yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
I think your best option at this point is to download the tar.md5 file from sammobile.com for stock ics. You flash that from from Odin in the pda field. It will completely factory reset your phone (your data will be gone too... sorry, I don't think you can recover it at this point). Once this is done, I would backup what you need off the sdcard (internal) as that data never gets wiped in a flash, then format the sdcard. I just had to do this myself, as sometimes it seems the system reports the wrong details and a format seems to rectify this.

Once your back at stock, you can start over fresh and re-root your phone if you choose to do so ;)

Good luck!
[Galaxy S II General] catseye64:
No luck there

Thanks for the answer.

Unfortunately ... I've downloaded JB firmware for my phone from sammobile and I have the tar.md5 file.

When I use Odin (the version posted on this thread 1.85), with the PDA field, it started, everything looks good, then fails :

<ID:0/0004> ....

<ID:0/0004> SetupConnection

<ID:0/0004> Complete(Write) operation failed

<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0/ failed 1)

Should I put the phone in a special mode using the CWM menu ? Or something else ? Should I remove the external SD ?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
for jb you should be using Odin 3.07. Also, just want to confirm that you are in download mode when attempting to do this.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2189539
[Galaxy S II General] catseye64:
How could I know I'm in download mode or not ?

Every key combination when I try to power up the phone finished showing up the CWM base menu (that's the main problem) .. so do I have to choose an option there to be in download mode ?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
It will say Odin mode or download mode at the top of the screen. You'll definitely know your in download mode.

Make sure your phone is completely off. By completely off, I mean take it the battery ;) then it the battery back in and replace the cover, careful not to hit the power button. Then you need to hold down the "volume down" button and while holding the"volume down" button, press and also hold now the power button until the phone boots to a black screenthat says to press volume up to enter download mode. Once successfully in download mode, you can flash the tar file with Odin ;)

Edit:

Since you are flashing the tar.md5 file from Samsung, you will place it in pda field not bootloader.
[Galaxy S II General] catseye64:
Thanks

YEAAHHHH :svetius:

thank you so much !!! :highfive:

---------- Post added at 11:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:55 PM ----------

By the way if I want to upgrade to CWM 6.x.x, everything with Odin implies the download mode (bootloader/PDA ..) every time ?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
If your flashing cwm, it goes in the bootloader section. Otherwise, pay attention to the filename of the tar. If it says homebinary or something similar it goes into pda as it contains all required files for flashing.
[Galaxy S II General] proza:
Will this work on the following phone?

Virgin Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE

and how to unlock it?

Thanks!
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
Yes, it will work for your virgin mobile version of this phone.

Unlocking requires an unlocking code which you cannot get for free. You'll have to search around for the companies that supply the unlocking codes.

---------- Post added at 09:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:09 AM ----------

After your done with the custom recovery, I recommend either DADOES CM10: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2175777

or the new Stock JB (this one is rooted and with or without bloatware): http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2272102
[Galaxy S II General] proza:
Thank you, titanic_fanatic!
[Galaxy S II General] straybullett:
Can't to Download mode

Since I can't get in to the download mode following your instructions (and several others, including who I bought it from, have given the same instructions) will that Galaxy SII USB jig help this problem? And if looking for it on ebay, is that what I call it, "Galaxy SII USB Jig"?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
Yes, the usb jig is supposed to get you into download mode even if your 3 button combo won't do it. And yes, it's just called a usb jig, they sell for about $2.00.

You should turn the phone off and pull out the battery for a couple of seconds, then put the battery back in and without turning on the power, plug in the usb jig. The phone should boot into download mode in a few seconds of plugging in the jig.
[Galaxy S II General] proza:
I downloaded the sgs2hd_rooted_4.0.4_no_bell_apps.zip from the 'other custom roms' folder and the ICS_modem_I757MUGLH2-flash_this_in_CWM.zip from the 'factory images' folder. Do I use 'install zip from sdcard' option from the 'ClockworkMod Recovery' to flash them? Will 'ClockworkMod Recovery' know the flie is a ROM file or modem file and know where to put the file?

My phone is already in ICS 4.0.4 but is with Virgin Mobile, do I need to wipe the data or do factory reset before flashing?

I am a newbie and wonder is there a document to show all the options of the 'ClockworkMod Recovery' and explain what the options will do?

Thanks!
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
Yes, cwm will know what to do with the zip file. You just select it for flashing and cwm takes care of the rest.

When flashing new Roms, you should wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache, advanced -> wipe dalvik cache then flag the Rom.

