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Root About ready to throw in the Droid....

J

johnpaulh

Newbie
or towel....

My son, who was an avid Android fan, went over to the darkside (the i thing...) anyhow, he tossed his original Droid Eris in a drawer. Now I know he rooted this thing, and has a custom ROM on it....so I thought I would mess with it since I am (so I thought) pretty computer savvy. I figured I would poke around inside the guts of this thing and see what was what.

I'll be danged if I can get the thing to connect to my PC. I am running a dual boot system (Win7 and XP Pro) and seem to have better luck in XP, but it seems no matter what I try, I cannot create a port with HW VSP. Keep getting Lan error.

Also, I keep trying to put the phone in diagnostic mode with the ##3424 +call button thing....nada. I get the recorded VZW message telling me the account/number is inactive blah, blah, blah.....Is it not possible to access the hidden menu's etc...on a phone with no service?

Any help for an old man would be appreciated...everyone has to have a hobby...and I think this phone is becoming an obsession!!!!

Thanks all,

Edit: Guess I should have added I installed HTC Sync and the drivers, everything seems fine in device manager. ipconfig /all gives me an HTC remote NDIS based device with an IP address. I have QPST and CDMA workshop, as well as HW VSP and QXDM. I think that covers all the tools for getting inside the guts. I also have the SDK and a couple good hex editors as well as a C++ compiler (which I doubt I will need...)

Thanks again,
 
johnpaulh said:
or towel....

My son, who was an avid Android fan, went over to the darkside (the i thing...) anyhow, he tossed his original Droid Eris in a drawer. Now I know he rooted this thing, and has a custom ROM on it....so I thought I would mess with it since I am (so I thought) pretty computer savvy. I figured I would poke around inside the guts of this thing and see what was what.

I'll be danged if I can get the thing to connect to my PC. I am running a dual boot system (Win7 and XP Pro) and seem to have better luck in XP, but it seems no matter what I try, I cannot create a port with HW VSP. Keep getting Lan error.
Click to expand...

Are you using the cable that came with the Eris? Have you tried another cable?

Also, I keep trying to put the phone in diagnostic mode with the ##3424 +call button thing....nada. I get the recorded VZW message telling me the account/number is inactive blah, blah, blah.....Is it not possible to access the hidden menu's etc...on a phone with no service?
Click to expand...

It depends on the ROM that the phone is running. The close-to-stock, Sense based Android 2.1 ROMs can access the menus, but any CyanogenMod ROM (whether Eclair, Froyo or Gingerbread) cannot.

So, do you know which ROM the phone is running?

It may not matter all that much. If it is running a Froyo or Gingerbread ROM, you can always download xtrSENSE (or another stock-based custom ROM, if they are not already on the phone), copy the .zip file to the root directory of the SD card (do not unzip it), and then

- restart in Recovery
- Backup/Restore menu
- Nand backup
- back to the main menu
- wipe menu
- wipe data/factory reset
- flash a zip from SD card
- choose xtrSENSE/whichever stock ROM
- restart the phone and set things up
- run the ##PROGRAM and change your settings
- restart in Recovery
- Nand backup what you have now (in case you want to do this again)
- Nand restore
- choose the backup you made in step 3 (they are date/time coded)
- restart the phone

Settings to the ##PROGRAM menus persist as long as you do not flash a new radio (it's very, very rare for a ROM to flash a radio, and Nand restore never does.)

I hope that helps and question away if you have any questions.
 
Hi,
I am using the cable that came with the phone.
ROM is Cyanogenmod 7.1.0-RC1-Eris

Do I understand correctly that the xtrSENSE should get me connected to the PC? I don't really understand the steps involved, more reading on my part should solve that, and my son is pretty good with doing the flashes etc...

Thanks very much for your response, at least I feel like there is hope....

John
 
Quick update:
I can see an ip address for the droid in a command window, and I can ping that ip successfully. :D

Cannot create a port with HW VSP though, tried the exact ip, port 11008, NV off...errors out (LAN) tried COM6

CDMA workshop sees something on COM3, but cannot read it. :mad:

My son suggested flashing back to stock, then trying to connect, what do you all think?

