Develop Bugs

Help... I will PAY for help!

First person to help gets paid for your time...
Problem: I have a s3 i747 from att.
it has 4.3 stock.
I use srs to unlock all my phones.
well when I went to unlock this one it said it had new security.
Usually when this happens I odin this file that downgrades the modem.
well I did it and now I have null imei and unknown baseband
I tried restoring to stock, didn't help. Through kies and odin.
I need to put it back the way it was... can someone please help..... ill paypal you as soon as its working again...thanks

So you're currently at stock, unlocked? Does the phone boot at all?

These threads may help:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2658486
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2722660

yes it is still stock 4.3. no its not unlocked. everything works and boots fine. just no signal because of null imei and unknown baseband.
I think I need to just flash a modem via odin....I just don't know which one

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1831898
There's seems to be a rash of this happening in the past month. You'll probably find that link helpful but first check and see if others found a better solution.

Yes. Flash the 4.3 modem.
As of 4.3, flashing any older modem will no longer work, resulting in an unknown imei and baseband version. Flashing back to the correct modem nearly always solves this issue.
It will be like this from now on btw. You cannot use any modem except the one which matches your current firmware build.
This means our free unlock method no longer works unfortunately. But you can get unlocked for just a few bucks using one of the many services online. I know some are on ebay, but google will find others as well.

I installed cwm and downloaded the modem but im lost from there.
do I rename it update.zip?

Nope, just flash like you would any other rom.
Because you asked about renaming it to update.zip though, I have to ask if you are certain you are in cwm? If you had previously updated via ota it may restore the stock recovery every time you reboot. If this is happening, reflash cwm in Odin, but uncheck auto reboot. Wait until it says PASS, then unplug and pull the battery.
Next put the battery back in and boot to recovery. (Volume up, home, power. Release power only after it vibrates)
If you are sure you are in cwm though, just flash the modem normally.

Yes im sure its cmw. when I open recovery and look for the zip its nowhere to be found. that's why I was asking if I should change the name.
I did try it by changing the name but the file still doesn't show up.

It's an IMEI problem. If you haven't made a backup of the IMEI folder you can't do anything.
Sent from my SM-G900H using XDA Free mobile app

daddydv said:
Yes im sure its cmw. when I open recovery and look for the zip its nowhere to be found. that's why I was asking if I should change the name.
I did try it by changing the name but the file still doesn't show up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure the sdcard is mounted. Have you tried getting to it on both internal and external cards?
Thin_Bezel said:
It's an IMEI problem. If you haven't made a backup of the IMEI folder you can't do anything.
Sent from my SM-G900H using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true. 90% of unknown baseband and imei problems ive helped people with lately just needed the correct modem. And even if it were the imei, I can still help with that. Im convinced in this case its just the modem though.

Thanks doc... that was the problem...imei and baseband are back. donation has been sent....thanks again.

Hey thanks man! I do appreciate it, but I am just glad I could help! I will definitely put it to good use though! (Broke the lcd on my S3 a while back and haven't had the disposable funds to fix it. Something always comes up...lol!) Will be adding it to my savings for this purpose!
Anyway, since we were slightly on the IMEI topic, there is a backup you should do if you haven't already. (Root is required for this to work though.)
Its super simple and will create an on device backup of your nv data. The backup will be stored on a couple of partitions we never touch, not even with firmware flashes. This essentially makes it a permanent backup. The cool thing about it is every time you reboot, the system checks for any corruption, and if detected, it will automatically restore from this backup. So if it were to ever happen, you probably wouldn't ever even notice it!
Install the Terminal Emulator from the play store. Open and enter this:
su
reboot nvbackup
Thats it! Device will reboot and create your backup. This should prevent you from ever suffering from a lost IMEI!

