yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Guys, if you get that "read_mod_link: failed to readlink "/system1/vendor": No such file or directory" error you currently are bricked. There's no way to recover until:

a) Sony releases an update which does not suck and is actually able to recover something (I doubt it since they haven't done it before)

b) Somebody from Sony leaks private key used to sign updates so we can sign our own update.zip (highly unlikely...)

c) Somebody finds a way to crack recovery from recovery itself (possible but I doubt it since it has not happened before)

d) Somebody finds out how to flip /blflags (possible, but I haven't been able to figure out how)

So we are screwed, there's no way to recover for now.

Ps. If anybody from Sony is reading this, please give us update.zip or something else which will flip blflags which would allow us to reover using standard firmware. Otherway you risk receiving bricked tablets to your sevice centers even though they are not really bricked, we just do not have proper update.zip. Highly unlikely though that anybody from Sony is reading this, at least anybody who can make the decision...
[Sony Tablet S] dex9mm:
Man im roight there with you ok evey one who has used the flasher STOP FLASHING

If your stuck on sony screen during flashing But can flash back to ics do and saty there

If it is not booting then I dont have an answer just a warning

I was the first to post about the flsaher giving trouble but nobody checks these fourms till there is a prioblem and thats why people strat at step three and then ask where did I go wrong ive been posting since the twentith so its not like the warning signs wernt there

However if your realy want the update download it via ics then root with condis tool and flasdh

and you boot in to jb there is no root acknowledgement by 3rd party apps there is root due to the kernal condi provides but it is rooted

If

And why is the chager cable so short

Pm me if you need help

dont ask for condi by the way hes just got married
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
The commands work, the tablet has changed though. Black screen, status bar is still there and I'm back to the old Home.apk force closing.

Can't produce a log either as your program says it is unable to figure system partitions.

What about my system.img inside the data/local/tmp folder? That hasn't been touched yet has it?
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Don't worry. We just mounted JB system to youd ICS installation, no wonder EVERYTHING is crashing. We needed to do that because we cannot flash partition which is under use!

But if you still have shell access, then try to flash system.img to your system0. Double check that system.img you pushed to your device is correct sie and everything:

ls -l /tmp/system.img

Check that size matches to file on your computer! I assume you pushed system.img to /tmp...

Then if everything matches, flash system0:

/data/local/tmp/busybox if=/tmp/system.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
su not found!
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
After that, do not reboot (if you system is still running that is). Let's swap partitions back into working order...

install -d /data/local/tmp/systmp
/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o move /system /data/local/tmp/systmp
/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -t ext4 -o ro /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /system

This will not fix you crashing applications, but my xtsdump.bat could work now... Run it and attach... DO NOT REBOOT. If something is screwed your device won't boot anymore even to ICS...
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Ah. I assumed you did "adb shell" and then "su", after which superuser rights would be in effect. Oh dear, let's see if you can still have root... Could you run "adb shell" and FROM shell type in:

/data/local/tmp/syscurrent/xbin/su

or if it does not work

/data/local/tmp/syscurrent/bin/su

What happens?
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
su:unknown user root
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Well damn... You just need to reboot now, no other choice AFAIK. Reboot, what happens?

Edit: Since you had to reboot... I wanted to avoid it at all cost. but IF you are still able to boot, then you could just as well now try to again flash OTA JB from recovery since both vendor0 and vendor1 are now at least for correct region unlike last time.
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Strange, even after doing all that, I can boot back up to Ice Cream Sandwich with no force closes or black screens lol

Will try to install JB.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
That was expected as we actually did not flash anything yet and rebooting restored pretty much everything like it was. Only thing changed was that now you have vendor0 from JB which has correct region set. It just could be possible that flashing OTA could work...

But if not, let's still try to do it manually... Let us know what happened after JB OT flashing...
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Stuck on Sony logo again..... blah blah blah lol

I also have root...
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
So let's do what we were doing at first... Boot and start "adb shell" but keep that same shell during commands, do not exit! Otherwise the same thing happens.

