[Q] Hong Kong 32GB n9005 and PIT

Journyman16 · Jan 26, 2014

I want to flash an Aussie ROM on my HK 32GB n9005. I've been doing some reading and what I think I need to do is as follows...

ghibli3's thread at http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2550823 specifically addresses this issue and thanks to those contributing there and elsewhere.

Now to check I understand what they are saying before I brick my phone.

I have these:
CSB_signed_HLTE_EUR_OPEN_32G_0718.pit
CSB_signed_HLTE_EUR_OPEN_32G_0805.pit
ghibli3-N9005.pit
ratcom-N9005.pit

I also used ghibli3's N9005-SaveMyPit from http://xdaforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2426123&d=1385903491 to get a copy of my current pit.

I have my original HK MI7 stock, a HK stock MK2 (used to root my phone originally using RDLV) and both an MI7 and MJ7 Aussie ROMs.

So... here is what I think I need to do... Please let me know if this is correct or tell me how to do it better.

Using Odin and with phone in DL mode, USB Debugging on, Samsung drivers and ADB setup on PC...

1. Load a PIT file in [PIT] in Odin and tick [Re-Partition] then [Start]
(1st question, do I reboot the phone or just go to the next step?)

2. Follow RDLV steps to flash the Aussie MJ7 to root the phone.
(2nd question, should I drop back to the MI7 version for the root operation? I don't think it is needed as when I rooted my phone with HK version, I had HK MI7 on the phone and used HK MK2 to root it)

(3rd question, I have Kies 3 on my PC - should I uninstall it before doing any of this or might it be helpful to have it still installed?)

Journyman16 · Jan 27, 2014

OK, so no comments so far... let's try a slightly different approach.
(4th question, Can I load the PIT into Odin, tick [Re-Partition] and add in the VEGA version of the AP (from RDLV) and then flash them as one?

radicalisto · Jan 27, 2014

Journyman16 said:
OK, so no comments so far... let's try a slightly different approach.
(4th question, Can I load the PIT into Odin, tick [Re-Partition] and add in the VEGA version of the AP (from RDLV) and then flash them as one?

For using PIT file, you need to add the PIT to Odin when you flash so it'll repartition as it's flashing. However, don't take that as a solid cause I am not 100% sure myself as I haven't messed with PIT files (yet) - but from what I have read that is how it is done. - Have a scan through the HK bricked (solved) threads to be doubley sure cause yeah, it's easy to end up with a brick

Journyman16 · Jan 27, 2014

Thanks for that. Kinda what I was planning to do but I'm not sure if I do the PIT flash first then do the rest or if I do it all as one process. I'll check out that thread... been looking anywhere I could find a PIT reference.

Journyman16 · Jan 27, 2014

Well, that was fun... not.

I tried the PIT files with NAND erase all, re-partition f. reset time and Auto reboot all ticked - it failed - I got a systemconnection error. I tried again with each of the PITs listed above except ratcom's - his is from an MJ7 build and I was unsure if that would trip Knox or not.

2 hours pass, with me looking all around XDA and trying a variety of things. Incidentally I think maybe the systemconnect thing might be related to not restarting the phone to get the error screen. It seems Odin can do things when that screen is on that it can't do in plain Download mode. At least, on mine, the eventual fix worked only AFTER I had the error screen (shows the hone pic and a PC pic)

I didn't try flashing CWM. Nor doing anything that might add an MJ7 or KK bootloader. If I trip Knox I want it to be by my choice, not because I can't fix something.

But clearly I am doing something wrong in trying to repartition my phone - none of the PIT flashes worked. None of the flash ROM's worked. I looked around for a MJ3 or less ROM with the 4 files - figured I could get that I could try using a PIT for the right CSC and those files and solve both issues at once.

I tried my MK1 HK Vega image and no go. So I sat and thought it through and realised that last time I had problems I had the error screen NOT download mode so I rebooted the phone and Voila! up popped the error screen. Odin promptly flashed my HK MK1 version and now I am restoring my apps from the extSDcard. Got a bit of setup work to do but it's up and running again.

