Database Develop

Formatting /system, /data?

First off, happy holidays to the XDA community!
So, I've done the math and realized that I've flashed over 100 ROMs (yes, that is including updates) over the past year+. My phone is running really sluggish, no matter the ROM nowadays. Looking around my phone's internal storage, I notice a lot of remains left here and there from the different ROMs. Is there a way that I can wipe my phone's internal shtuff, but keep the Recovery image so that I can flash a ROM without all the other remanances that have accumulated?
If this is possible, what commands would I have to do to accomplish this? (ie, "rm -f *" or w/e).
Thanks guys!
Joe

You could just rm the directories and recreate them, yes? From recovery console? Then just flash your ROM of choice again.

I'm truly a linux noob. Mind informing me what command I would type in the terminal? And are we positive said command will not affect the recovery partition? (Can't afford to botch it up). Thanks!

Reboot into recovery, and drop to a console. Type:
su
rm -r system
rm -r data
mkdir system
mkdir data
Though I can't promise promise that if you rm system it won't screw up your recovery.... I don't THINK it will. Tell me, do you have the sdk setup on your pc? Or at least adb/fastboot?
EDIT: Don't rm system.

Oy. I'm actually embarrassed to admit that the drivers for the phone wouldn't install for me on Windows 7 . So, no I don't have the proper means to get back on my feet were it not to work. Also, where is the SU functionality housed..(ie. /system/bin/su ?).. Would hate to lose root, too

Yes, that would be where the su binary is... but that wouldn't lose you root, not in the sense you mean it. Really, "root" is all in the custom ROM, and in the ability to flash it. When you "root" your phone, you are just installing the spl that will allow you to flash any ROM. Custom ROMs almost all have su functionality built in, and flashing any of them will put that right back in bin.
Anyway, you probably shouldn't rm system... there is a lot of mission-critical stuff in there. I doubt you would do anything irreparable, but with you not having fastboot or at least adb... best to let someone else risk it first. And, sorry, that someone won't be me.

I really appreciate your help, thank you . The reason I want to do this in the first place is to improve the responsiveness on my G1. Sometimes, when the phone is coming out of sleep mode, the touch screen doesn't register where I touch it... It'll effect the touch where ever it feels. I usually turn the screen back off, turn it back on, and that usually gets me back to par... For a while, that is. It occasionally starts spazzing sporatically after I've been using it for a while. Since it decides when the screen will respond properly and when it won't, I want to believe it is a software issue, not hardware. I am running Dwang 1.17.1, processor speed under what he had set (I use 384max, 284min), 8gb Class 6 MicroSD, ext3. Funny enough, this issue occurred less on WG, but still happened. It happens more on Dwang and CM, respectively. Any insight while I have the attention of someone knowledgeable?.. Thanks for your time.

Dwang? For all the talk of that rom being so stable.... it uses the RAM-hacked kernel, which is begging for little bugs like yours. I'm guessing you also use compcache? (I don't remember if his ROMs have it enabled by default or not). Compcache can make things like waking up a little slow. Pretty much, and solo task that can be slow at times, is slower with compcache... especially if you have downclocked your cpu from what Dwang has tested with his memory setup. The thing is, compcache makes more efficient use of RAM, but it does so by compressing it, so your processor works harder, especially when loading anything: returning to browser or home screen, waking the phone, etc.
Also, on Cyan's ROMs, I've noticed something, and I think it's because of his attempts to stay legal by backing up and using whatever google apps you already have, instead of re-flashing them. Sometimes bits of my previous ROM are left over when I flash it, and I get weird bugs. So, do this for me (if you want, and are willing to wipe all your data and apps):
wipe EVERYTHING: data, dalvik, ext, everything
flash the htc image
flash cyanogen's latest
reboot, login, and get to the homescreen
Then, reboot to recovery, wipe everything again, and flash the two images again. Tell me how it works for ya.

Will do that and report back to you asap. I estimate in 30 mins or so. Thanks for the tips, btw.

joewhispers said:
Any insight while I have the attention of someone knowledgeable?..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd just like to give you the disclaimer, I'm just a geek, not necessarily knowledgeable. I'm certainly no ROM dev. I'd hate for anyone to get the idea that I know what I'm talking about here, and follow my advice to the point of messing something up for them.

joewhispers said:
Will do that and report back to you asap. I estimate in 30 mins or so. Thanks for the tips, btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No prob... I do hope you find it more stable now (Cyanogen is really the king of stability). Play with it for a day or so; I will have to come and read your results tomorrow. Forgive me, but I have to sleep. It's 3am in my timezone, and I have to be up early to go see my baby sister open her presents. Will check in tomorrow. Merry Christmas!

Alright, wiped everything.. flashed htc, cm, logged in, repeat. verdict is out for now. quick question, ext3 or ext4 preferred? Enjoy your family, sir. Merry Christmas!

joewhispers said:
Alright, wiped everything.. flashed htc, cm, logged in, repeat. verdict is out for now. quick question, ext3 or ext4 preferred? Enjoy your family, sir. Merry Christmas!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ext3. Also, never wipe anything but user data, and dalvik cache. To format system or w/e just flash a different rom. It will do it for you.

thank you, nephron!

joewhispers said:
thank you, nephron!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
anytime bro

