[Q] Need informations about Knox - Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers

Hello everyone, I plan to buy a S9+, so I have some questions about the S9+
Should I buy the Exynos or Snapdragon variant ? (those two model cover the band of my provider)
If I trigger Knox, can I still use apps like Snapchat, Pokemon Go, Google Pay... ?
When Knox is tampered, what apps will no longer works ?
Does some applications not provided by Samsung verify the Knox state ?
Thanks

marwanpro said:
Hello everyone, I plan to buy a S9+, so I have some questions about the S9+
Should I buy the Exynos or Snapdragon variant ? (those two model cover the band of my provider)
If I trigger Knox, can I still use apps like Snapchat, Pokemon Go, Google Pay... ?
When Knox is tampered, what apps will no longer works ?
Does some applications not provided by Samsung verify the Knox state ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When knox is tampered functions like Samsung pay,secure folder stop working.Other apps will work flawlessly,Not sure about google play.Roms are more for exynos version,Although snapdragon will have better support for Android in future.Gcam works better on SD

I'm dealing with similar issues. Sorry, the information isn't very concise or clear. I think there are a lot of people giving advice who don't really understand the technical issues.
If you are going to break Knox and the international (Exynos) supports all of the LTE bands of your provider, I'd recommend it. There are far more choices for ROMs because it has an unlocked bootloader.
The Snapdragon variant can reportedly be unlocked through a paid service. I'm not sure if that trips Knox. Extreme Syndicate allows rooting without tripping Knox, but I've been unable to verify whether it will work on newer bootloaders. (Someone help!!)
Google's SafetyNet fails if Knox is tripped. Pokemon Go, specifically will not work. I'm not sure about the other 2, but I have read that Google Pay works while Samsung Pay can never work again. Someone please correct me if this is inaccurate.
In general, you will have problems with secure apps like banking, etc., but there are work-arounds for some of them.
A program that I use and the only reason for my concern, Boomerang Parental Controls, uses Knox to increase security. It's unclear whether it will continue to function fully if Knox is tripped.
Any program could be coded to check the Knox state, but they generally will not unless there is a need to. The banking apps and other secured apps are generally looking for system tampering because it might lead to failed security measures.
Hope this helps.

Related

[Q] New to android - should I root?

