I used to have an Atrix and any time something went wrong, I knew I could flash a Stock image using RSD Lite.
I have not seen this for the Droid 4 yet and was wondering if anyone expects us to be able to use this program on our devices.
I know there's a lot of talk about safestrap with this phone, but not sure if that has anything to do with RSD Lite (sorry kind of a noob with safestrap).
Thanks!
The newer OMAp dual core devices no longer use SBF mode for flashing because they have fastboot support now, so RSD Lite was adapted to use XML.zip files that are an archive of signed fastboot images rather than an SBF, which is a Single Binary File consisting of CG images. The legacy bootloader is still available in the boot menu but you won't find the firmware files in SBF format for these devices.
That said, we are waiting for the full XML.zip for the D4 to be leaked and currently have no way to restore the stock factory signed images for this device.
This means it is very dangerous to do any significant mods on this phone at this stage.
Hashcode and others have done great work to make it as safe as possible, but the risk cannot be overstated.
If you render the device unbootable for any reason, your options are very limited.
That was a really solid explanation and its greatly appreciated.
Although I'm not usually too timid with modding my phone, I think I'll wait a few weeks to see what happens.
Thanks!
Related
So, as this is my first post on XDA I'd like to first state that I am somewhat new to the rooting scene. I used to have a DX and rooted it with no major problems. I know this is probably best suited to be posted in the Developement section, but I currently dont have premissions to do so. I would like to make sure I have everything I need and a clear understanding of the process before I attempt to root my D3.
As a precaution I would like to comfirm that their is a current .SBF file that can be used to return the phone to stock should I do something stupid during the root process? I have found the following link on this site with a .SBF file but from reading the threads I cant determine if this will return the D3 to stock:
[Recovery] RSD v5.5.0 and 5.5.184 (aka 5.6.890) fastboot partitions/flashable zip: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1255198
Can someone confirm/verify if this will return my D3 to stock should I need to?
Also within this thread their is mention of Moto-Fastboot and something abbreviated as abd (i think). I am not familiar with either of these. Could someone also provide a breif explanation of what these are and their importance to the .SBF process?
I am also planing on using the following otpion to root my D3:
[Guide] one-click root for Droid 3 (and others) [UPDATED 9/8/2011]: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1240130
I want to say that I read somewhere that I have to download the SU.apk from the market place? Is this correct or does this option one-click process display the SU icon in the app draw as the z4root one click option did on my DX?
Also I know that I need to purchase/download the D3 boot loader file from the market plac, I think? Is there anything else that you would recommend that I download/purchase to ensure I dont brick my phone in the process?
Sorry this is so long, but thank you in advance to those that provide responses/suggestions/comments to my questions.
Yes, there is a fully functioning sbf available for the D3
Yes, that is the sbf that is needed. To actually use the sbf you will need rsd lite, which i also believe to be in that post with the sbf.
This sbf will indeed return your phone to fully functioning stock in the case that it should be needed. (i've had to do it my fair share of times)
ADB is a command prompt interface that allows you to interact with the files on your phone without having to go into something like root explorer.
Fastboot (power + vol up + vol down) is a pre boot menu that allows you to boot into different things (like the AP fastboot mode needed to flash an SBF or to go into recovery). To flash an sbf you need to connect your D3 to the computer (in computer mode, i think), and choose the xml file that is in the SBF after you've extracted it.
The one-click root allows you to root your phone hassle free
When i say this, I mean that it installs the Superuser.apk and pushed the busybox and su to the system/xbin, which is needed for some different processes that require root.
here is the link to the most updated version of the bootstrapper, which allows recovery to be entered through the power-off (by using the bp tools option in fastboot)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1289254
smoshim, thank you very much for your assistance and explanations. I already have RSD Lite on my computer and actually meant to include that in my original post. I had it on hand for when I rooted my DX just incase. I did need to use it once but it wouldnt recognize that my DX was connected for some reason. So I had to use a disck based linux program to SBF my DX when I sold it. Hopefully, RSD Lite doesnt give me any issues should I need it for my D3. Well, It's almost 2 am here in Omaha and I need to get my sorry tail to bed. Gotta be up in 5 and a half hours to get my 3 boys out the door for school. I have been patiently waiting to root my DS as I wanted to be sure that all of the "kinks" have been worked out and also wanted to try out some custom roms. I loved the darkslide rom for the DX. In your opinion do you think I should also go ahead and download/install rom manager?
honestly, rom manager doesn't have much available for the d3 yet. it'll be more productive right now to just manually drop the ROMs into your sd and boot into recovery.
And, in my opinion, the roms that we have out now are awesome. And as people get impatient they're making more and more themselves. So even though there may not be too many to choose from compared to some other devices there are more and more coming into the works all the time. But it sounds like you know what's going on, and the sbf process is pretty painless if you're already familiar with rsd on your DX
So in my attempts to undo unbrick my bionic i was able to get back on the path and got into a rooted 901 version YEAH.
Problem is my webtop version is WT 1.3.0-105_DBN-1 which is not the current version. Does anyone have a way to get an updated grfs version onto the phone or a process that works coming from 901?
The problem as I see it, is that you aren't really on 5.9.901 because you couldnt have updated with the leaked update.zip without having all of the signed components from 5.5.893 including the webtop partition. You must be using a ROM that updated only your system and nothing else.
The solution is to use the full 5.5.893 xml.zip released recently and flash it with RSD Lite and it will put you back on the path with all the stock images.
If you wanted to only flash the grfs.img from that file then you need to use the moto-fastboot.exe instead of the fastboot.exe because it is modified to handle larger than 256MB images.
It is difficult to tell where you really are with all of your firmware components and whether just flashing the webtop will do you any good. That is why i recommend the full xml.zip and RSD Lite.
