Rooting, CWM, and adding Apps/ROMS........HELP!!!!!

wibbn8

Member
Nov 27, 2012
13
0
Ok, to anyone who can help, this is my situation...............
Just bought 4 Coby MID8042-4 tabs for my kids for Xmas. Want (NEED) Play store on them so....... Started w the "READ FIRST" thread in Gen 3 Development. Installed the ADB drivers and the Root and dump utility for Windows. I've followed the instructions to a T but I must be missing something. The CWM will only work from the settings menu "back up & reset". I'm not 100% sure its rooted, and when I try to install the ROMs or even 20120429 Google Apps pkg I'm not getting any changes to the apps or OS. What am I doing wrong or is it something with the tablets? OS is ICS 4.0.3. Kernel version is 3.0.8+ and the box says a Cortex A8 processor. PLEASE help!
 

wibbn8

Member
Nov 27, 2012
13
0
BTW, I've tried EVERY ROM on the "READ FIRST" post available for the 8042. NONE have any effect and half result in "install aborted". Is it normal for the droid to be laying down w a red warning triangle floating over his open belly? This is the only indicator I've recieved that anything has changed! Thanks again everyone!
 

dbeauch

Senior Member
Dec 12, 2011
35
3
its great that you bought your kids tablets but to be honest, rooting/modding is not an easy one time thing for novices...its really more of a lifestyle lol...tablets are so cheap right now, why not buy a tablet that comes with the play store and requires no modding? trust me, you will save yourself hours of frustration...
 

wibbn8

Member
Nov 27, 2012
13
0
Not really necessarily a novice. Ive rooted a few phones in the past but this tab thing is new to me. I also have 4 kids and got each their own tablet. Sorry for being "cheap" but this was the best way for us to go. also, we checked out GetJar on our phones and we could get more apps on our phones than we can on the tabs...idk why but its how it worked. Not really concerned about the "hours" involved, more about getting some help on whats going on w my tabs. Thanks for the advice but if you're not going to help then you're not much good to me right now.....
 

vampirefo.

Senior Member
Developer
Nov 8, 2011
3,836
1,394
I don't understand any thing you have said so far, explain what you have done, actually type commands that you typed, Explain what you see or mean here (The CWM will only work from the settings menu "back up & reset".) only you can see what you are doing so explain it so we can visualize it of take a pic.
 

wibbn8

Member
Nov 27, 2012
13
0
Sorry if Im confusing you Vamp. I Started exactly as the READ FIRST: Development index and root utility sticky states. I downloaded and installed the ADB drivers for Windows. I downloaded the Root and dump utility for windows. Set device for USB debugging and connected it to my pc via USB. Gave device permission for USB storage (to enable connection and tranfer between device and pc). Opened directory and ran root_restore.bat. Rooted first and rebooted. Then ran a system dump and copied the original stock_recovery.img and the downloaded cwm_recovery.img onto the data subdirectory of the root and recover utility. Ran root_restore.bat again and selected recovery option. Selected the cwm option and followed prompts. When the tab rebooted i had an image of a droid on its back with its front door open and a red warning triangle floating above its open door. After about a minute or two the tab booted like it normally would. I downloade and copied all of the ROM zip files (one at a time of course) to the sd card in the tablet. (I should state now that the only way to access cwm is to open the settings menu, select the Back up and reset option and select the Recovery Mode option and follow the prompts from there (i.e. "Now reboot into System recovery mode, you can partition to remove data or system upgrade? select OK and recieve a power off propmt.) After the reboot now I have a droid on its back again with a menu. Android System recovery Android system recovery utility (coby: vol+/vol-, back, power111) reboot system now apply update from external storage wipe data/factory reset wipe cache partition apply update from cache (<--this is the menu) When I select "apply update from external source" and select the ROM zip that is currently on the sd card I recieve either a "could not verify signature, installation aborted" message or the tab reboots with no changes to the OS, apps, or anything. Am I missing a step? Doing something wrong? Or are my tabs not compatible because of my cpu's? Please help Vampirefo!!!!! btw, the rest by pressing the power/ vol- doesnt do anything but reboot the tab. Pressing the power/ vol-/back keys brings up the image of the droid on its back w red triangle but stays on that screen for a couple minutes then reboots as usual. no change :/
 
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wibbn8

Member
Nov 27, 2012
13
0
Sorry, I left out one thing....After the first dump, my touchscreen was unresponsive and I reset the tab with the small reset button on the side. This fxed the screen but (possibly?)may have derailed my further attempts. I need to root and reROM all 4 tabs so if I need to do anything special please let me know! Thanks again all!
 

vampirefo.

