Database Develop

[Q] Reverting from CM

Hi,
I have the latest stable CM installed on my XZ, but I miss the Sony ROM, so I thought I'd revert back, though I'm a little unsure about how to so it. Before unlocking the boot loader and installing CM, I rooted the phone and made a backup. My question is;
Can I revert back by doing this:
1. Booting into flashmode, wiping the cache
2. Choose to reinstall my back-up file
3. Relock boot loader in flashtool (if necessary, it was locked when I backed up)
4. "Repair phone" in Sony update service
And then be back to how it was before?

Seek and you shall find. Or look at the stickies!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2275632

Thank you!
But that doesn't really answer my question(s), and as they were very specific in nature, a simple "yes" would be sufficient, or a "no"m, accompanied by the aforementioned links. ^^
I'm new at this, so that post has a lot of information... That's why I asked in a separate post.

You can just flash stock rom with flashtool. You don't need to relock unless u backed up your ta partition and you want to have bravia engine and updates.
Sent from my Xperia Z using XDA Premium 4 mobile app.

Thanks, but can I do it the way I wrote above? Because if so, I will.

You can just flash stock rom with flashtool. You don't need to relock unless u backed up your ta partition and you want to have bravia engine and updates.
Sent from my Xperia Z using XDA Premium 4 mobile app.
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I was wondering if it was possible somehow. I backed up the TA-Partition and I defenitly want Bravia Engine back. How should i do this?

Dreiundachzig said:
You can just flash stock rom with flashtool. You don't need to relock unless u backed up your ta partition and you want to have bravia engine and updates.
Sent from my Xperia Z using XDA Premium 4 mobile app.
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Click to collapse
Since it's so hard to get a reply regarding my original post, I'll ask it like this;
Can I flash an official sony rom (.ftf) over my CM10.2? If so, can I just relock the bootloader through flashtool as well to get back BE2?

The key to get BE 2 working again and have fully restored DRM keys is to restore the backup of the TA partition that you should have taken before unlocking the bootloader. Flashing stock FTF and just relocking bootloader won't do the job
Neither will a CWM restore.
Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

I made the backup in cwm before I unlocked the bootloader, is that not usable to get it back? Is there any other way?

Unfortunately, CWM doesn't backup Trim Area (TA).In your case it seems Sony DRM keys are lost forever :thumbdown:
Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

I see. Oh well. BTW, I unlocked the boot loader once before, but then I relocked it without making any changes. Did I lose BE then, or not before I installed CM? And what other than BE will I have lost? :/

roanmy said:
I see. Oh well. BTW, I unlocked the boot loader once before, but then I relocked it without making any changes. Did I lose BE then, or not before I installed CM? And what other than BE will I have lost? :/
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Click to collapse
Yes you loosed it. If you unlock you booloader you loose the keys. That is the reason why you have to make a TA backup before unlocking.
Your warranty you loose also but I think you should know that

Xperia Z1 backup DRM, after Relock Bootloader it camera will work back?

Dear all,
I have one more noob question again.
I was use a tool name Backup-TA-9.8 to backup my Xperia Z1 DRM. If I unlock it boot loader I know that the camera will not work. But if I relock it bootloader and restore my DRM. Dose the camera will work well again?
Best regards,
Brian Lee Mataba
My device is Xperia Z1 C6902

Brianlymtb said:
Dear all,
I have one more noob question again.
I was use a tool name Backup-TA-9.8 to backup my Xperia Z1 DRM. If I unlock it boot loader I know that the camera will not work. But if I relock it bootloader and restore my DRM. Dose the camera will work well again?
Best regards,
Brian Lee Mataba
My device is Xperia Z1 C6902
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, as long as you have backed up the TA BEFORE you unlock the bootloader

gregbradley said:
yes, as long as you have backed up the TA BEFORE you unlock the bootloader
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Click to collapse
Yeah, thanks
So I will unlock it and test the Omni ROM today xD

Brianlymtb said:
Yeah, thanks
So I will unlock it and test the Omni ROM today xD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But when relocking/restoring you will not be able to use those custom roms anymore (those not based on stock), just so you remember/know.

gregbradley said:
yes, as long as you have backed up the TA BEFORE you unlock the bootloader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Small question, wouldn't it be possible to unlock, root (by pushing su binaries in a custom recovery and restoring stock recovery), and relock? No reason it wouldn't work imo, and I find this procedure faster than doing the downgrade, root, recovery, upgrade method

