CWM and TWRP on Google Play Edition Moto G

oldblue910 · Jan 19, 2014

Hi everyone,

So it would appear that the current builds of CWM and TWRP for the retail XT1032 Moto G won't boot on the Google Play Edition, at least not while booting from memory.

I've tried using fastboot boot recovery.img and it simply reboots and boots into the stock ROM normally.

Since factory images aren't available, I won't attempt to do a perm flash (fastboot flash recovery recovery.img) because I don't want to overwrite stock recovery without dumping it first (for archival purposes).

So, I guess my question here is twofold.

1. Has anyone else with a Moto G GPE had luck booting CWM or TWRP?
2. If not, is someone willing to try to get a version of one or both that WILL boot?

Any insight and help would be appreciated!

Sent from my Moto G Google Play Edition using Tapatalk

Beegee7730 · Jan 19, 2014

Have you tried the Supervboot method? That may allow you to root without modifying the recovery.

joel_sinbad · Jan 19, 2014

Maybe it sounds dumb, but did you unlocked the bootloader first? maybe you just can flash the recovery safely since the GPE its Android 4.4.2, you can flash the same stock recovery from the US Retail 4.4.2... I don't see why the recovery must be updated on the GPE since it has the same Android version as the other 4.4.2 firmwares...

oldblue910 · Jan 19, 2014

Beegee7730 said:
Have you tried the Supervboot method? That may allow you to root without modifying the recovery.

I'll check into that.

EDIT: Not going to work. It would involve changes to the boot image, which I also don't want to do. I want raw, untouched dumps of system, boot, and recovery. I get the feeling that the only way to get that right now is going to be booting CWM or TWRP from memory using "fastboot boot," but that method doesn't currently work with the currently available Moto G builds of TWRP or CWM.

joel_sinbad said:
Maybe it sounds dumb, but did you unlocked the bootloader first? maybe you just can flash the recovery safely since the GPE its Android 4.4.2, you can flash the same stock recovery from the US Retail 4.4.2... I don't see why the recovery must be updated on the GPE since it has the same Android version as the other 4.4.2 firmwares...

The recovery is different between each and every Android ROM. The stock recovery from the retail ROM would probably boot but you wouldn't be able to flash GPE OTAs with it. And yeah, I unlocked the bootloader before I booted it for the first time.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk

joel_sinbad · Jan 19, 2014

I saw this from a post from XDA but maybe you can try it:

conect via adb shell or in terminal emulator type: cat/proc/mtd and press enter

you will see which is recovery partition and then type: dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd1 of=/sdcard/recovery.img (note that mtd1 you must replace with number which is recovery partition)

after that you will have recovery.img on your sd card

oldblue910 · Jan 19, 2014

OK so I downloaded the stock XT1032 US falcon_umts images for Android 4.4.2. I did fastboot boot recovery.img on the stock recovery from those images. It worked, so the bootloader is definitely capable of booting a recovery from memory. I think this is more an issue with the actual custom recoveries available. With that said, anyone up for trying to get this working? I'll happily be the guinea pig for any test builds.

oldblue910 · Jan 19, 2014

joel_sinbad said:
I saw this from a post from XDA but maybe you can try it:

conect via adb shell or in terminal emulator type: cat/proc/mtd and press enter

you will see which is recovery partition and then type: dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd1 of=/sdcard/recovery.img (note that mtd1 you must replace with number which is recovery partition)

after that you will have recovery.img on your sd card

Unfortunately, that only works if you're rooted. That's why I'm looking to boot a custom recovery from memory. I'll have root access via adb shell and be able to dump to my heart's content without overwriting the stock recovery or the stock boot image. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

scott_doyland · Jan 20, 2014

Beegee7730 said:
Have you tried the Supervboot method? That may allow you to root without modifying the recovery.

@oldblue910 I don't think this method changes boot.img. it just boots a custom boot.img from your PC and roots phone. On next boot it boots boot.img from the phone as normal.

BTW I'm on non-GPE 4.3 stock recovery and can issue

fastboot boot recovery.img

to boot into a custom recovery.

However I believe on nexus devices the option to boot a recovery from PC was removed but you can still do it using some weird parameters on the command - maybe the same type of thing on moto g GPE when booting just a custom recovery??

See following link for the parameters on nexus 7 (which is most likely just for nexus 7 but you get the idea)

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2380675

oldblue910 · Jan 20, 2014

scott_doyland said:
@oldblue910 I don't think this method changes boot.img. it just boots a custom boot.img from your PC and roots phone. On next boot it boots boot.img from the phone as normal.

BTW I'm on non-GPE 4.3 stock recovery and can issue

fastboot boot recovery.img

to boot into a custom recovery.

However I believe on nexus devices the option to boot a recovery from PC was removed but you can still do it using some weird parameters on the command - maybe the same type of thing on moto g GPE when booting just a custom recovery??

See following link for the parameters on nexus 7 (which is most likely just for nexus 7 but you get the idea)

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2380675

Thanks for clarifying about the boot.img. I'll look into it some more.

As for "fastboot boot", every Nexus and GPE can do it as long as the bootloader is unlocked. I've never had any issue booting recoveries from memory except on the GS4 GPE. Not to get off topic, but touch recoveries are useless if booted from memory on the GS4 GPE. That's not so much of a problem for CWM since you can navigate with the volume and power keys, but TWRP, forget it. If you perm flash, everything is fine.

EDIT: That's interesting about the Nexus 4. Apparently that was a bootloader change beginning with Android 4.3. I can confirm that more modern Nexus devices do not have this issue. Weird.

