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After my experience with the CLIQ where I was lucky enough to disable OTA updates, but watched as other people ended up with a radio ROM that bootlooped their custom images, and that the low level flash update removed the original RAMDLD hole, one of the primary considerations I have now for a device is how easy it is to not just root, but reflash.
By chance, does anyone maintain a list of devices that either are easy to mod versus other ones that sign the Linux kernel blocking updates, keep filesystems read-only even to root, and other gotchas? This way, I can steer clear of phones that are likely not going to have much of modding options available and go for a device that is easy to customize.
You must avoid the milestone which has a locked bootloader: that's a nice phone but with limited customizations.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App - Milestone
mlts22 said:
After my experience with the CLIQ where I was lucky enough to disable OTA updates, but watched as other people ended up with a radio ROM that bootlooped their custom images, and that the low level flash update removed the original RAMDLD hole, one of the primary considerations I have now for a device is how easy it is to not just root, but reflash.
By chance, does anyone maintain a list of devices that either are easy to mod versus other ones that sign the Linux kernel blocking updates, keep filesystems read-only even to root, and other gotchas? This way, I can steer clear of phones that are likely not going to have much of modding options available and go for a device that is easy to customize.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The T-Mobile Pulse can be rooted very easily, but there isn't a big mod scene for it, although you will find a great community for it at Modaco, it runs Android 2.1... I dont quite get ur last part though??
mlts22 said:
After my experience with the CLIQ where I was lucky enough to disable OTA updates, but watched as other people ended up with a radio ROM that bootlooped their custom images, and that the low level flash update removed the original RAMDLD hole, one of the primary considerations I have now for a device is how easy it is to not just root, but reflash.
By chance, does anyone maintain a list of devices that either are easy to mod versus other ones that sign the Linux kernel blocking updates, keep filesystems read-only even to root, and other gotchas? This way, I can steer clear of phones that are likely not going to have much of modding options available and go for a device that is easy to customize.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nexus One is the easiest to unlock and root. "fastboot oem-unlock" and it unlocks the bootloader and you can flash any image you want to system, data, boot, zimage, and recovery.
Acer liquid is unlocked so it's the easyest. Nexus One is on second because it's very easy to unlock.
i'd also venture to say that the sprint hero is very easy to root as well.
G1 and Mytouch
easy to root
excelent ROM selection
Moto Droid is fairly easy. You will have to downgrade to 2.0 and then you can use something like Droidmod to do everything for you. I prefer to manually load my roms and make backups, but for ease of use, Droidmod is about as easy as you can get.
rutger1413 said:
Moto Droid is fairly easy. You will have to downgrade to 2.0 and then you can use something like Droidmod to do everything for you. I prefer to manually load my roms and make backups, but for ease of use, Droidmod is about as easy as you can get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's gotten a lot easier than this...
You just have to flash the SPRecovery image to the phone using RSDlite vs. flashing the whole system and then you can boot into SPRecovery and run update.zip to gain root.
Droidmod is considered outdated these days and most have moved on to Rom Manager.
Well.. Actually, by far the ADP1(G1), It's rooted out of the box!
Is the Nexus One not meant to be very easy to root?
The Desire is kinda easy to root (with the files released by Paul at Modaco) but it's not fully rooted
Still possible to flash ROM's though
I am about to follow the steps in this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1351060
Is there anything that i should do before hand that would beneficial and would help me avoid any unexpected problems.
yes of course backup your apps and backup your current rom too
How do i backup my current rom?
depending on what device you have, the first step in every guide is to flash a recovery system. The most common is clockworkmod. This will allow you to make a backup of your current rom, flash new rooms, flash backups, wipe everything, etc.
bmwfrkvt said:
depending on what device you have, the first step in every guide is to flash a recovery system. The most common is clockworkmod. This will allow you to make a backup of your current rom, flash new rooms, flash backups, wipe everything, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Device i have is the Incredible S. I think the method i posted on this thread seems to use clockwork?
Also, Will HTC get me EMEI (meaning voided Warranty?) no if i do the method i posted?
it is unlikely that you will have warranty issues from what I have seen. Usually if people are having a problem, they just UN-root their phones and send them back in, there are lots of guides on this. Also, most of the new roms include the removal of CIQ or similar ploys by the carriers to track people who root their devices.
bmwfrkvt said:
it is unlikely that you will have warranty issues from what I have seen. Usually if people are having a problem, they just UN-root their phones and send them back in, there are lots of guides on this. Also, most of the new roms include the removal of CIQ or similar ploys by the carriers to track people who root their devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Incredible S is unbranded/SIM Free would this still apply to my scenario?
I'm not sure I follow, what carrier do you have? If you don't have a warranty through the carrier, I'm not sure how HTC does it directly, but either way as long as you unroot, they shouldnt be able to tell that you ever were... therefore they shouldn't be able to void your warranty.
bmwfrkvt said:
I'm not sure I follow, what carrier do you have? If you don't have a warranty through the carrier, I'm not sure how HTC does it directly, but either way as long as you unroot, they shouldnt be able to tell that you ever were... therefore they shouldn't be able to void your warranty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I dont have a warranty with a Carrier. My phone is Sim-free ie unlocked and unbranded.
So does this mean that it wont matter cause i am Sim Free/Unbranded?
Hey fellas, I got my Verizon GS3 last Thursday knowing that it had a locked bootloader but was hoping someone would figure out how to get root. Now I see that it has been rooted but is it "completely" rooted? What I mean is, can I overclock it, flash kernals, custom roms, wifi tether? Does it have the same capabilities of all three of the other US carriers' GS3s? Is Cyanogenmod developing CM9 for it yet? I was reading somewhere that you can root it just like any other version but it's just a bigger pain in the ass. I just want to make sure that my Verizon GS3 can be completely rooted so I can do everything I did with my old Droid. Should I just take it back and go with the Sprint version of the GS3? Im sorry if some of these are "noob" questions but I just want to figure out what I should do. Any help would be much appreciated!
Rooting and the other things you spoke of are not the same thing.
Rooting = The ability to write to the system partition, while booted into android. This allows you to delete system files (such as bloatware).
Locked Boot Loader = You will not be able to flash custom files (unsigned) to the phone from Odin. This means no clockwork recovery, roms, kernels ect....
There are ways around some of the locked boot loader stuff on some phones (ex. droid 2 got a special recovery through months of dev work. This did not cicrumvent the locked boot loader, but allowed away around it). This type of recovery (2nd init) is not avalible for Samsung phones.
If you want roms and all access, I would go with the dev unit samsung is selling for verizon. However, there still may not be much for the VZW gs3 because they wont sell tons of the dev units at $600 a pop.
