[Q] This started as a TiBu Question, but....

karate104

Senior Member
Nov 5, 2011
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Just doing a sanity check: using TiBu to restore system data should work (in theory) so long as you restore data that has been backed up from the same ROM, correct?

Thanks for any help.

EDIT: Having power key problems, please see posts #3 and #16 for updated information.
 
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Jack_R1

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Aug 9, 2009
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In case it really backs up and restores EVERYTHING - theoretically you're right.
Practically, I'm not sure it's the case. Since you're restoring while running a ROM, I'm not sure you can get everything to exactly the same state.
 
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karate104

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Nov 5, 2011
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Thanks for your help, but this question was hiding a bigger one.

So until today, my phone has been working just fine. I'm still running an old, now outdated and unsupported ROM: ShirshirROM pre-alpha ICS. It's been my daily driver for almost a whole year now, works perfectly with Entropy's old ICS kernel.

Yesterday, I got tired of shell errors with Superuser (which I had been dealing with since the latest binary update), so I finally switched to SuperSU. Everything seemed to work fine afterwards, though I noticed some trouble with the power button being a little wonky, i.e. showing up the power menu when I hadn't pressed it or not immediately responding.

Today, my power button doesn't work correctly at all. I tried wiping cache, dalvik, then restoring a Nandroid of the same ROM/Kernel combo from way earlier this year. Key test in CWM also shows that all buttons register when pressed, EXCEPT the power one. Otherwise phone functions are perfect; I can make calls, send/receive texts, etc, I just have to plug in my phone or have something happen for the screen to turn on, and then I have access to everything. My question is, is this (God forbid) a hardware failure? That would be my worst nightmare, seeing as I'm almost exactly one full year out from contract renewal, and I don't have a lot of money to spend on a new one, nor do I have nowhere near enough expertise to try to fix it myself. What can I do?

P.S. The TiBu question was because in case the Nandroid fixed the problem, I could just restore contacts and SMS from TiBu since it is the same ROM, and be back up and running immediately.

P.P.S. As mentioned, I can get into CWM. This is done by pulling battery, sticking it in, and holding all physical keys until boot screen shows twice. But I can't use the power key to select any options, I have to use home. And key test shows the power button not registering. I'm hoping that that means power key may still work, but that's just me praying this is fixable.
 
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karate104

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Nov 5, 2011
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So this problem didn't occur at all prior to installing supersu ?
No, as far as I recall. I'm not using supersu anymore since I'm on a Nandroid but power button still doesn't work. I have to find alternate ways of activating the screen, like plugging it into a charger or pulling the battery to restart :/

Sent from my SGH-I777
 

dandrumheller

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Jul 10, 2010
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No, as far as I recall. I'm not using supersu anymore since I'm on a Nandroid but power button still doesn't work. I have to find alternate ways of activating the screen, like plugging it into a charger or pulling the battery to restart :/

Sent from my SGH-I777
Run a Rom that will support siyah 4.3.3 or siyah 5.0.1 and enable swipe to wake.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2
 
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karate104

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Full wipe and return to out of the box stock. If the issue persists, it's hardware.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2
After full wiping, if the problem is fixed I should be able to restore the Nandroid from earlier this year without retriggering it, right? Or is that out of the question now?

Sent from my SGH-I777
 

dandrumheller

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Jul 10, 2010
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After full wiping, if the problem is fixed I should be able to restore the Nandroid from earlier this year without retriggering it, right? Or is that out of the question now?

Sent from my SGH-I777
No one will know until you try it, as yours appears to be a unique issue if it is being caused by software/firmware.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2
 

karate104

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Nov 5, 2011
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No one will know until you try it, as yours appears to be a unique issue if it is being caused by software/firmware.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2
So I backed up stuff, then went ahead and flashed bone stock using the Odin3 One-Click from 2a in creepy's guide. I can't get past the initial setup wizard though, because Google Services Framework (process com.google.process.gapps), Calendar Storage (process.com.android.providers.calendar), and other Google apps processes keep force closing when I click the Android to start. I was able to boot into stock e3 recovery (again using three-button combo), but I can't select anything using the power key.

I didn't do a full data wipe/factory reset before flashing, and I can't get to the main menus to do so because my phone won't get past the setup wizard, which keeps crashing. What do I try next?

EDIT: I know that I was able to make selections using a CWM-enabled ICS kernel; home key functioned as select. I have the CWM-flashable zip, and I wanted to know if there's anyway to flash this kernel using Odin. I know it won't boot (custom ICS kernel with Gingerbread stock rom), but if I can get into recovery, I can use the home key to do a full data wipe/factory reset, then I'd Odin stock kernel+ROM again and see if that fixes things. So my question is, how do I flash a CWM-zipped kernel in Odin? (You can tell I never use Odin)

EDIT2: I'd still like to know how I can flash a CWM-zipped kernel in Odin, but I'm gonna hold off on it as it would trip the counter and I found out my phone is still under warranty, hooray! They're sending a refurb'ed replacement that should be here in a couple days, I can test that out and see if I can get me up and running again before I decide to do something really rash like trip the counter. It sucks cause I'm going out of town on Thursday but the replacement is arriving Friday, and I won't be back until next Wednesday. I'm stuck using my old iPhone 3G until then :/
 
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RatusNatus

Senior Member
May 24, 2011
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I do know you can't flash this from Odim. You'll need another kind of file. Tar file... I don't remember.
Don't know where to find it.

I don't think you should back to stock. Just wipe and formating everything could test it.

