Database Develop

[ODIN][N8013] Prerooted UEALH2 Firmware Package

This post contains a complete firmware update package for N8013 UEALH2. It is based off the Kies images dumped by http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1847706
It was rooted and the system image rebuilt using the guide at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1081239 - FYI partition size for N8013 is 1400M
The package is at http://d-h.st/8v0
This will give you a complete restore to stock UEALH2 plus root, without triggering the flash counter.
By complete, I mean EVERYTHING: Kernel, recovery, system, hidden/preload, cache will be returned to the same configuration as if you flashed UEALH2 via KIES - the only difference is root.
Use Odin to flash it.

Entropy will this my issues? Can you go take a look at my help thread and general and look at my picture of my download mode saying custom?
Sent from a Baked Black Jelly Belly

Entropy, will this work on my note even though i'm already running UEALH2? Got my update OTA last night before I had a chance to root it.
Also, if I'm able to use this and I root my device should I be wary about OTA in the future causing device malfunctions? In other words, what kind of update path should I follow in the future?
Sorry for the newb question. New to Samsung. Used to rooting and flashing and updating my old droid 2 global. Never did anything with my prime before I exchanged it for this and haven't done anything with my RAZR yet. I've kind of been flash cracker dormant for a while.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using xda premium

davidrules7778 said:
Entropy will this my issues? Can you go take a look at my help thread and general and look at my picture of my download mode saying custom?
Sent from a Baked Black Jelly Belly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably, however to reset DL mode to not be custom you'll need my TriangleAway support kernel (for now - Chainfire is going to integrate support into his app by including a compatible kernel for temp-flashing to reset). Flash it, run TA, then flash this and you should be on bone-stock except root.
BTW, this is a COMPLETE package including stock kernel and recovery. Once Mobile Odin supports this device (I gave Chainfire the info he needs to support N80xx) you can flash CWM and any kernel you want from rooted stock like this.
As to OTAs - In the past, many OTAs could be deployed safely to rooted devices as long as you weren't using CWM. However, Samsung seems to have switched to special incremental OTAs that patch the current binaries, so if even one of them is modified in any way, the update will fail. Happened to a lot of users with the last OTA.
Eventually you'll probably see custom firmwares that are deodexed and have the update-related APKs removed so you won't get OTAs.

OK so flash the kernel via Odin ? I am on the old injected rooted tar will it be ok?
Sent from a Baked Black Jelly Belly
---------- Post added at 04:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:20 PM ----------
davidrules7778 said:
OK so flash the kernel via Odin ? I am on the old injected rooted tar will it be ok?
Then flash this?
Sent from a Baked Black Jelly Belly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from a Baked Black Jelly Belly

Another newb question... will this wipe my data? And where can I download Odin for this device? Thanks
Sent from my GT-N8013 using xda premium

I hope it wipes my data and system! I feel like I need a wipe to get my pen working!!
Sent from a Baked Black Jelly Belly

Entropy512 said:
Probably, however to reset DL mode to not be custom you'll need my TriangleAway support kernel (for now - Chainfire is going to integrate support into his app by including a compatible kernel for temp-flashing to reset). Flash it, run TA, then flash this and you should be on bone-stock except root.
BTW, this is a COMPLETE package including stock kernel and recovery. Once Mobile Odin supports this device (I gave Chainfire the info he needs to support N80xx) you can flash CWM and any kernel you want from rooted stock like this.
As to OTAs - In the past, many OTAs could be deployed safely to rooted devices as long as you weren't using CWM. However, Samsung seems to have switched to special incremental OTAs that patch the current binaries, so if even one of them is modified in any way, the update will fail. Happened to a lot of users with the last OTA.
Eventually you'll probably see custom firmwares that are deodexed and have the update-related APKs removed so you won't get OTAs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, if this fixes the S Pen on my tablet I'll be pleasantly surprised. If it's based on the image from jaaka, and ODINing that didn't fix the S Pen for me, would this be any different? I have the same issue as David, tried to root after taking the OTA and after installing CWM and rooting the S Pen stopped working. I've flashed the root injected stock image from zedo multiple times to no avail, and also the UEALH2 one from jaaka, as well as trying to update via Kies after installing the root injected stock image. Formatted data/cache and system too once, although flashing in ODIN should overwrite system completely, right?
Also, can we flash this in Heimdall? Or would you recommend against that?

iofthestorm said:
Hmm, if this fixes the S Pen on my tablet I'll be pleasantly surprised. If it's based on the image from jaaka, and ODINing that didn't fix the S Pen for me, would this be any different? I have the same issue as David, tried to root after taking the OTA and after installing CWM and rooting the S Pen stopped working. I've flashed the root injected stock image from zedo multiple times to no avail, and also the UEALH2 one from jaaka, as well as trying to update via Kies after installing the root injected stock image. Formatted data/cache and system too once, although flashing in ODIN should overwrite system completely, right?
Also, can we flash this in Heimdall? Or would you recommend against that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had weird issues when flashing with heimdall.
Try flashing this, wiping with STOCK recovery, and don't **** around with CWM until you're sure it's working.
Warning: I believe stock recovery is a full 100% wipe, including /sdcard (which is actually /data/media) - CWM takes measure to protect /data/media that might result in unclean wipes sometimes. This is why pershoot would always tell people to wipe in stock recovery if they had problems for example.

