yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] groksteady:
aargh. didn't work. Heimdall on Linux does let me repartition, but on the reboot I still get errors that /efs can't be mounted, multi-CSC can't be applied, etc. I tried ezbase recovery and the full stock setup for the original provider from sammobile. I tried deleting /efs, full wiping and pulling the battery like you suggested. I tried separately flashing a dbdata.rfs in heimdall, which was suggested for someone else with mount problems. but, it seems like all the other mount problems people have are with sdcard, and not /efs.

If I restore /efs, is it supposed to write data to /dev/block/stl3? because that file is always 0kb. But I could try the dd command to restore that way... maybe later tonight. it's been a long afternoon working through this.

I also don't know what is the deal with not being able to find /etc/fstab. I saw in some other places that Android doesn't use it, so I don't know what's calling it, and why. Or if that's tied to why I can't flash anything beyond a GB rom; I get errors about /tmp/updater.sh.

EDIT: OK, so at some point with ezbase recovery and manually restoring nv_data.bin to /efs, after a little while I saw that my /sys/block/stl3 (and so /dev/block/stl3) were looking normal. I successfully restored the file, plus the IMEI folder, which has bluetooth info. I did this with flight mode on, toggled it off and connected to my network. About Phone was showing my real IMEI, plus BT and wifi MAC addresses. And I had /sys/block/stl3 looking normal. So I ran the dd if=/sys/block/stl3 of=/sdcard/efs.rfs, and used that efs.rfs file to flash full roms in heimdall, repartitioned. I used ezbase recovery and the stock firmware from sammobile.com for the original mobile provider. Neither worked. On first boot both times, I got errors about not being able to mount /efs or apply multi-CSC. My IMEI on reboot is always "unknown", not even all zeroes, until I fix it. And CWM won't flash any CM7 or CM9 zips, giving status 7 errors that it couldn't mount. I also tried flashing the efs.rfs file alone in heimdall command line, and that didn't work. Ezbase is 2.3.3 and my stock is 2.3.5, and serial number info indicates it was made in 2011 or really late 2010 (i'm loathe to pull the battery off these days), so I wouldn't think Froyo could help out. I've reached out to a few people here who had the same problem, but never posted about a fix, or finally giving up. I'm almost at my wit's end. There must be a solution, some way to reformat or push back /efs data to /stl3.

BTW, can anyone post the filenames of what is in /sys/data/stl3 for their i9000? I'd like to know if I'm missing something in there, at least when it does fill up. Right now, I'm thinking it's gotta be a bad partition.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] xsenman:
weird..just can't help wondering why it seems so difficult, I assume you are always practicing standard requirements before and after flashing like

1. Using CWM, make sure to wipe data/factory reset,

2. Then wipe cache, and then go into advanced, and wipe the dalvik cache too.

3. From there, flash the ROM

4. Afterwards, repeat the wipe step as in step #1

5. Continuing on, go into advanced and fix permissions.

6. Finally, reboot the device.

In my version its even more stricter, take a look this is required for an uncomplicated Flash
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] groksteady:
Hm, I've always done 1-3, as that's what's prescribed in most installation instructions, and still Dalvik even if it's not specified. I've only ever wiped post-flash a couple times, and only because it was mentioned in some threads, plus a whole re-flash of the rom. And I'd never heard of fixing permissions after flashing until HellyBean, but I always did with that.

This problem came up coming off of HellyBean with the test idle2 kernel, to AOKP JB, which apparently boots after a status 7 error and abort, but I only knew that later and didn't try that. I then flashed Semaphore to get to the working CWM 6 backups, and ended up in a loop of recovery modes. In hindsight I should have flashed a whole rom -- I went from a datadata rom to one without that I never booted, then to a kernel without datadata just to get the recovery and nandroid.

Rats, I didn't even think about that.until just now typing this out.

sent from a telephonic device
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] groksteady:
IMEI BACK.

There was a link in a post here that got me there -- basically, someone uploaded an efs.rfs file. Mods, flag me if this is illegal/against rules, but I'd guess it's not because the file gives you the 0049 IMEI.

