Okay, so, yes, I know to use the Search function, but alas all information is either outdated or there is no concise answers / solutions to be found. Trust me, I have scoured.
Overview: Okay so Thursday I bought an SGH-i337, being the nerd that I am knowing that I use MetroPCS (can't beat unlimited 4G LTE for $60) I scoured the net and researched ALL models of the S4 and G3. Decided the screen size of the G3 too big coming from a 5C. Decided Sprint's version might work, but not on 4G. Verizon, would switch from LTE to 2G with no 3G support, so that would be a desperation act, haha.
So, my main options were T-Mobile, then AT&T, because MetroPCS and T-Mobile were one and the same. All the people that had T-Mobile based phone sellers were being a pain in the butt to deal with... so, I found an AT&T owner that was ready.
The tragic love story: So on once I used the MicroSIM card in the S4 to cut an old full-size SIM to scale a border around my Nano SIM and finally got it placed perfectly to read... I was happy... which faded quickly as it was locked, how could I be so dumb!
So, the previous owner is now awaiting an unlock code as I found EVERY method to use the UMTS Menu is impossible to get to "[6] Phone Control" option. Due to that silly Auto Updating AT&T bloatware and Kernel upgrade/Firmware.
Okay, I should wait, but... does anyone know a way to get to the Phone Control menu using a secret code?? I have noticed some of the many codes go straight to the Debug Screen or go straight to the other menu options... so could there be one for Phone Control?
Also, maybe is there a way to get the phone to output the NCK Key manually connecting it to a computer and using a prompt? I may have heard about such a thing on SureWest routers through TelNet, to get the administration password... not that I personally have done this. Just feel like if these websites are able to use an IMEI number to charge you for a code... it has to be stored on the phone somewhere right?
Rooting and Downgrading
Also, has anyone tried the Odin way of downgrading and rooting these phones, has personally worked for them? I have found the threads on here and it seems pretty interesting... when I look at previous versions of Droid they look to allow more functionality for more advanced users than this 5.0, so if that be the case I am interested in taking this back to stock and beginning removal of all AT&T programs.
Maybe I am sounding like an idiot, but I have been on a Jailbroken 5C for... probably 2 years now and even with that it seems limiting to the curious, nerdy, mess with things side of me.
Summary:
- Should I just wait the 2-5 days for the code? / Would downgrading firmwares negate the entered NCK code if used prior to downgrade?
- Are there any known ways to unlock this model fully upgraded?
- Should I use the Odin methods of downgrading to stock? / Do you prefer previous versions over 5.0?
- What problems should have you guys faced / should I consider prior to doing anything?
- Should I just try to find a T-Mobile model of the S4??
Phew, sorry, if you read all of that and hate me for it, haha. Please, be knowledgable and not tell me how dumb I am for being so antsy to be able to use this phone w/o WiFi! Haha, you guys try using a 5C forever and see the screen difference / abilities you've been missing out on for so long!
Thanks!
The method of downgrading to 4.4.2 (aka NB1) then rooting and then going to lollipop by keeping the root has worked for me. There is no direct way, to root lollipop atm.
First downgrade to stock rootable 4.4.2. You can do this from any base, and/or use it if you mess your phone up (bootloops, etc). Link here. Second post on that thread, step 1. Make sure you download the rootable one.
To root it use TowelRoot. Run it - Tap make it ra1n - After a succeseful root, install SuperSU.
The follow this post here to goto stock rooted lollipop 5.0.1 (aka OC4). I recommend downloading the deodexed version, so you can install xposed if you want in the future.
Thats it for rooting lollipop. And now that you have root you can get rid of that bloatware.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I personally, don't really fancy lollipop. High Ram usage.
Secondly, i bought this phone on eBay and it came unlocked, and even after flashing different firmwares, its still unlocked. I think if you unlock using that NCK code, the phone will stay unlocked forever.
