Database Users

Just bought my S4 (I9505)

Hi guys!
Yesterday I've received my new S4 and obviously I'm really happy!
I'm planning to root my S4 after some tests (just to be sure the device has not problems) and I'm thinking to flash the Google Edition ROM.
Now some questions:
- Is there some test,stuffs to check or common warrenty problem to check/wait before root my S4?
- Just rooting the device will invalidate the KNOX? Is there a way to restore the KNOX or may I root my device only when I'm sure I really want invalidate my warrenty?
- After rooting decision/time... I live in Italy but I've bought an EU S4: do you suggest me to change the CSC (I9505OXXBMG3) to ITV and flash Italy sotck/mod ROM or it doesn't matter and I can stay on the actual CSC?
- In your opinion, Is it really worth to flash the Google Edition 4.3 or may I wait for the official 4.3 from Samsung (I saw the leaked ROM so maybe it's time for official!)
Thanks guys!

If your device has the older bootloader you're fine for flashing as it doesn't have KNOX implemented. If it has the new bootloader with KNOX, flashing a custom rom will void your warranty forever. It flags it in download mode and you can't remove it even if you went back to fully stock, so you still wouldn't have any warranty

Someone posted this on one of the BLOG.
chiragnarasimha on 4 October 2013 at 14:52 said:
Incase the above method failed, then i am sad to tell you that there is a long process that is probably going take more than an hour to complete the downgrade process.
First of all, remember that when you upgraded to 4.3, you also upgraded stuff like BL(bootloader), AP(formerly known as pda which can be downloaded from this site), CP (modem of the phone) and finally CSC. So, the trick is to download the BL of 4.2.2, AP(PDA) of your region, CP of your region or your carrier, and the CSC of your region. Trust me, finding these stuff can be hard depending on the popularity of your region and the popularity of your carrier.
Hopefully, you were able to download all the above mentioned stuff. Now go ahead and flash these things with odin. Also note that wiping the device with the stock recovery ( vol up + home Key + Power button) might be necessary. While flashing with odin, DO NOT CHECK ANYTHING APART FROM AUTO REBOOT AND F. RESET TIME.
OR THE EASIEST IS PROBABLY TO WAIT FOR THE OFFICIAL RELEASE AND THEN FLASH IT WITH ODIN. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL RELEASE WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE IN THIS WEBSITE ANYWAYS
will this work?? splitting the firmware? anyone?

imlgl said:
If your device has the older bootloader you're fine for flashing as it doesn't have KNOX implemented. If it has the new bootloader with KNOX, flashing a custom rom will void your warranty forever. It flags it in download mode and you can't remove it even if you went back to fully stock, so you still wouldn't have any warranty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for response!
I've just reboot in download mode and my S4 printout:
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME: gt-I9505
CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official
SYSTEM STATUS: Offical
CSB-CONFIG-LSB: 0x30
WRITE PROTECTED: Enabled
Have I the older bootloader? I can't see any knox strings...
If yes, that means that if I want to flash the 4.3 Google Edition ROM it's better to flash it now before Samsung send me the OTA update of the official 4.3 ROM or I didn't understand well?
In which ROMs Samsung has introduces the KNOX.... I'm little bit confused because someone of you has KNOX but my S4 says to me via OTA thet there is no new update...

Markino said:
Thanks for response!
I've just reboot in download mode and my S4 printout:
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME: gt-I9505
CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official
SYSTEM STATUS: Offical
CSB-CONFIG-LSB: 0x30
WRITE PROTECTED: Enabled
Have I the older bootloader? I can't see any knox strings...
If yes, that means that if I want to flash the 4.3 Google Edition ROM it's better to flash it now before Samsung send me the OTA update of the official 4.3 ROM or I didn't understand well?
In which ROMs Samsung has introduces the KNOX.... I'm little bit confused because someone of you has KNOX but my S4 says to me via OTA thet there is no new update...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup you have older bootloader, it's the same as mine except my says custom instead of official.

[Q] [I9500] flashing custom firmware over official fw w/knox 0x0

hello folks,
i've searched the forum and couldn't find an explicit answer for my question.
i have i9500 and i'm upgrading it's firmware to the lastest available on weekly bases, i use odin and just flash the newer firmware over the existing one, without wipe and it all seems to work just fine as it is.
now, i know for a fact that my bootloader is KNOX enabled and my KNOX flag is 0x0 (active warranty)
my question is - can (not should - bat CAN) i flash custom roms? i mean, i don't care about warrany or KNOX flag 0x1, just want to know if i can grab PAC i.e and follow the regular installation instruction without hard-bricking my device?
i would very appreciate any certified answer.
regards

