Database Info

Root on PD2 6.0.1 Sprint S6 Edge/TWRP 3.0.2-1.

Hi folks,
just posting this writeup thinking maybe it might be of help to some people.
Started with a clean S6 Edge straight from Samsung repair for broken screen. Factory wipe, KNOX reset. It had the PD2 update. Tried using Skipsoft's Toolkit and ponied up a donation to get the Pro version with the S6 Edge 6.0.1 update, but it didn't work: it got stuck at the "SEANDROID NOT ENFORCING" screen after flashing TWRP 3.0.2. I know there are issues with 3.0.2, but it's what's optioned in Toolkit now.
Flashing TWRP 2.8.7.0 results in normal boot, but I could not enter recovery mode for some reason. 3.0.0-0 didn't work, either.
What I ended up doing is forcing phone into download mode (Power+Volume Down+Home), ODINing TWRP 3.0.2-1. This resulted in a bootloop (somewhat expected). But I could get into recovery easily. From recovery, I flashed Renegade's PD2-Aroma V3.0 Full ROM via ADB sideload. After a very long first boot, everything works 100%! Root, SuperSU, etc., all taken care of. Hotspot works.
Notes and tips:
- While I didn't use Skipsoft's Toolkit in the end, it's still worth supporting. Might work smoothly using 3.0.2-1 instead of 3.0.2.0, but I'm comfortable with adb/fastboot/etc. so just ended up using that. If you don't already have Android SDK and tools/platform-tools, Skipsoft conveniently includes those commands in its directory under C:\Unified_Android_Toolkit (they're named adb-toolkit and fastboot-toolkit. You can copy and rename them as "adb" and "fastboot" for convenience).
- Make sure you get the right TWRP 3.0.2-1 device version. You want to use twrp-3.0.2-1-zeroltespr.tar.md5 for Sprint S6 Edge. Remove the .md5 part and set it to use the .tar extension (stupid Windows asks you to confirm file extension type change).
- In TWRP you can either push your custom ROM or sideload it. To push a file, move the custom ROM into the same directory you've got adb/fastboot for convenience. Open a terminal window in that directory, and either "adb push customromfilenamehere.zip /sdcard/" or in TWRP, click Advanced/ADB Sideload, and enter "adb sideload customromfilenamehere.zip".
- If you're sideloading it, it's gonna take a while, and will start flashing even while the transfer percentage is creeping up. Example: at around 9%, it started AROMA, around 14%, it went through some of the installation options. It was done flashing everything and ready for reboot even though the terminal window said only 76% was transferred. That's ok. Click "finish" in AROMA on phone, reboot. Unplug phone. Wait a long time for first boot (this took around 20 minutes for me). ENJOY.
Remember: all is not lost as long as you can get into download mode! Power-Volume Down-Home until you get to screen prompting to get to download mode. Volume up to select that mode. You can ODIN from here.
Additionally: if you find yourself for whatever reason stuck at the initial S6 Edge boot screen with "SEANDROID NOT ENFORCING," you might be in some kinda of boot limbo. I was able to issue some adb commands here, even with recovery was borked and the phone didn't boot all the way. Doing an "adb reboot-bootloader" would let me do a complete boot to ROM while I was trying to get the different TWRP versions working (until 3.0.2-1).
Hope this helps someone.
tl;dr: For PD2/6.0.1 Sprint S6 Edge, manual flash TWRP 3.0.2-1. Push custom ROM through Recovery. Reboot, wait a long time. Success!

Just to Clarify (and mostly for myself), I think this is the simplest and most foolproof way to get yourself fully update and on a custom rom with root.
1. ODIN Stock PD2 Image. Reboot, make sure dev options + USB debugging is enabled.
2. ODIN latest TWRP 3.0.2.1 - HERE.
3. Obtain root by going into TWRP immediately after you install it and flashing the root kernel Ram did for this device - HERE
4. Then after wiping cache, dalvik and data in TWRP, flash Renegade ROM 3.0 PD2.
Using CFauto root method is known to cause issues. This is the type of approach I took and it was flawless. The initial boot of the Renegade ROM can seriously take like 20min though, I thought I was looping for a second.
If anyone disagrees with this method or sees where it can be done better, please advise. This seems to prevent the instance of any loops or issues. The Renegade ROM has a rooted kernel so flashing the root kernel is likely a redundant step. You could omit Step 3 if you are flashing a custom ROM, probably, but it seems to prevent any hangups. But if you plan to stay stock, you still have to flash a rooted kernel after TWRP.

