[Troubleshooting/Solved] ClockworkMod recovery 5.5.0.4 from Koush

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A few days ago Koush published his new CWM recovery v.5.5.0.4 for TF101.
Many (most?) of those who flashed it are experiencing trouble booting normally:
the device goes straight into CWM recovery unless you cold-boot by holding the Vol(-) key at boot time.

This thread is meant to support those who are in this situation.
Also, this thread is to warn others not to flash CWM 5.5.0.4 for the time being.
Also, also, this thread is to gather information that will help devs to fix our problem.

Note:
The previous thread found here got locked (I was told) because of FUD and general lack of clarity.
Please keep it clean and flame-free.

If you are new to Android and TF101, please refer to good guides such as this one:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1494230
You can save yourself from much trouble by educating yourself a little.

UPDATE:
If you have 5.5.0.4 installed and have not used any apps for booting into recovery you likely don't have the problem described above.
We now have two reports of being able to successfully flash an alternate recovery and escape 5.5.0.4
See posts #3 and #67.

UPDATE2:
See post #3 for continuing contributions from @gee one (thanks!):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...66&postcount=3

UPDATE3:
There is some progress. More testing to be done ...
Money post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...&postcount=105

UPDATE4:
We have a solution courtesy of @gee one and @leetlikeawping and the fearless tester @trtk.

This solution does NOT involve NVFlash or has anything to do with the boodloader, so it should apply to all SBK versions (and SN's).
There are comments from people with B70 and B80 (as well as below) reporting success.

The repair can be done in several ways. I have tested the scenario of when you cannot cold-boot into the system, but have a correctly set-up adb access.

while booted into CWM 5.5.0.4 ...
step 1: use adb to push a good recovery [I used Rogue XM v1.3.0 (CWM-based v5.0.2.7)]***
step 2: flash the zip
step 3: use the adb shell to execute the following command

echo boot | dd of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 bs=1 seek=0

*** Do not flash stock recovery. There is no good reason to do it (stock recoveries are generally pretty useless) and you are flirting with trouble if there are signature checks that your custom components might fail. Use trusted custom recoveries

(If you entered the shell, don't forget to exit at the end.)

Now you should "Reboot system".

When rebooting, you will notice the ASUS splash screen with a blue progress line. This indicates that the /staging partition got picked up and is being processed (i.e. your payload is being flashed to the recovery partition).

When you next boot into recovery, you should NOT see the 5.5.0.4 screen.
Continue by flashing your ROM if you need to.

Word of the day: teamwork. Peace!

UPDATE 5: Roach2010 published a fixed version of CWM v5.5.0.4
You may find it here. You still need to clear the boot-recovery flag by following the procedure described above or using the command line, as explained by Roach2010 here.

My personal observations so far are that, after flashing Koush's CWM 5.5.0.4, I cannot replace it with any other CWM's I've tried (roach, solarnz, using the RecoveryInstaller app).
The available recovery blobs get written to the staging partition (mmvblk0p4) but appear to not be touched on boot.

I have the 9.2.1.11 bootloader on B70 with SBK v.2

I flashed both ways and got stuck not being able to flash using the staging partition, which is the typical way to reflash recovery. So if you flash this, there is no way to unflash it. I think it also uses a different sdcard mount, so it makes it a little tougher to get a fresh zip to flash onto there.

When it's working normally, cwm will flash to the staging partition on reboot. When it's recovery bootlooping, the flash to staging will be skipped, which makes it difficult to flash a new recovery. I looked at the init.rc files and noted that the cwm 5.5.04 version doesn't even touch the staging partition, so it will be ignored completely.

I did have success reflashing a full rom- EBT, LNX, SOS, and APP or bootloader, boot.img, recovery, and system. This might work for others too, although I never had a problem of always booting into recovery. If it boots into recovery after flashing a full rom, then it might not work since we'll be stuck with the same init.rc.

I don't know all the inner workings of what happens at the boot process, so does anyone have any ideas about what is causing this.

Some things I found out:

to mount the internal sdcard so that you can push a new rom- use adb shell
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p7 /data/
ls /sdcard/
exit

then from your pc, type:
adb push /path/to/your/rom.zip /data/media

There are other ways too- I think cwm will mount data when you try to flash a zip from the sdcard.

