…and deserve their dreams, the same as you.
Posted as the devoted father of a wonderful pair of grrl geeks…
Yateveo Salad
A Recipe for Yateveo Salad
4-6 yellow shoots of new growth Yateveo leaves
2 green onions
1/2 red pepper
1 stalk white celery
1 black avocado
Take the usual precautions in gathering the Yateveo shoots, by first exhausting the plant for safe harvest. It is worth noting that a tree that is still somewhat “frisky” yields more flavorful leaves. Be careful!
Dice or shred all ingredients. Toss together with vinegar and oil. Arrange on small side plates, and garnish lightly with sawdust. Serves 8 Greys, 2-4 members of the Chromatocracy, or 1 Prefect, unless suddenly appropriated by an Apocryphal Man.
Jasper Fforde has reviewed this recipe, and proclaimed it “good”.
If this recipe puzzles you, please find and read Fforde’s ‘Shades of Grey’. You’re welcome!
Addiction Is a Terrible Thing…No, Wait…
(Note: This is a humorous look at the way our brains become obsessed with whatever it is that is currently the target. Please do not take this as an instruction manual, a criticism, a direction to follow, or anything else other than a wry observation of myself and my inherent quirks.)
Sooooo, yesterday I posted two things on Facebook: a photo of a heart-shaped mushroom I found in my yard, and a photo of me holding a print copy of my book, Tilted Windmills. Both of those photos showed up online about 18 hours ago, within about half an hour of each other.
Within minutes, somebody–five somebodys–liked the mushroom
(it was the first photo to go up). Within half an hour or so, I had seven likes. Then my book photo went up. (It is beside the point that I think this is one of the few good pictures of me. Elliott took it–after insisting I wear a collared shirt–I chose his, and we won’t talk about his manly physique as he took the photo–and he did a great job.) Moments went by, and five more likes popped up. My heart swelled. It overflowed. Somebody–five somebodies–like me!
So every half hour or so–despite a good movie, despite cooking and cleaning, despite a life apart from Facebook–I checked my Facebook page. And with every like, my ego blossomed and expanded way beyond its normal boundaries. At latest count, after about 21 hours, I had a total of 35 comments and a whopping 62 likes. (We are ignoring the fact that I made comments myself, and that the same people might have liked both. Why let reality intrude?)
And sad to say, I still want more. More, more! What can I do to get more of these ego-boosting affirmations? No wonder people live on Facebook (or social media of choice). It’s all about me, we all think.
There must be something I can do to stay on top of the heap, keep my beaming smile right there in front of everybody. Despite all this unwarranted popularity, I still want more likes, and there’s a voice in the back of my head that tells me if I edit my photo, it’ll pop back to the top of everyone’s list. Maybe more people will see it. Maybe I’ll get more likes. Thankfully, common sense intrudes before I do anything silly, but I realize that getting these likes is an addiction. It’s pleasing to us, and what’s not to like about that? We always think we deserve more pleasure in our lives, and everybody I know works very hard at whatever it is they do, and they truly deserve a happier life (not that most aren’t happy, but you get the idea).
In the end, all those “me’s” probably cancel each other out. It’s not about *any* of us, it’s about *all* of us. A group, a whole, a community. Getting likes is a way of saying, “I’m part of this community, a valued member.” We all are.
Now maybe I can post a link to this blog–that’ll do it. And a photo of me, maybe showing a little cleavage this time… Oh it’s a slippery slope. Addiction like this is insidious. We rationalize that what we want will be good for everybody. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see more cleavage? (Don’t answer that.)
Or perhaps this is my fifteen minutes of fame and *blink* it’s over.
I wonder what I can photograph tomorrow?
Book review – ‘Shug’s Place’ by Bob Strother
A Review of ‘Shug’s Place-A Novel in Stories’
‘Shug’s Place’ and Bob Strother’s writing can handily fill the shoes of Robert B. Parker, if you’ve been missing Spenser in recent years, for Strother’s characters share with Parker’s that same gritty kind of urban beat (Detroit in ‘Shug’s Place’, opposite Parker’s Boston and environs). Shug and Spenser, as characters have much in common: They are both “men in full”, strength combined with complexity, goodness with a shot of ethical pragmatism, which is a mix that works very well for these stories, which range over fast action, police procedures, ethnic divisions, and human relationships.
