yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Sony Tablet S] giovix84:
I do not care the root.

I want to unlock the tablet.

any fw running.

I tried these with the usual error message:

ICS Release 6

signed-txs03_304-Ota-121005053.zip

signed-txs03_304-ota-121005053.zip

signed-nbx03_009-ota-121116046.zip

now I try with:

signed-txs03_304-ota-121116030.zip
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
What is error message you get? If it is "read_mod_link: failed to readlink "/system1/vendor": No such file or directory" then you may not be able to recover until somebody figures out how :(
[Sony Tablet S] giovix84:
then you may not be able to recover until somebody figures out how ?????????????????????????????

Im italian. Sorry my bad english
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Did you get that error message I pasted to you or something ? If you did, there is seems to be no way to recover for now, sorry.
[Sony Tablet S] giovix84:
constNTLY OHBEa

My error:

Android system recovery (3e)

System utility(Rev.35. BL: 0x00000006. EC: 0.21. master)

Installing update...

Write images to system1...

Write files to vendor1...

Random offset: 0x109

read_mod_link: failed to readlink "/system0/vendor": No such file or directory

E:Error in /tmp/desklunvr/desklunvr.zip

(Status 7)

Installation aborted.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Yeah it seems your device is bricked, sorry :/ Just like mine.
[Sony Tablet S] giovix84:
Cabbage ... so there is just no way to unbricked? No alternative? I do not care fw updated, but only be able to operate your tablet! I want to resurrect it!
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
There is no way we know about. And somebody told that even Sony replaced internal flash chip when he brought his device to service because of this problem so even they were unable to recover :(

Some day somebody may find out a way to recover, but for now it seems taking device to service may be only option.
[Sony Tablet S] giovix84:
physicke wntyjob

you can not create a file recovery.zip? A hard reset? try with another firmware? use S.onyTablet.S [ALLinONE] v5.3? There must be a solution! Maybe cambianto system0/vendor in system1?
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Sony has locked us out (you may "thank" Sony for that), device won't accept custom recovery zip. If it would accept that then we could easily recover by ourselves. But device checks signature of update package and if it is not from Sony, it won't accept it.

No reset seems to work, though you may try to power up, then hold power button down so long time that device shuts down and then some more until red light flashes. Also you can try to wipe data and cache from recovery, but other than that, there is nothing that we know about.

Basic problem is, that partitions are corrupted but we cannot fix them because Sony does not allow us to do that. Unless somebody finds way to bypass security or finds out some other trick (like flipping /blflags which would be enough), but so far we have nothing.
[Sony Tablet S] giovix84:
explain the procedure of the red light flashing.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Power up then hold power button down until device shuts down and hold it a while more until small red light flashes just next by power button once or twice. It will take 20 seconds or so. It should perform some kind of reset but I doubt it will help.
[Sony Tablet S] giovix84:
do you feel because it was one of those terminals with the lack of impermeability to water spray, if I could send him for assistance in solving that problem I also free the block?
[Sony Tablet S] saf4xdadev:
I thought these xperia tablet s devices came with a one year warranty? Most if not everyone who owns one, at least in the US, should still be covered under warranty. These xperia s tablets only started selling in June or July I think. Therefore everyone who is bricked should be able to have fixed or repaired for the price of return shipping.

I got my tablet in Nov 2012 but I also purchased the extended full accidental damage warranty since these things are sort of delicate and I have children....plus it was under $100 and covered for 3 extra years I think, maybe just two, but either way I have no worries other then Sony trying to be able to prove I rooted and therefore voided warranty....If they can even do that which I doubt they can.

So I think you were referring to the recall issue with the water problem and if you returned for that problem would they also fix the brick....I think you can send tablet back for the brick problem and they will fix the brick problem and at the same time they will also fix the water problem.

Just dont mention rooting, and in fact, read post 27 above and ask mcp001 what kind of info they communicated to sony to get their tablet repaired for free.

