Root Droid 1 - regardless of OS version

[aldaudio]

that SBF file is not working for me. when i click on it with ... it doesnt highlight the start button, but i have a previous SBF i used that will highlight it

edit: re downloaded the file and it seems to work now.

[MotoCache1]

Hey Motocache1, thanks for all your help on this. Below are the details of the experience best I can recapitulate. The underlying problem is probably beyond me at this point, but if anybody wants to figure it out, maybe something I did can provide a clue.

Hi chico. I had something happen earlier today that made me think about you, but it looks like maybe you've got it...

OK, I got SPRecovery to see the whole sdcard without complaint and I was able to finish the root process. Woo-hoo! Here's how I did it. Short answer: I don't know.

Oh, those are the worst because you're happy that the problem is gone, but if it happens again you don't necessarily know what to do about it.

Longer answer: each time I reinstalled SPRecovery, I checked the mount options in SPRecovery to see if it would mount the sdcard without complaint. Soon, randomly it seems, it did. I immediately went to install and update.zip installed without a hitch, and with all of Motocache1's friendly messages I knew I was home and dry. Reboot, voila! Relief!

Awesome. I have a suggestion but I'll want and see what the rest of your post holds...

Now that my phone status is rooted with Motocache1's update, I don't have to worry about having to reinstall SPRecovery anymore. When I power+x into SPRecovery, I usually am still unable to mount the sdcard getting the usual E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 [blahblah] message. When I reboot from SPRecovery, to save time I make sure I use the D-up trick to prevent the phone from booting and instead go into bootloader.(I should have used this trick when I wasn't rooted to avoid repeated SPRecovery reinstalls). From there I can power down and then power+x back up into SPRecovery. Eventually, I am able to mount the sdcard in SPRecovery without getting an error message. One thing seems to help a bit: if I clear the cache in SPRecovery, the next time I come back in it seems my chance of a sdcard mount success is much better; not 100% though. Maybe it helps, or maybe it's just been random correlation.

I should also note: before rooting success and before trying to cycle through multiple reinstalls of SPRecovery, I wiped my scard using SPRecovery and also reformatted it from within the phone's OS. This didn't seem to have any immediate effect on SPRecovery's ability to mount the sdcard, but I provide this in the interest of full information. Unlike others reporting this problem, I've never pulled the battery or sdcard from my phone in this process.

Good work keeping track of the details. Often times the fine details help point to a resolution. Let's finish out your post before I offer my suggestion.

I'm planning on updating my kernel, and I think the manual update.zip method is probably safest, so I'll report back if my phone's behavior deviates from current experience. And maybe somebody smarter than me can figure out what's really going on here. It sure seems like a flaky problem that plenty of people are having.

Actually, I'm pretty sure you're the only one with this particular issue. Most of the other update.zip problems are self-inflicted of a sort. This one is an honest-to-goodness malfunction.

Here's my story and theory:

So, earlier I needed to pop an old version of Superuser on one of my DEV Droid 1's so I could get a screen shot of the old Ninja icon for the FAQ. I booted the phone into SPRecovery, then did an "ADB push oldsufile.zip /sdcard/update.zip". I got back the message saying the file had copied successfully. Then I picked up the phone and did "allow" and then "install". At that point I got "your" error:

E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/bloc
k/mmcblk0)
(No such file or directory)
E:Can't mount SDCARD:update.zip
Installation aborted.

[Lines displayed as wrapped in original.]

My first thought was "crap, I must have the SD card mounted or something", and my second thought was "but, awesome, that's Chico's error, so I know how to reproduce it" (I've never seen your error before except with people who had a damaged SD card or SD card slot or something like that). But soon thereafter I was confused when I checked and the SD card wasn't mounted. For giggles I tried to mount it and then got basically the same "can't mount" error. It took me about another 1/2 second to remember that I don't have an SD card in this phone. That's fine, but then why did the file copy to /sdcard, and why can I ADB shell in and see it there? Best guess is that when you don't have an SD card present, SPRecovery must mount /sdcard to the ramdisk or something. I can put files in it and they stay there and are usable until I reboot and they are gone at next startup (hence my thought that it's pointing to the ramdisk). Anyway, I digress.

