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Why upgrade to 4.4.4?

I'm currently on rooted 4.4 (19.5.3), and I'm debating whether to flash to 4.4.4 or wait till Android L is released. I'm still on locked bootloader and I'm not in a hurry to unlock it via Sunshine if I'm staying with 4.4. Sunshine is great BTW, unlocked the wife's Moto X with it. But even with her phone, I kept it on 4.4.2 to stay on the older bootloader because the way I understand it, once you upgrade to 4.4.4, you will not be able to downgrade to anything lower. So, my logic is, keep it on 4.4, locked, until the landscape is clear unless there are real compelling reasons to unlock and upgrade now. So that is the question, are there any advantages to upgrading other than security and other small improvements? I've flashed the 4.4.4 radios and it didn't improve my reception at all, if anything, it made it worse! It switches to 3G at the house a lot where it used to stay at 4G but I don't care since I'm on wifi. The only thing I really want is the KK dialer which 4.4.4 does not have. I've also switched to the AOSP email apks which I love. Other little interface changes were applied with GravityBox and other Xposed modules. I'm pretty happy where the phone is, what are you guys' thoughts?

Here is the change log you should weight against; https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/100660
I know the bluetooth issue was enough for me to upgrade, finally fixed that issue. Not sure but don't you have to upgrade to this version before upgrading to the next version, if it is L or not?

Thanks for that link. What was the Bluetooth issue in your case? I've Bluetooth'd to my cars just fine. I don't know if 4.4.4 is an prerequisite for Android L, but I've read that it has a new boot loader that can't be downgraded. So if I felt like trying a JB ROM capable of overclocking, I'm out of luck. Not that I would go that route, I really like KK. Just wished it was closer to stock like the Moto X. Which as Topsnake pointed out is a good reason to unlock boot loader to flash his ROM. LOL. I think the bottom line is, I want to wait so I don't close off doors like the guys that upgraded to 4.4.4 before Sunshine came out did.

Johnny Wong said:
Thanks for that link. What was the Bluetooth issue in your case? I've Bluetooth'd to my cars just fine. I don't know if 4.4.4 is an prerequisite for Android L, but I've read that it has a new boot loader that can't be downgraded. So if I felt like trying a JB ROM capable of overclocking, I'm out of luck. Not that I would go that route, I really like KK. Just wished it was closer to stock like the Moto X. Which as Topsnake pointed out is a good reason to unlock boot loader to flash his ROM. LOL. I think the bottom line is, I want to wait so I don't close off doors like the guys that upgraded to 4.4.4 before Sunshine came out did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well if you unlock your guaranteed root regardless of any updates

IMHO, I would just hang off updating to 4.4.4. Here's why:
1. If you change your mind, you can unlock the bootloader and that is rarely a negative thing.
2. You can root your phone and flash custom recoveries. Having root permissions gives you unbelievable control and customization. Custom recoveries will definitely save you some unnecessary grief in case you make a mistake. It's very hard to brick your phone with a good recovery like TWRP or CWM.
3. You can flash Android L based ROMS which I'm sure will be coming out soon. ASOP, AOKP and stock unbloated ROMS give your phone a brand new life and a bit more battery life.

You can just unlock your phone's BL and stay in 4.4, just like now...

Johnny Wong said:
Thanks for that link. What was the Bluetooth issue in your case? I've Bluetooth'd to my cars just fine. I don't know if 4.4.4 is an prerequisite for Android L, but I've read that it has a new boot loader that can't be downgraded. So if I felt like trying a JB ROM capable of overclocking, I'm out of luck. Not that I would go that route, I really like KK. Just wished it was closer to stock like the Moto X. Which as Topsnake pointed out is a good reason to unlock boot loader to flash his ROM. LOL. I think the bottom line is, I want to wait so I don't close off doors like the guys that upgraded to 4.4.4 before Sunshine came out did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you are correct, once you move to 4.4.4 you cannot go back due to the new boot-loader not being backwards compatible. My Bluetooth issues were with any Bluetooth device it would constantly blip randomly via my car or anything connected via Bluetooth. Moto pushes out the updates to devices in order (i.e. you have to go from 4.2 to 4.4 to 4.4.4 to L), but if you obtain the update files manually you may be able to skip 4.4.4 and go straight to the next one (if that even is L or not), but that is a big maybe.