EDIT:

Not sure if your aware, but we now have a stock jb from Samsung. I have rooted it and posted it here if you're interested:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2272102
[Galaxy S II General] proza:
I know about the JB update, but some people have problem on it:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2276271

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2274294

so I am hesitating about flashing the JB ROM and modem.

Do you know a document exist for the CWM Recovery?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
I hear your concern. If your not into tweaking it's probably not for you, however you could try dadoes ROM. It's a Cyanogenmod 10 Rom just search xda for dadoes.

I don't think I've ever seen a guide for cwm, but what do you need to know? It flashes Roms/modems, mount/unmount partitions, format partitions, permission repair, wipe cache/dalvik-cache, make nandroid backups.

I'll be happy to answer any of your questions ;)
[Galaxy S II General] proza:
On the JB update thread, it mentions after doing 'Wipe dalvik cache', I need to Format /data, /system, and /cache beforing flashing, do I need to do the formatting before flashing?

By the way, why I need to do those wipes since my phone is already in ICS 4.0.4 but with a different carrier.
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
Yes, you should format those partitions before flashing. This ensures that there are no leftover files from your last installation which may cause instability or other errors. It essentially helps to minimize the possibility of a bad flash. Each carrier puts their own apps and system files on your phone, so that's the stuff we want to get rid of.

I was having force close issues on most of the apps and think that was why since after I formatted my partitions and flashed the Rom, I had no FC's.
[Galaxy S II General] proza:
Do I need to root it before doing all these?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
No, I pre-rooted it ;)
[Galaxy S II General] ericw12:
After flash the CWM recovery 6.0.1.1,

My i757M is now bricked. When turns it on, it shows: firmware upgrade encountered an issue, Please select recovery mode in Kies & Try again. :(

If I press volume down and power to turn on, soon after pres volume up trying to get to download mode. The phone shows the same message again.

Anyone knows how to fix this????

Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Galaxy S II General] ericw12:
I just upgraded my phone use Kies tonight to JB stock rom, then I tried to flash the CWM recovery 6.0.1.1,

Everything looks correct and Odin reports success, but after reboot my i757M is now bricked. When turns it on, it shows: firmware upgrade encountered an issue, Please select recovery mode in Kies & Try again.

If I press volume down and power to turn on, soon after pres volume up trying to get to download mode. The phone shows the same message again.

Any idea what is going here?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
I would first use one of the Odin flashable packages to return to stock, that will include your recovery as well. Once you get back to stock, then you can start by re-flashing cwm., then the Rom

This is only a soft brick since you have power and you can access download mode ;)
[Galaxy S II General] ericw12:
titanic_fanatic, I don't think I can get into the download mode. I can press volume-down and power to get to the screen where you have options to press volume-up to get into download mode or press home button to cancel out. The problem is when I press the the volume-up, it shows me the message "firmware upgrade encountered an issue, Please select recovery mode in Kies & Try again" rather than the little cute robot with downloading.... word....

Does that mean I still have access to the downloading mode or I am in the situation described by some other posts where you are soft bricked but no download mode?

Now, I think about, I first tried use an copy of odin 3.7 to flash the CWM 6.0.1.1. It found the serial port but it took long time and failed. So, I download the odin 1.85 from the CWM 6.0.1.1 dev-host link folder, which reported success, but I ended up with bricked phone. I think I have followed the instructioin, not sure why this is happending... :crying::crying:

Thanks!
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
Are you able to get into recovery by using the three button combo? If you can, we can flash stock from there and that should fix it. We have to get you back to full stock and flash recovery with Odin 1.85. That may have been the problem.

Did you have more than 50% battery when flashing from Odin?

Still googling though...
[Galaxy S II General] ericw12:
Three button combo being: Volume Up, Volume Down and Power? I tried that and it went straight to the same message screen I was talking about.

I had about 85% battery when did this...

What gets me is I don't know how this happened. Maybe I should not use Odin 3.7 in the first place?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
That's what I'm thinking may have been the problem, but as far as I know, the newer version should still have been supported.

When you go to download mode, where you press power and down, then press up and get the firmware error, if you plug your phone in at that time and open Odin, does Odin see your phone? If so, here's what you should do.

Download the stock gingerbread tar.md5 file from dsixda's repo, then flash that from Odin. This should put your right back to when you first got your phone.

From what I've read, as long as you can get Odin to see your phone, you should be able to re-flash to fix it, but Odin had to see your phone for this to work.

EDIT:

Also make sure you use Odin 1.85 just in case that was the issue.

EDIT 2:

You said you used kies to flash the Rom in the first place, when you open kies, click on tools then emergency firmware recovery... is your device listed there? This might also be able to fix the problem.

