Root Verizon Zone3 How to root

[Astr4y4L]

<DISCLAIMER>
NEITHER I NOR ANY FORUM OR TEAM_ASTR4Y4L IS RESPONSIBLE ,
FOR ANY THING THAT YOU CHOOSE TO DO TO YOUR DEVICE,
THIS WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY
<DISCLAIMER>
Hi Android users!
My name is Astr4y4L of Team Astr4y4L.
We are New to Androidforums but not new to android.
Here back a few months ,we've discovered a fool-proof method to root the Verizon Zone3.

< A bit of History >
Basically long story shortened, we first rooted the device by downgradeing the current firmware version to a version known to be rooted by king root ( we call this PP2 for short) It was the second version of the software (vs425pp2) .

we could accomplish this by using lg's firmware upgrade tool called Lgup.

After flashing the PP2 .kdz firmware from lg , we could then download or sideload kingroot 4.8 and root the phone using the one-click.

This however was a long process because between ( vs425pp2 ) and (vs425pp4) they changed somethings in the modem firmware and as such ,
after downgrading the firmware, it would bootloop 10-100 times before finally booting up.
and bootloop again every time you rebooted it.

but we finally by trial and error , narrowed it down to modem firmware , and we downloaded the stock kdz of vs425pp7 and used some python tools and scripts to extract the firmware and get the raw partition images. we converted those into .img files and used our new root access and a wonderful root tool called Partitions Backup by Wanam to replace the modem partitions on the device with those we prepared from firmware.
at that point we rebooted and it never bootlooped again. Yeah!!!

After that we made two Kits:
The first kit,
gives you all the tools you need to root your device from the device it's self.
that is detailed here.

Our second Kit ,
involves flashing Pre-rooted firmware to the devices using special Modified Tools
And as such We've chosen not to disclose that Here , And Politely Will not be answering questions about that here.

But there are a few things you should know first.
This has a potential to brick your device if done wrong.
This has proven Not to work for the devices that came with (Vs425pp5 ) because of graphics driver issue.
[***There is a Different way to root PP5 And all other devices that get screen issues on Downgrade.
scroll down after the main part of this Tutorial.]

we've put together a little kit to help you accomplish this all with out having to start from scratch .
and another little kit with the correct firmwares and the Lg tools Lgup etc,


SO On with it right?

TAKENOTE: CHARGE YOUR BATTERY FIRST
QUESTION

APMoneybag123 said: ↑
If the device dies after the process will it mess it up or?

ANSWER

Well it's always best to start with a fully charged battery,
if you make it through the process and the battery dies.

It should be ok just leave it plugged into the charger and let it build a charge... if it is at the stage where boot-loops happen, it should still be ok , once he charges enough to turn on and start bootlooping... Just remove the batt. count to 15 and replace battery and put back on charger, this should result in the powered off charging screen where it shows the battery charging up
let it build a good charge then continue once it finally boots past the bootloops

and usually when it's plugged to the pc during the LGuP steps it should be getting direct power from the usb....

so I'm thinking your ok....

Best practice charge those batteries up before trying the TuT.

thanks for pointing out this question, I'm going to add it to OP.

Great feedback !

What you will Need:

A windows 7 or better P.c
LGMobileDriver_WHQL_Ver_4.0.4
adb
7zip available free
USB cord and Usb 2.0 port
LguP installed
the Zone3
and the kingroot.apk,wanam's partitions backup tool,
Verizon vs425pp2 firmware .kdz
the radio modem firmware from the Verizon Vs425pp7 .kdz
{all available here]

Lgup and firmware + drivers:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1Sfod4HWfk2MUwxNk1oeXJCZEE
Special thanks to my friend Motojunkie01 over at xda for providing us all this link.
and Team_Astr4y4L's root-kit :
Edit -->changed all links to direct links . Edit: fixed broken link. (3/29/18)
https://yadi.sk/d/5FzBTyYU3Tngnv

[PLEASE DO NOT MIRROR THESE FILES]
and patience.

here's our write up on it (also included in the zips)

[EDIT:] Added The Steps to DownGrade

Part 1:###The Downgrade to Exploitable firmware###

In this part of the guide we will cover how to downgrade your device to exploit it with kingroot

<IMPORTANT>
IF YOUR DEVICE IS VS425PP5 OR IF YOU GET BLACK AND WHITE LINES ON SCREEN AFTER DOWNGRADING TO PP2 ,THIS WILL NOT WORK FOR YOU YOU'LL HAVE TO USE ANOTHER METHOD, ONE IS AVAILABLE BUT WILL NOT BE DISCUSSED HERE.

