Breaking your phones by tinkering ....

[miffed]

Whew , what a couple of weeks I have had !

Started off with the SGS2 , Rooting , flashing kernels etc , nearly killed it (well documented on here )
Then , also reported on here , I decided to force my HTC 7 Pro to update to mango , again , some hairy moments ....

Then , yesterday I got fed up with the Yellow triangle at boot on my SGS2 - (flashes up on the boot screen to notify you you're running an insecure kernel (i.e. rooted) .... Only flashing the kernel killed the phone ! - I have brought it back from the dead though now , and after a day of running the stock ROM , I gave up and rooted / CM7.1'd it again ! :cool:

and then today .... despite the fact that it's generally accepted the GM of iOS5 is the same as the launched version , I felt the urge to get the official one on the iPhone -

Far too much detail to go into - but I thought I had totally kiiled the iP4 no less than 3 times !

Light at the end of the tunnel came when I was able to get 4.3.3 booted , but only via redsnow (tethered Jailbroken !) ... but with no radio working , and then performed a normal restore from there !!

So , is this all good or bad ? , Much as I got pretty frustrated by these adventures , it is nice to have a crash course in revival and "first aid" for these phones , I am now far more confident in solving problems on all of them , OK so I suppose that makes me more likely to tinker.... and maybe if I didn't tinker I'd have less problems ...... but hey where is the fun in that :D

[gorilla]

I'm with you, it's all good harmless fun as long as you know what you're doing!
I'm at the stage with Android that I feel it's pretty impossible to actually break the phone beyond repair.
The scariest part (I feel) is the initial root. Once you get past this, you really shouldn't have many problems (only self inflicted ones ;))

The advent vega that I have is billed as being unbrickable but I'm finding more and more than Android is better supported on windows than Mac. I had to root the SG2 on a PC and now I can't get a modded stock rom onto the vega with the Mac. I don't have a windows PC anymore.

I think over all we are seeing how much the smartphone has developed and how mainstream 'tinkering' has become, since the early days when we'd install Nokia firmware as opposed to operator firmware.

What annoys me is people who buy Androids and then moan about operator firmware and how difficult they are to use. This also applies to Apple fanboys.
Why buy a smartphone if you are not prepared to learn how to properly use it. This reminds me of people who use PC's at work. You know the people: "How do you do this in [insert programme]" You don't know how to copy and paste? You have a Masters degree. Ok.

At least the people who use this forum or search it for help are trying to get the most out of their phone.
And we're happy to help BTW! :)

[Ben]

This amused me rather :p

I actually broke my iPhone 4 last night in the iOS 5 frenzy when the Apple authentication servers were hard to reach. It got stuck in restore mode, but after rebooting itself several times it came back into iOS 4. Nice knowing it's all backed up though, and at no point was I worried that the phone itself was bricked.

Was a right pain trying (many times) to get past the verification stage of installing iOS 5, though. I did the iPad 2 this morning once everything had quietened down and it all happened first time. Typical! Why didn't I just wait until today? *rolleyes*

[miffed]

This amused me rather :p


Typical! Why didn't I just wait until today? *rolleyes*


^^^ Thoughts like this always pop up ! , usually shortly after when things stop going to plan :D

I agree about the Android / PC thing Gorilla ! Rooting the SGS2 was simply not an option on the mac , in fact updating the firmware was beyond a mac too.
I no longer have a Bootcamp installation on any of my macs , I have a Vista Ultimate Virtual box installation (I no longer own Vista Ultimate though , so shouldn't really use it ) - sure enough when I tried it declared my installation "illigeal" - still works though , although it is pointless as it doesn't seem to recognise my USB stuff very well

So , I am pondering a cheap laptop / netbook - solely for Android / WP7 purposes !

I suppose the other option is Bootcamp and buying a copy of windows , but frankly I don't like having a BC installation of windows on my mac ! people leave it booted to windows and it annoys me !

But yes , it does seem a PC is required for this kind of messing around !.

[DaveC]

Now that you have rooted your SGS2 just install ROM Manager. No need to put it near a computer again.

All my updates have been done that way. It will back up everything for you before installing the new ROM.

Use Titanium backup if you want to be doubly sure

[Hands0n]

Gosh. Where to start?

Windows vs Mac
I use an "old" Samsung NC10 Netbook that has Win 7 on it and works a treat, albeit a bit slow most of the time. And thats all well and good if you have spare PC kit hanging around the place, which I tend to have a lot of as I am a bit of a gatherer.

