New to S4 - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S 4

So I just got handed an S4 from a co-worker, I just spent an hour looking up info on root and stuff to load custom roms (looking mainly for CM11). My main problem seems to be all the shortened terms and everything associated with this phone, root vs unlocked bootloader vs etc, MK2?? NC5??. I can't seem to find any "newb" friendly breakdown of all of this. This isn't my first hacked device by far (I got an old DiNC and a ReZound for my last 2), but definitely the most confusing one. So here's the info I got on my phone: Galaxy S4, Verizon, SCH-I545, Android 4.4.2, VRUFNC5, hardware version: I545.06.
Can anyone point me in the right directions to understand better, and get me to my final destination of Custom rom? Or at least get me to understand this better?
I did search the first 5 pages of every section to see if there was a "newb-friendly" sticky but didn't seem to go anywhere fast, just made me more confused.

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tong6998 said:
So I just got handed an S4 from a co-worker, I just spent an hour looking up info on root and stuff to load custom roms (looking mainly for CM11). My main problem seems to be all the shortened terms and everything associated with this phone, root vs unlocked bootloader vs etc, MK2?? NC5??. I can't seem to find any "newb" friendly breakdown of all of this. This isn't my first hacked device by far (I got an old DiNC and a ReZound for my last 2), but definitely the most confusing one. So here's the info I got on my phone: Galaxy S4, Verizon, SCH-I545, Android 4.4.2, VRUFNC5, hardware version: I545.06.
Can anyone point me in the right directions to understand better, and get me to my final destination of Custom rom? Or at least get me to understand this better?
I did search the first 5 pages of every section to see if there was a "newb-friendly" sticky but didn't seem to go anywhere fast, just made me more confused.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with a simple "newb friendly" page is that every update to the phone changes what you need to do to root and what you can run.
For your NC5 phone, you need to use Towelroot to root it. That gets you root, but you're stuck with the stock bootloader. That means that you can't directly run a custom ROM. You can use Safestrap to allocate space for an alternative ROM, which is almost the same as a fully unlocked phone. The big thing you lose is that you can't run arbitrary ROMs, just what's compatible with the stock kernel. No CM, no AOSP.
So, read up on Towelroot and Safestrap. Once you have those down, you should be n the way.

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Yeah, I got towel root already installed, supersu running and added to system and Knox disabled. Where should I be looking at roms that I can run under safestrap? Or should I say which section of the forums? Thank you for your response btw.

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tong6998 said:
Yeah, I got towel root already installed, supersu running and added to system and Knox disabled. Where should I be looking at roms that I can run under safestrap? Or should I say which section of the forums? Thank you for your response btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Usually, roms that are compatible with safestrap are labeled as such. Since nc5 doesn't allow custom kernels, you will stuck with touchwiz kernels, so usually the roms will look like the stock samsung experience or a themed version. If you want an aosp themed safestrap rom, get eclipse rom. If you want a 99% gpe s4 rom download the gpe edition safestrap rom( it has some bugs though).
Usually roms are located at the "Android development" section of the forum. The gpe rom thread is in the general section.

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tong6998 said:
Yeah, I got towel root already installed, supersu running and added to system and Knox disabled. Where should I be looking at roms that I can run under safestrap? Or should I say which section of the forums? Thank you for your response btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing to keep in mind, is that safestrap loads too late to be able to replace the kernel. This is the limiting factor, your stuck on the stock kernel... Different versions of android and different versions of kernels may have slightly different functions/parameters coded into the kernel, so calling a newer function or calling a function with parameters that no longer match the new style will fail.... so if the rom wasn't directly designed for the stock kernel of the same version your using it likely won't work.
In practice that means you need a rom based on TW, that is the same version (NC5) as you are currently using. Not sure but there are likely a few changes the Rom make needs to add for safe strap compatibility... Basically when you look at the Rom's thread it will list a baseband (NC5) and say its safestrap compatible.

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Thanks to all of you, that clears up a lot of confusion I had. Now where do I find out (or how do I decifer) if I'm MJ7/MK2/ME7/MI1? Or am I correct in assuming I'm NOT (all the builds I see for safestrap mention those only no NC5.