STEP 1: The first thing you need to do is download the correct firmware drivers and tools to downgrade the Zone3 device.

My Real Good Friend @MotoJunkie01 over at XDA has set up a google-drive folder with everything we need and has given me permissions to share it with you here. Thanks @MotoJunkie01 !!!
EDIT:
two links listed above contain the files and programs
once you've downloaded the necessary files
place them somewhere convenient and
We're all covered.
So first visit the above link and download the following

<DOWNLOAD THESE>

LGMobileDriver_WHQL_Ver_4.0.4.exe <--- INSTALLS DRIVERS FOR PHONE
LGUP_Install_Ver_1_14_3.msi <--- INSTALLS LGUP
LGUP_VS425PP.msi <---installs the Common .dll for our phone in lgup(INSTALL LGUP_INSTALLER FIRST)
PP2.KDZ <--- THE FIRMWARE TO DOWNGRADE TO (VS425PP2)
PP7.KDZ OR PP8.KDZ <----- THE FIRMWARE TO FLASH BACK IN-CASE ANYTHING GO'S WRONG !!!!

Step 2 Prepare the P.C
Now we get the P.c ready to downgrade, first install the three installers downloaded above.

NOTE: Order of Operation is important Here. Notice the order they are in in the list I've provided above, you should also install them in that order as they are dependent upon each other.

STEP 3:
Once we have all the drivers and tools installed
Launch LGuP by right-clicking the Desktop Short-Cut and choosing Run-As-Administrator.

Lgup Should pop up a box saying Nothings connected , Click ok
now your left with another box that looks like an empty list.

NOTE: YOURS SHOULD NOT SAY UNKNOWN OR HAVE ANYTHING IN THE MODEL BOX YET. PICTURE FOR REFERENCE

Now Put your device into Download mode.
The device MUST BE POWERED OFF TO GET INTO DOWNLOAD MODE,
This is accomplished by holding +Volume while connecting your micro USB cable for your PC connection. WITH THE DEVICE POWERED OFF (NOTE: this ONLY works with USB 2.0 DO-NOT use 3.0 )
Your Device Should Boot up Saying DownLoad Mode And LguP should see it in that little box.

IT SHOULD SAY UNDER MODEL VS425PP SOMETHING


if it's got something written in the box now and Highlighted kind of a Pink color, then Lgup see's your device.
It should say MODEL: Vs425PP(some-version) Comsome-number)

Click OK in the box, Now LguP will open to flash , upgrade ,downgrade etc. your device.

Now you'll see some options with little dot-style buttons to choose from.
<PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR VERSION ON THE PICTURE WILL SAY SOMETHING>
< DIFFERENT THIS PICTURE IS FOR LGUP REFERENCE ONLY>

Choose Refurbish
a little further down is a line that reads
BIN FILE Click that and you'll notice
it has three little dots at the far right of that line in the box.
click those three dots and it will open another box to allow you to choose your .kdz firmware to flash...
SO navigate with the box to where you've downloaded PP2.kdz and select it.

after selecting the firmware it go's back to main screen,
Click Start and watch the magic....

After you finish flashing it'll look like you killed your Phone ,LOL
because it will boot-loop constantly showing the recovery android thingy but will eventually boot up fully ---Just WAIT FOR IT !!!!!

after the bootloops you will be booted into a PP2 system and ready to follow the rest of this guide...


####################################################
PART 2 Exploit the device and restore radio firmware to stop bootloops
####################################################
This assumes you've already followed the above method to downgrade to pp2 firmware by manually flashing a stock firmware.kdz using LGuP and Have working Android Device Bridge on your pc and have enabled it in your device options/settings menu


DISCLAIMER:AGAIN:

I NOR ANYONE ELSE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT YOU CHOOSE TO DO WITH YOUR DEVICE........

