Root [International] If Knox remains an issue for good. What will you do?

[dynomot]

It is looking more and more likely that we can root, but with locked bootloaders and the Knox trip we cannot go back. I from my understanding cannot see a way around this. I was just wondering when 4.4 (Kit - Kat) surfaces would you still root and to hell with it. I probably will, but that a just me.

 

[ironass]

I think that the question is...

Do you want to stay on Android 4.2.2, pre MGG or install a CM ROM, or similar, with an unlocked bootloader and no Knox security, until you change your phone, or do you bite the bullet and move on and flash Android 4.3 and 4.4 which both bring improvements.

The chances of me wishing to revert back to 4.2.2 after these are released is non existent. The only reason that I have not flashed a locked bootloader/Knox firmware so far is that there is no difference between the locked and unlocked firmwares, apart from the bootloader and Knox and to be honest, I was waiting to see if there was any way of circumventing Knox security.... which there doesn't, quite rightly, appear to be. My only proviso for moving forward is that the firmware is 100% stable and usable and if in the process I blow the Knox efuse which is embedded in the chipset, so be it!

There is of course a third option of reverting to your original CSC code firmware and staying on stock, unrooted, firmware... nah!

 

[sntaylor]

I'm actually in a position where I may look at the possibility of another phone, though the note 3 was one I'm considering when it comes down in price, but it will likely suffer the same Knox issues.

The nexus5 could be a contender though I'll really need to wait and see, besides it all relies on the Mrs. 1.wanting to upgrade from my old s2 2.wanting to take my s4 instead and 3.allowing me to make use of her upgrade

Chances are I'll still be here for another 18 months at least.lol possibly sticking to cyanogenmod based Roms, though I'll need to wait and see ;-)

 

[ironass]

I'm actually in a position where I may look at the possibility of another phone, though the note 3 was one I'm considering when it comes down in price, but it will likely suffer the same Knox issues.

Correct old boy! Knox will be on the Note 3, see here, and all new firmwares for the S3 and Note 2. Better hang on to your SGS2.

The nexus5 could be a contender though I'll really need to wait and see, besides it all relies on the Mrs. 1.wanting to upgrade from my old s2 2.wanting to take my s4 instead and 3.allowing me to make use of her upgrade

Chances are I'll still be here for another 18 months at least.lol possibly sticking to cyanogenmod based Roms, though I'll need to wait and see ;-)

Nexus and Google Edition firmwares will not be Knox'd, I am given to understand, as they are minority releases and will not receive the approval from bodies such as the NSA and other government departments and corporate organisations that require security from BYOD's.

The long and short of it is that any handset manufacturer that wishes to sell to the large and lucrative worldwide BYOD market, will have to introduce a feature similar to Knox.

 

[dynomot]

Yes ironass my old cheese roller, that was the question. Lazy/should be driving at work "swyping",via my new toy (a note 3) when I'm meant to be heading for the land time forgot (the Peak District) with no signal is to blame.


As you can see with the note 3 (Galaxy s4 at home sulking while I see which I like best) Knox has it's own set up app. (not touching that!) on the Note 3:

 

[Rudedawg]

Probably going to go back to stock and just forget about it. All I need is to buy a big old memory card and the only thing other than blue text in the user bar id miss is the bloat removal. Which in essence becomes a non issue when you have 64gb of storage. The battery on stock is spot on and performance has only been hindered with buggy firmwares since rooting. Not the same experience for me since the s2. But then thats what happens I guess.

 

[lotus49]

Fortunately I have an unlocked bootloader and there is no way I shall be installing firmware with a locked bootloader so I shall move to CM when it offers some substantial advantages over my current stock ROM. Alternatively I might install a Google Play Edition ROM, which will presumably be updated frequently.

Next time round, I shall probably go for the Nexus 9 or whatever it will be called. by then. What a shame.

 

[Sydney99]

Like rusty bum, I'll just sod it and flash a Rom with Knox once features are better than what I've got.

I still cannot really see the big deal....

 

[Rudedawg]

Like rusty bum, I'll just sod it and flash a Rom with Knox once features are better than what I've got.

I still cannot really see the big deal....

I think the major fuss is if you flash a rooted firmware and it causes a problem. Or you arnt happy with it , then you can forget about flashing back to your previous backup. That and warranty issues but lets face it you know the risks when you flash. Other than that its no big deal. My issue has been that the features I enjoyed haven't worked since rooting. Thats my personal reasoning at least.

