yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Haloruler64:
I refuse to root/flash until the secondary counter is figured out :( I really need my warranty active.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] pinoymutt:
I'm with you on that one. I'm really surprised that others have not picked up on it (or really understand the impact).

Maybe we're just overly cautious -- but this bad boy screams on stock (at least compared to my Captivate) so it's not so bad leaving it for the time being...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] TechSilver13:
if you have a warranty...like most warranty's I assume it covers you RUNNING IT OVER. I know mine does. If something goes wrong with mine its going under my car and then the pieces are going into a plastic baggy to the store for a new one. Ive seen it happen at best buy with their warranty's so thats what I plan on doing to mine. Let them try and look at my counter...they wont be able to!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Caliesv:
Haha!!! I'm w u on that one lol
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Haloruler64:
Haha glad people agree! I expected hate for this on XDA.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Haas360:
Lol i wouldn't do that man. I work at bestbuy. The geek squad black tie protection. (watt you have) excludes running it over and complete water subversion.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] yoderk:
The insurance I was provided from Best Buy includes basically anything (I imagine they would exclude flashing problems). They showed me photos of an iPhone 4 that fell out a guys pocket on his motorcycle and got run over. They replaced that day...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] ZeroIsntTheHero:
So, just to confirm, the flash counter in no way impedes the functionality of the phone? It's only role is in regards to warranty issues? I only ask because this is the first device that I've witnessed the counter on. I didn't know if it would impact the software in any way or if it was just an issue with exchanging the device through the normal avenues.

Thanks.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] pinoymutt:
So far it does not appear to have any sort of actual functionality impact (although it hasn't been determined if there is some sort of "maximum" amount of flashes before something happens), and is more of just a concern on some of our parts if we need to do a warranty exchange through the regular AT&T exchange or Samsung warranty processes (excluding the BB Black Tie and other 3rd party programs that cover a lot more).

For all we know, it could be just a way of Samsung building something in their code to help determine or keep track of flashes for some other development purposes, because they have been shown in the past to actually embrace ROM development as opposed to blocking it like some other vendors. But until it's verified that ATT/Samy is NOT denying any warranty exchanges based on this, this is the gray area.

I've had to exchange several of my Samsung's in the past via the warranty program, so I'm pretty careful about flashing things personally that can't be completely "undone."
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] ZeroIsntTheHero:
Understandable. I was just concerned that it was going to, at some point, lock the phone similarly to typing in the wrong pin too many times so that the phone basically becomes unusable. However, like you said, Samsung has generally been on the same side as those trying to develop custom firmware for the phones and I fully support them for that reason(along with making good devices, gps aside).

I was just inquiring though so as to not end up flashing too many things and end up with an expensive/shiny paperweight. It wouldn't be a great one anyway though with it being so light. =P

Thanks for the info. Maybe we'll be able to shed some more light on it at some point.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] pinoymutt:
On another thread somewhere, there was a supposedly mythical "50" limit of flashes before smoke started coming out and other weirdness -- but that was debunked rather quickly as someone else confirmed they were at 52 with no ill effects :D

BTW, looks like an update on that "second counter" from the main himself (I asked Chainfire in the other thread, as he was the one who originally reported on it):

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=18294261&postcount=2827

And looks like a verified exchange via warranty with no issues so far:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=18295251&postcount=12
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Haloruler64:
WOO!!! Guess who's rooting and flashing?!

Thanks for the links man :) much appreciated! This is why I love XDA, everyone is so often helpful and hard working for others!

Also that's a damn good idea. Flash a random file as a bootloader and brick the thing.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dmnall:
I will be doing a rooting and unlocking my sgs 2 tomorrow lol, just waiting for it to show up so I can have a phone again. I bought a second jig just in case something happens just to be on the safe side lol. I am hoping to be able to eventually get a darkyrom release on this phone.

Charlie
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Haloruler64:
I'm doing it without a JIG for now, mine is in the mail from MobileTechVideos. I never had a JIG for the Cappy since my first one had a permanent 3 button combo and I always made sure my second one had it enabled.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Caliesv:
I only got the jig for that pesky little yellow triangle, which u will be seeing after root ;) lol
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dmnall:
I only bought a jig because I ran across one cappy through work that would not use 3 button combo. The jig did not even help my poor cappy *launch phone*, that boot looped this past thursday after I woke up that morning. It was weird but oh well at least I will have my sgs2 tomorrow. And hopefully I can reset the counter as well. I bought the second jig because it stated works on the sgs2 i9100 and i777..

