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Some questions after rescuing my phone from a soft brick

So I originally rooted my s3 with the GS3_debugfs-root_r2.7z method, flashed CWM and unlocked my bootloader. Since then i have flashed several roms and all was well until a couple days ago when i decided to restore my first backup in order to retrieve some data. I was still on G7 and kept getting the notification of the HE update. Even though I excepted the OTA and let it fail in CWM i kept get getting the notice almost every time i turn on my phone. I was getting so annoyed with it that i decided to flash a rom with HE in hopes that that would stop the OTA. In this whole process of restoring my backup my bootloader must have locked and when i flashed the rom I got stock on that "unauthorized software, contact Verizon screen". It freaked me out when i couldn't boot into recovery.
I followed the whole Odin, root66 method and was able to save my phone...phew... but have a couple questions now.
1) my phone has the superuser app and it shows that it cannot be uninstalled, like a system app but yet root checker says i am not rooted? Why is this.
2) Would installing supersu and updating binaries get me rooted again?
3) This one is just for curiosity..The message when i soft bricked my phone said you have unauthorized software and to go see a Verizon store. Would they really have been able help me or just tell me i am SOL
ps. Thank you to the XDA community for sharing instructions like the one i used to save my phone.

microdot said:
1) my phone has the superuser app and it shows that it cannot be uninstalled, like a system app but yet root checker says i am not rooted? Why is this.
2) Would installing supersu and updating binaries get me rooted again?
3) This one is just for curiosity..The message when i soft bricked my phone said you have unauthorized software and to go see a Verizon store. Would they really have been able help me or just tell me i am SOL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2: That could work, but so should loading the default SU and updating binaries.
3: They would not have been likely to help you, and may have even voided your warranty.

Going to a store would have yielded a bunch of head scratching and them telling you to file an insurance claim.
In the future if you want to block ota's freeze sdm and fwupdate in titanium.

Lost root after flash via RSD Lite on JB

Hi guys,
I'm moving from my hard-bricked GS2 to a Razr HD. Second hand and got the carrier unlock code yesterday, so I was all like "ooook now the fun begins... time to root ICS,, OTA keeper, OTA update, etc..."
Root went smooth. OTA rootkeeper too, then I upgraded to JB (I'm in France, phone is SFR branded so I got the OTA update), and recovered root. But then I thought "ok, I should probably do a reset to factory, just to start clean from here on". Bad idea, as I ended on a bootloop, hardly possible to access fastboot mode. But I managed to access it in the end, first tried a "Factory" from there. The phone booted correctly, but something was still wrong: battery indicator was "?", and at every reboot I ended up in bootloop again. No other choice than to flash the full rom via RSD Lite, which I did earlier today.
And now, I'm back on a fully working 4.1.1, but OTA RootKeeper says no "protected root" available, and I can't restore root at all. Tried Matt's Razr HD Utility, but it fails at downgrading to 4.0.4 since my bootloader is locked... and I'm not too found of unlocking it, since I've been VERY unlucky for the past 2 months, and voiding my warranty now would be a message to the universe like "hey dude, juste add another mess with my stuffs, now's the time!"
Am I correct in the assumption that the only way to re-root my device is to unlock bootloader/downgrade to 4.0.4 with razr hd utils/flash original SFR 4.0.4/root/rootkeeper protect/re-upgrade via OTA/rootkeeper restore ? Are there any progress in rooting directly from JB ?
Thanks for your help!

