Root sch-i545 with OC1 can boot and to download but cant gain recovery

[wolfdogg]

This post is more about the I545SCH full unbrick, i am able to NOW reach stock recovery, but i have no system image...... You can just please skip 5 posts down here: http://androidforums.com/threads/sc...d-but-cant-gain-recovery.971203/#post-7145748 and come back here to fill the gaps, or if you like to read, then read on....

I was having some wierd symptoms, i would say, maybe its just my own trying too hard.

IVGUGOC1
SCH-1545
kernel 3.4.0
dpi@SWDD6302 #1
5.0.1

about 6 Mos ago I went from NK4, to I545_OC1_Stock_Rooted_ROM_wNK4_BL.zip, flashfire and supersu(towelroot maybe initially through NG5 -> 6)

Its been complaining about an OTA for the last month, has since been bugging the hell out of me, so i took the notion to move to CM 12.1.

So, now i come along and **** with it (6 months later), I fugged some things up along the way. i now recovery, and cant for the life of me get a custom recovery either (twrp or cwm) (believe me i tried everything, now i see its just not really possible with known methods). I even was able to boot still having a system and tried installing the APK via ES FE, or with heimdell ui even, heimdell on command line, or odin new and old.

Can i push some adb trickery in?

So, Not being able to boot into any recovery, stuck with ODIN mode, i did the unthinkable, i think i moved up to OC1, but i also moved back first, or tried after, not knowing danger of newer ones locking out previous.

Atleast i was able to boot back into my system. I thought maybe it was root issue, so i tried kingroot which said i didnt have root, but root checker said i did (hindsight said i DID, kingroot lied prob)so i let KingRoot run and bam it then said it too had root, great but what did that accomplish? before it was supersu asking, now its kingroot asking for grant...

So after trying everything with odin and heimdell that i could get to actually work that didnt stop, fail check, or some other error to no avail other than stock or non working recovery, and OC1 was successful. I simply wanted to get custom recovery on there (oops)

Im thinking fireflash to flash CM12.1 straight away on this NK4 bootloader with OC1 stock rom on here, is what i need to using,would that be correct to assume?

 

[scary alien]

Hey @wolfdogg, I've moved your thread over here to the SGS4 root area for you...the folks in here should best be able to help you out.

Best of luck!

 

[wolfdogg]

Not related to topic (you can safely skip this answer)

thanks I looked for the other areas, what main category would i enter to find that stuff? i dont use the main entrance, or the forum often enough to have found it quickly enough, thanks, sorry newb to the platform controls. Edit: ok looking back i didnt see anything under the Android Discussion Topics, i seriously looked for a satisfying topic in that "above the fold" list only. Sorry, i see the rest, the HUGE phone list below. Wondering how many thousands of other users dont see that in the below the fold area.. Im a software engineer too, on the UI side, guess one just gets used to a certain way of doing things.

 

[scary alien]

Not related to topic (you can safely skip this answer)

thanks I looked for the other areas, what main category would i enter to find that stuff? i dont use the main entrance, or the forum often enough to have found it quickly enough, thanks, sorry newb to the platform controls. Edit: ok looking back i didnt see anything under the Android Discussion Topics, i seriously looked for a satisfying topic in that "above the fold" list only. Sorry, i see the rest, the HUGE phone list below. Wondering how many thousands of other users dont see that in the below the fold area.. Im a software engineer too, on the UI side, guess one just gets used to a certain way of doing things.

Ah, no worries, @wolfdogg .

We actually underwent a major site revision/conversion last year (August?) and I'm still finding nooks and crannies and a few differences . We're also adding new areas pretty often I'm guessing as all of the new Android devices get released, so it's always a challenge to organize things.

Cheers!

 

[wolfdogg]

I was able to get somewhere by flashing back to NC5 rev06 full wipe. That got it out of soft brick.