Alpine- said:
Just to Clarify (and mostly for myself), I think this is the simplest and most foolproof way to get yourself fully update and on a custom rom with root.
1. ODIN Stock PD2 Image. Reboot, make sure dev options + USB debugging is enabled.
2. ODIN Ram's TWRP 3.0.2 - HERE I'm assuming the other guy's 3.0.2 works fine too, I am not sure why you hung and had to revert to a 2.x TWRP build.
3. Obtain root by going into TWRP immediately after you install it and flashing the root kernel Ram did for this device - HERE
4. Then after wiping cache, dalvik and data in TWRP, flash Renegade ROM 3.0 PD2.
Using CFauto root method is known to cause issues. This is the type of approach I took and it was flawless. The initial boot of the Renegade ROM can seriously take like 20min though, I thought I was looping for a second.
If anyone disagrees with this method or sees where it can be done better, please advise. This seems to prevent the instance of any loops or issues. The Renegade ROM has a rooted kernel so flashing the root kernel is likely a redundant step. You could omit Step 3 if you are flashing a custom ROM, probably, but it seems to prevent any hangups. But if you plan to stay stock, you still have to flash a rooted kernel after TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed chainfire now has a CF-autoroot for the 925P 6.01 and people were having success using the one for the 925F. Any verification on this? Haven't seen anyone on this forum say anything about it. I just bought a new S6 edge for sprint. I always am about year behind on phones because of the high cost of the latest and greatest. I picked the edge because my wife has had one a year and it gets a lot better reception than my N5. But, I gots to have root and don't wanna screw up a new phone. I know the first thing I need to do is check which software it's running. Should I do this before I activate it or can i stop any system upgrades before they install?

baknblack said:
I noticed chainfire now has a CF-autoroot for the 925P 6.01 and people were having success using the one for the 925F. Any verification on this? Haven't seen anyone on this forum say anything about it. I just bought a new S6 edge for sprint. I always am about year behind on phones because of the high cost of the latest and greatest. I picked the edge because my wife has had one a year and it gets a lot better reception than my N5. But, I gots to have root and don't wanna screw up a new phone. I know the first thing I need to do is check which software it's running. Should I do this before I activate it or can i stop any system upgrades before they install?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not attempted to use CF-autoroot just because of reported issues and the general recommendation being to use the standard method. It may work fine now that its been updated, but I have not personally tested it.

Alpine- said:
I have not attempted to use CF-autoroot just because of reported issues and the general recommendation being to use the standard method. It may work fine now that its been updated, but I have not personally tested it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just bought my phone new off ebay it updated to PF4 just as soon as I activated it. I couldn't stop it. Anyway I used the CF autoroot on it and it worked perfectly. I tried to do it manually a couple times first and never could get TWRP to flash. It would say it was successful but, stock recovery stayed. Anyways, I got er done and running Renegade wich btw is an awesome ROM. This is my first samsung device and had I done a bit more research I'd of known the majority of development is on the regular S6. I just picked the edge because my wife has one and it worked so much better in the boonies than my N5 did.

baknblack said:
I just bought my phone new off ebay it updated to PF4 just as soon as I activated it. I couldn't stop it. Anyway I used the CF autoroot on it and it worked perfectly. I tried to do it manually a couple times first and never could get TWRP to flash. It would say it was successful but, stock recovery stayed. Anyways, I got er done and running Renegade wich btw is an awesome ROM. This is my first samsung device and had I done a bit more research I'd of known the majority of development is on the regular S6. I just picked the edge because my wife has one and it worked so much better in the boonies than my N5 did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edge is better imo, certainly looks better. All you need is Renegade rom anyway. May be a few more roms in active dev for s6 but nothing better per se. Renegade rom dev is alive and well.

