[GUIDE] Unbrick/Upgrade Optimus V [EASY] [KDZ]

[yaconsult]

This sounds good. The problem is that the zv4 burning utility doesn't seem to work on my phone because it keeps disconnecting and doesn't stay connected long enough for the burn to complete. But the zv5 utility does seem to be able to write its rom image to the phone and finish successfully. Is it possible to get a version of the zv4 firware that I can burn using the zv5 recovery program?

 

[AndyOpie150]

http://www.mediafire.com/?qo3jq95mbt9giz5
Tell me how you setup your android sdk. Did you install the Java jdk6_u45? Remember I mentioned it might not make it, because your partitions are messed up. Try the KDZ, then when it doesn't make it, give me detailed info on how you set up the sdk.
I just want to make sure everything is right before trying the fastboot commands.
Posted via Android Central App

 

[yaconsult]

That seemed to work using the zip you uploaded. Here is a paste of the recovery log: optimus recovery - Pastebin.com

The phone plays the startup noise but the screen never displays anything so it's probably the wrong screen version for this phone. Unfortunately, after giving it time to start, the status in adb is still offline.

I have the android tools package installed on my fedora system which includes fastboot but 'fastboot devices' does not see the phone. 'adb devices' does but it remains offline.

I tried booting into the stock recovery with power-volume down-home. I get a dark screen with faint lighting around the edges and when I type 'fastboot devices', I get '??????????? fastboot'. So does that mean I have it in fastboot mode?

 

[yaconsult]

Well, I think this is progress! Since I was able to see the phone in fastboot mode I found that after doing the recovery reboot with the keys, I could see the phone with adb and it was in recovery mode rather than offline! So I tried flashing skinbark's latest recovery. When I still had no screen working, I tried bobz's standard recovery that is reported to work with both screens.

~ # flash_image recovery VM670NH_recovery.img
mtd: successfully wrote block at 0
mtd: successfully wrote block at 20000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 40000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 60000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 80000
mtd: successfully wrote block at a0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at c0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at e0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 100000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 120000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 140000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 160000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 180000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 1a0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 1c0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 1e0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 200000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 220000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 240000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 260000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 280000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 2a0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 2c0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 2e0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 300000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 320000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 340000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 360000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 380000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 3a0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 3c0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 3e0000
mtd: successfully wrote block at 400000
wrote recovery partition

[root@giga Downloads]# adb devices
List of devices attached
0123456789ABCDEF recovery
​

But after that, adb reboot recovery seems to just sit there. So I pull out the cable and battery and boot with home-volume down-power but all I get is a black screen with lighting around the edge. adb sees it as being in recovery mode, but there is nothing on the screen:

# adb devices
List of devices attached
A1000019429799 recovery​

Where can I go from here??? And why the heck doesn't the screen work with with this recovery? Is it because I have the wrong ZV version?

Now that I have the phone working in recovery mode I can see that it has the hitachi screen, which according to posts in this forum has zv5. My original, working phone, has the novatek screen and zv4.

If I don't boot into recovery and let the phone do a normal boot, it makes the startup sounds but the screen stays blank and the phone never comes online for usb - adb devices shows it as offline.

Thanks!

 

[AndyOpie150]

Are you doing all of this with a Linux distro? The KDZ and KP-500 are supposed to used in a Windows OS.
To properly set up the Android SDK on your Linux distro go here: https://www.linuxdistrocommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1621
If everything checks out then with the phone in the recovery, open a terminal type in this:

adb shell
adb reboot bootloader

If it makes it into the fastboot screen (might not if it's a ZV5), then type in this:

fastboot erase recovery
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase system

Then run the ZV5 KDZ or KP-500 from a Windows OS again.
This is what I had to do with my ZV4.

The problem your having is that when you try to flash the ZV5 firmware one of the partitions is not getting properly erased (the image is being flashed on top of the old image, until the partition becomes totally full), so you need to do it manually with fastboot commands.

If you can't get it into fastboot screen we will have to try something else to get it into the fastboot screen.

Note: You could try Droid@Screen to see your recovery menu from your computers screen, then try to flash a ROM and Gapps.
Works great for me on my Xubuntu distro. I had to install the Oracle Java jdk6 and not the open jdk6. The SDK had to be set up properly as well, so go to the link I gave you and make sure all that is setup, then download the Droid at Screen.jar and place on your desktop. Right click on it then select to open with the Oracle Java jdk6. Set the path to the adb.exe and you should see your recovery menu on your computer screen.

 

[thewraith420]

As I said at this point I'd fire up droid @ screen and use the zv9 update from your stock, but black screened recovery.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

 

[AndyOpie150]

If he does have a ZV4, or at the very least a Novatek screen, it will lock the bootloader.
I would like to see for sure what baseband he has and what screen before that is done.
I'm not a personal fan of the ZV9, especially for a phone that is going to be used for ROM testing.
If he can flash the MiRaGe ROM and gapps we can determine what screen he has fo sure. If he has a Novatek screen we can flash a ZV4 with an unlocked bootloader. This would be the best thing for a ROM and recovery testing phone.

