Help, force close galor after reverting from Voodoo to non-voodoo

[ryankhart]

I apologize if this has been address before, I found it a hard thing to search for.

I installed the Super Clean ROM through ROM Manager, then I installed the Voodoo kernel. Then I noticed that a previous ROM I had tried ran better. So, since I heard that you're supposed to uninstall Voodoo before switching ROMs, so I installed the "Non-Voodoo kernel" through the ROM Manager. It reboots, and comes to a lockscreen, but as soon as I unlock it I'm flooded with literally endless force close messages, and I can't do anything.

I'm not necessarily panicked because I know there's a fix for this, but I don't know how to do fix it without restoring the whole phone to factory ROM an settings.

I've tried booting into recovering by holding both volume up and down while pressing the power button, but there was no restore option in the menu.

Please help or post a link to where this is already explained. Thank you!

 

[bigredcat]

You found out the hard way that voodoo kernels can not simply flashed over (unless it is to a newer voodoo kernel).

Ok, first lets get your phone back working. Reinstall the voodoo kernel for now. Go to the stock recovery by holding both volume buttons at start up. Select the "apply update.zip" option. That should take you to the clockworkmod recovery. This will enable you the chance to reinstall the voodoo kernel. If you need further guideance just ask.

I have never uninstalled voodoo but here is the link.

[How to] Completely Remove Voodoo Lagfix - xda-developers

Good luck.

 

[dr0idg0d23]

If you are only trying to flash a different rom and not wanting to disable voodoo permenantly then here is what to do. Reinstall voodoo kernel. After that and when phone is rebooted go into sd card/voodoo and create a folder called "disable_lagfix" reboot phone and patiently wait for process to finish (takes a while). Once phone is booted you must reboot into recovery and flash your rom. After reboot go back to your sd card and remove the file you created in the voodoo folder and reboot again.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using DroidForums App

 

[bL33d]

Imo voodoo is more trouble then its worth. I only seen and increase in performance with benchmarks and maybe installing apps which was not slow b4 voodoo anyway.

 

[ryankhart]

Oh man! They don't call it Voodoo for nothing!

Thanks bigredcat and yutzyscott. My main stumbling block at first was that I didn't know that the "apply update.zip" lead to the clockwork mod.

However, after I reinstalled the Voodoo kernel, I got it to work again (except an odd problem where none of my widgets showed). And then I created the disable_lagfix folder in sdcard/voodoo/. I rebooted and it did its thing. I forget what exactly happened after but I went into clockwork mod and flashed recoveries from previous ROMs. If I flash the ROM I had with Voodoo, it'll boot but the screen is completely black, can't do anything. If I flash a previous ROM, I just get and an infinite loop of boot screens.

I tried wiping everything, and that did nothing. I'm lost.

 

[bigredcat]

Oh man! They don't call it Voodoo for nothing!

Thanks bigredcat and yutzyscott. My main stumbling block at first was that I didn't know that the "apply update.zip" lead to the clockwork mod.

However, after I reinstalled the Voodoo kernel, I got it to work again (except an odd problem where none of my widgets showed). And then I created the disable_lagfix folder in sdcard/voodoo/. I rebooted and it did its thing. I forget what exactly happened after but I went into clockwork mod and flashed recoveries from previous ROMs. If I flash the ROM I had with Voodoo, it'll boot but the screen is completely black, can't do anything. If I flash a previous ROM, I just get and an infinite loop of boot screens.

I tried wiping everything, and that did nothing. I'm lost.

Are you trying to disable voodoo?

You cant create a disable_lagfix FOLDER, it wont disable the lagfix. You need to create a FILE of the same name.

Here is some instructions on how to do so in Windows.

1) Create a new folder on your desktop, name of the folder does not matter.

2) Open the folder and go up to the top and select "Tools", and then "Folder Options" from the drop down.

3) Click on the "View" tab, then look under the Advanced Settings and look for the "Hide extensions for known file types" option and make sure the block is UNCHECKED. Hit apply and close the Folder Options window

4) Back in the new folder you created in step 1, right click in the folder and hover over "New" and click on Text Document. You should now have a new text document in the folder.

