yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
No, All I did was Flash an OTA Rooted rom and the radios afterward. I was coming from CM6 nightly 08.04.2010. I did not change anything at all or try something different than the normal flashing of the rom and radios. I always wipe (all 3) before flashing any new rom. Any help?

Yes my last alternative would be going to the Sprint store.

Thanks for you reply.
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
Question? What would write to the Wimax partition? Radios? Just curious why this happened to my phone (lost mac address). I heard people lost their MAC using Unrevoke. I have never used Unrevoke. I have always rooted and NAND unlocked using Toastch's method.
[EVO 4G Android Development] mpa4712:
Yes, writing the wimax updates is what would cause this. It's not to say that applying any radio/wimax update would do this, but the way the RUU/PCIMG36 files seem to do things a bit differently than using recovery does. Unrevoked made the same mistake a lot of others did when they bundled the Wimax update, and the end result was a wimax partition without RSA keys. I (along with others) have determined that you can indeed modify the bin file from your wimax partition to include the proper MAC address, but that doesn't solve the problem. While we can make the bin file syntaxicly (fake word alert) correct, we can't generate and sign the RSA keys. Those came directly from HTC when they first flashed the phone.

I too had made my own wimax files and in turn borked my MAC. After a pow-wow with some other devs on this, we concluded that there are two options to get 4g working again if you had a bad MAC:

1. Get the dump from a working Wimax partition, modify it to use your MAC (actually, it is: your MAC - 1), and flash that bin file to your Wimax partition. This will get you 4g as long as the phone you got the wimax partition from doesn't need to use 4g.

2. Get a new phone.

I went with the latter.

Thanks,

Mark

edit: I am also in Jacksonville, so yes, you should be getting a great 4g signal.

edit2: I would be in a hurry to exchange that phone. You don't want to wait too long and get a phone with 2.2 already installed, since there is currently no root for that.

edit3: I was going to use some smileys to make this all seem less grim, but I decided against it.
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
Thank you for your reply. OUCH!
[EVO 4G Android Development] Geniusdog254:
Thats also the route I ended up taking. Just tell them you did the 2.2 update and that it no longer gets 4G. I did that with the 1.47 update & they happily replaced it for me with no deductible.

Just make sure you run the 2.2 RUU first to get unrooted & on stock 2.2.
[EVO 4G Android Development] ksujace:
I also went the the latter solution. It's nearly impossible to find the Evo in stock in Chicago. The Sprint store had to order my replacement // eta 3 days. Hopefully it does not come with 2.2 ... however after my WiMax "bork up" I'm a bit reluctant to start rooting and applying new ROMs again. May just stick with stock ROM.
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
Thanks guys for your suggestions. I threw the towel in today at 5PM. I went through the insurance plan on the phone and they will be mailing me the new phone in 5-7 business days (100.00 deductible). I soon as I get it in, I will be rooting again!:D I have learned a lot since rooting the EVO and I will gladly pay 100.00 for the education i got.

FYI: Im using Caulkin's EViO and I will not look back. That ROM is suppperrrrr fasssssttttt and smooth as butter. The best 2.2 rom out there IMO.
[EVO 4G Android Development] mpa4712:
We have all learned a lot since then. I don't think you'll run into any bad wimax files again.

Well at least you had the balls to pay the $100.00. On my worst day, I don't even think I'd cough up $100.00 for a replacement phone :)
[EVO 4G Android Development] sfx27:
4g

I'm running Fresh 3.0 Rom, no 4g. I read all the threads and can't figure out if I'm screwed or not. I delete the file under data/misc/wimax after doing everything else and when I turn on 4g it rewrites the back MAC address. I've changed the MAC under ##data# , updated radios, etc. It scans, tries to connect then scans again. Is this what everyone else ran into?
[EVO 4G Android Development] mpa4712:
If you have/had a bad MAC, you will not be able to fix it by any means. You will either need to exchange your phone, or learn to live without 4G.
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
Yes this is what we are getting. WE ARE SCREWED.

By the way, DOES anyone know HOW and where did the bad file came from.

