yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Eee Pad Transformer General] josteink:
Looking into flashing Ubuntu on my TF101. Would it be safe to assume most existing SBKv1 guides still work and that I only need to prepend wheelie statements before nvflash and replace "nvflash" with "nvflash -r" to get there? Or should I just wait until someone releases an updated guide for SBKv2 devices?

Not trying to sound overly lazy or unadventurous here, but I suppose someone with more nvflash experience should be able to tell pretty quickly :)
[Eee Pad Transformer General] josteink:
Having a little trouble getting things to work on my B70 TF101.

Here are the logs and some pictures.

Transformer after booting in APX mode and running wheelie:

Acode run (also on http://pastebin.com/Ygz9Jx3c )

Transformer after booting in APX mode, running wheelie and various nvflash commands as provided above:

Basically all is well until I try to do a --download.

Going directly to --download after wheelie also fails as seen here: (from http://pastebin.com/nqYSHNaF )

Any hints?

Edit: From irc. lilstevie says that it's cwm touch's image which is bigger than the recovery partition. Not a problem with nvflash per se.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] rayman:
Correct. Once it's been prepared with wheelie, any and all nvflash commands work as long as you add -r straight after, e.g. "./nvflash -r --command".

It should be noted that --go is special and should be put on a seperate execution, e.g. "./nvflash -r --go". Go boots the tablet regularly and hence exists nvflash mode.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] DammedKiller:
Anyone have reflashed following this?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] rayman:
Yes ;)

As mentioned in the post on androidroot.mobi, the blob.APP, blob.LNX, blob.SOS and blob.EBT are part of the official updates from ASUS.

So what you basically do is:

Download latest TF101 full update from support.asus.com (Choose right SKU, e.g. WW, US etc)

Unzip the zip, then unzip the resulting zip. This gives you a file called "blob" and some other files.

Unpack this blob file using "./blobunpack blob" which then creates the required files

However, we only recommend doing the full reflash if your device is bricked! There's no reason to otherwise, may as well just flash an update.zip.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] DammedKiller:
Ok thanks!Well my tf is not brick but it is in a too older firm (Android 3.0.1) without system/bin/sh and without root nor cwm. I have not other way to make it working again.

And how about the drivers for Linux? Do I have to install it separately? If yes, where can I find it?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] sbiriguda:
There's no need for any driver under linux, both wheelie and nvflash drive the usb device directly.

You must only make sure the device node has the proper permissions for your user (see post #3 about udev rules for nvflash).
[Eee Pad Transformer General] DammedKiller:
So I have to use that commands on ubuntu terminal or what? Sorry but I am not very experienced in Linux
[Eee Pad Transformer General] sbiriguda:
One-time setup procedure:

open a terminal and type gksudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/52-nvflash.rules

type your password when prompted

an editor window will pop up, paste the lines in post #3 substituting your-username-here with your actual system user name (keep the quotes!)

save the file and close the editor

????

profit!

Make sure the device isn't plugged in APX mode when creating the new udev rules, otherwise the kernel will assign it to root.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] josteink:
And with that little nudge of guidance, I have come up with a mix of wheelie and OLiFE, in what is a working version of OLiFE for SBKv2 devices which can flash Ubuntu etc onto your Asus TF101 automatically.

The updated SBKv2-only toolkit can be found here:

http://invalid.ed.ntnu.no/~jostein/uploads/OLiFE-wheelie-sbkv2.tgz

Since wheelie relies on Linux, it works with Linux only.

All I've done is swap some binaries and scripts (original files are still there renamed with a .provided suffix).

Feel free to try it out, but let me be clear that none of this is my work, I've just made some trivial alterations to the amazing work of Bumble-Bee, IEF, kmdm, lilstevie & RaYmAn.

Obviously I cannot make much in the ways of guarantees that this will not mess up your tablet. Use at your own risk.

Just putting this out there in case anyone else is eager to try this out :)
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Arjoma:
OK, so I've rooted my phone before and installed hundreds of ROMs etc on it, but with the Transformer it's different.

I didn't want to mess around with my BL70 (sbk v2, I checked) TF101 because of the chance of bricking it without the ability to get it back to life again because NVflash didn't work on it until now- that's my knowledge.

