yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy S II Plus] KINGbabasula:
Yes i was thinking that we should use 4.2.2 proprietary files as they should have more compatibility. I will start using 4.2.2 kernel too

Inviato dal mio GT-I9070 con Tapatalk 2
[Samsung Galaxy S II Plus] ptothej:
Shall we stick to 4.2.2 then ?
[Samsung Galaxy S II Plus] KINGbabasula:
First let's see if this build is working

Inviato dal mio GT-I9070 con Tapatalk 2
[Samsung Galaxy S II Plus] ptothej:
Got another kernel error with this one.\

Will look into it tommorow.
[Samsung Galaxy S II Plus] s2+user:
Kernel from 4.1.2 or 4.2.2? Prebuilt or compiled one? If compiled one do you get error on compiling or booting?
[Samsung Galaxy S II Plus] ptothej:
Prebuilt 4.1.2 Kernel, error on compiling, can't reproduce the error at the moment.

Will do in the afternoon and if i get an error then will switch to 4.2.2
[Samsung Galaxy S II Plus] s2+user:
Tried with replacing everything from 4.2.2 -> segfault (while replacing audio stuff worked)

Will now update my version to stock 4.2.2 and then try it again :)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
Hello.

My SGS2 is softbricked. It hangs during boot, but I can boot into download mode and I can boot into recovery mode.

My phone has only been flashed with OTA method and firmware. Never rooted, never flashed manually.

It starts up showing the animation with some ray of lights surrounding "Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100" logo, then it goes into the centered "SAMSUNG" logo with the corona slightly flashing and here it just continues with this slightly corona-blinking (normally it would here do that a few seconds and then show the home screen). The phone gets quite hot (but not burning hot) after a few seconds and I can turn it of by holding the power button for about 5 seconds (no need to take out the battery).

The situation started by the phone shutting down due to low battery. Then I connected usb (which I though was connected in the other end, but it was not) for charging and I powered up the phone immediately. Not noticing that the usb cable had no power I actually booted the phone with very low battery and no power in the usb cable. Shortly after the home screen showed up with a battery low-message. The phone went off (the hard way I think).

After that I of course ensured to charge the phone for a while before I booted it again, but at that time when booting it hung (as described above)

I believe Iread somewhere, that most likely the system filesystem has been corrupted, so just overwriting it (that is flashing like an OS upgrade) I could restore the device just like the phone has just been upgraded. And during normal upgrade my phone is not wiped, so that is what I am expecting would be possible.

From

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1973233

and

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1188615

it sounds like I can flash withour loosing data as long as the new ROM is same (or newer) as the one already on the phone.

So I have downloaded I9100XWLSS_I9100OXXLS9_NEE.zip for my phone it contains a I9100XWLSS_I9100OXXLS9_I9100XXMS2_HOME.tar.md5 file which contains

boot.bin

cache.img

factoryfs.img

hidden.img

modem.bin

param.lfs

Sbl.bin

zImage

From http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1456532 I get the impression that if I flash a .tar.md5 file that contains hidden.img and/or cache.img it will wipe all my data.

So I was wondering if it was possible to just create a tar file without hidden.img and cache.img and flash that, so my data is not wiped.

Any input is appreciated.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] immortalneo:
Good to see someone who has actually read something!! :good:

I suggest you avoid messing with the firmwares for now. Is your phone rooted? How did the bootloop start?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] GamingDj:
There is no way to avoid factory reset.The only way to solve bootloop is by wiping data.No other way.You can flash a new ROM/firmware,but you will still have to do a factory reset because of old bootloop and new ROM.Sorry.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] immortalneo:
I'm afraid I must agree.

@OP: But what you can do is make a nandroid backup before wiping. :good:
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] GamingDj:
good idea neo...and he can extract contacts or notes from nandroid...heard that people did this
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
Can you give a short summary of how to do this (from the situation I am in),and some usefull links...

Jarl
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
much uirstaby

Thanks.

