Wolf's ultimate flash and downgrade guide (NO ROOT NEEDED) (root opportunity for .21)

Magissia · May 16, 2012

Hello

Method 3 worked like a charm for me, now looking for ways to keep root for .24 and busy box !

Thanks you very very much.

Best regards, Magissia

idcrisis · May 17, 2012

Skeesicks said:
...

shell@android:/ $ dd if=/sdcard/recoveryblob of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p4
dd if=/sdcard/recoveryblob of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p4
8860+1 records in
8860+1 records out
4536396 bytes transferred in 2.322 secs (1953658 bytes/sec)

...
brwxrwx--x root shell 179, 4 2012-05-16 11:26 mmcblk0p4

It worked. It won't flash anything automatically, neither will anything be very apparent in the OS, except for the mmcblk0p4 permissions ( which seem to have been modified at your end).

You may then need to go into CWM recovery by rebooting with Power and Vol Down pressed together and then Vol up when asked ( within 5 secs). Then you need to flash the Superuser-3.0.7-efghi-signed.zip from the OP.

I can also confirm that Method 3 works very well for 9.2.2.4 WW ( TF101G)

It may not work upon first reboot after the 'dd' because the recovery is being 'activated' or 'enabled' or 'flashed' or whatever, but on subsequent reboots, CWM recovery can be reached using the ( Reboot with Power + Vol Down pressed ) -> Vol Up technique.

Badbullet · May 17, 2012

Dropbox links dosn't works anymore.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium

05GT · May 17, 2012

Badbullet said:
Dropbox links dosn't works anymore.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium

You have to use the depositfile links. He's exceeded his Dropbox bandwidth.

---------- Post added at 11:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 PM ----------

Confirmed:

This method worked to downgrade from US .24 back to .17. Attained root using Vipermod.

Freekers1337 · May 17, 2012

Badbullet said:
Dropbox links dosn't works anymore.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium

Mirror for almost all BLOB files:
http://www.freek.ws/transformer

05GT said:
This method worked to downgrade from US .24 back to .17. Attained root using Vipermod.

Which method did you use? Method 2 or Method 3?

nikolam · May 17, 2012

Works for me on 9.2.1.24 US downloaded from Asus. I used method 3 from the original post, without any modifications.

05GT · May 17, 2012

Freekers1337 said:
Mirror for almost all BLOB files:
http://www.freek.ws/transformer

Which method did you use? Method 2 or Method 3?

I used method 3.

Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

manson28031991 · May 18, 2012

Hi,

I had rootet my tf201, but i had a problem. i was on the firmware de.21, then i downgrade to de.15. then i root with vipermod and install ota rootkepper. but i never get a ota to .21? where is the problem. sorry for my bad english.

please help me

wolf849 · May 18, 2012

manson28031991 said:
Hi,

I had rootet my tf201, but i had a problem. i was on the firmware de.21, then i downgrade to de.15. then i root with vipermod and install ota rootkepper. but i never get a ota to .21? where is the problem. sorry for my bad english.

please help me

Maybe you have updated recovery to CWM? Check this first and if that is not true, do so and download CWM update from development forum

Freekers1337 said:
Mirror for almost all BLOB files:
http://www.freek.ws/transformer

Superb, I've added it to mirror sites. Thanks

Cheers

wolf849 · May 18, 2012

Ellingsoc · May 18, 2012

So if i am understanding this right method 2 does not root the tablet but lets you downgrade the firmware to .17 so you can then root it then you update back to .24?

ced_c · May 18, 2012

Hi wolf,

Thank you for amazingly usefull and yet simple hack !

I did some research to understand how it works, and I found that the fun part is here :
codeaurora.org/gitweb/quic/la/?p=platform/system/core.git;a=blob;f=init/builtins.c;hb=refs/heads/ics

For what I understand there is nothing transformer specific here.

By the way I tried to download recovery-clockwork (download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/) and dd it on mmcblk0p4.
And it works (well, for some reason the latest didn't but 5.8.1.9 did), without any need to downgrade

My point is, did you just find the universal ICS flash method ?
I don't have access to another ICS device, but I tried on the emulator and even there, the change of permission on the block device worked.
If we can write directly on a block device, I assume we can flash any rom/recovery we want.

I'll be happy to hear from other people trying that on another device than a transformer.
The change of permission on /dev/block/mmcblk0p* should be harmless, and people that know what they do can try to flash a recovery (or even a full system?) on their device.

CapNCooK · May 18, 2012

Ellingsoc said:
So if i am understanding this right method 2 does not root the tablet but lets you downgrade the firmware to .17 so you can then root it then you update back to .24?

(For the TF300T: )

Yes, If you are in the US, this should work..

But i've done the same steps on my EU (WW) model, rooted .17, and it doesn't get any OTA updates.

I wondered if this is because of the EU IP i got, so i installed openVPN and switched to an USA IP. Still getting no updates...

abczhou · May 19, 2012

Yesterday i placed an order at Amazon for TF300 and start to learn to root in here.
I am totally noob on this.
Maybe it is a stupid question but anyone can share the procedure to how to start the ADB session. My OS is win7.

