yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] thasadar:
Hi hg42,

I am using Disk Usage to analyze my storage space.

I can't explore this "system data" , but it looks like it's a cache of sorts ( might be the dalvik cache) but it looked like it didn't clear its self.

I did a wipe ( factory reset ) and reinstalled all using Titanium .Afterwards I checked.

The "system data " is still there but now it grows and shrinks according to the use/caching . That means it also is able to clear its self.

I seriously have no ideea why this happens, but I will keep my eye on it.

PS: as a stable ROM, I found this

I am now preparing myself for the spiritual journey of hopefully not bricking it again. If not broke why fix? But it's the fine tuning that we're all into :silly:
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] garwynn:
While I'm asking for someone to dump the .pit via Heimdall I can include the parted output from our ICS builds (courtesy of drnull's tests):

Model: MMC MAG4FA (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 15.8GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 4194kB 25.2MB 21.0MB ext4 EFS
2 25.2MB 26.5MB 1311kB SBL1
3 27.3MB 28.6MB 1311kB SBL2
4 29.4MB 37.7MB 8389kB PARAM
5 37.7MB 46.1MB 8389kB KERNEL
6 46.1MB 54.5MB 8389kB RECOVERY
7 54.5MB 369MB 315MB ext4 CACHE
8 369MB 386MB 16.8MB MODEM
9 386MB 923MB 537MB FACTORYFS
10 923MB 3070MB 2147MB ext4 DATAFS
11 3070MB 15.4GB 12.4GB fat32 UMS
12 15.4GB 15.8GB 327MB ext4 HIDDEN

He was originally able to restore functionality by discarding the memory assigned to DATAFS and pull it from partition 11 in this post.

mkpartfs DATAFS ext2 3070MB 5217MB
mkpartfs UMS fat32 5218MB 12.4GB

I can give an older .PIT file from GB if that would work.

I'll include that here for now: View attachment E4GT_092011_PIT.zip

On a side note,

It looks like the lockup was occurring in the same memory location on the Note - but it has not been proven yet if this is just coincidence or not. In either case it might be worth trying excluding this range only and see if it can recover more for the Note as well.

Thanks again for your help!
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
Interesting...

Most notes are bricked in the factoryfs and the datafs.

Looking for a reason I noticed, that our factoryfs start in a range where you have datafs. My brick starts in the range 950MB-1GB.

So there is a chance, the brick is always at certain addresses.

But not all have the same ranges. For the note, there seem to be bricks in the ums, too. I guess a brick address could be calculated from an access address by some kind of alignment operation?

Anyway, your pit is very similar to ours, so it should be easy to generate a patched one. I just have to think about how to generalize this. I think there will be more requests like this.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] tabsterleir:
Should've pressed the "Thanks" button a while a go. While I've been lucky enough to be unaffected by the eMMC fault, its the ingenuity of people like OP that will keep me buying Android devices for years to come. Kudos!
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Morality:
Dear hg42 (youre Damn dear to me for All youve done for everyone suffering from this issue :D)

I sincerely apologize for being a bit passive on this issue, but I really have a-LOT going on in my life now, but I'm still very motivated on solving the freeze-issue before submitting my note to warranty repair.

I saw someone asking about freeze issue in this thread as well, and his description of the issue seemed identical to mine, with the random permanent boot animations etc..

But I ran into something very interesting on the issue: When using paranoid android, the freezing issue does not occur until I restore or install something from Gplay. Not even realizing it, after another battle with the Bug, I ended up with nothing and reinstalled PA v03, and restored all my Apps with titanium BackUp and apks on my sdcard. For 2-3 days, my phone was without System freezes. Then, I tried installing a word Puzzle Game "Sanajahti" from play store, and my phone froze mid Download. After a few forced reboots i ended up with "Invalid package file". -error, and The return of the freezebug.

I tried recreating the situation, and it seemed to be true, after trying to install something from Gplay, the Bug showed itself. Now, im Running on a system Where all Apps are restored via titanium BackUp (Made an update.zip of TB), and im going 35h without a freeze Bug.