DocHoliday77 said:
Hey thanks man! I do appreciate it, but I am just glad I could help! I will definitely put it to good use though! (Broke the lcd on my S3 a while back and haven't had the disposable funds to fix it. Something always comes up...lol!) Will be adding it to my savings for this purpose!
Anyway, since we were slightly on the IMEI topic, there is a backup you should do if you haven't already. (Root is required for this to work though.)
Its super simple and will create an on device backup of your nv data. The backup will be stored on a couple of partitions we never touch, not even with firmware flashes. This essentially makes it a permanent backup. The cool thing about it is every time you reboot, the system checks for any corruption, and if detected, it will automatically restore from this backup. So if it were to ever happen, you probably wouldn't ever even notice it!
Install the Terminal Emulator from the play store. Open and enter this:
su
reboot nvbackup
Thats it! Device will reboot and create your backup. This should prevent you from ever suffering from a lost IMEI!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also use qpst to backup imei. Windows app. Free. Lots of walkthroughs around for those less comfortable with cli.

Nvm. 10char

azuziel said:
You can also use qpst to backup imei. Windows app. Free. Lots of walkthroughs around for those less comfortable with cli.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, I already have it and have used it and other tools to help fix at least 700-800 S3's, probably more! (No, i do not charge for my help either.) I dont tell about it or give it out unless its absolutely needed for a legitimate imei restore though. Too many people try to use it illegally and Im not willing to take the chance. Its the main reason most of the info has been deleted from everywhere. Only a few threads here and there get by the mods it seems.
Anyway, to my knowledge, no one who has run this backup has ever lost their IMEI. It even seems to help for those occasions after flashing a cm rom where the imei displays "unknown". (Apparently, at least on the T999, cm sometimes has problems reading the nv data. If rebooting several times doesnt solve, stock firmware does).
At this point I believe if you run this backup, you will have no need for a .qcn or .txt file backup, which is why I just dont mention it anymore. And if it does happen, people can pm me and ill be happy to help fix it.
Because of how I understand this backup to function, I do believe if it had been run during first boot, we would've never seen so many imei problems to begin with! I just dont understand why Samsung refuses to do this!
Anyway, that's why I dont mention those tools anymore. If you have any questions about any of it, please feel free to PM me and ill try to explain better.

[Q] Probably defective EFS - how to restore?

Hey,
My phone somehow got messed up (Unable to mount /efs) and what I had to do is create a new partition and link it. It solved most of my problems (EFS was usable again and I could install roms etc).
What happened though is I can't register to a mobile network. After doing my share research I came to a conclusion that probably my EFS is messed up and it could be the reason why.
Now, I don't have EFS backup from before this problem started, as I was using stock rom and not rooted.
Is it gonna do me any good if I take an EFS backup from someone ELSE and try to restore it on my phone??
If yes, anyone mind doing me the favor of sending me their EFS Backup?
If not, what else can I do?
I have tried the following:
1) Install various modems
2) Install various roms
3) Downgrade to 4.3, install modem and kernel and upgrading again
4) I even took my phone to a shop and they used some equipment to burn my imei
I am currently using:
DN3 rom v5.2
CWM Recovery
Thanks
Edit: Solved by doing efs repair with the equipment thingy

(EFS corrupted) No IMEI and no Backup

Hey, my esf partitions seems to be broken after i flashed unofficial Ressurection Remix and later did a restore of my Oxygen OS 3.2.6 backup, now i do not have an IMEI number anymore. I tried clean flashing stock Oxygen OS in many versions but it never worked. I now switched back to Ressurection Remix and my Mac adress is restored, but still no IMEI. I only found solutions for the Oneplus One but i am not sure wich one would work for the OP3..
I really hope someone can help me, otherwise i learned an expensive lesson.

Looked around and not seen anyone who has managed to get their IMEI back on their OP3, maybe worth contacting OP support to see what they can do for you.

Have you tried the Chamelephon app to restore the IMEI?

podge3 said:
Have you tried the Chamelephon app to restore the IMEI?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is why i said search the forums @Huthi
Not sure why you just made another thread when the problem hasn't changed

I did this remote desktop session with an OP support member but he didnt get it to work and told me i should send in my device.
The Chamelephone app throws out an error "processor type is not MediaTek" and when i proceed it doesnt seem to work, any suggestions?
I searched all forums for over 8 hours now and i am very desperate, i dont find a solution working for me.. I made a second thread because i think the first one wasnt specific enough and it can be deleted
I really hope someone knows a brilliant solution, because i am not able to find one anymore, nothing left to google about in my opinion
Btw when i flash Ressurection Remix i have an mac adress, with OOS not, so may this means my efs partition isnt messed up completely?

