Database Develop

[Q] Basic questions about flashing ROM's new build and TWRP

I have a rooted KFHD 7” (gen 1) with TWRP. I have a few questions about rooting in general. I’ve rooted several devices in the past but with extensive hand-holding so I still don’t completely understand the process. I’ve tried looking for general explanations but my search has come up empty so far.
1. The KFHD is running an early CM11 build with some functions missing (cannot install ANY Amazon apps, Netflix via HDMI glitches, etc). I want to flash a more recent CM11 build that supposedly has those issues ironed out.
- Do I have to wipe all data before I flash to the new CM11 build? Do I have to flash new GAPPS? Will TWRP backups from the earlier build still work after I flash a new build? When do I wipe cache and delvik cache, and what are they exactly?
2. These questions are related to TWRP. I made a backup back in April 2014 when I first rooted the KFHD, and then created another one yesterday. Why do I see only the backup I made yesterday when I boot into TWRP? I am asking because the TWRP folder is about 5gb, which is a lot of space on a 16gb KFHD. I want to delete the older backup and perhaps minimize the size of future backups. Please see picture attached for a screen cap. Only the first file "boot.emmc.win" is cut off (it is a 8mb that I assume to be important). Which files can I delete? Like I said, I don't see the April 2014 backup when I booted into TWRP.
3. Also for TWRP: what is the difference if I made a backup with or without “data” checked? I experimented yesterday and made 2 backups – one with “data” and one without “data”. I first recovered with the “with data” backup to check if it works fine, then boot into TWRP and recovered with the “without data” backup. Everything seems to be the same and nothing’s lost – is it because I didn’t wipe the KFHD before I restore with the "without data" backup? If I wiped the KFHD and then restore with the “without data” backup, what kind of difference would I see?
Sorry for the essay. Really want to learn the basic principles of rooting.

1. Go into settings>about tablet>cyanogenmod updates>check for updates. M7 should be on the list, press the button to the right and it should update, as long as you are on cm 11 already this procedure is fine and no gapps update is needed.
2. The backups from earlier don't show because twrp was fixed a while back and now reads our serial number, notice the backups are probably in a folder that random alpha numeric characters and another that is a ton of zero's, when ESN was able to be read it stored our backups in the folder with our correct ESN rather than a fake ESN made of zeros. Either move that backup from the 0's folder or delete it, it will be then old one.
3.with data backs up the userdata partition, basically all of your user installed apps and their appdata.
Sent from my Amazon Tate using Tapatalk

Desperatly need to get data out of Huawei P10 VTR-29 (Possible soft-brick)

Hi!
!! This is quite serious! I need to get my data (pictures, videos) out of my phone, which is possibly soft-bricked.
I did the following in hope of more usage opportunities with my new phone:
[Unlocked bootloader + Rooted it]
1. installed TWRP following this guide https://forum.xda-developers.com/p10/development/testers-twrp-t3585256;
2. rooted following this guide https://forum.xda-developers.com/p10/help/root-huawei-p10-p10-t3589946;
3. installed few apps like greenify, wi-fi hacking apps etc, and everything was good.
BUT then 1 app (don't remember which) requested that it needs SuperSU and not the one root permission app that I had. So it asked whether I want to install it. I thought - yes, why not. Then it said that before it can install SuperSU it needs to uninstall previous permission app - I clicked OK. Then it kind of started, but then failed the installation. Ok, I kind of closed it and there were no problems. But after next restart of the phone it was stuck on boot process..
I dont really care about the phone, but data on it is so important. I tried sme fast hend methrods to boot it, like wiping catch, dalvik catch, but it did not work out.
Next I looked for possobilities to rescue data, but I didn't succeed.
Easiest mentioned option - to enter twrp and connect via usb seemed promising, BUT data are shown encrypted.
Please see the picture - I tried to be as precise as I could, so that you can understand the situation.
! I can beckup all data to micro sd card, but would it decrypt after new install of stock rom (e.g. from eRecovery that Huawei provides) and allow access or not?
Please help me. I am willing to have 1-on-1 skype chat and give some donations for this as it is so important.
To mention: Rescue apps like EaseUS seems to be useless, because they state to recover data from bricked device, but then after installing soft it askes to allow usb-debbuging, but c'mon, it's not booting up.. .
So,
1. Is there a chance to recover data?
2. Is it a good sign that 16GB of data are showing even if files are shown encrypted?
3. data are also showing on pc, when connected on twrp, but also encrypted.
Any help will be appreciated!

