Database Develop

[Q] Bootloader Troubles

Last night I was on my nexus before I would go to bed. I opened the franco kernel app and then noticed that r6 was available for download. I downloaded and flashed it and was about to go to sleep when I noticed the notification light that my phone was charging. I thought it was neat then tried to get some sleep, but my promised sleep did not come quick. After a good chunk of time had passed, I thought that my lack of sleep was caused by the green light that was barely noticable. I searched and searched in the app to try and find an option to disable the LED, but could not. I then decided that the best way to get rid of the light, would be to flash the older r5 kernel so I wouldn't have to see the light anymore. I hit flash and my phone rebooted and then brought me to the bootloader. I attempted to reboot but I could not. I've tried using adb and nexus root toolkit to get my device to work again, but they can't seem to find it without the correct drivers. I installed Motorola device manager, nothing. I tried to follow the instructions in the toolkit to get the correct drivers installed but I can't continue with the need to enable debugging, which I cannot do from being stuck at the bootloader.
Under bootloader logs, I have the following messages:
Invalid boot image size!
failed to validate boot image
Fastboot Reason: Fall-through from normal boot mode
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

USB debugging is an android setting. It can only be used when android is running. If you had USB debugging on, it would make absolutely no difference in recovery or bootloader so don't let that step stop you.
From the logs, it sounds like your kernel download is corrupt or didn't flash properly. I had a similar message when I flashed a partially downloaded recovery image today.
Just fastboot flash a complete boot image

I tried that last night by launching adb and doing 'adb devices' but my device is unrecognized and I am unsure of how to go about fixing that.

thecupman said:
I tried that last night by launching adb and doing 'adb devices' but my device is unrecognized and I am unsure of how to go about fixing that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried what exactly? Adb and fastboot are two different things. Adb works in android or recovery only. Fastboot works in boot loader only. Boot to boot loader and do "fastboot devices"

Ah that was my mistake. But the fastboot devices command just returns a new line for a new command to be entered in

thecupman said:
Ah that was my mistake. But the fastboot devices command just returns a new line for a new command to be entered in
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That probably means there is a blank line between them - showing that no device is found. Unlike Adb it just gives a blank line instead of "no devices".
Probably means a driver issue or cable issue. Try different USB ports / cables if you can. Check to see if there are any yellow triangles in device manager too.
I'm new to this phone so I don't know where the drivers are if you need them. If I ever find them, I'll port my nexus 5 Adb and fastboot thread over here. Unfortunately i use Linux at home so I don't really have a driver issue.

Oh, so if I were to use Linux I wouldn't have to deal with missing drivers? I'm assuming that's the issue since no matter which port I use, 'Connect USB Data Cable' doesn't change

thecupman said:
Oh, so if I were to use Linux I wouldn't have to deal with missing drivers? I'm assuming that's the issue since no matter which port I use, 'Connect USB Data Cable' doesn't change
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't say for sure. In Linux you may need to add UDEV rules. I didn't though. My bootloader is just recognised.
Please do check your device manager though.
I'm sorry i can't help more right now. I'm going to bed.

Okay, thank you! I'll reply if I encounter any other errors!

The Google driver works for all Nexus devices (except the GNex): http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html

