Odd problems with APN not sticking on Lollipop... - AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 5

Little background:
I was running Alliance and it was great, decided to be stupid and really wanted MIUI.
So...I stupidly thought I could make MIUI work (I know, I know, I'm retarded). Installed MIUI and of course soft brick, no biggie.
Then Odin'd back to stock (downgraded to NCE). Everything was fine.
Rooted w/ TowelRoot. Installed Busybox and Flashfire and then installed Twi5ted Lollipop.
APN settings wouldn't stick so I thought it might be something wrong with the ROM so then I installed TMS5 (wiped, etc) and everything worked.
Decided I wanted to back to Alliance and wiped, Flashfired Alliance and APN settings won't stick again.
Keeps saying SIM card not inserted, then it will grab a bar or two, then nothing. Try to change APN settings, they won't save, try to reset APN settings back to default, rebooted, etc etc etc.
TLDR:
1. Alliance
2. MIUI (softbrick)
3. Stock NCE via Odin
4. Root, flashfire, busybox etc
5. Twi5ted (APN no worky)
6. TMS5 (APN worky)
7. Alliance (APN no worky)
Thanks for any help!

lollipop-related
Bump.
So, I've read a ton of threads in the past week related to this issue. I have a gs2 on at&t and a gs3 on sprint, and I recently decided to jump away from good old kitkat for lollipop, so naturally I tried cm12 first. Great, both galaxy's love it. But I've tried everything under the sun to get APN's to stick. Ive only found one thing that worked, and its really only a temporary solution, because if you reboot, they ALWAYS get deleted and permissions to write get screwy again.
So, on both phones, I had to wipe everything and flash cm11. Then I dirty flashed cm12, which I didn't even think would work, but for some odd reason it did, and while still in the recovery console (before first boot!) I flashed one of those APN patch scripts to flash the APN's instead of trying to copy the XML later (it always gets deleted on next boot) nor use the actually APN utility in lollipop... And as long as you DONT connect to WiFi on initial setup when you boot, youll notice the flashed APN's show up in the list. DONT EDIT THEM... lol
They won't connect for a couple minutes usually, but after a couple minutes both phones connected... Idk if this will work on your gs5, but it worked for my 2 and my 3 which are both on different providers.
OK, I know that was long-winded and not that useful, but I tried literally everything to address this problem, with no luck. Apparently its super common across a ton of devices that upgrade to lollipop, whether a stock or custom ROM.
I tried setting permissions manually to EVERY ditectory or file that stores anything from the modem. In the data directory, in efs, in system... On every XML and db file. Nothing seems to allow them to be written correctly through the system. And everywhere I found anything on the Google dev forums, Google denied the possibility that its actually a system level problem, and their fault.
Good luck, and please let me know if you find any actual way to solve the APN issue, not like my tricky little workaround that SUCKS if your phone ever dies. lol

Related

Possible Brick[Fixed]

So I installed and ran psouza's bloatware removal script, but when it was reset my phone got stuck at the boot screen. So I did battery pull and re-booted the phone, which led me to be stuck at the boot screen once again. Ok, no biggie, I don't really have too much on the phone I'll factory reset it. Once I did that everything was going good until after it asked me what gps services I was going to use(verizon, google, stand alone) I clicked them all pressed finished, and then things started to get a bit weird. The screen was completely black except for the notification bar up top, which I could access and set up things like wifi and such, but pulling it back up showed the same black screen as before. Now what this leads me to believe is that I might have removed the launcher on accident(I don't know how I was being very careful as to watch what I was removing, but it's been a long day...). So my question is, is there any way to recover my phone, whether it be setting it back to stock somehow, downloading another launcher from the android market(keep in mind I don't exactly have access to the market via my phone), or other? Also I really don't want to talk to Verizon/get a new phone unless it's the only thing possible.
Thanks in advance, and sorry for being such a noob >.<
Edit: Managed to install launcher pro and now everything is working fine.
use ADB and install launcherpro to the device. You can get it from www.launcherpro.com and use adb install (not push).
For everyone else reading...
Factory Reset is the last thing you want to do when having issues with your phone if you have modified the system/app files in anyway (renamed, deleted, froze, etc..).
It seems from what I've been reading, most do not know what a Factory Reset does. Factory Reset wipes your /data /cache and /davlik-cache partitions clean. It does not change your /system partition, does not "restore" apps you've deleted, changed, replaced, added or anything else in /system. Why...because there is no hidden partition that holds a copy of "how the phone was" when it was stock. It's only "resetting" what you have (as a user) done on the phone. If you've deleted contacts.apk and added SuperUser.apk to /system/app....then that's the same way it will be after a factory reset. Same for /system/xbin or /system/bin if you've copied SU and BUSYBOX there......
So what it does it is erases all the settings, configurations, apps you've downloaded/installed from the Market, account info and such....things that might still function once configured and then some apps deleted/renamed/frozen but will not function if trying to configure fresh.
If you have a stock phone, Factory Reset can be your friend. If you have a modified phone, Factory Reset can be your worst nightmare.
Complete ROMs (CM7, Bugless Beast, etc..) can be Factory Reset just like a stock ROM...unless you start changing things in /system......
Remember, Factory Reset is not a recovery, it's an "erase the stuff I've added/configured" based off a stock unrooted users abilities. Changes to files/folders/apps that are in areas that require root to access, are not touched by a Factory Reset.
This is why you can get in more trouble....things are missing and now you've wiped your configurations/install apps (example...using LauncherPro and deleted the stock Launcher.apk...do a Factory Reset....now LauncherPro no longer exist and the deleted stock Launcher.apk is still deleted....no home screen launcher).
Thanks for the insight tcrews, I managed to get everything straightened out right before you posted, but it still has some valuable information that I will make sure to remember. I really shouldn't have done to much messing around with my phone since I wasn't quite sure what I was doing(I don't even have a reliable way to recover via sd, or cloud storage yet). I think this instance was just one of carelessness, in that I wasn't paying full attention to what was going on. Oh well, I learned my lesson.