I must emphasize it is not a boot loop. It starts up showing the animation with some ray of lights surrounding "Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100" logo, then it goes into the centered "SAMSUNG" logo with the shadow slightly flashing and here it just continues with this slightly shadow-blinking (normally it would here do that a few seconds and then show the home screen). The phone gets quite hot after a efw seconds and I can turn it of by holding the power button for about 5 seconds (no need to take out the battery).

The situation started by the phone shutting down due to low battery. Then I connected usb (which I though was connected in the other end, but it was not) for charging and I powered up the phone immediately. Not noticing that the usb cable had no power I actually booted the phone with very low battery and no power in the usb cable. Shortly after the home screen showed up with a battery low-message. The phone went off (the hard way I think).

After that I of course ensured to charge the phone for a while before I booted it again, but at that time when booting it hung (as described above)

I believe Iread somewhere, that most likely the system filesystem has been corrupted, so just overwriting it (that is flashing like an OS upgrade) I could restore the device just like the phone has just been upgraded. And during normal upgrade my phone is not wiped, so that is what I am expecting would be possible.

Jarl
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hopper8:
What firmware were you on? As in 4.1.2, 4.0.3, 4.0.4?

Basically what you need to do is flash a custom kernel via Odin in download mode. Let's take Siyah kernel for example (v5 for ICS. Pick which one is correct for your version, you can download them from gokhanmoral.com). If you're on JB, I suggest philz or apolo kernel. More on that in a sec.

Flash that kernel in Odin. Then, you can back up in CWM recovery. If you're on ICS, then you can factory reset and hopefully boot up. Once you've got your backup & booting, then you can extract data from the backup using titanium backup or CWM recovery.

If you're on JB, then you need to backup the /preload folder. Apolo does it automatically, in philz you need to tick the option before backing up. Same deal once you've backed up, factory reset then boot.

I hope that makes sense to you, I gave you all the info in one big hit. As you've done a lot of reading and attempted to help yourself before posting, I imagine you can make sense of that :)

Any issues, post up here, but for now, give that a go!

Sent from a galaxy far, far away
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
Hi.

Thank you for your time.

OK. I think I need help in two steps:

take a backup

make the phone usable again.

I am not sure exactly what firmware it had reached before the softbrick. It was definitely above 4.0, maybe even 4.1.x Does it matter a lot.

Lets focus on step 1 (taking a backup). I think that is what you are guiding me towards above, right?

So what shall I do when I am not 100% sure of the current firmware version on the phone?

Jarl
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hopper8:
Correct, if you want to keep the data then you need to make a backup. Unfortunately, if you don't know which firmware you were on previously, it's not easy. What I would suggest you do is to go onto YouTube, and look at videos of i9100's (that is what you have right?). You want a video of one with 4.0.3, one of 4.0.4, and one of 4.1.2. They all do look different, although 4.0.4 and 4.0.3 are reasonably similar.

Basically, if you can tell if you were on 4.0.x or 4.1.2 then we can go somewhere :) Until then, I'm not comfortable to tell you to flash.

Edit: and don't stress. Making the phone useable again is not hard :) to keep your data as well as make it useable again will take some effort on your part though.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
I will take a look at YouTube... However I do understand booting an incorrect version of Android can be dangerous to my data. However if I make 100% sure that I never boot the flashed android and only boot up in recovery mode to make a nandroid backup. Then it probably doesn't matter which (most likely incorrect) version of android is installed because will not boot it, I will only boot in recovery mode. After having made a nandroid backup I will go to step 2 (make it usable again) and making sure I don't boot up the incorrect android version along the path.

Would that be possible?

Jarl
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
I just made an experiement with my Samsung Galaxy S 5.0 Tablet (YP-G70):

I flashed it with zImage and factoryfs.rfs (using Heimdall and making sure that repartition is not ticked)

In this situation there was no data loss (behaved like a standard OTA update), all contacts and apps still installed.