So noe [I could wait for the windows version, any guess if it may be there within the next three weeks?, or just use a Linux Live CD] as far as I got it, I can use Wheelie and so NVflash to root my Transformer and put CWM on it so that I can install ROMs through it. And if something goes wrong and the tablet doesn't want to boot anymore, I still can use NVFlash to unbrick it (by flashing an ASUS ROM again, or how?).

If there are terrible holes or mistakes in my thoughts, please correct me; because, if it's relatively safe now to flash ROMs on the Transformer, I'd love to tinker a bit and try some out.

Thanks- also big thanks to the hard working devs who made it possible to make our tablets even a bit better now!
[Eee Pad Transformer General] kenshin1388:
I can setup a Ubuntu VM but I figured I would ask. I just need to know if its even possible to get it to work without hackery.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] prog19:
I've tried to install CWM following the tutorial of the blog, but i can't get it to work.

I've sucessfully used the blob unpack tool, but when i try to install i get this:

thales@thales-A6VMX:~/wheelie$ sudo ./wheelie -2 -o 0x300d8011 –bl bootloader.bin -c transformer.bct

Wheelie 0.1 - Preflight for nvflash.

Copyright (c) 2011-2012 androidroot.mobi

========================================

Using SBK type 2.

To use wheelie both BCT and bootloader need to be specified.

Usage: wheelie [options] --bl <bootloader file> --bct <bct file>

Argument Description

-v or --version Display version information

-h or --help Display this menu

-1 or --sbkv1 Use wheelie for SBKv1 devices

-2 or --sbkv2 Use wheelie for SBKv2 devices

-s or --sbk Set SBK for devices not officially supported by wheelie

-o or --odm set the odmdata (Required for operation.) Example: 0x300d8011

--bl or --bootloader Set the bootloader filename (required for operation)

-c or --bct Set the BCT filename (required for operation)

thales@thales-A6VMX:~/wheelie$ ./nvflash -r –download 5 recovery-clockwork-5.8.2.1-tf101.img.SOS

Nvflash started

[resume mode]

unknown command: –download

thales@thales-A6VMX:~/wheelie$ ./nvflash -r

Nvflash started

[resume mode]

command failure: no commands found

thales@thales-A6VMX:~/wheelie$ ./nvflash -r –download 5 recovery-clockwork-5.8.2.1-tf101.img.SOS

Nvflash started

[resume mode]

unknown command: –download

thales@thales-A6VMX:~/wheelie$

I can enter the APX mode in windows. But in linux i simply don't know if i'm in apx or not.

Someone knows what is happening ?

Thanks in advance

EDIT: I've managed to get wheelie to work with:

./wheelie -2 -o 0x300d8011 --bl bootloader.bin -c transformer.bct

Wheelie 0.1 - Preflight for nvflash.

Copyright (c) 2011-2012 androidroot.mobi

========================================

Using SBK type 2.

Using bootloader: 'bootloader.bin'.

Using BCT: 'transformer.bct'.

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

[=] Chip UID: 0x388924340dfa597

[=] RCM Version: 0x20001

[=] CPU Model: Tegra 2

[=] Secure Boot Key Set: Yes

[+] Sending BCT

Sending file: 100 %

[+] Sending ODMData 0x300D8011

[+] Sending bootloader...

Sending file: 100 %

[!] Done - your device should now be ready for nvflash

But nothing yet with the CWM.

I'm a completely noob when dealing with NVflash, as i'm a B80 owner. So i think i need to read more guides.

Still, if someone see my mistake, please correct me.

Thanks in advance
[Eee Pad Transformer General] gee one:
What's the fun without the hackery?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] kenshin1388:
Because I don't have a job, so I would rather not risk bricking.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jazzruby:
@prog19

You need 2 hyphen-minus (--) on the NVFlash command:

unknown command: –download > --download

-JR-
[Eee Pad Transformer General] josteink:
Still. Even with that fixed, chances are CWM as downloaded from the ROM Manager webpage is too big to fit in your SOS/recovery partition, and thus nvflash will fail.

The fact that you are getting that far and getting errors for that , does however mean that nvflash actually works.

