can't flash. Hangs on all writes during flash. - Motorola Droid Bionic

I have a droid bionic that I acquired used that had some major stability issues when I got it. It appeared to be on stock ICS when I got it, so I tried to reflash through rsdlite. The flash just stuck on step 1 of the flash. I've tried HOB method, and every other method I've come across, but all writes to the phone just hang indefinitely. All of the erase steps complete though, and when I've unplugged the USB cable after hanging and plug back in, it will move on to the next erase, copy, write step and hang on the write. So now I have a phone that appears to have every thin wiped during the deletes, and no system of any kind. From day one, when entering recovery I would get several lines about not being able to mount cache etc. The only thing that flashed successfully was a radio flash.
I appreciate any help, but please don't direct me to any more guides unless it is relevant to the can't mount... errors I'm getting. I need to find the reason why no write operations complete and just hang. That's where my problem really lies.

Genaugmen said:
I have a droid bionic that I acquired used that had some major stability issues when I got it. It appeared to be on stock ICS when I got it, so I tried to reflash through rsdlite. The flash just stuck on step 1 of the flash. I've tried HOB method, and every other method I've come across, but all writes to the phone just hang indefinitely. All of the erase steps complete though, and when I've unplugged the USB cable after hanging and plug back in, it will move on to the next erase, copy, write step and hang on the write. So now I have a phone that appears to have every thin wiped during the deletes, and no system of any kind. From day one, when entering recovery I would get several lines about not being able to mount cache etc. The only thing that flashed successfully was a radio flash.
I appreciate any help, but please don't direct me to any more guides unless it is relevant to the can't mount... errors I'm getting. I need to find the reason why no write operations complete and just hang. That's where my problem really lies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i recently had issues with rsdlite but eventually got it working with jb4.1.2.
i am using 5.7 and erased a couple things from the xml file to get it working. if you dont care of root install 4.1.2

podagee said:
i recently had issues with rsdlite but eventually got it working with jb4.1.2.
i am using 5.7 and erased a couple things from the xml file to get it working. if you dont care of root install 4.1.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried to flash individual parts of the the fxz but it still hangs on every write operation no matter what method I try. I'm becoming convinced it's a hardware fault. I've tried several versions of rsdlite. I can't get one package to complete a write operation. I've seen others with similar problems, but none that couldn't get make at least some progress with a flash, even if they had trouble getting it fully flashed. Unfortunately, the erase commands for the different methods I tried did complete without issue, so now I have no system at all it seems.

Related

ROM Manager no boot loader

Hi,
Full version as a note. Droid 1
Flashed clockworkmod recovery (2.5.0.1), went fine. Made a backup of stock rooted ROM, worked fine. Next flashed bugless beast .6, while clearing data & cache, no problem.
Now i want to flash to cm - trying out different ROMs - trying to reboot into recovery or flash another ROM both fail to get me to a bootloader. Instead i see the motorola boot logo for 30-45 seconds, followed by what looks like a regular boot (motorola M, then Droid eye, & booted.). I have also tried fixing permissions.
If anyone has any idea why this is happening or can direct me to a forum link it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if this is in the wrong section, and yea I've tried looking through the forums for a while.
Thanks
just a little baby sized pump...
This happened to me too after working perfectly for several months. All of the sudden I just couldn't get to clockwork. I am running CM7 Nightlies. After not being able to fix the issue for several days I decided that a full wipe via the .sbf method was in order. I've got everything up and running again but it was an annoying process. Can anyone out there help us to understand why this happened so we don't have to deal with this again?
Do you have a link for the method you described about? That would be really helpful!
An ever so slightly larger bump
I really am not trying to be lazy, but all the .sbf methods I've read so far seem require you getting to a boot loader. If I could get to a boot loader this wouldn't be a problem, as I made a back up of my stock ROM. I have a functioning bugless beast ROM, just no recovery / boot loader, and no way to flash back to my recovery.
And possibly solved..
One: Please pardon my ignorance, doing these things on my Eris was far easier, or at least what I got used to.
Two: Please also ignore the word boot loader in my previous posts, as it was the recovery console that I could not get to load. Sorry Again.
Three: Its magically working. My methods were unscientific to say the least, but the Droid is now in "ClockworkMod's Recovery v2.5.0.1".
Things I finally did:
NOTE - I DO NOT BELIEVE ANY OF THIS TO BE THE PROPER ORDER OF THINGS. PLEASE VERIFY WITH SOMEONE FAR MORE INTELLIGENT THAN ME. THE FOLLOWING REFLECTS THE PROCESS I DID, AND SHOULD PROBABLY NOT BE FOLLOWED UNLESS A MOD ACTUALLY SAYS THIS WAS CORRECT
1. Pulled Battery, hold power button down for a few seconds, and then put back in
2. Hold Up on D-pad while holding the Power Button
3. You see the following
Code:
bootloader 2c.7c
battery ok
ok to program
connect usb
data cable
4. Connect USB data cable to PC running RSD Lite. You will also want a .sbf recovery file from a trusted source.
5. Select the .sbf in RSD Lite. Tell it to start. I used the clockwork recovery only .sbf
*** Where things got officially weird for me ***
6. The .sbf file I told it to load seemed to work, as the progress bar moved. The phone almost instantly rebooted, back to the ROM I was running minutes earlier. Clockwork had not been working previously trying to reboot into recovery, but almost instantly upon trying this time, I was in recovery mode.
