ESET Mobile Security crashed -> bootloop -> android environment corrupted

Hello

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1st of all, this may turn out not to be a ESET Mobile Security issue, but from my end-user experience and current info I have, it looks like it may be.
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Yesterday I was in the ESET Mobile Security app (1.0.288.220) searching for some way to activate antitheft locking manually (without SMS). After entering the app I went straight to antitheft help pages. I was reading help, then decided to check what my trusted contacts are. After selecting the trusted friends list entry, the app crashed and immediatelly sent my phone to bootloop.

I had to remove the battery several times (it's crazy because doing it once always helps when the phone is stuck) to exit the bootloop.

After the boot, my phone is all messed up. Almost all of the application force-close on me the time I try to launch them (or they try to autostart) ... those that do not fail (e.g. contacts, gmail, market and some downloaded ones) clearly lost all of it's configuration data.

Few apps however can show previous data .. .for example call history and sms messages are still there. From what I can tell, all partitions / storages survived. It seems like /data is still there full of data of the apps I had, /sdcard and also /sdcard/_ExternalSD contains what they did before.

I'm no android expert, but looking at the logcat it seems like the android lost or has rebuilt some kind of application uid mapping. As if the apps were identified differently which in turn causes them to be run under different (linux) users ... thus failing when trying to access their data. Just my guess ...

Some examples from the logcat

Few of these:

Code:

E/PackageManager(1138): Package com.google.android.apps.maps has mismatched uid: 10067 on disk, 10088 in settings
E/PackageManager(1138): Package com.mediawoz.goweather has mismatched uid: 10112 on disk, 10109 in settings
E/PackageManager(1138): Package mobi.mgeek.TunnyBrowser has mismatched uid: 10098 on disk, 10076 in settings

loads of these:

Code:

W/System.err(1998): java.io.FileNotFoundException: /data/data/com.eset.emsw/files/sysengine.dat (Permission denied)
...
E/AndroidRuntime(2688): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to create application com.imo.android.imoim.IMO: android.database.sqlite.SQLiteException: unable to open database file
E/AndroidRuntime(2688): Caused by: android.database.sqlite.SQLiteException: unable to open database file
...
E/AndroidRuntime(2296): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to create application com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup.MainApplication: java.lang.RuntimeException: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /data/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup/files/libtitanium.so (Permission denied)
...
I/Database(2626): sqlite returned: error code = 14, msg = cannot open file at line 27205 of [42537b6056]
E/Database(2626): sqlite3_open_v2("/data/data/com.koushikdutta.rommanager/databases/settings.db", &handle, 6, NULL) failed
W/System.err(2626): android.database.sqlite.SQLiteException: unable to open database file
...
W/System.err(2626): java.io.FileNotFoundException: /data/data/com.koushikdutta.rommanager/files/rommanager.sh (Permission denied)

Spec:
LG Optimus X2 (P990)
Android 2.3.4
custom ROM based on ofic v20o ROM (including modified 2.6.32.9 kernel)
rooted

I know this won't probably be fixable and I plan to do a full wipe + load from recovery later.

Still ... any ideas what could have happened or any tips about what to look for to confirm any theories?

I'm holding the wipe + restore for now in case someone would be willing to help me to clear up what the reasons could have been (even someone from ESET maybe).

Thx

 

Based on experience, there's all sorts of quirky things that can happen with custom ROMs. That said, ESET doesn't officially support rooted Android devices. It also seems you had been using an older version of EMS. The latest version is 1.1.680.969. If I were you, I'd go ahead and do the wipe+restore and then install 1.1.680.969 to see if it works for you

 

If it sounded like I'm in situation 'EMS does not work for me, please help', that was really not the case. I lived with EMS working properly for ages and I knew wipe would make me happy again.

It was just this one system-screw-up. Other than publishing it here where someone with deeper knowledge could have an idea what to look for to find out what really happened ... I also wanted this issue to reach ears of ESET in case it would be of interest for them. And I really didnt want to rise an official support ticket for obvious reasons.

I already did the wipe+restore and I'm all back to normal as expected, also with the latest version of EMS.

I made the nandroid backup of the messed up rom though, in case someone will be curious.

EDIT: almost forgot ... Thanks anyway