Solved: Can't pass fastboot commands to bootloader

Hi guys,
I've got a real head-scratcher over here. I followed every guide to a T, but I can't get my computer to detect my device in fastboot.
I installed the Xperia companion. I tried to manually install the Google USB drivers, and the sony OEM drivers. Still, no matter what, when I enter, what is supposedly fastboot, it never shows up. When the phone is on ADB devices shows it just fine. I am at a total loss!
To enter fastboot, I am shutting down the phone, pressing the volume up button, and plugging it in, then I get a black screen and a blue LED, which supposedly is correct? I've personally never seen anything like this before. Device manager does detect it as an unknown Android device, however, if I try to apply any drivers to it Windows simply informs me I already have the latest ones installed.
Thanks
SOLUTION: It was a driver issue after all. Windows 10 would not detect any drivers, nor let me install any drivers manually from files, however, it did let me select built-in drivers from my computer. YMMV, but If you are running into this issue try this:
1) Put your phone into bootloader mode.
2) Open device manager.
3) Right-click the device called "Android" with the yellow question mark, and select "update driver."
4) Click the "Browse my computer" option.
5) Click "Let me pick."
Note: There are several categories here, I suggest you try them all: portable devices, android devices, and in my case, Samsung devices. In one of the categories, you will find Google listed as a manufacturer.
6) In one of the categories, you will find Google listed as a manufacturer (in my case it was under the "Samsung Devices" category).
7) Select Google and then select the newest fastboot driver listed (in my case it was dated 2016), and install that driver.
8) Go back to PowerShell and run "fastboot devices." With a little luck, it will work!
Previous steps:
Edit: I had the thought of trying
Code:
adb reboot fastboot
and that got me into fastbootd, and then my PC detected it, however, the phone did not accept the unlock command.
Code:
FAILED (remote: 'Unable to open fastboot HAL')
fastboot: error: Command failed
I rebooted into the bootloader from here, got the same black screen, blue LED as above, and my phone is still not detected by fastboot.

Make sure you open cmd window in fastboot folder...i hope this is help

Sony fastboot mode is different I think. It was odd to me but doesn't show anything on screen when I went to fastboot to flash US firmware

mehdi_s82 said:
Sony fastboot mode is different I think. It was odd to me but doesn't show anything on screen when I went to fastboot to flash US firmware
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I live in Boston and got the the XQ-AT51 (despite the fact that B&H was originally selling the 52... so in a few months I'm going to have to flip this phone ), do I have to reflash a stock firmware before I can unlock the bootloader? I do have it from XperiFirm.
Edit: This was dumb of me as you can't flash anything onto the phone unless the bootloader is already unlocked.
Edit: I don't want to double post, but I managed to solve the problem, and added the solution to the OP.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THIS GUIDE. I was struggling for hours on end with the "Unable to open fastboot HAL" error message, but followed the steps outlined in your guide a little differently than you, since I'm on windows 7. I believe that the root cause of my issue was that I actually used the down volume button instead of the volume up, believing that it was weird for the screen to show nothing except for the blue notification LED.
Here is what I did just in case for people who might encounter the same issue in the future. Be warned though that I'm not an english native so the options won't be accurately translated but I'll try to do my best nonetheless.
1) Put your phone into bootloader mode (volume UP + power button, not down.) Don't be afraid if nothing shows up, it's actually normal
2) Open device manager
3) Right-click the device called "Android" with the yellow question mark, and select "update driver."
4)ISelect "Look for drivers on my computer (manual install option)
5)Select "Choose from a list of drivers installed on this computer"
6)Scroll down through the manufacturers and such until you find "sony sa0200"
7)Install it
Normally everything should be working fine with fastboot. What a relief

I have a similar problem, but my device manager does not show any android device from the bootloader. I've tried multiple cables and everything works fine in adb mode.
EDIT: Nevermind. It ended up being multiple bad cables. They all worked in ADB/booted but not in Fastboot/bootloader. Tried one more it it worked completely

I have same issue with my Poco X3 Pro, the device working fine and is recognized as ADB composite when i'm under MIUI, but when i launch the device in fastboot mode, the ADB composite disappear and a generic "android" device appear and i'm not able to install any drivers, no qualcomm, no xiami, no generic google usb, nothing.
Following the tips above, nothing work. I'm under windows 7.
Any tips?

Thx everyone for pointing me to the right direction. Flashing latest twrp was the final step. Recovery is back to now .

