yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sea_salt:
although it seems, that there is a working solution now... which I'm thankful for... when I read through the whole thread I'm getting more and more scared and confused.

I have the feeling that making such a backup it's not that hard or dangerous. but when it come to restoration - there it's very easy to brick the device. i'm very new to rooting/flashing and using adb... Am I right that you would discourage me to going through this procedure you described to backup and/or restore?

probably we should try to setup a new and fully updated post which contains all steps from the beginning (temp-rooting), making the kernel backup, backup the rest with nandroid an dd (whats dd by the way?), and how to restore everything afterwards without bricking the device, step by step :-) that has been proved to work properly.

probably it would be a good idea to FIX this thread and making it marked as a guide...

I'd appreciate it very much!
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
First off, making the backup will for one do no harm (as you're just reading stuff) and for the other you might be really happy to have it later on.

If you ever come into the situation to have to restore there's always people to ask and that will help - as long as you don't panic and rush things, you should be fine.

A step-by-step guide would be cool idea, yeah.

"dd" is a Unix/Linux command line tool, that reads a physical media (or file) in a "byte by byte" way and copies what's read to another media/file making a byte-perfect "clone copy" of the source.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sea_salt:
thank you HellcatDroid, I think so, too.

I think you're right. making the backup is not dangerous and i plan to make it. but, as said, when it comes to restoration... it's getiing complicated and dangerous. I think a working step-by-step guide (as you suggested, too) would really be nice for beginners like me :-)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheSniperFan:
Hej guys, I did a backup and partial restore today!

The good news is my phone still works as charm. The bad news is that two of the files that you create won't work with the method I use to restore (I used a different one as the method from this guide is untested).

At the moment I don't have the time to post what I did and what went wrong in detail, but I'll do so as soon as I find the time.

The problem with the two files (modem & param) is that they aren't supposed to be "img" files. If the files are identical, simply renaming will do the job, if not.....I don't know. I don't want to just try and find out that it doesn't work.

You can expect me to give detailed information in 2-3 hours.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
I flashed both, modem and param.lfs, using the "dd" described in this thread countless times, never had a problem.

Modem can't be anything else but a raw .img as it's a FW and no filesystem.

param.lfs can be a raw .img if dumped from it's partition and directely flashed back via "dd".

The original param.lfs from a stock update flashed via Odin is a "sparse image" omitting free/unused space and only having actual used sectors stored in it.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheSniperFan:
Maybe my problem was that I was on MIUI (and a rather unpolished one by the way) during this time. The problem I had was that I first tried to restore my backups using Heimdall (and later Odin). For

Heimdall to work the modem has to be a .bin file and the param has to be a .lfs file. Simply renaming did the job

, so there was no real problem here. However. Whenever I tried to restore I got errors and it got canceled during the process.

For ME modem and kernel worked just fine. However, the other ones DID NOT.

The way of restoring presented in this thread has shown no errors whatsoever and I was able to boot as if nothing happened, so I went one step further and this is what happened:

Fullwipe->Restore->Bootloop

I just found out this happened because of the MIUI version I used.

At the moment I try a stock rom with T-Mobile Branding.

What I can confirm to work:

Create Backup with "dd"->Flashing another not branded Firmware->Temp-Root->Restore using "dd"(->Factory Reset if you wish to return your phone)

What I'm currently trying:

Create Backup with "dd"->Flash another not TouchWiz based rom (CM)->Restore using "dd"(->Factory Reset will most likely necessary, because (as seen in the last test I did) the configuration will be preserved)

I'll finish my post in a few minutes.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sea_salt:
this could also be a nice method to backup stock-kernel... (there I'm waiting for a answer at the moment, but if he confirms my question... it would be cool, what do you think?) @hellcat :-) I'm really curious... but as this tool is from you, unfortunately I think you would already have this suggested, if this could work...
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheSniperFan:
Well, it certainly looks nice. But if it's just about the kernel, you can use the Guide from the first page with zergRush. Dumping the kernel with dd works like charm. You can resore it with dd, Odin and Heimdall later. I tested it and I'll let the OP know what works and what doesn't so he can create a thread with a detailled guide.

God, it took me hours, but now I have tested enough scenarios and it's time to make my phone usable again. :D
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sea_salt:
okay, a guide to backup / restore would be nice. especially how this can be achieved via dd, Odin and Heimdall step-by-step :-) Me - as a beginner - would love this!

I also have a commitment from a mod (via PM) that he would PIN a guide like that when posted as a new thread!
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
It's actually a good idea, yes should work.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sea_salt:
nice, then, as I said here... we should include this in our upcoming guide!

could you provide a step-by-step guide (one with usage your tool and one with using dd), here? that would be perfect...

so that when we start the new thread... there's something to paste in :-)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
Yeah, wanted to write up something pasteworthy about the dumping part anyways.

