Network / IMEI Problem

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thiagodark

Senior Member
Nov 1, 2010
689
103
Old City-ES
hi guys, i have a gsm gnex and everything was just fine until last week when i reboot my phone and it came back with no signal i tried several reboots with no luck, so i made a factory reset and still no fix at all... and then i saw that IMEI and Baseband was shown as "unknown" in status. Like image below.

screenshot_2012-04-29-20-27-44.png


So i was reading a thread in HTC Sensation forum and someone said that removing the battery and waiting like 20 minutes solve the problem for him... i tried and yes, everything was back, my imei, baseband, etc... BUT, the problem was not fixed.

- i can't reboot or shutdown the phone, if so, it uses to turn on with unknown imei, unknown baseband, etc (sometimes it turns on okay, with everything there, i don't know why, it's just random), but if i wait, it magically appears and i get my signal back or i could do what use to be faster: let the phone off for five minutes and turn it on, and then it comes with my imei, my baseband... all okay!

- i also need to disable 3G network because it drops my signal, what makes me need to turn off the phone, or just wait the signal magically come back again......


i tried to change radio, rom, back to stock, restore nandroid backup that i made in the day one after root the phone, etc...

anyone ever seen anything like this? in any devide?

i would appreciate any help...
 
Last edited:

thiagodark

Senior Member
Nov 1, 2010
689
103
Old City-ES
i don't believe i need to restore the imei, because after some reboots and sometime with my battery pulled off, the imei just come back like magic. Like the screenshot i took right now:

screenshot_2012-04-29-23-14-28.png
 
Apr 22, 2012
37
4
Oh lord, you'd better hope I don't get the bright idea to drunk dial tonight. My Portuguese is even worse than my Spanish.
 

thiagodark

Senior Member
Nov 1, 2010
689
103
Old City-ES
Which ROM did you flash? ...generally your issue occurs when a CDMA ROM is flashed onto a GSM Nexus.

No, never flashed a cdma rom, in fact i was "stock" when problem began... =o/ i had manually updated to 4.0.4 by downloading stock rom on google source...

I flashed several roms after problem begins and now i'm on aokp, Build 34...
 
Last edited:

thiagodark

Senior Member
Nov 1, 2010
689
103
Old City-ES
well, after several research i figured out the problem is well known by galaxy sII users, like described in this thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1261948

my problem is exact the same, i can even do the temporary fix proposed there

but solution there doesnt seems to work on gnex... does anyone know a way to 'adjust' it? since gnex doesn't have efs folder...

thanks!

actually, the question is, can i use these codes replacing "/efs" with "/factory" and "/dev/block" with "/dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.0"
 
Last edited:

jup007

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2010
87
81
Yes, /efs is /factory and it's mounted on different device but I don't see while they suggest to recreate whole partition from scratch. You can just do renaming in place. Have you checked that your /factory directory is really corrupted (ie. files there have wierd sizes, dates, or it doesn't even mount)?

Another interesting thing to do is look at messages in /data/radio/log/nv.log (# cat /data/radio/log/nv.log as root). It may contain some clue as to what's happening...
 

Naezor

Senior Member
Aug 10, 2007
50
12
Las Vegas, NV
I'm having the same issue with a customer's phone.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1643015

From what I can see, /factory is intact. Same as with OP, the phone was completely stock and the customer denies rooting it or even unlocking the bootloader. He said it occurred when swapping SIM cards internationally, then returning to the states. Unlike OP, I haven't been able to get the IMEI to come back at all.

At this point, I'm not even sure if JTAG will be able to save it.

Does anyone think it could be hardware related?
 

thiagodark

Senior Member
Nov 1, 2010
689
103
Old City-ES
Yes, /efs is /factory and it's mounted on different device but I don't see while they suggest to recreate whole partition from scratch. You can just do renaming in place. Have you checked that your /factory directory is really corrupted (ie. files there have wierd sizes, dates, or it doesn't even mount)?