5) Rename the new text document created in step 4 as "disable_lagfix" NO FILE EXTENSION. Delete the ".txt" You should get a warning about the file not becoming usable, just select "Yes"

6) Copy that file you just renamed into the root of the "voodoo" folder on your SD Card.

7) Restart your phone. As long as you keep that file in the voodoo folder, the voodoo lagfix will DISABLE itself. To use voodoo again simply delete the file.

Done.

If you want to completely remove voodoo try this link.

[How to] Completely Remove Voodoo Lagfix - xda-developers

Discalimer: I take no responsibility if you break or damage your phone. I have voodoo installed on my phone and it works great.

 

[ryankhart]

Oh ok. But how do you explain that when I created the folder instead of a file and rebooted and did the creepy computerized female voice thing?

But besides that, I can't even get my phone to boot successfully to any combination of ROMs and Voodoo or Non-Voodoo kernels. I don't know if it makes a difference but I still have that "disable_lagfix" folder in there.

To try and change that folder to a file instead, I tried mounting my micro-SD card to both PC and Mac using an SD card adapter, but nothing could recognize its existence. My guess is that I have to use a certain Windows program to push files to the phone. I've done it before with my previous Motorola Droid 1, but I forget all the details and whether or not it would be different on the Fascinate.

 

[MysterE]

Ran into the same problem you did, but I ran the steps from "[How to] Completely Remove Voodoo Lagfix - xda-developers"

After that my I was able to bring my phone back to a stock state. It completely removed root on the phone. Phone was still not 100%, but i used CMWR to re-install the back up I created before I installed the VooDoo ROM. Brought back my phone back to where it was with no issues. All I have to say is thank goodness I made a backup of the stock ROM w/root before I installed VooDoo.

Phone is 100% now running Black Glass ROM

 

[bigredcat]

Are you trying to get rid of voodoo?

Warning, the following will result in loss of apps and data in your phone, you continue at your own risk.

That said you might want to try to "wipe data / factory reset" and "wipe cache partition" in clockworkmod recovery. This should clear everything out and let you load a new rom. I would try to wipe and load a new rom and leave the kernel alone for now. Choose any rom out there, I would maybe suggest JTs Super Clean Rom. Give that a shot and ket us know how you do.

You know how to flash new roms in clockworkmod recovery, correct?

 

[ryankhart]

Are you trying to get rid of voodoo?

Oh sorry. I don't care either way. I just want to know how to get everything working again. If I know how to do that, I can experiment and still find my way back if I mess something up.

You know how to flash new roms in clockworkmod recovery, correct?

Correct.

 

[ryankhart]

Ok so I tried the easy route and tried wiping data and cache with a fresh ROM and I still got the infinite boot screen. I guess that leaves me with the other option of just removing it completely, I'll try out that link that was posted several times in this thread, and see what I come up with.

 

[mrdroid]

Voodoo lag-fix is just a Fascinate brick waiting to happen. It is completely unstable when touched. And you need to disable/enable every time you modify something.... complete waste of time for almost 0 benefit. The non-voodoo kernals are just as fast and lag-free.

 

[Harbo99]

Ryan,

I had the same problem yesterday. To fix it, I downloaded the voodoo uninstaller from adrynalyne's post on XDA and placed it on my sd card.

Then I rebooted into stock recovery and wiped data. Then apply update.zip to get in CWM recovery. Apply zip from sd card and select voodoo uninstaller. Let it run (mine was really fast) and then wipe in CWM. Then you should be able to reboot and then restore to a previous stable ROM.

Hope this helps.

 

[ryankhart]

The problem I have is that everywhere I look people are saying just push this to your sd card and push that to your sd card. I don't know how to "push" anything. Whenever I try to Google for help, they always assume I can boot to Android and enable USB debugging, but I can't, just clockworkmod.

I tried going to "mounts and storage" -> "mount USB storage" and then plug in the USB to my computer. It shows up as a drive, but it doesn't let me open it up or copy any files to it.

I tried using adb, but I don't know how to fully use it especially without step-by-step instructions.