[Q] Removing encryption - Nook HD, HD+ Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I am thinking of encrypting my HD+ (Settings>Security>Encrypt Tablet). As far as I can see this means simply that the /data partition will be encrypted and that CWM is afterwards not able to access this anymore (ie for backups or restores). I can do a complete backup by other means, but how would I be able to restore that?
Will the recovery still boot and will I then be able to format/wipe /data? Probably not because /data is not mounted!?
Also, what happens if I want to update the system, say to a newer version of CM?

So no one's ever tried to encrypt their HD/HD+?
I am still investigating this "problem" and it seems that quite a few people have run into trouble after encrypting their tablet (TWRP Recovery seems to support an encrypted /data partition but CWM doesn't... correct me if I'm wrong).
So here's a question for the Linux gurus: if I have booted an encrypted tablet and have opened a terminal window with full root access, will I be able to unmount and reformat the /data partition? After that I should be able to reboot into recovery and restore a backup.

Related

[Q] How to wipe Data partition after it's been encrypted?

Hey guys,
My work switched to Google Apps for their email so i wanted to test it out on my phone. Doing so required them to encrypt my phone. What this appears to have done is encrypt the data partition. So now when i go into (TWRP) recovery and try to do a backup / wipe / or anything else, it says it is "Unable to mount /sdcard" I'm unable to do a factory reset of any kind so i'm essentially stuck on this rom (ARHD) until i can figure out how to wipe data and get the /sdcard to be not encrypted. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm imagining that with the modified recovery not being able to access the data partition that i'm going to have to do some adb type stuff?
Please help! I want to keep flashing new roms!
Anyone??
I think you can't decrypt your data partition...
Did you try to wipe your data partition with the latest TWRP?
Guich said:
I think you can't decrypt your data partition...
Did you try to wipe your data partition with the latest TWRP?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the thing, the recovery can't mount /sdcard so wiping isn't an option from recovery
jrun said:
That's the thing, the recovery can't mount /sdcard so wiping isn't an option from recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi! Only TWRP recovery can solve your issue just do this...
Boot to TWRP recovery->Wipe
From there there are 2 options the left is the advance wipe and on the right is Format Data
Just select the format data button and it should reformat the whole data partition.
1st one would prompt so many errors and reformat then reformat it again 1 time and it should fully reformat your phone.
In theory it should reformat data partition even when encrypted but just in case it fails and I won't be able to go back to this thread just boot in bootloader and type
"fastboot erase userdata"
Well none of that works. TWRP doesn't support decryption yet for this device.
sevenalive said:
Well none of that works. TWRP doesn't support decryption yet for this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I instructed basically doesn't decrypt the partition. It reformats it.
Riyal said:
What I instructed basically doesn't decrypt the partition. It reformats it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what you instructed, it doesn't work. Only way I got it to work. Flash the stock recovery. Boot into system. Take off the encryption, phone reboots and removes the encryption, data is formatted. Then flash TWRP again.
I basically ran into this exact problem. I was hoping that I'd still be able to back up the encrypted device, but forget about it. What a pain in the ass.
Someone should make add something to the guides about how encrypting your device makes nandroid backups impossible.

[Q] Problem with flashing roms and partitions/mounting...

After I flash a rom, when i try boot into TWRP it asks for a password and refuses to mount any partitions unless i wipe data in there, and then wipe the other partitions in CWM... I have no idea what to do as this is pretty much stuffing everything up.
Edit: It's always the /data partition that need to be wiped...

[Q] How to mount encrypted storage with TWRP?

I'm using Android Revolution HD 30 and TWRP 2.6.3.0 (Flyhalf205 version). The phone is S-OFF.
I tried to encrypt the phone storage. It worked, but TWRP was not able to mount /data anymore. It should have asked me for the encryption password, but it didn't.
What are the commands to mount /data using and adb shell?
Regards
Same issue here. TWRP 2.6.3.0 asks for password on Nexus 7 (2012), doesn't ask or mount anything on my One. I'm on the latest stock GPE ROM, S-ON, custom kernel with /system protection off.
I feel uncomfortable knowing that if I lose my phone, anyone could very easily retrieve private content.
At least with stock recovery and locked bootloader, accessing private content requires motivation and work, since simply unlocking the bootloader to install a custom recovery would erase /data/ partition too.
With a custom recovery installed the risk is even worse, since reading personal data doesn't require any work.