Entropy512 said:
I had weird issues when flashing with heimdall.
Try flashing this, wiping with STOCK recovery, and don't **** around with CWM until you're sure it's working.
Warning: I believe stock recovery is a full 100% wipe, including /sdcard (which is actually /data/media) - CWM takes measure to protect /data/media that might result in unclean wipes sometimes. This is why pershoot would always tell people to wipe in stock recovery if they had problems for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wipe in stock recovery 1st? Also when I am on the rooted old firmware, the recovery reboot option doesn't work for me I have to old down power to reboot
Sent from a Baked Black Jelly Belly

Entropy512 said:
I had weird issues when flashing with heimdall.
Try flashing this, wiping with STOCK recovery, and don't **** around with CWM until you're sure it's working.
Warning: I believe stock recovery is a full 100% wipe, including /sdcard (which is actually /data/media) - CWM takes measure to protect /data/media that might result in unclean wipes sometimes. This is why pershoot would always tell people to wipe in stock recovery if they had problems for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright, will do that then. Still waiting for it to finish downloading, seems like dev-host is not that fast unfortunately (or maybe I'm just spoiled by university internet and 4G). I did wipe with stock recovery once during my couple hours of trying to fix my tablet and it didn't seem to help. I probably won't try flashing CWM or rooting again for a while until I can get confirmation from others that it doesn't break the S Pen again. The thing I wanted to try (Screencast) worked but was somewhat unimpressive in terms of quality so I don't need to show it to the person I wanted to show it to (plus without S Pen it's less useful for my specific use case).

iofthestorm said:
Alright, will do that then. Still waiting for it to finish downloading, seems like dev-host is not that fast unfortunately (or maybe I'm just spoiled by university internet and 4G). I did wipe with stock recovery once during my couple hours of trying to fix my tablet and it didn't seem to help. I probably won't try flashing CWM or rooting again for a while until I can get confirmation from others that it doesn't break the S Pen again. The thing I wanted to try (Screencast) worked but was somewhat unimpressive in terms of quality so I don't need to show it to the person I wanted to show it to (plus without S Pen it's less useful for my specific use case).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know it is slow, we need a torrent LOL or on that other site that the other firmware was on,
Entropy do u mind if i mirror it on another site like the previous one? I have a pretty fast upload stream

davidrules7778 said:
i know it is slow, we need a torrent LOL or on that other site that the other firmware was on,
Entropy do u mind if i mirror it on another site like the previous one? I have a pretty fast upload stream
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the whole thing downloaded? My download died at about 70% . Trying to download it from an EC2 instance now too, I'll see what happens I guess.

iofthestorm said:
Do you have the whole thing downloaded? My download died at about 70% . Trying to download it from an EC2 instance now too, I'll see what happens I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just started downloading it lol
Sent from a Baked Black Jelly Belly

Looking forward to trying this. Getting the same issue on downloading though. First attempt showed finished, but was corrupt when I tried to open. I have 50Meg service but can only get about 33KB/sec download grabbing this thing. Lol.

will have to try later when not over loaded or whatever. Annoying!!! Need a better site!!

I hate the post-MegaUpload era...

Entropy512 said:
I hate the post-MegaUpload era...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya lol, i really want to try this..
I can always seem to get touchscreen working again after installing your stock recovery/kernel but no pen, I am hoping this will fix my issue cause i have tried it all
i put clockwork on and tried wiping and nada question in order to wipe do u have to mount first in clockwork? I am use to twrp.
if that is the case i will give that a shot.

Entropy512 said:
I hate the post-MegaUpload era...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I've tried 5 times and each one failed partway through. Do sites like goo.im not let you upload files that big?
What about the site that the other guy used, http://www.peejeshare.com/ ?

ya i tried a lot too,
I also have tried every method in getting the pen to work, and always either get no touch screen or no pen.
I have tried wiping, different orders, flashing clockwork and wiping all in there.
NADA no pen
Shoulda of just waited to root til this came out officially.
I might have to throw in the towel if this tar doesn't work and and send it back after clearing the binary count.
Unless someone has another idea?

Unable to get into Recovery after 4.1.2 upgrade...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Q] Stuck, in many ways

Hi,
I have the non-Taiwan Butterfly S. I unlocked it via HTC Dev, and installed Clockwork Recovery.
This week, the 4.2 update was released for Singapore. It seems to have been in two parts, one which was a minor upgrade (235MB), and after that was applied, I got the option of the larger, 4.3, 700MB, OTA.
Applying the OTA seems to have left me, at boot time, with a blank screen (there is some backlight visible, after the HTC splash). I read tonight that OTA should not be used with custom recoveries, so I have (using fastboot) been able to flash the stock recovery.
I can now go into Fastboot, HBoot, and even Recovery. But I think I may no longer have an actual "system".
How can I flash either a custom ROM, or investigate the situation?
And also, after I see the Recovery screen (the battery icon), what can I do there?
Thanks,

