Please help. This is a serious matter for me.
Started having this problem at February 14th, 02.10 AM.
Have been looking for the answers in the Oppo Forums too but still got no answers.
Okay, I have a habit, which is moving all of my applications from my internal storage to my external SD card, after I let those applications doing their functions and programs and features and so on for a while. It's not a big deal for me to set up my phone again after I restarted it, and usually it works perfectly. Just restart and I would get to operate my phone again. However, this time, I got a bad luck. The worst one, considering the fact that I'm all-around-gadget.
Here's the results I got from reading a lot of threads (not only from this forum and OPPO forums):
OPPO Swype Keyboard has stopped working? Really?
After restarting my un-rooted Find 7 (9076), I cannot type the password on my lock screen. Like any other Android devices, it would always come back to it's system or default applications, I knew that fact. But this time, when I touched the blank space to type my password, nothing came out. No OPPO Keyboard, which happened to be OPPO's default keyboard. No other keyboards. None at all.
So, I cannot do one single thing to my phone except just turn it on and stared at it like a complete idiot.
Then I decided to turn my phone off and turn it on again after a while.
But still, the same thing happened. No keyboards.
That time, I decided to turn off my phone again and pulled out the battery and my external SD card.
After putting the battery back (External SD Card was still outside), and turned it on again, the same thing still happened.
Sliding my fingers up and down, nothing happened. The touchscreen was still there, showing me my date and time even though I was sliding my fingertips up and down.
Not too long after, I felt my phone got warmer and warmer. I tried double-clicking the home button, which I already set to unlock the lock screen, was also useless. The screen was still black and locked. When it got over-heating, automatically I pulled out the battery without even turning off the phone.
That one was my fault. I knew, and well, honestly speaking, this is the first time I'm in this kind of situation. In the past, my Find 7 would just suddenly restarted itself then everything went back to normal, but not this time.
And here's the beginning of my Fastboot Loop.
Fastboot Loop on un-rooted device
After pressing the Power button and the Volume Up button at the same time, it would bring you to the Recovery Mode. When I did that to my Find 7, it brought me to a black backgrounded screen with cute OPPO mascot and some Hanzi (Chinese handwritings). Picture attached.
I tried to wait for 2-3 hours and found nothing happened.
Pulling the batter out and putting the batter back would do the same.
In other words, I am not able to gain access to my Recovery Mode.
Why didn't bring the phone to the service centre?
I thought about this already.
When I tried to connect my phone to my pc, it can detect the phone but cannot access the files because the phone was still locked with the password.
Usually, the service centre requires us to unlock the phone if there's a problem with it, right? In my cases, yes.
I was searching all night to find out the answers.
I found some threads about the Fastboot Loop thing and etc, but they are only for rooted devices.
I'm using:
OPPO Find 7 (9076)
Color OS 2.0.5i Beta
Android KitKat 4.4.2
Device is not rooted, still original.
Still dealing with the same problem until now (the time I post this thread).
Anyone has solved this problem and guide me step by step to finish this?
daiichi said:
Please help. This is a serious matter for me.
Started having this problem at February 14th, 02.10 AM.
Have been looking for the answers in the Oppo Forums too but still got no answers.
Okay, I have a habit, which is moving all of my applications from my internal storage to my external SD card, after I let those applications doing their functions and programs and features and so on for a while. It's not a big deal for me to set up my phone again after I restarted it, and usually it works perfectly. Just restart and I would get to operate my phone again. However, this time, I got a bad luck. The worst one, considering the fact that I'm all-around-gadget.
Here's the results I got from reading a lot of threads (not only from this forum and OPPO forums):
OPPO Swype Keyboard has stopped working? Really?
After restarting my un-rooted Find 7 (9076), I cannot type the password on my lock screen. Like any other Android devices, it would always come back to it's system or default applications, I knew that fact. But this time, when I touched the blank space to type my password, nothing came out. No OPPO Keyboard, which happened to be OPPO's default keyboard. No other keyboards. None at all.
So, I cannot do one single thing to my phone except just turn it on and stared at it like a complete idiot.
