One-click Unbrick For Samsung Phones

20 Comments

[Adam Outler] has been pretty heavy into mobile device hacking lately. The biggest problem with that field is recovering from back flashes or development firmware glitches. In many cases you can use a JTAG programmer to reflash stock firmware to resurrect a handset. Unfortunately you’ll be hard pressed to find a phone that comes with a JTAG header, and soldering to the microelectronic boards is not for the faint of heart.

But a solution is here, [Adam] pulled together a wide set of resources to create a package to unbrick Samsung phones. Now we’re sure that there’s more than a handful of people who would argue that a bad firmware flash that can be fixed this way means that the phone wasn’t actually “bricked” in the first place. But what we see is one more barrier torn down between being a hardware user and becoming a hardware hacker. You’re much more likely to get in there and get your hands dirty if you know that you’ll be able to undo your mistakes and reclaim you precious pocket hardware. See just how easy it is in the video after the break.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEotRhChSE4&w=470]

20 thoughts on “One-click Unbrick For Samsung Phones”

  1. I think it’s crap that you can turn any high end consumer electronic into worthless plastic with a few ones and zeroes… I mean, where’s the virus killer app that just bricks the planet?

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  3. Reminds me of when I modified a dbus config file and caused my Nokia N900 linux phone to refuse to boot properly. Was up till about 3am booting various kernels (using the flasher tool option to load a kernel into the phone and boot it) and other things until I finally got something on the phone that could mount the root filesystem so I could copy off anything important. Then I was able to reflash the kernel/rootfs and my phone worked again.

    Try doing THAT with anything from Samsung :P

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  5. @Jonathan Wilson That’s the kind of stuff I do for fun in my spare time on my Samsung device.

    SBL> eraseall units
bbm_erase_all: step 1. Start unit=1, End unit=2.
.
bbm_erase_all: step 1. Start unit=52, End unit=2004.
......................................................................................................................................................................................................
bbm eraseall success.
SBL> reboot
command_loop: parse command error! (reboot)
SBL> reset
Rebooting...

SB1
-----------------------------------------------------------
   Samsung Primitive Bootloader (PBL) v3.0
   Copyright (C) Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 2006-2010
-----------------------------------------------------------

+n1stVPN       2688 
+nPgsPerBlk    64 
+n1stVPN       3008 
+nPgsPerBlk    64 
PBL found bootable SBL: Partition(4).

Set cpu clk. from 400MHz to 800MHz.
OM=0x9, device=OnenandMux(Audi)
IROM e-fused - Non Secure Boot Version.

-----------------------------------------------------------
   Samsung Secondary Bootloader (SBL) v3.0
   Copyright (C) Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 2006-2010

   Board Name: ARIES REV 03
   Build On: Jun  8 2011 21:44:47
-----------------------------------------------------------

Re_partition: magic code(0x0)
[PAM:   ] ++FSR_PAM_Init
[PAM:   ]   OneNAND physical base address       : 0xb0000000
[PAM:   ]   OneNAND virtual  base address       : 0xb0000000
[PAM:   ]   OneNAND nMID=0xec : nDID=0x50
[PAM:   ] --FSR_PAM_Init
fsr_bml_load_partition: pi->nNumOfPartEntry = 12
partitions loading success
board partition information update.. source: 0x0
.Done.
read 1 units.
==== PARTITION INFORMATION ====
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x0)
 ATTR       : RO SLC (0x1002)
 FIRST_UNIT : 0
 NO_UNITS   : 1
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x1)
 ATTR       : RO SLC (0x1002)
 FIRST_UNIT : 1
 NO_UNITS   : 1
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x14)
 ATTR       : RW STL SLC (0x1101)
 FIRST_UNIT : 2
 NO_UNITS   : 40
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x3)
 ATTR       : RO SLC (0x1002)
 FIRST_UNIT : 42
 NO_UNITS   : 5
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x4)
 ATTR       : RO SLC (0x1002)
 FIRST_UNIT : 47
 NO_UNITS   : 5
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x15)
 ATTR       : RW STL SLC (0x1101)
 FIRST_UNIT : 52
 NO_UNITS   : 20
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x6)
 ATTR       : RO SLC (0x1002)
 FIRST_UNIT : 72
 NO_UNITS   : 30
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x7)
 ATTR       : RO SLC (0x1002)
 FIRST_UNIT : 102
 NO_UNITS   : 30
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x16)
 ATTR       : RW STL SLC (0x1101)
 FIRST_UNIT : 132
 NO_UNITS   : 1146
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x17)
 ATTR       : RW STL SLC (0x1101)
 FIRST_UNIT : 1278
 NO_UNITS   : 536
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0x18)
 ATTR       : RW STL SLC (0x1101)
 FIRST_UNIT : 1814
 NO_UNITS   : 140
===============================
 ID         : *unknown id* (0xb)
 ATTR       : RO SLC (0x1002)
 FIRST_UNIT : 1954
 NO_UNITS   : 50
===============================
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  6. Ya, N900. late night scrambling.
    You’re a pioneer. good for you.
    Now, How’s ‘about you port Moblin to Every Nokia.
    While your at it, see what you can do about unlocking
    signed ROMs.
    Lemme know when your done.

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  11. HELP ME PLEASE!!! so i went to put run the clockwork mod on my phone i flashed it with the rom app then when i went to reboot it..it got stuck on the samsung screen. so i plug it on doing the hold volume button and the next screen that comes up is says warning a custom os can cause critical problems in phone and installed applications. if you want to download a custom os, press the volume up key. otherwise, press the the down key to cancel. up takes me to the downloading screen and down just takes me to the samsung screen. I was woundering what can i do to save my phone? i have the samsung infuse 4g. thank you for your help. Have a great day.

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  13. I am so frustrated ! I have a Samsung Galaxy S Stratosphere… its hard bricked coz Odin froze. I have tried everything to get it to boot. nothing is working ! your method doesnt work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is there a way to fix this? all I get is the keyboard to light up… ive tried the Jig too… and nothing

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  17. help me pleeeaase :( i have a samsung galaxy y gt-s6310 I did everything but I did the stupidest thing before my phone got bricked. I FORGOT TO TURN ON DEVELOPER OPTIONS . and i can;t connect to pc. is there another way to connect to pc? plss help

    reply asap.
    (By the way Im still 15 and im a noob)
    (phone is rooted)

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  18. this is only for a soft brick am i correct? My phone is hard bricked and I can’t get it debricked. I tried the sd card method, i tried usb jig, i am trying to get files for qpst/emmc software download. or its off to jtag

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  20. Helo guys, hope i found you all well and willing to help me. how do i unbrick my samsung galaxy note i9220. it has just went black screen after flashing N7000 (16Gig) pit file its nolonger booting. tried to hold down 3combo (volume down+home+power) its not working. tried even going into the recovery its not working again. after all even if i connect it to the computer its not even showing up or even the battery sign that its charging…..ALL NOTHING. please guys um kindly asking for a way out. this is the only phone i have with me

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