[Q] locked bootloader "System software not authorized by Verizon Wireles... - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S 4

Hi,
I recently recovered from a soft brick by reflashing my phone using odin back to stock using VRUAMDK_NoWipe.tar.md5. I was able to successfully root using motochopper, but the bootloader is locked. When I first got the phone, I used GooManager to install twrp so I could install a custom rom. But now, GooManager 404s when trying to download openrecovery-twrp-2.6.3.1-jfltevzw.img.
So, I manually downloaded openrecovery-twrp-2.6.3.1-jfltevzw.img, copied it to the phone (at /storage/sdcard0/r.img), opened the terminal emulator app, hopped to root, and dd'd it over the recovery partition manually.
Code:
su
cd /storage/sdcard0
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p21 of=r.orig.img # created backup
dd if=r.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p21
md5sum r.img
md5sum /dev/block/mmcblk0p21 # curiously, these didn't match on repeated attempts; even after reboot
As the comments say above, I noticed that the md5sums of r.img and /dev/block/mmcblk0p21 after the dd didn't match, even after numerous attempts. Note: when I eventually dd'ed the original contents of the recovery partition back, the md5sums of r.orig.img and /dev/block/mmcblk0p21 matched fine.
When I rebooted with the twrp image copied to my recovery partition, and tried to enter recovery mode, I saw this message:
System software not authorized by Verizon Wireles has been found on your phone. Please turn off your phone and go to the nearest Verizon Wireless store for help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the cause of this message? Any ideas on how I can get twrp on my phone so I can install a custom rom again?
I've also looked into fastboot, but I couldn't get `fastboot devices` to show my phone (though `adb devices` showed my phone fine)--even after uninstalling samsung drivers, rebooting, and reinstalling the drivers.
PS. This all happened due to soft brick, which occured because PAC crashed immediately when I began to encrypt the contents of the phone. Is this a known issue?
Phone Info:
Verizon Android Galaxy S4 == jfltevzwm == SCH-I545
Flash: VRUAMDK_NoWipe.tar.md5

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What firmware version was the phone on before it got bricked?

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JeeperDon said:
What firmware version was the phone on before it got bricked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not 100% sure. It was either pac_jfltevzw-nightly-20130706.zip or pac_jfltevzw-milestone.1.RC1.zip

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fedcba098 said:
I'm not 100% sure. It was either pac_jfltevzw-nightly-20130706.zip or pac_jfltevzw-milestone.1.RC1.zip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think he's asking if you were already running MDK build with a custom recovery?!
Sent from my SCH-I545 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

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Mistertac said:
Think he's asking if you were already running MDK build with a custom recovery?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before I flashed it with pac? I'm not sure what the initial firmware was. I *do* know my initial firmware was before ME7, so I chose MDK because it was 1 version before ME7. Does it need to be put back to the same firmware as when I bought it? If so, how do I find out the initial version?
And, yes, I had a custom recover (twrp) on my phone before the soft brick.

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fedcba098 said:
Hi,
I recently recovered from a soft brick by reflashing my phone using odin back to stock using VRUAMDK_NoWipe.tar.md5. I was able to successfully root using motochopper, but the bootloader is locked. When I first got the phone, I used GooManager to install twrp so I could install a custom rom. But now, GooManager 404s when trying to download openrecovery-twrp-2.6.3.1-jfltevzw.img.
So, I manually downloaded openrecovery-twrp-2.6.3.1-jfltevzw.img, copied it to the phone (at /storage/sdcard0/r.img), opened the terminal emulator app, hopped to root, and dd'd it over the recovery partition manually.
Code:
su
cd /storage/sdcard0
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p21 of=r.orig.img # created backup
dd if=r.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p21
md5sum r.img
md5sum /dev/block/mmcblk0p21 # curiously, these didn't match on repeated attempts; even after reboot
As the comments say above, I noticed that the md5sums of r.img and /dev/block/mmcblk0p21 after the dd didn't match, even after numerous attempts. Note: when I eventually dd'ed the original contents of the recovery partition back, the md5sums of r.orig.img and /dev/block/mmcblk0p21 matched fine.
When I rebooted with the twrp image copied to my recovery partition, and tried to enter recovery mode, I saw this message:
What's the cause of this message? Any ideas on how I can get twrp on my phone so I can install a custom rom again?
I've also looked into fastboot, but I couldn't get `fastboot devices` to show my phone (though `adb devices` showed my phone fine)--even after uninstalling samsung drivers, rebooting, and reinstalling the drivers.
PS. This all happened due to soft brick, which occured because PAC crashed immediately when I began to encrypt the contents of the phone. Is this a known issue?
Phone Info:
Verizon Android Galaxy S4 == jfltevzwm == SCH-I545
Flash: VRUAMDK_NoWipe.tar.md5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You didn't loki the recovery. Thats why its failing.

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Surge1223 said:
You didn't loki the recovery. Thats why its failing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The recovery you download right from the TWRP website is already loki'd. I downloaded it the other day and followed the same instructions (exact ones posted on TWRP website) and all was fine with me.
The loki thing is not your problem here, unfortunately.

