Hi all, made an account in anticipation of my night spent mucking around with my new Galaxy S4 i9507. I had been reading about people who have had success and some who have had less success with getting custom ROMs on their devices. None said what methods they used, so I decided to compile together what I did today.
UPDATE 3/6/14
I installed a snapshot of CM 11 (KitKat) onto my device with little issues. I'll update this guide with the links to that firmware, and also update the existing links because of changes CyanogenMod made to how they aggregate their S4 devices now. They are treating them all as derivatives of 'jftle', so basically one firmware fits all devices, including the i9507! (even if not official yet).
Please read the bottom of this post if you wish to install KitKat on your device.
CUSTOM FIRMWARE ON SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 i9507 - Aus/HK
Tonight I have managed to root the device's stock firmware (I have the Australian Optus/Virgin device); install ClockworkMod Recovery on the stock firmware, and then use it to install CyanogenMod 10.2.0 (jfltexx) on the device.
If you're looking to root this device, I found that by treating it essentially as an international i9505 I was able to fulfil all three of the things I mentioned above.
UPDATE: THIS WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY AND RESULT IN 'KNOX WARRANTY VOID 0x1' BEING DISPLAYED WHEN YOU ENTER DOWNLOAD MODE ON THE DEVICE. PLEASE BE SURE YOU ARE OKAY WITH THIS HAPPENING BEFORE TRYING THIS FOR YOURSELF. AS IT STANDS, KNOX CANNOT BE RESET, IT IS AT A HARDWARE LEVEL.
[ROOT i9507]
Using Chainfire's guide to CF-Auto-Root in the Galaxy S 4 i9505 Original Android Development section of this forum; I was able to root my device despite it being an i9507. Being a new user, I wasn't sure exactly what things to test out whether the root worked/was permanent, but I did install AdBlock Plus and it asked me for Superuser privileges, then proceeded to work. I also restarted the device and tested whether the root was still present; it was.
[INSTALL CLOCKWORKMOD]
I decided to install CyanogenMod as I have heard from friends that have it; and read online about it being one of the more stable custom ROMs available. It has been a while since I last owned an Android device! So, continuing with my theme of treating this device as being an international i9505, I obtained CM 10.2.0, a stable release of the jfltexx CM, based on from their website (as of December 2013, this was the most recent). Their custom installer app on Windows did not support my phone, so I had to use their guide for manual installation.
Their guide contained steps to installing ClockworkMod Recovery as well as the ROM installation. Following the guide, I installed it without a hitch. When rebooting the phone from ClockworkMod, it prompted me about the fact that the phone may reflash its own recovery tool, but this did not happen. Once again, a success.
[INSTALL CYANOGENMOD]
The last task was to install CM. This was quite an endeavour as I decided to use someone else's Windows 8 laptop (being the only Windows device I had access to at the time) and I forgot how much of a struggle it can be! Again, I used CM's guide to installing 10.2.0 (which by the way is Android 4.3.1, whereas the stock firmware is bloated and heavy at 4.2.2). This went off without a hitch once I reminded myself how the ADT works. I also did as CM suggested and installed the Google Apps pack alongside the ROM.
So, currently this is where I'm at. The device boots and reboots fine. Some users in certain threads had issues with loading 4.4 (KitKat) ROMs or custom ROMs that they didn't allude to the names of, so I don't know if they were having issues with CM or not. There are other threads, but that was the one that kickstarted my attempts to get this all to work. Their issues with the custom ROMs seemed to be related to the 4.4 ROM not recognising the modem of the i9507; I'm not sure why this is but the i9507 was made specifically for Australian/Hong Kong networks so perhaps 4.4 has not been updated yet or something of the like. Anyway, on 4.3.1, or CM 10.2.0, my SMS, calling, and internet are working fine (it displays Virgin Mobile as my carrier). My 4G reception is somewhat iffy in this town (or in particular my house), and the reception seems to be switching between 3G and H so whether that is indicative of 4G not working, I'm not sure. LTE is definitely checked in the settings, however, and my area does have 4G, but my parents' iPhone 5Ss sometimes do not have 4G in this house either. I'll report back tomorrow after having tested the phone for a day to see if the 4G does activate.
As it stands, however, the phone seems to be functioning well. Oddly the Settings report that the phone is an i9505, I assume that's normal as I'm using a ROM for that particular phone!
[CONCLUSION]
So, I hope that anyone who has been looking for a way to remove the carrier/Samsung bloat from their i9507 device will have a good time using the guides I've used. I followed them to the letter and I had no issues.
DISCLAIMER: I had no troubles, but that's not to say you won't either. Please be careful, as you may potentially risk affecting your phone negatively. I'm simply telling you what I did, not giving you a 100% correct and flawless guide that will work no matter what.
Also if you're looking for a 4.4 ROM then you might be out of luck, least till some dev or coder takes notice of this device's existence and helps out to develop a specific way of rooting this phone/installing custom ROMs for this phone. Overall though, it seems to all work fine so perhaps the 4.3.1 CM isn't such a bad thing.
If you try this and want the original firmware back on your phone, use this link. I believe that OPS is the Australian firmware, the other one is for Hong Kong. So, for the second link, HK is Hong Kong, and the one without is for Aus.
UPDATE 3/6/14
I've successfully managed to install a Nightly build of CM 11, based on KitKat. Read my latest post in this forum for more info. I essentially found that upgrading from within the phone itself caused a number of issues so I did a fresh flash. Please note that such a flash of a new OS wipes all personal data but not things like images, videos, etc. I lost all my contacts, SMS, browsing history, apps etc. But my Gallery, Downloads folder, etc remained intact.
I followed my guide to flashing the phone again, but I used a Nightly build of CM 11, based on KitKat. As I write this, there are actually stable versions of CM that you can use in place of the CM 10.2.0 I used in the above guide. If you follow those steps but use this firmware you'll find no issue. Feel free to use CM's guide, but don't, under any circumstances, forget to flash Google Apps to your phone!!!
If you need a hand or want a question answered, feel free to post here and I'll do my best to help you out. Thanks!
kaiserwatson said:
Hi all, made an account in anticipation of my night spent mucking around with my new Galaxy S4 i9507. I had been reading about people who have had success and some who have had less success with getting custom ROMs on their devices. None said what methods they used, so I decided to compile together what I did today.
Tonight I have managed to root the device's stock firmware (I have the Australian Optus/Virgin device); install ClockworkMod Recovery on the stock firmware, and then use it to install CyanogenMod 10.2.0 (jfltexx) on the device.
If you're looking to root this device, I found that by treating it essentially as an international i9505 I was able to fulfill all three of the things I mentioned above.
[ROOT i9507]
Using Chainfire's guide to CF-Auto-Root in the Galaxy S 4 i9505 Original Android Development section of this forum; I was able to root my device despite it being an i9507. Being a new user, I wasn't sure exactly what things to test out whether the root worked/was permanent, but I did install AdBlock Plus and it asked me for Superuser privileges, then proceeded to work. I also restarted the device and tested whether the root was still present; it was.
[INSTALL CLOCKWORKMOD]
I decided to install CyanogenMod as I have heard from friends that have it; and read online about it being one of the more stable custom ROMs available. It has been a while since I last owned an Android device! So, continuing with my theme of treating this device as being an international i9505, I obtained the latest stable release of the jfltexx CM from their website (it was the most recent stable release at the time, may be out of date by the time you get to doing this yourself). Their custom installer app on Windows did not support my phone, so I had to use their guide for manual installation.
Their guide contained steps to installing ClockworkMod Recovery as well as the ROM installation. Following the guide, I installed it without a hitch. When rebooting the phone from ClockworkMod, it prompted me about the fact that the phone may reflash its own recovery tool, but this did not happen. Once again, a success.
[INSTALL CYANOGENMOD]
The last task was to install CM. This was quite an endeavour as I decided to use someone else's Windows 8 laptop (being the only Windows device I had access to at the time) and I forgot how much of a struggle it can be! Again, I used CM's guide to installing 10.2.0 (which by the way is Android 4.3.1, whereas the stock firmware is bloated and heavy at 4.2.2). This went off without a hitch once I reminded myself how the ADT works. I also did as CM suggested and installed the Google Apps pack alongside the ROM.
So, currently this is where I'm at. The device boots and reboots fine. Some users in certain threads had issues with loading 4.4 (KitKat) ROMs or custom ROMs that they didn't allude to the names of, so I don't know if they were having issues with CM or not. There are other threads, but that was the one that kickstarted my attempts to get this all to work. Their issues with the custom ROMs seemed to be related to the 4.4 ROM not recognising the modem of the i9507; I'm not sure why this is but the i9507 was made specifically for Australian/Hong Kong networks so perhaps 4.4 has not been updated yet or something of the like. Anyway, on 4.3.1, or CM 10.2.0, my SMS, calling, and internet are working fine (it displays Virgin Mobile as my carrier). My 4G reception is somewhat iffy in this town (or in particular my house), and the reception seems to be switching between 3G and H so whether that is indicative of 4G not working, I'm not sure. LTE is definitely checked in the settings, however, and my area does have 4G, but my parents' iPhone 5Ss sometimes do not have 4G in this house either. I'll report back tomorrow after having tested the phone for a day to see if the 4G does activate.