Fast Boot

I received my new sony 1 ii and have checked and the bootloader can be unlocked and the phone can be rooted. I thought I was away to the races but I'm mystified. I can't get the phone to boot into fast boot.
I appears I have the drivers in place and the phone is recognized by the computer but no luck with fast boot.
I have searched and can't seem to find out why this is. I suspect some kind of driver issue with win10 but when I connect to the computer with the phone off and hold the up-volume nothing happens. I have also tried to boot into recovery mode and that does not work as well. Any help would be appreciated.

blkair445 said:
I received my new sony 1 ii and have checked and the bootloader can be unlocked and the phone can be rooted. I thought I was away to the races but I'm mystified. I can't get the phone to boot into fast boot.
I appears I have the drivers in place and the phone is recognized by the computer but no luck with fast boot.
I have searched and can't seem to find out why this is. I suspect some kind of driver issue with win10 but when I connect to the computer with the phone off and hold the up-volume nothing happens. I have also tried to boot into recovery mode and that does not work as well. Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On Sony devices you need to power off and hold volume up and plug in the USB cable. That should leave the blue LED to indicate fastboot mode. I'm not 100% sure since it's been a while since I've messed around with Sony devices

Thanks for the input. I have done that and am still unable to action ADB - It is a little confusing since the phone only shows the blue light and nothing else.
If I normally boot the phone it will register as an ADB device. I also find it strange that it will not boot into recovery. The android icon flashes but when you release it boots to safe mode. I assume it is a driver issue but it is not revealing its self to me . Cheers

blkair446 said:
Thanks for the input. I have done that and am still unable to action ADB - It is a little confusing since the phone only shows the blue light and nothing else.
If I normally boot the phone it will register as an ADB device. I also find it strange that it will not boot into recovery. The android icon flashes but when you release it boots to safe mode. I assume it is a driver issue but it is not revealing its self to me . Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The blue light is fastboot mode. There is no ui interface in fastboot for sony devices. Just a blue light and black screen.

R800x_user said:
On Sony devices you need to power off and hold volume up and plug in the USB cable. That should leave the blue LED to indicate fastboot mode. I'm not 100% sure since it's been a while since I've messed around with Sony devices
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same person but had to change user name -- more on the issue
I managed to unlock the boot loader and it seems that at every step for rooting I am running into curve balls. Windows was not working for me so I managed to unlock the bootloader with Linux and going on to the next step I had to go back to windows to find a current factory ROM.
The next issue: going back to the "how to" I am unable to located boot.xxxxx.sin in the factory ROM and the closest I could find is boot_x-Flash-ALL-2389.sin and that doesn't work.
In the boot directory all files are bootloader_X_44 and a combination of zip and sin files
Can anyone steer me through the muddy waters
The factory rom was downloaded through XperiaFirm application

blkair446 said:
Same person but had to change user name -- more on the issue
I managed to unlock the boot loader and it seems that at every step for rooting I am running into curve balls. Windows was not working for me so I managed to unlock the bootloader with Linux and going on to the next step I had to go back to windows to find a current factory ROM.
The next issue: going back to the "how to" I am unable to located boot.xxxxx.sin in the factory ROM and the closest I could find is boot_x-Flash-ALL-2389.sin and that doesn't work.
In the boot directory all files are bootloader_X_44 and a combination of zip and sin files
Can anyone steer me through the muddy waters
The factory rom was downloaded through XperiaFirm application
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May I know how did you unlock the bootloader? Did you use xperia 1 as your device in https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/get-started/unlock-bootloader/#unlock-code?
I have already installed usb drivers and have the platform tools. But everytime I boot my device to fastboot, whether using "adb reboot bootloader" or power button + volume up, screen only shows black (led is solid blue). I did left it for a couple of minutes, nothing happened.

jepher said:
May I know how did you unlock the bootloader? Did you use xperia 1 as your device in ?
I have already installed usb drivers and have the platform tools. But everytime I boot my device to fastboot, whether using "adb reboot bootloader" or power button + volume up, screen only shows black (led is solid blue). I did left it for a couple of minutes, nothing happened.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I unlocked my bootloader after obtaining the unlock code from sony developers I used adb/fastboot commands in linux mint. Pretty straight forward but the next step for rooting is giving me issues. Just select xperia 1 and the imei number will identify your phone -- cheers