Thirdly, the T-Mobile version has an unlocked bootloader, which is a big up in comparison to the i337. We are restriced to only using one costum recovery, that is SafeStrap. Others, don't work.
Thank you
I will probably have to go through that whole process. Got it unlocked thankfully, but am feeling as though based on specs and the little apps I have installed the phone should be a bit smoother in basic functionality especially Web browsing.
So yeah definitely already feeling your point in resource hog and though I disabled the bloatware, I don't think it helps being installed.
Also, figuring out after using the phone in my car that Galaxy has very quiet audio output via the 1/8" headphone jack. Seems that you can find volume controlled headphones easier than just straight cords! However, found this a known issue for all Galaxies and rooting it may be the easiest workaround.
Thanks for the organized list of information/insight! Now I will have some more stuff to geek out on... ?
Peptobismal said:
Also, figuring out after using the phone in my car that Galaxy has very quiet audio output via the 1/8" headphone jack. Seems that you can find volume controlled headphones easier than just straight cords! However, found this a known issue for all Galaxies and rooting it may be the easiest workaround.
Thanks for the organized list of information/insight! Now I will have some more stuff to geek out on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome
I don't know, but cranking the volume to full on my phone using earphones, makes my ears hurt . The audio output on mine is great, nothing modified.
Oh, if you decide to stick with kitkat, check out these posts. I'm sure they will come in handy for stock roms. Simply to make life easier.
Remove AT&T carrier name from the notification bar
Restore Mobile Data Toggle in Notifications Bar (First method - apk on third post)
TheJuli said:
You're welcome
I don't know, but cranking the volume to full on my phone using earphones, makes my ears hurt . The audio output on mine is great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I'd say it's probably fine with headphones, but through a car's auxiliary it is probably 25-30% quieter than my iPhone even at "full" volume.
Read that there are files to modify, but you have to be rooted.
What is this Mobile Data Toggle? Would it be really at all useful seeing as I have MetroPCS? * I assume that ridding AT&T is just a general tweak, which I do like getting rid of the carrier.
Peptobismal said:
What is this Mobile Data Toggle? Would it be really at all useful seeing as I have MetroPCS? * I assume that ridding AT&T is just a general tweak, which I do like getting rid of the carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mobile data toggle is used to enable Internet from your carrier/sim. Ridding the AT&T thing is sorta general because you need to have root.
I got mine from Amazon yesterday, I already bricked it a few hours ago by messing with the recovery. It should be an easy fix once I get hold of the stock firmware. I got another one coming tomorrow, so I'll focus on just extracting the rom from that one
Bricking aside, I got 20/10mbs down/up on speedtest using my T-mobile US SIM, and the signal indicator showed LTE. Forcing it off LTE I got 10/5mbs down/up.
Battery life is awesome, I used it constantly for 8hrs and only got down to 50%, my note4 would have been dead after that much use with the screen on. The overall feel of Android 6.0 was smooth, no stuttering. There is no bloatware, just a few utilities for fancy wallpapers.
The phone charges faster than any other phone I have. The included TPE case doesnt increase the thickness of the phone too much and I like that It keeps the camera lens off the desk when I set the phone down.
Dual SIM functionality works nice. It was one of the main features I was looking for, though I will miss T-Mobile wifi calling.
Some notes:
I used adb & fastboot in my attempts to root. After running
Code:
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot reboot
the display now showed
Code:
Orange state
Your device has been unlocked and can't be trusted
Your device will reboot in 5 seconds
So it appears that it is best to oem relock it when you're done updating, as the message goes away if you relock.
Backing up the ROM
I found SP Flash Tool v5.1632 for Linux and I've been practicing saving chunks of ROM from my bricked phone. I should be able to grab the recovery portion of the new phones' ROM tomorrow.
Based on the scatter.txt file I've found for the Gionee S8 AmigOS Marshmallow ROM, recovery starts at 0x8000 and is no more that 16Mb is size. So, in theory, I should be able to grab that range of the ROM and flash it using fastboot back to my bricked unit. I'm using the word "bricked", but its far from that, I should just say "unbootable" to be more clear.
