Announcement: Do You have a Soft-Bricked Eris?

bftb0 · Feb 19, 2012

The release by HTC of an unlockable bootloader (v 1.51.0000) for the Droid Eris has created a potential opportunity for rescue of some soft-bricked Eris handsets.

Are you an owner of one of these units? There is a decent chance of recovery back to a working state!

(Props go to Android Forums user "scotty85" for figuring this out.)

This (v 1.51.0000) bootloader is rather quirky - it does not allow direct flashing of individual partitions using fastboot - but it does allow flashing of zip files containing recovery, boot, and system partitions via fastboot with the phone in "RUU mode" once the bootloader is unlocked with a procedure from HTC.

If your phone can be booted into its' bootloader (HBOOT, FASTBOOT, or RUU mode), but can not successfully boot all the way up - or it gets stuck in a bootloop during booting, and you only have a stock recovery on the phone, this might be the approach for you.

Rather than write up the whole method to begin with, I'll just ask for responses to see if anyone is interested. And then take it from there if I get some nibbles.

If you think you have a phone you want to try to rescue, speak up - and say a few words about whether the phone can get into different bootloader modes, which bootloader version you have on the phone, and so forth.

Note: at the moment, getting this to work requires getting the fastboot program running on your PC - it is not a phone-only method. The amount of effort at the command line is minimal, but you will need to be able to get your PC talking to your phone to do this.

bftb0

Yatyas · Feb 27, 2012

I have a friend who is in this exact situation. Any help you can provide would be great.

bftb0 · Feb 27, 2012

Yatyas said:
I have a friend who is in this exact situation. Any help you can provide would be great.

Take your time, and read and understand this whole post before you begin.

[size=+2]Files Needed:[/size]

Collect all the files you will need, get them on to the root folder of your SD card, and verify their MD5 signatures (the copy that makes it to your SD card, not the copy on your computer) :

"rom.zip" - the 1.51.0000 bootloader install payload - here **
MD5: daab6bcbe78c41938a95c4963c5c44e8

custom recovery - either Amon_RA's ("recovery-RA-eris-v1.6.2.img"), or scary alien's trackball-free derivatives here (e.g. the New 1.7.1 version)

"ErisMiscReset_v0.9.zip" here

"MTD_Inspect_v0.9.zip" here

"ErisMTDNuke_v0.9.zip" here (also, please see disclaimer here)

"Eris_RootROM_v2.19.605.1_PB00IMG.zip" from shipped-roms.com. Note that this (also) is renamed to PB00IMG.zip at the appropriate time. **

A custom (dev) ROM, or even a fully stock ROM such as the HTC Eris March 2011 OTA Stock ROM - v2.41.605.6

[size=+2]Installation Method:[/size]

Note:

A less thorough method than what is described here, but shorter, is reported here. Even though I built the "ErisMTDNuke_v0.9.zip" repair tool, I do not advocate using it unless it is confirmed to be absolutely necessary. Moreover, in almost every case, having the Eris S-OFF bootloader on a rooted phone is an advantage, and (also) having the "misc" partition "MainVer" value reset back to a low value after fooling with RUUs or PB00IMG.zip installs is a good idea to prevent future disasters. The short method does not document either of these two steps.

Note #2: In any of these procedures, it is important to do so with A FULLY CHARGED PHONE. Do not let the phone sit idle for long periods of time in HBOOT, FASTBOOT, or RUU modes - even with the Eris plugged in to a USB port, in those modes it will discharge very rapidly - about two hours or so. That little green light is your friend.

- get fastboot on a PC working and communicating with the phone in its' current state (with the phone in fastboot mode or RUU mode). Doubtful if I will reply to inquiries about Windows and driver installs - it's covered in gory detail all over the place. Same goes with getting a copy of "fastboot.exe" for windows. (Google is your friend).

- Install the "rom.zip" file for the 1.51.0000 bootloader, (Rename to PB00IMG.zip and install it by booting the phone into HBOOT mode**)

- register with htcdev.com for unlocking this new Eris bootloader & follow the bootloader unlocking instructions (you can skip downloading & running the RUU, as you have installed the bootloader already)

- create a zip file with a custom recovery image in it (named "recovery.img"), and an "android-info.txt" file with MainVer set to 2.42.0000 (see step #3 of this XDA post).

