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I have been trying for hours to install a custom recovery in my AT&T Atrix HD (mb886) phone. Every time I go through the flashing process, no matter what recovery I try, and whether I use the stock SDK fastboot or one of alternatives, when I try to boot into recovery, I get an ominous error message about how my bootloader is unlocked, and Motorola and ATT will not honor the warranty, and so on. However - it then always boots into the normal startup. I did try holding down both volume buttons when I cycled the power button, and I briefly (about 5 seconds, maybe?) got what looked like a text-based recovery menu, but then the error message popped up again, and I'm back to ????? is going on.
Any help? I have read a number of article/forums online, but all assume that your recovery is working so you can install a custom ROM. I have done this on a couple of Android tablets in the past, so I know I'm not totally stupid, but I can't seem to get past the AT&T nanny.
How can I fix this?
Android 4.1.1
System 98.4.20.MB886.ATT.en.US
If I remember correctly, I had to rename install-recovery.sh (or something like that) by adding .bak to the end of the filename. Boot into fastboot, flash your recovery, and try to boot into recovery.
Nevadadave said:
I have been trying for hours to install a custom recovery in my AT&T Atrix HD (mb886) phone. Every time I go through the flashing process, no matter what recovery I try, and whether I use the stock SDK fastboot or one of alternatives, when I try to boot into recovery, I get an ominous error message about how my bootloader is unlocked, and Motorola and ATT will not honor the warranty, and so on. However - it then always boots into the normal startup. I did try holding down both volume buttons when I cycled the power button, and I briefly (about 5 seconds, maybe?) got what looked like a text-based recovery menu, but then the error message popped up again, and I'm back to ????? is going on.
Any help? I have read a number of article/forums online, but all assume that your recovery is working so you can install a custom ROM. I have done this on a couple of Android tablets in the past, so I know I'm not totally stupid, but I can't seem to get past the AT&T nanny.
How can I fix this?
Android 4.1.1
System 98.4.20.MB886.ATT.en.US
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That warning you see is just the boot logo and can be gotten rid of by flashing a custom logo. Stock Moto boot logos on this platform have two images -- one for locked and another for unlocked bootloaders. It's a non issue and just confirms that the bootloader is unlocked.
You accessed that menu by powering up and holding both volumes and power. Volume down scrolls and volume up selects in there.
To install a custom recovery, boot into fastboot mode and flash it with fastboot. Mythtools, maybe BootMyHD, can do that for you if you don't have moto-fastboot binary or are unable to run "moto-fastboot flash recovery recovery.img" with your phone plugged into a rear usb port in fastboot mode with a terminal/command prompt open to the directory with the recovery image.
More questions
audit13, how do I access that file to change the name? I tried again this morning, and after doing the boot to recovery key sequence, I got a menu, and before it went away, I selected boot to recovery, but got the dead android icon. I tried several other options and it just did a normal boot. Still stumped.
skeevydude, I have tried installing a couple of custom recoveries, using fastboot, and when I do, I get a message saying all went well, but when I boot up, it either does the "failed Android" or just boots up normally. I'll try Mythtools and BootMyHD, but it seems that there is something else going on here.
Nevadadave said:
audit13, how do I access that file to change the name? I tried again this morning, and after doing the boot to recovery key sequence, I got a menu, and before it went away, I selected boot to recovery, but got the dead android icon. I tried several other options and it just did a normal boot. Still stumped.
skeevydude, I have tried installing a couple of custom recoveries, using fastboot, and when I do, I get a message saying all went well, but when I boot up, it either does the "failed Android" or just boots up normally. I'll try Mythtools and BootMyHD, but it seems that there is something else going on here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe something else going on. Are you flashing using the rear usb port of your PC? It really does matter.
To answer the first question about install-recovery, once you're rooted, use Root Explorer or something similar, mount /system as read/write, go to /system/etc, rename the file install-recovery.sh to install-recovery.sh.bak, and reboot.
