Database Develop

[Q] Any way to put Safestrap Recovery on without APK?

My Droid 4 is bricked, but out seems to me that if I could get safestrap recovery in, I could boot any working "safe" ROM and leave my non-functioning "unsafe" system alone until the day a fastboot image becomes available.
The only wrinkle is that since the current OS is bricked, I can't load the Safestrap recovery via Apk. Is there any way to load it using one of the remaining capabilities in the phone (normal recovery, fastboot, etc.)?

I definitely don't have the full technical ability to answer your question, but to get the ball rolling:
Can you get adb up and running? If you can't, my guess is no... If you can, somebody who knows more than I do might be able to get you going...

Call Motorola or the wireless vendor where you got your phone and play dumb.
How did you brick your phone?
I bricked mine the first time by restoring a saved stock rom that I had made. Little did I know, but I got the webtop save mixed up, and totally soft-bricked my handset.
Safestrap is a good alternative to having nothing, but you should read everything there is to know about it before installing it. Conceptually, it doesn't share a whole lot with the original clockworkmod recovery.

RueTheDayTrebek said:
Call Motorola or the wireless vendor where you got your phone and play dumb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've thought about it. (1) there's stuff on the internal "sdcard" (/sdcard, as distinct from the removable real SDC) I'd like to recover if I could, so restoring the phone I have right now is preferable, unless restoring from a fastboot recovery wipes /sdcard).. and (2) I hate the idea of "cheating" on a warranty for a self-inflicted product failure, both on the ethics of it and on the remote possibility I could get caught.
How did you brick your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had safely rooted the phone (Droid 4 Utility is awesome) and installed Titanium Backup Pro. I was playing around with freezing bloatware, deleting bloatware, and the like... the last thing I did before rebooting and never coming back was integrating system application dalvik cache into the ROM and then undoing that integration. But I can't be sure that was the killer, since I hadn't rebooted for a while before that... one of the other changes earlier could have been it.
Safestrap is a good alternative to having nothing, but you should read everything there is to know about it before installing it. Conceptually, it doesn't share a whole lot with the original clockworkmod recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I recognize it's a very different world because of the locked bootstrap, so I'd obviously have to adapt to the differences, but just the ability to get some use out of the phone before the fastboot recovery leaks would be a good start. My needs are not great. Something besides repeated reboots ("Droid..." every 10 seconds until the battery runs flat) would make me happier than a pig in slop.

podspi said:
I definitely don't have the full technical ability to answer your question, but to get the ball rolling:
Can you get adb up and running? If you can't, my guess is no... If you can, somebody who knows more than I do might be able to get you going...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. The times I've tried, the phone never boots to the point that the USB debugging driver on the PC ever sees the phone ("adb devices" lists nothing).
About the only interaction I can get to is to force the phone into fastboot and plugging in with the fastboot USB driver on the PC. RSD Lite does see the phone then. Too bad I don't have a fastboot recovery to use at that point.

Unable to get into Recovery after 4.1.2 upgrade...

Ok, so I ran into a VERY weird issue and was wondering if anyone else has experienced this or has a better solution then what I found.
My Nexus7 was running stock JRO03D. I had it rooted, using the Motley kernel with CWM Recovery - but outside of that, everything else was pretty stock. Anyway, I decided to upgrade to the 4.1.2 image. I pulled the one it downloaded automatically out of /cache and looked at the updater-script to see what it did. I noticed it replaced a lot, including the boot image, so I figured it would be better just to let it do everything and revert my custom stuff later. So I replaced the kernel with the stock JRO03D kernel and, using CWM, flashed the upgrade. Everything seemed to go perfect and it completed the upgrade. Prior to rebooting it, I also flashed the "unofficial" motley 4.1.2 kernel posted on XDA. I rebooted the device, and CWM warned me that 'su' needed to be fixed (how nice!) and made it suid again. It rebooted and after android "updated", everything was up and running. I confirmed in settings that it was on 4.1.2 with the custom kernel. SU was suid root as well. Perfect!
Not quite.
I decided to try rebooting into recovery to make sure CWM was still there, or flash it back if it wasn't. I opened up a terminal emulator, removed the new recovery-recovery image in /system, and did "reboot recovery". The Nexus7 rebooted, but rebooted right back into normal operation. Very weird. So I hooked it up to my computer, figuring CWM was gone, and tried to fastboot flash it back. Fastboot said it did, but I still wasn't able to reboot into recovery. I tried three different versions of CWM and even TWRP, but no dice. Every time I tried rebooting into recovery (using terminal emulator, adb shell or bootloader method) it just went right back into the normal boot process.
I spoke to some people on IRC who recommended reflashing the stock image from Google (without wiping user data). I reflashed the bootloader and then did a fastboot update <stock image>, and it said it replaced boot, recovery, system, etc. It rebooted automatically, and I tried going into stock recovery. That still did NOT work. Instead, I got a very sick looking android guy who was lying down with a red triangle with an exclamation point over him. I was a bit worried and upset at this point. I tried reflashing CWM/TWRP again, but nothing. When I did this, I no longer got the unhappy android image, but it just booted up normally.
I decided to try and doing a more thorough wipe, using fastboot to wipe cache/boot/recovery/system manually. Then I reflashed the bootloader and stock image. Still no recovery (stock or custom).
As you can imagine, I was getting even more concerned now. Especially since I was no without root and no way to get it back (since I couldn't get into recovery to flash the zip for it).
I tried every other thing I could think of to flash recovery back, but nothing worked. It wouldn't load at all.
Finally, I was about to do a complete factory reset and wipe/reflash of everything, but one last thought crossed my mind. I found the older (JRO03D) bootloader and flashed that. Reloaded bootloader and selected "Recovery". Voila, I was in TWRP Recovery Mode! (which was the last one I tried installing). I was able to reinstall my SU.zip and get everything back up and running.
SO, long story short, I'm now on 4.1.2, running the newer unofficial motley kernel and have su back. But I'm also stuck on the older 3.34 bootloader. If I try upgrading it back to 3.41, I won't be able to get into recovery.
Has this happened to anyone else? It doesn't seem like it. Is there a HW issue with my device causing this problem? I can't believe it's software related since I tried two different copies of the 3.41 image. Does anyone have any other suggestions on how I can upgrade the bootloader while keeping the ability to get into recovery mode?
Also, while everything *seems* to be working OK using 3.34, do you think it will cause other problems since I'm using 4.1.2?
Thanks.

