Database Users

A Couple of Questions

hello guys,
here's a list of questions I have compiled which were bothering me since i bought my SGS, hope you take your time and answer these:
What is "root"-ing. How different is it from flashing a firmware on motherboard and installing an OS on to a hard drive?
Does rooting an android device kill its warranty?
Which way is the best and reliable way to root my SGS?
How do I bring back my SGS to Factory state after I root my phone?
Is there a way that I can download the AOSP off the android site and install it on my phone.
I'm with O2 (UK) and I'm required to send blank text to a number. My SGS doesnt allow me to send blank texts. How do I send blank texts? :/
How do I integrate my contacts with the ones from Facebook/Google, when I dont want all the contacts from other sources to be shown in my contacts?
regards,
emc

Quick answers:
1. Root = full control of os ( linux superuser capability) it has nothing to do with flashing firmwares
2. YES
3. search the forum or google for Galaxy s rooting (very easy 10 min max)
4. firmware reflash or
*#*#7780#*#*
This code can be used for a factory data reset. It'll remove following things:
Google account settings stored in your phone
System and application data and settings
Downloaded
5. no. that is vanilla android with no drivers. look for vanilla custom rom for SGS on forum
6. I work for a carrier in Romania so i know : IT DOESN'T MATTER IS YOU PUT TEXT IN IT (just put a letter in it and send)
7.CONTACTS->Menu-> Display options
Hope it helps. Good luck.

thanks, your answers were helpful, but raised a few more question now.
if rooting has nothing to do with flashing firmwares, why does one have to reflash fimware to return to factory state? (can you explain technically?)
I still need to figure out how to setup friends in contacts, I've already enabled contacts from facebook/google.. What I wanted to know is how do I filter people from the list so that I can see only selected of them in my contacts and not all?
-----------------------------------
edit:
just saw that my Kies asked me to upgrade to JM1. should I do it?
If I do it will *#*#7780#*#* bring my phone back to JF3 (default)? or will it bring to JM1

emclondon said:
if rooting has nothing to do with flashing firmwares, why does one have to reflash fimware to return to factory state?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't HAVE to reflash the firmware technically, rooting basically just overwrites a few files (generally, the kernel). Technically, it should be possible to simply revert the files to unroot the phone. But the only reason you would probably want to unroot anyway is to send the phone in for service, and first thing they'll do is reflash your phone with a firmware which is known to work anyway.. So you might as well.
In regards to the warranty status after rooting, it's actually a grey area as to whether it affects the warranty. If you flash with the I9000M rom, yes, Samsung probably wont be impressed. It is always better to reflash with clean firmware before returning it to service, but unless there is evidence that rooting messed up the hardware on your phone, it's probably unlikely they would reject warranty. But better to be safe.
I don't think Samsung encrypted the bootloader sequence, and had they been concerned, they would have probably disabled USB debugging within the firmware.

ok thanks ^_^
now a few more questions:
whats a clockworkmod recovery?
whats a samset?
whats an odin?
do you suggest me to upgrade my firmware?
how do i backup my current firmware?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it is my moto . Do you experience any problems with your handset ? Like lags , lockups or anything of that sort? If you don't, then I think its better if you leave it as it is. Just apply the lagFix if you want to, but I see no reason to flash your phone to a different version right now.
I have flashed many phones before (where it was much riskier than Galaxy flashing) But I still didn't flash my Galaxy S , because I simply dont see the need to change to another 2.1. I'm waiting for Samsung to release official froyo 2.2. I suggest you wait for that too.

my phone lags a lot

I share phonix view and motto. If you do experience problems post symptoms before doing something like reflash or factory reset.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Lag can be easely fixed with a patch. You get root and lag patch in one pack. Will try to post a link.
http://***forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7587405&postcount=417
Delete the 3 stars in front of forum
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

emclondon said:
just saw that my Kies asked me to upgrade to JM1. should I do it?
If I do it will *#*#7780#*#* bring my phone back to JF3 (default)? or will it bring to JM1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
updgraded my phone and did a factory reset, phone DOES NOT GOES BACK TO JF3!
just for your info

that's because u upgraded/flashed a complete new rom which replaced the old one there for factory reset will give u the latest firmware/upgrade that u have installed.

Newest Modem for G900W8??

