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Root [Virgin Mobile] Newbie screwed up installing Victorious again and is now stuck on (a different stage of) boot

M

monkeybiz7

Newbie
Hi all,

I'm a major newbie, and I recently successfully rooted my Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE (per instructions from this site). I would love to install the victorious ROM, as it seems to have a lot of nifty features.

I found a guide on the internet about how to load a custom rom:

theunlockr.com/2012/08/29/how-to-load-a-custom-rom-on-an-android-device/

But it uses ROM Manager, and I recall reading that ROM Manager sometimes has problems with Virgin Mobile phones. Anyway, seeing as how I paid nearly $200 for this phone, I'm terrified of screwing something up.

If someone could send me a step-by-step guide about how to flash the victorious ROM on my phone, or tell me where I can find such a detailed guide, I would be super grateful.

Thanks again!
 
Ignore those instructions, and stay away from rom manager. It's not really designed for our phone.

Victorious is not yet a full rom, it is an update zip that you can flash on top of the regular system.

The big question is, have you updated to the NEWEST firmware? The one that just released a day ago? I'm not sure Victorious will play nice with that yet, but you could make a backup in TWRP and test it for us if you want! If you haven't downloaded it yet, I wouldn't reccomend doing so as it may break root. There's not a lot of info out yet as far as I have heard anyways.
 
Check your settings... about phone... and look for the baseband version. if the last 3 digits are MG5 instead of MC1 then you have the update.

It also sounds like root method still works fine with the update, and victorious should be fine as well... I'm about to do another test and will report back.

Let me know what your baseband is.
 
Hi,

Thanks to insanelycool for your help.

It appears I'm still on the older firmware. My baseband is L300VPAMC1.
I did get a system update alert this morning; it sounds like I should probably not install it just in case?

As to how one goes about flashing victorious--is this like the rooting guide at the top of the page about rooting?

http://androidforums.com/virgin-mob...inmobile-guide-basic-wip-rooting-newbies.html

Except here I replace busybox_v1.20.2-CWM+.zip and SuperSU-v1.34.zip with Victorious-0.2.2-r1.zip?

I can still use the TWRP .tar file from my root session, correct?

Will the TWRP recovery restore my app data? Or should I also use something like Titanium Backup?

Thanks again!
 
You install victorious zip in twrp recovery. Boot into recovery and tap install then select the victorious zip and slide the bottom button that says install. When it asks if you would like to fix root say yes. Then select wipe and wipe only cache and dalvik cache. Then reboot system and your done!
 
Thanks! I will try this later when I get into work today (my home computer is a Mac), and let you guys know how it goes!
 
Are you already rooted and have twrp recovery installed? If so do you already have victorious zip downloaded? If yes, you dont need computer. You boot into recovery by turning your phone off, then with phone off you hold volume up and power until you see recovery booting in the upper left corner, then let go of buttons. Now you're in recovery. Follow the rest of the instructions from my last post!
 
Ok, I installed the zip file, but not once did it ask me to fix root!

I'm at the screen where there are three buttons at the bottom: 1) Home 2) Wipe cache/dalvik, and 3) Reboot system. I pushed the Wipe cache/dalvik button, and that process appears to have completed successfully.

Can I reboot now, or is there something I need to do to go back and get the "fix root" prompt?

Thanks a ton!
 
If it doesn't ask after you click reboot you should be fine. It usually only asks when it doesn't detected you are rooted
 
I pushed the reboot button, and I got a screen with a green android on it, and an audio message saying "This Phone will self destruct in five seconds".

And now there are two blue liquid balls bouncing around on the screen, with the words ANDROID on the bottom in blue. It's been on this screen for the past minute or two.

Does this sound like the right sequence?
 
Thanks! How long does the boot typically take? It's still on the two blue balls, and I'm wondering how I know that the boot sequence is progressing normally. What would look different if the phone were stuck on a boot sequence?
 
Unfortunately it sounds like I really screwed up somewhere. I made a backup via Titanium Backup, but I didn't save any kind of system file to my computer. I do have the following file: "Victory-VM-Stock-Kernel.zip"

Can I restore using the above file? I guess I would just pull out my external SD, put the above file onto my SD via my computer, boot in recovery mode using TWRP, and then install the zipped file from the external SD?

I'm sorry that I have so many naive questions, and I am really grateful to those who are taking the time to answer them!
 