TWRP error "E:Unable to mount '/data'"

I have a new LG Optimus L90 (D415) with stock 4.4 ROM, and TWRP 2.8.0.0 (and previously, Philz 6.58.7) for recovery. Obviously, the phone is rooted and now has an unlocked bootloader....
My problem is that neither recovery will back up (or even mount) "/data". Note that I put that in quotes because, without having "/storage/sdcard" or something in front of it, I presume that it's an internal folder and not something to do with the external SDcard.
My first guess would be a problem with encryption, because both the phone and the external SD are using it -- and I never get asked for the password. Either way, the actual error in TWRP says "E: Unable to mount 'data'", while Philz says it can't access /data/philz-touch for the .ini file.
I've made several Google expeditions to find the answer, and have come up empty-handed with all of them. I've seen all kinds of fixes, from claims that I have to run chkdsk against the SDcard, to backing up the entire /data partition with a tar file and reformatting it with command line nightmares.
I'll do what I have to in order to fix this, but I'd rather not embark on an experimental goose chase. Any ideas?
I have this same problem. But only for wiping and flashing.
I have no idea for fix if backup also not working !! (Noob)
1.TWRP click backup. Select all except SDcard.
Finish backup.
2.go to Wipe menu.>advanced wipe>select all except System and Sdcard.
Wipe.
(It will skip the error files)
3.Install menu. Select ROM to flash.
Was what I did.
fear2433 said:
I have this same problem. But only for wiping and flashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not flashing anything, yet. First I need to make a backup of the entire phone (not including the SDcard). That way, if something goes wrong, I can just restore my old, working configuration -- all at once -- and start over.
I can back up and restore apps individually, using Titanium Backup. But what I need here is a Nandroid-type backup... and that generally has to be done from the recovery partition. There is one other way to backup everything, using a laptop/PC and ADB. But I've never tried it, and it wouldn't protect against a ROM meltdown.
Solved, somewhat...
So I did some further experimentation concerning this error. I did a test run to install CyanogenMod, and I found that I couldn't even factory reset certain partitions because of these "Unable to mount /data/" type errors.
What was ultimately the problem? The encryption. Once I decrypted everything, TWRP was able to see, mount, and backup, those partitions.
But I was under the impression that TWRP handles encryption, e.g. asking for the password, or some such. I mean, how can you do a Nandroid-type backup on a phone, if no recovery can mount those kinds of partitions?
So, for the record: "E:Unable to mount" was definitely due to the encryption being turned on for my internal storage. Thus the solution (so far) is to decrypt storage. A wretched solution, but at least it works for the time being.
BTW, In furtherance of this research, I formatted my internal SDcard to NTFS, just to make sure it wasn't misaligned or whatever when it was just FAT32. And I discovered that NTFS takes forever to format (32GB on the order of a couple hours)., FWIW.
The plot thickens. It may not be sufficient just to undo encryption, there may be something wrong with the way that partition was created, or otherwise is constructed.
Even though I now am able to mount /data, I'm not able to format it.... in TWRP it says something like "unknown filesystem 'auto'".
But there is a thread here that describes using Philz recovery to unmount and then format this mess, and I'm about to try it, I just have to flash Philz in place of TWRP. Now let's hope this version works without issues, because I'd have little recourse if things go bad there.

