yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] M3TALLICA:
Perform factory reset 50 times (in real) yeah and we'll talk.

50 is not the magic number. You can't tell when it is going to be your last data reset.

On safe kernel the number is in 5-6 digits if not infinite, assuming you performed factory reset days and nights.

BTW

Entropy proved that stock recovery triggers the bug. Do you have anything else other than 'so far you have been lucky'.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] nCoder:
Just for clarification, Entropy proved that Stock Factory Reset calls the ERASE command in the eMMC that, according to the Android developer, is problematic in the fw version 0x19 (that comes with the Note) and could be the root cause of the hard-bricks.

So, If the Android developer is right, and there is an intermittent problem in that eMMC fw that could lead to the eMMC not being accessible any more after that instruction is called, the brick test should prove (or disprove, if a reasonable amount of tests are performed) it once and for all.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Chest3r:
Got my hardbrick via CWM Wipe, still covered by warranty.

Maybe the chip was unreadable or the customer service was to lazy to check (My Custom Binary count was over 2) but after 2 weeks I got my repaired phone back - free of charge.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] M3TALLICA:
So yes, it triggers the bug.

----

I'm waiting for that guy to post results - real tests.

If possible record it with cam so no one would doubt.

Otherwise you are just a troll.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] abhijit038:
I am ready to do the the test; rest assured that I have warranty to claim, lest I get bricked :cool:

But recording the video for 20+ wipes seems unimaginable.

As said by Entropy, you need to have some apps installed ie have something in /data folder.It's not just plain wipes in succession. Dude, just imagine the time required for that process.:rolleyes:

If you could perhaps tell me something more conceivable to show verity of my claim,them I am willing to do so.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Entropy512:
Well, it's pretty obvious that you aren't knowledgeable at all about the internal coding of recovery if you think that Gingerbread issued this command. It's been established that while MMC_CAP_ERASE was set in the host driver, the recovery binary itself does not attempt to perform an ERASE in Gingerbread (it was added in ICS to recovery).

You talk about "Trifle observations" - where's your code review? Show me where in an XXLPY kernel/initramfs combo the path from recovery to the MMC chip somewhere blocks ERASE commands from hitting the chip. If you can't show me the block, then you haven't proven that the kernel is safe. (The MMC chip's inability to properly handle ERASE commands was confirmed by a kernel developer at Google - are you saying that he's an idiot too?)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] abhijit038:
To begin with - I am reading your report on this 'eMMC bug' on github.com/Entropy512

I am talking about real world test. As aforementioned, I am willing to perform factory reset from stock recovery for 20 times or more (To be precise, I have already done it 12 times.)

By the way, I do appreciate your endeavour.You have done exhaustive research on this.:)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] :
Thank you guys for your hard work! I do have warranty for my Note too... if anyone needs me to performe something let me know :D

I didn't got my Note back yet.. should get it this week :D

With a new mobo for free ehehe
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] nandihno:
That's very positive that some one will do a real test

For me whenever I go into a new ics release I return to gb via Odin then flash and in its recovery go to clear data and cache then I let the phone boot and then I get into download mode again and with partition selected plus pit file I flash the new ics image

Then I go to its recovery clear data clear cache then reboot device and setup my Google account afterwards

Had done this many times

Yet I respect the findings and am very interested in seeing a stock device being put to the test as this is what samsung is looking forward too
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] deomampo90:
My phone send to warranty

Hello i just see this website talking about the bricked,,

Im not so familiar with brick phone,,

Cos i just wondering why my phone stop hang in galaxy note logo

But before that i recieve a software update over the air,,then i update using my wifi

Then after the installation,,its pop up reboot system now

Then i reboot,,but my phone just stop on galaxy note logo

Then i just wait my hunband back from work

And we bring my phone in samsung,,the sales guy

Said that my phone need to send for warranty to reformat the full

Software,,then i need to wait for about 2 to 3 weeks,,But before

He say that my phone need to send for warranty

He talk with the guy first,then they look eye to eye,,

I also feel curuios if why,,,

Then lastnite my husband ask me to go samsung store,,then we see the 2 staff or sales guy,,was searching in google if how to hard reset,,

