Develop Bugs

[Q] Return to 100% stock? (unmodified system/0 flash count)

Been on the fence about rooting my S4 because of one concern...
is it possible to return this particular phone to 100% stock in such a way that I would still be able to get warranty work done on it if need be?
From what I understand, samsung made it rather difficult with a kernel derived from SELinux along with the need to use triangle away (as opposed to a jig, like my last galaxy had). Not to mention the reports of those attempting to return to stock for OTA's, but despite having a 0 flash count, they still cannot update due to tripping a system modification flag.

starnostar said:
Been on the fence about rooting my S4 because of one concern...
is it possible to return this particular phone to 100% stock in such a way that I would still be able to get warranty work done on it if need be?
From what I understand, samsung made it rather difficult with a kernel derived from SELinux along with the need to use triangle away (as opposed to a jig, like my last galaxy had). Not to mention the reports of those attempting to return to stock for OTA's, but despite having a 0 flash count, they still cannot update due to tripping a system modification flag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you can revert to full stock (with no root) following the steps in this thread : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2258628
The warrenty will still work if you like smash your phone, to where they can't even turn on the screen lol.
Root it dude, it's worth it ! :fingers-crossed:
Good luck if you do decide to root it!

re: 100% stock
starnostar said:
Been on the fence about rooting my S4 because of one concern...
is it possible to return this particular phone to 100% stock in such a way that I would still be able to get warranty work done on it if need be?
From what I understand, samsung made it rather difficult with a kernel derived from SELinux along with the need to use triangle away (as opposed to a jig, like my last galaxy had). Not to mention the reports of those attempting to return to stock for OTA's, but despite having a 0 flash count, they still cannot update due to tripping a system modification flag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure you can Odin flash back to 100% stock, here is the download link for the stock
Tmobile M919 Samsung S4 Touchwiz firmware: http://hotfile.com/dl/213546261/7ab...-SGH-M919-TMB-M919UVUAMDL-1366964131.zip.html
After Odin flashing the firmware you will need to go into the phone's settings:
settings> accounts tab>backup and reset>factory data reset
Doing that will leave your phone in the same condition as the first day it was purchased.
If you have not flashed any kind of roms yet then you will not need to download the odin flash firmware
but instead just do a factory data reset.
Good luck!

Ok, thank you for your replies

starnostar said:
Ok, thank you for your replies
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also use the link in my signature to download the file with no bandwidth restrictions.

[Q] Question surrounding restoring factory and downloading official 4.3 update - KNOX

Hello!
Hope all is well. First I wanted to say i'm sorry if this is a duplicate - I searched and saw similar questions, but not exactly the same as mine .
I own a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4 M919 and I had rooted it and installed a custom rom. Im having hardware problems and need to return it for repairs, so I reflashed the stock system and recovery, used triangle away to remove the binary counter, and hard reset the phone. In my download mode, my phones reads "Current Binary: Samsung Official" and "System Status: Official", as well as reads official on the device status in android so all went well.
My question is this - I got notification of a push update that is going to install Android 4.3, and apparently this "KNOX" software that I do no seem to currently have. My concern with this is that i'm reading that there is a flag with this KNOX software that is easily tripped, and once done, the download mode reads "KNOX WARRANTY VOID 0x1", which therefore voids warranties. Since I was able to get everything back to completely normal, I dont want to run any more risks since my phone really needs repairs very badly. Should I bypass this update? Though my phone is 100% official now, if I do the update, will the KNOX software catch that I had rooted/custom rom'd the phone in the past and trigger the flag automatically, or do you first have to have the update installed BEFORE you try to root it for the flag to trip? Everything is 100% stock now so when I download the update, I don't think there is anything present that would trigger anything, but I don't even have this "KNOX WARRANTY VOID" line in my download mode yet so I am wondering if I am just better off being safe than sorry?
Thanks!

It won't be tripped until you trip it so you will be OK if you update it to 4.3, But I highly advice against doing so.. Just leave it as is, and return it like that
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

