Is efs/IMEI Backup Possible for S5830i - Galaxy Ace S5830i Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Please could somebody tell me if there is any known method for backing up efs/IMEI data that works for the S5830i and if anybody has ever actually successfully restored their IMEI number for this model of phone?
I've read alot of information about differrent methods, although most of them are in the Galaxy S forums and I've seen one post in the Galaxy Ace S5830 forum stating there is currently no known working restore method for the S5830 (but not the S5830i).
Also, apparently (see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=25718433&postcount=8) you can actually corrupt the /efs partition when backing it up if you are not carefull as it is a hidden partition that is not mounted by default when the phone boots. Apparently, if you don't unmount it after you've backed it up, goodbye /efs partition.
Even if there is no current working restore technique, I would rather backup now to be on the safe side and hope a restore method becomes apparrent in the future as I've already lost my IMEI information once (and managed to get a phone replacement under warranty luckily). I would however prefer to know how I can safely do so first.

Ok, so I've been looking into how to do this for a couple of weeks now and still nothing. Surely somebody must know some information regarding /efs or IMEI data on the s5830i?
I'm in an ADB shell at the moment and I've got an /efs folder in my root directory, but I've looked in this directory and it's currently completely empty (including hidden files). The only thing I can presume is that on my phone /efs is merely a directory that has been created for the specific purpose of acting as a mount point for the actual 'efs partition', which is not actually mounted at the moment for whatever reason.
Issuing the mount command confirms nothing along the lines of an efs partition is mounted. I've had a look in /dev and from searching this forum a bit more, I understand, efs is likely to be /dev/stl# (where # is a digit). So does anybody know which one it is?
I'm not going to do anything silly and start dd'ing it straight off but there must be some way of backing it up safely seeing as it has been done on many other phones. Also any information on when and how it is mounted (by Android OS) and how to mount it safely would be much appreciated even if this is more Android general than my specific model of phone.

I may be speaking to myself in this thread but in case anybody else needs an answer, it looks like Galaxy Toolbox can do an /efs backup and is compatible with the S5830i. See:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25949902
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.doky.sgtoolbox
Incidentally, that information seems to imply that the /efs device file is at /dev/bml15, which does exist on my phone, not that I plan on manually interacting with it!

I know this is an old topic and no one showed up here.
But I wanted to come to say to you THANKS! because you really helped me

kitsune0 said:
I know this is an old topic and no one showed up here.
But I wanted to come to say to you THANKS! because you really helped me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
galaxy toolbox is the solution :good: i already try it ... work fine in restore and backup

terminal emulator
su press enter
busybox dd if=/dev/bml15 of=/sdcard/bml15.img press enter

angel.sea said:
terminal emulator
su press enter
busybox dd if=/dev/bml15 of=/sdcard/bml15.img press enter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Use SGY Toolbox
2. Use this .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=38823212
3. Then at last resort
Use the command given by above person

AW: Is efs/IMEI Backup Possible for S5830i
Yeah thats work for me too :thumbup:
Gesendet von meinem GT-S5830i

Related

[Q] IMEI and Phone: unknown. What to do?

Hi all.
I have got my SGS II for 4 months and i was running it with stock rom and CF kernel. Yesterday, I was comming home from chrismas and was asked - as usual - to turn off my phone on the plane. Put it in plane mode and shut down.
Turned on for some series watching, turned off for arrival.
After that, my phone quit working: no SIM could be detected. After some research, I realized that my IMEI was set to 0 and Phone: unknown. I went back right away to stock, but it did not help.
By the time I flashed, i had no idea that efs folder did not came with cwm backup, so i have no backup of working efs folder.
I have some files on EFS folder, but i have no idea of what is "good" folder.
Can somebody point me to some direction?
I heard about some miracles perfomed by ODIA user, hehehe.
Thanks in advance.
Try this thread.
I did...
But I still cannot have access to change the efs files/dir. And still didn't figured how to have write access for these. Could you enlighten me?
Thanks!
To get write access you need to use a file explorer like Root Explorer (or similar) from the Market.
PauloSherring said:
But I still cannot have access to change the efs files/dir. And still didn't figured how to have write access for these. Could you enlighten me?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you getting "permission denied" and/or "read only filesystem" errors?
I take it you ARE running all commands with root priviledges?
It is working!
Thanks people! I've been struggling with this problem for only two days, but it feels like months! I needed to umount the /efs unit and mount again with other accesses priorities (r/w, i.e.).
In fact, this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1261948&page=5 was the reason for me achieving this.
i had the same issue with my galaxy,
https://market.android.com/details?...GwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5oZWxyb3ouR1NJSV9SZXBhaXIiXQ..
this utility helped me to fix it.
Thanks to Helroz
Glad you got it working Paulo I can imagine it would be pretty stressy to have a working phone one minute and a reboot later no IMEI.
PauloSherring said:
Thanks people! I've been struggling with this problem for only two days, but it feels like months! I needed to umount the /efs unit and mount again with other accesses priorities (r/w, i.e.).
In fact, this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1261948&page=5 was the reason for me achieving this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] How to make my EFS work?