Then I decided to turn my phone off and turn it on again after a while.
But still, the same thing happened. No keyboards.
That time, I decided to turn off my phone again and pulled out the battery and my external SD card.
After putting the battery back (External SD Card was still outside), and turned it on again, the same thing still happened.
Sliding my fingers up and down, nothing happened. The touchscreen was still there, showing me my date and time even though I was sliding my fingertips up and down.
Not too long after, I felt my phone got warmer and warmer. I tried double-clicking the home button, which I already set to unlock the lock screen, was also useless. The screen was still black and locked. When it got over-heating, automatically I pulled out the battery without even turning off the phone.
That one was my fault. I knew, and well, honestly speaking, this is the first time I'm in this kind of situation. In the past, my Find 7 would just suddenly restarted itself then everything went back to normal, but not this time.
And here's the beginning of my Fastboot Loop.
Fastboot Loop on un-rooted device
After pressing the Power button and the Volume Up button at the same time, it would bring you to the Recovery Mode. When I did that to my Find 7, it brought me to a black backgrounded screen with cute OPPO mascot and some Hanzi (Chinese handwritings). Picture attached.
I tried to wait for 2-3 hours and found nothing happened.
Pulling the batter out and putting the batter back would do the same.
In other words, I am not able to gain access to my Recovery Mode.
Why didn't bring the phone to the service centre?
I thought about this already.
When I tried to connect my phone to my pc, it can detect the phone but cannot access the files because the phone was still locked with the password.
Usually, the service centre requires us to unlock the phone if there's a problem with it, right? In my cases, yes.
I was searching all night to find out the answers.
I found some threads about the Fastboot Loop thing and etc, but they are only for rooted devices.
I'm using:
OPPO Find 7 (9076)
Color OS 2.0.5i Beta
Android KitKat 4.4.2
Device is not rooted, still original.
Still dealing with the same problem until now (the time I post this thread).
Anyone has solved this problem and guide me step by step to finish this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
boot into recovery and format the phone, this should fix it. If you want to backup your data, just boot into fastboot, connect phone to pc, run fastboot command from sdk tool, push custom recovery, flash twrp, make nandroid backup, fomat phone along with all the storage and then flash oppo stock rom (you need to download) or any other custom rom with gapps. To restore use nandroid manager, do not restore system files if you are flashing custom rom.
treacherous_hawk said:
boot into recovery and format the phone, this should fix it. If you want to backup your data, just boot into fastboot, connect phone to pc, run fastboot command from sdk tool, push custom recovery, flash twrp, make nandroid backup, fomat phone along with all the storage and then flash oppo stock rom (you need to download) or any other custom rom with gapps. To restore use nandroid manager, do not restore system files if you are flashing custom rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your help Sir.
But, my Find 7 already operated normally again since I left it for a few days uncharged and off.
Then I got into Recovery Mode by pressing Power button and Volume Down button (not Volume Up button) while in the middle of my fast-boot loop.
It worked. I could gain access to ColorOS Recovery Mode.
So, I reset my Find 7, then re-installed my applications and everything again.
Thank you for answering!
So we currently have a situation where it can be quite frightening to try anything cool on the Intel head units, since if you brick it, you might not be able to recover it.
I tried to pull this information out of the manufacturer of the units I've chosen to buy (Joying), but they started out playing retarded, then after about a hundred emails exchanged including links to videos of head units booting into recovery, and a detailed explanation of why it is needed (factory reset when android can't boot, for example), the last thing I was able to get out of them (because they landed themselves into an idiot infinite loop) was "Nice day, this is Candy from Joying, Thanks for your email and info, new model is muchly stable than old model, recovery not needed, don't worry, Hope you well-understanding, Any more questions pls feel free to contact us, Best regards, Candy".
<sarcasm>HOW BLOODY USEFUL!</sarcasm>
So lets use this thread to record known methods of booting into recovery.
If you are able to get into recovery, make note of the following details;
1) Brand and model number,
2) MCU firmware brand and version,
3) Exact reproducible process to boot into recovery.