ghane0 said:
Hi,
I have the non-Taiwan Butterfly S. I unlocked it via HTC Dev, and installed Clockwork Recovery.
This week, the 4.2 update was released for Singapore. It seems to have been in two parts, one which was a minor upgrade (235MB), and after that was applied, I got the option of the larger, 4.3, 700MB, OTA.
Applying the OTA seems to have left me, at boot time, with a blank screen (there is some backlight visible, after the HTC splash). I read tonight that OTA should not be used with custom recoveries, so I have (using fastboot) been able to flash the stock recovery.
I can now go into Fastboot, HBoot, and even Recovery. But I think I may no longer have an actual "system".
How can I flash either a custom ROM, or investigate the situation?
And also, after I see the Recovery screen (the battery icon), what can I do there?
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I would do is get TWRP Recovery (Just a matter of personal preference you can get clockwormod too) do a full wipe, clear the cache, dalvik cache and install a custom ROM hope I helped somehow

Do you still have the OTA zipfile on your device? It should be possible to force the stock recovery to install it, I just don't know how exactly. If you manage to achieve that, it should fix any corrupted files or inconsistent state, unless something went completely wrong.
Also, did the CWM recovery actually succeed to install the smaller OTA? I find that somewhat weird, but then again, I haven't tried to install OTAs using CWM, only TWRP and that did fail early.
If it was a 901S, I'd suggest installing the stock ROM from scratch, but since your phone is 901E (as far as I understand) and my stock ZIPs are for 901S, that's not guaranteed to work. Still, you might try to do that, but make sure to make a backup of the current state first, just in case it only gets worse. If it does work, it's probably going to be the easiest way out.
Another option would be to get someone else with the 901E to post a backup of their /system, I could turn that into a ZIP, which would solve your problem.

koniiiik said:
Do you still have the OTA zipfile on your device? It should be possible to force the stock recovery to install it, I just don't know how exactly. If you manage to achieve that, it should fix any corrupted files or inconsistent state, unless something went completely wrong.
Also, did the CWM recovery actually succeed to install the smaller OTA? I find that somewhat weird, but then again, I haven't tried to install OTAs using CWM, only TWRP and that did fail early.
If it was a 901S, I'd suggest installing the stock ROM from scratch, but since your phone is 901E (as far as I understand) and my stock ZIPs are for 901S, that's not guaranteed to work. Still, you might try to do that, but make sure to make a backup of the current state first, just in case it only gets worse. If it does work, it's probably going to be the easiest way out.
Another option would be to get someone else with the 901E to post a backup of their /system, I could turn that into a ZIP, which would solve your problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a 901s he said non Taiwan
Sent from my HTC Butterfly s using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

seyidaga said:
What I would do is get TWRP Recovery (Just a matter of personal preference you can get clockwormod too) do a full wipe, clear the cache, dalvik cache and install a custom ROM hope I helped somehow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have downloaded the Maximus ROM. I am open to doing this, but I cannot figure out how to use the stock recovery (there seem to be no controls).

koniiiik said:
Do you still have the OTA zipfile on your device? It should be possible to force the stock recovery to install it, I just don't know how exactly. If you manage to achieve that, it should fix any corrupted files or inconsistent state, unless something went completely wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think so, too, but at this stage, I am willing to go clean-slate and restart with a stock, factory, look.
koniiiik said:
If it was a 901S, I'd suggest installing the stock ROM from scratch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have downloaded the stock zip from your website. How do i flash that in stock recovery?
I have access to fastboot from my laptop, I can see the device.
Thanks,

daorderdillon said:
It is a 901s he said non Taiwan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, okay, I think I'm getting lost in which area has which version of the phone. Never mind then and thanks for the correction.
ghane0 said:
I think so, too, but at this stage, I am willing to go clean-slate and restart with a stock, factory, look.
I have downloaded the stock zip from your website. How do i flash that in stock recovery?
I have access to fastboot from my laptop, I can see the device.
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, to install custom ROMs, you'll have to use either TWRP or CWM, I don't know about a way to do that using stock recovery.

Ok, I did this:
Installed CWM Recovery
Flashed the Stock zip from koniiiik's archive
Rebooted successfully. Lots and lots of force closes, Everything from android.core to ...
Used Rom Manager to restore a backup made a month ago
Rebooted. All OK now
Flashed Stock Recovery (again, thanks koniiiik)
Booted. Checked OTA. Got a small update (1.x)
Applied. Rebooted, Checked OTA again
Got the 4.3 package. Applied.
All is well
Between Step #3 and #4, I got my entire backlog of SMS delivered, which I lost in the next step. But that is a small price to pay.
Thanks to all of you helped,

ghane0 said:
Used Rom Manager to restore a backup made a month ago
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind uploading somewhere the /system part of that backup? I'd be interested in comparing it to the builds I have at hand.