As it stands, however, the phone seems to be functioning well. Oddly the Settings report that the phone is an i9505, I assume that's normal as I'm using a ROM for that particular phone!
[CONCLUSION]
So, I hope that anyone who has been looking for a way to remove the carrier/Samsung bloat from their i9507 device will have a good time using the guides I've used. I followed them to the letter and I had no issues.
DISCLAIMER: I had no troubles, but that's not to say you won't either. Please be careful, as you may potentially risk affecting your phone negatively. I'm simply telling you what I did, not giving you a 100% correct and flawless guide that will work no matter what.
Also if you're looking for a 4.4 ROM then you might be out of luck, least till some dev or coder takes notice of this device's existence and helps out to develop a specific way of rooting this phone/installing custom ROMs for this phone. Overall though, it seems to all work fine so perhaps the 4.3.1 CM isn't such a bad thing.
If you try this and want the original firmware back on your phone, use this link or this one. I believe that OPS is the Australian firmware, the other one is for Hong Kong. So, for the second link, HK is Hong Kong, and the one without is for Aus.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I'll post later tomorrow when I've tested the phone for a day to see if it's still working, and to see if the 4G/LTE does actually work. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong in the meantime!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had my i-9507 rooted for about a month now with foxhound rom, also on the optus variant.
One thing i've noted is, its next to impossible to update the MODEM for it.
I think because our latest modem for this variant is the one we have stock. And new updates haven't been put in terms of modem specifically for our variant yet.
We should keep this thread stickied for Australian OPTUS GT-i9507 discussion.
OR open up a sub forum for it.
kaiserwatson said:
I'll post later tomorrow when I've tested the phone for a day to see if it's still working, and to see if the 4G/LTE does actually work. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong in the meantime!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly, thank you for creating this complete description of your experiences with customising the i9507.
Secondly, just wanted confirmation that you do now have the pesky "KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 0x1" displayed when your device is in Download mode, right?
Lastly, any updates, issues? All still working, including 4G/LTE?
Hey sorry its been more than a day, I've been swamped with work, that Christmas time feel.
I do have the Knox 0x1, which I assume means my warranty is void. There's conjecture as to whether that will actually affect warranty for this device in Australia, as I've read up on the Knox system but i think the ACCC would have serious issues with this system actually affecting the warranty. But yes, it would seem my warranty is void, let's hope the phone lasts two years!
I have been able to access 4G, the phone says 4G or LTE, sometimes switching between the two. Again, the reception in the town I'm currently staying in is pisspoor so I can't say for certain whether the antenna/modem is fully functioning to the degree it would be on the stock firmware, but I can definitely access the Optus 4G network.
One issue I did have was that I sent an SMS then immediately turned my screen off, 40 minutes later the message was still 'sending'. I have recreated the same scenario but I haven't been able to get it to happen again, perhaps just a weird tower-side quirk. I know people were having issues with the modem and the phone sleeping but this doesn't seem to be related. Overall I'm really happy with how this has all gone. My battery life has been increased by at least 40% and the phone is so much faster. Very pleased.
kaiserwatson said:
Hey sorry its been more than a day, I've been swamped with work, that Christmas time feel.
I do have the Knox 0x1, which I assume means my warranty is void. There's conjecture as to whether that will actually affect warranty for this device in Australia, as I've read up on the Knox system but i think the ACCC would have serious issues with this system actually affecting the warranty. But yes, it would seem my warranty is void, let's hope the phone lasts two years!
I have been able to access 4G, the phone says 4G or LTE, sometimes switching between the two. Again, the reception in the town I'm currently staying in is pisspoor so I can't say for certain whether the antenna/modem is fully functioning to the degree it would be on the stock firmware, but I can definitely access the Optus 4G network.
One issue I did have was that I sent an SMS then immediately turned my screen off, 40 minutes later the message was still 'sending'. I have recreated the same scenario but I haven't been able to get it to happen again, perhaps just a weird tower-side quirk. I know people were having issues with the modem and the phone sleeping but this doesn't seem to be related. Overall I'm really happy with how this has all gone. My battery life has been increased by at least 40% and the phone is so much faster. Very pleased.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That occurs because the modem signal cuts out after you switch your phone off, or lock it.
This issue can be resolved by updating our modems, but with our current variant we can't update it yet apparently, until the correct new modem for our specific variant has been released.
Hi guys,
I thought I would also post here.
I have the optus 9507 and I tried a couple of different kitkat 4.4 roms. They all worked perfectly except for the fact that they lost data completely as soon as the phone went to sleep. the weird thing is, the phone showed 0 bars but i could take calls just fine, just had data issues.
i tried the slimkat rom and the echoe rom with the same issue
i went back to stock firmware, rooted, ran a debloat script i found on xda, removed a bunch more apps, then unrooted again because i need to run good for enterprise for work.
im getting decent battery life with the debloated stock rom but i would like to move to 4.4 if theres a rom that works. ive been watching the optus and sammobile site hoping there will be a newer modem for the hk version because i think optus will take their time releasing 4.3 for this model.
kaiserwatson said:
Hi all, made an account in anticipation of my night spent mucking around with my new Galaxy S4 i9507. I had been reading about people who have had success and some who have had less success with getting custom ROMs on their devices. None said what methods they used, so I decided to compile together what I did today.
Tonight I have managed to root the device's stock firmware (I have the Australian Optus/Virgin device); install ClockworkMod Recovery on the stock firmware, and then use it to install CyanogenMod 10.2.0 (jfltexx) on the device.
......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your experience sharing,
I also started with Cyanogen and shared about the same experience.
Just didn't know the Knox thing before I started.. should had read up more before doing it.
So you did the Recovery with Heimdall also? What has made you switch to the customized Rom camp
kaiserwatson said:
Hey sorry its been more than a day, I've been swamped with work, that Christmas time feel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, no worries at all, anyone who works weekends can take all the time they need...
But yes, it would seem my warranty is void, let's hope the phone lasts two years!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I've done some reading also and you're right, it seems to be all conjecture, I really doubt handset warranty refusal can be based on the KNOX Warranty chip. I think the Samsung Enterprise Security Group VP explains it well here.
Overall I'm really happy with how this has all gone. My battery life has been increased by at least 40% and the phone is so much faster. Very pleased.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great to hear, based on this I can ge ahead and 'burn out' my eFuse, happy in the knowledge that my Knox warranty has gone to a good cause. :fingers-crossed:
---------- Post added at 08:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:40 PM ----------
opelcalibra said:
then unrooted again because i need to run good for enterprise for work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can only assume your "enterprise for work" has nothing to do with KNOX, right? Coz that option would be closed for you now...
CuriosityBrah said:
That occurs because the modem signal cuts out after you switch your phone off, or lock it.
This issue can be resolved by updating our modems, but with our current variant we can't update it yet apparently, until the correct new modem for our specific variant has been released.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That odd message not sending was the only issue I've had with this sort of thing; I can still download things, receive messages and calls just fine while my phone is sleeping, how do you know if the modem signal is cutting off? Perhaps it's just a selective thing, not sure. Don't know how to test if it's happening to me because it doesn't seem to be, lol.
opelcalibra said:
I have the optus 9507 and I tried a couple of different kitkat 4.4 roms. They all worked perfectly except for the fact that they lost data completely as soon as the phone went to sleep. the weird thing is, the phone showed 0 bars but i could take calls just fine, just had data issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey mate if you check the forum that I linked to the Knox issue; someone on there posted a fix for sound/WiFi issues post-Knox voiding, maybe that fix'll work for you. Sorry I can't link you to the exact post but it was about 10-20 pages in.
opelcalibra said:
i went back to stock firmware, rooted, ran a debloat script i found on xda, removed a bunch more apps, then unrooted again because i need to run good for enterprise for work.
im getting decent battery life with the debloated stock rom but i would like to move to 4.4 if theres a rom that works. ive been watching the optus and sammobile site hoping there will be a newer modem for the hk version because i think optus will take their time releasing 4.3 for this model.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I reckon they'll take ages, they have pretty much left everyone who's getting this phone in the next couple of months in the dark because of the (as I can tell) severe lack of devs etc in Aus who have Samsung phones and are willing to hack them to the ****. I wish I could help out somehow, but I don't have the time to learn so I figured I'd help out by putting up my experiences. I'm still learning as I go haha.