Here's the init.rc's

part of 92111 stock recovery init.rc

on early-init
    start ueventd

on init
    export PATH /sbin
    export ANDROID_ROOT /system
    export ANDROID_DATA /data
    export EXTERNAL_STORAGE /sdcard

    symlink /system/etc /etc

    mkdir /sdcard
    mkdir /staging
    mkdir /system
    mkdir /data
    mkdir /cache
    mkdir /btmac
    mount /tmp /tmp tmpfs

    mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /system wait
  #  mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /system ro remount
    mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /cache wait nosuid nodev
    chown system cache /cache
    chmod 0770 /cache
    mount ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 /staging wait nosuid nodev
    chown system staging /staging
    chmod 0770 /staging
    mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p7 /data wait nosuid nodev
    chown system system /data
    chmod 0771 /data

part of cwm init.rc

on early-init
    start ueventd

on init
    export PATH /sbin
    export ANDROID_ROOT /system
    export ANDROID_DATA /data
    export EXTERNAL_STORAGE /sdcard

    symlink /system/etc /etc

    mkdir /sdcard
    mkdir /staging
    mkdir /system
    mkdir /data
    mkdir /cache
    mount /tmp /tmp tmpfs

    mount ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /cache wait nosuid nodev
    chown system cache /cache
    chmod 0770 /cache

---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:18 PM ----------

Does mounting and clearing/formatting cache do anything for anyone stuck in the recovery loop?

I thought this issue popped up before too- are we reinventing fire?

Originally Posted by feisty_noodle

I have the 9.2.1.11 bootloader on B70 with SBK v.2

Same specs here, installed ROM Manager via market, purchased premium ROM Manager, installed recovery via ROM Manager.
I have attempted to restore to previous ROM using recovery and it restores system but fails data.
I have attempted the restore to stock and unrooted using the methods listed in XDA, and because it will not allow a reboot after flashing the factory unrooted firmware it does not work. I had actually seen mention of a soft brick if unable to reboot and thought that is what had happened. After flashing the factory unrooted firmware I was unable to cold boot.



Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium

Originally Posted by sandiegopaneraiguy

Same specs here, installed ROM Manager via market, purchased premium ROM Manager, installed recovery via ROM Manager.
I have attempted to restore to previous ROM using recovery and it restores system but fails data.
I have attempted the restore to stock and unrooted using the methods listed in XDA, and because it will not allow a reboot after flashing the factory unrooted firmware it does not work. I had actually seen mention of a soft brick if unable to reboot and thought that is what had happened. After flashing the factory unrooted firmware I was unable to cold boot.



Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium

I used the free version and I don't get the bootloops. Can you check something for me- in /sdcard/clockworkmod/download/ there will be a file there maybe something like -210115432

look around and see if you can find something like this:

    {
      "name": "Asus Transformer",
      "flash_recovery": "dd if=%s of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p4 ;",
      "version": "5.5.0.4",
      "init": "init.ventana.rc",
      "key": "tf101",
      "lunch": "cm_tf101-userdebug"
    }

These seem to be the parameters that cwm uses to flash the recovery. See if they are any different.

Add me to the forced recovery boot list, but I have a twist to add. I flashed via Rom Manager and I'm running Revolver 4.0 beta 1.2.

Reboot #1 after flashing the new CWM 5.5.0.4 went as usual - no forced recovery
Reboot #2 also worked fine
Reboot #3 - I forced a shutdown, then rebooted fine
Reboot #4 - this time I forced a reboot into recovery, and now I'm stuck in the recovery loop unless I hold down the volume button.

So...until I booted INTO recovery, everything was working fine.

Originally Posted by pooh-bah

Add me to the forced recovery boot list, but I have a twist to add. I flashed via Rom Manager and I'm running Revolver 4.0 beta 1.2.

Reboot #1 after flashing the new CWM 5.5.0.4 went as usual - no forced recovery
Reboot #2 also worked fine
Reboot #3 - I forced a shutdown, then rebooted fine
Reboot #4 - this time I forced a reboot into recovery, and now I'm stuck in the recovery loop unless I hold down the volume button.

So...until I booted INTO recovery, everything was working fine.

are there any recovery commands in your /cache or /cache/recovery folders?

Originally Posted by gee one

are there any recovery commands in your /cache or /cache/recovery folders?

/cache is empty
/cache/recovery has one file, "last_log" - this appears to be a log of when I first entered the recovery about 30 min ago.

Regarding your question about /sdcard/clockworkmod/download/ - I see the same as you posted above.

I got the same thing as Poo-Bah.

Everything was fine until I booted into recovery, now that's all I can boot into unless I cold boot into android.

I'm on bootloader 9.2.1.11 on a B90.

I was wondering if there are any files that tell the system what to boot into and if those are something we can edit. Sorry, I don't have a lot of experience with android, but I'm willing to help as much as I can.

Here is what is in my cache file...