Would these root methods trip knox?

chen69chuck said:
Would these root methods trip knox?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes

Thanks.

Working for g920v 6.0.1?

freaking thank you been struggling with twrp on and off for two days trying to bring this phone back from the dead! YOU the man

Back on Stock Nougat and very happy

After several weeks of battling terrible battery drain, lag and sluggish performance I am back on Stock Nougat, build number NPJS25.93-14-8. With moderate use, my battery is now averaging less than 2% per hour ( < 1% while sleeping), where on the custom ROM of choice it was running over 5% per hour, even while sleeping. I tried every trick and tweak I could find and Better Battery Stats didn't show anything that could account for the high drain. I even tried a different ROM to no avail. So I threw in the towel, returned to stock, and did the latest OTA updates. I am now running rooted with ElementalX kernel 1.04 and I couldn't be more pleases with the overall performance and battery life.
I am sure it was something I missed but I got tired of spending hours trying to get back to the original performance and battery life the custom ROM had several weeks ago. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

While ota updates.......i brought to twrp only.... instead of installing latest security update.......... manually tried to install update...bt i can't..... gets an error... didn't u faced such problems

Harshseth said:
While ota updates.......i brought to twrp only.... instead of installing latest security update.......... manually tried to install update...bt i can't..... gets an error... didn't u faced such problems
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
None of STOCK ROM or OTA updates can be flashed/updated by TWRP, you need to be on stock recovery as well everything stock (unmodified system, boot and all).

I faced this problem too, but I fixed mostly of the battery drain tweaking the kernel with the ElementalX app to ~0,80/h. I had to set the little cores working like big cores do, because all little cores and one big were in use always; and applied LightingBlade profile.

Harshseth said:
While ota updates.......i brought to twrp only.... instead of installing latest security update.......... manually tried to install update...bt i can't..... gets an error... didn't u faced such problems
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In order to use the OTA path you have to be on stock recovery, boot and kernel, not on TWRP. Otherwise you get the error that you experienced.

xAnkris said:
I faced this problem too, but I fixed mostly of the battery drain tweaking the kernel with the ElementalX app to ~0,80/h. I had to set the little cores working like big cores do, because all little cores and one big were in use always; and applied LightingBlade profile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went that path but it didn't seem to help much. Besides, I am happy with this stock setup. It is much better than when I was on Marshmallow stock and went over to custom ROMs. I can do anything I want to do and install any app I desire to use. Good performance, great battery life, and customizable as much as I want. No need to be on custom.

pastorbob62 said:
After several weeks of battling terrible battery drain, lag and sluggish performance I am back on Stock Nougat, build number NPJS25.93-14-8. With moderate use, my battery is now averaging less than 2% per hour ( < 1% while sleeping), where on the custom ROM of choice it was running over 5% per hour, even while sleeping. I tried every trick and tweak I could find and Better Battery Stats didn't show anything that could account for the high drain. I even tried a different ROM to no avail. So I threw in the towel, returned to stock, and did the latest OTA updates. I am now running rooted with ElementalX kernel 1.04 and I couldn't be more pleases with the overall performance and battery life.
I am sure it was something I missed but I got tired of spending hours trying to get back to the original performance and battery life the custom ROM had several weeks ago. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you able to root the stock nougat build npjs25 14-8.?
If yes how you rooted your phone. Plzz guide me. I also want to root my stock nougat

ADITYA_KUMAR said:
Are you able to root the stock nougat build npjs25 14-8.?
If yes how you rooted your phone. Plzz guide me. I also want to root my stock nougat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before you can root stock Nougat you must first unlock you bootloader, install TWRP then flash Elemental X kernel 1.04 from TWRP.

pastorbob62 said:
Before you can root stock Nougat you must first unlock you bootloader, install TWRP then flash Elemental X kernel 1.04 from TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is elemental x kernel. I have a unlocked bootloader.

