yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 7 General] techn0mage:
Turns out I really did noob it

Hi all- first off I want to thank everyone who got back to me. While researching this on my own I've determined that those who posted replies were apparently correct, and although the news is not good, I do appreciate the help I was able to get here.

The TL:DR of this is that if you erase or otherwise corrupt the bootloader on a Nexus 7 device, it goes into something called 'APX' mode and can only be recovered by the manufacturer. This is what I did and so the device is on the way back to ASUS for a warranty claim (I told them it happened after I said "OK" to the OTA update to 4.3... there is a rumor going around that this actually has legitimately happened to some non-modding unsuspecting users).

I'm going to give a quick explanation of what happened for the purpose of 1) helping anyone else who finds this thread in google as I did, and 2) maybe satisfying the morbid curiosity of anyone reading this thread :) No one else is responsible or anything like that.

The first thing I was ignorant of is that the grouper/tilapia code name distinction refers to the hardware, NOT the software. So in my mind, trying to go from grouper to tilapia did not set off any warnings. Likewise for the issue of flashing the radio. I thought I should just skip that step, I did not see it as a warning that the package I downloaded had an image for the radio.

The absolutely fatal mistake I made was indeed picking the 'nakasig' image from the list instead of the 'nakasi' image. Unfortunately the way the page loaded, I did not consider the possibility that there would be more than one category for 'Nexus 7' images, which I would see if I scrolled the page up. I assumed that whatever came before the 'Nexus 7' category that I was looking at would be a completely different device altogether.

So, in summary, if you are new at this and want to flash the bootloader, know your device hardware codename, and don't do what I did.
[Nexus 7 General] ShadowOf:
techn0mage sorry you got the wrong Images. Good reminder to everyone that flashing is dangerous business.

HAVE YOU TRIED flashing 4.2.2 then installing CWM, flashing your backup to regain your data, then trying this again?
[Nexus 7 General] AndDiSa:
It's always better to have a basic knowledge before starting to flash.

Btw. as far as I know if you flash a wrong bootloader is not the real problem, but booting in to it is.
[Nexus 7 General] techn0mage:
Hello,

I certainly appreciate your suggestion. Though I have proven myself worthy of the title of grand noob I will give what I think is the correct answer to your question - unfortunately after flashing the wrong bootloader it is impossible to flash -anything- ever again because ADB no longer sees the device. The device is in something called 'APX' mode which in theory can be used by the vendor to re-flash the entire device, however no one has succesfully reverse engineered APX mode for the Nexus 7 series of devices yet. For devices where this HAS been figured out, people seem to be using something called NVFLASH to get the job done.

If only it WERE possible to flash anything, I would say the solution would be to flash the correct bootloader then flash an appropriate factory image. But this is unfortunately impossible now and some others on the internet refer to this state for the N7 as 'deep bricked'
[Nexus 7 General] ShadowOf:
Sorry & best of luck with the warranty claim. After your issue I added a BOLD warning next to the 4.3, CWM, and TWRP download links.

Again, I'm sorry your N7 wasn't recoverable.
[Nexus 7 General] TfzSCVang:
Hey guys, I have the wifi nexus 7, followed all the steps listed with the correct images (nakasi) but after step 10 it is stuck @ the boot animation screen... its been there for about 40 minutes... is that normal or should I shut it down?
[Nexus 7 General] foxstam:
Thanks

Thank you very much. Your guide is very accurate. !!!:good:
[Nexus 7 General] PriestSyrinx:
Thanks for the instructions! Worked like a charm!
[Nexus 7 General] solidspidey:
Thank you for the guide! Worked flawlessly!! :beer:
[Nexus 7 General] Kerusker:
Many thanks for your instructions - worked for me without problems.

N7 (2012) 32GB WiFi only, A4.2.2 unlocked, rooted --> A.4.3 unlocked, rooted

I did not have to unlock again.

Today though I got the indication: 'System update downloaded' (OTA).

Is there a new update (a fix for N7 2013)?
[Nexus 7 General] Gster09:
It's definitely a new update, a minor one since the file is only 1.74MB. The update takes you from JWR66V to JWR66Y though I am not sure of what specifically changed, I think I remember reading somewhere that it was a security-related patch.