One person here (@MMTK84) has apparently been able to get into recovery to the "no command" screen by plugging in an external keyboard and pressing some buttons on it.
This is for a Joying UL135N2: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=69757832&postcount=133
Now the concerning thins about this particular procedure, is that it starts booting, and then reboots and goes into recovery. The reason this is concerning, is if it starts booting off the BOOT partition, registers the button clicks to reboot to recovery, and then reboots to recovery. This case could be bad if you happen to have a broken boot image. In other words, without further information, I wouldn't depend on it.
For... I'm not sure which unit, I found this on a Russian forum indicating pressing and holding the BACK button for about 10 seconds, releasing when the lights start flashing, and tapping it again: http://4pda.ru/pages/go/?u=https://...%3D140&usg=ALkJrhiZ8C2dCOO73ghthzievLV2mKtXyQ
*** further down in the same thread, someone else said the same process, but with the RESET button.
The reset button method might be able to apply to devices without physical buttons.
There are also TWO MORE buttons on all devices than what you see on the front panels -- the steering wheel interface buttons. Perhaps one or the other of those could, in some instances, trigger a boot to recovery?
So anybody who has these Intel head units, post your methods to achieve a boot into recovery.
Please keep the questions and discussions OUT of this thread, I'd like for it to be used exclusively to list SUCCESSFUL methods of booting into recovery.
More brainstorming;
If it becomes absolutely a problem and we find out that some devices *simply cannot* be booted into recovery, this could yield a solution;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1522226
What that is, is an additional bootloader based on Das U-Boot, which adds in some of the missing multi-boot functionality. You stick that one in to the original boot partition, and instead of starting the kernel and Android, it instead launches a menu that lets you pick what you want to start. HOWEVER, given that this hardware is x86, we might actually have some luck with something more conventional, like GRUB.
Thanks for your work on this @doitright. I've been emailing with Joying as well and the language barrier can be frustrating.
With my previous MTCB unit I dealt with Hotaudio and they seemed to actually get useful information from their engineer rather than infinite looping at the front line customer service.
Hopefully a working recovery can be achieved independently of the manufacturer. I'm willing to test on my unit but trying not to brick it.
Unfortunately I haven't found a successful recovery method yet. But as a data point for my unit:
Its a Joying 8" non-MTC Intel unit with capacative buttons(only physical buttons are RST and POW).
MCU is dated 10/31 "Newlap", picture attached. Interestingly Serial Number in Settings > About Device reads all zeros: 00000000.
I'm getting to the same recovery screen as @MMTK84 with the laying down Android background. It first displays "No Command." soon followed by "Error!".
None of the usual recovery menu options are present to scroll up/down/select. Pressing the capacative buttons causes no change.
Short click POW does nothing, long click POW turns the screen off(short click POW again turns back on), Short or Long clicking RST reboots.
To get to recovery I used terminal on the unit itself: "su" then "reboot recovery". Unit is rooted per: http://forum.xda-developers.com/and...-intel-cpu-t3494083/post69648860#post69648860 It also works via WiFi adb: "adb connect <ip>" then "adb reboot recovery".
I have not yet found a hardware key combo to boot into recovery from power off. I tried the 4pda method you found with the RST button, held for 10 seconds but the lights never flashed, unit just rebooted after about 15 seconds of holding RST. I also tried this RST/PWR sequence that reportedly works for the 5.1.1 MTCD units but I can confirm it does not work on this non-MTC Intel unit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=66733286&postcount=2
Fingers crossed for a creative solution. U-Boot sounds promising.
I am also in a slump and unfortunately I actually need to enter recovery as my unit will not boot. I am waiting on the seller to respond and it's been a week and he still does not know. My unit is a MTCD Intel soft touch unit. Long press reset does nothing. Pressing any of the soft touch buttons while the unit is booting up also does nothing. That includes long press back, power, or anything else. If anyone comes across a way to enter recovery for a soft touch intel MTCD unit please let me know as mine is currently bricked.
Boot to recovery with USB keyboard (VIDEO)
1.) README:
As described in my post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=69757832&postcount=133, here is the VIDEO how to enter recovery with hardware buttons (USB keyboard).
