Root [Virgin Mobile] [OUTDATED][GUIDE][MD7][MG2] Rooting & Recovery for Galaxy S3(VM)

[TheBritton]

I just got the phone!

I will install CWM after work, make a stock backup and then root this thing

 

[TheBritton]

Quick question.. does the root from recovery zip install superuser or supersu?

 

[lordmage]

the one i had was the older superuser i have a pull cwmbackup of it before i activated it. the one it flashed would deny when i told it to auto grant. so i would suggest replacing it with SuperSU.

dame cwm backup is like 1.5 gigs.

308c81f7dd949335c38f0fe970f6a366 boot.img
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e cache.ext4.tar
e754c9243693759c54dc0a04d58c0a81 cache.ext4.tar.a
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e data.ext4.tar
b933673e21bd3baf07f303111f1b39f1 data.ext4.tar.a
cd5c6cbbb18c0874a6c7b610b9ff911d recovery.img
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e system.ext4.tar
89354c76f47d8afd7c26bc94b970431d system.ext4.tar.a
7e2e378477ed898eeee0b4f6d5d9d345 system.ext4.tar.b

were the ones cwm created for me lol

 

[TheBritton]

Okay guys I managed to get CWM on the device without booting into the OS even once so I am taking a backup with CWM and I will have a 100% stock CWM backup for download if anyone needs it.

Someone has probably already beat me to this and I just missed it. If so, oh well.. it doesn't hurt to have a few stock backups floating around

 

[TheBritton]

the one i had was the older superuser i have a pull cwmbackup of it before i activated it. the one it flashed would deny when i told it to auto grant. so i would suggest replacing it with SuperSU.

dame cwm backup is like 1.5 gigs.


were the ones cwm created for me lol

Thanks. Yes, I prefer SuperSU. In fact, I have a flashable zip of SuperSU and I'll probably just use that instead once my CWM stock backup completes.

 

[lordmage]

Okay guys I managed to get CWM on the device without booting into the OS even once so I am taking a backup with CWM and I will have a 100% stock CWM backup for download if anyone needs it.

Someone has probably already beat me to this and I just missed it. If so, oh well.. it doesn't hurt to have a few stock backups floating around

working on just that at the moment uploading my big file to FTP at another android site i am a member mod of.

mine has the superuser version thou...
i choose to .tar it at storage level so its big. used 7zip to archive it.

 

[TheBritton]

working on just that at the moment uploading my big file to FTP at another android site i am a member mod of.

mine has the superuser version thou...
i choose to .tar it at storage level so its big. used 7zip to archive it.

Okay excellent!

Mine is full stock so that's good we have that variety. I'll be uploading mine FTP as well here shortly.

Thanks for the upload!

 

[lordmage]

i wish i had the time to learn how to build and compile a rom / kernel and had the hardware/software to do it but a last all i can do is pull a pre activated stock backup. that i know people will need. all i did was get into cwm flash the suggested root and pulled a backup...

 

[TheBritton]

This phone is awesome!!!

What I love so far is that the internal storage is actually internal and not a secondary internal sd like the S2. So it's a full sixteen gigs of internal memory.

 

[XAL2]

This phone is awesome!!!

What I love so far is that the internal storage is actually internal and not a secondary internal sd like the S2. So it's a full sixteen gigs of internal memory.

Hey TheBritton?

 

[6burgh]

Okay guys I managed to get CWM on the device without booting into the OS even once so I am taking a backup with CWM and I will have a 100% stock CWM backup for download if anyone needs it.

Someone has probably already beat me to this and I just missed it. If so, oh well.. it doesn't hurt to have a few stock backups floating around

Wonder how that will work as the phone installs a vm version of android after activating the phoneif I remember correctly?

 

[TheBritton]

Wonder how that will work as the phone installs a vm version of android after activating the phoneif I remember correctly?

How it will work is if you restore this backup it will prompt you to install the MobileID as it's called after first boot. I've been able to stop that from installing on previous phones and then remove it with titanium backup.

Basically the restore that I made will be just like it came out of the box prior to first boot up

 

[TheBritton]

Hey TheBritton?

Yeah

 

[XAL2]

Yeah

Welcome aboard the SGS3 family and hurry up with your upload of your stock rom.

 

[Ty2338]

Hey guys. I just got the samsung galaxy s3 on virgin and am thinking about rooting it but have never rooted before. Once I root, am I able to get any android version. Ex - I found a link to get 4.2.2 but dont know if its carrier or model specific. So basically my question is once I use this root process, will I be able to use any updates out there?