Hi,
I want to note that I've tried several methods of fixing my efs, but without luck.
I run TE and what I've seen is that instead of:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 on /efs type ext4(rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,commit=20,barrier=1,nodelalloc,data=ordered)
I have a line which looks like:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 on /efs type ext4(rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,data=writeback)
My question is, as a Terminal and linux total newbie/n00b, how can I make it just like in the first instance? What do I write? I'd love to repair my EFS to get my IMEI back Big thank you in advance!
Duobix said:
Hi,
I want to note that I've tried several methods of fixing my efs, but without luck.
I run TE and what I've seen is that instead of:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 on /efs type ext4(rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,commit=20,barrier=1,nodelalloc,data=ordered)
I have a line which looks like:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 on /efs type ext4(rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,data=writeback)
My question is, as a Terminal and linux total newbie/n00b, how can I make it just like in the first instance? What do I write? I'd love to repair my EFS to get my IMEI back Big thank you in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://market.android.com/details?...GwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5oZWxyb3ouR1NJSV9SZXBhaXIiXQ..
Oh yes, I forgot to mention: I ALREADY tried GS2_repair, HC-kTool, and NONE seemed to help solve my efs problem :/
In that case, your last chance before you send it back to Samsung will probably be to PM a member on here called Odia. He apparently fixes/recovers people's IMEI's/EFS for a small donation/'case of beer'.

[Q] Anyway to change IMEI to original?

TLDR: Phone was bricked revived it now stuck with generic IMEI
Ok so basically my GS3 got bricked dont know exactly why but in recovery it said e: failed to mount /efs (Invalid argument) i was able however to revive it with this thread post #4 ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2204960 ) but now my IMEI is "generic" 004999010640000 and now i cant connect to the network. Im on a mac and the only tutorials ive seen are for windows. my question is is there anyway to change it from the phone itself or on a mac? Sorry if this has been asked before but if anyone can point me in the right direction that would be great.
PS i know changing your IMEI is HIGHLY illegal but i just want to change it back to the original one on the back of the phone.
You're #2 today and #1073453 in total, asking for help with 00499... issue! Not nice...
Use the flipping search bar! :/
Im on a mac...
oh im sorry but if you read the whole thing IM ON A MAC so anyway to fix this would be great...
djembey said:
You're #2 today and #1073453 in total, asking for help with 00499... issue! Not nice...
Use the flipping search bar! :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Restore your backed up EFS folder through whatever method you used .
No backup then a Samsung service centre .
jje
Ok so i have a backup but its the coorrupted one... anyway to open up the .img and copy the files manually on a mac? sidenote when i restore the corrupted one im in a boot loop
JJEgan said:
Restore your backed up EFS folder through whatever method you used .
No backup then a Samsung service centre .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry not a clue don't even know how to switch a Mac on .
jje
If your EFS dump is a full partition dump (it being .img suggests that), you can simply write it back in recovery with:
Code:
umount /efs
dd if=/sdcard/yourefs.iso of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3
reboot
If that fails or throws errors, repeat the steps in the tutorial you linked to re-create an empty EFS partition.
By the way /efs is an EXT4 partition so neither Windows nor Mac (or any other BSD-derivate) are natively capable of reading it, only Linux computers (read: Ubuntu, ...) or specialized tools that simulate filesystem drivers are able to do so.
so i tried that and wasnt able to boot past the i9300 screen. any other suggestions?
d4fseeker said:
If your EFS dump is a full partition dump (it being .img suggests that), you can simply write it back in recovery with:
Code:
umount /efs
dd if=/sdcard/yourefs.iso of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3
reboot
If that fails or throws errors, repeat the steps in the tutorial you linked to re-create an empty EFS partition.
By the way /efs is an EXT4 partition so neither Windows nor Mac (or any other BSD-derivate) are natively capable of reading it, only Linux computers (read: Ubuntu, ...) or specialized tools that simulate filesystem drivers are able to do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ugh
Ok so i havent updated this in awhile but here it goes...
First i installed ubuntu on my mac and converted my corrupted EFS partition to .iso and opened it in linux. Anyway no files in there.
Second the samsung service center here in alaska is only for TVs...
Third ill call samsung on monday but dunno what i can do besides save up for another phone or a octopus box or what you call it.

