Database Users

[Q] Some questions about rooting

Hello guys, I have some questions I am hoping you experienced people can answer for me.
After doing a bunch of research, I am left a bit confused since a lot of the posts are older, and things have changed over the last few months, especially with locked bootloaders and such.
My current phone is:
-Samsung S4 (Fido based) SGH-i337M
-Android Version 4.3
-Baseband Version i337MVLUEMK6
I only want to ROOT the phone, so I can remove a bunch of excess Samsung bloatware that I never use, I am not really interested in custom ROM's at this time.
1. What is a Custom Recovery exactly?
I keep reading about Custom Recoveries but I don't really know what they are exactly... . Is this just a Firmware mirror that I can go back to at any time AFTER I root the device? Do I need to root the device to CREATE the Custom Recovery?
2. CAN I go back to "Stock" easily? Can I just find the original 4.3 Samsung FW and load it up?
3. I know that moving to 4.4 will require another Root when it becomes available later this month from Samsung, however can I go to the Default Android 4.4 ROM at this time, skipping all the Samsung Stuff?
4. I see a programmed called KINGO offering to root my phone for me, but then somebody said something about there not being a Custom Recovery available for it, which goes up to my original question. Can I not just revert back to unrooted status after?
Thanks to anybody who can help me with these noobish questions, I appreciate it.

I don't have your model so don't want to guess at rooting.
But:
Do not remove Bloatware after rooted. Get Titanium BackuP from the Market. The paid version (support devs) and just freeze the apps until you know they have no negative impact after freezing.
Do a Nandroid ASAP and put a copy on PC also.
Read this on your Recovery question:
http://freedupthoughts.com/2013/04/what-is-custom-recovery-why-should-i.html
You have an unlocked bootloader with the i337m
Someone else can address correct rooting for your specific device and get the correct recovery for it. I prefer TWRP.

[Q] Samsung Galaxy S4 - i9506 - Android 4.3

Hi, I'm completely new to this whole android ordeal regarding rooting and custom ROM and all. I have some idea, I've read a couple of threads explaining the terms and basics of rooting android.
Basically I just want to root my android device and in the future be able to restore it back just as it was before rooting.
How to properly Backup the whole Device (So I can restore the device to the current state in the future)
Root the device
How I can restore the device using the backup I made.
And maybe not void my warranty
^^ That's basically what I'm looking for, how I can do those things.
I'm Using s4 I9506, with vodafone australia. (It's not locked)
Running android 4.3
Any more information that I need to provide? Would be soo helpful is someone could help me out with this problem
cheers

bump BUmp!

arjun.the300 said:
Hi, I'm completely new to this whole android ordeal regarding rooting and custom ROM and all. I have some idea, I've read a couple of threads explaining the terms and basics of rooting android.
Basically I just want to root my android device and in the future be able to restore it back just as it was before rooting.
How to properly Backup the whole Device (So I can restore the device to the current state in the future)
Root the device
How I can restore the device using the backup I made.
And maybe not void my warranty
^^ That's basically what I'm looking for, how I can do those things.
I'm Using s4 I9506, with vodafone australia. (It's not locked)
Running android 4.3
Any more information that I need to provide? Would be soo helpful is someone could help me out with this problem
cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look HERE regarding root!
I only use my Samsung/Google accounts to back up my contacts etc so cannot really advise on this! But you can look at apps such as Titanium Backup and Online Nandroid...there are others. Just requires a little research and reading from yourself :angel:

flashing/installing cm12 onto s5 900w8

ive searched and searched but am having problems finsing steps to get cm12 onto my s5900 w8 (bell)
finding there is limited w8 support or its foud across so many forums and not mentioned if items work or not with others that do
curent fone
galaxy s5 900w8
android ver: 4.42
baseband g900w8vlu1anf3
kernel : old (2014)
build: kot49h.g900w8vlu1anf3
I want to have a fast light install with abilities to turn off all the google and samsng bloatware (if they even need to be installed at all)
bell modem
searching for all these has become confusing and i dont want to brick my phone
not really concerned about knox but it would be kool to keep it 0x0
battery life
everything should be working (gps camera etc)
i have two old galaxy s and xda has been amazing, but not having a dev phone anymore, i cant afford to be down, phones have advanced beyond my abilities and i need to get it right
pointing me to threads/posts should be sufficient as im proficient in figuring, just hard to find w8 stuff
thanks in advance!!