Hey im wondering where I can find a link to the W8's newest modem? Also do i need to flash both it and the bootloader?

butthurtlocker said:
Hey im wondering where I can find a link to the W8's newest modem? Also do i need to flash both it and the bootloader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you flash the latest firmware the modem and bootlader are allready included.

butthurtlocker said:
where I can find a link to the W8's newest modem? Also do i need to flash both it and the bootloader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You didn't tell us why you want to change your modem, so it's impossible to give a certain answer to your question. It's not strictly necessary to flash both, but in most cases you would be best served to flash the full firmware, which will normally contain the modem and bootloader. Unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise, keep them a matched set.
Of course if you had done a search before posting, you'd already know this. You can search the forum or one of the many firmware repository sites for firmware. A quick look at Sammobile suggests that ANF3 or ANF4 are the newest 900W8 versions. Again, unless you have a credible reason to do otherwise stick to a modem from your carrier. i.e. the carrier that the phone originated from regardless of what carrier you will actually use it on.
If there is some compelling reason that you need to flash the modem only, you could extract the modem.bin file from the full firmware, package it as a .tar.md5 file and flash it on the CP line of Odin 3.09. If you are flashing the full firmware, enter the file name on the AP line.
.

fffft said:
You didn't tell us why you want to change your modem, so it's impossible to give a certain answer to your question. It's not strictly necessary to flash both, but in most cases you would be best served to flash the full firmware, which will normally contain the modem and bootloader. Unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise, keep them a matched set.
Of course if you had done a search before posting, you'd already know this. You can search the forum or one of the many firmware repository sites for firmware. A quick look at Sammobile suggests that ANF3 or ANF4 are the newest 900W8 versions. Again, unless you have a credible reason to do otherwise stick to a modem from your carrier. i.e. the carrier that the phone originated from regardless of what carrier you will actually use it on.
If there is some compelling reason that you need to flash the modem only, you could extract the modem.bin file from the full firmware, package it as a .tar.md5 file and flash it on the CP line of Odin 3.09. If you are flashing the full firmware, enter the file name on the AP line.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha. Well thanks for the highly descriptive answer bud. I wanted to flash the newest modem because I found I was having tons of problems with the newest builds of roms like Omega and Xtrestolite. for instance I couldnt send outgoing texts. I asked around and never got a clear answer so just from reading I figured I needed the newest modem to get everything going properly. Im very new to this even though ive been an xda member for awhile i only recently starting doing a lot of flashing. Anyways its now clear after flashing new builds as well as extracting the modem for the newest stock firmware and I still cant get texts! Thanks for the advice

butthurtlocker said:
Haha. Well thanks for the highly descriptive answer bud. I wanted to flash the newest modem because I found I was having tons of problems with the newest builds of roms like Omega and Xtrestolite. for instance I couldnt send outgoing texts. I asked around and never got a clear answer so just from reading I figured I needed the newest modem to get everything going properly. Im very new to this even though ive been an xda member for awhile i only recently starting doing a lot of flashing. Anyways its now clear after flashing new builds as well as extracting the modem for the newest stock firmware and I still cant get texts! Thanks for the advice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that your problem is highly unlikely to be caused by or solved by changing your modem. Have a close look at your configuration. If you can't find any errant settings. then do this:
Backup your system. Then use Odin to temporarily revert to the oldest 4.4.2 build (must be pre-June 3rd) for your carrier. i.e. you are installing a 100% stock build that is known not to have serious SMS issues. See if that resolves your problem or not to narrow down the source of the problem. And while I doubt that the problem is from your custom ROM per se, you could if you want just move to another custom ROM. There are a lot, the vast majority of which have no SMS issues.
At a guess, your problems are far more likely to be due to bad APN info, bad cache (clear your cache in recovery mode and also clear cache and data for your SMS client from the settings menu application manager) or a carrier side issue (open a support ticket).
If it was my phone, I'd be trying all of the points in the paragraph immediately above first. And only if that fails to resolve your problem (which is highly unlikely) would I be messing with modems, reverting to full stock firmware or migrating to a different ROM.
.

fffft said:
I think that your problem is highly unlikely to be caused by or solved by changing your modem. Have a close look at your configuration. If you can't find any errant settings. then do this:
Backup your system. Then use Odin to temporarily revert to the oldest 4.4.2 build (must be pre-June 3rd) for your carrier. i.e. you are installing a 100% stock build that is known not to have serious SMS issues. See if that resolves your problem or not to narrow down the source of the problem. And while I doubt that the problem is from your custom ROM per se, you could if you want just move to another custom ROM. There are a lot, the vast majority of which have no SMS issues.
At a guess, your problems are far more likely to be due to bad APN info, bad cache (clear your cache in recovery mode and also clear cache and data for your SMS client from the settings menu application manager) or a carrier side issue (open a support ticket).
If it was my phone, I'd be trying all of the points in the paragraph immediately above first. And only if that fails to resolve your problem (which is highly unlikely) would I be messing with modems, reverting to full stock firmware or migrating to a different ROM.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok noted. So i've reverted to stock a few times and SMS always worked. I've re rooted twice, tried different recoveries each time and tried a few different roms. heres what happens:
-Very first rom I've ever tried is Xtrestolite 1.2.2. . ZERO issues, kept updating as new versions came out till I got to 1.3.2. So even though 1.3.1 used the new firmware, I was still able to flash it with no issues. Then as soon as i tried the latest build, 1.3.2, couldnt text at all. I know its something to do with my SMSC because when i installed GO SMS pro from the playstore and manually inputted my SMSC i could text via that app, but not the stock one or even hangouts. Since 1.3.2 was using a slightly different firmware number I just assumed it was the modem. Exact same issue with Omega rom- V6 worked great, as soon as I flashed V7 no outgoing texts. Everything else worked by the way (incoming and outgoing calls, and incoming texts) Just not outgoing
So the reason for starting this thread is because i seem to only be able to use the last version of the 2 roms im interested in if I want to be able to text from the default app. I also checked with members using both roms, that had the W8 and they didnt experience these issues at all. We even went over the steps to get from stock unrooted to flashing the latest builds and my steps were identical to those people who didnt have my issue with the W8. I have no idea what to do but I will likely go back to stock for now. Thanks again