ADITYA_KUMAR said:
What is elemental x kernel. I have a unlocked bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instead of asking questions that have been answered numerous times (ad nauseam) you should try reading through the forums. I realize you are a raw noob, but if you wanted to learn Calculus, would you ask a bunch of questions without doing any reading and studying? It's no different when you are modifying your smart phone.
Here is a link to a thread that will guide you to rooting stock Nougat. It works for all versions of stock Nougat.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mo...de-root-moto-g4-plus-supersu-android-t3587918
But don't do anything until you have read through the procedures and fully understand. Above all, make a backup of your system from TWRP before you do anything else.

pastorbob62 said:
Instead of asking questions that have been answered numerous times (ad nauseam) you should try reading through the forums. I realize you are a raw noob, but if you wanted to learn Calculus, would you ask a bunch of questions without doing any reading and studying? It's no different when you are modifying your smart phone.
Here is a link to a thread that will guide you to rooting stock Nougat. It works for all versions of stock Nougat.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mo...de-root-moto-g4-plus-supersu-android-t3587918
But don't do anything until you have read through the procedures and fully understand. Above all, make a backup of your system from TWRP before you do anything else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
once I tried to root on stock nogut, so I installed TWRP and flashed SuperSu and my phone got bricked

pastorbob62 said:
After several weeks of battling terrible battery drain, lag and sluggish performance I am back on Stock Nougat, build number NPJS25.93-14-8. With moderate use, my battery is now averaging less than 2% per hour ( < 1% while sleeping), where on the custom ROM of choice it was running over 5% per hour, even while sleeping. I tried every trick and tweak I could find and Better Battery Stats didn't show anything that could account for the high drain. I even tried a different ROM to no avail. So I threw in the towel, returned to stock, and did the latest OTA updates. I am now running rooted with ElementalX kernel 1.04 and I couldn't be more pleases with the overall performance and battery life.
I am sure it was something I missed but I got tired of spending hours trying to get back to the original performance and battery life the custom ROM had several weeks ago. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very true.
Also try LightningBlade tunables(v 1.2.3 ; the newer version does not work that well for me..).
Stock rom provides the best balance between Performance and Battery life.

siddhesh9146 said:
once I tried to root on stock nogut, so I installed TWRP and flashed SuperSu and my phone got bricked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're rooting on stock Nougat, you must have a custom kernel flashed (or used the temporary dm-verity disabler on the stock kernel) before you root. Else, without the mentioned modifications, you'll trip the anti-rooting protection built into the stock kernel, and you'll have bootloops unless you reflash your stock ROM as you experienced.
Easiest way, as per the guide is to:
Flash/boot TWRP.
Backup.
Flash ElementalX or vegito (any custom kernel will do, as these kernels do not have the anti-rooting protection).
Reboot to test.
Boot back to TWRP
Flash SuperSU v2.79 or newer, or magisk 13 or newer
Reboot.
You should be rooted, on stock, and if you've flashed magisk, Safetynet should be working It's working well on NPJS25.93-14-8 and it's stable. Granted, a few apps now seem to detect root/magisk (and fail to download/update from the Play Store, with an error 0), but nothing that a sideload from a legitimate source wouldn't solve...

champsp said:
Very true.
Also try LightningBlade tunables(v 1.2.3 ; the newer version does not work that well for me..).
Stock rom provides the best balance between Performance and Battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True that! :good:

siddhesh9146 said:
once I tried to root on stock nogut, so I installed TWRP and flashed SuperSu and my phone got bricked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you had followed the link I supplied you would have had your answer as to why you had problems and also how to fix it.

echo92 said:
If you're rooting on stock Nougat, you must have a custom kernel flashed (or used the temporary dm-verity disabler on the stock kernel) before you root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, sorry for ask, do you know where can i find the temporary dm-verity disabler?
I tried with a script named "no-verity-opt-encrypt-5.1" (this works for the G5 Plus 'Potter') but i haven't had any success. Even i unpacked the stock boot.img and i tried to manually patch it, but i failed here too.
Honestly i would like to test the stock kernel, because i never used it, i am always attached to flashing EX to get root access. Thank you in advance.

