Database Users

[Q] Clarification Needed

Hey guys. GOt my AT&T s4 here. first one i got couple weeks ago got the MK2 OTA and downloaded just fine, never got TWRP thru GooManager or CWM thru ROM Manager to work n install a recovery. SafeStrap is the only thing i had gotten working. Phone ended up getting wet, switched the board inside with that from a slightly older s4. this one came with the MDL firmware. However this time TWRP thru GooManager worked. So i installed couple other recoveries that wouldnt work before, one with Auto-Loki feature and the other was SafeStrap. With SafeStrap i installed two versions of CM11, none of which got beyond a black screen. Also i have little to no signal since dealing with MDL. Tried to update to MK2, but this time i get a reboot 2 my custom recovery followed by Status 7 error. I am interested in trying out a CM11 ROM, as well as maybe one or two TouchWiz ROMS. Mainly CM, really love the Torch app. What do i need 2 do in general to accomplish this? Ive got ODIN, pretty sufficient experience rooting and modding phones,so not a completely dummy here. Was wondering if i maybe needed to flash a kernel to get those CM ROMS working. any guidance is extremely appreciated.

You were trying to use SS. If you would read, you would know that only 4.2.2 TW and GPE ROMs work with SS unless you have the latest SS, but then again no AOSP, AOSP, CM or MIUI will work. Since the new board is able to have a custom recovery because it is pre MF3, use that to flash those types of ROMs .the error 7 is because you tried to OTA update with a custom recovery. Can't do it.
You say you are not a noob, but I disagree. Every concern you have mentioned is on the first page of both the QA section and general section. Read before you brick.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I'm thinking about switching to the vzw g2...Major questions first!

I've been reading these forums for two days now and I'm just add confused as when I started. If I get a new device that comes with the current 12b update, I see root is available, but very Unclear about recovery - all the threads op's are vague and misleading. Any clarification would be appreciated. 2nd: of the plethora of roms available, is it true that the rom itself must be updated for the 12b firmware? That's the jist I'm getting, and how on earth do you know if they have been? It's all very confusing and Unclear. I'm coming from the beautiful unlocked bootloader if the vzw galaxy s3 and our important threads are grouped into guides and updated regularly. Understanding the basics is easy with the s3, but I'm truly questioning if I want the g2 now (I'm a flashaholic) - so confused!
Any detailed help would be awesome..
Sent from my LG-V500 using Tapatalk

you might have some problems with 12b and installing recovery root your phone install an app called freegee and select twrp or cwm i like twrp but i think both work i had one problem when i backed up stock rom stock freaked out and asked for a decrptyion code reboot fixed that so some have reported problems one thing if your going to root install a custom rom because if lg pushes the ota to your device if its rooted it will brick it cm11 is a little unstable but if you can look past some bugs its a great experience
I DO NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY if you brick your device ROOTING or modding your device has risk
oh and have fun with cyanogenmod

Personal Experience
Just got a replacement 12B G2, this is what I've noticed:
-Installing root/recovery is still fairly simple on 12B.
-No problems with flashing roms either (tested both TWRP and Philz Touch).
-But KERNELS will throw you a curve ball. 12B requires a separate loki patch from the older builds. PAEK refused to flash in both recoveries (assert failed: run_program("/tmp/loki.sh ==0) until I found a user-patched workaround kernel. After that it flashed fine, but it required some digging.
Right now AOSP is nowhere near 100 percent stable on the VZW G2 and probably won't be until LG gets their act together. Just something to consider. Best of luck!

I hope lg gets there act together cm11 is unstable but I can use it as mY daily driver no problem maybe with a kitkat update it will be more stable
Sent from my LG-VS980 using Tapatalk

Questions about Kit Kat update T-Mobile.