[Trifecta] Jelly Bean Update

This one is pretty straight forward...Especially if you haven't done much modding to your
phone.
If you're stock or close to, you can probably just move the update to the phone sd and use stock recovery to apply update, and you're good to go. If you are already rooted try the OTA RootKeeper app, hopefully it'll work for you. being that it seems to be hit & miss, i'm guessing it didn't work for people that had issues updating, but will work for those whose update goes smooth.
I on the other hand had already rooted and did the GSM hack on mine so I ran into a few issues that I've others have been having too.
Probably the biggest and most common are "system 7" errors. I've realized you get these when the update checks and finds that ICS files have changed, are frozen, gone, etc. and it's a bit harder to diagnose because it keeps changing depending on what's wrong.
For example it had a code then something else and it referrenced my STK.apk file, then I realized when I did the GSM hack I renamed those to Stk.apk.bak & stk.odex.bak as recommended. So I fixed those & tried update again.
Failed this time at build.prop, yep another GSM mod, but I didn't back-up or save orig settings, so I had to find a bionic ICS build.prop and replace it. found it here (will update with link asap).
Tried again, IIRC, this is the time it worked, but only booted to animation loop. This sucked. Tried to use House of Bionic to fix, couldn't get it to work, but ended finding a fix using recovory "AP Fastboot" had to use pc CMD to reinstall preinstall.img & system.img from the HoB ICS FXZ file.
Look HERE. Thanks to ERIC for this, he gives you everything you need. He's also responsible for dead battery workaround I put below.
When you do this, you can't boot phone back up but you can go into stock recovery & re-apply update from sd on your phone. It wipes everything tho, so if you used OTA RootKeeper, it's gone. But you get phone back.
Bottom line...MAKE BACK-ups or save everything you've changed.
If you've heavily modded things on your phone it might be more worth it (easier) to back up & save what you can as far as apps & personal stuff then redo ICS stock, Maybe root & use OTA RootKeeper here, tho I've heard this doesn't always work either (the OTA part), then apply JB update. then re-install / apply what you were able to save / back-up.
So in hindsight I would guess modding anything within the system is what gives you the "system 7" error, and depending on what you did, or maybe someone you bought the phone from already rooted & modded, it can take you all day to fix / replace those files, just do the reflash of the (2) img files & call it a day. This way you can probably avoid the boot loop issue too.
One other thing about the boot loop one...if you wait & wait & wait like I did it KILLS your battery, and you won't be able to use Fastboot.
IF THIS HAPPENS...find an old phone charger or DC plug, like for your computer, clip off the end and line up the positive & negative connections on the battery then push it into the phone so the wires are touching the phone connections too. Be careful what it's putting out tho, I found I had one that the output was 6 (watts i believe) and 300 mah. It worked the trick just fine. you don't want anything to high as you don't want to burn up any circuits. most USB plug phone chargers go around 5 (watts) I believe. just FYI.
Hope this helps someone.
Cheers.