Hey guys,
New to the forum - always been an iphone man, but in recent years I've been more and more unimpressed and annoyed by the apple offerings and so my S6 edge will be delivered in the morning.
My question is should I root it on arrival? Half the reason I made the jump is all the "you can do so much more with android" etc
What is that "so much more"??
I'm fairly tech savvy but obviously never used android so not sure what to expect, but something had to give.
Is adapting the OS easy to do? Things I'm looking to do would be change the themes from operator branded stuff etc at minimum and would like to get the most from my new phone
Also is rooting reversible? Should I want to sell on in the future I'm assuming it's a good idea to revert to original state
Thanks in advance
No need to root, s6 and edge is plenty smooth. "So much more" involves a 3rd party launcher. Personally, I use Nova.
Root is reversible.
FluffyR said:
No need to root, s6 and edge is plenty smooth. "So much more" involves a 3rd party launcher. Personally, I use Nova.
Root is reversible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, root is reversible, but tripping Knox by rooting a Samsung device isn't. Tripping Knox will permanently cause you to lose functionality of the Knox app and Samsung Pay. You could also potentially lose your warranty.
CafeKampuchia said:
Yes, root is reversible, but tripping Knox by rooting a Samsung device isn't. Tripping Knox will permanently cause you to lose functionality of the Knox app and Samsung Pay. You could also potentially lose your warranty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From want I understand... the whole Samsung Pay debacle is just speculation at this point. Everyone swore that you could never use Google Wallet with root but look what happened. They said we would probably never see root on certain carrier branded Samsung devices. Look what happened. It takes time but it's almost always figured out.
To the OP... I would, personally, wait a little bit and just play around with the phone to see what you like and what you would change. If you find that there's a long list of what you would want to tweak then check out as many threads/forums as possible to see if the tweak can be done, what the risks are, and go from there. The phone is great without root but it's so much better with it. Good luck and welcome!
shoresteve626 said:
From want I understand... the whole Samsung Pay debacle is just speculation at this point. Everyone swore that you could never use Google Wallet with root but look what happened. They said we would probably never see root on certain carrier branded Samsung devices. Look what happened. It takes time but it's almost always figured out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Installable apps like Google Wallet that check for root are not the same as Samsung Pay which is integrated into the ROMs security framework secured by Knox. Both Chainfire and Sammobile (which have Samsung insiders) have warned about rooting breaking Samsung Pay. It's more than just a little speculation, and it will be extremely difficult to work around if its possible at all.
The bottom line is that if you care about Knox or Samsung Pay, don't root or accept the risk.
Welcome to XDA @Strongey01
Years ago I would have said rooting is a no brainer but now, not so much. The 2 main functions of rooting were deleting bloatware and customizing. This new iteration of touchwiz is much lighter in term of bloat and there is the option to disable apps. Hers's what I would recommend: Get familiar with the os, start off with Nova launcher, pay for prime and explore away. That alone should allow you to customize your launcher beyond your wildest apple dreams. Get familliar with XDA learn the jargon, flash, twrp, odin etc. Explore the general and Q&A threads. There are a few threads about the advantages of root in there. Get familiar, get comfortable then root. If need be.
mrnovanova said:
The 2 main functions of rooting were deleting bloatware and customizing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And ad blocking.
CafeKampuchia said:
And ad blocking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I stand corrected. Three main functions are deleting bloatware, customizing and ad blocking.
Btw what do you use for ad blocking? I mean without xposed.
Thanks for taking the time to respond guys it's appreciated.
Getting it to run quicker and ad blocking are the main reasons I considered rooting tbh
I definately need to look more in depth at roms etc to see what they really do as like I say I'm completely new to all this, it's like going back to when I built my first website, I just don't have a clue lol
Thanks again guys
mrnovanova said:
Ok I stand corrected. Three main functions are deleting bloatware, customizing and ad blocking.
Btw what do you use for ad blocking? I mean without xposed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Adaway. Follow the link in the post of mine that you quoted.
Strongey01 said:
Hey guys,
New to the forum - always been an iphone man, but in recent years I've been more and more unimpressed and annoyed by the apple offerings and so my S6 edge will be delivered in the morning.
My question is should I root it on arrival? Half the reason I made the jump is all the "you can do so much more with android" etc
What is that "so much more"??
I'm fairly tech savvy but obviously never used android so not sure what to expect, but something had to give.
Is adapting the OS easy to do? Things I'm looking to do would be change the themes from operator branded stuff etc at minimum and would like to get the most from my new phone
Also is rooting reversible? Should I want to sell on in the future I'm assuming it's a good idea to revert to original state
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you say you're tech savy, I think adapting to Android will be smooth and easy for you.
You don't have to root the phone to enjoy most of the customization options of Android. Google Play Store offers many choices for you to play with: custom launchers, dialers, text apps, phonebooks, notification apps, wallpapers, galleries, ringtone and notification apps, etc.
Rooting then installing a custom recovery will open more customization options. With a custom recovery, such as TWRP, you can install custom ROM's, which can alter your phone completely.
Specifically for the galaxy S6E, you can root in 2 ways - via CF-AUTOROOT or Pingpong Root. I recommend you root with pingpong b/c the Samsung Knox counter will not be tripped and you can try Samsung Pay later.
If you decide to root via pingpong, be sure not to later install a custom kernel or recovery b/c Knox will be tripped.
Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk
Thanks for taking the time to write that. Very informative and helpful
Cheers

To Root or Not To Root

i am buying a new phone, the S8+ to be exact, and there have been a lot of new developments (problems) when it comes to rooting your device. i've been rooting my smartphone devices for over 10 years because i love the freedom it brings (er, brought). Now i read things like Netflix, Snapchat, and AndroidPay not working on rooted devices. So i am wondering what people's experiences have been like. Any regrets? Are the trade-offs worth it to you? Is it worth being able to uninstall bloatware and install custom ROMs if a lot of other features and apps will stop working? i know most of this is personal preference but would like to know more about what other people have experienced.
billybag said:
i am buying a new phone, the S8+ to be exact, and there have been a lot of new developments (problems) when it comes to rooting your device. i've been rooting my smartphone devices for over 10 years because i love the freedom it brings (er, brought). Now i read things like Netflix, Snapchat, and AndroidPay not working on rooted devices. So i am wondering what people's experiences have been like. Any regrets? Are the trade-offs worth it to you? Is it worth being able to uninstall bloatware and install custom ROMs if a lot of other features and apps will stop working? i know most of this is personal preference but would like to know more about what other people have experienced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First and foremost, if you plan on getting a US variant, meaning it will have a SD835 in it, Root is unlikely to come soon for it, This doesn't mean it won't happen, just not soon. Now if we're talking international, the ones that ship with an Exynos in it, they're rootable now.
Now, with that out the way let's get into the questions you've asked. There will indeed be a selection of apps that will not work when rooted these days because of "SafetyNet" check failure. Some of the biggest would be Snapchat and Android pay, However they will work with the assistance of Magisk which will allow SafetyNet to pass it's check, Same goes for most apps that fail to work because of root presence.
Heading back to what I first mentioned now, Rooting a Samsung device of recent years comes with some pretty notable cons to it, These would include loss of KNOX, I'm not sure what your stance on security is but if security is a concern to you, losing KNOX is not good. Another big and notable con is you will lose all Samsung pay support permanently, Actually to be honest both of the latter are permanently lost once rooted. If these things aren't a concern for you then by all means root away.
On to other things now, Rooting these days doesn't present as many attractive things as it use to, especially on a Samsung device. Most OEMS have given alternatives to many of the things a user couldn't do without root before. Currently there is no Xposed on Nougat and above, it's being worked on but there is no foreseeable date that can be given on when it will be completed.
So all in all, Until root is achieved for the Snapdragon variants, I'd hold off on a purchase of an S8. If we're talking Exynos variants then by all means get one, as I've said they're rootable right now. But don't let that be the ray of sunshine, though they're rootable, They're in infact an Exynos and Samsung is unwilling to provide source code to their Exynos chipsets. Which basically means to you that custom ROMs will be limited to rehashes of the stock ROMs with a couple mods if possible, AOSP such as Lineage and others like it are next to impossible to happen on Exynos without​ a source code to work from. It has been done before but the resulting roms took a long time to develop and either were extremely buggy or were just simply not usable for daily use.
I'm pretty sure I've hopefully covered every aspect I could but if you've got any more questions I'll surely answer them.
I apologise for this being so long lol.
Perfect. Thank you, this helped a lot.
billybag said:
Perfect. Thank you, this helped a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad I could help, Again sorry it was a lengthy response but it was necessary to cover all of it.