XDA Visitor said:
ive searched and searched but am having problems finsing steps to get cm12 onto my s5900 w8 (bell)
finding there is limited w8 support or its foud across so many forums and not mentioned if items work or not with others that do
curent fone
galaxy s5 900w8
android ver: 4.42
baseband g900w8vlu1anf3
kernel : old (2014)
build: kot49h.g900w8vlu1anf3
I want to have a fast light install with abilities to turn off all the google and samsng bloatware (if they even need to be installed at all)
bell modem
searching for all these has become confusing and i dont want to brick my phone
not really concerned about knox but it would be kool to keep it 0x0
battery life
everything should be working (gps camera etc)
i have two old galaxy s and xda has been amazing, but not having a dev phone anymore, i cant afford to be down, phones have advanced beyond my abilities and i need to get it right
pointing me to threads/posts should be sufficient as im proficient in figuring, just hard to find w8 stuff
thanks in advance!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, and thank you for using XDA Assist!
I am connecting you to the S5 Q&A, where your device experts can be found:
> Samsung Galaxy S 5 > Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting
From what I read, I see enough reason not to go with a custom ROM (Knox would get triggered the moment you install custom recovery IIRC - if not sooner) when you can just root and freeze the bloat.
Concerns about stability and battery life are valid concerns as well. My experience with custom ROMs is that it is hard to get that (yet I still keep coming back ).
Your modem should stay intact during a custom ROM flash though, but there have been cases otherwise I suppose.
Anyway, hope this helps, and good luck!

joel.maxuel said:
Hello, and thank you for using XDA Assist!
I am connecting you to the S5 Q&A, where your device experts can be found:
> Samsung Galaxy S 5 > Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting
From what I read, I see enough reason not to go with a custom ROM (Knox would get triggered the moment you install custom recovery IIRC - if not sooner) when you can just root and freeze the bloat.
Concerns about stability and battery life are valid concerns as well. My experience with custom ROMs is that it is hard to get that (yet I still keep coming back ).
Your modem should stay intact during a custom ROM flash though, but there have been cases otherwise I suppose.
Anyway, hope this helps, and good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great,
thanks for the quick reply...
but the first heading i see is root[ALL VARIENTS]... but within the first post it says "MAKE SURE ONLY 'F'"
and for freezing, titianium backup?
i'll keep researching, but would really like to go back to one of the CM builds.
thanks again
Itradsk

itradsk said:
great,
thanks for the quick reply...
but the first heading i see is root[ALL VARIENTS]... but within the first post it says "MAKE SURE ONLY 'F'"
and for freezing, titianium backup?
i'll keep researching, but would really like to go back to one of the CM builds.
thanks again
Itradsk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's for recovery, and what is quoted is one of the options within ODIN. But for the recovery option, you will need a "ODIN flashable recovery for your device" which I did not see.
If you just want to go with the root and titanium backup for now (btw, "app quarantine" freezes apps too and may still be a free alternative), looks like, based on the thread, that towelroot is the way to go. Just to be sure to install SuperSU afterward if towelroot does not for you.
Hope this helps.