So, push your system.img to /tmp or somehwere, verify it has correct size etc. Then move current system away (programs may start carshing etc.):

cp /system/xbin/busybox /data/local/tmp/
cp /system/xbin/su /data/local/tmp/
install -d /data/local/tmp/syscurrent
/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o move /system /data/local/tmp/syscurrent
/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -t ext4 -o ro /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 /system

Then flash and pray:

/data/local/tmp/busybox if=/tmp/system.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3

After that re-move partitions:

install -d /data/local/tmp/systmp
/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o move /system /data/local/tmp/systmp
/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -t ext4 -o ro /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /system

You have still your device running?

Edit: Probably better push system.img to /mnt/sdcard, this way it won't disappear on boot...
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
/data/local/tmp/busybox if=/tmp/system.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3

system.img: applet not found.

It is there though, in /data/local/tmp/system.img
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Ah sorry, use this:

/data/local/tmp/busybox dd if=/data/local/tmp/system.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3

Again I forgot that dd! Be SURE that file has correct size!
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
deleted to avoid confusion
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
That seems to be working - looks like it'll take a while though.

---------- Post added at 06:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:24 PM ----------

install -d /data/local/tmp/systmp - sh: install not found
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Ok good. Ignore previous posts to avoid confusion. Try to reroot your /system:

cp /data/local/tmp/su /system/xbin
chown root:root /system/xbin/su
chmod 6755 /system/xbin/su

Does this work? AND DO NOT CLOSE YOUR SHELL.
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
cp not found?

I'm still in the same shell.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Ok, try:

/data/local/tmp/busybox cp /data/local/tmp/su /system/xbin/
/data/local/tmp/busybox chown root:root /system/xbin/su
/data/local/tmp/busybox chmod 6755 /system/xbin/su
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Chown unknown user/group root:root
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
I am too hasty and do not think forward enough... So try:

/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o remount,rw /system
/data/local/tmp/busybox cp /data/local/tmp/su /system/xbin/
/data/local/tmp/busybox chown root:root /system/xbin/su
/data/local/tmp/busybox chmod 6755 /system/xbin/su

If it works, then root also your system0:

/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o remount,rw /data/local/tmp/syscurrent
/data/local/tmp/busybox cp /data/local/tmp/su /data/local/tmp/syscurrent/xbin/
/data/local/tmp/busybox chown root:root /data/local/tmp/syscurrent/xbin/su
/data/local/tmp/busybox chmod 6755 /data/local/tmp/syscurrent/xbin/su

Works? No?

Then re-arrange your system partitions:

/data/local/tmp/busybox install -d /data/local/tmp/systmp
/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o move /system /data/local/tmp/systmp
/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o move /data/local/tmp/syscurrent /system
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
I just updated last steps a bit, if you did not do them yet. Jusr refresh my post and carry on...
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Wait, wait for a while. I just realized something... I'll give you new steps soon. Or rather, what is last step you did?
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
/data/local/tmp/busybox cp /data/local/tmp/su /data/local/tmp/syscurrent/xbin/ - cp can't create "/data/local/tmp/syscurrent/xbin/su" Invalid Argument

Will be away from the computer for a bit, but leave for steps here for my return please.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Yeah that was the thing I noticed (syscurrent was lesft mounted while flashing)... Since you still have root, let's re-flash JUST TO BE SURE. Could you do this (it will reflash):

/data/local/tmp/busybox umount /data/local/tmp/syscurrent
/data/local/tmp/busybox dd if=/tmp/system.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3

After this completes, re-arrange partitions:

/data/local/tmp/busybox install -d /data/local/tmp/systmp
/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o move /system /data/local/tmp/systmp
/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -t ext4 -o rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /system

If still works, root your now-new-old-system:

/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o remount,rw /system
/data/local/tmp/busybox cp /data/local/tmp/su /system/xbin/
/data/local/tmp/busybox chown 0:0 /system/xbin/su
/data/local/tmp/busybox chmod 6755 /system/xbin/su