THAT SAID LETS BEGIN.

step 1:

download and unzip to desktop Team_Astr4y4L's Legacy_zone3_root_kit
same link from above


from the unzipped folder open terminal : open CMD window here ( ctrl+shift+right-click )

and type

adb install "kingroot4-8-0.apk"

adb install "XposedInstaller_by_dvdandroid_29_04_17.apk"

adb install "Partitions_tool.apk"

step 2:

run kingroot to get root access.

***someusers report kingroot requires many reboots. So be patient.

then open xposed installer {grant root} and use the option in 3dot menu [top-right] to fast-reboot

step 3 : now in terminal : open CMD window ( ctrl+shift+right-click )

adb push "mrw" "/data/local/tmp/mrw"

adb shell "chmod 0777 -R /data/local/tmp/*"

now open "mrw" on desktop, open root.sh in Wordpad select all copying and pasting into root terminal

at the end you should have supersu and be rid of kingroot..

exit terminal

exit
exit
exit

step 4:

let supersu update binaries then DO NOT CLICK REBOOT

Use Xposed installer to Fast-reboot again

step 5 :

open partitions tool and back up these partitions

fsg, modem, modemst1, modemst2, ssd

let it do its thing....

step 5:

now back on pc at terminal...

adb shell

su

mv "/storage/emulated/0/PartitionsBackups " "/storage/emulated/0/PartitionsBackups .bak"

exit

exit

adb push "PartitionsBackups" "/storage/emulated/0/PartitionsBackups "

step 6:

back on the phone open Partition tool again and use the 3dot menu {top right corner} to choose restore partition.

navigate to the sdcard/PartitionsBackups folder "not the one with .bak at end"

and choose backups to restore in this order,

modem, modemst1, modemst2, fsg, ssd

Note :these are not the backups you created these are the .img files I created to replace them...

now that you've done that exit all apps unplug from pc and use powerkey to reboot naturally,

enjoy root with out bootloops

GoodLuck, and happy Rooting,

this community Our new Home, So If any of you out in Userland
need help with anything android give me a Ping and we'll try to help.
Thank you AndroidForums for Giving us a great community !

##########################################################################
########################################################################
FOR ALL DEVICES THAT HAVE SCREEN PROBLEMS ON DOWNGRADING!!!!!
########################################################################

Blind Root for LG Optimus Zone 3 with TalkBack.

Suggested Prerequisites:

A windows computer
A USB data cable
A pair of ear buds – not necessary but the in phone speaker is a little quiet
Screenshots of menu screens
Familiarity with Talk Back
One or two dry runs with a working display before you boot to PP2
Vysor APK or some other screen mirroring software


What is TalkBack?

TalkBack is the Google screen reader included on Android devices. TalkBack gives you spoken feedback so that you can use your device without looking at the screen.

https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6283677?hl=en


Directions

Complete the root tutorial up to the point of booting into a PP2 system. Your phone display will be useless but touch input works. It’s hard to tell when the device is done boot looping so it may help to keep LGUP open to see when the device is done bootlooping.

Once booted, press and hold two fingers on the display. You should hear the Talk Back voice tell you to continue holding two fingers until you hear a beep to enable talkback.

Once Talk Back is enabled it will walk you through a tutorial. If you memorized where the next button is you can skip some parts of the tutorial. If you can’t find next, just continue with the tutorial until the end.

Talk Back has a lot of gestures that I never bothered to understand. Here are the basics:

Swipe left to right to move forward to the next item on the screen.

Swipe right to left to go back.

Talk Back will tell you what item is currently selected. Double tap to register a click on the screen.

Sometimes Talk Back will not let you double tap to click. Try going back and forward again to get it to let you double tap.

If you do a single tap on the screen it will select whatever is on the screen. If you have a general idea of where an icon is, you can click and select it. You must always double tap to actually interact with the icon or menu.

Go through the initial phone setup. The Back, Home, and Menu buttons will be disabled during setup. On the bottom right there is usually a skip or next button. I suggest skipping everything, including Wifi. Entering text on the Talk Back keyboard is frustrating.