moonlightdrive said:
Hi, sorry for ask, do you know where can i find the temporary dm-verity disabler?
I tried with a script named "no-verity-opt-encrypt-5.1" (this works for the G5 Plus 'Potter') but i haven't had any success. Even i unpacked the stock boot.img and i tried to manually patch it, but i failed here too.
Honestly i would like to test the stock kernel, because i never used it, i am always attached to flashing EX to get root access. Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if this will still work on later builds than the November/December 2016 builds, but here's the kernel with dm-verity disabled: https://forum.xda-developers.com/mo...t-how-to-root-n-firmware-npj25-93-11-t3532556 Seems to cause bootloops though on the later builds however
Strictly speaking, I misspoke - it's not really a dm-verity disabler, more a stock kernel with dm-verity disabled. I think EX kernel is still the more stable and more reliable option. It would be nice to be able to root the stock kernel though...

echo92 said:
I don't know if this will still work on later builds than the November/December 2016 builds, but here's the kernel with dm-verity disabled: https://forum.xda-developers.com/mo...t-how-to-root-n-firmware-npj25-93-11-t3532556 Seems to cause bootloops though on the later builds however
Strictly speaking, I misspoke - it's not really a dm-verity disabler, more a stock kernel with dm-verity disabled. I think EX kernel is still the more stable and more reliable option. It would be nice to be able to root the stock kernel though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, i see, thanks for your response. I'll look into it to see how he did to by-pass the dm verity, and try to modify the last boot.img that we have.

I mentioned earlier in this thread about getting Error 0 whilst updating apps in Google Play. As it turns out, thanks to this tip here https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=73552496&postcount=57 it appears to be an error with permissions on the /data/media partition.
I managed to fix it with osm0sis' script:
Download from here https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2239421 the sdcard Fix Permissions script http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3761904&d=1464187934
You may wish to back up your data with TWRP or ensure you have your photos and videos somewhere safe prior to flashing this.
Reboot to TWRP and backup your device.
Flash the above script.zip in TWRP and wait for it to complete. (it should be fixing the permissions in /data/media)
Reboot and you should be able to download/update apps again from Google Play afterwards. You may have to uninstall the app and re-install the app if it keeps failing.
I've got this working on a XT1642 running June 2017 stock ROM, rooted with magisk 13.3 and apps including Snapchat and Google Chrome update without issue now.

echo92 said:
I mentioned earlier in this thread about getting Error 0 whilst updating apps in Google Play. As it turns out, thanks to this tip here https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=73552496&postcount=57 it appears to be an error with permissions on the /data/media partition.
I managed to fix it with osm0sis' script:
Download from here https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2239421 the sdcard Fix Permissions script http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3761904&d=1464187934
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Useful info, this happened to me a couple of days ago. I thought it was something related to the integrated Chrome WebView in conflict with the system WebView, because it only happened when i tried to update Chrome, or any of his variants (dev, beta, canary, etc). Thanks.

[ROM] LineageOS 14.1 UNOFFICIAL h631

Latest release
Built from whoshotjr2006/touchpro's sources with minimal changes. All credit to original devs.
I'm not going to commit to regular updates but I'll try to do occasional ones.
Recommend using this TWRP (also stolen from touchpro).
Installation:
Enable developer options in stock ROM (tap build number a bunch of times)
Enable 'Advanced Restart' in developer options
Hold power button, select restart, restart to bootloader
Use fastboot to unlock bootloader
Use fastboot to flash TWRP recovery
Reboot to recovery using fastboot command
Wipe everything in TWRP, format data, and factory reset
Push ROM to /sdcard/ and install
Optionally push Gapps and/or LineageSU and install
Boot and enjoy (first start might take a while)
Tested on a T-Mobile LG G Stylo, all seems well.

