EXT ROM Format Error - MDA III, XDA III, PDA2k, 9090 Software Upgrading

Hi All,
Didn't find this via search, and don't recall seeing it before. If it has been covered, sorry...
Anyway, while in the process of taking my BA up to WM5, I ran into an error message given by Repart_DOC.exe. I had already run unlock and unhide, and had the default of 128k set in Repart_DOC, but when I tried to format I got the error " FL_IOCTL_FORMAT_PHYSICAL DRIVE failed ", with just an OK button. When I click OK Repart doesn't fail or anything... Just goes back to the "Format Now!" screen. No matter how many times I try, it always spits out the same error. And, BTW, Yes I did set my memory sizes. Both are about 62meg.
Anyone seen this one before?
Thanks! -M

@msaeng: did you follow exactly what is written in the wiki? First you unhide, then unlock, after that do a soft reset. I followed exactly like that n I had no trouble at all.
I hoped it help.

Yes. EXACTLY as written. Step by step. Actually, I did it a number of times, each with the same result. Unhide and Unlock worked fine, it just can't format the memory. Anyone else care to jump in here? I'm starting to think my BA is cursed...

To confirm you did unhide and unlock correctly, try to delete files on EXTrom. Report the effect.
BTW: you can install/test WM5 without repartitiong, you just loose 16MB of storage memory.

Related

If you stuck on boot or color screen !

Guys,
This is my experience with O2, which stuck on boot after udated to new IVAN's ROM.
First of all I'd like to thank Ivan for his great job.
Now, what I did:
Downgraded to se2003
Unhide, Unlocked EXTROM
Repartition EXTROM to 8MB
Upgraded to new WM5 ROM
Reboot -> STUCK !
I found the solution which worked for me and may be will help you too.
More, after my second attempt to upgrade ROM, my Laptop rebooted itself a 47% ! I did panic- my device was gone dead!
even Bootloader mode was unavailable.
OK, I disconnected PDA from cradle, removed battery and left it for 10 minutes. Then I put battery back, and was able to put it into bootloader mode.
Then, I run mtty utility and typed in "set 14 0" I'm not sure why and how, but it allowed me to to go to bootloader mode.
-I set SE2003 OS
-I repartition EXTROM to 16MB
-Updated again to new Ivan's WM5.
Voila ! it's OK now. I'm installing all needed CAB's and now have clean very fast and working OK WM5 OS o my O2 XDAs PDA.
( although have not tryed yet BT and WiFi)
I'm afraid the problem was due to setting number 8000 KB in partiotion tool set it actually a bit less something about 79xx KB.
May be EXTROM for Ivan's ROM did not like it and failed to boot. But this is just a speculations, I'm not sure. I should perhaps set size o EXTROM to say 9000KB and try again, but simply did not have a time to do test.
Nevetheless, I'm happy now.
can u provide me step by step (noob guide) to downgrade back to wm2003se ... the one i downloaded from the official site doesn't work ... it will say error and i still stuck with wm5 ... im a noob ... please really help, thanks
ok at last i found it ... extract the installation files provided by o2 ... put the rom file into the downgrade folder provide by the modified rom pack ... now i try go back to wm5 ... wish me luck
i tried go back to win2003se but when i use the unlocker tools it failed ... so i guess i will nvr get to see the ext rom ... anyway as long as the phone can be use i will leave it as it is now
Yes, I know, it gives you an error message (something about wrong parameters) on unlock. But, under that you can see another message box with unlock OK message. Quite weird.
Steps I took to downgrade are exactelly as instructions in downgrade folder.
And one more thing I forgot ! After unhiding I did soft-reset, then unlocked and then Formatted ETROM folder before upgrading to WM5.
COM said:
And one more thing I forgot ! After unhiding I did soft-reset, then unlocked and then Formatted ETROM folder before upgrading to WM5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe that's why u able to see the extrom after upgraded to wm5 ... btw i install the cabs one by one and now my wm5 worked ... guess imnot going to touch it anymore, but the performance is actually quite slow ... do you actually install all the cabs into the device, storage card, or extrom partition (i dont have this) ... to maximise the performance?
what WM5 are you using?
if you ask me, i'm using Ivan's ROM + radio 15.0 with about 10 diff. cabs installed.
performance is not such impressive, but everything is working and I do not have soft I won't use.
clean and quite reliable, but speed is slow.
COM -
I also got stuck with a white screen after flashing ArtZ Rom and doing a hard reset.
Just a white screen and nothing happens.
Flashed other Roms - back to Tuma - same thing - white screen after hard rebooting.
Stuck and confused now.
Any ideas for a solution?
Thnx
OK - I am back.
Panic mode over - whew!
Flashed back to WM2003 from i-mate site - it worked.
Then flashed to latest ArtZ Rom.
Don't really know what happened or why. I've upgraded to nearly every WM5 Rom with no problems. suspecting the partitioning of extrom?
hasanj4 said:
OK - I am back.
Panic mode over - whew!
Flashed back to WM2003 from i-mate site - it worked.
Then flashed to latest ArtZ Rom.
Don't really know what happened or why. I've upgraded to nearly every WM5 Rom with no problems. suspecting the partitioning of extrom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am still in the same problems. I can't downgrade to
Windows SE2003, becouse of error 113: "Extended ROM
Update Error". Stucked in white screen and, after reset
at 3 stripe-colored-screen.
Does anybody know the solution for this issue ?
Thank you in advance.
try this for whoever get stuck at boot screen or in bootloader mode
1. Download mtty v1.42 from http://files.pdamobiz.com/ROMs/XDA/mtty1.42.rar
2. Stop ActiveSync, by Task Manager (press Ctrl + Alt + Delete)
kill two processes rapimgr.exe and wcescomm.exe
3. put your device into Bootloader Mode by pressing Power + Record Button and Soft Reset.
4. Run mtty (from downloaded) Choose WCEUSBSH001
5. type "set 14 0" without the quotes to tell bootloader to boot the OS after reset.
6. type "task 28" to get your device formatted
7. type "task 0" to ask your device reboot
8. take the device out of the cradle, and manually reset it if it does not do that already.
good luck.
Sam
imatrix said:
try this for whoever get stuck at boot screen or in bootloader mode
1. Download mtty v1.42 from http://files.pdamobiz.com/ROMs/XDA/mtty1.42.rar
2. Stop ActiveSync, by Task Manager (press Ctrl + Alt + Delete)
kill two processes rapimgr.exe and wcescomm.exe
3. put your device into Bootloader Mode by pressing Power + Record Button and Soft Reset.
4. Run mtty (from downloaded) Choose WCEUSBSH001
5. type "set 14 0" without the quotes to tell bootloader to boot the OS after reset.
6. type "task 28" to get your device formatted
7. type "task 0" to ask your device reboot
8. take the device out of the cradle, and manually reset it if it does not do that already.
good luck.
Sam
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---
imatrix, thank you very much, your hint solved
this issue with stucked boot screen and Extended
ROM Error when downgrading to SE2003.
I already tried with mtty and "SET 14 0", but
don't know for the other commands / task 28, task 0.
The main hint is "task 28" which made DOC_format_HW+
DOCInfoTableinitHW+ other formatting.
Again, thank you very much and all the best to you.
Greetings from Croatia, the small land for a great vaccation ;-)
@MDA3_CRO
Just saw your post.
Could not get mtty to work.
Will keep your instruction for future use (hope not).
Glad your .paper weight' is useful now
Please help I have tried all the above and none of it has worked, I'm still stuck in bootloader screen.
i dont understand what you mean by
4. Run mtty (from downloaded) Choose WCEUSBSH001
5. type "set 14 0" without the quotes to tell bootloader to boot the OS after reset.
6. type "task 28" to get your device formatted
7. type "task 0" to ask your device reboot
when i run my mtty it just opens "Open Port Settings" then it goes to a window that shows i can type in it but it only allows me to copy paste words into it. Can anyone help me please?! i just want to be able to use my BA again