Why would this not be possible on GT-I9100 without wipe/factory reset. By just flashing the zImage and factoryfs.img from I9100XWLSS_OXXLS9_NEE_Nordic_Android_4.1.2.zip ? Notice I am not in a boot loop situation.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hopper8:
You are correct in saying that if you don't boot it, but only flash the kernel & immediately flash stock then you're OK. The thing I am unsure of, is making a nandroid whilst using an incompatible kernel.. I really don't know if it will work. My guess says it won't, but I don't know for sure. Can someone come in here? [MENTION=4330322]MistahBungle[/MENTION] [MENTION=5132813]andrewwright[/MENTION] [MENTION=3556242]immortalneo[/MENTION] [MENTION=5015324]gastonw[/MENTION] [MENTION=4806698]keithross39[/MENTION]

I still think you should try to figure out which version you were on before this, just so that you can have a safe bet of which kernel to flash.

---------- Post added at 09:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 PM ----------

Good thinking. The thing is, on your tablet currently, it boots fine. It's not in the bootlooping scenario. Hence, doing an update which does not wipe will only update to a new version which won't be wiped, and hence will still be bootlooping. Of course you still could flash them (using Heimdall/ Odin, but I've never tried Heimdall personally) but I doubt that you'll boot up by that. It'll likely still get stuck at the boot logo.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
OK, so what you are saying is that: I might just flash some of the files (all except cache.img and hidden.img) that will not wipe my phone, but as I understand you, it most likely wont solve my boot problem...

In that case can someone confirm that that flashing the files

boot.bin

factoryfs.img

modem.bin

param.lfs

Sbl.bin

zImage

without

cache.img

hidden.img

will not wipe my phone? Or are there more files that need to go down to the dangerous list?

Jarl
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] immortalneo:
AFAIK, the nandroid backup will go just fine. If the kernel is incompatible, the nandroid would contain the incompatible kernel and would still bootloop after restoring. But since the OP isn't planning to restore the entire nandroid backup, I guess it doesn't matter. :D

I still suggest flashing the correct kernel to install CWM, just to be safe. Or if he is not on 4.0.4, he could use Philz temporary CWM (which can be flashed in stock recovery). :good:
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hopper8:
Ahh, the thing being that OP doesn't know what version he was previously on before all this :/
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] immortalneo:
I noticed that.. :D

@OP: tried checking out some screenshots and videos and remembering how your firmware looked like?

A friend of mine gave me his S2 which was bootlooping. I showed him screenshots of the notification tray (and toggle buttons), and he was able to identify it as being GB. The tricky part was finding which version it was. He was sure it was fully stock and bought from Saudi Arabia. So what I did was to look up sammobile.com to see which version of GB was available in Saudi Arabia. And I found out it was 2.3.5! Problem solved. :good:
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
OK. I am now pretty confident that I had/has android 4.1.2, because I remember I had features like SmartStay (which is new in 4.1 AFAIK). I also remember that I had the "Mobile Data" toggle button along the other quick state buttons like "GPS", "Sound", "WIFI", "Screen rotate". The "Mobile Data" state button was also new, but I cannot verify that is was nwe in 4.1.2 (maybe it was already in 4.0.x). Do you know of any other features that are nwe in 4.1.2 that can help me verify that is was a 4.1.2?

So from here I am going to install CWM, and reading http://xdaforums.com/wiki/ClockworkMod_Recovery

I have several options to create a CWM for my phone:

Building according to http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1866545 and http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Build_for_i9100 I run into a dead end "Extract proprietary blobs " (http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Build_for_i9100#Extract_proprietary_blobs). I cannot do this because it requires a working phone.

Method 1A is a dead end because it requires a working phone.

Method 1B I am not 100% sure of. Where should I get this update.zip from?

Method 2 is not applicable

And finally:

For Samsung Galaxy S phones: From stock it is easiest to get CWM by flashing a kernel with CWM built-in by using Odin3 1.7 flashing utility. Only some kernels come in a Odin compatible package (.tar file).

So I need to get a kernel with CWM since I could not build one and you are suggesting SiyahKernel S2-v5.0.1 (http://www.gokhanmoral.com/?p=1536), right?

So as I understand it, I flash this kernel and then when entering recovery menu, I will get advanced options like adb shell and nandroid backup.