The device (Joying UL-135N2) was freshly resetted (factory settings), so it is not rooted.
The USB keyboard has QWERTZ design (Europe), but that is not important AFAIK.
After someone modified/adapted the "recovery.img" to TWRP (or similar), or someone patches the current recovery, we should be able to use this method to enter recovery when android is on a boot-loop..... :good:
2.) LINK to VIDEO:
http://sendvid.com/kyxa5xdz
Video created on: 12/05/2016
Device frmware from: 10/31/2016
3.) Feedback
MMTK84 said:
1.) README:
As described in my post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=69757832&postcount=133, here is the VIDEO how to enter recovery with hardware buttons (USB keyboard).
The device (Joying UL-135N2) was freshly resetted (factory settings), so it is not rooted.
The USB keyboard has QWERTZ design (Europe), but that is not important AFAIK.
After someone modified/adapted the "recovery.img" to TWRP (or similar), or someone patches the current recovery, we should be able to use this method to enter recovery when android is on a boot-loop..... :good:
2.) LINK to VIDEO:
http://sendvid.com/kyxa5xdz
Video created on: 12/05/2016
Device frmware from: 10/31/2016
3.) Feedback
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good information there, but my only concern with this method, is whether the recovery boot is initiated from the bootloader, or from something in the primary boot partition. If it is initiated from the bootloader, we are golden. If it is initiated from something in the primary boot partition, this will not help with problems in the boot partition.
Have you tried using just the "e" button straight off the bat and skipping the alt-print?
FYI: My UL128N2's are *supposed* to arrive tomorrow, so I'll be able to start my own experiments with them. They're basically the same as your UL135N2, but all glass screen instead of buttons that click.
I greatly appreciate your information and your video, but unfortunately this did not work on my unit
Need4Camaro said:
I greatly appreciate your information and your video, but unfortunately this did not work on my unit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Important to note that YOUR unit is an MTCD, whereas MMTK84's is a Joying (FYT5009).
doitright said:
Important to note that YOUR unit is an MTCD, whereas MMTK84's is a Joying (FYT5009).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did notice a few things while trying this.
#1 I have absolutely no power coming out of the USB ports. For example if I plug my phone into it, it does not even attempt nor do any other power consuming USB peripherals get power. I am concerned that if this is the case then even a USB keyboard may not work.
#2 when I press the reset button with ign off, then the lights on the unit flickers for 1 second then goes back off. Where as if I turn IGN ON then the units lights turn on and remain on for about 2 minutes before going off.
Need4Camaro said:
I did notice a few things while trying this.
#1 I have absolutely no power coming out of the USB ports. For example if I plug my phone into it, it does not even attempt nor do any other power consuming USB peripherals get power. I am concerned that if this is the case then even a USB keyboard may not work.
#2 when I press the reset button with ign off, then the lights on the unit flickers for 1 second then goes back off. Where as if I turn IGN ON then the units lights turn on and remain on for about 2 minutes before going off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried to press and hold the reset button, and then turn on the ignition?
You need to try all kinds of different things.
hi
readme: my unit: Joying JY-UL135N2 2G RAM 32G
CPU: Intel ATOM QuadCore, GPU3D: Mali-400 MP4, RAM; 2G DDR3
MCU Version: 2016-10-31 14:30:43 JY_(NOR)_90_C9_7706_5009_CAN(GX)_Newlap
I have tried the keyboard method for booting to recovery and it was successful.
I have followed @MMTK84
1.) I hooked up a USB keyboard
2.) Pressed ALT(right one on the keyboard)+PRINT........keep it holding all the time
3.) Turned on power supply. Started pressing "E".
4.) The HU booted and the car logo appeared. After 10 seconds the HU reboots.
5.) When the logo appeared the second time I've released ALT+PRINT keys and began to press only "e" for about 10 seconds.