Is there anything you can make of this?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
private message of general interest:

the emmc brick normally doesn't prevent download mode, so this might be another problem.

If you cannot get into download mode by the three finger salute, you will probably need an USB JIG (2-7 EUR, or create one yourself, please google how to use it).

Sometimes you get in download mode, but the screen remains black.

Start Odin and see if you can get the yellow communication field while pressing the three buttons 20 sec + Vol-Up afterwards. Perhaps try it several times.

If you can flash a ROM after that, you have good chances not having an emmc brick.

You should then use "emmc check" app from play store to verify if you have it.

If the app doesn't complete then write down the number where it's hanging.

This is your first damaged block.

If it runs through, you haven't got an emmc brick, congratulations.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
please use "emmc check" app from play store to check where your brick starts.

It might be in the cache partition, which is used rarely.

However, I know, that play store uses it when installing, so this looks like a good guess.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] garwynn:
When I looked at that before I think we had it somewhere down to a range of 930-1200... but at least in the case of drnull's tests he was able to rule out up to 1066. Not sure how that plays into the Note partitions though.

Also unknown is where the lower end lockup is occurring because it affects the boot process. Might get a better clue into it if Entropy and Adam are successful in getting a true fix to this problem.

Thanks again for your help. Didn't want to go down this road initially but as people are determined to flash something to restore functionality it might as well be a proper one for the Epic 4G Touch if possible.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
I ran "emmc check" again:

my first bricked address seems to change!

I think lowest was 986.6MB today, but I definitely saw something above 1000 before (1010 or 1100MB).

This area is the system partition on the note, that is why everyone here gets a hanging Odin at factoryfs. As I see from your table, it is datafs for Epic 4G Touch. So you get a hanging Odin at datafs instead.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
I think the boot process is affected because of the data partition, I think especially dalvik cache. People that don't wipe in certain cases get similar boot problems.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Morality:
Wow they fixed the App :-)

It froze Around 968MB.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] R@J$3K#@R:
Thanks a lot:-)

I got my note back with 8gb and then got a motherboard replacement under warrenty

I cleared my flash counter by flashing a custom ics rom based on GB and then installed "triangle away" which cleared flash counter and yellow triangle

Then got back to GB using mobile odin which doesn't increase flash counter:-)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] MohElShafei:
Hi hg42,

I hope you are doing perfect and everything is OK. I managed to recreate the partitions as follows:

I installed CM9 and thor-kernel-v0.14-GNOTE.zip.. Now everything works fine but I'm facing a big problem .. the phone simply don't see any Mobile Network .. I replaced the SIM with different ones .. but with no luck .. flashed different kernels but the network is still disabled !!!

I'm afraid that I did something to the SIM location in the phone during my trials to change the ROM (it took me 9 hours) pulling out battery .. replacing SD Card .. etc. Is the Mobile Network depends on the MODEM or the KERNEL image? .. because I believe maybe the error in the MODEM image .. what do you think???

Thanks.

Mohamed
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
Your first bad block is in the system partition, so it's not the cache (what I guessed).

Your case is very difficult.

From current facts I can only guess the freezes may be unrelated to the brick.

There are other issues leading to freezes, e.g. restoring via Titanium Backup not always working well depending on how it's configured.

So at best I would make a clean start with pure cm9 rc1 and install only the minimum set of apps (try to use only cm9 internals and gapps if possible) and without any app data restored.

Try that several days. Then install some other apps known to work well (e.g. I would not install games).
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
can you read your IMEI in Settings / About phone / Status?

I would first try pure cm9 (no additional kernel) and flash a good MODEM (I use XXLB2) but this may be dependent on where you live. I think there are threads on xda discussing that. You can also reinstall your standard modem first (the one which came with your phone, or the proven one before you got the brick).
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] MohElShafei:
There is no IMEI !!!!!!! .. I think I formatted the efs partition in one of my tries to get the phone back ..

What can I do now??