The Verizon S3 already has root, roms and kernels up and working and some really good devs trying to crack it. I have a VG3 and it was rooted in less than a day and I'm having no issues. It's a great phone but the locked bootloader may cause issue in the future.
If I knew that samsung was going to release a dev version I may not have pre-ordered my S3 but I"m still happy with my purchase so far. What I find amusing is the price stated on the dev phone right now is cheaper than buying the phone outright from big V right now. We will see what the price really is when the phone is made available.
Farabomb said:
The Verizon S3 already has root, roms and kernels up and working and some really good devs trying to crack it. I have a VG3 and it was rooted in less than a day and I'm having no issues. It's a great phone but the locked bootloader may cause issue in the future.
If I knew that samsung was going to release a dev version I may not have pre-ordered my S3 but I"m still happy with my purchase so far. What I find amusing is the price stated on the dev phone right now is cheaper than buying the phone outright from big V right now. We will see what the price really is when the phone is made available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this post!
locked bootloader means no custom roms or kernels.
chakra said:
locked bootloader means no custom roms or kernels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true.
Touchwiz based custom roms are entirely possible and it has already been shown custom kernels work using kexec. Yeah it's not as good as an unlocked bootloader but we have our work arounds until these crazy smart devs figure out how to bypass the locked bootloader.
Sent from my SGS3
tanman21 said:
Rooting and the other things you spoke of are not the same thing.
Rooting = The ability to write to the system partition, while booted into android. This allows you to delete system files (such as bloatware).
Locked Boot Loader = You will not be able to flash custom files (unsigned) to the phone from Odin. This means no clockwork recovery, roms, kernels ect....
There are ways around some of the locked boot loader stuff on some phones (ex. droid 2 got a special recovery through months of dev work. This did not cicrumvent the locked boot loader, but allowed away around it). This type of recovery (2nd init) is not avalible for Samsung phones.
If you want roms and all access, I would go with the dev unit samsung is selling for verizon. However, there still may not be much for the VZW gs3 because they wont sell tons of the dev units at $600 a pop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply man! The dev phone just may be an option but I really don't feel like forking over $600 when I can go to Sprint on a cheaper plan and have an unlocked bootloader....either way, I have 10 more days to return my phone and cancel my contract if I need to. And btw, I sent a long email to Verizon asking them if they will ever unlock the bootloader ( I read an article saying they may, then today read a article saying they wont. We'll see.) I also said that I may just cancel my contract and go to Sprint and ask them how they can "help" relieve this situation that alot of people are facing. I'll report back and let everyone know what their response is.
Topdroid01 said:
Hey fellas, I got my Verizon GS3 last Thursday knowing that it had a locked bootloader but was hoping someone would figure out how to get root. Now I see that it has been rooted but is it "completely" rooted? What I mean is, can I overclock it, flash kernals, custom roms, wifi tether? Does it have the same capabilities of all three of the other US carriers' GS3s? Is Cyanogenmod developing CM9 for it yet? I was reading somewhere that you can root it just like any other version but it's just a bigger pain in the ass. I just want to make sure that my Verizon GS3 can be completely rooted so I can do everything I did with my old Droid. Should I just take it back and go with the Sprint version of the GS3? Im sorry if some of these are "noob" questions but I just want to figure out what I should do. Any help would be much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's some erroneous replies so far, hopefully this will clear it up for you. Root or superuser, is a linux term, which basically provides you with admin rights. With root alone you can run WiFi tether, rename system apps, etc. Root is easily attainable on the Verizon S3, see the dev section for guides.
The S3 recovery partition is NOT signed. This allows us to install custom recoveries (i.e. ClockworkMod, TWRP, etc.) This is very different from say, a Moto phone that had to use bootstrap methods. The S3 can have a fully functioning recovery that will allow you to do backups, flash ROMs and Kernels, etc. Again, very easy to do, see dev section for guides (it's grouped with root).
What's currently being worked on is the "locked" bootloader. Basically we can write whatever we want to the various partitions, however, there is a security check being done that prevents altering various areas, like the boot.img. Right now there is a workaround where custom Kernels are flashed via the recovery partition (see recovery/kexec threads for more info).
There is no official CM9 or CM10 builds yet, but they are being worked on and there are bootable versions of both. Right now the RIL is the bigger issue as it's preventing data but that has nothing to do with the bootloader. The RIL is being worked on, no ETA.
tl;dr - The bootloader is still "locked" but there are already various workaround methods in place to allow for the flashing of custom recoveries, ROMs, Kernels, etc. Reading the guides in the dev section would be a great place to start understanding what's going on better.
s197 said:
There's some erroneous replies so far, hopefully this will clear it up for you. Root or superuser, is a linux term, which basically provides you with admin rights. With root alone you can run WiFi tether, rename system apps, etc. Root is easily attainable on the Verizon S3, see the dev section for guides.
The S3 recovery partition is NOT signed. This allows us to install custom recoveries (i.e. ClockworkMod, TWRP, etc.) This is very different from say, a Moto phone that had to use bootstrap methods. The S3 can have a fully functioning recovery that will allow you to do backups, flash ROMs and Kernels, etc. Again, very easy to do, see dev section for guides (it's grouped with root).
What's currently being worked on is the "locked" bootloader. Basically we can write whatever we want to the various partitions, however, there is a security check being done that prevents altering various areas, like the boot.img. Right now there is a workaround where custom Kernels are flashed via the recovery partition (see recovery/kexec threads for more info).
There is no official CM9 or CM10 builds yet, but they are being worked on and there are bootable versions of both. Right now the RIL is the bigger issue as it's preventing data but that has nothing to do with the bootloader. The RIL is being worked on, no ETA.
tl;dr - The bootloader is still "locked" but there are already various workaround methods in place to allow for the flashing of custom recoveries, ROMs, Kernels, etc. Reading the guides in the dev section would be a great place to start understanding what's going on better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This explains things alot better for me Thank you!!!. Im coming from a OG Droid that I rooted as soon as I got it so its been a while since I've been on the scene. I've kept up with the OG Droid Development for quite some time (which is basically nonexistent) so Im somewhat familiar with rooting and such just not familiar with this lock bootloader and such on my S3. Anyways, I still may just go to Sprint but havent made my mind up yet. And THANKS again for the very knowledgeable answer!
Hoping some kind soul will take a few minutes to get me up to speed on what I need to know about hacking the M8.
I am not a total newb, and have lingered around XDA for a while. I've rooted many phones and tablets, even worked with cooking my own ROMS for android and older winmo 4+ years ago. I've just not been involved in the scene and am just about to get my new M8 and would like a crash course.