6.) Suddenly the "no command" screen appeared (this is according to user doitright the unusable recovery menu)
I didnt try by pressing "e" alone without pressing ALT+PRINT keys. If it is so will it make any good?
doitright said:
Good information there, but my only concern with this method, is whether the recovery boot is initiated from the bootloader, or from something in the primary boot partition. If it is initiated from the bootloader, we are golden. If it is initiated from something in the primary boot partition, this will not help with problems in the boot partition.
Have you tried using just the "e" button straight off the bat and skipping the alt-print?
FYI: My UL128N2's are *supposed* to arrive tomorrow, so I'll be able to start my own experiments with them. They're basically the same as your UL135N2, but all glass screen instead of buttons that click.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are there any reported methods to recovering my unit?
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...uad-Core-1-2G-4-1024/1396993_32747116176.html
I purchased a new Joying Unit as well. Will there be any way to install a recovery partition on this device?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/232157503276?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
The method MMTK84 describes also works for the UL128N2 device.
Edit:
You can even skip step 5 and 6 of the tutorial. Just keep holding ALT + printscreen and pressing e. After the logo disappears release all keys.
If you hold alt + printscreen and start pressing F when it boots the joying logo disappears and goes black for a few seconds, goes white and boots into recovery.
Open up the case and you will see that the red led stops blinking when you do above procedure.
The keys e, i and f will reboot in recovery.
When pressing j the joying logo stays and the system does nothing, the led inside blinks all the time
When pressing c the led stops blinking and the system shutsdown
When pressing b the led goes off and the system hangs.
When pressing 0 the system shutsdown
The keys q,w,r,t,y,u,p,a,s,d,g,h,k,l,z,x,v,n,m do nothing.
I tried all combinations in combination with the alt + printscreen button.
I bricked the MTCD GS (XTRONS TL702AP) when trying to install one of the root kits (I knew that doing dd if... of=/mmcblk... is not going to be 100% safe...) and I managed to find how to reliably enter the recovery:
1. make sure that ILL is connected to ACC or BATT. Without it, touch buttons won't lit up and you won't know when to release RST
2. turn off the power completely, then turn it back on (both ACC and BATT), wait 1-2 seconds, then press and hold the RST button
3. wait ~5 seconds until the touch buttons start blinking, release immediately and press RST again shortly then release it
4. wait a few seconds and recovery shows up
When I bricked mine, the LCD backlight was blinking like crazy (1-2 Hz) and the display was showing the device booting up. Instead booting to the Android 'desktop', white screen appeared and unit crashed later on. When I managed to enter the recovery, the LCD backlight was solid immediately as I started pressing the RST...
extracted recovery partition from intel joying unit
extracted recovery partition from intel joying unit.
/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID121 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p10
Code:
./fstab.zram
./dev
./seapp_contexts
./sys
./selinux_version
./sepolicy.ptest
./service_contexts
./res
./res/DVDBOOT_SOFIA.bin
./res/README
./res/keys
./res/images
./res/images/update_warn_en.png
./res/images/icon_error.png
./res/images/error_text.png
./res/images/icon_installing.png
./res/images/update_done.png
./res/images/stage_fill.png
./res/images/warning.bin
./res/images/installing_text.png
./res/images/progress_fill.png
./res/images/erasing_text.png
./res/images/font.png
./res/images/stage_empty.png
./res/images/fail_warn.png
./res/images/update_done_en.png
./res/images/warning_en.bin
./res/images/fail_warn_en.png
./res/images/warning_en.png
./res/images/warning.png
./res/images/progress_empty.png
./res/images/no_command_text.png
./res/images/update_warn.png
./sbin
./sbin/watchdogd
./sbin/busybox
./sbin/sh
./sbin/healthd
./sbin/e2fsck
./sbin/recovery
./sbin/newfs_msdos
./sbin/ueventd
./sbin/bootwatcher
./sbin/sqldebug
./sbin/resize2fs
./init.rc
./fstab.rk30board.bootmode.emmc
./fstab.rk30board.bootmode.unknown
./etc
./etc/recovery.fstab_emmc
./etc/recovery.fstab_nand
./data
./fstab.sofiaboard_nand
./default.prop
./init.bootmode.unknown.rc
./system
./fstab.sofiaboard_emmc
./init.bootmode.emmc.rc
./file_contexts
./property_contexts
./ueventd.sofiaboard.rc
./init.recovery.sofiaboard.rc
./tmp
./sepolicy
./proc
./ueventd.rc
./charger
./init
recovery_joying.zip extracted image with recovery in /sbin
recovery_joying_image image file.