xgreenlanternox said:
Hello!
Hope all is well. First I wanted to say i'm sorry if this is a duplicate - I searched and saw similar questions, but not exactly the same as mine .
I own a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4 M919 and I had rooted it and installed a custom rom. Im having hardware problems and need to return it for repairs, so I reflashed the stock system and recovery, used triangle away to remove the binary counter, and hard reset the phone. In my download mode, my phones reads "Current Binary: Samsung Official" and "System Status: Official", as well as reads official on the device status in android so all went well.
My question is this - I got notification of a push update that is going to install Android 4.3, and apparently this "KNOX" software that I do no seem to currently have. My concern with this is that i'm reading that there is a flag with this KNOX software that is easily tripped, and once done, the download mode reads "KNOX WARRANTY VOID 0x1", which therefore voids warranties. Since I was able to get everything back to completely normal, I dont want to run any more risks since my phone really needs repairs very badly. Should I bypass this update? Though my phone is 100% official now, if I do the update, will the KNOX software catch that I had rooted/custom rom'd the phone in the past and trigger the flag automatically, or do you first have to have the update installed BEFORE you try to root it for the flag to trip? Everything is 100% stock now so when I download the update, I don't think there is anything present that would trigger anything, but I don't even have this "KNOX WARRANTY VOID" line in my download mode yet so I am wondering if I am just better off being safe than sorry?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are having hardware issues and are returning the phone and
your phone is 100% stock without KNOX right now then why in
the world would you want to take chances with OTA updates or
any other updates.
If it was me I would have already taken/shipped the phone back for
repair or exchange instead of worrying about OTA updates.
Good luck!

Thanks for the advice! Download mode would be the only location of that "KNOX WARRANTY VOID" flag right? If it's not there, then as long as it states both Samsung Official and Official in download mode I should be good ya think?
Thanks!

Yes.. It will also show a message at boot
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

serio22 said:
Yes.. It will also show a message at boot
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome yep - no boot message I see either - boots just like it did the day I bought it. So I am pretty sure I have the firmware before KNOX came out - It has been rooted since the summer so I probably luckily bypassed the official update with KNOX
Thanks to all for your information! Im gonna stay away from the new firmware just to be safe until i get the phone back from warranty!

Hmm - things got even more interesting. So it seems when i reset everything back to stock as mentioned above, the screen flickering issues have now gone away and I am not seeming to replicate them in any way at all. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I was using a version of Wanamlite ROM before i reset everything. I am wondering if it was just the ROM causing the screen flicker and not a hardware defect.

xgreenlanternox said:
Hmm - things got even more interesting. So it seems when i reset everything back to stock as mentioned above, the screen flickering issues have now gone away and I am not seeming to replicate them in any way at all. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I was using a version of Wanamlite ROM before i reset everything. I am wondering if it was just the ROM causing the screen flicker and not a hardware defect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could have been
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

[Q] T999 - T999 motherboard swap

I have a 16gb S3 which has been flashed to 4.3 (several times). My sons S3 is a 32GB but he broke the screen and bought a different phone. I thought I would like to swap out my motherboard and put his in my phone (both for the memory, and because I've set my Warranty Bit and I'm not entirely happy with 4.3's performance and his still has 4.1.2 so I can get a free reset on that). Both phones are T999's on the same account. His was bought off ebay but he was able to activate it so my assumption is that the IMEI is clean. Before I do this my questions are:
Will my IMEI change (is the IMEI locked to the motherboard)? If it changes, that's fine, as long as I can just pop my SIM in and be up and running.
Can I just do that swap, put my SIM in and go, or is there anything else I need to do with the phone after the swap? I work in a micro repair shop so I'm fine with doing all the hardware related work, just want to verify if I need to do anything extra after the swap.

The imei, and pretty much everything will be on the motherboard. Just swap it out and insert your SIM. Should be all you need to do.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

OK, got the swap done, and a hard factory reset on 4.1.2 without issue.
So now I was planning on leaving it at that, but after reading through the [ROOT] TowelRoot - 4.3 & 4.4.2 thread today I'm thinking I'd like to try that. My goal is:
1. Update to latest 4.3 via OTA
2. Use the Towelroot tool to root and de-knox it
3. NOT set the warranty bit in the process (hopefully)
4. Create a debrick.img for T999 with clean NC2 (if it's still needed)
1,2, and 4 I'm good. Just curios if I OTA update 4.1.2 and follow all the steps for using towelroot, is there anything more I should be cautious or aware of about the warranty bit. My hope is that I don't do something stupid that will set it on this motherboard. I'd love to have 4.3 rooted but not set the bit.
I'm not concerned so much about the "modified" system or other counter(s)... triangle away was still working to clear those on my root66 NC2 load.

I think flashing the firmware via Odin is a better option. Too many people often seem to have trouble with OTA's. Thst and I personally just feel clean flashing the build you want is better than patching them up from a previous version.
In the end its what you are more comfortable with though. Just offering an alternative.