If you have adb installed on your PC you can do
adb root
adb shell mount -o remount,rw /system
adb shell cp /system/etc/install-recovery.sh /system/etc/install-recovery.sh.bak
adb shell rm /system/etc/install-recovery.sh
adb reboot
I'll try it and see what happens
skeevydude said:
Maybe something else going on. Are you flashing using the rear usb port of your PC? It really does matter.
To answer the first question about install-recovery, once you're rooted, use Root Explorer or something similar, mount /system as read/write, go to /system/etc, rename the file install-recovery.sh to install-recovery.sh.bak, and reboot.
If you have adb installed on your PC you can do
adb root
adb shell mount -o remount,rw /system
adb shell cp /system/etc/install-recovery.sh /system/etc/install-recovery.sh.bak
adb shell rm /system/etc/install-recovery.sh
adb reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I did not know about USB port preference. I'll try it and see what happens. Thanks!
No joy
Nevadadave said:
OK, I did not know about USB port preference. I'll try it and see what happens. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I tried front and back USB ports, in all cases, adb says "adb can't run as root in production builds". adb sees the phone, but about all I can do is start fastboot, but once there adb doesn't work until I reboot.
I tried running the remount command, but got a message, "Operation not permitted" I'm assuming because I could not root into the phone. Titanium backup shows that the phone is, indeed, rooted.
Stuck again...
Install Root Explorer, find the file, add .bak to the end, reboot to fastboot, install Philz, boot into recovery.
audit13 said:
Install Root Explorer, find the file, add .bak to the end, reboot to fastboot, install Philz, boot into recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that, got a "Rename failed". It appears that the file is set to read-only, and the Root Explorer doesn't seem to have a way to change that. I'm open to additional suggestions. I had thought that root access would allow me to do things like change file permissions, but I cannot do this with Root Explorer. Everything I try, I get a message that it can't be done, because the file system is read-only.
At the top of the file list, it says "mounted as r/o, but nothing shows to change that, although I see num,erous web posts that claim that there should be a "R/W" button somewhere.
Better luck
Nevadadave said:
Well, I tried front and back USB ports, in all cases, adb says "adb can't run as root in production builds". adb sees the phone, but about all I can do is start fastboot, but once there adb doesn't work until I reboot.
I tried running the remount command, but got a message, "Operation not permitted" I'm assuming because I could not root into the phone. Titanium backup shows that the phone is, indeed, rooted.
Stuck again...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I dropped Root Explorer and loaded ES File Explorer. ES Explorer allowed me to change the file R/W permissions and rename the stock recovery file.
adb would still not allow me to get to root, so I loaded adbd insecure from the Play store, and that gave me root access. I flashed the CWR 6.0.4.4, and so far (fingers crossed) I was able to boot to CWM and I'm backing up my system now. Hopefully, the next update will be to say that I have a new ROM installed...
Nevadadave said:
OK, I dropped Root Explorer and loaded ES File Explorer. ES Explorer allowed me to change the file R/W permissions and rename the stock recovery file.
adb would still not allow me to get to root, so I loaded adbd insecure from the Play store, and that gave me root access. I flashed the CWR 6.0.4.4, and so far (fingers crossed) I was able to boot to CWM and I'm backing up my system now. Hopefully, the next update will be to say that I have a new ROM installed...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All you need to gain r/w access is to click on the ro button to change it to read/write.
audit13 said:
All you need to gain r/w access is to click on the ro button to change it to read/write.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Audit13 I'm not sure what you mean here. Root Explorer never indicated a "R/O" button or any other way to change permissions, it just kept saying that the file system was write-protected. ES File Explorer was very easily able to change this and allow me to remove the automatic recovery overwrite.
So, at this point, I have Cyanogen 10.2 running on my Atrix HD, and although I have found a few glitches, it is faster and it is now MINE!
