Categories
Google Hardware

Yard Sale: Nexus 6

Nexus 6

  • Details
  • New device from end of September (used for one month; I’ve owned a N6 for a longer time, but due to a battery problem, Google swapped it for a brand new device; then I swapped to a Nexus 6P)
  • Midnight Blue edition
  • 64Gb
  • 4G and stuff (side note: reception & signal is a million times better than a Nexus 5)
  • You do of course receive the Moto TurboPower charger with it
  • Bought via Google Play store (comes with warranty, support, etc), original phone bought July 2015, so plenty of warranty left
  • No scratches or anything
  • Comes with Android 6
  • Selling because I own a Nexus 6P
  • Price: offer
  • 2dehands

Includes original packaging/boxes.

Email: [email protected]

IMG_20160716_113744  IMG_20160716_113752

Categories
Errors Google Hardware

Nexus 5: boot loop

I had a Nexus 5 stuck in a boot loop (Android logo/animation in a loop, not actually booting).

This is what I think I’ve done to fix the issue. It seemed that /persist partition was corrupt. I tried a factory reset, flash new stock images, and clear cache, etc before trying the following.

Note that I managed to boot Android 4.4, but nothing else; it did throw a shit load of errors though (Google Play crashes, etc).

First of all, get ADB & Fastboot here. You’ll also need an hex editor (mac).

This will unlock your phone’s OEM mode; and thus potentially voiding warranty and erasing all data (!).

Edit file paths as needed, this is a copy paste of what I can still see on my terminal.

If you know your device’s WiFi MAC & Bluetooth address that’ll be useful for later, as apparently that gets wiped.

Boot into recovery boot by turning off your device and then holding the power + volume down button.

$ ./fastboot-mac oem unlock
... OKAY

Flash openrecovery (TWRP):

./fastboot flash recovery ../openrecovery-twrp-2.8.5.2-hammerhead.img
sending 'recovery' (13918 KB)... OKAY
writing 'recovery'... OKAY

Boot into recovery mode (using volume buttons) from the recovery boot. ADB should work now. This will find a bunch of errors and destroy the partition.

nazgul ~/Android $ ./adb-mac shell

~ # e2fsck /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist
e2fsck 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013)
Superblock has an invalid journal (inode 8).
Clear<y>? y
yes
*** ext3 journal has been deleted - filesystem is now ext2 only ***
Superblock has_journal flag is clear, but a journal inode is present.
Clear<y>? yes
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist was not cleanly unmounted, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Journal inode is not in use, but contains data. Clear<y>?
yes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
Block bitmap differences: -(75--1098)
Fix<y>?
yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #0 (2972, counted=3996).
Fix<y>?
yes
Free blocks count wrong (2972, counted=3996).
Fix<y>?
yes
Recreate journal<y>?
yes
Creating journal (1024 blocks): Done.
*** journal has been re-created - filesystem is now ext3 again ***
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist: 30/1024 files (3.3% non-contiguous), 1124/4096 blocks

~ # e2fsck /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist
e2fsck 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013)
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist: clean, 30/1024 files, 1124/4096 blocks

~ # make_ext4fs /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist
Creating filesystem with parameters:
Size: 16777216
Block size: 4096
Blocks per group: 32768
Inodes per group: 1024
Inode size: 256
Journal blocks: 1024
Label:
Blocks: 4096
Block groups: 1
Reserved block group size: 7
Created filesystem with 11/1024 inodes and 1102/4096 blocks
Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

So far, so good. Persist partition was corrupt and recreated.

The original howto (see below) said root (su) was needed here; however it worked without root for me (?).

Download this file (kudos to whoever made it) and unrar it. Use your hex editor to edit last 6 digits (“00 00 00”) to a valid hex value, or even better, your actual MAC address if you can remember/find it.

Now upload these two (hidden) files to /sdcard/:

nazgul ~/Android $ ./adb-mac push .bdaddr /sdcard/.bdaddr
0 KB/s (6 bytes in 0.078s)
nazgul ~/Android $ ./adb-mac push .macaddr /sdcard/.macaddr
1 KB/s (6 bytes in 0.004s)

And run these commands:

nazgul ~/Android $ ./adb-mac shell
~ # su
/sbin/sh: su: not found
~ # cd /persist
/persist # ls
/persist # mkdir bluetooth wifi
/persist # chown bluetooth:system ./bluetooth
/persist # chmod 770 ./bluetooth
/persist # ls
bluetooth
wifi
/persist # cp /sdcard/.bdaddr /persist/bluetooth
/persist # chown bluetooth:system ./bluetooth/.bdaddr
/persist # chmod 660 ./bluetooth/.bdaddr
/persist # chown wifi:system ./wifi
/persist # chmod 770 ./wifi
/persist # cp /sdcard/.macaddr /persist/wifi
/persist # chown wifi:system ./wifi/.macaddr
/persist # chmod 660 ./wifi/.macaddr
/persist # rm /sdcard/.bdaddr
/persist # rm /sdcard/.macaddr
/persist # reboot

