[Q] Can anybody help me get my GPE One updated with KitKat?

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ufmace

Senior Member
Jul 25, 2010
55
6
Houston
My Play edition phone has been giving me endless headaches ever since the KitKat update dropped - I can't seem to get it to load.

For the status of my phone before all of this, I unlocked the bootloader, installed ClockworkMod, and used it to install a root Zip. I never wanted or tried to get S-OFF. So the bootloader shows Tampered and Unlocked, but S-ON, version 1.54. Everything worked fine, and I was happy with the phone.

Now, before I get started, my desired end-state for this phone is a bone-stock KitKat installation. I'm okay with not having root, having stock recovery and bootloader, just as long as the stock OTAs arrive and install with zero mucking around with recoveries, ROMs, backups, etc. I bought this phone because I want stock Android and the latest updates ASAP, and I'm not very happy that I've had to spend all of this time messing with it and still don't have the update.

This take starts when the little update icon for KitKat showed up, and in my innocence, I pressed it.

The phone reboots, CWM flashes the update, and reboots into it. Instead of the normal boot, I am greeted with a blue-green screen covered with little green lines, unresponsive to any input. In retrospect, I think this is because I don't have S-OFF, and the KitKat update requires a radio update which the updater includes, but can't be flashed from a modified recovery without S-OFF.

So I boot back into CWM and flash a backup to get my phone working again. I still want KitKat, of course, so it's time to search for other things to try.

First off, I try flashing a stock aftermarket ROM, the one by bigxie. Now the phone boots, but it bootloops, rebooting about 5 seconds after the lock screen comes up. With a little reading and a few questions, I get that this is also because I don't have S-OFF. Mmm, okay. Recover from backup again.

I downloaded the stock GPE RUU, pulled the stock recovery from it, flashed that, and tried to use it to install the OTA update, figuring that it would be signed properly or whatever to flash the radio. Same result as CWM. Install CWM again, restore from backup again.

My options are starting to seem a little limited. It looks like I can either get S-OFF and try the OTA again, or flash the stock GPE RUU and go back to 100% stock. Except that the instructions I found for flashing a stock RUU say that I need S-OFF for that too, though I'm a little skeptical of this - wouldn't that be only for rewriting the Model ID and Cell ID to the GPE?

First, I decide to try getting S-OFF. I get rumrunner S-OFF set up and running (moonshine doesn't have a version for me, and revolutionary doesn't support bootloader 1.54), and it does it's thing for a while, only to tell me at the end:

unfortunately this isn't going to work out with your configuration. you have 2 options:
1.) flash an unsecure kernel that's compatible with your ROM and retry rumrunner (preferred and most reliable method).
2.) flash a different rom.
NOTE: No amount of messing around with su binaries and apk's is going to fix this issue for you!!!.
Better luck next time!!!!bye

Hmm... so I try flashing a kernel. I grabbed flar2's kernel and tried to flash it, and the Aroma installer never goes past 0%. Still reboots into exactly like it was before. Not real inclined to spend a lot of time messing with flashing kernels, since I want to end up at stock.

So next, I try flashing the stock GPE RUU, according to the above instructions. The flash fails with the message:
FAILED (remote: 99 unknown fail)
Yes, I ran the flash command twice, same result both times.

I'm downloading that again, but I'm not really sure what to do here. I'm okay at this point with flashing the stock RUU and wiping everything, if it gets me back to hassle-free stock. Should I keep trying to get that working? Or is S-OFF really necessary for that, and I need to get that figured out first? Or maybe I should just throw the phone out a window at this point. :rolleyes:
 

Fireye00

Member
Dec 12, 2013
5
0
So next, I try flashing the stock GPE RUU, according to the above instructions. The flash fails with the message:
FAILED (remote: 99 unknown fail)
Yes, I ran the flash command twice, same result both times.

I'm downloading that again, but I'm not really sure what to do here. I'm okay at this point with flashing the stock RUU and wiping everything, if it gets me back to hassle-free stock. Should I keep trying to get that working? Or is S-OFF really necessary for that, and I need to get that figured out first? Or maybe I should just throw the phone out a window at this point. :rolleyes:

I'm in much the same situation as you, S-ON with H-Boot 1.54, and Rumrunner/Moonshine keep on giving me the same errors you got. The only thing I have to contribute so far is, you cannot flash RUUs until you have S-OFF.

I've been searching for a proper insecure kernel for rumrunner to do it's magic with, but haven't found anything yet.
 

ufmace

Senior Member
Jul 25, 2010
55
6
Houston
I'm in much the same situation as you, S-ON with H-Boot 1.54, and Rumrunner/Moonshine keep on giving me the same errors you got. The only thing I have to contribute so far is, you cannot flash RUUs until you have S-OFF.

I've been searching for a proper insecure kernel for rumrunner to do it's magic with, but haven't found anything yet.

Thanks, I was afraid of that. Do you (or anyone else) know much about this insecure kernel thing? I assumed that all of the kernels for download here are insecure, but none of them say anything about it.
 

