yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
how do i check and see if there's anything on MODEM (p8--separating CACHE from FACTORYFS), back it up, and restore it if i have to move it?

--update--

i'm stuck. it hangs on formatting cache. and when i try to rm 7 with parted it just hangs. i've spent probably 4 hours trying to find some way to remove and remake the partition.... PLEASE HELP!!! i've got a friends laptop for today, maybe tomorrow, so i really want to get this thing running finally!

androguide, i know you're in france, so it's evening time there. alot of our communications have been separated by a day. the only time we wind up responding directly to each other is early morning for me, late afternoon for you it seems, but i do appreciate your help! i'd try the int/ext/sd swap if i could get it to boot properly!
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
Don't know what to do here, never happenned to me that rm hangs. Maybe try flashing a different PIT from the one you're usually using.

Can you post the results of your (parted) print please ?
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
parted print is hanging also. i've started posting some questions in the gNote forum. they say i can shrink the cache partition to half its size.... i wonder if i could MODIFY a .pit file to shrink the /cache partition and get it to work that way

---------- Post added at 03:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:58 PM ----------

i posted this in the gNote q&a---its gotten a bunch of views in the past hour, but no replies. tell me what you think:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1881999

--update-- i got an error returned from (parted) rm 7

Error: /dev/block/mmcblk0: unrecognized disk label

--update--

read THIS! how to we get them to add our device to the list? surely they're aware that this is happening to our devices too!

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=28416723&postcount=403

and this:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/8/17/54

does anybody know what this says/means?
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
okay, SO breakthrough:

i reflashed the pit file i've been using, then flashed the atoICS firmware, and it took care of the cache problem i was having. then i got a clean e2fsck on /cache /system and /data.

then i flashed cm10 plus gapps. it's on the boot animation, and i'm letting it run for 30 min.

but if i'm getting a clean ef2sck repeatedly, have i even superbricked my tab? from what i was reading in the gNote forums, there's still debate over whether this is a fried emmc block, or a corruption in the chip firmware.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
here's the depth of the problem. VERY interesting reading in the gNote forums on this issue.... thank you for holding my hand through this androguide!!!!

SO, they're still arguing in the gNote forums as to whether this is happening in the hardware or the firmware.

i'm getting clean ef2sck checks on all partitions, i can wipe cache/factory reset and wipe dalvik with no problems, i used this guy's partition scanner http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1823918 (<----links to files at bottom of OP) to isolate the 'bad sector' and i'm going to go back to your guide and remake my data partition only it looks like.

later, just to see if it works, i may reflash stock HC after flashing the original PIT file. either way it looks like there's light at the end of the tunnel!
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
just wanted to share... this is from http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1823918&page=1
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
This appears to be a patch for Samsung Epic 4g's kernel source code to fix the MMC_CAP_ERASE issue.

And obviously Sammy is aware that the 7.7 suffers from superbrick too, as they must have received thousands of bricked tabs to get repaired, the guarantee should work if you were on unrooted stock ics.

If they really wanted to fix that, they'd have launched an OTA update long long ago, really isn't much work to remove that damn function from their source....

Well dude, you have problems booting and flashing, and following that guide allowed you to revive your tab so the answer is : YES you superbricked your tab.

It happens to me too that the tab won't boot on first try after getting clear e2fsck. If u see it doesn't wanna boot, go check your e2fsck's again, if they're still clear, then wipe /data and /system, run e2fsck on both, then try to boot again, etc... It will finally boot, but the procedure differs a bit everytime.

I'm also pretty sure it's a software problem that triggers a hardware problem, as I can feel the tab being quite hot around the middle of the long-side bezel (sdcard slot side) when it's trying to boot or hanging etc...

Our mmc chip or some other component on the motherboard must be situated here and it's definitely getting hot, and I'm pretty sure I didn't have this hotness before bricking my tab.