What's going on world. I've recently found out that the T-Mobile G2 has kit kat ROM floating around and I was just wondering if anyone has flashed it and what their thoughts about it are? Also I've read that after flashing the ROM you lose custom recovery which in turn would leave one stuck with that particular ROM until one is created.. I guess I'm just asking if anyone believes a custom recovery would be up any time soon?
Sent from my LG-D801

DurbanPoison24 said:
What's going on world. I've recently found out that the T-Mobile G2 has kit kat ROM floating around and I was just wondering if anyone has flashed it and what their thoughts about it are? Also I've read that after flashing the ROM you lose custom recovery which in turn would leave one stuck with that particular ROM until one is created.. I guess I'm just asking if anyone believes a custom recovery would be up any time soon?
Sent from my LG-D801
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read the general G2 section.. There is a long thread about this.
Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

I just received my D801 back from LG repair after dead spots and phantom inputs on my device. LG replaced the touchscreen under warranty. Now the phone is smooth and very responsive, like it should be.
Since I had restored phone to the 10g firmware and unrooted before sending it in, I decided to flash the 20a KK update. Of course I lost root access and custom recovery, but I can live with that awhile I evaluate performance, which is, so far, better than 4.2 JB. T-Mo will eventually push the OTA update, which requires stock recovery. I figured I'd do it manually by flashing the .kdz file, which BTW does NOT wipe data. Despite large size (1.5 GB), file flashes quickly using LG Flash tool.
Maybe I'm just very happy to have my G2 back and working properly, but I like the KK update, although I hope a root exploit is found soon and we get a new custom recovery. That's why I donate to devs!
Don't know if that helps. Give KK a try, you'll like it!

[Q] Phone refuses to boot with a rom

Hi, I've been trying to install a custom rom (at this point ANY custom rom) on my friend's phone. I have worked on several phones before, including my own sprint GS3, but this is my first time trying to work around a locked bootloader, and BOY is it a pain, haha. I'm no dev, but I would like to think that I'm pretty competent.
First a few things to note, are that the phone is currently on NI1 (Been too much of a sissy to go to NJ4 in case it screws something up, I don't even know why), it is the 16Gb version, I am using an external sd card to flash everything, and yes I am flashing loki-doki after everything.
So what I've done so far is:
- Try to install TWRP
- Find out that won't work and finally figure out I need safestrap
- Successfully install safestrap after using towelroot by ODIN-ing the NC1 kernel then going back to the NI1 kernel
- Try to flash Resurrection Remix and KToonsez kernel using a new rom-slot, and wind up soft-bricking (stuck on bootloader screen, can get to download mode)
- ODIN NB1 tar then ODIN NI1 update
- Repeat the last few steps several times because I'm too idiotic to realize that it JUST ISN'T GOING TO WORK!
- Finally find a reference to flashing the ATT kernel modules after the rom. That got me past the soft brick and safestrap screen, but I don't even see a boot animation
As of right now my sequence to successfully not soft-bricking (what an accomplishment) is to flash the rom>gapps>ATT kernel module>supersu>loki-doki>wipe dalvik/cache
Now, is it worth it having already spend a good 7 hours, just to get a custom rom? Of course not, it's not my phone and my friend isn't picky. He'd be just fine with rooted TW. However, It kills me that I don't know what's going on, so here I am lol.
TL;DR: Phone has safestrap, is rooted, but any time I flash a rom it gets past the boot loader/safestrap screen and never shows a boot animation, or anything past that. Can anyone help figure out what's going on please?
Thanks in advance.

You can only flash touch wiz based roms with safestrap and you can't flash kernels with safestrap. That's been your problem with soft bricking.
Edit, see this for roms you can flash http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=53758227
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2616221

Thanks guys. I thought I read through the whole thread, but there is so much information, it's pretty scattered, I must have missed the thing about only TW roms working.
Now a few more questions:
1) Is it worth updating to NJ4? The phone is new and doesn't have any app data or anything that would be missed by updating. I see quite a few roms in 4.4.4, but it looks like most of them are AOSP based, which leads me to my next question...
2) Is there a way to get AOSP roms to work? I see all of these AOSP based roms, obviously for this phone, but it would be pointless to make them if they don't work.

