Database Users

a few questions about rooting

hello,
i am thinking about rooting my galaxy s3 T999.i was wondering what are some of the things you can do with a rooted phone?is it safe?i have the insurance on my phone.will this void my insurance in anyway if i needed to use it?if i download one of the custom roms with less bloatware will i be able to do everything i could with stock ROM.(games, internet etc).is there anything i cant do with a custom rom that i could do with stock?
sorry for being such a noob..
great site.

if i root and jelly been comes out for the galaxy s3 will i be able to upgrade without affecting my root or anything.

laprodigy001 said:
hello,
i am thinking about rooting my galaxy s3 T999.i was wondering what are some of the things you can do with a rooted phone?is it safe?i have the insurance on my phone.will this void my insurance in anyway if i needed to use it?if i download one of the custom roms with less bloatware will i be able to do everything i could with stock ROM.(games, internet etc).is there anything i cant do with a custom rom that i could do with stock?
sorry for being such a noob..
great site.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it is very safe. Simple too! It can be done under a minute. I rooted my phone using CF-root. Rooting voids your warranty though, but you can reset the flash counter with Triangle Away and they will be none the wiser. :3
Yeah custom ROMs can do everything a stock ROM can and more. You should not be missing any features.
---------- Post added at 12:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:31 PM ----------
laprodigy001 said:
if i root and jelly been comes out for the galaxy s3 will i be able to upgrade without affecting my root or anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you will have to reflash the root using mobile Odin. Not too sure. Maybe someone else can come here and verify.

laprodigy001 said:
i was wondering what are some of the things you can do with a rooted phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a hard question to answer without just listing of the capabilities of applications that are available on Play. I will just mention what I know in a very basic way. It isn't all 100% technically correct, but if you know enough to say it isn't 100% then my explanation is probably not for you. =D
There are system level changes that can be made to your phone that are normally protected. Android, under the hood, has a file system and for all intents and purposes is very similar to what you see in Windows/OSX. It however, does not have a pretty graphical UI over it that is exposed to you by default.
Most of the system's settings and applications are stored very specific directories on the file system and by default you do not have the ability to directly change anything in those directories; this is done via permissions if you care to read more about it. When you are running your phone you are essentially running as a restricted user. When you root your phone you are giving yourself access to the 'root' user. On a Linux system that is essentially the account that is allowed to change and access anything on the file system; thus all the previous restrictions I mentioned are gone.
This gives you many abilities, some of which are trivial and some of which are not. Consider that as your non-rooted aka restricted user, you can not remove 'bloat ware' from your phone. Verizon is very notable for doing this. You essentially are not allowed by permissions to do so. However as root, you can delete whatever you want. Applications in Android are binary files with the *.apk extension and can be roughly (not always correctly) deleted by removing the *.apk file. You can also do things like directly read the *.apk files and upload them to another site as away to back up your applications (Titanium Backup). There are also more esoteric things like changing some of the settings file where where buffer sizes are kept for reads/writes, etc (SetCPU and flash 'overclocking' apps).
There are more such as wireless tethering (allowing your phone to act as an Wireless Access Point so your wireless desktop/laptop can use your 3g/2g/4g/etc data connection on the road), customizing the look and feel of the ui, etc.
laprodigy001 said:
is it safe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and no, but mostly yes. I don't want to scare you, but rooting your phone opens your phone up to higher access by you and by the applications you install. You do have the ability to deny applications super user access, but if you do you do need to realize that super user granted application will have unrestricted access to your phone and data. So only do it for applications where you can verify the application your self or trust the publisher.
The actual root process is generally 'revertible'. By revertible I mean that you will be able unroot/get your phone into a working status, but you will most likely lose any data that is stored only on your phone. You can however back data up to other sources prior to doing anything potentially risky. By the time a guide is posted for a newer user to follow, the process has been tested to a level where it won't outright damage your phone on physical level. Usually anything wonky can be fixed by flashing a stock ROM (which yes does include losing all of your data unless you back it up somewhere). Be aware that the first time you do this you will probably be looking at investing time into learning jargon and programs you've never heard of before. It can be daunting, but most of the guides are posted in step-by-step format.
laprodigy001 said:
is there anything i cant do with a custom rom that i could do with stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They will have the same abilities. Some stock ROMs come with carrier (e.g. Verizon, Sprint, etc) applications that will most likely not be present on the custom ROM. However most of the time if you really want them you can still in stall them and they will work. I am not currently aware any that don't.