I spent some time turning my head over that one as well. Bad example in the blog ;)
[Eee Pad Transformer General] rayman:
Yeah - oops.

We have made some changes to ensure next CWM released will be under the limit. Not entirely sure when that will be, but soon :P
[Eee Pad Transformer General] prog19:
Well. Thank's guys for the answers.

I was able to get my partition table, so it works well on my b80. I see it works and it's a relief.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] DammedKiller:
So now what is the size limit for the CWM?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] josteink:
Whatever "Get partition table" reports for your SOS partition. Which is probably around 5MB.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Pimmr:
This sounds promising, although I am not sure.

I have a B70 TF101 thats bricked (details here) Summary: dead screen, cant get into recovery, APX mode doesnt work (Computer does not recognize USB device when connected).

Btw it didnt brick while flashing or anything just during the day the screen went black and it never came on.

(I dont really understand why only recently B70+ seem to be able to use nvflash as I remember I used nvflash with APX mode to gain root about a year ago? Nevermind that)

I am experienced enough to gain root, install CWM, flashing roms and kernels but thats about it.

Now I am reading SBK2, blob, Linux scripts etc etc... I am a bit confused.

Thats no problem, I am willing to learn.

Reading the brick symptoms above, would you guys think I have a change with this method?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Aphax:
Is this not the same for all tf101s? Or was it just a mistake that it grew too large and no one noticed before?

I'm about to try to flash an older CWM on my device that seems to be small enough (http://download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.1.9-tf101.img), hopefully I'm not missing out on too many things compared to the newer version :)

---------- Post added at 04:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:16 PM ----------

Some of the B70 models are actually still SBKv1, so it's possible that you were able to use nvflash if you were oen of the lucky ones

I guess if you can't get into APX mode, then probably not.. :/ But, I don't think your PC will neccesarily 'recognize' your device when it is in APX mode since it will have different device IDs in that mode. You can check in linux of 'dmesg' says something like...

[13205.870846] usb 2-3: new high-speed USB device number 8 using ehci_hcd
[13205.988570] usb 2-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0955, idProduct=7820
[13205.988574] usb 2-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[13205.988577] usb 2-3: Product: APX

when you enter APX mode. If so, then I guess you might be able to recover if you're not suffering from some sort of hardware fault.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Pimmr:
Thanks for your reply, that clears things up a bit. As I am a total Linux noob, am I correct in saying I can run a Linux Live CD, hook up my TF and try to get a reply with this dmesg command?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
You are correct with this, you can also run linux in a virtual-box just fine.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] nEUTRon666:
How would i root a stock rom, say .24, now with nvflash ?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] gls9:
I have used ubuntu 11.10 desktop as live cd with nvflash without any problems.

USB drivers are included. Just start as live cd. Copy nvflash somewhere (like /tmp). Connect tablet in put tablet in APX mode and nvflash should work.

(I did not use wheelie)
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Nekromantik:
great work guys!

hope this tool comes to TF300 so it also becomes unbrickable!
[Eee Pad Transformer General] prog19:
Don't forget to give the permissions in terminal (ctrl + alt + t) by way of:

sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/52-nvflash.rules

and in the notepad :

# nvflash protocol on tf101 (ASUS Transformer Pad)
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0955", ATTR{idProduct}=="7820", MODE="0600", OWNER="your-username-here"

As our friend sbiriguda said to be done in the frist page. all thanks to him.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] atothis:
Prog19, yes but...pls could you at least check and correct what you copy-pasted?

I think it'd be cleaner and easier to directly link the related post:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=26639214&postcount=3

BTW, tried wheelie and it's working flawlessly (full backup only for the moment, using xubuntu 11.10 in Virtualbox). I was waiting for this for a looong time, but I'm a bit confused yet on what is the right procedure to have a correct and updated dualboot...I think I'll read around a lot more before I mess up with my partitions :P

You devs are awesome, nothing else to say but thanks!
[Eee Pad Transformer General] prog19:
Hell epic fail on that. Sorry guys i'll edit that. And thanks for the alert. I'm not willing to confound anyone. Just give some help to the friend.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] nEUTRon666:
Is there any good guide to NVFlash ? I mean if i get it right, everything is the same for NVFlash Procedures except you need to initialize with wheelie, correct? I would like to know how to make a full backup of my actual ROM or ROM's in general, so i'm safe testing around.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
Make a nandroid in cwm of your current setup, Nvflash is the same, just run with the -r resume var before all commands.