MohammadAG said:
Small question, wouldn't it be possible to unlock, root (by pushing su binaries in a custom recovery and restoring stock recovery), and relock? No reason it wouldn't work imo, and I find this procedure faster than doing the downgrade, root, recovery, upgrade method
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Click to collapse
yes, but when you unlock you void your warranty, so unless you are planning on keeping an unlocked bootloader I reckon the extra minute it takes to downgrade etc... is worth it to keep your warranty
Also,
There is no such thing as a "stock recovery" on Xperia devices.
Also,
there is no need to install a recovery on the downgrade method if you do not want to.

gregbradley said:
yes, but when you unlock you void your warranty, so unless you are planning on keeping an unlocked bootloader I reckon the extra minute it takes to downgrade etc... is worth it to keep your warranty
Also,
There is no such thing as a "stock recovery" on Xperia devices.
Also,
there is no need to install a recovery on the downgrade method if you do not want to.
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Click to collapse
No warranty here anyway.
I remember OTA-upgrading an Xperia Z, and that simply flashed a zip package in recovery. Why would there be no stock recovery?
And you need to install a custom recovery to do the upgrade, either that or copy files while the system is running, and I'm not sure how the latter would work without the system crashing at some point.

MohammadAG said:
No warranty here anyway.
I remember OTA-upgrading an Xperia Z, and that simply flashed a zip package in recovery. Why would there be no stock recovery?
And you need to install a custom recovery to do the upgrade, either that or copy files while the system is running, and I'm not sure how the latter would work without the system crashing at some point.
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Click to collapse
No.
Xperia devices have never come with a stock recovery accessible for the user.
Upgrading OTA means you do not flash it in recovery, you download the files Over The Air and then the phone upgrades itself.
No official upgrades are done in recovery, only custom kernels, custom roms or custom updates are flashed in custom recoveries

gregbradley said:
No.
Xperia devices have never come with a stock recovery accessible for the user.
Upgrading OTA means you do not flash it in recovery, you download the files Over The Air and then the phone upgrades itself.
No official upgrades are done in recovery, only custom kernels, custom roms or custom updates are flashed in custom recoveries
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what OTA means, on previous devices with stock recovery, it simply drops you into recovery and does the flashing itself without the user ever having to touch anything. Same goes for wiping user data, it's done in recovery.
Whether the recovery is accessible to the user or not is another thing, and I didn't know about it, so thanks for that.

gregbradley said:
yes, as long as you have backed up the TA BEFORE you unlock the bootloader
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Click to collapse
How do you do a TA backup on the Z1? When you do the TA backup before doing anything else you usually do not have root yet, so I wonder how to backup the TA......

Follow any if the several guides in the dev section on how to backup TA. I can see at least 2 guides on the first page
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

How to relock bootloader without TA backups.. Android 4.3.. Please help mr

Sent from my C6903 using xda app-developers app

Nuwan75n said:
Sent from my C6903 using xda app-developers app
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it is possible to lock it without a backup, is your camera not working anymore ?

You can try flashtool, BLU option tries to relock it if it's unlocked, theres a good chance you will brick your device!
Have fun
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk

AntiDroid said:
it is possible to lock it without a backup, is your camera not working anymore ?
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Are you sure this is good and/or informative advice? I thought a locked bootloader not finding valid keys in the TA will refuse to ever function usefully again - no boot, no fastboot, no flashmode, nothing, totally bricked, and no way to convert it back to unlocked and get your phone back.
I would like to know if I am wrong about any of that. And... it seems that I was:
** Correction - it is Ok to relock the bootloader without having the pre-unlock data in the TA partition
** Flashing in data from any other TA partition (some other phone) seems certain to brick the phone though.

n0bleINtP said:
Are you sure this is good and/or informative advice? I thought a locked bootloader not finding valid keys in the TA will refuse to ever function usefully again - no boot, no fastboot, no flashmode, nothing, totally bricked, and no way to convert it back to unlocked and get your phone back.
I would like to know if I am wrong about any of that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never read about those damages but I read things like the known camera bug.
I unlocked my Z1 on .290 - the Sony release which fixed the problem (4.3). I flashed a Recovery and rooted it with it and my device is working like it was with a "untouched" ROM.
That's all I know.
We could wait for a dev to answer deeper questions.

AntiDroid said:
I unlocked my Z1 on .290 - the Sony release which fixed the problem (4.3).
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Click to collapse
Yes this absolutely fine and is what I did with my Z1, ie do not unlock until after the 290 update is applied - you will see that advice on the Sony unlock website. However if you want a TA backup you need to do that before unlocking as the unlock process will wipe the keys, and you also need root in order to make that copy. (let me know if I am wrong about that)
My process was to root on earlier firmware, copy the TA, update to .290, then unlock. After unlocking full root on .290 is easy with a custom kernel and everything is good: unlocked, rooted *and* working camera.
But you *will* need a copy of the pre-unlock TA partition to regain any of the functions that use the DRM keys if you decide to relock the bootloader later.

