yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gmstrollo:
M.Pause...

I have the same issue. Bought in China, tried to load non-china ROM and soft-bricked my phone. After much research, it seems that the Chinese have locked out a good deal of the functionality from their version of the SGS2 and blocked the ability to download a non-chinese ROM to the phone. I keep hoping someone will figure out a way around this--like to repartition the phone and add a different boot loader... or something like that.

In the meantime, your best bet is to go to onwhere's website: http://bbs.gfan.com/maintain.html?20110906. This person apparently doesn't like that the chinese have them locked out of google marketplace. They have a hacked ROM that you can load into the phone and get most of your needed functionality. It's not great, but it's better than nothing. FYI, onwhere is chinese and so it the page. You'll need to go through google translate or the like. I also have some screen shots earlier in this thread that have some of the download links translated. You might want to check them out.

If you manage to figure out a different way around this, would you mind shooting me a message on this forum?

Thanks, G.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mr_pause:
Yup, my phone is already flashed with onwhere's rom.

It's somewhat unstable and doing strange things sometimes, but it works.

If i find something i'll post here.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] darkneill:
i got my sgs2 in malaysia it support chinese and english. my rom version is xwkf1 2.3.3(singapore ver) , think of flashing the lastest 2.3.4 which is europe rom . does europe lastest rom support chinese ?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bluppfisk:
It's still right here.

http://bbs.gfan.com/android-2099143-1-1.html
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] giba85:
My phone is dead in this moment, it says "software update fail" after i tried to change the rom from a chinese phone...

I'm downloading the ownhere rom to load on my phone....

Should I load this .tar on the PDA line on Odin? and click start?

I know this must be a stupid question, but i'm not sure about what to do...
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] yankies77:
yeah load the .tar in PDA and click start

---------- Post added at 12:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:55 PM ----------

i have installed the ownhere's rom and is working fine and is rooted but can i switch to any other roms in the forum or they will not work on the chinese model? thanks in advance
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] WickedMonkey3D:
Thank you, to you all

you all saved me from chucking my brand spanking new 5000 RMB phone right out the window.

last night after I got home from the Cell Shop and started filddiling with it. I noticed it didn't have email or market apps. so I found the APKs and downloaded. neither app would work. Apparently the Chinese Stock dosn't just not install them it actually blocks them.

I thus downloaded one of the Euro-Roms. and promptly soft-bricked the darn thing.

This morning went to the Samsung service center and they got my phone working again. but with the stock rom.

I was able to get my email going via the exchange server option but I prefer Gmail for syncing my contacts and calendar. i was not a happy camper.

until I found this tread. now I have the above mentioned ROM running and my phone is making me happy, rather than furious.

hopefully someone will find a way to get a Stock Eruo-Rom to work until then I can deal with this.

Thank you all.

Oh P.S> anyone know how to get rid of the Yellow BANG Triangle at boot. I suspect some of the Chinese on the post may do that but I am not that good at reading Chinese.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] S2User:
I am in the situation.

Bought S2 I9100G after my iPhone 4 was stolen from my pocket.

Didnt know sbout these problems.

So , WickedMonkey,

1. Is this rom stable ?

2. Have you managed to purchase apps in the market using your credit card ?

3. Is the process of installing the new rom easy ?

I would appreciate it if someone could post a link to the files

that are needed and a tutorial.

4. Do I just need to use Odin or SuperOneClick also ?

5. Does the process root the phone also, or does only flash a custom rom ?

6. I have currently v2.3.4 and rom ZCKH4 .

Is this custom rom appropriate for me or is it 'older' ?

7. One last question - is there a way to backup everything on my phone (rom,modem, csc,pit)

incase something goes wrong or incase I want to roll-back ?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] S2User:
Anyone ? help please

Anyone ? help please
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JJEgan:
Search will help all your questions have been answered .

jje
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] S2User:
Dear friend - if I had any answer I wouldn't have bothered the

forum with my the questions.

I would deeply appreciate it if anyone could answer my questions,

even only some of them.

Thank you in advance...
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gmstrollo:
1. Is this rom stable ?

I haven't actually seen it crash yet.

