ABC of flashing!

[Guest gaurav.gupta]

Hi all,

First of all i tried to search a thread where i can find all the basics for changing my samsung official ROM to a custom rom. but quite frankly I can understand very small part of it, the reason may be my non technical background or poor search skills. But i want to request all the chefs (could interpret all the ROM developers are called chefs, Right?) to pls put the information from the point of view of somebody who understand noything about flashing, backup, custom roms etc? like the terms used kitchen, cooking and all.....all goes over my head B) .

The probable way could be first putting all these term definations and then putting a step by step guide to the complete process right form the word go i.e. right from an out of box phone to all new power packed custom rom b7610.

The information can be supplemented with direct link to all thread where the step are explained thus in such a manner a complete guide with hyperlink can be made ready where i person like me would know when to do what...

Hoping somebody would be kind enuf to help me out..

Thanks

it is because of person like you, person like me can think of a dream phn..

keep up your good work :unsure:

[Guest darthveda]

that info is there in 1st sticky thread itself bro..

http://www.modaco.com/content/b7610-omnia-...b7610-in-india/

[Guest gaurav.gupta]

that info is there in 1st sticky thread itself bro..

http://www.modaco.com/content/b7610-omnia-...b7610-in-india/

Hi,

i went hrough the post provided by you but it only says about 6.5 rom it doesnot tell anyting about how to take back up and what are the broad steps when you are flashing...

if you have any info on the samem would be great if you can share..

[Guest sush_omnia_7610]

Hi Gaurav I am from India too and have similar problems as you have. its good that you have started a topic addressing theses issues. I bet there are many others like us who want to experiment with our devices but due to lack of understanding, are afraid to brick our phone in the process. I have been willing to upgrade my original 6.1 Indian rom to 6.5 and I am trying to understand the flashing process by the guides/tutorials in this forum. I must say that people here are doing a great job helping us . thanks to all of you for putting these guides, thanks to Sumit for proving useful info to us indian users, but please do explain a little more for us, so that we can go ahead with our dream.

after reading the guide to flashing ROMs in the sticky threads I think I am starting to understand things, but there are still a few doubts there. . 1) how can I back up my original rom before I do my first flash attempt so that in case, I want to go back to my previous rom I can do that.

2) I have read that there are full ROMs and megalite/lite ROMs and vanilla ROMs but I don't fully understand the difference? can someone please explain a bit.

3) I would like suggestions for a rom that i should flash to as my first attempt. I want to upgrade to winmo6.5, want a rom which is stable and decently fast, and should allow me to install a no of third party applications that i am currently using on my original rom.

4) I love the sense interface on HTC. Is it possible to have it on my omnia b7610? i have seen ROMs in this form that say "with sense", a sense cab is also available separately. what should be the best way to do it?

I know some of my questions my seem silly, but i am nooob at all this stuff so please help. any suggestions would be welcome. Plz help guys.

[Guest kaspy]

hello sush omnia 7610 .

well i can understand all what you are feeling today ,

i was also feeling it few months back ,

but somehow i gather information from this great forum ,

there are great tutorials allready made,

i will post the links or somehow put the information you need,

i am currently at mobile and will post it in few hours as i reach home.

[Guest kaspy]

Hi every One ..

Well as i said i will try to explain you the basics.

i am not so expert in the field , but still i will try my level best ,

First of all you need the drivers , dumping tools , and flashing tools for doing all the things you want ,

1. lets us start with dumping session.

Pre to this you will need.

a) Drivers of b7610 . i have uploaded them download it ,

it is for win xp.

if you are using win 7 then there are few steps more to get it installed.

after installing the drivers .

Follow this

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS COPIED FROM MEMBER: kibiwi post ,

i am not providing the link as i have previously copied it to my computer and doesn't have a link to the site where he posted

What you need to accomplish this procedure:

Pako777’s i900_EXEcutor v 2.4 (thank you Pako for the great effort, much appreciated!);

Winhex full version (thank you sorg for precious hints).