xxfreakazoidxx said:
.... you can reset the flash counter with Triangle Away and they will be none the wiser. :3...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI, Its been discussed countless times, in countless threads, Triangle Away does NOT work for any US variant of the GS3 currently, and its author says he most likely wont be making it work, either. Maybe someday someone will get it to work, but as of right now, no.

[Q] How to files from PC to Knox

Has anybody used knox? I am fooling around with it and for the life of me can't figure out how to get documents from the PC to the knox container. I looked through the Samsung material regarding Knox with no luck.
Moving files to the phone using the USB cable is fine but I can't seem to put anything in the Knox area.
Thanks

I'm sure there's a school for hard Knox somewhere that can help.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app

According to Samsung everything must be transferred through the cloud service.

Transfer Files Into Knox
Snugglesthemonkey said:
Has anybody used knox? I am fooling around with it and for the life of me can't figure out how to get documents from the PC to the knox container. I looked through the Samsung material regarding Knox with no luck.
Moving files to the phone using the USB cable is fine but I can't seem to put anything in the Knox area.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This had me beaten for a while.
Two ways to do it ...
Method one -
Upload your files to a cloud server such as Dropbox or Box.
Access that same cloud service using the web-browser while inside knox.
Download the file/s while inside knox and they will then be available in the knox file manager.
Method two -
Connect your samsung device to PC with USB cable.
Copy your files onto device or onto the SD card.
Start knox
Return to personal area.
While in personal area go into 'my files' file manager.
Select file/s so it has the tick in the corner.
Go up to the menu at the top right corner.
Choose 'Move to knox'
Files appear in knox, disappear in personal area.
This works with single or multiple files, but NOT with whole folders.
Hope this helps everyone.

[HELP] ADB Tools not working? Check here.

So you probably have the same problem as i had not long ago, you try using a Tool like Android Command, or SGN3ModTool, or kn0x0ut, or Android AIO Flasher or what not, and it just wont work, and you dont have any idea, why. The answer is pretty simple, yet very hidden and not thought about that much, i first figured it out very lately, and it took some time, so if you are one of them having one of the listed problems above, welcome to my help thread
Q: I get "Device Not Found"
A: Install the latest ADB drivers for all Android Phones, found here: http://adbdriver.com/downloads/
Q: Now i installed all drivers for my Device, but it still wont work. Why?
A: Are you pretty sure "USB Debugging" is enabled in the Developer Options? If not, enable it.
Q: I dont find the "Developer Options" on my Device. How do i get them?
A: I assume you got Android 4.2 or higher, since then, you have to press 7 times on the build number. Go to the "Device Info" tab, and scroll down to "Build Number" and press 7 times in a row on that, it will tell you, that the "Developer Options" have been enabled.
Q: Ok so now i did that, but it STILL wont work, WHY!?
A: Well then i guess you came to the points i landed at, where i didnt know the problem, lucky for you, i found the yet simple, but a bit "Im a Noob, idk that" fix. To fix this, first check your "SELinux Status" under "Device Options", if it is on "Permissive" then it should work for you now, and your good to go, if your in the situation of "Enforced", then you came where i was, no way. How to fix it? Easy, either you can try option 1 or 2. Or just ignore the fact its there and try finding out what it is, until you die trying to find it out
1: (This option might NOT work for some! Samsung Devices, i know it says all in the list, but Samsung Deviced without KNOX will work anyway, and some with KNOX even will, if you disabled KNOX with SuperSU or any other ROOT Tool). Install SELinux Mode Changer
App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mrbimc.selinux&hl=de
After its installed, enter the app and change it to "Permissive". Reboot your Device, and now try again to connect with USB ADB, it will work guaranteed
2: Install a KERNEL that has SELinux status set to "Permissive" incase the first option does NOT work for you. (Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9005 ONLY!)
KERNEL 1: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2540246
KERNEL 2: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2471416
To be honest, i prefer the first KERNEL more, more options and also it has no bugs known for now, the second has some bugs, but less features, if you try staying close to STOCK.
That was all from me for now, if you need more info or help, your welcome to ask.
PM: Want to know what SELinux is? Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security-Enhanced_Linux
Short description: SELinux was invented by the NSA and MAC, to provide more security for Android system, to say it short: To simply **** up the life for Developers . "Enforced" means all request are denied instantly, so thats why ADB USB wont work, cause all requests to the Device are blocked. With "Permissive" this though, makes it so all requests are allowed, but logged and being watched, but still can be run, without problems.

