OnePlus One 64G bootlooping, recovery not available

[Darksbane]

Summary:

OnePlus One 64G device bootloops and cannot access recovery.
Fastboot available.
Tried to flash different ROMs with fastboot.exe from Bacon Root Toolkit v1.0.3.
Also tried to flash ROM from Linux through fastboot from http://tools.android.com/download.
Device still bootloops and recovery is not accessible.

History

I have a OnePlus One 64G. My aim was to install Nethunter on this device.

Using BRT

First I tried to use Bacon Root Toolkit following this manual:
https://github.com/offensive-securit...indows-install

I installed CM 12.1 YOG4PAS3JL, unlocked and rooted the device with the
Bacon Root Toolkit v1.0.3. I then flashed Nethunter 3.0 (nethunter-oneplus1-lollipop-3.0)
to the device.

Afterwards the phone booted into Nethunter showing the boot image. I tried the
HID Keyboard attack. This did send Mouse movements and clicks, but no keyboard
strokes.

So I guess something went wrong. I then checked the USB ports I was using. And
indeed I was using a USB 3.0 port to do all this.

I redid the whole procedure with a USB 2.0 port. (Side remark: at the moment
of writing I ordered a USB 2.0 HUB to make 100 % sure that I use USB 2.0; this
HUB will ship soon. Can I plugin this HUB to a USB 3.0 port and will be fine?)

Flashing from TWRP

Sometimes I managed to flash Nethunter but sometimes not. So I decided to follow
this guide: https://github.com/offensive-security/nethunter-LRT.
Since this is supposed to be the preferred method.

At this time I was able to boot into TWRP. From this I flashed
cm-12.1-20151117-SNAPSHOT-YOG7DAO1K6-bacon.

Then I flashed Nethunter 3.0. Everything went fine. (Side remark: I am not 100 %
sure, but it could be that CM 12.1 YOG4PAS3JL does not work with Nethunter 3.0.)

I was able to execute the HID keyboard attack with custom keystrokes.

I then installed the metapackage kali-linux-full. After this I had the impression
the device got a little bit unstable. If I did something directly after boot
and before Nethunter loaded the device could crash.

Anki Overdrive app crash results in bootloop

I also installed Anki Overdrive app on this device. This app crashed and sent
my device into a bootloop. I'm not able to boot into custom recovery. All I can
do is boot into fastboot.

Flashing with BRT fastboot.exe

I tried to flash different stock roms with BRT from here, but the device keeps bootlooping.

I also adapted the script from
https://github.com/offensive-securit...ockOpoFlash.sh
for Windows 7 (script_Win7.bat attached), and issued all the commands with BRT fastboot.exe
and adapted to my 64G device.

The result is that I'm still in bootloop and not able to boot into recovery. All I
can do is to boot into Fastboot mode.

Flashing with android.com fastboot

I tested the full Linux manual next. For me it is easiest to do this from
a VirtualBox Linux. Is this possible or will this fail due to the VirtualBox layer?

Apparently the fastboot command works and detects my device. I'm using fastboot from
sdk-repo-linux-platform-tools-2219198.zip from http://tools.android.com/download.

Since I'm only able to boot into fastboot, I adapted the script from
https://github.com/offensive-securit...ockOpoFlash.sh
to contain only the fastboot commands (script_Linux.sh attached).

I unzipped cm-12.1-YOG7DAS2K1-bacon-signed-fastboot-bed37f2e18.zip and issued the script.

The script went through successfully and the device starts to bootloop. I give it the usual
10 minutes to normally boot, but unfortunately it still bootloops.

Conclusion
At the moment of writing my device still bootloops. I'm only able to boot into "Fastboot Mode".
Recovery is not working.
From this point even booting into recovery would be an improvement.
I'm going to charge my device over night, since I have no way of telling what the battery status is.

So where can I go from here? Thank you for any advice.

[Phreya]

Boot into fastboot mode, flash over TWRP. Then wipe out your ROM and install CyanogenMod 13. Then, see if it boots (it should). After that, flash my kernel:

https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24438995911973198

[Darksbane]

Hey Phreya,

Thank you for your reply. Trying to boot into a custom recovery was also my first bet to get things working again. Unfortunately this does not work.
Here is what I did:

Power down device.
Volume up + Power --> Boot into fastboot mode
Connect to computer

fastboot devices

(to check for connectivity)

fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.0.0-1-bacon.img

Flash goes fine.
Volume down + Power ---> Boot into recovery ---> This fails. Device starts to bootloop.

I also tried to boot the custom recovery temporarily:

fastboot boot twrp-3.0.0-1-bacon.img

This also results in a bootloop. So I cannot access recovery.

Any additional ideas how to get recovery working again?

[Phreya]

Does it bootloop only when you're trying to get into recovery? Does it boot to the OS itself? If so, install "Flashify" from Google Play, this will allow you to flash recovery via Android itself.

Try flashing an older version of twrp. 2.8 should work fine.

[Darksbane]

The device always bootloops. It does not boot into the OS nor into the recovery. Flashing an older version of TWRP also did not work (tried twrp-2.8.0.0-bacon.img and twrp-2.8.7.0-bacon.img).

[Phreya]

Try to use this guide to get your device back to stock:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guide-return-opo-to-100-stock-t2826541

[Darksbane]

Unfortunately this also did not work. Here is what I did:

To eliminate the risk of bad Windows drivers I created a bootable USB stick with ubuntu-14.04.4-desktop-amd64. I booted into Ubuntu and downloaded fastboot from http://tools.android.com/download. I downloaded the packaged CM 12.1 YOG7DAS2K1 from your url. To eliminate USB 3.0 problems I plugged the device into a USB 2.0 hub. I executed the included flash_all.sh.
This did send the device into bootloop again. After ten minutes of waiting still the same.
I also thought maybe something is overwriting the flashed partitions during boot and tried to

fastboot oem lock

the device before rebooting. Still the same. Flashing recovery and booting recovery temporarily still does not work.

So I guess I'm out of luck here, right?

[Phreya]

That should have worked, honestly. It is still just a soft brick, and what you did should have fixed the problem... You can try restoring to OxygenOS via official OnePlus website.

[Darksbane]

Just to wrap this up...

I have sent my phone in to OnePlus. The repair protocol states that the motherboard was defect.

So I guess in normal cases with functioning hardware all of the above should have worked.

Thank you!

[Phreya]

Just to wrap this up...

I have sent my phone in to OnePlus. The repair protocol states that the motherboard was defect.

So I guess in normal cases with functioning hardware all of the above should have worked.

Thank you!

That sounds very unfortunate I hope you got a new device now!