2. Have you managed to purchase apps in the market using your credit card ?

Absolutely no issue here, but since your phone would be now rooted, you're pretty much open to putting whatever you want on there.

3. Is the process of installing the new rom easy ?

I would appreciate it if someone could post a link to the files

that are needed and a tutorial.

That's a little involved. If you still haven't figured it out, message me and I'll assist.

4. Do I just need to use Odin or SuperOneClick also ?

Just Odin.

5. Does the process root the phone also, or does only flash a custom rom ?

As above, yes, will now be rooted.

6. I have currently v2.3.4 and rom ZCKH4 .

Is this custom rom appropriate for me or is it 'older' ?

Can't answer easily... I'd have to research.

7. One last question - is there a way to backup everything on my phone (rom,modem, csc,pit)

incase something goes wrong or incase I want to roll-back ?

Yeah, and Onwhere's ROM will include this functionality after install. Doesn't really help if something craps out during install. I haven't used this tho.

RECOMMENDATION:

If your native english speaking (like me), the continual flipping over to the Chinese keyboard and language checker will drive you nuts. I installed SwiftKey on it and my world changed for the better.

Now if I can only get that WiFi calling to work on T-Mobile USA...
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bluppfisk:
Some people say that you can remove a couple of files from the international ROM and flash it to a Chinese phone. This is only hearsay though, and I would like to know whether it works or not before I risk losing all my data.

fisken
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nicoarageorge:
@lrojasma:

Many thanks for your advice. I confirm item no.2 working for me. Thanks again.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] downwiththebanksters:
Sometimes a search is frustrating beyond compare. The JKay mod thread has thousands of posts and a poor install instruction. When I searched for an issue I was having I got over 100 possible posts out of the 3000 in the thread. So at what point are we allowed to just give up and post?

That said, if you took the time to post, why not add just a few keywords to your post that could've put a person in the right direction such as:

"Search in my post will help all your questions..."

or some keyword you know to be relevant

"Search for unicorns will help all your questions...."

I'm new here, and use English as my native language, but all too often a search returns several threads with 100's or even 1000's of posts here in just the Samsung area. Anything to help focus the search is always a help.

And as for "us" being those that have chinese issues, the RTL Arabic crowd is doing a good job taking care of it's needs here as far as I can tell. Sadly the great firewall may be preventing our mainland chinese compatriots (TM) from accessing this site, and perhaps the talented chinese folks aren't coming here due to language barriers as well. But for those chinese readers and writers here who use both worlds please urge the folks on chinese sites to post here, and even help them if language is an issue. We don't need Android LANGUAGE fragmentation too!
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bluppfisk:
Going to test it out asap. If it works, you're my all-time hero!
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] yohanology:
Hello,

I just want to confirm that the 2nd method Irojasma works perfectly ! thank you very much for your help !

The only problem I have, maybe because i live in China, is that when i want to download apps from Android Market, it launchs the download but doesnt download :(
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nicoarageorge:
@yohanology

Android Market is blocked in China...unfortunately.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bluppfisk:
You can try switching between 3G/WiFi to fix download problems, also try using a VPN, a Proxy and Market enabler. I find it's different every day, sometimes it just works with WiFi, sometimes I have to go on 3G and enable my proxy.

method 2 works fine perfectly, thank you so much. Now I still need to find a mod that is just as good as ownhere, but based on European firmware. And hereby I mean:

- rooted

- with a browser that supports user agent switching

- 2.3.5-based

- BLN control

- data toggle button in notification area

- oh and of course, IP call button in the dialer

没有马？
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] henrychukx:
NO, android market is not BLOCKED in china. i live in china, and i have a SG2 with market working properly, including sync and all.

If you still want a Chinese based apps market, u can search for gfan market (机锋),haipk market, go market or Appschina.

another thing about those who can't get EU roms to work on their phones could be try flashing XXKI3 ROM i believe that's EU Rom. but you must have the 3 tar files for it to work. I'm gonna see if i can still find the link where i downloaded ir previously and post it here.

Here it is u.115.com/file/clt89iqf# just copy and paste into browser, extract and u'll get PHONE, CSC, and MODEM

P.S: DON'T use the PIT file, u will get a fail message.

hopes this helps.