While this is a list with common things that you can do to enable ADB it is still a little misleading - there is ABSOLUTELY no requirement that you NEED to be SELinux permissive for standard ADB to work - that is only the case in certain cooked ROMs + certain kernels, but if you are on stock and you have things installed OK on the PC it will work perfectly with SELinux set to enforcing.
The other thing that is missing is the fact that the latest ADB (since 4.2.x I think) is also doing an extra security-check on the phone - so you need a special adb program on the PC (so that the program can correctly answer to the extra check), and then you need to answer YES when the phone asks if you want to allow ADB rights for that ID (which normally the phone will remember and not ask again).

xclub_101 said:
While this is a list with common things that you can do to enable ADB it is still a little misleading - there is ABSOLUTELY no requirement that you NEED to be SELinux permissive for standard ADB to work - that is only the case in certain cooked ROMs + certain kernels, but if you are on stock and you have things installed OK on the PC it will work perfectly with SELinux set to enforcing.
The other thing that is missing is the fact that the latest ADB (since 4.2.x I think) is also doing an extra security-check on the phone - so you need a special adb program on the PC (so that the program can correctly answer to the extra check), and then you need to answer YES when the phone asks if you want to allow ADB rights for that ID (which normally the phone will remember and not ask again).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats not correct, i run STOCK ROM, i cannot run any ADB tools without having SELinux set to Permissive, i only want to help people who have the same problem, most people arent like you, who know everything in the world, so they need a bit of help, thats all i wanted to help them with.

Samsung tablet 500t, reset, and loss of password

Hi everyone,
A friend of mine got a second-hand tablet Samsung 500t from one of her relatives.
She set her password, but she forgot it after a while. She asked me to help her to sort the problem out but I don't know windows RT and I don't know exactly what to do. In addition, we don't have any cd or user's manual. I tried to reset and I launched the procedure which always ended up with this message:
"Insert your windows installation or recovery media to continue".
I don't know what to do now, and, unfortunately, she hasn't got any back up.
Can anyone help me? Thank you.

Is she using a local account or a Microsoft account? If the latter, you can just reset your password the same way you would if you forgot, say, your Hotmail password. Go to https://login.live.com and follow the "forgot password" steps.
If it's a local account, that's more awkward. There are various steps (short of a full wipe) that you can do, but if you don't know the Admin password then most of the non-wipe options require things like Linux liveCD (or live flashdrive) images and forcibly resetting the password.