Another interesting thing to do is look at messages in /data/radio/log/nv.log (# cat /data/radio/log/nv.log as root). It may contain some clue as to what's happening...


yes, i also think that is too much work to just rename two files, but since i have tried many things and nothing seems to work and this fix looks to solve the problem to many people in gsII, i decided give it a try...

and to be honest, files look just fine, same date and size as its relative .bak!


I'm having the same issue with a customer's phone.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1643015

From what I can see, /factory is intact. Same as with OP, the phone was completely stock and the customer denies rooting it or even unlocking the bootloader. He said it occurred when swapping SIM cards internationally, then returning to the states. Unlike OP, I haven't been able to get the IMEI to come back at all.

At this point, I'm not even sure if JTAG will be able to save it.

Does anyone think it could be hardware related?

have you tried to remove the battery for like 5 minutes? the problem looks exactly the same as your customer... it's really weird. I was all stock (only unlocked bootloader).

in my case, i can't believe it's a hardware fault, since i can make "imei, phone number, baseband, etc." come back...

the strangest thing is when imei, baseband, etc... are okay i have to set "2g only", because if i try to use 3g, network signal drops and only come back after i remove the battery for the usual 5 minutes!!

if a let 3g on and don't try to actually use the internet it stays okay, but if i open the browser and star loading a page, i.e, that's it, no signal at all...
 
Last edited:

jup007

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2010
87
81
Well, what does

Code:
# cat /data/radio/log/nv.log

say? This is log file where normally radio daemong logs unusual things...

EDIT: Btw, I've seen unknown IMEI when nv_data.bin has broken access rights (it's not accessible by radio).
 
Last edited:

jup007

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2010
87
81
Try following 2 commands:
Code:
shell@android:/ # ls -la /data/radio
drwxrwxr-x radio    radio             2012-04-20 16:02 log
-rwx------ radio    radio     2097152 2012-05-07 14:49 nv_data.bin
-rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-05-07 14:49 nv_data.bin.md5

shell@android:/ # ls -la /factory/                                             
-rwx------ radio    radio     1048576 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_core.bak
-rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_core.bak.md5
-rwx------ radio    radio     2097152 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_data.bak
-rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_data.bak.md5
-rwx------ radio    radio           1 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_state
drwxr-xr-x radio    radio             2011-01-03 15:26 bluetooth
-rw------- radio    radio         640 2011-01-03 15:26 hdcp.keys
drwxrwxr-x radio    radio             1999-12-31 16:02 imei
drwx------ root     root              1969-12-31 16:00 lost+found
-rw------- radio    radio        4674 2012-04-20 03:13 nv.log
-rwx------ radio    radio     2097152 2012-04-20 03:13 nv_data.bin
-rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-04-20 03:13 nv_data.bin.md5
drwxrwx--- system   radio             1999-12-31 16:00 wifi
-rw-r--r-- radio    radio         144 2011-01-03 15:26 wv.keys

And see how much results differ. Times will be different, sizes and owners should probably be same. Although in your case, you may not have /data/radio at all, since you don't have log file.
 

thiagodark

Senior Member
Nov 1, 2010
689
103
Old City-ES
well, i noticed that /factory was totally messed up due my attempt to fix it. I retore and fix permssions to looks just like yours but for a strange reason i can't restore .nv_data.bak and .nv_data.bak.md5 through root explorer...

screenshot_2012-05-09-09-40-53.png


in any case, even with /factory without almost all files inside the issue was exactly the same and i was able to make radio works with the "battery remove" workaround...

edit: exactly same problem, but now with a generic imei! =o)

i'm gonna restore my backup when get in home...
 
Last edited:

jup007

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2010
87
81
well, i noticed that /factory was totally messed up due my attempt to fix it. I retore and fix permssions to looks just like yours but for a strange reason i can't restore .nv_data.bak and .nv_data.bak.md5 through root explorer...

screenshot_2012-05-09-09-40-53.png


in any case, even with /factory without almost all files inside the issue was exactly the same and i was able to make radio works with the "battery remove" workaround...

edit: exactly same problem, but now with a generic imei! =o)

i'm gonna restore my backup when get in home...
Your /factory still as wierd permissions. Most of the files are owned by root and are not readable by radio, which will cause problem. This is probably result of restore. You made nv_data.bin owned by radio, but without accompanying nv_data.bin.md5 system will just ignore it and probably give you generic IMEI, which is what we were seeing here when md5 files didn't match bin files.