CoinCoin88 said:
Hi guys,
I'm moving from my hard-bricked GS2 to a Razr HD. Second hand and got the carrier unlock code yesterday, so I was all like "ooook now the fun begins... time to root ICS,, OTA keeper, OTA update, etc..."
Root went smooth. OTA rootkeeper too, then I upgraded to JB (I'm in France, phone is SFR branded so I got the OTA update), and recovered root. But then I thought "ok, I should probably do a reset to factory, just to start clean from here on". Bad idea, as I ended on a bootloop, hardly possible to access fastboot mode. But I managed to access it in the end, first tried a "Factory" from there. The phone booted correctly, but something was still wrong: battery indicator was "?", and at every reboot I ended up in bootloop again. No other choice than to flash the full rom via RSD Lite, which I did earlier today.
And now, I'm back on a fully working 4.1.1, but OTA RootKeeper says no "protected root" available, and I can't restore root at all. Tried Matt's Razr HD Utility, but it fails at downgrading to 4.0.4 since my bootloader is locked... and I'm not too found of unlocking it, since I've been VERY unlucky for the past 2 months, and voiding my warranty now would be a message to the universe like "hey dude, juste add another mess with my stuffs, now's the time!"
Am I correct in the assumption that the only way to re-root my device is to unlock bootloader/downgrade to 4.0.4 with razr hd utils/flash original SFR 4.0.4/root/rootkeeper protect/re-upgrade via OTA/rootkeeper restore ? Are there any progress in rooting directly from JB ?
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to make sure you do have SuperUser, SuperSU, and I generally prefer to include BusyBox all into the mix. Also, if you would download Root Checker by Joey Krim in the Play store. Just to confirm and we know you are missing root click the verify should indicate the appropriate SU's are red and not engaged, slide to the right verify BusyBox, chances are it is green, if so you are in good condition. With Busybox in green, exit go into SuperUser and update the binaries, once that is completed go into SuperSU and click the update. Go back to Root Checker and double check, click verify root on SuperUser/SuperSU and should be green = rooted. :good:

Root is red.... and so is busybox (however it is installed by default on my marketplace apps...) So if I understand correctly, I'm f***ed (at least, until a JB exploit is found, or I decide to void my warranty and unlock the bootloader, which I'm probably not going to do for now...)

CoinCoin88 said:
Root is red.... and so is busybox (however it is installed by default on my marketplace apps...) So if I understand correctly, I'm f***ed (at least, until a JB exploit is found, or I decide to void my warranty and unlock the bootloader, which I'm probably not going to do for now...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the color is Red all around then yes, there is little you can do. However, there are ways to get out of this and gain root without waiting even if they have Jelly Bean 4.1.1. For instance those on JB that own the XT926 can use the Droid Razr HD Utility 1.10 > go back to ICS 4.0.4 > apply the 1st update > Root > Voodoo OTA, SU Backup > apply the JB 4.1.1 update. I have done this twice and have been quite successful on my XT926 with Verizon.
But, in general going back to the discussion. If after the update the Supers are not showing, as long as Busy Box is Green and in place, Root can be restored by updating the binaries.

If your RSD/Flash you device root is gone.
The flashing completely formats and wipes the area for system.
Either you have to root JB, from what I understand you can.
Of back to ICS, root, Voodoo install, protect, then upgrade to JB.

tech_head said:
If your RSD/Flash you device root is gone.
The flashing completely formats and wipes the area for system.
Either you have to root JB, from what I understand you can.
Of back to ICS, root, Voodoo install, protect, then upgrade to JB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't found anything about that... however I might have missed something. Do you have any link to explain how ?
Regarding the flashing via RSD, that is what I thought, but was unsure. Coming from the GS2, the equivalent software is Odin, and wiping doesn't necessarily occurs (depends on build.prop content), so I had a *little* hope.
@KachowPow: indeed, Matt's Razr HD Utility for XT926 is known to work on the XT925 too... however it requires an unlocked bootloader. I *could* unlock mine since Motorola provides the code for XT925 too, however I'm not too found of voiding my warranty right now because of the whole "universe against me" thing ...
I'll probably wait for a proper JB exploit then. For now, root was important to *try* to restore contacts data from my old TB backup of my Galaxy S2 (I wanted to do a "dirty" restore of the co,tacts, hoping that even if it's not the same phone/apk/databases they would at least appear on the phone and be able to sync to Gmail from there.... And then I would have wiped to factory default and restored from Gmail). But I've managed to mess around with the contacts2.db from my GS2 and created a CSV with first name/last name/phone number(s). So for now I'm good and don't actually need root anymore. Yeah, that was a "just talking about my life" moment, so what ? )

