Develop Bugs

[Q] Do I ALWAYS have to flash a new boot image when installing a rom?

Hello,
I'm coming from a HTC Desire, and when reading the guides how to install roms on the HOX, the neccesity to flash a separate boot.img for every rom via fastboot was new to me.
Is this always the case? And lets say I have a stable 4.0.4 installation and want to mess around with CM10 - I get that have to flash the CM10 boot.img before installing the ROM, but would I then also have to re-flash my old boot.img before rstoring my old nandroid backup, or is the boot image included in the backup?
Thanks aheasd for an answer,
saxelfur

i guess yes.. you have to re-flash the boot.img of the rom that you are restoring...

faiz02 said:
i guess yes.. you have to re-flash the boot.img of the rom that you are restoring...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, thanks - so I suppose right now there is now way to restore a backup from a different rom on the go. Oh well, I should be able to live without that

saxelfur said:
Okay, thanks - so I suppose right now there is now way to restore a backup from a different rom on the go. Oh well, I should be able to live without that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do not have to flash the boot.img before restoring a nandroid backup...Y
ou restore everything, boot.img included.

panooos said:
You do not have to flash the boot.img before restoring a nandroid backup...Y
ou restore everything, boot.img included.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, even better!

panooos said:
You do not have to flash the boot.img before restoring a nandroid backup...Y
ou restore everything, boot.img included.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true; if you're restoring a backup which used a different boot.img than the one you already have installed, you need to manually flash the boot.img from your nandroid backup in fastboot.
The reason we have to use fastboot to flash the boot.img is that, thanks to HTC's security policies, it is not possible to write to the boot partition from recovery. Hence when you flash a ROM the boot.img isnt written, and has to be manually flashed. This also means that when you restore a backup in recovery it is still unable to write to the boot partition, so the boot.img from your backup is not written and must also be flashed manually.

hopscotchjunkie said:
Not true; if you're restoring a backup which used a different boot.img than the one you already have installed, you need to manually flash the boot.img from your nandroid backup in fastboot.
The reason we have to use fastboot to flash the boot.img is that, thanks to HTC's security policies, it is not possible to write to the boot partition from recovery. Hence when you flash a ROM the boot.img isnt written, and has to be manually flashed. This also means that when you restore a backup in recovery it is still unable to write to the boot partition, so the boot.img from your backup is not written and must also be flashed manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? I once flashed a kernel and could not pass the loading screen...everything got fixed as soon as i restored my backup...

Lucky for you. But these guys are correct. The only way to flash boot is through fastboot.
Recovery restore cannot restore a boot.img
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

panooos said:
Really? I once flashed a kernel and could not pass the loading screen...everything got fixed as soon as i restored my backup...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. Boot partition simply isn't writable from recovery (without s-off). There's no difference between recovery trying to write a boot.img from a zip on /sdcard and recovery trying to write a boot.img from a folder on /sdcard (if there was we would just need to modify recovery to treat new flashes as restores to get around the problem).
I'm not saying it won't work if you don't; if you're switching between Sense ROMs or restoring an earlier version of the ROM you're using then there's a good chance that the ROM will still boot and run fine, but you'll be running with the kernel & ramdisk you had before the restore.

Always learning sth new... Ty
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

Well shoot. How do I get the boot.img from the stock rom that came with it. It wasn't exactly in standard .zip format for me to extract the .img......

If you did a nandroid backup it's there in plain sight.

TWRP insane data backup size

Hello HTC 10 users! I just got this device and thoroughly enjoying the speed and features. I got it s-off, Lees v2.41 rom loaded and using the team viper pnp balanced. Before installing the pnp I wanted to make a backup since I haven't done one since I got the 10. I noticed my data backup is 25GB. I don't even have 4GB used up by the internal space on the 10. In comparison my old m8 ARHD v53.1 backup is around 6GB , that rom was lolipop and using TWRP 3. Can anyone shed some light on this?

revoltech said:
Hello HTC 10 users! I just got this device and thoroughly enjoying the speed and features. I got it s-off, Lees v2.41 rom loaded and using the team viper pnp balanced. Before installing the pnp I wanted to make a backup since I haven't done one since I got the 10. I noticed my data backup is 25GB. I don't even have 4GB used up by the internal space on the 10. In comparison my old m8 ARHD v53.1 backup is around 6GB , that rom was lolipop and using TWRP 3. Can anyone shed some light on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure you are using the latest twrp?

i've not even unlocked yet, but that smells to me like it's looking at an encrypted partition, which it should be, but i can't speak to whether or not that's normal (assuming not). may try posting this ? in the TWRP thread.

