[Q] RMA, Root, Official ROM and Triangle Away - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S 4

I found this stuff scattered on many threads. I would like to consolidate it into one, exhaustive checklist.
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Let's say, hypothetically, that somebody needed to RMA a Galaxy S4, Rooted, ME7 OTA updated to Verizon for warranty repairs.
With the dreaded ME7 OTA firmware, no custom recovery (TWRP or CWM) or rom was ever installed. ODIN has never been used.
If the phone were rooted with the VRUAME7 exploit by hiikezoe, DooMLoRD, et al (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2380325)
SuperSu, StickMount, Titanium backup, GooManager, terminal emulator were installed as root apps
What would a finite list of steps required to make it impossible for mean old verizon to be able to void one's warranty?
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RESET FLASH COUNTER?
Triangle Away states that on some firmwares, just using it will increment the counter. It also warns of potential bricking.
The ODIN screen shows:
binary=samsung official
status= offical
config-lsb=0x30 (0x3?)
write protect = enable.
This confirms that the rom / bootloader / recovery is 100% original samsung so there is no need to use Triangle Away. Is this correct?
There is no need to flash any ROM or use odin for anything. With the brand new, malevolent, largely untested ME7 rom, one would not want to use ODIN unless absolutely necessary.
Uninstall root apps except for SuperSU
Run SuperSU -> settings -> full_unroot to remove any root fingerprints.
REMOVE EXTERNAL SD CARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Settings -> accounts -> backup my data ...
Settings -> accounts -> factory data reset ...
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At this point, could the phone be taken back to the verizon store with no possibility of warranty rejection due to tampering?
Are there any other landmines to be avoided?

Related

[Q] Rooted or not ?

I recently rooted my phone using method 3 (root from stock recovery) from:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2217840
It kind of worked and i was able to run the root applications.
But then i decided to unroot and did so from superSU's unroot option.
It worked and i dont see rooted anywhere (no triangle or flash counter)
except when i try to update. It says "your device has been modified. Software upgrades are unavailable"
Now im facing battery problems with my phone and want to go for replacement since its under warrenty. So my questions is would they be able to find out i rooted it and deny me replacement ?
Rooting doesn't shows any special effects to your phone but its required for some apps. And about battery problems, try to check new battery from the market
HIT THANKS WHENEVER POSSIBLE OR IF I HELPED YOU...
Check in your device specific forum.
Chainfire's app Triangle Away could restore your system status to official (but requires root). And make sure its compatible with your device.

