[Q] Galaxy Player 5 stuck in recovery

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LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
Hi I've been reading through the forum here for about 2 years now and got a lot of helpful advice on rooting and flashing my Android devices but this is my first thread. Unfortunately I've messed up my USA Galaxy Player 5.0 and don't know what to do that I haven't already tried. Let me start at the beginning.

I rooted my player a while ago and everything was fine untill my micro-SD card wouldn't mount in other devices but sometimes it would in my player. So, I installed AParted on my Player and proceeded to format what I thought was the SD card. I found out when I rebooted my player hours later that it had wiped my Player rather than that SD card and my Player wouldn't boot but gave a bunch of errors.

I had flashed Samsung devices with odin 1.85 before and decided to try some of the rooted ROMs from this site. They all appeared to flash just fine in odin, however when the Player rebooted it stopped at the CWM recovery screen saying it could not mount the /cache. I went into mounts and storage and tried to format /cache and got this:

E:format_volume: make_extf4fs failed on /dev/block/mmcblk0p15.

I also tried installing CWM recovery zip files and they installed way too fast and then didn't work. It seems like my Player cannot write all of the needed files. Any suggestions? I dual boot WinXP and Ubuntu. In Ubuntu I installed Heimdall 1.4 and the frontend but am not real sure how to use it. I did get Heimdall started ok with sudo heimdall-frontend.

Marty
 
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obscuresword

Senior Member
Jun 24, 2012
1,232
357
What rom did you flash? Also heimdall frontend 1.4 is just weird lol. I use 1.1 instead.

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LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
What rom did you flash? Also heimdall frontend 1.4 is just weird lol. I use 1.1 instead.

Sent from my YP-G1 using xda app-developers app

Well I tried a lot of ROMs that I'll list. The one I have a backup from a year ago (that's from my first Galaxy Player 5 that I hard bricked before I bought this 2nd one) uses Eryigit 3.5 USA ROM and also has CWM on it. That's what is on it now, though it only boots to CWM. These are the ROMs I tried that wouldn't boot:

Odin:

Eryigit 3.5 USA
Stock ROM with PIT UEKI8_MIN

CWM:

CM7.2.0-RC1
CM9-HWA-12.5.2012
Noisy Fox GB ROM ZKP9
Supermaster CM9
Chip 1.5-1

I honestly don't think it's a ROM problem since these have all worked for me on my previous Galaxy Player 5 USA model. I think AParted messed up the partitions when it formatted the device.

How do I fix the partitions? I thought that's what a PIT file did, but it seems to just get stuck on the PIT file in odin...how long should it take?


Marty
 
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M

Meticulus

Guest


Well I tried a lot of ROMs that I'll list. The one I have a backup from a year ago (that's from my first Galaxy Player 5 that I hard bricked before I bought this 2nd one) uses Eryigit 3.5 USA ROM and also has CWM on it. That's what is on it now, though it only boots to CWM. These are the ROMs I tried that wouldn't boot:

Odin:

Eryigit 3.5 USA
Stock ROM with PIT UEKI8_MIN

CWM:

CM7.2.0-RC1
CM9-HWA-12.5.2012
Noisy Fox GB ROM ZKP9
Supermaster CM9
Chip 1.5-1

I honestly don't think it's a ROM problem since these have all worked for me on my previous Galaxy Player 5 USA model. I think AParted messed up the partitions when it formatted the device.

How do I fix the partitions? I thought that's what a PIT file did, but it seems to just get stuck on the PIT file in odin...how long should it take?


Marty

You need to check your partition table. flash Entrophy512's daily driver then in adb: fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0

Compare output to image in this post http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=44626450&postcount=33

If it doesn't match exactly then read this entire thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2398120


EDIT: FYI - When you put a pit file in Odin, all it does is flash the PIT file to the PIT partition. If your partition table is jacked and the PIT Partition is missing...???
If you check "repartition" in Odin, then Odin reads the pit from the pit partition then reformats according to what the PIT says, but if your PIT Partition is missing...???
The galaxy player 5's PIT Partition is /dev/block/mmcblk0p6
 
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LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
You need to check your partition table. flash Entrophy512's daily driver then in adb: fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0

Compare output to image in this post http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=44626450&postcount=33

If it doesn't match exactly then read this entire thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2398120


EDIT: FYI - When you put a pit file in Odin, all it does is flash the PIT file to the PIT partition. If your partition table is jacked and the PIT Partition is missing...???
If you check "repartition" in Odin, then Odin reads the pit from the pit partition then reformats according to what the PIT says, but if your PIT Partition is missing...???
The galaxy player 5's PIT Partition is /dev/block/mmcblk0p6


Good-then there is still hope...I thought I messed up a 2nd Galaxy Player. It boots to CWM now...can I flash Entropy´s kernel there or do I need to do that in odin?