NOTE - The USB cable was still plugged in as well. I don't know which combination of things actually got this to work, but it did.
Hope this helps someone else out.

BIG bootloader problem. Please help!

Hey guys,
Something's gone wrong here and I need some help to fix it.
Basically my milestone always boots to bootloader no matter what i do.
I tried to flash the stock 2.0.1 sbf to put the phone back in it's factory state coming from cm7. RSD completed the flash and said the phone was being rebooted and instead of booting it just went straight to bootloader and RSD gave me the "PASS" notification and it now wont do anything but go straight to bootloader.
I've tried reflashing with RSD with varios sbf files. I've tried flashing just the vulnerable recovery, i've tried all the different versions of the bootloader and i get the same result every time. RSD says the flash has worked and then it just goes right back to bootloader. No "M" logo, no recovery. Nothing.
Any ideas?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1143631&highlight=bootloader+stock&page=2
check last post.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/search.php?searchid=85911831
if the link doesn't work anymore i just searched for bootloader
Are you getting any type of error code when it enters bootloader mode? There should be something if theres a problem, if not, you should at least get to the m logo.
If you dont have any error code, check the keys are stuck (Up on the keypad, also camera and volume up or down (forgot which one!) is used to access bootloader)
i2gh0st said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1143631&highlight=bootloader+stock&page=2
check last post.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/search.php?searchid=85911831
if the link doesn't work anymore i just searched for bootloader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've already read basically every thread on google about bootloaders, none of them are relelvant because of the next question...
the one thing in that thread i havent tried is using sbf_flash because it's a million tons of hassle but if there are no other suggestions i guess i'll HAVE to do that.
jason600 said:
Are you getting any type of error code when it enters bootloader mode? There should be something if theres a problem, if not, you should at least get to the m logo.
If you dont have any error code, check the keys are stuck (Up on the keypad, also camera and volume up or down (forgot which one!) is used to access bootloader)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is no error code, just the normal ready to program dialogue. i've also verified that there are no stuck keys the painful way (i actually took apart the keyboard and volume button, physically removing the contacts making it impossible for there to be any unwanted connections.
didnt make a difference.
First, flash any froyo (2.2) rom.
Then, take out the battery, then connect to the wall charger (not the PC) without the battery. Put the battery back in if you get the android logo.
I use this method to boot my Milestone when its being problomatic. At the moment, its the only way mine will boot. With mine, I'll get the m logo, then it will panic and reboot. It does this for 5 to 10 minutes, then boots up. Once its booted, everything works fine.
This method 'appears' to bypass some of the checks for normal booting. If I try to boot normally, it will bootloop for hours or until the battery runs out.
You need to flash froyo because when there is a problem, 2.2 kernal panics and tries rebooting. In eclair (2.1) when theres a problem, it just locks at the m logo, so this method wont work.
Also, I dont think flashing with sbf_flash will make a diference, since your not getting any bootloader error messages, the flash is apparently good, something else is causing your problem.
Just to check, you are flashing non-service roms, aren't you? Also try taking out your sim card and sd card, just to make sure they aren't causing problems.
when i plug the phone into AC with no battery, sim or sd after flashing GOT 2.2.1 (non service, full rom) all i get is bootloader with "battery low cannot program". the phone makes no attempt to boot whatsoever.
The only other thing I can suggest is trying sbf_flash.
If you use the command:
Bash sbf_flash -r -f got_froyo.sbf
It will read and display the partition info from the phone. If you get an start_addr mismatch error, your partitions are out of alignment. I haven't found any way to fix that yet.
You can also try:
Bash sbf_flash -r -v
It will give detailed info about your partitions, compare this with the info on the and-developers site.
You can also try flashing the partitions that aren't in the motorola sbf's such as misc, cid, lblbackup:
Bash sbf_flash -r -f --lblbackup lblbackup.img got_froyo.sbf
Someone uploaded all 22 partitions in another bricked milestone thread that was created through adb with the dd command (you'll need to search for it). Use the uncompressed version and flash individually the partitions not in the sbf. There are 4 you cannot flash: mbmbackup, pds, sp and rsv. When you try, it sends the erase command and errors out. Trying this wont brick your milestone any more than it is now. Doing this with the pds partitions seems to erase and recreate it, I had a slightly diferent imei number after I tried this.
Good luck!