Earlier today I was trying to get MTK droid tools to detect my Blu Pure XR so I could extract the scatter file, but It never was detected. All the drivers installed ok, so maybe its not compatible, I'm not sure yet. I'll get back onto that after my first unit is back up and working, hopefully tomorrow.
Edit: I just found a modified MTK Droid Tools for 64bit cpu phones, I'll give this a try too.
Edit next day: I got the second phone this morning. I used SP Flash Tool to grab the recovery.img portion of the new phone, then I used fastboot to flash it to the damaged phone, and it worked fine. The bootloader unlock/relock caused the phone to wipe itself and then re-encrypt the file system, so I lost a few test photos, no big deal. FWIW, I could have flashed the recovery back to the damaged phone using SP Flash Tool, but I wanted to make sure it worked with fastboot, which it did.
Heres the recovery.img for those that may need it and don't have two phones
View attachment xr-recovery.zip
Monday or so my mom gets her phone, so I'll be able to test LTE on AT&T with her SIM card. I just got 34Mbs download on a speed test (T-Mobile), which is is fine, considering all the naysayers reviewing on Amazon who didn't have the guts to buy the phone, saying LTE wouldn't work at all.
I just heard of this device today. I wonder how quick Android 7.x can be flashed over to this, but for $299 it's a good looking phone.
It may be a while since there's not much activity happening on this device yet.
I'm focusing on creating a rooted boot.img right now, as I'll be happy with 6.0 and root. I plan on having this done today. I've never created a custom twrp recovery, but I may try that next.
I need to figure out how to prevent the full wipe after oem unlocking/relocking, that's a real pain having all my setup deleted after every test, as it makes it hard to use the phone while developing.
Got root
Firstly, I'm still learning about Mediatek based devices, so I feel like a noob again. I haven't edited a ROM in several years and there's a lot of crap info on the internet. Most articles that write up "how to root a phone" basically say "Install twrp, then supersu", yeah, thanks
After struggling with all the selinux controls in 6.0, I switched to hack mode. As per phhusson's super-bootimg script, I used his sed technique to force the init in boot.img to not enforce security policy and added his bits to init.rc to load su. I put su and in system.img along with a suid root shell just in case. Its working, I have SuperSu installed, and it pops up to ask me to grant permissions. It won't update its su binary, I've got some permission problem there, but it's not a show stopper. Also,I found its easiest to just leave the bootloader unlocked while testing, I just have to get used to the annoying boot message and 5 second delay.
This week I'll start from scratch and document the procedure I used and hopefully make it repeatable for anyone else who may want to try it. Maybe someone will just port twrp and save me the time of learning how to do it
Some notes on the software I used:
Windows:
* SP Flash Tool with a bogus scatter file to grab the stock ROM sections of my phone as the Linux version would timeout reading large ranged of flash.
Linux:
* mktool to unpack/repack the boot.img
* loopback mounted the system.img to add su to it.
* used img2simg to convert system.img to a sparse image
* fastboot to flash the boot & system images to the phone.
AT&T Speed Tests
No good, ~500kbs up/down, even though signal strength showed 4 bars on 4G. No LTE at all. Changing the band set to 3g/4g had no real effect either way. Don't buy this phone I you plan on using it with AT&T, although my mother hasn't noticed the ****ty 4G in actual use yet (I'll switch her to T-mobile soon).
Update: After using the phone for 1 week, I am extremely pleased with it. I chuckle when I read the negative reviews on all the big phone web sites. Reviewers hate the wiggly button, LOL, but it doesn't bother me as I'm used to it on my Samsungs. Other than the wiggly home button, its a solid phone. I prefer the metal back as opposed to glass. By the way, who's brilliant idea was it who thought an all glass phone was a good idea?
