yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] jgaviota:
Entropy, with the source you have, can you a call stack trace from a wipe onwards?

I mean, what functions are called and in what order?

Or is it too much of a PITA :D

Thanks for all the effort you have put into this!
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
I looked over that post and it was kind of difficult following that person's post. Was there a simpler clear cut example of pure stock?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] PJBaska1:
How i bricked my phone on May 2 and jtag recovery didn't resolve.

Not sure if this helps but i was running anaconda ROM link below.

was told to make sure that you install another ICS ROM when you have a stock kernel on device only, best chances if you are coming from completely stock/ ROM kernel. So from inside anaconda ICS, I used mobile oden to flash to EL26 stock kernel with CWM 5, and then the phone will reboot. so you don't' want the device to load fully on next reboot, so when phone turns off you do button combo to boot into recovery. anaconda installed still but with stock kernel EL26 kernel. From there it's calkilins format all. then I proceeded to load the Slim ROM link below and it just froze in the process.

anaconda

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1578880

Slim

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1619300

have managed to get my odin counter to around 60 without any issues so far but this last flash just didn't take..
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] RainMotorsports:
Recent suggestions are not to use Mobile ODIN anymore. Apparently uses the same command to perform an erase which sucks because that app is a life saver.

Ive never triggered a triangle or upped the flash count in all my flashing until now since I have started flashing the el26 cwm kernel through odin instead.

Glad you were able to add your specific details, everything helps. I feel so lucky at this point but I also go in willing.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
If you recalled everything correctly, this would say that the GB kernel is not immune.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] musashiro:
N7000 ICS sources released!

looks like samsung is letting devs do what they want and hopefully fix the bug...

i feel like they are passing the problem to devs..:)
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
From the Samsung dev after giving the rundown:

That should help...
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sniper:
I saw that in the news article and posted asking in this thread but never got a response... :/ so maybe I'll have better luck this time... So why exactly is mobile odin just now being warned against when it's been used so many times and I don't think I've heard of anyone who bricked an E4GT with it. Even just flashing the el26 kernel with it is risky now?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] im0rtalz:
It sounds like you you were on fc24 repack when you flashed slim. I don't see any where stating you flashed the two roms in the same recovery session and I'm failing to see why you would flash anaconda then slim when you could have flashed slim by itself. I think the common error is that users assume that they were still on the same recovery since they are used to how HTC phones are where flashing roms does not change their recovery. the moment you flashed anaconda I assume you booted into that and went back into recovery but this time you are actually in fc24 repacked kernel which is an ics recovery, proceeded to wipe and flash slim and ended with a brick. The moment you installed anaconda you were not still on stock el 26 kernel. Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, if so then I apologize.

ahh just read it over again, so I think you were on el26 if this is the case I'm going to have to consider going back to gingerbread for now.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] musashiro:
http://goo.gl/V8aQb

another victim of emmc bug on official LP9...

even samsung overlooks their releases... damn..
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] MR.change:
It was q bit messy but if you read carefully you'll find that he was on stock LPY rooted without CWM ,done a wipe from stock recovery and then he was done for .

Anyway there are many examples of people with stock cf root bricking from CWM

Example of latest official release:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1669179
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Entropy512:
I was previously warning against it due to not trusting the eMMC driver at all, but with Mr. Sumrall's latest info - I think MO is OK.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] nCoder:
FYI: Samsung Developers just replied:

Hi,

Thanks for the additional info.

We've escalated the problem to HQ and are awaiting response.

Regards,

Adam Panasiuk

Samsung Developers
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
The purpose is to let SAMSUNG know there is a problem with their stock release AS SHIPPED. I can read through things more carefully, but Samsung will probably only give a cursory glance. So the best example would NOT include root, ODIN, mobile ODIN, custom ROM, etc., just pure stock.

If you were a Samsung exec, the priority meter would go up a notch if you found that the software the company shipped is going to cause this problem for some percentage of users. The priority would go down if you read that some person changed the software in some way, like going through some rooting technique (which would lead you to wonder, which rooting technique, repacked kernel, direct root, flashing insecure recovery, etc.) This would allow one to rationalize that if the user didn't change the software it would have been fine.

I will go through the thread when I have some extra time, but if you had a more specific post that would save time.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Potential update.

Just thought I would pass this on from another thread:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=26465085&postcount=6084
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] satur9ine:
Wow, cool. So is this semi-confirmation that they have fixed the issue? I guess we won't know for sure until we get our hands on it and "test" it for ourselves. But sounds promising!
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] MR.change:
sorry about that ,but on the note's forum I haven't seen a fully stock case.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Even then it's only a fix for the E4GT - and the problem was much bigger than that. Samsung is in the best position to push this out to everyone; I'm glad that they have escalated it now. That should get the lines of communication flowing and hopefully have a resolution applied to as many as possible. For now it's just a wait-and-see moment...
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
I'm actually impressed how fast they got on this.

