Dev Ed with Reactivation Lock on Recovery - please help!

[Rickinsav]

Ok, this is my first dev device and I don't want to screw it up.

But, now I screwed up. I was SO comfortable running a new ROM that I messed around and checked on Reactivation Lock.

But then, I got a wild hair to try the TouchWiz 4x5 launcher instead of Nova and booted into Recovery to flash it in.

Now, I get "Custom binary blocked by Reactivation Lock"

Crap Crap Crap....

I've looked at several threads about how to boot or flash to fix, but the solutions seem ambiguous at best.
My biggest fear is that I am running a dev device and I don't want to get the wrong firmware and end up flashing in a retail bootloader or something.

Please Help!

I've tried pulling the battery, booting in download mode but neither of those work.

 

[BigBot96]

Ok, this is my first dev device and I don't want to screw it up.

But, now I screwed up. I was SO comfortable running a new ROM that I messed around and checked on Reactivation Lock.

But then, I got a wild hair to try the TouchWiz 4x5 launcher instead of Nova and booted into Recovery to flash it in.

Now, I get "Custom binary blocked by Reactivation Lock"

Crap Crap Crap....

I've looked at several threads about how to boot or flash to fix, but the solutions seem ambiguous at best.
My biggest fear is that I am running a dev device and I don't want to get the wrong firmware and end up flashing in a retail bootloader or something.

Please Help!

I've tried pulling the battery, booting in download mode but neither of those work.

I've got reactivation lock enabled and haven't had any issues.

Ok..
When did you get the "Custom Binary blocked......" message? After booting into recovery? After flashing the file? What recovery?
When does the message appear? After the Samsung splash screen? After the boot animation? After the device boots completely?

 

[Rickinsav]

I've got reactivation lock enabled and haven't had any issues.

Ok..
When did you get the "Custom Binary blocked......" message? After booting into recovery? After flashing the file? What recovery?
When does the message appear? After the Samsung splash screen? After the boot animation? After the device boots completely?

Sorry, I could have been more detailed to save this.

The S5 has TWRP for recovery (2.7.0 I think). I downloaded TouchWiz4x5.zip and restarted into recovery via QuickBoot app.
When the phone starts, I get the familiar Samsung logo, S5 Custom Android screen, not boot animation. It displays for about 2 seconds and then up in the top left it reads:
RECOVERY BOOTING....
RECOVERY IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING
Set Warranty Bit : recovery

Then displays:
Custom binary blocked by Reactivation Lock
SECURE FAIL: RECOVERY

...and goes no further. This whole boot process takes like three or four seconds from power on to yellow triangle ( I call it the ROMuda triangle lol)

I was thinking if I could force the boot loader to boot normally instead of into recovery all would be fine. It's getting hung on TWRP recovery. Then I could turn RL off. Some of the threads with similar errors have SECURE FAIL: KERNEL, which is not what I'm dealing with. The kernel and firmware are fine.
If I do have to return to stock, then I need to make damn sure that I'm flashing a dev edition so I don't end up with a retail version and locked boot loader.

 

[BigBot96]

Sorry, I could have been more detailed to save this.

The S5 has TWRP for recovery (2.7.0 I think). I downloaded TouchWiz4x5.zip and restarted into recovery via QuickBoot app.
When the phone starts, I get the familiar Samsung logo, S5 Custom Android screen, not boot animation. It displays for about 2 seconds and then up in the top left it reads:
RECOVERY BOOTING....
RECOVERY IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING
Set Warranty Bit : recovery

Then displays:
Custom binary blocked by Reactivation Lock
SECURE FAIL: RECOVERY

...and goes no further. This whole boot process takes like three or four seconds from power on to yellow triangle ( I call it the ROMuda triangle lol)

I was thinking if I could force the boot loader to boot normally instead of into recovery all would be fine. It's getting hung on TWRP recovery. Then I could turn RL off. Some of the threads with similar errors have SECURE FAIL: KERNEL, which is not what I'm dealing with. The kernel and firmware are fine.
If I do have to return to stock, then I need to make damn sure that I'm flashing a dev edition so I don't end up with a retail version and locked boot loader.

Sounds like reactivation lock flagged your custom recovery. Can you get into Download mode? Start your phone like your trying to load Download mode. When you get the screen for Vol UP or Vol Down for continue or reboot, select reboot and see if it lets you boot up. If it does, then disable reactivation lock.

If it still won't boot, you should try flashing your stock recovery via ODIN. Hopefully you've made backup copies as there are no official firmware packages for the DevEd. Alternatively, you could ask another DevEd user to give you a copy of their recovery.

Have a look at this thread: [ODIN-RESTORE] [GS5-DEV Edition] Flashable Rescue package

 

[Rickinsav]

Sounds like reactivation lock flagged your custom recovery. Can you get into Download mode? Start your phone like your trying to load Download mode. When you get the screen for Vol UP or Vol Down for continue or reboot, select reboot and see if it lets you boot up. If it does, then disable reactivation lock.

If it still won't boot, you should try flashing your stock recovery via ODIN. Hopefully you've made backup copies as there are no official firmware packages for the DevEd. Alternatively, you could ask another DevEd user to give you a copy of their recovery.

Have a look at this thread: [ODIN-RESTORE] [GS5-DEV Edition] Flashable Rescue package

Hyde, the link for the rescue package is dead. I did make a full backup with TWRP but don't know how to use it to flash via Odin.

 

[BigBot96]

TWRP doesn't backup the recovery. You may need to send a PM to one of the other users who have DevEd.

 

[Rickinsav]

FIXED!!!

Just wanted to follow up to let everyone know that I have fixed the "Custom binary blocked by Reactivation Lock" error that had bricked my device.
I downloaded the recovery file (I'll update with a link to this file)
I flashed with Odin 3.0.7 (PDA)
It FAILED. (I expected this)
I unplugged USB, pulled the battery out
I put it back in, booted into stock recovery with Power + vol down.
Selected Normal Boot
Everything Fine!
Went to settings and turned off RL. LOL
Restarted Phone with normal Power Off menu - still fine
After reboot, opened SuperSU, still showed QuickBoot with root access
Opened QuickBoot, tapped on Recovery
It booted into TWRP (I'm on 2.7.0.0) - no problems
Rebooted again. No more error when booting to custom recovery
Profit!!!

** the battery pull trick after Odin flash fail I picked up from the Note 3 forums **
** If you have SECURE FAIL: KERNEL, you may need to perform a factory reset during the first boot after battery pull! **

A big thanks to all those who helped me via the forums and PM!