How to root and unlock without a computer? - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a bunch of issues with my beloved Nexus 4:
1. It cannot connect to any computer: neither mac nor pc. I tried many solutions and drivers (for pc), and it looks like the issue is on the hardware side. Fastboot doesn't recognize device as well.
Old Galaxy Nexus is recognized by both pc and mac.
2. I have the issue similar to this one: http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4/help/section-touch-screen-t2232903/page8 I.e there is a horizontal strip in the middle of screen that is unresponsive. As well as the bottom navigation bar. In addition, there are random erratic taps that drive me crazy
I know the best solution is either to replace the digitizer or buy a new phone =) However, I found a solution that can help me: http://status301.net/how-to-fix-nexus-4-unresponsive-soft-navigation-menu-buttons/ and would like to try it first giving a last chance to the phone.
So I need to root and unlock phone first, but without connecting to a computer. How can I do this? I tried some apps like framaroot, kingo root, towelroot, but none is working.
The stock lollipop 5.1.1 LMY48I is installed without previous rooting and unlocking.
Please help! XDA community is my only hope =(

I don't think there is an exploit that'll work on 5.1.1 so you're out of luck. I don't see a software fix to a hardware issue being effective either. Sounds like there's at least two hardware faults with your phone, I'd sort them out if you plan on keeping it.

Related

[Q] SOLVED Possibly brick, need help!

I was in the process of taking my Nexus 7 back to stock yesterday it started giving errors from fastboot. My device is completely wiped clean. Can't boot into recovery since there isnt one, there is no system to boot into, etc. I tried to install 4.2.2 via the toolkit and manually from fastboot and I keep getting errors. The most recent one is no such device or address found. The only the only thing that I have been successful in doing this entire time is oem lock and unlock. I read somewhere else that someone had a similar issue and that fixed it. I have tried every different port on my laptop and every different cable I can find. I haven't used the OEM ASUS cable since i cant find it, but I think it is at work so that the last one I can think of.
Can anyone offer any help or solutions? I've had the worst luck int he last three days with my devices. I've never had a potential bricking issue since my G1 and now i can't seem to avoid them. Any help is greatly appreciated. I can provide screenshots of the errors if that would help as well.
EDIT
Turns out it wasn't a bad device or any of the million cables. It was a bad laptop. I was finally able to get the drivers to install on my win8 desktop and it all went as it should.

[Q] (noob needs help) rooting my sprint galaxy s5

Hi all,
I recently decided on trying my hand at rooting my s5, have done my research and this is where i wanted to take my phone, and where to come for help.
Ive gone through Odin v3.07 and no COM's would register, i tried tool kit but it wouldn't start after i installed drivers and such, there was a third one i found through threads in here as well but to no avail, nothing has proved any results.
so this is where you all can swoop in and save the day, when I used Odin (which seems to yield the furthest results) the only trouble im having is opening my phone in the ID:COM section. When I plug my s5 into my linux mint 10.something hp notebook (which could be the whole problem all together), with a v2 or v3 usb it registers as gFTP and I can do very little with the files there. like i noted above, toolbox didnt even open, nor could i even figure out what to do with the third thing i tried using. so, my last resort, a community that actually knows what they're doing...
What advice/guidance can you all pert to me? what do you think the problem might be? do i need to perform a factor reset to root my phone? is it the operating systems i am working on? i tried briefly on a mac osx 10. something and now am on a linux mint.
i am not very tech savy but can pick things up fairly quickly, so pretend im dumb and give explicit detail and i will pick up what you miight be talking about more easily.
P.S. I am NOT a robot lol
I have been searching through different android support pages today and everyone seems to resolve their rooting issues easily. though their solutions dont seem to provide me with any answers. i can list any info needed for further diagnostics, but to label a few outright, i have enabled usb debugging in developer mode, tried different usb ports and before/after phone is in downlaod mode, i have SM_G900P 4.4.4 and anything else you need, to help me

How can I recover data from my Core Prime SM-G360G with a broken screen of death? :-o