There was a possibility for this to be a drawn out finger pointing affair missing the official E4GT OTA release.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
I am as well... I doubt I'll see the GS3 until next year based on the timeline it took for KDDI Mobile to get the E4GT. Unfortunately due to it's size tech support issues are usually replace, exchange or tolerate - there's no way they would have been ready to handle a serious issue. So the better this device comes out now, the better off I'll be for the next year until upgrade time comes along.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] musashiro:
Im confused, who did the test?? Samsung?? In the thread you referred to, they dont seem to be from samsung dev
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
The fix had to have come from Samsung. I don't think it is that important whether the collection of testers was from Samsung, Sprint, or Samsung/Sprint. From what was described, there is a collection of testers used by Samsung and Sprint to test releases representating various upgrade scenarios. They segmented a subset of those testers to focus on the EMMC brick/lockup issue. 14 were provided the fix, 6 were not. Supposedly of the 6 that were not, 4 bricked under the new test plan (which presumably includes wipe data/factory reset) while the 14 with the fix did not brick. There is an assumption that the 4 that bricked were all from the 6 that did not receive the fix, but based on the conclusion that was given that would be a reasonable assumption.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Omar04:
Mine is a lil different don't know if it mean something:

MAG4FA

0x0

0x0

0x000015

0x0100

02/2012

MMC

0xe21213bd

1501004d414734464119e21213bd2f7b
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
You have PRV/fwrev 0x19 so you are susceptible to the EMMC lockup/brick bug.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Omar04:
Thanks sfhub I will stay on safe side...:D
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] musashiro:
In that case, its great. i think they will take back all updates from the server if the bug is confirmed to be present on them.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] RainMotorsports:
Some people probably know of this but the Note GTN7000 ICS kernel source is now available. Might not show much at this point since they still have the same problem and we have the before and after picture with the i9100 already (i believe?). But figured it was worth a mention. I of course not being a note owner caught it on engadget on my way to bed. I am sure Entropy has seen it.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1668767
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sjsharksfan420:
I did. Of see where you specified flashing the EL26 kernel in-between roms. I don't this k that there is a version on anaconda with the EL26 kernel baked I .. so like another member stated, as soon as you flashed anaconda, you were no longer on EL26, as much as you thought you were.. (unless of course you flashed it before slim but didn't mention..

Good luck

sj

Sent from my SGS2 Epic 4G Touch on AoKPm5 FE21 OS4.0.4 with dpi @ 128 using Tap@Talk 2.1.1 Pro
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] manolis:
0x0

0x0

07/2010

0x0100

MMC

0x3e1453d0

1501004d4147384445153e1453d07d00
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Kebetz:
Thought this may interest you, its out of my league as far as knowing if this guy is full of it.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=26428986

Hope it helps
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] MeWarning:
The only difference is he was still able to get into download and recovery mode. From there he was able to repartition around the bad blocks. I don't know why he was able to get into those. It sounds like a different version of our type of bricks. This might of been what Samsung was patching in FE16? when we thought they were fixing our issue but turned out not to be.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Kebetz:
Our issue was the same. Trust.

It wasn't until trying to fix the problem with resets and re flashes that recovery/download was unavailable. Not to mention turning off power while it was hung.... Omg i felt i heard nails on a chalk board each time.

The re-part is where I'm stumped, i tried several of sfhubs to no avail and wasn't sure what made this guy special. There is stuff posted in our forum now too about a workaround
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Let me find Mr. Sumrall's comment on that - let's just clear it up now:

As for the partition part, drnull found this was possible back in March/April... you can find it in the "ODIN stuck at data.img" thread around page 30. But no one has been recommending it as it's a short term fix. If - and it's a big if right now - we get the firmware patch code then it may be possible to recover those devices. Unfortunately we're in wait and see mode right now on that.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] MeWarning:
Ah okay that makes sense. I can see how it would be a partial fix since he still has the bad blocks and the chance of it happening again.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Entropy512:
The eMMC driver is almost identical to the SHW-M250L Update4 source - There's some changes for CMD23, which is not relevant to the fix. The main thing is that MMC_CAP_ERASE is enabled, so the Note sources are consistent with the released binaries (all confirmed to trigger the bug in fwrev 0x19).
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
Interesting, your 0x15 is the first "pre" 0x19 PRV/fwrev we have seen. Had to go back to 07/2010

We don't have any information on 0x15. Perhaps that was back when they had no EMMC problems, or maybe it has even more problems.

