Develop Bugs

[Q] Always booting to Sys Recover (3e)

So I rooted with Odin using the "SPH-D710_Zedomax_Kernel.tar" and then unrooted with Odin using the "acs-eg30-stock-kernel-pulled.tar". Once I unrooted everytime I boot my phone up I get this error message:
'gaudi_bootimage.jpg' draw failed
and I boot into System Recovery (manual mode), and if my phone is plugged into laptop or wall charger when I power down I receive the following error message
'charging.jpg' draw failed
Even when I root back, it still always boots into recovery mode and boot up error message is replaced with the Galaxy S2 GT-I9100 splash screen, but I still get the 'charging.jpg' draw failed error.
On both occasions (root or unroot) I can still select reboot system now and the phone finally boots up fine, but I'm trying to eliminate the jpg boot and charge error messages and boot directly into he phone without having to select it in recovery. I have done a complete factory wipe with the same results as described above. Any suggestions?

try reflashing the stock pulled .tar file? and a nandroid backup/stock OS?
Looks like some files may be corrupt.

GH0 said:
try reflashing the stock pulled .tar file? and a nandroid backup/stock OS?
Looks like some files may be corrupt.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried reflashing the stock pulled .tar file and resetting to factory defaults, neither of these worked. Are the files 'gaudi_bootimage.jpg' and 'charging.jpg' something I can place in a specific directory that will avoid this boot up into recovery problem? I'd like to overwrite those potential corrupt files with good ones.

They are in /mnt/.lfs
I'll see if I can pull them and post for you.
Oh wow!
There's a treasure trove of stuff in this directory. I think it's hidden but using Android Webkey I got to it. I'll post some other "boot" images from here. The initial "Samsung Galaxy S II" image isn't the only one. I like the Iron Droid one, though it doesn't seem complete.
Anyway, here's the .zip of all the images in that directory.

I saw you wiped fator reset. But dis you also wipe the cache and dalvik? Then do clean install with CWM 5.x.x.x ? I would recomend that id u haven't tried thus yet

eph5networks said:
So I rooted with Odin using the "SPH-D710_Zedomax_Kernel.tar" and then unrooted with Odin using the "acs-eg30-stock-kernel-pulled.tar". Once I unrooted everytime I boot my phone up I get this error message:
'gaudi_bootimage.jpg' draw failed
and I boot into System Recovery (manual mode), and if my phone is plugged into laptop or wall charger when I power down I receive the following error message
'charging.jpg' draw failed
Even when I root back, it still always boots into recovery mode and boot up error message is replaced with the Galaxy S2 GT-I9100 splash screen, but I still get the 'charging.jpg' draw failed error.
On both occasions (root or unroot) I can still select reboot system now and the phone finally boots up fine, but I'm trying to eliminate the jpg boot and charge error messages and boot directly into he phone without having to select it in recovery. I have done a complete factory wipe with the same results as described above. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, I got the same problem as you. I still don't know how to do it. please, Let me know if you know any way to fix it. Thanks

KCRic said:
They are in /mnt/.lfs
I'll see if I can pull them and post for you.
Oh wow!
There's a treasure trove of stuff in this directory. I think it's hidden but using Android Webkey I got to it. I'll post some other "boot" images from here. The initial "Samsung Galaxy S II" image isn't the only one. I like the Iron Droid one, though it doesn't seem complete.
Anyway, here's the .zip of all the images in that directory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright a quick update (not positive):
I copied the files onto the /mnt folder, but unfortunately after I copy them they still don't appear in the directory. I reboot and I still receive the same 'gaudi_bootimage.jpg' draw failed & 'charging.jpg' draw failed. I do have root access by the way and I'm copying these to the directory using Root Explorer.
I also took the following steps:
Installed CWM 5.0.2.3
Performed a nanroid backup
formatted the system volume under 'mount and storage'
wiped data/factory reset
wiped cache partition
wiped dalvik cache
All that still with no success.
Another thing I'm noticing is when these error messages show (on boot & after power down while connected to charging source) it automatically boots into recovery. There has to be some way or place these files are being called for me to replace them to make this annoying issue go away. Any more suggestions?