[Q] CWM Wont Format /Data

I have no idea what happened to this Tab but it was brought to me with no way of getting into the boot loader, it just sits on the Samsung Screen. I was able to get it to the service screen and use Heimdall to upload CWM to it and then went to enter a format of the device and I'm getting all sorts of errors. I'm guessing the /data is corrupt *very* corrupt. I'm not sure how to do a full format. I think that with everything cleared I know enough to get it going again but no matter what I do I can't get the /data to format. I've tried fixing permissions and that takes 20 minutes and then says it's completed but yet I have no option of mounting /data in any way or clearing it. I'm so frustrated, I'm just looking everywhere for a way to nuke it back to where I can load even a stock ROM to get this thing to come back to life. Any ideas??!??!
matt.wolfley said:
I have no idea what happened to this Tab but it was brought to me with no way of getting into the boot loader, it just sits on the Samsung Screen. I was able to get it to the service screen and use Heimdall to upload CWM to it and then went to enter a format of the device and I'm getting all sorts of errors. I'm guessing the /data is corrupt *very* corrupt. I'm not sure how to do a full format. I think that with everything cleared I know enough to get it going again but no matter what I do I can't get the /data to format. I've tried fixing permissions and that takes 20 minutes and then says it's completed but yet I have no option of mounting /data in any way or clearing it. I'm so frustrated, I'm just looking everywhere for a way to nuke it back to where I can load even a stock ROM to get this thing to come back to life. Any ideas??!??!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What was the last known ROM did you install? which android? froyo (2.2), gingerbread 2.3.* or ics?
were you able to mount /data and /dbdata?
what error message did you get?
-- I take it you are not able to go to download mode (Power + Volume Down)?
What happen after you press Power + Volume Down?
If you can go to download mode:
Try this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=23348040&postcount=121
if not, try the above link - Retreive .rfs file in .tar and push it using heimdell.
same solution with more instructions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13470380&postcount=8
hope it will help. If not let's try something else.
So, just for purpose of discussion (I tapped and ended up sending it in to Verizon with stock flashed back on it), it had ICS on it last. It was, jeeze, I can't remember what ROM but it was one of the ICS ROMS for the tab that are out. I used this tab like two days before with ICS running on it and had no issues when I used it but then two days later back in the owners hands it took a huge #*$&. I could mount /dbdata but not /data. It would fail a factory reset or a data wipe/format or a permissions reset every time.
I could get into the download mode for Heimdall to flash various other ROMS to it that would, according to Heimdall, successfully flash but then going in and doing a data wipe would fail to get the ROM to start up properly. I could do custom boot with CWM that is available for TAB but I couldn't get the stock boot loader to come up on stock ROMS. So odd, I appreciate the response because I wasn't sure if anyone would even be able to address such an odd thing.
Oh, on a side note, I could also not do a Dalvak wipe which I know nothing about but know it's important to wipe on occasion between ROMs - if that gives any insight into the real issue. The only thing I can surmise is that, somehow, that /data became corrupt and would not wipe. I thought of looking into ADB commands but whenever I would hook the Tab to my computer I could never get ADB to recognize it no matter what driver I used. Very frustrating to meet your match on tech.
**if it comes back and they wont help, I'll try this method you've posted though. In fact, I should be seeing it back shortly and I'll let you know what they've done.
matt.wolfley said:
**if it comes back and they wont help, I'll try this method you've posted though. In fact, I should be seeing it back shortly and I'll let you know what they've done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No Please if you had ICS last, Do NOT flash the .rfs. ICS runs on ext4. But I hope VZW had it fixed for you.

[Q] Droid Bionic Bricked on JB Update

Hi all,
Backstory/Details (skip to bottom for a tl;dr and my questions)
I tried updating my Bionic to the Jelly Bean OTA update (using the file from this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2235946). I had the ICS OTA update with root (orignally rooted GB, took it over to ICS). I tried the update on my system and got a hash fail. I've dealt with this on previous updates, so I booted into my phone and tried to unfreeze my apps. My root was not working and hadn't been for a while (su was there and had the right permissions, but no apps could access root even after updating all of the related apps), so I used Razrs Edge to get it working again. I then tried to use Titanium Backup to unfreeze my apps, but it wasn't working. Thus, I just went into /system/apps and renamed the frozen APKs back to the originals. After that, I booted into recovery (without going back to my system) and "successfully" updated to JB using the OTA update on my SD card.
After the update my phone would never boot. It just got stuck at the boot screen (the one with this logo, after the startup sound http://cdn.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image611.png). I tried wiping the cache, doing a factory reset, re-applying the update. Nothing would get it past the startup screen.
After reading around, it sounded like no one else had issues. Therefore, I was stuck with a useless phone. I read into using RSD Lite to flash a full partition image, and thought it sounded like it would work. Unfortunately, I could not find a JB .fxz image. I read warnings about how you can't go from ICS to GB and hoped that that was not the case with JB/ICS. I decided to roll the dice and try to flash an ICS image.
Needless to say, trying to flash the ICS image using RSD Lite bricked my phone. It is now stuck at the Fastboot screen, and won't do anything. From what I can gather, doing an RSD Lite load using a JB .fxz would probably fix my phone, but I can't find it anywhere.
tl;dr: My JB OTA update semi-bricked my phone, tried to flash an ICS build using RSD Lite, bricked my phone
Does anyone have any advice on how to fix this? Anyone have (or know where to get, or know how to make) a Jelly Bean image that I can flash?
