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Root [Verizon] Is anybody all in yet?

The_Chief

Accept no imitations!
  • Nov 17, 2009
    15,899
    18,509
    Manchester, Tennessee
    Unlocked? Rooted? ROMmed? The whole shebang?

    Now that Sammy has graciously screwed us up with this Knox counter, we either go all out or not at all.

    I'm in limbo. My phone is in a weird state between the two... I WAS rooted and the OTA broke root. Now I can't even un-install the root apps like SuperSU. If I try to Odin BACK to a previous firmware to re-root (or un-root), the phone might brick :eek:

    Whatever we do, we know it's a one-way street and once that Knox Counter trips, there's no going back. No warranty repairs, and no un-rooting and re-locking. It's DONE.

    No need to attempt re-root until we have Android 4.4. Back to my question:

    Is anyone here completely in? What ROMs are available? What's the process? And what is it like on the dark side? Everything work? S-Pen?

    If I had step-by-steps (or something close), I could write another Guide.

    Thanks!
     
    Yup two choices, use Kingo and reroot so you can get safestrap on and flash a good root from chainfire, or Odin back to stock but like you said dont use the old MI9 use the odin for MJ7 otherwise youll softbrick.

    As for waiting for 4.4 its not looking good for root, Hashcode already said this will probably be last update we can take on retail to work since SELinux is still Permissive, 4.4 is definitely Enforcing so safestrap wont work and they dont know when (or if) it will be fixed to work.
     
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    The VZW rep took the OTA for me at the store, so I came home with MJ7. Since then I rooted using kingo and then safe strap. I am keeping my stock ROM rooted in the stock ROM slot, and then I have hyper drive in slot 1. I like the looks of Beans so I may give that a shot, but hyper drive is my daily right now.
    Also, I do go back out to the stock ROM slot periodically, make sure updates are happening for apps... And will keep it in case I need it.
    Also since I installed a 64g SD card, I keep everything I can on there... Like downloads and su and other files...
     
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    Yup two choices, use Kingo and reroot so you can get safestrap on and flash a good root from chainfire, or Odin back to stock but like you said dont use the old MI9 use the odin for MJ7 otherwise youll softbrick.

    As for waiting for 4.4 its not looking good for root, Hashcode already said this will probably be last update we can take on retail to work since SELinux is still Permissive, 4.4 is definitely Enforcing so safestrap wont work and they dont know when (or if) it will be fixed to work.


    Not sure what is being suggested here. Once 4.4 is out we will not be able to root or we can't root without tripping knox?

    Would like to root. Not sure why I haven't. How long is stock warranty. 1year? What about aftermarket protection plans. Like the one VzW offers. Do those still apply if rooted? Tried reading fine print but didn't see anything.
     
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    It's looking more & more like rooting will become increasingly difficult to impossible. Samsung and Verizon are serious about it. If you're going to root, I recommend you do it along with me right now.

    QUESTION: What happens if the stock ROM slot receives an OTA (such as KitKat) that breaks root? Will that affect Hyperdrive and Safestrap? Or will the update simply never install without approval? Going through all this work just to have it automatically un-root on me would devastate me! What happens?

    :thinking:
     
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    It's looking more & more like rooting will become increasingly difficult to impossible. Samsung and Verizon are serious about it. If you're going to root, I recommend you do it along with me right now.

    QUESTION: What happens if the stock ROM slot receives an OTA (such as KitKat) that breaks root? Will that affect Hyperdrive and Safestrap? Or will the update simply never install without approval? Going through all this work just to have it automatically un-root on me would devastate me! What happens?

    :thinking:

    Retail OTA's are disabled with most custom ROMs. Your stock ROM shouldn't try to pull any OTA since it's not 'active'. I'm keeping mine in the stock slot just in case. I'm not sure that the stock ROM wouldn't try to pull the OTA if you go back and make it the active ROM, but honestly, I don't see myself doing that anytime soon. And you would have to accept the OTA so even if you went back to that ROM slot, you would just 'ignore' the update. I believe, when 4.4 comes out, the Devs would be able to take the features/improvements from it and cook it into their ROMs. I'm by no means a dev, but that's what has happened in the past with other updates, so I'm assuming that part of it.
     