Thanks again,
John
 
johnpaulh said:
Do I understand correctly that the xtrSENSE should get me connected to the PC? I don't really understand the steps involved, more reading on my part should solve that, and my son is pretty good with doing the flashes etc...
Click to expand...

I was talking more about the ##PROGRAM menu on the phone. Those commands will not work on anything Froyo or higher, but will work just fine on a ROM like xtrSENSE or xtrROM. I have never had a problem connecting my Eris to a PC, no matter which ROM I was running, though almost every time it is with a Mac, which has none of the driver silliness of Windows when it comes to Android - the phones just connect. (That said, I have also connected to Windows after installing the proper HTC driver.)
 
Windows is a pain, I will grant you that!!!!! I downloaded the HTC Sync, which supposedly has the correct drivers for Windows 7 and XP. Doesn't seem to help.

I can connect via tether (and see the ip address) and via USB (and see the sd card) just cannot get the phone to talk to the pc.

I am not a MAC person, however my son (the former owner of this Droid) is one...(hmmmm....filial conflict...I went to University of Michigan, he attended Michigan State...I'm a PC, he's a MAC....might be something to this.)

Maybe this is a dumb question, but are there MAC tools similar to CDMA workshop, QPST, QXDM? Maybe I need to go the MAC route?

OR, could you point me in the direction of the correct HTC driver since the Sync apparently is not the right one?

Much appreciated....and I will keep reading.

John
 
johnpaulh said:
Windows is a pain, I will grant you that!!!!! I downloaded the HTC Sync, which supposedly has the correct drivers for Windows 7 and XP. Doesn't seem to help.

I can connect via tether (and see the ip address) and via USB (and see the sd card) just cannot get the phone to talk to the pc.

I am not a MAC person, however my son (the former owner of this Droid) is one...(hmmmm....filial conflict...I went to University of Michigan, he attended Michigan State...I'm a PC, he's a MAC....might be something to this.)

Maybe this is a dumb question, but are there MAC tools similar to CDMA workshop, QPST, QXDM? Maybe I need to go the MAC route?

OR, could you point me in the direction of the correct HTC driver since the Sync apparently is not the right one?

Much appreciated....and I will keep reading.

John
Click to expand...

Htc drivers should be all you need. I've used xp64, xp, win7 and win 7 64 on two different laptops and two different desktops and have never had problems connecting with either one of my Eris's. I don't have CDMA workshop,QPST, or QXDM nor do I even know what they are. I'm going to ask a lyman's question. Do you have usb debugging checked?
 
ive got cdma workshop,pda net,rsd lite,and who knows what all else installed on my PC(bout everything BUT htc sync :p) and have used a bunch of different drivers.

htc sync *should* work,but you could also try revolutionarys modified htc drivers: revolutionary drivers

that is a .exe file,all you should have to do is download it and run as administrator. if it doesnt work,you could try manually udating to them by finding your phone in device manager,then update,pointing it to an extracted folder of that download.

in addition to trying different cables and ports,also try rebooting phone and PC. alot of times that helps :)
 
Thanks for the pointers and links. I've got over 20 years in IT myself, though I worked on mainframes, primarily HP3000 MPEiX systems and HPUX systems, spec'd out and built several over the years. I usually do not have a problem troubleshooting Windows stuff since you generally "line up the usual suspects" and tick them off one at a time. This time...I am the one getting ticked....

I am definitely frustrated, being able to ping the phone, great! Now I know it is communicating on the lan. Not being able to create a COM port to communicate with it? WTF???

USB Debugging is on, as is Stay Awake etc....Will try uninstalling all the current drivers, clean the registry, and install fresh from the links you guys supplied....if that doesn't get me there then I dunno.....
 
Installed the drivers Scotty85 suggested instead of the Sync just to see if there would be a difference. There was, the droid doesn't show up at all in device manager, but Windows 7 told me the drivers installed correctly.
If I tether the phone, I get an IP address, and in USB mode I can access the sd card.

Cannot create a port still with HW VSP. I've attached a pscreen of my ipconfig /all results and the HW VSP screen.