blkair446 said:
I unlocked my bootloader after obtaining the unlock code from sony developers I used adb/fastboot commands in linux mint. Pretty straight forward but the next step for rooting is giving me issues. Just select xperia 1 and the imei number will identify your phone -- cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I followed those. But may I know how long it took you to finish the unlocking?
Install ADB/SDK drivers
Download platform tools
Plug the device
Make sure adb can see my device
Use adb reboot bootloader command
Device booted to fastboot mode
Execute the command with the unlock code
...stucked here
If I miss something. Please do let me know

jepher said:
Yes I followed those. But may I know how long it took you to finish the unlocking?
Install ADB/SDK drivers
Download platform tools
Plug the device
Make sure adb can see my device
Use adb reboot bootloader command
Device booted to fastboot mode
Execute the command with the unlock code
...stucked here
If I miss something. Please do let me know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume you are using windows and I must say I gave up trying to get win10 to work and I was stuck at the same place you are. I then switched to linux and it went a lot smoother and I didn't need all those tools as laid out in the description.
In linux you must use the phone to go into fastboot mode if you boot from computer it actually boots to a visible screen on the phone and I didn't have connection that would take the command line commands. Linux is very good because if you are missing something it will give you a link or a command line input when you execute the ADB or Fastboot command.
I have run a windows/linux dual boot desktop for a while now and I'm no expert but coming from the era of command line I can muddle through. Sorry if I can't give you more info on windows but win10 is such a pain and I find that with a lot of things linux works better. If I didn't need adobe acrobat I would not even bother with windows.
cheers

blkair446 said:
I assume you are using windows and I must say I gave up trying to get win10 to work and I was stuck at the same place you are. I then switched to linux and it went a lot smoother and I didn't need all those tools as laid out in the description.
In linux you must use the phone to go into fastboot mode if you boot from computer it actually boots to a visible screen on the phone and I didn't have connection that would take the command line commands. Linux is very good because if you are missing something it will give you a link or a command line input when you execute the ADB or Fastboot command.
I have run a windows/linux dual boot desktop for a while now and I'm no expert but coming from the era of command line I can muddle through. Sorry if I can't give you more info on windows but win10 is such a pain and I find that with a lot of things linux works better. If I didn't need adobe acrobat I would not even bother with windows.
cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I am using w10. Will try linux later. I have searched everywhere and stucked at the same step. Thank you.

I have managed to unlock the bootloader and root the phone. But problem is. I can't write on the root folder.

More to this I think I might have located the boot file boot_X-flash-all-2396.sin but using magisk it returns no boot image found. I see the guide says use the canary built but that seems to have been shut down, so at an impasse here and am still reaching out for help - damn op phone were never this funky
I might as well put this one out there then -- Is there anyway to flash a op 8 pro in2025 to dual sim - it's the cause of this painful trip

I was reverting my phone to unroot and locked bootloader. And it is saying that "Your Device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and will not boot" loop.
I tried flashing it using the new flasher. But after flashing, it will do SONY boot loop. If I connect it to a charger it goes back to "Your Device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and will not boot" loop.
I can't use Sony Companion since it is saying that my battery is low, and I can't charge the phone since it will just continue looping.
Do you know/have any recovery.img?
Edt: Fixed my phone. Relocked the bootloader

jepher said:
I was reverting my phone to unroot and locked bootloader. And it is saying that "Your Device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and will not boot" loop.
I tried flashing it using the new flasher. But after flashing, it will do SONY boot loop. If I connect it to a charger it goes back to "Your Device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and will not boot" loop.
I can't use Sony Companion since it is saying that my battery is low, and I can't charge the phone since it will just continue looping.
Do you know/have any recovery.img?
Edt: Fixed my phone. Relocked the bootloader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any chance you could post the steps to relock successfully? I presume using the fastboot commands etc though did you then just re run the command to relock the bootloader? Many thanks

cd993 said:
Any chance you could post the steps to relock successfully? I presume using the fastboot commands etc though did you then just re run the command to relock the bootloader? Many thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Relock it using fastboot command.
I use ubuntu to do it. If you can run fastboot commands in windows10 lucky you.