Anyway, I'm going to look into that root method some more. I'll report with success or failure.

oldblue910 · Jan 20, 2014

OK, just an update. Superboot doesn't work with the Play Edition ROM. If you fastboot boot it (I tried using normal Android fastboot and the Moto fastboot that comes in the zip file), it just boots to a blank screen and hangs. No boot animation, no nothing.

Obviously there's something different somewhere between the GPE and the retail US XT1032. Not sure what it is...but yeah, right now none of the custom recovery kangs work and superboot doesn't work. The only thing I've managed to boot successfully using fastboot boot was the 4.4.2 stock recovery for the retail US XT1032.

oldblue910 · Jan 20, 2014

At this point I'm going to loop @a1Pha into this thread and ask if he has any thoughts, since he created the working kangs of CWM and TWRP that people seem to be using.

joel_sinbad · Jan 20, 2014

oldblue910 said:
OK, just an update. Superboot doesn't work with the Play Edition ROM. If you fastboot boot it (I tried using normal Android fastboot and the Moto fastboot that comes in the zip file), it just boots to a blank screen and hangs. No boot animation, no nothing.

Obviously there's something different somewhere between the GPE and the retail US XT1032. Not sure what it is...but yeah, right now none of the custom recovery kangs work and superboot doesn't work. The only thing I've managed to boot successfully using fastboot boot was the 4.4.2 stock recovery for the retail US XT1032.

I just rooted my XT1032 US Retail 4.4.2 with Superboot, it booted a weird purple screen and then went black screen, but after Hard Rebooting, the phone was rooted, did you checked that?

oldblue910 · Jan 20, 2014

joel_sinbad said:
I just rooted my XT1032 US Retail 4.4.2 with Superboot, it booted a weird purple screen and then went black screen, but after Hard Rebooting, the phone was rooted, did you checked that?

Just checked. There is no su binary in /system/xbin or /system/bin/.ext and there is no Superuser.apk file either.

Sent from my Moto G Google Play Edition using Tapatalk

a1Pha · Jan 20, 2014

oldblue910 said:
At this point I'm going to loop @a1Pha into this thread and ask if he has any thoughts, since he created the working kangs of CWM and TWRP that people seem to be using.

Interesting. So did I understand this correctly, that flashing a stock recovery from non-GPE Moto G does work?
Which version does your bootloader show? Which kernel version shows up in phone settings?

oldblue910 · Jan 20, 2014

a1Pha said:
Interesting. So did I understand this correctly, that flashing a stock recovery from non-GPE Moto G does work?
Which version does your bootloader show? Which kernel version shows up in phone settings?

You understand correctly, yes. The bootloader version is 41.05 and the kernel version in settings is 3.4.0.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition using Tapatalk

a1Pha · Jan 20, 2014

oldblue910 said:
You understand correctly, yes. The bootloader version is 41.05 and the kernel version in settings is 3.4.0.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition using Tapatalk

Looks like we have to wait for GPE sources to be released to adapt the kernel to the new bootloader. They should release the sources quite soon, so said a source of @dhacker29

oldblue910 · Jan 20, 2014

a1Pha said:
Looks like we have to wait for GPE sources to be released to adapt the kernel to the new bootloader. They should release the sources quite soon, so said a source of @dhacker29

Sounds good. Thank you very much for your help! Let's keep this thread open for continuing discussion once the sources are released. Once we have kernel source, I'll be happy to test any recovery builds on my GPE device if you need testers.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition using Tapatalk

dhacker29 · Feb 3, 2014

oldblue910 said:
Sounds good. Thank you very much for your help! Let's keep this thread open for continuing discussion once the sources are released. Once we have kernel source, I'll be happy to test any recovery builds on my GPE device if you need testers.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition using Tapatalk

The GPE Moto G uses ext4 data partition vs f2fs data partition for the Retail version so it's just a matter of having the right fstab in the recovery.

vocoderism · Feb 3, 2014

Try with this build

https://mega.co.nz/#!P8BQGYKK!StnnD0z91KLFxAgxQvSMUVWGC-A-4tcqiv9sgh1yXcw

alternate link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxD_8WtIEc3SZnY2al9ZM0VTOFE/edit?usp=sharing

install with flashify app from phone booted in normal mode and then go to recovery

Entropy512 · Feb 5, 2014

oldblue910 said:
Hi everyone,

So it would appear that the current builds of CWM and TWRP for the retail XT1032 Moto G won't boot on the Google Play Edition, at least not while booting from memory.

I've tried using fastboot boot recovery.img and it simply reboots and boots into the stock ROM normally.

Since factory images aren't available, I won't attempt to do a perm flash (fastboot flash recovery recovery.img) because I don't want to overwrite stock recovery without dumping it first (for archival purposes).

So, I guess my question here is twofold.

1. Has anyone else with a Moto G GPE had luck booting CWM or TWRP?
2. If not, is someone willing to try to get a version of one or both that WILL boot?

Any insight and help would be appreciated!

Sent from my Moto G Google Play Edition using Tapatalk

If you go through a1pha's thread, you'll find a TWRP repack from me that was based on a stock 4.4 kernel. Can you try that with "fastboot boot"? (In fact, that particular release from me is ONLY compatible with fastboot boot as it's too big to fit into the recovery partition...) That particular build has a lot of flaws, but should at least let you flash SuperSU on your device so you can back up the stock recovery and kernel partitions.

My observations on Monday are that a lot of recoveries that work properly when flashed to the device fail when attempting to boot them using "fastboot boot" - even on the non-GPe variants! None of the recoveries in dhacker's CM11 thread work with "fastboot boot" and neither does any one I build from Omni sources.

Many non-Nexus devices often have weird issues where "fastboot boot" doesn't work properly. I know Omni lost at least two weeks on the Oppo N1 due to the fact that "fastboot boot" is broken on that device.

CWM and TWRP on Google Play Edition Moto G

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