 

[ironass]

I think the major fuss is if you flash a rooted firmware and it causes a problem. Or you arnt happy with it , then you can forget about flashing back to your previous backup.

AFAIK, you will be able to revert to earlier backups within Knox firmwares once you are on Knox. You just can't go back to a non Knox, pre MGG, firmware.

 

[Rudedawg]

AFAIK, you will be able to revert to earlier backups within Knox firmwares once you are on Knox. You just can't go back to a non Knox, pre MGG, firmware.

That makes sense yes. Just pointing out ,or should I say reiterating how important it is to be sure you are making the right decision for you. And how important it is more than ever to root correctly.

Also to clarify this goes for rooted or no rooted firmwares.


Syd we all appreciate you as our crash test dummy.

 

[dynomot]

Yes despite Ironass asking me here :http://androidforums.com/internatio...33389-philz-cwm-recovery-dummies-guide-3.html

If I want your job as a crash test dummy Syd, I couldn't do that to you. Seriously, now I have a shiny new GN3 that I'm loathed to root ATM. I might just say sod it and flash one of the new Knox enabled firmwares and hope Nandroid does work on my SGS4. If I do bork it unrecoverably (which is possible - remember the Ironass motto) well that's up to me isn't it. I'm not daft enough to flash really dodgy stuff, but I'll try most things.

 

[Sydney99]

That's the spirit

 

[dynomot]

I've crashed and burned at the first hurdle.

OK I thought let's unroot and check if I can get it out of the box fresh and test whether "Triangle away" does the job. I already had the stock Vodafone firmware, so off to Odin (v3.04) I went.

To cut a long and frustrating story short Odin failed, shortly after it had done the "recovery image". Tried a different source and redownloaded the firmware. I can still get to download mode but recovery gives me the stupid warning about using Kies to restore.

Same thing, same point it borked in Odin. Now what?

Tonight is usually beer night (my third love after the wife and kids and tech.) but aforementioned wife is starting a run of six night shifts. Any help (please a bit panicky now) would be appreciated to try later when I'm on my own wifeless, and beerless. Don't make the start of my weekend worse by telling me it's a brick where there is download mode, there is hope!

 

[ironass]

I've crashed and burned at the first hurdle.

OK I thought let's unroot and check if I can get it out of the box fresh and test whether "Triangle away" does the job. I already had the stock Vodafone firmware, so off to Odin (v3.04) I went.

To cut a long and frustrating story short Odin failed, shortly after it had done the "recovery image". Tried a different source and redownloaded the firmware. I can still get to download mode but recovery gives me the stupid warning about using Kies to restore.

Same thing, same point it borked in Odin. Now what?

Tonight is usually beer night (my third love after the wife and kids and tech.) but aforementioned wife is starting a run of six night shifts. Any help (please a bit panicky now) would be appreciated to try later when I'm on my own wifeless, and beerless. Don't make the start of my weekend worse by telling me it's a brick where there is download mode, there is hope!

1. DON'T PANIC! (I'll let you know when to do that)

2. Were you on <MGG firmware?

3. Try using Odin 3.09. See #1.4 of the Rooting Galaxy S4 - Dummies Guide for link.

 

[sntaylor]

At the risk of making it worst....have you tried a full system format via recovery when you still had a custom recovery?

If not this might be worth a go, but I imagine you'll have to try re flashing a custom recovery first.

 

[dynomot]

Nah, no panic now. An expert is guiding me. (I know flattery will get me any where).
Nope I was on DjeMBeY's MH1 full version with the deodexed .Zip flashed, with Adam 1.6 Kernel.
Ironass I can almost hear you muttering "oh gawd", but I have some more information. Before I tried flashing stock that matched all the right criteria (CSC etc.) I flashed with Odin chain fires rooting .tar. Now I think this is my problem. Mistakenly I thought as in previous incarnations of CF roots it was a stock Kernel (it isn't is it?). When the phone rebooted after that I noticed my Kernel was still Adam 1.6. While I thought this is odd. I ignored it. Tried to flash the stock and now I'm where I am.

I think I've tried rooting an already rooted device and FUBARED it. A case of enthusiasm over knowledge, a face palm moment.

I looking forward to hearing your eyes roll from here "oop North".

 

[dynomot]

@ sntaylor, Nope I didn't, and yes I really should have done.

 

[sntaylor]

I recon that if you flash a custom recovery, do a full system format etc to have a blank canvas, but should still be able to boot into download, then via Odin try to flash stock again?

