[Q] Confusion about rooted GT-I9100 - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi guys, as you can (or cannot) see, I'm a new guy here. Not just here at xda, but I'm pretty much a newbie to android as well. I've gotten a S2 last summer from a friend in Asia to replace my ancient Nokia and it was rooted when I got it through snail mail. I've just rolled with it until now when I realized that the phone could probably do better if I did some upgrading and tweaking here and there after seeing articles about Cyanogenmod and other stuff that came from rooting the phone. From there comes my problem, I'm totally clueless about android. I only know that my phone is rooted since it has superuser, but I have no idea what kind of kernel/ROM it has on it and how I can go about improving it. I'm still stuck on version 2.3.3 because I have no idea on how to upgrade and didn't want to carelessly fiddle with it and break it. So I'm hoping you guys could give me some pointers on what I have as of right now, and what to do in regards to getting things up to date.
The specs (?) of my phone are:
Model: GT-I9100
Android version: 2.3.3
Baseband ver: I9100XXKE4
Kernel version: [email protected] #2
Build number: QUENS.ROOT.FIT.ZSKE7
I don't think my phone is attached to any carrier either, if that's normal for the international version.
PS: I apologize if my question and crappy explanation angers some fine and outstanding gentlemen here, but I'm afraid I cannot help that because of my utter confusion and cluelessness.

---

AW: [Q] Confusion about rooted GT-I9100
So the first question you have to ask yourself is: Do you want to stay on stock (but rooted) or do you want an custom rom.
You can try to connect you phone per USB to your computer, then run Kies there and look if it shows you an available update. If the phone is from china you can have the Sammy JellyBean 4.1.2 update. If Kies does not show you an available update then the reason is your rooted stockrom. You have then to "call" (It doesn't call anybody but you have to enter it in the Phone app) #*1234#, minimize Superuser or SuperSU and look in the window wich appeared for your CSC. In my case there is written "i9100DBTLS7" the important thing is the DBT wich is my region Code. So if you find this code go to: http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/1/ and search there for your region code in the country option. Download one of the Roms and flash it with Odin (there are some Guides online. READ THEM CAREFULLY!!!) So then you should have an completly stock rom on your phone. Connect it to Kies again to see if a newer Rom is available and update if there is one. To root it simply follow this Guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1746794
So this is the way to get the newest available stock rom for your phone. If you want to go custom now you can use the guides written by the Developers of the Rom you are looking for.
I hope thats what you were looking for.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

---

Very usefull and detailed information:thumbup: I only want to add that OP needs to do some serious research to learn more about flashing, rooting, firmware differences and stuff, before he/she tries something

---

I second Donnie Sins. Watch a few videos to get an idea and DO NOT FLASH ANY ROM/KERNEL/FIRMWARE/PIT FILE THAT IS NOT MEANT FOR I9100 MODEL! You have to be very careful with that. Also learn how to make backups like for EFS folder and nandroid backup. Make a nandroid backup always before flashing anything so that if things go wrong, you can get back to from where you started!

---

Like you, I too was once confused and overwhelmed by the world of Android.. But after a lot of reading over here at xda, finally got the hang of some important stuff related to rooting and flashing, and most importantly my phone!
For newbies like yourself, this is a good thread to get you started:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1826497
Welcome to our world!!
Sent from my SGS II

---

Myself5 said:
So the first question you have to ask yourself is: Do you want to stay on stock (but rooted) or do you want an custom rom.
You can try to connect you phone per USB to your computer, then run Kies there and look if it shows you an available update. If the phone is from china you can have the Sammy JellyBean 4.1.2 update. If Kies does not show you an available update then the reason is your rooted stockrom. You have then to "call" (It doesn't call anybody but you have to enter it in the Phone app) #*1234#, minimize Superuser or SuperSU and look in the window wich appeared for your CSC. In my case there is written "i9100DBTLS7" the important thing is the DBT wich is my region Code. So if you find this code go to: http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/1/ and search there for your region code in the country option. Download one of the Roms and flash it with Odin (there are some Guides online. READ THEM CAREFULLY!!!) So then you should have an completly stock rom on your phone. Connect it to Kies again to see if a newer Rom is available and update if there is one. To root it simply follow this Guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1746794
So this is the way to get the newest available stock rom for your phone. If you want to go custom now you can use the guides written by the Developers of the Rom you are looking for.
I hope thats what you were looking for.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi. Thanks for the help (Which extends to everyone else as well). I checked through Kies and my phone can't update through that. So then I went on to check the CWC by calling the *#1234# number and it showed me that my CWC is I9100OZSKE7. I proceeded to look it up on the site that you posted and found that it was a Taiwan/Hong Kong region (OZS). So now I'm wondering if I should just choose the 4.1.2 version and flash it? And if I do choose to flash it, is there any other alternative than using Odin? Because I saw that Odin has a chance of bricking the phone.
I also have another question regarding to superuser. My superuser binary seems to be very out of date, and whenever I try to update it, it fails at downloading a new binary.
I have the 2.3.1-ef version installed and the latest as superuser tells me is 3.1.1.
Finally, what is CWM? I have ROM Manager installed on my phone and it seems to be related to CWM.
@shahrozeumar: What is nandroid and efs backup?
PS: Sorry if I look like I'm jumping all over the place with my questions. Right now my top priority is to sort everything out on my phone and get a good understanding of it.