[FIXES] Milestone Latest WIFI Module for 02_36 kernel

Latest and stable Wifi Driver for Android 2.1, Build SHOLS_U2_02.36.0
Build for the kernel "2.6.29-omap1"
** Stable and without any Wifi drop problem, which is compiled from the latest source from Google Android Repository. **
I recently found out that the Wifi driver of the latest Froyo 2.2.1 of Milestone that released by G.O.T. team is a new build and very stable. Therefore, I tried to pull the latest TIWLAN Wifi driver source code from the Google Android Source Repository (http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/hardware/ti/wlan.git;a=summary), and compile it for the ROM build "SHOLS_U2_02.36.0", kernel "2.6.29-omap1".
I succeeded to compile as "tiwlan_drv.ko", and use it with the latest firmware "fw_wlan1271.bin" from the Froyo 2.2.1 build, and finally uses on the "SHOLS_U2_02.36.0", and the result is very stable wifi connection with the proprietary power saving feature .
I am using the ROM South Asia SHOLS_U2_02.36.0, I am not sure if it can be used with any other ROM, but normally should work on any kernel which have the version "2.6.29-omap1".
I did it because that the latest Froyo 2.2.1 beta ROM is not stable enough and the battery drain fast, but it have the stable wifi connection, so I compiled it for 2.1.
Enhancement:
Much more stable WIFI connection, no more connection drop within good signal environment.
No more WIFI freeze occur, will auto re-connect to AP if back to the signaled environment.
Much much much more battery saving (IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT), can also feel that impressively in using "android-wireless-tether".
!!! Use it at YOUR OWN RISK !!!
Make a backup of "/system/lib/modules/tiwlan_drv.ko" and "/system/etc/wifi/fw_wl1271.bin".
Copy the file "tiwlan_drv.ko" to "/system/lib/modules/", and copy the file "fw_wl1271.bin" to "/system/etc/wifi/".
** WARNING **
Normally should work on any ROM which have the kernel version "2.6.29-omap1", BUT I didn't test it for any ROM other than SHOLS_U2.02.36.0, so USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!
It may result in bootloop in case if you did something wrong or not compatible with your ROM (need to revert back to the old driver with OpenRecovery + adb).
Therefore, it is only for advanced users, and ALWAYS MAKE FULL BACKUP of your milestone.
Download link:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ln3xm7

Ooooo nice! The leaked rom did have superb wifi performance...
I'll give this a try on Telus' U2_03.11.0
[EDIT]What does fw_tiwlan_ap.bin do?
And the instruction for fw_wlan1271.bin is just a bit wrong... it's adb push fw_wlan1271.bin /system/etc/wifi/
[EDIT2]Woo! Works!

Lollipop_Lawlipop said:
Ooooo nice! The leaked rom did have superb wifi performance...
I'll give this a try on Telus' U2_03.11.0
[Edit]What does fw_tiwlan_ap.bin do?
And the instruction for fw_wlan1271.bin is just a bit wrong... it's adb push fw_wlan1271.bin /system/etc/wifi/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"fw_tiwlan_ap.bin" is the firmware required for the Froyo 2.2.1 to use Wifi Hotspot, it did nothing on Android 2.1, so just simply ignore it.
and Thanks for pointing out the location of placing the "fw_wlan1271.bin" file, I will modify it.

Lollipop_Lawlipop said:
Ooooo nice! The leaked rom did have superb
[EDIT2]Woo! Works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Congratulation !!
You can use "dmesg" to see the new TIWLAN driver version

How can I copy and paste to the system?
Thanks!

royshum said:
Congratulation !!
You can use "dmesg" to see the new TIWLAN driver version
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your work!
I'll be putting it to the test on Monday when I get to my school campus. Stock 2.1 drivers never worked there and only 2.2.1 drivers work. Fingers crossed! Thanks for the info about the hotspot. Guess it's not very useful for 2.1 users...
How can I copy and paste to the system?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as you have adb setup, it's an easy task.
First, restart to recovery and do a backup:
Code:
adb pull /system/lib/modules/tiwlan_drv.ko tiwlan_drv.ko.bak
adb pull /system/etc/wifi/fw_wlan1271.bin fw_wlan1271.bin.bak
Then, unzip the files into your AndroidSDK/tools/ folder and push:
Code:
adb push fw_wlan1271.bin /system/etc/wifi/fw_wlan1271.bin
adb push tiwlan_drv.ko /system/lib/modules/tiwlan_drv.ko
adb shell reboot

Lollipop_Lawlipop said:
Thanks for your work!
I'll be putting it to the test on Monday when I get to my school campus. Stock 2.1 drivers never worked there and only 2.2.1 drivers work. Fingers crossed! Thanks for the info about the hotspot. Guess it's not very useful for 2.1 users...
As long as you have adb setup, it's an easy task.
First, restart to recovery and do a backup:
Code:
adb pull /system/lib/modules/tiwlan_drv.ko tiwlan_drv.ko.bak
adb pull /system/etc/wifi/fw_wlan1271.bin fw_wlan1271.bin.bak
Then, unzip the files into your AndroidSDK/tools/ folder and push:
Code:
adb push fw_wlan1271.bin /system/etc/wifi/fw_wlan1271.bin
adb push tiwlan_drv.ko /system/lib/modules/tiwlan_drv.ko
adb shell reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
failed to copy - read only!

chungtau said:
failed to copy - read only!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You must have a rooted milestone in order to process.
Before you using adb push, try to remount your /system partition first.
Or you can try the following commands.
Ensure your wifi is turned off first.
*** Remember to make FULL BACKUP for your milestone before proceeding the following commands. ***
Code:
C:\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb push tiwlan_drv.ko /sdcard/tiwlan_drv.ko
C:\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb push fw_wl1271.bin /sdcard/fw_wl1271.bin
C:\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb shell
$ su
# mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock6 /system
# cd /system/lib/modules
# mv tiwlan_drv.ko tiwlan_drv.ko.bak
# cp /sdcard/tiwlan_drv.ko ./tiwlan_drv.ko
# chmod 644 tiwlan_drv.ko
# cd /system/etc/wifi
# mv fw_wl1271.bin fw_wl1271.bin.bak
# cp /sdcard/fw_wl1271.bin ./fw_wl1271.bin
# chmod 644 fw_wl1271.bin
# mount -o ro,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock6 /system
And now, you can try turning on your wifi.
In case if there is any problem occurred, you may reboot into OpenRecovery, revert the drivers from "tiwlan_drv.ko.bak" and "fw_wl1271.bin.bak".

