yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] MattMatt0240:
Thank you for the info, I always read carefully, just new to Samsung. Treading carefully now.

Thanks
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Dexter_prog:
The only problem is with 4.0.4 STOCK kernel and wiping (with this kernel). Everything else is fine. So always use a safe (4.0.3 stock or any custom) kernel.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
:facepalm

4.0.3 stock is also unsafe for this device. Please check our research if you disagree but don't muddy the waters.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Dexter_prog:
Well then the warning thread should mention it as well
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
For this device all official ICS versions were 4.0.4 - can't say for the Note or international GSII.

*Edit* See Entropy's Note Below.

I'll see if the mod can edit the post to make it this clear:

If it's not GB and not made safe by known means, assume it can trigger the eMMC bug.

The only 2011 Galaxy devices known not to be affected are the GNex and AT&T's GNote.

Everything else - you've been warned.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Entropy512:
Take a look at which forum you're in.

Hint: This isn't the I9100 forum. So don't claim that stuff is safe here just because it happened to be safe on I9100. I9100 was the exception, not the normal case. It's the only device that ever received safe official ICS kernels.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Desperado0925:
Solution to bricked unit

Hi guys, I have here a briked Galaxy s2. It's been JTAGG'ed at 2 different places and the problem they say is well, the defective emmc/flash chip. Resurrecting only goes as far as 20%. Is their an alternate solution available now or possibly in the future to fix this, maybe via JTAGGing or updating the chips firmware only? Getting a new board is so expensive.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Entropy512:
Nope. Somewhere, one person purchased a bare eMMC and soldered it - but this is only a practical solution for someone who already has significant BGA soldering experience. Chip was $60-80 USD, and labor (if this person hadn't done it themselves) would've easily been more than the cost of the motherboard itself.

Almost no one has the equipment/skills to do such a replacement themselves - that one user was a rare exception.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Disillusioned:
The emmc chip KLMAG4FEJA-A003

So thanks to my belief of thinking all latest ROMs are equipped with safe recoveries, I have bricked phone with Blue Led of Death. Tried JTAG but it failed as eMMC has been locked up. Now I'm trying to source this eMMC (KLMAG4FEJA-A003) to replace it manually and hope this phone comes back to life.

Would be great if you can suggest from where this user sourced the chip.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Desperado0925:
Would there be a possible in thr future to fix this locked/bricked Emmc chip?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Unfortunately all signs say that a true "fix" will not be coming. Replace when feasible (economically), try an alt. PIT when possible.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Dexter_prog:
I can;t believe samsung didn't fix this already for ICs and not even on the JB leak. It is clear that they want us to brick our phones so that we get the S3. I can't find any other logical explanation. This whole brick bug thing is insanely retarded. I can take bricking my phone through rooting, flashing and whatnot, but bricking it just by updating it the legal, good Samaritan way? Jesus...
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
There are suspicions that JB may contain the fix, at least according to a post on the Note sister thread. However, we cannot confirm that until source drops for the kernel.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] okantomi:
Well, I'm an experienced user and just super-bricked my daughter's E4GT, while on a ROM and recovery combination that I had used and thought had been deemed safe. Did a factory reset (I know, I know) and got blue light/black screen. It's so shocking when it happens to you. Just to let you know, you still need to be very careful with this phone.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
See, that's odd - because that's the first time I've actually heard a factory reset did it.

Did it just happen, do you still have the device?