There are some ROMs that u can flash without void ur warranty and u will have android 4.3. Anyway If u dont care about warranty only u have to:
1. Download correct Rom for ur device (.tar file)
2. Open Odin and flash it
OR
1. Download correct Rom for u device (.zip file)
2. Open custom recovery, wipe all and install the ROM
3. Enjoy

re: KNOX
eviatar said:
hello folks,
i've searched the forum and couldn't find an explicit answer for my question.
i have i9500 and i'm upgrading it's firmware to the lastest available on weekly bases, i use odin and just flash the newer firmware over the existing one, without wipe and it all seems to work just fine as it is.
now, i know for a fact that my bootloader is KNOX enabled and my KNOX flag is 0x0 (active warranty)
my question is - can (not should - bat CAN) i flash custom roms? i mean, i don't care about warrany or KNOX flag 0x1, just want to know if i can grab PAC i.e and follow the regular installation instruction without hard-bricking my device?
i would very appreciate any certified answer.
regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, here are the prerequisites for not getting the KNOX POX:
#1: Don't allow the flashing of the OTA update
#2: Don't Odin flash the official stock TAR firmware. (SamMobile or elsewhere)
#3: Don't Odin flash the 4.3 NON-HLOS.BIN
#4: Don't Odin flash any bootloaders
If you have NOT done either one of those four things you will NOT catch the KNOX.
You can Odin flash the 4.3 MODEM but it is completely optional.
See which one has the best signal for you.
( or keep the exisiting MODEM which is already in your phones.)
The phone will work just find with either the 4.3 modem or your existing one.
You can flash any cwm/twrp flashable 4.3 or 4.2.2 zip file stock or custom roms.
If you follow these rules above you will not loose audio, signal or wifi and you will not catch KNOX POX.
Now that's not too difficult to understand right? LOL

eviatar said:
hello folks,
i've searched the forum and couldn't find an explicit answer for my question.
i have i9500 and i'm upgrading it's firmware to the lastest available on weekly bases, i use odin and just flash the newer firmware over the existing one, without wipe and it all seems to work just fine as it is.
now, i know for a fact that my bootloader is KNOX enabled and my KNOX flag is 0x0 (active warranty)
my question is - can (not should - bat CAN) i flash custom roms? i mean, i don't care about warrany or KNOX flag 0x1, just want to know if i can grab PAC i.e and follow the regular installation instruction without hard-bricking my device?
i would very appreciate any certified answer.
regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can, but only custom roms based on 4.3 bootloader.
Enviado desde mi GT-P7510 usando Tapatalk 2

restore to KNOX-disabled firmware

i have a galaxy s4 i9500 with android 4.2.2 and i read that if i update to 4.3 i will get a security feature called KNOX which tracks your custon kernel flashes and cannot be reset. and also you can't flash back to 4.2.2. is that true?
if it is so:
1.what will happen if you'll try to flash 4.2.2 with odin?
2.what other disadvantages KNOX have?
3.shoiuld i really care about KNOX if my phone's warranty is already void?
4.can KNOX harm my device by any way?
please answer the question by order!
i am thankful for any help i can get in this forum and appriciate everyone who answers my questions beacause i wanna know if i should update or not.
P.S.:if i have 4.2.2 can i install cyanogenmod 11 (unofficial) or i need to update to 4.3 to do that?

Knox doesn't track custom kernel flashes specifically, it detects if you flash anything non-samsung (whether it's cf-autoroot, custom recovery or whatnot). It just says knox 0x0 or 0x1, if it's 0x1 your warranty is void. There is another counter detecting number of flashes, but that can be reset with TriangleAway. Knox cannot be reset. EDiT: TriangleAway only works on i9505, sorry.
1. If you don't have a knox-enabled bootloader you can flash an older rom version. Boot into recovery mode, if you see a knox counter there you cannot flash older firmwares than the one you already have (on i9505 there was one knox-enabled fw before 4.3). If you don't see anything knox related you can flash what you want, but once you flash a knox enabled rom you cannot downgrade to older official samsung roms.
2. Besides not being able to reset the knox counter there isn't really anything special. Atleast none that I have noticed. SuperSU asks if you want do disable knox-features upon first run.
3. No, then it doesn't really matter. Unless you really want to flash an older firmware from samsung.
4. No, it's a samsung feature.
If I were you I'd flash official 4.3 builds anyway, as they're generally much faster and much more stable, atleast for me on i9505. And the improvements outweigh the downsides of knox. 4.3 feature list: http://www.sammobile.com/2013/10/18...al-android-4-3-update-for-galaxy-s4-gt-i9500/

[Q] need help !!!

i new on android ... now i using galaxy note 2 ...
the problem phone is got super user ... what i know is my phone was root ...
can i unroot it ??? because i wanna upgrade it to kitkat if can ...
please someone help me ... new on android ...
which country firmware i need to download ???
will my phone brick if i download wrong firmware ???