BlueAngel BootLoader

Hello Everyone,
My BA is stuck at the Splash Screen, I suspect that the Bootloader is corrupt. Does anyone know how to flash it?
try this for whoever get stuck at boot screen or in bootloader mode
1. Download mtty v1.42 from http://files.pdamobiz.com/ROMs/XDA/mtty1.42.rar
2. Stop ActiveSync, by Task Manager (press Ctrl + Alt + Delete)
kill two processes rapimgr.exe and wcescomm.exe
3. put your device into Bootloader Mode by pressing Power + Record Button and Soft Reset.
4. Run mtty (from downloaded) Choose WCEUSBSH001
5. type "set 14 0" without the quotes to tell bootloader to boot the OS after reset.
6. type "task 28" to get your device formatted
7. type "task 0" to ask your device reboot
8. take the device out of the cradle, and manually reset it if it does not do that already.
good luck.
imatrix
imatrix's suggestion.
@imatrix
Followed the steps before, and followed them again.. I'm still stuck.
Something interesting happened though:
There are two horizontal stripes across the splashscreen now.
I already tried to flash the OS, It doesn't work with the standard imate flash executable (It used to work before) and now I'm getting a 'MODEL ID ERROR' when I try to flash it using the BAupgrade... executable.
I tried with the MAupgradenoid tool, it flashes but I still get stuck on the splashscreen...
Thanks,
Wadih
BlueAngel Bootloader
Anyone has a way to either dump a bootloader file for the BA (Providing the file of course) or alternatively directives to copy it from another device (From the same make, i.e. Imate PDA2K) ?
Many thanks,
Wadih.
try this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=49611&highlight=model+id+error
imatrix
@imatrix
imatrix said:
try this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=49611&highlight=model+id+error
imatrix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did, but as I specifed in me earlier post, eventhough the MAUpgradenoID flashes the files, I still get stuck at the splashscreen.
Interesting point: After flashing witht the MAUpgradenoID, I try reflashing back with the BAupgradeid.. I get the Model Error ID error back..
Something in the BA is wrong, and I believe it may be in the Bootloader. So, is there a way to replace the bootloader itself?
EDIT: By the way, I can't seem to be able to place a WM5 rom instead of the WM2003, although the flashing procedure starts, it quickly ends (i.e. without the percentage bar appearing) and says that the flashing worked successfully... But nothing gets actually flashed.
Many thanks for the help imatrix.
Regards,
Wadih.
hey,
check this out http://buzzdev.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,100/func,select/id,38/
but i have to warn you, replacing a booter is very dangerous, anything goes wrong during process will kill your device. so please handle with care.
imatrix
@imatrix
imatrix said:
hey,
check this out http://buzzdev.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,100/func,select/id,38/
but i have to warn you, replacing a booter is very dangerous, anything goes wrong during process will kill your device. so please handle with care.
imatrix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link, but how do I copy/get a clean boot bin file? (Which app, syntax, etc...)
Cheers,
Wadih.
BlueAngel froze on isalling wm6.5
much respect 2 all.I'm new here.i tried installing wm6.5 on my Blue Angel i tried putting it on a memory card i pressed power reset hold Camera and Record no luck. i didn't noticed this rom is for the Touch Diamond.i opened the file in the memory card and there was many files.i installed a few files i clicked one file and it froze.what i got is message serial on the top the screen and on the bottom of the screen is v1.02.i also tried sync it with computer no luck.can some one please help me and direct me 2 get wm6.1 because when Blue Angel 6.5 i was directed for the Touch Diamond rom.much respect.thanx a million thanx in advance.lol.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learn 2 live & live 2 learn.learn 2 listen & listen 2 learn.Live 2 love & love 2 live.
We live 2 die & we die living.
life is what u make of it
BlueAngel froze on installing wm6.5
much respect 2 all.I'm new here.i tried installing wm6.5 on my Blue Angel i tried putting it on a memory card i pressed power reset hold Camera and Record no luck. i didn't noticed this rom is for the Touch Diamond.i opened the file in the memory card and there was many files.i installed a few files i clicked one file and it froze.what i got is message serial on the top the screen and on the bottom of the screen is v1.02.i also tried sync it with computer no luck.can some one please help me and direct me 2 get wm6.1 because when Blue Angel 6.5 i was directed for the Touch Diamond rom.much respect.thanx a million thanx in advance.lol.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learn 2 live & live 2 learn.learn 2 listen & listen 2 learn.Live 2 love & love 2 live.
We live 2 die & we die living.
life is what u make of it
100/100 work
imatrix said:
try this for whoever get stuck at boot screen or in bootloader mode
1. Download mtty v1.42 from http://files.pdamobiz.com/ROMs/XDA/mtty1.42.rar
2. Stop ActiveSync, by Task Manager (press Ctrl + Alt + Delete)
kill two processes rapimgr.exe and wcescomm.exe
3. put your device into Bootloader Mode by pressing Power + Record Button and Soft Reset.
4. Run mtty (from downloaded) Choose WCEUSBSH001
5. type "set 14 0" without the quotes to tell bootloader to boot the OS after reset.
6. type "task 28" to get your device formatted
7. type "task 0" to ask your device reboot
8. take the device out of the cradle, and manually reset it if it does not do that already.
good luck.
imatrix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thaks br very good
Hi, I have the problem, that windows does not recognize the Blue Angel any more, so no "WCEUSBSH001" available. Any help??
Thx

can't format extRom..