Correct?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hopper8:
Aha! Now we're getting somewhere :) To clarify though, you do have an i9100?? Not an i777? You posted links for i777 that's all. If you have something other than i9100 don't flash Siyah.

If you're on 4.1.2 (yes smart stay is 4.1.2, so if you had that, we should be good) then nope, you want Siyah v6.0 beta4 or beta 5, not Siyah v5. Download them from the same place. To flash it in Odin, flash it in the PDA section of Odin, don't check repartition or unplug your phone till it passes (or fails), with no exceptions! If you need more info, google, or click my signature & look at that. Or, go to Q&A and look at the stickied guide there, plenty of options :)

Yep, once you flash the kernel and get CWM recovery, then you want to backup (nandroid). Then you can factory reset from CWM, and hopefully boot up! Once you're booting then you can set about restoring the data from your backup.

See how you go :) as always, read up (good job continuing to do that) and post up if you can't find a solution to something. As my signature says, 'reading is easy, fixing is not', so read up then flash away!
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
Thanks for enlightening me... Yes it is a GT-I9100. I must have picked the wrong variant in the device page. Links are fixed. Thanks.

I can download a zip version of the Siyah kernel, which brings me back to another question. Regarding Method 1B:

Method 1B: you can find and download the update.zip by yourself, place it on the phone in /sdcard/ and boot into recovery using the 3 button method, choose the option "re-install package" TWO TIMES to load into CWM. Once again the update.zip needs to remain on the phone. DO NOT DELETE!

It sounds to me like I can put the Siyah kernel (update.zip) on an external SD card and boot directly from the SD card (without flashing) and then make a nandroid backup which in that case also will also include my original kernel which is currently installed.

Do I understand that method correct?

Otherwise I understand it the way that I cannot expect to get a backup of my current kernel. However I will be able to restore it during "Make the phone useable again" step which include wipe and factory reset, and several system upgrades.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hopper8:
To be honest, I wouldn't bother stuffing around with any of that. AFAIK, Siyah can't be flashed from stock recovery, you'll get a signature verification error. Philz kernel you can flash from stock recovery. However, the reason I said to use Siyah is that v6 works for all 4.1.2 stock ROMs, regardless of baseband (XWLSS, XWLSW etc.) To make Philz kernel work, the baseband must match. You don't know your baseband, so...

This is what I'd do:

Flash Siyahv6.tar via Odin

Reboot into CWM recovery

Make backup

Factory reset

Reboot Phone

Enjoy working phone :)

As for backing up your current kernel, there's no need. If you want it back, flash the stock ROM. I don't think you can back up your current kernel from the state you're in.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
Allright, doing it right now...

I have reached "Make backup". I have used the menu-entry "backup" and yes it has succesfully created a backup (it writes "Backup complete!". I have also tried "backup to internal sdcard". During "Backing up data..." it failed with "Error while making backup of image /data!"

There is aparently no menu option for maing backup to external sdcard (I hoped for that).

What should I do between "Make backup" and "Factory reset"?

I don't want to wipe the backup during "Factory reset" step. It seems like it is stored somewhere but I don't know where... Is it possible to put it on external SD card before Factory reset? Otherwise I will loose it, right?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hopper8:
Great :) so nope, using the option which is just plain "backup" backs up to external sd. It'll only go to internal sd if you use the specific option for it. In any case, a factory reset will not touch your data (photos, videos, backups) if they're on your internal sd.

So nope, a factory reset won't wipe it, if its on the internal or external sd (your only two options). Hence, no step in between backup and factory reset. If there was I would've said.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BigT0mato:
I have an idea too

Flash cwm

Make nandroid backup

Flash official firmware with odin

Install cwm

Root again

Restore imporatant data with titanum backup pro(buied version)with extract from nandroid backup option

Unroot

Flah stock recovery via odin (extract it ftom firmware
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
Thanks a lot for input. Very interesting, because you are taking the restore into consideration...

I guess

Install cwm

Root again

are required to be able to restore, right?

Further I guess

Unroot

Flah stock recovery via odin (extract it ftom firmware

is to get it back to stock state and to receive future OTA updates, right?