I'm comfortable doing an Odin flash but I thought that would set the warranty bit. I would've used root66, so am I off by thinking that? At any rate, I OTA'ed last night, ran towelroot and that worked, but I had some issues with the Supersu portion. It updated binaries, and then when it ask about disabling knox, I got a message saying Supersu install failed (or something similar). When I root checked it, it said it was rooted, and supersu was working, but all the knox related files were still on my phone. So I rebooted and ran supersu a second time and it just came up as it would if it were fully installed and working.
I never did figure out why, I even completely cleaned up/removed supersu from it's settings menu, re-installed it and tried again. At that point, it updated binaries without a hitch but didn't give me any prompt to do anything with knox. So does supersu somehow just disable knox, but leave all the files intact? I manually went in and deleted all the knox files myself at any rate and it didn't appear to screw anything up so far.
I also wondered if supersu issues had anything to do with the fact that when I installed it, I had not yet set Selinux to permissive.
Anyway, all that probably belongs in the threads for towelroot, so I got a little off topic .

Root66 apparently trips the warranty bit for some, but not all people. It did not trip mine. Since you've already done the OTA it doesn't really matter, but what I would've suggested next would've been to flash stock firmware via Odin, then Towelroot.
As for SuperSU, everyone has to reboot (or kill the process) before it'll properly disable Knox. And yes, that's all it does is disable it. Didn't have anything to do with seLinux.

OK, cool. So I guess it worked exactly as intended. Thanks for all the good info.
Interesting about the warranty bit.

If you buy a new phone now, can you root it? can you put a rom on it?

If you buy a new phone now, can you root it? can you put a rom on it?

awskier08 said:
If you buy a new phone now, can you root it? can you put a rom on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you cant but will void the warranty

joej191 said:
Yes you cant but will void the warranty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes you can't?
that doesn't make sense. is that a typo?
I know that it will void my warranty.

Two things:
1) Complete instructions on how to root and mod your phone are here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/sprint-galaxy-s6/general/how-to-to-100-stock-root-t3075448
2) Sprint stores do not, in my experience, care is you have tripped Knox. If you need to have a warranty repair, use Odin to restore stock (which is in the instructions above) and they will honor the warranty.
There are numerous articles, including here on XDA, on how rooting does NOT void your warranty. I have sold rooted phones back to Sprint. Of course I wiped and restored back to stock because I was not going to share my private data (which is just common sense.)
But to your question, yes you can root and there are some really good ROMs. Renegade is the slickest out now. You lose Samsung Pay (and Android pay if you stay rooted) but you have a great phone.

koop1955 said:
Two things:
1) Complete instructions on how to root and mod your phone are here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/sprint-galaxy-s6/general/how-to-to-100-stock-root-t3075448
2) Sprint stores do not, in my experience, care is you have tripped Knox. If you need to have a warranty repair, use Odin to restore stock (which is in the instructions above) and they will honor the warranty.
There are numerous articles, including here on XDA, on how rooting does NOT void your warranty. I have sold rooted phones back to Sprint. Of course I wiped and restored back to stock because I was not going to share my private data (which is just common sense.)
But to your question, yes you can root and there are some really good ROMs. Renegade is the slickest out now. You lose Samsung Pay (and Android pay if you stay rooted) but you have a great phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Verizon now and they don't have any way to unlock the boot loader yet. thinking about switching before my 14 days are up.

Flashing Back to Android Nougat without Root?

I was wondering if it was possible to flash back to 7.1.2 without rooting and voiding my warranty. This is due to the huge performance hit my 5x has taken since upgrading to Oreo as well as the super annoying persistent notifications.
Thanks

1. I am surprised there are phones that are still under warranty.
2. I am not 100% sure, but if you revert the phone back to the original ROM, there is no visible way to tell if it was ever rooted (unlike on devices such as Samsung tablets, which have a write only bit)
3. You don't even need root to revert to the original or older ROM, I believe.
4. I frankly don't believe that the phone manufacturer has a legal right to deny warranty only because the device was ever rooted or flashed with a third party ROM. This will never stand in any reasonable court. The claim that the manufacturer won't service your faulty device only because there is a proof it was once rooted is simply a scare tactic against the neophytes asking to fix their bricked phone because they tried to root and messed around with ROMs, or against those bringing for service a phone already running a third party ROM, or a stock ROM with root mods.

Akopps said:
1. I am surprised there are phones that are still under warranty.
2. I am not 100% sure, but if you revert the phone back to the original ROM, there is no visible way to tell if it was ever rooted (unlike on devices such as Samsung tablets, which have a write only bit)
3. You don't even need root to revert to the original or older ROM, I believe.
4. I frankly don't believe that the phone manufacturer has a legal right to deny warranty only because the device was ever rooted or flashed with a third party ROM. This will never stand in any reasonable court. The claim that the manufacturer won't service your faulty device only because there is a proof it was once rooted is simply a scare tactic against the neophytes asking to fix their bricked phone because they tried to root and messed around with ROMs, or against those bringing for service a phone already running a third party ROM, or a stock ROM with root mods.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok that's enough for me
Thank you