Now For some reason i wasn't thinking FLASHFIRE YET, and wanted the recovery to work, thinking i was going to be able to use cwm or twrp to flash cm12 and get my phone working like that (something im used to). So i stupidly(hindsight) now tried to **** directly with the bootloader, and thereby blew it out with I545_OC1_Bootloader.tar.md5 to either (using odin i believe to BL, or BOOT using hiemdall), and things have not been right since. OOPS.

Now I remember seeing a PASS in ODIN when i flashed either the NC5 or OC1 bootloader(cant remember which).

So i then started getting all kind of CHECK error's showing in the screen in download mode when i would try to flash stuff at it (in red font), i think i may have locked out the bootloader even more than it was. So since i have tried every fricken boot, recovery and PIT possible and they arent successful. So, am i still locked.

i see currently in download mode now

current binary: custom
statusfficial
reactivation lock: on
csb-config-lsb: 0x30
secure download: enable
write protection: enable
burst mode enabled

I think its when i try to apply an AP file, or heimdall do i see the constant chk now.

One more thing, im having NUMEROUS problems with getting bootloaders to finish in heimdall to completion, and even in ODIN for that matter, across 2 different cables, and several different ports in a powered usb hub, and another hub thats only got an extension. i cant get to back easy. (white factory cable is working best, black cable stopped altogether, not a good sign there)

So Help Please?:
Im aiming at laying NC% or NC6 back in there, or atleast sticking with NK4 if possible
in the thought that i somehow locked myself out further.

I have the VZW pit file, and have just about every single I545 MD5 rom there is, so any ideas with those?

It looks like when i run for example the NC5 rev06 full wipeusing odin after clean reboot, just below
burst mode enabled,
it starts off
Erasing Userdata Partition
SW REV CHK FAIL fused 7, blah blah. Hence why i stated i blew it out. So, move to MJ7? shoot it?

Edit: OK, some success!
I was able to reflash using ODIN the OC1 bootloader, and recovery, nand reset, then was able to reboot into the fricken recovery!! YAY, NOW thats progress. Unbricked i feel, again.

What steps shoudl i carefully take now that i am in recovery??

 

[wolfdogg]

Bump? Like a ghost town...

This S4 model still has some missing exploits, so its not easy to track down tools for, and as we know, the bootloader lockdown, knox crud, etc.. is still fairly sophisticated up against its reverse engineering knowledge base.

So the latest is this. I have an SCHI545 Verizon that have replaced the kernel and bootloader on which is locking me out further. since im locked out (below OC1), im pretty much limited now to OC1 fixes.

This means i lost the game of keeping an old bootloader because i didnt know what i was doing. Repair progress has consistent successful replacements only with OC1 bootloader, OC1 modem, and i believe OC1 recovery. Im stuck here though, because i have no SYSTEM on there yet. I have repartitioned using various PITS, probably all the same or atleast each good enough (SCH-i545, JFLTE_USA_VZW_16G, and one 2 different ones i made as a backup).

In this process, SYSTEM ext4 partition data is way gone. totally partitioned or deleted off. I mean the phone boots, but NOT to any kind of system, but that means the Samsung custom unlock screen goes away to nothing, phone stays on black, nothing.

So as far as progress, each time after flasing the OC1 bootloader and kernel, if i home+vol-down+power off(or battery out), then back on into recovery, i can SUCCESSFULLY boot into the stock recovery EVERY TIME. Its what i do with this from there that im struggling with. I can not find ANY rom that i can successfully flash from an SD card here so it does me little good. I did try a wipe from here, but no workie, since i have no more SYSTEM still.

all the way, i have been trying to somehow heimdall flash, and odin flash the twrp and or cwm recovery, like a hacker, but can not get that shit on there. ONE TIME i saw success of a heimdall flash with what i THOUGHT WAS oc1 bootloader, oc1 kernel, and twrp (recovery.img), success, but I could have sworn all i saw was the stock recovery on that reboot.

i made numerous attempts to `heimdall flash --SYSTEM system.img.ext4` with and without pit, i cant get Heimdall to flash a system. WHAT GIVES HERE? I think all i need is the system.