Starting recovery on Sun Mar 4 19:12:16 2012
can't open /dev/tty0: No such file or directory
framebuffer: fd 3 (1280 x 800)
ClockworkMod Recovery v5.5.0.4
recovery filesystem table
=========================
0 /tmp ramdisk (null) (null) 0
1 /system ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (null) 0
2 /cache ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 (null) 0
3 /staging ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 (null) 0
4 /data ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p7 (null) 0

W:Unable to get recovery.fstab info for /datadata during fstab generation!
W:Unable to get recovery.fstab info for /emmc during fstab generation!
W:Unable to get recovery.fstab info for /sdcard during fstab generation!
W:Unable to get recovery.fstab info for /sd-ext during fstab generation!
I:Completed outputting fstab.
I:Processing arguments.
I:Checking arguments.
I:device_recovery_start()
Command: "/sbin/recovery"

ro.secure=1
ro.allow.mock.location=0
ro.debuggable=1
persist.sys.usb.config=mtp,adb
ro.build.id=IML74K
ro.build.display.id=IML74K
ro.build.version.incremental=eng.koush.20120226.19 5010
ro.build.version.sdk=15
ro.build.version.codename=REL
ro.build.version.release=4.0.3
ro.build.date=Sun Feb 26 19:50:53 PST 2012
ro.build.date.utc=0
ro.build.type=userdebug
ro.build.user=koush
ro.build.host=Koushik-Lion.local
ro.build.tags=test-keys
ro.product.model=Transformer
ro.product.brand=asus
ro.product.name=US_epad
ro.product.device=tf101
ro.product.board=ventana
ro.product.cpu.abi=armeabi-v7a
ro.product.cpu.abi2=armeabi
ro.product.manufacturer=asus
ro.product.locale.language=en
ro.product.locale.region=US
ro.wifi.channels=
ro.board.platform=tegra
ro.build.product=tf101
ro.build.description=US_epad-user 4.0.3 IML74K US_epad-9.2.1.11-20120221 release-keys
ro.build.fingerprint=asus/US_epad/EeePad:4.0.3/IML74K/US_epad-9.2.1.11-20120221:user/release-keys
ro.build.characteristics=tablet
ro.cm.device=tf101
ro.com.android.dateformat=MM-dd-yyyy
ro.config.ringtone=Ring_Synth_04.ogg
ro.config.notification_sound=pixiedust.ogg
ro.config.alarm_alert=Alarm_Classic.ogg
wifi.interface=wlan0
wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=15
ro.opengles.version=131072
dalvik.vm.dexopt-data-only=1
dalvik.vm.heapstartsize=5m
dalvik.vm.heapgrowthlimit=48m
dalvik.vm.heapsize=256m
ro.rommanager.developerid=cyanogenmod
keyguard.no_require_sim=true
ro.url.legal=http://www.google.com/intl/%s/mobile/android/basic/phone-legal.html
ro.url.legal.android_privacy=http://www.google.com/intl/%s/mobile/android/basic/privacy.html
ro.com.google.clientidbase=android-google
ro.com.android.wifi-watchlist=GoogleGuest
ro.setupwizard.enterprise_mode=1
ro.com.android.dataroaming=false
ro.cm.version=9.0.0-RC0-tf101-KANG
ro.modversion=9.0.0-RC0-tf101-KANG
dalvik.vm.lockprof.threshold=500
dalvik.vm.dexopt-flags=m=y
net.bt.name=Android
net.change=net.bt.name
dalvik.vm.stack-trace-file=/data/anr/traces.txt
ro.factorytest=0
ro.serialno=0388924343df52d7
ro.bootmode=unknown
ro.baseband=unknown
ro.carrier=wifi-only
ro.bootloader=unknown
ro.hardware=ventana
ro.revision=0
ro.emmc=0
init.svc.recovery=running
init.svc.adbd=stopping
service.adb.root=1

I:Checking for extendedcommand...
I:Skipping execution of extendedcommand, file not found...


Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium

---------- Post added at 09:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:53 PM ----------

Originally Posted by gee one

I used the free version and I don't get the bootloops. Can you check something for me- in /sdcard/clockworkmod/download/ there will be a file there maybe something like -210115432

look around and see if you can find something like this:

    {
      "name": "Asus Transformer",
      "flash_recovery": "dd if=%s of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p4 ;",
      "version": "5.5.0.4",
      "init": "init.ventana.rc",
      "key": "tf101",
      "lunch": "cm_tf101-userdebug"
    }

These seem to be the parameters that cwm uses to flash the recovery. See if they are any different.

I have seven files in that folder, none of which match the one you mention.
I opened each of them with the text viewer and found nothing like what you are seeing. I posted the contents of my recovery log above.