I'm on g900w8 Telus it uses the same towers as bell. I've used the cyanogen 12.1 version. Just make sure to grab the correct version of rom. And make sure you flash lollipop kernel and modem.
I believe u want the ktle version for gsm
Telus Samsung G900W8

Returning to mod after few years

Good evening to everyone,
I've been an Android user for the last 4 years (i started with the HTC Dream G1, the first ever made Android smartphone which had the version 1.1). The first time i approached the world of modding was for having really important features such as the sync of contacts with google account, and i also have fully modded my second device, an HTC One S, that i decided to change 2 days ago.
I purchased a Samsung Galaxy A5 and i'm going to mod it again since i don't like few things about the device.
Since i'm out of date with the current mod envirorment (the last time i did some kind of mod with my One S was over 1 year ago) i think i need a bit of refresh, so here are my questions:
1) Do i need to install some kind of special drivers, android developing tool, sdk, java things or anything special before using Odin or other rooting tools mentioned in the guides? I remember i lost an entire day the first time i rooted my devices since all the guides on the web didn't talk about installing this preliminary files.
2) I'm Italian, i live in Italy, i purchased my device in Italy too in a Vodafone store, but the CSC of my device does not appear to be Italian Vodafone, i can't rewrite it here at the moment but after a research on google i found out it was a German Vodafone CSC.
The firmware itself does not seem branded (no custom bootload animation, only the main app by vodafone which i like to have) and i'm going to change firmware anyway, but i still want to set a no-brand CSC.
When i changed the CSC of my HTC One S i remember it as a very complicated procedure, i had to extract a particular file from the smartphone using prompt's command, manually editing a text file and putting it back again with prompt.
I'd like to know if there's a different procedure for the Galaxy A5, i searched the web for a procedure but i have found none.
I saw a CSC option in Odin and i think this is probably the cleanest and fastest way, but i don't know a place where to find the various file for changing CSC.
3) Custom recovery: i had difficulties in finding custom recovery on the web too for this device, i saw a thread in this section fo the Galaxy A7. I suppose there's no custom recovery for the A5 at the moment, am i correct?
4) Any way to prevent Samsung Knox counter from increasing with root + flash of custom rom and eventually recovery? i read few guides but they seem to don't work anymore with recents updates.
Knowing if there's a way to reverse the counter in case of need it's ok too, but i've read that's much harder now than it was few years back, so i can suppose that maybe "Prevention is better than cure".
5) Are there any really really valid custom kernel / radio? I think i'm going to flash the CyanogenMod 12.1 but maybe there's some other flashable thing which is not included in this rom that can improve my devices.
6) after you've told me exactly what i can do know with my devices, could you please tell me the order for the various phases? I don't mean the very single steps, just if i have to change the CSC before or after than rooting or flashing the custom recovery before i have obtained the SU permissions ecc.
Thank you in advance for all your help, Italian forum are not very crowded in these days so i decided to write a thread in the best forum for this subject around the web!

Dharmost said:
Good evening to everyone,
3) Custom recovery: i had difficulties in finding custom recovery on the web too for this device, i saw a thread in this section fo the Galaxy A7. I suppose there's no custom recovery for the A5 at the moment, am i correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For recovery have a look here.
Dharmost said:
4) Any way to prevent Samsung Knox counter from increasing with root + flash of custom rom and eventually recovery? i read few guides but they seem to don't work anymore with recents updates.
Knowing if there's a way to reverse the counter in case of need it's ok too, but i've read that's much harder now than it was few years back, so i can suppose that maybe "Prevention is better than cure".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as i know that is not possible at the moment
Dharmost said:
5) Are there any really really valid custom kernel / radio? I think i'm going to flash the CyanogenMod 12.1 but maybe there's some other flashable thing which is not included in this rom that can improve my devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is a link for CM 12.1 for the A5 Sm-A500FU version
Good Luck
Jay

Thank you very much for the answers! I'm probably going to mod my device this evening, hope it will go smooth

I'm scaring to brick my phone. So how to backup all things ?

Hello friends,
I would like to install custom rom on my phone Note 4 sm-n910C . I'm not an experienced person for it. But basicly I know that I need to root my phone 1st then install suitable version of TWRP on my phone. And then I can backup my stock rom and all things. Then install custom rom file.
But I scare to brick my phone doing this procedure. So I wonder, can i backup my phone's stock rom and other all things (kernel, firmware, modem etc...) without TWRP ? I mean , can do it with pc software ?
And if my phone become brick, thus, can i restore it completely via pc then ?
If i can do that, how ?
I'll be appreciate if you help me ?