In addition to Shug and the other engaging characters in Strother’s human cast, the title character should not be overlooked: This collection is named ‘Shug’s PLACE’; the present-day name of the bar Shug runs. Strother has lovingly imagined a deep history of stories connecting the ongoing tales born within those walls to persons, some long past and forgotten, whose lives were shaped by the same place; the building or ownership or patronage of the same little bar. Taverns, as a center for human congress, are fast slipping away from their original role in our history. American democracy, it’s been argued, was born in taverns. Strother has, like a film’s set designer, taken great care in etching careful details into this central setting, and using the flashback, has given the place its own deep back-story.
This all works very well, and the pages would “turn themselves” as I was reading. The book came my way at the recommendation of a friend, and I’m pleased to have received an advanced edition because of it. I always feel an obligation to provide a review when I get an ARC, but it’s not often such a pleasure to write them. ‘Shug’s Place-A Novel in Stories’ is a solidly entertaining collection for the “action/detective/tough-guy-with-a-heart-and-a-brain” audience. It will be available from Mint Hill Books, Main Street Rag Publishing Company, Charlotte, NC.
‘The Calamari Kleptocracy’ – A New Audiobook!
Spoken-Arts.Swiftpassage.com and All Things That Matter Press are delighted to present Nicholas Sansone’s ‘The Calamari Kleptocracy’, my second narration project, available now from Audible.com and iTunes. Click to hear a sample from the book:
‘The Calamari Kleptocracy’ is a loss of innocence tale, the story of Thor Gunderson, a cheerful and congenial young man whose life is about to take a series of wild jolts and shocks as the people in his world each, one by one, bring Thor lessons in the complexity of human nature, and the existential character of the universe in general.
Sansone’s novel is ingenious for its capacity to craft a seeming allegorical America, which ultimately proves to be barely an allegory at all. It is, rather, a clearer vision of the plight of our nation in economic turmoil. Common people work hard, but don’t prosper. The rich get richer, and use the common folk as their pawns. The land of opportunity exists only as a memory of a dream.
The view-points and writing of Sartre, Brecht, and Ionesco all echo in this novel, but with their European existentialism adroitly imported and adapted to our native landscape. That mirror now reflects the hardships and harsh realities of an America enduring a crippling economy, turbulent sectarian divisions, encroaching Fascism, and a corruptly parasitic oligarchy.
But don’t be dismayed by the weighty underpinnings of this story. For all the complexity of the novel’s philosophical bones, the surface of the tale is light and humorous, and parades characters and events which are by turns sweet, amusing and colorful, before leading us with, at times, brutal honesty to the way things really are.
And how is that? Big business manipulates and gobbles up individual businesses. Individuals are manipulated into collectives against their own best interests. “Opportunity” has vanished from the American landscape. The prosperous prey upon an ever-shrinking and downwardly mobile middle class, an astonishing number of whom enter into incarceration in for-profit prisons. And yet there is always to be found light within human life: This was one of Ionesco’s clearest truths, which Sansone, too, demonstrates over and again, with a precise eye for the light, color, and minute details that fill the space in which his story unfolds.
Another brilliant aspect to Sansone’s story-telling is that he never demonizes anyone. All his characters, even the most corrupt, are complexly human mosaics of traits good and bad; full and simple at once.
For that, and many other reasons, I loved working on this audiobook presentation of Mr. Sansone’s novel. Find it today at Audible.com !
The Right to Own Hammers
Someone told me last night that hammers kill more people than automatic weapons. Being a bleeding heart liberal on the far left side of the scale, I found that hard to believe, so I decided to check it out.
And I found a site written by Brett Breitbart that claims just that, and cites the FBI as its source.
It links to a (from what I can tell) legitimate FBI site.
I won’t argue that the line that says “rifles” (348 murders) does include fewer murders in 2009 than the line that says “hammers [and other blunt objects]” (611 murders). But, as usual, there’s more to the story–like, the line that says “Firearms, type not stated”–which is a whopping 1,834. And when it says “rifle,” does this mean hunting rifle? Assault weapon type rifle? Where does an AR-15 fall in this categorization of deadly weapons (to name the one that’s gotten a lot of bad press lately)? Or a modified AR-15, which is apparently pretty easy to do?
I haven’t gone through the entire FBI site to figure out their classification–life is way too short for that–but I think it begs the question.
