yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android General] tweakradje:
Interesting stuff. But my eye fell on the last dmesg log.

Did you try in Recovery mode?

Do I see the OPS block mentioned there for efs? PartID 23?

EDIT: as mihaivt noted: 23 hex is 35 dec (ops counting from 0 so partid 35 would be 34 in ops)

0,mibib
1,qcsbl
2,oemsbl
3,amss
4,arm11boot
5,boot
6,recovery
7,system
8,data
9,csc
10,
34,efs2

or 34,efs?

I have attached 2603 and 2635 from my efs. No imei in it as far as I can see.

Perhaps it helps you to rebuild efs.

Cheers
[Android General] mihaivt:
1) 23 is hex for 35. I do not know whether in ops file need to have dec or hex. Benjamin suggest dec(35). Maybe somebody with a bricked phone should try first. My phone can still boot :). And using official froyo I5500OXFJPD.tar I can see I have WIFI again.

2) I will compare the 2 files attached by you with the ones in previosly stl5.rfs posted by other user. I want to know whether they are the same or are phone specific.

Anyway is another risc to mount /efs rw and overwrite the 2 files
[Android General] psyke83:
Well, our valid OPS file has entry "10". If it were using hex notation, that should be "A" instead, so I think it uses decimal notation.

However...

The OPS file begins with 0 (mibib), whilst Benjamin's reconstructed list that's deducted through the nID value begins with 1 (also mibib). Therefore we may need to number the EFS as 34 in our .OPS file.

For the people that tried flashing with a modified OPS file: can you still boot into download mode and flash properly?
[Android General] tweakradje:
I had a dead phone and was able to use odin.

I think you are right about the partition numer starting at 0.

So partition ID 35 dec should be 34 in the OPS file.

Cheers
[Android General] BlocK240:
Stop mucking around with random commands and read more carefully, it's /dev/block/stl5 , not /dev/stl5 . I have no idea if /dev/stl5 even exists, and if it does I'd rather not touch it even with a 2 meters pole.

I have no idea if the Ace presents the same symptoms as the i5500, but our phone corrupts the efs once it is copied but will work just fine after being copied back.

Using dd from recovery mode should theoretically not require the second command, but I'd rather keep it there for safety purposes.

As I've said, using dd in recovery mode did NOT damage the phone in any possible way, so that is the safest bet.

As for mounting the SD card, search around. I'm afraid this thread is not a tutorial on how to partition and mount a SD card.
[Android General] motafoca:
Tip for those with still bootable phone but have efs+backup

Mount the backup, format efs using fat and

Copy the files 1 by 1

I did that once and it worked

I bricked my phone during copying the files it rebooted

lol

Still trying odin stuff
[Android General] BlocK240:
2603 and 2635 are device specific.
[Android General] psyke83:
Look at our OPS file:

0,mibib
1,qcsbl
2,oemsbl
3,amss
4,arm11boot
5,boot
6,recovery
7,system
8,data
9,csc
10,

Look at the reconstructed OPS (from the nID values, decreased by 1 to match OPS structure):

0,mibib
1,qcsbl
2,oemsbl
3,amss
4,fota
5,arm11boot
6,???
7,???
8,???
32,???
33,???
34,efs2
35,???

Ignoring the efs and unknown partitions, only the first four are in the correct order!

Let's make some (fairly solid) assumptions:

1. We cannot repartition our phone - the option doesn't exist in Odin v4.28).

2. It is possible to flash an EFS file (as Odin v4.28 specifically has an EFS button).

3. The OPS file structure does *not* match the structure reported by the Android kernel (from the "atag", "BIE: nPartition Information / nID" output seen in dmesg). See above for proof why this appears to be the case.

What do you think?
[Android General] psyke83:
I've made "some" progress towards resolving the different positions reported by the kernel vs the positions in the OPS file.