Nevadadave said:
Audit13 I'm not sure what you mean here. Root Explorer never indicated a "R/O" button or any other way to change permissions, it just kept saying that the file system was write-protected. ES File Explorer was very easily able to change this and allow me to remove the automatic recovery overwrite.
So, at this point, I have Cyanogen 10.2 running on my Atrix HD, and although I have found a few glitches, it is faster and it is now MINE!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Root Explorer, You'll see the words "Mounted as r/o". To the right will be a button that says "Mount R/W".
I went with Validus 5.1 over 10.2.
Just thought I'd share, might help someone. This is for Nexus 7 previously bootloader unlocked and rooted (and whatever else, like xposed) going from 4.4.4 to 5. If you're not on 4.4.4 and bootloader unlocked get there first. Obviously you need usb debugging on.
You also need some form of adb and fastboot. I used Minimal ADB from here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790
What I Did:
- Got the Lollipop OTA from the links posted everywhere by now, including the second sticky here in General.
Put a copy in the adb/fasboot folder in Windows, and renamed the file to updatelollipop.zip to make it easier to handle.
Tried old style of updating: Uninstall Xposed, flash Xposed Disabler, flash OTA zip from custom recovery. Failed. Tried again, failed again.
But this was expected, as I'd read that the way lollipop updates is different from all previous updates and will fail at the slightest discrepancy in system partition.
So, need clean system.
- Got the Stock 4.4.4 firmware from Google: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images
Inside the firmware file found the system.img and recovery.img images.
Put these two files in the same folder as minimal adb and fastboot.
- Got into bootloader.
if powered off hold power and volume down keys. if booted up in Minimal ADB command prompt window type:
adb reboot bootloader
- flashed stock system and recovery
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
- Got into stock recovery
In bootloader, scrolled to select recovery, then with "No Command" showing held power and clicked volume up.
Select apply update from adb. Screen says to type adb sideload update from computer.
Ran into a hiccup. ADB would not recognize my N7. typing "adb devices" returned empty result. Booted up into Android, computer and adb recognized device fine. typed adb reboot bootloader, and in bootloader adb no go.
So while connected to computer in bootloader mode, went into Device Manager in Windows. Sure enough there was unknown device called grouper. Promptly update the driver. I used driver files from the Wugfresh toolkit I had installed. The device was recognized as Google Galaxy Nexus ADB device. Didn't matter to me as long as it was recognized as ADB. If you want official drivers you can get them from Asus here: http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Nexus+7&p=28&s=2
- Back into ADB sideload screen in N7 stock recovery.
typed adb sideload updatelollipop.zip
Let the ADB push the file, then stock recovery did the update. no issues. back in recovery might as well erase cache partition.
Root then. Could use Wugfresh NRT but decided to go manual.
UPDATE: As of SuperSU 2.27 Beta, flashing SuperSU from custom recovery is enough to gain root on Lollipop 5.0. Root kernel is no longer needed!
Old fashioned root failed works now: get the latest twrp recovery (copied it into adb folder, renamed it to twrprecovery.img), get the latest superSU (put it anywhere in N7 internal storage), flash the latter with the former:
In command prompt, typed fastboot boot twrprecovery.img
this temp booted twrp. promptly went to install, found superSU zip, flashed it.
Booted into Android, Lollipop looks nice, but No Root.
Again, not surprised, had already read lollipop needs modified kernel for root. Looked in the Wugfresh NRT files, had two candidates, modified boot img and root kernel img. not sure the difference, but the two files had different file sizes, and I had read somewhere that modified kernel would keep most of the security features of stock kernel, only modifying permissions needed for root, so decided to go with the kernel img file. Copied it over to adb fastboot folder, renamed it rootboot.img
- got back into bootloader. in command prompt typed
fastboot flash boot rootboot.img
Rebooted into Android, had root! Great. Notice didn't need to flash superSU a second time.