As for your KitKat problem, I have read that 4.4 didn't do so well in terms of battery life and bloat, what are your reasons for wanting to go to it? I wanted the most recent build also but I figured that if they're still having issues with it then it was better to go with something I knew would work (ie. 4.3.1).
phileasx said:
Thanks for your experience sharing,
I also started with Cyanogen and shared about the same experience.
Just didn't know the Knox thing before I started.. should had read up more before doing it.
So you did the Recovery with Heimdall also? What has made you switch to the customized Rom camp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I followed the Windows process on the CM wiki to the letter, so yeah I did the Heimdall also.
Mate legitimately I went from my stock firmware taking up so much space on the hard drive to the real lightweight CM, seeing as I haven't bought a micro SD yet that was a big deal. Also battery life was a major reason for me buying the S4 so to be able to further improve it is just hella.
siganid said:
Hey, no worries at all, anyone who works weekends can take all the time they need...
Yea, I've done some reading also and you're right, it seems to be all conjecture, I really doubt handset warranty refusal can be based on the KNOX Warranty chip. I think the Samsung Enterprise Security Group VP explains it well.Great to hear, based on this I can ge ahead and 'burn out' my eFuse, happy in the knowledge that my Knox warranty has gone to a good cause. :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Australia I think we're pretty good. Funny that Samsung and Optus have given us this nice present and it's only a matter of time before someone cracks it open and remains above the warranty voiding
I have read that Knox may be software-based, which would make sense, and maybe it's a matter of time before someone cracks that too. Hehe.
Go ahead, post here if you have any issues and I'll see if I can help you out. What ROM would you be planning on using? A 4.3.x one?
kaiserwatson said:
I followed the Windows process on the CM wiki to the letter, so yeah I did the Heimdall also.
Mate legitimately I went from my stock firmware taking up so much space on the hard drive to the real lightweight CM, seeing as I haven't bought a micro SD yet that was a big deal. Also battery life was a major reason for me buying the S4 so to be able to further improve it is just hella.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to the rom flashing side
After read up more, I realize Odin is a more popular method for Galaxy S4 flashing,
Besides that, Stock rom battery life should also be all right. Samsung did quite some efforts to make the software user friendly.
Anyway, the Bloatware chunk are really irritating have to say.
because i cant keep still i have flashed my phone again lol.
i flashed the official CM 11 (4.4.2) and gapps for kitkat and all is working awesome so far.
no issues with losing signal when going to sleep. seems very fast. right now im happy with it.
Could someone please find new links for the original software posted in the OP?
Links are dead, would be greatly appreciated! =)
Also, Opelcalibra, you have no issues with network/signal on CM 4.4.2 with the Optus i9507?
I better give it a try then lol
RE: Signal issues
Hi,
I also have the AU i9507 Opus S4, I flashed the Omega based 4.4.2 KitKat (i9505 version) and had wifi problems (Greyed out) I tried various fixes and went back to 4.3 based Omega, this had its problems with cell signal being lost when locking the mobile.
I fixed this by going into settings and experimented with mobile networks i.e. Settings, more networks, mobile networks, network mode and tried all 4x options with (for me at least) the GSM ONLY option selected, great rom and worth losing the 4g which is very patchy in my part of Melbourne.
D
Anyone else had any sort of success rooting this phone without tripping Knox.
Also, is it just me, or does it suck pretty hard that we Aussies get stuck with an inferior version of a phone? (Snapdragon 600 in the I9507 vs the 800 in the other international versions)
Update
Hi
Just wondering if anyone has an update on this? Success or otherwise...
One of the main reasons I'm looking to root is to boost volume levels - I find the volume to be way too low. Does anyone know of a way to do that without rooting? Of course I'd like to remove bloatware but could live with it if volume was fixed.
Thanks in advance.
thestuntman80 said:
Anyone else had any sort of success rooting this phone without tripping Knox.
Also, is it just me, or does it suck pretty hard that we Aussies get stuck with an inferior version of a phone? (Snapdragon 600 in the I9507 vs the 800 in the other international versions)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey bro, no one has cracked without tripping Knox yet because as far as I can tell it's a phone specific fix/hack. So, because our phone is a different and 'rare' model, I doubt that the major heads in the Knox-proofing scene (CF comes to mind) will have the time to make a fix for the knox trip. So for now, either suffer in your jocks (QQ) get a different phone (uh, not likely) or wait for the minute chance that someone actually cares about Aussies )
As for your second point, yeah, it does suck. We get shafted with all sorts of things like prices, release dates, localization...the list goes on. Unfortunately the people who make these ploys know we're desparate and will pay the exorbitant prices anyway :/
jameshef said:
Hi
Just wondering if anyone has an update on this? Success or otherwise...
One of the main reasons I'm looking to root is to boost volume levels - I find the volume to be way too low. Does anyone know of a way to do that without rooting? Of course I'd like to remove bloatware but could live with it if volume was fixed.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey mate, the rooting was probably the easiest part of the whole situation. You can follow my guide in the OP if you're having trouble. Just be aware about the warranty issues etc because your audio issue may be hardware related rather than software? Is the volume issue in the headphones or the speaker? Some apps may not utilise the phones full volume and also be sure to go into the settings of the phone and make sure the volume limiter is turned OFF. This **** me to tears for the longest time but once I figured out what the issue was, all good!
The only thing I'd say is just make sure its not a hardware issue because you don't want to root your phone, find out that it wasn't a software issue, take your phone into Samsung and have them tell you that your warranty is voided because you rooted. Obviously that's a worse case scenario but just be on the safe side.
I hope I helped you guys!
kaiserwatson said:
Hey mate, the rooting was probably the easiest part of the whole situation. You can follow my guide in the OP if you're having trouble. Just be aware about the warranty issues etc because your audio issue may be hardware related rather than software? Is the volume issue in the headphones or the speaker? Some apps may not utilise the phones full volume and also be sure to go into the settings of the phone and make sure the volume limiter is turned OFF. This **** me to tears for the longest time but once I figured out what the issue was, all good!
The only thing I'd say is just make sure its not a hardware issue because you don't want to root your phone, find out that it wasn't a software issue, take your phone into Samsung and have them tell you that your warranty is voided because you rooted. Obviously that's a worse case scenario but just be on the safe side.
I hope I helped you guys!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm fairly certain it's a software issue. I've done a fair bit of reading on it and the low volume is a very common complaint about the S4. My volute limiter is turned off - thanks for that tip though!
I'm going to try to root this weekend. I really hope that it works and I don't have any issues with reception dropping when the phone goes to sleep! Feels risky.
I've changed my firmware from Optus to XSA, but am still on 4.2.2, how do I upgrade now?
Kies says I have the latest release.
has anyone got links to newer modem files for this phone? been given one to update it to 4.4, but i know from experience that doing so without at least a 4.4 GSM modem, it wont behave right.
to the people without working wifi after updating: flash the Ktoonz kernel, he has a fix for that.
Hi All,
I recently updated to the new official 4.3 update from optus in order to update my baseband etc.
Then i immediately updated to the i9505 Goldeneye 4.4.2 rom. Ran a ebloat script to get rid of alot of the extras and its running very nicely.
Since updating the modem I get 4g at home which i never did before.
optus rom here
http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/3/?download=27109
flashed via odin (will lose root and custom recovery). re-root and install recovery after flashing this room.
goldeneye rom here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2313469
obviously this will flag knox, mine was flagged long ao
Related
Hello all,
I've been going down rabbit holes looking for a definitive solution or answer to the issue of downgrading my 4.3 i535 on Verizon back down to 4.1.2. I don't particularly care about actually rooting the phone (would be nice but not necessary). I'm having no end of Bluetooth and audio-when-docked issues with my phone that were never there on 4.1.2 and would desperately like to (a) revert back and (b) somehow tell the phone to never do an OTA software upgrade again.
I am not really all that technically adept, although I can follow instructions fairly well--provided they're valid for my device at the current time. I have never attempted any sort procedure like this and I'm usually quite content to be a good little sheep and do what I'm told by Verizon/Sammy. But when I can no longer reliably pair my device with my Alpine aftermarket car audio system, nor have it properly play back audio directions when using navigation software like Waze or Google Maps through the BT-attached speakers, then I need to do whatever it takes to re-enable this lost functionality.
Any directions or comments greatly accepted. Again, please, I respectfully ask that if there's anything that can be done, that a kind soul here would post directions for a complete n00b, not an experienced phone expert. Frankly, if there were shops near me that I could bring it to to have done, I'd have done so already <grin>. Many thanks in advance.
Device name: SCH-i535
Android Version: 4.3 (received OTA, directly from 4.1.2)
Baseband version: i535VRUMCL 1
Lernel version: 3.0.31
Hardware version i535.10
Thanks in advance.
