Database Develop

[Q] How safe is safestrap?

I think I understand how safestrap works (it installs some kind of hijack to boot /preinstall instead of booting /system) but I have been reading a number of users who have bricked their phone...
I basically have the SafeStrap install screen up, but am hesitant to do this...
Just a few questions before I take the plunge
1) Why are so many users having problems with safesrap? I download the Droid3 version 1.08 for use on my Bell Motorola XT860 4G
2) What exactly does safestrap do in the boot loading sequence? If this is not public knowledge (and might be worked out "against" please, no harm, I'm just wondering, so if I could get an idea as how the hijack works, either in the thread or PM that would help greatly)
3) If you restore the original system and disable the hijack, will that really bring me back to complete original stock? What if they patch the boot partition as they did last time?
Thanks for all your help guys! I know a lot of you have been using custom roms, I really want to load up ICS on here, and it's almost ready for prime-time so I just want to be prepared!

First off, I have an XT862 not the XT860. The hijack is a 2nd init hijack. Safestrap does this hijack itself as opposed to with bootstrap where whatever ROM you flash has to do the hijack. Safestrap also as you mentioned uses /preinstall to store /system of the ROM you flash. This means that nothing other than safestrap itself touches your stock /system. This allows safestrap to protect itself so you can always get back to recovery even if there is a bad flash it can't overwrite the hijack and recovery so you can try again.
I also don't remember seeing much of problems with safestrap itself other than a partition size problem. I think I remember seeing that some update took care of that problem. I have seen people having more problems with ROMs on the XT860 than other versions of the phone.

danifunker said:
I think I understand how safestrap works (it installs some kind of hijack to boot /preinstall instead of booting /system) but I have been reading a number of users who have bricked their phone...
I basically have the SafeStrap install screen up, but am hesitant to do this...
Just a few questions before I take the plunge
1) Why are so many users having problems with safesrap? I download the Droid3 version 1.08 for use on my Bell Motorola XT860 4G
2) What exactly does safestrap do in the boot loading sequence? If this is not public knowledge (and might be worked out "against" please, no harm, I'm just wondering, so if I could get an idea as how the hijack works, either in the thread or PM that would help greatly)
3) If you restore the original system and disable the hijack, will that really bring me back to complete original stock? What if they patch the boot partition as they did last time?
Thanks for all your help guys! I know a lot of you have been using custom roms, I really want to load up ICS on here, and it's almost ready for prime-time so I just want to be prepared!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off, the most common problem I have seen people have with safestrap is not understanding what it does and even more common is not knowing how to use it, basically a lot of user error. The previous poster summed up pretty well how it works. Finally, uninstalling safestrap will NOT bring you back to original stock, it will remove itself and the secondary ROM it allowed you to install. Since you have to be rooted to even install it, if you uninstall it you will still be rooted, not stock.
Just so you are clear, you can have whatever ROM you want on your phone BEFORE installing Safestrap and this will become the Safe system by default. You will no longer be able to change this ROM as long as Safestrap is installed. Instead, it allows you to put another ROM, basically a dual-boot, in addition to the original rom you have. Now you have a Safe system and a Non safe system. The Non safe system is the only one Safestrap will allow you to change (and brick for that matter). So if/when you install a ROM that boot loops or crashes, you simply can revert back to your safe system and now your phone works again, neat huh?

AFAIK, he does have the XT860, since the XT862 is the Verizon Droid 3 (3G, not Bell Canada 4G). Also, using it on my 862, I have not been able to brick it. If flashing the experimental system fails, you can just reboot into the Safestrap menu and flash something new. I don't see why it wouldn't work on the 860, as all it does it modify the booting. Any issues would most likely be caused by a ROM flashing issue, not safestrap.

I took the plunge this afternoon... Installed SafeStrap and CM9 nightly on my device... Not sure if everything is working just yet, but will be doing testing throughout the day
No problems were reported with the installation or instructions, so that's great. Thanks a lot!

I'm using a XT860 (Brazilian Vivo, but I'm not sure if it's 4G - LTE - compatible, I know that it works with 3.5G).
I have Safestrap 3.0.5 installed and I'm using all the 4 slots (MavROM, Minimoto, CM9 e CM10). All of then runs well (with their particular issues), none of them caused any trouble on the phone.

Thiago AmP said:
I'm using a XT860 (Brazilian Vivo, but I'm not sure if it's 4G - LTE - compatible, I know that it works with 3.5G).
I have Safestrap 3.0.5 installed and I'm using all the 4 slots (MavROM, Minimoto, CM9 e CM10). All of then runs well (with their particular issues), none of them caused any trouble on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I'm using it on a Brazilian TIM, no problems at all. I have two active slots( Stock, Gummy 0.90) and two for testing.
It is in fact the best recovery that I've used, so far.

