SIM not detected SM-G960F after OTA Upgrade

The team is aware of this issue, besides others raised on this forum around s9 upgrades. I do not think we tested on rooted devices. Maybe we should add a warning regarding this.

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You are thinking in a most altruistic way !

In my view the ota-upgrade itself was the problem (not the /e/ version or Android version), so I feel there is no need to downgrade /e/ version or Android version. The only (in my view marginal) downgrade is stable → dev.

Some might say that there is another unknown; if you change channels (that is stable/dev) but in my view a bigger risk element if you do an unsuccessful downgrade from Android 10 to 8,

The big unknown is we are not told the “magic” of this upgrade method.

These links cover the choice of published ROMs available to you:

Downloads for the starlte

To understand the difference between /e/OS builds check https://doc.e.foundation/build-status

Thanks, I’m used to supporting Free software… I sit at the Board of the Openstreetmap Foundation, I’ve had 25 years of Debian administration and I am currently nursing my OPNSense router whose “OTA” upgrade also broke (the same spare devices used as Wi-Fi router for the S9 is currently the backup for my home’s 1Gb/s FTTH)… I suppose I’m more patient than the average user - I know what it is like !

I have never done it, but for the purpose of testing I can do that, if you find it useful.

Meanwhile I have attached some requested adb logs to the ticket.

I suppose that the likes of Could not find 'android.hardware.radio@1.4::IRadio/slot1' could also mean that my hardware is fried, though Wi-Fi works fine and the problem occurring right as the upgrade finishes makes the hardware failure hypothesis extremely unlikely.

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Hi Jean-Marc,

I so glad to see that your Gitlab issue is now in hands of an expert assignee ! I feel you do not need to be doing any guess at my impulse. I am confident you will get the support you need. Good luck.

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Sorry for the delay, I’m struggling a bit.

adb sideload failed:

% adb sideload startlte-firmware.zip
serving: 'startlte-firmware.zip'  (~2%)    adb: failed to read command: Success

So I’ve tried copying through ‘adb push’ :

% adb push startlte-firmware.zip  /storage/emulated/0/
startlte-firmware.zip: 1 file pushed. 28.4 MB/s (339804044 bytes in 11.405s)
% adb shell ls -alh /storage/emulated/0/
total 162M
drwxrwx--x  2 root sdcard_rw 4.0K 2022-02-23 23:49 .
drwxrwx--x 27 root sdcard_rw 4.0K 2022-02-23 22:58 ..
-rw-rw----  1 root sdcard_rw 324M 2022-02-21 10:49 startlte-firmware.zip

But the file doesn’t appear in any file browser on the S9, particularly not in TWRP… I’m puzzled.

So I just mounted the SDcard on my workstation and copied it to the root of its filesystem - now TWRP sees it.

On booting TWRP:

  • I cancel password entry, because I have no idea what password TWRP asks for, and I dont remember encrypting a partition (that install was long ago)
  • I “Swipe to Allow Modifications” (no idea if that’s the right way but modifications sounds like what I’m attempting)
  • I choose “Install” and navigate the file browser to startlte-firmware.zip
  • With default options (only one checked is “Skip Digest…”) I “Swipe to confirm Flash”
  • Less than half a screen of output prints, ending with “Upgrading software” and the device instantly reboots into an unmodified system. That last incident reminds of adb sideload failing after 2%

So, no luck with the image supplied by @Stricted. Am I doing it wrong ?

Sounds like you got it right in your final run. Just to run through your post,

In order for sideload to work in TWRP you would need to do Advanced > ADB Sideload.

Your instructions were “Please flash it through the recovery”

The 2 options I would consider are copy with a PC to SD card or adb push to /sdcard or /external_sd.

In TWRP at “Password” when you know no password exists, Cancel :white_check_mark:

“Swipe to Allow Modifications” :white_check_mark:

I choose “Install” and navigate the file browser to startlte-firmware.zip :white_check_mark:

I think you covered:

“Swipe to confirm Flash”, you do not want signature verification.

In this case “Automatic reboot” is ok.

There is a set of images in this thread - does your phone deviate from those images / method? B) Transfer the /e/ ROM to the internal storage of the smartphone. (At this point in the tutorial, we are loading a ROM, but same sequences would apply)

Looks like I followed a correct method.