Tormund Giantsbane said:
Hello all,
I've been going down rabbit holes looking for a definitive solution or answer to the issue of downgrading my 4.3 i535 on Verizon back down to 4.1.2. I don't particularly care about actually rooting the phone (would be nice but not necessary). I'm having no end of Bluetooth and audio-when-docked issues with my phone that were never there on 4.1.2 and would desperately like to (a) revert back and (b) somehow tell the phone to never do an OTA software upgrade again.
I am not really all that technically adept, although I can follow instructions fairly well--provided they're valid for my device at the current time. I have never attempted any sort procedure like this and I'm usually quite content to be a good little sheep and do what I'm told by Verizon/Sammy. But when I can no longer reliably pair my device with my Alpine aftermarket car audio system, nor have it properly play back audio directions when using navigation software like Waze or Google Maps through the BT-attached speakers, then I need to do whatever it takes to re-enable this lost functionality.
Any directions or comments greatly accepted. Again, please, I respectfully ask that if there's anything that can be done, that a kind soul here would post directions for a complete n00b, not an experienced phone expert. Frankly, if there were shops near me that I could bring it to to have done, I'd have done so already <grin>. Many thanks in advance.
Device name: SCH-i535
Android Version: 4.3 (received OTA, directly from 4.1.2)
Baseband version: i535VRUMCL 1
Lernel version: 3.0.31
Hardware version i535.10
Thanks in advance.
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A. You can't revert back. You're stuck with 4.3 now.
B. You can stop future Ota updates with root access by freezing sdm1.0.apk and fwupdater.apk with titanium backup.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
BadUsername said:
A. You can't revert back. You're stuck with 4.3 now.
B. You can stop future Ota updates with root access by freezing sdm1.0.apk and fwupdater.apk with titanium backup.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
If I'm stuck with 4.3 then I think rooting is probably a case of closing the barn door after the horses are gone. The phone is basically useless to me when driving--i.e. when I actually need a mobile phone--since it won't reliably work with my truck radio, and the manufacturer has indicated that the VZW 4.3 update has caused them nothing but headaches and it's not their equipment that's too blame.
I've been solidly behind Android since my first Droid, then X, then HTC Incredible, then Razr and now the S3, but I'm seriously having to reconsider doing the unthinkable and switching platforms unless I can find another high-performance Android-based pone that allows tethering (so long HTC) and that will play nicely with the radio. Any suggestions? As for "freezing sdm1.0.apk" etc, that is far beyond my knowledge at this time, I'm sad to say. I'm just a J-random-user who needs -- and is willing to pay whatever it takes -- to own a phone that plays as close to 100% reliably with my truck radio as possible.
I live on the road; I need BT pairing, BT music from my SD card and GPS directions to be heard over the engine/road-noise. At this point I'm in tech support hell between Alpine and Verizon, each blaming the other--and meanwhile all the guys in my company who use "that other platform" haven't had a single issue. This one has me completely dead in the water. I don't want to go back to AM/FM on long hauls, not when I have 30+ GB of music on my device...and not to mention my GPS that can't be heard. I'm not ready to jump ship, nor do I want to, but....help??
Thanks in advance, guys. Color me frustrated....
Tormund Giantsbane said:
If I'm stuck with 4.3 then I think rooting is probably a case of closing the barn door after the horses are gone. The phone is basically useless to me when driving--i.e. when I actually need a mobile phone--since it won't reliably work with my truck radio, and the manufacturer has indicated that the VZW 4.3 update has caused them nothing but headaches and it's not their equipment that's too blame.
I've been solidly behind Android since my first Droid, then X, then HTC Incredible, then Razr and now the S3, but I'm seriously having to reconsider doing the unthinkable and switching platforms unless I can find another high-performance Android-based pone that allows tethering (so long HTC) and that will play nicely with the radio. Any suggestions? As for "freezing sdm1.0.apk" etc, that is far beyond my knowledge at this time, I'm sad to say. I'm just a J-random-user who needs -- and is willing to pay whatever it takes -- to own a phone that plays as close to 100% reliably with my truck radio as possible.
I live on the road; I need BT pairing, BT music from my SD card and GPS directions to be heard over the engine/road-noise. At this point I'm in tech support hell between Alpine and Verizon, each blaming the other--and meanwhile all the guys in my company who use "that other platform" haven't had a single issue. This one has me completely dead in the water. I don't want to go back to AM/FM on long hauls, not when I have 30+ GB of music on my device...and not to mention my GPS that can't be heard. I'm not ready to jump ship, nor do I want to, but....help??
Thanks in advance, guys. Color me frustrated....
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Hmm
I'm still on 4.1.2, so I can't really comment on the bluetooth quality. I do know it's a common 4.3 problem.
There may be some fixes out there somewhere, or there might be xposed modules that will improve bluetooth related signals. Either way you're going to need to do a little research on it, I can't specifically think of anything I've seen or read.
Freezing is super easy, titanium backup makes it very simple. Another update could lock the phone down even further and preventing it could pay off. Rooting on 4.3 is also very simple. It's not a complete loss being stuck on 4.3.
Also you can install custom 4.3 TouchWiz roms with safestrap, bluetooth might work better for you on one of those roms.
Those would be my suggestions.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
BadUsername said:
Hmm
I'm still on 4.1.2, so I can't really comment on the bluetooth quality. I do know it's a common 4.3 problem.
There may be some fixes out there somewhere, or there might be xposed modules that will improve bluetooth related signals. Either way you're going to need to do a little research on it, I can't specifically think of anything I've seen or read.
Freezing is super easy, titanium backup makes it very simple. Another update could lock the phone down even further and preventing it could pay off. Rooting on 4.3 is also very simple. It's not a complete loss being stuck on 4.3.
Also you can install custom 4.3 TouchWiz roms with safestrap, bluetooth might work better for you on one of those roms.
Those would be my suggestions.
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Wow. OK. Hmmm.
So what is the process to do this, where does one find the images, support files, and so on? I've managed to find Odin 3.09 and the USB drivers are loaded in my laptop and Developer Mode is active, but I don't know what to do beyond that.
Again, I'm absolutely green at this and deathly afraid of bricking it. I'm dead in the water without a phone, even one that's barely functional, so any instructions will need to be clear and unambiguous.
Failing that, is there such a thing as an S3 or S4 that can be purchased clean with ICS on it, rooted and protected from OTA upgrades easily, and that will work on VZW?
OK.
Well Rooting 4.3 is extremely safe, I'd say pretty near 100% success rate with nearly no chance for a brick.
Even with a brick in nearly every scenario, it is always possible to fix it as long as you have access to Odin.
Regardless, you'll want to start here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2639337
That has everything laid out for you, access to the rooting methods, using safestrap as a recovery, and download list for everything you can use on the phone. Also has recovery methods for bricked scenarios, but if you follow those threads you shouldn't brick.
As far as buying a phone goes, you may be able to find a 4.1.2 galaxy s3 on swappa or somewhere. But it's going to be hard finding one.
All s4's are in the same boat as the s3, all are on 4.3 with locked bootloaders.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Ok, so my girlfriend currently has a G2.. She got it about a month or so ago, I know her version was 4.2.2. So I looked into rooting and saw that it was possible. I'm coming from a Gnex, so root and rom is important to me. Anyway.. Now I hear that the new AT&T G2's are shipping with 4.4.2? And loki is not working currently with that so there is no way to downgrade and root? Is that the correct understanding? Also, are they shipping with 4.4.2 or is it still just an OTA update they do while in store at AT&T buying one? Because my buddy works at AT&T and if it is just the OTA, I will just have him leave it at 4.2.2 for me and root and rom it from there, since that seems much easier.
Also I saw something about a 838 firmware that currently doesn't support root?
Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks, Chris.
If it comes with 4.4 you can go back to 4.2 through download mode using this, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2663369 . Then root and install recovery. Check out http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2520419 for some videos on that. Then you can flash a modified stock 4.4 that keeps the 4.2 bootloader and root/recovery intact here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2672931. Or flash any of the many 4.2 4.4 custom roms available. There are other ways to go about this but it works for me. Just takes quite a while to download the files the first time to do it! :laugh: Also, if you decide to do this and go with the stock 4.4 firmware AT&T has a small patch they're pushing now that you'll want to block. You can just freeze the software update using TiBu.
I have been liking my G2 but I would (and will soon) jump to another phone, like the M8 or N6, the dev support is decent but there are some far outstanding issues with this phone and kitkat, seems like something always not working right i.e. hotspot, auto-rotate, volume, process com,gapps errors, etc,
Not necessarily
ossito2012 said:
I have been liking my G2 but I would (and will soon) jump to another phone, like the M8 or N6, the dev support is decent but there are some far outstanding issues with this phone and kitkat, seems like something always not working right i.e. hotspot, auto-rotate, volume, process com,gapps errors, etc,
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I got my LG G2 a week ago and I'll tell you I didn't have any problems with it, however I did downgrade and put an older version of CM 10 for the D80010d on my phone, not knowing that you can upgrade while maintaining the bootloader, as described above. I did notice that my gps didn't work after that, my tethering didn't work and while using wifi hotspot I was unable to load google or facebook, meaning I can't access my e-mail from my computer. I get SSL error's on https:// sites and sometimes I can proceed anyway, while other times I can't load it at all. however these sites load fine on my phone.