Huthi said:
I did this remote desktop session with an OP support member but he didnt get it to work and told me i should send in my device.
The Chamelephone app throws out an error "processor type is not MediaTek" and when i proceed it doesnt seem to work, any suggestions?
I searched all forums for over 8 hours now and i am very desperate, i dont find a solution working for me.. I made a second thread because i think the first one wasnt specific enough and it can be deleted
I really hope someone knows a brilliant solution, because i am not able to find one anymore, nothing left to google about in my opinion
Btw when i flash Ressurection Remix i have an mac adress, with OOS not, so may this means my efs partition isnt messed up completely?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you said you wiped all partitions except internal storage, so you also wiped the EFS partition, so i doubt there's a way to recover it without restoring a backup.
really can't think of a way to restore it without sending it into OP

You have learned a potentially expensive lesson BEFORE doing anything always backup EFS without fail.

Yea i guess i did
i thought nandroid backsup everything needed to restore a device 100 %
in twrp wipe the esf partition is not shown under advanced wipe so i thought it wont be wiped
the support said the only way may be a hardware exchange, lets bet on how much it will cost, 200€? naw man

Huthi said:
Yea i guess i did
i thought nandroid backsup everything needed to restore a device 100 %
in twrp wipe the esf partition is not shown under advanced wipe so i thought it wont be wiped
the support said the only way may be a hardware exchange, lets bet on how much it will cost, 200€? naw man
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you really did wipe your EFS and really don't have a backup, then there's literally no solution but paying up for a HW exchange, man

i dont think i did wipe it because twrp does not seem to have this option right?
yea i hope it does not cost too much

Huthi said:
i dont think i did wipe it because twrp does not seem to have this option right?
yea i hope it does not cost too much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
someone correct me if i'm wrong, but im pretty sure that the fact that TWRP lets you backup your EFS partition to begin with means it also lets you wipe and restore it.

2x4 said:
someone correct me if i'm wrong, but im pretty sure that the fact that TWRP lets you backup your EFS partition to begin with means it also lets you wipe and restore it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
okay, but why doesnt it work after i restored a backup with working esf.. doesnt make sense to me, maybe my recovery is outdated but i dont think so.. no matter what i pay the bill and learned my lesson, if ever one guy reads this thread in a few weeks with the same issue: pay the bill and learn your lesson, backups are important and check twice if your esf is backed up, you will need it sooner than you think

EFS backup!! I need to do it now!! Sorry for the loss OP. Hope you get it fixed.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

I don't own this phone yet(have nexus 6p) but I am buying this soon....usually when this happens to me....I reboot to recovery, wipe cache and reboot and all fixed....or flash back to stock and all fixed

Have you tried reflashing the radio/modem?.. That works on Samsungs so might be the go for you.

Huthi said:
okay, but why doesnt it work after i restored a backup with working esf.. doesnt make sense to me, maybe my recovery is outdated but i dont think so.. no matter what i pay the bill and learned my lesson, if ever one guy reads this thread in a few weeks with the same issue: pay the bill and learn your lesson, backups are important and check twice if your esf is backed up, you will need it sooner than you think
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Getting confused here, did you actually backup the efs partition or not?
What partitions did you tick when you did the TWRP backup?
If you did do a EFS backup are the file sizes for both efs1 and efs2 around 2mb in size?

daleski75 said:
Getting confused here, did you actually backup the efs partition or not?
What partitions did you tick when you did the TWRP backup?
If you did do a EFS backup are the file sizes for both efs1 and efs2 around 2mb in size?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No i did not back them up the android sdk way, i only backed up my phone with twrp and i backed up all partitions shown to me except cache (efs was never listed in twrp) and so i restored my whole backup, wich seems like not including efs
No i did not try reflashing modem/radio but i surely do it before sending it in today

