Rooted w/ the FF19 files. Everything in terms of using the ODIN seemed to go smoothly. But while the phone has Gmail, it doesn't have Maps or Play Store / Play Store services. ... I figured that a restored OS would still have the basic Google services. Apparently not?
Hello,
I am confused by the above.
I thought there was a way to root Samsung Galaxy Prevail, SPH-M820-BST, using Odin, without changing anything, except rooting it.
In fact, I use
Maps and Navigation, stock apps that came with my phone, heavily, and I have read that subsequent versions of Maps are not as good as older versions, like the version I am running. So, I really don't want to use a rooted image from which Maps, etc., has been removed. Moreover, I really do not have adequate bandwidth and Internet access, to download a lot of stuff from Google PlayStore.
I don't want a different ROM or a different kernel. I want everything about my phone to be stock, except it is rooted. I also do not want to repartition the SD card for use as internal storage.
So, after reading a lot about rooting a Samsung Galaxy Prevail for many months, and in recent days, I came to the above quote and, again, began to rethink whether I should proceed to root my Samsung Galaxy Prevail, or not.
Is there any rooted image, for use with Odin, for SPH-M820-BST, that has not had any apps, or anything else, removed?
Chapter two: Clockworkmod
ClockWorkMod v5.0.2.7 for Samsung Prevail SPH-M820
Now after all those minutes of work, we've got ourselves a phone that looks remarkably similar to what we had before. Only real difference is now there's a one-eyed android in our app drawer named Superuser.
If we wanted to, we could stop here and delete the stupid stuff boost forced upon us. ... This recovery utility allows us to install roms and kernels, make backups, create partitions, all directly on the phone. And the best part is, we've already installed it!
In this section we will make a backup of the phone, repartition the SD card, and install a custom rom.
I do want to stop there, is what I mean. No custom ROMS, no custom kernels, no SD card partitions; I don't want to do any of that right now.
I do want to make a backup of my entire phone, that can be used to restore it; however, I would like to make a stock(RFS) backup and I would like to be able to easily restore that stock(RFS) backup. What free apps are available that will make a stock(RFS) backup of my entire phone and restore that stock(RFS) backup?
What I would really like to do is make a restorable backup of my entire phone, before rooting. But, from reading, it seems, to me, that such a backup is only possible on a rooted phone. I read about, and downloaded, "Odin Image File Creator 4.0", but even that, it seems, only works on a rooted phone. This seems to imply that I really can't ever restore the phone, after rooting it, to precisely the way it was before rooting, because I can't even make such a backup, before rooting the phone.
I have 2 Samsung Galaxy Prevails SPH-M820-BST. I got them both a long time ago. One of them is activated with Boost and it is, very literally, my only means of making phone calls and my only means of accessing the Internet; so, the phone is critically important to me, daily. The second phone is not activated.
Ultimately, I want to root my activated phone, but, I guess, I will root the non-activated phone first; in case something goes wrong with the rooting procedure. I really can not afford to break or lose either of the phones, but, considering, it seems most logical to try rooting the non-activated phone first.
Another concern is that one of my phones, the activated one, is FA19 and the other phone is FF19.
My activated non-rooted FA19 Boost Samsung Galaxy Prevail has, and still does, worked extremely well for me. In other words, I have read forum posts where a lot of people say they rooted their Prevail, because they were experiencing significant problems with it non-rooted; I have not been experiencing significant problems with my non-rooted Prevail, however. I am only rooting because I want to use a number of apps that require rooting for use with Gingerbread 2.3.6, which my phones run. Those apps include a data compression app and a firewall. I also want to remove some pre-installed apps, but I will consider that more carefully, later. So, unless someone can suggest otherwise, I don't think I even want to switch from FA19, to something more recent.
I am really trying to being as cautious as I can be in rooting the phone, because, in just about every Prevail rooting forum I have read I have, unfortunately, read of a number of people who have encountered problems that incapacitated their phone, as a result of trying to root:
I have read of people who have rooted their Prevail and ended up with problems such as:
- gps issues
- erratic phone behaviour(freezing, crashing, etc.)
- camera no longer works
- can't receive or send text messages. This was particulary problematic, because, apparently, the phone was indicating texts were sent when they were, in fact, not sent. In another case I read, after rooting texts could not be received from anyone not also using the exact same carrier(Boost, I think).
- bluetooth stopped working
- usb stopped working
and on and on.
I use all the features, including the aforementioned ones, heavily, especially bluetooth, gps and Maps, and USB. So, I am trying to determine if I can root my phone in an extremely cautious way; in the hopes of avoiding Prevail rooting issues I have read of others encountering.
From what I read, a lot of people, for whatever reasons, seem to run into problems rooting with a repartitioned SD card; so, I don't want to do that.
It also seems, from what I read, like a lot of people run into problems rooting and flashing ROMS and installing new kernels; so, I don't want to do that.
I just want to do the minimum, simplest, procedure I can to root my Samsung Galaxy Prevail SPH-M820-BST.
- No flashing Roms
- No installing kernels
- No partitioning SD card to move internal storage to SD card
I downloaded Odin version 1.85, because the Odin forum, which listed which version of Odin to use with specific phones, listed Samsung Galaxy Prevail under Odin version 1.85
I found a working link for FF19, but I am not entirely sure if that is a stock, rooted, FF19, with no apps removed. I am still looking for a working link for FA19.
I also have another very important question to ask, but I will wait to see if the questions I have asked in this post are answered, first.
Samsung Galaxy Prevail
Boost Mobile
model: SPH-M820-BST
android version: 2.3.6
baseband version: S:M820.07x.FA19
kernel version: 2.6.35.7
build number: Gingerbread.FA19
hardware version: M820.07