Develop Bugs

[Q] [Help] Girlfriend wants root

Hello all... Recently my girlfriend and I had purchased the Epic Touch 4g for her. She absolutely loves the phone but the signal strength isn't the best. I have had a Droid 1 for 2 years now and have flashed roms/kernels on a weekly basis for the past year and a half. Can anyone recommend a good starter Rom/Kernel? Is flashing a rom/kernel for the Epic Touch just as easy as flashing for the Droid? I've done some research and I am a bit overwelmed. It seems like clockworkmod recovery is being ran on the Epic Touch but the process for flashing is different? (maybe not, but like I said, I'm a tad overwelmed ).. Also, are there any tweaks after root that would improve signal strength? If anyone can help me out to get us started I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
-Mike

I recommend starburst rom v1.6.. it comes with LostKernel which is a good kernel to use.. for root though, there are dif. methods, i originally rooted mine with Zedomax Kernel through Odin.. fairly easy .. so get it rooted, and i'd go with starburst v1.6 which when flashing it through CWM once you have root, also flashes the lostkernel

I recommend Starburst. Runs sooo smooth and its the only ROM that I see being actively updated. Viper just got into the game so if you don't like touchwiz, you can flash his ROM too which uses another launcher but i would say equally great. Comes down to preference and what works best.
And to get root and clockwork, I followed bubbys
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1287776
It seems to get root you have to use odin, but once thats done you can use clockwork to flash ROMs. If you get issues Odin is there for support.

Thanks! Too bad my girlfriend starts work in an hour

Take a look at this thread Id really recommend to check the links I have linked to save you some pain....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1309078

So wait... after reading that thread it says that the bootloader keeps a record of everytime you flash with Odin? So if something happens to her phone and we need to take it in, they will know we rooted it?

A good reason to use starbursts rom is because its just way smoother some how and he stream lined the rom and did a bunch of tweaks that make noticably fast/smoother. That's the reason most are using it

mrkelly88 said:
So wait... after reading that thread it says that the bootloader keeps a record of everytime you flash with Odin? So if something happens to her phone and we need to take it in, they will know we rooted it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but you can reset the counter some how. Just do a search for reset counter and you should find the thread

bluefire808 said:
Yes, but you can reset the counter some how. Just do a search for reset counter and you should find the thread
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, thanks, I got worried for a little bit there... I mean, we got it rooted and everything just fine, but I failed to mention to my girlfriend that there might be a slight problem if we tried to take the phone in ... I figured that problem would get solved eventually but it's good to know I'm in the clear

yeah I wouldn't worry about it, chances are if you flash everything stock theres still a counter chances are they wont notice or pay it much attention. its possible but, I've had friends take their evo in with security off and everything else flashed stock and it was ok.

Bring her to me I will root her. Don't bring your cable I will use mine to plug in her smoothly in order to root through odin.

mrkelly88 said:
So wait... after reading that thread it says that the bootloader keeps a record of everytime you flash with Odin? So if something happens to her phone and we need to take it in, they will know we rooted it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use a jig, it will get rid of the yellow triangle on bootscreen and bring the counter down to zero.
The jig costs $7 MAX, all you do is plug it into microusb while phone is on, and the phone reboots automatically, and everything is back to normal. Process takes about 30 seconds max, and you can use the jig multiple times, with how many ever samsung phones, it is NOT a one time use deal.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I'm think this might help some of you.

Well i found this in the MIJJz blends thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1512419
When you install this app called Triangle away it literally gets rid of that ugly yellow triangle.

This is for the boot screen?

Overstew said:
This is for the boot screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it gets rid of the triangle on boot but DOES NOT reset the odin count.

More explainations and newer version (1.25 atm) in Chainfire original thread : [02.03.2012][ROOT] TriangleAway v1.25
Chainfire said:
This app can reset your flash counter and triangle on ICS builds. The download is attached.
THIS IS A DANGEROUS OPERATION AND COULD POTENTIALLY BRICK YOUR DEVICE. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. A USB JIG IS PREFERRED IF YOU HAVE ONE.
( and by brick I mean brick - only a board replacement or a JTAG unit will be able to save you, don't mess with boot(loader) stuff unless you really mean it! )
Please check the values the app displays are correct before resetting the counters. There really isn't much more to say about it, except for the technical details, which most of you will likely skip.
Also, Samsung may well change behavior for this in the future, so with any major firmware updates you should check and doublecheck if this app still works before attempting a reset.
CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK THE INFORMATION UNDER "CURRENT STATUS" IS CORRECT BEFORE RESETTING THE COUNTER !
( If triangle, counter, or device is not showing or not correct, DO NOT USE but report back here )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@OP : you may change your thread title for a more explicit one

This works awesome! Thanks for the post.