Huthi said:
No i did not back them up the android sdk way, i only backed up my phone with twrp and i backed up all partitions shown to me except cache (efs was never listed in twrp) and so i restored my whole backup, wich seems like not including efs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What version of twrp did you use? In the latest official version there is an option to back up efs

slonn said:
What version of twrp did you use? In the latest official version there is an option to back up efs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what's thrown me it definitely shows efs on TWRP 3.0.2-1

daleski75 said:
That's what's thrown me it definitely shows efs on TWRP 3.0.2-1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recall that TWRP 3.0.2-1 had some problems with restoring efs and there was a warning posted on portal some weeks back. You should be regular on portal bro.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/help/announcement-twrp-3-0-2-1-fatal-bug-t3453119
Edit: I see you're not the op, but still it is potentially dangerous for you too, to use that recovery's efs backing/restoring if you go ahead to help this guy.

Sprint galaxy s3 e:failed to mount /es (invalid argument)

Hey guys, been reading through the threads and not really finding a clear answer or solution to this problem. This is a completely stock sprint sph-l710. I started getting this box with yellow lettering overshadowing the primary display of which I've learned indicates the phone is in 'factory mode'. I thought performing a factory reset would fix this but it did not. I noticed when you boot the phone in recovery mode I see the efs error. I am thinking the underlying issue is with fixing the efs problem. Now that I have reset the phone I no longer have data network access, im guessing because of this factory mode. I am new to this and not real understanding of the lingo everyone uses. From what I've read Im worried im going down a rabbit hole if i start tinkering. I am looking for clear instructions to repair what I think is corrupted software (I'm guessing the operating system software). The instructions I've seen seem to skip steps that are probably rudimentary to everyone else but leaves me without a starting place. I have downloaded oden but i am not certain again without precise instructions that I am not going to permanently mess up my phone.. there appear to be a number of variations of this device and i want to make sure the instructions I get will work on mine. I will take any advise on getting this resolved. I am not opposed to rooting the phone either if that fixes the problem (no idea how to do this, never tried, but some threads on here I think I can follow to do it safely). With that said, different threads also seem to indicate (emphasize 'seem to') that team win recovery can fix this but there are no clear responses regarding my issue of a solid fix. Thank you for any help

timbow4 said:
Hey guys, been reading through the threads and not really finding a clear answer or solution to this problem. This is a completely stock sprint sph-l710. I started getting this box with yellow lettering overshadowing the primary display of which I've learned indicates the phone is in 'factory mode'. I thought performing a factory reset would fix this but it did not. I noticed when you boot the phone in recovery mode I see the efs error. I am thinking the underlying issue is with fixing the efs problem. Now that I have reset the phone I no longer have data network access, im guessing because of this factory mode. I am new to this and not real understanding of the lingo everyone uses. From what I've read Im worried im going down a rabbit hole if i start tinkering. I am looking for clear instructions to repair what I think is corrupted software (I'm guessing the operating system software). The instructions I've seen seem to skip steps that are probably rudimentary to everyone else but leaves me without a starting place. I have downloaded oden but i am not certain again without precise instructions that I am not going to permanently mess up my phone.. there appear to be a number of variations of this device and i want to make sure the instructions I get will work on mine. I will take any advise on getting this resolved. I am not opposed to rooting the phone either if that fixes the problem (no idea how to do this, never tried, but some threads on here I think I can follow to do it safely). With that said, different threads also seem to indicate (emphasize 'seem to') that team win recovery can fix this but there are no clear responses regarding my issue of a solid fix. Thank you for any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odin will flash the factory firmware for you. Get firmware from sammobile. Look for sph L710 device, and firmware with NJ2 in the name. Put phone in download mode, (power off then hold power+home+volume down) plug in phone to pc. Wait till Odin says added. Click AP in odin, select firmware you downloaded, click start. When it's done, unplug phone, remove battery, put it back in and reboot.
This may not fix your efs partition, but it's the first thing to try.
Odin
I found the thread for nj2 firmware here

issue still persists
Hey Madbat, thank you so much for reaching out to me and giving me the advise. Installing the firmware through odin was really easy. Thank you for that! However, it did not fix the issue. When the phone came back up it still has the exact same problem. I am going to attach a couple pictures to show you what i am seeing... Really appreciate your time and help!
hell, sorry it says im a new user and wont let me post the pictures...