EDIT 3:

Try this link for a tutorial on kies emergency firmware recovery:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2261153
[Galaxy S II General] ericw12:
Thank you for the info, but it did not work for me.

So far I am desperate, and I think that might be it.

Kies cannot see the phone. The phone would not show up in in the emergency recovery list no matter what I do.

I also tried the thing called "one click unbrick", it cannot find the device.

Finally I also made a usb jig. I know it works because it bring my S3 into downloading mode, but not this i757M, it went straight into the same screen.

:crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying::crying:
[Galaxy S II General] ericw12:
I thought I should report back. I got the phone recovered now, although it seemed to be hopeless at the time and destined to be a cute little brick.

It turns out my windows 7 64bit laptop somehow stops to recognize the phone. I switched to another old&good windows xp desktop, and odin was able to find the com port right away. Could it be that odin is available for the whole time? I am not sure.

Once I found that, everything is easy. I copied the odin ICE stock rom to the windows xp machine, and flashed that to the phone and it is back to 4.0.4 stock. I then flashed the CWM 6.0.1.1, then 4.1.2 JB stock unbloated and the modem, and all went well. After all that, I flashed the s-voice and extended battery in one shot, and it all worked just fine.

So the 2 days struggle is not all at lost. One thing I learned is the usb jig thingy works for i757M. There are people saying in the forum that you can use anything between 300K to 400K. Not true, the resistor needs to be pretty much 300K exact. I could find a 300K, so I tried 330K first, that did not work. I ended up chain up a 33K, 47K, and 220K resistors together to get 300K. I tested it and it was 298K, and that works.

Anyway, I sincerely thank tatanic_fantastic for all your help and the JB rom!

Have a good weekend! :D
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
Thank your for the update. I'm very happy you got it working. I was looking into it when you posted back, and was growing somewhat concerned and was relieved to hear this ;)

Welcome to our small community of I757M users :D
[Galaxy S II General] proza:
Question:

Is it possible to delete a previous backup?

Is it possible to store the backup into the external microSD card?

Can I put the ROM and modem zip files into the external microSD card and flash from there?

Do I need SuperUser right in order to Format /data, /system and /cache?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
Yes, yes and yes. The cwm kernel is rooted by default, so formatting and factory resetting is possible through cwm.

You can backup to and flash from your external sdcard.

For nandroid backups, choose backup to external to backup to your external sdcard or restore from external to restore from it.

For flashing zips, choose install zip from sdcard then choose external.
[Galaxy S II General] proza:
Inside the clockworkmod folder, there are backup folder and blobs folder. What is the blobs folder for?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
The blobs are pieces of your backup. They are required in order to restore your backup. This is the new way of taking nandroid backups. The old method was creating a tar file which apparently takes longer to restore. You can switch back and forth between the two methods from cwm, but I don't recommend it. The blobs have never given me any issues.

On another note, I like to make and manage my nandroid backups using two apps, one is called online nandroid backup and the other is nandroid manager. Both apps require you to be rooted, but what I love about these apps is it allows me to make and manage my nandroid backups from the comfort of the android UI instead of from cwm.

I've also been in contact with the developer of these apps as I want to include them with my customized stock JB ROM and they have included a custom device script for our phone. I was previously using the device script for the skyrocket SGH-I727 as it uses the same partition layout. Do now this app works perfectly with our phone ;)
[Galaxy S II General] proza:
If I delete a previous backup, the blobs will still be there???

How to delete a previous backup completely including the blobs?

If I do not need the backups any more, can I remove the entire clockworkmod folder? If I do the backup later, will CWM create back the clockworkmod folder structure?
[Galaxy S II General] proza:
Any comment about this?
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
I'm sorry, for some reason I never received notification about your last message.

To answer your question, yes. You can delete the clockworkmod folder, it will be re-created the next time you create a nandroid ;)
[Galaxy S II General] dmeinder:
Blobs?..... Is that a technical term?
[Galaxy S II General] adrian.h:
If I wanted to bring it back to factory defaults after rooting, how would I go about that?

---------- Post added at 01:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:43 PM ----------

Yeah, actually it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_blob
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
You would download the stock tar.md5 from either sammobile.com (account required) or from dsixda's dev host repo (link in OP... This one will need unzipping to get the tar.md5 inside).

You will flash the tar.md5 file from Odin while the phone is in download mode.

This will put you back to stock (and should also reset your custom binary).