hi people...
i tried to install a wm5 and a wm6 rom in a qtek 9090 but i can't format and merge ExtRom... i tried to use the rom unlocker found in the a77ila wm5 rom pack but i have a lot of error during unlock.. and when i try to format this error will show: FL_IOCTL_FORMAT_PHYSICAL_DRIVE failed!
i tried with xda-developer unlocker but an unable to find exe file will show..
and repart_doc still not work...
anyone can help me?
my device:
qtek 9090
SO WM2003SE ver. 4.21.1088 (Build 15045.2.6.0)
ROM : 1.40.04ITA
Radio: 1.12.00
Prot Ver: 1337.42
ExtRom ver: 1.40.153 ITA
tnx in advance... and sorry for my bad english
1. You cannot reformat extROM without unhiding and unlocking it first. Follow the procedure step by step. (remeber aboutsoft reset
2. Correct links to both tools as well as the procedure you can find on Wiki (http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Helmi - Installation)
3. Report effects.
3b. Your english is OK
here i am...
followed tutorial step by step...
1. installed the unlocker
2. launched unhide
3. soft reset
4. launched unlock
5. system displays a windows named debug showin ERROR: press OK
6.another system window named debug showin FL_IOCTL_BDTL_HW_PROTECTION press ok
7. another window saying a peripheral connected to system in not working press ok
8. a debug window saying extrom unlocked
9. soft reset
10. launched repart_doc
11. error window saying "FL_IOCTL_FORMAT_PHYSICAL_DRIVE failed" press ok
tried also without soft reset at point 9. same results..
i only see Ext_Rom in memory page of Setting but still remain full
------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally solved...
i don't know why but ita extrom can't be formatted...
so i used an escamotage... upgraded qtek9090 with this rom BA_TMNL_14200_119_11300_Ship
After used unlocker and repart_Doc and all goes on....
now go to upgrade to HELMI_BA_WM6_R0_Public
hiya
i cannot format my DOC too, i got the same error ,
i used TASK 28 under MTTY , but still i'm getting this error.
anyone can help with this problem ?
Hiya
I was searching XDA-DEVELOPERS website about 2 days to find a solution for this problem, I have an I-mate PDA2K, i used all EXTROM tools on this website like this:
1- Installed EXTROM_tools,
2- run UNHIDE ,
3- then run UNHIDE,
4- Soft Reset,
5- now i can see Extended_ROM on my file explorer, i can read it , and able to write on it ... copy paste ...
6- run REPART_DOC.exe on my device,
7- tried many sizes like 128kb, 1024, 2048, 512, 61000, .................
but on this step i always get the god damned FL_IOCTL_FORMAT_PHYSICAL_DRIVE failed,
i finally used Task 28 under MTTY but nothing happened, still have this problem,
No Wayyyyyy ! No wayyyyyyyyyy to repart my DOC size, .... noooooooooooo wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
anyone going to help me plzzzzzzzzzzz ?
try it in this order...
1. downgrade to 2003
2. in WM2003 unlock... unhide... softreset
3. then repart_doc...
4. then upgrade to WM5/WM6
PS:
@Borbor...
hmm... i cannot see any part on your post that you tried to UNLOCK the extrom.
mastermoon DID. you need to unlock it first in order to modify it.
unhiding it just simply makes it visible to filemanagers.
SilverSamurai said:
try it in this order...
1. downgrade to 2003
2. in WM2003 unlock... unhide... softreset
3. then repart_doc...
4. then upgrade to WM5/WM6
PS:
@Borbor...
hmm... i cannot see any part on your post that you tried to UNLOCK the extrom.
mastermoon DID. you need to unlock it first in order to modify it.
unhiding it just simply makes it visible to filemanagers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hiya
I'm not a braincracked one, I'm a computer software engineer and i write CNC machines programs, so i don't need to someone to teach me instructions !!!! i did all, but i got FL_IOCTL_FORMAT_PHYSICAL_DRIVE failed. !
find me a good solution plz !
and i thought landmark's the only one who is bossy...
if you dont need instructions then what are you looking for in here??? duh!!!
you're both at the same level of intelligence... are we downgrading humans now?
P.S.
look at the end of the third post... that is solved.
Everybody is allowed to name themself software engineers nowadays?
Please people start behaving like grown up's we are no longer in kindergarten.
Please:
- listen to each other
- be prepared to be wrong
- try explaining your problem in another way
- but most of all don't try to solve your listening problems by yelling and cussing to each other.
TIA, Flar

Upgrading Treo 750 to WM 6.1