Stable
My LG G2 is completely stable on latest stock ROM and CM nightly. Honestly, I haven't run into any trouble.
Remember, when you are flashing - try clearing cache.
J0hnC0nn3r said:
I got my LG G2 a week ago and I'll tell you I didn't have any problems with it, however I did downgrade and put an older version of CM 10 for the D80010d on my phone, not knowing that you can upgrade while maintaining the bootloader, as described above. I did notice that my gps didn't work after that, my tethering didn't work and while using wifi hotspot I was unable to load google or facebook, meaning I can't access my e-mail from my computer. I get SSL error's on https:// sites and sometimes I can proceed anyway, while other times I can't load it at all. however these sites load fine on my phone.
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ainstushar said:
My LG G2 is completely stable on latest stock ROM and CM nightly. Honestly, I haven't run into any trouble.
Remember, when you are flashing - try clearing cache.
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Click to collapse
I agree with you guys for most part phone is 95% good, don't really think it is devs fault but LG is making this phone a pain in the ass to play with, I would think with Samsung allowing the Htc One and G2 to sneak in beat their S4, LG would seize the moment to open up the phone to be truly customized. Looking at HTC One M8 forums it seems HTC is not putting up stupid barriers to rooting and stuff. Imagine a HTC Nexus 6
So my phone is now prompting me to update (and I can't even tell it to got to hell like I could on my S4 Mini ) but I refuse to do so until I know I can keep my root intact (or until Kingroot becomes capable of rooting that version).
Is there ANY way of keeping my root intact? Maybe by using the PC companion to update (this used to work before ICS didn't it?)? Or doing something to the phone (besides flashing firmware) to preserve the root ahead of the update?
I don't want to be installing a custom rom (and yes, I still count generic stock as a custom rom because it would get onto my phone just like any other custom rom) just to update and I absolutely need root for Link2SD so if I can't keep root in some way and Kingroot doesn't catch up then I'm going to stay on my current version forever, security be damned.
SCHUMI_4EVER said:
So my phone is now prompting me to update (and I can't even tell it to got to hell like I could on my S4 Mini ) but I refuse to do so until I know I can keep my root intact (or until Kingroot becomes capable of rooting that version).
Is there ANY way of keeping my root intact? Maybe by using the PC companion to update (this used to work before ICS didn't it?)? Or doing something to the phone (besides flashing firmware) to preserve the root ahead of the update?
I don't want to be installing a custom rom (and yes, I still count generic stock as a custom rom because it would get onto my phone just like any other custom rom) just to update and I absolutely need root for Link2SD so if I can't keep root in some way and Kingroot doesn't catch up then I'm going to stay on my current version forever, security be damned.
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No. You can make prerooted 546 and flash it in recovery and it's only way how to retain root. As soon as you update using OTA you will loose root as system will be overwritten.
Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk
Thanks, guess I'm waiting then.
Any way to temporarily disable the update message/get it out of my notification bar?
SCHUMI_4EVER said:
Thanks, guess I'm waiting then.
Any way to temporarily disable the update message/get it out of my notification bar?
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Maybe you can disable the Software Update app in settings...
By the way, however it`s your decision, I don`t understand reasons behind why not flashing latest software with Flashtool. There are sometimes nasty issues with upgrades, like people loosing LTE with OTA upgrades to 5.1.1 and so on. I would just backup everything and flash latest .570/.580 firmware (yes, even .546 is now getting outdated as upgrade to .580 becomes available to address MMS based vulnerabilities). Flashing software in flashmode is the same like flashing it through PC Companion and provides for clean way how to do system updates. You can even download version intended directly for your market/provider instead of generic one.
Flash the pre-rooted .546 zip. It has been posted weeks ago.
ondrejvaroscak said:
Maybe you can disable the Software Update app in settings...
By the way, however it`s your decision, I don`t understand reasons behind why not flashing latest software with Flashtool. There are sometimes nasty issues with upgrades, like people loosing LTE with OTA upgrades to 5.1.1 and so on. I would just backup everything and flash latest .570/.580 firmware (yes, even .546 is now getting outdated as upgrade to .580 becomes available to address MMS based vulnerabilities). Flashing software in flashmode is the same like flashing it through PC Companion and provides for clean way how to do system updates. You can even download version intended directly for your market/provider instead of generic one.
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Because the phone isn't even two weeks old. Nowhere near time yet to risk bricking it doing non-standard things, I've already tested my luck enough by rooting it. And my region doesn't have 580 yet anyways. The inability to remove the battery makes me even more nervous about this sort of stuff, and yes I know there is a simulated battery pull, but that's still software and software gets fudged up which is the whole reason to actually physically remove the battery from your phone.
Not gonna happen thank you very much. Besides I'm never in a hurry with updating Android, it's always 2 steps forward one step back, never an all-round improvement. Some monkey of a programmer inevitably always rips out some base function every device should have, just look at ICS and the mess it's caused by choosing to ignore SD cards. Even Lollipop lacks things prior Android versions had for utterly no reason. Stagefright can kiss my you know what. Not gonna update till I can root with the click of a button avoiding almost all risk (in my mind anyways).
SCHUMI_4EVER said:
Because the phone isn't even two weeks old. Nowhere near time yet to risk bricking it doing non-standard things, I've already tested my luck enough by rooting it. And my region doesn't have 580 yet anyways. The inability to remove the battery makes me even more nervous about this sort of stuff, and yes I know there is a simulated battery pull, but that's still software and software gets fudged up which is the whole reason to actually physically remove the battery from your phone.
Not gonna happen thank you very much. Besides I'm never in a hurry with updating Android, it's always 2 steps forward one step back, never an all-round improvement. Some monkey of a programmer inevitably always rips out some base function every device should have, just look at ICS and the mess it's caused by choosing to ignore SD cards. Even Lollipop lacks things prior Android versions had for utterly no reason. Stagefright can kiss my you know what. Not gonna update till I can root with the click of a button avoiding almost all risk (in my mind anyways).
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Click to collapse
Well, seems you are new to XPERIA`s because there is hardly any way you can brick it. Battery pull is not a problem, because in addition to Power+VolUp reste, there is a push button hidden on the side of SIM card that triggers hard reset and switches the phone off.
But I aknowledge that you have your rights for your fears. However I wonder that with all your fears you would allow to install and run undocumented chinese app, that although roots your phone, may do other things and you will never know. Everyone is responsible for his own luck.
ondrejvaroscak said:
Well, seems you are new to XPERIA`s because there is hardly any way you can brick it. Battery pull is not a problem, because in addition to Power+VolUp reste, there is a push button hidden on the side of SIM card that triggers hard reset and switches the phone off.
But I aknowledge that you have your rights for your fears. However I wonder that with all your fears you would allow to install and run undocumented chinese app, that although roots your phone, may do other things and you will never know. Everyone is responsible for his own luck.
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Yes and no. I had a neo but that was a very different device and I never felt the need to do anything custom to it (although I did check XDA for it) so it remains stock even today. Then I went to Samsung cuz everything Sony sucked at the time, at least in my price range. And now I'm back with Sony cuz there's something wrong with Samsung, dunno what, but I just don't like them so unless they're far ahead on paper I won't touch them again. (unless Sony tanks).
I didn't know about that button but I'd still rather not.
And I don't have anything sensitive on my phone so Kingroot can spy all it wants to. Of course I'd prefer it didn't, but if they absolutely have to then they're welcome to any and all info. Simply running an APK on my phone (that thousands have run before me) just seemed like the least brickable way of getting root (since I didn't have to do anything special like stuff up in the recovery or mess up an ADB command or anything like that). When I'd read about there being no root methods for 5.1.1 yet I erroneously took that to be all of Lollipop so I thought my phone was unrootable anyways when I turned it on and found it had lollipop (it was sealed so I thought it would still be on KitKat and easily rootable) so Kingroot was basically just a hail mary at the time. And since it worked so well I see no reason to ever do anything else.
Wow, I'm sorta surprised there's not a USCC-specific thread anywhere yet...unless I just missed it, like I could well have.
Oh well, just thought it'd be nice to have a thread here at XDA, especially since it's so hard to find much of anything about USCC-branded phones in general anyway.
As far as my experience so far, I can't report any real issues beyond the usual so-so signal strength that I've experienced on every US Cellular phone me or my wife have owned ever since moving to my current location in town (yet it was fine at our old house just a few blocks over!). In the six years or so I've had USC, I've never found their phones being notably loaded down in bloatware, and nor is this one, so that's nice I guess. I was hoping I'd find some unlikely, overlooked USCC-specific perk like an unlocked bootloader on their models, but I don't see that happenin'... siiigh.