Senior Member
Developer
Nov 8, 2011
3,836
1,394
You never installed CW recovery, before you can flash anything you need to install CW recovery first, the recovery image you described is just stock recovery. As far as the bat files and such, that has nothing to due with me.

Traveller1701 made those for you windows guys, if that is the method you are using I will defer to him.

My method is command line found here http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...ot-recovery-update-all-without-livesuite.html
 

wibbn8

Member
Nov 27, 2012
13
0
Yeah, I kinda thought that. After that last post I did some deeper research and realized that cw never loaded. Wonder whats going on there? Ill look up Traveller and se if he can help. Id eventually love to learn linux but unfortunately right now I just dont have the time. Thanks Vampirefo!
 

Traveller

Administrator
Staff member
Jun 16, 2012
2,858
982
I read the thread this morning, but couldn't answer as I had to head to work.

As Vampirefo notes you didn't have CWM installed, likely due to accidentally renaming CWM as stock_recovery.img. However, the recovery doesn't have anything to do with the issues you're having. The last update I had done for the batch file was to have it install a full version of busybox when doing a system dump since some tablets were coming with a truncated version. I've tested that update on my tablet and verified that it functions correctly. It worked on your tablet since I downloaded your dump and found the date changed on busybox, which is expected.

The fact you lost the touchscreen after rooting is troublesome. Other than adding su and replacing busybox, the root utility does not make alterations to /system of any kind. The fact you got touch back after a reset simply confirms that the root utility is not the source of the problem. By extension, I can rule out the PC itself as the source of the problem. The system dump function in the batch file did successfully create and pull a dump, which again confirms the root utility works. But the fact you cannot now make a dump on this tablet leaves me with only one conclusion as to the source of your issue: hardware.

Since you never should have lost touch capability when rooting, and since you cannot make another dump of the tablet, I believe the tablet you worked on is defective.
 

wibbn8

Member
Nov 27, 2012
13
0
Double, triple, and quadruple checked about the renaming CWM wrong. Its correct, I didnt mess up there. You mention the "last update for the batch files", where exactly is said update? I think I have it but not 100% sure. Until then, should I try another tablet? I have 4 and would like to mod all of them but I guess 3 out of 4 isnt bad!.......er, maybe 2 out of 4?!
 

wibbn8

Member
Nov 27, 2012
13
0
Just tried another tablet. Rooted succesfully but when I did the system dump I still got the "tar: can't open '?sdcard/dump/system.tgz' No such file or directory and subdirectory or file dump already exists" and the same " remote object '/sdcard/dump' does not exist". AND the new dump file with the utility is empty. No Stock files in it. New tab and still cant get CWM to load (Still get the droid on its back at reboot). What am I missing??????? Does the cpu (Cortex A8) have anything to do w it? BTW, just lost touchscreen capability in this tab too. Using a standard factory reset (which oddly makes my droid stand up w a lattice orb in its door now!) but still no touchscreen. Small reset button on side fixed it again.
 
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Traveller

Administrator
Staff member
Jun 16, 2012
2,858
982
Perhaps it's in my instructions in the thread. I encourage you to read the thread again, as I completely rewrote the posts in it to try and make it easier to follow. In fact, it's in manageable chunks now. Rooting and making system dumps is the first post. The second post is installing ClockworkMod and installing Google apps or custom ROMs.

One last thing: do you have USB storage turned on? If you do, shut it off. With USB storage turned on, /mnt/sdcard is unavailable to the system for use, which would likely explain why you're getting a tar error.
 

wibbn8

Member
Nov 27, 2012
13
0
That may be my big problem Traveller! Ive been turning it on because it makes the tablet recognizable to the pc. I have read your post and you did a great job of explaining the process step by step (except maybe the usb storage part!) Ill try the root, dump, and restore w the usb storage turned OFF. One last thiung though, When you copy the CWM file to the data directory shoud I unzip it first or leave it compressed? Ive tried both ways to no avail (no surprise there). If I unzip it, do I copy the image or the whole file? Thanks Traveller!!! Ill let you know how everything works out!
 

Traveller

Administrator
Staff member
Jun 16, 2012
2,858
982
Turning on USB Storage is not necessary for the root process. The only thing you need to have is USB Debugging turned on and a properly working ADB. :)
 
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