I really don't mind reading - so if someone has a great all-in-one guide they recommend, I'll certainly start with that...its just the endless searching for the up-to-date info I'm looking to avoid. I actually prefer to understand what I'm doing rather than just click "unlock"
Top most questions in my mind:
1) The biggest thing I would like to know to start is the best way to backup/up protect my device before I do anything to it.
I'd like to be able to return it to total stock (minus any impossibility in re-locking a bootloader) in case I mess things up or need to return, etc.
2) Current best methods for rooting, unlocking, etc. I just want to make sure I'm not doing something out of date that might be more effort than necessary/dangerous.
3) I see this new TWRP thing...which looks like an alternate to CWM. Which is better for me to use for M8?
4) Any M8 specific big dangers to watch out for to prevent bricking.
I always look to XDA for the best advice, but sometimes the site is difficult to navigate to find the most clear explanation.
TIA!
TraderJack said:
Hoping some kind soul will take a few minutes to get me up to speed on what I need to know about hacking the M8.
I am not a total newb, and have lingered around XDA for a while. I've rooted many phones and tablets, even worked with cooking my own ROMS for android and older winmo 4+ years ago. I've just not been involved in the scene and am just about to get my new M8 and would like a crash course.
I really don't mind reading - so if someone has a great all-in-one guide they recommend, I'll certainly start with that...its just the endless searching for the up-to-date info I'm looking to avoid. I actually prefer to understand what I'm doing rather than just click "unlock"
Top most questions in my mind:
1) The biggest thing I would like to know to start is the best way to backup/up protect my device before I do anything to it.
I'd like to be able to return it to total stock (minus any impossibility in re-locking a bootloader) in case I mess things up or need to return, etc.
2) Current best methods for rooting, unlocking, etc. I just want to make sure I'm not doing something out of date that might be more effort than necessary/dangerous.
3) I see this new TWRP thing...which looks like an alternate to CWM. Which is better for me to use for M8?
4) Any M8 specific big dangers to watch out for to prevent bricking.
I always look to XDA for the best advice, but sometimes the site is difficult to navigate to find the most clear explanation.
TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) The best most efficient way of backing up your device is to make a Nandroid backup with a recovery such as CWM or TWRP, but of course there will always be times where you could do something simpler to solve your problem such as disabling the Xposed framework but how? My phone is stuck in a bootloop, how would I disable it? The answer is when installing the framework make sure to first in the settings select to create flashable zips (manual) then once they are created go back and do the 'Classic' method. Now I'm sure if you're as new as you say you are you most likely don't know what Xposed is, it is a separate framework which allows you to customize your ROM to do things similar to what a 'Custom' ROM would normally always do. Most people don't think before installing these modules and end up soft-bricking their device and have to use their Nandroids to restore them but the way I mentioned is far simpler.
2) The utmost best method currently available (and only available) for rooting, unlocking, S-OFF & etc is currently Sunshine, you can read up about it here. Sadly and or not so sadly it costs $25 per device but it will do everything you will need to get started such as S-OFF (Security OFF, S-ON prevents writing to the /system partition and some other things I can't remember), Bootloader unlock & root.
3) Personally I prefer TWRP because it just feels like it has more ease of use towards it but thats just my opinion. There is an alternative to it which is CWM as you mentioned or 'PhilZ' CWM, Philz CWM is a touch-based version which to my experiences is a bit buggy but it works. I personally recommend TWRP but you might as well play around with them and see which one you like best.
4) Biggest danger of them all: To my knowledge that is, attempting to revert to S-ON. That is the most dangerous thing I am aware of at the moment but there may be something more dangerous but from what I know that is the most risky thing that is HTC based and or anything based.
This can be considered a good "All in one guide" for you to follow, it has pretty much everything I can think of at the moment.
An alternative to that one would be this one excluding all of the stuff involving Weaksauce and Firewater as Firewater does not work on newer devices and already rooted users don't have a use for Weaksauce. Still though it's a good tutorial for flashing a recovery and rooting.
Here is a solid tutorial on how to revert to stock if you ever decide to (once more do NOT attempt S-ON).
& if you're interested in using ROM's for other carrier variants of your phone then this one may be of interest to you.
Lastly, if you're concerned about any warranty things then as long as you do an RUU like the one mentioned in the 'Reverting to Stock' thread you will have no problems with it even if you're bootloader is unlocked and you're S-OFF. Why you may be wondering?? HTC sometimes ships phones already S-OFF/Bootloader unlocked and also I sort of think they just don't really care... you know as long as you didn't mess the phone up.
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If you have any further questions, I left something unclear or you just need me to elaborate further on something then feel free to ask further questions and I recommend doing your own research on these things before attempting them. Good luck and happy modding!
TraderJack said:
Hoping some kind soul will take a few minutes to get me up to speed on what I need to know about hacking the M8.
I am not a total newb, and have lingered around XDA for a while. I've rooted many phones and tablets, even worked with cooking my own ROMS for android and older winmo 4+ years ago. I've just not been involved in the scene and am just about to get my new M8 and would like a crash course.
I really don't mind reading - so if someone has a great all-in-one guide they recommend, I'll certainly start with that...its just the endless searching for the up-to-date info I'm looking to avoid. I actually prefer to understand what I'm doing rather than just click "unlock"
Top most questions in my mind:
1) The biggest thing I would like to know to start is the best way to backup/up protect my device before I do anything to it.
I'd like to be able to return it to total stock (minus any impossibility in re-locking a bootloader) in case I mess things up or need to return, etc.
2) Current best methods for rooting, unlocking, etc. I just want to make sure I'm not doing something out of date that might be more effort than necessary/dangerous.
3) I see this new TWRP thing...which looks like an alternate to CWM. Which is better for me to use for M8?
4) Any M8 specific big dangers to watch out for to prevent bricking.
I always look to XDA for the best advice, but sometimes the site is difficult to navigate to find the most clear explanation.
TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The above post about covers it. Only thing I would like to add is I much prefer Phil's touch recovery based on CMW and try firewater method for soft and unlocking boot loader before paying for sunshine. It may or may not work. But could possibly save you the cash.
mdorrett said:
The above post about covers it. Only thing I would like to add is I much prefer Phil's touch recovery based on CMW and try firewater method for soft and unlocking boot loader before paying for sunshine. It may or may not work. But could possibly save you the cash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Philz recovery is amazing, have you used the M8 unified builds yet? Or are you still sticking to the last Verizon build?
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
Thanks all. I will certainly read up on what you've written and follow up with any questions I may have.
So I read a little bit on the posts above... Ick...when I was deciding on the M8 I checked to see if it was all hackable and apparently found the positive information for only the old methods and didn't realize a $25 price tag was the *only* way to really unlock the phone.
