[Guide] Nexus 7 Bootloaders/Recoveries/Root/Back to Stock

190961 Views 124 Replies 66 Participants Last post by superwrench1, Dec 20, 2013

k.electron

Discussion Starter · Jun 28, 2012 (Edited by Moderator)

Thanks to:
Google
birdman
CWM
Team Win
chainfire
and any others whom I am unaware of (please pm and I will include you)

OEM UNLOCK:
WARNING: This will wipe your device. Backup all your photos and whatnot.

Boot device into bootloader.
Open a command prompt in the folder where your fastboot.exe lives. Typically this is the platform-tools directory in the SDK.
Type in
Code:
```
fastboot oem unlock
```
and press enter.
Follow prompts on device to unlock bootloader.
Profit!

BOOTLOADERS:
See Post 2 -> here

RECOVERIES:
See Post 3 -> here

BACK TO STOCK:
See Post 3 -> here

ROOT:

Load CWM onto your device as described in the RECOVERIES section
Download the SU binary for JB
Put it onto the device
Boot into recovery
Install zip from sd card
Choose zip
Navigate to the file you downloaded and put onto the device
Flash
Profit!

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jun 28, 2012 (Edited by Moderator)

BOOTLOADERS:

HOW TO FLASH:

Download bootloader to hard drive.
Boot device into bootloader.
Open a command prompt in the folder where your fastboot.exe lives. Typically this is the platform-tools directory in the SDK.

Type in

Code:

fastboot flash bootloader <location/name_of_bootloader_file.img>

and press enter.

Wait for successful flash.
Type in
Code:
```
fastboot reboot-bootloader
```
and press enter.
Profit!

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jun 28, 2012 (Edited by Moderator)

RECOVERIES:

HOW TO FLASH:

Download recovery to the computer.
Connect the device to the computer.
Boot device into bootloader.
Open a command prompt in the folder where your fastboot.exe lives. Typically this is the platform-tools directory in the SDK.

Type in

Code:

fastboot flash recovery <location/name_of_recovery_file.img>

and press enter.

Wait for successful flash.
Type in
Code:
```
fastboot reboot-bootloader
```
Profit!

LIST OF AVAILABLE RECOVERIES:

CWM -> here
TeamWin -> here

PREVENT RECOVERY OVERWRITE:

After flashing recovery as described above, BEFORE you boot into device, boot into recovery.
mounts and storage
mount system
Open a command prompt in the folder where your adb.exe lives. Typically this is the platform-tools directory in the SDK.
Type in
Code:
```
adb shell
```
and press enter.
Type in
Code:
```
cd /system
```
and press enter.

Type in

Code:

mv recovery-from-boot.p recovery-from-boot.bak

and press enter.

Profit!

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jun 28, 2012 (Edited by Moderator)

BACK TO STOCK:

HOW TO DO:
[background=rgb(245, 245, 245)]WARNING: This will wipe your device. Backup all your photos and whatnot.[/background]

Download the Nexus 7 JOP40D OEM image -> here.
Extract the compressed file to the folder where your fastboot.exe lives. Typically this is the platform-tools directory in the SDK.
Open a command prompt window where your fastboot.exe lives.
Type in the following commands and press enter after each one.
Code:
```
fastboot erase boot
```
Code:
```
fastboot erase cache
```
Code:
```
fastboot erase recovery
```
Code:
```
fastboot erase system
```
Code:
```
fastboot erase userdata
```

Code:

fastboot flash bootloader nakasi-jop40d/bootloader-grouper-4.13.img

Code:
```
fastboot reboot-bootloader
```

Code:

fastboot -w update nakasi-jop40d/image-nakasi-jop40d.zip

Wait for the image to flash.
Type in
Code:
```
fastboot reboot-bootloader
```
and press enter.
If you just wanted to return to stock software and not relock, you are done here. Boot into the device.
If you want to relock the device, type in
Code:
```
fastboot oem lock
```
and follow the prompts on the device.
Profit!

