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Trackball won't click, can't root!

M

marshall1084

Newbie
So I am trying to root my phone and the trackball will not click. Knowing there is a known issue with the trackball, I go to VZW and they send me a new one, except that one has touch screen issues. Is there any way to get the trackball to click again? Tried basic troubleshooting, cleaned it etc.
 
marshall1084 said:
So I am trying to root my phone and the trackball will not click. Knowing there is a known issue with the trackball, I go to VZW and they send me a new one, except that one has touch screen issues. Is there any way to get the trackball to click again? Tried basic troubleshooting, cleaned it etc.
Click to expand...

marshall1084,

Bummer that you are experiencing the dreaded trackball hardware issue...if its not working now, it probably won't work later...(there's no magic bullet that I'm aware of). I keep seeing members report that the refurb phones that they receive have other issues, so it appears to be a game of musical phones (you never know what you are going to get).

That being said, you still can root without using your trackball--its just going to be a little more difficult and complicated. You would first have to root using something like jcase's 1-click method (http://androidforums.com/eris-all-t...is-app-apk-no-pcs-no-scripts-needed-easy.html). Then, you would have to follow erisuser1's posts in this thread http://androidforums.com/eris-all-things-root/163423-flashing-rom-trackball-not-working.html (specifically, this post http://androidforums.com/eris-all-t...ng-rom-trackball-not-working.html#post1495912) to allow you to do your Nandroid backups, wipes, and flash ROM or .zip file.

There are options that involve using the ClockworkMod custom recovery, but I can't advise you re. this since I've never actually used it (this custom recovery does not use a trackball for its menu operations [edit: it apparently does require a trackball press for confirmations]--you could do a forum search an look for some posts/threads re. this. I know member Varkie used to use ClockworkMod, but has switched back to Amon_RA's).

You should probably read through the above two links first to see how daunting the above appears to be to you--its not for the faint-hearted, but it does work.

Good luck!
 
marshall1084 said:
So I am trying to root my phone and the trackball will not click. Knowing there is a known issue with the trackball, I go to VZW and they send me a new one, except that one has touch screen issues. Is there any way to get the trackball to click again? Tried basic troubleshooting, cleaned it etc.
Click to expand...

I would suggest that you should not let VZW stick you with a bad phone as a replacement for a different bad phone. Stick to your guns; be polite but firm. (That might mean accepting an offer from them for a phone which is not an Eris, so be prepared for that).

scary alien said:
I also just saw this thread http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/192732-track-ball-may-not-working-trying-put-rom.html where erisuser1 replied to someone that's in the same boat as you...
Click to expand...

Note that in that post, the problem was lack of scrolling, rather than lack of a "click" with the trackball. I think I saw someone report that ClockworkMod recovery uses Vol-Up/Vol-Down for menu navigation, but still requires clicking with the trackball. If that is the case, then there are no custom recoveries which will work (interactively) with a "no-click" trackball. The only option in that case is the technical method of using adb + Amon_RA from the PC.

I think the preferred course for marshall1084 should be to get working hardware from VZW.

eu1
 
I used Clockwork for 6 months and while it looks like it can select an option using the power button I never got it to actually work. It would act like it ws going to execute the command then go right back to the last screen. So I still had to make a selection with the trackball. Don't know if Koush ever fixed this or not as he updates clockwork quite frequently and I haven't used it in a couple weeks.

You could always give it a try and see if it works. I believe the easiest way to get it is install ROM Manager then select the option to install Clockwork at the top of the main screen.
 
erisuser1 said:
Note that in that post, the problem was lack of scrolling, rather than lack of a "click" with the trackball. I think I saw someone report that ClockworkMod recovery uses Vol-Up/Vol-Down for menu navigation, but still requires clicking with the trackball.
eu1
Click to expand...

eu1,

Thank you for that tidbit... I did not know that ClockworkMod still required a click until I read your reference in that thread/post (which I why I was referred the OP to that thread).

I can see trackball issues regarding recovery becoming more and more prevalent as time marches forward...("we're gonna need a bigger boat! or custom recovery, in this case ;)).

Cheers!
 
scary alien said:
I can see trackball issues regarding recovery becoming more and more prevalent as time marches forward
Click to expand...

Ugh. Yeah, I hear you.

It's especially problematic for rooters that develop trackball troubles - even if they have a return to stock flashable ROM available, it does them no good if they can't use Amon_RA to get it on to their phone.

While the manual method (using adb + Amon_RA) will certainly work correctly, I can't enthusiastically recommend it - (because it involves setting up adb and using the command line) 70% of the people that try it will screw it up somehow. (That seems to be the history with anything involving Windows drivers or the command line for previous methods).