Further "Install cwm", doesn't that automatically imply rooting the device? Or do I get something wrong here?

Similarily "Flah stock recovery via odin", doesn't that automatically imply unrooting the device?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hopper8:
Er. All that is what I said to do. All along. By installing CWM on i9100, if you want permanent CWM it will root. You have to flash a kernel for permanent CWM. If CWM isn't baked into a kernel on i9100 it will be gone after every reboot.

Up to you if you unroot after restoring backup with titanium. I wouldn't, that way you don't rely on any carrier for your software updates (OTA). Flashing a stock ROM will unroot. But like I said, up to you if you unroot.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BigT0mato:
installing cwm sometimes roots the device i think(depends on cwm)

root is needed for titanum backup

and flashing stock recovery does NOT unroot the device
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
Before doing a factory reset, I decided to experiment to see if I could rescue the system before fixing the device the windows way (wipe and reinstall).

So I flashed the device (using Heimdall) with the files (from I9100XWLSS_I9100OXXLS9_NEE):

boot.bin

factoryfs.img

modem.bin

param.lfs

Sbl.bin

zImage

Leaving

hidden.img

cache.img

out as that should trigger a factory reset (I have read).

And guess what? The boot process was solved... (somehow)

It booted up, and showing a "Updating Android-OS" message. Shortly after that it showed a message like "Optimizing apps 12/240" and counting upwards... Finally it booted to the PIN-code screen. I had no SIM card in, but it atached to former configured WiFi, and started to download and upgrade many apps.

However... When entering the PIN it was not able to show the HOME screen, all black (and some..., see below), except from a status bar that quickly went up... But if I am fast I could pull it down and see most recent (email) message and other notifications, here among all the "downloading ..." notifications from Google Play.

When entering the PIN it was not completely black, it displays a message like "Application installer has stopped." and I can click OK, that message box come up approximately every 5 seconds...

From here I can most likely just do a factory reset, and get my phone up in working condition, however just of curiousity: Does anybody know how to solve the repeating "Application installer has stopped." problem?

Further: do you think that leaving the files "hidden.img" and "cache.img" out of the flash procedure has anything to do with the "Application installer has stopped." problem?

Anyway...

Now that I have the nandroid backup, how can I use that to restore my phone into same condition, given that I have made a factory reset and updated to latest Android update OTA?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hopper8:
I'm going to leave it all until I get to this bit:

Why? The original aim of the thread was to get you back to a working state with your data. So let's do that. The rest, you seem more than capable of helping yourself with. And, I don't know some of the answers.

Ok. So now, your steps should be:

1. Factory reset.

2. If that fixes all the force close messages, then great. If not, go to 2a. Also go to 2a if the messages stop but you're not on the firmware you wanted after all the flashing.

2a. Flash Stock ROM via Odin(/Heimdall?). Download it from Samfirmware for your country and region. You mentioned you wanted the latest OTA version, that's where you'll get it from.

3. Root phone. At this point you should have either flashed JB 4.1.2 or already been on it, so easy way to root is to flash Philz kernel from stock recovery.

4. Install Titanium Backup (Pro). Yes it's expensive but I'm not sure the option you need is in the free version. Maybe it is, you can check. I use pro, worth every dollar.

5. Titanium Backup>menu>Extract from nandroid>pick apps you want to restore. DON'T restore any system apps (usually marked red) or you'll likely get issues. User apps+data is what you want.

Go with that.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jarl-dk:
Prooblem Solved

...

Now I can say for sure.

I made a reflash (Using Heimdall) including all the files:

boot.bin

factoryfs.img

modem.bin

param.lfs

Sbl.bin

zImage

hidden.img

cache.img

And that solved the problem completely. I booted the device. It showed "Upgrading Android-OS", and everything was back to normal, the process did not wipe my phone... I thought...

During flashing (probably the factoryfs.img) I have lost my contacts, and stored browser passwords and maybe some other things... My SMS history however is intact.

So Now I will dig into restoring contacts from the nandroid backup...