I want to make a quick update and say that this indeed solves my campus wifi issues I have had with 2.1-based drivers.
I'm not 100% sure about the stability of the drivers though - I'm having a little trouble with maintaining a steady connection with SwiFTP.
[EDIT]I must stress, however, that in no way does this mean the new drivers are of any blame. Until I have the time to investigate deeply into this issue, it is an isolated incident that is only occurring within my network and is of no indication of the fault of the new drivers.

I have 2.2.1 milestone but it didnt work with me proper, I installed everything properly but i got error when i try to open wifi. then i restore my back up files but it still gives me eeror

Lollipop_Lawlipop said:
I want to make a quick update and say that this indeed solves my campus wifi issues I have had with 2.1-based drivers.
I'm not 100% sure about the stability of the drivers though - I'm having a little trouble with maintaining a steady connection with SwiFTP.
[EDIT]I must stress, however, that in no way does this mean the new drivers are of any blame. Until I have the time to investigate deeply into this issue, it is an isolated incident that is only occurring within my network and is of no indication of the fault of the new drivers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is glad to hear that the new driver solved your wifi issues .
Besides, are you still having the problem even after setting the "Wifi Sleep Policy" to "Never"?
In my experience, although the new driver is much more stable, but due to the highly power saving, it may still become instable (just in weak signal, not freeze nor wifi hang) if the AP have far distance to your mobile. In this case, you may try "WifiPowerSavingOff" from market to turn off the power saving feature.
But if you turned off the power saving feature for this connection session, it may drain your battery much much faster, so just use it in some trouble network .
hagizma said:
I have 2.2.1 milestone but it didnt work with me proper, I installed everything properly but i got error when i try to open wifi. then i restore my back up files but it still gives me eeror
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You haven't read the instructions carefully. It is the latest wifi driver for "2.1", not "2.2.1", as it is supposed to compile the driver from "2.2.1" down to "2.1".
So for 2.2.1, by default, you are already have the latest wifi driver (at least a stable wifi driver), it is no clue for using it.

royshum said:
It is glad to hear that the new driver solved your wifi issues .
Besides, are you still having the problem even after setting the "Wifi Sleep Policy" to "Never"?
In my experience, although the new driver is much more stable, but due to the highly power saving, it may still become instable (just in weak signal, not freeze nor wifi hang) if the AP have far distance to your mobile. In this case, you may try "WifiPowerSavingOff" from market to turn off the power saving feature.
But if you turned off the power saving feature for this connection session, it may drain your battery much much faster, so just use it in some trouble network :
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's always set to never ever ever turn off wifi unless I explicitly shut it off. For me, it seems like wifi is transferring in bursts or in intervals. After a while (roughly 5 minutes of heavy wifi activity like FTPing stuff), the phone will freeze up and it won't even automatically reboot. Of course, a quick battery pull and the problem is solved, but nonetheless the issue is still here. It *may* be my sdcard, since I've made a swap from a class 6 4GB to a class 2 16GB, but I'm not going to jump to conclusions just yet until I do some testing here and there.
Btw, CM6 uses the file name fw_wlan1271.bin. I'm guessing stock Android from Moto looks for fw_wl1271.bin (just guessing... can't exactly prove it since I'm not running stock Android), which was why I was trying to correct you (although it seems to me both of us are right).
hagizma said:
I have 2.2.1 milestone but it didnt work with me proper, I installed everything properly but i got error when i try to open wifi. then i restore my back up files but it still gives me eeror
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're running 2.2.1-CM6 you can extract the files from the update zip and adb push them into the phone. That is, if you're on CM6. If not, well... you can either upgrade to CM6 or go into fastboot and restore the sbf again.

Lollipop_Lawlipop said:
Yeah, it's always set to never ever ever turn off wifi unless I explicitly shut it off. For me, it seems like wifi is transferring in bursts or in intervals. After a while (roughly 5 minutes of heavy wifi activity like FTPing stuff), the phone will freeze up and it won't even automatically reboot. Of course, a quick battery pull and the problem is solved, but nonetheless the issue is still here. It *may* be my sdcard, since I've made a swap from a class 6 4GB to a class 2 16GB, but I'm not going to jump to conclusions just yet until I do some testing here and there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very interesting what you are saying. I had the same suspicion due the fact that the sdcard is often not accessible, this again causes multiple attempts to write and fills the buffer.
Concerning the battery pull, you can reboot and wipe the protected storage area with a script, so that you don't need to pull out the battery (which at the end does nothing else but losing voltage, resulting in loss of temp data