Assault weapons in general (and by this I mean the ones that are designed or modified to shoot many rounds) are there for a sole purpose: to kill other human beings. Plural human beings. (If you need more than three bullets to kill a human or a deer, sign up for marksmanship training at your local firearms center or go get your vision checked.) Seriously, can you think of any other reason to have one? My friend, who is an ardent gun rights advocate, also said his/her children have them because they’re “cool.” Huh? Cool? Sorry, buddy–tie dye is cool. Jerry Garcia is cool. Assault weapons are so not cool.
Hammers are designed to create something, to build something. I suspect (though I freely admit I haven’t verified this) that most murders with a hammer are crimes of opportunity and/or passion. Maybe those who use assault rifles are too, though I think that’s a weaker argument. If I see someone waltzing down the street with a hammer in his or her hand and a mean look on his or her face, my internal alarm bells hover around 3 on a scale of 1 to 10. Someone waltzing down the street with an assault weapon, even if he’s smiling? Duck and cover, folks, the scale’s gone off the top.
And the argument that people have guns to protect them from a government gone awry? Let’s assume for a moment that it’s even possible these days…that the government has decided that our little section of Georgia needs some serious disciplining. Heck, make it the whole state of Georgia. Washington feels we’re just way out of control and it’s time to send in the military, to make an example out of us so the other 49 states fall into line. You really think the entire state could defend itself against the might of the U.S. military? Just cut off our Internet and see how long we’d last. Close the Atlanta airport, stop the gas pipelines. We’d be fighting each other tooth and nail before too long, and the government could just wait and let us knock each other off. I don’t argue that otherwise intelligent people believe the malarky about government conspiracies to kill off those who don’t agree with them, but I question the sources of their information. And while this opens up a whole new can of worms, I think this conspiracy nonsense was planted and is fed and watered by NRA-type groups who make a profit off of selling weapons. If I want to sell a product, I first have to create a need for that product. The NRA has done just that, and too many sheep have bought into it. (I mean no disrespect. We’re all sheep in some fashion. There are very few true individuals.)
Because we can’t win a war, is that a reason not to fight it, if we believe it is right to do so? Of course not. But fighting someone else’s war that’s been fomented for financial and political motives? You’re just trading one master for another.
People keep assault weapons for one reason: Fear. Fear of government, fear of burglars, fear of other humans. (And don’t try that argument that you have it for protection or for love…those are covers. Yes, you care about and want to protect your loved ones, but it’s based on fear of what might get them.) Face those fears–find the facts (not the opinions)–and see if they hold up.
Do you need fourteen different weapons to protect yourself against an armed burglar (never mind the fact that the weapons should be locked up when not in actual use)? Unless you live in a war zone, one should be plenty.
There’s always a possibility that I’m the one who doesn’t get it. Feel free to enlighten me. But in the meantime, if there really is a government conspiracy, could someone please tell me about it? I’m always the last to know things.
So, Now I’m A Narrator: Audible.Com and ACX
A sample from ‘Headwind’, the audiobook.
Old friends who know me well are familiar with my theatrical past. There was a time, in another life, when I majored in Dramatic Arts at Boston University. I studied and worked hard at becoming a professional actor. I’ve been in plays and musicals off and on for many years. I’ve performed in New York City and Boston, albeit not profitably. My interest in theatre makes me keenly appreciative of good work when I see it, both the writing and acting; mostly in watching films or broadcasts, these days.
There’s scant opportunity to perform, though, in part because where I live is such a long drive to anyplace where a scrap of performance is happening. After a day at the hospital, it’s unthinkable to drive almost an hour north or south to keep a rehearsal or performance schedule, so I’ve steered clear of auditions. There has been a bit of “flash theatre” once or twice, when I could participate in a 24 hour play project, most recently in Brunswick a few months ago, but that’s another story.
What I have done to exercise those old actor’s reflexes and skills is to try my hand at auditioning for audiobook narration. A while back a writer friend brought ACX to my attention. ACX is the Audiobook Creation eXchange, a division of Audible.Com, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Amazon. They are a clearinghouse for Authors, Rights-holders, Narrators, and Producers, and mediate between them to foster the recording and marketing of new audiobooks. It’s really an amazing idea, and has garnered the support and enthusiasm of first rate authors, like Neil Gaiman or Janet Evanovich, and top o’ the line publishing houses, as well.
