Hi everyone.
Me and the wife have Samsung phones and what I usually do is buy a sim free phones a lot cheaper from different countries which usually comes without the extras like Wi-Fi calling ECT, but what I usually do is flash network stock firmware which gives us what we need.
My problem is that I only know how to flash firmware on Samsung phones and windows phones (which we don't use anymore). Even though samsung are doing well and making very good phones these days I don't want to be stuck buying Samsung just because I don't know how to flash stock on other Android devices. I would like to try a pixel, HTC, Essential phone and ect but I want to be able to buy it cheaper and be able to flash stock firmware.
Samsung seems to have a massive advantage with companies like Sammobile and Odin but I wouldn't know where to start with the other Android devices.
So finally my question (if you put your answer to match the right number be easier to understand)
1. Where do you get stock firmware for other devices (if there different places for each manufacture then please tell me all the place and who covers who)
2. Are there different Odin types of software for each phone company.
3. How do I do it and how hard is it compared to using Odin.
I know there is lots of video and other threads with this type of information but I find posting a new question makes it very personal to my situation and I know the info I get will help my better than reading someone elses thread and working out how their advice given applies to me. At the same time, I will try and make this thread as universal as I can so we can maybe help others in similar situations.
Thanks guys I hope I can learn
Related
Hi folks,
I'm thinking of picking up the galaxy s, the samsung vibrant from t-mobile to use on my carrier.
i had a few questions and hope you fellas can help me out.
1st, what would be involved in unlocking it? Would I have any problems getting it unlocked?
Also i'm a total noob to android but i've been reading up. What exactly is "rooting"? will rooting allow me to put a stock 2.2 on it? is that even possible and is it recomended on this phone?
and lastly from people who have been using this phone, do you recommend getting it?
thanks
oh snap! i posted this in the wrong board. it should have been in the "Galaxy S I9000 General"
sorry mods.
Rooting allows you to get access to parts of the phone you otherwise wouldn't have access to. Compare it to having administrator rights on windows, you can access more files, do more stuff. Programs can perform more actions when your phone is rooted.
Putting 2.2 on it is completely seperate from that and at this moment is not possible. However, Samsung already stated that the first 2.2 update will be somewhere in august (not for euro/usa regions though) so perhaps withing the month after that it will also be available for other regions. Samsung has officially announced that it WILL be updated though, so no need to worry about that.
Without the 2.2 update it's already pretty damn fast though (with some tweaks its faster then the Nexus one WITH 2.2) so I would certainly already recommend it.
This is my first android phone (after symbian, windows mobile and more) and it's really easy to get used to and works just great. The screen is beautiful (good colors, vibrant although reading text on it is a less great experience) and it's very fast. Also feels light, in a good way, great screen, etc. I can totally recommend it.
ps. No idea what the status on unlocking is, mine was unlocked already so never looked into it.
you might want to make sure the frequency bands of the one you acquire will work on the carrier you want to use it on
if not, it may not work at all, or may not give you 3G data svc
personally i didnt think any phones are locked down anymore, at least not in the UK?
you should buy the phone, its the best ive owned, not saying its the best on the market but id like to hear of an arguement for why it isnt.
rooting was done on this device even before release, and with already 300k sales in south korea alone it looks like its going to have some great support and updates in the future
I have in the last month been looking everywhere for methods of rooting this blasted thing.
Yet again samsung is stopping me accessing regular features, things like accessibility permissions...it's ridiculous.
I am sick of the crap in this new android and I can't find a safe method or odin build anywhere.
At this point I really don't care if I trip knox, though maybe that is ignorance and frustration speaking.
What are the risks?
If anyone has a way of rooting this build number please let me know.
My carrier is UK's O2 network if that makes a difference
Let me know any other info you need.
I have rooted many samsungs before so know the general jist.
But this model seems super hard to deal with so please take me through any safe - ish procedire as a newb.
Pleases and many thanks.
8thsiner said:
I have in the last month been looking everywhere for methods of rooting this blasted thing.
Yet again samsung is stopping me accessing regular features, things like accessibility permissions...it's ridiculous.
I am sick of the crap in this new android and I can't find a safe method or odin build anywhere.
At this point I really don't care if I trip knox, though maybe that is ignorance and frustration speaking.
What are the risks?
If anyone has a way of rooting this build number please let me know.
My carrier is UK's O2 network if that makes a difference
Let me know any other info you need.
I have rooted many samsungs before so know the general jist.