Look again at this output (NOTE: I added comments to the end of the line to fill in what the partitions are - some are still speculated):

[BIF: ] nPartition Information (nVol : 0)
nVer : 0x10000
00 / nID:0x01 / nAttr:0x00001012 / 1stVun: 0 / Units: 6 MIBIB
01 / nID:0x02 / nAttr:0x00001012 / 1stVun: 6 / Units: 2 QCSBL
02 / nID:0x03 / nAttr:0x00001012 / 1stVun: 8 / Units: 3 OEMSBL
03 / nID:0x04 / nAttr:0x00001012 / 1stVun: 11 / Units: 100 AMSS
04 / nID:0x23 / nAttr:0x00001101 / 1stVun: 111 / Units: 97 EFS2
05 / nID:0x25 / nAttr:0x00001101 / 1stVun: 208 / Units: 20 NV_BACKUP???
06 / nID:0x05 / nAttr:0x00001001 / 1stVun: 228 / Units: 100 FOTA????
07 / nID:0x06 / nAttr:0x00001012 / 1stVun: 328 / Units: 8 ARM11BOOT
08 / nID:0x07 / nAttr:0x00001012 / 1stVun: 336 / Units: 40 BOOT???
09 / nID:0x08 / nAttr:0x00001012 / 1stVun: 376 / Units: 40 RECOVERY???
10 / nID:0x09 / nAttr:0x00001012 / 1stVun: 416 / Units: 3 ???
11 / nID:0x21 / nAttr:0x00001101 / 1stVun: 419 / Units: 710 SYSTEM
12 / nID:0x22 / nAttr:0x00001101 / 1stVun: 1129 / Units: 775 DATA
13 / nID:0x24 / nAttr:0x00001101 / 1stVun: 1904 / Units: 100 CSC

Here's what I propose:

Odin's OPS file is not based on the nID alone.

Odin's OPS file is based on the grouping of the type of partition (nAttr) first, followed by the nID of the partitions only that fit in the current group, in alphanumeric order.

It appears that Odin flashes the partitions with nAttr 0x00001012, followed by 0x00001011.

I've come up with this so far (in brackets is the nAttr followed by the nID):

0,mibib (1012, 0x01)
1,qcsbl (1012, 0x02)
2,oemsbl (1012, 0x03)
3,amss (1012, 0x04)
4,arm11boot (1012, 0x06)
5,boot (1012, 0x07)
6,recovery (1012, 0x08)
7,system (1101, 0x21)
8,data (1101, 0x22)
9,efs2 (1101, 0x23)
10,csc (1101, 0x24)
11,nv_backup (1101, 0x25)

The file doesn't seem right, but it's a hell of a lot better than before - only the CSC is out of place.

Problems:

1. I'm not sure about the boot, recovery, fota and nv_backup partitions - they're just semi-educated guesses.

2. I have no idea what partition nID 0x09 with nAttr 0x00001012 can be. It should be position 7 in the OPS file, but that's impossible as the system partition should be there. Perhaps Odin knows that it should be ignored?

3. The efs partition is now in the position where the csc previously was. I don't think this is right.
[Android General] psyke83:
Hmm, maybe my theories are all wrong :P

motafoca and I tested several combination (efs in positions 34,35, 23, 22). The fact is that Odin crashes if you try to flash anything above 10, so that's the limit. We tried to flash efs in positions 9 and 10 - no crash, but it didn't solve the problem. Finally, out of desperation we flashed the partition map that's encoded into the boot image:

The strings from the boot image (apparently): http://pastebin.com/BGgfRqVB

0,mibib
1,qcsbl
2,oemsbl
3,amss
4,efs2
5,nv_backup
6,fota
7,arm11boot
8,boot
9,recovery
10,parameter
11,system
12,userdata
13,cache

That permanently killed his phone. It seems pretty clear that if you flash something besides arm11boot in slot 4, your phone won't even power on.
[Android General] s2003r:
Hi,

Thanks for your reply

I did read this thread fully and understood that DD BRICKS the phone. No questions here.

Also there are beats and pieces stating that there is a safe way to read stl5 file using - su, but i couldn't find how.

what is clear here is that you need:

1. Rooted your phone

2. use adb

3. Do not use DD method on i5500

not sure what's next...

PS: i'm sorry for noob questions but thats what forums made for.. right ?? ask to be heard :)

Thanks for reply BlocK240.
[Android General] psyke83:
No, there is no safe way. It is not possible to read a block device (/dev/stl5 or any other) without using superuser (su) privileges anyway.

Oh, and /dev/stl5 is the same as /dev/block/stl5 - they're just symlinks.
[Android General] skippy__:
I had the misfortune of following the suggested commands (including the dd) and bricked my phone.

I'd really like to try again - but I don't think any solution has been found yet...

I don't know how the people unlock phones on the market... how do they do it? Does anyone know?
[Android General] BlocK240:
It's been stated in the comments by the one who posted that tutorial that it does not work.
[Android General] psyke83:
They use those "GSM boxes" that have specialized hardware/cabling. I have no idea how it really works, though.

