[Q] How to root a chinese GT-i9500 - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi everybody
I just bought that phone here in China, and the seller installed the OTA just in front of me, I don’t know if that could be the reason.
Since I got home and I’m trying to root it, no result. I saw this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2262110 but unfortunately it’s not working for me. The drivers are working well, I can see the phone in the device manager, USB debugging is on, flashing the PDA in ODIN passes through successfully, but when I start Recovery, I always have the old Recovery screen with no Root phone option, I can’t find the problem.
Thanks for any help.

Did it, thanks Cofface !
Helpful post in chinese http://diydev.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=177&extra=&page=1
But I don't know if by flashing the kernel I would still have access to OTA updates ?!!
EDIT: Cofface said that I will lose OTA updates, can only update by downloading new firmware, and flashing using ODIN.

download mode
hiddeneyes02 said:
Hi everybody
I just bought that phone here in China, and the seller installed the OTA just in front of me, I don’t know if that could be the reason.
Since I got home and I’m trying to root it, no result. I saw this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2262110 but unfortunately it’s not working for me. The drivers are working well, I can see the phone in the device manager, USB debugging is on, flashing the PDA in ODIN passes through successfully, but when I start Recovery, I always have the old Recovery screen with no Root phone option, I can’t find the problem.
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey i'll like to know how do you put the device in download mode 'cause mine GT-i9500 it shows nothing but chines options when im in RECOVERY MODE....and dont know what do from here PLEASE HELP

Related

Stuck on Recovery Boot Loop after Rooting

Hello there,
I am having a little bit of an issue with a new Galaxy Note 4 that i got for my wife. We both bought our devices yesterday, mine from Three, and hers from EE (we are in the UK), both SM-N910F, so i proceeded to root my device and it worked all great. So earlier today i started the exact same procedure, unfortunately, my wifes Note 4 got stuck in a Recovery Boot Loop, and i genuinely don't understand what is happening.
As for the rooting method, i went with the [SM-N910*] CF-Auto-Root and choose the right .tar file, or else it wouldn't of had worked on the first device.
I have read quite a few posts, saw a few videos on youtube, but it far beyond me. I have seen a few people mention that i need to download the German (?) version of the Stock firmware, and then flash it. I seem to have found a link for it on SamMobile but it's gonna take 5 hours to finish, and i don't understand why i would download the German Stock firmware, is that the correct one for her device ?
At this point, is there any way around it ? Why did my device which is the same work perfectly, but not hers ?
I would appreciate any and all help, if you could make it quite detailed for me i would appreciate it even more.
Thank you!
Hi @Vaskie!
Can you enter in download mode?
Hello there @_mone, the following has happened since i posted:
Went ahead and flashed the following: N910FXXU1BOB4_N910FOXA1BOB4_N910FXXU1BOB4_HOME.tar and it made the device reach the home screen, from there i attempted to root using the same method which worked, but it ended installing a few extra applications, which i don't understand how. I also don't understand how flashing a new stock rom didn't make me start the device from the beginning, it already had all my information and went straight to the home screen ready to use. I feel quite confused if im honest.
On the other hand, most things seem to be working perfect, but i am having some issues with the front camera. I have two Note 4s, both bought yesterday from the same place, but one was flashed with the Stock rom (N910FXXU1BOB4_N910FOXA1BOB4_N910FXXU1BOB4_HOME.ta r) due to being stuck in a boot loop. The front camera seems to be massively over exposed compared to the other Note 4, not just a little bit either, making it almost unusable.
Would anyone be able to help ?
Vaskie said:
I also don't understand how flashing a new stock rom didn't make me start the device from the beginning, it already had all my information and went straight to the home screen ready to use. I feel quite confused if im honest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because you "dirty" flashed a new ROM on top of the old one.. it was like an "update".
What I suggest you (because you already rooted your phone and your knox is 0x1) is to flash TeamWin Recovery Project from ODIN and then flash a TW ROM from the Galaxy Note 4 Android Development (Snapdragon) page
To do so download "twrp-2.8.7.0-trltexx.img.tar" from here, put your phone in download mode, connect it to the pc via usb, from the pc launch odin, let it recognize your phone, add the downloaded .img.tar file on the pda button, click on the "start" button and let it flash the recovery.
Now download a TW ROM like _alexndr's DevBase from here and this modem and this bootloader.
Then put the downloaded ROM (N910FXXU1POF2_DevBase_alexndr.zip) in your external SDcard. Reboot your phone in recovery mode. From TWRP go Wipe/AdwancedWipe/ and tick DalickCache, System, Data, Internal Storage, Cache and "Swipe to Wipe". After go back to the first page, hit "Install" search "N910FXXU1POF2_DevBase_alexndr.zip" in "/external_sd" and install it. Wipe Dalvick and Cache again and reboot into download mode. Again connect your phone to the PC and launch ODIN now put the downloaded modem "CP_N910FXXU1POF1.tar.md5" in the CP button and the bootloader "BL_N910FXXU1POF2.tar.md5" in the BL button and click on the "start".
Once it is done switch off and on your phone and start again with the latest samsung rom for N910F already with root, busy box and all the fixes by _alexndr
And let us know if you still have problems.
Thank you very, very much for the very well detailed reply @_mone
I will attempt to go ahead with your explanation tomorrow. Would that somehow fix the camera, and i guess the other question is.. is the front camera issue that i explained myself above to do with me "dirty flashing" ?
Is there anything inherently wrong with "dirty flashing" ?
Thank you yet again!
Nothing wrong with dirty flashing.. but sometimes doing so you can create conflicts between old and new rom or leaving "bugs" from the old to the new generating problems in your new os that may wont be there if you performed a clean install. :good:

