Root Visual Example: The PB00IMG.ZIP update method

[scary alien]

ewwww. your recommended CyanogenEris?

lol...I just included the links of the "Cyanogen"-referenced ROMs that I could find on XDA (that's what they were asking for)...is one of yours Cyanogen-based? (he asks, knowing that an awesome answer is forthcoming )...

 

[andrizoid]

haha yes!
two of them are actually, suave smush and white widow.
i just thought it was odd to see cyanogen eris. i guess with the patches i released for it you could still run it OK, but its so outdated.

 

[scary alien]

haha yes!
two of them are actually, suave smush and white widow.
i just thought it was odd to see cyanogen eris. i guess with the patches i released for it you could still run it OK, but its so outdated.

I thought so...I remember when you released them, but couldn't remember the details.

But you were releasing ROMs left and right back then .

Did you ever hop on the Incredible track and build ROMs for that phone or any others? Just curious...

 

[andrizoid]

I thought so...I remember when you released them, but couldn't remember the details.

But you were releasing ROMs left and right back then .

Did you ever hop on the Incredible track and build ROMs for that phone or any others? Just curious...

i was going to port smash over to the INC, but i forgot about the MDPI and HDPI difference

once i get my DINC i will start on those, but i gotta raise the money first. i did get donated an Eris dev phone last night though

ill be able to sell my personal phone, and then keep that one to continue to futz with over here.

 

[eddieb1983]

HELP! When I follow the instructions to the t, my phone comes back with the following under HBOOT:

<SEND> FastBoot Mode
<VOL UP> Recovery

If I go to recovery, it goes to the amon recovery which does not help me because I can not scroll down. I am never asked to update. Please help because I need to unroot my phone to send it back to vw AGAIN because of the trackball.

I used eu1 universal root instructions and flashed xtrROM 3.0.3.

 

[erisuser1]

HELP! When I follow the instructions to the t, my phone comes back with the following under HBOOT:

<SEND> FastBoot Mode
<VOL UP> Recovery

If I go to recovery, it goes to the amon recovery which does not help me because I can not scroll down. I am never asked to update. Please help because I need to unroot my phone to send it back to vw AGAIN because of the trackball.

I used eu1 universal root instructions and flashed xtrROM 3.0.3.

eddieb1983,

If you correctly put a PB00IMG.ZIP file in the root folder of the SD card, booting into HBOOT would have automatically started unpacking it and doing a signature check. You didn't even mention those behaviors, so I suspect you didn't put it there, or you named it incorrectly, or you got it into the wrong folder on the SD card, or you accidentally unpacked it onto the SD card, or something like that. Go back and have a look at the pictures in this thread again.

Having said that, I'm not going to answer your same inquiry in three different threads. Look for my responses in the other thread, starting from here

eu1


.

 

[eddieb1983]

Problem solved thanks to EU1. See this thread.

 

[j3h]

so if i am already rooted, can i still ise this method and the battery pull to get the s-off bootloader or is there another process i should follow?

 

[erisuser1]

so if i am already rooted, can i still ise this method and the battery pull to get the s-off bootloader or is there another process i should follow?

You can still use this method (with or without the battery trick) if your current bootloader is not 1.49.0000 S-ON ... just like "the old days".

Since you are already rooted, though, and you just want to install the engineering bootloader, you might find it easier to just flash the "erisengspl.zip" as if you were flashing a new ROM (it only installs the bootloader, so there are no wipes involved)

You can find a link to the relevant thread on XDA here.

Make sure your battery is well charged, verify file checksums, and take your time doing this - flashing the bootloader is the single most dangerous flashing operation you can perform.

eu1

 

[Podivin]

Make sure your battery is well charged, verify file checksums, and take your time doing this - flashing the bootloader is the single most dangerous flashing operation you can perform.

Is there really any gain in doing this?

 

[erisuser1]

Is there really any gain in doing this?

Do you mean "any gain" wrt being careful, or "any gain" wrt having a S-OFF bootloader?

As to the latter, having an S-OFF bootloader allows you to flash a recovery, boot, data, radio, or even a different bootloader image via the "fastboot" tool on the PC even if the OS or recovery on the phone is borked. (You can't flash the system image this way on the Eris because it is too large). You can also boot bootable images without writing them to flash using fastboot - this would be useful if the "bad block" problem develops in the recovery partition, and you need recover "bad blocks" using mtdtools.

For someone that rooted late (using the one-click or dummies method), there are a few catastrophe recovery scenarios which are simply not possible with a S-ON bootloader. The one that is most evident is when the recovery gets screwed up somehow (using Clockwork?) and the rooted OS develops a boot fault (e.g. boot loop) and USB debugging has not been toggled on. So, having a S-OFF bootloader has some value for some rescue scenarios when things go horribly wrong.

As for the former, well - in principle, there is no need to check a signed ROM's checksum, as it is impossible that Amon_RA will allow it to be installed if it does not pass a verification check; OTOH Clockwork has options that allow signatures to be ignored - in that case it is critically important, especially for something involving the bootloader - that the user insures he has a valid file before attempting installation. I mentioned it only because folks in this forum have repeatedly failed to notice when Amon_RA gave them an error condition - checking their downloaded files (hopefully the copy which is actually on the SD card) nips that in the bud.