It's not AOSP, but I find it's AmigOS Carefree launcher very pleasant to use, and I've used countless launchers over the years. It's got way better specs than the Nexus 5X and after struggling with the security in 6.0, I'm not in any rush to find out what security bull**** awaits me in 7.0 (for my benefit of course).
On the flip side, I don't use NFC payments, Google Pay, Google Play, no Google anything. All Google stuff disabled. I run my own calendar/contacts/tasks sync server, use oandbackup to save/restore all my apps and settings, the majority of my apps come from f-droid. I don't play games. So I'm not an average user. I've been using Android devices since the Nexus One and I have a pile of phones in front of me. Blu (or Gionee) has shown it can make quite a competitive device that I enjoy using all day, (though I wouldn't be using it at all unless it was rooted, so luckily for both of us that is the case).
Rant: Things that are actually more annoying than a wiggly button:
* Dozens of phone review websites that all publish a review of this phone within 2 days of each other after the phone was released on Aug 29th ,with all the same content. It's like they are all run by the same hack, just to get advertising dollars.
* Websites like rootoreviews.com that use a template on how to root this particular phone using twrp, when twrp doesn't exist yet for the device. WTF is that? Why would someone think this is a great idea? They have the same instruction set for every phone on the site with the make/model info swapped out. Are they just hoping twrp becomes available soon so they have the first post on the topic by default? Lame!
rotohammer said:
No good, ~500kbs up/down, even though signal strength showed 4 bars on 4G. No LTE at all. Changing the band set to 3g/4g had no real effect either way. Don't buy this phone I you plan on using it with AT&T, although my mother hasn't noticed the ****ty 4G in actual use yet (I'll switch her to T-mobile soon).
Update: After using the phone for 1 week, I am extremely pleased with it. I chuckle when I read the negative reviews on all the big phone web sites. Reviewers hate the wiggly button, LOL, but it doesn't bother me as I'm used to it on my Samsungs. Other than the wiggly home button, its a solid phone. I prefer the metal back as opposed to glass. By the way, who's brilliant idea was it who thought an all glass phone was a good idea?
It's not AOSP, but I find it's AmigOS Carefree launcher very pleasant to use, and I've used countless launchers over the years. It's got way better specs than the Nexus 5X and after struggling with the security in 6.0, I'm not in any rush to find out what security bull**** awaits me in 7.0 (for my benefit of course).
On the flip side, I don't use NFC payments, Google Pay, Google Play, no Google anything. All Google stuff disabled. I run my own calendar/contacts/tasks sync server, use oandbackup to save/restore all my apps and settings, the majority of my apps come from f-droid. I don't play games. So I'm not an average user. I've been using Android devices since the Nexus One and I have a pile of phones in front of me. Blu (or Gionee) has shown it can make quite a competitive device that I enjoy using all day, (though I wouldn't be using it at all unless it was rooted, so luckily for both of us that is the case).
Rant: Things that are actually more annoying than a wiggly button:
* Dozens of phone review websites that all publish a review of this phone within 2 days of each other after the phone was released on Aug 29th ,with all the same content. It's like they are all run by the same hack, just to get advertising dollars.
* Websites like rootoreviews.com that use a template on how to root this particular phone using twrp, when twrp doesn't exist yet for the device. WTF is that? Why would someone think this is a great idea? They have the same instruction set for every phone on the site with the make/model info swapped out. Are they just hoping twrp becomes available soon so they have the first post on the topic by default? Lame!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi theer just curious on how you get it to root then??
Thanks for potentially inspiring some activity here regarding this phone. It looks like an impressive device, but I won't pull the trigger until there're some solid rom options.
Hey brother hope you r doing well. Glad to see this thread with the smartphone similar to mine. My phone is symphony helio s20, mtk6755 helio p10 processors, 4gb ram 64gb rom with the similar system.img and boot.img of gionee s8 & blu pur xr.