As for the phone itself independent of US Cellular, eh, I'm no power user, I'm probably not the dude who should make too many hardware-based critiques because the thing's more than powerful enough to ably do anything I'll ever need a phone to do. I will say I briefly owned an S6 Edge (briefly being because it was stolen) and I can't say the S7 seems like a huge upgrade to me, not one worth full retail anyway, but obviously it's a damn nice phone anyhow. (...But I went from my stolen fancy S6E down to an old, cheap Motorola Razr M (aka Electrify M) for a little over a year before getting my S7E and I was, for the most part, totally satisfied with the Motorola's performance despite the huge discrepancy in horsepower, so what the hell do I know?)
So yeah, bring on your USCC-specific guides, thoughts, questions, complaints, opinions, etc etc!
So I'll kick things off with a bit of root discussion/issues...
I rooted my phone maybe a week or so after getting it back in July, taking the chance against my better instincts that the instructions found over in this Verizon thread would work out for USCC phones too. Much to my surprise, not only did it work, I experienced almost none of the many problems that the Verizon users kept encountering in the early weeks of that thread. Why that is, though, I still have no clue. I guess VZW's software is somehow different from USCC's in such a way that we simply weren't affected by whatever kept causing the boot loops, extreme battery-drainage and heat issues for those phones. (Mostly...)
I don't want to steal the work of thread-starter psouza4 or anyone else in that existing Verizon thread so I don't want to try and rewrite every full detail but for any future USCC S7/Edge owners who might wind up here, I guess I'll do a real basic rundown of exactly how I did mine (and also I'll do it so that maybe someone more versed in Android-tinkering than me can tell me where I may have gone wrong on certain steps). The files I used in my root/fix/debloat process are the ones listed in Bold below and all can be found on that thread - I'd link 'em directly here but I don't know how kosher that is - and what isn't there should be in the Play Store.
So, after disabling "Secure Startup" under Settings-->Lock Screen & Security (and ensuring I had the correct drivers and ADB working and such), I...
1). Flashed the Samsung_G935x_QC_Rooted_BOOT.TAR image using the Odin3_v3.12_PrinceComsy.zip variant. The Verizon thread reports that some AT&T users had recommended the Comsy version because they found it prevented boot issues that they were experiencing when flashing with the other "plain" version of Odin that was linked. As for me, I only used the PrinceComsy version because the plain version simply doesn't run on my computer for some reason. I have no idea what the difference is between the two versions, so I've got no idea if the Comsy version may be the better way to go for USCC users as well (or if it even makes a lick of difference for anyone really), but it works.
2). After successful flash and reboot, I installed SuperSU-v.2.76-S7QC.zip via the included root.bat file and waited for another reboot to finish. I can't recall if SuperSU prompted me to download a newer version of the "su" binary upon opening the now-installed SuperSu app (as the original thread indicated it might) or not, but I didn't and neither should you apparently. As of the original post in the other thread on 7/15/2016, the "2.76-S7QC" build was the most recent version for S7 models . Since that's been over a month ago, can anyone verify if the current 2.78 version of SuperSU works with S7s (and/or USCC phones), or if there's a 2.78"-S7QC" version specifically? (I'm guessing no and no, but I lost track of the Verizon thread a while back and haven't seen any specific reference to 2.78 working or not working...)
3). From there, I downloaded FlashFire (v051, I believe) and flashed the suggested S7_or_S7Edge_Fixes_Debloater_V15.zip file, which aims to, y'know, fix some stuff and debloat the thing. I didn't manually adjust any of the "fixes" applied by the patch, and many of the apps and services killed by the "debloater" part of the script don't even come on USCC-branded versions of the phone. The instructions in the thread go on to say that some users reported problems with a handful of the fixes - Lag issues, Wifi passwords refusing to save, "Unauthorized Actions" pop-ups, and problems with VoLTE icons (the last of which isn't relevant to USC really anyway). While it seemed like the majority of VZW/ATT/other-carrier users in the thread were experiencing at least one of these issues, I didn't. There was some lag, for sure, but sporadically, and the remaining steps mostly knocked it out and I didn't need to do anything extra.
4). Next I installed a couple, but not all (initially) of the programs/settings suggested in the separate . Amplify Premium 3.3.7 and L Speed 3.1.9.7 (though I updated to the current 3.1.9.8 Beta shortly thereafter with no ill effects). Now I thought I followed the thread's suggestions pretty much exactly for these two, but when I looked just now to verify, I found that I hadn't made quite a few of the recommended changes in Amplify after all. (Probably because many of them give warnings when adjusting that the other entries hadn't, and I figured I'd play it safe). Anyway, I went ahead just now and finished everything up so that it does follow that thread's suggestions - I'll report back on it if they seem to make a notable difference. Maybe worth noting here that not all of the recommended changes are valid on US Cellular phones, so no need to worry if you can't find a few of them. As for L-Speed, I did indeed have all of the thread's recommended settings for it set, except for one, "Storage IO Tweaks: Partition Remount - Enabled." Not sure why this wasn't set, guess I just didn't see it the first time. Anyway, I've enabled it now, and since it seems to be there for "giving more permissions to the SD card," it was probably irrelevant to me anyhow since I don't currently use one.
Now, the guide suggests installing Xposed when you do all of this, along with three more apps - Greenify, ForceDoze, and LeanDroid. I decided to hold off on all the above for a while when I did it, but I'd say it's plenty safe to do it all in one go if you choose to. By the time I got around to applying the L-Speed and Amplify settings and rebooting, I had been up and rooted for at least a couple hours altogether, enough to notice that I wasn't seeing the immediate disasters a lot of other posters were finding. The most common problem seemed to be bootloops and random resets, which I hadn't encountered (and still never have really, beyond a couple of unexplained reboots once or twice that had no noticeable effects other than mild annoyance). There were also a lot of complaints about some rather extreme-sounding overheating, terribly reduced battery life, and serious lag problems - these all appeared in some degree, but seemingly nowhere nearly as bad as what people were reporting from their VZW/etc-branded phones in the thread. Plus, after making the L-Speed/Amplify changes, the battery seemed to be holding up a bit better, the phone wasn't running as warm as it had been pre-tweaking, and the lag I had experienced had calmed down from "pretty minor but definitely kinda annoying" to mostly gone. I wondered why I was missing out or getting much milder versions of all the problems mentioned by others, but by that point in the thread people were beginning to suspect Xposed was the cause. Some reported their phones working well up until installing Xposed, after which they'd begin getting bootloops or other problems. Not wanting any of that headache, I decided to just wait it out a few days and see how it held up before risking the install.
The guide also suggests at this point to turn off Wifi Scanning, Bluetooth, Location and Location History. I left the Location stuff alone, but this all seems pretty optional. It's also suggested to turn off the AOD Clock, which I left alone at the time but later disabled (and am now having issues with, but more on that later). I don't think there's any need to do the recommended disabling of all animations in Developer Options either, at least for our phones. I've left those settings at their defaults and speed's been fine.
So, since I basically took a break at this point when I was actually doing all this the first time, I'll take a break here too before getting into the next stuff I did regarding debloating and how my now-rooted-but-not-yet-real-tweaked USCC phone would turn out to actually run over the next few days...
I'm looking for a firmware which has european languages any idea?
Any new news on root and roms for our phones?
HavING trouble unlocking bootloader and flashing custom rom.
Is this possible yet? I've achieved root, But failed to flash twrp or cm. Any help would be appreciated!
lugnut2099 said:
So I'll kick things off with a bit of root discussion/issues...
I rooted my phone maybe a week or so after getting it back in July, taking the chance against my better instincts that the instructions found over in this Verizon thread would work out for USCC phones too. Much to my surprise, not only did it work, I experienced almost none of the many problems that the Verizon users kept encountering in the early weeks of that thread. Why that is, though, I still have no clue. I guess VZW's software is somehow different from USCC's in such a way that we simply weren't affected by whatever kept causing the boot loops, extreme battery-drainage and heat issues for those phones. (Mostly...)
I don't want to steal the work of thread-starter psouza4 or anyone else in that existing Verizon thread so I don't want to try and rewrite every full detail but for any future USCC S7/Edge owners who might wind up here, I guess I'll do a real basic rundown of exactly how I did mine (and also I'll do it so that maybe someone more versed in Android-tinkering than me can tell me where I may have gone wrong on certain steps). The files I used in my root/fix/debloat process are the ones listed in Bold below and all can be found on that thread - I'd link 'em directly here but I don't know how kosher that is - and what isn't there should be in the Play Store.
So, after disabling "Secure Startup" under Settings-->Lock Screen & Security (and ensuring I had the correct drivers and ADB working and such), I...