Not only 3 phone models that they want to format,,

Then i ask them maybe u also can do that for my phone cos i dont have time to wait for 2 weeks,,they say they try already but my phone realy die cant on,,

Then i say whats realy going on in here and whos that unit that ur trying to hard reset,,im so sorry about my english cos im philippine local,,

Realy realy sorry,,,but i just realy cant feel confident if what realy happening to my phone???

---------- Post added at 02:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:52 AM ----------

Hello sir/maam i see this post bout the galaxy note

Im not so sure if whats the realy problem about my phone

But i update my device in ics over the air,,,

Im so glad the time i see the popup on my screen that update availble,,then just using wifi only,,cos if i need to pc or laptop to update,,Never mind hehehe

Im so scared to connect any accesorries to my phone

Then after i done updating,,reboot system now then i click ok

Then my phone stop in galaxy note logo,,

I send directly in samsung store cos i dont know if what happen

Then now only i see bout this topic,,

Sorry bout my english...

Hope u can understand,,just want to share my experience
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] beestee:
I don't think the number of times a factory reset is performed is as important as the amount of data that is securely formatted.

Maybe this could explain why it seems so random?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] nandihno:
see if u can get into recovery..and clear cache..clear data..?

thats why after each new flash i just (before going to the setup page) i simply go to recovery and clear data and cache..that normally fixes that issue..

if not then..this might be the first case of hard brick that i know of a virgin device.

but really...is too early to say whether you have really bricked ur phone

---------- Post added at 12:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 PM ----------

maybe then we should have a survey to see how much data is there when doing a wipe.

For me I can guarantee I have very small amount of data when i do a wipe simply because when i flash a new ics i downgrade to GB and wipe from there..

then i flash ICS and wipe from stock recovery.

Theres ocassions that if i dont do that then when starting ICS for the first time it will hang at the logo..and would therefor need to go back to recovery to clear data and cache
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Entropy512:
This would not surprise me. The more blocks within a partition that contain data, the more ERASE work that needs to be done.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] abhijit038:
well, I have done factory reset in both scenario i.e having about 100+ apps installed as well as two factory reset in succession.I didn't face any problems.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] musashiro:
in that case, make a video of you wiping a hundred times on stock recovery.. lol...

just kidding...

im going to stay away from ics for now, seems like its not worth the risk due to the issues of stock ics on our note..

primarily the long charging time...:D
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] andreww88:
Is there any way for you to check your firmware code to see if you are actually on the x19 faulty firmware? I know you are unrooted so I don't think it is. But, you might be a "rare bird" that is okay.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] abhijit038:
Earlier I used to use stock pre-rooted XXLC1 ROM (no counter and triangle :cool: ). I am also on 0x19 build. I have even checked it via adb. It's only in case of ICS that I didn't want to root or perhaps I didn't dare to do it.

Before installing ICS for the first time I flashed stock GB Rom for my country.Then I installed XXLPY, leaked zslpf and so on. Eventually, after few days, I stumbled upon few threads that highlighted this so-called "eMMC bug" . I was just too inquisitive to test this issue, so I performed series of factory resets on every ICS version released so far. All this time, I was quite aware that if I brick my phone which I was rather skeptical about, then I always have the warranty to claim. Right now I am on official Taiwan ZSLPF; I have wiped this Rom for 13 times (I did one wipe this morning ;) ).

Off topic : I think ZSLPF has addressed color banding issue, and it also has loudest sound reproduction through headphones.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] nipuna:
Thank you very much to entrophy and others who've worked hard on this.