So if you're a regular hack of smartphones, as others have said above, you are going to need Windows to have the easiest ride. I find a useful place to get cheap laptops with a Windows OS on them is Big Pockets who have some marvellous deals from time to time, and generally have a laptop to suit all pockets ( http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/cat.php?search=Laptops&nav=227 )

iOS 5 Update
Mine went like a dream. I got home at 6:30, jacked in the iPhone first and then went about my business. Returning about 30 mins later I found that my Mac Mini had crashed. Everything was frozen, image on screen, but nothing happening at all. I've never seen that before! So a power cycle later I restarted the update and left it while I went away and fiddled around with rooting my SGS2 (more on that in a moment). About 2-1/2 hours later I nipped back into the study to find the iPhone 4 all happy and warm with its new '5 version installed. It was all flawless and worked fine.

I then popped the iPad on and left it cooking into the early hours. This morning it, too, was fully loaded and working absolutely fine.

I've a few Lion installs to do and then sort out the iCloud stuff to get the ecosystem back into sync. That will go on over the next week or so.

Android (SGS2)
After reading miffed's experiences with the SGS2 I did rather fear the worst. But a day before the SGS2 arrived from the eBay seller I installed Kies into Windows 7 on the NC10, plus Odin and S2 Root. I also picked up an insecure and kosher kernel in preparation. At this point I had myself my "SGS2 root and rom kit" ready, almost. I did this working off the instructions and links on the CNet website --> http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobile-phones/how-to-root-your-samsung-galaxy-s2-50004972/

I did spend quite a bit of time seeking out Mac software, but there really isn't anything of worth out there, unless you want to have an experience akin to rubbing sand in your eyes. I chose not to.

There is a bit of a knack to rooting and ROMming the SGS2 - its all about having the right kernel that also contains the Recovery ROM, unlike other makes of Android smartphone. I went through a series of installing the insecure kernel, then from Android Market Clockwork Recovery ROM that promptly disappeared when rebooting the device. Eventually I found a kernel that had the Clockwork Recovery ROM built in and from there it has been plain sailing - as long as you don't mind having that yellow triangle icon when booting the handset. Instructions and links are here --> http://www.inspiredgeek.com/2011/06/16/install-clockworkmod-4-0-0-2-cwm-recovery-for-samsung-galaxy-s2-ii-how-to/

Why Clockwork? Well, for starters, the paid for version, less than a pint of beer, allows OTA installs of a fair number of Android ROMs, including Cyanogen CM7 . It makes the entire process a complete breeze, never having to go near a PC again. Well, thats the theory, that so far works well enough.

Just remember, if you flash a secure kernel back you will end up with the standard SGS2 Recovery ROM that works fine, but is limited in comparison to Clockwork.

So today, Thursday, I spent a little time installing CM7.1, it was quite uneventful. Don't forget to download a copy of Gapps or you won't get the Google Market and associated apps that come as stock with over the counter Android smartphones. All you do is flash gapps.zip after you've installed CM7.1. After that it is all about customising the SGS2 to your own preference.

It is all jolly good fun, even the scary times when you think you've bricked your £400 smartphone, which you really haven't :)

[miffed]

Now that you have rooted your SGS2 just install ROM Manager. No need to put it near a computer again.

All my updates have been done that way. It will back up everything for you before installing the new ROM.

Use Titanium backup if you want to be doubly sure


Yes mate I do use ROM manager premium and agree it makes life SOOOO much easier ! Trouble is , its not compatible (apparently ?) with the CF-Root kernel I used to root - for this reason Chainfire included a CWM Manager app , that does similar things , trouble is , for some reason it didn't flash CWM recovery properly , so on a reboot you only got to the stock recovery - yet you could enter the CWM recovery if you booted into it from the app - Heres my bullet point saga

1) downloaded and installed CM7 from CWM Manager app / wiped everything from CWM

2) Phone then would not boot or go into recovery - just a boot cycle , so pulled battery

3) Held home , vol up & power through 3-4 boot cycles , this eventual breaks the boot cycle and goes into a BLUE version of CWM !

4) Wiped everything from there and rebooted

CM7 BOOTS UP !!!

5) Now the phone is running a Kernel that IS compatible with ROM manager , install it , and use it to flash the latest CWM recovery

6) Now the SGS2 boots to the Orange CWM Recovery - job done and the phone is in a state I am familiar with ! (Although as you say , I have ROM manager - but I don't like the idea that I can't get into recovery manually too)


Not sure why step 2 happens , or why step 3 fixes it ..... and I only stumbled on step 3 out of desperation (haven't seen this advised anywhere !)

After the simplicity of the Nexus S , I was quite taken by surprise here - but all is good now !

[Hands0n]

@miffed - try this kernel next time, it has CWM Recovery built in. The kernel is insecure, so you get the yellow triangle, but it keeps it all simple http://www.inspiredgeek.com/2011/06/16/install-clockworkmod-4-0-0-2-cwm-recovery-for-samsung-galaxy-s2-ii-how-to/

Unless, of course, someone has found a way of putting back the secure kernel without losing CWM