My opinion is pretty similar to "person two" in fact ^^ :
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1748588

think we could just do this with the roms we have? btw, after being up for 20 HOURS trying to pin this down, i've realised we're fighting a moving target. download the partition scanner and see what all you get.... grr.. this is frustrating, the link above is one to a dual boot method to turn your sdcard into your internal storage....kinda
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
Looks great ! Yeah seems you can do it, didn't look much into it, but i'll revive my tab tonight and try it.

If you give it a shot please tell me about your results, might well be our holy grail ^^

EDIT : didn't read enough, this need specific kernel modifications, so this won't work. However, I had seen a universal dual boot method that works without any kernel mods, searching for the link.

And yeah, the bad blocks are moving, or is it not the bad blocks that makes mkpartfs hang but simply our hardware ? Don't know.

If the link you posted works, that would be an awesome feature to add to my "Pimp My Rom" script, thanks for posting it :good:

RE- EDIT : Here is the link I was looking for : http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1866675
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
Apparently here's what to do :

Format and Insert your external sd in your tab and boot in recovery, and open an adb shell, then type :

parted /dev/block/mmcblk1

Then partition it (I think you know how to do now ^^) using mkpartfs mmcblk1pXX this order :

mmcblk1p1 : system (minimum 800mb)

mmcblk1p2 : cache (minimum 500mb)

mmcblk1p2 : data (minimum 3gb)

mmcblk1p4 : EFS (minimum 21mb) ---> you can use my Pimp my Rom script to backup your efs easily, just untick everything else if you just want to backup the efs.

Then format those four partitions to ext4 using :

tune2fs –O dir_index,uninit_bg,has_journal /dev/block/mmcblk1pX

Now you need to setup the rom you wanna dual-boot, read the end of the guide ("Repacking a rom for dual boot") : http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1866675

This need some kernel modifications in fact, but here it explains what to do, I have the unpacked kernel in my paranoid sources, so I'll try to bake up a p6810 dual bootable kernel tonight.

If it works, I'll make the same thing for p6800.

The rest is pretty much explained, I'll try it tonight.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
i have a headache and my eyes are crossed. i was up till 8 am trying to be patient with this process....

check out this thread. at the bottom of the OP it has links to a CWM based partition scanner that helps you locate the bad block at the time of flashing... i'm still trying to figure out what triggers the eMMC to assign the "ghost block" somewhere else though. its getting in my way of being able to get a stable boot...... are power cycles a possibility? or EVERY time you wipe /data?

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1823918

the general dual-boot option that you found sounds viable. my friend loaned me a laptop till i figure this out, so after a good long night's rest, i'll start poking around with it. it seems however, that you make the switch manually, as in, once you've set it to boot from external, it does so automatically from then on. GREAT FIND!!!

also, if you're in for a brain twister, check out this conversation. this was my light reading on my lunch break today.....

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1698977
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] sos_sifou:
I kept reading this thread from the first post, and i must say, this is the longest thread av ever seen in any forum between two members, I am very pleased by our fine members of xda.

I really hope that you will be able to recover you tablet alethus.

good luck

best regards

Sifou

Galaxy Tab 7.7
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] cakrabayu:
+1

That's very kind of Androguide.fr :good::good::good:......Andro is very helpful,patient in guiding alethus. I keep monitoring this thread and hope alethus will recover his tablet. good luck..
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
i wish i knew what i was doing wrong... i've gotten the tab running a few times, but no gapps.... as i think about it, i don't really NEED gapps, so i've taken to trying to get cm10 running on it. i MISS MY TAB!!!! i'm going to give it another run, and yes, thank you androguide for all your help!!!! considering the dual boot method, but really just want to get it running and stable before i even bother....

this is the craziest problem i've ever EVER seen on a "smart" phone... to smart for it's own good.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
Yeah I really hate Samsung for this, before buying this damn tab I really thought bricking was a legend. I also miss my tab, even though it's running it hangs regularly, and isn't stable at all, and I passed 10 times more time repairing it than using it to surf or watch movies etc....

