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Root OTA update not successful...

S

sbollero

Lurker
Long time reader, first time poster. I am rooted, a safestrap user and have frozen many of my apps with TiBu. I am still at version 5.5.886. Just checked for update and it stated that .893 was available...After downloading the update I tried to install. After my phone rebooted, I am still with version .886.

I don't know near as much as I should to be rooting, rom'ing, leaking and freezing. My safe strap safe mod is theory rom with the asop add-on and ics ui.

I am generally only using my rooted unsafe mode though.

My question is, what do I need/want to do in terms of update. Why didn't it take? Should I be worried? Should I just flash the 5.8 to my rooted stock system?

Lastly, and I am sorry to throw this in at the end.... I also would like to throw down the new swype beta but have no idea how to get into my system mount and rename the files...

Sorry if I have walked all over board etiquette. Like I said, this is my first post.

I greatly appreciate any time and knowledge users put forth in answering my questions.

Thanks,

Steven
 
The frozen apps for one thing. Also, the update may temporarily break root, so you're better off reverting your phone to pure stock, rooting and applying 43v3r root, then updating, and then you can safestrap and ROM your phone.

You cannot apply the update over the custom ROM you're running, so you'll need to go through this process anyway.

HTH

EDIT: Added the following

Moved here b/c this is a root related issue.
 
I defrosted every app highlighted in blue (frozen) in titanium backup. After the reboot, I got a prompt stating the system update failed...again. I'm sorry to sound like suck a dumba**. If I use the forever root app to unroot my phone will that make any difference? My system version is still 5.5.886 so would that be reverting to completely stock? I'm just confused about what steps I need to take to get everything back under control.

I love my bionic but am at a loss to "get it right." Coming from OG droid I became pretty proficient in using rom manager to flash roms and manage my backups. The bionic has me completely befuddled. I have read massive amounts of information (posts) here, on droid forums and other sites. If someone with my limited knowledge base is better off keeping things completely stock and maybe flashing leaks of new system versions, so be it. I just would like to get it back under control to a place where I understand what is going on with it. My clockwork mod recovery I made right after rooting won't come up when I try to manage/ restore back ups. Help please. I'm not in control and I don't like it.
 
You would have need to unfreeeze, then reboot, then apply update and let it reboot again. if you tried to apply update without intervening reboot it probably would have failed.

The problem with coming from a DROID to this device (and I did it too, so I had the same learning curve) is that this device has checks and balances built into it to not allow us unrestrained free access to the system parts of the phone - the bootloader is locked and there is a security mechanism called eFuse which, for lack of a better explanation, basically trips a fuse if you try to bypass the system security of the locked bootloader and install a 3rd party kernel (and possibly other system software as well), which renders the phone unusable until it is returned to Motorola for repair.

The original DROID, in contrast, was a completely vanilla device - no locked bootloader, no eFuse, no checks etc. - so we had unrestrained access to do things like replace kernel, replace system files, modify system files, etc. after a simple 5 minute procedure for gaining system (root) privileges.
 
I appreciate your help thus far.

My stepbrother, who is a bit of a droidhead and a member of idc chatroom and helps test beta and develop, just tried helping me with this problem for two hours.

I didn't mention that I had already flashed the leaked 5.7.893, so my kernel, I guess, is not made to work with this over the air update. Thus after going through all the steps you advised, the system update kept aborting halfway through.

My question now is, am I better off flashing back to the newest leak and then waiting for verizon to catch up hoping the updates will once again take?

If not I'm considering flashing this:
Droid Bionic Receives Fastboot Recovery Files - BriefMobile

but am worried I might really jack up my phone. Seems to me at this point it may just be easier to grab the newest leak and be happy.

Could you please advise? p3droid just sent a tweet stating that one should be careful if buying a used bionic from somewhere because it may never be able to be brought back onto the right firmware track. Here's to hoping this does not apply to me.
 
All you did was unfreeze your apps, and such, right? You should be good to go.

And now we've got a bigger problem. Since the kernel cannot be reverted, it is still the new one. However, the 5.7.893 update also looks for the stock kernel that came with the 5.5.886 system software. IOW, none of the updates out right now, whether leaked or not, will apply to your phone because of your kernel.

I'm not trying to rag you, but that was a very critical piece of information that could have helped avoid this mismatch f system software and kernel software. Please, the take away message here is that we need to know everything up front.

And, I'm self flagellating since I should have asked you as well, and I didn't. *ouch - that was a bit hard on the back*

Someone mentioned that one of the ROMs for BIONIC is basically running all of the system components of 5.7.893, so if you can figure out which ROM it is and get that one flashed on your phone, you should be almost all the way back to where you were before.
 
Oh, forgot to add that Matt, the Motorola Forums Manager, stated in a post that Motorola is working on a way for all us users on other builds to be able to get back to the official OTA. he said they are working on getting the system set up in VZW stores so we can go in and get 'fixed', and he's not sure of the time frame involved nor if it is going to be limited to corporate stores or not, but...its in the works.

Funny thing is is that I want them to do this for me me - so I can go right back and apply 5.7.893 again and get rid of the only problem I have with my BIONIC - the failed flash message when it cold boots / reboots - and I made that happen myself, in testing whether we could somehow revert the 5.7.893kernel or not....

Other than that, I'd not leave 5.7.893 for anything less than 5.8.894
 
I just used one of your guides that used releasedroot to wipe, reroot then used the zip to go to 5.7...once I was there I used safe strap to flash theory in my safe mode and that bumped me to 5.8. I don't know why I was so set on getting the ota update even though it is a few steps behind. I guess the fact that it is "official" is something myself and many others want to make sure they are able to obtain.

Anyways, I really appreciate your help. Hopefully when verizon catches up with ics, it will click back in and take me to the golden land.

That's a cool bit of info that verizon would think of bringing something like that in-store. Any idea if flashing the fxz file through rsdlite would fix the problem? No biggie. Like I said, I'm just going to forget about receiving the official update for now and be happy I'm a few steps ahead of the game using a well oiled machine.

Sounds like you have about the same problem I do. Thanks again.
 
wait, you have the 5.7.893 kernel, and it still let you flash the 5.7.893 full file without failing, after reverting to full stock and rooting and 43v3r root?

Hmmmm....
 
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