I don't think the command changes. Can a dd if command not be run in a cygwin terminal? its been awhile since i used it. The original post where this unbrick came to be is here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=43305728&postcount=21
i assume cygwin is the "dd like tools for windows" he's referring to
Thanks for the info. I will so some more research and see if I can "magically" fix my hubby's brick!
if i was on josh beach verson 15.6 and i flashed a international kernel for the i9300 would this message work. i have access to another working s3 with the same rom. can any one help? i know how to do dd like commands. but i was wondering is the kernel messing up the firmware?
Thanks
OP Thank you so much!!! After I figured Ubuntu out your steps worked like a charm to fix my phone. THANK YOU FOR SAVING ME LOTS OF MONEY!!
OP Thank you so much!!! After I figured Ubuntu out your steps worked like a charm to fix my phone. THANK YOU FOR SAVING ME LOTS OF MONEY!!
CYGWIN
Once it starts type "cd /". Then type "cat proc/partitions" and you'll get a response similar to this
________________________________________
major minor #blocks name
8 0 156290904 sda
8 1 29295616 sda1
8 2 102400 sda2
8 3 122007552 sda3
8 4 4881408 sda4
8 16 0 sdb
______________________________
Then plug in you sd to your pc and run "cat proc/partitions" again. This time you'll see additional partitions(your SD) pop up. So it'll look something like this
______________________________
major minor #blocks name
8 0 156290904 sda
8 1 29295616 sda1
8 2 102400 sda2
8 3 122007552 sda3
8 4 4881408 sda4
8 16 0 sdb
8 32 1959936 sdc
8 33 1959936 sdc1
_________________________
sdc is the sdcard. so to dump this image type the following
"dd if=(as soon as you type = stop and drag the file into the window) of=/dev/sdc"
example: "dd if=/cygdrive/c/Users/User/Downloads/debrick_sph_l710.img.xz of=/dev/sdc"
this will take a few minutes. When you recieve a response like this:
"41222+1 records in
41222+1 records out
21106140 bytes (21 MB) copied, 193.389 s, 109 kB/s"
you can remove the sd. That should be it.
Tried this on cygwin and the steps were pretty much the same. With the sd removed, start the cygwin terminal as the administrator by right clicking on it and hitting "run as administrator".
Once it starts type "cd /". Then type "cat proc/partitions" and you'll get a response similar to this
________________________________________
major minor #blocks name
8 0 156290904 sda
8 1 29295616 sda1
8 2 102400 sda2
8 3 122007552 sda3
8 4 4881408 sda4
8 16 0 sdb
______________________________
Then plug in you sd to your pc and run "cat proc/partitions" again. This time you'll see additional partitions(your SD) pop up. So it'll look something like this
______________________________
major minor #blocks name
8 0 156290904 sda
8 1 29295616 sda1
8 2 102400 sda2
8 3 122007552 sda3
8 4 4881408 sda4
8 16 0 sdb
8 32 1959936 sdc
8 33 1959936 sdc1
_________________________
sdc is the sdcard. so to dump this image type the following
"dd if=(as soon as you type = stop and drag the file into the window) of=/dev/sdc"
example: "dd if=/cygdrive/c/Users/User/Downloads/debrick_sph_l710.img.xz of=/dev/sdc"
this will take a few minutes. When you recieve a response like this:
"41222+1 records in
41222+1 records out
21106140 bytes (21 MB) copied, 193.389 s, 109 kB/s"
you can remove the sd. That should be it.
Last edited:
I believe you need to unzip the .img file first.
Total bytes should be 81M not 21M.
Can someone please confirm you UNZIP IMAGE FIRST...
You're probably right on that. I just assumed it wasn't compressed because i have no idea what the "xz" file extension is (or how you would decompress one) or why the hell you wouldn't just put it in a zip file like a normal person. My post was more to prove cygwin could be used for the job, i figured they could iron out the rest of the details
I would like to say thank you to everyone who contributed in this. Thanks to this great community, I don't have to revert back to my Nexus S4G! You guys saved my life! Thanks a million times over!
Could someone kindly make a youtube video of this . Im having a hard time with what to type in the terminal. Im using ubuntu the same as the op.