To check if root works fine, just open superSU app. If it opens fine then you're good. Root apps will ask for root, and granting will work fine, but that doesn't mean the apps will be able to use root for the simple reason that they might need to be updated. for example, es file manager asked for root, was granted, but root directories showed empty. clearly needs an update. Tried Total Commander, gave root, worked fine. So apps ability to use root in lollipop will vary based on their need to be updated to work.
thanks as always to Wugfresh and Chainfire.
"Unknown Device" when USB Debugging On
Speaking of root apps needing update, one app that needed updating if you use it, is Adbd Insecure. Why am I singling it out? Because it had me running around in circles trying to figure out why Windows was claiming my N7 was an Unknown Device.
Thing is, I installed adbd insecure long ago set on auto start, and it's useful for when it's needed, but I had completely forgotten about it now when trying to figure out the driver issue. Turning off USB debugging Windows happily recognized MTP, but who wants debugging off, it's a bad idea.
After twirling in circles finally decided to check if Windows would recognize bootloader and recovery mode. Sure enough, everything was good there. Rebooted into Android and noticed ADB was recognized briefly upon startup before it went away. That got me suspicious which led me to the culprit. So, yeah, save yourself some trouble and update that app, if you have it running.
I recently got my Nexus 6 back with a new (to me) motherboard installed. After allowing multiple OTA updates to the current (March 2017) firmware, getting my apps installed and setup, etc., I went to make some changes to the /system partition.
Knowing that /system is mounted read-only normally, I downloaded the current copies of adb and fastboot, as well as TWRP. I booted my phone into fastboot, ran fastboot boot twrp.img, mounted /system, and used adb to make a change. I then booted normally, but didn't see the effect of the change, so I checked with adb, and the change wasn't there. OK, that could be a few things, so I went back into TWRP, and -- this is where it gets weird -- saw the change.
Yes, if I boot up on TWRP and mount /system, I see whatever changes I have made to the /system partition visible when running TWRP, but when I boot the stock bootloader, I don't see any of them. It is behaving as if there are two /system partitions: one visible when booting with TWRP and the other visible when booting with stock.
I've never seen this before. Any thoughts?
NoelJB said:
...
Knowing that /system is mounted read-only normally, I downloaded the current copies of adb and fastboot, as well as TWRP. .
I've never seen this before. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is TWRP the latest version 3.1.0.0?
Did you use a recent rootexplorer?
For instance prev, version ES file explorer does not work with recent Android.
When booting TWRP-recovery normally the system partition needs to be mounted manually.
Why do you use adb to make changes to system, instead of the file manager of TWRP?
> Is TWRP the latest version 3.1.0.0?
Yes.
> Did you use a recent rootexplorer? For instance prev, version ES file explorer does not work with recent Android.
Not rooted, hence using TWRP to edit the /system partition.
> When booting TWRP-recovery normally the system partition needs to be mounted manually.
Yes, hence my comment about mounting /system.
> Why do you use adb to make changes to system, instead of the file manager of TWRP?
What would it matter? The contents of /system shown by the TWRP file manager are identical to those shown by adb shell. My problem is that the contents don't match what I see when booting with the stock bootloader. As I said, it is as if TWRP were showing one /system partition, and the stock bootloader were showing another.
NoelJB said:
... adb instead of the file manager of TWRP.....
What would it matter?.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.... using a shell and an 2nd device is rather different. I prefer the filemanager; it's more direct.
Sorry no more thoughts....
Lemme guess...
You're on the bone stock kernel...
If that's the case... There's a thing that keeps stuff from working... I wish I could be more help but... It's been almost 2 years since I've seen this...
I THINK you can flash any other kernel and it will solve your problem... Or maybe one of the root solutions would do it too...
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
did you solve it?
One of my N6s has a little trouble doing ADB.
When it's in stock, the phone will only accept ADB commands and show up in ADB Devices when the USB mode is set to MIDI. It doesn't work with ADB in MTP mode. But in MTP mode, I can drop files to the phone from Windows File Manager, but no ADB. In TWRP recovery mode, with MTP on I can't drop files to the phone. In TWRP, if I disable MTP, the phone no longer shows up in Windows. That's the background on this phone.