Samsung Galaxy S4 IG9505 Boot Stock-up Problem

Hi everyone,
I just want to ask for tips and recommendations to resolve my problem on my phone. I used TWRP to root the phone but failed and i also used kingo root apk apps on it but still failed. But after that, my phone just shut down and when i open it, it no longer boot and stocked in the samsung logo blinking. I tried KIES and ODIN apps to recover my phone in download mode but my computer didn't detect my phone. I tried also to wipe-up data using the TWRP progam on boot loader. I am not sure if was able to enable the USB Debugging on my device. What i want to try is if i can install the firmware of my phone using the TWRP but i just dont know what to do or what i needed to download. i downloaded the stock firmware of the phone but when i tried the TWRP to install it, it didnt work. I already go to the repair center but they just did what i did and they also failed to do. Please help me guys. I know that lots of members here are generous and willing to help each other. Thanks
gen0ske said:
Hi everyone,
I just want to ask for tips and recommendations to resolve my problem on my phone. I used TWRP to root the phone but failed and i also used kingo root apk apps on it but still failed. But after that, my phone just shut down and when i open it, it no longer boot and stocked in the samsung logo blinking. I tried KIES and ODIN apps to recover my phone in download mode but my computer didn't detect my phone. I tried also to wipe-up data using the TWRP progam on boot loader. I am not sure if was able to enable the USB Debugging on my device. What i want to try is if i can install the firmware of my phone using the TWRP but i just dont know what to do or what i needed to download. i downloaded the stock firmware of the phone but when i tried the TWRP to install it, it didnt work. I already go to the repair center but they just did what i did and they also failed to do. Please help me guys. I know that lots of members here are generous and willing to help each other. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there,
First off, you can't flash stock firmware through custom recoveries. It can be done only with Odin or Heimdall.
Second, make sure you use the back USB ports of the computer and also try different windows versions.
Wiping data through recovery doesn't help because root apps are usually installed on the system partition.
You could probably flash a custom rom on it. It will at least get the phone working again. You can go from there.
Good luck.
GDReaper said:
Hey there,
First off, you can't flash stock firmware through custom recoveries. It can be done only with Odin or Heimdall.
Second, make sure you use the back USB ports of the computer and also try different windows versions.
Wiping data through recovery doesn't help because root apps are usually installed on the system partition.
You could probably flash a custom rom on it. It will at least get the phone working again. You can go from there.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you.
Is the USB Debugging Option has nothing to do with the computer to detect my phone. The technician told me that they will replace the USB female socket on my phone because it was defective. I will spend much on the replacement yet i'm afraid it might not still work. The idea of installing a custom roms might work as you have said. I will try that.
gen0ske said:
Thank you.
Is the USB Debugging Option has nothing to do with the computer to detect my phone. The technician told me that they will replace the USB female socket on my phone because it was defective. I will spend much on the replacement yet i'm afraid it might not still work. The idea of installing a custom roms might work as you have said. I will try that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The computer should detect your device no matter what. I mean, how else would you transfer files between the two, since USB debugging is disabled by default.
GDReaper said:
The computer should detect your device no matter what. I mean, how else would you transfer files between the two, since USB debugging is disabled by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You made me believe more that I can still restore my device. I thank you for the great support. I will do my best.