*MOD EDIT* please don't quote the entire OP
Thanks for the bootloader info. I was in the same boat, and once I found your post, I went back to JRO03D and my recovery has returned.
Again, thanks, you F'n rule!!!

That android with the red triangle sounds like the stock recovery... so I think you actually got it to work, but you just didn't have a custom recovery...
Then again I don't think I've ever seen the stock recovery. Haha
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

MetalWych said:
Thanks for the bootloader info. I was in the same boat, and once I found your post, I went back to JRO03D and my recovery has returned.
Again, thanks, you F'n rule!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. I'm glad to hear that my solution above helped someone else, and also that I'm not the only one experiencing the problem. I assume you mean you only went back to the JRO03D bootloader and not the whole image, right?
What I'm most concerned about is that it seems like my N7 (and possibly yours as well) is defective. I'm not an uber-expert on Android, but I'm fairly knowledgeable. With a stock system, outside of userdata, that I reflashed multiple times from multiple sources, to have any type of recovery (stock or custom) not work is a bit upsetting. Since it works fine on the older bootloader, it definitely seems to be an issue with that. But since most people do not have the same issue, the only variable I can see being the difference is hardware.

Metallice said:
That android with the red triangle sounds like the stock recovery... so I think you actually got it to work, but you just didn't have a custom recovery...
Then again I don't think I've ever seen the stock recovery. Haha
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looked more like a warning symbol that something went very wrong then a stock recovery screen.
I've gone into stock recovery on other Android devices before, and it looked similar to CWM. There was a menu that allowed you to install "authorized" update.zip files, factory reset the device, etc. There was no menu here, just a very pissed off and sick looking android guy .

I believe I am having the same issue. Would you mind linking me to the bootloader which worked for you? Tried searching but couldn't find it. Thanks, and great post!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

There's a big thread around here somewhere with people having the same problem as the op. Unfortunately, staying with the 3.34 bootloader is the only 'fix' I've read about. I still can't figure out why some people run into this problem and some don't. I used twrp to flash the update when it became available, and twrp continued to work afterwards.

spongers said:
I believe I am having the same issue. Would you mind linking me to the bootloader which worked for you? Tried searching but couldn't find it. Thanks, and great post!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It took me a long time to find the old full JRO03D update, since Google only has the latest one on their page. I uploaded the bootloader out of it and you can download it here:
http://core.routed.com/bootloader-grouper-3.34.img
Reboot the Nexus7 into bootloader mode and run:
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-grouper-3.34.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
and then you should be able to flash recovery and get into it.

Metallice said:
That android with the red triangle sounds like the stock recovery... so I think you actually got it to work, but you just didn't have a custom recovery...
Then again I don't think I've ever seen the stock recovery. Haha
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The android with the red triangle does not sound like the stock recovery, it is THE stock recovery.
Under JB 4.1.2 you do not need anymore to connect the N7 to a computer - like it had to be under JB 4.1.1 - to access the bootloader and then the recovery.
Now, pressing volume + power brings the bootloader , the up volume, one press, and then power press put the N7 to recovery. The recovery is the android with the red triangle. To enter in the recovery menu pressing power + volume up brings the menu with the following options:
i) reboot system now,
ii) apply update from ADB,
iii) wipe data/factory reset,
iiii)wipe cache partition.
Concerning specifically the OTA update for an unlock and root N7 there should be no problem during the process using stock recovery or CWM 6.0.1.0 as long as OTA Rootkeeper is set, before the installation, in order to keep root.