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[thewraith420]

Maybe I'm wrong but he said the zv4 stuff worked and confirmed it by adb while in recovery. He's on zv4 so the bootloader is unlocked at this point. Just can't see anything due to the wrong screen driver. Its a lot less steps to fire up Droid@screen and flash zv9 update then to Root while on blank screen and flash a custom recovery then flash mirage

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

 

[yaconsult]

Andy, you missed the part at the end of my recovery log post above at the end where I confirmed that the phone has the hitachi screen using adb, dmesg and grep.

I can work in both windows and fedora linux environments. I have the adb-tools installed on fedora and that's where I used the adb and fastboot commands. I used windows 7 for running the windows recovery programs.

The current status of the phone after flashing the bobz recovery logged above is that when I boot into recovery mode with home-vol down-power, I can see the phone in adb and it is in recovery mode. The screen is black. fastboot does not see the phone when it is in this mode but adb does.

 

[thewraith420]

You can try adb reboot bootloader. Probably still won't be able to see anything on the screen but adb reboot bootloader should work now.. On another note you have the vm670nh.img recovery flashed but it still won't show anything on screen?

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

 

[yaconsult]

Andy, you are a genius! It seems that wiping all of the partitions from fastboot was the key! I reflashed zv5 after wiping and the phone came up, screen working and all! Wow, this is great! Now I can get a good recovery on the phone.

 

[AndyOpie150]

My bad. I forgot to look at the log you posted.

EDIT: Got seriously ninja'd. Slow connection.
Alllriiight! Glade to see you got it figured out.

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[thewraith420]

Andy, you are a genius! It seems that wiping all of the partitions from fastboot was the key! I reflashed zv5 after wiping and the phone came up, screen working and all! Wow, this is great! Now I can get a good recovery on the phone.

Glad to hear things are looking better

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

 

[yaconsult]

I do not seem to have a good recovery as I get nothing but the LG logo even with droid@screen.

I have run gingerbreak and have root so I'm going to try flashing skinbark's latest recovery from the kitkat thread.

Yes, I have a working recovery! You guys are terrific - thanks for all the help. Corruption of the filesystem seems to have been causing all the problems and wiping then from fastboot finally allowed me to get a good reflash of the original software. Never again will I attempt to flash a new recovery when running an alpha rom with boot issues - I learned my lesson!

 

[AndyOpie150]

Glad to see you got everything working.
Rule of thumb: You can flash any recovery you want as long as you have a Good ROM. You can flash any ROM you want as long as you have a Good Recovery. Not a good idea to try to flash a untested recovery while having a ROM installed that's being tested and is in the Alpha or Beta stage.

Note: For those that might have the same problem in the future and look thru this thread, could you explain what you had to do in order to give the phone fastboot commands with a ZV5 phone.

 

[yaconsult]

Glad to see you got everything working.
Rule of thumb: You can flash any recovery you want as long as you have a Good ROM. You can flash any ROM you want as long as you have a Good Recovery. Not a good idea to try to flash a untested recovery while having a ROM installed that's being tested and is in the Alpha or Beta stage.

Note: For those that might have the same problem in the future and look thru this thread, could you explain what you had to do in order to give the phone fastboot commands with a ZV5 phone.

Well, it's not real clear. The screen was not working on the phone. I started it in recovery mode with home-vol down-power. Screen still black. Plugged it into my Linux system. Tried fastboot devices and it returned some - even though it just had question marks for the device - it saw it. So I used the fastboot commands you gave to format the filesystems. Now, couldn't I have done the same thing with adb shell and formatted the filesystems one by one?

Also, what is the best way to extract and save the information unique to the phone that might be needed for unbricking the hard way? The stuff you said was needed to get the radio working again after some forms of recovery. I'm thinking that it's a good time to do that for both my phones.

 

[AndyOpie150]

I know adb will work, but you really have to be super specific. Instead of erase system you would have to tell it to format a specific mntblock #so and so.
I don't at this time know the specific adb code or the mntblock #'s of all the partitions.

Yes you can flash seperate partitions, but you have to make a backup and be able to figure out how to extract the images for each partition.

I have an unlocked bootloader on both phones, so I never gave it much thought.
When you have it figured out, write up a tutorial.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[thewraith420]

In short... Run lgnpst and collect a nvs file and run qpst to save a qcn file.....

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk

 

[AndyOpie150]

In short... Run lgnpst and collect a nvs file and run qpst to save a qcn file.....

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk

Cool. That sounds pretty easy.

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[thewraith420]

Cool. That sounds pretty easy.

Posted via Android Central App

Well, you seen the rough draft guide I wrote. Those are the 2 files that are phone specific. Once those files are in hand you're free to flash bin files in lgnpst via emergency mode. Because flashing the nvs, and then qcn will restore all NV items

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