Dammit, this should not be this hard....I have to be doing some bonehead thing.
 

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Well....sort of.....

I finally got the Droid connected to a valid port, many thanks to those who helped me out with that. Seems Windows firewall, even when turned off, was blocking my communication....so a little creative registry tweaking took care of that.

I started up CDMA workshop, read the memory, nam etc....basically was reading every area I could into files for later examination when my PC rebooted (I know...get a MAC!)

No problem, connected the phone again, got a port, started CDMA workshop...no go...hmmmmm. Rebooted the phone...and it is now in a boot loop of some sort.

All I get is the 3 skateboarding Droids, then phone powers down, then back up, skateboarders, down, up, skateboarders...

Power up+Vol Dwn gets me to a menu with HBOOT and Recovery, neither of which do anything except throw me back into the loop. There is also an option to press send to go to Fastboot, but that does nothing, and when I press Vol Dwn again, some script flashes by...I cannot see everything, but it refers to bad or missing PB00DIAG.zip, PB00DIAG.xxx.......looks like 4 or 5 files.

I've been reading about the boot loop issue here, but am unsure where to start, and I don't want to #$@&* this up any worse than I apparently have. I would like to wipe the phone, and start fresh, but cannot get anything to boot from the SD card.

Here is what is on my SD card if that helps. (folders)

.android_secure
Android
LOST.DIR

I have an external card reader.

Please, what do I need to do to:
1 - Boot some type of wipe, or recovery from the SD card.
2 - Suggestions for a custom ROM? (currently...well, maybe still current, Cyanogen ROM listed in earlier posts)
3 - Where to send the thank you Beers....

Thanks again in advance for the help.

EDIT: I've been twiddling with this for a bit now, and I see also this in the first line at the boot screen (Pwr+Vol Dwn)
PB00100 XC SHIP S-ON

S-ON is hindering me from booting from SD card right? If so, what will change that?
 
johnpaulh said:
No problem, connected the phone again, got a port, started CDMA workshop...no go...hmmmmm. Rebooted the phone...and it is now in a boot loop of some sort.

All I get is the 3 skateboarding Droids, then phone powers down, then back up, skateboarders, down, up, skateboarders...

Power up+Vol Dwn gets me to a menu with HBOOT and Recovery, neither of which do anything except throw me back into the loop. There is also an option to press send to go to Fastboot, but that does nothing, and when I press Vol Dwn again, some script flashes by...I cannot see everything, but it refers to bad or missing PB00DIAG.zip, PB00DIAG.xxx.......looks like 4 or 5 files.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, does the phone bootloop when you try to enter Recovery (starting up holding down VolUp)? Or does Recovery start fine?

S-ON is hindering me from booting from SD card right? If so, what will change that?
Click to expand...

It's stopping you from using Fastboot, which is a pretty powerful tool.
 
It does stop at a screen with the following:

PB00100 XC SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-1.46.0000 (PB0010000)
MICROP-0111
TOUCH PENEL-SYN0104
RADIO-2.42.01.04.27
Oct 5 2009, 19:21:56

HBOOT

<SEND> FastBoot Mode
<VOL UP> Recovery


If I press VOL UP, it goes back into loop

If I press SEND, I get:

(same first 6 lines above)
FASTBOOT
<VOL DOWN> HBoot Mode

When the phone is connected via USB to the PC, I get same as above, except

FASTBOOT USB
 
johnpaulh,

This is beginning to look like quite an adventure.

*IF* we can get your phone back into a semi-usable state, it might be interesting to find out what you are using HW VSP for (serial port virtual connection via TCP/IP where the IP routing is via USB tethering to the phone?) At the moment, though, that is just a distraction. (Same goes for CDMA workshop, too, BTW)

If you have a S-ON bootloader, and a non-working recovery and also a nonfunctional normal boot, your phone is in what might be called a "soft-brick" state.

From this state there are two or three possible rescue methods. Two (maybe 3) of these would be completely safe if we knew that the phone had never been rooted, but since we don't know that, and also don't really know the phone's history,

Method 1) IMO the safest way to proceed is via the new HTC (1.51.0000) "unlockable" bootloader installation.