Did Amon_RA ever respond to your PM about "no trackball" support?

eu1
 
varkie said:
You could always give it a try and see if it works. I believe the easiest way to get it is install ROM Manager then select the option to install Clockwork at the top of the main screen.
Click to expand...

varkie,

Do you happen to know if ROM Manager depends on anything other than "su" in the ROM to work correctly? (For instance, busybox or "flash_image" or the like).

Or, to put that another way, do you remember hearing reports from Eris owners where they had trouble getting ROM Manager to install the Clockwork recovery correctly that was traceable to a dependency on other ROM components?

eu1
 
erisuser1 said:
Did Amon_RA ever respond to your PM about "no trackball" support?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, he did not...:p

I do see that he is still a little active in the Eris forums over on XDA...he posted in the [RECOVERY-BETA] Eris Multiboot recovery hack thread on September 20th...

Perhaps a gentle nudge from a more well-known and widely-respected XDA member might bear more fruit? ;)
 
scary alien said:
Perhaps a gentle nudge from a more well-known and widely-respected XDA member might bear more fruit? ;)
Click to expand...

You can't possibly be talking about me; I have periodically tried to help people that have no business rooting their phones (either here on AF or over there on XDA) - that's not the kind of behavior that gains respect from devs.

;)
 
erisuser1 said:
You can't possibly be talking about me; I have periodically tried to help people that have no business rooting their phones (either here on AF or over there on XDA) - that's not the kind of behavior that gains respect from devs.

;)
Click to expand...

Lol x1000! :)

By the way...I've been working on my app, trying to work on the punch-list of things you so kindly suggested...OMG, the seemingly little things like progress bars were kicking my butt :eek: I had to re-arrange things and do a lot more learnin', but I'm getting close...(now I know a little more about threads and background processing than I did before or wanted to...)

I had my daughter (she's the one with a Mac) generate the output for a 'openssl pkcs7...' command and I might need some a little direction regarding how you might envision the output looking like (I see the "Signature Algorithm:" section at the end of the output so I'm guessing this is the information you are interested in). No hurry re. this--I'm not quite there yet, but I'm happy to add this feature, provided I understand it, lol.

By the way, I'm leaning toward "AFV (Android File Verifier)" for the app name...thoughts? Feel free to one-way PM me at your liesure...

Cheers and and thanks again for all your continued contributions!
 
erisuser1 said:
varkie,

Do you happen to know if ROM Manager depends on anything other than "su" in the ROM to work correctly? (For instance, busybox or "flash_image" or the like).

Or, to put that another way, do you remember hearing reports from Eris owners where they had trouble getting ROM Manager to install the Clockwork recovery correctly that was traceable to a dependency on other ROM components?

eu1
Click to expand...

ROM Manager only requires superuser (which I just remembered) so it won't help the op as the rootme.zip folder and engtools3.zip are the files he needs to flash to get superuser on his phone to finish rooting. He needs a way to flash clockwork mod recovery, probably thru adb shell? He's better off just getting a replacemnt from Verizon.

I've only flashed a few ROMs with ROM Manager, plainjaneT2, Kaosfroyo 32 thru 35-1 and my own cooked 2.1 ROM. Never had a problem with it.
 
Yeah I tried to email Koush once with a question about Clockwork and never got a response either.
 
ROM Mangager is just a GUI for Clockwork Mod Recovery, all it does is reboot the phone into recovery and then performs the requested action without any further input, either doing a backup, flashing a zip file or installing a ROM.
 
Here's something else I'm thinking about. If you could get the zip file jcase made for his one click method and open it up and take out Amon recovery image and replace it with Clockwork then it would install that and problem solved. I'm only familar with doing this with ROMs with Android Kitchen. I think the Kitchen can only do this with ROMs though, it looks for boot and system image files to transfer into the working folder. I think android-sdk can do it I just don't know how. I do know that its the java-jdk program that does the signing in kitchen and its also installed with android-sdk.
 
You can do the flash_image method thru adb to get clockwork recovery image onto the phone. This forum linked to below lists the commands unfortunately the link to get the clockwork image file is broken. Not sure this is something a newb can do easily but its basically how I rooted my phone back in June and I was a newb to android and adb and did it.

How to Droid Eris Recovery Image [BETA] - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

Link to Clockwork Mod Recovery Image file, listed under ROM Manager change log about half way down the page. Makes sure if you do this to grab the image file for the Droid Eris (CDMA).

http://www.koushikdutta.com/2010/02/clockwork-recovery-image.html

If you don't have android-sdk installed on your computer thats another matter and there are plenty of posts on getting it installed and using adb shell.
 
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