---------- Post added at 05:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:48 PM ----------

maybe you can try CM7 or villainrom 3.0 (with ninpho kernel or siyah kernel) and see if it works..

I got my phone in china, and i'm running CM7 (2.3.7) it has all of the above but BLN, which i'm sure u can easily get by flash a kernel that supports BLN..

老外s with sg2 :cool::p
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bluppfisk:
海老外,

I tried CM7 (latest stable from their website). I installed it, did a factory reset/wipe/... but then found out three issues:

- Don't have the market (wtf?)

- Camera force closes

- There's no button in the notification area that toggles packet data

this is kinda good in the ownhere mod. In fact, the ownhere mod is exactly what I want, except that there are a couple leftovers from the Chinese firmware, and it's 2.3.4-based, and I cannot fool around as much as with CM.

Dang.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] henrychukx:
I'm using a stable? build of cm7, with market, no FC on camera and pac. data toggle on notification area. i got it from a chinese website though so i dunno if you wanna try it out.. i can post a link later if you wanna give it a try.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lrojasma:
I am very glad to know that other persons had my information useful.

I want it to add to this that CM7 doesnt include any google apps, because i am not wrong CM7 is a from scratch rom, i mean they did use the open source android to build this rom, is not based is any other rom, so they to avoid any legal issue incorporatin the google aps, they made a pack including all the google aps that are on those comercial roms buy missin on the CM7.

The pack is found on CM7 website and is called gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip, i dont know exactly the link but you can search of it for sure, it will include all things missing like maps, market, etc. And everything working PERFECT. So you can get that from there.

I wanted to add someting else.

On my last post i said that is impossible to flash modem.bin because is region coded and bootloader locked, but well i found a way around this.

You can edit the zip that contains any rom clockworkmod flashable info, you can search for the modem.bin from that distribution (like Darkys rom for example, this is the one i used to do this), so you can replace the modem.bin with whatever you want, whatever version you want and flash it with clockworkmod, this way, it will flash modem.bin correctly.

Afthis this you can wipe your rom with another but not including modem.bin and your baseband rom will be intact.

Althought there is ways to get around this chinese lock. I really would appreciate if someone came up with a solution to replace the bootloader with the western stock firmware, because just having in mind that you have a phone with locked bootloader is just a pain the a...
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bluppfisk:
please do!
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] henrychukx:
http://down.rom.hiapk.com/Samsung_I9100/I9100_hiapk_v1.0_signed.zip there ya go! remember to double flash before reboot.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Snodster:
lrojasma, I flashed my phone China S2 with

PDA-> CODE_I9100XXKI3_CL577579_REV02_user_low_ship.tar (modified as you suggested); but it just bricked my phone with the red Android with explanation point in middle and "Software update fail". I was able to re install the China firmware and unbrick it again. I guess the part of your instructions that I wasn't sure on is the flash part. I'm only supposed to fill in the PDA file or do I need to have files for PIT, Phone, and CSC as well. Thanks for you help if you have time.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ulyp:
hi!

I'm suffering from exactly the same problem.

I've bought a S2 phone in China.

Now I wan't to change the firmware to European one, more exactly Portuguese one.

I would really like to thanks lrojasma for is post.

I've not yet tried it out, but as soon as i clear some doubts I'm facing concerning his fix, i will give it a go.

I've downloaded a firmware from the topic:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1075278

I've chosen the following:

XWKI4

Firmware info

PDA:XWKI4

PHONE: XXKI1

Date: 14/09/2011

Android 2.3.4

Downloaded an exe file that when clicked got into RAR file.

When extracted the RAR file I could not find any ".TAR" or ".md5"

I'm placing a print screen with the files found.(exe and RAR in the same folder)

I got the boot.bin, sbl.bin and modem.bin files, but I don't know how to get tar.md5 that ODIN recognizes.

Since this is my first Android, I'm feeling pretty noob on all these issues. :o

Thanks a lot for your support.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Snodster:
Unable to get lrojasma method 2 to work.

All, I'm encouraged that multiple people have got lrojasma method 2 to work; but I have failed mutliple times to get it to work.