Sent from my SPH-M930 using xda app-developers app
Sent from my SPH-M930 using xda app-developers app
Success
A very special thank you to DeBricker and gTan64 for these guides. The process worked on a Hard Bricked S3.
I have been playing around with my bricked S3 for about a week, bricked due to the stupidity of flashing an international rom.
Few things I noticed:
A 2G and 8G Sd card were no good. The Boot image creates a partion table that must mirror the internal memory.
When I finally flashed the image on a 16G Class 10 card the process worked perfectly.
(Please note DeBricker does suggest that in the OP)
After inserting card, I noticed that the power button needed to be held down to restart phone.
The phone will boot into recovery when started. It will actually let you flash a ROM if its in Internal Memory. Please note that this will work, except the boot table is still on the SD card. Again, as stated, you need to reflash a STOCK ROM via ODIN. Basically start fresh. If you do not, the phone will not work without the BRICK-FIX SD.
But the process works to get you into a soft brick state, without JTAG or replacing your phone.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
A very special thank you to DeBricker and gTan64 for these guides. The process worked on a Hard Bricked S3.
I have been playing around with my bricked S3 for about a week, bricked due to the stupidity of flashing an international rom.
Few things I noticed:
A 2G and 8G Sd card were no good. The Boot image creates a partion table that must mirror the internal memory.
When I finally flashed the image on a 16G Class 10 card the process worked perfectly.
(Please note DeBricker does suggest that in the OP)
After inserting card, I noticed that the power button needed to be held down to restart phone.
The phone will boot into recovery when started. It will actually let you flash a ROM if its in Internal Memory. Please note that this will work, except the boot table is still on the SD card. Again, as stated, you need to reflash a STOCK ROM via ODIN. Basically start fresh. If you do not, the phone will not work without the BRICK-FIX SD.
But the process works to get you into a soft brick state, without JTAG or replacing your phone.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Worked like a charm. I spent more time downloading Ubuntu and burning it to a disc than getting my bricked S3 back up and running. So awesome!
I think we should really give props to gTan64
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2345860
Sure, a guide is great and all, but it wouldn't be possible without the original method.
Sent from my buttered S3
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2345860
Sure, a guide is great and all, but it wouldn't be possible without the original method.
Sent from my buttered S3
I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without your eMMC dump, CNexus. Thanks where it's due!
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
Has anyone tried flashing a rom from internal memory and then using Odin or Heimdal to flash a partial image to fix everything that isn't included in the rom (but without overwriting the flashed rom with stock)?
As long as repartitioning isn't part of the process (I don't think it was mentioned in the op), it might even be possible to flash just the boot and custom recovery from the PC, then reboot into recovery to flash a custom rom, bypassing the trip to stock...
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
That wouldn't work unfortunately. When you brick your phone, you write junk over your bootloader so the phone no longer knows how to start up
The point of going back to stock is so that you can restore to a functional bootloader by temporarily booting from the bootloader on your sdcard. Hence flashing a boot.img and recovery.img would not solve the issue
Which part of the process actually restores the boot loader? I thought it was the Odin flash
(My suggestion was not an alternative to the method in this thread, in case that's what you thought I meant)
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
Yeah, the Odin flash of a stock/stock rooted tar
From reading your post, I understood that you were saying to Odin a boot.img and recovery, and then flash a rom to get the phone going again and bypass the stock tar flash altogether
I used my macbook to flash this to a 16GB microSD card, and it worked perfectly!
I just had to change the wording in terminal, and unmount the card first.
"sudo su" (then entered password)
"diskutil list" (to find the specific memory card drive path)
"unmount /dev/disk1" (where "/dev/disk1" is the path to your microSD card)
"dd if=debrick_sph_l710.img of=/dev/disk1" (where "/dev/disk1" is the path for the microSD card)
just figured I would share my experience of the minute differences using Mac OSX.
I just had to change the wording in terminal, and unmount the card first.
"sudo su" (then entered password)
"diskutil list" (to find the specific memory card drive path)
"unmount /dev/disk1" (where "/dev/disk1" is the path to your microSD card)
"dd if=debrick_sph_l710.img of=/dev/disk1" (where "/dev/disk1" is the path for the microSD card)
just figured I would share my experience of the minute differences using Mac OSX.
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