You could also wait to see if condi comes up with anything that will fix the problem.

good luck.
[Sony Tablet S] stifilz:
+1 for the warranty claim.. Say that the latest update ****ed your tablet. I screwed my Tablet S and waited for R5a to come out then took it in for a warrant claim. FYI it was rooted and had had a build.prop of a Tablet P. HAHAHA. IF IT CAN'T BOOT THEN YOU SHOULD BE SWEET!! All they do is create a new zip (signed) and force it to install the OS (well that is how it seems)

Stifilz
[Sony Tablet S] giovix84:
In conclusion condi expect that will exit a method to reset the tablet? We could try another zip file (signed)?
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Ok got my tablet back from service. They took me 45 euros from fixing it. Device was under warranty but it was my fault to brick it so I did not want to fight and paid.

Interesting is, that at least this time Sony was not idiot. It seems they soft-flashed the device, no replaced flash chip. More interesting is that they flased version r5 instead of r6b - and of course I was able to root again. It was THIS CLOSE " " that they would have forgotten the SD card inside my device, but they took it away, awwww :(

After rooting, I tried to search for zip file they used but of course it does not exist anymore. But I can see flash log, interesting part:

Update location: /sdcard/signed-txs03_300-installer-120914016.zip

And then some lines which indicates that whole device was completely reflashed without any problems. See that installer instead of ota in filename? That's the trick. Sony DOES HAVE proper flash files, but they DO NOT DISTRIBUTE them to us. Every other manufacturer do.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Interseting. I thought that I will forget rooting, unrooted and tried to flash JB OTA. Quess what? IT FAILED. With the same message. My system still boots luckily(!), but it is still ICS. WTF?
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Is condi still on his honeymoon? We may have means to debug why JB update bricks somebodys device. My device is still booting, but I cannot upgrade to JB. I re-rooted and I am able to see what is f****d with /system1 partition. It does not contain vendor folder, like expected. It's not corrupted, but vendor folder is missing!

Or actually it seems it should be symlink to /datapp but still it is missing. Condi, can yo ufigure out from this what went wrong? Better yet, can you modify your flasher scripts so that it ALWAYS ensures that said symlink does exist?
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
I quickly read flasher script and it removes vendor symlinks on "Making vendor apps work...". If this is interrupted somhow, either by user or it crashed, another system partitions vendor link may go missing after which further flashing attempts WILL fail -> bricked devices.

And when I am thinkging about it right now, when I upgraded from r5 to r6b, I got force close just when flahser wash finishing. If I understood correctly, somebody else with bricked device reported this ALSO. Here is the reason for bricked devices, yes?

Condi, when you will get back, please check this out. You could update flasher script so that it checks vendor links and ensures that they are not missing, right? You could also add to all-in-one script which fixes missing vendor links!
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
So if somebody brought their device to Sony for service and they did not replace flash chip but did just simple flashing to recover your device, DO NOT USE FLASHER to flash JB, you most probably will be bricked AGAIN!

Let's find out what's problem with flasher, fix it and find out how to fully fix your recovered by Sony device before you tro to upgrade again!
[Sony Tablet S] saf4xdadev:
45 euros is like $60 US right?....for running some software, damn. How long did it take, 10 mins? That's highway robbery. not to mention it was still under warranty....jappaj you are far better person than I because I would have screamed bloody murder over that and probably been forcibly removed.

Anyway, some very good information you give and probably save many people from certain death...thank you for that.
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Yeah, well if I would have bricked my device AGAIN I would have been quite mad since they did not properly re-initialize my Xperia afterall. Just half of it. Luckily I didn't try flasher, I tries to install OTA update, which tried to update non-working half of my Xperia and failed and aborted and remaining half still works.

But I'll use this forum as scratchpad to my investigation, condi and others may be interested. So I tried to flash OTA JB, but it failed. I stil lcan boot to ICS and have root and here's something:

/datapp/vendor/vendor0 - contains proper files from ICS R5 restored by Sony

/datapp/vendor/vendor1 - contains proper files from JB flashed by me using OTA

/system - contains ICS R5 restored by Sony

/mnt/secure/staging/system1 (other system) - contains JB flashed by me using OTA

/system/vendor -> datapp/vendor/vendor0

/mnt/secure/staging/system1/vendor MISSING !!!