Migrating from one M8 to another - sanity check

Sup guys,
I've rooted every phone I've had, but I do it so infrequently that I always have to refresh my memory with it. Current situation is that I have a rooted M8 running mostly stock 4.4.4 ROM, but with a bunch of Xposed mods and a few system tweaks - it's dialed in just the way I want it, but the screen is separating so I've got my hands on another M8 running 4.4.2. I basically want to get the 4.4.2 M8 to the state of my 4.4.4 device. I've already made a complete backup ROM from the 4.4.4 phone and I want to restore that ROM to the 4.4.2 device. With the 4.4.2 device, I plan to:
S-Off (Try Firewater. May or may not work. If doesn't work, try Sunshine)
Install recovery - CWM or TWRP
Flash Super SU
Update firmware from 4.4.2 to 4.4.4 from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=52017763&postcount=2
Flash my complete backup ROM from my current device
Sanity check? Am I missing anything here? When I rooted my current M8 (4.4.2), weaksauce actually worked, and I flashed CWM recovery and Super SU by placing them on the SD card. That is what I plan to do again since that was so easy. Recommendations?
Cheers guys!

j006 said:
Sup guys,
I've rooted every phone I've had, but I do it so infrequently that I always have to refresh my memory with it. Current situation is that I have a rooted M8 running mostly stock 4.4.4 ROM, but with a bunch of Xposed mods and a few system tweaks - it's dialed in just the way I want it, but the screen is separating so I've got my hands on another M8 running 4.4.2. I basically want to get the 4.4.2 M8 to the state of my 4.4.4 device. I've already made a complete backup ROM from the 4.4.4 phone and I want to restore that ROM to the 4.4.2 device. With the 4.4.2 device, I plan to:
S-Off (Try Firewater. May or may not work. If doesn't work, try Sunshine)
Install recovery - CWM or TWRP
Flash Super SU
Update firmware from 4.4.2 to 4.4.4 from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=52017763&postcount=2
Flash my complete backup ROM from my current device
Sanity check? Am I missing anything here? When I rooted my current M8 (4.4.2), weaksauce actually worked, and I flashed CWM recovery and Super SU by placing them on the SD card. That is what I plan to do again since that was so easy. Recommendations?
Cheers guys!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
firewater sever is taken down, even if you have an old version of it laying around it is useless.. you must pay for sunshine.
but other than that everything looks good.
you have your nandroid backup, on the new m8, s-off using sunshine, then update the firmware from 442 to 444, then flash custom recovery (TWRP is recommended), and then wipe and restore the nandroid and you should be good to go. :good:
(no need to flash supersu as the ROM you have backed up using nandroid is already rooted)

Many thanks! A couple of years ago when I did this I remember it being fairly straightforward. Do you personally find any real benefit in upgrading to one of the Lollipop ROMs this go 'round? Seems like it's more trouble than what you gain, though I may be uninformed of course..
Cheers!

j006 said:
Many thanks! A couple of years ago when I did this I remember it being fairly straightforward. Do you personally find any real benefit in upgrading to one of the Lollipop ROMs this go 'round? Seems like it's more trouble than what you gain, though I may be uninformed of course..
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find many benefits to LP over KK personally.
If you like a stock ROM we have stock based LP ROMs, and firmware.zip you can flash and you are up an running a stock LP ROM within 10 minutes. Sure you need to set things up, but most can be backed up and if you take some screen shots of everything it's pretty easy to get everything set up to your liking.
If you want some customization there are ROMs like mine, that come mostly stock with some benefits like root, busybox, etc, and then offer you a MOD Pack.
See ROM thread here
If you want to customize pretty much every aspect of the ROM you have Venom at your fingertips.
Venom ROM thread
There is the benefit of having all the security updates with the newest firmware.
We also have Marshmallow 6.0 ROMs out already that are rock solid.
A Google Play Edition ROM found here
And a Sense based ROM found here
You can also run some Sense 7 ROMs that are very stable, you can find one in my linked thread posted above, and in the Development area.
I personally would try things out, that's the great benefit of root/s-off/custom recovery/ROMs
You can always make a nandroid backup of your current ROM, and flash the older firmware to get right back where you left off.
Best of luck, enjoy your flashings

User modifications and OTA updates

My mate 7 is rooted and with custom recovery (TWRP) instaled. Due to these modifications I am not able to get OTA updates from Huawei.
In order to get access to them, again, do I have to unroot and instal stock recovery , or can I only instal stock recovery and keep phone rooted?
many thanks

You need to unroot and instal stock recovery.

I decided, seeing as so many mate7 owners are bricking their phone, I will leave mine with root and CWM on kitkat and it can't get an OTA that will spoil it.
If there were a decent recovery flashable ROM I'd have a current backup and try it, but there's nothing out there with full functionality so kitkat stays.
The phone works really well as is. The mods I've applied give good performance and function. Why try to reinvent it just to say I have a newer OS?