As for those "speculators" well that's easy. THis is not the only instance where Sammy's shipped buggy stuff: Read: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1644364

You can also go back to the rogers?? version of Galaxy S ( correct me if i am wrong)

I actually had a bricked phone myself , which was replaced under warranty.

Let me share my experience here, I brought my (1st) like 2 weeks ago, and was running rooted gingerbread fine a few days. Been aware of the potential bricking issues, i switched to CM 9 (I replaced my SGSII with Note) Rom and ran the same. However CM offers little in terms of s-pen support-- which was the main reason for my migration. So i decided to flash ZSLPF (worked fine) via Odin, no rooting afterwards. While it worked ok, it was draining the battery like 12% an hour, and FCs’ were there all the time.

I decided to switch back to GB (wipe with pit) via Odin -- phone got stuck at restoring FactoryFs. It was the EMMC brick.. I managed to connect via ADB, create new partitions and get the phone to boot and install CM9, but as a result of the "locked" partitions. I'd lost 4GB or so. And i didn't wanna live with that -- so i reset the firmware download the counter, sent it to the shop, and they couldn't fix it. So given that the phone was just a week old then, i convinced them to replace the unit.

I know this proves nothing, but lets appreciate the work of those, whose trying to fix the bug, or help diagnose the root causes, instead of coming up with lovely metaphors and stories.

If you cant help -- shut the F**k up! And Sammy should own up and fix their messes...
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] reinbeau:
Think before you post

Have any of you questioning the facts read this thread with all of the information that's known (that's real, confirmed information, not idle speculation as I've read here)? Have you read the Portal post, where Ken Sumrall, an actual Android kernel developer, discusses and confirms all of what Entropy512 has posted?

Those of you who are irresponsibly (in my opinion) disputing the researched information posted by experts in the field are going to cause others to hard brick their devices. I don't care if you have flashed 12 times, or 24, or whatever. Others absolutely have experienced the issue and have ended up with expensive repairs - why on earth would you want to cause even more?

This thread should be an informational discussion, not somewhere where idle speculation is given any credibility at all.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] nCoder:
Despite some trolling, I believe there were a lot of useful posts.

We might need to remove some few posts.

I don't think there is an absolute closure despite all the technical findings.

I've seen recently reports of hard bricks while flashing (not wiping), wifi stop working after rooting, gpu corruption and crashed on customized ics roms, etc.

Adding to the fact that even with all evidence, noone was able to reproduce the problem in a stock rom yet.

Is my understanding that Samsung is interested in this report and is requesting us to help identifying the problem.

As I said before, root and cwm is only a problem because these give access to system processes that could indeed brick your device.

Although unlikely, all developers warn the users that flashing ROMs is very dangerous and could brick the phone. the message expressed by some users here that flashing or rooting is safe, we need to add "when done properly".

BTW: everybody is welcome to challenge others point of view, but instead of simply insult and flame, post facts. I.e. if you simply want to flame others because you don't agree, or don't like others point of view, your post will be reported.

Thank you to everybody that brings ideas, mainly facts and constructive ideas to the topic.

Respect and you'll be respected.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Entropy512:
You do have one of the three flash chip/fwrev combos listed above?

If you don't, you may have a rare device that is fully immune to the bug even if it has an affected kernel/recovery.

We still don't know what the actual failure percentage is on this. Remember - just like now where were have a few users who keep saying "you're safe because I'm safe" - we had plenty of users saying "there's no bug, I wiped with CWM and I'm fine" - but others were bricking right and left. What we know is that Gingerbread and safe kernels will never fail and cause damage on wipe, but the ICS stock kernel/recovery has all of the components needed to fail and cause damage to one of the affected flash chips (which nearly all N7000 devices ship with - but there may be some devices with other eMMC chips.)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Latoc:
The system processes that root and cwm give access to have nothing to do with what's going on in recovery during a wipe.