Edit: I took the OTA on my rooted WiFi N7 (2012), with TWRP recovery and locked bootloader. It installed and took me to JWR66Y. However, I lost root and custom recovery. In the past CWM disabled the recovery flash and kept root, so I don't know if TWRP just doesn't do as well, or if this particular patch is "smarter."
[Nexus 7 General] Spco:
I'm trying to upgrade JWR66Y from JWR66V and i'm having the exact same issue. Any help please?

N7 rooted, unlocked and stock.
[Nexus 7 General] Evo_Shift:
Thanks! I have been holding off on updating for the longest time but these instructions are nice and easy to follow.
[Nexus 7 General] ShadowOf:
Not sure if you've regained root privilege. I doubt your boot loader locked so you should be able to follow the rooting steps to change recovery and gain root access:
[Nexus 7 General] ShadowOf:
Not sure about that error, but going from the 66V to 66Y, I've added this to my original post:
[Nexus 7 General] Gster09:
Thanks, I had regained root. Then for kicks, I reflashed 'JWR66V' and CWM instead of TWRP. I let the OTA install again, and once again lost root and custom recovery even though CWM DID prompt me to preserve root.

So, I think it's safe to say we'll lose root unless we follow the directions you've outlined for the "Y" update. However, I don't know what will happen to recovery this way, so a few steps to restore it may be necessary anyway. Thanks again.
[Nexus 7 General] _never_mind_:
Thank you!! This worked for me too! :) Had to use bootloader-grouper-4.23.img from jwr66v though, and then flashed image-nakasi-jwr66y.zip
[Nexus 7 General] ZombieUsr:
So read thought this. But I don't see anyone bringing it up. Do I really need to flash the bootloader? Some folks say it is not necessary...

I know for my N4 this was a flashable zip and was necessary
[Nexus 7 General] ShadowOf:
As acknowledged, I got these instructions from the N4 forum. Feel free to try skipping and modifying to your hearts content :) , I posted what worked for me.
[Nexus 7 General] Gster09:
Oh you know what? I think the first time I flashed, I just automatically flashed the bootloader first without noting what version I already had there. Since then, I have NOT flashed the bootloader image because I figured I already have 4.23. For what it's worth, I haven't had any issues flashing the system and recovery a few times, but like you said that's what worked for me. Thanks!
[Nexus 7 General] Letitride:
For me, these latest directions and the properly selected zip files worked perfectly. There is no need to un-necessary flash a newer - the old saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it or change it.

My 2012 N7 originally came with 4.1.2 and subsequently upgraded to 4.2 and was on 4.2.2 for the 3+ months with 4.18 bootloader (between Smooth Rom & Clean Rom.) I am now on the stock rom/kernel ("Y") with the latest OTA patch - rooted & it is running great.

Before doing anything else, best practice is to do a CWM (6.x) backup first, as always & tested/verified that ADB is working first in case of a rescue or soft brick. Downloaded the grouper zip file for the OTA and the latest SU zip, copy to N7 - make sure battery is at least 75% charged.

Full unroot from within SU, shut down & boot to recovery, select and flash the OTA zip file - watch it in action, took 2 or 3 minutes & it's done. Without rebooting, go to select SU zip and flash, wait for it to finish - took a minute or less - reboot system (restart device). Took a few minutes to first boot, viola - done, everything is there & check under My Tablet to confirm that it is running latest version Y instead of V - go to Google Store & download/install SU again. Reboot to Recovery again & also to Bootloader (yes, still on 4.18) just to confirm that everything is in place - happy camper !

Finished - profit & enjoy.
[Nexus 7 General] putimir:
+1 - totally worked, except nakasig-jwr66y bootloader image, I then used the image from the nakasi-jwr66v version, thanks!
[Nexus 7 General] A$h x:
For anyone having this issue, replace the bootloader .img file with the one in this post:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=45043044&postcount=15

You should be good to go, oh and thanks for uploading the fix, Spco :good:
[Nexus 7 General] bamaredwingsfan:
+1
[Nexus 7 General] PriestSyrinx:
I'm having an issue with the JWR66Y update. I took the OTA (without using the full unroot within SuperSU), and obviously, it broke root. I've been trying to re-root, but everytime I try to boot into recovery (TWRP), I get the Android Error with a "No Command" message. I tried reflashing TWRP (2.6.2.0), but continue to get the error. Any suggestions?