P9 Lite booting lock

Hi all, i'm new to Android Phones, so i started a few days with this phone. But now i think i've done a big mistake, i tried to erase everything from the phone, in a hope to "restore" to the factory state. Instead, i think i've deleted everything from the phone, and now, it only says "Your device is booting now..." and it doesn't boot. It's unlocked and rooted, i've deleted it from the TWRP menu.
So, is there anything that i can do, to restore it back? The model i think it's the VNS-L31, i'm downloading a firmware from the L21, can it be replaced or something like that? Thankx in advance.
*Edit* I found stock rom for my phone here in the fórum, but it says i need to have stock recovery but i have the TWRP recovery. Is there any way that i can do it, with that recovery?
*Edit 2* In Erecovery, when i try to download it says "Getting package info failed"
First of all... Why don't you have a backup in TWRP? ALWAYS back up your stuff before doing ANYTHING in TWRP.
Second: there is an option for factory reset within the EMUI system itself. Absolutely no need to mess around in TWRP for something like that. Of course you can "factory reset" in TWRP but this can also wipe your system which then requires you to flash something.
To your problem:
Since I luckily was not forced to flash a stock firmware yet, some more information would be nice.
In which format does the firmware come (link to where you downloaded it)? TWRP can handle .zip files. So if it comes as a .zip file, you can try flashing it through TWRP (really depends on what you downloaded!)
If you only need stock recovery, try accessing TWRP with your phone plugged into a PC.
This way it normally fires up the stock eRecovery.
Hi, yeah, i should have done a backup, thank you for the advice. The firmware i used is this one www .stechguide.com/huawei-p9-lite-marshmallow-firmware-b100/ - i found it here, and a user used it to, not sure why, but he says that it worked.
I'm not sure if this is the right way to do it, because i'm new to this. The TWRP boot, but i can't get my phone to get recognized by the huawei software, not sure if it need to. Even with the drivers installed, it only connects if the phone is on the menu.
iDeadSmack said:
Hi, yeah, i should have done a backup, thank you for the advice. The firmware i used is this one www .stechguide.com/huawei-p9-lite-marshmallow-firmware-b100/ - i found it here, and a user used it to, not sure why, but he says that it worked.
I'm not sure if this is the right way to do it, because i'm new to this. The TWRP boot, but i can't get my phone to get recognized by the huawei software, not sure if it need to. Even with the drivers installed, it only connects if the phone is on the menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm maybe best way is to send the user that made it work a PM and maybe he can provide you a guide on how to do it.
And maybe he or you can then provide a guide here on how to do it.
This device is rather new and the forum is building up so there is a lot of work to do and a lot of things have to be worked around.
Hope you can fix it, like I said, I cannot really help you properly since I never had the problem and therefore do not really understand what's happening on your device.
hi, thank you for the reply. In fact i have solved the problem few minutes ago, and was thinking on do a quick fix tutorial or something like that. Because it's really fast, just need to do the right way.
I'm really happy for the help i got in this forum, all the threads are really intersting. Going to try help others with the same problem that i had. Thank You
iDeadSmack said:
hi, thank you for the reply. In fact i have solved the problem few minutes ago, and was thinking on do a quick fix tutorial or something like that. Because it's really fast, just need to do the right way.
I'm really happy for the help i got in this forum, all the threads are really intersting. Going to try help others with the same problem that i had. Thank You
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you help me with this problem i have the same problem on Huawei l-21 ??
Always have a backup of your fresh system on TWRP. Then whatever happen just restore it whenever you think you messed up your device and you should be fine ALWAYS.