That's a huge backup, roughly double the size of a typical backup for me (12.59GB, including boot, data, & system). What all are you choosing to backup when you make a backup?
Sent from my HTC 10

dangle79 said:
i've not even unlocked yet, but that smells to me like it's looking at an encrypted partition, which it should be, but i can't speak to whether or not that's normal (assuming not). may try posting this ? in the TWRP thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I forgot my startup is encrypted. I kept on hitting cancel before I mounted the partition found on the s-off youtube tutorial. Thanks for letting me know.

The Data only part is 25gb?
My Backups are normaly 8gb, in TWRP 3.0.2-5
3.7gb System Image
around 4.5gb User Data
64mb Boot and 64mb Recovery
Did you activate compression in the TWRP settings?

revoltech said:
Hello HTC 10 users! I just got this device and thoroughly enjoying the speed and features. I got it s-off, Lees v2.41 rom loaded and using the team viper pnp balanced. Before installing the pnp I wanted to make a backup since I haven't done one since I got the 10. I noticed my data backup is 25GB. I don't even have 4GB used up by the internal space on the 10. In comparison my old m8 ARHD v53.1 backup is around 6GB , that rom was lolipop and using TWRP 3. Can anyone shed some light on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are using a really old version of twrp. Please use the latest, which is 3.0.2-6.

Magnum_Enforcer said:
That's a huge backup, roughly double the size of a typical backup for me (12.59GB, including boot, data, & system). What all are you choosing to backup when you make a backup?
Sent from my HTC 10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you suppose to chose in your back-up? I back-up system, system image, data, and boot. Is that a correct back-up?
Sorry for the noob question as I am new to HTC.

mamdroid said:
What are you suppose to chose in your back-up? I back-up system, system image, data, and boot. Is that a correct back-up?
Sorry for the noob question as I am new to HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Boot, data, and system is all I ever backup.
Sent from my HTC 10

jollywhitefoot said:
You are using a really old version of twrp. Please use the latest, which is 3.0.2-6.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes because that was on my HTC One m8. I'm on the latest version on the HTC 10. I already figured it out that the backups were copying the full encrypted data partition if I didn't enter the password.

revoltech said:
Yes because that was on my HTC One m8. I'm on the latest version on the HTC 10. I already figured it out that the backups were copying the full encrypted data partition if I didn't enter the password.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes sense. Starting with 3.0.2-4 TWRP has been able to decrypt data partition. I missed the part where you said you were hitting cancel on the pin prompt.

Is there an option in twrp that allows me to switch between encrypted and decrypted data partitions?

LakesideWiseman said:
Is there an option in twrp that allows me to switch between encrypted and decrypted data partitions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's controlled by your rom. Natively, Android M requires encrypted data partition, but some custom ROMs allow you to use un-encrypted data. I believe that there is also a script that you can flash in TWRP to allow stock rom to be un-encrypted, but you'll have to fish around in the ROM/Development section for that.
To decrypt your data partition, you have to flash a rom that supports un-encrypted data (or the zip file I mentioned above) and then format (NOT WIPE) data partition in TWRP.

mamdroid said:
What are you suppose to chose in your back-up? I back-up system, system image, data, and boot. Is that a correct back-up?
Sorry for the noob question as I am new to HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
System and System Image are the same.
For Custom ROM's System is fine, if you want to take OTAs on Stock ROM you need a System Image.
I almost never backup Data as every app should have a Cloud Save feature and i prefer to wipe my phone every few months to get rid of stuff i never use.
Mainly before flashing a Custom ROM or playing around i backup UserData aswell.
And yeah, always backup Boot when you backup System, only takes 64MB so doesn't really matter.

jollywhitefoot said:
That's controlled by your rom. Natively, Android M requires encrypted data partition, but some custom ROMs allow you to use un-encrypted data. I believe that there is also a script that you can flash in TWRP to allow stock rom to be un-encrypted, but you'll have to fish around in the ROM/Development section for that.
To decrypt your data partition, you have to flash a rom that supports un-encrypted data (or the zip file I mentioned above) and then format (NOT WIPE) data partition in TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Makes perfect sense. I'm running stock debloated Verizon ROM.