So you have tried reinstalling CWM to see if it helps?
Seems (no expert here) that something is corrupted. Not sure exactly what but possibly part of the internal storage or the primary or secondary bootloader. I really hate to jump to something that extreme but i just don't see another reason it would be acting up like that.
I would download CWM one more time and check the MD5 before using ODIN to flash it. If it still does it - return to stock (remove the yellow triangle if you have it) and take it back to the store. Should be under warranty still.

Did you ever solve this problem as i have the same issue.

sscoleman said:
Did you ever solve this problem as i have the same issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately none of these options resolved it. Still pending.

got d boot image running....
Hey i 1st got a stock samsung boot .zip file and den used sgs2 boot changer to apply d img it worked....!!!! Thank got for dat .... Still dont knw wat to do abt d charging. Jpg though... D app works for dis model too... Try it out....

Boot Loop stuck in Animation help.

Hey everyone. I know there are already a few threads with boot loop animations, and am having difficulties finding the same situation as what I'm going through. Here is what the phone used to have before it randomly started looping:
Rooted - with Stock rom, using ClockwordMod Recovery 5.5.0.2
Used Go Launcher Theme ( if that even matters )
No additional roms installed or anything, the phone is 3 months old.
Ok here is where I'm stuck. I understand I should reflash somethings like recovery image or something, but I'm stuck with one big problem. My computer and phone don't recognize using the USB mount.
The message I get is called "Unable to open lunfile ( no such file or directory)
Here's what screens I can get to:
1. Hold vol up/down while holding power ( the little android with its belly open, and the options Start - Restart Bootloader - Recovery mode - Power Off )
2. Hold vol down - ODIN mode, with the START option only
I can access WMD recovery and factory reset, Try to install my old backup, nothing works at all in that area, no matter what I do.
Can someone advise me a step by step way of getting my computer to recognize my phone, so that I am able to do fastboot, or reflash, or anything to get my phone working again. I can't access my internal memory at all.
It's even possible that I've read too much, and my frustration is getting in the way, if so I apologize! Some guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance of course! I need my phone for business!
Cheers,

Install the drivers on a computer then use fastboot oem unlock. Or just factory reset it from within recovery.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-4

Try my siggy.
I'm not sure about the exact error:
But the link there will get you the correct drivers.
Also, as stated...try to factory reset.
You'll lose your apps/data that way though =/
Hopefully you can get the driver installed and get your computer to recognize.
If so, follow this to back up your apps:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1420351

Have exactly the same setup as you (rooted/stock/CWM) and had the animation bootloop - animation would just loop until a battery pull.
Only thing that solved it was a factory reset from recovery. Been working fine for the 4 weeks since. No need for any reflashing etc. Titanium recoveries have all worked fine as well. Didn't try my Nandroid backup as I thought that may still have the 'fault' built in.

I had a boot loop for every from I tried to flash...wat fixed it was before flashing u need to wipe system data and wipe the cache in the recovery...ie a clean install...then every rom I tried worked...so I think ur missing that crucial step coz it worked for me
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Hey guys, as stated above I've done numerous factory resets, it still seems to boot. I will for sure try to get the drivers installed so my phone is recongised by the computer, but would need step-by-step assistance when doing fastboot, or whatever the next step is.
Looking for more help though! Keep em coming!

?
Any other ideas?
Thanks!

Ok guys, so here's where I'm at now. I've used Jubakuba's sticky link, located here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1529058
Everything is able to be recognized up to the point where it says "Put the su.zip on your phone."
Since I cannot access my phone contents, since I keep getting this "Unable to open lunfile ( no such file or directory), it does not allow me to add anything to my phone.
I re-installed CWD as stated in the list of things to do, and all that went well. But I have the same issue, I tried factory resetting all that. erase cache, and still stuck with the same issue.
What's my next step now peeps? Looking for a quick answer as I have time to do it tonight!

Edit***
Just tried this trick: but it says it does not recognize the device?? what is going on! Please help someone! Thanks!
Panic Section! (Something is Wrong)
Q: My phone won't boot!
A: The easiest option is to get into recovery and restore a nandroid using the above guide (pull battery to put phone in an off-state if needed).
However, more advanced options are available if you don't have a nandroid available (You're naughty).
Do you have another rom .zip available on your SD card? If so, simply use the above guide for installing a rom to get you booting again.
If not, you can download one on your PC. Boot into fastboot (the green Android with open chest menu).
Move the .zip to the C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools folder.
Open ADB.
Change the NAMEOFZIP.zip below to the correct file name...and perform the action.