Backup of /system, nearly stock
I say nearly stock, because it was taken after HTC Unlock, Clockwork Recovery was installed, and root flashed
koniiiik said:
Would you mind uploading somewhere the /system part of that backup? I'd be interested in comparing it to the builds I have at hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have three files in the directory:
system.ext4.tar (0B)
system.ext4.tar.a (954MB)
system.ext4.tar.b (500MB)
Is the split to avoid files greater than 1GB?
Will upload starting a few hours. Dropbox will do?

ghane0 said:
I say nearly stock, because it was taken after HTC Unlock, Clockwork Recovery was installed, and root flashed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't worry about that, of these three, only root affects /system and it should be not too difficult to revert.
ghane0 said:
Is the split to avoid files greater than 1GB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most likely – FAT filesystems, depending on inode size and other factors, only support file sizes up to a certain limit. Sometimes it's 2 GB, sometimes 4 GB, sometimes probably as little as 1 GB.
ghane0 said:
Will upload starting a few hours. Dropbox will do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be most helpful. Thanks.

Dropbox is back up, I have sent you a link.
Thanks

backing up / restoring original firmware

i'm about to root my moto x dev.
i want to keep a backup of the original firmware in case i want to go back.
does it make any difference that it is encrypted? i'm guessing no...
also, any good dumb proof steps? the main info thread only mentions restoring stock by downloading a firmware not using a backed up one.

gcbxda said:
i'm about to root my moto x dev.
i want to keep a backup of the original firmware in case i want to go back.
does it make any difference that it is encrypted? i'm guessing no...
also, any good dumb proof steps? the main info thread only mentions restoring stock by downloading a firmware not using a backed up one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting how? What version of android are you on? These are very important considerations to be able to make a recommendation.
Assuming you intend to unlock your bootloader, you can make a backup with TWRP Custom Recovery BEFORE you root.
If you are using the PIE exploit (only current root method for 4.4.2+), you cannot flash custom recovery. If this is the case, your only option to return to stock will be to flash the official SBF file for your carrier as listed in the "Return to Stock" thread. Not really important since the changes are lost upon reboot anyways.
Regardless, we need more details.
EDIT: Just saw you are using DEV edition.
Very easy!
FIRST: When you unlock your bootloader, it ERASES EVERYTHING. Save anything important first. You cannot make a backup until after you flash twrp, which you can only do AFTER you unlock the BL.
Additionally, according to this thread, it is impossible to backup an encrypted device. So after unlock, you are advised to not choose to encrypt, otherwise no backup can be made: http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x/moto-x-qa/twrp-device-encryption-t2711700
Once Unlocked, flash TWRP custom recovery with mfastboot:
mfastboot flash recovery twrpfilename.img
link to download twrp here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x/development/recovery-twrp-official-support-moto-x-t2779637
then use fastboot to reboot into bootloader:
fastboot reboot-bootloader
now VOL DOWN to "recovery" and VOL UP to open it.
There is a BIG backup button. Use it.
Afterwards, click exit. When you do, it will tell you that you are not rooted and ask if you want to flash SuperSU Installer.
Say yes! Once rebooted, run SuperSU installer and it will root & install SuperSU for you. It will give you 2 options: Choose Play Store Option.
Good Luck

@gcbxda
Keep in mind, since unlocking the bootloader also does a factory reset and puts you back to "fresh out box" the backup you do once you flash TWRP on your phone, will be no different than "Stock Rom" (except TWRP recovery). So why not use the factory firmware to flash the phone back instead of restoring such a backup?
Oh, and keep in mind, if you do backup while in TWRP, you'll want to copy that back up file from the phone to the PC for storage. Future Factory Resets and such will likely wipe the X's internal /SDcard so the backup file would be lost.
Now if your intent is to unlock the bootloader, setup your phone the way you like it before rooting, back up, and then root.... I can see the value in that.

You can also use 'adb pull /sdcard c:\' to backup any files you have

Thanks everyone!
Backing up my stuff is good, but my main concern is going back to stock if I need (what if they release a kick ass moto watch and i need the OTA stock upgrade to use it?
Also, what if I do a backup of the partitions with ADB? ...man sometimes the android community pisses me off. everything must be packaged in a app or some GUI that hides all the information. ...just wasted 2 days reading xposed source to learn that all i had to do, instead of even installing xposed, was to edit a single sql value from 1 to 0... i'm all for the nice guis, but don't hide the actual steps like it is some black magic.
When i started this thread i was thinking of a backup more on the lines of: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2450045
anyway, if adb pull is not an option, my plan of action:
1. backup everything i want on the fake sdcard
2. copy the files out (either adb pull or rootbrowser to move sd files to a external pendrive on the USB OTG)
3. factory reset and/or root bootloader
4. install TWRP (this will be new, always liked classic no-touch CWM on my nexus)
5. backup stock roms
6. root/flash/etc
anyone can expand on item 5 with personal experiences? ideally if you ever did a successful back-to-stock restore

