Unable to boot into ClockworkMod Recovery

[Eulogy]

I've used ROM Manager to flash ClockworkMod Recovery onto my Motorola Droid, but when I try to reboot into the ROM, I just see the Motorola logo for a while and then it reboots again back into the phone. If I try to install a custom ROM, instead when it reboots I just get an exclamation icon and have to manually power down and reboot.

From what I've found online so far, nothing has worked as far as solving the problem. Flashing repeatedly, or going between ClockworkMod Recovery and SPRecovery didn't solve the problem, nor did reinstalling the ROM Manager application.

Interestingly, the SPRecovery ROM seems to boot fine, so I'm not sure why ClockworkMod fails every time. Trying to flash old/experimental versions of ClockworkMod always says "An error occurred while flashing your recovery." so I don't know what's going on there.

Any ideas?

 

[mr_silent]

It could be that your data connection is bad, and when clockwork goes to download the recovery image, the data is being saved, but it gets distorted. If sprecovery works then stick with that(I know, its a pain having to rename files and put them on the root of the sd card). Or look for an alternative recovery, there should be new ones out there by now, check around the forum.
BTW, its called recovery not ROM, ROMs are what you install via recovery.
Sent from my Milestone 1 using Droid Forums app

 

[Eulogy]

I re-downloaded ClockworkMod Recovery multiple times to ensure this wasn't the problem. I was just trying to follow the instructions here:
Motorola Droid: Full Update Guide - CyanogenMod Wiki

Will ROM Manager use SPRecovery to install a new ROM automatically, or will I have to do some manual method? (Like placing an update.zip in the root of the filesystem, or something similar.)

 

[AWB]

I don't honestly know cuz i haven't used SP since the days when sholes.info fell apart lol. However 2 ideas that may or may not work...you could build CWM from CM source at the github. And you could also try talking to CM in his IRC channel.

 

[huskerkate]

In RM you have to repeatedly "flash alternate recovery" and then "flash clockworkmod recovery" until you get a successful flash message within 3-5 seconds of flashing CWM - otherwise CWM wont "take". I've had this happen before, and it can take 5+ times of flashing back and forth for it to take.

Another option is to flash Raidzero's new recovery. It's a significant mod of SPR, and it is amazing! Has all the features of CWM, and then some!

Tappin like a mutha.

 

[Eulogy]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I'm not really sure I want to go as far as building from source.. was just hoping I could figure out why ROM Manager isn't flashing the existing version properly.

huskerkate, I have flashed back and forth several times, and yeah, on a few of them it takes a long time... but even after rebooting into it on one that happens within 3 seconds, it still doesn't take.

How would I flash Raidzero's recovery.. I've only used ROM Manager to do it.. and was hoping to install Cyanogen directly from ROM Manager. Would that still work from Raidzero's recovery?

Thanks again!

 

[huskerkate]

For RZ's recovery, you have to manually install roms thru recovery. But, that's the recommended method anyway. I NEVER recommend installing roms thru RM - it's too glitchy, as you've discovered.

RZ has packaged his recovery as an update zip. As long as you can boot into SPR (which you've said you can) you can just flash it that way. Look in RZ's section under Custom Roms, and you'll find the thread with dl links.

 

[Eulogy]

Okay.. after installing the Android SDK and using adb, and the instructions in the third post here:
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/ha...-phone-2-1-rom-o-c-mm-boot-animation-etc.html
(tweaked for the ClockworkMod Recovery, of course), I think the problem is actually a physically bad block. I get an error stating:
mtd: not writing bad block at 0x00320000
error writing recovery: No space left on device

This is consistent for every time I try to flash it. Presumably, SPRecovery flashes fine because it's a smaller image file than ClockworkMod Recovery.

 

[teddyearp]

Then in that case, may as well go ahead and try RaidZero's recovery. You will have to rename it to update.zip and put it on the root of your sdcard, but then you can havve alot of the features of CWRecovery (not having to rename your rom's) and it faster as well. Here's a link with instructions:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/ra...-based-update-zips-battery-charging-more.html

good luck

 

[Eulogy]

I was able to load the RZ Recovery since it's smaller in size. Now I'm not sure what exactly I need to wipe prior to installing the Cyanogen ROM. The RZ Recovery has the following options:
Wipe all
Wipe system
Wipe data
Wipe boot
Wipe cache
Wipe misc
Wipe battery stats
Wipe dalvik-cache

The walkthrough I was following said to "wipe data / factory reset" and then "wipe cache partition", so what is the equivalent in RZR?

Is there more info on the proper way to use this recovery? I haven't seen anything in that thread, though admittedly I haven't gone through all 47 pages of it.

Thanks much!