Surely your computer recognizes your phone. Otherwise how were you able to unlock the bootloader and flash the recovery?
And I've never seen that error message before. It doesn't even make any sense to me. Where are you seeing it? On your phone or on your computer? And in what context? What are you trying to do when it shows up?
If your phone isn't booting I'm not sure that you can copy any files to it yet. (Maybe you can use adb in clockworkmod? I'm not sure) What I do know you can do is flash the stock ROM and start over.
Download the image from Google here:
http://code.google.com/android/nexus/images.html
Here's a instructions for the GSM version:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1366806
For the Verizon version, I can't find the thread at the moment but you just replace the filenames and also there's 2 radios to flash so:
fastboot flash radio *filename*
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio-cmda *filename*

"Unable to open lunfile ( no such file or directory) appears on the phone, in CWD mode, when trying to attempt "mount Usb" to be able to access my internal storage .
I am attempting your thoughts right now.
I will post with results

Ok I tried to do this step. This is the outcome I received on the computer after even typing the first step:
'fastboot-windows' is not recognized as aninternal or external command, operable program or batch file.
A thing to stress, I'm not sure how to do step 1: 1) Take a Nandroid Backup if you have CWM installed.
EDIT***
GREAT NEWS!
used this setup!
http://android.modaco.com/topic/348161-01-feb-r4-superboot-rooting-the-gsm-lte-galaxy-nexus/
and it worked!
Thank you everyone! Going to play with my phone and make sure it all works!

Macinshak said:
Ok here is where I'm stuck. I understand I should reflash somethings like recovery image or something, but I'm stuck with one big problem. My computer and phone don't recognize using the USB mount.
The message I get is called "Unable to open lunfile ( no such file or directory)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the problem is when that happen?? when ur phone is booted and u plug the usb cable to ur pc? or when u are under recovery and want mount the usb mass storage? the second one doesn't work

[Q] No recovery anymore, Phone OK

In the process of trying to flash a new firmware to a GIO I somehow managed not to be able to acess the recovery menu anymore. Right now the Phone is rooted, booting fine into stock ROM, download mode is working but no recovery menu. While trying to boot with power and home button it just shows the Samsong logo for ages.
I tried to flash a new recovery several times due to the fact that the stock recovery is only able to apply update.zip and not able to select any custom filename. So I installed su and a new recovery this way. After realizing that there is no recovery anymore I did it using ODIN and download mode. I tried several recovery images from cwm to stock, but everytime the same.
What did I miss?
How to do a dalvik/cache reset outide revovery menu and not doing a full hard reset?
Would a hard reset help?
TiA,
longInt

Guess their are commands to do it with ADB, phone can still go on so thats fine
Download adb
Connect phone to pc
Open command prompt , cmd.bat
Type
Adb
Su
Reboot recovery
Try if it works...
You can also flash recovery with ODIN, cwm v5 can be flashed with odin
Sent from my GT-S5660 using xda premium

I did already
Flashed cwm-5.0.2.7-ext4+rfs-odin.tar.md5 using ODIN without problems, but as I said, no recovery menu available/accessible. BTW: Do I've todo anything after ODIN triggered the reboot? I just remove the phone and try to access recovery menu...
I do not have adb available at the moment, Sorry. Will try tommorow, but I guess this will not show something different!?
Thx!

Terminal emulator?
Code:
su
Reboot recovery
Sent from my HTC Sensation

OK; will try the Terminal emulation soon. But also when trying "Reboot to recovery" from inside ROM Manager it just hangs showing the SAMSUNG Logo. Did I flash the right recovery in terms of the ext4 thing?
TiA

voetbalremco said:
Adb
Su
Reboot recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This results in a black screen and the phone not booting anymore (just showing the Samsung logo). I'm pretty sure the stock rom is booting again after flashing cwm again (had this before). Doing this now...
Any other ideas, tipps?
TiA

OK, guys, time for new proposals. Whichever way I try to get into recovery it fails. Reflashing recovery brings the phone back, but how to go into recovery!? I even tried to boot recovery using my GS3 Toolkit with the same negative result just to prove there is no way to reach recovery.
Isn't there a need to flash cache and dalvik or something else after flashing recovery!? How?
TiA