GoodDayToDie said:
Is she using a local account or a Microsoft account? If the latter, you can just reset your password the same way you would if you forgot, say, your Hotmail password. Go to login.live and follow the "forgot password" steps.
If it's a local account, that's more awkward. There are various steps (short of a full wipe) that you can do, but if you don't know the Admin password then most of the non-wipe options require things like Linux liveCD (or live flashdrive) images and forcibly resetting the password.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
She is using a local account. We asked her relative, the former owner, about a Microsoft account, but he didn't know and remember anything about that.
Can you explain me more about using a Distro Linux to reset the password on the tablet?
I used a linux live many times, and I can manage it for easy tasks, but I have never used it to reset or to recover a password on a Window OS.
Thank you, Bob.

If you boot a Linux live image - probably off a flashdrive, unless you have a handy USB optical drive - it can mount the internal NTFS file system and find Security Account Manager (SAM). There are tools that will modify a SAM file to overwrite the password for a user. It's also possible for some tools to brute-force the password, though this can take a long time, or to look it up in a "rainbow table" of pre-computed password hashes (won't work for really complex passwords, though). Forcibly resetting the password will cause you to lose any data encrypted with it, which may include things like passwords the OS was storing for you.
Some stuff that can be used to try and recover passwords (or reset them): http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-password-recovery.html
There's a bunch of others out there too. Here's another link: http://www.mydigitallife.info/reset...trator-or-user-password-with-chntpw-in-linux/

GoodDayToDie said:
If you boot a Linux live image - probably off a flashdrive, unless you have a handy USB optical drive - it can mount the internal NTFS file system and find Security Account Manager (SAM). There are tools that will modify a SAM file to overwrite the password for a user. It's also possible for some tools to brute-force the password, though this can take a long time, or to look it up in a "rainbow table" of pre-computed password hashes (won't work for really complex passwords, though). Forcibly resetting the password will cause you to lose any data encrypted with it, which may include things like passwords the OS was storing for you.
Some stuff that can be used to try and recover passwords (or reset them):smallvoid
There's a bunch of others out there too. Here's another link: mydigitallife.info/reset-and-change-windows-nt2000-administrator-or-user-password-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I simply delete the SAM file? I don't think she cares to lose any data so much.
Ok. I was wondering how I can run the usb drive on a windows rt tablet. Is there a "boot device option" like on an ordinary pc/notebook?
Thanks again?:
PS: By the way, where can I find an image of Window 8 rt if I want to totally reset the tablet and install a clear OS?

Aw crap, I can't believe this but I forgot you were talking about an RT device. Forget everything I just said; Secure Boot won't allow it to run a Linux image even if you had an ARM-based one.
Deleting the entire SAM will render the device unbootable. It's not just user account logon details stored there; every account (including the various system ones) are there. On the other hand, if you can extract the SAM somehow, another computer will be able to edit it just fine even though it comes from RT; it's a registry hive and is architecture-independent.
Total reset is probably the easiest option, if she doesn't mind the risk of losing data. It requires a device-specific image though; there should be one (recovery partition) on the tablet, but if that was removed you'll need to find one for download or get Samsung to handle it for you. The Surface RT / 2 images are available here on XDA but I don't know about any of the Samsung tablets.
Go look on the support website (or call support) for instructions on performing a factory reset of the tablet under normal circumstances. That will work if the recovery partition wasn't removed.

GoodDayToDie said:
Aw crap, I can't believe this but I forgot you were talking about an RT device. Forget everything I just said; Secure Boot won't allow it to run a Linux image even if you had an ARM-based one.
Deleting the entire SAM will render the device unbootable. It's not just user account logon details stored there; every account (including the various system ones) are there. On the other hand, if you can extract the SAM somehow, another computer will be able to edit it just fine even though it comes from RT; it's a registry hive and is architecture-independent.
Total reset is probably the easiest option, if she doesn't mind the risk of losing data. It requires a device-specific image though; there should be one (recovery partition) on the tablet, but if that was removed you'll need to find one for download or get Samsung to handle it for you. The Surface RT / 2 images are available here on XDA but I don't know about any of the Samsung tablets.
Go look on the support website (or call support) for instructions on performing a factory reset of the tablet under normal circumstances. That will work if the recovery partition wasn't removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I understood.
Can I somehow install a Window 8.1 pro x86 on this device? It has got an Intel Atom processor, after all.
I need drivers, though.
Thanks again.