It works like this: If you think you have what it takes to narrate someone’s book into a finished product, go create a narrator/producer’s account at ACX . You will be encouraged to flesh out your profile, and upload audio samples of your voice, which authors and rights-holders can find and listen to. You can also browse a significant catalogue of projects seeking a narrator. They can be searched with filters leading you to projects that fit your gender, voice-style, and age. You can also filter for fiction vs. non-fiction, or for specific genres, such as mysteries or sci-fi.
The projects will be presented with myriad information; date of publication, length, author’s notes, etc, and an audition script will be attached. I hunted up a number of projects I thought would scratch that old actor’s itch, and recorded a trio of them one Saturday morning. The matter of preparing the tracks so they might present well is a whole other story. There is a learning curve for recording techniques, but I got started with a $2 electotet condensor mic, and free, open-source recording software, called Audacity.
To my total surprise and delight, I had a quick response to one of my first auditions, a light crime genre novel called ‘Headwind’ by Christopher Hudson. Chris liked what I’d done with a lot of my audition, but wanted me to try some different voicings, too. I re-worked the chapter, and re-submitted it. With a bit of back and forth, we’d found a good fit between what he hoped for, and what I could do. With another click or two on the project page at ACX.com , we had a contract to make an audiobook!
At that point, I ordered some pieces of serious recording gear; a better microphone (the Rode NT-1A, which rocks, btw!), a stand, better headphones, and a USB interface to connect the mic to the computer. Which brings me to another great thing about ACX: They have pages full of wonderful tips, pointers, and training videos on how to set up a recording space, how to record, edit, and polish the finished tracks. They really want you to succeed!
And here it is, now finished and available for purchase, the audiobook of ‘Headwind’ by Chris Hudson, and narrated by yours, truly! Find it at Amazon or through Audible.com.
And if you enjoy a good car chase scene… Please visit my professional web at Spoken Arts .
‘Searching for Sugarman’ – a film review
We saw a real “feel good” documentary last night, that came highly recommended, and came away wanting to share it with others. ‘Searching for Sugarman’ is a story of validation, both personal and artistic, in a world where one’s seeming insignificance can never be presumed. It’s about a singer/songwriter whose work never caught on with his own countrymen, but contributed to the canon of social change in another land.
“Sugarman” refers to Sixto Rodriguez, or simply ‘Rodriguez’. In his two obscure albums in the early 1970’s, his voice cuts a high, clear path above a simple MoTown combo sound, singing lyrics which are at once sardonic and challenging, but oddly at peace with the rough edges of the society his songs criticize. His lyrics and vocals suggest a blend of Nick Drake on mood-elevators, with an edge of Dylan to provoke the mind. It is surprising that his songs never caught on in the United States.
The name Sixto may refer to his being the sixth born child to immigrant parents, and it is unclear whether this was self-chosen, or actually used in his childhood Detroit, Michigan. Some of his songs are attributed to ‘Jesus Rodriguez’, others to ‘Sixto’. It doesn’t matter. What does, is that unknown to Rodriguez, his music struck a chord with the people of South Africa during its years of foment. Mandela was in jail, apartheid was the rule, and that nation was a police state, oppressed. Certain of his songs were banned from air-play, and thus assured brisk sales of his albums, and wide exchange of boot-legged cassettes.
The story of this musician, as brought to film, becomes a kind of George Bailey story, in that even a minor artist may never realize the impact he has beyond his ken. Thematically, that is wonderful to explore, and the core of the movie. Viewed from an innocent perspective, the documentary is wonderful, and deserves its accolades. It’s also pleasing to consider that it can only do good for its subject, whose work does deserve the attention that passed him by when the tracks were new. Like the documentary ‘Winnebago Man’, it lifts a life out of a fabled-state, and brings a Lazarus back into the world. It’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’, only these are real people who left a mark, never knew it, and lived to learn that they had touched others.
That there are those who have taken issue with this film for overlooking certain facts in Rodriguez’s touring and performing history matters not a whit to me: Why let the facts stand in the way of a great story? That Rodriguez played as well in Australia and New Zealand doesn’t alter the unique story of how his art was appreciated in and affected the people of South Africa. This story concerns that special perception, and I’ll not quibble with the small minds of nay-sayers who have missed the point.