I am having problems upgrading my Treo 750 from Windows Mobile 6.0 to 6.1 standard. I have run the Cheetah unlocker program. I formatted the card and put the radio program on it. Inserted and ran bootloader mode. The screen turns red, green, white and stays that way permanently. I eventually have to pull the card and reset the device. It comes up and works as usual with wm 6.0.
Is my phone not unlocked?
Is the radio program no good?
Any ideas?
Hard to say, but I suspect you either haven't successfully run the unlocker program, or have not formatted the SD card correctly.
BTW - Upgrading a radio would not get you from 6.0 to 6.1 it would only upgrade the radio, so make sure you have downloaded the proper file.
Understood. I have tried both the radio and the cheeimg.nbh file. Both have the same problem. How long should the upgrade take once the bootloader reads the card (so I know how long to wait until I try something else)?
I figured it out....here is the answer from this website. Thanks
originally Posted by dubLeE
With this method I have successfully unbranded, unlocked, and updated 2 Treo 750s that were originally AT&T/Cingular branded.
I spent hours running through multiple threads reading and searching to finally find a solution that worked flawlessly. These steps have been compiled from multiple threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=428048
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=412999
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=334100
Big thanks to Olipro, konker, and jcrompton!!!
Download the following:
Magic Unlocker from http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...21&postcount=2
CheetahUnlocker from http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...68&postcount=1
1_CHEE_MountExtROM.cab and 2_Chee_Extrom_rename.cab from http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...&postcount=374
Treo750_OS5_2_19199WWE_STD.rar from http://omnifusionhosting.net/treo750/
(I couldn't find the original posts for Treo750_OS5_2_19199WWE_STD.rar so I uploaded to my own site for now)
1. Download, extract, and run MAGIC_UNLOCKER on your phone.
2. Select both options in MAGIC_UNLOCKER and click unlock. This will unlock your phone.
3. Format your SD card to FAT32.
4. Extract Treo750_OS5_2_19199WWE_STD.rar and copy/paste CHEEIMG.nbh to the formatted SD card.
5. Transfer 1_CHEE_MountExtROM.cab and 2_Chee_Extrom_rename.cab to your Treo 750.
5. Run/Install 1_CHEE_MountExtROM.cab and then soft reset the phone.
7. Run/Install 2_Chee_Extrom_rename.cab and then soft reset the phone.
8. Click and run Start>Programs>Chee_Extrom_Unlocker. Run it about 3 or 4 time and you should some type of error messages. Just OK or X them and soft reset the phone again.
9. Open File Explorer and click the drop down arrow, in which you will now see ExtendROM. Open it and delete the 2 files in the partition folder.
10. Download, extract, and run CheetahUnlocker on your computer. For this part make sure you have an ActiveSync (XP) or WMDC (Vista) connection to your phone. Click Flash SPL and go through the steps for CheetahUnlocker to Flash SPL. Don't worry about any of the other items in the menu.
11. After going through the steps in CheetahUnlocker and the phone, the phone will enter into tri-color bootloader screen momentarily followed by Loading screen...
12. Next, you'll see a light blue screen with the heading CHEEIMG.nhb followed by a few other entries below it. At this point, it will tell you press the power button. Go ahead and press the End Call/Power button. This will begin the ROM flashing. The ROM flashing takes about 5 to 15 minutes.
13. When the flashing is completed, the bottom of the screen will say Update successful and the entries above with the OK seen at the end. Now reset the Treo 750 with the stylus and immediately (during the Palm Logo) perform a Hard Reset. This is accomplished by pressing and holding the End Call/Power button and simultaneously resetting the Treo 750.
14. You will now be prompted to Erase All Data. Press the Up key of the D-Pad to continue and erase the data. This will format the phone.
11. Upon completion, the Treo 750 will continue to boot-up and go through the initial start-up steps and wizard. Once completed, your phone will now be unlocked, unbranded, and updated to Windows Mobile 6.1.
I made this thread to help people unbrand, unlock, and update their Treo 750s without having to waste hours looking for solutions and how-to something. Basically, made it easier for the noobies and everyone else to find everything in one thread.
Mine goes to a gray screen immediately with an 'update in progress' bar ... takes about 2 minutes to flash the new ROM.
There doesn't appear to be a forum for the 700W/X. Where do I get information on these earlier Treos?
all ur links are not working please check again

