# Phone Unusable: UIDs on the system are inconsistent



## AzJazz

I am (was?) running Gummy 2.1 on my Charge.

Yesterday, my phone started acting really wonky: I started getting random FC's every few minutes on random applications. The phone was quickly becoming unusable.

So, I figured that I would do a Nandroid backup, and then reinstall Gummy.

That didn't work.









I also reinstalled Gummy 2.0 / 2.1. I wiped the cache partition & Dalvik cache, and did a data wipe/factory reset.

After the initial bootup, I saw a "System UIDs Inconsistent" message. I also see a ton of FCs now. It's so bad that my phone is totally unusable now.

I can't seem to get my phone to work at all now, and I don't know what to do ... Please help!

AzJazz


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## aaronDroid80

Odin EP4D and let it run stock (ota to FP1 if you like) and see if you still have problems. If things are working, give Tweaked a try (it's far superior to Gummy).

Sent from my Tweaked Charge using RootzWiki.


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## AzJazz

aaronDroid80 - Thanks. I'll give your suggestion a shot.

BTW, I'm curious ... why do you feel that Tweaked is far superior to Gummy?

I tried the latest version of Tweaked for a few hours, and I was incredibly disappointed. Aside from going back to a more TouchWiz-styke interface (which I was not fond of to begin with), I had random FC's occurring every few minutes, and the whole thing seemed very unstable. I couldn't see where Tweaked offered anything more than Gummy. I actually felt that Gummy offered more than Tweaked, so I would be curious to see your thoughts on that.

*Edit:* My original, very stoopid and inflammatory statements have been removed.


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## zhakrin

Really? Installing Tweaked (whatever version) was no more difficult than any other ROM out there. And even better, dwitherell responds to questions and tries to help get it right if there is a problem. I know it's all opinions about which ROM is better but the bias on the installation is way out in left field.


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## shrike1978

Tweaked installs exactly the same as Gummy. Literally, if you can install Gummy you can install Tweaked. It's recommended that you go to stock and OTA update to get the new radios, but that's not even strictly necessary.

Gummy is based on an old, out-of-date, and buggy pre-release build of the software. If you don't like the look and feel, install a theme...there are over half a dozen available right from tweaktools...it works exactly the same as gummytoolbox. There's an AOSP theme that looks like AOSP. Don't like the launcher, download Go, or ADW, or LPP, or Holo, or any of a dozen others. Tweaked has more options and has a far more stable TSM Parts implementation. The only FC I've had on it is the same SyncMLSvc one I get on every FP1 ROM, stock included.


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## aaronDroid80

AzJazz said:


> aaronDroid80 - Thanks. I'll give your suggestion a shot.
> 
> BTW, I'm curious ... why do you feel that Tweaked is far superior to Gummy?
> 
> I tried the latest version of Tweaked for a few hours, and I was incredibly disappointed. Aside from going back to a more TouchWiz-styke interface (which I was not fond of to begin with), I had random FC's occurring every few minutes, and the whole thing seemed very unstable. I couldn't see where Tweaked offered anything more than Gummy. I actually felt that Gummy offered more than Tweaked, so I would be curious to see your thoughts on that.
> 
> BTW ... I won't even go into the original Tweaked poster who listed the Tweaked installation as "Easy" (I wanted to kill that guy). By trying to follow their lousy instructions on how to install Tweaked (steps left out, broken links, missing links to important files), I nearly bricked my phone. Their "Easy" installation should have been a "Moderate" or more "Difficult" with as many chances there were to mess up my phone. I'm pretty experienced with flashing ROMs on all sorts of phones, too. There were things I wanted to do to get Tweaked installed, but weren't listed in posters instructions. By following that poster's instructions to the letter, it resulted in my phone being stuck in an infinite bootloop, and Recovery was messed up too. Fortunately, I was still able to Odin back to life.
> 
> After successfully installing Tweaked (combining my experience with their instructions) and seeing the results, I wish I had my 4 hours back.