HTH,

Charlie
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Sledutah:
Bought a USB jig on ebay for $2.49 (now $1.99), just got it and flashed Cog X2. Had the yellow triangle and I9100 on the first screen. Turned it off, plugged in the JIG and now no triangle or I9100 showing up :)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Haloruler64:
And that's the ONLY reason I got that JIG :P I don't want that triangle on boot, ruins the black sleekness of boot and just in case for warranty.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dmnall:
Exactly, which is why I bought the second one because one I cannot find the other one, I looked after reading about the flash counter and two, not sure if the first one would work as I have seen some of the early jigs did not work with the i9100.. Who wants to see a yellow triangle? I sure don't lol.

Cheers,

Charlie
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] abacon15:
Link?

+10 char
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Caliesv:
Just got my jig. And it works. No more yellow triangle. No more device name, and it reset the counter. :)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] hussarfilms:
worked like a charm!

went back to stock kernel

loaded zImage onto sdcard

went to terminal typed "dd if=zImage of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p5"

and the yellow triangle is gone

NO NEED FOR A JIG!!

thanks Entropy512
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] creepyncrawly:
Now if you flash a rom, cognition or unnamed for example, from cwm, will the yellow triangle return? Inquiring minds want to know.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Haloruler64:
Nope, I think it only counts Odin flashes, since it only counted my Odin flash and I have flashed about 20 times now and it has not reappeared :)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] coolmalayalee:
A long time lurker here. Just registered to ask this question. Can you please give a bit more detail on how to acheive this for a noob?

I do have a yellow triangle on my SGS2 after rooting. Havent flashed any customs ROMs yet.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] creepyncrawly:
Flash stock rooted package from Entropy512 using Odin 3 v 1.85. I'm assuming that you already know how to do that. (Flashing this again will remove the yellow triangle. Assuming you are stock rooted already, you won't have to wipe/factory reset.)

Download and install Android Terminal Emulator from the market.

Download (onto your desktop computer) the file containing the kernel you want to flash, and extract from it the zImage, which contains the actual kernel. Transfer the zImage to your phone's sdcard, using usb or any other method.

Now, on the phone open a terminal session with Android Terminal Emulator. A few points to be aware of. Android is linux so you are using linux commands. Linux commands are case sensitive, so you must for instance type zImage and not zimage, if that is the way the file is spelled on the sd card. Since this will be the first time you have used superuser.apk with the terminal, you will have to approve it on you phone. After that, su permission will be remembered. When you first open a terminal session, you will be at the root of the phone, or essentially /. The $ prompt means regular user access, the # prompt means root file access. You need a # prompt to do this. Also, if your keyboard goes away, use the menu button options to get it back.

In the terminal session, type su and then enter. You will get a superuser request. Once you approve it, you will get the # prompt.

Then type the following:

dd if=/sdcard/zImage of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p5

Press enter, wait till the zImage is copied over. (takes about 1 or 2 seconds) To close the root access session, type "exit" and enter.

Reboot the phone. Joy.

If you want to confirm installation of the new kernel, check "settings | about phone | kernel version" both before and after flashing the zImage. Or reboot into recovery to verify that you now have cwm recovery. (The stock kernel has 3e recovery.)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] phonic:
1) su is not android specific. It's been integrated into Linux/Unix OS's for decades. It allows you to switch users on the system (to root or another regular user). While sudo is much more useful now for most tasks requiring root, su is still heavily used in *nix OSs.

2) dd is not performing a "file transfer". It is reading the input file and writing it out directly to the

mmcblk0p5 block device. Similar to how you can burn an ISO file to a CD/DVD.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] creepyncrawly:
Would you be willing to boot into download mode using the usb cable method, and copy for me exactly what your download screen reads for the three items at the top?

Mine are:

Odin Mode (in red letters)

Product Name: SGH-I777

Custom Binary Download: No

Current Binary: Samsung Official

Thanks.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] coolmalayalee:
Thank you mate for your time and effort. I have already rooted my phone using the method suggested by jivy26. It also has CWM flashed on it. Is it necessary now to flash it again with the Entropy512's rooted package. How is that different from what we get from jivy26 rooting?

If I flash with Entrophy512 package, will it change the touchwiz UI on my phone? I am assuming the UI will remain the same.

You said "Flashing this again will remove the yellow triangle". Then why all the steps after that you wrote? (this may be a stupid question thanks to my ignorance. My experience with android is only 1 week old. so kindly excuse.)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Entropy512:
Correct. My flash count has been holding at 37 since I started flashing from on-device, and I haven't seen the ! screen since this weekend.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] phonic:
How are you determining the flash count?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dayv:
After using a jig mine reset to "No".
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] drtvadr:
jig

just got my jig i ordered thru mobile tech video as per posted link. it was so easy turned off sgsII and plugged in. it went right to download mode and reset itself. yellow triangle gone. great investment, especially if you are gonna be loading roms.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Entropy512:
It shows up when you enter download mode.