Misc partition: Why does it die? How do I fix it?

This is a long thread because I'm trying to provide the maximum detail possible in the hopes of luring some experts to assist. I am a developer with 30+ years experience, though with little *nix experience, since I hitched my wagon to WinTel when people stopped hiring assembly programmers and the term "GUI" began appearing in help wanted ads.
Yesterday, based upon my experience with one phone that I successfully upgraded to CM6-RC1 and another one that failed, I posted a new thread in the G1 General section, which was probably the wrong place for it. Both phones are US TMo G1's purchased within a few days of each other, around December 2009.
During the subsequent 12 hours I read everything I could find about the dreaded "E: Can't find MISC: / (No space left on device)" problem, which I eventually determined was preventing me from proceeding further.
I found many, many examples of people on all types of hardware who were (and many still are) stuck with a hosed-up misc with no idea how to proceed. This was somewhat alarming to me.
I found a few people who were apparently able to fix it by simply doing a flash_image of a misc.img copied from elsewhere. I found a few who seemed to have fixed it with dd. I found others who went through various combinations of installing other things until the problem mysteriously vanished. I found great info about what the misc partition is and how it's used.
What I did not find is:
(a) any clear explanation of how it gets hosed in the first place,
(b) any clear explanation of how to troubleshoot it,
and most importantly (c) any clear explanation of ways to fix it.
This thread is a request for an expert to step in and fill those gaps. Maybe if we can get some "misc lore" in a single place, other people who encounter the problem won't be left hanging.
So first the back story:
Two days ago I decided to install CM6-RC1 on my own G1. It went very smoothly. I was already on Cupcake, so I formatted the card, downgraded back to RC29, I installed Cupcake, formatted again from the phone, used flashrec to install RA 1.7 (which is amazing, by the way; I may be a n00b to phone-guts but that is already apparent), verified the radio version, installed DangerSPL, installed CM6-RC1, and installed the Google Apps. Flawless process.
Loved it. CM6 is great. So the next morning I had my wife leave her phone at home with me. I had seen a thread which led me to believe that the card didn't necessarily have to be formatted twice. I was under the impression I could format it once and drop all the files out there -- only Cupcake needed to be named update.zip for the process outlined above.
So I connected her phone to my laptop, reformatted to FAT32 over USB from Win7, copied all 211 MB of files over, disconnected and went into flashboot. The RC29 downgrade worked fine. I restarted and logged in just to be sure RC29 was on there. I powered off and restarted in recovery mode -- and the misc problem was already there.
In the stock /!\ recovery screen, ALT+L showed the misc error. I couldn't remember if I had seen that previously (having only done this once before), so I hit ALT+S and hoped for the best. The progress bar went about halfway then bombed on an assert in line 4. And that's as far as I got updating my wife's phone: in theory my story could stop here, but being a lifelong geek-type, I decided to forge ahead. I didn't yet know the importance of misc or even recognize it as my main problem, so bear with me.
I rebooted and rooted via telnet and used flashrec to install RA, and tried installing Cupcake that way. I get a different error from RA: No signature, verification failed. I thought I might have a bad file, somehow, despite having used the same update.zip that went into my G1 just fine, so I downloaded it again from megaupload. Then I downloaded the other one named signed-kila-ota. Then I did a file compare and confirmed they're identical. That won't load through RA. Not sure what's up with that.
But after thinking about it and doing more reading, I concluded I probably didn't need Cupcake for CM6-RC1, I just needed the correct radio image to support DangerSPL. So I grabbed the G1 2.22.23 radio image and tried installing that through RA. It extracts and installs ok, then dumps the Can't read Misc error, then tells me to reboot to complete. So I reboot -- and it goes back into the running OS, of course. And then the light goes on, since I did clearly remember on my own G1 it went back into RA, not into Android.
More digging uncovers the radio/SPL thread that explains how misc is used to control reboots, and I finally clearly realize that misc is my problem. (Actually I still don't know why Cupcake won't load from RA, but I still suspect if I can just load the right radio image, it shouldn't matter.)
During the following six hours I have tried a huge variety of things to fix misc, primarily working through an adb connection.
First I tried making a nandroid backup from my working G1. Took me awhile to figure out I had to do it from the command line to force it to backup misc, then I wasted time trying to get the command line to restore that backup, then I finally made another backup on the non-working G1 and copied the "good" misc over -- and still couldn't get it to restore (kept telling me something about being the current version, which I interpreted to mean it wasn't restoring because it thought the backup already matched the live filesystem).
Again, not knowing much about *nix, at this point I was convinced misc was simply dead and gone. I know what a disk partition is, but I didn't see misc (or the others like recovery) in parted, so I don't think I even understand what it means to say misc is a partition. But I didn't see it anywhere, so I thought it had been erased or overwritten or something along those lines.