Did the factory reset complete or just hang?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Dexter_prog:
oh, good, I thought we had to wait for someone to brick it, lol.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Desperado0925:
Hello sir, what sort of method can we use an alternative. .pit file? Still via jtag
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] okantomi:
Garwynn, the phone in question was on Venum's BOA (ICS) and one of agat's safe kernel/recovery combos. Let me be more precise about my process: I factory reset in the recovery (which seemed fine) and then flashed the Collective aocp JellyBean ROM (this is where I probably got into trouble...perhaps the updater script in the ROM, if in fact JB doesn't fix it), then rebooted into system, however it rebooted into a black hole with a solid blue light. No getting into download mode, no response to anything. We're getting a replacement as it's under warranty (lucky!) and I still have the phone but will have to send it back. I have forgotten some of the caution that one has to take with this phone since I'm supporting a number of other android devices right now...all have their quirks but most are harder to destroy than the E4GT.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Dexter_prog:
perhaps that rom performs a full wipe while installing it (if this is the case, you should warn the rom cooker. Perhaps it installed the stock kernel, and then full wiped.

if this is the rom, it says on the first page that it uses the stock kernel: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1983079
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] okantomi:
Good catch...like I said, I have been concentrating on some other devices and sort of forgot what to be wary of. So I have this very nice ROM on my phone, working well, but I don't want to brick, so what is my best bet? Flash a "safe" kernel/recovery that's appropriate for this ROM? Would the flashing process put me in danger of the superbrick bug? Or is it only flashing ROMs that's problemmatic? This phone is the only device I have that uses a recovery packed into the kernel.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
If it were the eMMC bug being triggered then would freeze the device immediately - meaning battery pull. Since that didn't happen in this case I'm suspecting there's something else at play, possibly borking the bootloader. Can you send me a link to the AOCP build so I can try and pull it and peek at it a little more?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] okantomi:
Sure thing. It's here in this post:http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1983079

It's a nice JB ROM, so I hope it can be an easy fix if that's where the problem lies.

I really appreciate all that you and the others are doing on this issue.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
That link is for the AT&T (GSM) model - is that the right link?

If this was tried on the E4GT - I think I know where you bricked.

(ROMs are generally not compatible between our phone and GSM ones.)

I'll bet this tried flashing in the wrong spots and hosed your phone.

Have you considered getting a USB jig and see if that will get you into Odin?

If you can somehow get there you might be able to still fix it.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] flagcitysteelers:
not worth the risk

It says in the instructions clearly to flash using a GB ROM. (AKA EL26).

My understanding is this on the proper way to flash ANY ROM.

1. Nandroid current setup.

2. Flash a know safe recovery (EL26 gingerbread) odin or mobile odin..

3. Reboot into safe recovery you just flashed (phone won't boot to android anymore anyway unless this was compatable with current rom)

4. Follow installation instructions of ROM.

Not worth the risk with any other recovery (for me anyway)
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Yes, this continues to be the fully known way to avoid risks when using an unlocked recovery. I'm just now willing to trust Agat's recovery to suppress the offending command.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] srkmagnus:
Garwynn, the Nandroid is made in the recovery included in the ROM, correct? When its time to restore you need to flash el26/29 then restore the Nandroid from the safe recovery, right?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Sfhub was the last person I know that made one clicks with a custom recovery - I prefer not to.... and that's mainly so that you go over to that person's post and thank them! :)

I believe there's one for FF18... after that you'll need to go get a custom recovery like Agat's and flash the .tar file after the one click.

Restoring is still a judgment call by the individual. Agat worked with sfhub's notes to render his recovery safe... and when source was available, such as FI27, he also modified the kernel source to render it safe from triggering the bug. FWIW I'm willing to put my recommendation on them having looked at his source; I don't go back any farther than FI27 any longer. Can't speak for any others but you can probably check and see if they disabled the secure erase/trim function.

GB still remains the only 100% guaranteed way to avoid it... for now. (Still hoping JB will

finally

have our kernel fix!)

Sorry for the long-winded answer... but hope it answers for you and anyone else following. Nice to see you around again!
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] r0b3rtm:
Help with PIT file method

I'm not an expert and would was hoping I could get some pointers. My phone is bricked with this EMMC lockup, and I'm trying to follow the instructions to recover from it using the PIT file method.

I've downloaded the find_brick_start.zip and find_brick_end.zip, but I don't have any way to flash these onto the phone. All I have is Odin, and I believe I need CWM or similar. I've tried to put the zip files onto the root of my SD card, but I don't get any option to install them when I enter recovery (it says ODIN MODE at the top).

