I Know It's Been Covered, But I Badly Need Help: Flash_Image: Not Found

larrytxeast

Member
Apr 7, 2011
9
0
Forgive me for asking for help on a topic that's probably already been covered before & buried somewhere in the stickies, but I have been trying to resolve my issue using already existing resources (the step-by-step instructions at http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...ace-using-update-7015a-step-step-process.html and the "alternate Windows" method at ALTERNATE (NEWBIE-FRIENDLY) GUIDE FOR ROOTING AND GOOGLE MARKET INSTALL ON WINDOWS - NO SPECIAL DRIVERS OR ADB COMMANDS NEEDED)and, after 10 hours (yes, TEN hours), I am getting nowhere. My frustration is boiling over to where I'm having to remind myself not to smash the tablet into a thousand pieces that I can always just sell it & be done with the headache, and I am very close to doing one of those two. It's that bad.

I just puchased a Coby MID7015 and am trying to root it, and I keep getting "flash_Image: Not Found" error message at the juncture where you type flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery.img in the Terminal Emulator. I am POSITIVE that the flash_image file is there in the ROOT of the card as it's supposed to be. I THINK it already has the Coby update (regardless, you can't find the update at Coby's site the way I was told you could). Anyway, yes, I am trying to root it, and I have done absolutely everything as has been told to me--my posts here, at XDA, at a YouTube site
, by the previous owner (he only had it a month), and I cannot get past the error message "flash_image: not found."

I realize the normal modus-de-operandi is to refer people in my position to the stickies, or link to them, and normally that's okay--but that's the game I've been playing for the past 10 hours, and frankly with about 25 tabs open in Firefox & all the different instructions overloading my brain, I'm done with that. I really need for someone to spell it out to me in THIS post--after, moderators, if you wish to merge it with the stickie, fine--but for now, please, I am begging you--don't do that. There are seemingly 239 posts there spread out over about 20 pages, it takes FOREVER to find anything, and I'm tired. I just want this done--so desperate I am, I've contacted the person I bought it from & offered to pay them almost anything they ask if they'd just do it for me. It really is blowing my brain that much.

I have followed the steps at the sticky, both the ones that involve doing most of the work at the tablet, and the one for the "newbies using Windows XP" etc. No matter what I do, I absolutely cannot get past the "flash_image: not found" error message.

I have done everything right up to the step where you type flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery.img I have AndExplorer and Terminal Emulator installed. I have the Google apps and z4 etc on the ROOT of the microSD. Z4root has been applied, and you see "superuser" on the screen.

I am all there, except for this error, which has become an absolute brickwall I totally 100% cannot get past.

Absolutely NOTHING works. What's more, frankly it's hard to read the directions sometimes, in one place it mentions typing "Is" for showing what the contents of the microSD card are, but because of the font style etc, I can't tell if that first letter is an I or an L or a one. I can't tell if spaces in the syntax are incidental or if you're supposed to actually space between whatever. It's just so confusing.

I sincerely appreciate any help you can give me.
 
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popeye1128

Member
Feb 14, 2011
186
16
Wow, you should really try not to let this get to you. It seriously is not rocket science and is not that difficult. That said, I'll try to spell it out for you the best I can.

Make sure you follow the steps EXACTLY. There are no caps in the commands. I will put a [space] where there is supposed to be a space.
I'm assuming you have the flash_image file on your home computer from what you said in you post.

1. Plug the Coby usb into your computer. You should hear several chiming sounds and the usb symbols should appear on the upper left portion of the Coby screen.

2. Pull down the notification bar on the Coby and select 'USB connected (External)'. Another window should pop up and ask you if you want to mount the external sd card. Select 'Mount'.

3. (I'm assuming you have a PC not Mac here) Go to 'Computer' on your PC and find the external sd card drive of your Coby. It will appear as a removable drive with the amount of total space and space available. The internal memory will also appear but just the drive, no space available given.