Here are the instructions:

First we have to get the louvre.mli file from the device (which contains the pda and eboot part). To accomplish that:

1) disconnect the device from PC;

2) go to settings/general settings/USB connection and switch to Mass Storage mode with "My Storage" selected;

3) connect the device to PC. PC will find a new disk. This disk has 2 partition. One is normal and visible (where you probably saved some stuff) and another is hidden.

4) open WinHex, click on Tools>Open Disk, select Removable Medium 6 (1.9 GB, USB) and click ok.

Then access the hidden partition with 512 mb size (tipically partition 2) by double clicking on it. You should see a big file with the name louvre.mli. Right click on it and select recover/copy, then select where to copy the file.

Once you have extracted the louvre.mli file open pako’s executor go to the tools tab and press the MLI button, select the louvre file by browsing through the folder where you saved it. Select model b7610 in the drop-down menu then press go button.

That’s it you should have now two files eb0 (eboot part) and nb0 (pda part) which are flashable with Octans like explained in the I8000 forum.

I recommend you not to flash the eboot part because if something goes wrong you brick your phone.

With this procedure you can recover your device original rom even if you haven't dumped it only if you have never flashed a mst file, but only nb0 files.

Verify the pda version you have going to start/settings/advanced (right tab)/system/version/device/pda ver. The last 3 letters show from left to right the year, the month and the release number.

I share this procedure with you in order to give the community last samsung released roms so if you have a rom more up to date than IL2 for wm 6.5 or II1 for wm 6.1 then please share it here!(post it or contact me with pm)

Finally I remember you as ever:

I'm not responsible for any damages/bricks caused by this procedure. You're accomplishing it totally at your own risk!

Pako777’s i900_EXEcutor v 2.4 http://www.modaco.com/content/i900-general.../i900-executor/

Winhex site http://www.winhex.com/winhex/

With this hope that you will be able to dump the rom.

Now for the Flashing part

Please Note that the flashing part is copied from

tachhan23

post

I dont have the present link so iam coping it from previous saved file

ROM parts description (usually you'll get the ROM as compressed files; I suggest you to extract the actual rom files using 7zip becouse it is compatible with every form of compressing out there and it's freeware too; if the files looks something like zip.001, zip.002, etc or part01.rar, part02.rar, etc just extract the first file and it will automatically extract all the needed parts)

Eboot (.eb0): some users compared it to a PC bios; another user posted this definition "it's a part of I8000 software that provides the very flashing process. In other words it's a program that replaces PDA, CSC and phone parts of existing firmware to updated ones in I8000 read-only memory"

Sorg affirmed that the only risk of bricking your phone comes from "eboot": if Eboot will be corrupted during replacement to newer one then you will likely lose the option to save your i8000. That is why changing Eboot is not recommended on every-time basis.

Personally I'd suggest to flash eboot only while upgrading from WM6.1 to WM6.5 (that's the only time I flashed the eboot), becouse it seems that not flashing eboot may cause a problem about your phone not going into sleep mode. I had the problem too and solved it by flashing eboot. I guess this was needed for going from a old wm6.1 rom to a new wm6.5 rom, so maybe it will not be necessary again in the future.

So in the end, even if I still suggest to not flash eboot when is not needed, if you are facing some weird problems it may be worth to flash it too.

PDA (.mst or .nb0): the actual Windows Mobile OS, applications, drivers, etc

CSC (.csc): definition by Rodfigofd "Among other things, it contains boot images (not the animated ones, that correspond to power_on/off.gif, but the one that goes before that), much like the HTC devices' splash .nb files, .. also, the charging animation when device is plugged but off, animations for the EBOOT program when you are flashing the phone, and also files and settings that get applied to your Win Mobile when you flash or hard reset. CSC can include, for example, wallpapers, themes, connection settings, etc. I suppose it can also contain apps an other stuff.

Although in flasher program CSC file seems to let you select languages, CSC file just have possible language choices, but not the files/settings corresponding to those languages. Those are all packed in the PDA part (NB0 or MST)."