What happens? Sorry about these unnecessary complicated steps. It is just that I have not been able to test everything.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Again refresh my last post, it had some minor errors (ro -> rw, root -> 0)...
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
umount: applet not found - first line.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Wait what... Are you 100% sure you wrote it like this:

/data/local/tmp/busybox umount /data/local/tmp/syscurrent

Could you then try plain umount instead:

umount /data/local/tmp/syscurrent
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
sh: unmount: can't find unmount.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Please do not do any step if one of them gives you error. Every command will depend on previous command to succeed! It's like a big tetris game - you will leave one hole somewhere and sorry, no score!
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Please be 100% exact! You typed in unmount, which is not correct! Correct command is umount! This is very important...
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Also I am not sure if that busybox version should fail. Could you try again:

/data/local/tmp/busybox umount /data/local/tmp/syscurrent

Be very careful to type everything in correctly.
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Sorry, I was putting unmount!

Can't unmount, device or resource busy.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Damn. Can you give me output of command "/data/local/tmp/busybox mount" so I can get back to track... Your shell is not cd'd to that directory it is not?
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
rootfs on / type rootfs (ro,relatime)

tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,mode=755)

devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,relatime,mode=600)

proc on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)

sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,relatime)

debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 on /configs type ext2 (ro,nosuid,relatime)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 on /params type ext4 (ro,relatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,

data=ordered)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 on /datapp type ext4 (ro,nosuid,relatime,user_xattr,acl,bar

rier=1,data=ordered)

none on /acct type cgroup (rw,relatime,cpuacct)

tmpfs on /mnt/asec type tmpfs (rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000)

tmpfs on /mnt/obb type tmpfs (rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000)

none on /dev/cpuctl type cgroup (rw,relatime,cpu)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 on /data/local/tmp/syscurrent type ext4 (rw,relatime,user_x

attr,acl,barrier=1,data=ordered)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 on /data type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,errors=panic,u

ser_xattr,acl,barrier=1,nomblk_io_submit,data=ordered)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p5 on /cache type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,errors=panic,u

ser_xattr,acl,barrier=1,nomblk_io_submit,data=ordered)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p10 on /log type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,user_xattr,acl,

barrier=1,data=ordered)

/dev/fuse on /storage/sdcard0 type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,g

roup_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)

/dev/block/vold/179:49 on /storage/sdcard1 type vfat (rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,no

exec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=

cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,batch_sync,utf8,comp_uni,avoid_dlink,e

rrors=remount-ro)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p4 on /system type ext4 (rw,relatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,

data=ordered)

/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 on /system type ext4 (rw,relatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,

data=ordered)

shell@android:/data/local/tmp #
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Thanks! You have mmcblk0p3 mounted twice... Could you do this:

/data/local/tmp/busybox umount /system

/data/local/tmp/busybox umount -l -f /data/local/tmp/syscurrent

What happens? can you give me new mount output?
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
I'm getting operation not permitted now for all commands.

Perhaps it's time to admit defeat! lol
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Damn. Yeah. But first reboot :) Technically your system0 is now flashed, though pretty dirty way but still it is... What happens?
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Should I reboot?
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Yeah, if all communds, umounts etc. gives you error, then there is little to do anymore...

Edit: Wait...
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Try flashing once more before booting:

/data/local/tmp/busybox dd if=/tmp/system.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3

If it does not work then reboot. And if it works reboot immediadly after command has finished (press power button and hold it for x seconds).
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Didn't work. Permission denied so adb reboot. That's taken back into ICS without root :'(

I appreciate your help, I really do but with the Xperia Tablet Z now only days away and a refund issued to the buyer, there is probably no need to even worry about this device anymore.

Once again, thanks for your help, I've got alot of enjoyment from it and a few lessons learned for the future aswell - it's just a shame that it is locked down so much. Never buy a device again that has a locked bootloader and is generally locked down so much.

