Root [Sprint] Root access possibly lost. Fix? Galaxy S.4

[sexyington]

Hopefully someone can help me out here. I have the Galaxy S.4. I was rooted before with no problems on stock rom. I have unrooted and rooted this phone 3 times. I got tired of the install update icon sitting in my notification bar for the last several months. So I unrooted my phone. Then did the ota updates. It was 3 or 4 of them. I am now 4.3 stock rom. So I when to re-root and got that with no problem. I used the odin method, I used odin again to install clockworkmod (v6.0.4.4) on the phone. I rebooted and it worked great, no problems. I then when to get the final piece of the puzzles so to speak. I downloaded MDCHotspotmod-odexed from

 

[jhawkkw]

If you can provide your carrier and current build number for you device, I can move this to the proper root forum for people more familiar with the device to help you out.

 

[sexyington]

If you can provide your carrier and current build number for you device, I can move this to the proper root forum for people more familiar with the device to help you out.

Sprint SPH-L720

 

[jhawkkw]

Alright, it has been moved to the sprint s4 root forum.

 

[iowabowtech]

Did you make a backup in cwm prior to flashing the tether zip? If so, have you tried to restore?

 

[Granite1]

I issued a general call to arms to get more folks in to help.

Although you've got a few rockstars in here already.

 

[sexyington]

Did you make a backup in cwm prior to flashing the tether zip? If so, have you tried to restore?

No, i didn't. I got my data backed up with titanium Tho. I hit factor reset + it didn't help

 

[sexyington]

I issued a general call to arms to get more folks in to help.

Although you've got a few rockstars in here already.

Thank you

 

[iowabowtech]

Did you make a backup in cwm prior to flashing the tether zip? If so, have you tried to restore?

No, i didn't. I got my data backed up with titanium Tho. I hit factor reset + it didn't help

Ok. The S4 has a removable sdcard no? If so, how about placing a rom on there (surely there must be one that's almost pure stock but made into a rom) and then flash it from recovery?

Lemme look around for a stock rom unless another S4 user wanders in before I can get it done.

 

[iowabowtech]

Ok so there's some roms but if my research is correct (don't own this device), it appears that when you updated to 4.3 (mja), you got the knox enabled bootloader with that. Which I believe means you'll have a flash counter in play now. Wasn't sure if that'd be a deal breaker for you or not?

edit: although after a re-reading your OP, may be a moot point since you've been flashing zips on 4.3 already.

 

[sexyington]

Ok so there's some roms but if my research is correct (don't own this device), it appears that when you updated to 4.3 (mja), you got the knox enabled bootloader with that. Which I believe means you'll have a flash counter in play now. Wasn't sure if that'd be a deal breaker for you or not?

edit: although after a re-reading your OP, may be a moot point since you've been flashing zips on 4.3 already.

So wat does that mean? "flash counter in play now. " i do have a rom for g.s.4 but its not close to stock. I didn't want to flash it + make it worse

 

[iowabowtech]

So wat does that mean? "flash counter in play now. " i do have a rom for g.s.4 but its not close to stock. I didn't want to flash it + make it worse

I got that tidbit of info from here:

[HOW TO]Update S4 to Stock 4.3 MJA w/Root ,MJA Modem & Keep 4.2.2 MF9 Bootloader! - xda-developers

OP did a nice job of explaining the situation. In that same development forum, there are some good looking stockish roms if you end up going that route.

 

[sexyington]

Its a good post but its basically saying don't update. But i already have. I don't have a warranty To void so i would like to know how bad my phone is messed up and if i can get my phone working again

 

[iowabowtech]

Its a good post but its basically saying don't update. But i already have. I don't have a warranty To void so i would like to know how bad my phone is messed up and if i can get my phone working again

I know you've already accepted the OTA, I was just explaining where I got the "flash counter in play now" from because you asked for an explanation on that.