Phone (.bin): the radio/GPS firmware

Sorg suggests not to flash the phone part as it may cause problems of compatibility in case of downgrading the rom or if your phone is locked to some operator. He also stated that there is no benefit in it, while other users reports different performance in the GPS fix, etc... honestly I have no idea on the subject, but so far no user reported any actual problems for flashing the Phone part.

SAFE FLASHING

Reading the above you'll understand that if you want to be 100% safe, you should flash ONLY "pda" and/or "csc". In case of any error during the flashing, even if you get a non responsive phone stuck on the PC-Phone connection screen, you'll be able to flash the ROM again.

For this reason, Sorg created the modded Octans Mini which allows to flash just PDA and CSC part. If you want to be safe or if it's your first flashing attempt, I suggest you to use it.

Software required for flashing i8000 ROM

Windos XP with SP3 (if you want to use Window Vista, read here; if you want to use Windows 7 x32, read here; if you want to use Windows 7 x64, read here)

Samsung_CDMA_modem_4_1_.34.zip

OCTANS Downloader (you can use the standard OCTANS_Downloader_v2.14.exe ( 920K ) Number of downloads: 4812

or the modified OCTANS_Mini.v2.11.exe by Sorg)

Flashing Procedure

The following steps are as suggested by Sorg, there are other procedures which may differ a little (such as not turning the phone off) that still works but this one I've been using and tested myself and always fine:

0) Make sure to install (or to have installed already) the Samsung_CDMA_modem_4_1_.34.zip driver.

1) Make sure your phone is not connected to your PC; if it is, disconnect it.

2) Make sure to Turn off your phone.

3) Start OCTANS and fill required fields/checkboxes (MORE DETAILS BELOW on How to use Octans Downloader)

4) Press "Detect" button.

5) Connect Phone to computer (make sure phone was turned off before connecting) IMPORTANT: don't connect trough USB hub.

6) As OCTANS detect phone, press the "Start" button.

7) Wait till whole operation end; the phone will restart itself once or twice to update everything then its ready to set up again.

How to use Octans Downloader (details on the above point 3 of the Flashing Procedure)

- if you use Octans 2.14, you are able to flash any of the four ROM parts

1) Select the Eboot button and open the .eb0 file

2) Select the MoviNAND button and open the .MST file (if the ROM you want to flash is in .mst format) OR Select the PDA buttons and open the .nb0 file (if the ROM you want to flash is in .nb0 format); choose .mst OR .nb0! not both!

3) Select the MultiCSC button and open the .CSC file; in the drop down box below you can select a region for your ROM (more details on CSC decoding is posted below); in the drop down box above you can select the language.

4) Select the Phone button and open the .bin file

- if you use Octans Mini 2.11, you can only flash PDA and CSC part (also the option to preserve the "My Storage" is enabled by defult)

1) Select the MoviNAND button and open the .MST file (if the ROM you want to flash is in .mst format) OR Select the PDA buttons and open the .nb0 file (if the ROM you want to flash is in .nb0 format); choose .mst OR .nb0! not both!

2) Select the MultiCSC button and open the .CSC file; in the drop down box below you can select a region for your ROM (more details on CSC decoding is posted below); in the drop down box above you can select the language.

IMPORTANT: Octans Mini 2.11 doesn't support flashing CSC parts for the newest ROMs (not sure since when... maybe after the JAx)

Notes about i8000L

Some users reported flashing (without any problems) a I8000 PDA image to a I8000L phone (from people who reported flashing just PDA part, the "success" rate seems to be 100% so far).

Rodrigofd suspects the same applies to CSC image, but for obvious reasons (different bands) he assumes Phone part is strictly incompatible between i8000 and i8000L..

Quoting Rodrigofd: "As regards EBOOT part, it is a mistery (if possible to flash i8000 eboot to i8000L phones) but i suppose no i8000L user is willing to risk it, since its well known the risks that a failed eboot flashing carries....so, in short, for I8000L users, feel free to experiment PDA ROMs flashing, and stick AWAY from flashing Phone and EBOOT parts."

I add that a couple of users reported success in flashing all 4 parts to a i8000L, BUT it's just 1 or 2 new users at most so it may NOT BE attendible info.