Anyway, generic IMEI looks promising. We know how to fix generic IMEI if you have backup of /factory - so please don't loose it.

So yes, restore /factory, fix the permissions
Code:
# cd /factory
# chown radio.radio .*

and try checking the log file in /data/radio/log again. Since you have the directory, I still think there must be something in there.
 
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thiagodark

Senior Member
Nov 1, 2010
689
103
Old City-ES
done, restored factory from backup, what was strange is that even after all files restored. with right permisions and with right owner, the generic imei remained and i had to install f*ckdocomo.apk to get it back...

now i just have the original problem =o)

i really didn't have any file inside /data/radio path before, but now it has a log and i believe is due the /factory problem and not related with the original problem

anyway, that's log in /data/radio/log

9 09:44:21 2012: MD5 is turned on.

Wed May 9 09:44:21 2012: truncate 10276 -> 5156 bytes
Wed May 9 09:44:33 2012: __refresh_md5_file: Can't open /factory/nv_data.bin.md5. Permission denied.
Wed May 9 09:44:33 2012: MD5 is turned on.
Wed May 9 09:44:44 2012: __refresh_md5_file: Can't open /factory/nv_data.bin.md5. Permission denied.
Wed May 9 09:44:44 2012: MD5 is turned on.

REPEAT FOR A LONG LONG TIME AND THEN I RESTORE FILES IN /RECOVERY copying files from sdcard

Wed May 9 09:53:20 2012: __refresh_md5_file: Can't open /factory/nv_data.bin.md5. Read-only file system.
Wed May 9 09:53:20 2012: MD5 is turned on.
Wed May 9 09:53:31 2012: __refresh_md5_file: Can't open /factory/nv_data.bin.md5. Read-only file system.
Wed May 9 09:53:31 2012: MD5 is turned on.
Wed May 9 09:53:43 2012: __refresh_md5_file: Can't open /factory/nv_data.bin.md5. Read-only file system.

REPEAT FOR LOOOONG TIME AND THEN I RESTORE MY .IMG BACKUP AND USE F*UCKDOCOMO.APK

Wed May 9 14:24:50 2012: /data/radio/nv_data.bin does not exist.
Wed May 9 14:24:50 2012: MD5 fail. orignal md5 'f6afbceb74ee4290c4563e046f24' computed md5 '6ec535b7b029665813c18d6283c7' (rild)
Wed May 9 14:24:50 2012: MD5 fail. orignal md5 '861f9436276afbcbdc44f58d473a' computed md5 'de37d01ec798841e4944ee69cf5f' (rild)
Wed May 9 14:24:51 2012: default NV restored.
Wed May 9 14:26:07 2012: /data/radio/nv_data.bin does not exist.
Wed May 9 14:26:07 2012: /data/radio/nv_data.bin does not exist.

oh, and i think all files is just fine in /factory path, but no fix at all.

i start to think it should be a hardware fault...