MenoDev said:
Very interesting what you are saying. I had the same suspicion due the fact that the sdcard is often not accessible, this again causes multiple attempts to write and fills the buffer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have the same suspicion as well.
MenoDev said:
Concerning the battery pull, you can reboot and wipe the protected storage area with a script, so that you don't need to pull out the battery (which at the end does nothing else but losing voltage, resulting in loss of temp data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you go into a bit of detail on that? I'm interested
I've also had problems with the cell signal for 2.2-CM6. Again, I'm not sure the cause of it, but it's a very very serious issue that strikes at the wrong time. It seems like the cell radio freezes up even after a reboot with zero prior warning. So when I try to make a call, it doesn't go through. It's super frustrating, especially when there's really no good alternative to 2.2-CM6 right now. The only way to resolve this issue is to push the Telus baseband files again, but after a while it'll freeze up again. Ugh.
At least the Wifi works.
[EDIT]It seems like the cell problem is at least reported in the thread and acknowledge by other users. It seems to be fixed on 2.2.1-CM6, but since that's a little meh right now I'll have to dig around and see just what's causing the freeze.
[EDIT2]In fact, it seems like the problem is pretty widespread. Anything 2.2-CM6 based (that includes MotoFrenzy, Cronos...) has this problem.

works flawless, extreme improvement, thank you very much!

Lollipop_Lawlipop said:
Yes, I have the same suspicion as well.
Can you go into a bit of detail on that? I'm interested
Well, I use to code similar stuff but I am complete new to android so i have to read the dev guide, if I had no guide I'd probably create a dump, see according the file descriptor where the tables and storage are are located, then set a "write" flag on the file system and flush it to avoid a manual battery pull. but i'm sure there's more elegant ways.
I've also had problems with the cell signal for 2.2-CM6. Again, I'm not sure the cause of it, but it's a very very serious issue that strikes at the wrong time. It seems like the cell radio freezes up even after a reboot with zero prior warning. So when I try to make a call, it doesn't go through. It's super frustrating, especially when there's really no good alternative to 2.2-CM6 right now. The only way to resolve this issue is to push the Telus baseband files again, but after a while it'll freeze up again. Ugh.
At least the Wifi works.
[EDIT]It seems like the cell problem is at least reported in the thread and acknowledge by other users. It seems to be fixed on 2.2.1-CM6, but since that's a little meh right now I'll have to dig around and see just what's causing the freeze.
[EDIT2]In fact, it seems like the problem is pretty widespread. Anything 2.2-CM6 based (that includes MotoFrenzy, Cronos...) has this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made a little research and found a working solution, tested it myself.
Apparently it can happen that the resolved DNS can not be stored under certain circumstances, (in order to trace those, i try to avoid the "out of the box" mods, even though the guys make a tremendous job, but i feel more secure and have a higher learning curve by doing stuff myself).
In order to avoid random disconnects from network or wifi, or worst case both, add the following lines of code to /system/default.prop
net.dns1=8.8.8.8
net.dns2=8.8.4.4
net.rmnet0.dns1=8.8.8.8
net.rmnet0.dns2=8.8.4.4
These are the google dns, most probably the best choice. You can find this out if you fire up the "getprop" command.
I've seen that most Recovery tools such as the G.O.T one, have implemented the DNS fix, but personally I prefer to just fire up a terminal from the phone and add these lines manually with some comment, so i know what and why I'm doing stuff.
Hope this helps, let me know.

Please help! I succesfully copied both files using root explorer, but now I can't turn on wifi. Then I have restored the original files but it didn'tsolve the issue. I could do a nandroid restore but I really don't want to (last backup is quite old). I have a german milestone running 2.1 build SHOLS_U2_02.36.0

b787 said:
Please help! I succesfully copied both files using root explorer, but now I can't turn on wifi. Then I have restored the original files but it solve the issue. I could do a nandroid restore but I really don't want to (last backup is quite old). I have a german milestone running 2.1 build SHOLS_U2_02.36.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you followed the instruction you should have to *.bak files that you previously pulled, so no need to do a "panic rollback".
Did you turn of wifi before copying the kernel objects and made a reboot before turning on wifi as described in the howto ?

MenoDev said:
If you followed the instruction you should have to *.bak files that you previously pulled, so no need to do a "panic rollback".
Did you turn of wifi before copying the kernel objects and made a reboot before turning on wifi as described in the howto ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did turn off wifi before copying any files. However, I didn't rebooted before I tried to start wifi, only after I noticed it doesn't work.

Fix for 2.2.1 Possible?
I have the same issue with my home WIFI network on 2.1 and 2.2.1: namely the connection drops during large transfers (such as a Market app download) and I have to turn WIFI off and on again to have connectivity again.
I wonder if 2.2.1 really has the latest firmware baked in...how would I compile the TI firmware for 2.2.1?