I accept NO responsibility for any damage caused to your handset before, during and after to Flashing with this software/Procedure, it can be dangerous. Proceed with caution!

Please have some time to Thanks the posters who have done great tutorials to help us.

WinXP_x32.zip

OCTANS_Mini.v2.11.exe

[Guest sush_omnia_7610]

Thanks Kaspy for promptly replying and explaining things to us. I have done my first flash yesterday itself (cudnt resist the temptation anymore), and successfully flashed to "Sumit Bhardwaj's WM 6.5.3 build 23148 JE2+O2 JD1 Full+Extras ROM" :D. I had dumped my original ROM and CSC (using the same method from this same Guide that you have given.) befor the flash. :D

I am excited to see a fresh 6.5 interface and currently testing it. . .

Thanks to all you guys

thanks Sumit.

may be now I will try a megalite sense rom from Dasklos. any suggestions ?

[Guest kaspy]

yes daskalos sense roms are great , love them , but curremtle using the latest build 6.5.x 232xx version from daskalos

[Guest Oluap]

Hi every One ..

Well as i said i will try to explain you the basics.

i am not so expert in the field , but still i will try my level best ,

First of all you need the drivers , dumping tools , and flashing tools for doing all the things you want ,

1. lets us start with dumping session.

Pre to this you will need.

a) Drivers of b7610 . i have uploaded them download it ,

it is for win xp.

if you are using win 7 then there are few steps more to get it installed.

after installing the drivers .

Follow this

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS COPIED FROM MEMBER: kibiwi post ,

i am not providing the link as i have previously copied it to my computer and doesn't have a link to the site where he posted

What you need to accomplish this procedure:

Pako777’s i900_EXEcutor v 2.4 (thank you Pako for the great effort, much appreciated!);

Winhex full version (thank you sorg for precious hints).

Here are the instructions:

First we have to get the louvre.mli file from the device (which contains the pda and eboot part). To accomplish that:

1) disconnect the device from PC;

2) go to settings/general settings/USB connection and switch to Mass Storage mode with "My Storage" selected;

3) connect the device to PC. PC will find a new disk. This disk has 2 partition. One is normal and visible (where you probably saved some stuff) and another is hidden.

4) open WinHex, click on Tools>Open Disk, select Removable Medium 6 (1.9 GB, USB) and click ok.

Then access the hidden partition with 512 mb size (tipically partition 2) by double clicking on it. You should see a big file with the name louvre.mli. Right click on it and select recover/copy, then select where to copy the file.

Once you have extracted the louvre.mli file open pako’s executor go to the tools tab and press the MLI button, select the louvre file by browsing through the folder where you saved it. Select model b7610 in the drop-down menu then press go button.

That’s it you should have now two files eb0 (eboot part) and nb0 (pda part) which are flashable with Octans like explained in the I8000 forum.

I recommend you not to flash the eboot part because if something goes wrong you brick your phone.

With this procedure you can recover your device original rom even if you haven't dumped it only if you have never flashed a mst file, but only nb0 files.

Verify the pda version you have going to start/settings/advanced (right tab)/system/version/device/pda ver. The last 3 letters show from left to right the year, the month and the release number.

I share this procedure with you in order to give the community last samsung released roms so if you have a rom more up to date than IL2 for wm 6.5 or II1 for wm 6.1 then please share it here!(post it or contact me with pm)

Finally I remember you as ever:

I'm not responsible for any damages/bricks caused by this procedure. You're accomplishing it totally at your own risk!

Pako777’s i900_EXEcutor v 2.4 http://www.modaco.com/content/i900-general.../i900-executor/

Winhex site http://www.winhex.com/winhex/

With this hope that you will be able to dump the rom.

