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Help Phone stuck in Clockwork Mod Recovery

KSIXephos938

Member
Mar 30, 2015
69
9
Hi guys, my first post on here so hopefully this is in the correct forum!

Okay, so I've decided to flash a custom ROM (candy5 version 1.5.1) on to my HTC One XL (code name: Evita)

Being new to this, I had to unlock Bootloader on my phone and flash Clockwork Mod. I followed some steps on YouTube and everything was working perfectly up to this point. (One thing that might've been wrong now that I look back was that my Bootloader had ***TAMPERED*** on top of ***UNLOCKED***)

Not knowing that that might have been a problem, I went ahead and installed Candy5 version 1.5.1 (an unofficial build of Cyanogenmod 12) and Google Apps 5.x.x onto my phone. This was when the problems arose with both of them having "installation aborted" messages.

I decided to go on regardless and flashed boot.img from my PC using Command Prompt. It came up with two "OKAY" messages so I thought everything was alright. So then I rebooted my phone, and surprise surprise, it didn't work.

So I decided to do a bit of detective work and because I am a noob at this stuff, I clicked on Factory Reset on Bootloader and I wiped my whole phone.

That deleted my backup on Recovery and I now cannot access any files on my SD card as it comes up with the message "E: can't mount /SD card." I also cannot access my phone to make any phone calls etc. as I only have access Bootloader and Recovery and I cannot connect my phone to my PC.

So as you can see, I am in a bit of strife here and I now have a very expensive paperweight...

Any advice to, first of all, make my phone usable would be much appreciated. Furthermore, any information to make my phone run Andoid Lollipop 5.0.2 using a custom ROM would be awesome too!

Thanks in advance for all your replies!
 
Welcome to the forums!

Not sure where you are, but it's late here and so I only have time for a few things.

First - TAMPERED and UNLOCKED is OK, you can't flash anything unless you're unlocked, and unlocking is tampering.

Second - factory reset from the hboot menu doesn't erase your whole phone.

Third - I have some doubts about the recovery and Candy you installed.

How about some thread links that you followed for those?

Not download links, thread links.

I'd like to trace things before advising.
 
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Hi, thanks for your help! And don't worry, it's late here as well.

I didn't follow any threads but instead some videos, and here they are:

Unlocking Bootloader:

Installing Clockwork Mod:

And Installing Candy5 and Google Apps:

A note that I used the Evita versions of the files instead of the Endevouru files seen in the videos.

And thanks for you help!
 
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Ok, so here we go.

First, the video only had you download fastboot. That's fine but you really want the whole set of tools for rooting.

We have those, please grab them.

http://androidforums.com/threads/adb-guide-updated-2014-11-11.443072/#post-5389081

You want the Mini-SDK listed in post 2 as the sdk-tools.zip download and the adb universal driver listed in the post after that.

Unzip the sdk-tools.zip and that will create an sdk-tools folder.

Shift+right_click that folder name - you'll get the menu - select Open command window here (or words to that effect). If you Windows doesn't have that, fine, let me know.

Your recovery is terribly out of date and is not going to support any modern roms.

So, let's upgrade you from CWM to the latest TWRP.

http://dl.twrp.me/evita/twrp-2.8.6.0-evita.img

Move or copy that to the sdk-tools folder using Windows Explorer and don't let WinRar or anything else toy around with it.

In the command windows say -

md5sums twrp-2.8.6.0-evita.img

And you copy/paste that - in the command window, Alt+shift will bring up a menu, press E for Edit, P for Paste - the command should appear in there as it does here in the browser.

If the output value does not say -

64b874dc4b52d662e51625248fde226a

Then you got a bad download and have to ERASE ALL COPIES and get it again.

Place your phone in FASTBOOT USB mode -

Power off. Volume down while powering up until you see white screen.

You should see FASTBOOT highlighted on screen and that will change if plugged into PC into FASTBOOT USB.

If it says HBOOT at the top of the screen, select FASTBOOT with the power button as instructed on the phone screen.

Install TWRP say in command window -

fastboot flash recovery twrp-2.8.6.0-evita.img

You should see some number of bytes transferred and then OKAY.

You already have the right Candy5 link. If needed, get it again, and put into the sdk-tools folder. Let nothing touch the zip file like WinRar, etc.