4. Now, copy the flash_image file directly to the Coby removable disk you identified above. Make sure their are no caps in the name and no file extensions on the file like .zip, it must be the extracted file if you downloaded it as a zip file. The file must go to the main directory, not a sub-folder on the sdcard.

5. Verify the file copied correctly by double clicking on the the removable disk in 'Computer' on your PC and looking for the file. Again, it must be in the main/root directory of the card.

6. On your PC eject the removable drive using the USB removal tray application. Pull down the notification bar on the Coby and select 'Turn off USB storage (External). Another menu will pop up and choose 'Turn Off'. You should hear the chirping sound again from the Coby.

7. Open the terminal emulator on your Coby and type su then hit enter. It should go into super user mode. The $ sign will change to a # sign.

8. Tpye the following commands in one at a time hitting enter after each one. You will get no feedback that it actually took, only if you get an error. So no feedback is good. It will just take and jump to a new blank line.

cp[space]/sdcard/flash_image[space]/system/bin/flash_image
chown[space]root.shell[space]/system/bin/flash_image
chmod[space]0755[space]/system/bin/flash_image

9. If everything took you should be good to go to flash the recovery image with:

flash_image[space]recovery[space]/scdcard/recovery.img

(Assuming you already copied the recovery.img file to your sdcard the same as you did the flash_image command file.)

10. You then enter:

reboot[space]recovery

to reboot into clockwork recovery mode. There have been cases of people not getting the clockwork recovery to stay after several reboots. This is addressed in another thread.
I sure hope this is clearer for you as I don't know how to simplify it any more. Maybe someone else can help if you still have problems. Good luck!
 

larrytxeast

Member
Apr 7, 2011
9
0
popeye1128 Now THAT's what I'm talking about. Those are the sort of instructions I was talking about. Heck, a lot of that I already understood (1-7 mainly), but that's okay--too much, in this case, is better than not enough.

Well I don't have THAT error anymore, however, this one minor thing: the first line, I initially accidentally copied it to bin_flash_image instead of bin/flash_image. So AndExplorer shows that extra file in the system location as bin_flash_image. I tried to delete it but it won't let me. Right now it just appears to be an extra file that's trash, but not detrimental, but I'd like to know how to delete it.

But the MUCH bigger issue: all the steps went through, but now I'm at a very "normal" looking screen. I thought I was supposed to be ClockworkMod mode where I'd then install the ZIP files for marketplace etc, but I don't see any of that anywhere. Also AnExplorer and Terminal Emulator are gone, as is the Z4 mod, but Superuser is there. Where do I go from here?

You said another thread covered problems with booting to ClockworkMod, and that's most certainly the problem I have, as it doesn't go to that screen any at all whatsoever. I'm searching for the threads, but again can't find them. Where are they?

UPDATE: I am at that screen now after another reboot[space]recovery through Terminal Emulator (which I had to re-download). Following the steps, crossing the fingers..........

OK, it is looking good. Got the apps installed, great to see the "real" market and applications, and on the big screen. Funny thing too--I actually kind of like using the stylus for certain "fine control" aspects.
 
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larrytxeast

Member
Apr 7, 2011
9
0
As of last night I am finally up & running just fine. Free at last!!

kerry_s
I appreciate your tips, I will say the one you gave for deleting that one file, that didn't work, but maybe in the process of rooting etc it somehow was cleaned off. I'm not going to worry about it, it's only 1 file of about 9k in size that doesn't seem to goof up the tablet's operation. I will let the sleeping dog most definitely just lie there.

popeye1128 I especially appreciate your help, I really do. I don't know why your instructions worked in that one section, whereas the ones in the sticky didn't, I will analyze it some other time (maybe) to figure out why. For now, I'm just glad it worked.