Unmodded restore problems!!!Write protected? Also some Valuable Information

I recently aquired a Streak 7 and am having trouble resetting it since it has all the original owners info on it.
1. I encountered a force close error upon first boot.
- android.process.acore stopped unexpectedly
2. After this error continued to appear I said F*** this and rebooted into the Stock Dell recovery(Volume + and Power)
I chose option 3 for a factory reset and erase internal tablet storage.
Rebooted and Bam same bull**** errors. I did this 3 more times powering off with the pin hole off button after the streak kept booting with this error.
I read this entire forum development and general questions to see what problems others are having, I came across a few threads all very informative on how to attempt to restore your Streak 7.
Before attempting the various methods of either NVFlash, the fastboot method and even flashing clockwork recovery through fastboot I figured I would see what I could get the Streak to do in it's current state.
*Note* I am very familiar with ADB and Fastboot but if I over looked something I will not be offended if anyone can provide some useful information.
OK, Here is my story
I put the streak on my HDMI dock and was able to succefully install the ADB drivers on Windows 7 x64. From there I launched the ADB Shell
c:/androidsdk/tools> adb shell
$
once in the shell i found I could launch the android setting using this command
$ am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.Settings
Once in the settings and periodically hitting forceclose and quit to the .acore error I was able to retrieve this information
Android Version
2.2
Baseband Version
11.809.05.02.00
Kernel version
2.6.32.9
OEM Version
GLUNB1A132433
Build Number
14394
I also realized that I can install apps through adb so I went and installed the latest standalone ADW Launcher which installs fine and allows me to actually use the device a little.
c:\androidsdk\tools>adb install launcher.apk
1307 KB/s (2533717 bytes in 1.892s)
pkg: /data/local/tmp/launcher.apk
Success
You will notice that apps install to this location
/data/local/TMP
it turns out that even installing the new launcher won't allow me to do much because the previose owner changed his google password so I have no market acces or anything like that.
I then tried doing the factory reset within the Android settings>privacy>factory data reset.
The device reboots and I again encounter the same error and the device has also not reset the user data.
So i rooted the device and found that even root was only temporary, the ADB shell returns the # sign indicating that it has root, great but when the device is rebooted it returns to the condition I got it in.
If I run ADB remount with root I get this
c:\androidsdk\tools>adb remount
remount failed: Operation not permitted
c:\androidsdk\tools>
this tells me that even though the phone has root it will not mount any file system with read/write permissions
I then installed the latest free Clockwork Rom Manger via ADB
it prompts me for root permissions I select allow and then the app closes after it downloads and tries to write the clockwork recovery image. I said fine this won't work.
I moved on to the Flashing Clockwork Recovery via Fastboot
In Fastboot I get this
c:\androidsdk\tools>fastboot devices
? fastboot
c:\androidsdk\tools>fastboot -i 0x413C flash recovery clockwork.img
sending 'recovery' (4416 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.560s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [ 0.110s]
finished. total time: 0.670s
c:\androidsdk\tools>
WOW I didn't know that 4MB could be sent and flashed over usb in under a second!!!! WTF!!!!!
So obviously there is something going on here where I cannot write to the internal memory...
I decided to just use NVFlash because people seem to be having luck with it
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1018809
I Didn't.......
I spent a hell of a lot of time downloading and redownloading the different images and finally got them all downloaded successfully. I run the restore.bat file and it says everything went fine but it didn't, I tried NVFlash with and without P14.img and it just doesn't seem to do anything it always restores it to how it was when i got it errors and all.
Now for the best method I tried, the fastboot method by flashing boot_orig.img, recovery_orig.img and system_orig.img
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1011654
Flash_image is not and ADB Shell command
and I also don't beleive the images are writing to the disc that fast.
I'm tired of typing now so please if anyone has any info on how I can write information to the internal ROM memory not the internal sd card I would greatly appreciate it.
Tom

wikedbubble said:
I recently aquired a Streak 7 and am having trouble resetting it since it has all the original owners info on it.
1. I encountered a force close error upon first boot.
- android.process.acore stopped unexpectedly
2. After this error continued to appear I said F*** this and rebooted into the Stock Dell recovery(Volume + and Power)
I chose option 3 for a factory reset and erase internal tablet storage.
Rebooted and Bam same bull**** errors. I did this 3 more times powering off with the pin hole off button after the streak kept booting with this error.
I read this entire forum development and general questions to see what problems others are having, I came across a few threads all very informative on how to attempt to restore your Streak 7.
Before attempting the various methods of either NVFlash, the fastboot method and even flashing clockwork recovery through fastboot I figured I would see what I could get the Streak to do in it's current state.
*Note* I am very familiar with ADB and Fastboot but if I over looked something I will not be offended if anyone can provide some useful information.
OK, Here is my story
I put the streak on my HDMI dock and was able to succefully install the ADB drivers on Windows 7 x64. From there I launched the ADB Shell
c:/androidsdk/tools> adb shell
$
once in the shell i found I could launch the android setting using this command
$ am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.Settings
Once in the settings and periodically hitting forceclose and quit to the .acore error I was able to retrieve this information
Android Version
2.2
Baseband Version
11.809.05.02.00
Kernel version
2.6.32.9
OEM Version
GLUNB1A132433
Build Number
14394
I also realized that I can install apps through adb so I went and installed the latest standalone ADW Launcher which installs fine and allows me to actually use the device a little.
c:\androidsdk\tools>adb install launcher.apk
1307 KB/s (2533717 bytes in 1.892s)
pkg: /data/local/tmp/launcher.apk
Success
You will notice that apps install to this location
/data/local/TMP
it turns out that even installing the new launcher won't allow me to do much because the previose owner changed his google password so I have no market acces or anything like that.
I then tried doing the factory reset within the Android settings>privacy>factory data reset.
The device reboots and I again encounter the same error and the device has also not reset the user data.
So i rooted the device and found that even root was only temporary, the ADB shell returns the # sign indicating that it has root, great but when the device is rebooted it returns to the condition I got it in.
If I run ADB remount with root I get this
c:\androidsdk\tools>adb remount
remount failed: Operation not permitted
c:\androidsdk\tools>
this tells me that even though the phone has root it will not mount any file system with read/write permissions
I then installed the latest free Clockwork Rom Manger via ADB
it prompts me for root permissions I select allow and then the app closes after it downloads and tries to write the clockwork recovery image. I said fine this won't work.
I moved on to the Flashing Clockwork Recovery via Fastboot
In Fastboot I get this
c:\androidsdk\tools>fastboot devices
? fastboot
c:\androidsdk\tools>fastboot -i 0x413C flash recovery clockwork.img
sending 'recovery' (4416 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.560s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [ 0.110s]
finished. total time: 0.670s
c:\androidsdk\tools>
WOW I didn't know that 4MB could be sent and flashed over usb in under a second!!!! WTF!!!!!
So obviously there is something going on here where I cannot write to the internal memory...
I decided to just use NVFlash because people seem to be having luck with it
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1018809
I Didn't.......
I spent a hell of a lot of time downloading and redownloading the different images and finally got them all downloaded successfully. I run the restore.bat file and it says everything went fine but it didn't, I tried NVFlash with and without P14.img and it just doesn't seem to do anything it always restores it to how it was when i got it errors and all.
Now for the best method I tried, the fastboot method by flashing boot_orig.img, recovery_orig.img and system_orig.img
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1011654
Flash_image is not and ADB Shell command
and I also don't beleive the images are writing to the disc that fast.
I'm tired of typing now so please if anyone has any info on how I can write information to the internal ROM memory not the internal sd card I would greatly appreciate it.
Tom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bump for a resolution. A lot of folks seem to be encountering this issue; I think it has something to do with a Linux failsafe measure (from another thread), but I'm not savvy enough in Linux to know for sure. Good luck to you!