Hello experts!
First off I do admit I have cross posted some information here. Perhaps I should have just asked here first. As a lot of research I have been doing lead me here. I am also aware of the XY problem. So I am giving what information I have on my problem and what I have done to resolve it. In a nutshell I need to recover app data from internal storage.
So here is yet another story of a dropped Samsung Galaxy BSOD. The broken screen of death! :-o
So I dropped my phone and the screen broke, fixed it then put on a screen protector that fractured the new screen in my pocket, of all things. Through that it spiraled out and it needed a new LCD as well as screen which failed to repair as LCD remains blank now. I suspect the display controller has somehow fried. Decided to give up and buy a new phone.
My broken phone is a Core Prime G360G. The digitizer doesn't respond. The LCD is blank. The side buttons, volume, power and home, work fine.
The good news. It turns on and technically still works. It has no screen lock. I can plug it in to computer via USB and it mounts over MTP. I can also install apps remotely (so to speak) from another computer from the Play site. I've installed Samsung Switch this way. Switch does work and I managed to back up files from the Windows program which is good but in my case it isn't smart enough as it doesn't back up app data which I need. I also have AirDroid installed and can reach it that way I but didn't enable mirroring before the incident. Trying to use that to download an app (~10MB in my case) just results in the browser stalling.
The bad news. It is not rooted. It has stock standard firmware. USB debugging is not enabled. Last time I tested OTG wasn't supported. At least not for OTG USB sticks.
So in effect it's rooted without being rooted! Yes, i know, I know, Android rule of thumb; before you accidentally drop your phone, even without planning it, and not being a seer, enable USB debugging for no apparent reason! It all makes sense now.
I've spent the last two weeks reading forums all over the place, blogs and watching videos about how to recover data with a broken screen. And in almost all cases they tell you to enable USB debugging. Well that's nice advice and about as useful as advising someone with a broken toilet to sit down, do their business and then flush it! And is met with equally crappy commentary pointing the conundrum out.
My computer has Windows (Vista) and Linux (Mint 64). I read all about ADB and installed this on both Windows and Linux. And tried to talk to it that way with adb and fastboot which failed. I then read of Samsung devices being different, with a download mode, and using this Odin or Heimdall program. So I could "see" the process I tested with my new phone (a J5 Prime as it happens) and learned I needed to use download mode and how to enter it on boot. Recovery mode didn't work as expected. Heimdall was the only program that would work. I managed to view the PIT on my J5. Odin did see my phone but I found the interface harder to work with at first.
I tried on my Core. Blindly got it into download mode. Heimdall could see it. But the transport was buggy as I kept getting USB errors. I ended up removing it then compiling Heimdall v1.4.2 from source. This worked better, even though it was giving empty bulk transfer warnings, but it managed to download the PIT file. So at this point I can blindly get my Core into download mode and am able to communicate with it using Heimdall.
This is where I am at. I would prefer it if a screen mirroring app could be installed that would load up and activate remotely when a client run on my computer is loaded up. I don't care if it is VNC or how it connects. But it would need to load itself up on the phone and work without needing intervention on the phone and without USB debugging. If there is an emergency mirroring app on the Play store or even an APK that can be installed remotely, using AirDroid or any other means, I would be happy to test it. I'd write one myself if knew how to write an app! LOL.
If USB debugging could be enabled by any remote means then I am welcome to hear how. It opens a window to possibility. But a window that is hard to open if it's locked.
So I would prefer to keep this at the app level if possible. Since apps can help. But if need be as long as it doesn't destroy data I am willing to install a custom recovery image. It looks like I will need to do this as I have exhausted all other possibilities. At least, when I read of the latest broken screen mirroring app, there is always a catch of it needing debugging or activating on the phone.
Although there is support for other Core Prime variants, support for my specific G360G model seems to be lacking. The information I read looks vague at best. I read about CWM and TWRP. But on the TWRP site, although there is Core Prime images, nothing is listed for exactly a G360G. There is no point to me flashing TWRP recover image only to find it doesn't work and I have bricked recovery mode. I'd look like a right twerp!
So guys, after all the info I have given you, what's the next step? Thanks.
Okay so just an update here. I have some good news and bad news on my part. I've been hacking around with customising recovery and modifying compatible recovery images in order to get debugging activated.
The good news is I got USB debugging enabled. The bad news is my computer is unauthorised.
I'm stuck at this point. I updated the adb_keys file with what was on my computer and it won't budge. I finally get somewhere and now I've once again hit a wall. This is just so annoying. :-x
The final countdown. After months of cracking and hacking I've broken in! I modded my hack to create the needed folder just to be sure and updated my RSA key. Applied the firmware patch and let it reboot. Even while booting I knew something was different. The digitizer started responding to my touch and making water noises. Which was strange as I never noticed it doing that before.
I issued an adb command and it was accepted. I could then browse around the system. I already had screen mirroring software installed and all it needed was USB debugging working and suddenly it worked. This was a blessing as I found that trying to do other things like going into a root shell or do an adb backup caused a requester to come up on screen. Had I not been able to satisfy that on a virtual screen I would have run into the same trap of circles I had just climbed out of. Having a rooted phone with no root access.
I was then able to install a backup app and extract the data out. Hooray! I had actually installed it from Google Play site remotely but found there was no space for it and it had failed. But the account said it was installed. With a view to a mobile I could then remove another app and install it from Play on the phone itself. Given how well this worked once I learned what was needed to be done I suppose I should make up a guide. An automated script to create an ADB patch wouldn't go far astray.