But for me that didn't matter -- my partition or the linking was screwed up somehow, and I needed a proper one to flash in Heimdall. I couldn't simply correct my nv_data.bin backup and then export bml3.

The Spanish forum link goes to a dead upload, but I was able to find the file BML3_RESTORE.tar.md5 on Rapidshare. If you need this, it was a rollercoaster. At this point I didn't expect anything to work, and I'm still suspicious of finding a file on the web and flashing it without at least some community I can "talk" to about it.

What happened with the file: I flashed it in heimdall, onto a pretty overloaded and laggy JW5. Rebooted, and immediately saw the circle-and-slash no signal logo, so thought it didn't work -- then it pops up to four bars. I swipe to unlock the screen and it completely freezes. So I went back to ezbase recovery kit and flashed the whole thing (with the CF-root kernel, not stock) plus the efs.rfs file. I didn't repartition because I'm on a Mac, and that doesn't work for some reason, and the linux live CD is painfully slow. It flashes, and after completion, I still get a bunch of errors about mounting, but i get a success message about applying multi-CSC. I reboot, and About Phone shows the fake IMEI, but the homescreen is showing my provider. Also, the file explorer showed my internal and external sdcards.

I reinstalled Root Explorer with Titanium Backup, deleted all in /efs and dropped in my backed up nv_data.bin, changed perms and ownership to radio and radio. Exited folder and reopened, and it was all repopulated. Then I dropped in my backup of the /efs/IMEI folder, only because that has a file with BT info and that didn't regenerate. Rebooted, and all was still there! Finally getting out of this weeklong rabbit hole, and able to come back up to ICS with my real IMEI.

Word of caution, though, if going back up from there to one of the latest ICSes. There's people saying to take the latest CM9 nightly -- if you do that, you're flashing up to CWM 6. If you want to go from there to any of several other ICS roms, you might run into a problem because they might be CWM 5.*. After I had CM9 booted, I went into recovery to flash AOKP M6, lost recovery and ended up having to go *back again* to heimdall. Then onto Team Hacksung's CM9 build 16, then finally to AOKP. Done. And I think at this point I'll lay off the Jellybeans for a little while.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] xsenman:
This is great, Now in order to get others who may get into this situation, out of this mess, can you post a step by step guide ( simplified as much as possible) :D

such that I can link your post to my EFS problems and solutions post, already downloaded Bml3 and will upload to another , so a step by step guide to resolve this will be helpful to others.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] groksteady:
Sure thing... I'll amend the OP later today. So glad to be out of this mess. I seriously thought I'd be manually restoring my imei on every reboot until I get a new phone.

sent from a telephonic device
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] groksteady:
xsenman, I changed the OP to a guide, hopefully the symptoms and instructions are clear enough. and thanks for talking me through this; I was losing my mind, and so close to throwing my phone in the river.

for anyone else: xsenman was helping me in another thread too. There, I mention how the official Samsung Service Center here said I had a memory board problem, can't recover IMEI without replacing that, for US$150. I went to one of the many phone seller shops with decent hackers/tinkerers, and they couldn't do it either, and they had Octopus Boxes, or at least a box for Samsung.

anyway. HTH others.

and a tinfoil-hat request: anyone who is able to look at the file attached in the OP, can you see if there's anything troubling or 'weird' in it. I just found the damn thing and tried it. It wasn't the most security-conscious step, but I was in a pinch.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Psykologikal:
so i had this same problem flashing hellybean 20120820 and used one of the guides here to return to stock then copied my good efs off to my computer flashed all the way back then restored the efs folder but it wouldnt stick. I tried several times fixing permissions and a few other suggestions on this forum but nothing worked. Finally i read somewhere that the cache would restore the efs folder if it wasnt cleared, so i restored my efs thru root explorer to the good one from gingerbread rebooted to recovery, wiped cache, and rebooted. Voila it finally stuck, i dont know exactly why it worked or where i heard clear the cache but it did. Maybe it will work for oyu
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] groksteady:
Huh, that's cool. I hadn't read that anywhere before. I'm not in that jam anymore, but its good to know.