What was the last file or radio that you installed? Do you remember? This would be really useful for others. Thank! :(
[EVO 4G Android Development] sopel10:
My 4g stooped working long time ago after my first root and flash, I tried every single method I found to fix it and nothing worked, spent 2 weeks on the phone with sprint and they finally approved exchange. Went to a sprint store over a week ago and ordered a replacement. Now last weekend when froyo leaked from htc I upgraded, lost my root, but guess what.... 4g started working.

Again, I tried every single method before including un rooting etc.
[EVO 4G Android Development] ipclark1:
If it helps I lost mine after : simple root to fresh 3 with newest radio/wimax flashed last in that order. Like everyone else here I have tried everything and no go after countless hours this last week. Fyi I'm in chicago and they are really making me jump through hoops to get exchange. In a nutshell I did my best to get everything back to stock but the manager said sprint was fully aware of this problem , that it is "user caused software malfunction" and said I had, to pay deductible. Went to diff store and had to leave it with tech today. Hope I have better luck. Don't want too sound cheap but I bought two of these things at full, price on release date being only 10 days away from upgrade eligability so im not real happy with sprint right now.
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
I flashed Fresh's 3 ROM as well with the Radios and my wimax bricked too. Did you actually tell the Sprint Tech what you did or did he come out and say that its "user caused software malfunction"?
[EVO 4G Android Development] ipclark1:
Absolutely not. They closed the store I usually go to and I picked the wrong one because the manager was such a prick and new an awful lot about rooting and rom flashing and was just wise to me from the beginning. Honest ly I was caught off guard honestly I've had just about every device sprint has offered and have brought almost all of them in tweaked (including two COMPLETELY bricked touch pros) at some point and it was never an issue at the store that is now closed. Maybe I was just lucky there but it was never more than 10 min, if they county fix on the spot theyd say we'll call you when replacement if here. Wasn't expecting this even att has never cared when I bring in jb iphone s for replacing.
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
Man Im sorry to hear that. I had the insurance on mine but Im still waiting on it becuase its back ordered. Online it said 5-7 days back order. Good luck man. Im sure there will be a lot more people screaming about bricked wimaxs' very soon. Some dont even know there's is bricked because they do not live in a 4G area.:(
[EVO 4G Android Development] autoprime:
so for you people stuck on the bad wimax MAC.. even after editing the MAC the tree.xml file still shows the bad mac? or has that changed for you as well and you still cant connect to 4g?

and when you say you cant connect to 4g.. do you mean it wont even connect to sprint at all.. not even get an IP? OR does it allow you to conenct and bring you to the sprint portal page asking you to sign up for 4g?

i'm working on methods of authenticating wimax for the clear and sprint networks(yeah i know they share) and perhaps we can help each other out eventually.

the end goal here is to fully edit the wimax mac at every possible memory address required to pass authentication.
[EVO 4G Android Development] mpa4712:
The problem isn't changing the MAC address back, that never has been the issue. At most, having the wrong MAC appear anywhere in the code at this point is cosmetic.

The issue is that when flashing your Wimax partition, your RSA keys were removed. They didn't just go on a vacation; they are gone. No amount of modifying any of the binary or xml files will restore.

I will cover these options again for those who still have a phone that, at one point and time, had a bad MAC:

1. Restore your Wimax partition from your own working backup of that partition. Chances are, you never made one (who does?)

2. Restore a Wimax partition from another Evo that has never had a bad MAC. Before doing so, modify the dump file in two places and insert your original MAC (minus 1). This will get one of the two phones now involved back on 4g at a time. Both will not be able to be on 4g at the same time with this method.

3. Exchange your phone.

These three options will not change. Even if you replace the bad MAC with your working MAC in every file that has it, you will still not be able to authenticate onto Wimax. It won't happen, period. Please stop wasting your time with the Fixit threads out there on this. Take that time to go exchange your phone.

You could also, if you feel so included, try to sign your own RSA keys, add them to the ass-end of your Wimax dump, and reflash that. The RSA keys used for Wimax are 2048bit, so sometime around 2060 when you get done with that, come back and post to let us all know what they were :)

Until then..
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
You bring up an interesting point. Just to be safe in the future, is there any possible way to back up the Wimax partition?