That missing /mnt/secure/staging/system1/vendor is root of inability to recover!
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Then let's analyse this against Sony's OOB updater-script

If blflags is 0, apparently device boots from system0 and if it is 1, then it boots from system1. Makes sense. And updater-script has if-then-else logic which updated non-booting partitions. Ie. my device boots from system0 and updater-script does following:

- Mounts datapp partition (/dev/block/mmcblk0p9) to /datapp - succeedes

- Flashes system1 partition (/dev/block/mmcblk0p4) - succeedes

- Deletes /datapp/vendor/vendor1.img - succeedes

- Deletes recursively /datapp/vendor/vendor1 - succeedes

- Extracts vendor data to /datapp/vendor/vendor1 - succeedes

- Mounts system1 to /system - succeedes

- Symlinks /datapp/vendor/vendor1 to /system/vendor - succeedes

- Does huge ammouns of symlinking, permission setting etc.

- Mounts system0 (/dev/block/mmcblk0p3) to /system0 - succeedes

Then tries to do this:

symlink(read_mod_link("/system0/vendor"), "/system/vendor");

This fails. I do not know what it tries to do, but it fail and installer aborts and this does not flash hidden.img and does not flip /blflags and thus my device still boots, but if system0 contains unbootable data (like JB when bootloader is still ICS) then tough luck, bricked device it is! This double flashing this is quite dangerous actually. If anything fails, it will brcik device. Perhaps flasher could not do double flashing but instead it could flash other system just like Sonys own scripts and then flip blflags if everythign went ok, condi?
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Let's analyze these failing rows further:

assert(mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/mmcblk0p3", "/system0"));

symlink(read_mod_link("/system0/vendor"), "/system/vendor");

So /system/vendor refers to system1 partitions's /vendor, which was flashed properly on the beginning of process. So failing function call is this:

read_mod_link("/system0/vendor")

It tries to "do something" for system0 partition's /vendor but fails. I am not fully sure what this does, since my system1 /vendor should have been initialized on the beginning and my system0 seems to contain /vendor just like it should. What I am misinterpreting?

Edit: Found logfile from /cahce:

script aborted: read_mod_link: failed to readlink "/system0/vendor": No such file or directory

read_mod_link: failed to readlink "/system0/vendor": No such file or directory

So it seems script tries to create equivalent symlink to system1 /vendor than what is in place for system0. But why, system1 /vendor should already contain symlink to /datapp/vendor/vendor1 ??? And why it says that /system0/vendor does not exist because I can see it from console???
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Btw. it seems flasher writes /systemX/vendor differently than OOB updater-script! It creates FOLDER to which it symlinks stuff from /datapp/vendor, ie:

/system/vendor/app -> /datapp/vendor/vendor0/master/app

/system/vendor/etc -> /datapp/vendor/vendor0/master/etc

While OOB it is symlink (or at least in version R5) like this:

/system/vendor -> /datapp/vendor/vendor0/REGION

And that folder contains folders like app and etc which contains files symlinked to /datapp/vendor/vendor0/master/...

So flasher creates a bit different setup compared to OOB, altough in practice it produces the same result. BUT could this be cause of our inability to recover? Lets examine again this row:

read_mod_link("/system0/vendor")

If that function call expects to see symbolic link instead of folder, it could fail because of that!
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Further debugging. So there I was, unable to flash anything, got the same error than in my first post. At least I got boot and root so i created that missing symlink:

system1 /vendor -> /datapp/vendor/vendor0/REGION

Rebooted to recovery and blam, no problems flashing OOB firmwares (sorry guys this wont help you who are already bricked).
[Sony Tablet S] dex9mm:
So does this mean that if we create a file in the right place the boot will boot from this vendor error
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Yes but you cannot create any files if your device will not boot. Sony has prevented that. You may send your thanks to Sony...
[Sony Tablet S] giovix84:
news to unlock the tablet?
[Sony Tablet S] dex9mm:
This is all fine but you need to explain how and what was done to create the brick what happened and the such

rooted lighting wildfire on unoffical j.b from benni

and sony XTS rooted stock j.b
[Sony Tablet S] dknw:
Alright. I rooted my XTS and then I decided to change the bootanimation.zip (that is inside of media folder) for the one on the XTZ just to try if it would work and renamed the original one to bootanimation_original.zip if it wouldn't work (had already done it on X10 mini pro). But the bootanimation didn't appear and the display was all black on landscape and 3/4 black on portrait. I tried to change the bootanimation but no success since I couldn't see 3/4 of the display and it was getting really frustrating. Then I boot into recovery and did a wipe data and from that moment on I'm not able to pass past Sony screen that appears when you turn the device on. I can't access the tablet via adb shell in order to change the file but it is recognized by the adb when I boot it into recovery.