Not even worth wasting 45£ on for a repair.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
WTF? You still have ICS even though we just flashed JB to your device??? Are you sure your device is not haunted or something???

You could try to use motochopper to root it again though, if you have JB kernel and it should work even on ICS...

Edit: Are you 100% sure that you accidently did not flash system.img from ICS? That would explain, otherwise it's insane...

Edit2: Yeah I understand that you must be qute frustrated :) Don't throw that device away though, if it boots...
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
I will give root ago in just a minute, good point about the JB kernel.

Just tried to flash JB again and it's given me a read_mod_link error about /system0/vender being missing.

This is one strange tablet. I wonder how much of it is Sony's doing?

Is it worth using condi's flasher to flash 4.1.1?

EDIT: Am rooted again now.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Damn... I am a bit reluctant to use flasher as it most likely will write vendor folders improperly, but since nothing else has worked then why not? It really could work. Basically what I was trying to do was doing the same than flasher, but leave datapps unotuched.

If you can root could you still do one xtsdump before flashing anything ... it would be very very interesting to see what has happened!

Edit: And everythhing is Sony's doing. Just about any other android device with working is recoverable from any kind of flashing failure. Manufacturers will distribute full images on their web site. But not Sony. Also if device is unlocked, we could create necessary files by ourselves, but XTS is not unlocked...
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Which is why I'll be buying the Xperia Tablet Z, Sony Mobile are alot better are development work that VAIO.

I tried taking a log but your program said that it couldn't figure them out lol
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
You we able to root again then, yes?

Could you do me a favor, and just copypaste output of mount no matter if you are rooted or not... It would give some greqat information, if you have no interested to continue to recover your tablet, then for others...

Yeah, I checked site of Sony Mobile and oh boy they are from another planet compared to Sony VAIO...

Edit: And are you 100% sure you are not running JB?
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Nope, 4.0.3 (release6b) showing in the settings. Unless Sony have done something to prevent this kinda thing.

Once again, thanks for the support. I will now try flasher if thats OK?

mount

rootfs / rootfs ro,relatime 0 0

tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,nosuid,relatime,mode=755 0 0

devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0

proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0

sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0

debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0

/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /configs ext2 ro,nosuid,relatime 0 0

/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /params ext4 ro,relatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,data=orde

red 0 0

/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 /datapp ext4 ro,nosuid,relatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,da

ta=ordered 0 0

none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0

tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0

tmpfs /mnt/obb tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0

none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0

/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /system ext4 ro,relatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,data=orde

red 0 0

/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 /data ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,errors=panic,user_xattr

,acl,barrier=1,nomblk_io_submit,data=ordered 0 0

/dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /cache ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,errors=panic,user_xattr

,acl,barrier=1,nomblk_io_submit,data=ordered 0 0

/dev/block/mmcblk0p10 /log ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1

,data=ordered 0 0

/dev/fuse /storage/sdcard0 fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1

023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0

/dev/block/vold/179:49 /storage/sdcard1 vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,rela

time,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,ioc

harset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,batch_sync,utf8,comp_uni,avoid_dlink,errors=rem

ount-ro 0 0

shell@android:/ #
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Weird thing. But yeah, go ahead, it is so weird that you still have ICS that anything could help... Let us know how it went!
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Flashed it, all went OK but again, it hang on the boot animation this time instead of the Sony logo so I rebooted.

108 applications optimized which seemed positive, but then when that had finished, all apps forced closed and couldn't get rid of the Set Up wizard force close notification.

Installed bootloop protection and flashed JB from recovery, but still the read mod link error.

Wow, mindf**k lol

So it seems like it might work, but there's no vendor apps.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Huh, that is some weird s**t! But try to go to recovery and erase data and cache and then boot again... And if no joy, why not to try to flash JB again using flasher...
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Just doing a factory reset but as I see it, the OS is working, there's just no vendor apps. No vendor apps and nothing works because it's force closing!
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
If you have any change to run xtsdump.bat, do it... We would see if vendor apps are totally missing or something... They can be restored, if your system is now JB!
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
It's fu***** working!!!