I was desperately looking for a pre rooted rom or a custom, custom recovery and rooting tool for almost 2 months, requested so many times all around this site, but unfortunately didn't get any respons (really frustated). I just badly need to root my device but I'm just a noob on modding and tweaking with Roms. I got my stock rom from Service Center, when I bricked my phone flashing a custom recovery. Later I tried all the method found all over the website but non of them are working only misleading. Bricked my phone several times but luckily I managed to reflash the stock rom by sp flash tool. Please keep this good work up and help us root our devices without any hassle. You are doing a really great work so keep it up bro!
Here is the link of my stock firmware with sn write tool if you need it for anything bro.
Best regards
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BywTv6KKZO4jX3BMMGRGVUFRa28
http://www.mediafire.com/download/7...N_Writer_tool_exe_v1.0_1604.00_All_In_One.rar
http://www.mediafire.com/download/pa2f3wqpf24t0db/Helio_S20_flashtool.zip
thanks in advance
Hey guys, thanks a lot for all your info and everything you posted Could you be so kind to describe how did you root your Pure XR devices??? Big hug from Cuba
I'm going to guess something with KingRoot. This is a rebranded Gionee S8, so China is already no stranger to this phone.
Not surprised about AT&T performance considering I've never seen an unlocked phone support so few LTE bands (2, 4, 7). Ridiculous. It supports less than half of all the LTE bands AT&T uses. Unless your area uses primarily band 2 or 4 you're screwed if you're on AT&T. Even worse if you're on T-Mobile. It only supports ONE band on T-Mobile. Does Blu even realize it's 2016?
bailsafe said:
I'm going to guess something with KingRoot. This is a rebranded Gionee S8, so China is already no stranger to this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried every rooting tool, including KingRoot, none worked. There's an OTA update for the stock firmware, but I wont be able to install it until after I un-root. I probably retrace the steps I did the first time: backup all my apps, flash the stock firmware, do the OTA, then save/edit it to have root, then flash the result. The phone works so good right now that I'd hate to mess it up.
Tikerz said:
Not surprised about AT&T performance considering I've never seen an unlocked phone support so few LTE bands (2, 4, 7). Ridiculous. It supports less than half of all the LTE bands AT&T uses. Unless your area uses primarily band 2 or 4 you're screwed if you're on AT&T. Even worse if you're on T-Mobile. It only supports ONE band on T-Mobile. Does Blu even realize it's 2016?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was a Gionee S8 originally, which only supported FDD-LTE bands not in use in the USA. It's a miracle they got FDD-LTE in here at all, I guess, but if you're gonna sell in the US market... they really need more bands.
Rotohammer said:
I tried every rooting tool, including KingRoot, none worked. There's an OTA update for the stock firmware, but I wont be able to install it until after I un-root. I probably retrace the steps I did the first time: backup all my apps, flash the stock firmware, do the OTA, then save/edit it to have root, then flash the result. The phone works so good right now that I'd hate to mess it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's probably your best bet. I'm surprised KingRoot wouldn't work, even on the newer updates...
hey I was wondering for some reason my blu pure xr does not receive notifications at all except for certain apps and it keeps on disconnecting from messenger and such is there any remedy for this?
orlandotisk said:
hey I was wondering for some reason my blu pure xr does not receive notifications at all except for certain apps and it keeps on disconnecting from messenger and such is there any remedy for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Press left button to bring up the running apps list, long press the button with 3 rectangles in it, then press "Clean white list". Here, you press"Add into white list" and choose "messenger" and any other apps you don't want "auto cleaned".
For example, my white list includes Alarm Klock, K-9 mail, CSipSimple, Silence (all apps that I want running all the time)
rotohammer said:
I got mine from Amazon yesterday, I already bricked it a few hours ago by messing with the recovery. It should be an easy fix once I get hold of the stock firmware. I got another one coming tomorrow, so I'll focus on just extracting the rom from that one
Bricking aside, I got 20/10mbs down/up on speedtest using my T-mobile US SIM, and the signal indicator showed LTE. Forcing it off LTE I got 10/5mbs down/up.