Now for the Flashing part

Please Note that the flashing part is copied from

tachhan23

post

I dont have the present link so iam coping it from previous saved file

ROM parts description (usually you'll get the ROM as compressed files; I suggest you to extract the actual rom files using 7zip becouse it is compatible with every form of compressing out there and it's freeware too; if the files looks something like zip.001, zip.002, etc or part01.rar, part02.rar, etc just extract the first file and it will automatically extract all the needed parts)

Eboot (.eb0): some users compared it to a PC bios; another user posted this definition "it's a part of I8000 software that provides the very flashing process. In other words it's a program that replaces PDA, CSC and phone parts of existing firmware to updated ones in I8000 read-only memory"

Sorg affirmed that the only risk of bricking your phone comes from "eboot": if Eboot will be corrupted during replacement to newer one then you will likely lose the option to save your i8000. That is why changing Eboot is not recommended on every-time basis.

Personally I'd suggest to flash eboot only while upgrading from WM6.1 to WM6.5 (that's the only time I flashed the eboot), becouse it seems that not flashing eboot may cause a problem about your phone not going into sleep mode. I had the problem too and solved it by flashing eboot. I guess this was needed for going from a old wm6.1 rom to a new wm6.5 rom, so maybe it will not be necessary again in the future.

So in the end, even if I still suggest to not flash eboot when is not needed, if you are facing some weird problems it may be worth to flash it too.

PDA (.mst or .nb0): the actual Windows Mobile OS, applications, drivers, etc

CSC (.csc): definition by Rodfigofd "Among other things, it contains boot images (not the animated ones, that correspond to power_on/off.gif, but the one that goes before that), much like the HTC devices' splash .nb files, .. also, the charging animation when device is plugged but off, animations for the EBOOT program when you are flashing the phone, and also files and settings that get applied to your Win Mobile when you flash or hard reset. CSC can include, for example, wallpapers, themes, connection settings, etc. I suppose it can also contain apps an other stuff.

Although in flasher program CSC file seems to let you select languages, CSC file just have possible language choices, but not the files/settings corresponding to those languages. Those are all packed in the PDA part (NB0 or MST)."

Phone (.bin): the radio/GPS firmware

Sorg suggests not to flash the phone part as it may cause problems of compatibility in case of downgrading the rom or if your phone is locked to some operator. He also stated that there is no benefit in it, while other users reports different performance in the GPS fix, etc... honestly I have no idea on the subject, but so far no user reported any actual problems for flashing the Phone part.

SAFE FLASHING

Reading the above you'll understand that if you want to be 100% safe, you should flash ONLY "pda" and/or "csc". In case of any error during the flashing, even if you get a non responsive phone stuck on the PC-Phone connection screen, you'll be able to flash the ROM again.

For this reason, Sorg created the modded Octans Mini which allows to flash just PDA and CSC part. If you want to be safe or if it's your first flashing attempt, I suggest you to use it.

Software required for flashing i8000 ROM

Windos XP with SP3 (if you want to use Window Vista, read here; if you want to use Windows 7 x32, read here; if you want to use Windows 7 x64, read here)

Samsung_CDMA_modem_4_1_.34.zip

OCTANS Downloader (you can use the standard OCTANS_Downloader_v2.14.exe ( 920K ) Number of downloads: 4812

or the modified OCTANS_Mini.v2.11.exe by Sorg)

Flashing Procedure

The following steps are as suggested by Sorg, there are other procedures which may differ a little (such as not turning the phone off) that still works but this one I've been using and tested myself and always fine:

0) Make sure to install (or to have installed already) the Samsung_CDMA_modem_4_1_.34.zip driver.

1) Make sure your phone is not connected to your PC; if it is, disconnect it.

2) Make sure to Turn off your phone.

3) Start OCTANS and fill required fields/checkboxes (MORE DETAILS BELOW on How to use Octans Downloader)

4) Press "Detect" button.

5) Connect Phone to computer (make sure phone was turned off before connecting) IMPORTANT: don't connect trough USB hub.

6) As OCTANS detect phone, press the "Start" button.

7) Wait till whole operation end; the phone will restart itself once or twice to update everything then its ready to set up again.

How to use Octans Downloader (details on the above point 3 of the Flashing Procedure)

- if you use Octans 2.14, you are able to flash any of the four ROM parts

1) Select the Eboot button and open the .eb0 file

2) Select the MoviNAND button and open the .MST file (if the ROM you want to flash is in .mst format) OR Select the PDA buttons and open the .nb0 file (if the ROM you want to flash is in .nb0 format); choose .mst OR .nb0! not both!