fstab with common names for intel joying sofia units
Code:
#
# Copyright (C) 2013 Intel Mobile Communications GmbH
#
# Sec Class: Intel Confidential (IC)
#
# Android fstab file.
#<src> <mnt_point> <type> <mnt_flags and options> <fs_mgr_flags>
# The filesystem that contains the filesystem checker binary (typically /system) cannot
# specify MF_CHECK, and must come before any filesystems that do specify MF_CHECK
#
/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID068 /system ext4 defaults defaults
/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID069 /data ext4 defaults encryptable=footer
/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID070 /cache ext4 defaults defaults
#/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID069 /mnt/internal_sd vfat defaults defaults
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/external_sd vfat /dev/block/mmcblk0 defaults
/dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/external_sdio vfat /dev/block/mmcblk1 defaults
/dev/block/sda1 /mnt/usb_storage vfat /dev/block/sda defaults
/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID076 /nvm_fs_partition ext4 defaults defaults
/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID074 /misc emmc defaults defaults
/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID071 /boot emmc defaults defaults
/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID121 /recovery emmc defaults defaults
/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID122 /fwu emmc defaults defaults
#/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID122 /recoverym emmc defaults defaults
#/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID001 /mobilevisor emmc defaults defaults
#/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID114 /radio emmc defaults defaults
#/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID013 /splash_screen emmc defaults defaults
#/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID115 /mvconfig emmc defaults defaults
#/dev/block/platform/soc0/e0000000.noc/by-name/ImcPartID118 /secvm emmc defaults defaults
How to recover from a bad recovery.img flash:
In preparation of creating a modified recovery.img, I inadvertantly flashed over a malformed image file. The unit wouldn't boot at all! I thought I hard bricked the unit forever!
1. Disconnect ACC and BAT
2. Hold down the POWER BUTTON
3. Attach ACC and BAT
unit will boot.
After flash, unit refused to boot at all. Black screen. Probably trying to load from bad recovery partition. Nothing else would work, no Alt-PrnScrn combo, reset button, nada. Red light on sofia module would blink and then turn off. Research time. Then I saw that another MTCD unit was able to boot using this method. Success!
Note that this method will only work if your system partition is intact. If both recovery and system are hosed, I don't know of a way other than JTAG (possibly) to reflash the partitions.
Almost....
Has anyone tried a PC <-> PC OTG cable on one of these units?
I can reboot to recovery from the command line ( reboot recovery ). Getting into recovery mode isn't an issue, the problem is no way to access the unit once it reboots into recovery. From the recovery image, it looks like there is an adb process started from init and also wired USB support. I'm guessing you just need the right cable to connect.
gustden said:
Has anyone tried a PC <-> PC OTG cable on one of these units?
I can reboot to recovery from the command line ( reboot recovery ). Getting into recovery mode isn't an issue, the problem is no way to access the unit once it reboots into recovery. From the recovery image, it looks like there is an adb process started from init and also wired USB support. I'm guessing you just need the right cable to connect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there anything special to the cable? I tried a USB A to A cable and neither linux nor windows detect it.
gtxaspec said:
Is there anything special to the cable? I tried a USB A to A cable and neither linux nor windows detect it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An OTG cable has a chip in the middle so two USB hosts "think" they are both connecting to a device. A USB host knows a device is present, when the USB device pulls either d+ or d- line to ~3.3v to signal the connect speed. None of the signaling will happen with a straight A to A cable (connecting 2 host ports ).
I was going to get one and try it, just thought I would see if anyone else has before I buy one. Hopefully, I can find one locally so I can return it if it doesn't work.
Does anyone have experience with unpacking and repacking recovery images? I am unable to successfully repack recovery.img from the joying intel units. My repacked images will not boot! Arg!