Similarly, it is true that the regular OS of the phone routinely is allowed to write to flash memory even though the charge state of the battery can drop to only 7 or 8% - and the flash memory involved in those "risky writes" is the same flash memory is the physical device which also stores the bootloader, the recovery partition, et cetera. The difference is that the "regular" OS only writes to /data and /cache - which can easily be wiped with a factory reset procedure - so, even if the probability of a bad flash memory write is elevated for those kinds of "ordinary" write operations, there is a built-in reset procedure - but not for more critical things like the bootloader (or recovery and system partitions on a stock phone).

HTH

eu1

 

[j3h]

i feel like i trust the PB00IMG.zip method to work and not brick my phone more than i do with the erisengspl.zip method because it doesnt look like it has been proven to work. i do like the thought of just being able to flash it tho. do you specifically have a preference?

 

[erisuser1]

i feel like i trust the PB00IMG.zip method to work and not brick my phone more than i do with the erisengspl.zip method because it doesnt look like it has been proven to work. i do like the thought of just being able to flash it tho. do you specifically have a preference?

I actually can not remember whether I have personally tried flashing "erisengspl.zip". In my analysis of it (my alter ego over on XDA is bftb0), I downloaded it and inspected it's contents, and everything looked quite kosher (bootloader checksum, signing integrity) and straightforward (very simple "update-script" file). Probably I didn't use it simply because I already had 1.49.2000 S-OFF on my phone.

There is no doubt that I have done the battery-pull trick many, many times - but note that in every case that I did that, the pre-existing bootloader was a 1.47.xxxx bootloader - the "root rom" (plus battery pull) hack will not work for folks with 1.49.0000 bootloaders. Also note this: on one occasion, my phone surprised me by continuing to install the rest of the ROM after the battery was re-inserted and I restarted the phone. So, moral of that story is: do a nandroid backup before you do either method - just in case.

eu1

 

[j3h]

ok, i did read your alter ego's story on xda and didnt know if i could really trust his information because i didnt recall seeing any of his other work or reports on that method but now i know and will go ahead with the flash method. Thank you very much!

 

[j3h]

alright i finally got a chance to try flashing the bootloader. i downloaded the erisengspl.zip, checked the md5 put it on my phone, did a nand backup, flashed it, rebooted to the hboot to check it and my phone still said

DESIREC XC SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-1.47.0000

so i rebooted again and let the phone power all the way up in case that made a difference, turned it off and booted back into hboot and nothing changed. what happend? why didnt the flash take?

 

[erisuser1]

alright i finally got a chance to try flashing the bootloader. i downloaded the erisengspl.zip, checked the md5 put it on my phone, did a nand backup, flashed it, rebooted to the hboot to check it and my phone still said

DESIREC XC SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-1.47.0000

so i rebooted again and let the phone power all the way up in case that made a difference, turned it off and booted back into hboot and nothing changed. what happend? why didnt the flash take?

Did you see a message on the screen when performing the Amon_RA flash that had an "(E)" in it?

That would indicate that an error occurred - the most likely being that the file didn't pass the verification step as a result of corruption when you transferred the file to the phone (I.couldn't tell from your post whether you checked the md5 of the file on your SD card or on the PC - the former is the preferred method.)

The other possibility is that

 

[j3h]

i used adb to push the file to the phone then checked the file on the phone using astro then details and looked at the md5 that way. i did not see an (E) but then again i didnt look for one. ill try flashing it again and looking for the E and if that doesnt work ill do the battery pull.

 

[erisuser1]

i used adb to push the file to the phone then checked the file on the phone using astro then details and looked at the md5 that way. i did not see an (E) but then again i didnt look for one. ill try flashing it again and looking for the E and if that doesnt work ill do the battery pull.

If the md5 was correct on the phone, then the 2nd explanation (1.47.0000 incompatibility) is probably the answer - the way that installations of radios and bootloader firmware is supposed to work is that the recovery partition stages the file somewhere (perhaps in /cache ?), and then communicates with the bootloader through nonvolatile information stored in the BCB (?), so it is supposed to be the bootloader's job to perform the actual flashing. (Normally you would see a different splash screen right after you perform a "reboot" from Amon_RA - but only very briefly, as it takes only about 1/4 second to flash the bootloader).

It could be that the dev that packaged up erisengspl.zip only tested it with 1.49.0000, and that technique doesn't work correctly with 1.47.0000. The old-fashioned rooting method will work though.

Make sure to make a nandroid backup of your current ROM, just in case the PB00IMG.zip install decides to continue the other flashes after the battery pull and replacement (as I mentioned previously, this happened to me once out of many, many iterations of the battery pull trick).

eu1

 

[erisuser1]

... flashed it, rebooted to the hboot to check it

Maybe I missed something - when you were in Amon_RA, after flashing you should have selected the menu item "Reboot", rather than power down (or pulling the battery). IIRC, there is a message at the bottom of the screen when Amon_RA finishes flashing anything involving a radio or bootloader that gives you explicit directions on what to do. Deviating from this sequence (for instance battery pull or shutdown, followed by a key-press startup) can interfere with the use of the BCB (boot control block).