I've used CWM on another phone in the past, but it was put onto that phone when I rooted it.

I've been reading for hours and my brain is spinning, so I would really appreciate any help I could get.

I assume that once I've been able to do the "phase 'find brick'" (flash and run the find_brick_start.zip and find_brick_end.zip, and taken note of where it freezes), then I should be able to flash an appropriate pit file with a new ROM, thus get my phone unbricked.

PS. I first rooted my phone using one-click odin and retain data (FI27 stock), that worked fine, but since my unwanted freezes and reboots didn't get cured, I tried the same using NoData root in an attempt to get a clean stock ROM, and that is when my phone bricked (it got stuck at Data.img).
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] srkmagnus:
Thank you for the informative response :). There's plenty of helpful people (and more knowledgeable) here so I don't post much... still have a lot to learn.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Go find hg42's thread for alternate PIT files in the GT-N7000 forum. We have a PIT there that ought to get you squared away. Just flash with one of the rooted restore tar files, NOT the exe.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] r0b3rtm:
Thanks garwynn, I believe that's the thread I linked to in my original question (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1667886). I've read his #1 post in there, and it now tells to flash the emmc_find_brick_start.zip and emmc_find_brick_end.zip to determine which of specific PIT file to use (and when I download the PIT zip file for ET4G, it has a total of 92 .pit files in it, where each seems to be a file for a specific memory segment.

From reading older quoted posts, it seems there used to be only one or two pit files to choose from, and if that was the case, I would be able to use ODIN with that pit file plus a clean ROM. Since I don't know what pit file to use, I'm left with trying to use hg42's find brick start+end zip files, and I can't get them flashed onto my phone.

If you or anyone else knows how I can get those flashed, then I'd be able to proceed with trying to get my phone back to life. Or if you know of a specific pit file I can/should use for the ET4G.

Greatly appreciate your help.

UPDATE: From reading this post http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1670651 I was able to get CWM onto the phone by flashing the StockCWM-EL26.tar.md5 kernel using ODIN. I'll see if I can now get those zip files from hg42 flashed (I hope).

UPDATE 2: I got ClockworkMod v5.0.2.7, and using Vol Up+Power I booted into it, however, I can't select any item using the power button. I can navigate up and down fine using the volume buttons, but can't select any option, it is as if the power button doesn't do anything...

UPDATE 3: Using the home button instead of the power button allows me to select, now running the find_brick_start.zip :) Hopefully I'll get all this figured out.

UPDATE 4: I was able to flash/run the find_brick_start.zip, and to my surprise, no bad EMMC was found... So I guess I didn't have the EMMC after all. I downloaded the FK09 tar ROM and got that flashed just fine through Odin, now running JB! :)

Sorry for any confusion I caused, I was sure I had an EMMC bricked phone (but obviously wrong).
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Reminder for anyone troubleshooting a possible eMMC brick.

If it didn't require a battery pull you can automatically rule it out.

The eMMC bug, when triggered, locks up the device and will not reboot until the battery is pulled (based on all available information). So if you didn't get that please consider going to a full restore one click - EL26/29 (GB) or FI27 (ICS) and trying that next.

r0b3rtm, thanks again for posting all of those updates! Was going to post more on it when I got back in front of a computer today but looks like you beat me to it.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] r0b3rtm:
I did have to do a battery pull... so I'm not sure what happened, but after flashing the EL26 kernel that also came with CWM, things got back on the right track again. I appreciate the help you were offering, I just dug myself down into the threads here and luckily was able to find a way to get back to life :) (and learned a thing or two in the process of it, when my phone was sitting there bricked, I told myself to never root again, now I feel even more comfortable rooting again, lol)
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] shoey63:
I have a question. If a recovery or update binary has "wipe via secure discard suppressed. .." does the suppressed wipe/format command default to "non-secure erase" or "plain old format"?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
My understanding is that it defaults to non-secure erase/trim.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Entropy512:
BOARD_SUPPRESS_EMMC_WIPE was implemented before Samsung started claiming that nonsecure erase was safe and acknowledging secure erase as dangerous.