Fireye00

Member
Dec 12, 2013
5
0
36664523 18206

Thanks, I was afraid of that. Do you (or anyone else) know much about this insecure kernel thing? I assumed that all of the kernels for download here are insecure, but none of them say anything about it.

I'm not quite sure, but I've seen some mention around the forums that installing other ROMs can fix the issue. I'm trying to flash Renovate, which someone reported success with. I'll keep you updated on what I find.
 

Fireye00

Member
Dec 12, 2013
5
0
I'm not quite sure, but I've seen some mention around the forums that installing other ROMs can fix the issue. I'm trying to flash Renovate, which someone reported success with. I'll keep you updated on what I find.

Thing's I've tried tonight:
* Tried moving from a USB Hub (Multi-TT) to a port on my mobo, No change.
* Flashed Renovate 7.0. Selected the APEX launcher, but when I got in, apex kept on crashing.
* Flashed Renovate 7.0 again, and this time selected GEL (Google Experience Launcher), which worked this time. Proceeded to run rumrunner, got to Pouring (2), but it errored out saying WTF are you doing (system reset itself in the middle of pouring)
* Moved to a new USB port, tried running rumrunner again, SUCCESS!

Resulting rumrunner output from working run:
Code:
chilling..................
smells lovely in here....

bottles are packed, here we go, shhhhhh....

pouring (1)............................
pouring (2).........
Waiting for ADB (27/120)
must ferment longer...

what's that in the bottle still?  rum foul, sloppy, real sloppy...
wait for it.........
yep, done.  Hope you enjoyed the rum!
Don't forget to send us all your money - rumrunnerdevs@gmail.com
Press ENTER to exit

Do note that during pouring 1 and 2, it rebooted twice, apparently that is normal.
 

ufmace

Senior Member
Jul 25, 2010
55
6
Houston
Thanks. I found a reference to a carbonite ROM that supposedly worked here. I'll try and flash that or that Renovate one when I have time.

I finally got S-OFF working with the linked ROM. It was a faster download than the Renovate one, so I thought I'd give it a try, and it's good. Just flashed and wiped data, didn't bother to set anything up or install anything. At least I'm finally making some progress here!

First, I'm going to restore my CWM backup and see if the factory update flashes properly now. If that doesn't work, I'll probably try the RUU. I'll post an update with the result.
 

Fireye00

Member
Dec 12, 2013
5
0
I finally got S-OFF working with the linked ROM. It was a faster download than the Renovate one, so I thought I'd give it a try, and it's good. Just flashed and wiped data, didn't bother to set anything up or install anything. At least I'm finally making some progress here!

First, I'm going to restore my CWM backup and see if the factory update flashes properly now. If that doesn't work, I'll probably try the RUU. I'll post an update with the result.

I was able to flash the 4.4 RUU without any trouble. My phone now works perfectly, whereas before I would sometimes get app crashes and junk. Now to take a fresh 4.4 backup, and revel in the awesomeness.

Grats on getting S-OFF finally!
 

ufmace

Senior Member
Jul 25, 2010
55
6
Houston
I was able to flash the 4.4 RUU without any trouble. My phone now works perfectly, whereas before I would sometimes get app crashes and junk. Now to take a fresh 4.4 backup, and revel in the awesomeness.

Grats on getting S-OFF finally!

Finally done! The update on my backup didn't work, same blue screen. So I just flashed the RUU that I had, let it pull all of the updates, and ran them. And this time, the KitKat update finally worked! So now I have a new, blank phone with KitKat to restore back to how I had everything set up.

I'm planning on leaving all of the system stuff bone stock. No root, recovery, nothing. All because, when the next update drops, I want it to just install without spending the better part of my free time for a week or two hacking around with it.

Incidentally, did you find an actual 4.4 RUU? The one I used was the launch RUU with 4.3, so it needed 2 OTA updates to get to 4.4.
 

Fireye00

Member
Dec 12, 2013
5
0
Finally done! The update on my backup didn't work, same blue screen. So I just flashed the RUU that I had, let it pull all of the updates, and ran them. And this time, the KitKat update finally worked! So now I have a new, blank phone with KitKat to restore back to how I had everything set up.

I'm planning on leaving all of the system stuff bone stock. No root, recovery, nothing. All because, when the next update drops, I want it to just install without spending the better part of my free time for a week or two hacking around with it.

Incidentally, did you find an actual 4.4 RUU? The one I used was the launch RUU with 4.3, so it needed 2 OTA updates to get to 4.4.

I had downloaded a 4.4 RUU back when it first hit for the HTC One, filename of "RUU-HTC_One_GE-4.4-3.58.1700.5.zip". I'm pretty sure it's the one on this thread, named "RUU Zip M7 Google Edition 4.4 3.58.1700.5 ".
 

ufmace

Senior Member
Jul 25, 2010
55
6
Houston
Bit of a post-script, the 4.2.2 OTA update for my phone just dropped yesterday night. I let it install normally, and everything just worked. Now that's what I'm talking about!