rooted 4.4.2 with towelroot no trip but installing SuperSu triped knox :(

I have Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4 with 4.4.2. It has been rooted since I bought it at the end of May 2013. I re rooted many times to keep up with software updates. I used Kies 3 to flash back to default 4.4.2. I mean a complete nuke. I then flashed with towelroot and rebooted to see if the custom broken padlock was present at boot. The padlock was not present and no padlock icon present yay!!!. I installed SuperSu by chainfire and disabled knox as per SuperSu suggestion. I rebooted to check if custom flag had been tripped. The broken padlock was there god dammit.
SuperSu seems to have triggered knox or tripped the counter.
How do I maintain root and have the boot screen display everything is normal.
AND how do I get settings to display official instead of custom.
Please help as XDA and Google searches are not providing ansers.
You won't find a lot of info because most people would tell you if you don't want the custom padlock don't use custom software. You can use "Triangle Away" or the option in the Security Hacks section of the Wanam Xposed module.
Thanks
joshm.1219 said:
You won't find a lot of info because most people would tell you if you don't want the custom padlock don't use custom software. You can use "Triangle Away" or the option in the Security Hacks section of the Wanam Xposed module.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well. I looked at triangle away. It messes with the hardware startup code and I don't want to do that. So ill be fine for now. My phone is out of warranty so it's not a big deal and I have insurance on my pbone. I was only bothered because I like pretty visuals.
purplenate26 said:
I have Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4 with 4.4.2. It has been rooted since I bought it at the end of May 2013. I re rooted many times to keep up with software updates. I used Kies 3 to flash back to default 4.4.2. I mean a complete nuke. I then flashed with towelroot and rebooted to see if the custom broken padlock was present at boot. The padlock was not present and no padlock icon present yay!!!. I installed SuperSu by chainfire and disabled knox as per SuperSu suggestion. I rebooted to check if custom flag had been tripped. The broken padlock was there god dammit.
SuperSu seems to have triggered knox or tripped the counter.
How do I maintain root and have the boot screen display everything is normal.
AND how do I get settings to display official instead of custom.
Please help as XDA and Google searches are not providing ansers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, perhaps you could start with the sticky threads here?
One: Assuming that "triped" is just a typo for "tripped": No, that's wrong. First, the phrase "tripped Knox" is usually how people refer to something that sets the "Knox Warranty Void" flag. Installing SuperSU will not set the Warranty Void flag.
You're apparently seeing the "Custom" flag show up at boot, and claiming that's evidence that something "tripped Knox". That's wrong. That's been discussed in the sticky threads here and in the General forum. The "Custom" status means that your phone is no longer running stock.
If you care about the "Custom" flag, flash stock. It'll get cleared after a while. Or, run one of the several techniques to clear it (Triangle Away, Xposed framework, etc.)
The easy way to clear that flag is to flash a stock ROM. If you want to run non-stock, you'll need to live with it, or use one of the work-arounds. I use TA to clear Custom.
something i kinda want to add to this, SuperSU will actively disable knox upon installing it. There is absolutely no way you can trip Knox just with SuperSU. From what i can tell, Knox only gets tripped when you modify the kernel or boot stuff (recovery, etc.) and by that point you'd end up bricking a phone if you didnt have the MDK bootloader
Clear syscope with titanium backup
Sent from my GT-I9505G using XDA Free mobile app

[Q] Looking to flash my phone back to stock, but my current root is "broken"

[Q] Looking to flash my phone back to stock, but my current root is "broken"
Hi all,
So I'm interested in getting my rooted phone back to the latest stock firmware. I realize this question has been asked before (I have searched and found some earlier posts), but I was hoping to get some tailored clarification for my situation before I tried to follow a specific guide. My issue is that I had rooted my phone a long while back, and unfortunately did not stay on top of re-rooting during OTA Verizon updates. Because of this, my root is no longer properly configured. In addition, it's been so long that I don't even really remember how I rooted it in the first place. (I know, I suck.)
This is the status of where I am now:
- The phone is the Verizon Galaxy S4 (SCH-1545)
- I'm currently at Android 4.4.2 and Build I545VRUFNK1
- SuperSU no longer opens (it tells me it is missing the binary and cannot install it, and that I have to manually re-root)
- Root checker pro says that root access is not properly configured
Where I'm looking to get:
- I'd like to get my firmware back to the latest stock settings for this phone.
- I'd like to do this in a way that reverses any indication that my phone has been ever rooted (resetting the flash counter, undoing "warranty void" triggers, etc).
- For now, I don't yet want to wipe my phone back to factory. I'd like to first get my firmware back to stock (with all my current data still intact), and then I'll deal with a full factory reset at a later time.
- As an aside, if anyone has a "best practice" guide for backing up data before attempting my flash back to stock, I'd love to see something. I have Titanium backup, but it's currently unusable with my root state being broken.
Would anyone be able to point me to the proper guide (the more noob-friendly, the better) to reach my goal of getting back to stock? So far, I have found the following:
http(colon)//www(dot)sammobile(dot)com/firmwares/download/39628/I545VRUFNK1_I545VZWFNK1_VZW/
But I wanted to double check that I was following the proper steps for my situation before attempting anything.
Any help is appreciated!