If you have to enter text, imagine the keyboard is exactly like you see on a working display. Press and hold with one finger, then move around while Talkback tells you which keys you are selecting. Release your finger to type the key that was just announced.

After you get through the initial phone setup:

Navigate to Settings > About Phone > Software info > Build number

You would normally tap 7 times to enable Developer options, but with Talk back its 14.

Talkback never announced that I had enabled developer options, but that may have been because I was just spamming the clicks and was interrupting the voice navigation.

Navigate back to settings and there should be a new option for Developer options.

In Developer options, enable USB debugging. Remember, you can’t enable USB debugging with the phone connected to the computer. Unplug the usb cable to be able to turn on USB debugging.

From a CMD prompt, type ADB devices to confirm you can see the device. The first time you use ADB you will get a prompt on the phone to allow the connection. You have to allow the connection to use ADB.

I recommend checking the box on the phone to always allow connections from this computer.

Next, Navigate back to settings > Security > Unknown Sources and check the box to allow.

Now in the CMD prompt, install Vysor or your choice of Mirroring software APK. If you have the APK in the folder where you opened the CMD prompt, the command would look something like this:

ADB install “com.koushikdutta.vysor_1.0.1.1-1521579600_minAPI16(nodpi)_apkmirror.com.apk”

Download the chrome plugin or full install for Vysor. Vysor should automatically detect your device. Click view and it should mirror your device on the computer. From there, navigate the phone using your mouse.

Vysor has ads every time it starts and every 30 minutes. You can usually close or skip the ads after 5 seconds.

The Vysor display gets very blurry with low resolution occasionally. Waiting a few seconds usually clears this up.

Occasionally Vysor could not see or connect my device. Running adb devices from a command prompt usually cause adb to restart the daemon which allowed Vysor to see the device. Sometimes it takes a minute for Vysor to respond.

At some point after rooting with Kingroot I could no longer get Vysor to connect to the device. Closing Vysor on the computer and opening it again corrected this.

Once Vysor is working and you are comfortable using a mouse to navigate, proceed with the rest of the root tutorial up to the point where you restore partitions. After restoring these:

modem
modemst1
modemst2
fsg
ssd

At this point I rebooted the device to confirm it did not boot loop. You can probably skip rebooting but thats up to you.

Now restore all of the partitions from the PP7 boot-chain one by one. I did it in this order but I don’t know if that is necessary:

aboot
abootbak
boot
laf
rct
sbl1
sbl1bak
tz
tzbak
Once completed close everything, reboot and the screen should be working on a rooted device!!
#######################################################################
##########################################################################
Special thanks to @Hotcarl over at our discord for working through this BLINDLY to prove it works

Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L

Need to contact Us?
just look at Astr4y4L's profile page .
Link to our homepage and in turn our contact info is there.

or start a Convo. with me here at AF


here's the link to the discord chat room for this device and method.
https://discord.gg/966gnvS



Have you Used this to root Your Devices?
Did you know it takes a lot of time and effort to keep these files available?
Want to Donate?
Buy the Kids something !!!

We accept Donations Via Paypal
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BS89C83GW2LBE

EDIT> link to the complete PP7 bootchain, in case someone wants to continue research and efforts on this device.

https://yadi.sk/d/OIRh4Ol93TtMPa <PP7-Boot-Chain.7zip

 

[Astr4y4L]

Dec 5th 7:41 AM---->working to edit and get links straightened out and remove duplicate thread

@8:13 AM ---> Thread Edited all Links Good and Working, Added Email for Contact, added address for donations, redirected other (duplicate ) post.

edit 2/20/2018
posts cleaned up, Links Fixed

edit 3/15/18
fixed a broken link

edit 3\29\18 <--Fixed yandisk link

Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L

 

[scary alien]

Nice work guys!

I don't have this device but can appreciate the amount of work you guys have put into this.

Cheers and happy rooting .

 

[Astr4y4L]

Nice work guys!

I don't have this device but can appreciate the amount of work you guys have put into this.

Cheers and happy rooting .

Hi there, And Thanks! We're Happy to Be here.