RobboW said:
I decided, seeing as so many mate7 owners are bricking their phone, I will leave mine with root and CWM on kitkat and it can't get an OTA that will spoil it.
If there were a decent recovery flashable ROM I'd have a current backup and try it, but there's nothing out there with full functionality so kitkat stays.
The phone works really well as is. The mods I've applied give good performance and function. Why try to reinvent it just to say I have a newer OS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What mods have you applied?
I'm running 5.1.1 on my gold model and found quite a significant performance boost. On KK I was experiencing choppy UI more often than not. The battery has slightly improved as well. Not that it's bad in any way running KK though...
I would kill to get a stock ROM (or a CM ROM) running on this phone, or even just Xposed. But alas, EMUI just won't budge.

Scruffykid said:
What mods have you applied?
I'm running 5.1.1 on my gold model and found quite a significant performance boost. On KK I was experiencing choppy UI more often than not. The battery has slightly improved as well. Not that it's bad in any way running KK though...
I would kill to get a stock ROM (or a CM ROM) running on this phone, or even just Xposed. But alas, EMUI just won't budge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On KK B130 I have unlocked bootloader, root, CWM recovery, de-bloated apps and launcher, installed Viper4Android, xperia keyboard and an old version of xposed withe some modules. It has other stuff too. Runs fast. No urgent need for a new ROM. Modded a lot to be really simple, lol. It is a pleasure to use.
For choppy UI, I enabled the setting to force GPU rendering in 2D applications. It's in developer options. You can also reduce or turn off animations.
I've installed a Kernel adjusting app too. Changed some settings, made the phone respond faster and read ahead performance increased. This made bluetooth streaming perform a lot better and it's just nice to use.
The stock governor settings keep the phone on the low speed cores as much as possible and this kills UI performance and makes UE disappointing. I also removed the Huawei launcher after installing Smart Launcher Pro.
I'm thinking of removing the OTA update app and permanently run B130 with no chance of updating it without use of CWM recovery to flash it.

Android 4.4 or greater ROM without root?

It seems like all custom roms include root. I'm trying to get around SafetyNet so I'd like to find one that doesn't. I currently have CyanogenMod 13 with virtual repartition version of TWRP. Are there ROMs like this? I'm currently reading through the development forum but most don't say one way or the other, probably because they include root.
If I can't find one, are there some that can be unrooted? I don't think CyanogenMod falls into this category. I can try to hide root if nothing else and have done a lot of reading on that using SUhide, Xposed, Root Switch but I think it would be a lot easier if there was a stock-ish kit kat or higher ROM I could use and unroot.
Thanks!

Depending on what you need to pass SafetyNet for, I'd say you are probably out of luck on the S2.
The last official ROM (from Samsung) for the Skyrocket was Jelly Bean (4.1.2), which is too old. Unfortunately, I don't know of any third-party ROM beyond that which doesn't come with root support pre-installed, and given the S2's curious bootloader configuration, it might not pass SafetyNet even if you could find one. Then, there is the minor fact that the S2 is old enough that it might be not be approved by Google even if you could get past all the other issues.
If you really need this, it might be time to consider an upgrade. However, if you do manage to get it to work, that would be a pretty cool find for this old phone.

Android 7.0 (Nougat) + XT1575 + Systeless Root = ??

When Android 7.0 ( Nougat ) is finally released for Motorola X Pure (2015) XT1575 ( Hopefully by the end of the year ), will SystemLess Root still work as is it does now for 6.0 or should we wait for someone to run it in a sandbox? Should we wait for the First Quarter of 2017 before we get anxious and upgrade to the newest Android, to give all of the developer time to perfect they're processes.
We all know now that it will be released as a STOCK image, but I have a lot of Root Apps (i.e. Titainium, Backup, Root Explorer, Xposed, Gravity Box for MM, etc) which I would still like to use. From what I can see of 7.0 it's not much different than 6.0 except for split screen and some other features that I'm sure we.re not aware of yet..

All I can say it It doesn't work on the G4... yet. I maintain a root thread on the G4, haven't found a viable way to root it on Nougat, all methods mess up data and a bunch of framework stuff (like settings menu). I assume the Nougat on this will be roughly the same. Don't worry, it will come though.
And Xposed isn't available for Nougat, it isn't known yet if it will be. Remember when Marshmallow came out they almost dropped Xposed completely, they were so close they had actually said they shutting down development of Xposed then had a unexpected breakthrough. The developers of Xposed have said that it will die in the hear future due to changes in Android.

