I just "upgraded" from an S5 to an S7 that I bought on Ebay running G930PVPU6BRD2. Coming from an S5, I just assumed (before I bought the S7) that the S7 could be rooted, but based on my web research, it seems impossible. Before I give up and live my life unrooted for the first time ever, I just want to confirm... Can I root my S7?
RazzMcTazz said:
I just "upgraded" from an S5 to an S7 that I bought on Ebay running G930PVPU6BRD2. Coming from an S5, I just assumed (before I bought the S7) that the S7 could be rooted, but based on my web research, it seems impossible. Before I give up and live my life unrooted for the first time ever, I just want to confirm... Can I root my S7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bootloader is locked down tight.
method was found to root using 'engineering bootload'. This method yeilds limited root. No custom roms.
Sprint started updating bootloader separately of other carriers AND e-fused the bootloader so engineer bootloader no longer work on Sprint variant.
The digit '6' in G930PVPU'6'BRD2 isbthe bootloader version identifier. No going backward, e-fused.
Kaptain: Thank you for that excellent explanation.
Related
Hi all,
is there any advantages of having a unlocked bootloader over a locked.
Ive had my samsung s4 9505 since launch and i have never upgraded the bootloader. Ive only ever upgraded the gsm modem.
as development has come a long way since launch is there any benefits of having a unlocked bootloader ?
Many thanks
On a galaxy phone you don't have locked/unlocked bootloaders
minidude2012 said:
On a galaxy phone you don't have locked/unlocked bootloaders
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish that were true. My bootloader got locked by the 4.3 update, which came through as i was setting up my phone when i first brought it.
Didn't find out about it till i accessed the forums later the same day.
anoniemouse said:
I wish that were true. My bootloader got locked by the 4.3 update, which came through as i was setting up my phone when i first brought it.
Didn't find out about it till i accessed the forums later the same day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know then as I've had a galaxy s4 since first came out and the galaxy s4 has never had a locked bootloader
The I9500 and I9505 shouldn't have a locked bootloader. Galaxy S4 devices for AT&T and Verizon in the United States however DO lock their bootloaders. Locking, or more accurately, encrypting the bootloader, makes it extremely difficult if not nearly impossible to load custom ROMs. Which is why you don't want one if you can help it.
In the Q&A forum there is a thread where a forum member describes purchasing what was supposed to be an I9505 off eBay. Through some detective work it was discovered that his device was a Frankenstein, in that it had the IMEI of an I9505 but the motherboard and the other components were from an AT&T SGH-I337. Thus, his "I9505" had a locked bootloader. At last report he was going to contact the seller about this. I thought about offering him a straight up swap, since he needed an I9505 and I could use his phone here in the US and get LTE, but the fact the IMEI is not what originally came with the hardware has me pausing.
If you have an I9505 and a locked bootloader, your phone may have been "refurbished" in this manner by a third party. It might be a good idea to check your phone and see what you have.
Hi,
I want to buy a Note 4 and absolutely need root on it. I just found some ugly stuff about rooting it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-att/help/root-samsung-sm-n910a-5-1-1-build-t3355869
quote:
----------------------
forgot to tell you the two U.S. carriers that put locks on their bootloaders is AT&T and VERIZON so i wouldnt recommend root unless you unlock bootloader or else your phone will continueously stay in boot mode without letting you exit. that i believe is a bootloop good luck
-----------------------
Since I can chose which one I buy, I obviously want to get the one that can be rooted. It does not have to be easy, I have used odin in the past, no problem. There are quite a few versions out there though, and I'm a little confused which ones will work. Looks to me like that N910A is out and root pretty much impossible.
I have my eyes on the canada version: N910W8
What about the T-mobile version?
Thanks,
Markus
browny_amiga said:
Hi,
I want to buy a Note 4 and absolutely need root on it. I just found some ugly stuff about rooting it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-att/help/root-samsung-sm-n910a-5-1-1-build-t3355869
quote:
----------------------
forgot to tell you the two U.S. carriers that put locks on their bootloaders is AT&T and VERIZON so i wouldnt recommend root unless you unlock bootloader or else your phone will continueously stay in boot mode without letting you exit. that i believe is a bootloop good luck
-----------------------
Since I can chose which one I buy, I obviously want to get the one that can be rooted. It does not have to be easy, I have used odin in the past, no problem. There are quite a few versions out there though, and I'm a little confused which ones will work. Looks to me like that N910A is out and root pretty much impossible.
I have my eyes on the canada version: N910W8
What about the T-mobile version?