See posts #1 and #3 of this XDA thread.

Method 2) Quite a bit faster - installs (at a minimum) the 1.49.2000 S-OFF bootloader (a good thing, especially for disaster recovery in exactly the situation you find yourself in) This is the "very first" Eris Rooting method. Basically, flash the "Root" PB00IMG.zip file using HBOOT on the phone. It is possible that this will work because your phone currently has the 1.46.0000 S-ON bootloader on it.

eu1
 
Hi Erisuser1,
Adventure isn't the word I would use....
I'm pretty green when it comes to these phones, and so in reading (possibly too much information)

I read the HW VSP was the way to go when communicating with the Droid via a Win7 platform, and likewise CDMA workshop was touted as the way to get into all areas of the phone. (I since stumbled on a script that enables diag mode, so HW VSP is no longer necessary, which is great since I never got it to work)

My goal was to perform data dumps of all areas, then sort thru the code to see if I could figure out what makes this thing "tick". No nefarious purposes intended (though I can't think of many other than to cheat a provider, and I have been with VZW since the late 80's, and am happy with them...so no.)

I will read the posts for Method 1, however Method 2 does sound more viable since the phone was rooted (by my son, see post 1) and has (had?) Cyanogen7 Gingerbread on it.

Can you point me in the right direction for the PB00IMG.zip file that will install the 1.49.2000 S-OFF bootloader? I would like to get the right one the first time.

Thanks again, you all are great with sharing the knowledge, and it is most appreciated.

John
 
#### First things first - rescuing your phone from its current state

johnpaulh said:
I will read the posts for Method 1, however Method 2 does sound more viable since the phone was rooted (by my son, see post 1) and has (had?) Cyanogen7 Gingerbread on it.

Can you point me in the right direction for the PB00IMG.zip file that will install the 1.49.2000 S-OFF bootloader? I would like to get the right one the first time.
Click to expand...

Both methods are viable. The second method is the original rooting method for the Eris - which wasn't really a "hack", it was a leaked engineering ROM for the phone which installs the engineering (unsecured, S-OFF) bootloader and an early and buggy Eclair (Android 2.1) OS release. It worked for folks with factory phones with Cupcake (Android 1.5) - and more importantly the Eris 1.46.0000 S-ON bootloader - on their phone. (It didn't work for folks that had installed a different Eris "leaked" ROM that installed a later version of the bootloader - 1.49.0000 S-ON)

OK, so all of the "factory" HTC ROMs and RUUs (Windows-based ROM installer) are documented in this XDA post.

The ROM you want (download from the shipped-roms.com link given in the above post) is named

Eris_RootROM_v2.19.605.1_PB00IMG.zip

Get it on to the top-level folder of the SD Card somehow (via a card reader device or other phone), rename it to "PB00IMG.zip" (that's zero-zero, not oh-oh), verify it's MD5 checksum, charge your phone to 100%, and then boot it into HBOOT mode. Full instructions with pictures are in this AF thread.

You can either let the full ROM install or use the "battery pull method" to only install the S-OFF bootloader.

If the full ROM install works correctly, you can use the existing rooting methods to "root" the phone and install a new ROM. If you only install the bootloader, you can flash a custom recovery using fastboot from the PC, with the phone in "FASTBOOT USB" mode, a la:

Code: 
fastboot flash recovery name-of-recovery-image-file.img

NOTE: You are possibly in uncharted territory (AFAIK, you are the first person to report this boot state condition due to the use of CDMA Workshop + a PC crash). It is possible that doing any of this will worsen the state of the phone, although I wouldn't bet that way. Anyhow - just giving you a disclaimer. (And, since the phone is already wedged, it can only get slightly worse than it is now - which is to say non-functional)

#### Second things second

johnpaulh said:
I read the HW VSP was the way to go when communicating with the Droid via a Win7 platform, and likewise CDMA workshop was touted as the way to get into all areas of the phone. (I since stumbled on a script that enables diag mode, so HW VSP is no longer necessary, which is great since I never got it to work)

My goal was to perform data dumps of all areas, then sort thru the code to see if I could figure out what makes this thing "tick". No nefarious purposes intended (though I can't think of many other than to cheat a provider, and I have been with VZW since the late 80's, and am happy with them...so no.)
Click to expand...