I mean...I don't totally begrudge the devs charging for it...but honestly I've never heard of this before in the 8-10 years I've been modding with smartphones of charging for this. While $25 may be nothing compared to a $700 unlocked phone, it sure is a heck of a lot more than $0, which was where the previous bar was set. You'd think $5 or $10 would be a better place to start.
Of course, it doesn't look like I have any other option though. I do have some more questions:
1) What are the pieces that sunshine does that can't be done elsewhere? It looks like there are several root methods - so is sunshine the only way to S-OFF or is it also the only way to unlock the bootloader?
2) If I don't do sunshine, and therefore can't S-OFF (and maybe can't unlock bootloader), can I still root? If so, is it only a temp unroot? And is there really a downside to that?
3) In all honesty, while I'd like to have everything unlocked, I think I will be happy with a root for now if that's enough to do some hacks (like maybe energy saving and wifi tether, etc.). Will I be able to do those with just root? I'm not really clear on the actual purpose of the S-OFF vs. the unlocked boot loader. Maybe in a few months I will be tired of the stock ROM and cough up the dough.
4) In order to do the backups to revert to stock, what steps must I first obtain and can I do those steps for free (aka no Sunshine) and are they reversible? IOW, what's the minimum I must "hack" the device in order to get a stock backup and/or to recover it.
Finally - when did the "firewater" method stop working? Is it newer hardware being shipped or a certain firmware/OS level update that blocked it? It sounds pretty unlikely that it will work for a new phone, but it won't hurt to try if it doesn't, right?
thanks again for the jump start....I think just jumping in and doing is the best way to learn, but I don't want to leap without protecting myself at the outset.
TraderJack said:
So I read a little bit on the posts above... Ick...when I was deciding on the M8 I checked to see if it was all hackable and apparently found the positive information for only the old methods and didn't realize a $25 price tag was the *only* way to really unlock the phone.
I mean...I don't totally begrudge the devs charging for it...but honestly I've never heard of this before in the 8-10 years I've been modding with smartphones of charging for this. While $25 may be nothing compared to a $700 unlocked phone, it sure is a heck of a lot more than $0, which was where the previous bar was set. You'd think $5 or $10 would be a better place to start.
Of course, it doesn't look like I have any other option though. I do have some more questions:
1) What are the pieces that sunshine does that can't be done elsewhere? It looks like there are several root methods - so is sunshine the only way to S-OFF or is it also the only way to unlock the bootloader?
2) If I don't do sunshine, and therefore can't S-OFF (and maybe can't unlock bootloader), can I still root? If so, is it only a temp unroot? And is there really a downside to that?
3) In all honesty, while I'd like to have everything unlocked, I think I will be happy with a root for now if that's enough to do some hacks (like maybe energy saving and wifi tether, etc.). Will I be able to do those with just root? I'm not really clear on the actual purpose of the S-OFF vs. the unlocked boot loader. Maybe in a few months I will be tired of the stock ROM and cough up the dough.
4) In order to do the backups to revert to stock, what steps must I first obtain and can I do those steps for free (aka no Sunshine) and are they reversible? IOW, what's the minimum I must "hack" the device in order to get a stock backup and/or to recover it.
Finally - when did the "firewater" method stop working? Is it newer hardware being shipped or a certain firmware/OS level update that blocked it? It sounds pretty unlikely that it will work for a new phone, but it won't hurt to try if it doesn't, right?
thanks again for the jump start....I think just jumping in and doing is the best way to learn, but I don't want to leap without protecting myself at the outset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) sunshine is the only way to s-off if firewater doesn't work. It pushes an exploit that turns the secure flag off so s-off is achieved, then it pushes a separate exploit to unlock the bootloader. You may be able to change your phone carrier ID so htc dev can s-off your phone, but it doesn't do everything sunshine does.
2) without using sunshine you can still have temporary root with weaksauce, but it's really limited. Since your phone is still s-on, it isn't able to write to the system partition. It means you lose root on every reboot, and you have to wait up to a minute for weaksauce to root again.
Also without an unlocked bootloader you are unable to flash a custom recovery, which means you can't make a nandroid. Not having a nandroid sucks because if you soft brick your phone you have no choice but to go completely back to stock. Not a great situation to be in.
Any root framework or application that requires modification of your system folder won't work.
There's no question paying $25 for sunshine is worth it.
3) here's the some definitions:
S-on = security flag on, system write protected
S-off = security flag off, system write enabled
Unlocked bootloader: ability to flash custom kernels and Recoveries.
Having access to a custom recovery is everything. Allows easy backup capabilities in case a rom modification goes bad. Allows super user permissions to be flashed directly into the system partition to allow permanent root. And gives you the ability to keep an unlocked bootloader without worry that Verizon will patch the current exploit.
Even on a stock rom it's worth it to have an unlocked bootloader. The modifications you're referring to require a custom recovery, and even if you could install them without it, it's still recommended to have a nandroid available in case your phone doesn't boot afterwards. I'm still running stock myself.
4) getting back to stock isn't easy. Verizon or HTC didn't release an official ruu. You'd have to flash the unofficial ruu, then turn your flags back to S-on, and hope it doesn't detect anything weird and flag your phone as tampered. The information was already linked to you in earlier posts, you just have to read up on it.
5) firewater stopped working on newer hardware versions, has nothing to do with firmware versions. There's no harm in trying it, but it most likely won't work on a new phone.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
BadUsername said:
1) sunshine is the only way to s-off if firewater doesn't work. It pushes an exploit that turns the secure flag off so s-off is achieved, then it pushes a separate exploit to unlock the bootloader. You may be able to change your phone carrier ID so htc dev can s-off your phone, but it doesn't do everything sunshine does.
2) without using sunshine you can still have temporary root with weaksauce, but it's really limited. Since your phone is still s-on, it isn't able to write to the system partition. It means you lose root on every reboot, and you have to wait up to a minute for weaksauce to root again.
Also without an unlocked bootloader you are unable to flash a custom recovery, which means you can't make a nandroid. Not having a nandroid sucks because if you soft brick your phone you have no choice but to go completely back to stock. Not a great situation to be in.
Any root framework or application that requires modification of your system folder won't work.
There's no question paying $25 for sunshine is worth it.
3) here's the some definitions:
S-on = security flag on, system write protected
S-off = security flag off, system write enabled
Unlocked bootloader: ability to flash custom kernels and Recoveries.
Having access to a custom recovery is everything. Allows easy backup capabilities in case a rom modification goes bad. Allows super user permissions to be flashed directly into the system partition to allow permanent root. And gives you the ability to keep an unlocked bootloader without worry that Verizon will patch the current exploit.