EDIT:

In Odin, put the tar.md5 in the pda slot and do not change any other settings.
[Galaxy S II General] adrian.h:
When you say the original recovery image, does that mean that clockworkmod is gone?

---------- Post added at 03:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:44 PM ----------

Thanks, so this will remove clockworkmod from the system, right? Sorry, I'm just a little paranoid. ;)
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
Yes, you'll lose cwm, but you can always re-flash it after you go back to stock ;) then you have stock with cwm ;)
[Galaxy S II General] adrian.h:
Thanks, now I feel more comfortable flashing ;) now that I can go back to stock. :good:
[Galaxy S II General] chillycrow:
Sasktel problems

I've been able to load CWM without issue, but every time I try to flash a custom ROM (CM or the stock root) the signature verification fails. As far as I can tell, it's probably because I'm on Sasktel instead of Bell. That being said, is there anywhere that has Sasktel-friendly ROM's? I've scoured the forums, but I can't seem to find anything. Any tips/help would be greatly appreciated!
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
I've been looking to fix this, after you flash your ROM and get an error, go to the advanced screen in cwm and select send error report. This will create a log file at /sdcard/clockworkmod/recovery.log. please post this file as it contains the string name of your device and we can add it to the updater scripts ;)
[Galaxy S II General] chillycrow:
I'm fairly new to this, but no matter where I look after flashing my ROM I can't even find the advanced screen. I'm running CWM 6.0.1.1 so I would assume that I should be able to find it, but I can't. Is there a catch?

Sorry if it seems like I'm just wasting your time, thanks for the help anyways!
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
No catch ;) it's on the very first screen when you start cwm. After an error on a Rom flash you can access it by using the back option. Advanced is usually at the bottom of the options list on the first screen ;)
[Galaxy S II General] chillycrow:
That's the thing, when I flash the ROM and get an error message it returns to the original cwm screen. I've tried paging up/down, but an advanced screen is nowhere to be found. I wonder if it's my version of cwm, although I have the most recent one I could find.
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
In order to flash the Rom, you selected the following options:

Install zip from sdcard > install zip from internal/external > Rom zip

Once the Rom finishes flashing, or in this case, errors, you are taken back to the screen where you choose install zip from internal/external. From this screen, the last option will be back. Select it, then you will be taken to the main screen where advanced is the last option ;)
[Galaxy S II General] chillycrow:
When I enter cwm, I select:

apply update from external storage > root/ROM zip

I wonder if I'm even on the right program doing this, because all the menu options seem to be different. I hit power + volume up/down like the original post said, although from that point on it looks like I'm running something different from what you are.

Just to clarify, when cwm loads I have 5 options:

reboot system now

apply update from ext. storage

wipe data/factory reset

wipe cache partition

apply update from cache

Hope this helps, and sorry for making this more complicated than it needs to be ;)
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
No problem at all... I would stop over at dadoes thread and download his cwm. I can't remember what version it is but it has the advanced option.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2175777

From there we can get your model as specified in the build.prop using the steps I mentioned previously with the advanced option in cwm.
[Galaxy S II General] chillycrow:
The cwm that has the advanced options is a zip file instead of a .tar (unless I'm looking in the wrong spot), which creates the same signature error when I try to flash it in my current cwm. I'm beginning to think that my phone has a problem with zip files in general ;)
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
Look at the other link on dadoes page, there is also one for Odin. You shouldn't have a problem with that one ;)
[Galaxy S II General] chillycrow:
That's the cwm I was already running, although I tried it again and the result is the same. I'm not quite sure why my phone feels like being so stubborn ;)
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
No worries, there's more than one way to skin a cat ;) do you have java and the android sdk installed? If so, you could pull your build.prop with the following command:

This will pull your build.prop and copy it to the location from which your opened the command prompt
[Galaxy S II General] chillycrow:
Have it, never used it. If you wouldn't mind explaining the steps that'd be great! In the end it's not a big deal though, so if it's too much hassle don't worry about it :)
[Galaxy S II General] titanic_fanatic:
No problem at all, adb stands for android debugging bridge and is what we use to communicate with our devices through a shell whether it be a Windows command prompt or a Linux shell.

The command I posted is used simply to copy a file from the device to your computer. The steps are simple, open a command prompt window and cd to the location where you want to save the pulled file, then type the command as I posted and it should tell you when it's done pulling. The file should now be available for you to post as an attachment ;)

EDIT:

The device needs to be connected to your computer by usb of course ;)
[Galaxy S II General] chillycrow:
Turns out my adb isn't fully set up, because the command prompt can't find the specified path. How do I set it up properly? Thanks for all your help, by the way :)