CoinCoin88 said:
I haven't found anything about that... however I might have missed something. Do you have any link to explain how ?
Regarding the flashing via RSD, that is what I thought, but was unsure. Coming from the GS2, the equivalent software is Odin, and wiping doesn't necessarily occurs (depends on build.prop content), so I had a *little* hope.
@KachowPow: indeed, Matt's Razr HD Utility for XT926 is known to work on the XT925 too... however it requires an unlocked bootloader. I *could* unlock mine since Motorola provides the code for XT925 too, however I'm not too found of voiding my warranty right now because of the whole "universe against me" thing ...
I'll probably wait for a proper JB exploit then. For now, root was important to *try* to restore contacts data from my old TB backup of my Galaxy S2 (I wanted to do a "dirty" restore of the co,tacts, hoping that even if it's not the same phone/apk/databases they would at least appear on the phone and be able to sync to Gmail from there.... And then I would have wiped to factory default and restored from Gmail). But I've managed to mess around with the contacts2.db from my GS2 and created a CSV with first name/last name/phone number(s). So for now I'm good and don't actually need root anymore. Yeah, that was a "just talking about my life" moment, so what ? )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what carrier you are on but if you flashed to JB, then just find the xml and flash to ICS, then you root.
I used Voodoo to preserve root my device.
I'm pretty sure there *IS* a JB root in the last day or so.
You will need to search since I don't know for sure.

tech_head said:
Not sure what carrier you are on but if you flashed to JB, then just find the xml and flash to ICS, then you root.
I used Voodoo to preserve root my device.
I'm pretty sure there *IS* a JB root in the last day or so.
You will need to search since I don't know for sure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
edit the XML ?? I'm new to RSD lite, but from what I've understood so far, edit the xml is only neededn when flashing via RSDLite/fastboot so that you don't end-up with the "unknown fastboot command" or something like that (by removing 2 lines in the fw xml file, indeed).
How is this related to going back from JB to ICS ? I'm not sure that's possible with a locked bootloader (which I'm probably not going to unlock). Also, how is my carrier related to this operation ? (the phone was SFR simlocked, but I bought an unlock code online and I'm no using it on Free Mobile)
Or did I miss something ? (btw, no mention of a JB root for the Razr HD, only for the Razr M, and it is assumed it won't work on HD because for reasons I am yet to find)

Buying a rooted htc one x?

the seller stated that the following "this phone is rooted (with stock rom) and has the "Team Win" custom recovery for those of you who like to flash custom roms, kernels, apps, whatever (if you don't know what either of ths mean, don't worry about it)... "
I have not rooted an htc one x because I'm afraid of losing some of the functions the stock rom has, So my question to you guys is, Can I restore this back to stock rom? I'm confused when he said he rooted it with stock rom.. and what is team win custom recovery? If I just wanted to restore the htc one x to its original factory state is that possible?

Its possible but the warranty on the phone is void as the bootloader is surely unlocked and will show relocked if you restore it. And restoring it could prove to be somewhat of a task as you'll need to determine the ruu for that phone.. What carrier did he purchase the phone from? There's a chance the Cid of the phone has been changed so you may have to change the Cid back before running an ruu. The rom he has loaded is probably the stock rom with root so I don't see any reason for it to run any differently.
Sent from my One X using xda app-developers app

what @exad said, plus there are a number of rooted stock roms available that are, well, stock, so I wouldn't worry too much about losing any features.
'Team Win custom recovery' is just a recovery 'program' you can use to flash custom roms and enhancements.

exad said:
Its possible but the warranty on the phone is void as the bootloader is surely unlocked and will show relocked if you restore it. And restoring it could prove to be somewhat of a task as you'll need to determine the ruu for that phone.. What carrier did he purchase the phone from? There's a chance the Cid of the phone has been changed so you may have to change the Cid back before running an ruu. The rom he has loaded is probably the stock rom with root so I don't see any reason for it to run any differently.
Sent from my One X using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought if you purchase the phone from someone else the warranty is automatically void hence you're not the original owner. He purchased it from at&t, and as for the rooting, if it is indeed rooted with stock rom and no functions of the stock rom are lost,What's the purpose of stock rom with root? I thought the whole point of rooting your phone was so you get custom roms, but than again I'm no expert
here are his exact words
"Excellent condition ATT smartphone. I only used this phone for about a month and bought it brand new. Had a ballistics case on it since day 1 and the screens condition is flawless. Switched carries recently and of course need the money for a new phone. Also, this phone is rooted (with stock rom) and has the "Team Win" custom recovery for those of you who like to flash custom roms, kernels, apps, whatever (if you don't know what either of ths mean, don't worry about it)... "