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    This is an excellent question. However, since I run hyperdrive on slot 1 in SS the stock rooted ROM can't just take an OTA. That said, if I chose to approve the OTA it would not go well, or I would want to wait to see what others are seeing first.
    VZW tends to take a while, so we may wait for some experimental flashers see what happens before I jumped into to KK... But I am hoping to see more KK in Roms anyways.
     
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    It's looking more & more like rooting will become increasingly difficult to impossible. Samsung and Verizon are serious about it. If you're going to root, I recommend you do it along with me right now.

    QUESTION: What happens if the stock ROM slot receives an OTA (such as KitKat) that breaks root? Will that affect Hyperdrive and Safestrap? Or will the update simply never install without approval? Going through all this work just to have it automatically un-root on me would devastate me! What happens?

    :thinking:



    Hmmmm.. If you are rooted. wouldnt you do your best to avoid OTA and just take the imagines from Google and sideload them or something? why risk an OTA then?


    so conflicted. I dont want root for custom rom's (though I think I should have the right to use them). I want root to disable services I dont want running. I want root be able to fully backup my data completely, not just some user preferences.
     
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    Not sure what is being suggested here. Once 4.4 is out we will not be able to root or we can't root without tripping knox?

    Would like to root. Not sure why I haven't. How long is stock warranty. 1year? What about aftermarket protection plans. Like the one VzW offers. Do those still apply if rooted? Tried reading fine print but didn't see anything.

    You may be able to root or carry root over with something like OTA survival in supersu pro for 4.4, but Safestrap (what we are using as recovery/ to flash roms) wont work with SELinux Enforcing (which is what 4.4 is set to), on our current MJ7 its permissive

    IQUESTION: What happens if the stock ROM slot receives an OTA (such as KitKat) that breaks root? Will that affect Hyperdrive and Safestrap? Or will the update simply never install without approval? Going through all this work just to have it automatically un-root on me would devastate me! What happens?

    :thinking:

    Freeze LocalFOTAv2_1308_1_1 and SDM 1.0 to stop OTA
     
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    Being able to root is going to be very difficult with a locked bootloader. The only reason the Moto X was able to obtain root on 4.4 was because there was a method to invoke a downgrade in the bootloader to a version that has a security hole. If that's not possible on GN3, then it will become very tough. If you want to guarantee that you have root on 4.4, best to root now and use survival methods because there's a possibility that root may never return on 4.4+
     
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    Being able to root is going to be very difficult with a locked bootloader. The only reason the Moto X was able to obtain root on 4.4 was because there was a method to invoke a downgrade in the bootloader to a version that has a security hole. If that's not possible on GN3, then it will become very tough. If you want to guarantee that you have root on 4.4, best to root now and use survival methods because there's a possibility that root may never return on 4.4+



    Guess we (less informed) are gonna need that N3 rooting guide then.
     
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    Thanks guys!

    Ryan: SuperSU install was some guesswork on my part. I'm simply not sure of the correct procedure and I'm not going to undo all this to find out :p

    If you can PM me what you did and your step-by-step, I'll throw that in.

    William: My reasoning in this was to protect new android enthusiasts from themselves. A lot of folks with little rooting experience (or expertise, for that matter) will be trying this. The last thing I want for them is a botched Stock Slot and NO fallback. We see enough crisis posts here already, don't we?

    By leaving the Stock Slot alone, they always have a safe point to return to. Rather than try to take them through the Odin process, we'll just leave that Slot alone so they can return to it and have a functioning phone if something goes wrong :)
     
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    That information is incorrect, you can put a custom over the stock rom slot in fact thats the only way to get all the storage space available instead of like 4GB, knox doesnt trip either might want to give this thread a look


    [Guide] How to install roms on over stock rom (not compromising space), via ss. - xda-developers

    Thanks guys!


    William: My reasoning in this was to protect new android enthusiasts from themselves. A lot of folks with little rooting experience (or expertise, for that matter) will be trying this. The last thing I want for them is a botched Stock Slot and NO fallback. We see enough crisis posts here already, don't we?

    By leaving the Stock Slot alone, they always have a safe point to return to. Rather than try to take them through the Odin process, we'll just leave that Slot alone so they can return to it and have a functioning phone if something goes wrong :)

    Both of these are valid points. Maybe just mention in your guide that it's highly advisable for only experienced rooters/flashers attempt to overwrite the Stock slot? Or leave it as is, I feel like experienced people know where to get the information they're looking for and will find it if they are truly interested in learning about the process and their phones. Just my 2 cents.
     
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