[Q] Player 4.0: /data not mounted (or missing) issue

So I am stuck in a bootloop and no obvious way out.
US Galaxy Player 4.0
Rooted and been on custom roms for a year now. Problem started after upgraded to latest CM. Tried going back to stock but no luck in resolution. I am able to get into recovery and download mode and flash with odin. I can run adb shell. Just won't boot. The error message I get is as follows:
"E:format_volume: rfs format failed on /dev/block/mmcblk0p2"
In my adb shell I can see that there is no "mmcblk0..." files at all.
I have tried to go through the full stock recovery and used the PIT files and the stock rom through odin. I get the same boot loop and cant get the data to wipe due to the same error. I can flash anything through Odin easily without fail but everything is stuck in boot loop. I just don't seem to have /data to wipe.
There are some other posts around which indicate the Partition may be screwed but I am not sure what it is supposed to look like or the command line syntax to use to correct.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1468213&highlight=wipe+data+shell
I have several nandroid backups on an external location but now I can't get the external card to recognize in CWM so haven't been able to try to revert backwards that way. I have backup of efs and all other stuff just can't seem to get to it.
Anybody with Ideas or direct help are greatly appreciated
map1122 said:
So I am stuck in a bootloop and no obvious way out.
US Galaxy Player 4.0
Rooted and been on custom roms for a year now. Problem started after upgraded to latest CM. Tried going back to stock but no luck in resolution. I am able to get into recovery and download mode and flash with odin. I can run adb shell. Just won't boot. The error message I get is as follows:
"E:format_volume: rfs format failed on /dev/block/mmcblk0p2"
In my adb shell I can see that there is no "mmcblk0..." files at all.
I have tried to go through the full stock recovery and used the PIT files and the stock rom through odin. I get the same boot loop and cant get the data to wipe due to the same error. I can flash anything through Odin easily without fail but everything is stuck in boot loop. I just don't seem to have /data to wipe.
There are some other posts around which indicate the Partition may be screwed but I am not sure what it is supposed to look like or the command line syntax to use to correct.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1468213&highlight=wipe+data+shell
I have several nandroid backups on an external location but now I can't get the external card to recognize in CWM so haven't been able to try to revert backwards that way. I have backup of efs and all other stuff just can't seem to get to it.
Anybody with Ideas or direct help are greatly appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how we fix that with the Player 5 : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2398120&page=4 (read the whole thread from page 4 on)
You'll need to do pretty much the same thing but you need an image from the Player 4.:good:
recrtora above
Thank you Meticulus. I see that you were involved in the thread I referenced too and this is where I figured I needed to go. However this is where I get tripped up. The main issue being that I don't have an image from a 4.0 US player. The thread I linked to had the Intl Player shown... There were even a few requests for the US version later on in the thread.
So- Anyone want to share their US player working partition table?
Is this information contained in the .PIT files somehow?
anyway to retrieve this?
map1122 said:
Thank you Meticulus. I see that you were involved in the thread I referenced too and this is where I figured I needed to go. However this is where I get tripped up. The main issue being that I don't have an image from a 4.0 US player. The thread I linked to had the Intl Player shown... There were even a few requests for the US version later on in the thread.
So- Anyone want to share their US player working partition table?
Is this information contained in the .PIT files somehow?
anyway to retrieve this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know that's the only way to do it is with the picture.... Be patient, I'm sure someone will post an image...
@zaclimon ???
Needed: out put of fdisk on mmcblk0
Code:
adb root
adb shell
fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0
Then post a screenshot, or just the output.:highfive:
Meticulus said:
As far as I know that's the only way to do it is with the picture.... Be patient, I'm sure someone will post an image...
@zaclimon ???
Needed: out put of fdisk on mmcblk0
Code:
adb root
adb shell
fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0
Then post a screenshot, or just the output.:highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here it is, do note that it's a intl device though too.
zaclimon said:
Here it is, do note that it's a intl device though too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's definately not what I expected... to see from the 4.0's partition table...
Meticulus said:
That's definately not what I expected... to see from the 4.0's partition table...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We only have mmc blocks for the actual storage of the device. The system partition and others are pure raw nand (which is why we use mtd and yaffs2)
Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 7 avec Tapatalk 4
zaclimon said:
We only have mmc blocks for the actual storage of the device. The system partition and others are pure raw nand (which is why we use mtd and yaffs2)
Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 7 avec Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So then, will recreating these partitions solve the OP problem?
Meticulus said:
So then, will recreating these partitions solve the OP problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most probably because it will only touch /data and internal storage. Actually this is the first time I see a problem like this for the 4.0.
Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 7 avec Tapatalk 4
So any confidence in the international vs the US version being the same?
Now the next thing is I used the command fdisk to start trying to recreate the partitions using the post instructions you recommended. I did not get an option for "new". I attached the output from the shell command. Tried looking up shell command references on fdisk but is not helping me here. Is it because there is not mmcblk0 at all? I don't seem to be getting into the command mode of the fdisk command.
If I use fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0 I get "no such file or directory"
map1122 said:
So any confidence in the international vs the US version being the same?
Now the next thing is I used the command fdisk to start trying to recreate the partitions using the post instructions you recommended. I did not get an option for "new". I attached the output from the shell command. Tried looking up shell command references on fdisk but is not helping me here. Is it because there is not mmcblk0 at all? I don't seem to be getting into the command mode of the fdisk command.
If I use fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0 I get "no such file or directory"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... Can post a list of /dev/block ?
Code:
adb shell
ls /dev/block
Here you go.
map1122 said:
Here you go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmmm .... see if you can get here: /sys/bus/platform/devices/s3c-sdhci.0 and post the output
Like so?
map1122 said:
Like so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes.... I'm not sure what's wrong but id recommend installing a full odin flashable rom...
Not sure what that would be for the 4.0..
Here is another place you can check /sys/bus/platform/devices/s3c-sdhci.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0001/block/mmcblk0
Here is the output of that. No further.
I am already on fresh Odin flash. Several attempts actually. I have been able to flash back to Stock (and use PIT) files, access stock recovery. I did this first to think I could restore to OEM. Then flash the Terra-Silent kernel to obtain CWM and the IcyFusion Rom (did this again this morning so I could get adb to link). These are the only Odin flashable that I am aware of for the 4.0. Obviously nothing boots because the issues discussed here.
Thank you.
what does "partition SD Card" in the Advanced and Debugging menu in CWM do?
map1122 said:
Here is the output of that. No further.
I am already on fresh Odin flash. Several attempts actually. I have been able to flash back to Stock (and use PIT) files, access stock recovery. I did this first to think I could restore to OEM. Then flash the Terra-Silent kernel to obtain CWM and the IcyFusion Rom (did this again this morning so I could get adb to link). These are the only Odin flashable that I am aware of for the 4.0. Obviously nothing boots because the issues discussed here.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if those are "full" odin flashable roms.
Try here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1531850
Yes, that is the one I am using to revert to stock and additional PIT. I checked MD5 sums too.
Would this kind of thing be backed up in a nandroid?
map1122 said:
Yes, that is the one I am using to revert to stock and additional PIT. I checked MD5 sums too.
Would this kind of thing be backed up in a nandroid?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, It wouldn't be backed up in android...
I'm betting that the U.S. Odin ROM on that page is not a "full" recovery rom either... I'm downloading right now to check. If it isn't, we need to find out how safe it is to flash an INT version first then flash a USA over it.
On the 5.0, we can do that... and everything is OK but don't know about 4.0...
EDIT: Seem like the only difference is that INT has bootloaders and USA does not. That doesn't help us...