Moderators: if at some point you end up "merging" this thread with the sticky, I understand. The thing to me is, I don't mind doing the research, I did hours of it prior to registering & posting here out of desperation. The thing is, though, sometimes the sticky becomes so "loaded" with pages upon pages, and with the "initial" posting not being updated to address issues like this, you have to comb through the entire thing & it takes forever. Between that & other sites (xda developers was probably one), my desktop was littered with so many open tabs from everywhere it was nigh impossible to keep track of it all.

If it's okay, I am going to post my own instructions here on how I did it, keeping in mind (a) I couldn't find Coby's update.zip file (http://redirectingat.com/?id=1629X685119&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdb.tt%2F4l1TU4D&sref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidtablets.net%2Fforum%2Fcoby-tablets%2F8283-new-update-zip-coby-build-mid7015a-1-6a-1-26-11-a-4.html) but (b) the previous owner (who owned it a month and sold it to me 04-06-2011 for $100) told me it was already updated, so that was apparently an unnecessary step (updating the tablet to Coby's latest firmware update etc). He had "un-rooted" it before selling it to me, and I was really wishing he hadn't done that. Oh well.

Working mostly from the "alternate user-friendly" (ALTERNATE (NEWBIE-FRIENDLY) GUIDE FOR ROOTING AND GOOGLE MARKET INSTALL ON WINDOWS - NO SPECIAL DRIVERS OR ADB COMMANDS NEEDED) and the "step-by-step" (http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...ace-using-update-7015a-step-step-process.html) stickies, here is what I did:

(1) I wiped my machine clean (from home-screen, tap settings, then privacy), including un-mounting and formatting the microSD card in the tablet (from home-screen, tap settings, then SD).

(2) From the PC, I downloaded z4root.1.3.0.apk ([APP] z4root - xda-developers), recovery.img (Sendspace.com - Download), gapps-passion-EPE54B-signed.zip (Mediafire.com - Download) and flashimage.zip (http://cyanogen-files.carneeki.net/flash_image.zip). (Note: the "step-by-step" seems to skip telling you to download flash_image, instead telling you to look for it and THEN telling you how to download it, somewhat confusing.)

Un-zip the flashimage.zip file, DO NOT un-zip the gapps.zip file.

Note: the z4Root file from xda required registration to download, I didn't want to bother, I found it somewhere else, I wish I could recall here, I'd provide THAT link also. Suffice it to say all of these files are on my hard-drive in case I need them again.

I put those files on the "root" of my microSD card, which you can do by hooking up the tablet to your PC as popeye1128 explained in his post here, steps 1-3 (and 6 when you're done)--or you can remove the card from your machine and plug it into your computer via a microSD to "standard" SD adapter, re-inserting it into your machine when done.

(3) From the tablet, I went to LYSESOFT - Solutions for smart devices (lysesoft.com) and downloaded AnExplorer, installing the apk file.

(4) I downloaded & installed Terminal Emulator from AppsLib on the tablet.

(5) I opened AndExplorer, clicked "root" in the list shown, then selected Z4Root from the list and did a "permanent" root. The tablet rebooted.

(6) I saw "SuperUser" and "Z4Root" as icons under the programs, as it should be.

(7) I then followed "popeye1128" 's instructions 7-10 (in this thread, posting #3). The syntax seems to be the same as you see on the "step-by-step" but his explains it better (spaces etc). Thanks, popeye1128!

After popeye1128's step 10, I didn't get "Clockwork Mod Recovery mode" as you're supposed to, it was at the "normal" home screen. I simply repeated popeye1128's step 10, on that 2nd try it appeared.

Here, at the Clockwork Mod Recovery mode screen, the home button moves between selections, the menu button executes the selection. That is, home=cursor up/down (whichever, I forget), menu=enter.

Now, the device has been rooted & setup for installing the Google Marketplace applications, to do that (this is a copy-paste from the "user-friendly" stickie):

(8) Press the home button until "backup and restore" is selected and press menu to select this option.