[HELP] I would like to go into developer options but I can not

Hello to all,
first of all sorry for my English, i'm using google translate, I do not know if you can help me here.
I bought this jewel from Gearbest and arrived yesterday.
I would like to unlock the bootloader and root it following this wonderful guide , but I can not get into developer options, I get the error "the settings application crashed abnormally"
I wanted to do this via the toolkit, but in EDL mode the phone is not recognized, maybe because in developer options I have to select the OEM UNLOCK.
The only good thing is that it recognizes usb debugging mode (at least I think) because I see the debug notification icon.
I can not understand where it came from, I went into bootloader mode but did not release me information.
From the onscreen screen I can only provide these info:
model number zte a2017g
version android 6.0.1
kernel version 3.18.20
build number zte a2017gv1.0.0b11
baseband version th.2.0.c1.9-00050-m8996faaaanazm
The MiFlavor version is 4.0
The smartphone does not receive OTA updates. I downloaded the global version (b05) of Nougat, the update with Android started I did not find it (I renamed the rom file in update.zip and put in the root of the SD CARD). I tried through recovery mode but it does not do anything to me, it's as if the smartphone was locked in everything and for everything.
I'm doing well ? How do I update when I download the rom? Can you please help me? Is there any system to interact with this smartphone and unlock it? I do not want to keep a phone that I can not update and root it.
Thanks in advance to who will help.
UPDATE:
I tried to manually install the downloaded ROM, but in recovery mode it does not flash the new rom ... the phone does not even try it !!!
It's as if the phone was locked in everything and I only have to keep the installed rom.
Some idea ?
SuDGLaD said:
UPDATE:
I tried to manually install the downloaded ROM, but in recovery mode it does not flash the new rom ... the phone does not even try it !!!
It's as if the phone was locked in everything and I only have to keep the installed rom.
Some idea ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey I would recommend clearing the data for settings if you can. To do this go to your launcher, find the settings icon and either drag or hold down or do whatever it takes to get to the app info. I haven't used stock in a long time so idk. But then go into storage and clear data. Then go and try again.
I do have one question though. How did you get usb adb debugging enabled if you didn't get into developer options at all?
For the second half of your question you won't be able to flash anything without first unlocking the bootloader and flashing TWRP onto the device. For the devices recovery idk which one you meant, but it needs to be TWRP. Good luck!
JTruj1ll0923 said:
Hey I would recommend clearing the data for settings if you can. To do this go to your launcher, find the settings icon and either drag or hold down or do whatever it takes to get to the app info. I haven't used stock in a long time so idk. But then go into storage and clear data. Then go and try again.
I do have one question though. How did you get usb adb debugging enabled if you didn't get into developer options at all?
For the second half of your question you won't be able to flash anything without first unlocking the bootloader and flashing TWRP onto the device. For the devices recovery idk which one you meant, but it needs to be TWRP. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks to my friend, without doing anything, suddenly, he made me enter the developer options menu.
I've been able to do the rest.
Now I have the phone with unlocked bootloader, root and TWRP installed.
Do not ask me how I got the debug without going into the menu, I could not answer you ... it will remain a mystery !!!