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 29, 2012

there will always be awesome development on nexus devices.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jun 29, 2012

Mustang302LX said:
Stickied and added the "fastboot oem unlock" command for unlocking the bootloader as not everyone will be coming from a GNex or knows how to unlock. Great post so far and can't wait to see it once we all have the device!

thank you sir, i will try to keep it updated as often as possible. right now a little bit of a copy paste effort since i havent actually gotten mine yet. definitely will have lots more details once i get it.

im not sure i can edit the title, if i can let me know how, or else if you would remove the (placeholder) and replace it with "+ Root" or something.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #11 · Jun 29, 2012

sfreemanoh said:
Since it's a wifi only device, is the radios section needed??

isnt the wifi controlled by a radio? atleast thats what i thought. if it happens that we dont need a section, i'll remove it.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #16 · Jul 1, 2012

winner00 said:
Remove the radio section since there are no radios. Wifi has drivers that are in the kernel. Radios are only for Cell Radios.

I'll remove the section and make a restore to stock guide instead. Thanks.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #28 · Jul 14, 2012

Thing 342 said:
Is there anywhere else I can get SU? The link gives me a 404 error.

updated.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #31 · Jul 17, 2012

BillLee3 said:
I'm sure I'll eventually play with ROMs, etc., but getting it today and want to try it out stock and maintain ability to watch Google Play Movies without having to temp unroot everytime. Can you unlock the bootloader, flash CWM and do the mv command in order to be able to backup the system without flashing SU and breaking Movies?

yes.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #34 · Jul 17, 2012

Mogul345 said:
Is the bootloader listed in post #2 the stock bootloader, or is modified somehow?

it is stock...

also to the person curious about root and movies, i just rooted my newly arrived 7 and movies works just fine on it.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #42 · Jul 18, 2012

drose6102 said:
Thank you K.electron for the great write up. Followed to the tee and now I profit.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

glad i could help.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #50 · Jul 18, 2012

oreoferret said:
In the prevent recovery overwrite section.. I do mounts and storage, and it just hangs.. I never get to the "next menu" I guess

actually.. now i'm stuck in recovery.. any option I pick.. I get "a hat".. (I installed CWM)

so if I try to reboot system now... a hat

mountsa nd storage.. a hat

etc etc

crap, day 1, no more nexus hah

do the back to stock guide and u'll be golden.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #65 · Jul 20, 2012

Nickles said:
Question folks.
My shiny new 7 will be arriving tomorrow.. I know there has already been a 4.1.1 OTA update pushing out.
should i power up and sign in, and wait to get this OTA, and THEN unlock?

or should i power up, sign in, and immediately unlock. if i do that, will i still be able to install the 4.1.1 initial OTA?

bootloader locking / unlocking has no effect on the ota.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #69 · Jul 22, 2012

Kimboinatl said:

Code:

fastboot -w update nakasi-jrn84d/image-nakasi-jrn84d.zip

And I get this error:

Code:

archive does not contain 'boot.sig'<br />
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'<br />
archive does not contain 'system.sig'<br />
< waiting for device >

interesting.
never had this problem myself. thanks for bringing it to everyones notice.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #71 · Jul 24, 2012

nhat said:
does "fastboot -w update" work with any rom? or does it have to be the factory image?

i think the community roms are structured differently and therefore need to installed via recovery and not fastboot. i personally would never try a custom rom with fastboot. just flash cwm and you are good to go.

experts: if i am wrong, please dont shoot me.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #79 · Jul 28, 2012

My_Name_Is_Neo said:
What is the reasoning behind re-flashing the bootloader?
Is this not enough? oem Unlock -> new recovery -> recovery overwrite blocker -> flash root

there is really no reason to flash bootloaders until they have more than one and have some discernible benefit over each other.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #81 · Jul 29, 2012

exzacklyright said:
Shouldn't it be

Code:

<br /> fastboot flash bootloader nakasi-jro03d/bootloader-grouper-3.34.img<br />

corrected. thanks.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #85 · Aug 4, 2012

try reflashing the bootloader.

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k.electron

Discussion Starter · #94 · Aug 10, 2012

rester555 said:
Nevermind i figured it out thanks to google! just in case anyone else has the cant load recovery problem. you have to open the command prompt from inside the platform tools folder (shift button and right click the mouse) otherwise fastboot wont know the command path to get the file. Got her up and running unlocked,rooted, and twrp. IT was really pretty easy. I dont know why I let adb scare me for so long! now i gotta go delete these tool kits.

good job leaving toolkits behind. u dont need them.

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