Stock
gcbxda said:
Thanks everyone!
Backing up my stuff is good, but my main concern is going back to stock if I need (what if they release a kick ass moto watch and i need the OTA stock upgrade to use it?
Also, what if I do a backup of the partitions with ADB? ...man sometimes the android community pisses me off. everything must be packaged in a app or some GUI that hides all the information. ...just wasted 2 days reading xposed source to learn that all i had to do, instead of even installing xposed, was to edit a single sql value from 1 to 0... i'm all for the nice guis, but don't hide the actual steps like it is some black magic.
When i started this thread i was thinking of a backup more on the lines of: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2450045
anyway, if adb pull is not an option, my plan of action:
1. backup everything i want on the fake sdcard
2. copy the files out (either adb pull or rootbrowser to move sd files to a external pendrive on the USB OTG)
3. factory reset and/or root bootloader
4. install TWRP (this will be new, always liked classic no-touch CWM on my nexus)
5. backup stock roms
6. root/flash/etc
anyone can expand on item 5 with personal experiences? ideally if you ever did a successful back-to-stock restore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
You can find all the stock roms here - - > http://sbf.droid-developers.org/phone.php?device=0

MikeNaples said:
Hello,
You can find all the stock roms here - - > http://sbf.droid-developers.org/phone.php?device=0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks. i also saw that motorola offer it themselves.. is this their own repository?
but regardless, it is always nice to already have your own handy

gcbxda said:
thanks. i also saw that motorola offer it themselves.. is this their own repository?
but regardless, it is always nice to already have your own handy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Moto officially offers recovery images (full stock rom) for the GSM Dev/GSM Unlocked XT1053 and Verizon XT1060 by request on their web site here -> https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/standalone/bootloader/recovery-images They are the most currently released rom only. You wont find older versions there.
SBF.Droid-Developers.org is neither owned, operated nor sponsored by Moto. They keep every version full stock roms (SBF files) they find. I'm not going to speculate how they come across them, but they have many SBF files that Moto hasn't officially released to the public too. i.e. Sprint, ATT, and other carriers.
---------- Post added at 07:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:01 AM ----------
gcbxda said:
Thanks everyone!
Backing up my stuff is good, but my main concern is going back to stock if I need (what if they release a kick ass moto watch and i need the OTA stock upgrade to use it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are ways to get back to stock to be able to take an OTA -> http://mark.cdmaforums.com/MotoX-ReturnToStock.html
gcbxda said:
Also, what if I do a backup of the partitions with ADB? ...
When i started this thread i was thinking of a backup more on the lines of: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2450045
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can certainly back up that way. But I haven't tried backing up that way and restoring, so I don't know.
gcbxda said:
anyway, if adb pull is not an option, my plan of action:
1. backup everything i want on the fake sdcard
2. copy the files out (either adb pull or rootbrowser to move sd files to a external pendrive on the USB OTG)
3. factory reset and/or root bootloader
4. install TWRP (this will be new, always liked classic no-touch CWM on my nexus)
5. backup stock roms
6. root/flash/etc
anyone can expand on item 5 with personal experiences? ideally if you ever did a successful back-to-stock restore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With my HTC Incredible and HTC Thunderbolt and Moto Droid, I did backups in CWM, and restores. It was mainly for when a new upgrade came out. I would backup my current device setup, apps, etc. Apply the update, and if I didn't like the update or had problems, I could revert to my pre-update backup, rather than flash a stock rom and have to set it up all over again, install all my apps, etc. But the HTC devices had S-OFF, so downgrading wasn't an issue.
With my Droid Bionic, the bootloader wasn't unlocked, so it wasn't an option. And there were issues with GPT.Bin and other items preventing downgrading roms, even when flashing official full SBF files.
I haven't really done this with my VZW Dev X, mostly due to the fact that while the bootloader is unlocked, its not unlocked as much as a Nexus device, or an HTC with S-Off, where you can downgrade and flash any parts no matter what. Security issues, things like GPT.BIN, MotoBoot, etc can still get in the way when trying to downgrade. So I never felt it worth the risk. Not to mention the limited space on the X, and time/effort to make the back up and move the file to the PC, and then getting it back on the phone should I ever need to restore it since there is no real SD card.
If your intent of backing up stock roms is so you can revert to stock, having the Moto SBF files available elevates most users concerns. When flashing the same version, there are ways to do it without losing your Apps/Data (like in the case of running 4.4.2 rooted and modded, but wanting to get back to stock to take the 4.4.3 OTA).
If you want to do a backup/restore inside TWRP, you can. I have read many posts from users who were successful. I just advise that you keep track of the version you back up, and only restore if the same Android version is still on your phone (i.e. only restore a 4.4.2 back up if 4.4.2 is on your phone, only restore a 4.4 back up if 4.4 is still on your phone, etc)

wait, what are the limitations i will have with a unlocked Dev device?
with my nexus and touchpad i often tried 4.3 roms and went back to 4 or 2.3 even...
i tried searching the terms you mentioned but it spawn all sort of threads with OP having some flashing problem and then pages of comments starting with "i think..."
I'm extremely confused now
Sent from my XT1053 using XDA Free mobile app

gcbxda said:
wait, what are the limitations i will have with a unlocked Dev device?
with my nexus and touchpad i often tried 4.3 roms and went back to 4 or 2.3 even...
i tried searching the terms you mentioned but it spawn all sort of threads with OP having some flashing problem and then pages of comments starting with "i think..."
I'm extremely confused now
Sent from my XT1053 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unlocked or Locked Moto X... you have to be concerned when flashing backwards. The Security features on the X prevent downgrading certain components. Attempting to do so will brick or set you up to brick in the future.
Please see -> http://mark.cdmaforums.com/MotoX-Downgrade.htm
Short version... once you have 4.4.2 on your phone, do NOT attempt to downgrade.