Choose your Country and phone provider and download the stock ROM from Sammobile
If it's needed then use Odin to reload it. There's plenty of guides how to use it including those that explain how to root. I recently rooted one of my Note 4s, a N910C and apart from using a slightly older version of TWRP was pretty straightforward.
I used this guide and the downloaded the files from the links in it but there's other's available but be 100% sure you're following the guide for a N910C.
I'm not that knowledgeable about Rooting compared to many people on here although I've rooted all my Tablets and Phones but seem to recall you may need to use an older version of Odin to do so. The most difficult problem I had was getting the correct driver installed that would recognise all my devices and even that was just persistence. Just read everything a few times and double check you have the correct files before you start, it's pretty straightforward.
In all the above comments I'm assuming you're using the last version of the stock ROM that was released.

@Big Elf
Thank you very much for your reply and explanation. I looked at your shared pages. And I'd like to start it.
But I have some quesitons to not make a mistake. If you guide me, I will be appreciate.
But before that let me share my phone feautres screen shots. You may see all detailed information.
SCREENSHOTS
I can't share links due to xda rules bcos I need to reach 10 post. So pls complete http section if it need for below scrshoot links.
1- drive.google.com/open?id=0B6aBME5e-tzcYk1zY0dqeTZaMVk4eEdWbjN4SWVPSEU3cXFr
2- drive.google.com/open?id=0B6aBME5e-tzccHF6UFpCT29JT1ozRUFoMUtmWmZ0V0J3c19z
3- drive.google.com/open?id=0B6aBME5e-tzcajVnMGkyMTRJdmo3OTNPc29SQXlEbkY0R3N3
And My Questions
1- First of all ty for rooting page. According to explanation i'm going to root my phone. But I wonder that android version is matter or not. My phone version is 6.0.1 as you see. Is it okay, its suitable for my phone, right ?
2- As far as I read on internet, There are all TWRP versions are different for all diffrent smartphones. According to above scrshoot informations, which is the suitable, stable and latest version for my phone ? And Where can i find it from ? Or if its possible could you forward me exact page and/or link please ?
Because my scared major thing is that. Wrong type of TWRP. And so brick my phone. Btw, let me ask, wrong version lead to brick phone, right ?
If I install the true type (version anyway) of TWRP then I will be relax. Because after that, process will be very easy for me. I experienced from Huawei's first phone "IDEOS X5" . I have installed TWRP and custom roms on it , on years 2012-2013. I only scare to make mistake via perform it on note 4 & brick it.
Thank you so much again.

You've made your first mistake . I explained you need to read everything carefully and double check you have the correct files before starting so that you're reasonably confident that you know what you're doing.
The link I posted explaining how to root also has the link to the version of TWRP and Odin needed to install and Root it but you didn't read it properly.
You're running the same version of the ROM I have on my N910C albeit a different country (which won't make a difference).
If you install the Official TWRP App from Team Win you can update TWRP after rooting. I'd also suggest installing the SuperSu (Pro) App from Codingcode which will update itself after rooting. I also use Root Checker (Pro) from joeykrim to check that root has worked and SuperSu has installed correctly. All those apps are available in the Play Store. I pay for the Pro versions as I appreciate the work that's gone into them and as a thank you to the developers.
You don't have to root it so don't feel that you have to do so.
Although all my phones are rooted my Note 4s (N910Fs and a N910C) still run the stock ROM and the main reasons I did so was to run Adaway and also to debloat neither of which are essential. I also wanted to know how to do it.
Installing another non-Samsung ROM has 4 main disadvantages:
You lose the fine control over the OLED screen including the boost mode in bright sunlight
You lose some of the functionality of the s-pen
You lose a lot of quality from the camera that you won't get back with any ROM.
Most of the ROMs have some faults other than those just mentioned but are usually but not always minor.