The Nexus 7 just got out a week ago in France, I think I'm going to order one soon... Changing my 7.7's motherboard would cost me more than buying a Nexus 7...

Realeasing several devices with such a huge risk of the user messing it up is really an irresponsible thing to do for such a big eom as Sammy...

I guess my sgs3 was the last samsung device I'll ever buy, I love samoleds but you really suck at software Sammy.

About the dual-boot, I checked our kernel sources and our ramdisk, and I can't find any init file which declares the position of partitions, not even a "mmcblk" found in any init file with text search....

As a matter of fact, sammy wanted to do things differently (again...) so our ramdisk differs from the majority of android devices ramdisks, we can't unpack and repack it using perl scripts as it has no header. Although the Tab 2 7.0 is "normal" on that point.

I'll try to contact the dual boot thread's OP, I read the thread and a p6800 owner already asked him for help, but as this guy couldn't get his hand on our ramdisk, the OP couldn't help him. I got the ramdisks from compiling PA so maybe he'll be able to help us.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
I had some motivation today so I revived my tab once again, and I ran the awesome ext2sd script by darz (here), and it worked great, I now have 32gb of internal storage and my tab doesn't hang anymore when downloading !

I tried to make the script usable on init.d but no luck atm. But anyway, running it with script manager or terminal works great too.

Any progress on your side aletheus? Are you still getting mkpartfs stuck ?
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] sachneen:
Hi i have a p6200 and in the adb right after parted i get a message about GPI and it asks me that I can either fix/ignore/cancel this however when i select fix it gets stuck and nothing is reported back as i waited patiently for 10 mins ??

can u please help
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
i have not worked on my tab for a week. i just had to put it down. i'll look into that new thread you posted and see what i can do. was gonna start back on it today. i was going to focus on gettin it to start at all. one thing i thought of on my break from it was this:

if the eMMC controller is randomly assigning a 'ghost' brick to sector on wipe, then its possible that it could reassign the brick to a sector on your new data partition without an e2fsck check picking it up. so now i see why a smaller data partition is desirable because it reduces the risk of the 'ghost brick' being reassigned to your smaller data partition. so this time, after i run the partition scanner, i'm going to make a small data partition on the larger side of the brick and go from there.

once i get the tablet stable and running, i'll work on the extsd solution.

thanks!

---------- Post added at 01:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 PM ----------

this happens to me too. i always wind up getting help from flashing the original pit file and going from there. it seems to help reset the problem at least. but yes, this happens alot when trying to find the right partition. look through this thread and find the link to the partition scanner. you have to flash it from cwm but it works. flash 'find-brick-start.zip' first, write down the number where it stops. youll have to reboot because its frozen. then flash 'find-brick-end.zip' and write down that number when it stops. now you know where your ghost brick is. it will change--somehow, i'm not sure how.

but while you know where it is, now's the time to repartition your data partition. you may not have to repartition system. if you don't have to, by all means DON'T! less is more here it seems.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
how did this wind up working for you? i have yet to try it. resigned myself to getting a gNote 10.1 on monday. but i'm not giving up on my tab.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] alnon:
hi

thank you for this thread! my tab is now going. but i have one problem:

if i want to resize DATAFS it came the error:unable to satisfy all constraints on the partition.

can you say me what i can do please? now i have "only" 500mb and i want more:)

thanks
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
You can use adb resize but you got to use the same start value, otherwise it will display the error you get.