But I will have to trip Knox now - I'm sick of not having a Nandroid backup that could just restore everything where it was instead of me having to manually put things back as they were.

Any ideas as to what I did wrong?

FeralFire · Jan 27, 2014

Journyman16 said:
Well, that was fun... not.

I tried the PIT files with NAND erase all, re-partition f. reset time and Auto reboot all ticked - it failed - I got a systemconnection error. I tried again with each of the PITs listed above except ratcom's - his is from an MJ7 build and I was unsure if that would trip Knox or not.

2 hours pass, with me looking all around XDA and trying a variety of things. Incidentally I think maybe the systemconnect thing might be related to not restarting the phone to get the error screen. It seems Odin can do things when that screen is on that it can't do in plain Download mode. At least, on mine, the eventual fix worked only AFTER I had the error screen (shows the hone pic and a PC pic)

I didn't try flashing CWM. Nor doing anything that might add an MJ7 or KK bootloader. If I trip Knox I want it to be by my choice, not because I can't fix something.

But clearly I am doing something wrong in trying to repartition my phone - none of the PIT flashes worked. None of the flash ROM's worked. I looked around for a MJ3 or less ROM with the 4 files - figured I could get that I could try using a PIT for the right CSC and those files and solve both issues at once.

I tried my MK1 HK Vega image and no go. So I sat and thought it through and realised that last time I had problems I had the error screen NOT download mode so I rebooted the phone and Voila! up popped the error screen. Odin promptly flashed my HK MK1 version and now I am restoring my apps from the extSDcard. Got a bit of setup work to do but it's up and running again.

But I will have to trip Knox now - I'm sick of not having a Nandroid backup that could just restore everything where it was instead of me having to manually put things back as they were.

Any ideas as to what I did wrong?

2nd link in my signature.
Follow it to step 6. Then flash whatever ROM you want. Make sure your phone is 32 gigs or more. Won't work on 16 gb version.

Journyman16 · Jan 27, 2014

So this gets a bit strange now... I downloaded Phone Info from Play Store and ran it. I did that because I noticed I was having Wifi issues - it was working but kept thinking it was off - I'd click it to turn it on and the button wouldn't go green, but I had signal in the Notification bar. Going to Recovery to clear cache showed it was now applying CSC-code as BTU instead of TGY, so SOMETHING worked when I was doing the PITs.

So, Phone Info shows my Region Code as BTU, my CSC country as UK/IRE and my CSC Country ISO as GBBut I have a mix of ROM info:
Bootloader: ZHUBMI7
Baseband: ZHUDMJ9
PDA: XXUDMK2
CSC: OXADMK2

So, PDA and CSC are from a UK MK2 I tried to use early on and failed with, while BL and BB are from the original HK MI7 (BL) and the HK MK1 I rooted with.

So my question is now, can I now flash a BTU or other normal ROM onto my phone, using the RDLV process to make sure I get root and don't trip Knox?

IIRC I think the process works up to MK2 (and certainly does to MK1 as that what I used originally) so I should be able to DL (say) XXUBMJ1 to use for the BL and use XXUDMK2 for the root process. (i.e. the same as I did using HK MI7 for the BL and HK MK1 for the root process)

3 questions:

1. Is it the PDA that determines the partition Hong Kong users have such problems with? Or is it the Bootloader?

2. Can anyone think of a reason why this would not work? (now my CSC is BTU)

3. Could I now use an Aussie ROM to run the RDLV process?

Journyman16 · Jan 27, 2014

FeralFire said:
2nd link in my signature.
Follow it to step 6. Then flash whatever ROM you want. Make sure your phone is 32 gigs or more. Won't work on 16 gb version.

Thanks for the Reply.