That's a fact.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] paiseleht:
instead of deleting posts and worshipping idols, one should have linked this:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=26893617&postcount=425

"

The reason why most stock-based ROMs don't brick in ICS is because

1) most of them probably include a GB-based update-binary

2) most of them are not performing a format() within their Edify updater-script

"

This guy (sfhub) has done extensive research about the matter and as I see it, his search has been fruitful.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] musashiro:
im the one who reported that the thread needs to be cleaned...

just keep on the subject guys and avoid assaulting other users... remember that saying bad things to others doesn't and will never make you right.. its a common fallacy called "argumentum ad hominem". do a google search for it.

i have confirmed that CM9 based roms and GB roms is still the safest as of now. restoring a nandroid from CM9 is also safe, so if you are on stock GB rooted, you may try CM9 and restore back to GB if you want to. that's the last flashing i did.. and its all good..

speedmod kernel and franco kernel are also said to be safe. cfroot also had a revamp or update on its CWM recovery.. but i think its still not enough since i love stock+root...
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Entropy512:
No need for root, just Terminal Emulator or ADB

cat /sys/class/block/mmcblk0/device/name
cat /sys/class/block/mmcblk0/device/cid | cut -b 19,20

name will be VYL00M, KYL00M, or MAG4FA and the 19th and 20th characters of cid will be 19 for confirmed affected chips.

Also, there's some theory in the ERD special forums that susceptibility to the bug also depends on whether the eMMC chip has a bad block map from the factory - this is due to the wide variation in observed damage patterns. This is just a guess though - we have NO visibility into the chip at this level. There is a possibility that some eMMCs are more susceptible than others even with the same fwrev. Remember, as I said before - some people were happily wiping repeatedly with CWM without damage (while others would brick on their first wipe/flash), those people would also be safe with stock recovery.

I'm going to ask Mr. Sumrall if there was any device-to-device variance observed when his team encountered this.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] porcusor:
@Entropy: Would it help if, while on ICS, before wiping, we uninstall all apps from market, freeing some of the space on /data? Does this operation send the buggy erase command that the wipe operation does? Or is it just a simple index deletion?

I know this is by no means a solution, but I think it would "help" people who can't stay away from wipe on ICS - i.e. flashing different custom/stock roms regularily.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Entropy512:
No, once the blocks are marked as used, they stay that way until an ERASE command marks them otherwise. Deleting the files on a filesystem not mounted with the "discard" option just deletes the pointers to the files.

Actual erasure of blocks can happen in a few ways.

1) If the filesystem is mounted with the "discard" option - The kernel will send ERASE commands on file deletion. This MAY cause the bug to get triggered during large file deletion. (Despite previous suspicion that large file deletion may be dangerous, I believe this is safe now due to "discard" not being used as a mount option. HOWEVER I would be paranoid about enabling MMC_CAP_ERASE AND using the "discard" mount option. This could kill your eMMC.)

2) An application (such as the recovery binary) can explicitly request erasure of a large block of data - this is what ICS stock and CWM recoveries do during a factory reset/wipe. GB recoveries don't do this which is why they're safe.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] nCoder:
Good work. Great stuff Entropy! ;)

I've seen some people bricking in ICS while flashing, could this be related? Do you have any idea why it manisfests only on ICS?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] thomas_d_j:
So what about CWM restore? Does that also call an erase before restoring the backed up data?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] andreww88:
A CWM restore in ICS stock was indeed bricking a lot of devices as well as the wiping.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Entropy512:
Yes. Nandroid restores format before restoring.

Some CWM installation packages call format() to wipe a partition before installing, others do delete_recursive() - format() is usually better as it guarantees a fresh filesystem, but in ICS, format() also erases the partition before formatting.

Basically, anything that causes a partition format with an ICS recovery (stock recovery or CWM) or ICS update-binary (in the case of flashing zips) is dangerous if combined with a kernel that allows ERASE commands through. Removing MMC_CAP_ERASE blocks the erase attempts in all situations.

