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TF201 CWM & Rom Manager problems, help? Solution within!

Rafael

Android Enthusiast
Nov 13, 2009
522
72
Virginia Beach, VA
I finally decided to unlock my Prime.
Based on a search, I decided to go with CWM for recovery and got Busybox-installer and Rom-Manager (Premium) from Play.

My machine is running ICS .28 stock, rooted, and trimmed a bit to my taste. Busybox is installed, as verified by Busybox-installer. I know the unlock worked since it tels me every time I boot....first thing to appear on the screen.

Rom-Manager runs....mostly.
Within Rom-Manager, Fix-Permissions runs but never finishes.......stops in and around step 98 of 107.
I can flash the Prime recovery and it looks successful, but it only reboots normally when I try to reboot into recovery.
If I try to do a backup of current Rom, it just reboots.

The device runs as it did before.....just cannot make backups, boot to recovery, or change Rom.

Am I missing something?...... a step I missed? Is this meant to be accomplished without the use of a PC and ADB?

The few "guides" I found for this process were either dated or varied in procedure.....could not find one that seemed both current and directly applied to the TF201.
 
Okay.....got CWM Recovery Backup working, and got Fix-permissions working....no thanks to Rom Manager.

Fix-permissions is best done by running it in Busybox, directly.
To get backups working in recovery, don't use the latest version of recovery(5.8.3.4). Instead, use Rom Manager to load the older 5.8.2.0. It works well.

Don't bother with the "touch" version of recovery; which Rom Manager tries to get you to flash just after flashing the button-controlled version. The buttons work just fine......the touch version will have missing menu items.....like the "back" selection.
If you touch the blank area where the selection should be...it will work....but why bother guessing? The button driven version does not suffer this problem.

The only thing Rom Manager is good for is to allow you to flash a recovery without the use of a PC and ADB. I have not found another reliable use for it.
You certainly don't need the "Pro" version I paid for to accomplish the flash....don't bother paying.

Does anyone want me to write up a single-post tutorial for getting CWM recovery running on the Prime without needing a PC and ADB?
(I figure most of you know this stuff way better than I do.) :)
 
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At this point I do not plan to actually use recovery to flash a new rom.
Reason? No confidence. 2 days of searching the web for users with the same problems I have encountered.....countless problems....leaves me with zero confidence that this stuff will ever work on my Prime.

Just getting recovery working partially has been a problem.
It refuses to back up to SD card. I have little confidence that I have a good backup, let alone trusting recovery to actually load my backup or a new rom.

I cannot launch recovery with anything but booting using the power/vol-down combination and then hitting the vol-up key.

I have tons of apps that claim to be able to reboot into recovery....and none of them work.
 
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Did a ton of reading online today and decided to try a backup and a restore.
This went fine.

Next, I chose to load Virtuous Prime 9.4.2.28 v1 and it loaded fine too.
Neat little menu system built into Virtuous Prime before it gets loaded....lets you choose different options.

Seems smooth so far. I realize this is almost the same ROM I was running....just wanted to jump in carefully. Will try more now that I know I have both Virtuous and my original backup to fall back on.
 
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Virtuous is awesome. So far this Prime is nothing like the pos it used to be.
I just might change my opinion of the Prime's hardware. Still have little respect for the perfomance the stock rom's leave us with.

I have been running it hard for a few hours with no fc's.........would have had a dozen by now if it were still running ota software. Even my recent knowledge of the benefits of a cold boot now and then didnt make this big a difference. This is so welcome.
 
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I'm just reading this for the first time, looking at my Prime which I finally decided to upgrade to a new ROM since I can't afford new hardware. Your post is the only helpful thing I've found in my last 3 hours of searching and flashing. I still can't get anything to run well through Rom Manager. When you loaded TWRP with Fastboot, did you need ADB and a PC for that or is there a simple on-device way, such as what Rom Manager promised to be?
 
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