solved: unbricking MEGA-BRICKED optimus v!

[bigsupersquid]

so I bricked the holy cr*p out of my original optimus yesterday (another story, just the reason for this thread,) had to replace it and was addicted so got a new one instead of some cheapie.

tried adb reboot bootloader, boots into ROM (stock or custom)
tried reboot -> bootloader under backside power menu, boots into ROM.
reboot bootloader in terminal... same story.

All I seem to have to boot into on this new POS with its greenish dim hitachi screen is recovery and ROM.
Boo! Hiss! That's one less safety fallback if I accidentally softbrick THIS optimus like I did multiple times to the old one.

Anybody know how to flash the bootloader in (much less have a backup of it?) It's not in the NAND partition map anywhere...
I'm afraid to use the google AOSP source for the bootloader after what its recovery did to my last Optimus when I accidentally let it flash recovery in with an fresh-built OTApackage. If I could get my old optimus to start up, I'd experiment on it, but it's pretty fried.

 

[asadullah]

Re: bootloader missing on 2.2.2 optimus v?

I would really like to know how you bricked your other phone. I don't think(or know) if you can backup a bootloader. I was gonna suggest trying to build one from source.

 

[bigsupersquid]

Re: bootloader missing on 2.2.2 optimus v?

xda threads say 'all lg optimus' use LK bootloader, so I may try that, as it's in my codeaurora repo anyway.

How'd I brick it?
ugly, uglier, and damn-horrible.

Been building gingerbread from codeaurora repo. Generics boot fine with good kernel.
Made otapackage several times. Until the last one, I remembered to remove the 'recovery' directory and flash unsigned. The last time... it flashed the compiled recovery. Partial keymap, no select button of any kind. No adb access, no way to force an update.zip without a select key. The rom system flashed bad, no adb, no boot. So I had a kinda-brick which couldn't be accessed with ADB or boot into anything but a bunk recovery.
Figured since I was screwed anyway, used kp500 to flash sprint zv7 in emergency mode. Got rom, rooted it, worked but no data (knew that was coming, but figured better no data than no phone at all.)
FOTA_STO partition got bigger, but putting the img back I dumped from it before bricking didn't fix the radio. oh, well.
but my bootloader disappeared after the radio flash. Ack! no fastboot!
discovered qpst wouldn't write the MIP settings (I'd saved 'em from before bricking) to get off sprint's broadband onto VM's.
Tried sending from qpst with power off in stock rom like I had to do to get the PRL to be accepted, but no dice.
Figured since my radio was borked, anyway, I'd try the gingerbread update radio just for funsies.
Installed v9 sprint recovery to flash new gingerbread ota. It worked... but idiot me, tried to send the MIP settings from qpst while new gingerbread was booting up. Goobered the first boot, and it didn't recover from that, but adb still worked while in bootloop. just unrooted.
got root through v9 recovery glitch, tried to install custom recovery with flash_image... fragged recovery partition, wouldn't boot into recovery anymore just black screen. not even lg logo. wouldn't boot into bunked rom install either. So, either silver lg or black screen. no adb. no fastboot.
tried kp500 again. and again. and again... many many times over the last day.
it's never worked a second time. tried 2 different basebands. of course, no vm .cab to use, just sprint.
kdz won't update with either of em. says unpack error, so I've downloaded v9 again and checked md5, I'm about to boot into windoze and try it out with kdz since kp500 so twitchy.
I'm not coughing up by 'bricked' v, it's now a test mule for really nasty stuff I wouldn't dare try on my daily driver. Like trying to install a bootloader. And looking for the hidden parts of the NAND to find the radio.

 

[asadullah]

Re: bootloader missing on 2.2.2 optimus v?

does emergency mode work? The one thing I noticed you saying is that after you flashed the radio that fastboot (bootloader) wouldn't work. That means that either the radio is s-on?

 

[bigsupersquid]

Re: bootloader missing on 2.2.2 optimus v?

emergency mode works but kp500 seems glitchy.
it just won't finish the last 1%. the phone reboots into silver lg logo at about 95%, progress bar climbs fast to 99%, then 'problem connecting with phone'

but that's my old phone, losing the bootloader on it isn't so offensive.

the new one, that's the one i'm concerned with.
haven't flashed anything questionable on this baby.
just no sign of the bootloader.

 

[Justin0716]

emergency mode works but kp500 seems glitchy.
it just won't finish the last 1%. the phone reboots into silver lg logo at about 95%, progress bar climbs fast to 99%, then 'problem connecting with phone'

but that's my old phone, losing the bootloader on it isn't so offensive.

the new one, that's the one i'm concerned with.
haven't flashed anything questionable on this baby.
just no sign of the bootloader.