But this model seems super hard to deal with so please take me through any safe - ish procedire as a newb.
Pleases and many thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exact build number as you, and I rooted pretty simple.
I just used odin v3.10.6 http://odindownload.com/download/Odin3_v3.10.6.zip (Direct Download)
Then flashed Unikernel onto my phone using Odin (Opening with 'AP' of course) https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24052804347808101
(and obviously don't forget to put your phone in download mode!)
Used this method a million times before and never had any problems, should work fine
Im looking for a new phone. My main concern is being able to run without bloatware. I don't want to root the phone or disable via usb debugging. I'm looking for the most friendly out of the box phone that lets you inherently disable/uninstall apps you don't want as a user. Please exclude iPhone, I have no interest in using an iPhone.
Ultimately I want a phone that is responsive and I don't have to constantly be bombarded by app "notification" aka ads. I know some will allow better control of notifications but, I just don't want them running in the first place.
Thanks...
Taboriious said:
Im looking for a new phone. My main concern is being able to run without bloatware. I don't want to root the phone or disable via usb debugging. I'm looking for the most friendly out of the box phone that lets you inherently disable/uninstall apps you don't want as a user. Please exclude iPhone, I have no interest in using an iPhone.
Ultimately I want a phone that is responsive and I don't have to constantly be bombarded by app "notification" aka ads. I know some will allow better control of notifications but, I just don't want them running in the first place.
Thanks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck with finding a device that does all of that, IF it even exists, which I doubt. There is no such thing as an out of the box android device that doesn't have notification services running in the background, you will have to settle with using the user settings to disable/enable the notifications to suit you, regardless of the device you get.
There are devices that do not have manufacturer or carrier bloatware, but I suspect that what you would call "bloatware" isn't technically bloatware, they would just be apps that you would prefer not having on your device.
But honestly, based on what you say you're looking for, you will need a device that can be rooted in order to remove the things you don't want because what you are looking for doesn't come "standard" on any device that I know of.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
Im not worried about notifications, I know those can be managed. Im more concerned with apps that I dont want on the system and cant be uninstalled or disabled without root privileges. There are a ton of apps not needed, a slew of samsung as well as my carrier.
So, what Im being told there is no phone model by any manufacturer that comes rooted or allows you to remove all unwanted apps...???
Taboriious said:
Im not worried about notifications, I know those can be managed. Im more concerned with apps that I dont want on the system and cant be uninstalled or disabled without root privileges. There are a ton of apps not needed, a slew of samsung as well as my carrier.
So, what Im being told there is no phone model by any manufacturer that comes rooted or allows you to remove all unwanted apps...???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are plenty of phones that can be easily rooted after buying them then remove the apps you don't want.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
I understand there are plenty of phone that you can root. My question was are there any "open" by default, to which I was told no. Understood. The follow up question is, which are the most friendly to the rooting process. Some phones are more difficult to perform the root process than others I would assume. So, which are the best(overall well functioning phones) and the most friendly to the rooting process to avoid bricking or causing other issues with the phone
Taboriious said:
I understand there are plenty of phone that you can root. My question was are there any "open" by default, to which I was told no. Understood. The follow up question is, which are the most friendly to the rooting process. Some phones are more difficult to perform the root process than others I would assume. So, which are the best(overall well functioning phones) and the most friendly to the rooting process to avoid bricking or causing other issues with the phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The eaaily rooted phones were the Google phones, but when they released the Pixel devices, that was no longer the case.
In the US, it is more of a matter of which carrier you get the device from than it is about what device you get. Some carriers lock the bootloader on their device and some don't. The ones with locked bootloader are the difficult devices to root and flash ROMs, the ones without locked bootloader are easier but not necessarily "easy".
The devices that are the easiest to root and flash ROMs are the devices with MediaTek processors. They are also the easiest to unbrick if a problem occurs, but that only applies to the MediaTek devices that have a stock firmware that is available to the public, the ones that don't have an available stock firmware or stock source code should be avoided because they are near impossible to unbrick if something goes wrong. But, MediaTek devices are the cheapest devices and they aren't very well made. Some offer good specs but the hardware is inferior, a powerful car is no good if it won't stay together very long, if you understand the comparison. It's like having a cheap car that is easy to work on and make faster, but that is no good if the parts are not available to fix it if something breaks. You would be better off buying a car that costs more.
HTC devices are fairly easy to root and flash ROMs(but they do have some tricky stuff in the process) and they offer excellent software support, they make their stock firmware available and their stock source code available to make repairs and build ROMs.