(9) On the backup and restore menu, the "backup" option should already be selected. Press menu to select this option. ClockworkMod Recovery will create a full backup image of your current tablet system. This may take a few minutes. When it is complete, it will return you to the original ClockworkMod Recovery menu.

(10) Press the home button until "install zip from sd card" is selected and press menu to select this option.

(11) Press the home button until "choose zip from sd card" is selected and press menu to select this option.

(12) Press the home button until gapps-passion-EPE54B-signed.zip is selected and press menu to select this option.

(13) Press the home button until "Yes – Install gapps-passion-EPE54B-signed.zip" is selected and press menu to select this option.

(14) The tablet should now install the Market and the rest of the Google Experience.

(15) Once the install is done, it will say "Install from sd card complete." Press the silver return button on the front of the tablet. "Reboot system now" should be highlighted. Press the menu button to select this option.

(16) The Kyros should now reboot. You will see a Wizard appear. Go through the Wizard

I am up & running now, installing the "real" Google Marketplace apps (not the knock-offs from AppsLib via Coby) and it did update marketplace to the newer version, just like it did on my 2.2 Froyo smartphone (currently a Samsung Captivate, that may change, the GPS is kind of inconsistent). It seems to have less lag, too, running Angry Birds okay, although it isn't as "snappy" as my Samsung Captivate is and it's a bit different getting used to the resistive screen vs capacitive. The occasional inability or jerkiness zooming-in is somewhat mitigated by the ability to use the stylus (Palm Pilot/Treo flashbacks, anyone?) to "fine-select" smaller items. Now I just need a protective sleeve, "skin," and spare styluses (or is that stylii?) and chargers etc, and to start transferring my video .MP4 files to it to see how they look. (YouTube looked pretty good.)

Again, I thank you for your help, especially popeye1128, I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate it. That is why I re-posted my instructions here, in case anyone else with this issue stumbles across this thread, I sure hope it helps. (Or, if I have cause to do this again, I have now documented it so I can do it myself independently.)

LRH
 
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Eric james

Member
Apr 12, 2011
1
0
Just finished rooting my coby mid7015, thanks popeye1128, and sticky. Taking the .zip off of flash_image worked, awesome!!!
 

bklavet

Member
Apr 17, 2011
3
0
Glad to know these posts are helping others. You're welcome! :)
Thanks

Really happy to have found this thread! I just got the 7015 a few weeks ago, and got the update in. Started working on getting it rooted and the recovery.img in.
First, I should say, I have very little "know how" on Linux speak.
The big curve balls that I ran into were:
running the adb shell---- I would enter cd\android-sdk-windows\tools
did a search in android-sdk-windows and found a note saying it had moved to: cd\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
then the adb shell program ran without problem.

The second problem that got me was the flash_image file. Took me a bit to find it. For a silly reason, (that still makes no sense to me) I thought it was part of the recovery.img..... not so.
So all in all I got my backup made and continued on to put the market on the kryos.

I'm feeling pretty good. does anyone have a good thread on a wireless terminal emulator app?
 
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opsguy

Member
Apr 19, 2011
6
1
Sorry to have to ask but I have read conflicting info.

After download the flash_image.zip do you place it just as is onto the sd card or do you unzip it first before putting it on the card?

Thank you
 

videoplayback

Member
Apr 24, 2011
1
0
popeye1128 you rock. Thank you very much for spelling it out so simply. I had been trying to find an answer to updating my Coby 7015 for 2 days until I came across your post.
 

peak

Member
Apr 24, 2011
1
0
popeye 1128 I am having the sme problem larrytxeast was having. When I typed cp[space]/sdcard/flash_image[space]/system/bin/flash_image and hit return, The message I got was cp: can't 'sdcard/_image' : No such file or directory
 

buckett007

Member
May 2, 2011
3
0
larrytxeast when I enter in :
cp /sdcard/flash_image /system/bin/flash_image I keep getting cp: omitting directory '/sdcard/flash_image'

can you tell me what am I doning wrong?
 
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