Magnum_Enforcer said:
Boot, data, and system is all I ever backup.
Sent from my HTC 10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haldi4803 said:
System and System Image are the same.
For Custom ROM's System is fine, if you want to take OTAs on Stock ROM you need a System Image.
I almost never backup Data as every app should have a Cloud Save feature and i prefer to wipe my phone every few months to get rid of stuff i never use.
Mainly before flashing a Custom ROM or playing around i backup UserData aswell.
And yeah, always backup Boot when you backup System, only takes 64MB so doesn't really matter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you to both you, I appreciate the responses. I kinda figured I was doing it wrong by the time and size of the back-up's. Thanks again fellas!!

OTA update to N

Hello everybody, it is time to update to Nougat and I'm ready to do it.
According to this thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=59745198&postcount=3
I need a system_image and stock recovery backup for being able to do an OTA.
I did it and I must restore the system_image and the stock recovery as written in point 8.
But according to this other thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64299835&postcount=4
in Hidden Content point 13, I must backup the system_image, the stock recovery and the boot image.
I have only backupped system_image and recovery and I can download boot.emmc.win from the second thead, but I wish to ask:
Is it really necessary to restore boot.emmc.win? Now I'm on ViperOneM9 4.3.0
Why @Captain_Throwback didn't mention it in his official TWRP thread?
I thank you in advance anyone may help me to get the OTA in the right way

Balteck said:
Hello everybody, it is time to update to Nougat and I'm ready to do it.
According to this thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=59745198&postcount=3
I need a system_image and stock recovery backup for being able to do an OTA.
I did it and I must restore the system_image and the stock recovery as written in point 8.
But according to this other thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64299835&postcount=4
in Hidden Content point 13, I must backup the system_image, the stock recovery and the boot image.
I have only backupped system_image and recovery and I can download boot.emmc.win from the second thead, but I wish to ask:
Is it really necessary to restore boot.emmc.win? Now I'm on ViperOneM9 4.3.0
Why @Captain_Throwback didn't mention it in his official TWRP thread?
I thank you in advance anyone may help me to get the OTA in the right way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I didn't mention it, then you don't have to do it .

@Captain_Throwback can you maybe explain that a little further? I made the experience that people are facing problems if they return from a custom rom to a stock rom and don't wipe their phone. That's why I added the wiping step to my instructions. After that several users reported that their phones didn't boot after they restored the first version of my backups (which lacked the boot.img). Therefore, I thought the boot.img is needed as well and all backups got replaced over a year ago with the current version which includes the boot.img.
However, all this is based on the reports of users who had problems with returning back to stock. I've never faced these issues myself. So if there is anything wrong with my instructions I'll correct them, of course.
Sent from my HTC One M9 using XDA Labs

I thought it's impossible to backup the stock recovery seeing as twrp is needed to be flashed to make the backup..
Beamed in by telepathy.

shivadow said:
I thought it's impossible to backup the stock recovery seeing as twrp is needed to be flashed to make the backup..
Beamed in by telepathy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since firmware 3.x you can boot TWRP via fastboot from the bootloader without overwriting the currently installed stock recovery.

Flippy498 said:
@Captain_Throwback can you maybe explain that a little further? I made the experience that people are facing problems if they return from a custom rom to a stock rom and don't wipe their phone. That's why I added the wiping step to my instructions. After that several users reported that their phones didn't boot after they restored the first version of my backups (which lacked the boot.img). Therefore, I thought the boot.img is needed as well and all backups got replaced over a year ago with the current version which includes the boot.img.
However, all this is based on the reports of users who had problems with returning back to stock. I've never faced these issues myself. So if there is anything wrong with my instructions I'll correct them, of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what to explain - OTA does no verification on boot.img. So it doesn't have to be stock for an OTA to install. It's that simple.