Cheers
[Sony Tablet S] dex9mm:
Did you delete or move the old bootanimation when you moved in the new one also did you check to see if the new one was rename to bootanimation1.zip

Sounds like no joy bricked send it back to sony claiming jb wrecked your tab while updating

rooted lighting wildfire on unoffical j.b from benni

and sony XTS rooted stock j.b
[Sony Tablet S] dknw:
I didn't delete the old bootanimation, I just renamed it to bootanimation_original.zip in order for me to be possible to put it back if something wrong would happen. So, it might exist a bootanimation.zip (new one) and a bootanimation_original.zip (old one). There's nothing I can do appart from that? It should be easy to solve (it's so easy on Sony Ericsson mobiles using PC Companion)
[Sony Tablet S] Zer0K3wL:
I think they find out its not and that its rooted right away probably
[Sony Tablet S] wyatt86:
Hi all guys today afternoon i rooted my xperia tablet s by the new method , unfortunately after several hours of use and after several reboots ,suddenly, after my last reboot , my xperia tablet s doesn't boot and got stucked on SONY logo. Am i in the same conditions of yours guys? Maybe if rooting procedure give all these problems we should warn users in the official post :)
[Sony Tablet S] dex9mm:
Ok so did you tweak or move anything in the system folders also what were the conditions that the tablet kept rebooting

also did you apply the rescue.backdoor tweak from the aio tool from condi sub section 4

That I have mentioned in this thread earlier

Also if you applied the tweaks just flash a stock ota update and it should fix it

rooted lighting wildfire on unoffical j.b from benni

and sony XTS rooted stock j.b
[Sony Tablet S] giovix84:
Please help me. I stuck my tablet sony xperia s. I'm stuck to the screen SONY starter.
[Sony Tablet S] dex9mm:
Once again im all for helping you bro but you might be softbricked and need info on what happened and how

like stifliz says the next update maybe is your only hope

rooted lighting wildfire on unoffical j.b from benni

and sony XTS rooted stock j.b
[Sony Tablet S] wyatt86:
I kept rebooting by my own and it didn't restart 0.o I haven't tweak or move anything or better i use buil.prop edit and i reboot and everything went well and btw after i restore the backup copy. I don't know whatever rescue.backdoor tweak is should i have applyed it before the brick? Or i can use it now? I rember that i can't access recovery i just have black screen after power+volume up
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Ok, somebody asked me how to create this symlink:

Please understand that if you cannot boot & root, you cannot create this symlink! You are STILL bricked. I needed to do this after Sony had partially recovered my device but they left half of the device untouched and in broken state! But here we go:

- Connect your Xperia to computer

- Start Command Prompt

- Start shell by typing in command "adb shell" (you need Xperia drivers installed and adb.exe from somewhere!)

- Then request root priviledges by typing in "su" - you should get prompt to your Xperia device which you need to accept

- Check vendor symlink from CURRENT system partition by typing in "ls -l /system", ie. mine:

lrwxrwxrwx root root 2013-05-03 23:54 vendor -> /datapp/vendor/vendor0/FI

- Then you need to create this symlink to OTHER system partition if it is missing. To do this you need to figure out what partition is currently mount as /system, type in "mount |grep -i /system", mine:

/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /system ext4 ro,relatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0

There are two partitions which contains system, /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 and /dev/block/mmcblk0p4. One is currently mounted and used, I refer this as CURRENT and another is unused, I refer this as OTHER. My CURRENT is /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 and OTHER will then be /dev/block/mmcblk0p4. Yours may be reversed.

- So create folder for OTHER system partition, type in "mkdir /data/local/tmp/sysother"

- Them mount OTHER to that folder, type in "mount -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0pX /data/local/tmp/sysother" where X is of course correct number for OTHER

- Go to folder to which OTHER was mounted, type in "cd /data/local/tmp/sysother"

- Check what you have, type in "ls -l"

- Do you have vendor folder or symlink? I think flasher will create folder (first letter is d) while out-of-the-box we have symlink (first letter is l). At least I had symlink in CURRENT when I got my Xperia back from service. Some kind soul who has not used flasher could check this for us, what do you have in CURRENT and OTHER, please! If you do not have vendor folder or symlink, trying to flash OTA from recovery will fail (at least it fails for me)!

