Stuck in boot loop? Phone problem!

[rkhanso]

Yes, I've searched (many, many threads with different solutions) and tried some things, but can't fix my phone.

I have a Optimus V that was rooted and I was running Harmonia 1.2. I saw there was an update to Harmonia so I installed Harmonia 1.6c. Everything was OK until I installed the black status bar .zip using Xionia recovery - trouble with the power button because I used an old version of the black status bar. Things went downhill after that. Likely because of mistakes I made, my phone won't boot.

Here's what it does:
pressing power button does not turn the phone on.
Pressing home, vol. down and power does nothing
When I connect the phone to computer via USB cable, it boots in the Android system recovery with yellowish text saying:

Do not pull the battery....
format data....
Format cache....
Factory reset....
rebooting....

Then it goes to the Harmonia Aphrodite + Picasticks white text, then to the Harmonia green text with white text area scanning left to right. The green Harmonia text will disappear for a split-second, it'll start scanning the white text left to right, repeat this a few times, until eventually it hangs and there it stops. That's all it does.

I can start the adb shell and tell the phone to reboot, or reboot recovery and it does reboot, but does the same thing (see box above) every time.

I'm trying to follow the instructions HERE but am not having any success.

I took the SD Card out of the phone and put the flash_image and xionia.img on the SD card root - with a laptop because the phone won't boot for me to do it that way. Put the SD card back on the phone. Then I followed these directions:

How to Install:
Copy flash_image and xionia_cwma_12518.6.img to the root of your sdcard. RAR file is protected with recovery record in case of corrupt download. Please extract rar before attempting to flash.
To flash: via adb shell or terminal type this from root # shell

Quote:
# mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock5 /system
# cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image
# chmod 755 /system/bin/flash_image
# mv /system/etc/install-recovery.sh /system/etc/install-recovery.sh.bak
# mount -o remount,ro -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock5 /system
# flash_image recovery /sdcard/xionia_cwma_12518.6.img
# reboot recovery

but get this output:

# mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock5 /sy
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock5 /syst
# cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image
cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image
/sdcard/flash_image: No such file or directory
# cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image
cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image
/sdcard/flash_image: No such file or directory
#

Can anyone help? If it'd be easier, I have Teamviewer on the PC and can give remote control.
I gotta get my phone working again :'''(

When (if) I get this working again, I'd like to upgrade the Xionia recovery to the latest version where they took out the factory reset option...

 

[bigsupersquid]

Which adb commands were you talking about?

adb shell strings /dev/mtd/mtd8
adb shell flash_eraseall /dev/mtd/mtd8

or
adb shell
then
# mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock5 /system
# cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image
# chmod 755 /system/bin/flash_image
# mv /system/etc/install-recovery.sh /system/etc/install-recovery.sh.bak
# mount -o remount,ro -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock5 /system
# flash_image recovery /sdcard/xionia_cwma_12518.6.img
# reboot recovery

I'll guess the first 2 lines above?

The link you gave had another link to get Xionia installed. Since that link was in the thread you posted before those adb commands, I though I'd have to install Xionia first. Some of these threads contain links to other threads and I'm not sure what needs to be followed and what does not.

I'm moving this discussion over here since you started a new thread.
Yes, it's the first two commands.
Since you can boot to a stage where adb works, try those.
It <should> kill the factory reset-formatting part of the loop after one further boot cycle.

try

adb shell ls /sdcard/

to see if the phones sees flash_image on your sdcard root or not.
most likely since harmonia only boots partway, the sdcard isn't being mounted.

adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard

to mount it before trying to cat /sdcard/flash_image.
also since you're using harmonia instead of stock, you might be able to use the "cp" command instead of "cat" but that shouldn't make any difference.
also, I and others have had issues with incomplete formatting of /system with xionia recovery, you might want to try a different recovery instead since you can't even get into xionia to use the "fix bootloop" option which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
the problem with newer xionia recovery is it wasn't made for the ov, it was made for the o-sprint, and the sprint phone has a different sized partition map.

 

[rkhanso]

The first 2 commands didn't work:

# adb shell strings /dev/mtd/mtd8
adb shell strings /dev/mtd/mtd8
adb: not found
# adb shell flash_eraseall /dev/mtd/mtd8
adb shell flash_eraseall /dev/mtd/mtd8
adb: not found
#

Here's the output from the next 2 commands you posted:

H:\Program Files\AndroidSDKTools\platform-tools>adb shell ls /sdcard/

H:\Program Files\AndroidSDKTools\platform-tools>adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcbl
k0p1 /sdcard
Usage: mount [-r] [-w] [-o options] [-t type] device directory

H:\Program Files\AndroidSDKTools\platform-tools>

 

[rkhanso]

My mistake. I didn't enter them at the dos prompt.

It did work :

H:\Program Files\AndroidSDKTools\platform-tools>adb shell strings /dev/mtd/mtd8
FACT_RESET_3

H:\Program Files\AndroidSDKTools\platform-tools>adb shell flash_eraseall /dev/mt
d/mtd8
Erasing 128 Kibyte @ 180000 - 100% complete.

H:\Program Files\AndroidSDKTools\platform-tools>adb shell
# reboot recovery
reboot recovery

H:\Program Files\AndroidSDKTools\platform-tools>

And now I'm at the Xionia recovery menu.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

What do you recommend doing now? Nandroid backup? Re-flash the Harmonia 1.6c?
just reboot and see what happens?

 

[bigsupersquid]

wipe system, data, cache and dalvik-cache. maybe try it twice for good measure.
then reflash harmonia.
I don't advise changing the recovery until your rom works, otherwise your phone may become totally unbootable.

 

[rkhanso]

I did the wipes and re-flashed Harmonia.
It keeps coming back into the Xionia recovery menu after the reboot.

After telling Xionia to reboot, the LG comes up, then the white Harmonia Aphrodite + Picasticks comes up, then it goes back to the Xionia recovery menu.

I have a nandroid backup from about 4 days ago. Should I try to restore that?

Or something else?

 

[rkhanso]

I tried a 'fix recovery boot loop' in the Xionia menu and it still does the same thing.

Do I need to remove those files I put on the root of the SD Card? Would they be causing trouble? edit>>> no, that wasn't it, either. I removed them and it still boots into Xionia recovery only.

 

[rkhanso]

I thought I may have figured this out, but it didn't work.

I did your other commands:
adb shell ls /sdcard/
and it didn't see anything at all on the SD card.
I did a
adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard

and then the other command and then saw the files on the sd card.

I re-wiped, reinstalled harmonia and it's still doing the same thing. Crud!!

Help?

 

[bigsupersquid]

yeah, try the nandroid.
If it works, great.
after your nandroid is booted completely, flash another recovery through adb.
IHO recovery is at least still supported.

 

[rkhanso]

For kicks, I tried one more time and it's working now.
Didn't have to do the nandroid.

I hope I never have to go through this again! Will run it this way for a few days and hopefully it will be stable.

I contributed a little to your squid ink fund. thanks.

 

[bigsupersquid]

thank you! I really appreciate it.
You might want to wait until you feel it's stable before switching to another recovery, too.
After a bad kernel flash, my old ov took a couple days to settle down where it would flash or boot correctly.

 

[lilnorthup93]

PLEASE HELP!!!

Full details here:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/op...st-boot-loop-issues-caused-factory-reset.html

 

[creeper622004]

stuck in bootloop. I was attempting to install another ROM, but mistakenly did not create a backup, so there is no backup recovery image to go back to. Not sure what to do because the new ROM will not install. Any suggestions?