If you want to unroot fully download triangle away to reset your counter and run it then uinstall superuser. That's pretty much it if you are on stock with stock recovery. If not you can flash stock through odin and it will be back to factory. There is a stock 4.4 prerooted 4.4.2 available which you could flash without needing to unroot
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

Fadil56 said:
i new on android ... now i using galaxy note 2 ...
the problem phone is got super user ... what i know is my phone was root ...
can i unroot it ??? because i wanna upgrade it to kitkat if can ...
please someone help me ... new on android ...
which country firmware i need to download ???
will my phone brick if i download wrong firmware ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it might all sound too overwhelming cause that's how i felt when i was in your situation but reading a lot of threads and gaining as much knowledge i somehow understood what i needed to proceed ahead and flash newer custom ROMS,since you are 4.1.2 and rooted in order to upgrade to 4.3 or 4.4.2 custom roms you don't need to unroot or use triangle away,all you need is custom recovery (philz touch 6.26.0 or twrp 2.7.0) ,you need mj5 bootloader(i'll explain about bootloader in detail below ) and last but not the least backup your current 4.1.2 stock rooted ROM as well as EFS partition.You can visit dr ketan's thread on how to back up your efs incase your imei goes corrupted chances are rare but it has happened with people so backing up EFS is must.Now after you have taken care of 4.1.2 ,you can proceed with flashing a custom ROM,since you want to flash 4.4.2 there are several deknoxed,dedoxed and pre rooted ROM's available by developers and they are just like stock samsung ROM.
Now comes the tricky part and it depends on an individual how he goes about bootloader part. Since you are on 4.1.2 stock rooted ROM your bootloader is outdated,there are few 4.3 Jellybean bootloaders but MJ5 bootloader is the BEST cause it's deknoxed ,meaning it won't void your warranty so even if you upgrade to 4.4.2 you can always go back to 4.1.2 stock ROM ,unroot your phone ,reset the flash counter via triangle away and then take it to service center.If you flash MK4/MJ9 bootloaders which is built in if you officially upgrade to 4.3 you'll be KNOX ,so when you root your phone knox will be triggered and warranty will be null,there's NO WAY currently to reset knox once its triggered. There are no benefits of knox but samsung has its own theory of implementing it for security purposes.Also one cannot downgrade back to 4.1.2 if they flash a knox bootloader you'll be stuck on 4.3 or 4.4 roms
So let's say you flash mj5 bootloader ,then flash the kitkat ROM from one of the links available on xda only draw back being on 4.3 jellybean bootloader (whether its mj5/mk4/mj9) you cannot charge your phone when turned off when on samsung touch wiz kitkat ROM.Kitkat bootloader is available but it's KNOXED which as stated earlier knoxed bootloader will void your warranty but you'd be able to charge your phone when turned off.
I know this is a lot of information at once for you to understand but main thing you should worry about is backing up EFS partition and which bootloader you choose, once you take care of those two things, ROM flashing is easy if you follow the correct steps on how to flash it (mainly making sure you clean your internal memory of phone clean).I am on mj5 bootloader and just this morning i flashed 4.4.2 ROM and everything is running smoothly,no fc no bootloop nothing.

[Q] About kernel and ChainFire auto root

Hello
i have the SM-N910C running the official lollipop firmware,
days ago i've rooted it using CF auto root through the odin,
And it was successful, but the question is the CF auto root
replacing the stock Kernel to another one while flashing ?
cause when i reset flash counter using triangle away even without restarting the phone it still shows in triangle away:
counter: 1
Binary: custom
system: official
but in bootloader it says:
current binary: samsung official
system status: official
secure download : enabled
knox warranty void: 1
rp swrev: 1
and the reactivation lock is off in the settings and the bootloader
i just need the software updates after root
and resetting the flash counter to Zero
and to know the kernel is it stock or custom
anyone could help ?
and sorry for any bad english, thanks.

Mr.3bood said:
Hello
i have the SM-N910C running the official lollipop firmware,
days ago i've rooted it using CF auto root through the odin,
And it was successful, but the question is the CF auto root
replacing the stock Kernel to another one while flashing ?
cause when i reset flash counter using triangle away even without restarting the phone it still shows in triangle away:
counter: 1
Binary: custom
system: official
but in bootloader it says:
current binary: samsung official
system status: official
secure download : enabled
knox warranty void: 1
rp swrev: 1
and the reactivation lock is off in the settings and the bootloader
i just need the software updates after root
and resetting the flash counter to Zero
and to know the kernel is it stock or custom
anyone could help ?
and sorry for any bad english, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, cf autoroot doesnt replace your kernel, so u should still have stock kernel.
and also as far as i know, triangle away doesnt work on note 4 ... so right now there is no way to reset the counter to zero.
and 1 more thing is you may have posted this question in the wrong thread, you should have posted it in the Q&A thread. ^^

randykzc said:
Hi, cf autoroot doesnt replace your kernel, so u should still have stock kernel.
and also as far as i know, triangle away doesnt work on note 4 ... so right now there is no way to reset the counter to zero.
and 1 more thing is you may have posted this question in the wrong thread, you should have posted it in the Q&A thread. ^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot , i'll try different ways to reset it, if i succeed i'll wrrite a thread about it

Mr.3bood said:
Thanks a lot , i'll try different ways to reset it, if i succeed i'll wrrite a thread about it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck trying to figure out how to reset that counter permanently - so far no one managed to find a way to do that since the introduction of KNOX back in 2013.