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Root Rom flashing

Altaone

Well-Known Member
Hello,

I am starting to become familiar with this stuff, However I have had a soft bricked phone that was rooted because I was having so much trouble with it. So I am trying to be careful this time around. (was replaced by t-mobile because I was having so many issues) they knew it was rooted and soft bricked. (could have just been generosity of the tech I got)

This time around I rooted again because it was pissing me off and I was finding that I am being tracked basically, mostly by t-mobile bloatware. I removed the bloatware that was safe to remove froze other things, and locked down permissions (thanks LBE). Now the phone is behaving for the most part.

I have Super CID and I am on my way to S off, I have never flashed a rom and have not found a guide I was comfortable with, is flashing a rom so easy that this is just something they dont think to give instructions for? (a mentally challenged chimp could do it?)

In the guide for S off it is stated that being on a viper rom was more desirable when going to s off ?

I am looking for any and all input, if I am being an idiot please tell me, dont worry about being rude I have thick skin. if you have suggestions please tell me.

Ha I looked again and found this on XDA(http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=Flashing_Guide_-_Android).
I almost did not post this but I still would like feedback from the community, and there may also be someone else that is unsure about flashing roms.

The feedback I would like::
Am I solid so far - should I have done something different?
what is your favorite rom and why
what security / privacy software do you run?
(I am running aeGis, LBE, ABP)
 
Flashed viper last night, got stuck on splash screen with this build is for development puposes only. It worked so well the first time that I even tried again and got the same result. I read lots of forums about installing "Flashing" a rom. I read the instructions for flashing viper, multiple times. still no work.

But hey I finally did a nandroid restore. That works really well too. Any ideas?

I followed viper instructions, but I also installed boot.img with fastboot as well. I would like some input but I also realize people need days off. So I will just continue slowly and carefully until the people who are un afraid to answer forums come back
 
It sounds like you needed to "fastboot flash boot boot.img" to flash the kernel. You said you did that, but it is usually the cause when stuck on the splash screen. What recovery are you using (and what version # of it)? Are you S-on still, or did you go ahead and S-off?
 
Ok,

I didnt know the question you would have so I didnt have the answers ready or already posted.

Yes I did 'fastboot flash boot boot.img'

I also as suggested by viper FAQ did 'fastboot erase cache' before the boot.img flash.

I am on TWRP v 2.4.4.0. *** Flashed over the top of CWM , because didnt know any better and I read a post that said cwm is not good with one-s****

I am still S-on - I read the bottom of that guide where someone said that being on viper was desirable when going to s-off -- However I could not tell if that was just for european phones or not.
dont know if this matters but phone double boots when coming out of recovery (Boot completely to where I can see lock screen, It reboots - everything seems fine) Ok I lied it didnt do the double boot this time.
 
Yeah I read a post on XDA that said to do it three times - so I did the first or the second time I tried.

when I got it all flashed and it wouldn't work I went back to TWRP and I tried booting to system it would say no operating system installed, but during any of it I did not get any errors and I watched closely the second time - it shows that it is writing files. and Fast boot alsways acted successful. I am from DOS & Unix days, so I have a good idea of what I am doing - I dont know android though.
 
You only need to wipe once. System should format when flashing the ROM. So no need to do that, but you can manually if you want. The three times stuff is overkill, imo. And unnecessary.

Basically wipe data/cache/dalvik (system as well if you want). Then flash the ROM and fastboot flash the boot.img. And you should be fine.
 
I attached a screen shot of flash commands I ran last night.

Should I stay at this point? Should I try another rom? should I go for S-off?
 

Attachments

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    Flashboot.PNG
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A bit more info that may or may not have an impact.
Windows UAC is on.
Was not running command prompt with elevated privileges.
 
A bit more info that may or may not have an impact.
Windows UAC is on.
Was not running command prompt with elevated privileges.

That shouldn't matter for anything while flashing a ROM. You just boot into recovery, wipe system/data/cache/recovery, flash the ROM, fastboot flash the boot.img and reboot. For AOSP (cm10.1 and the like) you would most likely need to flash gapps as well.
 
What are the differences in the roms?

One is for ICS and the other for JB - if we have 4.0.4 we should be flashing the rom for ICS right?
 
Flashed viper 2.1 full and boot img same thing happened. except this time nandroid restore does not work - phone boots to black screen.

I can still get to recovery so I know it is not a last cause.
 
It looks like CM10 worked....:)

BTW I found the Viper error it never showed during install - no errors and reported finished. but at the end you can save log file. then you have to grab it off of your sd card. in that it shows an I/O error.
 
Hi Altaone, i too had the same experience the first time w/ my One S, soory about this..

Managed to S-OFF using the facepalm method, and probably was one of the first to do it on this forum, and i can tell you that it's 100% WORKING ! no worries to do it since you have the S4 version as i can see.. BUT READ THE instructions carefully !

After installing that CM10 ROM you should try again w/ ViperOneS [maybe even download the ROM again !] and you can use the newest CWM recovery, it works fine now :D : ClockworkMod ROM Manager - Recoveries
 
Managed to S-OFF using the facepalm method, and probably was one of the first to do it on this forum, and i can tell you that it's 100% WORKING ! no worries to do it since you have the S4 version as i can see.. BUT READ THE instructions carefully !

Ok I will plan on trying S-off probably this coming friday night. I was pretty worried last night when I did not have a working phone.

Question what is contained in boot image? I know that is what upgraded me to android 4.1 is that kernal ??? I know this because the boot img always flashed no problem but as soon as I tried to flash to the newer viper my old nandroid backup quit working.
 
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