Then I ran across a thread in which someone suggested doing a "cat /proc/mtd" which yielded the following:
Code:
dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00040000 00020000 "misc"
mtd1: 00500000 00020000 "recovery"
mtd2: 00280000 00020000 "boot"
mtd3: 04380000 00020000 "system"
mtd4: 04380000 00020000 "cache"
mtd5: 04ac0000 00020000 "userdata"
I don't know what it means, but at least I see the system still knows something about misc.
Someone else asked for "dump_image misc /dev/zero" for diagnostic purposes, which yields:
Code:
mtd: ECC errors (0 soft, 1 hard) at 0x00000000
mtd: ECC errors (0 soft, 1 hard) at 0x00020000
Someone suggested "cat /dev/zero > /dev/mtd/mtd0" which results in the error message "cat: write error: No space left on device".
I tried copying misc.img out of the backup folder to the sdcard root and doing "flash_image misc /sdcard/misc.img" and was rewarded with the following lines which I can't interpret, although they're clearly related to the output shown above (I assume flash_image is probably a script or something, which is just doing those same steps internally?):
Code:
mtd: ECC errors (0 soft, 1 hard) at 0x00000000
mtd: ECC errors (0 soft, 1 hard) at 0x00020000
mtd: erase failure at 0x00000000 (I/O error)
mtd: erase failure at 0x00000000 (I/O error)
mtd: skipping write block at 0x00000000
error writing misc: No space left on device
I ran across another thread which suggested the command "dd if=/sdcard/misc.img of=/dev/block/mtd0"... that produced this initially encouraging-looking output, though I don't know what it means and it didn't fix misc:
Code:
512+0 records in
512+0 records out
I also saw a few steps and suggestions relating to fastboot. I didn't try any of these since the only instructions I could find for setting up fastboot (in that stickied noob thread) requires a version 2 radio image, which I can't install because misc is fried.
So, in short, searching xda and the Internet in general hasn't helped much, except perhaps to better prepare me to follow somebody else's instructions . In reality I have gone through several different sets of instructions multiple times and tried a variety of other things, but it always comes back to not being able to complete a radio image installation because of that problem with misc.
I'm willing to try just about anything... and I know there are quite a few others out there with a misc problem who can't seem to make any progress or get any input, so hopefully my exhaustive description of how I got here and what I've tried already will be useful to one of the local experts.
I know that ECC refers to the error correction checksum used to detect memory errors... but I find it awfully suspicious that the two supposed ECC errors fall on the very first and last slots on the misc range -- particularly since everybody else with this problem who posts the results of attempts to troubleshoot it or fix it reports exactly the same thing.
In other words, I assume the error message is wrong. This is pretty much the only reason I don't just conclude that the memory is actually hosed and go shopping for a new phone.
Oh, and... bump.
You are certainly telling the truth about it being quite long. That fact does, unfortunately, make it somewhat difficult to read.
I assume that you've seen a few of ezterry's and/or my own posts about the partitions, which is probably where you saw the info on the misc partition.
In any case, the misc partition isn't a "filesystem" partition as you are familiar with. It is actually just a simple data structure. In fact, only the system, cache, and userdata partitions are actually filesystem partitions, and the cache partition is only a filesystem partition part of the time -- during radio and spl updates, it also is used as a simple data structure with a header field and a payload field. That, along with the misc partition, instructs the SPL to perform a radio or spl update.
Now there is a possibility that it may be possible to salvage the device without a working misc partition. Specifically, the requirement is that you get yourself a high-engineering SPL (one with the ability to fastboot a radio image -- note: it is FAST boot, not flashboot).
One important thing to note that might make things easier is that an error "finding" the misc partition *might not imply a failed misc partition*. It could possibly be a failed CACHE partition. Have you tried FORMATTING your cache partition?
In any case, you are no doubt really wondering about my statement that you might be able to update the SPL without the use of a misc partition.... Read THIS thread and you will see how the partition tables are defined and how they can be overridden. This suggests a way that you can actually DEFINE the SPL partition to the linux kernel, which in turn, should allow you to flash_image an SPL update. What you need to do is determine the starting offset and length of the SPL partition, and define it along with the rest of the partitions on the kernel command line. Once this is done, you should be able to fastboot flash a radio update to the device.
Note: Having just done an RC29 NBH file, there is PRECISELY ONE high-engineering SPL that you can install to the device safely.... 1.33.2003 (ending with a THREE -- very important, a 5 is a brick when combined with an rc29's radio).
Also note: I don't take any responsibility if you fry it completely trying this idiotic procedure without a jtag standing by. It is quite risky. I suggest it because it may be your best chance of getting through this.
Note: fastboot does NOT require a 2.x radio image. Fastboot requires an engineering SPL, which for the same reason, you can't install.
Now as for the location of the read/write errors.... you think that it is suspicious that they occur at the first and last slot of the memory range...