- using fastboot and the phone in RUU mode, flash this zip file ("fastboot flash zip zipfilename.zip") Again, see step #3 of the link above.

- power off the phone and boot into the custom recovery and flash the ErisMiscReset_v0.9.zip file (watch for any errors - stop if you see errors!).

- in the same recovery session flash the MTD_Inspect_v0.9.zip file and determine if you have massive (bad block) corruption in any of /boot, /system, or /data. (See instructions here)

- If the above mentioned partitions only have one or two bad blocks, skip the next step.

- Flash (in recovery) ErisMTDNuke_v0.9.zip

- Re-lock the 1.51.0000 bootloader (phone in fastboot mode) with "fastboot oem lock"

- Flash the Eris Root ROM (from shipped-roms.com), using the HBOOT+PB00IMG.zip install method. The objective of this step is primarily to get rid of the 1.51.0000 bootloader, and install the 1.49.2000 S-OFF bootloader. Note this will stomp on your custom recovery (unless you use the battery pull trick), but that's OK.**

- get the custom recovery back onto the phone - using either the standard Eris rooting tools (Dummies or One-Click), or simply flash it using fastboot (e.g. "fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-eris-v1.6.2.img")

- one last time: in the custom recovery, flash the ErisMiscReset_v0.9.zip file

- Install a ROM and be happy.

** after using any PB00IMG.zip file, it is a really good idea to rename it ASAP, so that you don't accidentally re-install it by inadvertently powering up the phone in HBOOT mode.

bftb0

scotty1223 · Feb 28, 2012

not much to add. if the notion of downloading the sdk,installing fastboot,adb,etc. is a bit overwhelming you can use this file: http://www.mediafire.com/?hzf1u4bowjewhdq it contains adb and fastboot,and a utility called md5sums,and the needed files to make them work.

simply download,extract(unzip),and place the extracted folder onto the root of the C drive on your PC.

open a command window in windows 7 by clicking the start bubble,and type "command" in the search box. i believe xp is the same,or similar.

once you have a small,black command window open,you can change to the "mini-adb" directory by typing this command:

Code:

cd c:\mini-adb

you can call that folder anything you want,but when you "cd" to it,you must type the exact name the folder is called.

for drivers to get the eris recognized by the PC,you can install htc sync,or use these modified htc drivers from revolutionary public wiki

just holler if you have any questions with any of the above

highhacker · Mar 3, 2012

i got several stuck at 1.49.000000 s on . i dont know if they have the stock recovery on them or not . does have fastbootusb though and hboot

scotty1223 · Mar 3, 2012

highhacker said:
i got several stuck at 1.49.000000 s on . i dont know if they have the stock recovery on them or not . does have fastbootusb though and hboot

Hopefully we can fix them. Do you have any questions to get started?

obonilla30 · Mar 9, 2012

wrong nv items wont boot or boot into recovery

Hey guys this phone is on an endless bootloop. I installed the 1.51. hboot unlock the bootloader, flash aman recovery 1.6.2 via Ruu successfully but when I try to boot into recover it continues to bootloop. I already install recovery via hboot but no success. I am willing to try anything with this phone for educational purposes for I dont need the phone but is something that I started over a year ago when I did the mistake with the wrong NV items. I can successfully follow all the step until step 4 but when is time to boot recovery it simply wont or any other file. Tried via regular FASTBOOT recovery.img but no luck. I Still have the S-ON on hboot 1.51. Any suggestions????

bftb0 · Mar 9, 2012

@obonilla30

obonilla30 said:
Any suggestions????

I started a reply and then saw that you were communicating with the right folks over on Android Forums. I was going to send you to exactly the same thread that you found.

If I may make a suggestion - both your posts here and also over there at AF leave quite a bit open to interpretation. For instance, when you mention "bootlooping", you didn't say whether this was for entering recovery from a coldstart (Vol-Up+End/Power), or via navigating from either Fastboot mode (Send+End/Power) or HBOOT mode (Vol-Down+End/Power), and then traversing the menus there to boot the recovery partition. It might be that you tried all three - but you didn't say so. Slow down a little bit and fill in as much detail as you can.