I got my phone unlocked in a shop with one of these devices for 10 euro.
[Android General] marcelorider:
well mine went to service because i don't have STL5 block backed up, and the far i went is just a simply other user's imei...

The phone wasn't mine, was from my father and yeah, really sucks when you don't have phone ^.^

So it went to Service, next time i know i have to do a Backup from it, i just ask you guys to simply tell how to connect ADB on recovery mode, or how do you get to it?

Is recovery mode the "Download Mode"?

Well, just some questions i should have made before :D
[Android General] BlocK240:
adb reboot recovery

The command that needs to be issued to send the phone to recovery mode.
[Android General] catallin:
Hello guys, thanks for the useful info. I read the whole thread. The thing is that I have a samsung gt-s5570 and I don't know if the instructions here (although they are dangerous from what I can see) will work for me. What do you think, should I try to do this? Is there another unlock solution for my phone? (except imei based). From what I understand I have to put my phone in recovery, mount sd card (this I don't know how to do it) and after that run the dd command. Am I correct?
[Android General] tweakradje:
This method from first page works 100% (done it a few times)

- root your phone
- adb shell
- su
- cd /
- mount root rw (did it with root explorer) or use command mount -o remount,rw /
- mkdir /efs
- mount -o nosuid,ro,nodev -t vfat /dev/block/stl5 /efs
(from another phone /etc/fstab says: mount rfs /dev/block/stl5 /efs nosuid nodev check=no)
- cat /efs/mits/perso.txt
- umount /efs
- reboot

Cheers
[Android General] catallin:
Thank you tweakradje for your reply. I'm struggling for 3 days now with this and only now I realized that I have a big big yet simple mistake - instead of stl5 I always tried st15 (when you wrap "code" you can see how similar L is with 1). Although I read the whole thread and with one or two occasions somebody made this difference but I guess it was too late for me to process :) Thanks once again guys, you are great!

PS: the initial reply I was willing to give you was that the command mount rfs /dev/block/stl5 fail for me and suddenly I realized the mistake I was doing. After that the code simply was there for me to note it in the cmd window. I'm so excited now!
[Android General] tweakradje:
It is stl5 yes: es-tee-el-five

I will put it on the first page. Thanks.

Cheers
[Android General] dabigserver:
HELP!!!! since i did this, i got no signal service, when i attempt to connect to a network a message comes like "Error while searching for networks"!!!! :'( what happened? how can i solve it? ='( i cant even enter in service mode!!! when i write *#06# doesnt show not even the imei!!!!!!
[Android General] alienvirus:
Thanks for clear instructions tweakradje, however, when I run through the safe method everything goes well except that I only get "01234567s" instead of the unlock code. Any suggestions for me? I'm running I5500MUGJJ7 baseband version. Thanks again in advance.
[Android General] BlocK240:
Would you mind PM'ing me your perso.txt so I could extract your unlock code?
[Android General] alienvirus:
Hahaha, I amuse myself too much. Don't ask me why but I fooled around with the "DD" set-up and managed to brick my phone. I'm now in the process of flashing the ROM, hopefully all goes well (fingers crossed).
[Android General] BlocK240:
If your phone still boots up, post here. I'll be able to help you get it back on track.
[Android General] alienvirus:
I can get to the "Emergency Dload Mode (ARM9 mode)" by holding down the menu button+D button+power. I can also, to my surprise, get to the yellow downloading yield sign when holding down power button+volume down. That's as far as the phone goes in regards to powering up.
[Android General] BlocK240:
Powering it up regularly would just result in a looping Samsung logo, wouldn't it? If yes, you now have a paperweight. Send it off to warranty, they'll fix it considering they aren't able to determine what the phone has been up to.
[Android General] ovidiu2008:
no sound unknown imei no signal

my phone boots up but no sound, unknown imei, black screen in service mode and no signal
[Android General] itx:
stl5.rfs mine is 252kb, I opened it with WinImage and all folders are empty, that means it's broken, can someone give me a copy of this file?

Now i have, No IMEI, no Baseband, no GSM, no BT, no camera, no sound, only WiFi, masive restarts, no real hard reset the hour and date after restart have all the time 2007 at year
[Android General] alienvirus:
Just got my phone back from the repair shop, seems like they replaced the PBA.

I guess I have to part with the HTC Legend that the carrier had loaned me : (
[Android General] alienvirus:
I have this same problem as itx now after I followed tweakradje's SAFE METHOD.