Isn't it great that No one Owns the Monopoly on open-source Software!

It's also good to see that Not every android device forum website moderator is a Jerk!
Thanks So much for allowing us to share our Android device Exploits, Knowledge, And good stories related to all of that Here.

Your A gentlemen and a scholar

and if your ever in the market for a $20 doller -ish phone.
I'd recommend the Zone3. It's really a decent device once you root and remove Bloat.

I even had custom Nethunter functioning mostly on it though I didn't bother with any kernel exploit to load the modules needed to support OTG-USB It was a Really Neat Experiment.

Another time, I Used it Successfully with a certain app from google play store and was able to 1-click crack (TEST) 3 of 5 wifi AP's I tested it on.
I Honestly didn't believe it capable until that experience.

But , that's Just My Personal Opinion.

Anyhow I figure pretty soon the word will get around and maybe I'll start to see some of our old friends from other forums popping in here , that would be Awesome!!!
So If your Allowed to, And you show up here, Introduce yourself so that I'll know who you are if you're one of our friends or followers.

Thanks Again ,
Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L

 

[cubcadetlover]

@Astr4y4L

Saw the news about XDA on your website. Too bad...

I am actually looking into create a custom load for my farm. Preset with applications installed and running. My kickass vision is to have rooted phones with VNC and SSH running and all the preferences preset.

I will follow your instructions and see what I can do (and try not break too much). Goal is to start buying all cracked screens/parts phones on the cheap.

 

[Astr4y4L]

@Astr4y4L

Saw the news about XDA on your website. Too bad...

I am actually looking into create a custom load for my farm. Preset with applications installed and running. My kickass vision is to have rooted phones with VNC and SSH running and all the preferences preset.

I will follow your instructions and see what I can do (and try not break too much). Goal is to start buying all cracked screens/parts phones on the cheap.

Hey Buddy, Long time no see . hahaha!

Bro listen if your wanting to customize the whole farm we could prep a special image for you to deploy with your pre chosen needed apps on it .
It would work much like the last time when we flashed it directly.

But you'll have to shoot me an email to discuss it.
edit:
email deleted

This Here is the Tut for the First method to root via down-grading
on the device.

Since the other method is what we use in our root service and costs the users money, we've agreed not to offer it here.
But you Know where to find our site and you know how to get in touch with me Sir. Thanks for Stopping By!!

 

[Astr4y4L]

Thinking about doing a tutorial with a video on the way to swap broken screens for good ones on the Zone3, I've Had to do it several times during research when I completely Nuked a device and all that we had left were the ones with busted glass.
Not sure should I use a thread here with pictures and a link to a video or just a video.
Probably refine it on a page over at our website before posting it here tho.

Astr4y4L
Team_Ast4y4L

 

[cubcadetlover]

Thought about this some more and am worried about unique IDs similar to Windows SIDs. I can't have clones detected.

I am going to continue to use my shell scripts to standardize the phones.

 

[Astr4y4L]

@cubcadetlover

I hear ya,
but I really don't think it works like that in android, see android identifies its self by ESN and IMEI
Numbers and those don't change when you change the /system otherwise we would have no ability for updates, etc

By all means continue with those scripts, those are good to have.
But I assure you that a custom deployed image would be fine.
We do it all the time and never have an issue.
And we use some paid apps from playstore in our personal image.
Have to pay again on new devices,
Restores purchase on devices we flash a second time.

U ever want to see about it let me know, I can make time to show ya what I mean.
No charge to prove our method.

Maby you can share some of the details on the zone3 phone farm
Here on the thread. Makes interesting reading to see whats possible with zone3 rooted

Anyhow. Take it easy my friend.

Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L

 

[Astr4y4L]

UPDATED
EDITED--->added the how to for downgradeing the phone for rooting
Shortened links with Google url
added pictures for reference.
Happy Rooting!!!

Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L

 

[cubcadetlover]

Is there a way to force the phone into fastboot/download mode? Screwed up a couple phones and clicked the wrong radio button in LGUP. Now stuck in boot LG boot screen loop. Never a red Verizon screen. Found the recovery menu, but none of the options are any good.

