[Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II] dannymac77:
Hello XDA!

I opened a new thread hopefully to open a discussion about improvements I think are beneficial, my experience over the last 24 hours that a couple sticky edits would have saved me (and others) time.

My Story:

Yesterday (5/3) I saw I had around a 250 mb OTA. Excited (hoping for 4.2, assuming was the 4.1.2 that VZW released recently) I kick on WiFi, download and watch as it reboots and appears to install successfully. Time for work to end, grabbed phone off charger as it appeared to be rebooting after successful install, and ran out to catch train home.

Downstairs, at train stop, take a look at phone and heart sinks as it is in a fast splash screen loop, blinking the VZW Galaxy Note 2 screen for about 1 second in endless loop. As I had never seen before was thinking firmware update bricked it and I was looking at least until Tuesday before I'd have a working phone. Luckily, I was able to quickly see that I could still get into download mode, so knew I was (likely) going to be ok.

Get home and a Quick Robin, to the Internetz! later I'm browsing XDA and following the t=t=2024207 walkthu to restore stock. FYI, my device prior to the failed OTA was unrooted stock. At this point I'm not sure if it's going to restore, so I'm trying to do the true stock, no unlocked bootloader in case it has to be RMA'd. I've downloaded all my files, waited patiently for the slow hosting service for the FXZ(?) to download and am grinding through it and of course it fails at the system.img. Luckily, blessedly the awesome community here had released the image that included the unlocked bootloader which I was (after waiting to download, etc etc again) able to successfully get installed via Odin, booted up and working successfully.

So, while the first post section regarding restore to stock does indicate users with latest firmware "L4 OTA Only" shouldn't be attempting to use the Official VRAL I didn't think it applied to me. I would say that a fair amount of individuals looking to take the drastic step of a full restore to stock might be in a scenario like mine, where something significant has happened and likely confirming what OS/firmware/etc you are on might not be feasible. In my case, I assumed never rooted/unlocked vanilla device should be about as receptacle to an "official" restore as any. In this scenario, where a 100% for all devices stock recovery ("alternative") works, 'I feel that it should have been pushed harder than the official or at least blurbed with if you don't know what you are on, use this' While I understand that it is the "official" image, it has requirements for it to work. A co-worker had an ASUS TF300T that tried pushing a recovery image for ICS after he had upgraded to JB and it hard bricked his tablet, with ASUS wanting to charge him about 60% cost of the tablet to replace motherboard. That's heartbreaking, and I am sure since a hard brick wasn't a likely scenario here, why it wasn't mentioned.

Also: The download link for the Alternate Restore lists the file as: I605_VRALJB_Restore.tar.md5.xz which requires that it be unpacked using 7zip AND also that once extracted, it needs to be renamed to kick of the extra extension md5 in order for ODIN to see it properly as a PDA image file. (I605_VRALJB_Restore.tar.md5 ) Neither step is mentioned in the original post, and I had to read through to I believe the 11th page or so before realizing that was the problem. I'm sure with most of the people that are daily users of this forum knew automatically that these steps were required, but I would counter that a thread explaining how to restore Stock is one of the few threads that is likely to reach a larger, inexperienced demographic who would need to know such details.

Lastly, since (I thought) I had an unlocked bootloader, but otherwsie working phone again (Thank you, thank you thank you!) might as well get it rooted, and grab a ODEX'd stripped ROM with the OS release because getting the Software Update nag and not being able to complete or even brick my phone makes my OCD gland flex mightily. Was delighted to see an on-device APK root option which threw me back to the ease of z4root a few years ago with my Droid X. APK installs, and it roots so easily, like it had the functionality out of the box. I grab goo.im manager and install TWRP. Go to boot into custom recovery so I can install my sexy updated OS ROM and enjoy my fun device without all the yucky bloatware I've just ignored/dealt with for the last 2 months and I get the dreaded and in my opinion illegal "VZW unauthorized software" software brick.

Back to the forums, see I need another stock 'alternative' restore to fix AND a little confused, but believe I need to run a "jailbreak" bootloader unlock (CASUAL ?t=2118348) Which I haven't done yet. I have all files downloaded, just paused to post my experiences here.

So, this was main reason for my post, as I can understand some of why walkthru is laid out the way it is above, but why not have this included as part of the stickied root walkthru? It's mentioned thusly:

I couldn't find the link it refers to at bottom of section? I ended up googling to find guide. ((t=202420)

if this is still a requirement for root, custom ROM/Recovery, I would have made this steps 1-x of the root guide. is it because another person authored it? It would be nice to be able to credit and quote, I know alot of what drives contributors is the 'Thanks" and Donations, be great if XDA admins could round table and find a solution that allows for a consolidated guide for each device and still give each contributor a way to get their +1's and plug donation/web/twitter handle url's

So, is my understanding incorrect of what is needed or do folks agree with me that current setup is not the most efficient way XDA community could be offering instructive guides on Root/Mods? It would be wonderful if XDA Mods upon announcement of devices, when creating the forum threads for device (Development, OG Development, General, etc etc) created a blank thread for the how to root et.al and then allowed it to be edited by the community as a Wiki. Or even if an individual created, allow that person to allow x amount of other community members to edit, add and adjust.

I see droidstyle created a thread about questions for softbrick, and I might have to look at the original sticky thread about how to stock restore, but it seems he/she might have better saturation if this info was included in the original post. The stickied How To recover stock is direct accessible from a google search. I doubt his Q&A thread is or definitely not going to be one of the highest page-ranked sites.

So, please let me know if I'm just out of my mind, off the mark. I will give myself a small escape clause based on the fact that I probably scored about 2 hours of sleep last night messing around trying to get the note running again. I am actually concerned that the instructions for Return to Stock/Root/Etc for the VZW i605 doesn't have the link to unlock bootloader via casual and am hoping that following that process before rooting/customrecovery/ROM is correct, and not going to be another BrickGate for me. I know as OS versions are updated and/or Big Red and Big Blue constantly push patches trying to lock people out of their phones that instructions change and methods break. As new directions are implemented it's easy to lose steps as edits occur on the fly.

Most importanly! I hope this thread comes across as constructive criticism/suggestions, I have nothing but the highest respect for this community and it's contributors. Even skewed, outdated and conflicting information is better than no information and I SUPER appreciate the hard work required to get it out to us. I am most definitely not expressing displeasure with my experience or the content, only using the threads I mentioned as examples of what I personally see as opportunity for improvements XDA could implement that would allow for easier dissemination of the information the community is sharing so unselfishly. I only open it for discussion, so that others like me can access the information quicker with less confusion. I read comments of disgust and exasperation as people are directed to search, rather than post, and they are right, the information is invariably there, and most often or not within the first 5 posts of a thread. But sometimes when a developer talks to another developer, the tiny and considered minor details are not mentioned because it's considered common knowledge, and thats where the noobs, soccer moms and Grandmas can get left scratching their heads trying to puzzle how you got from point a to b. (Stereotypes used for comedic effect, please take no offense) I believe it would save alot of people having to answer the same questions over and over again time and frustration and freeing them to focus their talents on making us the next epic ROM/Kernel/App

thanks for reading! Also, I'm not just drive-by b*tching, if anyone is interested, I would love to show a mock-up of the i605 guide these great contributors have created as I would compile it. I'm passionate about mobile technology and customization, sadly my talents don't lie in the creation of such, only the enjoyment of it. But I'm a hell of a document admin. I create wiki's and KB's/sharepoint admin for a living, and would love to contribute what I know in that way