Additionally quite important question: at this state (possible soft brick + encrypted files), is there a chance that if I make a backup to MicroSd card of all the data and then take it our to reinstall rooted stock version of my android that later puting backup in will show my files that were backuped? Could ir be so that phone luckiliy decrypt them itself because it is the same phone? Hope this is clear what I mean.

OK, hopefully all is not lost.
First things first, be REALLY careful. If you start applying factory images, wiping things and generally messing about, if you don't know what you're doing you're putting your data in a lot of danger - Huawei devices do things in weird ways, so be super sure you know the consequences of what you're doing.
Now that's out of the way... it sounds like you haven't done anything to wipe the data. Also, you've already previously unlocked the bootloader which should put you in a good situation. You need to discount TWRP as a potential solution - there is no working decryption for TWRP yet on the Kirin 960 devices and from conversations I've had, it doesn't sound like that is imminent.
What it sounds like has happened is that messing about with root has messed up something on your system partition. Which should be fixable!
As a first step, this is what I'd do.
- Check which version your phone is on if you don't know already (you should be able to find this in ' /version/special_cust/VTR-L09/hw/eu/prop/local.prop')
- Find a full dload zip for the appropriate version (use FirmwareFinder if needed)
- Download the zip an extract the dload app
- Use splitupdate to split the images out of the dload
- Boot the device to bootloader ('adb reboot bootloader' or power on with cable connected and volume down pressed) then do 'fastboot flash system SYSTEM.img'
- Flash BOOT.img too
- Try booting
Hopefully this will fix it, but at the very least it'll get your system partition back to a stock state.
Let me know how it goes. Good luck!
P

With TWRP + Backups Working Now - Which partitions make sense to backup regularly?

Until now, no my rooted Samsung Note 3 I have automatic TWRP backups running every night. This just mirrors my paranoia that I will manage to screw up something and recovery via TWRP restore is often faster/easier/more complete than trying to do anything else. I do this using the OpenRecoveryScript and have always used this backup command:
backup DSBCR DailyBackup
Which gets data, system, boot, cache, and recovery. I plan to do the same now that I know to put the OpenRecoveryScript into /data/cache/recovery instead of /cache/recovery on my Note 3.
So my question here is what partitions make sense to backup on the V40? And by "sense" I mean something likely to change or get broken (by errant apps or, more likely, my own doing) AND having the ability to restore using TWRP restore from backup.
There are a ton of partitions on this device - most of which I know little/nothing about. I do know that the system and vendor partitions have duplicates and so those are not needed, I guess. And it seems that the OpenRecoveryScript backup command has no way to handle anything except the following anyway:
S: system,
D: data,
C: cache,
R: recovery,
B: boot,
A: and-sec,
E: sd-ext (I don't need the external SD)
So there would seem to be no way to get modem and all the others I don't know much about anyhow.
When I tried to use the same command as above, I ended up with only boot and data - which is a great start! I think I saw an error that system was not mounted so maybe that explains its absence - perhaps I need to mount it first in my script (which I never have had to do on my Note 3)? Even though my V40 is rooted with Magisk, I am making changes to system so I do want to back that up (so long as I can use it during a restore).
Does it make sense to try and backup recovery since things seem really different recovery-wise on this device? Same question for cache and boot?
Thanks for your tolerance of my newbie questions.

Well from empirical experience, it seems that there is no way to backup anything save boot and data. I was able to mount /system_root but that had no impact on backing up system. And I was unable to mount cache or recovery explicitly so those are out as well.
PS - for anyone using the old 123 special partition for backups, they are no longer supported. I have never used them but decided to try and see what happened - only messages that they are no longer supported.
Perhaps there is some other way to accomplish this? Suggestions welcome. Thanks
Thanks.

That I'm aware of recovery should backup as part of the boot partition....I could be wrong tho

Ainz_Ooal_Gown said:
That I'm aware of recovery should backup as part of the boot partition....I could be wrong tho
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess that does make sense. Thanks. I am still trying to get my mind around the whole new situation (compared to my old Note 3).

backing up a rooted phone

I want to do a backup of my android before restoring OOS on the phone (for a test). Was planing to use titanium backup but it seems like the app isn't very good anymore (the reviews are really bad now). Any other ideas? ADB didn't really create that a good backup and I lost WhatsApp and other stuff.
Current setup: lineage 17.1, twerp (latest version) and magisk 20.4.
Just realised I can use twrp for this ??

