16 replies to this topic

[finndo77]

Ok, so my warranty replacement phone has arrived (LG Spectrum out, Moto Razr HD in) the sticket on the phone says it has 9.8.1Q39 - here is my problem:
1. the LG Spectrum uses a mini SIM
2. the Moto Razr HD uses a micro SIM
3. I don't feel comfortable cutting the mini SIM because my LG is being replaced because it EATS SIM cards (don't want to curse my HD!)
4. I did not get anything but the phone handset in the box
5. I plugged the phone into my computer and received this message (my wife has a Droid 4)



6. I only have one car right now, since my wife totaled hers back in Dec. (did not get a new one as I work from home and do not really need one)
7. my wife is at work now and again all day tomorrow (leaves me at home with our 17 month old daughter, before anyone complains about safety with a small child and no car, the fire station, a big one with 8 assorted vehicles, a full EMT crew and all, is literally close enough to throw a baseball at, and hit the building, or at least the parking lot.)
8. so I have limited time to get anything done in the next 48 hours
9. my wife said we can go to verizon when she gets home and grab something to eat while we are out (this means I have less than 3 hours to root the phone or lose root, possibly forever)
10. previous experience tells me when they see the phone and get me a SIM card, they will power it on and update it, if an update is available.
11. did I mention I am a wee bit paranoid and not very trusting of people to do the smart thing when given a choice? (this includes myself of course)

So, I tried powering the phone on to work with it, as I will need to install and activate OTA Root keeper before entering the VZ store. I get to select my language, then it tells me this device will not work with out a SIM card, power off and insert a SIM card, then try again. I have two choices, "emergency call" and "power off" the notification bar will not pull down, the recent apps button tells me no previous apps, home doesn't work, back does nothing (except from the emergency phone app, returns to the power off/emergency call screen.)

Anyone have any ideas? sucks I got a handset without the 4.1.2 update and I have no way to prevent it from being applied before I can root.

Can I root the phone without ever finishing the setup (unable to enable debugging?), adb rename the setup.apk so if fails to run on first boot, then install root keeper and follow the instructions here:

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- topic/13644-keep-root-and-ability-to-downgrade/
??????


I'll wait about an hour and a half for suggestions, then start that process and see if it works... I'll post any useful updates after I get back from Verizon. (I did think about going in the store without the phone and see if they will "give" me a SIM card... but if that fails, then I look like I am trying something when I go back out and get the phone... They already know I know WAY more about Android than 90% of the people that come in their store and more than 1/2 the employees too. Side note on that, I've talked with almost half the employees there and all are familiar with rooting, and using the windows manufacturer apps to factory restore the phones, even the names of the various manufacturers applications to do so... Not to mention the store manager roots every device he gets I guess I could just explain why I don't want the update installed...)


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update 1
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searching for a root method that I can use without debugging is like looking for a grain of salt in a fresh water lake...
what about using fastboot.exe? anyone know any way I could use that to push an already rooted system image to the phone? anyone have an already rooted system image with OTA Root keeper installed and activated?

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update 2
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Called the store to ask if my wife could pick the SIM up on her way home, answer "No, you need to bring the phone to us"
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update 3
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is it possible to put the phone in "Fastboot mode" and access it via ADB without having changed any OS settings?
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update 4
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It was "apply update from ADB" a "new" feature from google with Jellybean
reference:

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better info on ADB Sideload:

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it looks like you can push any android install .zip (ie roms, or rom mods)

does this help anyone with any ideas? maybe a stock rooted rom?
or an update zip that roots the phone?
some interesting ideas come to mind, but no freaking clue if any are viable.

[Memnoch73]

I'm exhausted from reading that. I don't understand why you just can't tell the guy not to do the update when installing your sim. You'll be standing right there...

[finndo77]

I have on other occasions gone in for issues and they take the phone to the back and then 10 minutes later bring it back out and say all done, especially when they are busy, and this location (the only official verizon store in a 1hr drive) frequently has as many as 10 people waiting for assistance. Also, they normally take the phone and power it on and do what every they want to with it and you have no clue until they hand it back. There are a lot of varying uncontrollable factors that could prevent me from stopping an employee from installing the update. I would like to be prepared and not have to worry about it, if possible

[Memnoch73]

There is no root method through fastboot

ADB is only when booted into the OS

[finndo77]

There is no root method through fastboot

ADB is only when booted into the OS

question on that, I booted into the stock recovery and selected recovery, then the sub menu item that says something about using ADB, It gives me an Android on his side with the red triangle, and a message in yellow "now send the package you want to apply to the device with "adb sideload <filename>" ...

nothing I can do from there?

[Memnoch73]

question on that, I booted into the stock recovery and selected recovery, then the sub menu item that says something about using ADB, It gives me an Android on his side with the red triangle, and a message in yellow "now send the package you want to apply to the device with "adb sideload <filename>" ...

nothing I can do from there?

I got nothing man... Never seen or used that. Sorry.