Try flashing a full stock rom with odin, so everything is gone, kernel, su etc...
If still not, live with it or bring it to a service center
Sent from my GT-S5660 using xda premium

OK, thx. If someone is having additional hints/ideas please let me know . Phone is still working but still no recovery...

exact same problem
longint2 said:
OK, thx. If someone is having additional hints/ideas please let me know . Phone is still working but still no recovery...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exact same problem as you. Same phone as you, phone rooted fine, tried installing CWM now can't get to recovery with the same symptoms as you. Holding Power+Home results in a hanging Samsung logo and no longer being able to boot at all. Removing the battery doesn't help. Reflashing allows me to boot normally but still not recovery mode (download mode accessible all the time). Rebooting from ROM manager usually results in "RAMDUMP mode arm9" instead of recovery (wtf).
Tried different CWM versions recommended for Gio, some older some newer, some with different filesystems.
Tried different methods for installing recoveries (from SD card in the original recovery mode the first time, and from ODIN)
Tried different methods of reaching recovery mode (key combination on boot, reboot from terminal, reboot from ROM manager).
Tried doing "firmware update" with (lol) Kies
Seriously no idea how to solve it, it's exactly the same as the problems in this thread. Advice from friends and these forums has so far not helped, but hopefully someone will discover an answer soon?
Things I don't think are related:
I have hardly any space left on the phone
My battery life has now been reduced to 2 hours average (woohoo!)

Have you tried installing stock rom via Odin? It installs stock recovery itself, and then you would be able to see what happens when you are trying to acces recovery

Very simple, it happened to me sometime ago. The problem was that my pc was blocking Odin to flash correctly, so I figured out the solution. The solution is to try flashing it from someone else's computer. Give it a try and tell me.
---------- Post added at 08:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:17 AM ----------
Follow step by step:
Make sure you do it from a PC on which you haven't already installed Samsung USB drivers or KIES.
1. Install Samsung usb drivers.
2. Open Odin and boot phone into downloading mode.
3. Browse Gio.ops and xxxxxxxx.tar file and start flashing.
Sent from my GT-S5660 using Tapatalk 2

nope…
pakistanish said:
Very simple, it happened to me sometime ago. The problem was that my pc was blocking Odin to flash correctly, so I figured out the solution. The solution is to try flashing it from someone else's computer. Give it a try and tell me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I doubt this is the problem because the first time I tried flashing CWM was not with Odin (I'm not a Windows user) but from the stock recovery as shown in the video tutorial on this forum. I think I'll try wojtek267's suggestions and reflash the stock rom when I get my USB cable back.