the fact that you were able to do volume down + power button into bootloader, then select recovery, makes me know its working. and the android guy on his back is the stock recovery... so everything is working fine. you said you flashed motley kernel, it may have something to do with that, and a few other things. you really need to understand how the N7 works, and what it will do if you do not do certain things.
what u should try is, fastboot flash recovery, then fastboot boot recovery
flash a different rom, i prefer Paul's Jr8 as its close to stock with nice little tweaks and see if your issue continues.
at the end of everything, i honestly find this more user error then device related. not everyone understands what the N7 is doing, and why.

smirkis said:
the fact that you were able to do volume down + power button into bootloader, then select recovery, makes me know its working. and the android guy on his back is the stock recovery... so everything is working fine. you said you flashed motley kernel, it may have something to do with that, and a few other things. you really need to understand how the N7 works, and what it will do if you do not do certain things.
what u should try is, fastboot flash recovery, then fastboot boot recovery
flash a different rom, i prefer Paul's Jr8 as its close to stock with nice little tweaks and see if your issue continues.
at the end of everything, i honestly find this more user error then device related. not everyone understands what the N7 is doing, and why.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Smirkis, my initial thought was that something went wrong in the upgrade process, possibly with the kernel like you suggested, so, as I mentioned in the OP, I flashed everything back to stock 4.1.2. I used flashboot to manually erase boot, cache, recovery and system. I then reinstalled the bootloader from Google's update tarball. I then used fastboot to update to image-nakasi-jzo54k.zip. At this point, outside of wiping sdcard, everything was stock 4.1.2.
While I will admit that I didn't realize that the dead-looking android meant stock recovery (and that's good to hear), subsequently flashing a custom recovery (CWM or TWRP) would continually fail to load it. In fact, I couldn't even boot into the recovery manually without flashing it. While using 100% stock, I attempted to flash three different versions of CWM and one version of TWRP. It claimed it updated, but I was not able to get back into recovery - either through bootloader, adb or "reboot recovery".
I know it's easy for people to always jump to the "user error" answer, but I fail to see how that is the case here. Based on your response, I don't think you actually read what I did and just jumped to the wrong conclusion, especially since I already tried your recommendation and much more. I am not running any custom ROM - everything was always stock outside of recovery, root and kernel. If you can explain your reasoning for thinking I did something wrong in all of my numerous attempts to get it working, I would appreciate it since maybe that would provide a solution. While I did attempt to use a custom kernel originally, that obviously isn't the issue if going back to stock didn't fix it.
Additionally, reverting back to the older bootloader magically fixed everything, while all other attempts failed. Subsequently reinstalling the custom kernel didn't break anything either. So if it wasn't the bootloader and something else was broken, I would assume it would be broken in both versions of the bootloader. The fact that this problem is affecting others, granted a small number, and the same solution works for them, leads me to believe that there is either a bug in the bootloader affecting some N7s or some rare HW defect causing a few of us problems.

There is a conversation about the new android update the boot-loader update and A Power management chip on the nexus 7.. It seems this chip is being changed out. The new chip functions the same as they have been using but Its not compatible with the old boot-loader . The above is the reason for the boot-loader change.. Google is aware of the troubles everyone in this thread is having . I would be looking for a new very tiny update in the near days. Just a guess im wondering if the truth is they are gearing up for the 3g version of nexus .maybe the pm chip being changed has a issue with the added radios. They did say ITS NOT A Chip upgrade but will not say why they are making the switch .
sorry i do not have a link . but everyone knows how to get to google groups ..
Happy Reading..

I just got another N7 in the mail today, gonna unlock n root it when i get off work. hopefully i end up in your situation so i can attempt to assist in resolving this. why the old bootloader works for you, and never worked for the rest of the world is beyond me. they updated it for a reason lol, i even called google the first week i got mine in july to tell them about the bootloader and they "said" they would forward that info to the development team. it took almost 3 months for them to fix it.
if the old one works for you, then use the old one. the only difference really is the fact that reboot to recovery thru bootloader actually works. if it works for you, don't upgrade.
mine on the other hand, couldn't get into recovery via bootloader. i was dieing for that upgrade, and when it came i was beyond relieved. i did a RMA this week because my first one had screen lift since the 2nd day i owned it lol, so i'll report back when i get home in an hour or so on my results.