EDIT: Finally got a chance to try rooting and re-flashing recovery through the NRT. Seems to have fixed my issue. Still curious as to why it didn't work through ADB, but currently happy with the end result.
[Nexus 7 General] purple lady:
Thanks, this worked great. I was going to flash the other boatloader img after everything was done, but I got the same error again. I guess I don't need to.

I still have one other issue though - I had originally used the Autorun Manager app so I didn't get notices to update. I disabled the SystemUpdateService receiver in the Google Services Framework, and then re-enabled it to do the ota but couldn't do it because checking system updates showed me as up to date. The SystemUpdateService has kept the device awake ever since. Flashing the update following the instructions here still left the SystemUpdateService keeping a partial wakelock. I disabled it again and everything seems ok. Anyone have any ideas what's going on?
[Nexus 7 General] nemesi54:
I have tried everything to update my N7 to 4.3 and nothing worked...

But from the how to of the first post everything went smoothly and everything works perfect..!

Thanks a lot for your efort ShadowOf

One difference for me though...

I read a lot ppl here that they did first a "full unroot" on SuperSu before the steps.

I must say i never did full unroot...

Cheers.
[Nexus 7 General] orivar:
JWR66V -> JWR66Y debuggerd fix

To anyone who stumbled upon this thread looking for solution for OTA updates for Nexus 7 (3G in my case), from JWR66V to JWR66Y (4.3 patch), a couple of important notes on the steps in the first post:

1. Keep in mind you can't install zip using the tablet itself with stock recovery. You can install it via adb, but you should really just install TWRP/CWM. I did it using an android app (root of course) called Recovery Tools Flasher, it automagically downloaded and installed TWRP and worked like a charm. However, if your problem was the same as mine you might not need it, because...

2. After booting into TWRP and trying to flash the OTA update zip in the first post, I finally learned what the error was in the first place (if anyone knows how I could have learned what errors OTA had without attempting to manually apply it via recovery I'd like to know, for future reference) - /system/bin/debuggerd failed hash check. I'm blaming Chainfire's StickMount application - thanks for all the hard work, but you shaved about a dozen hours off my life for this one. Anyway, you can take the original Nexus 7 3G 4.3 binary from this post and apply using the steps in this blog post. Afterwards you should be able to perform a normal OTA update. I don't know for sure, because having gone this far I simply flashed the zip from the first post, followed by SuperSU and everything is up and running again :D

Hope this saves someone the trouble I had to go through.
[Nexus 7 General] ShadowOf:
Thanks for the notes, glad you're back up and running.
[Nexus 7 General] avatarx1:
Thanks! Worked great!
[Nexus 7 General] Evo_Shift:
Used same instructions for updating to 4.4, rooting and keeping data and it worked perfect.
[Nexus 7 General] jfmcbrayer:
Yep, wanted to bump this tread, and Evo_Shift beat me to it. This exact same technique works for upgrading from 4.3 to 4.4. I do not know if it will work going straight from 4.2.2 to 4.4 -- the nakasig factory images I downloaded don't include an updated bootloader or radio, and you probably need the ones from 4.3 to update to 4.4.
[Nexus 7 General] ShadowOf:
Thanks for the bump guys.

I used the second method in my Original Post. I downloaded the OTA zip and SuperSU zip. Unrooted, went into recovery and flashed both.
[Nexus 7 General] AndDiSa:
Nice tutorial, but still too complicated. The easiest way in my opinion:

- download the factory image and unpack it

- boot into bootloader

- if you are not on 4.23 boot loader, then flash it by fastboot and reboot into bootloader

- flash boot.img by fastboot

- flash system.img by fastboot

That's it. Ah ... you want root? In that case boot into recovery and flash SuperSU-1.69.zip before you reboot the system. :)
[Nexus 7 General] ShadowOf:
Very true but keep in mind many people (including myself) want step by step instruction laid out. These aren't cheap devices and people don't want to lose data and mess for days trying to fix their bricked n7. So telling people to fastboot and flash boot.IMG is true, but then people have to figure out how to do all that. So, I lined out each step, lengthy but I needed it to update mine too.
[Nexus 7 General] AndDiSa:
Probably you are right, but my point is the following:

You are flashing the 'old' firmware by fastboot and then applying the OTA to it (I.e. the differences between old and new). Why not flashing directly the new one ... ?
[Nexus 7 General] ShadowOf:
Ahh, you are misreading...this is an old tutorial, the thread started as directions for going from 4.2.2 to 4.3, via fastboot. The thread was later updated to add directions for updating from 4.3 (JWR66V) to 4.3 (JWR66Y) via the OTA zip. I can't remember, now, but at the time there was a reason for not doing the OTA zip flash from 4.2.2 to 4.3...I'd guess either the OTA zip wasn't available, was causing data lose, or bootloader locked...I can't recall, but the thread wasn't written to use both methods back-to-back to get you to 4.4. :silly:
[Nexus 7 General] _never_mind_:
Today I used the procedure from this thread to update my "Nexus 7 2012" from 4.3 to 4.4 KitKat (didn't have the OTA popup yet). I didn't change the bootloader because it the nakasi-krt16s-factory-da7dee49.tgz had the same bootloader-grouper-4.23.img as the jwr66v. Restored TWRP recovery and Multirom, and SuperSU, and that worked pretty fine, I am now booted in KitKat 4.4, yay :)

Hopefully not to many apps broke down hehe |-)
[Nexus 7 General] nemesi54:
Used again the guide but this time to go from 4.3 "Y" to 4.4 "S" and it works like a charm....

Didn't have to flash 4.23 boot loader because the 4.3 i used before had it already

At this point i must also underline that i had to give the commands without typing " / " at the start of the commands

Cheers to all.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Colton127:
On my original Nexus 7, the sound chip is very bad, at max volume the sound isn't even medium loud on my headphones.

I use PowerAMP with bass boost and treble boost on (I listen to electro mainly.) How does the new Nexus 7 compare?

Also, can someone compare the new Nexus 7 to S III in sound quality on headphones? Mainly how long each can go? The old nexus is terrible compared to SIII.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] bobloadmire:
The new sound chip is really really good. Like really good. I use similar headphones comfortabley at about 25-35% volume, Clarity is great, good DAC.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] skiwong20:
i agree as well. i like the new sound chip as i listen to trance. and to add the new speakers and layout work better as well
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] mannequin:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2383248
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] mjwhirly:
It will be much better once/ if faux implements his faux sound mod
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] OJ in Compton:
As stated in the thread you linked, this does not affect headphone output, only the speakers on the tablet's output so it's not entirely relevant to the OP's question.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Colton127:
How does volume level compare to other devices?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] M3drvr:
I'm finding its close to my HTC One coming through the headphones. Won't go quite as loud and clear but it definitely has impressed me. By far better than the first gen nexus 7!
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] igotdatglow:
Is the sound good because it's good? Or is the sound good because of how crappy the OG nexus was? The sound is the only thing I hate. Headphones and speakers. Makes me wonder if mine is defective. Or maybe I shouldn't expect more from a budget tablet. Would love to see more opinions.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] SWOLEGASM:
I find the sound quality through the headphone jack is just average. Kind of muddy to be honest. I thought the original nexus 7 had a better DAC than this new one. Speaker sound is of course better than the original
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] SWOLEGASM:
I take back what I said, I had the equalizer on and it made the sound poor. The old 7 doesn't sound as good as the new one.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] jeffrey1027:
There is a static buzz at low volume on the speakers which appear on most if not all of the new nexus 7.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] alicarbovader:
Don't have it on mine, but I do have a little dust on the upper left corner.

About the topic, I use my own custom made earphones, with superb bass, with AwesomeBeats mod. Works like a charm, though ViperFX also improves sound quality, I'm comfy with AwesomeBeats because its simple. Try any audio mod(requires rooting).
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] p4rot:
The sound on the 2013 nexus 7 is really good, I mean without headphones on it, it's totally another world from the first gen nexus 7.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Nbsss:
Hey thought i recognised your name, you're from the Desire thread. Congrats on your new toy :)
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] alicarbovader:
Yeah man...! I am not active on Desire forums, because it seems kinda old in front of my new sexi-nexi toy ;)

On a second note, I'm working on a ROM too, so looking everywhere for inspiration...!
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Nbsss:
Yeah its kinda a dinosaur now...but this new n7 is a work of art!

Can't wait for the nexus 5, to keep his older brother company ;)
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] tomcrown1:
Their is none on my new nexu 7
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] stanglifemike:
What devices do you have? I will do some comparisons if I have any of the same devices that you have. I have a Note 2, Evo LTE, Evo 3D, Asus Infinity, 4th gen iPod Touch, and an iPhone 4.