Even on a stock rom it's worth it to have an unlocked bootloader. The modifications you're referring to require a custom recovery, and even if you could install them without it, it's still recommended to have a nandroid available in case your phone doesn't boot afterwards. I'm still running stock myself.
4) getting back to stock isn't easy. Verizon or HTC didn't release an official ruu. You'd have to flash the unofficial ruu, then turn your flags back to S-on, and hope it doesn't detect anything weird and flag your phone as tampered. The information was already linked to you in earlier posts, you just have to read up on it.
5) firewater stopped working on newer hardware versions, has nothing to do with firmware versions. There's no harm in trying it, but it most likely won't work on a new phone.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It also seems that firewater has nothing to do with hardware versions either. As I have a buddy with same hardware versions as me and FW worked perfectly. I am not exactly sure why FW works for some and not others.
---------- Post added at 08:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:06 AM ----------
Also as far as changing CID I have not found a way to do this with out having S-Off already. If there is one please point me in the right direction. Thank you!
mdorrett said:
It also seems that firewater has nothing to do with hardware versions either. As I have a buddy with same hardware versions as me and FW worked perfectly. I am not exactly sure why FW works for some and not others.
---------- Post added at 08:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:06 AM ----------
Also as far as changing CID I have not found a way to do this with out having S-Off already. If there is one please point me in the right direction. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I meant hardware variation, not version, it's not something you can simply check, but the internals of each phone is different. If htc used different manufacturers for the same internals it'll break firewater. The hardware version number would look the same.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
So I've read up on a good bit of what you've all posted - again thanks for that.
My M8 will be here tomorrow and I plan to use it for a few days without any tampering to ensure that I like the phone and that the reception in my home is adequate (problem had on my last upgrade attempt a year ago to a Razr M with Verizon). If all looks good, I will attempt the firewater method this weekend. If unsuccessful, I think my plan is probably to just play with the stock configuration for a month or two just to get used to working with a modern android version (I'm coming from a Droid 2 with large areas of pixel smear...so anything will be an improvement).
Hopefully, after a couple months if I am feeling like I want to tinker, sunshine will have come down in $$ or there is another working method. If not, I'll pay for it if I feel it's worth what I'll gain at that time. In all honesty, I like knowing I have the power to do whatever I want on my phone, but because I use my phone day in and out for business, I'm not often that adventurous in constant flashing ROMs as I want a very stable experience and don't want to take the time to constantly flash and restore.
I do have a few follow-up questions from some of my reading:
1) My understanding is that S-Off is also equivalent to a bootloader unlock. And that if you S-OFF, there is no need to also unlock the bootloader (it's either done as part of it, or simply not needed since S-Off overrides any boot lock). Is this correct?
2) Is CID unlock necessary to flash custom ROMs? Does doing a CID unlock also have the same benefit of a SIM unlock? Some pages I read indicate that setting to the superCID (11111111) is basically the same as a region unlock and therefore your SIM is also unlocked?
3) Since you can apparently gain temp root with weaksauce, is it possible to use this temproot with xposed framework? Or is S-off still required to apply the xposed framework modules?
thanks!
TraderJack said:
So I've read up on a good bit of what you've all posted - again thanks for that.
My M8 will be here tomorrow and I plan to use it for a few days without any tampering to ensure that I like the phone and that the reception in my home is adequate (problem had on my last upgrade attempt a year ago to a Razr M with Verizon). If all looks good, I will attempt the firewater method this weekend. If unsuccessful, I think my plan is probably to just play with the stock configuration for a month or two just to get used to working with a modern android version (I'm coming from a Droid 2 with large areas of pixel smear...so anything will be an improvement).
Hopefully, after a couple months if I am feeling like I want to tinker, sunshine will have come down in $$ or there is another working method. If not, I'll pay for it if I feel it's worth what I'll gain at that time. In all honesty, I like knowing I have the power to do whatever I want on my phone, but because I use my phone day in and out for business, I'm not often that adventurous in constant flashing ROMs as I want a very stable experience and don't want to take the time to constantly flash and restore.
I do have a few follow-up questions from some of my reading:
1) My understanding is that S-Off is also equivalent to a bootloader unlock. And that if you S-OFF, there is no need to also unlock the bootloader (it's either done as part of it, or simply not needed since S-Off overrides any boot lock). Is this correct?
2) Is CID unlock necessary to flash custom ROMs? Does doing a CID unlock also have the same benefit of a SIM unlock? Some pages I read indicate that setting to the superCID (11111111) is basically the same as a region unlock and therefore your SIM is also unlocked?
3) Since you can apparently gain temp root with weaksauce, is it possible to use this temproot with xposed framework? Or is S-off still required to apply the xposed framework modules?
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) s-off is not equivalent to bootloader unlock, they are different things. S-off is needed to unlock bootloader.
2) super cid is only needed if swapping carriers, it allows another rom specific to any carrier to be flashed. If you flash any rom on Verizon it won't work, so you have to use a compatible Verizon rom anyways.
3) maybe, I never use xposed anyway because it breaks some apps I use. My guess is that it would be hit or miss depending on what the module does.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
TraderJack said:
So I've read up on a good bit of what you've all posted - again thanks for that.
My M8 will be here tomorrow and I plan to use it for a few days without any tampering to ensure that I like the phone and that the reception in my home is adequate (problem had on my last upgrade attempt a year ago to a Razr M with Verizon). If all looks good, I will attempt the firewater method this weekend. If unsuccessful, I think my plan is probably to just play with the stock configuration for a month or two just to get used to working with a modern android version (I'm coming from a Droid 2 with large areas of pixel smear...so anything will be an improvement).
Hopefully, after a couple months if I am feeling like I want to tinker, sunshine will have come down in $$ or there is another working method. If not, I'll pay for it if I feel it's worth what I'll gain at that time. In all honesty, I like knowing I have the power to do whatever I want on my phone, but because I use my phone day in and out for business, I'm not often that adventurous in constant flashing ROMs as I want a very stable experience and don't want to take the time to constantly flash and restore.
I do have a few follow-up questions from some of my reading:
1) My understanding is that S-Off is also equivalent to a bootloader unlock. And that if you S-OFF, there is no need to also unlock the bootloader (it's either done as part of it, or simply not needed since S-Off overrides any boot lock). Is this correct?
2) Is CID unlock necessary to flash custom ROMs? Does doing a CID unlock also have the same benefit of a SIM unlock? Some pages I read indicate that setting to the superCID (11111111) is basically the same as a region unlock and therefore your SIM is also unlocked?