*[SM-910W8] Broken USB. Root via SD Card?*

Hi all,
I'm just about at my wits end here. I have a Note 4 (N910W8) with a failed USB connection and I would really like to root it. The underlying goal is to remove/disable all samsung bloatware.
WRT the USB, I have tried adjusting developer options, *#0808#, updating drivers, changing cables, changing PC's, etc. I've tried everything I could find online. Recently, I took it to a local shop and learned that the problem is not with the USB port/board, but the motherboard itself. I'm not going to pay to replace it. I have googled far and wide. As far as I can tell, this phone will never again connect to a PC via USB. So, download mode and Odin are out.
I have tried TowelRoot, KingoRoot, and other apk's, but I am on Android 6.0.1 (MMB29M/GLW-N910W8VLS1DPK1) so all of these exploits have been patched.
I am able to boot into (stock) recovery mode, so I thought I'd try recovering via SD card, however that doesn't work either. First I get a loading screen of the mascot with a spinning wireframe polygon in his belly and the message "installing system update". Then after ~15 seconds, the mascot is on his back with a red warning symbol over his belly, and the text "No Command." is displayed. I'm not sure what that's all about, because I have the latest update installed.
Any attempts to install CF-Autoroot or another recovery firmware (ie https://samsung-firmware.org/model/SM-N910W8/region/GLW/ , or https://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/snapdragon-dev/trltecan-n910w8-aoa1-stock-rooted-t3025538, etc) from SD (in recovery mode) have been met with the same error messages:
E:footer is wrong
E:signature verification failed
I'm not sure why because at least some of these recovery firmwares claim to be official builds. Granted, they are older versions (downgrades), but are signed nonetheless.
I have tried installing TWRP or CWM so I can disable signature verification, but AFAIK the device must already be rooted to install these (which seems like a bizarre catch-22, but maybe I'm confused) so that's a no-go.
It certainly feels like I have explored every possible avenue, but I have one remaining idea. Perhaps if the phone doesn't want to downgrade, I could force its hand by carefully soft-bricking the current rom in a controlled manner, then performing a recovery from SD with an official 4.4.4 KitKat build, and finally, using the towelroot/kingoroot/etc exploit to gain root access.
I mean, why else would there be a recover-from-SD option in the stock recovery menu? There must be a way to get it to accept a recovery build...
It's a last resort. But I'm willing to try it. The phone boots up, but is so bloated and laggy that it's practically unusable. Still. Am I missing anything? Surely there's some way to skip the USB / Odin method. What do you guys think? Is it time to go hulk on this thing? Is there any hope left? Curious to see how much further this rabbithole can go.
Cheers and thanks guys.
I've searched for ways to soft-brick, but have not come across anything. The bootloader appears to be locked, which is odd because I thought that only applied to Verizon variants.
I have recently downloaded an ADB/fastboot package for windows so I could attempt ADB over WiFi, however I can't establish a connection. I thought I'd do some more poking around on the phone side, so I installed some Wireless ADB apps. They all indicate a root is required, so I think that might be a dead end. I also connected to a ubuntu machine. Nothing. The phone charges, but both the PC and Ubuntu machine show zero signs of any connection at all.
There has to be some kind of SD-based solution to this. You can boot a computer from an SD card / USB stick and use that to access files (on an unencryped partition), and I'd be happy to do that here and delete those bloatware APK's directly... but I guess phones don't behave like other computers.
I've picked all the low hanging fruit. A part of me believes that there are some sneaky hacker ways to get at this without USB (ie some sort of rootkit) but that's way beyond my abilities. I'm going to take a break and attack this again once I have fresh ideas.
I'm in the same boat (busted usb port), does your phone still fast charge? Mine stopped fast charging.
I too have the same problem, except with the Note 10.1 2014. I know that is a different forum, but if you find a solution, it might be adaptable to my problem. I too have exhausted all other options as described above. Please someone, there must be a way to root via SD card instead of Odin. Help us please!
Me too. I have a Note Pro 12.1 running Lollipop. USB is busted and I've already replaced the port and ribbon, so it must be the motherboard. I mainly need it for Titanium backup, so I don't have to reinstall large games over my limited connection.
I have the same problem. Note 4 N910H. Not recognized by pc, stopped fast charging shows usb charging in battery settings. AFAIK I just re-rooted the phone before it went bust. There is no solution except changing the motherboard. Also this problem seems to be quite common.