smirkis said:
I just got another N7 in the mail today, gonna unlock n root it when i get off work. hopefully i end up in your situation so i can attempt to assist in resolving this. why the old bootloader works for you, and never worked for the rest of the world is beyond me. they updated it for a reason lol, i even called google the first week i got mine in july to tell them about the bootloader and they "said" they would forward that info to the development team. it took almost 3 months for them to fix it.
if the old one works for you, then use the old one. the only difference really is the fact that reboot to recovery thru bootloader actually works. if it works for you, don't upgrade.
mine on the other hand, couldn't get into recovery via bootloader. i was dieing for that upgrade, and when it came i was beyond relieved. i did a RMA this week because my first one had screen lift since the 2nd day i owned it lol, so i'll report back when i get home in an hour or so on my results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to clarify, going from bootloader->recovery never worked for me either. Whenever I needed to get into recovery mode, I just opened up a terminal, su'd to root and then ran "reboot recovery", or occasionally doing it via adb. However, those methods always worked for me until I upgraded to the latest bootloader. Then, no custom recoveries would load via any method.
My Nexus7 was first generation. I actually picked it up in Sams Club the day before they were officially released. So if Google made any HW changes in the different revisions, that might explain the difference in results on 4.1.2. Though I imagine most people on XDA also picked theirs up out of the first batch, so I don't think that could be the case. What seems more likely is that there are minor hardware differences that are causing some people's to fail with the 3.41 bootloader, while most don't have that issue. It will be interesting to see if you experience the same issue on your new one though.

gunner1937 said:
Concerning specifically the OTA update for an unlock and root N7 there should be no problem during the process using stock recovery or CWM 6.0.1.0 as long as OTA Rootkeeper is set, before the installation, in order to keep root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It didn't worked for me. I've tried Rootkeeper apk, but it was useless.
This was driving me crazy until I've found this topic! I've tried resetting it to original settings, using rootkeeper and traditional methods, nothing, zero!
At last, phonic saved my life, and finally I a could root my Nexus 7!

I never responded but my RMA worked as it should. but the issue has been resolved with recovery updates from the developers. the rest of the world who had issues should be good to go. I ended up selling my 16gb unit and got a 32 and it works as it should as well. are we all happy campers now?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

I've had similar experiences where the way certain kernels install zips are packaged, the wipe custom recoveries at install. In that situation, I've never wiped anything from system, but rebooted into bootloader and fastboot boot recovery "recovery.img". Then from there install the recovery.zip. The worst is when this happens when you get flash happy away from home and the kernel doesn't work. No way to fix without a comp w/SDK. Glad you're back up and running.
(I cannot be held responsible if the aforementioned damages your device; do the research and own the process.)

I am so glad to have found this thread. This problem was beginning to drive me nuts.

Won't boot into recovery

Hello. I have unlocked bootloader successfully (it says "unlocked" at screen and also "tampered"). I have all the fastboot/adb software on my windows pc and can communicate with the phone. I flash recovery via fastboot and it is successful...includes a "recovery" option under bootloader options but it just flashes a disclaimer screen and quickly goes back to bootloader screen. Without custom recovery I cannot root this phone which is my goal. I have tried to reflash other recovery images, including cmw and twrp - I believe cmw is on it now but it won't open.
Hoping someone can assist me with this.
Thank you

belowHeights00 said:
Hello. I have unlocked bootloader successfully (it says "unlocked" at screen and also "tampered"). I have all the fastboot/adb software on my windows pc and can communicate with the phone. I flash recovery via fastboot and it is successful...includes a "recovery" option under bootloader options but it just flashes a disclaimer screen and quickly goes back to bootloader screen. Without custom recovery I cannot root this phone which is my goal. I have tried to reflash other recovery images, including cmw and twrp - I believe cmw is on it now but it won't open.
Hoping someone can assist me with this.
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reflash whichever recovery you plan to use then remove the battery and put it back in then hold the volume down button and then press and hold the power button at the same time and the phone should then boot to recovery. Make a backup after so you have something to fall back on just in case.

MrMike2182 said:
Reflash whichever recovery you plan to use then remove the battery and put it back in then hold the volume down button and then press and hold the power button at the same time and the phone should then boot to recovery. Make a backup after so you have something to fall back on just in case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply! I just now gave that a shot but it had no effect.

belowHeights00 said:
Thanks for the reply! I just now gave that a shot but it had no effect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you actually holding both buttons down at the same time until the screen turns on? Don't let them go hold them both down until your screen lights up. Then select recovery but if it doesn't work then try below.
Try flashing this version of twrp https://twrp.me/devices/htcdesire510usa32bit.html ... If you're not in the USA I need to know.

Flashing twrp didn't change anything unfortunately. I recently tried re-locking my bootloader and attempted to flash stock images back to the phone but when I press "yes" to the question about voiding the warranty before unlocking the bootloader again...the disclaimer just flashes and the phone won't let it.
Also, I cannot seem to restore it to stock through the menu...nor the bootloader screen.
So now I have "tampered" and "Relocked" banners on top of bootloader screen.
One the upside, the phone itself works fine (I currently only use it for wifi).
Only thing I can think of is I originally flashed a corrupt recovery img (or incompatible version).
Hoping you or someone else has any ideas as to how to get this thing working again. I'd be happy with reverting completly back to stock and starting the process over..

belowHeights00 said:
Flashing twrp didn't change anything unfortunately. I recently tried re-locking my bootloader and attempted to flash stock images back to the phone but when I press "yes" to the question about voiding the warranty before unlocking the bootloader again...the disclaimer just flashes and the phone won't let it.
Also, I cannot seem to restore it to stock through the menu...nor the bootloader screen.
So now I have "tampered" and "Relocked" banners on top of bootloader screen.
One the upside, the phone itself works fine (I currently only use it for wifi).
Only thing I can think of is I originally flashed a corrupt recovery img (or incompatible version).
Hoping you or someone else has any ideas as to how to get this thing working again. I'd be happy with reverting completly back to stock and starting the process over..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What service provider are you using?
Don't toss the unlock code you got from HTC you're gonna need the very first one you got keep it forever.