Marty
 

LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
It doesn't matter how it gets flashed as long as it does...;)

Well, I read over the threads u posted, got ADB working in Win XP, and then flashed my kernel so that it's using entropy512's kernel. All looked ok till is issued the fdisk command on the SGP and it couldn't find mmcblk0. What else would it call the root device? I issued a couple commands in the attached screenshot and it looks like I only have 376 MB rather than ~ 8 GB.

The screenshot file is attached to this post.

Marty
 

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M

Meticulus

Guest
Well, I read over the threads u posted, got ADB working in Win XP, and then flashed my kernel so that it's using entropy512's kernel. All looked ok till is issued the fdisk command on the SGP and it couldn't find mmcblk0. What else would it call the root device? I issued a couple commands in the attached screenshot and it looks like I only have 376 MB rather than ~ 8 GB.

The screenshot file is attached to this post.

Marty

Its /dev/block/mmcblk0

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LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
That worked but the output didn't match yours at all. Besides there being no partitions (I was trying to format my SD card with a FAT32 filesystem) the device has 4 heads (yours had 1) and the units are cyclinder of 64 (you have 16). I attached another screenshot...I do still have 7944 MB, though!

So, with these differences should I proceed with repartitioning with fdisk??

Marty
 

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LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
I'm not root

That worked but the output didn't match yours at all. Besides there being no partitions (I was trying to format my SD card with a FAT32 filesystem) the device has 4 heads (yours had 1) and the units are cyclinder of 64 (you have 16). I attached another screenshot...I do still have 7944 MB, though!

So, with these differences should I proceed with repartitioning with fdisk??

Marty

I realized just now that I'm not root and when I try to change into root with su it cannot find that command because it doesn't have a /bin directory (in Ubuntu it's /bin/su). It may only display partitions to the root user and wouldn't let me create any without being root. Maybe it's running out of space and cannot create that directory? Could u put a link on here of the page for Entropy512's daily kernels? You had mentioned it, but the 1 I found is from 2012 and I'm not sure if it's daily.

Marty
 

LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
I wrote my new partition table!

Well, I installed Entropy512's kernel from 01222012 and that gave me root. Then from ADB shell I was able to gain all the functions of fdisk. I still did not have any partitions. However, I could not follow your guide exactly because my Galaxy Player has 4 heads...this meant that each block was 32 bytes. So I had to use trial and error to try to get the Start and End blocks close to the number of blocks in each of your partitions. In fdisk I had to display the table after every new partition with P and if it wasn't the right number of blocks I would delete it with D and then try again keeping in mind that each block increased or decreased the size of the partition by 32 bytes.

I may be explaining this wrong and went about this the wrong way. I wrote the table and attached another screenshot. Before I wrote any ROMs to it, I wanted to make sure it looked good enough for ROMs to write to it.

Marty
 

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LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
Unpartitioned space

There is unpartitioned space at the end of this "drive".

Meticulus has 969728-969528=200

I have 242432-242373=59

This space is almost equal if u consider each head to use 50 and there are 4 heads...200. Each block takes 32 of these (bytes?).

I hope u can follow my reasoning since I don't know the units. If this space is unused, I'm wondering if 1 of these partitions could be increased by 32 bytes? If this space isn't used by a ROM, I could re-do this pretty easily to prevent my SGP from locking up again.

It looks like Samsung put out at least 2 USA geometries of their SGP5. Perhaps somebody else could post ADB outputs of fdisk -l /dev/blk/mmcblk0?
 
M

Meticulus

Guest
There is unpartitioned space at the end of this "drive".

Meticulus has 969728-969528=200

I have 242432-242373=59

This space is almost equal if u consider each head to use 50 and there are 4 heads...200. Each block takes 32 of these (bytes?).

I hope u can follow my reasoning since I don't know the units. If this space is unused, I'm wondering if 1 of these partitions could be increased by 32 bytes? If this space isn't used by a ROM, I could re-do this pretty easily to prevent my SGP from locking up again.

It looks like Samsung put out at least 2 USA geometries of their SGP5. Perhaps somebody else could post ADB outputs of fdisk -l /dev/blk/mmcblk0?

