Database Users

[Q] "Easiest" S4 to flash new ROMs?

I've been lurking around the forums for about a week now and thanks to the folks who contribute, I've been able to root, carrier unlock (tested to work with AT&T and Tmo), and side load a few ROMs on my I337 without bricking or even tripping KNOX. So again, thanks to all who contributed to those tutorials!
Unfortunately, the phone I bought came with MK2 pre-installed and since I'm a noob I wasn't aware of the limitations of this version until after reading these forums. You guys have saved me from bricking my phone though!
So my question... Do any of the other US variants of the S4 (aside from the I9505G) have similarly locked down bootloaders like the I337 (assuming latest OTA has been applied)? I'm gathering from various posts that AT&T was the only carrier implementing such nonsense. I'm asking because it seems like other models (M919, I545, and L720) sell for less on eBay and I'm considering selling my pristine I337 for another model. I want to make sure I don't end up with similar restrictions if I make such a move.
Secondly, can either the L720 or the I545 be unlocked to work with Tmo and AT&T in the US? I assume they all have the same radios, maybe just a firmware lock on frequencies?

The locked down bootloader should be only AT&T and Verizon.
The I545 should work on Tmobile and AT&T. . The L720 will not work on Tmobile or AT&T due to it being CDMA.

If you're liking for something you can rom and root easily and isn't carrier locked consider the nexus 5. I love it no carrier bloat and no gimmicky stuff you'll only use once.
Sent from my Nexus 5

I strongly agree with "jd1639"
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Kaze105 said:
The locked down bootloader should be only AT&T and Verizon.
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Good to know. Thanks!
Kaze105 said:
The I545 should work on Tmobile and AT&T. . The L720 will not work on Tmobile or AT&T due to it being CDMA.
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I understand that Verizon and Sprint use CDMA, Tmo and AT&T use GSM. But phone wise, don't all four US carrier S4 variants contain the same radios? Did Samsung actually yank CDMA radios from the GSM variants and vice versa? just looking for clarification.
Let me ask another way... if you guys were to recommend an S4 for US GSM networks that could be "easily" ROM'd/root'd at will, which would you suggest?
I've considered the Nexus 5 very heavily, but I prefer the hard buttons on the S4 because they seem to leave a bit more screen real estate than the soft buttons on the N5. I'm somewhat trying for an N5 like experience on the S4. Yeah, I want to have my cake and eat it too.

Rickerdo said:
Good to know. Thanks!
I understand that Verizon and Sprint use CDMA, Tmo and AT&T use GSM. But phone wise, don't all four US carrier S4 variants contain the same radios? Did Samsung actually yank CDMA radios from the GSM variants and vice versa? just looking for clarification.
Let me ask another way... if you guys were to recommend an S4 for US GSM networks that could be "easily" ROM'd/root'd at will, which would you suggest?
I've considered the Nexus 5 very heavily, but I prefer the hard buttons on the S4 because they seem to leave a bit more screen real estate than the soft buttons on the N5. I'm somewhat trying for an N5 like experience on the S4. Yeah, I want to have my cake and eat it too.
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For a bit more cash they have the Google Play Edition S4 from the play store as well at $649.00
None Touchwiz OS
https://play.google.com/store/devic...oogle_Play_edition?id=samsung_galaxy_s4&hl=en
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

jball said:
For a bit more cash they have the Google Play Edition S4 from the play store as well at $649.00
None Touchwiz OS
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
I think I left out the most important part... I'm cheap, er um, I mean very frugal. My like new I337 from ebay only cost me $370, so I'm looking to replace it with something around the same price that's more "hackable". This is why the Nexus 5 looked so appealing directly from the Play store. but, again, the screen on the N5 gets robbed a bit by the soft keys.
So, I guess I'm looking at an M919 (Tmo variant) as the best bang for the buck in terms of hacking friendly S4's. Is that the general consensus?

