eMMC recovery tool for ODROID-U2/U3

Post by **odroid** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 12:20 pm

================ Update 26-June-2014 =======================
Added the U3+(PCB Rev 0.5) Support for the fastboot interface via USB OTG.
Added the eMMC 5.0 compatibility.

exynos4412_emmc_recovery_from_sd_20140629.zip: (485.23 KiB) Downloaded 2902 times

========================================================

Few people have an issue of dead eMMC with ODROID-U2/U3.
We thought there is possibility of some portion of hidden boot sector in eMMC can be corrupted.
So we made this utility.

How to use. (Read carefully)
1. Prepare a microSD card and flash the attached image.
2. Boot with the microSD without eMMC
3. Turn on U2/U3 and wait for a few seconds and blue LED will blink.
4. Plug your eMMC module into U2/U3
5. Plug micro-USB cable into U2/U3 and connect other side to your PC USB host or ODROID's USB host port. (This is a trigger to start the recovery)
6. After recovery process (only a few seconds), the blue LED will turn off automatically.
7. Finish. Install OS on your eMMC with as usual.

Before trying this utility, double check your USB memory reader first.
Because of tolerance issue of reader board, some USB memory reader has the mechanical contact issue.
Please also note that the eMMC needs much more current(power consumption) than normal SD card.
So some reader may not supply enough power for eMMC.

We are using this Transcend USB reader for 2 years and there was no issue. Just for your reference.

sert00 · Post by **sert00** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 4:19 am

very great work guys!thanks,it could be very helpful!

sert00 · Post by **sert00** » Sun May 12, 2013 1:39 am

i had a non-working 8gb Emmc...it was drive me crazy..then after trying this method,i can definetly boot what i want in it after a week of tests,at least 15 times i tried dd'ing an .img without luck!
confirmed working,and thanks!!!!

cyborgas · Post by **cyborgas** » Mon May 27, 2013 7:40 am

Great!! It really works. I was thinking that i might damaged my emmc, but it was boot corruption... now i'm off to the new android version.

readyblue · Post by **readyblue** » Tue May 28, 2013 4:54 am

Confirmed working even on Odroid-X2, than you very much!

tokki2cut · Post by **tokki2cut** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 12:30 am

It also works on ODROID-X like a charm!

My symptom of eMMC module was like this:

Code: Select all

...
MMC Device 0: 15028 MB
..
reading boot.scr
Warning : Reads a file that is smaller than the cluster size.
431 bytes read
## Executing script at 40008000
reading kernel..device 0 Start 2455, Count 16384
MMC read: dev # 0, block # 2455, count 16384 ... 16384 blocks read: OK
completed
reading RFS..device 0 Count 18839, Start 2048
MMC read: dev # 0, block # 18839, count 2048 ... 2048 blocks read: OK
completed
Wrong Image Format for bootm command
ERROR: can't get kernel image!

But I could recover my eMMC module with the above instruction. Thanks!

After recovering, I could dd via Transcend TS-RDF8K USB reader, eMMC connected with Hardkernel's eMMC reader (enclosed with U2), on my iMac. And now Ubuntu starts to work in my ODROID-X solely on eMMC module.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 2:11 am

Just out of curiosity... If someone were to get an ODROID-XU with an eMMC that had this same problem, would this recovery tool work for it? Or will the new eMMCs or new bootloaders need a new recovery tool?

The way I understand it is that there was a batch of eMMCs that had corrupt software/firmware/bootloader or something flashed to them, and that this tool re-flashes that software/firmware/bootloader to fix the problem? In any case, theoretically there should be no such problem on any of the new eMMCs in the future, but I was just wondering if the software that was corrupt would have to be different for the new eMMC modules.

Post by **mdrjr** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 3:15 am

Matt wrote:Just out of curiosity... If someone were to get an ODROID-XU with an eMMC that had this same problem, would this recovery tool work for it? Or will the new eMMCs or new bootloaders need a new recovery tool?