I'm trying to flash Pure Nexus, GApps, Magisk, and Franco Kernel to this phone without encrypting it.
As a starter step, I have flashed stock and TWRP to it without rebooting to the stock ROM (which would encrypt the phone).
(Note I know many people say encryption doesn't matter for better performance. Let's not get distracted by that discussion here. I'm trying to see if I can flash this custom setup without encrypting.)
I now need to get the Zips for PN, GApps, Magisk, and Franco onto the phone but am unable to use adb push command or Windows File Manager to drop those files.
So it has fresh stock and TWRP on it. Now when the phone is in TWRP, and I try to "adb push ROM.zip" I get an error: failed to get feature set: no devices/emulators found If I try adb devices it returns a blank list.
So while TWRP is on the phone i don't know other ways to push the Zips over to a folder on the phone.
In Windows File Manager I can see the device Nexus 6 and inside of that is Internal Storage. If I try to drop files to Internal Storage using Windows, it processes for a long time and hangs.
In Windows File Manager I cannot create a new folder on the phone when it's in TWRP mode.
In TWRP, Mount, the default boxes checked are Data and Cache. Others aren't checked.
Is there some other trick to getting those Zips onto the phone without booting the phone into Stock, thus encrypting the data? Thanks
wittier said:
One of my N6s has a little trouble doing ADB.
When it's in stock, the phone will only accept ADB commands and show up in ADB Devices when the USB mode is set to MIDI. It doesn't work with ADB in MTP mode. But in MTP mode, I can drop files to the phone from Windows File Manager, but no ADB. In TWRP recovery mode, with MTP on I can't drop files to the phone. In TWRP, if I disable MTP, the phone no longer shows up in Windows. That's the background on this phone.
I'm trying to flash Pure Nexus, GApps, Magisk, and Franco Kernel to this phone without encrypting it.
As a starter step, I have flashed stock and TWRP to it without rebooting to the stock ROM (which would encrypt the phone).
(Note I know many people say encryption doesn't matter for better performance. Let's not get distracted by that discussion here. I'm trying to see if I can flash this custom setup without encrypting.)
I now need to get the Zips for PN, GApps, Magisk, and Franco onto the phone but am unable to use adb push command or Windows File Manager to drop those files.
So it has fresh stock and TWRP on it. Now when the phone is in TWRP, and I try to "adb push ROM.zip" I get an error: failed to get feature set: no devices/emulators found If I try adb devices it returns a blank list.
So while TWRP is on the phone i don't know other ways to push the Zips over to a folder on the phone.
In Windows File Manager I can see the device Nexus 6 and inside of that is Internal Storage. If I try to drop files to Internal Storage using Windows, it processes for a long time and hangs.
In Windows File Manager I cannot create a new folder on the phone when it's in TWRP mode.
In TWRP, Mount, the default boxes checked are Data and Cache. Others aren't checked.
Is there some other trick to getting those Zips onto the phone without booting the phone into Stock, thus encrypting the data? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SUCCESS
Update: with some manipulation in TWRP, I was able to get a file system I could see and drop files to from Windows.
After flashing stock, and TWRP, and booting to TWRP (without ever booting to system/stock, which would have encrypted phone) i did the following.
I'm trying to remember all the steps but I think that Wiping the data and cache partitions via TWRP was the key, and required before I could move zips over to the phone.
I dropped the Pure Nexus, GApps, and Magisk onto the phone and then flashed them in that order via TWRP
Rebooted to system.
It installed and set up under Pure Nexus. It's reloading my apps from my Google account.
I checked Settings, Security and the phone is not encrypted.
I haven't yet checked on the GApps and Magisk. I assume I can install Franco Kernel from the Franco Manager app that I bought.