So if you don't have a warranty to void, you can flash a rom and not worry about the flash counter. Flashing a working rom should get you a booting phone again assuming you can still get into recovery that is. I suppose the other route would be to flash back to stock using odin if the newest stock tar is available. I have not searched for that.

 

[sexyington]

I know you've already accepted the OTA, I was just explaining where I got the "flash counter in play now" from because you asked for an explanation on that.

So if you don't have a warranty to void, you can flash a rom and not worry about the flash counter. Flashing a working rom should get you a booting phone again. I suppose the other route would be to flash back to stock using odin if the newest stock tar is available. I have not searched for that.

Well i tried using odin to get back to stock + unroot but every time i run Odin it fails. (Never had problems with Odin before excepting the update. So if i flash a new rom with cwm i would be safe?

 

[iowabowtech]

Well i tried using odin to get back to stock + unroot but every time i run Odin it fails. (Never had problems with Odin before excepting the update. So if i flash a new rom with cwm i would be safe?

When you were flashing stock with Odin, were you using the new 4.3 firmware file? Because I'm pretty sure you can't go backward with Samsung.

But yeah, anyway I would think you'd be good flashing a rom unless there are known limitations preventing you from loading certain roms with your current baseband and/or bootloader. And if that's the case (which it can occasionally be), I wouldn't be privy to that since I'm not close enough to this phone to know off the top of my head. One would like to believe that any such pitfalls would be noted in the flashing instructions. I'd also read through any rom threads you might be interested in to search for any known oddities with your particular setup (meaning whatever you have for OS/baseband/bootloader from the OTA you took, plus the fact you're running cwm as your recovery). Need to be sure any given rom is flashable with your recovery as well.

 

[ocnbrze]

i do not have an s4 so i can't be of too much help.

curious do you still have a recovery?

and let this be a lesson to make sure that once you have a custom recovery.....always make a nandroid backup.....they could have possibly have saved you already.

 

[iowabowtech]

Still being not sure what stock version you've tried flashing with Odin, I figured I'd throw this out there:

[FIRMWARE][ODIN] All Sprint Firmwares {12/8/13} - xda-developers

You may have already been there. Just making sure.

 

[jejb]

EDIT: Looks like the MK2 Hotspot just became available:
xda-developers - View Single Post - [MOD][Deodex][Odex][MDC][MDL][MF9][MJA]Hotspot Mod

 

[sexyington]

i do not have an s4 so i can't be of too much help.

curious do you still have a recovery?

and let this be a lesson to make sure that once you have a custom recovery.....always make a nandroid backup.....they could have possibly have saved you already.

Yes still have recovery

 

[sexyington]

Still being not sure what stock version you've tried flashing with Odin, I figured I'd throw this out there:

[FIRMWARE][ODIN] All Sprint Firmwares {12/8/13} - xda-developers

You may have already been there. Just making sure.

No your right i was trying to go backwards. I had not dl a newer version of the stock rom

 

[sexyington]

If you were on MK2 after taking the OTA's, there is no current hotspot mod for it, at least as of 12/17/13. If you try to install an older version, bootloops are common. There is one rom with the updated hotspot mod in it, but it's not the one you installed.

Go back to MJA and then you can install the hotspot mod.

And which rom is that

 

[sexyington]

So does anyone know how to get rid of KNOX BootLoader or change bootloader if that it what is causing the bootloop?

 

[iowabowtech]

So does anyone know how to get rid of KNOX BootLoader or change bootloader if that it what is causing the bootloop?

I don't think that's what's actually causing the bootloop and from that thread, it sounds like you can't get rid of it once you have it. Which is fine since you don't have warranty concerns. That flash counter means nothing to you. I think the bootloop came entirely from flashing the tether zip. So the only way out is either flashing a rom via recovery or try to reflash stock using Odin and the correct file for whatever OS version you just updated to.

 

[Digital Controller]

Um, also I had this on my GNex and my fix was just factory resetting the device. I don't know if this will help you at all, but it fixed mine.

However, it sounds like you might just need to flash a rom like iowabowtech said from the issues you sound like you are still having.