I do wonder if I all the other 'normal' methods never worked for me because I was using Heimdall. It shouldn't make a difference, but I did run into basic common problems, like repartitioning not working on Macs.

Thanks for the tip. I hope I won't need to try it. ;)

sent from a telephonic device
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nsnobel2:
I have SC-01C docom tab. during unlocking its imei became null and baseband became unknow. I try this tutorial and result in imei 0000946xxxxx.

But when I restart tab. Imei again null.

Note: there is no option of 644 in Permission.

Please help me to solve this.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] groksteady:
Sorry to get to this reply so late. And, that I'm not sure I can help you -- I don't know anything about this tablet. This guide helped me with a Samsung Galaxy S i9000. From a quick search online, the PIT file you'd use is different. I don't know for sure, but I would guess it's possible that your EFS partition is different from the i9000, and this method would not work for you.

For permissions, you should be able to change them by long-pressing a file in Root Explorer, Root Browser or similar apps; it's not an option you choose, you manually toggle r/w, r and r for owner, group and others, respectively. Or you can use the chmod command in Terminal to set to 644, same thing.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] War Report:
hi guys..having problems to get my real imei back..i'm at the point that my imei is 0049xxxxxx..i did not a backup of my efs folder befor..so how can i get my real imei back??plz need help..
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] groksteady:
Any of the methods to restore IMEI will require that you previously made a backup.

Best thing you could do now is poke through your internal SD. There may be a folder called 'backup' that could have your efs folder backed up. Something is creating it lately, I think in CM10 builds.

Also: do you have a nandroid with a valid IMEI?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] War Report:
hi groksteady..frist thx for reply..

On the internal SD is no backup to find..nandroid backup is also missing..

but i got a EFS PRO backup of my old i9000(already sold it)..my brothers one is with the wrong IMEI..

do u have any idea how we can use it,to fix the wrong IMEI..already try to put it on the wrong IMEI via EFS PRO but its not working..
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] alireza7991:
Does Backups from TWRP save Imeil ? My phone is SGS+
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baalzotek:
Thx

Hi,

It works for me!

Thanks!!!!!!!!
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vampire949:
thnq :)

IMEI BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK :D

ThanQ MAn :)

---------- Post added at 04:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:52 PM ----------

but low signal strength ??

is there any solution for this problem ??

thnq again
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] groksteady:
glad it worked! and thanks for letting me know. as for low signal, what about trying another modem? not sure why whatever you used before would be weaker now, but maybe try one, and if that doesn't suit you, then flash your old one again. i often go back and forth between two different ones, depending on where i am around here.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vampire949:
how can i know if the modem Compatible with my rom ?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sakunakia:
plz help

my samsung galaxy s gt i9000 had the korean software i tried to root it fro CF root. after that it wont turning on....it showd a weaired screen with various colors.. finally i managed to go to odin and upgraded to gingerbread i worked fine....

but....

phone unknown no imie ,base band unknown, wont detect sim card , no sounds and home button doset work plz any one can help me to fix this.....plz frens......(some of them say its a type of soft brick,so plz ,how can i fix it)
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] drummerian:
i'm getting an error message of 'ERROR: failed to confirm end of file transfer sequence.

Same message with 2 diff computers one on windows one on linux.

Anyone able to hlep me with this, serching hasn't helped yet!
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TotallydubbedHD:
HI there:

"- Restore actual IMEI. This requires that you previously backed up your /efs folder. Restoring this is documented better and more thoroughly elsewhere. I went into my /efs backup folder and copied nv_data.bin to /efs. This is easy with Root Explorer. Press the filename, select copy, navigate back up and to /efs. At the top of the screen, click Mount R/W. Delete everything in there (menu, multi-select, select all, delete). Paste the file. Long press the file, change permissions. Make it 644 (Owner is Read+Write, others are Read), save. Long press again, scroll toward bottom of menu and Change Ownership. Make it Radio (1001) and Radio (1001), save. Click to Mount R/O and exit."