Worked perfectly on FB27 and below and all Gingerbread, but on FC05 it seems to leave the model number under the Galaxy SII screen, but still gets rid of the triangle.

Has anyone had an issue with this? It doesn't bug me that much so I really don't want to mess up my device lol. The old way works and seems safer.

Just used this and it works great! No more yellow triangle, no more model number shown.
Oops, I should maybe mention that I'm on FC06.

Your Device Has Been Modified

Hello, hope I'm doing this right. Tried searching forum for similar issues but no luck. Here goes.
I own the T-Mobile variant of the Galaxy Note 2. It is stock, never rooted but I am getting this strange message when I attempt to check for new software updates under "about device." The message is "Your device has been modified. Software updates are not available. " This happened once before but solved it with a factory reset. Any idea what's causing it? No new apps installed that I can think of. Would appreciate any advice.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

ronman71 said:
Hello, hope I'm doing this right. Tried searching forum for similar issues but no luck. Here goes.
I own the T-Mobile variant of the Galaxy Note 2. It is stock, never rooted but I am getting this strange message when I attempt to check for new software updates under "about device." The message is "Your device has been modified. Software updates are not available. " This happened once before but solved it with a factory reset. Any idea what's causing it? No new apps installed that I can think of. Would appreciate any advice.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
something is triggering android into thinking you modified it. since you aren't rooted, I can't really think of a way to fix this... unless you root.

This means that the device has been modded, like custom recovery, etc. Either you rooted it at one time or someone owned this device rooted it with a custom recovering. If you just got this device from T-Mobile then return to them and let them know that you got it this way. Bad form for a store or carrier to repackage a return (even reseal) and resale it, but it does happened.
Otherwise you need flash a root version, best use stock root injection version of rooted rom, into the device. Check to see if you have the stock recovery. If not then flash stock recovery. Now use Triangle Away to reset "Custom Binary" to 1. Once you do that then flash the stock rom unroot version (this will unroot the device). Then do a factory reset to get rid of anything left from root. After that then you will have "Normal" as your "Device Status" and can successfully check for updates.
Note - You will never get the "Custom Binary" back to "no". So if you need repair or replacement from Samsung you may have to pay for it (this depends on the tech working on your device). But with the T-Mobile Protection Bundle insurance ($7.99 per month) you may get around this problem. In returning to T-Mobile they seem to only check the "Device Status". So after resetting the "Custom Binary" to 1 you should be able to return to T-Mobile for repair or replacement under that insurance or your grace time (14 days or CA 30 days) with no problem. This getting around the Samsung's returning issues.
Note - I like the injection version of rooting. The injection version of rooting doesn't trigger the "Custom Binary". This solving this problem from the start. At least for the moment.

Go to menu-settings-about device-status
Scroll all the way to the bottom. It will tell you under device status whether your device is modified or not.
If it's modified then only thing you can do is Odin back the original Samsung Rom. You should do the triangle away thing first to reset the mod counter to "0"
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

whatsitsnamenow said:
You should do the triangle away thing first to reset the mod counter to "0"
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually it doesn't reset the "Custom Binary" counter to "0" or "no". This only resets the "Custom Binary" counter to "1".
But it does reset the "Device Status" to "Normal". And allows you to successfully check for updates.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium

Only if you have a custom recovery. If you have factory recovery on a factory rom it will reset to 0 if you use triangle away. Which is kind of a moot point since he says its never been rooted, therefore there should be no way a custom binary reading of anything higher than 0.

Thanks for your replies. Strange thing is that I've never rooted this particular device. Also, the factory reset fixes it temporarily. Could it be something in my micro sd card that I transferred from my previous device which was rooted?
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

If you have a sdcard in there, then that is the reason. Boot up without the sdcard and the status will say normal.

lt23 said:
If you have a sdcard in there, then that is the reason. Boot up without the sdcard and the status will say normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What?

Wow, totally worked! Weird. Guess I should back up and reformat my micro sd card. Thanks guys!
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

stevessvt said:
What?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turn off phone, take out the sdcard. Turn on phone. Check status, should say Normal again. This is for those with no root/custom recovery or for those rooted with the injected rom.