At this point I think that your problem is one of the following:

1. SD card contacts not seated well or are dirty. Hopefully it's this one. Shut the phone down, pull the battery and remove the SD card. Clean the contacts on the card (the eraser on the end of a pencil is a great tool to clean gold contacts), make sure you got all the eraser dust off the card, and reinstall it back in the phone, making sure it is seated well, and see how it goes.
2. Try a brand new card in the phone and let the phone format it. It doesn't have to be big -- any old Micro SD is fine. See if that fixes it. If so, your other card may be marginal.
3. If it's neither of those then I'd tend to blame the card socket itself. Yuck.

Hope that all helps.

[MotoCache1]

that SBF file is not working for me. when i click on it with ... it doesnt highlight the start button, but i have a previous SBF i used that will highlight it

edit: re downloaded the file and it seems to work now.

If you have this happen again (you will) check item #6 of Frequently Encountered Issues in the OP. This is a known Win 7 issue at this point.

[MotoCache1]

my phone will not flash in rsd lite... in the status section it says platform is not designed for CDMA_TYPE-OMAP-CHIPSET, and then fails to flash the recovery file

Honestly that sounds like either:

1. Your phone is not a Motorola Droid 1 A855
2. Your SBF file is not my file
3. Something is horribly wrong with your phone's presentation to the computer

[MotoCache1]

i was sort of under the impression that rooting the phone would unlock some more features within the OS that would be available readily. but it seems more like rooting allows for downloading apps that require root to do things that unrooted phone apps cannot. is this the case ?

so, aside from looking for apps in the market that will enable additional features like terminal, cpu clock speed, etc. what can i do with the phone OS itself that i couldn't do before rooting ?

Think of it as the difference between logging into Windows as a regular user and logging in as Administrator. That's all it is.

[MotoCache1]

Just successfully rooted the phone FRG22. Superuser is available. Now the phone is super sluggish and market will not load.

What should I do? Do I need to reflash the phone? Reflash back to stock?

Was your phone perfectly fine before? Was it completely stock prior? You say you "rooted the phone FRG22", but there are no "official" FRG22's out there (only FRG22D), so I don't really know what you started with or where you're at now.

[furbearingmammal]

i was sort of under the impression that rooting the phone would unlock some more features within the OS that would be available readily. but it seems more like rooting allows for downloading apps that require root to do things that unrooted phone apps cannot. is this the case ?

so, aside from looking for apps in the market that will enable additional features like terminal, cpu clock speed, etc. what can i do with the phone OS itself that i couldn't do before rooting ?

Think of it as the difference between logging into Windows as a regular user and logging in as Administrator. That's all it is.

You can use SPRecovery to flash custom ROMs, kernels, and themes.

It's the ROMs you probably would be most interested in looking into. Try CyanogenMod 6 first as it's possibly the most stock-like of all the custom-built ROMs and as such it has one of the easiest transitions from stock. However, once you start digging into it you'll find you can do ANYTHING you want that's possible, and more so. And then there's a little more. If CM6 doesn't do it for you, try Simply Stunning, Ultimate Droid, Liquid Frozen Yogurt, LithiumMOD, etc. etc.

Sorry for the hijack, MotoCache. Just figured this might help others with the same "problem".

[MotoCache1]

I have the exact same problem [as chico] and also could not find a definite solution either. It seems like this issue is the only thing in my way to rooting my phone as I have everything else working fine.

Check out the notions in my reply to chico and let me know how you fare with those.

[MotoCache1]

The longer I leave it between battery pulls the more it goes. I've left it on for about 30 minutes and its halfway through the first eye flash.
Any ideas what to do? Should I just reformat?

I checked all 3 of your posts and they don't really tell me anything about your phone prior to doing the procedure. What OS were you running, was it completely stock or running a leak or a ROM, how did the SBF and update.zip go (any errors or problems), etc. The SBF and update.zip change absolutely nothing that has anything to do with the bootup on a stock phone. If your phone wasn't stock when you started, well, that could be a completely different story depending on what was on it.

[memories18]

I Am Having Problems.
RSD Lite Will Not Install On My Computer At All.
I Have A Windows 7 Comp 64-bit.
And I Have 4 gb Ram