Second, Im guessing a bad radio image caused the keys to get wiped. How does this happen? Arent these radios suppose to leave the keys intact? Malicious radio? Thank you for any info?
[EVO 4G Android Development] neags23:
How can you tell if the RSA keys are gone? I'm not sure I ever had a bad MAC, but it's currently fine and after trying several fix-it threads, I still can't connect to wimax (I believe it was broken sometime around flashing a different kernel).

I read a post somewhere about how to do the wimax.bin dump, but then it says something about 'pulling the file to a secure location.' I don't know what that means.
[EVO 4G Android Development] mcbrided:
I think it means literally that: to 'pull' as in the command pull (I would assume to adb?) to a secure location...you don't want anyone taking your image with your keys - so put them somewhere safe.

Someone correct me please if that is wrong.
[EVO 4G Android Development] ipclark1:
I wish I could help more other than that I: have tried every fix posted anywhere on the subject, had 4g working great before rooting>flashing fresh 3> flashing newest radios, and that in chicago its A pain in the ass to get an exchange without paying the 100 dollar insurance deductible.
[EVO 4G Android Development] autoprime:
im wondering what the relation to these keys and actual MAC is. here's my setup... deactivated evo. signed up with clear.. gave them my evo's MAC. 4g works perfectly after editing the "realm" found in ##DATA# > wimax.

I also have a valid mac address of a friends evo. cloning that MAC to my evo does not allow me to connect to 4g.. despite my valid rsa keys.

so 2 devices with the same keys cant be used.. but am i to assume that 2 devices with the same mac and DIFFERENT valid keys wouldnt work either?

simply having valid rsa unique rsa keys and a shared mac does not work? just curious on how wimax authenticates. up until now everyones talked about it only authenticating with the rsa key.. and then if your MAC is in the database youre granted internet.. but that doesnt seem like the full picture.
[EVO 4G Android Development] thecolor:
k, beating a dead horse here... (while there are to many pages to read through I've jumped to this one/last)... curious if flashing back to an old nandroid rom will restore those keys. Haven't tried yet 'cause I don't use wiMax much, but it's nice to have. :)

Otherwise since the 2.2 update things have worked well but that and tether.

Thanks for any info... sorry if it's been stated.. clearly it becomes harder to search for the info with more and more posts. (not helping the matter). ;)
[EVO 4G Android Development] mpa4712:
You can make a backup without much effort. Take a look: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=7045410&postcount=1

I wouldln't call them malicious wimax files. I would say the way that they were flashed is the culprit. The bad wimax files essentially worked on the idea of, take everything in this data file, and flash it over everything on the Wimax partition. The whole 'append' idea wasn't there, and the rsa keys were essentially being overwritten.

Do a dump of your wimax partition (see link above) and open it in a hex editor. Do a search for: Begin RSA Key

Flashing a kernel will not kill your wimax by itself.

Close. You can't pull your wimax.bin with adb outright. You need to use fastboot. Once again, details in the link above.

I think you can get a new phone without having to pay the insurance. If you are in official 4g city, and your 4g doesn't work, you will likely get a new phone without much effort.

It would depend how you went about 'cloning' that MAC to your evo. The RSA keys are more tied into what IP address you get, than they are your specific MAC. All the MAC is really doing here is being used to verify that you belong on the network with your phone. The RSA keys are used in the handshake when joining the network. If you properly move your MAC between phones, you should be able to connect with any valid MAC + working RSA keys.

Nandroid backups do not backup the RSA keys, or anything on the wimax partition, your radios, etc. Nandroid is just filesystem, essentially.
[EVO 4G Android Development] neags23:
Yeah, I thought that was the process. However, I get errors when trying to dump the partition:

A lot of

INFOCmd1 CMD_TIMEOUT

then a

INFO[S2S ERROR] SD init fail.

So I replaced the sd card with another. I don't get timeouts, but this time I get:

INFO[S2S ERROR]write_data_to_cluster fail.