RIP ROOT

The days of rooting is over, from my S2-S8+ there where numerous roms but for my S9+ there is less than a handful. Is it because of Knox or something else? or maybe because of all the themes that are out. If it is due to Knox, Sammy have fulfilled their objective with it, what do you lot think.
Knox is the same between the two models, rooting permanently trips it.
I'd guess part of the problem with the unlocked rootable models is no one upgraded from the S8+ because it wasn't a big jump.. less developers using them equals less roms..
While the number of total ROMs have gone down, there's still a fair selection to choose from in the S9/S9+ cross-device development forum. But to answer your question, I'm sure the US variants of the S9+ having locked bootloaders halted a lot of potential development for the device.
Since there is the knox sdk that now allows us things to do like dns firewall, systemwide adblock, disable nearly all unwanted apps.. For me there is no real need for root anymore.
I only miss a few apps (titani um backup, game g uardien) but I can live with that..
What do you need root for?
It is not over yet because we have gsi's to flash and have the whole pixel experience etc.

Question Any permanent side effects to rooting on pixel devices? efuses?

I've been a long time Samsung user that recently switched over to Pixel.
When you root a Samsung device the "knox flag" is tripped permanently (efuse blown) and OTA updates are gone for good (atleast while rooted).
Does such a thing exist on Pixel devices? Can we expect to recieve OTA updates while rooted? Beside the standard safetynet BS is there any other side effects?
Hopefully some of you Pixel veterans can shed some light.
Cheers,
EDIT: Clarification for anyone that needs it, what I mean by "safetynet BS": some banking apps, payment apps (Google pay) will stop working while rooted unless you use magisk hide or alike.
Magisk hide has been discontinued and removed out of barebones base release, however some alternatives have already started popping up as either magisk modules or magisk forks.
Generic answer: This is not frowned upon by Google. This is why they provide the api, the suite, the documentation to compile your own version of Android and the code to legit unlock your device.
For you: Doubt it.
I will look at my schematics for the Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, but my training documents last months specified no efuses.
By the way, rooting a Samsung device no longer puts it in BER from Samsung Korea. Rooting it also does not void warranty anymore; this was lifted mid 2020.
EDIT: I don't see anything for G949-00161-01 (logic board)

Good custom ROM mod-able 5g phones with no efuse?

Does what I specified in the title exist these days?
Looking for such a 5g phone which will work well on the T-Mobile network.
Google, OnePlus and Mototola phones come to mind, but I don't know for sure what phones might take a custom ROM such as Lineage without being permanently "damaged" by an efuse.
Anyone know of good links to articles or discussions with information about what models of 5g phones which will not be harmed (permanently lose capabilities) by a custom rom?
Thanks
Afaik there's no efuse installed inside Google and OnePlus devices, you can flash any custom ROM on it and no capabilities will be lose
I've heard that that more than just Samsung phones now have an efuse where you permanently loose features like the ability to use hidden folders and android pay etc.
I wish I could find a blog/article/post which explains what phones do and don't have this evil efuse feature. I don't have the money to research it all by myself.

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