2. Connect tablet to the computer and start ADB shell session

andreas009 · May 19, 2012

stuck on boot screen

I completed 2 method and now am stuck on the Eee Pad boot screen and it never changes, can't get adb to detect tablet, think I managed to mess up the install somewhere

guess I'm saving up another $400

pkfox · May 19, 2012

Hi there, I actually flashed an entire ROM blob ( I was already rooted ) using this method but instead of using adb I did it from a terminal on the tf101 , it worked perfectly - I now rarely use CWM as I can flash whatever I need with dd. I am reasonably competent with Linux and understand how dd works , my problem was my ignorance of how Android is structured e.g I didn't know /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 was a staging partition. This is by far the best piece of knowledge I've learnt here.

wolf849 · May 19, 2012

ced_c said:
Hi wolf,

Thank you for amazingly usefull and yet simple hack !

I did some research to understand how it works, and I found that the fun part is here :
codeaurora.org/gitweb/quic/la/?p=platform/system/core.git;a=blob;f=init/builtins.c;hb=refs/heads/ics

For what I understand there is nothing transformer specific here.

By the way I tried to download recovery-clockwork (download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/) and dd it on mmcblk0p4.
And it works (well, for some reason the latest didn't but 5.8.1.9 did), without any need to downgrade

My point is, did you just find the universal ICS flash method ?
I don't have access to another ICS device, but I tried on the emulator and even there, the change of permission on the block device worked.
If we can write directly on a block device, I assume we can flash any rom/recovery we want.

I'll be happy to hear from other people trying that on another device than a transformer.
The change of permission on /dev/block/mmcblk0p* should be harmless, and people that know what they do can try to flash a recovery (or even a full system?) on their device.

Yes it will work on every device as symlinking trick can be done on every ICS ROM. However the change of permission on /dev/block/mmcblk0p* is not as harmless as you think. If you flash wrong partition with wrong img file you may become hard-bricked, that is why I am not telling that we can do so, because some of less-experienced users may eventually try it. But Yes it is possible and I am aware of it

Thanks for your appreciation I'm very glad that I could help people a little

Cheers

CapNCooK · May 19, 2012

wolf849 said:
Yes it will work on every device as symlinking trick can be done on every ICS ROM. However the change of permission on /dev/block/mmcblk0p* is not as harmless as you think. If you flash wrong partition with wrong img file you may become hard-bricked, that is why I am not telling that we can do so, because some of less-experienced users may eventually try it. But Yes it is possible and I am aware of it

Thanks for your appreciation I'm very glad that I could help people a little

Cheers

Hiya Wolf,

Mayb you can help us out in this thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=26292352

Do you know if it's possible to extract an existing firmware (blob) from a memory partitition, with the goal to flash another device with the extracted blob ?

Your help/advice is apreciated!

thx

----------
TF300T on US .17 Rooted
Searching for WW .17 unrooted blob

knucklehead_11 · May 19, 2012

Thanks for your work. I just downgraded, rooted and now upgrading my prime back to .21. Thanks for the help. The hardest part of this whole downgrade is trying to get adb shell to work. Downgrading and rooting took 20 minutes and was simple. Now I just need to talk my wife into letting me root her prime. Thanks

redahaddad · May 19, 2012

How to extract Recovery blob

idcrisis said:
Assuming you are on stock recovery based on your last post. And I assume you are on 9.2.2.4 stock recovery too.

3 possiblities:

1. Clear data as mentioned in the end of Method 1 from OP

If that doesn't work, then:

2. If you still have adb and su, then do Method 1 completely with the 9.2.2.3 complete blob ( maybe from Asus or original post) and removing data as per instruction at the end.

If that doesn't work then:

3. a) If you still have adb and su, then downgrade the recovery partition to 9.2.2.3 using 'Revert_To_9.2.2.3_WW_Recovery.bat'.

b) Download WW_epad_user_9_2_2_3_UpdateLauncher.zip (from Asus official). From that extract WW_epad-user-9.2.2.3.zip and rename it to EP101_SDUPDATE.zip and store it in a MicroSD and insert this into the tablet.

c) Then reboot holding power key and vol down key and press Volume Up button when you are prompted to do so. Recovery should start and restore 9.2.2.3 WW.

d) Clear data as mentioned in the end of Method 1 from OP

Because you are on 9.2.2.4 recovery, putting a 9.2.2.3 ZIP in the micro-SD may fail as Asus stock recovery doesn't allow downgrades. But if you are on 9.2.2.3 stock recovery (from step (3.a) above) , then EP101_SDUPDATE.zip may work.

I don't think the 9.2.2.4 WW_epad_user_9_2_2_4_UpdateLauncher.zip is out on Asus yet, else you would have been able to simply extract WW_epad-user-9.2.2.4.zip from it and since you are on 9.2.2.4 recovery, step (3.b) above would have worked.

Dear id
Thank you for your follow up and support, I sent my Transformer to ASUS and came back with with Stock ICS 4.0.3, TW 9.2.2.4,

1- Now I want to root it again, So do I use method 3 and if so which recoveryblob do I need to use,

2- I downloaded the (TW_epaduser9_2_2_4UpdateLauncher.zip) from ASUS web site (http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Eee+Pad+Transformer+TF101G&os=32) , and I tried to blobunpack it to get the recovery Blob (SOS) using Ubuntu , but Ubuntu says that blobunpack is not an internal command or so.

I need this recovery blob just in case anything goes wrong again.
So may you can do me a favor and unpack it for me or tell me how to extract it from the launcher.

Thank you very much for your support.

Wolf's ultimate flash and downgrade guide (NO ROOT NEEDED) (root opportunity for .21)

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