Get the latest image, 1.5.1, if you hadn't already.

https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=95916177934547629

In command window -

md5sums candy5-Release.v1.5.1-20150326-OFFICIAL-evita.zip

If the output value does not say -

0bdd83a715327cd49d563b2af0d95cfe

Then you got a bad download and have to ERASE ALL COPIES and get it again.

~~~~~~~~

Now - let's see if your other Candy was ok but would not go because of an old recovery.

Command window -

fastboot reboot

See what happens.

If no joy, no problem.

Power off phone. Get back into bootloader with volume down while powering up.

Get to HBOOT screen - from there, choose RECOVERY.

TWRP will appear.

See if TWRP will let you access your internal sd card storage so you can xfer the Candy zip over to the phone.

If successful, follow your original install plan.

If unsuccessful -

Install the universal adb driver.

In TWRP, Advanced -> adb sideload -> swipe to activate, you only get a short time to work before it times out.

Command window -

adb devices

You should see what looks like a serial number (it is) and probably the word RECOVERY after it.

If not, stop and check you adb driver install - that's a Windows thing, I can't help a lot with that, but can help point at a resource if needed.

Anyway -

If successful, ensure that phone is still in adb sideload mode and say in command window -

adb sideload candy5-Release.v1.5.1-20150326-OFFICIAL-evita.zip

Wait and watch what happens on phone.

If successful, attempt to boot.

If not ok, and if you previously used Candy 1.5.0, get the boot.img out of the zip file again on PC, place into sdk-tools folder and say -

fastboot flash boot boot.img

If not tell me everything you can.

PS - there's really nothing wrong with the HTC fastboot - but rather than cobble together the rest of the set, I think you're better off using our stuff.

After you have our tools you can remove the redundant HTC fastboot (it's not magical, it's just fastboot) and in the sdk-tools folder, it's ok to remove the files that say "-mac" or "-linux" in the name along with sdk.sh.

I keep meaning to write a Windows install-helper, just haven't gotten around to it yet.
 
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First of all, thanks for all your work! This guide is extremely in depth and I appreciate all your help. I'll get to it when I've got the time!

But before I start, I've got a few questions. First of, you told me to download Mini-SDK, but you haven't clarified how to install it. I presume it is supposed to replace HTC Fastboot, but at what point do I install?

Secondly, the command window that you keep mentioning is the same as Command Prompt correct?

And finally, when you tell me to check whether my candy5 ROM has been downloaded correctly, you tell me to click:

Command window -

fastboot reboot

What exactly am I supposed to do here? Can I just reboot my phone manually on my phone, or do I have to go through Command Prompt?

Thanks for all your support!
 
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First of all, thanks for all your work! This guide is extremely in depth and I appreciate all your help. I'll get to it when I've got the time!

But before I start, I've got a few questions. First of, you told me to download Mini-SDK, but you haven't clarified how to install it. I presume it is supposed to replace HTC Fastboot, but at what point do I install?

Our Mini-SDK is in a nice, friendly, zip file that you can unzip anywhere.

I want you to use that because it has the three tools you'll need, not just the fastboot.

If the HTC web admins are doing their jobs, our fastboot and theirs are identical.

When you begin the whole process, get our Mini-SDK (sdk-tools.zip) *first* - because all of my instructions assume that you're using it.

My instruction probably should have been numbered for convenience but they're really a serial sequence of steps to get your phone whole and healthy.

Secondly, the command window that you keep mentioning is the same as Command Prompt correct?

Yessir. :)

And finally, when you tell me to check whether my candy5 ROM has been downloaded correctly, you tell me to click:

Command window -

fastboot reboot

What exactly am I supposed to do here? Can I just reboot my phone manually on my phone, or do I have to go through Command Prompt?

Hey, I'm a propeller-head - I like making my PC reboot my phone. :D

Nah - use whatever is convenient.

Seriously though, when my phone is plugged in to my pc I'm far too important and far too lazy to reach all the way over there to push a button when I can say fastboot reboot (in fastboot mode) or adb reboot (when it's up and running normally).