Instead of asking which devices are easier, just look around, find some devices that you like, and then do some Google searches using that device's model number to see if root is available for that model and if custom recovery and custom ROMs are available for that model. I say this because it is more of a matter of which actual devices root and ROMs are available for instead of a matter of what type of devices are easier to modify. Take HTC, for example, "this" model number of HTC device might have root and ROMs but "that" model number of HTC won't. Or "this" model number of Samsung might have root and ROMs but "that" model number of Samsung won't. You need to look at this on a device by device basis, not by "type" or "brand" of device.
Do you see that you are looking at this with a top down view when you should be looking from the bottom up or jumping in and looking around. It is like looking at an aerial photograph of a town/city, you can see things about it but that doesn't tell you anything about the place, you have to be on the ground in the midst of the town/city to be able to really tell anything about the place. You can look for the most descriptive aerial photo but it still doesn't tell you anything. Stop looking for a photo, go actually take a walk around the town, then you will know what the place has to offer or not.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
Due to a little frustration I decided to create a whole thread for this.
I suck at computers and I have no idea what I am doing so I ended up bricking my device lmao.
In theory, the thought of rooting your device, and installing a custom OS sounds great! (Like communism) but when put in practice never really works out. The reason for that (I think) is because there are so many different versions, models, and brands. I end up spending all my time trying to refine my search to the right software and versions, and then when I do, I am stuck with some stupid site like (every damn rom site) with a 20kb/s download rate, and a page full of ads! Why? Because they are storing like 2 billion different 2GB roms. In my opinion paying for faster download speed from these websites is ridiculous. I don't even know why they offer (you would have to be stupid(like me)).
(tl;dr: Android SUCKS)
So, now to my actual question...
With the release of the Librem 5 phone, there really is not going to be a point to rooting phones anymore, because google with already be decimated from it... But that comes out in April/May and I still need a phone in the meantime.
So.. Are there any cheap phones ($500+/-), that are not a pain in the ass to root? And one that the developers actually care about to actively develop. All I wan't is a phone I can install stock android with root, and that can be installed without google or gapps. Also I live in Canada, which is another reason why it's a pain in the ass to find a decent phone because all our carriers deadbolt their firmware, and bootloaders like their storing the coordinates to some secret location with a pot of gold.
starscrpt said:
Due to a little frustration I decided to create a whole thread for this.
I suck at computers and I have no idea what I am doing so I ended up bricking my device lmao.
In theory, the thought of rooting your device, and installing a custom OS sounds great! (Like communism) but when put in practice never really works out. The reason for that (I think) is because there are so many different versions, models, and brands. I end up spending all my time trying to refine my search to the right software and versions, and then when I do, I am stuck with some stupid site like (every damn rom site) with a 20kb/s download rate, and a page full of ads! Why? Because they are storing like 2 billion different 2GB roms. In my opinion paying for faster download speed from these websites is ridiculous. I don't even know why they offer (you would have to be stupid(like me)).
(tl;dr: Android SUCKS)
So, now to my actual question...
With the release of the Librem 5 phone, there really is not going to be a point to rooting phones anymore, because google with already be decimated from it... But that comes out in April/May and I still need a phone in the meantime.
So.. Are there any cheap phones ($500+/-), that are not a pain in the ass to root? And one that the developers actually care about to actively develop. All I wan't is a phone I can install stock android with root, and that can be installed without google or gapps. Also I live in Canada, which is another reason why it's a pain in the ass to find a decent phone because all our carriers deadbolt their firmware, and bootloaders like their storing the coordinates to some secret location with a pot of gold.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get something that is not a Samsung, not carrier branded(an international model) and is factory unlocked or can be unlocked.
I suggest you just do some searching to find some devices that you are interested in, then write down the model number of each device and then do some Google searches using those model numbers one at a time to see if a known rooting method exists for each model, then do some Google searching to see if TWRP exists for each model number, then do some searches to see if there are ROMs available for each model number.
We can't predict the future and say which devices will have a rooting method, we can only point you to devices that have already had a known rooting method discovered for that model, you can find that information yourself by doing the Google searches listed below.
To find root methods for the devices:
"Root for (specific device model number here)"
That should find root method for the device in question.
To find TWRP or custom recovery for the devices:
"TWRP for (specific device model number here)"
Or
"Custom recovery for (specific device model number here)"
That should find TWRP or custom recovery if it exists for the device in question.