Having root allows you to make changes to the system partition. Basically you can have the stock Rom but get rid of all the bloat and extra apps that AT&T includes which would otherwise be permanent
Sent from my VENOMized HoxL

thorishere113 said:
I have not rooted an htc one x because I'm afraid of losing some of the functions the stock rom has,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What functions? Root is only a change in permissions. It gives you access to the system files, that are normally not accessible. Root doesn't take away any functions.
Only exceptions, is that you sometimes can't get OTA firmware updates if you are rooted. Or installing them may result in the phone not booting properly. For most folks on here, this isn't a factor, since people what mod their phones and install custom ROMs typically don't want the OTAs anyway. Also, I think movies purchased from the Play store might not work if you are rooted. But I never buy/watch those, so I might not have the latest info there.
Now in your case, if you want to keep the phone bone stock, and still get OTA updates, you might just look for another purchase. Yes, the phone can be returned to near stock condition. But it requires you learning some things you don't already know:
- Download and install fastboot files
- Install HTC drivers or HTC sync (if not already installed)
- Use fastboot to relock the bootloader
- Download and run the appropriate RUU (ROM Update Utility) which will return your phone to near stock condition
If you are willing and interested in learning a few things about how the phone works, then it might still be a good purchase. Otherwise, if you just want to get a stock phone, and not have to mess with it, you might just look at buying elsewhere. There should be plenty of other decent options for unrooted One X phones.
Also note that I say the phone can be restored to "near" stock. The bootloader will only say RELOCKED, instead of LOCKED. Once the bootloader is unlocked, it can't be changed back to LOCKED, only RELOCKED. And this may have warranty implications.

Need a little guidance

Hey everyone. I was wondering if some here with a HTC One can point me in the right direction. I am looking to finally take the plunge and permanently root, flash a custom recovery, backup my stock, and install a new custom rom on my Verizon M8.
This is my first HTC device playing with, I have always had Motorola stuff and am pretty familiar with the process on those, but this HTC stuff is still a little blurry. S-on/off, CID, MID, RUUs????
I have been reading these forums for quite a bit and still a little unsure about what the steps would have to be. I am currently on the latest stock VZW temp rooted with the new weeksauce basically just to have tethering via a 3rd party app (Wifi tether router). I actually really, really like the stock Sense 6.0 UI and this phone is pretty much perfect all around.
What I want to do is, permanently root, install TWRP as that's what i've used on Moto and my Sammy Tab, backup my stock system so I can go back, and then install a custom ROM. Can TWRP on this do more than one ROM slot and run dual roms? What if everything gets jacked up and I have to go back to complete out of the box stock? How is that done with HTC? I think with Moto it was like an .FXZ file or something like that and you boot the phone into download mode and just flash that file from the computer and you're back to 100% stock. Same with Samsung using ODIN.
I'm also not sure what ROM I want to try, so I am open to suggestions there too. I would like to maybe try a pretty clean Lollipop ROM with good battery life and very stable. Would that be the GPE?
Thanks for reading and for any help.

baune7 said:
Hey everyone. I was wondering if some here with a HTC One can point me in the right direction. I am looking to finally take the plunge and permanently root, flash a custom recovery, backup my stock, and install a new custom rom on my Verizon M8.
This is my first HTC device playing with, I have always had Motorola stuff and am pretty familiar with the process on those, but this HTC stuff is still a little blurry. S-on/off, CID, MID, RUUs????
I have been reading these forums for quite a bit and still a little unsure about what the steps would have to be. I am currently on the latest stock VZW temp rooted with the new weeksauce basically just to have tethering via a 3rd party app (Wifi tether router). I actually really, really like the stock Sense 6.0 UI and this phone is pretty much perfect all around.
What I want to do is, permanently root, install TWRP as that's what i've used on Moto and my Sammy Tab, backup my stock system so I can go back, and then install a custom ROM. Can TWRP on this do more than one ROM slot and run dual roms? What if everything gets jacked up and I have to go back to complete out of the box stock? How is that done with HTC? I think with Moto it was like an .FXZ file or something like that and you boot the phone into download mode and just flash that file from the computer and you're back to 100% stock. Same with Samsung using ODIN.
I'm also not sure what ROM I want to try, so I am open to suggestions there too. I would like to maybe try a pretty clean Lollipop ROM with good battery life and very stable. Would that be the GPE?
Thanks for reading and for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First you need s-off/unlocked boot loader to perma root..also there is multi ROM support for this device. An if you want to return to pure stock cause something got messed up then you download the ruu an use fast boot via pc to flash your ruu.zip it will wipe your whole phone an return you to out of the box. if your looking for a sense Lollipop from. Santod has a nice ROM an you can also check out the ROM by andybones is also runs very nice an has themes an mod support. If you like GPE then there is one of those also for our device.