It is possible (although SHOULD be avoided if at all possible) to just long-press power when in download mode if you entered it by accident.

EDIT: DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU'VE STARTED A FLASH.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] creepyncrawly:
This will reboot? I only know to pull the battery, and then turn the phone back on to reboot from download mode. Are you suggesting there are side effects? It is my understanding that entering download mode without starting a flash or even connecting to the pc, and then rebooting will have zero effect on anything.

---------- Post added at 02:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:00 PM ----------

In your first post (#43), you asked how to remove the the yellow triangle by the method hussarfilms talked about, which you quoted. I gave you a noob friendly explanation of how to do that. However, if you prefer, just buy a jig and use it to reset the binary counter and remove the yellow triangle without changing your firmware at all.

To remove the yellow triangle without a jig, you need to flash back to stock with the rooted stock package, then install a modified kernel with the method I outlined to re-obtain clock work mod.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Entropy512:
It'll be the same as a battery pull - pulling battery mid-flash would be bad. Also it's next to impossible to enter download mode without a USB connection (Jig is the only way I know how)

You don't need to flash everything back to stock - all you need is to flash the stock kernel if you have a rooted system image. (Which you should if you have flashed any custom ROM, flashed my kernel over a stock system image, or rooted with SOC after flashing codeworkx's kernel.)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] jgotti107:
Lmao!!! I'm with you on that one!!!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S 2 using the mind reader app...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Haloruler64:
Note: I used t a JIG to reset the counter, so this is what it says:
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] jetarpon:
This is the method I used, as well.

Started with stock phone

Flashed Entropy's unbrick with odin to get root

Pushed cwm via adb and copied it using dd in terminal

Flashed Cognition with cwm

Never had a triangle at any step along the way.

My download screen looks just like Haloruler's in the previous post.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] creepyncrawly:
Thanks for that. It's exactly like mine, except I havn't used a jig.

Before you used the jig, Custom Binary Download showed a number instead of "NO", I think you said 20, is that correct? Also, do you remember what Current Binary said?

---------- Post added at 06:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:21 PM ----------

But to clear the yellow triangle, and reset the flash counter, you need to flash in either Odin or Heimdall, right? Is there a .tar available with just the stock kernel in it?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Haloruler64:
I flashed with Odin to root, then used my JIG straight after. And after countless times of flashing through CWM, it still says NO. The photo was taken by going into download mode with a USB cable. At that point, I hadn't used a JIG in a few days, while having flashed. The counter didn't show any CWM flashes. So what the photo shows you is about 20 CWM flashes post JIG.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] thejanitor86:
so after i flash the stock kernel via odin. that removes the counter and removes cwm? so then i would need to put CWM on there again by other means to flash back to your kernel without odin? sorry if i am misunderstanding the steps.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] creepyncrawly:
Yes. You can flash a zImage from adb or from a terminal on your phone.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] thejanitor86:
now when i flash the stock kernel. do i flash the system package aswell for the stock rom. or do i just flash the zImage for just the kernel?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] creepyncrawly:
I hope I am understanding your question.

If you want to clear the yellow warning triangle without using a jig, flash Entropy512's unbrick/stock plus root in Odin (this clears the warning), then install a CWM enabled kernel using an extrected zImage with adb or terminal.

Entropy512's unbrick package contains the stock kernel and the system image, plus root. Theoretically, if you're already rooted, you could install just the stock kernel in Odin to clear the warning, but I'm not aware of an odin flashable .tar file with just the stock kernel in it. If I'm wrong I hope someone points us to it.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] thejanitor86:
i guess i am trying to do this without losing cognition and my apps. not that i cant backup everything and reinstall everything. just didnt know if i could flash just the kernel to get rid of the triangle
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dayv:
On this thread from post # 60 forward we went through threw the steps of how to do this with out losing your setup using heimdall on LINUX and Mac OSX earlier tonight.

Edit: posts # 60, 77, 80 and 81 have most all of the needed information for this process

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1286376&page=6
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] thejanitor86:
i have windows. so i can just push the zImage with abd or terminal on the phone right? i am trying to learn i know. thanks for the help so far
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] LGSilva:
Why not just use a jig? Easiest method ever.

Don't have a jig? Buy one online or make one yourself, super easy.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] thejanitor86:
i have one on order. but i am using this as a learning process. yes thats how my mind works
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] cliffgardner:
My jig from mobile tech videos worked right away. (also works in my cappy)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dayv:
You can do it with adb in windows as well. However if you at trying to get rid of the triangle warning you need to flash a stock kernel with Odin our heimdall. Then you can re-flash what ever custom kernel you at running via adb to avoid getting the triangle warning back.