No sound then baseband on GT-I9305 - tried everything

My Galaxy S3 GT-I9305 LTE was running Liquid Smooth 2.37. I bought the phone second hand, it arrived loaded with a stock ROM for Australia's Optus network.
I promptly rooted and flashed the phone to Liquid Smooth and the phone ran fine for months on the 2 Degrees Network in New Zealand.
Recently, (not sure how) I lost notification and phone ring sounds, I first tried restoring my cwm backup on an external sd card - it failed.
Then, after numerous reinstalls, trying various LS and other roms, I lost baseband and have no cell signal - but after flashing to a stock 4.3 rom I have sound back.
In the phone's 'about' section the baseband field is empty.
I've read tons of help posts but nothing works, maybe I need a more methodical approach, but every entry point seems to have a roadblock.
Here's a few of the things I've tried with results in brackets,
Firstly, I thought I'd re-flash back to the phone's original stock ROM using Kies, but the weird thing is Kies doesn't restore, it upgrades to the latest 4.3 ROM, which fails to restore baseband.
I wanted to send the phone back to the 4.1.2 it came with or was it an earlier ROM? I can't remember as I didn't note it down.
Anyway, I must have tried reflashing a dozen stock roms I've found online using Odin. Some of them partially work, I get sound back, (it seems only the 4.3 ones work, with the german I9305XXUEMKC I9305VD2EMK2 reliably loading - it even gives me a NZ english install option) but none restore the baseband.
And all the ones I've found for Optus, which should work, including earlier Android stocks, are rejected. I get the 'unsupported device' or status 7 error in Odin.
I've tried 'fixing permissions' in cwm then reinstalling but I get the same 'status 7' error.
So I decided to install I9305XXUEMKC, install cwm, root the phone and try installing different baseband kernals and/or custom roms to fix the (probably corrupt) efs.
But I'm going round in circles trying to root the phone. Using CWM, supersu shows as successfully installed, but when I boot into the OS, root checker shows my phone is not rooted. Knox seems to obstruct every attempt I make to disable it as well. I keep getting these 'knox stopped etc...from working messages'.
I'm at my wits end. I can't revert back to an older rom, I can't root and modify any existing 4.3 roms.
I want to try everything before I have to ship the phone off to a repairer who may charge me hundreds of dollars to fix the phone.

[Q] How to fix a boot loop without a factory reset

I have googled this but all the solution I find are either to factory reset or re-flash your firmware. I'd really like to avoid that.
I have a Z3 compact, rooted and then flashed with the latest firmware I think its the .77 at the end.
Xposed framework with a few mods running beautifully on it.
The last 3 changes I did before the phone got stuck in the boot loop:
- updated minmin xposed module from 1.8.1 to 1.9
- updated another module but forgot its name
- fiddled with the settings of this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.namelessrom.devicecontrol
I'm pretty sure its the latter as it sets certain kernel parameters at reboot.
Can anyone give me instructions on how to disable this app from booting or how/where to find it and delete it?
Where can I find logs of this boot loop?
I really want to avoid re-flashing, re-rooting, re-flashing and restoring my backup again as that will take half a day.
I've just brought back mine from bootlooping after I've installed several extensions (just discovered that the culprit was DonkeyGuard) and I'm about to do it for the second time, by flashing a Xposed-Disabler-Recovery.zip file that's stored either in the root of your phone or at
/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/files/Xposed-Disabler-Recovery.zip
But that would only work in case you messed it up with Xposed.
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if I encounter this problem again.
Still finding it hard to believe there's no other reply to a seemingly common problem / question, does everyone just pack up and factory reset when boot looping?
Well, it's as common as people repeating to make a nandroid backup, you know
Btw, before I will flash yesterday a black theme (modded system files), I made the backup, so when my Z3C got stuck in a bootloop for the third time, I had nandroid ready. Such a shame, I really liked that mod.
If the kernel is problem, how about just reflashing your kernel?
Believe it or not, I started looking into nandroid backups today already made my first tests.
Until now I relied on titanium backups but that still makes me do a factory restore before I can restore stuff from those backups.
But the issue is, I am not looking for better "protection" I'm trying to find out how I can fix something minor like this i.e. via adb and command line...
Talking about a custom kernel, is there one? I have a rooted xperia z3 compact and wouldn't mind checking out a different kernel but I held back unlocking my bootloader until there is a custom ROM available that can fully replace my rooted stock ROM.
If love to get PAC man ROM for my phone.
I had the same issue, but by using 3C toolbox (similar to the app you've mentioned).
In my case putting back the original build.prop into /system via ADB fixed the bootloop.
As for custom kernel, you can try AndroPlus kernel HERE
@ovizii as @davebugyi said, you could always put some files back via ADB, but you need to have a file that you want to put back, like in davebugyi's case an original file. In your case you don't have it, so unless you know what value you changed, there is nothing much that you could really do with ADB access.
-V-O-Y-A-G-E-R- said:
@ovizii as @davebugyi said, you could always put some files back via ADB, but you need to have a file that you want to put back, like in davebugyi's case an original file. In your case you don't have it, so unless you know what value you changed, there is nothing much that you could really do with ADB access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, I was thinking along the lines of accessing log files, like a system log file, check what went wrong, i.e. auto start of a certain app, or setting of kernel parameters at boot time, then remove the offending apps/entries?
Just not sure if that's possible, hence this question here
Checking out the suggested ap and the kernel! Thanks!