Well this is not unexpected since there are only two slots. Each of 128 kB. The first at 0 offset wrt the start, the second at 20000 offset wrt the start. The ECC error itself says that each of the two blocks has failed whatever operation it was trying to perform.
I suggest that your first step might be to try again writing the RC29 NBH file.
Thank you for the explanations and all the details.
I have actually reloaded RC29 quite a few times. I followed the directions from scratch a couple times in case I had gotten something wrong (of course, this was easy to do since I get stuck pretty early in the process).
I'll try formatting CACHE and I'll take a look at using the SPL you reference and report back later.
I really appreciate the assistance.
Ah, just realized that when you do "Wipe cache" from RA recovery, formatting cache is the second step. Since that is immediately followed by another "Can't read MISC" error message, I guess formatting doesn't fix my misc issue.
In this paragraph:
In any case, you are no doubt really wondering about my statement that you might be able to update the SPL without the use of a misc partition.... Read THIS thread and you will see how the partition tables are defined and how they can be overridden.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your "THIS" didn't link to anything. I'll go search for what you're referring to, since this would appear to be my only remaining solution. No JTAG handy, but if someone of your experience thinks this is probably my last-ditch option, I don't have much to lose anyway, right? I'll take it slowly.
Edit: I think this is it? forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=704560 Pretty clever... crazy and dangerous, sure, but what the hell, it's just a phone, lol...
Again, thanks for taking the time to help out.
MV10 said:
Ah, just realized that when you do "Wipe cache" from RA recovery, formatting cache is the second step. Since that is immediately followed by another "Can't read MISC" error message, I guess formatting doesn't fix my misc issue.
In this paragraph:
Your "THIS" didn't link to anything. I'll go search for what you're referring to, since this would appear to be my only remaining solution. No JTAG handy, but if someone of your experience thinks this is probably my last-ditch option, I don't have much to lose anyway, right? I'll take it slowly.
Edit: I think this is it? forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=704560 Pretty clever... crazy and dangerous, sure, but what the hell, it's just a phone, lol...
Again, thanks for taking the time to help out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before re-writing partitions find a recovery with 'erase_image' (I hear tell clockwork has it) install and try:
erase_image misc
then
flash_image misc <misc.img>
where misc.img is an old nandroid backup from a phone of the same region as your own (least its preferable its the same region your CID is in the structure)
It may correct the issue... if not we can try to flash an engineering SPL via flash_image..
I feel this is very safe in theory (as we don't have to worry about boot mode 3.. thus if a valid SPL is flashed you won't completely brick).. However we have no safeguards at this point in time so be careful that you really understand what is going on.. else you will write garbage to the SPL, and there is no helping that w/o JTAG.
(btw.. the SPL .. even the full engineering ones like 1.33.2003 and 1.33.2005 wont actually let you erase misc.. but will let you flash it)
Thank you, I'll try it later today.
Not that it's relevant to getting me fixed, probably, but no idea how/why this problem crops up? Or is it more a case of an error that can have multiple causes? I found it interesting that so many people were reporting it across the various Android forums, and there seemed to be no attempt to explain it. That kind of thing always makes me curious, particularly in an environment like this -- a room full of curious "dig in and figure it out" personalities...
If it ever happened to me, I would certainly try to figure it out, however this is really difficult since it has never happened to me. I don't think that it is anywhere near as common as you think.
What I believe about the situation at the moment is that it is *probably* a failure somewhere else along the line that simply has this SIDE EFFECT.
ezterry: Do you remember which memory address ranges are written by an nbh file? I recall that the nbh file has divisions for the different partitions, so I suspect that it may not write *everything*. Maybe misc and/or cache are not written?
Note: I have seen plenty of instances of the cache partition getting borked and having weird side-effect. The problem with the cache partition and why IT gets into weird states is that it is a dual-purpose partition -- sometimes a yaffs2 filesystem, sometimes a simple data structure, so if it gets into the data structure mode and something tries to use it as a filesystem, you end up with some interesting side-effects.
lbcoder said:
ezterry: Do you remember which memory address ranges are written by an nbh file? I recall that the nbh file has divisions for the different partitions, so I suspect that it may not write *everything*. Maybe misc and/or cache are not written?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The nbh is just a custom archive the header has 3 arrays of 32bit indicating the following for each partition included
> Partition type (this determines the partition via some mapping to flash radio,hboot,misc,cache,recovery,boot,system,splash1,diag)
> Partition offset from start of the nbh file (signature removed if included)
> size of image
The diagnostic nbh only has the fake 'diag' image.. however most others in the wild seem to have radio, hboot, splash1, recovery, system, cache, userdata...