I'm currently using my OG Droid as my temporary for a month before I can upgrade to a new phone. Thus, I'm willing to be pretty risky with my Bionic if need be.
HalfBrian said:
Hi all,
Backstory/Details (skip to bottom for a tl;dr and my questions)
I tried updating my Bionic to the Jelly Bean OTA update (using the file from this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2235946). I had the ICS OTA update with root (orignally rooted GB, took it over to ICS). I tried the update on my system and got a hash fail. I've dealt with this on previous updates, so I booted into my phone and tried to unfreeze my apps. My root was not working and hadn't been for a while (su was there and had the right permissions, but no apps could access root even after updating all of the related apps), so I used Razrs Edge to get it working again. I then tried to use Titanium Backup to unfreeze my apps, but it wasn't working. Thus, I just went into /system/apps and renamed the frozen APKs back to the originals. After that, I booted into recovery (without going back to my system) and "successfully" updated to JB using the OTA update on my SD card.
After the update my phone would never boot. It just got stuck at the boot screen (the one with this logo, after the startup sound http://cdn.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image611.png). I tried wiping the cache, doing a factory reset, re-applying the update. Nothing would get it past the startup screen.
After reading around, it sounded like no one else had issues. Therefore, I was stuck with a useless phone. I read into using RSD Lite to flash a full partition image, and thought it sounded like it would work. Unfortunately, I could not find a JB .fxz image. I read warnings about how you can't go from ICS to GB and hoped that that was not the case with JB/ICS. I decided to roll the dice and try to flash an ICS image.
Needless to say, trying to flash the ICS image using RSD Lite bricked my phone. It is now stuck at the Fastboot screen, and won't do anything. From what I can gather, doing an RSD Lite load using a JB .fxz would probably fix my phone, but I can't find it anywhere.
tl;dr: My JB OTA update semi-bricked my phone, tried to flash an ICS build using RSD Lite, bricked my phone
Does anyone have any advice on how to fix this? Anyone have (or know where to get, or know how to make) a Jelly Bean image that I can flash?
I'm currently using my OG Droid as my temporary for a month before I can upgrade to a new phone. Thus, I'm willing to be pretty risky with my Bionic if need be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did RSD give you an error message when you attempted to flash back to ICS?
Back when the first GB update came out, a bunch of people (myself included) had issues with the new update and the trick to flashing back was to use the new cdt.bin (since you couldn't go back from that one). The new cdt.bin file is in the root of the update zip file. Once you have the file, you either need to tweak the XML file that you pushed into RSD or use moto-fastboot.exe instead of RSD and push all of the partition images to the phone manually. That might work here.
matthimrod said:
Did RSD give you an error message when you attempted to flash back to ICS?
Back when the first GB update came out, a bunch of people (myself included) had issues with the new update and the trick to flashing back was to use the new cdt.bin (since you couldn't go back from that one). The new cdt.bin file is in the root of the update zip file. Once you have the file, you either need to tweak the XML file that you pushed into RSD or use moto-fastboot.exe instead of RSD and push all of the partition images to the phone manually. That might work here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Being in the same situation here -> Updated to JB without OTA Rootkeeper made me loose root. Out of haste, I tried FXZ'ing back to ICS. So I followed this thread, and this "almost" worked. I failed at step 6, so then I replaced the cdt.bin file from the JB update into the extracted ICS fxz folder, and it got passed that but failed on a couple of other steps. I edited the XML file to skip those, and when it finished it would never boot up past the M logo.
Thankfully, I was able to still boot into recovery and I just applied the JB update on my SD card. I'm now 100% stock JB, and waiting for a JB root exploit so I can (hopefully) restore my apps through TB.
Thanks for the suggestion matthimrod, my RSD Lite flash failed on cdt.bin the first time.
As you suggested, I edited the XML and used the cdt.bin from the JB update. However, I'm currently failing on the 15th step, boot.img. (error text for searches: "Failed flashing process. 15/21 flash boot "boot.img" -> Phone returned FAIL"). I looked at the JB update and it looks like they patched the boot partition.
Sounds like it worked for Bizmania to just skip it, so I'll try that right now and post back.
Edit: the updated cdt.bin and commented-out boot.img followed by re-updating to JB worked perfectly. Thanks for you help.
I did the same thing, This worked for me -
Download and extract this
6.7.246 FXZ File
Download and extract this to the previous location
moto-fastboot-win32.zip
Boot into fastboot mode
Connect to PC with USB
On PC, open command window and navigate to folder created above. I renamed the folders and made them easy to navigate to.
Use commands
Code:
moto-fastboot.exe flash preinstall preinstall.img
moto-fastboot.exe flash system system.img
Once finished reboot to stock recovery (This system WILL NOT BOOT) and install the Jelly Bean zip from SD Card
Reboot
Won't get root back but you'll have a working device.
Spent the past several hours trying to figure this out and just now got my phone to boot into JB.
