But what does this flash do to your phone? I know it somehow protects it, but how. As in if I root mine, do I want 2 do this to protect myself? And how does it protect me? Thanks
The flash image command does not protect your phone. It is simply the command that will install the latest Sp Recovery Image so that you can back up your phone. You still need to go through the steps to disable your stock recovery image.
Basically, the recovery image is like your windows back-up or start-up disk on your pc. If you fugger up your PC operating system, you usually need a cd or disk in the old days so that your computer would boot to a screen that you use to recover. You would then install your operating system again. Similar concept here on the phone.
I would suggest doing a little reading here in the hacks forum to get your head a round the process. In a nutshell, first you get adb/sdk working. then you root. Then perhaps install Busybox. Then install the latest Recovery. Then backup your system from this recovery. Only then is it safe to try installing any new Roms, or fugger with the phones operating system/files.
I tried flashing the recovery image from Sholes, and was a little confused about how to do it. I ended up attempting this in the command line emulator app on the phone. I think I have a better grasp on this after reading some more, however, now I can't get into the "stock" recovery menu by holding x and powering up. The phone still works, all my apps work, I just can't load the recovery image, and it takes a little longer to load. I'm guessing I somehow disabled the stock recovery image, and failed to install the new one properly. anyway to reverse this?
Thanks,
NOOB
If your still stuck, my flash_image is a 26k file. It has no extension, and if I open it in notepad it tells me it is a greek file, literally. I am on XP and I do have my file extensions shown. If your file is 0kb in size, then it may be corrupt, or possibly you are using a different op system than XP and you have something else going on. I would be careful opening it on your pc system as it is a binary file and you would not want to corrupt it by saving or saving as.
Nice,
It sounds like perhaps you have renamed the stock image, without perfecting the flash_image step with 0.0.15. Just tread very carefully, and try to follow the steps to reflash 0.0.15. A couple of folks have had to flash 0.0.14 then 0.0.15 to get 15 to stick. The safest thing for you to do would be to re-rename your stock recovery until you are sure you have at least 0.0.14 loading and working. You are on very thin ice here, so tread carefully.
How exactly do I go about renaming my stock recovery image? also, the version of the custom image i was attempting to flash, I could not open in WinZip. It stated that "Error: internal error processing iso image" I also cannot seem to get sdk working properly. I got the packages installed that I think I need. but every time I try to add a 'virtual device' the program freezes. when I restart the program, my droid is seen, but there is an X by it, saying it is not installed right, or there are errors. My comp brings up a new hardware wizard when I plug my phone into the usb port. I used the USB drivers in the unpacked files and it worked to add the drivers for the droid. still not working however. which tool is it that I need to do the reflashing? I wish I'd read up more on this, but I didn't.. the rooting went smooth, so i figured, how hard can it be. any help will be much appreciated, as my droid is a mere 3 days old.. hahaha
Not even sure where to start, but I'll give it a try.
First, can you describe what you have done, and via what methods. The general steps are to first install adb/sdk. Then you root the phone. Then install busybox. Then install the latest recovery image. then backup your phone using the latest recovery image.
ADB is the shell manager that lets you interface with the phone from your computer. It can be used to move files to the root of your phone. It is also used if you get into bootloops/almost bricked status. Busybox is simply a better shell to allow the use of more commands from your pc to make the changes go easier. It still requires understanding of the pc command line, to execute the commands.
There is a thread describing adb stickied on this forum, or in the master sticky describing important threads. When you open the sdk setup menu, you need to download all of the latest api (I think) files, as well as the usb drivers and the correct phone files. If this is giving you trouble perhaps we can start here. Also on the phone you need to enable usb debugging in order for sdk/adb to recognize the phone. You do not want to mount your sd card, just enable usb debugging. With the proper usb drivers with sdk setup, this should get your pc seeing the phone.