Which device do you have? (this post was cross-posted, so not all the readers are E4GT)
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
@Manolis,

Can you do a "cat name" and add the result when you respond to sfhub? Didn't see it on the list.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
DrNull did this on the "ODIN stuck on data.img" thread months ago. It just depends how badly the EMMC is broken. DrNull could only find a few MB for /data on his phone. I believe Note has more EMMC to work with, so you have more areas to relocate. I could theoretically build a custom kernel and relocate /data to external SD and workaround the problem also.

Personally I'd rather just get the thing replaced as you basically have a hard drive that crashed and you've lost some big areas of your EMMC. You may or may not be able to map around it, but it will be a different remap for everyone, assuming they have enough space available to make it useful.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] RainMotorsports:
Ill add that a friend of mines Non Exynos T-Mobile GS2 is 0x12

Same chip as the listed affected in the 0x25 work around code, but it seems the non Exynos devices might all have earlier firmwares on the same eMMC chips.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Kebetz:
I am still not seeing what i am wrong about...

Read your own in-yo-face post to see that it says things implying different stages if this, sometimes your stuck at preboot, keep messing around and your stuck at pre³. Lol.

Don't forget i had a bricked unit in my possession for a week....

Surely you knew that though, since you are so versed in the content of that thread.

And ftr, i agree with most of what you say, just sharing information and i don't particularly like redundancy mixed with condescension.

Edit: My credibility just went out the window. I think I just fell for a "getting thanks" scam. Lmao i thought id seen it all.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] robertm2011:
I have to admit that they're a bit cold and clinical, but I suspect that it has to do with the intensity of focus on the problem at hand and the need to find a solution. Just my opinion...
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Entropy512:
sfhub and garwynn are correct - MANY people only experience partition damage that makes /data or /system unusable while still allowing the device to boot and kernels to be flashed.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] monoko:
my best Guess

Ok I may have this buggy flash(0x19 in i777) , but I do have two thinks for you guys

1. you don't need to repartition if you know where are the BAD BLOCKS. you can supply mkfs with bad blocks list and it should be ok. (I let you guess how to find WHICH block is DEAD. (if it is at start of parttion I suggest you move it just bit to get superblock and badblock list at usable place.)

2. eMMC Wear Leveling is a filesystem on its own. So if emmc firmware writes something wrong, and then it cannot handle the data it finds. it will .... "freeze/crash/corrupt". and Its likely jtag can't do anything about it. (except fixing firmware and then write stuff).

m.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] manolis:
Samsung SGH-i897 Captivate
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
From what I recall this has been attempted and is sketchy at best. From what we've been provided it seems this may not be a bad block but rather a embedded controller issue by trying to access that location - and then only after triggered by the original erase command. I certainly was in the "it's just a bad block, go around it" camp for a long time until we got sufficient proof that it wasn't that simple.

The wear leveling bug - which is what the bugfix I was originally investigating addresses - would not corrupt the file system to the point of brick according to Mr. Sumrall. It was part of the reason others didn't give up thinking that there was perhaps multiple issues... and they were right in the end. (BTW, that humble pie is bittersweet...)
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] monoko:
I am not suggesting is a bad block, but mkfs will not touch what is in bad block list, so it will not freeze the emmc controler and work around the problem. And you could keep most of the space.

My point was, flash has internal filesystem (cause of Wear Leveling ) and as its possible to Mess Up ext4fs FAT NTFS, its possible to mess UP WearLevelingFS (IP of samsung), it should not happend but, if software has one line of code it has atleast one BUG in that code. :-). The only way to fix broken WearLevelFS is

1. fix firmware to handle that problem.

2. format WearLevelFS to new state. Guess they should have cmd for that from factory but it will erase wear info and all data, so later you may get into trouble.

3. Jtag doesnt have a clue about WearLevelFS so it cannot be fixed. jtag has access only the the controler. And it propably could the do fix at point 1. or 2.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] RainMotorsports:
There should be a vendor command for restructuring the internal file system since the operation can only be done by the controller. My question would be is even if we knew what it was is it in the kernel emmc driver or does it have to be issued at a driver level with the code that Google/Samsung and other eMMC partners have.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] manolis:
specify who can please my cid = 1501004d4147384445153e1453d07d00

that is, 0x15, safe flash ICS?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Kebetz:
I

That's the opposite of what happened.... I was saying this.... But it's ok, I'll have 80000 posts someday.

I'm going to go and try to help some one with something now.

Enjoy your day, gents.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Isn't the Captivate a variant of the Galaxy S?

You might want to check their forums to see if there's been any issues with flashing ICS.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
I understand what you are suggesting and it is a reasonable suggestion, except trying to determine the bad block list is just an exercise in frustration because everytime the affected blocks are accessed it just hangs the system. This leads to just lopping of chunks of EMMC and even that is frustrating because of the trial and error and the hangs.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] monoko:
1. I would be supprised if kernel dint complain about it with sector ID.