Please read the ENTIRE thread. Changing the heads is explained and you must change the head first. There is only one U.S.A "geometry". ;)
 

LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
Please read the ENTIRE thread. Changing the heads is explained and you must change the head first. There is only one U.S.A "geometry". ;)

Oh, I missed something. I'll read the posted threads again (there are threads inside of threads here) later. It's good to know that Samsung only put out 1 version of their USA SGP5...I was gonna comb the web later for partition table screenshots and that woulda been a complete waste of time.

Can u post the EXACT posting that I should re-read?

Marty
 
M

Meticulus

Guest

LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
Have a better partition table!!


OK, thanks for the last link...that was helpful! I hadn't read that & didn't know after 12 years of Linux use that there was an expert mode for fdisk...now I can fix my computer disk that I re-partitioned years ago and has 4 heads (that's working, though and like I've always been told, "if it aint broke, don't fix it!" :) I now re-did the partition table with 1 head and it ALMOST looks like your table. I attached a screenshot of your table and mine side by side so u can easily compare. What's on your table and missing from mine are 2 lines:


  • Omitting empty partition (18)

  • Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
Are these important or am I ready to flash this puppy with the Low Level Russian ROM u suggested?

Marty
 

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Meticulus

Guest
OK, thanks for the last link...that was helpful! I hadn't read that & didn't know after 12 years of Linux use that the was an expert mode for fdisk...now I can fix my computer disk that I re-partitioned years ago and has 4 heads (that's working, though and like I've always been told, "if it aint broke, don't fix it!" :) I now re-did the partition table with 1 head and it ALMOST looks like your table. I attached a screenshot of your table and mine side by side so u can easily compare. What's on your table and missing from mine are 2 lines:


  • Omitting empty partition (18)

  • Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
Are these important or am I ready to flash this puppy with the Low Level Russian ROM u suggested?

Marty

Technically: fdisk in Entropy512's Daily Driver is the busybox version, which does not have "expert" mode but newer version of fdisk (not in busybox) do have an "expert" mode that you can select with the option "x" at the prompt. However the busybox fdisk does have the ability to change the heads which is in the "expert" mode in newer (non-busybox) versions of fdisk. But that isn't really relevant at this point. Just an FYI.

I don't know how relevant those 2 lines are...
All I can say is give it a go...:good:
 
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LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
All fixed :)

Well, I didn't have to flash another ROM after I had redone the partitions. Once I had shut down the SGP5 after doing the partitions, I left it on for a half hour or so and then shut it down. When I restarted the SGP5 it booted just fine into the last ROM I flashed. I think it's running Eryigit 3.5 but it may be another one. I'm gonna restore a backup in CWM that I made a year ago and that should be running Eryigit 3.5.

How can I find out which ROM it is running and any idea why there were 4 heads on the device? I bought it as a refurbished SGP5 so somebody else may have done it months ago or maybe the AParted app I was using to format an SD card did that.

Thanks for your help :)

Marty
 
M

Meticulus

Guest
Well, I didn't have to flash another ROM after I had redone the partitions. Once I had shut down the SGP5 after doing the partitions, I left it on for a half hour or so and then shut it down. When I restarted the SGP5 it booted just fine into the last ROM I flashed. I think it's running Eryigit 3.5 but it may be another one. I'm gonna restore a backup in CWM that I made a year ago and that should be running Eryigit 3.5.

How can I find out which ROM it is running and any idea why there were 4 heads on the device? I bought it as a refurbished SGP5 so somebody else may have done it months ago or maybe the AParted app I was using to format an SD card did that.

Thanks for your help :)

Marty

To find out what ROM your running, the best evidence is going to be in the "About Phone" area, or the build.prop. I think ( not really sure ) that there was a time that the "heads" property did represent the physical number of heads that the storage device had but with more modern forms of storage, it's just a number that part of an algorithm for organizing the space into units. I might be wrong there. It's just the impression that I get. Most likely it was a result of the way AParted partitions disks....

On a personal note, if you look @ the build.prop for Eryigit's rom, you'll probably see my name. "Meticulus". It's sort of an easter egg...:laugh:
 

LinuxHippy

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
250
24
Philadelphia, PA
Actually the backup I had wasn't working with google play so I wound up flashing with the LLF Russian ROM & then flashing a rooted stock gingerbread ROM and wiping data and caches. Then it was new and I had to login to google play. Now everything works.

Marty

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