I'm using Boost but I think I figured it out. It ended up being a corrupt download of cmw. I actually used an ruu to get back stock and now the whole process went smoothly. Just looking for a rom that fits...got any recommendations in that area?

belowHeights00 said:
I'm using Boost but I think I figured it out. It ended up being a corrupt download of cmw. I actually used an ruu to get back stock and now the whole process went smoothly. Just looking for a rom that fits...got any recommendations in that area?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really since everyone has their own tastes but I'd advise you to create a backup in your recovery so you can use it in case something goes wrong. Currently me and a friend are working on CM13/12..

MrMike2182 said:
Not really since everyone has their own tastes but I'd advise you to create a backup in your recovery so you can use it in case something goes wrong. Currently me and a friend are working on CM13/12..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny enough I never made a backup before and constantly have to re-locate stock images due to soft bricking. I now am making backups so as not to go through that again.
I have a question perhaps you could answer -- if I install a rom that doesn't include any additional tweaks such as extended personaliation options in settings (transitions, etc, etc.)..is there a mod I can flash to achieve that?

belowHeights00 said:
Funny enough I never made a backup before and constantly have to re-locate stock images due to soft bricking. I now am making backups so as not to go through that again.
I have a question perhaps you could answer -- if I install a rom that doesn't include any additional tweaks such as extended personaliation options in settings (transitions, etc, etc.)..is there a mod I can flash to achieve that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For extended personalizing other than developer options, I'd use Xposed.

MrMike2182 said:
Not really since everyone has their own tastes but I'd advise you to create a backup in your recovery so you can use it in case something goes wrong. Currently me and a friend are working on CM13/12..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How have you started working on that, i gthink i should join too. Are you working on the USA model or UK? (X86 or X64)

Zubagy said:
How have you started working on that, i gthink i should join too. Are you working on the USA model or UK? (X86 or X64)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The USA model because myself and rb don't have the EU phone to even test anything on it.. We still have a lot of booting problems right now. I'd say if you wanted to help I'd have to ask what you know about building roms from source? Have you done it before?
P.S: There's already a CM-12.1 available for the EU model although it does have some issues.. You should read about it if you want to try it..

MrMike2182 said:
The USA model because myself and rb don't have the EU phone to even test anything on it.. We still have a lot of booting problems right now. I'd say if you wanted to help I'd have to ask what you know about building roms from source? Have you done it before?
P.S: There's already a CM-12.1 available for the EU model although it does have some issues.. You should read about it if you want to try it..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really, But perhaps it time to learn

Zubagy said:
Not really, But perhaps it time to learn
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's pretty cool and fun once you get the hang of making things and seeing them function right, and the other thing is... You'll need a pretty decent computer to compile/build with and it'll need to have at least 4GB ram (more is better) and about 50 to 100 GB hard drive space for building your rom plus the CM source code needs to be on your system too...

MrMike2182 said:
It's pretty cool and fun once you get the hang of making things and seeing them function right, and the other thing is... You'll need a pretty decent computer to compile/build with and it'll need to have at least 4GB ram (more is better) and about 50 to 100 GB hard drive space for building your rom plus the CM source code needs to be on your system too...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess then am good to go, are those the only requirements....... i dont have any source code though

Zubagy said:
I guess then am good to go, are those the only requirements....... i dont have any source code though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well how fast is your internet? By the way.. I'm using a Linux operating system... What are you using? It cannot be done on Windows unless you use a VM.

Hey, I also faced this problem but I find the solution and successfully flash twrp
Hey, I also faced this problem but I find the solution and successfully flash tarp recovery.
belowHeights00 said:
Hello. I have unlocked bootloader successfully (it says "unlocked" at screen and also "tampered"). I have all the fastboot/adb software on my windows pc and can communicate with the phone. I flash recovery via fastboot and it is successful...includes a "recovery" option under bootloader options but it just flashes a disclaimer screen and quickly goes back to bootloader screen. Without custom recovery I cannot root this phone which is my goal. I have tried to reflash other recovery images, including cmw and twrp - I believe cmw is on it now but it won't open.
Hoping someone can assist me with this.
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

MrMike2182 said:
Well how fast is your internet? By the way.. I'm using a Linux operating system... What are you using? It cannot be done on Windows unless you use a VM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the delay, yes.... i am using vm ware... my net is not that fast... but it can get things done.