New Galaxy Tab S5e user - Not pulling updates

Hi everyone.
I just recently got a used S5e, mostly for the Dex capability. I am a consultant, so sometimes I'm in a location where I need a desktop, but don't always have room for my 15" laptop. I haven't had a Samsung device in years... preferring brands with easy root and a nearly limited skinning (currently, OnePlus devices... basically).
I had kind of resigned myself to not having root on this device, since it is a Samsung, so I was surprised when I came on here to see if anyone else was having the update problem, I found root threads. Currently, my device looks like it's on the May 2019 update (One UI 1.1, Android 9, Build PPR1.180610.011.T720XXU1ASED).
Still trying to resist rooting the device, especially since I saw the no-root debloat thread. But I would like to know how to get this stupid thing updated. From what I've read, it has to do with an XML file containing a Samsung URL that returns a 404 when queried manually. The software updater doesn't reflect that, though... and just says you're up-to-date.
So if I can root this and flash a debloated ROM, that would serve a few purposes. Otherwise, if there's a way to force an OTA (or find it and download it to the SD card), that would be fine, too.
Any advice.
Flapjack said:
Hi everyone.
I just recently got a used S5e, mostly for the Dex capability. I am a consultant, so sometimes I'm in a location where I need a desktop, but don't always have room for my 15" laptop. I haven't had a Samsung device in years... preferring brands with easy root and a nearly limited skinning (currently, OnePlus devices... basically).
I had kind of resigned myself to not having root on this device, since it is a Samsung, so I was surprised when I came on here to see if anyone else was having the update problem, I found root threads. Currently, my device looks like it's on the May 2019 update (One UI 1.1, Android 9, Build PPR1.180610.011.T720XXU1ASED).
Still trying to resist rooting the device, especially since I saw the no-root debloat thread. But I would like to know how to get this stupid thing updated. From what I've read, it has to do with an XML file containing a Samsung URL that returns a 404 when queried manually. The software updater doesn't reflect that, though... and just says you're up-to-date.
So if I can root this and flash a debloated ROM, that would serve a few purposes. Otherwise, if there's a way to force an OTA (or find it and download it to the SD card), that would be fine, too.
Any advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I'm understanding you right, you just want an OTA update applied? If that's the case, Frija is what you want to get the latest firmware for your device, and Odin will be your flasher. For stock rom flashes you don't even need an unlocked bootloader, much less root!
There are a ton of guides for Odin available, but still, if you have any questions please post!
Thanks for the reply!
I've used Odin quite a bit in the past, but I do know different situations need different files, so I'll probably do a quick refresher.
As for root, it definitely is a nice-to-have, mostly to remove bloatware, but if the debloat thread here works pretty good (and someone has info on just how much I can remove and keep Dex functionality), I would love to know that as well.
So, I am having a new problem. Using Frija, I downloaded the latest update. However, no matter what I do, I can't get a PC to recognize the tablet in download mode. It just says something about Windows not being able to recognize the device. In Device Manager, it says: "Device descriptor request failed". I've tried with and without the Samsung drivers, with three different USB cables, on two different PCs.
I'm worried that something is physically wrong with the USB port. That doesn't really make sense, though... as it charges fine, and shows up in Windows correctly once it's fully booted to Android.
**EDIT**
False alarm. I needed to press "up" again after getting into download mode and connecting the PC. So odd. It's updating now!

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