[TUTORIAL] How To Extract Files From a TAR.MD5 Stock ROM (SPH-D710)

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I've received a TON of PM's and emails asking how to do this and I've decided to do a write-up for everyone. Now to start off, this does not automatically make you a Super Duper Developer, this does not show you how to make your own TAR ROMs, nor does it show you how to make your own Odin One-Clicks. What it does do is show you how to pull files from those stock leaked/official ROMs so that you can proceed to make yourself into a Super Duper Developer!

In essence if the Developer knows what they are doing they could use this method to extract all the files from the build and could then add them to a ZIP and have a stock odexed ROM within minutes and do it all through Windows! Depending on time I may or may not do a tutorial on that as well...

So let's begin!

We've all seen those pesky TAR.MD5 packages that we can flash through Odin. How often have you wanted to look inside them and see what is inside before flashing? There are several ways to do it and the most common answer requires Linux and Dsixda's Kitchen utility. This tutorial gives you the ability to do that through Windows and without having to extract the full ROM. These instructions are specific to the Samsung Galaxy S2 (all variants) but can be used on most Samsung Galaxy phones.

Each TAR.MD5 release contains multiple files. Each of these files corresponds to a specific partition on your device. These files are formatted to be mounted by your device but not by a computer. We will be converting them from a .img partition type to an ext4.img type partition so we can mount them and read them through Windows. For this tutorial we will be opening up the factoryfs.img (the system files partition).

Before you dive in there are a few things you'll need.
- A PC running Windows.
- A stock TAR.MD5 release. Several are available in the Stock ROMs Repo thread.
- DiskInternals Linux Reader (must be installed on the Windows PC). You can download DiskInternals Linux Reader here.
- SGS2toEXT4 Utility available here. *Be sure to extract the JAR file from the ZIP archive.
- 7-Zip available here.

For the rest of the tutorial please visit my site: www.rwilco12.com

Enjoy!

Reserved.

As always, RW coming with the tools to forward development! Thanks again Wilco!

Re: [TUTORIAL] How To Extract Files From a TAR.MD5 Stock ROM

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Sweet! Thanks a lot!

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Re: [TUTORIAL] How To Extract Files From a TAR.MD5 Stock ROM

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Rdubb is the man!

Re: [TUTORIAL] How To Extract Files From a TAR.MD5 Stock ROM

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That's amazing, and incredibly generous of you to share it with the community! Thanks a lot for it, brother!

Bugging up my phone, so you don't have to!

Re: [TUTORIAL] How To Extract Files From a TAR.MD5 Stock ROM

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Great job on this. I know it will come in handy for lots of folks.

sent from Mijj

Re: [TUTORIAL] How To Extract Files From a TAR.MD5 Stock ROM

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This is awesome. Thank you very much.

Looks like I need to download a few tools.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Great Howto

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I am suggesting that Mods sticky this one.

Re: [TUTORIAL] How To Extract Files From a TAR.MD5 Stock ROM

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Wowzers. Excellent job on the tutorial, very detailed and easy to follow. Thanks rw

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2