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roboots21 said:
The recovery you download right from the TWRP website is already loki'd. I downloaded it the other day and followed the same instructions (exact ones posted on TWRP website) and all was fine with me.
The loki thing is not your problem here, unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree. I couldn't install CyanogenMod though twrp because I wasn't lokied so I had to install and loki cwm then I was able to install CyanogenMod
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app

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reinaldistic said:
I disagree. I couldn't install CyanogenMod though twrp because I wasn't lokied so I had to install and loki cwm then I was able to install CyanogenMod
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The TWRP image is loki'd already .. Check their site. I did EXACTLY as he is describing yesterday and it worked perfectly .. Loki is not the issue.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
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Is there any way you can get TWRP 2.5 instead of 2.6? I remember reading that there were people having issues running 2.6.

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I thought with a locked bootloader you aren't able to Oden downgrade?

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Correct... Unless your original baseband is MDK, and you have never taken an OTA, you cannot get MDK. Once you take an OTA, you are stuck with whatever baseband that OTA was.
What I was saying was for him to try an eariler version of TWRP.

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Yay! I got in TWRP!!
I downloaded loki-jfattvzw.zip, which contained loki_patch, and a few scripts. I deleted the recovery.img file that came with the loki zip, and renamed openrecovery-twrp-2.5.0.0-jfltexx.img to recovery.zip. Then I executed install-cwm.cmd, which `adb push`ed the files to the phone, and executed a script that loki'd my twrp recovery.img file using the aboot partition on my phone (it used dd and stuff).
Anyway, I'm now happily in twrp, ready to install PAC again. Thanks for your support!!

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fedcba098 said:
Yay! I got in TWRP!!
I downloaded loki-jfattvzw.zip, which contained loki_patch, and a few scripts. I deleted the recovery.img file that came with the loki zip, and renamed openrecovery-twrp-2.5.0.0-jfltexx.img to recovery.zip. Then I executed install-cwm.cmd, which `adb push`ed the files to the phone, and executed a script that loki'd my twrp recovery.img file using the aboot partition on my phone (it used dd and stuff).
Anyway, I'm now happily in twrp, ready to install PAC again. Thanks for your support!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any chance you can give me a noob walkthrough of this. I am in the same boat and would like to get a custom recovery back so i can nandroid back to one of my saved set ups. I am on MDK rooted, just cant install a CWM or TWRP for some reason

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Have a question. The recovery is the one is in Charge of the loki patch? I root my device with casual and install google play edition 4.4 with no problem. Then I dont remember if it was before of after flashing the first rom I update twrp to the latest version and flash darthstalker and went to a yellow triangle boot screen that says that the software is not authorized by att. Bla bla bla. Hopefully I nandroid the mdl stock root and was able to go back. But I was getting the samsung custom boot and the device was running without issues. I was reading about how to take off that image and find that if you use triangle away to reset counter flash it will back to the Samsumg Galaxy s4 screen what works for me. then I run CASUAL again and it gave me back the old recovery. If some can explain or bring me some info about how loki works and which roms can be flashed without having this issue I will appreciate.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium HD app

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MAFU21 said:
Have a question. The recovery is the one is in Charge of the loki patch? I root my device with casual and install google play edition 4.4 with no problem. Then I dont remember if it was before of after flashing the first rom I update twrp to the latest version and flash darthstalker and went to a yellow triangle boot screen that says that the software is not authorized by att. Bla bla bla. Hopefully I nandroid the mdl stock root and was able to go back. But I was getting the samsung custom boot and the device was running without issues. I was reading about how to take off that image and find that if you use triangle away to reset counter flash it will back to the Samsumg Galaxy s4 screen what works for me. then I run CASUAL again and it gave me back the old recovery. If some can explain or bring me some info about how loki works and which roms can be flashed without having this issue I will appreciate.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CASUAL, as far as I know, isn't used on the I545 (Verizon GS4).
You can't assume that a tool for some other carrier's GS4 will work on the I545.

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k1mu said:
CASUAL, as far as I know, isn't used on the I545 (Verizon GS4).
You can't assume that a tool for some other carrier's GS4 will work on the I545.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U r right. By the way wrong thread. Sory.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium HD app

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blindfaith76 said:
Any chance you can give me a noob walkthrough of this. I am in the same boat and would like to get a custom recovery back so i can nandroid back to one of my saved set ups. I am on MDK rooted, just cant install a CWM or TWRP for some reason
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When presented with the "System software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found on your phone. Please turn off your phone and go to the nearest Verizon Wireless store for help." error, I followed these steps.
1. hold volume down button to enter download mode
2.press volume down button again to cancel download mode
(This restarts the phone and gets you into your homescreen without the error)
3.Downloaded "Recovery Tools" from the market
4. using recovery tools Flashed the TWRP recovery.
5. Rebooted.
(flashing Clockwork Recovery always triggers the error message)
6. Now, I am unfortunately unable to restore my previous Clockwork nandroids, however I can access the TWRP recovery to flash roms and basically "start over". Any new nandroid I make with TWRP is good to go and able to be restored.
hope this helps somebody out there that may be in my same situation. For whatever reason Clockwork Mod recovery always triggers this error, but TWRP works fine.