Galaxy Tab s2 boot loop

I have done this http://forum.xda-developers.com/tab-s2/development/root-cf-autoroot-tab-s2-sm-t3187202 to root my device it all passes and after restart it will not stop looping, Help please?

are you able to get into download mode by holding power + down volume + home button for 10 seconds or until it goes into the mode? If so you can easily use SmartSwitch to reinitialize the firmware, it will download and flash it. http://www.samsung.com/us/smart-switch/
You will need to install Smart Switch and hit emergency software recovery and initialization under the more button in the top right. Your device will likely not be shown in it's current state so you will need to type your specific model number (example "SM-T710") without quotes, you will be asked for your serial number as well, so get the number from the sticker that was on your tablet or the tablet box/product packaging.
You WILL need an internet connection, the program should provide any steps and has a built in guide should anything not be clear in this post. Please be aware that if you did not make a backup you will lose your data. I am not experienced enough to know if there is another way around this but at this point and time I doubt it.
Smart Switch is a fantastic app, it recovered my device when EVERYTHING was destroyed save for the download mode.
Let us know if it works for you!

Nice, mine is the smt810 and I'll do this once I get home in a few hours and let you know how it goes . Thanks

It clearly states you need to flash the permissive kernel before rooting or you will boot loop.

Ok thanks wirelesskebab it worked and ashyx how do you flash it and will it even work? i dont want to brick a 400$ tab lol

Seems I am also in in similar boat. I was going back to stock and the cable became loose and I have a bad flash. I can access download mode but have lost TWRP and root. Problem is odin fails to flash original firmware and smart switch for pc seems to hang at 0% after downloading software. Is there any way to force odin?

triniboy said:
Seems I am also in in similar boat. I was going back to stock and the cable became loose and I have a bad flash. I can access download mode but have lost TWRP and root. Problem is odin fails to flash original firmware and smart switch for pc seems to hang at 0% after downloading software. Is there any way to force odin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How long did you leave smart switch to attempt an initialization? 30 minutes? You may try using smart switch on another computer and giving it a go. Another thing you might try is if the cable is damaged swapping it out.
I can't really say beyond that. I will say that Kies and Smart Switch froze on my PC and I ended up moving to another desktop to get the job done and uninstalling/reinstalling. Make sure to copy your backups though as uninstalling removes them too.
If you are still experiencing issues then unfortunately it is beyond my limited experience. Hope this helps.
Thatguy_1 said:
Ok thanks wirelesskebab it worked and ashyx how do you flash it and will it even work? i dont want to brick a 400$ tab lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that it's better to install TWRP and from inside TWRP click install and load the latest SuperSU from a directory before hand from www.chainfire.eu. That's how I root my tablet. I was using permissive kernel and auto-root but it's not necissary. I can't speak for any benefit or lack thereof.

wirelesskebab said:
How long did you leave smart switch to attempt an initialization? 30 minutes? You may try using smart switch on another computer and giving it a go. Another thing you might try is if the cable is damaged swapping it out.
I can't really say beyond that. I will say that Kies and Smart Switch froze on my PC and I ended up moving to another desktop to get the job done and uninstalling/reinstalling. Make sure to copy your backups though as uninstalling removes them too.
If you are still experiencing issues then unfortunately it is beyond my limited experience. Hope this helps.
I think that it's better to install TWRP and from inside TWRP click install and load the latest SuperSU from a directory before hand from www.chainfire.eu. That's how I root my tablet. I was using permissive kernel and auto-root but it's not necissary. I can't speak for any benefit or lack thereof.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I left smart switch on till I got a try again message odd.. I was wondering why odin and original firmware cant save my bacon at this point?

Thatguy_1 said:
Nice, mine is the smt810 and I'll do this once I get home in a few hours and let you know how it goes . Thanks
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Click to collapse
triniboy said:
I left smart switch on till I got a try again message odd.. I was wondering why odin and original firmware cant save my bacon at this point?[/QUOTo
ok laptop worked.. huge relief back to 5.02
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thatguy_1 said:
Ok thanks wirelesskebab it worked and ashyx how do you flash it and will it even work? i dont want to brick a 400$ tab lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course it will work, but it's for 5.1.1 and 6.0 devices.
Just read the related thread.
Although I can't understand why you boot looped on 5.0.2 as it doesn't require a modification to the boot.img.
As suggested I advise you root with supersu 2.65 via twrp.

Strange issue.

Hey guys! So this is a very strange issue. When I power off my nexus, a lot of times I have to wait a good 30 seconds or so before I can power it back on or go into the bootloader. If I power it off, and try to turn it back on fast, it stays black screen almost as of it's frozen or just not responding. I noticed this issue begun when I flashed the radio from N preview 2, and didn't happen before that. My question here, is what could this be? Can the radio really cause odd things like this to happen? Or is there another cause? I am running the newest Android version MOB30I, and have multirom installed with about 4 or so secondaries.

