uglyb0b: I think I must have misinterpreted what you meant then. What I posted is what you need to do to get back to 100% stock GB.
On some roms, when you flash back to stock with Odin, you will get a whole load of text on the recovery screen saying things about not being able to mount certain paths and it will not give you any "install from sd/wipe data/wipe cache etc" commands.
If this is what happened to you, then boot into download mode, flash stock rom. Then unplug and pull the battery out, put it back in and boot into download mode. Flash the file in the dropbox link and the phone will automatically reboot and you'll be running 100% stock with stock recovery.
If this isn't any help to you I must have misunderstood the problem you were having.
i'm wondering if you can help uglybob. After a lot of drama involving flashing slimbean and losing the imei, I tried to restore to backup in cwm (a newer version I had put on), it seemed to work but wondering in hindsight if I should have put the file on before rebooting that you mentioned. It rebooted and got stuck at samsung screen. Bother. I can get into dlm and get into the old cwm (which of course gives me all the errors). I tried to flash ezbase rescue but didn't work. So wondering if I can flash on another cwm using Odin, if I can get it to work, or do the stock rom thing (unzip it and use heimdall?) I was hoping restoring to backup might restore the imei, but I have a tutorial for that if I can only get it up and running. I've been at this for four days straight, have had the black screen of death, used one click unbrick and hummingbird in ubuntu etc etc, got slimbean back to find the lost imei blah blah blah. I'm so over it but won't let it beat me, I'm a sahm to 3 boys and I'll be buggered if I'm giving in! oh and for some reason I can't unzip the cf root/cwm file as wanted to try that, just processes and provides another identical zipped file. Arrrggh.
The best thing to do at this stage is to flash back to stock and start again. Download the stock 2.3 rom from sammobile, flash in Odin, wait for it to reboot and then flash the file I linked to earlier in the thread.
I have encountered the lost IMEI situation before (can't remember if it was when I was doing some modding or if it was a friend) either way flashing back to stock and starting again fixed it.
uglyb0b: The best thing to do at this stage is to flash back to stock and start again. Download the stock 2.3 rom from sammobile, flash in Odin, wait for it to reboot and then flash the file I linked to earlier in the thread.
I have encountered the lost IMEI situation before (can't remember if it was when I was doing some modding or if it was a friend) either way flashing back to stock and starting again fixed it.
Let me know how you get on.
i've got the zipped file from sammobile, but having trouble unzipping today, no idea why. So I'm in ubuntu where I had it sitting all nicely unzipped and I'm using google drive to transfer, in windows I'll open up and use in heimdall because I know I can put all the files in there. Couldn't get heimdall running in ubuntu. I think best that way as I've been having random driver and USB issues. (Not sure if you can flash the whole zipped file in Odin??). Should I put a pit file in? How do I put your file in, not let heimdall reboot, put it in after - and where? Thanks
If you're using Odin you would unzip the file you downloaded which will get you a .tar.md5 file. You would flash this file in Odin (you won't need a pit file). Heimdall works a bit differently but you should be able to use that instead provided you use the right files (I'm much more experienced with Odin than Heimdall though). Do you have a windows pc you can use Odin with?
uglyb0b: If you're using Odin you would unzip the file you downloaded which will get you a .tar.md5 file. You would flash this file in Odin (you won't need a pit file). Heimdall works a bit differently but you should be able to use that instead provided you use the right files (I'm much more experienced with Odin than Heimdall though). Do you have a windows pc you can use Odin with?
Earlier today I tried to flash ezbase rescue on Odin, it hung and didn't work. What I've got now to work with is jvh_jv1_jv1.tar dbdata.rfs.tar
The first one contains all the files I can put into heimdall. I don't see how they would fit into Odin. I'm assuming you can't flash a zipped file in Odin? I've got windows PC. If you can tell me what to do with any method would be great, esp regarding that second file. Thanks.
Boot phone into download mode Start Odin Click on PDA Navigate to where you have the jvh_jv1_jv1.tar file and select it Ensure repartition is not checked Connect phone When it shows "added" and the com port box turns yellow click start.
Once this is finished the phone should try to automatically reboot, when it does it will either start normally (if so - job done) if not it will come up with writing on the recovery screen (I think I mentioned this earlier in the thread)
If it does do this, pull the battery, put the battery back in and then boot into download mode.