Hey Thanks for the Bump, I am tearing my hair out over thins thing.
On another note I found this post for the LG GX2 for flashing clockwork recovery through APX with NVFLASH
http://www.techofweb.com/technology/flashing-cwm-recovery-g2x.html
I hope there might be a way to do this on the Streak, but I don't know that much about NVFlash. My hope in getting the clockwork recovery is that the restore and recovery tools used in clockwork recovery will in theory allow me to format and write roms to the internal memory...... I hope
Anyway I hope someone is reading and understanding my trouble other than Z4nd4r
Tom

I've been having similar problems with my streak7. It was working fine on stock 2.2.2 then got stuck in boot loop at the "stick together" screen.
I tried to factory reset in recovery. No change.
I tried to restore with nvflash. It completed fine, but no change.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1018809
I tried with fastboot (boot.img, restore.img and system.img). It completed fine, no change.
I tried the 2.2.2 update.pkg in recovery, but it stops at "install modem error", no change.
I tried to flash DJ_Steve's honeycomb, and it stops at:
Formatting partition 2 BCT please wait... FAILED!
command failure: create failed (bad data)
bootloader status: partition table is required for this command (code: 8) message: nverror:0x2 (0x2) flags: 0
I tried formatting all partitions with:
nvflash --bl bootloader.bin --format_all
then restore with nvflash
It completes with no errors, but still no change.
I also tried to get clockwork on the streak 7 with fastboot. Even though I didn't get any errors, clockwork recovery did not get installed. So I'm thinking it's some sort of write protect error, since nothing I write to the device seems to be sticking.
If I format all partitions, would the streak 7 even get to the t-mobile "stick together" logo? I would think it would get stuck at the dell logo. I'm stuck at this point and have no idea what to try next. Any suggestions?

Could the problem be due to previous owner(s) trying to root the DS7 and Dell had implemented some kind of security measure to prevent rooting of the DS7?

Bump for a real solution.
I found a solution and my solution was to sell it before I threw it against a wall.

What's the common denominator, here? Were these all purchased used/3rd party?

Mine was bought new and ran great till mothers day and my sis asked to use it to post pics to facebook so I unmounted my sd and gave it to her she poped in her 32 gig sd card and got tired of waiting for the the gallery to populate and ejected the card without unmounting it and handed it back to me and said it was junk an and slow .......ever since its been stuck in read only
Ive dissasymbled it formated it flashed it factory reset it and reguardless of what I do still comes back the same as though I hadnt touched it.......even tried to short the nand chip out to clear it..........its like a cockroarch thats wounded .....it just wont finish dieing

I think we need a jtag solution. Doesn't seem like anything done with current tools will help.
I've scoured the internet and turned up nothing.
My streak 7 is collecting dust and probably going on eBay soon. To hell with Dell. This is my first Dell android device and probably my last.
Edit: found information
So I found the datasheet for the NAND chip the Streak 7 uses (http://omapworld.com/iNAND_e_MMC_4_41_IF_data_sheet_v1_0[1].pdf). Aparently the NAND has a write protect feature (temporary and permanent). Tech5 from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1113264 says there's a failsafe function that locks the NAND in write protect mode. I don't have the hardware expertise to dig down and see if the system is write protecting the system by locking the chip in write protect mode. If we can somehow figure out how to disable the write protect on the chip, we may have a solution. Maybe someone with good hardware knowledge can take a look and give some feedback?

I'm having this same issue over here. I've tried NVFLASH and Fastboot and it acts like it's happening and then you reboot and get back to the same image every time. Maybe time for a call to Dell on this?

Call Dell
It looks like these Streaks are all stock and having the same problem. I tried calling dell but they wouldn't help me because the streak I got doesn't have the flap for the sd card and that is where they say the Service Tag is written. Freaking BullSh!t. Anyway if someone is willing to call dell and see what they have to say that would be awesome.