[Q] Android Process FCs and General Device Instability After Flashing MMB29V

Hello all. Generally I've been able to troubleshoot all my Android issues on my own. Most of the time someone has had the same problem (amirite?!). However, I'm stumped and could use a little help from the community.
I've been going along on Marshmallow with FK as my kernel. Generally, waiting a bit to take an update til SuperSU was confirmed all working correctly and that there wasn't any surprises. I had been putting off the MMB29V update for a bit just because everything was running fine and I had no real reason to upgrade. Well, one day I started getting a few FCs and things seemed a bit off performance wise so I decided that I'd go and move on to the next release.
Now, since I've had my N6 I really haven't had the need to run a custom ROM which is completely unlike my old habits on the S3. I decided that it's been a while since I've checked out AOSP so I flashed MMB29V using the batch file with no issues and then DU and their recommended GApps. Here's the first hint of an issue. When I loaded up the OS for the first time I got acore and phone FC's constantly. I instantly thought that I didn't wipe something or that I had a bad zip. I re-downloaded everything and checked MD5s. Everything looked good and after the flash I was able to get through the setup wizard without any issues. As I was sitting there checking out the tweaks and options available I started getting FCs again. It seemed related to Google apps. I did the whole process a second time and still had the same issues. Basically it seemed like at some random point in time the FCs would come and then shortly after the device would be highly unstable. I'd get random reboots, etc. Looking at the stack traces the errors seemed like odd NPEs and native errors.
I decided that AOSP wasn't going to cut it right now if I was going to have a relatively unstable phone and went to flash completely back to stock. Much to my surprise I still got the same errors! Apps like Feedly would never even be able to open. They would just FC on launch. The device hot reboots. The phone process seems to crash during most calls. I triple checked my MD5 on the download from Google. Made sure I wasn't doing something super stupid. I even tried doing the factory flash, booting to the welcome screen, then powering down, going to stock recovery, and factory resetting before continuing. All the same errors.
I've flashed back to complete stock a few times before without any issues. I've been able to flash system.img without any issues. Now it seems like the phone is completely unstable no matter what I do. I get the "Your device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and may not work properly." (red) message when doing a cold boot.
So... What gives? Am I completely blanking on a step here? Is it possible that I have a hardware issue that is corrupting stuff (I've suffered a bad DIMM before in a desktop and it was mind numbingly frustrating)?
I've burned through two backup cards of Google 2-Step backup codes! I'd really like to figure this one out!
mikejr83 said:
.
So... What gives? Am I completely blanking on a step here? Is it possible that I have a hardware issue that is corrupting stuff (I've suffered a bad DIMM before in a desktop and it was mind numbingly frustrating)?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could read the OP of the following thread and flash a debloated and prerooted ROM.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3059493
I guess I'll try that. I'm still scratching my head why a flash from the factory image is still suffering from FC's and general instability. It also concerns me that I get the corrupted message at boot. It would be one thing if I flashed factory, then put a recovery, kernel, and rooted, but I haven't done that.
Hopefully I'll get a chance to try that this evening. Thanks for the link to that image. It's pretty much what I run when I take an update.
N, n, ne, necromancy!
I brought this thread back to life because I've never been able to solve the instability issues since my last post back in March.
Having some free time lately I decided to nuke my device and start again. I first grabbed the latest stock image and flashed stock. Then I downloaded the latest TWRP and Dirty Unicorns and decided that I'd give it a whirl again. I had FC issues right after the first go at it. I decided to try another GAPPs and do it again. I was able to get through setup. It took a few hours but the FCs started again.
I decided that I would try factory resetting the device and then starting a setup. I remembered that on my previous devices that I sometimes would have to do an immediate factory reset after flashing.
Well that did crap. FCs are random. The device is stuck booting now after a hot reboot.
How can I debug this? What do I need to grab from a logcat? Is there a way to run something like memtest to see if there is a bad section of RAM and something against storage to see if there is a bad sector?
This is frustrating as hell!

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