I'd say to not clutter up a/the new thread already, I'll post it in here and it can then be pasted over to the new one.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sea_salt:
nice! sounds great! that's just what's in my mind, too :-)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gänsebraten:
im currently trying some steps.

how can you use zergrush only (not Doomlord) and get root access for hk? I could not manage to get it working without Doomlord

after restarting to CWM-Recovery-Console i tried to get into adb shell. This was not working "- exec '/system/bin/sh' failed: No such file or directory (2) -". Restarting the Phone and again rebooting to recovery did help.

[Speedmod Kernel]

adb root

adb shell

-->you have root access in the shell

tested creating zimage and flashing it back, made cwm backup, made single backups (more than in the above list, p1, p4, p5, p7, p8, p9, p10, p12)

They were tested with compare ("cmp") and they were 100% identical.

i had to get root by doomlord, so when i flash my old kernel back i will have to unroot it and do

E:\ADB\adb.exe shell

$ rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh

$ rm /data/local/tmp/sh.

i did not flash a new rom, so i did not test putting backups back with dd-command

I did no backup for p2, p3, p6 and p11. P11 must be the internal sdcard, P2 and P3 should remain untouched even by roms (boot etc) (maybe we should back it up, too?)

we need a full list in the guide for all Partitions that should get Backups ( i have seen one in xda but i cant find it)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheSniperFan:
Guys, keep in mind that:

-this does NO full backup

-this thread was about how you can restore your branding (and that's what it does - NOTHING more)

-your configuration won't be backed up and therefore not restored (full wipe might be necessary)

-you can't restore from every ROM*

*Therefore it would be the best if the thread would have at least 4 initial posts.

1.post: How to do the backup

2.post: How to restore from a stock ROM

3.post: How to restore from a custom ROM

4. FAQ & Troubleshooting

(Maybe one additional post for the future)

I can provide screenshots and/or videos of every process, because I tried every scenario yesterday. Therefore I know what works and what does not.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
In order of your list:

- Yes, it does a full backup incl. your data (partition 10)

- the whole everything (except bootloaders) will be restored

- see 1), it will

- yes you can restore from/for every ROM, this is raw dump and totally ROM independant

Restoring a stock or a custom ROM backed up this way is 100% the same, the very same commands are going to be used.

We're not done yet collecting all snippets for the full guide, so yes are missing the restore part at the moment. It'll come.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheSniperFan:
I said that based on my experiences. However I tested the guide from the first page. That means a backup and restore from inside the running system, NOT the recovery.

I was able to restore the branding on a running not branded stock-ROM. The user data was kept, so it either wasn't backed up or restored, because the system was running. That's why I said that a wipe might be necessary (if you want to return your phone).

Restoring from inside a running copy of CyanogenMod froze my device at some point and left it unable to boot. I had to do a full-wipe, format the /system and install a ROM again to make it work.

I will test your now. I was surprised that the last guide worked. I wouldn't have thought that restoring the kernel and ROM (at least partially) would work from insidea running system.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
Yeah, that's why put are going to put the "go to recovery, do it from there" part in, because some things don't really work properly when done from a running system.

Also, if you write back a stock rom over another, the existing user can be reused and all is well, but you get a bootloop when "mixing" settings and ROMs, e.g. writing back a stock ROM while some AOSP based ROM data exists or the other ways round, that indeed totally screws things.

But in the guide we're setting up here data will be backedup and restored as well, so it'll work :)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheSniperFan:
Nice!

But I have a slight problem with your guide. My phone does not mount /sdcard after rooting with zergRush. That means that your kTool neither backs my kernel up (despite saying it was successful) nor flash another kernel. Accessing /sdcard via adb still works tho. Do you know why this happenes?

EDIT:

I now have been able to make my phone remount /sdcard (Disable Debugging & Connect it as mass-storage). However, your app simply does not work for me. It does not back up my kernel, it does not backup my EFS and the Reboot into recovery option does nothing. I have no idea why it doesn't work on my phone, but for the time being, I did the backup, flash and reboot via adb. It seems that it's just more reliable than your app, which fails without giving me proper error messages.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
Did you install su and Superuser app after rooting?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheSniperFan:
Yeah. My procedure:

-use zergRush

-Push the su-binary to the phone & make it executable

-Use your app

-Make my /sdcard accessible

-Your app still did not work

-Do the work through adb

I found out that my /sdcard wasn't mounted when doing the EFS backup. Your app said it would be good to do a check and the check returned that there was no backup. I checked that with adb and there, in fact, was none. All the other options did not work too. Strange. If you find some time for it, you should update your app and add a little more exception-handling. The only useful error-message I got was that my phone apparently wasn't rooted, which I fixed through adb.

In the guide you should really post both possibilities to make the backup. The one with your app and the one with adb.