Did a factory reset and now it's all working! Oh yer man! 4.1.1 back on here!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks man, that is soooo awesome!!

No vendor apps though.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Great stuff! Though my instructions did pretty much nothing, it was flashr which saved you :D Could you still run xtsdump.bat just out of interest? I am more than curious to see WTF was problem with your system (if it can be traced anymore, it could be that flasher has overwritten everything).

Edit: And yeah we will see why no vendor apps...
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Sure man.

You did help me though as I've learnt more about how the device works...

However, there is still the problem of no vendor apps?
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Have noticed something else too.

Have installed root explorer from the market. /data is empty and I cannot change "Mount R/W" in root explorer but ADB has root.

I have pushed Superuser.apk to system/app and set correct permissions. Strange....
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Yeah, its seems flasher still struggles with those vendor links... Your system partition is totally missing /vendor! Please be patient, I will try to analyze everything based on your dump.

If you are super-hasty you could do:

ln -s /datapp/vendor/vendor0/US /system/vendor

But I cannot guarantee that this will not brick your device since it links US apps to you GB device :) Probably it will work though. But I am analyzing your dump right now...

OH AND RUN rescue-backdoor from AiO FIRST!
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Ok mate, will await your instructions.

Oh, please read the post above yours, I had made another :)
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
So analysis I promised, just out of academic interest:

* You boot from system0 since /system is mounted from /dev/block/mmcblk0p3

* system0 DOES NOT have /vendor (this is why you do not have vendor apps!!!)

* system1 DOES NOT have /vendor (this is why flashing JB OTA fails)

* system0 is US or GB JB since build.prop says ro.build.version.incremental=130329002

(it is the same for US and GB, cannot determine how to tell the difference but I bet it is US since that's what flasher uses)

* system1 is US or GB JB likewise

* /datapp/vendor/vendor0 contains US JB vendor apps since vendor.prop says ro.sony.build.id=TID2012410

* /datapp/vendor/vendor1 contains GB JB vendor apps since vendor.prop ro.sony.build.id=TJS3016610

So your problem is that /system/vendor is non-existing. Could you do this:

ls -l /datapp/vendor/vendor0/US/app

I am interested to see that is your US vendor set up properly...
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Sorry it took a while to answer! Was away for a while...

Bur it seems your vendor0 is set up properly... Well, personally I would just try to link that US vendor apps to /system:

mount -o remount,rw /system
ln -s /datapp/vendor/vendor0/US /system/vendor

There is always slight change that this will cause problems, so at your own responsibility... Other option would be copying again that vendor1 to vendor0, but this would be much simpler to stat with.

And oh, use that rescue-backdoor first!

I would also create that missing symlink for system1 before any boot:

install -d /data/local/tmp/sysother
mount -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 /data/local/tmp/sysother
ln -s /datapp/vendor/vendor1/GB /data/local/tmp/sysother/vendor

Then perhaps I would boot...

But now I am too tired, I need to get some sleep... I most likely have very long work day tomorrow, so do not count on my help!

Edit: /data being totally epmty is not good though... Need t odebug it tomorrow perhaps!
[Sony Tablet S] SWFlyerUK:
Hi mate,

Just so that you know, there is no vendor folder in /system.

And I only have root via ADB, even after the Motochopper root exploit which would account for the /data being empty in Root Explorer. I can access /data in ADB no issue.

I've also installed resuce-backdoor, but there is no system notification so I have a feeling it's not working.

EDIT: Have just followed your instructions - the device now has all vendor apps and boots just fine!

Thank you so much, see, you did help ;)

EDIT 2: If I where to sell this, would a factory reset bugger the device up? I also did the symlink stuff you mentioned in your previous post.

EDIT 3: Dump attached.