1). Flashed the Samsung_G935x_QC_Rooted_BOOT.TAR image using the Odin3_v3.12_PrinceComsy.zip variant. The Verizon thread reports that some AT&T users had recommended the Comsy version because they found it prevented boot issues that they were experiencing when flashing with the other "plain" version of Odin that was linked. As for me, I only used the PrinceComsy version because the plain version simply doesn't run on my computer for some reason. I have no idea what the difference is between the two versions, so I've got no idea if the Comsy version may be the better way to go for USCC users as well (or if it even makes a lick of difference for anyone really), but it works.
2). After successful flash and reboot, I installed SuperSU-v.2.76-S7QC.zip via the included root.bat file and waited for another reboot to finish. I can't recall if SuperSU prompted me to download a newer version of the "su" binary upon opening the now-installed SuperSu app (as the original thread indicated it might) or not, but I didn't and neither should you apparently. As of the original post in the other thread on 7/15/2016, the "2.76-S7QC" build was the most recent version for S7 models . Since that's been over a month ago, can anyone verify if the current 2.78 version of SuperSU works with S7s (and/or USCC phones), or if there's a 2.78"-S7QC" version specifically? (I'm guessing no and no, but I lost track of the Verizon thread a while back and haven't seen any specific reference to 2.78 working or not working...)
3). From there, I downloaded FlashFire (v051, I believe) and flashed the suggested S7_or_S7Edge_Fixes_Debloater_V15.zip file, which aims to, y'know, fix some stuff and debloat the thing. I didn't manually adjust any of the "fixes" applied by the patch, and many of the apps and services killed by the "debloater" part of the script don't even come on USCC-branded versions of the phone. The instructions in the thread go on to say that some users reported problems with a handful of the fixes - Lag issues, Wifi passwords refusing to save, "Unauthorized Actions" pop-ups, and problems with VoLTE icons (the last of which isn't relevant to USC really anyway). While it seemed like the majority of VZW/ATT/other-carrier users in the thread were experiencing at least one of these issues, I didn't. There was some lag, for sure, but sporadically, and the remaining steps mostly knocked it out and I didn't need to do anything extra.
4). Next I installed a couple, but not all (initially) of the programs/settings suggested in the separate . Amplify Premium 3.3.7 and L Speed 3.1.9.7 (though I updated to the current 3.1.9.8 Beta shortly thereafter with no ill effects). Now I thought I followed the thread's suggestions pretty much exactly for these two, but when I looked just now to verify, I found that I hadn't made quite a few of the recommended changes in Amplify after all. (Probably because many of them give warnings when adjusting that the other entries hadn't, and I figured I'd play it safe). Anyway, I went ahead just now and finished everything up so that it does follow that thread's suggestions - I'll report back on it if they seem to make a notable difference. Maybe worth noting here that not all of the recommended changes are valid on US Cellular phones, so no need to worry if you can't find a few of them. As for L-Speed, I did indeed have all of the thread's recommended settings for it set, except for one, "Storage IO Tweaks: Partition Remount - Enabled." Not sure why this wasn't set, guess I just didn't see it the first time. Anyway, I've enabled it now, and since it seems to be there for "giving more permissions to the SD card," it was probably irrelevant to me anyhow since I don't currently use one.
Now, the guide suggests installing Xposed when you do all of this, along with three more apps - Greenify, ForceDoze, and LeanDroid. I decided to hold off on all the above for a while when I did it, but I'd say it's plenty safe to do it all in one go if you choose to. By the time I got around to applying the L-Speed and Amplify settings and rebooting, I had been up and rooted for at least a couple hours altogether, enough to notice that I wasn't seeing the immediate disasters a lot of other posters were finding. The most common problem seemed to be bootloops and random resets, which I hadn't encountered (and still never have really, beyond a couple of unexplained reboots once or twice that had no noticeable effects other than mild annoyance). There were also a lot of complaints about some rather extreme-sounding overheating, terribly reduced battery life, and serious lag problems - these all appeared in some degree, but seemingly nowhere nearly as bad as what people were reporting from their VZW/etc-branded phones in the thread. Plus, after making the L-Speed/Amplify changes, the battery seemed to be holding up a bit better, the phone wasn't running as warm as it had been pre-tweaking, and the lag I had experienced had calmed down from "pretty minor but definitely kinda annoying" to mostly gone. I wondered why I was missing out or getting much milder versions of all the problems mentioned by others, but by that point in the thread people were beginning to suspect Xposed was the cause. Some reported their phones working well up until installing Xposed, after which they'd begin getting bootloops or other problems. Not wanting any of that headache, I decided to just wait it out a few days and see how it held up before risking the install.
The guide also suggests at this point to turn off Wifi Scanning, Bluetooth, Location and Location History. I left the Location stuff alone, but this all seems pretty optional. It's also suggested to turn off the AOD Clock, which I left alone at the time but later disabled (and am now having issues with, but more on that later). I don't think there's any need to do the recommended disabling of all animations in Developer Options either, at least for our phones. I've left those settings at their defaults and speed's been fine.
So, since I basically took a break at this point when I was actually doing all this the first time, I'll take a break here too before getting into the next stuff I did regarding debloating and how my now-rooted-but-not-yet-real-tweaked USCC phone would turn out to actually run over the next few days...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any updates on how this is running on USCC devices.
It's running beautifully for me. I haven't went through the entire guide for the improvements with the extra apps, but root and xposed are perfect. I am using the ForcedDoze app and it does help, without causing any issues.
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barndawg76 said:
It's running beautifully for me. I haven't went through the entire guide for the improvements with the extra apps, but root and xposed are perfect. I am using the ForcedDoze app and it does help, without causing any issues.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello? I'm new to USC. Want to get one off ebay. Seller says AT&T works on it. Does it mean phone is sim unlocked? Considering USC is CDMA?
I'm not sure about that. Check with the USC guys over at teamuscellular.com It should be possible, but I don't want to steer you wrong.
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Yikes, sorry for never finishing that initial post, everyone. Nonetheless, most of it would be outdated by now anyway, and though it ran well-enough for a while after some more tweaks that I never got around to describing here, it was still never a fully satisfying experience just due to the inherent jankiness of the Engboot root. (And it gradually ended abruptly in a softbrick). I haven't kept up with developments on S7 root at all really, though I thought I saw something in regards to a new root method a while back - anybody know on that?
Anyway, here's what I found works much better, though still Engboot-based - the Stang5liter custom ROM found here - https://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-s7-edge/development/stang5litre-edition-5-0-s7e-t3450208
All of the frequently found issues with Engboot root - heat, lag, battery life, etc. - were pretty much immediately greatly improved when I installed it. "Improved," not "gone" - they do still exist to a degree which some may find unacceptable, but if you don't expect 100% perfection, you shouldn't have any problem with it. The issue I notice most on this ROM is lag, but this tends to happen mostly only when attempting to do a lot of tasks quickly, opposed to just here and there all the time randomly the way it often seemed before I switched to the Stang ROM. Oh, and for whatever reason, it kinda frequently runs crappy while charging, but that's really a minor annoyance. The biggest plus of all, however, is that you don't need to waste hours tinkering with arcane settings like before to create minor improvements in performance - all the tweaks are integrated into the ROM, so you pretty much just install it and forget about it. Overall besides the lag I've been basically problem-free with it, especially in regards to heat, which I always had varying issues with on "plain" Engboot root. It's worth noting too that I'm still using the v1 version of stang5litre - v2 is current and was released a while back, I just never upgraded out of sheer laziness and the "good enough for me" status of v1. I will probably try to upgrade finally this week sometime, so if I do I'll note any improvements/problems here.
The caveat that you may have noticed here is that Stang5litre is a Verizon ROM intended for the SM-935V. The good news is that it runs just fine on our SM-935R4 without any adjustments - I don't think I even had to tinker with the APN. Your phone may exhibit some Verizony characteristics - your phone will identify itself as a Verizon phone, for one - but you should be good. If you want to root, this is the best way to go that I've found, plus it's quick and easy.
(Oh and hey, has USCC pushed Nougat yet?)
No, no nougat. No root for nougat anyway, so no real rush to see it.
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Any idea of when nougat will be released for this phone? I'm using one and live in Malaysia. Haven't receive nougat. Really want to have it. Dont really care about rooting, etc
A US Cellular version? In Malaysia? You are in the wrong thread my friend.
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Just wanted to let you guys know this works on our variant of the S7 Edge.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3552824
I flashed with Flash Fire and mounted system as read/write without any issues and it definitely makes a big difference in sound output.
Try at your own risk!!, but is working on my rooted US Cellular S7 Edge running PK1 firmware. Gonna try the dual speaker sound mod next and will update here if it works.