[finndo77]

as far as I've gotten so far...
adb devices

List of devices attached
TA64801DTL host

anyone have a clue? I've never seen "host" as a status before. it is letting me sideload something, any ideas on what I could put in there? I think I just need to get past the setup.apk so I can root, then put it back...

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update
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* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached
TA64801DTL sideload

a step in the right direction?

every adb command returns "error: closed" (except sideload, still trying to figure out what I can do with that)

[treraypop]

you should be able to bypass that welcome screen by pressing the top four corners from left to right, however it takes a lot of times to get it done. I have heard that enabling airplane mode helps too. I do this when I want to throw a phone up on display so customers can interact with it. Just a thought and additionally, you should be able to call customer service maybe and have them just ship you a sim card, not the fastest method but if you really don't want to go to the store...

Edit: I should really have said to press the four corners of the screen, in a clockwise motion, as there aren't four top corners hah

[finndo77]

you should be able to bypass that welcome screen by pressing the top four corners from left to right, however it takes a lot of times to get it done. I have heard that enabling airplane mode helps too. I do this when I want to throw a phone up on display so customers can interact with it. Just a thought and additionally, you should be able to call customer service maybe and have them just ship you a sim card, not the fastest method but if you really don't want to go to the store...

Edit: I should really have said to press the four corners of the screen, in a clockwise motion, as there aren't four top corners hah

I've heard that before, or I would have asked...

I did not try it when I was there (will reboot and give it a shot in a moment though), as the notification bar is non-functional yet, so I (using previous experience on another device) believe that even if I skip out of the setup, the phone may not be functional afterwards. A previous try at that left me with a non-working home button, no notification pull down and I had to reflash the Rom in order to get it working again.

[finndo77]

I hate double posting, but do not want to update the OP any more as people may not be reading it now with other posts...


I have gotten somewhere...
I rebooted, then selected english and pressed start, the no sim/power off screen came up, and I tapped the top left corner of the screen, top right, bottom right, and then the softkeys "flashed" I only had "back" but the other two popped on, then went back off... I tried pulling down the notification bar and was able to get into settings and enable debug mode. I am trying to root now, but motofail2go is reporting exploit failed. tried 4 times...

[Memnoch73]

Ummm... yeah I'm thinking I should have mentioned this before but you cannot root JB you need to downgrade to ICS first. Sorry I'm an OG Razr guy that currently has a DNA.

[treraypop]

and as per matt's droid razr utility, you have to restore to ice cream sandwich first to root. I haven't restored back to ics recently but you should be able to use the utility without even bothering with bypassing the activation screen, remember *should*, im not 100%

Edit: You should be able to do the four corner method to bypass the welcome screen for sure on ics as well

[tech_head]

Download he utility.
Go back to ICS and follow the root instructions.
I rooted mine without a SIM when I got it.

[finndo77]

got it, trying now, thanks

[treraypop]

I'd also throw out there to make sure you install safestrap and a custom rom. You may get everything rooted and ready to go, but if you stay on the 9.1.41 version (version before the latest update) and just take it to the store they can still try and update it and which could break root. Like I said just throwing it out there, I know I'd be pretty pissed if I got everything up and running only for someone to mess it up

[finndo77]

Got ICS installed and rooted, safe strap and voodoo. If I force the ota from the xml.zip from recovery (changing the two getvar lines) will that prevent voodoo from restoring root?

I have a little extra time as we are eating first, I'd like to update it before getting to the store

[finndo77]

last update here,
4.1.2 installed and rooted, I did not get it done before I went in to Verizon, and I did update via OTA, not by pushing the files from my computer or using recovery mode. I managed to save myself in Verizon by being a pain in the butt (the reason why I have a Razr HD to begin with). I just never shut up, the entire time I was in the door. The manager heard my voice and came out of the back to tell the floor tech to "just get him a micro SIM so he can be on his way." I talked so much that while the employee was waiting for the person with the keys for the SIM cards to finish up with another customer, he just went up to her and stopped her in the middle of a sentence and told her he "needed the keys now." got the SIM, put it in, turned the phone on, waited for it to activate, then punched in the # code and hand me the phone. took 20 minutes, including my wait to be helped. (when the guy helping me came back with the SIM card he was all "did you see that? that is how you do it! I just told her that 'my man over here, he needs a micro SIM card and he needs it now' and BAM! there it was. Cuz, you know, I got tired of waiting on her." I guess being assertive is contagious...)

I was never out right rude, just never stopped talking, I'm not overly loud, but loud enough to carry... and frequently commented on the conversations that other employees were having with other customers. The retired couple standing next to me at the counter were laughing pretty hard by the time I left. (he was trying to get an older blackberry "fixed" so he wouldn't have to upgrade, and she was trying to get her ISP email contacts merged from her old phone on to an iPhone. I had a pretty good time of it all. Maybe not the best way to handle it, but it kept "in character" with my previous visits to that store, after the first time I waited 2 hours to get someone who could help me when my old phone "ate" its first SIM card.