I checked the efs folder form root explorer and it was empty .. dialed *#06# and that shows nothing .. please help me .. I feel that I'm extremely stupid
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
Generally, please try simple configurations first. Experiments with ROMs, kernels, modems etc. should wait until the phone is proven to work well.

By reviving your phone you don't solve all other problems in the world.

So keep on a secure path until you are sure to have a working phone again.

To be really sure you can try proven ROMs first, e.g. stock GB.

But please avoid fancy ROMs and kernels for this first phase.

They often introduce new problems which you may account to the brick.

Solve one problem at a time. Then the next...

CM9 has it's problems, too, but if you don't use the latest nightlies you have a chance to know of them (e.g. via the xda discussion thread about this). CM9 prioritizes functionality over fancy features. Other ROMs are often very experimental. It's also a matter of how many users test the ROM.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
Do you have a backup (e.g. any backup done with a thor kernel will include the efs, but not a cwm backup)?

Otherwise you have a big problem.

There are discussions about that, read there.

I think you can install a generic efs, but I don't know if you can restore your IMEI and which consequences a missing IMEI may have.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] MohElShafei:
unfortunately I don't have a backup :crying::crying::crying::crying:

I searched a lot for generic efs .. but I didn't find anything .. do you know from where I can get these files?? ..

I know I cause a lot of problems and I burden you with my questions a lot ... I'm extremely sorry for that .. the only solution for me now is to recover this generic efs ... please help me getting these files ..
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Morality:
Well hot Damn. Ill make sure that is my next Step :) will report back afterwards.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
Just from my memory, I am currently at work, so can't look in my archives.

I think the KL8 stock ROM from samfirmware is an unofficial multipart package including efs ums etc.

Don't install the complete package as it would erase things you may not want to (e.g. ums).

Take only the efs image... I think you can flash this from Odin (but don't know how).

Here is a link to a video (but for another phone) I found which includes some interesting links:

Samsung Galaxy S (IMEI Restoration Techniques) - YouTube

So the IMEI can probably be patched.

I could compare the generic efs with mine, to find the position of the IMEI.

I'll look into it this week end I think.

Perhaps we need another thread then...
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] theunborn:
ok thanks hg42,

yeah i know i will have to dump 3gb more so i chose to reset the counter and ask for a guarantee instead,.... anyway thanks for the guide, im still looking around to learn more just in case if it happens again.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
I created new PITs

- regain in 256MB steps (instead 100MB before)

- one zip for each device

I also added Epic4GT files, which move DATAFS (on N7000 FACTORYFS and DATAFS are moved).

I can now easily add other devices, as long a this scheme fits:

* there is a big partition which can be shrinked (internal sd, UMS)

* the bricked partitions are located in front of the UMS partition

* I need to know the first bricked partition name (=start) and the UMS partition name (=big)

The algorithm is as follows:

* calculate the number of blocks the first partition has to be moved (=[b]offset[/b])
* from the [B]start[/B] partition to the [B]big[/B] partition
* move partition start by [b]offset[/b] blocks
* reduce size of [b]big[/b] partition by [b]offset[/b] blocks

Note: I do not test any PITs, so I cannot guarantee for anything, especially for different devices

I am not a developer with many devices, I am a developer but not for phones, I have only one device, which I cannot use for experiments!
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] garwynn:
Big thanks from the E4GT community - I will link to your first post so people go and hit Thanks while they're there.

Have a great weekend!
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Shanava:
Hi Dear hg42

Phone hang on Flashing by Odin When Write "UserData.rfs"

----------------

This is the third my phone,Bricked eMMC

I Have Still I9000 and I9003....

So,if You Need More Info About That,Please Tell me...

Don't Worry About Hard Brick,Becuase i Have OmapFlasher For repair I9003 and I9250 Without JTAG,,,Only By USB....

Thanks

Best/Regards
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] MohElShafei:
Thank you a lot hg42 for your continuous support .. I will wait your response regarding to your IMEI .. but just a question, if I took any efs backup files from another Note.. is that will work for my phone? or it will not??

