Root [Virgin Mobile] Android 4.4.2 VM SPH-L710

[tigerstv44]

Build number for the Virgin Mobile Galaxy S3 4.4 upgrade is KOT49H.L710VPUCNDC

Just throwing out for the experts can confirm. But was told we won't get the ota if have custom recovery. I'm on the mk5, with latest Philz 6.41.6. We have to revert back to stock recovery with mk5. True???

 

[dennytechno]

When I was on philz before I upgraded to Mk3 I didn't need the stock recovery. It just did it and I didn't even have to factory reset. All my apps were still there , pictures, etc. Idk could be different this time

 

[PS4AndroidHacker]

hey guys,

i have been rooting phones and flashing roms for a few years but i really have no working knowledge of everything that goes into that. i am having a problem, my virgin phone keeps trying to d/l the 4.4 update but then it reboots and asks me if i want to install untrusted zip. i go down to yes and it just restarts and nothing happens.

im rooted, running 4.3 with Moars V9.0.1 MK3

any help would be appreciated

That's because your on a MOAR ROM. Its offering you the Sprint version of the 4.4 update and it won't update it because you are rooted. Read through the whole thread about it next time plz.

 

[PS4AndroidHacker]

I hope it comes soon. If that guy could dump his ROM so we can get a zip that would be great! I have the Sprint stock ND8 and the stock rooted deodexed sitting on my desktop right now ready to flash with Odin lol. I just got tired of waiting. I may give it one or two more days to come out. Get ahold of that guy that has it and tell him to come on over to Android forums and give us a ROM dump! Or xda as well!
EDIT: sorry to go off topic as well but could somebody provide a good link for Odin 3.09? I downloaded one that wanted me to install it instead of run it and it was full of malware. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware works wonders at catching that crap! LOL

 

[dennytechno]

Would he still have it if he already updated his phone?

 

[PS4AndroidHacker]

Would he still have it if he already updated his phone?

Yeah he would just have to do a ROM dump off his phone. A dump could create a zip file. If we could get ahold of that zip file we all would be golden.
EDIT: Can anybody provide a .zip for an ota from virgin mobile?

 

[mudflap2020]

If you have the nd8 bootloader I would wait for the devs see if it is safe, becuase they flash a bootloader; anyways the sprint version is the same

 

[PS4AndroidHacker]

If you have the nd8 bootloader I would wait for the devs see if it is safe, becuase they flash a bootloader; anyways the sprint version is the same

Yeah I know that man...just wanted an official one from VM is all. Thanks for your help though buddy.

 

[dennytechno]

Luckily Im still on stock unrooted

 

[SpecialKeezie]

After installing the 4.4 tar file through Odin, is it required to flash one of the roms from the XDA thread? i'd like to root of course, but for some reason i'm unable to save an offline map and i'm guessing it's caused by the rom itself. i keep getting "Failed to save an offline map"

 

[jdsingle76]

After installing the 4.4 tar file through Odin, is it required to flash one of the roms from the XDA thread? i'd like to root of course, but for some reason i'm unable to save an offline map and i'm guessing it's caused by the rom itself. i keep getting "Failed to save an offline map"

I've never heard that error, but to answer your question, no it's not necessary to flash a ROM from Xda. They are rooted and either odex or deodex and in zip format, so if you like that flavor, they are there.

 

[xstefen]

So how many VM users confirmed getting the OTA notice from stock MK5? Though I've installed the ND8 Sprint tar, I will probably tar MK5 and take the VM OTA. No sense in going MK5 if it won't even let me get ND8 or w/e yet though

 

[moonknightus]

I've never heard that error, but to answer your question, no it's not necessary to flash a ROM from Xda. They are rooted and either odex or deodex and in zip format, so if you like that flavor, they are there.

I actually had that problem. Wiped my "internal SD" and all was well.

So how many VM users confirmed getting the OTA notice from stock MK5? Though I've installed the ND8 Sprint tar, I will probably tar MK5 and take the VM OTA. No sense in going MK5 if it won't even let me get ND8 or w/e yet though

Please don't use Odin to go back to MK5 if you're on ND8. You can't downgrade the bootloader or you'll brick your phone. Also, the ND8 boot loader doesn't recognize the MK5 modem. Try the flashable MK5 ROM instead.

 

[xstefen]

Well if I'm nd8 firmware and flash mk5 zip will that trick it enough to taking the Ota? Never had downgrade issues before, Stupid phone. Good to see u around again also moon, I think our last phone was the victory 4g


edit: seems as if ill be waiting for a .tar lol

 

[moonknightus]

Well if I'm nd8 firmware and flash mk5 zip will that trick it enough to taking the Ota? Never had downgrade issues before, Stupid phone. Good to see u around again also moon, I think our last phone was the victory 4g


edit: seems as if ill be waiting for a .tar lol

It definitely tricks Kies, but I don't know if the OTA updater checks for baseband or just plain firmware versions. If you flash the MK5 zip, "About Phone" will show that you're still on the ND8 baseband (and MK5 works just fine with it, by the way), but will show your firmware as MK5. I, personally, will not be changing to the VM firmware when it's released unless there is some noticeable improvement in the modem (baseband) because for all intents and purposes, ND8 works fine for me and I have native tethering as a bonus.