As to why it only manifests in ICS - In Gingerbread, recoveries only formatted the partition. This deleted pointers to data, but not the data itself. There were privacy concerns with this, so with ICS, Google added an erase cycle to get rid of the data itself. (This also can improve write performance on flash memory devices...) - Normally this isn't a problem, as MMC command 38 (ERASE) is part of the JEDEC standard. A chip should either implement it fully and reliably, or return an error if it doesn't support it. The problem is that the flash chip in many Samsung Exynos-based devices has an eMMC chip with defective firmware - if it receives an ERASE command it can lock up during the operation, and if it does this, the chip is hosed until it is fully reset (which requires a vendor-specific command we don't have documentation for.)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] :
So knowing all this stuff is nice in my opinion and i see a solution for this bug for soon... i wanted to know.. did Samsung already made some progress on their bug discovery?

Any improvement besides the ones you have been doing Entropy? I mean from Samsung.. ? :p
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] shantanubarik:
One silly question-if the device is not rooted, and running stock firmware, is there any risk of hard brick by factory reset or wiping data?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] andreww88:
I don't think anyone can FULLY answer that yet, but it MIGHT be because there was one brick from someone doing a factory reset in settings.

If you take the chance and try it, that's your business, but it's not recommended.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] motumbo:
If Samsung devs offer us the chance to brick a phone in praise of finding the issue root then it is just a matter of having a non rooted stock ics rom with stock kernel then they have to instal tons of apps 50+ (to ensure the data wipe will be a large one) and finally they should do a factory data reset from settings. That's it. They should repeat this procedure at least twenty times. It seems curious that only people from this forum is reporting an issue like that. Do you imagine the fuzz in the media if people started to show bricked iPhones after doing a factory reset i.e.? Gnote is a very popular device nowadays and for sure there is one guy around right now formatting a Gnote from settings tab with a full stock device.

Maybe the bug is coming from this side. Do you guys gonna put your hands on fire this bug is samsung's?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] abhijit038:
As aforementioned before, I have already done that (13 factory resets on ZSLPF, having 100+ apps installed in each case) and it's perfectly fine. I didn't face any bricking issues.

Perhaps I'd reach mark of 20 factory resets without any bricking.

May I make myself clear that I don't intend to advise anyone to follow me.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Markuzy:
Everyone won't brick at the same time because of the sporadic nature of the "bug".

And even so, they will go straight to Samsung Service instead to XDA.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] lurchbyrep:
Yeah, kind of. A philosophical disclaimer might be a good reminder here: "Sporadic" and "intermittent" are just words we use to describe an equation with unknown variables. Unless our GNotes have suddenly developed human-like consciousness, there is a definite cause for every brick, and a lack of that same cause for each failed attempt at bricking. If we knew all the factors that play into the "emmc bug" we wouldn't have to talk as if bricks were random, as if NOW the phone finally "decided" to brick. This bug does not do random. There are yet things we don't know. Nevertheless, Sumrall and Entropy have helped narrow down the decisive factors for us. We have, as you might say, a good "approximation" of the full problem.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] motumbo:
Are you running full stock rom and kernel? Wiping from settings? From cwm?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] prasad.adam:
Going by Entropy's instrumented Kernel experiment, most likely, YES.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] milsabords:
Flash firmware

It should be technically possible to update the SSD controller firmware, as this function is available with some SSD brands.

Example: OCZ provides a program which does that under Windows and Linux. It cannot be used if the OS runs from the SSD, but it works with a dual boot Windows ou a live CD/USB Linux.

Details: here

Would it be possible to make the Note boot from its microSD or a USB stick ?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] abhijit038:
Yes, I am running full stock kernel and ROM. No rooting no cwm.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Latoc:
@Entropy

Is there any way to test if the latest LQ2 presents danger ?

From what I understand they could fix it either from recovery or the kernel (or both).

Since we don't have the sources for the LQ2 kernel, I guess you can't compile that special test kernel of yours so how can we know ?

Cheers.