Eggstones said:
I want to do a backup of my android before restoring OOS on the phone (for a test). Was planing to use titanium backup but it seems like the app isn't very good anymore (the reviews are really bad now). Any other ideas? ADB didn't really create that a good backup and I lost WhatsApp and other stuff.
Current setup: lineage 17.1, twerp (latest version) and magisk 20.4.
Just realised I can use twrp for this ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two options:
1. Use TB to backup and restore app data and non-bundled/not split apks. Use SAI https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aefyr.sai to backup/restore bundled/split apks.
2. Use Migrate https://forum.xda-developers.com/an...stom-rom-migration-tool-t3862763/post78060823
Sent from my OnePlus 3T using XDA Labs

BillGoss said:
Two options:
1. Use TB to backup and restore app data and non-bundled/not split apks. Use SAI https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aefyr.sai to backup/restore bundled/split apks.
2. Use Migrate https://forum.xda-developers.com/an...stom-rom-migration-tool-t3862763/post78060823
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually don't understand option one but two sounds just the ticket. Thank you.

Eggstones said:
I want to do a backup of my android before restoring OOS on the phone (for a test). Was planing to use titanium backup but it seems like the app isn't very good anymore (the reviews are really bad now). Any other ideas? ADB didn't really create that a good backup and I lost WhatsApp and other stuff.
Current setup: lineage 17.1, twerp (latest version) and magisk 20.4.
Just realised I can use twrp for this ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have TWRP, then indeed, adb backup --twrp data should be your friend.
However, extracting TWRP backups on your computer is not that trivial. To do that you need twrpabx, specifically prudy's fixed version. On a Linux computer, it is quick and easy to compile. I haven't tried on Windows.
Else, TWRP backups can only be restored on the same phone (or maybe also on another phone of the same model)

yahya69 said:
If you have TWRP, then indeed, adb backup --twrp data should be your friend.
However, extracting TWRP backups on your computer is not that trivial. To do that you need twrpabx, specifically prudy's fixed version. On a Linux computer, it is quick and easy to compile. I haven't tried on Windows.
Else, TWRP backups can only be restored on the same phone (or maybe also on another phone of the same model)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That should be then fine. I just want to try a thing on OOS so no switching of phones intended.
ADB backup I don't think restored the apps data when I tried it which was the main reason for doing the backup

Eggstones said:
That should be then fine. I just want to try a thing on OOS so no switching of phones intended.
ADB backup I don't think restored the apps data when I tried it which was the main reason for doing the backup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you do adb backup --trwp you can add which partitions you want to have backup up:
adb backup --trwp data system boot recovery (haven't checked the names, but data and system should be the most important ones)
Just be mindful that when you do an adb backup --twrp, the backup does not include Internal Files, so make sure to back them up separately or not to wipe them in the first place. I would recommend that after backing up your precious data, you go to "advanced wipe" and there select system, data, cache and dalvik cache. After that, happy flashing..

yahya69 said:
When you do adb backup --trwp you can add which partitions you want to have backup up:
adb backup --trwp data system boot recovery (haven't checked the names, but data and system should be the most important ones)
Just be mindful that when you do an adb backup --twrp, the backup does not include Internal Files, so make sure to back them up separately or not to wipe them in the first place. I would recommend that after backing up your precious data, you go to "advanced wipe" and there select system, data, cache and dalvik cache. After that, happy flashing..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm doing this with very basic understanding of what I'm doing/being recommended to do. Is adb backup --twrp a command or twice different things as in 'adb backup' to computer and twrp is done on the phone?
My plan is to copy the important data like audio files and photos to my laptop, then use use migrate to make a copy plus twrp backup. I should be fine after that I think.
I'm just hoping my root and magisk doesn't go when I reinstal OOS 9.0.6 as I want to try to edit my system to see if I can force vowife to work.