I don't think I've seen one with misc.
Certainly none of my current collection have it. I Wonder if they allow it?
Clockwork's "erase_image misc" returns an error:
mtd: erase failure at 0x00000000
I also tried wiping and formatting the cache again, on the off chance that maybe clockwork did something differently. Nothing new to report there.
As for this kernel partition approach, do I correctly understand that I would be telling the kernel to create a new partition name mapped to a range which precedes misc where the SPL is located? I assume I can derive the size from an img of the stock SPL of the same version. Any tips on how I can figure out where it starts? (Apologies if it's in that thread Ibcoder referenced, I haven't finished reading it yet.)
Or am I thinking about this completely wrong?
Search for my post with the kernel command line with hboot replacing userdata.. it deliberately is not step by step but has the info needed.
On a somewhat peripherally-related note, I see in this post in the De-bricking thread:
forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7072492&postcount=195
Ibcoder writes: 3) This person goes to boot to the recovery by issuing a "reboot recovery", which sets the command field of the MISC partition to boot-recovery and reboots.
Earlier I had thought about asking whether "reboot recovery" writes to MISC, since I issued that command from the RA console yesterday and to my surprise it worked. I figured I must have misunderstood something and maybe reboot recovery used some mechanism other than writing to MISC, but now I've run across the comment above.
Wouldn't that boot mode flag be the same thing recovery should use to finish installing a radio image?
ezterry, is this the post you're referring to?
forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7064255&postcount=187
MV10 said:
On a somewhat peripherally-related note, I see in this post in the De-bricking thread:
forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7072492&postcount=195
Ibcoder writes: 3) This person goes to boot to the recovery by issuing a "reboot recovery", which sets the command field of the MISC partition to boot-recovery and reboots.
Earlier I had thought about asking whether "reboot recovery" writes to MISC, since I issued that command from the RA console yesterday and to my surprise it worked. I figured I must have misunderstood something and maybe reboot recovery used some mechanism other than writing to MISC, but now I've run across the comment above.
Wouldn't that boot mode flag be the same thing recovery should use to finish installing a radio image?
ezterry, is this the post you're referring to?
forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7064255&postcount=187
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Suggesting, of course, that the misc partition itself is actually quite fine, but whatever subsystems responsible for screwing up when it screws up for you are in some other way broken.... which is not inconsistent with the theories I have presented above. Specifically, I am still quite concerned about your cache partition being somehow defective since it is known for having weird side-effects.
What you may possibly be able to do is hack the reboot command into "reboot flash-hboot"... be ***absolutely certain*** that you get your cache partition set up correctly and fully verified before you do this though, otherwise you WILL need jtag to fix it.
Later I wondered whether reboot had options to specify the flashing modes. I take it from your response that it does not. Given my meager relevant knowledge, significant hand-holding would probably be required to pull that one off!
Another oddity I have noticed: my own G1 shows a device ID of HT91CGZ02056 (through something like "adb devices" for example)... but my wife's G1 (with the MISC issue, or whatever it is) just returns a string of zeros: 000000000000. First noticed that in the nandroid backup directory name.
Not sure if that tells anyone anything useful or interesting, but it sure seems weird.
MV10 said:
Another oddity I have noticed: my own G1 shows a device ID of HT91CGZ02056 (through something like "adb devices" for example)... but my wife's G1 (with the MISC issue, or whatever it is) just returns a string of zeros: 000000000000. First noticed that in the nandroid backup directory name.
Not sure if that tells anyone anything useful or interesting, but it sure seems weird.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could mean that there is a serious defect.... or it could be the same glitch that is causing you problems with misc. Remember that the device ID is stored within the same chip as the misc partition, just at a non-writeable address.
Ha, interesting, I didn't know there was any sort of relationship there. Very interesting.
Well, at this point my wife is freaking out without a phone so I'm just buying her a Galaxy S (yeah I know, Samsung... but frickin' T-Mo doesn't have anything else particularly compelling).
I'm sort of interested in what's wrong with her G1 and I have an unhealthy urge to keep fiddling with it, but honestly I can't justify spending much more time on it right now, too many other things going on in my non-phone-based life.
That means I have a thoroughly unexciting RC29 G1. I assume OTA updates aren't likely to work either (assuming they're still sent out). If either you or ezterry would have any interest in this device (maybe some questions about what went wrong since you haven't seen a MISC failure?), shoot me a PM, I'll see about shipping it off to one of you.
Regardless, I can't express how much I appreciate both of your attempts to help a complete stranger, and I look forward to reading about all the other weird and interesting stuff you guys dig up in the future...

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