There are TWO methods suggested over in that AF thread - one is to flash (w/ unlocked 1.51 bootloader in RUU mode) a custom recovery to the recovery partition, and the other is to flash a stripped-down version of the (custom) recovery to the boot partition. (You could actually do both in the same flashing operation if you wanted - but note that you can't just rename one of the custom recovery images to "boot.img", because they are too big. But scary alien and scotty85 over there on AF put together something that will fit into the boot partition). That gives you two different ways to get a privileged execution environment running.

cheers

bftb0

PS Not to rehash old painful memories, but do you recall what exactly it was you did when you "did the mistake with the wrong NV items"?

highhacker · Mar 27, 2012

S###

scotty1223 said:
Hopefully we can fix them. Do you have any questions to get started?

Well these "steps" got me no where . First step was put the hboot on my sd card and boot into hboot . still have Hboot 1.49.0000 (PB0010000) S-ON

((( That don't work . I got a box full of eris all 1.49.0000 s-on that show some kind of semi recovery on them where i can flash an update.zip and clear to factory .etc.. Still all stuck on three green androids.. Not very good with adb on pc but tried it in fastbootusb mode on phone and gave the command fastboot flash zip zipfilename.zip (my zip) and said remote not allowed . I have 15 tabs up on firefox and is just too much back and forth . is there a Dummy guide

bftb0 · Mar 28, 2012

highhacker said:
Well these "steps" got me no where . First step was put the hboot on my sd card and boot into hboot . still have Hboot 1.49.0000 (PB0010000) S-ON ((( That don't work . I got a box full of eris all 1.49.0000 s-on that show some kind of semi recovery on them where i can flash an update.zip and clear to factory .etc.. Still all stuck on three green androids.. Not very good with adb on pc but tried it in fastbootusb mode on phone and gave the command fastboot flash zip zipfilename.zip (my zip) and said remote not allowed . I have 15 tabs up on firefox and is just too much back and forth . is there a Dummy guide

You will always get "remote not allowed" with a S-ON bootloader, or with the 1.51.000 bootloader in the locked state. And you will probably also get that error even with a 1.51.0000 bootloader in an unlocked state if you try putting a "boot.img" or "recovery.img" file in the zip. Don't bother using fastboot with a 1.4x.00 S-ON bootloader - it doesn't ever work for anything useful.

Note also that the steps given above need to be performed in sequence and each step needs to succeed. There is no point in doing a 2nd or 3rd step if the first step fails.

As for the PB00IMG.zip install of the 1.51.0000 bootloader, when you boot the phone into HBOOT mode, you should see SOMETHING different happen - even if it is a failure of some sort - than how HBOOT behaves when there is no PB00IMG.zip file on the SD card. If the phone behaves identically whether or not you have the SD card in place, then that means you mis-spelled the name of the PB00IMG.zip file, or didn't put it in the top-level folder of the SD card. Even in the case where it is there on the card, but corrupted, you will see a different behavior of the HBOOT from when there is no PB00IMG.zip file present.

Unfortunately, your post above gives no details about this. That means that anybody that is willing to try and help you is forced to guess about what you are seeing your phone do.

bftb0

scotty1223 · Mar 28, 2012

defiantely the first step is to get 1.51 onto the phone. in addition to the above,make sure that your sd card is formatted FAT32. i cant remember if this is important for the eris,but it is crucial for other dervices..

what you should see when a properly named PB00IMG file is placed on the root of the sd card,is a quick flash of green writing,then status bars on the upper right corner of the screen as the phone finds and checks the file,followd by a "do you want to update" prompt.

another common error with a PxxxIMG file on any devices,is that the decive must see PxxxIMG.zip. in the case of the eris,the file on the phone must be "PB00IMG.zip". the common error part comes from naming the file with windows. lots of folks will type in the .zip,forgetting that windows naturally adds and hides the file extension. therefore,typing in "PB00IMG.zip" actually names the file to "PB00IMG.zip.zip"

in rarer cases,not typing in the ".zip" with windows if configured differently may end up in the file just being "PB00IMG" wish will not be found either.

so to recap
-check sd card for FAT32
-check the name of PB00IMG on the sd card. try adding or removing the ".zip"
-make sure PB00IMG is on the top level of the sd,not hidden inside a folder.

let us know how that goes

once you get the 1.51 hboot onto the phone,the next step is to unlock it. just holler if you have questions on htcdev's directions.

bftb0 · Mar 28, 2012

One of the simple mistakes that people make is when they rename the "rom.zip" file, they rename it as

PBOOIMG.zip (PB "oh-oh" IMG.zip)

instead of the correct spelling

PB00IMG.zip (PB "zero-zero" IMG.zip)

As scotty and I both pointed out, if you have a correctly named file on there in the top-level folder, you will see *something* different happen, even if the file is corrupted.