Well, since you asked, here's my opinion. Gummy was abandoned 2 firmware builds ago, so right there is a big point. Gummy was also plagued with hotboot issues that were never really resolved (that is, until Tweaked 2.1). Tweaked has countless features that gummy did not, such as the customizable and scrollable notification bar. dwitherell has been able to make huge improvements to the TSM elements. I used to run Gummy until the EP4D firmware came out, and there weren't too many options for custom roms at that point (ones that I liked, anyway), so I stuck with the stock ROM and ran the pbj kernel. Then when FP1 came out, Tweaked 2.0 came out, and now this phone was "usable" again. There are so many under the hood enhancements in Tweaked. And the flexibility provided through the Tweaktools script is just insane.

Sent from my SCH-I905 using RootzWiki


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## AzJazz

zhakrin said:


> [snip] but the bias on the installation is way out in left field.


I'm sorry, zhakrin, but my "bias is not way out in left field."

An installation difficulty of "Easy" would have every single step laid out, with no chance for error by the user. This is definitely not the case with the installation instructions laid out in the posting here: http://rootzwiki.com...updated-062612/

I don't care if the Tweaked ROM is the best thing on the planet. My only complaint was that the installation instructions were bad.

"Easy" instructions would lay out every button push (including instructions like, "18) Press 'OK'"), and cover steps for every path possible. I write detailed design specifications and user instructions for a living, and I know what good instructions are. Writing "Easy" instructions isn't easy. But, you need to eliminate all chances for error, especially if it could really mess up somebody's phone.

Good examples of really bad instructions (taken directly from the Tweaked installation instructions posting). I will bold the areas where the instructions should be fixed, are unclear, or need further enhancements:
Boot into CWM recovery (*For "Easy" instructions, how the heck am I supposed to do this?*)
If flashing full ROM package, wipe data/factory reset (Recommended - not necessary depending on your situation I suppose - *Really? That's clear.*)
Put phone into download mode (*For "Easy" instructions, how the heck am I supposed to do this?)*
version 5.0.2.7 [...of CWMR...] can be found *here* (*No, it can't. However, CWMR 5.0.2.7 can be found here: http://rootzwiki.com...rkmod-recovery/*)
ODIN back to stock EP4D *BEFORE* you flash anything. (*Okay ... Where exactly do I get "stock EP4D" from, since a link wasn't posted?*)
*Oh ... and how about some instructions about handling EXT4 or RFS partitions?*
... And, the list goes on.

The Tweaked installation instuctions in that posting rely heavily on the user having lots of previous experience in almost all steps of the process. "Easy if you have a lot of experience" ... maybe. But just "Easy"? Most definitely not.

Don't tell me that somebody shouldn't be doing this installation if they don't know what they are doing. I have seen simple, well written, straight-forward instructions written for installing ROMs before (and, way more complex stuff than that).

In reality, if the author wrote truly good (not just in their opinion) installation instructions at the start, there would be 2 big benefits:
The number of people who say that they messed up will be reduced by an order or two of magnitude.
When a user does mess up (Yeah, it will happen no matter how good the instructions are), anybody can respond back something like: "You just need to redo steps 14 though 23 in the OP." Nice and simple for everybody, and lowers the overall support required by the OP.
The difficulty level for these installation instructions should have been identified as Moderate as a minimum, and I think they really should have been marked as Difficult - especially since the phone can get soft bricked by following the current installation instructions exactly. Against my instincts, I followed the current instructions to the letter, and my phone got soft-bricked. I have had a lot of experience installing ROMs in Motorola and Samsung phones, and there were areas in the instructions that I wanted to do something different, but I followed the instructions instead. As a result, I got to spend some more quality time with my ol' buddy Odin. 

I spent over 3 hours writing outlines of some detailed installation instructions (which was not nearly enough) to submit to the Tweaked installation thread, and that message got lost when I accidentally hit the back arrow on the wrong browser tab. I lost interest after that point, especially since my short few hours of experience running with Tweaked afterwards had me pretty disappointed. I must have missed something special about Tweaked, since other people think Tweaked is so much better than other ROMs, but I still don't know what it is.

