Root Trouble flashing thunderbolt

[hootinani]

To begin with, I am a complete noob with any and all phone mods. I'll run down what I've done and whats happening when I do it.

I used the adb method to root my tbolt. Once that was done, I installed Superuser, and Rom Manager and flashed with the latest CWR, after clearing the download manager and turning on the erase option in settings. I have done this (flash cwr) before each attempt to flash a rom.

I have tried 2 roms: Das Bamf 1.3.2 themed (tried twice) and The Perfect Storm 1.2 and I used identical steps to flash them:


1. Booted to CWR
2. made a nandroid backup
3. wiped data
4. wiped cache
5. wiped Davlik (sp?)
6. wiped battery
7. install zip from sd, choose zip from sd
8. after installation, reboot

When I reboot, the white boot screen with green htc logo appears, disappears, appears, disappears, and so on. I assume this is what people are referring to as a boot loop. It happened with both Roms, and luckily I am still able to get back to recovery and restore the stock rooted rom.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[rexdog1888]

Bad download?

 

[scotty85]

very well could be bad downloads. clockwork has its signiture verification off by default,and thus will flash an incomplete rom.

how are you donwloading? i have never been fond of using the phone to download roms. i always use my pc,then transfer the .zip to the sd card via sub. seems alot more relaible that way.

you can make sure your downloads are done by generating an md5 hash and comparing it to the one listed by the developer. it should match exactly. you can check md5s on your phone with a market app called "scary aliens AFV",or with file managers such as astro. you can also download one to your pc so you can check them before ever transfering to the phone.

and yes,if youre getting the htc screen multiple times,thats a bootloop

 

[hootinani]

First off, thanks for the fast replies.

I've been using the links provided in the forums I found the roms in, namely xda developers. I dl the .zip file to my pc, place it on my sd card using the usb link from the phone, and disconnect from the PC before I do anything else. I purposely don't use Rom Manager to dl roms because I read in the forums that it can cause major problems.

As far as the md5 sums go, i have the program that was suggested during the root process to check sums, winMd5SumPotable, but I haven't seen any sums to to compare to in the rom developer links. Is there a specific place to find the sums in the forums?

Also, does it matter that I have the usb debugging checked in application settings> development? Would that cause the .zips to corrupt when I'm transferring it to the phone?

 

[scotty85]

first of all,id like to hug you for actually reading before asking random questions on irrelevant threads,and for wisely deciding not to use rom manager

as for the sums,the developer will usually provide them in the first post of the thread. i see this is not the case,however,with the 2 roms youve selected. unfortunately youll have to skim thru the thread and see if someone has asked for them,or get on the thread yourself and request them.

it sounds like you are doing things 100% correctly,i cannot imagine why youre encountering toe botloop with 2 different roms.

just to make sure you are seeing a loop,how many cycles have you seen and how long did you give the phone to reboot? you will see the htc screen twice before getting to the boot animation(thunderbolt animation). the first time will simply be "htc" then the 2nd time youll see the "quietly brilliant" logo underneath that. if youre pulling the battery at the 2nd screen,you may simply not be giving the phone long enuff.

if thats not the case,maybe try and describe exactly what youre seeing when you reboot the system.

 

[scotty85]

Also, does it matter that I have the usb debugging checked in application settings> development? Would that cause the .zips to corrupt when I'm transferring it to the phone?

oops,forgot this question. no,that does not matter. actually,you should have it checked when transfering the roms. i leave that setting checked 100% of the time on my phone

 

[hootinani]

I guess I will have to ask for those sums as those threads are hundreds of pages long. That would be alot of skimming.

As far as the boot loop, the first attempt to install Bamf I let cycle for 20 minutes before I pulled the battery becuase I read that the first boot after flash would be a long one, and even gave it another 5 minutes after putting the battery in. The other attempts at Bamf and TPS I let go for about 10 minutes before a pull.

The only other things I can think to ask are if it matters that I am dl'ing the roms with Firefox, which uses its dl manager, and if it would be better if I skipped CWR, renamed the .zip file to PG05IMG, and let bootloader install it instead.

And again, thanks for all the help.

 

[scotty85]

Could be Firefox is your prollem,tho it seems hard to imagine. I personally use chrome and haven't had any prollems with bad downloads. Worth a shot to try something else.

You definateky do NOT want to try and istall the Roms thru hboot. I'm not sure if it would try and install it and Bork it,or simply give you an error message. At any rate, don't try it.

Ill keep pondering and post up any thing else I can think of

 

[mzimand]

Is sounds like you are having issues with CWR. Have you done what is advised in this thread:

Peeps with issues with latest CWR - xda-developers

 

[hootinani]

I used the adb method to root my tbolt. Once that was done, I installed Superuser, and Rom Manager and flashed with the latest CWR, after clearing the download manager and turning on the erase option in settings. I have done this (flash cwr) before each attempt to flash a rom.

Yep, that is the thread I found out how to do the above in.

 

[scotty85]

i dont believe that is your prollem. the prollems that people were having were with restoring backups,not with flashing roms,or even with making backups. that fact that your restored backup loads up just fine makes me there is an issue with the downloads,or some part of the procedure(tho i cant imagine what part )

im going to download both of the roms you tried,and let you know what md5 sums i come up with. that will tell us if your downloads are different from mine.

ill post back after a bit.

 

[hootinani]

I appreciate it. I asked about the md5 sum for TPS 1.2 at the mikmik.com forums, but no response yet. And I can't post in the developer forums at xda yet. You'd think they would post those sums as a matter of habit so people could check there dls. And If they are, they hide them well.