If your battery is dead, tear apart an old WALL charger, cut the cord and attach pos to pos and neg to neg put a piece of tape over your battery terminals (don't think this would be good for the battery) and put battery in to hold it in place. Not sure how to tell which wire is pos, guessing always works for me lol.
NOTE: A stock wall charger does not seem to put out enough power to fully boot the phone, so remove the wires and tape and charge the battery normally to at least 10% then boot, this made my phone loop while trying to first boot and I thought something was wrong with the system
Edit: Seems at some point I corrupted my internal sd card, the OS was able to reformat. Not sure if it is related or not.
help stuck in fastboot mode
Earic3938
Can you please explain about getting the files to the command prompt. In a more step by step not sure how to open them up in command.
DroidForLife33 said:
Earic3938
Can you please explain about getting the files to the command prompt. In a more step by step not sure how to open them up in command.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The files are on your computer, command prompt is just a different way to look at them.
Use the "dir" command to view files in current directory/folder, "cd" to change folders ex.. cd [folder name], cd followed by two periods(cd..) would move up a folder. You're just looking at the files in a different way (other than windows), all the same files are there.
I renamed my folder to V246 just to make it easy to find and put it on the root of C: to change directory to C you can type cd C:\
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Thanks
I'm re-flashing the Jb update now thanks for the help Ill just wait till a root method comes out.
DroidForLife33 said:
I'm re-flashing the Jb update now thanks for the help Ill just wait till a root method comes out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, think that's kinda what all of us in here are waiting on, lol
Glad I could help!!
Thank you so much!
After I botched the Jelly Bean update (made a huge mistake and tried to restore data through TWRP; it's apparently not like CWM) which overwrote some of the Jelly Bean system files, this thread helped me pull my Bionic back from the dead.
It took many hours and a lot of breath holding, but I am now running Jelly Bean unrooted and somehow managed to have my data stay pretty much in tact.
I wish I could tell you exactly what worked, but I tried so many things I really can't. I do know that using moto-fastboot.exe was the key. I also know I needed to have the recovery.img rewritten to the phone, but I honestly don't know which one worked. LOL
Once that recovery.img copied over everything else fell into place.
Thanks again this community ROCKS!
matthimrod said:
Did RSD give you an error message when you attempted to flash back to ICS?
Back when the first GB update came out, a bunch of people (myself included) had issues with the new update and the trick to flashing back was to use the new cdt.bin (since you couldn't go back from that one). The new cdt.bin file is in the root of the update zip file. Once you have the file, you either need to tweak the XML file that you pushed into RSD or use moto-fastboot.exe instead of RSD and push all of the partition images to the phone manually. That might work here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This worked for me. Thanks for the help. I thought that I had finally bricked my phone and was ready to go to Verizon and take my lumps!
Thank you so much!
eric3938 said:
The files are on your computer, command prompt is just a different way to look at them.
Use the "dir" command to view files in current directory/folder, "cd" to change folders ex.. cd [folder name], cd followed by two periods(cd..) would move up a folder. You're just looking at the files in a different way (other than windows), all the same files are there.
I renamed my folder to V246 just to make it easy to find and put it on the root of C: to change directory to C you can type cd C:\
View attachment 1889262
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I FREAKING LOVE YOU! Thanks a bunch dude! You helped me so much, it boots! And works, sure, i couldn't get it to install JB, ill figure it out later, but i did manage to bring it back to my old ICS rooted! Your awesome dude, my dad would have been pissed if it weren't for you!:victory:
Had over to the HoB (House of Bionic) at droidrzr.com if you ever get in trouble again. I have the JB update and fxz posted on my threads as well.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2
Eric, i'm 99% sure that i'm following your instructions as closely as possible. I think, however, that perhaps given my particular bricking that my bionic isn't actually communication with my laptop while running the commands that you list. While the command runs I don't see any kind of feedback or acknowledgement from the phone that it's getting data.
When I try to run the .zip while in recovery it aborts at a signature error.
Looking like i'll be firing up the old OG droid as well!
Anybody?
Thanks!
BobZ
@ eric...
hit the thanks button, but had to post.
Thanks for your help, saved my bacon with this fix.
Droid Bionic Soft-brick Fixed After Jelly Bean Update Attempt Failed
Thought I'd share my experience in case others might find it helpful. Also wanted to thank eric3938 for his post on 16 April 2013 -- it's what saved my Droid Bionic!
I had started with a Droid Bionic with Gingerbread. Updated to ICS when it came out, then rooted it sometime afterwards. I took the OTA Jelly Bean update, but it failed. Then I remembered that I had installed Bionic Bootstrap to get Nandroid backup ability. A bit of research confirmed this was likely the cause of the upgrade failure. I then attempted to follow a set of instructions on how to get a rooted, ICS droid bionic ready for the OTA, lost my place due to an interruption, and decided I needed to restore from one of the nandroid backups, but they kept failing!
I then figured a factory reset was in order, and since I wasn't sure if the phone would boot out of the nandroid backup menu, decided to use the bionic bootstrap factory reset option. BIG mistake! After that reset, the phone would only end up with an image of an android on its back with an exclamation mark inside a red triangle over its open belly.