Thiago AmP said:
I'm using a XT860 (Brazilian Vivo, but I'm not sure if it's 4G - LTE - compatible, I know that it works with 3.5G).
I have Safestrap 3.0.5 installed and I'm using all the 4 slots (MavROM, Minimoto, CM9 e CM10). All of then runs well (with their particular issues), none of them caused any trouble on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
None of the d3 variants are LTE capable
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium

Endoroid said:
None of the d3 variants are LTE capable
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I realize that before reviewing its radio specs.
Munckster said:
Same here. I'm using it on a Brazilian TIM, no problems at all. I have two active slots( Stock, Gummy 0.90) and two for testing.
It is in fact the best recovery that I've used, so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Munckster
Actually, after trying to acess a SD Card partition with Link2SD, I lost acess to Recovery. I'm stuck on the stock ROM (root keeps on, but SafeStrap 3.05 doesn't work).
Installed Titanium Backup to keep my data safe, but it isn't working too. I'm going to reinstall it later.
I'm afraid that I'll have to uninstall all my root apps, unroot the phone and do all the process again...
I'm very newbie at linux and Android and I'm doing all that by reading (a lot). I'd apreciate if someone could tell how to deal with this problem.

Thiago AmP said:
Yeah, I realize that before reviewing its radio specs.
@Munckster
Actually, after trying to acess a SD Card partition with Link2SD, I lost acess to Recovery. I'm stuck on the stock ROM (root keeps on, but SafeStrap 3.05 doesn't work).
Installed Titanium Backup to keep my data safe, but it isn't working too. I'm going to reinstall it later.
I'm afraid that I'll have to uninstall all my root apps, unroot the phone and do all the process again...
I'm very newbie at linux and Android and I'm doing all that by reading (a lot). I'd apreciate if someone could tell how to deal with this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try shutting the phone off and powering up while holding m, then using vol down select bp tools from the list that appears, and confirm with vol up.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium

Endoroid said:
Try shutting the phone off and powering up while holding m, then using vol down select bp tools from the list that appears, and confirm with vol up.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've already tried it, but without success... I'll keep searching what to do in this situation...

Thiago AmP said:
Actually, after trying to acess a SD Card partition with Link2SD, I lost acess to Recovery. I'm stuck on the stock ROM (root keeps on, but SafeStrap 3.05 doesn't work).
Installed Titanium Backup to keep my data safe, but it isn't working too. I'm going to reinstall it later.
I'm afraid that I'll have to uninstall all my root apps, unroot the phone and do all the process again...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unrooting seems like overkill. If you are "stuck" on stock, I would just start the Safestrap app. Click the button to uninstall recovery and restart the phone. Then open Safestrap again, click the button to install recovery, and restart the phone. Hopefully the Safestrap menu will show and you can then activate recovery.
So long as you do not erase anything on the internal storage, your slots should still be there.

doogald said:
Unrooting seems like overkill. If you are "stuck" on stock, I would just start the Safestrap app. Click the button to uninstall recovery and restart the phone. Then open Safestrap again, click the button to install recovery, and restart the phone. Hopefully the Safestrap menu will show and you can then activate recovery.
So long as you do not erase anything on the internal storage, your slots should still be there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried it several times before I came with the idea of unroot my phone and redo the process. Here is my dicoveries http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2082292
I know that it's obvious, but I guess that just few people knew that it would work.

SafeStrap problems
Odd problem, I can't get the menu button to work. In order to get back to my "safe" rom I have to start safestrap,and select uninstall recovery.
Then reboot, and it will bring up my "Safe" rom. If I then go back to SafeStrap, and re-install the recovery, and reboot, it will again bring up SafeStrap, but if I hit Menu, it doesnt' bring up any options it again boots up my non-safe ROM (minimoto 1.6)
Anyone have any ideas...I guess I can try to remove the safestrap directory on the sdcard after I uninstall the recover, and then try to reinstall the App, and try all over again?

I'm an idiot please help

So in my infinite wisdom I deleted com.android.providers.media using titanium backup. I thought I had backed the file up but apparently I didn't. Either that or it didn't actually back the file up. Either way elements of my phone are now totally burned as you would imagine. No gallery, no music in my music player, and no ringtones. So my question is even if I do a factory reset will that help? Yes this was the stock ROM yes I tried installing a stock image on top of the ROM but the installation froze and I had to reboot and restore my nan droid. No I didn't have a nandroid of before I started dicking around. And finally yes I am a complete idiot. Any help would be much appreciated.
Sent from my MB886 using xda premium

Actually if some one would just be willing to use titanium backup to backup that file then post it here I could probably just restore it? Hope some one can help
Sent from my MB886 using xda premium

Odexed\deodexed....ICS\JB...Stock\Custom....Bell\ATT\Other...not much to go on...either way, go to the Batakang FTP and download which rom you need and you'll always have a backup copy of all the files needed (the bottom two). If your not AT&T, then you can get deodexed versions on my Goo.im page or odexed versions directly from the fastboot.