And I'm out of sd cards, so...
[EVO 4G Android Development] starkillers:
I did simple root ota for 1.47 and flashed the rooted odexed froyo rom then flashed the 2 new radios. My mac address is showing up the same address that is on the back of the phone. I am not currently in a 4g area and can't check to see if its working so I am curious to know does this mean my 4g is okay or is 4g lost because of flashing the new wimax? Thanks for any info.
[EVO 4G Android Development] gregkeys:
Ok I have to say something here because the whole RSA key thing scared the crap out of me, as we were preparing to get a replacement I stumbled on a couple threads mentioning clockwork was the cause of the 4g not working which got me thinking, maybe just maybe there was something to that. Turns out they were right (in my case anyways) so here is where I went wrong, hopefully those of you with non working 4g can get yours fixed like I did.

As a new rooter I used the idiots guide to rooting http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=701004 (awesome guide btw) but stopped before unlocking the nand thinking I didnt need to do that, so once rooted I flashed the radio, wimax and rooted froyo rom only to find out everything worked but my 4g.

I live smack dab in the middle of 4g land so 4g is kind of useful for me which had me super disappointed when it wasnt working. At first I thought my broken 4g was from a bricked MAC, so I checked the address under the battery and compared it to different locations, all seemed well, then I stumbled on a post in this thread which lead me to believe it was a ruined RSA key but just before sending my phone in I found out that it could have been clockwork so I went back to the idiots guide and finished the steps through unlocking the nand, I then reflashed the radio, wimax and rom and sure enough I have my 4g back.

So for those of you scared off by the Deleted RSA keys if you did what I did, perhaps there is still a chance to get your 4g back as well.
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
Our problem is that at one point in time our MAC address changed. We got it back to the original one but once that happens, your are SCREWED. You MAC never changed.
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
You are ok if your MAC never changed.
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
(mpa4712): You can make a backup without much effort. Take a look: http://xdaforums.com/show...10&postcount=1

I wouldln't call them malicious wimax files. I would say the way that they were flashed is the culprit. The bad wimax files essentially worked on the idea of, take everything in this data file, and flash it over everything on the Wimax partition. The whole 'append' idea wasn't there, and the rsa keys were essentially being overwritten.

Forgive me I am just trying to understand. When you say, "the way they were flashed" is the culprit. Isnt it only one way on flashing a radio? So do you agree, it was a bad radio image? Thanks just trying to get a full insight on how this stuff works so that in the future I may be able to prevent something like this happening again.
[EVO 4G Android Development] barnacles10:
Could be that all of that just regenerated the wimax treexml. I'm nand unlocked and run clockwork with absolutely no problems. Only had 4g problems once, which regenerating that xml fixed.
[EVO 4G Android Development] thecolor:
Working Solution for Fresh EVO users (maybe others) <worked for me that is>

ok, so here is how I restored mine.

This is not to state that fresh evo is bad in any way, I simply had a problem after upgrading to the latest Fresh EVO and related radios.

Also, my Mac never changed (per all the comments here) and I didn't check for RSA keys, but the actions below resolved it for me. I plan on continuing to using Fresh EVO (my fav rom thus far), I suspect this may just have been a radio issue with the early froyo/sprint release... so I'll just hang tight 'till the next radio release(s) to upgrade to froyo (assuming they need to work together i.e. froyo won't work with the old radios).

Problem setup:

Device: HTC EVO 4G

Provider: Sprint

ROM: Fresh EVO 3.1.0.1

Radios:

Baseband 2.15.00.07.28 for Sprint Evo 4g

Wimax Radio 26023_r01

Since I knew that everything worked with my previous rom setup, I reverted.

<READ ALL OF THIS BEFORE DOING: and it's not my fault if you brick your device or whatever.. blah, blah, standard warning>

Using all the steps typically suggested at geekfor.me's site; I cleared all caches, etc.... clean. "...as always if you are having issues then wipe data, dalvik, cache, and sd:ext. Then flash the rom again." ~flipz

If you want to save apps, I suggest using Titanium Backup first. Then you can restore them after all this. As for your contacts, blah... you're using a *droid totally connected to Google, so I hope you're just using a gSync. ;)

First:

I downgraded the radios in this order: (order may not matter):

1. Radio Baseband 2.05.00.06 for Sprint Evo

2. Wimax Radio 25641_r01

3. Then I downgraded the ROM to: Fresh Evo 1.0.1

(each mod requires its own reboot) from recovery.