ClockWorkMod sometimes likes to use SD Card to put some files. It is weird. But this "Custom Binary" counter thing would "Modify" you if you have some root files, including SuperUser, SuperSU, ClockWorkMod, BusyBox, etc. These files can be anywhere including SD card. I find this weird because I don't have this problem with SuperSU, SuperSU Pro and BusyBox. But for some reason this comes up with some people.
Here is an idea. Copy all files into its own folder in your computer. After that then delete all files and folders within your SD card. Then copy whatever files you like to have with your Galaxy Note 2 back into your SD card. Then try your SD card with your Galaxy Note 2.
Personally I feel that it is not the place of the manufacturer to stop rooting on Open Source and Google encouraging rooting Android Devices. If you don't want to fix my rooting mess, then you can refuse to fix it. But doing things like this is only causing more problems with my rooting than ir would if you didn't do this. Mind you that T-Mobile don't care if we root, they just don't want to fix it. So this is not T-Mobile issue. This is Samsung issue. That speaking to manufacturers.
-

JaguarXT said:
Actually it doesn't reset the "Custom Binary" counter to "0" or "no". This only resets the "Custom Binary" counter to "1".
But it does reset the "Device Status" to "Normal". And allows you to successfully check for updates.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've actually rooted the stock T-Mobile Note 2 as well and used Triangle-Away and my counter was reset but my status is still "Modified" :laugh: I don't mind, though... once you root your first phone, you root everything anyways! Just waiting for a good ROM...

Your device has been modified
I didn't root my galaxy s3. In my country, Indonesia, i don't know 4.1.2 version will come. i just check to software update and it said your device has been modified. i tried take off sd card things, it didn't work. any solution that can change back to normal?

topikdinata said:
I didn't root my galaxy s3. In my country, Indonesia, i don't know 4.1.2 version will come. i just check to software update and it said your device has been modified. i tried take off sd card things, it didn't work. any solution that can change back to normal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need a stock kernel and a factory reset to get back to normal.
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement

You can remove "modified" and reset the flash counter to zero with a jig (and I thought triangle away was supposed to as well), because I've done it on my SGH-T889 Note 2. You have to Odin back to non rooted stock with stock recovery, remove your external sd card, go into download mode, then plug in the jig and Bob's your Uncle it's reset. I'm not sure why someone said you can never reset the custom binary to no because you definitely can.
Sent from my 1992 Motorola StarTAC

jeep447 said:
You can remove "modified" and reset the flash counter to zero with a jig (and I thought triangle away was supposed to as well), because I've done it on my SGH-T889 Note 2. You have to Odin back to non rooted stock with stock recovery, remove your external sd card, go into download mode, then plug in the jig and Bob's your Uncle it's reset. I'm not sure why someone said you can never reset the counter to zero because you definitely can.
Sent from my 1992 Motorola StarTAC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I set mine back to zero by Odining mrRobinson's root66 to get stock recovery. Then while stock rooted I used Triangle Away to reset the counter. After that a factory reset gets me back to status normal. Seemed to work when I did it. Maybe I don't know what I saw as I'm new to Samsung devices.
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement

Coug76 said:
I set mine back to zero by Odining mrRobinson's root66 to get stock recovery. Then while stock rooted I used Triangle Away to reset the counter. After that a factory reset gets me back to status normal. Seemed to work when I did it. Maybe I don't know what I saw as I'm new to Samsung devices.
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I'm pretty sure that's what you saw because it's definitely doable. If you have the time and know how, I'd definitely suggest building a jig for your phone, because according to Chainfire it's actually a lot safer than using Triangle Away. It's way easier to build one than most people think, and it literally only costs a couple of bucks at Radio Shack for everything you need. I made one for a friend of mine and wound up keeping it, and I'm really glad I did now that I have a Samsung phone.
Sent from my 1992 Motorola StarTAC

I too had this issue last month, I brought my Note II from T-Mobile store, it was sealed and it used to show device status as Normal.
I never rooted or flashed any ROM. I did install/uninstall lots of games/applications and I did disable Amazon app.
Earlier this month I checked my phone and it was showing as Modified, I then reset to factory defaults and now everything looks okay.
I do use external memory card but it only has few media files.
How did the device status change then ?
I am new to Android and rooting and can make the following guesses.
1) Maybe one of the applications I had installed rooted my phone or modified some files via Exynos Abuse (discovered this week) and which is why my device was showing modified.
But again if my phone was rooted, why this device status is Normal ? I was able to update my phone with the OTA released today.
2) Applications like Antivirus or Task Killers have almost full access and maybe they modified some system files.
Like I said I am new to Android so just making guesses hoping experts can shed some light on this.