Eggstones said:
I'm doing this with very basic understanding of what I'm doing/being recommended to do. Is adb backup --twrp a command or twice different things as in 'adb backup' to computer and twrp is done on the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be a command you have to run in a command line window on your computer. Again, after the --twrp parameter, you can pass the names of the partitions you want to have backed up, which would probably be data, system, recovery and boot.
First, of course, you have to install adb, if you haven't already. But if that's too complicated, it might be easier to make a full backup in TWRP and then copy it over to your computer. adb backup --twrp basically saves a step and you don't have to have sufficient space on your phone for a full backup
My plan is to copy the important data like audio files and photos to my laptop, then use use migrate to make a copy plus twrp backup. I should be fine after that I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's always a good idea, even though wiping data in TWRP should not touch your internal files.
I'm just hoping my root and magisk doesn't go when I reinstal OOS 9.0.6 as I want to try to edit my system to see if I can force vowife to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know, I never used it. I'm happy with LineageOS. I guess you can re-flash Magisk trough twrp and then in your running system, you can re-install the MagiskManager apk. But I haven't tried it.

Question Backup partitions from different GSI ROMs

Would it be possible to backup different images from different GSI ROMs to be able to test and restore each one without losing all the apps, configuration, etc. in the process.
For example:
1. Install "GSI name1" configure it, install apps, my Google account, etc.
2. Somehow, make a backup of the required partitions "backup name1" (At the computer?)
3. Install "GSI name2" configure it, install apps, my Google account, etc. (Not necessarily the same apps than before).
4. Somehow make a backup of the required partitions "backup name2".
5. Continue testing other GSI or restoring one of the previous ones from the backups and be able to use the phone as it was before, including apps, configuration, etc.
I can imagine two ways to face this task:
A. Using a custom recovery to backup partitions to SD card.
B. Using fastboot or mtk_client to backup partitions to the PC.
Would be easy? Possible? Not recommendable for some reason?
I am new on this flashing-bricking-sweating-unbricking thing, so I would appreciate feedback.
Thank you!

Hi
If your goal is to test the GSIs, it's easier to use the DSU-sideloader instead of the backup.
This app enables you to dual boot.
You will be able to move back and forth between images. Even if you get into a boot loop, you can return to the original image just by rebooting.　
If you have root, this app will be easier because there will be less operations.
https://github.com/VegaBobo/DSU-Sideloader

I have been taking a look to the DSU concept. It is interesting, but not what I want. Also, it requires the main ROM to be stock ROM (maybe in future is fine to use with custom ROMs).
DSU would be perfect if you want to keep romA and romB working in parallel in your daily life (for example, one for work and business and the other one for gaming and social apps).
What I want to do is to test romA for a while, move to romB for a while, if I prefer romA, reinstall it and forget about romB (literally, delete it). Maybe in few months, backup romA again and check romC for a while...
As I do not want to be swapping from one to another in daily life, it does not make sense to reserve space for having both simultaneously ready to work on the phone.
By now I have been learning about adb and recovery backup options. I need to check more during the next days, but I noticed that from Recovery, I can also use adb (it says not authorized device, but that is for not being rooted yet, I suppose). If it is possible to use adb from recovery after rooting, it would be easy to have a PC software for backing up ROMs easily (system, data and userdata partitions?).
I will keep researching about it...

The DSU does not have to be a stock rom.
It's just desirable.
Currently I have crdroid GSI as the first OS and the second OS is trying several OSs.
If you try it, you'll notice how easy it is.
Currently, TWRP does not support backup or encryption on Android 12. It is the same even if it is the official latest of other models.
I have a 128GB model, so it took too long to back up using mtkclient and I quit halfway through.
The problem is time and encryption, keep them in mind.

Currently, TWRP does not support backup or encryption on Android 12. It is the same even if it is the official latest of other models
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, definitely untrue now as most devices have got it sorted out with decryption, Android 12 being a pain some devices got 13 done before 12, but as of the time you wrote this post my device Motorola stylus 22 5g Qualcomm, we hadn't figured out the decryption yet but you could definitely just patch your fstab in vendor either by hand or with DFE neo, to disable the encryption and TWRP would run fine. You would just have to make that first format reboot back to recovery immediately and while it still stays the data from a fresh format flash the other handy RO2RW re zip and DFE neo. Honestly the boot times are so much better without decryption I don't think I would go back as long as I've got a password on orange fox or whatever.