I searched and I found that I can use Z3X BOX Samsung Tool to re-flash my IMEI, but this require a cervices center having the box itself .. I think I can use it. I will see if there is any Mobile maintenance center with Z3X Box so I can use it restoring my IMEI .. meantime I will still wait your response regarding to your IMEI. Maybe the simplest solutions is the best.

Thanks a lot .. you are the best.

Mohamed
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] KnukLHead:
I had resurrected a e4gt with the older pit file and eg30. When I connected it to wifi it tried to update via ota. After that it was screwed again and kept telling me the update failed and to connect it to kies. I then used your e4gt.pit and eg30 and it passed but now its bootlooping.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] KnukLHead:
Booted it into recovery and did a factory wipe. It booted right up. I know my situation was differ ant then the regular brick cause I had already brought it back once with the .pit from the note but its working fine now. Internal storage space is at 9.5gb. Device memory is 1.9gb
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] MohElShafei:
Dear hg42,

I can't find enough words to thank you for the amazing support you did to me .. I managed to bring my Mobile Network to life using the EFS.Image from the KL8 stock ROM you advised.

I downloaded the ROM, and I found the EFS.Image, flashed it with Odin, and the Network just come back to life :laugh::laugh::laugh:

I was really hopeless and I really was about to sell my mobile as spare parts for 80$ or less, but after your amazing answer I said to myself I should give the GNOTE a last chance .. and you was amazing :D, you made it work again.

I'm really happy and all thanks back to you and to your amazing support .. if I know your place I would send you a big big present :) :) :).

I will keep my situation as I'm right now till any news comes from SAMSUNG side about the bug fix .. I will NEVER NEVER NEVER try anything with the Mobile again .. and thanks to GOD that it is still work till now after all the things I did to it (the counter is almost 240) :cyclops:

Thank you again and again .. and wish you all the happiness in the word :)

Mohamed
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
@KnukLHead: the e4gt has different partition sizes than the n7000.

So flashing partition images can only work if the partitions are bigger than the images.

OTA might check some things before flashing.

So I guess you need correct partition sizes.

Please check all your partitions with dd, at least starting from system.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
@KnukLHead: flashing a pit alone doesn't work. You need to format or flash an image to each of the changed partitions.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
nice, but note that you now have a generic (developer?) IMEI.

So you should probably change it to your original number (but I currently don't know how, it's a secret, xda doesn't discuss this, most references are to xxx boxes).

I think you have your original IMEI on a sticker, right?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
donations...

I'm a bit sorry for doing that, but I now added a donation button to my profile.

Generally, I like the idea to help people to revive their phone or help them in other ways without asking for any kind of donation.

But -- since starting this thread it has taken all my weekends and many of my evenings. It was always a little difficult to justify this to my family etc. and we have reached a somewhat critical point now.

So if it is possible to get some money out of it, I can take some time out of my other business instead and my family members especially the children get their time, too.

Thanks...
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
I also read somewhere, that the efs partition stores the bluetooth MAC adrress and other things like that (I think you read that, too? in the CM9 thread).

So I think patching these in some way may be necessary.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
I renamed the thread (until now, I didn't know I can).

I also added very experimental PITs for i9250 (especially for Shanava).

Please wait until proven to work well by Shanava.

Shanava, please make a backup of your efs first.

I think you can do via adb:

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 of=/mnt/sdcard/efs.img

perhaps you have to mount your sdcard first.

Then you should copy it to your PC (the recovery should have the option to mount usb)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
@Shanava (or other i9250 owners):

can you confirm the partition numbers listed in the first column of this table:

or better post a partition table:

parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 print
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] MohElShafei:
I tried Bluetooth, Wireless, GPS, and another SIM card, and they all works fine .. I have also MAC address shown in the Phone Information tab. I have my original IMEI on the box .. but honestly I don't know how to revert back to my original one.. do you know a method to do that?