Go back into recovery boot and flash Android (I flashed 4.4 first, made sure it worked, and then flashed 6.0.1 (latest at this time); but you can probably flash latest version right away. Also unzip the zip file with all the images inside the .tar.gz — we’ll need the files later:

nazgul ~/Downloads/hammerhead-mmb29k.6 $ ./flash-all.sh
sending 'bootloader' (3120 KB)... OKAY
writing 'bootloader'... OKAY
rebooting into bootloader... OKAY
sending 'radio' (45425 KB)... OKAY
writing 'radio'... OKAY
rebooting into bootloader... OKAY
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'
archive does not contain 'system.sig'
--------------------------------------------
Bootloader Version...: HHZ12k
Baseband Version.....: M8974A-2.0.50.2.28
Serial Number........: 0644c9920b105eb5
--------------------------------------------
checking product... OKAY
checking version-bootloader... OKAY
checking version-baseband... OKAY
sending 'boot' (9154 KB)... OKAY
writing 'boot'... OKAY
sending 'recovery' (10012 KB)... OKAY
writing 'recovery'... OKAY
sending 'system' (1020405 KB)... OKAY
writing 'system'... OKAY
erasing 'userdata'... OKAY
erasing 'cache'... OKAY
rebooting...

Note that it won’t actually boot yet, so go back into recovery boot, and flash userdata and cache (not sure why they go missing or get entirely erased):

nazgul ~/Downloads/hammerhead-mmb29k.6 $ ./fastboot flash userdata image-hammerhead-mmb29k/userdata.img
sending 'userdata' (137318 KB)... OKAY
writing 'userdata'... OKAY
nazgul ~/Downloads/hammerhead-mmb29k.6 $ ./fastboot flash cache image-hammerhead-mmb29k/cache.img
sending 'cache' (13348 KB)... OKAY
writing 'cache'... OKAY

Execute a normal boot now, and wait 5 to 10 minutes.

Android should boot up normally now.

You can also OEM lock your phone again, if you wish (but a sticky bit has been set).

I’ve followed these forum posts.

Categories
Google Hardware Misc

Yard Sale: Nexus 6 & Nexus 9

For sale:

Nexus 9

  • Details
  • White edition
  • 16Gb
  • No 3/4G
  • bought via Amazon UK, comes with UK charger, in May 2015
  • Comes with latest Android (6)
  • Pretty much as new. Barely used to be honest.
  • Selling because I don’t see the point of owning a tablet (I’ve tried, a Nexus 7, and now this, but nah)
  • Available: yesterday 🙂
  • Price: offer

Nexus 6

  • Details
  • New device from end of September (just over a month old; I’ve owned a N6 for a longer time, but due to a battery problem, Google swapped it for a brand new device)
  • Midnight Blue edition
  • 64Gb
  • 4G and stuff (side note: reception & signal is a million times better than a Nexus 5)
  • You do of course receive the Moto TurboPower charger with it
  • Bought via Google Play store (comes with warranty, support, etc), original phone bought July 2015, so plenty of warranty left
  • No scratches or anything
  • Comes with Android 6
  • Selling because I want a Nexus 6P
  • Available: when I receive my Nexus 6P (2? more weeks?)
  • Price: offer

Both include original packaging/boxes.

Mail me at: yeri+nexus @ tiete.be

Categories
Google Hardware

Nexus 5 LCD swap

I had two Nexus 5 with cracked LCDs.

I got these from China, including the Bezel (~$5 more expensive, and doesn’t make you have to fizzle around with a heat gun to detach the old LCD — but you’ll have to work from the backside, and remove all hardware components).

IMG-20150923-WA0011
As for the LCD itself, it works well so far (touch, colours), but the finishing is of lesser quality (molding isn’t the same, the black paint is a bit too light near the audio & camera holes), less to none anti static tape, LCD components don’t seem to be the same, or the protection is fairly different. So quite sure this isn’t an official LG LCD.

All in all changing the LCD was fairly easy and straight forward. Be careful removing the back pane (plastic), the small little feet break off easily. And as usual, be careful when removing the battery, it’s glued with two-faced tape, and you don’t want to damage it.

You do need to dismantle most of the phone, but if you pay attention it’s really easy to do. Swapping the LCD can be done in 20ish minutes while taking your time.


IMG_20150923_222458 IMG_20150923_222501
IMG_20150923_222811
IMG_20150923_224316 IMG_20150923_224636
IMG_20150923_224646 IMG_20150923_225613 IMG_20150923_225609
IMG_20150923_231457 IMG_20150923_231508

Categories
Google Hardware

Nexus 6

After 10 days of Nexus 6… And it already falling out of my pocket when I got out of the car (it survived, but it’s scratched on the sides)…

All I can say is: I WANT MY NEXUS 5 BAAAAAAAAACK.

So when N5 2015 is released, I’ll have a Nexus 6 for sale!

Why did I switch?

  • GPS fucked
  • Battery fucked (recharging 2-3x per day)

Comments about the Nexus 6 plus sides:

  • big display & resolution is fun,
  • it is smooth & fast,
  • it does last the day,
  • The OLED display light up is really fun (e-ink style), but I wonder how many battery it actually drains and it’s usually too short to actually check what notification came in

Downsides:

  • I can’t type with one hand
  • I almost dropped my phone a bazillion times attempting to type with one hand … My right thumb doesn’t reach letter A/Q buttons
  • The back is curved, it’s thus impossible to put the phone down on a table, and for example pulling down the notification list with only one hand (the phone starts spinning and moving)
  • The latex-ish build of the Nexus 5 was really really really cool. The N6 is regular hard plastic.

Holding my N5 now feels kinda cute-sy and small.