Procedure followed:

1) Download the file I9100XXKI3.rar from either: ttp://s560.hotfile.com/get/067da9533ae8b477e9c33ec9d165e226dc673c6c/4ea43601/512/1d269b5487686ae9/7c8cee3/I9100XXKI3.rar, or ttp://downloads.androidadvices.com/i9100XXKG6.zip.

2) Extract all 4 files from I9100XXKI3.rar:

a) CODE_I9100XXKI3_CL577579_REV02_user_low_ship.tar.md5,

b) GT-I9100-CSC-MULTI-OXAKI3.tar.md5,

c) MODEM_I9100XXKI3_REV_02_CL1062028.tar.md5,

d) u1_02_20110310_emmc_EXT4.pit

2) Extract all 8 files from CODE_I9100XXKI3_CL577579_REV02_user_low_ship.tar.md5.

a) boot.bin,

b) cache.img,

c) data.img,

d) factoryfs.img,

e) hiddent.img,

f) param.lfs

g) Sbl.bin

h) zImage

I used two different tar file tools: PeaZIP and 7-Zip. Note, I'm running Win7 64 and these are the only two programs I could get to run on my computer. Both complained that the original tar file ended incorrectly; but seamed to extract all the files correctly.

3) I re compressed the 6 files

a) cache.img,

b) data.img,

c) factoryfs.img,

d) hiddent.img,

e) param.lfs

f) zImage

excluding sbl.bin and boot.bin and named the file: "CODE_I9100XXKI3_CL577579_REV02_user_low_ship.tar". Same as before except removing the .md5

3) Flashed galaxy S2 with odin:

PDA = CODE_I9100XXKI3_CL577579_REV02_user_low_ship.tar (new file w/ sbl.bin and boot.bin removed and renameded w/o .md5),

PHONE = MODEM_I9100XXKI3_REV_02_CL1062028.tar.md5 (original from I9100XXKI3.rar),

CSC = GT-I9100-CSC-MULTI-OXAKI3.tar.md5 (original from I9100XXKI3.rar),

No PIT file.

Flash fails when trying to load cache.img. See report below:

<ID:0/020> Added!!

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..

<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..

<OSM> Please wait..

<OSM> MODEM_I9100XXKG6_REV_02_CL1044543.tar.md5 is valid.

<OSM> GT-I9100-CSC-MULTI-OXAKG6.tar.md5 is valid.

<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..

<OSM> Leave CS..

<ID:0/020> Odin v.3 engine (ID:20)..

<ID:0/020> File analysis..

<ID:0/020> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/020> Initialzation..

<ID:0/020> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/020> Firmware update start..

<ID:0/020> cache.img

<ID:0/020>

<ID:0/020> Complete(Write) operation failed.

<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

My phone now is soft bricked with the red android "Software update fail" and I must reflash with china flash to get it to work again. I'm really frustrated as I've had this phone for 6wks now and my S2 virtually worthless to me with china flash. I'd really appreciate anyone's help to debug this problem.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Misterbashi:
This all sounds good news on the Chinese S2 front, however I have a I9108 version as my work contract is with China mobile.

I want to change the ROM, but everyone seems to be doing it with an I9100 ROM.

Any ideas where I can find a suitable ROM for mine, or can I use another?

One thing I dont really understand is how you go about choosing a ROM,

My Kernel is 2.6.35.7 se.infra@SEP-68 #2

Baseband : I9108ZMKI5
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] yannickhk:
I second Misterbashi's question.

I tried to flash mine and bricked it. I was stuck at the opening screen 'galaxy sii ...' with a yellow triangle. Couldn't go into recovery mode but I could enter download mode. Still I had no idea how to get it to work, I had to give it to China mobile to fix it.

Has anyone a link to the official i9108 firmware? Would it unbrick the phone if I flashed the official one with odin?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ShanghaiedBeijinger:
I tried to go to the hyperlinked page but it never loaded for me on Safari or Chrome. :-(
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] elghandor:
i got galaxy I9108

is says (software update fail)

i tried to flash it with this ver.

1:I9108ZMKI5_I9108CHNKI5

2:I9108ZMKK3_I9108CHNKK3

<ID:0/091> Added!!

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..

<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..

<OSM> Please wait..