I wasn't sure that anybody would have made any of the improvements I suggested anyways, so I didn't start spending more time to do it all over again.

*Anyways (now that I have successfully hijacked my own thread







) ... back to my original problem:*

My phone is fully operational again (on Gummy), although I don't know exactly why or how. I did quite a few wipes of everything possible, including removing my SD card. I reinstalled Gummy 2.0 and 2.1 numerous times, and saw the "UID inconsistent" errors all the time.

At one point, I figured I would go back to my Nandroid backup of the installation to just write down all the apps I had installed (while working through all the FCs), and follow Aaron's suggestion.

Much to my surprise, everything seems to be working perfectly now. I have no idea why it's fixed now. I wish I knew what was broken and what fixed it. It would be handy for me and others.

Cheers,

AzJazz


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## AzJazz

shrike1978 said:


> Well, since you asked, here's my opinion. Gummy was abandoned 2 firmware builds ago, so right there is a big point. Gummy was also plagued with hotboot issues that were never really resolved (that is, until Tweaked 2.1). Tweaked has countless features that gummy did not, such as the customizable and scrollable notification bar. dwitherell has been able to make huge improvements to the TSM elements. I used to run Gummy until the EP4D firmware came out, and there weren't too many options for custom roms at that point (ones that I liked, anyway), so I stuck with the stock ROM and ran the pbj kernel. Then when FP1 came out, Tweaked 2.0 came out, and now this phone was "usable" again. There are so many under the hood enhancements in Tweaked. And the flexibility provided through the Tweaktools script is just insane.
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I905 using RootzWiki


Thanks, for the responses, guys!

I will look into reinstalling TS again (when I have the time). This time, I will follow my instincts, and not the instructions.


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## lazarus0000

I have to go with the consensus here - Tweaked is no more difficult to install than any other ROM. I loved being able to use ROM Manager with my Original Droid and that made custom ROM installation a snap. Using ODIN is like standing next to a batter stirrer and hand-rolling bread... It'll get the job done but you just KNOW there's got to be a better way....

But here is my advice - use ODIN and go back to EP4D, take the OTA to FP1 and ODIN Tweaked on top of that. Right now (and for the last 6 months at least), Tweaked & Eclipse are, hands down, the best. I like Tweaked better right now for the reasons already elucidated - TSM parts and Tweakedtools. I don't think we're ever gonna have the customization choices we had with the OD but this is the next best thing to it...

Good luck! Having used Gummy in the beginning, I can safely say you should find this even more usable and it makes the phone a powerful tool!


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## Endless2232

If you can't follow the Tweaked instructions, I would really prefer you stay on Gummy. If you would like someone to hold your hand through the installation process, ask nicely and we will try to help.

Not being rude, just backing up my homie.


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## aaronDroid80

Your frustration with the installation instructions is understandable. Being a technical person myself, I can run through a complex installation process blindfolded after doing it numerous times, but then have a hard time detailing every minute step of that process when explaining it to someone else. It also has to do with the audience. The majority of us on this forum are here because we want to get more out of our phones and have reasonable knowledge of how to do that. So from one technical person to another, the installation steps are easy. There's the assumption that the audience already knows the substeps of each major one. We get new people here all the time, and from what I've seen, they come right out and say they don't know what they're doing and ask for help, and the community points them in the right direction. Every now and then, someone will come along and put some time into very detailed write-ups (yourself included-sorry to hear that your time was wasted by an errant mouse click, that would have been good information to share). It's already been put to rest, so I won't say it again, but I would've given very similar instructions myself.

If/when you decide to try Tweaked, or any of the FP1 based roms, make sure that you do Odin EP4D first and then take the OTA to get FP1. FP1 is the first build that I've seen where the ROM, kernel and radios have to match, or else certain things just won't work, like wifi. From there, you can use either the stock kernel (which is very good for stock) or pbj (2 variants, imnuts or tonsit). If you want, i can give you a more detailed breakdown.