Before you install anything you should be making a backup in TWRP, its in the instructions on the first post where you got Victorious 0.2.2-R1
 
At this point, you can make a backup onto the external sd card (with TWRP), place the sdcard into your computer, then replace the TWRP files INSIDE the backup folder with the original stock files provided by g60madman here : http://androidforums.com/virgin-mob...-mobile-victory-07-04-2013-a.html#post5790639

The reason for creating the backup is that it seems TWRP might not let you restore until it recognizes the folder that you created with the backup you make. Folder name will be some random numbers, just compare the files/folders inside it to the ones in the zip provided by g60madman, if they look similar then just delete the backup ones and copy the stock ones into the folder. Now go ahead and flash it and you will be back on stock.

Make sure you fully activate and test all features like mms ect, before you do anything else.

next time remember to make a backup so that you can flash back if something goes wrong and not have to start from stock!
 
Before you flash back to stock, you might even want to try redownloading the victorious 0.2.2-R1 file and reflash it again. I've had it hang sometimes but a reflash fixed it. Sometimes the download is bad as well. A good way to test is to open the zip on a computer and see if it says the crc is bad or file corrupted.
 
Hm, I replaced the original file inside the BACKUPS folder with the '00097d18' file from g60madman. However, when I started back up in TWRP recovery mode, and selected "Restore" from the menu, nothing shows up in the external SD (or the internal storage, for that matter).

I know that the '00097d18' file is in the external SD because I can see it when I select "Install" instead of "Restore" from the menu.

Any ideas what could be going on? I unzipped the TWRP file from Vmobi on a Mac, and I realized the files inside '00097d18' are all .win files, but surely that can't be the problem?
 
Yay, the restore seems to have worked! Thanks for everyone's help. I've not yet gone through the full list of the features, but so far things look mostly normal.

There are a few things I don't understand, though, and in the hope of learning something from this whole process, I'd really appreciate it if someone could shed some light on the following issues:

1) After I restored, I got all of my old apps/information back without my personally having to launch Titanium Backup. I can't figure out how the stock restore could have known about all of this.

2) I did notice a few new apps that I had not downloaded. I guess it's from the stock restore?

3) Is it a bad idea to try to install a freshly downloaded version of Victorious 0.2.2-R1? I still don't know what I did wrong the first time to get stuck in a boot loop. My older version of Victorious 0.2.2-R1 does not seem to be corrupt, as it unzips without any errors.

4) It appears that TWRP is a recovery environment. Why does it need to be downloaded via Odin? Why can't I just stick it on my external SD and run it?

I would love to learn the answers for any of the above questions.
 
monkeybiz7 said:
Yay, the restore seems to have worked! Thanks for everyone's help. I've not yet gone through the full list of the features, but so far things look mostly normal.

There are a few things I don't understand, though, and in the hope of learning something from this whole process, I'd really appreciate it if someone could shed some light on the following issues:

1) After I restored, I got all of my old apps/information back without my personally having to launch Titanium Backup. I can't figure out how the stock restore could have known about all of this.

2) I did notice a few new apps that I had not downloaded. I guess it's from the stock restore?

3) Is it a bad idea to try to install a freshly downloaded version of Victorious 0.2.2-R1? I still don't know what I did wrong the first time to get stuck in a boot loop. My older version of Victorious 0.2.2-R1 does not seem to be corrupt, as it unzips without any errors.

4) It appears that TWRP is a recovery environment. Why does it need to be downloaded via Odin? Why can't I just stick it on my external SD and run it?

I would love to learn the answers for any of the above questions.
Click to expand...

Now that you have s good backup I'd say go ahead and flash a freshly downloaded victorious. If it doesnt work restore your backup!
 
Madbat said:
Now that you have s good backup I'd say go ahead and flash a freshly downloaded victorious. If it doesnt work restore your backup!
Click to expand...

I tried that, and this time it's stuck on the Samsung logo instead of the two blue bubbles.

Here's exactly what I did:

1. Booted into recovery
2. Selected the "Wipe" option
3. Wiped cache
4. Wiped dalvik-cache
5. I then went back to the starting page and tried to select the "Install" option, but the phone got stuck with the button pressed down, so I had to turn it off by pulling out the battery.
6. I tried steps 1-5 again. Since I had already wiped cache and dalvik-cache, I selected "Install", and flashed Victorious.
7. Went back to the starting page, and seletected "Reboot->System"

What did I do wrong this time? I was following directions from this page:
http://androidforums.com/virgin-mob...om-vaevictus-oc-kernel-updated-7-30-13-a.html

Should I have wiped cache/dalvik cache both before and after flashing Victorious?
 
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