Meanwhile, I will try to keep it working till further notice from SAMSUNG regarding to the emmc bug.

Thanks.

Mohamed
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] shoey63:
Thanks for your N7000_16GB_Q1_20110914-patched-standard pit file mate. Got myself out of a superbrick! Just had to flash pre-rooted GB ROM with it, boot into CWM recovery and wipe and format everything in sight. Then PC Odined LQ 2 - booted up with no worries!
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
I still don't understand why so many people install stock ics just after reviving their phone from a brick caused by stock ics.

Please do yourself a favour and install a safe kernel.

Or take a well known custom rom which states explicitly to be safe in regards of emmc bug.

Custom kernel developers circumvented the emmc firmware bug long ago which samsung still didn't fix in their kernels.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] shoey63:
Sorry mate - should have clarified:o Needed to go to stock ICS for warranty purposes. Anyway, here is what I did. Used modified PIT to install ICS LQ2, Rooted and used triangle away to remove traces of flashing, Reflashed stock PIT to get back into Superbrick status. PC Odined ICS LPY which obviously got stuck on factoryfs.img due to corruption of eMMC (mine starts at 1007.77 KB), Sent it back to grey retailer today (1 year Australian warranty) And the rest? Well I'll keep you posted........
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Addymore:
Thx

This works....I had a brick for 2 days.....oooouuuffffff........Thx
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] IsmailZU:
hey hg42 after flashing a GB stock rom through odin this is what i got

will the PIT file fix this for me ?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
Did you have ics before?

Generally: the emmc brick normally leads to a hanging phone.

So you probably don't have an emmc brick.

Btw. the pit files cannot "fix" anything, it's only a work around.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] luggag3:
STUPID QUESTION ALERT

I was trying to work out if I had the brick that this called for. I have however managed to reflash an working gingerbread ROM using odin without this threads process. I take it I have not got a brick and am just flashing the CM9 mod wrongly? If so I will read more in that thread instead.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] shoey63:
Downloand emmc brick bug check from Playstore and run it. If it completes without freezing ur all good. And BTW u cant get brickbug by flashing from from stock GB or CF-root GB kernels ( be wary of modified ones tho!)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] shoey63:
A quick question. If you re-flash original PIT, do you end up with 3 empty partitions again? I actually did this so I could send phone away for warranty repair without them seeing evidence of rooted programs on SD card/system (Assuming they have the technology)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
If you change partition scheme, all changed partitions will have senseless data inside but they are not really empty.

Indeed in your case they will have the same contents as before the brick (excluding the bricked blocks).

My phone has contiguous 2GB bad blocks starting at about 1GB. The /system part before 1GB would be readable by low level commands like dd. You could try this with

strings /dev/block/mmcblk0p9

However, you can

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p9

etc. to write zeroes to the start of the partitions.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
another phone...a question of general interest, so answering here...

yes, as long as the structure is similar in some ways this should be possible.

But you have to bear all the risk yourself...it's purely theoretical on my part
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
Ok, I already got the stock i9100 PIT by myself, hope it's the right one: u1_02_20110310_emmc_EXT4.pit

I updated the thread starter with the generated pits...
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
added a section about backing up your internal sd before repartitioning.

I wish I had thought some seconds about this, when I got my brick and revived the phone.

My internal sd data (backups! and some personal information) was lost, but I could have saved it, because my brick was in system and data only and therefore UMS was usable.

But my first feeling was that it wouldn't be possible to save all that data without a working ROM, so I dropped it.

But this is untrue, as you see in the backup section, there are several ways for such a backup and most are easy to use.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Mc_CuLLa:
Your pits have helped me unbrick my phone twice thanka hg42
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] d.fx:
You just saved my Galaxy S2

Just to thank you and let you know i flashed your modified I9100 pit, and it worked.

I honestly thought it was bricked for good after getting a brick due to the LQ5 kernel, i tried odin, bootloaders, pit files etc...

I wrote about it here : http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1760107

Please tell me if you want me to delete my post or add some things.

Thanks again hg42