Don't know if that's what happened, but couldn't tell exactly from the description.

Damn computers; they're so picky!

 

[j3h]

yes i just did it again and it said reboot holding down the vol down vol up or menu key so i held volume down clicked reboot and it did just that. when it rebooted there was that andriod and the box with the arrow that stayed on screen for a few seconds then went back into recovery and said "formating cache". then the menus popped up i powered it down went back into hboot to check the results and still nothing changed.

Update: i decided to just go ahead with the PB00IMG.zip and everything worked out perfectly. Thank you for all your help and work with the eris.

 

[erisuser1]

yes i just did it again and it said reboot holding down the vol down vol up or menu key so i held volume down clicked reboot and it did just that. when it rebooted there was that andriod and the box with the arrow that stayed on screen for a few seconds then went back into recovery and said "formating cache". then the menus popped up i powered it down went back into hboot to check the results and still nothing changed.

Update: i decided to just go ahead with the PB00IMG.zip and everything worked out perfectly. Thank you for all your help and work with the eris.

Sounds like you are well on your way to becoming an Eris rooting expert.

If you ever use fastboot to flash things to the phone, be very very careful about md5 checksums and so forth - the one thing which is nice about the signing methodology used with ROMs and Amon_RA is that it makes it impossible to flash a corrupted ROM file - but when flashing with fastboot, no protection is provided for you, so you need to be damn sure you are working with correct and unmangled files.

(Under most circumstances, use of the S-OFF features of the HTC bootloader should not really need to be used, once a custom recovery is installed - but it is nice to know that it is there in case disaster strikes.)

eu1

 

[j3h]

yes i do realize this and am always very careful even with using a flashable zip. i only wanted to do this for that disaster that could be lurking around the corner. im looking into building roms now and thought this added security would just be a nice thing to have for peace of mind

 

[talespin]

I got to this final screen and the only option is to reboot: Yes
There is no "No" option so I can't toggle into Fastboot.

 

[usmcgeorgia421]

i know this is the old way to root the eris but im kinda in a spot where i need to root this way. i deleted gtalk off my eris when i was previously rooted and i reinstalled and was golden till i had problems which made me factory restore and when it restored gtalk was gone now cant use market...... nor do i have file manager to install gtalk..... the issue im having with this process though is i get to the second picture and after about 20 seconds it goes to the

FASTBOOT
RECOVERY
CLEAR STORAGE
SIMLOCK

page. im running the same version hboot as the pictures the only difference i have from the pictures is my Radio is RADIO-2.42.01.04.27
any help with this as soon as you can would be extremely helpful

 

[erisuser1]

i know this is the old way to root the eris but im kinda in a spot where i need to root this way. i deleted gtalk off my eris when i was previously rooted and i reinstalled and was golden till i had problems which made me factory restore and when it restored gtalk was gone now cant use market...... nor do i have file manager to install gtalk..... the issue im having with this process though is i get to the second picture and after about 20 seconds it goes to the

FASTBOOT
RECOVERY
CLEAR STORAGE
SIMLOCK

page. im running the same version hboot as the pictures the only difference i have from the pictures is my Radio is RADIO-2.42.01.04.27
any help with this as soon as you can would be extremely helpful

There is probably something that I am missing from your description. Well, several things actually; but that's OK - sometimes folks that are new to this don't know exactly what details to provide or what the right questions to ask are.


If your phone is "rooted" is there some reason why you can not simply flash a ROM using the custom recovery?

Or, do you not have a custom recovery on the phone?

What method did you originally use to root the phone?

I tried to parse your description above; I read it several times. I could be going off on the wrong direction here, but here goes:

If a complete PB00IMG.ZIP file is found in the top folder of the SD card, it will stay on that first screen unpacking that file for OVER ONE MINUTE. Not twenty seconds - at least a minute. That's because those PB00IMG.ZIP files are big - all of them are approximately 100 MB.

Does that sound right - over one minute on the FIRST SCREEN?

Also, please verify: You said "same as in the picture" - explicitly, do you mean that your HBOOT version is 1.47.0000 ? (If you rooted "the old" way, that would not be the case.)


I don't recall how long it spends on the second screen. But I do remember that if you only get the "SIMLOCK" message if you cancel the install, or perhaps if the file is short/corrupted.

BTW, WHICH PB00IMG.ZIP file are you working with, and have you (at a minimum) verified that it's length is correct or checked its' MD5 checksum ? (The download links, file length, and MD5 checksums for all HTC PB00IMG.ZIP files are given in this XDA post)


Normally there are only two outcomes at this 2nd screen - you get a menu asking whether you want to continue the install, or it says "Main Version Older!" and you get a menu. I suppose the third option is that it fails the checking process and gives you a menu. In any event, if you DID NOT SEE a "Main Version is Older" message, that strongly suggests you have a corrupted or truncated (short) PB00IMG.ZIP file on your SD Card.


??