But the best advice I can give if you want more internal storage is to use darz's ext2sd script, that will allow you to use your external sdcard as your internal storage, I actually have 32gb of internal memory on my (formerly) bricked tab.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] alnon:
is stable? and if you download apps, runs the tab? my tab is hanging if i want install or downloading a app!! and i need apps!!

i will try it tomorow with the ext2sd script.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Steve_max:
This may be of assistance for some:

[APP] PIT Magic v1.0.8 - Creator, Editor and Analyzer for Samsung PIT Files.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] alnon:
Hi

i have a problem to install .apk with adb. if i write: adb install appname.apk cames the answer /sbin/sh: pm: not found !

who can help me??

on my tab runs paranoid 2.16 and i will make to swap sdcard intern and i need 2 apps do this. if i download them from playstore the tab hangs!

thanks a lot:)
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] alnon:
update:

to install the apps with adb,i made the failure, that my tab was in recovery not in normal mode.

the next thing i have is that the script manager not runs. if i open it, its stopped. have anyone an idea??

thanks
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] alnon:
hi

so, now my tab runs and I swaped the intern with extern sdcard. when i go into settings and storage than i see that i have enough space 26gb free from my 32gb card and it shows me as internal storage. but if i install apps the tab takes them to real internal storage and thats only 500mb and theres only 75mb free.

can anybody help to do thats the apps goes to the swaped sdcard?

lg

alnon
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] GooG2e:
How can I unbrick my tab if i cannot load download mode or recovery - it's not enable anything??
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] alnon:
Nobody here to answer my questions?????

What can I make??:

I made this in your first post many times and i become only 700mb. a few days before my tab was in a handystore where they "made"my tabe, its not ready but i have now 6,5gb data space. i flashed now Paranoid2.20, its nice, but i have the problem that my tab stopped when i download anything (playstore, website,...) and than i must reboot it two or third times.... thats makes not happy.

can anybody help me?? PLEASE!!!!!!!
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
As explained before in this thread, you need to use the ext2sd script by darz, which will allow you to have up to 64gb of internal storage and fix the freeze issues when downloading or installing anything. (By swapping external sd with your corrupted emmc)
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] alnon:
i made this before, but not with your rom and the tab always downloaded to the intern sd and when i see in the options of space the intern and extern already swaped!!

shall i try with your rom?? (paranoid 2.20)
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] alnon:
hello!

i try it yesterday, but its hangs also. the tabs swaped the internal and external but it stopped also. i don´t know what i can do to run my tab without hangings! i also asked by the service partner from samsung in austria, but the don´t repair tabs if there a costumware on it!! :crying:

is it right, thats only the original software can rapair the tap?(datafs)
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] alnon:
Which comands needed when i have thw twrp as recovery?? if i write adb shell this comes: ~# [6n if i write the command with parted.... than comes /sbin/sh: parted: not found .....

what can i make???
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
It's exactly the same thing, adb doesn't depend on the recovery.

~# is the normal output of the adb shell command

type the parted commands after having typed adb shell (so this means after the ~#) just follow the guide to the letter and you'll be fine
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
I wish i could understand this...i went out and gotthe gNote 10.1, ad LOVE it, bt i still miss the 7.7... its sitting on my shelf. Does this JUST swap the data partition? Or does it create the entire partition table on the extSD?

---
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
Hi altheus,

Basically there's now something even better out : CronMod scripts

This guy's universal scripts (take the INT2EXT4 version) allow to mount external-sd on /data so the emmc isn't even used anymore.

The other versions allow to move these to external sd (but mounting ext-sd to /data works better I guess) :

- /data/data

- /data/app

- /data/app-private

- /data/dalvik-cache

I've gotten myself a nexus 7 since, but I'll soon make a brick/revive of my 7.7 to flash my latest PA build and will try this out.

Btw, I'll soon be maintaining Paranoid Android for the n8000, so I'll see you there^^
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] alnon:
Hi all

If i install .apk's from my laptop via ADB my tab runs and runs also the apps and its dont Stopps or hanging. I don't understand this, because ADB install the apps also on the "internal sd" and if i download from playstore or other its hanging and i must reboot and reboot....

Can anyone say to me that i unterstand it?