How to do this in widows you would extract the kernel (zImage) just like the instructions on post 60

Then you should be able to flash just the kernel in Odin or heimdall in windows, just put the zImage in the pda slot on Odin - if Odin will not flash a naked zImage you can always just re-tar the zImage by itself then flash in the pda slot in Odin.

Then the adb shell instructions on posts 77, 81 should be the same in widows
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dayv:
By the way, the jig works perfectly for this task. But it can't hurt to learn how to use adb.

I've said it a couple times tonight but it can be very useful if you flash your phone allot. Especially if you get stuck and can't boot normally but can get into recovery because the adb shell also works in recovery (at least I know the adb push/pull commands work in recovery) you can use it to pull valuable files from your phone you don't want to lose that you may not have backed up,

And you can push files to your phone that you can use to recover a soft brick.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Entropy512:
It is still my opinion that anyone who is flashing alternate ROMs and kernels should know how to use ADB and be familiar, with, at the very least, the following things:

adb push/pull

adb shell

adb logcat

pulling a dmesg

pulling /proc/last_kmsg (when I fix support for this in my kernels, this is valuable for crash debugging)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] thejanitor86:
you cant put a naked zImage into the pda slot. so i need to learn how to tar the file. and i am also going to learn how to use heimdall. i guess i cant put it off any longer lol. i more just need to learn the install.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dayv:
To tar a file in windows you will need a tar archiving program, I know there are free ones out there, but I don't know which ones are the best ones.

Heimdall you can get here

http://www.glassechidna.com.au/products/heimdall/

I would pick one or the other (either how to tar files to use with Odin or how to use heimdall)to do First until you get good and happy with it then work on the other.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] jcracken:
Sorry if I'm interrupting or anything, but I followed the instructions in #44 (on this thread) and flashed the plain tar that came inside the 7z file. I didn't extract it to get the zImage or anything like that, and it worked fine in Odin. The only bad thing that came out of it is that most of the AT&T bloatware came back, but I just uninstalled them again using Titanium Backup.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] thejanitor86:
i have heimdall on the computer already. just not installed
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] sweetrobot:
Purchased this, but no dice- http://www[].ebay.[]com/itm/300597250072?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_516wt_1396

remove '[]' from url.. too new to post external links :/
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Haloruler64:
I would suggest the one from MobileTechVideos, I believe a link is in the OP. It works great and the build quality is fantastic. Too pro. Bit pricey ($8, free shipping) compared to the $2 ones, but the build and guarantee of working (since so many people here have it) is worth it to me :)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Misterjunky:
RE: Flashing zImage files

There is an easier way to flash zImage files without the need to compress

with a TAR archiver.

Get SGS Kernel Flasher from the market (free app).

Then simply ZIP the zImage file and either copy or adb push

the zipfile onto your sdcard.

Now you can open SGS Kernel Flasher and select the zipfile which

contains the zImage file and flash it. By default it will reboot your

phone after its done flashing.

(No need for TAR, ODIN or Heimdall.)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dayv:
To get rid of the triangle warning without a jig you have to flash a stock kernel via heimdall or Odin. If he flashes it via cwm it won't help him him get rid of the triangle warning. Also he is trying to keep all his settings, thus he needs to extract just a kernel and either flash that via heimdall or re-tar just the kernel to flash with Odin.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dayv:
yes, the entropy512's package that we use on those instructions contains both a stock kernel and factoryfs.img and flashing the entire package will return you to stock, it is the purpose of the package.

If you don't want the return of the att bloat ware, then that is why you would extract just the kernel and flash just the kernel as in the instructions.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Misterjunky:
RE: oops!

Oh, I did not know he wanted to get rid of the triangle..

Thought he just wanted to flash a kernel without using

heimdall or odin......
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Entropy512:
Misterjunky, you frequently gave people bad advice that simply didn't work on the Infuse forums, and you're doing it again. Your thrusting-penis-gecko is also back in your signature and it's annoying as hell.

I'm 90% certain SGS Kernel Flasher does NOT work with the I9100 or I777.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] TOA Duck:
Bahahaha
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Misterjunky:
RE: SGS Kernel Flasher

SGS Kernel Flasher works fine with my new Samsung AT&T Galaxy i777

that was one of the first apps I installed after rooting...

Also just for the hell of it I just calculated that my "Post to Thanks" ratio

here in XDA is a bit higher than yours :) and I have seen some of your

your helpful posts and replys which were not very helpful and wrong too. :)

I find you to be a bit annoying sometimes even without a gecko, that's just

my personal opinion. :)

But I was never a used car salesmen so who am I to say anything! :)