I spent a lot of time searching for fixes and trying a lot of different things:
1. Downloaded the 4.0.4 image from sbf.droid-developers.org/cdma_targa/list.php, and copied it to the external sd card from the phone with my laptop. Put the sd card back in the phone, booted into recovery and tried to install the update from the external sd card. Update would start, authenticate, and then fail with an error 7, with a message indicating that a file could not be found in the /system/bin folder.
2. Downloaded the 4.1.2 update from sbf.droid-developers.org/cdma_targa/list.php, put it on the external sd card and tried applying it. The update process would not authenticate the update.
3. Tried using RSD Lite 5.7, but could not get it to apply either the 4.0.4 or 4.1.2 images. I would always get a failure at some point.
4. Found the House of Bionic site (droidrzr.com/index.php/topic/5764-samurihls-house-of-bionic/). After reading through the information there, downloaded hob 10.1 and, following instructions, proceeded to attempt to flash 4.0.4 back to the phone. The hob (HouseOfBionic) program would successfully drive the flash with RSD, and the phone would appear to take the flash, but would either remain at the fastboot menu when hob said it would reboot, or would boot and end with the android on its back underneath the read triangle.
The battery of the phone ran down at this point and I could no longer flash anything. I read about the USB Factory Cable Adaptor on the HouseOfBionic site, so I ordered one. It arrived in about 3 days! When it arrived, I tried additional variations with hob, but no joy.
I was about to concede failure when I stumbled across the post by eric3938. From a high-level perspective, his experience seemed very similar to mine, so I decided it was the best option I had. However, after reading about the security issues that prevent regressing from Jelly Bean, I decided that instead of using files from the 4.0.4 release, I would use the files from 4.1.2 release. I then proceeded to do the following:
1. Downloaded and un-zipped the moto-fastboot-win32.zip file from the link in the post by eric3938.
2. Copied the preinstall.img and system.img files out of the 4.1.2 zip into the folder where I had placed the moto-fastboot exe.
3. Booted the phone into fastboot mode.
4. Opened a command window and pasted the following commands, one at a time, into the window and executed them:
moto-fastboot.exe flash preinstall preinstall.img
moto-fastboot.exe flash system system.img​
Un-plugged the phone from the USB cable and then plugged it back in (to reboot it). The phone booted, but then just appeared to hang at a black screen with the four hard buttons at the bottom lighted up. Every time I would remove power and re-apply power, I would get the same results.
I finally pulled the USB cable out, then, while depressing the volume down button and holding down the power button, I inserted the USB cable and then released the power button (while continuing to depress the volume down button). This brought me to the boot option menu. I chose the recovery option. When the recovery menu appeared, I chose the 'apply update from external source' option and selected the Jelly Bean update zip file. IT WORKED!!!
The update authenticated and then began to install. When the update completed it rebooted a couple of times and the crashing sound of the android eye was music to my ears!
A couple of additional notes:
1. At one time during the process, I lost the ability to communicate with the phone from my laptop. I was afraid I had rendered the phone useless, but, after uninstalling the Motorola Driver Manager, rebooting, reinstalling the Motorola Driver Manager, rebooting, and trying again, found I had restored communication with the phone.
2. I discovered that with the factory cable adapter, I could leave the battery out of the phone and not have to pull it at times get to the fastboot menu -- this saved a lot of wear and tear on my fingers!
3. After going through the Jelly Bean setup process, I noticed I did not have 4G network access -- only 3G. I did some more searching and found a suggestion to pull the battery and SIM card, wait a few minutes, reassemble the phone and try again. That did it. I now have 4G network access.
I hope no one has to go through this with their phone; but, if they do, I hope this is helpful.
okay so I"m STUCK. literally, more stuck than I've ever been. i've always been able to fix a softbrick on any device, whether mine or not but I'm stuck and I'm thinking this might work for me considering the failure reports I'm getting (won't go into detail). But I have a couple questions. you just extracted the files from the verizon file (JB or ICS?) and flashed those right? and then got some hardware button reaction, and then flashed the update through stock recovery, correct? and idk if you know this, but there is no difference in moto-fastboot.exe and the regular fastboot used for linux correct? thank you so much for your help, you may save my phone. luckily i have a factory cable so don't have to worry about battery issues. ....btw I got sideload error 7 and none of the recommended issues applied to me, nor was I able to boot my phone to double check those were the problems. THen also, I got an error every time during RSD's FXZ'ing of ICS and JB. SO we're kind of in the same situation. although i know for a fact my error was during the installation of the bootloader, so the preinstall & system img flashes may help me.
lemonoid said:
okay so I"m STUCK. literally, more stuck than I've ever been. i've always been able to fix a softbrick on any device, whether mine or not but I'm stuck and I'm thinking this might work for me considering the failure reports I'm getting (won't go into detail). But I have a couple questions. you just extracted the files from the verizon file (JB or ICS?) and flashed those right? and then got some hardware button reaction, and then flashed the update through stock recovery, correct? and idk if you know this, but there is no difference in moto-fastboot.exe and the regular fastboot used for linux correct? thank you so much for your help, you may save my phone. luckily i have a factory cable so don't have to worry about battery issues. ....btw I got sideload error 7 and none of the recommended issues applied to me, nor was I able to boot my phone to double check those were the problems. THen also, I got an error every time during RSD's FXZ'ing of ICS and JB. SO we're kind of in the same situation. although i know for a fact my error was during the installation of the bootloader, so the preinstall & system img flashes may help me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I extracted the files i mentioned from the verizon Jelly Bean file and flashed those (from Windows 7).