On that stage - if I don't have a backup of the IMEI number - is there anyway of being able to do it?

I'm on the "dummy" IMEI number on my mum's phone.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Samb007:
does this work on i9003..???:D
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Nymalu:
Thank you !! I've rescued my Galaxy Tab !!!

Thank you !! I've rescued my Galaxy Tab !!! many many thanks !
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] madhur1209:
hi,

it will be helpful if anyone can help me with the following noob quiestions

1. can i use the file 'BML3_RESTORE.tar' directly with odin or i need to make it .md5

2. if need .md5 then what is the way to do it, i am using windows.

3. i dont have the original backup of efs folder, is there anything i can do now ??

any help will be highly appreciated.

UPDATED :

I tried flashing with Odin and it said sucessful but on reboot my baseband still shows 'unknown' where as their is no dummy IMEI either.

I am using Galaxy SL (I9003), stock Gingerbread.DDMF1.

can anyone help me out please.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] paulicu.andrei:
I tried everything found here on xda, and all googled solutions....nothing worked. unknown baseband and no imei are my problems on i9000. when I connect the charger, or usb cable, after 4-5 second my imei is restored. I don't know how. after reboot, imei is gone. flashing stock ROM solves the problem, but after rooting and flashing any custom ROM, imei is gone again. anyone had this problem before? because I don't know how to fix it, I tried everything
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] newguysgsi9000:
wrong imei/efs backup broken maybe

hi,

read about 3 guides to restoring imei, none works.

i've first backed up the folder with an app EFS Backup Tool, which automatically copied the files from root/efs to sdcard and i copy all that on pc.

then i proceed to flash slimkat 4.4.2 for i9000(locked in vodafone romania if that counts) phone restarts properly all stuff starts, but a get a warrning popup that imei is corrupted and it may cause problems including calling emergency.

i do have carrier, can call/sms, use 3g, i have baseband version, all i don't have is proper imei. instead i see dummy imei sv 01.

i used x-plorer with root access and settings modified to best permissions(modify read only) the efs set to rw-r-r or rwe-r-r radio 1001 owner and group, but after restart permission reset to rwe-rwe, tried restart with cache wipe and w/o.

tried the guide for efs not saving after restart still not working. please help. also having a bad imei with network connection working is that bad or problematic? can i get banned locked from my carrier later or called by the police? can i just keep dummy imei if i have working phone and network and gapps.

thanks in advance.

additional info.

opening the bak efs folder i see

nv states shows only "1"

nv.log

"Mon Nov 17 21:26:29 2014: No NV backup found. Create one before MD5 on.

Mon Nov 17 21:26:29 2014: NV data back-up begin.

Mon Nov 17 21:26:29 2014: nv_data.bin does not exist.

Mon Nov 17 21:26:29 2014: NV data backup stopped due to NV data size.

Mon Nov 17 21:26:29 2014: MD5 is turned on.

Mon Nov 17 21:26:29 2014: nv_data.bin does not exist.

Mon Nov 17 21:26:31 2014: default NV restored."

nv_data.bin.md5 shows some line with letters and numbers not sure if i should share it.

nv_data.bin can't see nothing understandable with notepad++
[Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Pitico:
Hello all,

I am new to android and I need a little help.

So, in the end I want to have my phone running Cmernard's OverStock Kernel and I want it to run CyanogenMod 9 nightly build. Last but not least I want the ClockworkMod recovery

Any step by step guides? I appreciate any help that can be offered.

Thanks in advance!

-Piero
[Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] iKoolkid:
Use aio toolbox and have a net4 installed. Then download the rom, and open the toolbox. Then press root, do the instuctions, and press flash ROM. Follow instructions. After that, wait for the phone to boot then let it settle. For the kernel, just go into recovery after downloading the kernel to your phone, then select install zip from SD card then navigate to the folder which has the kernel. You may have to move the file to the SD card if it does not mix SD card and internal storage, like me. Make sure the kernel is for ICS or you will get boot looped. Good luck

Sent from my Jellied out Vibrant sandwich.