Restore nandroid when you're done fiddling.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] nEUTRon666:
I would, but i'm on stock, only rooted, no custom cwm or anything else, and i would like to leave it that way, for the moment...that's why i wanted to do the backup with nvflash itself.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1129308

NvFlash backup thread. Read up.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] josteink:
Just guessing here:

Use nvflash to read a copy of the Android system-partition.

Mount the system-image on a PC where you have unconstrained access to everything. Copy su-binary into image and setuid it. Unmount image.

Use nvflash to write modified image back to Android system-partition.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] sbiriguda:
If you want to keep the stock Asus recovery back it up via nvflash, then flash a custom recovery (CWM, Rogue XM... anything that works on the TF101 and fits into the SOS partition), boot it and use it to install the customary update.zip containing Superuser.apk and su, then restore the old recovery via nvflash :)

Obviously, if you want to keep CWM/Rogue/etc. you don't need to backup/reflash the stock Asus recovery.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] DammedKiller:
I stillhave a doubt with the SOS partition. I know that it is 5 mb. So, does the recovery.img have to be 5mb or less or does the hole folder have to be 5mb or less?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
You can resize the partition if you need too, but the whole folder needs to be <5mb
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Meetos:
Good evening!

I do everything as described in this thread, but nothing happens. Prescribed a rule for the nvflash and that's what I have.

If I try to run ./nvflash-r-download 5 recovery-clockwork-5.8.2.1-tf101.img.SOS

Then

Appears only [resume mode] and nothing else.

Where I could be wrong? Or is there Sbkv3 ...
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
Are you on a Tf101G or a slider? That would make it incompatible.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Meetos:
This tf101g ...
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
Sorry then, you have yet another different SBK, you need to root + install recovery with a different method, until hopefully it is also unlocked.

"[-] Incorrect SBK or SBK type selected. nverror: 0x4."
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Meetos:
Really do not have anything to tf101g to fill the official recovery?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
PERI: A one-click Root and Recovery installer for .24 or less

You can use the one-click I made, or wolf's flash method.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Meetos:
I have a situation Customise rekovery that can flash the internal memory and does not see mikroSD card. As MTP is not defined as a ADB device, too.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
You have a custom recovery that sees the internal but not external SD card?

What exactly do you mean/need help with?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Meetos:
Correctly installing the driver only APX.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
Uninstall any drivers you have and install these: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1514942

(Windows)
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Meetos:
Does not work in Windows because the driver does not ADB, and the MTP. Accordingly, ADB is also modified by the driver is not installed. Windows 7 x64.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
It's designed for windows, so I don't know what you mean.

I did update PERI to auto install drivers for Windows 7, you could check it out again if you'd like.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] data55:
Will you release a version for slider:)
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
If ASUS releases the sbk for it or it's leaked, it should be updated to be NvFlash compatible.

--

If you're talking about my tool, then if wolf's flash method works on the slider PERI will, but I'm not sure if it does or not, you're welcome to test, but be careful not to brick.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Meetos:
If you hold down the volume down and turning on, then when you choose an android, not erasing it must be defined in the windows as the ADB but I have is defined as damaged because MTP and the problems with the installation of this driver. My only option somehow only through the APX (because once it is defined correctly) throw recovery allows to flash the mikroSD card.

Yet it seems that completely flew off the file system. Because recovery is visible through the existing single directory which it is created.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] DammedKiller:
Sorry but, how can I do that?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
Can you Cold-Boot by holding volume-down and turning on, and just waiting?

Or did you erase your ROM?

Uninstall *all* drivers, and reinstall adb drivers. It will pop up and work.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Meetos:
I did it! He's alive!
[Eee Pad Transformer General] solitude65:
connection error

is there a way to tell if I am in APX mode?

I get the following error when I try to use wheelie as directed.