It is impossible to get the DRM keys back, and there is no gain from relocking without them, all you're doing is locking down the bootloader without enabling BIONZ, etc, but you can certainly run a stock system if you want.

n0bleINtP said:
Yes this absolutely fine and is what I did with my Z1, ie do not unlock until after the 290 update is applied - you will see that advice on the Sony unlock website. However if you want a TA backup you need to do that before unlocking as the unlock process will wipe the keys, and you also need root in order to make that copy. (let me know if I am wrong about that)
My process was to root on earlier firmware, copy the TA, update to .290, then unlock. After unlocking full root on .290 is easy with a custom kernel and everything is good: unlocked, rooted *and* working camera.
But you *will* need a copy of the pre-unlock TA partition to regain any of the functions that use the DRM keys if you decide to relock the bootloader later.
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Click to collapse
Hello, yesterday I downgraded to rooteable 4.2.2 rom in order to backup TA partition. Once I had backup, I updated to 4.3 (290) and unlocked bootloader, then flashed recovery. With recovery was easy to flash superSu. Now I have "stock" rom with root and unlocked bootloader, but I realized that x-reality wasn't warking anymore (because of the DRM keys loss).
I tried to recover TA partition, but I caused a soft-brick, wich I only could solve flashing a 290 ftf through flashtool, but I lost root. My question is: It is possible to have root and DRM keys (TA partition restored)??
Thank you very much.

yanbee said:
Hello, yesterday I downgraded to rooteable 4.2.2 rom in order to backup TA partition. Once I had backup, I updated to 4.3 (290) and unlocked bootloader, then flashed recovery. With recovery was easy to flash superSu. Now I have "stock" rom with root and unlocked bootloader, but I realized that x-reality wasn't warking anymore (because of the DRM keys loss).
I tried to recover TA partition, but I caused a soft-brick, wich I only could solve flashing a 290 ftf through flashtool, but I lost root. My question is: It is possible to have root and DRM keys (TA partition restored)??
Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, never.

Just2Cause said:
No, never.
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Click to collapse
So, apart from losing x-reality and some Sony apps functionalities (which I dont care). Do you lose something else? I heard about losing bionz processor, but camera still works, then I dont know how far this is true.
The incompatibility problem of root and restored TA partition, is because flashing recovery (which modifies kernel) or supersu.apk it self?
Thank you VERY much!

You loose bionz, but not x-reality. I unlocked my bootloader and I have x-relity enabled.
Some ROMs won't have working camera, for example: android 4.4 KitKat ported from xperia z ultra GPe, and some other ROMs.

Just2Cause said:
You loose bionz, but not x-reality. I unlocked my bootloader and I have x-relity enabled.
Some ROMs won't have working camera, for example: android 4.4 KitKat ported from xperia z ultra GPe, and some other ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see that the x-reality option is still on menu, and you can enable/disable it, but it doesn't work. Before, I could see in the first second of picture showing how x-reality improves the image (its an effect that can be seen with the naked eye), this is not happening now. By the way, its for sure that bionz stop working? How could I take pictures without it?
Thank you

yanbee said:
I can see that the x-reality option is still on menu, and you can enable/disable it, but it doesn't work. Before, I could see in the first second of picture showing how x-reality improves the image (its an effect that can be seen with the naked eye), this is not happening now. By the way, its for sure that bionz stop working? How could I take pictures without it?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure about bionz, but I guessed it as I had the x-relity option enabled. I can't tell if it works or not as I don't have camera (I'm using ported 4.4)
It would be nice of someone confirmed it.

Correct me if i am wrong.
Bionz is a service which improves the pictures after a shot, isn't it ?
Bionz and X-Reality are things u can't detect that easy like "oh that effect is from X-Reality" or something else.
I thought the main reason for not working cameras on other roms was that the dev's didn't apply those 4.3 changes :S

AntiDroid said:
Correct me if i am wrong.
Bionz is a service which improves the pictures after a shot, isn't it ?
Bionz and X-Reality are things u can't detect that easy like "oh that effect is from X-Reality" or something else.
I thought the main reason for not working cameras on other roms was that the dev's didn't apply those 4.3 changes :S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bionz it's a image processor that includes xperia Z1, it process the pictures taken instead the cpu. I dont know if it's easy to detect if it's working or not. But in the case of x-reallity it's very simple, when you open a picture in Sony gallery app, you can see how the picture "improves" quality in the first second. It is no so evident in all pictures, but can be detected by a naked eye, as I do.
My only doubt is about bionz processor, I already know that I loss x-reality. But I want to be SURE if bionz processing is also lost. I want to have full root (with unlocked bootloader), and have bionz enabled. I dont care x-reality or Sony apps.
Thank you very much

Just2Cause said:
No, never.
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Click to collapse
Not true. If you have a TA backup, install .290, unlock bootloader, install a recovery, root, reflash stock boot partition, restore TA partition, you will end up with a booting, rooted, .290 installation.