Gesendet von meinem GT-P6800 mit Tapatalk 2
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
This is because, on reboot, the corrupt administration layer of the intrrnal memory's firmware is reassigning the 'bad' block to a spot on your data partition. This is why you get the most success with the smallest DATAFS partition, because you're less likely to be hit by the superbrick--

There is general agreement in the Note forums that formatting your external sd, and swapping your data partition with it will fix the gapps and market problem.

---
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] madstunt:
Hello!

I'm new to the GT7.7 community, and I've got some questions, because fortunately I have no superbrick kinda thing with my previous devices.

So: Is this problem affecting ALL stock roms, not only the ICS builds ?

Does a cwm enough to prevent from superbricking or a custom rom above it is musthave to prevent the bricking?
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
Hi, first of all yes, only ICS stock kernels include this damn MMC_CAP_ERASE thing.

CWM should get you safe from bricking your tab while wiping something in recovery, but imo the brick might also happen simply by deleting a large amount of data at once even in a file explorer app.

If you really want to use the stock ics firmware (even though this would be silly^^), I recommend you use Ezy ICS kernel which is for stock ics roms and has the superbrick bug removed, among other improvements.

However, simply using a cm10-based, android 4.1.2 rom (so basically either cm10 or PA) will also get you safe from brick, and give you the smoothness that stock is lacking of.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] thebobp:
Just to be sure, do we still have to flash the custom rom before cwm-wiping (as you said in the OP), or is cwm automatically safe?

I idiotically wiped data/davlik in cwm (stock 4.04, using locerra's cwm flashed by mobile odin) because I forgot to check this "general" forum. [imo this thread should be sticky hotlinked from the dev forum as well :U] I'm wondering how worried I should be.

</tab noob>
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] edan1979:
locerra cwm is a custom cwm which is already safe from the stupid MMC_CAP_ERASE command...
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] billy_overheat:
trying to flash stock ICS on PA with mobile odin. stuck.

flashed through ODIN. stuck too.

anyone? @@ weird.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
I just wanted to share,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tablet-PC-M...ablet_eReader_Accessories&hash=item2c69653e62

I'm ordering mine a week from Thursday, so don't buy them all up before the 15th. Will post here if all goes well.

sent from door number one
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
This is awesome, please don't forget to post your results -and, if possible an explaination of how you replaced-it if you did the operation yourself, or how much you were charged to get it replaced- .

I'll definitely order one if you received it and that it's not too expensive to have someone replacing the board for me.

EDIT : dammit they don't have P6810 boards. Not sure if it would work to use the P6800 board on a p6810, any thoughts ?
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
Shouldn't be any more of a problem than no opening on the case, hell you could put a SIM in before you close it back up and have a p6800!

I'm definitely getting it on the 15th, says it takes a few weeks from HK. So I'll definitely keep you posted.

sent from door number one
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
Lol yeah it could be nice to have a sim slot in my p6810^^ If I decide to do this I'll definitely try to flash a p6800 rom and see if it works with a sim.

Are you sure there is no welding to do in order to connect the board to other components ? Would be awesome if you could put up a few pictures of the inside of your tab and the different steps involved in replacing the motherboard when you do so. Would make one hell of a sticky thread.
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
Here's a tear down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urGUKerJOhg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

sent from door number one
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
Awesome, the 7.7 motherboard has snap-on connectors so it should be easy. Opening the case looks tough though^^

But hell, the motherboard on ebay doesn't look like the original one in this video, it's not even L-shaped like it is in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phCG3Pq4Cq8

Well, maybe the picture on ebay isn't the specific 7.7 board picture
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] aletheus:
Sent the wrong video... that's the original gtab

Here's the 7.7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phCG3Pq4Cq8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

And Yes thats what im hoping, wrong inventory image.

sent from door number one
[Galaxy Tab 7.7 General] Androguide.fr:
Judging from their ebay rating and the number of feedbacks they should be sending the right board, no problem. Thanks for taking the risk anyway^^