Dell is the only solution?
I had a same problem too. No matter what I do, the unit reverts back. It became Read-Only Mode. I guess it happens often enough DELL aware of this problem and the tech supports knows what to do. Only way to fix the unit at this point is ship it back.
I shipped back to Dell and Dell repaired it. Turn Around time: 1 Week.
This is my 1st post.
I do have Streak 5 and 7. I love Streak 5 and DJ Steve's ROM Rocks in Streak 5.

wikedbubble said:
It looks like these Streaks are all stock and having the same problem. I tried calling dell but they wouldn't help me because the streak I got doesn't have the flap for the sd card and that is where they say the Service Tag is written. Freaking BullSh!t. Anyway if someone is willing to call dell and see what they have to say that would be awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings > About > Status > Service Tag at the bottom.
I'm on the phone with Dell right now about this as I can't find another solution and another user had to get theirs repaired. We'll see what they say.

Solution to write protect?
I was trying to copy some music to mine and got the write protect error message. I took out the micro SD card holder and it indeed was locked. Flipped the switch and back in business! Hope this helps someone!

I wonder if it is newer streaks that are doing this, because I think mine was in stock with Tmobile for a while. They had plenty of them there. They must be "Locking the bootloader" so to speak. If anyone wants to send one to a Dev maybe they can do something about it.

any luck with this any 1? =(

I had a similar issue last week, it looks to be the "Read-Only" Bug. I had to send mine back to Dell, and they just sent me a new unit.
Whatever you do, make sure your DS7 does NOT hit 0% battery, it seems to be the cause of this "Ready-Only" bug.

N1 rebooting

I'm on CM 7.1.0-N1 now , I was having randomly reboots, sometime like 2 or 3 in a hour , sometime 1 per day.
Today I just update to 7.1.0 , but same issue was happening on 7.0.2
I did tried the following to narrow the issue:
-Change to a new SIM
-reformat SD card
-wipe and factory reset (twice)
-upgrade from 7.0.2 to 7.1.0
-After the wipe and reset factory , I keep using the phone without any app installed, and after 12 hrs it did reboot
Issue is still happening most of the time when phone is idle
For now My only hope is that SD card could be provoking the reboot but Im not sure about that
I have a 2 old days logcat (that I got after a reboot) , so I don't know if anyone can help me looking into the logcat file, I cannot find anything useful on the log file
Please let me know if I can attach the file , right now Im monitoring my phone , if I get another reboot I will try to obtain a newest logcat
Any idea or suggestion will be appreciated
thanks in advance!

I just saw a similar post, sorry for creating a new one (I did a search before creating it but found nothing).
I will try with this suggestion posted by Jack_R1
Immediately after the phone rebooted, connect it to ADB and execute:
adb bugreport > bugreport.txt
Check the file, see the last_kmsg log and the last logcat (bugreport has several sections).
If you see "ARM9 has crashed" - your phone's HW is faulty and needs repair.

[FIX] Get Out Of "Test Mode"

All credit for this find goes to alasdair529.
alasdair529 said:
What I did was, I went into LGPNST and I took the VS910 dll and the original VS910ZV4_04.S4_04.P58008.R5.user.tot
found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1120062
and put my phone in download mode (emergency mode) holding power buttone and volume up
and I flashed it using LGPNST
and Voila my phone is back to normal, no more test mode. My phone is perfect working condition with all usb modes and internet connection working, no more test mode.
Also my phone is back to charging normal. I am so happy I fixed this, I was about to sell it and get something else
honestly there is nothing more to it then that took about 1 minute to set it all up then LGNPST did all the work, very simple, I just don't know why no one else on Google could figure this out or at least post a guide to it if they did, feel free to make a post in the development section, can't wait for mtmichaelson to see this and fix his phone too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I tried to flash v4 or v6, but after that it doesn't boot.
v7, it boots well, but still shows me usb test mode or usb factory mode
weird...

lentm said:
I tried to flash v4 or v6, but after that it doesn't boot.
v7, it boots well, but still shows me usb test mode or usb factory mode
weird...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had factory cable connected a new USB cable fixed that.
Sent from my VS910 4G using xda premium

I found that fix out also, but I would like to know how to ax test mode without haveing to roll back to Froyo. Because, correct me if I'm wrong, but won't flashing the v7 tot file again just create the test mode issues all over again?

atomD21 said:
I found that fix out also, but I would like to know how to ax test mode without haveing to roll back to Froyo. Because, correct me if I'm wrong, but won't flashing the v7 tot file again just create the test mode issues all over again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it will
Sent from my Dread Ginger Revo using Tapatalk.

Not to dread this up again, but has anyone had any progress on this? Do we know where testmode is being set? Kernal, Radio, ROM...APK?
I would think if it were a bootup setting somewhere, we should be able to do a file or text-in-file search from root up up through the child folders within the core OS. If it were in the APKs, the settings could be in the XML prefs somewhere.. still very searchable.
I have my step-daughters phone stuck in test mode... /=
I dont what to re-create the wheel and spend hours doing stuff that has been done.... so I ask you all this: what do we know so far? Has a simple OS level search in the linux system been done? Is it something in in one of the .rc init files?
It must be somewhere and if we re-root after the TOT, then we should be able to fix this.
Any of the custom ROMs have this if we flash over the TOT? That would rule out APK and ROM settings.

Today I ended up doing a full factory reset, flashed clean V7 tot, then the V8 tot and re-rooted, and finally installed the new breakout rom and I'm still in test mode...

nasaiya said:
Today I ended up doing a full factory reset, flashed clean V7 tot, then the V8 tot and re-rooted, and finally installed the new breakout rom and I'm still in test mode...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So this would eliminate ROM and APK.
What are we left with... kernel, radio or recovery partition? Some other hidden partition?
The TOT does a complete re-partition so there must be some hidden key in here somewhere.
I wish I were one of the heavy ROM guys, but I'm just a linux novice and decent developer.
Lets keep brainstorming!