<OSM> I9108ZMKK3_I9108ZMKK3_I9108CHNKK3_HOME.tar.md5 is valid.

<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..

<OSM> Leave CS..

<ID:0/091> Odin v.3 engine (ID:91)..

<ID:0/091> File analysis..

<ID:0/091> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/091> Initialzation..

<ID:0/091> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/091> Firmware update start..

<ID:0/091> MLO

<ID:0/091> NAND Write Start!!

<ID:0/091>

<ID:0/091> Complete(Write) operation failed.

<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

plz any help
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] elghandor:
i also tryied to flash the original kernel

I9108ZMKH6_KERNEL.tar

and to flash the original software

I9108ZMKH6.tar

in PDA but it fail as previous post

now phone is restart at first screen

and idea? !!

b.r
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cyberkiller:
One thing that you can do to solve this fast is to flash only one modified kernel with clockmodrecovery partition on it.

So this way you can flash a CWM rom from one from the net without using Odin.

To flash you only need to put the CWM rom, or modified kernel, etc on the phone via ODIN, then use the volum up + home + power button combo to call the recovery partition and from there you can flash any CWM flashable ROM.

If you still have problems with it, let us know if we can help.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] elghandor:
sir, thnx for replay

i need to help me with the files

if u can give me links to download

thnx
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Ippikiryu:
Hi, I've read through the thread. I pretty much have the same problem: Chinese Samsung Galaxy S2, tried to flash a non-Chinese ROM onto the phone and (semi-?)bricked it with the error screen with a yellow triangle and "SOFTWARE UPDATE FAIL."

I've tried, and can neither get the phone into download nor recovery mode.

I don't know which rom to use for this which is the main problem for me at the moment. I grabbed a random rom and tried irojasma's suggestion of removing the boot and sbl from the .tar then flashing it, but it didn't work either. I have no idea if I did it right though.

If anyone could help me, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] peteinchina:
Maybe hope, but not help

It was a while ago, maybe 6 months - B70 ROM?

But I flashed a near as I could find ROM onto my chinese phone via odin.

I spent days finding a stock ROM with the same serial numbers, but XX (euro?)

I rooted and flashed this ROM via odin and it worked. It allowed market - google is blocked in China!!! and only works via hong kong.

After that it allowed me to play with all of the great ROMs and kernels. Now I have a fully functioning S2 with no trace of Chineseness.

So the message is to keep trying. Find stock ROMs close to your serial number using google and freegate, download and try them out. I remember CF root being useful.

I'm so sorry I did not keep records for you guys! A (chinese) virus wrecked my computer AND backup hard drive.

One happy thing is that the week it took me to solve the chinese phone problem helped me to understand my phone very well!

Good luck.....
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nicoarageorge:
Dear all,

For me it works as "lrijasma" advise us.

i use this firmware until now without any problems. Now I would like to update to ICS firware. The question is: should i use same steps like before?

thanks again lrijasma.

George
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ullrich.c:
Solution

See this thread for a way how to flash your Chinese SII with another firmware. It worked for me: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1702479
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lrojasma:
Yes exactly the same steps.

Basically what you are doing is skiping from flash the files that fail at odin.

Like cache.img, modem.bin, Etc. Every android device provider lock some files as their wish, i dont know why exactly, but all of this is on the bootloader, i just corrobored this with my current device a Samsung Galaxy S3 i9300.

My device as my old one was bought at china, so the model is i9300_chn_chn and i couldn´t directly flash anything that wasn´t chinese coded. I follow the steps that i talk about earlier and it worked, but now i have found a much better way.

The way that i found consist in replacing the device bootloader with a generic international one, but it can´t be done directly as the bootloader is locked for any kind of flash, the method was originally used to recover a bootloader dead device, but i used to change my working device from chinese locked bootloader to international free one.

Here is the fórum where this was discussed.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=39734124
[Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] worm1967:
Since I can't respond in the developers forum yet, here goes.....I've rooted and installed Rom Manager on my phone and flashed CWM recovery on my phone. But when I reboot into recovery and select reinstall packages, I get the following messages: E;failed to open mnt/internal_sd/update.zip. Where does this file come from??????????
[Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] worm1967:
Scratch that....this worked like a charm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=833423&highlight=recovery