Noob2TheExtreme Note Edge SM-N915W8 has no operating system

So earlier today I had some time on my hands and decided to try and root my Rogers Note Edge phone. I failed miserably and now my phone does not seem to have an operating system and continuously restarts. I tried to restore it back to its factory settings, via Odin and Factory but with no success. Can anyone help me?
Not without more details.
What build number of the software were you on?
Which method to root did you use?
What else did you do to it (just rooting should not remove the operating system)?
What build number of the software did you try to reload with Odin?
Did the Odin flash work or did it fail with an error of some type?
i used everything in this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-edge/general/easy-steps-stock-odin-n915tuvu1anjl-sm-t2943993
-Odin3 v3.07
-twrp v2.8.6
odin failed and then passed twrp, on reboot my phone died. once charged it kept rebooting over and over. I can still get into download and recovery mode again but now twrp says i have no os and I also noticed while it charges it says "kernel is not seandroid enforcing", "set warranty bit:kernel"
You said that you used everything in that guide, but you made no mention of trying to load a rom. That's the next step... If you have no OS, you've got 2 choices. A rom or reload stock firmware via Odin.
Thanks for the support. I made it back to my stock os through smart switch, finally! But Im no longer rooted and Knox is still 0x1. I plan on trying again, should i use the same guide? Just wondering because it seems more based for American carriers , and I'm in Canada.
That guide is for Tmobile version, not yours. That's why it wasn't working right. I'm not aware of a method to reset the Knox counter. You can just install TWRP and use that to install SuperSU from Chainfire for root access.
Well if I can get root tonight I'll let ya know if triangleaway works for Knox reset. Had it recommended from a friend, guess you can get it off the play store.

Update, reroot, etc.??

I really did not know what to title this, here goes:
I have a Verizon SGS 4 (SCH-I545), running stock 4.4.2, no custom recovery (am currently running the stock recovery B.S.), bootloader I545VRUFNK4, build ID KOT49H.I545VRUFNK4, release date 4/26/13 & have been rooted with KingRoot V. 4.8.0135 and is unlocked (haven't really any idea what that means, upon boot-up it shows an unlocked lock icon and says CUSTOM, the dealer I bought it from, just a shop where they buy & sell new/used phones, said that it is unlocked for use on any carrier I want.)
Now I don't know how important, if at all, all of that is but I want to update to the most up-to-date OS, reroot & maybe start flashing new custom roms.
The problem is I don't have access to a computer without install restrictions, meaning I can download things but I can't install them without admin name & password trying it directly from the settings (Settings/More/Software update) it keeps saying service unavailable...
I'm lost, is there any way to update via stock recovery or install a custom recovery (TWRP/CWM) via stock recovery or a root app?
I would suggest you to upgrade your phone with a custom rom, elseway if you do it with any official update your bootloader will be upgraded and there are a lot of cons with that.
We cannot have TWRP, CWM or other recovery (thanks to the bootloader), so the best you can do it's getting SafeStrap and then flash any of these custom roms:
stang5litre Ediition 5.0
Albe95 S6 FULL PORT 4.7
Albe95 ASTRA v2 Note 5 PORT
(I listed those because you want to update your phone). You can find SafeStrap and the roms in Verizon Samsung Galaxy S 4 Android Development sub-forum
SafeStrap must not be compatible with my phone cause I tried to use it multiple times but it is not installing any recovery, I'm still stuck on stock recovery.
AlphaTekk said:
SafeStrap must not be compatible with my phone cause I tried to use it multiple times but it is not installing any recovery, I'm still stuck on stock recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in the same bootloader so you should be able to install it, you just need SuperSU as your superuser app and busybox
Busybox, ya, I have it and ran it but KingRoot installed it's own supersu thing and it won't let me switch, if there'sa way to switch to supersu from the Play store, how?
The recovery is being overwritten by a script in the system. The title of the file is..
Install.recovery.sh
Rename this file with adding ".bak" then reinstall safestrap
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
I searched Root Explorer but have no idea where this is found, maybe you could point me in the right direction.
Ok, my phone's settings say I545VRUFNK1 for baseband but the build number says KOT49H.I545VRUFNK4 and Samsung Smart Switch comes up with FNK4 (VZW)! It is a Verizon SCH-I545 but how can I update it without Smart Switch cause it keeps saying its up to date?
Can I use Odin and what recovery would I use with Odin?

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