As far as I can tell, everything is working fine. You should be able to dirty flash if you are using another Lineage 14.1 build but I haven't tested it.

It's awesome to see others making roms for this device again, but do you think you will be able to make a oreo rom though? ?

ItzBluestone said:
It's awesome to see others making roms for this device again, but do you think you will be able to make a oreo rom though? ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The LOS14 tree is still getting security updates and will run a lot faster than LOS16. I could build an Oreo ROM but there's little chance of finding the vendor FW needed to get camera, bluetooth, etc working properly.

jsheradin said:
The LOS14 tree is still getting security updates and will run a lot faster than LOS16. I could build an Oreo ROM but there's little chance of finding the vendor FW needed to get camera, bluetooth, etc working properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh, well that's unfortunate...

So what is different? Just security updates?

This ROM breathed new life into my old MetroPC version of this phone (2GB/16GB)!
I bought this phone two years ago refurbished and carrier-unlocked (other than banned on MPC) off Amazon. Looked brand new. I just installed a new battery last month. Original battery wore out.
ROM works beautifully. Nice to be free of the factory cruft. Also, the TWRP from your OP works much better than the one I had been running. (Neither TWRP reads the current time/date through.)
I had been rooted with SuperSU, now I'm rooted with Magisk. I flashed mini Gapps 7.1.
I have not tested NFC yet.
Thank you for this ROM and your post!

My TMo h631 will not take the image. During the install it will kernel panic and throw an error.
I do factory reset, wipes, formats but still no go.
Anyone knows how I can fix it?

Will this work fine on the LGM631?

Rooting Pie?

I have a question. I want to root my phone (upgraded from oreo to pie, stock), but i'm not sure what should i do. Should i use oreo rooting instructions? I can't find any tutorial for rooting on pie. I don't want to change my rom, i just want to have a root and be able do use the magick and modules that's all. It would be nice to have step by step instruction.
I know i have to unlock my bootloader first at htcdev, then install twrp (not sure which twrp and if the installation is same as on oreo?)
In the past i rooted one phone but it was completely different and i almost bricked my device, because some idiot posted wrong link on the forum... There is so many versions of everything and i'm feeling lost in it.

I hope this helps, but Pie is still very new for the HTC U11. Some even are saying that clean flashes of the Pie RUU have flash, camera, and wifi issues. I am currently running the amazing RR-P rom (which is based on pie), but it runs on the latest Oreo RUU. I have no issues with the ROM and I get insane SoT even without battery savings. I am excited for the future of this phone, since I love the hardware navbar (never liked the on-screen one / though my HTC m8 is still a boss, and even the forums there have a very solid Lineage 17.0 (android 10) working on it).
https://dl.twrp.me/ocn/
Above is the official link to the US HTC u11 TWRP recoveries. I don't think (to be safer than sorry) these are 100% compatible over the PIE firmware though.
I checked HTCdev, and it doesn't seem to have any difference in the instructions in unlocking the bootloader. No mention of Nougat or Oreo, so I would assume there's no difference in doing the same with Pie.

I flashed my U11 after Pie update, working fine, no problems with flash, wifi or anything else (CID: HTC__034)
1. Unlock bootloader via htcdev
2. Flash latest TWRP from the official site. Instructions here for example: https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-install-twrp/
3. Flash Magisk (also from official Magisk site)… that was a little trickier, since TWRP can't mount the encrypted partitions. The workaround is to copy the Magisk ZIP onto an SD Card and flash it from there while in TWRP.
4. Enjoy.
I decided to root this U11 for the first time, since I don't expect any futur software updates coming form HTC.

Thank you for all your help, i'll try this out today. :good:

So i did everything and it's working but i have one problem. After installing magisk i tried to install some modules, and one of them caused bootloop and i was unable to delete it, and also i was unable to install module uninstaller (fail). So i had to do factory reset - any solution to avoid this kind of problems in future?
Also i installed xposed successfully, but none of modules was working..