Imagine if someone else runs into the same problem but does not find out that the backup went wrong. He/She could just flash another kernel and render the whole procedure useless.

Put a small lie into your guide. Write that the backup does not always work and tell the people to check whether the zImage file is really present. If you write something among those lines, even the newest newb will double-check it. This will prevent (some of them) to come back later, crying that it did not work and it's your fault, which we both know, is really annoying.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gänsebraten:
Use Doomlord, it works

Also please have a look at my Post in here, where i have written about zergrush:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=20798206&postcount=38

--> there are more partitions, which ones should we backup? Going for all?

General question which im sure is easy to answer: which Partitions are affected by Rom (and Kernel)-Flashing

Sure for Kernel its the Kernel-Partition ;)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheSniperFan:
Thanks but I already tested everything and can confirm it to work. However, I can NOT confirm the exact procedure that HellcatDroid posted to work. As I already said, his app did not work for me, so I used your command from the first page to backup the kernel (just shorter ^^):

"./adb shell dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p5 of=/sdcard/zImage bs=4096 && ./adb reboot recovery"

...continued as HellcatDroid posted.

Worked like charm. I Restored the kernel through Heimdall by the way, but would have worked with adb too (Cannot confirm HellcatDroid's kTool tho - did not try it the other way round).
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gänsebraten:
i think ktool just dumps the kernel and writes it back, just like we do it with adb shell.

When i made my kerneldump with the mounted and active system the Image and Partition were 100% identical, thats why it works in the ktool

(correct me if im wrong)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
Yeah, kTool just does a dd as well.

And since the kernel partition isn't a filessystem that is mounted while the OS runns (it's not a filesystem at all) it can savely be dumped while the OS is running.

The "better do in recovery mode" mostly applies for the partition mounted as userdata (/data).

Even the system (/system) partition can be dumped rather savely from the booted OS as it's mounted read-only.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheSniperFan:
The kTool failed at some point for me. It had either no access to the kernel partition or to the sdcard. Without proper error-messages I can only tell that much. Hellcat, it would be nice if you'd look into this. Everything else worked.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
Yes, I have to add some checking to that if everything actually got dumped properly.

I'll add that ASAP.

Likely not for the next update as that's almost done, but it's already on the list for the next one after that.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gänsebraten:
what do you think about a .bat, that does a full recovery for the i9100 (with checking by "cmp")

It should include all partitions (necessary and unnecessary).

OFC we need the Guide first to do it by hand.

We need to know what Partitions do what:

When i change the Kernel i change mmcblk0p5 (KERNEL)

What partitions are affected by a ROM-Change?

What Partitions are for Backup only (0p2, 0p3)

etc.

Then we can put into the Hints-Section what partition is used for what purpose.

0p2 and 0p3 might get important when the Phone is bricked. 0p5 i need for putting back 100% my old Kernel. Partitions x,y,z i need for Putting back 100% of my old ROM with Branding and everything
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
Your questions are already answered a page or two earlier in this thread IIRC.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gänsebraten:
Happy New Year

I think it is not answered what Partitions are useful to back up (there are more than mentioned here) and how to play our backups back. Although i would try it by going to recovery and dd-ing the Backups back (System, Kernel)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
Happy new year!

About "interesting partitions":

If you count them through, you'll notice p6 isn't mentioned anywhere, that's because it's completely unused on the S2!

About restoring, just swap the dd parameters, so if you backed up using

dd if=[COLOR="Green"]/dev/block/mmcblk0p5[/COLOR] of=[COLOR="DarkRed"]/sdcard/zImage[/COLOR] bs=4096

you'd restore with

dd if=[COLOR="darkred"]/sdcard/zImage[/COLOR] of=[COLOR="Green"]/dev/block/mmcblk0p5[/COLOR] bs=4096

Oh and yeah, better do everything from recovery (except the kernel, as you need to flash a custom one for a usable recovery first).
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gänsebraten:
thank you a lot HCD,

just for info, what partitions are used in a nandroid backup? 4,8,9,10?

for p2 and p3, should we not even backup them?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
CWM/Nandroid backups do 5, 7, 9 and 10 (kernel, cache, system and userdata).

It certainly doesn't hurt to backup/dump 2 and 3, but I for my part don't dare to write to them manually.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] red4:
Thanks, finally a full set of instructions after so many months of the phones release.

I an additional question. is it possible to convert the raw dumps into a odin flashable tar.md5 to make life easier when returning to stock.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] red4:
using the the second temp root method we dont get su

I was wondering if we can get temp su by using

adb push su /data/local/tmp/su

adb shell "chown root.shell /data/local/tmp/su"

adb shell "chmod 06755 /data/local/tmp/su"

adb shell "rm /data/local/tmp/su"

also after zergRush exploit sdcard is not mounted n therefore ktool cant dump the zImage.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
@red4:

That wouldn't work too well (if at all) because tmp isn't in the path - you'd also have to "adb install Superuser.apk" as well to actually make it work.