H4X0R46 said:
Hey guys! So this is a very strange issue. When I power off my nexus, a lot of times I have to wait a good 30 seconds or so before I can power it back on or go into the bootloader. If I power it off, and try to turn it back on fast, it stays black screen almost as of it's frozen or just not responding. I noticed this issue begun when I flashed the radio from N preview 2, and didn't happen before that. My question here, is what could this be? Can the radio really cause odd things like this to happen? Or is there another cause? I am running the newest Android version MOB30I, and have multirom installed with about 4 or so secondaries.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You flashed Npreview radio on a marshmallow build?

Dead-neM said:
You flashed Npreview radio on a marshmallow build?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes! Yes I did. Could this be an issue?

H4X0R46 said:
Yes! Yes I did. Could this be an issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no. as im using the n preview radio on marshmallow, which is the same radio that came out with the last security update.
---------- Post added at 05:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:46 PM ----------
H4X0R46 said:
Hey guys! So this is a very strange issue. When I power off my nexus, a lot of times I have to wait a good 30 seconds or so before I can power it back on or go into the bootloader. If I power it off, and try to turn it back on fast, it stays black screen almost as of it's frozen or just not responding. I noticed this issue begun when I flashed the radio from N preview 2, and didn't happen before that. My question here, is what could this be? Can the radio really cause odd things like this to happen? Or is there another cause? I am running the newest Android version MOB30I, and have multirom installed with about 4 or so secondaries.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im going to guess, try a different kernel. as its the kernel that will boot up the device?

H4X0R46 said:
Yes! Yes I did. Could this be an issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it can. Why did you do that?
Make a backup (android or titatium backup)
Then reflash stock n6 firmware (erase data so put your backup and important files into pc)

Dead-neM said:
Yes it can. Why did you do that?
Make a backup (android or titatium backup)
Then reflash stock n6 firmware (erase data so put your backup and important files into pc)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the N radio, is the same exact radio that google released for the may security patch. so the N radio, is the latest official radio for the nexus 6. so no, that wont be the problem.

simms22 said:
no. as im using the n preview radio on marshmallow, which is the same radio that came out with the last security update.
---------- Post added at 05:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:46 PM ----------
im going to guess, try a different kernel. as its the kernel that will boot up the device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if it is. I'm using the newest Elite kernel for Marshmallow, it's always been my go to kernel. It's strange because after turning the device off, I can't turn it back on instantly, screen stays black as if it's not 100% shut down yet. I have to wait a bit before turning it back on, or entering the bootloader.

simms22 said:
im going to guess, try a different kernel. as its the kernel that will boot up the device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's the bootloader that boots the device.
If he's hitting the power button and unable to get to the "Google" splash screen or the bootloader, the kernel is very irrelevant.
I'd be more curious if he's trying to use the bootloader from the N-Preview 2 with MM. Even though I think it's supposed to be backwards compatible, the bootloader is the only thing that would cause that sort of issue.
*technically* I'm pretty sure that you could format /boot (where the kernel is stored) and still get to your bootloader for fastboot and such. So, the kernel is really irrelevant until after the bootloader does it's thing.
*edit*
also, there's a reason that these are known as "Developer Previews" not "End-User Previews"... If you don't know how to fix weird issues that pop up like that, you should probably avoid them.

Yoinx said:
No, it's the bootloader that boots the device.
If he's hitting the power button and unable to get to the "Google" splash screen or the bootloader, the kernel is very irrelevant.
I'd be more curious if he's trying to use the bootloader from the N-Preview 2 with MM. Even though I think it's supposed to be backwards compatible, the bootloader is the only thing that would cause that sort of issue.
*technically* I'm pretty sure that you could format /boot (where the kernel is stored) and still get to your bootloader for fastboot and such. So, the kernel is really irrelevant until after the bootloader does it's thing.
*edit*
also, there's a reason that these are known as "Developer Previews" not "End-User Previews"... If you don't know how to fix weird issues that pop up like that, you should probably avoid them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mmm yes after what said simms22 I've check the n preview and the bootloader is xxx.18 instead of last mm which is xxx.17 but a bootloader downgrade is risky right?
@H4X0R46 do you use the .sh file and update your bootloader and radio with n preview?

Dead-neM said:
Mmm yes after what said simms22 I've check the n preview and the bootloader is xxx.18 instead of last mm which is xxx.17 but a bootloader downgrade is risky right?
@H4X0R46 do you use the .sh file and update your bootloader and radio with n preview?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It can be. Normally, once you upgrade, you just stick with the new one as they're backwards compatible normally. But, the ones for the Previews aren't always 100%. The whole reason these previews come out is so that developers can start making their apps compatible prior to the official release. Ideally, this is supposed to be done in emulators not necessarily real devices.
If the 30 second delay in powering back on is *that* big of a deal (to him) to risk bricking the phone by downgrading the bootloader and having something go wrong... I say go for it.