screenshot_2012-05-09-21-35-21.png
 
Last edited:
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jup007

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2010
87
81
This is after fdocomo v3, right? So your files get rebuild from what's in the factory and you still get what, unknown IMEI? This may also be that files in factory are simply broken and were broken before backup. They contain IMEI, so if something happened to them, this would show as such problem. However, if /factory is lost, I don't know how to fix it. There are things worth trying though - you may try restoring nv_data files from nv_core files, which is actually pretty simple if you have busybox. With rw mounted factory and airplane mode on, do:
Code:
shell@android:/factory # cd /factory
shell@android:/factory # rm nv_data.bin*
shell@android:/factory # rm .nv_data.bak*
shell@android:/factory # rm /data/radio/nv_data.bin.*
shell@android:/factory # ls -la
-rwx------ radio    radio     1048576 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_core.bak
-rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_core.bak.md5
-rwx------ radio    radio           1 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_state
drwxr-xr-x radio    radio             2011-01-03 15:26 bluetooth
-rw------- radio    radio         640 2011-01-03 15:26 hdcp.keys
drwxrwxr-x radio    radio             1999-12-31 16:02 imei
drwx------ root     root              1969-12-31 16:00 lost+found
-rw------- radio    radio        4674 2012-04-20 03:13 nv.log
drwxrwx--- system   radio             1999-12-31 16:00 wifi
-rw-r--r-- radio    radio         144 2011-01-03 15:26 wv.keys
# busybox killall rild
wait lets say 30 secs

Code:
shell@android:/factory # ls -la
-rwx------ radio    radio     1048576 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_core.bak
-rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_core.bak.md5
-rwx------ radio    radio     2097152 2012-05-10 00:34 .nv_data.bak
-rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-05-10 00:34 .nv_data.bak.md5
-rwx------ radio    radio           1 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_state
drwxr-xr-x radio    radio             2011-01-03 15:26 bluetooth
-rw------- radio    radio         640 2011-01-03 15:26 hdcp.keys
drwxrwxr-x radio    radio             1999-12-31 16:02 imei
drwx------ root     root              1969-12-31 16:00 lost+found
-rw------- radio    radio        4847 2012-05-10 00:34 nv.log
-rwx------ radio    radio     2097152 2012-05-10 00:34 nv_data.bin
-rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-05-10 00:34 nv_data.bin.md5
drwxrwx--- system   radio             1999-12-31 16:00 wifi
-rw-r--r-- radio    radio         144 2011-01-03 15:26 wv.keys
shell@android:/factory # cat nv.log
(...)
Thu May 10 00:34:19 2012: NV backup has been rebuilt.
Thu May 10 00:34:19 2012: backup NV restored from Secondary bak.
Thu May 10 00:34:23 2012: MD5 open fail. (No MD5 file) : /data/radio/nv_data.bin.md5
Thu May 10 00:34:23 2012: NV restored.(GED)

What this does is gives rild (radio interface Samsung daemon) chance to rebuid /factory from .nv_core backup. It knows how to do it, but normally can't do it on startup, since /factory is ro mounted. By mounting it rw, deleting files that are broken and killing daemon (which is service, so it gets restarted by android magicaly almost immediatelly), it gets chance. So try this. If you don't have busybox, just do ps, find rild there and PID number and do kill <PID>.

If this doesn't help, your secondary backup .nv_core.bak is also broken or it's really HW issue. In either case, this would require special tools to fix. But this is worth trying as last resort. I did it on my phone just to test this theory again.

EDIT: And I don't believe it's HW issue. If it was, generic IMEI wouldn't work. But it does for you and generic IMEI is nothing else then nv_data.bin that is hardcoded somewhere in the system to be used if factory doesn't exist. But if your /factory is broken and you don't have backup, you'd still need SPTBox or something similar to generate new files from scratch. So send it to somebody or find some Samsung repair place...
 
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  • 4
    This is after fdocomo v3, right? So your files get rebuild from what's in the factory and you still get what, unknown IMEI? This may also be that files in factory are simply broken and were broken before backup. They contain IMEI, so if something happened to them, this would show as such problem. However, if /factory is lost, I don't know how to fix it. There are things worth trying though - you may try restoring nv_data files from nv_core files, which is actually pretty simple if you have busybox. With rw mounted factory and airplane mode on, do:
    Code:
    shell@android:/factory # cd /factory
    shell@android:/factory # rm nv_data.bin*
    shell@android:/factory # rm .nv_data.bak*
    shell@android:/factory # rm /data/radio/nv_data.bin.*
    shell@android:/factory # ls -la
    -rwx------ radio    radio     1048576 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_core.bak
    -rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_core.bak.md5
    -rwx------ radio    radio           1 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_state
    drwxr-xr-x radio    radio             2011-01-03 15:26 bluetooth
    -rw------- radio    radio         640 2011-01-03 15:26 hdcp.keys
    drwxrwxr-x radio    radio             1999-12-31 16:02 imei
    drwx------ root     root              1969-12-31 16:00 lost+found
    -rw------- radio    radio        4674 2012-04-20 03:13 nv.log
    drwxrwx--- system   radio             1999-12-31 16:00 wifi
    -rw-r--r-- radio    radio         144 2011-01-03 15:26 wv.keys
    # busybox killall rild
    wait lets say 30 secs