Your choice. Reboot is reboot. :)

Thanks for all your support!

You're welcome!
 
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No no - the Mini-SDK is a collection of three tools that go on to your PC:
  • fastboot (for flashing some stuff in fastboot mode)
  • adb (for the rest of the Android developer's toolkit tricks)
  • md5sums (so you can check integrity of anything you download before flashing)
The Mini-SDK post says to unzip it to C:\sdk-tools but you can put it wherever you feel like.

If you double-click the sdk-tools.zip after you download it, it will make an sdk-tools folder for you, right on the spot. The tools I listed will be inside there.

Use it there or move the folder if you like.
 
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Nope.

HTC fastboot, that you got via the Youtube instructions, is on your pc.

Fastboot mode is an operating state that is common to all Android phones following the standard Android model. (Not all phones do, all HTCs do.)

HTC built the first Android phone and it built the first Google Nexus phone.

So they made the logical decision years ago to name that operating state on the phone the same as the matching tool on the pc.
 
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Okay so I've begun the steps now, I'll list my steps down below so that if I do screw up, you can at least track back and locate where I stuffed up. :)

1. Downloaded sdk-tools.zip and UniversalAdbDriverSetup.msi
2. Extracted sdk-tools.zip and opened a Command Window
3. Installed UniversalAdbDriverSetup.msi to Computer>Local Disk (C)>Program Files (x86)>ClockworkMod>Universal Adb Driver
4. Downloaded twrp-2.8.6.0-evita.img and copied to sdk-tools folder
5. Entered twrp-2.8.6.0-evita.img into Command Window and MD5 sum is correct
6. Entered Fastboot on phone and installed twrp-2.8.6.0-evita.img
7. Installation successful with 11516 KB transferred and sending and writing both OKAY
8. Downloaded Candy5 1.5.1 and copied to sdk-tools folder
9. Entered candy5-Release.v1.5.1-20150326-OFFICIAL-evita.zip into Command Window and MD5 sum is correct
10. Rebooting phone and phone reboots to Team Win Recovery Project v2.8.6.0
11. Candy5 v1.5.1 is not installed
12. Tried mounting USB but to no avail, trying to backup leads to a E :Unable to mount internal storage and so the "E: can't mount SD card" problem from Clocwork Mod still persists
13. Activated adb sideload feature on phone.
14. Instruction "Command window - adb devices" leads to:
adb server is out of date. killing...
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached

So this is where I have gotten up to, entering the command doesn't lead to a (serial number)(RECOVERY) but instead what is mentioned above. Where have I gone wrong?
 
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Try one more time, see if the phone is asking to permit adb access during the adb devices command.

If it's not that, then something is amiss with the adb driver installation.

That's hard enough to debug with a working phone, in this case, it'll take too long.

Instead of chasing adb drivers, go back to the fastboot mode (you can boot to it from TWRP) and command -

fastboot getvar all

Copy the results here.

I'll use them to see if I can find a matching RUU (rom update utility) from HTC.
 
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Okay so I've tried sideloading again but it comes up with the exact same thing. My phone doesn't ask for any permits.

On my phone it says "Starting ADB sideload feature..." but nothing else. Would the problem be that my phone cannot even go into ADB sideload?

And one question because I am a spud, how do you copy and past from Command Window? :p
 
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Never mind, worked it out. :D

C:\Users\Adrian Cui\Desktop\sdk-tools>fastboot getvar all
(bootloader) version: 0.5
(bootloader) version-bootloader: 2.15.0000
(bootloader) version-baseband: 1.38a.32.45.24
(bootloader) version-cpld: None
(bootloader) version-microp: None
(bootloader) version-main:
(bootloader) version-misc: PVT SHIP S-ON
(bootloader) serialno: HT25KW314884
(bootloader) imei:
(bootloader) product: evita
(bootloader) platform: HBOOT-8960
(bootloader) modelid: PJ8312000
(bootloader) cidnum: TELST001
(bootloader) battery-status: good
(bootloader) battery-voltage: 4180mV
(bootloader) partition-layout: Generic
(bootloader) security: on
(bootloader) build-mode: SHIP
(bootloader) boot-mode: FASTBOOT
(bootloader) commitno-bootloader: dirty-de589c6e
(bootloader) hbootpreupdate: 11
(bootloader) gencheckpt: 0
all: Done!
finished. total time: 0.095s
 
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