No cellular network after installing CM12.1 on Straight Talk SM-G900F (klte)

I recently installed TWRP and then the latest snapshot of CM12.1 for my phone described in title. The android version was upgraded from KitKat (4.4 I believe) to 5.1.1. Everything works fine with the install except I have no network whatsoever. Can't text, can't call, can't use data etc. I made a post on the CM subreddit but didnt get a lot of help (can't post link) . Here is what I have tried: changing APN settings (which I have heard should at least let me call and text if incorrect); flashing various modems such as BOE3, BNL9, and BOD3 (all of them get a FAIL! (auth) in ODIN); restoring my KitKat backup (makes the phone unusable); trying to flash the default L rom for the phone (Also fail to flash in ODIN and TWRP). So at the current time I am basically stuck on CM12.1 and all of its amazingness with no phone functions, I basically have a small tablet at the moment lol.
Here is some information from the about of my phone, if it is helpful at all.
Model: SM-G900F
CM Version: 12.1-20151204-NIGHTLY-ktle (Installed the nightly after the snapshot didn't work, same problem persists)
Android version: 5.1.1
Baseband version: S902LUDU3AOG2
Carrier: Straight Talk
If any more info is needed, just let me know. I appreciate any help, as I am pretty much at square one still. I have googled for days to try to fix this, and haven't come up with anything. It seems no one has had this specific problem before.
If I can't fix this issue, is there any way I can downgrade back to what I had to begin with?

y tried with another sim card !!!
ty *#06# to verify imei

popmpopm said:
y tried with another sim card !!!
ty *#06# to verify imei
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only have one other sim card on me, and its through verizon. It didn't work on the phone either. I would definitely just buy a new sim card if that would mean it would work. The whole IMEI thing worked, but I am not sure what to do with that information.

(Definitely a G900F? Check what it says in download mode)
Checking the IMEI was to make sure you haven't wiped/corrupted the EFS partition, which contains the Radios needed to make and receive called, along with the IMEI (Hopefully you researched enough to back that up before messing with the phone)
Try flashing another stock ROM with ODIN 3.10.7, go for a different Lollipop ROM from sammobile. com
Some stock ROMs fail to flash, some work, (Phone dependant it seems)
Then boot into recovery and factory reset > try to boot

*Detection* said:
(Definitely a G900F? Check what it says in download mode)
Checking the IMEI was to make sure you haven't wiped/corrupted the EFS partition, which contains the Radios needed to make and receive called, along with the IMEI (Hopefully you researched enough to back that up before messing with the phone)
Try flashing another stock ROM with ODIN 3.10.7, go for a different Lollipop ROM from sammobile. com
Some stock ROMs fail to flash, some work, (Phone dependant it seems)
Then boot into recovery and factory reset > try to boot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried 2 separate L roms for the G900F. It says in download mode the phone is a SM-S902L and I read somewhere to get the true model of the phone you look at the FCC id under the battery. Well the FCC id says it is a G900V. at one point in trying to fix it, I tried a stock L rom for the G900V and TWRP told me that it was intended for a kltevzw device and that mine is a klte, so that is why I assume that it is in fact a G900F. I have been using ODIN 3.10.7 to flash everything as well. (Have't tried TWRP for the most recent tries since it takes longer to setup and I doubt it would work but it's worth a try I suppose.
I looked on Sam Mobile for the SM-S902L and there is only one firmware for it, which is 4.4.2, the same one it was installed with when I got it. From my understanding SM-902L is the straight talk branding of the G900V, and trying to flash that firmware didn't work either. Every time I try to flash something it terminates with a FAIL! (auth). What I also understand is that Straight Talk has not released an official version of L for the phone. So it seems my options now are to somehow get the modem to work right in CM12, try to somehow downgrade to 4.4.2, or wait for Straight Talk to release an update for my phone which is not really an option. I just got this phone and I really don't want to have to buy a whole new one just because of software problems. In my mind there HAS to be some way to fix this.
EDIT: my bad, I should have mentioned when I tried to flash the G900V rom it was also CM12, not a stock.
EDIT AGAIN: I seem to have fixed this problem. I have no idea how I did it, but I finally got it to restore to the stock 4.4.2 rom. I seriously have no clue how it worked but it did. Texting and data once again work, but i am now having a problem where I can't make or receive calls. Call immediately ends/goes straight to voicemail. I don't suppose you know anything about that, if you do that would be awesome. I'm gonna call ST in the morning and see if they can tell me anything from their end. But otherwise, I guess my problem is solved. Lol.