The way I understand it is that there was a batch of eMMCs that had corrupt software/firmware/bootloader or something flashed to them, and that this tool re-flashes that software/firmware/bootloader to fix the problem? In any case, theoretically there should be no such problem on any of the new eMMCs in the future, but I was just wondering if the software that was corrupt would have to be different for the new eMMC modules.

We'll release a tool for XU, this one.. doens't work for XU..

XU users a completely different bootloader..

gripped · Post by **gripped** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 8:05 am

mdrjr wrote:
We'll release a tool for XU, this one.. doens't work for XU..

XU users a completely different bootloader..

Did it get released? The only one I can find is the android one at http://dn.odroid.com/ODROID-XU/Recovery ... taller.zip
I assume I can just use this and then delete the partitions to get an XU bootloader on a spare emmc I have (currently has U2 bootloader on it) ?

Post by **mdrjr** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 8:12 am

gripped wrote:
mdrjr wrote:
We'll release a tool for XU, this one.. doens't work for XU..

XU users a completely different bootloader..
Did it get released? The only one I can find is the android one at http://dn.odroid.com/ODROID-XU/Recovery ... taller.zip
I assume I can just use this and then delete the partitions to get an XU bootloader on a spare emmc I have (currently has U2 bootloader on it) ?

Yes, but please create a separated thread for that so we don't offtopic this one

Apokalypz · Post by **Apokalypz** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 1:24 pm

Just a thought. Will cloning the first 512 bytes of a freshly restored eMMC with dd preserve just the boot loader? The restoration method in the OP is a PITA and i never want to go through it again. I know it works on HDDs, though I'm not sure how uboot or eMMCs work. Thanx.

Post by **odroid** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 1:32 pm

Because the eMMC boot sectors are not accessible with the dd command, we made this special way.
The hidden boot block should be access in a different way.
The u-boot in the SD-card open the hidden block and write some boot blobs and close it.

jelh · Post by **jelh** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:14 pm

Does this recovery tool also work for Odroid-U3?

Post by **mdrjr** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:17 pm

Aye!

It works!

jelh · Post by **jelh** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 1:30 am

I have tried to recover my emmc card a several times but it does not work, so I give up.
I have only one microSD to test with and every time I have flashed it with the Android image it seems to be corrupt. The blue led does not blink.
I have used both Gparted and KDE:s partition tool when creating partitions.
I bought 2 emmc cards, the other is a Linux card (Xubuntu) and it works.
I want to have a new working emmc card with Android, how shall I do?

Post by **mdrjr** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 2:45 pm

jelh wrote:I have tried to recover my emmc card a several times but it does not work, so I give up.
I have only one microSD to test with and every time I have flashed it with the Android image it seems to be corrupt. The blue led does not blink.
I have used both Gparted and KDE:s partition tool when creating partitions.
I bought 2 emmc cards, the other is a Linux card (Xubuntu) and it works.
I want to have a new working emmc card with Android, how shall I do?

create your own thread. is a good start.

Wolf · Post by **Wolf** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 5:25 pm

After recoveried my 64G emmc, the emmc just show 31G? Is there any solution to recovery it in order to get back the original 64G size? Thank you!

Post by **odroid** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 6:38 pm

It is normal when you access the eMMC in Windows.
Check the full partitions and you can see 62~64GB.

smashukikz · Post by **smashukikz** » Sat May 03, 2014 9:10 am

Nice thanks for this...

nobicycle · Post by **nobicycle** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 11:26 pm

Turn on U2/U3 and wait a few seconds and blue LED will blink.
4. Plug your eMMC module into U2/U3

Please confirm - the eMMc is plugged into the U2/U3 with the power to the U2/U3 on? Hot plugging causes no damage?