Alcatel 1C suddenly says "can't load Android system"

I've ran into the following problem:
came home and try to open my phone, code doesn't work to unlock screen. Unless I'm going insane was sure the code was correct twice.
Restart phone, stuck on enjoy.now for a long time, goes to alcatel logo, then goes into an Android Recovery message saying "can't load Android system. Your data may be corrupt."
Then 2 options: try again or Factory data reset.
I've managed to find the following possible solution: https://glebovdev.medium.com/how-to-fix-cant-load-android-system-issue-8a5b0ead5a15
..but I can't even get to recovery screen with more than 2 options. It would be a huge pain if I have to factory reset.. should it be possible to get to recovery mode on my phone as well?
Is there any possible way to get the data off the phone (mainly Google Authenticator to which I'm not sure I have the codes anymore)?
Thanks

BrickAlcatel said:
I've ran into the following problem:
came home and try to open my phone, code doesn't work to unlock screen. Unless I'm going insane was sure the code was correct twice.
Restart phone, stuck on enjoy.now for a long time, goes to alcatel logo, then goes into an Android Recovery message saying "can't load Android system. Your data may be corrupt."
Then 2 options: try again or Factory data reset.
I've managed to find the following possible solution: https://glebovdev.medium.com/how-to-fix-cant-load-android-system-issue-8a5b0ead5a15
..but I can't even get to recovery screen with more than 2 options. It would be a huge pain if I have to factory reset.. should it be possible to get to recovery mode on my phone as well?
Is there any possible way to get the data off the phone (mainly Google Authenticator to which I'm not sure I have the codes anymore)?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could be that your device is trying to boot to the inactive slot, verify in fastboot mode which slot is marked as active and try to boot either in A and/or in B slot.

Idk if I'm doing something wrong but holding volume up or down as it restarts, the only boot screen I get is:
Android Recovery
TCL/5003d_EEEA/Curie
8.1.0/OPM2.171019.012/5003d_ALWE_EEA_V3
user/release-keys
(aforementioned error)
Try again
Factory data reset
fastboot mode should show other options right?

BrickAlcatel said:
Idk if I'm doing something wrong but holding volume up or down as it restarts, the only boot screen I get is:
Android Recovery
TCL/5003d_EEEA/Curie
8.1.0/OPM2.171019.012/5003d_ALWE_EEA_V3
user/release-keys
(aforementioned error)
Try again
Factory data reset
fastboot mode should show other options right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, fastboot is to interact through fastboot commands and you can check from there the slot that is active with
Code:
fastboot getvar all
and you see something like slot_active xx

When I run adb devices in powershell it does not show any devices connected (although the device does show as connected in Windows device management).
In device management it does show as "MTP USB device".
Is this likely to be a driver issue?

BrickAlcatel said:
When I run adb devices in powershell it does not show any devices connected (although the device does show as connected in Windows device management).
In device management it does show as "MTP USB device".
Is this likely to be a driver issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Device has to be power on to respond to adb commands and from what you were telling your device is bricked..

It's technically powered on but yes still does nothing but bootloop and try again/factory reset screen. There's no possible other way to get to Android recovery mode when the volume down+power option doesn't seem to be working?

BrickAlcatel said:
It's technically powered on but yes still does nothing but bootloop and try again/factory reset screen. There's no possible other way to get to Android recovery mode when the volume down+power option doesn't seem to be working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Device has to be strongly and consistently on so adb commands can work, they can't work while in bootloop so forget it this way.
What you can try is tipically pwr + vol. up and pwr + vol. dwn, one of them will take you to fastboot mode where you can give it a try to what I pointed out in previous outputs.

OK some progress.. apparently you have to let go of power button and volume up right as the alcatel logo appears, the timing seems to matter. I'm now able to see Android recovery with more options at least so will try from there.
Thanks again for taking time to reply.

I've tried
Code:
fastboot getvar all
this results in <waiting for any device>
adb devices still shows no list of devices even though in Device Manager it shows as "Fastboot gadget" under other devices
I've downloaded drivers from Alcatel website in case it's a driver issue but on the list of model numbers during setup mine (5003D_EEA according to recovery screen) doesn't show.
I do see a bunch of websites allegedly offering these specific drivers but assume it's risky to download from anywhere other than Alcatel official site.

