[Galaxy S II Original Android Development] Chainfire:
Getting rid of that pesky warning triangle during boot, and upgrading your firmware

Getting rid of that pesky warning triangle during boot

On ICS, there is now a much easer way: Triangle Away

It is definitely possible to remove that pesky warning triangle during boot when running a custom kernel, though you should be well aware that this method does NOT reset the custom kernel flash counter. The steps are not complicated, but they aren't easy either, so read well.

(1) Make sure you have CF-Root flashed (see the first post). You must have the "CWM Manager" app available.

(2) Make sure you have the same version of CF-Root extracted until you have the zImage file. (ZIP --> extract --> TAR --> extract --> zImage).

(3) Push the zImage file to /sdcard . It must still be called zImage !

(4) Find an original Samsung signed stock kernel (preferably from the same stock firmware you have, but it's not terribly important)

(5) Reboot into download mode (adb reboot download, or boot the device with home and volume-down pressed)

(6) Fire up ODIN, and flash the Samsung kernel

(7) Boot the device with the stock kernel. CWM Manager will still be available.

(8) Start CWM Manager, select Flash Kernel, and select the zImage from CF-Root you previously put on your SD-card. The kernel will flash and the device will reboot.

(9) You will now notice you no longer have the warning triangle during boot, but you are actually running CF-Root with all it's goodies!

(10) In the future, if you only use the Flash Kernel option inside CWM Manager instead of ODIN, the triangle will not return, neither will your flash counter increase. But keep in mind, that CWM Manager can only handle a direct "zImage" if you are NOT running a kernel with full busybox support (this is currently needed for flashing kernels out of .TAR and .ZIP files)

CF-Root v5.0: Upgrading your firmware

Important: This works ONLY on a CF-Root kernel !

CWM Manager has the ability to flash firmware parts either from separate files (zImage, factoryfs.img, etc) or from .tar / .tar.md5 files that they usually come packaged in.

- Download the firmware you want to flash

- If you have a ZIP or RAR file, extract it until you have seperate files, or .tar / .tar.md5 files

- Create a folder named 'firmware' on your external SD card

- Copy the files you want to flash to this folder ( /sdcard/external_sd/firmware ). factoryfs ("system") is mandatory part at the moment.

- TIP: If you are flashing a new firmware that already has a CF-Root kernel available, put it in the 'firmware' folder as well in zImage or .tar form (NOT .zip). Select it when asked which kernel to use, then use the "Flash normally" option later on.

- Open the CWM Manager app

- Select "Flash stock firmware"

- At this point, CWM Manager will tell you about the firmware parts it has found, and which ones it will flash. It will also give you warnings about bootloaders and PIT files if those were found. If some firmware parts are present multiple times, it will ask you which file to use as source.

- If what you are flashing includes both kernel and system parts, CWM Manager will warn you about this as you are about to lose root. It will provide you with three options:

1: Keep CF-Root kernel

Keeps the current CF-Root kernel, only flash the other parts. You will not lose root or CWM Recovery. You can flash a newer CF-Root kernel later (or maybe you have already done so), see 3.1 above.

2: Pre-root system

Flashes both kernel and system parts, but roots system during the flash. You will lose CWM Recovery, but you will keep root (if all goes well). The CWM Manager application will also remain, and allow you to flash the correct CF-Root kernel at a different time (if you have not done so before), see 3.1 above.

3: Flash normally

Doesn't do anything specific. If the kernel you are flashing is not a CF-Root (or similar) kernel, you will lose root, and CWM Recovery.

- CWM Manager will reboot into CWM Recovery, and will flash the firmware, rebooting afterwards.