Post by **mdrjr** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:15 am

nobicycle wrote:
Turn on U2/U3 and wait a few seconds and blue LED will blink.
4. Plug your eMMC module into U2/U3
Please confirm - the eMMc is plugged into the U2/U3 with the power to the U2/U3 on? Hot plugging causes no damage?

eMMC isn't initialized at that point. So no of course there's no damage.
Why we would ask you to do something that will damage your board?

nobicycle · Post by **nobicycle** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:28 am

If the power is switched on, it is a normal concern. Stating that the board is designed for eMMc hot plugging would have cleared up the consternation.

Post by **mdrjr** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:37 am

nobicycle wrote:If the power is switched on, it is a normal concern. Stating that the board is designed for eMMc hot plugging would have cleared up the consternation.

Read what I've said before carefully. I didn't said it was designed to be hot plugged.
Do not distort my words.

nobicycle · Post by **nobicycle** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:45 am

Allow me to explain the concept as I understand it:
The board is live. Something gets connected in this state. = Hot plugging

Post by **mdrjr** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:49 am

nobicycle wrote:Allow me to explain the concept as I understand it:
The board is live. Something gets connected in this state. = Hot plugging

Wrong.
Hot plugging involves dealing with way more stuff. Such as proper peripheral initialization, clocks and the unhandled exceptions due to abrupt removal.
And in ANY moment I claimed that hot plugged or the needed parts for it work are supported.

nobicycle · Post by **nobicycle** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 1:29 am

Nit picking. Those things are the technical implementation of the concept.

Post by **mdrjr** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 1:41 am

nobicycle wrote:Nit picking. Those things are the technical implementation of the concept.

Its not "nit picking" its explaining that you assumed something that its incorrect.

Board powers on.. No eMMC.. ok.. move along and boot from SD.
At this stage eMMC isn't initialized because it wasn't present.
When you do connect the eMMC and connect the USB cable as it is told so.
It will initialize the eMMC and recovery it.
After this is done the board is shutdown to prevent damages to the data written on the eMMC.

This above isn't hot plug. Its more like late initialization.

Understand now?

Michel Labitzke · Post by **Michel Labitzke** » Tue Jul 01, 2014 3:10 pm

Works for me too.

Great work guys!

Androchiel · Post by **Androchiel** » Sun Jul 27, 2014 11:17 pm

For me to.
Glad it works again.

Gaudi · Post by **Gaudi** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 12:09 am

I described my problem in this tread http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=5848

I've tried to solve it with this little tool. But it dooesn't work in my case. What shoud I do?

Thanks!

Upd.
I didn't extract *.xz archive.

Thank you mdrjr!

Post by **mdrjr** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 1:05 am

Don't post here. Wait until someone answers your thread.

Vespucci187 · Post by **Vespucci187** » Wed Aug 27, 2014 4:55 am

After a long time and a zillion times of flasshing with dd, I came across this article. I have an Odroid XU and an ODROID U3 community edition. That last one had a problem with booting automatically from eMMC. So when I saw this article I gave it a try. And yes, also for me this was THE solution. In the start it looked like the eMMC or the image where broke. But it needed this correction tool to work properly.
Do follow instructionbs exactly, so:
1. Insert SD
2. Turn on, see blue flashing led
3. apply the eMMC
4. apply the mini-USB and hook up to the USB ports on the Odroid U3 to start the process
5. then blue light off...
6. now you can flash the eMMC via other computer with dd

this did it for me. Thanks I was almost giving up hope and to return to my SD again...

vectrex · Post by **vectrex** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 8:34 am

worked for me too, thanks!

uDude · Post by **uDude** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 12:30 pm

I am a curious fellow -- I would like to know what the utility does.

I guess I could download the zip, put it on a u-sd, mount it on a linux loopback fs to see what is going on (if linux didn't mount it). I'm lazy.