For now I'd prefer to stay away from KK ROMs - too many people having issues, and the prevention of returning to 4.3 is, to me, a killer until Samsung get the bugs out. Given that many people are doing OK with KK, I think it is unlikely Samsung will do much about the bugs until a larger number of people have problems and start bombarding their support lines.

Plus, on 4.3 I have a very fast phone that gives more than 2 days use even with fairly heavy use (for me) and up to 4 days for light use. Why make an irreversible change when the phone is doing well already? For me the next step is custom recovery - I don't like not having a Nandroid BU and several times now after restoring apps I find I need to fix permissions - without custom recovery that means a laborious uninstall/reinstall from Play Store, one app at a time. Pisses me off...

I find it interesting that Samsung are clearly using users such as XDA members as their testing area, while at the same time shutting down the activities we like to do. (Custom ROMs etc) I say clearly using us because otherwise there is no excuse for the regularity of leaked ROMs - Samsung pass it on to us to try and I would bet, have staff watching us to see what issues we have.

So it seems a bit counter-productive to work so hard to lock the phones so we can't play with them.

FeralFire · Jan 27, 2014

Journyman16 said:
Thanks for the Reply.

For now I'd prefer to stay away from KK ROMs - too many people having issues, and the prevention of returning to 4.3 is, to me, a killer until Samsung get the bugs out. Given that many people are doing OK with KK, I think it is unlikely Samsung will do much about the bugs until a larger number of people have problems and start bombarding their support lines.

Plus, on 4.3 I have a very fast phone that gives more than 2 days use even with fairly heavy use (for me) and up to 4 days for light use. Why make an irreversible change when the phone is doing well already? For me the next step is custom recovery - I don't like not having a Nandroid BU and several times now after restoring apps I find I need to fix permissions - without custom recovery that means a laborious uninstall/reinstall from Play Store, one app at a time. Pisses me off...

I find it interesting that Samsung are clearly using users such as XDA members as their testing area, while at the same time shutting down the activities we like to do. (Custom ROMs etc) I say clearly using us because otherwise there is no excuse for the regularity of leaked ROMs - Samsung pass it on to us to try and I would bet, have staff watching us to see what issues we have.

So it seems a bit counter-productive to work so hard to lock the phones so we can't play with them.

You need the international pit file in your phone. Flashing the CSC file will put that pit in your phone. It won't touch the bootloader or the system files.

Journyman16 · Jan 28, 2014

FeralFire said:
You need the international pit file in your phone. Flashing the CSC file will put that pit in your phone. It won't touch the bootloader or the system files.

Unfortunately, PIT's don't seem to come easy. As above I have about 4 of them I tried. There seems a bit of a disconnect between what the AP/CP/CSC are and what the files in a ROM are e.g. in XXUBMH1 there's boot.img, recovery.img, system.img.ext4, userdata.img.ext4, persdata.img.ext4, persist.img.ext4 and in XXUBMI7 there's sbl1.mbn, aboot.mbn, rpm.mbn, tz.mbn, sdi.mbn, NON-HLOS.bin, boot.img, recovery.img, system.img.ext4, modem.bin, cache.img.ext4, hidden.img.ext4

While I've been around a while now, this seems to be a blank spot for me at present - how do I flash a CSC? From reading it seems some ROM.s come with 4 or 5 files, e.g. see attachment - but I haven't been able to find one yet. (the one in the pic was hosted on Hotfiles which is now defunct thanks to the Almighty USA draconian control freaks.

)

Update: I think I have found a copy of it so I can try that when it finishes DL'ing.

Other than that, anyone know of where there might be another such ROM to DL? Also if I am flashing a CSC file do I flash the PIT as well (i.e. at the same time) or do the PIT first?

Which Odin options get ticked for a PIT? I tried [F. Reset Time] [Re-Partition] [Auto Reboot] [Nand Erase All] previously and it didn't seem to work. I saw a recovery type post that suggested ticking [Phone EFS Clear] but seems to me that is a tick towards Brick - and the Recovery being offered was to a KK ROM anyway.