Before you start the flashing process, take the sd card out of your phone and copy the Jelly Bean zip file to it. Then reassemble your phone.
After flashing the two files, you'll then have to manually manipulate the phone to get back into stock recovery. Then install the Jelly Bean zip file update from recovery.
Best of luck!
---------- Post added at 09:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:36 PM ----------
wburchard said:
I extracted the files i mentioned from the verizon Jelly Bean file and flashed those (from Windows 7).
Before you start the flashing process, take the sd card out of your phone and copy the Jelly Bean zip file to it. Then reassemble your phone.
After flashing the two files, you'll then have to manually manipulate the phone to get back into stock recovery. Then install the Jelly Bean zip file update from recovery.
Best of luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By the way, once you go to Jelly Bean on Droid Bionic, do not EVER install Bionic Bootstrap (or ClockWorkMod) -- I just had to reflash my preboot and system image partitions. Research I've done indicates SafeStrap is the replacement for CWM and Bootstrap.
lemonoid said:
<snip> and idk if you know this, but there is no difference in moto-fastboot.exe and the regular fastboot used for linux correct? <snip>.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Moto-fastboot.exe for Windows is able to handle large files > 2GB (particularly important with flashing webtop). The regular fastboot.exe for Windows cannot.
The fastboot for Linux has no such problems, IIRC.
---------- Post added at 06:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:23 PM ----------
wburchard said:
<snip>
By the way, once you go to Jelly Bean on Droid Bionic, do not EVER install Bionic Bootstrap (or ClockWorkMod) -- I just had to reflash my preboot and system image partitions. Research I've done indicates SafeStrap is the replacement for CWM and Bootstrap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More correctly - Safe Strap is the only bootstrapping method to replace your stock recovery and install alternate ROMs that is currently working on the JB build on the BIOINIC.
SafeStrap and bootstrap have coexisted for quite a while, for many devices - it was personal preference before as to which one you could use, or else you were limited by the ROM developer, who would only make a ROM compatible with one or the other (usually not a problem, but there were a few ROMs that were finicky).
However, as of JB, Bootstrap (currently, and AFAICT, for the foreseeable future) no longer works, but SS still does.
You forgot to mention the factory cable
These instructions should be etched in stone. Because they are so damn helpful to anyone who's bricked this phone. One thing you forgot to mention. BTW nice with the hack, but if it's a borked / bricked phone this hack may not work at all. The best solution for everyone out there (and it only costs about $10 - $20) is a factory cable or adapter to use in the USB port. This is kind of equipment they use at Motorola when they first unlock the phone, and it limits the need for any battery to be in the phone. From what I understand it works on almost all of the Motorola droid phones. So for anyone who wants to unbrick their phone my first recommendation is a Factory Cable or Factory Adapter. It will save you alot and I really mean alot of heartache. Which is a good thing, because the one thing you don't want is the phone going dead during a flash procedure.
eric3938 said:
I did the same thing, This worked for me -
Download and extract this
Download and extract this to the previous location
Boot into fastboot mode
Connect to PC with USB
On PC, open command window and navigate to folder created above. I renamed the folders and made them easy to navigate to.
Use commands
Code:
moto-fastboot.exe flash preinstall preinstall.img
moto-fastboot.exe flash system system.img
Once finished reboot to stock recovery (This system WILL NOT BOOT) and install the Jelly Bean zip from SD Card
Reboot
Won't get root back but you'll have a working device.
Spent the past several hours trying to figure this out and just now got my phone to boot into JB.
If your battery is dead, tear apart an old WALL charger, cut the cord and attach pos to pos and neg to neg put a piece of tape over your battery terminals (don't think this would be good for the battery) and put battery in to hold it in place. Not sure how to tell which wire is pos, guessing always works for me lol.
NOTE: A stock wall charger does not seem to put out enough power to fully boot the phone, so remove the wires and tape and charge the battery normally to at least 10% then boot, this made my phone loop while trying to first boot and I thought something was wrong with the system
Edit: Seems at some point I corrupted my internal sd card, the OS was able to reformat. Not sure if it is related or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Unable to mount /data, fastboot doesn't seem to be able to write

Hi everyone, I'm having a lot of problems with my phone: last night, after it dropped to 0% battery life, it wouldn't charge. So i waited a while and ifinally managed to turn it on, but It wouldn't go past the Cyanogenmod logo. So i tried few things,first wiping cache, then factory reset from TWRP and I even tried the "Factory" option in the fastboot screen. Nothing worked, and it even got worse I think, TWRP says it's unable to mount /data partition and /storage partition. I don't know what caused it, and i don't remember the precise moment it became "unmountable" for the first time (since I've been trying to fix this thing for like 24 hours now).