If you don't see something different happen, then the problem is the SD card format, a mis-spelling of the file name (I recall some people transferring files from their PCs, ending up with a file named "PB00IMG.zip.zip"), or the file is not in the top-level folder of the SD card.

highhacker · Mar 29, 2012

bftb0 said:
You will always get "remote not allowed" with a S-ON bootloader, or with the 1.51.000 bootloader in the locked state. And you will probably also get that error even with a 1.51.0000 bootloader in an unlocked state if you try putting a "boot.img" or "recovery.img" file in the zip. Don't bother using fastboot with a 1.4x.00 S-ON bootloader - it doesn't ever work for anything useful.

Note also that the steps given above need to be performed in sequence and each step needs to succeed. There is no point in doing a 2nd or 3rd step if the first step fails.

As for the PB00IMG.zip install of the 1.51.0000 bootloader, when you boot the phone into HBOOT mode, you should see SOMETHING different happen - even if it is a failure of some sort - than how HBOOT behaves when there is no PB00IMG.zip file on the SD card. If the phone behaves identically whether or not you have the SD card in place, then that means you mis-spelled the name of the PB00IMG.zip file, or didn't put it in the top-level folder of the SD card. Even in the case where it is there on the card, but corrupted, you will see a different behavior of the HBOOT from when there is no PB00IMG.zip file present.

Unfortunately, your post above gives no details about this. That means that anybody that is willing to try and help you is forced to guess about what you are seeing your phone do.

bftb0

Well that was agood guess. The first step change rom.zip to PB00IMG.ZIP (I ASSUME THAT IS ZERO ZERO ) . it does somthing fast and i can see no image somthing like
Loading .....(PB00DIA0.zip)
no image
loading ......(PB00DIA3.zip)
no image
loading ......(PB00DIA2.ZIP)
no image or wrong image

. i have to keep flipping between fastboot and hboot to try and read what it says . basically it goes for another 5 or 6 lines with no image or wrong image ..

tried re downloading rom.zip and renaming it againg . same srrors..

scotty1223 · Mar 29, 2012

have you tried renaming "PB00IMG" without the zip?

you can also try flashing it as an RUU,wich eliminates the sd card,and the name of the file from the equation.

place rom.zip(for 1.51 hboot) into the folder containing fastboot and hboot..
-place the phone in fastboot.
-assuming you leave rom.zip named "rom.zip",open a cmd window and enter the following:
fastboot oem rebootRUU

fastboot flash zip rom.zip

it will do some stuff on the screen,then say "finished". then:

fastboot reboot-bootloader

thaT should boot you back into fastboot,where you should see 1.51.0000 locked hboot.

if you get a "failed" error instead of the above results,let us know what that error is and we can hopefully figure out what to do to make the flash work

if you get the 1.51 hboot,next step is to unlock it

bftb0 · Mar 29, 2012

highhacker said:
Well that was agood guess. The first step change rom.zip to PB00IMG.ZIP (I ASSUME THAT IS ZERO ZERO ) . it does somthing fast and i can see no image somthing like
Loading .....(PB00DIA0.zip)
no image
loading ......(PB00DIA3.zip)
no image
loading ......(PB00DIA2.ZIP)
no image or wrong image

. i have to keep flipping between fastboot and hboot to try and read what it says . basically it goes for another 5 or 6 lines with no image or wrong image ..

tried re downloading rom.zip and renaming it againg . same srrors..

The behavior you describe is EXACTLY how HBOOT mode behaves ... when there is no file named PB00IMG.zip on the root folder of the SD card. When I said "you will see something different happen", what I meant is something in addition to that list of file names rapidly scrolling by.

No doubt you are finding this frustrating.