3) Select the MultiCSC button and open the .CSC file; in the drop down box below you can select a region for your ROM (more details on CSC decoding is posted below); in the drop down box above you can select the language.

4) Select the Phone button and open the .bin file

- if you use Octans Mini 2.11, you can only flash PDA and CSC part (also the option to preserve the "My Storage" is enabled by defult)

1) Select the MoviNAND button and open the .MST file (if the ROM you want to flash is in .mst format) OR Select the PDA buttons and open the .nb0 file (if the ROM you want to flash is in .nb0 format); choose .mst OR .nb0! not both!

2) Select the MultiCSC button and open the .CSC file; in the drop down box below you can select a region for your ROM (more details on CSC decoding is posted below); in the drop down box above you can select the language.

IMPORTANT: Octans Mini 2.11 doesn't support flashing CSC parts for the newest ROMs (not sure since when... maybe after the JAx)

Notes about i8000L

Some users reported flashing (without any problems) a I8000 PDA image to a I8000L phone (from people who reported flashing just PDA part, the "success" rate seems to be 100% so far).

Rodrigofd suspects the same applies to CSC image, but for obvious reasons (different bands) he assumes Phone part is strictly incompatible between i8000 and i8000L..

Quoting Rodrigofd: "As regards EBOOT part, it is a mistery (if possible to flash i8000 eboot to i8000L phones) but i suppose no i8000L user is willing to risk it, since its well known the risks that a failed eboot flashing carries....so, in short, for I8000L users, feel free to experiment PDA ROMs flashing, and stick AWAY from flashing Phone and EBOOT parts."

I add that a couple of users reported success in flashing all 4 parts to a i8000L, BUT it's just 1 or 2 new users at most so it may NOT BE attendible info.

I accept NO responsibility for any damage caused to your handset before, during and after to Flashing with this software/Procedure, it can be dangerous. Proceed with caution!

Please have some time to Thanks the posters who have done great tutorials to help us.

this guide really saved my phone! i cant flash my phone because it always gets stuck at 4%. then when i read that it should not be plugged to a usb hub, i connected it directly to my pc and it worked! thanks! :unsure:

[Guest F0rrest]

Hi Kaspy

Out of interest, can you tell me what the drivers are used for (they don't seem to be mentioned in the flashing process). I've just flashed for the first time, and I'm wondering if I've missed a step because internet on my phone doesn't work anymore; it's trying to access via T-mobile when I use Vodafone.

If I flash to another ROM, do I need to dump the initial one again via Winhex, or does Octans just overwrite the previously flashed ROM?

Cheers

Forrest

[Guest tsc77]

Hi, I am new to the forum and would like to get some help on backup.

I have downloaded the winhex with intension to backup the original rom.

I proceed as per instruction but the winhex does not allow me to backup file "louvre.mli" with message saying my downloaded version does not allow backup of file larger than 512Mb(if i can remember correctly).

Can someone tells me what when wrong or which version should i download? Thanks.

[Guest F0rrest]

Hi, I am new to the forum and would like to get some help on backup.

I have downloaded the winhex with intension to backup the original rom.

I proceed as per instruction but the winhex does not allow me to backup file "louvre.mli" with message saying my downloaded version does not allow backup of file larger than 512Mb(if i can remember correctly).

Can someone tells me what when wrong or which version should i download? Thanks.

I got that message too. I paid the registration fee to get the full working program and everything was fine.

[Guest F0rrest]

<br />Hi Kaspy<br /><br />Out of interest, can you tell me what the drivers are used for (they don't seem to be mentioned in the flashing process).  I've just flashed for the first time, and I'm wondering if I've missed a step because internet on my phone doesn't work anymore; it's trying to access via T-mobile when I use Vodafone.<br /><br />If I flash to another ROM, do I need to dump the initial one again via Winhex, or does Octans just overwrite the previously flashed ROM?<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Forrest<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Anyone able to help on this one? I've flashed back to the original ROM just now while I try to evaluate all the ROMs on the site to see which suits my needs best.