Yoinx said:
It can be. Normally, once you upgrade, you just stick with the new one as they're backwards compatible normally. But, the ones for the Previews aren't always 100%. The whole reason these previews come out is so that developers can start making their apps compatible prior to the official release. Ideally, this is supposed to be done in emulators not necessarily real devices.
If the 30 second delay in powering back on is *that* big of a deal (to him) to risk bricking the phone by downgrading the bootloader and having something go wrong... I say go for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is downgrading the bootloader really risky? I've done it before without issue and never knew this was risky! Are you supposed to just stay with the newest bootloader if you already flashed it? I always flash the bootloader for the image I'm flashing, even if I'm downgrading.

Dead-neM said:
Mmm yes after what said simms22 I've check the n preview and the bootloader is xxx.18 instead of last mm which is xxx.17 but a bootloader downgrade is risky right?
@H4X0R46 do you use the .sh file and update your bootloader and radio with n preview?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flash each partition manually.

H4X0R46 said:
Is downgrading the bootloader really risky? I've done it before without issue and never knew this was risky! Are you supposed to just stay with the newest bootloader if you already flashed it? I always flash the bootloader for the image I'm flashing, even if I'm downgrading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's always risky when you're messing with essentially the lowest level software on the device. For instance, lets say that something happens while you're flashing the bootloader and it corrupts. What do you use to reflash it? You can't get to fastboot anymore...
As long as you know what you're doing, don't have corrupt images, and don't lose power or have lightning strike your computer while you're doing it, you would be fine.
The issue is that many/most people on XDA these days have no idea how to recover from problems or even what problems the things that they're doing might cause. So I tend to approach every situation under the assumption that the other poster may not have a full understanding.
No offense intended of course.

Yoinx said:
It's always risky when you're messing with essentially the lowest level software on the device. For instance, lets say that something happens while you're flashing the bootloader and it corrupts. What do you use to reflash it? You can't get to fastboot anymore...
As long as you know what you're doing, don't have corrupt images, and don't lose power or have lightning strike your computer while you're doing it, you would be fine.
The issue is that many/most people on XDA these days have no idea how to recover from problems or even what problems the things that they're doing might cause. So I tend to approach every situation under the assumption that the other poster may not have a full understanding.
No offense intended of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright so that's just to be safe then? My laptop sometimes freezes solid out of the blue, uncommon but does happen, and I always thought "what if I'm flashing stuff?" Scary thought. ESPECIALLY the bootloader! So the danger you're referring to is flashing a bootloader in general, not so much downgrading? Like I said, I always match the bootloader to the version I'm running. This is okay?
EDIT: I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS check the MD5 checksum for EVERYTHING before flashing. Can never be too safe

H4X0R46 said:
Alright so that's just to be safe then? My laptop sometimes freezes solid out of the blue, uncommon but does happen, and I always thought "what if I'm flashing stuff?" Scary thought. ESPECIALLY the bootloader! So the danger you're referring to is flashing a bootloader in general, not so much downgrading? Like I said, I always match the bootloader to the version I'm running. This is okay?
EDIT: I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS check the MD5 checksum for EVERYTHING before flashing. Can never be too safe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In general, the bootloader needs to match the highest version of android you intend to run. They're typically always backward compatible. On some phones, you can't downgrade the bootloader (at least not easily). This phone you should be fine doing so. However, there's not usually any reason to (backwards compatible afterall).

Yoinx said:
In general, the bootloader needs to match the highest version of android you intend to run. They're typically always backward compatible. On some phones, you can't downgrade the bootloader (at least not easily). This phone you should be fine doing so. However, there's not usually any reason to (backwards compatible afterall).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool! Thanks for your input on that! Much appreciated! Yea I'm always wary of the bootloader because like you said, it IS the lowest software on the device. Quick question, if that were to get corrupted, does the device just not boot resulting in permanent brick? Or does it boot just no fastboot access? Might be a noob question, but why not ask lol

H4X0R46 said:
Cool! Thanks for your input on that! Much appreciated! Yea I'm always wary of the bootloader because like you said, it IS the lowest software on the device. Quick question, if that were to get corrupted, does the device just not boot resulting in permanent brick? Or does it boot just no fastboot access? Might be a noob question, but why not ask lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends, I've never really looked into unbricking this phone. Never had to yet.
Depending on the phone you can use tools like QHUSB and similar which let you reflash partitions just through the USB connection.

I know it's late but it could also be just the rom setup. I know a while ago there were commits that shut the device screen and buttons off before it was done shutting down (to make it appear faster) this made devices seem bricked for a short period. I don't know what ever happen to those commits, so I can't say for sure that it is them. But your issue fits perfectly.

So have I been flashing the bootloader wrong all along? I flashed in twrp a couple times but I try to flash them individually and wipe after flashing.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA-Developers mobile app

Anybody able to find out why? I'm surprised to see I'm not the only one having this issue, it's annoying really.