Honestly the keys aren't that bad once you have your hands on the Nexus 5 .the lack of a menu/settings button is a bit odd but the phone makes up for it in stock smoothness
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Q]

Ok,... a NOOB question.. (ok.. three questions) (and yes, I have looked around, and I did not see answers to my question… or i was too dim to understand it….. :/ )
Question 1)
I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile. my Note 3 is is unlocked, and rooted.
This is probably a silly question, but When I look at “ROMS” and “MODS” for my phone, should I be looking for an “AT&T “ phone? or a T-MOBILE” ?? is there any actual HARDWARE difference?
I have a SM-N900A (branded AT&T) … does that mean I can not use ROMS that are for the T-Mobile note 3s? or do I have to only use ROMS that are for the AT&T note 3?
Should I just sell my AT&T note 3, and buy a T-Mobile Note 3 ??
I would like to get rid of the AT&T bloatware… especially since I am no longer on their network.
I am not trying to go over the top with my phone, and I would like to be able keep the s-pen features (but I have to admit, I still need to LEARN how to use it better!)
Question 2)
I just tried to use my hotspot on my Note3, and I am gettingan "invalad sim" error...
I am guessing that I do nto have enough of the AT&T stuff out of it?
Question 3)
Another “feature” that I would like, (maybe a second question/thread?) if about tethering.. I have unlimited data on my phone, but as I understand it, they will only allow 2gigs as a hotspot. I think I read somewhere that some ROMS combine the two…
Thank you for any advice…
Danny

Okay, I can help you with a few of your questions...
Q1. Since your phone (the service provider doesn't matter, the hardware does) is ATT, you will need to get your Roms and such from the ATT area.
ATT, in all their ridiculous glory, locked the bootloader on our phones, and thus we have to SafeStrap in order to use roms.
It's a little wonky, but it's almost as good. Our development is growing and more roms are getting ported over every day.
But if you want more control over your device and can afford it, I would personally recommend to switch to a TMo device.
As for removing bloatware, most of the roms are pre slimmed, and you can fix the rest by freezing apps with TiBu. And you can still do that without losing the TouchWiz and SPen functions.
Q2. The Invalid sim issue is likely because you have a TMo sim card in ATT software. There's a Tether Provisioning app that can be frozen to prevent that.
Q3. I'm not too sure how TMo handles it's Tethering monitoring. You'll have to ask that in the TMo note forum.
I hope I could help you at all. =D
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app

Ryo Misaki said:
Okay, I can help you with a few of your questions...
Q1. Since your phone (the service provider doesn't matter, the hardware does) is ATT, you will need to get your Roms and such from the ATT area.
ATT, in all their ridiculous glory, locked the bootloader on our phones, and thus we have to SafeStrap in order to use roms.
It's a little wonky, but it's almost as good. Our development is growing and more roms are getting ported over every day.
But if you want more control over your device and can afford it, I would personally recommend to switch to a TMo device.
As for removing bloatware, most of the roms are pre slimmed, and you can fix the rest by freezing apps with TiBu. And you can still do that without losing the TouchWiz and SPen functions.
Q2. The Invalid sim issue is likely because you have a TMo sim card in ATT software. There's a Tether Provisioning app that can be frozen to prevent that.
Q3. I'm not too sure how TMo handles it's Tethering monitoring. You'll have to ask that in the TMo note forum.
I hope I could help you at all. =D
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Thank you for the help!!
I have decided to buy myself a T-Mobile Note 3, and sell my AT&T version...
I had rooted my (using Kingo) about a month ago, to fix the GPS driver problem... But that was ALL I did, after rooting it... and I think this week, AT&T sent out an update (mandatory... cause I never saw it!)... which not only broke my "root" ... but broke my GPS again as well.
So now I say good bye to my brand new, with the EXTRA insuarance plan from Best Buy phone, and start looking for a used Note 3 that is not bootloader locked
AVOID AT&T
D