Tried a lot more things, none of them worked
Sorry for double-posting, but this is long.
Update:
I got a USB cable. I tried a lot of stuff that also doesn't work. That's what's covered in this post:
This doesn't work. Naturally the first part doesn't work because it says boot into recovery and I can't do that. Ignoring that and continuing from step 5 does just as little. At the bottom of this post I've written what Odin does.
This also doesn't work, it's basically the same thing.
Tried reinstalling stock ROM as suggested. No difference in results. List of ROMs I've tried at bottom of post.
Tried using Odin from a different PC, as suggested. More on this at bottom of post.
Tried flashing using flash_image in adb. More about that at bottom of the thread.
Tried to get fastboot to work. I get an infinite < waiting for device >. More on that at bottom of the post.
Tried to factory reset the phone using both the menu option in settings, and the dial code, both result in the phone turning off and then starting up with a blank black screen that stays there forever.
Tried taking the battery out a thousand times, seriously why is this suggested so often?
List of Recovery ROMs I've tried:
signed_cwm-5.0.2.7-flashablezip-ext4only.zip
cwm-5.0.2.7-ext4only-odin.tar.md5
cwm-5.0.2.7-ext4+rfs-odin.tar.md5
stockrecovery-DXKT4-odin.tar.md5
All coming from this thread.
Also one or two others from blog about clockworkmod etc.
The point is it has no effect because as far as I can tell it isn't even flashed anyway.
Flashing from fresh PC failed
What I mean by this is:
I took a different PC
did a fresh install of windows on it
installed the Samsung drivers using the Kies CD
put the phone in download mode (VolDown+Home+Power)
start Odin, select OPS and tar.md5 file
connect phone
run Odin
nothing special happens…
What Odin does:
copy image to phone → success
disconnect from COM port and wait for reboot
start countdown timer
at this point phone reboots normally (not recovery or anything) and nothing special happens, the Odin timer eventually time's out and the operation is finished
Update: added actual output from odin as an attachment.
I'm not sure but I don't think the above is what Odin is typically supposed to do.
The odin I'm using is 4.42 for Gio and comes from the threads linked to in the first 2 bullet points linked above.
How flash_image fails
I have tried using both adb and terminal emulator on phone. Root access is given to the emulator via superuser app. This is what I do:
Code:
su
cd system
flash_image recovery recovery.img
This is what I get:
Code:
error scanning partitions: No such file or directory
recovery.img is located in /system/recovery.img
flash_image is located in /system/bin/flash_image with proper chmod setting of 755.
It makes no difference if I mount the system as read/writeable or not.
The flash_image I'm using comes from CyanogenMod wiki, here.
My best guess here is that the reason flash_image finds no recovery partition is that there isn't one. I certainly don't see one. And this would also explain why the phone does nothing (black screen or samsung logo) when you try to boot to recovery.
Please dear God somebody tell me that one of you has seen this before and knows a solution for this?
According to this thread the partition where recovery.img resides is /dev/block/bml9, but how do I get my CWM recovery.img on that partition? Do I cat? dd? What? Is there any partition (e.g. that one, or /system or anything) that I should format to something strange before this will work?
Issues with fastboot
2 problems with this. First one is, how exactly do you get into "fastboot" mode on the phone? I don't even know if it can. I have uncovered the following startup key-combos:
recovery mode (Home+Power) does not work, so now just a blank screen
download mode (VolDown+Home+Power)
ramdump arm9 mode (VolUp+Home+Power)
emergency download mode (VolDown+VolUp+Home+Power)
LK Little Kernel Mode (VolUp+VolDown+Power)
blank screen (VolUp+Power)
blank screen (VolDown+Power)
regular boot (Power) doesn't work after attempting hard reset, only results in samsung logo and inability to boot
None of these seem to be fastboot mode, so I guess it's more complicated than that.
Other problem is I'm using Linux and I've read I'll need to configure Udev to detect the phone ID used when in fastboot mode.
I've read that some people who couldn't flash with flash_image in adb were able to flash using fastboot so I'm hoping for that.
Summary
As you guys can see I've really tried a lot of things. Everything I can think of, and everything I could find on XDA and the rest of the web. I have had no success. Like OP's topic title says, I still have a working phone. When Hard Reset fails and the phone becomes unbootable I can make it bootable again by using Odin to fail at flashing a recovery.
So the phone actually works fine. The problem is I can't get to recovery mode and therefore can not flash CyanogenMod (all CyanogenMod threads say to flash ClockworkMod Recovery before CyanogenMod).
Please can somebody help me with this, I don't know what else to try.
Edit: hey pakistanish, thanks for the suggestions, if I don't install the USB drivers from the Kies CD then where am I supposed to get them from?

Bump?
Nobody able to help with this?
Am I in the wrong sub-forum or something?

One more option you could try: the dd command. Provided you're rooted, copy the recovery.img file you want to flash over to your SD card.
then from a shell: dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/bml9 bs=4096
Also, did you try using ddms or logcat while your phone was stuck at the Samsung logo? There might have been clues as to what the issue was.
Good luck,
Darkshado

very nice try, still no cigarre
Darkshado said:
One more option you could try: the dd command. Provided you're rooted, copy the recovery.img file you want to flash over to your SD card.
then from a shell: dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/bml9 bs=4096
Also, did you try using ddms or logcat while your phone was stuck at the Samsung logo? There might have been clues as to what the issue was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi thanks for the helpful advice! I tried that now. Backed up the current bml9 to sdcard with dd and then dd'd my recovery.img over it; it seemed successful. I restarted the phone to recovery mode and it just hangs at the Samsung logo like normal. This thread confirms that /dev/block/bml9 is indeed the recovery partition, however replacing it seems to have no effect.
I have never heard of ddms or logcat, what do they do and do you have download links?