KidJoe said:
Moto officially offers recovery images (full stock rom) for the GSM Dev/GSM Unlocked XT1053 and Verizon XT1060 by request on their web site here -> https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/standalone/bootloader/recovery-images They are the most currently released rom only. You wont find older versions there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol. looking back at that thread i whish i had went ahead and did all the backups on all OTA updates before each twrp/root and did not trust motorola to have my back.
I'm a moron. Bumping this as a lesson to others

Boot-loader Flashing vs. using Flashfire

(originally posted in the flashfire threads, but it was suggested I post here)
My apologies if this has already been covered (I could not find an answer in searching)
I appreciate that it can be dangerous to use flashfire to flash the bootloader partition and that one should use fastboot. My question is:
If I download a FW package and the bootloader has changed, what happens if I flash to the kernel, system, cache, vendor etc... and do not flash to bootloader and radio? Will the flash fail; will the phone soft brick; will nothing happen and I can go merrily along?
The question derives from this: If the phone can become unusable with a mismatched bootload and radio to the rest of the images, it would require to unpack the package and check for a version prior to flashing other partitions (so I assume). If I go that far, would it not be easier to not use flashfire and simply manually flash the required files when updates are available?
Thanks
N6, unlocked and rooted (previously always updating latest patches and rerooting myself (using TWRP), but wishing to try flashire)

RLBL said:
(originally posted in the flashfire threads, but it was suggested I post here)
My apologies if this has already been covered (I could not find an answer in searching)
I appreciate that it can be dangerous to use flashfire to flash the bootloader partition and that one should use fastboot. My question is:
If I download a FW package and the bootloader has changed, what happens if I flash to the kernel, system, cache, vendor etc... and do not flash to bootloader and radio? Will the flash fail; will the phone soft brick; will nothing happen and I can go merrily along?
The question derives from this: If the phone can become unusable with a mismatched bootload and radio to the rest of the images, it would require to unpack the package and check for a version prior to flashing other partitions (so I assume). If I go that far, would it not be easier to not use flashfire and simply manually flash the required files when updates are available?
Thanks
N6, unlocked and rooted (previously always updating latest patches and rerooting myself (using TWRP), but wishing to try flashire)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is really rare that a bootloader flash is required, and a radio update is never required. if you dont flash them, then you just dont flash them, thats all.

I'd add that going to a major update you'll want to pay close attention. The bootloader probably will need updating. e.g. lollipop to MM, the bootloader had to be updated.
The radio is optional and often with trial and error, you'll find a particular one that for your hardware, in your area, you get the best signal. There is a thread with N6 flashable radios here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3066052.
Had you posted that you had an N6 in your original post, I'd have helped you, because that's what I use

ktmom said:
I'd add that going to a major update you'll want to pay close attention. The bootloader probably will need updating. e.g. lollipop to MM, the bootloader had to be updated.
The radio is optional and often with trial and error, you'll find a particular one that for your hardware, in your area, you get the best signal. There is a thread with N6 flashable radios.
Had you posted that you had an N6 in your original post, I'd have helped you, because that's what I use
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
both mm a lollipop, i never updated my bootloader. i did update it after mm though.

ktmom said:
I'd add that going to a major update you'll want to pay close attention. The bootloader probably will need updating. e.g. lollipop to MM, the bootloader had to be updated.
The radio is optional and often with trial and error, you'll find a particular one that for your hardware, in your area, you get the best signal. There is a thread with N6 flashable radios here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3066052.
Had you posted that you had an N6 in your original post, I'd have helped you, because that's what I use
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh That looks interesting. My Cellular signal sucks even though I am supposedly close to some towers. I am going to try using flashfire with these (hope I don't brick myself lol)
So I assume that when N comes out officially and I need to change bootloaders, I would do so via fasboot, then afterwards I can the the updates via fashfire.

RLBL said:
Oh That looks interesting. My Cellular signal sucks even though I am supposedly close to some towers. I am going to try using flashfire with these (hope I don't brick myself lol)
So I assume that when N comes out officially and I need to change bootloaders, I would do so via fasboot, then afterwards I can the the updates via fashfire.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
all the radios, and bootloaders, are available in flashable zip for here on xda as well. to flash via twrp recovery

simms22 said:
all the radios, and bootloaders, are available in flashable zip for here on xda as well. to flash via twrp recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool... But I only used TWRP to flash the SU binaries to root. Now that I am rooted, I figured I could simply go back to stock recovery* and use flashfire going forward.
* I figured that because I had no other use for for a custom recovery presently, I may as well stay completely stock and rooted. Furthermore, from my understanding (which can be wrong) I no longer need a custom recovery to flash/install anything, as flashfire can do it all. Of course that brings one to ask "why am I rooted if I am staying stock?". I root my device so I can simulate a power button press without cancelling smart lock operations (either through tasker shell keyevent, gravity screen, or nova prime swipe gesture). I like not having to use the buttons on my phone