Find an app that allow you to get recovery from android like rom toolbox lite.
Download mrRobinson AeSedai Aroma.
After formating and wiped everything, flash your rom and don't get out of recovery. Flash AeSedai just after. Flash gapps and KERNEL from AeSedai.
Must be an cm10 or aokp rom... Any rom from that source.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app
 

karate104

Senior Member
Nov 5, 2011
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I do know you can't flash this from Odim. You'll need another kind of file. Tar file... I don't remember.
Don't know where to find it.

I don't think you should back to stock. Just wipe and formating everything could test it.

Find an app that allow you to get recovery from android like rom toolbox lite.
Download mrRobinson AeSedai Aroma.
After formating and wiped everything, flash your rom and don't get out of recovery. Flash AeSedai just after. Flash gapps and KERNEL from AeSedai.
Must be an cm10 or aokp rom... Any rom from that source.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app
How would I format and wipe everything if I can't get past the setup wizard on bone stock 2.3.4? I can't install apps, make calls or texts, nothing. All I can do is select the language and make emergency calls. I can't wipe in stock e3 recovery either because the power button doesn't work.

I need a way to either Odin a kernel from which I can use the home button to make selections, or find some other way to remotely format and wipe my phone. Is there a way for me to put my phone in USB debugging mode so I can maybe use ADB? I can't access the settings menu...
 

karate104

Senior Member
Nov 5, 2011
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Don't u use home button to select things in stock recovery?
Nah, it's power key. I double checked again this morning. Oh, and I guess it's called 3e recovery, not e3 xD.

One other note, when pulling battery, then putting it back in, phone autoboots. I have to hold buttons then place battery in to boot to recovery, and for download mode, I have to have it plugged in, buttons held, then place battery in to get to download mode.

EDIT: Would anyone be willing to do me a huge favor? I want to find out if Entropy's DD GB kernel, the Odin-flashable tar one, can use home as select in CWM. Would someone be willing to temporarily flash DD_01242012 from here to check for me? It's a CWM zip, the changes are very tiny between it and the previous 01232012 Odin one. I just don't want to Odin it myself and trip the counter to find out it was useless, especially since I don't have a jig to reset the counter.
 
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karate104

Senior Member
Nov 5, 2011
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So an update:

While looking around for a way to root my new refurb model which came shipped with stock ICS, I found creepy's Stock ICS with root package, and I thought, "I told AT&T I was on ICS, I guess I should actually put ICS on my phone instead of leaving GB (UCKH7) on there. Maybe since I was on ICS before I can get past the gapps force closing too and do a factory reset from the settings menu." Sure enough, after flashing stock ICS, I was able to get past the darn wizard and toy with it. I do have problems of course: calendar still force closes, and the phone will randomly reboot after some period of using it. But at least I was able to access stuff.

My data was all still there, all pictures, contacts, settings, etc. I realized that before I do a data wipe/factory reset, I should heed the emmc superbrick bug warning and NOT do that with stock ICS kernel. I still had ES file explorer and root access, so I went in and manually deleted all data as much as possible, to make it look like my phone did have a factory reset done as I said to the AT&T representative. I've deleted wifi access points, browser history/cookies/cache, all contacts, texts, pictures/videos, downloads, all CWM zips and backups, all installed apps, all accounts that were signed in...

My newest questions are:

1) is there anything I'm missing that I should delete so that my phone does not look like it's been modified in any way? Also, any personal data I'm missing that needs to be deleted? I still have root access so I can delete anything I want.

2) Should I go ahead and risk the brickbug and actually do a factory reset/data wipe, or should I just let it be since I've deleted most things manually (and not potentially send them a useless brick lol)? Actually, since I'm rooted, I can install Mobile Odin to flash a CWM-enabled kernel, then wipe data/factory reset safely from there; that is, assuming my phone doesn't do a random reboot in the middle of flashing the kernel. I do run the risk of it rebooting while flashing and possibly bricking something else. So should I do that and take that risk, should I take the risk of wiping data from the stock kernel, or is there no reason to take either risk anymore?

3) Is there anywhere I can find a non-rooted stock UCLE5 ICS Odin-flashable tar, that I can flash before sending the phone back?
 
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karate104

Senior Member
Nov 5, 2011
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How about:

1. Flash back to stock GB
2. Wipe Data
3. Upgrade to stock ICS via kies or OTA

Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
Thanks for your help, but I can't do that. If I could, I wouldn't be stuck in this predicament.

Power key doesn't work at all, but it is necessary to make selections in stock 3e recovery. Hence, I can't wipe from recovery, either on stock GB or ICS.
Stock GB rom doesn't boot past Setup Launcher due to gapps force-closes. These force closes prevent me from reaching the settings menu within stock GB to do a wipe there.

My two options for wiping data are using stock ICS ROM (under settings menu), or flashing a custom kernel using Mobile Odin, then wiping with the home key in CWM. Both are risky: stock ICS ROM uses the stock kernel to wipe, possible brickbug there. My phone currently experiences random reboots without warning; a reboot during a Mobile Odin flash could also brick something. My question is, should I do either one, or neither at all?
 
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karate104

Senior Member
Nov 5, 2011
372
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What about wiping through ADB?

Adb shell

Wipe data

Or

Adb recovery --wipe-data

Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
Well, that previously wasn't an option on GB since I couldn't put the phone in debugging mode, but I can now in ICS so in theory it should work. The question now is, will the phone do one of its random reboots while I'm working with it in ADB...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app
 
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