2. just small script should be able to find the block... something in the likes for... 4kb block do... dd seek=offset bs=4k ; echo block \cr (dont scrooll screen) ...done. when it freezes you got about 256k window where the problem is.

3. Mabe the driver can reset controler/or it could be implemented. (linux kernel likes to do that for IDE/SATA/SCSI drivers when there is problem.

4. e2fsck can take badblocks as an option and you don't need to format partition.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
My understanding of the issue is the kernel is making blocking calls to the underlying functions which aren't returning.

It isn't a small block in many cases. It often is a large block or large set of scattered blocks.

If the emmc driver/controller actually returned an error with errno saying this block can be accessed, then it would be much easier to deal with.

Perhaps you can work with somebody who has the EMMC lockup problem and develop something semi-automated as a proof of concept. Can even get some stats on what percentage of the EMMC is damaged.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
5/24 Update

Fresh off the press...

Q: Do you know the commands to reset the eMMC controller in question?

Q: Is there any documentation available on this issue? If so and it is private is it possible to have it released?

Q: Alternate erase method?

Q: Difference between GB/ICS Wipe

Regarding Entropy512's summary of observations:

Additional info not directly related to questions:
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] jgaviota:
Ok this two questions clear up that if a device is already bricked the steps to fix the issue would be:

1) Turn off the device

2) with JTag backup the factory calibration data and stuff

3) update the emmc firmware

4) Restore the backup

5) with JTag flash the whole stock rom back including bootloaders

The people that have attempted JTag repairs haven't been successfull because they cannot make step 3 as the firmware is not available.

All of this is kernel work.

1) replace the mmc_erase() function with something that either writes 0s or does nothing

2) Compare GB and ICS make_ext4fs() function

With that the kernels would be safe :)

The most realistic option for people with bricked devices as of this moment is to have Samsung replace their motherboards. They should replace them free of charge because it is a hardware defect (or a software defect in hardware actually ;))

It's a long shot that Samsung would release a firmware upgrade to the public, as that would probably create even more problems. I think it wouldn't be an easy install. Even if they did release it, people with bricked devices would have a very hard time trying to fix the issue.

Given enough time another thing that could start happening is Samsung Service centres doing all the JTag and firmware updating stuff.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] TerryMathews:
I'm sure Samsung's position is going to be that this bug does not occur on any publicly released firmware.

When you flash unreleased software, you roll the dice & take your chances.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
Fortunately for most users (assuming the fix/workaround Samsung put in works as advertised) they will never know firsthand about this problem due to the efforts of everyone involved.

Also a big thanks to robertm2011 and the other volunteers who risked their phones so we could get more info.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] RainMotorsports:
But it does. The note right? They probably wont release the eMMC info thats private but for say note owners they will extend a repair offer.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Samsung will make those who had problems whole, if for no other reason than to protect the brand. How may vary by region and/or carrier...
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] musashiro:
I really hope they provide the fix on futher releases... samsung washing their hands of the problem would be the worst scenario..
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] prabhu1980:
Dear Mr Garwynn

can we issue the dd command to write zeroes to the partition as suggested by Ken Sumrall.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblkxx bs=512 count=1

Also people have tried to recover using -c option which mounts the partition in a read only mode..

Why not use e2fsck -pFcc /dev/mmcblkxx

-cc opens in a read write mode ; so it can check.... and -F to force it ....

and -p to repair it

Another Theory :

eMMC has a bad block management built into the system.

It gets frozen when reading the sector ...

Is it possible to write without reading ... or bypass the chip getting locked while reading a bad sector ....
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
Mr. Sumrall was suggesting writing zeros as a replacement for mmc_erase() *BEFORE* the lockup occurs, not writing zeros after the fact. Once the lockup occurs, any access to the the affected blocks (including your dd command) will lockup your entire phone (requiring power cycle).

Same as above.

eMMC firmware itself and it's metadata are the problems. I don't know of anyway to bypass the eMMC firmware. We could try and replace the faulty firmware and that is what Garwynn is trying to attempt to get released.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Robotu:
Guys, i am goin to try that i did many times, and most i had succes. I will go to Samsung and ask theme to fix my phone for free (my phone do not have waranty), otherwise i will tell theme that i will made this issue publi through media and other ways. Here is only about principles for me, not about money. I will keep you updated.

Sent from my SGS2 HD LTE SHV-E120L
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] prabhu1980:
Thanks and That cleared many of my doubts .....
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
I would advise against doing this (the threat) as Samsung is already aware of the problem at their HQ - at least according to a regional dev in Europe. Let's see what they say first about the firmware if you would mind holding on.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Kebetz:
Its right smack in the middle of a rock and a hard place, pride vs. reason. I usually choose wrong.