 

[huskerkate]

for rom install, i wipe data (which is same as wipe data/factory reset in CWM); wipe cache; wipe boot (which is same as format boot in CWM); and wipe system (which is same as format system in CWM). here is the explanation RZ gave in his thread about the different wipe options:

Wipe All: This will wipe out EVERYTHING on your phone except for recovery. Only do this if you have a backup, SBF, or rom ready to go either in update.zip or rom.tgz format. This is not the same as a factory reset. A factory reset only wipes out data partition (leaving system, cache, android kernel, etc)
Wipe System: Wipes the system partition, where the guts of the system live. This and a kernel is all you need to boot android. Themes get applied to system, all the contents of a ROM live in system. This contains android framework, libraries, binaries and all apps that come with the ROM. Apps you download are put into the data partition. See why wiping data is considered a factory reset?
Wipe data: Wipes the data partition. This will reset all user data, downloaded apps and settings. This will reset your phone to the state it was when you first installed your ROM, or received your last over-the-air update.
Wipe boot: this is where the kernel that boots android and you know and love lives. If you are having trouble with your boot partition, wipe it and install your kernel again. But be aware, update.zip kernels in koush's anykernel format will not work since they are only half of the puzzle. anykernel packages only supply the kernel itself. The boot.img (image of the boot partition) contains the kernel itself, and the initial ramdisk (image of the entire filesystem, to include startup scripts that define what shortcut keys are what, what the initial clock settings, etc are). without a initial filesystem for the kernel to boot, your phone will be useless. This is why I have provided a raw kernel image flash utility in the install menu. It is in the raw format that I distribute my kernels. Developers can also simply put a full boot.img in update.zip as well, this is how ROM's default kernels are installed.
Wipe Cache: No real useful data lives here, recovery information and log files, but not much else. My recovery custom color data will be here, so if you wipe cache you will have to set your color again (note, I do not have the color feature working yet).
Wipe Misc: It's a mystery. Nobody knows what it's used for, wipe it all you want or don't wipe it, it doesn't matter. I only included it for the sake of being complete.
Wipe Battery Stats: over time, your phone learns the battery history. It stores this information in a binary file /data/system/batterystats.bin When swapping ROM's, it's a good idea to not confuse the system with old statistics from different kernels for example. One of the reasons everyone says to wipe (data) when switching ROMs.
Wipe Dalvik-Cache: The dalvik cache is a place where Dalvik (the modified java virtual machine that runs Android) keeps its local versions of the apps you run. If you ever look in /data/dalvik-cache you will a bunch of *dex files. These are basically as far as I can tell no different from their compressed forms in the individual APK's (for apps) or JAR's (for framerwork) except that they are ready to be used and I assume their presence is strictly for speeding up day to day operations of loading and unloading apps. Since the actual java code rarely changes (unless you are xeudoxus or maybe myself... hehe) the system keeps a cache of them in dalvik-cache. When you apply an ultra intense theme that changes any java code (actually it changes the dalvik bytecode that the java is converted to in order for Dalvik to interpret it) you will want to wipe the whole dalvik cache or at least delete the cache files that you have made changes to its originitaing app. Note, when you wipe the dalvik cache, your next boot will take a long time, this is because (I assume) that it is extracting the code from each app again and creating a new dalvik cache. Phew.. that was a long one.

 

[Eulogy]

Wow.. that was an amazingly quick reply! Thanks for clearing that up.

Last question, I think. So I have cm_sholes_full-27.zip and gapps-gb-20110120-signed.zip in the root of my SD card. From the looks of the RZ recovery, it either needs to be an update.zip file or another format.

Hah.. when I went to boot back into recovery via the "hold x on boot" method, I got a yellow exclamation icon.. something is definitely wrong still. Hmm... and doing "reboot recovery" from adb does the same thing. Does the standard boot re-flash the recovery, or something?

So, my original question. what do I need to do to install both the ROM and the google apps addition from the recovery? Though that might be irrelevant if I can only boot into recovery immediately after flashing, since I don't want to run the risk of bricking my phone. (At this point, it's about to be thrown into a swimming pool for all the headaches it has caused me this weekend.)

 

[huskerkate]

no, for RZR, you don't need to rename it to "update.zip" or put in another format. if you have the files on root of sdcard, just choose the "install update.zip file from sdcard" option in RZR.

(if you read thru the thread, you can also keep all of your roms in an "updates" folder on your sdcard, and separate them by dev'r, and install thru the other option. that way you don't have zip files all over the place on sdcard.)

i'm not sure what the issue is with booting into recovery...?? what exactly did you do to get the yellow exclamation point? you flashe RZR thru SPR recovery, right? then you rebooted your phone and.......what then?

 

[Eulogy]

I flashed via adb "/system/bin/flash_image recovery /sdcard/RZR.img", then "reboot recovery" which worked. While in the recovery, I made a backup, then rebooted back into Android. When I tried to go back into recovery, that's when I got the yellow icon. I did this twice (the second time without making the backup), and the same thing happened.

 

[guidot]

Are you in a stock ROM?

If you rooted using soup or root or superoneclick, FRS is still active which will rewrite stock recovery everytime you reboot. You need to flash a ROM or the update.zip file found in the guide in the first link in my signature.

Sent from my GimpDroid (Installed by RZR).