Hunt up a copy of ‘Searching for Sugarman’, and go find a copy of the film’s compilation album, and bask in the joy of a good musician’s re-discovery!
When I get on a line…
HTC Incredible and Jelly Bean: How I almost “bricked” my phone, and what it took to recover it:
I feel I owe it to others who may have done likewise to set out a record of what I did, and how I fixed it. The notes that follow are VERY technical and arcane to the world of hacking one’s smartphone, and for most of my blog’s readership I’d suggest passing this one by, unless you are hip to this kind of stuff. If you want to read on from curiosity, well, good for you!
What this is NOT: This isn’t notes on how to successfully get Jelly Bean on your Dinc. It’s all about recovering from a phone that is trapped in a boot loop after attempting to get Jelly Bean, and is further incapable of loading and booting a nandroid recovery rom.
My phone is a Verizon ADR6300, ie, an original HTC Incredible, and pretty old as smartphones go. As soon as I obtained it, I rooted the device, and have from time to time done my own Android upgrades by cook-booking the process from information in the various forums.
It was running Cyanogenmod 7 and somebody’s stock rom of Gingerbread since last summer, and as I’d had good success a few days earlier updating my Toshiba Thrive tablet to Jelly Bean, I was looking to see if this was now possible for the “Dink”.
Notes on the phone, how it was rooted, etc, because I’m fairly certain that being non-specific about those details is what may have led to my problems:
ADR6300
Android v.2.3.7
Baseband 2.15.00.07.28
Kernel 2.6.37.6-cyanogenmod+jistone @folkvanger #6
CPU ARMv7 Processor rev2 (v7l)
Mod version: CyanogenMod-7.2.0-inc
Build: GWK74
The phone had been rooted using the techniques shown at unrevoked.com , but quite some time ago: more than two years, I think, and without any recent updates. THIS IS LIKELY WHY I RAN INTO TROUBLE.
Here’s the specifics on how my Dinc was set up as unrooted at the time of my near-bricking, using unrevoked-forever, with PB31IMG.zip, and S-OFF. The bootloader showed this:
HBOOT-0.79.0000
MICROP-0417
TOUCH PANEL-ATMEL224_16ab
RADIO-2.15-00.07.28
ClockworkMod Recovery v2.5.0.5
Setting out:
I read up on how to update the Dinc to Jelly Bean, made a nandroid backup of my current working installation, backed up my contacts, used TitaniumBackup for my apps, and downloaded a Jelly Bean rom, and the associated Gapps.
I booted the phone into ClockworkMod 2.5.0.5 (volume down + on to HBOOT, then select RECOVERY with vol up/down, then press ON). Once in the Clockwork menus, I used vol up/down to select wipe data/factory reset, committed to it, and executed it. Next, selected wipe cache partition, committed to it, and executed it. Next, went to the advanced menu, selected Wipe Dalvik Cache, committed to it, and executed it. Those three tasks done, navigated to the main ClockworkMod menu again (one press of on/off button), scrolled down to ‘Install Zip from sdcard’, and selected the CM-10 rom for installation. I used this one from http://goo.im/devs/tiny4579/inc/cm10 , cm-10-20130118-TINY-inc.zip . After that installation ran, I again chose ‘install zip from sdcard’, selected gapps-jb-20121011-signed.zip , and installed that.
Unfortunately, I didn’t closely note the messages generated by those two installs. Anyway, as I went to reboot the phone, it got as far as the white HTC Incredible screen, and got no further. It was hung up at that screen for longer than 30 minutes, and could not progress. In the next couple of hours, I tried a different Jelly Bean rom, with no better results. (the rom was this one: jellybean-inc-RC3.zip) .
At that point, I abandoned trying to make JB work.
