Stuck with no recovery and no root...help! [ Edited ]

[wleesee]

I'm pretty sure you can fix this problem so keep perservering.  We just need to know where you up to.  Whatever you do do NOT modify your downloaded update.zip file.... some pple have bricked their tablets doing this.

Which steps are you  strugglnig with (listed below).  If your answer is - all of them  this website provides difinitive steps on what you need to do for step 1 and 2).  http://rootzwiki.com/news/_/articles/rooting/how-to-root-the-lenovo-thinkpad-r336

Step 1)  <<modified>>

You need to get root back.  Try TEMP remove root using rootkeeper then re-instating root using root keeper.  Does this give you root back?  If you have totally lost root... do step 2 first (get ADB access)

Step 2)  (This step only necessary if  cannot get root access)  

You need to get ADB access to your tablet.  If you can get to your mobile phone settings, this is possible.

Step 3)

Get your original /system/bin/sh file back..  (Someone here is bound to post the correct sh file for you (I cannot as I'm on ROW)

After this... attempt the upgrade again.

[ameridian]

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rovertech1 wrote:

I do have the rootkeeper but its caught in an usual position...I have superuser installed but somehow don't have root anymore.  The backup is in the /system folder but I can't do anything with it.  I try to restore everything with Voodoo and nothing happens.  

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You have no shell to execute anything. I'm surprised ADB didn't give a "no shell" error when you try to connect. You say you installed CWR, can you confirm that you were actually able to use it? You are pressing the volume-up button as soon as you see "Lenova" while booting, right?

[rovertech1]

Thats what i've come to realise...I really screwed up messing with that file because now I can't do adb shell or terminal emulator.  I originally had cwr but at the state its at now, nothing happens when I hit vol up at power on(recovery was messed up before I messed with the sh file).  The only file access I have is through AndroZip...it will let me move some stuff around but wont let me copy the file back to the system/bin folder because of permission is denied.  

Also, OTA rootkeeper says su restored when i restore root, but in the check boxes it doesn't have 'device rooted' or 'protected su copy avalible' checked...although it does get superuser permissions.  Maybe I can manually reinstall superuser.apk? I can get files onto the tablet via SD card. 

[wleesee]

I can see every app needing to use sh... so I can see your prediciment....     But surely many apps can run with an old version of sh....

Two questinos 1)

You said RootKeeper gets superuser permission but yet it  says that your device is not rooted?  Can you tell for sure by installing a root checker app (tells you definitively if you have root or not)?

2) Have you ever entered the recovery mode on your tablet before..... just trying to work out if there is an end user error here as oposed to a really really stuffed up system.

Oh, with getting ADB working... try enabling all your USB debugging and USB computer features from your tablet settings... and try to ADB across again.

[rovertech1]

I haven't checked with a root checker but i know that Quill can't hide the system bar and says it doesn't have root access.  

I have entered recovery before...I used it quite a few times when i had clockwork recovery working.  I tried copying the recovery files from the 0086 update off the lenovo download page and that's what caused the recovery to just not work at all.  If I could flash the recovery back to cwm I could restore a backup...but I need root to restore cwm, lol.  

I tried to re-root the tablet, and that failed as well.  

Thanks for all your replies and trying to work through this

[ameridian]

Rooted users on ICS better hang tight with no messing around until we have CWR for ICS. The irony to all this is that once rooted we need backup/restore capability more than ever in order to save us from ourselves.

[rovertech1]

Very true...learn from my mistakes people  I knew better too...i've been playing with rooted android devices for years

[wleesee]

WRT CWM -> I Cannot agree more.  

I made a simple and previously safe change to my  build.props file => To my extreme frustration, my tablet entered a permanent loop that completely locked my out of the UI....

Out of luck I found a cunning hack to get myself into ES File Explorer to change my settings back.  **phew**.  

[rovertech1]

I tried a few more things...root checker asks for superuser permissions, i click ok and then it force closes.  Root explorer force closes.  ES file explorer works but can't get root permissions to change anything.  

Any other ideas?  Can lenovo restore it to a stock state possibly(for a fee of course)?

[Lens_flare]

>>Can lenovo restore it to a stock state possibly(for a fee of course)?
only by replacing motherboard
that **bleep** recovery is easy to kill and impossible to restore..