I responded to this post last night because I think the other respondents misinterpreted what was going on - there were large numbers of people that had problems installing drivers on various versions of Windows (XP/7/32bit vs 64bit/ etc), and everybody just assumed you were having that form of trouble.

The drivers in question allow you to use the Google Android development environment along with the "ADB" tool (Android Device Bridge). If you get the PC/Windows drivers installed correctly, when you use adb with the command

Code: 
adb shell

you get a command shell running on the phone. Since you are an old hand with (e.g.) HPUX, think of this as being "rlogin" to the phone.

From there (with a root shell gained by the "su" command when the ROM is "rooted") you can dump some of the phones partitions, but not all of them. OTOH, with the 1.49.2000 S-OFF bootloader, you can dump EVERY ONE of the phone's NAND memory partitions to the SD card using an oem extension to the fastboot command. See this XDA thread - read the whole thread.

I think that's what everybody else thought you meant when you said "can't communicate with the phone". You may have had the correct PC drivers installed in order to use ADB with your phone all along, but your complaints ended up having to do with the Windows firewall, not drivers.

Anyhow, this is a broad topic, and I've already written too long of a post. I hope this gives you some starting points.

If you fool around some more with CDMA workshop, I would be interested to hear if you find that changes made with CDMA workshop appear in the "mfg" partition (in addition to CID changes which show up in the "misc" and "misc3" partitions.

eu1


PS - I am interested to hear where you read about use of HW VSP with the Eris. To my knowledge, none of the stock (HTC factory) ROMs or recoveries for the Eris had any open TCP ports listening for a connection to a virtual serial port. I could always be wrong though, and would love to be disabused of my errors...
 
Wooo Hooo!

Got the eris root rom img to load, bootloader is 1.49 and S-Off. Phone still boot loops, but now I have some hope! Unfortunately, I am still experiencing odd issues with my laptop shutting down or rebooting itself at will. It isn't malware/virus, I've checked extensively, so I believe it has to be a hardware fault. Until I get that sorted or get a new laptop I have to suspend my recovery operation...darnit. Oh well, gives me more time to research since I now know I was just going willy-nilly at the Eris. Thank you erisuser1, your lengthy (and most welcome) post gives me a better perspective, and I will definitely use my HPUX knowledge in exploring the linux environment rather than other tools.

Will post back when I get the Droid booting solidly and stable.

Thank you all again,
John
 
johnpaulh said:
Wooo Hooo!

Got the eris root rom img to load, bootloader is 1.49 and S-Off. Phone still boot loops, but now I have some hope! Unfortunately, I am still experiencing odd issues with my laptop shutting down or rebooting itself at will. It isn't malware/virus, I've checked extensively, so I believe it has to be a hardware fault. Until I get that sorted or get a new laptop I have to suspend my recovery operation...darnit. Oh well, gives me more time to research since I now know I was just going willy-nilly at the Eris. Thank you erisuser1, your lengthy (and most welcome) post gives me a better perspective, and I will definitely use my HPUX knowledge in exploring the linux environment rather than other tools.

Will post back when I get the Droid booting solidly and stable.

Thank you all again,
John
Click to expand...

jph,

I'm glad you made some progress. And, when it comes to experimenting with the Eris, having the S-OFF bootloader installed makes rescues of the phone (should something go wrong) far easier.

You can get a custom recovery installed without using the PC if you want to do so while waiting to get a new PC set up: the (buggy) Eclair ROM installed by flashing the "Root ROM" can be rooted with the one-click app, or the Dummies method without a PC. You don't need data service to the phone - just a WiFi connection.

cheers

eu1

[ Edit ]Oops! I didn't see the part about "the phone still bootloops". When you flashed the phone using the HBOOT+PB00IMG.zip method, did you:

- observe any error messages for individual partitions? OR
- use the "battery pull trick" so that only the bootloader was installed?
 
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