• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

[Verizon] dead verizon galaxy nexus HELP!

Jellybelly is a good one that's been around for a long time so I'll link that to start with:

[ROM] Jelly Belly v7.0 - 08/30/2012 - [JellyBean] [4.1.1] [Pure AOSP] - It's all about the butter! - [VZW] Galaxy Nexus Development - RootzWiki

Note that you need to flash both the rom and a Google Apps (Gapps) package so you need both of those items on the sdcard partition before heading to recovery to flash them. That's pretty much the same story for most Gnexus roms.

There are many other roms to consider though like Xenon, Liquid, Bugless Beast, Sourcery and many more. You can find many of the more popular roms right here in our VZW root forum.
 
something bad has happend. when i try to go into recovery, now i get an android with a red exclamation mark on his belly
 
something bad has happend. when i try to go into recovery, now i get an android with a red exclamation mark on his belly

That would be the stock recovery. Did you do the unroot/return to stock thing? If so, does the phone boot normally now?
 
I do not know. You could perhaps try to rerun the tool in order to root the device? If you don't have it going by tomorrow, I'm going to draft up a post that uses the android sdk, and specifically fastboot instead. I don't have much experience with these tools or trust in them for that matter when the chips are down. Good luck, I'll check back first thing in the a.m.
 
Actually, if you do anything with the tool tonight, I'd choose the unroot/return to stock option. At this point there are too many unknowns with the file that was flashed and the results it may have had. I think you are best served to start from scratch. That option should reflash all the partitions to the stock images. And basically it will be the same thing I will type out tomorrow but we'll do it in a little more manual fashion.

So if you decide to try it, when it's done try to reboot the phone and then let it boot up normally. If it starts up great, if not we'll hit it tomorrow.
 
the phone started up normally. I used the Nexus Root Toolkit Back to Stock Flash + Unroot and checked can't boot up.

what is interesting is that it has my custom background and some of my apps on it but not everything.
 
the phone started up normally. I used the Nexus Root Toolkit Back to Stock Flash + Unroot and checked can't boot up.

what is interesting is that it has my custom background and some of my apps on it but not everything.

Well at least you're back up and running. No other issues so far?
 
Thank you very much for all the handholding. I needed it in order not to panic and continue working on the phone.

do you have a simple to follow list for me to upgrade to JB? This is my first time doing this and I don't want it to be my last time.

As for the phone, the only thing I have lost is my text messages. I have a feeling I can retrieve them off of my nandroid. But I am not going to worry about them yet.

Everything else came back through my regular google back up.

Thanks again.
 
No problem. I like to flash my way forward with roms whenever possible and then if I want a newer radio or bootloader, I generally flash that in recovery also (if packaged for flash in recovery) or I fastboot flash the img. Anyway, that's just the way I like to roll, not trying to persuade you one way or the other but what I would recommend more strongly is getting away from using any tookits for anything other than maybe the initial rooting procedure or unrooting.

So that said, I would urge you to either download a Jellybean based rom (and it's associated Google Apps (Gapps) package onto your phone directly using a browser, or if you're on limited data, download them to a PC and then transfer them onto the phone's sdcard partition by way of a USB cable. If you download them directly to the phone, you will find them in the location /sdcard/Download. Material goes there by default which is fine because when you flash roms, the files will be accessible at that location. If you decide to use the PC, download the necessary zips to the desktop ideally, then with the phone plugged in, you should notice the phone showing up as a drive (actually a storage device) on your computer...like along with c: d: etc and it'll be labled "galaxy nexus". When you double click on it, you will be seeing the contents of your sdcard in reality because that's the chunk of storage that shows up and you have immediate read/write acess to. So...you can simply drag and drop the rom zip and the Gapps zip onto the card. Once fully transferred, you can exit out of that window and unplug the phone from the pc.

Now onto the rom flashing portion. Being your first time flashing, you will have to power off the phone, then press and hold both volume buttons along with the power button to enter the bootloader. Once there, use volume up toggle your way to recovery and then the power button to enter recovery. If you are flashing a brand new rom, perform these steps in the clockwork menu:

1.) Wipe data (factory reset)
2.) Wipe cache partition
3.) Advanced menu > Wipe Dalvik Cache

then...

4.) Install zip from sdcard
5.) Choose zip from sdcard
6.) You can now navigate/locate your new rom and any gapps package
7.) Flash the rom first. When it's done, immediately flash the gapps package.
8.) When all of that is done, choose the reboot system option and the phone will restart with the new rom installed. Be aware that the first bootup can take a long time (up to 5-10 minutes but generally less) so don't interupt it if you're at the "Google lock screen" for a good amount of time.

So now you'll be setting up the phone again like it's new...i.e. entering your Google credentials, choosing various phone settings like ringtone, wallpaper, notifcation, etc etc. Also the only apps that will be there are the system apps along with any other apps that the rom developer baked into the rom by default. Because of this, many of us purchase Titanium Backup from the market which allows us to backup all our apps and their associated data. Then when we flash a new rom, we go straight to the market, download Titanium again, and it will recognize our phone by a special file it drops into the sdcard. We then have the option to restore all apps and their data. Now, in Jellybean (and maybe ICS also I can't remember), there is also a built in option on the phone to backup settings to Google servers. You can also get your apps back that way along with perhaps a few other phone settings but personally, I've found that to be slightly hit and miss so I still use Titanium and I skip the onbaord backup option. Up to you.

So in a nutshell review...get the rom and gapps you need onto the sdcard one way or another, then boot into recovery to wipe and then flash.

Couple parting caveats:
Once you are on a given rom, if the developer releases a small update, sometimes they will recommend a "dirty flash". In that event, you can just wipe cache and dalvik cache and avoid the data wipe. Then you won't have to worry about setting everyting up again. Apps will still be there, settings in tact, etc. Rule of thumb is to listen to the developer's advice on which route to go with. This won't be the case for your initial install as you will be effectively moving from ICS to Jellybean with your rom flash so a full wipe is absolutely required. Moreso just mentioned that for future reference.

Also, once you're on a custom rom, there are most generally extended reboot options that inculde the ability to go straight to the bootloader or recovery. So the powering off, pressing volume buttons + power thing will no longer be necessary.

Any other questions just ask, we are here to help.
 
Well I did it last night and it is working beautifully. Thank you. I used the latest 7.1


As for updates and new versions, do I just check the site every so often and repeat the process?
Thank you
 
Well I did it last night and it is working beautifully. Thank you. I used the latest 7.1


As for updates and new versions, do I just check the site every so often and repeat the process?
Thank you

Yeah just follow the thread here or at Rootz. And don't forget to also make a nandroid backup now that you are stable. This is also done in recovery under the "backup and restore" menu. It creates a sort of mirror image of your entire setup at this very moment right down to your latest text message, all apps and settings, the works. So if anything ever goes south, you have a restore point you can return to. Great insurance.
 
Not really although it might be possible with some high level trickery. The easy way out though is to use SMS backup or a similar app, that's the route most people go with.

To backup messages (both SMS and MMS) I backup "Messages" from within Titanium Backup. Restore after flashing any ROM. Works every time.:D

Your Mileage May Vary.

jmar
 
To backup messages (both SMS and MMS) I backup "Messages" from within Titanium Backup. Restore after flashing any ROM. Works every time.:D

Your Mileage May Vary.

jmar

Whoah cool. When the heck did they add that? Used to be considered system data. Great tip jmar!
 
Back
Top Bottom