3) Since you can apparently gain temp root with weaksauce, is it possible to use this temproot with xposed framework? Or is S-off still required to apply the xposed framework modules?
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) No, s-off simply allows you to write to the /system partition and do some other stuff like RUU's and etc that i cant think of at the moment but no it is not equivalent to bootloader unlock. Bootloader unlocking allows you to flash recoveries, roms, scripts, kernels, etc. S-OFF allows the more advanced stuff like firmware flashing in fastboot. (at least I think that's what s-off does)
2) Super CID allows you to flash ROM's made for other carriers. So if you set your CID to super CID or another carriers CID then you could flash their ROMS and receive OTA Updates from them. It does not allow Sim unlock and or is not a Sim unlock.
3) I'm quite sure that weak sauce only allows access to /system/xbin but I may be wrong BUT in the case I'm right then no you cannot use xposed without S-OFF because without S-OFF you can't flash a system write enabled kernel to allow it.
Ok... so two more questions:
1) Verizon M8 is already SIM unlocked, correct?
2) I can see that firewater/sunshine do both an S-off and bootloader unlock. However, they don't seem to differentiate between these two things, simply stating they do both. Is there another stand-alone method to unlock the bootloader and if so, do you gain anything having an unlocked boot loader but not s-off? I know you can unlock the bootloader on all the other M8 variants via HTCdev, but they have blocked Verizon.
TraderJack said:
Ok... so two more questions:
1) Verizon M8 is already SIM unlocked, correct?
2) I can see that firewater/sunshine do both an S-off and bootloader unlock. However, they don't seem to differentiate between these two things, simply stating they do both. Is there another stand-alone method to unlock the bootloader and if so, do you gain anything having an unlocked boot loader but not s-off? I know you can unlock the bootloader on all the other M8 variants via HTCdev, but they have blocked Verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) No, you have to manually unlock it.
2) HTCDev is the only way that I've heard about for unlocking the bootloader alone & the only thing different is you wouldn't be able to flash firmware I believe.
S1L3nTShaDoWz said:
1) No, you have to manually unlock it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://htcsource.com/2014/06/how-to-sim-unlock-the-htc-one-m8-for-free/
"Verizon: the HTC One (M8) from Verizon is SIM unlocked right out of the box."
Also found this on Verizon's Global Ready policy FAQ:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/support/faqs/InternationalServicesandRoaming/faq_global_phone.html
"We do not lock our 4G LTE devices, and no code is needed to program them for use with another carrier."
Some info on this thread people seem to indicate it is already unlocked:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2730159
So are those sources above incorrect? I can't find any guide on how to SIM unlock the M8 on verizon... this is why I'm thinking it was already unlocked?
TraderJack said:
http://htcsource.com/2014/06/how-to-sim-unlock-the-htc-one-m8-for-free/
"Verizon: the HTC One (M8) from Verizon is SIM unlocked right out of the box."
Also found this on Verizon's Global Ready policy FAQ:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/support/faqs/InternationalServicesandRoaming/faq_global_phone.html
"We do not lock our 4G LTE devices, and no code is needed to program them for use with another carrier."
Some info on this thread people seem to indicate it is already unlocked:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2730159
So are those sources above incorrect? I can't find any guide on how to SIM unlock the M8 on verizon... this is why I'm thinking it was already unlocked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is sim unlocked, you can take it into any carrier and it'll work. The only reason it wouldn't work is if you don't have the correct bands to get LTE or GSM data.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
So i got my M8 yesterday and could already tell that reception wise it was much better than my previous upgrade attempt with the RAZR M.
Since there aren't a lot of options for customizable phones anymore with VZW, I've decided to keep it and am happy to report that firewater worked for me to S-OFF!
I had some issues with weaksauce and superSU...the latter not seeming to want to run, but eventually I determined that it wasn't necessary to actually run and update the app to get firewater to work (even though I never got any toast pop-ups from weaksauce after boot).
Firewater ran find and unlocke me after 4 bottle chugs.
I then had some problems loading on CWM. The reason is that on the CWM site the list the M8 down at the very bottom away from all the other HTC devices (including the HTC One - which they don't qualify as the M7 or M8). I accidentally flashed the recovery for the M7 since that is what was listed. After that I couldn't get into any recovery, although the phone still booted. When I realized what happened, I was a little peeved that they so carelessly listed these on their site that I chose not to continue using the stock CWM even though I prefer it's streamlined approach.
I went ahead an installed this version of PhilZ CWM:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2725348
It sounded like you guys were praising this one, and I do prefer CWM. Even though it sounds like TWRP is more popular now, I saw several threads where it seemed like there were issues with TWRP doing funky stuff that CWM users didn't have issues with.
So, after I got that on I removed weaksauce and SuperSU.
What I would like to do now is probably reset to factory defaults and do a nandroid backup. Then, I would like to perma-root.
Some questions on this:
1) Do i need an SD card to nandroid backup? It appeared to work when I started a backup without an SD card...I didn't let it finish, but I'm not sure this method will work. I want to make sure I have a backup that I can use to revert to stock. I do have an sd card coming, but if I can do a successful backup without one I will go ahead.
2) Do I use all the default settings in Philz/CWM for the backup, or do I need to tweak anything in the advanced to ensure that I get *everything* that would be stock on the phone?
3) I saw some method that involved flashing a supersu update to get perma-root? Is this the best method?
Thanks again for all the help.
TraderJack said:
So i got my M8 yesterday and could already tell that reception wise it was much better than my previous upgrade attempt with the RAZR M.
Since there aren't a lot of options for customizable phones anymore with VZW, I've decided to keep it and am happy to report that firewater worked for me to S-OFF!
I had some issues with weaksauce and superSU...the latter not seeming to want to run, but eventually I determined that it wasn't necessary to actually run and update the app to get firewater to work (even though I never got any toast pop-ups from weaksauce after boot).
Firewater ran find and unlocke me after 4 bottle chugs.
I then had some problems loading on CWM. The reason is that on the CWM site the list the M8 down at the very bottom away from all the other HTC devices (including the HTC One - which they don't qualify as the M7 or M8). I accidentally flashed the recovery for the M7 since that is what was listed. After that I couldn't get into any recovery, although the phone still booted. When I realized what happened, I was a little peeved that they so carelessly listed these on their site that I chose not to continue using the stock CWM even though I prefer it's streamlined approach.
I went ahead an installed this version of PhilZ CWM:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2725348
It sounded like you guys were praising this one, and I do prefer CWM. Even though it sounds like TWRP is more popular now, I saw several threads where it seemed like there were issues with TWRP doing funky stuff that CWM users didn't have issues with.
So, after I got that on I removed weaksauce and SuperSU.