I cant get heimdall to flash the slb either, i tried both heimdall flash --slb slb1.img and --slb1 slb1.img, with 2, and 3, etc.. I can NOT get aboot to flash either using heimdell (normally i have been trying the OC1, but i have tried EVERY I545VRU rom there is, unless someone has a magical recommendation on one i MAY have not tried, i.e. only flashing directly NC2's boot.img or some off the wall thing like that then IM ALL EARS.

Question: How can i Flash a SYSTEM on here now?

My build library contains the following builds at my disposal, if suggestions to use any of the parts in there; (some contain the system.img.ext4 that i need now, but WHICH do i need?)
I545VRUAMD2 (prerelease?)
I545VRUAMDK (in many flavors, wasnt thsi the release? )
I545VRUDMI1
I545VRUEME7 (cant locate this one actually, its empty folder, anybody link?)
I545VRUEMJ7 (many flavors)
I545VRUEMK2 (empty folder, cant find this release yet online, link?)
I545VRUFNC2
I545VRUFNC5 (many flavors)
I545VRUFNG6 (home release)
I545VRUFNK1 (home relase and stock rooted)
I545VRUGOC1 (in every flavor, stock, odexed, neutered, separated, md5, zip, all, etc...)
I545VRUGOF1
BoneStock4.3_S4v2.1
cm-12.1-20150901-SNAPSHOT-YOG4PAO238-jfltevzw
cm-12.1-20151117-SNAPSHOT-YOG7DAO1JN-jfltevzw
twrp-2.8.7.0-jfltevzw.img
CF-Auto-Root-jflte-jfltexx-gti9505
CF-Auto-Root-jfltelra-jfltelra-schi545l

 

[wolfdogg]

FIXed! (good and bad, system is back, locked out of root, but i still have my OC1 core on there i believe)

At the boot screen when the recovery fails, and the system fails, you see the yellow shield. This particular recovery or bootloader has some verbiage next to this shield that i have not yet either seen before, or read. It has a verizon message stating to use the verizon assistant.

I was desperate at the moment finding myself in open waters, so i went for it. The assistant i looked for a download couldn't find one, so got it from my wifes phone. I ran a repair option, which worked after letting it sit black screen overnight, battery cycled, then booted into setup wizard, which then prompted me for samsung credentials here, stating "phone is locked because of an abnormal factory reset" buahh haah. I felt liberated having my phone back for a moment.

I played the verizon-assistant-recovery-game to see if i can hack past it a but I mean i really want to FLASH a system on there. *#testmode doesnt work, and neither does clicking in the 4 places bottom left, bottom right, lower bottom left, lower bottom right, then vol +++ that does nothing either to get past activation screen.

Edit:
Briefly forgetting that my samsung account was my gmail and not my other email address, I have a system back, fresh OF1. So I manged to brick it, then unbrick it, but lost root in doing so, and am now stuck on OF1 bootloader maybe, but atleast the OF1 verizon system, like the worst of us. Should i trade phones with my wife now? I have that one FNK4 rooted still. Its my ace in the Hole.

This lame verizon assistant fix isnt reproduceable for everyone, and is totallyt stupid, so although im going to get past it, i will still need to get my frickken kernel back to NG5 somehow, towelroot, flashfire, cm12, or maybe motochopper, etc. I dont want to to recover complete from a brick disaster this way. I want to reflash this shit, bootloader, kernel, modem, and a system correctly. I mean, this is possible isnt it? Lets assume im on OC1 bootloader still, can i flash a system.img.ext4 for the stock oc1 form on there now that i have one? Then i can reroot it maybe?

Ironically, i have no Recovery working on mine, it flashes blue, then bam, reboot. I wonder if i re-flash that OC1 recovery now, will it screw it all up again? Its probably same recovery as some previous version. I cant find a link for the OF2 rom, it says session timed out for samsung site, anybody else? I have the OF1 modem, thats all.

I would love suggestions on Flashing a System please. Or was this my best bet?

love talkin to myself too

 

[StarLuigi05]

Could you post the Verizon assistant tool link, please?