timbow4 said:
Hey Madbat, thank you so much for reaching out to me and giving me the advise. Installing the firmware through odin was really easy. Thank you for that! However, it did not fix the issue. When the phone came back up it still has the exact same problem. I am going to attach a couple pictures to show you what i am seeing... Really appreciate your time and help!
hell, sorry it says im a new user and wont let me post the pictures...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I never had that issue. Maybe someone else will chime in with experience on the efs partition. That's not a triband s3 is it? (Sph l710t?) T at the end means triband. Second thought, I don't think the firmware would have flashed if it was triband.
How did you wipe your efs?

Its not a tri band. Just SPH-L710. Wish this forum would let me post the pictures of what my phone is doing.. Since the firmware doesnt correct the issue I would think then its a problem with the operating system itself. I have been scouring the web and have found various threads specifically about efs repairs but they entail doing things that seem awful complicated. And i dont know if those things work on my model phone. Maybe rooting the phone gets deep enough to over write or repair the issue. Is there not a way to restore the operating system itself maybe or is that what a replacement ROM does? I am thinking of trying my hand at rooting the phone and seeing what happens. One thread indicated TWRP would backup and restore the EFS file. Im thinking if it backs up a corrupt efs file what good is that, maybe it fixes it too. Found an excellent video on XDA for rooting the S3. Hopefully it or I dont make it worse. Love to get this one fixed but i guess the reality is the phone is old. Thank you for the input

timbow4 said:
Its not a tri band. Just SPH-L710. Wish this forum would let me post the pictures of what my phone is doing.. Since the firmware doesnt correct the issue I would think then its a problem with the operating system itself. I have been scouring the web and have found various threads specifically about efs repairs but they entail doing things that seem awful complicated. And i dont know if those things work on my model phone. Maybe rooting the phone gets deep enough to over write or repair the issue. Is there not a way to restore the operating system itself maybe or is that what a replacement ROM does? I am thinking of trying my hand at rooting the phone and seeing what happens. One thread indicated TWRP would backup and restore the EFS file. Im thinking if it backs up a corrupt efs file what good is that, maybe it fixes it too. Found an excellent video on XDA for rooting the S3. Hopefully it or I dont make it worse. Love to get this one fixed but i guess the reality is the phone is old. Thank you for the input
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Backing up and restoring it won't help. You already installed a new operating system ( that's what the firmware is).the efs is part of your radios. If I remember correctly it contains your imei and other important things specific to your phone.
You may be out of luck there dude. Don't know how you wiped your efs.
Rooting this phone is simple. Just flash TWRP with Odin. Download the Twrp image from their site. Same as flashing the firmware, only you select recovery instead of AP in odin and select the Twrp image.tar instead of the firmware tar.
https://dl.twrp.me/d2spr/
Use the top on the page. (Newest)
And then use twrp to flash either SuperSU, or Magisk.
Done.
Flashing a custom rom will not fix your issue. You need a working efs. Flashing any operating system will not fix it (you already flashed the whole operating system).
Twrp can restore an efs, but only if you have a working one to backup first. You were right about backing up yours now and restoring will do nothing.
Has it ever been activated?

Prior to this, every once in awhile when i changed a battery out and turned the phone on it would have a pop-up screen tell me something was bad and the phone needed to be reset (something along those lines) and i always just turned the phone back off and on and it booted up fine each time. That may have been an indicator that something, file or system file maybe was corrupted. Then a few week ago when it booted up it started doing this whole thing. Prior to me factory restoring the phone here recently it was completely functional but since the restoration it will no longer connect me to the network. If you goto settings and click on some system features it will turn the network on for that specific function (temporarily) but does not give me any other access. It tells me that the network works but it being blocked (maybe because of the factory mode issue). The wifi works and i can make and receive calls. Still manageable but very annoying. Im going to try your instructions with installing TWRP. If i am successful then maybe i can also get into the system files and possibly restore the broken one.. Thanks again