Togzyk said:
So i did everything and it's working but i have one problem. After installing magisk i tried to install some modules, and one of them caused bootloop and i was unable to delete it, and also i was unable to install module uninstaller (fail). So i had to do factory reset - any solution to avoid this kind of problems in future?
Also i installed xposed successfully, but none of modules was working..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no answers, but as u can see a rooted pie is problematic, hence the many people reverting back to oreo and or nougat, but some people somehow make it work. Not me I could not downgrade quick enough after rooting, unrooted pie worked great, but my many 'need for root apps' did not , so back to oreo for me . Just my 2 cents!! Good luck.

hammered58 said:
I have no answers, but as u can see a rooted pie is problematic, hence the many people reverting back to oreo and or nougat, but some people somehow make it work. Not me I could not downgrade quick enough after rooting, unrooted pie worked great, but my many 'need for root apps' did not , so back to oreo for me . Just my 2 cents!! Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found many working apps. The biggest problem is "substratum", especially when it comes to changing navbar buttons. But gravitybox is working, and I'm happy with it. Thanks for your help

My rooted Pie works fine, but I didn't install Substratum or Xposed.

Do you really need the latest security patch? and other thoughts for newbies et al

By all means, read @Neffy27 's FAQ if you are starting out. even as a refresher for stuff you may have forgotten.
-But do think a bit about what you are doing:
-Do not modify your phone unless you are willing to toss it into the trash, as that could well be the result, no matter how well planned.
-Always have a spare on hand. I used my old Moto G3 when my MZP died suddenly. Worked just fine. You know, things really haven't changed all that much since Gingerbread...
-If you are going to be getting the latest OTA stuff by doing a full flash you might want to reflect on just how much, or little, you would gain. We all like to think that if we have the latest security patch we are somehow more safe, though I don't believe I have ever heard of a phone being affected by something just because it is not on the latest patch. I was running my old Moto z play on an aug '18 (if I remember correctly) patch with no problems up until a few weeks ago when it was done in by an expanding battery envelope which cracked the display. Consider, also, that many of the custom roms that are available are not updated at all - it takes a ton of work to try to get/keep a custom ROM current, AND working! Yet you never hear of viruses or the like.
- Be aware that if you modify ANYTHING on your phone, even as little as a new boot logo to cover up the unlocked bootloader message, you will prevent your phone from taking any further OTA updates. Some mods, like adding TWRP, may still allow it to try to download and install an OTA, but when it reboots to finish that install, it will fail since it needs to re-boot through stock recovery to complete. And it will continue offering you that update.
- There is a difference between the partition structure in our phones on 8.x, and those on 9. 9 is not full Treble, only a "partial" Treble, and really only the addition of a second set of partitions which OTA updates can use to update the system - instead of modifying the single partition set, it modifies the other (a or b) set and boots to that on update completion. If it fails it can always boot the other set. Theoretically! Makes it safer than the old way of doing OTA updates, but this may cause problems if you try to flash a 2 partition set phone with a single partition set ROM. I don't believe anyone has run any experiments on this, so YOU, when you flash things without thinking about the situation, may get an unusable phone. I do not know the answer here. If you read these forums which detail other's problems, you may trod a bit more hesitantly!
-The idea here is to have fun, and sometimes to experiment with new things. To a newbie, losing the use of a $200 phone can be a tough life lesson. Let's help them out by helping them to be cautious!

Agreed. I've been running stock with January 2018 patch, TWRP installed and Magisk for root and successful safety net bypass.
I'm looking to see if running Lineage will help streamline any update processes. It looks like they have their own recovery too.
Maintaining root has become a pain in my ass the past few years.
Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

SR3TLAW said:
Agreed. I've been running stock with January 2018 patch, TWRP installed and Magisk for root and successful safety net bypass.
I'm looking to see if running Lineage will help streamline any update processes. It looks like they have their own recovery too.
Maintaining root has become a pain in my ass the past few years.
Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
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I would be careful about lineage as folks don't seem to be able to get back to stock from it.
I agree about maintaining root. I will likely just stay on stock with this one.