Check out the Hellybean nightlies Here and here and the Devil Kernel for ICS here and Jelly Bean here for the Galaxy S and variants.
[Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] FaultException:
Don't use OverStock with CM9.
[Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Woody:
Overstock is for Gingerbread.

CM9 is ICS variant.

They don't go together.
[Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AlexRamallo:
Hi,

I recently received the OTA update for Jelly Bean, and I upgraded with no problems. However, now, my power button is only working when it wants to. If press it a bunch of times, it might turn on if I'm lucky, but most of the time it doesn't work. Right now, the only way for me to activate my screen is by connecting the charger, or asking someone to call me. The only way to turn off the screen is to wait for it to turn off! As you can imagine, I am quite PO'ed by this problem.

Has anyone run into a similar situation? It seems like a software issue to me because before the update, the button was working perfectly. Everything is stock, by the way. I was on CM9 before the update, but I flashed to stock ICS so that I could install the OTA update. I don't have the clockworkmod recovery anymore either.

Please help! :(

UPDATE:

I did a little hack to fix it, at least temporarily. Not sure how long it will last now, but at least it didn't cost me any $$$.

quoting myself from below:
[Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chronophase1:
Sounds like infamous broken power button, which our phones suffer from.

Check this for a workaround.
[Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tankerglenn:
Happened to me too. I tried to comfort myself into thinking it was a software problem. If your bootloader is unlocked and you're rooted, boot into recovery using Quick Boot and try to flash another rom and see if it solves anything. But I'm not hopeful. Most likely your power button just decided to give way.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.siriusapplications.quickboot

For now, if you set the lock screen to 'none' you can turn the phone on if you press the volume buttons.

If you're using a custom rom, I'm sure there's a option to wake the device using volume button under the display settings.

If you're using cm10, you can add the sleep button to the power widgets.
[Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AlexRamallo:
Thanks for the reply guys. That's what I love about this forum: someone always has an answer to everything. :D

If the button actually broke I'm going to be very disappointed since I was trying to sell it to get a galaxy nexus. Horrible timing. :crying:

I Just found something weird. When I pull the battery, I can't power on the device with the power button, but if I connect the charger, then the button works. That is, it will power on when I press the button, not automatically when I connect the cable. Yes, the cable shows the charging icon, but it doesn't boot until I press the power button.

I still haven't flashed back to ICS to see if that fixed anything, but I'll post an update when I do.
[Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AlexRamallo:
I couldn't figure out how to root my phone without a power button because I'm a lazy guy and a work-around just isn't worth the trouble imo. So, instead, I decided to just open it up and see if I could fix it....and I did :D

First things first though:

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES TO YOUR PHONE THAT MAY ARISE FROM THIS METHOD!

It's not a permanent fix, more like a hack, but a hack is better than a work-around any day. What I did was find the button on the motherboard, and then 'pinch' it with a small pair of pliers. My original fear was that the problem lied elsewhere on the phone because the actual button seemed to be clicking properly, but it's pretty much impossible to figure out what else the button is connected to and fix it. Luckily, pinching it made it work! I guess that the clicking mechanism isn't the same thing as what makes the contact in the button. If you are going to try pinching it, try not to pinch too hard. I did it a little too hard, and now the button doesn't come out as much as it used to, so it doesn't feel as good as the volume buttons. I'm pretty sure you just need to squeeze it enough so that it gets squished enough to make contact when you press it. Squeezing too much could almost definitely result in destroyed button.

So if anyone has the problem on their phone, and doesn't feel like paying a bunch of money and waiting a long time for it to be fixed, you can try this method to fix it (probably temporarily). Only problem, I guess, would be that you'd have to be more careful with how you treat the power button from now on. If you are good with a soldering iron and working with tiny components, you can probably find a new button on the internet and replace it yourself.
[Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] remydakid:
hopefully samsung issues a patch or something, this is just sad. after I did the OTA my power button also S#1T the bed. thanks to all the people who came up with the suggestions above...