"wheelie did not detect a device in APX mode"

is there something I am missing?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] lilstevie:
This is not a problem with wheelie, but something to do with the script.

it will show up on the lsusb output
[Eee Pad Transformer General] solitude65:
Mine is so bricked, that wheelie can't even revive it.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
You can't even get into APX mode? O.o
[Eee Pad Transformer General] josteink:
Like I said in the OP: Script came with no guarantees.

That said: When I had a lock-up of sorts using the script, just rebooting into APX (press and hold vol up for like 10 seconds, verify with "lsusb" and look for "NVidia" in the list in another terminal) and rerunning the script worked for me.

Really. As the other guuy asks, are you sure you can't get into APX mode? What's the output from lsusb after you press and hold vol up for 5 seconds minimum? What's the output from "dmesg | tail"?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] lilstevie:
you might just have a flat battery, throw it on the charger for a few hours then try again
[Eee Pad Transformer General] :
Definitely watching closely for a Win version, my PC isn't robust enough to run VM, not to mention tethering from 3G so I've got no way to download an entire distro without crashing my data limit..
[Eee Pad Transformer General] tarantula78:
wooooooooooooooooooooo

does this mean we can install backtrack on our tablets? :D
[Eee Pad Transformer General] josteink:
I'm going to make a wild guess: If someone says "yes", your next link is this one, isn't it? :p
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jazzruby:
Just a thought....

Damn Small Linux (DSL) ~50 MB

Homepage: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

Pkg list: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/packages.html

-JR-
[Eee Pad Transformer General] josteink:
That and you get Linux natively, auto-configured, booted and running from a 1GB USB memory-stick. All setup from Windows in less than 30 minutes.

Granted, that's not a recommended production modding setup, but it should be sufficient to run wheelie.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
I have several small sticks with DSL on them for data rescue, works great on borked/unfamiliar machines. :D

If they boot from USB -_- I've run into some that only take CD or floppy, so I carry around a cd too.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jazzruby:
I also have DSL along with a few other distros (PMagic, Puppy, SliTaz, etc...) on my sticks.

My favorite System Rescue, by far is RIPLinuX

http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/

-JR-
[Eee Pad Transformer General] bsoplinger:
Would it be possible for one of you supper smart types package up one of these releases along with the appropriate Nvflash goodies to make a bootable CD/USB stick for doing updates on our Transformers?

Sent from my Sprint Evo View 4G (PG41200) using Xparent Purple Tapatalk 2
[Eee Pad Transformer General] solitude65:
I have tried and tried to get the tablet into APX mode. Unfortunately, after holding the volume up button and the power button for 5, 10, 15 or 20 seconds gets me a black screen and drains my battery, (I do know that the battery is charged) but it doesn't show anything when I do an lsusb.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] rayman:
Beta Windows version now available! See main post for more information.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
Thank you Raymannnn!!

Will test.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] siksy:
I've B70 version rooted with one click tool (razorclaw).

What should I do now? Should I go to stock rom and then install nvflash?

Is there any noob-guide to instal nvflash - step by step and then step again :)

Tnx in advance
[Eee Pad Transformer General] kenshin1388:
Not sure if I am doing something wrong, but I have ubuntu 11.04 setup on VMWare workstation. When I plug in the tablet into windows (in apx mode) i hear the sound. I run wheelie on windows and then transfer the USB over to the VM. The problem is Ubuntu is not able to reconise the device. I read somewhere about a lbusb command, but that package is no longer available for 11.04. Is there any way to set that up manually?

Why im asking: Trying to get Ubuntu setup on my transformer. I use it alot for VNC programming while I am away from the house, would be great to just bring my project with me instead.

EDIT: I guess my bad eyes decieved me. I decided maybe I read the command wrong and tried 'lsusb', it does show in there. Is there any reason nvflash is still not finding it?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Thing O Doom:
siksy: If you rooted you don't want to flash with NvFlash, that will take away your root. (Unless that's what you're looking for, What exactly do you want to do?)

kenshin: A windows version was released that works beautifully, no VM needed. Give it a looksee (It's in the OP) You will need the 'universal naked drivers' (APX) to use it.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] kenshin1388:
Problem is that OLiFE is not windows compatible. So I still need to use the Ubuntu VM. Otherwise I would just do that. I used wheelie in windows before transferring it to the VM anyways.