Just so everyone knows, the iPhone 4 was free, I'd never buy an iPhone! I just use it as an iPod (never been activated by me). I did buy the iPod Touch when it was released though......SMH......
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] alicarbovader:
Not exactly a work of art, but yes, the price got me on the reins :D
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] bobloadmire:
I compared it to iphone 5 and sgs3
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Nascar Dog:
My new Nexus 7 has that problem as well.

Noticed it when holding the speaker close to my ear.

Not impressed...

Will see if the noise is there with headphones.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] vinay427:
This is a common problem on the Nexus 4 as well, although it's more of a hissing sound which may be slightly different from what you describe. I don't believe it's model specific or an otherwise major manufacturing flaw.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] mbucks911:
its pretty good and loud both with headphones and speakers. louder than nexus 4 with headphones. it uses the fraunhofer cingo audio chip so you can look that up to see how good it is
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Nascar Dog:
Yes, that's a better description of what I am hearing, a hissing sound.

Kinda like listening to an old cassette tape.

Where's the Dolby NR switch. :)
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Dave_S:
Actually, it is not a hardware chip, it is software.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2013/07/31/nexus-7-cingo-fraunhofer-audio-interview/
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] biggiestuff:
Definitely sounded good last night while watching Luther using my headphones. It definitely had more depth as it was attempting to simulate the surround sound. I never noticed it before on my original N7 as sounds that were supposed to come from other directions would just play in stereo while on the new N7 seemed to be coming from a direction. It's not scientific but it's just from my perception as I hadn't noticed it before while watching TV shows on my tablet.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Poetik:
I was listening to the new nexus 7 with my custom iems and it definitely sounded muddy. I own both devices but haven't really done a side by side comparison. Honestly I wouldn't expect too much from either because the sound on both are very average.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] player911:
The new nexus is so loud that I barely use 1-2 notches from the low end during normal use. For games and video I don't even use 50%.

Sent from Nexus 7 FHD from XDA Premium HD
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] moni08ca:
Sound is great through headphones even without the built-in equalizer in Google playmusic, I think Google or Asus could have done a better job on the speakers. The speakers sound a little low to me if I compare to it to 2 years old galaxy s2. I did found out that when I play music through the speakers the volume level is the same after the 50% mark, but NOT through the headphones. I think my nexus 7 have some problems, so I'm going to exchange it tomorrow. Random reboots and weird noise near the chip when charging & using at the same time.

Sent from my Nexus 7 Flo.
[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] Aria807:
Does anyone use PowerAmp? I tried playing songs off of it on my new N7 and it keeps saying can't play files. I am able to open the files up with Google Music or the file explorer.
[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] lacrossev:
My poweramp is working fine over here on stock, cleanrom as well as cm10.2. Try another third party music player and see if that also fails, if it does then theres something else wrong thats not just poweramp related.

If its in any way related, in quickpic i was not able to use the hide function because the media storage was messing with it, try clearing data on media storage and see if it works.
[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] mssam:
Nope. Songs play fine on the new n7 with poweramp for me. Not sure why it isn't for you. I know there was just an update to deal with some 4.3 issue, but other than that I don't see why it shouldn't work. Are you on the stock rom or custom?

edit: nvm, I just saw your sig. Your on a custom rom...
[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] Aria807:
I can play music with other media players just fine. Except in PowerAmp. It just keeps giving me errors saying Failed to Play File. I'm on CleanROM 1.2. Stock kernel that came w/ rom.
[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] mssam:
A'ight, give me a second. I just install cleanrom 1.3 to see if I can replicate your issue...
[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] Aria807:
My gf and I both got our N7 so I decided to try PowerAmp on hers as well. Same result as mine. I ended up using Rocket Player for the time being.:(

We are both on CleanROM 1.2. But I don't understand why it would cause PowerAmp to not be able to play any files and we can still play from any other media player like Rocket Player, Google Music, ES Media Player, etc..
[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] mssam:
idk...poweramp and all other players (including streaming apps) work for me on clean 1.3. If you're not running any audio mods, and tried to uninstall and reinstall, I'm not sure what the problem could be. Maybe try updating from 1.2 to 1.3? Backup apps and flash. What could it hurt to have the latest rom anyway...
[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] bckrupps:
mine did the same. there was an update in the play store to make it work right on 4.3 and it works great now