That's what I'd try at least, hopefully the southerner will have something better to say though ;-)

 

[dynomot]

Thinking (clearly something I didn't do) about it. I remember Ironass clearly stating that DjeMBeY had said not to flash CF's root Kernel on top of his pre rooted ROMs. I think I have discovered why. I think I'll try flashing Adam 1.6 and start again, unless I read or here from you guys here otherwise.

 

[dynomot]

Sorted, deep joy !

I've had a read and although there was nothing I could find definitive I learnt enough to go ahead. It is looking like me stupidly flashing CF's auto rooting file (CF-Auto-Root-jflte-jfltexx-gti9505.tar.md5) before trying to flash stock Vodafone ROM is to blame. Why I did that I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. It borked recovery and made Odin throw a wobbly at the "recovery image" point, because from what I can gather there was no recovery so Odin just stopped.

So this is what I did, and it was easy.

Flashed Philz 5.11.2 (the one I made a Nandroid with) using Odin V3.06 (I have them all), passed and phone rebooted, but got stuck on the Galaxy S4 screen and was unresponsive. Pulled battery, inserted SD card with my Nandroid on it and booted to recovery. Relief, the lovely purple themed Philz touch greeted me. Selected restore from SD where my Nandroid was there waiting. Now the last time I actually watched a Nandroid restore was my SGSII days and the first time I'd ever restored one at that. Usually I leave them to do their thing. I watched this one. md5 checksum fine after what seemed an age. It then, and I should have videoed it, said something was not right-going to RAW mode, was like that for about two minutes then started restoring as I remember, with the little progress bar filling then emptying once it had completed a various thing. It finished and I rebooted it through Philz. It did take an age to boot (no doubt restoring dalvik and cache), but I've just turned it off and on and all is well again.

As I say I'd love to know what I'd actually done, but the most important thing is it's back to how it was. It is now annoying the hell out of me with email alerts from my six different accounts (don't ask) that I've already read.

Happy days are here again.

 

[Sydney99]

Thank f$&@ for that old boy

 

[dynomot]

Thank f$&@ for that old boy

That is exactly what I said Syd when it rebooted "Thank f$&@ for that."

Right want to go back to stock and reset flash counter, just so I know how to do it and also when I come to sell it I want to get it back to Vodafone stock, nothing on the counter and then update via Kies or OTA to the latest Vodafone stock , probably by then with Knox activated. Just like a brand new out of the box Vodafone SGS 4, thats been updated. Do I need the stock rooted kernel to use triangle away ? It warns me I will get a bootloop if I'm not running it ? If so where do i get it as a flashable CWM .zip ?

See here :

Spoiler

We all appear on pretty steep learning curve, I want it to be as easy as my old SGSII.

 

[dynomot]

My SGS4 has now stock and is like "fresh out of the box". This is how I did it.

Odin V3.09 was used entirely. Flashed Vodafone stock firmware it came with, no wipes just download mode and away. Booted up stock but with all my apps (minus one or two, SU gone being the notable one.) and settings. Re-rooted using CF's rooting kernel (CF-Auto-Root-jflte-jfltexx-gti9505.tar.md5). I did this as I was running Adam Kernel 1.6 and Triangle Away warned me I must be using the stock (obviously rooted) kernel or a boot loop would occur. I also had to reinstall SuperSU again from play store, (Triangle away needs it) and I also checked my root status with Root Checker. Noticed here that BusyBox had also gone. I then ran Triangle away to reset counter and "Device status". Followed the instructions it gave me and let it reboot into download mode rather than just reboot (I believe this is necessary to avoid upping flash counter again when unrooting with stock ROM). Flashed stock firmware again with Odin.

Phone rebooted all stock, but with my settings and apps still there. Interestingly from "about device">Status, my device status was scanning (complete with "busy" circle twirling away) for a good thirty seconds and reported back "custom"...hmmm. From accounts and backup I did a full reset to get it to an "out of the box" state. Once it rebooted I ignored all the usual set up stuff and went straight to "about device" and looked at status which now reads "Official". I can only surmise that something in dalvik or cache was making it report back "custom" before a reset.

Phone is now as new with stock Vodafone firmware (that wants to update to MGG !) an "Official" status with a Secure boot status of "Samsung" flash count of zero. Happy days.

 

[dynomot]

A Knox Friendly way of rooting is here for the Note 3, won't be long before S4 gets the goodies as well. Pity a custom recovery still trips it.

KNOX-Friendly Root for Multiple Galaxy Note 3 Variants – xda-developers