Thanks for the info. So in my reading up on doing this, is the "firewater" method of achieving S-off and root no longer working on this phone with 4.4.4? And also, as I understand it, the Sunshine method of achieving the two may or may not work on 4.4.4 either, kind of a 50/50 shot??? So I guess at this time it might just be worth it to wait until either the new sunshine is released or Verizon pushed the 5.0 update out and see what that is like.

baune7 said:
Thanks for the info. So in my reading up on doing this, is the "firewater" method of achieving S-off and root no longer working on this phone with 4.4.4? And also, as I understand it, the Sunshine method of achieving the two may or may not work on 4.4.4 either, kind of a 50/50 shot??? So I guess at this time it might just be worth it to wait until either the new sunshine is released or Verizon pushed the 5.0 update out and see what that is like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firewater is dead....sunshine might work you can download the app for free an run it to see if it will work with your device is free too. Then if you want to run sunshine that's when you pay the 25...so I would advice against taking anymore ota till you r able to s-off.

Is being rooted going to be a problem when taking the OTA Lollipop update?

I'm asking for my girlfriend. I have the T-Mobile variant with a custom recovery and I know not to take an OTA because custom recoveries and OTAs don't mix. She, however, has an AT&T variant and she just told me she was prompted to update to Lollipop. She rooted long ago with whatever root for AT&T app was popular at the time.
Doesn't taking an OTA just make you lose root? Nothing else to worry about?

I would not recommend due to the chance it could boot loop. I would wait for a OTA zip and flash through TWRP.

If she is rooted it will break root, If she has a custom recovery (twrp) than it will cause a boot loop.
advice: if she wants lollipop she's gonna have to follow these steps.
http://www.androidrootz.com/2014/07/how-to-unroot-lg-g3-all-variants.html

Going to pass the link on to her now.
There is no custom recovery. She used Stump Root originally to get her phone route, if that makes any difference.

martinezma99 said:
I would not recommend due to the chance it could boot loop. I would wait for a OTA zip and flash through TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there an ota zip available for the D850. I froze software updates in titanium backup so I won't loose root.

SGE_DEW said:
Is there an ota zip available for the D850. I froze software updates in titanium backup so I won't loose root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You would still lose root
2SHAYNEZ

Yep.. I went through the whole process of going completely back to stock and then rooted before updating to Lollipop hoping it would stay. It didn't and Stump Root says it's already rooted.

Thanks for this cool tool and method. The LGFlashtool gets up the 'Change to download mode' step adn then fails, with a '[16:10:26] can't change to download mode 00000064' error in the box. Any help would be appreciated. In the meantime I'll try another usb port. Also, when I first ran the Flashtool I had to select from three choices: the default checked off one had the word Korea in it, the second had Brazil and the third had the word Global. I left in on Korea--you think I should have gone with global?
Thanks again, Xamadiex.

Rayvin56 said:
Thanks for this cool tool and method. The LGFlashtool gets up the 'Change to download mode' step adn then fails, with a '[16:10:26] can't change to download mode 00000064' error in the box. Any help would be appreciated. In the meantime I'll try another usb port. Also, when I first ran the Flashtool I had to select from three choices: the default checked off one had the word Korea in it, the second had Brazil and the third had the word Global. I left in on Korea--you think I should have gone with global?
Thanks again, Xamadiex.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read somewhere the LG Flashtool had to be modified at installation to avoid what you are going through.

