Updated to /e/OS 3.6 now I'm getting dm-verity corruption message....any solution?

[porcupine]

Hi,

Hoping someone may have a solution I can try before I resort to a factory reset.

My Teracube has been on /e/OS3.0x since the summer, but yesterday I cleared out enough space and ran all the updates to have 3.6 installed. For the most part things went fine and I just ran one update after another until I was caught up and was pleasantly surprised to see the update to A15 at the end. I’ve been wondering if I would ever move on from A12.

During one update I got a message that my device could be corrupted, but it could be bypassed by pressing the power button so I did that and it worked. The message appeared each time but I bypassed it and it would complete without any trouble. I used the phone without issue the rest of yesterday and today without any trouble.

Then a few hours ago, my phone turned off and re-booted itself, but it got stuck at the loading screen. I couldn’t turn it off with the power button, so I took the battery out and tried restarting it again.

This time when it restarted I got the message:

dm-verity corruption

You device is corrupt.
It can’t be trusted and may not work properly.
Press power button to continue.
Or, device will power off in 5s.

Since it was similar message to the earlier message I got while updating I tried hitting the power button to see if I could bypass it and it went to a screen with the murena logo that says

RECOVERY
Version 3.6 ()
Product name - zirconia
Can’t load Android system. Your data may be corrupt. If you continue ot get this message, you may need to perform a factory data reset and erase all user data stored on this device.
Reason: init_user0_failed.

with the options
Try again - I’ve tried that a bunch of times with the same result.
Factory data reset - trying to avoid that, but starting to think it’s my only option

I just noticed a back arrow and when I hit the arrow I get the options

-Reboot system now

-Apply update

-Factory reset

-Advanced

I’d consider myself a semi-tech savvy person that can follow instructions, but I’ve never used fastboot or anything with ADB before (and don’t even know what those things really are).

Since my only other options is a factory reset, it doesn’t seem like I can do any harm though. So I’m wondering if anyone can give me instructions (or point me towards some that may let me rescue my phone without doing a factory reset you would be my Teracube hero)

Also I’m going to need my phone in ~24 hours, so I don’t have much time!

thanks for any help!!

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the deGoogled mobile OS and online services

[aibd]

@porcupine

init_user0_failed

Ofc we don’t know for certain but this suggests that your userdata is not loadable at start. Trying to recover data from the encrypted partition would be very hard. You might search the forum for some of those keywords.

@porcupine

dm-verity corruption

This is the fundamental problem of course. This may be due to some error in the ota-upgrade. The error implies that system partition required adjustment and that something “went wrong” … loosely speaking the new arrangement does not match expectations.

[porcupine]

Do you think I should just do the factory reset instead of wasting time trying to avoid it?

I’ve found some guides, but I’m not sure I understand them well enough to even follow them, but was planning to try.

I wasn’t able to figure out how to back up my phone, which is why I’m trying to avoid resetting it, but maybe that’s impossible. Some things saved are saved on my SD card and I guess those won’t be lost?

It’s weird to me that it worked for ~24 hours, but I don’t know much about cell phones. Should a factory reset get me back to a working cell phone? or is this one “broken” forever and needs to be replaced?

[aibd]

@porcupine

saved on my SD card and I guess those won’t be lost?

Correct.

@porcupine

weird to me that it worked for ~24 hours,

Seems unusual. A run of updates is unusual practice, then a reported possibility of corruption. OTA Upgrade of Android version on a “poor” foundation was probably unfortunate.

The Factory reset is expected to put you back to clean a15 and will for sure fix init_user0_failed. Regarding the dm-verity corruption one would have to hope

Probably worth to bear in mind the possibility to have to run the install script again as a new install in case the Factory reset fails to get a15 running correctly.

You might consider to Report an issue.

You might add to 3.6 build-feedback thread specifically the fail of OTA Upgrade.

If (??) a Customer you might raise a support ticket via Contact Us

@porcupine

I cleared out enough space

Is this an indicator that storage was showing “quite full” previously? AOSP builds require userdata headroom.

[UBoMWe]

Please see

Feedback for v3.4

Vendor Name: Teracube Device name: Teracube 2e Device CodeName: zirconia Version of /e/OS or Stock which existed previously: \e\ 3.3 official (A12) Is the device Rooted / Not rooted: not rooted Synopsis: upgrade (seemingly successfully) performed with proper boot to 3.4. The device later crashed and could only be booted with all user data erased through the recovery option. Some details: The upgrade itself seemingly went normally, and I was able to use the phone for about half …

You need to use the recovery option, all your user data will be lost, but your phone will be usable after recovery (hopefully)

Let us know how it went.

UB

[porcupine]

Alright, thanks for the information.

Looks like I’ll have to pay a price for my sketchy back-up practices, but if a factory reset is all it takes to get my phone working with A15 again it won’t be so bad. I’m gradually coming to accept I may lose some things, but at least I’ll have a clean slate to start with I guess :-/

I’ll probably give it a shot after work tonight.

[LinMay]

I had almost the exact same thing happen. Downloaded and installed 3.6 with no problems, used the phone for almost 2 days, then it suddenly restarted and showed a recovery screen. My screen says “Can’t load Android system. Your data may be corrupt. If you continue to get this message, you may need to perform a factory data reset and erase all user data stored on this device. Reason: init_user0_failed

With the back arrow I have the same Recovery screen as you with the 4 options to choose. I also need my phone and don’t want to factory reset as I do not have much of the recent data backed up and need to access it.

I need help as I’m not tech savvy, but I can follow instructions.

When I select Apply update, the next screen gives me Apply from ADB or Choose from sdcard1. When I select Apply from ADB the next screen gives me ADB sideload which I cannot select, and Cancel. Below that it sayw Now send the package you want to apply to the device with “adb sideload …

I’d sure appreciate some help on this.

Thanks.

[porcupine]

For what it’s worth, I went ahead and did the factory restart tonight. That cleared everything on my phone except what I had backed up, which wasn’t much.

It is still on 3.6 with Android 15 which is great, and if I had done a better job of backing my phone up it wouldn’t have been inconvenient at all. I’m hoping setting up backups is easier with 3.6, because I never got the hang of it when I tried with .8 or whatever it was when I got the phone.

Wish I had a less drastic option to give you and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t do the same thing to me tomorrow. Time will tell…

[bayga]

Same happened to me on my Redmi Note 9 Pro.
3.6 worked fine for a week or so, then this init_user0_failed came up and I’m not able to boot. I opened a topic for my issue:

Redmi Note 9 Pro suddenly died

init_user0_failed This suggests that your userdata is not loadable at start. Trying to recover data from the encrypted partition would be very hard. You might search the forum for some of those keywords. recover data Was this a simple update? Similar has been reported with a recent OTA Android version upgrade.