Figured I'd try virusrom today just for fun and see if that works.

 

[hootinani]

Well, strike 3. Virus did the exact same thing, and I let it loop for entire period of hockey until I pulled the battery. I dl'd this one with IE9, but of course IE added a dl manager in this iteration, but I can't imagine that being a problem over 2 browsers. And Virus only had 1 link to dl from on the xda site, so I'm officially outta ideas. I can still debloat with stock rooted, but I'm missing out on all of the great tweaks out there.

 

[scotty85]

ok,heres what i got:
The-Perfect-Storm-v1.2-signed.zip d650175e70b40164ae9b014a2d072e6c

Das_BAMF1.3.2_te.zip fbcfed649ce075fbc0a9daf9d9d58a57

VirusROM_Airborne_TB_RC1B2.zip 8079dc07bac44a03bbf3e51402e36cd7

how do they compare to yours? i havent actually installed those versions of das,or perfect storm,but i did flash that virus rom.

if youe md5 hashes match up exactly,let me know and ill try and flash one and see what happens.

 

[hootinani]

Bamf and TPS match. I used RC1B3 for the VirusROM and got this sum:

107f3be91a6d2a5844c7bd7a52241b9d

I guess I'll wait to see your results

 

[scotty85]

i just flashed perfect storm,and it seems to have installed just fine. i dint go thru the setup,but it came up and is functioning... no bootloops.

the only thing i can thing of at this point(grasping at straws) is to uninstall rom manager,reinstall it,then flash clockwork. you wont need to do it everytime you boot to it. after the first time,you really should be fine.

try not wiping battery stats. again,i dont think it matters,but im pretty much out of ideas,too

one more last,random thot: what is your sd card formatted?

how are the roms named on your sd card if you look at them with a file manager on your phone? "the-perfect-storm-v1.2-signed.zip" ?

 

[hootinani]

Finally a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. I was able to flash TPS 1.1 successfully. Should I try updating to 1.2, and if so, should I not do a data wipe, just the cache and davlik?

To answer your questions: I actually did erase/reinstall rom manager before trying this, not sure if that is what helped or not. I also booted to CWR thru the power off/hold vol down/hold power down method, instead of rom manager. The roms are named the same way you listed them in the previous post with the sums. As for the sdcard, its in fat32.

 

[scotty85]

hooray! that is something

chingy usually recomends full wipes between updates,so i would not try and flash it over without a data wipe. if everythign else was working for you the way it should,id say give it a shot if you want,but all things considering,id nand backup TPS 1.1 and go ahead and give 1.2 a try with full wipes. i just installed it from scratch,i did not flash it overtop of 1.1.

let me know how it goes. at least you can give it a couple days and enjoy TPS 1.1 before continuing to try and figure out the puzzle,if a 1.2 still wont install. just make sure to make that backup so you have something to go back to besides your stock rom

 

[hootinani]

I tried the 1.2 .zip file that i've had on the sdcard, both with a data wipe, and without a data wipe from 1.1, and both went to boot loop. I've dl'd the file from a different source, but it was too late last night for me to give it a try, so I'll let you know the result when i get home from work.

Just outta curiosity, are there any roms with barcodes to scan for the dl? We're blocked from upload sights like multiupload at work, so that would be a great way to let me dl the roms and kill some free time.

 

[scotty85]

not sure about the barcodes. definately let us know what happens when you try the other download.

 

[rexdog1888]

You could try flashing an older version of CWR(the option is @ the bottom of rom manager)

 

[AndroidCozmo]

I've run into root issues in the past because my Kaspersky anti-virus did something (like corrupt?) the .zip files when I initiated the extraction phase. After disabling the anti-virus protection the .zip extracted correctly and the root finally worked.

I'm a total noob so I have no clue if this could be useful info but if my hours of work might save you or someone else more work then perhaps I'll feel better about that miserable time!

 

[hootinani]

I'm stumped. I tried new dl's of TPS 1.2 and Das Bamf 1.3.2te, and both of them failed. I even tried Cozmo's suggestions of turning off my antivirus while dl'ing and moving the file to my sdcard, but it didn't make a difference. I might try the CWR downgrade idea, but I'm just worried about the problems people were having with those versions. I guess I've got nothing to lose anyway.

So I'm going to try flashing Liquid Thunderdsense 1.0 with the current CWR, and if that doesn't take, I'll start going down the list again with an older version.

 

[scotty85]

i am completely stumped as well. the downgrade may help,as it may want to update itself if you downgrade. maybe that will click something with it and make it work

you also might try flashing this new and improved SU:
Working Superuser for TB Sense - xda-developers

i doubt it has anything to do with your flashing issues,but it couldnt hurt. its a small file,so it will be interesting to see if it works.

you might also try downloading with your phones browser. its not the way id prefer to do it either,but were grasping at straws,now. once youve downloaded something,youll need to move it out of downloads and up to the root level with astro,or equivalent.

 

[hootinani]

Heres the rundown.

I was able to get Liquid Thundersense to flash, however it had horrible 3g speeds, often dropping to 1x, so I'm not using that. Das Bamf, TPS 1.2, and VirusROM all boot looped.

I downgraded CWR to 3.0.2.3 and tried the 3 that failed again, but none of them worked. I guess I'll try downgrading CWR farther and try again, but I'm not holding out much hope. I just don't get how no one else is having this issue.