Run through the exact same process in Odin again, except this time use the dbdata.rfs.tar file.
Connect phone, click start and wait for flashing to finish. The phone should reboot automatically when it's done.
THANK YOU UGLYBOB, YOU'RE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did exactly as you said, had to flash the second file, everything worked perfectly. Still have the IMEI number! Great. You know what else? Remember I was having reception problems, well the reception is great! The whole thing worked a treat. I will not be messing around with this phone ever again, and I've told the kids my '4 day glued to the computer state' is done. I can now stop bugging xsenman over in xda and can tie off that thread ('mum of 3 installs mackay rom') so to speak. Tell you what though I've learnt so much, good for the brain! Again, thanks a million. (Might start buying bricked phones, just cos I know I can...)
Glad to hear you got it sorted. If it's working as you need it to now then that's fine, but I wouldn't go swearing off modding completely (that's half the fun of android) especially now as you have a confirmed working way back to stock if it messes up.
If you're interested, when I was using an I9000 I was running cyanogenmod (very good stable rom with better performance than stock). The cm team are working on 4.4 nightlies for it at the moment so will likely get a stable release at some point. The latest stable build is cm 10.2.1 which is based on 4.3.
Either way if it's working fine on stock then you can leave it as it is, just letting you know of a few options if you get bored.
Yeah, it's almost like an addiction. Think I'll leave as is, but must admit I found myself looking on trademe for a 'bricked' phone... Wouldn't it be better to use say cm 10.1, would an older version be more stable?
uglyb0b: Glad to hear you got it sorted. If it's working as you need it to now then that's fine, but I wouldn't go swearing off modding completely (that's half the fun of android) especially now as you have a confirmed working way back to stock if it messes up.
If you're interested, when I was using an I9000 I was running cyanogenmod (very good stable rom with better performance than stock). The cm team are working on 4.4 nightlies for it at the moment so will likely get a stable release at some point. The latest stable build is cm 10.2.1 which is based on 4.3.
Either way if it's working fine on stock then you can leave it as it is, just letting you know of a few options if you get bored.
Quick question (I did say this was an addiction), if I found myself in the possession of a faulty galaxy and had to assume it was unrooted, is it possible to do anything, like enter download mode, is there a recovery mode to factory reset, or would one click unbrick work, is it possible to flash a stock rom on, can you root if it's boot looping etc etc. just been thinking about it and seemed like an interesting question, I have an enquiring mind... Thanks!
You can fix almost any software related issue with Samsung phones if you can get into download mode. You would do this by holding volume down, home and power keys (slightly different on some US variants without home keys). Download mode is all you need to flash firmware with Odin.
If the device is boot looping, that may indicate corrupt data in the system partition. If you can get into download mode normally flashing stock firmware will fix this, however if it is the bootloader that is damaged/corrupted it gets a bit more complicated.
Recovery mode is normally accessible through volume up, home and power, however this varies between models.
In regards to fixing bricked phones, this would depend entirely on what caused the phone to become bricked. As I mentioned earlier, bootloader problems can be messy. Physical damage can cause issues as well, I had a Galaxy S II with a corrupted IMEI. I worked with various nvdata rebuilding tools before finding out the problem was a faulty RF IC, so nothing software can fix. My point is - make sure you are aware of the extent of the damage of any device before buying it with the intent to restore it.
uglyb0b: You can fix almost any software related issue with Samsung phones if you can get into download mode. You would do this by holding volume down, home and power keys (slightly different on some US variants without home keys). Download mode is all you need to flash firmware with Odin.
If the device is boot looping, that may indicate corrupt data in the system partition. If you can get into download mode normally flashing stock firmware will fix this, however if it is the bootloader that is damaged/corrupted it gets a bit more complicated.
Recovery mode is normally accessible through volume up, home and power, however this varies between models.
In regards to fixing bricked phones, this would depend entirely on what caused the phone to become bricked. As I mentioned earlier, bootloader problems can be messy. Physical damage can cause issues as well, I had a Galaxy S II with a corrupted IMEI. I worked with various nvdata rebuilding tools before finding out the problem was a faulty RF IC, so nothing software can fix. My point is - make sure you are aware of the extent of the damage of any device before buying it with the intent to restore it.
So the device doesn't necessarily have to be rooted?
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