In the past, there were two other reasons why this occurred:

1) People were using Windows Explorer on the PC. By default, it has an option turned on which is something like "hide file name extensions of known file types". With this (default) behavior, it is possible to rename the file PB00IMG.zip.zip, and yet what would be seen on-screen in Windows Explorer would only be "PB00IMG.zip". Turn that option off, or just use the DIR command from a command prompt to see if that is what happened.

2) Other users reported banging their heads into this without any luck, and then mysteriously solving the problem by formatting the SD card some other way than they previously had done. I don't have any further insight into the details here, other than this: the SD card should NOT be partitioned. If you got a box of phone which were previously rooted, it is possible you have a partitioned card (esp. if the phone had a 2.1 dev ROM on it)

The method scotty details above should allow you to side-step this problem, although you will have to get fastboot communicating with the phone (PC driver installs, etc).

To re-iterate though: if HBOOT discovers a file on the SD card named PB00IMG.zip, you will see something happen in addition to that list of file names rapidly scrolling by and disappearing. If you don't see anything additional - then HBOOT is not finding the file (for some reason or another).

bftb0

zmanzbo · Apr 12, 2012

I am having an issue getting Amon recovery on my soft-bricked Eris.

I have the 1.51 bootloader unlocked but when I go to run the commands I get the following:

C:\adb>fastboot.exe flash zip recovery.zip
sending 'zip' (3817 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.827s]
writing 'zip'...
FAILED (remote: not allow)
finished. total time: 0.842s

If I try the RUU method it just sits at parsing:

C:\adb>fastboot oem rebootRUU
...
OKAY [ 0.031s]
finished. total time: 0.031s

C:\adb>fastboot erase cache
erasing 'cache'...
OKAY [ 2.980s]
finished. total time: 2.980s

C:\adb>fastboot flash zip recovery.zip
sending 'zip' (3817 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.842s]
writing 'zip'...
(bootloader) zip header checking...
(bootloader) zip info parsing...

Also running the RUU_Desire_C_Verizon_WWE_2.36.605.1_release_signed_with_driver.exe and replacing the rom.zip did not work or trying to flash Eris_LeakV3_v2.36.605.1_PB00IMG.ZIP

The version it says I have it 2.42.0.0

Any ideas?

Thanks!

scotty1223 · Apr 15, 2012

sorry it took me a couple days to reply to this. i believe the prollem your having is due to the android info document,specifically the hboot pre-update value. i had the same prollem starting in this post.

the android info i was using that was hanging at 'parsing' was:

Code:

ModelID: DESI****
ModelID: PB001****
ModelID: PB00100
CIDNUM: 11111111
CIDNUM: VZW__001
hbootpreupdate: 3
MainVer: 2.42.0.0

i pulled the one from the rom.zip extracted from the 1.51 hboot ruu and it worked fine.heres what it looked like:

Code:

CIDNUM:11111111
modelid: PB0010000
cidnum: VZW__001
cidnum: UTSI_001
mainver: 2.42.0.0
hbootpreupdate:12

try repacking your recovery with that android info,if its not what youre allready using.

bftb0 · Apr 16, 2012

zmanzbo,

What were the contents of the "recovery.zip" file you were trying to flash? (specifically, were there any .img files contained in it?)

Even when the 1.51.0000 bootloader is in the unlocked state, the flash will be disallowed if you have certain .img files in there (radio.img or recovery.img iirc - but don't quote me on that, I would need to go and re-read scotty's notes over in the AF thread).

Apologies for the vagueness - I'm afk at this time and am typing this from my phone.

bftb0

zmanzbo · Apr 17, 2012

Well I got it working. I went to the link Scotty posted and downloaded tiny rescue recovery flashed that and then was able to run the various files listed in the original post bu bftb0. After that I was able to flash Eris_RootROM_v2.19.605.1_PB00IMG.zip. I am back in business now.

What was weird is that the contents of my recovery.zip were just the recovery.img and android-info.txt. The android-info.txt file had the same info as the 2nd one Scotty posted.

Thanks alot for the help here. Really appreciate it!

Cheers!

bftb0 · Apr 17, 2012

cool.

I'm glad you put the 1.49.2000 S-OFF bootloader on the phone afterward. It is always a good idea to have that bootloader (rather than the 1.51.0000 "unlockable" bootloader) installed, as the ways in which rescue/repair can be performed are more numerous (in case anything goes wrong in the future).

bftb0

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