Due to paranoia, it'll remain designed the way it is - complete removal of any form of MMC erase, and just a format.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Nice to see you still around. Was afraid you weren't going to touch this after reading your Google+ and Twitter feed.

I don't remember so I'll just ask to make sure it's clear - at the h/w level aren't both erase commands using the same instruction? Just wondering if the difference is truly at h/w or code levels.

Since you're here... news is we might see JB source this week. Will update the thread with the results should it drop.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Formhault:
This week? Wow!

But the update isn't even ready yet. And I doubt Sammy will release the source too soon after the update... it will probably take a few more weeks, since this is Crapsung we're talking about.

--

Okay. I'm really sorry about this. I thought this topic is in the Galaxy Note forum :) . I'm really sorry.

But... hmm... I thought the Epic 4G (or international S2, for that matter) didn't get the official JB OTA neither. If that is so... what I wrote above still applies :p

Sent from my Galaxy Note
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Entropy512:
Same command with different arguments.

I'm kind of burned out on this, main thing I'm going to do is make sure BOARD_SUPPRESS_EMMC_WIPE is working when the time comes to do public builds. There's not really anything more I can do.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] vjolt830:
o boy
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] shoey63:
OK. Thanks all for your valuable input.:thumbup:
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] davidstjohn1:
I think I am a victim of the emmc bug. My daughter has a touch she let the battery die out! She has an external charger dock. .. and extra battery! upon restart with a new battery had a solid blue notification light that dimmed out. Will not boot into recovery or download mode. .. black screen. .. would that be a brick?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
That is likely a brick but may not be this particular one. There used to be talk about something like this...

Might want to try a jig but if you have insurance it's probably the easiest route.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] davidstjohn1:
I used the warranty it was only 5 months old. Also it was completely stock never rooted. Which is why I didn't understand why this happened. I can say with certainty that it was all on Samsung's hardware and not me rooting or altering the software. So I don't feel bad about getting another phone. It's funny cuz I rooted all my phones but not my daughter's and the stock untouched phone bricks. Ugh! Lol
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
For reasons unknown - mainly because it can't be troubleshot - it looks like something borks in the bootloader/eMMC. Suspects in the past were overheating and extreme battery drain (like what you mentioned, was rare if I remember correctly). Then again it could be a defect in the manufacturing process that eventually failed. :confused:
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] davidstjohn1:
Okay so my question is when I get my new phone should I check to see if I have an upgraded chip?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Wouldn't hurt to verify... most of the new ones look like they've got a new chip that avoids at least the eMMC bug.

But even if it doesn't we got encouraging news this week - JB sources across the board so far seem to have Samsung's fix in, including the international Galaxy S II. I'm keeping a keen eye out for our source and some fingers crossed that this may finally be put to bed.

BTW, Entropy... FWIW I've been going back to understand things better and think I know why they believed wipes were/are safe. In the stock restores that we get from Team Sextape, cache.img has a wipe data command within the recovery script. So obviously they've been doing this throughout ICS and JB and trusted it enough to leave it in.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] mobilevil:
it sounds familiar.......Samung SSD 840/840PRO failure

When the drive was issued a secure erase command, it would clear all table mapping information at the Address Translation Layer (ATL) but not at the Host Interface Layer (HIL). The data in both layers needs to be up-to-date for the drive operate properly, so when a write request came in, the controller wasn't able to map the data correctly, which caused the firmware to hang. An SSD obviously can't operate without a functioning firmware so from a user's standpoint, it looked like the drive had completely died even though only its firmware was broken.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6503/second-update-on-samsung-ssd-840840-pro-failures
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] L00n:
Type V3U00M