Battery life is awesome, I used it constantly for 8hrs and only got down to 50%, my note4 would have been dead after that much use with the screen on. The overall feel of Android 6.0 was smooth, no stuttering. There is no bloatware, just a few utilities for fancy wallpapers.
The phone charges faster than any other phone I have. The included TPE case doesnt increase the thickness of the phone too much and I like that It keeps the camera lens off the desk when I set the phone down.
Dual SIM functionality works nice. It was one of the main features I was looking for, though I will miss T-Mobile wifi calling.
Some notes:
I used adb & fastboot in my attempts to root. After running
Code:
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot reboot
the display now showed
Code:
Orange state
Your device has been unlocked and can't be trusted
Your device will reboot in 5 seconds
So it appears that it is best to oem relock it when you're done updating, as the message goes away if you relock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey bro how are you? How's family? I hope that everything is well for you and yours. Basically I just wanted to say thanks for sharing such great info. And I'm really glad that there's someone who's onto something like einstein. I just hope that you can figure out a way to get root with your own custom build of twrp recovery using chainfire's supersu to work with this smartphone. Cos that'll be super-awesome right? But I'm just a noob so all I can do is just wish you the best of luck. So best of luck until you crack the code. And I have complete faith in you. You will achieve it I know that for sure. Wish you and yours all the best. And thanks again in advance. Peace!
Does anybody succeed rooting ?
Please share the method!!
so no one knows how to root?
rotohammer was able to achieve root and said he would get back to us with the method on how it was done, but he hasn't posted it yet...
Hello Everyone,
Right, I'm just going to give a quick intro to the situation TLDR below.
So I've been on android for a long time, ever since I got rid of my Nokia brick but my girlfriend has been apple since her first phone, so of course, I've been singing androids praises to her about the battery life, rooting and other such android brilliance, then a few months back she said fine but she had a few features she wanted mainly a big screen, removable battery, fingerprint scanner, and a good camera so after looking at loads of phones we settled on the lgv20, and then my headaches with the phone started.
TLDRGot my girlfriend who has been on apple her whole life onto android, didn't work out so great and now I'm looking for some help.
So the current state of the phone is
it's a H910 that was updated to oreo with a H920 kdx then dirtysanterd, then flashed with a rootable oreo rom and rooted with magisk manager, forgive me if I missed anything I did all this a while ago so it's not fresh in my mind and I'm pretty tired right now so il probable edit this later.
But the issues are weird and unlike anything, I have dealt with before so call on the knowledge of any LG v20 gurus for help, the first problem was present out of the box but did seem to get worse after all the flashing and rooting ect, the phone will turn off seemingly at random and won't turn back on until plugged in, and it will also do this if you try to take a photo with flash but not if you use the flash as a torch.
Now the second issue is due to being in the UK and the LG v20 being a US phone and was the reason I started messing with ROMs and rooting, the signal is terrible, I did check to see if this would be an issue before getting the phone and it seemed to be fine for others, but after having this issue and looking a bit deeper I have seen some people having the same issue with signal and having success flashing a modified modem, but I'm worried that it might not work and may make the signal worse, but if anyone has had success getting signal in the UK please let me know how.
Finally, there are just a few annoying things like some pretty heavy slowdown at times and some general glitchiness with apps freezing and crashing, so if there are any good ways to make the phone a bit more optimized and stable while keeping root that would be nice.
Thanks to anyone who reads this, and thank you to anyone who takes the time to share any knowledge and ideas
A lot of stuff there.
Flash issue sounds like a hardware problem but it could be software gone wrong.
Same for signal problem.
I would flash back stock Nougat *US996 KDZ (usa version) to see if the problems go away. Do not root and trial it for a few days.
This will also change the modem which might help signal issue. There is guide to cross flashing variants on this forum and youtube. Search *LGUP patched V20*.
So try this first is my advise.
*is best clean stock rom without network restrictions or bloat