Then I tried this:

- root phone

- adb shell

- su

- dd if=/sdcard/stl5.rfs of=/dev/block/stl5.

- reboot

but no luck. Any suggestions?
[Android General] Azrael_PT:
Urgent message

Suggestion to all. READ before doing something.

STOP using the "dd" command, it will brick your phone.

There are 2 types of brick, bootloop or no imei and baseband.

To all that used the "dd" command, send you phone to repair. The Main PCB Board has to be changed.
[Android General] tassia:
i've read all the thread but i'm still not sure about something... is the "safe method" from the first page really safe? if it bricks the phone, will i still be able to reflash it so it will keep working?

some posts made me really confuse about it :confused:
[Android General] box2joe:
hey guys i am fool enough not to read all the post and did that dd trick in on my phone just after reading 2 pages of this thread and now im one of the proud members who have a brick phone. good thing my unit still comes with a warranty and i gonna be taking this to the samsung shop tomorrow so if anyone one of you has a tricks on their sleeve as long as it wont brick my phone for good as in 100% like the other members did in the earlier post im in.. by the way for those who's looking for a stl5 file i attached mine maybe someones interested to scrutinize this sensitive peace of file. another thing to anyone who is trying to perform this trick.. don't take off the battery without shutting down your phone because that's what happends to mine. my phone still working after the process and i still manage to insert a sim and enter the lock code but when i revert back to my original sim i just took of the battery without shutting down and that's where the disasters starts.
[Android General] box2joe:
hey guys i got one question can this device Z3X-Box Samsung Edition can flash or repair our EFS successfully?

sorry i can't post a link for the said product but you can google it if you want.. :D
[Android General] user_000:
Unlock ??

Has any one tried it for Galaxy Gio S5660 or Mini or any other variant with android 2.2 etc ?????
[Android General] box2joe:
you can try it yourself if you are ready to brick your phone... most of us here have a brick phone after then process..
[Android General] user_000:
No man, don't wanna brick my phone. Just want to get it unlocked though ! What seems to me here is that all those who used dd command got bricked?? What about the "safe method" (post #6) of backing up the efs ???? can someone confirm bricking on that too ??
[Android General] box2joe:
I'm not sure with the safe mode. i haven't got the chance to try it myself. currently my phone is in service and they said that their going to replace the motherboard of the phone. if you still have a warranty for your unit you can try it. just to make sure that you'll be getting a free fix of your phone if something bad might happends if the warranty service no longer cover your unit you better not try it and rather pay for someone to unlock the unit in a safest way. otherwise you'll going to have a nice paperweight if you insist and something wrong happens.
[Android General] tweakradje:
Post 6 is the ONLY way to do it without risk. But you need to stick to the instructions. Nothing more, nothing less.

DON'T do anything with the dd command or any other command that is not listed in post 6.

If you cannot perform actions from post 6 let someone help you with more experience.

Cheers
[Android General] box2joe:
@ tweakradje: at post #6 did you execute all the commands on ADB or on root explorer? i was kinda confused with the instructions given i'm not good with codes...:(
[Android General] tweakradje:
I changed the step of mounting the root rw in post 6. Is it clear now?

Cheers
[Android General] user_000:
super manager

Hey guys,

I managed to root my galaxy gio with soc 1.9.1. Then installed Super Manager to explore the root. But i dont see any /efs directory and neither /mits/perso.txt

I have root permissions though. its froyo 2.2.1

ANy help ???
[Android General] box2joe:
@ tweakradje : i think i can understand it right now after the edit.. i just can't try it coz my phone is still in the samsung shop for a warranty service they said it will be availble next week.
[Android General] alienvirus:
This might seem like a silly question but does anyone know a definite way to brick your Samsung i5500. I half bricked it through the safe method and for my warranty to cover the costs, I can't let the repair shop know that I changed the firmware on my device. I've looked everywhere and can't get my hands on I5500MUGJJ7 so my only choice is to brick the phone and send it in to get it fixed without cost.

I've tried this:

- adb shell

- su

- dd if=/dev/block/stl5 of=/sdcard/stl5.rfs

but no luck to get it on the constant rebooting screen.
[Android General] BlocK240:
Might be a bit too late, but:

-adb shell

- su

- rm -rf /dev/block/*
[Android General] ronald11:
boot loop

any way to fix the boot loop. ?
[Android General] mikeyb123:
Does the safe method work on s5830

Has anyone managed to unlocked there galaxy ace s5830 with safe method without brick

plz respond
[Android General] tweakradje:
Hi,

Do you have block devices like stlxx in /dev/block?