 

[fenrix]

Re: bootloader missing on 2.2.2 optimus v?

hmm, lgnpst can emergency mode restore a bin, although
you really might need the vm670 dll, i have ms690/ls670 dll
I recommend the lgnpst it doesnt mess up so long as u have the right files.
Im not sure that it wont work without the lg vm670 dll because it does read my OV phone settings&everything but Im not writing to my OV so I havent tested that.
I dunni if it can backup another OV's bin, lol Im busy portingthe S
I cant find the VM 670 dll anywhere hopefully cdma gurus come thru with it.

 

[bigsupersquid]

Re: bootloader missing on 2.2.2 optimus v?

I have links to the lgnpst and a new optimus to dump if necessary. also a variety of sprint cab files to pull the bin files out of with kp500, it does that well at least.
I haven't yet found the ls670 dll you speak of or I'd have definitely tried the manufacturer pst.
and never a sign of the vm670 dll. like a unicorn.
man! I'd love to have a functional full-flash tool working for this phone, especially now that I have a spare I already borked up.

changing thread title to something on-topic since it seems to have drifted to repairing my old phone from figuring out how they locked the new one.

 

[fenrix]

Re: in progress: unbricking MEGA-BRICKED optimus v?

Oh you mean locked as in no bootloader on your current V? The S I have has a newer screen I guess/no bootloader. but my V has a bootloader. lol!! - I'm about to post a link to various files
once some uploading finishes.

 

[bigsupersquid]

Re: in progress: unbricking MEGA-BRICKED optimus v?

that's what I meant by locked... I guess the correct term is the one asadullah used, S-on?
since the boot image can be flashed, it's not really locked.
if you could get a bin off your v with the open bootloader, that'd be really cool... i'm annoyed by it being closed on my new v.

my old v that lost access to the bootloader when I flashed the sprint cab file and later bricked tries to boot, the key combinations change the boot between emergency (works,) recovery (glowing black screen,) or normal (dull black or lg logo depending on how bad the last kp500 flash went.)
a funny side note is that the sprint firmware reversed menu and home in the bootloader, it's menu+vol down+power for recovery now.

 

[fenrix]

Re: in progress: unbricking MEGA-BRICKED optimus v?

did u confirm u dont have a blimd recovery too? I messed my sprint and turned out the recovery was on there, although I guess if its a stock recovery u have that wont help.
hmm, I'm without a pc now, again, yeah the sprint firmware would, I havent been into cabs much but if you can figure out how.to extract it you could literally replace the img's inside and flash via emergncy, Im perty sure cabs can be extracted pretty darn sure. now that you mention all that I might try some other things, a nandroid backup in cab copy would be NICE =)

4shared folder - My 4shared

this is my 4shared

 

[bigsupersquid]

Re: in progress: unbricking MEGA-BRICKED optimus v?

yeah, the recovery is thrashed. I had flash_image fail through the rooted v9 recovery I had on there last to install the GB update. the rooting process wouldn't stick through a reboot because I'd goobered the install with qpst while it was first booting up, so I tried to fix the recovery through adb shell, had to root it first, flash_image locked up the phone... blah, blah, brick! since the rom had already gone bad.
but if lgnpst can flash a bin to it, because it's never lost the capability to get into emergency mode, the thing must be nearly unbrickable with the right software available!
I'm going to tear into it so far it's ridiculous if I can reflash bins to it. Since it's a spare now, it's totally fair game and I don't have to worry about REALLY bricking it, since right now it's basically junk to most anyone else.
LG says $40-100 to reflash it, and won't even quote a specific price. I could buy a bad-esn optimus s on ebay for $40... LG's crazy. Especially if I can fix it myself.

you can totally extract the cab down to wdb,wdh and dll just with cabextract for linux or windoze XP.
k500 will extract it further, those files plus 5 folders BIN CAL NVMeta PRL and SCR.
at that point I think there are reasonable tools out there to finish breaking down those files into editable bits.

I also found on xda in the p500 section links to another lg tool which will re-assemble files into something flashable. it's in my bookmarks on my linux install, I'll look it up and link it once I get out of this windoze thing (stupid no PST tools in linux)

 

[fenrix]

Actually I can get a nearly entirely working windows environment in Parted Magic, you have to set up a whole bunch of dlls and system files like a mini windows then you have a box you just can't use openGL unless you have a better linux than parted magic I think, I'm not sure about opengl, I did that trying to run a game so I know I could run lgnpst and adb, set up windows drivers etc, all in parted magic, which is stripped down linux, I just need to get all the files together for once, save it and burn a bootable ISO =)
All that kp500 etc, would run in that environment and parted magic works almost any wifi card as well as Ethernet, sometimes it requires manually setting up so you really have to know your linux, like the linux ADB drivers, the file isn't there, just make it with leafpad and use the vendorid's to finish the file, on the Android SDK website they have the rest of the information like file name and location, just build it save and plug in your phone VIOLA working drivers.
hmm, I might buy a bad esn optimus V as an extra, I can salvage up to 2 right now.