I take advantage of your availability: can I flash the zip of the official ROM through TWRP? Or is there a risk that the phone goes into brick mode?
SuDGLaD said:
Thanks to my friend, without doing anything, suddenly, he made me enter the developer options menu.
I've been able to do the rest.
Now I have the phone with unlocked bootloader, root and TWRP installed.
Do not ask me how I got the debug without going into the menu, I could not answer you ... it will remain a mystery !!!
I take advantage of your availability: can I flash the zip of the official ROM through TWRP? Or is there a risk that the phone goes into brick mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What rom are you trying to install? Usually you will be absolutely fine.
SuDGLaD said:
Thanks to my friend, without doing anything, suddenly, he made me enter the developer options menu.
I've been able to do the rest.
Now I have the phone with unlocked bootloader, root and TWRP installed.
Do not ask me how I got the debug without going into the menu, I could not answer you ... it will remain a mystery !!!
I take advantage of your availability: can I flash the zip of the official ROM through TWRP? Or is there a risk that the phone goes into brick mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JTruj1ll0923 said:
What rom are you trying to install? Usually you will be absolutely fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't flash an official zip through TWRP, it will just fail. No brick.
Edit: didn't read OP lol. If you want to update, you have to flash the stock recovery (there are stock recovery flashable zips on the Download Center) then install the update, then get TWRP again. Or you can install a custom ROM (I recommend one based on stock MiFavor 5.0, I think that the best one is ADM Team V3 (the one that's not based on B13), this way you can simply download, flash in TWRP, and you'll be done
JTruj1ll0923 said:
What rom are you trying to install? Usually you will be absolutely fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks :good:
Choose an username... said:
You can't flash an official zip through TWRP, it will just fail. No brick.
Edit: didn't read OP lol. If you want to update, you have to flash the stock recovery (there are stock recovery flashable zips on the Download Center) then install the update, then get TWRP again. Or you can install a custom ROM (I recommend one based on stock MiFavor 5.0, I think that the best one is ADM Team V3 (the one that's not based on B13), this way you can simply download, flash in TWRP, and you'll be done
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate !!
I installed the rom that you suggested to me, I find it very good, but this phone has very poor support (MiFavor).
SuDGLaD said:
Thanks :good:
Thanks mate !!
I installed the rom that you suggested to me, I find it very good, but this phone has very poor support (MiFavor).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very poor support? It's going to get Android O, and it's got at least 1 update per month (officially). It's unclear whether that ROM you installed will be updated since it's based on an older version, but the latest (B13) breaks a bunch of stuff like Google Play Games, Maps, the GPS works awfully...
Choose an username... said:
Very poor support? It's going to get Android O, and it's got at least 1 update per month (officially). It's unclear whether that ROM you installed will be updated since it's based on an older version, but the latest (B13) breaks a bunch of stuff like Google Play Games, Maps, the GPS works awfully...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No no ... do not get me wrong.
My reference is to rom, MiFlavor is really bad. I come from 3 Xiaomi smartphones and I can assure you is another world.
The smartphone is really nice and well balanced (apart from the just enough battery) and I would replenish it a thousand times. :fingers-crossed::good:

SM-P613. Error vbmeta image.

Hello!
I was recently gifted a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 SM-P13. I only use my tablet to watch chess videos on Youtube, so I was happy to get a tablet to mess around a bit with it. I did not know much about rooting, but I thought installing Lineage OS and learning from it would be exciting.
I'm good at following instructions, but with some overenthusiasm, I realized that Lineage OS did not support my model a bit too late. So I reached step 5 of "Installing a custom recovery using heimdall" in the official instructions (https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/gta4xlwifi/install).
But I could not do step 6 as it could not boot into recovery mode. It will stay in download mode with the following message:
<!>
_partition recovery
Reason recovery: Error verifying vbmeta image: invalid vbmeta header(6)
CUSTOM recovery
VBMETA P613XXU1AVG5, 54410278R
I have looked around to see fixes, but I have felt slightly overwhelmed. So I have installed Odin, and at this moment, as Lineage OS is not an option, I don't care which ROM to install (stock, lite, etc...).
Can someone guide me on what to do now so I won't worsen things?
Thank you for your help in advance!
Hey Pablosky000, have you tried using odin to flash stock firmware to fix it back to how it orignally was?
oFluffy said:
Hey Pablosky000, have you tried using odin to flash stock firmware to fix it back to how it orignally was?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi. Liked I said, I feel a bit overwhelmed and risk-averse at the moment. I have Odin installed and a the stock lite version downloaded. Was hoping for a "Try Odin with stock first" before making any further mistakes.
Pablosky000 said:
Hi. Liked I said, I feel a bit overwhelmed and risk-averse at the moment. I have Odin installed and a the stock lite version downloaded. Was hoping for a "Try Odin with stock first" before making any further mistakes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't fully understand whether or not you are wanting to return it to normal or not here, but I do know about the S6 lite. I have my own S6 lite, and I noticed no one has been updating the patched files for it. A recent update forces it to have the file it was talking about, and unless someone makes a specific twrp for that device specifically, we won't be able to use a custom recovery to flash a rom.
If your issue is getting it into recovery mode however, you aren't alone. The Samsung tablet's usually have the same method for launching, but this one specifically was weird.
You have to:
1.Unplug it
2.Hold power and volume down
3. As soon as it turns off plug it back in and begin holding the recovery key buttons
4.If it isn't in recovery you may have just missed the small window you had to do it, which is fine just start from step one until it works.
If you did flash your own recovery and expected it to show the stock Samsung recovery menu, that won't happen since you overwrote it by flashing a recovery. You should be able to find your device model on https://sfirmware.com/
In odin "AP" is where you flash your recovery files. If the device isn't working you may have to also flash the "BL" or binaries for your device. I usually do anyway just to make sure it is going to work correctly. Make sure you have adb, and any Android drivers needed for it to work. Let me know if you need more help! Thanks.
oFluffy said:
I don't fully understand whether or not you are wanting to return it to normal or not here, but I do know about the S6 lite. I have my own S6 lite, and I noticed no one has been updating the patched files for it. A recent update forces it to have the file it was talking about, and unless someone makes a specific twrp for that device specifically, we won't be able to use a custom recovery to flash a rom.
If your issue is getting it into recovery mode however, you aren't alone. The Samsung tablet's usually have the same method for launching, but this one specifically was weird.
You have to:
1.Unplug it
2.Hold power and volume down
3. As soon as it turns off plug it back in and begin holding the recovery key buttons
4.If it isn't in recovery you may have just missed the small window you had to do it, which is fine just start from step one until it works.
If you did flash your own recovery and expected it to show the stock Samsung recovery menu, that won't happen since you overwrote it by flashing a recovery. You should be able to find your device model on https://sfirmware.com/
In odin "AP" is where you flash your recovery files. If the device isn't working you may have to also flash the "BL" or binaries for your device. I usually do anyway just to make sure it is going to work correctly. Make sure you have adb, and any Android drivers needed for it to work. Let me know if you need more help! Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perfect!!! Thanks a lot. I didn't have much expectation apart from "not bricking it". I just wanted to make sure I did not do anything stupid. Follow your instructions. And it worked perfectly! Thanks a lot for the help! I truly appreciated. I am usually alright at a lot of these things, but I ended up being a bit lost, and just wanted to make sure I stopped doing stupid stuff!
Million thanks!!!!
I am facing a similar issue, but I can't seem to find a recovery image, so can you please help with that? I went to the sfirmware website, but can't locate the recovery image for sm-p613, though I did find it for other models such as p610. At this point, I'm fine with going stock os if it means I haven't bricked the tablet.
mr_scientific127 said:
I am facing a similar issue, but I can't seem to find a recovery image, so can you please help with that? I went to the sfirmware website, but can't locate the recovery image for sm-p613, though I did find it for other models such as p610. At this point, I'm fine with going stock os if it means I haven't bricked the tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I softbricked mine with Snapdragon last night. See the fix and link to a working recovery image here. Developer says there's no hope for Snapdragon support for the S6 Lite Wifi now or in the future. Samsung doesn't even support the firmware reload for this device in their own Smart Switch Windows app.
deckardsdream1988 said:
I softbricked mine with Snapdragon last night. See the fix and link to a working recovery image here. Developer says there's no hope for Snapdragon support for the S6 Lite Wifi now or in the future. Samsung doesn't even support the firmware reload for this device in their own Smart Switch Windows app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I managed to get my tablet working. Really wish samsung made the firmware more available.

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