I still have the same issue, thx for any advices.

[Q] How to unbrick the note2 (n7100) ?

Guys my english is not that good so if you dont understand something tell me.
my friend gave me his phone becouse i had to fix it for him. i thought it was an usual brick, but when i try to flash the rom with odin it fails on the nand writing. when i get in to recovery mode i see that the device doesnt mount the system file (cache, efs etc...). I tried a nand erase + repartition but odin fails them too. i dont think that the nand is broken, just something doesnt allow me to access
what should i do?

Try this
Have u tried mounting external usb stick with otg cable? what version of odin re u using?
Alternatively try installing custom recovery like philz and then try flashing a rom.
let me know if that helps.

Hey, i have the same problem.
i took my phone out of my pocket and it was turned off. I tried to boot it but it got stuck at Galaxy Note II logo.
When i opened recovery (i use teamwin) , it shows in the log similar error messages to yours. It won't mount any of the partitions. I also tried repartition with odin, but it fails too.
I think the internal storage (the emmc) is broken in our phones and we can't really do anything about it. But i'm not sure.

Phone wiped itself? And other problems.

Hello. I have a i317 Note 2, running on T-mobile. It is rooted and was running Blisspop 5.x rom. I had set my phone down and noticed it was on the Samsung screen. Figured it was just a random reboot; but it never booted up. I reboot into recovery (TWRP) to find that there is no OS installed. It says my internal storage is 0mb, my external storage is 0mb (I have a 32gb sd card). I cannot mount nor access external storage, or anything internal. I cannot format data. I am able to see my phone while it is in recovery on my computer. But once I put it in download mode, it can no longer be seen. ADB cannot see it in download mode, I cannot fastboot (unless I'm doing it wrong). I used Odin, which can see it in download mode, but it did not fix anything. Also, now the phone says it is unable to format to remove encryption.
Prior to this it had a problem where it would be unable to stat things. Is there any way to fix this? Or am I SOL?

SchusterIX said:
Hello. I have a i317 Note 2, running on T-mobile. It is rooted and was running Blisspop 5.x rom. I had set my phone down and noticed it was on the Samsung screen. Figured it was just a random reboot; but it never booted up. I reboot into recovery (TWRP) to find that there is no OS installed. It says my internal storage is 0mb, my external storage is 0mb (I have a 32gb sd card). I cannot mount nor access external storage, or anything internal. I cannot format data. I am able to see my phone while it is in recovery on my computer. But once I put it in download mode, it can no longer be seen. ADB cannot see it in download mode, I cannot fastboot (unless I'm doing it wrong). I used Odin, which can see it in download mode, but it did not fix anything. Also, now the phone says it is unable to format to remove encryption.
Prior to this it had a problem where it would be unable to stat things. Is there any way to fix this? Or am I SOL?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You used Odin for what? Did you try flashing stock rom? Try using the rescue option in KIES. It has saved me in the past when I had messed up my device.

NickVXD said:
You used Odin for what? Did you try flashing stock rom? Try using the rescue option in KIES. It has saved me in the past when I had messed up my device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about that, forgot that bit! I used odin to flash the stock rom, and even tried a .pit repartition. Kies does not see the phone. At most, it sees it but will not connect. So there are no rescue options to be had.

I thought I made progress. I was able to do the firmware reset with Keis. The phone got to the blisspop launch screen but just stayed there. I rebooted into TWRP and it still said I had 0mb of internal storage, and still had no OS installed. ADB still didn't see the phone, either. Now the phone will no longer boot to samsung, or to recovery, or TWRP. If I hold the power button the proximity sensor shines for a moment but that's it.

Same problem here, same phone but t0lte that ran many ROMs over 4 trouble-free years . Still at the pre-Kies stage, thus still can access twrp. Tried overwriting twrp with philz or CWM - Odin says PASSED but reality say no dice - twrp is still the recovery. Tried flashing stock - Odin again said PASSED, but still have twrp reporting 0MB.
Spent 1day surfing xda to ensure I have correct files and procedures.
Wonder if there has been any solution found...

When flashing a new recovery, do not check auto reboot. Flash the recovery in Odin. When you see the word reset in the status window, remove the USB cable from the phone, remove the battery, replace the battery, boot into recovery. Hopefully, this method will work.