The image is only available from the sdcard though: in TWRP, the image I copied to the root of the main storage (using some file manager on the booted /e/) is invisible.

Also, in the “Select Storage” dialog, the “Micro SD card” appears as with its correct size but it also shows “Internal Storage (0MB)” … Symptom of an anomaly ?

It seems that your SD card was originally installed as “Internal storage”. This was thought “useful” but actually caused problems to many (me included!). It is now no longer recommended. Whether this affects your main issue I cannot say.

In a regularly installed Android system we see the “internal storage” of the device mounted at

/sdcard

while the SD card is mounted at

/external_sd

If, say, you do not see /external_sd at all on TWRP this would point to “SD installed as internal storage”.

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After installing the “vendors” file, I succeeded in installing e-0.20-o-20220118158074. Before rebooting, I attempted installing the image supplied by @Stricted but the device instantly reboots before completing installation.

Back to vendors and then system image - and I reboot the device with a fresh /e/ but alas, with e-0.20-o-20220118158074 too, no SIM detected (I checked the SIM again, working on another device).

hmmm … the second part of the reply to your Gitlab issue was

let me know if it solved the problem

My reading of the situation is that you were given a “safe fix” to see if a damage to the vendor partition had occurred. From a troubleshooting point of view, they really need to know the answer is no !

However you may have provided other/new clues, worth reporting.

(I will just mention that I think you and @quadcopterman might be in the same position of having “gone back to Oreo”.)

Each time I attempt with TWRP to install the image supplied by @Stricted, the device reboots a couple seconds after starting the installation, whether I do it via adb sideload or by installing from the file on the SDcard.

Say, 4, days ago, you replaced the vendor and got no change. If that is true, your preexisting vendor = the fix image.

End of test.

Then you have attempted a downgrade ! Another story.

Downgrading is not a good idea. I believe the bootloop will be due to that !

Half of me is full of “helpful suggestions” but I was planning to leave you in the more capable hands of the devs ! :slight_smile:

Part two

Of course, now you want to get your phone back ! Independent of the devs, you might collect a stock ROM, the most recent for your device. Flash that with Odin. Check it works. Then flash the latest dev /e/ ROM as if it was a new install.

I thought the “fix image” was a complete image, not a patch - is that a mistake I made ? I didn’t realize there was anything but complete images.

Installed 0.20 - no SIM detected. I’ll try further lower versions until I find one that works or until I find that none works and that this might therefore be a hardware issue. Then I’ll report back.

is that a mistake I made ?

Yes, I unzipped and inspected the .zip before commenting that it replaced your vendor partition !

I think you already know it is not the system and not the vendor !

But did you flash the Stock ROM. That is going to be the safest and surest thing.

Did you wipe data with your re installs ?

That is a minimum that must be done anyway.

TWRP also gives you the option to format the data partition.

PS …ah … stock ROM being Samsung.
However the magic that has been done on your device is allowing /e/ to run on Android 10 - so there is still merit in waiting for a “second fix”. If you were to wait, probably do not format data - that could have downsides.

I face a similar issue after upgrading to 0.21 on my Samsung S9.
In my case, the SIM card is detected, and phone calls are working. But the mobile data is not working.

I created No mobile data after OTA upgrade to v0.21 of SM-G960F (#4974) · Issues · e / Backlog · GitLab for that

Today the mobile data is working again. I don’t know why, but it’s good news.
So I closed my gitlab ticket

Sorry about that.

I had no idea… Android is very alien to me.

Yes.

I switched daily use to some bottom-drawer device, so I’ll wait - thanks.

Please do not feel a need to say “sorry” ! I was just using short phrases for what I hoped was clarity !

I hope you will update Gitlab (we do not expect devs to read this) – things/ideas requiring action are kept on Gitlab. :slight_smile:

Done, thanks.

I am sorry, perhaps I was too brief. You will know best but … I do not think you failed to install it. I can see it is difficult to be too certain, but I believe you did flash the zip and found that it had no effect. That was my reading of the situation that allowed me to assert that the zip was a match (or near match) for the preexisting vendor partition, as it made no difference to the problem it was sent to fix.

As a troubleshooting enterprise, it was a safe thing to do. However it seemed to make no change to the issue. From the evidence you have given here – it seems from here that the image transferred without reported error in the end, but did not affect the “issue” SIM detection.