    Code:
    shell@android:/factory # ls -la
    -rwx------ radio    radio     1048576 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_core.bak
    -rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_core.bak.md5
    -rwx------ radio    radio     2097152 2012-05-10 00:34 .nv_data.bak
    -rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-05-10 00:34 .nv_data.bak.md5
    -rwx------ radio    radio           1 2012-04-20 03:13 .nv_state
    drwxr-xr-x radio    radio             2011-01-03 15:26 bluetooth
    -rw------- radio    radio         640 2011-01-03 15:26 hdcp.keys
    drwxrwxr-x radio    radio             1999-12-31 16:02 imei
    drwx------ root     root              1969-12-31 16:00 lost+found
    -rw------- radio    radio        4847 2012-05-10 00:34 nv.log
    -rwx------ radio    radio     2097152 2012-05-10 00:34 nv_data.bin
    -rwx------ radio    radio          32 2012-05-10 00:34 nv_data.bin.md5
    drwxrwx--- system   radio             1999-12-31 16:00 wifi
    -rw-r--r-- radio    radio         144 2011-01-03 15:26 wv.keys
    shell@android:/factory # cat nv.log
    (...)
    Thu May 10 00:34:19 2012: NV backup has been rebuilt.
    Thu May 10 00:34:19 2012: backup NV restored from Secondary bak.
    Thu May 10 00:34:23 2012: MD5 open fail. (No MD5 file) : /data/radio/nv_data.bin.md5
    Thu May 10 00:34:23 2012: NV restored.(GED)

    What this does is gives rild (radio interface Samsung daemon) chance to rebuid /factory from .nv_core backup. It knows how to do it, but normally can't do it on startup, since /factory is ro mounted. By mounting it rw, deleting files that are broken and killing daemon (which is service, so it gets restarted by android magicaly almost immediatelly), it gets chance. So try this. If you don't have busybox, just do ps, find rild there and PID number and do kill <PID>.

    If this doesn't help, your secondary backup .nv_core.bak is also broken or it's really HW issue. In either case, this would require special tools to fix. But this is worth trying as last resort. I did it on my phone just to test this theory again.

    EDIT: And I don't believe it's HW issue. If it was, generic IMEI wouldn't work. But it does for you and generic IMEI is nothing else then nv_data.bin that is hardcoded somewhere in the system to be used if factory doesn't exist. But if your /factory is broken and you don't have backup, you'd still need SPTBox or something similar to generate new files from scratch. So send it to somebody or find some Samsung repair place...
    1
    well, i noticed that /factory was totally messed up due my attempt to fix it. I retore and fix permssions to looks just like yours but for a strange reason i can't restore .nv_data.bak and .nv_data.bak.md5 through root explorer...

    screenshot_2012-05-09-09-40-53.png


    in any case, even with /factory without almost all files inside the issue was exactly the same and i was able to make radio works with the "battery remove" workaround...

    edit: exactly same problem, but now with a generic imei! =o)

    i'm gonna restore my backup when get in home...
    Your /factory still as wierd permissions. Most of the files are owned by root and are not readable by radio, which will cause problem. This is probably result of restore. You made nv_data.bin owned by radio, but without accompanying nv_data.bin.md5 system will just ignore it and probably give you generic IMEI, which is what we were seeing here when md5 files didn't match bin files.

