I booted recovery and tried mounting the data partition (I think it's on data) and used file manager to browse to the folder, but I cannot see the contents of the folder nor can I delete it. What am I missing here? Is the TWRP mount function busted atm? Last night I reflashed November's update with the -w thinking it might "overwrite" the folder, but there was no joy there either. I do have a couple of TWRP backups of the data folder and that is my next step. Before I apply the December image tonight, I'm going to restore the most recent /data partition backup. There has to be a way to get control of that folder and it's contents but so far it has eluded me.
Cheers and TIA.

As far as I'm aware, the only way currently to write to the product partition is to fastboot flash it. I've went as far as to modify TWRP fstab to mount it in recovery and use the file manager to replace the bootanimation only to have it either never write properly or for it to "correct" itself. Not sure which happened.
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

I appreciate the response... anything helps. Product is a folder in root also and that is what I am trying to access. Unless there is some kind of symlink linking that product folder to the product partition. I don't know. When I flashed the full image yesterday I would have thought that partition.img (nested in the zipfile) would have been flashed, too. Maybe I can try fastboot formating the product partition. Can't hurt. Thanks again!
Edit: Just found this thread where you also contributed. I'll try to flash that partition with the partition.img and see what happens. I just want to reset it to stock.

superchilpil said:
As far as I'm aware, the only way currently to write to the product partition is to fastboot flash it. I've went as far as to modify TWRP fstab to mount it in recovery and use the file manager to replace the bootanimation only to have it either never write properly or for it to "correct" itself. Not sure which happened.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed product.img first and it rendered the phone unbootable... corrupt. I then went back into TWRP and wiped system and ran the flash-all script in fastboot and re-rooted. The net result is the product folder is unchanged. Everything is up and running just fine. That folder is just untouchable for me so far. Next I will format data and re-flash. I didn't fully understand what you meant about the custom kernel being the solution but so far EX is not working. May reach out to flar2 and see if he can make some kind of change to his kernel to support mounting this partition? Thanks again.

v12xke said:
I flashed product.img first and it rendered the phone unbootable... corrupt. I then went back into TWRP and wiped system and ran the flash-all script in fastboot and re-rooted. The net result is the product folder is unchanged. Everything is up and running just fine. That folder is just untouchable for me so far. Next I will format data and re-flash. I didn't fully understand what you meant about the custom kernel being the solution but so far EX is not working. May reach out to flar2 and see if he can make some kind of change to his kernel to support mounting this partition? Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have yet to be able to mount the product image to modify it, but I haven't tried all that much lately. I'm pretty sure it's fixable with a kernel edit but that's beyond my ability, and even if I could I have a 8 year old laptop that wouldn't be able to build it.
What are you trying to accomplish? The bootanimation?
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

superchilpil said:
Yeah I have yet to be able to mount the product image to modify it, but I haven't tried all that much lately. I'm pretty sure it's fixable with a kernel edit but that's beyond my ability, and even if I could I have a 8 year old laptop that wouldn't be able to build it. What are you trying to accomplish? The bootanimation?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I see boot animation in that folder, and yes we all used to use it, but this time it's just an apk from apkmirror that wrote to that system partition (don't ask me how) and now I can't uninstall or update it. com. breel.wallpapers18. I tried to uninstall it using pm uninstall, but it uninstalled it for user 0 so it remains as a system app, and not available to me. I can't uninstall it completely or upgrade... or even use it! It's just a fk'in set of Google live wallpapers I like, but now want to re-set. Waay too much time spent on this so I'm (just about) ready to flush and start over. Every year Google makes it harder for us (fans) to customize our own phones. wtf? Pissed.