I used the zergRush a couple of times recently while playing around and /sdcard always stayed mounted for me and I could use it to dump to or restore from.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dvdmeup:
Hello HellcatDroid

hello gänsebraten,

I've followed your discussion regarding a backup one 1und1 branded S2 very interested.

And wanted to ask if you can help me maybe?

I also own a 1und1. Unfortunately I have not made ​​backup, and it flashed to another ROM. Well, as luck plays of course, I got a display problem (faulty) and should send it to 1und1.

However 1und1 is not happy with an S2 rootet be with a customized firmware.

Is it possible to provide an original FW-ready or backup? I you can follow the threat is a reasonably strong, but I have no FW or backup.

FW 1und1 his guards very well.

Would greatly appreciate a response and help.

Best regards,

dvdmeup
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gänsebraten:
question to HCD: What unique Data or private Data can be in the Partitions 5, 7, 9 and 10 (kernel, cache, system and userdata) that might be useful to dvdmeup?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
All partitions have been explained several times in this thread, and their names/desribtions should be self explanatory.

kernel is, well, the kernel.

system is all the OS' files (like C:\Windows on a PC)

cache is temp. stuff from the system

(user)data is all installed apps, their data and system settings/-data.

What's that?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gänsebraten:
sry for asking. its a user that needed a backup for his phone. when someone sends his files there should be no unique numbers or private data inside
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] silentscreamer:
Guys, the problem is solved already ! :D

A group of ambitious users has created a authentic backup from the 1und carrier firmware. :cool:

Source: [FONT=arial, sans-serif]http://www.android-hilfe.de/origina...der-1und1-gingerbread-bhkj1-cwm-nandroid.html[/FONT]
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] layrathanak:
How to back up hidden.img Galaxy s2

when I command dd if=/sdcard/p12-HIDDEN.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 bs=4096 already !

My original hidden.img has size 369 MB after back up it has 512MB .How can I back up file hidden.img the same old size?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Curb71:
I've found Awesome Drop and wondering if there is anything else like it. Or like Google Music for that matter. Maybe Dropbox?

What I want is this:

Im away from my home computer and want to transfer a 175mb .avi from it to my phone wirelessly. not with bluetooth or wifi, but over 3g or 4g. If I try to stream it teamviewer or logmein its impossible. Is there a better way than, from my phone, log into to teamviewer, locate and place the .avi in my dropbox. wait an hour or two and then download it from my dropbox on my phone to my sd card?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] iheartdroid:
I doubt theres a much faster way unless you want to install an FTP or torrent client on your phone and download directly to phone. I use aDownloader for torrents and ES Explorer for FTP. For streaming music I use Audiogalaxy. I'm sure google music would work too though Ive never tried it.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] MissionImprobable:
Dropbox works without issue for me.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] melvinchng:
Get crazy remote (available in market). The frame rate is much faster than logmein. I have both installed.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kimudj:
I use file expert, and the it's FTP server option, then with filezilla you can download or upload files
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mrjavum:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1022878
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bjames23:
Sweet mod man I love it....

~bjames23 via Galaxy Nexus

CDMA

Bugless Beast

franciscofranco's Kernel
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] tct08:
For clarification, could I pull my current system ui and push it back later in case I want to revert the change?

Thanks for working out this mod!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] RMarkwald:
Of course! I like the way you think, that would be the smart move to do, highly recommended!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] PaulG1488:
Awesome post
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Flip35:
trying to download the file but it says i do not have persmission
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] halfcab123:
i'm going to edit this post and put the stock one and add some other customs shortly, but yes you could do that.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] halfcab123:
thanks man, gonna fix it, appreciate the tip.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] halfcab123:
did you try it out ?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BlackHoleSlam:
Thanks this looks awesome

Sent by me, for me and i love you
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] FruitBowlMafia:
Flashing now.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] drew_grant:
I'd like no have NO background and just have the soft buttons that way I can get my .1 inches of the display back LOL. Think it's possible?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Fasinationinmotion:
Its just a black background. If it was transparent I dont think the screen would go down that far and if it did the soft buttons would be covering the dock so it wouldnt work. Thats why they made the screen the size it is so usable space is about 4.5 inches
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] trentonw:
Awesome idea!

rings are in drawablexhdpi...those other ones you found idk why they are there

I've done a couple ...they are neat.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] altimax98:
Actually it should work.. if you break the systemUI.apk file the useable screen extends Down to the bottom of the screen. The buttons would still be there so you couldn't say place buttons there but it could make a pretty sweet look..
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] HerroMoto:
I'm assuming that this only works if you're on stock soft keys? This won't work for soft key mods with search keys will it?