Since i couldn't fix it via recovery, I tried looking for people who had the same problem on the internet, and I tried everything i could find. (like this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2683787).
I then tried to go back to stock rom via adb and fastboot, but without success.
The main problem with fastboot is the fact that it doesn't change anything in my phone, it gives no errors when i try to flash the stock rom, but when i reboot my phone, nothing changes, or at least this is my opinion, since I still get the cyanogenmod logo, and TWRP doesn't get replaced (while it should go away, since when in the whole process of flashing the rom, i also flash recovery.img, which shouldn't be TWRP).
I tried a whole lot of other commands too, like "fastboot erase recovery", but TWRP is still there, and so is the cyanogenmod logo.
This is why i think fastboot is unable to write in my phone, but if that's the case, it should at least give errors.
So, wrapping up, my data partition seems to be corrupted, and flashing the stock rom still gets my into a bootloop (with the logo from the previous rom and TWRP still there).
Do you have any advice?
P.S: my phone is a xt1068
Are you able to pull logcat?
Logcat command works, i don't get errors in the terminal, but in the text file there's only this line : "/sbin/sh: exec: line 1: logcat: not found"
Dmesg works though, I don't know if it's helpful
"
dagrot said:
I then tried to go back to stock rom via adb and fastboot, but without success.
The main problem with fastboot is the fact that it doesn't change anything in my phone, it gives no errors when i try to flash the stock rom, but when i reboot my phone, nothing changes, or at least this is my opinion, since I still get the cyanogenmod logo, and TWRP doesn't get replaced (while it should go away, since when in the whole process of flashing the rom, i also flash recovery.img, which shouldn't be TWRP).
I tried a whole lot of other commands too, like "fastboot erase recovery", but TWRP is still there, and so is the cyanogenmod logo.
This is why i think fastboot is unable to write in my phone, but if that's the case, it should at least give errors.
So, wrapping up, my data partition seems to be corrupted, and flashing the stock rom still gets my into a bootloop (with the logo from the previous rom and TWRP still there).
Do you have any advice?
P.S: my phone is a xt1068
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have same phone, you mentioned you also tried to flash stock rom without success, did you flash the partition file aswell before flashing system and the rest of files ? Check the flashfile.xml file into the stock firmware folder to make sure you not missing anything.
Code:
fastboot flash partition gpt.bin
Good luck.
i'm on the same boat. It seems it's a NAND issue, but how come it happens randomly?
It seems to happen (its a bit rare, so don't get worried) when you let your battery drop to 0% and the phone suddently turn off, like what happened to the OP.
Sent from my XT1063 using XDA Free mobile app
Lynse said:
It seems to happen (its a bit rare, so don't get worried) when you let your battery drop to 0% and the phone suddently turn off, like what happened to the OP.
Sent from my XT1063 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's a bit rare, how come there are a rather interesting quantity of posts regarding that matter? I'd like to know WHY I can't write even with fastboot. There should be a way of unlocking the NAND / partitions. Even if I try to hard brick it, it's impossible.
PS: can we someone a look at this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56608822&postcount=2
Possibly if we can force the way to QHSUSB mode, phone can be saved.
jhonnyx said:
PS: can we someone a look at this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56608822&postcount=2
Possibly if we can force the way to QHSUSB mode, phone can be saved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I didn't quite understand what that is about, if you happen to try it out let us know.
Anyway, if we don't manage to fix it, I guess I'm going to try and take it back to the store, since it is a common problem. Only problem is I'm on a custom rom and I can't even go back to stock and relock the bootloader, so I don't think they are going to replace it, but it's worth a try.
You can try by helping me to look for a circuit PDF from the board or trying it yourself.
I could try and disassemble it, but you're gonna have to wait a few days, I'm not at home and I'm gonna be back on the weekend.
As for the circuit pdf, I was only able to find videos and guides on how to disassemble it, unfortunately
Dude, no worries. Ive took the back out with all the screws, but I have nothng to make shorts with.... I'll come up with something. Take your time and keep me posted.
any news concerning this problem? i have tried searching for a manual but I did not succeed.
Anyways after finding the manual, we can short circuit the 2 capacitors there and the phone will be in qhsusb mode.
And after that ?
gbb14 said:
any news concerning this problem? i have tried searching for a manual but I did not succeed.
Anyways after finding the manual, we can short circuit the 2 capacitors there and the phone will be in qhsusb mode.
And after that ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After that.... well.... after some research, we'll be needing singleimage.bin to use the blankflash utility for lollipop phones (mbm-ci 5.0 lollipop) so somebody can generate the singleimage.bin for us.
Once we have that, we can try to flash the phone at lowlevel to see what happens.
I will search the internets in hoping to find the schematics of this phone.
Keep me informed if you find it faster .
Cheers mate
we can connect through hangouts / etc.
look up for my user at gmail

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