The dual speaker mod also worked for me, link below. I am using windows 7 professional 64-bit.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3494412
Here is something else I found that works on the the edge panel to control your music. I only tested with Spotify, as that is the music player I always use.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3365528
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Sent from my SM-G935R4 using Tapatalk
huszonnegy said:
I'm looking for a firmware which has european languages any idea?
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Click to collapse
Hi, did you find a solution?
Anyone taken the Nougat update yet? Just wondering how its running for you, if so.
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My wife set the update to install tonight,I have yet update ,liking my rooted mm, will update on how she likes it in a few days.
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Yeah, I'm kinda hiding out for a more stable Nougat root, but I don't thunk we'll see one.
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The wife took the update and is really liking her battery usage. Said it is lasting way longer before needing charged(no definitive proof here. just what she said). She is trying to get use to the ui changes. So i decided to go ahead and update mine as the last week or so it has been lagging more than normal and eating battery. So i downloaded our firmware from updato.com and flashed with odin 3.12.3 and used the home.csc so not to lose any apps and data(had everything backed up with titanium in case of issues). All went well and was running fine so i decided might as well root and see how that goes. Rooted using this thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/tm...eres-how-rooted-nougat-s7-edge-g935t-t3567502 and i used the alternative root.bat listed in the op(post #688) i also did the suggested cache wipe and leave the phone for 5-10min, i waited at least 10 watching a youtube video. Have been running all day with no noticeable lag and decided to download Antutu and do a test,pulled a 132374. I know that benchmarks dont mean dudu but to me it verified it is running as fast and smooth as it seems. So far i have no complaints and have not found anything not working properly.
Just an update, the update and root on nougat apparently broke the fingerprint sensor. Only had 1 app I use that on so no biggy for me.
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I originally used the Dirty Santa routine on my Verizon VS995, so it remained on VS99513A for a couple of years. Had all manner of issues over time - apps "failing to respond", YouTube not displaying video but rather black screens, green-screen crashes, etc. Finally had enough and used the LGUP process to return to stock and unroot, of course. I probably (assuming, anyway) could have gone right to the latest Oreo firmware with LGUP, but decided to go to the stock version of VS99513A and then just do the many system updates to get current.
It's now happily sitting on Oreo, and knock on wood it's like having a new phone! It's so much smoother, YouTube is working, lol, battery life is an order of magnitude better and it's working like a phone should work. No one knows the future, of course, but today, I'm happy.
Just passing this along, but I've gone from being ready to trash this thing to being able to enjoy it again without worrying about having to dump some $$$ into something else.
I had originally rooted to get around the Verizon mobile-hotspot check, but I have an unlimited plan that includes it anyway, now, so that's no longer an issue.
Possible placebo effect...
A clean stock unrooted firmware may run smoother than a few custom roms, but not smoother than a rooted version of the exact same rom.
I wouldn't give up on root, even if the best ever unrootable phone was given to me for free (Ad-blocking being the primary reason)
Prowler_gr said:
Possible placebo effect...
A clean stock unrooted firmware may run smoother than a few custom roms, but not smoother than a rooted version of the exact same rom.
I wouldn't give up on root, even if the best ever unrootable phone was given to me for free (Ad-blocking being the primary reason)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Blokada DNS changer. Also working without root. All problems gone. :good: for me the main reason for root is to prevent screen retention. The sucked soooo hart. If there would be an option without root I would also go with an unrooted stock fw.
Prowler_gr said:
Possible placebo effect...
A clean stock unrooted firmware may run smoother than a few custom roms, but not smoother than a rooted version of the exact same rom.
I wouldn't give up on root, even if the best ever unrootable phone was given to me for free (Ad-blocking being the primary reason)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not even a close comparison in my case. Admittedly I'm on Oreo now and not the original Nougat the phone came with (and was rooted with), but it's literally a night and day difference. It wasn't just performance - it was extreme instability, apps that wouldn't work or would constantly go into "not responding" mode, green screens, battery life that was awful to the point where it nearly always needed to be connected to a charger, etc. I'd tap on an app or a function in an app before, and I'd literally have to wait and wait for something to happen at times.
Now? Lightning fast and smooth operation, stability where there was none before, etc. And, as stated, for what I really needed root before (bypassing vendor check for mobile hotspot), it's no longer an issue due to the phone plan I'm on.
I'm not knocking rooting, so don't misunderstand. But for my experience with this phone, going back to stock where I could actually update the version of the OS, as well, has made all the difference in the world for my user experience. YMMV.
Interesting... I haven't tried stock Oreo yet but in every time I flash a new stock rom the phone runs great for 6 months then starts lagging.
oooh meee TOOO! me! meeeee!
Heyitsrick said:
I originally used the Dirty Santa routine on my Verizon VS995, so it remained on VS99513A for a couple of years. Had all manner of issues over time - apps "failing to respond", YouTube not displaying video but rather black screens, green-screen crashes, etc. Finally had enough and used the LGUP process to return to stock and unroot, of course. I probably (assuming, anyway) could have gone right to the latest Oreo firmware with LGUP, but decided to go to the stock version of VS99513A and then just do the many system updates to get current.
It's now happily sitting on Oreo, and knock on wood it's like having a new phone! It's so much smoother, YouTube is working, lol, battery life is an order of magnitude better and it's working like a phone should work. No one knows the future, of course, but today, I'm happy.
Just passing this along, but I've gone from being ready to trash this thing to being able to enjoy it again without worrying about having to dump some $$$ into something else.
I had originally rooted to get around the Verizon mobile-hotspot check, but I have an unlimited plan that includes it anyway, now, so that's no longer an issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Between the GIGANTIC pain in the ass that it was to root this phone (I have a VS995 rooted and on 13a ever since) and all the problems that rooting has caused I'd be ready to undo it all anyway. But due to some problem with internal storage* that started a couple weeks ago, I was fed-up and factory reset the phone. When it boots normally, a check in "about" shows the software status as "modified" but root checker says its not rooted, superSU can't find root (I installed it from play store).. Tried to update via the "system updates" in settings (could not get it to show developer options either).
* The storage issue: I have 50 gigs internal (or something similar) and I get a message that the storage is full and some apps may not work. Not possible, but I humored it and uninstalled everything, cleared cache, downloads cleared, etc ... still showing +/-1 gb free space avail. Factory reset, appears stock, but free space STILL less than 1 GB.
Regretted rooting this phone almost immediately since I still couldn't get rid of certain apps, I had to deal with the camera issues, etc... The only thing positive about it was that my work was unable to install their MDM crap (Mobile Iron shielding Gsuite etc). But anyway, it doesn't look like I'll be able to update the system - I tried it and now it boots to twrp, or boots regularly and then loops around to twrp again. I'm looking for the easiest way to get the phone working (with the persistent problem of internalstorage being full for no reason fixed) and at least reasonably updated. Don't care if it's rooted or not really.
Do you or does anyone have a link to a "play by play" for whatever might work? Its been too long since I rooted it for me to remember the nuances of the procedure so its safe to say that I don't really understand how Android works all that well, so instructions like, "flash xxx 3.2 then flash back to 2 then fastboot and load yer ROM but don't forget the dalvik blah blah" won't work... I'm looking for the idiot's version with hand-holding and everything.
Interesting analysis................ I mainly rooted my older phones due to the need for the mobile hotspot without paying VZ extra charges. However, now that I have the VS995, I was able to download and use the Foxfi app (I paid for the Pro upgrade license) so this left me thinking, do I really need to root my V20 at all? In the past, you couldn't run apps that ran many WIFI tools and other tech'y things, but it seems much of that has changed. I don't run custom ROMs so maybe I don't need to root. Would be glad to hear rebuttals on the subject
I received a new VS995 last week and I flash h910 to get FM radio. I could not be happier as I'm on OREO and the device is working perfectly without any issue whatsoever and with latest mk2000 kernel (2.2 beta) general interface performance is working very well - as it should. Hotspot needed a little workaround bit it wasn't too difficult. I wouldn't dream of going back to stock!
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=79939652&postcount=269
I know it's not straight to bootloader unlock and root this phone but it's worth the trouble. I hope my new fone will last and last untill manufactures change mind about removable batter and horrible new aspect ratio! No thanks V30 !
You're right.
There's no good reason to root the v20. Even rooted you can't do things that other phones can do, like enabling monitor mode on the Wi-Fi. Nor have I been able to get an external Wi-Fi adapter to work on it.
0per said:
There's no good reason to root the v20. Even rooted you can't do things that other phones can do, like enabling monitor mode on the Wi-Fi. Nor have I been able to get an external Wi-Fi adapter to work on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YOU ARE WRONG.
AD BLOCK Yeah they have rootless ad block but they work like ****
screen burn fixes. hows the ghosting?
titanium backup still best option for absolutely all apps getting backed up.
Sorry i have run root too long i cant live without it anymore.
is this happening to just verizon version of LG V20? anyone?
is this happening to just verizon version of LG V20? anyone?