oh yeah I think I forgot to upload the ls670.dll, I'll get it later or you can search the optimus s forums, I think it's buried in a huge zip with a copy of lgnpst,
once installed you have to make a folder in c:\lgelectronics called model/mtp - dll's go here -

 

[bigsupersquid]

ah, I found the dll in the ls670 zip. on the 4shared folder. Thank you profusely!
Once I fixed the dependencies on windows7 dlls, it registered fine, I just put it in the base directory of lgnpst before registering it with regsvr32.
It worked great!!!
my formerly dead OV is now running sprint zv7 firmware, on the first try.
although all my whacking at it with kp500 had zeroed the esn and meid, and who knows what else... but I can put those back anyway. besides, it's just a dev phone now, and I'll be pushing its limits since I'm not relying on it for communication (and internet) like my daily driver.
It'll be nice to have something to flash experimental stuff on without worrying about breaking it! Even though it was kind of an expensive mistake by my standards, I'll try to make it worthwhile by abusing it enough to cover the cost :-$
I'll look into that parted magic, sounds interesting. I don't have any trouble with adb (and formerly fastboot which is now locked out) in debian; found the binaries somewhere, and if adb is run as root you don't need all that vendorid nonsense. just the phone service tools gave me trouble. you using wine, or something else? I didn't think wine could handle the usb ports yet.

 

[bigsupersquid]

the lg service tool to rebuild cab files is called UpTestEx.
not sure how well it works; haven't tried it. you also need windows enabler to make it work.

 

[fenrix]

yep, I had set up wine with all that windows stuff once, had tested all sorts of stuff in it too
there's a great way to write esn to prolly any phone in there, I believe I liked & put qxdm instructions in a txt, as well ad a link to one of the best converters i've found online, if u give it the long esn it will spit everything else out pseudo/hex hex dec..
well if it helps I can extract my ov bin but thats given Me on this rom wont matter ??
if thats ok just tell me how, typically if its like in the pst I'm guessing there'll just be an option to do, no fancy stuff. =)
I've noticed in qpst filr explorer nvm directory is locked.
I'm wondering if any old methods may make it explorable - like opening the pst reading say the phone settings then seeing if its open by closing/switching to qpst, thats a method that got me into some other phones

 

[thekraven]

So how did you get it fixed? I'm interested b/c my recovery has bad blocks, so no V9 recovery for me.

 

[bigsupersquid]

So how did you get it fixed? I'm interested b/c my recovery has bad blocks, so no V9 recovery for me.

weeeeeell, it's not exactly fixed yet, but it is at least unbricked so I can keep messing with ir.
used lgnpst to flash bin extracted by kp500 from sprint cab, since vm cab is missing its dll.
lgnpst is clean and effective, pretty sure the NAND is repartitioned now. if you want v9 recovery to try the GB update, you can use v9 firmware with the pst and it'll burn in the recovery (v7 also handles the GB update and acts the same as v9 as far as rooting GB)

now i'm stuck with sprint firmware (menu+vol down+power to get into recovery now)
I haven't yet fixed the esn back to it's old self from being zeroed by kp500 but that's still easier than the radio stuff. a whole section of NV items got deleted, and I haven't yet figured out how to put something back since one of what got deleted is what can be changed to unlock the MIP settings in QPST.

seeing it boot into anything but lg or black screen makes me much more positive about eventually fixing it, and I don't consider it a brick anymore, just a little goobered. and it's my dev phone now since the radio's messed up.

 

[El Schisne]

Some of this stuff is over my head (for now), but I do want to ask about this:

Figured since my radio was borked, anyway, I'd try the gingerbread update radio just for funsies.
Installed v9 sprint recovery to flash new gingerbread ota. It worked

So you never got the Sprint Gingerbread update to fully boot so that you could test the new radio, right? We still don't know whether the Sprint GB radio will work on the Optimus V?

In any case, I'm glad you got it unbricked. Thanks for sticking with us (and not, say, going with a Triumph as a replacement ), and I hope you are able to fully fix it and dig up some awesome stuff along the way.

 

[bigsupersquid]

I got it to flash the zv7 radio and boot a few flashings before bricking.
reinstalled stock ov rom and backside over the zv7 radio.
data didn't work but I could phone and sms from stock ov rom and cm7.

after I bricked it and got it back up, no radio functions in ov roms work with any version radio I've tried... but it connected to sprint data trying to provision the phone in zv9 (with my zeroed esn! eek!)
sprint gb sees the network now but won't try to pull up the 1xrtt data signal like zv9 did.

i'm working with it now to see what I can get going.