Are you reinstalling uboot? Just fixing the boot sectors of the emmc referenced by the boot loader? wiping, partitioning and formating? Locking bad file sectors? I'm am always curious about what really occurs. I'm not a newb. I've been using and writing kernel code since the ancient ATT UX days from bell labs. Feel free to just shoot me a private email as well.

I only ask becuase the data on the emmc need not be lost in most scenarios (e.g. if the root partition is healthy, mount it on ux and collect your install, etc).

BTW, I highly endorse the U3. I have yet to get an xu,but I want the sata and gigE, so Iwill.

uDude

Post by **odroid** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:54 pm

There is a boot.ini file in the FAT partition if you dd the img file in to your SD card.
That script will explain what the utility does.

fuxing · Post by **fuxing** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:03 am

I followed the steps exactly as written, but cant get the odroid u3 to boot from my emmc (either android nor ubuntu).
I have tried several sd adapters as also usb adapters and also bought a new usb 3.0 transcend today.

Do I need the "exynos4412_emmc_recovery_from_sd_20140629.zip" or the "exynos4412_emmc_recovery_from_sd.zip" image?
i flashed the recovery to an 4gb sandisk micro sd. i also tried to flash android img before and after recovery. by the way do i have to flash the android.img before or after recovery? When recovery is done and the blue led goes out, do i just need to switch on again or unplug the power and plug in again? do I keep plugged in the sd card on first boot or remove it?

I tried with windows 7 and 8.1 using hardkernel "Disk Imager".

Is there anything else I could try?

Post by **mdrjr** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 5:04 am

You flash the Android image to the eMMC after the recovery.
Also create your own thread.

fuxing · Post by **fuxing** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 7:16 pm

Ok! Moved to ne Topic:

http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 661#p67661

Guso · Post by **Guso** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 12:30 pm

I've already tried to adapt this tool to my HW a couple times, but frankly I'm not quite sure about what I'm doing exactly with uboot specially, I've a C1 btw

My first try was to make a bootable micro SD with the instructions on the rootfs to USB HDD tutorial on the wiki, then copy the files on this img(both of them, i guess they are the same just different uboot, but...), never get the blue led blink, then I used the img on this tutorial and plugged in and install uboot using the arch script on it, same story, I can get access to a XU lite if needed but I'm pretty short of ideas right now

these are the links that I used
Ubuntu rootfs on USB HDD
http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id= ... s%5B%5D=dd

ArchARM wiki
http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7 ... /odroid-c1

And off course I checked my C1, it's in fact running with another micro SD card with arch

ps: I've post on right section everything else that I already tried and here is the link, I just don't wanna spam this post

http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=8802

simonh · Post by **simonh** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 9:23 pm

Where can I download the recovery tool from?

Post by **odroid** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 10:17 pm

The tool was lost accidentally by my mistake.
We are trying to find it in the forum back SQL now.
Please give us couple of days to re-upload it.
Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Post by **odroid** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 10:55 pm

I has been back on the OP.

simonh · Post by **simonh** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 11:29 pm

Thank you odroid!

dklinkman · Post by **dklinkman** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 10:30 am

Hello!

I have a pair of XU3 w/ 64GB emmc running Ubuntu 14.04. I noticed today that both have died apparently due to emmc errors. They may have been dead awhile. I don't look at them very often. This seems to be the relevant piece of console output:

Code: Select all

Checking Boot Mode ... EMMC
MMC:   S5P_MSHC0: 0, S5P_MSHC2: 1
MMC Device 0: 58.2 GiB
MMC Device 1: [ERROR] response timeout error : 00000104 cmd 1
Card did not respond to voltage select!
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

Is this the same problem described and discussed in this thread? Is it appropriate to use the recovery tool on the XU3?

If it's just the bootloader that gets fixed will the rest of the partitions/data be ok or will I need to flash from scratch?