Fortunately, I was still able to get into HBOOT and CWM, so I selected ‘backup and restore’ in CWM’s main menu, selected ‘restore’, pointed it at my nandroid backup of Gingerbread that I’d made that morning, and launched it. Alas, it reported a number of errors, and was unable to build a working android system in the phone. It got past the white HTC Incredible start up panel, but went dark beyond that, and wouldn’t boot. The best clue was an error resembling this one:
E: Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 (File exists)
The next eight hours or so were spent in searching for a fix online. The most helpful post I found was this one: http://forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/6433-solved-messed-up-partitions-on-internal-storage/
The thread concerned a guy who was getting pretty much the same errors I was experiencing on attempting the nandroid recovery. There were two partitions in the phone’s memory that were failing to mount. His errors (below) were almost identical to mine:
E: Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 (File exists) E: Can't mount CACHE:recovery/log E: Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 (File exists)
Alas, I didn’t precisely record my error messages at the time, but they were VERY close to his, and centered on being unable to mount the /data and /cache partitions of the phone’s memory. The thread with these clues was very long, but the key help came from this section (#7) Here’s what he wrote:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here’s the solution.
The problem was that I managed to screw up the partitions on my internal storage card, so basically nothing would work properly. I could still get into recovery, though. That’s key.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Working recovery, basic knowledge of adb & the shell
- Parted (download here)
- stock PB31IMG.zip
Note also that I had run unrevoked forever (so my phone was S-OFF) … I’m not sure if that’s required or not.
So, grab parted from the link above. Now you need to extract the individual binaries from the .zip (the 6 files in the sdparted folder within the zip), ideally to your android-sdk\tools directory. Now push all 6 files (adb push [file] /sbin/). Next, we need to make them useable, so go into the shell (adb shell). Change to your /sbin/ directory, and run: chmod 0755 <file> on each of the 6 files.
Now, we need to fix the partitions. This is assuming that the partitions are there, just the wrong format (which is what happened to me .. I accidentally made them FAT32 instead of ext). So, run the following: parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 mkfs ext2. It will ask if you want to continue, hit yes. When it asks for the partition number, enter 1. Next, when it asks for the format, enter ext2. Let it do its thing. Now, once it’s done, run parted again. This time, enter partition 2 (everything else is the same).
Once all that’s done, your recovery program should be able to mount both the /data and /cache partitions. If that’s true, you’re pretty much done! One thing I found was that I couldn’t directly install a new OS (I tried both Cyanogen and Ultimate). In both cases, it would look for stuff in the davik-cache that it couldn’t find, so something wasn’t installing correctly I think. So, if that happens, flash back to the stock PB31IMG.zip (put it in the root of your /sdcard/ and let hboot install it), and then root your phone anew. That’s what I ended up doing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, there WERE differences between his situation and mine. Most of his problem seemed focused on the partitions having been somehow reset to the wrong filetypes. On my phone, the filetypes appeared to be ok, but I suspect that they had been resized somehow by the Jelly Bean installer rom. Nevertheless, the basic steps this guy had taken to recover his phone ARE WHAT WORKED for me.
If you’ve read this far, I’m guessing you have an almost dead Dinc, and are hoping for a precise guide of what to do next. Be warned! I’m only reconstructing the late hours of a very bad day from memory, so please take the following notes as an outline to guide you, but IT’S NOT A RECIPE you can completely trust. You’re going to need to read, and think, and proceed cautiously if this is going to work, maybe. If you don’t have command-line experience in linux, and a basic understanding of navigating through file structures and permissions, and using command line partitioning tools, well, go find someone who does, and ride shotgun as they try this out for you.
Here’s what I went and did:
- I installed android sdk tools to my Windows desktop system. Google was helpful in locating a download for them: http://developer.android.com/tools/sdk/tools-notes.html
- The main thing about step 1. is getting ADB working as a command you can access from the Windows Command box. I’d used ADB before, and there was a re-learning curve to get the hang of it again, but this guide was helpful getting started: http://droidlessons.com/how-to-install-adb-on-a-windows-7-pc/ The business about changing the path variable isn’t really necessary, because you can execute adb if you simply navigate to where you installed it. It’s less elegant, but I was in a hurry to fix my damned phone.
- Follow the guy’s link (http://www.sendspace.com/file/w6hi6x), and download the sdparted-recovery.zip file. It’s a command set of partitioning tools. Unzip and put those executable files into the same place where adb.exe is, so it’s easy to move and use them where needed when you get to that part.Ok, those first three steps all took place on your desktop system. It’s time to connect your phone to the desktop and test adb’s ability to work within the phone.:
- Connect the phone’s usb cable to the desktop system, and boot the phone with “vol down + on” to get to the HBOOT screen. Watch the messages there. After a few seconds you should see HBOOT USB PLUG. Then launch Recovery from the HBOOT menu. The phone is now tethered to the desktop.