    Anyway, generic IMEI looks promising. We know how to fix generic IMEI if you have backup of /factory - so please don't loose it.

    So yes, restore /factory, fix the permissions
    Code:
    # cd /factory
    # chown radio.radio .*

    and try checking the log file in /data/radio/log again. Since you have the directory, I still think there must be something in there.
    1
    done, restored factory from backup, what was strange is that even after all files restored. with right permisions and with right owner, the generic imei remained and i had to install f*ckdocomo.apk to get it back...

    now i just have the original problem =o)

    i really didn't have any file inside /data/radio path before, but now it has a log and i believe is due the /factory problem and not related with the original problem

    anyway, that's log in /data/radio/log

    9 09:44:21 2012: MD5 is turned on.

    Wed May 9 09:44:21 2012: truncate 10276 -> 5156 bytes
    Wed May 9 09:44:33 2012: __refresh_md5_file: Can't open /factory/nv_data.bin.md5. Permission denied.
    Wed May 9 09:44:33 2012: MD5 is turned on.
    Wed May 9 09:44:44 2012: __refresh_md5_file: Can't open /factory/nv_data.bin.md5. Permission denied.
    Wed May 9 09:44:44 2012: MD5 is turned on.

    REPEAT FOR A LONG LONG TIME AND THEN I RESTORE FILES IN /RECOVERY copying files from sdcard

    Wed May 9 09:53:20 2012: __refresh_md5_file: Can't open /factory/nv_data.bin.md5. Read-only file system.
    Wed May 9 09:53:20 2012: MD5 is turned on.
    Wed May 9 09:53:31 2012: __refresh_md5_file: Can't open /factory/nv_data.bin.md5. Read-only file system.
    Wed May 9 09:53:31 2012: MD5 is turned on.
    Wed May 9 09:53:43 2012: __refresh_md5_file: Can't open /factory/nv_data.bin.md5. Read-only file system.

    REPEAT FOR LOOOONG TIME AND THEN I RESTORE MY .IMG BACKUP AND USE F*UCKDOCOMO.APK

    Wed May 9 14:24:50 2012: /data/radio/nv_data.bin does not exist.
    Wed May 9 14:24:50 2012: MD5 fail. orignal md5 'f6afbceb74ee4290c4563e046f24' computed md5 '6ec535b7b029665813c18d6283c7' (rild)
    Wed May 9 14:24:50 2012: MD5 fail. orignal md5 '861f9436276afbcbdc44f58d473a' computed md5 'de37d01ec798841e4944ee69cf5f' (rild)
    Wed May 9 14:24:51 2012: default NV restored.
    Wed May 9 14:26:07 2012: /data/radio/nv_data.bin does not exist.
    Wed May 9 14:26:07 2012: /data/radio/nv_data.bin does not exist.

    oh, and i think all files is just fine in /factory path, but no fix at all.

    i start to think it should be a hardware fault...

    screenshot_2012-05-09-21-35-21.png
    1
    I just bought a new Galaxy Nexus. And I don't wanna experience the same problem. What should i do? Is there a way to backup files containing IMEI and if any problem occurs i can restore them?

    Thanks in advance.

    at the moment nobody knows what is this problem and why it happens... so just be lucky! =o)

    oh, and meanwhile, make a efs backup, the easiest way is this: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1510906

    =o)
    1
    Hey guys im worried now, iwas thinking to buy this phone, but im afraid of this problem, i was going to buy it from india and without warranty.
    what should i do now?
    Is there any solution out there yet..?

    no, there is no solution out there yet

    flashing .imgs (radios, roms, bootloaders) doesn't solve the problem... there is absolutely no radio or rom that makes it works right. I tried everyone.

    and i'm pretty sure it is not related to efs/factory partition


    to be honest with you, without warranty i wouldn't buy the, not at all... it's a pretty expensive device to take the risk to end with a VERY expensive mp3 player... even the chance is not that high!!

    i'm seeing several threads about this and no fix til now:

    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1643015
    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1618163
    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=26340507
    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=26369207

    but it's up to you! =o)