As to renaming the stock recovery, this is not something that you WANT to do until you have the proper flash_image file and recovery image working. I mentioned this as you said that you had no recovery image when you boot (power plus X) when you turn the phone on. Have you prehaps used some portion of the Root Helper Ap? I am not sure where to jump in here, as I am not sure exactly how you got to where you are at, and can you confirm that you do not have any recovery menu?
ok.. where do I start. First thing I did, was root the phone. it worked with no issues. Next I downloaded an overclocking app (which i havn't used) and a terminal emulator app. With the terminal emulator, I made sure I had root access by typing "su" it asked to allow root access. next I did some reading up what I could do with a rooted phone. I wanted to tackle the wi-fi tethering hack, but decided first that a back-up would be appropriate. Next I downloaded the flash, and image files from "http://wiki.droid-devs.com/index.php?title=Software:Images#Install_Recovery_Rom" . I created a folder under C/Android and extracted the flash file to that folder. I now put the image file to that folder (which showed an error with WinZip, I figured it was winzip as I downloaded the same file from a couple different sources and all showed the same error) I copied both of these files to the root of the sd card. not knowing about ADB and SDK. I assumed you just opened the terminal emulator and typed in the command found here "http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-hacks/8526-custom-recovery-image.html" Steps 1-13. it did nothing the first couple times I tried, so I figured I typed something wrong. the 3rd time it showed like it was doing something (like a DOS batch process) and when I shut it off and tried to get into what i thought would be my new recovery menu, I got absolutely nothing, no menu, no nothing. So this is where i currently stand. The phone and all apps still work perfectly, however, no recovery image menu. I did get my computer to recognize my phone using SDK and was able to get the droid emulator up and running. that's as far as i've gotten with SDK so far. I'm not sure how to proceed with ADB nor re-flashing the image? or what image to flash, or where to get it.... I must sound like an idiot...lol just trying to learn all this stuff... i flashed my old phone for anonymous tethering, so i figured this should be similar... i've been mistaken.. any help is needed...
Berzerker took the time at sholes to create a write up on the image flashing, including links and files to do so. He has it in a thread here on this forum. This should get you both going:
It sounds like you have managed to do some things to the phone properly, but have managed to not yet get the correct flash image/recovery working. The link above will get you to a proper plashed image. The two files needed are the flash_image binary executable file, and the 0.0.15 recovery image. Both are in the link, and you will be jumping into the instructions part way down, where it talks of downloading the files, and adb pusing them to the phone. You should be in good shape. Just make sure you get the sp recovery working and a couple of backups before getting wild and crazy with new roms.
UC,
Your image of the bcdmrs looks about right. You have data in all of the recovery partitions. Just so you understand, these files are images of your phone, at the time you made the recovery. I would suggest playing with the recovery module (power with "x") and perhaps making additional copies of your recovery using the advanced naming feature. And perhaps get comfortable so that as you try other things with your phone, make new images with labels clarifying what has been changed for the new recovery image. Or at least keep a paper or notepad log of whatever changes you make to the phone by date, and use the auto-backup (which tags by date) to keep track of what changes are contained within which recovery image.
Craig
edit: Forgot to add that although I use Winzip at times, the 7Zip program is free for download at their website, and is easier to use and see what is going on. Enable hidden files and/or show extensions and you can avoid the dreaded filename.zip.zip.
i shoouldn't run this everytime i make a change to the phone though right? like if i install a new theme with that metamorph program i wouldn't have to go into recovery everytime and make a new image would i??
or would this work best when installing new roms and possibly bricking the phone
Welllllll, that is kinda your call. In my perfect world, I would have a recovery to take me back to all important change steps in the phone. Absolutely before installing any new Roms. probably before messing with themes, res apks and such. It only takes a few minutes to do, and you can move them off your card if space is at a premium. Keep them organized on your computer, and you will always have them if you need them.
Right now none of the new roms are 100%. And no one is gonna be able to guarantee you with 100% certainty that any current rom is gonna work perfectly with your phone, or your collection of aps, or your pop emails, or the way you might tether, etc etc. There is just so little downside to making backups before the next big step.
so whenever i finally get tethering to work, i can make a backup of when i got that to work..or whenever i get this theme program to work, i make a new backup, so if my phone bricks, i can go back to whichever one of those that i want back....
Yes, that is the idea. Got your phone working exactly how you like it. Back it up before the next big move. Otherwise if you only have the old backup from step 1 before you made steps 2, 3 and 4, if step 5 wrecks the phone you would want to go back to step 4, not necessaily step 1.
This ain't my idea, windows has restore points. I just go back to the earliest days of dos, where we learned pretty quick that we needed to control our backups. That and I am just pretty anal about backing up in general.