This is the method that a technician would use to fix a returned device to stock and is what the file is designed to do. Its like an SBF file but uses the fastboot interface instead of the old flash interface.
We have all the tools we need to recover virtually all problem flashes at this point, and its up to everyone who is modding these devices to understand the options before you flash any ROMs so you dont find yourself returning a device that you destroyed to VZW for warranty replacement, a practice all to common unfortunately.
i'm currently running the 6.16.217 ics leak on my droid 4 and was wondering if there was any way i could install the lte radio from the 6.16.215 leak over the .217's. i would just install the .215 leak, but i find that everything, but signal/data works better for me on the .217.
oh and is anyone else having problems with playing videos from veoh(.)com on the .215 or .217 leaks?
thank you in advance
englishund the answer to my question.
I'm sure there's a simpler way, but this is how i did it. I used the droid4 utility to go from .217 to .215, then i unziped the .217 fastboot file and removed the line in the .xml file that flashed the radio software and used rsd lite to flash the fastboot files over .215. Once that was done i wiped(just to be safe) and rebooted. Everything, with the exception of some websites(veoh.com), has been running well and i haven't lost signal once since then
maddeath said:
englishund the answer to my question.
I'm sure there's a simpler way, but this is how i did it. I used the droid4 utility to go from .217 to .215, then i unziped the .217 fastboot file and removed the line in the .xml file that flashed the radio software and used rsd lite to flash the fastboot files over .215. Once that was done i wiped(just to be safe) and rebooted. Everything, with the exception of some websites(veoh.com), has been running well and i haven't lost signal once since then
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Are you certain that there is not anther cause for this issue? If you are certain, I'd be very interested as to why this is... and whether the rest of us could benefit.
Well from what i've seen with my droid 4 and droid razr. This version of motoblur ics doesn't really play well with flash. Someone else has started a thread about this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=30635637#post30635637 hope it helps? Lol
I was looking at this link...
http://android.sc/downgrade-or-rest...to-oficial-stock-android-jelly-bean-firmware/
And this list of images
http://sbf.droid-developers.org/ghost_rcica/list.php
I have the americamovil-pr image stock on my xt1058
What would happen if I used rsdlite to flash say the rogers or att version? I did a little googling and saw people used rsdlite to change images with RAZR HD gsm models but wasn't sure if this is the same and just wanted to ask just in case.
Would I be able to do something like flash the T-Mobile image which is xt1053 without doing irreparable harm to my phone?
I appreciate any help with this greatly. If there is no irreversible harm I would be willing to try the T-Mobile image on my phone to see what happens
It may or may not work, but you should always be able to just flash the proper image if it doesn't work to get it running again. For what it's worth, I tried flashing the T-Mobile stuff on my AT&T phone yesterday, and it wouldn't pass the verification stage so it didn't flash.
I was working on getting 4.4 AOSP kitkat on my Atrix HD, and it was going great. While backing up with CWM, it failed on the data, but I figured I could just restore my files from a back up. When I went to put the rom on it, I got some no_contexts error and it said somethign about metadata. I tried to restore the backup and got a md5 fail. I used the advanced restore to let it skip the data part, but all parts gave a md5 fail. Now for somereason, I'm unable to connect through ADB, though fastboot still works, so I can't try pushing a stock rom. I tried adb sideload, but that didn't even remotely work. I also can't charge my phone, and it has a low battery. Does it charge in fastboot or recovery mode? Please help.
Phew
Ok, so I was looking around for a way to get back to stock without adb, which, as I said earlier, I couldn't get working halfway through. I was looking around for a way to do it with fastboot, and found rsd lite. I downloaded the files I needed, but it always failed 1/23. I then thought to just do it manually, and it worked perfectly
On a side note though, is there a way to use fastboot to flash nonstock roms? Would I just follow the same commands I did for the stock version? Is there any specific version I should download to use fastboot with it? I am still wanting an as-close-as-possible stock version of 4.4 for atrix hd. Also, did I do anything wrong the first time, or was the download corrupt?
ace_case said:
Ok, so I was looking around for a way to get back to stock without adb, which, as I said earlier, I couldn't get working halfway through. I was looking around for a way to do it with fastboot, and found rsd lite. I downloaded the files I needed, but it always failed 1/23. I then thought to just do it manually, and it worked perfectly
On a side note though, is there a way to use fastboot to flash nonstock roms? Would I just follow the same commands I did for the stock version? Is there any specific version I should download to use fastboot with it? I am still wanting an as-close-as-possible stock version of 4.4 for atrix hd. Also, did I do anything wrong the first time, or was the download corrupt?
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I'm glad to hear you got things back into working order! With regards to flashing any custom ROM, the safest way is to use a custom recovery. Currently, as far as I can tell, the only official recovery for the Atrix HD is CWM but that's fine. You do want to be sure that you have the latest, most up to date version of CWM installed. As of right now, I believe that is 6.0.4.4 (http://clockworkmod.com/rommanager, mine already might be out of date again) and that may be where your problems came from when you were wiping and getting errors.
With regards to a close to stock 4.4 for the Atrix HD, there is an official build of CM available here: http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=mb886 although the latest build is from February, I can assure you that from running it on my Atrix HD it is definitely much smoother than what Motorola has offered (to date) for this device. There have been promises of official 4.4 support but I haven't seen anything come from that as of today (see here for more info: http://goo.gl/oK34W0)
CORRECTION: The official support for Atrix HD is here: http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=moto_msm8960
It is a merged thread for all of the devices mentioned here: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Moto_msm8960_Info
I can't vouch for it personally but others have said that it has fixed a lot of bugs since the single device support that ended in February...