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Infinite Loop on Restart

T

tinoraram70

Lurker
First of all I would just like to say "HI!" and say that I have been reading the forum a lot lately for info on my new Droid, but have run into a bit of a problem. The problem is that I rooted my phone earlier tonight and did some simple things like overclocking and installed root explorer and all that good stuff. I was reading the forum on what people did now that they rooted their phones and thought that changing the font of the clock would be cool. So I copied the font to my computer and supplanted the one I wanted on my SD card. The problem is that I accidentally deleted the original font thinking that I was just going to paste the new font in the directory with the same name. Needless to say the paste function did not work because I did not simply rename the existing font to just disable it instead of deleting it.

After paste wouldn't work, I tried restarting my device and found that it entered an "infinite loop" of restarts. The only thing that I was able to do was to do a wipe of the phone to factory settings, but the font still doesn't appear to be there because the clock font on the lock screen is different, however with this method I am able to actually keep the phone on. I tried re-rooting it, and even tried getting the actual non-root 2.0.1 version of the firmware and manually doing that, but all of these things result in the infinite loop problem. I also note that the "SuperUser Permissions" app is still installed and that the phone must be rooted in order to remove that. I only want to make things normal again, re-root it, and be more careful next time I do any mods (I'm usually very good with things like this, I swear!) to the phone.

Any suggestions? Thanks everyone for your help in advance! I hope to be as helpful once I get back up and running as you all have been to me so far!
 
Hi there.

I am struggling with the infinite loop (it just goes to android shimmer over and over) and I was wondering how you managed to wipe your phone and flash with original firmware.

I would love a step-by-step, easy to follow guide or something. :)
 
So you can get to the phone's desktop, yes? If so, does 'Root Explorer' still work? If so, you can replace the font you blew away. No big deal.

This is what happens when people want to root their phones and start tinkering with things they don't understand. From your post, it doesn't sound like you have a nandroid backup of your phone. If you had, this wouldn't be an issue at all.
 
I can get to the phone's desktop and I can use Root Explorer, but I have been trying to replace the font for hours now and it just won't work. I have tried editing the permissions from within Root Explorer and then copying and pasting the font in the fonts folder, I have tried to copy and paste the font into the fonts folder and then try to change the permissions, and I have even tried using UNIX commands (chmod) from the terminal to change the permissions, but the fonts won't let you change permissions. When I used chmod from within the terminal, the command executed with no problems but then I went to Root Explorer and tried to copy and paste the font and it didn't work. I have changed back everything else that I changed (disabled Corporate Calendar and Visual Voice Mail, but both are back now) and I am not sure how long the phone will hold out for. Some things that shouldn't make the phone reboot do sometimes, such as running a non-system app.

I will definitely get a Nandroid backup once this issue is fixed. Hopefully, if worst comes to worst, I will be able to mask the fact that I rooted it and take it back to Verizon and get a new one. (I have tried just going back to the regular firmware with no luck as well.)
 
@tinoraram70, Have you installed Sir PsychoS recovery console yet? If not, go here for everything you need. Do you also have ADB installed on your PC? From the recovery console, you could push the font and see if that gives a better result.

A second thought...
What font are we talking about here? Give me the file path on your DROID. Have you tried copying the font to your sdcard, then copying it via your Terminal app? If so, what code did you use?

Sorry for treating you like a nOOb.
 
OK messenger13, I have gone to the link you posted but there are a lot of links on that site. Can you be a little more specific about what exactly I'm supposed to do lol? Thanks for pointing me in this direction, all of the stuff I was finding was not working. I think that my best plan of action would just be to flash the phone back to "actual" factory settings that would reinstall everything just as if I was re-installing an operating system on a computer, then updating the firmware and re-root and never get into this mess again.

I did try to change permissions via the terminal but did not try to move the file. I only did not try to move the file via the terminal because the "cp" command does not work and when I moved the file from the SD card to the fonts folder, it disappeared from the SD card and was nowhere to be found in the fonts folder. (I have my device set to show hidden files as well, so that's not it.) but I do have the font file backed up on my desktop computer.

The pathname for the font is: /sdcard/Clockopia.ttf
The pathname for the fonts folder is: /system/fonts

I will try to move it via command line and let you know if it works. I have a feeling that the permissions are going to be an issue again though.

Thanks for the help!
 
Try this and let me know what happens.

Copy that font file (Clockopia.ttf) onto the root of the sdcard.

Open Terminal Emulator on the DROID, then type:

su

mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system

dd if=/sdcard/Clockopia.ttf of=/system/fonts/Clockopia.ttf

mount -o ro,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system

sync

reboot


NOTE: Make sure you put a space in front of /system
 
OK so I may have screwed the proverbial pooch on this one. I have tried, probably 20 or 25 times since last night to root and unroot the phone and it works a lot of the time, however this time when the phone first starts up after clearing all data it won't even let me register the phone, and I don't have a landline to call from. Is there any way that I can just start from scratch (unless anyone has any other suggestions, of course)?
 
Try this.

- Download the original 2.0.1 update file. CLICK HERE
- Rename that file "update.zip".
- Copy it to the root of your sdcard
- Shut down DROID
- Boot into recovery (While holding 'X' on the hardware keyboard, power up)

It's been awhile since I've seen the stock recovery console, but you should be able apply or install update.zip from there.

Reboot.
 
OK so I went to the Verizon store here and it was very busy because apparently a tower in the area went down, so that explains why I couldn't activate it. I just now got it activated and logged in with my Google account. I then tried the lines of code that you so graciously generated for me, messenger13. It appears to have worked for the time being. But all I told them at the Verizon store was that it was in a restart infinite loop and the lady ordered me a replacement one. I hope that the Droid is new enough that it's not a refurbished phone, but I suppose that comes with the territory. I also hope that this one slides a little easier than my current phone does. My phone appears to get "stuck" when I slide it.

Anyway, thanks a million for all your help, messenger13! I hope that I will be able to help out as much as you've helped me out!
 
One more question for you, messenger13. I want to get adb on my computer so that i can push things to the phone. I downloaded the Android SDK that supposedly has adb on it, I just have no idea how to use any of it.
 
Hi,
I found a nice thread here that helps you to change the fonts in few steps (using Gscript). it worked fine.
viewtopic.php?f=211&t=1443&p=20751#p20751

i wanted to change the font again back to the old one. so I deleted the new font from the folder on the SD card and added the old font.

BINGO

my phone doesn't boot now.. It cant pass the Motorola logo.

I pressed the power and the camera buttons and did wipe data and wipe partition.. but still no luck.. :s

Now What..

PLEASE HELLLLPP
 
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