NookHD+ can't mount emmc; can't fully boot from SD recovery

Perhaps someone can help. I've read a lot of the great content here but I've hit a wall.
A few weeks ago my ovation device was running cm11+cwm but began random rebooting. Clearing the cache+dalvik only helped briefly.
I tried an upgrade with a twrp 3.0.0.0 (using the amazing multiboot recovery SD), but it hung formatting the cache partition (I waited about an hour). Tried again, same thing.
I used adb shell to fix a blank file system type on the cache partition but was only successful in creating an ext2 partition there. I got cm13 booting but it trebuchet kept crashing. I tried twrp again and flashing a different image and tried a factory reset. Big mistake.
Now when I try to boot any recovery SD it doesn't boot all the way. Using adb shell, my dmesg shows that umount is hanging. No emmc partitions seem to be mounted. The partition data exists in dmesg but calls to parted hang. Mkfs.ext4 also hangs (naturally).
So I've lost the ability to fully boot recovery SDs (they are probably hanging when they try to mount the emmc partitions). As such I can't flash a recovery. I have a clockwork backup that has a system.ext.tar file in it, but I don't know how to use it at this point.
I can't mount /rom so I'm worried.
Is my emmc shot? Is there any way to tell?
Thanks!
Would a noEMMC SD be safe?
I guess what I was hoping to do was use adb to completely wipe and restore the device to a sane state, which would include repartitioning and formatting the emmc partitions. Is that possible? Maybe not at this point.
I guess another question would be: if my NookHd+ emmc is technically working but currently unrecoverable, is it possible for me to safely use a NOemmc SD card? There seem to be some warnings about those wrecking emmc but I can't find any technical explanation as to why.
Based on further diagnostics, my emmc is one of the faulty Samsung models and so I think the crashes and ultimate recovery failures were the failure of the emmc.
I've successfully installed 10.1 noEMMC on one microsd. Runs Okay but a lot of apps I am interested in don't work on android from this vintage.
I tried to install 4.4.4/CM11 noEMMC but it can't mount the necessary partitions as per the install process on the iamafanof Wordpress page. I also see SELinux errors in the twrp recovery log. Does anyone know how to overcome this mount issue that apparently impacts some people.
Assuming there are others out there who find this useful, I have some updates.
I was determined to figure out why the CM11 NoEMMC was not working for me but CM10.2 noEMMC works fine. I get the error that many others get: unable to mount /boot, /data, /system.
I used adb shell to connect to the twrp 2.8.0.0 that runs when you boot the CM11 noEMMC SD boot/install image and compared the Linux system differences between that and the system you can see connected to the cwm 6.0.4.? That runs when you boot the CM10.2 noEMMC SD boot/instal image.
First things first: cm10 noEMMC remaps the internal emmc as /dev/block/emcblk1 and the external microsd card slot as blk0 (this is swapped from the norm and correct for a situation where you want to install to the SD as though it were the internal device).
CM11 noEMMC does not do this. I think that the author assumed that if your emmc is bricked then the system won't see your /dev/block/emmcblk0 at all so your external sdcard will take over that number. Clearly that's true for some, but it's not true for me.
I also began poking around the post boot script (in /sbin) to see how the cm11 noEMMC prepares the partitions on the Sd card and to see what Command it uses to create the data partition
Here's the kicker. I was able to mount my emmc rom partition and copy off all that data with an adb pull. I was able to initialize the cache partition (9) as a blank ext4 partition. I was even able to initialize the user partition (10) as ext4... Though I'm not sure that's right. I began mounting partitions and got greedy and tried to mount the whole partition map and it failed.
So, there's something wrong with (at least) one of my partitions. When recovery tries to mount the partitions, mount hangs and recovery fails to fully load. The noEMMC sd card got me around this because it doesn't try to mount any of the emmc partitions let alone all of them.
So, does anyone know if I can make new file systems on every partition and if by luck I'm able to get a twrp or cwm to fully load, will flashing a stock recovery put data on all those partitions?
Thanks
Sorry to resurrect this thread, But it exactly speaks to my issue. You mention that the blk0 and blk1 devices need to be switched for cm11 image to mount partitions properly. Does anyone know specifically where this might be done. Can files of the existing nov4 cm11 image be altered to reverse these two devices?
CalculonsTalent said:
Assuming there are others out there who find this useful, I have some updates.
I was determined to figure out why the CM11 NoEMMC was not working for me but CM10.2 noEMMC works fine. I get the error that many others get: unable to mount /boot, /data, /system.
I used adb shell to connect to the twrp 2.8.0.0 that runs when you boot the CM11 noEMMC SD boot/install image and compared the Linux system differences between that and the system you can see connected to the cwm 6.0.4.? That runs when you boot the CM10.2 noEMMC SD boot/instal image.
First things first: cm10 noEMMC remaps the internal emmc as /dev/block/emcblk1 and the external microsd card slot as blk0 (this is swapped from the norm and correct for a situation where you want to install to the SD as though it were the internal device).
CM11 noEMMC does not do this. I think that the author assumed that if your emmc is bricked then the system won't see your /dev/block/emmcblk0 at all so your external sdcard will take over that number. Clearly that's true for some, but it's not true for me.
I also began poking around the post boot script (in /sbin) to see how the cm11 noEMMC prepares the partitions on the Sd card and to see what Command it uses to create the data partition
Here's the kicker. I was able to mount my emmc rom partition and copy off all that data with an adb pull. I was able to initialize the cache partition (9) as a blank ext4 partition. I was even able to initialize the user partition (10) as ext4... Though I'm not sure that's right. I began mounting partitions and got greedy and tried to mount the whole partition map and it failed.
So, there's something wrong with (at least) one of my partitions. When recovery tries to mount the partitions, mount hangs and recovery fails to fully load. The noEMMC sd card got me around this because it doesn't try to mount any of the emmc partitions let alone all of them.
So, does anyone know if I can make new file systems on every partition and if by luck I'm able to get a twrp or cwm to fully load, will flashing a stock recovery put data on all those partitions?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please teach me how to mount EMMC partitions and retrieve data specially /factory partition with ADB?
I can only boot my Nook HD+ with with bootable SD card with TWRP or CWM.
Thanks.

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