If I give mount command I see things like this:

/dev/stl14 /cache ext4 rw,noatime,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0

/dev/stl13 /data ext4 rw,noatime,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0

/dev/stl12 /system ext4 rw,noatime,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0

Might be other flash mem device than stl5 but I would start with stl5.

Always use mount command from post 6. Don't do anything "stupid".

Always umount /efs afterwards. You are looking for the "mits" folder in

the mounted /efs folder.

Let us know.

Cheers
[Android General] maxmix:
There is no safe way to try and unlock the Ace.... Not that I have seen....

maxmix
[Android General] box2joe:
just got my phone from samsung service center after almost 3 weeks of waiting. but the best part of it is my phone is now unlock. after they replaced it with a new motherboard they didn't mind to lock it back from my carrier which is a good thing... :D nice ... :D
[Android General] alienvirus:
Hey, I tried that but no luck.

After I type in the 3rd line "rm -rf /dev/block/*"

I get : "rm failed for -rf, No such file or directory."

Anything else to brick my phone? lol.

Is there a way to remove the firmware and leave the phone blank?
[Android General] joseudp:
Solution unbrick i5500

dd if=/dev/block/stl5 of=/sdcard/stl5.rfs

now !! Phone brick !! No IMEI, no Baseband, no GSM

Solution :

rename stl5.rfs efs.rfs

Restore (WITH ODIN):

-Open odin

-Add efs.rfs to box EFS and click in START

my phone back to life

PPUDP... :)
[Android General] ilarrain:
Can any one with bricked phones confirm this??

I've already got my phone's board changes thanks to warranty.

I tried many times to flash efs.rfs using ODIN, but I packaged the file in a .tar. Never thought the solution could be so simple.

I also tried editing cooper.ods in order to make a slot for efs.
[Android General] alienvirus:
I'll try it this weekend, but I suspect that it won't work this easily.
[Android General] mraalbertina:
Hello. :( Any luck in the unbrick?

I got a Galaxy Mini in second had without the warranty, but changed my operator and wanted to unlock it. Did the "safe method" and everything was fine, but then lost all connection with it, so tried flashing back to factory firmware. No go, wouldn't boot, so I tried with 2.3.3. And now it's stuck booting, it nothing shows up in the screen, just turns on and off real fast.

I can access the download screen and flash it, with Volume Down, Home, On. But that's it..

I can't afford a new phone now, and this was the only one i had, as the previous died. No solution for me? :(
[Android General] alienvirus:
Tried adding "efs.rfs" but it did not work.

Received this error:

Download Start...
<0> Create File...
<1> StartThread Detected : 1
<2> StartThread Detected : 0
<3> StartThread Detected : 0
<4> StartThread Detected : 0
<5> StartThread Detected : 0
<6> StartThread Detected : 0
<7> StartThread Detected : 0
<8> StartThread Detected : 0
<1> setup connection...
<1> odin mode.. check plcatform verification.
<1> VerifyPlatform:V0, P0,R0
<1> START!!!
<1> e - unknown file - "ëMSWIN4.1"
[Android General] ochean:
I did that stupid dd method because I was following a guide in a french forum that said that it's perfectly working ...

Damn it ! It was supposed to be a present to my sister :(

How come we can't copy again the EFS ? Clearing it with ODIN won't work either i guess ? I'll be traveling two months in Japan and won't be able to go the samsung service center.

Hoping to see a workaround soon....
[Android General] justwondering:
Hi , thank you for this post , safe version from page 6

i presume , i simply cut and paste in each line of txt ?

But i dont understand this part !??!

(from another phone /etc/fstab says: mount rfs /dev/block/stl5 /efs nosuid nodev check=no)

how does this part work ? or is it not needed if doing through the computer ?

is this method totally safe ? no way of bricking phone ?

i would like to know before i start as i can see from this thread a lot of people have had issues bricking etc.

Code:

- root your phone

- adb shell

- su

- cd /

- mount -o remount,rw / (or do it before adb with root explorer)

This works on other systems: mount -o remount,rw -t rootfs rootfs /

- mkdir /efs

- mount -o nosuid,ro,nodev -t vfat /dev/block/stl5 /efs

(from another phone /etc/fstab says: mount rfs /dev/block/stl5 /efs nosuid nodev check=no)

- cat /efs/mits/perso.txt

- umount /efs

- reboot