- If you do not have anything, just create symlink, type in "ln -s /datapp/vendor/vendor1/FI vendor". Copy region code from symlink within CURRENT partition, mine is FI as Finland, yours will depend on your region! Also use vendor0 for mmcblk0p3 and vendor1 for mmcblk0p4 (other words use vendor0 if your CURRENT had vendor1 and vice versa)!

- Shut down, reboot to recovery and try to flash JB.

And remember, please do not take these steps if you are unsure what you are doing or you cannot afford bricking your device! I will not be responsible of anything :)
[Sony Tablet S] dex9mm:
You say buil.prop if there was someting changed there you could have a hard brick but there may still be hope

Yea the aio tool has a sub section 4 tweaks and mods

You say by the way after I restore backup copy how did you restore and with what copy

rooted lighting wildfire on unoffical j.b from benni

and sony XTS rooted stock j.b
[Sony Tablet S] wyatt86:
I restored the original copy by sony by copy/paste and btw i just changed the product name and the manifacturer name nothing else.
[Sony Tablet S] stifilz:
And you didn't set the permission to rw-r--r? Thats why it not booting. Can't read build.prop due to lack of permissions
[Sony Tablet S] wyatt86:
so what can i do now?
[Sony Tablet S] stifilz:
Hopefully your incremental is low enough that you can flash a zip? If not you will need to wait for a newer release or take it in for warranty claim.
[Sony Tablet S] wyatt86:
I'm noob about this, what's an incremental? And how can i flash a zip? Btw sony assistance should be able to fix this, right?

---------- Post added at 10:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 PM ----------

Finally i can enter the recovery!!! What can i do now??
[Sony Tablet S] stifilz:
Sony assistance? As in service centre? Then yes possibly at a cost..... Should get warranty though.

Or Sony PC Companion? Then NO it is not for Sony Tablet or Xperia Tablet S (made by Vaio). ONLY Xperia Z (made by mobile)

Please see my FAQ for how to on install from recovery

Please see Links

Both in signature below this text.

Stifilz
[Sony Tablet S] jappaj:
Btw. I just remembered weird thing about my bricked device. When I tried to flash JB OTA from recovery, I got that vendor -error. If I tried to flash AGAIN without rebooting, recovery seemed to "restart" after which I got different error - version / SKU check failed.

My theory would be, that this "restart" causes recovery to switch to flash another system partition, but flashing failes since I tried to flash JB OTA, which updated incremental to too big.

So. Those people having bricked devices but who have NOT tried to flash JB, could you try following:

- Flash r5a or some other old firmware. This will fail with missing vendor link.

- Without rebooting, try to flash again. Recovery seems to "reboot", but device won't reboot.

Report what happens? Do you get version or SKU check error?

Don't get your hopes up, this was just one idea, probably won't work. And if you tried to flash JB already, definetly won't work. COULD work after Sony releases next OTA, then try to flash first JB and then that new OTA.
[Sony Tablet S] sfex3best:
Hey peeps

I had a bricked tablet trying to update to jelly bean with condi flasher.

It was getting stuck on the Sony logo.

Anyway I sent it to Sony service center for repair and it should be back by tomorrow.

I'm guessing I'll be on stock jelly bean with no root now. So before doing anything stupid I just wanted to ask if it will it be ok if I root my tablet again using the easy root method?
[Sony Tablet S] dknw:
Where is Condi? Does anyone know? I'm thinking... isn't there a way someone can create a flashable file that automatically changes the bootanimation.zip for the original/right one since that is what causes my tablet not to boot properly?
[Sony Tablet S] Cat McGowan:
For flashing a bootanimation.zip file to your tablet, look into using Boot Animation Factory by D01 MicroApps (despotovski01). If you need a valid bootanimation.zip file, let me know and I will post one for you.
[Sony Tablet S] dex9mm:
Root with the exploit from djrbliss and then apply the rescure back door tweak

rooted lighting wildfire on unoffical j.b from benni

and sony XTS rooted stock j.b thanks djrbliss