update
So I have successfully rooted the phone by intstalling TWRP ver 3.2.1 and using TWRP to flash SuperSU ver 2.82. I also installed root explorer to get access to system files. I gained access to the EFS folder and it is empty. So now I'm not understanding if the folder is completely empty how does the phone still work at all? More research led me to a XDA developer that put together a program called EFS Professional which is supposed to backup and restore efs or imei data. Really slick program, basically takes the complication out of locating and backing up the EFS information yourself. (I would include a link but I still cant..) It includes an ADB shell and the ability to make some changes to the phone including directly turning off factory mode . It also had me install an application called BusyBox Pro which is also a very handy tool for getting access to system files. What I don't understand is that the EFS Professional program seems to locate the efs information on my phone and backups it up and then restores it from said backup however when I look at the efs folder its empty. Perhaps not all the efs information is located in the efs folder. And of course since that folder is empty the function of turning factory mode off fails because it cant find the files. I have found a few threads that has very simple instructions once you have super user access you can go right into the efs folder to factory mode and simply turn it off. Mine is empty.. So again the problem continues. Possibly with access to the ADB shell and more help from folks on here I can figure out a way to restore my efs information. I don't know if the efs information can be used from a another same model phone, I'm guessing not if it has a specific imei identification. Im working hard on this but still unsolved. I know way more at this point then I did but I think I still know just enough to be dangerous. Thankfully my phone is still functional at this point..

Problems restoring nandroid backup to new phone

Hi all,
I believe the original motherboard for my RN5 whyred went bad (spontaneous reboots) and so I found a replacement for it - but it is a RN5Pro whyred board. Since they are both whyred, I figured it would be ok to replace the RN5 with the RN5Pro board. The boards look identical and they're both whyred, so why not? Right?
I made a nandroid backup with OrangeFox (9.2.3 I think?), swapped the boards, everything booted great with the new board. I unlocked the bootloader, installed a slightly newer version of OrangeFox (10.0.3) and then restored the nandroid backup. It restored without any errors, but when I tried to boot it - then the problems started. Since there was no logo or anything to see on the screen, I thought I hard bricked it, but MiFlash saw it and I was able to reinstall a stock MIUI 11.0.3 image. Now it boots, but I have a few questions/issues:
1. It doesn't recognize the SIM any more. It did recognize it when I first booted the new board, so I know it's not an issue of the board not recognizing the SIM by nature. Maybe the nandroid restore bonked it? Not sure what I can do at this point besides asking for a replacement SIM. Any ideas?
2. Is it not possible to restore a nandroid backup from the RN5 to the RN5Pro? Or do you have to use the exact same version of recovery to restore that you used to backup? I would really like to not have to reinstall and reconfigure all my programs, which includes 2FA apps that will be a pain to refresh.
Any help is appreciated,

eisenbergw said:
1. It doesn't recognize the SIM any more. It did recognize it when I first booted the new board, so I know it's not an issue of the board not recognizing the SIM by nature. Maybe the nandroid restore bonked it? Not sure what I can do at this point besides asking for a replacement SIM. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so I put the SIM in another phone and it works fine. So the problem is somewhere else. Can anyone point me in the right direction? The new board definitely recognized the SIM before I restored the nandroid backup and now after a stock ROM reflash, it doesn't recognize it. Driver?

eisenbergw said:
OK, so I put the SIM in another phone and it works fine. So the problem is somewhere else. Can anyone point me in the right direction? The new board definitely recognized the SIM before I restored the nandroid backup and now after a stock ROM reflash, it doesn't recognize it. Driver?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Persist partition and 1 more are corrupted... Search it on xda

drnightshadow said:
Persist partition and 1 more are corrupted... Search it on xda
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I found some resources for flashing the persist partition. Which is the other partition you suspect of being corrupted, or how can I discover that? Is it the modem partition/non-HLOS.bin? I've already done the regular stock ROM flash through fastboot, so the 'normal' partitions have already been rewritten. What other 'special' partitions are there besides persist?