When you can't transfer files from PC to the N6:
Remove the drivers of the PC and let Windows search for the latest drivers.
Check on https://dl.twrp.me if you have the latest version of TWRP.
NLBeev said:
When you can't transfer files from PC to the N6:
Remove the drivers of the PC and let Windows search for the latest drivers.
Check on https://dl.twrp.me if you have the latest version of TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks. it is the latest TWRP.
I fixed it, see above, it wasn't the drivers on the PC.
The PC works with my other N6. This N6 has issues.
The workaround of wiping in TWRP fixed it. I don't know yet if I'd have to do the same wipe with my better N6. Will find out soon.
wittier said:
... I don't know yet if I'd have to do the same wipe with my better N6. Will find out soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updating TWRP to the latest version is a good practice.
wittier said:
SUCCESS
Update: with some manipulation in TWRP, I was able to get a file system I could see and drop files to from Windows.
After flashing stock, and TWRP, and booting to TWRP (without ever booting to system/stock, which would have encrypted phone) i did the following.
I'm trying to remember all the steps but I think that Wiping the data and cache partitions via TWRP was the key, and required before I could move zips over to the phone.
I dropped the Pure Nexus, GApps, and Magisk onto the phone and then flashed them in that order via TWRP
Rebooted to system.
It installed and set up under Pure Nexus. It's reloading my apps from my Google account.
I checked Settings, Security and the phone is not encrypted.
I haven't yet checked on the GApps and Magisk. I assume I can install Franco Kernel from the Franco Manager app that I bought.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I updated my other N6 last night.
After flashing stock ROM and TWRP and booting to TWRP only, I didn't have to wipe before I could push files to the phone.
The other phone is more difficult.
Greetings.
could not really find anything within this forum that would describe my problem adequately, so I will just ask here, hoping someone had the same.
I recently received this device (XT1900-7), successfully unlocked bootloader and went on to boot and install TWRP.
Booting it temporarily is childs play, but doing anything else within TWRP seems to be pointless. Flashing the TWRP installer results in a bootloop when trying to access TWRP.
To flash LineageOS 16.0 a persistent installation of TWRP is not required (right?) so I really do not care that much about it failing to install properly, I will be just fine with flashing LineageOS from the temporary TWRP.
Here comes the trouble though. I have not yet tried to wipe anything, as I suspect it of not working properly in my case.
Trying to run a backup, something I always prefer to do before wiping and flashing anything, is not possible due to permissions error - it fails to create the TWRP folder. I am also unable to push anything via adb to /sdcard and the contents of /sdcard are rather confusing. There are folders whose names contain random numbers and letters. Checking inside these folders shows that they seem to have an unlimited amount of subfolders.
Opening a terminal in TWRP (as well as adb shell) throws linker warnings (/system/etc/ld.config.txt seems to be missing for /sbin/toolbox) about it being unable to read said file. It does so with every command I submit to the shell.
When I unmount /data I am able to push to the device (though still not to /sdcard - again missing permissions).
Also when switching to slot B it gives me "Error changing bootloader boot slot to B" with "Failed to mount /vendor (invalid argument)".
Relevant data:
I have not done a firmware update, it is still running on Android 7.1.1 and I do not intend to do an update since the stock rom is to be replaced by LineageOS anyways.
As mentionend: XT1900-7, 64GB mmc, 4GB DRAM and so on...
I am able to push files to /tmp for example which allows me to flash the twrp-installer.
Edit: TWRP version is the latest available (3.3.1-0)
Is there anyone who had similar issues and might provide help?
No need to ELI5, I'm at least experienced in Linux, not that much in Android. Previous phone was a G4 Play which was pretty straightforward (unlock, fastboot flash recovery and flash away whatever I felt like).
If you need any more information I will be happy to provide it.
Thanks in advance to anybody that can give me a hint or clue to solve this.
Well. Nvm. It works flawlessly with twrp-3.2.1-1. Seems to be something with latest version. Thx anyways