 

[Astr4y4L]

Is there a way to force the phone into fastboot/download mode? Screwed up a couple phones and clicked the wrong radio button in LGUP. Now stuck in boot LG boot screen loop. Never a red Verizon screen. Found the recovery menu, but none of the options are any good.

Try pulling the battery...
count to 30 seconds ...
replace the battery...
Hold the Volume-up button while plugging in the usb
KEEP HOLDING the Volume-up
and it should go into DL-MODE

Also open device manager and look for the LGE notations.
Please post back to let us know how it go's.

Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L

 

[cubcadetlover]

Thanks... The description worked. I had to use uppercut to actually make LGUP work properly, but I recovered the 2 dead ones fine. Wasn't sure if I killed them before or not. These really are nice phones.

 

[Astr4y4L]

Thanks... The description worked. I had to use uppercut to actually make LGUP work properly, but I recovered the 2 dead ones fine. Wasn't sure if I killed them before or not. These really are nice phones.

Yes uppercut by autoprime is awesome

The reason this is happened is because you didn't have the LG up vs425pp common dll it's in the folder called common inside LG UPS installation location inside the folder called model and the folder common has to have a Capital C I'm thinking of zipping up the common folder and adding instructions on how to manually place it in the LG up installation I'm so happy and glad that I was able to help you recover your devices good job bro!

Astr4y4L

 

[cubcadetlover]

They were properly recognized... Just some stupid error about secure phone, but not secure image... A quick search led to uppercut.

 

[Astr4y4L]

They were properly recognized... Just some stupid error about secure phone, but not secure image... A quick search led to uppercut.

Yeah, it's the old Common.dll that's what uppercut does is input the dll for lots of lg devices
starts it up Auto-magically .
I think it does some other stuff in there too. but haven't bothered to reverse eng. it to see exactly what.
I make all my Mods My-Self and then I know whats going on. Lol!

I'm Just glad the Phones worked out.
Oh by the way there's and update to the pre-rooted image you purchased .

the update fixed the Borked rom-toolbox
so no more having to remove it after flashing
If you want it Email Me and I'll send you the link.
Remember Updates are Free as long as I'm doing this,LOL

Regards,
Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L

 

[alexkace]

Tell me what the Easy way is to Root the Lg optimus zone 3 phone. I have mine and I need to root it as fast and safe and easy as possible, please help!!!

 

[alexkace]

Can someone make me a video of how to do the root with the Lg or show me an Idea of how it is done or Team viewer me so we can have the root done to my LG optimus zone 3 please please!!!

 

[Astr4y4L]

Can someone make me a video of how to do the root with the Lg or show me an Idea of how it is done or Team viewer me so we can have the root done to my LG optimus zone 3 please please!!!

Sir I Have A remote Root Service For that,
It Cost's money So It WILL NOT BE DISCUSSED HERE

If you EMAIL ME we can take care of it for you
Thanks,
Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L

 

[alexkace]

OKAY LET ME EMAIL YOU!!! HOW DO I DO IT!?"??

 

[Astr4y4L]

Deleted

 

[alexkace]

Sent email!

 

[alexkace]

I rooted my lg Optimus zone 3 and it worked and there is another method that I also used which I Paid for to team.astr4y4l@gmail.com and then I was able to root my Phone and it works!!!!

 

[Astr4y4L]

I rooted my lg Optimus zone 3 and it worked and there is another method that I also used which I Paid for to @Astr4y4L and then I was able to root my Phone and it works!!!!

I'm glad your happy with your rooted devices hahaha

Happy Modding
LOL

Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L

 

[noidodroid]

Hey partner good to see you here! Absolutely great first post's you've got up! I'm glad you took my advice and joined up here as well. I plan on being more active here as well as i get time from work and active with our work.

For any scammer incidents you should create a Thread detailing full details on the incident, person, accounts and anything to warn others but only if it is 100% for sure a scam. Then also post a link in your business thread the deal was struck up from. Remember you don't want to jump the gun. If ya do or it's solved just remove the thread contents and then post solved or have admin remove it if they will. This is how we solve problems on our marketing forums. We have a section dedicated to scammers and half asses lol. All of this is of course if AF mods do not mind.