eisenbergw said:
Thanks for the reply. I found some resources for flashing the persist partition. Which is the other partition you suspect of being corrupted, or how can I discover that? Is it the modem partition/non-HLOS.bin? I've already done the regular stock ROM flash through fastboot, so the 'normal' partitions have already been rewritten. What other 'special' partitions are there besides persist?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ha, you have them CCA 28 partitions. You need to find out by your self. Start with persist, vendor,... Most common ones than less common. Maybe you should try flashing under EDL mode. I would advise you to check which partitions did restored and start there.

drnightshadow said:
Ha, you have them CCA 28 partitions. You need to find out by your self. Start with persist, vendor,... Most common ones than less common. Maybe you should try flashing under EDL mode. I would advise you to check which partitions did restored and start there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, no idea there were that many. I haven't been this deep into the phone before.
I see there is a file called partition.xml in the fastboot images directory, I assume that is the full list of partitions on the phone (but there are 64 entries there)? Do you actually check them all for corruption, or just try to reflash them all until it starts working? Some of them do not have a filename listed. Not sure what to do with those.
<partition label="apdp" size_in_kb="256" type="E6E98DA2-E22A-4D12-AB33-169E7DEAA507" bootable="false" readonly="false" filename=""/>
The 'flash_all.bat' file (that did the flash that got it working again) looks like it flashes 24 images by default, so I guess there aren't too many others to try.
Any links you can refer me to, to understand how to start poking at this? Thanks!

eisenbergw said:
Wow, no idea there were that many. I haven't been this deep into the phone before.
I see there is a file called partition.xml in the fastboot images directory, I assume that is the full list of partitions on the phone (but there are 64 entries there)? Do you actually check them all for corruption, or just try to reflash them all until it starts working? Some of them do not have a filename listed. Not sure what to do with those.
<partition label="apdp" size_in_kb="256" type="E6E98DA2-E22A-4D12-AB33-169E7DEAA507" bootable="false" readonly="false" filename=""/>
The 'flash_all.bat' file (that did the flash that got it working again) looks like it flashes 24 images by default, so I guess there aren't too many others to try.
Any links you can refer me to, to understand how to start poking at this? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Start with EDL MODE and flash all.... Check and search 1st how EDL MODE works and how to get into it... Read a lot before you'll mess with your phone... for persist you need to patch file (like notepad++), very simple and for the rest like I said read a loooooot..
But if you use OrangeFox recovery than you should only look at those partitions + persist.. For everything else you need research by yourself, sorry no easy way out.
BE CAREFUL DON'T LOCK YOUR BOOTLOADER OR YOU'LL GET EVEN MORE TROUBLES !!!!!
Good luck.

You should be fine flashing 2 files, persist partition and modem file.
Extract the files from the fastboot rom installed in your device.
Please read and document yourself how to flash those files.
Modem file is called "NON-HLOS.bin" and is fastboot flashable.
Persist partition is recovery flashable by OrangeFox.
The best part is that you managed to hardware repair your device! The software part is easy.
Take care and good luck!
Follow @drnightshadow advice also.

MadK9 said:
You should be fine flashing 2 files, persist partition and modem file.
Extract the files from the fastboot rom installed in your device.
Please read and document yourself how to flash those files.
Modem file is called "NON-HLOS.bin" and is fastboot flashable.
Persist partition is recovery flashable by OrangeFox.
The best part is that you managed to hardware repair your device! The software part is easy.
Take care and good luck!
Follow @drnightshadow advice also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. I tried both items, flashing modem from fastboot and persist from OF, but it didn't change anything.
So I tried an EDL flash, but it won't flash persist.img. It recognizes that it is sparse, but still gives me a 'ERROR_BAD_FORMAT' error and that is the end of that. Reflashed persist.img from OF, no results. Tried a regular stock fastboot-based flash with no tweaks and now it won't flash the modem with the error:
error:FAILED (status read failed (Too many links))
There's really not much left in the images directory that isn't already flashed -
* ddi.elf
* misc.img
* lksecapp.mbn
* uefi.elf (but that looks like a bootsector kind of thing)
My Google-fu is not strong enough to find any mentions of the first three images or what they are used for.
I do note that rawprogram0.xml mentions a lot of partitions that have no files associated with them. I'm a bit wary of just dropping those images into there without a good reason to do so. But again, Google is not helping here.
Any ideas before I toss the phone and go buy a new one?