Why get rid of custom recovery? Just leave it and keep a backup on hand, then when there is an issue with basically anything you can just restore your backup instead of freaking out and running here using caps and exclamation marks asking how to fix.

scryan said:
Why get rid of custom recovery? Just leave it and keep a backup on hand, then when there is an issue with basically anything you can just restore your backup instead of freaking out and running here using caps and exclamation marks asking how to fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 - why use a custom recovery if I do not need to (serious question, not being confrontational - see below)
2 - I totally know how to flash to whatever I want without using any toolkits (and ofc using a custom recovery)
3 - Why would one assume that one panics? (just because I have a low post count and admittedly an Android noob - N6 1st phone - does not mean I am an idiot)
4 - Considering I am not using custom ROMs and staying stock, I would think the likelihood of things going wrong is low (could be totally wrong there lol but I have done everything myself manually since the get go (never even taken an OTA for my upgrades), and never had 1 issue as of yet. This post was a general question in nature. It was not posted because I needed something to be fixed)
If I do not need it, why have it: I am experimenting to see if I can use FF completely stock (and rooted). Please provide some rationale as to why I should keep a custom recovery so I can evaluate (you may be 100% right). The point is: from my understanding one can use FF without a custom recovery so why not try... so far, so good.
On backups: be aware (not that you should care, but you did comment)... I have nothing on my phone that requires backing up at that... I can completely wipe the phone and it only takes time to do a google restore and I am back to where I am (been there, done that. Annoying for time though lol but I have no data on the phone safe from tasker profiles which are on my google drive and easily restored).

And what happens when you flash a bootloader and something screws up? You can't fix it from the stock recovery menu, now can you. So what not have something useful on the recovery partition for that 1 and 1000 chance something goes wrong.... Just my opinion, being I've been flashing phones since the first Android device was released on T-Mobile. The g1 (still have and still flash Roms
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app

RLBL said:
1 - why use a custom recovery if I do not need to (serious question, not being confrontational - see below)
2 - I totally know how to flash to whatever I want without using any toolkits (and ofc using a custom recovery)
3 - Why would one assume that one panics? (just because I have a low post count and admittedly an Android noob - N6 1st phone - does not mean I am an idiot)
4 - Considering I am not using custom ROMs and staying stock, I would think the likelihood of things going wrong is low (could be totally wrong there lol but I have done everything myself manually since the get go (never even taken an OTA for my upgrades), and never had 1 issue as of yet. This post was a general question in nature. It was not posted because I needed something to be fixed)
If I do not need it, why have it: I am experimenting to see if I can use FF completely stock (and rooted). Please provide some rationale as to why I should keep a custom recovery so I can evaluate (you may be 100% right). The point is: from my understanding one can use FF without a custom recovery so why not try... so far, so good.
On backups: be aware (not that you should care, but you did comment)... I have nothing on my phone that requires backing up at that... I can completely wipe the phone and it only takes time to do a google restore and I am back to where I am (been there, done that. Annoying for time though lol but I have no data on the phone safe from tasker profiles which are on my google drive and easily restored).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. the only one important thing about having twrp installed.. backups and restores. before dlashing or changing anything, i akways create a backup in twrp. if something doesnt work out, you can always restore your backup, as ive done many many times. its a quicky fix it.

31ken31 said:
And what happens when you flash a bootloader and something screws up? You can't fix it from the stock recovery menu, now can you. So what not have something useful on the recovery partition for that 1 and 1000 chance something goes wrong.... Just my opinion, being I've been flashing phones since the first Android device was released on T-Mobile. The g1 (still have and still flash Roms
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that was the whole point of my post was it not? What happens if you DON'T flash a bootloader while using FF (but in the case where it did change)? And like I said, in the 1/1000 chance that something does go wrong and I did not have a backup: Flash the complete package via adb? Like I said, I have nothing to backup, thus nothing to recover. Not saying I shouldn't, just saying I don't. I only used TWRP to gain root access, nothing more (no custom ROMs, kernels, optimizations, anything on my phone...not even local app data saves - I am one of those old farts who uses their phone as a PDA with phone capabilities and that is it. All "data" is cloud based for calendar info etc.)
It was a relatively simple (general) question around some experimentation I am doing to see if it would work if one was completely stock (safe from root); did not think it would turn in an philosophical argument on whether or not one should use a stock recovery (which I have been using a custom up until yesterday, but was thinking about putting it back on this evening anyways, just because)
Anyways, got my answer... thx

simms22 said:
1. the only one important thing about having twrp installed.. backups and restores. before dlashing or changing anything, i akways create a backup in twrp. if something doesnt work out, you can always restore your backup, as ive done many many times. its a quicky fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!... Obviously when I do venture into more with the phone I will do that. Currently it is a work and personal device so the only thing I do is flash Google stock builds instead of waiting for OTAs. Not saying I should not have a backup, but I don't. Only once after the 1st flash I re-locked the bootloader (as per instructions). What I waste of time; but it did show me that in a non-efficient disaster recovery, I can get everything back to where I was.
A restore would have been efficient, but I have found that I really have nothing to back up.. yet.
I guess a (off-topic) question I have for you is: What and Why did things not work out? In my case where I am only flashing stock loads (not waiting for OTAs), what could one anticipate going wrong that a re-flash could not recover from, but a restore could? Example a write corruption of a partition and the only thing I can do is boot into recovery as my PC cannot see the phone via adb? Can something like that happen?