Masterjuggler said:
Thanks guys. I thought I read through the whole thread, but there is so much information, it's pretty scattered, I must have missed the thing about only TW roms working.
Now a few more questions:
1) Is it worth updating to NJ4? The phone is new and doesn't have any app data or anything that would be missed by updating. I see quite a few roms in 4.4.4, but it looks like most of them are AOSP based, which leads me to my next question...
2) Is there a way to get AOSP roms to work? I see all of these AOSP based roms, obviously for this phone, but it would be pointless to make them if they don't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wouldn't hurt to update to nj4. But it's not going to help you either. Only phones on mdb or mdl bootloader can flash non touch wiz based roms using loki. And you can't go back to those bootloaders
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

Alright then. Hyperdrive looks pretty good, I'll try that along with Ktoonsez kernel. I'll report back later to let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

Masterjuggler said:
Alright then. Hyperdrive looks pretty good, I'll try that along with Ktoonsez kernel. I'll report back later to let you know how it goes. Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, you can't flash a kernel in safestrap
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

Oh, I get it now. That didn't quite register before. So just to confirm, after I flash the rom (which already has its own custom kernel included), I still need to flash the stock ATT kernel, correct?

Flash the rom, super su, and the att module for your base. Hyperdrive is a very good rom, good luck. Also the rom doesn't include a kernel, your original kernel stays put. That's why only tw roms work, because your new rom has to be compatible with the kernel already on your phone.

Just reporting in, I now have the phone up and running using Hyperdrive Rom. Thanks for the help!
I actually had a problem where it would not shut down correctly, but found out it was because I was installing the rom in a rom-slot in safestrap. As soon as I tried the stock rom slot, it worked flawlessly.

[Q]Want GPE, but can't get custom recovery - Help please! :(

Hey guys... Before I get into this, I would like to say that i'm very new to this whole rooting thing, so please forgive me for my lack of knowledge on various terms and such, and I'm a first time user here at xda.
What's written below might get a little bit complicated so i will try to make it as detailed as possible. Please bare with me here.
So I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 sgh-i337 (AT&T) running on android 4.4.4 (with touchwiz, you guys know the deal). I really wanted stock android lollipop, because I really like the look and feel to it. When I decided to root the phone, I went through many tutorials and I tried many different methods, and none of them worked. The phone still worked fine, but SuperSU was not installed and Root Checker said the phone was not rooted. After scouring the internet, I found one tutorial that had my S4 type and the same version. At that point I realized that my android version was hindering my rooting process. The tutorial used Odin to flash a kernel (NC1), root the phone using towelroot, install SuperSU, (Root Checker too to check if it worked), and then flashing the original kernel again (my original kernel was NJ4). After following this process, my phone was rooted, and everything worked fine.
As I said before, I wanted a GPE ROM, and so I needed a custom recovery. I decided to install CWM, since most GPE ROMs used this specific recovery. Again, I followed many different tutorials, and after each and every one, I would try to go into Recovery mode, and it would just launch the stock recovery. I found another tutorial on another website that involved flashing the recovery from an app in the google play store, so I decided to try it out. I now regret this as it led to more problems. I followed these instructions, and when launching into recovery mode from that point on, I get the yellow triangle with the error message "System software is not authorized by AT&T"
Sure, I could get around it by going into download mode from there, canceling, and it would reboot like normal, and the phone still worked, but I needed to get ride of that error message.
Once again doing my research, I figured out that if I flash a stock firmware specific to my phone, it will reset the phone (the only stock firmware available has android version 4.2.2, which is a really popular version, and is compatible with most custom recoveries and ROMs, so I decided to flash the firmware, as it would also change the version back, right?) When I flashed it using Odin like the directions said, it failed. i then figured out that it failed because my binary counter is not 0. I looked into resetting the binary counter for the AT&T S4, and I found Triangle Away. However, in order to reset your binary counter, you need an unlocked bootloader, and the AT&T S4 (sgh-i337) has a locked bootloader (I don't want to use Triangle Away if it's going to brick my phone, i'd rather unroot and keep touchwiz than brick). In the process of finding this out, I also figured out that the only custom recovery that you could use on a locked bootloader S4 sgh-i337 is SafeStrap. But i heard when using SafeStrap you are limited as far as ROMs go? Would I be able to get a GPE 5.0 Lollipop ROM with SafeStrap? Cause if not I might just unroot using SuperSU and software update my phone (will that fix the error when trying to get to Recovery mode?) Also, if I install Safestrap, will it fix the error message?
Again, sorry for my inexperience in all of this, and thanks for staying with me here. Any help and additional information on what I should do (or any GPE Lollipop ROMs I should use that are compatible with my phone and version and such), as well as any links to tutorials are greatly appreciated (also, keep in mind that all of the vocab I know when rooting is used in this post, I am not aware of most other terms - again, forgive me).