Yeah, xPosed isn't something I would rely on moving forward. Right now AICP & CM are making great strides with N 7.1 and including Root so you can go that route and get the Root you desire. I'm on TurboROM which is still an MM base and will move to AICP N 7.1 once things settle in some more, but as of right now AICP is pretty darn nice as is. I've tested it every few days to see the progress, but for daily, revert to my most current backup of Turbo for now. AICP usually includes a LARGE amount of customizations. I go that route normally and remove all the AOSP stuff I can replace with Google APPs directly and use Moto Camera instead as well giving me a really clean and functional bug-free experience. GravityBox becomes mostly unnecessary with AICP or CM. Boy I'm rambling worse than normal today...
Back on track... Try out AICP with N 7.1 or wait for a Stock Rooted

Thank you for the reply, I wasn't sure if I should upgrade or not.
My pure has been running pretty good since I got it back in May of this year thru SWAPPA, and I have the latest security mod for May 1 (Build MPHS24.49-18-4), I wasn't sure if Lenovo would push another Security update for 6.0 (MM) or push 7.0 for the next update, and I didn't want to mess anything up..
I love this phone, and I'm not sure if and when I will upgrade, but I know it won't be MOTO/LENOVO anymore, unless they can unlock the bootloader for Pixel and gain root, I may lean that way...
NEVER, NEVER, Never will I go the way of the Apple, anything that comes from that place sucks, it's too restrictive..
DROID Forever !!!!!

CLETjB said:
Thank you for the reply, I wasn't sure if I should upgrade or not.
My pure has been running pretty good since I got it back in May of this year thru SWAPPA, and I have the latest security mod for May 1 (Build MPHS24.49-18-4), I wasn't sure if Lenovo would push another Security update for 6.0 (MM) or push 7.0 for the next update, and I didn't want to mess anything up..
I love this phone, and I'm not sure if and when I will upgrade, but I know it won't be MOTO/LENOVO anymore, unless they can unlock the bootloader for Pixel and gain root, I may lean that way...
NEVER, NEVER, Never will I go the way of the Apple, anything that comes from that place sucks, it's too restrictive..
DROID Forever !!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pixel bootloader is unlockable. Verizon Pixel has bootloader unlock tool from the Sunshine team free of charge. Also It is rootable via newest SuperSU beta I believe.

I have been unsuccessful at rooting stock nougat, it just gets stuck on the boot animation forever and the battery heats up.
So, has anyone rooted it on nougat 7.0 and how?
Every time I try it just gets stuck loading and since I can't logcat to it I have no idea where its failing, but fastboot flashing the system image and the boot image fixes it, but then I am stuck back at non-root.
I know there has to be a way as many others say they are rooted just fine so I must be missing something.
I have several apps that use root and do system tweaks that would be helpful, mostly battery saving, option enabling, etc... But I can't use any of them for now. I especially wanted to use the undervolt and system governers min max settings.

roadrun777 said:
I have been unsuccessful at rooting stock nougat, it just gets stuck on the boot animation forever and the battery heats up.
So, has anyone rooted it on nougat 7.0 and how?
Every time I try it just gets stuck loading and since I can't logcat to it I have no idea where its failing, but fastboot flashing the system image and the boot image fixes it, but then I am stuck back at non-root.
I know there has to be a way as many others say they are rooted just fine so I must be missing something.
I have several apps that use root and do system tweaks that would be helpful, mostly battery saving, option enabling, etc... But I can't use any of them for now. I especially wanted to use the undervolt and system governers min max settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, lots of people have rooted it... latest TWRP and Magisk, nothing special to do at all... Flash or boot TWRP and flash Magisk zip file, reboot and go.

Unlocked bootloader must have.
1st method:
Boot twrp - fastboot boot twrp3x.img
Do full backup,
Restore boot only,
In twrp install magisk14.zip, optionally wipe cache+dalvik, reboot.
2nd method
...the same steps,
Twrp terminal - type + ok:
echo SYSTEMLESS=true>>/data/.supersu
Install SuperSu2.82.zip, opt.wipe..., reboot.
Both method works.

I finally find magisk and it worked first time for me.
I tried SuperSU about 10 times in a row, systemless false, systemless true, etc, without it, and it always ended the same way boot loops.
So I am not sure that SuperSu2.82.zip is currently compatible with nougat, or at least with nougat + xt1565 hardware.

roadrun777 said:
...
So I am not sure that SuperSu2.82.zip is currently compatible with nougat, or at least with nougat + xt1565 hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wrote here(#8):
1st December 2017, 02:11 PM,
Here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x-style/general/stock-xt-1572-reteu-7-0-ddumped-files-t3712521
30. November, 2017...rooted 29.
SuSu 2.82 is compatible.

Magisk Framework comes with SuperUser built in.. so when you flash another superuser, you mixing Binaries and it doesn't know which one to use.