Did I kill it?

[cwilson066]

All the advice not to go screwing around without a good backup? Well, I SORT OF listened...

I rooted, got Titanium Backup, Root Explorer, Root Tools going. THEN I decided to see if I could remove a few random system apps using Root Tools, just to see what would happen. After all, it's taking a backup first, right?

No, I didn't keep a list of what I had removed. If I were bright enough to make lists like that, I'd be bright enough not to get myself into situations like this.

I rebooted, and started getting "The Application Test Messaging (process com.motorola.converations) has stopped working unexpectedly. Please try again." There are a few other applications that don't work, and the phone looks to have lost my Google account settings.

I figure I'll just use Root Explorer to move the apk's from where Root Tools had backed them up, back into /system/apps. Didn't help.

So - I figure a factory reset will take care of it, right? BAD MOVE. NOW, I can't even get past the initial configuration screen. I "Touch the Android to begin" and get "Sorry! The application My Accounts (process com.motorola.setup) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again." Yea, well, try again yields the same results. I can't get adb to work from the (Windows) desktop, either, although all I have tried is just to connect the phone via USB in PC mode. It wouldn't shock me if the factory reset turned USB debug mode off, say.

Any one have any suggestions? Aside from my being a warning to others?


Thanks,
Chad

 

[dazoe]

The factory reset was the worst part, as I was reading I was thinking even tho things were force closing left and right adb should still work. But after the factory reset. Yes it resets usb debugging as well as untrusted source apps. I don't know much about the fast boot thing but that might be a way to get in and fix some things.

Sent from my DROID3

 

[guidot]

Sounds like you did a number on it.

I would head over to XDA and read the threads there and see if you can do anything with fastboot. I doubt it as there is no sbf to flash ATM.

 

[cwilson066]

Thanks for the info. I WAS able to fastboot, but work has USB devices locked out, so I won't be able to try anything until this evening.

Under the assumption that all I did was follow the rooting instructions and remove a couple system apps, I'm guessing that I either messed up /data/local.prop or removed an important file from /system/app. Could someone please post a directory listing of /system/app, and the contents of /data/local.prop, just in case I'm able to get to the file system? And if anyone has any other suggestions as to what I could try, I'd appreciate it!


Thanks,
Chad

 

[wuwtk]

I did the same exact thing as OP unfortunately... I feel like such an idiot. Well if anybody is able to help it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[cwilson066]

I did the same exact thing as OP unfortunately... I feel like such an idiot. Well if anybody is able to help it would be greatly appreciated.

Any chance you can run adb? If so, can you fastboot your phone (hold volume down while you press the power button; it'll boot to a back screen with a little white writing) and see if adb can see your phone's file system? If so, maybe we can beg/borrow/steal the files we shouldn't have deleted from someone who didn't break their phone. Also, did you create the backup file of /data/local.prop? Can you mv the backup file back, see if a typo in that is the problem?


Thanks,
Chad

 

[wuwtk]

I rooted the phone using the script that was written, so I will look up on how to get adb setup and certainly try and see what I am missing or deleted. And sadly I did not backup that file

 

[dazoe]

Local.prop at least for me was changed back to normal by the phone on reboot... you most likely removed a system app that was needed.

Sent from my DROID3

 

[wuwtk]

Well as long as we can get the fastboot working, which i still have to test, there is a system dump available and we should be able to plug in all the missing programs... I hope.

 

[cwilson066]

I wasn't able to get to the phone w/ADB, but I haven't really taken the time to try to figure it out yet (you know, since the whole try-it-and-see-what-happens thing has been working so well for me on this...) I'll spend some time tomorrowon XDA, see what can learn.

Thanks,
Chad

 

[cwilson066]

Progress?

Well, I may have made some progress; I have adb access back!

Here's what I did (sorry, I can't 100% verify the steps, I kind of blundered into this by accident).


1. Get out of Setup by tapping Upper left, upper right,lower right,lower left (I got this from XDA, I think, can't find the page again, sorry for not giving full credit).
2. If there's a Wifi network nearby, you'll get the Wifi icon in the status bar. Drag the status bar down and click the icon to set up Wifi.
3. Let it sit for a little while, Backup Assistant will come up. Click the web link for help.
4. That'll open the browser. In the browser, go to market.android.com. Download Launcher Pro (or any other launcher, I guess, I use Launcher Pro).
5. You'll have to set up your Google account on your phone. I turned off "sync phone with Google account." Eventually, it'll download the Launcher.
6. Click the home button. It'll ask if you want to use Launcher Pro (or whatever) or Setup. Chose Launcher Pro.
7. You'll get to the Android desktop (or home screen, or whatever you like to call it).
8. Go into settings, turn USB debugging back on.
9. The phone is still kind of broken; I get FC from dialer, contacts, etc. BUT THERE'S HOPE!

Any chance there's a Good Sameterian out there who'll post the output from adb shell "ls -a /system/app" so I can compare with my phone, in the hope that I can figure out which app I removed?

I also hope to get some time to look at the system logs (aLogCat) to see if maybe I can learn something there.

AND - suggestions welcome!


Thanks to all!


Regards,
Chad

 

[blackbelt27]

Try installing a home launcher from the market on your computer, it should go to home, got me out of the same problem

*edit

ah, nevermind,

 

[wuwtk]

Hope!
Replacing uninstalled bloat APKs - xda-developers

 

[wuwtk]

I have some really good news, I soft bricked my phone a little while ago because I was an idiot with deleting my apps and did exactly what the OP of this thread did. I needed my phone and was going to activate the insurance and pay the deductible when I figured I might as well try what I found in this threadDev Server OTA File: USE CAUTION IF YOU'RE ROOTED - xda-developers. I wiped the cache and data and applied this through the recovery mode and My phone is fully operational now. I can access my contacts, texts, setup accounts and not one force close yet. Now for disclosure I am probably very lucky this worked for me, try at your own risk. I am way to scared to try and root it again until I get a proper backup or I see enough people try it themselves with no issues.

edit: Found one glitch, dont know if its my specific phone or not. But if wifi is on and you receive an e-mail the notification light will not go on, if wifi is off it will... Very minor bug though.

 

[cwilson066]

Success!!!

OK, thanks to the update, I've managed to bring my D3 back to life - but not like you'd expect.

I went to apply the update, and it wasn't able to, because the CRC check for a file (it happened to be /system/framework.blur-res.apk, for those of you keeping track on the home version of our game) failed. So I went here to get a copy of the Droid 3 system dump, found that file, put it onto my D3 (that file did not exist on my phone), and restarted.

AND IT WORKED.

So - something I did wiped out my blur-res.apk file. Once I put that file back, my phone was working again.

I chose NOT to apply the update (YET!) because I figure I've done enough damage for one day (well, more like a week...)

Thanks to all for the help. Good luck to all still working to restore their phone....


Chad