Thanks,
Markus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AT&T and Verizon should be avoided, otherwise you can just flash super-su via odin.
browny_amiga said:
Hi,
I want to buy a Note 4 and absolutely need root on it. I just found some ugly stuff about rooting it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-att/help/root-samsung-sm-n910a-5-1-1-build-t3355869
quote:
----------------------
forgot to tell you the two U.S. carriers that put locks on their bootloaders is AT&T and VERIZON so i wouldnt recommend root unless you unlock bootloader or else your phone will continueously stay in boot mode without letting you exit. that i believe is a bootloop good luck
-----------------------
Since I can chose which one I buy, I obviously want to get the one that can be rooted. It does not have to be easy, I have used odin in the past, no problem. There are quite a few versions out there though, and I'm a little confused which ones will work. Looks to me like that N910A is out and root pretty much impossible.
I have my eyes on the canada version: N910W8
What about the T-mobile version?
Thanks,
Markus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
910t is mod friendly. To root a 910t, you flash Odin and load SuperSU (systemless) as indicated above or flash a permissive kernal and system level root. It is also compatible with att network if that is your carrier. Just need to unlock it.
Thanks guys, that helps, I will go for a 910t then.
weard1212 said:
AT&T and Verizon should be avoided, otherwise you can just flash super-su via odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bit of a noob, but I'm a bit confused. If I buy an "Unlocked" Verizon phone like the SM-N910V, would I be able to use any custom roms?
I was about to buy either the N910V (Verizon) or N910W8 (Verizon/North America)
Can't the Verizon & AT&T be rooted with Chainfire AutoRoot?
joebelachi said:
Bit of a noob, but I'm a bit confused. If I buy an "Unlocked" Verizon phone like the SM-N910V, would I be able to use any custom roms?
I was about to buy either the N910V (Verizon) or N910W8 (Verizon/North America)
Can't the Verizon & AT&T be rooted with Chainfire AutoRoot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only if you buy a developer edition verizon model and last time I checked they were upwards of around $800. Your best bet is W8 or T. I did all the research like you and ended up buying a T and have never been happier
joebelachi said:
Bit of a noob, but I'm a bit confused. If I buy an "Unlocked" Verizon phone like the SM-N910V, would I be able to use any custom roms?
I was about to buy either the N910V (Verizon) or N910W8 (Verizon/North America)
Can't the Verizon & AT&T be rooted with Chainfire AutoRoot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(Unlocked means sim unlocked)
Bootloader Unlocked verizon phones can be flashed with a custom rom, and if you get a verizon phone, I suggest a Bootloader unlocked one. Verizon and AT&T phones with locked bootloaders can't be rooted with Chainfire. Chainfire should NOT be used on a phone with a locked bootloader because it flashes partitions and will most likely hard brick your phone. I would still sugest against a Bootloader non-unlocked Verizon or AT&T phone. Also using a custom recovery or odin to flash super-su has worked much better for me with a lot less less risk than Chainfire.
Whatever you decide upon dont get the EDGE. it needs special roms, and it wont work with gear VRs. i have the euro verison, and didnt have any problems rooting. cf-autoroot and done.
Really appreciate the responses guys. Especially for the clarification around Unlocking ("Unlocked means the bootloader").
I'll check out what custom ROMS work on the Verizon (910V).
Are there more ROMS for the 910W8's or the 910V's. Also if I go stock on the W8s, I would have to choose a Canadian carrier.
I'll definitely stay away from the EDGE, didn't really like it anyway
joebelachi said:
Really appreciate the responses guys. Especially for the clarification around Unlocking ("Unlocked means the bootloader").
I'll check out what custom ROMS work on the Verizon (910V).
Are there more ROMS for the 910W8's or the 910V's. Also if I go stock on the W8s, I would have to choose a Canadian carrier.
I'll definitely stay away from the EDGE, didn't really like it anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Careful there, usually 'unlocked' like on Swappa or similar means carrier unlocked, not boot loader unlocked.
I used to frequent XDA back when I first bought my Galaxy SIII. I was struck by the whole issue with the OTA update locking my bootloader, and pretty much stopped following XDA, since it was declared that there would be no way to flash custom roms or recoveries.
Well, my phone is on it's last legs and I'm looking to upgrade to perhaps the Galaxy S7 or the S7 Edge. Do these phones, (through Verizon) still have issues with locked bootloaders?
Yes, no bootloader unlock for any US models. There is root however and you can use an app called flashfire to flash things, even some ROMs(follow instructions carefully)
Hello to the XDA Community, I recently made this account and would like to get some help from the great people here.