 

[TheBritton]

Hey guys. I just got the samsung galaxy s3 on virgin and am thinking about rooting it but have never rooted before. Once I root, am I able to get any android version. Ex - I found a link to get 4.2.2 but dont know if its carrier or model specific. So basically my question is once I use this root process, will I be able to use any updates out there?

Different roms and other os versions that work for Sprint galaxy s3 may work with this phone after some modification but do not expect them to work out of the box..

With that being said, if you are new to rooting please wait for a Rom to be ported for us virgin mobile users and you will save yourself a potential headache. There are several users here that have flashed Sprint roms and are stuck with non-functional mms and other issues.

Keep checking the all things root section here for new roms for the virgin mobile galaxy s3.. because I have a feeling there will soon be some

Edit: pardon my capitalization errors I'm using Swype

 

[Ty2338]

Thanks. This might be off topic but I have been looking everywhere and found nothing. Has anyone else had issues with group messaging on the galaxy s3? I know it wont show in 1 thread in the stock messaging app but I am unable to send and receive group mms messages with sms pro, handcent, and every other 3rd party messaging app. I previously had the evo v and group mms messages worked fine through 3rd party apps.

 

[TheBritton]

Welcome aboard the SGS3 family and hurry up with your upload of your stock rom.

Here it is http://G60madman.vmobi.us/d2vmu/stock/vmgalaxys3-stock-clockworkmod.zip

This is a backup of the stock rom MINUS the virgin mobile android id stuff that tries to install at boot. Unzip the contents to your sd card and restore with CWM Recovery. Thanks to g60madman for hosting this file and for the tireless work he does

 

[XAL2]

Here it is http://G60madman.vmobi.us/d2vmu/stock/vmgalaxys3-stock-clockworkmod.zip

This is a backup of the stock rom MINUS the virgin mobile android id stuff that tries to install at boot. Unzip the contents to your sd card and restore with CWM Recovery. Thanks to g60madman for hosting this file and for the tireless work he does

Does this include the modem and kernel? Because I believe that those two most important things that are needed to get me back to complete stock with having everything working. (Please say yes lol)

 

[TheBritton]

Does this include the modem and kernel? Because I believe that those two most important things that are needed to get me back to complete stock with having everything working. (Please say yes lol)

I know this includes the kernel.
Sadly, custom recovery backups do not back up the modem.
They only backup system, data, cache, boot.img (kernel)

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

I think I saw that punkmaxx is working on a flashable zip of the stock rom. http://androidforums.com/virgin-mob...962-stock-odin-flashable-tar.html#post5931002 You can try my backup posted above and see if it gets you back to functional stock though

 

[XAL2]

I know this includes the kernel.
Sadly, custom recovery backups do not back up the modem.
They only backup system, data, cache, boot.img (kernel)

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

I think I saw that punkmaxx is working on a flashable zip of the stock rom. http://androidforums.com/virgin-mob...962-stock-odin-flashable-tar.html#post5931002 You can try my backup posted above and see if it gets you back to functional stock though

He said that he is going to work on a .tar that we can flash through odin that will include everything i.e. modem and kernel etc. (hopefully). Do you think that you can make a flashable .tar modem in the meantime? Also thank you for the upload of the stock cwm restore. I will try this a little later. Also just out of curiosity, what is the stock modem? The modem that I am currently on is MC3

 

[TheBritton]

He said that he is going to work on a .tar that we can flash through odin that will include everything i.e. modem and kernel etc. (hopefully). Do you think that you can make a flashable .tar modem in the meantime? Also thank you for the upload of the stock cwm restore. I will try this a little later. Also just out of curiosity, what is the stock modem? The modem that I am currently on is MC3

Stock modem is L710VPAMD7.

I'm not skilled enough to make Odin tars. Sorry

 

[XAL2]

Stock modem is L710VPAMD7.

I'm not skilled enough to make Odin tars. Sorry

Dammit well hopefully punkmaxx pulls through. I'm like desperate. sad to say lol

 

[TheBritton]

Dammit well hopefully punkmaxx pulls through. I'm like desperate. sad to say lol

I've been in your boat before I understand

 

[punkmaxx]

Dammit well hopefully punkmaxx pulls through. I'm like desperate. sad to say lol

I'm really close... I just managed to nail down all of the partition mount points for our phones.... now i'm ready for action.... Very close to an ODIN "Complete Stock TAR"