Sweet thanks man. So would u say that I should safely be able to install over the stock ROM? Or should I wipe then install? Also since these are stock I can install them to ROM slot stock right?
Sent from my MB886 using xda premium

skeevy420 said:
Odexed\deodexed....ICS\JB...Stock\Custom....Bell\ATT\Other...not much to go on...either way, go to the Batakang FTP and download which rom you need and you'll always have a backup copy of all the files needed (the bottom two). If your not AT&T, then you can get deodexed versions on my Goo.im page or odexed versions directly from the fastboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, so I've been doing a lot of research on safe strap and apparently you cannot overwrite the stock ROM slot which would be why I couldn't flash anything to it. So what I did was create a new slot (slot 1) with the stock image. I installed safestrap to that new ROM. My question now would be, If I create a nandroid of that ROM and restore it to the stock slot will that work? Or will it bork due to not having safestrap recovery installed to the system partition anymore and there for stop it from booting along with killing safestrap? Hoping some one can chime in on this one as I'm quite anxious to get back to normal phone use. at least for now all my sounds are back but having a 1 gig system partition is a major bummer.

metalmike6 said:
Hey, so I've been doing a lot of research on safe strap and apparently you cannot overwrite the stock ROM slot which would be why I couldn't flash anything to it. So what I did was create a new slot (slot 1) with the stock image. I installed safestrap to that new ROM. My question now would be, If I create a nandroid of that ROM and restore it to the stock slot will that work? Or will it bork due to not having safestrap recovery installed to the system partition anymore and there for stop it from booting along with killing safestrap? Hoping some one can chime in on this one as I'm quite anxious to get back to normal phone use. at least for now all my sounds are back but having a 1 gig system partition is a major bummer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's where I'm at. On my stock rom, /system/etc/safestrap was added, logwrapper was modified to execute 2nd-init. AFAIK, that's all that was added. I'm so used to the Defy bootstrap method that I'm having a hard time getting used to SS - Defy BS was clearly laid out on what was executed and when that was done -- I've even looked at the SS source and its scripts and still can figure out what's the first script called by the 2nd-init loader....makes me feel super noob .

Well supposedly hash code said that after every restore and flash to the safe slot (stock) safe strap will reinstall itself on /system so if that's the case restoring any backup to that safe slot should be OK. But if that were the case no one would be able to brick. And I've seen people brick with and lose safestrap, and have to use RSD. Which is the road I don't want to have to go down. Really wish I had a definite answer because it seems like it should work but I don't want to do it unless some one who knows more about this than me confirms it.
Sent from my MB886 using xda premium

[Q] Stuck on Boot S-5 Screen

Hi I have an A&TT S900A. I just installed Unity Rom and upon reboot all is the S-5 Boot screen without ever getting to safestrap. How can I fix this?

I can tell you the same thing hapenned to me and going back to stock was my only option. The only thing to remember here though is that the file to odin back to stock will wipe everything off your internal memory, so you should probably make a back up of your internal memory first if you can. Good luck man.
Sent from my SM-G900A using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Thanks a lot. I don't see an Odin return to stock thread specific to this model, so I assume it's pretty standard and will look for just a general walk through online.

ok odin worked fine, now to try if I can get this rom to install again... Thanks for the help!

T-Mobile Note 4 SM-N910T

I recently purchased a Samsung Note 4 (SM N910T) for from a guy on craigslist after saving up money to buy it, but it keeps turning off out of no where . the phone was having problems before I rooted it, after I rooted it, and after I odin'd the earliest version of kit kat of the phone.. The turning off occurs at any time, during boot, during flashing TWRP, during normal usage of phone, anytime. I recently purchased a brand new OEM Samsung Note 4 Battery and but still has problems. I'm currently on stock DOK2 and still having trouble. Does anybody know what I can do to fix this? I can't contact the original seller anymore

Is it rebooting on its own or shutting off completely?
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

Starts rebooting on its own

qbanlinxx said:
Is it rebooting on its own or shutting off completely?
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reboots on its own

You have messed with kernel now flash stock kk and keep trouble away from you

junejo46726 said:
You have messed with kernel now flash stock kk and keep trouble away from you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If he's on dok2, likely stuck there and cannot go back to kk. For the op, I think you found why they were selling it..... I would recommend somewhere like swappa.Com over Craigslist.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app

Go into TWRP and wipe everything including internal sd. Then boot into download mode and flash the DOK2 firmware in ODIN. it could be the software related. If that doesn't fix it, then it might be hardware. You may have to take the phone apart and see if it's got a lose wire or a fried MB. Water damage can also cause this behavior.