[Q] Installing a stock rom on a verizon UNLOCKED s5

Hi everyone!
So during my trip in the US, I decided to buy a brand new Galaxy S5. I was going to use it outside US so I wanted an unlocked version (since they don't sell international versions in us)
So I got a verizon version of the S5.
Model: SM-G900V
The problem
The problem is that i am getting notifications like. Non Verizon sim inserted. Loads of verizon bloatware. and I cant use my mobile hotspot. Similar to this
I absolutely hate this. I paid $800 for this phone and I'm bombarded with verizon's nonsense and restricted for no reason
My question
The question is, can I install a stock rom on my S5? more specifically can I flash the SM-G900f ?? So that I can get rid of this custom verizon software.

vidhu1911 said:
The question is, can I install a stock rom on my S5? more specifically can I flash the SM-G900f ?? So that I can get rid of this custom verizon software.
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Well it's complicated and you have some reading to do if you really want to understand your options. But broadly speaking, the answer is yes. Since you were (or are?) planning to use the phone elsewhere, you'd have been happier had you bought a different S5 variant e.g. a TMobile S5 rather than the Verizon one because you would find it a lot less restrictive, give you more choices and options. And even access to a larger palette of frequency bands should you end up roaming somewhere that uses unusual frequency bands.
Note that there is a dedicated Verizon S5 forum here where you'll find most of what you are looking for. What you are thinking of as a stock ROM would be more accurately called a custom ROM. A stock ROM is.. well what you currently have, with all of the included carrier /Verizon applications that are annoying you. You'll probably want to root your phone and flash a custom ROM to get rid of a lot of superfluous Verizon stuff. That may have warranty implications and you should do some reading about warranty and locked bootloaders (something extra nice that Verizon and ATT do to make it harder to flash your phone).
.

Non-ATT phone works as ATT I337 with custom ROM?

Hi folks,
Sorry for the somewhat cryptic title. My question is simple:
Can I just buy a non-ATT/Verizon S4 without locked bootloader, ROM it up with any ROM I like without having to stick to safestrap-compatible ones, then apply the I337 build.prop APN flash, and have it work on ATT and identify itself to the Google Play store as an I337?
The reason I ask is I'm getting tired of the limitations on my I337 for use with various ROMs, and it might be worth it for me to buy an unlocked variant of the S4 on Swappa, then sell mine off. Sure, it would cost a few bucks, but then I could play with any ROM I want.
I just want to make sure that I'll be able to download the specific Apps I use from ATT etc. that seem to require the I337 model...
Am I missing anything?
Marc

I haven't even researched that. But, Verizon is CDMA. Maybe an unlocked TMobile phone would work. I know you can run their roms on att S4.

Right. I was looking at a T-Mobile device most likely, or an international unlocked version.
I understand the challenges working with Verizon devices... I just returned to ATT from Verizon and had to give up my RAZR MAXX HD due to poor compatibility between the networks.
But, if I understand correctly, I can get a T-Mobile or pretty much any other carrier phone with bootloader unlocked (other than Verizon, which wouldn't be unlocked and is CDMA-specific), and it should work on ATT once the APN info is entered. I'm just looking for explicit confirmation it works, and that the phone can pretend to be an I337 so my software will install properly...
Thanks all!
Marc

not sure on specifics as i haven't tried. i know some here have and will reply--:good:

Frankenscript said:
Hi folks,
Sorry for the somewhat cryptic title. My question is simple:
Can I just buy a non-ATT/Verizon S4 without locked bootloader, ROM it up with any ROM I like without having to stick to safestrap-compatible ones, then apply the I337 build.prop APN flash, and have it work on ATT and identify itself to the Google Play store as an I337?
The reason I ask is I'm getting tired of the limitations on my I337 for use with various ROMs, and it might be worth it for me to buy an unlocked variant of the S4 on Swappa, then sell mine off. Sure, it would cost a few bucks, but then I could play with any ROM I want.
I just want to make sure that I'll be able to download the specific Apps I use from ATT etc. that seem to require the I337 model...
Am I missing anything?
Marc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The rom of 337 might work on other variants; however, if you ever want to flash an rom, the pure samsung rom of I9505 might be a better choice; And also, if you buy a non-att variant s4, you might loose 4G data connection, even 3G, because they are simply not compatible with att network (hardware limitation), so please be careful before you make the buy; The other question, by now, I couldn't find a way to 'cheat' google play to identify a phone to att i337. If you really like those apps from att, you can always download them from other app sources other from google play.
Godd luck!