CID 15010056335530304d0df54865158f0d

Revision 0xD

it says sane chip .. is that right? dunno because the type is V3U00M and the date is 08/2012 ..
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] davidstjohn1:
I just figured I would post the chip I have for the brick bug it says I don't have the bad chip which is great.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Teknician:
My replacement E4GT I'd received about a week and a half ago after my emmc brick.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Conceptunlimited:
Here's my result, the question is how trustworthy is this app?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Entropy512:
No Samsung device released (as in, first released to market, not manufactured) in 2012 is known to contain a flash chip with the Superbrick defect. I9300s have been having odd issues (possibly eMMC) but they are TOTALLY different from the issue this app was written to deal with.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Formhault:
Excuse me for chiming in to say something that is, perhaps, not related at all... but...

I went to a few showrooms that have the Galaxy S2 exposed and formatted them all. Yep, that's it, went into recovery and wiped /data/. Surprisingly, they booted up. Most of them were on Android 4.0.3, but a few were on 4.0.4.

Haven't seen more than two Galaxy Note 1's exposed, so I couldn't test it on that... And given the fact that the Note 1 is on its way to extinction, I figured I'd rather leave them alone, rather than risk bricking them, haha :D - so people can still see their awesomeness...

As far as I remember, the brickbug appeared only after a specific 4.0.4 kernel leak onwards? Or it always was present...? I can't really remember. And if that's the case... well... the first sentence at this post makes sense and I apologise :D .
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Formhault:
Oh?

Use quotations, maybe?

Sent from my Galaxy Note
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] shoey63:
Brickbug has been present from day 1. In GB kernels, even though eMMC_CAP_ERASE wasn't disabled, it was still somehow suppressed - hence no bricks. In ICS however, this protection was removed and wiping from stock recovery went from harmless "format" to "non-secure erase". Samsung claims this form of wipe is safe, and still uses it in JB kernels. It is unlikely that this form of wiping will produce a brick, although a few cases have been documented.

In ICS kernels, by allowing non-secure erase, the door was opened for "secure" erase to also be sent to emmc. That's when the bricks truly started. Wiping with unpatched CWM.zip or flashing zips with format commands and unpatched update-binary resulted in the kernel accepting secure erase commands with disastrous consequences on affected chips. With Note 1 it results in an instant "super brick" in my opinion. In fact, it still happens today because CWM.zip is still on many YouTube sites, and even on some XDA forums. People root their phones with it, see "wipe data/factory reset" and execute it. BANG! New mobo or repartition time:( On JB kernels, secure erase is suppressed with Samsung patch, but just how safe is "non-secure". We shall see.... In the mean time Devs disable eMMC_CAP_ERASE in their kernels so that only "good old format" is used. And some use "delete recursive" in their updater scripts for their ROMs to prevent unsuppressed format commands being sent to unsafe kernel. CM10 zips issue format commands but uses patched update-binary to suppress them.

OK, I'm done. Is that better than "......"?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Formhault:
There's no difference between these two kinds of formats... except that one bricks your phone while the other does not, haha :p . At least I know there's no difference... if you format a partition... you re-write it with zeros, nothing else.

Samsung's kind of dumb here, at least if their "safe" method isn't as safe as they say... if that's the case, they really suck. Unless my statement above is WRONG... in which case, maybe, yeah, Samsung is not dumb, haha.

It's much better than that... although I knew part of what you said. Thank you for the information.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
I had to check to see where you were from because international GS2s did have a safe kernel at one point... we here in the US never did.

Having said that I've learned something as of late as I learn more. Each of the leaks we had contained a restore tar that included a data wipe in stock recovery. Now all of us learned to trust Odin and thought this was safe - and apparently so was Samsung for leaving it in... so much that they also told Entropy the same - wipes from stock recovery were safe.

It seems they were right and perhaps there is another factor. Not a person I know who flashed a stock restore tar had issues or triggered the bug. That's probably why the factory resets went without a hitch.