Well I'm just guessing here so bear with me...
AFAIK the cause is flashing in emergency download mode, which is something outside of the normal system, and also outside of the recovery partition. Based on that (and the previous post) I'd guess it set a test mode flag somewhere on another partition that gets "checked" at boot.
I figure we ought to be able to get images of all the partitions with dd but I wouldn't know what to do with that data once I had it... Maybe compare with a non-test-mode phone and look for inconsistancies.
I could be totally wrong though I'm not very familiar with the boot process and that sort of thing.
EDIT: found this: http://wiki.rootzwiki.com/LG_Revolution_Software_Breakdown
Maybe it sets a flag in the MISC partition like it does to boot into recovery or something like that. That stuff is a bit over my head though.

nasaiya said:
Well I'm just guessing here so bear with me...
AFAIK the cause is flashing in emergency download mode, which is something outside of the normal system, and also outside of the recovery partition. Based on that (and the previous post) I'd guess it set a test mode flag somewhere on another partition that gets "checked" at boot.
I figure we ought to be able to get images of all the partitions with dd but I wouldn't know what to do with that data once I had it... Maybe compare with a non-test-mode phone and look for inconsistancies.
I could be totally wrong though I'm not very familiar with the boot process and that sort of thing.
EDIT: found this: http://wiki.rootzwiki.com/LG_Revolution_Software_Breakdown
Maybe it sets a flag in the MISC partition like it does to boot into recovery or something like that. That stuff is a bit over my head though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a great find. I'm going to spend some time reviewing that data in hopes that it is something as simple as tweaking one of those partitions.

Sounds good. I'm happy to help with this in any way possible, so let me know if you need anything...
Having to use adb to transfer files all the time is annoying!

I started playing around in the android OS and here are some files I found that ahve "testmode" within them. I tried doing a full system search, but the 'find' keeps stalling/freezing. init.rc has some, what looks like, programmer patch scripts in it that directly affect testmode. What's funny is that each "patch" is labeled by the devs email address! We could probably email the guy to find out how to disable testmode.... (=
# find . -type f -exec grep -l "testmode" {} + 2> /sdcard/err.log
./init.rc
./system/lib/libandroid_runtime.so
./system/lib/libhardware_legacy.so
./system/app/VerizonHiddenMenu.apk
./system/app/Settings.apk
./system/app/LgHiddenMenu.odex
./system/app/LgHiddenMenu.apk
./system/etc/efs.txt
./system/framework/framework.odex
./system/bin/btld
./system/bin/lg_diag_app
./sys/devices/platform/testmode/uevent
./sys/devices/platform/testmode/modalias

I emailed one of the engineers listed in the init.rc file.... MAYBE if we're lucky, he'll help us out.

So far, not looking good. I think he may be thinking I was it disabled in the core, but he doesn't understand that its running actively.
Code:
[B]Eric <[email protected]> Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 9:13 AM
To: 김세현 <[email protected]>[/B]
[I]Thank you for your response!
Can testmode be disabled in Linux or from Android. Can we dial a code to turn it off?
How can I turn it off? Do you know how or can hint at how to do it?
Thank you again[/I]
[B]김세현 <[email protected]> Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 9:25 AM
To: Eric <[email protected]>[/B]
[I]Impossible!!
If you are guru, then you can disable it and then it make a brick.
It’s useless job. Why are you trying that?
Give up I suggest. Testmode is lg version of QCT diag cmd set.
BR.[/I]

Guys, test mode is embedded deep inside the kernel source. Disabling it in one place will cause it to not build because it is referenced in another file. Remove it from there and it won't build because of another. Etc., etc., etc. Now what you can try is asking if he knows which partition holds the flag for test mode. It is obviously not /boot, /data, /system/, or /recovery.
Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk

mtmichaelson said:
Guys, test mode is embedded deep inside the kernel source. Disabling it in one place will cause it to not build because it is referenced in another file. Remove it from there and it won't build because of another. Etc., etc., etc. Now what you can try is asking if he knows which partition holds the flag for test mode. It is obviously not /boot, /data, /system/, or /recovery.
Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey mt,
Do we know why emergency mode installed tot's flag testmode whereas regular installed tot's (from cwm recovery or usbmode) dont flag flag testmode? Same tot's same kernel, right?
Is it possible to pull the other mounts images (not /system, /data, etc) and push them to a testmode device?

I don't believe it's tots flashed from emergency mode per se, but rather phones that had bad recoveries installed first, then flashed in emergency mode.
Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk

mtmichaelson said:
I don't believe it's tots flashed from emergency mode per se, but rather phones that had bad recoveries installed first, then flashed in emergency mode.
Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed.
Now, where is the flag, byte offset, or whatever that is flagging the whole system to be in 'testmode'. If it can be set, it can be unset.
Since /system, /data and /cache are wiped and replaced with a new ROM, then that leaves one of the other.. what (3 or 4) mounted partitions that could contain this flag. Maybe the rootfs contains this flag as a byte offset?
Again, what if a partition from a non-testmode device was exported and pushed to a testmode device? Is there a way to compare these other partitions byte for byte between a good and testmode device?
How I wish I was a linux guru right now.... damn you Microsoft!

I found a program called wxHexEdit that seems about right for the job...
It can compare two binary files / images.
I'm currently having a peek at the MISC partition but I don't have a non-testmode copy to compare it with.
If someone could hook me up with an image (mmcblk0p8) from a non-test-mode phone that would be great!

I got out of test mode easy, just csll verizon and get a new phone.