[Q] Cloning partition without root but with CWM ?

Hi,
I need to recover deleted sms messages (from a Samsung Galaxy SIII I9300) and there is no backup of the mmssms.db database.
It's for a customer and I would like avoiding to root and to alter the operating system.
This mean that I would be very happy if the procedure could be as much "read only" as possible.
I'm however aware that I will have to write something to the phone, and I plan using the recovery partition for this.
After reading this much interesting thread http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/28296/full-backup-of-non-rooted-devices
my main hope is based on flashing ClockWorkMod (CWM) or TWRP to the recovery partition with Odin (or maybe Heimdall).
This seems a priori possible without root access. (see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2313072)
Afterwards, I would like to clone the whole DATA partition, in order to not only get the current "mmssms.db" file, but to also possibly find older versions of it through file carving.
The adb shell seems being a feature of CWM (source: http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/ClockworkMod_Recovery) but I'm not sure whether the adb shell resides on the recovery partition or on another one and if root privilege is required to apply commands like push or pull to exchange files between partitions and the sdcard.
Furthermore, I'm not sure if I could run commands like "dd" from recovery partition.
Something like having Busybox commands available also when starting the phone on the recovery partition.
Else, saving a Nandroid backup to the sdcard seems possible, but this sounds saving a directory structure and appears to me being not equal as cloning a partition (at low level). Hence, it would not be possible to carve dereferenced files from the Nandroid backup. Correct ?
TWRP also sounds interesting, as being able to backup only specific partitions like the "DATA" one.
But the fact that its navigation is based on the touch screen appears me being unsafe if the touch screen had to dysfunction in a later time.
I'm familiar to Linux but a newbie in Android-based smartphones.
Thank you very much for your help.

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