How To Fix Unrooted HTC Desire USB Brick
A USB brick is the state where your Android device isn’t getting recognized by the computer via USB in ADB (USB debugging) mode or in normal mode while booted into Android. The cause for this is usually a messed up misc partition and once it happens, there is little you can do to fix any issues that may arise later. If your device is rooted, you can still fix many problems using a terminal app directly on your phone but in case you didn’t root the device prior to the USB brick, you are often left without any solutions as rooting several Android devices and especially those by HTC, Samsung etc. requires you to connect your phone to your computer via USB. Fortunately, this method helps you when you are stuck in such a fix.
We came across this method while going through a tread at XDA-Developers in which a user asked for help with his USB brick issue and leinad proposed the first few steps of this solution. We then asked him about the remaining steps and he responded with the complete instructions, mentioning that credit goes to Antubis from the French Android forum FrAndroid who originally posted the method in French which leinad translated for us.
Disclaimer: Please follow this guide at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be liable if your device gets damaged or completely bricked during the process.
Requirements:
- Fastboot (part of Android SDK) installed. For instructions on setting up fastboot, see our guide on how to install ADB & Android SDK.
- HTC Desire USB Unbrick Files (Download and extract the contents to your computer).
- Android Terminal Emulator app (Install from Android Market)
Procedure:
- Reboot your device into its bootloader (fastboot) mode and connect it to your computer via USB.
- Launch a Command Prompt window on your computer and enter this command:
fastboot oem enableqxdm 0
- On your phone, Go to Menu > Settings > About phone > Software information and note down the Kernel version that you see there. If you see more than just numbers, only note down the numbers e.g. 2.6.32.15.
- In the Command Prompt window on your computer, enter this command:
fastboot getvar cid
- Note down the CID that you get. It should be something similar to ‘HTC__022’.
- Visit
this site(unfortunately, the site is down and we can’t find an alternative) enter the CID from step 4 and the kernel version from step 3 as the ROM version, and click ‘OK’. This will generate an mtd0.img file and prompt you to download it. Save it somewhere you will remember. - Now connect your SD card to your computer using a card reader device or another phone, and transfer the extracted HTC Desire USB Unbrick files as well as this mtd0.img to it. Make sure the files are in the root of the SD card and not in any folder.
- Insert the SD card back into your phone.
- Launch Terminal Emulator on your phone and enter these commands:
cat /sdcard/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin > /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin cat /sdcard/flash_image > /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/flash_image cat /sdcard/mtd0.img > /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/mtd0.img cd /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/ chmod 755 rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin flash_image /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
In case your phone seems to crash or shows erratic behavior, ignore it for now.
- Completely quit Terminal Emulator: First press the ‘Home’ button and then go to Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > All, find ‘Terminal Emulator’ there and tap ‘Force Stop’.
- Launch Terminal Emulator again. This time, you should see a # prompt instead of $, indicating you have achieved temporary root access necessary for the next step.
- Enter these commands in Terminal Emulator:
cd /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/ ./flash_image misc mtd0.img
- Finally, reboot your phone and you’re done.
That’s all there is to it – your USB brick issue should now be fixed.
[via XDA-Developers]
i got a Htc Inspire 4g everytime i try to bootit it just vibrate about 7 times then nuttin else can someone help me to resolve this problem please..
couldn’t launch terminal emulator on phone (step 9), any other ways , Please?
I cannot even get fastboot to give me my CID
Hi guys,
Even though this says it is for an unrooted phone it does not work for me. I have been trying for the past 12 hours on a USB Bricked unrooted HTC Desire.
My main issue is
cat /sdcard/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin > /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
returns
cat /sdcard/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin : permission deniedI have tried many different forums, solutions to no avail. Please let me know if there is any solution. I think this is due to access issues to the SDCARD. It is either not detected or no permission to access it.Thanks a million in advance 🙂
Hi the site you mention in step 6 is not working any more. Is there any alternative method for this?
Step 1 …”connect it to your computer via USB.” If I can’t fucking use my usb how can I solve my problem by using my problem ?
It works on a Desire s ?, please, I have 1 month searching for a solution 😀
Quit the terminal Emulator, stop it (Menu>settings>applications>manage applications>terminal emulator>force stop) then relaunch it (you should see a # character indicating you have temp root access)
I have exacly problem. My emulator not run. I see black or white screen, or nothing hapen(fon is slowlly). Help.
hi guys ,
all goes well untill i force close the terminal emulator , if i want to open it again it does not want to run , i get a white screen or a black screen or sometimes nothing happens
have you run in to this problem , can anyone help me ?
Hi. I followed the above a couple of times but came up with the same error below.
I have been working on this for 3 days now and it’s driving me mad..
When i entered the “HTC__001” & “2.6.32.15” to create the mtd0 file i got and error ” Please provide a valid rom version like 1.15.405.3 (10 char)”
I noticed i had the same number as in your post, so i put a “.” at the end so the entry was “2.6.32.15.”
Is this correct ?
When i entered the commands i get the below error. This is a copy of the terminal window.
$ export PATH=/data/local/bin:$PATH
$cat /sdcard/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin > /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
$ cat /sdcard/flash_image > /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/flash_image
$ cat /sdcard/mtd0.img > /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/mt0.img
$ cd /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/
$ chmod 775 rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin flash_image
$ /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
[*] CVE-2010-EASY Android local root exploit (C) 2010 by 743C
[*] checking NPROC limit …
[+] RLIMIT_NPROC={3319, 3319}
[*] Searching for adb …
[-] Cannot find adb: No such file or directory
thanks in advance
Hoppers
I dont think you enter the kernel number as you are correct it says invalid. Under kernel there should be a build number that is the one you put in the image.
With the errors im afraid im not sure whats the error as my phone is already rooted so i guess i already had permission? Have a read here also:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=813476
Also when you are entering
cat /sdcard/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin > /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
cat /sdcard/flash_image > /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/flash_image
cat /sdcard/mtd0.img > /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/mtd0.img
cd /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/
chmod 755 rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin flash_image
/data/data/jackpal.androidterm/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
Did you use your computer or the terminal app from the market? I had to download the app from the market and type in the commands with the phone not through the computer.
What a legend got it working 100% took me so long. The site is http://ks25738.kimsufi.com/misc/index.php
It says ‘Visit this site,’ -> but which site?
Oh my god!!!!!!! U are my hero… This fixed my evo and it is running like new…. id hug u if i could