---

*Insert name here* said:
Hi guys, as you can (or cannot) see, I'm a new guy here. Not just here at xda, but I'm pretty much a newbie to android as well. I've gotten a S2 last summer from a friend in Asia to replace my ancient Nokia and it was rooted when I got it through snail mail. I've just rolled with it until now when I realized that the phone could probably do better if I did some upgrading and tweaking here and there after seeing articles about Cyanogenmod and other stuff that came from rooting the phone. From there comes my problem, I'm totally clueless about android. I only know that my phone is rooted since it has superuser, but I have no idea what kind of kernel/ROM it has on it and how I can go about improving it. I'm still stuck on version 2.3.3 because I have no idea on how to upgrade and didn't want to carelessly fiddle with it and break it. So I'm hoping you guys could give me some pointers on what I have as of right now, and what to do in regards to getting things up to date.
The specs (?) of my phone are:
Model: GT-I9100
Android version: 2.3.3
Baseband ver: I9100XXKE4
Kernel version: [email protected] #2
Build number: QUENS.ROOT.FIT.ZSKE7
I don't think my phone is attached to any carrier either, if that's normal for the international version.
PS: I apologize if my question and crappy explanation angers some fine and outstanding gentlemen here, but I'm afraid I cannot help that because of my utter confusion and cluelessness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no way anyone is gonna get upset over this.
They all are gonna recommend you to explore the I9100's forum for scaling the need-to-know baseline. So will I.
It's reading time
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

---

you should go for the custom ROMs, preferably 4.0.3 ICS or 4.1.2 JB, you can find already rooted ROMs out there very easily.-

---

Hey guys. Thanks to the help of everyone who posted in this thread and some major reading, I've managed to update to 4.1.2, root it, and gain a grasp of the basics. I also tried to install CWM after installing 4.1.2, but it just caused a bootloop. Thankfully I made a backup so I just had to restore back to when I started and repeated the process again.
So here's the thing. Why can't I install CWM without it causing me to go into a boot loop? I looked around and it seems that nobody's had this problem.
Also, I'm not quite satisfied by the current stock rom. While it does run smoother and faster than 2.3.3, I find myself unaccustomed to the new setup and somewhat disappointed at the lack of any major improvements other than the aforementioned smoothness and speed. Widgetlocker doesn't let me use my lock anymore, and I can't seem to get the phone to connect with mass storage mode automatically. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should flash to that offers customization and function? As it stands right now, I can't install CWM on my phone and it seems to impede me from creating a fallback and from flashing to any custom roms.

---

Are you sure you're flashing the latest cmw?
You didn't notice major improvements? Comparing to what? GB?
Did you flash philz kernel after you flashed JB?
Keep trying, you're on the fastlane.
Sent from the little guy

---

gastonw said:
Are you sure you're flashing the latest cmw?
You didn't notice major improvements? Comparing to what? GB?
Did you flash philz kernel after you flashed JB?
Keep trying, you're on the fastlane.
Sent from the little guy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't notice a lot that was different from GB aside from the faster battery drain and new UI.
Anywho, I've flashed to philz kernel. Now I have another problem. Google Play keeps crashing automatically for some reason before I flashed to the philz kernel, but now after I flashed to the new kernel, Google Play crashes when I try to update superSU. The new philz kernel won't back up either because of an error in the booting image.
Just to clarify what I did. I rooted my phone using the method mentioned here using Root_SuperSU.0.96.Only-signed and then flashed to philz kernel with the instructions form this thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1877270 and used this package PhilZ-cwm6-XXLS8-FOP-4.01-signed since my kernel code seems to be XXLS8.
EDIT: And after all that, I seem to have gotten myself into a bootloop again after using the recovery.

---

You really need to reflash > factory reset > flash philz.
Sent from the little guy

---

AW: [Q] Confusion about rooted GT-I9100
*Insert name here* said:
Hi. Thanks for the help (Which extends to everyone else as well). I checked through Kies and my phone can't update through that. So then I went on to check the CWC by calling the *#1234# number and it showed me that my CWC is I9100OZSKE7. I proceeded to look it up on the site that you posted and found that it was a Taiwan/Hong Kong region (OZS). So now I'm wondering if I should just choose the 4.1.2 version and flash it? And if I do choose to flash it, is there any other alternative than using Odin? Because I saw that Odin has a chance of bricking the phone.
I also have another question regarding to superuser. My superuser binary seems to be very out of date, and whenever I try to update it, it fails at downloading a new binary.
I have the 2.3.1-ef version installed and the latest as superuser tells me is 3.1.1.
Finally, what is CWM? I have ROM Manager installed on my phone and it seems to be related to CWM.
@shahrozeumar: What is nandroid and efs backup?
PS: Sorry if I look like I'm jumping all over the place with my questions. Right now my top priority is to sort everything out on my phone and get a good understanding of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes you can flash the latest 4.1.2 when it is available for your region.
2. There is is nother option to flash these files than with Odin. But I can tell you if you do everything right don't uplug the cable and don't shut off your PC while flashing you should be fine.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

---

gastonw said:
You really need to reflash > factory reset > flash philz.
Sent from the little guy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but what do you mean by reflash? Can you be more specific? What do I need to 'reflash' with, exactly? And how?

---

jb?
Sent from the little guy

---

gastonw said:
jb?
Sent from the little guy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So... do I go back to gingerbread using the backup and flash to jellybean or can I just flash it from jellybean right now?

---

AW: [Q] Confusion about rooted GT-I9100
*Insert name here* said:
So... do I go back to gingerbread using the backup and flash to jellybean or can I just flash it from jellybean right now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, simply flash Jelly Bean again. Then go to CWM do factory reset and flash philz Kernel.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

---

Thanks a lot guys. I've finally got a hang of this. Moved on to trying cyanogenmod, it's great, but kinda buggy on a few places. So yeah.
Again, thanks a lot.