Best of luck.

Sent from my Tweaked Charge using RootzWiki.


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## andrewjt19

Just Odin back to EP4 and take the OTA as advised and you should be good. I have done everything to brick this phone and yet always seem able to get out of it.


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## dwitherell

Ok... so AzJazz, thanks for PMing me about your issues and your thoughts for how the OP for Tweaked could be improved. It's nice when folks let me know they have problems as opposed to letting their anger and frustrations reach homicidal levels. While my apparently insufficient and "lousy" instructions left you in a quandry surely of my own making, I must applaud the method with which you disseminated your frustrations. Kudos.

Anyway, here are a few thoughts -

1) Thanks for pointing out the CWM recovery link - totally missed that one, and it's now fixed.

2) Sure - I didn't post a link to the stock EP4D ODIN. Ok, while some responsibility should be left to the user - I will concede this point. I agree, a link should have been put in. It's there now. I also made some minor edits to the instructions to hopefully clear things up.

3) I suppose I should modify the "difficulty level" - it's true that someone totally brand new to the process would have troubles, so I should not insinuate that this would not be the case. To be honest, I didn't know people looked at that sort of thing - but I suppose you would if you were new. The instructions as laid out very much assume experience/knowledge with the relevant tools, and they were never meant to act as some sort of guide-for-those-that-have-never-done-this-before. Again - this issue seems rooted in my classification - that has now changed. I went with moderate, and while I know you will disagree with that, I also disagree that following the original instructions to the letter carries a risk of soft bricking that is in any way greater than other ROM choices out there, old or new. Just my opinion of course.

4) Most of the remaining responses I have to your points seem irrelevant, as they all come back to thought 3 above and this:


AzJazz said:


> "Easy" instructions would lay out every button push (including instructions like, "18) Press 'OK'"), and cover steps for every path possible. I write detailed design specifications and user instructions for a living, and I know what good instructions are. Writing "Easy" instructions isn't easy. But, you need to eliminate all chances for error, especially if it could really mess up somebody's phone.


Ok - so it seems we have a disagreement on how we are defining "easy" - at least in terms of the intended audience. In my mind the intended audience was one that had some skill/experience in flashing (like those who flashed any of the gummy iterations for example) - not one completely new to the tools and language of flashing roms on the droid charge. For what it's worth, there is a "very easy" option which may better fit your take, but regardless I completely agree with your point, and in fact back in the day made an *attempt* at something a bit more in line with your definition of "easy" (though I'm sure it still falls short now that I look it over a bit). I never intended anyone to interpret my instructions to be of the same ilk as that, so again - that classification has been changed.

5) For the record - at no point in the original thread did I give an opinion on my own instructions. By contrast, what you have described seems an anger-laden opinion of a set of instructions you believe to fall short of being "'truly' good" - and while your desire to kill me would indicate otherwise I want to make clear that it was never the intention of those instructions to lead folks astray in any way shape or form. They were not there to hold ones hand through the process - they were simply a succinct set if instructions for those who understand the lingo. I will admit that the crux of your issue - how I classified it - is something that I erred on, but it seems you are well thought enough to realize the instructions listed are far from the "easy" you expected and would have adapted to suit this realization. This of course is an assumption on my part - and it seems I make a few too many of those.

6) While gummy was last updated long before the new classification options were put into place on rootzwiki, I fail to see the large discrepency between my atrociously deficient instructions and those of gummy. Was my lack of inclusion on what to navigate to/select for data wiping and installing the zip specifically within CWM recovery that much of a hinderance? Even gummy has the assumption that you know how to root/install CWM recovery - is it because I didn't explicitly state this in the instruction part (I do say something along these lines in the paragraph that leads up to it - the one with the bad link you pointed out in fact)?