You wrote a lot but I'm not sure what state your device is in right now and what you want to do. But as you've found out, safestrap is the only custom recovery you can use. And touch wiz based roms are the only ones you can use. Afaik there are no 5.0 custom roms you can use at this time.
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

jd1639 said:
You wrote a lot but I'm not sure what state your device is in right now and what you want to do. But as you've found out, safestrap is the only custom recovery you can use. And touch wiz based roms are the only ones you can use. Afaik there are no 5.0 custom roms you can use at this time.
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, thanks for the help! The phone currently works fine, and it is rooted, but when I go into Recovery Mode it gives me the yellow triangle with the error... Will installing SafeStrap fix that? Regardless, thanks for the help, really do appreciate it!

jd1639 said:
You wrote a lot but I'm not sure what state your device is in right now and what you want to do. But as you've found out, safestrap is the only custom recovery you can use. And touch wiz based roms are the only ones you can use. Afaik there are no 5.0 custom roms you can use at this time.
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, if i were to update the phone to the next version (i heard there is a way to bump the S4 up in android version) would that reset the error in Recovery Mode? And I also heard that with SafeStrap, you are limited to ROMs on the same android version as the one on your phone? I really like 5.0, but if it's not possible to get it as the moment (and I haven't found any 5.0 ROMs for the sgh-i337 yet - you were right) i might just unroot using SuperSU and just update my version, unrooted and all. I'd rather have my phone be nice and clean than to have root on it with a corrupted recovery mode, and not make use of the root at all (I've seen other ROMs and I prefer 5.0). I might just try to make the phone feel as close to stock as possible by using more google apps and such (keyboard, messages, etc.). Regardless, thanks for the help and additional input, really do appreciate it!

EvilLemon said:
Also, if i were to update the phone to the next version (i heard there is a way to bump the S4 up in android version) would that reset the error in Recovery Mode? And I also heard that with SafeStrap, you are limited to ROMs on the same android version as the one on your phone? I really like 5.0, but if it's not possible to get it as the moment (and I haven't found any 5.0 ROMs for the sgh-i337 yet - you were right) i might just unroot using SuperSU and just update my version, unrooted and all. I'd rather have my phone be nice and clean than to have root on it with a corrupted recovery mode, and not make use of the root at all (I've seen other ROMs and I prefer 5.0). I might just try to make the phone feel as close to stock as possible by using more google apps and such (keyboard, messages, etc.). Regardless, thanks for the help and additional input, really do appreciate it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would recommend you flash the nb1 tar file in Odin. That'll bring your device to like new. Then you can let it ota nj4. There are root methods for nc1 and nj4. See this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=56453100
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

jd1639 said:
I would recommend you flash the nb1 tar file in Odin. That'll bring your device to like new. Then you can let it ota nj4. There are root methods for nc1 and nj4. See this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=56453100
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much! I followed the instructions and now my phone is back to normal, Recovery mode and all! Really do appreciate it, thanks!

EvilLemon said:
Thanks so much! I followed the instructions and now my phone is back to normal, Recovery mode and all! Really do appreciate it, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. I'm glad you got it working again
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app