Journyman16 · Jan 28, 2014

FeralFire said:
2nd link in my signature.
Follow it to step 6. Then flash whatever ROM you want. Make sure your phone is 32 gigs or more. Won't work on 16 gb version.

FeralFire said:
You need the international pit file in your phone. Flashing the CSC file will put that pit in your phone. It won't touch the bootloader or the system files.

I just looked at your post again - I realise I might have a wrong idea. Although the leaked ROM is KK, I was assuming flashing the CSC would upgrade my phone - is that the case or can I use your 6 steps just to change my PIT and then do the 4.3 RDLV process to have a root 4.3 phone?

Downloading it now - started with the torrent but that's running slow; I will let it run to completion to maybe help some others get it faster but I've got the Storage Cow one running as well. We'll see which one arrives first

Either way I'll leave it seeding.

FeralFire · Jan 28, 2014

Journyman16 said:
I just looked at your post again - I realise I might have a wrong idea. Although the leaked ROM is KK, I was assuming flashing the CSC would upgrade my phone - is that the case or can I use your 6 steps just to change my PIT and then do the 4.3 RDLV process to have a root 4.3 phone?

Downloading it now - started with the torrent but that's running slow; I will let it run to completion to maybe help some others get it faster but I've got the Storage Cow one running as well. We'll see which one arrives first Either way I'll leave it seeding.

Yeah, you should be able to.

I tried flashing the MK2 ROM after flashing that CSC. It worked perfectly. But then I upgraded to kitkat. So I can't test JB stuff anymore.

Journyman16 · Jan 28, 2014

FeralFire said:
Yeah, you should be able to.
I tried flashing the MK2 ROM after flashing that CSC. It worked perfectly. But then I upgraded to kitkat. So I can't test JB stuff anymore.

Well, it let me flash the vega BTU MK2 ROM but now there's a wifi problem. Still waiting for cygwin to download so I can RDLV on the XSA ROM. There seems to be some kind of conflict between BTU and Australian settings. Says to turn on wireless and actually finds my SSID's but then doesn't connect properly. le sigh...

Journyman16 · Jan 29, 2014

Well it's been coming up to 24 hours with no phone but I seem to have found my way.

The problem seems to have been a mismatch between BL, CSC and PIT. In trying to get off the Hong Kong set up I wound up with a ZHU BL, BTU CSC and XSA CP and AP. It worked but I had no wifi. tried a few things to get it working and in trying to flash an XSA CSC (I think it was XSA) I got the Knox bit change. With no wifi I thought maybe the problem was the BUT-based CP needed changing. In trying to fix that, somehow I triggered Knox

I tried DL & Install of Omega 6 (it's a 4.3 - not ready to go KK yet) but although it completed nicely (so many ROM's got hidden or system errors in Odin) the phone didn't start. I tried installing Philz so I could run things from the extSDcard but an XSA wouldn't work nor would anything I had below MJ7. Last Phone Info view I had I still had a ZHU CP, even though AP and CSC were XSA-based.

Finally I got the MJ7 ROM from http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php...9005xxudmj7-pre-rooted-knox-free-odex-bl-free and it did the trick.

It's been a learning experience but I'd be happier if I knew for sure both what triggered the Knox bit (I was being very careful about it) and why some of the other ROM installs simply didn't work.

Green Pill Zone · Jun 5, 2014

Resurrecting this one because I'm looking for info on flashing my 32G HK Note 3, but it came with KK pre-installed. So I'm not sure what differences I have to be aware of. Any tips?

mfractal · Jul 16, 2016

For whoever still experiences issues with HK 32GB n9005 devices, After wasting half a day on that crap, i was able to flash N9005ZSUGOK2_N9005OZSGOK2_TGY from sammobile coupled with the PIT attached.

mokhtar mousa · Oct 26, 2016

sm-n900

sm-900 and pit

[Q] Hong Kong 32GB n9005 and PIT

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