Wanting to go back to stock, but afraid to do so. Im on jedi x7, rooted, no custom kernal and with two addons from goodybag. I have dowloaded the tar to go back to stock. I've also downloaded triangle away. Im wanting to boot into TWRP recovery, do a wipe/Factory reset, reboot start triangle away and reset counter then use odin and return back to stock. My counter shows 1 on download mode. Would this be the right way to go and resetting the counter back to 0 without any issues? Thanx.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

gotta question

ok i rooted my buddies phone and well he has to return it well i first did triangle away to reset counter counter did say 0 well his device still said modified then i just decided to flash the recent updated stock rom and all was well but when i went into settings it still said modified so i did a factory reset now its in a bootloop but i can still get into odin tho.. but my question is why the hell when i went into odin mode on the phone it was okay and then when i did a factory reset the counter is back at one???? Im stumped any ideas?? im downloading the stock firmware to the update we had a few months ago hoping that will fix it

I sent a phone back to tmo with the counter at 1 and nithing happened to me. When u send the phone back, it goes to their refurb factory where they wipe and reinstall everything anyways. The refurb factory sends tmo hq the info that they got the phone back and thats it.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using XDA Premium HD app

alright just letting people know that triangle away doesnt work with LL4 i reverted him to ak8 and everything seemed to work out..

Nice, thanks for the heads up... There was an update to triangle away on the market, idk id that would effect us or not
Sent from my SGH-T889 using XDA Premium HD app

Exactly what I DIDN'T want to happen....

So I've had the S4 for 1 month now and at first I really didn't want to root or change the ROM. I actually like the TW interface and think it's great as it is. I've been rooting and changing ROMs going back to the MyTouch, but for some reason the S4 had me worried. I debated over and over about doing it, but after getting tired of the bloatware, constant ads being displayed and wanting to stop the horrible startup/shutdown music, the time came for me to root it.
So, after pouring over many hours of reading and deciding the method, I went with the Chainfire route. I chose this because from what I read (and this may have been where I misunderstood something??), if I ONLY root the phone, don't install a custom recovery then I will still be able to receive OTAs (when and IF they come from TMO). So after a couple of heart-stopping moments at 2am last night with about 4 ODIN fails, I finally got it rooted. Turns out, the USB cable I was using might have been the problem. I went out to the car and got the original cable that came with the phone and it worked on the first try with that. I thought for sure I had hard bricked the phone when it came up with an error message at startup regarding a firmware problem.
Anyhow, to make a long story short, after doing the rooting, I checked the update option in settings and it's telling me the phone has been modified and is unable to receive updates. I then ran the triangle away program to reset the binary counter back to Samsung Official/Official, which it's reporting now instead of Custom, but then checking the updater it still reports the same thing. This is what I didn't want to have happen!
Any suggestions on how to rectify this or have I crossed that line and might as well just go ahead and put a recovery on there and do a backup and leave it at that until the day comes I decide to slap a custom ROM on it?
Thanks for letting me rant, but I would like some assistance if possible.

patriot1973 said:
So I've had the S4 for 1 month now and at first I really didn't want to root or change the ROM. I actually like the TW interface and think it's great as it is. I've been rooting and changing ROMs going back to the MyTouch, but for some reason the S4 had me worried. I debated over and over about doing it, but after getting tired of the bloatware, constant ads being displayed and wanting to stop the horrible startup/shutdown music, the time came for me to root it.
So, after pouring over many hours of reading and deciding the method, I went with the Chainfire route. I chose this because from what I read (and this may have been where I misunderstood something??), if I ONLY root the phone, don't install a custom recovery then I will still be able to receive OTAs (when and IF they come from TMO). So after a couple of heart-stopping moments at 2am last night with about 4 ODIN fails, I finally got it rooted. Turns out, the USB cable I was using might have been the problem. I went out to the car and got the original cable that came with the phone and it worked on the first try with that. I thought for sure I had hard bricked the phone when it came up with an error message at startup regarding a firmware problem.
Anyhow, to make a long story short, after doing the rooting, I checked the update option in settings and it's telling me the phone has been modified and is unable to receive updates. I then ran the triangle away program to reset the binary counter back to Samsung Official/Official, which it's reporting now instead of Custom, but then checking the updater it still reports the same thing. This is what I didn't want to have happen!
Any suggestions on how to rectify this or have I crossed that line and might as well just go ahead and put a recovery on there and do a backup and leave it at that until the day comes I decide to slap a custom ROM on it?
Thanks for letting me rant, but I would like some assistance if possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you've reset your binary counter and have modified nothing else, just unroot and you should be able to receive updates again.

Go into the Triangle Away app and check system modified workaround and problem solved
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

jbreeze228 said:
Go into the Triangle Away app and check system modified workaround and problem solved
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. It explains this right in the app.

jbreeze228 said:
Go into the Triangle Away app and check system modified workaround and problem solved
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I went ahead and got SuperSU Pro because that's the only way the feature in Triangle Away will work. It was after 2am when I was rooting and having problems so I wasn't too sharp.
Thanks!