wzhao14 said:
The rom of 337 might work on other variants; however, if you ever want to flash an rom, the pure samsung rom of I9505 might be a better choice; And also, if you buy a non-att variant s4, you might loose 4G data connection, even 3G, because they are simply not compatible with att network (hardware limitation), so please be careful before you make the buy; The other question, by now, I couldn't find a way to 'cheat' google play to identify a phone to att i337. If you really like those apps from att, you can always download them from other app sources other from google play.
Godd luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Wzhao.
My intent would be to be able to flash non-Samsung ROMS (like AOSP etc.), non-touchwiz ROMs.
And definitely I would have to buy a phone with ATT-style hardware in terms of antennas/frequency. I believe the T-Mobile ones meet this requirement but it's unclear whether I would need to get the phone SIM-unlocked to use it on ATT.
As for identifying a phone as the ATT I337: My experience using Hyperdrive (briefly) was that it identified the phone as a Verizon phone... Google play wouldn't let me install apps that were ATT specific. I believe that flashing the ATT build.prop settings fix this, but doing so messed up Hyperdrive because it interfered with the Hyperdrive Tweaks utility. There are several build.prop settings that identify the phone... the simplest of them SHG-I337 in some particular location isn't enough, but there's a hidden identifier and several others that can be set.
If you are interested in testing it, you can flash the ATT build.prop found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=51112381&postcount=9
which links to here: http://d-h.st/6tN
I believe it sets all the right things, because flashing it over GoldenEye makes the phone recognized by Google Play for ATT apps. I'd be interested to hear experiences of someone using a T-Mobile or other variant S4, and if it works as well on that hardware...
Marc

Root Possible on Verizon 5.0.1??

I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 on Verizon (SCH-i545) running Android 5.0.1. I cannot find a way to root after searching and searching threads and online! Please help!! Would love to root this phone.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Did you look in the Verizon S4 forums? That is where you want to go for answers to your questions, as this is the international S4 forum, and we don't have a locked bootloader to prevent root.

Looked there, but didn't find anything. Maybe will post this there, thanks for your help. Can you explain locked bootloader or send me a link of a thread that does? I don't understand the difference of the international.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Actually I see that someone moved this thread to this category... I posted it elsewhere, what should I do? Noob, sorry!
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Go back to your opening post and report it to the mods. In the text box that appears simply tell them it needs to be moved to the Galaxy S4 Verizon forums. They'll take care of it.
With a locked (i.e. encrypted) bootloader, rooting cannot be performed and custom ROMs cannot be installed. AT&T and Verizon are the largest of the carriers that do this, and they claim to do this in order to ensure consistent performance of the device on their networks. The reality is that they simply don't want you getting rid of their bloatware or working around their other restrictions by rooting and installing custom ROMs. International devices don't come with locked bootloaders, and customization is easy. However, an international phone in the US doesn't get LTE due to the international device not supporting the frequencies used in the United States.
In the US, if LTE is important, a T-Mobile device is the best option even though the device never received an upgrade to Android 5.x. But if you take it abroad, LTE will not function due to it not supporting international LTE frequencies. To the best of my knowledge, phones that support both sets of frequencies have yet to be released.

Thanks for your helpful reply! So... My provider is Verizon, if I get a "T-mobile phone" will it still work on Verizon's network and he rootable? There is some difference in Verizon and AT&T I know because Verizon and Sprint are CDMA and AT&T and others are GSM networks right? I'm not sure what all those mean, but I didn't think they were interchangeable. I thought T-mobile was GSM, but maybe I'm wrong...
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

You'd have to leave Verizon if you want a phone you can modify. Verizon and Sprint are CDMA networks, while AT&T and T-Mobile are GSM networks. GSM is the global standard. A CDMA device won't work on a GSM network and vice versa.