Thanks!! --David

Post by **odroid** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 12:20 pm

@David (dklinkman)

MMC Device 0: eMMC slot
MMC Device 1: micro-SD slot

Open a new thread on the XU3 forum.

jrrose · Post by **jrrose** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:40 am

I tried to creare this recovery tool with:
dd if=emmc_recovery_pegasus_20140629.img of=/dev/sdc
on a microsd card which was recognized as /dev/sdc
which seems to work without any problems. Then I reinserted this microdf card. It was automatically mount as /dev/sdc1:

root@lynx:/home_lynx/rose/Txt/projects/Boards/Odroid/Installation/Unzip(104)# df | grep sdc
/dev/sdc1 10202 538 9664 6% /run/media/rose/48E0-7CDF
root@lynx:/home_lynx/rose/Txt/projects/Boards/Odroid/Installation/Unzip(105)# fdisk -l /dev/sdc
Disk /dev/sdc: 7.7 GiB, 8263827456 bytes, 16140288 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xdeadffe5

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1 200000 220479 20480 10M c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

root@lynx:/home_lynx/rose/Txt/projects/Boards/Odroid/Installation/Unzip(106)# ll /run/media/rose/48E0-7CDF/
total 6
-rw-r--r-- 1 rose rose 2701 Jun 28 2014 boot.ini
drwxr-xr-x 64 rose rose 2048 Jun 28 2014 update/

But if I try to list/run/media/rose/48E0-7CDF/update , I get Input/output errors . Is this to expected, because it is maybe only a locale problem or is the recovery tool faulty installed and I should repeat the installation of the recovery tool?

jrrose · Post by **jrrose** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:43 am

'ls -l /run/media/rose/48E0-7CDF/update/' show something like:

root@lynx:/home_lynx/rose/Txt/projects/Boards/Odroid/Installation/Unzip(107)# ll /run/media/rose/48E0-7CDF/update/
/bin/ls: cannot access /run/media/rose/48E0-7CDF/update/UUUUUUUU.uuu: Input/output error
/bin/ls: cannot access /run/media/rose/48E0-7CDF/update/UUUUUUUU.uuu: Input/output error
...
/bin/ls: cannot access /run/media/rose/48E0-7CDF/update/UUUUUUUU.uuu: Input/output error
/bin/ls: cannot access /run/media/rose/48E0-7CDF/update/UUUUUUUU.uuu: Input/output error
total 0
d????????? ? ? ? ? ? UUUUUUUU.uuu/
d????????? ? ? ? ? ? UUUUUUUU.uuu/
d????????? ? ? ? ? ? UUUUUUUU.uuu/
...
d????????? ? ? ? ? ? UUUUUUUU.uuu/
d????????? ? ? ? ? ? UUUUUUUU.uuu/
root@lynx:/home_lynx/rose/Txt/projects/Boards/Odroid/Installation/Unzip(108)#

meveric · Post by **meveric** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 5:13 am

flash the image again and do a "sync" after the dd command finished.
You might have removed the SD card too fast.

Anyway you are not suppose to start anything "manually" but you should BOOT the SD card, it's nothing you start by hand.

dirtyrobinson · Post by **dirtyrobinson** » Wed Apr 13, 2016 9:53 am

After spending a couple hours trying to figure out why an eMMC module from a spare board wasn't working in my U3, I came across this utility and FINALLY was able to boot my U3.

Thank you so much for making this recovery tool but it was a little hard to find since I didn't think this would be in the How-To section, I searched the U3 section without a solution.

odchab · Post by **odchab** » Tue Jan 03, 2017 9:20 pm

spending a lot of time trying to boot from emac on U3 - won't work

i tried the recovery tool (as described) many times - won't work

when i stop autoboot on recovery image - insert the emmc and run copy_uboot_sd2emmc
i get:

reading FWBL1 ..device 0 Start 1, Count 30
MMC read: dev # 0, block # 1, count 30 ... 30 blocks read: OK
completed
MMC Device 1 not found

so the emmc will not recognized by u3 - but works fine with C1

any chance or broken board?