From *Gummy 2.1 GBE* -
make sure you have root and Clockwork recovery installed
-boot into recovery via Recovery
-select "wipe data/factory reset"
-select "Yes -- delete all data"
-go back
-select "install zip from sdcard"
-select "choose zip from sdcard"
-find and select GummyChargedXX.zip
-reboot

The original instructions from *Tweaked* (which are now edited and differ from below) -
CWM Installation instructions:
- Backup your current setup/data
- Download file and place on sdcard
- Boot into CWM recovery
- If flashing full ROM package, wipe data/factory reset (Recommended - not necessary depending on your situation I suppose)
- If flashing update package, wipe cache/dalvik (Recommended - not necessary depending on your situation I suppose)
- I also STRONGLY recommend mounting /system in CWM (so it should say "unmount" after system)
- Install the .zip you put on your sdcard

In sum - you really did raise a number of valid points. My biggest issue (as I'm sure one could infer from the start of this excessively long post) was the regrettable manner in which you did it. I don't care if every single point in a complaint is true - this is not the way to do it. Next time, PM me such things. I know you made an attempt that was unfortunately lost (and such attempts are always appreciated), but this seems to have caused you a considerable amount of anger/anxiety/unpleasantness - while this is completely my opinion and my apologies if out of line, it just seems a message with most of what you said above (minus the angry I-want-to-kill-you stuff of course) wouldn't have taken so long, and I then would have been able to address those things and possibly save you some anguish. The intent was never to irk any with my tinkerings or their presentation, and I'd like to think that I've not portrayed myself to be the sort that is not open and responsive to thoughts/comments/criticisms/suggestions/issues/etc. Sorry if you didn't feel that way.


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## jco23

FWIW, upgrading the ROM from 2.0 to 2.1/2.2 was easier than any ROM flash I have ever done - just update via Tweaktools and the phone did the rest for me. Same deal when changing themes.

there are some other helpful "how-to" guides available, feel free to check them out on www.chargeforums.com

but to assess your problems, could be any number of issues (EXT4 vs. RFS, kernel version, etc...) but whatever they are, dwith is class act and stands behind his work (not to say nobody else does).


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## AzJazz

*dwitherell - *I apologize. I was out of line. I actually didn't want to bring you into this, though I guess I should have expected it. This thread was seriously hijacked - by myself. I was wrong, and I shouldn't have written what I did.

I also apologize to anybody else who reads or responded to me in this thread (while it exists). I will be requesting that it be deleted by the mods in a day or two, just so that any of the interested parties can see my sincere regret at what I wrote.

Best as I can tell, I must have had a lot of pent-up anger left over from the bad installation and frustration I went through before. Combined with the insane pressures I'm under right now from my two jobs, I really blew my stack. (VZW's new intent to force me off my unlimited data to a much more expensive plan hasn't helped matters much, either







)

I've been suspecting that I have been extremely (and very, very unusually) short-tempered within the last week or so. I guess my suspicions were correct, and I need to get that addressed - quickly.

dwitherell, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, my original intent was to post a list of suggested improvements to the installation process in your thread (although, not through a PM). After losing my hours of write-up at somewhere around 3 AM, I went to bed in frustration and just let it pass. My phone was working again (on Gummy), and I didn't want to spend the time re-writing ... especially since I didn't know if my suggestions would even be seen amongst the hundreds of other postings. Time passed, and I forgot about it.

You shouldn't have found out about this in the manner it occurred. Again, I am sorry about this thread, and will request its removal in a few days.

Sincerely,

AzJazz


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## dwitherell

AzJazz - no worries, it happens. Fwiw - I'm the obsessive sort that tries to make sure I read every post in threads like the tweaked OP - so don't feel like your contributions would go unnoticed. That being said - I did change things in the OP as a result of your self-highjacking, so appropriateness aside as a bit of silver lining to it all know that you did help improve things  
The apology is very much appreciated, and I apologize for my at-times-snarky retort. We all fall prey to our emotions from time to time I suppose. As far as I'm concerned - it's all water under the bridge.


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## charlie_c




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## AzJazz

Hi, Mods - feel free to delete this thread whenever you would like.

AzJazz


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