Oh, man... I'm no expert at all and really cannot help anymore... There are more android experts here then anywhere else on this web and still your issue found no fix. In my opinion you should try to flash the factory image, the rom which your device came. I did encounter the issue when flashing went wrong a few years ago. No other image was flashable! Had errors with more recent ones but when I went and flash the factory image, my RN5 came to life.

MadK9 said:
Oh, man... I'm no expert at all and really cannot help anymore... There are more android experts here then anywhere else on this web and still your issue found no fix. In my opinion you should try to flash the factory image, the rom which your device came. I did encounter the issue when flashing went wrong a few years ago. No other image was flashable! Had errors with more recent ones but when I went and flash the factory image, my RN5 came to life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that and it did come back to life... except for not recognizing the SIM.
There is a lot of help here on xda, but I guess even that has its limits sometimes. If you or @drnightshadow don't have any other ideas, then I guess it's time to get a new phone. A shame really, this one lasted me about 3 years and I've had no reason to replace it until now.

No, you tried and accomplished a lot! You should not give up just because of us. We're no experts. Just try to look and search for similar issues but on other brands! Try this approach. And even if you buy a new phone, continue to look for solutions in order to have a RN5 functional again! I remember I even lost imei and all mac addresses for bth and wireless... Not quite like your issue but similar. Only flashing persisit partition brought my device back.
SIM not recognized after flashing at DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.
duckduckgo.com
L.E.
You could also try to flash persist partition from other rom version, older or newer from stock images... an idea, something else to try...

MadK9 said:
No, you tried and accomplished a lot! You should not give up just because of us. We're no experts. Just try to look and search for similar issues but on other brands! Try this approach. And even if you buy a new phone, continue to look for solutions in order to have a RN5 functional again! I remember I even lost imei and all mac addresses for bth and wireless... Not quite like your issue but similar. Only flashing persisit partition brought my device back.
SIM not recognized after flashing at DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.
duckduckgo.com
L.E.
You could also try to flash persist partition from other rom version, older or newer from stock images... an idea, something else to try...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm thinking - I got into this problem because I tried to restore a nandroid backup from the first board to the new board. I'm wondering if there is something like an IMEI or other 'burned in' identifier that got written in and now the phone has a mismatch so the OS won't recognize the SIM as being installed.
Fortunately, before I started doing anything with the new board I did a nandroid backup of what came shipped with it (I unlocked it and put OF on it first, obviously). A bunch of reading I did today made me think about the efs partition - I had restored persist and modem, but not that one. So I did a full nandroid restore of the clean backup, including efs. Rebooted and it went straight to fastboot, would not boot. No problem, used MiFlash to put MIUI 11.0.3 cleanly on it (no tweaks). When it booted after that - the SIM is back! Woo-hoo!
I'm guessing the EFS partition has something to do with it, but I'd have to do more reading to understand it more fully.
In any case, I have a usable board again. *finally*.
For the record (and for anyone else that might have this problem in the future):
* restore original clean nandroid backup (but probably only needed the *efs* partition)
* forced to do a stock rom install via fastboot (used MIUI 11.0.3)
** got use of the SIM again!
* flashed twrp in fastboot to be able to flash OrangeFox from inside twrp
* updated firmware to latest stable v12.0.2
* flash Lineage 18.1
* flash Magisk
* wipe caches and dalvik
* install gapps
* wipe caches and dalvik
* reboot to usable phone
Thanks for being part of the journey!

Sweet, that's nice to hear... Resurrection of whyred wuuuhuuu ..
good job... See, you just don't give up and success is here.. Remember that I told you persist and 1 more partition are corrupted... You find it, EFS
If it isn't hardware problem, whyred can be always unbricked.

Really, really happy for you man!!!
Well done!!!
Yesterday was about to do more research in order to find a way out for your issue but had something else at my job, only downloaded a fastboot rom and was trying to find that troubled partition, even to tell you about efs... And now, the good news from you is that you were busy and had success!!!
Enjoy your zombi phone! I mean resurrected!