Now you say it's a x86 device while earlier it was ARM (Windows RT). Make up your mind, it can't be both!

Amax said:
Now you say it's a x86 device while earlier it was ARM (Windows RT). Make up your mind, it can't be both!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...hmm actually I'm not sure. The tablet is not mine. I thought it had a Windows Rt OS. But since you say that it can't be an x86 device with an RT OS at same time...I need to find out what it really is. Thanks.

OK
I've finally found out what the OS is?
It's window 8 32bit.
The complete name of the tablet is:
samsung ativ smart xe500t1c-a01it
More, I have it at my home now.
Can we continue the topic?
Thanks

Then the methods GoodDayToDie mentioned in post #4 should work

ok
I fixed it by using Lazesoft recovery.
Thanks

Loss Password? All is not loss, even with the fact you can not boot from a USB stick drive with a password reset tool on it. The answer is actually quite simple with local access to the device Windows 8 is installed on. As long as you can get into recovery by using the "hold volume up" and pushing "Power" button method. You then simply picked Advance Recovery Options till you see Command Prompt in the menu and here's the link that'll take you the rest of the way below. What this does is replace Access Tools (for blind, etc) in Login Screen (lower left corner) with a Command Prompt window. Since it's in with the Root C drive, it makes it quite simple to merely change the password right there and be able to use it to log in immediately.
Thought your computer was safe from hackers locally? Think again (can only be run locally though, not remotely), but if you didn't have this option none of the free or pay4 password reset tools would work either. This is what they are actually doing and then they remove the Command Prompt window when done. Just like you will after using this very simple method. Or you need to use Windows Password Key to reset Samsung password.

Can't copy or move anything from knox to personal mode or anywhere else.

I have some pictures in knox container and I want to move them in personal mode because I have to restore factory settings and I don't want to lose that pictures.
When I tried to to move them in personal mode, I get "security policy restricts this action" message.
Why is happening that? Can anybody help me with this?
Please advice.

I never used knox for that reason, is so stupid sometime. Sorry I can't help you
Inviato dal mio SM-G935F utilizzando Tapatalk

Im not sure what you mean. I dont know of a 'personal mode' that you refer to. Do you mean you just want them on your phone like normal a normal picture? So that you can back them up before resetting?
I know of private mode but whilst that uses knox containers, you give me the impression you use knox as standalone.
As far as i know, security policies are set up and applied on creation of the container and cannot be modified after creation. Thats what makes knox so secure. If that is the case then its impossible to change the policy now and therefore would be impossible to override it and move the photos. But i could be and hope im wrong on this!
Also, a full reset will cause you to lose your containers as your encryption key for them will be useless afterwards. But are you doing a full reset?
Under my reset there are three options: reset settings which just changes settings to default and should not affect knox; reset networks settings which does exactly as it says and again should not affect knox; and factory data reset which wipes your phone and certainly will affect knox!

Tried to move files between personal mode and knox mode. No issues here.
If you can't do this, backup your pics online.

I asked for some answer to Samsung, but no response so far.
The ideea is very simple: I have some photos and some videos inside knox conteiner.
If I proceed to a factory reset, I'll lose all of them.
On the previous factory reset that I did, first of all I select all of this photos and videos and move them to Personal Mode. That's the name that appear in contextual menu, after I select any picture.
I can't do an online backup because on mail I can't attach files bigger than 50Mb.
Also, inside knox I do not have any cloud client or anything else.

Just Like You
Hi ...
i was searching in net to find a way to solve this issue . because i have this problem like you. Did you find a way to copy or restore photos from secure folder to personal mode?