[LG Optimus L9 P760, P765, P768, P769] dbozam:
So, genius me got into stuff maybe I shouldn't have and now my p769 is not quite bricked... but is still quite useless. Perhaps the wonderful minds here can help me figure out how to make it useable again.

Starting at the beginning:

I downloaded the free SQLite editing apps from the play store and tried to edit the value of "data\data\com.android.providers.settings\database\settings.db" "tether_dun_required" and set it to 0, hoping to circumvent Tea Mobile's tether data limits.

The SQLite apps were not as user friendly as I had hoped; the first app seemed to give me an error when trying to set the value to 0; the next app seemed to indicate that the prior update command had worked (showing a 0 value); a third app seemed to indicate that the second app was mistaken and that the value was still "1". I finally downloaded a non-root enabled app, copied my settings.db app to a non-system folder, made the edit, and pasted the file back.

It is important to note that I was suspicious about why 2 other files from that same \database\ folder had seemingly disappeared but they were mysteriously disappeared, and there was not much I could do about it, so I continued on to test my wifi tethering.

The wifi tethering data limit bypass did not work, so I tried restarting my phone. The phone hanged at the T-Mobile splash screen (I was running stock V20f, rooted); the little dots on the original T-mobile splash screen were animated, but startup hanged at the splash screen.

I then did a hard reset (vol up + home + power button). This took an incredibly short amount of time (a few seconds) and then the phone restarted itself.

The phone boots into the LG/Android "Startup Wizard" and asks me to enter my google information, set up wifi, etc. I cannot set up anything because, for whatever reason, no keyboard will open. I choose "next" or "skip" to simply get to the point when the setup wizard says "Go to home screen". When I press "Go to home screen", the message comes up "You can return to this setup screen at anytime by launching the "setup" application from the application tray" and, when I press "OK", I see "Sorry! Unfortunately, LGSetupWizard has stopped". After I press OK, Startup Wizard app restarts again at the initial screen. It is an unending cycle. Even at that final screen before I press "Go to home screen", pressing "Sign in to Email" results in the same crash error message, pressing "Sign in to Facebook" results in "Warning Facebook app is not installed !! Don't test it" and "Set up voicemail" results in "Warning TMUS app is not installed !! Don't test it"

Home button does nothing, long pressing home button does nothing; back button does not exit the Startup wizard. I can't get into settings or any other app (except the browser if I press More Info when the Tmobile disclaimer comes up about anonymous diagnostic data). I don't have a custom recovery on the phone and I don't think I ever unlocked the bootloader. All I ever did was use cmahendra's offline fix to root.

I tried Cmahendra's offline kdz install again now but the phone won't be detected by the phone update software after 15%. I had this same issue when I first upgraded and rooted my phone months ago but then I could perform his workaround by starting the phone, and then setting the phone to reboot into Software Upgrade mode. Now I can't do that because I can't even pull down the notification bar in the Startup Wizard.

Can anyone point me to a way to get a reset to fully install a ROM? I will install custom ROM, Recovery, bootloader, whatever. It seems that everywhere I look for solutions to install a ROM, I need a custom recovery and to install those I need an unlocked bootloader and to install those I need to download files without any working links (many want me to visit mega.co.nz which results in a nice white cloud with an M in the middle and no download link).

I won't be able to troubleshoot this again until 6 or 7pm PST on 03/13/2014, but I am open to suggestions as to what is my best course.