[Galaxy Ace II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 9262:
Hello everybody,

I could use some help with my Ace 2, which I somewhat broke today in the process of installing CM. It was quite a mess, but I'll try to outline the general steps I took.

As you can probably tell, I am rather new to this and I'm afraid I've done some irreparable damage, so I'd appreciate any support I can get.

Plan: Install Cyanogenmod on Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 GT-I8160.

Phone Region: Germany

Phone OS: Never updated since factory shipping (Android 2.2?), rooted

PC OS: Linux (Ubuntu 16.04) (ergo Heimdall only, no Odin)

1. Found https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Unofficial_Ports, followed link under "Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 (GT-I8160)" - "CyanogenMod 11 " to http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2568105

2. Followed forum op link to http://novafusion.pl/, search for "Ace 2" brought up http://novafusion.pl/2014/03/10/release-cm11-0-2-ace-ii/

3. Went to "Downloads" Section, selected "Samsung Galaxy Ace II", "Cyanogen Mod" and "recovery" from the respective drop-down menus, downloaded it.

4. Copied cm11.0_codina.nova.20141215.zip to SD, started phone in recovery mode

5. "Android System Recovery <3e>" could not open SD card/listed external SD as empty directory

6. Installed CWM, wiped cache/factory reset from recovery menu, installed cm11.0_codina.nova.20141215.zip from SD

7. Phone booted into CM, everything worked except things phone-network/SIM-related, error-prompt every few seconds: "Unfortunately the process com.android.phone has stopped", SIM contacts could not be accesed, could not call or receive calls

8. Went looking for different ROM, found http://xdaforums.com/galaxy-ace/ace-2-develop/rom-cyanogenmod-12-1-09-04-15-t3201826

9. Downloaded "CyanogenMod12.1_I8160_0920.zip" and installed from SD in CWM

10. Still no mobile network, SIM card unlock prompt kept coming up -> couldn't unlock SIM card, error message in notification-area: "No SIM card detected, Emergency calls only", carrier was not displayed on home screen, all settings said "No network connection" or similar

11. Researched, found various posts saying upgraded stock rom is required before flashing custom ROM (e.g. here: http://xdaforums.com/galaxy-ace/ace-2-general/ive-broken-phone-t3442544) and http://ask.drprem.com/q/samsung-galaxy-ace-2-gt-i8160-no-network-after-cyanogenmod-10-2-flashing advised flashing modem file from stock firmware

12. Downloaded DBT-I8160XXNB1-20140312182944.zip stock firmware, extracted I8160XXNB1_I8160OXXNB4_HOME.tar.md5, removed .md5 from filename and extracted again (because Heimdall needs the individual .img.md5/.bin.md5 files), resulting in 9 files: cache.img.md5, hidden.img.md5, ipl.bin.md5, kernel.bin.md5, mem_init.bin.md5, modem.bin.md5, normal.bin.md5, power_management.bin.md5, system.img.md5

13. Used Heimdall to flash modem.bin.md5 to phone in hopes of fixing network-issue, but no change when booting, everything works but still no mobile network etc.

14. Tried to go back to stock firmware alltogether to start from scratch, by flashing all the other files from the download with Heimdall

15. Now the phone does not boot up at all, gets stuck at the "Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 GT-I8160" logo screen, recovery mode can not be accessed, download mode still works, can only be switched off by removing battery

16. Tried to get recovery mode working again by installing TWRP from here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2532591, downloaded file and extracted kernel.bin.md5 (just like in step 12), flashed to phone with Heimdall -> No change, still stuck on logo screen without recovery mode

17. Tried to follow this guide to go back to original version: http://www.droidviews.com/how-to-downgrade-galaxy-ace-2-gt-i8160-to-gingerbread-from-android-4-1-2/, downloaded CODE_GT-I8160P_I8160PXXLK2_REV00_SEC_KEY_4G.rar, unpacked everything, unpacked .tar.md5 files, flashed everything to phone with Heimdall from command line -> No change, still stuck on logo screen

I imagine there is quite a mess of various partitions of various versions and varios OSs on there by now.

Did I brick the phone? Is there any way to restore it?

Since download-mode is still working, I could imagine that some form of Heimdall-wizardry might help, but things are way out of my league at this point.

Can anybody help me here?

Thanks in advance!