I know it sounds simple or may sound stupid but have you tried entering your APN? I have to do that with most of the custom Roms I flash or I won't have service. Also, make sure the correct modem is flashed and up to date.

Where do I start?

Someone gave me their 'old' S5 and I'd like to get it all up and running with the times. I haven't played with customizing for a while, so I just don't know where to start, the instructions I could find seem a bit outdated. And new ROM's no longer give accurate instructions, assuming we already know exactly how to do everything.
It appears to be the LTE+ model G901F, which is kccat6 I think. In what order do I do what?
First flash TWRP (CWM seems to have less updates and Philz is no longer maintained) using Odin/Heimdall?
Next get a custom ROM to be installed through TWRP?
Is LineageOS available for this model (seems to be the Galaxy S5 Plus model on LOS)?
Do I need to root it anywhere in between, or is that unnecessary when I go straight to a custom ROM?
If I do need to root, create an CF-AUTO? Or is there a better way?
Should I check if I need to update the radio/modem firmware on SamMobile?
For backups, does this model also have that EFS partition? If so, what's the best program to use to back it up nowadays (I think TWRP has an option for it now)?
This KNOX thing, it will trigger no matter what? And is irreversible?
Anything I'm forgetting?
Finally, I like call recording so I can actually hear back what was agreed by both parties. LOS will set it to enabled in my region. However, is there any way to have it automatically record every call, or am I stuck to having to press the record button every time? Maybe through Xposed?
Thanks!

How to backup stock firmware & recovery?

Hi, recently I accidentally bricked my Galaxy Tab A 10.1 with Spen (SM-P580) by accidentally disabling "OEM Unlock" in the developer settings while I had TWRP and a custom ROM installed. I was only able to get into download mode due to the factory reset protection lock, so I tried downloading the stock firmware online and then flashing it to bring the device back to fully stock firmware so I could get past the lock and not have a brick. Unfortunately, when I flashed the firmware, despite it seemingly being for my specific device (and matching my build number), I was no longer able to boot the device at all. It would turn on and would seem to immediately lose power, charging would turn on the flash and cause it to heat up, and no amount of charging would fix the issue. It was completely bricked and there was no way for me to go back into download mode to try flashing again or try flashing a different firmware. Thankfully, I contacted Samsung and because it's still under warranty they were nice enough to fix it for free, and did so by completely replacing the motherboard according to the repair slip, which is not something I would have been able to do.
My question is: How do I make a full backup of the stock firmware and recovery so if this somehow ever happens again where the FRP lock kills my device, I can reflash in download mode the original firmware that I know is 100% going to work with it and is correct? I don't want to gamble with potentially using the wrong firmware again, seeing as that gamble killed the thing.
The Model is SM-P580NZKAXAR. Based on the last part (XAR) and the fact that other non-sammobile sites listed the US wifi only firmware as XAR, I assumed "Cellular south (XAR)" was the correct firmware I needed which was obviously incorrect as it completely bricked the device. For this reason, I'm wondering if there's a way with software on windows or something to completely backup the existing stock firmware before I do anything, because I doubt Samsung would be so nice a second time, and I'd really rather not go through all this again. Obviously these websites get the original firmware that's flashable via download mode somehow, so I'd like to know how or if that's possible. Also before I went and downloaded the firmware I checked the Samsung desktop app that allows you to fix firmware issues but it said my device wasn't supported so it wasn't much help. I'd like to avoid installing any custom recoveries ahead of time as if something gets messed up there will be no way for me to actually boot into recovery as far as I'm aware, and the FRP lock will block me from reflashing the custom recovery or anything else that isn't stock. It goes without saying that if this is possible I'd like to do it without installing a custom recovery or rooting as I'd like to have a proper fully stock backup that isn't going to trip the FRP lock.
Also the way I accidentally disabled OEM Unlock was I simply toggled the developer options off and then back on in a slimmed down version of the stock rom, but in doing so it also reset the OEM unlock setting and I completely forgot to make sure it was still enabled. Next thing I know I go to reboot (was trying to figure out an issue with a usb device) and then the thing was FRP locked. Needless to say, it was something extremely simple and easy to do by accident. I also just checked the device and the build number matches the firmware that I downloaded, so I don't know if it was mislabeled or what but something was not correct.