To find custom ROMs for the devices:
"Custom ROMs for (specific device model number here)"
That should find ROMs if they exist for the device in question.
You might want to consider getting an international device directly from the manufacturer that is factory unlocked or can be unlocked(also known as SIM/carrier unlocked) instead of getting a carrier branded/sold device. Factory direct doesn't come with bloatware and unlocked/unlockable means it should be able to be activated on your carrier network.
Also, make sure the device has a factory unlocked bootloader(this is not the same thing as SIM/carrier unlocked) or can at least be unlocked using a known and verified unlock method. The unlocked bootloader is required if you want to flash custom recovery or custom ROMs.
If you just want to use the stock firmware and modify it to remove the Google stuff, unlocked bootloader won't be required for that. But, if you are going to just modify the stock software already on the device, I will advise you to make sure that the stock firmware for that device is available for download and then download a copy of it just in case you mess something up in the process of removing Google and its components, then you can just flash the firmware on the device to fix it(if you don't screw it up too bad, that is).
I would really recommend that you choose a device that has:
1) an unlocked/unlockable bootloader so that you can flash TWRP on the device
2) has an available downloadable stock firmware so that you can repair the device, if needed
3) has a TWRP recovery available so it can be installed on the device and then used to create a backup of your unmodified stock ROM, then you can modify the device and if you screw something up, you can use TWRP to restore the backup that you create, this will return the device to working condition.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
Droidriven pretty much covered it extremely well.
With regards to rooting:
It often can raise the stress levels beyond normal. Set aside time and take each step slowly and deliberately. Some guides can be much worse than others.
PS. Your idea of a cheap phone is at least 3x the cost of my idea of a cheap phone
The Asus Zenfone 6 just released bootloader unlock and kernel source so there should be a fairly healthy dev community when its released in the US.
The librem 5 ?? I dunno , on my list for sure . but hardware specs soundsmeh for the price . And will we be able to install ubuntu software like clementine music play ? jeez if so that would make up for the lack hardware.
looks like 2019 q3 is going to be an exciting time. I want the zenfone 6 but I dunno..... that librem 5 ubuntu phone is going to need to be checked out once rc is released .
I have a Fold 2 from China, which makes it a game breaker in that it locks the Samsung apps store to China's, including related Samsung gear (like the gear S3 watch or buds), which means I have NO access to any actual useful English apps.
This would solve a world of problems for me.
Crossing fingers...
Spixe1 said:
I have a Fold 2 from China, which makes it a game breaker in that it locks the Samsung apps store to China's, including related Samsung gear (like the gear S3 watch or buds), which means I have NO access to any actual useful English apps.
This would solve a world of problems for me.
Crossing fingers...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should be able to BUT make sure the model numbers are the same and that the bootloader is unlocked before flashing a ROM (SoC version MUST match or its bricksville). This will also require a CSC change.
This may also require rooting your phone which will nullify any warranties...
I'd make sure you have read up how to do this and REALLY understand the dangers as this can brick your device.
Also have a a stock ROM on hand to flash back if/when things go sideways.
I tend to find the Chinese region locked variants of phones, though a little cheaper to buy, are NOT worth the effort and risk due to the reason you want to reflash. Warranties are also non-existent due to postage and time constraints.
Again, this could be a major drain of time and effort, not to mention hair pulling, to find yourself back at square one or worse.
ultramag69 said:
You should be able to BUT make sure the model numbers are the same and that the bootloader is unlocked before flashing a ROM (SoC version MUST match or its bricksville). This will also require a CSC change.
This may also require rooting your phone which will nullify any warranties...
I'd make sure you have read up how to do this and REALLY understand the dangers as this can brick your device.
Also have a a stock ROM on hand to flash back if/when things go sideways.
I tend to find the Chinese region locked variants of phones, though a little cheaper to buy, are NOT worth the effort and risk due to the reason you want to reflash. Warranties are also non-existent due to postage and time constraints.
Again, this could be a major drain of time and effort, not to mention hair pulling, to find yourself back at square one or worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Appreciate the honest reply - hell I just appreciate the reply at all, pretty much thought it'd be ignored. What you said makes sense, from all the reading I've done, just TRYING to find an answer to this question, considering info on flashing to other ROMS is pretty much non-existent, it seemed a risk. You all but confirmed this, and I will most definitely take your advice and just give up the venture. Better having a working phone locked to Chinese apps (arg!) than a bricked phone... barely, ha.
Thanks again for the answers mate, truly appreciated.