What I would like to do now is probably reset to factory defaults and do a nandroid backup. Then, I would like to perma-root.
Some questions on this:
1) Do i need an SD card to nandroid backup? It appeared to work when I started a backup without an SD card...I didn't let it finish, but I'm not sure this method will work. I want to make sure I have a backup that I can use to revert to stock. I do have an sd card coming, but if I can do a successful backup without one I will go ahead.
2) Do I use all the default settings in Philz/CWM for the backup, or do I need to tweak anything in the advanced to ensure that I get *everything* that would be stock on the phone?
3) I saw some method that involved flashing a supersu update to get perma-root? Is this the best method?
Thanks again for all the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) You don't need an SD card but I recommend it because if you ever encounter the dreaded "encryption" glitch that some AOSP ROM's have then you'll lose everything on your internal storage. I also recommend you back your Nandroid backups to your computer or some other sort of storage too so that if you ever encounter it or somehow manage to lose it then you can get it back.
2) It doesn't really matter what settings you choose or at least it never has for me but it should backup everything (ROM & apps)
3) Yes, that is the best method for getting perma-root is to flash the SuperSU zip in your recovery. You can find the latest version of the flashable zip at Chainfire's thread over here or the direct download link to the flashable zip here on his official website
Also I'd like to apologize for the invalid information I gave you yesterday on the SIM unlocking, my bad on that. I've had a cold for the past few days and it's been making me lazy lol.
S1L3nTShaDoWz said:
1) You don't need an SD card but I recommend it because if you ever encounter the dreaded "encryption" glitch that some AOSP ROM's have then you'll lose everything on your internal storage. I also recommend you back your Nandroid backups to your computer or some other sort of storage too so that if you ever encounter it or somehow manage to lose it then you can get it back.
2) It doesn't really matter what settings you choose or at least it never has for me but it should backup everything (ROM & apps)
3) Yes, that is the best method for getting perma-root is to flash the SuperSU zip in your recovery. You can find the latest version of the flashable zip at Chainfire's thread over here or the direct download link to the flashable zip here on his official website
Also I'd like to apologize for the invalid information I gave you yesterday on the SIM unlocking, my bad on that. I've had a cold for the past few days and it's been making me lazy lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Ok...but to get my first stock backup so I can proceed with everything else, it's safe to nandroid to internal memory? Where exactly will it place a nandroid backup if I don't have an SD card?
2) I was looking at the Misc Nandroid Settings like "include /preload" "use TWRP mode" etc. No reason to use anything but the defaults?
3) Cool...as soon as I have my nandroid I will go that route.
No worries about the SIM data...you guys have helped accelerate me pretty fast, and I'm thrilled that firewater worked. I'd now just like to get my full backup so I can begin fully migrating to the new phone and having fun
TraderJack said:
1) Ok...but to get my first stock backup so I can proceed with everything else, it's safe to nandroid to internal memory? Where exactly will it place a nandroid backup if I don't have an SD card?
2) I was looking at the Misc Nandroid Settings like "include /preload" "use TWRP mode" etc. No reason to use anything but the defaults?
3) Cool...as soon as I have my nandroid I will go that route.
No worries about the SIM data...you guys have helped accelerate me pretty fast, and I'm thrilled that firewater worked. I'd now just like to get my full backup so I can begin fully migrating to the new phone and having fun
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it's safe, it will be stored in a folder called TWRP/Backups/Phone_Id_Here/ in the storage/emulated/0 folder (in root Explorer).
Also you can change them around to what you like, it doesn't matter.
& glad we could help!
Hi Folks,
I hope you guys can shed some light into this, sorry if this is long and if this has been asked I'm sorry but I could not find the answers I was looking for, as some results they sound almost the same and some had not specified enough. So I hope the clever people here can explain a few things before I go ahead.
Background on my Phone (don't know if its relevant or not)
I own an Exynos SM-G970F, on One UI 3.1, June 2021 Update, this was purchased in Australia. Now that my phone is out of warranty I was thinking of installing a custom ROM. The main motivation was to reduce CPU usage and improve battery life.
I have installed a custom ROM and rooted my tablet for practice and it was easy to follow. I gotta say it was phenomenal how it brought back ancient hardware to buttery smooth performance of newer android versions. I wanted this same experience on my daily driver phone and there are some security based questions I would like to know.
Questions
1. First off unlocking the bootloader, I have read that it reduces your security of the phone as this allows hackers to gain access to your phone unlike a locked bootloader. As far as I understand the bootloader is to check if the system partition is a Samsung ROM. So in an unlocked state it will still load the kernel and run the system regardless if the ROM is Samsung or not, am I correct in this?
1a. If that's the case and if I installed the custom ROM and then locked the bootloader I would brick my phone right? as the bootloader is looking for a Samsung ROM but since it can't recognize the ROM it will boot loop.
1b. So in this case how would an unlocked bootloader make it vulnerable apart from accessing the OS? I'm thinking in a real word scenario if I were to lose my phone and someone found it, they could have means of access from an unlocked bootloader? but then again they could have access through custom recovery?
1c. Would it be necessary to lock a bootloader once you install a custom ROM? Do some custom ROM support signing bootloaders?
2. SafetyNet, as far as I understand this is a Google thing? like the app from Play store will check your system for any tampered software before functioning or at least warning the consequences of using the app in a custom ROM, is this right?
2a. So this could lead to some banking apps not working as it requires a SafetyNet pass on your device. But this only happens if you end up rooting your device? I understand Magisk is systemless root so the SafetyNet should pass in theory?
Primarily I'm concerned of the security and privacy of the phone but nothing is perfect, so there has to be some give and take with privacy and security? Though I will lose some privacy as I will install OpenGApps for some applications to work. So security would be the most important thing. What would be some best practices for a daily driver phone on custom ROM?
I imagine that hackers are not interested attacking an individual as this takes a lot of time and energy, unless they are bored or something like that.
Thanks for taking the time to read all this and if you can shed more information that would be great! I would like to learn more before giving the green light for custom ROM on my Samsung S10e.
With the caveat that I'm really bad at Samsung, I'll try to give a couple of answers. Sounds like you have the gist of it though...
Unlocking the bootloader is necessary to install anything custom, yes, and it does reduce the security of the device but mainly if someone has physical access to it. Keeping the device encrypted can help protecting your data though. There are some devices that allow locking the bootloader with custom firmware installed, but those are few. General rule: don't even try. I've seen some talk from people at Google about letting custom ROMs be certified, so that you could lock the bootloader with them, but currently there's nothing like that (that I know of). Once in a while I see people talking about trying to sign their images to lock the bootloader, but IMHBCO it's not worth the effort (if it's possible). If you're going custom, keep the bootloader unlocked.