Backing up system is what saves your a**
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app

31ken31 said:
Backing up system is what saves your a**
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cool... but... what if you are stock? Save my ass from what? Will a (re)flash of stock binaries not suffice?
Look I appreciate I am sounding argumentative, but I am curious to understand what can happen and why. I can understand the "need" to do it if customizing a device etc... but I am very curious as to why if you are stock:
example:
A stock user unlocks his bootloader so they can flash files straight from google be it OTAs or the complete package. It is not listed anywhere to have a custom recovery in their instructions which would lead one to believe it is not required if flashing said files... I assume something could go wrong of course and the most efficient way is to do a restore from backup... but I also assume one could simply re-flash and start over.
I am not devaluating the merits of a custom recovery; I was just curious if one could use (easily) flash fire without one - and one can. The purpose of the question was two-fold:
- because I was flashing stock, then reflashing twrp to get root I found the process longer than it needed to be so I thought I could use flashfire and have it do it for me.
- then I realized that flashing re-roots as well so I did not need to flash the custom recovery to obtain root. I thought "hey what if I accidentally checked "recovery" and accidentally went back to stock. No harm done as I can move on and still be rooted.
Not sure my butt needs saving to ask. You may be doing something that having backups is a good and safe idea... what if you are not? No harm in still using a custom of course, but it was just a question (I ask such questions so I know in advance why something happened and what to do so I do not come running to forums in all caps as someone else said lol)
off topic: If one has nothing to backup, what is there to restore?

RLBL said:
cool... but... what if you are stock? Save my ass from what? Will a (re)flash of stock binaries not suffice?
Look I appreciate I am sounding argumentative, but I am curious to understand what can happen and why. I can understand the "need" to do it if customizing a device etc... but I am very curious as to why if you are stock:
example:
A stock user unlocks his bootloader so they can flash files straight from google be it OTAs or the complete package. It is not listed anywhere to have a custom recovery in their instructions which would lead one to believe it is not required if flashing said files... I assume something could go wrong of course and the most efficient way is to do a restore from backup... but I also assume one could simply re-flash and start over.
I am not devaluating the merits of a custom recovery; I was just curious if one could use (easily) flash fire without one - and one can. The purpose of the question was two-fold:
- because I was flashing stock, then reflashing twrp to get root I found the process longer than it needed to be so I thought I could use flashfire and have it do it for me.
- then I realized that flashing re-roots as well so I did not need to flash the custom recovery to obtain root. I thought "hey what if I accidentally checked "recovery" and accidentally went back to stock. No harm done as I can move on and still be rooted.
Not sure my butt needs saving to ask. You may be doing something that having backups is a good and safe idea... what if you are not? No harm in still using a custom of course, but it was just a question (I ask such questions so I know in advance why something happened and what to do so I do not come running to forums in all caps as someone else said lol)
off topic: If one has nothing to backup, what is there to restore?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its all a matter of choice, period.
flashing stock, you dont need to do anything. flashing different mods, custom roms, gapps, or supersu, you need to use twrp recovery. you can even flash twrp to be permenant or flash twrp for a one time use. if you are flashing custom roms/mods regularly, its convieniant to have twrp, if your not it doesnt matter. but the one thing twrp is great for is backing up, in case. and you dont need many back ups, just one recent backup. so you can back up, then get rid of twrp until needed again. anyways, its all a personal choice, and thats all it is. for me, flashing twrp then leaving it makes sense, since ill never ever do anything stock. for you, you have your own needs and wants.

simms22 said:
its all a matter of choice, period.
flashing stock, you dont need to do anything. flashing different mods, custom roms, gapps, or supersu, you need to use twrp recovery. you can even flash twrp to be permenant or flash twrp for a one time use. if you are flashing custom roms/mods regularly, its convieniant to have twrp, if your not it doesnt matter. but the one thing twrp is great for is backing up, in case. and you dont need many back ups, just one recent backup. so you can back up, then get rid of twrp until needed again. anyways, its all a personal choice, and thats all it is. for me, flashing twrp then leaving it makes sense, since ill never ever do anything stock. for you, you have your own needs and wants.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for answering the question.
I figure when this phone (or whichever phone) is not my daily driver and no longer linked to sensitive stuff I will start venturing into the domain of custom ROMs and Kernels.

RLBL said:
Thank you for answering the question.
I figure when this phone (or whichever phone) is not my daily driver and no longer linked to sensitive stuff I will start venturing into the domain of custom ROMs and Kernels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
custom recoveries just make things easier for you, overall, to do stuff. but kernels, that could be the bomb. but you will need to learn about how to use governors/schedulers to make any kind of headways. for example, i use a completely different governor/scheduler(ondemand/deadline) than any other nexus kernel, and i feel that my way makes my phone much better/faster than any other setup. and thats whats important to me

Update: test passed (I knew it would)
With a stock recovery, I was able to use flashfire and upgrade to the latest update and re-root.