- Test adb, by running cmd to open a command line box on the desktop. (Win+R keys together, then type cmd in the Run Window). Then navigate using the cd command to the path where you installed sdk tools, and the parted tools. (For me the path I used was c:\program files\android\android-sdk\platform-tools). The dir command will show you if adb.exe is in there. If so, try typing:
adb devices
If the desktop is connected to your phone, it will give you;
List of devices attached
HT00XX1234 …… recovery
…or something like that.
If you’ve unzipped the six sdparted files into the same directory as adb.exe, then you are ready to move those files into your phone using the command:
adb push <filename> /sbin/
Do this for each of the six files (e2fsck, mke2fs, parted, resize2fs, sdparted, tune2fs).
Next, make them useable by changing their permissions: Use:
adb shell
to start navigating the file structure within the phone. You will see:
~#_
Navigate using linux commands now, and enter the sbin directory by typing:
cd sbin
Use:
chmod 0755 <filename>
on each of the sdparted commands you pushed into that directory. Now the parted command will work when you go to run it on the phone within the adb shell environment.
This is a very good place to slow down and BE VERY CAREFUL! You are about to run commands that will alter the partioning of the phone’s internal memory. You might very well make things worse unintentionally if you get sloppy here. I cannot promise that what you are about to do won’t TOTALLY BRICK your phone. I got mine back again, but your milage may vary, and lead you down that highway to hell.
I knew at this point that the information I’d found and was working from didn’t precisely match what I had been seeing in my phone’s error messages, or in information I looked at within my phone. Mostly, the partition file names were a bit different, and as I’d said before, that guy was talking about have wrong filetypes specified in his structure, and that didn’t seem to be my exact problem.
At this point you need to be sure of the correct device block names of your /data and /cache partitions, and maybe your /sd-ext partition, too. You can find out by doing this:
cd /etc
cat fstab
This will print out the partition structure in your phone. The lines that matter are those referencing the suspected bad partitions. The suspect partitions are the ones you’ve been seeing in your error messages on failed nandroid recovery attempts. For me those were, I think:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /data auto rw
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /cache auto rw
It’s possible that the /sd-ext partition needed the parted command, too, but my notes and memory are incomplete here and I’m not exactly sure what I changed. Too, I’m guessing that the structure of the memory in the phone was changed again when I succeeded in running nandroid recovery after these steps, so for your situation let the error messages you’ve been getting be your guide. Less is generally more, when it comes to tinkering with re-partitioning. BE THOUGHTFUL AND BE CAREFUL.
The main thing is, I wouldn’t re-partition anything that wasn’t reporting a mounting error or formatting error of some sort as you were trying to get nandroid to do its thing.
Take a deep breath, and run:
parted /dev/block/mmxblkx mkfs ext2
using the block identifier that you think needs fixing. Leave off the “p” part of it. It will ask if you want to continue, hit yes. Then it will ask for the partition number: For me, I entered: 1. Next it might ask for the format, and enter: ext2 . Just as the author of the thread did, I needed to repeat this sequence for the second partition on the same block, like so:
parted /dev/block/mmxblkx mkfs ext2
Do you want to continue? -Yes
It asked me what partion number, and I entered: 2 , and it asked for the format, and I again entered: ext2 .
Now, you type:
exit
and that takes you out of the adb shell.
- At this point, you are ready to re-attempt the nandroid recovery of your previous working android version. Make sure the backup files are on the sd card in the phone. I disconnected my phone from the desktop system, and rebooted into HBOOT, and then clockworkmod recovery in the usual way. Then followed the menu to “backup/restore” , “restore”, and chose the image of the system I’d saved that morning: -2013-01-27.55/ I pressed the button, confirmed my choice, and set it in motion.
And it worked!
I sincerely hope these notes will help someone out of a frustrating situation. At this point, I have notions of what I might try if I re-attempt to install Jelly Bean, but I’m a little gun-shy, and in no hurry to waste an entire day again with a broken phone. From what I’ve read, I do think the old ADR6300 can be made to run Jelly Bean, but it would be very wise to update ClockworkMod Recovery to something more recent first. That’s my best guess.
If anyone reading this has any insight as to why my partitons got screwed up from what I did with Jelly Bean, I’d be really glad to know. Please leave comments.