And yeah, it was the Victory. My poor, poor Victory...

 

[kwknott]

Any plans for a Conquest style rom for the S3?

 

[SpecialKeezie]

Alright I've had nothing but problems with this firmware. I followed the directions to a T. Flashed ND8 tar in Odin, flashed Phil's tar in Odin, flashed Phil's zip in recovery, then deodexed 4.4 Rom and data fix

Issues I'm having:

Swiftkey will not download language packs
Reddit sync pro will not load pictures
Maps will not save for offline
GPS taking forever to pinpoint location, if at all
Texting with Swype nearly impossible since each letter press takes several seconds to register (this is intermittent)
Muzei live wallpaper will not work at all
Snap capture root force closes instantly
Xposed installer wouldn't run, kept receiving error. Worked on about the 20th try though

I'm a cable guy that relies on my phone at every job all day, so the GPS and texting issues are absolute deal breakers. Not necessarily looking for fixes for these issues at this point, I'd like to just go back to MK5.

Just putting this info out there, hopefully you all are having better luck

edit: as for putting stock MK5 back on my phone; am I able to do it through Odin by flashing the stock tar, or would i just have to flash JDSingle's stock rooted rom to avoid a brick since i'm on the newer bootloader?

 

[moonknightus]

Any plans for a Conquest style rom for the S3?

It's in the works. Got pretty much all the theming done. Not a lot of added features this time around, and it will be Holo themed (custom mix of holo blue and KitKat with a few touchwiz bits and pieces). Not ready yet though.

Alright I've had nothing but problems with this firmware. I followed the directions to a T. Flashed ND8 tar in Odin, flashed Phil's tar in Odin, flashed Phil's zip in recovery, then deodexed 4.4 Rom and data fix

Issues I'm having:

Swiftkey will not download language packs
Reddit sync pro will not load pictures
Maps will not save for offline
GPS taking forever to pinpoint location, if at all
Texting with Swype nearly impossible since each letter press takes several seconds to register (this is intermittent)
Muzei live wallpaper will not work at all
Snap capture root force closes instantly
Xposed installer wouldn't run, kept receiving error. Worked on about the 20th try though

I'm a cable guy that relies on my phone at every job all day, so the GPS and texting issues are absolute deal breakers. Not necessarily looking for fixes for these issues at this point, I'm just going to go back to stock rooted mk5. Just putting this info out there, hopefully you all are having better luck

The recovery-flashable ND8 ROMs have kernel permissions issues which causes problems when writing to both internal and external storage. There's an "insecure kernel" in that thread which may fix your problem or search for KT747 kernel, which is what I use.

 

[jdsingle76]

Alright I've had nothing but problems with this firmware. I followed the directions to a T. Flashed ND8 tar in Odin, flashed Phil's tar in Odin, flashed Phil's zip in recovery, then deodexed 4.4 Rom and data fix

Issues I'm having:

Swiftkey will not download language packs
Reddit sync pro will not load pictures
Maps will not save for offline
GPS taking forever to pinpoint location, if at all
Texting with Swype nearly impossible since each letter press takes several seconds to register (this is intermittent)
Muzei live wallpaper will not work at all
Snap capture root force closes instantly
Xposed installer wouldn't run, kept receiving error. Worked on about the 20th try though

I'm a cable guy that relies on my phone at every job all day, so the GPS and texting issues are absolute deal breakers. Not necessarily looking for fixes for these issues at this point, I'd like to just go back to MK5.

Just putting this info out there, hopefully you all are having better luck

edit: as for putting stock MK5 back on my phone; am I able to do it through Odin by flashing the stock tar, or would i just have to flash JDSingle's stock rooted rom to avoid a brick since i'm on the newer bootloader?

You can NOT flash the mk5 tar. As you said, it will brick you. But you can flash my stock mk5 but just know that you're stuck with the ND8 modem and boot loader. Most of the issues sound like app issues. You should know that KK storage does not operate like JB storage. Read up on it and you'll know what I mean. However I think Cnexus over at XDA made a storage fix so apps work better by allowing them to write directly to internal or external. And I think there's a KK GPS fix out too. Might be worth looking into. Good luck

 

[SpecialKeezie]

thank you for confirming my suspicions, as well as providing the info. i will definitely look into the storage issue, since that was my first thought as well. most of the issues i had were a result of an app trying to write to the storage

 

[DXBroadband]

Beginning to think the HoFo guy was pulling our legs and the VM 4.4 did not get released into the wild.

 

[TheBritton]

thank you for confirming my suspicions, as well as providing the info. i will definitely look into the storage issue, since that was my first thought as well. most of the issues i had were a result of an app trying to write to the storage

This app fixes the SD issue within two seconds.. literally!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.sdfix

 

[Darktaker]

Is this the update notification?

 

[jonsama585]

So I checked back at the link for the HoFo posted and they have a link to vm facebook page which states from one of the "Angels" that the update will take till about mid June and to the above I would say its an update for sure.

 

[bob-st]

This app fixes the SD issue within two seconds.. literally!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.sdfix

Thanks, this worked for me as well