So I have kept my device stock except for SuperSU and Busybox, no kernel flash, or rom flash yet, my question is, has Samsung fixed the issue with deleting NV data when flashing between roms? What I want to do, is flash TWRP and backup my current setup, then I want to unroot it, and back it up so that I can switch back and forth between rooted and stock, because I found out that screen mirroring breaks sometimes when you run the stock rom rooted and I want to know before hand if I need to backup my NV data with QPST before flashing back and forth between these two modes. I know I can do it in the terminal, but i've seen issues on my SGS3 with this being restored in a ROM that was not the one you backed up from, I.e. it seemed almost like the backup in the terminal assigned a unique identifier to the backup so when you flashed a ROM and needed to restore it would say the backup was corrupted, of course while I don't see any reason why the NV data would get destroyed during the process of what I'm trying to do, I just want to be fully prepared, because I'm pretty sure the .QCN generator I have for the SGS3 isn't going to write a new .QCN (NV data file) that is going to work on the note 4 seeing as how there were two or three updates to the .QCN version number for the SGS3.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app

817t stock firmware

Hi everyone, I was wondering if we had the stock files for the t817t (tmobile). Im on 5.1.1
Sent from my SM-T817T using Tapatalk

http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/database/SM-T817T/

We're a bit over the average update interval... Perhaps that's an indication that 6.0.1 will be next (hopefully)?

i flashed the sam mobile file to return to stock, the phone rebooted and the samsung logo with no sound. It gets to tmobile white screen and thats it. Nothing else happens. Im letting it sit to see if it will boot up eventually. I have double checked the firmware that I downloaded, it is correct. Any ideas please

I'm always a little bemused by people who go to all the effort of modding their device, downloading the stock firmware then installing it then finally posting they're having issues yet could avoid it all by simply spending 3 minutes making a full backup with TWRP first.
Not directed at anyone but just an observation that seems to happen time and time again.

First of all the stock firmware is flashed via Odin. A back up does no good. It wipes twrp and replaces stock recovery. So, what are you saying? I should have made a backup in twrp then flashed stock firmware and put stock recovery on device so I could recover. Roflmao
Some people post without fully reading the post. Not directed at anyone just an observation.
Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

Secondly, I have a FULL BACKUP on external sd card. I tried to reinstall twrp and root and reflashing. I still get to white splash screen and sits there for hours.
People should ask before being smart asses.
Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

Umm... Actually, if you install TWRP right after Odin, you can make a backup without root. Bone stock, fresh from Odin. Then you can restore and go from there if rooting turns out bad. Or whatever.
Just saying
Sent from my LGLS990 using XDA-Developers mobile app

Refer to post 4. Read people. Read. I wanted to go back to stock. 100% no twrp. Wow. So I flashed the firmware to go to completely stock. I had back up of stock Rom BEFORE ROOT ON EXTERNAL AND COPIED TO PC. Just in case.
Wow. So much for helping hands in this bunch.
Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

Temper temper lad.
If you had made a backup (which is suggested) when you first installed TWRP, you could have restored it and been fine.
Now the Odin that someone has already pointed you to, has gone wrong for some reason. That's up to you to figure out.
But, when you Odin'd the correct file, did you wipe all 4 first? Or do a factory reset, then Odin?
Try that and see what happens. Odin only wipes the /system and any remenants or problems will remain unless you clear them.
Edit: /data doesn't get wiped in Odin. Also, if you factory reset, backup your int sd or you'll lose your files.
Sent from my LGLS990 using XDA-Developers mobile app

ashyx said:
I'm always a little bemused by people who go to all the effort of modding their device, downloading the stock firmware then installing it then finally posting they're having issues yet could avoid it all by simply spending 3 minutes making a full backup with TWRP first.
Not directed at anyone but just an observation that seems to happen time and time again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Temper? ROFLMAO Nah, Just tired of attitudes like this.
Sent from my SM-T817T using Tapatalk

llawen said:
Temper? ROFLMAO Nah, Just tired of attitudes like this.
Sent from my SM-T817T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow quoted ME twice. I am popular.
For your info, if you'd have made a full backup with TWRP first before making any mods you wouldn't be in this situation.
All you need do is restore it then flash the stock recovery.img with twrp.
That would put you back to bone stock.
All done without needing ODIN at all.
Also there are many happy flash noobs who read these posts and the previous comment was directed at them.
Don't take it personally.