About SafetyNet, it's an API provided with Google's play services and can be used by apps to check if a device's security has been compromised. Far from all bank apps will be using this and many instead have their own ways of detecting a "tampered" device (more on that below). SafetyNet will trigger from a number of things:
Unlocked bootloader
Custom ROM
Root
Etc...
So, as you see it's not only rooting that will cause you problems. There are ways around it though, mainly with the help of Magisk.
When it comes to what bank apps will detect, that could include a custom ROM, root apps, files on your device, Magisk, etc. They're often much more picky than SafetyNet even...
If you need help with getting SafetyNet and banking apps working on a custom ROM, with Magisk, I've got a few resources and tips collected here:
https://www.didgeridoohan.com/magisk/HomePage
Regarding security and custom ROMs it's pretty much the same as on a stock device. Don't install weird apps from outside the Play Store, don't click links in emails, etc. On to of that, another thing to look out for is SELinux. Don't use a ROM that has it disabled. It's quite important for the security of the OS... And if you do root, be careful with what apps you give root access, since an app with root access can do whatever it wants.
No idea if this cleared anything up or just created more questions. If there are Samsung specific stuff I've gotten wrong or missed I hope that someone that actually knows what they're talking about shows up...
Didgeridoohan said:
With the caveat that I'm really bad at Samsung, I'll try to give a couple of answers. Sounds like you have the gist of it though...
Unlocking the bootloader is necessary to install anything custom, yes, and it does reduce the security of the device but mainly if someone has physical access to it. Keeping the device encrypted can help protecting your data though. There are some devices that allow locking the bootloader with custom firmware installed, but those are few. General rule: don't even try. I've seen some talk from people at Google about letting custom ROMs be certified, so that you could lock the bootloader with them, but currently there's nothing like that (that I know of). Once in a while I see people talking about trying to sign their images to lock the bootloader, but IMHBCO it's not worth the effort (if it's possible). If you're going custom, keep the bootloader unlocked.
About SafetyNet, it's an API provided with Google's play services and can be used by apps to check if a device's security has been compromised. Far from all bank apps will be using this and many instead have their own ways of detecting a "tampered" device (more on that below). SafetyNet will trigger from a number of things:
Unlocked bootloader
Custom ROM
Root
Etc...
So, as you see it's not only rooting that will cause you problems. There are ways around it though, mainly with the help of Magisk.
When it comes to what bank apps will detect, that could include a custom ROM, root apps, files on your device, Magisk, etc. They're often much more picky than SafetyNet even...
If you need help with getting SafetyNet and banking apps working on a custom ROM, with Magisk, I've got a few resources and tips collected here:
https://www.didgeridoohan.com/magisk/HomePage
Regarding security and custom ROMs it's pretty much the same as on a stock device. Don't install weird apps from outside the Play Store, don't click links in emails, etc. On to of that, another thing to look out for is SELinux. Don't use a ROM that has it disabled. It's quite important for the security of the OS... And if you do root, be careful with what apps you give root access, since an app with root access can do whatever it wants.
No idea if this cleared anything up or just created more questions. If there are Samsung specific stuff I've gotten wrong or missed I hope that someone that actually knows what they're talking about shows up...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Didgeridoohan,
Thank you for taking the time to comb through my queries and I believe you have answered what I was looking for. So it has dispelled any myths and misconceptions of custom roms.
Personally I use the phone most and my significant other uses my phone for some games. So physical access is not likely to fall in the hands of someone else unless I lost it. Encrypting the phone is a good safety measure, I assume this is something that can be done in the settings of the OS?
With banking I guess I will have to install and see if it works out, otherwise I don't mind going to a phone web browser and do it that way.
I appreciate your link for further info of Magisk, I will be reading through the page to get better insight.
Regarding SELinux, I had seen this on my phone though it says SE for Android Status and says 'Enforcing' and on the Custom ROM on my tablet in the settings it also says 'Enforcing'. So I can assume that its ensuring the security of the OS.
I didn't have the intention of rooting as I thought I can root at any point in time but if its good practice to do it when flashing the custom ROM please let me know.
I had planned on installing TWRP and use either Lineage or crDroid (kinda leaning to this one). They both are supported on their website so I don't think I will run into issues.
Once again thanks for your help and advice on the custom ROM, I think my questions were broad and it may not be Samsung specific as there are features I know I will lose but have never used when I had the original ROM.
dude777 said:
Encrypting the phone is a good safety measure, I assume this is something that can be done in the settings of the OS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Just make sure that any ROM you choose is compatible with encryption. And remember that if you ever want to remove the encryption you'll have to wipe the device.
Regarding SELinux, I had seen this on my phone though it says SE for Android Status and says 'Enforcing' and on the Custom ROM on my tablet in the settings it also says 'Enforcing'. So I can assume that its ensuring the security of the OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. That's the way it should be if you want to keep some security on your device.
I didn't have the intention of rooting as I thought I can root at any point in time but if its good practice to do it when flashing the custom ROM please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can wait with rooting. If you don't have any need for it, why bother? I use Magisk to hide the fact that I have an unlocked bootloader (and to hide Magisk from some apps), to use a custom hosts file (for adblocking) and for app backups (I use Swift Backup, works great).
Once again thanks for your help and advice on the custom ROM, I think my questions were broad and it may not be Samsung specific as there are features I know I will lose but have never used when I had the original ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some things you'll lose when unlocking the bootloader on a Samsung, due to the tripped Knox fuse. I can't say much about that though, since I don't do Samsung...
Have fun!
Thanks Didgeridoohan,
This has given me some confidence in going forward with custom ROM. I will make some backups and take measures and if it doesn't work out I can go back but I probably wont .
I've been running LineageOS on my Exynos S10e for a few days now and it's great, better battery life than on Samsung's firmware too from what I can see.
Settings say encryption is enabled. I'm assuming on /data only, I'll have to poke around as I've been away from Android for a while and I haven't been keeping up with what's going on.
I had to use the Magisk props module (selected the same phone model) to pass SafetyNet and enable Google Pay. Banking apps here in Australia don't seem to care, at least CommBank, Bendigo, AMP by I did select them in MagiskHide just in case.
If you decide to go for it, remove all your accounts before flashing the LineageOS recovery. I didn't and wasn't able to flash recovery until I re-added and removed them (Factory Reset Protection kicked in apparently). Smooth ride after I did this.
If you don't like the LOS gestures use Fluid (FNG), I love how customizable it is. You can hide the navigation bar in Termux by running:
su
props qemu.hw.mainkeys 1
Good luck and feel free to ask me questions if you have any!