Rekoil said:
Not true. If you have a TA backup, install .290, unlock bootloader, install a recovery, root, reflash stock boot partition, restore TA partition, you will end up with a booting, rooted, .290 installation.
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Click to collapse
Are you sure about that? :fingers-crossed:

Just2Cause said:
Are you sure about that? :fingers-crossed:
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Click to collapse
I did that and it worked
Sent from my iPad Air using Tapatalk

Rekoil said:
Not true. If you have a TA backup, install .290, unlock bootloader, install a recovery, root, reflash stock boot partition, restore TA partition, you will end up with a booting, rooted, .290 installation.
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Click to collapse
jjpro45 said:
I did that and it worked
Tapatalk
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Thank you VERY much!!! Could someone tell me how to reflash boot partition only?? The TA partition which I must restore, could be restored in 290 if backups comes from 534?

About TA

So,
I already unlocked my bootloader and backed up my TA.
I wanted to flash new ftf, and then by accident i flashed the ftf without excluding the TA from the FTF.
My question is, is it going to be a problem?
Does it mean i have new false TA?
Do i need to remove the false TA? How?
Thankyou very much!!:cyclops:

no, don't worry, everything is fine.
Have you noticed any problems in your phone? I bet not.
Once you unlocked the boot, it wiped your TA anyway.

gregbradley said:
no, don't worry, everything is fine.
Have you noticed any problems in your phone? I bet not.
Once you unlocked the boot, it wiped your TA anyway.
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Click to collapse
the only thing that isnt work on KK 4.4 is my camera ...
still trying to find the fix thou ... tried many thing but still not working ..
im affraid it has something to do with the TA thing,
but since u think the TA thing shudnt give any problem,
maybe my camera problem has something to do with another else
anyway, thankyou for your answer :good:

Hope you don't mind me asking this Question here, I am trying to lock bootloader and when I run Backup-TA it starts normal but hangs with "requesting root permissions".? Can someone tell me what's wrong. I am using the latest version wit Win8.
tia.

evilc1 said:
Hope you don't mind me asking this Question here, I am trying to lock bootloader and when I run Backup-TA it starts normal but hangs with "requesting root permissions".? Can someone tell me what's wrong. I am using the latest version wit Win8.
tia.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've to get root access for using this tool..

Destroyedbeauty said:
You've to get root access for using this tool..
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Click to collapse
Thanks for that, it was rooted, and shot itself after trying backup-at, would not even come to life. Then I had problems with win8.1 and 'spat the dummy' and reinstalled Linux (Debian) and using flashtool managed to get 14.3.A.0.681 back in, not rooted now and still unlocked. Now to work out how to restore locked with the TA backup.

[Q] Bad Camera quality after Unlocking BL

Hello buddies ,,
i have a very Bad Camera quality after Unlocking BL
and i didnt backup the ta partition
any help ?

You can relock with Flastool. It does not restore DRM keys.

Well. Next time read it more

JustPlayingHard said:
Well. Next time read it more
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go to the cross device development, there is a mod on how to restore the good quality without the DRM keys.
it works for me, just follow the steps as they are.
(when u need to install a kernel with recovery on laters steps, install doom kernel via fastboot using flashtool)
hope i helped.

[email protected] said:
go to the cross device development, there is a mod on how to restore the good quality without the DRM keys.
it works for me, just follow the steps as they are.
(when u need to install a kernel with recovery on laters steps, install doom kernel via fastboot using flashtool)
hope i helped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Already knew that. I prefer to keep LB.

JustPlayingHard said:
Already knew that. I prefer to keep LB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
he lost his DRM keys, SO even with a locked bootloader the camera will still be the same as with an open bootloader.
he didn't backup his DRM, so he can't restore them after locking up the bootloader, your solution doesn't help.

[email protected] said:
he lost his DRM keys, SO even with a locked bootloader the camera will still be the same as with an open bootloader.
he didn't backup his DRM, so he can't restore them after locking up the bootloader, your solution doesn't help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wasn't a solution I was just saying. I prefer to keep to LB. Try DRM fix thing. I have heard it good.