You're right, it's just a matter of overwriting the megalock.dll file after you install the tool. It was a step I didn't miss. But good news for me, I used another pc and when I installed the flashtool it again gave me the three choices (not sure, but the title bar of the window was something like 'DMB').
This time I chose the 'global' selection and ran the tool as before and it completed for me. I'm currently DL'ing the lollipop update right now. Thanks for the quick reply, netomel.

partylikeaninjastar said:
I'm asking for my girlfriend. I have the T-Mobile variant with a custom recovery and I know not to take an OTA because custom recoveries and OTAs don't mix. She, however, has an AT&T variant and she just told me she was prompted to update to Lollipop. She rooted long ago with whatever root for AT&T app was popular at the time.
Doesn't taking an OTA just make you lose root? Nothing else to worry about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just received my G3 for AT&T yesterday. It had 4.4.2 firmware on it. I rooted and installed titanium backup and froze all of the AT&T bloatware. Got notification last night that I had a system update available so I went ahead and let it update thinking it would be 4.4.4 but I was wrong. End result, I wound up with a perfectly functional Lollipop with all bloatware removed, but did lose root in the process. I can live with that until someone figures root for lollipop out I think.

hitekredneck said:
I just received my G3 for AT&T yesterday. It had 4.4.2 firmware on it. I rooted and installed titanium backup and froze all of the AT&T bloatware. Got notification last night that I had a system update available so I went ahead and let it update thinking it would be 4.4.4 but I was wrong. End result, I wound up with a perfectly functional Lollipop with all bloatware removed, but did lose root in the process. I can live with that until someone figures root for lollipop out I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it installed on your rooted G3? It wouldn't on mine - kept saying rooted device detected or something like that and then refuse to update. That's just fine because i have to have root so I was planning to wait anyway...

p0k3y said:
So it installed on your rooted G3? It wouldn't on mine - kept saying rooted device detected or something like that and then refuse to update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1

p0k3y said:
So it installed on your rooted G3? It wouldn't on mine - kept saying rooted device detected or something like that and then refuse to update. That's just fine because i have to have root so I was planning to wait anyway...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it installed with no problems at all. And I must say that I am loving it. So glad that I froze all of those at&t apps before I lost root. I am looking forward to root for lollipop so that I can freeze a few more. I must say that this is the best stock android rom that I have ever had the pleasure of using. I will probably stick with it for quite some time because of the speed and excellent battery life.

Lolipop upgrade
Hi iam very new on this forum . I got LGg3 AT&t version D85010f and i cannot upgrade to LOLIPOP always i have com that i have latest soft and need to wait 48h to next check ......plz help me

hitekredneck said:
Yes, it installed with no problems at all. And I must say that I am loving it. So glad that I froze all of those at&t apps before I lost root. I am looking forward to root for lollipop so that I can freeze a few more. I must say that this is the best stock android rom that I have ever had the pleasure of using. I will probably stick with it for quite some time because of the speed and excellent battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I call bull****. Lolipop OTA will NOT install on a rooted device. Humor me, what root method did you use?

Vess69 said:
I call bull****. Lolipop OTA will NOT install on a rooted device. Humor me, what root method did you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Call Bull**** all you want, I don't lie. To be honest, I can't even remember what method I used to root when on KitKat. Then I used TiBu to freeze a bunch of apps that I didn't want or need. Shortly thereafter the update hit me so I went ahead and let it do its thing. As stated, I did lose root afterwards but the apps I had frozen with TiBu remained frozen and everything still worked as it should. I waited patiently for a few weeks until the one click root script became available and used it to root lollipop, then installed TWRP and flashed Cloudy G3 stock ROM which is where I am happily at at this moment.
It could possibly have successfully updated due to the fact that I had not installed a custom recovery, that's the only thing I can think of that would have allowed it to happen on mine, yet not on others that were rooted.
EDIT: After reading back through this thread it jogged my memory. I used the Stump Root method to root while on KitKat.

You'd be the first person reported to be able to do this.
It would be a boon to the AT&T G3 community if you could remember the precise details of how you pulled this off as it would save loads of time and hassle for everyone else who has to restore to KK (which means a full wipe), then take the OTA to L, then root there.
Thanks in advance.
*edit
I think you're L is version 20f, not the latest 21l, based on the date of your posts above.
Further, I'd suppose that what may have happened to you, is that the deivce had already downloaded the L update (from 10f to 20f) before you pulled off the root on KitKat. Then you simply acknowledged the install, which perhaps KK would allow to continue through.
Reports are the L will not allow this. So, going forward, someone rooted on L would not be allowed to complete the install even if the package is already downloaded on the device.
Still, it is, interesting.