Captain_Throwback said:
Not sure what to explain - OTA does no verification on boot.img. So it doesn't have to be stock for an OTA to install. It's that simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. I guess there was a little misunderstanding.
The current version of my instructions is meant to be used if you want to return to a clean stock system. (In other words the ability to install OTAs, again, is only a side effect.) I never was talking about the boot.img being necessary for being able to install the OTA. I thought you were saying that the boot.img wouldn't be needed inside a backup if you do a full wipe before the restoration and that the phone would still boot.
Sent from my HTC One M9 using XDA Labs

I'm little confused now.
For installing an OTA update I MUST have an untouched system partition and stock recovery.
But the steps I need to do are:
1) backup apps and settings
2) restore untouched system partiton and stock recovery partition from TWRP, doing a factory reset (wipe data, dalvik and cache)
3) boot the original stock OS, configure wifi and go to Software Update
4) download OTA(s)
5) apply update and reboot phone
6) with ADB start TWRP recovery and backup the new stock recovery and the new stock system_image
7) flash TWRP and new custom ROM
8) restore apps and settings from point 1)
So, is it possible that at step 3 my HTC cannot boot because I didn't restore the boot partition (I'm coming from ViperOneM9 4.3.0)?
Or is there a simpler method, without backuping, wiping, restoring?

Flippy498 said:
Since firmware 3.x you can boot TWRP via fastboot from the bootloader without overwriting the currently installed stock firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks liks i used an out of date tutorial then.. What a bugger..
Beamed in by telepathy.

Anyone can confirm me that my previous steps are right?
So I may uodate to Android n without doubt
Thank you very much

Hi somebody can help me?

My Question is About Twrp, if i make a Back-up of my system completery, and install a ROM and not liked her or bricked my device (Mi a2 Lite) i can take back again, right? without install a ROM stock? Thansk for Answering ? i make one time but Using a Clockwordmod on samsung Old i bricked the device and i Restore a Backup and Back
Sorry about My english bad

Yes, but use unofficial TWRP from ROM section not the official one.
Backup boot, system image, vendor image and data.
Works for custom ROMs, not sure about stock ROM.
Also backup EFS and persist once in case you lost IMEI or sensors.

Pat750 said:
Yes, but use unofficial TWRP from ROM section not the official one.
Backup boot, system image, vendor image and data.
Works for custom ROMs, not sure about stock ROM.
Also backup EFS and persist once in case you lost IMEI or sensors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I unlocked my bootloader yesterday and my user data and files have not been deleted
but my other question is If i install twrp i lose?

[email protected] said:
I unlocked my bootloader yesterday and my user data and files have not been deleted
but my other question is If i install twrp i lose?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm surprised that unlocking didn't delete your data, for me it did and it usually does.
For TWRP use fastboot boot <filename>.img to boot it and then flash the zip.
Normally that doesn't delete data, but always backup important data first.
I'm not sure how good TWRP handles encrypted data...I'm always unencrypted.
Before TWRP backup people say to remove pins and maybe fingerprints first (there are zip files for that) because then restoring will work better.
Good luck, happy flashing and first search and read if you are unsure.

Pat750 said:
I'm surprised that unlocking didn't delete your data, for me it did and it usually does.
For TWRP use fastboot boot <filename>.img to boot it and then flash the zip.
Normally that doesn't delete data, but always backup important data first.
I'm not sure how good TWRP handles encrypted data...I'm always unencrypted.
Before TWRP backup people say to remove pins and maybe fingerprints first (there are zip files for that) because then restoring will work better.
Good luck, happy flashing and first search and read if you are unsure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
before i Unlock the BL i pressed the button "Down" of sound and not deleted My Data :3

Question How does restoring work in this phone?

For context, I want to clear up a few things before trying to root so I don't end up bricking the phone.
So after reading a few threads it seems even recovering via twrp is messed up in this phone. Can someone shed some light on this matter?
Can I restore system, data, and boot partitions via twrp in case something goes wrong (while staying on official miui roms everytime, I don't intend to install custom roms) and I have to revert the phone back to the state it was in at the time of a backup?
It feels like at the very least we would be required to re-flash the entire firmware via mi flash tool and then restore whatever is needed via twrp later. Will this work?
Also I hear using twrp to install the official firmware is not a good idea, what's that about?
I know long post and a lot of questions, so please bear with me.
Thanks.

Custom ROMs and Stock ROMs differ in one aspect, which partitions are left untouched. Since stock ROM is a lot more invasive and formats all partitions, official flash method is recommended.
When you mess things up, mi flash tool is safest option. Its safe to experiment, backup, restore on boot+system+data in TWRP across ROM installs but don't mess up recovery partition. Remember to format data between ROM installs unless dirty flashing on same android version

miravision said:
Custom ROMs and Stock ROMs differ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see. Thank you for the reply!