BrickAlcatel said:
I've tried
Code:
fastboot getvar all
this results in <waiting for any device>
adb devices still shows no list of devices even though in Device Manager it shows as "Fastboot gadget" under other devices
I've downloaded drivers from Alcatel website in case it's a driver issue but on the list of model numbers during setup mine (5003D_EEA according to recovery screen) doesn't show.
I do see a bunch of websites allegedly offering these specific drivers but assume it's risky to download from anywhere other than Alcatel official site.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to be a reliable site https://www.androidusbdrivers.com/alcatel-1-usb-drivers/ it offers the 4 different drivers needed covering all the modes that your device can enter to.
I would recommend mainly two things:
- Uninstall/remove firstly all the drivers that you don't use, it could be something for an old android/tablet that you don't use anymore.
- Don't swap the cable data from/for other device, any of them have its own type of connection, use the same proper cable data for only one device.
From there the typical first step in fastboot is just typing
Code:
fastboot devices
], if the message is "waiting for device" then it's not working.

hi im having the exact same problem, but cant get out of this. Could somebody maybe help me? How did you eventually fixed it? kindregards

Question Stuck in bootloader by attempt to install lineage os. How ****ed am I?

Hey, dear community,
First of all: I'm using Linux. The Version of Fastboot is 33.0.3p1-android-tools. The device I thought I'm experienced enough to install Lineage OS on is the Asus Zenfone 8. Yes, I asked google - for hours. And I think I am really ****ed now.
Cause the Smartphone (Asus Zenfone 8) was not cheap. And it does not boot anymore. I don't get in Recovery mode anymore. And I'm not able to connect via Fastboot anymore.
But let's start at the beginning.
I was pissed, cause my smartphone forced me to use google. Even if I skipped the Google-Part in the setup, it forced me to agree to send Google information. And I read it. They (quote: may) send Google **a lot** of data. Data I don't want to share - and I don't need to share IMHO! I didn't like to use such a intransparent Device anyway - but this convinced me to try this thing named LineageOS.
I thought about myself I am not a bloody beginner. I mean, I use Linux as my daily driver - for years. And my phone (Asus Zenfone 8) was in the list of supported devices - so I had to try it. I thought if I just install these tools, adb and fastboot, and do these things in the wiki carefully, step by step, what could happen?
And it worked. It worked to unlock device, to connect via adb, to connect via fastboot. It worked to flash the vendor_boot image, It worked to flash the recovery image. But then, just before I wanted to start with the "Installing LineageOS"-part, and therefore boot into recovery mode - it didn't work. I was stuck in the bootloader. I am. still.
There are the options "START", "Restart bootloader", "Recovery mode" and "Power off". No matter what I try to enter, the device restarts (at least it looks like) - It shows "Powered by android", and then the bootmenu again. And again. And again.
When fastboot was still connected, I tried to flash the images again. I even tried to boot directly into the recovery image using `fastboot boot image.img`. But it did not work. And then, the device even stopped showing up when I ran `fastboot devices` - it disconnected.
"Power off" is the only option, wich still appears to work (when not plugged in).
What should I do? Is it even still possible to do something? Please help me.
PS: It would be nice if you tell me, wether the tools or guides you recommend to me work on Linux, in a Windows VM or only Windows Bare Metal. I will do everything to bring my phone back, but it safes a lot of time, not to try using a tool in Windows VM if it only works bare metal anyway.

May be this thread could help you
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/full-recover-to-stock-if-things-went-really-bad.4337467/

Thanks, but my phone does not get into fastboot mode anymore, therefore I cannot connect to my phone via fastboot to flash new images.

Schaukelstuhl said:
Thanks, but my phone does not get into fastboot mode anymore, therefore I cannot connect to my phone via fastboot to flash new images.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem. Only bootloader with no device showing with "fastboot devices".
Luckily I tried another cable. An Apple USB C cable behind a hub (screen) got fastboot working. Then I flashed android 13 beta.
And I am sure the other cable worked before with ADB and fastboot.
Try other cables and USB ports... Good luck!