I own a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S7 G930V. I, unfortunately, found out the hard way that it could not be unlocked because Samsung decided to lock down the bootloader on it (something that they were a bit more lenient with on the Galaxy S8, I think?). Either way, I was reading this XDA article (https://www.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s7-bootloader-lock-explained-you-might-not-get-aosp-after-all/) about the bootloader, and it basically says that, despite the OEM Unlock option being available under Developer Options, nothing that doesn't have some sort of official signature can be flashed to the device, so it's basically pointless.
But, then I saw that LineageOS dropped official builds for the Galaxy S7. My only question, therefore, is: why would Lineage OS drop custom ROMS for a phone that cannot have anything flashed to it? Am I missing something? Not sure what I'm missing. Just to clear things up again: I have the Verizon Galaxy S7 G930V (Snapdragon). I am also using a T-Mobile SIM in the phone, not sure if that matters or not, however.
So, what I assume is that somehow people were able to get past the bootloader and that is the reason that LineageOS released official builds of their ROM. If that's the case, is there a method/tutorial for, first, unlocking the bootloader and rooting the Verizon G930V, and then installing the custom ROM successfully? Also, I see that LineageOS does not have a build for the G930V specifically, so would it brick my phone if I installed the build for the G930S, for example?
Thank you guys! Bare with me if I completely missed something please!
charania007 said:
Hello to the XDA Community, I recently made this account and would like to get some help from the great people here.
I own a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S7 G930V. I, unfortunately, found out the hard way that it could not be unlocked because Samsung decided to lock down the bootloader on it (something that they were a bit more lenient with on the Galaxy S8, I think?). Either way, I was reading this XDA article (https://www.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s7-bootloader-lock-explained-you-might-not-get-aosp-after-all/) about the bootloader, and it basically says that, despite the OEM Unlock option being available under Developer Options, nothing that doesn't have some sort of official signature can be flashed to the device, so it's basically pointless.
But, then I saw that LineageOS dropped official builds for the Galaxy S7. My only question, therefore, is: why would Lineage OS drop custom ROMS for a phone that cannot have anything flashed to it? Am I missing something? Not sure what I'm missing. Just to clear things up again: I have the Verizon Galaxy S7 G930V (Snapdragon). I am also using a T-Mobile SIM in the phone, not sure if that matters or not, however.
So, what I assume is that somehow people were able to get past the bootloader and that is the reason that LineageOS released official builds of their ROM. If that's the case, is there a method/tutorial for, first, unlocking the bootloader and rooting the Verizon G930V, and then installing the custom ROM successfully? Also, I see that LineageOS does not have a build for the G930V specifically, so would it brick my phone if I installed the build for the G930S, for example?
Thank you guys! Bare with me if I completely missed something please!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are numerous variants of the GS7 and GS7E that have a bootloader that can be unlocked. The Verizon version is not one of them. There is no way currently (and likely ever) to unlock the bootloader on the Verizon version of this phone. This is the case with almost every Verizon phone. People are finding this out the hard way with the new Google Pixel 2's...all versions other than the Verizon one you can unlock the bootloader. It's a Verizon thing and it won't change. You'll need to buy an unlocked phone capable of running on Verizon's network bands if you want this kind of stuff on Big Red.
It's been so long since I last rooted my phones, maybe 6 or 7 years now... I don't even know where to start. Is TWRP still the go-to method for rooting these Android devices?
I couldn't find anything specifically for the T-Mobile variants, dunno if that's been done yet.
Thanks,
Nick
Your bootloader is locked and cannot be unlocked. No root or TWRP available.
StoneyJSG said:
Your bootloader is locked and cannot be unlocked. No root or TWRP available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
No problem!
Is this device always going to have a locked bootloader? Flashing an unlocked firmware wouldn't change anything? Im new to samsung and have been out of the rom game a long time.
PunkUnity said:
Is this device always going to have a locked bootloader? Flashing an unlocked firmware wouldn't change anything? Im new to samsung and have been out of the rom game a long time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These devices will always be locked down. The last U.S. Samsung phone to get root was the S9, the S10 line are locked up tight. Flashing unlocked firmware just makes your phone carrier free so you can use it with any carrier, it doesn't unlock the bootloader.
What phones are best for modding these days then? Just came from a Pixel 4 XL and it had a locked bootloader plus tons of hardware issues that ended in me getting this phone
I would say a One Plus phone is probably the most versatile as far as modding goes these days. You could also get an exynos S10 variant which can be rooted and custom recovery installed.