By doing all this (basically reverting to an old rom and radios) I not only got my 4G back, but I also retrieved the ability to tether as well as it had stopped working when I did my Froyo upgrade using the above mentioned Fresh EVO rom and related radios. This method still requires unRevoked, so if you ha(v)e/d then I suggest saving it, as it's no longer in the market. <hint Titanium Backup>

Hopefully the same may hold true for any other user out there that has a custom rom installed.

Here is the final info after restore:
[EVO 4G Android Development] mrbrandonscott:
Same thing happened to me! I was using idiots guide. After installing the Stock rooted Froyo Rom with Clockwork however, my 4G was broken. I installed PC36IMG to revert back to the older ROM, and 4G was working. I had to install RA recovery, then after I installed Froyo and the radio updates, this is what fixed my 4G:

After you install the rom and flash the radio updates, go to your computers command prompt and run the command "adb shell" from the location of your adb file (I used the one in the simpleroot folder)

after the '#' sign, type this command:

ls /data/misc/wimax/

You should see the file 'YourMacAddress.tree.xml'

If you see this file, then type (or paste):

mv /data/misc/wimax/YourMacAddress.tree.xml /data/misc/wimax/YourMacAddress.tree.xml.orig

This changes the name of the Macaddress.tree.xml file. To make sure it did, run the "ls /data/misc/wimax/" command again. If it says .orig on the end of the file, then it worked.

Type "exit" and press enter to leave adb shell. Now if you turn on your 4G, it should recreate the Macaddress.tree.xml file, and fix your 4G. It's letting me use the new Froyo with root, and 4G

This is what worked for me. It is the same method mentioned by Saintsfan in another post. I am not sure who found and posted the original fix.
[EVO 4G Android Development] rocolema:
For newcomers, if you have a broken MAC (the MAC listed on the back of your phone does not match the MAC listed in your settings) there is no fix. You can 'steal' another EVO 4G's MAC but both you and the stolen MAC cannot be on 4G at the same time.

The only solution (for now) is to get another phone, either thru insurance or convincing Sprint to replace it.
[EVO 4G Android Development] jrpointer:
as we already know the ppl who have had their Mac addresses changed are screwed as along with this comes a damaged wimax partition. What I want to know is how this is continuing to happen? I been through this before and had my phone swapped and recently went from CM6 to Fresh since I missed 4g. All was well till I had issues with Wifi Tether not broadcasting my said. I decided to try and flash the wimax radios for a second time......now I ONCE AGAIN have a bogus mac address??????? I orginallu thought this issue came from the unrevoked team releasing bad radios but how does it happen again? I think answering that question to avoid this in the future is the most important (along w backing up my wimax partition...smh)
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
I totally agree with you. We need to figure the root cause or commom denominator on this costly issue. My replacement is on order but I must be honest, I am gun shy now. I never used Unrevoke. I did use Fresh 3.1.0.1 with the latest radios linked on that thread and I was coming from CM6 nightly 8.4.2010. Soon after, I lost my MAc Address. Not blaming anyone by no means, just stating what I did and hopefully we could get a definite cause to the problem.
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
You never lost your MAC address. Thats why this worked for you. Thanks.
[EVO 4G Android Development] djschny:
Problem with Stock ROM

I seem to be having this same problem on my 100% stock EVO running the latest OTA. After the update one day my 4G stopped working and I noticed my battery draining in about 2 hours, phone hot as hell, and 100% awake time. Finally figured out that the 4G was turning on, scanning for about 2 seconds, turning off, and then repeating the cycle.

After much failed searching I arrived here. However it appears everyone who has problems here has a rooted phone and/or has a custom ROM. If I have this problem on a stock ROM with no root, shouldn't this be something that can be fixed without rooting?
[EVO 4G Android Development] wsantiagow:
Yes you are fine. Call Sprint support or go to Sprint store. As long as you never rooted before, your fine.